"Never checking shady messages again," Fred Ax muttered as he took in his surroundings. He was in a dark alley that reminded him of his history classes concerning New York during the industrial revolution. Dark gray buildings behind and in front of him, a fire escape stairs leading up into the rooftop. He had a light ringing on his head as he stood up and looked for anything or anyone who could tell him where he had been teleported to.
He wished to cancel his previous action when he saw what awaited him outside the alley. Creatures unlike anything he ever seen, and that's coming from a massive anime fan, roamed the streets. Some, insectoids that stood to his knees and others, gear like creatures with brilliant red eyes. Taking a step back, his arm retreating to the wall of one of the buildings, a light clink caught his attention.
"What now?" Fred looked at his left wrist, a strange device was attached to it. It reminded him of a mobile console mixed with a watch. It was black with red details, not his style, but he knew a certain someone who'd love showing whatever it was off. Taking a deep breath he turned to look at the street again, yep, monsters still roamed the streets like people. A carriage moved by what reminded him of a unicorn and a Pegasus, because why have a unicorn in this crazy world if you could have a winged unicorn instead?!
Shaking his head, he hoped the monsters wouldn't pay much attention to him, after all what was he amidst so many oddities? Despite the dirt in the alley, he noticed his dark blue shirt and black shorts were clean, somehow even his black and white shoes were clean. This world just got crazier and crazier… Yet just as he left the alley, something stirred in the stairs above where he had been, a set of red eyes were watching.
Walking across the busy streets, he was promptly ignored by most of the strange citizens, although a few gave him a curious glance when he bumped into them, he decided to just ignore them for now. A few of the monsters sat by the buildings using cardboards for better comfort, not that they had much. This really was a weird world, what kind of homeless monsters asked for Bytes? Nerveless, the beggars were indifferent to his appearance, especially after he showed he had no bytes. The city felt endless, it was hard to believe such a crazy place even existed.
He already started wondering if he had died and ended up in another world, if so, they really cut the budget on giving him some sort of overpowered ability. Man did he miss… wait, there was something weighing in his pocket, couldn't be… A smile crept through his face, he still had his IPhone! The dark blue device was physically intact, maybe he could get information about how he ended up in this place!
"No connection and endless battery? What's the point of endless battery if I can't…?" Fred frowned and began to speak before something, someone, screamed. He couldn't have been the only one to hear right? But the creatures kept going, ignoring the cries for help. Usually Fred would run the other way, he seen enough horror movies with those two to know it never ended well. Yet the scream was thin, almost a cry. His time watching anime made him recognize the sound, a little girl in trouble! He rushed to the alley, partially disgusted about the citizens of this weird place and partially worried he was biting off more than he could chew.
Indeed, looking into the alley, a young girl, no older than 13 was cornered in a dead end. She wore a pink and white outfit decorated with small golden crosses, a smiley faced creature detailed in the cap she wore. She was fairly pale, with light gray eyes and hair. She took a step back as one of her attackers took a step forwards.
While the girl looked fairly innocent, her attackers were the exact opposite. Two were small, barely reaching her waist, one was the strange mix of a rabbit, a dog and a cat who spent way too long on the streets and walked on two feet was to her left. Long black claws glinted at the edge of his paws, each of the 3 being as long as his forearms.
The second had dark purple and white fur, unlike the first, he was from street worn, sporting bright red gloves and a bandana tied around his neck. While the ivory claws on his feet looked particularly dull, the small fireball on its right index made him a bigger threat than his companion.
The last attacker was probably the only one that was actually scary. The type of thing even a teenager like Fred would scream if he woke in the middle of the night and saw it in his room. Literally for Fred, it could be described as someone you would not like to meet in a dark alley. Its massive size far surpassed any of the creatures he'd seen so far, with oversized yet muscular arms and a strange lopsided grin. Strangely, it carried a thin golden trident on its right hand.
"You were really good masking your scent human, but our boss gave us a fairly accurate description of what a human looks like!" The purple one spoke loudly, not even worrying if someone would overhear. His tail went back and forth, reflecting his excitement. The silver eyed girl was trembling.
"I'm not a human! I'm Sistermon Blanc! Gi… Give back my Cross Barbee and I'll prove it!" She pleaded, looking straight at the trident carried by the biggest thug. The two smaller ones laughed, then frowned.
