A Life In Two Worlds

A story of me, Squirtel the Squirtle

Disclaimer: Don’t you lawyers have better things to do than surf the net looking for people who overlook disclaimers? Oh well. I DON’T OWN POKEMON OR DIGIMON. I hope I made myself clear. After all, if I owned either of them, I wouldn’t spend my time writing fanfics. I’d be turning them into episodes. Duh.

I suppose I ought to explain a few things- starting with introductions. My name is Squirtel. I am a Squirtle. No, Squirtel is not a nickname. It’s my true name. I have flawed DNA; causing me to say “Squirtel”, and blue eyes instead of brown, lighter skin tones, and finally (probably the most important) psychic abilities. My trainer is Tracey Sketchit. Many people do not know this. Unlike any Pokemon, I know that you people can watch us in the Pokemon World. I do not wish to be watched, therefore, I hide myself from view with psychic powers.

I love my trainer. He treats me with the utmost of care. That’s why it was such a surprise and scary situation when I found myself in the Digiworld.

I leaned over to take a sip from the shallow pool of clear water to quench my thirst. Tracey, Ash, Misty, and Pikachu had walked off and away from view. I opened my eyes before taking a sip. What caught my sight caused me to jump back a little, but not enough. It was a gate to another world. Swirling colors of black, blue, and purple formed a circle. I meant to get away; there was no way I’d be sucked out of this world. I had leaned to far forward, however, and felt the force of the gate pulling me. I closed my eyes and winced. It was a few moments later I hit the ground with a thud.

“Ow!” I yelled into the forest surrounding me. I opened my eyes. There wasn’t much to see, just forest. At first, I sat there, and did nothing but blink. I was still dazzled by my recent trip. Slowly, the realization that I was probably in another world hit me. Fear gripped my mind and I panicked.

“Where’s Tracey?” I thought. “Where’s my trainer? I need his guidance.” I heard something. Voices? Footsteps? I wouldn’t take the chance of anything and darted into a bush as quickly as I could.

“Did you hear that?” I heard a boy asked. I shifted around so that I could see things better.

“Not only did I hear it, I saw it,” another, stranger voice replied. What was that? “I think it was over there.” The two figures walked my way. I was immensely scared, and at the same time curious. The first person to speak was a young boy. He couldn’t have been any older than 10 or 11. His accompanist was a strange looking creature. It was pink; had big, black, Pikachu like eyes; and a strange Ditto like shape. I assumed it was a new type of Pokemon that could talk.

“Strange,” I whispered. Then I heard it. I could talk human speech without psychic powers too! I pushed the thought out of my head as the two tried to pier through the bush.

“Who’s in there?” the boy asked. I didn’t reply. The pink thing got closer.

“Whoever you are, come on out,” he beckoned.

“No way,” I refused. “You’re crazy. And if you come closer, or stick a hand in this bush to make me come out; I’ll…I’ll… Do something unpleasant.” Pink thing pushed aside a few leaves.

“My you have pretty eyes!” he exclaimed. “I bet the rest of you is pretty too.” Despite my paranoia, I felt myself melting with the compliments. “Why don’t you come out so I can see how pretty you are? We won’t hurt you.” I didn’t know what to do. I ended up crawling out.

“Wow,” the boy said. “Are you a digital monster too?”

“If he or she is I’ve never seen it,” pink thing added.

“First of all,” I said sternly. “I’m a she. A female. Second, I’m not digital monster of whatever you just said. I’m a Pokemon, a pocket monster. My name is Squirtel.”

“My name is Motimon,” the pink thing introduced itself.

“I’m Izzy,” the boy said. “Now about that Pokemon thing…”

I spent quite a while explaining to them about Pokemon. They returned the favor by telling me that I was in the digital world, or for short, Digiworld. They explained as much as possible about Digimon too. It was amazing how similar the two were. I came to find that Izzy wasn’t the only human here with a Digital monster, or Digimon, partner. There was Tai with Koromon; Sora with Yokomon; Mimi with Tanemon; Joe with Bukamon; Matt with Tsunomon; and finally T.K. with Tokomon. T.K. was Matt’s little brother.

