Digimon Adventure ND Book One: Manipulamon Reigns - Chapter Five

 We finally meet the other human character that I mentioned in the chapter intro a few chapters back, and we get some good adventure themes, but otherwise this chapter is pretty unimportant. It's next chapter, the introduction of one of the Generals, which actually advances the story.

Chapter Five

Arrive At Digital Bridge;
Enter the Fifth Digidestined!

After our battle with Birdramon and the two Flymon, and after our two new friends set out to free more Digimon, my friends and I defaulted to our original mission, and made our way once again toward Digital Bridge.

“How much further is it?” Amanda whined.

“No clue,” I answered, offering nothing else. You give that kid an inch, and she tends to take a mile.

“I wonder what we’ll find when we get to this bridge,” Jen said. “I mean, of all the places to send us in this world, why a bridge?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “Maybe it's just an easy-to-find landmark or something. I've asked the Digicomp about it, but it doesn't seem to know what we'll fins there. Either that or it won’t tell me. I’ve checked now like a trillion times, and all it’ll say is that what we’ll find there is important to our mission.”

“I bet we’ll find another device at the bridge,” suggested Chickomon.

“Yeah,” agreed Serpentmon, “or maybe we’ll find a new message that we can hear with that computer!”

“I hope there’s really something there,” I said, “because if we don’t find something soon, we’re in serious trouble. We have no idea how to find or fight Manipulamon or his allies. We're probably safer right now than we would be if we were out looking for them, but if something big doesn't happen soon, I'm gonna die of boredom.”

We continued walking through the dense forest into the night. The unfamiliar stars of this unfamiliar world twinkled overhead. Once we finally found ourselves too tired to continue, we set up a makeshift camp in a clearing under the light of a half moon.

“This sucks!” I complained, trying to get comfortable on the hard ground with nothing to sleep on but a now tattered and filthy button up shirt. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take!”

“Yeah, well,” said Jen, “you’ll have to deal. You were the one who was so intent on going through with this whole quest thing.”

“Hey guys,” asked Sarah, “shouldn’t one of us stay up and be lookout? You know, like in the movies.”

“Don’t worry,” said Serpentmon, “I napped all day, and it’s pretty late already. BlackColtmon doesn’t sleep much anyway. We’ll trade off shifts.”

“Thanks guys,” I said. “You’re great.” Happy to have such good new friends looking out for me, I immediately went back to trying to sleep.


After lying awake for at least an hour I finally fell into a restless sleep, only to be woken at the crack of dawn by a snake face nose to nose with mine. I jumped back, tossing Serpentmon away,

“Hey, don’t do that!” I told him, as I returned my sunglasses, which had fallen off during the night, to their proper place on my head.

Serpentmon, laughing, said, “Sorry, bro, I couldn’t help it!”

I shot him an annoyed look and reached over to shake Jen awake. “Hey cuz, get up.”

“Yeah, I’m up,” she said, reaching into the air to stretch the fatigue from her bones.

I grabbed my shirt and swung it down on Sarah’s back, “Get up, we gotta go. Jen, get Amanda will ya?”

Serpentmon moved to wake BlackColtmon, Chickomon, and Ponymon. Coltmon was already awake. Guess he’s a light sleeper. Soon we were on our feet, alert (more or less), and once again on our way.

We walked about another two hours, stopping only once to pick some lunch, before we saw the river. It flowed from the ocean in the west toward the mountains in the east. According to the handheld, the bridge was to the east. We ran straight to the water’s edge and drank, and splashed ourselves with the cool liquid. There were other sources of water throughout the Digital World, of course, such as streams and pools, but the river was an important milestone on our journey. Knowing that we had reached our first such milestone was satisfying in a way that water alone could never be. I washed my grimy face in the river and sat down, letting the water flow between my fingers, and I made an observation about the river itself.

“Hey, look at this. The river’s flowing at a pretty manageable rate.”

“Yeah,” Sarah answered in an annoyed tone brought about by fatigue, “so?”

“So we know we have to follow this river east to reach Digital Bridge, and the river is flowing east. And we’re in the middle of a forest. Full of trees. Trees and vines-.”

She stared blankly at me, “So?”

“So you’re thinking-,” said Jen, grinning.

“Yep,” I said, “we’re gonna build a raft!”

We went to work immediately. Chickomon used his energy blades to drop four thick trees. Then he stripped them down until they were about 18-20 feet long. Then the Digimon worked together to strip away extra branches while us humans pulled vines down from the trees to use to tie it all together.

Next, with some work and creativity, we managed to get the logs tied securely and the raft in the water. It was like something out of an adventure movie, except that this was real life, and that it was weirder than any movie ever could be. We rode the current lazily, making the raft ride something uncharacteristically enjoyable about this world. We didn’t encounter a single hostile Digimon. We were able to talk and relax, and get some rest. It was just what we needed.

It was about two hours before we saw the Digital Bridge. It was at least twenty feet wide, made of stone, and almost completely overgrown by ivy-like vines. Very sturdy despite the fact that it was obviously very old.

“We’re here,” I said. “Time to get back to shore.”

I reached behind me and grabbed an unused vine. “Ready, Serpentmon?” I asked.

“Yep!”

“Then here we go.”

Serpentmon grabbed an end of the vine in his mouth and jumped onto my arm. He coiled his body like a spring and sprung up, just as I swung my arm up, causing him to shoot straight to shore. He took the vine and tied it around a tree. I tugged, making sure it was secure.

“Alright guys, pull!” My team and I pulled on the vine, bringing the raft close enough to the shore for us to jump off. The raft spiraled back out to the middle of the river and floated away. We ignored it and walked toward the bridge.


