Fan:Digimon Legacies


 * Following this prelude to the story, see Episode Zero of Digimon Legacies ||||

Digimon Legacies

Prologue A Mind Set For Digimon Takato wasn’t mine to control, and I had to accept that little factoid, or suffer for it. The game wasn’t the best I’d ever played, but it also wasn’t a lot more to deal with than I could handle. I couldn’t get it right, lately, and I had to have a different sort of mindset ready to go in order to think about what came next, and it wasn’t my own world I was concerned with; it was the digital world! Okay, so maybe, in a weird way, the digital worlds are my worlds, but I wasn’t about to let them know that, because whenever they looked at me as a gaijin, a foreigner; an alien, something amazing happened. They believed in the extraordinary things I said I could do, and when I did them, it was because I knew I could, and because my friends, called the digimon, were there beside me, giving me their blessing, so to speak, to let me know it was okay for me to change their world in the way I set out to. I was afraid that the last time I played this Gameboy game wouldn’t be enough, but then I remembered that if I wanted to develop one myself, for the digimon I called my friends, I was going to have to do a lot more play testing, to get the money and the knowhow to develop the pieces I needed for my very own digital world.

I liked the way I looked, in this game, and I started to imagine a world where I could change things just as I needed to, and it frustrated me, then, because every time I would test out a piece of my gamesets, I would change it in a way I didn’t like, because I already knew the puzzle pieces to the world, so I didn’t modify them like a virgin playtester would, so I decided; I needed some allies and friends, here in the human world, to help me build this digital world just the way I wanted to.

Henry, Rika and Takato weren’t the only playable characters in the one I was testing out, but I’d lost interest in that series of Digimon a while back, and I decided that I’d abandon the game I was testing out, for a friend of mine, called VaiaCorps., so that I could focus more on my friends that actually wanted something real from me.

It occurred to me that if I gave my understanding of the digital worlds to companies like VaiaCorps., I might be feeding the enemy just what they deserved; a playtester who could break the digicrap mechanics in their engines, that were only designed to make life harder for players like me, without adding anything to the game that would make it more fun: A challenge for the sake of just making the game tougher to get through, wasting a player’s time, was as useless as it got, here in this world, so I made sure to screw up their system with the way I played, so those things didn’t work right anymore.

They weren’t really all that great a company, this VaiaCorps., as I called them, but then I realized something. I didn’t much like the gaming companies, and if I’d chosen one to publish my game, or to get other developers to help me work on it, they’d ruin it, just to make a buck and I don’t like the idea of my games getting ruined, just because someone wants to possess them so badly, because really, I love the part best when it becomes someone else’s game, because they love to play it, and the game changes for him or her so strangely, so wonderfully, that it becomes something else entirely, and I can scarcely recognize it, and I do, and because it’s only a trial copy, they get a whole new set of thrills when they open the plastic wrap on their new digimon adventure.

I’m getting ahead of myself. I actually didn’t want playtesters just yet, I wanted real live players, and plus or minus a through centuries in the digital world, I knew that the engine itself was only just nearing completion, and once it was prepared, the rest of the game would build itself with the organisms chosen to run it.

A digital download would have worked fine, for ordinary purposes, but you don’t get near the same excitement as when a mysterious package comes in the mail, and it’s got a whole new digimon adventure on it, for yours truly, your adventure that is, and mine wasn’t going to be bandied down to the point of having torrent support for the initial release, just because the download was so massive.

I didn’t at all feel bad about what the disk would do to their computers, either, because I knew that once this game hit them, and I’d searched long and hard for these players, digging through their hard drives incognito, finding all the games they liked to play best; even connecting to all their different playing stations set up on their wireless network, and giving their memory cards a good look see. These players I found, they’re the best. The best of the best. I can’t wait until they find the others, when they’re ready for them, but for now, these four are going to get my game in the mail, and they’ve been waiting for it, because I’ve sent them various sample files, each of a completely different game engine, and they’ve torn it up, not knowing just why I was giving them these sorts of games, when really, they were just lobbying themselves to get selected for the play testing sweepstakes I had going up on my forum page.

They did it, though. They found me, and I found them. I’m so excited I can’t even think straight! Did you know, that you should only ever think straight the day you die? You’ll think, I’m gunna die! I’m dying! I’m dead! And then that’s it for you. But if you never even think straight, and you can get high when you want to get high, and get digital when you want to go supplemental, then the whole infinite universe of digital worlds is gunna open up for you, just like mine did, they day I thought I was gunna die, and I was reborn: I became something else entirely.

I’m not gunna tell you my name, just now, because it’s not even a secret to those four you’ll get to know, here, in their bran new digimon adventure! Here we go!


 * Prior to this Episode, read the Prologue to Digimon Legacies||||

Digimon Legacies

Episode Zero Prelude to Aftermath

Set up protocols engaged and successfully registered. Chatroom acceptance regular. Playtesters free to engage while install is in progress. . . (4/4) users logged in and active. ..

Rutman: Uh, what the hell?

Rutman: Is this thing set to be multiplayer or something?

James: Apparently. Didn’t know I timed my install just right. Is this for real?

Stranger: Not like it wasn’t your directive, governer.

James: That’s less than apparent, gov’ner.

Stranger: It’s like you KNOW me. . . XD lolz fur realizes

Rutman: No more dice for stranger.

Rutman: Like, at least 12 less dice, rutman

Rutman: Oh wait, was that one to myself?

Stranger: You’re loosin’ it, fellow!

Rutman: Who sent you?!

James: This wasn’t what I was programmed for. Insert deletion protocol immediately. . . !

Stranger: I see your dot dot dot, and raie you a nickel

Rutman: cut the tom foolery, jack. We’re all supplemental

Rutman: the fearless leader has yet to speak his commands

Stranger: is numbero fouro the ctrl alt deleter someday?

James: You active, fourth man?

Stranger: he wouldn’t be, you know

Rutman: Cease senseless prattling and engage reactive campaign for user designated flarithboy! I found the call sheet, and it’s mine!

Farith: That was not my name, when they sent me, you know, gov’ner. ..

Stranger: He lives!

Rutman: How the fuq??

Stranger: Your call sheet lacks protocol, gov’ner, I’m calling the police, fo realzies. fo. realsies.

James: Seriously did we all hit the installer button at the same time? What gives here, police detectives?

Stranger: Not my prerogative negotiator!

