Alright. here's the first chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon
1st Prior to the End
"What did you say?" A young man with long spiky brown hair exclaimed indignantly. He slammed down his coffee in annoyance. Another man with blond hair chuckled nervously at his friend.
"I said, 'Hey Tai, I have some extra tickets for my concert today and I could give you one if you want it.'" The blond said slowly, wondering what part of the sentence angered his friend.
"Exactly, Matt." Tai said as he took a sip out of his drink. "A ticket?" You're making it sound like you're expecting me to go alone."
"So, does that mean you have a date?" Matt asked, raising an eyebrow.
The brunette choked on his coffee, his next words suspiciously nervous. "What? No… I could, I guess. But it's mainly the thought that counts."
His friend sighed and finished his breakfast. He slid over two navy tickets. "Remember that I know where these seats are, so you'd better not sell them off again."
Tai scoffed as he took the tickets, putting them gently into his blue and orange jacket. "That was one time, Matt. It was going to go to waste if I didn't."
Matt chuckled sarcastically. He looked at his empty plate and then called for the waiter. "Yes?" The man asked.
"We're done." The blond said.
"Alright then, we'll take your plates."
Tai and Matt piled their collection of plates into a large stack and handed them to the waiter, who handed it to a turtle wearing a blue camouflage helmet.
"Thank you for your service." The Kamemon said as it took away the dishes.
Tai and Matt pooled in their money for the bill. "You guys eat too much." Tai hissed in dismay at the amount and his depleted wallet.
"I'm still hungry." The orange reptile complained next to him.
"Agumon." Tai sighed. His alarm beeped. "Aw man, we have to go."
"Bye guys." Matt and Gabumon waved goodbye. "We should get going as well." The blond said to Tai. "We need to practice for the performance and it'll take a while to get out of town with all of the traffic these days."
"Alright then, we'll see you guys tonight then." Tai said, leaving the table.
They reached the entrance of the diner and waited as a crowd of Gazimon and their partners walked by the front of the store. They caught a glimpse of Tai and Agumon and snickered as they passed them.
The DigiDestined sighed. It had been a year since MaloMyotismon's defeat. Since that time, a majority of humans began to receive digimon partners. In fact, it was rare for someone to not get a partner these days. The integration of the two worlds started rocky in the beginning, a threat here, some activists there, an insane cult or two, but eventually they've reached a point where they could get along towards the mutual benefit for both worlds. Despite the advances, there was an empty feeling in him, the DigiDestined didn't seem as important anymore.
There's a cost for everything. He sighed.
Tai and Agumon headed for the park where the DigiDestined had met to celebrate the evil digimon's defeat. During their stroll, they saw children goofing off with their in-training partners, teens debating on which digimon was the greatest, and an adult or two sitting on the bench, reading a paper, with their partner resting next to them.
They stopped at the soccer field where there would usually be a game or two being played there at this time. Today it was empty except for one person and his partner laxly passing a soccer ball back and forth. The short blue digimon overshot the ball, causing it to roll over at Tai's feet.
The person turned and saw him. "Hey, Tai!" Exclaimed Davis, the leader of the newer DigiDestined. Well, leader of the group that was known the newer DigiDestined.
"How are you Davis?" Tai greeted.
"I'm doing great! Do you want to play a round? It's boring when you have to make sure the ball doesn't pop when your partner kicks it."
"That was one time Davis!" Veemon exclaimed.
This started a long argument about Veemon crushing, popping, and deflating most of Davis's balls. As interestingly awkward as it was… "Sorry Davis, but I have somewhere I have to go now."
"Alright then," He turned his attention back to Veemon, "we're settling this with video games."
Tai chuckled as Davis and Veemon raced off. At least some things never change. He thought.
The duo resumed their walk in the park. Tai noticed that someone planted a new row of flowerbeds along the path. He smiled as he noticed how sweet they made the air smell. It was like visiting… her shop.
Sora. When was the last time she entered his thoughts? Wasn't there a time when she was all he could think about?
It would be a year ago. He answered himself. A time before Christmas.
Oh stop mentioning Christmas… I've moved on.
Whatever dude, it's about time anyways.
"Tai." Agumon said, interrupting his argument with himself. Rats, I was finally winning. "Do you think, she'll bring food?"
"You just ate most of my allowance and you're still hungry?"
"You ate half of it though." Agumon complained.
"It was my allowance." Tai grumbled.
"Oh stop whining, Tai. I brought some food for you Agumon." A new person entered their conversation. Tai only noticed that they reached a cross section in the park.
A brown-haired girl smiled as she held up a picnic basket. She put it in her lap and started to roll her wheelchair towards him. Before she moved much, Tai quickly came to her and took up the handles on the back. "Here Rei, let me do that."
"Come on Tai, I can do it myself. I managed to get here on my own just fine."
"Well, I'm here now." Tai said, smiling as he pushed her chair into the grass towards a shady place near the trees as Agumon took the basket from her.
