First Contact: Jerry's Apartment [A] (Private)

[gjtamer585]

Jerry "Ty" Tyrone was sitting at the desk in his bedroom in the two-bedroom apartment, furiously typing away at his laptop. The bustle seemed out of place in the room painted in calming pastel blues and greens with white accents, but he was already running behind on his presentation for Friday morning's biochemistry club meeting.

It was early Wednesday afternoon, and his apartment buddy Garson had just left for a class at the university. Garson, being a Guitar Hero addict, played the game early and often, sometimes preventing Ty from working or irritating the neighbors. This was one of the few times he wasn't trying to work over that incessant guitar playing, and he was trying to make the most of it.

Assembling a PowerPoint Presentation, his fingers flew over the keyboard and trackpad at blinding speed, pointing and clicking his way through a series of whimsical egg pictures design to head his presentation on the development of bird embryos. Finally, he decided on a large picture of an egg colored like that of a robin, but with large triangles speckled all over it.

Satisfied, he quickly downloaded the image and imported it into his presentation. He stretched and positioned the image on the slide's center, set up a nice title and background for the slide and was about to move on to the next slide when the egg began stretching again.

"What the...?" he said to himself, looking back and forth between the keyboard and the screen, the egg beginning to expand not just across the screen, but stretch OUT of it as well! He wasn't touching anything, but the egg was still expanding across and out as he watched.

He suddenly stood up, knocking his chair over in the process. Fixed to the spot by a morbid mixture of fear and curiosity, he watched the egg stretch the screen out, half afraid the screen would shatter or the laptop would explode at any second. As the egg pushed further out, though, Jerry realized that if it didn't break the screen it would land on his keyboard and roll onto the floor, possibly causing a mess.

Reacting on impulse, he caught the egg as it managed to completely get through the screen, the egg now about the size and shape of an ostrich egg. Tied to it on dangling strings were two devices, one that looked like some kind of PDA and the other a white and purple device with an LCD screen, flat and oval shaped.

Curious beyond anything else, Jerry carefully set the egg on his bed nearby. He gave it a few soft taps, giving him the impression of a solid shell. Then he went back over to the laptop, tapping the screen a few times to make sure it was solid, which it was.

"What on earth...?!" he exclaimed to himself, looking back and forth between his laptop screen (the same as it had been save for the egg image, which had vanished) and the egg, unable to understand how what had just happened managed to occur.

"I'll have to think about it later." he finally stated to himself, noting the short period of time he had to work on his project. Putting aside his confusion over the sudden appearance of the egg, he decided to continue working on the project until Garson returned from class, and then continue at the library where he could research it more...

[gjtamer585]

Ty looked up at the clock. An hour had passed since the egg with its attached devices had pushed its way through the screen, and he still looked over at it on occasion just to make sure he wasn't dreaming it all up. Now was about the time Garson returned from his class, and if he saw the egg he would be asking a ton of questions Ty didn't know how to, or even want to try to, answer.

Deftly he scooped up his USB drive, plugged it into the computer and saved the mostly-finished presentation to it. He unplugged it, stowed it in a small pocket in his computer bag laying nearby, then closed the laptop and turned his attention to the egg. He needed to hide it in something that would protect it from breaking while in transit.

Rummaging through his room, he came across a lined travel bag that he only really used when he was shopping for something or had something fragile to carry with him. "This'll do!" he exclaimed, also getting a few of his shirts out and placing it around the egg as extra protection before gently laying it in there and zipping the bag shut.

Jerry's timing, thankfully, couldn't have been better, because just moments later there was a knock at the door and Garson walked in. Because he fancied himself a rocker, he tried to look the part: jet-black hair spiked up high with a ton of gel and blue-dyed at the tips, black T-shirt with a skull on it, spiked bracelets and anklets, a grungy pair of jeans with several holes in them and worn-out black sneakers with white laces and soles.

"Hey man, what'd ya up too?" Garson asked in his "don't care much" rocker attitude.

"Working on the project for biochemistry club. I'm not quite done, so I'm going to finish it at the library." Ty replied, packing his laptop away in the computer bag.

