The moon was out tonight. Amidst the darkness it cast a comforting light upon the land, but more so for the Five Lights and their digimon. The night presented a new possibility, and offered solace in the comfort of sleep. And sleep they did. First they had settled upon the fire in the center, burning bright and keeping them warm. The Kunemon had departed, all fearful of what the humans could bring. Well, make that their digimon seeing as they were the real muscle, but the human's presence were felt. Especially after they heard that a human and digimon took down their leader Dokugumon. Yes, for now they were safe and all were sleeping.
All save for one.
Penguinmon was the first to notice a lack of presence. He looked about and all of his fellow digimon were near their respective partners. Then he looked to his own and realized something: she wasn't there.
At first, panic overtook him and with it a coming fear. He was always a fearful creature. Ever since he first hatched. He always needed the protection of someone bigger than him. He supposed that was why he first joined the Ice Sancutary. No, not entirely. He did believe in their cause and they were safer than most of the wildlands of File Island. But still, there was still the matter of what was now. So he looked to the left and then to the right and at last he saw her. Standing just a few feet away was Jun.
"Jun!" he immediately blurted, not taking care to lower his voice. As soon as he realized what he did, he covered his mouth and looked around him. Nobody was waking up. That was good. He didn't want to be rude. As soon as he saw Jun, he waddled up to her in that characteristic waddle he did. "There you are! You had me worried sick!" Penguinmon said in a hushed voice.
Jun didn't turn away from whatever she was doing. And then Penguinmon noticed something, what she was doing exactly. She was sucking on another of those strange sticks of hers, as he often noticed she did. She took a drag on the stick and then breathed out a steady stream of smoke. Penguinmon could smell it from here.
"Jun, those things smell. How can you suck on those things?" Penguinmon asked. Jun ignored him, and continued to smoke away. "Those things can't be good for you." Penguinmon said. Again, no response. Apparently, she wasn't responsive when going into the subject of her smoking sticks. "Why are you still up?" Then he got a look from her. A response, sort of. "It's late, you should be sleeping." Penguinmon advised.
Jun turned her attention down to him, stick still in her mouth. "Go...away..." was all she said, and then turned away again.
Penguinmon felt elated for a bit. He had gotten a response from her at least. "But Jun, it's late." he said again.
"What part of "go away" don't you understand?" Jun rhetorically asked.
Penguinmon fidgeted his webbed feet on the ground, shifting his body with a mark of uncomfortably. He knew she wouldn't budge, and he didn't want to press her further, partially for fear of what she might do. Though he hadn't known her long, Penguinmon could tell that Jun had a violent streak. If any of her interactions with the goggle boy Kazuya were an indication. Least verbally so.
Giving up at last, Penguinmon turned around and headed back to his sleeping spot. Jun remained at the same spot. She was thinking, and smoking. Thinking and smoking. Honestly she did both. She was thinking about the past, back before she came here, long before that day.
XXX
"Ma? I'm home." Jun called as she stepped inside her house. She looked about staring at the usual sights. The television was blaring, some odd show, bad picture. A futon lay near it, and inside it lay a woman.
The woman rose lazily. "And what are you doing back? Doncha have school?" the woman asked, the faintest trace of a slur upon her voice. Jun also noticed several beer bottles scattered about. Per usual.
"Since when do you care?" Jun scoffed before returning to her room.
As she stepped inside her room, she plopped herself on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Yep, just a normal everyday moment in the craphole that was her life.
XXX
Jun sighed at those thoughts. But she was finished. She put out her cigarette then returned to her sleeping spot. Though despite that, she still kept a short distance away from Penguinmon. And she slept long and peacefully. It was a tad difficult without a pillow and a blanket, but she made do with what she had, and that was nothing. But she dreamt long and hard but by the time it was morning, she had forgotten it.
"Hey get up we're moving." Kazuya said. A tad rudely, but he was talking with Jun, so there really was no need for cordiality.
Jun got herself up, stretching and cricking her bones. As soon as she stepped up she noticed Penguinmon was still sleeping. "Hey bird brain! Get up!" she said with a kick. Penguinmon flipped over upon his back and opened his eyes.
"Huh? What?" he asked.
"What are you deaf? I said get up! We're leaving." Jun demanded.
Penguinmon got to his feet. "Sorry Jun. I was having a really good dream. Everything was safe and happy and-"
"Look, I don't really care. Let's just join up with the other losers." Jun said dismissively.
