Rosemon only needed to lash her whip once to get the kids attention. She stared them each down, contemplating their worth to her. These were supposed to be warriors, the chosen ones, but they didn't appear to be anything special. And there were only four, not nearly enough to take on the road ahead of them.
Her eyes met with the one clutching onto another, one of two males. The girl in his arms had an Agumon at her feet, and was likely to be the strongest, having recieved a partner with such potential. The digital world had plans, and reasons for eveything it did, Rosemon found. The digimon recieved upon entering it for the first time were true indications of a persons character, she herself didn't reach mega level alone after all. The boy holding her had a weak looking cat digimon, that would certainly lose to the Agumon in a fight, but would surely digivolve to be something much greater in time.
The other male had a small, baby digimon, and a weak one in general. Puroromon wouldn't amount to much in battle. Monmon and Lopmon were also present, not the best but definitely not the worst off. Compared to past groups from Earth, these ones were lacking in the strength area.
She sighed and put her hands on her hip, "This is what they give me to work with?"
After introductions, they all sat around the humanoid lady digimon, or Rosemon, as she called herself. Amok reluctantly let Terra free from his grasp, and remained quiet to hear the upcoming, and surely interesting explanation. Beside him, Bree sat looking deadpan, she kept a pretty good pokerface considering what was happening around them. She had her arms folded around herself and still wasn't speaking much with the others, which Amok found strange.
Rosemon finally stopped hovering and slumped down into the grass, looking odd in such a relaxed position. She seemed high strung and almost too noble to sit down and rest. The plants around her shuddered, as if bowing down towards her.
"Our world isn't well," She began, "The balance of good and evil has always been in danger in the digital world, but has been salvaged many times. We have started over since the last war, and it's been peaceful for over fifty years now. But, a few days ago something radically different happened."
Amok swallowed and hung on every word, his high was disappearing at this time, and he had to keep his mind off doing another line. The ache for it was strong, but he felt this was more important than his addiction. Across from him, Terra too looked engrossed in the story being told, her grey eyes wide in concentration. He suddenly couldn't look away from her.
"Earth has always been our saviour. Though most of your people know nothing of us, we are in every computer, every corner of the internet. Anything electronic, we have the power to travel through. We were created by humans, for humans, and then forgotten about in time. It is only when our world is in danger that we are forced to call upon you, and take you from your own world, to help us fix ours. It is your responsibility, your duty, to assist the digital world, because when our dimension fails, so will yours."
Dashielle looked skeptical, and burst out, "Then why pick us?" He gazed around the circle, "we're all nineteen, at the most. We're children practically. Why not choose adults, people in the military, soldiers, for this war of yours?"
Rosemon laughed, it was shrill and almost like a cackle, "Don't you think I'd want to? I have no decision in this. The god digimon who rule this world have no decision in this. We call for you, and the universe delivers the best suited for the job. The universe pairs you with the best suited partner, and leaves it to you to take on whatever is wrong."
"A wise universe would not have picked me," Dashielle mumbled nervously.
"Anyways," the plant digimon continued, "As I said, a few days ago our peace was destroyed. The demon digimon, Leviamon, rose from the great ocean by my home village, and wreaked havoc. He destroyed many buildings, and ended the lives of innocent digimon. I was lucky to be able to fend him off, but he will strike again. Word gets around quickly here, many other villages now fear for their own safety, some are turning to the darkness and joining leviamon for their protection. I believe he isn't even working alone, he isn't smart enough to organize any evil plans like this, but he is powerful. Stronger than I am."
"Well what the hell are we supposed to do about this?" Faith asked, irritated, "this guy sounds huge, we're four little teenagers who probably aren't even legal age yet, and I'm not wrecking my outfit over this, this shit is prada."
"Are you forgetting about us?" Mikemon snapped, patting Amok on the back, "we'll do all the fighting, you do all the cheering on."
Faith pouted, looking at her own digimon for the first time since they'd gotten together. It continued to stare blankly and say nothing, unlike the other digimon who had been talking the whole time. It was kind of cute, Amok had to admit, in it's own bizarre way. He just felt bad that it had to put up with Faith.
