There was little else the Wizardmon could do but run… Run from this creature that outclassed him so thoroughly, lest he inevitably become little more than scattered code for the behemoth to gobble up in an instant. Run to where? He didn’t know, he had no destination in mind, everything up ahead of him was dry rock as far as the eye could see, and behind? Well… turning back wasn’t exactly an option in the midst of this pursuit. If he wasn’t so terrified of getting caught, he’d have felt humiliated at that moment… What kind of Champion-level Digimon worth their salt fled from another of equal level like a terror-stricken child? …The sort that were smart enough to know they couldn’t fight back… that was just the way of it. Mind tricks didn’t work, illusions seemed to be broken as soon as they manifested, lightning seemed to bounce off of the monstrosity like water, and he simply didn’t have the time or energy to attempt a meteor squall, which would’ve been little more than a last-ditch effort in the first place. He simply had no immediate countermeasures for the green flare breath narrowly missing him, his cape continually getting singed from the immense heat. He’d known that green Coredramon were powerful, but to this extent? It seemed ludicrous! It should’ve run out of fire at some point, but it was still going strong.
“This… can’t be how it ends…” Wizardmon breathily thought aloud. “Some kind of spell has to work… something…” But as he racked his brain anxiously, he hadn’t realized that the Coredramon had gained on him, and he felt a searing pain across his back as the dragon’s claws made their mark. He toppled gracelessly to the rocky ground beneath him, where he could do little more than crawl away from the inevitable final blow.
As it happens however… sometimes those in terrible circumstances such as these catch a break or two… At that point the very atmosphere around them seemed to glitch erratically, and it caused the dragon to hesitate… just in time to witness a wormhole appearing before the two. The immense pull of this portal lifted Coredramon off its feet, the dragon growling and gnashing its teeth helplessly as it was flung out of their digital reality. Wizardmon’s sense of relief at this turn of events was quick to shift right back into dread however, when he noticed the wormhole wasn’t simply dissipating.
“…Oh, just lovely…” he muttered before similarly being dragged inside, en route to another world…
--
The Summertime months were always agonizing in this small Podunk midwestern town. With the way the world was going the temperatures only seemed to rise every passing year, and as he sat in a filth-ridden alleyway supplying what little adequate shade there was to go around, stewing in his own sweat, Art MacTavish began to realize just how much he had taken air conditioning for granted.
A couple months in, and the grand experiment of living on his own was in the midst of a colossal nosedive, threatening to make a crash-landing for total failure. The bills were always just a little too high and his paycheck was always just a little too thin… Costs had to be cut; necessities had to be treated like luxuries… It had gotten to the point where his apartment was making a sauna seem like a walk-in freezer. Every day when he wasn’t working, he was lurking around any shady spot outdoors like a vagrant… and his clothing likely wasn’t helping matters. In lieu of sunscreen he was covering himself in a ratty long coat and bucket hat he’d found at a thrift shop, with a simple t-shirt and jeans underneath, with a pair of sandals leaving his feet one of the very few parts of him open to the elements, along with his hands and occasionally his face if he was facing the sun. Sure, it all kept him from getting burnt, perhaps, but it wasn’t doing his body temperature any favors.
Chugging down the last of the water in a canteen he had slung over his shoulder, Art sighed at the thought of going out there in the beating sunlight just to find another public water fountain.
“Damned if I do, damned if I don’t…” he muttered, but only one option had the potential chance of staving off heat stroke, and so, resignedly he braced himself against the brick wall behind him to force his way back up to his feet. No sooner than the moment he pushed away from the wall did he suddenly hear a loud crash echo from the distance, nearly throwing him right back onto the pavement. As he stumbled to steady himself, there came another violent crash, smaller this time, but… from the sound of it, closer as well… coming from deeper within the alleyway. He’d turned in the direction of the sound just in time to see something flash out of sight, which he immediately dismissed as little more than a trick of the mind from the temperature. That being said, he couldn’t so easily use that excuse for the motionless… thing, which was now laying there on its own.
Sure, didn’t look like anything large enough to make such a ruckus, Art had thought, and perhaps not in the best condition to obey common sense, he edged his way closer to get a better view of whatever this thing was. He cringed once he got near enough to recognize the humanoid shape…
“Oh… Oh jeez… Did this guy fall off the roof or something?” he concernedly muttered aloud, looking up at the buildings surrounding him as if to see if there was anyone else up there. No one he could see… This guy was apparently on his own then… but from the looks of it he seemed to be breathing? Maybe the guy wasn’t beyond helping then…
“Hey… Hey buddy… You… you doing okay there?” Art asked, still trying to keep at least a couple meters distance, his arms cautiously outstretched.
He got a pained groan in response, and, putting his worries to the side for a moment, Art got closer to give the guy a hand, helping him sit up against the building. It was now that he was able to get a better look at this stranger who’d stumbled out from nowhere, and… well he certainly had a unique fashion sense. With the pointed hat, the cape, the many zippers in strange places along his jumpsuit, it all looked like he’d set himself up for Halloween about three months too early. Furthermore, he was… strangely small in stature, about the size of a child, but he otherwise looked not the least bit child-like from what he could see, and admittedly from how this man covered his face, that was not all that much.
For a while this mysterious costumed fellow stared weakly at nothing in particular, before forcing his eyes shut and opening them back up again. He looked over to the individual who’d apparently helped him out and attempted to look him over despite the limited lighting.
“…You’re… not a Digimon, are you?” came the first coherent vocal utterance from the man.
Art couldn’t say he’d ever heard himself be addressed as anything of the sort before, but then again, he’d never previously heard such a term whatsoever.
“…I assume I don’t look like one?” he replied, still noticeably dumbfounded.
“Well, simple appearances aren’t the best indicator for such a broad category, I was merely checking to see from your response if you were or not. Judging by that, it is clear that you are not,” he said.
