Chapter One: What the Hell?
Author's notes: Well, I got the prologue
up and it seemed to get a lukewarm response. Here's chapter One. Enjoy.
:)
The usual key applies:
Italics: emphasis
Bold Italics: Thoughts
------- : World Change (Also to open or close a fic. You will see both
happen here.)
******* : Same world, but scene change.
+ + + : Change in time (Forward/backward, etc.)
New additions to the key!
Bold Underlined Italics: Extreme emphasis. Can be either thoughts, speech, or what have you. ^.^;;;
Underlined Italics: written/electronically produced comments.
You're gonna be seeing this one quite a bit in later chapters.
Bold Underline: Sign language (Both human and Garou)
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Earth 2: Tamer Alterverse
Great Gaia....where am I? The Bronx?
It was the first thing that he had thought upon
finding himself here. He didn't recognize anyone or anything. The skyline
was so different that it was impossible to even count all the differences.
He passed several oriental couples along the streets as he slunk through
the alleyways. He'd then begun to think that he'd ended up somewhere in
the Little Tokyo district of NYC, but soon noticed that because the skyline
was still too unfamiliar, that he couldn't still be there. Was this Chinatown
maybe?
"Can I help you?"
Moontreader was so startled at the sound of the
voice that he nearly drew one of his Klaives out as he whirled around to
face the source of the sound. It spoke in a language he didn't understand,
being as he did not know Japanese. The voice came from a young boy, perhaps
his own age, with blue/black hair and sea-green eyes, a far lighter shade
than any he'd yet seen. He wore an orange vest over an ordinary T-shirt.
Moontreader blinked at him, having no idea what to say, or sign, in his
case, so he simply stood there.
"Is everything alright?" the boy asked in Japanese
again. Again, Takato Moontreader simply gave him a blank, uncomprehending
stare.
"Maybe he doesn't speak the language, Jen." came
a second voice from right behind the boy, seemingly from his shoulders,
as a large rabbit-like creature suddenly appeared, draping itself on the
boy's head. Seeing this creature, Takato did draw out one of his
Klaives, backing away warily.
"Whoa! Easy there, nobody's gonna hurt you! This
is Terriermon. He's my friend." Said the boy, backpeddling faster than
Moontreader had. The Red Talon did not put away his Klaive, but neither
did he attack. Something about this seemed completely unusual. He could
not sense the taint of the Wyrm here, nor the Weaver, or even the Wyld.
Wherever he was, it was nothing like what he knew. Could the dark forces
have found a way to hide themselves? Was he in some distorted place in
the Far Umbra? What
WAS this place? Stepping back another few paces,
Moontreader finally placed his Klaive back into his duster. He wasn't sure
what was going on, but if this was some trick of the Wyrm's to trap him
or his Pack, Moontreader wasn't going to rush blindly forward. That way
would lead only to his own destruction. But with this insane language barrier,
how could he even communicate? The boy seemed amicable enough, as did the...rabbit
or whatever the Hell it was. Again, his gift of sensing Wyrm taint told
him nothing. Not even a slight twitter of Wyrm taint in either one. Surely
he had not stumbled across another Garou. Not in gear like that, nor with
a Gaffling, or more likely in this case a Jaggling, given the fact that
it appeared in plain sight and spoke aloud, sitting on the boy's head.
Could this be a Mage? Surely not. Mages and Garou would not speak in plain
sight of one another. Indeed, the last Mage that Moontreader had encountered,
who was thankfully very new at it, had been slain in a very brutal manner
after the deluded fool had dared to attack him. Naturally, he couldn't
be part of Pentex. He was far too young. And if he were a Vampire, he'd
have to be astonishingly powerful to be able to walk in sunlight without
being harmed. No, this boy had to be human. But what in Gaia's name was
the rabbit-thing?
"Uhm...hmmmm....do you think maybe he speaks Chinese,
Jen?" Terriermon asked of his friend. The half-Japanese actually considered
that for a moment.
"Let's find out", he replied, and switched over
to Chinese. "Pardon me, do you need any help?"
Again, only that blank, uncomprehending stare. Indeed,
Moontreader was almost tempted to use sign language to 'speak' with the
stranger, but wasn't sure if it would make the translation correctly.
"Well it was worth a shot. What now? Do we see if
he knows interpretive dance?"
"Terriermon!"
"Sorry! Geez, it was just a joke, Jen. Moumentai!"
"Easy for you to say...."
"You could always see if he's from America or something.
Maybe he speaks english."
After a moment more of consideration, Jenrya nodded.
"Hello? Do you speak english?" he asked, in slightly
broken, and heavily accented english. Moontreader blinked, then nodded.
At least the boy was multi-lingual! That would make things a bit easier.
"Good. He knows english. Remember what I've been
teaching you, Terriermon." He said in japanese before switching back to
english. "My name's Jenrya Lee, and this is Terriermon. What's your name?"
Moontreader winced. Then sighed, and pointed
to his throat and shook his head. Then began quickly signing in English.
"I cannot speak as others do. My name is Takato
Moontreader, but I prefer simply Moontreader."
