Live Fast, Die Hard and Rock On
Eoghan had not been expecting to be sucked into a computer. Even by Niall's standards, it seemed a bit far-fetched. Then again, this was the guy who'd embedded three glass beakers in the ceiling of the English classroom. Still, it wasn't a bad place he'd ended up, he had to admit. He was sitting in the middle of a dark forest, flashes of sunlight seeping through the leaves.
"Hey, you!" called a strangely monotonous voice from somewhere to his left. Eoghan glanced around, eyebrows raised in curiosity. He was feeling surprisingly relaxed, considering the circumstances. Granted, once the adrenaline and shock wore off, he'd probably be reduced to a screaming wreck. A girl in some kind of pink uniform was standing at the other end of the clearing.
"Are you going to fight us or just sit around all day?" she asked, and Eoghan was surprised to see that her lips did not move in synch with her voice, and her eyes… they lacked a certain depth that one expected to see in the eyes of another. He climbed to his feet and stretched his arms.
"Who's we?" he asked, more out of boredom than a desire to fight.
The girl held out a small device. Eoghan resisted the urge to laugh. It was unmistakably a digivice, one from the "Digimon" anime. As he thought back, Niall had mentioned something about a new Digimon game for the laptop. Eoghan himself couldn't see the attraction. He preferred a game of soccer or hurling to staying glued to a computer screen. Nonetheless, he and Niall had been friends since they were little kids. He figured if Niall could struggle through endless soccer matches in school, he ought to show some interest in video games and the like.
"Greymon, let's do this!" A striped dinosaur burst from the device. Eoghan gaped open-mouthed before his brain engaged long enough to deliver a message, short and sweet. RUN! He turned and burst through the undergrowth, leaving a confused dinosaur and blank-faced human several dozen yards behind in a matter of seconds.
After several full minutes of sprinting flat out, Eoghan slowed down enough to look behind him and promptly fell head over heels over a tree trunk. He laughed hysterically, unable to believe he'd escaped from a real digimon. This was really not his day. At least now he was safe, he thought wryly as he stood up.
And found himself face to face with the brown helm of a Greymon. The girl ran up alongside a split-second later.
"Why'd you run? Surely to get here, you'd need to at least be able to reach Adult level, even if your digimon doesn't stay at that level." Eoghan felt himself doing a reasonable impression of a dying fish, gasping for air that didn't seem to be present. He backed up as far as he could, landing on his back on a steep slope.
"I don't have a digimon." he eventually stammered, scrambling up the slope till he reached roughly Greymon's shoulder level. He felt something moving on his belt and turned to see a phone-like device, steel grey with gold accents. He picked it up and as it began to glow faintly, he dropped it to the rocky ground. An incessant beeping rang out, sending the Greymon staggering in pain. Eoghan clasped his hands over his ears as a golden light dug a crater in the earth, dissipating the data and shaping it into the form of an egg.
The egg burst open to reveal a metallic green octagonal digimon with yellow eyes with slit pupils. "Hey." it grunted in a surprisingly deep voice. "Name's Igneomon. You gonna lay there all day?" Eoghan reached out a trembling hand, feeling extremely light-headed. A sudden shout interrupted his frantic thoughts.
"This is the Gotsumon territory! Humans are forbidden to approach the sacred mountain!"
Eoghan shut his eyes, determined not to look.
"What I don't know can't hurt me." he thought, praying whatever it was that had spoken was friendly. A sudden punch to his spine shattered that illusion. He rolled toward the base of the mountain, Igneomon clutched in his arms. He turned despite the pain in his lower back to see three small rock-like digimon. Two had stooping humanoid shapes with large fists and heads. The third looked more like a sumo wrestler, standing taller than the others.
"Now, humans," hissed the sumo. "It is time for you to learn of the powers of digimon."
"Gotsumon, attack!" roared the sumo, a Gotsumon X. The other two digimon threw rapid punches at Eoghan, who jumped backwards with Igneomon clutched tightly in his arms. Gotsumon X chuckled darkly.
"Destroy the green traitor first. Then we'll finish off the big guy." he sneered as several more Gotsumon jumped out, launching boulders at Greymon. One of the first two knocked Igneomon out of Eoghan's grasp and kicked it down the slope at the base of the mountain. It stood over the helpless Baby digimon, fist clenched, drawing out its pleasure before the final blow.
