Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digimon: The Silent Project ❯ Stay or Go? ( Chapter 1 )

Toei Animation owns Digimon. Any original characters, ideas and themes I've written down in this story are owned by me. Thanks for reading.

 

 

The Silent Project

By Jared Head

 

Chapter 1

Stay or Go

 

 

 

“I think it is safe to say that our search has finally finished,” he said.

 

“So now do I get to perform an extraction?” the younger asked.

 

“Yes you may,” the older one said. The younger walked out of the room, “Wait just a second,” the eldest called. The younger stopped.

 

“Yeah?” he asked.

 

“Remember that we can't afford to lose this one, and make sure that if you encounter the defector, that his retrieval goes smoothly, understand?”

 

“Yes sir. No transfer problems, no problems, nice and smooth,” the younger said, as it had become routine to hear it from the elder. Resuming the walk down the hallway which the elder had disturbed, the young disappeared as he walked down the hall.

 

 

 

 

The room was dark mostly. A little light seeped in from the blinds covering the windows. The clock's digital readout read 7:24 a.m. It was a slightly foggy morning, nothing too out of the ordinary for the region in June. Nothing real worthy of watching on any of the news channels. The same idea was also in effect for the regular channels as well. The room was a normal sized one, and it had a pretty normal sight in it: Jorcy, and sleeping. This time sleeping off an exhaustive week.

 

Jorcy was just fresh out of high school, graduating the day before this morning we start this story. He was a good student and was one of the few in school who actually put thought into whatever he worked on. He would say school was an institution that should be voluntary, so that way all the students who did not want to be in school would be gone, leaving the ones who truly came to learn at school free of distractions. He would always add that he would be one that would stay in school, but only if held at gunpoint.

 

It was a long night before, as all the parties after graduation went after him faster than most teachers' tempers when he spoke in a sarcastic tone. He fondly remembers how much aggravation his tone would cause one of his teachers. Most of this bantering involved outlandish lies to the teacher, which the teacher actually believed. This all led to many eruptions of laughter at the teacher from students and further infuriation of the teacher.

 

If you needed someone to tell a lie, Jorcy was not your man. He was a natural born straight shooter in his honesty policy and preferred those he knew to be straight shooters. Even the chronic liars were completely honest when around Jorcy. He was generally a quiet person at school but he carried himself in a manner that earned the respect of all with the confidence he displayed. Those who resented him admired his abilities to accept his successes, and accept his failures even easier.

 

He was best known for his constant usage of sunglasses. Many times he had been asked, and each time he explained how his retinas were unable to handle huge amounts of light, and the sensation similar to a white hot knife being stabbed into his eye if he wasn't wearing them. Most people didn't even notice but they always knew subconsciously if outside, he would be wearing them.

 

The clock turned to 7:25, and a whirring began, like something spinning up to speed. The speakers in the clock turned on, and began blaring music. “Well do yah', do yah' do yah' wanna'?” the speakers blared. He had a CD in his clock. He was up immediately to the sound, almost anticipating the clock to break into song. It took a few blinks of his eyes, but he got them in focus, moving the fluid which had stagnated in patches and left a patch where anyone's eyes moving over would go blurry, until he blinked it away.

 

He slowly moved around, getting the feeling back in his body and pushed himself up in bed. His right arm was dead; he had slept on it during the night cutting off its blood flow. He hopped out of bed, and began to flail his arm around in time with the music. Amused, he continued. A loud crack came from his elbow, and he stopped; now feeling a little pain. He clutched the elbow and grunted a little.

 

Free. He was free. He didn't really know what to think as he stood there, looking in the mirror. Other than the fact he had a very noticeable snot line coming down his nose, he looked just the same. He quickly wiped the line away with the sleeve of the nightshirt he wore. He was out of the care of school and on his own. He thought of the years of dreaming of the very morning it was, and how he would feel. Something like ecstasy, happiness beyond compare. Irrational exuberance possibly.

