EPISODE 02 - GET ALONG
“You’re telling me we’re in another world?”
It was too late - early? - for this shit.
Place: the mansion where the six of them had stopped for the night. Time: who knew? Azure’s watch was broken and their phones still weren’t working.
Ryan’s mood: skeptical and a little pissed off.
It was still dark outside, and the stars were still visible, which were both signs that no one should be awake at this hour - and yet, here they were, all six of them, gathered in a circle in the bedroom, wide awake, listening to Alex earnestly.
Scratch that - all seven of them, because Alex had brought back a talking dragon with him.
“I’m as confused as you are,” Azure started, looking at Ryan, “but it makes sense, if you think about it. I mean, with the falling from the sky, and our phones gettin’ all messed up - I know that the idea of another world is a little strange to us, but we have no reason t’ think they’re lying.” They nodded toward Hackmon, Alex’s little friend, at the last part, who sat up straighter and puffed his chest out a bit.
“Well, if Azure thinks it’s logical, then obviously it is,” Ryan grumbled, with more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Azure narrowed their eyes and glowered at him.
He didn’t want to admit it out loud, but it was really the only explanation about the whole thing that made sense. Which was stupid, and Ryan wished that he could wake up and realize it was all a dream, but after pinching himself all day and realizing he was awake, he was running out of hope.
Was it really so bad if it turned out that Azure was right? Ryan didn’t have a grudge against them or anything. He barely knew anyone here, so it wasn’t that he hated them, but he had a bad temper, and people tended to get on his nerves often.
He really wished he was anywhere other than here right now.
He sighed and shoved his chin into his palm, his elbow resting upon his knee. He had elected to remain on his bed for the discussion, rather than sit in a circle on the floor as if it was group therapy time, as everyone else was doing.
They’d been pulled into this place through a computer. It made sense that it would be another world, and a digital one at that - but the idea of that was so unrealistic that it seemed almost as if he was being set up. “Different worlds” didn’t exist. Talking dragons didn’t exist.
And yet, there was a talking dragon sitting not ten feet away from him, complete with a red cape and strange fondness for Alex.
So, yes. Though it infuriated him to no end to admit it, it was likely they were in another world, if not only because of how they had all arrived here.
As well as the fact that Alex and Ezra had supposedly been attacked by a giant ogre.
“I got this weird app downloaded on my phone, too,” Alex broke in after the extended pause. He pulled his phone out and swiped to the last page before shoving it forward so the others could look at it, holding it up to Ryan once everyone on the ground had seen it.
Sure enough, an app, in the process of downloading and with some strange, Japanese-like characters as its title, was displayed as the only item on the page, as if it had just been downloaded from the app store.
Ryan rolled his eyes, trying not to show his surprise, because he would not admit that he was surprised in front of these people. “Are you sure that’s not some stupid mobile game that you’re blaming on the dragon?”
“Fuck you,” Alex snapped, at the same time as Hackmon said “Very funny.”
“Wow, it has a sense of humor,” Ryan mused out loud, rubbing his chin in fake-deep thought.
Alex returned his phone to his pocket before curling his lip at Ryan. “Dick.”
“Let’s not fight, okay?” Ezra said nervously, smiling and pulling Alex away from Ryan before the latter could lunge at the former. “We’re all confused and tired. Why don’t we all go back to bed so we can discuss this in the morning?”
“You think I’m going to stick around here for much longer?” Ryan raised an eyebrow at him. “I am catching the next train out of here ASAP.” Because, holy shit, if they really were in a strange world with aggressive monsters, he did not want to stick around.
Not like he was scared or anything! He just didn’t particularly care for strange worlds with aggressive monsters in them. He just wanted to go back home.
“Newsflash, Einstein,” Azure said, giving him jazz hands. “We don’t have a way home. Different world, remember?” They tapped the side of their head, arching their brows at him.
“Haha funny, like I didn’t know that,” Ryan growled, curling his fingers into fists. He only barely restrained himself from jumping at them - but the option was still there, and he tucked it in the back of his mind.
“Sorry, I kind of assumed that you weren’t aware of the fact, and were just genuinely that stupid,” Azure shot back, lifting their chin.
“My name’s Azure and I don’t know what sarcasm is,” Ryan mimicked, scrunching his nose up. Azure rolled their eyes and wiped a hand across their cheek.
“Hey,” Ezra warned, shifting his weight, but it was drowned out by Azure’s response.
“Oh yes, let’s all mock Azure for taking Ryan for the idiot he is.”
“Yeah, to be fair, Ryan,” Alex chimed in before the addressee could snap back, “you kind of started it.”
“And you’re being a jerk about it,” Hackmon added, frowning as well as a dragon could.
“Oh, so the talking dragon is going to preach to me now?” Ryan laughed and massaged his temples. A dragon who could talk? Okay. Not ideal, but okay. A dragon who could talk and also try to give him a speech about kindness and love? Not okay. “Wow.”
“Hey,” Ezra said again, more sternly this time, and he thumped his hands on the ground for emphasis. “Don’t.”
“Just because it saved you and it can talk doesn’t mean it can tell me what to do,” Ryan said, turning to Ezra, who recoiled when he realized Ryan was now bringing him into this.
“I’m not telling you to do anything,” Hackmon said, sounding very exasperated, “except stop being a - what was it, a dick? - to Alex.”
Okay, cool, so the dragon definitely had a thing for Alex. Ryan would bet money that, if it was someone else he was snarking at, it wouldn’t be this upset. Hell, if it was anyone else who had been attacked by the ogre, it probably wouldn’t have even showed up to help.
Ryan elected not to comment on this, assuming that it would only fuel the fire more - but he didn’t want to take this sitting down, so he shot back with something else. “Ooh, it can swear. I’m so hurt.”
“Without him, I would have died!” Alex exploded, raising a hand high into the air for emphasis and using the other to steady himself against the floor. “Ezra would have died!”
Ryan laughed. “Would that really have been such a big loss?”
“You know, I’m starting to wish that it was you who had been attacked,” Azure mumbled, mostly to themself, but loud enough for Ryan to hear. He didn’t reply, but he did flip them off.
“Guys -” Ezra was trying much too hard to try to stop the fight, and Ryan thought he’d be better off if he just sat this out, much like Miguel and Harmony were.
Speaking of. The former was curled into a ball, his hands clasping his knees, while the latter was pressing her palms over her cheeks and casting her eyes down as if she didn’t want to hear it. When she caught Ryan glancing at her, she glared at him and decided to insert herself into the conversation - much too late, but he had to give her some credit for trying.
“Ryan, have a little empathy, will you?” she said, folding her knees under her and flattening her hands against them. “Alex and Ezra have been through hell and back, and you are not helping.” Ezra cast her a thankful look, while Alex simply nodded his head at her while making eye contact with Ryan, as if to say “she’s right and she should say it.”
Ryan, for one, could not believe that this conversation was still going on - but he didn’t want to be the one to back down, so he forged on, making everything worse than it had to be, as he was prone to.
“I don’t care about any of you, why would I try to emphasize?” Ryan ignored Azure’s attempts to correct him (“It’s empathize, you fuckhead”) and waved a hand around in the air. “Who fuckin’ cares if they almost died?”
Truth be told, it wasn’t like he wouldn’t care - people dying was generally not something that most people didn’t care about - but he barely knew anyone in this room, least of all Alex, and the more he got to know him, the more he wished he hadn’t wandered over to check out his computer when he said it had a virus.
