A Small Girl in a Small Town
Part 2
"Entanglement"
Penguinmon stood there panting, ready to defend himself against the counterattack he was sure would come from his assailant. However, the creature which had been holding him a moment ago did nothing of the sort, but only groaned and struggled to sit up. She put her hand to her cheek and looked at him with tear-filled eyes.
"Owww!" she cried. "What did you do that for?"
He lowered his flippers when he realized this strange creature was not going to attack him. "I, uh… I'm sorry, I thought you were going to eat me."
"What? Why would you think that?"
"Well it wouldn't be the first time someone's tried, and what else am I supposed to think when I wake up and some weird-looking creature is holding me up with its mouth wide open?"
"I am not—" she stopped herself, wincing as she lowered her voice. "I am not weird-looking!" she said again in a more hushed voice.
"Look, I said I was sorry," he grumbled. "The name's Penguinmon. I'm just confused. Where the heck is this weird place anyway?" He looked around at the small room which was covered with strange images of other weird creatures, their eyes large and their bodies in dramatic poses. He guessed, correctly, that it was some kind of residence, a sleeping chamber of sorts, though where he lived in the Digital World there were no buildings close by, so he had no real concept of what "indoors" looked like. This was the first time he had ever been in what could really be called a "room."
"Oh wow," she said, her expression really changing to one of amazement, now really getting a look at the small creature. He was short, barely a third her height, not even up to her waist. He was a deep blue color on most of his body with bright orange eyes. On his head were two long crest feathers that were white on the tips. Its belly was white as well with more blue stripes on it. He had stubby-looking flipper-like wings with red claws on the tips. His bill and feet were yellow, although the tip of his nose was bluish-black. "Wow," she said finally. "You're right, I guess I should be more understanding. You really are a digimon!"
"Uh, yeah. And, what, you aren't?" he asked.
"No, of course not!" she giggled. She stood up before him and pointed to herself. "My name is Amanda Fabienne Giroux, and I'm a human!"
He gawked at her. "A… a human? Wait, does that mean I'm in… I'm on—"
"You're on Earth!" she exclaimed.
His eyes went wide. "I… wow. I don't believe it… the legends about the humans, the planet in the sky… Does this mean what I think it does?"
"That's right!" she exclaimed, barely able to contain her joy. "I'm your Digidestined partner and you're my digimon!"
"Amazing!" He suddenly bowed his head solemnly to her. "I am not worthy of the honor. I will do my best as your partner."
She wasn't sure how to respond to this sudden display of reverence, but it was clear that he held the position of Digidestined in very high regard. She put her arms to her sides and likewise bowed respectfully to him.
"The honor is all mine, oh honorable partner of… um… honor," she finished lamely.
With that, the two of them stood up and smiled at each other. They said nothing, but each continued to smile for a few more moments before they each started looking to each other's sides and then peered behind each other's backs.
"Um," Amanda began, "what are you doing?"
"Heh heh… uh, what are you doing?" Penguinmon asked back.
"Well, it's just… shouldn't you have my digivice?" she asked.
"What? No, I was looking for where you were keeping it!"
"Well I don't have it!"
"What makes you think I have one?"
"I don't know, I've never done this before, I don't know how this works!"
"Well, neither do I! Did you lose it or something?"
Amanda frantically started looking around her room. The digivice, the small electronic device that linked a human to his or her digimon partner was something all Digidestined carried, so hers must be there! Maybe it had come through with Penguinmon when he came out of her computer? Or perhaps it had appeared just prior to his arrival? It had to be there, it just had to! Penguinmon was here, after all, he came right to her room, so he had to be her partner. She just had to find a digivice to prove it. The only other explanation was—
"You're not a Digidestined, are you?"
She stared at him. He crossed his flippers and stared at her with a very tired expression. "Well?"
"N-no, that's not possible!"
"Uh, look, Human, I—"
"Amanda."
"Whatever. The point is, there's no digivice here. I may not know much, but even I know that Digidestined have digivices and you don't have one."
A cold sensation went down the length of her body as the truth of his words sank in. "No," she breathed. "No, that's not possible!"
"Sorry, Human, but I guess we're not partners. You're not a Digidestined."
"No!" she shrieked, and immediately clapped her hand over her mouth when she realized how loud she had screamed. It was too late, however, and she now heard her father's heavy footsteps coming up the hallway and by the way he was grumbling it wasn't going to be good news when he arrived, much less when he saw Penguinmon standing there. After all, his receptiveness to her interest in digimon was tepid at best and now having a live one in her room was bound to cause even more trouble. She figured she had about seven seconds to hide Penguinmon before her father arrived.
"My father's coming," she hissed. "I have to hide you!" She quickly picked him up and looked around frantically for a place to hide him.
"Hey, put me down, I can take this 'Father' thing—"
"Shh!" she hissed. Hearing him just outside her door, she made a split-second decision and roughly stuffed Penguinmon inside her nightshirt.
Mr. Giroux opened the door and groggily asked, "Amanda, what's going on in here? Do you know what time—" It was then that he noticed his daughter standing there, her belly round and protruding.
"Look, Papa!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. "I AM T3H PR3GNANTZ!"
Mr. Giroux stared at her for a few seconds, blinking uncomprehendingly as she did nothing but offer a sheepish grin. "Well… that's…" he said finally, but then never finished that sentence as he backed slowly out of her room and shut the door, returning to his own bedroom.
"Let me out of here!" Penguinmon growled as Amanda helped him free. "It's bad enough you try to trick me into thinking I'm your partner without you mon-handling me!"
"Mon-handle?"
"That's it, where's the exit? I'm out of here!"
"What?" she cried. "But you just got here!"
"So? Just because some weird dimensional portal deposited me in your sleeping chamber doesn't make me your property, Human!"
"I… I didn't say that, I just…" she sighed, and her look of disappointment was so powerful that he momentarily softened.
"Well, what is it?" he asked.
"I love digimon," she said. "From the day I learned about them, I've been fascinated by them. And I've also always wanted to be a Digidestined ever since they saved both our worlds. They're heroes here too, you know! And I've studied all about digimon and the Digital World and I thought you coming here was a sign." She sighed. "But… even if we're not partners, maybe you could… stay here?"
Penguinmon looked around the tiny room uncertainly. "I don't know… I'm used to wide-open spaces. And I see a forest outside that glass square."
"You mean my window? Well… of course, I won't make you stay if you don't want to. You're right, you're not my property."
Penguinmon nodded. "Thank you for understanding. Well, it was nice meeting you, Human."
"Amanda."
"Yeah, that." He began to waddle over to her bedroom window. She had to think fast; the only digimon she'd ever seen in person, the one who came right into her room, was about to leave, was about to just walk out of her life forever.
"I have food!" she cried suddenly.
He froze. "Food?" he repeated. "Did you say 'food?' What do you mean?"
She brightened. "Food! You're a penguin so you probably like fish, right? I have fish I can give you!"
Now it was his turn to brighten. "Fish? Well… I guess, if you're offering…"
"Wait right here!" She ran out of the room and returned with a can of tuna.
He stared at it blankly. "What? What the heck is that?"
"It's tuna!" she said, and peeled open the lid of the can, offering him the contents. He just stared at it, not taking any. To placate him, she picked a small chunk from the can and ate it. "Mmm, tuna!" she said (in a manner not unlike a mother trying to get her young child to eat something).
He sniffed the contents of the can cautiously and then, gingerly with the tiny claws at the end of one flipper, took a piece of tuna and ate it. He immediately made a face.
"How long has this been dead?"
"Huh? I don't know, it's just an ordinary tin of tuna. At least a while, I guess."
Penguinmon gave her a very sour look. "I don't know how it is among humans," he said, and his tone was grave, "but among digimon, we do not offer our friends old, greasy food. We only offer the freshest things we can find. To offer less is… is just insulting!"
"No, I didn't mean—"
"I've had enough! Goodbye, Human!" He waddled over to the window again, leaped up to the window sill and tried to pry it open. "Um… urk… little help?"
Amanda went over and lifted the window for him.
"Thanks. Um, sorry, but I'm still leaving." He hopped out the window and ran across her backyard, out into the woods behind her house.
She stared after him for several minutes even after he was gone. "I thought we were partners," she said, finally. "No… this can't be true… no…" She continued to stand by the window, hoping against hope that Penguinmon would return, until eventually she lacked the will to stand there any longer and returned to bed. Even as she drifted off to sleep, her eyes filled with tears, and she whispered one last time: "Penguinmon… please come back…"
Izzy sat at his computer while sipping from a can of soda. Diaboromon's defeat the previous day had left some curious aftermath. Gennai had contacted him directly after the incident, and he said he could arrange for all eight of the Digidestined children to come to the Digital World for something very important. But then he had laid the bigger bomb on them: "all eight" Digidestined was no longer accurate.
