I don't own Digimon Frontier or any characters other than Konomi. She's mine so back off!
Chapter 1: The Beginning
I looked up from my notes as the final bell of the last day of school rang. I quickly stood and packed up, swinging my messenger bag onto my shoulder, and walking out of the room before anyone else. Who cared about the death rays being fired at my back? Certainly not me, that's for sure. The attitude of the teachers and others students was the least of my concern. After the break, it'd be only two more years before I could leave and get a job as something that mattered and something worth doing. Then again, anything was better than working in an illegal factory that ignored the child labor laws.
I ducked out of the shadowed halls of the college campus and into a bright afternoon. I squinted as I all but ran down the steps, rushing to avoid the crowds. I dug my bike out of the bushes behind the bike rack, knowing I'd have to find a new hiding place next year, and strapped my bag onto the rack I'd attached to the back. I swung my left leg over and made a hasty retreat as the stairs began to become populated by students. I pedaled faster as I passed through the front gate, making it to the other side before the short break in traffic ended, and turned left onto the sidewalk, slowing down to avoid pedestrians. Leisurely pedaling through the business district, I smiled a little at the people I passed. I noticed one boy, not too much older than myself, enter a flower shop. Behind him, a second, nearly identical, boy followed but didn't go inside, staying just out of sight. I smiled and waved slightly as he glanced my way, but he quickly turned back, a blush coloring his face.
Waiting at the curb for the pedestrian light to turn green I noticed that I was the only one waiting, but shrugged it off, it had to happen every once in a while. A crackle of static and a strain of my favorite song had me digging out my phone, an out dated thing that barely functioned, to check what the problem was. A strange eye like symbol was lighting up the screen, barely visible on the background of static.
"Konomi, are you willing to play?" a voice from my phone asked, though I hadn't pressed any buttons. I felt my eyes widen slightly, but before I could do anything, my vision went black, followed by a tidal wave of pain.
I stumbled awake in a dark place, with lots of mist and hardly any light. I glanced around, miraculously finding my bag lying nearby. I grabbed it and twined the strap around my wrist, making sure it was secure before starting off again. I moved forward, and nearly tripped over someone on the ground. He stood up and stared at me, as I was him.
"It's you!" we both said at the same time. I stared at the boy before me, the one I had waved to, only having to raise my eyes a little to meet his dark gaze, something I wasn't used to.
"How did you get here?" he asked. I shrugged.
"I was waiting at the curb one minute and the next, I'm here." I said.
"I fell down some stairs, I think. I was chasing after my brother." He said. I noticed that his voice was slightly hoarse, as if he'd recently been shouting.
"The one who went into the flower shop?" I asked and he nodded, "I thought you looked alike."
"He doesn't even know I'm his brother though." He said. 'Well that's not good for a healthy family relationship. A voice interrupted my thoughts, and I turned around, seeing a dark mass of, what looked like, smoke, a pair of glowing eyes and a mouth.
"I feel your pain." Before the apparition could say anything else, I pointed at it and shouted.
"I so swear if you say you're my father, I'll shine a flash light in your eyes Darth Vader impersonator!" The mouth frowned and one of the tendrils of smoke came my way, but I dodged and ran past the boy, leaping forward, but being spun head over heels by the smoke tendril. Instead of impacting on the ground like I had expected to, a point of light pierced though the darkness, swallowing me and dumping me back into unconsciousness.
The next time I awoke, it was to more darkness. However, this one was not inhabited by disembodied voices, or eyes and mouths, and smoke. Instead, a tundra of flat, gray sand and scrawny trees stretched around me. I sat up, grimacing slightly as a pain shot through my leg, but ignored it for the moment. Thankfully, I could see my bag not far off, so I had the means to do a mechanic job if my leg or arm broke down, but hopefully I would only have to patch it, not go all out. I reached over, careful not to put any weight on my left leg, and just managed to grab the strap of my messenger bag. I pulled it closer and grabbed my repair kit from inside, popping open the front panel of my leg to get a closer look at the inner system, and set to work.