I should’ve just stayed in my seat back at school, he sulked to himself. Then I wouldn’t be here with these stupid people and stupid talking dragons.
He was still not over the fact that the dragon could talk.
“Those of us who are good people?” Harmony offered, spreading her hands out palms up, as if it was common knowledge.
It was, but Ryan did not care. “So me not caring for people I barely know is a bad thing?”
“Yes, you fucking - oh my god, you are insufferable!” she exclaimed, causing Miguel to shrink further into himself. She looked furious - this had to be the angriest Ryan had ever seen her. “I can’t believe I’m stuck here with you!”
“The feeling is mutual, asshole,” Ryan snapped, propping his cheek up with a fist. Harmony shot him an ice-cold stare and turned back to Ezra, who was staring at the ceiling in defeat.
“Can you maybe not take your anger out on those around you who are just tryin’ to help?” Azure groaned, rubbing their nose.
“Don’t bother, Azure, he’s not worth it,” Alex said cheerfully, ignoring Ryan, who was very glad that they had all finally come to an agreement.
“Thank you for realizing you’re wasting your time trying to fight with me.” Ryan sat back and folded his legs, smiling grandly at the six on the floor.
Alex had decidedly had enough, as he rose to his feet despite protests from Hackmon and Ezra. He stayed put, but brought his fists together, pushing the knuckles into each other. “You started it, you piece of -”
“ENOUGH!”
Ryan had thought Harmony had tuned out, but she was still listening, and apparently tired of them going around in circles trying to make a jab at each other. She stood up and gestured for Alex to sit down, which he did, although he shot a dirty look at Ryan.
“Will you stop fighting for two minutes so we can figure out what our plan is?” She crossed her arms, tilting her head at Ryan. “We just found out that we’re in another plane of reality and you guys are just going at each others’ necks over petty things. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time in the future to argue, so why don’t we all go back to bed and try to get some rest, so that tomorrow we can figure out a plan.”
When no one responded, she nodded and strode back to her own bed without another word. Miguel quickly followed suit, looking very eager to get away from everyone. Azure rolled their eyes and went to their bed, while Ezra and Alex shared a look and silently parted ways. Hackmon looked back over his shoulder at Ryan for a split second before jumping onto the foot of Alex’s bed and curling up like a dog.
Ryan scratched the back of his head, feeling a strange mix of emotions and unable to name any of them. How had he escalated things? He’d fought back when he was questioned. That was a normal response. Sure, he didn’t have to fight back, but he wasn’t going to let them get away with that.
Actually, yeah, they were the ones who were in the wrong. Ryan had said that he didn’t want to stay here, and Azure had decided to take it to another level and call him an idiot, and Alex had agreed and insulted him more, and things had just spiraled from there, but it wasn’t his fault. He was totally justified in snapping back.
…Right?
Doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done.
Ryan fell back onto his bed and crossed his arms as he laid his head on his pillow.
Stupid Alex, he moped. Stupid talking dragon. Stupid fucking world.
He lay there, those three phrases repeating in his mind, until he dug his hands into his hair with something like frustration and anger and why the hell are these childish insults circling through my brain.
Eventually, he gave up trying to shut them out. There wasn’t a way for him to just not think anything, as much as he wished there was.
Ryan sighed and pulled the covers up closer to his face.
He had a feeling that tomorrow would not be a good day.
Ryan was not the first one to wake up in the morning - in fact, he was the last.
Blinking away the bright sunlight streaming through the open balcony, he stifled a yawn and looked around the room. Everyone’s bed was made up just as they had been yesterday, and no one was in them.
Begrudgingly, he sat up and dangled his legs off the side of the bed, wondering if it would be worth it to go with them. Maybe he could stay here and someone would come along and bring him home.
He heard voices downstairs and groaned, remembering where he was and who he was stuck with. Hooray, a brand new world with monsters and people I don’t know. What a great way to kick off the morning.
Again, he half-contemplated just going back to bed, but as if on cue, Harmony stuck her head through the door to the room. When she saw he was awake, she blinked, but let herself in and walked over to him.
“Hiya,” she said, sounding much more pleasant than she had last night - Ryan felt a massive headache coming on as he remembered it. Wow, what a bunch of idiots they were.
Harmony said something to him while he rubbed his forehead, and he didn’t catch it, but in typical Ryan fashion, he decided not to ask her to repeat herself and instead answered with a half-hearted “mhm.”
She looked shocked. “Oh, really?” It must have been something she hadn’t expected him to agree with. “I just thought after last night you wouldn’t want to come with us.”
Ah. Of course. Of course he’d blindly and accidentally agree to travel with the very same people who’d ganged up on him for no reason. Just his luck.
But he didn’t want to look like a dumbass, so he shrugged and waved it off. “I don’t really have any other options, do I.”
Okay, not an outright lie. Improvement.
She smiled faintly, only for a second - and then she turned around and made her way back to the door, calling over her shoulder as she went. “Get ready and come downstairs to eat. Bring your backpack, Azure thinks we might need them.”
With that, she was gone, and Ryan was left alone in the room and alone with his thoughts.
He stared at the wall, trying to think of any possible argument he could use to back out from the deal and not go with the group. Pretend to fall back asleep? Tell the truth? Just head off on his own in the complete opposite direction as them?
…None of them seemed plausible enough, and all of them would certainly end in disaster if he went off by himself in a world filled with hostile monsters.
Fuck it, I really don’t have any more options.
He grabbed his phone from the nightstand and slid off the bed, ducking down to retrieve his backpack from underneath. It was still open from last evening, and he pulled the purple t-shirt out of it with more gentleness than he typically used to handle anything.
He looked it over for a few seconds - he noticed it didn’t have a tag, so it didn’t seem like there was a specific forwards-backwards - and paused. It felt a bit weird to put on clothing that didn’t officially belong to him, but…
It’s just a shirt.
He shook his head out and took his current shirt off, replacing it with the purple one. It fit him perfectly, and he tugged at the hem curiously. Shrugging, he put his previous shirt back in his backpack and zipped it up. He elected not to change his shorts, because there was no way in hell he was going to wear jorts.
Ryan fucking hated jorts.
After much more internal fighting with himself and a quick stop in the bathroom, he finally made his way downstairs and was immediately greeted by Azure throwing a bagel at his face.
“What the fuck,” he demanded, picking it up off the ground, “was that?”
“Breakfast,” they said with a blank expression.
Ryan frowned. “Why did you have to throw it at me?” He inspected the bagel, and after tasting it, realized it was a pizza bagel - a little stale, but after the first bite, he didn’t care.
“You’re late,” was all Azure said. Their gaze lingered on him for a moment before they turned around and walked back into the kitchen.
“Didn’t have to fucking clobber me with a bagel because of last night,” he called after them, but they made no gesture to convey that they heard him. He cursed under his breath through another mouthful of bagel before reluctantly following them.
Alex and Ezra were seated at the counter, using one of the kitchen knives against Hackmon’s nose blade - either they were trying to sharpen one or the other, or they were testing which one was stronger, both of which were completely ridiculous experiments. Harmony was packing her bag with what little food remained in the pantry. Ryan hadn’t paid much attention last night, but there really hadn’t been all that much, judging by how easily she was able to fit it into her backpack. Miguel was busy washing out jars, while Azure filled them with water, which they delicately placed in their own backpack.
Everyone - save, perhaps, for Alex and Ezra, whose actions and intentions were unclear - was doing something to prepare for leaving.
Against his personal wishes, Ryan awkwardly approached Harmony, trying to see if she needed help with anything - but it was Ezra who first noticed him.