Then it collapsed as Eoghan's fist collided with its face. Eoghan held that pose for a moment before lashing out at the other with a fierce kick to the abdomen.
"Pick on someone your own size." he hissed, barely loud enough for his opponents to hear. A gold flash erupted from Eoghan, enveloping Igneomon.
"Even though I don't know him, I won't let you hurt him!" Eoghan roared at the stone digimon.
When the light faded, Igneomon had changed drastically. His forehead horn had vanished, replaced by two spikes where his temples would be. His head or body, whatever, had become more rounded. More interesting was the addition of arms and legs and, bizarrely, a fishing rod attached to his back.
"Name's Cragmon. Let's skip the pleasantries and get straight to kicking the crud out of these guys." grinned the new digimon, jabbing his fists into the earth, which, bizarrely, caused brass knuckles to form over his hands.
"Bearing Knuckle!" he cried, launching glowing punches at the darker rock digimon. The duo made short work of the clumsy grey rock digimons. Gotsumon X leapt down, holding a small statue resembling some kind of red armour.
"Spirit Digivolution!" he called, the armour growing and enveloping him in a flash of fire.
"Agunimon!" he called, now a tall human-like digimon covered in the same red armour that had made up the statue, a smirk on what could be seen of his face as the fire dissipated.
"Pyro Darts!" he roared, launching a series of diminutive flames in quick succession, exploding as soon as they reached Cragmon and Greymon, who was struggling to hold off a group of about half a dozen Gotsumon.
Eoghan jumped aside as the flames came uncomfortably close, rolling forwards to land on one knee. He grabbed a sharp stone from the ground and launched it at Agunimon, the edge cutting a deep groove int the digimon's mask, distracting him long enough for Cragmon to jump forwards and unleash a powerful uppercut. Agunimon responded in kind with a fist covered in flames, batting the green digimon aside with minimal effort.
Eoghan jumped forwards, lashing out with a swift kick, knocking Agunimon off balance. "If you want to hurt Cragmon, you'll have to beat me first!" the teen yelled in anger as he pulled back to launch another assault, only the first punch making contact before Agunimon grabbed him by the throat, a miniscule mark where the punch had made contact.
"I think you've lived too long, human. You're just like all the others, totally oblivious to the fact that we are more alive than you! You come here, destroy our homes and kill our families, you treat your partners like slaves! What gives you the right to do that? Answer me!" roared Agunimon, his grip becoming uncomfortably tight and Eoghan was astonished to see tears in the digimon's eyes.
"I haven't." Eoghan choked. "I don't… know what you're… talking about." Out of the corner of his eye, Eoghan saw Cragmon scrambling towards him, despite being beset by two Gotsumon. "I just… met Cragmon today. I… got attacked twice… by you and that… crazy girl. I'll try… to fix… things here, make things better. But I need… to know… what happened."
Agunimon's expression was, for a moment, one of hesitation, before it contorted once more with rage. "Don't try to fool me! You're a threat to the digital world." That said, Agunimon drew his hand back and summoned a fireball to his open palm. "Time for you to feel our pain."
Time seemed to stand still. Cragmon was powering towards Agunimon, far too slowly to help. Eoghan clenched his fists as the flame drew closer. "I can't die here. I've got to beat this guy. No "or else" about it. I. Won't. LOSE!"
A golden light burst from Eoghan's grey device, engulfing Cragmon, forming a cocoon of light around him. A shockwave erupted from said device, throwing Agunimon backwards against the ground.
The light faded from Cragmon to reveal a entirely new digimon. Six feet tall, easily, with grey skin almost entirely covered by green armour, three horns protruding from a helmet of stone, powerful arms ending in three-fingered hands, a black gem embedded in his chest and a net strapped to his shoulder blades. He let loose a monstrous roar before announcing his new title. "Obsidimon!"
"Double Upper!" called the newcomer as he tossed aside the Gotsumon with two devastating punches. Agnimon pulled himself to his feet as Obsidimon pointed stone fists towards him. "Knuckle Cannon." hissed the green and grey warrior, firing twin energy blasts at the Warrior of Fire. The blasts propelled said Warrior of Fire backwards and out of sight.
