Digimon: Adventure Redux (RP)

[Qu33n0f1c3]

Caelen's head was pounding. He was seated on a fallen tree log somewhere in the midst of some forest, or something. He wasn't even sure what had happened. The last thing he could remember was watching the sudden deluge of rain through the band room window. Then there was a flash of pain in his head, and he'd fallen backward, over his sax case, and hit the floor. After that he woke up here, in this weird forest, rain pouring from the heavens above down unto the mundane world. It was soaking him, but he wasn't sure he cared. He was groggy, he was confused, and there was a vague fear of being the next contestant on Saw simmering in the back of his mind.

There was no one else to be found, as far as he could see, anyway. He hadn't exactly gone far. He knew that he should, but it was hard to find the motivation. He was kind of hoping that whoever had knocked him out would just show up already and tell him what sort of trial he needed to over come in order to go home. It was inevitable, he felt. There had to be some sort of catch to this, unless he'd hit his head so hard he'd fallen into a coma, and this was just the purgatory he was to live out until he woke up.

Well, if it was a dream, it was pretty shitty of him to have it raining like this. Talk about inconsiderate. He would have to have a talk with himself when he woke up about how to treat guests in random forests. Being dry would definitely have been a plus over being soaked to the bone.

Caelen sighed. Some half-life this was going to be. It was almost as depressing as his real one.

[Aether Engine]

Missed the bus home. Could not reach his parents. Well, home was only a half-hour walk from the school, and it had been unseasonably warm for it to be a comfortable walk. What could possibly happen?

Besides a strange object falling out of the sky?

And being transported to another word?

“Hey,� a voice called out.

Sam felt someone nudging him in the shoulder.

“Hey!�

Sam felt a soft poke at his shoulder. He let out a groan as he started waking up

“Hey, are you alright?�

“Uuh... Yeah. Yeah I'm alright.� the teenager responded, raising his upper body up. As he supported himself with one arm, the other reached up to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

“Oh good, I was getting worried there for a moment,� the other voice spoke.

The surface beneath him felt hard, though there was some softness of grass. Was he still outside? After he blinked his eyes a few times, Sam fully opened his eyes. Huh. That looked like a forest. Sam stood right up, looking around. This was definitely not the empty cornfield by the road.

“And you're standing up already, great!� the voice cheered, “That means we can get going sooner!�

Sam's gaze lowered down to see the creature speaking to him, one that could be be best described as a blob of green putti with ears, eyes, and a blunt horn. It was a sight that made Sam jump.

“Gah! What are you?�

“I'm a digimon, silly,� the little creature spoke, “And my name is Gummymon. You're Sam, right?�

“I...� the teenager was a bit flabbergasted, “I am. How did you know my name?�

“Becuase I'm your partner, silly Sam! It's my job to protect you, so I've been looking for you!�

“Looking for me...?�

“Uh-huh! Now come on, let's grab your stuff and take a look around!�

The little bouncing green blob hopped over to Sam's bookbag, which looked to be still intact. And there was something else placed on top of it. That mysterious device that fell from the sky...

[Airdra]

Olivia wasn't the happiest little girl in the world. It had been kind of windy out, and she'd been waiting for her bus to come in all that wind. The bus had broken down somewhere between the bus driver's house and the school, and no one had seemed to be able to decide if they should call in a substitute bus or just wait and see if the normal bus could be fixed really fast.

In the end, that hadn't mattered. There'd been a really big gust, and right as Olivia had seen something shiny on the ground--had she picked it up? She didn't know--she'd been bowled over, only to find herself in the forest. "Did I get blown into the forest?" she wondered as she sat up, her backpack still on her back and the shiny thing she'd found clutched in one fist. She didn't know what the shiny thing was. It had a screen, and a couple of buttons, and she had originally thought maybe someone had dropped a toy.

