Chapter Text
Megan was bored.
Really bored.
Really, incredibly, despicably bored.
How boring her life was in this moment. How she longed for something interesting to happen; literally anything, at this point.
Maybe, if she was extremely lucky, someone would help alleviate her boredom. Maybe someone like, oh, I dunno, a sibling of similar age to herself-
“Ok, ok!” Andrew snapped, spinning sharply towards her in his computer chair. “You're bored, I get it!”
“Oh I'm sorry, was I saying that out loud?” Megan asked her brother innocently, kicking her legs back and forth from her perch on his bed.
“Yes. Very out loud,” Andrew grumbled. “I'm busy right now, why can't you go play by yourself?”
“I have been! I've been playing by myself all morning!” She gestured emphatically at the open window, through which sunlight and fresh spring air was streaming. “Do I even want to know how many hours you've spent on the computer today?”
“Probably not,” Andrew said, spinning back around to face the screen. “I'm trying to teach myself how to draw with a tablet.”
“And how's that going?”
From the glare he shot her, not well.
She got up and walked around so she could lean on the back of his chair, looking over his shoulder. “Oh, wow. Are those robots making out?”
“Get off!” he shoved her away. “Seriously, why are you being so clingy today? I just want to be alone.”
“That's all you've wanted for weeks!” Megan flopped back onto the floor in frustration. “We haven't hung out in forever... I miss you.”
She must have injected the correct amount of pathos into her voice, because when Andrew looked down at her this time, he looked guilty as well as annoyed.
He sighed heavily, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Ok. If you just give me five more minutes to finish this, I'll do whatever you want.”
Megan shot back up, clapping. “Yes! I knew I could wear you down eventually.”
He groaned. “Do you have any idea how annoying you are?”
“I'm sure you'll let me know,” Megan said cheerfully, slapping him on the back as she walked out.
But before she skipped out of the room, she paused, her hand on the doorway. Andrew was back to scowling at the computer screen, his shoulders hunched and his legs folded under him.
She covered it with bad jokes and whining, but honestly, she was worried for him. This past year- well. losing Grandpa hadn't been easy for either of them, but it had hit Andrew particularly hard. And he had a bad habit of always covering up what he was feeling.
“Hey.” she hung off the doorframe and watched her brother closely. “You Ok?”
“What?” He looked up, confused. “I'm fine, why?”
“Just...” She let go of the doorframe and rubbed at the back of her neck. “It's nothing, I just- I worry about you, when you get like this.”
He blinked at her, then looked away, pursing his lips. “You don't have to worry about me.”
She glared at him. “Of course I do, dummy! As your twin sister, that's my job- annoy you and worry about you.”
He huffed a little laugh, but didn't take his eyes off the computer screen. “I'm just… everything is confusing right now. I don't want to be a burden to you.
She frowned, and walked forward, leaning down to look him directly in the eyes. "Andrew- you could never be a burden to me. Do you understand? If there's anything- anything- I can do to help you, you tell me."
He looked away. "I guess..."
"Twin code, remember?" she said, putting her hands on her hips.
The corner of his mouth twisted up. “Right- Twin Code.” he said, and bumped her back with his shoulder. Then, suddenly, he stiffened. “Oh no.”
“Hm?” She looked up to see that the computer screen had gone white. “Did you break it?”
“I didn't do anything!” He leaned forward and hit a few keys. “Damn it, no! I was almost done!”
Welp, there goes the good mood, Megan thought, edging back and preparing to launch herself out of the room at the first sign of a meltdown from her brother.
But before she could escape, the screen began to flash rapidly from white to black. Then a roll of nonsense characters began scrolling down it, letters and numbers jumbled together into gibberish.
Her eyes widened. “Christ. Have you ever seen it do this before?”
“No.” Andrew looked dumbfounded. “Um… do you think this is a virus, or-?
“-or is it freaking possessed?” Megan let out a nervous giggle. “I guess we'll have to wait until Mom and Dad get home, I have no cl-”
The screen flashed back to white, and words appeared, large and clear.
