A Digital Nightmare

Chapter 2

Two hours later: Los Angeles, California. 8:25 am

A bus packed with bored and belligerent students drove towards its destination in the 90 degree heat.

Hidden in the back of the bus near the luggage area, struggling against the sweltering heat of the covers on top of him was a strange dinosaur-like creature. On a nearby seat sat an aggravated looking teen with spiked up red hair and a pair of yellow goggles. He was dressed rather plainly in a simple blue t-shirt and khaki shorts. His eyes were closed and it looked like he was trying to get some rest.

"Takato...I'm hungry," the red creature's nose poked out from the covers he was hidden under as it spoke. "Can I have a lunchbox?"

The teen repositioned himself in his seat, placing his hands behind his head. His eyes remained closed.

"No, Guilmon. We have to save some for the rest of the trip, you know. There'll be plenty of time to eat when we get off this stinkin' bus. Man, it's so hot in here."

"No kidding. And you guys have been saying the same things over and over for the past two hours."

Another teenage boy with short brown hair sat in another nearby seat . He was dressed casually as well and appeared to be holding what looked like a large tan colored stuffed rabbit in his arms. Despite appearing rabbit-like with its long floppy ears, the animal had a horn jutting quite prominently out of its forehead, and green markings on its ears and chest.

"Ugh. When do we get where we're going, Henry? I'm getting stiff!" the strange rabbitish creature spoke. It was looking twitchy from having to pretend to be a 'doll' for the entire two hours aboard the bus so far.

"Sorry, Terriormon. It's not my fault the place we're going is so far away they made this a whole day trip." Henry sighed.

"I hope this dumb museum isn't really as dumb as I think it's gonna be," Takato groaned as he leaned back and rested his feet on the seat in front of him.

"What was it called again?"

Henry looked over to the pamphlet guide folded neatly on the seat beside him.

"Um...the Turner Museum of Ecological Awareness and Defense."

After a long moment of silence Takato burst out laughing.

"Sounds so bad, it's going to have to be fun!" Takato wiped sweat from his eye and put his feet back on the floor, having become uncomfortable even in a resting position. "Urhg. So what exactly is the Turner museum got that's so special?"

Takato's ears picked up the voices of some girls chatting in the bus seats not far away. He didn't even really hear Henry start reading from the pamphlet with a genuine interest, instead focusing on the girls' conversation.

A girl with light brown hair tied behind her in a long braid held a matching pamphlet and was pointing things of interest to her companions.

"This is the place that's got tons of info on saving out environment! Plus we get the chance to see the real live Planet Soldiers there!" she said happily.

She beamed with an energetic and bouncy glee. Around her neck was a golden chain with an anhk. She was clad in a typical schoolgirl uniform although it was black and white in color and had a distinctive type of 'Gothic Lolita' look to it.

Beside her, another girl with short blond hair, wearing a white tank top and black pants spoke up.

"Omigod, you guys. This is sooo cool. I can't wait to meet the red haired soldier guy. He's so my favorite! He's hot!" she whispered into the other's ear and they both giggled.

Staring out the window looking very enthused was a third girl. Her hair was red and shoulder length. She was wearing blue jeans and a black t-shirt bearing white lettering that read "Mean people suck..." and on the back it read, "and then they DIE." The word 'die' being in red with comical spurts of blood dripping from it and a cartoony looking knife underneath.

"Oh joy of joys. Maybe we'll even get to meet the great "Mr. Sparkle" himself," she said sarcastically and popped open her cd player, rummaging through her backpack for another cd while the other girls resumed giggling.

"This trip sucks already and we haven't even gotten there yet," said the only boy in the group of friends.

He had shaggy black hair and was wearing a black silk shirt with flames embroidered on it over a regular white t-shirt. His shorts bore brown and green fatigue pattern.

"All the more to look forward to!" the girl in jeans said with a grin. She then noticed the boy in back of her peering over the seat. "Uh...hi?"

Takato blushed sheepishly realizing she had spotted him being nosy. He was looking quite awkward.

"Uh...ah. Uh, hi! Heh. I was just...uh...sorry!"

He quickly came over from behind the seat and sat down next to her, hand behind his head.

