Chapter 4: The Digidestined

Mining Camp- Noon

The dino soldiers brought me to their mining camp, or rather slave camp more accurately, since that's exactly what it was! Various weird creatures of differing shapes and sizes were picking away at rocks, each with a dino soldier to make sure they got their job done. I had a sinking feeling I'd be joining them soon.

The soldiers lead me to a wooden pole stuck to the ground, "Back against the pole! NOW!" One of them ordered me, aiming his rifle at my head, letting me know exactly what would happen if I didn't comply. So I did as he asked, his two buddies quickly tied my arms behind it. "You'll stay here until the queen comes, she will choose what to do with you then." The soldier told me before he and his buddies walked off.

I leaned the back of my head against the pole and cursed so loudly I could hear a slight echo. I should have never listened to that stupid disc! Now I was a captive in a slave camp! Waiting for their queen to decided what she wanted to do with me. God this sucks!

"They got you too huh?"

I turned my head to see someone was tied next to me, it was what could only be described as a blue dog creature, he was blue all over aside from his white belly, muzzle, toes, and the tip of his curled tail, he wore a bright read headband on his rather large head, his ears drooped forward, his eyes were large and yellow, and he wore two large red boxing gloves on his hands which, like mine, where tied behind the wooden pole that kept him in place.

His gaze was fixed on me, "If you're lucky, they'll let you live, mining Digizoid for their factories..." He explained, "If not, they'll just outright kill you," He added, I didn't know which I liked less, on one hand I wasn't in a hurry to die just yet, but on the other, I didn't want to spend the rest of my life mining Digizoid, whatever the hell that was, can I pick from what's behind door number three instead? Because doors one and two are not exactly very... inviting.

I rolled my eyes, "Do you have any good news for me? Cause I won't lie, you're kinda bumming me out here." I commented, trying to use snark to hide the fact I was absolutely terrified right now.

However the dog simply sighed, "Afraid not, sorry," He said, well at least he was honest. He then turned to me again, "Never thought I'd see a human here though, what's your story?" He asked me.

I blinked before responding, "Found a disc on the ground, woke up in this weird ass place, got captured by dino foot soldiers, you know… that kind of day." I said with a hint of sarcasm. "And you?" I added, I couldn't lie, having someone to talk to was helping me to stay calm, I guess my brain needed the distraction.

The dog sighed, "Tried to free some of my friends from the village, got caught," He explained. He then turned to me again, "So… what's your name kid?" He asked me.

"Ethan, Ethan Jacobs." I introduced myself. "Gaomon." The dog replied back. Gaomon? I should have figured people in this weird ass world would have weird ass names.

Me and Gaomon just sorta sat there for what felt like forever, both of us knew just how screwed we were. I had no clue how I was getting out of this one, if I even could. I felt so powerless… I leaned backwards to look up at the sky, it was a bright shade of orange, as if it were sunset… it was quite beautiful actually… a stark contrast to the decidedly not beautiful situation I currently found myself in.

SNAP!

I suddenly found myself falling backwards, hitting the dirt below with a thud. I craned my head upwards to see the pole I was tied to had, for whatever reason, snapped in two. I was free! Gaomon seemed just as shocked as I was given his expression. "Ethan! Come over here, back facing me." He instructed me.

I complied, getting up while still tied to the bit of pole that had come with me when it snapped was quite hard to put it bluntly, but I managed it, I moved myself in front of Gaomon, I then felt his wet nose on my palm, what the hell is he doing? I turned my head to see he was gnawing at the rope that held my arms in place. With one loud snap my hands were free and the broken pole fell to the ground.

No sooner had this happened then I heard a voice come from the distance, "You hear that?" it said, "We'd better check it out." Another replied.

Gaomon quickly turned his head in my direction, "The Commandramon! They must of heard the pole snap! You'd better get going before they come back!" He told me.

I won't lie, I considered doing just that, running as fast as my legs could carry me, leaving this damn place in my dust. But I couldn't just leave Gaomon here! Who knows what they'd do to him if they found out I got away!