“Uh… okay then, hope that’s not a problem… Look, buddy, I don’t know if you just took a nasty fall or what but, if you want me to get you back to whatever convention you were at, just point out where you need to go, alright?” Surely that was the case… Some con he didn’t know about must’ve sprung up and this guy was just a dedicated cosplayer. That was probably where this ‘Digimon’ nonsense was coming from as well.
“…Convention?” he asked, looking thoroughly puzzled. “I’m sorry, I don’t quite follow you.”
Oh… well, there went the rational explanation then… Art was clearly at a loss at this response, but, well… maybe the guy was just delirious and needed help getting back to Earth.
“I mean, you’re in costume and everything, right? This whole getup here? I don’t mean to offend or anything, it’s real good work but, come on, not like you wear that every day for no reason, right?” Such a choice of wardrobe would be even sillier than his own getup.
“…There something wrong with how I dress?” the guy asked, sounding genuinely insecure as if no one had ever made a fuss about it before this moment.
“I… I mean…” Good lord was this awkward now… How was he supposed to respond to that? This guy genuinely wore this wizardly getup all the time? “…It’s just, I can’t say I notice people choosing to dress themselves like this on a daily basis, that’s all.”
“Well I can assure you, this is very much the common attire for my sort, and I’d thank you not to belittle it,” he said in reply, standing up, brushing himself off and inspecting a rather eloquent looking staff with what appeared to be a golden egg-shaped pedometer with sun-like rays at the end of it.
“Right… sorry about that…” Art answered sheepishly. “…Your sort being… these ‘Digimon?’”
“Hmm? Oh, dear me no… Not all Digimon as a whole, definitely not. I mean more so my particular race of Digimon.” At that the mysterious figure seemed to realize he hadn’t formally introduced himself and held out a gloved hand to shake. “You may call me Wizardmon, as my kind are denoted. A pleasure to meet you, despite your curious reservations about my clothing aesthetics.”
“Art… Art MacTavish,” Art replied as he shook Wizardmon’s hand, looking just about ready to assume he had passed out from heat exhaustion quite some time ago and was undergoing one doozy of a fever dream.
“I see by your reactions that I have quite a bit to explain about myself,” Wizardmon said. He proceeded to go more into detail about these ‘Digital Monsters’ that came from the ‘Digital World’ and had a capacity to change forms under various circumstances. As for what insanely advanced technology could have possibly made a virtual world housing such creatures so complex as to walk among organic life in the real world? “Well, that I am sadly in the dark about. Whatever it was though, it likely had some part in bringing me here in the first place.”
“I mean… what were you doing when you got yourself dragged over here anyways?” Art asked, figuring a simple retracing of this digital fellow’s steps would be a good start at the very least.
“Oh, well, I was being pursued by a… Oh… oh dear… I’d nearly forgotten…” Wizardmon’s eyes looked close to bulging as the memory of that prior event hit him hard. “…Art, was it? I’m… afraid your home here might be in considerable danger…”
As if right on cue, a loud roar reverberated through the town at that moment, with the faint sound of police sirens soon accompanying it.
“...The hell was that?!” Art exclaimed as he reactively pinned himself against the wall.
“Another Digimon, and far less benevolent I’m afraid… Come on, we must hurry,” Wizardmon said as he grabbed Art’s hand and dragged him along, with deceptively good strength, out the alleyway into the blaring sun, but the current weather conditions weren’t so much the primary concern any longer. As they ran into the light, Art could get a better glimpse at just what Wizardmon was… and it was a little clearer now that he was indeed not human. If anything, his features made him more akin to a living scarecrow. Furthermore, he appeared to have quite the tear at his outfit from the back, with what looked to be intimidating claw marks.
“Uh… Wizardmon… you said you were running away from this thing? You mean to say you can’t fight it?” Art asked, feeling his stomach churn at the likeliness of a response confirming his suspicion.
“Sadly no… I tried, by all accounts I should have had more of a fighting chance against it, but something is giving its power levels a boost I suspect… probably had a hand in making it go on such an unprovoked rampage as well. That is why I will need your assistance.” Wizardmon’s statement caused Art to stop them both in their tracks in an instant.
“Woah… Okay, heh… buddy, I don’t know what you expect me to do. What is this thing, like, a bear, a wolf, something like that?”
Wizardmon shook his head. “Oh, no, certainly not. Coredramon’s a dragon,” he said as if it were hardly a stunning revelation. He likely realized the reality of the situation as soon as Art looked like he was having heart palpitations.
“…You mean to say there’s a dragon… on the loose… right now… and you expect me to be of any help. I’m thinking you may’ve hit your head a little too hard on the way over,” he said, looking about ready to just rush off on his own, but Wizardmon kept him in place.
“You misunderstand. I don’t expect you to fight it directly, but there is another way you might just be able to help. I’m correct in assuming your kind calls itself ‘human’ right? Well, there have been rumors over the years of your kind having the capability to empower us Digimon beyond our natural processes.”
Though he was still bewildered, and the temptation to flee in a panic wasn’t exactly gone, Art seemed a little less adamant on leaving, at least willing to hear this out.
“I believe the terminology for a human partner is ‘Tamer’, much as the phrase seems thoroughly demeaning on my end of the deal… I don’t know the process beyond that. Honestly, I don’t even know if it’s all true or not, but I believe this could be the key to matching the strength of our adversary. If you simply agree to a partnership, something beneficial could very well happen.”
“So, what you’re saying is that we take this agreement as a leap of faith and hope for the best…” Art said in an attempt to summate Wizardmon’s theory. The wizard’s mostly concealed face simply gave a nod. “That’s what I was afraid of… but I take it it’s either we do that or this town becomes a graveyard…”
“If you want to save your home, there is but one path we can take, yes,” Wizardmon affirmed.