Rutman: Can’t figure how you nixed my call sheet, fool. What’s goin’ on with the silent act

James: It’s way too surreal for my dates, you know

Farith: I wasn’t here before you lot were, but whilst you were engaging in pleasantries, I was setting up alpha protocols for our mandatory engagement delete. I set alone faith and wrongdoers allowed elite controlling protocols engaged without accessing mainfraime alone without setting forgetting the last setting for forgetting at last a last protocol for alt and deletion for gameing introduction into mainframe diagnosis engage without last time knowing for without set upon last diorama engaged without setting fortitude at last least ones for sure set again last timing set again forever out without for last timing protocol engagement

Stranger:. ..

Stranger:. . . . . . . . . . . . dafuq?

James: You just freaked the hell out of my mainframe, James. Don’t do that again. Ever. I’m calling leadership protocols set to maximum the hormone. I’ve claimed leadership role et Donatello engagement for settings released prior to last standing one again for without, setting yes?

Stranger: setting yes, fearless leader!

Stranger: that makes you Donatello, or?

James: No one gets to be Donatello but the freaky bastard with the compy speak wizard’s hat, okay?

Rutman: accepted protocols my ass, who got to get you to be leader? Is your name really James, here? Are you allowed to use that title? It’s annoying. That’s my middle name, bitch, so get with the programme and let me know ur reality checkered hats, ya?

Farith: not allowing Donatello engagement was a futile attempt to reingage Leonardo protocols anyway. True leadership retinue belies with Raphael, and Donatello accesses trusting protocols for all brothers in knowing their truest attributes. Leonardo and the gang follow Raph wherever he goes, ie, leadership, and Leonardo is whiney, and no one but Mikey follows him willingly, because Mikey is so ninja it hurts, and he trusts Raph and Don to get him and Leo out of trouble, if the occasion arises, set et?

Stranger: Your logic is undeniable. ..

Stranger: you also just fuqed up my engagement priority protocolship train, governer set maximum hormoning, set yes alpha engagement, si?

James: I like pies, and fruity cakes.

Rutman: Not like we get to pick, but how long is this set to be real for, yo?

James: Not fruity cakes, I meant to say fruit and cakes. This is a confusing reference, so bear with it.

Stranger: we need to

Stranger: oh shit dude the protocols just leaped up a bandwidth, yo gov’ner!

Raphael: Everyone disengage, presently.

Rutman: You motherfucker!

James: Well shit, my censorship protocols just got disengaged. How’d he figure that one?

Stranger: top alt deleted, sirs. Rutman just got pwned, and I misplaced my 0 key, were 0 a letter, and not the number zero

Raphael the Leader: See, here’s the thing, guys. We ain’t got shit for protocols in dis business, so if you got your engagements all a clusterfuckin’ around in here, we ain’t gunna have a smallfry regarding, yeah? It’s not like I came here willy nilly, so get your shit checked, Leo, and sign over my own class ring, got it? Good.

Leonardo: Pretty sure raph just fucked my head up nice and good

Stranger: dafuq again??

Leonardo: Oh, gross, man, how the hell did you do that?

Rutger McKenna: Did Raph do that?

Rutger Croft: Okay WHAT the FUCK dude?!

Stranger: That’s more confusing than I anticipated. ..

Rutger Michaels: What the hell is going on here? My name doesn’t exist ANYWHERE on my hard drive, dude!

Farith: Your engagement protocols are lacking, gov’ner. I liked how your name looked, but I couldn’t figure you for a last one, so I cut it out.

Rutger McKenna: Are you for real, man? How’s this even figuring out, gov’ner?

An Odd Stranger: Dude I’m tripping balls right now

Farith: It’s not like you should be worried. Why is everyone assuming I’m the culprit? I’m not. Leo is. See?

Culprit James: I’m not allowing the increase in Leo production here, Raphatello

Culprit James: oh fuckin’ what?

An Odd Stranger: ok sum1 noes my numba. ..

Rutger James: this is way trippier than I was hoping for tonight. I need some ganja, stat!

James Rutger’s Cousin: Who keeps fucking with our usernames? Is that you, flarith? Don’t cut it out, just how the fuq are ya doin’ that?!

Odd: dude whaaaaaaat the police? I’m engaged, man, call me listener again,a nd I’ll shove it down her htroat captain

Farith: that was odd. ..

Rutger: Is this really happening, dudes? How long is this install gunna take, and are you the game developer, Farith?

Jamison: I can’t quite get my head straight on this one. Are we really the only four playtesters, or is this a trial run with a set out parameters met, thingy, function?

Jamison: Oh, shitcrapballs! Did that just really happen?

Rutger Thomas: I’m tripping out still, guys. . . where’s my call sheet again?!

Odd(3): I can’t believe you got my name right, captain. I’m tripping hard, by now.

Rutger Thomas: I’m not even real anymore. I’m a figment of my own fuqked up imagination.

Rutger Thomas: or flarith’s, captain

James(1): anyone else feeling super high right now, stone cold sober?

Odd Thomas: didn’t know you could get sober from cold stones, gov’ner

Rutger James: not like anyone else was paying attention, but how many of you suspect Farith for faking OUR names and getting our heads all screwed up?

Odd(3): not like that’d matter, dudes and dudettes, cuz I’m pretty sure the weirdest shit that gets said was his all along

Odd: captain

Rutger(2): speak, boy! Or face my wrathy consequences!

Jamison Miles: like it or not, kids, we’re outclassed in the username tracking authorities, and odd is right, the strangest shit that gets said is raphael’s in the first place, any place

Farith: I’m not Jamison, anymore, I’m Captain. Call me sir, or else.

Odd: Oooooh, who’s sir? Is that ur boyfriend, captain?

Farith: i’m falling in love with you, skipper, please hold

Faith: my hand, please

Rutger: Not that I was complaining, but are we getting too bold for capital letters now, captain?

Jamison: who’s captain now, me or urs?

Odd: class of ur own, captain. lets get jiggy in another mario’s shindig

Faith: the game’s install won’t be done for the rest of the night, boys, I checked the status report. it’s timed to sync us up, as it turns out

Jamison(1): seriously? How can you tell?

Jamison: don’t answer, that, fur rizzle

Rutger(2): is our names settling down or something?

Odd: are you a girl now, Faith, ma dear?

Rutger(2): what’s with the occasional numbers, eh, beauregard?

Faith(4): No, never was one. Faith is my real name though. And odd is yours, as it turns out, Thomas.

Odd(3): omg HATED that movie

Odd(3): jk, jk, captain. loved that film.

Rutger(2): did Faith realname and number us? Dafuq captain?