"I was just looking at your sketchbook over there on the seat," Takato admitted and pointed to the open sketchbook that had a detailed picture of a Digimon of some sort in it.

The girl smiled. "Oh yeah. Um...you wanna see it?" she asked picking it up.

"Sure!" Takato replied and accepted the book. He flipped through the pages slowly, enjoying the works.

"Wow...these are good!"

"Thanks," the girl said rather modestly.

"So...you like Digimon and stuff, huh?" Takato looked at her eagerly, hoping to start up a conversation.

"Yeah! Stuff like that is wicked. You like that kinda thing too?"

Takato grinned and nodded his head. He'd found another person to pass time with on this trip. He wished he could show off Guilmon to her. If she loved Digimon, boy, would she get a kick out of him! But then again...a kick like Gilmon might be a little too much. After all, that's why Guilmon was hidden in the back of the bus, so as not to attract attention. Having a living, breathing, dinosaurian creature from another world in public usually caused a panic in most other humans. He sure didn't want to go through anything like he had gone through when he was back in grade school upon first meeting real life Digimon.

After a long while of discussing a few video games and showing some pictures he'd drawn of Guilmon to her, he realized he hadn't even gotten her name yet.

"Oh yeah. My name's Takato! Heh. I forgot to introduce myself," he said with a smile.

"Oh yeah! Me too, me too. My name's Reina. Oh, and these guys are my friends: Elsea, Lisa, and Josh."

She pointed in order to the girl with the braid, the blond girl, and the black haired boy.

"Nice to meet you guys. Oh yeah!" Takato had almost forgotten about Henry, still sitting farther in the back with Terriormon on the seat next to him. "That's my friend Henry. We-"

Takato stopped talking, noticing Reina had vanished. He blinked in momentary confusion and looked around.

"Uh?"

Upon turning, he gasped as he saw the girl standing over Henry, who was dosing off with the pamphlet over his face, and observing Terriormon.

"Oh no!"

Takato stumbled over the seat and rushed to the back of the bus to stop the girl before she poked at Terriormon and found out he wasn't just a cute doll.

"Wait, Reina! Uh...don't!" he called out, and nearly tripped over a kid's backpack that was in the aisle.

"Oh COOOOL! A Terriormon!" Reina exclaimed, holding the startled Digimon in her hands. "I've never seen a real one up close before! He's sooo cute!" she was clutching him so tightly in her excitement, the poor Digimon's face had turned blue.

"Oops! I'm sorry l'il guy!" Reina loosened her happiness-induced death-grip after feeling him start to struggle.

"Ugh...thanks! I enjoy hugs, but can you be a little more gentle? It's been a long bus ride," Terriormon said weakly.

Takato blinked, a look of shock and confusion on his face.

"But...but...how do you...I mean...real one? Up close? You know he's real?" he struggled for words.

By now Henry had woken up with the commotion and opened his eyes to see a strange girl holding Terriormon. He sat straight up. His eyes went to Takato, who was standing next to the girl, scratching his head.

"Of course I know he's REAL, silly! I'm a tamer!" Reina turned and faced Takato again, still holding Terriormon.

"Whoa, did I miss something? I always miss everything. What just happened?" Henry eyed the others with equal confusion.

"You're a tamer too?" Takato said in amazement, his eyes beginning to brighten.

"Yeah," Reina replied. "We all are!"

She let Terriormon bounce out of her arms and sit back on the bus seat next to a still very confused looking Henry.

"All right, Henry, new tamers!" Terriormon said happily.

"Wow, you guys are tamers?" Takato said after watching Reina pull out a small silver Digivice to show to him. It had a black design that vaguely resembled an "X" on it.

"Yes, "Elsea spoke up. "Wow, It's so awesome we met some new tamers! What a day!" She clapped her hands and continued, "I was beginning to think we were the only tamers in this whole city."

"So...you guys are tamers. Where's your Digimon?" Takato asked.

Reina tapped her Digivice.

"Right here, of course!"

"Takato blinked. "You mean...they're in your Digivice?" he asked with some obvious confusion, staring at it.

Reina nodded. "Yeah," she responded and laughed. "I mean, it's a heck of a lot easier keeping the big ones stored there than lug 'em around, right?" She looked at Takato, who seemed baffled. "What, you don't like to keep yours stored? It's not like they're gonna get "Pokeball" syndrome or somethin'...haha!"

