Legend of the Digidestined
Book One
Chapter one
"Roll up, roll up for the magical mystery tour! Step right this way...."
Roll up!
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up!
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up! (I've got an invitation)
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up! (To make a reservation)
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
The Magical Mystery Tour is waiting to take you away!
Waiting to take you away!
Roll up!
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up!
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up! (They've got everything you need)
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up! (satisfaction guaranteed)
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
The Magical Mystery Tour is hoping to take you away!
Hoping to take you away!
Aaaaah... The Magical Mystery Tour!
Roll up!
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up! (I've got an invitation)
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up! (To make a reservation)
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
The Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take you away!
Coming to take you away...
The Magical Mystery tour is dying to take you away!
Dying to take you away,
Take you today!
"Magical Mystery Tour"
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
from Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles
Chapter one:
Into the breach
Green Leaf Summer Camp was a reasonably nice place. Not too fancy or any thing, but
nice. The camp was wedged between several mountains and surrounded by forest. it was as close
to the middle of nowhere as you could get conveniently. There were several large ponds to play in
and around, a nice cool canteen with a small army of Ping-Pong tables, and plenty of other things
ideally suited for goofing off. Which was good, sense that was really all they had to do (Green
Leaf was notorious for it's poorly planed attempts at organized sport). Despite it's flaws, Green
Leaf was well regarded as a good place for kids to have fun and make friends.
It is with several of these kids, having fun and making friends at the moment, that this
story concerns it self. Seven ordinary (well, not ordinary, just unremarkable) kids who all staying
in the same cabin. Excluding the counselor, Mr Crosby, who spent most of his time hanging out at
the Canteen; the inhabitants are:
Tai Kamiya: An active, outspoken twelve year old, Tai's not a guy you forget too quick
after you meet him. This probably has a good bit to do with his shaggy mess of brown hair. Let
down, it would easily hit his shoulders, but he holds it up out of his face with a headband or ski
goggles, which ever is at hand. Please note: he doesn't hold it behind his ears or anything normal
like that, he puts his hair UP THROUGH the headband (or goggles). A ludicrous arrangement that
makes him look more like a palm tree than a person. A real sports buff, Tai enjoys just about
anything that's fast; there is little he hates more than waiting (he enjoys sleeping a great deal,
though).
Matt Taylor: A cool, quiet, collected thirteen year old, Matt's the kind of guy who you'd
think would crack his face if he tried to show any emotion. He's got bright blond hair over his ears
that he puts way too much effort into taking care of. He's far less picky about his clothes: black
jeans or leather pants, sleeve-less shirts, and a raggedy biker jacket (weather permitting). Matt
seems to have all the makings of a juvenile delinquent, but he's not really a bad kid, just not an
especially good one. He's the kind of guy who, for the most part, will just let life happen as long
as he can get through it.
Sora Bloomfield: If you've known Sora for more than two minutes, she'll treat you better
than most people treat there best friend. Though only twelve, Sora's a mature, intelligent, and
kindhearted individual. She's known Tai for several years and is probably the only person who
can figure him out. Like Tai, Sora's a sports buff, but she's not as finatical about it as he is. In
fact, she's not very finatical about anything; though her interests cover practically everything.
Though not a tomboy, She's in no way, shape, or form a girly-girl. The deepest she dives into the
world of fashion is the knitted cap she hides her sandy blond hair under. All and all, Sora's the
most well balanced person We'll be seeing in this story for a while.
Izzy Hondo: I couldn't tell you why Izzy came to this camp in the first place, he'd be
perfectly content to just sit at home and surf the net. A short eleven year old with hair like an
electrified tribble (you Trekkers out there know what I mean) and the brute strength of a gnat, Izzy
is the original computer geek. He's probably the smartest person alive and thinks of his computer
as his best friend. Not that he's rude or aloft or anything like that; he's actually quite polite, just not
too out going.
Mimi McVie: A Thirteen year old living Barbie doll, I couldn't tell you why Mimi came to
camp ether. This ultraspoiled teenybopper freaks out when she has to wear the same socks two
days in a row. She brought a portable generator to camp to run all her hair fixing equipment (by the
way her hair is Amber, "Not blond, not orange, but AMBER! And don't you for get it!") and
rented a fleet of U-haul trucks to bring all her clothes. She even brought her small zoo of stuffed
animals. Sexist stereotype? You said it! Despite being a whiner of apocalyptic proportions when
she's ticked off, Mimi can actually be cheerful to the degree of bubbly when things meet her
aproval.
Joe Kido: Can you say WUSS? Joe can! He's the biggest wimp this side of....well, he's
the biggest period. This thirteen year old string bean would panic if he was chased by a horse fly.
Joe is afraid of everything: hights, the dark, water, dogs, cats, exercise (the only physical effort he
will perform is lugging around his duffel bag, which you could fit Europe in), you name it. To
make maters worse, for him at least, Joe looks more like a nerd than Bill Gates. Needless to say,
he's not that most popular person here.
T.K. Takaishi: Matt's six year old little brother T.K. is a bubbly little ray of sunshine (?)
that everybody at camp likes. He's a little on the hyper side and spends way too much time running
around out side or playing Pokemon (like all goodhearted children). Although they're nothing alike
personality wise, T.K. looks just like a miniature version of Matt except with messier hair. He
really looks up to Matt and wants to be just like him when he grows up.
Well, enough of that, on with the story....
The day started like most other days at Green Leaf (sunny, a slight breeze, all that good
stuff) and the kids were enjoying it to the fullest, except for Izzy who was surfing the net in the
cabin. T.K. was climbing every tree he could find, Sora was cloud gazing, Mimi was picking
flowers by the pond (only the ones that matched her shirt of course), Joe was swatting at the army
of mosquitoes that held the camp captive around this time of year, Matt had found a nice dark place
to sulk, and Tai was enjoying a moss covered hill with a tree on it the way God intended moss
covered hills with trees on them to be enjoyed: he was sleeping on it. Or at least he was sleeping
until he felt something wet on his forehead.
"Oh, great!" he thought "Don't tell me I went to sleep
right under a bird.". Fortunately, he checked and it was just a drop of water. Then he noticed that
there were several other wet spots on him. Tai ran out from under the tree to see what was going
on, but couldn't believe what he saw.
It was snowing.
Obviously, the first thing that interred Tai's mind was "GET INSIDE!" so inside he got. Or, at least, he tried. By the time he was halfway to the cabin, Tai could hardly see two feet in front of him. Still, he made it to the cabin relatively unscathed. "Relatively" in the sense that, just before he got there, he walked straight into a low hanging branch and scratched his face up. Fortunately (I suppose) he was too numb from the cold to hurt.
"MAN! It's something else out there!" Tai panted as he burst through the door and fell onto the
cabin floor. Sora, Mimi, Joe, and T.K. were all at the window watching the storm (why, I have no
idea; there was nothing to see but solid white). Matt, as usual, was sulking, this time in the corner
of the cabin, and Izzy, also as usual, was typing away at his computer.
