An injured John is saved by a mysterious ally, who also has a Digimon partner. Unlike John, however, this young man doesn't have a hero complex. So what if he is the one destined to defeat the villain threatening the city? This whole Digimon thing has a lot to do with destiny after all, something that John knows better than anybody. Can he convince this young man to help in time?
Chapter Two
I awoke later to the light of the sun peeking through an unknown window. I looked around, confused. My chest and head hurt, and my right arm felt like someone had tried to rip it off just above the wrist. Worst of all, I couldn’t remember why. I realized that I was lying back on a couch, so I sat up. I looked myself over. My right arm was bandaged from my wrist up to my elbow. Blood had soaked almost all the way through, turning most of the white bandage a deep crimson. I ran my fingers over the wound. Even through the bandages, I could feel fresh stitches.
I looked around. I was in an apartment of some sort. It was furnished, but there were no personal items anywhere. I could hear muffled voices coming from somewhere else in the apartment, so I rose slowly to my feet and walked toward the only doorway out of the room.
Upon stepping through the doorway, I found myself in a hall. To my right was an entry way, a door leading to the outside, and a doorway into the kitchen. To my left were three closed doors. The voices were coming from behind the closest door on the left hand side. I walked slowly toward the door. The voices were too muffled to be recognizable. Then I heard a voice I did recognize.
“I’m gonna go check on John,” a voice directly behind the door declared, and the door opened. Sarah was standing on the other side. “John,” she cried, “you’re okay!”
“Sarah,” I asked, “what’s going on?” I looked into the room. It was a good size, with a couch against the far wall, a dresser, and a large bed. Jeremy was sitting on the couch with Mechmon by his side. Across from them, on the edge of the bed sat an unidentified boy of roughly fifteen, with dark hair so silky that it looked blue. Next to him sat a small, blue-furred humanoid dog wearing a red headband and red boxing gloves. Sarah and Amanda sat on the floor with Serpentmon, Chickomon, Sarah’s child Digimon, the small horse Ponymon, and a brown-haired girl of about eleven. Standing next to the girl was a small, gray-furred dragon with a dog-like face and tiny black wings. The girl held an un-hatched Digitama in her lap. BlackColtmon was sulking in the corner.
“What do you mean ‘what happened’?” Sarah asked, as everyone turned toward me, watching with interest. “Don’t you remember? You were fighting those Digimon that have been attacking downtown.”
“You summoned up some kind of armor,” the strange boy cut in, standing up and walking toward me. “You went after Myotismon yourself and got hit by his attack. You got a nasty gash on your arm.” The boy offered me his hand, “I’m Zald Nokita.” I shook his hand, and he gestured to the young girl, the dragon and the dog, “This is my sister Carmensita and our Digimon, Maria and Gaomon.”
I was speechless. Everything was rushing back to me. I pressed my left palm to my head, How could I be so stupid?!
Serpentmon rushed over to me, springing up and coiling around my arm. “Good to see you up and about,” he said
I nodded, and then to the entire room I asked, “Okay, what’s going on here, where is here, and how did I get here? Answer the last question first.”
“Me and my brother brought you,” said the girl, Carmensita. She started to get up, but Zald stopped her.
“Carmen, wait here. John, if you’d please come with me to the living room, we can discuss this.” He gestured toward the room where I’d just woken up. His voice and posture were commanding, and his face was almost unreadable. I was suspicious. I shot Jeremy a look that said, “Keep an eye open. I’m not sure about this guy.” He nodded.
I smiled politely at Zald and said, “Yeah, okay.”
Zald and I walked out into the living room. “Sorry for being so mysterious,” he said, “but I want to answer your questions, and there are some things that I won’t discuss in front of my sister. In order to explain myself completely, I must touch on these subjects.”
“Why won’t you discuss them in front of your sister?” Serpentmon asked.
“I don’t want to hurt her,” Zald answered. I sat down on the couch, Serpentmon slithering down my arm and onto the couch beside me. Zald leaned against the opposite wall. “I’m an emancipated minor,” Zald began. “I was always overly bright when it came to numbers, and I was put into a position where, if I were to become emancipated, I would be able to enter into a leadership position in an American branch of a prominent Japanese company. I took the opportunity. My family needed money. My father died many years ago, and my mother was struggling.
“I was successful. The company realized that they needed me. My position was secure. I started sending money to my family, but it wasn’t long before my mother contracted cancer. Not even the company’s dime could cure her, so she asked me to take my sister Carmensita with me and return to work, to spare my sister the pain of losing her only remaining parent. I honored her request.”
