Matt didn't usually get scared, he was a cool guy and nothing much phased him. But when he'd come round to find a ball with a fin talking to him as he lay on the ground he'd been pretty scared. Scared enough to scream, scared enough to panic, scared enough to run away – he figured he was pretty damn scared. Until, that is, the giant red bug had screeched overhead and the little ball with a fin had told him to take cover in the bushes. When that thing was buzzing about Matt was really scared and the little ball with a fin seemed a lot less frightening. Tsunamon the creature called it's self and pretty soon Matt realised that it was little to be afraid of, okay so it talked, ok it knew his name and ok he was nowhere near the his car anymore and couldn't make a quick getaway but on the whole he was less freaked out. When he'd seen Sora standing about with that Tai guy and the other kid he'd given a ride to, Matt was a lot less scared and once TK emerged from the trees Matt was completely over his initial shock.
Having said that when Joe's scream ricochet through the air Matt was convinced the giant bug was after him but no, Joe was screaming at the grey, seal-like creature perched on his shoulder. Screaming like a baby.
"Joe chill it's okay," Matt tried to calm him down but Joe was flailing around like a child.
"Get it off me Matt," he gasped "just get it off me!"
The creature seemed to be laughing and talking just like all of the others but Matt couldn't make out what it was saying, eventually it jumped down and landed near Joe's feet.
"Talk about an over-reaction," that was Tai who was standing next to Sora, Matt wanted to tell him to shut up but secretly felt that Joe did make a bit of a meal of things so didn't bother. The little creature had left Joe alone and was lining up with all of the other ones around them. One by one they introduced themselves declaring that they were digital monsters or 'Digimon' Matt just gawped, this couldn't be real, it had to be some sort of dream surely? Maybe his friend Mike had been smoking too much pot around him during their band practice the other day or maybe staying up late waiting for his dad to finish work was starting to affect his mind or something but there was no way that this was real!
He stole a glance at the others. Joe looked like he was about to throw up and Sora had turned pale. But the other three, TK and the two goons he'd given a lift to, looked like kids in a candy store, one of them, the shorter, nerdy looking one looked like he'd just walked into Disneyland.
"Well it's nice to meet you all," TK said with a laugh – Matt stared at him, was he serious?! Was he actually talking back to these things like they were real? Suddenly he felt a brush against his leg. He looked down and saw his little Tsunomon at his feet.
"What's wrong Matt?" It asked him, startled, Matt took a step backward
"How do you know my name?" he asked not sure if he actually wanted to know the answer
"I've been waiting for you for such a long time!" it replied "I always knew you'd come to me!" Matt just chuckled uncomfortably and backed further away. This was too insane. Behind him Sora spoke, and it suddenly dawned on him how inconsiderate he'd been, here they were surrounded by talking monsters in a place that definitely wasn't home and he hadn't even asked Sora – his date – if she was okay! That guy Tai was standing next to her with his arm placed protectively on her shoulder.
"What happened to that other girl?" Sora asked, then Matt remembered the girl who'd smashed into his car, the one with the expensive clothes and silly beret. Had she been transported here too? As annoyed with her as he was Matt still felt a little worried.
"Oh yeah," said the shorter guy whose name Matt still couldn't remember "Mimi, she's in my year at school…class A drama queen, if she's here we'll hear her," the guy snickered nastily and Tai laughed too.
"She might be hurt," Matt pointed out feeling annoyed at the two for being so heartless "getting sucked into a tidal wave and crash landing into the middle of nowhere isn't the smoothest of rides."
"Okay then what do you suggest?" asked Tai whose smile had vanished "shall we all go look for some girl we don't even know is here or not?"
"If it were you wouldn't you want someone to come and find you?" Matt replied trying to keep his cool, he noticed TK roll his eyes as if he heard this all too many times before
"Maybe not if the person was you," muttered Tai loudly enough for Matt to hear. What was this jerk's problem?! Matt had the right mind to shove him and knock some sense into him but Sora subtly stood between them.
"Okay guys let's just calm down and try to figure out what's going on here," she said with an obvious attempt to keep the peace.
"Isn't it obvious?" asked the short kid again with a superior, sarcasm in his voice that Matt didn't appreciate. "Clearly we're no longer in our universe anymore and we've been teleported to some sort of parallel dimension. Matt suppressed a laugh,
"Seriously?" he asked the guy "oh wow I've heard more realistic ideas coming out of an episode of Star Trek!"
The boy visibly bristled but remained cool and aloof,
"I don't see you offering any other explanation, besides, parallel universes and quantum physics are probably a little too broad for an artsy pretty boy, history student like you," This time Matt did laugh and even TK smirked a little,
"Oh sure!" he replied cuttingly "it's not like I'm majoring in quantum physics or anything – you're probably right, this is way too much for me!"
The boy reddened and insolently bit his lower lip in frustration.
"Enough already!" Sora said sounding more shrill and annoyed "look we need to find some help, something terrible has obviously happened during that storm and we need to get back home!"
"Sora's right," said Tai "there's no point in us just standing around here, we should get out of this forest and head to the coast, I reckon we'll be safer there and away from that giant flying thing,"
He was right, Matt thought, there would be telephones at the coast or maybe even a coast guard to help them out. Better still, they might find his car and be able to drive to safety. Matt had a terrible sinking feeling in his stomach that the tidal wave had somehow managed to destroy the radioactive power plant on the outskirts of the city, it would explain all of the mutant like creatures, the sooner they left the forest the better.
