Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was early, way, way too early for me to want to be awake, but it was also too hot to remain comfortably asleep. “Uggh, fuckin’ heat..” I groaned, rolling over onto my back and kicking off the sheet I had been sleeping under. Thank goodness for having slept in my underwear, not that it helped much, because I was still covered in sweat. Living in the south sucked. Hot, humid, and if you left open a window to help, what did you get? Mosquitoes.

Blinking, I yawned as I opened my eyes, letting out another groan as I was blinded by the sunlight peeking in through the blinds. “Ugh.” Rolling over to face the opposite wall, and therefore, my alarm clock, I looked at the time. Seven. It was only seven in the morning and already the heat was trying to melt me into the mattress. Figures.

Well, there was no going back to sleep, not hot and sweaty and… gross, so I got out of bed and dug around in the nearby clothes basket for something semi-clean to wear… mentally reminding myself to do laundry at some point during the day. A shower was in order before I did anything else though. Five minutes in and out, and I was headed to the kitchen.

The lack of noise in the house told me that I was the only one awake, aside from the pups, but they woke up the moment my door opened, and both of the little ankle biters circled me as I went in search of food. We didn’t have much, but juice sufficed, and I took it back with me, allowing Kibbles and Bits, the corgis, to trail after me as I retreated to my little sanctuary.

First task of the day was to check messages, which, not surprisingly, there weren’t any. Aside from the fact that I’d only gotten to bed a few hours prior, not too many people sent me anything these days, unless they were asking for help with some work project or school assignment. Occasionally if they needed a ride or, worst case scenario, someone was sick… which, thinking about it, was kind of sad. Really couldn’t remember the last time someone hit me up just to hang out or go somewhere or… do anything for fun.

In fact, the only time anyone paid me any real mind was when they thought I was going to do something terrible. In which case, I’d get a long, much unneeded lecture about how I’m important and loved and have so much to live for, that I’m strong and so on and so forth, then poof, nothing for… well, a while. Like they did some ‘good deed’ for the year or some shit.

Having ruined my own morning with those thoughts, I didn’t bother opening anything else, and just shut the computer back off, sighing as I leaned back in my chair. It was too early to really get into anything, not without risking waking anyone else up (which would result in way too much screaming at me, honestly—no one in my house was a morning person), and I didn’t have work again until Monday (it being Saturday) so… that left…

Well, taking Kibbles out for a walk, I guess. It would get me out for a couple of hours and they’d definitely appreciate the time outside. We didn’t really live in the best area, but early mornings tended to be pretty safe, and with the dog with me, I’d be alright if someone, or something, did happen to pop out and try to start any trouble. I mean, yeah, corgis are small, but they can be right vicious when they want to be.

… Or maybe not, I thought, as I looked down at my own two, who were just lying on the floor, one on its back, wiggling it’s paws in the air, the other licking my shoe. “Ew, hey, stop it, Bits.” Both pups hopped up as I spoke and I shook my head. “You ready for a walk, Kibbles?” At the word, both jumped up and wagged their little tail stubs, and I couldn’t help but smile a bit as I slipped on my shoes. “Sorry, Bits, you have to stay home.” The spotted corgi whined, and I reached down to pet her. “Gotta keep those babies safe, girl.” With a huff, the rounded corgi trotted over to my pile of blankets on the floor and plopped down, glaring at me. All I could do was laugh—she’d get over it by the time I got back.

“Here’s to hoping there’s no out else going out this early. I’d rather avoid being hit with another rock.” When I said we lived in a not-so-great place, I meant it, though I did tend to get targeted more than my brothers. Being the weird one in the family usually makes you the big target, unfortunately. Figured I’d escape that after high school, but you know how that song goes right? ‘High School Never Ends’? Yeah, kind of true. Once the weirdo, always the weirdo, even when you try to change for the better.

The question though, was to just walk around the neighborhood or change it up and trail it through the forest? Possibility of angry, mean neighbors throwing things at me and yelling curses for being ‘too close to their land’ or bugs and wild animals? Lesser of two evils there… hm.

Well, with Kibbles with me, the neighborhood really wouldn’t be too bad. As I said, the little guy could be a mean little butt when he wanted, and if someone did get too aggressive, he’d take ‘em down, one ankle at a time. Not too effective, but still funny.

Snatching up my hoodie from the couch as I passed, we escaped with no issues (aside from a few excited yips, which I quickly shushed), and I nearly yelped as well as we stepped outside. It was freezing . How could it have been an oven in my house but like thirty degrees outside? In August?! Made me all the more thankful for the hoodie, but holy crap. I mean, it wouldn’t do much for my legs, but it was better than nothing.

As I hopped down the steps, making my way towards the street, I froze. Something… I don’t know. Something felt off. Really, really… just off. Weird. Like there was something wrong?

But Kibbles didn’t seem to notice anything, and as I looked around, nothing looked wrong or weird, nothing out of place. Maybe it was just because I hadn’t gotten much sleep? Hell, maybe it was just that it was going to rain.

“Alright, c’mon boy.” Best to not dwell on it either way. I got weird feelings pretty often. They usually didn’t mean anything—just me being paranoid.

Picking up my pace, I jogged to the street, making sure my trusty guard-corgi was beside me as we started making our way towards the back of the neighborhood. Kibbles was sniffing the air, looking around. “You smell the rain, buddy?” The dark clouds surely meant a storm, which meant I should have checked the weather before we left. “We’ll just have to get back before it gets too bad. Neither of us need to get sick.” He gave a little bark in response, making a circle around me with his tail wagging.

Being a dog, he wouldn’t care either way, but I still didn’t want to get sick.

The further we got down the street, the stronger that ‘weird’ feeling I had started to get. To the point where it felt like there were butterflies rampaging in my stomach. Not quite making me nauseous, but… something was definitely off. It hadn’t seemed so at my house, but as we continued, I could see something. Other homes looked… abandoned almost. No cars in the driveways, no lights on, none of the typical outdoor pets were around, and the one or two that I did see weren’t going crazy at the sight of myself and Kibbles like usual. Instead, they were hiding, cowering in the smallest, darkest corner they could find.

I glanced down at Kibbles, who was no longer wagging his tail, and looking more alert than he had when we began. Yeah, not a good sign.

Wanting to get away from it, I broke into a spring, heading directly for the trail entrance at the very back of the street, and kind of leaving Kibbles behind, briefly. The moment I stopped though, he caught up, making one quick circle around me before barking once.

Then he stopped, his head snapping in the direction of the forest, ears folded back flat against his head, tail erect as his lips curled into a snarl. There was something there, something he didn’t like, and it was setting him off in a way I’d never seen him before in all the four years I’d had him.

It was… it was terifying.

Slowly, very very slowly, because I didn’t want him to turn that sudden aggression on me, I knelt down beside him. “Kibs?” His growling intensified and he let out a bark, causing whatever was in the distance to move—I caught the shuffle from the corner of my eye, and turned my head in that direction as well.

We waited, watched, listened, but nothing else happened. Five minutes passed and there wasn’t any other sign of movement. “Oh, come on, you butt. There’s nothing there. Well, nothing other than the usual anywhere, and none of them ever bother you, not even the coyotes.”

Still though, he didn’t move, didn’t even look up at me. Instead, he stepped forward, once, twice. I laid a hand on his back. “Kibbles, it’s trees, animals. You’ve peed on or chased everything in there already. There’s nothing weird in the… forest…”

Or there was. And it was staring at us. Something very big, hidden by the shadows cast by the trees, so I couldn’t make out what it was, but a large pair of bright blue cat-like eyes were staring, and not at us, but at me, glowing with a burning intensity that made me feel extremely uncomfortable and honestly? Kind of scared. As I made eye contact with the… thing, a hard shiver ran down my spine and every fiber of my being screamed RUN , which only got worse as I swear I could feel it smiling at me.

As I reached down for Kibbles, intending to do just that, the little brat took off running, directly towards whatever the hell it was. Cursing angrily, I stumbled as I got to my feet and ran after him—he’s my buddy after all, and I wasn’t about to let him get eaten by some giant cat thing, even if every instinct inside of me was telling me to do the exact opposite.

Thanks to my hoodie, my upper half was (mostly) protected from the branches and pickers that overgrew the part of the forest I ran through, but my legs weren’t fairing quite as well, quickly gaining a number of tiny stabs and cuts from the stupid plants. My face, though unprotected as well, fared a great deal better, though one thin branch did slap me and leave a nice little gash.

After a few far too long minutes of this, my fear quickly faded into anger, and I started yelling after my fuzzy companion, “Damnit, Kibbles! Would you stop already?!” I couldn’t even hear the crunching of his little paws on the grass and leaves anymore, but I knew he wouldn’t have stopped if he was chasing something. That meant he was so far ahead of me that there was no possible way I was going to catch up, and looking around…

I was lost.

And to add, literal, insult to injury, as I made a turn trying to avoid a larger picker plant, I stepped right into a rabbit hole and tumbled forward, twisting the hell out of my ankle and tumbling forward. Where did I land? Face down, on the ground. “Guh… fuck, it’s not even noon. Can this day get any worse?!” I wanted to cry-- seriously, how could so much happen in less than a freaking hour?

Frustrated, I forced myself into a sitting position, grabbed the closest rock I could, and threw it. It got pretty good distance, and I even hit something, if the ‘thunk’ that followed was any indication, which made me smile, least until--

“Ow!”

Of course, I hit someone. Well, bring on the assault charges.

“Sorry!” Who else would even be out here? Seriously? “Wait, it’s like… not even eight in the morning, and this is the middle of nowhere. Why the hell are you out here?” Not hunting season, not that there was anything around here to hunt, and no one camped out here because of the whole ‘private property’ thing. (Didn’t mention that because I simply choose to ignore it.)

There was a soft huff before a response came. “I could ask you the same question, y’know.” There was some shuffling, from the direction I threw the rock, which meant whoever I hit was coming closer. Good, maybe they could help me with this mess. Or… not, seeing as it wasn’t human. Yeah, not human. It was a cat, a giant cat with big… blue… “Would you like this back?” It, or she, rather, if the voice meant anything, held out the rock I threw.

“Er… no, that’s okay.” This was the creature that was watching us. The one Kibbles had run after. She looked… well, to put it simply, like a giant stuffed animal, or a cartoon cat. Kind of familiar, actually. At my response, she shrugged, tossing the rock off elsewhere, then proceeded to stare at me, again, but all was fair as I was definitely staring back.

“Not looking so hot there.” She motioned to my rather torn up and bloody legs. “Probably should have worn pants.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not like I was expecting to chase my dog into the worst part of this place.” Thanks to you, by the way. “Have you seen him?”

“Nope. Hopped up a tree but he kept going.” That… was great. This forest went on for miles. I’d be in here for hours, if not all day, trying to hunt him down. Granted, he’d probably come back once he got hungry, but there was no telling.

“That’s lovely.” I mumbled, plucking a few thorns out of my calf. Pointless, as I’d be getting right back into them soon, but they did hurt.

The cat stepped towards me, and I raised an eyebrow at her questioningly. “Tell me, human, are you the one known as Adam Fletcher?”

Oh, that’s not good.

“Depends on who’s asking. The hell’re you?”

She smirked, stepping even closer, but not quite within reach. “Name’s Gatomon.” What the hell kind of name is Gatomo…n… Oh, oh no. Oh shit. Oh, fuck, that’s why she looked familiar. Carefully, I started to get to my feet, which wasn’t as easy as I hoped because of my fucking ankle. “I am here by the order of Lord Myotismon to retrieve you.”

Maybe I’m still asleep and dreaming? Or when I fell, I hit my head on a tree or a rock? Because as things started to click into place and I began remembering who she was and what she did, I started to hit panic mode. It felt like I couldn’t breath, but I had to answer. “Uh… uh, no. I’m… I’m uh… Marcus? Adam’s my… neighbor?” Yeah, she didn’t believe a word I was saying. “I’ll definitely tell him you’re looking for him though. Just gotta… get out of here.” I tried to force a smile, but my obvious shaking and the crack in my voice really didn’t help me sell my lie.

“Well then, Marcus, tell me why I don’t believe you?” She asked, tapping her claws on her hip.

Yeah, didn’t think so. “Becaaaaause I’m a terrible liar when I’m fucking terrified?” Yeah, yep, just threw myself right under the bus with that one, didn’t I? Really need to work on that brain-to-mouth filter because without it, I get myself into way too much trouble. “Look, alright, I’m not a digi-destined. I’m not even a kid! Look at me, I’m freaking twenty-two! What would Myotismon even want with someone like me?!”

That evil smirk widened as she drew back her paw, “Why don’t you just ask him yourself?” Oh, that’s not good. “Lightning Paw!”

Step One: Cover face with arms in a poor attempt to protect myself.

Step Two: Get hit anyway.

Step Three: Experience some of the worst pain I had ever experienced in my entire life. A burning, blinding pain that made it feel like my heart was going to explode.

Step Four: Die?

Okay, no, I didn’t die. But I felt like I was going to. Instead, I just blacked out, which I would never be more thankful for because that sweet, sweet darkness was the only thing that stopped me from having to feel the pain of being hit by her stupid lighting attack anymore.

Chapter Text

“That…” I groaned, “..had to be the most messed up dream I have ever had in my life..” Another groan as I slowly woke up, grumbling angrily. It really was messed up though, and it wasn’t something I was ever going to forget, especially that attack. It almost felt like it could have been real. Thankfully not—as much as I’d loved Digimon as a kid, I can’t imagine having to take hits like that in real life. That pain should not have felt that real, though. It was like I had actually been hurt.

Or, you know, I could actually just be really, really hurt.

