Jinjo clamped her eyes shut, expecting being sucked in like a dust bunny in a vacuum, or a tingly sensation like they always described for transporters on Star Trek. Nothing happened. Thinking the portal didn't work, she cracked her eyes open. The computer wasn't there anymore, and the other kids weren't there either. "Oh my gosh…"
The computers were replaced by lavish digitalized trees and outcrops of refrigerators and microchips hanging from lampposts. All of them were blocky in color. Travis, Max and Sefie still had their eyes closed while Cody was already taking in the surroundings. He didn't seem that disoriented despite the coloring. He noticed Jinjo. "Cool huh?"
"Very."
"You can open your eyes now," said Cody. Three pairs of eyes opened and three jaws dropped to the floor. Three yelps of surprise rang through the Digiworld.
"Wow…" whispered Max.
"Gotta be dreaming," said Travis. He pinched his arm. "Ow! I guess not."
"It's so pretty!" exclaimed Sefie. She knelt down and pushed her nose into the petals of a flower. "Oh, smells like strawberry ice cream."
"The Digiworld has a weird sense of humor," explained Cody.
"Refrigerators, hanging microchip leaves…" observed Travis.
"Well, it's a bit weirder than usual," admitted Cody. "The coloring's real off."
"Like an old Sega Genesis videogame," said Max. Jinjo nodded.
Cody held up his gloved right hand and spoke into it. "Guys, you there?"
"Right here, Cody," responded Davis. "How's it look in there?"
"Pretty nice actually."
A little line of scrolling text appeared below Davis's picture with Ntropy's overlapping voice. "I sent you guys to an uninfected place. Everything else is busted looking."
"Should we be thanking you?" asked Travis.
"Later would be nice."
"Now what?" asked Sefie. She stood up from where she was playing with the flowers.
"I guess we look for our Digimon," said Cody.
"The little monster things that are supposed to help us," said Max.
"And vice versa. They need our help too," pointed out Cody.
Suddenly the ground started to shake. Sefie grabbed onto Travis's leg. "Wah! What's goin' on?"
The ground pushed up from under Max's feet sending him crashing into Jinjo and Cody. The three kids landed in a heap while something erupted from the ground. "Cody!"
"Yikes!" squealed Jinjo, she pointed wildly at a strange yellow creature. "What's that!?"
Cody pushed himself onto his elbows, trying to see. His eyes lit up. "Hey! Armadillomon!" He pushed Jinjo and Max off of him and hugged the Digimon. "How are you!"
"Just fine, Cody my man." He looked around at the four pairs of eyes staring at him. "Wanna introduce me to your new friends?"
"Oh yeah. Armadillomon, this is Travis, Sefie, Max, and Jinjo. Guys this is Armadillomon, my Digipartner."
"A pleasure to meet you," grinned the Digimon.
"You can talk?" said Max incredulously.
"Always have," came the reply. "What made you think us Digimon couldn't?"
Max shrugged, "Nothing. Never mind." Maybe Pichu's been tricking me all along…Is he here?
"You look funny," commented Sefie. "Ina good way."
"I'll take that as a compliment," said Armadillomon.
"You have a cool shell. Can I have a piggyback ride?" asked Sefie.
"Maybe later, kiddo."
"I say we do a bit of recon, get a feel for the place," said Travis. The four agreed. "Cody, lead the way."
"Huh? Why me?"
"You're a veteran Digidestined, duh!" said Jinjo. "You obviously know more than we do, so move it!" she lightly shoved him towards the forest.
While Jinjo and Sefie kept close to Cody's side, Max and Travis held back a little. Max was busy swinging his head side to side, looking at the scenery while Travis was watching his reaction.
"You seem to be taking this rather well," commented Travis.
"Huh? Yeah, I guess…"
"I'm here next to freaking out while you're just hanging out. We just found out we're digisomething's that are supposed to protect the world with little computer monster thingies that are supposed to be our partners with these funky looking ski gloves. Don't you find that a little strange?"
"No." Travis sweat dropped.
"Hey, pick up the pace, slowpokes!" called out Sefie. They were already a few feet behind.
"Yes ma'am!" called back Travis. He and Max accelerated to a trot. "So, how are we going to find some Digimon?"
"I know!" said Jinjo. She stuck out her hand. "Um, what could the command be…oh yeah. Locate! Keyword: Digimon!" The screen on the back of her glove flickered and a sonar type polar coordinate screen came up with a swarm of markers dotting it. "Whoa, there's lots!" she pointed west. "That a way!"