"Uh, actually..." Takato began.

These tamers were sure different from Henry and him. Odd, but also interesting.

"Takato," Guilmon's voice came from behind.

Takato turned around, seeing Guilmon standing out in the open, the cover draped over his head.

"Um...can I come out now, Takato?"

10101

The bus finally eased to a stop in the large parking lot along side a few other buses. The moderate ruckus grew even louder with students chatting, complaining, and stretching. At long last, two and a half hours later, they'd arrived.

"Finally! My ass is asleep!" Josh grumbled as he got up and stretched his aching legs.

Reina and Lisa gathered up their stuff and placed the items into their backpacks. Elsea was busy pointing out where they'd have to go on the guidebook. Takato put several of his things back into his own backpack as Guilmon yawned behind him.

Henry was peering out the window. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong all of a sudden. He scanned the streets for a while. They were pretty much empty. Cars were parked along the curbs but there wasn't any traffic anywhere. He assumed the streets could have been closed off especially for the museum, but there would at least have been people walking around on such a nice sunny day.

"Where is everybody?" Henry wondered out loud.

Terriormon popped up beside him to look out the window as well. Tossing an ear behind his head, he turned to Henry and spoke, "Maybe they're already at that place we're supposed to be going?"

"All right, let's go!" the deep voice of the driver called from the head of the bus. Students began filing out.

"Okay, Guilmon. You're gonna have to go out the back. Wait for me and Henry there, okay? And don't do anything suspicious!" Takato said, opening the back door of the bus enough for Guilmon to get out..

"Okay, Takato!" Guilmon replied and squeezed through.

Takato sighed and wiped the sweat off his forehead. It was hard enough smuggling him onto the bus in the first place. He sure wished he had one of those X-Digivices.

Outside, several large groups of students had formed around, as typical high school teens on boring field trips tend to do. Most were chatting and laughing loudly, the rest were sorting out their belongings and some were even sitting on the ground looking bored already.

Elsea and Lisa were surveying the area, noticing the same absence of activity that Henry had before. By now even the driver and three of the teachers had noticed that there was nobody around to greet them upon arrival and let them know where to go.

"How about that! Well, now that is very annoying, " a tall male teacher with glasses said. He stood next to a skinny, blond haired, female teacher.

"You get what you pay for these days. Besides, school trips aren't supposed to be fun anymore," she said casually.

Takato was off the bus with the rest of the group. He headed for the back of the bus to meet Guilmon. Henry was just stepping off the bus with Terriormon's head poking out of his half zipped backpack. Reina and Josh were the last ones ones left on the bus. Josh was still hanging in the doorway, grimacing. Reina slung her backpack over her shoulder and made her way to the head of the bus, giving one last glance out the windows. Suddenly she thought she saw something out the window and did a brief double take. She thought she had seen a very large bird flying above a building a block away. Now she wasn't exactly sure of it, but that was still pretty weird. She narrowed her eyes for a second but then put it out of mind and continued out of the bus.

Back outside Henry realized that there were actually a few people roaming the streets. He just must not have noticed them. Maybe there was nothing to worry about after all.

Then there was a scream from one of the students.

"Oh my God, what IS that?" a girl's voice shouted above the crowds.

The students all turned and looked towards where she was thrusting her finger and began yelling and whooping it up, several more girls screaming just to go along with the crowd.

There was a rather large object flying around above the buildings nearby. It looked like a huge black bird. Henry and Terriormon's eyes locked on it at the same time.

"Henry...is that a Digimon?" Terriormon asked, his eyes never straying from the bird as it continued circling above the buildings.

Henry turned and looked for Takato. "...I dunno!"

His Digivice wasn't reacting. He took Terriormon and hurried behind the bus in search of Takato and Guilmon.

"Hey Takato...Takato!"

He found them behind a phone booth, Takato trying to pry a lunchbox from Guilmon's jaws.

"No Guilmon, that's not even ours! Where'd you get that from! I told you not to so through other people's stuff!" he yelled and fell backwards as Guilmon reluctantly opened his jaws.

"Whaaaarg!"

