Chapter Text
Digimon Linkers
Chapter one
deus ex aquam
Hanini always felt out of place. Even when he lived in Honolulu,he was the poor kid who smelled bad,but even since he moved to Florida,he became the poor smelly kid with a weird name. Just another label that clung to him. The teachers called him hans,he wasn't too thrilled,but it was better than being called panini.
There was a small pond by the school greenhouse,he often sat there during lunch,hiding from the scary high schoolers and the annoying 6th graders who’d say aloha to him everyday and giggle behind his back.
But the pond was a quiet escape from hectic 8th grade life.
At Least it was.
One day when he came to escape from some especially rowdy peers,he found a boy with cool shades stoically throwing bread at the fish. He remembered that he read in a magazine that bread was hard on fish digestive systems.
“Uh hey,bread is bad for fish”
“What”
The boy barely showed any emotion on his face,he did stop throwing the bread however.
“it's hard for them to digest”
“Huh,weird”
“Yeah”
The two boys stood there for a moment,then shades boy broke the silence
“So are you like a sixth grader”
“I'm an eighth grader actually”
“Wow you're short.”
“...what?”retorted hanini somewhat offended
“What sorry i'm also an eighth grader,my name is toby”
“I'm not short,im just really buff so i look a bit stubby, im 5’4”
“Ok”
“My names hans,what brings you to this pond”
“Oh i'm just vibing,i sometimes come here to vape and feed the fish ”
“I hope you stop doing it with bread,wait you vape?”
“Actually i usually feed them leftovers of my mom's meatloaf,i just found a loaf of bread on a sewer grate so i figured i'd feed it to them.”
“A sewer grate? Meatloaf?what ok,you're actually a really interesting person”
“Thanks” toby chuckled cooly
And so a beautiful friendship blossomed forth.
Two months later….
YOU CAN TELL BY THE WAY I LOOK IM A WOMANS MAN NO TIME TO-
Poppy smacked the alarm across the room with the ferocity of a jaguar.
She hurtled across the room with the speed of a cheetah.
She pulled on her matching tiger pants and gloves with the grace of a panther. And skillfully flossed her teeth with the agility of a lynx.
She kissed her framed photo of xena warrior princess with the tenderness of a snow leopard.
She flew down the stairs,she ripped open the fridge to tear apart her leftover Denny's omelette like a LION.
“Morning honey! I see you're up bright and early”
“YES! I have an important MISSION i must see to”
“Hmmm,and that is..?”
“I'm going to the post office to pick up my ZOOBOOKS.”
“Have fun.”
“I WILL!”
Poppy leaped out the door like a caracal.
“Ahhh i remember MY anime phase...” Poppy's mom sighed contently.
As poppy rolled down the street on her neon pink flame patterned scooter,she speculated where the perfect place would be to read her zoobook.
“Hmmm maybe I should just wait till i see what animal it is.”
she decided as she rolled up to the curb.
The moment she pulled open her mailbox she was greeted by the wide maw of a snapping turtle.
“Oh EPIC” she marvelled.
Containing herself from ripping open the book and reading it was hard,but
she once again pondered the perfect place to consume this fine literature.
Suddenly a thought fell from the sky and crashed into her brain.
“Snapping turtles live in ponds…! So I'll read it by a pond!”
As she disembarked,little did she know that thought wouldn't be the last object to fall from the sky,the next thing wouldn't be so metaphorical either.
Ainsley never liked bugs much. They were creepy and gross,and they always seemed to get into places they shouldn't be. But here she was hunting for them,in one of the most humid days of the year,all because she took highschool advanced biology.How was she supposed to know her teacher would be a nut for beetles??
“Beetles are one of the most diverse lifeforms on earth”
Ick. now she had to collect some just to get a bit of extra credit,which she desperately needed because she totally flunked the last test.
She had already checked the green house,but all she found was some termites under a slimy piece of wood. So now she was circling the small pond.
“You looking for bugs too?”
Ainsley turned around to face the voice,it was Olga Travinski,a middle schooler. Her sister,duscha, was always following her around,it was kinda annoying,also their moms were friends a few years ago,before the fire.