“Ah, he’s finally back from the dead,” he joked, holding Alex’s wrist tightly so that he couldn’t stab him while he wasn’t looking. “A wonderful morning to you, sir. I assume, by your bagel in hand, that your breakfast has been delivered?”
“Yeah, no thanks to Mr. Blue Sky over there,” he grumbled, jerking a thumb in Azure’s direction before he had time to regret his choice of insult. He closed his eyes and placed a hand over his face. “Ah, fuck. Sorry.”
“It’s alright, ma’am,” they said, not even looking up at him.
“For the record,” Harmony said, pausing for a moment to speak to Ryan, “I didn’t agree that they should throw it at you.”
“Neither did I!” Miguel quickly added, turning around so fast that he spilled soapy water on the floor. He made a guilty sound reminiscent of a whimper and immediately dropped to the floor to wipe it up with a towel.
Ryan barely noticed him, instead focused on Harmony. “Azure throwing it in my face was planned?”
“Yeah, it was my idea,” Alex said with a laugh, setting his knife down long enough to prop his cheek up with a fist. “Figured you deserve it after last night.” Hackmon said nothing, just observed Ryan from underneath his hood.
Ryan felt the anger and desire to argue, to fight, to get the last word in, rise up into his throat - but he stopped it before it could reach his mouth and come out in a string of snappish comebacks. Instead, he simply ignored Alex and shook his head.
See how easy it is to let jokes slide and not make every molehill into a mountain? a nagging voice chided in the back of his mind.
Shut up, he thought back, before realizing he was now doing exactly what it had said not to do.
He sighed through his nose, shaking his head lightly. Miguel had finished wiping up the spill, Azure was almost done with filling the jars, and Ezra had grabbed the knife out from under Alex’s nose, placing it in his own backpack and feigning innocence when Alex noticed its disappearance. Harmony packed the last of the food into her bag and zipped it up, then hoisted it up onto her back.
Now that they were all together out in the open, rather than on their own separate beds, Ryan quickly noticed that everyone’s backpack was the same. Or at least mostly the same - although they were all the same size and design, they each had different accent colors to go against the black, matching the colors their beds had been. “Their” beds.
Harmony hoisted herself up onto the counter, swinging her legs back and forth while she waited for Azure to finish packing. “So where are we headed?”
“The north side of Twister Mountain,” Hackmon said immediately, pulling his hood off of his head. “I know someone who can tell us what Alex’s app says.”
“What, that’s the only thing we’re looking for?” Ryan asked, gesturing with a hand in confusion. “What about a way back home?”
“That’s next on the agenda,” Hackmon replied coolly before Alex could interrupt. “I think that the application is a more… immediate concern, due to the fact that it probably has something to do with Alex and I. I mean,” he added after he received baffled looks from everyone in the room, “it’s in Digimoji, our old language. That has to mean something, right?”
“Whatever,” Ryan sighed, shaking his head. “Let’s just get moving.”
“Hey, no need to get all pissy,” Alex snapped, leaning forward in his seat. “It’s barely eight o’clock and you’re already acting like someone spit in your food.”
“I swear to god, if I have to mediate between you two one more time,” Harmony said forcefully, pushing Ryan backwards away from Alex. “Calm down and let’s go. Walking will take your minds off your hate for each other.”
Ryan shot a glare at Alex before rolling his eyes and turning away. He waited for everyone else to clear out of the kitchen before following, not wanting to be in the front of the group with Alex.
I didn’t even say anything all that bad, he thought to himself. Did I? No. What’s his problem?
He shoved his anger to the back of his mind and followed the others out the front door. In front of him, Miguel cast one last look over his shoulder at the mansion, his eyebrows knitted together.
Ryan fell to the back of the group almost immediately after stepping outside. After last night and Alex blowing up at him only moments ago, he didn’t want to be near anyone. Hackmon wasted no time in pointing the group in the right direction, and Ryan barely had time to grumble under his breath about Alex’s short fuse before the group started moving. Southeast, Hackmon had said; Ryan was surprised that he even knew what that was.
He hadn’t been paying much attention to his surroundings yesterday, save for when they came across that odd area with all the road signs and vending machines. Now that he looked around, he could see that although the trees definitely looked like trees, they didn’t seem to resemble any he’d ever seen before. Granted, he was no botanist, but he was pretty sure that these ones didn’t grow anywhere on planet Earth.
The underbrush, too, looked just a tad off, and when he looked really close, he could swear he saw tiny pixels floating up away from the leaves. Indented patterns snaked their way up the tree bark, shaped like circuitry; it seemed natural rather than man-made (or mon-made?).
Ryan heard Hackmon saying something up ahead and turned his attention away from the wildlife. They hadn’t even been walking for a minute and he’d already gotten distracted by flowers? This place was really messing him up.
“It’s maybe a five day walk,” Hackmon was saying to Alex. “We just need to get to Plugin Forest, then cross the Net River, and then Twister Mountain is in the Hinterlands just beyond Circuit County.”
“Woah, slow down buddy,” Alex said, laughing. “I have no idea what any of that means.” Hackmon shook his head with a smile and pulled at the nape of his cloak.
Ryan tuned them out, not caring enough to get to know the lay of the land. They weren’t going to be here very long, so a geography lesson would just be a waste of time. Right now, he needed to focus on not getting into another fight with someone.
The group was mostly silent as they walked, save for Alex and Hackmon’s chatter and the occasional comment from Ezra. For the most part, everyone seemed lost in their own heads, withdrawn and caring very little for whatever was going on with the others around them. Ryan was no exception.
But because of the silence, it was even easier to hear it when something - or someone - broke it.
“Living for the past, cause the future’s gone, praying in the dark that you won’t go home…”
Harmony, walking just a few feet ahead of Ryan, was… singing to herself. Her gaze was focused on the ground below, kicking up stones and leaves as she walked, and her voice was quiet enough that she was almost whispering.
“I should have said it better, I should’ve set fire to your letter…”
She was barely looking where she was going, oblivious to the world around her, yet still managing to avoid rocks and roots along the ground. She didn’t seem to notice that anyone could hear her.
He rolled his eyes, tightening his grip on his backpack strap as he looked forward. Everyone else was a bit ahead of the two of them; Alex and Ezra were laughing while Hackmon ran around in front of them, while Azure appeared to be - reading? Were they out of their mind? Where did they even get the book from?
“Why’s it I want to change for you? Why’s it I wanna see things through? Maybe I’m sick of sleeping longer nights with lesser feelings…”
Ryan huffed and turned his attention away from her. The sun was beating down fiercely on their backs, even through the shade of the trees; the cover of the trees yesterday seemed to have been a fluke. Ryan shook his head and marched onward. His backpack was weighing him down, making every step harder than the last, but he tried to ignore it.
Whatever. If the others can do it, so can I. It’s not a big deal.
“I’m a sucker for your glowing -”
“What song is that?”
Harmony blinked quickly, turning to look at him. “Oh, you, uh - heard that?” She stared down at her feet, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Yeah,” he said. “I like the lyrics.” Giving a compliment was strange for him, definitely, but the fact that he actually believed it was even stranger.
“Oh!” Harmony’s jaw dropped as she stopped walking. “Really? Wow, that - that means a lot coming from you.”
Ryan felt his ears starting to burn. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he snapped, furrowing his brow.
Harmony backed up, raising her hands defensively. She snuck a look up ahead at the rest of the group, who had moved on significantly. Ryan sniffed disdainfully as he followed her view. Whatever. As long as they don’t leave us here to die.