 

It felt like a normal morning, much to his dismay. He opened the door of his room and began to make his way to the kitchen to make something for breakfast. The blast of air hit him as he opened the door, which revealed the scent of food. He walked into the kitchen, to find breakfast covered in plastic wrap and a note attached to it. It read:

 

 

 

 

Sorry I had to leave, but I had an emergency to catch and take. So I'll be back tomorrow, as long as no one else has an emergency.

 

 

Signed,

(with a lot of regards and a promise not to crash)

 

 

Jet

 

 

 

Jorcy smirked a little at the note. Knowing Jet took the time out to actually make him breakfast. Jet was who Jorcy had lived with since his parents had, well; Jorcy never looked back on what happened with his parent's sudden situation. He figured it happened, and that was all to be said about it as he can't change his past at all, but back to Jet.

 

Jorcy was living with Jet, and had been living with him for about the past two years. It was funny, as the situation caused him top need a caregiver, and the only one that was suitable that Jorcy would let the social services place him with was Jet. Jet was Jorcy's cousin, from his father's side. Jet was barely ten years old than Jorcy, but had already done enough in the field of private piloting to make even the oldest and well trained pilot look like a granny behind the wheel of a caddy.

 

Jet was extremely respected in all of his jobs that he held. He was a very humble person, and would rather be in the background than in the spotlight. He had a reputation for his ability to think faster than anyone else, even under the highest pressure. He wasn't going to crack, let alone he wasn't going to let anything get to him.

 

Jet was also known of his love of life. He liked the rush he got from doing things out of the ordinary. Walking, or really running on the crazy side of life, with an emphasis on crazy and life. One thing he had been hooked on was skydiving, but it had been quite a long time since he had made any jumps. Endurance was another factor that set him apart. He could last two, three, in some cases going as far as four times longer than the average person in his job he held in the present.

 

He was always happy, even though the lowest points in his life. Always joking, smiling and trying to get others to smile around him, even if he felt the worst of his life. You could almost say he would take a bullet for one of his friends. Quick to forgive and never held a grudge, he was friendly, even with people who disliked him. Jet was a thinker with fighting the last on his list of possible solutions.

 

Jorcy took the plate of food, and sat down at the kitchen table. He looked out the window as he began to eat the scrambled eggs, and saw that Jet had also pulled his car out. It sat there, the new red convertible, gleaming it's aura in the sunlight. A gift from Jet for graduating High School, he hadn't even got it out of the driveway yet and couldn't wait.

 

The breakfast was a little cold, as the eggs, bacon and hash browns had been sitting out for a little while and Jorcy decided it was best to get ready for the day. He would finally be able to go around town in his new car, hopefully spotting a few friends while out. He walked over to the computer to turn it on to check the weather. He reached down to push the power button, but before he pushed the button the computer turned on.

 

He slowly came back to sitting straight in the chair, and the computer seemed to be running itself. Eyes shifted back and forth. Confusion was evident on his face. Jorcy had no clue what the computer was doing.

 

“Must have a Trojan or something,” he said. While saying this, the start up screen came up and the computer automatically logged itself in. It was like someone else was running it. That was it, someone else was running it. He pushed the classic “Ctrl-Alt-Delete” combo, and the result was nothing. It had seemed to suddenly become independent of its creators.

 

“What the friggin' hell???” Jorcy nearly yelled with shear confusion. His mind raced through all rational solutions, and he quickly went through them. Then the last one clicked into his mind: pull the power cable. Practically throwing the chair through the air, he dived under the desk the computer was on, grabbed the cable and pulled it out of the computer. The whining of the computer faded away, and Jorcy smiled at his solution working.

 

Slowly crawling out from under the desk, Jorcy let out a sigh of relief as eh looked at the mess the scramble to turn the computer off had made. The computer had met its match, and that match was Jorcy. His smile increased, man beat machine. Then, a frown appeared. The sound of the computer whirring back to life let Jorcy plaster a look of shock on his face.

