Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon
Sora gasped as she saw one of the strange shadows dart right at her. As the figure approached Sora began to be able to make out more of its features. To her shock, the strange shadow turned out to be an orange cat, with blue eyes and a green medallion around its neck, leaping at her claws first. In shock, she realized that was way too big, and those claws looked awfully sharp. Her mind supplied image after image of exactly what those claws could to her.
Distantly, she could hear Tai calling out a warning. But Sora couldn't move.
Everything seemed to slow down around her. She could feel every beat of her heart.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Tai leaping at her, trying to get her out of the path of those sharp, sharp claws. But she knew he would be too late.
Then at the very last moment, the strange cat lost its forward momentum, and landed roughly on the ground.
Time started up again, and Sora gave a loud shriek at just how close she came to being eviscerated and fell onto her rear.
Scrambling backwards, Sora could just make out the figure of a large white dog, with brown ears and tail, who was biting down hard on the orange cat's tail.
The dog let go of the tail, then leaped up, over the cat and positioned itself between the cat and Sora. Then to Sora's complete amazement, the dog started talking, "What do you think you're doing Liollmon! Leave her alone, she has nothing to do with our fight!" The dog turned its head to regard Sora. "Are you alright?" the dog questioned with concern in its voice.
Wondering when exactly the world had gone insane, Sora couldn't muster up the wits to stutter out more than, "Wha-, What are you?"
But before the dog could respond to Sora's question, the cat interrupted. "Funny thing for you to say, Labramon," Liollmon practically spat, "You never seemed to care before."
To Sora, it almost seemed as if the dog sagged at the accusation. "I was wrong then," Labramon replied with a hung head, "I didn't mean for things to get so out of hand."
Sora wondered what exactly the cat was accusing the dog of doing. But before she could ask, the cat's accusing glare turned into a smirk. "But then again, I like how things turned out." Suddenly the cat leapt forward, "CRITICAL BITE!" she head the cat yell as it bit the dog.
The dog was blasted backwards towards Sora. She gave out a great "Oomph!" as the dog collided with her.
To Sora's shock, Labramon seemed to be badly injured from the surprise attack, and to her further surprise the dog seemed to be almost losing cohesion, its body seemingly pixelating randomly. "You saved me," she murmured as she cradled the injured dog.
The cat wore a wide, evil looking grin, with a glint in its eyes. "You see Labramon," Liollmon spoke in a pleasant tone, "it's survival of the fittest. It always has been and it always will be. You always fought to protect those you cared about. That made you weak." The disgust in the cat's voice was palpable and the level of scorn was only getting higher, "But what's worse is that it made them weak too! By keeping them out of danger, you made them unable to protect themselves when you weren't there. Protecting the weak, only make them weaker. And now you want to protect these rotten humans too? Be glad I'm putting you out of my misery, because you'd make them only more pathetic."
Something in Sora snapped as she heard Liollmon verbally attack the dog who had saved her life. She let go of Labramon, and stood up, glaring at the cat. "I won't let you hurt him!" she accused Liollmon, "You don't have any right to say that protecting the weak is wrong. I think it's noble, and something anyone should do if given the choice, weather human or," she glanced down at Labramon, "whatever you guys are."
"Get out of here!" Labramon groaned, heavily in pain, "Save yourself."
"No," Sora stated firmly, "You saved me. I won't let any meanie hurt you for that!"
"Well this is all very touching," Liollmon stated impatiently, "But I don't have time for small talk. LIO CLAW!" He leapt at Sora claws first once more.
Sora stood her ground. Just before Liollmon's claws could reach her, a bright white light appeared out of nowhere and Liollmon was flung away out of Sora's sight.
Stunned, Sora looked for the origin of the light, and to her shock, the source was none other than herself and Labramon at her feet!
Gradually, the light grew brighter, and she could almost make out a small sphere leaving her chest, and a matching sphere rising from Labramon. The two spheres met, and merged, before it drifted over to her right forearm. The light grew brighter, and Sora had to look away from it or be blinded.
Abruptly the light stopped and the feeling of a light weight around her right wrist surprised her. Sora stared at her wrist, where the light had been was now a large metallic silver band, with a small screen on the top of it, with three red buttons flanking the screen, and a small scanner sticking out towards her elbow.
"What is this?" she wondered aloud.
Tai lunged at Sora, desperately trying to get her away from the leaping shadow, but he tripped and was sent rolling away from her. Desperately, he scrambled to his feet, but in the thick fog, he had lost track of where exactly Sora was.
Suddenly spotting two figures in the fog, one of which was dimly lit, Tai ran towards them, "Sora are you al-" He cuts himself off as he makes out more of the two figures, and realizes that neither of them were Sora.
Instead, there was a two-foot tall candlestick with an impossibly large flame which wasn't consuming the wick of the candle, and two wax wings sticking out, and a baby boar with a metal plate on its forehead? The two were facing each other, but weren't moving.
"What's going on here?" Tai questioned himself, "First that weird nutso fog, and now these rejects from art class. Did I eat some of Mom's meatloaf?"
The two monsters continued to stare at each other. Then, to Tai's shock, the candle spoke, "Please Tapirmon, don't do this! I know you can overcome your instincts."
The baby boar didn't respond, but the candlestick continued pleading almost desperately, "Even without your ring, I know you can do it. Please don't give in, old friend."
But instead of replying, the boar suddenly charged. The candlestick easily jumped out the way of the wild charge. Just then, the candlestick noticed Tai standing there. "A human!" he shouted surprised, "What are you doing here?" the candlestick then noticed where Tapirmon's charge was leading him. "Get out of the way boy, he's coming right at you!"