Fifteen minutes later and I was on my feet and moving, trying to get away from the bad vibe I was getting from the glowing, aurora-like lights that I could see in the distance. I had made it, maybe a hundred yards, before the sound of giant feet caught my attention. I turned around, and nearly passed out from shock. A giant, bipedal, mostly red and pink bird was approaching me. It had long blond hair and intelligent green eyes. The gigantic bird-thing keeled down, still towering over me, but close enough for it to see my expressions.
"What is a human like you doing here in the Digital World, much less the Dark Continent?" the bird asked in a deep, but distinctly female voice. I gulped but answered.
"I-I'm not sure. I was on my way to get something to eat after school and I just remember my phone talking to me, then pain and darkness. I woke up here and just started to try to find my way out." I didn't feel bad about fibbing a bit, after all, I didn't know if that part had been in my head or not. The bird made a face, which took me a moment to realize it was smiling, and extended a hand, palm up and low to the ground.
"I can take you to the edge of the Dark Continent and help you to get the attention of a Trailmon. I am Garudamon." It said. After a moment of hesitation, I climbed on. Why not accept a free ride?
Garudamon set me down beside a set of train tracks. It looked left and right, frowning slightly. I looked too, but couldn't see anything but the unchanging landscape of the Dark Continent.
"Usually there is a Trailmon that travels through here during this time of the day. I wonder what is going on. Stay here Konomi, I will look around. If I don't come back in fifteen minutes, leave and head towards the lighter clouds." Garudamon said before taking to the sky and flying off. I waited about fifteen seconds before running off in the same direction. I'm mature, not patient. I soon, however, found myself lost in a forest of dark trees. I was inspecting some strangely glowing moss, when a crack of a stick alerted me to someone's presence behind me. I froze, and in one smooth movement, dropped my bag and back flipped over the people trying to sneak up on me. I was about to punch both of them, but then realized that they were just kids, the girl not too much older than me and a boy that was possibly a year or two younger than me. I stared at the two, the first humans I had seen since the, possibly in my head, boy in the dark. The girl had shrieked when I had moved so quickly, but the boy stared at me in a kind of awe. I scanned with my eyes to make sure my black gloves were secure over my hands and my sleeve and pants leg covered my fake limbs, and none of the metal was showing, so I just glanced back at him.
"Who are you and why did you attack us?" the girl demanded, sounding very bossy. I narrowed my eyes and didn't drop my fists.
"It's polite to give your name before asking for another's." I said in a monotone. The girl stared at me.
"My name is Tommy and this is Zoey." The boy said, taking a step forward, obviously not afraid of me, which kind of threw me off guard. After all, nobody seemed to look at me with anything other than passing glances, despise, or fear.
"I'm Konomi." I murmured, lowering my arms and walking around them to pick up my bag.
"Why are you here? I thought all of the other children were sent home?" Zoey asked. I stared at her, totally confused.
"Listen lady, I've been here for all of four hours, I believe, and I think that you, my dear, need to take a chill pill." I said, pulling my bag's strap onto my shoulder and staring flatly at the blond girl before me. She gaped at me, open mouthed in surprise, while Tommy laughed.
"Just who do you think you are?" she exclaimed. I pointed at myself.
"I'm two months away from being a junior in college and I'm in the top of my class. I'm quite positive I've already told you my name, thus there should be no confusion about who I am." I snapped, tossing my head and making my short dark hair momentarily halo around my head. Zoey and Tommy both stared at me.
"You're in college, no way! You're younger than me!" Zoey said her voice full of disbelief. I turned away from them and began walking away.
"Believe what you will. I know who I am, for the most part anyway." I nearly whispered the last part, not wanting to admit that I didn't know about my family. I was about to continue on, deeper into the forest, when a pair of footsteps from in front of me made me look up. Before me stood a figure wearing a blue outfit that left large patches of her, for it most definitely was a female, aqua colored skin uncovered. She had fin like appendages extending from her hips, her ears also elongated into similar fin-like appendages, and red eyes, one of which had several lines extending from the bottom of it like eyelashes, which matched the red jewels that adorned her helmet and knees. I raised an eyebrow at her scanty clothing, especially so compared to my own clothes that let no skin show below the collar.
"Hey there dolls!" she exclaimed, making me cringe at the southern belle accent.