Tai tried valiantly to shake the thick coat of snow out of his hair when he noticed that his head band was missing. "Damn" he though "That was my last one, too." Rummaging through his duffel bag brought forth only a pair of ski goggles he'd absent mindedly tossed in while he'd been packing. With his makeshift headband in place Tai took a moment to survey the silent cabin.
"Hey Izzy, how are things in cyberspace?" Tai asked, wondering if Izzy had even noticed
the snow at all.
"Not very well, I'm afraid." Izzy muttered, preoccupied with his work. "I was hoping I
could get on the national weather service web site and get some information on this unusual
weather system, but my internet connection seems to have gone dead."
"Maybe it can't get through the snow." pondered Sora from the window.
"Snow's never blocked my wireless connection before." Izzy muttered more to himself
that for any one else to hear.
"Snow's never fallen in the middle of summer before either." Matt observed from his little
corner.
Mimi, who hadn't been paying a bit of attention to the computer banter whined "I hope Mr
Crosby's all right!"
"Oh, don't worry, he's probably still down at the canteen." Tai said while he brushed the
last bit of snow off his shoes.
"I hope he didn't try to get back to the cabin when the snow started. If he did he's
probably a snowman by now." said Joe cynically.
"Thanks for that lovely picture, Joe" Sora moaned while Mimi leaped zealously on the
opportunity to panic.
"DO YOU REALLY THINK SO?!?!?" she shouted.
Tai covered his ears and shouted back "Hey, we're right here! You don't need to scream!"
"Hey, I think the snow is slowing down!...No, no it's not. Never mind." said T.K., who
hadn't been paying attention to anything but the storm.
Sora giggled and ran her had through T.K.'s messy hair "It's probably not going to slow
down for a while, and I think it'll be too dark too see by then."
"It's getting pretty dark now." Tai noticed. The snow may have had something to do with
it but it did seem to be getting late. The clock in the cabin hadn't work in years , but Tai knew it
had been after six when he zoned out under the tree, and he'd been there a while.
"If you ask me" said Matt, who was already climbing up to his bunk, "we ought to just
quit worrying and wait this thing out. Nothing's going to be happening for a while.". And with
that, pulled the sheets over his head and konked out. Gradually every one else decided that was a
good idea and did the same.
Sleep didn't come easy. The wind kept howling and pounding at the cabin and the fact that
the cabin's insulation age was older than every one in there put together didn't help. Eventually,
however, every one managed to drift off and were awakened the next morning by the blinding light
of the sun shining off the snow. Obviously the first thing on every one's mind was to get out in the
snow. Of the group, only Matt, Mimi, and Joe had jackets with them (Joe had his out of his need
to prepare for any circumstance, Mimi just brought every thing she had, and Matt...well he brings
his jacket every place) but that didn't stop the rest from investigating the now unrecognizable
camp.
"Hey, let's build a snow man!" shouted T.K.
"I dunno. I'm a little suspicious of snow that falls in seventy degree weather." said Joe,
lugging his duffel bag through the knee deep snow.
"Well it sure isn't seventy any more, I'm freezing!" complained Sora, rubbing her bare
arms.
From behind her Mimi piped up "Hey, you can wear one of my parkas, Sora! Why, I've
got one that'll match your cap perfectly! You'll help me get my suit case out right?"
"Sure!" said an extremely grateful Sora "Which one is it?"
"Oh, you know." called Mimi from the door "The big pink one!"
"Oh, that really narrows things down." laughed Tai.
T.K., who had all ready forgotten about the snowman, called over to Izzy "Hey, you
wanna have a snowball fight?" but Izzy didn't seem to notice. "Hey, Izzy!" T.K. called louder, but
Izzy still didn't respond, he was just staring up at the sky. Having heard the commotion, Tai ran
over, "Hey what's the matter?"
"That's what." said Izzy, pointing at a small, bright speck of light in the sky, "Call me
crazy, but I don't think there are supposed to be stars out at six in the morning."
Tai pulled out the mini telescope he'd bought the day before to take a closer look while
every one else ran over to find out what this latest bizarre occurrence was.
"Hey, is that a star?"
"Don't be silly. You can't see stars out this late...er...I mean early."
"Yeah, and it can't snow in the middle of summer ether."
"Do you mind?" Izzy blurted out as he started typing on his laptop "I'm trying to work
here......Hmmm....maybe it's a supernova?"
"I dunno" said Tai, putting his telescope back in his pocket "I've never heard of a green
supernova before."
"Really? It's green?" said a surprised Izzy, apparently to busy thinking about the thing to
notice it's color.
Back at the cabin Sora, who, with Mimi, had been valiantly attempting with to wedge
Mimi's huge suit case through the door, noticed the gang collecting outside and ran over to see
why.
"Hey, come on! Aren't you gonna help me?" whined Mimi.
"Hey, what's going on?" Sora asked.
"We're lookin' at a star or something!" replied T.K.
"A green star?"
"I don't think this is a star we're dealing with." said Izzy, lost in thought.
"I'm almost afraid to ask," gulped Joe "but what makes you say that?"
"Simple," replied Izzy "it's getting bigger."
And sure enough, the light that had started out as a little speck was now almost as big as
the sun and still growing. And it was now obvious that it couldn't possibly be a star. The green
they had though was all over it was, in fact, just a glowing haze around the sides. The main body
of it seemed to be black, except it wasn't a body really. It was more like a hole. A big gaping rip in
the sky. The black inside was full of hazy streams of light snaking there way around each other.
The whole thing had an eerie beauty to it, but none of them were exactly in the state of mind to
enjoy it then.
"WHOA! WHAT IS THAT THING?!?!" screamed Mimi, lugging her suit case behind
her.
"I don't know, and I don't think I wanna find out!" said Tai anxiously.
"I really think that we ought to go down to the conference hall guys." said Matt, trying,
without much success, to cover up the fact that he was scared out of his wits.
"You have my complete, total, and whole hearted agreement, Matt" cried Joe, quite happy
to make his fear known to every one.
The words were barely out of Joe's mouth when a blinding white flash erupted from the
thing accompanied by a thunderous, phasing roar. Immediate after, almost at the same time
actually, a blistering wave of heat washed over them, knocking every one to the ground. Then the
light around them changed, while no less bright, it was redder. Looking, or at least trying to look,
into the shinning hole in the sky reviled the source of the new light. They were seven objects that
can be best, though not very accurately, described as metallic fireballs. The flamed, moved, and in
almost all respects looked like fire, but they had a hard, solid quality to them. Not that any of them
cared about what they were made of, they were far more interested in were headed. They were
headed straight for them. As you can imagine, the first and only thing that came into there minds
was to run. Every one fumbled through the increasingly bright light and, somehow, the all
managed to get behind the cabin in very little time. Unfortunately, that made very little difference to
the fire balls; they just flew over there heads, stopped, turned around, and flew straight at them
again. The kids braced themselves for the sudden impact.....
