Author's Note: Hello again my loves. Thank you to anyone that took the time to read my little story. I had planned for this chapter to be longer but it got really long in the process of writing it so I guess I'll just have to put it in the next. Oh well. Also, I'm terribly sorry that it took so long to get up but I'm in the process of moving between cities so it's taken a bit for me to make time and finish the chapter. I do not own Digimon or any of the evolution lines that I've created. Also, I do not own Odette, Bade, or Noah and they in fact belong to a lovely friend of mine named Shrimpy. Without further ado, I give you Chapter One.
Chapter One: And So It Began
ONE MONTH LATER
PRESENT DAY
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK_
The girl walked along the bustling New York City sidewalk, twisting and turning in the chaos as she tried not to bump into people. It was more disorienting than anything she'd ever encountered in her existence. She turned off onto a less crowded street and stopped right in front of a mechanic's workshop. The sign out front read "Hawthorne Auto Mechanics" and underneath it was a much smaller sign that lit up in neon reading "Open".
The girl took a deep breath before pushing open the door. A bell above the door announced her presence and a human woman of about 40 stood up from behind a counter.
"Yes, how may I-? Oh… What an… interesting outfit," the woman said, adjusting her glasses on her nose.
The girl looked down at her clothes, a poofy red skirt and a bright orange, puffy sleeved shirt that she'd copied from an image she'd found on the humans' Internet, and wondered what was so interesting about them.
Something rang on the desk and the woman's hand snatched it up, holding up a finger to her. The woman tucked the device between her shoulder and her cheek and headed up the stairs.
The girl waited for a few minutes but when the woman didn't return right away she figured she had to look herself. So she tucked a piece of orange hair behind her ear and headed farther into the shop.
"Can someone pass me an oil filter wrench?" A voice called from underneath a '93 Ford 150. A small, delicate hand that she didn't recognize placed a tool in her hand. "That's a monkey wrench," she muttered, handing it back to the foreign hand. Another was given to her. "That's a socket wrench – Oh nevermind," she grunted and pushed herself out from under the truck.
Her long, pink ponytail swished around her face as she looked up at the girl standing before her. She couldn't have been more than fifteen and she was wearing a ridiculously bright outfit that looked like she'd been dragged through a bargin bin. She was pretty though, with bright orange hair and big brown eyes.
"Who're you?" the pink-haired girl asked, standing up and walking over to her workbench.
"Um... I'm a messenger," she said in a timid voice, brushing her hair behind her face.
"And why're you in my shop? Anyone in here is supposed to be wearing protective gear," said the pink-haired girl, pointing at her steel-toed boots and coveralls. "Any message should've been taken by my mother at the front desk."
Chika looked down at her clothes, still not understanding what was wrong with her clothing choices. The Internet told her that was what humans wore. "I'm here looking for you, I believe."
The girl looked up in surprise at this. "Oh, well my name is Adelaide Hawthorne. How can I help you?"
The child shifted uncomfortably under Adelaide's gaze and reached into the pocket of her skirt. "I just really wanted to meet you finally," she murrmurred, pulling out something small and purple.
"Finally?" Adelaide asked, turning back to the bench and grabbing the wrench she needed off the wall. "Are you a friend of Cal's?"
But when she turned around, the weirdly dressed girl was gone. She'd left the object from her pocket on the bench which Adelaide now saw was a purple and white flip phone. Looking around the garage, the girl was nowhere to be found.
Adelaide opened the phone, trying to look for a number to call to drop off the cell, but there were no contacts. There were also some very weird icons on the phone, some that she'd never seen before. She closed the phone and flipped it to the back, seeing a weird marking, sort of like a flower or a star. It was simple, but eligant, and something that Adelaide had seen before many times...
She headed into the bathroom and unzipped her coveralls, tugging down her shirt to show her chest. Right in the center of her chest, just above her breasts, was a faint pink mark, the same one that was printed on the back of the cellphone. Adelaide stared at her birthmark, confused by the coincidence.
"Adelle! Adelle? Where are you?" She heard Cal's voice calling from out in the garage. So Adelaide pulled her shirt back up and headed back out into the shop, stuffing the phone in her pocket. She'd find the mystery girl later.
