Story blog

And then you go into the new forest.

It is dead.

Roughly three weeks ago I started writing a side project to help me work through my writer's block. A story about a someone dying and getting reborn in another world. This side project is now roughly 20k words long so now I’m sitting here trying to make a real plot outline and turn it into a real book with a planned ending. Look forward to "They told me I could be anything I wanted, so I became a dragon" The story of a random human who wanders into a typical YA urban fantasy fight, gets killed, and then gets to come back as whatever he wants in a tropical fantasy world.   

A simple enough plan, if it wasn't for the fact that the other girl she needs to work with hates her guts. For Melodia, fighting monsters is going to be easy. But making some friends along the way? That just may be a tall order.

Go check out Guardians of the Seal: March of an Unlikely Hero at Barnes and Noble's.

i am gravely disappointed that I am yet to see even concept art of Christopher Robin making his way through a spooky gothic forest under the protection of his yellow spirit bear. Winnie the Pooh hit the public domain and the only thing we’ve done so far is go the boring, predictable slasher movie route. Where is my gothic forest full of shadow monsters?

Where is the wise owl that looks like the freaky owl from secret of NIHM?

Where is my vergil fight with Tigger?  (unless he’s still owned by disney. I know some of the characters are public domain but not others.)

An impromptu investigation into the house's past leads to some unsettling revelation for the whole family. The sleepless night that follows will lead to the world as Jacob knew it changing forever. New chapter out now. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/66824/the-monster-i-met-that-day/chapter/1169784/chapter-2

The first chapter of my novel ‘The Monster I met that Day’ is now out on Royal Road and can be found here. New chapters will come out every Friday around noon. Come check it out, it’s about a young boy who moves out to the middle of nowhere only to find a weird monster living in the nearby woods. An issue which only gets more complicated when men in black suits start showing up. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/66824/the-monster-i-met-that-day

If you want to know what happens next, next week’s chapter can be found over on my Patreon. It’s in both plain text and epub format for easier reading.  https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20587474

And if you need to know how this whole thing ends right away, the whole book is now available over at Barnes and Nobles.

This set up was fine a few hounded years ago when the valley was created, but the witch population has kind of boomed in the meantime. And the young witches striking out on their own don’t have many options for housing.

Three factions have formed out of this issue.

1: Expand the town into northern section of the valley. Opposed by the older, more powerful withes in the north.

2: Sacrifice the small town spooky aesthetic of the south to make way for denser housing such as apartment blocks and other tall buildings. Opposed by the younger more numerous witches of the south.

3:  Start exploring the ‘old world’ and see if witches can start living there again without getting burned at the stake or losing their magic.  Supported and opposed by various witches from both the north and south. 

Read part 1 here. https://at.tumblr.com/mindfox-writes/digimon-digital-rebel-arc-1-part-1/mht5gjf01uhu  

Summary:  Gabriel doesn't have a lot going for him at the moment. After trying to  play the hero, he's only a few days away from having his life destroyed.  The only things standing in the way of this cruel fate are his wits,  his guts, and a strange USB given to him by a nameless man in a brown  robe labeled 'digital rebel'. Little does he know this USB will lead him  and his new digimon partner on a quest to find their own justice.

The night of the game, I only partially kept to my promise. I was going nowhere near the game, but I was still going to be on school grounds. I was wearing a dark blue hoodie that covered most of my face. It was the same colors as the team, so no one really paid attention to me as I made my way to the library. Just my luck, the librarian had his eyes glued to a screen in front of him. Probably watching the game himself since he was stuck here.

I told him I had a project due on Monday and I needed a stable internet connection in order to finish it. He barely said a word as I headed to the back of the library and found a spot where I couldn’t be easily seen.

I took my laptop out of the bag and laid it out on the desk in front of me. A minute later I was connected to the school’s network and watching Gazimon make one last check before we got this party started.

As it turned out, the laptop had plenty more programs besides the few I’d found. They had just been hidden among the files. It had taken a whole day's search to find a couple more, and Gazimon was convinced there was still more to find.

But for now, we'd be content with one of our bigger finds, video editing software. You see, while I was pretty sure I was in the moral right for doing this, the legal right was a bit murkier. And if the only video that got played was the one where I’d gotten beaten up, I’d be suspect number one.

But Coach K’s PC had a couple of weeks’ worth of video files in the trash. Files I’d somehow managed to fit onto the rebel drive and deliver to Gazimon’s waiting claws. And if we instead played an edited video made up of a bunch of times people had been hurt under Coach K’s watch… I'd still be suspect number one but I’d have an out.

“Okay, it’s ready,” Gazimon declared into my headset as she walked back into the digihome carrying a ring of pink and white light. Apparently, that was what raw data looked like. All she needed to do now was play it on the monitor. I sat back and watched Gazimon as she walked out into the net. Part of me wanted to join her, but it was better if I stayed out here. Plus I had a way to keep an eye on her.

My long furry ears twitched as I exited the digihome and walked out onto the laptop. It only took a few seconds to find the glass panel with the internet browser inside. I clicked it open with my free claw and watched as the glass panel spread out and became a portal. On the other side, I could see the metal tubes which made up the network.

I was ready, all I had to do now was wait for the last piece. A few seconds later, I heard something flying toward me. I looked up and spotted a small object flying toward me. It was made from a large red sphere of light in the center, with three smaller blue spheres flying around it.

“Satellite working okay?” I asked as the object came to a stop over my shoulder.

“I can hear you loud and clear,” Gabi responded. The satellite was one of the many new programs we’d found. If it worked the way we thought it did, it would allow Gaby to keep an eye on me and even teleport me back to the laptop if the worst happened. What ‘the worst’ meant was still up in the air, but it was nice to know we had a back up plan.