So I quickly went to work on the rope that held him there, "What are you doing?! Forget about me! RUN!" He objected, I just kept working on the knot, these soldier things, I tell you they are good at tying knots!

Just then, two all too familiar dino soldiers came onto the scene. "HEY! How the hell did he get loose?! STOP HIM!" He barked before the two rushed in our direction.

Gaomon turned his head towards me, "DAMMIT KID LISTEN TO ME! Save yourself! I'll be fine!" He yelled at me, desperation in his voice. I could tell he really wanted me to just leave him, and in retrospect I probably should, but I almost had the knot done, and well, if I got this far, might as well finish.

I finally managed to get the rope off him, Gaomon was free, he shot me an annoyed look before the two soldiers closed in, rifles aimed at us, "You two aren't going anywhere! Surrender now!" One barked at us.

Gaomon raised his two gloved fists, "Stand back, I'll handle this." He told me, uh dude… they have guns! You have fists! With gloves on them no less! But then again, it's not like I had anything either…

Gaomon then spread his arms wide, turning his torso slightly, "DOUBLE BACKHAND!" He shouted, he suddenly began to spin around, fists extended, knocking both soldiers on their asses, their guns clacking as they hit the ground.

One got to his feet and aimed his gun right at him, "M-16 ASSASSIN!" He shouted before a laser beam shot out in Gaomon's direction. Gaomon quickly rolled out of the way, the bullets tearing the wooden pole that once held Gaomon in place to shreds

The other soldier didn't even bother picking his gun back up and just rushed Gaomon, throwing a few punches at him but Gaomon dodged each one before throwing a few of his own, hitting the soldier each time, knocking him down with a huge uppercut to the jaw. The Soldier was out cold.

I just stood there like an idiot, not sure what to do, then suddenly I heard yelling, and turned a fraction of a second too late to see the other soldier had decided to rush me, he hit me like a linebacker knocking me to the ground, he was surprisingly strong for something his size! As he had little trouble overpowering me and keeping me on the floor, "Your little escape ends NOW!" He snarled at me before aiming his own gun right at my face, the barrel placed firmly on the center of my forehead.

My eyes widened, and I thought my situation was bad before! I was one squeeze of the trigger away from being a corpse. I winced as I awaited the inevitable… but then.

"ROLLING UPPER!"

The Soldier found himself hit with a flying uppercut that would make Ryu from Street Fighter blush! The soldier found himself sailing into a nearby mine cart, hitting it head first, knocking him out.

I turned to see Gaomon offering his hand. I took it and he helped me back to my feet. "Why did you free me? Those Commandramon could have killed you and you still freed me, why?" He asked me, he seemed genuinely confused, like I wasn't supposed to have done what I did or something.

I dusted myself off before replying. "What? And just leave you there to suffer whatever wrath those dudes would have inflicted on you? Yeah right..." I said.

Gaomon let a small chuckle out, "I guess I owe you then, come on, we should get going before more come." He told me. No arguments here, I wanted out of this nuthouse as fast as possible…

Meanwhile…

Me and Kate had been in this cart for what's felt like hours, the unnerving uncertainty was driving me mad, and I doubted Kate felt much differently. But we had no other options really, we had to trust that Commandramon would help get us out of here.

"HALT!"

Crap! I think Commandramon just got caught, me and Kate both froze in fear and we listened carefully to what was happening. "Can I help you?" I heard Commandramon say to what I assumed was another Commandramon.

"What are you doing with that cart? Moving carts is the prisoner's job!" The other Commandramon said, well this was good right? It meant he didn't suspect we were under here at least… right?

Commandramon paused for a moment, possibly thinking up an excuse, "The prisoner passed out, don't want it to effect productivity so I decided to do it myself." He lied. God I really hope against all hope the other Commandramon buys it.

"Forget it, we have a problem, Commandramon B-10 and E-30 both went silent, I think we might have a breakout on our hands." The other Commandramon said.