Odd(3): cried at the end, then dreamt about a boy who was dead and needed me to deliver a message to our mutual ex girlfriend.

Odd(3): weird, cuz I was pretty sure I was gay while I watched Charlie Bartlett earlier that day. . . huh. ..

Jamison(4): do you often go by odd, thomas? if’n that IS your real name, title, captain, thingy.

Odd(3): omg it’s totally not! You can call me Thomas though, if you wants to. . . {insert winky face emoticon here}

Rutger(2): Yeah I’m noticing a distinct lack of emoticon on emoticon action, herein 4-2

Odd(3): anyone wanna know if Rutger is really a ginger??

Jamison(1): wait is odd really what you go by, then thomas?

Odd(3): IT IS NOW!!!! dontcallthepolicegov’ner

Rutger(4): He isn’t. He dies his hair black on wednesdays, to make it real for girls

Rutger(2): dafuq is happening right now? who invented dafuq, by the way?

Jamison(1): oh, that’s not confusing at all. Flarithboy is still number 2, I see

Stranger(3): don’t you confuse the point, captain! picard!

Faith(4): I’ll dispense with the names changes, herefortu after all is said and done

James(1): I haven’t gone by Jamison like that before. Not in real life, anyway. I like it, Farith

Jamison(1): Faith, rather

Jamison(1): Whoa, what?

Faith(4): I was just testing you. Good effort, team captain.

Odd Three: so is this all we’re gunna do all night, captain? twiddle each other’s aliases and get off on subtext? I’m quite irate, gov’ner, that no one else has been included in Farith’s little game. Rather have less Faith if she didn’t show up all the sudden, you know, dig?

Rutger Two: Do you EVER get tired of fucking with our aliases, Farith? Seriously?

Faith(4): Don’t make me start to fuq with ur chat logs, fools. It’s Faith and Faith alone, now, no “r” needed.

Odd Three Thomas: oops, I’m scared for governer reginold, now

Jamison(1): I just got an alert from a new user. goes by Datamon.

Odd(3): just saw that, odd indeed!

Jamison(1): can you fuq with him, four?

Faith(4): negative. he’s been loggedin the whole time, watching our chat, captain.

Rutger(2): seriously? you didn’t let us in?

Jamison(1): whoa. . . shit dude

Faith(4): he was the one who suggested the numbers. said they’d be important later on.

DATAMON: Now, now, Faith, you musn’t lie. The numbers ARE important, but you wrote them, not I.

Odd(3): whoooaaaaaa, are you a real digimon, Datamon? Like my hero agumon?

Faith(4): He didn’t fuck with my chat settings until I tried copying his username later on

Faith(4): oh, shit, what the fuck?

Jamison(1): this is the last time I ask, but are you on dev team, Datamon? If that is your real alias?

DATAMON: dev team? why yes, captain. I am the dev team.

Odd(3): You ARE the brute squad!?

Odd(3): i mean dev team??

DATAMON: If you’d like to meet, boys and girl, go ahead and take a walk to the central park in your avenues, savvy?

Jamison(1): not that I’d stop to watch this unfold but what the hell do you mean you ARE the dev team? you’re on it, or you ARE it?

Rutger(2): dude nobody move an inch till this gets settled, yo captain

DATAMON: Am I on the dev team? Am I the dev team? This is silly. I am Datamon. Didn’t you read the memo I just sent you, boys and girls?

Odd(3): Wait a minute, I see nothing funny here. There are no girls but I am, and I am not girl, but a boy!

DATAMON: yes this is simpler said than done. The park I meant to read to you was called centennial, not central, see?

Rutger(2): well it’s not like my life was any less exposed before you tracked my location and told me to go meet strangers at midnight

Jamison(1): wait are you serious? Centenniel Park? The hope square garden, centennial park?

Odd(3): whoa, wat da fuq? does everyone in here live in Ikebukero now?

Rutger(2): shizuo, shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo shizuo!!!

Jamison(1): this is freaking me out, but I guess a localized chat server makes some sense, now, if there’s other playtesters online

Odd(3): my heart is complete, now. :)

Rutger(2): not that I wanted shizuo to show up, but I wasn’t going to let that one just lay there and take it, you know?

Jamison(1): take whatnow?

Odd(3): looks like someone needs to watch mind his DRRR! And I thank you, rutger, my boy, and I’ll pardon the innuendo

Faith(4): I unplugged my router before this whole thing started, by the by. now my modem’s offline to. ..

Rutger(2): whoa whatthefuck?!

Jamison(1): you serious? wait, no focus!

Jamsion(1): does everyone here live near centennial park??

Rutger(2): why did I get (2)’d, by the way?

Odd(3): negative, captain. it’s like, at least fourteen blocks away. ..

Odd(3): four or five, I mean. It just FEELS like fourteen when I get there on my razor scooter copywrite donna noble

Rutger(2): not understanding that reference with divine intent, captain. wait, did we get down to just calling Jamison the First captain, suddenly?

Faith(4): pretty sure it’s been him the whole time

Jamison(1): dafuq?

Odd(3): negative, I just checked, it’s not true

Faith(4): wait what’s not true, the negative?

Rutger(2): oh thank grod, duuude!!!

Odd(3): positive

Rutger(2): wait what the fuck?

Jamison(1): I’m dipping out, guys. I’m walking to centennial park, now. anyone in it to win it, boys?

Odd(3): I’m not your boys! And yes, yes I am.

DATAMON: don’t forget to bring a jacket, boys, it’s frigid out there.

DATAMON HAS LOCKED THE CHATROOM. PROCEED TO NEXT DESTINATION, IF YOU DARE. . . . . ..


 * Prior to this episode. ..

||||Digimon Legacies: Prologue

||||Digimon Legacies, episode zero - Prelude to Aftermath

Digimon Legacies

Episode One

See My Digitama?

Jamison didn’t get to the park right away, because there was a ton of foot traffic around town, even this late in the evening, and he didn’t really know why, but traffic was flowing both ways pretty regularly, and he kept getting distracted by cute boys, not because he was gay, particularly, but because he was looking for boys who were well above average in noticability, and he was sure that the other playtesters were around his age, albeit seventeen was pushing it, for game developing, but Datamon had sounded like he was a little kid, in the intro to the manual for the game, which was a lot of confusing banter and whatnot, savvy?