“Then get ready for this,” I smirked before jumping into the network, the satellite locked onto me and matching my motions. I feel roughly to the center of the tube before floating in place. I thought back to my exploration from a few days before turning to the right and flying towards the system which controlled the football field.

“So the internet really is a series of tubes,” Gabi said from the satellite after a while. He sounded weirdly amused, “haven't thought about that meme in years.”

“What are you even talking about?” I asked as I spotted a fork in the tube coming up. I leaned myself towards the right as I got closer to my destination. Only a couple of turns left.

“Sorry. Old joke from a long time ago. I’ll explain later if you want.”

I nodded as we fell into a tense silence. I didn't need Gabi to tell me, but I knew he was taking advantage of social media to keep an eye on the game. The goal was to play the video right as half time was about to start.

“We’re here,” I came to a stop in front of a portal with the words ‘football’ printed above.

“And with plenty of time to spare,” Gabi announced as I willed myself through the portal and came out the other side. I took a quick look around just to make sure we were in the right place. “Wow, you weren't kidding. This place really does look like an old coliseum.”

Yeah we were in the right place. For whatever reason, the system controlling the school football field looked like what Gabi had called, ‘a few thousand years out of date’. Not sure what he meant by that, but I liked it. The brown walls and the sandy pit felt pretty reminiscent of home. As long as I ignored the blank white sky above, it was pretty easy to lose myself here.

I had already written off any chance of going back there at this point. No matter how much I searched, I couldn't find any information on digimon on the internet. So the only way to get home would be to power on a random PC, hope that tears would appear inside, and hope that going through one would leave me anywhere near home.

The digital world was a huge place, and there were a lot of places that would kill me if I just stumbled into them. So now places like this would be the closest place to home. Maybe I would come back here another time and just relax.

But right now I had a job to do. I walked out of the entrance tunnel and stepped back as I spotted things moving on the sandy field. I moved up to the edge to get a better look.

“Are those the players?” Gabi asked from the satellite. On the sandy field were large blue holograms covered in armor, running around and throwing a ball to each other. They had a strange rhythm where they would all line up against each other, only for one of them to throw the ball, sending them scrambling. After a few seconds of that, they would line up again.

I pointed it out to Gabi, and the satellite was silent.

“Yeah, that's American Football all right,” he finally said after a while, “now come on, let’s get into position.”

I nodded and started walking up the steps as the large screen flashed to life and the horns blared. I looked back down and spotted a bunch of the holograms celebrating together at one end of the stage. I guess they must have won or something. Gabi had refused to explain the rules of the game to me when I’d asked. In all honesty, I half suspected he had no idea either.

I fought back the urge to whistle as I watched the inside of the network through the satellite. The last thing I needed was to get in trouble for making noise. Not when we were so close.

The game was already nearing halftime. Gazimon would need to get to the control room soon. Fortunately, she’d already found it the other day. I watched as she made it to the top of the stairs where a metal door awaited. The command room was just on the other side.

Man this was weird. I probably could have handled this better if the system only looked like an old roman colosseum. But there were a whole bunch of strange little modern additions. Like a modern jumbotron, speaker system and main control room to handle it all. They weren't even hidden or decorated to match the theme, they were just out there in the open.

My only real option was to ignore it and move on. Instead of thinking about it, I watched as Gazimon reached for the door and froze. I waited a second to see if it was the connection, but I could still make out slight movements, like her twitching ears.

“Everything alright? I whispered as she slowly pointed toward another thing I was trying to ignore. Next to the door to the control room was a perfectly normal vending machine.

There was something I’d learned while exploring the internet these last few days. Unless you go out of your way to cause a lasting change in a location, it resets as soon as you leave it. Places like this were no exception. Everything should have been exactly like how I found it the first time I was here.

“Everything alright?” Gabi whispered as I pointed toward the vending machine. The one which had been fully stocked the last time I was here. The one that was now missing a bit of food from it. If something in here has already been altered, it could only mean one thing.

“There’s something else in here with me,” I whispered back as my ears picked up a footstep to my left.

Instinct took over as I jumped from whatever had just tried to hit me. I landed with a roll and got to my feet, claws up and ready to deal with whatever was coming after me. Standing in front of me was something that must have been a digimon, even if it was one I’d never seen before.

They were wearing blue and red armor, with a face-concealing helmet that only let me see their glowing yellow eyes. They only wore it over the waist though. Their reptilian legs and tail were still there for all to see. But if I wanted to exploit that weakness, there was one last detail I would have to deal with.

The painful-looking wooden sword the digimon held like they knew what they were doing. A painful-looking sword that was pointed right at me.

“Begone foul virus,” oh great, he was one of these types, “you will not interrupt this holy ceremony! I Kotemon, will protect it with my blade.”

“What just because I’m a virus, doesn't mean I’m going to interrupt a ceremony.” I paused as my eyes darted between the field, the control room, and the Kotemon. “Okay I am going to disrupt this one, but it’s not because I’m a virus. It’s because…”

Kotemon walked forward and swung before I could get another word out.

“Hot head!” I darted to the side again as the blade swung downwards.

“You said it not…,” my words died as the wooden sword caught fire. If it had hit me, I didn't even want to imagine…

“Ha!” Kotemon brought their sword back up while I was distracted, getting me right in the chest. I flew to the side, rolling down the colosseum's seats, yelping in pain the whole way down.

I got on all fours and looked up to see Kotemon in the air, coming down at me with full speed. I ran forward just in time, Kotemon’s sword crashing into the ground right behind me. I reached the stairs and ran up as fast as I could. Before I’d even made it halfway up, Kotemon appeared in front of me.

“How are you so fast?” I launched myself at him, holding my claws back as they started to glow. “Gazi Claw!”

I swung forward with all six of them, and was blocked in a single swing. Our eyes met and I just knew he could see the fear in mine.

“It’s no use foul virus!” Kotemon swung down, catching my claws and smacking me down onto the ground. I groaned and slowly tilted my eyes up.

