The sun was shining through an open window, onto a teenaged boy's head. He probably wasn't much older than fourteen, but already he seemed much like a seventeen year old. His dirty blond hair was all mussed up, his alarm was going off for the seventh time that morning, and his room was a mess. Finally, his light blue eyes began to open slightly.
"Mmrrgh," he grunted, still half asleep. "Thank God for the weekend."
"ALEC!!" came an adult female voice from downstairs. "FIVE MINUTES!"
Alec groaned, remembering that last night, he had promised his mother that he would go out shopping with her just this one time. And apparently she wanted to leave soon.
"Oh well," he said to himself. "You knew what you were getting yourself into..."
Leaping to his feet, he scooped up the clothes his mother had picked out for him last night, and darted to the bathroom, where he proceeded to shower, change, and make one final attempt to make his hair lie flat like his mother wanted it too. However, no matter how hard he tried, his messy hair was like a boomerang: it just kept on coming back. He himself had given up attempting to fix it, but Mom always told him to make himself look "presentable."
Giving up once more, he pulled open a drawer underneath the sink and picked up a scarf-like head band and a pair of goggles. Tying the band around his head and setting the goggles on top of it, he looked at himself in the mirror.
"Yeah," he said, smiling. "That's exactly the look of a leader!" He was, of course, referring to one of the main characters of one of his favorite TV shows ever: Digimon. The Digimon craze had been popular enough, but due to some bizarre events that had happened three years ago, the popularity of the franchise had sky-rocketed. Alec himself hadn't been in that particular area at the time, but he had heard enough about those events to make him a fan.
Turning from the mirror, he darted out of the bathroom, down the stairs and straight to the kitchen, where his mother was standing, arms crossed and her foot tapping. Alec shuddered; whenever his mother started tapping her foot, it meant that he was in trouble.
"You were supposed to be up at seven o'clock sharp," she hissed. "It is now 7:35."
"I-I'm sorry, mom, I SWEAR I didn't mean to sleep in!" Alec blurted out.
"Well, better late than never. We might as well get going." she sighed in an annoyed fashion.
Moments later, Alec found himself in the front passenger seat of his family's minivan, his mother driving towards the plaza. "I think I know exactly where YOU will be going once we get there, Alec," his mother said. Alec cringed. Anytime she said that, it meant that she was going to make him try on new clothes, the one thing he hated most besides his dad's chicken-brocolli alfredo. But to his surprise, as they pulled into the parking lot, his mother handed him two twenty dollar bills. "Go and buy something you like. I need to get some supplies for your father."
Alec gasped. This was the first time his mother was allowing him to go off and get something he wanted. With a wide smile on his face, he darted out of the car the second it was parked, and he ran into the nearest store, which happened to be a video game retailer.
Alec gazed around the store, looking at the latest released games. He saw a cool action-adventure game that he wanted, but he knew that he didn't have nearly enough money to buy it; in fact, he didn't even have the console it played on. Sighing, he walked towards another part of the store, where there were more games that he liked and could afford.
"Hey, Alec!" came a voice. Alec turned to see who had spoken. It was a tall, dark-haired boy about fourteen years of age; he had a slight tan and had dark brown eyes.
"Hey Dan! Long time, no see, eh?" he responded.
"What are you doin' out THIS early? You never wake up until ten on the weekends!" Dan said.
"Well, my mom DRAGGED me out shopping-"
"And let you loose, I see." Dan said smiling. "It's about time. If she hadn't done it sooner, I think we'd all die of depression!"
Both boys laughed, then began to browse the selection together, pointing out the games they wanted and what their parents would never let them get in a million years.
"Whoa! Check this one out!" Dan said, calling Alec over. He showed him the box for the video game he was talking about. " 'Digimon Adventure: X-Generation. Works with the Evolve.1 set of the card game.' Basically a home version of the Digimon Battle Terminals. This wasn't supposed to be released for another month!" Dan had a way of knowing the release dates for various video games. After all, his dad worked for one of the companies that produced some of the more popular video games, like Digimon.
"Still, there's a whole rack right here in front of us," Alec said.
"AND it looks like we can afford it," Dan said. "Thirty bucks apiece!"