"Execute, Beast Sprit Evolution!" the pair of calls made me whirl, only to see spirals of data looking ribbons encasing the two I had been conversing with. After a split second, the data parted revealing two very different creatures.
"Zephyrmon!" cried the slighter of the two, a mostly purple clad winged figure with yellow skin and light brown and tan wings, gray gauntlets and pauldrons, a black scarf that wrapped around her neck and trailed behind even with her ankles, and blue hair that had wing like appendages extending above and back of her head. Aqua eyes glared from under cyan bangs to take in the figure before me.
"Korikakumon!" the other called, his voice much deeper and gravelly, which fit with his giant, abominable snowman, crossed with a mountain goat and a Jamaican fisherman look. His huge shoulders were also covered with pauldrons, but these had a slightly more rustic feel to them. Orange bracers accented his wrists with heavier plates of brown armor with white symbols on them attached to the bracers with dark straps, though nothing covered his three toed feet. He had long, white hair wrapped into dreadlocks, decorated with metal arrow-shaped ornaments at the end of each thick rope. I leapt away as the slighter of the two twisted her arms and fired a pink wind with a cry of, "Hurricane Gale!" I barely made it onto a low tree branch before the attack was countered with another that came from the other, a cry of, "Whipping Waves!" barely preceding it. Waves shot forward, nearly soaking me in my high perch, and hit the two newer creatures. I hissed as I tried to keep my hold on the tree branch, which was shaking violently from the force of the water attacking it, but slipped slightly. Just as I was about to topple over, a hand grabbed the back of my shirt and lifted me. I twisted and didn't like what I saw. Another of the creatures had appeared, this one mostly shades of green with red accents. He had a kind of angular look, with lots of sharp points and abrupt stops to his…armor? Two shields were attached to his arms, the outer rims decorated in mostly red, but with some green and yellow accents. The really creepy thing however, was the mirrors. The flat parts of his shields were mirrors, as well as a rectangular section of his chest, but his face was the creepiest. All you could see was his mouth, looking like some girl had kissed a mirror with a lot of lipstick on her mouth. The rest of his mirror face was blank, but I could still tell he was glaring at me with a kind of hate, a hate I was used to, but not a centralized as the glares usually shot at me were for.
"Ranamon, stop!" he called, and I only knew it was him because his mouth moved in time with the words. He swung his arm out, dangling me over empty air. I growled and tried to get hold of his arm, but he had picked me up like a cat, in the one place I couldn't reach at the moment. I could feel my shirt beginning to ride up from the force being put on it.
"Stop humans, or the child doth get a lesson in skydiving." He said. I wondered who he was talking to; Zoey and Tommy hadn't been around since the first creature had appeared. Suddenly, cocoons of data swirled around Zephyrmon and Korikakumon, and when they cleared, Zoey and Tommy were standing in their place. I felt my eyes widen slightly in surprise, but quickly reigned in my expressions.
"Mercurymon let Konomi go!" Zoey shouted. I twisted in the creature's, Mercurymon's, grip, nearly spinning myself around, but that was my intention. I snapped a kick out with my left leg, hitting Mercurymon in the knee with my shin, inducing a clang of metal on metal. His knee buckled and his grip on my shirt released. I managed to land on my feet, knees bent and low to the ground. Ranamon suddenly charged at me, but I sprang into the air and performed a split kick that connected solidly with her face. The blue creature shrieked as she fell back and I took off, running away from all of them. My bag kept slamming into my knee, so I hoisted it up higher and pushed more speed into my legs. However, I was ground to a halt as I ran into something. I looked up, and froze. Looking down at me was another one of those creatures. This one had dark armor, accented with red. On his shoulders and in the middle of his chest were three eyes that were also staring at me. Long blonde hair fell out of his three horned helmet.
"Nice going Duskmon, you found her." The voice of Ranamon called behind me. I backed up slightly, unable to tear my gaze away from 'Duskmon's' red eyes.
"Lord Cherubimon wishes to see the young lass." Mercurymon's voice called. Duskmon's eyes narrowed and I shuddered, just before I felt a pain in the back of my head and once again was plunged into darkness.
So? Anyone like it?