Kotemon was standing over me with their sword held over their head.

“Our battle ends here. Begone. Hot head!” This time he waited for his blade to catch on fire before swinging it.

I gripped the table with one hand, as my other shook above the ‘R’ key. All I'd need to do was press it and Gazimon would be safe and sound. And all it would cost would be my one shot at taking down Coach K and preventing my expulsion and eventual homelessness.

Halftime was almost done, and with how long it took to get to the field’s systems the last time, there would be no way we could get to it again in time. Plus even if we did, this Kotemon jerk would still be in the way.

I winced as Kotemon caught Gazimon’s claws and then winced again as she was slammed into the ground. Come on, there had to be a way. Bring Gazimon back, or leave her to fend for herself and hope she could win.

“Hot head!” My eyes widened as the sword caught fire again.

“No.” I grit my teeth and whispered through them as I watched the screen. “I refuse to believe these are my only two options. There has to be something else I can do!”

Read part 1 here. https://at.tumblr.com/mindfox-writes/digimon-digital-rebel-arc-1-part-1/mht5gjf01uhu  

Summary:  Gabriel doesn't have a lot going for him at the moment. After trying to  play the hero, he's only a few days away from having his life destroyed.  The only things standing in the way of this cruel fate are his wits,  his guts, and a strange USB given to him by a nameless man in a brown  robe labeled 'digital rebel'. Little does he know this USB will lead him  and his new digimon partner on a quest to find their own justice.

I marched out of Principal Verden’s office, my eyes locked into a glare. By the time I got home, it’d died down, but my anger at everything kept burning cold.

“Keep an eye on the house,” Uncle told me as he passed me by the door. “Your cousin will be back in a bit, so don’t try anything. And something’s weird with the TV. Try getting it working again.”

“Sure thing,” I told him as he grumbled at me before heading to his car. He was going out with my Aunt. I didn’t know where they were going, I didn’t really care either.

At the very least I had time to talk to Gazimon without anyone else around. I turned the TV on only to find it working fine. Whatever problem he had, it was gone now. I shrugged and headed up to my room.

“Welcome back,” Gazimon greeted me as I lifted the laptop. “So how did your plan go?” they asked as I looked up at the ceiling. I didn’t need to look at the screen to know what Gazimon’s face looked like.

And I had been so sure of my plan when I had walked in.

“Thank you for making time to see me Principal Verden,” I greeted the older man as politely as I could. I had also changed my clothes for the day. Instead of the ‘band shirt and ripped jeans’ Coach K had pointed out, I was in the nicest burgundy shirt I had as well as my only non-ripped pair of jeans.

“Don’t worry about it Mr. Maurati. I always have time for my students, especially when they come talk to me directly. Now please, take a seat,” the older man greeted me with a full smile that made his gray mustache look just a little bit bigger. “Now, what is this about?”

“It’s about Coach K sir,” I explained as a dark shadow fell over the Principal’s face for a second. “He’s been physically abusing the members of the American Football team.”

Instead of looking stunned or angry or anything I would have expected, Principal Verden sighed and took off his glasses.

“I have to say, I am very disappointed in you MR. Mauranti,” he rubbed the bridge of his nose and set his glasses down on his desk. “When Coach K came to me yesterday and told me that a student had attacked him and was planning on framing him, I couldn’t believe it. And yet here you are, weaving your lies, unaware that I already knew all about them.”

“But sir, it’s the truth. I have proof,” I reached into my pocket and tried to pull out the phone I’d borrowed just for this. I grimaced as I caught Principal Verden flinching while my hand was in my pocket. Coach K must have fed him the lie about the knife too. “It’s right here on this phone.”

“No,” He said plainly as my hand dropped. “I will not sit here and have you slander the best Coach this school has seen in years and one of my most trusted subordinates. If Coach K hadn’t asked to handle your discipline himself, I would have you in suspension or worse.”

“I see. So you’re not even going to look at my proof then,” I growled as I put my phone right back into my pocket. “Then we’re done here. Have a nice day sir.”

I walked out before he could say a word.

“Wow, he totally took that Coach’s side.” Gazimon grumbled while eating a slice of ham with their claws.

After telling Gazimon my plan the night before, we had made some more discoveries about both the rebel drive as well as the PC that had come in the mail.

Mostly that the PC had come with a program to create 3d models that could be imported into the digihome for Gazimon to use. As well as a program to convert raw data into food for Gazimon. It was more than enough to convince us that the rebel drive and the PC had come from the same person.

“So now what do we do?” I asked as Gazimon sat back on the luxurious couch I had made for them.

“Well, I’ve been looking some stuff up on that internet of yours,” they explained as they sliced off another piece of ham. It was another thing we had gotten into the night before. The PC came with its own browser that was accessible through the dark void with the glass roads that was the laptop itself. Gazimon had apparently spent most of the day on it while I had been in school. “And I think I, oh right, almost forgot.”

They set the ham down and I leaned in.

“What’s up?”

“I was looking up some stuff on the internet and noticed that you humans are really obsessed with putting individuals into all these categories, especially gender. So I spent some time looking into that stuff because it seemed interesting and I figured it would be easier for you that way,” She swung her arms around like they were scales. “And after weighing my options, I figured that I consider myself more female than anything else.”

“Is that right?” Gazimon gave me a quick nod.

“Yeah, you humans are way more into the whole ‘individuality’ thing then us digimon,” she laughed, “I mean, every single one of you guys has your own name? How do you even keep track of that?”

“So you’re saying that you’re okay with just being called ‘Gazimon’?” I asked her only for Gazimon to raise one of her claws and move it back and forth.

“Now I never said that,” she corrected me, “I just need some time to come up with one. Maybe something based on my old number?”

“Number?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah it would be pretty confusing if everyone in the village was just called Gazimon, so we all used numbers to keep track of who was who. I was number 21.”