Cue rolling ov-- or not. Oh yeah, I was hurt. Now, it wasn’t quite as bad as when Gatomon had actually hit me, but my entire body was just… sore. Like I’d just done an entire month’s worth of workouts in one week.

Letting out another groan, I forced myself to actually roll over, fully intending to just go back to sleep until it wore off.

The yelp of terror that came out of me as I lost contact with the bed and landed face down on the ice cold, ceramic tile floor, told me that going back to sleep wasn’t really an option though. “Oh, ow, shit.” With a sigh, I planted both hands on the floor and pushed myself up, sitting on my knees, then proceeded to rub my now even more sore face, which took most of the fall. This really wasn’t turning out to be a good weekend for me.

“You talk quite a bit when you are asleep. Did you know that?”

“I’ve been told so, but I never really believed it…” I knew for a fact that I did when I was having a nightmare, but I figured it was just mumbles or incoherent babbling—not really anything you could make sense of. Not that I usually remembered what I was dreaming about when I was told I did talk, which since I woke up in a cold sweat after, was probably a good thing. Though if I’d dreamt of being attacked in the… forest…

“Here, let me help you up.” I hesitated, really, really not wanting to look up and see who was standing beside me. If what I dreamt was real, by any chance at all, then I was in Myotismon’s castle, or lair, whatever the hell he’d call it, which meant that anyone, or anything, talking to me, would be one of his servants. More digimon. More evil little bastards here to do his bidding and make my life even worse.

But, it wasn’t Gatomon, so that was already a bonus. This was a guy, and it definitely wasn’t Myotismon himself—that fucker wouldn’t offer to help anyone if his life depended on it, but who else…

Figuring ‘what the hell, how bad can it be’, and also kind of hoping that if I played nice, I might just have a chance of getting out, I lifted my hand. It was gently taken by a gloved one, and with it’s owner’s assistance, I successfully made it onto my feet. I wasn’t entirely stable, most of my body feeling kind of like jello, so I almost fell over.

I didn’t, thanks to my gloved helper-digimon, who took my other hand as well, and held my steady. “Thanks.” It came out more of a whisper than I intended, but it was heard either way, and a small chuckle was the response. Finally daring to look up, my eyes widened. “You’re Wizardmon.” Oh thank the higher powers that it actually was a friendly face. I remembered that much. I could have hugged him, I was so happy.

Though he wasn’t quite as happy, as his smile dropped, brow furrowing in confusion. “You know who I am? How?”

Stable enough to stand on my own, I pulled my hands back, stuffing them into the front pocket of my hoodie as I averted my gaze, shuffling my feet. “Well… it’s kind of complicated? I guess you don’t uh… know exactly who I am, huh?” Wizardmon shook his head. “I just kinda know of you, I guess, then.” Taking in a breath, I gave a small smile, looking at him again. “You’re here because you’re Gatomon’s friend, right?” He jolted a little, not knowing how to respond to that. Couldn’t blame him. No one was supposed to know that, after all. “She’s ah… got one heck of a hit, by the way.”

It was a comment meant to distract him, and kind of lighten the mood, but it didn’t help, and he sighed. “I am very sorry about that. She was--”

My smile grew and I shrugged. “Just following orders? It’s okay, I know. Don’t worry, I won’t hold it against her.” Hopefully, once she met her partner… whose name I’d have to work on remembering (the details would really come in handy), she’d realize that she was kind of a bitch and apologize. Or, if not, we would at least be able to joke about it. Granted, with my being here, there’s no telling what I’d be doing, or how it would impact the course of things…

“So I hate to ask,” I started, honestly already knowing the answer, but hoping it might be different anyway, “but is there any way at all that you could get me out of here? Maybe even show me how to get home? Just kind of point the way?” Wizardmon remained silent, but his eyes told me everything. “There’s… no way back, is there?”

Again, no answer, but I already knew it. If Myotismon brought me here, then he was probably the only one that could send me back, and if I was here for a reason, simply asking if he would probably wouldn’t get me very far.

Letting out a defeated sigh, I plopped my butt back down on the bed I’d been asleep on, resting my elbow on my knee, then my chin on my palm as I looked up at the wizard digimon. He let out a sigh himself. “I really am very sorry about all of this. We had no idea Myotismon would pull someone human into this.”

“No, no, it’s fine. Well, not fine fine, but, I mean, if there’s nothing you can do, there’s nothing you can do. I just appreciate the fact that you seem to actually care.” I smiled a little again, but it dropped as I glanced around. “Wait, why are you watching me? Since he sent Gatomon after me, I mean…”

“Ah, there are.. a couple of reasons. Considering your first meeting, I assumed that Gatomon would not be someone you would want to be face to face with upon waking.” True that. I’d probably have flipped my shit and gone after her little kitty butt. Points to him for that. “You have also been instructed to wash and change into more appropriate attire for your mission, and I thought you may be more comfortable with a more… male-type digimon assisting you.”

My face tinted red at that, but I knew what it meant if I had to bathe and change, especially if someone was around to help me do it. “Let me guess…”

“Lord Myotismon wishes to see you as soon as possible, yes…” Wizardmon trailed off, and I figured it was because he wasn’t allowed to tell me why, which, I knew why. It was Myotismon after all, which means he’s got some big bad plan, and now I’m involved. Great.

With no other option, and knowing there was no reason to fight Wizardmon on it, I sighed, standing back up. “Alright. Lead the way then. Might as well get this over with.”

Wizardmon nodded and began walking, out of the small room I was in and down a hall. Obviously, there was a plan. Kind of had to be a plan. He wouldn’t have kidnapped me just to eat me, right? Wait, no, definitely not. Myotismon… only ate beautiful women, yeah. So, I was safe on that at least. Didn’t really help me feel any better though. The fact that he wasn’t going to outright kill me did, a little.

Though brutalizing and maiming were still options.

My thoughts were cut off as we entered another room, this one set up sort of… like a bathroom? Kind of? Weird bathroom, kind of like one you’d see at a pet groomers, honestly. There was a wooden tub that definitely didn’t look big enough for me to fit into, a stool sitting next to it, and a couple of towels and a bottle of unlabeled liquid beside all of that. In the corner of the room, there were three large mirrors, and in the middle a stool with a pile of clothing on it. Not much else to the room, not a sink or even a toilet. What if I had to pe--

“Would you uhm… please remove your clothing so we can begin?”

Oh hey, look at that, all my anxiety has returned.

I did not, under any circumstances what-so-ever, like being nude or even partially nude in front of anyone. Human, animal, or otherwise. Shit, I wouldn’t even change in front of Kibbles or Bits. I hated my body. I’d hated it since I started puberty, with the pudgy belly and the pokey facial hair, and that hatred had gotten even worse as time went on because of… well, let’s just say my teen years had been rough, and I had the marks to prove it. There was a damn reason I wore a hoodie or jacket or something with sleeves all the time, jeans too, even though my legs weren’t quite as obvious as other places.

Goddamnit, I didn’t have a choice here. If I didn’t cooperate, he’d send Gatomon, or come himself, or fuck knows what else. “What if I say no?”

Wizardmon looked uncomfortable as I asked, his eyes begging me to not do that. “I’ve been told to do… whatever is necessary to ensure that you cooperate.” Well, should have figured that one.

I couldn’t stop myself from shaking as I started, breathing deep to try and calm myself—didn’t work, but still worth a shot. Alright, the band-aid method.

In one swift movement, I yanked off my hoodie and the shirt underneath, not surprised, but also not happy, to hear the gasp that Wizardmon let out when he saw what was underneath. Not quite ready to acknowledge him, or… that, I folded up my top layers and set them to the side.

“Oh my.” I glanced back at him, watching as he looked over me from head to, well, waist, his gaze pausing at the worst of it all. My arms and stomach. I lowered a hand, trailing my fingers across one particularly long set of marks above my belly button-- wait, something wasn’t quite right her-- “What happened to you?”

I looked back over to him and shook my head, sighing. “Bad situations can bring out very bad things in people.” With that, and my tone, it seemed to be enough of an answer, so he didn’t ask anything else, but as with anyone who’d seen, he looked at me with eyes full of sadness, full of pity. I hated it.

Not wanting to see it, I returned to my task, removing my shoes and socks, then my shorts, before pausing. I dared to look at Wizardmon again, pointing to my boxer briefs, and let out a mental cry of anguish as he nodded. Of course they had to go to, but I took them off facing away from him, and added them to the pile.

Which, being completely bare really set off some alarms. I was bare in more ways than one. Like… smooth. Completely smooth. Did someone shave me? Actually, come to think of it, my face was smooth too…

Shaking it off, I used my hands to cover my more private bits, and turned to face Wizardmon again, ignoring the burning red blush that was surely visibly over my entire body. With another nod, he walked over to the tub, motioning for me to follow, and as I approached, realized that… I actually would fit. Huh. Knowing what I had to do, I climbed into it, thanking the higher powers for small favours because the water was actually warm. Might have been warmer if I hadn’t stalled, but eh, take what I can get.

Wizardmon took a seat on the stool beside me, placing the items that were there on the floor. “Gotta say, this kinda makes me feel like a dog. All I need is someone to put a biscuit on my nose and tell me I’m a good boy.” I rolled my eyes as I said it, but apparently it was a decent joke because he laughed, continuing on with my ‘bath’, using the bottle of liquid, which I guessed was shampoo? Or soap? Smelled nice either way.

“You know, that could be arranged, if you’d like.” He laughed a little harder, and knowing I’d cheered him up a little made me laugh too, though that was cut off as a bucket of water was poured over my head. I hadn’t even seen a bucket! Where’d he get a bucket!? “I must say, you’re taking all of this quite well. You’ve put up very little resistance, have not tried to escape, and appear to be… not content, but perhaps resigned?”

I shrugged, sighing. “I think about it like this; if I try to escape or resist, it’s like you said, you have to do this ‘by any means necessary’, and that involves force. If what you do doesn’t work, they send someone else, who won’t be as nice. So that means fighting or being restrained. Plus, fighting a..." I paused as I tried to remember what level he was... Oh!, "chamption level digimon like yourself or Gatomon by myself wouldn’t work out too well, so, sit back, do what I’m told, plan for later. Otherwise, I risk another Lightning Paw.” Really didn’t want that to happen. It hurt enough the first time and I was still sore. Round two didn’t sound like a lot of fun. “Also, yeah, resigned is about right. For now. If I start to think about it all too much, I’ll start to freak out which leads to a whole new world of problems that I don’t want to deal with and none of you are equipped to.”

Anxiety attacks, that is. Don’t think digimon know what those are.

“So, for now, I’m going with the flow. Gotta do what’s best for my personal well being.”

Cue end of rambling. “You’re very mature for your age. Your parents must be very proud of you.”

“Well, I’m in my twenties, but I guess I am lucky. A lot of people my age, and even older, seem to still have the maturity level of a toddler.” I laughed, but Wizardmon didn’t. In fact, he stopped moving entirely. “Oh, your reaction is definitely not good.” Not waiting for him to rinse me off with the bucket, I dunked myself under, getting all of the soap off of my head before grabbing the smaller of the towels to wipe my face so that I could see again.

Then I hauled ass out of the tub and over to the mirrors. I did trip, just once, but didn’t hit the floor, so good for me. What wasn’t so good for me though--was that my reflection? Not me. 100% definitely not me, and it hadn’t been me for almost fifteen years. I wanted to scream, but knowing that wouldn’t go over well, settled on a loud, angry groan instead. Seriously? I mean, fucking seriously?! “I look like my little brother!”

The smooth face and smooth… well, everything was definitely a big tip that something was off, and maybe I noticed a size difference when I stripped off my underwear, but I figured hey, maybe I’m just freaking out and it’s all in my head but no! I was a fucking kid! No wonder Wizardmon looked so tall! And my voice--I hadn’t even thought about how different I sounded.

I guess you can’t blame me for having the observational skills of a rock when I was more focused on the fact that I was kidnapped by a fucking digimon! Ugggghhhhh. Grumbling and whining, I poked at my now prepubescent body, giving my reflection an angry glare before stomping back over to the tub.

Wizardmon looked… amused, but didn’t say anything, as I stepped back into the water, plopped down, and began scrubbing myself clean, frowning the entire time and mumbling about how I was going to give Myotismon a fucking piece of my mind. I wasn’t just kidnapped, no, now I was some puny little brat, again. I’d have to go through puberty, again. If I got out of here alive? I’d have to go through school, again!

After nearly scrubbing myself raw, I snatched up the bucket, filled it, stood, then poured it over myself to rinse off. “There. Done.” As I stepped out, carefully, because now I was wet again and didn’t want to slip and die before getting my chance at the digital vampire, Wizardmon handed me the larger towel so that I could dry off.

Once sufficiently dry, I marched over to the mirrors (refusing to look again), and dug through the clothes left for me. First up, a pair of black briefs with gray trim. At least it wasn't too kiddy so far. Next up was the rest of the ensemble, but... “Can I just wear my clothes?” Okay, stupid question, I realized as I looked over to them—torn, kind of bloody, overall very gross. “Don’t answer that.” The shirt provided had sleeves, was white with black trim and had a crooked black spiral design on the front, followed by a gray jacket with black trim, white pockets and a white hood. “Oh, cool, at least this one has a zipper.” Small favours, man, small favours.

Next up was a pair of khaki shorts, simple but effective, black socks and black and white shoes to match the whole set. Nothing over the top, nothing weird or well--okay, I'll be honest, with it being Myotismon providing the clothes, I fully expected some kind of 'Prince of Darkness', 'Dracula'-esque theme or something--but it wasn't anything like that. It was simple, comfortable, a bit stylish for what a ten year old would wear (mostly because it all matched) and... I liked it.