-Hello, Children.-
“Excuse my language, but what the hell,” Megan said flatly, grabbing onto Andrew's shoulders in shock.
“Thaaaaat's creepy,” Andrew agreed, reaching up to grab her wrists.
-Destiny has chosen you for greatness; a world is in danger. Will you answer the call?-
“Ok, this has gotta be one of those prank programs,” Andrew said. “That, you know, gets into your info and does weird things? I must have downloaded something fishy yesterday.”
That theory held up about until the screen started glowing.
Andrew made a noise like a trampled puppy and leapt out of the chair. Megan shrieked, but more in surprise than terror, even as two glowing orbs slowly emerged from the shining screen and floated towards them.
She was vaguely aware of her twin pulling on her shirt as she watched them in fascination. They were identical egg-sized globs of molten light, glittering slightly as she turned her head from side to side.
She got the oddest feeling that she should grab one of them. She reached up, mesmerized.
“What are you doing?! Get away from those thing!” Andrew yelled, grabbing her arm and trying to hold her back.
She brushed him off absently. “But they're so beautiful,” she said.
“What if it kills you?” Andrew's voice was frantic.
She scowled at him. “You always have to jump for the worst-case scenario, don't you?”
Megan was a lot of things; curious was one of them. Decisive was another. Contrary was absolutely one.
Cautious wasn't.
She reached up with the arm he wasn't holding and nabbed one of the orbs out of the air. It didn't burn her fingers, or explode, or anything, it just felt pleasantly warm and heavy in her palm. She turned to her twin with a teasing grin, ready to tell him he was too much of a worrywart.
His horrified expression was the last thing she saw before she was pulled swiftly into the dark.
There was a momentary, nauseating sense of moving very quickly through an undefined space. Then she found herself falling to her knees on a rough, stony path.
She blinked, then slowly looked up to see that she was surrounded by trees; in the distance, there were mountains.
Her house was nowhere in sight.
She sat down. She kept her breathing even. She did not panic.
She did not panic.
“I think,” she said to herself, slowly and deliberately. “I think I've made a terrible mistake.”
~
Andrew stared at the blank space that his sister had previously occupied. Foolishly, he stuck his arm out and waved it around like she might have just gone invisible. “M-Megan?”
Where had that thing taken her? What should he do? Their parents were out, should he call them? Or should he just directly call the police station?
He shot a nervous look at the second glowing orb. It was still hanging in the air, spinning gently.
He got the feeling that, if he reached up and grabbed it, it would take him to wherever Megan had gone. It was a ridiculous idea, but-
-But he couldn't possibly leave Megan on her own, not when she might be in serious danger.
He took a deep breath. "Twin code," he muttered to himself.
Then, scowling in determination, he snatched the second glowy blob out of the air.
He was immediately yanked up out of his chair at a great speed, but before he could even yell, he was spat out onto the hard, rocky ground.
He lay there for a moment, in pain and waiting for the world to stop spinning around him. “Owww...”
Eventually his head cleared, and he levered himself up, wincing and picking bits of gravel off his arms. He looked around, frowning; judging by all the trees around, he was in a forest.
It almost looked like the forests that surrounded his town, but unless the tectonic plates had decided to do some serious remodeling while he slept, there weren't mountains in Iowa.
He got to his feet, and as he dusted himself off, he realized that his hand was clenched around something. He opened his hand to see a small, rounded mechanical device with a few buttons and a screen. it looked like one of those virtual pet keychains you could buy.
He frowned down at it. He shook it up next to his ear, then pressed all the buttons, but nothing happened as far as he could see.
“Well, this is freaking useful,” he grumbled, and stuffed it into his pocket. Then he cupped his hands around his mouth, and started shouting; “Megan! Megan, where are you?!”
No answer. His stomach turned with anxiety. Oh my god, what if something happened to her?! I need to find her now!
“MEGAN!” He hollered as loud as he could, trying to hold back the frightened tears that wanted to spill from his eyes.