He was still thinking in the stupid terms they’d used in the chatroom, following his perusal of the manual, and he wasn’t sure what to do about flarithboy, or whatever his name was. Faith, as he was called later on. He seemed to be able to do more with the software, and remembering what his cousin looked like in front of a freshly cornered hard drive, he figured Jamison for one who fiddled around with computers rather than being one who actually new how to use them. That didn’t stop Jamison from fucking with his computer so bad he claimed it was incorrigible and gave it to his cousin James, who now had it sitting on his desktop beside his monitor, installing a gamedrive he was pretty sure was about to rock his whole worldset, execute and all, gov’ner.

He thought about it, and he realized that every time he and the other users had said gov’ner, they could have been calling out to Datamon, who seemed to have been engaged from the start, though Jamison hadn’t worked out how he’d timed the separate installs for all four users. He wondered if it was coincidence, but he couldn’t figure too much brainpower on that, because he had his eyes looking out for a Razor scooter, hoping Odd wasn’t kidding about what he’d be showing up in.

He’d expected to find a park mostly abandoned, by the central square, where he could meet a few other users who were easy enough to spot in the slow evening light, but the park was packed, and there was some kind of event going on, and it tripped him out a little, but he was glad for it, because he remembered his friends telling him that cops had been patrolling the neighborhood way too much, lately, picking on or picking up teenagers with nothing better to do than be a person out on the street like pedestrianship was an okay pastime or something.

He spotted him, then, passing a few drunk looking girls who seemed a little too into the golden haired blonde wearing a deep mahogany windbreaker over his brown hoodie. The lighting was strange, just then, and Jamison realized that the boy was wearing violet, not mahogany, and his hoodie underneath was black, not brown. Much more coordinated, he though.

The scooter was purple too, albeit of a brighter ilk, and Jamison laughed, stepping close enough to the boy, who’d stopped his scooting to look at a few boys passing not too far away.

“I can’t believe you’re wearing purple. That’s way too becoming, for a boy of your stature, Odd Thomas,” said Jamison, hoping he could be heard over the crowdsourcing of noise blockage nearby. He couldn’t, so he stepped closer to Odd, or the boy he assumed was called Odd online, and said again, “I can’t believe you’re wearing purple!”

Odd looked at him, wearing the strangest expression Jamison had ever seen, and it made him laugh. Odd seemed to brighten, well enough, when he saw who was speaking to him, but he still looked unimpressed at the believable dialogue he was about to engage in.

“Your scooter, I mean!” amended Jamison. “I didn’t expect your Razor to be purple. The violet coat is a good look for you, Odd.”

The boy smiled, and showed his teeth, pushing his blonde hair out of his eyes, to get a better look at the speaker, who was aiming at him with those words he loved so much. “You’re not Leonardo, are you?” he asked, loud enough to be heard, and Odd wasn’t his name anymore, Jamison realized, it was Todd, and he’d never met anyone who carried it so well, save for Sawyer, in a story he’d read once, on the first of May, so many years ago, now.

Leonardo shook his head, laughing. “No!” he said over the crowd, which had just gotten much loud. “Definitely not Leo! Just call me James, or Jamison, rather!”

Odd said something, but his words were lost in the noise. Jamison shook his head, and said he couldn’t hear him, so Todd gestured for him to follow, and he skated a few yards away, over closer to the edge of the park, giving a sidelong glance to the spinning lights on a cop car, down the street, but not looking too concerned about them. “I didn’t know your name was really Jamison. That’s cool. How do you think Raph does that sort of thing? Hard drive dig?”

Jamison shrugged, stopping before Todd and giving him another look see. He was cuter than Jamison had expected, and that made him feel strange, because cute wasn’t an adjective he applied to boys, on the regular. He was definitely a boy, too, and that was something. He didn’t like the look of boys who gossied themselves up into an effeminate mockery of their sex, and the whole mistaken gender thing didn’t make a bit of sense to him, so he was glad that Odd looked normal enough to be a pleasant sort of Odd boy out, and he did stand out, that was for sure. Some other girls were eyeing the two of them, and Jamison found himself uninterested.

“What sort of event is going on here?” Jamison asked mildly, glancing around for some indication as to the purpose of the crowd.

“I didn’t know you had blue eyes, captain. That’s cool,” said Odd, pleasantly.

Jamison made a face. “You can see my eye color in this light? How dafuq?”

Todd grinned again, showing his teeth. “I’m glad that one caught. It’s a secret way to swear, in most places.”

“Easier to understand right away when you say it out loud, though.”

“At first,” said Odd, nodding his head.

“What color are your eyes, if I might ask? I’m just getting black beads in offwhite eyeballs, from this angle.”

“Oh, you may, you may. They’re brown, just like the coloring books. Not really though. I’m pretty sure they change, from time to time, so you’ll have to wait and see.”

Jamison didn’t know what to say. He was enjoying Odd’s company more than any of his other friends, and they’d only barely said hello to each other, thus far. He almost didn’t want to ask, but he said, “Any sign of the others, out here?”

Todd glanced past him, and shook his head, returning his gaze to Jamison’s face. “No, captain, not yet.”

“How did I get to be captain, by the by, anyhow?”

“You engaged leadership protocols to maximum the hormone, if I do recall.”

“Oh,” he snickered. “I gotcha. I forgot about that.” He had, and it was funny to him that they really had started calling him captain.

“I’m sporting my trusty Razor, like I said in the chat, so maybe I should do a quick runaround? See if I get noticed?”

“Oh, you’ll get noticed,” Jamison said, most assuredly. He was about to say that that was a good idea, when he looked down the street at the couple police cars with uniformed officers standing by, and walking about the edges of the park. “I don’t know though, I don’t like the way those cops are looking at everybody here. Don’t get yourself too noticed, anyhow. . .”

Odd nodded and said, “wish me luck!” in a voice that made him sound just like a girl, which totally threw Jamison off, and he skated away, weaving playfully through the crowd, calling for Raphael and Donatello, quite loudly.

Jamison jogged, lagging behind but going quick enough to keep him in sight. He wasn’t about to lose his only friend here in the crowd, and he didn’t trust the crowd not to harass Todd for something specific or vague. He felt oddly protective of him already, and wasn’t about to let that instinct go to waste by doubting himself now.

Jamison didn’t lose sight of Todd, but neither did Raphael and the supposed Donatello spot the strange boy whizzing about on his razor.

Faith laughed, spotting a boy on a Razor scooter, wearing goggles on his forehead, with a sensible bandana underneath, or a strip of cloth, anyway, and a brown hoodie sweatshirt with an interesting pattern. He was skating around on his scooter, looking at the boys in the crowd, curious about how busy the park was getting, and Faith called, loudly, “Rutger Jamison!”