Which was kind of weird. It was almost exactly my style, which meant he kind of knew me, a little.

How long had he been watching me?

Okay, so, fully dressed, I nodded (mostly to myself), and stood tall, facing Wizardmon. “Alright, I’m ready.”

Chapter Text

Following Wizardmon through the castle-lair-whatever was proving to be more difficult a task than I liked to admit. The hallways were long, and it was turn after turn after turn after—well, you get the idea. The entire place was a maze, which was likely done on purpose to keep potential prisoners (and you know he has prisoners) from escaping.

Trying to focus on something else, as there were no visible exits or escape routes on the way, I decided to try and get a better look at myself. So, I pulled up my sleeves and shirt a bit, looking over the visible parts of my body, poking at my ears, face, and so on. I was a kid, definitely. Proof of that from the mirror, and my prodding. I kept my memories and for whatever reason, my scars, but no tattoos and no piercings (which was kind of annoying because that was hundreds of dollars down the drain), but, upside, kind of, I got back over a decade of my life. This was almost like a second chance.

Almost. You know, if this little… whatever Myotismon had planned didn’t get me killed. Which it might… and if it didn’t, he’d probably kill me himself when he was done. Okay, new topic.

“Lord Myotismon.” Oh shit, we made it. I nearly jumped out of my skin as Wizardmon spoke, his previous kind tone replaced with an emotionless, flat one as he bowed to the gigantic vampiric digimon. “I have done as requested and brought you the human child.” A quick survey of the room showed me that other than Myotismon, who was sitting on his… throne?, there was Gatomon, seated on a ledge across the way, staring me down with the same awkward intensity as when I first met her, and… nope, couldn’t remember the name, but a little blue bat-ball chicken thing perched near Myotismon himself.

Upon hearing Wizardmon’s words, Myotismon turned his attention to us and stood, and every thought I might have had about telling him off or ‘having a word’ with him disappeared in an instant. Gigantic was beyond accurate for this guy, and the power radiating off of him was terrifying in ways I didn’t know how to describe. He was the prime example of how something can seem one way on TV and be completely different in real life.

So, what did I, the brave twenty-two year old currently stuck in a kids body do? I smiled nervously and shook like a leaf in the wind, trying to not piss myself in terror. Great, right?

Now would be a great time to make sure my brain-to-mouth filter was up and running because if I said anything, and I mean anything, stupid, I might actually be killed for it. “Hello there, little boy.” Don’t say anything back don’t be a smart ass. “Your name is Adam, correct?” Myotismon offered a fanged smile and I gulped, nodding. “Now now, do not be afraid, child. I do not intend to cause you any harm.”

Really? Really?! Hah. Hahahahaha…. Oh, I’m gonna die.

“It’s.. uhm.. nice to.. meet you?” That sounded polite enough, though I had no idea what to say to him that wouldn’t cause him to change his mind about that not hurting me thing. “If it’s.. alright to ask…” I paused, shuffling my feet as I fidgeted with my shirt (I had quickly fixed my clothes when I realized where we were). “Sir, what is it that… that I have been brought here for?”

At my question, he laughed. Yes, laughed, his grin widening as he turned back to his seat. Sighing, relieved, I let out a shudder. “There is a group of children currently residing in the Digital World. You know about them, yes? The Digi-Destined?” I mean… kind of? It had been a long, long time since I even looked at anything digimon related, but hey, sure, refresh my memory. “While they were originally no concern of mine, I realized recently, that they may potentially pose a threat to myself and my plan.” This early on? Wait—what part of the timeline was this? How long had they been here? “Not long ago, they were able to gather enough power to destroy one of my more powerful minions.” One minion…? That was… Come on, come on… Devimon! “So, I need someone to keep an eye on them. Someone to… lead them from their destined path, and ensure they will not continue to pose that threat. Someone they would never suspect works for me.”

Of course, yeah, of course. He wants me to be a double agent. Fight fire with fire. Send in a human to act as the eighth, or well, technically ninth (did they know about the eighth yet?) digi-destined. Make friends, get them to trust me, then likely lead them into one of Myotismon’s traps or something else that would lead to their untimely doom. Either way, something that would allow Myotismon to take over the digital world. Probably their earth too, and any other world he could claw his way into.

While his back was turned to me, I looked over to Gatomon, who was still staring, and stuck my tongue out at her, giving her a double middle finger. She huffed, annoyed, but turned away, and I took it as a small victory.

“So, Adam, I have chosen you to carry out this role.” As I opened my mouth to question why exactly that is, he continued, cutting me off, but answering the question anyway. “I have been watching you for quite some time now, with the help of my servants.” Gatomon and Wizardmon made no movement and said nothing, but chicken-bat grinned wide from it’s perch. “And I’ve decided you are perfect for this, for my plan. You see, child, you are filled with so much hate, so much… evil.” I’m… wait, what? “I have watched you suffer in silence every day for many years, filled with pain, anger, despair. Wanting it to end, but not willing to end it.

Your entire life has been nothing more than a meaningless waste in your world. No one ever truly wanted you, loved you.” My breath caught in my throat as my fists clenched. That wasn’t true! That… that wasn’t true. “Your family, your ‘friends’, they tolerated you, but honestly, can you say they actually wanted you around? Or were you nothing more than a convenience? Or to some, a burden?” As he turned to face me, his smile grew, the way he spoke, mocking me, my life. “You said yourself, that you would sell your very soul to escape from that life, to start anew.” Somehow I knew that would come back to bite me in the-- “Consider this your contract.”

I was barely able to catch the object thrown at me, nearly dropping it as it made a beeline for my face, but it made for a good distraction to fizzle out some of that rage he was fueling. “Is this…” The object in question was… it was a digivice. Unlike the blue ones that I remembered seeing in the show, though, this one was dark, nearly black, though kind of translucent. “A digivice?” It’s energy though… I don’t know if the actual digi-destined could feel anything from their devices, but this one felt… well, it had a similar dark energy to the one that Myotismon was giving off.

“A creation of mine.” He spoke again, and I looked up at him, waiting for further explanation. “It is an exact replica of the originals and works in the very same way, aside from a few… special modifications.” That had me… a bit worried. “Through it, I will be able to track your movements and pinpoint your exact location any time I wish to do so.” Of course. Not surprising. “Once you secure a digimon partner, both of you will be permanently bonded to that digivice. It was created by combining the data and dark energy from my very being, so as long as I live, it and you, will be connected to me. You belong to me now.”

That dog comment I made earlier during my bath popped into my head and I mentally chuckled. Now all I needed was a collar to make it official.

“Just, you know, out of curiosity,” please don’t kill me for this, “you’re going through all this trouble but uh… what’s to stop me from tossing this into a river or something? Just making a break for it?” Not that I’d actually get anywhere, but, hey, ideas.

The smile on his face grew dark at my question, and I shrunk back. “Nothing can stop you from trying, but I would advise against it.” I’m in trouble. “You know of me, and I’m sure you know of at least a fraction of the power that I hold in this world. What I am capable of.” I nodded slowly, eyes widening as he raised a single hand. “When I brought you here, you became data, data that I altered.” Black smoke, an aura of.. of evil, something, flowed from his fingertips, drifting through the air until it began circling around me.

My breath caught in my throat, my heart began pounding. I felt… I.. I don’t know. But it hurt. It felt like I was being torn apart from the core. Like… like my soul was being ripped out of my body. “Can you feel it, Adam? The darkness sinking into you, into every fiber of your being? Corrupting you? Taking over?” I nodded so quickly that I thought I’d give myself whiplash, tears forming in the corners of my eyes. “If you attempt to escape, if you betray me, then I will destroy what is left of your human soul and fill it with more darkness than you can imagine. No one will be able to save you.”

In an instant, the aura, the darkness, was gone, and I wobbled on my feet before falling, landing on my ass. I was shaking too. That… that was the worst thing I’d ever felt in my entire life. Okay, okay yeah, I’d be making it a point to avoid having that happen again.

“Now, are we going to have any problems, Adam?”

“N-No sir.” I tried to stand again, coughing loudly as I pushed myself back up to my feet. “J-Just tell me w-where to go.” My entire body stiffened as he approached me, kneeling down so that he’d be a little closer to me height. My eyes clenched shut as he raised his hand again, preparing for the worst, but…

Something was slipped around my neck again, like a, yep, collar—ugh, great, the dog jokes. Somehow, before I even looked down, I knew what it was that he had given me. A tag, a crest. “This, dear Adam, is the Crest of Darkness. With this, your partner will be able to digivolve to levels unknown to those digi-destined brats.”

Deciding it was in my best interest to keep my mouth shut at this point, I nodded, steeling my determination. Hopefully, I’d be able to remember enough, figure out enough, about the digital world to find said partner, to survive long enough to… to do what he wanted.

To maybe, eventually… get back home.

ooOoo

“I’m gonna take it off.” I spoke up, again, for probably the thousandth time. “I mean it, I’m gonna take it off.”

“No yer not! Keep it on, shut up, and keep walkin’! I’m gettin’ tired of you complainin’!” Demidevimon, the blue bat-chicken-ball thing, was the one who was chosen to lead me far, far, faaaaaaaar away from Myotismon’s secret lair and out into the world. Why? Gatomon outright refused and Wizardmon had to be sent off to take care of ‘other business’. So, great choice, right? Horrible company, this one was.

Thanks to his wonderful directions, I’d walked into multiple trees, fell into a bush, tripped over a log, almost broke my foot… The only reason I hadn’t wound up seriously injured or dead was because I had managed to wiggle the blindfold up just enough to see underneath it, giving me a bit of visual.

So now that I wasn’t getting hurt anymore, he was extra annoyed, more so because he didn’t know why. Really though, I was tired. Very, very tired, and still sore, by the way. Still hadn’t recovered from being attacked by Gatomon, then the darkness thing, and now this little monster had me walking for hours in no real direction. My patience? Just about gone.

“Okay, fine, then at least tell me how much longer we’re going to keep walking.” I liked the fact that I was getting on his nerves. I hated the little bat.

Which was fair, he hated me too. “Look, ya little brat, we go until I decide we’re gonna stop, ya got it?! Stop askin’ stupid questions, stop whinin’, and keep walking!”

Alright, last straw. “You know what.” I stopped, standing firm in my spot, letting out a growl. “It’s been hours, many, many long hours.” I ripped off the blindfold, holding tight to it as I glared hard at Demidevimon. “I’m in pain , I’m exhausted, and I am damn well finished with letting you lead me around in what has likely been one big ass circle, just so you can see how many times you can get me to hurt myself!” I took a step towards him, and his wings fluttered nervously. “So guess what?”

He gulped a little, “W-What?”

“Game over, chicken boy.” Before he had the chance to process what that might mean, or what was happening, I snatched his little clawed foot and jerked him down to my level, proceeding to tie the blindfold around his little ankles, then up around the base of his wings, hog tie style. “So listen up, you arrogant little shit.” I held him up by the tie. “I’m going to do things my way now, so your services are no longer needed.” Looking around, I spotted a river off between some trees—perfect.

Making my way over, I started to grin, and he squirmed, panicking. “Hey! Stop it! What are you doing, you stupid human?! Let me go!” But no amount of wiggling or attempting to bite me was doing him any good, and as I stood at the edge of the pond, taking a moment to enjoy the view (it was pretty, really—large pond, waterfall, little river heading off somewhere into a deeper part of the forest), I nodded. “Oh, c’mon, br—kid, kid, please. It was all in good fun!”

“Don’t worry. This is all in good fun too. Later, buddy.” Hoping I’d retained some of my old soccer skills, I let him drop, and when he was in the right position, kicked as hard as I could. My aim was a little off, so instead of flying off, he skimmed at high speed across the top of the water… and slammed into the bank on the other side. Not my plan, but honestly, even better results, because now he was unconscious. So, he floated there for a moment, before the current began taking him away, and I smiled triumphantly as he floated off down the river. “So much better.”

Smiling now, I ventured back over to the forest edge and plopped my happy ass down onto the warm, soft grass. Finally, I’d get some time to relax and actually try to come up with some sort of plan. Wandering around aimlessly wouldn’t get me anywhere, and I’d either starve or be eaten my something. Digimon were… well, they didn’t seem that aggressive in the show, but so far had proven that it wasn’t quite the case, so I had to be careful.

Big problem, I didn’t have a partner. When the real digi-destined were sucked into this world, they already had one. It was their destiny, after all, so their digimon were already here and waiting. What was I supposed to do? Just find one and go ‘Hey there, I work for Myotismon. Want to join me in a quest to ruin lives, help him take over the world, and probably die?’ Because that was sure to go over great with any digimon, right? Especially considering I was, what did he say, oh right-- evil. Crest of Darkness, all that fun shit.

I mean, sure, there were plenty of bad digimon out there, most of them working for Myotismon or his personal minions, but if I happened to join up with one of them, trying to play the ‘good guy’ to work this… mission, wouldn’t go well because they’d give it all away just by fighting with everyone, or by just telling them ‘Yo, this dude’s the big bad!’. No, unfortunately, I’d have to somehow partner up with an actual, decent digimon and… and ruin them.

Lovely.

Letting out a sigh, I looked up at the sky. It was getting dark, and… even here, it was a beautiful sight. Even more so than home, actually. It was a little weird, with the data lines and stuff kind of flashing every now and then, but still… it was pretty. I yawned, but shook my head, fighting off a second.

I couldn’t rest yet. I still had things to do. Find wood to make a fire, figure out what I was going to eat… I had to come up with a pla..n… had to.. think.. to...

