Part 3 Skeletons
Before I start the chapter, you may have noticed the attached picture. That is a drawing of Tallymon II from the previous chapter, done by TeamCapumon (Just based on my generic description in the story) as a birthday present for me (9/9, in case you were wondering). I thought I'd attach it here, because it's just so awesome. But don't go asking them for a ton of art. They're busy enough. Anyway, commence story!
"My name is Hari, as Todd probably already told you. I'm from basically an alternate reality, similar but still very different from yours. In my reality, there's a strange place called the Digital World. From what I've heard, a long time ago, people created a sort of pet monster computer program. It was meant to be a big thing for kids. But for some reason, the idea would end up being scrapped. But the programs themselves were designed well enough to function on their own. They uploaded to strange place within the internet, a place where their data could grow and change. They influenced the environment around them, and, like humans, developed societies and grew to understand their world."
He took a breath. "But they were still running on their base programming. They could find ways to become more powerful and have better chances of survival. But there was something about human children that had the ability to empower them. To allow them to undergo huge amounts of enhancement in an extremely short amount of time. And that's where we come in."
"We?" Adrian asked.
"I'm what's called a digidestined. We're kids who are connected to the Digital World and to a certain Digimon in a way that allow them to access new forms. It's called Digivolving, a temporary boost to all their abilities."
He had finally stopped talking, which served as the perfect time for me to express the fact that I did in fact have a good memory.
"You're that guy I met from the dimension hopping thing." I told him.
He looked at me. "Come again?"
"I had a sort of run in with a super monster, who sent me on a road trip through a few similar realities." I shrugged.
He looked at me with a curious look. "You're Tommy's doppelganger. Man, I knew there was something I recognized about you."
Joey had apparently been getting impatient, as he loudly interrupted, "All right, now may we please discuss what exactly is going on? Like, why you're here maybe?"
Hari sat down on a crate. "Well, me and my other Digidestined friends were fighting this pretty bad Digimon in the Digital World. He's really interested in human children, though for very bad reasons."
Taylor shrugged. "Enlighten us."
"He wants to use them for an army. He's found a weird way to fuse them into Digimon-human hybrids. It's something to do with one of the Digimon who serves him. They're dangerous, because they take orders from him. But for him its not enough. He wants them to be more powerful. I think that's why he wants your world."
Doc frowned. "The overwhelming presence of Pokemon."
"Yep. He sent that one Digimon I mentioned. It's known as Jokermon, and for whatever reason, it can do that whole combining human and Digimon thing. Something about the way he does it, though, causes them to lose hold of their humanity. It gives them Digimon instincts and thoughts, makes them easy to control."
"So he wants Pokemon to make better warriors."
"And all Jokermon needs is a touch of a Pokemon or a human with Pokemon DNA to get that army."
I stepped back for a moment. The world just kept getting weirder, and it never seemed to be willing to do so with my permission.
"So what do we do now?" Harper asked.
Hari could only shrug. "I'm not sure. Jokermon can temporarily assume human form, and I don't really know anything about this place, so he could be anywhere for all I know."
"Well, then it's a good thing I looked into what you told me, Todd." Doc announced quickly spinning around to her much nicer computer.
I frowned as I looked at her in confusion. "What...I...told you?"
"Yes, about the young man who came out of the portal with our friend here." She responded, not looking back. An uncomfortable feeling set in my stomach.
"I've been running some algorithms based on what you told me and the information Hari provided. If this incredible creature happens to pop up, we'll hopefully know where it is."
Hari smiled. "Awesome. Thank you. All of you, really."
"Eh, dweebus here believes you," Adrian replied, nodding in my direction, "So it's not like we had much of a choice."
I gave him a dirty look, and he responded with a small grin.
A series of beeps sounded. "It looks like we got something." Doc said, hurrying to the computer and hitting some keys. A display popped up showing a traffic camera. The young man we had seen was walking down the street. As he approached the camera, he glanced up at it, and an unsettling grin slipped onto his face."
Hari shuddered. "That's him alright."
I nodded. "In that case we better get going. Taylor, Adrian, Harper, you guys should probably come with."
They shrugged and got ready. I turned to Joey and Nelly. "You two stay behind, and if anything goes wrong, let us know, alright?"
Joey frowned. "We're not babies, you know."
I smiled and grabbed some things before heading out. I hurried out behind the rest of the group.
---
The wind had only slightly picked up on a beautiful summer day. So it kinda sucked that the world was probably gonna end up being anything but.
As we got closer to the spot, something was bothering me, but I had forgotten what. I racked my brain trying to figure it out, until I finally realized something. I hurried over to Hari.
I tapped him on the arm, and he looked over. "Is there anything else about Jokermon that we should know? Anything he can do?"
He thought for a moment. "Well, he has been shown to control humans over long distances. I'm not sure why, but the shorter the distance, the weaker his control is."
I frowned, causing Hari to question, "What's wrong?"
"Something about Doc wasn't right. She said something that didn't sit well with me."
"What?"
"She said I told her about how we had run into the human form of Jokermon. You know before our battle started."
"Yeah, what's the big deal?"
"You were there with me since we made it to base. I never said that, did I? I never mentioned seeing a person there."
"So then..."
"She somehow knew exactly what we were talking about. Plus, I don't think she had any time to create a program just to find this guy. The only way she really could have pulled up that image is..."
"If she knew he was going to be there at that exact time. Or rather, he made sure he went there at that moment."
I called out. "Everyone, stop!" The rest of the team froze, looking around in anticipation.