 

“What the hell!!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, nearly screeching his words out. The computer continued, unhindered by the screeching. Mocking him if you will. The screen went black for a few seconds, but then a window opened on the screen. Jorcy read the text that slowly scrolled out with the window…

 

 

 

“Confirmed” was the first he saw, “Initiate download of Flame.sys ....commencing in 5…4…3…2…1…locating server…download initiated…0%...1%....depending on your internet connection, this download could take 4 days with dial up, 2.7 days with broadband, and 19 hours with T1…or in your case, about 5 minutes…”

 

 

“What in the hell is this?” Jorcy asked aloud to no one, “I want to see the damn weather, not download some software update,” he continued. Jorcy was also not the best at computers. Usually a swift hit or kick worked, but after a few to the computer, nothing seemed to be stopping it. Then, brilliance. Call Jet. The only thing Jorcy truly understood was the pure sarcasm coming out from the now independent computer. He moved over, picked up the phone and dialed up Jet's cell phone number. The tones in his head registered as he pushed the buttons. 4-3-7-9-2-0-2.

 

 

Ring…ring…ring…We're sorry, but the number you have reached does not accept blocked calls; please try again by pressi…

 

 

Jorcy turned the phone off, turned it back on, and heard the message continuing. This time he turned it off, waited a few seconds, turned the phone back on, heard a dial tone and dialed. *(star)-8-2-4-3-7-9-2-0-2.

 

 

Ring…ring…ring…We're sorry, but the number you are attempting to reach is out of its local area code, please hand up and tr…

 

 

Jorcy was beginning to become annoyed. So he hung the phone up and waited, turned the phone back on and began to dial. *(star)-8-2-(5-7-4)-4-3-7-9-2-0-2.

 

 

Ring…ring…ring…We're sorry, but the number you have called requires 1, then the area code, please hang up a…

 

 

Jorcy had now become officially pissed off. So he slammed the phone back onto it's holder, waited a few seconds, picked it up, smashed his finger into the on button, heard a dial tone, and began to dial, pressing with great force with each button. *(star)-8-2-1-(5-7-4)-4-3-7-9-2-0-2.

 

 

Ring…ring…ring…ring…ring…ring …ring…ring…ring…ring…

 

 

“'Ello?” Jet's voice asked.

 

“Jet, hey, the computer's acting weird,” Jorcy said, walking back over to the computer.

 

“Really? Try finding that book on animal sacrifices and find the neighbors cat,” he said making light of the situation at hand, “Well, I'm still stuck on the freeway out here, traffic you know. Yeah, love you too asshole!” he yelled at someone cutting out in front of him, “What's the problem?” Jet asked.

 

“Yeah, it's been doing everything on its own, it asked to scan my face and I did, to which it said “Confirmed”,” Jorcy said, making little quotation marks in the air, as if Jet was bale to see them, “Then it started downloading a file, something named Flame dot s-y-s. You know anything about that?” There was an eerie silence.

 

“I'm on my way back,” Jet said, his tone changing to one that sounded like he was in a life or death situation. The sound of squealing tires and horns honking were coming from the speaker in the phone Jorcy was holding, and Jet then hung his cell phone up and made a beeline for home, driving as fast as he could through the breakdown lane.

 

“I wonder what the hell that was all about,” Jorcy said. He then sat down to watch the Flame.sys file being downloaded, which was at 52%. Jorcy then decided it was best to let the download do what it needed to do. Without being able to check the weather, he made an uneducated guess as to what the weather of the day was to be like. Determination: Foggy. Fog equals cold right?

 

It was a guess. If he was wrong, what's the worst that could happen? Shorts were in due order. A material similar to khaki but tougher, able to withstand more punishment and beige seemed to be the color of the day as well. The ability to be comfortable in almost any type of weather was the best part about them. A t-shirt, just randomly grabbed. Flexibility, readability, it all added up in favor of t-shirts. This one was simple, white with black trim. He wore it to school one day and was cited for dress code. Why?