"Wha-" Tai gasped, but he still managed to dive out of the way of the boar's attack. "What's going on!" He shouted.
"There's no need to shout," the candlestick berated, "I'm standing right here."
"Who and what are you?" Tai questioned, "Why are you here? And why is that boar attacking me!"
"Ah, right to the point. I like that," the candle mused, "In order, I'm Candlemon and I'm a digimon. I have no idea. And that 'boar' as you put it is my best friend, Tapirmon."
"Look, no offense," Tai stated incredulously, "But I don't think most friends start randomly charging at each other, or random bystanders!"
"Well it's not really his choice," Candlemon explained, "You see, in the transition between worlds, he lost his Holy Ring. Without it, he's succumbing to his baser instincts."
"Well is there any way to get it back?" Tai questioned.
"No," Candlemon admitted, "It is quite literally lost between the worlds, and I have no idea how to retrieve it." The candlestick digimon looked quite put out, and his fire dimmed. He looked like he was going to add some more, when he looked up and shouted, "Look out, behind you!"
Tai twisted around, and spotted Tapirmon charging at him again.
Candlemon jumped between Tai and Tapirmon. "Please, old friend," he pleaded, "Don't make me do this!"
Tapirmon just continued its charge.
"PARAFFIN PARALYZER!" Candlemon shouted, spitting globs of wax from his mouth.
The wax hit Tapirmon, and instantaneously hardened, preventing Tapirmon from moving.
Tai looked on, confused, but moved by Candlemon's pleading. "Is there anything I can do to help?" Tai asked, his entire attention on the situation before him.
"I'm afraid not," Candlemon sighed, "I think my old friend might be gone. Forever."
"Hey don't give up," Tai tried to motivate Candlemon, "Maybe there's something you haven't thought of yet. It's a big world."
"Yes," Candlemon mused a faraway look in his eyes, "I suppose it is."
A sharp breaking sound interrupted the pair. Tapirmon had broken free from its wax restraints. It lunged forward, and bit down on Candlemon.
Candlemon screamed.
Tai did the only thing he could think to do. He punched Tapirmon.
Immediately after his fist made contact with the boar-like monster, a bright white glow suddenly surrounded both Tai and Candlemon. Tapirmon was sent flying by the combination of the light and the sudden attack.
After Tapirmon had disappeared into the fog once more, Tai examined himself, trying to figure out why exactly he was suddenly glowing like a Christmas tree.
The light grew brighter, and before his eyes, Tai could make out the retangluar shape forming right in front of him. Tai reached out, and took the object. It turned out to be an orange rectangle, with a clip on one end, and a screen on the other and three buttons in the middle.
"A digivice," Candlemon whispered breathlessly.
Ken watched as one of the shadowy figures intercepted another. Deciding that perhaps things might be getting a bit dangerous, Ken started inching towards the tree line.
Trying not to be noticed, Ken managed to reach the trees and hide behind the nearest one. Standing with his back to the tree's trunk, Ken wondered aloud, "What was that?"
"Who's there!" a child-like voice shouted. Ken looked around, there was no one near him, and none of the strange figures had reached the trees, had they?
"What do you want?" Ken asked, while looking for the origin of the voice.
"No, what do you want?" the voice replied, "I was hiding here first!"
"I just want to keep out of the way." Ken replied, "I'm not sure if you noticed, but something weird is going on out on the field."
"Sorry," the voice replied, while Ken was still looking for its source, Ken finally looked up. "I don't think they meant to make such a mess." The origin of the mysterious voice turned out to be some sort of orange and white, piglet, which had massive ears, sitting on a tree branch.
Ken jumped back from the tree and pointed at the thing. "What are you!" he questioned startled by the orange thing's strange appearance.
"Harrumph, no need to be so rude," the being responded, "I'm Patamon."
Ken lowered his pointing arm embarassed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to point." Ken gave a small bow, "I'm Ken. So what are you doing here?"
"I'm here because I don't want to fight," Patamon replied, "and if any of the others notice me, they might attack."
"Why would they attack you?" Ken questioned.
"I don't know," Patamon sighed, "But it seems like it's all anyone does nowadays. It's always fight, fight, fight. I just wish everyone didn't have to."
"That sounds terrible," Ken replied aghast, "What sort of people fight all the time?"
"Hey," Patamon sounded offended, "Those are my people! Digimon just fight sometimes, it's in our nature. I guess."
"You don't sound like you want to fight," Ken pointed out.
"I don't!" Patamon cried, "Fighting's stupid."
"Well then, do something else." Ken offered.
"Like what?" Patamon questioned, a hopeful look on his face.
"I don't know." At Patamon's disappointed look, Ken hastened to add, "But that's what studying is for. If you learn lots of stuff, you can find all sorts of things to do."
Patamon looked thoughtful. "But who would teach me?" he questioned uncertainly, "It's not like many digimon attend school."
"I could," Ken offered. He honestly didn't know why he was offering, but it seemed like something in how the orange monster described how he didn't want to be what others were seemed to have touched a chord in him.
"Really?" Patamon asked, a smile breaking out on his face.
"Really."
Patamon jumped off of the tree branch. Ken was about to shout in surprise, but Patamon just started flapping his massive ears, and started to hover. Almost gracefully, Patamon landed on the ground before Ken. "Please take care of me, Sensei," he said, with a bow.
"I will," Ken replied with certainty, returning the bow.
At his words, a bright light engulfed the pair. Between the two of them, an object formed. Instinctively, Ken grabbed it. The light turned out to be some sort of device, it had a screen with a black ring around it, and a grey body, which had two buttons underneath the screen, a black strap above it, and a slot of some sort on one side.
"I think we both have a lot to learn, Patamon," Ken stated, staring at the device.