So much of this was completely deranged… but as much as Art wanted to doubt his senses and treat this as little more than a most-elaborate mental breakdown, he knew that would ultimately prove more foolish than just accepting this as truth. Hey… life-threatening or not it was more interesting than the initial water fountain quest.
“…Okay… alright I’ll go along with this, much as I’m terrified over where it’s gonna lead me… So… how are we gonna try to make this official?” he asked.
“Well time is short… so… here, put your hand out,” Wizardmon said. As Art did so, he in turn placed the staff in the human’s hand, as if it were the ritual to some more thought-out initiation. “I agree to this partnership, and accept this human as my Tamer… Now… you say your half of the it...”
“Okay… Then… I agree as well, and accept the responsibility as Tamer to this Digimon,” he said, attempting to be eloquent with it. As he finished speaking, there was silence… and then… more silence. Nothing.
“Uh… it didn’t do anything…” Art eventually said after a few minutes of zilch, only broken by the distant sounds of roaring and sirens.
“I can see that, Art…” Wizardmon grumbled in annoyance. “…This might be a little more difficult to manifest than I thought… Come on,” he took back his staff and once more began dragging the human through the streets.
“Where are you taking us now? That thing’s back in the other direction!” Art said, watching as several squads of police cars began to speed past them in said direction. “Those cars are from the next city over… what the hell has it done so far?” he wondered in horror.
“Likely in its confusion it’s started attacking everything around it… If others want to foolishly approach a threat like that unprepared, instead of more wisely running for their lives, it’s their prerogative… but we’re not going to be so idiotic ourselves. At the very least all that ruckus will give us time to figure something out.”
“Hey, dragons aren’t exactly seen as a common fact here, there aren’t exactly special emergency procedures for fire breathing monsters! Think you could be a little more considerate about people being in danger?” Art replied, sounding rather agitated.
“I don’t have time to pity them right now, and neither do you,” Wizardmon answered rather coldly as they came to a stop at a small forest in a public park. “Priority needs to be our figuring out how this tamer business works… All the tales and rumors said something similar, an agreement between human and Digimon… but perhaps it needs to be more than a simple exchange of words… perhaps it must have to resonate at a deeper level,” he surmised, pacing back and forth whilst Art continued to look back at the distant commotion.
“This is crazy… you really can’t do anything about this yourself?” he asked in disbelief.
“I’ve told you, I tried. The last resort I had was just to have it pursue me and keep it from attacking others.”
“Well, what the hell do you think is going on right now?!” Art said in frustration as he motioned over to the distant site of heavy smoke rising from around a street corner.
“Stop with the hysterics! Honestly, at this point I’m beginning to suspect the reason for our failed attempt is you in particular, panicking like that,” Wizardmon said, though this seemed to be the last straw for Art.
“Now you’re blaming me for something you seem to barely understand yourself… Of course… You know, I’ve only known you for a few minutes now, tops, and yet it’s becoming pretty clear how you view anyone who’s not a Digimon like yourself. Apparently, we’re just tools or liabilities… Well if that’s how you wanna view things, be my guest, but I’m not gonna stick around to listen to you anymore. People might be dying over there… I’m not gonna stay put, I’m gonna help them… or at least I’m gonna try,” he said before rushing off towards the smoke as another roar echoed through.
“Art! You’re just going to get yourself killed! Get back here!” Wizardmon shouted, raising his staff, ready to force the human to come to a stop… but then he paused. The human’s words began to resonate, and he realized how he was acting… Cold, uncaring, unsympathetic. Had that lack of relatability to these human creatures really made him so callous? He thought back to what led to this mess in the first place…
The Coredramon had burst its way into the village in which Wizardmon had been taking up residence, deep in his magical studies as his ilk so often were. The village, housing mostly rookie and in-training levels, had no chance of subduing such a rage-induced champion-level, so Wizardmon made it a point to lure the dragon away and take it down as to minimalize the casualties. He’d sent several blasts of fire and lightning its way until it eventually couldn’t ignore him. The chase had been on then… but Coredramon were deceptively fast… and… well… the spells hadn’t done him much good, and it had all devolved into little more than a deadly game of tag. He’d been willing to put himself in harm’s way then, even when it was clear he was outmatched… and now he was pulling a 180 and hiding away? While these helpless creatures were no doubt being tossed around like ragdolls… and one of them, some shabby young man with no weapons or physical skills to his name was still proving more heroic than he was, and his initial response was to attack the guy… He merely closed his eyes and shook his head. “Pathetic…”
Art turned the corner and saw the extent of the destruction… several buildings and structures were ablaze or reduced to rubble, vehicles had been flipped or crushed, and the vast majority of authorities weren’t even pursuing the cause, but instead simply trying to evacuate or rescue the people trapped within the various chunks of debris. It seemed everyone was too distracted to steer him away from the hazardous zone, so he took that chance to press further on to see if anyone had been missed. As he ran, drenched in sweat, dust and debris sticking to his face, he saw the restaurant in which he worked had been wiped out, firefighters still working to contain the flames. Not too far from there, someone had gotten their foot trapped in some rubble, and Art went to help pull them away from it. The man had gotten his foot crushed pretty bad… They’d need to get him to an ambulance. This was surreal… even ignoring the fact that some mythological creature made of digital code had caused all this, he never would’ve imagined the place in such a state. His brief trance was thrown off as another roar nearly shook the very ground he stood on… It was a lot louder this time… As Art turned in the direction of the sound, he saw what he was worried would turn up eventually… It was definitely a dragon, about the height of an average human, yet it looked no less intimidating.
“Th-that’s it… That… what is that thing?” the injured man slung around Art’s shoulder proclaimed in bewilderment. Art couldn’t even answer as he found himself in a staredown with the Coredramon. Perhaps it only lasted a few seconds in real time, but from the human’s perspective, the tense moment seemed to last for minutes on end… and then it suddenly began to charge. He was stuck… With an injured fellow and no real place to run or hide, Art was about ready to just close his eyes and prepare for a very painful last few moments on Earth… but before he could do so… a swarth of fireballs suddenly pelted the Coredramon in fierce succession, forcing the dragon’s attention upward. Art similarly looked up to see that Wizardmon had flown into the scene, his staff unrelentingly continuing to shoot out flames as he wobbled downwards before eventually coming to a landing next to him.