This time, after a few seconds, he heard a distant reply. “Andrew? Andrew, is that you?”
His heart leapt in relief. “MEGAN!” he yelled. “HOLD ON, I'M COMING!”
He took off, running down the stony path, yelling back and forth with Megan until he turned a corner and saw her sprinting towards him. He held out his arms and she crashed into him, the two of them hugging fiercely.
“Oh my god, I thought I'd lost you,” Andrew whispered, a few tears escaping to roll down his cheeks.
“I'm OK. Are you alright?” she asked, pulling back and looking him over.
“Oh, I'm fine,” Andrew said, his voice turning hard. “I'm not the one who grabbed onto a radioactive tamogatchi for funsies.”
Megan rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, it's not like it killed me. Well. Unless it did and this is the heaven.”
“Well I don't see Freddie Mercury anywhere, so that's ruled out.” Andrew looked around nervously at the imposing mountains around them. “I would like to know where we are, though. It kinda looks like the Rockies or something.”
“Well wherever it is, we're not alone up here.” Megan rubbed the back of her neck. “I saw something weird a minute ago.”
“What, like another person?” Andrew instinctively drew closer to his sister. Was theperson who had sent them that creepy message out here somewhere?
“No, some kind of... creature. It was big, and moving fast.” She shuddered slightly. “And see, you said Rockies and that made me think bears-
“It was probably a moose,” Andrew said, trying to reassure her and himself at the same time.
“That would be worse!” Megan threw her arms up for emphasis. “Ungulates are beings of the devil!”
He reached out and took her hand. “It doesn't matter now; let's just try and find some hint of civilization, ok?”
She nodded tightly.
They walked together for some time, holding hands and keeping quiet. Andrew tried to keep a lid on his growing anxiety, but it was hard when they were lost out in the middle of nowhere with no way to contact anyone that might be able to help them.
He was a bout to realize, however, that being lost was the least of their problems.
Sudden movement in the foliage to their left made them both jump and freeze. Megan grabbed onto Andrew's arm. “What was that?” she hissed.
“I- I dunno.” Andrew whispered back. “Think it might be that thing you saw?”
“I hope not. That-” but before she could finish her sentence, something bolted out of the trees with a ferocious snarl.
It looked like a boar, but it was way, way too big. Andrew briefly remembered standing next to a taxidermy boar at the natural history museum, and it had been less than half the size of this monstrosity.
It also hadn't been on fire.
The creature roared at them, and Andrew would swear to god that his heart actually stopped for a moment. He felt a trickle of warm liquid across his ankles, and somewhere in the back of his mind, he dimly realized he'd just peed himself.
Megan, as usual, had better reflexes than he did. “RUN!” she yelled in his ear, and pulled on his arm until the rest of his body got the hint and stumbled it's way after her.
They could hear the monster thundering along behind them as they ran. Megan steered him off the side of the road, which Andrew dimly realized was a good idea; they had a better chance of losing it in the woods than outrunning it on the straightaway.
Well, it seemed like a good idea, until they came upon a sudden, steep incline. He jammed his feet into the ground, trying to stop, but Megan plowed into his back and sent them both tumbling down into a ditch.
They landed in a tangled heap at the bottom. Andrew groaned and levied himself off Megan, who wheezed loudly. He shook his head and looked back up to the road, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach when he saw the boar.
It stared at them for a long moment, scraping it's hooves in the dirt and snorting steam. Then, slowly but surely, it started to climb down the bank.
“Megan.” Andrew clung to his twin, scared for his life. “Megan, what do we do?!”
“I don't know!” Megan hissed back.
A wave of heat rolled over them as the boar got close; it had to go slow down the slope, but it didn't look any calmer than it had when it was chasing them.
They clung to each other, trembling and terrified. We're going to die here, Andrew thought as the tears he'd been restraining began to roll down his cheeks. We're actually going to die!
But before it could come any closer, something strange happened.
