Ty at the Library

[gjtamer585]

A short walk from the apartment and Jerry had arrived at the library without incident. The bags he was carrying weighed him down, but before he could set them down he needed a private corner where he could work and study undisturbed.

They're weren't many people there, but he did recognize one person: Krissy, her friend from biochemistry club. She was currently buried in a textbook, apparently from her history class. Long, light brown hair framed a determined face with small nose and soft blue eyes. Over a dark green shirt was a denim "cowgirl" vest; she also wore khaki shorts and pink cowboy boots. Having grown up in Texas, she liked wearing the cowgirl outfit. Made her proud of her heritage, she said.

Krissy looked up from her book and noticed Jerry going by. "Hey there Ty, what ya up to?" she asked in a sweet but subdued voice, her accent providing flavoring to the wording.

"Oh hey Krissy. I'm here working on my project for the club meeting on Friday. You?" Jerry replied just as quietly, stopping in place and looking back at her.

"American History. Yep. Big thick book, gotta keep reading it for class tomorrow. Did your rocker roommate kick you out again?"

"Afraid so. I swear I don't understand how we managed to end up in the same apartment."

"Aww well. Fate works in mysterious ways, ya know?" Krissy said with a smile. "What ya got in the travel bag?"

"Oh this?" Jerry replied, holding up the travel bag. "Prop for the presentation. Once I finish making it, I'm going to practice a few times with it here."

"All right, well, you've got your work and I've got mine, so I'll let you find that right spot and see you at the club, OKs?" she finished with a nod and a wink.

"Yeah all right, I'll see you later." Ty also finished, hastily moving away from Krissy. He passed by a few other people staring at him (probably because of the conversation he was just in), then turned a corner and found a desk in an area pretty well deserted of people. He sat down by it, carefully sliding the travel bag underneath the desk, unzipped his computer bag and set up to begin working again...

[gjtamer585]

An hour passed, the sun sinking lower in the sky seen through the library's windows.

"Done!" Jerry said to himself as he saved the completed presentation to his USB drive. Now he had time to examine the egg and the devices before he had to head back to the apartment for supper and hitting the textbooks again.

He quickly unzippered the travel bag (to minimize the amount of noise generated) and pulled out the egg with its devices. The egg, seemingly unchanged from its previous light blue with darker blue triangles speckled over it, felt curiously heavier than before. Jerry once again carefully tapped the egg to make sure it was solid, then carefully returned the egg to the bag.

The two devices, still tied to the egg, Jerry now untied and placed on the desk beside the laptop to examine. The smaller device was flat and roughly hand sized, white with purple on the sides and the area around its square screen at the top of the oval shape dark blue. The buttons beside the screen were dark blue as well.

Jerry hesitantly pressed one of the buttons. The device beeped once and the screen flashed "Hello Tamer! Welcome to a world you never knew existed!" before reverting to a display of the date and time. Jerry, spooked by the wording, refused to touch any more buttons and instead clipped the device on his right side.

He then turned to the other device, a larger gray rectangle with a screen protected by a flip-top cover and buttons on the left side. He pressed a button and the cover flipped up to reveal the screen. The screen flashed and a message began to type out on it: "Welcome Tamer, to a world you never knew existed. You have been given a digital partner, take care of him well and he will become greater than any creature you can imagine!"

"Partner?! What is this? Some kind of joke?!" Jerry thought as his nervous heart raced, a bead of nervous sweat beginning to trickle down his forehead. As if in response to the question, the screen showed more text: "This is no joke. This is no game. This is real, more real than you can imagine. Good luck, Tamer."

Thoroughly spooked by now, he closed the lid on the larger device, clipped it to his left side and prepared to leave the library immediately, convinced that he had fallen victim to some kind of unfunny practical joke. As he put his laptop away though, something rustled below the desk. Immediately Jerry stopped, frozen in place with his heart pounding in his chest and eyes bulging.

He slowly peered down into the travel bag. The egg was rustling, moving around inside there. "Fate works in mysterious ways, ya know?" Krissy said in his mind, the image of her face echoing in his mind.

"Oh crud!" he thought, abandoning all pretense of maintaining calm. Trying not to panic or look panicked, he hastily zippered the travel bag, finished putting his laptop away, and began speedwalking out of the building. Breathing heavily to prevent an outburst, he could feel something move around inside the bag...

[gjtamer585]

Jerry's breathing came in ragged gasps through clenched teeth as he ducked into a back alley behind the library. There was definitely something moving in the bag, he could feel it tugging the bag down off his shoulder. He sent both the travel bag and his computer bag down, unzipped the travel bag and sure enough the egg inside was vibrating and shaking. Hairline cracks had appeared in the shell; whatever was in there, it was going to hatch soon!

The larger rectangular device beeped, causing Jerry to pull it off his belt and open the lid. On the screen was "Message for this D-Terminal: DigiEgg is currently hatching. Prepare to meet your new partner!"

