Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Cross I ❯ Prologue: Setup ( Prologue )

Disclaimer: Most of the characters in this fic do not belong to me, they are property of their respective owners, namely Blizzard, Capcom, Nintendo, Bandai, and SNK. So now you STILL can't sue me, MAN!!!

The Cross I

Prologue

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to the Pokémon League Regional Tournament! Today, fifty Trainers and their crack teams of monsters who have all won at least twelve badges from either the Orange, Johto, or Kanto Leagues have come to battle for fame, glory, ten thousand dollars, and the chance at our grand prize: Silph Co.'s newest item the Sun Stone."

`Easy…'

I put on my black jacket, my favorite watch, my gauntlet, and the belt. And finally the icing on the cake, my glasses. It may seem a bit corny, but I had a little trick that always seemed to intimidate my many opponents. Many a kid would leave this competition crying today. They had installed my field, made my adjustments to the lights, and paid for the prize. The stage was set, my time was now…

"After many battles and delivering defeat after crushing defeat at the hands of their teams; Ken Masters, Sarah Kerrigan, and Terry Bogard have made it to the finals. Each of them must pit their might against the local champion, Pokémon Master Crimson `The Pride Robber' Irvine."

I looked over my three opponents from my balcony. None of them looked particularly threatening, but it wasn't them I'd be dealing with on the field. It would all come together the second we walked out on the floor. My monsters were prepped for the battle, I was warmed up, and my sponsors assured me that the emergency personnel were standing nearby just in case anyone needed it. Perfect, I was in the mood to deliver some serious damage to these bastards.

"The first opponent will be the fiery-spirited Ken, who has beaten each of his opponents with only one attack that is being considered by the officials as a new technique to be added to the more than 200 known Pokémon attacks. This one hit wonder will hopefully give him some ground on The Robber."

Each of us walked onto the stands assigned to us. Ken looked cocky enough. A fighter for sure. Muscular, sure-footed, concentrated, but his image was a bit marred by the wild look in his eyes and the wavy head of blonde hair. Most martial artists made sure nothing got in the way in a fight, including one's clothes and hair. Worst of all the punk only brought two monsters to the table. He's going down so damn fast…

"Trainers on your mark…"

The field gave a shudder and then lifted into place from beneath the arena. A place of grass and jutting glass on rolling hills. Each of the shimmering shards let off rainbow colored light when the bright sun hit them. It all came together in one place, a tall gleaming crystal spire in the center I had had manufactured myself. I called it the Dream Field…

"GO!!!"

Ken leaped out onto the field and threw out a Pokéball from his belt. The object soared into the air and then came to a stop six feet in front of me. It exploded in a cascade of light and color, when it dimmed a Hitmonchan stepped forward. It's fists were larger than normal, indicating it's main trait was strength and not it's speed. It also seemed to wear a red band over it's head with the `Shin' demon symbol imprinted on it. A Focus Band. Easier than I thought.

I looked out over the field and smiled at my opponent and his monster. My glasses became dark and mirror-like so you couldn't see my eyes, and I stood to my full 6'2 posture. I lifted my right arm and extracted the green ball from the special gauntlet I'd had made. I pressed the small button in the front and enlarged it before letting it fly. Just before hitting the ground it exploded and let out my combatant. It was a lean looking little Machop, a female at that. The weakest starting fighting type you could get. Perfectly suited to this battle. On it's waist was a Blackbelt.

"Let's do it," I said. "Your move first, Ken."

Ken smirked arrogantly and said," That's the only move I need, pal. Hitmonchan, Dragon Punch!(Shoryuken!)"

The monster rushed forward in front of my Machop, crouched down low, and leapt up with a flaming fist aimed directly at her face. The little fighter took the attack and was thrown back onto her backside next to me. With a condescending look from me she got up and got into a defensive stance, awaiting orders.

"Whatcha should of done in the first place," I muttered to nobody.

"Whoo," Ken boasted. "I'm impressed your little punk took that hit. Everyone else-"

"Akemi, Raging Demon Combo!" I interrupted.

A green flaming aura appeared around the Pokémon and she seemingly flew over at Ken's Hitmonchan. Just after grabbing it the area was engulfed in a hot white light. You could feel all ten blows being delivered from all over the stadium. All were in silence as the attack ceased and all that could be seen where an unconscious Pokémon and his Trainer in their box and mine standing tall on our side of the tower. The crowd roared in appreciation of the match and crowed for more and I always aimed to deliver whatever my fans wanted.