Penguinmon sighed and shook his head. Then without a word, he waddled after Jun. As soon as Jun and Penguinmon joined together with the rest of the group, Jun fished out another cigarette and lit it up.
"Ugh. Honestly, how many of those are you going to smoke?" Kazuya said with disgust.
Jun blew out a smoke cloud to the air. "Hey. I need my morning cig." Jun reasoned. "You got a problem with that?"
Kazuya coughed a bit as a bit of the smoke hit him in the back. "Actually I do but I doubt you're going to stop are you?"
Jun smirked confidently. "Nope."
Kazuya shuddered. "Thought so. Let's just keep moving everyone."
Penguinmon waddled beside Jun, keeping a close position to her. He wanted to pipe up to speak, but could find no words. He was just about to but couldn't find anything to come out. This was something they just had to deal with.
They continued to walk further into the jungle and as they did, thoughts began to course within them.
"So where exactly are we going?" Sakura asked.
Kazuya adjusted his goggles and looked on ahead. "Don't know." he answered.
"Well that's just great. Goggle Boy is supposed to be the leader, yet he aint leading us anywhere." Jun said amidst spurts of cigarette smoke.
Kazuya restrained himself from throttling her. As the almost self appointed leader, he had some standards to uphold.
Sho groaned nervously. "Well I just hope we don't run into more trouble. Honestly I don't know if I can keep dealing with all these digimon attacks."
Memories of the Kunemon horde were fresh upon their minds. That and along with every other digimon that had attacked them. But someone had something to say about that.
"Not all digimon are bad Sho-chan." Labramon yipped.
"Yeah I know. You guys are good." the boy responded.
"No! I mean other digimon too!" Labramon insisted,
"Labramon is correct. Lest you forget that all the digimon we have encountered were under dark control." Fairydramon reminded.
That was true. So far they hadn't met a digimon who wasn't controlled by the digimentals. And he suddenly remembered that Drimogemon from earlier. He seemed like a friendly fellow after he was freed. For Jun and Sakura they remembered Thundermon and how he was. Least after they had freed him. So therefore it stood to reason that not all digimon were dangerous animals. But some supposed if one were to encounter hostile humans, then they would gain a negative reception of humanity. That is if they encountered nothing but Jun that is.
"Hey slow down." DemiDevimon urged.
Everyone did so, coming to a complete stop.
"What is it?" Chiisi asked.
The bat flapped off from Chiisi's shoulder and craned his ears open. "Listen, you hear that?"
Everyone listened closely. They weren't sure about what they were listening for, but little by little they caught a hold of something. It was far off but it sounded like drums.
"Yeah I do." said Chiisi
Everyone else listened close and they too could hear it. And it wasn't just drums, it was music. With nowhere else to go, the group headed forward through the foliage in search of that mysterious sound. As they got closer, the sound became louder. The beat became more audible, and it became apparent it was a rhythm. A jungle rhythm.
Past another bush and into a clearing was where they saw their sight. And there it was. Right away they saw several huts scattered about creating a village. But what was noticeable about the village were its inhabitants. Penguinmon noticed it most of all.
"They-they look like me." Penguinmon said with awe.
Indeed they did look like Penguinmon. Red Penguinmon to be precise. They were red wherever there would be blue with yellow bellies and green beaks.
"I believe those are Muchomon." observed Fairydramon.
"Mucho?" Sakura repeated. A Spanish word meaning "a lot".
The Muchomon were busy going about their business. Many of them were pounding some drums while others were dancing to the beat. Some of the rest were spreading about food. Most of it was fruit, while others appeared to be meat. They didn't ask where the meat came from and the group realized they were hungry.
So Kazuya decided to break the ice. "Hey!" he called.
At that moment, the music stopped, and the Mucho turned their attention to the source of the noise. And once they noticed the humans, panic surged through them. They screamed and ran into their huts dropping whatever they were doing.
"Wait!" Kazuya called, hand up but face full of confusion. "What just happened?" he asked.
A blast of smoke hit him in the back. "You scared them. What do you think happened?"
Kazuya grumbled something under his breath and entered the village proper. Everything looked deserted now, giving off the image of a ghost town. The entire group was in the center standing like total strangers.
"Hey don't worry! We're not going to hurt you." Kazuya called.
"You really think their going to believe you?" Jun scoffed.
Kazuya had had enough and turned to face her. "Can you try saying something constructive for once?"
"Hey I'm just telling like it is." Jun defended.