“You can fly?” Art asked, that somehow being the first question that surfaced from the chaos of his mind.
“Not too well… but I can if I need to, for short durations…” Wizardmon clarified. “Now… get moving, get that man to safety, I’ll try to keep this beast distracted.”
Art only briefly hesitated, giving the wizard Digimon a thankful nod before carrying the no-doubt baffled man over to the nearest squad of firefighters. “Don’t know what the hell just happened there but… thanks kid,” he managed to say before the squad carried him off.
“You ought’a come with us too,” one of them said to Art, but he shook his head.
“Can’t… not yet…” was all he said before running off before the firefighter could insist.
Just as before, Wizardmon’s attacks did little to slow down his foe. A sphere of thunder seemed to be deflected off the Coredramon’s tail and right back at him, nearly sending him careening backwards. It was then that he noticed Art had come back, looking upon the human with anxious confusion.
“What are you doing? You had an out! You know I can’t hold it off forever,” Wizardmon said, but Art stayed firmly put.
“You proved me wrong… Apparently you’re not so uncaring… I don’t know if there’s anything I can do but I said I would work with you earlier… and I’m gonna make good on that. One way or another that bastard’s gonna have to deal with us both,” Art said. Wizardmon still seemed worried, but, his face seemed to scrunch a little as if he were nonetheless smiling at this.
“You foolish human… Very well, we face it together then… Steel yourself for whatever comes, partner…”
At Wizardmon’s words, a sudden glow seemed to emanate around Art’s hand, and as he looked down, he saw a peculiar electronic device had suddenly manifested itself in his grasp. Distracted by this sudden turn of events, Art didn’t see the green fireball barreling his way, Wizardmon having to hastily push them both out of its range. It was then that he saw the device in the human’s grasp as well.
“A digivice… Then it is possible… and we’ve done it!” he proclaimed with a rejuvenated sense of hope. The screen on the digivice suddenly glowed, as the message of “Digivolution” scrolled across it. “Quick, press the button at the center!” Wizardmon said, and Art complied. As he did so, a beam of light fixated itself on Wizardmon. As he began to levitate, that same light suddenly bathed everything around them for an instant… and where Wizardmon had once been, there now appeared a different entity entirely… A much taller humanoid draped in desert robes floated above a large open book, their facial features almost entirely covered in shadow, minus two glowing yellow eyes. In its open hands were two spheres, one red and one yellow, with rings surrounding them both.
The Coredramon, though no doubt taken aback, let out another roar before letting loose its largest flare breath yet. This new figure didn’t move away from its spot, merely holding out one of its orbs. Suddenly the flames seem to freeze in place before vanishing.
“…Wizardmon?” Art said, unsure if what he was looking at was still the Digimon he’d been speaking to before.
The robed individual seemed to give him a light nod in the affirmative. “In this form, you may address me as Wisemon,” he said in a voice that indeed sounded quite similar, if perhaps more… echoey. Wisemon turned his attention swiftly back to Coredramon, still with the orb at the ready, and the flame reappeared… though this time turned against the creature that first spawned it. The flames knocked the dragon backward… and they were soon accompanied by numerous others, as if this mysterious new form had the capacity to merely copy and paste the attack over and over again. In rapid succession the flames didn’t stop and the Coredramon was eventually forced off its feet, knocked down and helpless to withstand the continual repetition of its own attack. The town itself seemed to be glowing a green light from the sheer amount of fire, and yet when Wisemon had finally finished the attack, it was as if said fire was never there from the start…
As the smoke cleared, in the place of the Coredramon was a much smaller creature that seemed almost like a draconic seahorse. It was unconscious, but appeared to still be breathing as something suddenly manifested itself out of it, some strange object that had a shadowy aura surrounding it. The object merely floated there for a moment before blinking out of sight.
The same light that glowed before suddenly happened again, and where Wisemon once floated… there was now a candle… As Art carefully pocketed the digivice and knelt down to observe the new entity, he saw that both the candle wax and the flame on top had a face, smiling back at him.
“Well… I’d say mission accomplished,” the candle said cheerily.
“Seems like it… but… what happened?” Art asked, naturally quite in need of answers.
“Digital Evolution… or perhaps you might call it Digivolution for short. That digivice of yours was able to transform me into a form with a more powerful level of data… though as you can see such power has its drawbacks afterwards… I’d nearly forgotten how being Candlemon was like… I fret it might take me a while to get back to Wizardmon…”
Candlemon’s explanation was then interrupted as another wormhole appeared from behind the unconscious mini dragon, pulling it in, and threatening to do the same to both the remaining Digimon and the human beside it. Grabbing Candlemon, Art used his freehand to cling to a streetlamp that had miraculously not been knocked over in the chaos that had transpired.
“W-what’s going on now?!” he shouted as any onlookers all ran for cover.
“That’s the same portal that carried us out from the digital world! I can only assume it’s looking to take me back!” Candlemon said.
“Take you back? But we just became a team! All that and it’s just over?” Art asked, clearly not too satisfied with that notion.
“…Perhaps not! You could come with me back to my world,” Candlemon suggested.
“Go with you to… to this Digital World? What, would I even survive in such a place?” Art asked, feeling his grip on both the lamppost and Digimon beginning to slip.
“Yes of course… I mean… I think so!” Candlemon said. Not the most convincing response but… well, he was running out of time to mull it over. “It’s your choice, Art! We could have plenty of exploring ahead of us… or this could be where we part ways… but you have to make that decision!”