Combos were being considered by the Pokémon Symposium to be the newest form of attack used by any pokémon, not to mention the newest variation in battle. I and a few of my opponents had begun to use this system of attack after learning from each other that different types of monster could use slightly altered variations of the same technique. The `Raging Demon' is just a combination of Agility, Focus Energy, Comet Punch, Cross Chop, and Headbutt. I've seen Scythers even do the same thing in the wild, they combine Swords Dance with Quick Attack and produce a projectile wave of cutting wind, yet they do it too fast to document on camera. And everyone knows that the researchers want data that they can reproduce and see with their own eyes. Ken's even demonstrated that by using that Dragon Punch of his. I believe he may have done it by combining a Mach Punch and a Fire Punch and utilizing it as an uppercut.

"Whoa, ladies and gentlemen! What a match, both the Trainer and his Pokémon were incapacitated. It seems that Ken's one hit wonder couldn't fell our Champion. Now it's on to the next challenger…"

She had to brush past the paramedics who were rushing to get Ken and his Hitmonchan off the premises on her way out onto the field. She didn't look too intimidating. Short, had red wild hair pulled back into a ponytail, wearing a camouflage uniform. Her belt was filled with eight Pokéballs, must have had two spares since the limit of active party Pokémon was limited to six. She had these strange piercing green eyes that were almost familiar, and these wide full lips that seemed a bit big for her face but not unattractive. On her back was a rather large net and circular objects hanging next to a tranquilizer gun on her backpack. A bug-catcher. I could have sworn I'd seen her some place before, but just couldn't place it.

That's when the announcer jumped in. "The second challenger is the wily Sarah Kerrigan, the fierce bug type trainer who has overwhelmed each of her opponents with earth shaking attacks and ingenious strategy. No Trainer had a chance against her methodical style of battle. At the end of each battle we've seen that the Pokémon on the field evolved on command and felled the opponent's monster without much effort."

Evolved on command? That's impossible! I thought scratching my head. Nobody can do that! It must've been a Ditto she was commanding or something. Either that or…Oh, shit.

"Long time, no see, Crimson. I see you're still keeping up with making fun at other's expense," Sarah said condescendingly. "You certainly embarrassed Ken there, didn't you? Breaking his spirit by having your little Machop use Endure. You keep using cheap tactics like that to break people's spirits and get yourself a dramatic win to impress the people in the stands. You're pathetic."

I shrugged. "It pays the bills and gets the job done, doesn't it? So, Sarah, what are you doing here in Johto? I thought you'd picked someone else to follow around and annoy, as per your little habit." Pointing at her net I said," Don't tell me you changed specialties again. I thought you liked the whole flower child image, girl. Besides, I thought you hated bug Pokémon."

She snorted and narrowed her eyes. "No. I hated your bug Pokémon, Crimson." She took a look around the field again and laughed. "Not this again. I thought you quit this absurd dream of yours. Trying to remember a vision that makes absolutely no sense. This is why I broke up with you."

"If you'd listened to me before we got split up, you'd understand what it was," I snapped. "But that was in the past. Hopefully you've moved on an made some improvement by now Sarah, because I know I have. Prepare to be broken!"

I threw the ball off of my gauntlet before I knew what was happening. The flash snapped me back to reality and I saw I'd released him. Inferno, my strongest pokémon. The lean looking Magmar's skin glowed and wavered with heat as it growled and stood taller. It's tail flame was bright blue instead of orange and yellow. It was stiflingly hot standing that close to the volcanic monster, but I couldn't feel it. I was too preoccupied with my memories to care what was going on outside the confines of my own mind.

I remembered the day I met Sarah. I was wandering around the lands just outside of Pewter, looking for some Sandshrews. The wily little creatures had been avoiding me or using sandstorms to cover their escapes from any battle I'd cornered them in. I finally met up with the strongest monster in the area, a very ornery Sandslash. Nearly each and every one of my pokémon were wiped out by the thing. Apparently I'd injured it's mate in a battle earlier and he was mad. He cut out a path in the forest behind my Charmeleon and I as we ran from him in a panic. Soon enough he had me cornered in a narrow gully with my back to wall. The battle was very quick, it used Mud-slap to weaken Spark's tail flame and then knock him out. It then cornered me further. It lingered for a few seconds, probably savoring the smell of my fear. It curled itself into a spiny ball and used Rollout. It span closer and closer, spitting up clouds of dust in it's wake.