“We'll, I'm sure you’ll think of something.”

“Don’t worry I will, but enough of that. Back to what I was talking about. I have an idea about how we can deal with Coach K.”

“I’m all ears,” I told her as she started to explain.

“Well, if telling the people in charge of Coach K didn’t work, what if we told more people?”

“Explain,” I leaned in close to my screen.

“We find a time or place where a bunch of people will be watching a screen, and play the video in front of them,” she explained. “I know how to do it, I tried it this morning.”

“What did you do?”

“I used the network connection to access that TV thing downstairs, and I found a place where I could have put in data to make it play something.”

“Impressive, but also don’t do that again. Last thing I need is Uncle getting angry that his stuff is breaking down.”

“Don’t worry, I made sure not to do any permanent damage,” she reassured me, “but you see the plan right?”

“Yeah I see your plan. I like it too,” I told her as I imagined the looks on everyone’s faces while watching Coach K overseeing the beatings.

“Told you, now all we need is a big enough venue for it to…”

Gazimon was interrupted by the sound of something knocking on my door.

"Hey there Gabi, can I come in?"

I slammed the laptop closed as I turned to the door. I was so sure that I was alone in the house right now.

"Come in," I said, like I had a choice in the matter. The doorknob turned as my cousin barged into my room. She looked me over and looked disappointed, like she had been expecting me to be doing something she could use to get me into trouble.

Until she noticed the laptop that is.

"Oh snap, Gabi, did you steal this?" She gave me a look of faux outrage before walking over to it and looking at it. "Do mom and dad know you have this?"

I sighed as my cousin Laura ran her finger over the top of the laptop. She was either my Aunt and Uncle's favorite child or only child, depending if you counted me or not.

She'd always been a pain, even before my parent's passing. But ever since I started living with them, she'd become nearly unbearable. Always on the lookout for ways to get me in trouble for something. It didn't help that her parents always took her side by default.

She was the main reason I stayed mostly either in my room or out of the house.

"It came in the mail for me, they know I got a package from some friends of my parents. They just didn't bother asking what was in it." I explained, hoping she would just leave it at that. Of course she didn't.

"I wonder if mom and dad would be okay if they knew you had this?"

"What do you want for your silence?" I cut to the chase, wanting to get this over with.

"Don't go to the game," I blinked at her strange request, “I don’t care if you stay home, or go out to the beach or whatever. Just don’t let me catch you at the game.”

"Okay," I looked at her, waiting to see if this was a joke or trick.

"I'm serious. I’m taking a date there and the last thing I need is for him to learn I’m related to such a scrubby little dweeb like you."

“I guess that’s fine,” I told her before she smirked.

“And it’s not like you’re going to lose out on too much. Most people go to the games with their friends, and you don’t have any of those.”

“I didn’t really want to go anyway,” I tried to argue only for her to let out a laugh.

“That’s rich, everyone wants to go to those games. Besides the beach, they’re the closest thing we have to entertainment in this dinky little town,” She huffed before walking to the door. She stopped once she was under the doorway. She looked back at me with an annoyed glare. “Also dad told me to remind you that you need to fix whatever’s up with the TV.”

“Already fixed it,” I told her as I tried to not think about the source of the problem who was currently hidden away under a laptop screen.

I waited a few seconds to make sure she was gone. Before opening up the laptop again.

“Wow, talk about a piece of work,” Gazimon smirked as our eyes met. “But a surprisingly useful piece of work.”

“Useful, how was any of that useful?” I asked her as Gazimon started chuckling.

“She might be annoying, but she did bring me some useful information,” She gave me an innocent look. “Gabi, what does your school’s football field look like?”

I blinked and tried to follow her logic. What did the field look like…?

Oh.

“Well there’s two big stands with a great view of a huge video screen if that’s what you want to know,” I told Gazimon as she grew a matching smirk, our minds now on the same page.

We both leaned in as I opened a word processor and started writing out the plan.

The next day I looked out the window of the classroom over to the football field. I quickly looked at the clock overhead and started counting down in my head. As soon as I reached zero, the big screen flared to life for a split second. Had anyone else been watching at the time, they might have just been able to make out a gray rabbit before the screen died again.

I smiled to myself as I got back to work. It was all going according to plan.

Read part 1 here. https://at.tumblr.com/mindfox-writes/digimon-digital-rebel-arc-1-part-1/mht5gjf01uhu

Summary: Gabriel doesn't have a lot going for him at the moment. After trying to play the hero, he's only a few days away from having his life destroyed. The only things standing in the way of this cruel fate are his wits, his guts, and a strange USB given to him by a nameless man in a brown robe labeled 'digital rebel'. Little does he know this USB will lead him and his new digimon partner on a quest to find their own justice.

I let out a grunt as I hit the ground.

“Am I back in one piece?” I mumbled as I got to my feet. The PC in front of me was still on. At the moment, it was showing a 16-bit image of the snimon that had just tried to…

“Wait, was that real?” I questioned before widely looking around the room. “Gazimon? Are you here? Did you come back with me?”

No answer. I was alone in the room.

Despite having just met the weird little cat rabbit, I was already pretty fond of them. I had been really hoping they had managed to come back with me. And if they weren’t here then that meant I had accidently left them behind. And if that was the case…

I barely kept myself from punching the desk and making a mess. I had been telling the truth when I told them I was going to back them up.

But why was I so sure they would come with me when I activated the rebel drive? Well, I guess I didn’t really have a lot of time to make the choice.

“Hello anyone there?” My eyes flashed towards the PC. There in the top right corner was a small window showing Gazimon leaning forward. “Are you there… um, whatever your name was?”

Had… had I really never told Gazimon my name? Now that I thought about it, I really hadn’t. A little messed up but we had been in a hurry.

Okay, let’s try to figure out what’s going on first.