...and then the things vanished.
Although no one had there eyes open, they all knew that the heat and the bright light had vanished
as well. As they opened there eyes to see what had happened (most of them had been terrified
enough to have the absurd notion that they needed to look to see if they were dead or not) they saw
no sign of the fireball things or the bright light. There was nothing that suggested that anything odd
had happened at all. The only thing out of place was a strange, quiet, buzzing sound. It took a few
moments for anyone to notice it, but it didn't take long for them to find out where it was coming
from. Somehow, without any of them knowing, some sort of devices had been placed in each of
there hands.
The things were somewhat oval shaped with notches on the top, bottom, left and right.
They all were five inches across, and four inches top to bottom. The casing (or whatever) on them
were made of a substance that no one could recognize: very hard, but not metallic. They all had a
predominately dull silver look with two dark blue ovals on the right of what was probably the front
and one circle on the left. In the center, surrounded a blue ring with some kind of writing on it,
was a screen of some sort.
For a few moments, there was total silence. then T.K. blurted out "Hey, what the heck is
this thing?"
"I don't know," said Tai, still a little shell shocked over all that had been happening "but
I've got one too."
"It would appear that we all have one." commented Izzy, gingerly examining his device "I
believe they were delivered by those fireballs."
"Couldn't they have just used UPS?" mumbled Mimi, trembling.
"I wonder if they're some type of hand held computer system." Izzy wondered to himself,
ignoring Mimi.
"Mine kind of looks like my Game Boy." T.K. said, pulling his Game Boy out of his
pocket to compare it to the strange device. "I wonder if you can play games on this too."
"I don't think that these play video games, T.K." Sora said, looking over hers, "There's
no place to plug anything in."
"There's no infrared port either....." Izzy started, then a different thought crossed his
mind. "I wonder what there buttons do."
As Izzy started to press one of the buttons, Joe shouted "HEY! Just what do you think
you're doing? We don't know anything about these things! That might be the self destruct button
for all you know!". However Izzy went ahead and pressed the buttons anyway, with absolutely no
effect. Satisfied that he was not blown up, Izzy commented "The buttons don't seem to have any
function. There doesn't seem to be any way to operate these things."
"Maybe they aren't buttons, the might just be decorations." offered Sora.
"They feel like buttons to me." Said Tai as he pressed his. The button (or what ever it
was) moved in with a click and rebounded when he let go. " And nobody puts buttons on things
for no reason."
While the others had been wondering over buttons, Matt was more interested in the thing
that had, it seemed, threatened there live only a few moments ago (sense words don't move very
fast, I should point out that barely a minute had passed sense the fireballs appeared). He ventured
back around the cabin to see what the hole in the sky was up to. What he found was an
unexpected, though not entirely unwelcome surprise. "Hey, guys! The thing in the sky's gone!"
The others, so totally engrossed in the mysterious devices that they had momentarily
forgot about what had just happened, all responded in unison: "WHAT?"
"I said, that hole, or star, or whatever it was; it's gone! There's no trace of it!"
The others all ran around front to the pile of back packs and duffel bags (and Mimi's suit
case) that they had dropped out front when they ran behind the cabin. Sure enough, there was no
sign of it. Someone uninformed would never have known anything was there in the first place.
"Good riddance!" Signed Mimi as every one warily began to pick up any belongings they
had left out side. They hadn't gotten very far before Izzy noticed a faint, but ominous rumbling
beneath him. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think we're out of the woods yet!"
As the others noticed the steadily increasing rumbling, Tai ran over to the bushes past the
path to see what was going on.
He found out.
"HOLY CRAP!"
"That's not good. That never means anything good." Said Joe, panicking
"Trust me, it's not!" yelled Tai.
Then what only can be described as a glowing, neon wave flew over the bushes and over
took the kids. The had a sensation of floating for a moment, like being under water, then that
feeling of floating turned into falling. The camp, the trees, the ground, every thing vanished and
was replaced by ....something else. All they could tell was it was bright, it was loud (the roaring,
phasing sound they had heard before), and they were falling into it. They couldn't tell for sure just
how fast the were falling, as there was nothing around them to pass, but it seemed to them to be
pretty fast. Below them (or in front of them, it was hard to tell) was a huge mass of color. There
didn't seem to be any edges to the mass, but it did seem quite solid; and seeing as they were
headed for it at extreme speed, this didn't sit well with the kids. Fortunately, the appearance of
solidity was misleading: they passed right through without touching anything. Beyond the false
wall of color, they fell into a new, chaotic area.
This second place turned out to look quite a lot the inside of the hole in the sky. There
wasn't much of a back ground, or any kind of end for that matter. The only things they could see
were the shimmering streams of color they had seen before wrapping around them and stretching
endlessly into the murky distance, bathing the whole expanse with a bizarre shine. They (the
streams) didn't seem to be moving along like they had been in the hole, but that probably was due
to the speed at which the kids were passing them. A speed that seemed to be increasing all the time.
As they fell deeper and deeper into (or through) this place, the streams started getting brighter and
more solid white. The continuous phasing sound began to get higher and shriller as well. Soon the
sound has become almost inaudible, like a silent whistle, and the light out shone everything else.
This light seemed different that the light that had come out of the hole in the sky earlier, however.
It seemed softer, milkier. There was an almost tangible quality to it. Before too long, they realized
that it seemed tangible because it was. They were surrounded, not by light, but some kind of milky
white fluid; almost like a gel. In trying to reach forward and feel ahead, they found that some of the
substance seemed to be forming a perimeter of sorts, almost like an egg shell, around each of
them. Slowly, the shell became harder and more transparent. Looking through the cloudy walls
around them, the kids found that they had once again moved to someplace else.
The first thing they noticed was that they didn't seem to be falling any more. While they
were definitely still moving at incredible speed, they didn't seem to be going strait down any more;
instead they seemed to be shooting strait ahead. The new place they were in had a quality to it that
caused it to resemble outer space. It very much resembled the previous area (in fact the two may
actually have been one and the same) but wasn't quite the same. The streams of color were still
present, but at quite a distance. from this far away, they seemed to form clouds that almost looked
like nebulas, lending to the outer space feel. There weren't any stars that they could see, there was
only the sea of clouds to light up the void. As they shot through, our intrepid (and terrified)
adventurers realized that there was something in front of them: a planet. The planet seemed to
resemble earth well enough, there seemed to be oceans and continents, but they didn't get much of
a chance to look the place over because, at the speed they were going, they had barely noticed the
planet before they were almost on top of it.
P ALIGN = CENTER***************/P
As Tai slowly regained consciousness, the first thing that interred his mind was pain.
