Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digimon Tamers: Side Trek ❯ Saving Mr. Andrews ( Chapter 1 )

I was about to start a huge journey in my life, and I didn't have a clue. If I'd known it, I might've taken more care in the designs I made for my Digimon. Then again, who would ever think that a card or computer game would start happening, just down the street? And it's not like I lived in a neighborhood that got a lot of excitement, either.

In fact, my neighborhood was about as boring as they come.

"David, wake up!"

David Lenma was not in a very positive mood today. It was the end of March, two more days before he got off for spring break. "Aww, mom," me muttered, rolling out of bed. "Come on, it's practically spring break!"

"You can wait another two days to start sleeping in," his mother said. Looking towards him, she smiled. "Although I have plenty of chores you could do if you're that desperate to start skipping school."

"I think I'll take school," he said, grabbing a clean shirt and putting it on. Looking at his clock, his eyes widened. "Mom, why didn't you wake me up earlier!"

"I did," she said, rolling her eyes. "Get your pants on and I'll drive you to school on the way into work." As she left, his door closed, and David pulled out the notebook he'd been using for the past few weeks to design his very own Digimon. The latest design was still on the front page, and as he grabbed his pants, he quickly sketched in an arrow to the left and added the word 'Tsukaimon' behind the ghost. "Not a bad choice of rookie," he said, grinning. "Besides, Tsukaimon makes that runt TK's Patamon look like a wimp."

The new one was a ghost, more human looking than Bakemon or Phantomon, but not quite meant to have a solid shape. In fact, its 'legs' were currently drawn as a blob, like cartoon ghosts. In a way, This Digimon was meant to be the cartoon ghost form of Bakemon, or maybe the serious form of Bakemon. David hadn't quite decided yet.

It was recess, and David was sitting on a bench, sketching away on the ghost, just starting on a clean page as Angela walked up. He was sketching the Digimon, this time making notes on his powers and attacks.

"Let's see 'er, Davey," Angela said, leaning over to see the notebook. "You wanna play me, right?"

"Can it wait a minute, Angela?" David brushed her off like a fly as he noted that the Digimon could return any attack at full power, assuming he survived it. "I need to think of a name for this one."

"Why not Losemon," she said. "Because that's what you're gonna be doing when we get going in the cards."

"Bite me," David muttered, writing down names. "Actually, Angela, I think you'll be the one losing today. I've been building my deck to better handle yours."

"Your deck doesn't matter if you don't have the strategy," she said. "You know where I'll be waiting. Don't make me wait too long." She walked off as David sighed. He couldn't think of a good name for his new ghost Digimon. "Gee, they make it seem so easy with the rate they make these new cards," he muttered. "Renamon, Knightmon, Rockmon, Starmon. Why can't I think of a ghost name? Caspermon? Yeah right, who's that gonna intimidate."

Closing the notebook, he sighed and headed over to the doors, where he took his viral deck out of his backpack, and looked over at Angela. "All right, you're on, Angela."

"You don't stand a chance," she said, flipping a coin, and catching it before he could see. "Call it. I may as well give you a chance, at least."

"Tails."

"Your loss," she said, flipping her Digimon over. "And hurry up. We only have a few minutes."

Her Veemon seemed to be mocking David. His plan relied on her using high level Digimon, yes, but if she got him up to Imperialdramon... He flipped his card over, and looked over his hand. He couldn't devolve a rookie, and he didn't have any way to evolve his Demidevimon yet.

He added his Tsukaimon in the next box, and let her go. He was not having a good day, as she evolved Veemon into a Strikedramon. "Go on, build your army while you can," she said. "Strikedramon and I will just bide our time."

Drawing a card, he grinned. "Maybe, but it won't matter if I can get the right cards." Discarding two from his hand, he evolved Demidevimon into a Bakemon. From there, the game sped up, and in seemingly no time, it was in a dead heat between his two Bakemon and Soulmon and her pair of Strikedramon and Gatomon. But his Soulmon gave him an advantage.

"This one has a very nice power," he said, pointing it out. "Even though he gets sacrificed next turn, this turn, he doubles the attack power of all three of my ghosts."

"But since they're all champions, with doubled attack power, my pair of Strikedramon get their power tripled," Angela said. "You may as well take the Bakemon to the Dark Area right now."

"Darn," David muttered, as the bell rang. He'd lost, again, and it was too late for him to do anything about it. "Alright, Angela, you win this time. But next time, I'll be sure to win!"

"Don't strain yourself trying to build a deck that can beat me," she said. "Besides, you'd need more luck than this whole school has to beat me."

"Brutal," Henry said, leaning over to David. "This Digimon looks amazing... but what's that for?"

"He can change shape," David said, showing Henry the note. "Sort of like the Bakemon did back in the first season, remember? Except that he can actually use his changed shape as a way to attack."

"Dude, you should send this one into Bandai," Henry said. "Maybe they'd even make a card of him, and send you one for free."