Chapter Text

Well, I passed out. Noted as I woke up curled up on the ground right where I’d been sitting. Gotta admit, sleep had felt great but the fact that I’d slept from the early evening until the very next morning? Probably hadn’t needed to do that. After the previous couple of days though, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

And yet.

Okay, surprise number two—when I sat up, my eyes locked onto something that definitely wasn’t there the night before. There was a pile of fruit, or, fruit looking things, sitting near me, as well as a wooden bowl filled with water. That… that meant that someone had found me at some point during the night. Someone that, thankfully, wasn’t Demidevimon seeking revenge, or some other potentially nasty digimon out to hurt me.

Whoever it was, I’d have to find and thank them later, because this was some live saving stuff right here. Before I could think of eating though, I needed to fully wake up, so I stood, using a tree to balance myself.

I yawned, stretched, fixed my clothes and ran a hand through my hair, which would have to be good enough, then took a look around. The area was… vaguely familiar, giving off a rather pleasant vibe, so I hoped that I’d be safe, at least for a little while.

“Alright, I’m good.” Sitting back down, I started poking at the various fruits sitting before me. None of them looked remotely familiar, which was to be expected, I guess. Digital world food and all that. The first one I picked up was shaped kind of like a peach, but it was yellow with blue spots. Never hurts to try something new, right? Right.

T he first bite had me drooling, moaning happily at the indescribably delicious taste. “This is fucking amazing.” My stomach growled loudly in agreement, begging for more and I was more than happy to oblige, taking down the rest of the fruit in less than a minute.

The other fruits in the pile were all the same, too. Weird shape, weirder colours, but all of them tasted great, and because of that, I might have over-eaten, just a little. If all the food in the digital world was like that, I might just want to stay after all. Couldn’t get anything like that back home, and definitely not out in the wild.

After washing down the food with the bowl of water, I patted my full belly with a happy sigh. I really did owe whoever did that for me, and I’d definitely be repaying them when I found them.

Now that it was morning though, I needed to get going. To do this stupid mission, I actually had to travel, and aside from that, staying in one spot for too long usually meant danger would find you.

I was still a bit sore, but not nearly as bad as the previous day, so I’d be able to get in a fair bit of travel before having to rest. Seeing as I didn’t know exactly where I was though, and didn’t have a map, the best course of action would be… to follow the river. That’s what they did in movies, usually, and it worked out. Most of the time. You follow the river and it would lead you to a town or village, or maybe just the ocean and I’d be worse off, but hey, better than wandering the forest again.

Unzipping my jacket and pulling up my sleeves (it felt nice out, so why not), I got back to my feet and began my journey, sticking close to the water, walking and taking in my surroundings. I might see something along the way, after all.

ooOoo

Not really sure how long I walked, but I was bored. Usually I had Kibbles with me to keep me entertained but just trekking along by myself was… ugh, it sucked. “Man, they could have at least giving me a decent starting point for this shit.” I grumbled to myself, pausing to look around.

“Are you lost?” The sudden voice caused me to jump, and I jerked my sleeves back down, looking around for the owner of the voice. “Oh wow, you’re a human!” From the bushes hopped out a happy, toothy little pink ball of digimon, who was staring up at me with huge, excited eyes. “I’m Koromon!” It (he, maybe?) bounced over, grinning. “What’s your name?”

Finally, progress. This little critter might be able to help. “Hey there, buddy. I’m Adam.” Last names probably didn’t mean much here, so. “And yeah, I’m… actually really lost. Kinda got attacked by some mean digimon a couple days ago and now I don’t know where I am.. or where I’m headed.” It wasn’t entirely a lie, but he didn’t need to know the entire truth either.

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you Adam. If you follow me to my village, I’m sure everyone would be happy to help you out. We have plenty of food and water, so you can rest up too.” He bounced again, almost begging with his eyes. “Pleaaaase? We love having guests and none of us have ever got to spend time with a real human before!”

I couldn’t really tell him no. I mean, aside from being my first real chance at moving forward in this, the promise of rest, food, water… but I couldn’t help worrying either. This one Koromon was adorable, and if there was a village of them, they’d all be the same. Cute, likely overly-friendly and sweet. Innocent.

I didn’t want them to get hurt… I didn’t want to be the one to end up hurting them. But… I had to play this right. Maybe if I made friends now, they’d be my allies later?

No matter what Myotismon said or believed, I wasn’t some stereotypical villain, not bad, not fucking evil. Sure, people liked to pretend I was, and I definitely wasn’t someone that people actually liked throughout my school years, but I never tried to be the bad guy. I didn’t act out unless someone else instigated it… Then the situation would blow up, rumors would spread, and I’d be made out to be the big bad but… Fuck. This whole plan sucked, but he hadn’t given me any real instructions on this so… maybe doing it this way would work?

Ugh, all of this was confusing. I hated it. I didn’t want to do this shit. I’d have to just play along and find away to get the hell out later. I wasn’t about to be some vampire digimon’s pet.

Shaking my head free of those thoughts, I gave the little Koromon a nod, “Sure. I’d love to come with you.”

“Yay! Just follow me!” The little guy bolted back into the bushes and I smiled, making my way after him. The village wasn’t all that far off, just a few minutes walk—er, bounce in his case—but when we broke the treeline, exposing a large clearing and as he said, the Koromon Village, I smiled. Koromon there were, all over the place! Some were gathering food, others fixing up some of the houses, and plenty of them just hopping around, looking like they were just playing and having fun.

“Come on, come ooooon!” The Koromon that found me bounced up high, almost to my face, to get my attention then headed off towards the center of the village. All of the other Koromon stopped what they were doing as we approached, staring me down with wide eyes, whispering to each other. Guess I’d beat the digi-destined here, meaning I really was the first human they’d seen. “Hey everyone, this is Adam! He’s one of the digi-destined!” Ooooh, boy, here we go.

Not that he wasn’t wrong, I guess, but I wasn’t… chosen like the others. Though, if I remembered correctly, the digi-destined were the only humans actually present in the digital world during this time so that would make his assu-- “Agh!” I yelped loudly as I was swarmed, the mass of little pink digimon coming at me so fast and suddenly that I stumbled back, landing on my ass. An increasingly common occurrence.

They were all around me though, some in my lap and one even made its way onto my head! I started giggling at them, unable to stop the grin that spread across my face as I rubbed their heads.

“Are you really one of them? One of the digi-destined?” Hesitation struck me for a moment, but I had to play along with this, so I nodded, reaching into my pocket to pull out my digivice. Thankfully, none of them seemed to think anything about the weird colour. “Wow! That means you’re here to stop all the bad digimon!” As I nodded, they cheered, bouncing around me, but one Koromon, the one that had led me here (he was larger than the rest, which is why he stuck out), spoke up, and kind of broke the happy mood.

“Speaking of… there’s been a group of Pagumon sneaking around here lately.” The others grew quiet, indicating the seriousness of the situation. “We noticed them a couple of days ago. I usually only see one or two at a time, but I know there has to be more, and we’re worried they might be planning something.”

“Will you protect us, Adam?”

“Please, please will you?”

“Please help us!”

“I—er--I--” A bad feeling was already bubbling in the pit of my stomach and somehow, I knew that no matter what I said or did, this wasn’t going to go well, but… “I’m… I’m not sure what I’ll be able to do, but you know what, I’ll try my best.” Pagumon couldn’t be that bad, right? “Just tell me what these guys look like so I can keep an eye out.”

At that, the cheering resumed, and most of the group bounced away to go back to whatever it was they were doing before we had shown up. The big Koromon stayed by my side though. “Pagumon are pretty small.” He started. “Maybe about as big as us, but gray, with their ears folded to the side and really mean, red eyes.” I nodded. If they were the size of Koromon, they were soccer ball sized, easy to kick. Good.

Better news on that front though, was that it was morning, which meant it was highly unlikely that they’d actually try anything. Everyone was awake, full of energy, which meant that they’d be more than ready for an attack. Soooo, that gave me the day to come up with a plan.

“I don’t think you guys have to worry just yet. No one with half a brain would even consider trying something in broad daylight. So once it starts getting dark, I’ll stand guard. If they show up, I’ll give the signal, and we can round up and fight them off. Sound good?”

“Sounds great!” Koromon grinned. “But what will the signal be?”

Laughing, I tilted my head, “Me, screaming. Probably really loud.” I rubbed the back of my head. “Trust me, if something jumps out from the forest and scares me, everyone in the village will hear.”

Now Koromon laughed. “This evening when we sit down for supper, we’ll tell everyone else the plan. Hopefully it works!” If not, we tried at least. “I’ve got some work to do, but feel free to explore, or take some time to relax and enjoy yourself. You’ll need to be well-rested if you’re planning on staying up all night.” With that, he hopped away, and I was left having no idea what to actually do.

I settled for walking a little ways away from the main part of the village, not quite back into the forest, but near enough that there was shade, and laid out on the grass. It was somehow softer than the grass back home, and while not as good as a bed, I’d still rank it above the bed at Myotismon’s place, simply because it wasn’t, you know, near Myotismon. Taking a deep breath, I stared up at the sky, just as I had the evening before, and let my thoughts wander.

Chapter Text

Okay, so I might have fallen asleep. Just… took a little catnap there for a while. But hey, I hadn’t had that much exercise in a while, and even in a smaller body with more energy, I still wasn’t quite adjusted to everything and you know, still recovering from being beat up.

I actually only woke up when the sun had moved enough to take away my shade and start baking me. Roasted digi-destined anyone?

I stretched as I yawned, then rubbed my eyes and sat up. There were a lot of Koromon surrounding me, looking at me with a wide variety of expressions. “We thought you were dead!” One of them spoke and another one bopped it with it’s ear as they both giggled.

“We did not! We just wanted to see if you wanted to come play with us.”

“But you were sleeping and we didn’t want to wake you up, so we just waited.” If I had to take a wild guess, I would say these were the younger of the Koromon, the ‘children’ if you will, but I was kind of old to be running around playing with… well, okay, technically, I guess I wasn’t anymore, but…

Hell, why not. There wasn’t anything else to do until nightfall and I did have more energy than I’d had in years, why not have a bit of fun? “Okay, what do you guys wanna play?”

“Tag!” All of them yelled it out at the same time, making me laugh.

“Alright, tag it is. Just let me go put my stuff over by the houses so that I don’t lose anything.” With happy little bounces, they followed me over to the largest house in the village. My jacket, tag, and digivice, were set in a little pile next to the doorway so it would all be safe, but I’d still be able to see it. I wasn’t… too worried about the marks on my arms—could just say it was from getting attacked or scratched up in the forest, if one of them asked. My legs were in similar condition, though not as bad, so it’d be believable.

Hopefully. They were kids, I think, and digimon anyway, so they wouldn’t likely question anything I said. Humans were different, and got hurt differently, so that should work as a passable explanation.

“So who’s gonna be ‘it’ first?” The Koromon all looked at each other, then at me, before one launched forward, hitting me in the chest. “Oof!” I fell back, but stayed standing this time. “I guess that’d be me.” Grinning, I snickered. “I’ll give you a five second headstart. Go!” The group bounced off in all different directions and I waited where I was, counting in my head.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had the chance to play a game like this, and honestly.. I was a little excited. Wasn’t sure how well I’d do, but that was just part of the fun, wasn’t it?

So, since they’d all taken off in different directions, targeting a single one would make catching that particular one difficult… so I took off for where the largest group of them was. More Koromon, better chance at grabbing one! They burst into giggles as I ran for them, but since I still had decent reflexes (maybe even better since I was smaller?), I was able to snatch up one of the little pink digimon as it tried to make a dash between my legs.

So yes, good reflexes! But, not so great balance, because my shoes slid in the grass when I skid to grab it, and I landed square on my ass. “Are you okay?” The Koromon in my hands looked up at me concerned, but I just laughed.

“Yep! But now you’re it!” I carefully set her back on the ground. “Count to five, then go, okay?” She nodded, and I scrambled back to my feet and took off, but as I ran, something caught my attention—something small and red in the corner of my eye. It wasn’t a Koromon, though. I… wasn’t sure what kind of digimon it was, but it was just as small, and looked kind of nervous. Wondering if it might want to play too, I gave it a smile and a wave as I moved, but my friendly gesture didn’t go as plan.

It freaked out, letting out a squeak and high-tailing it out of the area and heading off behind the houses. Confused, I looked down at some of the Koromon that had followed me. “Hey guys, what’s up with that little red guy that was watching us?”

“He’s weird. We don’t play with him.”

“He hatched out of one of the eggs in the village, but he isn’t a Koromon, so he doesn’t fit in. Sometimes we--” Not wanting to hear the typical ‘hate on the weird kid’ speech I was all too used to, I tuned them out, sighing as I dodged the ‘it’ Koromon, heading to the right.

I’d search out the red digimon later and see if I could talk to him, but I’d finish up the game first, give the little guy time to calm down because he really did look freaked when he realized I’d noticed him.

ooOoo

The game of tag went on for a long while, a good couple of hours if I had to guess. When the other Koromon saw how much fun we were having, plenty others joined in with us too, and some on the team at the beginning left to go do chores or other things. We did take breaks now and then to get water. I thought I’d burn out at some point, but after each break, I’d be back up and ready to go. It felt amazing. Absolutely amazing. Man, I’d forgotten how great it was to just… well, be a kid.

I’d been forced to grow up, well, be an adult, long before any kid should have to be. My parents fought a lot when I was younger, then after my little brother was born, a lot of responsibility was forced onto me. With my dad never home, my mom always working… if I wasn’t at school, I was watching him, being a parent. Not even a big brother, but a parent. For the first four years of his life, I was his primary caregiver, and by the time my mom finally stopped working and took over all of that, I was in middle school, going through puberty, the bullying started…

So, I hadn’t been able to enjoy being a kid for very long at all.

