Just in case I inadvertently offended anyone in that last chapter, I have nothing against the name Ileene or any variation thereof. The opinions of the characters do not necessarily represent the opinions of the author.
All right, on with Chapter 2!
(--------------------)
(--------------------)
Chapter 2: Drawn Together
Every member of that digimon team was prepared to face major shocks when they arrived in the organic world. It was a world they had never been to before, populated by creatures that were nothing like digimon, and who knew how they would react to their presence. It was not going to be life as usual, and they thought they had all braced themselves for the possibilities and difficulties that would arise during their mission.
Unfortunately, they did not consider the possibility that the rift would spit them out 200 feet in the air.
The group cascaded to the ground, or most of them did; Breezedramon thought fast (an uncommon occurrence for him) and spread his wings, slowing his descent as he circled around in the air. The rest had no such luck, as they hit hard, the trees only slightly slowing the fall. It was quite lucky for them that the ground underneath was grass rather than pavement, or their mission might have been over before it began.
Datacarnomon, whose metal body somewhat dulled negative sensations (though he had pain sensors, so not entirely) and was quicker to recover than his friends' fleshy forms, was the first to push himself back up to his feet. "Yikes...what a way to make an entrance. Why do they have to make those things so far from the ground?"
Breezedramon rustled through the trees, safely landing on his feet. "Sucks to be all you guys. Hope you didn't knock any screws loose, Data."
"No...but my pain sensors are in rapid-fire mode. They'll die down in a bit, though. Where's everyone else?"
"Ouch...I'm present," reported Shockavimon, picking herself up as well. "Though maybe not entirely accounted for."
"Don't worry, I'll be accounted for you," replied Breezedramon cheerfully. Shockavimon didn't say anything, mainly because she didn't want to go through the work of trying to understand that. "Any sign of Sal or B.C.?"
"Um..." Shockavimon was quiet for a moment. That quiet revealed soft moans of pain from nearby. Shockavimon went to explore, and found Salmandmon on the ground, whimpering. "Sal? Hey, are you okay?"
"F-fine," stammered Salmandmon, not looking at Shockavimon, his hands clutching at his inner leg.
"You're a lousy liar, Sal! Here, let me see...Ah!" Shockavimon gasped and recoiled from the sight of the wound, a long gash that stretched from his groin all the way down to his ankle. Even with both hands, Salmandmon couldn't completely hide it. "That's really serious, Sal! We need to get that treated right away!"
"I'm FINE!" Salmandmon argued, trying to stand. Pain roared through his leg, and he sat back down, knowing that he wouldn't be able to put weight on it. "Dammit, that's painful...I just need a crutch of some sort."
"You're bleeding! Your leg is like a sieve!"
"Let's just slap some leaves on it or something, okay? It's not like we have many options right now."
"Found B.C.!" reported Breezedramon. "Looks like he's sleeping off the transfer!" He was standing over the unconscious canine digimon, checking to see if he was injured. "Should I rousate him?"
"Uh...yeah, but only if that means wake him up," said Datacarnomon. "We'll need him to try to carry Sal. We can't stay here...I'm sure the humans noticed something, and they're bound to check it out."
"Gotcha." Breezedramon shook Blackcanismon, waking him up after a minute. "Hey, there we go. Welcome back to the world of conscites! How're ya feeling?"
"Ugh...I am possessed of a sensation moderately akin to that of a Trailmon repeatedly colliding with my cranium..." groaned Blackcanismon.
"Yeahyeah, that sucks. Hey, we need your help. Sal can't walk." He pointed to Salmandmon, who was being tended to by Shockavimon. The two were trying to stop the bleeding by pressing leaves on the wound, with marginal success. "Looks like he hurt himself pretty bad."
"How fortuitous," Blackcanismon sighed. "Unconsciousness bore slight advantage in my preference."
(--------------------)
It was a rough night for all the digimon. Salmandmon's leg continued to torture him; the bleeding had stopped for the most part - he was fortunate that no major vessels had been hit - but the pain seemed to only get worse, and that kept him from sleep. Blackcanismon also couldn't sleep, the pounding in his head not letting up one bit. The uninjured three took turns standing guard so the others could rest, but they too suffered restlessness problems because of their nervousness. As morning rolled around, none of them could claim to have gotten much sleep, and it showed on their faces. Despite this, they all acted like they were ready for the day.
"I think it would be a good idea to scout around," suggested Datacarnomon; being robotic in nature, he was the least affected by the lack of sleep. "Just staying here the whole time won't help anything. We have to get to know the area around us, and find out if there's anyone around who won't freak out on sight so we can try to get our warnings across. If I walk around a bit, I can get an internal map started."
"Sounds good to me," Shockavimon agreed with a yawn. "But all of you had better be careful! We don't know what the humans are gonna think of us, so we'd better stay hidden!"
Blackcanismon nodded. "Cautiousness is imperative. Avoid the local populace as much as possible. Initialize conversation only out of absolute necessity. In the unfortunate scenario that your revelation is inevitable, remove yourself from the situation in such a way that the lowest number of individuals is aware of your presence."
"Some of us need to learn how to speak concisely," cracked Datacarnomon. "Sal, are you sure you're all right staying here by yourself?"
"I'll be fine, Data," Salmandmon reassured his friend yet again. The hastily-covered wound hadn't healed well, but the blood had coagulated enough to keep the wound from continuing to bleed. It was still excruciatingly painful for him to walk, but he felt he could do enough to get away. "If I walk around too much, I'm gonna tear this leg open again. Until we figure out a better fix, I'm gonna have to stay in one spot. I'll be bored, but it's better than being dead."
Shockavimon, Breezedramon, and Blackcanismon dispersed quickly as they settled this. Datacarnomon hung back for a moment, then leaned in close to Salmandmon. "Hey, Sal, 500 creds says Breezedramon'll be caught first."
"Nice to know that even in a situation of such importance, you're still willing to bet on your friends' screw-ups," replied Salmandmon, rolling his eyes.
"C'mon..."
"Fine, you're on. Now go, before I decide to smack you." Datacarnomon smirked and vacated, leaving Salmandmon alone with his thoughts.
(--------------------)
It was Saturday, and Saturday meant no school. This Saturday was especially nice, because it was the start of a longer weekend for Reyn, as there was a teacher workshop day that Monday. Yet, he was still up earlier than normal. His mind remained agitated by what he had seen yesterday, and he had resolved to ask Skylar about it. He wondered if perhaps it was a weather effect.