“I just -” Harmony fumbled over her words, pushing her hair back from her face frantically. “I just haven’t ever heard you compliment anyone! And after last night… well, I just…” She squeezed her eyes shut, avoiding his gaze.
Ryan exhaled, folding his arms. “Okay. Whatever. Let’s keep walking.” He started toward the rest of the group, Harmony quickly following behind.
A few beats passed, and then: “It was, um, Golden, by Hippo Campus.”
“Mm?” Ryan wasn’t particularly interested anymore, so he gave a noncommittal response.
Harmony, however, took it as a sign for her to continue. “I don’t know all the words, I’m much better at Bambi, but -”
“Bambi?” he repeated. “There’s a song called Bambi? Is that just the soundtrack for the movie?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s by the same band.” Harmony shut up after that, which he appreciated.
But he felt like… wanting to talk to her more? Is that what that twisty feeling in his gut was? Just last night he had snapped at her for trying to be a peacemaker, and now he was prompting her to sing. What had gotten into him?
Don’t know, don’t care, but -
“How’s that one go?” he found himself asking. “You know all the words?” He immediately frowned at himself. What the hell am I saying?
She immediately brightened up, and began yakking away again. “I think so! I haven’t ever tried to sing the full song, so I’m not certain.”
“Well, if it’s called Bambi, it can’t be that hard,” he said. “What’s it about? Flowers and deer and the sad reality of death?”
“I don’t think it’s about… the movie,” she said, trailing off. She didn’t say anything else, but after a few moments, he noticed her mouthing something to herself.
Hmm.
“Let’s hear it,” he said, startling her (and himself). She gave him a quizzical look, but he nodded at her, and she returned it.
“Mmh, okay,” she started, then took a deep breath and pressed on. “…I swear to God I wasn’t born to fight, maybe just a little bit, enough to make me sick of it - but I… can read between the lines, I want to run from everything, but my legs won’t work, it’s clear to me…” She trailed off at the end, looking down at the ground and shuffling her feet.
Ryan blinked. “That’s dark.”
Harmony laughed and shrugged, not meeting his gaze. “Yep. The whole album is a little… sad, but it’s good. The only one I’m not super into is Bubbles.”
Ryan snorted, pointing his face upwards. “You can’t stand a song called… Bubbles?”
“It’s not that I can’t stand it!” she protested. “It’s just… a lot harsher than the name suggests.”
“Well,” Ryan said, tilting his head. “Guess I’ll have to give it a listen.”
(He would absolutely not give it a listen; as far as he was concerned, there was only one band worth listening to, and it certainly wasn’t anyone Harmony was interested in.)
(…maybe it was?)
(He wasn’t going to ask.)
They walked in silence after that, trying to catch up to the rest of the group, who were far ahead of them by then. They’d wasted too much time already. If they really wanted to get to wherever they were going, they couldn’t afford to spend their time singing and chatting.
He was already starting to regret everything about that interaction. Stupid, stupid, stupid, he scolded himself, punching a fist against his cheek in irritation. That was so stupid. Why the hell did I ask her to sing?
And yet - in the back of his head, a teeny tiny voice akin to the one he’d heard this morning whispered something - is it really that stupid? Why is her singing a song she likes stupid?
A very loud thought flashed through his head and he immediately shut it out, as if he was slamming a door. Shut up.
Thinking was too much of a hassle.
Ryan sighed inwardly and pressed onward - he’d dropped back behind Harmony as he’d gotten angry. I just need to stop caring so much about everything.
The rest of the morning passed without much excitement; at one point, Hackmon pointed out some food that he called digitakes. Digital mushrooms, he’d explained, with digital spores. They were common everywhere, so not particularly exciting, but it was still nice for the group to know that there was food to be found out in the wild. Harmony picked them and placed most of them in her bag, save for a few that she offered to the group. Ryan reluctantly took it, and was surprised to discover it didn’t taste too bad. He normally wasn’t a fan of mushrooms of any kind, but these weren’t particularly awful.
When the sun was at its peak in the sky, the group stopped to rest underneath the shade of a giant tree. They’d been walking for a few hours, and although they hadn’t had too much trouble, it was a relief to be able to stop. Harmony pulled some apples out of her backpack, and Hackmon was more than happy to slice them up and pass them out.
“These are cheerful apples,” he said before taking a bite of his slice. “You can tell when they’re ripe because faint speckles that look like smiley faces will appear.” He leaned over toward Alex, pointing at the spots along his apple.
“So all the food here is weird?” Ryan wrinkled his nose at the apple piece he held in his hand. After a few seconds, he decided he had nothing to lose, and he popped it in his mouth. If the mushroom had been decent, surely an apple would be fine.
“I’m pretty sure that if I went to your world, I’d think your food was weird,” Hackmon responded.
Ryan didn’t answer, but nodded in agreement - his mouth was full of apple. It was pretty good, way sweeter than the apples back home. He decided he liked it very much.
Everyone finished their snacks, and Azure passed a few jars of water around. They had to conserve it as much as they could, as they didn’t know the next time they would find clean drinking water, but it was refreshing, and Ryan felt rejuvenated. Somewhat.
Walking, after that break, was no longer exhausting. Everyone was in high spirits and looking forward to the rest of the day. Some of them even began to talk casually with each other, and though their conversations were stilted and awkward, at least they were feeling a bit better.
But of course, with Ryan in the group, the peace didn’t last long.
“I just don’t understand why we all have to go with you just to find out why Alex’s phone got a virus,” he said aloud at one point.
Hackmon heard him, stopped walking, and turned around to face him.
“We went over this,” he said steadily, eyeing Ryan, who was still walking.
Ryan came to a halt as he got closer to him. Azure, behind him, warily edged around him to stand next to Miguel.
Hackmon continued. “The application on Alex’s phone is in Digimoji, which is our ancient language. It means something.”
“Not necessarily,” Ryan said before Alex could jump to his defense. Hackmon’s eyes narrowed and he pinned his ears back. “If this is a digital world, then maybe his phone just reacted weirdly to it. Like the equivalent of clicking on a pop-up ad on a sketchy website.” He looked at Alex pointedly. “Isn't that how we ended up here, anyway? With you clicking on some spam email?”
“Okay,” Alex growled, crossing his arms. “You know just as well as I do that it means more than that.”
“Oh, and you know that how?” Ryan snapped, taking a step toward Alex. “How do you know what I feel? I’m the only one who knows that.”
“Because we talked about this earlier,” Alex said, “and you agreed. You just like starting arguments.” He reached out a finger to jab Ryan in the chest. “Because that’s all you have going for you. Your anger and your determination to win every fight. Does it give you some sort of ego boost?”
“You don’t know anything about me,” Ryan said in a low voice.
“I know that you’re a huge asshole,” Alex shot back. “And we’d be better off without you here.”
“Stop fighting,” Harmony said, raising her voice. “Let’s just keep going.”
Ryan’s ears were pounding and he clenched his fists. Ignoring Harmony, he got closer to Alex, who stood his ground and refused to back up.
He’s blaming all this on me. Just like he does when things don’t go his way.
Ryan saw the anger in Alex’s eyes and the way his eyebrow twitched with irritation.
I have to deal with enough of his shit at home.
He saw the signature blush on his ears, an indicator that he was beyond mad.
I shouldn’t be dealing with it here, too.
Against his better judgment, Ryan decided to take things further, just to see how much Alex could take.