“Come on, is this thing on?” Gazimon said despite me standing right in front of the PC. I looked at the machine in question and noticed a lack of camera or microphone. So if I couldn’t get through to them by voice, then I had to do it the old fashioned way.

I clicked inside of the window and hit enter, hoping that a text box would pop up. Fortunately, that’s exactly what happened.

“Can you read this?” I typed the words out. “I can see you but I don’t think you can see me. My name is Gabriel by the way, but my friends call me Gabi,” I hit enter and leaned back as the text appeared on screen in front of Gazimon.

“Yeah I can read you,” Gazimon read as I watched their eyes move back and forth. They smiled as they leaned back. “So do you know where the heck I am Gabi?”

“Well I’m back to where I was before I ended up in that place,” I told them. “Where are you?”

“I’m in a small rectangular room,” They explained while looking around. “There’s a camera and screen in front of me, a weird wavy wall behind me and some letters on the side that spell out ‘rebel drive’. Does any of that mean anything to you?”

I glanced over at the rebel drive that was still plugged into Coach K’s PC.

“Yeah I think I might know something about that,” I admitted over text. “Give me a minute to figure some stuff out on my side.”

“Go right ahead,” they told me as I opened up the file explorer and figured out just what was on the rebel drive.

The first thing I saw was a file labeled digihome. I opened it up and saw a few files like ‘digihome interface’ and ‘camera’ pretty basic stuff. However there were two that caught my eye. The first was ‘network bridge’ and the other one was simply labeled ‘gazi.mon’.

Wait, ‘mon’ was a file type? I mean, gazimon was currently inside of a computer and they were in a place called a ‘digital’ home. And Gazimon had talked about ‘data’ like it was something you just ran into in day to day life. I guess all those other monsters were digital monsters as well…

“Quick question,” I typed out, dreading the answer. “Is digimon short for anything?”

“Is it short for something? Yeah it’s short for digital monster.”

Oh that’s so dumb, but it fits so well.

I backed out of the digihome file and looked at the rest of the contents of the rebel drive. There were a pair of programs labeled ‘PtoD converter’ and ‘DtoP converter’ as well as a file labeled storage.

I opened it up to find some video files. The same ones I came here to get in the first place.

“You’re going down Coach K,” I grinned as I closed that one too and went back to the interface. Now that I had what I came for, I needed to get out of here. I placed my mask back on before typing into the chat.

“I’m going to have to disconnect for a little while,” I explained. If all goes well, I’ll talk to you in a bit,” ff course I would need to find a computer for that to work first. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too much trouble to find one.

“Wait, why can’t we talk now?” They demanded. “Where the heck am I?”

“The place where we are isn't safe,” I explained. “I’m getting out of here. I’ll contact you again when we’re safe.”

“Wait what do you mean ‘we’? Are you getting me out of here?” They asked as I quickly typed.

“I don’t have time to explain, I have to get out of here. I’ll tell you later.”

I gulped as I carefully closed the interface before doing what I needed to do to disconnect the rebel drive safely. Once I did everything right, I took a deep breath before unplugging it.

“I really hope I didn’t mess anything up,” I held the USB in front of me. It had changed while I’d been inside the computer. Instead of having the words ‘digital rebel’ written on a piece of tape, it was now printed in bold black letters. “Weird.”

I placed the USB into my pocket and made sure to leave everything like how I found it. Leaving the room behind. I made my way out of the school with little trouble, getting out with no easily noticeable traces.

I made it back home as fast as I could. My mask was taken off and thrown away into a dumpster several blocks away from my house. Meanwhile the rope was tossed into an empty lot no one ever went into. I let out a sigh I hadn’t even noticed I’d been keeping in as I made it through the doors.

“And just where have you been?” I tried to keep myself calm as I turned to face my Aunt. She was sitting at the dining room table, with perfect vision of the front door.

“There was some traffic on the way back,” I explained as I remembered my cover story. I had told them I was going out to the pier to just walk around. It was something I did from time to time so they hopefully bought it. “So the bus took its time getting back here.”

My aunt glared at me before getting out of her chair and walking towards me. She circled around me and gave me a few quick sniffs and then glanced at my back and then my pockets.

I watched as she circled before wordlessly pointing towards the stairs.

“See you tomorrow,” I told her as I climbed the stairs.

“Oh, right. Almost forgot to tell you,” I paused and looked back at her, “something came for you in the mail. Said that it was from an old friend of your parents. We left it in your room.”

I blinked as I took that statement in. My parents hadn’t had too many friends, and the ones they did have had fallen out of contact shortly after their… passing.

“Thanks, for that,” I kept climbing the stairs as I wondered just who had really mailed me something.

A few minutes later I was sitting on top of my bed with a package in front of me. It was plain with no logos on it, except for our address and a message saying that it was for me from a friend of my parents. The whole message was written in black marker.

“Let’s see what you are,” I took a small pocket knife from my desk and flipped it open. I carefully placed the blade under the tape and cut it open. I popped the top open and slowly pulled the contents inside.

“Is this what I think it is?” I gulped as I placed the object in question onto my bed. I looked it over, flipping it upside down and inspecting it from every angle. “It is.”

In my hands was a small black laptop. It had no logos on it, nor any other marks. Kind of like a certain drive…

“Gazimon,” I gasped as I set the laptop down at my desk and took the rebel drive out of my pocket. I flipped it open and hit the power button. It booted up almost instantly and as soon as I was sure it was done, I plugged the rebel drive in.

As soon as the USB went in, it started to crackle with electricity. I flinched back as the blue plastic shifted and morphed. It had kept the same shape, but the plastic had changed to black with bold purple letters.

I looked at the impossibility in front of me and put it aside for now. Instead I hit the file explorer and opened up the interface. The familiar window opened up as Gazimon jumped to their feet.

“You’re back,” They said as they ran up the camera. “And I can see you this time.”