As he entered the kitchen, he found that he was the last one up. Seated around the table were Wallace and Reyn's younger siblings, Cayden and Alisin. His mother, Minerva, was at the sink, washing up. Only his father, Treylor, was absent.
"Dad's at work on a Saturday morning?" Reyn commented as he noticed this. Both his parents worked at the hospital, but his father generally worked afternoon shifts; his mother alternated between afternoon and late-night.
"He wanted to see if there were any injuries reported from whatever that light was last night," answered Minerva. "I was curious, too, but no need for both of us in there unscheduled."
"Right...man, I'll bet the whole city is talking about that thing. It was crazy."
"Too bad it didn't happen on a day you had school, bud," Wallace said. "Maybe people would have been so busy discussing it that you wouldn't have had to learn anything."
"Oh, no, I like learning," replied Reyn with the sly grin of someone about to take a shot at another. "You see, I happen to have something called 'future prospects,' which mean if I learn enough I might not end up still living with my parents when I'm 21."
"Cram it," snarled Wallace as Cayden snorted into his cereal. "I'll move out once I've got a steady job."
"Yeah, sure. I'll believe that once I believe you'll get a job that you won't get fired from in two months. Or a girlfriend who won't dump you in one."
"Boys, let's not fight at the table," interrupted Minerva. Reyn surveyed his brother with satisfaction as Wallace shot him death glares.
"Hey, Mom, I'm going over to Skylar's for a while. I think that thing last night might have been a weather event, and if anyone would know, he would."
"All right, have fun." Reyn dashed out at this go-ahead, already thinking about what Skylar might have to say on the subject. The two had met only two years ago, shortly after Skylar had moved to Braun. The friendship had formed very quickly, the two of them clicking on some subconscious level. Reyn was impressed by Skylar's intelligence, and perhaps more so by his modesty. That modesty had earned Skylar a lot of friends in school, a direct contrast to Isaac, whose brash manner and seeming lack of humility made him intolerable to many, Reyn somehow not included.
Reyn knocked on the door and was let in by Corrine Jascalt, Skylar's mother, a heavyset woman who looked rather elderly for her age. "Oh, hello, Reyn. Skylar's upstairs in his room, if you're looking for him."
"Thanks." Reyn made his way up the stairs and entered the first door on the right. Skylar sat at his computer, a look of stern resolve etched to his face, laced with no shortage of frustration. That look told enough of a story for Reyn's sake. "You should really get out more."
Skylar barely looked away from the screen; he was more than used to Reyn's friendly jabs by now. "You're one to talk. You're more of a lounge lizard than I am."
"Yeah, but I'm not the one who looks like he's anemic. Maybe if you exercised you'd gain some weight and actually have some meat to justify that massive altitude." Reyn was familiar with looking up to Skylar, both for his intellect and his six-inch height advantage. "And maybe you'll get some color in your hair and look less like my grandfather."
"I'll have you know that white hair is considered very handsome in some cultures."
"Maybe someday you'll visit one of them and be made their king."
Skylar snorted a laugh. "Like you're any better, Mr. Firehead. Red-haired people were thought to be witches in some other cultures."
"A pity they never tried to burn me at the stake, then. I daresay I'd have given a few people heart attacks. Let me guess, you already tried to find a weather event that was like that anomaly last night, but you haven't turned up anything."
"You're dead on. All my books haven't shown anything even slightly resembling that thing. Even the Internet's no good - they've got the latest news articles on the subject, and of course some wild speculation, but no concrete explanations anywhere. I tried a few random searches, but picked up squat."
"That's too bad...I was hoping it was weather-related, so you could explain it to me."
"Well, I guess that would be the logical conclusion to draw. But with this lack of supporting information, I guess maybe we aren't on the right track." Skylar sighed and twisted in his chair to face Reyn. "You have any ideas?"
"Nah, my specialty is fire and heat, neither of which I get from that thing. All I know is what I saw, which is probably the same thing you saw." Reyn quickly described his view of it to confirm this.
"Yeah, that's what I got out of it, all right. It doesn't look like it's a weather system of any kind...not many I know of that produces sustained flashes of light."
"So, we're stumped, huh?"
"Pretty much, unless we want to venture out into the sci-fi explanations." Skylar smirked lightly as if amused by the idea. "The realm of the answerless, but I suppose that applies here."
"You thinking anything in particular?"
"It's pretty far out. We did see what looked like waves in the sky, standing out pretty significantly. If we're going to get rather radical, it looked something like how I would imagine a distortion in space would look."
"Distortion in space, huh? And what would a distortion in space bring? Maybe a wormhole or something like that?"
Skylar raised an eyebrow. "That might be a bit too radical. I've heard theories that wormholes can exist at a subatomic level - I think they meant a very subatomic level - but not at the size of that distortion."
Reyn considered this for a moment. "Well, to completely disregard science for a moment, maybe aliens found a way to enlarge a wormhole and used it to connect their planet and ours."
"I have my doubts, but...well..." Skylar shrugged. "I would love to rule out the paranormal, but I can't find a solid scientific explanation for this. If only we had more information, maybe we'd have some clue as to how to proceed, but for now, it's just a mystery."
"Guess we'll just have to wait for the experts, huh?"
"Sounds like it, unless you have anything else to offer."
"Well, another look-through might not hurt." Reyn pulled a chair over towards the computer. "If nothing else, it's fun to speculate."
(--------------------)
Iris was walking down the sidewalk, enjoying the bright, sunny day, when she happened to spy a familiar tall, black-haired young man hanging out outside a familiar house. She always found it a bit odd to see Derek outdoors during the day; she was well-versed to his habits, and while he didn't spend every possible moment inside during the daylight hours, he was definitely more likely to be in than out.
She walked on over to him and poked him in the back. "Good morning, Derek! So, how's the illness?"
Derek snorted and turned, looking down at Iris. "Nothing good about the morning, especially not this one."
"Oh, don't be like that."
"Don't even start. The only reason I'm out here at this point is because Isaac asked me to be."
"So that's who's house it is." Iris glanced over the house again; she hadn't been there enough to recognize it very well. "And what would Isaac be asking you?"
"Well, he called this morning, wanted to ask if I'd seen anything unusual last night. And I made the damn fool mistake of telling him that I did."