"No you're not, you're just being annoying!" Kazuya shot.
Sakura could sense a fight coming on so she decided to lighten things. "Please come out. We won't hurt you." Sakura said in a soothing voice. "We're lost and don't know where we are. Could you please help us?"
Silence and nothing came. Everyone watched the huts awaiting a sign of life. When nothing came, Kazuya and Jun were preparing to fight, that is until they noticed a small splotch of red peeking out of one of the huts. It was a Muchomon, but far different then the others. First off the Muchomon's face appeared aged. The party wasn't sure if digimon could age like humans, but this Muchomon looked old. In it's flipper it held a walking stick and atop its head it wore a headdress.
"Are you a good digimon? Or are you a bad digimon?" the Muchomon asked in an elderly female voice.
A woman? They hadn't expected that.
"Oh I'm not a digimon. I'm a human." Sakura answered.
At the word "human" an assortment of red heads poked out and soon out came the bodies. All of them with eager eyes attentively watching the new arrivals. And it wasn't just one human, they noticed a whole group of them.
"Wow! Humans!" several exclaimed.
They all gathered around, circling the group and staring up with wide eyes.
"Are you really humans?"
"Why are you with digimon?"
Questions came after questions. The group were not sure how to answer them not being used to such attention, but the elder Muchomon worked her way through.
"Now now. Let's give them some air." she said. "These people are our honored guests." she looked to the party, addressing them at last. "Welcome to our village. Please come join us, we were just celebrating another bountiful harvest."
"Harvest? Of what?" Sakura asked.
"Why meat of course." the elder Muchomon answered.
"Meat!" Labramon yipped happily, drool starting to flow freely from her face. A bit dribbled upon Sho's shoe.
"Ugh." he muttered. And then tried to shake it off to the best of his ability. "You guys grow meat?" he asked.
"Why yes of course." the Muchomon answered.
"Meat farming is actually quite normal within the Digital World." Fairydramon explained.
Well, it seemed that everyday was a school day in this world. But still, they found it strange. "That's impossible. You can't just grow meat." Sho still said in disbelief.
"Well apparently they do in this world." Chiisi said, a bit more accepting.
Weird as it was, they just had to accept it and deal with it. Besides, they were hungry, and were not willing to overlook an offering of meat. Grumbling stomachs all around.
"Ah I see you are hungry." the elder Muchomon noticed. "Easily remedied." Turning to her fellow Muchomon, she held her chest out high. "Muchomon! These humans and digimon are our guests and they will be treated as such."
The Muchomon let out a series of cheers. The music began to play again and food was offered. The party sat themselves down and gratefully took hold of the food; especially Labramon. The canine was wolfing her food down, eating at such a rapid pace. The rest of them ate at a slower pace.
"Labramon slow down." Sho cautioned.
Labramon didn't listen and continued to eat away. She grabbed hold of a large piece of fruit and didn't even bother to chew. That proved to be a mistake for as soon as she swallowed, she didn't feel it go down. A sound bounced out of her throat and she began pawing at it. Her face was starting to turn blue underneath her fur.
"She's choking!" Sho exclaimed. Without thinking, he grabbed hold of her and began doing the Heimlich Maneuver. It took a bit, but eventually something gave. The fruit rolled to the ground, drenched in saliva.
"Dude. That's gross." Gazimon said as he took a noisy mouthful of fruit.
Labramon took in some grateful breaths and felt the pain in her throat subsiding. Before long, she was panting happily.
"Thank you Sho-chan! Labramon loves you!" she said giving Sho a loving lick.
Sho grimaced and wiped what he could with his hoodie. "Ugh...you're welcome."
This invoked laughter from the party. Now was a time of celebration, with no danger and no fear, this was a good moment to relax. And relax they did. All save for one. And that one wandered away, away from the rest of the party. She nursed her cigarette, breathing in and breathing out. It was rhythmical but it brought her comfort.
"Jun?" she heard a voice at her feet, looking down she saw it was Penguinmon.
A haze of smoke clouded her vision between her and the penguin. "What do you want?" she asked.
"How come you're alone out here?" he asked.
Jun turned away, tossing her cigarette to the ground and stamping it out. "Because I feel like it." she said with crossed arms.
Penguinmon reached out but pulled his flipper back. "Jun. Please. All I'm trying is to be your friend." Penguinmon pleaded.
Jun still faced away. "I don't do friends."
"But why?"