Oh, to be certain, the news that there had been other Digidestined before them who had beaten back something from beyond the Wall of Fire had been a surprise, but whoever those children were, they were not around now for whatever reason. However, Gennai's message was not ambiguous, and that was a rarity with the old man. It was a simple statement, followed by a humble request: "There are other Digidestined children appearing in countries around the world on your planet and they may come to the Digital World. Please try to help them."
Well, that sounded good in theory, but if they were in different countries then how were they supposed to help them?
"It's not just a matter of distance," he told Tai, "but a matter of linguistic incompatibility! It would be entirely unreasonable to expect that every new Digidestined has the capability to speak Japanese just because the original eight were of that nationality!"
"Don't worry, Izzy," Tai said in his usual devil-may-care way. "Maybe Gennai wants us to help them take Japanese language classes!" he laughed.
"Tai, this is serious! What are we going to do if someone in a foreign nation needs our help?"
Tai shrugged. "We'll help them. However we can," he added. "We just need to figure out what they need help with. Maybe they'll just want advice."
"Well, how will they contact us?"
"Isn't that the easy part?" Tai asked. "Heck, a bunch of kids from around the world already found your email address to write their support."
"Well, yes, but it's not like I could understand everything they said."
Tai thought this over. "Okay, I've got an idea, and it's actually a pretty good one!"
Izzy wasn't sure about that, since the ideas Tai was usually the most confident about had the more disastrous results. Still, he was his friend and a pretty reasonable strategist, so maybe he really did have a good idea in him. "All right, what's your idea?"
"Okay, get this… we'll have a bake sale," he said, and Izzy began to narrow his eyes, "and with the funds, we'll invite all the Digidestined to Japan for a Digidestined Convention!"
Izzy finished his eye-narrowing and waited to see if Tai was kidding. He was not.
"Tai," he said, "as cool an idea as a Digidestined Convention is – and I really do mean that – most of the Digidestined in the world are kids like us. How are we going to afford to bring potentially hundreds of kids together to Japan?"
"Oh, good point. I don't think we could make enough brownies to do that," Tai said, mulling that over. But a second later, he sprang right back and his face lit up with another flash of inspiration. "Oh, then why don't we just bring them together over the web? You could make one of those email things."
"Email… things? What like a… a mailing list!" Izzy brightened. Why hadn't he thought of that?
"Yeah, that's it!" Tai said. "One thing we learned was how important it was to have the others there when we needed them. Maybe a mailing list to stay connected would be a good way to handle things!"
Izzy nodded. "Well, I think I'll need to practice my English a little. Or hope a lot of them speak Japanese. Maybe after we get a running list of them we can make a website with an online forum…"
Tai smiled, seeing the figurative gears in Izzy's head start to turn. "See, Izzy? I told you it would be no problem!"
"But where do I start? I don't think I can just Google search for Digidestined."
"What about those kids who sent us the emails while we were fighting Diaboromon? Maybe some of them have seen other digimon around. Or they know someone who has."
Izzy nodded. "Well, that's a start. I have to admit, Tai, you really do have some good ideas today!"
Tai crossed his arms and smiled smugly. "Ha! Maybe you're rubbing off on me, Izzy. Pretty soon I'll be the one bringing a laptop to summer camp!"
The two of them shared a laugh as Izzy turned to his computer and began compiling a list of all the children who had sent emails the previous day.
Amanda awoke with a groan, feeling not the least bit refreshed from her night's sleep. For a moment, she forgot the previous evening's happenings, but then her eyes went wide as she recalled the strange visitor and she jumped out of bed to search her room. Then her eyes went to the window and she remembered that he was gone.
Was that… even real? she wondered slowly. There's no sign that… then she looked to her nightstand and saw the partially eaten can of tuna sitting there.
"It was real," she breathed. "There was a real digimon in my room!" That he had left still weighed heavily on her mind, but at least it was a sign that it wasn't a dream. Just to make absolutely certain, she dug out a small chunk of the tuna and popped it in her mouth. "This isn't so bad… crimony, that Penguinmon is picky!" Still, she wanted to meet him again. If he was still out there, maybe she could track him down. In the meantime, there were some questions she needed to answer.
She went to her computer and nudged the mouse, causing the monitor to come to life. She got online, irritably noting the slowness of the connection as she searched for news of the events of yesterday. Sure enough, there was news of the blackout in Roxanne's newspaper's site, but when she checked the Toronto Star, she was in for a bigger surprise:
"CyberTerrorism attack shuts down computers worldwide," she said, reading the top story's headline aloud. "What is… there's no mention of Diaboromon here at all! What is this, a government cover-up?!" The story the official sources were giving out was that cyberterrorists had sent a hacking program to cause chaos in computer and electrical systems worldwide, spreading from Tokyo to New York City and several other cities around the world. Not a single mention was given to Diaboromon, to digimon, or to the Digidestined.
Frustrated, she checked some of the same forums she was reading last night in search of some better details. For some reason, it seemed like only kids were able to witness the fight with Diaboromon, which might explain the lack of coverage in the mainstream news. Luckily for her, there was news from other kids who had seen the end of the fight. She read with elation how Taichi Kamiya and Yamato Ishida entered the Internet itself and their two digimon, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, fused into Omnimon to defeat Diaboromon. Some kids had even managed to take screenshots of it happening. From what she read, it was now clear that the emails and cheering and support from all those kids had helped to power the transformation.
"Oh my god," she said, nearly in tears with elation. "Since I sent that email that means that I also helped make that happen! I wasn't totally useless after all!" This was about the only positive thing that had come of the previous evening that she could name.
"Mama, Papa!" she called, running from her room to the kitchen.
"Sh, just a moment, Amanda," her mother said. "We're listening to the morning news on the radio."
"But I—"
"Listen!"
She reluctantly quieted herself as she listened to the radio broadcast. "-have no idea what sort of animal might be responsible for such an attack, but Will Hamilton of Roxanne County Animal Control advises all citizens to be cautious when venturing outside until the animal is identified and found."
Amanda and her parents all exchanged concerned glances. They continued listening as Will Hamilton gave a soundbite. "Well, it's kind of a mystery as to why the animal turned over the entire dumpster to scrounge for food behind the restaurant, but it must have been very strong to turn it on its side. We believe the animal came into town around 3 AM, tipped the dumpster, ate its fill, then fled back into the woods surrounding town. It probably won't come around during the daytime as to avoid people, but likewise people should avoid it. All citizens should be on alert and stay away from the woods until we've had a chance to identify and capture the animal."
"What the heck happened?" Amanda asked.
"Something tipped the dumpster behind Wong's Wok," her father replied as he resumed eating his breakfast and drinking his coffee. "After that, you heard what the radio said." They heard a small noise and saw Philipe standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
"W-what kind of animal?" he asked nervously.
Mrs. Giroux smiled reassuringly. "Oh, they don't know yet, but I'm sure it's nothing."
"If it tipped a dumpster," Amanda said with a mischievous grin, "it was probably a bear. A big hungry bear. You better be careful, Philipe, I hear bears like to eat little boys who—"
"Amanda, that's enough!" her mother hissed. To Philipe she said "Don't worry, sweetie, the man on the radio said he's probably scared of people too. That's why he came at night."
"Yeah, that's right," Amanda said. "So be careful when you sleep tonight or the bear will—"
"Ahem," her father coughed, as he gave her a sharp stare. "Philipe, relax. Just come and eat your breakfast."
"Can I have Pop Tarts?"
"But your mother made oatmeal."
"I know. That's why I asked if I can have Pop Tarts. Oatmeal's yucky."
The rest of the family collectively rolled their eyes. Then Mr. Giroux turned his attention to Amanda. "Speaking of sleep, young lady, would you care to tell me what was going on in your room last night?"
Amanda was startled by this question. She had figured her father had totally forgotten about the previous evening. "What do you mean?" she asked innocently.
"I remember you screaming and… and then I went to your room…" he said, now sounding unsure of himself.
"And then what?"
"Er, you yelled something and then you were… uh… pregnant."
Mrs. Giroux and Philipe looked at Mr. Giroux skeptically.
"Um, I'm pretty sure I'd remember that, Papa," she said, gesturing to her flat belly. "But if you say so, then who was the father?"
"That's not funny, young lady," Mr. Giroux grumbled.
"I hope it was someone rich and handsome," Mrs. Giroux quipped, joining in on teasing her husband with a smirk.
"Okay that's enough out of you two!" he growled, turning slightly red. Even Philipe was chuckling now. "Fine, maybe I imagined the whole thing. Apparently I'm the only one who hears anything in this house, because something woke me up last night. I'm pretty sure I didn't dream that."
Amanda glanced sideways at Philipe. "Maybe it was the bear."
"Bear?"
"There is no bear, dammit!" Mr. Giroux said, pounding his fist on the table. "Will you two please eat your breakfast and get ready for school? And Amanda, don't forget that you are to come right home after school so you can start your grounding!"
She folded her arms and gave a smug smile. "What for?"
"You know perfectly well what for! You blacked out the whole town with your silly computer experiment and then tried to blame it on those digimon things!"
"Maybe you haven't checked the news, then?"
"I have the local newspaper right here."