Tai had met Rei a few months back. He was jogging to keep in shape for the next soccer season when her chair had malfunctioned on an incline. Tai tried to heroically stop the runaway chair, only for him to trip and become a speed bump for her instead. Luckily Agumon managed to catch her when she toppled out of her chair. Tai was sure that he got a concussion when he landed on his face, so he couldn't remember who asked the other out, though at this point it didn't matter.
"Let's eat!" Agumon exclaimed as he ran cheerfully under the shade. He hastily opened the basket and a blob of fur rammed into his head. "Ahh, get it off!"
"Gabo." Rei scolded the digimon with its nickname. "Stop that."
The Tsunomon stopped biting Agumon's head and hopped over to Rei's lap. "Sorry Miss, but I had to make sure that it doesn't eat all of the food like the last couple of times." He stressed.
Agumon scoffed indignantly at being called an it and hurled an insult. Gabo blew a raspberry at the rookie. Tai quickly moved to restrain his partner. Looking at the scene before him, he couldn't help but give out a chuckle. Hearing Tai's laughter caused Rei to start giggling along with him. Their digimon stopped their argument and looked at their respective partners, wondering what was so funny. They locked eyes and came to a mutual agreement: Humans were weird.
While the couple was enjoying their day, another person was strolling along the park with their partner and heard their laughter. The DigiDestined known as Sora looked over towards the source of the familiar laugh.
She looked towards the source and noticed Tai and the other girl.
It's… Tai. Sora eventually thought, though annoyed at how long it took for her to identify on of her closest friends. She noticed that he was not alone. I wonder who that girl is.
"Hey, It's Agumon." Biyomon, her partner, exclaimed happily.
"They look like they're busy. We shouldn't disturb them." Sora had started to say, but Biyomon had already reached the group. She saw Agumon giving the pink bird a gleeful hug. Tai noticed Sora and gave her a wave; she saw the girl who was with him doing the same.
"Hey Tai, It's been a while isn't it." She greeted him, then turned to the girl in the wheelchair. "Oh, I'm –"
"Sora Takenouchi." Rei said, shaking her hand. "I've heard a lot about you. I'm Rei Saiba. So, would you like something to eat?"
"Yes!" Biyomon said, quickly sitting next to Agumon in front of the basket, grabbing one of the sandwiches inside.
Sora sighed. "Does that answer your question?"
Tai smiled as Sora reluctantly joined his date with Rei.
Whoa whoa whoa. A date with two girls? The annoying inner voice snickered. You have some guts man.
Shut up. They're my friends.
Sure man, whatever, and that high-pitched wining voice is in your imagination.
"Do you guys hear something?" Agumon said, looking away from the sandwich he had torn into. The sound grew louder and slower, like someone fixed a bad note.
Told you.
That proves nothing. Tai struggled to keep the inner voice silent.
"Where is that coming from?" Rei said, looking around for anything that could be the source of the noise.
Tai looked around as well. He looked up and noticed an eerie light forming above them. A dark shape started to grow inside of the light. "Scatter!" He exclaimed, pushing Sora away from the area, and then lunged to push Rei's chair backwards. Moments after he caused everyone to move away, a large arm crashed out from the blue light.
They saw the arm thrashing viciously, the green skin started to decay into bits of data, its purple armor wildly dug into the ground beneath it, while its silvery claws flailed around, gripping whatever it could and crushing it into a pulp. It rampaged on top of Rei's food for a while before dissipating into shards of data.
"What was that?" Tai managed to say. Even when the Real World had linked up with the Digital World, giant appendages don't usually rain down from the sky.
The blue light continued to glow in the tree tops, something else fell down from the light. The new creature crashed into the hole created by the arm as the light began to fade away.
Tai heard an annoyed groan from the creature. "Where am I? Is this… grass?" The thing stood up, causing the digimon to stand in front of their respective partners. Tai saw that it was a human.
The brown-haired boy stumbled up from the hole and looked at the group. Oddly, he began to chuckle. "Ok, now I know I'm dreaming." He chuckled. Tai saw the boy stumble down on the grass. "That… hurt. This… is real?" The boy clumsily stood up. He paled and stared at the group as if they were ghosts. Then he collapsed again.
Tai advanced forward and felt that the boy had passed out. "We'd better get him to a doctor." He muttered as he lifted the boy's arm on his shoulders. "I guess I'll see you later." The DigiDestined said to Rei.
"Yeah, right." She giggled as she pushed her chair next to him. "Like I'm missing this; this is definitely more interesting than doing my summer homework."
Both of them turned around and looked at Sora. She sighed. "Fine, I might as well help." The red-head heaved the boy's other arm over her back. Looking closely at the boy, she noticed that he seemed vaguely familiar.
They proceeded to move the unconscious boy, who seemed to be having an ominous dream. "They're coming. They're hungry."
If they had remained in that spot for a while longer, they would have seen flecks of purple and green data reforming into an ovular shape. Within moments a small digiegg appeared in the middle of the park. Lacking the heartbeat of a normal egg, it stood cold and alone on the grass. A group of people and their partners walked by the area, chuckling among themselves and making comments on what ripped out a large part of the park's lawn.
A whisper became hidden in the wind; a single word that marked the end of peace. Digicore. A crack traveled down the purple and green egg.