The forest itself was weird; if Olivia had been blown there, so had every road sign known to man. It was like they were growing there as well as the trees. There were stop signs, yield signs, one way signs, street signs, railroad crossing signs, duck crossing signs, and a few she couldn't identify.

All thoughts of the shiny thing and the road signs were driven out of Olivia's thoughts by a little voice coming from just next to her. "Oh, good. You're awake. I was starting to think you were taking a really long nap."

Olivia, surprised, turned her head to her left to see what was sitting there and speaking. It was green, and about a foot and a half tall. It had a white belly and a pair of front flippers and a body that sort of trailed off into a stubby tail. Its head was topped off in a sort of large center leaf-looking protrusion, which was surrounded by some smaller ones. It had beady little black eyes, and a yellow beak.

In short, it wasn't human, and it was talking. Olivia screamed. It could have been out of excitement, it could have been out of nerves, it could have been out of fear, but whyever she was making the noise, it was loud. And shrill. So very shrill.

"Augh!" The creature's fins clapped up to cover the side of its head where its ears would be, if it had them. "Calm down! Calm down!"

[Aether Engine]

Walking over to his bookbag, Sam kneeled down to pick up the strange device placed on top of it. He considered it for a little while, running his fingers over the surface of it. The screen, buttons, and stubby antenae sticking out of it seemed to suggest some sort of portable electronic, but he could not for the life of him think of what it might do. There seemed to be some osrt of written into the material circling the screen, but it did not look like any language he had seen before. The material itself felt strange, not quite like plastic, but it did not seem to be metal either. He tried pressing the buttons to see if they might do something, but nothing happened.

“Hey, can you tell me what this is exactly?� the teen asked, looking to Gummymon. It was kind of surreal to talk to the little creature, but he was the only thing to talk to, “I remembered finding it before I got here.�

“It's your digivice!� the little guy answered.

“That tells me nothing,� Sam said, “What does it do?�

“Well it... It's a...It does... stuff. You know, its digital. And a device. I'm pretty sure it does something important,� Gummymon speculated.

Heaving a sigh at the digimon's fruitless speculation, Sam clipped the digivice to his belt.

“Well, if it's important, I guess I should hang onto it.�

Sam then moved onto the bookbag, taking a quick inventory of its contents. It looked like everything was there.

“Well, are you ready to go?� Gummymon asked, “We should go find the others.�

Sam looked back down at the digimon, still feeling a little wierded out by its sudden appearance. And friendliness.

“Others? You mean other people?�

“Yes, of course,, and with their digimon partners too! You didn't think you would be the only one here did you?�

“I guess I don't know what to think...�

“Well come on then let's take a look arou-�

Gummymon's words were cut short by the shrill, high-pitched scream of a child.

“Someone else...� Sam briefly wondered. It was a sound Sam had heard before, and it incited a protective instinct, expecially in this strange place.

“Hang on, I'm coming!� he shouted as he ran in the general direction of the scream.

“Wait!� Gummymon bounced along, trying to keep up with the athletic teenager.

Sam's long hair was tossed and waved as he ran at a breakneck pace, dodging trees, shrubs, and eventually, oddly enough, signs. Eventually he would see the source of the the scream through the trees, a little girl

“Are you alright?!�

[Qu33n0f1c3]

Caelen had no idea how long he just sat there moping in the rain, which seemed to die down and pick up at random intervals. It was like the clouds were on crack, or had a urinary blockage or something. Caelen wished they'd make up their minds already. It wouldn't be so bad if the stream would stay steady rather than playing games with him and tricking him into thinking it might finally be over.

He did engage a little with his surroundings in that time, like picking up the weird little toy that had been laying by his feet. He'd have thought the rain would have shorted it out, but it seemed to be all right. It was displaying the time at current. Early morning. Not exactly the time it'd been when he'd fallen back at all. He hoped that he hadn't been unconscious for that long. It couldn't be healthy to be lying around like this without medical aid.

But moving around couldn't be much better, right? That's why he hadn't gone anywhere, right?