"So, what, she just says hi, takes off, and leaves her phone?" Cal asked, taking a bite out of his chocolate crepe. Calcifer Avalon had been best friends with Adelle ever since they were eight when he'd transferred into her class. He was a bit of a genius but he was down to Earth and Adelle didn't think she could have any better of a friend. Especially since her sister left.
"Pretty much. She was weird too, you know? Dressed strangely and seemed really nervous." Adelle, now in jeans, converse, and a black boat-neck t-shirt, walked alongside her friend, munching on her own strawberry crepe. She was still weirded out by the meeting with the girl but at least work was over and she could spend the rest of her day with Cal.
"Maybe she was marking you or something."
Adelle lifted her silver, wrap-around sunglasses up off her nose so she could give him an 'are you serious?' look. "Marking me. Really?"
"Yeah, like, maybe she was an assasin and was trying to case her target. It sounds to me like something out of Mission Impossible. All kinds of spy stuff. There was probably a red dot on you while she was talking to you." By this time, Cal was skirting his way down the sidewalk, trying to be sneaky.
"You goof," Adelle said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
As the two walked past a computer cafe, Adelle noticed something poking her through the messenger bag on her hip. When she looked down, she saw a white and purple tail pointing towards the cafe from her bag. "Cal! Uh- I gotta... go to the washroom!" she stammered, shoving her crepe into his hands and heading inside. "I'll catch up, thanks!"
Before Cal could respond, Adelle was inside the cafe, heading towards the bathroom in the back. As soon as the door locked behind her, the messenger bag flew open and a cat jumped out. "What was the emergency?" Adelle asked, looking down at the feline.
"I smell a DigiEgg," she said, in a soft voice, sniffing the air.
"Like you were?"
The cat nodded and pointed at the closed door with one of her green-gloved paws. "It's out there."
Adelle took a deep breath and opened the door a crack to peep out. The cafe was mostly empty save for a blonde girl in the corner and the geeky teenager behind the counter was stacking supplies in the back room. It seemed safe enough for the two of them.
Odette Moya stared at the computer monitor in front of her. She wasn't very good with the damned things but she knew enough to check her email. Five days since her tryout for the Army, five days of no emails. She was getting frustrated after not hearing anything. All she wanted to do was join the Army and she would keep trying no matter what.
She pushed a key and suddenly the screen went black. Odette stared at the computer with wide eyes, the last thing she needed was getting in trouble for breaking property. Green numbers started passing along the screen and she wasn't sure whether to be relieved or more paniked than before. She kept watching as an image of an egg appeared on the screen. It was small and cute, blue with little yellow 'V's' all over it.
"What the bloody Hell..." she said aloud, very confused. The egg grew bigger and bigger on the screen until it looked to Odette that it would jump out of the screen at her. And then... it did. The egg began to materialize right in front of Odette, until it landed on her lap.
She sat there for a long moment, staring at the egg that was on the computer screen a second before and a second later sat in her lap.
"Oh my God... The computer laid an egg," she said in her English accent to no one in particular. She was stunned and all Odette could do was blink at this egg. It was definitely not a normal egg. It was huge compared to any regular egg, expect for maybe an ostrich.
"THE COMPUTER JUST LAID AN EGG!" she yelped, starting to get freaked out.
"Shit!"
A hand clamped down over the blonde's mouth.
"Don't go announcing it to the whole world," a girl's voice scolded her in a hushed town.
Odette looked over and saw that it was a girl with long, bright pink hair and silver sunglasses. "Woo rrrr yo?" she asked, her words muffled by the hand on her mouth.
"Adelle, but that can come late-"
Suddenly the computer roared and shook violently and the two girls jumped back in horror, causing Odette to nearly drop the egg. The computer shrieked again as a long, clawed, hand with rings on its fingers shot out at them. "Mine!" it hissed in a voice that could stop your blood.
"Adelle!" the cat in her bag, cried and leapt from her hiding place at the arm. "Lighting Claw!" She hit the computer with a swipe, shattering the screen and making the hand disappear in pixals.
Dust and glass settled all around the girls as the computer fell off the table and the room sat in silence.
Adelle let a out a big breath that she hadn't even known she'd been holding. "Well... That was-"
"Ahh!"
Adelaide spun around and saw that the guy running the cafe was no longer in the back room and was now staring at them in horror. "T-There was a monster! In the computer! And that c-cat," he sputtered, pointing a quivering finger at the white and purple feline at Adelle's side, "It talked!"