"You can tell that to the boss after we get paid, until then come along missy…" The gray one growled, falling to all fours and approaching her, ready to pounce. The silver haired girl retreated into the corner between the wall and the building wall. She was shaking. For Fred, it didn't matter the species, a little kid was a little kid, looking around, and he found a convenient sack of trash. It likely fell off a garbage truck and the driver was too lazy to go back for it. Taking the sack, he hurled it with his not so grand strength, the sack spun a few times before crashing on the purple furred imp.
"Regardless of what she is, I don't think the three of you are tough enough by yourselves," Fred stated, for a brief second he berated himself for doing the reckless heroic thing at the cost of his safety. Usually he let the heroes do that kind of thing, but since neither of those two were around, well if he let a little girl be taken, human or not, he'd never forgive himself.
"Look at that! Tall, no tail, two arms, two legs, clothing, even some average dark brown hair! This guy fits the boss' description even better than the girl!" The gray one turned his focus from the girl and towards Fred. The purple one revealed furious emerald eyes amidst the contents of the now ripped garbage sack. The girl tried to use the distraction to make a run for it but the large one blocked her path. His intimidating figure making her back off to the corner.
"You want a human? Well you found one! Now scram!" Fred realized he hadn't made any plans past taking their focus off the girl. Even those failed thanks to the largest of the three continuing to corner her. Still, he wouldn't back off now, especially since the two smaller ones were likely faster than him.
"What if we take both of them back with us Impmon? Wendigomon can easily take the bonus weight," With his focus fully turned towards Fred, the gray monster revealed red irises that glinted with the prospect of extra cash. The purple one, Impmon, seemed to imitate that greedy look, fire already forming on his fingertips. As if to make his point even clearer, the gray one's fur began to crackle with what looked a lot like electricity.
"Now is the time for the random power…" Fred really hoped the crazy beings that sent him there didn't cut the budget on the superpowers, even making a mini fountain on his hands would be useful right now! Wait, he knew he didn't have abilities, but judging the fire forming on Impmon's hands and the electricity on the gray one's fur, maybe all the monsters had abilities? In that case…
"Watch out! Don't make me use my Spirit Bomb!" Channeling his Dragon Ball fanboy self, he mimicked the position of a kame kame ha. He really hoped this worked, otherwise he'd get fried in at least two different ways. Impmon and the gray one weren't intimidated.
"The boss told us all about you humans! You don't have special attacks right Gazimon?!" Impmon shouted arrogantly, all of his 6 fingers lit up with fireballs if he decided to throw them… The gray one, Gazimon, tilted his head to the right as he tried to remember before nodding.
"But I'm not the average human! I'm a Super Sayan!" Fred was just improvising at this point. Thankfully his latest statement caught the big one's attention. Now if only there was an opening for the girl to escape, or at least get that trident.
"My previous world exploded because of this attack! Do you two really want to count on me being powerless?!" Fred noticed his knees were shaking slightly now that the two attackers were getting closer. Sadly, Gazimon also saw his knees shaking.
"We will take that chance!" Gazimon pounced, sharp claws and electric fur glinting as he prepared to slice and shock Fred at the same time. That was it, so much for being a hero like those two. Fred closed his eyes, ready for the pain to come…
"EUCALYPTUS CLAW!" It was the blink of an eye, one second, Gazimon was in the air ready tear him apart, he next he was on the ground. Rather than red markings with blood, Gazimon had light yellow light flickering out of the wounds, even stranger, they shifted between yellow and purple, even as dark purple patches appeared around the claw marks.
"Good bluff, next time try to display more confidence," A new digimon spoke softly. He had dark brown fur and reminded Fred of a koala with huge half closed eyes. Two red gashes crossed his eyes and a set of vibrant red horns decorated his head. A thin arrow tipped tail hanged off loosely as the small creature curled the two tiny red wings. But what really caught Fred's attention were the monster's arms, each possessed a set of 6 fingers ending in bright red claws. With them and it's far less threatening feet, the koala demon hanged on the wall of the building with ease, his head turned to face them.
"What have you done to him?!" Impmon rushed to Gazimon's side, the flames on his fingertips fading away. The gray monster was having a hard time breathing and did so in short panted breaths. There was no mistaking the growing patches of purple, especially for an anime fan like Fred.
"Poison, demonic blood to be exact, tends to cause pain, paralysis, eventual death… depends on the dose," The newcomer yawned, he spoke softly and sounded like two adults discussing the news. Bored maybe? If so Fred wondered what would change the demonic creature's demeanor.
