Revenge of the downtrodden
Chapter 2
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On a grassy hill in the digital world a digidestined named Joel sat next to his partner, Demidevimon while a preteenage girl was applying antiseptic ointment to where he had been struck with a rock by that kid in the bucket hat.
"So... you two are picked on by the others too?" Joel asked, wincing a little as the ointment stung when it was applied over the cut on his head.
The girl nodded. "I'm Sarah and I'm partnered with Blackgatomon, and Nick over there has a little hyperactive guy called Dracmon."
'Nick' waved hello as he held his back pack over his head as Dracmon was trying to reach for more sweets. The whole scene would have been comical if Joel did not feel another sting from the lump on his head as Sarah put a small bandage. That was going to be painful to pull off since it was in his hair. But Joel said nothing about it since these two were the first kids that were willingly talking to him in a long time. He needed the company.
Once Sarah was done with her poor attempt at first aid she backed away to put her first aid kit back in order, everything back in its proper holder before grabbing the backpack away from Nick and placing the kit inside. In those few seconds Dracmon would have climbed back inside the backpack but Nick grabbed him away and kept him in a head lock until Sarah was done.
"It's nice to meet you both, I guess..." Joel said, "So do you guys get shunned by all the other tamers?"
Sarah sighed and nodded, "Ever since Blackgatomon first digivolved to Ladydevimon the two of us have been ostracized by the rest of the digidestined. They have their reasons, but I don't really understand them."
"What reason is that?" Demidevimon asked, flicking his wings in curiosity.
"They often say it's because she's a virus type, I don't understand why that's a factor." Sarah said as she rolled her eyes. "I've seen plenty of kids who have virus types for partners. I guess they just don't like some digimon."
Joel muttered to himself, that's how it started with him when his Pagumon digivolved to Demidevimon. "What about you... Nick was it?"
"Yeah," Nick said, "Dracmon... has a way of rubbing people the wrong way and making it so a simple apology doesn't work."
"Care to explain that a little more?" Joel asked, not understanding just how that would work out.
"Well, one time we were both hungry and hanging around the city district. The next thing I know Dracmon has a plate of hot cakes." Nick sighed, he obviously didn't want to tell the tale. Dracmon however was drooling at the mention of hot cakes. "The two of us started eating some of them when seven Guardromon surrounded us and accused us of stealing. I tried to talk my way out of it but Dracmon started throwing the hot cakes at them and calling them rusty tin cans that should be recycled."
Joel winced, "Sounds like he has a big mouth."
"One that's only closed when he's sleeping or passed out from eating too much," Nick snorted as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a pink pig plushie. "or playing with this."
With a cry of "Pigsie!" Dracmon suddenly leapt up and snatched the little toy away and began to play with the pig as if he was a five year old who was high on pixie sticks.
Blackgatomon couldn't help but sweatdrop at her 'friend's' behavior. She wanted to know what kind of horrible god would pair Nick with this hyperactive moron? Turning back to Sarah Blackgatomon pulled on her pant leg to get her attention.
"Sarah I think we should learn more about him..." The black cat suggested.
Taking the hint Joel did his best to seem friendly to these two other misfits. "I'm Joel and this is Demidevimon, we just had an encounter with some kid with a real attitude problem."
"From the lump on your head I can tell you did more than just exchange harsh language." Sarah said, knowing there was more to the story than that.
"Yeah, we started out chasing a Kuwagamon that had come out of the trees and we wanted to take it down. Next thing we know we run into a group of kids." Joel said, frowning at the memory of that kid with the bucket hat. "Me and D here were about to take our leave when one of them tries to start something with us. As much as I wanted to just smash his face in I walked away and I get hit from behind with... something."
"The rotten brat threw a rock at Joel when his back was turned." Demidevimon snorted, perching on his second place to sit; Joel's shoulder. "Next time I see them I'll show them what I think of them!"
Joel smiled and patted his friend's head, he was grateful to have such a great traveling companion. "The idea of banding together with you guys sounds great... but there's just three of us, humans and digimon pairs I mean. I've never been able to push D here past champion level."
Joel sighed and looked at his partner, "I know it's not common for tamers to get their partners to ultimate but I should."
Joel reached under his coat and pulled out a tag and yellow crest, the source of his feelings of ineptitude. Joel had the ability to push Demidevimon to his ultimate form but somehow never could...
"I guess I'm just a lousy partner." Joel yelped as Demidevimon's feet closed a little, poking him with D's large red talons. "Yeah, sorry I was getting a little depressed there."
Demidevimon shrugged in response to the confused looks of the others. "He gets like that sometimes."
"It's not that," Sarah said, "It's that you have one of those things too."
Sarah reached under her shirt and pulled out a tag with a dark green crest and showed it to Joel, Nick doing the same with his purple crest and tag. While this may have been an attempt to make Joel feel like he was like them it just mad him feel a little less special.
"I didn't know other people had these." Joel said, "I found it glowing in a cave by the beach. Me and D had to hide there from some uppity kids who didn't like our company."
"They said the original digidestined had them, some kids occasionally find them but they're pretty rare." Nick said, "They also say that they glow when their owner experiences strong emotions specific to the owner."