I looked up at the small camera above the laptop’s screen. That explained that part. I glanced down and spotted a small hole that was probably a microphone. Might as well try it out.

“Can you hear me too?” Gazimon nodded back.

“Loud and clear,” They said as they glanced back.

“Everything okay back there?” I asked as I wondered where the heck this laptop had come from. It was way too weird that I had gotten a laptop just when I needed my own private PC. Had it been the dude in the robe that had given me the rebel drive in the first place?

I guess that would make sense.

“Maybe,” Gazimon admitted as they fully turned around to look at the wall behind them. They glanced back at me for a second before standing to the side to let me get a better view.

The back wall of the digihome had a section that looked almost like floating fluid. On the other side, I could see another maze of floating glass roads.

“When I first got here, the place we escaped from was on the other side,” they explained. “I could see the roads we walked down, as well as the Snimon and Monochromon that were still wandering inside. Then after you left, the door turned solid again. And now it’s back to how it was but… different.”

Different was right, I could see the changes from here. Instead of a blue void, I could see a black one with shades of purple near the bottom and points of silver light near the top. The roads were also different. They were still made of glass, but now the borders were colored gold with purple tinted glass between.

Something about it looked kind of familiar about it though. I took a careful look at the color before trying to figure out where…

Oh it was right in front of me. I was so focused on the interface window I had ignored the rest of the laptop. Including its eye-catching desktop background, a night sky with shades of purple at the bottom and silver stars near the top.

Now that I was paying attention, the windows were light purple with gold borders.

“Okay so I think I can explain what’s up with the wall and the stuff behind it,” I told Gazimon as they rushed back to the camera. “But this is going to take a while to explain.”

What followed was one of the longest and strangest conversations that I had ever had. I explained the concepts of stuff like ‘computers’ and ‘UBS’ and a bunch of other things that helped Gazimon figure out where they were.

“Oh, that’s weird,” They mumbled as I held up the laptop to a mirror so that they could see themselves. “So I’m basically in that?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” I set the Laptop back down on my desk and leaned back.

“Have to say, don’t know how to feel about the fact that I’m stuck inside something so small and fragile looking,” they had a nervous smile on their face. “And I’m not even going to get into the fact that you just plugged this place into something you got from someone you don’t know.”

“Don’t worry I’m not going to drop you,” I reassured them. “And it’s not like I had much of a choice. If this thing hadn’t shown up, I would have either needed to wait until tomorrow or risk getting caught.”

“I guess you have a point,” They agreed before looking around again. “But I think I’ll stay here for now, Even if this place is a little boring.”

“Got it,” I went over to the file explorer again and went into the digital rebel’s storage file. As I did, I heard Gazimon freak out over something. “You alright?”

“Did you do something? Cause a weird door just appeared in here,” they told me as I saw them walk off screen.

“All I did was open the storage file.”

“And as soon as you did, a door showed up,” they paused, “well it’s more like a doorway without the door. Leads into a hallway and everything.”

“That’s weird, did that happen the last time I opened up the storage file?” I asked as the camera of the digihome shifted to show me a long hallway. At the very end of it was Gazimon standing under an open doorway.

“No it didn’t,” they answered back with an echo probably from the blank walls of the hallway, “or maybe it did. I wasn’t paying too much attention to anything but the screen. Since you know, you were only text and everything,”

“Makes sense,” I said as Gazimon walked forward into the hallway towards the camera.

“I’m walking in, it looks like a hallway like I said,” they narrated for me. I should probably tell them I still had eyes on them.

“I can see it too. As soon as you walked into the hallway, the camera switched to one at the end of the hallway. Can you see it?”

They looked up and straight at me. Their eyes narrowed a bit before they relaxed.

“Yeah I see you,” they kept walking towards the camera until something else caught their eye.

They stopped halfway through, right in front of the only door in the hallway.

“There’s something written on this door,” They clicked a claw against the door as it opened. They walked through and the camera changed again to the main room.

“Gazimon? Can you hear me?”

“Yeah I can still hear you? Did the camera not change again?”

“No, I can’t see you all now…” Or at least I couldn’t until something odd happened in the explorer window that I’d opened, starting this whole thing. A little door materialized and opened as a… I want to say 16-bit version of Gazimon who walked out.

“Well this place looks weird, it’s like a big white field. There’s a couple of other things here though,” I heard them say as I watched the little 16-bit Gazimon approach the video files.

“I can see you but not from the camera. I’m going to do something, tell me if you see something moving around,” I put my finger on the mouse pad and moved the mouse around the file explorer.

“Whoa, there’s this weird arrow thing moving around here.”

“That’s me, I’m controlling it,” I told Gazimon who I saw tap their foot.

“Well keep it away from me. That thing looks sharp.”

“Sure thing,” I moved the mouse away from Gazimon and towards the files that I got from Coach K’s computer. I looked at the files and clicked the one I needed twice. A video player opened as it started to play.

“Something came out of one of the things here. It’s like a big, flat, box floating in the air,” they explained, “and now some stuff is appearing on the screen and… oh.”

They trailed off as the file played and we both watched me get brutally treated by Coach K and his meatheads. I felt an ugly sensation in my gut as I remembered what I felt back then.

“He really got you good,” Gazimon said quietly. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah I’m okay,” I reassured them as a smile came onto my face. “Especially since I now have the proof I needed to take him down.”

“You going to need any help with that?” Their voice had a bit of a vindictive tint to it. As much I wanted to do the kind of thing Gazimon’s tone implied. I wanted to take down Coach K as simply as possible. Leave no room for error, and the best way to do that was to go to the person above him.

Principal Verden was a good man, and I didn’t think for a second that he would tolerate Coach K’s actions when they were right in front of him.

I told Gazimon my plan. I could tell that they didn’t fully agree with it, but did say that they would let me handle it.