"If you run you can still get him treatment," The monster yawned, barely keeping its right eye halfway open. Impmon clenched his fists, his eyes going between Sistermon, Fred and Gazimon. Greed and friendship struggled in the young thug's mind.
"Go, we can't lose one of our own," A deep, lumbering voice shook the alley. Wendigomon had finally spoken, while the koala arrived, the hulking figure had knocked out Sistermon and now had his full focus on Fred and the koala on the wall. With a brief nod, Impmon got Gazimon over his shoulder, no small feat considering their similarity in size, and rushed past Fred. With another yawn, the koala stretched its small wings and glided to Fred's head.
"Point the digivice at him, that way I can come up with something," The demonic koala whispered, unlike his previous bored tone, he sounded dead serious this time. Fred had a nagging sensation on the back of his head, digivice? He had heard that name somewhere before, but where?
"The thing in your left arm," The koala elaborated in a tired tone. Fred did his best to nod without unbalancing the demon on his head, mainly because the poisonous claws were far too close to his neck. Pointing the digivice, the screen lit up, revealing a display of the massive thug and his supernatural abilities. Fred did not like the odds, thankfully, his memory was jogged by the massive creature's description:
"Lopmon underwent a "Dark Evolution" due to anger and hatred, becoming a brutal Beast Man Digimon. It is not completely "evil", and deep within its heart it possesses the gentle side it had while it was Lopmon. However, its "warmth" can be broken by the power of its anger, so that it runs the whole gamut of destruction. Also, it has the ability to manipulate time and space, and is able to warp by passing through other dimensions, as well as to create a special space. Its Special Moves are destroying even rocks with a shock wave (Destroyed Voice), and swinging both of its arms like clubs (Club Arm)."
Digimon! Fred hadn't seen it since he was 10 but now things started sense, well not really, but he was managing to piece things together at least. He wasn't the only one reading the description, the koala on his head did it too.
"So, Lopmon, why so interested in beating up those smaller than you? Kicks? Wealth? Let's be honest if you wanted fame you should go to Hell Wood, heard they were hiring talented singers," The koala glided to the opposite wall, keeping his full focus on wendigimon. At the mention of his previous form, Wendigomon scowled.
"Bah! This city needs to burn! Until then I'll benefit from the darkness!" The large digimon rushed at Fred, a ripple in the air as it teleported or at least accelerated his own time to get closer to Fred. Fred didn't have exceptional reflexes but the koala did, landing between the thug's wing bones and sinking his claws on the thug's back.
With a grunt of pain, wendigomon rammed himself into the nearest wall. Yet for someone so quiet, the koala proved to be deceptively agile, clawing his way to the large digimon's head. The venomous claws inserting demonic blood as he crawled up. Fred ran to check on Sistermon, the pink clad girl was knocked out but alive. With a sigh of relief he tried to pick her up bridal style but she had woken up. Surprised at the proximity she scrambled back before noticing the ongoing fight in the alley.
Judging the several fist sized craters, the alley's limited space made it difficult for the hulking wendigomon to land a decisive blow on… Fred pointed the digivice at the koala, the device made a straight line for a second before the koala dodged another crater forming punch. But the information appeared nonetheless. Partner: Phascomon, he didn't have time to carefully go through the information since Sistermon got his attention.
"Cross Barbee, my trident, I can help your friend if I retrieve it," Sistermon stuttered, Wendigomon had been swift but brutal, slamming her head against the brick wall while Impmon shouted at Phascomon. Fred assumed she had a concussion. The trident she was after had been dropped by wendigomon, Phascomon was playing to his strengths. Goading the brute to keep on attacking while using the information from the description to keep the thug's focus on him. Meanwhile the golden weapon was tossed by the wall, right in front of wendigomon.
Fred frowned, Phascomon seemed to be handling the situation well and from what he saw so far, he was unsure if the girl would even be effective. With or without the weapon, nevertheless… Perhaps the digivice could be of use, from what he saw, Wendigomon was a champion while Phascomon was a rookie. Quickly activating the device, he wished for the first and last time a new device he had just gotten came with a tutorial.
Thankfully, at least for the moment, the options were few and clearly displayed across the device's screen. Digivolution strangely, had been grayed out, when tapped, the words: "Mind Link at 2%" appeared. Frustrated, he checked the other options and soon found something, Silent Command. An idea came up. After quickly writing it down and sending it, he noticed Phascomon hesitate for a second as the words appeared in his head. That almost cost him when the next blow sent him into the brick wall.