*THUD*

"Sorry Takato...I was just so hungry," Guilmon said innocently, cocking his head to the side, then looked straight again as he saw Henry and Terriormon approach.

"Hey Takato! There's something I think you should see! I thought I felt something wrong here!"

Henry ran up, Terriormon leaping from his arms and onto the sidewalk next to Takato. Takato sat up, rubbing his back.

"Ow...damn. Huh? What's wrong?" Takato noticed the other tamers walking over to them now as well. "Hey! What's going on you guys?"

"We were gonna ask you guys the same thing," Reina said, "because there is something really weird going on here right now. I just can't put my finger on it yet."

"Uh...you mean like...everybody's gone!" Josh suddenly said as he walked a ways out from the bus, staring back at where the crowd of onlookers had been moments before.

"Huh?" Takato and Henry both exclaimed at the same time.

Everybody really was gone.

The bus was abandoned, the surrounding area with no trace of the rest of the students. No teachers...no bus driver. Nobody.

"What the hell? Where did they all go so damn fast?" Lisa said in a worried tone. She flinched as a pulsing glow came from her pocket, startled. "Crap! Now what?" She pulled out her Digivice.

"Hey, mine's reacting too!" Reina said, seeing the glow coming from her backpack.

"Mine too!" Elsea displayed her Digivice as well.

Josh's pocket was glowing off and on the same. There had to be a Digimon nearby...and not a friendly one, either.

"Its gotta be that bird," Reina said looking towards the sky.

There was no trace of the large bird this time, but their Digivices were still reacting, so there was still possible danger in the area.

Guilmon sniffed the air. "I don't smell anything. Except lunches."

"Now is not the time, Guilmon," Takato groaned.

**THUD**

The group jumped and turned upon hearing the sound of crunching metal.

Something had landed on top of the bus. It appeared to be an overgrown Gazimon with pupiless, empty black eyes. It snarled, revealing a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. Teeth stained with what could only be assumed as blood.

"Raaah! Takato, look!" Guilmon dropped the lunchbox he had just picked up and assumed a defensive stance.

Terriormon joined him and Henry stepped back, along with Elsea. Lisa gave a small scream. Reina narrowed her eyes and raised an arm out in front of her, letting her backpack slip within reach. Josh took out his Digivice from his pants pocket and held it at the ready.

"We got some company, folks!" he shouted.

Takato gasped and stood up right as the Gazimon leapt from the bus and onto the pavement below. It charged straight at him, drool flowing from its mouth. It looked crazed. Takato screamed and sprinted off, Guilmon jumped forth ready to give the evil Gazimon a taste of Pyro Sphere.

"Pyro Sph-"

But the charging nightmarish Digimon attacked first, shooting a ball of green flames out of its mouth. It hit Guilmon and sent him flying into the back door of the bus.

**THONK**

Guilmon hit hard and slid down from the dented-in doors of the bus rather painfully.

"UuuuuUuuUH!" Guilmon groaned, his head spinning. He then fell backwards onto the ground, out cold.

Takato skidded to a stop at a safer distance and went to Guilmon's side.

"Oh no! Guilmon! Wake up!" Takato yelled as he tried to shake the Digimon out of his unconscious state.

Terriormon didn't even get the chance to attack as the Gazimon snapped its jaws dangerously close to his head.

"YAAAA! Henry!" Terriormon screamed and scrambled on top of Henry's head. "This Digimon...I think he wants to EAT us!"

Henry gritted his teeth, his eyes wide.

"Yeah! Guys? Maybe we'd better just run! Something about this Digimon...It seems unnaturally strong!"

Just then another primal scream sounded in the distance. More of them were coming.

"Oh shit! There's like a pack of 'em!" Josh shouted. He raised his Digivice up. "We need to get these damn things off our backs and go find help...Solardramon!"

His Digivice shot out a beam of white light which hit the ground a ways in front of him and took shape. The swirling light shattered like a mirror breaking, revealing Josh's Digimon. Takato's Digivice couldn't read the data on the new Digimon but Josh's displayed it in full. It showed a holographic red screen swirling with white cubes and the X-Digimon, Solardramon, displayed prominently on the screen.