All my new friends were nice, and I enjoyed them. Then I found out something new about them as we encountered a mean, giant, bug Digimon. They could evolve, only they called it Digivolve, like Pokemon. Unlike Pokemon, is that they could un-evolve, or de-digivolve, almost at will. I was a little envious. After they digivolved to fight the bug, they all became new creatures with new names. They didn’t de-digivolve and stayed in this form. One of my two closest friends, Motimon, was now Tentomon. I really liked Tentomon a little better because he was a little easier to understand, and he was now my size instead of smaller. He looked a little like a ladybug with spikes. Despite his looks, he had a very witty personality. I liked that. Someone I could make wisecracks with. Tentomon wasn’t the only new one. All the other Digimon had digivolved too. Koromon was now Agumon, Yokomon was now Biyomon, Tanemon was now Palmon, Bukamon was Gommamon, Tsunomon was Gabumon, and Tokomon was Patamon.

Izzy proved to be quite a character. Always wrapped up in that computer of his, it was obvious he was rather obsessed with it. He cared for that thing as I cared for my own few personal belongings. He was extremely intelligent, and I always did enjoy those kinds of people. So insightful. Tentomon was also brilliant when compared to the others, yet he and Izzy had one main difference. Tentomon knew when to take a break from thinking. He was always up for a party or something social, even if it meant stopping from a puzzle. Izzy would prefer computers to people, and that’s a real shame. Other than that, those two were quite a pair

Izzy and I were even more different than each other, but similar in more subtle ways. I did enjoy mind-bending puzzles, but I loved to spend time with my friends. I would drop whatever I was doing if they needed me every time. I was a very stubborn little creature and Izzy was a bit more of a pushover. I still did enjoy Izzy’s company though.

Tentomon was a fascinating friend in my opinion. We got along quite well, but I got the better end of the relationship because I had the stronger will to get my way. What really tied us together were our wisecracks. If desired, we could have insulted each other from day until dusk with smart mouth remarks for a long time. Of course we didn’t, but that didn’t stop us from teasing each other. This kind of relationship drew us close together.

I like all the other Digimon too, but Gommamon was my next favorite. Not only because he was a water type too, but also because he was the only one who succeeded over Tentomon in jokes. He is an over all party guy, and I used that to my advantage. We played pranks on the Digidestined kids, and we bugged them at times too. For example, Izzy was trying to fish so Gommamon and I were scaring away the fish for a while, which annoyed Izzy greatly. To my luck, Gommamon got the blame.

Over time, I got to see the next level of my friends. They all digivolved from Rookie to Champion. It made me a little envious to see them get so large and strong. I could only dream of that power.

“Tentomon, do you think it’s a bad thing that I can’t digivolve?” I asked him, hovering next to him on my flying carpet (Which is actually a hover disk I created and sewed into a normal rug. One of my few cherished personal items.)

“No,” he replied bluntly. “It’s not like you can, so it’s not your fault. You’re still great to have around.”

“Maybe, but I can’t battle,” I pointed out. “What’s the use of me?”

“Well,” Tentomon thought a moment. “If we come across another evil rookie, you’ll be a great battler. If you were a Digimon, I assume you’d be a rookie level.” This didn’t comfort me any. I still stuck by Izzy, keeping him safe. One night, I got the courage to ask a bold question.

“Izzy, will you be my trainer?” I asked him.

“What?!” he exclaimed. “I don’t know! What does a trainer do?”

“Tell me what to do,” I explained. “Make my decisions in most of what I do, especially in battles. Keep me happy, and care for me when I’m sick.”

“Okay, but what do you do to me?” he quizzed.

“I protect you from danger,” I said naturally. “Like Tentomon does. If a trainer is good enough to the Pokemon, the Pokemon is normally willing to give their life for their trainers. If you treat me right, I’d do the same with you.” Izzy got a look of total awe and respect.

“You don’t have to go that far,” he blurted out. “But if that’s all, then okay. I’ll be your trainer.” So that was that. I stuck close to Izzy, and made sure to help in battles as much as I could. I got along with the other Digidestined too. But there was one night, I’ll never forget.