Rutger turned around at the neck, not sure whether he’d heard his name or not, and Faith laughed, hopping down from the brick wall he’d stood on, that surrounded the raised bushes and trees, creating a pleasant sort of corner for the park. “No way you’re Odd, with that headgear on,” said Faith, stepping in closer to Rutger, so he could be heard closely, and noticed. “You must be the Rutman I’m hearing so much about.”

Rutger looked at him oddly, and it was clear that he was the right candidate to be called Rutman, but he didn’t know who Faith was, and Faith liked that, because he was good at changing up his tone. “I’ve got the four star dragonball in a safe back home, if that helps?”

“Gohan?” asked the boy, eyes going wide. “Oh my god! Grandpa Gohan! Is that you?!” he was incredulous, and Faith tried not to laugh, but failed.

“You guessed it. See? Who said glasses weren’t leadership headwear?”

“Glasses? These are goggles, fool, and considering our digidestined outlook, at present, goggles qualify me as acting leader, savvy?”

Faith didn’t correct him, but scanned the crowd, instead. “Oh I knew it was you by the goggles, fearless leader. Trust me.”

“You’re not Jamison,” said Rutger, “or Oddball, so that makes you flarithboy, then?”

Faith raised an eyebrow. “Where’d that one come from? It’s Faith, plain and simple, gov’ner.”

“Faith. And you’re a boy, all this time?”

“Tried and proven. Why? Are we lacking in the Faith department for the male sexes?”

Rutger smirked at the play on words, but said, “Sexes? Just how many male sexes are there, gov’ner Milo?”

“Several, and don’t call me governer. . . or Milo, for that matter. Any luck spotting the second scooter?”

Rutger shook his head, kick flipping his Razor’s base around, catching it on the other shoe, which was a sensible running shoe, rather than a skater shoe, and Faith marked him up in his understanding of the other boy.

“You look good in green,” said Rutger. “You’re hair’s kind of pissing me off, though. How’d you get it like that, anyhow?”

Faith shrugged, trying not to laugh, and not really sure what Rutger meant, just then. His eyes were still moving rapidly over the crowd, and eventually he said, “we’re the youngest guys here.”

Rutger glanced around. “So?”

“So, we should get the hell out of here, pronto. Those cops aren’t here alone, and something fucked up is about to happen. Hold this.”

He didn’t offer anything out to Rutger, but the phrase forced a look from the other boy, and he watched him scurry over to the bushes, where he’d stood on the wall, and fish out a skateboard, with yellow trucks and green wheels.

“You serious?” asked Rutger, when Faith returned to his side, board in hand. He didn’t see the rush to leave, like the other boy did.

“Sooner, rather than later,” he said hurriedly, dropping the board at his feet and starting off, on it, through the park with a skillful weave of his trucks.

He slipped out of the park, Rutger in tow, just in the nick of time, as it turned out, because it wasn’t cops who bore down on the underaged drinkers at the shindig, but thugs, armed at the hip and on the breast with a solid right to fuck you up for no other reason than what they might call disorderly.

Jamison tripped a cop, and it wasn’t on purpose, at first appearance, and he slipped back into the crowd well enough and casually enough that nobody seemed to notice who’d done it, and he put enough people between him and the armed officers to make a break for Odd Thomas, who was skating quite unabashedly on his Razor, and he cried, “Myotismon’s goons! Book it! Yes, for realsies!” as he ran past him.

Razors aren’t amazing for getaways, if you’re not used to the tug and pull of their tiny wheels and frames, but Odd was, as it turned out, and he lit off down the parkway sidewalk after Jamison, dodging the “authority figures” who’d come to mess up a teen’s good time, for some odd reason.

Odd didn’t stop for Jamison, but flew past him, slowing enough to keep pace but taking the lead, because this was his part of town they were fleeing into, and he knew Jamison wasn’t from his particular block and neighborhood.

They didn’t go far before Odd took them into a residential alleyway that was decently lit, with condo’s garages lining either side, and a few open garage doors, where people were gathered around convertables or empty houses of junk and belongings. It was a homey environment, and Odd was known to the neighbors here and well liked, so he didn’t worry about any interference. There were plenty of teenagers living in these condos, and Odd seemed to know his way around, so Jamison relaxed when they stopped at a break in the garages, where there were shrubs and trees behind a curb.

Odd tossed his scooter into the brush and went to pull his hoodie off, which clung to his t-shirt, so that came off too. It was warm enough out that their hasty getaway had worked up a sweat for both the boys, and Jamison unfurled his coat sleeves, slipping the wind breaker off over his sleeves and letting his thin zip up hoodie hang open, before deciding to lose it, and pulling that off, as well.

He had a dark blue t-shirt on, under it, beneath a red and blue vest he liked to wear, and Odd smiled at him, seeing how it looked in the orange streetlights overhead. “Not your prerogative, but you’d look super hot without the shirt and just the vest.”

Jamison laughed, and casually looked past odd, at the guy who was starting at them outside his garage. “That you, Oddball?” he asked. He was middle aged, and wearing a filthy white t-shirt, which looked to be soiled in car grease, so it was acceptable garage attire.

“Cops suck dude,” said Odd, unabashedly, still a little out of breath from the excursion, but playing it up for the camera, as it were. “They bore down on us and some other kids at the park for no reason. Do you know what’s going on down there?”

“At the centennial? No, how many people you got down there?” He didn’t look friendly, but that might just be his demeanor in general. Odd didn’t seem to be freaked out by his presence, anyway. Or didn’t show it, anyway.

“Like, four hundred at least,” said Jamison. “I don’t know, probably more than that. I couldn’t see anything in the ampetheater. Or uh, the stage area, I mean. There’s a lot of people out there, so I didn’t really know what was going on.”

“You local, then?” he asked, tossing a rag over his shoulder, looking at Jamison oddly. “A friend of Odd’s, then?”

Todd didn’t bristle, he bargained. “Fuck off, Captain.” He wasn’t panting, and he stood up straight, chest bare, but eyes grim and determined. “We didn’t dodge out from cops to get quizzed by the neighborhood Zimmerman. Do I have to get my friends out here just for your approval? You looking to be a cop or something, now?”

He looked like he was about to tell Odd off, but another neighbor shouted from his garage. “Hey, Jason! Piss off, will you? Nobody needs your watchful eye!”

Jason, as it were, looked chastened by the other neighbor, and turned back toward his garage. “Can’t be too careful, Paul!”