"The library again man? Don't you have somewhere better to go to do that stuff?"

"No. It's quiet there, compared to the noise here and down at the college union."

"But man, all the cool dudes hang down in the U! When are you gonna get a life, join me on my quest to become, like, the Ultimate Rocker, man!"

"I do have a life, remember? The club?" Ty stated critically.

"Heh, all those people over there are nerds. That's not a life, man. The only good thing about those clubs is the HOT girls like Krissy who hang out trying to hook up with them." Garson continued, his expression suddenly changing into a mixture of amusement and drooling at the thought of the girls he had just mentioned.

"Garson, I've already told you, Krissy is not my girlfriend! We just ended up in the same class together and we had dinner a few times. That was all, no serious relationship, nothing!"

"Don't do the full name, man. Not cool. You're supposed to call me 'Gar the Great'! And why are you denying you like her? You know it's true!"

Ty rolled his eyes; it was no use trying to argue with him. Quickly, he scooped up the his computer bag and the travel bag and began to head out.

"Hey man, what's in the bag you're takin'?" Garson asked.

Ty stopped in his tracks; he had to think fast to keep it a secret. After a moment, he blurted out "It's a model for my presentation, I need to work on it there too."

"All right man. Well, whenever you're ready, come back to the pad and we can do some jams, alright?"

"All right, I'll see you later." Ty stated with a bit of relief. He continued out before Garson could speak again, not wanting to give his roommate a chance to doubt his answer. Ty wanted the egg as far away as possible before that happened...

[gjtamer585]

Jerry walked up the stairs to the apartment, explaining what was going on to his partner. The walk in the park had done him no good other than to confirm the fact that Chibomon Patrick was staying with him. Jerry was slowly warming up to the concept of having a Digimon partner, though having to avoid awkward introductions to Garson was going to be a challenge.

"What's that noise?" Patrick said. Jerry listened and heard it was from Garson's video game, he was playing it as usual.

"Something Garson likes to do. He shares the apartment with me. It what he likes to do." Jerry explained.

"Sounds loud."

"Sure is. Drives me crazy sometimes. Now, I would prefer it if he didn't know you were anything but a stuffed toy, so keep quiet, OK?"

"OK, Ty."

Jerry approached the door with the number 58 and knocked on it. The muffled sounds of Guitar Hero could be heard through the door. Jerry knocked louder, and the sound stopped. After a minute, Garson opened the door.

"Oh, hey man come on in. I was just practicin' my chords. You hungry yet?" Garson stated as Jerry walked in, put Chibomon down and took off his boots and coat.

"No, not yet."

"All right, well you can have chips or just order a pizza when you hungry, man. You going to work again?"

"Reading. Organic chemistry class is tomorrow afternoon, and I'm running errands most of the morning." Jerry explained.

"Yeah whatev. If you want to shred some cords, just come on out when you're ready."

"Alright, that's fine."

"Oh by the way man, what's that you brought back?" Garson said, pointing to Chibomon.

"This? Umm... it's a birthday present for Megan."

"Oh, a stuffed toy for your little sister. That's cool, I guess."

"She's not that little. She's going to turn 14 at the end of the month, ya know."

"And she still likes stuffed animals? Man, she needs to grow up, ya know what I mean man?"

Jerry deliberately ignored him and picked up Patrick before heading off to the room. As he closed the door behind him, he heard Garson call something behind him.

"What was that all about?" Patrick asked.

"Don't mind him, he's a little crazy." Ty replied. "Now, I've got reading to do. You can look around, but don't leave the room and don't get into trouble, OK?"

"All right." Patrick said as Jerry deposited him on the bed. Jerry dropped his bags, pulled out the organic chemistry textbook from the bookshelf near the desk and sat down to read...

[gjtamer585]

While Ty read, Patrick began to get bored off sitting on the bed. Because Ty said it was all right for him to look around, that's what he began to do. He hopped off the bed and began to bounce around the room. "I like your room, it has the same kind of colors as I do!" Patrick said.

"Glad you like it but be careful where you... um... bounce, I guess." Ty replied, briefly looking up from the book at his new partner bouncing around.