"Ah, so that's it. Well, then, I'll just have to stick around and listen while you tell him, so I can get an idea of what it was."
Derek made an irritated sound. "Doesn't anyone keep their windows open nowadays?"
"Hey, I was asleep," Iris replied indignantly. "I only woke up a few seconds before it actually happened, and I had just been in a dream, so I was a bit muddled." She looked around furtively, and then lowered her voice unnecessarily. "It was one of those dreams again."
Upon mention of this, Derek's somewhat hostile mood seemed to vanish. "You mean the one with our creatures?"
"Bingo." Iris and Derek often referred to the creatures of their dream as theirs, though it wasn't for the reason that they felt they owned them. It was simply their way of indicating their shared recurring dreams. They often talked about them together, wondering why they started and what they might have meant (though that point was often littered with Freudian jokes of varying degrees of bad taste). What especially interested them what how the events in some of the dreams seemed to be the same, but from different vantage points. They were especially aware of the creatures that were in both of their dreams, hence the 'our' designation.
"It was really weird this time...the strangest part was at the end, there was this big bright light...and then when I woke up, well..." Iris seemed rather distant as she said this, which somewhat unnerved Derek.
"Hey, are you all right, Iris?"
Iris came back to life and giggled. "Oh, how sweet, you're worried about me!"
Derek frowned. "You make it sound like I never care about anyone."
Iris gave a huge false smile. "You know I'm just teasing."
"You always sound serious when you're teasing," Derek teased back.
Derek and Iris had been friends all their lives, the result of a close connection between the two families. Iris' father, Emil, and Derek's father, Elliot, had been college roommates, and ended up both going into government work. They were both employed at a federal building situated in Braun, which was locally-run but under shared jurisdiction. Elliot and Emil remained good friends, and this closeness extended to the rest of the families, and especially Iris and Derek. Their mutual respect of each others' differences served to greatly strengthen their friendship. Others often looked down on Derek's habits with suspicion or derision, but Iris never did, and Derek, though he was a loner for the most part, was deeply grateful to have someone that close to him. In turn, he was very supportive of Iris' interest in electricity, and got very defensive when anyone commented negatively on that. A long running rumor throughout their peers at school was that the two were in love with each other. Both denied these rumors, saying they hadn't considered the thought. They were being honest...for the most part.
A sudden sound from the direction of the house drew the attention of both of them. They turned to see a very large youth coming their direction, jogging down the steps and nearly tripping and falling. "Derek! Just the guy I wanted to see!" he shouted as he regained his footing and rushed up to them. "Oh, Iris! I wasn't expecting you! Sorry, I don't have any wiring to do."
"Nice to see you too, smart-ass," the girl replied coolly.
"Yeah, it's good to finally get into contact," added Derek icily, "seeing as you told me to meet you...oh, fifteen minutes ago, now. You'd think a person as concerned with precision as you were would have learned how to be punctual by now."
"Hey, I'm working on it, all right?"
"Sure you are. Let's not drag this ordeal out longer than we have to." Derek went into a description of the scene he had witnessed the previous night. The two audience members remained silent during this, not wanting to rile Derek to the point where he'd decide to just screw it and leave. They knew he was capable of that.
"Wow...that's really something!" exclaimed Isaac, rubbing his hands together like a mad scientist. "Now I'm really mad that I missed it!"
"Maybe if you kept your window open now and then, you'd see a bit more," Derek said with obvious asperity.
"Yeah, well, I don't get as much out of the night sky as you do, bub."
"Do you have any ideas about what that thing might be, Mr. Machine Freak?" Iris jumped in before Derek could answer back again.
"Oh, plenty of ideas. Nothing testable, though. Sounds to me like a distortion in space, maybe a wormhole or something. That would be so cool! Maybe aliens came through it!"
"How lovely," Derek said acidly. "Now we get to sit through yet another session of rambling speculation and flights of fancy. Can't you come up with something more reasonable?"
"You're starting to sound like Skylar," Isaac responded coolly. "But hey, that's fine. If you have other ideas, I'd be perfectly happy to hear them and then tell you why you're wrong."
"No, I don't have other ideas! But at least I'm not making random guesses pulled out of an Isaac Asimov collection!"
Iris decided to make her exit at this moment, rather than witness yet another spat between Isaac and Derek. Neither of them noticed her leave, which she considered fortunate; she didn't like to take sides, especially when there was really nothing to support either argument.
With nothing better to do at the moment, she resigned herself to heading back to her house. As she made her way however, a sudden chill passed over her, and she could have sworn she had seen something out of the corner of her eye. She tried to put it out of her mind as she continued, but it continued to hang with her.
(--------------------)
Not even that much time had passed, yet Salmandmon was already beginning to feel like exsanguination was better than boredom. He hated being unable to go anywhere, even though he knew that walking around to much would aggravate his injury. He had intended to stay until someone came back, and remained true to this resolution for almost a good hour, passing time by watching the few humans who passed by close enough that he could catch sight of them (and thankfully not close enough to catch sight of him), and wondering about the bet Datacarnomon had egged him into.
He wasn't even fully aware of it when he started moving. It was as if an unconscious force was drawing him somewhere, ordering him to follow its direction. He relented and followed his instincts, making sure to stay well out of sight of the humans. He wasn't even sure of where he was going, and feared that he would be caught at any moment. And yet, by some amazing fortune, he went undiscovered all the way to his destination.
Which was, as it turned out, a large brick house.
Salmandmon stared at the house from a line of hedges in the back yard near a somewhat dense line of trees separating the brick house from its neighbor. He couldn't shake the powerful sense of déjà vu he was getting as he did. That's weird...I know I've seen this place before...but I can't have, it's not possible.
He had a sudden urge to enter. He knew it was a very bad idea, but even as he thought this, he started out. He knew that he couldn't enter through any door; his eyes wandered to a window in the upper story. No way, I couldn't climb that...it's hard enough walking on this leg, I'd kill myself trying this... But he attempted it anyway, not really sure why he did, but not caring too much at the moment.
What is it about this place? he thought perplexedly as he pulled himself up the wall, his hands and feet clinging to the sides with little effort. He winced every time his injured leg landed, reminding himself to be extra careful with it. It did little good in the end. As he neared his destination, he felt his injured leg slip its grip, and desperately jammed it into the wall. Pain thundered through his leg, and as he looked down, he saw the blood once again flowing freely, dripping down his leg and off his foot onto the ground below.