“Unfortunately,yes. Did the middle schoolers get the beetle assignment too?”
“Yep.i already have a good place to find bugs,so i'm just taking a break” she swung her bug net around casually
“Would you mind sharing? I'm having a hard time finding the little bastards”
“Ok first of all don't call them bastards,they are just cute little dudes living in the world. And I'll be happy to show you! But I also have a problem i've been meaning to ask you about.”
“Ok what is it?”she responded fiddling with her star earing
“Well you're like a makeup guru right? My sister really wants to be like you,like she's obsessed yaknow,so I was wondering if you could humor her,give her some advice,maybe a makeover?”
“Mmmhn that's a tall order,i-”
“Oh Hey Olga! Hey ainsley!”
oh no.it was Poppy,the most annoying person in the world.
“Ah,hey there.” Responded Olga, clearly already tired of her.
“YO i got this sick nasty zoobook i just got in the mail,you guys wanna read it with me? She blathered rather loudly.
“Uh-”began olga.
“It's pretty COOL!” poppy blurted.
“Well we are doing an assignment for school right now,so we cant” snapped ainsley.
“Oh the beetle assignment right? You got the WHOLE weekend to do that,but only right NOW to read this craaaazy magazine.” she insisted not taking the hint
“I uh, don't really like snapping turtles…”olga murmured, eyeing the cover.
“Well there's other things besides that in here probably.” she assured.
“But i understand if the big snap boys freak ya out a little,but i'll be over there by that tree if you change your mind”she quickly interjected after seeing the annoyed look on ainsley’s face.
And so she wandered away a little sullen
Just as she approached the tree,Hanini and Toby walked up to the greenhouse.
“So you mentioned you had a weird dream last night?”questioned hanini
“Yeah it was pretty trippy,I was in a dark void and this,like lego looking thing walked up to me and was like ‘I can't wait to meet you!!’ and i was like ‘what’. and then this angel appeared and it was like ‘you must prepare for a great hardship;your life is about to change!’and then i woke up.”
“That's a bit omnious.do you think it's an omen?”
“Probably.”Toby grunted walking past the green house down to the pond.
“Oh hey there poppy.”He said,slightly surprised.
“Yo you're just in time man! I just sat down to read this zoobook you wanna join?”
“Is that a snapping turtle?! That's my 3rd favorite animal!”remarked hanini.
“Cool!”
“So about that deal.” questioned ainsley
“Will you humor my sister?”
“Sure.”
“Sweet,ok so the spot is riiiiiight over here”she walked over to a patch of tall weeds growing around a tree.
As Ainsley followed her, a reedy whistling noise resounded throughout the area.
Poppy,Toby, and Hanini looked up from the magazine.
Ainsley and Olga looked around confusedly.
The whistling stopped,the world seemed to hold its breath.
“Uh what the HECK?” blurted poppy,when suddenly a light erupted from the lake forming a pillar of iridescence
“WHAT THE HELL??” shrieked ainsley.
It expanded rapidly pulling all five kids into it.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAA” screamed everyone as they fell
Poppy woke up first.
She was laying in grass
Purple grass?
She got up from the ground and looked around
And what she saw was incredibly weird
Purple grass,violet trees,a green sky with a grid pattern,and no sun that she could see.
“What..The..?”
She was in a state of shock,one moment reading zoobooks,the next thrown into an unfamiliar place,was she hallucinating?
She looked around then she saw olga near a rock unconscious.
“Olga! Olga! Are you okay?”
“Ugh what just happened??”
“I have NO IDEA?”
“Ok..uh where are the others?”
“I once again HAVE NO IDEA”
“You don't need to shout...”
“I'M FREAKING OUT.WE MIGHT BE ON ANOTHER PLANET!!! THE GRASS IS PURPLE!”poppy waved her arms about to accentuate the statement.
“Alright alright I get it,look lets find the others, I think they should be around here if we landed near each other.”
“Ok…”
So Poppy and Olga started to wander around,Olga found Toby and Hanini behind a rock and Poppy found Ainsley face down in the dirt,a few minutes of freaking out on everyone's part commenced for the next five minutes,finally most everyone calmed down.