"Got it, EUCALYPTUS CLAW!" The koala muttered as he jumped with reckless abandon, his venomous claws sinking into Wendigomon's eyes. Before the hulking figure could grab him, Phascomon glided into the trash can and continue to make comments on what caused the dark evolution and throw insults at how wasted Wendigomon's power was. Twisting time and space and yet unable to hit Phascomon, Wendigmon trashed with unbound fury. Fred really hated how nobody in the streets bothered to check out the commotion. Heck even Wendigomon, who like Gazimon, was leaking… data? The yellow stuff flickered purple as it flew into the air disappeared in the smoke filled skies.
Sistermon took advantage of the chaos to grab the trident, Wendigomon was too slow, and with a defiant shout the female digimon sunk the holy weapon on his back. With a howl of fury the bulky monster turned to attack her, leaving his flank unprotected. Phascomon dove in and for a second, Fred saw something other than boredom on the demon's eyes, but a fury he never expected from something so… cuddly. The rage disappeared on the next second when Phascomon used his second attack.
"EVIL SNORE," Unleashing the hypnotic attack on Wendigomon's ear even as Sistermon retrieved her trident. Slamming the butt of the weapon on the ground after Phascomon glided behind her, a wall of golden energy separated them from wendigomon. The massive digimon hammered the wall of holy energy in fury and a few cracks appeared, but his injured eyes flickered, the poison from several wounds spread and the hypnotic attack made him sleepier by the moment. It took two full minutes of uncertainty before Wendigomon fell to his knees.
"This… isn't… over…" Wendigomon released an involuntary yawn as the space around him rippled. Teleporting elsewhere before falling asleep. The holy barrier vanished and Fred helped Sistermon continue to stand, sweat rolled past her temples, keeping that wall up was far from an easy task.
"Good job, blinding him then getting a close range hypnosis worked better than I thought it would," Phascomon yawned as he returned to Fred's head, not much larger than a real koala, he settled well, his tail hanging over Fred's shoulder. Sistermon shot him a confused glance and Fred did his best to straighten up without dropping his supposed partner. Then the silver haired girl checked a small watch and widened her eyes.
"Sis is going to kill me, thanks for the help bye!" The pale figure ran off leaving a trail of risen dust in her wake. Leaving a very confused Fred with a very tired demon on his head. That's when his phone surprisingly enough released a brief ding. That's when Phascomon stirred.
"We should leave the city, the poison should wear off in a couple hours and they'll be furious, just take Saint's Crossing Street and we will be out of here in no time," The koala stated stretching his wings but otherwise unmoved. Fred raised his brow.
"Didn't you say it was lethal?" The 15 year old question as he did his best to avoid Phascomon trampling his already short light brown hair. Phascomon's stomach rumbled, more of mirth rather than hunger. He readjusted, keeping using his feet and hands to balance himself.
"That's the difference between us, I can bluff," The demonic koala yawned, Fred wanted to protest but as he left the alley and followed the koala's directions. As soon as they reached the train station, he found out Phascomon kept a few bytes on his pouch. It reminded him of the train stations in Harry Potter.
"Take Franken, he is heading out to the countryside," Phascomon directed Fred, it was really hard to give the demon a confused look when it rested on his head.
"The red one with the huge iron jaw," Phascomon specified, his tail pointing to the dark red train one on the far left. Yep, even the trains were alive in this place, as that youtuber once said, why the fudge not?!
The inside was surprisingly empty, save for a family of plant digimon on the far corner. Yep, he got sucked into one crazy world. Before he could ask more questions, Phascomon fell asleep on his lap, the small creature curled up. He might be acting tough, but Fred noticed the battle had taken a lot of him.
Opening his phone, he checked to see that it was still without connection. Odd, he was still offline yet a new message came from a newly formed group: Emergency D? Who came up with such a stupid group name? Shaking his head, he decided to see what was going on.
The only message was from his best friend, it was brief and honestly Fred wasn't that surprised after everything that happened. It didn't take a genius to figure it would and reply.
"Are you guys safe?"
"For the moment, I think so…"
A/N: Just two more introduction chapters and the real story starts. I'll reply to reviews through PM and as always, CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is always good so don't hesitate to get in contact.