“If anything, I think that the world would be better without you in it,” Ryan said simply. That’s what you think about him, too. “You don’t know anything about me, and yet you think you have a right to tell me how I should feel.” That’s what he does to you, too. “And when I stand up for myself, you turn it back on me and make me look like the bad guy who just likes to pick fights.”
He does all that to you, too.
Alex didn’t even have time to respond before Ryan took a few steps back, turned around, and promptly walked away.
“What - where are you going?” Of course it was Harmony who called after him. Always the pacifier.
“Alex thinks you’d be better off without me,” Ryan said, not even looking over his shoulder. “Let’s see if he’s right.”
He kept walking in the direction they’d come from, and not once did anyone run after him, or try to call out to him again, or do anything. Anything to convince him not to leave. To not head off into the forest on his own. To stay with them.
Of course not, the voice in his head said bitterly. But that doesn’t matter, because even if they had, you wouldn’t stay.
But it would be nice to know they wanted me there.
This goes against everything you’re trying to get across by leaving, the voice said back. You’re supposed to be saying, “I don’t care about you, and I’ll prove it to you by leaving and not coming back.”
And if you die out here -
Ryan pressed his knuckles into his skull as if he could punch his thoughts back into his mind, but all it did was make his head hurt.
When he reached the tree they’d stopped at earlier, he kicked the apple core Ezra had dropped on the ground against the trunk and turned to walk in another direction.
Ryan knew he’d made a mistake the second he broke out of the thick of the forest and faced a ginormous mountainside.
It blotted out the sky and the sun slowly lowering behind it, its face covered in outcroppings of rock and straggling bushes. He couldn’t see the peak of it from where he stood at its base; it was too high up, even as he shielded his face with a hand and strained to look up. This couldn’t be the mountain they were headed toward, could it? Hackmon had said it would take five days to reach it. Had he lied to them?
Regardless. There was no other way to go but back, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to do that. A few minutes passed as he stroked his chin, looking up at the mountain, and then decided there was only one option: proceed. He traipsed along the base of it until he found a half-forgotten pathway leading up that wasn’t too steep, and he began to ascend.
It was just like a normal mountain - save for, you know, the fact that the few shrubs that clung to its side were losing pixels, which floated up into the air before dissipating.
Completely normal.
Despite its size, he had faith he’d reach the peak by nighttime. He could get a good view from up there and figure out where to go next. If he was lucky enough, he’d be able to find some food along the way.
As he continued his trek, however, he started to regret his decision to leave. He wasn’t having a particularly fun time climbing this mountain; he’d never been one for nature hikes or backpacking, but he didn’t have any other choice, did he? He wasn’t going to go back now. He’d committed to this. He was in too deep.
He distracted himself from his frustration by talking out loud to himself
“Alex thinks just because he’s got a talking dragon that he gets to tell everyone what to do,” he grumbled. He was, decidedly, still hung up on the previous argument. “Stupid asshole.” What, are you jealous of him? “Of course not. Why would I be jealous of a dick like him? He thinks he can go around doing whatever the hell he wants. I’m just pissed. If he’d kept his mouth shut, maybe I’d still be with them.”
There you go, trying to find reasons to go back to them. Just admit it. You’re nothing without someone by your side.
“Oh, shut up,” he grumbled. His brain was never particularly helpful when he was upset, and it seemed like now wasn’t any different. He gave up trying to reason with it and spent the rest of his walk in silence. For more reasons than one.
If there were any more monsters around, they probably wouldn’t take kindly to him yelling. That was what had almost gotten Alex and Ezra killed, wasn’t it? So far, the group knew of one aggressive monster and one friendly monster. Ryan didn’t want to take any chances and assume that most of them were as kind as Hackmon (for a given value of “kind”, because Hackmon hadn’t exactly been the pinnacle of kindness). He had to be prepared for anything. He had to assume that all of the monsters here were out to kill him.
Except, apparently, for one.
“Hello!”
Ryan froze.
Where the hell had that come from? He whipped his head around, trying to pinpoint the direction of the voice. Something that wanted to attack him wouldn’t announce its presence by saying hello, would it? Unless it was a trick…?
He had to be careful - but whatever it was had clearly already seen him, so there wasn’t any point in trying to act like he wasn’t there.
Against his better wishes, he called back to it. “Who’s there?”
“Oh, you don’t look dangerous,” came the reply, and it sounded friendly enough, though Ryan was a little put off by its assumption that he wasn’t dangerous. He thought it best not to provoke it, though, and instead turned to where he thought the voice was coming from.
“Who’s there?” he asked again, frowning.
From behind a boulder stepped a small, purple-striped… well, Ryan could only assume it was a fluffy tyrannosaurus rex. It stood on its hind legs, and tiny black wings stuck out from its back. When he made eye contact with it, it tilted its head, and Ryan noticed it had a triangular red gem set in an interface on its forehead. A long tail swished back and forth slowly as it approached him.
“Hiya,” it said, in a sort of giggly tone. “Who’re you?”
“I asked you first,” Ryan said, crossing his arms. The Digimon blinked and sat back on its haunches.
“Ooh, acting tough,” it said. “Alright, you got me. I’m Dorumon! Nice to meet ya!” It leaned forward, perking its ears up at him. “Now who are you?”
Ryan debated whether or not he should trust whatever this thing was. On the one hand, it seemed nice, but on the other, maybe it was working for some sort of more violent monster. Maybe it would turn him in and he’d be subjected to the same rude treatment as Alex and Ezra. Maybe it would attack him. Maybe it wanted to eat him and was just waiting for him to let his guard down for it to attack.
He shook his head lightly, closing his eyes. “…Ryan,” he said, after a moment.
The tyrannosaurus - Dorumon - paused and frowned, tapping its claws on the earth, before lighting up and giving him a toothy grin. “Ohhhh, yeah, you’re a human, aren’t you? That’s why your name’s all weird!”
“Your name is the one that’s weird,” he muttered, before - “Wait. You know what a human is?”
“Of course,” it said. “I’m not stupid.”
“But humans aren’t supposed to be here,” he said. “In this world, I mean.”
“Of course not.” Dorumon smiled up at him, its wings flapping lightly. Suddenly its eyes shot wide open and it threw a paw over its mouth in realization. “Wait,” it breathed, “if you’re a human, then you don’t know anything about the Digital World, do you?”
“Brilliant observation, Sherlock,” he snapped, rolling his eyes. “As a matter of fact, I just got dumped here last night, and in the past twenty-four hours I have gotten into three separate fights, the most recent resulting in me deciding to climb this mountain on my own. So no. I don’t know anything about this place.”
“You’re just a ball of sunshine, aren’t you?” Dorumon chuckled, flicking its ears. “C’mon, walk with me! I’ll tell you anything you want to know about ‘this place’.”
Without another word, it leapt up the path, beckoning Ryan to follow. Despite every bone in his body telling him to find another way up the mountain without this annoying little brat bugging him the whole time, he followed it, shoving his hands in his pockets as he went.
“I’m heading to the top to meet someone,” she said - Ryan didn’t know how, but he knew she was a she. “I don’t know who, but I know that it’s someone important!”
“That’s great,” Ryan mumbled flatly.
“You should tell me about yourself,” Dorumon said, oblivious to his disinterest in her. She looked back over her shoulder and twitched an ear. “Where are you from?”
“California,” he said, “but obviously you don’t know what that is.”
“Nope,” she admitted, sounding almost apologetic. “Sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” he asked, scrunching his nose up.
She blinked. “Nothing,” she said quietly. “Well, I’m from the Hinterlands, but I guess you don’t know what that is either.”