Another breakout? I guess some of the other prisoners decided to tell them exactly how they felt about doing their slave work, god sometimes I wish I could have done the same to my boss back home… but this was bad, he was going to want Commandramon to come with him to stop the breakout. Leaving us stuck in a cart in god knows where, alone!

"I'm sure it's just a malfunction, all this dust around here, it messes with our systems sometimes." Commandramon suggested, I could tell even from here he was getting nervous, he knew if this went on any longer we'd all be dead.

I suddenly heard the sounds of metal hands slamming against the cart, "You know the rules! If we have even the slightest feeling there's a breakout, we have to investigate! I find your behavior very suspect soldier! What's you're ID number? I think it's you who might have the "malfunction"." Said the other Commandramon, he was clearly getting impatient, and worse he asked for his ID number, Commandramon was basically rouge at this point, which means his ID number would give him, and by extension us away.

There was a rather maddening moment of silence between the two Commandramon, every ticking second wore more and more on my sanity, before we suddenly heard gunshots! Kate let out a small curse and we both hunkered down. Someone shot someone here, and we had no clue who it was. The tarp covering the cart was then moved, revealing the face of one of the Commandramon, god I couldn't tell if it was the friendly one or not!

The dino then spoke, "We have to get moving, it won't be long before they notice Commandramon A-23 is offline and come to investigate." He told us, we both sighed in relief knowing it was the friendly one. He then closed the tarp and began moving it again.

Kate then looked to me, "I can't believe he did that," She whispered to me, "He just… shot him… evil or not, they used to work together… doesn't that bother you?" She elaborated.

Thinking about it, it was rather cold how Commandramon handled that, just up and killed him right there. But he didn't have much of a choice there, it was either that or let him discover us.

"I did what I had to, please try to remain quiet, I don't want them discovering you two," Commandramon suddenly said. I guess he heard her, we both sort of silently agreed to drop the subject for now, until we got free and clear from this death trap.

I then decided to fish out the device from earlier again, it's screen illuminating the inside of the cart in a teal hue, I could see Kate's face as she moved in closer, "What is that thing?" She whispered to me.

I shrugged, "No idea, I've never seen it before in my life." I replied, the thing was a mystery and a half I'll tell you that much. I messed with it a little, hoping I'd find some answers as to what it was, anything to get my mind off of my current predicament. The screen displayed three options:

Data Scan

Digivolve

Digimon Partner

Two out of three of those words were alien to me, Digivolve and Digimon, I heard the term Digimon thrown around a few times by the Commandramon, what "Partner" meant in this context I had no clue, but Digivolve was completely new. I clicked the "Digivolve" Option in hopes it would help unravel the mystery, but instead it just told me it was unavailable right now.

So I clicked on the next option down, "Digimon Partner", it brought up a stat screen for Commandramon surprisingly;

Commandramon

Level: Rookie

Type: Cyborg

Attribute: Virus

Family: Metal Empire

Attacks: M-16 Assassin, DCD Bomb

Commandramon are low-level infantry soldiers for the mechanized "D-Brigade", a special security force made for the Metal Empire in order to protect it's borders from intruders and enemies. They are typically ruthless but efficient, and are found all over the metal empire's territories performing their duties to keep it safe. As long as you don't threaten their empire, they will not harm you.

It was a complete bio of Commandramon, but the little bio blurb at the bottom intrigued me, it didn't fit with what I'd seen of them, it looked more to me that Commandramon were the foot soldiers of the Digimon King's army, not protectors of territories, and the part about them "not harming you unless you threaten their empire" was a complete joke, I doubted that bird thing I saw them beat up earlier threatened their "empire" even once. I don't think I've ever heard any of them mention a "Metal Empire" either… I'll have to ask him about it after we're out of here.