She beckoned them all into her room and showed them the Toronto Star page. Upon reading the bit about a cyberterrorism attack shutting down computers and electrical systems worldwide, both of her parents looked at each other uncomfortably.
"All right," Mr. Giroux said. "But you still broke into the school and hacked their computers."
"Not hacked. I just rewired them."
"Fine, fine, whatever," he said with a sigh. "You still did something bad and we are going to have to punish you for it."
"But you just said I was grounded for blacking out the town," Amanda pointed out. "And I just showed you that I probably didn't do that. Cyberterrorists did." She wanted to explain that it was a digimon, and not a cyberterrorist, but she figured she ought to focus on one thing at a time.
"She has a point, Wesley," Mrs. Giroux said. "I guess maybe… we owe you an apology…"
"No, no, it's fine, you're forgiven," she said, smiling triumphantly. "Well, I better get ready for school—"
"Not so fast, young lady," Mr. Giroux said. "You still broke several rules, both at school and in this house, and you are going to have to pay for it somehow."
Crud, she thought. "Okay… what's my punishment?"
"Well… your mother and I will discuss it with you. We'll tell you this evening after school. In the meantime, it's getting late, you need to get ready for…" He stopped, sniffed the air, and then looked over to see the can of tuna on her nightstand.
"Sweetie," her mother began, "why do you have an open tin of tuna in your room?"
"I… got hungry last night," she said, thinking as quickly as she could. "Sorry, I guess I didn't eat very much of it. Eheheheh."
Her mother chuckled. "That's okay. The mercury in it is probably bad for the baby anyway." She elbowed her husband at this.
"Yes, yes, very funny," he grumbled. "Okay, enough weirdness this morning. Everyone get ready for work or school. Amanda, if you and Philipe are late, then you can consider yourself officially re-grounded."
After wolfing down breakfast, taking a quick shower, and getting dressed, Amanda took a moment to check her email. Though it was usually empty of anything other than reviews or comments about her yaoi fanfics, she was surprised to see an email with a Japanese address in her inbox. She looked at the "From" and "Subject" lines and realized with amazement that it was from Izzy and it was about Digimon. Here is what it said:
Hello and thank you for email!
I am Izumi Koushirou. Please call me Izzy. I am digidestined with digimon. I am sorry but do you see digimon after Diaboromon is defeat? If you meet digimon maybe you digidestined too! Please send email if you meet digimon and I can help you! We together let's do our best with partner!
Good luck!
-Izzy
"Oh wow," she said. She couldn't believe it. She had just been sent an email from one of the original Digidestined. It was clear that he needed practice with English, but it seemed easy to understand and it was a heck of a lot better than she could have done in Japanese. She decided to write back, for even though she wasn't a Digidestined, she did meet a digimon. Maybe Izzy could give her some advice on making friends with digimon. Or maybe…
"What if I build my own digivice?" she asked. Granted, she had no idea how to do that, but maybe if Izzy had some specs she could give it a try. It was a long shot, but at least it was a possibility!
She excitedly typed up her email and sent it in a matter of minutes, managing to get it finished just as Philipe came knocking on her door to demand that she walk him to school.
"All right, Philipe, let's go get this day over with," she said grouchily, even though she had a feeling that today was going to be far better than the day before.
In the early morning sun, Penguinmon grunted and opened his eyes. He was leaning up against a damp, moss-covered log by the side of a river. He stood up on his two little feet and heard his spine crack as he stretched. Jeez, this is only a little better than my little ice cave back on the glacier, he thought to himself. After leaving the human's house, he had wandered into the dark woods trying to find some shelter. He heard the sound of rushing water and came upon the river in the dim moonlight. It seemed a good place to set up, since it would be easy enough to get water and catch fish, which were pretty much the only two criteria he had for a home.
He felt a little guilty for storming off from the human's house. In retrospect, she couldn't be blamed for not knowing digimon customs. And she had offered to share her food with him, which, now that he thought about it, was something nobody had ever done for him, at least not since he was a hatchling. On the contrary, it seemed someone was always after whatever food he managed to get his flippers on. He wondered where those lousy, rotten Gizamon went off to…
Whump! He froze at the sound. He turned around and heard something fairly large stomping through the forest, coming toward the river. He hid behind his log, peering out to see what it was. His eyes went wide when he saw the big, white, furry creature come up to the river, not 3 meters from where he stood. As it stooped to get a drink, he scrunched down and hoped it wouldn't see him. He also covered his nose at the end of his beak, as the creature smelled horrible. Finally, it stood up and walked off, heading up a nearby hill.
That was close, he thought to himself. Can't believe there's another digimon like that around here. Not exactly someone I want for a neighbor. Maybe I'll just see how the fishing is here and move downstream after I've had my fill.
Amanda and Philipe walked to school that morning along their usual route when it occurred to Amanda that a slight detour would take them by Wong's Wok, the restaurant that was attacked last night. Being the kind of person she was, her curiosity took hold and she dragged a slightly confused Philipe along a slightly different route.
"Hey, what gives, Sis?"
"I felt like going a different way today," she said innocently.
He looked at her skeptically, but they continued until they came to Wong's Wok. The place was a small Chinese restaurant, the only one in town, and it did a decent business with lunches and weekend buffets. Mr. Wong didn't usually open the place until lunch, but he kept it open until 9 pm. It was closed now, but Amanda heard some noise coming from around the back of the building and started towards the alley.
"Wait a minute, Sis, is this… is this where the b-bear attacked?" Philipe asked, backing away.
"Philipe, relax, I was just kidding about the bear. Bears haven't been seen in the hills around Roxanne in decades. They live farther north!"
"Maybe one came here by mistake!"
She sighed. The fun she'd had earlier was backfiring on her now. "I hear adults back there, Phil. It's safe. Tell you what, if the bear suddenly comes back, I'll block it and let it eat me instead of you."
"Well… okay…"
Way to show concern, ya brat, she thought to herself. But at least he was complying as they snuck around to the back. She took in the scene behind the restaurant.
Will Hamilton, the animal control officer, was there and talking to the sheriff. They were in turn talking to Mr. Wong, who was gesturing angrily at the upended dumpster. The dumpster had been dented severely and its foul-smelling contents strewn all over the back alley. The area had been taped off and it didn't look like any of them were in any mood to talk to anyone, let alone a couple of curious kids. But then Amanda spotted something amid the debris.
Among all the garbage and on the dumpster were occasional clumps of what looked like white fur or hair (if there was a difference). Their solid, bright white color was striking, as was the length of the fur. Philipe could have been right about it being a bear that had strayed south, but neither a black bear nor a grizzly bear would have that color of fur. Unless it was an albino… or… maybe it was an escaped polar bear?
I have to get a sample of that fur. I've got a hunch…
"Psst," she whispered, leaning down to Philipe. "Hey, Phil—"
"Ewww! Sis, your breath smells like tuna fish!" he said, waving his hand.
"Quiet down, you brat, it does not!"
"Yes it does! You forgot to brush your teeth! Eww, it's so gross!"
She raised her hand to her face, testing this accusation. Aw crap, he's right. I must have forgotten to brush my teeth in the rush this morning! She blushed as she realized she would have to go to school like that this morning. She sure hoped Leon's sense of smell wasn't as good as Philipe's.
"Ha ha! Icky fishy sissy!" he sang. "Icky fishy—"
"Shh! Just shut up for a second!" she hissed, barely controlling her anger and embarrassment, glad the three adults had not noticed this exchange. "Philipe, how would you like to make a dollar?"
"Sure! Wait, for what?"
She whispered her plan to him.
"Make it five, Fish Breath."
"Two."
"Three!"
"Done."
Philipe stepped out into back alley, took a deep breath, and ran at the three adults yelling "Grr, I'm a bear! I'm a big scary bear!"
"What the, hey watch it, kid!"
The three adults scrambled to catch the swift-footed little boy. While the three of them were momentarily occupied, Amanda rushed in and snatched up the nearest clump she could find, pocketing it quickly before any of them could see.
"Philipe, there you are! Stop bothering those nice men!"
"Oops, sorry, Sis," Philipe said with well-practiced sweetness and innocence. "I was just playing."
"I'm so sorry, Sheriff," she said, leading Philipe away. "He just got away from me."
The sheriff smiled. "Sure, just be more careful with that brother of yours, okay?"
"I will!" she said, and the two of them went back to walking to school. Jackpot, she thought. I may have to wait until after school to examine that fur, though.
"Okay, where's my money, Sis?" Philipe asked.
"Mon Dieu you're impatient!" she said, reaching into her backpack for the wallet she kept there.
The two of them arrived at school with a few minutes to spare before the first bell. Philipe immediately went off to find his friends while Amanda quickly found Yvonne leaning against a wall with a small book in her hands.
"Yvonne! I'm glad I found you!"
Yvonne smirked as she saw her friend running over. "Well well well, returning to the scene of the crime?"
"Huh? What crime?"
"Breaking and entering, dummy," she laughed. "Fair warning: the whole school heard you broke in and wired the computers together. But at least we know you didn't cause the blackout last night."
