Project Frontier
[ System Boot]
The boy grinned in anticipation under the VR helmet as he strapped the backless, wired gloves to his hand. He leaned forward in the futuristic-looking chair.
[ Bootup complete. Insert Digivice into slot]
The Digivice. The small multi-colored device which held a player's identification and records. Takuya pulled his white and red one out of his pocket and put it, top-first, into the access slot.
[ Synchronizing. Do not power down the system. Project Frontier will begin shortly]
Project Frontier. The newest virtual reality craze sweeping Japan. Everyone in his school had their own Digivice, as well as their own personal "Digital Monitor" or "Digimon" for short, although some of the more experienced with role-playing games preferred to use the term "Avatar."
[ Synchronizing complete. Welcome, Takuya Kanbara ]
The words blinked for a moment before fading out, revealing a seemingly lush jungle. Not a real jungle, of course. If he looked hard enough, he could see the reality behind all that scenery. If he pulled the VR helmet off altogether, there would be nothing there but the empty space of the "stadium." Well, stadium wasn't precisely the word for it, but that was Tri-Angel Games' official name for their little arcade cubbies
Takuya looked down, seeing the red puffy paws overlaid on his hands. This was Flamon, his "Digital Monitor." The lower left corner of the VR overlay had Flamon's stats, available attacks, and any other available information. Dominating the display was Flamon's hit point bar. In the upper right corner...
[ Searching for opponent...]
The words flickered in the upper right corner, where his opponent's stats would be shown once the game systems hooked up. Takuya moved into warm-up stretches, like he would if this was a soccer game. Well, Flamon moved. Takuya himself was still in the chair. The synchronizing meant that he could move Flamon just by thinking about it. There was an explanation for it, something about the helmet picking up electric impulses from the brain to turn desire to move into movement easier than it was to move one's own body, but he quickly got lost in the technical details.
[ Opponent found.]
A bird-like Digimon appeared in front of him, the display in the upper right changing to reflect the new opponent, which looked like a Gryphmon. Takuya looked closer to see the image of the Gryphmon's user floating within, like a kind of ghost. Some kid about his age, with longish blond hair.
"Hey, good luck," Takuya said. His lip movements were picked up by the VR helmet, which made Flamon's lips move, and audio sync made his opponent hear the words. The other boy made a taunting gesture, beckoning with two fingers.
[ Match begins in 3...2...1... ]
Takuya concentrated on his special attacks, bending his arms into the right position.
[ Match Start! ]
The instant attacks were enabled, fire shot out of his hands. The Baby Salamander, Flamon's weakest attack, and only ranged one. Not much power, but a very small cooldown time of one second, plus it was bright and noisy enough to distract or even blind the opponent. The other player dodged it easily, his feathery hands glowing as he powered up his own attack. Takuya cursed his luck as he started running in the direction of the nearest tree. Of course his enemy would be a wind type. Wind was famous for "area of effect" type attacks, meaning it was almost impossible to dodge one. Virtual obstacles such as trees could partially block the attack, although trees were easily destroyed.
Too bad this isn't the canyon level, he thought. Rocks would be a lot better at taking an AoE attack...
Just as he got behind the tree, the Gryphmon's attack was unleashed. The display at the bottom of his vision identified it as Cyclone Breaker, Gryphmon's biggest attack. A raging wind pounded against the tree, snapping it in half in the span of about five seconds and taking about half of Takuya's hit points.
Ouch. Lousy wind-types. Lucky I got behind the tree in time, it could have been three-quarters in one hit!
Fortunately, Wind Digimon made up for their AoE attacks by having a very long cooldown time. Takuya suspected that his opponent was going to go for a stalling maneuver, probably by flying and launching lesser attacks. Wind wasn't famous for having high defense or hit points. Sure enough, the Gryphmon took off, hovering over the flattened trees. Well, there was more than one way to bring down a hawk. Takuya feinted left, then when the Gryphmon fell for it quickly ran to the two trees that hadn't been broken, leapt onto the lowest branch of one, then from there vaulted onto the Gryphmon's back. If he could stay on long enough to pull off his strongest attack, the match would practically be over.
"What? Get off me!" The Gryphmon tried shaking Takuya off, but it was too late.
His body became wreathed in flames, which slowly wrapped around the Gryphmon. Takuya watched his opponent's hit points go down by about three quarters. Fire Surge had the huge disadvantage of being a charged close-range attack, but on the rare occasion that he got close enough to pull it off, it hit hard. The Gryphmon fell out of the air and on his face, knocking off a couple of more hit points in the landing as Flamon jumped clear just in time.
"You..." The Gryphmon snarled.
He fired off several wind blasts from his fists, which the display ID'd as Pressure Punch. They were straight blasts with no AoE, but Takuya guessed they had very little cooldown time. He dodged around the first one, countered the second one with a burning fist, and slid under the third one to tackle the Gryphmon soccer-style. The other player yelped in surprise, a shocked expression visible on the player's face as he narrowly avoided falling, then Takuya used his third attack, the Salamander Upper. The Gryphmon's final hit points drained away, and he seemingly shattered at the firey uppercut, leaving only the image of his now furious player character. Then he too faded, as the victory logo appeared in his place.
[ Winner, Takuya Kanbara ]
Takuya breathed a huge sigh of relief. That had been close, but he'd done it!
[ Desynchronizing. Do not remove helmet or Digivice.]
As the jungle dissolved into an explosion of pixels, revealing the whitewashed walls of the stadium, Takuya could barely contain his glee. He'd won! His win-loss ratio was now more than fifty percent!
[ Desynchronization complete. You may now remove your helmet and Digivice. Please do not forget any personal possessions when leaving. Thank you for playing Project Frontier!]
Takuya pulled his helmet off and unstrapped the loose restraints on his arms and legs, then went to a nearby cubby where personal things were kept during matches and pulled out his hat. Hats were explicitly not allowed during matches, due to interference with the VR equipment, but strangely enough items like glasses and goggles were. Takuya pulled his lucky goggles off, threw the battered baseball cap on backwards, then put the goggles on top of the hat. Then, he went back to the machine and pulled out his Digivice. A touch of the button on the side revealed his new win record, which was now at 51%.
The hallways of the stadium were full of other kids either going to or coming from their own battles. The entry hall at the end was full of happily chattering boys, anticipating their next battle.
"Did you have a good time?"
Takuya grinned up at the Tri-Angel employee at a nearby counter.
"Sure did. I won!"
"Good for you," the college-aged young man smiled back. "Are you going for the tournament?"
"Tournament?"
"Tri-Angel just announced it today." The employee pulled a flyer off a nearby pile and handed it over. "The 'Beyond the Limit' tournament. They've come up with new, more powerful Digimon, and the winner gets a lifetime subscription, plus a lot of other things."
Takuya's eyes flicked over the flyer. Beyond the Limit tournament, it read. Explore your Digital Monitor's advanced form and make new friends and enemies in a 5-on-5 team tournament...
"Wow," Takuya's eyes shone. A Project Frontier tournament? A chance to be the best player of all time? Okay, he had very little chance of winning with his record, but at least he could try!
"So, do you want to start?" The employee asked.
"Are you kidding? Try to hold me back!"
...
Author's Note: I've realized that all of my newer fics are on AO3 rather than here, so I'm trying to fix that and you'll see a lot more of me in the next few days.
So, welcome to my latest fic, it's loosely based on one of the earliest concepts for Frontier, although I'm trying to change the characters up a bit to give them better character development. I hope you enjoy reading it!