We were all beat from a hard day of two battles. We were wandering around and came across a hotel. It was heaven. A large spread of food just for us, and no one else in the whole building. It was just some abandoned building. We were a little wary of such good luck, but being as tired and hungry as we were, we didn’t think about it. Just took advantage of it. After stuffing ourselves, we helped ourselves to the two huttubs that were there. Girls were on one side, boys on another. While relaxing with the girls, we saw that Gommamon had made himself nice and cozy on the side with the girls. Infuriated, we had Palmon send him flying over the wall that separated the two sexes and from what we heard; he landed right on Joe. That would normally be worth a few giggles, but we were still upset.

“That Gommamon!” Sora fumed. I was concocting thoughts of revenge in my mind, when one good one came to me.

“How about we scare them?” I asked them. Biyomon, Sora, Mimi, and Palmon were all ears. My planned called for a scare into the boys’ one fear. They were deathly afraid of some girl walking in on them. What I had the girls do was get a broomstick, Sora’s hat, and Mimi’s voice to get back at them. I put the hat on the stick, somehow conjured up some really fake looking eyes, and got Mimi to mock Sora’s voice. Holding the hat slightly above the wall, we put our trick into motion. It wasn’t very long before we heard the terrified shrieks of the boys. We thought it was funny as can be, but the boys took a different view. They could hear us cackling away on our side. I was laughing so hard that I had to lean on the wall. Only the wall turned out to be the door and I fell into the hallway. I looked up to see five angry human boys- all staring at me.

“Get her!” Tai shouted. I didn’t have to think twice before I doubled out of there. They stayed close on my heels, but it was Matt who put the effort into his dash. I ran into a room and he tackled me. I tried to get away by turning around, but he pinned to the ground as soon as I was face to face with him

“You think that was funny?!” He shouted. With no one else around, he landed a punch straight into my left eye. I’d never been punched before, much less by something two or three times as big as me, so you can imagine the pain it caused. At that moment, Tai and the rest rushed in. Matt loosened his grip just enough to wriggle free. That was all I needed. I moved away from him, with my hand pressed tightly over my left eye. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what had happened.

“What did you do Matt?” Tai shouted. The girls were trying to peek over the boy’s heads.

“I’m sorry about that, Squirtel,” Gabumon apologized. He took a step forward, but I was no longer in control. Fear controlled me now. Even though in the Digiworld I could act as humanly as possible, my Pokemon instincts kicked in and I played on them. As Gabumon took that step forward, I flew back as hard as I could, knocking into the nightstand so hard I knocked over the lamp. Gabumon just stopped and stared.

“Come on Squirtel,” Joe coaxed. “Let me look at that eye. I think I can fix it up a bit.” I shook my head. “Come on Squirtel!” No reply. The kids and Digimon nervously glanced at each other.

“Just let Joe look at your eye, Squirtel,” Matt said, walking near me. I made a sound in my throat.

“You stay away from me,” I hissed. That stopped Matt in his tracks. Tai decided to take action. He dove for me, but missed. I was hurt, but quick. Everyone tried to catch me, but I escaped every time. Then, as I dashed for the door, Tai and Izzy dove and caught me. I wriggled hard and slipped out of their grip, and right into the wall at full force. I took a few seconds to rub my head, but when I saw the gang after me again, I did a twist so I could get up and run. When I did the twist, I fell down the stairs next to me. At some point in time I pulled into my shell, and eased my pain slightly. I must have landed at the bottom of the stairs, because I started to spin. It was an awful feeling and by the time it was over, I was so weak I couldn’t pull myself up. I just lay there, on my back, sobbing. The group rushed down the stairs. Finding that I was even more banged up and crying, they didn’t know what to do. I did get picked up by Joe, but he didn’t want to keep me. Instead he shoved me off into Sora’s arms, but missed and dropped me on the ground again. This brought up a wail of pain and sorrow, which was followed by more nervousness. Sora held me, and it made me feel a little better. I was still crying and shivering though. That’s when she suggested Izzy take me.

“Why?!” Izzy asked.

“She’s your Pokemon,” Sora shot back. Izzy bit his lip as he remembered the words of our compromise; “You help me when I get sick.” He timidly held me in his arms, which immediately hushed my sobs, but I didn’t stop shivering and shuddering. I buried my head on his shoulder, and kept shuddering. Tentomon was hovering near Izzy’s shoulder. He tried to think of some way to ease my pains.