Fighting his way through the pain, he pulled himself up to the window. A screen barred the way, but it was no match for his claws and was easily torn open. All that remained was the window itself, which was closed but not locked. He dug into the wood at the bottom and forced it open, then flung himself inside. He hoped that no one had spotted him, but presumed by the lack of commotion nearby that he had remained fairly safe.
He had to jump from the sill to the ground, no mean feat on one foot. He had expected to bang to the ground loudly, but instead just landed with a soft thud. The floor was carpeted, enough of a rarity in the digital world that it confused him for a moment. Too late, he realized that the blood from his leg would stain the carpeting. So much for staying unnoticed... he thought grimly.
The sense of familiarity continued to grow. He was sure now he'd seen this room somewhere. He was just having trouble pinpointing where. He looked around at the room he had just entered, trying to place it. It had all the conveniences of a modern-day bedroom - a bed, a desk, a dresser, a computer, a television, a stereo, and others. And then there were the not-so-normal features: a jar of matchbooks on the dresser, at least a few dozen candles all over the room, several torches leaning against the walls (which were marred with the occasional scorch mark), and a stand in one corner of the room with a sinister-looking contraption that he couldn't have even begun to identify, and felt rather like he didn't want to.
But it was that contraption that stirred up the memory he needed. The recognition hit him out of nowhere: Wait, this is one of those places I've dreamed about! But...that's impossible, how could this place actually exist, and in the human world of all places?
He had little time to dwell on this, as a sound from outside the room drew his attention. It sounded like someone ascending a flight of stairs. Oh, no! They might have heard me! Salmandmon thought in a slight panic. Okay, just stay cool...gotta get out of here! I think I can climb up that desk and get out the window I came in, but I've gotta hurry!
He hobbled over to the desk near the window. Pushing mainly with his uninjured leg, he managed to pull his body about halfway up the desk, and swung his injured leg up to the sill, hoping to get enough of a grip to get himself up. His luck ended there; a pain like none he'd felt before tore through the injured leg, and the resulting distraction caused him to lose his grip on the desk. His head rapped against the side of the desk as he went down, causing him to black out before he hit the ground.
(--------------------)
Reyn hadn't been in any hurry to get home after meeting with Skylar, at least not at first. But what was supposed to have been a leisurely walk soon changed as he neared his house; he found himself picking up speed, not even really aware of the fact at first and not understanding why once he did happen to notice it. By the time he reached the block his house was on, he was running at top speed, drawn by an inexplicable force back home.
He forced himself to calm down as he got inside, realizing that he'd look completely crazy if he burst in in such excitement and there was nothing going on. His father was at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. He looked rather tired, a consequence of his early morning, but smiled cheerfully as Reyn got in. "Hey, bud. How's it going?"
"It's going fine," Reyn replied, still a bit on edge after his run. He'd calmed down a bit, but he still felt a strange sense of something that he couldn't quite pinpoint. "Did...anything happen here while I was gone?"
Treylor gave his son a perplexed look. "No...why? Did you hear something?"
"Uh...well, no...it's just...ah, never mind. Guess it's just my imagination." Reyn shrugged and pretended to dismiss the idea, not wanting to bother his father after what must have been a trying day for him. He went over to the cupboards and dug around for something to eat, trying to shake the peculiar feelings with no success. "What's the news from the hospital?"
"No injuries directly associated with whatever that thing was, at least that we could see. Lots of panic attacks, though, and they told me that there was a sudden rush of minor injuries associated with collisions, trampling, and so forth."
"Heh, we are a city of kittens, aren't we?" Reyn chuckled. "One little thing out of place and we all go berserk. It's enough to make someone-" A thump from upstairs stopped him in mid-sentence. "What was that?"
"No clue," his father replied as Minerva called upstairs from another room: "Cayden! Be gentle up there!"
"Ah, man, that had better not have come from my room..." Reyn muttered in annoyance. He didn't like Cayden and Alisin being in his room while he wasn't there, as they had the tendency to be careless at times. "I'm gonna go see if Cayden's doing something he shouldn't."
"Don't take punishment into your own hands," his father warned as Reyn started up the stairs.
"Yeah, yeah, I know..." he grumbled back, already wondering what he was going to do if Cayden had knocked over his thermite reaction chamber. "I swear, he's never careful in there..." he mumbled to himself.
He heard a loud bang as he reached the top of the stairs, the sound clearly emanating from his room. "Oh, for the love of..." Reyn fumed as he rushed to his door and tore it open, prepared to tell Cayden off for banging around and possibly breaking something...and stopped short at the sight of his floor. A somewhat large red reptilian creature was laying on the carpet.
"What in the hell?"
The feeling of familiarity was almost instantaneous; somehow, he was sure he'd seen the creature somewhere before. Cautiously, he approached the creature. As he neared, he suddenly caught sight of the red stains on the carpet around where the creature was. With mixed curiosity and dread, he knelt over the creature and examined it, and found the long wound on its leg and one on its head, almost blending in to its skin.
"Oh, holy crap...MOM! DAD! You gotta come up here right now!"
(--------------------)
I must be absolutely mad...
Shockavimon knew she was supposed to stay out of sight. She knew she was supposed to be as far from potential contact as possible. And yet, she had been following a certain human female for almost ten minutes. It was strange, but she had a good reason: a memory-like dream of a rather slight human girl with long, light brown hair, exactly like the one she was observing now.
Absolutely mad. From thunderbird to cuckoo-clock.
She had tried telling herself that it couldn't be possible, that some human from her dreams couldn't actually walking around near where she was, but she knew the truth and couldn't truly deny it to herself. And this was enough to get her to want to talk.
She watched, following carefully so as to avoid premature discovery. She wanted to make sure there were no other humans around before she made the first attempt to talk with her target; it would reduce the chance that the human would be taken seriously if she ran away screaming. It took some time, but she got her chance. Calling from a tree, she simply said "Hello?"
Success. The girl had stopped suddenly, appearing mystified. She looked around, appearing nervous but also curious. "Uh...did someone just say something?"
Shockavimon looked around quickly, and decided it was safe to continue to talk. "Do we...know each other?" As soon as she asked it, she mentally slapped herself for asking such a stupid question; the human wouldn't know, she couldn't see Shockavimon. This whole affair must be making me stupid as well as mad.
She responded much as Shockavimon expected. "Do we what? I don't know, I can't really see you. Who are you? Where are you?"