"This guy will fight for me?" The purple haired girl finally asked.
Rosemon sighed for the second time since meeting them, "That's the idea. They will draw from your power and become great fighters, if you're ready for it. But in reality, you have no choice. You're stuck here until your task is finished, I have no way of sending you back to Earth or contacting it in any way."
"You have to be joking," Dashielle said, "what about our parents? They have to be wondering where we are. If you could summon us here you must be able to send us back."
"Believe it or not, I don't have all the solutions," Rosemon bitterly replied, "I'm not strong enough to send anyone or anything between the worlds. If that's what you seek, then I'm not your mon."
Silence overcame the circle as they all realized the reality of what was happening. They were stuck, potentially forever, with some mission to accomplish that involved risking their lives. Amok found this harder to deal with than the sensation of being sober, and Mikemon's cheery attitude towards being stuck with him wasn't exactly helping. He needed to sneak away, to run away and get his fix, maybe then he'd be better equipped to handle this world and these feelings. If only, but he knew Mikemon or one of the others would follow and discover his secret. Terra also crossed his mind, she seemed so ready for this.
The beauty was holding onto Agumon's hands, chatting in excitement and loving every minute of it. She was born to fight, and was so strong, being thrust into a new world and accepting it with such happiness took courage. Courage was one thing Terra was never short on, and Amok was so envious of her mindset. Nothing would get her down, not even this harsh push towards war. Compared to her, the others looked like they wanted to be dead.
Bree rolled her eyes indifferently, and said, directed towards no one, "Well, we should probably just get this shit over with as soon as possible, right?"
Amok nodded, responding to her comment, "seems like the only way."
"Good," Rosemon grinned, almost eerily, "Let's return to my village, we have a huge day ahead of us tomorrow."
The building they were to sleep in was fairly nice, though the walls were made of a thick brown clay. It reminded Amok of something you'd see in national geographic, something from the earth, like a hobbit house. But unlike a hobbit house, it was large, and had many rooms and winding hallways, though they were all mostly empty. He'd see the occasional digimon wandering around, but never bothered to speak to any. Some of them were small and adorable, others were large and looked monsterous, and it seemed impossible for them to be good guys.
He and Dashielle, or Dash as he apparently liked to be called, shared a room, but Amok found ways to sneak his drugs in throughout the night. After all, how could he possibly sleep, knowing tomorrow they were going to attempt to fight that Leviamon creature? The hits kept him alert, and caused him to anxiously pace the halls in anticipation. He knew he should be asleep, everyone else was, but the idea of laying down and being off guard genuinely scared him.
During one of his many repeated ventures down the twisting hallways, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see his crush, Terra, beaming at him. He choked up and tried to hide his eyes under his hair, they were dilated and bloodshot, and probably a huge tell that he was high. After adjusting himself awkwardly, she finally stopped smiling.
"You can't sleep either?" She asked.
"Not really no," Amok stuttered, his palms were covered in sweat and his face had drained of all colour.
"It's funny, it's not that I'm scared," Terra laughed, she twisted at her long brown hair, looking somewhat childish, "It's like I'm too excited to sleep. Like I'm totally prepared to take this on. I just want to fight, and make the world a better place, you know?"
"Uh, totally."
"I knew you'd understand, Amok," she came a little closer to him, and he noticed for the first time that they were equal in height, "This is such a good oppertunity. For all of us, an adventure in the making."
"Right on."
"Anyhow, Agumon is passed out in our room, and I'm getting there. Today should be fun, I can't wait to experience all this for the first time," Terra patted Amok lightly on the shoulder, "Are you scared?"
"I'm scared shitless." Amok said flatly.
He then watched her giggle at his remark, and scamper off towards her room. The world was suddenly a little less dank and hopeless, with her around. He returned to his bed in the darkness, did one last line under his covers, and curled up beside Mikemon, drifting into a heavy sleep.