Solardramon: a holy dragon Digimon. He stood about 6 feet, his body structure was much like that of Guilmon's, except for very long ears that rose up from his head, and a blade-like horn in between them on the top. His body was a deep red color with a gray underbelly that started at his lower jaw and stopped down in the middle of his stomach. The lower parts of his arms and outer middle of his thighs, as well as the end of his tail, were the same gray. The very tip of his tail seemed to be on fire.

Without hesitation, Solardramon opened his mouth and attacked.

"SOLAR FLARE!"

His deep voice echoed and a huge ball of deep crimson spat out, smacking the first Gazimon square in the chest. It screeched and ran in circles, its fur burned away along with parts of its flesh. It collapsed, turned black, and vanished in a burst of scattered data. Solardramon turned to face another mutated Gazimon and attacked once again with Solar Flare, sending the beast to it's fate.

"Whoa!" Henry gasped and stared in awe.

That Digimon looked like just a Rookie but he had beaten the two freakishly over sized mutant Digimon in a snap.

"All right, I cleared a path! Lets go!" Josh waved them on and took off, Solardramon staying behind to make sure any other crazed Digimon kept their distance.

Elsea, Reina, and Lisa took off following Josh. Henry quickly did the same. Guilmon rubbed his head, waking up from his daze. Takato tugged on his arm.

"C'mon, Guilmon! Let's get the heck outta here!" Takato shouted and helped Guilmon to his feet.

"Uhh...What hit me, Takato?" Guilmon said with a groggy look as they both ran after the group.

Solardramon followed. The group ran until they reached another parking lot with several cars.

"We can ask that guy for help! Look!" Lisa pointed towards a man walking a few yards away.

They rushed to him, hoping no more bloodthirsty mutant Gazimon were on their trail.

"Hey mister, you gotta help us...we...Hey!" Henry waved his arms trying to get the guys attention, but he kept walking slowly, seemingly oblivious to them all. "Hey! HEY! Sir! Hello! A little help here!"

Henry reached the guy and finally grabbed onto his shirt, jerking him around. "Hey! We need help! People might be injured here, or dea-" Henry was stunned to see the man's eyes. They were a blank, pure white. He let go, recoiling in fear.

"What the?"

The group stopped in their tracks, realizing the guy was walking around as if in a trance...or perhaps a zombie-like state of mindlessness.

Henry swallowed hard.

The people that were roaming around...they've been...zombified?

He saw the few other people were also walking around slowly, going nowhere. All had blank eyes and blank stares...some were even drooling on themselves.

"Okay...Okay...don't anybody panic..." Henry clutched his head. "There's just...weird carnivorous Digimon we've never seen before roaming the streets...the rest of the field trip group's gone missing...and...everybody else is a zombie!"

"Um...this seems like a really good time to panic!" Lisa whimpered, hiding behind Reina.

"What did all this? What's going on?" Takato asked aloud, his heart racing.

This was turning out to be worse than a bad field trip. It was turning out to be the field trip from hell!

"Okay, Digimon at the ready, all the rest of us!" Elsea said, holding her Digivice.

The others nodded and released their own Digimon.

Elsea shouted, "Nosfutoramon, activate!"

Lisa followed. "Keirauramon, activate!"

Reina did the same. "Kurohoshimon, activate!"

Henry and Takato raised up their Digivices.

Henry and Takato shouted, "Digi-Modify! Digivolution, activate!"

They each swiped their Digivolution cards into their Digivice card slots. Their Digivices then began to shine bright lights.

After more beams of light shot from the new tamer's Digivices, their three new Digimon appeared:

Nosfutoramon: a cat-vampire Digimon - 5 feet tall, appearing much like like a larger, slimmer version of Gatomon perhaps crossed with a bit of Renamon, light orange and white in color. It had two sets of purple bat-like wings on its back and one set on its head.

Keirauramon: an angel-flower Digimon - around three feet in height with a small chubby body, bright green in color. It had a large thick ponytail of light turquoise hair that gradually turned pink at the ends atop its head, held up in a gold band. It also had very large and floppy blue leaf-like ears with pinks tips, tied up in the same band it kept its hair in, and a puffy rabbit-like tail which was made out of pink petals.

Kurohoshimon: a virus-shadow Digimon - 4 feet or so, gray furred and bear-like in form, dressed in a black cloth-and-leather outfit reminiscent of a ninja styled garb. Around his head was a crimson headband with a sliver shuriken in the middle of it. His gloved paws sported four very sharp claws each.

