Chapter 2
Part 1-Waking up.
Millions of questions rushed through Thomas's head. Why did his stomach hurt? Where was he? What had happened to his clothes? They felt different. Suddenly, his memories returned. He remembered what had happened. Oh what a beating Sophie was going to get. That little o… wait? Something was poking his chest. Thomas opened his eyes.
What happened then made him wish he hadn't.
- "Oh how good that you're awake." exclaimed a small, yellow, dog-like creature with something looking like wings growing out of its head. "I was afraid I'd have to carry you all the way back."
For a brief moment, Thomas considered screaming. However, he didn't as the apparently very solid hallucination would probably consider it impolite. He wondered briefly what kind of drug or brain damage was causing him to see and feel all these things, or if it was all just a dream. Whatever it was, it was very well made; the trees around them looked almost real, save for the traffic sign, pointing upwards, that apparently showed the way to "Seraphimoon," wherever that was.
- "Would you mind standing up or will I have to lift you." The illusion muttered irritably. "And while we're at it, could you wake those others up."
- "OK OK, whatever." Thomas muttered back and got up to see who it was that he was dreaming about. It was, not surprisingly, Paula and… Sophie. Defenceless. In a dream were there would be no long lasting after effects. Perfect. Thomas got up and walked over to the unconscious girl, smiling sinisterly.
He began with shaking her roughly. She would need to be awake to fully understand exactly what she had gotten into this time.
- "Careful, we don't want to hurt anyone, do we?" the annoying piece of imagination asked worriedly.
- "Yes we do," Thomas answered and raised his hand, preparing to punch the little o…
- "No we don't!" Paula had awakened and was staring hatefully at the brown-haired boy.
- "Paula!" Thomas exclaimed and looked in shock at the furious girl; he had completely forgotten that she was there.
- "Yes, me, Thomas. And you're not hurting Sophie, or anyone else for that matter."
- "But you don't understand…"
- "It doesn't matter if I don't understand whatever idiotic reason you have to dislike Sophie. Bet it's something like her being a Jew anyway.
- "Well, excuse me!"
Another voice cut off:
- "Could the two of you stop bickering, please?" It was the small dog-hamster, which was somehow keeping itself in the air with its small wings. Sophie and Paula stared at it. Thomas took the chance to slip out of her grip. "Good," the yellow thingy proceeded. "Could you please follow me now?"
- "Well okay then." the three said in unison.
- "But keep an eye on Thomas here, would you."
- "Well that seems reasonable." the big hamster gladly replied and took seat on Thomas's head. He wasn't really that heavy, Thomas noted before beginning to walk in the direction the yellow rodent told him to.
Part 2-Certainly a strange dream
Thomas didn't like the way this dream turned out, it was too boring. Paula and Sophie were talking about some, no doubt boring, subject. It was then that he got his brilliant idea. He was in a dream, and when you didn't like the way a dream turned out all you had to do, was pinch yourself. Thomas was sure that if he pinched himself hard enough, he would snap out of this boring dream.
He tried. It didn't work. Well, Thomas figured, that was hardly a pinch. Perhaps if he tried for real this time. Thomas closed his eyes and pinched his arm for all he could.
He opened his eyes. Everything was still there.
- "May I be so bold as to ask why you are hurting yourself?" the hamster on his head asked.
- "I'm trying to wake up."
- "Wake up? Do your kind Digivolve through physical pain?"
- "Digiwhat?" Thomas tilted his head towards, only to hear a slight thump as the hamster fell onto the ground."
- "You don't know about Digivolution? That's certainly strange." The hamster replied as it got itself up in the air and started to fly beside him."
- "Why would I want to know about something that only exists in a dream?"
- "Dream? What do you mean with dream?"
- "Well this is obviously a dream. Nothing like this can possibly exist. Therefore, as I don't do drugs, this must be a dream."
- "I don't feel like I'm a dream."
- "Well, that's the thing with dreams. Usually you don't know that they're dreams before you wake up."
- "Sounds strange to me. But why do you think this is a dream?"
- "Well, something like this could not possibly happen so following the famous formula of master detective Sherlock Holmes, it isn't."
- "Sherlock whomon?"
- "You don't know about Sherlock Holmes? You're certainly one strange hamster."
- "Excuse me, but the name's Patamon. What's your name, by the way?"
- "Thomas Anderson." Thomas stated glumly while silently adding "Insert random Matrix joke here." To his surprise, Patamon bypassed that entirely and chose another subject to focus on.