"No way, all the contests are only open to people in Japan anyway."

"Your loss," Henry muttered. "Oh, the new shipment is coming into the store tonight! You'll be there with me, right?"

"Yeah," David said. "I need to get something that can actually beat Angela. Maybe this new set will give me a chance to do that."

"With a virus deck, that's going to take luck," Henry said, pulling out his textbook. "So, what's that guy gonna be called?"

"I'm not sure," David said, sighing. He looked up at the ceiling, his brown eyes shifting as he tried to think. "When in doubt, back to basics," he said, quickly scrawling the best name idea he'd had. Ghostmon.

"Geez, I can't wait to get my next allowance," Henry said, as they left the card store. "Did you get any good ones?"

"I don't think so," David muttered, going though the cards. Then one of them caught his eye. Light blue, with a strange logo on it, and a black strip on one edge. "Henry, have you ever seen a card like this?"

"Whoa, dude, that looks like some kind of promo card," Henry said. "Try using your card reader to see what it is when you get home. But if it is a promo, I'll be glad to buy it from you."

"No thanks," David said. "I've gotta head home, I'll see you in school tomorrow."

"All right. Who knows, maybe you got a few gems in there after all?"

"Yeah, maybe," David said, running down the street. It wasn't too long for him to get home, but with the report he had due tomorrow, that he hadn't even started yet, he had a lot of work to do. "I'm definitely gonna see what this weird blue card is about before the report, though."

He was glad he'd bothered to already install the update to the reader software, as soon as it came out. Grabbing his card reader from under his bed, he swiped the black part of the card through. But when it started crackling with energy, he panicked, and threw it back under the bed. He hoped it wouldn't start a fire as he started working on the report.

"Well, it seems like it's quieted down," he said, looking under his bed. Reaching under, he grabbed something smooth and not at all shaped like his card reader. "What is this," he wondered, looking at the cross shaped thing. Flipping it over, he saw a flashing screen, with a black ring around it. It had two words flashing on it.

NO DATA

"Is this... some sort of... Digivice?" He shook it, and looked at it. Reaching back under his bed, he pulled out one card. But it wasn't the blue card he'd thrown under with the reader. It was just a normal, if new series, Tsukaimon. "This is crazy," he said, putting the device and card on his desk, not realizing that it was right next to his Digimon notebook.

"David, dinner is ready!" His mother was right outside the door. "Hurry up, we're waiting for you."

"I'll be right down," he said, saving his report. Hardly high quality, but at least it was almost done.

And as he returned from dinner, he found a soft white glow coming from the object, and all the pages of his notebook scattered on the floor. "What's up?" He looked and saw a lavender egg with purple rings on it. It was throbbing, and as he grabbed it, a flash of light filled his room. The egg was still on the screen, but it was beating harder now, and David almost panicked. Looking out the window, he saw a flash of light about a block away, near the old cemetery.

Without a thought, he ran outside to see what it was.

"The gate... it's never unlocked at this time of day," he said, rattling the chain. "So why is it open today?"

He glanced up, and only hoped that it wasn't just the groundskeeper running late. Because if it was, the barbed wire would lock him in once the gates closed.

He headed through the cemetery, looking at an arrow on his Digivice. "Okay, so this can show me... where something..." His eyes widened as he saw a body slumped on one of the gravestones. "Mr. Andrews? Are you... still alive?"

With no response, David looked around. He hadn't realized it, but he'd walked into some kind of fog bank. And it was very creepy to think that whatever had killed old Mr. Andrews was probably still very nearby.

"Data." The single word was all that warned David that it actually was still there. It looked strangely familiar, and it only took him a minute to recognize it.

That was when his Digivice went into action. A screen popped up, floating above the unit, showing the Digimon and a quick data rundown of it. "Gazimon, Rookie level, Virus. Even if he is a prankster, his paralyze breath is no laughing matter."

"You don't need to tell me," came a squeaky voice, somewhere above David. "Watch out, human. Bad Message!"

Scanning the Digimon above him as he moved, he blinked. "Tsukaimon, Rookie, Virus. His bad message and purple mist attacks are his only defense."

"I know that, human," Tsukaimon shouted, his eyes glowing red. When he spoke again, his voice was lower, tougher sounding. "All right, this time... Bad message!"

This time the attack actually worked, a sphere of black energy flying from Tsukaimon's mouth towards the Gazimon. But Gazimon avoided the attack, and instead of being destroyed, the attacks shattered a gravestone. "Wait, if Gazimon's main attack is paralyzing... then..." David ran towards Mr. Andrews. He was right, the elderly man was still alive, just unconscious. And his muscles were rigid. He dragged Mr. Andrews away, watching the fight as best he could, to make sure he stayed out of it. When he couldn't go any further, he left Mr. Andrews and ran back to the fight.

"About time you got back," Tsukaimon said, jumping on his shoulder. "Come on, do something to give me an edge here, partner."