Every inch of his body felt like.......well, there wasn't really anything to compare it too. A guy
like Tai was a guy who was quite familiar with injury: cuts, bruises, broken bones, hemorrhages,
you name it; but nothing even came close to the sensation that lingered through out his body. Every
inch of his skin felt like the flow of blood had been cut off, he was dizzy to the point that he didn't
know which way was up, his ears were ringing so bad that he couldn't hear a thing besides it. In
short, Tai was a mess. He tried to open his eyes, but that proved to be a mistake. The light striking
his eyes felt like knives being plunged into his head. Tai shut his eyes quickly and tried to raise his
hand to his face to rub them, but his joints were stiff as boards and the weight of his own arm
seemed to be a ton. He let his arm drop to the ground (which alerted him to the fact that he was, in
fact, on the ground) and tried to figure out just what was going.
How long had he been asleep?
He'd taken a nap under that tree on the east trail. Had he been there all night? No, some would
have seen him and woke him up. Tai tried to open his eyes again, but was greeted with the same
assault on his worn out retinas. Once again he shut them and decided to try to feel his way around.
With great effort, he started to slide his arm around and feel where he was.
There was a lot of
grass under him so he was definitely outside, but why had nobody woken Tai up? More
importantly, how had he gotten in such bad shape? It's not like he'd never spent the night outside
before. Slowly, Tai's arm made it's way up past his head. Sure enough, there was a tree there; but
something was wrong. This didn't feel like the oak tree that he'd fallen asleep under. The bark was
too smooth, too fine, too cold even. It almost felt metallic. Where the hell was he?
"Where..."
The star thing, the fireballs, that planet....
Suddenly, like a bullet, the remembrance of what had happened shot through Tai mind.
He wasn't at camp any more. That wave-whatever-it-was had took him.
That planet...
Was that were he was? Had he been swept up and dumped onto an alien planet?
Abducted? That last choice of words was quite unfortunate as every sci-fi film he'd ever seen took
the opportunity to jump to mind at it's mention. Still, Tai refused to let his fear get the best of him.
Just get a hold of your self, Tai, he though to himself don't be a wuss now. Again he opened his
eyes, this time intent on keeping them open. After several seconds of extreme pain, he began, with
great difficulty, to see the sky. Then he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he has nowhere
near home.
The sky wasn't blue.
Well some of it was blue, but there were plenty of other colors mixed in with it. Although
his vision slowly cleared, he could see that the colored streams that had been all around them
earlier were still visible; making the sky look like a big, living finger painting. And, frankly, it
creeped him out.
Slowly, with quite a lot of crackeling and popping involved, Tai moved his head back
enough to see the tree behind him. As with the "sky", the "tree" only seemed to be one in the
loosest sense of the word. The outside was a glossy gray with veins of purple running through to
it's bright blue leaves. The shape of the thing didn't help much ether. There were no branches at all
until the top where they were almost innumerable. The whole thing looked less like a tree and more
like a giant, colorful piece of broccoli.
Now quite anxious to get anyplace other than where he was then, Tai started struggling to
get up. As with any attempt at motion lately, he was greeted with a flood of pain through out his
body. However, as he started to move, Tai became aware of something extremely unsettling:
Something was on top of him; resting on his stomach.
Tai froze for a moment as every horrible possibility of what it might be flooded his brain.
Trying, with limited success, to shut the fear out, Tai slowly opened his eyes (he'd shut them
while bracing for the pain of moving) and cautiously looked down at where he could feel the object
resting on him.
He was greeted by two big, round eyes.
They belonged to some kind of animal it seemed. Small, about a foot or so across, it was
mostly round and a very light red (almost pink). It didn't have any limbs, save two long
antenna/ears, and the only things on it's face was a wide mouth and the two big eyes.
Given the circumstances, Tai carefully weighed his options and settled on the only logical
course of action:
He panicked.
And he panicked good.
One of the wonderful things about pure terror is it makes you totally oblivious to anything
else; so, without even noticing the pain that resulted, Tai quickly crawled backwards, head first,
straight into the tree behind him (resulting in a pain he did notice). As he stopped to figure out that
he'd hit the tree (it took several seconds) the pink thing hopped onto him again and began jumping
on him. It was then that Tai noticed something interesting:
The thing was smiling!
Smiling and talking to him!
The ringing in his ears had stopped a while ago but, as you can imagine, stopping and
listening was the last thing on Tai's mind.
"YES! YES! YES!!!!!! You ARE awake!!! YEEEESSSS!!!!!!!!!" it shouted. Then, it
jumped off him and began to hop around in a circle.
"YES!!!! Oh, YES!!!! Oh, man, you don't know how long I've been waiting for you
Tai!"
At the mention of his name, Tai was suddenly snapped out of his panic induced stupor.
"Wha- what did you say?" he stuttered "How do you know my name?"
"Well it's your name isn't it?" it giggled.
"Uh...well...yeah, but-"
"What are we doing worrying about names?" it interrupted, "What's important is you're
here and I'm here; that means WE'RE here! We! Ha, ha; WE! boy that feels good to say!"
Tai, becoming more and more confused with every word that came out of the thing's
mouth, broke in "Whoa, whoa, HOLD IT!!! I'm getting lost here. Just what are you?"
It looked puzzled for a moment, but then the big grin came back to it's face
"Oh, that's
right! You haven't had a formal introduction yet! Well, my name's Koromon!"
"Koromon" Tai unconsciously muttered to himself "What's that mean, talking head?"
"It means brave little warrior, thank you very much!" said Koromon with exaggerated
indignance.
"Uh, ok" mumbled Tai, not entirely comfortable with the idea of a strange creature with
lots of teeth and a name that means "warrior" hanging around him "So, uh, what do you want with
me?"
"Hey, it's not what I want it's what we NEED. You and me are PARTNERS!" Koromon
shouted gleefully.
"Wha-partner?" Tai stammered.
"That's what I said!"
"I know that's what you said but what do you mean?"
"Well what else can partner mean?" Koromon asked "You and me work together and help
each other out."
"No offense, but I don't think I need a pink ball of fluff to help me out." grunted Tai as he
started to get up. Before he got too far, however, Koromon jumped on him again, knocking him
back down.
"Hey, you listen here, Tai," Koromon said, sounding serious for the first time "I don't
think you understand what's going on here. In the Digiworld, you're going to need all the friends
you can get." He stayed silent for a moment to let what he'd said sink in before adding "And here I
am!" with a grin.
Tai would have jumped on the mention of "Digiworld" and tried to find out where he was
if his mind wasn't already on something else Koromon said.
"Friends..."
"OH NO!" Tai shouted, jumping up and sending Koromon pummeling to the ground "The
others! I forgot all about them!" With that, Tai ran off in search of his comrades with Koromon in
hot pursuit.
"Hey Tai, wait up! Slow down! Hey, we don't all have legs you know. Come on!"
