Chapter 3: And so they Begin to Gather…
Time had gone by surprisingly fast for Nero, even though he hadn't really done anything. It was already morning, and a pixel sun shined down from above. However, due to how far it was, seeing how the whole Digital World was like a parallel Earth, one could not tell any difference in the sky. Just the same, everything felt real, and staring into the sun would result in blindness like on Earth. Everything was digital, but completely real at the same time.
Dorumon was recovering rather nicely, currently playing with a small purple ball in the presence of Nero. He kicked the ball up into the air, bouncing it on his head, then his tail, then his arms, followed by his head again, his feet, and so on.
"You're pretty good at that," Nero complimented, smiling from just observing his partner.
"You never let me fight," Dorumon replied. "I had to find some way to entertain myself."
"I never imagined the lack of fighting experience would result in something like this," said Nero in a low voice, shifting his gaze away from Dorumon. "It really is my fault for what happened to you."
"You came here because you were about me, didn't you?" Dorumon asked. Nero's silence was enough of an answer, and Dorumon stopped playing and walked over. "Yggdrasil, you're my best friend, my partner! It's not your fault, so stop blaming yourself. I forgive you and you forgave me for failing. So don't worry, I'm going to make sure you get home safely, no matter what!"
"Thank you, Dorumon," Nero said to his partner.
Nero took out his Digivice, wondering if anyone would actually join his quest. To his surprise, he counted three red dots. He quickly corrected himself when he noticed one more that he had overlooked. There were already four others currently travelling in the Digital World. His message had gone through.
The closest red dot wasn't far off from the Village of Enlightenment. It was actually located in the center of the neighboring forest known as the Training Forest. The name came from the fact that it was used to teach the In-Training Digimon how to battle against foes. The deeper you went in, the stronger the Digimon became. By the time an In-Training Digimon made it through, they would more than likely have become a Rookie and be ready to go to the village not far beyond, a village used to house Digimon to be adopted by players. However, not all Digimon went to the village. Those that didn't would become either rogue Digimon that players could battle for experience, or NPC characters that would offer hints, become temporary allies, or work at a shop somewhere in the Digital World.
"Are you sure we're going the right way, Alex?" someone moaned.
Two characters appeared from behind some trees as they trudged their way through the forest. One of them was a Digimon. It was a Rookie-level Digimon about two feet tall and sort of resembled a human lizard, at least in the main body area. The head was more spherical, containing two large, pointed ears that stuck out in the upper back. The Digimon itself was blue, containing shades of on the belly and snout. A tiny horn stuck out where the nose was, and a yellow "V" was present between its two pinkish-red eyes.
The other character was a human, a girl to be precise. She had brown that wasn't short, but not too long either. She wore a white T-shirt with a red "V" on the front. She also wore white shorts and white boots to match. Around her pair of brown eyes were glasses, causing her not to give off the fighter-like appearance that her clothes seemed to suggest. In age, she was presumably three years older than Nero. In her right hand lay a Digivice.
"You're the one who told me to head towards the red dot," the girl sighed. "Or did you already forget, Veemon?"
"I said I 'think' you should head towards, Alex," Veemon responded.
"How could you not know? Don't you, oh I don't know, live here?" Alex grumbled. "I got this Digivice when your egg appeared on my computer screen, I figured you would at least know what to do?"
"All right already, I get it!" Veemon replied. "Let's just keep following it."
"The one day I get up early for school and all the teachers go on strike," Alex sighed, talking to herself. "I just hope this adventure is what I expect it to be."
Veemon recalled that when he saw Alex through the computer screen, she seemed rather excited about the adventure. Unlike the others who had received Digivices, she believed it immediately, as if her instinct told her to believe it from the moment that she laid eyes upon the message.
Veemon looked on ahead and noticed a tree that was much lower than the others. Closer inspection revealed it to be apple tree, with the apples big and ripe. Without even telling Alex, he charged forward and rammed his head into the tree, holding out two arms immediately after. The vibration shook the tree and an apple plopped into each hand. Alex was impressed and clapped.
"Thank you," said Veemon, taking a bow.
He held out an apple and gave it to Alex, whom took it and thanked Veemon. Alex became happy again, or appeared to at least, making Veemon happy as well. He smiled and began eating the apple.