That alone made Jun turn to him. "Don't you get the message!? I just want to be alone okay!"
Penguinmon flinched but still stood his ground. "But...being alone is scary." he replied with a shiver. "I mean you have no one to look out for you."
Jun shrugged. "It's suited me just fine."
Penguinmon was at a loss as to what to say. He wanted to get through to Jun, honestly he did, but she was making it difficult. Frankly he wondered why this has to happen to him? I mean, the other kids were getting along with their respective digimon. Jun had helped him digivolve, so that alone signified them as destined partners. But there was no bond. Nothing. And honestly Jun's attitude wasn't helping matters. It made Penguinmon look down with disappointment. Maybe he was trying the wrong way. This girl had to open up but how? Maybe he was going about this all wrong? Asking her didn't work, but maybe forcing her would?
Putting on a serious face, Penguinmon puffed his chest out. "Jun! You're going to that party whether you like it or not!" And then with his great force, he pulled Jun towards the party. Least that's what would have happened if he had super strength. But he was a less than physically capable avian digimon.
"What the heck are you doing you freak!?" Jun cried.
"Come on! I'm doing this for your own good!" Penguinmon pleaded. Staring up at her with wide eyes, he beckoned, "Please?"
Jun glared at him and with a sharp kick, she hit him a short distance away. Flopping to his belly, Penguinmon dejectedly stared. With defeat in his eyes, he got to his feet and dusted himself off. That didn't go so well, he thought. But at least he tried. He had to have points for that. Still, he had failed, and Jun looked even more disgruntled than before. As he stared down at his feet, his eyes turned upward, for just a thread of hope from the girl. He saw nothing from her, but he did see something. It was far off, just a small glint upon the air. At first he thought it was a trick of the light, but soon it dawned upon him that it wasn't. That dawn came upon realizing it was getting closer. And as it got closer, it's color could be made out: black.
"J-J-Jun!" Penguinmon stammered.
"What is it now?" Jun snarled. Her eyes trailed up and followed the penguin's flipper. Something was coming, something sleep, with a rounded top. Then Jun recognized the shape, and she recognized its properties. "Oh crap!"
Upon that utterance, the object opened up revealing several metallic legs. It flew downward and as soon as it neared the ground, it clamped around the waist of the nearest thing it could: a Muchomon. The poor Muchomon cried out in panic as the object gripped him tightly. All the others watched in shock as their friend rose up and was enveloped by a dark light. The light formed into a shape growing larger before finally dying away to introduce a new form.
The new digimon was large, probably as big as a jet. It certain invoked the image of a jet. In fact, it looked as if a bird and a jet fused into one. It's body was a sleek dark metallic gray, with marks of red upon its chest tail, and the tips of its wings. Underneath said wings were missiles, all positioned and probably ready to fire. Upon further investigation, it looked like a giant metal...
"Pteranomon!" a Muchomon shouted.
Upon hearing that, panic broke out through the village. Pteranomon roared out a screech as it dove into the air, doing a flip before descending down.
"Move!" Kazuya shouted to everyone.
Everyone ducked out of the way as Pteranomon zoomed by. As soon as he did, he turned right around and fired a beam from his mouth. It streaked by and cut a swath of destruction in its wake. The beam hit one of the huts causing it to explode.
"Woah!" Jun exclaimed. That was an understatement. The destruction was impressive.
"Get back Jun! I'll protect you!" Penguinmon declared. Despite his proclamation, he couldn't help but hide his shiver. The digimon was so big and scary and he was so little too small. Just who was going to protect him.
"Yeah like you'll protect me!" Jun said with a roll of her eyes.
The wind blew in her face as Pteranomon flapped downward and scratched the ground. The possessed digimon stared at her, eyes at full glance and ready to strike.
Jun gritted her teeth and balled her fists. "You want some of me? Well bring it!" the girl boldly declared. Despite the size difference, Jun was clearly ready to fight if need be. That wouldn't do for Penguinmon.
"No! Stay back! I-I-I can do this!" Penguinmon said putting himself further in front of Jun.
As he stared down Pteranomon, he figured, who was he kidding? He couldn't do this. But he had to protect Jun. And he would protect her. He just needed some more strength. He could sense the danger in the air, could feel it all around. Jun was in danger and he was the only line between her and certain death. And that was all that was needed. The beeping of the digivice signaled it. A bright light shot forth from it. It enveloped Penguinmon and he could feel his strength rising.