But… that also left the question as to why it was here, under "Digimon Partner" of all things? Somehow, I felt like I'd get my answer soon enough…

Meanwhile…

Me and Gaomon had to be very careful moving through the camp, it was absolutely crawling with Commandramon. And worse they were on high alert now, no doubt because of the ass kicking Gaomon laid on two of their buddies back there. Me and Gaomon hid behind a mine cart as I looked at them all, "Where does this "Digimon King" guy get all these guys? Is there a website or something?" I commented.

The amount of soldiers here was downright comical, it was like a sea of blue digital camo! "They're manufactured, each one of them was created specifically to serve the Digimon King's armies." Gaomon explained.

I looked back to Gaomon. "Manufactured? You mean they're like, robots or something?" I couldn't help but ask. Come to think of it, getting a better look at them, they did kinda have a robotic look to them.

Gaomon nodded, "They're cooked up in Datamon's factory and shipped out all over the Digital World to serve as the Digimon King's foot soldiers." Gaomon said with a hint of disgust in his voice. "We should get moving, we both need to get out of here before things turn bad." Gaomon added, I nodded and we both silently left our hiding spot.

BUDDA BUDDA!

Me and Gaomon both jumped at the sound of gunfire, it sounded distant though, so whoever was firing was not firing at us thank god. But I couldn't help but feel bad for whatever poor soul just got pumped full of lead. Me and Gaomon returned to our search for a way out of the camp, we then stopped at another cart, Gaomon putting a hand up to signal me not to move. "Look! Over there!" He said, pointing at whatever it was he wanted me to see.

I looked to see one of the Commandramon pushing a mine cart, I was confused, and even began to think he was pointing at something else but, "Commandramon never push the carts themselves, they usually have the prisoners do it." He added, and this was important to us… why exactly?

I shook my head, "So he decided to do it himself! What's it matter to us?" I asked him, Gaomon didn't seem to appreciate my tone given the annoyed look he gave me, but it was a legit question.

He then sniffed at the air, it took me a minute to realize he was trying to pick up a scent, I forgot for a minute he was a dog. He then turned to me, "I smell two humans in that cart." He told me, "That, is why it matters to us!" He added, okay I get it dude, you don't need to be an ass about it! Geeze…

But that brought forth the question, why was he pushing two humans in the cart? I guess he found them in there and decided to just wheel them to his boss like groceries in a shopping cart. Made me wonder why the dudes inside didn't even try to rip that tarp off and run for the hills then, I guess they were afraid they'd get shot or something, maybe that's why we heard gunshots earlier, he was probably firing warning shots at them or something.

Suddenly Gaomon moved ahead of me, "We have to do something, those humans have no idea what they're in for!" Gaomon said, and before I could even respond he rushed the Commandramon, catching him off guard with a mean right hook.

The Commandramon yelped in surprise before hitting the dirt, Gaomon then hopped on top of him, pinning his arms to the floor. "Ethan! Get the humans out of the cart! HURRY!" Gaomon shouted back to me.

Without a second thought I went to do just that, I ran right up to the tarp, "Wait! DON'T! You don't understand!" The Commandramon said, now even more desperate to get Gaomon off of him, I ripped the tarp right off…

Only to be met with a hard right hook…

After shaking the punch I looked up to see a red headed woman standing over me. "ASSHOLE! You're gonna get us killed!" She barked at me in an Irish accent. Suddenly a blonde guy came running up behind her, he seemed to be too confused to speak.

The Commandramon then threw Gaomon off of him, "You idiot! I was trying to get them out!" The Commandramon yelled, quite angry at me, I was so lost right now… what the hell is even happening.

I picked myself off the ground, "But the… the Commandramon… I thought they were… ya know… evil and stuff." I said, fumbling my words, both the red head and the Commandramon were livid, I could tell by their faces alone.

But the blonde guy just walked over to me, "I see what's happening here." He began, "You thought he captured us didn't you?" He asked me, I gave him a nod, "Yeah, it was just a misunderstanding was all." the blonde guy said to red head and the Commandramon.

Gaomon then interjected, "Misunderstanding my ASS!" He yelled, slightly growling, "These Commandramon are nothing but souless monsters! They don't care about anything but their mission! They don't know how to help, only how to hurt and destroy!" Gaomon accused, shooting a dirty look at the Commandramon.