Just as it was about to smash me against the wall like a roach on a newspaper, a green blur shot out of the corner of my eye. It struck the rodent pokémon in the side and forced it out of the ball. The green mass of vines I identified later as a Tangela, shook violently and shot a mist of yellow stun spore at the Sandslash. As soon as it was paralyzed I caught it using a Level Ball. Out of the forest came Sarah next, wearing a yellow sun dress. She'd heard the commotion we were causing and decided to investigate. I thanked her and her weed for saving my life and walked off to keep what was left of my dignity, but what I didn't know was that for the next two months she followed me in the shadows. It took me a while, but I finally figured out who was leaving food around when I got lost in the woods and who sent me e-mails of encouragement whenever I lost a gym challenge. When found out, she didn't get upset or anything, she just decided to tag along.

Everything was fine and well for a year after that with her with me. We traded monsters, had a our fair share of disagreements, and even dated a little. It was all good until about three or so years ago when I started having these strange visions. I'd see a field of shimmering crystal shards under a starry red sky. Strange figures would dance across this place and clash against each other, when they made contact the field would break apart and the sky would go black. A face would appear out of the darkness with these luminescent gold eyes and look down on me. They scared me more than that Sandslash did when he'd tried to kill me, more than anything before or since.

I was tense for a long time after that. I let the nightmarish images in my head eat into my life. It ate into my training, making me terrified of the very creatures I'd nurtured since they were small. Ate into my relationship with Sarah. Ate into my very sanity, making me snap at illusions that weren't there. Like someone shooting a Confuse Ray at you all day and night. Sarah finally had enough of it one day and separated from me in Saffron one day. To prove to myself that I could still go through life normally, I stumbled up to the Saffron gym and in my sorry state I challenged their leader. Sabrina handily defeated the cutesy normal type pokémon I'd trained. Just as she was about to have her Haunter deliver the final blow to my Pigeotto, I leapt into the way of the Nightshade attack. I was in the hospital for weeks after that. Severe mental deterioration the doctors said. I was willing to give up all conscious thought if it meant that I could get away from the phantoms that plagued me. I was on the edge of being brain dead when they pulled me back from my coma, or rather Sabrina did.

She took custody of me after they released me from the hospital, keeping me at the gym. Day after day for a year after that she held psychic sessions to help repress the visions and the dementia they caused. We became very close. She helped me more than anyone else in the world ever has. I got my nerve back, started getting reacquainted with my more highly evolved monsters and those that were too feral for me to control before. I felt absolutely no fear when I trained them to obey commands from a guy who'd looked fearfully on as his girlfriend battled for him and he held his head, screaming at demons that weren't there. I wrestled some of them with my bare hands into submission and tamed them. Finally came the day for me to leave the gym that had been my home for more than a year.

Sabrina pleaded with me to stay there and become a gym trainer, maybe even an adept with dark or psychic types. We argued for a while before we came to the conclusion that there was only one way to settle this right, a battle. If she won I'd stay there with her and if I won I'd leave and restart on my journey. I won the most difficult battle I'd ever fought before or since. Some small part of me didn't want to win. Sabrina fought me with every trick she had in that six on six battle royal, psychics fight most fiercely when their hearts are in it. With a bit of a tearful goodbye (not on her part) I left. And since then I've traveled around gaining strength and wisdom everywhere I go.

In those two years I've reached Champion status. I've become popular with the fans because of my fighting style and my combo techniques. I embarrass other trainers and their pokémon by turning their powers back on them, mostly robbing them of their foolish pride. Which is why I have that nickname today.

Now, I guess fate has conspired against me and brought Sarah to ruin me. She looked smug as she carefully mulled over her belt and picked off a ball that was to her liking. She elegantly tossed the ball out onto the field. It flashed and revealed a large looking Ariados. The spider pokémon hissed and stood ready for battle.

"Inferno, Shinku Hadoken!!!" I commanded.

He cupped his talons together in tight flaming fists. As soon as a large enough flame had encompassed his joint hands, the monster threw a fireball. When it was about four feet away, Inferno blew a Fire Blast behind it.