"Who's 'they?'" Dracmon blurted out, a wide fanged grin on his face as he held his pig close.
Nick coughed, "It doesn't matter Dracmon. What matters now is what direction we take with ourselves. We can either band together and give each other some kind of protection or continue on with the lone wolf strategy. Personally I'm tired of getting chased all over the digital world like I'm some kind of leper."
"I can't say our time solo has been very enjoyable." Sarah said, holding Blackgatomon on her lap. It was clear that the black cat didn't like being coddled like this but when Sarah started scratching behind her ear she quickly changed her tune. "I just want to enjoy the digital world like any other human. That's not much to ask."
Joel agreed, he wanted to be proud of his partner was and not have to hide him in the digital world not just in the real world. His champion form of Devimon didn't get him a lot of friends and it seemed as if these two were in the exact same position he as in. Who better to have as friends than people who understood you than those who suffered as you have?
"Well, I'm all for working together." Nick said, "I'd enjoy the company, I mean if it meant having someone that wasn't asking me a lot of nonsensical questions."
"Hey Nick what's a hypotenuse?" Dracmon asked in a pleading tone.
"You see what I live with." Nick whined as he hung his head.
"What kind of emotions?" Joel asked, wanting to know how he could get Demidevimon to his ultimate form. "How do you know what one is the one activates the crest?"
"I've heard that the symbol on the crest is supposed to mean something but I can't figure out what any of ours mean." Nick said, "I admit my information comes mostly from rumors and snide remarks from other tamers but the information is consistent so it could be true."
Joel walked over to Blackgatomon and showed her his crest, "You wouldn't happen to know what this thing means do you?"
"What do I look like a digi-encyclopedia?" The black cat snorted.
Sarah sighed, "None of our digimon seem to know what they mean... and I've tried just about everything I can to get my crest to light up. But thankfully we don't have to rely on them to get our partners strong."
Joel blinked in confusion, "Wait, you know of another way to get your digimon to her ultimate level."
"Ultimate? We can get our digimon to Mega level if we're really desperate." Sarah said with a superior look on her face, that same look was mirrored on her partner.
"Really? Cool!" Joel cried in a rare show of excitement, "What do you do?"
Nick pulled out his digivice off his belt and showed it to Joel and Demidevimon, making sure to keep an eye on Dracmon because last time he got hold of it he tried to eat it. Thankfully Dracmon was preoccupied with his stuffed pig to care about the device.
The first thing noticed was that Nick's digivice was totally black, the casing around the screen seemed to resemble an open mouth filled with sharp teeth, the buttons were triangle shaped not circular, and the small screen somehow seemed to be blacker than black, as if it was absorbing all the light around it.
"So... you painted your digivice black and modded it?" Joel asked, remembering how some of the kids in school liked to brag how they modified their game consoles.
"WE didn't." Sarah said, "A weird digimon appeared to me, called himself named Daemon opened a portal to some weird dark beach and told me if I wanted to keep myself strong all I'd have to do is put my digivice in the waters. When I did it changed into this."
Joel shrugged, aside from looking much cooler than the normal teal and blue version everyone else had he hadn't heard any reason to change his own digivice or how it allowed his new friends to digivolve to mega level.
"So... how does the magic work?" Joel asked, starting to become skeptical of their claims with all this explanation.
Becoming irritated by Joel's impatience with their story Sarah set Blackgatomon down and fixed a cold glare on Joel before continuing. "After that he told me how to change other digivices into ones like mine and I found myself back in the digital world."
Nick nodded as he kept Dracmon from getting into his backpack once again. For an undead digimon he was surprisingly quick, which made making snacks and packing for trips to the digital world a pain since he could snatch things away from the counter and devour them before Nick could even notice they were gone.
"Sarah's the one that used her digivice to change mine." The young man showed his own black digivice, a perfect replica of Sarah's own. "Now Dracmon can go from rookie to mega. Not a lot of people are willing to go up against a Piedmon... not that we've actually had anyone actually try to attack us lately."
"So does that mean you can change my digivice into one like yours?" Joel asked.
"Sure, it's not hard really." Sarah shrugged, extending her hand to take Joel's digivice. "Watch this."
Sarah held the black digivice to Joel's, screen to screen and pressed a button on hers. The two hand held machines shook and crackled, looking as though there was some sort of battle between the little devices. But it soon seemed as if Joel's devices was surrendering as it darkened and changed into a black digivice like Sarah's.
"All done." Sarah said pointedly as she handed Joel back his digivice.
Joel looked at his new black digivice, it didn't really feel any different which disappointed him a little. "So what's different? Aside from the new look I mean."
"Just hold it to your chest and it will take a portion of your own energy and send it to your digimon." Nick said, "A word of warning, while it doesn't really hurt, you WILL suddenly feel very run down but the perk is that he can skip his champion and ultimate stages if you want."
Joel grinned, with this new power no one would ever look down on him, his partner, or his new friends again.
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To be continued...
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roxas24 - Of course I am, it just takes a while to get good chapters together.
neversleeps17 - Glad you like it, so few people on FF enjoy fics that go out on a limb and check out the stuff that's trying to be original.