The Blonde guy didn't take too kindly to that remark, "Hey! Back off man! He's been hurt by the Digimon Queen just like everyone else!" He yelled, standing between Gaomon and the Commandramon.

Gaomon however, didn't back down, "You're a human! You don't know anything about this world, nor what these… monsters have done to us! I've seen these things kill defenseless baby Digimon without so much as a hint of remorse! You expect me to believe this one suddenly grew a conscience?!" He yelled back.

The Commandramon just stood there, still as stone as Gaomon made these rather harsh remarks. But his eyes sort of gave away how he felt, he was clearly bothered by what Gaomon was saying, but didn't seem to want to show it. "Dude, Gaomon it's cool, back off man." I said, trying to diffuse the situation.

This however, only seemed to make him even angrier! "NO! You haven't seen them do the things I've seen them do! Why the hell should I trust one of these soulless monsters?!" Gaoman yelled, he then turned to the blonde guy, "Why the hell are you so trusting of this thing?! Are you just an idiot? Or gullible?" He barked at him.

The guy clenched his fists, for a moment I thought he was about to deck Gaomon, but instead produced some kind of plastic gizmo out of his pocket, "Because he's my Digimon Partner alright!" He yelled, all of us recoiled in shock, even the Commandramon did, to be honest I don't think even the blonde guy knew what "Digimon Partner" meant. "I'm not sure what it means exactly..." He said, yup called it, "But it means something, and quite frankly, I didn't fix his arm just so he could be chewed out by a little blue dog!" He added.

The red head then put a hand on his shoulder, "Come on Jason, let's get out of here." She told him, giving the blonde guy a name, Jason. The red head then turned to me, "You and your dog should come along, we stand a better chance together than apart." She told me.

Gaomon grabbed my arm, and shook his head, silently telling me we couldn't trust them. God even after that he still wanted to be paranoid about the Commandramon. I weighed my options, I could either A) Listen to Gaomon and go on my own, or B) Stick with a group and have better chances of survival. I think the choice was pretty clear. "Alright, but if we're gonna move we'd better move now, no way those Commandramon didn't hear that argument." I said, I reluctantly glanced at Gaomon, yeah he was pissed, but strangely he didn't object, at least not out loud, but I had a sinking feeling I was going to get an earful from him later.

Meanwhile…

Data Forest Village

Dammit all!, it didn't take the King's armies long to tear this place apart now did it? The Ogre thing, which I learned from Hawkmon was named "Fugamon", had his little friends blowing apart huts and Digimon alike within seconds. All I could do was run and hide, useless as I'd always been. "Sh**! How the hell do I get myself into these messes?!" I asked myself, I was panicking, my heart racing a mile a minute. Everything around me was pure madness! It was a like a warzone, only one side was doing all the fighting while the other just ran around trying not to die!

I then heard an all too familiar voice cry out in pain, it took all of my will to look out from my hiding spot to see what I had feared, Fugamon had Hawkmon by the throat, Hawkmon uselessly trying to squirm free of the monster's grasp. Fugamon just laughed as he began to squeeze the life out of the poor thing.

I wanted to run, go as fast as my legs could carry me and save myself, but… Hawkmon… after all he did for me… he took me in despite not knowing me from a hole in the wall, how could I just leave him? I'd be… just like him…

I searched around to see if I could find anything to use, a broken bit of bamboo, broken in such a way that it was razor sharp at the tip. I took it, and rushed Fugamon. With one swift movement I jammed the stick right into his neck. Fugamon roared in pain, dropping Hawkmon as he tried to get the bamboo stick out of his neck. I then felt something warm in my pocket, confused I reached in and pulled out some kind of device or toy, it was white with black grips and buttons. "The hell?" I questioned out loud.

But the angry roar of Fugamon interrupted that little moment of confusion. He seemed absolutely livid, "You little PUNK!" He snarled at me, "You think you can fight me human?! COME ON! I'll snap you like a twig!" He challenged me, He then hoisted his bone up high, I couldn't even react before he hit me flush in the head.