Wrong. He was just being lazy, and he knew it.

Caelen sighed.

And then stood up straight in a flash, startled by the sound of a little girl screaming.

Caelen despised children. That had been instilled into him by his bratty little sisters.

But still . . . kids didn't scream like that for nothing. What if the same monster who kidnapped him here to play a game had kidnapped a little girl too and was now torturing her?

Caelen grabbed the handle of his sax case, stuffed the weird device into his pocket, then set off toward where he'd heard the scream come from. He didn't run because if he did he would make noise and he didn't want to give himself away. If he was going to sneak up on the disgusting freak he needed to stay quiet.

As he approached though he didn't see any crazy man with a knife or anything. All he saw was someone knelt down beside a girl. Mother and child, perhaps. It was hard to tell from behind, but they were both distinctly feminine, and he had heard a girl scream.

"Hey, lady, you and the kid all right?" Caelen called to them, stepping out into the open and noticing as he went that somewhere along the way the rain had stopped. Finally something of a blessing.

Caelen had yet to see the digimon. He would surely be in for a few surprises when the pair moved apart and all could be seen for what it was.

[Airdra]

"Please stop!" The little green thing's flippers were flapping madly now. Clearly, Olivia's screeches were freaking it out. It didn't help that just then, another human rushed in there and asked if Olivia was alright.

Olivia blinked a few times at the strange person, whom she assumed was a woman. She wasn't scared, far from it. She'd seen the most awesome thing ever! "Yeah, I'm fine, but I--"

She was interrupted by a strange man bursting in there too, asking if they were okay. Olivia scrambled to her feet at this point, brushing herself off a bit. Her backpack was still on her back, but she had more important things to worry about.

The excitement had finally built to a head, and Olivia reached down to grab the green thing, who seemed startled and wholly unhappy with that turn of events. "Look! I found the cutest alien ever!" She gave the green thing a big old hug at that point. "Isn't she adorable!"

"I am not an alien! I am a Digimon, and my name is Chapmon!" Chapmon's flippers were flailing madly as she tried to free herself from Olivia's grasp. "Now, put me down!"

Olivia held Chapmon up for the "adults" to see. "See? Isn't she adorable!"

"Put me down!"

[Aether Engine]

Oh. It was one of those childish screams. The sort of thing Sam was used to hearing when the Jonas Brothers or Justin Bieber came on the TV.

Oh yeah, and the little girl was holding up another digimon. How many of these things were out there? Regardless of the false alarm, Sam was glad the girl was not in danger. Who knew what else might be out here.

“Well it's good that you're okay. And yes, she is adorable. Maybe you should put her down though,� he said, offering a smile to the girl. He had to admit, it was kind of cute. It kind of looked like a living stuffed animal, especially in the little girl's arms.

And there was the other guy who appeared. He looked alright. Seemed to have some kind of rocker look going on.

“I'm fine too, thanks for asking. Though I'd appreciate it if you didn't call me 'lady',� Sam answered.

“Sam!�

Ah yes, Gummymon. The little, bouncing, horned blob had been bouncing along as a fast as he could. He could only be seen bouncing up from behind bushes at first, but eventually he caught up.

“You're, huh,� the little digimon was gasping for breath, “Huh, oh goodness, you're really fast.�

[Qu33n0f1c3]

Caelen's concern for the little girl was dwindling very, very quickly. His hair was dripping, he was still soaking wet, and he'd come all the way out here over a non-emergency? She'd been screaming over some stupid green toy in her arms and she was calling it AN ALIEN.

Oh for fuck's sake, Caelen growled internally. This little brat was just like his stupid little sisters! He should have known better than to assume any little girl was any good. They were all spoiled little brats at heart. Didn't this kid know better than to cry wolf like that?