“So Carmensita doesn’t know about your mother?” I asked.
“No,” Zald replied, “she doesn’t know. And I’d like to keep it that way.”
I didn’t quite agree with Zald’s point of view, but I decided to respect his wishes. I nodded. Zald nodded back, and then continued.
“To answer your questions,” Zald said, “this is my apartment. Carmen and I just moved here from Chicago. I move a lot because of work. I heard the sound of fighting last night. It sounded close by, so I decided to check it out. I saw you falling, and my Digimon and I decided to help. Gaomon’s the one who caught you as you fell.”
I nodded, That explains the blue blur I saw.
“Gaomon used his rapid kicks to assist your friends’ Digimon in repelling your assailants,” Zald continued, “and then we brought you back here to recover. I did some patching up on your arm. I figured that you wouldn’t want to be taken to a hospital and have to explain a Digimon wound to them.”
I nodded again, “You figured right.” Things were finally starting to make sense, but one thing remained unexplained.
“How did you get Digimon partners?” I asked.
Zald smiled a smile that spoke of a fond memory being recalled. “It was right after I brought Carmen back with me,” he said. “I don’t know how it happened, or even why, but one day Carmen and I found these small devices and were pulled into another world. A Digital World.” He removed a Digivice from his pocked and showed it to me. It was different from mine. More simple. It was a pale blue and almost box-shaped, with a small screen and three buttons; one to the left of the screen, and two to the right.
“We met our Digimon in the Digital World,” Zald said, “and we spent about a week there with them before we were pulled back home, our Digimon along with us. In the Digital World, we fought in many battles alongside our Digimon, becoming close to them very fast. The peaceful Digimon came to trust both of us, but especially Carmen. Some of them even asked her to care for an orphaned egg that they had found, believing that she would be better to it that they cold be.”
“If you found Digivices and you have Digimon partners,” I said, “then you must be Digidestined like us. That means you have a special purpose, just like me and my friends.” I stood up and looked Zald in the eyes, “You being here right now is no coincidence. Being a Digidestined is all about destiny. You and your sister are meant to help in the fight against those Digimon from last night. Will you help us fight?”
Zald frowned and answered, “I’m sorry, but no. I have to think of my sister. You’re strong. I’m sure that, now that you know what you’re up against, you’ll be able to win easily.”
“I’ll personally guarantee your sister’s safety,” I assured him, “and she’ll have her Digimon with her.”
“No,” said Zald, “I’m sorry. We’re having lunch soon. You can eat with us, but then I’d like you to go.”
I nodded. “Alright then,” I said politely. “Thank you for helping us.”
We ate lunch with the Nokitas. Gaomon cooked various foreign dishes, the names of which I can’t pronounce. The food was amazing. As he cooked, Gaomon explained that his cooking skills were legendary, and that he went so far to preserve them that he fought entirely with his feet in order to protect his hands. I liked the Nokitas, and I would have liked to spend more time with them, but when the meal ended, I honored Zald’s wishes and my team and I left.
Our Digimon reverted to their smaller forms, and we walked out of Zald’s building, and Sarah asked, “What now?”
“Now we find our enemies and we finish this fight, once and for all.”
“No problem,” said BlackMainemon arrogantly. “We have our opponents outnumbered, and we have you human’s, where our opponent’s don’t have partners.”
“Actually,” I said, “I think they might.”
“Might what?” Snakemon asked.
“Have a partner,” I said, recalling something from the moment of my fall, something that I was only now ready to admit had been real.
“What makes you think that?” Jeremy asked.
I turned to my friends, my face serious, and said, “I saw him. I saw him as I fell. I looked into his eyes and I could tell that, if we don’t stop him, he’ll kill us all.”
We went to see Officer Thompson again next. We told him that we’d managed to repel the attackers from their latest target, but that we hadn’t defeated them.
“We have to go back tonight,” I said. “These Digimon are being led by a human who seems to enjoy watching people die. This makes them much more dangerous than we ever could have guessed.”
“I won’t let you go back out there again,” said Thompson, eyeing my bandages. “I should never have let you go at all.”
Crap, I thought. I have to keep Thompson and his men out of harm’s way. Only we can protect them.
That’s when I came up with the perfect solution. Thompson would be safe enough if he was with us…
“I know that look,” said Thompson, watching me closely. “I see it on my kids’ faces when they’ve just come up with some dumb idea. What are you thinking?”
I smiled, “Well, I was thinking that we should go back out there tonight, but that you should come with us.”
Thompson thought for a second and then said, “Yeah, okay. You’ve got a deal.”
Next Chapter (Coming Soon)
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