"What was that, Jen?" Terriermon stage whispered
to his Tamer, who vaguely recognized it for what it was..
"Sign language, I think. He seems to be mute." Jenrya
replied again, before turning to Takato. "I can understand bits and pieces
of sign language. You said your name was Moontreader?" Jenrya considered
himself fortunate that even with the broken english, he was still getting
his point across. Given that this Moontreader carried around a deadly weapon,
the last thing he wanted to do was piss the guy off. The boy in question
nodded.
"Where exactly am I? The last I remember,
I was in the Little Tokyo district of New York City."
That gave the half-Japanese pause for concern.
Little Tokyo?! But, that's halfway across
the globe! How did he wind up here?
"Well, this is West Shinjuku, in Japan.
I dunno how you got here, but you're gonna need a place to stay, particularly
with tattoos like that on your face. You could hole up at my place for
awhile. We have an extra room." Jenrya said to the boy in english. Moontreader
nodded, somewhat annoyed that even this stranger and his...he supposed
it was a Familiar of some kind, seemed to regard his markings as
strange. But given the cicumstances, he couldn't rightly complain, since
in this strange place, he was alone, and with none of the Hakken nearby
to turn to for any kind of help, this kid was his only hope for finding
out any information on where he was, and more importantly...how to get
back to New York City. After a few moments of arguing Terriermon into a
backpack Moontreader hadn't seen before, as it had been dropped to the
ground moments after he had first arrived, Jenrya began to lead him through
the alleyways towards his home. Naturally, neither boy made an attempt
at conversation. While Jenrya understood english and could speak it, at
least somewhat, he was more comfortable speaking japanese or chinese, and
Moontreader didn't seem to understand either one in the least, and while
he could sign to the blue haired youth, the sign language obviously lost
something in the translation.
Jenrya's mind was a whirl of thoughts as he walked
along with the stranger. He certainly looked like he was Japanese,
but due to his being unable to understand the language, it was obvious
he had grown up elsewhere. The reference to Little Tokyo frightened him
though. If that was where he last remembered being, then how long had he
been unconscious? Why was he carrying around such a deadly weapon? And
why did he get the feeling that by bringing him to his home, that he was
about to blow Terriermon's cover? Jenrya had been pretending for some time
now that Terriermon was simply a plush novelty toy. Thankfully the little
Digimon had taken to the role fairly well. Though he was still wary of
Shuichon, Jen's little sister.
Moontreader followed the half-chinese boy. He was
used to the crowds. They were the same the world over, after all. Even
had he lost him, his skills as a tracker would not have left that state
as such for long. But he didn't lose him. In fact, he had mapped the entire
route in his mind by the time he was led to the boy's home. Knowing the
terrain would do little to hinder him, and would allow him great advantages
inany upcoming battles.
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"Hey, girls! Look who it is! Old Scar Throat herself!"
came the taunt. Ruki would have growled if she could have. Despite the
fact that she was the best fighter in the school, she was constantly taunted.
Ever since she had gone to school without the bandages, Mikki had taken
to making fun of her, calling her Scar Throat and such. Of course, she
always did it when there wasn't a teacher present. That way she could get
in her digs and let her little gang deal with Ruki if she decided to make
use of her considerable fighting skill. They had left her battered more
than once. She may have been a great street brawler, but even the Digimon
Queen couldn't fight off seven girls at once. And she couldn't call out
for help since she was mute. Typically, Mikki started the week with a few
taunts before school. Ruki would try to beat the girl senseless, and then
the others would jump in.
Despite it all, Ruki would never realize that the
reason they taunted her about her scar was that even with that scar,
she was considered prettier than most of the other girls in the school.
Even by some of the boyfriends of the other girls in the school. Mikki
had been pissed. She had always played second fiddle to Ruki before, and
despite now feeling that she was prettier because she wasn't a scarred
piece of trash, the boys actually thought that the scars made that little
Makino BITCH that much prettier. Because she hadn't
let it break her. Because she refused to go to a school where freaks like
her BELONGED. Because she STILL outclassed Mikki in everything.
She hated Ruki Makino.
And she was GOING to break her if it was
the last thing she did.
Makino however, had a little surprise in hand this
time. Rather than attacking as she normally did, she smirked, and walked
past. The small gang of girls looked perplexed. Mikki grabbed at her as
she passed her towards the doors.
Ruki grabbed her.
It happened so fast none of the girls could stop
her. Gripping Mikki tightly, she pulled her arm, causing Mikki to stumble
forward, and punched her hard across the face. Satisfied that she had made
her point, she moved into the school as the others moved towards their
leader, and a few had even started moving her way, but were too late to
stop her.
Makino had proved her point. For now. But the small
group of girls who were determined to see her fiery will broken had no
intention of letting her succeed in getting away with fighting back.
"She needs to be taught a lesson." Mikki's best
friend, an exchange student named Jessica snarled.
"She will be."
"Yeah? How?" came the voice of another girl named
Sen.
"I've got a plan." Mikki retorted.
**************************************************************************
Moontreader blinked. Once, twice, three times.
