Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digimon: Digital Arena ❯ Chapter 1

Digimon, Digital Arena: Digital Birth

 

"Grandmother, I'm home," Rika Nonaka called as she entered, her short red hair a bit messy from the wind. She slipped her shoes off one handed, clutching a black plastic case in the other, then walked down the hallway to her room.

 

"Did you get what you wanted at the store?" her grandmother called.

 

"No," Rika answered at the door, "but my programmer friend Henry thinks he's rigged up a patch that should work."

 

Her grandmother sounded amused, "Let me know when you're finished, I'm looking forward to meeting her."

 

With a chuckle Rika entered her bedroom, closing the door with the heel of her foot as she pulled her jacket off. Her grandmother was almost as into Digimon as she was, and she was certainly more into technology than Rika was. Posters decorated all four of her walls, but unlike most teens they were of the champion Digimon and their tamers, the stars of gameplay over the past decade. Hanging it up on a hook by the door she padded across the blue carpet to her desk, flipping up the terminal screen even as she sat down.

 

"All right," Rika murmured to herself as she logged on, opening up the design program and her files, "let's get to work."

 

The image on the screen began with just a simple wire-frame, representing the basic operating programs of a Digimon. Rika Nonaka gazed at it a moment as she thought, then the redheaded young woman bent forward to begin typing away as she set the parameters. The body lengthened, proportions shifting, then she began to pop discs into her computer's drive, downloading the programs she had been working on for the past few months.

 

Most of the players in Digimon, Digital Arena purchased a fully made Digimon construct at one of the licensed stores, then used various legal and not-so-legal 'mods' to upgrade and improve them to make the Digimon unique. You could purchase anything from armor, special abilities or even unique changes to the appearance such as clothes or color changes.

 

Rika herself had started with a simple vampire called Nightstalker when she first began, using the points she got from her early wins to help upgrade the sexy looking female Digimon. Using her tactical skills and hard research on her foes Rika had went from the beginners right to the serious players and then won a few regional championships. Then she had made nationals, winning the prize for three years in a row...

 

"It got so predictable that I had to quit," Rika admitted to herself as she studied her work, "that, or die of boredom."

 

The Digimon was going to be tall, her orange fur covering the foxlike body except for the white that marked her middle and the expressive triangle shaped head. Her hands were two fingered with an opposable thumb, the paws of her feet large to allow for leverage and maneuverability. Standing there on the screen she looked oddly serene, like she was meditating.

 

An idea struck Rika and she dug through her pile of disks, finding the one she wanted. With a few keystrokes bracers appeared on the arms and legs, marked with the yin-yang symbol from Chinese philosophy. Of course most of Rika's programming wasn't visible yet, relating to the Digimon's attacks and her personality subroutines, including a new randomizer to make her answers and actions a bit more unpredictable than normal.

 

Most Digimon were simply designed as interactive pets, with very limited capabilities. Many had vocabularies of fifty words or less, and some couldn't even speak at all, mostly due to decisions made by their trainers. The official rules said that a Digimon program could only be a certain maximum size, and that all mods and upgrades had to function within that level, so language was often sacrificed for added combat capability.

 

"Not my style," Rika muttered as she took the hand held Digivice and connected it to her laptop, then hit the final key.

 

The image of the new Digimon almost seemed to fold in on herself, the simple egg icon appearing as the system compiled, formatting the Digimon over onto the drive of the Digivice. A masterpiece of miniature holographic technology the Digivice provided direct interactivity with the Digimon, either projecting a miniature Digimon you could carry with you, or plugged into a projection unit like one in the Arena to create a life-size version.

 

"Digimon program download complete," the device's automatic notification said even as it connected to the internet, swiftly accessing the central Digimon registry as it continued, "please register the Digimon's name."

 

"Renamon," with a steady hand Rika typed in the name she had decided on weeks ago, then she watched as the egg icon dramatically cracked open, the Digivice projecting the very first holographic image of her new Digimon.

 

Renamon looked up at Rika from her position on the Digivice, her expression thoughtful as she asked, "Are you my trainer?"

 

"Yes, I am," Rika answered before introducing herself then looking at her new creation, taking in the smooth grace of the figure as she bowed gracefully.

 

Going down on one knee like some warrior of old pledging allegiance Renamon said, "It will be an honor to fight for you."

 

Rika blinked in surprise at the unexpected formality as Renamon rose again then she felt herself begin to smile, "I think I'm looking forward to this, too." Taking the Digivice in her hand she walked over to her wall, plugging it into the projector that she had bought for her room, a life size Renamon materializing before her.

 

Renamon had a smile on her face, standing nearly a foot taller than Rika with her slim body standing casually in the middle of the room. "Should I really be taller than you?" Renamon asked curiously, a twinkle in her eyes.

 

'Henry definitely had a hand in her personality subroutines,' Rika thought, wondering how much of that irreverence that Renamon would show. "It should be fine," she smiled, "besides, it could be a psychological factor with other tamers in the Arena."

 

Renamon nodded thoughtfully, digesting the information, "Of course, Rika."

 

It was incredible how real Renamon looked, standing there. The powerful room projector made her look solid, no traces of distortion or pixilation on the edges of her form. Of course the details that Rika had chosen to add into the program helped, the movement of the fur and the facial expressions helping complete the illusion.

 

Renamon looked around, her eyes narrowing as she saw some of the other Digimon on the posters around the room. "Those are competitors?" she asked thoughtfully.

 

"Some of them," Rika nodded, "though others have either retired from the game or fallen off of the top ranks." A smile, "It'll be interesting to face them again."

 

"You fought them in the past?" Renamon got it quickly, "With another Digimon."

 

"Yes," Rika admitted, "with Nightstalker, my first Digimon partner."

 

"Nightstalker," Renamon looked curious, "what did he look like?"

 

"She, actually," Rika said. She rummaged through a shelf of models and a few trophies, eventually coming up with a humanoid figure. The woman looked mostly human, batlike wings stretching from her back as a mane of green hair flowed down.

 

"She's beautiful," Renamon surprised Rika again by saying that. Looking down into Rika's eyes she asked, "Why is she no longer your partner?"

 

"Nightstalker and I made it right to the top in our second year of competing in Digital Area," Rika remembered, "but it quickly got boring." A short pause and she added seriously, "And she hit a wall. You see, I had built Nightstalker from a kit-program, almost completed before I started, and there were in-built limitations in how far she could advance."

 

"What happened to her?" Renamon sounded only curious.

 

"I sold her core program to a on-line Digital Arena game," Rika smiled slightly, "this way her program stays active and I didn't have to delete her."

 

"You didn't want to delete her? But Nightstalker was just a program," Renamon said quietly.

 

"Maybe, but she meant something to me," Rika answered firmly.

 

"I'm glad," Renamon surprised her with a smile.

 

'Is this all from the randomizer,' Rika wondered, 'or...?'

 

There was a knock on the door and almost instantly Rika's Grandmother opened the door, "Rika, I..." She trailed off, blinked at Renamon in surprise, "Oh my."

 

"Grandmother, meet Renamon," Rika smiled.

 

"An honor, madam," Renamon bowed her head respectfully.

 

Watching Renamon charm her grandmother so effortlessly Rika had to hide a smile. 'Yes,' she thought, 'this is going to be interesting.'

 

To be continued....