“Okay,” I asked as we stepped onto Digital Bridge, “anyone see anything here that we might care about?”

“Nope,” said Amanda, who, having lost interest, began throwing rocks into the river.

“Well keep looking,” I said. “I don’t want to stay in one place for too long.”

“Right boss,” said Jen, searching the area diligently. She wasn't sold yet on this whole thing, and yet she had so far offered me her complete support. I didn't quite know what to make of it.

I walked to the other end of the bridge and back, looking it up and down. That’s when I heard it. Explosions. Sounds of battle nearby, in the forest across the bridge.

“Sounds like someone needs our help,” I said. “Let’s go.”

We ran across the bridge into the woods, and we were nearly run over by a tall mechanical Digimon running from three large red beetles with vice-like pinchers. I pulled the computer handheld out of my pocket and scanned the four new arrivals. The machine Digimon was unknown, but the analyzer had plenty on the others.

“Those beetles are Kuwagamon,” I read, “Digimon that attack with their claws and pinchers. They’re swarm insects. Based on what Dokugumon told us, that makes them Manipulamon’s guys. They can only fight well at close range, so they’re pretty weak. It looks like their best attribute is their hard shells. If we use precise attacks we can beat them with minimal force.”

I turned to Serpentmon and said, “Go, Initiate Digivolution!”

“Sweet!” he said. “Serpentmon, Digivolve to, Dragonterramon!”

“Me too,” said Chickomon.

“Okay,” said Amanda, hopping down from her Digimon's back, “Initiate Digivolution.”

“Chickomon, Digivolve to, BrauntoPhoenixmon!”

Dragonterramon charged through the forest until he was just below the hovering Kuwagamon. “Terra Flame!” he called, firing a stream of flames straight up at one of the bugs, hitting it in the underbelly, causing it to sharply descend. Dragonterramon leaped up into a tree, using it like a springboard to launch himself at the scorched foe. He slashed with his claws, reducing his opponent to digital dust.

Meanwhile, BrauntoPhoenixmon spread his wings, knocking over three large trees, and took off into the sky. He spun and slammed one Kuwagamon with his tail, rose up, and dropped, catching Kuwagamon in the back with his foot, slamming it into the ground, crushing it. However, while the two Digimon were distracted, the third Kuwagamon bore down on BrauntoPhoenixmon from behind, making to sever his head with its claws.

“Braunto!” Amanda cried out, but neither Digimon could do anything. It was just too late. Everything seemed hopeless until Kuwagamon was suddenly vaporized by a beam of electrical energy coming from within the trees.

“Where did that come from?” Jen asked.

“Was that the Machine Digimon?” I wondered aloud.

“Of course,” answered a familiar yet unknown voice. We turned toward the source and saw a kid just taller than me and between mine and Jen’s ages with brown hair step out of the trees, wearing a brown jacket, white t-shirt, and tattered and faded blue jeans. “My partner Mechamon and I couldn’t let my ally’s partner get killed, could we?”

“Jeremy?” Jen exclaimed.

“In the flesh,” the kid answered. He walked over just as our Digimon, now back at the Child stage again, moved to rejoin us.

“Man,” I said, “we haven’t seen you since you moved. In fact, I don’t think we’ve had any contact with you at all in years! How have you been?”

“Great,” Jeremy answered, shaking my hand, “really great.”

“How’d you get here?” Sarah asked our old friend.

“Not sure,” Jeremy answered, leaning back against a tree. A small mechanical monkey-ish Digimon with outlet plugs for hands and an outlet cord for a tail dropped down from the branches to land on Jeremy’s shoulder. “By the way, this is Mechmon. You met him earlier, but he looked a little different then. Anyway, I was on my computer one day looking at old videos when I decided to take another look at the video I recorded of the net battle between the Digimon. Just 'cause you guys and I lost touch, it didn't mean I lost interest in that night.

“I was watching, and all of a sudden the video froze, and the video window started to glow, like independent of the light of the screen. Then these things popped out of the screen and fell into my hand.” He held up two devices, a Digivice and a square device that looked like a calculator.

“The glowing went away, and the video file was gone. Even my back-up was deleted. Next thing I knew I was in the forest with this guy,” he pointed at Mechmon. “We walked for awhile until we came across a small group of Digimon called Gekomon. They called us Digidestined. They led us to their hidden village where they live with their lower form, Otamamon, and there chief, a Perfect Level named ShogunGekomon. He gave me this Tag and Crest,” he said, showing them to us, “and this third device called a Digiplayer, and they told me all about Manipulamon and my mission here, and pointed me in the direction of Digital Bridge. Now here I am.”

“This is great,” I said. “This means we’ve got another ally against Manipulamon.”

“Yeah,” said Jeremy, sounding genuinely relieved, “that’s great. Honestly, though, I’m just happy that I found you guys. This world isn’t kind to a lone boy and his Digimon.”

I smiled. I hadn't realized how much I missed talking to Jeremy. We talked as we walked, trading stories and ideas, and the more we did, the more I regretted falling out of contact with him. He and I reasoned that he must have been chosen by the same Great Guardian as the rest of us, probably at the same time. This whole “chosen” thing was a pretty good puzzle that I hoped to solve one day, once I had more pieces.

“So,” I asked Jeremy as we walked together through the forest, “where are we going now? You mentioned you had an idea.”

“I'm taking us back to the Hidden Village,” Jeremy answered. “The Gekomon and Otamamon told me that there was more to know once I had found what waited at the bridge. Besides, they have food and beds!”

“Why didn't you say so,” I said. “I’m sold!”

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