Chapter 4: Him and his

(Now I'm going to try something new with the story. It's called a character shift. This means until the end of the outlined section the story will be in the point of the view of that character, try to understand. I'll be using it in this case for a telling of a flashback, but I may also use it to show what characters separate from Brendan are doing.)

Character Shift: Nick -6 Days earlier, Monday the 6th November-

Yes! School's finally out! It's been a pretty long week. I made bunch of ? in shop and the academics were pretty tough. I came to my locker, grabbed the books I'd need and left. I couldn't wait to go home, have a nice long weekend. I crossed the large yard in front of the school and heading to the bus, hopefully it was all warmed up and ready to go. I was almost at the bus when I heard some noise coming from the side of the school. I heard some angry voices yelling and then a quivering unsteady voice. I assumed it was someone being bullied. I wouldn't usually pay a second mind, but at the moment I felt the need to go help whoever was in trouble. It's not like I was looking for glory or anything I just felt like I should help whoever it was out. I approached with a mind full of possibilities. How would I do it? I could bull rush them and scare them off, I could challenge them or something. I looked around the corner where the noise was coming from. There were two of them, pretty big guys, juniors. They were pinning a smaller weak looking boy who's a freshman I think.

"Mike, I told you I wanted that money by today." The larger of the two shouted to the freshman.

"Sorry, I couldn't get it, I..I.." the Freshman stuttered.

"You know what this means don't you?" The smaller of the bullies grabbed the freshman and kneed him in the chest. The poor freshman. The bullies continued to attack the freshman till I couldn't stand it anymore. I took a step out from the corner.

"Okay that's enough, get out of my sight." I told them. My heart was pounding, but somehow I knew I would see this through.

"What's with you Wilkie (Nick's Nickname)? You shouldn't put your nose where it doesn't belong!" The larger one said as he began rushing at me. I thought fast, once he was in range I caught him in the face with a right jab. Just like I thought, no experience on that one. He went down the first hit. Naturally his fool friend followed.

"Raaaah" The punk called as he ran at me. He tried a right hook and I ducked under it. He left his chest completely unguarded so I took advantage with a swift rising fist. He fell all over his friends, they both groaned from the pain. I took this period to help the freshman who was watching, mouth agape. I walked over to help him out.

"So you OK?" I asked

"Yeah, thanks, those guys have been pestering me a lot lately." He replied

"Oh yeah." I said with a sneer "If anyone messes with you you should just ignore them, half the time they aren't worth the trouble"

"Wow, thanks, I wish I had your strength." He said as he ran off. "Strength?" I thought. I didn't think I was so strong. I headed back to the busses, even thought they were probably gone by now. As I turned the corner again, I noticed that the busses were in fact gone. I began walking home since I didn't live too far away.
I was walking down the familiar streets. The question of what the freshman said about strength still had me wondering. It was a truly mellow pre-winter afternoon the sky was a dark gray color. Everything around me was in deep shade from the dark tone of the sky itself. I came to a relatively empty street when I heard a rustling in the bushes to my left. Someone was coming out. I backed a step to see a shadowy red figure emerge from the brush. He, it, looked kind of like a dragon warrior or something.

"Uh, Hi" I said in a puzzled voice.

"Hello, You are Nick correct?" The character said.

"uhh, Yeah" I replied.

"I saw what you did back there, saving that boy. That was very righteous of you. I am Fatomon."

"Thanks, I don't know what came over me back there, but it felt like the right thing to do. So you're a Digimon right?"

"Yes, and I'm looking for a partner. You seem pretty strong and just, would you please be my tamer?"

"Oh yeah, 'Tamers', Brendan was saying something about that last time I saw him." I said. "Yeah, why not? I'll be the best tamer there is." Fatomon lit up when I said this.

"Let's shake on it." He said as he put out his hand, he wore gauntlets. "Partners"

I grabbed and shook his hand, looked him in the face and said "Partners" With that there was a bright light that flashed in front of us. We both stood gawking at the light. I naturally reached out and touched it. When I touched it the light formed a small device. It fit in my hand and it was tinted red. I guess it was one of those Digivices.

"Well, that was cool, let's go back to my house" I told him.

"Lead on, tamer. He said so I led him home.

Return Shift: Brendan -Present, Sunday the 12th of November-

"Oh so that's how you guys met" I said. We were all sitting around my den listening to Nicks story. Herpetomon and I were on the couch Fatomon was on the Lazy boy, and Nick was pacing the floor.