Art looked out at the wreckage of the town he’d been struggling to live on his own through the past few months, and at what remained of his former place of employment… What was even left for him here? Sure, he had no idea what was on the other side of that wormhole, but… as terrifying as this debacle was, it had been an adventure… and he couldn’t say he was ready for those to come to an end.
“…Alright… partner… I’m with you,” he finally said. At that, Art released his grasp on the lamppost, giving his world one last glance before he and Candlemon, Tamer and Digimon, vanished into the portal that seemed to close as soon as they went in. As a small town of little notability would likely become the setting of news that would shake a world to its core, Art was about to see a very different world for himself.
“This… can’t be how it ends…” Wizardmon breathily thought aloud. “Some kind of spell has to work… something…” But as he racked his brain anxiously, he hadn’t realized that the Coredramon had gained on him, and he felt a searing pain across his back as the dragon’s claws made their mark. He toppled gracelessly to the rocky ground beneath him, where he could do little more than crawl away from the inevitable final blow.
As it happens however… sometimes those in terrible circumstances such as these catch a break or two… At that point the very atmosphere around them seemed to glitch erratically, and it caused the dragon to hesitate… just in time to witness a wormhole appearing before the two. The immense pull of this portal lifted Coredramon off its feet, the dragon growling and gnashing its teeth helplessly as it was flung out of their digital reality. Wizardmon’s sense of relief at this turn of events was quick to shift right back into dread however, when he noticed the wormhole wasn’t simply dissipating.
“…Oh, just lovely…” he muttered before similarly being dragged inside, en route to another world…
--
The Summertime months were always agonizing in this small Podunk midwestern town. With the way the world was going the temperatures only seemed to rise every passing year, and as he sat in a filth-ridden alleyway supplying what little adequate shade there was to go around, stewing in his own sweat, Art MacTavish began to realize just how much he had taken air conditioning for granted.
A couple months in, and the grand experiment of living on his own was in the midst of a colossal nosedive, threatening to make a crash-landing for total failure. The bills were always just a little too high and his paycheck was always just a little too thin… Costs had to be cut; necessities had to be treated like luxuries… It had gotten to the point where his apartment was making a sauna seem like a walk-in freezer. Every day when he wasn’t working, he was lurking around any shady spot outdoors like a vagrant… and his clothing likely wasn’t helping matters. In lieu of sunscreen he was covering himself in a ratty long coat and bucket hat he’d found at a thrift shop, with a simple t-shirt and jeans underneath, with a pair of sandals leaving his feet one of the very few parts of him open to the elements, along with his hands and occasionally his face if he was facing the sun. Sure, it all kept him from getting burnt, perhaps, but it wasn’t doing his body temperature any favors.
Chugging down the last of the water in a canteen he had slung over his shoulder, Art sighed at the thought of going out there in the beating sunlight just to find another public water fountain.
“Damned if I do, damned if I don’t…” he muttered, but only one option had the potential chance of staving off heat stroke, and so, resignedly he braced himself against the brick wall behind him to force his way back up to his feet. No sooner than the moment he pushed away from the wall did he suddenly hear a loud crash echo from the distance, nearly throwing him right back onto the pavement. As he stumbled to steady himself, there came another violent crash, smaller this time, but… from the sound of it, closer as well… coming from deeper within the alleyway. He’d turned in the direction of the sound just in time to see something flash out of sight, which he immediately dismissed as little more than a trick of the mind from the temperature. That being said, he couldn’t so easily use that excuse for the motionless… thing, which was now laying there on its own.
Sure, didn’t look like anything large enough to make such a ruckus, Art had thought, and perhaps not in the best condition to obey common sense, he edged his way closer to get a better view of whatever this thing was. He cringed once he got near enough to recognize the humanoid shape…
“Oh… Oh jeez… Did this guy fall off the roof or something?” he concernedly muttered aloud, looking up at the buildings surrounding him as if to see if there was anyone else up there. No one he could see… This guy was apparently on his own then… but from the looks of it he seemed to be breathing? Maybe the guy wasn’t beyond helping then…
“Hey… Hey buddy… You… you doing okay there?” Art asked, still trying to keep at least a couple meters distance, his arms cautiously outstretched.
He got a pained groan in response, and, putting his worries to the side for a moment, Art got closer to give the guy a hand, helping him sit up against the building. It was now that he was able to get a better look at this stranger who’d stumbled out from nowhere, and… well he certainly had a unique fashion sense. With the pointed hat, the cape, the many zippers in strange places along his jumpsuit, it all looked like he’d set himself up for Halloween about three months too early. Furthermore, he was… strangely small in stature, about the size of a child, but he otherwise looked not the least bit child-like from what he could see, and admittedly from how this man covered his face, that was not all that much.
For a while this mysterious costumed fellow stared weakly at nothing in particular, before forcing his eyes shut and opening them back up again. He looked over to the individual who’d apparently helped him out and attempted to look him over despite the limited lighting.
“…You’re… not a Digimon, are you?” came the first coherent vocal utterance from the man.
Art couldn’t say he’d ever heard himself be addressed as anything of the sort before, but then again, he’d never previously heard such a term whatsoever.
“…I assume I don’t look like one?” he replied, still noticeably dumbfounded.
“Well, simple appearances aren’t the best indicator for such a broad category, I was merely checking to see from your response if you were or not. Judging by that, it is clear that you are not,” he said.
“Uh… okay then, hope that’s not a problem… Look, buddy, I don’t know if you just took a nasty fall or what but, if you want me to get you back to whatever convention you were at, just point out where you need to go, alright?” Surely that was the case… Some con he didn’t know about must’ve sprung up and this guy was just a dedicated cosplayer. That was probably where this ‘Digimon’ nonsense was coming from as well.
“…Convention?” he asked, looking thoroughly puzzled. “I’m sorry, I don’t quite follow you.”
Oh… well, there went the rational explanation then… Art was clearly at a loss at this response, but, well… maybe the guy was just delirious and needed help getting back to Earth.