"Partner? Wait a minute, you're a real Digimon... aren't you?"

"Not for long unless I beat this punk," he said. "Don't you know anything about options and upgrades?"

"Cards," David muttered, reaching into his pocket. He only had two cards on him, and they didn't look like they were any good. "I don't know what I'm doing," he muttered, sliding a speed upgrade through his digivice.

"That's what I'm talking about," Tsukaimon said, leaping back into battle. "Eat my purple fog," he shouted, flapping his wings as a purple mist enveloped the Gazimon. When the mist was gone, along with the fog back, Tsukaimon absorbed the gray specks coming out of the former Digimon, and then looked up at David.

"Hello, partner," he said, his voice in it's squeaky, high-pitched form again. "I'm Tsukaimon, and I'm sorry if this was any trouble. I wasn't expecting to get a partner in the middle of a battle... well, really, I didn't expect one at all. What's your name?"

"M- me? David blinked, looking around. "My name... that is, I'm David."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, David." Tsukaimon jumped and hen flew up to David's shoulder, and leaned over. "But I'm kind of, I'm not sure how to explain it. Sort of like I need to recharge."

"You're probably hungry," David said. "Look, you stay hidden for a minute. I'm going to make sure Mr. Andrews is all right, then when I leave, you can fly out over the fence. I'll meet you... over there." He pointed towards the fence on the north side of the cemetery, about lined up with where they were.

"Demons!" Mr. Andrews was back to his senses, as David approached him. "You're not possessed, are you boy?"

"Mr. Andrews, there aren't any demons," David said. "Just look over there, do you see demons?"

"They were there, they were going to eat my bones and drink my blood, I swear."

"Then they must have run off by the time I got here," David said. "Without eating or drinking."

"But they attacked me... I was over there," Mr. Andrews said, pointing towards the gravestone he'd collapsed on, then his eyes wandered, and he saw the shattered one. "See, how else can you explain a shattered gravestone! This is holy ground, and the demons broke that stone when they came from the pits of hell!"

David sighed. "Mr. Andrews, I think it might have been some kids having a gunfight. I only ran over here because I saw a flash of light, and heard something like a gunshot."

"No, it was demons," the elderly man said. "Demons of the sort that hides in places like this. One had long sickle claws and red eyes, and said he was going to load my essence. The other one was watching, like a vampire."

"Well, since they aren't here now, why don't we leave and you can lock up the gates, okay?"

"And I'll have to get the father out here to bless the place tomorrow," Mr. Andrews muttered, taking David's hand and getting up. "And make sure you aren't being possessed, boy."

By the time David finally got home, he was hungry again too. He grabbed the leftover ham and mashed potatoes and headed up to his room. He only hoped Tsukaimon hadn't been found out on the way there.

He was lucky. The purple hampster-like Digimon was waiting when he got to the room. "What's all that?"

"It's food," David said. "You eat it to keep up your energy. You do know what eating is, right?" He demonstrated, by taking a large bite out of one of the pieces of meat. "Like that."

"I've never had to do that before," Tsukaimon said. "But..." he leaned over the plate, and took in a whole piece of ham at once, then chewed it and swallowed. "It... it's good. But why do you use so much energy to gain more? Why can't you just load other peoples' data?"

"That's not how the real world works," David said, looking under his bed. "Look, you may be able to get by with loading Data in the Digital world, but it doesn't work that way in my world. It's sort of like... well." Grabbing the object he'd been looking for, he pulled a pair of goggles out from under the bed, and nodded. "Okay, so I'm a tamer, and you're a Digimon. So, we'll mark the difference with these. I can't load data, but you can. See?"

"It's so confusing," Tsukaimon said, eating another piece of ham. "Oh well, at least this food is good."

Okay, so maybe it wasn't so exciting at first, but I didn't know what I was getting into, let alone that there were other tamers -- let alone that they were people I knew. Who are the other tamers? Well, you'll just have to stay tuned for the next episode of Digimon Tamers: Side Trek to find out.

David is a new breed of hero, a lot like Takato Matsuda in his own ways, but representing a true minority in not only Anime, but even anime fan-fiction. Too often minorities are ignored, and in Anime the closest it usually comes is having an American or Chinese person.

David Lenma is an African-american. He lives with both of his parents and his older sister, Carrie. Being five years younger than her, they rarely, if ever, have anything in common, and so David tends to spend most of his time at home on his own, in his bedroom. He has played several Digimon games for the Playstation, and enjoys the card game. He is a devoted follower of the TV show as well.

He enjoys hanging out with his friends, who range across the spectrum of diversity. His closest friend, both in proximity to home and emotionally, is Henry Young. They often go to the card store together, and share ideas on new Digimon.

David normally wears blue jeans and a University of Michigan t-shirt, and black sneakers. In cooler weather, his t-shirt is replaced with a sweatshirt.

-- excerpt from the Fan-Made Digimon Encyclopedia

http://new-gaia.cjb.net/fme/encyclopedia.html