Obsidimon turned and smirked at Eoghan. "He wasn't too tough." The two shared a smile before turning to the Gotsumon still attacking Greymon. Several calls of "Knuckle Cannon" made short work of the rock digimon, leaving only a short, orange, dinosaur-like digimon unconscious on the ground- an Agumon.
"Get up." ordered the girl, no emotion in her voice, just a hint of annoyance. Eoghan grabbed her by the collar. "Can't you see he's hurt? Why don't you help him instead of ordering him around like that!" he spat angrily, a freshly devolved Cragmon by his side.
The girl's face registered no reaction. "Relax, dude. It's just a game." she said before disappearing completely. Agumon struggled to stand, Cragmon rushing across to lend a hand.
"Thanks." gasped the reptile. "I don't know why I do what she wants. It's like she can control my whole body."
Eoghan reached into a pocket and produced a wadded bandage and proceeded to wrap Agumon's injured arms in the cloth. "Why did you help me anyway? All the other humans treat us like-"
"Slaves?" interjected Eoghan, not able to meet the digimon's eyes. "Well, yeah. You're the first one I've met who seems to understand that we feel pain when you force us to fight."
"Well, I know what it's like to be forced into things… and I know pain. Looks like you're all set to go wherever it is you have to go. See ya." Agumon said a quick thanks before running into the undergrowth and disappearing.
"Pyro Darts!" came a call from behind Eoghan. A barrage of flames blew Cragmon off of his feet. Agunimon appeared several yards away, a fireball in his hand, expanding rapidly. Eoghan braced himself to dodge, futile as it seemed. "Time to die, human."
"Not today!" came a familiar voice from behind Eoghan. An enormous sky blue dragon jumped overhead, Niall and a small digimon balanced on each of its shoulders. Niall glanced down at Eoghan, shaking his head. "Getting death threats is my thing. Don't try it without the proper paperwork."
The boys focused his attention on Agunimon. "PolarGreymon, Frost Nova!" In response to the order, the blue behemoth unleashed a stream of frozen energy, blasting Agunimon's armour to shards. When the smoke cleared, the unconscious form of Gotsumon X lay beside a small red statue. PolarGreymon stood over him, ready to deliver a final blow.
"No!" roared Eoghan. Niall turned to him, one eyebrow raised in question. "He's suffered enough." whispered Eoghan. Niall nodded at his friend, jumping down as PolarGreymon shrank down to the size of a child, becoming more humanoid as the reptilian digimon (with goat legs?) sidled up alongside Niall as the latter approached his friend.
"By the by the by, et cetera, this is V-mon X, a local, and this is Frostmon, my partner." smiled Niall, a slight waver before the last word. Eoghan pushed it to the back of his mind, attributing it to being dragged into another world.
"This is Cragmon, my… partner, I guess." replied Eoghan, gesturing to said digimon before a beeping from Niall's digivice caught their attention.
"Looks like Darren could use our help." smirked Niall, a holographic map over his digivice showing a red dot flashing periodically. "Could get rough."
This time it was Eoghan's turn to smirk. "That's will get rough. Let's do it." V-mon X shook his head, pinching the skin where the bridge of his nose should have been. "I can't believe this. I've got to save the world with fucking morons." Nonetheless, he ran alongside \niall and Eoghan as they ran towards the setting sun.
There we go, my longest chapter to date. Next chapter reveals more about the game world and how it works, as well as having ninjas vs. beasts. R&R.
Digidex
Igneomon/ Attribute: ?/ Level: Baby/ Type: Lesser/ Attacks: Horn Jab, Dust Shot
A small, lightweight digimon with toughened skin. His Dust Shot technique can provide cover to escape enemies.
Cragmon/ Attribute: Data/ Level: Child/ Type: Rock/ Attacks: Fisher's Club, Sand Cannon/ Finisher: Bearing Knuckle
Although he is a rock digimon, he is lightweight enough to float on water, eliminating a common weakness of his kind. His balance of speed and strength make him a useful ally in combat.
Obsidimon/ Attribute: Vaccine/ Level: Adult/ Type: Rock/ Attacks: Obsidian Shock, Double Upper, Net Formation/ Finisher: Knuckle Cannon
Immensely powerful in terms of physical strength, Obsidimon can launch devastating punches with his armoured hands and muscular arms. His main weakness is his low agility and comparatively weak finisher technique.