Amanda sighed with relief. It looked like she was off the hook for that much, at least.
"Yvonne, you should have seen it!" she said. "There I was at home—"
"—When you saw the cyberterrorism reports, freaked out, and thought it was a digimon," Yvonne finished.
"Thought? But… it really was a digimon!"
Yvonne laughed. "You and your imagination. Don't tell me you're buying into all those hoaxes on the 'net."
"But… but I saw—"
"I'd let it go, Mandy."
"Ugh don't call me that!" She hated being called "Mandy." Yvonne knew this and called her that whenever she wanted to tease her about anything. That, combined with the fact that her best friend didn't believe her about the digimon, was nothing short of infuriating.
"Look, the school's talking and, uh, even we have limits on how far we can take the whole 'social outcast' thing. Check out this book I'm reading."
Amanda took it from her and read the title: Howl by Allen Ginsberg.
"Read the first bit of it."
She'd never heard of it, but it was a long poem. She began reading the first bit: "Let's see… 'I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night—'"
"Yeah, you get the idea."
"Ugh. Goth or not, this is kind of depressing, even for you."
Yvonne wagged a finger at her nonchalantly. "The point is you should pay attention to the first bit there. 'The best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.' You need to stop talking about digimon all the time, Amanda." She leaned in close, saying this last part quietly, but firmly. "People are going to think you're crazy."
"Yvonne… how can you think—"
"Whoa!" she said, pulling back and making a face. "Geez, Amanda, did you have tuna salad for breakfast?"
"Not you too!" she groaned. "I forgot to brush my teeth this morning, so sue me!"
"Uh oh," Yvonne said, chuckling. "Looks like your timing couldn't be worse." She pointed and Amanda turned around to see Leon running toward them.
"Oh no. Oh no no no!" she cried, looking around frantically for some kind of escape. Just yesterday she had scored some points with this cutie and now he was going to catch her with fish breath!
"Hey," he said, coming over. "I wanted to talk to you girls."
"What's the story, Leon?" Yvonne asked.
How can she be so calm talking to him? Amanda asked herself. He's sooo cute and he's nice and he doesn't care if we're a geek and a goth and how can she just stand there and talk to him without wondering what it'd be like to kiss him… oh god, now I'm thinking about kissing him! Oh god, would it taste like fish to him? Mama says boys can't smell as well as girls can, so maybe—
"Amanda!" Yvonne exclaimed. "Hello, things okay on the moon? Leon just asked you something."
"Hm?" She felt her cheeks begin to burn as she blushed involuntarily.
Leon smiled and laughed good-naturedly. "I heard you did something with the computers last night. People tell me you thought that cyberterrorist or hacker or whatever was a digimon, but I think they're just spreading rumors. So, like, what happened?"
Amanda was stuck. Paranoid about tuna-induced halitosis and without an excuse, she wasn't sure how to respond. She thought fast and covered her mouth with both hands, her elbows jutting out at 90 degrees like a pair of wings, and said in a slightly muffled voice, "Nope! No digimon last night!"
Yvonne might have been happy Amanda had taken her advice had she not just assumed the most awkward-looking pose ever. She gawked at her, giving her a look that plainly said, "Are you freaking serious?"
"Uh, heh heh… why are you covering your mouth like that?" Leon asked, once again losing his cool demeanor in the face of this odd girl.
"Ummm…"
Just then the bell rang and students reluctantly began filing into the school. Amanda breathed a sigh of relief, lowering her hands. "Bell," she said simply, sticking her thumb in the direction of the door. "Gotta go. Bye." Feeling humiliated, she ran off, leaving Yvonne and Leon to themselves.
"No offense, but she's really weird," Leon said.
Yvonne shrugged. "Weirdness works for people like us."
"You're not that weird, Yvonne." And now it was her turn to blush.
"Yeah, um… thanks," she muttered.
Leon snapped his fingers, remembering something. "Oh, right, I remember. I overheard some of the girls talking. Tara and her little gang are still pissed off about what you did yesterday."
"It was worth the after school detention."
Leon laughed. "Yeah, it was hilarious. Glad someone finally told off that stuck up snob. But the point is that she's on the warpath. You and Amanda need to watch your backs. I think they want revenge."
Yvonne nodded. "Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure to let Amanda know there are monsters on the loose."
What neither of them, nor Amanda herself, would realize until much later was that Tara and her little gaggle of cronies were by far the least dangerous monsters wandering around that day.
Across the world, Izzy's day was winding down. He had received a few emails from other kids, many of whom sent badly translated Japanese emails, and others who wrote in their own native languages he hadn't the first idea of how to reply, but at least things were progressing, if a bit slowly. It was then that he got an email in English with a Canadian address. He read it carefully and was glad that the writer had chosen to write it in simple English.
Hello!
My name is Amanda Fabienne Giroux! I'm from Canada! Last night a digimon came to my room! I really love digimon and the Digidestined. Do you have some advice to deal with digimon?
Your friend,
Amanda
P.S. How does the digivice work? Do you have specifications or pictures of the inside?
Some of it was hard to understand, like the word "specifications," but it didn't take him long to use a dictionary and get the whole meaning. He figured that at the very least he could help this person out, even if things were going slow for all the others.
He did his best to be careful and write the best English he could as he wrote his reply.
Principal Jacobsen sat across from the other members of the school council. This emergency meeting had been called a mere hour ago and they had all rushed over to the conference room at the high school. The principal of the junior/senior high school was there along with the superintendent and the handful of councilmen who represented the small district.
"This is going to cause chaos," he said. "I still think this is a terrible idea."
"Listen, we need to think about the safety of the students," said one councilwoman. "Gerald, think about how terrible it would be for us if that animal attacked a little boy or girl on the playground!"
"Yeah, the lawsuit would probably mean no budget for a Christmas party this year!" The others turned and glared at the councilman who said this. "Oh, and, the uh… emotional damage would… um…"
"Anyway," the superintendent said, "we can all agree that it would be a terrible thing. Let's inform the teachers and send out calls to the parents and get ready to make adjustments in our schedules."
Gerry Jacobsen sighed. The animal attack at Wong's Wok was about to be the catalyst to a day's worth of chaos.
Ms. Foley looked over the note one last time. The first hour or so of class had gone fine, but she knew things were about to erupt into chaos. Unless a messenger came by and sent another message telling her the decision the school council had made was suddenly reversed, things were about to get loud and noisy. She looked at the clock and realized that it wasn't going to happen.
"All right, class, pay attention," she said, quieting them down. "Well, I have what most of you will consider good news. Even though there are technically two more days of school left, the school council has decided to cancel the remaining class days and start your month-long summer break early." This was met with gasps and immediate cheers that she had to hush (followed by her having to get many of them to sit back down in their seats as they immediately made for the door). She continued explaining from there. "Now this is very important, class. The reason for this is because of the animal attack behind the Chinese restaurant in town."
Amanda's ears perked up at this and she reached into her pocket, feeling the clump of hair she snatched that morning.
"We don't know what animal it was," Ms. Foley continued, "but we know it was big and strong. We want to protect all of you, and it might be difficult to do if we let you outside for recess or sports or when you're waiting for the bus, so we're calling your parents and finding out when they'll be picking you up or if they want you to come home, etcetera. So, sit tight and I'll let you know once I get a message from the Main Office about what your parents want."
Oh great, Amanda thought. Mama's going out of town today and Papa never takes a day off of work. Sounds like I get to babysit Philipe today.
Not long after that, Ms. Foley got the first list of students whose parents had been reached and most of them were told to meet them outside the school soon. Amanda was not among them.
"Amanda, your brother is going to his friend Bobby's house. You know who that is?"
She winced. When Philipe was alone, he was bad. But with Bobby Stephens, he was even worse. Bobby's parents laughed off every single rotten thing he did, saying "Boys will be boys!" She pictured an afternoon filled with loud music, surprise skirt lifts, water pistol assaults, and peanut butter smeared in her hair.
"Is that my only option?"
"Well, unless you want to stay here and help out around the school. They might want someone to help with copies or to play with the kindergartners while they wait for their parents. Or you could just study."
One of the boys laughed at this. "Who would want to stay in school and study for their first day of summer break?"
"I bet Amanda would!" his friend loudly replied, drawing laughter from her other classmates. She made a face and looked down.
"Quiet, all of you! Amanda, you're free to choose any of those options."
"Actually," she said, "staying here doesn't sound so bad. I could… just go to the library."
The snickers were heard again, but Ms. Foley just nodded and went on to the next student.
Amanda walked out of her classroom, her backpack stuffed with her books for the summer, and started down the hallway. It was mostly deserted, as most students had been told to meet their parents, to go with friends, or just walk home. She rounded a corner, making her way to the library. It was just beyond the 5th grade classrooms. Maybe I can find Yvonne and get her to keep me company, she thought, brightening somewhat. She waited by Yvonne's classroom door, hoping her goth girl friend would stroll out momentarily. The door opened and she saw… Tara and her cronies. Tara was laughing about something when she looked in Amanda's direction and their eyes locked.