“Nope,” he echoed, peering up at the sky - was it darkening?
Dorumon was still entirely unaware that he didn’t give a single shit about whatever she was saying or asking, and continued with her interrogation. “Do you have any friends with you?”
“Mm,” Ryan responded, before processing the question. “Oh. No, I don’t.” He stopped for a minute, thinking. “Well, I was here with some other people, but they’re not my friends.”
“No?” Dorumon asked, tapping her tail along the ground as she walked. “That’s a shame. Friends are a nice thing to have. Well, do you have a favorite color?”
Ryan paused for a moment, considering if he should reply. “Purple,” he said, “but I usually tell people it’s black.”
Dorumon blinked again. “How come?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Just do. Always have.”
“That’s silly,” she said, and he felt a flicker of annoyance. He rolled his shoulders back, stamping the feeling back down, but it was quick to return with her next question. “Do you have a family?”
“Why are you so desperate to know every little thing about me?” he snapped, at the end of his patience. Dorumon shrunk away from him and fixed her gaze up ahead.
“Sorry,” she said quietly, her wings dropping to her side.
Well, shit. Now he felt bad. He didn’t know why, because Dorumon shutting the fuck up was exactly what he wanted from her, but…
Ugh. Whatever. He wasn’t going to be with her for longer than a couple hours, anyway, so he figured it couldn’t hurt to indulge her. Just a little bit.
“I do,” he mumbled, and Dorumon perked up upon hearing his voice, so visibly it was almost comical. He rolled his eyes. “My mom. And my little brother. And - ” He broke off here, not wanting to say anymore, hoping Dorumon would leave it at that.
She did not. “…and?” she said, tipping her head back to look at him.
Ryan swallowed a lump in his throat, almost caught off guard by it.
…Should he tell her, he wondered. Should he tell all of his personal problems to a tiny monster he’d met 5 minutes ago. He felt as if he’d told her enough already. She didn’t need to know everything about his fucked up home life and everything wrong with him as a person.
But…
Fuck it, the voice in his head said. Not like you’ll be hanging out with her long enough for it to come back and bite you in the ass.
“My dad.” Dorumon turned towards him, tilting her head, and he continued. “My dad - I mean, I love him, ‘cuz he’s my dad, but -” He paused, thinking for a moment. “He’s got a lot of weird feelings about how the world should work. Specifically how my world should work. He doesn’t care what I want in life. He just wants me to be… someone else entirely. Even though he knows I can’t.”
“That’s kind of stupid,” she said, frowning.
“That is exactly what I think,” Ryan muttered, “but unfortunately he doesn’t.”
Dorumon nodded thoughtfully, though she still looked a bit lost, her brow furrowed and tail lashing.
“I don’t know,” Ryan went on when the silence got awkward. “I guess it just kinda wore off on me after hearing it all my life. Funny how those things work.”
“…That’s a bit sad,” Dorumon sighed.
Ryan managed an ironic chuckle. “Is it?”
“Well, yeah,” she said. “Imagine not being able to be happy because there’s always someone telling you it’s not what you should be.”
Ryan remained silent, looking out into the mountains. “I’ve kinda gotten used to it.”
Dorumon didn’t ask him any more questions after that, and the rest of their walk was mostly quiet. Ryan assumed he’d scared her off with his oh so tragic backstory, and oddly enough, he felt a twinge of… guilt? Regret? Something like that. He found it hard to care about it.
They did talk occasionally; Ryan relayed the events of the previous day, such as how he and the others had arrived in this world and what they’d done and where they were (had been) going, and answered any questions about it that Dorumon had, even if he only gave one-word answers. It was better than awkwardly walking with each other and not saying anything at all. He couldn’t say he was enjoying her company very much, but at least she wasn’t quite so annoying anymore, now that she’d seemed to have gotten everything out of her system.
Night fell quickly, the sky darkening so incrementally that Ryan failed to notice how dark it’d gotten until he had to squint to see anything ahead of him. He blinked in surprise when he realized this, looking up at the sky to see the first stars twinkle into sight. He’d spent the whole day walking and had gotten nothing done.
Well. Not true. He’d gotten in so many fights with the people he was dumped here with that he was now scaling a mountain with a stranger who happened to be a monster from another world. Add that to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Now that he was actually walking up it, he realized just how big the mountain was, and when he and Dorumon reached a flat expanse about halfway up, he was shocked at how little ground they’d covered. So much for reaching the peak by nightfall, huh?
“I’ll set up a fire,” Dorumon said, gathering up some sticks and placing them in a pile. She picked up a stone and struck it with her claws once, twice, before sparks flew off and caught on the sticks. She sat back and smiled, gesturing at her handiwork. “Nice, huh?”
"Yeah," Ryan said offhandedly, sitting on the ground next to it and holding his hands out to warm them up.
Dorumon stared at him for a few beats, then cocked her head. "Do you really not have any friends?"
Ryan frowned. "How should I answer that," he muttered. "I guess I do. But he's not here with me."
"That's too bad," Dorumon said, a somber expression darkening her face. "What's his name?"
"Cole," Ryan said. "I haven't known him very long, but I guess I could call him a friend."
"Is he your only friend?"
Ryan propped his chin up in his palm, closing his eyes to think. I barely know her. I shouldn't dump all this on her.
But… it would be nice to talk to someone who won't get angry at me for everything.
"I guess," he finally said, echoing his prior sentiment. "Nobody else talks to me. I don't really need friends, anyway."
"I think everyone needs friends," Dorumon said, and Ryan frowned, but didn't comment. She didn't notice his annoyance, and carried on. "Why doesn't anyone else talk to you?"
Ryan sighed and rubbed his hands together. "…I'm not exactly the easiest guy to get along with. And I don't try to be."
"You seem nice to me," Dorumon said. "I'm having an easy time getting along with you."
"It's different," Ryan said, trying to ignore the way that made him feel. "If I wasn't nice to you, you'd probably claw my face off or something. You're a monster from another world. Not a human who already knows me."
"No I wouldn't," Dorumon said. "I wouldn't ever hurt you." Her voice was serious, almost deathly so, a stark contrast to the light, jovial tone she'd been using up until then.
Ryan didn't look over at her. "Still. It's harder to talk about these things with other humans. I don't think you get it."
Dorumon hummed quietly. "I think I do. You're not the only one who's lonely."
"I'm not lonely," Ryan snapped, a little offended at her assumption. "I'm fine as I am. I don't need anyone else."
That wasn't entirely true, but he didn't need to tell Dorumon that.
"I think you are," Dorumon said, and Ryan felt a swell of indignation rise in his chest - is she mocking me? - but she continued, and she was certainly not mocking him. "I am too. Maybe that's why we get along so well." She ducked her head, staring into the fire. "I don't have any friends. I never have. So I know how it feels."
Ryan felt a sharp pang in his chest; an unfamiliar feeling, yet one he could understand, somewhat.
Weird.
Dorumon suddenly looked up at him and grinned wide, showing off sharp teeth. "But now I have you! So I'm not completely alone anymore."
Is she calling me a friend? Ryan blinked and tilted his head, but said nothing. He couldn’t really call her the same. She was a talking purple dinosaur with a penchant for asking really annoying questions, and he was a human who wanted nothing to do with this world. He didn’t want to be here. He hadn’t even wanted to climb this mountain - he just hadn’t had anywhere else to go. As soon as he had a chance to get back home, he was damn sure going to take it, whether or not he was with the others and whether or not they wanted him to stay. He certainly didn’t care for this little… thing he’d ended up with.