“Shhh,” he shushed me, grabbing hold of my hand. This stopped the shivers. I held on tightly to Tentomon’s talon, the closest thing to a comforting hand as I could get. Izzy turned around so I was facing Joe. Joe just looked at my eye and gave some orders to the other kids. They returned with some materials, and Joe used them to make a crude ice pack, which he tied onto my eye.

“Now what?” Izzy asked. I kept my eyes closed and listened to the conversation and felt the warmness of Tentomon’s talon holding my hand.

“I suppose you should take her into the bedrooms,” Joe suggested. “She’s pretty banged up and could use the rest.” So Izzy carried me down the hall, Tentomon keeping hold on to my hand or paw, however you want to view it. I prefer hand. It didn’t take long to get to the room that held all the beds. Izzy picked one out and laid me on it.

“Thank you,” I whispered. I could hardly talk I was so tired and low on energy. Izzy then turned to leave. I felt a stabbing loneliness within me. “Wait!” He stopped and turned around. “Please stay a little while longer.” Izzy shifted unsure of himself, but Tentomon hovered over to my side without a moment’s hesitation. I stopped shivering again as Tentomon held on to my hand again. They both stayed with me until I fell asleep. I didn’t awake again until the other kids were turning in.

They all found a bed that suited them, and were dressed in undergarments and robes. As everyone settled in, I crawled to the edge of my bed and propped myself up.

“Izzy,” I whispered weakly. He looked up.

“Squirtel what are you doing up? Go back to sleep,” he ordered.

“Wait a second Squirtel,” Joe interrupted. He motioned that I get on his bed. “Let me check your eye.” He lifted off the ice pack. “This is all melted and your eye didn’t swell so I better take this off.” I didn’t want him to because I knew that I now had a black eye. I was probably ugly looking. That didn’t stop my trail of thoughts. I hopped back onto my bed and got Izzy’s attention again.

“Can I sleep with you two?” I asked him. This was normally not an issue for us. Tentomon camped out near Izzy and I stayed next to Tentomon. We slept side by side, with his arm around me to keep me from getting too cold. It looked romantic, but it wasn’t. It was what it was supposed to be, warm. Anyway, Izzy didn’t seem to approve this idea of me sharing a bed with them. After all, they were boys and I was not. It was common sense.

“I’m not sure,” Izzy mumbled. He looked me in the eyes and saw how much they ached for emotional support. He scooted over. “Okay then. Move over Tentomon.” Tentomon scooted over too, but it was not necessary. I grabbed my pillow and propped it up at Izzy feet. Then I grabbed a corner of the cover and curled up, with Izzy all puzzled.

“There’s room for you up here you know,” Tentomon pointed out.

“I always sleep at the foot of the bed,” I replied yawning. This was true. Whenever Tracey was sleeping in a bed, I slept at the foot of it. They were too tired to care very much. It was that night I will never forget because it proved I still had a lot to learn about all the Digidestined and taught me something about treating my friends. Second, we met our first real opponent- Devimon.

It was awful. He broke File Island up into two parts and scattered us around. It was a good thing that I was in the same bed as Izzy and Tentomon so we ended up on the same spot. I was scared and hurt, so I clung on to Izzy’s leg and wouldn’t let go for a while.

“Squirtel we’ve got to get moving so get off my leg!” Izzy ordered. I wouldn’t budge. Then Izzy got an idea. “As your trainer, I order you off.” That got me moving. Soon, we were in a labyrinth. Tentomon was desperate to get Izzy to help him find his friends, but Izzy had found some more machine hieroglyphics and was dead set on figuring them out. At some time, Mimi and Palmon showed up. Izzy just ignored her, so she and Palmon started crying. Tentomon wasn’t very thrilled with this. Mimi started saying bad things about Izzy, which upset me so I started yelling at her and crying. Now Tentomon had an awful predicament on his hands. Izzy wasn’t listening to anyone, and he had three crying girls to contend with. Mimi ran off, I followed her, and Tentomon followed us both. We all ended up lost, but Izzy guided us through the maze, and we ran into a Digimon called Centarimon. He attacked us, and we were in a bad situation. Then Izzy found us and Palmon and Tentomon digivolved to Togemon and Kabutarimon. All the large Digimon in a small room was squishing Izzy and Mimi. We knocked down a wall and the two of them went flying. I panicked and in my panic something strange happened. All I could think about was protecting Izzy, and suddenly I felt a tingling sensation. Words popped out of my mouth I hadn’t even intended on saying.