- "Anderson? Is that your Adult form?
Thomas blinked and almost stopped:
- "Adult form? What do you mean with adult form?"
- "Well, I figured Thomas must be your Child form, seeing as you mentioned it first and that's what the others call you, I was a bit confused about your name not ending with -mon; then again Manuel's doesn't either so that's not too strange. Anyway, what's your Adult form like, Thomas? I bet it's cool."
- "Whoa whoa whoa, slow down now. What do you mean with adult form? I'm just a teenager. And who's Manuel?"
- "Manuel is the guy who summoned you here. He's the one we're going to right now."
- "Summoned?"
- "I don't really know what he did though. I was asleep at the time."
- "You were asleep!?" Thomas sweatdropped.
- "Hey! I needed the energy."
- "Yeah, sure did."
- "Hey, I'm actually quite powerful."
- "If you say so."
- "Don't underestimate me. I'm not as weak as you may think."
- "OK."
- "Well, take this!" Patamon breathed in, growing to almost double size before…
- "Patamon!" a small, palely yellow dog shouted as it appeared from behind a bush in the vicinity. "Stop that immediately!"
Part 3-Dressing
- "Sorry, Salamon."
- "Hey, Thomas!" Three more appeared from behind the tree; Thomas recognized the face of two of them, Michael Dale and his twin sister Matilda.
- "Hi Michael!" Thomas responded to his old friends greeting.
- "How do you like the new outfits?"
- "Huh?"
Michael positively stared at Thomas:
- "You didn't notice?"
- "No, not really. Something got in the way." Thomas held up his arm. It was covered with a piece of black garment, embroidered with a familiar symbol. Michael, being who he was, obviously misunderstood it:
- "You've got a hook-cross on your sleeve."
- "It's called a swastika, Michael"
- "But why do you have it, I mean, it is a Nazi symbol after all."
- "Or an Ancient sun symbol, or the symbol of the god Brahma, or even a sign for vegetarian food. The "hook-cross" means a lot of things."
- "Well, I guess it's not too strange. Look at the others clothes."
Thomas looked, and what he saw quite surprised him. Everyone wore extremely strange clothing. Aside from his swastika-covered sleeves, Thomas wore a military jacket and brown trousers. Paula had a red dress with a slight cleavage while Sophie wore a white coat that reached down to her ankles, with a pair of matching trousers covering the rest of her legs.
Still, Michael's sister Matilda probably had the strangest clothing of all; she wore some kind of thick white shirt and, of all things, a long, black skirt. To top it all off, she actually looked content with the outfit. Due to his friendship with Michael, Thomas had gotten to know Matilda, and if there was anything that he knew, then that was that the girl would never, ever be caught dead in a skirt.
- "Why hasn't Matilda ripped that skirt to pieces yet?" Thomas whispered to the girl's brother, being careful not to let said girl hear what he said; Matilda was known for her temper.
- "Because it's not a skirt, just a pair of really wide trousers." the boy answered, not appearing to care one wit whether or not he was being overheard. "It's called a "hakama". Sis' wears it during her training."
- "Okay, I get it." Thomas finished, and continued his examination. A strange kid he vaguely noticed as someone in Michael's class was walking at the back; his clothing included a black shirt and blue jeans.
Michael himself wore quite simple clothing, a hat to protect against the sun, a green shirt and tan shorts. Having gotten pretty tired of the long walk, Thomas turned to Patamon again with a question that has been asked by travelling kids for all of eternity:
- "When do we get to this Manuel anyways?"
However, it was the dog, Salamon, that answered his question:
- "Right now." she responded calmly, looking up as the forest thinned to reveal a cavern "Home sweet home."
The interior of the cave was well lit up and could probably have been mistaken for a completely normal living room if it hadn't been for the fact that the walls were made of rough stone. In the middle of the room, beside a small table, sat a young man. He looked up when the kids entered the room, and immediately began an apparently well prepared speech:
- "Welcome, DigiDestined. You're confused, slightly exhausted and probably thirsty. Before you ask, yes I did summon you here. It wasn't fair to do it without asking, but believe me when is say that it was necessary. You see, the future of our world depend on the… six of you?" the man abandoned his speech to stare dumbfounded at the kids. "There are only six of you? But the prophecy said eight? How can this be?"
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Neither do I own any Digimon except for those that are created by me. They are owned by their owners. I do however own any and all characters I have created on my own and they may not be used by anyone else except those who want to (though it would be kind to ask first).