"I think they're south," said Cody with a frown after activating his own command.
"I think we're surrounded," stated Armadillomon.
"I think you're right," said Cody.
A mouse looking Digimon leapt out of the bushes. It was light pink and if it had been under different circumstances, it would have been cute. Its Tail had a small blue ball of fur on the end and had two rows of teeth.
"I've never seen that kind of Digimon before," said Cody.
Max stared at the mouse. It reminded him of something. It wasn't until the mouse hissed did it really hit home.
"Rattata!!"
Max gasped and stepped back in surprise. Jinjo tore her eyes from the mouse to look at him. "Max?"
"It's- its- its-" stuttered Max.
"It's what?" said Sefie. "What?" Max was still in shock.
"Incoming!" called out Travis. He pointed to the sky. A bird swooped in next to the Rattata. It's feathers were silver, light blue and white.
"Pidgey!!!" it screeched.
"What do we do, what do we do?" said Sefie hopping from foot to foot. Travis maneuvered Sefie behind him to protect her.
"Any ideas, Max?" asked Jinjo. Max was still in shock. "Hey dude, snap out o it." Max just stared at the Rattata and Pidgey. "Max? Hullloooo? Digiworld to Max? Come in?" she waved a hand in front of his face. Max frowned and started walking towards the front line of Digimon. Hey! Are you crazy? Get back here! You don't know what you're dealing with."
Max continued forward and knelt down in front of the mouse. When he finally answered Jinjo his voice had taken on a monotonous tone, as if reciting from memory. "Rattata. Rat type Pokémon. ~N~ element. Height: 1 foot. 8 lbs. Techniques: Tackle, Tail whip, Quick attack, Hyperfang, Focus Energy, Super fang. Bad against Rock. Evolves into Raticate at level 30."
The D3s watched in fascination as Max reached out to pet the mouse. They half expected the rat to bite his hand off. Instead, it squeaked happily and let itself be patted again and again. "Max, what's going on?" said Cody.
Max was grinning ear to ear. The Rattata had accepted him. He hadn't lost his touch after all. A Pidgey, probably feeling a bit jealous, landed next to them. Max smoothed back its feathers. "Pidgey. Flying element. Height: 1 foot. 4 lbs. Techniques: Gust, quick attack, Sand attack, Whirlwind, wing attack, agility, and mirror move. Good against Bug, Grass and Fighting. Bad against Rock. Evolves at level 18."
The Pidgey nodded its feathered head as if honored Max remembered its stats. "Pidgeee!!!"
"Max?" repeated Travis. "What the heck are you doing? How do you know these Digimon?"
Max stood up and brushed himself off. "They're not Digimon. They're Pokémon."
The four D3 and Armadillomon blinked at him and chorused. "Huh?"
Max shrugged. He guessed it would be okay to tell them. "I come from the Pokémon islands. Little monsters like them," he motioned to the bird and rat. "Are everywhere. A lot of us go on journeys to capture, collect and train them to battle in tournaments." Max grinned. "I was a master. I won all of the league tournaments. I had to leave them all behind when I moved here. For some reason they can't survive outside of the Pokémon islands."
"So, you're saying you live in the real world's version of the Digiworld," summed up Travis.
"Yeah. I guess so."
Jinjo snorted, "Exotic species of animals, huh?"
"Are Pokémon and Digimon the same thing?" asked Cody to Armadillomon.
"Uh, honestly, I don't know." Said Armadillomon. "I knew a lot of weird Digimon I've never seen before were showing up, but I didn't think they weren't Digimon. This is the first I've hear of Pokémon."
"Why don't you just ask them?" asked Jinjo. "No duh."
"The girl's smart," grinned Cody.
"Rattata, Pidgey. How did you get here? Don't you belong in the real world? In the Pokémon islands?" asked Max.
"Piiigeeee pidge pidgeeee… Pidgey Pidgey. Pidgeee."
"Huh?"
"Great," muttered Travis. "The answer's right under our nose and we can't understand it because of a stupid language barrier."
Before Travis could react Sefie dropped her knees in front of the two Pokémon and grinned at them. "Hi!" Travis paled and tried to snatch her away from impending harm but Jinjo caught his elbow and shook her head.
Sefie kept on smiling at the Pokémon. "I'm Sefie. Sefie Sakura Dincht! You're Rattata and Pidgey, right?" The two Pokémon looked at each other then at Sefie and nodded. "Super duper mega kewl. You're not gonna hurt us, are you? We're just trying to help, if you let us."