"But I don't want it... how do I stop this thing?!" Jerry exclaimed, frantically pushing buttons on the D-Terminal to no effect. He heard the egg began to crack and hastily removed it from the travel bag, afraid it would get ruined if the hatching took place in there. The egg rolled slightly in place, but mostly the cracks on it grew wider and wider. Jerry pressed a few more buttons on the D-Terminal, but nothing seemed to change.

Desperate, he pulled off the other device and began pressing buttons on it. All of them beeped in response, and the screen on that device said "This D-3 is now establishing link with emerging Digimon. Please do not attempt to interrupt this process."

"But I don't want...!" Ty yelled in frustration, still pressing buttons on the D-3. He had half a mind to toss the devices and the egg in one direction and run as fast as he could in the other, but somehow that seemed too cruel and/or too much an attempt to dodge the inevitable. Before he could do anything else, he heard a crack and a pop.

Half-afraid to look over at the egg, instead he looked to the D-Terminal. It read "DigiEgg has hatched into healthy Chibomon. Take care of him well and he will prove to be the best friend you could ever have!"

Confused further, he turned back to the D-3, which had on the top of its screen "Chibomon" along with what looked like some kind of medical monitors and the time at the bottom. Numb, Ty put the devices back on his belt and turned to face a wall. He rested his head on the wall and blew out a long, loud breath. "Tell me, now what do I do?" he said, more to himself than to anyone else.

"Take me home with you. I am your partner after all." a high-pitched voice with a slight lisp said.

"What?! Who said that? Who's there?!" Ty exclaimed, looking around in surprise. He looked up toward the library's windows, thinking the voice was coming from above.

"No silly. I'm down here." the voice said again.

Jerry's eyes suddenly grew very wide, and he slowly turned to face where the egg was supposed to have been. The egg lay broken in two beside the bag, and something that looked like a big blob of light blue frosting that had been squirted out of a pastry bag was next to the empty shell, big eyes blinking back at him.

"Hi. I'm Chibomon." it said. Jerry froze, stuttered something incomprehensible, then fainted, sprawling on his back...

[gjtamer585]

"Hello? Are you OK?" the high-pitched voice said, as if in some kind of dream.

Ty moaned as he lifted his head up, rubbing the back of it with his right hand. He realized he must have hit the pavement and now he had a bump on the back of his head. "Owww..." he complained, eyes shut in a wince.

"Oh good, I thought you had really hurt yourself badly." Chibomon said again in his high-pitched voice. Ty's eyes flung open to reveal the Chibomon on his chest, no more than a foot or two away from his face. A face of blue with soft red eyes and a purple spot on the forehead filled his vision, and the reaction was predictable.

"DAH! Get off of me!" Ty yelled as he scrambled back, Chibomon rolling off his chest as he did so, then stood up and pressed himself against the wall like he was dealing with a rabid dog or angry cat.

"Why are you so scared? I'm your friend, I'm not going to hurt you." Chibomon asked in confusion.

"But you've got... germs or something on you. Besides, no animal I know talks back to me!" Ty exclaimed, pointing at Chibomon.

"That must be because you've never heard of Digital Monsters or Digimon before. That's what I am, and there's plenty where I come from, in the Digital World!" Chibomon explained.

"Digimon? Digital World? Then what about these?" Ty asked, holding up his D-3 and D-Terminal.

"Those will help you and me in doing all kinds of things. Because I am your partner and you are my Tamer, those devices are for you to use in helping me!"

Ty's eyebrows went up. "How do you know about all this anyways. You're just a baby!" he asked disdainfully and suspiciously.

"I may look new, but I remember before I was sent here as an Egg that I had been a great warrior that died on the field of battle, then sent here as part of the next life cycle..." Chibomon began telling.

"Yeah yeah, and I was a knight in my past life." Ty replied sarcastically. "The point is you're sticking around and I'm taking care of you, right?"

"Yep." Chibomon stated, grinning broadly.

Ty sighed again before continuing: "All right, well since you're going to have to stay with me I suppose you have to know my name. My name is Jerry Tyrone, but many people call me 'Ty' instead of Jerry. You can do that if you want. And you are... Chibomon, right?"

"That is my species. You can give me any nickname you want."

"OK, well, let me think a minute... You look like a Patrick, so I'll call you Patrick. That's fine with you, I presume?"

"Yes, Ty." Patrick replied, causing Ty to blush slightly as he began gathering up his bags again.

"Now the question is: how do I hide you? Would you be able to just sit and look cute for a while?"

"It's what I do best!" Chibomon replied affirmatively.

"All right, stay still. I'm going to take you for a walk in the park while I think this over." Ty stated, scooping him up and holding him with both hands as he left the alley and headed for the park.

"Maybe there I can figure out what to do next..." he thought to himself...