"I'm, uh, hiding." Oh, hell, I sound like a complete fool now. I might have to show myself just to save myself the embarrassment of having to continue this conversation.
"Hiding? Where would you be hiding? Or why? And why would you tell me?"
"Because..." Shockavimon's mind searched for a plausible excuse, but she couldn't come up with a believable one. So she went with the truth. "Because I don't want to scare you?"
The human was clearly hopelessly confused by Shockavimon's responses, she could tell. She hoped that the girl wouldn't just forget it and run away, and thankfully she didn't, though her next words betrayed an obvious wariness. "Why would I be scared of you? Should I be? Why don't you come out?"
"Um...I don't want to come out here. Is there anywhere that isn't so...open?"
Shockavimon was sure that that would drive the human away, but somehow, the human still seemed more interested that scared. "Well, I'll just go around this building, and I can meet you there." She did exactly that, walking quickly around the house; Shockavimon noticed her hand go to her pocket, and wondered if she wasn't preparing to defend herself from an attacker. Maybe this isn't such a good idea... But regardless, she jumped to a tree closer to the girl, then flapped down to the ground to meet her.
The two stood face to face for a moment, neither one saying anything. Shockavimon finally managed to stammer out "H-hi..."
She saw a look of dawning comprehension on the human's face. "You...you're the creature from my dreams!"
(--------------------)
Breezedramon floated lazily over the city, high enough up to be unrecognizable to the humans below. Man, if Data could get a view like this, he'd have a map done in no time! he thought eagerly as he glided, almost lost in his elation of flight.
He hadn't paid much attention to where we was drifting, and by the time he recognized the pull, he was almost to where he was getting the feeling from. Huh...I feel like there's something calling to me over there...well, if it is, then I'd better check it out! He started flying over to the area that was drawing him. The object of his interest was a moderate-sized white house, which Breezedramon could swear he'd seen before.
There was a small outcropping of the roof between the first and second floors near the porch. Breezedramon landed softly on it, near a window. He took a quick glance through the window and into the room. There was a human in there, and Breezedramon felt a jolt as he recognized him. Hey! I've been dreaming about that guy!
In his surprise, he almost lost his footing on the ledge. With alarm, he pulled himself up to the side of the house, hitting it with a loud thud. "Son of a bitch!" he groaned, knowing he'd been heard.
(--------------------)
Skylar had been dealing with mounting irritation all day long. His inability to find anything concrete to explain the strange occurrence the previous night was bugging him to no end, his little brother had been in and out of his room with the kind of annoying tenacity that only a little brother could have, and to compound all that, he had a strange feeling that was disrupting his concentration. Nothing he did could help his focus, and he was about to have a fit.
The sudden thump against his wall shook him, enough to nearly make him fall out of his chair. "Holy...what the hell was that?" he said aloud, realizing that the thump came from outside. He wanted to check out what it was, but stopped when he realize that it might be someone who wanted to hurt him. Throwing caution to the wind, he asked out loud, "Is someone out there?"
He heard a soft voice whisper "Crap!" outside the window. No question, there was someone out there. Skylar decided to face him head-on, no longer afraid. He dashed to the window and opened it, raised the screen, and looked out in the direction of the sound. The sight nearly caused him to fall out. "What in blazes?"
"Er...Uh..." Breezedramon was rendered wordless by the sudden extrusion.
"You...I know you..." said Skylar slowly. "But...how...when did...where did you..." As Skylar's mind regained function after the sudden shock of seeing a dragon outside his window, he suddenly made the two-and-two connection.
Breezedramon, sensing an opening, ventured, "Er...can I maybe possibly please come in? I don't want others to catch sight of me and go all apepperitic."
The garbled word seemed to draw Skylar back into reality. "Go all what? Wait, yeah, come in first before I try to make sense of that." Despite the unusualness of the situation, he felt no sense of danger; somehow he was certain the creature wasn't going to hurt him.
(--------------------)
Salmandmon gradually returned from his unintended slumber with a killer headache and blurry vision. Dimly, he realized that there was some figure above him, a hand extended over his head. No thought registered, it was simply his basal functions taking over, and they interpreted the sight as one thing: Danger.
He let out a weak jet of fire from his mouth. It was the best he could manage in his condition. The human simply let it hit him, then put his hand on Salmandmon's mouth, holding it closed. "Easy, easy...you're not in any danger here."
"Reyn!" gasped a voice from somewhere Salmandmon couldn't see.
"Relax, Mom, I can handle it." The human that Salmandmon guessed was 'Reyn' looked back down at him, slowly releasing his jaws. "Hey, welcome back. You feeling any better?"
"Ugh...who the...who are you? Where am I?" groaned Salmandmon. He heard a number of gasps, again from nearby but not where he could see. Reyn, however, seemed unsurprised.
"You're inside my house," replied Reyn quietly. "You know, the one you so daringly infiltrated just a short while ago. I'm shocked that you even managed that in your state. Fortunately, you're looking a bit better now."
"Huh?" Salmandmon raised his head enough to see the rest of his body. It was then he realized he had a numbness throughout his leg. "What...what's up with my leg? Why can't I feel anything?"
"Calm down, little guy," said another voice. A man now entered Salmandmon's field of vision. "It was just a local anesthetic. It should wear off after a while."
"Anewhat?" Salmandmon pushed himself to a sitting position, allowing him to view the entire room. He could see, in addition to Reyn and the man, an older female human and two younger humans, a boy and a girl. The woman looked nervous, but the kids looked curious and interested.
"Anesthetic. Something to dull feeling in an area of the body to remove feeling."
"Oh...a paralyzer," said Salmandmon, making a connection.
The man frowned. "Not quite...well, I suppose it's close enough for jazz. Technically, not every anesthetic causes nerve interruption - some are muscle relaxants."
"But I was out cold. Why did you need to give me a paralyzer?"
"I didn't want to wake you up while I was stitching your leg closed."
Salmandmon blinked twice, certain he had misheard that. "What was that again?"
"Stitching...closing your leg wound up." The man pointed to the black matter over the leg wound, which had stopped gushing blood.
Salmandmon was having a hard time getting around this. "Wait, wait a sec...you closed up my leg...by sewing it up?"
"I guess they don't do a lot of stitching where you're from," the man chuckled. "Trust me, it's effective, and we can take them out painlessly when your leg's better...though I'm kind of surprised you haven't already burned them off, given your astronomical body temperature."