It was poppy of all people who took charge
“Alright so i have NO IDEA where we are,i see no life of civilization around,and I don't think the SUN exists here.BUT i used to be a girl scout.I say we find a river and follow it,Rivers usually lead to towns or outposts.”
“But what if we don't find any rivers?”questioned ainsley
“WELL,I know how to make a fire? We could camp.”
“*sigh* I don't see anything better to do.” admitted hanini
So they started walking.
“Uh so you're olga ?”asked hanini
“Yep nice to meet you!”
“And I'm ainsley.”
“Well I know who you are,you're like an instagrammer right? You do makeup?”
“I also do nails and hair.”
“Huh cool.”
“My moms’ a hair cutter.”toby added
“Not to sound repetitive but, huh cool”
And so they walked.And walked.And walked for a few hours.they found no river and morale was running low.
“I'm getting a bit thirsty,” complained ainsley.
“Oh I think I have some ramune in my bag,hold on...'' Hanini said shuffling in his backpack.
“Uh what's ramune?”
“It's soda from Japan,Ah there it is,here take it.”he handed the soda to her.
“You have to take the plunger and push down the marble.”he added.
“Uhhh like this?”she said as the marble plonked into the glass,fizz forming in the raspberry pop.
“Yup.”
“Hey Hanini, you got any other snacks in there?”questioned Olga
“Yup i got two granola bars and another rammune.”
“We MIGHT have to ration that so we dont STARVE.”Poppy noted grimly.
“Can we not talk about that.”muttered Toby
“Hey this ramune or whatever is pretty good!”Ainsley blurted, clearly trying to steer this conversation away from mortality.
“Is it your first time trying it?”asked hanini
“Yeah! It's an interesting flavor,i like it.”
“Cool.”
“Yeah.”
And they continued to walk. They still didn't find a river.
Suddenly a cat sized glowing shape flew over them quickly
“Woah Hey! what was that? sputtered hanini
“A bird or a plane? I don't know…”olga said perplexed.
“Superman maybe?” Toby was clearly alarmed but trying to act cool.
“It looked almost like ball lightning!” remarked Hanini.
The figure passed overhead again.it was glowing but it passed so quickly nobody got a good look
“HEY THERE? WE COME IN PEACE”Shouted poppy.
The glowing shape passed over again,and landed in the bushes near them.
The bush rustled a bit and then what looked like a ball of fire with a face popped out.
“OH WOW YOU'RE HERE! Hi!!!” it sparked excitedly.
“What the FRICK???????”poppy yelped
“Guys am i hallucinating or did that ball of fire just talk?” faltered Toby.
“Nope,And i'm here too!” another shape emerged suddenly from the bushes,a pink creature with no legs bounced out.
“I've been waiting so long for ya! Allow me to introduce myself,i'm koromon!i'm so glad you're here!”
“AND I'M MERAMON!!!”
“Ok whats going on here?you've been waiting for me? That's a bit creepy my dude.”
“What are you? Where are your legs? Queried Ainsley frantically.
“I'm a digimon,and so is meramon here,we are your partner digimon to be specific ,you guys are humans right?”
“Last time i ch-checked…”Olga stuttered anxiously
“COOL LETS RIDE PARTNER” meramon suddenly leaped into poppy’s arms
“AAAAA YOU'RE MADE OF FIRE GET OFF-wait what your not burning me”
“I’D ONLY BURN YOU IF YOU WERE A BAD GUY,BUT I CAN TELL YOU'RE A GOOD PERSON.”
“UH thanks?”
“Can you two please explain where we are and what a digimon is?”inquired hanini
“Sure,I imagine this would be pretty confusing,first of all we are currently in the digital world, the data plains to be exact,this is where stuff from the physical world appears sometimes.Usually living creatures don't appear but you're an exception! Secondly, a digimon is a sentient creature who lives in the digital world.”
“Wait digital world,like are we in a computer?”
“KINDA,THE DIGITAL WORLD IS SPAWNED FROM THE INTERNET BUT ITS NOT DIRECTLY CONNECTED,A COMPUTER PROGRAM MUTATED AND MADE THIS WORLD.ANYTHING ELSE?”