But now? This? It was like a second chance. I mean, yeah sure, Myotismon brought me here to be some kind of spy and help him take over the world, but he’d literally gave me a second chance. Maybe if I could draw this out for a while, I’d be able to just… enjoy it. After all, he never gave me a time limit. Surely he wouldn’t care if I just detoured the digi-destined for a while. If anything, it just gave him time to plan, so it still worked. Sorta.

“Hellooooooo? Is anyone there?” Wait, huh, what? “Adam, are you okay? What happened? You just stopped running and froze in place! This isn’t freeze tag, you know.” The Koromon giggled, and I blushed, embarrassed.

“Oh, sorry. I got lost in thought. You guys keep playing, okay? I’m gonna go for a little walk, get a feel for the area. Since it’s starting to get late, I want to get an idea of where the Pagumon might come from.”

They nodded, understanding, then bounced off to continue their game. I walked over to grab my stuff—hanging my tag around my neck, but stuffing it into my shirt, clipping my digivice to my shorts instead of sicking it in my pocket again, and since it was warm, I chose to tie my jacket around my waist.

I chose a good entry spot for the forest, one that wasn’t overgrown or anything, and looked around for something sharp.. a good stick or maybe even… There! A rock. Perfect.

Using the rock, I carved an “X” into the first tree, and every few minutes, I’d carve another into a different tree, leaving myself markers so that I’d be able to find my way back in case I wandered too far off. Or, if I happened by the area again, it would be a good thing to look for. Though, if I got hungry enough, I might be able to sniff out the river—okay, note to self, the dog references really needed to stop. They’re funny, kind of, but gotta stop.

Speaking of, I hoped Kibbles was okay. By now, it was likely that he’d found his way home and back to Bits, but… I wonder if anyone was wondering where I was? Knowing my family, they probably thought I’d just ‘taken off for a few days’ or something. I’d done it before, so the likelihood of anyone looking for me was slim.

Making a face, I shook those thoughts out of my head and continued on, examining the area. It really didn’t look like there would be anywhere for digimon to be hiding, but.. they weren’t animals, either. They were sentient. They could think logically, they could talk, plan. Most of them, like the Koromon, lived in villages or little communities. They wouldn’t be just hiding out in the forest, waiting.

Or, they could be, and I was about to be jumped.

Shuffling in bushes to the right was what caught my attention, slowly moving around, but I was not about to be attacked again. No Gatomon or Demidevimon or whatever it was, was going to get the jump on me. Not this time.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and focused. If I relaxed, listened closely enough, I should (key word, should) be able to determine where the digimon in question was headed… where it was hiding, and get it before it tried to get me.

It was moving, though not quickly, which was good. A little left, back right, more to the left… a little more… and there!

I kicked off, diving into the bushes and tackling whatever it was to the ground. “Oomph!” Landing wasn’t pleasant, and I earned a few good scrapes and scratches for my trouble, but I managed to grab the little guy. “Hey! Hey ! What was that for!?” I rolled us into a sitting position, looking down a the weird, gray, rabbit looking digimon I’d snagged. “Oh, you! You’re that human brat that’s hangin’ out with the Koromon!”

Keeping my arms wrapped as tightly as I could around him, which effectively pinned his own arms to his side, I narrowed my eyes, “Yeah, I am. What’s it to you, Gazimon?” Seems I got it right, as it’s eyes widened in surprise that I knew who, what, he was.

“Let me go and I’ll talk!”

Oh, cause that’s a great idea. “Fine, but you get one chance. You try and pull anything and I’ll pound you back into a digi-egg!” I growled out, then flinched, hard, as something throbbed against my chest. It had to be my crest, it… it was the energy inside of it. The darkness that connected me—it--to Myotismon. Between us, I could see it glowing, even through the dark colour of my shirt.

As promised, I let Gazimon go, and he jumped back like he’d been shocked, and there was obvious fear on his features. Hell, if the darkness kept other digimon from trying to kill me, maybe it was something I could learn to live with… for a while.

“You… you’re that kid…” A shiver ran through his entire body and he cleared his throat. So, he knew. “Well then, if yer workin’ for Lord Myotismon, why are ya hangin’ out with the Koromon?”

“All part of the plan.” Kind of. “I have to pretend to be one of the digi-destined. That means making friends, doing what they would do. This way, I get information, and down the line, I’ll have allies when it comes time to… go through with the final plan.” Was that convincing enough? Because I was talking out of my ass. “So look, obviously you know, but for this to work, you have to pretend you don’t know anything about me, okay? You, all your buds, you’re gonna have to treat me just like the real digi-destined. As far as anyone we meet knows, I’m the good guy. Got it?”

“So when we and the Pagumon take over the village, we gots ta tie you up too?” I nodded, and he frowned. “Well, okay. Can’t say I’m too comfortable with that idea, but if it’s part of the big guy’s plan… I gotta ask though, why are ya workin’ for him? Yer just a little kid. I know I ain’t the nicest digi-guy around, but even I think that’s dumb.”

I sighed heavily. “It wasn’t my choice. Just between us… if I don’t do this, I’m pretty sure he’ll kill me.” My eyes started to water, but I quickly wiped at them, not wanting to cry in front of anyone, especially some random digimon. “Ugh, sorry.” I took a deep breath. “I’ve only been here a couple of days. I haven’t really processed all this.”

The Gazimon put on a small smile, reaching over to ruffle my hair. “C’mon, don’t worry too much, kid. I’m sure things’ll turn out alright for ya. Ya never know, maybe the digi-destined will win in the end anyway. Then ya’d get to go home.”

I forced myself to smile back. “Maybe. Thanks, Gazimon. You know, you’re a pretty cool digimon, despite your bad rep.” His smile widened to a grin at that, and a light blush shined through his fur as he rubbed the back of his head. “I gotta head back, but maybe we’ll meet up again one day in a better situation. I’d like to be able to spend time with you as friends.”

Before I stood, I pulled him into a hug, and though surprised, he returned it. “I’ll see ya later, kiddo. And I’ll ask ‘em to be a little nicer with ya when things go down.”

We parted ways, and I made my way back to the village, in a pretty good mood. Sure, being reminded of the bullshit I’d be going through wasn’t fun, but I sort of made a friend, and it had been a good day so far otherwise. There was even still a bit of time before nightfall, so I had time to find something else to do.

Maybe help gather supplies—food, firewood. Anything to help out, to thank the Koromon for being so nice.

Oh, I still had to find that little red guy too… guess I’d see if they needed help and go from there.

Chapter Text

The Koromon insisted that I rest when I made my way back, so I made it a point to do so… kind of, by just strolling around the village, taking my time and carefully looking around. The sun fell quickly though, and with no sign of the red digimon that I’d set out to find, which was a bit disheartening.

We all were called to the main house at dusk, much to the disappointment of the Koromon that were still out playing, but everyone did as asked (even if they did grumble and whine the whole time). Seems they were in the middle of a game of ‘hide and seek’ with only a few of their buddies left to find, but, before any of them, or even I, could protest, the Koromon Chief stated that we were all ‘just kids’ and needed to listen to the ‘adults’. They were all Koromon though, how did they even tell who was older? Could they tell who hatched first, did they remember? They all looked the same to me, aside from some being a bit bigger than others...

But anyway, on the plus side, gathering inside meant it was time for dinner. It consisted of fruit, lots of fruit, or at least they said it was fruit. It looked a lot like the stuff that had been left for me when I’d woken up that morning, so I could only guess (and hope) that it was just as good. Not that I’d complain either way, food was food.

Mealtime itself actually ended up being pretty fun. I told them some stories about my world, my life—the fun and funny parts from when I was younger, of course, that I could remember. Silly things I used to do with my friends, pranks I’d pull and the trouble I’d get into.

They told me all kinds of information about the digital world and different kinds of digimon, which was not only amusing, but helped me remember a lot of things that would be useful along the way. Things such as who the digi-destined were, their digimon, a great number of the bad guys and a few of the bigger fights they’d be getting into… and some they’d already gotten into if they had defeated Devimon already. I really did have an advantage here, and I wondered how much of that Myotismon actually knew…

Throughout this though, that little bit of red that I’d been searching for caught my eye, and I finally spotted the digimon in question, hiding off in the corner, nibbling on his own little pile of food. He didn’t seem interested in storytime, and looked like he was trying to stay as far away from everyone else as possible, which, considering how they were talking about him earlier, I couldn’t blame him.

Almost as if he felt my stare, he looked up, staring right back at me with bright yellow eyes. I froze as a shiver ran down my spine, and it seemed the same thing happened to him.

We broke eye contact at the same time and he resumed eating while I looked to the Chief. “Hey, uhm, if it’s okay to ask, who’s that little guy? He’s obviously not a Koromon…”

The Chief sighed, glancing over at the digimon in question. “That’s Gigimon. We aren’t really… comfortable with him here. All the digimon in this village hatched from the same egg group, but when he hatched, well… obviously, he wasn’t one of us. No one can figure out why, and no one knows how he got here. He isn’t the friendliest digimon, but he’s still in-training, so we won’t kick him out. He’s just… odd.”

Well, if he was in the egg group, but hatched differently, then he was here for a reason, but it seemed they wouldn’t think that way if there had only ever been Koromon here. It was… it was sad, that he wasn’t treated the same just because he wasn’t a Koromon. Sure, Chief said he wasn’t friendly, which probably meant they thought he should be avoided, but by how the others were talking, they didn’t seem to make an effort to be nice to him at all.

He was hurting, I could tell that just by looking at him. He hadn’t asked to be hatched here, to live here with no other digimon of his kind. Koromon or not, he was still part of this village and deserved to be treated fairly.

For the remainder of the meal, I kept an eye on the little guy. I still participated in the conversations that took place, but I watched him, wanting to make sure he ate his fill and was doing, well, as okay as he could. Now and then, he’d look up and catch my gaze, and I’d give him a smile.

It made him confused, but curious, and after a little while he even started to smile back. Though he did try to hide it. See? He just needed a friend, and hey, I knew what it was like to be the outcast, so why shouldn’t that friend be me?

“It’s getting late.” I glanced out the window, seeing it was really dark then. “You guys go ahead and get some rest, alright? I’ll head off to my spot to keep watch. I know we didn’t really discuss the plan but it’s easy-- I’ll be stationed by the forest, and if the Pagumon come, I’ll give the signal and we can all attack and fight them off together.”

“Awesome!” They agreed together. “But what’s the signal?”

Oh, yeah. “Me screaming. Trust me, you’ll hear that before anything else.” I nodded, laughing. As I told the one Koromon earlier, if something jumps out at me from the forest, especially in the dark, I am going to screech like a banshee and start kicking like my life depends on it. Not sure if the Pagumon would make as good of soccer balls as Demidevimon had, but it was sure gonna be fun to try!

The group wished me luck, and I headed out to my stakeout spot, which I decided would be near where I’d entered the forest earlier. Despite not having seen anything suspicious Pagumon-wise, there had been the Gazimon wandering around, so it was a good place to start. If I was wrong, I’d see them coming from elsewhere and it’d give me more time to respond.

For the time being though, it was quiet. No rustling in the forest, no footsteps or anything trying to sneak around. Nothing… at all, actually, which was both good and bad. Good because it meant that I was safe—no fighting, no potential damage, and possibly, no attack on the Koromon at all.

Bad because it left me alone with my thoughts. Where would that lead? Focusing on Myotismon, on having to try and play this weird double agent digi-destined thing and… what? Lead the kids away from him? Find my own digimon and destroy theirs? Find a way to get them out of the digital world? Actually, that last one wouldn’t be too bad. They’d be safe, but then the world would be…

Ugh, okay, see? Bad, bad thoughts.

“This wasn’t how I really wanted to spend my night, but at least it’s nicer here than back home.” No crazy neighbors, no mosquitoes, roaches, moths, or other bitey or otherwise unwelcome insects. “New life, new chance… a purpose.” Even if that ‘purpose’ was to be a villain. “Of course, everything people said about me had to wind up coming true.”

All those stupid middle and high school rumors and bullshit. ‘He’s mean, he’s weird!’ Making me out to be the bad guy of my own story, the ‘villain’ of my peers, despite the fact that all I’d ever done was defend myself. Sadly, when you’re one of the outcasts, once that rumor mill starts to churn, there’s not much you can do to save yourself from what spreads across the school.

I never tried to fight any of it, never saw a point. They’d believe what they want, and if I retaliated, it proved them right. Learned that the one time I did, and it made it all worse. Wound up losing a lot of friends because of it. Did that mean they weren’t really my friends? Or just that it was more true than I thought?

Either way, if this ‘second chance’ went how Myotismon wanted it to, things wouldn’t be any different. I was still pretty well screwed, and if my crest could do what he said it could… I’d definitely be giving the kids a run for their money.

Then again, eight of them, one of me. Maybe they’d reach their peak before I did and win, turn me into data, or whatever happened to humans in the digital world. I’d be free then, even if I was…

“Why are you crying?” I jumped, slamming myself into the tree I was sitting by and letting out a groan of pain. Ugh, he’d scared the hell out of me. “I’m sorry! I didn’t me to scare you…”

“Shi--… ugh… no, it’s fine. Promise.” Taking a deep breath, I got back into my original position, relaxing again. I touched my face, and as he’d said, there were tears on my cheeks. “I didn’t realize I was… sorry, just thinking about a lot of stuff.”

“It’s okay to cry, y’know. It means your brave.” That was… surprising. No one had told me that before, but who was-- oh, it was the red guy-- Gigimon! “You said you were thinkin’. There must be a lot going on in your head today, huh?” A bit confused, I tilted my head, silently questioning him. “I’ve… maybe sorta been watching you. When you’re asleep or you zone out, your smile goes away or your eyes look sad. You… you kinda look scared. And last night, you looked like you were having a really bad dre--” He cut off, and if not for the darkness and his already red skin, I’d think he was blushing.