Meanwhile, in another area of the Digital World, a boy about two years older than Nero had recently appeared in a desert-like region. He had short, thick black hair and blue eyes. He wore a loose-fitting, short-sleeved, blue button shirt over a white T-shirt. The blue shirt was only partially buttoned, though nobody could be sure if it was due to laziness or comfort, which was more than likely the latter. He also wore brown shorts and a pair of sandals that were made out of a bamboo-like material.
The boy looked around curiously, noticing a Digimon by his side. The Digimon was known as PawnChessmon, and it greatly resembled a black pawn from a chessboard combined with a suit of knight armor. It carried a spear, a small round shield, and wore a bronze knight's mask. On top of its head was a pointed tip.
"See, I told you it was real, Zaki!" the Digimon said in a boastful tone, the voice hard to understand underneath the mask that could not be removed.
"I don't believe it!" the boy gasped.
Only minutes ago had Zaki accepted the invitation from Yggdrasil. He never really believed it, and had a hard time believing that Digivice he had received was real. When he picked it up, a voice told him everything, yet he still refused to believe. Regardless, he went and asked his father, whom didn't care at all what Zaki did. He only cared if it made him angry, which was quite often. By the time he had returned, the egg on the screen had hatched and the Digimon had already evolved to its Rookie stage. If a Digimon was strong enough, usually only after being reborn, they could skip the first two stages of life. However, such an action prevented the Digimon from receiving a huge amount of experience that would later be used to help reach a level suitable for digivolving into Champion or higher.
In another part of the Digital World, walking through a Digimon-populated city, was Andrew. He had entered the Digital World and was now looking at his Digivice.
"There sure are a lot Digimon here, Kudamon," he said to a white pipe fox Digimon with yellow marking on its legs and back along with a yellow ring around its neck, perched around his neck like a scarf.
"What did you expect?" the Digimon replied. "You are in the Western Capital City."
"Western Capital City?" Andrew repeated as he questioned Kudamon.
"The Digital World is divided into four quadrants," Kudamon explained. "The capital of each quadrant is the most populated city in the area. Most of the main game servers connect to one of these cities. Most players, such as yourself, don't bother to pay attention to them though."
"I see," Andrew replied with a small sigh. "Anyway, how do you expect us to reach the locations marked on the Digivice? They're at least half a quadrant away!"
"Don't worry," Kudamon told him. "The Trailmon service trains run from the city outwards. Though they'll take you to most places, the only place they allow passengers to board is in a city. If I'm not mistaken, the next one leaves in ten minutes."
"Then let's not waste any time!" Andrew stated, slowly increasing his walking speed until he broke into a run.
Raeana, or rather Ana, was also in the Digital World. Her location was some old ruins in the middle of open grass field. The ruins had no name, they were just there for decoration and held no real importance. Some players liked to use spots like this as meeting places for field missions. Ana looked at her Digivice and saw that she still had a distance to go.
"Break time's over!" she announced. "Let's go, Guilmon!"
A red dinosaur-like Digimon, no taller than an older elementary school student, perked its head up from behind some rubble. It had what appeared to be black bands around its wrists, black triangle-like symbols on the backs of its hands and feet, under its eyes, and smack-dab in the middle of its forehead. Its belly was white with a black hazard symbol on its chest, and it had a long lizard-like tail. Its ears looked like little bat wings, and its feet had two toes. Its hands had white pads with three long claws extending from each hand. Its eyes were yellow, and its pupil could change from looking like that of human and that of a lizard.
"Coming!" Guilmon shouted in an innocent, child-like voice.
After making their way through the forest and traveling for at least an hour, Alex and Veemon finally came to the end. After pushing through a bush, the two found themselves just outside of the Village of Enlightenment. Alex looked down at her Digivice and saw that they were very close to the red dot.
"Looks like we've found somebody," stated Alex. "Maybe it's Yggdrasil!"
"We won't know until we look," Veemon reminded.
Inside the village, Nero continued watching Dorumon play.
"Lord Yggdrasil!" a voice called.
Nero turned and saw that all o f the In-Training Digimon had gathered around.
"We were wondering if you'd play with us?" they all requested.
"Wait just a minute!" Wizardmon yelled, rushing over. "You all are supposed to be with Cherrymon!"
A pink marshmallow-like Digimon with long floppy ears, Koromon, began hopping up and down.
"We finished our lesson already!" he informed.
"Really?" Swanmon questioned as she floated down from above. "You were actually well-behaved and didn't drag on the lesson?"