Oh crap, she thought.
"Whoa whoa, hold on. Look who it is, girls!" Tara said.
"Uh, h-hi, T-tara," Amanda said. "I-is Yvonne around?"
"Uh, n-no she isn't!" Tara laughed, mocking her stammer. "The vampire split as soon as she heard classes were cancelled. The teacher said they couldn't reach her parents and she just walked out. Teacher tried to stop her, she just stared at her and kept right on walking."
One of her cronies, Stacy, chimed in. "You should have seen the look she gave," doing a mockingly menacing glare. "Like she was going to put a curse on her or something. You know, like a witch or something."
"Or something," another crony, Sandi, added. "That girl is soooo freaky."
Tara nodded approvingly. "Perfect word for her. What a freak!" She stepped towards Amanda, her three companions swiftly coming around to surround her. She backed up against the wall. "But then, speaking of freaks, there's you. Your vampire friend is going to pay for what she did, but I saw you throw your nasty lunch at me too. Now you're going to pay for it, you little geek."
Amanda looked around frantically for help, but the hallway was vacant. She was about to scream for help and took a deep breath when two of the cronies rushed forward to grab her arms and cover her mouth.
"Look at the little piggy squeal!" Tara giggled. "At least your friend would put up a fight instead of crying for help. Well, you already look pretty trashy in whatever nerdy clothes your mommy put you in, but we can do better." Tara leaned in, her eyes hard and her smile cold. "Around here, we're in charge, and you're just garbage. That's why we're going to stick you in a trash can and roll you down the hill to the soccer field."
She struggled hard, trying to get free and uttering muffled squeals of protest as they began to lead her away.
"Amanda?" a new voice said and the girls all froze. They turned and saw Ms. Foley round the corner. Tara and her cronies looked to each other nervously. Ms. Foley saw her student in the hands of the fifth graders and crossed her arms, giving them a glare so icy that it put even Tara's to shame.
"W-we were just—"
"Tara, Stacy, Sandi, Tiffany, let her go."
"But—"
"Now."
They released Amanda, making a small opening for her.
"Amanda, please come with me. I found something for you to do. Is that okay?"
Amanda just nodded, walking over to her. As she went, Tara grabbed her shoulder, digging her nails into her shoulder.
"This isn't over," she whispered.
"Tara!" Ms. Foley yelled, and Tara released her grip, taking her leave with her gang in tow.
Back in the classroom, Ms. Foley and Amanda were alone. They sat down on opposite sides of her desk.
"Um… thanks for your help," Amanda muttered.
"I'm glad I came when I did," Ms. Foley said, her smile genuine. "It looks like Tara hasn't changed from when she was in my class last year."
"So, what did you want, Ms. Foley?"
"I just found out that Mr. Perkins is working on the computers in the computer lab this morning. You know him, right?"
Amanda brightened and nodded her head. She did indeed know him. Mr. Bradley Perkins was the owner of Perkins' Parts, a little shop where he sold computer parts, some software, and a repair service. She regularly stopped by to see if she could get some older, out of date parts for her various devices or modifications or just to ogle the more advanced hardware. He seemed to appreciate her enthusiasm and was impressed with her knowledge of computers when he showed her some of the machines he was repairing.
"Well, after you broke in and tampered with the computers—"
"It was for a good cause!"
"Regardless, he's been called in because nobody else in the school knew how to put them back the way they were. Technically, you're still in trouble for modifying the machines in the first place, but I'll forget all about that if you help him. And we want them back exactly as they were, Amanda. Don't overtime them or something."
"Overclock?"
"Right. That."
"Well, actually, I think I probably could—"
"No, no, forget I said that. Just clean up the mess you made and we're even."
She nodded respectfully. "Okay, Ms. Foley." Spoilsport, she thought.
Ms. Foley was quiet then but she looked like she had more to say. Finally she sighed and leaned back in her chair and looked at Amanda with something like exasperation, or perhaps it was pity. All Amanda knew was that she didn't like being looked at that way.
"Amanda, you know I had a talk with your parents last night. Did they talk to you about it?"
"A little, but they were kinda mad about the computers and the blackout thing first."
"Right. Well, I don't think our talk went very well, to be honest. I think you're the kind of person who isn't easy to pigeonhole. With the other children, they generally fall into one category or another and I can talk to their parents in terms of their 'type,' as it were. In that sense, it's easy to detach ourselves from judgments of them as individuals and just see things in terms of 'Problem' and 'Solution.' Do you understand what I mean?"
"Sure. You mean parents get angry if you talk about their kids, so you say things like 'Children like yours are blah blah blah' and then tell them what that kind of kid needs."
Ms. Foley smiled. "Exactly. And that you followed what I was saying so easily is a decent example of why I can't really do that with you. I hate to admit it, but it's hard to nail down your problems and therefore their solutions. And that makes it hard to talk to your parents, because we can't detach ourselves from the issue… you don't really have a type, per se, so we have to talk about you."
Amanda folded her arms. "I don't have any problems."
Ms. Foley chuckled. "Now that's just not true."
"Why don't you talk to my classmates? They're the ones who—"
"Amanda, just stop right there. I want to talk to you like an adult here, so please just let me speak for a little bit. Okay?"
She sighed and looked away, already thinking about what she would do once she got to the computer lab, but halfheartedly replied, "Okay."
"Listen: you're a very special young woman. You're blessed with very high intelligence and the last thing I would ever want to do is discourage you. But sometimes it pushes others away because of how you flaunt it. Remember when Rick came in wondering why he couldn't get that game to work on his computer and you asked him a bunch of questions about the RAM, the processor, etc.?"
"Yeah, and in the end the problem was that it was only for PC and his family has a Mac!" she laughed. "What a dope!"
Ms. Foley sighed. "Yes, Amanda, that's what I'm talking about. You made him feel stupid for not knowing more about his computer and again for not knowing the difference between a PC and a Mac. You do that sort of thing often. You had an opportunity to help and maybe make a friend, but you embarrassed him. And now Rick is among the many others who enjoy teasing you in class."
Amanda looked down, but said nothing.
"When you behave that way, people put you down, and your reaction is to retreat further into that shell of yours and become even more adversarial with them. You can't keep treating people like enemies just because they aren't as intelligent as you. Right now you're just a small girl in a small town; you're Wesley and Anne Giroux's daughter. But things can turn ugly in a small town once you get old enough to have your own identity. You may be special and like keeping to yourself, Amanda, but small towns don't like special, and they absolutely hate secrets. If you aren't more careful, you're going to dig yourself a hole and end up alienating everyone around you. All I want is for you to make some friends or you're going to end up isolated in your own hometown."
Amanda grumbled something under her breath.
"What's that?"
"I said, 'Who cares?'!" she snapped. "So what if other people think I'm weird? I don't have to change who I am! I won't live in this town forever, and I only want to be with people who appreciate me anyway!"
"Amanda, I didn't say you had to change who you were, first of all," Ms. Foley said, "and second of all, right now you don't seem to have anyone besides your family and myself who do appreciate you. Everyone else, you seem to push away."
"Yvonne appreciates me! It's the quality of your friends, not the quantity that counts anyway!" she said with pride.
"True, but—do you smell tuna fish?"
"Um… no."
"Er, well, anyway…" she looked reluctant to go on, but finally she said, slowly, "Well… to be honest, I'd question how good a friend Yvonne is. I mean, I can't say that much about a former student, but…"
Amanda gawked at her. "So, you judge her too," she said bitterly. "Just because she dresses and acts differently."
"Amanda, it's not that. There are things you just don't know—"
"Save it." She said this with such force that Ms. Foley was actually shocked. Amanda realized with horror that she had basically just told her teacher to shut up and felt her confidence waver. Still she took a deep breath and went on. "I've heard enough. I won't let you say anything bad to me about my friend. May I go see Mr. Perkins now?"
Ms. Foley looked at her sadly. She said nothing else, but nodded and motioned to the door.
When Amanda walked into the computer lab, Mr. Perkins was busily detaching the wires that connected one of the computers to another. He didn't notice her enter or approach until she finally said "Good morning, Mr. Perkins!"
"Hm? Oh, hey, there's the little girl whose mess I've been cleanin' up all morning! How ya gettin' on?" He said this good naturedly, without a hint of anger or frustration. Nonetheless, she felt she ought to apologize.
"I'm fine. And, uh, yeah," she said, laughing sheepishly, "they made me go home last night before I had a chance to disconnect them all from each other. I came to see if I could help."
"Yeah, I don't see why not! See if ya can give me a hand finishin' up with the last of 'em and then checking their systems. It'd go faster with two people, by?"
Balding, about 40 years of age, with a mustache and his uncommon Newfoundland accent, Mr. Perkins was the unwitting butt of a lot of jokes in Roxanne. He had lived in Newfoundland most of his life, but during the late 80s and early 90s he became interested in computers and learned all he could about them. Though mostly self-taught, he eventually went into business as a computer repairman and parts seller. He did some research and found that there was no such business in Roxanne and moved there a few years earlier. In the last few years, Amanda was one of his most regular customers, even though she rarely had the money to buy anything.