 

In bold red letters on the front, it had “CCCP” with a red star. The school cited the shirt thinking it was a reference to a drug. Jorcy was the only one laughing in the office when he was told of the accusation. In fact, it was more of hysterical laughter. Off subject.

 

Next: shoes. Nothing too flashy, nothing too ratty. Just some shoes that looked like a crossover between normal shoes and running shoes. With obvious marks of running on them as scuff marks adorned them. Lacing them was easy as can be, and double knots were the special of the day.

 

On to the final piece, a black jacket. It looked more or less like a jacket a little above the level of casual, but it got the job done. The only thing special about it was the pocket inside of the jacket and maybe the three striped white lines running down each sleeve. He pulled a little wrinkle out of the jacket and a thunderous crash was heard in the living room where the computer was at.

 

“Damn it!” being yelled followed shortly.

 

Must be Jet having a hard time getting in, better go help him was Jorcy's thoughts on the matter. So he walked down the hallway normally, turned the corner and froze. This was not Jet, far from Jet. This was…was…what the hell is this?

 

It was about seven feet tall, at least, but not taller then seven and a half feet tall. It was blue whatever it was, it seemed to have a type of armor and a face mask on, and the armor had a flame paint job resembling that of a car. Out of the face mask was one long horn, which Jorcy realized could be used for stabbing. This blue thingy was sprawled out over the remains of the DVD rack, somehow taking a fall into it and down went this blue thingy and the DVD's. He didn't move, mostly out of fear, but somewhat out of sheer shock at whatever this was. It also didn't move. The two both stared at each other for a long time

 

“So, are we going to talk of what?” it asked, its left claw twitching a little.

 

It speaks!!! Were the first thoughts to fire off in Jorcy's mind. Then thoughts of that claw, with its three razor sharp blades, about 18 inches long. Thoughts of being killed by being stabbed by those crept in slowly and he slowly rejected them, realizing whatever this was had hit him in the head, and also had drug him into the living room. There were two things keeping him from feeling fear: 1) Adrenaline 2) The fact that whatever this blue thingy was, it had more than an opportunity to kill him, and didn't kill him.

 

“I guess,” Jorcy said, voice cracking in fear. Kill or no kill, whatever this was, it was dangerous.

 

“You guess what?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“What?”

 

“Eh?”

 

“Okay, look human; you've completely confused the living hell out of me.”

 

“Well, why don't you sit down and think about it,” Jorcy snapped back. He didn't care for being called “human”, in fact, he found it a little condescending that this blue thingy was putting him on the same relative level of all 6 billion people in the world.

 

“And do what? Light myself on fire as a form of civil protest?” the blue thingy snapped back even faster.

 

“Non-violent protest,” Jorcy corrected. Whatever this blue thingy thought it was, it wasn't going to get the best of Jorcy.

 

“Okay, this is super strange; I thought you would at least be startled by me.”

 

“I'm not, you're just a really amazing hallucination,” Jorcy replied back all smiles.

 

“First off, I'm real and the name's Flame in case you were wondering.”

 

“Okay Flame. I can already tell, if I remember right from the TV series, that you're a Flamedramon, a quite a good mental representation of one might I add. I'll believe you if you can prove this isn't a hallucination,” Jorcy said, crossing his arms. Flame, shocked at Jorcy being able to identify his digimon species so quickly could only react. He crossed his arms and walked forward slowly. Then with a swift movement, he kicked Jorcy's legs out from under him, grabbed onto Jorcy who was falling backwards and slammed him back first into the ground, knocking the wind out of Jorcy's lungs.

 

“How `bout now?” Flame asked, a small grin appearing from out of nowhere. His eyes behind the mask seemed to glisten red with laughter. He took his claw off of Jorcy's chest and let Jorcy get up. Jorcy stayed keeled over for a good deal of time.