"Guilmon! Digivolve to..."

Guilmon's body glowed and suddenly his flesh seemed to melt off in liquefied strips revealing a glowing pink wire frame beneath in the shape of his body. A swirling circle of light enveloped him briefly and new skin began forming over in place of his old, morphing him into a larger version of himself, with more black markings, a mane of white hair and two black-tipped horns. His claws also now had black tips.

"Growlmon!"

"Terriormon, Digivolve to..."

In the same way as Guilom had, Terriormon Digivolved into a larger, greener version of himself. He had two huge gun tipped arms and baggy blue jeans, along with a large ammunition belt draped across his chest.

"Gargomon!"

"So...what's with the people here?" Keirauramon piped up in a high pitched and child-like girl voice. "Are they sick or something?"

"They appear to be under some sort of trance," Nosfutoramon said in a voice much reminiscent of Renamon's only a bit higher pitched, as she observed the wandering few nearby.

The group didn't immediately give up hope and continued searching for anyone who might still have their brain intact.

After a while of searching, hope looked a bit scarce. The search was going nowhere. Anyone they had chanced to run into was a mindless zombie and every other place was abandoned. They stopped in front of a large building with a long pathway of stairs. Henry and Takato sat down on the bottom step. The sun was beating down on them all, making them feel even worse than they already did. Growlmon sat down in front of the stone pillar next to the stairs, finding some shade. Gargomon trudged over to Henry's side.

"Ugh. Henry? Can we take a break now?" he was practically panting.

Reina was lying on her back on the ground by the steps.

"It's so freakin' HOT. There's nobody here. Or anywhere! What the heck happened?" she covered her face with her hands and rubbed it. "This SUCKS!"

Kurohoshimon collapsed next to her as the heat was making him tired. "I agree," he said in a soft voice and rolled over onto his back. "This most definitely sucks."

"This's been, like, the shittiest day of my life!" Lisa cried taking some spray from her purse and trying to rid the smell of B.O. from the area. "And we didn't even get to see the damn museum!"

Elsea's eyes lit up.

"Hey, wait! That's it! The museum!" She snapped her fingers.

"What about it?" Henry asked.

"Help! Maybe we can find some here! At the museum," she said and pointed behind them, up the stairs.

It was then the group realized they had in fact been resting on the steps to the very museum they had originally been going to before all hell broke loose.

"The Turner Museum for Ecological- whatever-the-heck-it-was!" Henry exclaimed and got up.

"C'mon, maybe we can at least find somebody left sane in there!" He ran up the stairs, everyone following him.

"Maybe there's some food inside, too!" Growlmon said happily and lumbered up the stairs, taking five at a time.

"And maybe best of all, the Planet Soldiers might be there! They're sure to be able to help us, or at least help us find what's going on here," Elsea added upon reaching the doors.

Henry and Takato pushed the large doors open and stepped in. The rest of the group jammed in behind. Growlmon poked his head through, finding it akward to get in, and being too hungry to keep his form, he de-Digivolved back into Guilmon.

"Ew...Takato, does it smell funny in here to you?" Guilmon said as he walked in and a strange odor hit his keen nostrils. He covered them with a clawed hand.

The others too had noticed an ugly odor that seemed to be hanging in the spacious room. Disappointingly, the building looked to be just as abandoned as all the other places.

"Come on, there has to be someone here," Reina said in frustration.

The place looked normal. All the lights were on, nothing seemed out of place or anything. A large poster on the wall read "Meet the Planet Soldiers!" Conservationist and 'Go Green' slogans and banners were seemingly everywhere. A large bronze statue of "The Great Warrior of Earth" himself stood in the lobby.

The group of teens and Digimon walked around into room after room, finding nothing and no one. Ten whole minutes passed with no resolution. Guilmon began sniffing the air, finding an strange but appetizing scent. He followed it into another room with a jungle preservation themed display.

"Mmmm. I smell barbecue," he said and sniffed the ground.

Exotic bird calls and chirping bug sounds from a pre-recorded audio system filled the room. Little did Guilmon know that he was being closely watched from high above in the trees...