“Squirtel digivolved to… Wintortle!” I shouted. I opened my eyes. I felt twenty feet higher. I had taken on a new shape, similar to a Wartortle. I looked around and saw Kabutarimon; and for the first time, we were eye to eye.

“You… Digivolved,” he sputtered. I turned to Centarimon, who was closing in on the kids. Once again, I said things and moved in ways I didn’t know I could. I placed my hands in a square shape and focused my psychic powers.

“Pokeball Blaster!” I shouted. Round objects appeared and hit Centarimon at an incredible force. The whole group stared shocked. A Pokemon had Digivolved.

“Does this mean she’s not a Pokemon anymore?” Mimi asked Izzy. Izzy was way ahead of her by then and was formulating a plan on just how to find out. Meanwhile, Kabutarimon and I were fighting along side of Togemon. In the end, we won. Centarimon was freed of the evil that possessed him. We destroyed a large black gear and were currently drifting back to File Island. During the time that we were still drifting, Izzy took that opportunity to discover what I now was.

“Hmmmm,” he hummed. “Wintortle. Very interesting.”

“And catchy,” Tentomon added. I blushed. “Very fitting.” Izzy clicked away at his laptop.

“If I can access a file to you like I did Tentomon,” Izzy murmured. A few minutes passed before he announced something. “Eureka! Here we are. Squirtel’s Digimon file. Hmm…. This doesn’t seem to appear like Tentomon’s at all. Tentomon’s file was a bunch of numbers and symbols. Squirtel’s would make sense to almost anybody.” I pushed myself under Izzy’s arm to see a picture of me on his laptop. Tentomon was hovering over Izzy’s shoulder and happened to glance down at me.

“I hope you realize, Squirtel, that your eye is no longer black,” he remarked, staring at me. I touched my eye, it was still sore, but according to the reflection in Izzy’s laptop, it was indeed back to the normal light blue as the rest of my skin was. I smiled in satisfaction.

“What’s this,” Izzy inquired. He clicked on an icon that resembled a graph. “Why! It’s a digital chart of Squirtel. According to this, she’s converting from Pokemon DNA to Digimon. Prodigious! No wonder you’re able to digivolve now. It says here, that you’re now 25% digital.” I wasn’t sure how to take the news. I was probably more happy than sad.

Over time, I developed the ability to de-digivolve. I had a good hunch on what I’d be. After all, I was an evolved Pokemon. I’d probably revert back to my old self. (This part of de-digivolving is the most confusing. Feel free to ignore it, or pray someday I write a fanfic of my life before the Digital world.) This proved true one day when I got shocked from an electric fence. I de-digivolved to my old self, Charminder. Later, I digivolved back to Squirtel.

I even got in my first ever in my life major battle. It was against Devimon. None of us were sure how to fight him. At first, we all just jumped or flew onto him and bit. I was particularly good at this because my teeth were made for biting. It didn’t do much good; Devimon sent us flying. It was Patamon who saved us when he digivolved to Angemon and sacrificed himself.

After Devimon was gone, we weren’t sure what to do with ourselves. Then we got a message from a strange old man named Gennai. He asked that we go over the ocean and fight the evil Digimon there. He said to do so we Digimon would need to be able to Digivolve to another level. I found this hard to believe. I couldn’t possibly be able to digivolve farther, was I? He said that to accomplish this feat, we’d need to find the tags and crests. So we set off to Server to find the tags.

It wasn’t bad, just surfing on the ocean, at first on a raft, then on Whaymon’s, a Digimon, back. Of course, Gommamon and I enjoyed it the most. Water Digimon connect easily with the water itself. So while Joe was being seasick, Gommamon would talk to me. I got to know him a little better. True, he was a wisecrack, but deep down, he was super nice. I enjoyed many hours just talking to him; mostly about the sea and things we’ve seen.

We found the tags. They were interesting looking. They appeared to look like jewelry. I thought them neat. Only one thing. There were seven kids, and eight tags. I pondered this, but Izzy gladly held on to the extra one. It wasn’t until that night did we find out the reason why.