I fell to the ground, my head spinning from the impact. I couldn't even tell up from down. God I might have even gotten a concussion from that blow! I managed to pull myself together to see Fugamon standing over me, "You shoulda stayed out of it human, you mighta lived a longer life!" He said before readying for the final blow.

"FEATHER STRIKE!"

Suddenly Fugamon was hit flush by some kind of object that moved too fast for me to see what it was, just a blur of red and yellow, I looked behind me to see the object return to Hawkmon, revealing it was the feather on his headband that was thrown as it clicked back into it's place. Hawkmon wasted no time in rushing to my side, noticing how… out of it, I was. "Ross? Are you okay?" He asked me, looking me over.

I couldn't lie, my head was still reeling from the blow, I could almost hear a ringing in my head, and thinking was quite difficult. "I… I took a nasty hit but… I think I'll be alright." I said, but then I saw Hawkmon look up, he then moved to my side, I managed to turn my head to see Fugamon was back to his feet.

He glared at Hawkmon, "You little sh**! I'm gonna make you regret that for the rest of your life, which won't be very long..." He said, charging Hawkmon.

However before he could reach us, "FEATHER STRIKE!", a feather soon found itself lodged right into his forehead like a throwing dart, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell dead onto the dirt with a loud thud. The other dark Digimon all stopped what they were doing to see their captain killed by a tiny bird of all things. There was an almost uncomfortable silence, everyone just stood there, speechless. Fugamon's body then began to break apart into tiny pixles, that flew into the air like dust.

The feather then returned to it's place on top of Hawkmon's head, the other Digimon Fugamon had brought began to flee, not wanting to share their former leader's fate. Satisfied, Hawkmon then helped me to my feet. "Nice shot mate..." I commented.

Hawkmon let out a small chuckle, "I don't know where that came from to be honest, I just… felt something surge within me when you… when you saved me." He explained.

I looked to the broken bamboo stick I had used to stab Fugamon, then back to him, "I couldn't just let him do that to you." I said, explaining my actions.

Hawkmon then noticed the object I was somehow still holding in my hands. "Ross… what is that in your hand?" He asked, pointing at it, the tone of his voice seemed to indicate a hint of fear.

Hesitantly I showed it to him, "I have no clue, it just sort of… appeared after I stabbed Fugamon." I explained, Hawkmon just sort of stared at the thing, as if he couldn't believe that this object even existed.

He then looked up at me, right in the eyes, "It's a Digivice…" He said, as if I was supposed to know what the bloomin' hell a "Digivice" was! He noticed my confusion, "It's a device that's supposed to link humans to Digimon, but I… I never thought they were real! Just a myth or legend." He explained, his confusion over the device made much more sense now. But if these things link Digimon to humans… that means…

Hawkmon seemed to come to the same realization as he looked at me with a shocked expression, but it quickly melted into a smile. "You and I… are partners!" He said almost giddily, like a child who just got the toy he always wanted.

I meanwhile, was still trying to process what it all meant, what did this all mean? Was I supposed to help Hawkmon overthrow the Digimon King? Not that he didn't deserve a good kick in the bollocks but… me? Oh god… I'm in so over my head aren't I?

A/N- And BOOM! Chapter four is done! Now if you're wondering why I posted this story four chapters in, it's my new method for making sure I'm into a story before posting it, I don't like leaving stories unfinished, and wish to make sure I don't do it again in the future.

It seems everyone has their partners now except… one. Kate, to be honest, I kinda can't come up with one... I do plan on giving her one though, but which one I don't know, if you have suggestions I'd love to hear them.

As for when to expect updates, I typically try to get a chapter out a day, but I might miss a day or two due to real life and stuff so no promises.

And be sure to let me know what you think in the comments! Any adjustments you think I should make, suggestions, criticisms, etc.

11/3/17: Did some minor touching up on the prose.