(Did he?)
Ryan didn't need anyone. He never had. He'd always managed just fine on his own.
But he wanted to get to know her more.
“Yeah,” he said, instead of anything else he could say to Dorumon. She puffed herself up, happy with his answer.
“Do you want some food?” she offered, gesturing to the side. “I saw some digitakes over in the bushes.” Ryan shrugged in agreement, and she bounded over to pick them.
The fire crackled and popped, warming his face and filling the night air with a smoky taste. Ryan found himself almost nodding off - but of course something had to go wrong at the last moment.
“Hey, so uh,” Dorumon announced in one breath as she broke back into the clearing, digitakes completely forgotten, “we might have a slight problem, and by slight I mean big.”
Ryan jerked back in surprise, barely avoiding falling headfirst into the fire. He sat up quickly and raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for further details. Dorumon raised a paw at him, the other one clutching her knee as she caught her breath.
“The problem is a Vegiemon,” she said after a few moments, “and it’s headed this way, fast, so we need to get out of here -”
“Wait, another Digimon?” Ryan asked, leaning closer to her. She nodded furiously, her eyes widening as she took a step toward him.
“Yeah, I can explain more later, but we need to move -” She looked frantic, her gaze darting around the clearing and looking over her shoulder at the bushes she’d emerged from. Her tail was fluffed up twice the size it had been beforehand, much like the rest of her fur.
Ryan frowned. “Can’t you just talk to it?” Sure, there was the possibility it was like the ogre Alex and Ezra had come across, but if Hackmon and Dorumon could talk and be reasoned with, surely this - what was it - Vegiemon could be as well.
Considering the kind of people in the world that Ryan came from, that probably was not the smartest assumption.
Dorumon seemed to agree. “Vegiemon are usually pretty territorial but this one is being a lot more aggressive than normal so we need to get out of here, damn it -” She was cut off once again, but this time by… something emerging from the bushes. “Damn it,” she hissed again, before shoving against Ryan’s chest forcefully. He stumbled backward, this time away from the fire, thankfully, as he fell back and hit his head on the ground.
“Ow,” he said, more in annoyance than actual pain. “What was that for?”
Dorumon did not answer him, and as he sat back up, rubbing the back of his head, he saw that it was because she was standing off against the thing.
Vegiemon, she’d called it - Ryan couldn’t understand why, as it looked more like a carnivorous plant than any vegetable he’d ever seen, but then again, the only other two monsters he knew of also had strange names, so he thought nothing of it. He was starting to pick up on the trend of their names ending with -mon, though.
File that under something to think of later - too much was going on right now for him to focus on anything other than the standoff in front of him.
Vegiemon was… not particularly large, but it was at least twice Dorumon’s size, perhaps a foot or so shorter than Ryan. It was also yellow; like, disturbingly yellow - Ryan had never seen a more hideous shade of yellow. Atop its head was a crown of sorts, composed of six red leaves. It had a curly tail like a pig, pure white eyes, and its only limbs were two long vines that seemed to act as arms.
Also, it had teeth. A lot of teeth.
Dorumon was crouched low to the ground, her ears flat against her skull and her tail curled above her back like a scorpion. Her pupils had shrunk to barely the width of a fingernail, and her mouth was pulled back in a snarl, revealing some wicked teeth of her own.
“Hey, so what’s the plan of action?” Ryan called out to her.
Dorumon kept her eyes on the Vegiemon, who was sort of slowly circling around her, but she pinned an ear back at Ryan. “Well, it was to run away, but it’s too late now,” she said quietly. “So now we fight.”
She snuck a quick look over her shoulder at Ryan. “As in, I’m going to fight.”
Vegiemon did not respect the drama of the moment, and used Dorumon’s distraction as a signal that it was time to get the ball rolling. It whipped one of its vines - arms? - at Dorumon, who only barely rolled out of the way in time. She shot a look at Ryan, which he didn’t fully catch, but probably meant something along the lines of “a little warning next time?” He spread his arms out in indignation.
“Alright buddy, you want a fight?” Dorumon was back on her feet and staying just out of reach of Vegiemon, moving every so often to avoid another vine thrown at her. “Then a fight you’ll get.” She stopped in her tracks, flaring her wings out. Ryan was about to ask her just what the fuck she was doing, but he got his answer almost immediately afterward.
“
“Cool,” Ryan said, a little confused as to how she had thrown up a ball made of metal, but at least it had done something.
Or that’s what he thought at first. All it actually did was make Vegiemon mad.
“Oh, great, now he’s angry!” Ryan shouted to no one in particular as Vegiemon swiped both of its vines toward Dorumon. One of them caught her across the chest and flung her backward, crashing into one of the bushes.
“I’m not done yet,” Dorumon spat, getting back up. “
This time, it… actually worked? Vegiemon let out an awful screech that sounded like a cross between a dying cat and nails on a chalkboard, and it staggered backwards. Dorumon beamed, standing up straight and flexing her claws.
Vegiemon was also not done yet, apparently, for it opened its jaws wide, revealing all of those totally terrifying teeth concealed within. “
“...So it can talk?” Ryan said after a second.
“Y’know, you’re kinda slow,” Dorumon replied dryly.
“Well, excuse me for not knowing anything about the monsters in the world I was dumped into yesterday!” he yelled back, throwing his arms in the air.
“Oh, for -
It made another terrible sound, but regained its composure quickly. “
She managed to dodge it, and shot another sphere at Vegiemon after leaping back away from it to get a better aim. It struck true, which happened to be right in between its eyes, and it hissed again.
“
“Does that attack do any damage or does it just smell like shit?” Ryan mumbled to himself more than Dorumon.
She heard him, though. “You wanna find out?” she shouted. Ryan felt vaguely threatened. “
“This isn’t fucking working!” Ryan stood up and tried to make his way over to her, but jumped back when Dorumon almost collided with him.
“Let me deal with this!” she hissed as she passed him. “I don’t want you to get hurt!”
Ryan frowned. “No way am I going to let you get your ass kicked when I can do something,” he retorted, and Dorumon actually seemed to consider this, but there was no time to ponder her reaction, as Vegiemon was preparing another Sharp Leaf.
Ryan shoved Dorumon out of the way, causing her to yelp, and lunged at Vegiemon. “Hey, melon head!” he taunted it before he crashed into its side, shoulder-first, hoping to knock it off balance. It fell on the ground, Ryan not long after, and they both scrambled upright - but was Vegiemon slowing down?
“What are you doing?” Dorumon practically screamed. “You can’t win against that!” Vegiemon grunted at being referred to as “that”.
“I’m trying to help you, damnit!” Ryan panted and rubbed his shoulder. Okay, it may not have been the best idea, but it was something, right?
Dorumon shot another Dash Metal at the ever-approaching Vegiemon before responding. “Why?” She sounded more curious this time, rather than confused and annoyed.
“Because I -” He stopped, considering his words. No, that can’t be it. “Because you can’t take it on your own!”
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” she cried out, dodging another swipe from Vegiemon’s vines. “Ryan, I can do this!”
“You’re not exactly doing the most stellar job,” he countered, wiping his cheek with the back of his hand - oh shit, was that blood? No, just some dirt, everything was fine -
“Ryan, stay back and let me handle it!” Dorumon looked back over her shoulder at him, her eyes wide in desperation.
Vegiemon noticed her distraction, and took advantage of it.
Ryan was going to warn her this time, he really was, but it all happened so fast, and the next thing he knew, Dorumon was flying across the clearing, eventually coming to a stop, crumpled on the ground. Her interface flickered once, twice, before going dim.