“Wait, so… you were the one that brought me the food and stuff.” Keeping his gaze averted, he nodded, his little ears—wings—things? Folding down. Smiling softly, I picked the little guy up and hugged him, planting a kiss to the top of his head before setting him on my lap. “I really appreciate that. I hadn’t eaten in a few days and… well, I’m pretty new to the digital world, so you helped me out a lot.”

I almost expected him to run off, but he settled down happily in my lap, sighing relieved. “I’m glad. I try to do my best, you know?” I nodded, understanding exactly what he meant, and rested my arms around him, rubbing my hand over his side. “Hey Adam.” I looked down, seeing his bright yellow eyes staring up at me. “Thanks for… well, for being nice, and not judging me like all the Koromon.”

“Why would I judge you at all? You’re sweet, kind, and you saved my butt.” I chuckled. “Besides, you’re a really cool looking digimon. I mean, I’ve seen a fair few in my short time here, but you’re special, and even if the others think you’re weird, that’s just cause they don’t understand being different.” Tears started to build in his eyes and I panicked, thinking I upset him. Oh damnit. “I didn’t mean to make you cry—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

Sniffling, he grinned, his tail flicking. “It’s okay. It’s a happy cry, I promise! You’re… you’re just the first one to ever be this nice to me. The first one to understand..”

Oh…. oh. “Well, that’s… where I come from, y’know, the human world… Humans don’t like me. Lot of ‘em judge me pretty hard after just looking at me, before ever even talking to me. They think I’m weird or mean. Lots of other kids said bad stuff about me before getting to know me, and that made others not want to give me a chance.”

“But.. but that’s wrong. That… that’s like what they did to me too… just cause I wasn’t hatched into a Botamon.” He huffed. “I didn’t think humans were like that too.”

“Humans can be very mean and judgmental. Not all of them, but a lot of the ones I met were. Just cause you look, act, or even seem different. I’m not like that, though. I think that’s all stupid. As long as you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Well, unless you’re being mean to someone else. Everyone deserves a chance.”

The conversation ended after that, Gigimon drifting off into thought. I yawned, rubbing my eyes, kind of bored. Standing guard seemed like a good idea, but staying up all night? That wasn’t going to be easy. Usually, not a problem, but apparently my new kid-body wasn’t up for the task… probably due to running around all day. Oops.

I kind of wished the Pagumon would just attack already so that we could get this over with and I could get some slee--

My head shot to the right and I sucked in a breath. There was something there, and judging from the nervous feeling I was getting, it had to be the Pagumon, getting ready to--

“Hey, Adam, uh… can I… maybe I mean..” I looked down at Gigimon. “Would you…” Having a pretty good feeling about what he was getting at, I started to smile. “When you leave… canIcomewithyouandbeyourpartner?!” My smile turned into a grin as he stared up with wide, hopeful eyes.

In a bout of sheer joy and excitement, I burst into a fit of giggles, scooping him up into another hug. “I’d love for you to come with me!” We both gasped as a weird burst of energy hit, well, both of us it seemed. It was an odd feeling, similar to the one I’d experienced when I’d run into Gazimon, but stronger. A lot stronger. So much that it kind of stung. “What the…” My crest was glowing again, and I pulled it out of my shirt, seeing that it was ‘glowing’ again, and floating. Was it supposed to be floating? My digivice was glowing too, and making a weird, high pitched noise. “Okay, that’s weird. That’s… that’s definitely weird.”

“What’s that? What’s going on?”

“That’s my digivice and crest, but I don’t know wh--” The glow exploded into some sort of blinding flash, surrounding us in this black bubble of darkness, a glitchy stream of data circling myself and Gigimon. My body felt like it was on fire and it was like something was squeezing my soul—it was like when Myotismon had..

I had to bite down to stop myself from screaming because the pain grew to a deep, intense level, and a whimper escaped me. I tried to look back down, focus on Gigimon, make sure he was okay, but I couldn’t see him through the data stream.

Then, in a blink, it was gone, and my digivice gave off a single beep before it spoke. Fucking. Spoke. “Data fusion complete. Partner acquired; Gigimon, current level; In Training.”

With the glow and weird data shit gone, I lifted Gigimon up and looked him over, making sure he was actually okay, though as our eyes met, I felt my heart jump. His golden eyes flashed red and a symbol, the one embedded in my crest, flashed on his forehead. I’d bet a month’s pay that he saw the same thing happen to me too, if the look on his face meant anything.

“What the he--” Another noise from the forest cut me off, and I stood, holding Gigimon close. “Be as quiet as possible. We have company.” We’d have to figure out what just happened later. For now, we had a Pagumon invasion to deal with.

As with Gazimon, I closed my eyes and focused, trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. There was more than one sound though, meaning there were more Pagumon, and by the sounds of it… a lot of them. If they were going to take over, there’d likely be as many as there were Koromon, plus the Gazimon were on their side, but I was still bigger which meant… “Ha!” One jumped out and just as it appeared, I planted my foot in it’s ugly little face, sending it right back into the forest.

“Nice shot!”

“Heck yeah. Come and get it you bunch of mutant ra--”

Thunk.

Who turned out the lights?

Chapter Text

As soon as I started to wake up, I wanted to scream. There was no point in even attempted to pretend that what had been happening was a dream—I knew better by now, and I did not want to bother trying to get my hopes up because the moment I opened my eyes, I’d see what was happening and feel even worse.

“You’re okay!” Seems Gigimon noticed I was awake, or maybe alive. I must have been hit pretty hard. My head hurt like hell. Daring to open my eyes, I saw that, yep, the Pagumon managed to get away with their plans. “They got you really bad. You’ve been out for a whole day.” A day? Oh yeah, they hit me hard. It had to be Gazimon, because the Pagumon would not have been able to do something like that. But what did they even hit me with? “How do you feel?”

How do I word this that doesn’t sound too crude but still sounds accurate… “Like I had a house dropped on me.” I would have said hit by a bus or something, but I was pretty sure they didn’t know what cars and stuff were. Were there vehicle like digimon? There were, right? Pretty sure there was a train… “How are you? And everyone else?”

“Everyone’s okay. They didn’t really hurt us, just put us in these stupid cages!” Oh hey, more dog jokes. Never should have made the first one because now every time something happens, there they are, floating around in my head. Ugh.

Anyway, let’s see. I was out for a day, and-- hey-- “They tied up my hands. Damnit..” I grumbled… That would be a problem. But anyway, we’d been there for a day with no food or water. I don’t know the exact timeline, which means there’s no telling when the digi-destined are actually meant to show up to save the place.

Counting the time it typically takes for a human to starve or die of dehydration… that’s about a week I could live, maybe, give or take a day or two, if the rules were the same in the digital world. That could definitely change up the rules... Didn’t know how it worked for digimon, but at least they’d turn back into data and get reborn if something happened. Going by normal human rules, that gave me about six days, give or take, before shit hit the fan. Or, wait, I was a kid now, so it might be less. Ugh!

But we couldn’t call for help because, aside from being in cages, we were in a cave. Behind a waterfall. So no one would hear us yelling unless they were really close, and seeing as no one had broken out yet, they probably couldn’t.

“Well well. Looks like our prisoners are finally awake.” All eyes turned to the waterfall, where a Gazimon stood, two Pagumon at it’s side. “Almost thought we killed the human. Good to see you up and kicking.” Judging by how it spoke, I assumed it wasn’t the one I’d met. I should make little bracelets or something so I could identify digimon I’d made friends with. Too many of the same species running around.

“Hey, you stupid bullies, let us outta here!” Gigimon was a hell of a lot more angry than I thought he’d be, especially considering how terrified the Koromon were… and how quiet and reserved he’d been prior to all this. “If you let us all out now, I promise I won’t hurt you…” His grin and the little flames trickling from his mouth said otherwise.

“No way. We got word from King Etemon,” Etemon? Etemon… well, shit, can’t remember which one that is, “that the other digi-destined are on there way here, so we need to ‘borrow’ your little village in order to capture them. The Gazimon looked over to me, smirking. “We’d deliver you now, but the reward is a whole lot bigger if we deliver the entire set at once.”

Oh, yes, gather an entire group of kids with digimon together and think you still stand a chance. Smart move, rabbit boy.

“Don’t worry. We’ll come check on ya in a day or so to make sure you’re still alive.” The Pagumon laughed and I growled loudly, narrowing my eyes as I kicked my own cage. All three jumped back, not expecting that sort of reaction, but they all just made a face at me before leaving, laughing the entire way.

Still growling, I threw my head back in anger. Not a great idea, because it made full contact with the back of the cage. “Ow!” Grumbling, I pouted angrily and leaned forward, resting my head gently on the door of the cage. “I’m sorry everyone. I tried but… they got us by surprise. I wasn’t expecting the Gazimon.” Well, I kind of was, but I couldn’t exactly tell them that. “Some digi-destined I’m turning out to be..” The last bit was mumbled, though I’m sure Gigimon heard it.

“It’s alright Adam. We’re just glad that you tried to protect us at all. It really does mean a lot.” I suppose so, but it really didn’t help us out now, did it? This entire scenario was a big combination of bullshit that I really really didn’t like, and if not for the rage fueling me, I’d probably be hardcore freaking out.

Feeling a tingling in my hands, I started to wiggle my fingers, both to keep the blood flowing, and hopefully untie, or at least loosen the stupid ropes. My tongue poked out of my mouth a little as I concentrated, only just managing to grab hold of one of the ends. Digging my nails in as best I could, I pulled, hard. “Yes!” The rope came undone (they really should practice more if they’re gonna be taking prisoners), and dropped behind me. Smiling, I let out a relieved sigh. Now, seeing as the digimon that imprisoned us knew I had an advantage over the handless Koromon, my personal cage had a two thick padlocks on it, as opposed to the smaller padlocks on the digimon's cages, so it definitely wouldn't be easy to get out, but I could at least move around a bit, so I’d take what I could get.

For now.

Only thing left was to try and form a plan of my own and hope the other kids didn’t take too long to find us.

ooOoo

So, three days. Count them with me. One. Two. Three fucking days since I had woken up. That meant it had been four days since the Pagumon had come and taken over the village. Four days without and food or water. Four days with very little sleep, barely being able to move because all of us were stuck in stupid tiny little cages . Oh, and most importantly, four extremely long and rage inducing days of not being able to break the damn door. I had to bite the bullet and pee out the back of the cage a couple of times, but after you know, no food or water, that didn’t become an issue, so I was mad about that, but not as mad as I was initially.

Oh, and that whole ‘coming to check on us’ thing that they’d said they’d do, yeah, didn’t happen. Not a single Pagumon or Gazimon came back to the waterfall after they’d come to taunt us, and since the digi-destined hadn’t shown up yet, the likelihood of us dying in said cages was growing every passing hour.

Or, it was.

Surprise surprise when late on that fourth day a Gazimon finally did show up, though he wasn’t alone. With him was a tiny, unconscious little baby-pink digimon, bound tightly in ropes. In a matter none too gently, Gazimon threw him into a cage near Gigimon, causing him to whimper loudly.

“Hey, small, stupid, and ugly!” The Gazimon looked over to me, growling as it glared.

“How’d you get untied, brat?”

Rolling my eyes, I smirked. “You suck at tying knots. Seriously, any of the Koromon could have done a better job, and these little dudes don’t even have arms.” I laughed, and the Koromon started snickering too, which only served to anger Gazimon more—perfect. “I mean, if you think you can do a better job the second time around, feel free. I’m not going anywhere.”

Oh, thank the high powers this Gazimon was a dumb as a sack of rocks, because he snarled and stomped right over to me, looking around for the rope. Quickly, I reached out through the bars of the cage and grabbed hold of his neck, squeezing as hard as I could (which, not very hard in a kids body, but hard enough to do the job). He gasped, clawing at my arm, but I refused to let go. Using my free hand, I grabbed the rope and just as I let go of his neck, I wrapped the rope around him, securing his arms to his sides.

Then I jerked it back, hard, slamming him into the outside of the cage. “I can see that you aren’t carrying the key, so you better listen to what I’m saying because I will not be repeating myself. Clear?” Flinching as I pulled the rope tighter, he nodded furiously. “We won’t be in here forever. I won’t be in here forever. Once the digi-destined realize you have their friend, they’ll go looking for him and we’ll be free.” I leaned closer, whispering. “And you’d better be long gone by then. They can handle a few Pagumon, easy, but you. You, I’m coming for and by the time I’m done, they won’t even be able to find remnants of your data.”

As I spoke, I felt a twinge in my chest, and Gigimon let out a growl. Giving him a glance, I saw that flash of red in his eyes, the symbol on his forehead, and as I turned back to Gazimon, he was staring up at me with terror. Good.

“Do you understand or do I need to give you an example of what I’m going to do to you?” Not waiting for an answer, I pulled at the ropes again, wrapping them around my hands to make them as tight as possible. Gazimon choked, gasping for air as he kicked his legs, but he nodded again and again and again.

Some small part of my brain was telling me to keep pulling, to keep holding tight to the rope and--It was a weird… dark little voice, but I shook it off, and let go, sliding the rope back into the cage with me as I sat back, satisfied. As Gazimon turned to look at me, I smiled happily, but he bolted, running faster than I’d ever seen anyone run in their life.

Unable to stop myself, I began howling in laughter, tears at the edges of my eyes. Serves that little bastard right for what he and his pals did.. and were still doing.