We received yet another message from Gennai. He explained the reason for the extra tag.

“I’ll tell you as soon as you find its crest,” he explained. “It should be somewhere around there.” So we started a hunt for the crest, although we had no idea what it looked like. Then I saw a carving. It was on a flat rock, near the water’s edge of a small pond.

“Izzy!” I yelled. “Come over here.” Izzy waked over and the tag he held started to glow. So did the carving, which was an almost exact match of my handprint. A very eerie scene. The carving came off the rock and turned into a crest! As soon as the crest and tag united, we rushed over to Izzy’s PC where Gennai was on the screen, preparing for our return. The group huddled around the computer and listened intently.

“You have found the crest of Loyalty,” he said blankly. “Or, the crest of Determination. It is both. Does anyone want to take a guess who it belongs to?” All the kids and Digimon exchanged uncertain glances. Every Digimon claimed it to be their human. Gennai laughed. “No. It doesn’t belong to any human. It belongs to Squirtel.” This shocked me.

“W-what? Why?” I asked.

Gennai sighed and replied, “I’m not exactly sure. Perhaps because you are not from the Digiworld, yet Digimon. I do know that because you have the DNA from both worlds that is why your crest has two meanings. However, a Digimon cannot digivolve from owning the crest itself. You must choose a human to give it to, so that you can use that human’s energy. Much like using a Digivice to digivolve. I believe you digivolve from Izzy, is that correct?” I nodded my head. “You can give it to whomever you wish.” I thought a moment, but didn’t have to think hard.

“Izzy,” I said, smiling and jumping into his arms. He smiled lovingly back as he put the crest around his neck. Gennai approved greatly.

“I’m pleased with your decision,” he announced.

“Does this mean I get to digivolve farther?” I asked Izzy.

He nodded then added, “But I assume you have to be at certain Digimon level.” Meaning I had to be a certain percentage of being a Digimon. He closed the link with Gennai and opened up my file.

“If you were at 25% to get to Champion,” he mumbled. “I suppose you’d be 50% to be another level.” More tapping on the computer. “Sorry, Squirtel, but you’re only at 37%” I snapped my fingers, but took the news easily. I was ecstatic; on the other hand, that now I would digivolve farther. Having my own crest means Tentomon and I didn’t have to digivolve at the same time to reach the Ultimate level. In order to digivolve to the Champion I needed a Digivice. I ended up digivolving from Izzy’s Digivice. So when Tentomon digivolved, I digivolved.

Later that night, while making myself comfortable under Tentomon’s arm, I heard him whispering to me, “I think that the crest suits you. You’re both loyal and determined.” I looked up into his wide green eyes.

“Thank you,” I whispered back, trying to keep from blushing. But staring into those innocent eyes forced me into a blush anyway. We just stared at each other for a while before breaking off from our gaze.

“Goodnight, Squirtel,” I heard just before dozing off.

We all found crests after a period of time. Tai received Courage, Sora got Love, Matt Friendship, Izzy Knowledge, Joe Reliability, and Mimi got Sincerity. All the crests suited everyone, but no one had a more fitting crest than Izzy. Knowledge was perfect for both him and Tentomon. I voiced my thought on this one day, while resting.

“You wanna know what I think about your crest, Tentomon?” I asked him. We were leaning on each other, back to back, so I wasn’t able to look at him in the face.

“What do you think?” he asked back in an amused tone.

“I think it fits you just right,” I replied.

“And how’s that?” he inquired.

“Think about it,” I said blankly. “You have an amazing vocabulary, are able to identify pretty much all Digimon we come across, and you know how to get Izzy off his computer. It takes quite a brain to do all that.” Even though I couldn’t see him, I could tell that Tentomon had an embarrassed look of pride on his face.

After that, I tried to get to know Tentomon better than ever. The more I found out, the better I liked him. One time, we stumbled into a small village of Motimon. This village resembled the ones of Yokomon and Koromon we’d visited before, but the residents were very different. At first, they greeted us, in a host like manner, but then they saw Tentomon. They were drawn to him.

“You seem familiar,” they chanted. “Who are you?”