The two of them worked quickly and finished the job of putting the computers back to regular working order.
"I appreciate the help, dear," Mr. Perkins said, "but I gotta ask ya about this one ting I found."
"What do you mean?" she asked, genuinely confused. She was pretty sure she hadn't left anything loaded onto the computer. She had made that anti-viral program to send against Diaboromon, but it had been destroyed.
"Well, I made it so ya can see the hidden folders and files and such, right," he said, "but I found this ting here and I was wonderin' if it was your doin'."
She looked and saw a program's icon the desktop of the computer. Looking at the screen, she read the name of the program, but it was just a seemingly random mess of text: "~$eb5sh0%4."
"No," she said, looking at it suspiciously. "I didn't put that there, I swear. And it wasn't there when I logged on last night that I know of."
"Well, the antivirus programs didn't say it was a virus or notin', but when I checked all the other machines, it looked like they all had the same program." And now it was his turn to look suspicious. "The weird ting here was that when I looked, it seemed they each ran in the background several times, just turnin' on and off, by? I got no clue what it does, but I've got a good mind to just delete it to be on the safe side o' tings."
"In the background?" Amanda asked. "So it was invisible to anyone using the computer?"
"Yeah, unless you went lookin' for it. Very strange. Well, help me remove it before it causes some trouble."
"Wait a minute," she said. "Why don't we run it manually?"
"What for?"
"Well, so we can see what it does, of course!"
"I'm not sure I want to risk damagin' these machines," Mr. Perkins said. "It wouldn't look too good if I came here to repair 'em and just ended up makin' 'em worse, by?"
"Yes, but you didn't find anything wrong with the other computers and they all ran the program in the background anyway, right? So, it looks like the program doesn't hurt anything. Let's just give it a try! Think of it like a science experiment!"
Mr. Perkins laughed. "Well, all right, I suppose it can't do no harm. I didn't reconnect 'em to the internet yet either, so I guess no worries about hacks or notin'."
Amanda placed her hand on the mouse, found the strange icon, and double clicked it.
A window opened on the screen and it began to display strange runic symbols scrolling upward in long vertical lines. She thought she could hear something as well, so she turned up the volume on the computer's speakers and heard a high pitched electronic sound. It was garbled and filled with static.
"What… is this?" she asked aloud.
"I, uh, don't know how to explain it," Mr. Perkins said, "but I got a bad feelin' about that. Let's shut it down."
"Wait!" she said. "It's not doing anything, really, let's just run it on the other computers as well and see if that does something."
Mr. Perkins still seemed reluctant, but Amanda went from one computer to the next, running the program on each one. Every time, the same scrolling runic symbols and high-pitched sound accompanied it. But when all the computers were running the program at once, the sound began to sync up and she heard a repeating pattern, a kind of frequency to the noise. But then the lights in the room began to flicker.
Mr. Perkins began to look even more panicked. "Uhhhh that shouldn't happen…"
Amanda suddenly looked down and saw a pale glow emanating from her pocket. Stealthily, she opened it and saw the clump of hair she discovered that morning. It was glowing and it looked as if an electrical current was running through it.
It's reacting to the program! Or maybe the sound? She stared at it, momentarily transfixed by the sight, but nothing could have prepared her for what happened next.
There was a loud booming sound from behind them and they both whirled around to look out the windows. Just outside, a bright light appeared and began swirling around and around like a whirlpool, only turned on its side. It made a deep, rumbling sound, not unlike a large, growling animal. After a few moments a creature came through its swirling center and the whirling light disappeared in a flash.
"By tunder… what is that ting?" Mr. Perkins demanded.
The creature was small, not much taller than Penguinmon, she noted. It looked like a dog, but it stood upright and it was a bright yellow color with black, floppy ears and a tail. It had sharp looking claws on each of its three toes (or, was it "fingers," since it stood?) and big white teeth shaped like a bear trap or a saw blade. Its big eyes had small green eyes and it had a capital letter 'D' on its chest. The best word she could think of to describe it was "cartoony."
The creature finally took note of the two humans looking at it through the window and offered a mischievous grin. It gave a wheezing laugh and ran off.
"Amanda, turn those programs off!" Mr. Perkins commanded. The two of them immediately closed the programs. Amanda noted that the clump of fur in her pocket stopped reacting once the programs were off.
"All right, Amanda, stay here where it's safe. Delete all of those programs before it brings another monster. I'm goin' after that crazy ting!"
"Wait!" she cried, causing Mr. Perkins to freeze in the doorway. "I… I may know what that was." He looked at her with confusion, but she took a deep breath and tried to explain it calmly. "That was a digimon. I think another digimon is the one that smashed the dumpster behind Wong's Wok and there was another that appeared in my room last night. I'm not sure how, but I think the program on the computers is related to them somehow."
He stared at her, saying nothing.
"I know, I know, you're going to say that digimon can't come into our world anymore, but—"
"No!" he cried. "If I hadn't just seen that ting with my own eyes, maybe, but… well, I know I'm not crazy, so it must be real. I just can't believe that they're here in our town… oh my nerves…"
Amanda looked at him with concern. He looked like he was about to have a heart attack or something. "Mr. Perkins, are you all right?"
"Yeah, yeah," he replied, taking a few deep breaths. "Listen, if that ting really is a digimon, then I gotta stop it before it hurts someone. You stay safe and I'll meet up with ya as soon as I can. Meantime, don't go blabbin' about this until we decide what to do!"
She was about to protest that she wanted to help him look for the digimon, but could see that he was going into "protective adult mode." There was no way he would consent.
"Okay," she relented. "Just be careful, okay?"
"God love ya. Don't worry, I'm tougher'n I look, by?" And with that he ran from the room.
She did delete the program from the computers, but she had a feeling that just cleaning up the school computers wasn't going to solve the whole problem, so she put a copy of the program on a floppy disk (though it barely fit!) and, seeing nothing left to do, left school and headed for home.
After her encounter with Tara and the strange digimon she spotted earlier that day, Amanda was especially on edge as she made her way home. Suddenly the familiar settings of her small town seemed potentially dangerous. Hostile things could be lurking around every corner and now the one ally she could count on, Mr. Perkins, was off chasing one of them. She couldn't help but feel a bit outmatched. She wished she had someone else she could count on. Someone like…
"Penguinmon," she said to herself. She sighed as she looked up and saw that she was in front of the local grocery store. Suddenly something the small digimon had said echoed in her mind and she got an idea.
Back at home, she set her backpack down in her room and stretched out on her bed.
"What a day," she said. "I could use a nap."
She thought about all the things that had happened that day. A real, live digimon came through her computer, and that was the most amazing thing, but that was just the start. She snatched evidence from what she felt for certain was a digimon attack, she had a small fight with her friend and embarrassed herself in front of her crush, nearly got dumped in a trash can by the meanest girl in the 5th grade, told off a teacher, let someone else in on the digimon secret, and discovered a strange program on the school computers that brought yet another digimon into their midst. Without a doubt, it was the weirdest day of her life, and she had a feeling things were just starting to get weird.
Her belly rumbled and she realized it was almost lunch time. "Eh, forget a nap, I need some lunch."
She found some leftover tuna from the can she'd opened and made a tuna salad sandwich and brought it to her room. While she ate it, she decided to check on another hunch. She went back on her computer and enabled the viewing of hidden files and programs. Sure enough, on her computer was the same "~$eb5sh0%4" code from the school computer. Checking the history, she also found that it had run. In fact, unless she was mistaken, it had run at the same time Penguinmon had appeared. But, more disturbingly, it had run a time or two during the 10 or so since then.
Is this my fault? she wondered. Does this have something to do with me tracking Diaboromon yesterday? There is definitely a connection between this strange program and the digimon… digimon… wait!
"My email!" she said, suddenly remembering. Checking it quickly, she was delighted to see that Izzy had already written her back. She opened it and eagerly read its contents:
Dear Amanda,
Thank you for email! Congratulations you have a partner! Remember digimon is good friend and always protect you! Protect your digimon too! Please be kind to each other and always be brave and you can do a good job as digidestined!
I'm sorry. I don't have specification for digivice. Please be careful and don't take apart!
Good luck!
Your friend,
-Izzy
She was a bit puzzled for this. "I didn't say I was a Digidestined," she said to herself. "I just said a digimon came to my room and… does this mean I really am?" She considered this and realized he probably just misunderstood what she meant. It was also a shame that he didn't have any specs on a digivice. She certainly couldn't build one from scratch and it sounded like he wouldn't take his own apart just to help her out.
But another part of the email resonated with her. She read over the part about being kind to one's partner and about being brave. She thought again about the bad terms she and Penguinmon parted over and then found herself thinking about Mr. Perkins. He knew he was up against a digimon and still went after it. She had done almost nothing brave at all today and acted like a coward in front of the boy she liked and the bully she feared. She looked around her tiny room and saw all the characters from all the anime she adored, each of them a brave hero who faced evil head on.