The flames closed in rapidly and grew more and more the farther they went. One huge horizontal mushroom cloud of fire. Sarah said something that went unheard because of the din made by the roaring flames. Ariados and her were engulfed by the fireball and a massive explosion rang out over the battlefield. I scanned the area with my pokédex and found them crouched on one of the spires nearby. She clung to the side of the rock, connected by webbing at the waist to it. Her spider leaped down on top of Inferno and sprayed a blast of webbing on him. The Ariados leaped away and started connecting each of the web lines attached to Inferno's limbs to different spires. Soon enough, Inferno looked like he was playing a bizarre game of Twister from the way he was crouched in on himself.

I snapped my fingers two times and Inferno's skin seemed to glow brighter than before. In a poof of smoke, the webs were gone and the Magmar stood free with his back on fire. I gritted my teeth and waved my hands out. In a few seconds Magmar had used the flame on his tail to propel him into the air. He surveyed the battlefield for a second before falling down and crushing the Ariados in a flaming Body Slam. The pokémon was out cold. Sarah returned him to his pokéball and then tossed out another. The ball flashed, but nothing had seemed to materialize. I thought it was a ruse, until I felt it, a vibration beneath me.

"Hydra, attack," Sarah yelled.

The Dugtrio emerged from the earth from right under Magmar, slamming into his underside and commenced with the Fury Swipes. Within a few rapid claw strokes, my pokémon had been defeated. I returned him to his pokéball a second later. I thought about it for a second before choosing my next monster. I threw out the ball and dashed away to the far end of the field. The creature didn't even seem to have changed form from the capture device in any way, but it conveyed a sense of fear on Sarah as well as myself. She hopped behind a crystal and cursed, knowing what was about to come next.

"Electrode, Explosion; no delay," I commanded.

The pokémon obeyed my orders and set off a huge explosion throughout the arena. It rung in my ears long after the light and sound had ceased. The Electrode was on it's last legs, but still in the fight; 3 Hp left according to my pokédex. The Dugtrio was out though. Three more good hits or even a large impact and it would have been a KO. I returned the orb back to it's ball. I'm happy I spent a month looking for the most rare pokémon the world has ever known: an Electrode that can stay conscious after an Explosion attack.

"Nice work, pal," I said, selecting my last monster for the match. "This is it."

Sarah and I threw the balls at the exact same time and each of us had the same idea on our minds: completely overpower the opponent. As her ball erupted a Tyranitar emerged, the same Larvitar I'd given her for her birthday had evolved. And from mine materialized Musashi, the Sandslash that had tried to kill me the day we met.

"Musashi, Fury Cutter," I yelled.

"Nidhoggr, Rockslide," Sarah commanded.

Musashi ran toward the immense monster, hopping the tons of rock it was telepathically pulling from the ground and shoving toward him. Then he came upon the largest boulder that was bigger than even the Tyranitar himself. Musashi hopped off the last rock and into a Rollout attack. He dug his way through the rock and then broke through to the other side. When he did, he began the Fury Cutter, twirling in a tan dervish. He cut against the brute's thick armored skin, time and time again as Nidhoggr Slashed and Thrashed at him. Finally Nidhoggr yelled out and tripped over his own feet. He fell down, apparently from the confusion, and hurt himself. I scanned him and found that there was little more than 10 HP left according to his life signs. Consciousness was fading fast. I was about to have the Sandslash use a Mind Crush combo, an impossible combination of Metal Claw and Psychic. That's when I saw her. Sarah was on her knees looking at her injured and confused pokémon through tear blurred eyes, at my pokémon… our pokémon.

I sighed and turned away. "Musashi, use Toxic and jump to where Nidhoggr can't touch you…"

The little rodent pokémon looked at me quizzically and then spit a foul liquid into Nidhoggr's face. After poisoning the monster, he bounded away to the top of the crystal spire in the center of the field.

After a few tries at getting up, the Tyranitar finally became fully intoxicated and fainted. Contrary to popular belief, non-poison type pokémon poison has an alcohol base, so their victims are smashed instead of really poisoned. I returned Musashi to his ball and turned to the camera for the large screen on the right side of the stadium.