“Of course if your plan crashes and burns, I’ll be right here if you need me for plan b,” they smirked from back inside the digihome. I raised an eyebrow at the gray cat rabbit. They almost looked like they wanted my plan to fail.

Read part 1 here. https://at.tumblr.com/mindfox-writes/digimon-digital-rebel-arc-1-part-1/mht5gjf01uhu

Summary:  Gabriel doesn't have a lot going for him at the moment.  After trying to  play the hero, he's only a few days away from having  his life destroyed.  The only things standing in the way of this cruel  fate are his wits,  his guts, and a strange USB given to him by a  nameless man in a brown  robe labeled 'digital rebel'. Little does he  know this USB will lead him and his new digimon partner on a quest to  find their own justice.

“Hold on, I got you,” I heard the voice say as I came to a sudden stop. I looked up and saw a pair of clawed hands wrapped around my arm. Past them was a furry face scrunched up in effort. It didn’t look like they were going to be able to keep me from falling for long…

I grabbed onto the glass road with my other hand and pulled myself up with their help.

“Thanks… uh, wow I have no idea what you are,” I told them as I got to my feet.

“Geez, thanks,” they told me as I finally got a good look at my savoir, “you’re lucky I caught you, if I hadn’t you would have gone splat and then straight to the trash.”

They kind of reminded me of a bipedal gray rabbit. On their hands were three long claws. On their back was a long tail with… were those leather straps wrapped around the end? They were pretty short, only coming up to my chest, and that was with their ears sticking up and to the side.

I would have guessed that they were a monster like the rest of the things in here. But there was something in their crimson red eyes, a glint of intelligence that let me know that I wasn’t dealing with a normal animal.

The fact that they were talking also helped.

“Sorry, I’ve been having… a weird time since I fell in here,” I admitted as they scratched one of their ears.

“Don’t worry about it, I Just fell in here too,” they explained before looking out over the void. “Looks like I wasn’t alone either.”

“Do you know what those things are?” Looked like I was about to get some answers.

“What? Never seen a Snimon or Monochromon before?”

“Yeah I have no idea what either of those things are,” I admitted before remembering why I was sent down here in the first place. I looked back up at the giant mantis slashing around at the top.

“What is it even doing up there?” I wondered aloud.

“Probably doing the same thing we should be doing,” I looked back down at my fuzzy savoir who had their arms crossed as they glared at the monster above us, “trying to find a way out of here.”

“That’s true. I have what I came here for, time to get out,” I brought the Digital Rebel to my face and used the buttons to access the data I got.

I went to the video from earlier today. While I really didn’t want to watch myself get punched over and over, I needed to make sure that it looked good and incriminating.

Okay so the video was starting up…

“What are you doing?” The clawed rabbit asked as they got closer to me to watch the video as well.

“Making sure that I didn’t waste my time and risk my life not nothing,” I adjusted the projector so that they could see too. “Also, do you have a name I can use or something?”

“What? Never seen a Gazimon before?” They asked before rolling their eyes. “Oh right you already said you had no idea what I was. By the way… why are we watching a video with nothing happening in it?”

“Well that’s not good,” I quickly glanced at the date at the bottom left. No, this video was from earlier today. I wasn’t too sure what time I’d gotten beaten up, but I was pretty sure that we’d gone past… What was that?

I re winded the video a little and kept a careful watch on the bottom of the screen. For a split second the light from outside peaks in as the door opens, and the next second it goes back to normal.

“He edited the video,” I felt my fist clench as the edges of my vision turned to red. “He cut out the part where he beat me. I took those blows for no reason.”

“Are you okay… um, what are you actually?” They asked as I gave them an odd eye.

“What? Never seen a human before?” I fire back the creature's own words back to them. Despite the dig at them, they didn't seem to mind too much.

“Nope, I’m a Digimon, a Gazimon to be exact. Never heard of a human though, but since you don’t have ‘mon’ at the end of that I’m just going to guess that you’re not a Digimon,” they said with a bit too much pep in their voice for my liking. But I guess I couldn’t be too mad at them. They did save me from falling down into the…

“What did you say you saved me from falling into?” I asked as I snapped towards her.

“Ugh,” they jumped back a bit as I got closer. “I told you, if I hadn’t caught you, you would have fallen into the trash. You know, like that Monochromon down there.”

They pointed downwards as one of the big gray lizards stood surrounded by three of the mantis monsters. Despite what I would have expected, there was no blood anywhere in sight. Instead the lizard had large cuts all over its body that just revealed a black void underneath.

The mantis monsters circled around it for a little while longer until one of them dashed in from the side. A split second later, the scythe cut under the dinosaur’s neck and it crumbled to the ground.

The mantis that got the killing blow landed on the dinosaur as the other two flew off. The mantis started biting into the dinosaur as they started to dissolve into the air. After a little while, the particles started falling over the side and towards the bottom of the void.

“What's going to happen to that stuff?” I asked as the… Gazimon raised an eyebrow at me.

“Loose data falls, how sheltered are you that you don’t know that?”

I’d been called many things over the course of my life, but I was pretty sure that this was the first time anyone ever called me sheltered.

“That’s not the case where I’m from,” I put it simply.

“Wow, what kind of weird land did you come from before falling into those stupid portals?” Falling? Did this Gazimon and the rest of the monsters in here all come from the same place?

“I have a feeling that we’d be here a while if I tried to explain it,” I told them as I started walking away. “Well, thanks again for saving me, but I have to get going.”

“Hey you’re going the wrong way,” they warned me. “You have to head upwards for the exit,” well that explained what that mantis monster from earlier was doing.

“That’s good to know, but I have to head somewhere else first,” I told them. “If the trash is at the bottom of this place, then that’s where I'm heading.”

“Are you insane?” I noticed that they had started walking after me. “Don’t you know anything about these kinds of places?”

“I have a vague idea.”