To Be Continued...
Book One
Chapter one
"Roll up, roll up for the magical mystery tour! Step right this way...."
Roll up!
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up!
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up! (I've got an invitation)
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up! (To make a reservation)
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
The Magical Mystery Tour is waiting to take you away!
Waiting to take you away!
Roll up!
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up!
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up! (They've got everything you need)
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up! (satisfaction guaranteed)
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
The Magical Mystery Tour is hoping to take you away!
Hoping to take you away!
Aaaaah... The Magical Mystery Tour!
Roll up!
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up! (I've got an invitation)
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up! (To make a reservation)
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
The Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take you away!
Coming to take you away...
The Magical Mystery tour is dying to take you away!
Dying to take you away,
Take you today!
"Magical Mystery Tour"
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
from Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles
Chapter one:
Into the breach
Green Leaf Summer Camp was a reasonably nice place. Not too fancy or any thing, but
nice. The camp was wedged between several mountains and surrounded by forest. it was as close
to the middle of nowhere as you could get conveniently. There were several large ponds to play in
and around, a nice cool canteen with a small army of Ping-Pong tables, and plenty of other things
ideally suited for goofing off. Which was good, sense that was really all they had to do (Green
Leaf was notorious for it's poorly planed attempts at organized sport). Despite it's flaws, Green
Leaf was well regarded as a good place for kids to have fun and make friends.
It is with several of these kids, having fun and making friends at the moment, that this
story concerns it self. Seven ordinary (well, not ordinary, just unremarkable) kids who all staying
in the same cabin. Excluding the counselor, Mr Crosby, who spent most of his time hanging out at
the Canteen; the inhabitants are:
Tai Kamiya: An active, outspoken twelve year old, Tai's not a guy you forget too quick
after you meet him. This probably has a good bit to do with his shaggy mess of brown hair. Let
down, it would easily hit his shoulders, but he holds it up out of his face with a headband or ski
goggles, which ever is at hand. Please note: he doesn't hold it behind his ears or anything normal
like that, he puts his hair UP THROUGH the headband (or goggles). A ludicrous arrangement that
makes him look more like a palm tree than a person. A real sports buff, Tai enjoys just about
anything that's fast; there is little he hates more than waiting (he enjoys sleeping a great deal,
though).
Matt Taylor: A cool, quiet, collected thirteen year old, Matt's the kind of guy who you'd
think would crack his face if he tried to show any emotion. He's got bright blond hair over his ears
that he puts way too much effort into taking care of. He's far less picky about his clothes: black
jeans or leather pants, sleeve-less shirts, and a raggedy biker jacket (weather permitting). Matt
seems to have all the makings of a juvenile delinquent, but he's not really a bad kid, just not an
especially good one. He's the kind of guy who, for the most part, will just let life happen as long
as he can get through it.
Sora Bloomfield: If you've known Sora for more than two minutes, she'll treat you better
than most people treat there best friend. Though only twelve, Sora's a mature, intelligent, and
kindhearted individual. She's known Tai for several years and is probably the only person who
can figure him out. Like Tai, Sora's a sports buff, but she's not as finatical about it as he is. In
fact, she's not very finatical about anything; though her interests cover practically everything.
Though not a tomboy, She's in no way, shape, or form a girly-girl. The deepest she dives into the
world of fashion is the knitted cap she hides her sandy blond hair under. All and all, Sora's the
most well balanced person We'll be seeing in this story for a while.
Izzy Hondo: I couldn't tell you why Izzy came to this camp in the first place, he'd be
perfectly content to just sit at home and surf the net. A short eleven year old with hair like an
electrified tribble (you Trekkers out there know what I mean) and the brute strength of a gnat, Izzy
is the original computer geek. He's probably the smartest person alive and thinks of his computer
as his best friend. Not that he's rude or aloft or anything like that; he's actually quite polite, just not
too out going.
Mimi McVie: A Thirteen year old living Barbie doll, I couldn't tell you why Mimi came to
camp ether. This ultraspoiled teenybopper freaks out when she has to wear the same socks two
days in a row. She brought a portable generator to camp to run all her hair fixing equipment (by the
way her hair is Amber, "Not blond, not orange, but AMBER! And don't you for get it!") and
rented a fleet of U-haul trucks to bring all her clothes. She even brought her small zoo of stuffed
animals. Sexist stereotype? You said it! Despite being a whiner of apocalyptic proportions when
she's ticked off, Mimi can actually be cheerful to the degree of bubbly when things meet her
aproval.
Joe Kido: Can you say WUSS? Joe can! He's the biggest wimp this side of....well, he's
the biggest period. This thirteen year old string bean would panic if he was chased by a horse fly.
Joe is afraid of everything: hights, the dark, water, dogs, cats, exercise (the only physical effort he
will perform is lugging around his duffel bag, which you could fit Europe in), you name it. To
make maters worse, for him at least, Joe looks more like a nerd than Bill Gates. Needless to say,
he's not that most popular person here.
T.K. Takaishi: Matt's six year old little brother T.K. is a bubbly little ray of sunshine (?)
that everybody at camp likes. He's a little on the hyper side and spends way too much time running
around out side or playing Pokemon (like all goodhearted children). Although they're nothing alike
personality wise, T.K. looks just like a miniature version of Matt except with messier hair. He
really looks up to Matt and wants to be just like him when he grows up.
Well, enough of that, on with the story....
The day started like most other days at Green Leaf (sunny, a slight breeze, all that good
stuff) and the kids were enjoying it to the fullest, except for Izzy who was surfing the net in the
cabin. T.K. was climbing every tree he could find, Sora was cloud gazing, Mimi was picking
flowers by the pond (only the ones that matched her shirt of course), Joe was swatting at the army
of mosquitoes that held the camp captive around this time of year, Matt had found a nice dark place
to sulk, and Tai was enjoying a moss covered hill with a tree on it the way God intended moss
covered hills with trees on them to be enjoyed: he was sleeping on it. Or at least he was sleeping
until he felt something wet on his forehead.
"Oh, great!" he thought "Don't tell me I went to sleep
right under a bird.". Fortunately, he checked and it was just a drop of water. Then he noticed that
there were several other wet spots on him. Tai ran out from under the tree to see what was going
on, but couldn't believe what he saw.
It was snowing.
Obviously, the first thing that interred Tai's mind was "GET INSIDE!" so inside he got. Or, at least, he tried. By the time he was halfway to the cabin, Tai could hardly see two feet in front of him. Still, he made it to the cabin relatively unscathed. "Relatively" in the sense that, just before he got there, he walked straight into a low hanging branch and scratched his face up. Fortunately (I suppose) he was too numb from the cold to hurt.
"MAN! It's something else out there!" Tai panted as he burst through the door and fell onto the
cabin floor. Sora, Mimi, Joe, and T.K. were all at the window watching the storm (why, I have no
idea; there was nothing to see but solid white). Matt, as usual, was sulking, this time in the corner
of the cabin, and Izzy, also as usual, was typing away at his computer.
