Grim Shadow

by MDK

Chapter 3

Awakening

Rydan stared at the spot where Tai had just vanished, and hung his head. “My Brain hurts” he moaned “I fall off the face of the planet, Get attacked by a huge yellow THING, my phone changes into a sword, and now this… I need a lie down.”

With that, Rydan promptly collapsed onto the floor, face first. Then, he rolled over and looked at the others. “So, um… Anybody have any idea what we’re going to do now?”

One by one the others shook their heads. “We’re just as confused as you are” said Dave, looking off into the distance. “One minute I’m on my way to work, the next second I’m here, being attacked by a big yellow fox with a sword. I’m just as confused as you are.”

Cody Sighed. “Rydan’s right, though – we need to figure out what we’re going to do now. I mean, that Tai guy said that we’ve got something to do here, right? So we should figure out what that is and do it.”

Rydan looked at Cody for a second, looking thoughtful, then spoke: “True, but we should concentrate on surviving here first. Get food, water and shelter, then figure out what we’re doing here.”

Kimmy looked confused. “So… you already knew that, I take it, so why did you ask us what we should do next?”

“Meh. Rhetorical question, really. It’s good to see what ideas everyone else has. That and it makes me feel better to know everyone else has no clue.”

Rydan Jumped to his feet and pointed in what seemed a random direction. “We’ll go that way! See what we find, and find something to eat!”

“So… Why that way?” Asked Ciara

Rydan grinned at her “Well, we have no idea where we are, no idea where anything else is… you got a better direction to go?” With that, he strode off into the forest, leaving everyone behind. A moment later, he poked his head back through the scrub. “So, you guys coming or what?”


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“ Hey, Rydan, why are we following you? I mean, who made you our leader?” Complained kimmy

“Well, nobody did – I made an informed decision, and you guys chose to follow me. Nobody MADE me the leader, I just assumed the…” Rydan stopped his sentence short, and stared into space for a second, as if deep in thought. Suddenly, he dug into his pocket and pulled out his digivice and stared at it.

“This thing… there’s a little radar screen on it… it’s showing five blips” He said “Over that way” He affirmed, pointing over to his right, almost hitting Dave in the face as he did so.

“Hey, Watch it! Any idea what those blips are, oh great leader?” Muttered Dave, with only the barest hint of sarcasm

“Nope, not a clue. But I’ll bet it’s something to do with us and these ‘Digivices’. After all; five of us, five ‘digivices’, five blips. Makes sense, doesn’t it?” Rydan looked smug. “So, I say we go over there, where the blips seem to be, and find out what they are. Who’s with me? Kimmy? Is this democratic motion acceptable for you?”

Kimmy scowled. “Yeah, whatever. Let’s just go, Ok?”

The five of them set off, trudging through forest once more. After about five minutes of trudging, grumbling and cursing at hidden branches, they reached a clearing in the forest. A huge, Aztec-style temple loomed up out of the jungle, the top shrouded in mist. The five stepped out into the clearing and gazed up at the huge building.

“What… What is this place?” Said Ciara, more to herself than anyone. It came as much of a surprise to her as anyone when a voice answered.

“This is an old temple! Used to be a great fun place, but then it closed down…”

Everybody whirled around to see where the voice had come from. A large yellow fox was standing in the forest where they had just come from, and was leaning against a large tree. A large yellow fox, exactly like the one that Rydan had fought only half an hour ago.

“Oh, Rydan, before you think of attacking me, don’t worry. I’m not the same as the guy who attacked you a while ago. That was a different Renamon.” It looked at Rydan for a moment, then back at the structure behind the group. “As I said, that’s an old temple. About seventy years ago, there were two digi-eggs there. It’s said that a group of human children came and took the digi-eggs, releasing the digimon that were trapped within the temple.”

Rydan looked as if he didn’t completely trust this strange being – understandable, as he had just participated in what could have been a fight to the death with something that looked exactly the same as this one, only taller. “So. That thing that I fought was a digimon, right? Which would make you a digimon too. Or are you something else?”

“No, I am indeed a digimon. So are the others.” The fox digimon gestured behind him. Four shadows merged together from the darkness behind it and coalesced into a variety of shapes. “I’m not an expert on this kind of thing, but I thing that all of us know that we are your partner digimon. It’s not a hard thing to know, you see. Check your digivices if you don’t believe me.”