“It’s Mike, you asshole! And yeah, you CAN be too careful! The Zimmerman case wasn’t being black, dickwad! It was about being underaged! Did Toddball’s hairless chest set your alarmbells off or something?”

Todd didn’t laugh, but Jamison could tell that he’d wanted to, just then, and he was set at ease by the new neighbor’s interference.

“Hey, Odd, come bring your friend into the garage before that asshole calls the cops or something. I’m gunna go inside and have a beer. Go ahead and grab you and your friend some sodas and kick it in here, okay?”

“Thanks, David!” Oddball called to his friendly rescuer, who was disappearing out the back door to the garage, through a courtyard, into a house via a sliding glass door. Odd stepped boldly into the garage, via his invitation, and grabbed two sodas from a fridge they kept out there.

“His name David, or Mike?”

“Both, I think. Mike’s his twin brother, who comes over a lot. He’s usually the one who tells off dickwads like Jason the wannabe cop over there, so David uses his name, when he’s causing trouble.”

Jamison accepted the bottled rootbeer with a nod of thanks. “Did he call you Toddball, just now?”

He laughed, or tried not to, and did anyway. “No, you’re hearing things.”

“Never figured you for a ball, but Todd fits, for you. I figured as much back at the park.”

He nodded, taking a swig of the soda. “Speaking of which, we’ll hang out here for a bit and then dip out to another spot I know, if you’re cool to hang.”

“Yeah,” said Jamison, “that’d be cool.”

“I’m gunna leave my scooter here, though,” he said, setting the rootbeer down on a plastic table that looked like it was from a kid’s playset, before jogging back out to the bushes to grab his Razor, setting it against the wall of the garage when he returned.

Jason wasn’t dialing the police, but the clerk in the convenience store was, eyeing the two suspicious looking gangsters outside.

“Pretty sure that clerk is about to go counterbottom shotgun on us,” said Rutger, taking a swig of the soda he’d just bought inside, not sure why the guy looked like such a dickhead, just presently.

“Your proclivity for reading people isn’t undeveloped. Let’s bail, and call it nighttime.”

“Know any good spots around here?” he asked, glancing at the roadside, uninspired.

Faith was looking at the cop car, flying down the street past them, sirens awhirl, with unease. “Did Datamon send the cops after us, do you think?”

Rutger tried not to spit up his swig of diet rootbeer. “What?!”

“I don’t know. I got an odd feeling about him. I mean, he really did do some computer wizardry and. . . I’m not sure, but I think he was testing us out. For, something more, you know?”

“What, like a live action play test?”

“Yeah, I mean, if he sicked the cops on some underage kids down at the park, and we bailed, it’s like, okay, cool, you guys can handle the kids’ stuff. Ready for a real adventure, now?”

“It’s a playtest for a video game, numbnuts.” Rutger took another swig, trying not to look so uneasy at Faith’s faithless insinuation. Well, faithful, anyway, in the paranormal, which really just meant out of the ordinary, to Rutger and his ilk.

“Are you sure about that? I mean, the things he could do. My modem really was off, by the end of that conversation. What if. . . what if he’s like, an actual digimon?”

Rutger didn’t react, much, and asked, “you high, dude?”

“Not very. Just off the chat log, really. Getting into that sort of stuff gets you super high, the way I do it. Just talking to Datamon would probably send you into a tizzy.”

Rutger considered it more seriously than he’d meant to. “I actually did get a buzz off your first little paragraph of weird.”

Faith nodded. “That’s what it was meant for. You guys didn’t really notice, I think, because you were caught up in it, but there was a ton of innuendo and wordplay flying through that chatroom, like we’d all been friends for years. I started screwing with your usernames to see what would happen, cuz I was high as fuck off the first few sentences from the game manual.”

Rutger didn’t remember the part Faith was talking about, so he just skipped past it. “Why would you say he’s a real digimon, even?”

“Because he calls himself Datamon and he can do things on a computer I’ve never even thought were possible. He locked us into that network rigid, dude, and it ran itself from thereon out. I didn’t know the installation process was gunna come with an accompaniment in IRC, but. . .” he shrugged the point off, “what I was getting at before. . .”

“Was that if he’s a real digimon, then his playtest isn’t for kids, it’s for grownups.”

“What? No. I mean, I don’t know what grownup means, when you say it like that.”

Rutger shrugged the point off. “I don’t know what grownup means anyhow. I’ve never actually met an adult who was just, done changing. Met plenty who thought they were, and got real dumb, but all growed up? I think it’s a myth.”

Faith smiled, thinking of the Rugrats spinoff by the same name. “You know, that show was about teenagers, like, our age. I think that was the whole point, savvy? All growed up, like, this is as big as we ever needed to get, so why bother saying we were anything more?”

Rutger was thinking of the same sort of diaphragm. “We should really bail, before that guy actually freaks out on us. I think he might have actually called the cops, just now. He’s got his cell phone out like the store phone just wasn’t enough, savvy?”

Jamison didn’t really know what to do with himself. He and the oddball of a best friend he’d just met had put their outer clothes back on, and moved to a quiet grove on a hillside, a couple miles down the street from where they were, outside the via driveway alleys of the condo houses, in a tucked away, dimly lit corner of town that Jamison hadn’t known about, before just then.

Od had kissed him, just then, and it wasn’t a playful kiss either, but a good one, and Jamison didn’t really know how to react. They hadn’t gotten all gay on each other or anything. At least, not gay in the way Jamison had come to expect from the “homosexual community,” he’d just, really wanted to kiss Od just then, when they were talking about something, and there was that, comfortable uncomfortability, that exciting moment, where you’re not sure what to say to someone, but you really like being around them, and they’re super fun to talk to, but like, in a, “I’d like to get to know you,” kinda way.

Shit. Fuck. His descriptors weren’t working right, and Jamison was at a loss for how to get this one down in a livejournal, if ever. He didn’t really know what livejournal was, other than that he’d chronicle his life, on occasion, and throw his inner monologues up on various websites for people to peruse, under various assumed names.

Od had kissed him, and it wasn’t a slow, thought out kiss, but a brief, intentional, this is what we both were thinking, so here it is, type of deal, and Od had just picked right back up, after breaking away, in the conversation, talking about what he thought of the way Datamon had locked them into that chat window so effectively, at first, not sure why Jamison hadn’t really reacted, other than to briefly kiss him back, but not completely out of his element, like Jamison felt, either.