"Do these things have to come with us?" Joe asked as his little monster edged towards him.
"I doubt you'll be able to stop it," Matt replied as his own monster bounced along next to him.
They had walked about ten yards when the skies were filled with that same ear-splitting screech they'd heard earlier and the same red bug shot into the air above them. It screeched once more and swooped towards them, Matt noticed it was chasing something and as he squinted into the distance he saw the girl in the pink beret, Mimi, racing at them with some sort of green onion in tow.
"Run!" she screamed and raced past the group without so much as a second glance. Matt didn't need telling twice, he turned and darted back into the forest with the others. He ran, blindly, through the forest, vaguely aware of the twigs and brambles scratching away at his face. The bug was right behind them ripping trees out of the ground and tossing them aside angrily. Matt's heart was thumping wildly in his chest and his legs were on fire, how much longer could he go on like this?
Suddenly the trees became less dense and they reached the edge of the forest and, to Matt's dismay, the edge of a cliff. They were cornered, the bug was closing in on them, and when Matt peered over the edge of the cliff he saw that a fifty foot drop awaited and a raging, rocky looking river down below.
"We'll have to jump!" called Tai who looked quite serious about the suggestion
"Are you out of your mind?" Joe asked him, grabbing Tai's arm and yanking him away from the edge, much to Matt's relief.
"What other choice do we have?" Tai shouted sounding desperate. He was right, but so was Joe. It was insanely stupid to make the jump, even if they survived the fall they'd most likely drown in the rapids below. Before anyone could actually answer Tai's question the bug swooped down at them all. Instinctively Matt dived onto the floor and shut his eyes. He felt the rush of air and heard the buzzing of wings overhead as the bug flew past. When he opened his eyes he saw that everyone else had done the same thing, just in time too.
"Back to the forest!" shouted Sora, Matt got to his feet but was knocked down again by Joe who tackled him down just as the bug flew past again. It stopped flying and landed opposite them and slowly and menacingly advanced towards them with its pincers snapping madly.
"It's not as stupid as it looks!" Tai shouted echoing Matt's thoughts. It was forcing them to back away, and the further back they went the further towards the edge of the cliff they went too.
"I don't want to die!" wailed Mimi and she suddenly grabbed hold of Matt and clung on.
"Hey get off!" He tried to shake her but her grip was like iron and she stayed tight. Matt didn't really know what to do so he just sort of held her in the most comforting way possible.
"Oh my God!" Tai gasped next to him, "this is it! I'm going to die!" He'd turned pale and was rummaging frantically through his pocket for his lighter as a cigarette wobbled between his lips. The creature was almost upon them, Matt glanced back over the cliff again – which way would be quickest? Death by drowning or death by being eaten alive? Eaten alive surely – more painful yes but much, much quicker. He shut his eyes and braced himself as the pincers came closer but suddenly, there was another, different screech from the bug. Matt opened his eyes and saw that all of the little monsters that had followed them around had launched themselves at the bug and were seemingly blowing pink bubbles at it. The bubbles seemed to sting it's eyes and it wobbled backwards for a second but then swiped the little creatures out of the way. They bounced back up, clearly shaken and attempted a second attack – beside him Tai called out to them to stop and Mimi loosened her grip on Matt.
"Hey stop it you guys!" called Tai his cigarette still clenched, unlighted, between his teeth. "You'll be killed!" but they ignored him and pressed on getting swiped away with more ferocity. Matt couldn't believe what he was seeing, were these little things defending them? Why? He was his little Tsunomon get smacked away by a pincer and roll lifelessly onto the floor. Matt's heart gave a jolt –
"No!" he cried and rushed forward to it as he did something in his pocket began to glow, he stopped mid-tracks and felt the strange device he'd picked up back by his car start to vibrate. He pulled it out and it was glowing white and shaking and suddenly Tsunomon was surrounded with a white light too. Right in front of his eyes all of the tiny creatures began to glow the same white light and began to almost magically change shape. There was a flash and then, standing in place of the little creatures were seven bigger, scarier looking things that Matt could only describe as monsters. His one, his Tsunomon had tripled in size and looked like some sort of yellow dog with blue fur and a horn on it's head. He could see a large pink bird type thing, an orange baby dinosaur, some sort of white and purple seal. Before he could say or do anything the monsters began to attack. Tsunomon opened his dog mouth and to Matt's amazement blasted a stream of blue fire at the bug. All Matt saw in the next few seconds were fireballs, bolts of lightning and other strange things. He could do nothing but watch as the red bug screamed and screeched and collapsed into the trees with a groan. It was dead.
There was a pause, and then a cheer. Everyone ran to their respective 'Digimon', Tai scooped the baby dinosaur up into his arms and cradled it like a kitten. Mimi was sobbing into the shoulder of a weird looking plant. Matt went over to the blue dog and hesitated.
"Tsunomon?" he asked the dog smiled and spoke in a deep, husky voice
"It's Gabumon actually – I just digivolved!" Matt had no idea what that was supposed to mean but didn't care, he gave the dog a hug.
"Well thank you Gabumon, you just saved my life!"
"Don't thank me," it replied happily "it was you who helped me to digivolve!" Matt still didn't know what that meant but continued to hug it tightly. He felt like a child but didn't really care – he was alive that was all that mattered right now.
He was so elated he felt like he was walking on air – then suddenly, he was…