"Ladies and gentlemen I am sorry, but there will be no third match. The award of this tournament and the prestige as well go to Terry Bogard. I do not deserve it for allowing my emotions to guide the way I battled here today. I owe Sarah, her pokémon and the rest of you an apology. So for the time being I am taking on a new journey of self discovery…and I don't know when or if I'm ever coming back." I gripped the level ball in my hand and pressed the release switch. "I bid you all farewell. And keep your eyes peeled, for the Pride Robber may grace you with his presence yet again…" Then Alakazam teleported me away…

"Hah!"

Thud!

"Hyaahh!"

Whud!

"Yah-haaii!!!"

Crack!

I sat there in front of the broken pine. The thing was at least twenty feet tall and I'd destroyed it with my bare hands. Of course I'd been hitting it for days, taking my anger out on it with every thing I had. Besides, I broke the axe and the sledgehammer…and the saw. Alright I broke everything in the tool shed, but that ain't the point. I came out here to the mountains to find myself and what did I find? My insanity!

I can ignore the visions, the demons, and the voices more and more now, but they're still breaking through. I can hear them screaming and jeering and insulting me. Every one of the psionic walls I was trained to make to defend against telepaths were being eaten away, as if by acid. Slowly and methodically I was losing it again.

I wandered back into the cabin and laid down on the sofa. Just great, one of them is dancing on the coffee table. The little pink fiend with his huge bulbous eyes is doing the hula. I shudder at the vision and try to relax.

`I'm not going crazy, I'm not going crazy, I'm not going crazy…'

A giant bug is on my wall chewing at a picture hanging there. Another one is outside flying in circles, even though that the wings on it's back couldn't support a beast that size.

`There is no bug, there is no bug, there is no bug…'

There's a black cat standing on the arm of the sofa staring at me, on it's hands are tiger printed gloves with claws on the ends. My eye began to twitch uncontrollably at that moment. He gave me a thumbs up (or rather a claws up) and smiled…oookkkaaayyy…

`That was new…'

This is getting weird…Okay weirder. Normally the shadows don't just stand around peacefully or anything like that. They normally attack me, or laugh at me or something like that. Never once have they acted this- how should I put this-friendly? The insults and the creepy moans are just noise now. It's like having the wires crossed on a TV. You have the audio for one channel and the video for another.

"I'll bet you're wondering what all of this is about don't you?"

I jumped up and scanned the room. There was nobody there but me. And yet I still heard him.

"Yes I exist. And no, you are not crazy…well not `that' crazy if I can actually speak to you."

This is some ol' Tyler Durden crap. I gotta get out of here and find some help.

"No you don't. What you have to do is follow my instructions."

That's it! I've been hanging around that Alakazam too long. My head's been messed up from all of those Alpha waves he lets off.

"You are not messed up. Look, we can sit here and banter all day as to whether I exist or not, or you can listen to what I'm trying to tell you and explain the visions and the voices. What is it going to be?"

I sat the for a second, heart hammering in my chest and my eye twitching uncontrollably. "What do you want me to do?"

______________________________________

It was cold and foggy in the tower's ruins. The time just after dawn when the Houndoom and the Haunters stopped prowling the floors of the tower's grounds and started on their way back to their nests. Sunlight popped through the many cracks and windows into the gloomy atmosphere of the ancient structure. I was walking into areas that many humans had dared not tread in many centuries. Mostly because of superstition, and then again it could be the fact that the Black Fog was known to visit the tower once a year, and that beast always craved the souls of humans and pokémon. Dream Eater is not a pleasant thing to live through, you almost wish you were dead because of the pain.

The walls housed hieroglyphs from long ago that predated ancient pokémepolitan civilization when humans worshipped the monsters as gods. They weren't in any sort of dialect I'd ever seen or in the Unown code. They were complete nonsense to me. A puzzle that I had absolutely no answer to. Of course I wasn't there to be an archaeologist, I was there to solve the problem of my visions.

The Pokémon Tower ruins here outside of Lavender town were said to house a portal to the astral plane. Host to a thin barrier that gave life to ghost type monsters. So far we've only discovered two lines of ghost. The Misdreavous and the Gastly line evolutions, namely Haunter, and Gengar. Who's to say there aren't more? Who's to say I want to uncover one?

