Chapter 7: Unbelief
Return Shift: Brendan -Present, Thursday the 15th of November-
Things had been going pretty good, Herpetomon and I kept going by the system. Over Tuesday and Wednesday we didn't run into any fights or anything. During the days Herpetomon usually just hung out drawing, watching TV, or eating.
It was a cold and damp Thursday. I was just getting out of school and I was dreading the bus ride because it would be so cold and wet. I ran through the rainy mess outside to the bus. It was the usual bus ride, with the typical nonsensical babbling. At one point I turned my back to the others to check on Herpetomon with the D-Gadget. In the D-Gadget I could see one of Herpetomon's drawings apparently he was drawing.
"Hey Herpetomon!" I said sharply into the Digivice.
"Waaaah, what, what's going on?" Herpetomon said.
"he he he, Nothing, I'm on my way home." I said
"Oh, OK, well see you then, geezum" He sighed.
Soon enough I was home, Nana dropped me off, but couldn't stay.
"Herpetomon, I'm home." I called to him. I could hear him coming out of my room.
"Yeah, I noticed." He said, coming out of the den. He looked very spent. I assumed he had been drawing all day and might've had a nap too. As I walked past him to my room I said "So what did you do all day?"
"Well I drew for the whole morning, then I took a nap." Ha, I was right.
"Let me see what you drew, I don't have much homework so I can work on some of your upper forms." I told him.
"Oh cool, here come see." He brought the sketchbook over to me. I looked over them and Herpetomon anxiously waiting for my response. This time the drawings were all of very stylish and sleek looking Digimon.
"Wow, these are a lot better, I didn't mean for you to be huge and muscular. I like you svelte and suave." I explained. "That's how it always used to be with Nick and I. He always chose substance over style and I always preferred style over substance. I guess that explains how he ended up with a tank like Fatomon."
"Pfft, Fatomon, I can't stand him, He's such a goody-goody" Herpetomon said.
"I don't understand why you hate him so much, I mean he did save our lives." I told him.
"Yeah, don't remind me, that just shows how weak I am compared to him. You're probably ashamed of me." Herpetomon said, turning away, I think he was crying. I never knew this was such a touchy issue with Digimon. I moved next him. I would try to help him out of it, but for some reason things are always awkward when I try to break someone off of crying.
"Hey, hey, you are not weak." I told him while I thought up some kind of saying, like I usually would, to help him out. "In fact it's said that only the strongest people cry." He looked up and tried to regain composure.
"Really?" He said
"Yeah."
"Really, Really."
"uuh Yeah." He was obviously feeling better
"Really, Really, Rea…"
"Yes Really!" I cut in.
"Thanks B, I just needed to know that you really do like me." Herpetomon said
"Oh come on, you're the man." I said as I went into complicated speech to get a laugh out of him. This was a way of speaking where one overcomplicates their language in an often-incorrect way. "In fact, one might go so far as to say that you are the 'Mon'." Sure enough the retardedness of the statement made him laugh. I always loved cheering people up, seeing people laugh.
Once that episode was over I sat down to my work while Herpetomon watched over my shoulder from my bed. I was working out Herpetomon's champion form first. Out in the kitchen I could hear mom coming home, but I just ignored it.
"So Herpetomon, do you have any requests?" I asked him
"Not really, I trust you to make me just right." Herpetomon said.
"Okay, so maybe you shouldn't see it, it'll be a surprise for you." I said turning the sketchbook away from him. Herpetomon just watched TV while I continued the drawing. (No you, the reader can't see it yet either.) I continued working on it until 5:30. It came out pretty well, and I folded it up and kept the drawing with me.
"All done, no peaking, seriously, it'll be a surprise, especially for you." I told him.
"OK, fine, I'm sure it'll be awesome." Herpetomon said.
Then the phone rang, Mom was busy in the other room so I picked it up.
"Hello?" I said into the phone
"Hey, B it's me." It was my cousin Kayla.
"I'm coming over." She said, I loved this about Kayla, she never really asked if she could come over she would just tell me.
"OK, I guess your coming over." I said awkwardly.
"Good, I'll be over in a few minutes." She only lived a town away, which was pretty convenient.
I told Herpetomon about her. "Herpetomon, my cousin's coming over soon, I want you to stay in here while she's here. Maybe at some point you can meet her, but I don't think the rest of the family's ready for you yet."
"Yeah, I know the drill." Herpetomon said. Soon afterward Kayla's mom pulled up in the driveway and dropped her off. As she came around I could she was wearing a big backpack that was chock full of something. I opened the door for her and she stepped in from the rain. She was a pretty girl, she had beautiful curly hair and brilliant blue eyes. She'd kill me for saying this, but she's also not very tall, she hates this because my household family is at least 5'9". She was probably 5'7".
