"God I love Morton's" Vince exclaimed as he followed Jason back into his bedroom, closing the door behind them. "Those potatoes are so good," he added, sitting down on the desk chair and leaning his head back.
"I still don't get how you don't like dessert." Jason replied as he grabbed a Gamecube Controller. He held another one out and Vince dragged the chair over, taking the controller. "Smash?"
Vince nodded "I'm just not a dessert guy," he added as Jason started up the game. "Besides, your family eats so late." They selected their characters and began the match. Within a few minutes, it was over with Jason the victor. "So, how's Ariana? Did you ask her out?" Vince asked as he set the controller down for a moment. He pulled his phone out and flipped the screen open checking to see if anyone texted him.
Jason adjusted his glasses and looked over at Vince. He shifted and then focused back on the game. "No." And with that the conversation had died. Again, the characters were selected and just as the match was about to being, Vince's phone began to ring.
"Hello?"
"Vince, hey sorry, it's Sienna. You're with Jason, right?"
"Yeah, hang on," Vince pulled the phone from his ear and put the call on speaker. Jason leaned in.
"Hey Sienna," Jason waved. Vince tilted his head at him but shook it off. "What's up?"
There was a pause on the other end. "Sorry I've been out of touch for a while, everything ok there?"
Vince held up his hand before Jason could respond. She knew something, or at least saw something like he had earlier. "Well, I thought I saw a Digimon today, so this is a weird coincidence."
Again, there was silence. Vince pressed one of the directional buttons on the face of his phone to light the screen up just to check that the call was still connected. "You too huh?" she said quietly. "I think something's up, can you guys meet me tomorrow?"
Jason adjusted his glasses before rubbing his chin. "Vince and I don't have our licenses yet, so I don't know how we're supposed to meet you."
Vince lifted his eyebrow slightly. "I'm sure she's not expecting us to drive down to Lancaster on a moment's notice, are you Sienna?" On the other end, they could hear Sienna sighing deeply, mumbling something otherwise incoherent.
"No, that's why I'm not there. Get your mom or something to take you to the mall. That should be…" her voice was replaced by a loud barrage of various noises, resembling the sounds of old 56k modems, and then the call dropped. Vince tried to call again, but the phone crashed, it's screen pixilating and distorting. The lights in the bedroom followed, flickering rapidly as every other electronic device around them went haywire.
"Vince, you don't think…" Jason started to say but was swiftly cut off by a loud ear-splitting screech. The boys exchanged a quick glance and bolted out of the bedroom and a few seconds later were standing in the middle of the cul-de-sac staring up into the night sky, right at the giant green mantis-like creature hovering in the air. Jason raised his arm to shield his eyes as Vince glared up, holding his Digivice tightly.
"Snimon!" Jason exclaimed, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. The massive insect Digimon landed in the middle of the street, towering over the elegant homes around them. Saliva dripped from its gaping jaws as it seemed to stare right at Jason and Vince. They each took a step back and another while the beast just stood there. Snimon raised his right sickle like arm, ready to bring the massive blade down where they stood. Without any hesitation, Vince and Jason took off running in opposite directions as Snimon brought its arm slamming down and imbedding the blade appendage at least a foot into the pavement, growling in frustration at missing its targets.
"What is Snimon doing here?" Jason yelled as he ran for cover behind a neighbor's oak tree.
"I have no idea!" Vince called back, peering over a low decorative brick wall in front of another house.
Jason glanced around the side of the tree just in time to see Snimon free his claw from the roadway and in turn charging at the tree, slicing it in half. He dove as the upper branches of the tree landed where he had been hiding.
"This is bad, what I wouldn't give to have Gomamon here," Jason said, pushing himself off the ground. The insect Digimon landed on the street and slowly advanced towards Jason. Once again, he raised his sickled arm to strike, but was met by numerous brightly colored fish, followed by blue flames. Snimon staggered back and screeched.
"Gomamon!" Jason exclaimed, looking to where the fish had originated from. Standing a few feet away were two Digimon, one white and seal like, the other was taller with a fur pelt over his horned head.
"Gabumon!" Vince yelled, jumping over the small wall he was behind and over to his partner.
"Missed you too Vince!" Gabumon smiled, closing his big blue eyes.
"Sorry we're late Jason," Gomamon replied. "Wow you've grown…and you changed your hair."
Jason shook his head with a smile. "Can we discuss this later? We have a big problem." He finished, holding his Digivice as it shined brightly.
"He's right, we can have our reunion later. Let's go Gabumon!" Vince added with his Digivice also shining. Gabumon and Gomamon were encased in a ball of light.
"Gabumon evolve to…"
"Gomamon evolve to…" Both balls of light shattered in a spectacular display revealing two larger creatures.
"Garurumon," Gabumon was replaced by a large wolf like Digimon with greyish fur and blue tiger-like stripes down his body.
"Ikkakumon" Gomamon likewise was replaced by an even larger walrus type Digimon with long white fur, two huge tusks and a horn coming from his head. Snimon forgot about Jason and Vince and focused entirely on the new threats the Adult level Digimon now posed to it. Snimon screeched again and slashed both sickle arms in an X like pattern, sending purple blade like beams at Garurumon. The lupine Digimon jumped to the side as the attack exploded into the road sending chunks of asphalt raining down from the crater.
"This is bad Vince, Snimon's going to wreck the whole neighborhood. People are going to get hurt…" he trailed off, looking over as Ikkakumon slammed into Snimon, sending the mantis sliding across the lawn of the house next door.
Vince cringed, hoping that Snimon wouldn't touch the house. Jason was right though; this was not the place to fight. Garurumon could lead Snimon out of the development, but Ikkakumon would never keep up and would only keep Snimon focused here. "Garurumon, can you end this?"