The little girl simply wouldn't stop chattering.
Shuichon had been pestering him almost from the
word go. She seemed curious about everything. His clothes, his hairstyle,
the markings on his face... she'd even gone so far as to try to play with
his favored Klaive!
Her brother had stopped her from that one, of course.
He knew how deadly that damned thing could be, and had no intentions
of letting the small child get into an accident with it. After a few moments
of explaining to the girl about how dangerous it was, the girl simply forgot
about the Klaive and went back to chattering at him again. Moontreader
was half tempted to shift into his War-Form, pick her up, and toss her
out of the nearest window. Of course that wouldn't be very gracious a thing
to do, considering her brother had offered him a place to stay, at least
for the time being. Had he had a voice, he would have yelled at her to
shut up. He was half tempted to shift to Crinos anyway, just to scare the
poor thing so bad from the effects of the Delirium that she would run screaming
into her room and hopefully not bother him again for the remainder of the
time he was here.
Again, not a very polite thing to do.
But by Gaia, was it tempting!
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
He looked up to see Jenrya in front of him, along
with a man who could only be his father.
"My son tells me you speak english." The man said
in perfect, if heavily accented, english.
Moontreader nodded. "That I do, sir. I take
it you understand sign?" he asked in return.
The man nodded.
"Who do you think it is who's been teaching
it to him?" he replied in sign, with a grin.
Moontreader simply smiled and nodded. Despite the
Tribe-wide disdain for humans on the whole, he found some humans
could be downright friendly, and this man was clearly one of them.
"You are free to stay here as long as it takes
for you to be reunited with your parents. Dinner should be ready shortly."
He blinked, then shook his head and smiled.
"I'm afraid my parents cannot be reached.
I am...an orphan." It wasn't a total lie, actually. "I am
what, I believe is known as a Ronin in your culture." Ronin
was a term which had made it's way into the Garou language centuries ago.
Though whether the word began with the Garou and became part of the Japanese
language or vice versa, Moontyreader couldn't say. But the basic concept
was the same.
"But the offer of a meal is appreciated, and
since I am kind of hungry, it would hardly be polite of me to turn it down."
He finished with a smile.
Janyuu Lee nodded and vanished into the next room.
Jenrya, who had only caught bits and pieces of the conversation debated
whether or not to try getting the strange boy interested in a game of Digimon.
Though he doubted Moontreader knew how to play. That would have just made
it more interesting, teaching him the rules of the game. Of course, it
would have helped if Moontreader could actually speak or read Japanese.....
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Two days later
The school day had just let out, and Ruki Makino
was headed for the park, after making a quick trip home to change into
her standard attire: T-shirt with a broken heart symbol, blue jeans, and
a brown leather belt which was attached to a small card deck carrier. Ever
since Renamon had first appeared, she had been spending time there. As
if something had drawn her to the place. It was there that Ruki felt the
most at ease. It was as if it was her place now. She knew almost every
inch of the park. Renamon seemed taken with the area herself. They had
holed up in a small section of the park which was little more than a clump
of trees next to a pond. Few people went there, and those who did were
usually younger children who came by in the earlier parts of the day because
they did not yet have to worry about attending school. She sat there now,
next to the pond, running through her deck. Renamon had gone off to get
a better view of the city. There had been no activity from wild Digimon
for some time, but that didn't necessarily mean there wouldn't be any soon.
Ruki continued to shift through her deck, changing
older cards with new ones from recently released boosters. Since nobody
ever came this way, she had no reason to be on guard for anything. She
was confident that her special place would never be violated.
That was a mistake.
It happened so fast, she barely recognized what
was going on. The three sets of hands grabbing her, the fourth set lashing
across her face in a devastating punch. She would have screamed if she
could, but she couldn't. Not that it mattered, as a ball gag was shoved
into her mouth and secured tightly behind her head. That confused her.
She was already mute. Why gag her?
"Nice to see you again, BITCH."
Mikki.
Well, at least that explained who the other attackers
were.
"You make me sick, you know that? You don't
belong with normal people, you scarred piece of trash. But you just waltz
areound the school like you own the place. Instead of being a pitied freak,
half the boys from the nearby public school think you're someone to be
admired. And you just can't leave well enough alone, can you? I
run the school! I'M the one people should be talking about. But
then, I thought, what if I could make sure nobody ever admired you again,
hmmm? We all know how much you hate your mother and her modeling
work..." Here the girl produced a camera, and Ruki's eyes widened.
"So I figured I could make use of that, along with
a few other suggestions from the others here....."
Not far away, a set of lupine ears perked up at the
sound of flesh on flesh, and the words of the envious girl. Moving through
the underbrush, a massive form approached.......
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TO BE CONTINUED....
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The Unenviable Author's Post-Notes!: Here it is, after many months of waiting! The first chapter of Mute Warriors! Despite it's inactivity, the series IS going to continue. Hope you enjoy this chapter. The next one will be along...whenever I get around to it. ^.^
*At this point Godzilla pops up and waves.*
Godzilla: Don't forget to review! ^.^