Caelen might have told her off, but then the stupid green toy started talking. Caelen tensed up as he stared at the thing, slack jawed. It looked like a plush doll from afar, but the thing's mouth was just moving too animatedly to be a puppet. It was bizarre on eleven different levels, but it didn't seem to be wanting to kill anyone. It was just rambling on about something called digimon. Whatever it was, it sounded stupid.

Finally the other girl was speaking, though she ignored his initial question to her. How rude! Didn't she have any manners? No, she was talking to the little brat. Caelen hated her already. The girl should have turned around and told him the situation, not comforted some annoying little kid!

Then she looked at him, and Caelen felt his stomach drop. His mind couldn't quite process it as fast as his eyes could. He was still hearing that soft, concerned, motherly voice repeating in his head, but his eyes had noticed the distinct lack of fatty bags at chest level, and the faintest traces of the apparatus that was typically most visible in a male's neck.

She was a he.

Oh . . . jesus . . . dude looks like a lady.

Caelen's face was surely a healthy shade of pale at that moment. The voice. The looks. Even the hair was like a girl's. Long, just the slightest hint of a wisp on the edge, and--

No, no, NO! Stop! Don't think like that! It's a dude. A DUDE.

But it was so similar to what he liked in girls.

Caelen was so stupified that he barely noticed the other weird thing appear in their midst, yelling about some 'Sam' and being all out of breath.

"Good Lord," Caelen managed to sputter. He stared at the thing, then back at 'Sam', who he scrutinized through narrowed eyes. He even had a girl's name!

"H-hey, well it's not my fault you look the part! There's no way to tell from behind!"

Not that he'd been checking that behind out or anything. Nope. No-sir-ee.

Caelen's pale face had most certainly taken on a hint of color. The irritable, stunned boy was blushing.

[Airdra]

Olivia seemed satisfied that at least the lady had agreed that Chapmon was cute, and she gently set the Digimon down.

"Thanks," Chapmon said to Sam, glad to be on the ground once more. She brushed herself off with her flippers.

Olivia's attention was quickly drawn to Gummymon. "Oh! That one's cute, too!" She clapped her hands a bit at this new revelation. Wherever they were, at least it was awesome.

"Ohhh, brace yourself," Chapmon whispered in Gummymon's direction, wondering if Olivia would get grabby there, too.

"Cute, but looks sticky," Olivia declared. She patted Chapmon on the head. "You're much better!"

But the man that had shown up looked really, really grumpy, probably because he was so wet. And the lady had said not to call her a lady..."Wait, you're not a lady?" Olivia frowned; this was not quite what she had expected. She had been told appearances could be decieving, but still. She hadn't expected that.

And there were other things to worry about, too. Olivia, completely and totally oblivious to why Caelen might be a bit discomfited, kept right on asking questions, this time directing one at Caelen. "Hey, mister! Why are you wet?"

[Aether Engine]

“Wait, you're not a lady?” Gummymon echoed, having misinterpretted his partner's gender as well.

Sam briefly covered his face with a hand and shook his head. Oh boy, it was this conversation again.

“No, I'm not a 'lady'. I'm a boy. Yes, I'm aware that I look like a girl. Yes, I am aware that it can be confusing. Yes, I've looked this way for a while, many years in fact, and that's becuase it's the way I feel most comfortable looking like.” Sam rattled off, punctuating the end by shifting his weight and putting his left hand on his hip, which was incidentally near where he had clipped his digivice.

As trying as it was, it was the sort of subject Sam was used to. He did well to hide to his irritation and kept his voice levelled and calm. He had learned long ago that acting indignant would not get him anywhere. You have to present yourself as level headed and reasonable as possible or people will just write you off as some loudmouth fairy.

“You know, that's actually a good question. You're soaking wet. Was it raining wherever you were before you got here?”

Sam's gaze roamed over to the other boy as the little girl brought the matter up. Oh, the boy was giving him that look too. The oh so familiar “Not sure if want” semi-horrified look he had recieved from other guys before. Although the look irritated him, Sam tried to maintain his air of sensibility.