At once, all five of the group dug into their pockets and pulled out their newly acquired digivices. Rydan pointed his at the fuzzy yellow humanoid lounging effortlessly against the tree. The screen of his digivice glowed with a deep blue light. He looked around at the others- each of them was pointing their digivices at the thing, but nothing was happening.

“Ah, you four need to point those somewhere else – Rydan’s digivice is glowing because I am his partner – but I am not the partner of any of you. However, each of you will have a partner – after all, the digidestined must have digimon partners!”

With that, the four shadows that had been lingering behind the Renamon moved forwards into the light that filtered through the lighter canopy by the clearing. A white cat walking on it’s hind legs, a white creature with blue stripes looking like a seal with a Mohican, something with the body of some kind of animal and a lower half composed of some kind of dark cloud and a small orange thing that looked like a pig with wings sprouting from the side of it’s head. Suddenly, the orange and white thing leapt at Cody, seemingly propelling itself along with it’s wings and the momentum of the jump.

“HI!!!!” it squeaked, in a high-pitched voice that was, somehow, pleasant on the ear “Cody! I’ve waited for AGGGES to meet you! My name’s Patamon! Great to meet you!”

Cody blinked, stepped back, and promptly fell over.

The cat chuckled. “Well, seems like you two are perfect for each other!” It looked over at Ciara. “Hi! I’m Gatomon! Great to meet you!” The cat extended a paw, which Ciara took, nervously, and shook, as if she were meeting a new teacher or a friend of a friend. The cat turned around and looked at the other digimon standing in the shade. “Why are you guys just standing there? Come on out and say hello already! It’s not like your partners are going to hurt you or anything!”

The remaining two digimon stepped out from the shadows and walked towards Dave and Kimmy. The floating thing clasped it’s hands together and bowed at kimmy. “My name is tapirmon. It’s a real pleasure to meet you!”

The seal-like creature bounded gleefully up to Dave and flung itself at him, giving him a full-on hug. “HI! My name’s Gomamon! Great to see you, Dave! So, you know any good jokes?” Dave simply stared and blinked for a moment, then started grinning from ear to ear.

Rydan walked over to the digimon still lounging against the tree. “So, I gues we’re partners, whatever that means. Well, it’s good to meet you – just don’t go trying to kill me, okay?”

The digimon smiled. “Of course not. I’m Renamon. I’ll bet that you’ve got a lot of questions about this place, am I right?”

“Yeah… this guy popped up out of nowhere and tried to tell us some stuff, but… it only really confused things. What I’ve got so far is that this is the digital world – some kind of alternate reality. Seems like it’s linked with my world through electronic stuff – I mean, I got sucked here through a laptop, and my phone changed into this ‘digivice’ thing… and this place seems to be inhabited by you digimon… and humans seem to just drop by every now and then. Am I close?”

The yellow digimon nodded. “Yes. That’s pretty much anybody knows – if you want to know anything more about the digital world, then you’ll need to ask the other digidestined – but you’ll need a lot of luck just to figure out who they are, let alone meet and talk to them.”

For the next hour or so, the group talked to their new digimon friends – discussing what life was like in the real world and the digital world, swapping jokes, and generaly having fun.

The relative quiet of the group was broken when Ciara decided to bellow the word “FLANGE!!!” at the top of her voice. Gatomon looked at her for a second, then collapsed on the floor giggling. Rydan looked over and grinned, and Gomamon took the opportunity to leap on top of Dave, causing him to shout in alarm.

Rydan, who was sitting staring into space, suddenly pulled his digivice out of his pocket and stared at it. Three red dots were glowing on teh screen, and were approaching the large collection of white dots in the centre of the screen. Rydan stood up. “Hey guys, knock it off! I think there’s something coming this way! Check your digivices!”

The four that were in the clearing rummaged through their pockets for their digivices once again. However, just as they pulled them out, Rydan saw Renamon growl and leap in the direction of the dots, so fast that he became a blur. The other digimon all seemed to have the same idea that Renamon had – they all stopped what they were doing and moved over next to where Renamon was standing, glaring into the forest.

Suddenly, three shapes formed out of shadows as more digimon stepped out into the light of the clearing. The yellow Renamon that Rydan had fought led the way, followed by two more… except these Renamon were red, and heavily armoured – unlike the first yellow one, who was still without the armour that Rydan had earlier destroyed.

“Well well, it seems that the digidestined have found their partners. Too bad. This time, I’m ready for a fight – as you can see, I’ve brought a couple of my friends along to play too. Say goodbye to your new friends, digidestined!"