Andrew felt his pocket grow strangely warm. He fumbled a hand down into his pocket, and pulled out the keychain gadget from before. It was glowing again, and almost hot in his bare palm. He shot a sideways look at Megan, who was holding her keychain and frowning down at it.
Before they could say anything to each other, light exploded from their hands. Andrew had to turn his head and close his eyes to keep from getting them burnt out. There was a high-pitched squeal of fear from the boar, and then the sound of flesh hitting flesh.
“We won't let you hurt our partners!” A high-pitched voice trilled. “Petite Twister!”
“Pepper Breath!” a second voice yelled.
By the time he opened his eyes again, the boar was scrambling back up the ditch, squealing in distress and shaking it's tail as it ran.
Andrew let out a breath and slumped back, putting his hand over his heart. “I don't even know what just happened, but I don't think we're going to die, and that's good enough for me,” he mumbled.
“Um, hello.”
He almost jumped out of his skin as something small and soft touched his knee. "What the-?!"
He stared down in shock at the two small creatures standing in front of them. The larger one looked like a miniature orange tyrannosaurus. It had two long, sharp claws on each hand, a broad, powerfully muscled chest, and shockingly blue eyes.
The other one looked like a rabbit that had learned to walk on it's hind legs. It's fur was brown and pink and it had long, floppy ear and a cute, round face. It also had three intimidating horns on the crown of it's head.
“Hi there!” The mini-T-rex waved at them.
Andrew scrambled back, throwing an arm across Megan's chest. “Gah! Stay back!” he yelped.
Megan absently pushed Andrew's arm away and crawled forward, already forgetting her fear. “What are you?”
“We're Digimon!” The mini t-rex said cheerfully.
Andrew grabbed the back of Megan's shirt. “Don't touch them! What if they're dangerous?!”
“Excuse me?” The stand-up rabbit frowned at him. “We just saved you! Shouldn't you be thanking us or something?”
“Well- I mean- yes, thanks, but this is ridiculous!” Andrew threw his hands up. “Are you saying you just trust these Pokemon, or whatever they are?!”
“Aww, loosen up Andrew!” Megan tugged gently out of his grip and scooted forwards on her knees to look the T-rex right in it's eyes. “They're so cute, how could they possibly want to hurt us?”
Andrew tried to find some way to convince her to stay away from them, but the rabbit interrupted him. “Why don't we start with introductions?” it said dryly. “I'm Lopmon.”
“And I'm Agumon!” The T-rex said, raising it's hand. “And we're your digimon partners!”
“Whoa, whoa, what?!” Andrew was starting to get frantic. “'Partners'? I didn't sign up for this! I don't even know where we are, or get back home, or what that thing was that almost killed us-!”
“Andrew, calm down.” Megan put her hands on his shoulders. “Breathe.”
He sucked in a breath, then released it shakily, trying not to burst into tears again. Now that they weren't in immediate danger, he wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and cry for his mom. He just barely had enough dignity to not do that.
“My name is Megan,” his sister said to the 'digimon'. “This Is my brother, his name's Andrew. We were taken here unexpectedly when we found these,” she held out her hand, showing them the little device. “Do you know where we are?”
“You're in the digital world now,” The rabbit- Lopmon- said.
“And what's that, exactly?” Megan asked.
“Umm... it's hard to explain,” Agumon said. “We're supposed to take you to the temple on this mountain.”
“Things will be explained to you when we get there,” Lopmon said.
“Will we be able to go home then?” Megan asked.
The two 'Digimon' (What a strange word, Andrew thought,) looked at each other. “...We don't know,” Lopmon said after a minute. “Maybe.”
“Well, it seems like our best chance for getting out of here in one piece,” Megan said evenly. “How about it, Andrew? Are you up for a bit of a hike?”
Andrew looked at her, biting his lip. He didn't want to trust these things; he didn't want anything to do with them.
But, well… it wasn't like they had a lot of choice, did they?