“Then you know that we have to get out of here as fast as possible. I’ve seen countless digimon fall into those portals and I’ve only ever seen one of them come out again. They said that they got out as the space began to close in on itself.”

Well if we were inside a computer that was turned on, then that was probably what happened when it was shut down. And if that was the case…

“I have a good feeling that that won’t happen as long as I’m around,” If this place was stable as long as the computer was shut down, then I was safe…

I turned around and knelt down at the Gazimon.

“In fact, I also have a feeling that as soon as I leave, this place will disappear,” I explained as their eyes went wide. Even if I left the PC on for Coach K to find in the morning, a terrible idea by itself, he’d just turn it off himself. “If you come with me and help me get what I need from the trash, then I can make sure that I leave after you do.”

I couldn’t save everyone in here, but I could at least time it so the Gazimon made it out too. It was the least I could do since they saved my life.

“Well, I guess I’m coming with you,” they said as we started walking. “So what are we looking for down there anyway?”

I tried to quickly explain the deal with Francis and Coach K, trying to avoid any topics that might require a tangent since I was pretty sure that they didn’t have American football or storage buildings where they was from. They did have security cameras through, which struck me a bit odd but it gave me less to explain so I was cool with it.

“So why doesn’t your friend just leave if it’s that bad?”

“Because he’s a prideful idiot,” I snapped before taking a breath. “No, that’s too harsh. It’s because this thing that K runs has been around forever, and Francis’ dad was the big star on it back in the day.”

“I’m just going to assume ‘dad’ means someone close to this Francis friend of yours,” Gazimon said as their ears twitched and their eyes narrowed. “Get down.”

I followed their lead as the two of us knelt down at the edge of the glass road and watched as one of the Monochromon, as Gazimon had called the gray lizards, slowly walked past us on the glass road below.

“Good thing their hearing is as bad as their sight,” Gazimon smirked as they motioned for me to hand them the rope. I gave them the stone to hold as they wrapped the rest of the rope around their arm. I grabbed hold of the other end and slowly dropped down, Gazimoin being sure to only give me a bit of the rope at a time.

My feet touched the glass below and I motioned for Gazimon to jump. They nodded and leapt down into my waiting arms. They were surprisingly light. I quickly set them down before looking for the next place where we could go down.

We kept going down a few more roads like this, making sure to avoid the Snimon and Monochormon as we went. We were making some pretty good progress when we came into a bit of a snag.

“Alright, that’s going to be it,” Gazimon pointed at a lone road with a single screen right at the end. It was the same one that I had been on when I first got in here to boot. Of course that brought with it some complications.

“So how are we getting past the big one?” I whispered as we watched the same Monochromon that had chased me earlier walk up and down the path. The path was pretty solitary, with nothing above it in range of my rope. The usual plan wouldn’t work for this one.

“We don’t,” they said as they got to their feet. “It shouldn’t take you too long to get the videos right?”

“Right,” I didn’t like where this was going.

“I’ll get the big guy’s attention if you run and download the videos. Once you have them, we can get out of here.”

“Are you sure?” I wanted to take Coach K down, but was I really going to put other people in danger in the process?

Their ears twitched and eyes narrowed at me before looking back at the Monochromon. “Better get moving, this is our chance.”

Before I could explain myself, Gazimon jumped down in front of the Monochromon and started waving their arms.

“Hey ugly, come get me,” they taunted before breaking out into a run. The Monochromon roared as it chased after Gazimon.

Looks like the question would go unanswered due to the person putting themselves into the danger. Well, I wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass by. I made sure that the Monochromon was too far away to hear me before dropping down onto the glass road below. I ran to the screen and pounded it open.

“Come on, cone on,” I muttered as the load time felt so much longer now. I saw a couple of video files and didn't bother going through them. Soon all of them were downloaded onto the rebel drive. I turned the screen off as soon as I was done and ran off.

As I ran, I saw Gazimon running towards me with the Monochromon chasing after them. We met up in the center and scrambled up the road which had saved me before.

“Looks like we did it,” I laughed as we watched the Monochromon growling at us before walking away…

There was a gust of wind as a green flash swept down and cut through the Monochromon. Gazimon and I both gulped as a Snimon landed on the glass road in front of us.

“Don’t move a…” Gazimon started to whisper before the Snimon pointed its scythe at us and started flying again.

“Are you kidding me?” Gazimon yelled as they broke out into a run. They didn’t have to tell me anything for me to run after them.

I glanced up and saw the scythe coming down out of the corner of my eye. I jumped forward and grabbed onto Gazimon, tackling us to the ground as the scythe passed right over our heads.

“Close call,” they giggled as their eye twitched. We scrambled back to our feet only for the Snimon to land right in front of us.

“I don’t think it’s going to let us out here,” I said as the mantis approached.

“Nope,” Gazimon raised their claws as they started to slightly glow. “Looks like we’ll have to fight our way through,.”

“I guess I’m backing you up,” I said as I looked at the scythes in front of me. I had gotten us into this mess, it was only fair that I helped us get out of it. “Fair warning, if I get hit, a lot of sticky red stuff is going to come out of me.”

“Is that normal?” Gazimon asked as the Snimon got closer.

“Not really, but don’t be shocked when it happens.” I told Gazimon.

“Alright, then we’re in this, together.”

I nodded and then noticed a light coming from the Digital Rebel.

“Extra processing acquired, Rebel Drive functions have been activated,” a voice from the Rebel Drive said as the screen produced the word ‘escape’ with the text. At the edge of the screen were two options labeled ‘yes’ and ‘no’, each next to a button.

“Gazimon, change of plans, we’re getting out of here,” I told them as their head snapped to me.

“What are you talking about?” They demanded as I grabbed onto her.

“Hold on cause I have no idea what’s about to happen,” I warned as I wrapped myself around them in a hug and pressed the button.