Tai tried valiantly to shake the thick coat of snow out of his hair when he noticed that his head band was missing. "Damn" he though "That was my last one, too." Rummaging through his duffel bag brought forth only a pair of ski goggles he'd absent mindedly tossed in while he'd been packing. With his makeshift headband in place Tai took a moment to survey the silent cabin.
"Hey Izzy, how are things in cyberspace?" Tai asked, wondering if Izzy had even noticed
the snow at all.
"Not very well, I'm afraid." Izzy muttered, preoccupied with his work. "I was hoping I
could get on the national weather service web site and get some information on this unusual
weather system, but my internet connection seems to have gone dead."
"Maybe it can't get through the snow." pondered Sora from the window.
"Snow's never blocked my wireless connection before." Izzy muttered more to himself
that for any one else to hear.
"Snow's never fallen in the middle of summer before either." Matt observed from his little
corner.
Mimi, who hadn't been paying a bit of attention to the computer banter whined "I hope Mr
Crosby's all right!"
"Oh, don't worry, he's probably still down at the canteen." Tai said while he brushed the
last bit of snow off his shoes.
"I hope he didn't try to get back to the cabin when the snow started. If he did he's
probably a snowman by now." said Joe cynically.
"Thanks for that lovely picture, Joe" Sora moaned while Mimi leaped zealously on the
opportunity to panic.
"DO YOU REALLY THINK SO?!?!?" she shouted.
Tai covered his ears and shouted back "Hey, we're right here! You don't need to scream!"
"Hey, I think the snow is slowing down!...No, no it's not. Never mind." said T.K., who
hadn't been paying attention to anything but the storm.
Sora giggled and ran her had through T.K.'s messy hair "It's probably not going to slow
down for a while, and I think it'll be too dark too see by then."
"It's getting pretty dark now." Tai noticed. The snow may have had something to do with
it but it did seem to be getting late. The clock in the cabin hadn't work in years , but Tai knew it
had been after six when he zoned out under the tree, and he'd been there a while.
"If you ask me" said Matt, who was already climbing up to his bunk, "we ought to just
quit worrying and wait this thing out. Nothing's going to be happening for a while.". And with
that, pulled the sheets over his head and konked out. Gradually every one else decided that was a
good idea and did the same.
Sleep didn't come easy. The wind kept howling and pounding at the cabin and the fact that
the cabin's insulation age was older than every one in there put together didn't help. Eventually,
however, every one managed to drift off and were awakened the next morning by the blinding light
of the sun shining off the snow. Obviously the first thing on every one's mind was to get out in the
snow. Of the group, only Matt, Mimi, and Joe had jackets with them (Joe had his out of his need
to prepare for any circumstance, Mimi just brought every thing she had, and Matt...well he brings
his jacket every place) but that didn't stop the rest from investigating the now unrecognizable
camp.
"Hey, let's build a snow man!" shouted T.K.
"I dunno. I'm a little suspicious of snow that falls in seventy degree weather." said Joe,
lugging his duffel bag through the knee deep snow.
"Well it sure isn't seventy any more, I'm freezing!" complained Sora, rubbing her bare
arms.
From behind her Mimi piped up "Hey, you can wear one of my parkas, Sora! Why, I've
got one that'll match your cap perfectly! You'll help me get my suit case out right?"
"Sure!" said an extremely grateful Sora "Which one is it?"
"Oh, you know." called Mimi from the door "The big pink one!"
"Oh, that really narrows things down." laughed Tai.
T.K., who had all ready forgotten about the snowman, called over to Izzy "Hey, you
wanna have a snowball fight?" but Izzy didn't seem to notice. "Hey, Izzy!" T.K. called louder, but
Izzy still didn't respond, he was just staring up at the sky. Having heard the commotion, Tai ran
over, "Hey what's the matter?"
"That's what." said Izzy, pointing at a small, bright speck of light in the sky, "Call me
crazy, but I don't think there are supposed to be stars out at six in the morning."
Tai pulled out the mini telescope he'd bought the day before to take a closer look while
every one else ran over to find out what this latest bizarre occurrence was.
"Hey, is that a star?"
"Don't be silly. You can't see stars out this late...er...I mean early."
"Yeah, and it can't snow in the middle of summer ether."
"Do you mind?" Izzy blurted out as he started typing on his laptop "I'm trying to work
here......Hmmm....maybe it's a supernova?"
"I dunno" said Tai, putting his telescope back in his pocket "I've never heard of a green
supernova before."
"Really? It's green?" said a surprised Izzy, apparently to busy thinking about the thing to
notice it's color.
Back at the cabin Sora, who, with Mimi, had been valiantly attempting with to wedge
Mimi's huge suit case through the door, noticed the gang collecting outside and ran over to see
why.
"Hey, come on! Aren't you gonna help me?" whined Mimi.
"Hey, what's going on?" Sora asked.
"We're lookin' at a star or something!" replied T.K.
"A green star?"
"I don't think this is a star we're dealing with." said Izzy, lost in thought.
"I'm almost afraid to ask," gulped Joe "but what makes you say that?"
"Simple," replied Izzy "it's getting bigger."
And sure enough, the light that had started out as a little speck was now almost as big as
the sun and still growing. And it was now obvious that it couldn't possibly be a star. The green
they had though was all over it was, in fact, just a glowing haze around the sides. The main body
of it seemed to be black, except it wasn't a body really. It was more like a hole. A big gaping rip in
the sky. The black inside was full of hazy streams of light snaking there way around each other.
The whole thing had an eerie beauty to it, but none of them were exactly in the state of mind to
enjoy it then.
"WHOA! WHAT IS THAT THING?!?!" screamed Mimi, lugging her suit case behind
her.
"I don't know, and I don't think I wanna find out!" said Tai anxiously.
"I really think that we ought to go down to the conference hall guys." said Matt, trying,
without much success, to cover up the fact that he was scared out of his wits.
"You have my complete, total, and whole hearted agreement, Matt" cried Joe, quite happy
to make his fear known to every one.
The words were barely out of Joe's mouth when a blinding white flash erupted from the
thing accompanied by a thunderous, phasing roar. Immediate after, almost at the same time
actually, a blistering wave of heat washed over them, knocking every one to the ground. Then the
light around them changed, while no less bright, it was redder. Looking, or at least trying to look,
into the shinning hole in the sky reviled the source of the new light. They were seven objects that
can be best, though not very accurately, described as metallic fireballs. The flamed, moved, and in
almost all respects looked like fire, but they had a hard, solid quality to them. Not that any of them
cared about what they were made of, they were far more interested in were headed. They were
headed straight for them. As you can imagine, the first and only thing that came into there minds
was to run. Every one fumbled through the increasingly bright light and, somehow, the all
managed to get behind the cabin in very little time. Unfortunately, that made very little difference to
the fire balls; they just flew over there heads, stopped, turned around, and flew straight at them
again. The kids braced themselves for the sudden impact.....