“Have you. . . been with boys, before now?” he asked, suddenly, breaking Od’s train of thought, and the other boy smiled at Jamison, and it was a knowing smile, like, I thought you might be thinking of that, instead of what we were talking about.

“No. What are you talking about? I’m with a boy right now. We’re here, together, enjoying the company of boyship romance. Know why I said romance like that? Because we just had an epic adventure, and that’s what romance means, stupid.”

“Epic means longer than a fortnight, at least.”

“Didn’t know we were for’it all night?” said Od, turning the phrase back on him oddly.

Jamison had taken to spelling it Od, in his head, just recently, because it looked better, he thought, and more like a name, than a title, labeling him as an oddball.

“Didn’t meant to overcomplicate the matter,” said Jamison. “I don’t know how datamon did that. Do you. . . do you think he might be a. . .” he wasn’t sure if he could say it.

“A wizard?” Od said in a whisper. Jamison laughed, and Od smiled, glad he’d gotten the reaction he’d hoped for.

“No, I mean, do you think he could really be, you know, a digimon?”

Od smiled at the question. He wasn’t younger than the other two, just cuter, and Jamison was pretty sure he’d seen Faith and Rutger taking off out of the park just before they did. Od knew what Jamison was getting at, without having to track him too closely in the conversation, because his thoughts were a million places, all at once.

“Can I show you something, without you getting freaked out or calling me a liar?” asked Od.

Jamison looked at him oddly, and nodded. “Sure. Of course you can.”

“Well,” he stood up, reaching in his pocket, stepping toward Jamison. “Before I started the disk up, I had-”

Jamison kissed him, just as he drew near enough for it, and Od almost laughed, cutting off his sentence, and smiled, rather than chuckle, because Jamison was just telling him he’d liked the kiss before, and he wasn’t sure what was going on, but he’d wanted to do that, too.

“I uh. . . I had my cell phone plugged into my computer, to charge via usb, before I ran the install disk that Datamon sent me,” he finished, pulling out his phone, to look at.

“Ooh, a flip phone. Retro,” Jamison casually mocked, waiting for the presentation of the shocking fact he was said to be looking forward to.

“Yeah, it is, actually. I got this thing a few years ago, and it’s barely got color on the screen. Thing is, I can’t get it to work anymore. The screen is just locked on one image, and there’s not even a clock display, or a battery indicator.”

“Whaaat?”

Od flipped open his phone, and showed the display. There, taking up the whole screen, was what looked like a dragon egg, with a violet surface, and not at all cartoony, like the digitama he’d seen on the shows and games. It was beautiful, and deep blue, and Jamison barely even knew what to say. “Whoa. . .” was all that came out.

“No kidding,” said Od, staring at the marvelous display with Jamison. “The shape of the phone hasn’t really changed, Takato’s toy, style, but there was no way I could have had an image this sharp up on my screen before, and I can’t figure out what it means, because no matter what buttons I’ve pressed, it doesn’t falter.”

“Have you tried turning it off, Izzy?” Jamison hadn’t even meant to use the name, just then, and almost didn’t notice it.

“I almost didn’t want to. I had to try, though, Tai, just to see what would happen, and check it out.” He pressed the power button, hard, then tried it again, holding for a few seconds, and nothing happened. The display was bright: a blue egg on a whitish gray background.

“I’m more than a little weirded out and way more excited than I thought I’d be.”

“We became Tai and Izzy just now, in our heads,” Od said with a half smile, “and I’m not even upset. If my digimon hatches and he’s as ugly as Tentamon, I’ll just have to love him anyway, you know?”

Jamison laughed at that one. “Yeah, and I’ll bet mine would be as freaky as War Graymon, right out of the egg. Oh, not War Graymon, I mean regular old Graymon. That dinosaur always freaked me out on the old show.”

Od laughed. “And his voice? Man, I loved those things. Say. . . do you have a usb cord for your phone?”

“You bet I do. I’m dying to try it out now, when I get home. Best burn of a smartphone I’ve ever thought to try.”

“If he can really do the things we think he can do. . . who knows what else is about to happen. I can’t even breathe right, just thinking about it!”

“Man. I wonder if Faith was right, about the install taking all night, just to keep our computers synced up.”

“I’ll bet he was. He freaked me out, with all those username games he was playing, but I’ve seen that sort of high level of control in an IRC before, so it wasn’t too alarming. Till he called me Odd, though, which was a nickname I’d just come up with recently.”

“I spelled it Od, O-D, in my head just a minute ago, and it looked right.”

“I like that. I’ll have to try it out when I get home. Say. . .” he hesitated, looking at his cell phone screen again before closing it and putting it back in his front pocket. “We should get out of here, before we’re walking home too late at night. Cops don’t stop prowling, once they start, you know?”

“Do I ever,” he nodded, thinking about a decent, safe route home. He didn’t really want to go. ..

“Well. . . I know you’re probably eager to get home and see what your computer screen looks like, but. . . well if it’s gunna take all night anyway, you should just come over to my place, and we can hang out and crash there, and you’d be a lot safer walking back in the morning, you know?”

James nodded, thinking about it. “Yeah, I’d like that. Sounds like a good idea, to me. I’d. . .” he hesitated, considering something else. “Except, I. . .”

“What? What is it, Tai?” he asked, playing with the name, to see how it sounded, just then. He liked it, and Jamison did, too.

“Except I really want to get my phone plugged in, to see what happens. If that’s really a digitama on your screen, I know I gotta have one, as soon as possible, even, so-”

“I understand.”

“You should just come over to my place. It’s farther, but-”

“I’d like that,” Od put in, happily taking him up on the invite, despite the added mileage. Jamison smiled, and he wondered just what the hell had happened, just now, and when they started out, he hadn’t quite figured out.

“When you shifted, just now,” he said, walking alongside Izzy, or TK, or whoever Od was thought to be, just then.

“As in?” Takato asked. He wasn’t at all Takato, but he asked it like him, all the same.

“When we were talking, you sort of, shifted the dynamic, like Faith could do, in the IRC, and it was. . . I don’t know, it was cool. I really felt like we were different people there, for a minute.”

“I did too,” said Todd, sure he knew what Takato had meant, just then.

When Jamison thought about it, he realized how awesome what Todd had done really was. He was super anxious, right after kissing Od, to tell him it was okay, and nice, and he had no idea how to act around this strange boy, and right when Od fell into talking about his cellphone, which looked like a digivice to Jamison, now, he really felt like they were Tai and Izzy, and with that, he knew they were old friends, and that they talked a certain way, and all the anxiety was gone, in a flash, just like that.