The world seemed to stop around him.
He didn’t know how it happened, how he got to her side, but he found himself leaning over her, desperately trying to wake her up. “Dorumon,” he said, gently shaking her. “Dorumon, you have to get up. Come on, I can’t fight this guy by myself.”
Nothing happened. Vegiemon smiled widely and made a sound reminiscent of a chuckle.
“Shut the fuck up, you rotten turnip,” Ryan snarled, glaring daggers at the vegetable. “I’m starting to feel more willing to punch you again if I have to.” It seemed to take his advice and shut up, but it was definitely getting closer to him, most likely waiting for the right moment to strike.
Beneath him, he felt Dorumon shift slightly, and his attention snapped back to her. “Dorumon?” he whispered.
She went still once again.
“Dorumon, come on,” he said again, more urgently. Something stung the corner of his eye, and he wiped it away before he could focus on it. “Please. I need you.” His voice hitched on the word “need”, and he swallowed a lump in his throat.
He would have noticed her interface lighting back up, were it not for Vegiemon suddenly lunging for him.
“FUCK,” he shouted, scooping Dorumon up in his arms and leaping to the side just in the nick of time. Vegiemon growled, a sound which should never be heard from a vegetable - but hey, a lot of weird stuff had been going on recently, and that wasn’t the weirdest - and made to jump for Ryan again.
Ryan, being a teenager with a nihilistic worldview and possible depression, decided that the best course of action would be to curl up in a ball and accept his fate. Fuck you, dad, were his final thoughts, before he prepared to be killed by the murderous cantaloupe.
He didn’t need to, it turned out, because after quite a few seconds of not having vines wrapped around his throat to strangle him to death, he risked peeking an eye open, and saw Dorumon, up and kicking, facing down against it.
“Dorumon?”
“I feel so much better!” she exclaimed happily, and Vegiemon hissed in what Ryan could only assume was confusion and irritation. Dorumon stretched her arms out and swished her tail back and forth. She grinned back at Ryan. “Like I could run a lap or two. Maybe even do a push-up!”
Ryan had no idea what to say, so he mustered a weak thumbs-up, which she laughed at before turning to Vegiemon. “Okay, ugly,” she said, and Ryan couldn’t tell if it was directed at him or the Digimon. “
“Do you have any attacks other than that?” Ryan asked, rolling his eyes.
“I’m doing my best!” she called back to him. “I don’t see you with any special moves!”
“Okay, fair,” Ryan relented quickly, because Vegiemon was preparing to attack again and he didn’t have a whole lot of time for a more dignified answer. “Watch out!”
Dorumon ducked out of the way of a Stinky Jet, and responded with “
Vegiemon dodged it again, which was just great.
“Damnit,” she growled, preparing another attack, but before she could, she started to… glow?
Not a whole lot; it was only barely visible, and if it hadn’t been nighttime, Ryan wasn’t sure if he would have been able to see it. It was a faint purple aura weakly emanating from her muzzle, seeming to be coming from inside her mouth, as if she’d swallowed a firefly.
“Oh great,” Ryan said, sucking a breath in. “That can’t be good.” Even Vegiemon looked a tad worried.
“Uhh,” Dorumon said nervously, looking down at her paws, and then -
“
It seemed to do a lot more damage than her other attacks had.
Not only did that seem likely due to the new attack name, and also because she had literally started to glow, but it seemed that that final attack was the straw that broke the squash’s back. Quite literally, as it fell upon the ground, unmoving, and after a moment, it… completely dissolved into pixels.
There was a minute of silence between Ryan and Dorumon, before the former broke it with a “What the fuck.”
“Oh, yeah, that happens,” Dorumon said, catching onto his drift. “Since, you know, we’re digital. Completely normal.”
“It just pixelated and disappeared,” Ryan protested, gesturing fiercely at the spot it had been. “That is not normal.”
“Completely normal depending on your definition of normal,” Dorumon corrected after considering his words.
Ryan wasn’t convinced. “So is it just dead?” He was a little put off by the fact that an angry gourd had just attacked him and then turned into pixels upon its supposed death. Even if it was normal to Dorumon, that kind of stuff would never even happen in his wildest dreams.
“Oh no, he’ll reform into an egg in the nearest Primary Village,” Dorumon chirped, as if that made total sense. She seemed to notice Ryan’s still-visible confusion, as she laughed and scratched her nose. “I keep forgetting you don’t know this stuff.”
Ryan was about to make a snide comment back, but his phone started to beep, vibrating against his leg deep within his pocket.
“Who is calling me,” he grumbled, pulling it out of his pocket, definitely not expecting the sudden flash of light from it. He blinked, adjusting to the brightness, but the light faded away a moment later.
“What the -” he started, crouching down so Dorumon could come up next to him and look at it with him. The light had died down to reveal a strange new app that had been downloaded.
Or rather, it was in the process of downloading. Like any other app, it displayed a countdown to when it would be done, but it wasn’t moving.
…It had exactly the same title as Alex’s.
“That’s the same app Alex had,” he mumbled to himself. Dorumon picked up on it, and cocked her head at him. He blinked at her. “Last night when Alex found Hackmon, this same app downloaded on his phone. Something about them being… connected? I don’t know.”
There was a moment of silence. “OH.” Dorumon raised both paws to her face, covering her mouth. She stared at Ryan, a new spark in her eyes. Her mouth curled into a smile, teeth glinting in the firelight.
“Do you understand it?” Ryan asked cautiously, unsure of what had prompted her reaction.
Dorumon shook her head, her eyes wide. “No, you don’t get it!” After Ryan failed to get it, she laughed. “You’re who I was supposed to meet!”
Now Ryan was taken aback. “…Pardon?” He furrowed his brow, rubbing his face with a hand.
“Ever since I can remember, I’ve been looking for someone,” she said, spreading her paws apart. “And I just - this morning, I had a gut feeling that they’d be up here on this mountain - I wasn’t expecting it to be you, but - oh!” She spread her wings out as wide as they would go and absolutely beamed. Ryan was certainly not expecting her to use them to wrap him in a hug. Her tail curled around his back protectively, and she clasped her paws together, resting against his shoulder blades. His own arms were trapped by hers, basically pinned against his side.
“What are you doing?” he demanded, yet made no effort to escape it. Dorumon giggled and released him, sitting back on her haunches.
“I wasn’t expecting you to be whoever I was supposed to meet,” she said quietly, ducking her head away from him. “But… I’m really glad it’s you.”
“Okay,” he said, because he had no idea what else there was to say - hooray? congrats? that’s cool? “Uh, I’m glad it’s you too?”
And as he said it, he realized he… meant it.
Which was new, because Ryan couldn’t remember the last time he’d explicitly told someone that he cared for them and meant it. Sure, he had Cole, and his mom and brother (he deliberately avoided thinking of his dad), but other than that… he had no one.
He didn’t say “I care about you”, either outright or any other way, very often, and there was a very specific reason why - but that reason wasn’t here right now.
It felt very freeing.
It also felt right, and he wrapped his arms around Dorumon again; she hugged him back, squeezing her eyes shut and grinning. The fire was starting to die down, and the clearing darkened more and more with every second that passed.
He had a feeling that it was going to be a while before he got home. That the rest of his time in this world was going to be dangerous, and terrifying, and full of more fights. But right here, right now, with a strange little monster he genuinely cared for, it could take all the time in the world for him to get home, and it would be fine.
Ryan felt the ghost of a smile forming on his lips too.