...and then the things vanished.
Although no one had there eyes open, they all knew that the heat and the bright light had vanished
as well. As they opened there eyes to see what had happened (most of them had been terrified
enough to have the absurd notion that they needed to look to see if they were dead or not) they saw
no sign of the fireball things or the bright light. There was nothing that suggested that anything odd
had happened at all. The only thing out of place was a strange, quiet, buzzing sound. It took a few
moments for anyone to notice it, but it didn't take long for them to find out where it was coming
from. Somehow, without any of them knowing, some sort of devices had been placed in each of
there hands.
The things were somewhat oval shaped with notches on the top, bottom, left and right.
They all were five inches across, and four inches top to bottom. The casing (or whatever) on them
were made of a substance that no one could recognize: very hard, but not metallic. They all had a
predominately dull silver look with two dark blue ovals on the right of what was probably the front
and one circle on the left. In the center, surrounded a blue ring with some kind of writing on it,
was a screen of some sort.
For a few moments, there was total silence. then T.K. blurted out "Hey, what the heck is
this thing?"
"I don't know," said Tai, still a little shell shocked over all that had been happening "but
I've got one too."
"It would appear that we all have one." commented Izzy, gingerly examining his device "I
believe they were delivered by those fireballs."
"Couldn't they have just used UPS?" mumbled Mimi, trembling.
"I wonder if they're some type of hand held computer system." Izzy wondered to himself,
ignoring Mimi.
"Mine kind of looks like my Game Boy." T.K. said, pulling his Game Boy out of his
pocket to compare it to the strange device. "I wonder if you can play games on this too."
"I don't think that these play video games, T.K." Sora said, looking over hers, "There's
no place to plug anything in."
"There's no infrared port either....." Izzy started, then a different thought crossed his
mind. "I wonder what there buttons do."
As Izzy started to press one of the buttons, Joe shouted "HEY! Just what do you think
you're doing? We don't know anything about these things! That might be the self destruct button
for all you know!". However Izzy went ahead and pressed the buttons anyway, with absolutely no
effect. Satisfied that he was not blown up, Izzy commented "The buttons don't seem to have any
function. There doesn't seem to be any way to operate these things."
"Maybe they aren't buttons, the might just be decorations." offered Sora.
"They feel like buttons to me." Said Tai as he pressed his. The button (or what ever it
was) moved in with a click and rebounded when he let go. " And nobody puts buttons on things
for no reason."
While the others had been wondering over buttons, Matt was more interested in the thing
that had, it seemed, threatened there live only a few moments ago (sense words don't move very
fast, I should point out that barely a minute had passed sense the fireballs appeared). He ventured
back around the cabin to see what the hole in the sky was up to. What he found was an
unexpected, though not entirely unwelcome surprise. "Hey, guys! The thing in the sky's gone!"
The others, so totally engrossed in the mysterious devices that they had momentarily
forgot about what had just happened, all responded in unison: "WHAT?"
"I said, that hole, or star, or whatever it was; it's gone! There's no trace of it!"
The others all ran around front to the pile of back packs and duffel bags (and Mimi's suit
case) that they had dropped out front when they ran behind the cabin. Sure enough, there was no
sign of it. Someone uninformed would never have known anything was there in the first place.
"Good riddance!" Signed Mimi as every one warily began to pick up any belongings they
had left out side. They hadn't gotten very far before Izzy noticed a faint, but ominous rumbling
beneath him. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think we're out of the woods yet!"
As the others noticed the steadily increasing rumbling, Tai ran over to the bushes past the
path to see what was going on.
He found out.
"HOLY CRAP!"
"That's not good. That never means anything good." Said Joe, panicking
"Trust me, it's not!" yelled Tai.
Then what only can be described as a glowing, neon wave flew over the bushes and over
took the kids. The had a sensation of floating for a moment, like being under water, then that
feeling of floating turned into falling. The camp, the trees, the ground, every thing vanished and
was replaced by ....something else. All they could tell was it was bright, it was loud (the roaring,
phasing sound they had heard before), and they were falling into it. They couldn't tell for sure just
how fast the were falling, as there was nothing around them to pass, but it seemed to them to be
pretty fast. Below them (or in front of them, it was hard to tell) was a huge mass of color. There
didn't seem to be any edges to the mass, but it did seem quite solid; and seeing as they were
headed for it at extreme speed, this didn't sit well with the kids. Fortunately, the appearance of
solidity was misleading: they passed right through without touching anything. Beyond the false
wall of color, they fell into a new, chaotic area.
This second place turned out to look quite a lot the inside of the hole in the sky. There
wasn't much of a back ground, or any kind of end for that matter. The only things they could see
were the shimmering streams of color they had seen before wrapping around them and stretching
endlessly into the murky distance, bathing the whole expanse with a bizarre shine. They (the
streams) didn't seem to be moving along like they had been in the hole, but that probably was due
to the speed at which the kids were passing them. A speed that seemed to be increasing all the time.
As they fell deeper and deeper into (or through) this place, the streams started getting brighter and
more solid white. The continuous phasing sound began to get higher and shriller as well. Soon the
sound has become almost inaudible, like a silent whistle, and the light out shone everything else.
This light seemed different that the light that had come out of the hole in the sky earlier, however.
It seemed softer, milkier. There was an almost tangible quality to it. Before too long, they realized
that it seemed tangible because it was. They were surrounded, not by light, but some kind of milky
white fluid; almost like a gel. In trying to reach forward and feel ahead, they found that some of the
substance seemed to be forming a perimeter of sorts, almost like an egg shell, around each of
them. Slowly, the shell became harder and more transparent. Looking through the cloudy walls
around them, the kids found that they had once again moved to someplace else.
The first thing they noticed was that they didn't seem to be falling any more. While they
were definitely still moving at incredible speed, they didn't seem to be going strait down any more;
instead they seemed to be shooting strait ahead. The new place they were in had a quality to it that
caused it to resemble outer space. It very much resembled the previous area (in fact the two may
actually have been one and the same) but wasn't quite the same. The streams of color were still
present, but at quite a distance. from this far away, they seemed to form clouds that almost looked
like nebulas, lending to the outer space feel. There weren't any stars that they could see, there was
only the sea of clouds to light up the void. As they shot through, our intrepid (and terrified)
adventurers realized that there was something in front of them: a planet. The planet seemed to
resemble earth well enough, there seemed to be oceans and continents, but they didn't get much of
a chance to look the place over because, at the speed they were going, they had barely noticed the
planet before they were almost on top of it.
P ALIGN = CENTER***************/P
As Tai slowly regained consciousness, the first thing that interred his mind was pain.