“I’m Tentomon,” he greeted back. “But I’m the digivolved form of Motimon like yourselves.” This only fascinated them more. Being a stronger form of themselves, they all treated Tentomon like a king, and oddly, me like a queen.

“Tell me, Tentomon, why are they so fascinated by me?” I asked him in private after being escorted by the Motimon to the main part of the village.

“I’m not so sure myself,” Tentomon whispered back. “Perhaps it is because you accompany me so closely. It may also be that they see you a queen because you’re not quite a Digimon, or they may just like you.” I wasn’t sure what to think. It was rather bizarre having little Motimon everywhere, trying to make you a queen. Not that they didn’t treat the rest of the group respectively, but they paid extra special attention to us.”

“Maybe they just like you,” echoed in my head. I wished I knew what he meant by that. What kind of like? Like like a friend, or like like a crush? The thought of crushes made me grow a little giddy. Recently, Biyomon had pulled me aside to discuss a rather personal matter.

“I think you have a crush,” she giggled.

“What? No! On who?” I asked, shocked.

“Tentomon,” she giggled a little louder. I tried to quite her down.

“What makes you think that?” I asked, puzzled.

“You’ve been staring at him,” she said, in a teasing yet hushed tone of voice.

“So?” I shot back. “I glance at a certain spot and start to daydream. I’m sorry if it appears like I’m staring.” She wouldn’t give up. I didn’t know that Tentomon was having the same argument with someone else.

“Come on Tentomon, admit that you like her,” Gommamon said, after pulling Tentomon away from Izzy.

“Like who?” Tentomon asked, impatient with Gommamon.

“Squirtel, duh,” he said defensively. “Now say it. You like her.”

“I won’t say anything,” Tentomon said, now even more impatient. “What would even give you such a crazy idea?”

“You are always snuggling up with her at night,” he retorted.

“She needs to stay warm,” Tentomon explained. Gommamon looked skeptical.

“Plus, you are always by her in the day,” Gommamon added.

“That’s because we both have the same kid for a Digidestined,” he stated. Like Biyomon, Gommamon wouldn’t give up.

I was still thinking about all that Biyomon had said that night in the village. Realizing that since Tentomon is a bug type Digimon, the Motimon found a suitable sleeping place that he’d enjoy immensely. A tree. I didn’t see what Tentomon enjoyed about sleeping in a tree. Give me a lake any day. That night, instead of sleeping in a hut with Izzy, I decided to take a quick stroll to Tentomon’s tree. I couldn’t see him through the foliage. I yawned and laid down on the ground underneath. I needed space to sleep. Only tonight, I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned, but couldn’t fall asleep at all. Then I heard a voice.

“Squirtel?” Tentomon whispered from above. “What are you doing out of the hut, and why aren’t you asleep?”

“I don’t like huts,” I whispered back. “And I can’t sleep.” Tentomon sighed.

“I can’t either,” he said exasperatedly. “Why don’t you come up here with me and we’ll talk?” It sounded like a great idea. So I had Tentomon help me into his tree as he steadied me on a thick branch.

“This is what it’s like to sleep in a tree,” I mused. “Interesting. I probably wouldn’t do it again in the future though.” Tentomon shrugged. It didn’t seem to matter to him. We stayed up in the night, talking. After a while, I grew immensely drowsy. I fell asleep under Tentomon’s arm, as I do every night. Since I fell asleep before Tentomon, he took a moment to examine my features in the moonlight.

“She’s rather pretty,” he thought to himself. “And she makes me a lot happier than anyone I’ve ever met. I wonder if there’s something that Gommamon sees that I don’t, but should.” With that, he softly and tenderly gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and fell asleep.

I woke up later that night, sensing something was wrong. Then I remembered that I was in a tree and figured that was it. I glanced at Tentomon, sleeping peacefully and snoring softly.

“That is the strangest snore I ever heard,” I thought to myself. “Almost sleep talk. I used to wonder how I’d ever get to sleep, and thought it was annoying. Now that I can take it, it makes him look kinda cute.” As soon as that thought was finished, Tentomon mumbled something in his sleep, causing me to smile faintly. “Is Biyomon right? Am I developing a crush on Tentomon?” Thoughts swirled in my head. “If I am, there’s no harm in what I’m about to do.” And as if I had no real willpower, I quickly gave him a sweet kiss on the cheek; not noticing the tingling feeling I got on mine when I did so. Finally, we were both in deep sleep.