Adelle held out her hands in an effort to relax the boy, "It's okay now..."
The boy's face became even more paniked and in that instant Odette knew that he was going to bolt. And he did, straight to the phone where he began stabbing the numbers 9-1-1.
"Shit! Time to go!" Adelle yanked on Odette's arm as her cat ran towards the emergency exit in the back of the cafe.
They hit the back alley in a sprint and the trio headed towards the nearest street, one bustling with traffic. Farther down the street, Adelle could see the cafe and the boy standing out on the sidewalk, waving his arms at a couple of uniformed men. The boy glanced up the street and locked eyes with Adelle and then the cops were heading for them.
"Oh fuck... Oh fuck, oh fuck! Those are cops! We're going to get arrested! I can't get arrested!" Odette exclaimed as she started taking quick deep breaths.
"No time for that," Adelle urged, dragging Odette out into the street with the white cat on their heels.
Cars honked and screeched as they skidded to a stop for the odd scene in front of them. To be fair it was pretty strange to see two girls charging through the street with an extra large egg, a white and purple cat in gloves, and two police officers chasing them.
The girls made it across the street and Odette didn't need to see the sign on the archway above them to know where they were headed.
"Why Central Park?" she asked, glancing down at the white cat by Adelle's side.
"Are you kidding me? It's easy to lose someone in Central Park," the pinkette scoffed.
It seemed to be working because as they swirved through the people in the park Odette saw the police officers falling farther behind them. Still, they hadn't shaken their persuers yet.
"Oh it's so cute!" a girl shrieked, grinning from ear to ear.
"Oh I know! Don't you just want to hug it!?" a second one added, swooning the same way the first girl had.
It'd been like this and frankly it was starting to get old for L but at least he could carry around Viximon this way. Only it was annoying the Hell out of him. Girls would see the little black-furred, fox-like creature that sat on his head with its big purple eyes and think it was a stuffed animal that they could squeal about.
"Where did you get it?" the first girl asked, pointing at L's head.
"Toy shop in Queens," he shrugged non-challantly.
The two girls and a couple of eaves-dropping parents nearby all started heading towards the park exit, presumably to head out on a wild goose chase. At least they were out of L's hair.
"Why do human girls like me so much?" the other thing in L's hair asked.
He shrugged again, glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention. Luckily it didn't seem as though anyone had noticed the "stuffed animal" talk. "Beats me but I guess it's because they think you look cute and cuddly."
"But I am cute and cuddly L," the little fox replied rather smugly.
"You're also not supposed to be able to talk," L pointed out just as Viximon shifted his head, "Or move."
"I smell something."
"No more cake. You'll get fat."
"No! It's a Digimon!" Viximon scolded.
L made a shushing sound and turned to look where Viximon had. He was rather sceptical that he was actually going to see another Digimon though as Viximon had been the only one he'd ever seen. He wasn't even sure what to look for.
Then he heard yelling and he saw two girls being chased by a couple of cops. They didn't look like delinquents but how could you tell in New York? Then L looked closer and he saw that one, a blonde girl, was carrying what looked like a rather large, oddly colored egg in her arms and that they had a white and purple cat running with them.
"I take it that's them?" he asked the Digimon on his head and felt the fox nod.
He was about to stand up when the blonde girl tripped and nearly collided right into him. She lay on the ground at his feet, scrambling to get up when the pink haired girl hauled her to her feet. "Sorry, mister," the blonde gardbled out as she looked behind her to see the cops trying to shove past people.
"In there," L told them, pointing a thumb at some large bushes next to the bench. The girls nodded and hopped in without question and seconds later, the policemen stopped in front of L. With a finger pointed farther down the park, the two men were off and Viximon and L were breathing a sigh of relief. "It's all clear. You can come out now."
Cautiously, Adelle and her cat crept out the bushes and Odette stumbled out after them, still hanging onto the egg. "Thanks so much mister," the blonde huffed, plopping herself down on the bench next to the guy. "I don't even know what happened. That's it, I've lost it. I'm mental!"
"You're not mental," Adelle said, rolling her eyes as her cat jumped up onto the bench and sniffed at the egg in Odette's lap.
"I SAW A COMPUTER LAY AN EGG YOU WANKER!" Odette screeched before stopping cold. She looked down in her lap to see if it would happen again... and the egg rattled. She shrieked again, jumping up from the bench and abandoning the egg next to L and the cat.