Every inch of his body felt like.......well, there wasn't really anything to compare it too. A guy
like Tai was a guy who was quite familiar with injury: cuts, bruises, broken bones, hemorrhages,
you name it; but nothing even came close to the sensation that lingered through out his body. Every
inch of his skin felt like the flow of blood had been cut off, he was dizzy to the point that he didn't
know which way was up, his ears were ringing so bad that he couldn't hear a thing besides it. In
short, Tai was a mess. He tried to open his eyes, but that proved to be a mistake. The light striking
his eyes felt like knives being plunged into his head. Tai shut his eyes quickly and tried to raise his
hand to his face to rub them, but his joints were stiff as boards and the weight of his own arm
seemed to be a ton. He let his arm drop to the ground (which alerted him to the fact that he was, in
fact, on the ground) and tried to figure out just what was going.
How long had he been asleep?
He'd taken a nap under that tree on the east trail. Had he been there all night? No, some would
have seen him and woke him up. Tai tried to open his eyes again, but was greeted with the same
assault on his worn out retinas. Once again he shut them and decided to try to feel his way around.
With great effort, he started to slide his arm around and feel where he was.
There was a lot of
grass under him so he was definitely outside, but why had nobody woken Tai up? More
importantly, how had he gotten in such bad shape? It's not like he'd never spent the night outside
before. Slowly, Tai's arm made it's way up past his head. Sure enough, there was a tree there; but
something was wrong. This didn't feel like the oak tree that he'd fallen asleep under. The bark was
too smooth, too fine, too cold even. It almost felt metallic. Where the hell was he?
"Where..."
The star thing, the fireballs, that planet....
Suddenly, like a bullet, the remembrance of what had happened shot through Tai mind.
He wasn't at camp any more. That wave-whatever-it-was had took him.
That planet...
Was that were he was? Had he been swept up and dumped onto an alien planet?
Abducted? That last choice of words was quite unfortunate as every sci-fi film he'd ever seen took
the opportunity to jump to mind at it's mention. Still, Tai refused to let his fear get the best of him.
Just get a hold of your self, Tai, he though to himself don't be a wuss now. Again he opened his
eyes, this time intent on keeping them open. After several seconds of extreme pain, he began, with
great difficulty, to see the sky. Then he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he has nowhere
near home.
The sky wasn't blue.
Well some of it was blue, but there were plenty of other colors mixed in with it. Although
his vision slowly cleared, he could see that the colored streams that had been all around them
earlier were still visible; making the sky look like a big, living finger painting. And, frankly, it
creeped him out.
Slowly, with quite a lot of crackeling and popping involved, Tai moved his head back
enough to see the tree behind him. As with the "sky", the "tree" only seemed to be one in the
loosest sense of the word. The outside was a glossy gray with veins of purple running through to
it's bright blue leaves. The shape of the thing didn't help much ether. There were no branches at all
until the top where they were almost innumerable. The whole thing looked less like a tree and more
like a giant, colorful piece of broccoli.
Now quite anxious to get anyplace other than where he was then, Tai started struggling to
get up. As with any attempt at motion lately, he was greeted with a flood of pain through out his
body. However, as he started to move, Tai became aware of something extremely unsettling:
Something was on top of him; resting on his stomach.
Tai froze for a moment as every horrible possibility of what it might be flooded his brain.
Trying, with limited success, to shut the fear out, Tai slowly opened his eyes (he'd shut them
while bracing for the pain of moving) and cautiously looked down at where he could feel the object
resting on him.
He was greeted by two big, round eyes.
They belonged to some kind of animal it seemed. Small, about a foot or so across, it was
mostly round and a very light red (almost pink). It didn't have any limbs, save two long
antenna/ears, and the only things on it's face was a wide mouth and the two big eyes.
Given the circumstances, Tai carefully weighed his options and settled on the only logical
course of action:
He panicked.
And he panicked good.
One of the wonderful things about pure terror is it makes you totally oblivious to anything
else; so, without even noticing the pain that resulted, Tai quickly crawled backwards, head first,
straight into the tree behind him (resulting in a pain he did notice). As he stopped to figure out that
he'd hit the tree (it took several seconds) the pink thing hopped onto him again and began jumping
on him. It was then that Tai noticed something interesting:
The thing was smiling!
Smiling and talking to him!
The ringing in his ears had stopped a while ago but, as you can imagine, stopping and
listening was the last thing on Tai's mind.
"YES! YES! YES!!!!!! You ARE awake!!! YEEEESSSS!!!!!!!!!" it shouted. Then, it
jumped off him and began to hop around in a circle.
"YES!!!! Oh, YES!!!! Oh, man, you don't know how long I've been waiting for you
Tai!"
At the mention of his name, Tai was suddenly snapped out of his panic induced stupor.
"Wha- what did you say?" he stuttered "How do you know my name?"
"Well it's your name isn't it?" it giggled.
"Uh...well...yeah, but-"
"What are we doing worrying about names?" it interrupted, "What's important is you're
here and I'm here; that means WE'RE here! We! Ha, ha; WE! boy that feels good to say!"
Tai, becoming more and more confused with every word that came out of the thing's
mouth, broke in "Whoa, whoa, HOLD IT!!! I'm getting lost here. Just what are you?"
It looked puzzled for a moment, but then the big grin came back to it's face
"Oh, that's
right! You haven't had a formal introduction yet! Well, my name's Koromon!"
"Koromon" Tai unconsciously muttered to himself "What's that mean, talking head?"
"It means brave little warrior, thank you very much!" said Koromon with exaggerated
indignance.
"Uh, ok" mumbled Tai, not entirely comfortable with the idea of a strange creature with
lots of teeth and a name that means "warrior" hanging around him "So, uh, what do you want with
me?"
"Hey, it's not what I want it's what we NEED. You and me are PARTNERS!" Koromon
shouted gleefully.
"Wha-partner?" Tai stammered.
"That's what I said!"
"I know that's what you said but what do you mean?"
"Well what else can partner mean?" Koromon asked "You and me work together and help
each other out."
"No offense, but I don't think I need a pink ball of fluff to help me out." grunted Tai as he
started to get up. Before he got too far, however, Koromon jumped on him again, knocking him
back down.
"Hey, you listen here, Tai," Koromon said, sounding serious for the first time "I don't
think you understand what's going on here. In the Digiworld, you're going to need all the friends
you can get." He stayed silent for a moment to let what he'd said sink in before adding "And here I
am!" with a grin.
Tai would have jumped on the mention of "Digiworld" and tried to find out where he was
if his mind wasn't already on something else Koromon said.
"Friends..."
"OH NO!" Tai shouted, jumping up and sending Koromon pummeling to the ground "The
others! I forgot all about them!" With that, Tai ran off in search of his comrades with Koromon in
hot pursuit.
"Hey Tai, wait up! Slow down! Hey, we don't all have legs you know. Come on!"
To Be Continued...