For the next 10 minutes or so, Patrick bounced around from thing to thing in the room, making comments to himself and occasionally asking Ty a question. Ty, despite the interruptions, answered graciously, perhaps because Patrick was beginning to grow on him.

This was interrupted when suddenly Ty heard something crashing to the ground beside him. He quickly turned and looked to see something squirming under a pile of books. "Oh great!" he said to himself as he went over and began putting the books back on the shelf.

Sure enough, there was Patrick under the books, shaken but uninjured. "Sorry. I was trying to get up." the Chibomon apologized.

"Don't be climbing shelves, please. If you want me to read you a book, just ask next time." Ty stated with annoyance.

"I was bored."

"Why don't you bounce on the bed or somethin'? That's fun."

"Bounce on the bed?" Patrick asked. He looked over at the bed confusedly, then hopped over and up onto it. He bounced once, and the uncertain look disappeared almost instantly. Soon, the Chibomon was happily bouncing on the bed.

"Ho boy, I hope he's not going to be like this all the time. I wonder if there's care instructions somewhere..." Ty said as he finished restacking the books.

He pulled out his D-3 and began going through the menus. Most of the terms he came across he didn't understand, and nothing looked like a help menu. He then tried the D-Terminal, but the only help function that had was on sending messages.

"Rats. Now what?" Ty thought to himself. The only thing that he even vaguely understood was the radar function on the D-3. He pulled that up, thinking maybe it would locate someone else who had the same kind of device and would be able to help him out.

Sure enough, when he searched for other D-3s two signals, one almost on top of the other. Based on what the grid display and compass told him, they were in the commercial district across town. He knitted his eyebrows, wondering if it was worth the trip out there.

"What ya doin'?" Patrick asked, having noticed Ty's pondering.

"There's two more people with these devices across town. I'm wondering if its worth going out to find them." Ty answered.

"If they have those devices, they'll have Digimon partners too. Maybe I can even play with them!"

"You sure about that?"

"Positive. They wouldn't get D-3's if they didn't get assigned a partner."

Ty looked back and forth between Patrick and the D-3, eyebrows knitted in uncertainty. Finally he decided to table the issue: he went back to his reading, agreeing to make a decision when he had finished...

[gjtamer585]

Growl! Gurgle!

"Was that your stomach?" Patrick asked Ty from the bed.

"I think so." Ty replied, blushing slightly. He had just finished his reading and was just pulling out his D-3 to check the signals again when his stomach growled. A quick check of the clock revealed that his suppertime was rapidly approaching.

"The signals are still there... you hungry?" Ty asked Patrick.

"Yep!"

"Good, we're taking a trip to find where those signals are. Just keep quiet and I'll get you out of here, all right?"

"Sure no prob."

A minute later, Ty had grabbed his laptop bag, wallet, car keys and cellphone and was ready to head out. Patrick jumped into Ty's arms, and Ty opened the door to a typical blast of rock music.

He went in the living room to see Garson hard at work: his face steeled on the screen, pressing and strumming on the guitar controller with determination on his face. Despite his efforts though, he kept missing notes and was soon presented with a failed screen and much booing.

"Oh man! I was so close to beatin' that too!" Garson exclaimed, the frustration evident in his face. "No one else I know has gotten that song on Expert, I gotta be the first!" he continued to Jerry.

"So why aren't you restarting?" Jerry replied with a hint of sarcasm.

"Because I've suddenly got a hole in my stomach man. Need somethin' to fill it with." Garson explained as he took the controller off and put it down on the light gray carpet covering the living room floor. He shuffled into the kitchen and began looking around for something to eat.

"What you up to? You hungry?" Garson asked as he rummaged.

"I gotta go uptown, get the present sent out before the post office closes." Jerry answered.

"OK man, you eatin' out?"

"Probably, depends on how long it takes." Jerry said while hazarding a glance at his D-3. Thankfully, neither it nor the D-Terminal had been noticed by Garson.

"All right man, I'll see ya when you get back."

"See ya later." Jerry said as he put on his coat and boots and headed out to his car parked outside, Patrick perched on his head...