"...Well, they call me Salmandmon for a reason." The lizard gave up on making sense of this, and decided to count his blessings that they hadn't tried to kill him on the spot. He tried to stand up, only to be gently pushed back down by Reyn. "You should stay down...it'll help you heal if you rest for a while."
"Mmh...fine." Salmandmon felt an odd sense of familiarity when he looked at Reyn, a sense of...something. He was still too muddled to fully understand what it was. Eventually he shook his head, and winced, bringing his right hand up to his head, and realized there were bandages up there. "Ouch...so that's what I did to myself."
"Reyn's right, you should rest." The woman seemed to have overcome her nervousness and came close to Salmandmon. "I have no idea what you are or where you came from, or why you came here in the first place, but whatever the case, it was lucky that you ended up in a house with two doctors."
"Oh...yeah, er, sorry about that," Salmandmon apologized. "I don't know what came over me...I knew it was a bad idea, but..."
"Don't worry about it," the woman said tenderly. "Right now, it's important that you just rest. Reyn, why don't you take him upstairs? I don't want to impose on you, but..."
"Oh, you're not imposing," replied Reyn quickly. "That's what I was gonna do anyway." He bent over Salmandmon and grabbed him bodily. "Oof, you're not as light as I thought you'd be...hey, let me know if I'm hurting you in any way."
"No, you're fine..." Salmandmon squirmed a bit to try to help Reyn carry him. He couldn't see where they were going, but he could see the two younger kids trailing behind them, still obviously very curious about him. He heard the woman call them back down. "Cayden! Alisin! Don't bother the poor thing! He needs to rest!" The children turned back to complain, and soon they were out of Salmandmon's field of vision as they reached the top of the stairs.
It took little time for Salmandmon to notice that the room they were in was the one he had originally entered. Somehow, he wasn't as surprised by that as he thought he would be. Reyn put Salmandmon on the bed, leaning the lizard's back against the wall. "There ya go...feeling any better?"
"A little..." Salmandmon replied, remembering his first foray into the room. "Sorry...about the blood on the carpet..."
"Ah, don't worry about it, I've stained that thing more times than I care to remember. It needs to be replaced, anyway." Reyn sat on the bed and looked at Salmandmon. "You know me, don't you? I saw you looking at me earlier..."
"Well...uh...I..." Salmandmon stammered, not quite sure how to explain himself.
"You don't have to be nervous. I know you, as well. I've been dreaming about you for...well, years, now."
"You have?" Salmandmon gasped. "That's how I know you, too! But...how can that be?"
"Hell, I have no idea. I'm still trying to get over the fact that you're real. I suppose that thing in the sky last night...that was you, wasn't it?"
"Er...yeah..." Salmandmon didn't want to tell Reyn about the others. Though, somehow, he felt more comfortable around him than he thought he would. "You're not gonna make me a pet or anything, are you?"
"What? No!" Reyn sounded offended at the idea. "I couldn't do that! You're not just some animal we picked up off the streets!"
"Whoa, whoa, calm down!" Salmandmon replied, abashed. "Damn, I'm sorry, that was rude of me. I guess I'm just a bit paranoid..."
Reyn took a couple breaths to calm himself down. "No, it's okay, I overreacted a bit. I should have guessed that you were still kind of nervous; even if we're kinda familiar with each other, we're really still strangers. In any case, you should just rest now."
"Yeah, okay..." Salmandmon worried about what the others would think when they saw that he was gone from their hiding spot. He decided to try to forget about that; he'd get into contact with them later. "Yeah, I guess a rest would be good. Damn leg..."
"I have to know...how did you even walk on that thing?"
"Ah...it was better before I tried climbing the walls of your house. Hurt it again just before getting to your window...and probably again when trying to get out." Salmandmon chuckled mirthlessly as reviewed his first day in the human world. Injured three separate times, discovered before 24 hours is out...oh, yeah, this mission is gonna be a total disaster.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing, really. Um...I hate to ask, but...well, I'm kinda bored. You got anything to do in here?"
"Uh..." Reyn looked around the room for a moment, trying to figure what a lizard would like to do. "Probably...but I don't know if any of it would interest you. What do you do when you're not climbing the walls of strange houses and almost killing yourself?"
Salmandmon grinned for real this time. I like this kid. He's a snarker even when he's nice. "Well, mainly I work out."
Reyn raised his eyebrow. "Not much I can do about that. Even if you could move around, I don't have anything like that in here."
Salmandmon chuckled. "Oh, don't worry. I'm pretty good at improvising. But that doesn't help me when I've got doctor's orders to do nothing."
"Yeah. Uh, let's see..." Reyn scanned across the room again, hoping for a long shot. His eyes migrated over to the television, and inspiration struck. "Hey, you play video games?"
A wide grin spread across Salmandmon's face. "Hell no...I own people at video games."
Reyn looked back at Salmandmon with a bit of surprise; the sudden assertiveness kind of surprised him. "Well, in that case, I'll just have to test that claim. You're on, buddy!"
"Get ready to be demolished!" Despite the auspicious start, Salmandmon couldn't help but feel that things were starting to look up. If all humans are as nice as these ones, this might not be so hard after all...
(--------------------)
Despite continually telling himself that he was there to make a map and nothing more, Datacarnomon had eventually succumbed to the same indescribable feelings that his comrades had. However, he proceeded with far more caution than those who had been discovered before him.
The internal map he had composed was only partially complete, but it was enough for his sensors to tell him where the life forms were. Being new to the organic world, his sensors were not sensitive enough to determine any specifics of the life-forms aside from size, so to be extra safe, he avoided anything he was aware of.
Soon, he found the location that was attracting him, a moderately-sized green-sided house bordered very closely by other houses. He came in through the back yard, scanning the area both visually and with his sensors for any people who might disturb him. He did not locate any, and thus proceeded further.
His fortune was good. The house was empty.
Using this to his advantage, Datacarnomon pried open one of the windows on the first floor, the only one he saw that was not protected by a screen of some kind. He slid in quietly, closing the window behind him so as to make it seem like no one had gotten in. His metal feet thudded loudly against the floor, something that he would have a hard time avoiding; he was once again very glad no one was in the house.