After a moment, I looked around. A lot of the Koromon looked a bit scared too, but Gigimon was laughing with me, his little wing-ears and tail flicking happily. I wouldn’t have really hurt him that bad, I think. Sure, I plan on punching the stupid rabbit thing in the face when I see him again, but unless he seriously tries to attack us, I’m not gonna go Terminator on him. Should probably tone down the outright violence around innocent digimon though. Can’t have them be afraid of me after all—I wanted these guys to be on my side.

The newly captured digimon started to wake up then, and as soon as he realized where he was, he started to cry, silently, but it was definitely building up to something more. “Oh, no no. Hey there, little guy. It’s gonna be okay.” He turned to face me, best he could, sniffling, and I offered my best smile. “What’s your name?”

“T-Tokomon.” He hiccuped. “H-How long have you g-guys been here?” Oh, that’s not a good question… I didn’t want to lie to him, but the truth wouldn’t help either.

“Just a few days.” Oh, and he was crying again, definitely louder now. “No, no, come on now, no crying. You’re with the digi-destined, right?” My questioned seemed to surprise him, though I wasn’t sure why. Shouldn’t they know by now that the only humans here were digi-destined? “Then they’re gonna be looking for you. They’re probably out searching right now, so it’s just a matter of time before they find us. So as soon as we’re free and those mean Pagumon are gone, we’ll all be able to get some food and well earned rest, right?”

Everyone nodded in agreement, our stomachs all grumbled loudly, all at the same time. It at least caused Tokomon to laugh, and his tears slowed. “That’s a good boy. So no more tears, okay? You have to stay positive. That way, when your partner comes, he’ll see just how strong and brave you are.”

All those years being a big brother were really helping me out here, even if talking to him like he was a child made me feel a little bit silly. But I mean, he’d stopped crying, and even the Koromon looked to be in higher spirits. Heck, I felt a little better about the situation, despite feeling like crap physically.

“I have an idea!” That was Gigimon, who was hopping around his cage in excitement. “Why don’t we do something to pass the time. Y’know, something to help keep us in a good mood until someone finds us?” Not a bad idea! I grinned and nodded, the Koromon and Tokomon doing the same. “Hm… I can’t think of a game, but what about story telling? Or singing?”

All the Koromon screamed ‘singing’ at the same time, scaring the hell out of me, but one spoke up, “I know a song! It’s a Koromon song that we sing sometimes, but everyone can join in. We can even change it up so Gigimon and Tokomon have their own turn!”

Me and the two not-Koromon weren’t entirely sure what they were talking about, but nodded anyway. The Koromon began, and we listened, smiles slowly growing on our faces as we caught on.

We are the Koromon, small but proud!

Nothing can happen that’ll keep us down!

We eat and we play and we train all night!

So we can digivolve and fight, fight, fight!

It was a simple enough song to keep up with, and thanks to that, just like the one Koromon had said, we could change the digimon name in the first verse so that Gigimon and Tokomon could have turns too. I couldn’t really have my own, but I was happy to just sing with the digimon.

I could feel happiness bubble up inside me as we sang, and for a little while, all the things that had been bothering me—hunger, thirst, nausea, and even the darkness picking at my brain—seemed to fade away. Tokomon was hesitant to join, but when his turn came around, I smiled at him, giggling. “Come on, it’s fun. I’ll sing your part with you.”

It took a few minutes to get him to do it, but once he did, he was louder than some of the Koromon, thoroughly enjoying himself.

As everyone continued to sing, my own voice softened and I looked around. It was… strange. It felt like I had friends again… No, I… I did have friends again. The digimon were so open and welcoming, and even though they’d been mean to Gigimon, they were singing with him now, welcoming him to participate. They were welcoming me to participate even though I’d scared them.

I was… honestly, conflicted. I was happy, really, but I knew it wasn’t going to last. Even if I survived this fucked up digital adventure, they might not. There was no telling what might happen if Myotismon won… or if they had to witness what he really had in store for me, which I… I still didn’t really know. If my gut was right, it would be something that would cause everyone to hate me, even if they or I didn’t wind up dead.

Maybe that’s what he wanted?

Sighing, I rubbed my head. This really wasn’t the time to be thinking about this shit.

A small grunt caught my attention and I looked to Gigimon, who was staring at me with worry in his eyes. Not wanting him to feel that, or for anyone else to notice my little mood drop, I forced a smile and shook my head, joining back in with the singing.

Chapter Text

After a long, long while, the singing eventually died off, everyone just too tired to continue on. Throat kinda hurt too, honestly. The fact that we’d managed to sing as long as we had without having had any water in nearly a week was pretty amazing though. Thank you, adrenaline, you wonderful thing. “Anyone else have an idea of something we could do?” Everyone thought about it for a few minutes, but as expected, no one had any ideas. Honestly, there wasn’t much we could do.

If only the fucking digi-destined would hurry up. Seriously, they had to know Tokomon was missing, and there were only so many places to look. Did they not watch movies? The cave behind the waterfall is like a super cliché villain thing.

“Damnit!” I was getting pissed, again. There was no reason the kids should be taking this long to find us. I mean, come on. Were they still that wrapped up in the Pagumon facade that they hadn’t even noticed Tokomon missing yet? Were they that oblivious?

Well, I wasn’t going to just sit back and wait to die in some stupid cave, and I wasn’t going to let any of the digimon suffer any longer either.

Carefully, I re-positioned myself, pressing my back against the back bars of the cage and planting my feet against the door. I was in a bit of a squashed position, but it gave me just enough room to try what I wanted. I grasped the bars on either side of me for leverage and pushed with my feet as hard as I could.

Unfortunately, it was like pushing against a brick wall. I was small, which meant that I wasn’t nearly as strong as I used to be, meaning I had to try a new tactic. So I pulled my legs back, up to my chest, and kicked. When both feet landed, the door rattled, causing the lock to shake. That… if I can put enough force into that, it might just work!

Pulling my legs back again, I put forth another (painfully) forceful kick, wincing a little when my feet made contact. It kind of hurt, can’t lie, but each time that door rattled, it gave me a little more hope, so I gave it a third and fourth go. “You’re going to hurt yourself!” I glanced over at Tokomon, forcing a smile.

“Don’t worry about me, okay? We need to get out of here, and this is kinda my only idea right now.” Hurting myself was the least of my worries at that moment too—we needed out. Being stuck in there for another night was going to make me go crazy, and the lack of food and water wasn’t good for any of us. Now that we had Tokomon, especially, it was all the more motivation to get the hell out. If someone didn’t come for us, we’d really be in trouble and for this stupid plan to work (whether it be Myotismon’s or my own… that I still needed to work on in regards to escaping this scheme at some point), we needed out.

After the sixth kick though, my legs started to feel like jello, and I knew I couldn’t keep going much longer. So I took one deep, deep breath, closed my eyes and focused, putting all the strength I had into one more hit. Just one more. I could do it. “I can do this!” With that, I went for it, clenching the bars so hard, my knuckles went white and my hands tingled with numbness, but when my feet made contact, the entire cage shook and I pushed, kept pushing, grunting with effort.

This fucking hurts, damnit!

CLANG!

I heard it. The Koromon heard it. Gigimon and Tokomon heard it. Everyone heard it. But no one said anything, not immediately. That sound either meant that I’d broken the lock or… possibly messed up the door to the point where I wouldn’t be able to get out even with the key, and would be living out my last few days in a cage like a dog in the po--

“You broke the door!” Wait, I did what?!

My eyes shot open, my mouth agape. The lock was still intact (damn, that’s good metalwork) but the hinges had given out, leaving the door at an awkward, but definitely open-able angle. “Holy shit.” I mumbled, definitely not having expected that to happen. It… kind of made sense, and honestly, it wasn’t the first time I’d knocked a door off the hinges, though it was the first time it was on purpose. (The first time being an incident involving my cousin and I playing a very rough game of tag indoors when we were young teens. Didn’t end well.)

“Tokomon!” Oh come on, really? Someone finds us after I nearly break my legs to open a damn cage? “And all the Koromon and a… wait, did you just break that door?” I gave the lizard-like digimon a grin, nudging the door with my foot so that I could scoot out. I had to hold onto the stupid cage to get myself standing, and it took a few moments to regain feeling as I shook my legs out. “Help me free everyone!”

Rolling my eyes, I stumbled over to Gigimon’s cage first, snorting at the lock design. Unlike mine, which was definitely made for me, likely personally, the ones for the digimon were very… rinky-dink looking things, with some little metal spike dropped into a hole. Easy to remove and open, well, for anyone with hands. I suppose they figured the little digimon wouldn’t be able to do much, and hey, they were right.

“Just what do you two think you’re doing?!” A nasty looking pair of Gazimon entered the cave before either of us could do anything, likely having followed the little orange guy, and they looked pissed, itching for a fight. Perfect, because I was too.

“We’re setting out friends free!”

“Yeah, I don’t think so, lizard boy! We’re planning on giving all of them, plus those little human brats, to King Etemon!” The leader of the two laughed. “Unless of course, you and that scrawny brat think you can stop us.” The Gazimon that was speaking nodded to his friend, “You, go get the human, I got the lizard.” The second Gazimon froze solid as he locked eyes with me, leaning over to his boss, whispering something. “He did what? Ugh, you big baby, just get over there!” The second Gazimon hesitated, but shook off his nervousness, jumping over his friend, and landed near me.

This had to be the one I’d tormented before, judging by the look in his eyes. This was going to be fun. “So I see you didn’t run for the hills after all.” Cue stereotypical cat-style battle mode, also known as—walking in a circle trying to intimidate one another. “I know you remember the last time you came around, what I told you.”

“Tch. I’m not afraid of a human!” He also wasn’t a very good liar, seeing as he was shaking a bit, though I had to give him credit for at least trying to look tough.

Smiling, I cracked my knuckles, letting out a little laugh as I stopped walking. Confused, he did as well, and I tackled him. Granted, the little shit was stronger than I’d have thought and as we rolled around on the ground, he actually managed to pin me. Before he had the chance to strike, the lizard—fucking.. Agumon! Yeah, Agumon, hit him with a fireball, knocking him off of me.

His brief moment of assistance for me though, gave the other Gazimon time to tackle him though, so to return the favour, I ran up, grabbed the Gazimon’s arm and jerked him away, causing him to land flat on the ground. Then I punched him in the face, twice. Once for being a dick, and once for sneaking an attack, then I flipped him onto his stomach and sat on him to keep him pinned. The other took notice of this and jumped at us, but Agumon shot another fireball in his direction.

He dodged, but it put him close enough to let me grab him as well, and I wrapped my arms around his, keeping him in a bear-hug tight enough that he shouldn’t be able to break out.

“Let them out!”

“Not so fast!” The Gazimon in my arms flung his head back, smacking his skull into my face, more specifically, my nose. In shock and pain, I released him, reeling back as I cursed loudly, reaching up to check for—yeah, there was blood. “Electric stun blast!” Now, that didn’t hurt quite as much as what Gatomon had hit me with, but it was definitely enough to get me off his buddy, sending me skidding back on the cave ground.

“Adam!” Gigimon yelled out, pure rage flowing off of him in waves. I sat up and my head snapped over to him, wanting to make sure he was alright, which turned out to be a mistake, as I left myself open to an attack by both Gazimon at the same time. I slammed back into the ground, clenching my jaw to bite back the scream of pain.

Agumon ran over, but they attacked again, hitting us both. I felt bile rising up in my throat and forced myself to roll over, droplets of it pooling out of my mouth as I panted heavily, pushing myself up onto my hands and knees.

Another strike and I did scream, tears rolling down my face. “That’s enough!” My digivice started vibrating violently, the screen glowing with a black aura. “Gigimon dark data digivolve to---” A long, black strip of… I guess it was data, circled Gigimon, encasing him in this almost egg-like shape of digital glowing light. As it ‘exploded’ away from him, Gigimon was gone, and in his place was a damn frightening looking red mini-dragon. “Guilmon.”

His voice had deepened, taking on a much more frightening tone, and his golden eyes blazed as he snarled, showing off his razor sharp teeth. Memories of Guilmon from the show hit me like a brick, but he.. he looked different. Not by much, but enough to make him much more intimidating—his red skin was darker, teeth sharper, and instead of the typical three claws, he had a full set of five on his hands.

Now much too large for the cage, he easily busted out of it and stepped forth, never taking his eyes off of the Gazimon, who were looking a lot more scared than they had been before. “Gill shot!” A black and red blast of fire-y energy shot from his mouth, hitting one Gazimon with enough force to knock it into the other, both of them groaning as they hit the wall of the cave. Snorting, he ran over to my side, wrapping his claws around me to help me back to my feet. “You gonna be alright?” I forced a smile, coughing as I nodded. He raised a brow, but nodded as well. “Good. I’ve got a plan, but it’s kinda gonna suck for you for a bit. Think you can distract them for a while?”

“I can sure as shit try.”

“Good. I’ll make this as fast as possible—you can do this.” Shouldn’t I be the one reassuring him?

With his plan in mind, he ran over to Agumon, grabbing the smaller digimon’s arm and practically dragging him over to the waterfall. Whatever his plan was, I wasn’t going to let the Gazimon screw it up, so I took a deep breath, regaining my composure, and tackled them both as they finally stood back up from Guilmon’s attack.

Pulling back my arm, I slammed my fist into one’s cheek, right before the second bit me and got away, raising his arm for another attack. “Not a chance, fucker!” I took hold of the one I punched (who was, thankfully dazed) with both hands, and flung him into the other, causing them both to roll back into the wall. Sadly, it didn’t keep them down. “Uh, you guys better hurry up!”