"Serena, Duo, Kenshin, Spike… give me strength!" she said, standing up and clenching her fist… which succeeded only in crushing the remnants of her sandwich.
Not letting the smooshed bread and mayonaise on her fingers dampen her mood, she opened her closet and pulled out a large wooden box. Inside were various bits of machinery and other broken or half-finished devices. After a few moments of digging, she found what she was looking for.
"There you are… time to prove that you really do work."
Penguinmon shot out of the water and landed on the rocky shore of the river, waddling back up the bank to his little spot by the log. His belly rumbled and he gave a sigh. Now that the sun was overhead, he could appreciate the green forest and the tall trees that surrounded him. Having lived his entire life either in the water or on a glacier, he was used to nothing but ice and very few plants. Now, however, he was getting used to all the trees, bushes, and other vegetation in this forest. For a place with so much life, he would have thought he could catch larger fish in the river, but he'd spent the whole morning swimming the river and barely caught enough to be counted as a light breakfast.
He heard the sound of footsteps approaching and dove into a nearby bush. Though these were far less heavy than those of the creature from this morning, he didn't want to take any chances. As it stepped out into the clearing by the river, its back was turned to him and it peered at a strange contraption it held in its hands. Then it turned and looked straight in his direction. He gawked when he saw who it was.
"H-hello?" Amanda said. "I know you're there. You can come out, I won't hurt you!"
Penguinmon emerged, relieved it was only her. "Hello again, Human," he sighed. "What are you doing here?"
"Penguinmon!" she cried, looking far happier to see him than he was to see her. "I'm so glad I found you!"
"Yeah, I… um… again, what are you doing here? Wait, how did you know I was here?"
She beamed proudly and held up the strange contraption in her hand. "I found you with my own invention: the digimon detector!"
Giroux Gadget #1: The Digimon Detector
This device is a simple design. With a radar-style screen on the front, any digimon within 50 meters appears as a glowing blip on the screen. While it cannot tell what kind of digimon it is or give any information about it, it can nonetheless tell the direction of digimon on a horizontal plane.
Amanda's Notes: "I based this device on some reports from the original Digidestined once they got back from fighting Apocalymon. Izzy said the Digimon Analyzer on his computer could read data given off by every digimon based on their uniquely coded electromagnetic frequency. Since digimon are made of data, they give off a mild electromagnetic field. I build a device to detect electromagnetism above a certain strength (so it won't just detect devices like computers or electric fans or something) to help me track any digimon in the area!"
"Well, that's… actually kind of impressive!" Penguinmon said, not really getting her explanation. "And you said you just… made that?"
"Of course!" she said. "I'm the greatest scientific genius in Canada!"
"If you say so. What's a Canada? Or 'scientific?'"
"Never mind. How are you doing?"
Penguinmon's belly rumbled at that.
"Oh, you poor thing, are you hungry?" she asked.
"I'm fine!" he grumbled. "I just… haven't caught many big fish in this lousy river here. I keep getting these tiny minnows, and they're almost not worth the trouble."
She beamed at that and set her backpack down, removing her lunchbox from it. "I think I can help!" she declared.
"Hey, I already told you, I don't want your greasy, dead—"
"No, no, I know, this is different!" She opened the lunch box. Inside, packed with a few baggies of ice, was something wrapped in white paper. She opened the paper to reveal a sizable cut of salmon. Penguinmon gawked at the bright reddish-orange flesh and his mouth began to water.
"Uhhh… that's um…. (slurp) that looks pretty good."
"I thought you might feel that way," she said, and slid it over to him. "It's all yours!"
He looked at the fish hungrily, but then looked to her suspiciously. "If I take this, it doesn't mean I agree to be your partner or live with you or anything."
"No, I… I know, I just…" she trailed off, somewhat sadly. "I just felt bad about last night. You said friends don't give each other old, dead food. This is nice and fresh, the man at the grocery store said so. Never frozen! I just… want us to be friends!"
Penguinmon was a bit taken aback by this sincere display. He wasn't used to selfless displays from anyone, and there was no doubt that this was one of the nicest gifts anyone had ever offered to him. Still, trying to remain nonchalant he said, "All right, I'll consider it. Mind if I taste it first?"
"No, not at all! I hope you like it!"
He picked up the salmon and took a bite. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. To Amanda's surprise (and, shortly thereafter, a mixture of joy and disgust) he went facefirst into the salmon, ravenously devouring it, getting it all over his face, stripping it down to the skin.
"Do you… like it?"
He looked at her and she saw tears running down his face. "It's… this is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten in my life. Ever."
She stifled a giggle. "You gonna be okay?"
"Mm hmm," he said, wiping the bits of salmon from his face and then licking his flippers. "Ohhh, dear sweet Goddramon, that was amazing."
"There better be some leftovers, birdbrain!" a harsh voice said, suddenly. Both Amanda and Penguinmon turned to see a lone Gizamon standing nearby. "I finally found you!" he growled.
"Gizamon!" Penguinmon said, holding his flippers out widely as he stared down his four-legged amphibious foe. "What do you want?"
"We may be in a different dimension now, but you still owe us tribute! Now there better be more of that fish you were eating or we're going to have trouble!"
Penguinmon laughed. "Who's going to collect? You're on your own, and I don't see your two idiot partners with you."
"I can still take you in a one-on-one fight, birdbrain!"
Just then Amanda picked up a large stick and held it out like a sword. "How about one-on-two?" she asked, standing next to Penguinmon.
"What the heck is that?" Gizamon demanded, apparently noticing Amanda for the first time.
"That?" Penguinmon asked. "That's… that's my new friend," he said. "She's a human. And you better be careful or she'll use one of her human powers on you. I hear some of them breathe fire or drink blood!"
Amanda looked to him and caught Penguinmon's sideways glance and got the hint. "Uh, yeah, I… I suck blood all the time. I suck hardcore!" she shouted. Oh crud, don't laugh, don't laugh, I hope he buys it.
Gizamon looked at them unsurely. "Okay, birdbrain, you're in luck today, but your pet human won't be any help once I find the other two Gizamon! We'll be back and then you'll pay!" With that, Gizamon hopped away into the forest.
"Oh jeez," Amanda said, dropping the stick. "I can't believe he bought that."
"You're a terrible actor," Penguinmon said. "Just the same, good job, Human."
"It's Amanda," she said, grumbling. "You could bother to remember if you're going to call me your friend. Wait… did you…"
Penguinmon rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, okay, we're friends. Don't make one of your faces again."
Just the same she had a hard time containing her joy. I did it! I'm friends with a digimon now!
"Listen, it's pretty dangerous out here," Penguinmon said. "Gizamon's not the only digimon out here."
"Oh, that reminds me," she said, reaching into her pocket. She removed the clump of white hair and showed it to him. "Does this look familiar? I'm looking for whatever digimon this came off from."
Penguinmon nodded. "Yeah, that fur came from Mojyamon. And unlike Gizamon and myself, he's a Champion level. Tough looking guy, smelled like garbage. Where did you get that?"
"He attacked my town. He knocked over a dumpster. I think he was looking for food."
"Yeah, that sounds about right," Penguinmon replied. "I think he's set up just a little bit up the hill here." He pointed in the direction he saw Mojyamon wander off that morning. "Just stay away from him and you'll be fine."
"I can't do that," she said, suddenly looking determined.
"Wait, what?"
"If he comes to town again, he might cause more damage, or hurt someone. Or maybe someone will hurt him. I have to convince him to stay in the forest."
Penguinmon looked at her and laughed. "Uhhh, yeah, that's a terrible idea. He may not be that big, but he's pretty strong and probably not going to back down if food's involved."
"I don't care," she said. "I have to try and reason with him."
"You're crazy!" he yelled. "Why would you do that?"
"Because that's my home down there!" she shot back, and began walking up the hill.
"Stop! You'll get yourself hurt, Human!"
"My name is not 'Human!'" she screamed. "I am Amanda Fabienne Giroux and I may not be a Digidestined, but I will protect my town and I will not be a coward!"
Penguinmon stood there. The small, fragile human he knew suddenly looked taller, stronger, and her look of determination as she looked at him over her shoulder convinced him that she could not be talked out of her course of action.
"Fine," he grumbled. "Your funeral."
Amanda took a deep breath and continued up the hill.
It didn't take her long to find Mojyamon using her digimon detector. He was fast asleep, his back to a tree, and he was snoring loudly. He was only a short distance from her, but she approached him quietly, cautiously, and she could already smell the scent of garbage and old lo mein noodles on him. No doubt about it, she thought, this is the guy who attacked Wong's Wok.
She took a step closer and he suddenly stirred in his sleep, yawning and revealing large teeth with some very nasty, pointy canines.
Okay, Amanda, you can do this. Remember your Shinji mantra: I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away…
"Um, excuse me, Mr. Mojyamon?"
"Hm?" Mojyamon grunted, one pink eye opening immediately.