He took a deep, shaking breath, and pushed himself to his feet. He was sweaty, dirty, covered in cuts and bruises from his fall, and trembling like a leaf; but he was still in one piece. He could hold out for a little while longer.
He swallowed hard. “I'm up for it. But first, do you guys know where I can get a change of pants around here?”
~
Eleena was curled up on the bed, her ipod on full blast. She pressed her headphones into her skull so hard that she could feel the beat of the music thrumming through her entire body, verging on painful. She bit her lip and tried to hold back tears.
Her stepfather had just gone downstairs after spending a full five minutes screaming at her about nothing in particular.
Just a regular night, then; he came home from work, came up into her room without even knocking, yelled at her for a while, then went downstairs to drink himself stupid before her mom came home.
There weren’t words for how angry she was. She hated her stepfather; loathed him with a depth and breadth that felt like it should have blotted out every other emotion she was capable of having, but somehow there was still room for hurt and sadness and other nasty, pathetic feelings underneath.
She wasn’t very fond of her mother anymore, either. She knew her stepfather was mean to her, too, but no matter what he did, she never reacted. Eleena had tried to tell her over and over again that she hated him and wanted him out of the house, but her mother just told her not to talk about him that way, that she should be grateful to have two working parents who paid for food and shelter and clothing; something her mother hadn’t had growing up.
He doesn’t even make that much money, Eleena thought bitterly. He works half as hard as she does, and he still insists that she cook and clean and do everything else by herself.
But as much as she hated her stepfather, and as little as she even thought of her mother as Her Mother anymore… there was no one in the world she hated as much as herself.
if you really loved your mother, you’’d find some way to make money so she didn’t have to be married to such a jerk, she thought to herself in the middle of the night when all her carefully-built walls came crumbling down. If you really hated him, you’d just leave and learn to survive on your own.
But you won’t do that, will you? You’re too much of a coward. All you ever do is hide and cry and pretend you don’t know he’s hurting her. Why do you even bother? What do you even contribute to the world? You should just disappear… disappear… disappear…
The sound in her ears shorted out, and she was assaulted by a harsh burst of static. She yelped and sat bolt upright, tense and trembling.
Before she could snatch the headphones off her ears, a strange, distorted voice began whispering at her through them. The sound of it sent all the hairs on the back of her neck standing up.
“Poor child. So alone, so afraid… so weak.”
Anger flashed through her. “I-I’m not weak!” Her voice cracked. Who the hell did she even think she was talking to?!
“But you want to become stronger, don’t you? You want the strength to stand up to your stepfather, the courage to tell your mother what he’s done to you.”
She started to tremble. Whatever this voice was- and it might well just be evidence that she’d snapped under the strain- what it was saying was true. “I guess so…”
“What if I said I could give you power?” The voice hissed. “The power to take what you want, to do what you like- to punish those that had wronged you.”
Eleena remembered sometime last month, when her stepfather had grabbed her by the shoulders and thrown her backwards into a wall. He hadn’t even needed to put his whole strength into it, and she’s been helpless to stop him.
She imagined what it would feel like if she could toss him around like a ragdoll. If she could hurt him just as much- no, more- than he’d ever hurt her…
She thought about the boys that tormented her at school. She imagined herself with the power to pull them apart, tear them to pieces with her bare hands, to make their days living hell…
She swallowed hard. “What do I need to do?” she asked, her hands shaking but her voice steady.
All at once, her ipod began to glow. She dropped it with a squeak, and a small, spherical light emerged from the screen and rose up in front of her.
“Power is within your reach, child,” the voice whispered in her ear, even though the earbuds had fallen off her head. “All you have to do is take it.”
Mesmerized, she reached out towards the glowing orb, then hesitated. What would this do to her? What was the price of the power the strange voice promised?
Doe it even matter? she thought. This life you have isn’t even worth living. If there’s a chance you can change it, it’s worth taking, no matter what it costs.
Her fist closed around the orb. She felt like she’d grabbed onto a hot coal, pain searing up through her arm and into her chest.
She screamed, and was gone.