I don't own digimon.

Story 19

Who's Clues?

SkullGreymon looked about the plains. Well, he thought these were plains at least. Geography was never a real strong suit. The fossil dinosaur digimon knew that his cave back in the digital world was very much not here. That much was obvious.

"Uh… could you have at least woken me up before sending me down?" he announced, searching for whoever thought it was an amazing idea to just drop him down here without a word of warning. Rumors had been buzzing about the general area about partner digimon disappearing and then being spotted in the Real World. While his appearance here would suggest that to be the case, there was still not enough evidence to make a clear decision yet. Once he found someone capable of speech (whether that be human or digimon), then a decision could be made. But where exactly could he find someone like that? There were plains for as far as the eye could see. Any buildings had to be miles out from here. If not further in some cases.

"Have you seen my dog Blue?"

Craning his neck about, SkullGreymon searched for the source of the voice. Contrary to his expectations, they sounded to be relatively close. Were these plains far smaller than his initial gazing had suggested? If that was the case, had he missed some major detail?

Pushing that thought from his head, SkullGreymon headed in the direction of the sound. If he was lucky, this would make for a perfect interview opportunity. Of course he didn't have his nice hat. Of all the times to go without it. No matter. It was just a hat. The fossil dinosaur digimon could do without it for now.

"She's looking for you too." the voice continued, the source eluding SkullGreymon's vision. While annoying, he could manage. Get in, interview this mystery person and then find someone with a cellular device to contact his partner. How surprised she would be to find out he was back in the Real World. Heck, he hadn't even destroyed anything substantial. Unless one counted the grass stomped by his feet.

Looking ahead, SkullGreymon came upon a small concrete floor with a lattice pavilion roof overhead. Sticking out like a sore thumb, the children sitting on a colorful blanket more focused on the large screen in front of them over him. A possible source of information, SkullGreymon had inconsistent results from little ones. Ignoring the fact that he looked like a scary reanimated dinosaur, the ethics of trying to get information from little ones without their parent's permission was not a risk he wished to take right now. Far easier to wait until whatever the kids were being shown wrapped up and get on his way. All while his target increased their lead on him.

"Look! There's a big fossil walking about!" a child announced and bolted for SkullGreymon. Try as the fossil dinosaur digimon might to turn around and begin running in the opposite direction, it didn't matter. The child easily caught up to him, with their friends following right behind. All the more reason not to go about interviewing kids. Better yet, where the heck was their chaperone? He wouldn't dare imagine a group of kids on his worst enemy. That, and he highly doubted all of these kids just walked to the concrete pad on their own volition. No, the blanket and screen were more than enough proof of the exact opposite outcome - someone brought them here. Didn't explain why someone put a random pad of concrete with a roof overhead in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Perhaps the proper facilities were coming in next, but the rest of the product got delayed for one reason or another. Entirely in the realm of possibilities, but something to most definitely investigate further. "Can we play on you?"

By the time the first kid had finished talking, two more decided to not ask and instead began climbing up SkullGreymon's body. For now, the fossil dinosaur digimon did his best to pull them off. All that got him was even more children trying their hardest to make their way up onto his body in the hopes of reaching his crystal core. Hopefully them touching it wouldn't cause further problems to his body. Would make for one heck of an explanation to his partner if that did occur. But he pushed that thought to the back of his mind and instead focused on what children remained on the ground.

"No, you may not climb about my body." he announced, only to find himself assaulted on all sides by the puppy dog eyes. Of all the tactics they could employ, this group of ruffians went with the most underhanded of them all. The exact opposite of what SkullGreymon needed in his search for this mystery man and his dog Blue. For now, he would just weather through this storm and hope for the best. Not much else that he could do otherwise. Outside of hitting the children. But that would just make him an awful detective. He had worked so hard to cultivate this reputation over the years since leaving this world. The last thing he needed was to trash that reputation over the search for a man and his strangely named dog.

"SkullGreymon?" a voice called out, SkullGreymon's gaze bouncing about the area. While not the man from earlier, something about the voice sounded familiar. Where had he heard it before? Had to be somewhere in this world.

"Tanya?" SkullGreymon called out and eventually stopped on the pavilion. There, a woman was making her way over to the children. Dressed in a long sleeved burgundy top and cream yellow skirt, locks of sand blonde hair were met by a set of green eyes. A set of tortoise shell glass sat on her face, care being taken to make sure that they didn't fall off mid-run. "Could I get a little help here? They aren't leaving me alone."

Tanya nodded and let out a sigh. Leave it to her partner to be the focal point of the children's attention. Rather than the carefully curated lesson she went through the trouble of crafting for everyone's enjoyment. Would've worked far better had he appeared while they were in the middle of their paleontology unit, but beggars couldn't be choosers when it came down to fickle forces that existed in parallel dimensions. No, you had to work with what you got and hope for the best. Kind of like now.

"Children, SkullGreymon is very fragile. The last thing you want to do is accidentally break him while climbing on his body!" she announced, her student's gazes swiveling over to meet her. The ones still on her partner made their way back down and tried to hide. They weren't particularly successful on that front. "For now, let's all come back here and watch Blue's Clues."

That was all it took for the children to head back to the concrete pad and it's strange pavilion. A perfect time for SkullGreymon to continue his search for this mystery man and his strangely-named dog. But as he walked towards the pavilion, his gaze was met by Tanya there.

"Where did you think you're going?" his partner announced and SkullGreymon came to a stop. Had he somehow missed something vital here? A clue? A lead? What exactly could it be here?

"To go find Blue, of course!" SkullGreymon announced and got a chuckle from his partner, followed by a look. He was no closer to his goal. Why couldn't she just spit it out to him rather than play this strange game?

"SkullGreymon, that was part of the intro to Blue's Clues. There's no dog running about this place." Tanya explained and watched SkullGreymon look away. Part of him felt like an idiot here. Could he really have been that dumb? Yes, he very much could be. All the more reason to stay with his partner and get smarter. Or at least try too.

"I guess I can stay then." SkullGreymon answered and headed to the edge of the pavilion. Taking care to sit down, he got himself comfortable.