 

“What happen?” Flame asked, leaning back on the sofa, “I hit you too hard?”

 

“No,” Jorcy said, gasping for breath, “It's just that I---“ Jorcy bolted suddenly at Flame. Flame didn't even twitch as Jorcy lunged into the air. A side step from Flame left Jorcy sailing through empty space and headlong into the side of a coffee table. He lay there for a few seconds moaning, clutching his forehead.

 

“Feisty little one aren't you?” Flame said, slightly amused, “Okay, stop the violence my friend, let's get down to business since I am here on that.”

 

“Kiss my---“

 

“Err!” Flame yelled out, “Sit,” he told Jorcy, “Oh, wait, sorry. This is your dwelling place.”

 

“It's ok,” Jorcy said, “I've got too much a headache to worry anyhow.” Jorcy took a seat in his easy chair and then Flame followed by plopping down on the couch. He leaned back a little.

 

“Goodness,” Flame said, a little exasperated, “Downloads these days are real killers.”

 

“Tell me about it,” jorcy said, still clutching his forehead in pain.

 

“Why would I tell you, you haven't had to deal with one,” Flame said, looking harshly over at Jorcy, “Well, anyways on to business.”

 

“Oh God,” Jorcy moaned, “Take these delusions away from me and quickly.”

 

“I'm not a delusion!” Flame roared out, startling Jorcy.

 

“To me you are? In fact, why do I even bother talking to you, you're not real. You're about as real as fairies, dragons, holy grails and quantum mechanics. Not enough has been proven of their existence from them to be a factual idea. For you, nothing has been proven of your existence. It just so happens that a few years ago it was a prominent TV show and card game that's now lost much of its fan base, now if you'll excuse me, I've got a life to continue,” to which Jorcy stood up.

 

“You could tell I was a Digimon?” Flame asked. Jorcy ignored both the question and Flame. He walked into the kitchen, shaking his head. Thoughts began to spill out.

 

It seems almost too life-like to be deemed a hallucination, but Digimon don't exist. It's impossible for a fictional TV show to be real. In fact, I haven't even heard anything about Digimon in a long time.

 

“Fact is stranger than fiction. Fiction works with Fact, while Fact works with Fiction. Fiction in order to work has to be able to fall back and be Fact to every degree imaginable. What you may perceive as Fiction is actually Factual, but only to one who believes in the idea of Fact and Fiction. To call me a delusion only strengthens the point that I am a factual being,” Flame said, walking into the kitchen after Jorcy.

 

“Sounds more like twisting an idea to make you seem like a plausible entity to me,” Jorcy fired back.

 

“Well, I am whether you like it or not, so will you hear me out?” Flame asked.

 

“Hear you out about what?”

 

“We need your help Jorcy,” Flame said simply. Jorcy stood there for a few seconds looking down, shaking his head, “I'm not joking around. This is some serious stuff and we thought you had the best abilities to call on.”

 

“So you need a hero?” Jorcy asked.

 

“No, we don't need a hero,” Flame said, “We need a helping hand. If we needed a hero, we'd get someone who would be expendable,” Flame said with a slight smile.

 

“Glad to see I'm appreciated to some extent, but why?”

 

“Why what?” Flame asked.

 

“Don't tell me you were expecting me to go quietly,” Jorcy said as he spun around with folded arms.

 

“Well, we were at least expecting initial cooperation,” Flame said, also now folding his arms as well.

 

“What exactly will I be doing?” Jorcy asked.

 

“I don't know, I'm just the messenger handing out invitations to a party.”

 

“Heh!” Jorcy laughed, “A clueless messenger, worse than a fallen angel, and I`ve known plenty of fallen angels” Jorcy snorted.

 

“Well, fallen or not, time is of the essence and is something that can never be stopped. I need to know whether you will stay or will go,” Flame pressed.

 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Jorcy said, bringing his hands up, “You wanna' push me around like that, then you won't get a damn thing out of me, understand?” Jorcy said sternly. In his mind, the battle of wits had began, “You want me to go to where?”