He looked around, trying to get his bearings. Something in this house was drawing him closer. He just didn't know what. Patiently, he walked through the rooms, getting a good diagram of the first floor, and noticing where he felt the closest to his goal. He almost didn't need to make a map of this place; he felt like he knew it by heart, which was strange. He determined eventually that whatever he was seeking was upstairs.
The carpeting on the stairs provided a good cushion, making his footfalls far less noticeable. He reached the top and looked at the door straight in front of the flight he had climbed. He was certain that was where it was. Carefully, he reached up and opened the door.
What he saw inside amazed him. Strewn all over the room were mechanical parts, both for external and internal use. Shelves were decked with partially or fully complete machines of various kinds and complexities. The walls were peppered with papers of many sizes, some being instructions, others being blueprints, and still others sketches that resembled crude schematics for different machines.
Despite the sense of familiarity, he couldn't help but be in awe. This is impressive...did just one human do all this? he wondered. Looking around, the handwriting on much of the paperwork did seem to be the same, or similar enough. Treading carefully to keep from stepping on the scattered parts, Datacarnomon walked along the walls, reading what was written and looking at the building guides.
He turned the corner, getting a look at some of the tools that had been obscured by the bed near the corner. There's a welding torch in here... he noted, that thought rather unnerving him for some reason. He then noticed a larger paper up over the tools by the bed. To get a better look, he pulled himself up onto the bed and looked square at it. He gasped and nearly fell backwards.
"Holy crap...that's me!"
It was a bit of a crude drawing, and was marked all over with notes and such, mainly what would be needed to construct it. But the likeness was nothing short of incredible, matching nearly perfectly in size and proportionate dimensions. He received another jolt as he noticed a date up in the corner. Over eight years ago! he realized in amazement. We haven't even known about the human world for eight years!
Something was up, and Datacarnomon knew it. As he looked around once more, he began to discern why this place felt so familiar to him. This is that place that I keep dreaming about...no wonder I felt like I knew the house already. But...hm...if I've been dreaming about this...maybe I should stick around. I want to meet this human. Something tells me there's more here than meets the eye.
The best hiding spot he could find was underneath the bed. He crawled under, glad that respiration wasn't a function he had to put up with considering all the dust gathered there, and waited for any sign of activity.
(--------------------)
Derek walked downstairs and passed by his parents on his way out the door that night. He wanted to ask his dad about how they were dealing with the anomaly. Of course, he knew even that simple question would ignite a sharp response, and he wasn't disappointed.
"Why are you interested in what I do all of a sudden?" asked Elliot gruffly. "Never seemed to care before."
Their relationship was like that. Derek and his parents didn't get along well. It has always been worse with his father than his mother, Myra; she didn't like his habits but accepted them as part of Derek's personality, while Elliot had spent too much time trying to change him. They occasionally had serious fallings-out that never really got resolved, leading to continued tension between them.
"It's more to do with the thing in the sky than anything you do."
"Hmph." Elliot took a moment, then decided the question was safe to answer. "They're playing cautious right now. Didn't find anything at the site except for some unsettled dirt, so they're leaving it alone for the time being. We don't know what it's all about, so until something comes up, there isn't much we can do."
"'Kay." Derek took this information in and left the house. Neither parent tried to stop him, long since having decided that it wasn't worth the trouble.
He took the familiar route to the park where the strange occurrence had been the night before. On some nights he'd walk for hours on end without a rest, but tonight he didn't feel like that. He was strangely drawn to the park for some reason; not that he didn't like going there, because he did, but because he felt more like he needed to than wanted to.
As Derek had expected from what his father had told him, the park was deserted, like normal. Derek walked off into the trees and took a familiar position, laying down on the ground and looking up at the stars from a small clearing in the tree ceiling. He couldn't see the whole sky, but this area was the most relaxing he'd ever been in, so he didn't mind terribly.
"Ah...this is nice," he said quietly to himself. "So much more settled than the calamity of daytime...so quiet...it's just so much...louder during the day..."
"Indeed...the illumination of daylight hours seem to amplify sonorous emissions. The preponderance of said emissions tends to alleviate the effects to ordinary observers, as destructive interference contributes to that illusory effect."
"You said it..." mumbled Derek. Then his eyes snapped open. "Wait a sec...who said that?"
"'Twas I who proffered that admission." To Derek's surprise, a large black canine walked out of the bushes and in front of him. Derek sat up and rubbed his eyes, certain he was hallucinating; it was the creature that he had been dreaming about for so many years. Instantly, many questions leapt into his head, the first one he asked being:
"Uh...are you real?"
"I am quite grounded in reality, yes."
"Who..." Derek paused, deciding to rephrase. "Rather, what are you?"
"My given appellation is Blackcanismon. Should you find necessity in the condensation of such, Black is the preferable reference, although there are those who identify me as B.C."
Derek blinked. "Okay...I'm Derek. It's, uh, nice to meet you, I guess, but jeez...never heard someone use so many words to say something so simple."
"Innumerable individuals have made that observation. As to the classification of organism I tend towards, the technical nomenclature is digital monster, conveniently curtailed to digimon. Are those satisfactory rejoinders to your inquiries?"
"I guess so..." Derek replied, but a host of other questions arose from those answers. "What's a digital monster?"
"The technical nomenclature assigned to denizens of the digital world."
"The digital world? And what's that?"
"The digital world is a parallel of this organic terrestria. There exist connections between the two that are not completely understood. However, it has been ascertained that the dichotomy between such allows for interparallel expeditions."
"And so...you're here, then. Why?" Derek was having a lot of trouble keeping up with the canine. Not only was the entire concept new to him, he had trouble figuring out what the hell it was trying to say.
"A mission of utmost importance, which is unfortunately classified to the populace. I do hope this is not an unsatisfactory answer to your query."
"It is, but I guess I can't really argue with that...my dad's always talking about secrecy and stuff, so I'm used to not getting straight answers. I think I'd lose you just by trying to follow you, anyway. But if that was the case, why'd you walk up to me anyway?"
"I had an...indescribable inspiration. An attraction that was unconscious. It wrenched me from my intended direction, and I terminated my journey here." Blackcanismon regarded Derek carefully. "Upon closer reflection...there is a remarkable familiarity about you."
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I've been dreaming about you for years. Kind of strange...seeing one of your dreams actually come to life." Derek waited a moment, and when Blackcanismon didn't seem to be responding, pressed on. "So...what were you doing originally? I don't mean your mission, but you said you had an...'intended direction' or something like that."