“I mean, you’re in costume and everything, right? This whole getup here? I don’t mean to offend or anything, it’s real good work but, come on, not like you wear that every day for no reason, right?” Such a choice of wardrobe would be even sillier than his own getup.
“…There something wrong with how I dress?” the guy asked, sounding genuinely insecure as if no one had ever made a fuss about it before this moment.
“I… I mean…” Good lord was this awkward now… How was he supposed to respond to that? This guy genuinely wore this wizardly getup all the time? “…It’s just, I can’t say I notice people choosing to dress themselves like this on a daily basis, that’s all.”
“Well I can assure you, this is very much the common attire for my sort, and I’d thank you not to belittle it,” he said in reply, standing up, brushing himself off and inspecting a rather eloquent looking staff with what appeared to be a golden egg-shaped pedometer with sun-like rays at the end of it.
“Right… sorry about that…” Art answered sheepishly. “…Your sort being… these ‘Digimon?’”
“Hmm? Oh, dear me no… Not all Digimon as a whole, definitely not. I mean more so my particular race of Digimon.” At that the mysterious figure seemed to realize he hadn’t formally introduced himself and held out a gloved hand to shake. “You may call me Wizardmon, as my kind are denoted. A pleasure to meet you, despite your curious reservations about my clothing aesthetics.”
“Art… Art MacTavish,” Art replied as he shook Wizardmon’s hand, looking just about ready to assume he had passed out from heat exhaustion quite some time ago and was undergoing one doozy of a fever dream.
“I see by your reactions that I have quite a bit to explain about myself,” Wizardmon said. He proceeded to go more into detail about these ‘Digital Monsters’ that came from the ‘Digital World’ and had a capacity to change forms under various circumstances. As for what insanely advanced technology could have possibly made a virtual world housing such creatures so complex as to walk among organic life in the real world? “Well, that I am sadly in the dark about. Whatever it was though, it likely had some part in bringing me here in the first place.”
“I mean… what were you doing when you got yourself dragged over here anyways?” Art asked, figuring a simple retracing of this digital fellow’s steps would be a good start at the very least.
“Oh, well, I was being pursued by a… Oh… oh dear… I’d nearly forgotten…” Wizardmon’s eyes looked close to bulging as the memory of that prior event hit him hard. “…Art, was it? I’m… afraid your home here might be in considerable danger…”
As if right on cue, a loud roar reverberated through the town at that moment, with the faint sound of police sirens soon accompanying it.
“...The hell was that?!” Art exclaimed as he reactively pinned himself against the wall.
“Another Digimon, and far less benevolent I’m afraid… Come on, we must hurry,” Wizardmon said as he grabbed Art’s hand and dragged him along, with deceptively good strength, out the alleyway into the blaring sun, but the current weather conditions weren’t so much the primary concern any longer. As they ran into the light, Art could get a better glimpse at just what Wizardmon was… and it was a little clearer now that he was indeed not human. If anything, his features made him more akin to a living scarecrow. Furthermore, he appeared to have quite the tear at his outfit from the back, with what looked to be intimidating claw marks.
“Uh… Wizardmon… you said you were running away from this thing? You mean to say you can’t fight it?” Art asked, feeling his stomach churn at the likeliness of a response confirming his suspicion.
“Sadly no… I tried, by all accounts I should have had more of a fighting chance against it, but something is giving its power levels a boost I suspect… probably had a hand in making it go on such an unprovoked rampage as well. That is why I will need your assistance.” Wizardmon’s statement caused Art to stop them both in their tracks in an instant.
“Woah… Okay, heh… buddy, I don’t know what you expect me to do. What is this thing, like, a bear, a wolf, something like that?”
Wizardmon shook his head. “Oh, no, certainly not. Coredramon’s a dragon,” he said as if it were hardly a stunning revelation. He likely realized the reality of the situation as soon as Art looked like he was having heart palpitations.
“…You mean to say there’s a dragon… on the loose… right now… and you expect me to be of any help. I’m thinking you may’ve hit your head a little too hard on the way over,” he said, looking about ready to just rush off on his own, but Wizardmon kept him in place.
“You misunderstand. I don’t expect you to fight it directly, but there is another way you might just be able to help. I’m correct in assuming your kind calls itself ‘human’ right? Well, there have been rumors over the years of your kind having the capability to empower us Digimon beyond our natural processes.”
Though he was still bewildered, and the temptation to flee in a panic wasn’t exactly gone, Art seemed a little less adamant on leaving, at least willing to hear this out.
“I believe the terminology for a human partner is ‘Tamer’, much as the phrase seems thoroughly demeaning on my end of the deal… I don’t know the process beyond that. Honestly, I don’t even know if it’s all true or not, but I believe this could be the key to matching the strength of our adversary. If you simply agree to a partnership, something beneficial could very well happen.”
“So, what you’re saying is that we take this agreement as a leap of faith and hope for the best…” Art said in an attempt to summate Wizardmon’s theory. The wizard’s mostly concealed face simply gave a nod. “That’s what I was afraid of… but I take it it’s either we do that or this town becomes a graveyard…”
“If you want to save your home, there is but one path we can take, yes,” Wizardmon affirmed.
So much of this was completely deranged… but as much as Art wanted to doubt his senses and treat this as little more than a most-elaborate mental breakdown, he knew that would ultimately prove more foolish than just accepting this as truth. Hey… life-threatening or not it was more interesting than the initial water fountain quest.
“…Okay… alright I’ll go along with this, much as I’m terrified over where it’s gonna lead me… So… how are we gonna try to make this official?” he asked.
“Well time is short… so… here, put your hand out,” Wizardmon said. As Art did so, he in turn placed the staff in the human’s hand, as if it were the ritual to some more thought-out initiation. “I agree to this partnership, and accept this human as my Tamer… Now… you say your half of the it...”