"WHAT? But it's got to be really expensive if we want to get all the stuff so that we can use those cards and stuff!" To Alec's surprise, Dan pointed to a poster that was up on the wall, which dictated that they had a bundle pack offer: get the game that they were talking about, and get the accessories for it free. "Oh." Alec said simply. "Then I'm getting one."
"Smart choice!" Dan said, a weird grin on his face as Alec picked up a copy of his own.
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After browsing through the other games and playing the demo games on display, the boys made their way to the counter.
"Talk about a lucky break!" Alec said as they left the store. "Wait till everyone hears that X-Generation got released early!"
"Tell me about it! Dad says that the company's profits are gonna go through the roof because o' this!"
"Alec!" came his mother's voice. Both boys turned to see Alec's mother pulling up in the minivan. "Well hello, Dan! It's good to see you again!"
"Good to see you too, Mrs. Ryuuji!" Dan said.
"Got a new game, I see?" Mrs. Ryuuji said.
"Yeah," Alec said. "We both got a copy of it." Then something occurred to him. "Weren't you supposed to be out a little longer, though?"
"I was, but I found what I was looking for right off the bat, so I finished a bit early." She looked at Dan again. "Dan, what do you say to coming over this afternoon so you boys can have fun with that game you just got?"
"Sure!" Dan said excitedly. "Mom's out of town for the weekend, and Dad has a business meeting to attend, so he can drop me off on the way there."
"Well, I guess we'll see ya then?" Alec asked.
"Yup!" Dan said. Dan's parents had always been a bit more liberal with him than Alec's parents usually were, but despite this, the boys had always managed to have fun and all too often get into some sort of trouble. "Later!" he called as Alec hopped into the van.
"Bye!" Alec responded as his mother drove out of the parking lot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The rest of the day, Alec spent most of his time trying out the game. It was really interesting how the game worked: you created an alias human form for online stuff, you picked a Digi-egg out of an entire group of Digi-eggs, and eventually when the egg hatched, you would raise your partner Digimon.
In the main part of the game, it was like an ordinary RPG. You went around seeking opponents, every once in a while, meet and face a boss, gather items to take care of your Digimon, and so on and so forth. In the internet based half of the game, you could challenge other Tamers to online battles, exchange items, face rare Digimon that could only be fought there, and use special codes to get various items, like an X-Antibody, for your Digimon, or Digi-eggs.
By the time Dan had come and gone that day, Alec had already raised his new "Digimon" to Rookie level, to a Digimon called Kotemon. He had seen Kotemon in a Digimon movie recently, and in the card game, and thought it was a really cool Digimon to have as a partner.
That evening, he was still playing the game, despite how tired he was. Even though he was offline now, he couldn't help but oogle at Kotemon's picture on screen.
"Wouldn't it be cool if he was real, and really my partner..." he yawned. It was late, and his parents had both already gone to bed, but he was too enraptured in the game to tear himself away. Slowly, his eyes began to close...
************************************
"Alec!
LOOK OUT!" came a cry. "Huh?" Alec said,
looking wildly around. To his horror, what looked like a giant
dinosaur wearing a triceratops skull for a helmet, was charging
straight at him, teeth bared. "Fire Kote!" came the
voice again. What looked like a miniature lizard wearing Kendo armor
leapt in between Alec and the charging monster and swiped a flaming
kendo stick at it. The monster recoiled in surprise. "Greymon, I
won't allow you to hurt my partner!" "Alec,
swipe a card!" Kotemon yelled. "What?" "Take
a Digimon card and swipe it through the Digivice!" Kotemon
yelled. Alec dipped his hands into his pockets, and sure
enough, one of his cards was there as was a strange device. "Here
goes," he sighed, sliding the card through the slot on the
side. "Exhaust Flame!" Kotemon cried, breathing a
massive inferno through his mask. The Greymon screamed as the attack
hit it. To Alec's surprise, the Greymon burst apart into tiny
pixel-like things, which vanished after a few moments. "We-We
beat 'em!" Alec cried. "Yeah, you think?"
Kotemon said. "Now wake up
already." "Huh?"
************************************
"You humans are incomprehensible." came an unfamiliar voice from right next to him. "Babblin' about a Greymon, there's no Greymon here!" Alec, who was now wide awake, stiffened in surprise. He turned his head slowly, realizing that what ever this was would give him a shock...