"Ah, yes...well, I had returned to my originating area because I desired a rendezvous with my comrades."
"Wha-there are MORE of you guys here?!"
"Indeed..." Blackcanismon's calm expression suddenly became tinged with concern. "But it appears that they had deserted their position. And such behavior is definite cause for consternation, as one of those colleagues suffered grave injuries which should have proved sufficient to force him to remain stationary for an extended length of time."
"Um...okay. So, you were going to go look for them?"
"Indeed, but the endeavor is perilous. There is a preponderance of humans in near vicinities, and exploration into denser populations would considerably heighten the probability of my untimely discovery. Should a malevolent being intersect with my course, the consequences could be devastating to our cause."
Derek thought for a moment. "Yeah, you're right, and there's more, too. You're similar to the dogs of our world. And there are people whose jobs are to pick up stray animals and bring them to the pound. Animals that aren't claimed are...well..."
Derek didn't finish, but Blackcanismon's expression was enough to indicate he'd gotten the hint. "Oh, my...that would be a catastrophic impediment to our objectives. Surely there exists a multitude of potential protective measures I may avail myself of?"
"Well, there are a couple ways to keep you out of harm's way. Probably the best would be taking advantage of your appearance...you look like a dog, so you'll be mistaken for a dog. If you're taken in by a family, then, you shouldn't have any problem with Animal Control. But that would entail...well, there are a few features you may not like..."
"You have already captured my intrigue. Enlighten me."
"Well...okay, see, the dogs here are...well, of the nonsentient variety. Humans keep them as pets...they've done it for thousands of years. If you were to play the role of one of those dogs, you could hide in plain sight. The problem is, you'd have to be subject to the laws that we have here, which means restraints and such."
"Restraints? Undesirable, certainly..." Blackcanismon thought deeply for a while. "And yet...if the security of my existence is bolstered, it may serve to play the charade. Attempting to constantly conceal my presence has a greater probability of critical failure...am I not erroneous in conceiving that you would assume the role of 'owner?'"
"If you don't have a problem with that. Otherwise I can get someone else."
"You would be best. I feel...a trustworthiness about you. I could not pinpoint exactly my emotions in this regard, but my comfortability around you is radically expanded. My singular concern is the status of my compatriots, but perhaps that will be alleviated in the immediate future."
"All right, then." Derek smiled; he felt much more comfortable around Blackcanismon, as well. "I hope you don't mind a lot of night walks."
Blackcanismon beamed. "Oh, I quite relish them."
(--------------------)
Isaac was sick of the gathering before it began. The rest of his family was enjoying the party, but Isaac didn't know anyone there, and he found most of them annoying. His older sister, Ashley, had insisted upon his presence, even though his parents gave him the choice of skipping it.
"You gotta go, little bro. You never just get out and party."
"I don't like parties. You know that."
"Yeah, well, it's high time you started liking them. Gotta practice for college, you know."
And so he relented. But not for long; after spending an hour there, Isaac got the grace from his parents to ditch the party and head home. He wasted no time, jogging most of the way home in order to energize himself. He had worked up a nice sweat by the time he reached his house.
He didn't notice anything unusual as he entered the house and went upstairs. Not that he was looking for anything, anyway. He went into his room and flopped down on the bed. "Phew...thought I'd never get out of there..." He sat up and looked at the schematic of the robot he kept dreaming about. "That's right, I wanted to work on the hydraulics..."
He hopped off his bed and started working on his most recent project; perfecting a hydraulics system for smooth movement of joints. He wanted his robot to move as much like a real creature as it could, and that started with flexible, fast-responding joints. He got very involved in the work, so much so that it took him a minute to realize that someone was trying to get his attention.
"Huh? Is there someone here?"
"About time you noticed. I've been hissing at you for a while now."
"What the...are you under my bed?" Isaac was very confused now, as no one he knew could fit under his bed. "Who are you?"
"Be prepared for a shock." Before Isaac could ask what that meant, the source of the voice emerged from under the bed. Isaac watched numbly as the robot stood up and brushed himself off. "Man, don't you ever clean down there?"
"I...buh...what...when...how did..." Isaac shook his head and coughed. "You're...you're that robot...that keeps appearing in my dreams..."
"Nice connection." The robot looked up at the schematic of it on the wall. "I see you've been inspired by that. That's a pretty nice blueprint, though I have to say, it's seriously lacking in the armaments department."
"That's because I haven't figured out weapons systems yet," Isaac replied almost automatically, then did a double-take. Wait a sec, did a robot just give me criticism on the plans I had to build it? Oh, dear, I think my head's about to explode...
"Ah, well, I'm sure you'll get that eventually, with all the stuff you've already gotten."
Isaac was beginning to regain his composure; talking about robots with a robot seemed to help for some reason. "Um, if you don't mind me asking, are you from the future?"
Datacarnomon laughed. "No, I'm not from the future. I am from a different world, though."
"A robot from another world?" Isaac seemed more elated than aghast.
"Sort of. To be perfectly accurate, I'm a robot digimon...er, digital monster."
"Digital monster? Never heard of 'em."
"I'm not surprised. We haven't coexisted on the same world before. Our world is directly connected to yours, but we've been isolated for our entire shared history."
"So, if you're isolated from us, then how..." Isaac stopped as he realized he already knew the answer. "That thing last night! You came through by that!"
"Ooh, you're a quick study," said Datacarnomon approvingly. "I like that."
"I'm...glad you approve?" replied Isaac uncertainly. "Anyway, why did you come in here, and hide under my bed?"
"I'm not exactly sure. I was just drawn here." Datacarnomon thought for a few seconds. "Hey...I know this is kind of an odd question, but do you think I could crash here tonight? My processor's been going almost non-stop for the past few days, and it could really do with a rest, but I don't trust the outdoors of strange places."
"Um...well..." Isaac hesitated a moment, then a thought occurred to him. "I guess, if you can return the favor...by maybe helping me out with these hydraulics?"
Datacarnomon smiled and nodded. "We have much to discuss."
(--------------------)
(--------------------)
Phew, long chapter here. But I didn't want to skimp on the set-up, so there's plenty of it. Sorry about the lack of action, but that'll be picking up more in the coming chapters. And I promise I'll touch on how they all got together so quickly, too, and let you decide whether it was originally planned or a last-second cop-out. (Hint: it was originally planned)
That's all for this week. See you for Chapter 3!