"Penguinmon digivolve to! Thunderbirdmon!"
The light died away revealing Penguinmon's new form. Though it would have been explained, but Jun was standing underneath it. Not for long as a flap of his wings and the new and improved Penguinmon was up in the air. Pteranomon followed in suit, flying up and still facing his fellow bird.
As Jun stared up, she could see her digimon's Champion form in clear. Penguinmon was now a large metallic shaded bird. A cobalt blue with yellow streaks, like lightning. Though despite the armored appearance, it was clear that the digimon was feathered. At the edge of its wings were a trail of lightning patterned metal points. The metallic points were also in place of the creatures talons, and the same crowning the blue mask that covered its face. Underneath all the armor, there was a white body that was best exemplified in the center ending at a long wavy metal tail.
"Woah! The little runt actually looks impressive." Jun awed.
Thunderbirdmon actually felt strong. For the first time in his life he felt strong and powerful. "Wow, so this is what it's like to digivolve." He stretched out his wings feeling their grandness. He was as awestricken with them as his partner was with him. Then it dawned upon him, his partner was actually impressed with him. He felt elated, happy, and most of all, lost in his own thoughts.
"Hey bird brain pay attention!"
And most of all distracted. It was sheer luck that he caught the slight of those missiles launching towards him.
"Woah!" he squawked. Maneuvering the right way, he managed to narrowly dodge the missiles. Taking a small breather, he took in what he did. So far so good. But once more he was distracted and felt the sharp impact of a metallic body against his. He flew down and was about to crash into the ground, before he turned around and skidded against the dirt. Scratching like a chicken, he flew up to the sky, and rammed Pteranomon right back. "Ow!" he cried, "That hurt!"
"Hey you got attacks right? Use them!" Jun called from below.
That was right. As a digimon he did have attacks. And it was time to use them.
Flapping his wings, dark storm clouds formed around him in a mist. "Thunderstorm!" he cried. Lightning shot forth striking against his opponent. Pteranomon let out a shriek as his metallic body attracted the lightning. As soon as the storm ended, Pteranomon was left smoking.
"All right! That's showing em!" Jun cheered.
Thunderbirdmon was absolutely ecstatic. He couldn't believe his Jun was actually cheering him on. But he couldn't get distracted again. No sir he had a battle to win. Flapping his wings once more, he prepared another attack.
"Thunderstorm!" he cried and upon command several lightning bolts shot forth and struck against Pteranomon's body. But he didn't just aim at the body. Instead he aimed at digimental in the center. The lightning hit it in full force and then a loud CRRRIACK! Rang out. The digimental shattered and dissipated into data. Pteranomon began to fall and that's when Thunderbirdmon went in, for he knew what was about to happen next.
Pteranomon's body began to glow and shrink. Thunderbirdmon dove with all of his might, swooping in for the catch. His talons outstretched ready to grab, and sure enough, right at the critical moment, he made it. In his talons he now held the lone Muchomon, exhausted from the forced evolution. Thunderbirdmon set him down gently and turned his attention to Jun.
"So, what did you think Jun?" he asked.
Jun blinked several times before flashing an impressed grin. "Well I gotta say bird brain, you did well."
Thunderbirdmon cocked his head back in glee. "R-R-Really? You mean it?"
"Hey don't get all excited, you still have a long way to go before I'm really impressed." Jun said backing herself up.
Still, Thunderbirdmon puffed out his chest in pride. It wasn't entirely there, but it was a start. Nothing could ruin this moment. And then he felt it, the loss of energy and suddenly everything around him was getting smaller. Yet he was still in the air. As soon as the feeling fully left him, he found he was no longer in his Champion form, he was back to being plain old Penguinmon. A Penguinmon who was floating in mid air.
"Huh? Wha!?" Penguinmon suddenly began flapping his wings hoping to gain some altitude. But it was no use. He fell flat on his face; beak first that is. With a pop, he pulled himself up, his beak entrapped by a rock of dirt.
"Oh geeze." Jun said with slight embarrassment.
Like she said, Penguinmon still had a ways to go. And little did Jun know, so did she.
A/N: I would have released this chapter yesterday, but my internet was out. Now that it is i back I can upload this. Personally I don't think this was one of my better chapters. I mean it's hard to portray Jun as an asshole, but have her not be a complete asshole. I think I can have her become kinder as time goes on. But right now this is just a start. Well so far they have all digivolved save for DemiDevimon, so you can guess who is next on the list right?