"Hello" she said coming over and giving me a big hug, like usual. I noticed she looked really nervous, despite her often-cheery disposition.
"Hey." I said, "So what's going on?"
"Uh, I need your help with a project for school." She said, "Here, we'll do it in your den." She pulled me in and shut the door. She looked around erratically, and shut all of the shades. While she did all this I just sat there, a little flustered by her strange behavior.
"Is their something wrong?" I asked her once she finally sat down with her bag.
"Hey B, you're into that Digimon stuff right?" She asked. I nodded yes, I thought everyone knew that. "Well, don't freak out, but look at this." She said as she opened her bag. I walked over and stood over it when all of a sudden a small rock Digimon came out. "Hello" it said in a happy voice. I knew this to be Gotsumon.
"What you caught a Digimon!" I asked frantically
"I don't know. I just found this little guy on the street, then he saved me from some big huge monster. He keeps asking me if I'll be his 'Tamer' and I didn't know what that means so I said yes. Then this little thing came out of nowhere." She explained taking out a D-Gadget. "What does this mean, what are these monsters, and what the hell does this have to do with me?" She asked, winded from the long explanation. I sat there for a minute, completely dumbfounded.
"No Fucking way!" I said out loud to myself, "No way, there's just no way."
K had taken a seat on the couch and Gotsumon was sitting on her lap. K had a confused and uncertain look on her face. I stared at them for a minute still not believing what I had just heard.
"Wait, so Gotsumon couldn't give you any information?" I asked her.
"No, all he know is that he's a Digimon and having a 'tamer' will make him stronger." She said looking at him, he looked up at her and made a smile that looked strange because his mouth was just a parting of rocks.
"OK, well now I have a secret for you, Herpetomon you can come out it's OK." I was aware that he had been listening against the door since K came in. He opened the door and came out slowly.
"Holy crap you have one too" K responded "What is going on!"
"Hello to you too" Herpetomon said. I was glad he'd been working on his people skills.
"Oh, sorry, Hi" Kayla said. Then Gotsumon jumped out of her lap and came over to Herpetomon. "Hey you're really big." Gotsumon said. I was getting the impression that Gotsumon was pretty naïve.
"Yeah, thanks I guess." Herpetomon said. Kayla was beginning to calm down.
"Alright, Kayla listen up and I'll tell you how the story goes. Basically there is this place called the Digital World that is in a dimension parallel to the one we reside in. The Digital World gets its name because the entire place is made up of random computer data from this world. Now in the Digital World there are creatures called Digimon. Herpetomon could tell you about that, Dr. Herpetomon take it away." I passed the explanation to him.
"Thank you Dr. Mehu." Herpetomon joked. "OK so Digimon are created when computer data compresses into what is know as a Digi-Egg. A Digimon will later hatch from this Egg. Then there's the levels, Digimon can grow and become stronger by digivolving. There are 7 levels of digivolution. In order of ascension, Fresh-In training-Rookie-Champion-Ultimate-and Mega. Gotsumon and I are Rookie levels. In the Digital World Digimon are sentient and live in civilizations, but some Digimon are evil. They obviously start fights with other good Digimon. Here's where you need to listen up, Tamers. Digimon that are strong enough can make it into the Real World. These Digimon will be looking for a human partner that can make them stronger and digivolve, or a Tamer. Now back to you Dr. Mehu."
"Thank you Dr. Herpetomon." I had to change to joking tone of the conversation to correctly express the dire situation. "So that's pretty much everything you need to know. What do you think?
"Ummmm, OK, I think I get it. But what I don't get is why did it have to be us? Are there any other partner groups out there?" She asked
"Well, uh, Nick's a Tamer too." I told her.
"Uggggh, not him!" I knew she wouldn't take this well, Kayla never really did like Nick. "Well that's great, now what do we do now that we have these Digimon?"
"I'm not 100 sure on that myself, but for now we've just been stopping the evil Digimon that come through to the Real World." I told her. "Your D-Gadget will rumble and Gotsumon will probably notice when another Digimon bioemerges."
"OK, maybe we'll go next time we find one." Kayla said.
"Yeah, I can't wait to fight again." Gotsumon said.
"Nick and I will probably be there too." I told her.
"Well thanks, I just needed some info." She said as she began stuffing Gotsumon in her bag. "Bye, see you later Herpetomon." Gotsumon said just before K made that last push that got him in. K went out to the kitchen and got my mom to drive her home. I pushed Herpetomon back into my room and we just sat there for a while.
"Wow, I still can't believe she's a tamer too. This is getting pretty crazy." I said to Herpetomon.
"Yeah, I know, how weird is that." He replied. Soon after mom got home she called me out for dinner. Tonight we had a chicken dinner and once again I brought some back to my room for Herpetomon to eat. We were both pretty tired so I went to bed early at 9:30.
"No f'ing way" I thought again as I went to bed.