“Okay… Then… I agree as well, and accept the responsibility as Tamer to this Digimon,” he said, attempting to be eloquent with it. As he finished speaking, there was silence… and then… more silence. Nothing.
“Uh… it didn’t do anything…” Art eventually said after a few minutes of zilch, only broken by the distant sounds of roaring and sirens.
“I can see that, Art…” Wizardmon grumbled in annoyance. “…This might be a little more difficult to manifest than I thought… Come on,” he took back his staff and once more began dragging the human through the streets.
“Where are you taking us now? That thing’s back in the other direction!” Art said, watching as several squads of police cars began to speed past them in said direction. “Those cars are from the next city over… what the hell has it done so far?” he wondered in horror.
“Likely in its confusion it’s started attacking everything around it… If others want to foolishly approach a threat like that unprepared, instead of more wisely running for their lives, it’s their prerogative… but we’re not going to be so idiotic ourselves. At the very least all that ruckus will give us time to figure something out.”
“Hey, dragons aren’t exactly seen as a common fact here, there aren’t exactly special emergency procedures for fire breathing monsters! Think you could be a little more considerate about people being in danger?” Art replied, sounding rather agitated.
“I don’t have time to pity them right now, and neither do you,” Wizardmon answered rather coldly as they came to a stop at a small forest in a public park. “Priority needs to be our figuring out how this tamer business works… All the tales and rumors said something similar, an agreement between human and Digimon… but perhaps it needs to be more than a simple exchange of words… perhaps it must have to resonate at a deeper level,” he surmised, pacing back and forth whilst Art continued to look back at the distant commotion.
“This is crazy… you really can’t do anything about this yourself?” he asked in disbelief.
“I’ve told you, I tried. The last resort I had was just to have it pursue me and keep it from attacking others.”
“Well, what the hell do you think is going on right now?!” Art said in frustration as he motioned over to the distant site of heavy smoke rising from around a street corner.
“Stop with the hysterics! Honestly, at this point I’m beginning to suspect the reason for our failed attempt is you in particular, panicking like that,” Wizardmon said, though this seemed to be the last straw for Art.
“Now you’re blaming me for something you seem to barely understand yourself… Of course… You know, I’ve only known you for a few minutes now, tops, and yet it’s becoming pretty clear how you view anyone who’s not a Digimon like yourself. Apparently, we’re just tools or liabilities… Well if that’s how you wanna view things, be my guest, but I’m not gonna stick around to listen to you anymore. People might be dying over there… I’m not gonna stay put, I’m gonna help them… or at least I’m gonna try,” he said before rushing off towards the smoke as another roar echoed through.
“Art! You’re just going to get yourself killed! Get back here!” Wizardmon shouted, raising his staff, ready to force the human to come to a stop… but then he paused. The human’s words began to resonate, and he realized how he was acting… Cold, uncaring, unsympathetic. Had that lack of relatability to these human creatures really made him so callous? He thought back to what led to this mess in the first place…
The Coredramon had burst its way into the village in which Wizardmon had been taking up residence, deep in his magical studies as his ilk so often were. The village, housing mostly rookie and in-training levels, had no chance of subduing such a rage-induced champion-level, so Wizardmon made it a point to lure the dragon away and take it down as to minimalize the casualties. He’d sent several blasts of fire and lightning its way until it eventually couldn’t ignore him. The chase had been on then… but Coredramon were deceptively fast… and… well… the spells hadn’t done him much good, and it had all devolved into little more than a deadly game of tag. He’d been willing to put himself in harm’s way then, even when it was clear he was outmatched… and now he was pulling a 180 and hiding away? While these helpless creatures were no doubt being tossed around like ragdolls… and one of them, some shabby young man with no weapons or physical skills to his name was still proving more heroic than he was, and his initial response was to attack the guy… He merely closed his eyes and shook his head. “Pathetic…”
Art turned the corner and saw the extent of the destruction… several buildings and structures were ablaze or reduced to rubble, vehicles had been flipped or crushed, and the vast majority of authorities weren’t even pursuing the cause, but instead simply trying to evacuate or rescue the people trapped within the various chunks of debris. It seemed everyone was too distracted to steer him away from the hazardous zone, so he took that chance to press further on to see if anyone had been missed. As he ran, drenched in sweat, dust and debris sticking to his face, he saw the restaurant in which he worked had been wiped out, firefighters still working to contain the flames. Not too far from there, someone had gotten their foot trapped in some rubble, and Art went to help pull them away from it. The man had gotten his foot crushed pretty bad… They’d need to get him to an ambulance. This was surreal… even ignoring the fact that some mythological creature made of digital code had caused all this, he never would’ve imagined the place in such a state. His brief trance was thrown off as another roar nearly shook the very ground he stood on… It was a lot louder this time… As Art turned in the direction of the sound, he saw what he was worried would turn up eventually… It was definitely a dragon, about the height of an average human, yet it looked no less intimidating.
“Th-that’s it… That… what is that thing?” the injured man slung around Art’s shoulder proclaimed in bewilderment. Art couldn’t even answer as he found himself in a staredown with the Coredramon. Perhaps it only lasted a few seconds in real time, but from the human’s perspective, the tense moment seemed to last for minutes on end… and then it suddenly began to charge. He was stuck… With an injured fellow and no real place to run or hide, Art was about ready to just close his eyes and prepare for a very painful last few moments on Earth… but before he could do so… a swarth of fireballs suddenly pelted the Coredramon in fierce succession, forcing the dragon’s attention upward. Art similarly looked up to see that Wizardmon had flown into the scene, his staff unrelentingly continuing to shoot out flames as he wobbled downwards before eventually coming to a landing next to him.
“You can fly?” Art asked, that somehow being the first question that surfaced from the chaos of his mind.
“Not too well… but I can if I need to, for short durations…” Wizardmon clarified. “Now… get moving, get that man to safety, I’ll try to keep this beast distracted.”