The trio and their two companions stared down at the egg as it stood up and rattled faster, suddenly cracking a bit.
"It's going to hatch."
"It's hatching."
Adelle and L looked at each other and in that instant they both knew that the other had a reasonable amount of knowledge about the situation.
Odette ignored them and knelt in front of the bench, getting to eye level with the egg. "Oh my God. The computer egg is gonna hatch," she mumbled, her eyes suddenly getting wide. "What if it eats the world? It'll be all my bloody fault!" As she said this, the egg split more and suddenly a small blue creature with a horn burst out. "ACK!"
"Don't be silly, human girl," the black fox atop L's head said, laughing to himself. "He won't eat the world."
"Right. He's only a baby Digimon after all," the white cat agreed.
"Oh my God, all the animals need to stop talking, alright?" Odette whined as the little blue thing hopped over and looked at her with a big smile. She stared at the creature before giving it a wry grin. "So this thing is a Digimon? What's that? What kind of Digimon is this one?" she asked, pointing a finger at the blue Digimon.
"They're these digital creatures that come from some kind of world inside the computer," L answered, watching the baby Digimon try to reach Odette's finger to nibble on it.
"Right!" Viximon agreed, jumping down from L's head to stand next to the other two Digimon. "That's a Chibomon. And I'm Viximon," he informed her.
"And that's Gatomon," Adelle added, looking to L. "How long have you had yours?"
"A couple of weeks or so. He hatched and filled me in. And you?"
"About a month."
"ACK!" Odette screamed again and L and Adelle looked to see Chibomon licking Odette's face and making these happy little noises. "It's kissing me!"
"It means he likes you," Viximon told her, laughing at the girl.
L smiled a little, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a grey and white flip phone and snapping a picture of the amusing scene in front of him.
Adelle's eyes zeroed in on the phone, noticing a strange symbol on the back of it just like on the one she'd recieved that day from the mystery girl. "You have one too," she said, pulling out her purple phone and showing it to the man. "Where did you get it?"
L looked up at her puzzled and then back at his phone. "I got it yesterday. Some girl dropped it off at the front desk of the hotel I'm staying in. I don't know why she gave it to me but she left a note that said it belonged to me."
"Yeah I think the same girl was in my work today and gave it to me. She didn't say anything though. Just up and vanished." Adelle flipped her phone over to the back and showed L the symbol on the back. "This is going to sound crazy but my phone had this mark on it and it's the exact same symbol as my birthmark," she told him gesturing to the pink symbol that was barely visible under the neckline of her shirt.
L's eyes went wide and he looked at the back of his phone and nodded. "I have a birthmark that's the same as my phone too..."
The two stared at each other for a long moment, thinking that it just couldn't be a coincidence, when Odette raised her hand in the air between the two. She used her other hand to pull Chibomon off her face and managed to mumble, "Hey I've got a weird thing too! OH KNOCK IT OFF CHIBOMON!" Finally the Digimon stopped assaulting her and she could reach her other hand up to pull down the bandana on her right wrist. There, Adelle and L could clearly see a faint orange mark that looked something like a sun.
"Okay. This isn't an accident. How can it be? We've all got marks and you and I have phones like it too," Adelle said, gesturing a finger between her and the guy on the bench. "And we both got these within a day of each other. It's that girl. She has to know something about this."
"It's safe to assume so, yes."
"How come I don't have one?" Odette piped up, finally climbing off the ground and standing up with Chibomon in her arms.
"She should be giving one to you soon I guess," Adelle told her, shrugging. "Gatomon's egg came to me at work and that's where she brought me the phone. What about you?"
L nodded and said, "I wasn't in the hotel but I got my egg from my laptop which was in the hotel with me. Maybe she brings them to the computer that you got your egg from."
Odette's eyes widened at the man's words and she shook her head violently. "No way. You're bonkers! I am not going back to that cafe. We got attacked! And there were coppers!"
"You got attacked?" L asked, his brow raising at the blonde.
"Yeah! This arm came out of the computer and tried to rip my bloody head off!"
"It was a Digimon," Gatomon told them, remembering the smell that could only come from the Digital World.
"I thought Digimon were nice! That they were cute and kissed you bunches!" Odette huffed, gesturing to the little blue thing in her arms.