The Digimon all nodded, and Swanmon and Wizardmon could tell that they were not lying. Wizardmon sighed and agreed to let them if Nero allowed it. Before Nero could give an answer, the young Digimon all began swarming around him. Just as Wizardmon and Swanmon were about to push them away, Dorumon's voice rang out.
"EVERYONE BACK OFF!!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.
His tone carried such an intensity that all of the In-Training Digimon froze in place and slowly backed away from Nero. Swanmon and Wizardmon remained frozen in place, completely stunned. They both knew that, even though he was only a Rookie, Dorumon was not a Digimon to mess with when angry. Dorumon quickly realized what he had done and apologized. The In-Training Digimon apologized as well, asking Dorumon to forgive them.
"I know Dorumon said he'd protect me," Nero thought, shocked as well. "But I never knew he was this overprotective!"
Dorumon forgave the young Digimon and Nero came up with an idea. He picked up Dorumon's ball and held it out.
"I've got a great game, and a great way to increase Dorumon's experience," Nero announced, tossing the ball to Dorumon. Dorumon and the Digimon all looked up with great curiosity. "I want all of you to work together and try to take the ball from Dorumon. Just the same, you, Dorumon, must keep the ball away from them."
"What?!" Dorumon gasped. "I can't keep it away from this many In-Training Digimon?!"
"Ooh, I'll do it!" a floppy-eared gray Digimon, Pagumon, volunteered.
"So, MY partner is going to let himself be outdone by a stage 2 Digimon?" Nero snickered.
Dorumon gave a low growl and instantly threw the ball into the air, catching it as it fell.
"Come and get me!" Dorumon dared.
As the young Digimon began chasing Dorumon all over the village, Alex and Veemon arrived on the scene. Alex quickly took notice of Nero. She looked at her Digivice and saw that the signal was coming from him.
"A boy?" she thought. "I see, he must've gotten the letter too!"
Alex and Veemon made their way over to Nero. Nero's Digivice began to beep and he quickly took it out. He saw the signal approaching and looked up, seeing Alex and Veemon.
"Hi," Alex greeted. "I'm guessing you got the message as well?"
Nero instantly realized that she didn't think him to be Yggdrasil. He gave a slight smirk.
"Well, I received a message," he replied, referring to his message from Wizardmon.
"Anyway, I'm Alexandra Yamamoto, but everyone calls me Alex," Alex said, her tone sounding as if she was happy to meet Nero. "My partner here is Veemon."
"Pleased to meet ya!" Veemon said, holding out his hand.
Nero stood up and held out his right hand, grasping Veemon's and shaking.
"I'm Nero Arakaki," he stated. "It's nice to meet you both. My partner is Dorumon, he's the one currently running away from the horde of In-Training Digimon."
"Ooh, let me join in!" Veemon begged.
"Sure, go ahead!" Nero replied. "You can be on Dorumon's team. It looks like he needs some help."
Veemon ran off to join the fray. When he met up with Dorumon, he told Dorumon the situation and Dorumon tossed him the ball. Veemon began showing off some tricks and he balanced the ball in various ways while he kept it away from the Digimon. A Pagumon lunged at him and managed to knock it away. Dorumon held out his tail and caught the ball before it fell into the crowd. Veemon instantly became jealous when Dorumon began performing harder stunts with ball as he kept it away.
"That's it, he's my rival!" Veemon declared under his breath.
As the Digimon all played, Alex was busy talking to Nero. Nero had asked what Alex thought Yggdrasil was like. She pictured him as a guy closer to her age or older. She figured he was either some kind of handsome devil who happened to be intelligent, or some older computer genius that had graduated from college recently.
Eventually, the young Digimon chasing Dorumon and Veemon grew tired and could no longer continue. The two Rookie-level Digimon had won. Swanmon and Wizardmon were both pleased with result and sighed with relief, knowing that the young Digimon would be napping for a while and giving them some time to relax. Dorumon and Veemon both panted heavily.
"Not bad," Dorumon complimented.
"Heh, you're really good yourself!" Veemon said back.
Dorumon carried the ball as he and Veemon returned to their partners.
"We were great out there!" Veemon boasted. "You should've seen us!"
Dorumon noticed Alex and was surprised to see another human. Nero had not yet told him about what he had done.
"Yggdrasil, who's your friend?" he asked.
"Y-Yggdrasil?" Alex stuttered. "Y-You're Yggdrasil?!"
"Yeah, I am," Nero admitted. Ignoring her stuttering, Nero turned his attention to Dorumon. "Her name is Alex, and she and Veemon are going to help us!"