Post by legendhiro on Sept 11, 2008 17:55:51 GMT -5
Contents: Chapter 5
_________________
Chapter 5
The 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 team and I made our way once again toward our destination; Digital Bridge.
“How much further is it?” Amanda whined.
“No clue,” I answered, offering nothing else.
“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, “but I do know that the computer doesn’t know. I’ve checked now like a trillion times.”
“I bet we’ll find something else at the bridge,” suggested Chickomon.
“Yeah,” agreed Serpentmon, “maybe we’ll find a new message that we can hear with that computer!”
“I hope there’s something there,” I said, “because if we don’t, we’re in serious trouble.”
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.”
“Hey guys,” asked Sarah, “shouldn’t one of us stay up and be lookout?”
“Don’t worry,” said Serpentmon, “I napped all day, and its pretty late already. BlackColtmon doesn’t sleep much anyway. We’ll trade off shifts.”
“Thanks guys,” I said. “You’re great.” And 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!”
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 the 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 strait 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, 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. 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, 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 strait 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.
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, Digimon that attack with there claws and pinchers. They’re swarm insects, making them willings. They are pretty weak. Let’s only use minimal force.”
I turned to my Serpentmon and said, “Go, Initiate Digivolution!”
“Sweet!” he said. “Serpentmon, Digivolve to, Dragonterramon!”
“Me too,” said Chickomon.
“Okay,” said Amanda, “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 strait up at one of the bugs, hitting it in the underbelly, causing it to sharply descend. Dragonterramon leapt up into a tree, using it like a springboard to launch himself strait 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 taller than me and about mine or Jen’s age 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 allies 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 since that day when we were instant messaging from Jen’s four years ago! 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. Anyway, I was on my computer one day looking at old videos when I decided to take another look at the video of the net battle between the Digimon. The one that we appeared that day four years ago. All of a sudden the video froze, and the video window started to glow. Then these things popped out of the screen.” 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. 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 lead 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, “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’m going to back up for a minute. Jeremy used to be one of my best friends. Then he moved up state. He had just gotten his computer set up in his new house (he’s good with computers, at least more so than I am) and was IMing with us at Jen’s when the Digimon battle appeared on the internet four years ago. It seems that whatever chose us to become Digidestined chose him too. Maybe that very day. It was pretty cool. A 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?”
“Back to the Hidden Village. 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!”
“Sounds good,” I said, “I’m sold!”
_________________________________________
Next Time: Jeremy turns on the rest of the team!
_________________
Chapter 5
The 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 team and I made our way once again toward our destination; Digital Bridge.
“How much further is it?” Amanda whined.
“No clue,” I answered, offering nothing else.
“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, “but I do know that the computer doesn’t know. I’ve checked now like a trillion times.”
“I bet we’ll find something else at the bridge,” suggested Chickomon.
“Yeah,” agreed Serpentmon, “maybe we’ll find a new message that we can hear with that computer!”
“I hope there’s something there,” I said, “because if we don’t, we’re in serious trouble.”
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.”
“Hey guys,” asked Sarah, “shouldn’t one of us stay up and be lookout?”
“Don’t worry,” said Serpentmon, “I napped all day, and its pretty late already. BlackColtmon doesn’t sleep much anyway. We’ll trade off shifts.”
“Thanks guys,” I said. “You’re great.” And 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!”
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 the 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 strait 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, 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. 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, 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 strait 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.
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, Digimon that attack with there claws and pinchers. They’re swarm insects, making them willings. They are pretty weak. Let’s only use minimal force.”
I turned to my Serpentmon and said, “Go, Initiate Digivolution!”
“Sweet!” he said. “Serpentmon, Digivolve to, Dragonterramon!”
“Me too,” said Chickomon.
“Okay,” said Amanda, “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 strait up at one of the bugs, hitting it in the underbelly, causing it to sharply descend. Dragonterramon leapt up into a tree, using it like a springboard to launch himself strait 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 taller than me and about mine or Jen’s age 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 allies 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 since that day when we were instant messaging from Jen’s four years ago! 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. Anyway, I was on my computer one day looking at old videos when I decided to take another look at the video of the net battle between the Digimon. The one that we appeared that day four years ago. All of a sudden the video froze, and the video window started to glow. Then these things popped out of the screen.” 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. 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 lead 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, “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’m going to back up for a minute. Jeremy used to be one of my best friends. Then he moved up state. He had just gotten his computer set up in his new house (he’s good with computers, at least more so than I am) and was IMing with us at Jen’s when the Digimon battle appeared on the internet four years ago. It seems that whatever chose us to become Digidestined chose him too. Maybe that very day. It was pretty cool. A 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?”
“Back to the Hidden Village. 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!”
“Sounds good,” I said, “I’m sold!”
_________________________________________
Next Time: Jeremy turns on the rest of the team!