"Ratta ta tata Rata ta ta ta." Ratttata went close to Sefie and nudged her knee. She giggled and put out her hand to stroke the fur of its head. "So you understand me. N'fair they can understand us and we cant…understand them, I mean. Too bad we can't translate."
The palm of Sefie's petting hand started to glow a little bit over Rattata's head. "Sefie!" yelled Travis. Are you okay?"
Sefie blinked, "Uh, yah." She looked at her hand, "What happened?"
"Your hand started glowing."
"No kidding," murmured Sefie.
"No kidding what?" asked Travis.
Sefie frowned at him, "Didn't you say something?" Travis shook his head.
"No one said anything," said Cody.
"It was me," The voice was overlapped with a faint squeaking. Sefie looked at Rattata. It was grinning.
"Ooh! It's you!" she hugged the little mouse. "Hee hee. That is soooo kewl."
"You can understand it?" asked Max.
"Uh huh."
"Maybe that's one of the functions Ntropy was talking about," said Cody. "Something Sefie said probably activated the translator."
Max stuck his hand over Pidgey's head. "Translate!" His glove glowed yellow and the first thing he heard was Pidgey's chirpy voice congratulating him for figuring it out. "Wow, I wish I had this on my journey," mused Max. It would have made my life a lot easier."
The remaining 03s activated their translators. "How about telling us what happened," said Travis.
"Well," said Rattata. I was minding my own business looking for some pokeberries for lunch when I started to feel funny. Like being tickled all over at the same time. I think I fainted right afterwards. When I woke up I was here. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the Viridian forest.
"Me too," chirped Pidgey. "I was chasing a Caterpie but I blanked out for a second and found myself chasing this weird wormy looking creature instead."
"So you just blacked out and found yourselves here?" said Jinjo. 'They nodded. "That's not a lot of help."
"Sorry," apologized Pidgey and Rattata.
"What happened to you?" asked Max. "I mean, you're different colors." He turned to the rest of the 03. "Rattata used to be purple with one row of fangs and Pidgey was definitely not as multicolored.
Rattata 's cheeks grew a bit pinker. "Uh, we were like this when we got here."
"Any thing else change?" asked Jinjo.
"Better yet," Travis open palmed the two Pokémon. "Scan." A red lettered holographic screen emerged from the back of Travis' hand reading the statistics of the Pokémon. "Max, take a look at this. I'm not familiar with this stuff."
Max frowned, "It says here Pidgey's a wind type with a bit of ice and Rattata's a balloon type. That's not right. It's like Rattata got combined with a Jigglypuff and Pidgey with I dunno, an Articuno?"
"That would explain our new techniques," said Rattata. It puckered its fanged mouth and puffed up like a Jigglypuff. "Ta!"
"what about you?" asked Pidgey. "Why are you humans here? Did you get scked in too?" it tipped its head to the side. "You didn't turn colors."
"We're digidestined," said Cody. "We protect the Digiworld. That's where you are right now."
"It's kinda like being stuck in a virtual reality inside a pokecenter computer," explained Max.
"Oohhh."
Rattata started to turn away. "Sorry, but I have to get going. I promised the pack I'm traveling with that I'd be back with food. I'll see you later!" With one final pat from Sefie, the Rattata scampered back into the woods.
"What about you?" asked Cody to Pidgey.
"I think I'll hang around for a little while. I have nothing else to do." It waved a wing at them. "Don't mind me. Do whatever you Digidestined are supposed to do." It flew up and perched on a nearby branch.
The 03 looked at each other. "Let's get the facts straight," said Cody.
"Detective Cody!" piped Sefie. "I'll take notes!" She pulled out a fuzzy blue notebook and a pink glitter pen from her pocket.
"We should call the others," said Cody. He keyed in something on his glove and held it up to his face. "Guys, can you hear me?"
"I'm here," replied Ntropy. "
"We met up with two monsters," said Travis. "Max says they're Pokémon."
There was a stunned hesitation on Ntropy's end. "Pokémon?"
"That's what I said," said Max. "Are you familiar with Pokémon?"
"Very much so…Please continue." The D3s summed up everything the two Pokémon told them. "I'll look into it. Laterz." With that, Ntropy cut the link.
"We'd better get moving if we're going to gather more information for Ntropy." Said Jinjo.
"Ahem," coughed the Pidgey. It hopped down from its perch and looked up at them. "I don't mean to butt in on your business, but a nice place to start might be where a lot of us Pokémon are popping up."
"Sounds good to me," said Travis. He swept his hand. "Lead the way."