I roamed the ruins from place to place, scrounging around oversized columns and into colossal chambers filled with ancient furniture that was bigger than any human needed. The maps of this place were always changing with each excavation unearthing new discoveries. Often a person missed entire hallways because of a ghost's hypnotic suggestion. I wasn't affected thanks to my training back in Saffron, so I strolled through the place unhindered by the nonexistent walls archaeologists had come up against for so many years. I was already crept out by being followed by the presence of something I couldn't see. You know the feeling you get when the flesh on your back seems to be covered in bugs and that strange feeling of having your hairs stand on end.

I was feeling that to the 9th power.

"Grrraaahhhh!!!!"

"Oh, Jack," I murmured. I had stopped in another large room when I heard the haunting growl.

"GRRRUUUUAAAAHHHH!!!"

Looking around the room, I swept around trying to find whatever had made that sound. My blood raced through my veins. My heart hammered wildly, threatening to come flying out of my throat with each throb. I was afraid, not for the first time mind you. But I'd never been in a situation like this before.

Across the room the wall began to shudder and then crack into fissures. Just as it was about to crumble down into rubble, it stopped. With a loud swishing sound an explosion of mist erupted from the fissures. The mist filled the room all the way up to the ceiling twenty feet above. In the murk I saw something taking form, something huge. It towered high above me with glowing orange eyes that glittered like fire. On it's head seemed to be horns like a bull, maybe even a Tauros. The monster let loose a bone rattling roar that shook the whole room, almost causing me to go deaf from the noise.

I broke out of my trance and pulled a pokéball off of my waist. Of the three I brought with me, none were real bruisers just Fighting Level 50's to ward away wild pokémon. This thing however seemed a lot higher than Level 50. I tossed out the ball, it exploded in a flash of light and decompressed the creature inside. Bloodred, the red Gyarados I had never really tamed, shot up into the air and screeched. The monster licked it's chops hungrily, of all my dragons it seemed to be the most bloodthirsty. It was more like a shark than anything else, even more than the beasts they found in the Hoenn region.

"Bloodred, Twister away all this fog," I commanded. I carefully hid my fear, hoping that the disobedient monster would obey me.

Thankfully it did. It inhaled and let loose a whirlwind into the fog, blowing away into the chambers beyond the room. I finally got as good look at the beast that had appeared in front of the still erupting wall. It was a huge orange dinosaur looking monster with bluish stripes running down it's back. The head seemed to be covered in dark brown leathery armor with the two protruding horns on the side. It posessed two muscular arms with viscious looking claws on the end and a writhing thick tail behind it. I had no idea what type it was, hence no idea on how to approach it.

I pulled out my Masterdex and analyzed it, but the screen came up blank with no entry. Indeed the device didn't even detect the monster in front of me for some reason. I scanned my Gyrados and got his stats and profile, but it still mysteriously came up blank on the other monster. Okay, now I'm officially freaked out.

I put away the device and steeled myself. "Bloodred, Dinnertime," I yelled, giving the beast permission to go berserk. And berserk he went.

He shot across the chanmber and slammed into the dinosaur's flank, chomping down on his armored neck. The beast roared and grasped one of Bloodred's coils with it's arms, it tore the thrashing pokémon off of it and slammed it down on the ground. It salmmed a huge taloned foot down on the Gyrados' neck and then held it'd head high.

"Nova Blast!" The dinosaur bellowed and then opened it's mouth wide over my writhing sea monster. A flash of flame erupted from it's maw and damn near flash fried Bloodred's armored scales. Most Gyrados are damn near bulletproof, yet that thing roasted through his armor causing the monster to screech in unimaginable pain. I scanned him with my `dex and saw he'd been put into critical condition with only one attack. As expected, Bloodred compressed back into a ball and disappeared from sight. I only hoped that the healing center in Lavender could save him.

`I just hope I can save myself,' I thought as I pulled out the other two balls and threw them out to defend myself from the deadly monster.

A Nidoking and a Raichu appeared ready for combat. The battle was fast and brutal ending with one last resounding Nova Blast, sending both my pokémon into emergency stasis and away from me. I back away from the monster, helpless as it slowly stomped toward me. A hungry look was in his eye as he sized me up. Was he going to cook me like he did my pokémon? Or would he just bite me in half? Either that or tear me apart with those claws of his?

The posibilities were endless. Finally the dinosaur came to a decision and jumped high into the air above me. I flinched and looked away, unable to face the end courageously. I heard a loud resounding crack and then the dinosaur bellowed in…pain?