"So when did you guys meet?" Nick asked Herpetomon and I

"Two days ago" we said in tandem "And we've already been in two fights" I explained.

"Sweet" Nick said. We just sat there for about 2 hours, discussing the adventures we'd already had. It was about 2 in the afternoon, I figured mom would be back at around 5 so I decided to treat the guys to lunch. I decided to make, you guessed it, more waffles. As I expected they were quite a hit. Apparently all Digimon are big eaters, Fatomon and Herpetomon had an eating contest. It was close, but eventually Fatomon won by a half a waffle. They were both a total mess, syrup and whipped cream all over their faces. We all began cracking up at how ridiculous they looked.

"You've got something right here." I said to Herpetomon pointing to my chin. This was preposterous because his whole face was covered with mess. Another laughing fit ensued. It was a great afternoon filled with joking and discussing. It felt good to have some friends in this Digital warfare. It was 4 o'clock, we were all pretty tired from the events of the day. Herpetomon was asleep and Fatomon was well on his way. I was lying half-asleep on the couch. Then it occurred to me to ask Nick about why he thinks the Digimon are here.

"Hey Nick" I mumbled to him, and he turned his head. "Did you ever wonder why these Digimon are here?" I asked "I mean aside from looking for a tamer."

"Nah, not really. Why does it matter? They're here now." He replied

"I don't know, it's just that in the show the Digimon partnerships are usually made for a reason, a reason that usually results in saving the world. So I was just wondering if we share that destiny."I explained.

"I think we should just wait and see" Nick said.

"Yeah, I guess, but it's really been troubling me lately, I have a bad feeling about all this, like our fight is going to culminate into something much larger than we know." I told him. "Mmm" he responded. I found that to be an odd response, but he had a point, I'd probably find the answer at some point. We sat for a while, watching TV and just hanging out. Then I heard mom pull up in the driveway.

"Oh crap you guys have to go." I told then quickly "Come on you can leave out my window." They got up and sluggishly walked over to my window. "You guys can walk home right? You only live a town away."

"Yeah, we'll be fine." They said.

"OK sounds good, if you ever need our help call my cell, and vice versa." I said.

"OK, see ya'." Nick said as Fatomon grabbed him and they leapt from my window. I watched them begin their run home. I went back into the den and woke up Herpetomon who had totally passed out.

"Hey, come on, my mom's home you can sleep in my room." I instructed. He slowly opened his eyes, got up, and managed to drag himself into my room. I shut the door behind him just as mom came in.

"Oh, Hi" I said. "How was Uncle Steve's"

"It was great, he made warm cider, oh and the girls said hi." She responded. The girls she spoke of are my two younger cousins Emily and Julia. "What did you do all day" she asked when she saw me slinking towards my room

"Uh, nuthin', you know." I said quickly. This wasn't a suspicious response since that was how I answered almost all of her questions. She gave me that typical look that says, "ugh, whatever." I went into my room and locked the door. I turned around to find Herpetomon sleeping on my bed. I would have woken him up, but he needed rest after the beating he took earlier. I had homework to finish anyway, so I sat and began diligently completing the various sheets and questions. Including the projects I had to work on I was completed at around 9:30. Normally I wouldn't go to bed 'till around 10:00, but I was pretty tired too. I went to brush and get ready for bed. When I came back to my room Herpetomon had moved over to the throw rug on the floor.

"Oh, thanks." I said, but he pretended to be back asleep already. It was just now that I realized I'd forgotten something crucial. "Oh Crap, Herpetomon get up!" I woke him up and he looked at me confusedly.

"What, what's going on?" He asked.

"I forgot to tell you what to do tomorrow, I'll have school" I told him "OK, so I'll be at school tomorrow from about 7 to 3p.m. I don't really mind what you do all day, but I have a few rules. OK so, you can go outside and jump along rooftops, as long as you are not seen. Or you could hang around here, just don't destroy the house. And if you go out and you sense a Digimon coming through, try to control yourself. I would encourage you to check out the situation, if it's a good or a bad Digimon, but if it is bad please don't fight it alone. I know how you get when there's an evil Digimon around."

"OK, I understand." he said in a serious tone. I could tell he was sincere.

"OK, good, now get some rest, you got pretty beat up today." I said

"Great, thanks" He said "But don't worry about it, Digimon heal really fast." When he said this I realized that a lot of his bruises and burns had gotten a lot better.

"Oh yeah, I forgot, that's cool. Well, goodnight."

"Yep, goodnight."