"Of course. Ikkakumon, ready?" Garurumon asked, nodding his head.
"Harpoon Vulcan!" Ikkakumon yelled, his horn from his head, was quickly replaced by another and another. The projectiles shed their horn like appearance, turning into guided missiles.
"Fox Fire!" Garurumon opened his mouth widely, letting a stream of bright blue flames out. The missiles hit first, exploding on Simon's head repeatedly as the flames encircled the insect. Twin purple energy sickles shot out of the flames, exploding on Garurumon and Ikkakumon sending both Digimon flying back with Garurumon crashing through a tree and Ikkakumon collapsing a garage, crushing whatever car was inside. The wolf Digimon was the first to stir, shaking off the impact of the tree. He growled, lowering his haunches and raced off, quickly accelerating. Snimon slashed his bladed arms, sending the all too familiar energy blasts, but Garurumon was moving too quickly and dodged each attack. He leaped through the air, slamming his paws onto Snimon and knocking the bug to the ground with an earth-shaking thud. Around them car alarms started going off. How it took until now was beyond Jason but that's all they needed. There was no way they were going to keep this quiet, and to be fair that ship sailed the second Snimon appeared. All around them house lights were on and driveway floodlights tried their best to illuminate what was happening. Thankfully, by standing in the middle of the street this made uneasy to be identified due to being shielded.
"Get him Garurumon!" Vince cheered, snapping Jason out of his head.
"Fox Fire!" Garurumon yelled again, covering Snimon in the blue fire. The wolf looked up, and jumped off seconds before numerous missiles exploded on Snimon, causing the Digimon to seemingly glitch a few times and then exploded into colorful particles which entered a small black and green swirling vortex and then vanished. With the threat gone, Garurumon and Ikkakumon turned bright white again and shrunk back to their Child forms of Gabumon and Gomamon.
"We still got it!" Gabumon cheered, patting Gomamon on the head as Vince and Jason ran over to them. Around them, the doors to the homes started opening as people came out to see the damage now that the monsters were gone.
"This is bad, we can't get caught," Vince said.
Jason nodded. There was no chance they could get back to his house unseen with all the neighbors out like this. He could hear sirens in the distance which were most likely coming here. The last thing they needed was to try and explain to the police what the giant bug was. "Come on," he encouraged, picking Gomamon up and ran in the direction of the only house without its lights on. Gabumon and Vince followed close behind.
"What's the plan?" Vince asked, running alongside Jason.
"We climb the fence at the back of the property and double back to my house. There are woods back there so it should be easy to lose anyone," he explained as they dashed through the yard of the house. A few yards later they stopped, looking at the ten-foot-tall, barbed wire lined fence.
Vince slowly panned his gaze from the wire atop the fence back to Jason. "Great plan…" he muttered. "Gabumon, can you?" Vince motioned to the fence and stepped aside. The fur covered Digimon nodded, and walked to the fence. He lowered his horned head and launched himself at the fence, making a hole in the links.
"What good does that do us? They'll find the one at my house," Jason protested.
"So? It's not like anyone got a good look at us," Vince retorted as the police arrived, their blue and red lights illuminating the cul-de-sac behind them. "Let's go!" Vince pulled the fence open for Gabumon and held it. He waved his hand at Jason, signaling him to hurry up. He could clearly see the beams of light from the police's flashlights pointing at their direction. Once Jason and Gomamon were through, Vince moved and pulled the fence closed, hoping it would at least stand up to a quick glance.
It took an additional fifteen minutes to make their way back to Jason's yard. Every time they saw a beam of light, or heard the squawk of a radio they hid behind a tree, a bush or even a rock, anything to not draw attention to themselves. One by one they emerged from the woods into Jason's backyard, walking as quiet as possible. They climbed into the expansive deck and passed the "Surfer Crossing" sign Jason's older brother had to get on one of their annual trips to Hawaii.
Jason set Gomamon down and ran his hand along the door frame leading into the hot tub. His hand eventually found the key taped to it and used that to unlock the door.
"Oh thank God, Jason you boys are alright," the voice of Mrs. Green greeted them as soon as they all stepped into the house. The kitchen was dark and she rose from the table quickly hugging her son. Her husband stood behind her with a proud smile. "When we heard the noise and saw you two out there…I'm so glad Gomamon came back."
"Hi-ya Mrs. Green, Mr. Green," Gomamon closed his eyes with a large smile and waved his clawed right flipper.
"We told the police we were the only ones home, so you might not want to go upstairs now." Mr. Green explained. "The basement will do for now, go, rest." He hugged Jason and gave Gomamon a pat on the head.
Once safe downstairs, Vince flopped on the leather couch next to the bar and let out a deep sigh. "What the fuck just happened?" he whined, leaning his head against the backrest and staring up at the recessed lighting. "Where did Snimon come from?"
"I don't know Vince. We're lucky Gomamon and Gabumon were here though…" Jason replied as he sat on the recliner and turned the television on.
"Things have been getting bad in the Digital World," Gabumon said, sitting next to Vince on the couch. He leaned against the human and closed his eyes. "Digimon have been going crazy like that Snimon, and I've heard stories of a demon living in SkullMeramon's old fortress."
"I knew we should have destroyed that place when we fought him six years ago," Gomamon added. "But Gabumon's right. Things have been getting worse for the last six months. And last week, ToyAgumon entered a digital gate and we haven't seen her since. The only reason we're here is because two opened up and we saw Snimon attacking you."
"I should try Sienna again, maybe the phone's back up. Everything's back to normal." Vince motioned to the steady lights and the TV. He stood up and walked around the corner to take the call.
"Now that we're here Jason, does this mean we get take-out?" Gabumon asked looking hopeful.