"Hah! Too slow, Greymon!" (In case you're wondering, sounds like Krillin fom DBZ)

`The voice, it's him again,' I thought as I cautiously opened my eyes.

Someone in an orange suit had slipped in and was battling the monster in my place, dodging each of it's slashes. He was shaped like a short human, about four feet tall. His left arm was armored and had a mechanical guantlet with a blaster barrel at the end. On his head was a helmet with a red visor over his eyes. I swear that this guy looked like a video game character.

"Foie Burst!"

A flaming ball of energy lanced out from the blaster and rebounded off of the Greymon's(?) armored snout. He repeated the command again and again, sendingf a barrage of fireballs the dinosaur's way. I stood there against that wall, trying to comprehend what the hell was going on. The smaller fighter got one round off in the dinosaur's eye. Greymon roared in pain, lashing out with it's claws and tail in all directions. The room shook and trembled with each rabid blind attack. Chunks of stone began to fall as the roof started to collapse. I jumped up from my cowering and ran full out toward the exit.

I stumbled and dodged from place to place, avoiding falling debris and off shot attacks in my mad dash to save my own worthless ass. I just about reached the exit when I heard a massive creaking sound. Looking up, I saw the cracks in a massive collumn begin to seep dust and then break open under the stress. I was frozen in place. The huge slab of stone cracked and began falling, I could already see the place where I'd be a greasy smear left for some historian to find in a few millennia. The huge stone collumn was less than ten inches from my face when I was gripped up by the collar and tossed halfway across the room next to the fog spewing wall. The orange clad person stood above him, his aim still drawn on the blinded dinosaur.

"I can't leave you alone for a second can I," he said. "always getting' into trouble."

"You're him," I sputtered," the voice in my head. I thought you weren't real. I thought you were some kind of hallucination!"

"I told you that I was real." He turned toward me and smirked. "Is this the face of a guy who'd lie?"

GRAAAAHHHHHGGGG!!!

The Greymon thing's rampage escalated when he began to shoot off more Nova Blasts in every direction, bringing the room down even faster. Entire walls began crumbling to pieces and ragged debris. The whole place was collapsing right on top of us. I lost the dinosaur in the confusion. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up at my savior.

"Hey, Crimson, I don't think we should be staying here much longer. We gotta go!"

I gestured out into the loud rumbling chaos and screamed," Go where? There's no way out! We're dead, man! Ya hear me? DEAD!!!"

He took his blaster and shot the fog spraying wall. The whole thing crumbled away to reveal a mural of shifting shapes and colors. At the end was a bright light that shimmered like a star in the night sky. I looked at him incredulously, trying not to cry out.

He winked at me and retracted his visor with a simple touch on his forehead. "Here's the way out. Are you willing to take it? Or do you want to go through him?" He pointed back at the cloud of dust and particles containing the dinosaur, still in the throes of it's rampage. "Make your choice…" With that, he touched a hand to the portal and disappeared in a cascade of particle light.

As if to emphasize his point a Nova Blast shook the ground not to far from where I was, creating a wave of heat that stiffled me. I looked back at the portal and then at the blind dinosaur still raging behind me as an ancient chamber collapsed around it. `Like I've got a choice,' I thought.

I swallowed once and took a running jump at the portal. A feeling of nausea swept over me as I was translated through time and space. I'd teleported countless times before, but this was different. It felt like I was changing on the inside. Soon enough I had lost all feeling in my body, there was no sound, no sight, no touch, nor taste. Suddenly I was smacked by all senses at once and I was standing upright in a field of tall grass. The sky was a brilliant blue hue, about noon time with the sun shining overhead. It was a startling change in scenery to say the least.

"You made it," the voice yelled as he jumped out in front of me.

Startled, I fell back on my behind and stared. He was unarmored this time around with no helmet on, a thick bush of brown hair spread out from his scalp. His skin still had a few strange mechanical features like a circuit board on it. I just sat there panting with my heart hammering in my chest.

"Who are…? What was…? How did…?" I stammered nervously, pointing everywhere I could think like a crazy person. "What the hell is going on?"

He just laughed and smiled at me. "Relax, partner," he said reassuringly. "I'll explain everything soon enough. The name's Magmon and I welcome to the Digital World!"