 

“The Digital World, where else? How about Mozambique?”

 

“Ah, a fellow smartass,” Jorcy said with a little chuckle, “You're in good company, as I am one too.”

 

“And your point would be?” Flame asked dryly.

 

“Boy I tell `yah. It's amazing how a few minutes ago I thought you and Digimon were just a really great TV series that branched out into other mediums of entertainment. I guess I was wrong.”

 

“No,” Flame corrected, “You're right. What you perceive as the first two seasons of a TV series are visual representations of actual events in the Digital World. Everything else that happened outside of the Digital World was fictional. Once again, factual in the Digital World and fictional in the Real World. Fiction falling back on fact: Proof of theory and equation.”

 

“Theory? Yes, you've proved your theory. But equation? Unless you'd like to write it down somewhere.”

 

“Don't mind if I do,” Flame said. He carefully took out a dry erase marker from a holder and walked over to a dry erase board hanging on the refrigerator. After a few seconds of writing, he stepped back and lobbed the marker at Jorcy. Jorcy caught the marker as he began to walk over and look at the equation Flame had just written out.

 

 

F to the first power is equal to F to the second power

 

 

F to the first power represents “Fact”

 

F to the second power represents “fiction”

 

 

Two possible solutions

 

Zero

 

One

 

 

 

“Two possible solutions in positive,” Flame said, pointing a claw at each, “Both are the two numbers that represent binary code which is the basis of all digital data every created.”

 

“Which this theory is also pure crap. There's no reason for the theory as fact and fiction I think can not be put into a mathematical formula. You're just using this to look all artsy-smartsy. So you're not being yourself,” Jorcy added, wiping it away with his hand as opposed to the little eraser.

 

“Yes, but in the Digital World, it dictates quite a bit. It's a plausible equation outside of the real world. It works. Try it and you'll see that both one and zero are solutions to the equations, but this is just one made up to define the fact that fiction and fact are both the same when compared to each other.”

 

“It's still pure bullshit, completely useless in telling me,” Jorcy said, “I was never much of a math buff. I hate numbers, there's too many of them,” he said dryly.

 

“Alright,” Flame said, “amusement time is over, and I realize this is all a bit of a shock for you---”

 

“A bit?” Jorcy cut in, smiling a little, “This is more than a bit. I wish I had a gauge to measure my shock, luckily, I know how to keep most of it to myself. I'm only letting a little out as we go,” Jorcy said, once again going back to his crossed arms and leaning pose, if it was a pose.

 

Jorcy continued, “You come in here expecting me to leave quietly, head down, nodding yes and dealing with the fact that this could be a long leave.”

 

“It could be a permanent leave actually,” Flame added in.

 

“Permanently!?!” Jorcy exclaimed, jumping up from his relaxed position, “Let me think in private alright?” he asked.

 

“Go ahead, but time stops for no Mon,” Flame said, now crossing his arms, his claw armor getting in the way a little. Jorcy moved out of the room.

 

Okay, Jorcy said to himself in his mind, this might be what you've been looking for. A break in the mundane, a boost in your life. Made a decision already? Yeah, go with it, have a little fun, maybe do something important for once.

 

“Sure, why the hell not, but I'd better be back quickly,” Jorcy said, grabbing his car keys, “Just one thing before I go,” Jorcy said, walking back into the living room. He stopped as he saw no one was there.

 

He opened the front door and walked out to see Flame standing next to the passenger side of the red two seater convertible. Jorcy walked around the car, opened the door, got in, started the car, and put the car into reverse and looked back.

 

“Forgetting someone?” Flame said very loudly. Jorcy looked over to his right and saw Flame standing outside of the car. Jorcy leaned over, straining again to open the door. Flame got hold of the door and pushed it with the side of his claw, obviously in an attempt to not scratch the paint.