Art only briefly hesitated, giving the wizard Digimon a thankful nod before carrying the no-doubt baffled man over to the nearest squad of firefighters. “Don’t know what the hell just happened there but… thanks kid,” he managed to say before the squad carried him off.
“You ought’a come with us too,” one of them said to Art, but he shook his head.
“Can’t… not yet…” was all he said before running off before the firefighter could insist.
Just as before, Wizardmon’s attacks did little to slow down his foe. A sphere of thunder seemed to be deflected off the Coredramon’s tail and right back at him, nearly sending him careening backwards. It was then that he noticed Art had come back, looking upon the human with anxious confusion.
“What are you doing? You had an out! You know I can’t hold it off forever,” Wizardmon said, but Art stayed firmly put.
“You proved me wrong… Apparently you’re not so uncaring… I don’t know if there’s anything I can do but I said I would work with you earlier… and I’m gonna make good on that. One way or another that bastard’s gonna have to deal with us both,” Art said. Wizardmon still seemed worried, but, his face seemed to scrunch a little as if he were nonetheless smiling at this.
“You foolish human… Very well, we face it together then… Steel yourself for whatever comes, partner…”
At Wizardmon’s words, a sudden glow seemed to emanate around Art’s hand, and as he looked down, he saw a peculiar electronic device had suddenly manifested itself in his grasp. Distracted by this sudden turn of events, Art didn’t see the green fireball barreling his way, Wizardmon having to hastily push them both out of its range. It was then that he saw the device in the human’s grasp as well.
“A digivice… Then it is possible… and we’ve done it!” he proclaimed with a rejuvenated sense of hope. The screen on the digivice suddenly glowed, as the message of “Digivolution” scrolled across it. “Quick, press the button at the center!” Wizardmon said, and Art complied. As he did so, a beam of light fixated itself on Wizardmon. As he began to levitate, that same light suddenly bathed everything around them for an instant… and where Wizardmon had once been, there now appeared a different entity entirely… A much taller humanoid draped in desert robes floated above a large open book, their facial features almost entirely covered in shadow, minus two glowing yellow eyes. In its open hands were two spheres, one red and one yellow, with rings surrounding them both.
The Coredramon, though no doubt taken aback, let out another roar before letting loose its largest flare breath yet. This new figure didn’t move away from its spot, merely holding out one of its orbs. Suddenly the flames seem to freeze in place before vanishing.
“…Wizardmon?” Art said, unsure if what he was looking at was still the Digimon he’d been speaking to before.
The robed individual seemed to give him a light nod in the affirmative. “In this form, you may address me as Wisemon,” he said in a voice that indeed sounded quite similar, if perhaps more… echoey. Wisemon turned his attention swiftly back to Coredramon, still with the orb at the ready, and the flame reappeared… though this time turned against the creature that first spawned it. The flames knocked the dragon backward… and they were soon accompanied by numerous others, as if this mysterious new form had the capacity to merely copy and paste the attack over and over again. In rapid succession the flames didn’t stop and the Coredramon was eventually forced off its feet, knocked down and helpless to withstand the continual repetition of its own attack. The town itself seemed to be glowing a green light from the sheer amount of fire, and yet when Wisemon had finally finished the attack, it was as if said fire was never there from the start…
As the smoke cleared, in the place of the Coredramon was a much smaller creature that seemed almost like a draconic seahorse. It was unconscious, but appeared to still be breathing as something suddenly manifested itself out of it, some strange object that had a shadowy aura surrounding it. The object merely floated there for a moment before blinking out of sight.
The same light that glowed before suddenly happened again, and where Wisemon once floated… there was now a candle… As Art carefully pocketed the digivice and knelt down to observe the new entity, he saw that both the candle wax and the flame on top had a face, smiling back at him.
“Well… I’d say mission accomplished,” the candle said cheerily.
“Seems like it… but… what happened?” Art asked, naturally quite in need of answers.
“Digital Evolution… or perhaps you might call it Digivolution for short. That digivice of yours was able to transform me into a form with a more powerful level of data… though as you can see such power has its drawbacks afterwards… I’d nearly forgotten how being Candlemon was like… I fret it might take me a while to get back to Wizardmon…”
Candlemon’s explanation was then interrupted as another wormhole appeared from behind the unconscious mini dragon, pulling it in, and threatening to do the same to both the remaining Digimon and the human beside it. Grabbing Candlemon, Art used his freehand to cling to a streetlamp that had miraculously not been knocked over in the chaos that had transpired.
“W-what’s going on now?!” he shouted as any onlookers all ran for cover.
“That’s the same portal that carried us out from the digital world! I can only assume it’s looking to take me back!” Candlemon said.
“Take you back? But we just became a team! All that and it’s just over?” Art asked, clearly not too satisfied with that notion.
“…Perhaps not! You could come with me back to my world,” Candlemon suggested.
“Go with you to… to this Digital World? What, would I even survive in such a place?” Art asked, feeling his grip on both the lamppost and Digimon beginning to slip.
“Yes of course… I mean… I think so!” Candlemon said. Not the most convincing response but… well, he was running out of time to mull it over. “It’s your choice, Art! We could have plenty of exploring ahead of us… or this could be where we part ways… but you have to make that decision!”
Art looked out at the wreckage of the town he’d been struggling to live on his own through the past few months, and at what remained of his former place of employment… What was even left for him here? Sure, he had no idea what was on the other side of that wormhole, but… as terrifying as this debacle was, it had been an adventure… and he couldn’t say he was ready for those to come to an end.
“…Alright… partner… I’m with you,” he finally said. At that, Art released his grasp on the lamppost, giving his world one last glance before he and Candlemon, Tamer and Digimon, vanished into the portal that seemed to close as soon as they went in. As a small town of little notability would likely become the setting of news that would shake a world to its core, Art was about to see a very different world for himself.