"Uh, eheheh, hi!" she said, trying to stay brave. "H-how are you today?"
Mojyamon stood up to his full height. He wasn't terribly tall, only a little taller than she was, but his body was big, round, and burly. His shaggy white fur covered everything except his pink face, hands, and feet. He looked very much like what she imagined a yeti would look like, and noted that his hands and feet were enormous for his small size. As he stood, scratching his belly, he held up what looked like a leg bone, its knee bending it into a 'V' shape.
"Hello, my name is Amanda," she said. "I-I-I am a human from the town just down the hill. I think you came to our town and ate some of our garbage. A-and that's okay! You can eat it, but you made a big mess and some of us are very afraid!"
Mojyamon belched and stared at her with a very bored expression.
"Ha ha, well, I'll cut to the chase!" she said, deciding to hurry things along. "I'm sorry, but it'll cause a lot of trouble if you come to our town again right now and make another mess. Maybe I can help you out or help you get home or something later, but for now maybe you could… just stay here? In the forest?"
Mojyamon raised an eyebrow. "What did you say? Did you just tell me where I can and can't go?" His voice was gruff and rumbling. The edge of menace in it was not lost on her.
"W-well, I don't want you to hurt anyone or have someone hurt you! I'm sure you're a very nice digimon!"
Mojyamon snorted. "Mojyamon are generally known for being pretty gentle," he said, "but every rule has its exception. I don't really care if someone gets hurt when I come to your town, they just better stay out of my way. And now that I get a look at you," he added, chuckling derisively, "I doubt any humans could hurt me."
"Well, I'm actually kind of young—"
"That food I got out of that box wasn't as good as I thought it would be. The meat was old and dry and a little rotten. I've had indigestion all day. I've had some berries and stuff I found in this forest, but I could sure go for some fresh meat." He grinned at her now.
Her eyes went wide. "Oh."
He took a step closer to her.
"W-well, I've taken enough of your time, thanks for hearing me outsorrywecouldn'tagreebyebye!" she said, turning tail to run.
"Bone Boomerang!" Mojyamon yelled, hurling the bone at her. The boomerang caught her under her legs, sweeping them out from under her and she fell onto her back. While she groaned, disoriented, Mojyamon caught the boomerang and pounced forward, seizing the girl in one hand and holding her up to examine her more closely.
"You're kinda small," he said. "Not too much meat on you."
"Thanks, I've been laying off the poutine—what am I saying?"
"No idea," Mojyamon said, sniffing her. "Well, you still smell all right. I suppose you'll make a decent meal."
"H-hey, wait, you don't want to eat me! Humans taste terrible! I was cannibal-curious in third grade and trust me, we're totally overrated."
"Jeez you're noisy," he grunted and pushed her to the ground, still holding her fast with his oversized hand. He raised his bone boomerang over his head like a club.
Oh great, I wanted to meet a digimon and now I get to be one… via digestion, she thought. Her eyes went wide, suddenly realizing the severity of the situation she was in.
"Now hold still," Mojyamon said. His hand nearly squeezed the breath from her lungs and the stench of garbage was overpowering.
"No, please! Don't hurt me! I'll do anything, just please let me go!" she pleaded as a cold terror set in and her eyes filling with tears. "Please! Someone help me! Someone help me!" she screamed.
Mojyamon just laughed as he took aim at her head with the boomerang.
"Super Slap!" cried a familiar voice and a blue flipper landed with a loud crack across Mojyamon's face. The large, hairy digimon was so surprised that he dropped the boomerang and released his would-be prey.
Amanda sat up and saw Penguinmon position himself defensively between herself and Mojyamon.
"Penguinmon, you came for me!" she exclaimed with joy and seized him in a tight hug.
"Augh, what the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded. "Put me down and run!"
Regaining her senses, she did as she was told and ran with Penguinmon as Mojyamon recovered from the sudden attack. The two of them made their way through the forest, but soon heard the angry brute giving pursuit. The two of them finally made it back to the river where she'd found him not five minutes earlier. The river was only a short drop below them from the bank, its swift waters rushing by loudly.
"What now?" she asked.
"Bone Boomerang!" The attack could be heard whizzing toward them and she froze as she turned to see it coming at them.
"Dive!" Penguinmon yelled and pushed her roughly into the river below before jumping after her, narrowly avoiding the boomerang as it sailed over them. The two of them splashed into the cold water and he saw her floundering, still totally disoriented. Jeez, this human talks big but she sure has lousy survival skills. Then again, so do I after pissing off that big ape!
"Grab onto my feet!" he yelled.
"What? Why—"
"Just do it, hurry!" he yelled. She seized his small yellow feet and he suddenly took off like a torpedo down the river just as Mojyamon jumped into the river behind them. He tried to give chase, but he was slowed down by the deep water and soon the two left him far behind, his angry shouts fading into the distance.
The two eventually stopped riding the river and came to shore as it exited the woods. They reached the land panting, both soaking wet and dripping.
"I didn't… realize you could… swim so fast!" she said, still trying to catch her breath. "I could barely… hold on!"
"It's a gift," he said, laughing slightly. "You okay, Amanda?"
"Yeah, I… hey, you… you didn't call me 'Human' that time!" she said happily.
"No, no I didn't," he said, offering her a smile.
"Oh wow, this is just like one of my anime shows where two people finally call each other by their first names to show they respect each other!"
"Well… sure, okay, I'll admit it, you earned my respect with that big speech of yours. Too bad you couldn't back it up with Mr. Big and Hairy back there. What the heck's an 'anime?'"
Amanda started laughing. It was a long, relieved, almost hysterical laugh, but to Penguinmon's surprise it gave way to her expression changing and the laughs presently became sobs.
"Whoa, what are you crying about?"
"Oh Penguinmon, I was so scared!" she said through the tears, throwing her arms around the small avian.
Unsure of what to do, still not quite comfortable being embraced by another creature, he gave her a pat on the back with a flipper. "Uh… there there, it's okay."
"Thank you… thank you for coming back…"
"Okay, it's all right now."
She released him and tried to wipe the tears from her now reddened face. "W-wait… where are my glasses?"
"Those things on your face? They probably fell off when we were going down the river."
"Oh no… I can't see well enough to get home without them. I have an old pair at home, but how will I…" she trailed off as she started to cry again.
"Whoa, okay, okay," he said, raising his flippers. "It's all right, I can see fine, and I think I know the way back to your house. And, uh, when we get there… well, you know, it's kinda dangerous with Mojyamon out there, so… I mean, if the offer's still good…"
Amanda cocked her head to the side. "You… want to stay with me now?"
"Sure," he said, sounding disinterested. "Just if you want me to. I guess I can try some of that dead fish in a tin. It's not that bad." He looked at her and she looked like she was about to cry again. "Oh, what now? You're not going to start bawling again, are you?"
She was tight lipped and just shrugged her shoulders as she took a deep breath, tears forming in her eyes.
"Wait, is this because you're sad?"
She shook her head violently.
"Is it because you're… happy?"
She nodded.
"Weird. Okay, fine, let it out, but just try to keep it down while you follow me back, okay?"
She nodded and, squinting through her tears and nearsighted vision, followed the little blue bird back towards her home.
"I'm glad you're coming to stay with me," she managed to say, sniffling as they went along.
"Yeah, you're all right, Amanda," Penguinmon said. "You're starting to grow on me. Besides, I kinda like that your breath smells like fish."
"Mon Dieu!" she shouted. "That's it, when I get home, the first thing I'm doing after I get dried off is brushing my teeth!"
Lying in a hospital bed, somewhat lightheaded from the painkillers he'd been given earlier, and his leg bandaged, Mr. Perkins took stock of his day. He had tracked down that digimon, all right, but the snickering hound had bitten his leg and caused it to bleed so profusely that the school had needed to call an ambulance. He'd told them that it was a wild dog that attacked him, though after looking at the wounds his doctors didn't look totally convinced. Just the same, he would have to hobble around with a cane for a while until his leg was fully healed. That meant that it was just him and Amanda Fabienne Giroux who knew about the digimon in their town. He knew perfectly well what both the kids and adults thought of Amanda's obsession with digimon, and if they both started blabbing about them they'd both be labeled as crazy. Still, there had to be something that they could do.
He reached for his large, black cell phone attached to his belt and dialed a number from memory. "Hello? Yes, this is Mr. Bradley Perkins, may I speak to Mr. Wesley Giroux? Yes, I'll hold…" he waited for a few minutes until Mr. Giroux finally answered. "Hello, Mr. Giroux? Yeah, this is Mr. Perkins. I got someting I need to talk to ya about… No, my car's fine. Actually, I'd like to talk to ya about your daughter…"
To be continued…
Next time: Amanda and Penguinmon may have teamed up, but with digimon still on the loose and no one else to fight them, how will they protect the town? Meanwhile, Mr. Perkins has ideas of his own, but what part will the two play?
Please leave a review and let me know what you think! A special shout out goes to my Canadian readers! Let me know if you have any feedback about anything in this story!