“Well…you said you waited for toby?Why?”asked ainsley.
“WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR ALL OF YOU,CAUSE YOU GUYS ARE GONNA SAVE THE DIGITAL WORLD!”
“HOLD UP WHAT??”
“I'm just a kid from Tampa Bay with subpar grades in A.P. biology,how am I supposed to save the world?and from what?
“Hello? Is somebody there?” a voice suddenly resounded from the bushes
A bit of rustling and a puffball with a giant knife on its head popped out of the bushes.
“Oh.its you,hi im tunomon.wow i'm in shock,what's your name?” They said looking up at ainsley
“I'm Ainsley Winslow,I'm in a bit of shock too.”
“So. I guess you're my partner. judging from the color of your digivice.”
“Digi What? I don't have a-wait what the heck where did that come from?”
She stammered,shocked to find a small purple tamagotchi looking object on her hip,hooked onto her belt.
“Uhh i have one too” added hanini
“Me too!”
“What is HAPPENING?!”
“OH YEAH THOSE ARE DIGIVICES,THEY ARE IMPORTANT DONT LOSE THEM!”
“Where did they COME from?”
“I DUNNO I GUESS THE DIGITAL WORLD JUST GAVE THEM TO YOU WHEN YOU GOT HERE.IM SURPRISED YOU DIDN'T NOTICE THEM EARLIER.”
“Can we change colors? I'm not too thrilled that mines piss yellow” asked toby
“I mean.you could uh,like put it in some food coloring. or something.” said kunomon
“So wait there's three of you and five of us-”started olga
“Make it four!”
A gelatinous dog looking creature jumped out of the bushes and then tripped on its face.
“I'm starting to sense a pattern here.” mused toby.
“Uh, are you my partner?” asked Olga
“Looks like it! I'm gummymon! I'm so excited to meet you!”
“Wow! You're pretty cute!”
“Thanks, I try to be! Hyup!”they jumped into olga’s arms
“Uh so I guess i'm the last one to get a partner.”observed hanini.
“WELL THAT'S THE THING ABOUT PITCHMON,HE'S PRETTY SLOW.”
“Heeeeeeeeey,thats rude!”
An extremely small white whale looking digimon rapidly bounced out of the bushes.it was the size of a guinea pig while the others were the size of cats.
“It woooooooould be nice if someone could carry me though…”
“I gotcha buddy.”
“Thanks,im pitchmon,what's your name?”
“Uh,hanini.”
“Maaan it's great to finally meet you Uh Hanini!”
“That's not-”
“So WHAT are we supposed to do now? Is there a dark fortress we have to STORM?”poppy interrupted
“WELL NOT EXACTLY,YOU SEE,IT'S A VERY LONG STORY,BUT BASICALLY THERE'S AN EVIL MONSTER TRAPPED UNDER A MOUNTAIN AND IT'S GOING TO BREAK FREE SOON.”
“What kinda monster exactly?” asked hanini
“I DON'T KNOW,IT JUST APPEARED ONE DAY. IT DESTROYED EVERYTHING AROUND IT. THE ONLY REASON WE AREN'T ALL DELETED RIGHT NOW IS CAUSE TWO HUMANS SEALED IT AWAY.”
“Wait so there were other kids here before us?”
“Yes,a boy and a girl.buuuuuut to seal the monster away the boy sacrificed himself and the girl's heart got infected by the virus,she became a warlord.
Nooooooow she commands an army of daaaaaaark digimon to do her bidding,she thinks that the monster is dead forever.when some noble digimon tried to warn her of the monster,she imprisoned them in the dark chasm.”
Explained pitchmon
“Oooook i think that's enough explanation,we still need to find that river” interjected ainsley
“Uh.why.do you need to find a river?”inquired tunomon
“So that we can find a village or something cause rivers usually lead to villages.”
“Well.I have a place you guys could stay.At.”
“SWEET.” shouted poppy “we WON'T DIE of hypothermia”
So the gang with their new found digimon,set out to tunomon’s place
END OF CHAPTER ONE.