"Some Digimon are. But some are evil. The Digimon we saw was evil," the cat Digimon replied.
"Gatomon got rid of it so it should be fine now. Besides, we need to find that girl," Adelle assured the British girl before turning to L. "You coming?"
L glanced down at Viximon beside him who nodded and the man stood up, picking up his Digimon and placing him back on his head. "Yeah, we're coming. I'm L by the way."
"Weird name," Odette said and snatched up his hand to shake it. "Odette Moya."
"And I'm Adelaide. Nice to meet you both."
"I don't know if I'd say nice," Odette muttered.
The trio and their digital friends walked back towards the cafe, taking the long way around to avoid coming across any cops. Viximon sat smugly atop of L's head while glancing down at the bag on Adelaide's hip where Gatomon and Chibomon had been told to stay inside to avoid being seen. L, sensing this, reached a hand up and lightly flicked the little fox on the ear and the monster had to hold back his laughter.
"What if there are still people there? Like that guy?" Odette asked, trailing along behind the other two, still not eager to go anywhere near the shop.
Adelle pulled out her plain, ordinary cellphone and checked the time to see that it was nearing 6:30. "That place closes at 6 doesn't it? We'll be fine." They rounded a corner and Adelle could see the shop just up ahead and made out the "closed" sign hanging on the door.
"How do you plan to get inside when it's closed?" the blonde huffed, also seeing the sign.
"I've got an idea- Look! It's her!" Adelle suddenly gasped as she stared through the window at the orange haired girl from her shop, standing in the back corner where Odette had been sitting earlier. She looked different now, no longer wearing her strange outfit and instead wearing a plain black dress that stopped just above her knees.
"Gatomon, the pack," the pinkette urged, holding her hand out. A white paw shot out and placed a small black case in her partner's hand. Adelle dropped to her knees in front of the door and pulled out two metal picks and stuck them in the lock, moving them around until she heard a satisfying click.
"Bloody Hell, that's cool! Where'd you learn to do that?" Odette asked in amazement, watching as Adelle folded the pack back up and gave it to her cat.
"My sister taught me."
Odette nodded, following L and Adelle into the store. She wasn't watching where she was going so she was startled when she bumped into the other girl. "Oof! What?" she asked, looking around.
Adelaide stood there in shock, staring at where the girl had just been seconds earlier. She'd only looked down for a moment to pick the lock and the girl had managed to disappear into thin air, just like earlier at her shop.
"Where'd she go?" L asked, looking around the room. He didn't see anyone besides the three of them.
"This is exactly what she did today! I turned around for a moment and she was just gone!" Adelle huffed, moving over to where she'd seen the girl as Gatomon climbed out of her bag with Chibomon. The computer Gatomon had smashed still sat in a broken pile on the ground but it looked as though someone had swept up the shards of broken glass.
Odette followed the pinkette up to the computer, remembering the hand and the chilling voice that had stopped her heartbeat. Shaking the thought from her head, she looked at the desk the computer had once sat on alongside all the others and noticed an orange and white cellphone sitting there. "Hey! It's one of those phones!" Odette exclaimed, picking it up and turning it over in her hand. There, on the white back of the phone was the orange symbol of an odd looking sun, the same mark that adorned her wrist.
"It's the same, right?" L asked, now looking over Odette's shoulder at her device.
"Yeah..." she murmurred, flipping the phone open. When it opened, the phone began to beep, startling all six beings in the room. As it continued to beep, the phones belonging to Adelle and L began to do the same and they pulled them out and flipped them open. An icon popped up and L stared down at his phone in confusion. It was a small box that looked somewhat like a computer monitor and a question mark was written out underneath it.
"Do either of you have a little computer icon?" Adelle asked.
"Yeah. Looks like one of those pop up adds. Maybe it means we get a free laptop!" Odette said excitedly, her finger moving to hover over the button to click "yes".
"Wait!-"
"Odette!-"
But before either of the others could stop her, Odette had clicked the button and the room was hit with the blinding light of a computer screen. The humans and their Digimon could feel themselves falling as every color in the rainbow passed before their eyes and just as suddenly as it all started, everything went black.
I hope you enjoyed Chapter One and I'm already working diligently on Chapter Two, hoping I'll have some free time to do it between packing and unpacking. In the meantime I'd love to see what you guys think of it. Please review for me. It'd make me very happy. Cheers! :)