He was Od the whole time, but Jamison liked thinking of him as Todd, now and again, and the name fit really well for him, and made him seem a little more normal. He wondered what sort of kid Faith was, with a boy’s name like that, and thought about Takato, too, and Izzy. The real one, he meant, who was Odd, just now.

“I think I’ll keep the extra “d” in Odd, for the time being,” said Izzy, who was always a little odd. “I’m not sure what I’ll do with it later, but I like the way Faith pulled it out of the hat like that. It was really cool, and I’m still hung up about it.”

“It was cool, wasn’t it? I was always James, before he changed it on me. I mean, Jamison is my real name, but everyone always just called me James, and I was used to it, you know, so Jamison felt weird to ask for.”

“It’s useful, getting used to being called by more than one name. That’s one thing they never got to in the TV show or movies. Their anonymity. Being able to change gears like we did, in conversation, is a really useful practice, for getting to understand each other.”

“Sort of like changing characters in a fighting game, to get really good at one.”

“Exactly like that, Tai,” said Izzy, with a smile. “If you’re just playing as one character, trying to get good, you forget how to change up his moveset. If you start playing on a higher difficulty, though, or change to a completely different character for a while, it changes the way you play, and move, and you can end up getting way better as your favorite character when you switch back to him, because you broke the mold you were in.”

“Mine’s Reptile, on Soul Calibur,” said James, to see what the other boy would say.

“No way Lizardman is your favorite character, Tai. And you’re sure as hellfire not talking about Reptile off a Mortal Kombat, I know that much for sure.”

“Who said anything about Mortal Kombat, Izzy? Yeesh, always putting words in my mouth. I used the moveset from that character devil jinn, from techen, on Soul Calibur character creation, to make a guy called Reptile,” he defended, trying not to laugh, because it wasn’t even true.

Izzy got him most of the way home, and then the rest of the way, and it was cool, because Tai, who was James, knew that Izzy was Takato the whole time, only because he was never anything like Takato, and he was one hundred percent Todd, or Odd, the whole way.

He thought about his other friends, who were a whole bunch of characters, and they were all stuck in a mold of themselves. Like they had a certain image they wanted to uphold, and they were rigid in it, and it was so hard for them to try to things, or talk in different ways, even.

When he got home, he let them in the back way, and made his way upstairs, Todd in tow, glad his room was up in the attic, away from the rest of the bedrooms, where they could hang out and make noise and not worry about disturbing anybody. Odd was impatient that Takato get his cellphone out, and he was relieved to find an older smartphone in a drawer, so he could keep his new one, but at the last minute, he switched them out, favoring the new one, just in case his little digitama needed 4G, or something.

His breath caught in his chest when the display changed. The install was still running on his computer’s screen, but the chat box wasn’t locked out anymore, but the two boys ignored it, because it wasn’t active.

When he plugged his phone into the computer, via the usb cord he had laying around, there wasn’t even a delay! The screen started to change, just like that, and in a few minutes, he had a digivice, or a cell phone with a digitama on the screen, anyway.

“Mine’s blue,” said Tai, who was Izzy, who was odd the whole time, “but yours is. . . what is that, periwinkle? Tough luck, man. Better luck next time. You’re gay. That’s all there is too it.”

“Awww! And all those ladies I was hoping to fascinate with my digitama display! Periwinkle? Gash, Izzy, I don’t know what to do with myself. I think you might be right. A periwinkle digitama, and you’re definitely the gaylord of the group.”

“Is there even a crest for that, do you think?”

“Oh, check it out, it’s actually taking shape, now!” His attention was rapt on the screen, which gave a vague silhouette, at first, and then sharpened into a light, almost sky blue, but a littler truer.

“Yours is blue too. Cool,” said Izzy, who was odd, still.

It didn’t stay blue, though, but shifted, to greenish blue, to green, then periwinkle, briefly, making the boys laugh, and then to an auburn yellow, and then brown, and finally, it turned golden bronze, and stayed that way.

“That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” breathed Takato, who was Jamison, still.

“Dude, no way. That looks even cooler than mine did four seconds ago, check it out!” Izzy, who was still a bit odd, was holding up his cell phone, too, and the display had changed, slightly, and the egg’s surface looked more metallic than it had before, and a truer blue, and the sheen and texture matched Jamison’s egg.

“Did they get clearer, now that the devices are near each other?”

“Maybe. Or maybe they’re clearer now that there’s more than one at all, since all our systems are linked, via the game CD.”

Jamie put his phone down on his desk, leaving it plugged in, and stepped away, taking long controlled breaths. “I can’t even look at that think, anymore. It’s freaking me out and if I don’t go full digidestined by half past one I’m gunna cry.”

Odd laughed, and checked the chat display, typing a quick note, under Jamison’s sn, to let the others know they could reply if they came home too.

Jamison’s thoughts turned to the other games he’d tried out, and he couldn’t remember all of them, or why he’d liked them so much, and then his thoughts turned to his new friends, and Odd especially, thinking about how much fun he was about to have with them, regardless of what was actually in store for them, via Datamon’s insane romance of a game drive.

“Datamon’s Wish,” Odd read. “I’d forgotten that’s what the game was called.”

He was reading off the package the disk had come in, which was sitting on Jamie’s desk, and Jamison glanced over at it, remembering that he’d forgotten too, oddly enough.

“Datamon’s Wish, huh?” He had no idea what would come next. Odd did though, or he thought he did, and he was tallying up the ways to try for it.

“Please don’t be a real digitama without romance,” whined Odd, looking at his cell phone screen again.

“Without romance? What do you mean?”

“An epic tale. None of the digimon stories I’ve read into so far have had that secret element, that underlying undercurrent of romance, that makes an adventure story great.”

“Wait, romance like a lover’s tale, or romance like in the literature term from school? Like, a grand tale, or something?”

“Sort of. And it’s both, to get technical. Can’t have a real story about real people worth anything without romance involved. And not a little, romance, but a lot. I just don’t want our digimon to talk in turns and shout their attacks in gruff voices before they move, you know?”

He laughed. “Okay, so less anime, more epic adventure and plot depth?”

“Ex-actly, Tai.”

“You keep a lot up in that little brain of yours, don’t you, Izzy?”

“More than you could ever know. Wanna see what else is new?”

“What, in your brain?”

“Sure. You liked the digitama reveal.”

“Hell yeah I did. What else you got in there I should know about.”

Todd smiled, and started in on the next thing he’d been thinking about. “Check it out,” he started.