“Electric stun blast!” Oh motherfucker that was not going to feel-- GOD FUCKING SHIT DAMNIT! I hit the ground with my knees, but growled, forcing myself back up, albeit shakily. “How’s that feel, brat?!” They were so far beyond mad now, like, 100% pissed-right-the-fuck-off. I jumped for them again, but they were far enough back that they dodged, and I slid, barely catching myself.

If only I had something to throw… wait, I did! My shoe! Sliding off one of my shoes, I aimed and kicked as hard as I could, “Bam!” The offending article flew at an impressive speed, nailing the leading Gazimon right in the forehead. “Yeah!” The remaining one shot forward though, headbutting me in the stomach, sending me to the ground, again. As I made a move to strike, I flipped our positions. This time though, instead of holding down his arms, I grabbed hold of his fuzzy little throat, squeezing with all my might. He tried to gasp as his eyes widened with fear and I grinned, growlng low. “Gotcha.”

“Agumon!” Who the hell was-- a kid! About fucking time! “Wait, who are you?!”

Rolling my eyes, I planted my fist in Gazimon’s face, “Less talking, more helping, now! Kind of struggling here!” Looks like whatever Guilmon’s plan was worked beca-- “Ow!”

Once again, I was on my back on the ground, the breath knocked out of me and this time, I couldn’t move. Well, that was it. I was going to die after all, though not from dehydration or starvation. Nope. From electrocution by evil, mutant bunnies in need of serious attitude adjustments.

“Agumon digivolve--!” Well, shit, okay, maybe not then. I forced my eyes open just in time to see a big ass dinosaur—Agumon’s digivolution—literally blasting the Gazimon right through the waterfall, out of the cave. Oh, thank fuck. I owed that little, or not so little now, guy, for saving my ass.

The fight was over now, finally over. My first fight in the digital world, hell, my first real fist-fight in my entire life (that wasn’t in a video game), and we won. Well, I didn’t personally win. I got my ass handed to me, but I did a damn good job, if I do say so myself. “Thank fuck for that.” I smiled as I mumbled, letting my eyes close again as I breathed out a heavy sigh of relief.

Man, what I wouldn’t give for a big ass cup of green tea and some chocolate.

Chapter Text

Not long after the fight finally ended, a flurry of footsteps began making their way into the cave, followed by numerous overlapping voices–the rest of the digi-destined had arrived with their partners in tow. I’d say better late than never, but at that point there was nothing left to do aside from releasing the Koromon and Tokomon. But at least they’d take care of that, which would give me time to catch my breath and recover a bit.

“Let me help you up.” Slowly blinking my eyes back open, I was met with the face of Agumon’s partner–goggles, crazy hair, a friendly but tired smile… Ugh, I couldn’t remember his name, but introductions were sure to happen soon anyway.

The boy held out his hand for me to take and though it took a lot more effort than I’d have liked, I reached up and grabbed hold, allowing him to help pull me to my feet. My muscles were screaming in rebellion after all the hits I’d taken from the damn Gazimon and my entire being was yelling ‘NOPE’, wanting to just shut down and sleep for the next month, but there wasn’t time for that. Not yet at least.

“Thanks.” I let go of his hand, but swayed where I stood, nearly falling over again. It was only thanks to him grabbing hold of my shoulders to steady me that I didn’t.

“You took one heck of a beating, kid.” I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes at the word ‘kid’, because he wasn’t entirely wrong. Not an adult anymore, damnit.

I was maneuvered so that one of my arms was slung around his shoulder, but the new position allowed me to see the group of digimon we’d saved, all of them obviously exhausted themselves and likely starving. I knew I was. 

“He helped protect us from the Gazimon!” The Koromon chief piped up, grinning “And fought against them himself while Agumon and Guilmon signaled for help!” He and the others bounced happily, enthusiastic despite the condition they were in, “He’s our hero!”

I gave the best smile I could, but as I reached down to try and pet the Koromon’s head, a wave of nausea hit me and I felt bile rising in my throat. I winced, letting out a soft groan, “Glad to h-help. Hero’s not feelin’ too hot–’scuse me.” I pulled away from Agumon’s partner and stumbled to the edge of the cave before dropping to my knees. As I did, I began to heave, barely able to glance back, “You guys wanna.. Set ‘em free?” 

Tokomon’s partner was the first to move, but the other kids followed in suit, and I turned back to the waterfall, grabbing onto the edge as I tried to breathe normally. A moment later, Guilmon came over, standing at my side as his claws settled on my back, rubbing softly as I expelled the disgusting acidic fluids from my stomach into the river below. 

“Looks like we really are meant to be partners, huh?” He gave me a tired smile and I returned it, nodding slightly. I felt a lot better, the nausea starting to fade, but didn’t risk standing up yet, just in case. “You gonna be alright, Adam?”

Sitting back on my knees, I took a slow, deep breath before nodding again, “Y-Yeah. Just…” I paused, reaching forward with both hands to catch some of the water from the falls, Guilmon keeping my steady so I didn’t fall into the water. It was cold and sipping at it eased my burning throat. “Just n-need a break..” I reached for another handful of water, using that one to rinse the blood off my face. “Though t-that stupid rabbit nearly broke my nose..” It was bruised for sure, throbbing a little, but it had stopped bleeding fairly quickly.

Unfortunately, my break and subsequent recovery from that fight would have to wait, as another digimon’s voice bellowed around us, bouncing off of the cave walls. Guilmon tensed beside me, the tips of his claws pricking my back as he started to snarl. I looked up and out of the split in the waterfall, seeing a giant… Well, he looked like some weirdo in a monkey suit. Etemon, of course–an… ultimate. Yeah, he was an ultimate level digimon. Shit.

“Hello hello~!” After everything that had happened over the last week, this was the last thing we needed, but it wasn’t too much of a surprise that the big bad would show up right when we got free. Mr. Monkey was far too happy to see us, though I was sure no one around was happy to see him. “You measly little digi-destined brats–” Is ‘brat’ just the default insult in the digital world? Did the evil digimon really have such a small vocabulary that that was what they had to resort to? “--done gone and messed up all my beautiful plans!”

Snorting, I nodded to Guilmon who helped me get back on my feet, and I let out my own growl, “You’re damn right we did!” I heard soft gasps behind me, but ignored them as I continued yelling at Etemon, who was my main focus, “I’d say try harder next time, but I don’t think we can really expect much from a talking monkey. And what’s with that accent? Seriously? Couldn’t come up with anything better, you freaky looking Elvis reject?”

Guilmon snorted in amusement as Etemon froze, staring down at me as he fumed, mouth agape. Unfortunately, he recovered from his shock fairly quickly, gripping his microphone tighter, “Hey!” Wow, what a comeback. “Keep quiet you little shit!” Well look at that. A real insult. Props, monkey man, props. “Now I’m gonna have to punish y’all even worse! Let’s see how you like my latest number,” Oh man, he’s even doing the whole music thing–Elvis reject indeed. “It’s called Wreckin’ the whole place!” With a name like that, I had a feeling this wasn’t a song that anyone wanted to hear.

“Do you think he can actually do that?”I glanced at Guilmon, then at the group behind me, opening my mouth to say OBVIOUSLY, but it was too late. Everything around us shook as gigantic black cables tore out of the ground, crackling loudly as dark energy pulsated through them–

“Come on! You can’t stay there!” One of the guys had made his way over to me, pulling me up onto my feet, nearly dragging me along to get me away from the mouth of the cave. Just in time, as large black orbs began appearing from the cables, some falling into the water, others hitting the land around us. 

I was let go of when I was standing beside the youngest, Tokomon’s partner, Guilmon standing in front of me to protect me.

Greymon took front and center, the other digimon–aside from Tokomon, who was in his partner’s arms, and Guilmon, who didn’t move from his spot in front of me–standing around him, forming a protective line in front of everyone. They digivolved all at once (which was kind of cool to watch) but Etemon was ready for that.

“Oh no you don’t! Try this one, ya brats!” And there’s the brat comment again. Lost the one point he’d gained. “Dark network concert crush!”

He struck another chord, the horrible sound making my head ache. The other kids flinched back, panic apparent on all their faces as their digimon cried out, whatever was in that music forcing them to revert to their rookie forms. “This isn’t looking good, you guys.” I shot a look to the blue-haired boy, No shit, buddy, shifting my footing so I could remain standing through the quakes, but it wasn’t much help as he sent out a fucking third one, causing the equivalent of an earthquake.

Everything started to shake violently, rocks and dirt falling from the ceiling and sides of the cave. He was trying to bury us alive. In the digital world for a week and everything was already trying to kill me! 

“Do we even stand a chance against him?” The bug digimon’s (Teramon? No, Tenamon… Oh, Tentomon!) partner spoke angrily, but the digimon just shook their heads as Tentomon responded.

“Not as we currently are. If we could digivolve further, maybe…” Digivolve further? Obviously their champion levels wouldn’t work, but if all of them could make it to the same level as Etemon, it probably wouldn’t be hard to turn the asshole back into data.

The red-haired girl (why were the digimon easier to remember than the digi-destined, honestly) looked at Etemon, then down to the group, “Further… That’s what Gennai must have meant..”

Seriously, was this the best time to be having a conversation? 

Claws wrapped around my arm as a large rock fell from the entrance into the water and I looked at Guilmon who just started pulling me with him further in, “Time to go! Now!” 

The others took his cue and started running as well, but even with Guilmon helping me, I was still worn down from the fight and lack of food from being trapped in a cage for days on end, and it resulted in us slowing down.

"If we could get our digimon to digivolve further, we could take out that stupid monkey!" As nice of a thought as that was, it definitely wasn't something that would be happening today. Etemon could wipe out all of their champion forms easily, and I had no idea how long it would take until they'd get their ultimates.

"Watch out!" Rocks were falling at a steady rate from above us as we ran, and it was only thanks to my quick thinking (that's a lie--I tripped because the red haired girl startled me when she yelled) that I didn't get smashed by one that dropped in our path. 

The one who helped me before, the older blonde male, stopped short and doubled back, helping me to my feet. (I was falling on my ass a lot. Seriously. All the bruises.) Then he picked me up and kept running. Doesn't get more embarrassing than that.

The Koromon, who somehow bounced ahead of us, led the way to the very back of the cave, and thought it was a relief to be out of immediate danger, we wound up at a dead end. An interesting dead end, y'know, with the giant sun-like symbol carved into the rock that was barely visible in the dark, but still a dead end. I heard the boy carrying me sigh as he set me down, everyone's attention turning to the group of Koromon.

"This is where we come to take shelter when something bad happens to our village." I could see how having an emergency shelter could be useful, but, you know, an exit from said emergency shelter really would have been helpful.

Sighing, I stared at the symbol on the wall for a moment, then looked down at my hoppy, pink friends, “What now, you guys? The big bad is back the other way and he kind of blocked the entrance.” The Koromon looked around, then up at me, then at the wall. Well, they weren’t sure either. 

Maybe the digimon could bust through and make the tunnel extend further tha–

Okay, Tai’s chest is glow–TAI! There we go–glowing. Glowing could be good or bad. If he did like me, that would be where his crest was hanging. “Huh?” Reaching into his shirt, he pulled out the golden object, which began to shine brighter, causing the symbol on the wall to react and start glowing too. “Oh wow..” The walls around us lit up like the sun, almost too bright to look at, though they didn’t stay that way for long as all of the light started to be absorbed by the symbol, which was shrinking.

“Dude, that’s gotta be your crest!” Everyone looked to Guilmon before grinning and turning their attention back to the light. It was coming off of the wall now, getting smaller still as it floated down, positioning itself right in front of Tai. As he reached out a hand to touch it, it slid out of the way of his hand and directly into the base of his tag, where the glow faded completely. A tag indeed.

Tai looked about ready to burst out of his skin in excitement, “We finally have one!” Two, technically since I was there, but they didn’t need to know that yet. That was information that could be divulged after we were back to the village and I had a chance to recover. 

Blinking slowly, I rubbed at my eyes as I looked past the group. The wall was… gone? Just gone, like it had never been there, and beyond it was… “Freedom!” I cheered aloud, taking in the beautiful sight before me. Mountains, trees, the sky! We weren’t trapped anymore and for that reason alone, I wanted to cry in relief. I scooted around everyone and took a deep breath of the fresh air, the Koromon doing the same. It was one of the best feelings ever, especially after being trapped for so long, and–Was that water? 

“These mountains are pretty far from our village. It’ll take a little while to get back.” The Koromon chief piped up, but honestly, I didn’t care how far we’d have to walk to get back. We were free and had all the time we needed. 

“I don’t care. We’re out of that cave and away from Etemon.” 

Couldn’t agree more with that one, buddy. “It’s so beautiful out here too!” And with that!

I did twitch a little when Tai spoke again though, an air of arrogance around him, “Now that we have a crest, we can do anything we want.”

Kid, one crest isn’t going to make a difference here, especially since you likely don’t even know how to use it.

“Maybe now we have a real shot at getting home.” I didn’t say anything to burst his bubble, more focused on the fact that we were free, but it was very tempting. A look at Guilmon’s face told me he felt the same.

So I didn’t feel too guilty when I didn’t tell them what I saw–movement had caught my eye and I dropped my eyes just in time to see one of Etemon’s black cables lift up just slightly through the grass then slither back into the ground. It was likely he was tracking them, or attempting to at least, but seeing as they, or we rather, would end up facing him again either way, that bit of info could stay between me and Guilmon, who stepped forward, hiding the offending item from view.

I saw him nod, just barely, his eyes focused on the scenery ahead to not raise suspicion, and nodded as well. No one was looking at us, no one said anything, so they likely didn’t notice. My smile widened and I took another deep breath. 

Time to get the hell out of there.