 

He sat down in the car, and used the side of his claw again, reaching to the outside of the door to close it. Jorcy rolled up the windows just incase anything was planning on flying at them and hitting one of them.

 

“Where to?” Jorcy asked like a cabbie.

 

“Just drive down the street.” He looked back again and the car rolled out of the driveway in reverse. Jorcy hit the brakes normally, shifted from reverse to neutral and then stopped.

 

“I don't know if I can do it.” Jorcy said, almost apologizing.

 

“You've come this far, why quit now?” Flame said as Jorcy put his left foot on the clutch.

 

“Are you going to stay around me the whole time that we go?” Jorcy asked.

 

“I'll stay around as much as I can,” Flame answered as Jorcy placed his right hand on the shifter.

 

“Promise?” Jorcy said looking over. The dragon could see the doubt and anxiety behind the sunglasses that covered Jorcy's eyes.

 

“Why wouldn't I?” Flame asked rhetorically.

 

“I better not be in over my head.” Jorcy said, moving the shifter backwards, then to the left. He lifted his foot off of the clutch, and floored the throttle. The car took off like it had a racecar engine. After a few seconds Jorcy noticed a bright point of light up ahead.

 

“Should I hang on to anything?” Jorcy asked once again.

 

“It's a good idea to once we are in the void,” Flame answered once again. Jorcy quickly glanced in his rear view mirror and saw Jet's car rounding the turn onto the street. He noticed how its weight shifted from the front of the car to the back, obviously from Jet flooring the throttle. Almost as if Jet was rushing to get home. Jorcy didn't think anything of it, but then it shot into his mind.

 

“What's Jet doing home?”

 

“Huh?” said Flame, whipping his head around to Jorcy. The car hit the point of light and disappeared. The car was now flying through a void of what seemed to be colors and shapes messed together.

 

The two were being forced into the seats from the acceleration the car was undergoing as it entered into a white void. Jorcy watched as the front end of the car as it began to glow from the aerodynamic friction.

 

“What the hell is this!!!?” Jorcy yelled, hanging to the steering wheel with white knuckles. The feeling of his body being sliced into millions of tiny blocks was the next thing he felt followed by a feeling of being broken up. The millions of tiny blocks split away, forming a cloud that expanded into nothing. Then the blocks reassembled, forming Jorcy, and he was back flying through that realm of colors and shapes. This time it had a loud deafening roar, so loud, that his eardrums began to stop working as the sound overpowered the air itself.

 

He held on for dear life as the feelings of terror, adrenaline, and ecstasy raced through him. Flame remained quiet, too quiet to Jorcy for comfort. The violence of the ride in his car through this “trip” suddenly increased, and it reached the point of where Jorcy was beginning to feel his bones strained by the forces he was experiencing. A point of light came into Jorcy's field of vision, and as it seemed to come closer, he could make out a shape. It looked to be a sphere traveling at the same speed as the car through the void. It unleashed a cloud of high velocity vapor.

 

The vapor began to wrap itself around the car. Everything but the car and its occupants warped to beyond recognition and the car decelerated quickly, jerking the two forward. Jorcy looked around, looking for a reference object, but he couldn't find one.

 

It was another void, but this one was pure white, nothing in it. The car seemed to be rested on something solid, but there was no shadow cast.

 

“What is this?” Jorcy asked to himself but out loud.

 

The car, without warning accelerated into a spin. Jorcy was pinned up against his window from the force.

 

Light then filled his entire field of vision, and he saw what looked to be land. The convertible was in a barrel roll as it dropped from the sky like it was in a low ballistic arc and re-entering for impact. The car fell for hat Jorcy thought must have been thousands of feet, and then the impact.

 

Jorcy was knocked unconscious, but the car continued in the sand for several hundred feet, sliding to a stop upside-down and on its hood. Jorcy was hanging in place, thanks to his seatbelts. The convertible had landed very roughly on a beach, and Jorcy was now in the Digital World. Unconscious, and in a few hours would wake up a very different person.