That morning, we were allowed to sleep in. Unbeknown to us, the Motimon got the rest of the Digidestined to stay longer, so we could have an hour extra sleep. Finally, I heard a mumbling next to me wake me up.

“It’s morning,” Tentomon said in a slurred morning speech.

“Good morning Tentomon,” I replied, just as badly slurred, and with my eyes still closed.

“Good morning Squirtel,” Tentomon said back, his eyes closed also. Without thinking I leaned over, and Tentomon and I gave each other a short kiss- on the mouth. It took us a few seconds to realize what we did. When we did, we snapped out eyes open, took one look at each other, and screamed. I was so shaken I fell out of the tree; which hurt badly. Also shaken, but also concerned, Tentomon flew down.

“Are you all right?” he asked, helping me up.

“Not in the head,” I thought, but replied, “Yeah, I’m fine.” We didn’t feel like explaining anything to the kids or other Digimon, so we kept quite about it. It was all I could think about the whole day, while hiking with Izzy. Our next campsite was a beautiful spot on a small lake. My favorite place to rest. Gommamon and I played happily in the water. He won all the games, because my mind wasn’t focused enough to try. Tentomon was caught staring into space the whole day. Nobody seemed to notice, except Gommamon and Biyomon. They were giving each other little confident smirks all day.

I came to a conclusion and decided it was time to tell Tentomon how I felt. After dinner, I gently took hold of his talon.

“Come with me,” I said quietly. I led him to the lake. He seemed calm, but I could tell he was nervous. We sat down, next to each other. “The stars are beautiful.” He nodded, without saying anything. “I hope you know that I didn’t bring you here just to discuss the stars.” I said even more quietly.

“I didn’t think so,” Tentomon said dully.

“Tentomon, about this morning,” I started. “It was a mistake. But… I think it reflected just how I felt about you. I… Like you… A lot.” Tentomon said nothing but kept his gaze on the sky above and he reached for my hand. He gave it a short squeeze.

“I like you too,” he whispered. “A lot.” My heart soared.

“A whole lot?” I asked. He nodded, eyes never leaving the sky. It was a while before either of us spoke.

“Thank you,” I mumbled, trying to find the words I was searching for. I found none, and neither did Tentomon. He did find an action to express himself. He leaned over, slowly ever so slowly, and gave me the sweetest and purest kiss. It felt like an eternity of happiness went by, but it ended all too soon.

“We’d better get back,” he sighed. “They’ll wonder where we are.” I nodded and walked back with him.

Before sleeping, I snuggled extra close to Tentomon. He held me extra tight, and we took a moment to gaze into each other’s eyes once more, now with a new understanding of one another. Making sure no one was watching, I gave Tentomon a good night kiss. This time, there were no screams, and we were both awake to enjoy it.

We still had evil Digimon to defeat, and now with our crests, we felt invincible. We were about to face our newest opponent, Etemon, in a final battle to save Sora. Tai was doing all the most stupid things he could think of just because Izzy informed them all that they were not really human in this world but rather living pieces of data, like the Digimon. I wondered about this myself. Was I now just data?

After seeing Tai accomplish yet another stupid risk, I turned to Tentomon and whispered, “He’s liable to kill himself that way.” Tentomon agreed, but neither of us told Tai that. It was up to Izzy to tell him that just because he wasn’t really here, that doesn’t mean he could still live if he died here. It scared him straight and he lost his courage. Everyone was worried about this until it was us against Etemon. We were scared to death of what might happen, but Tai summoned up his courage and Greymon digivolved to MetalGreymon for the first time. They defeated Etemon, but were sucked away in something unknown to all of us.

At first, we thought he’d come back and waited, but after a while, everyone got edgy.

“I say we wait,” Sora decided.

“Who died and made you queen?” Matt retorted. “I say we go look for the dufus.”

“I agree with Sora,” Joe protested. It was pretty much like that and only Izzy had a different opinion.

“I say we go look for Gennai,” he announced. “He may have a map or something.” No one could agree on anything, so we all split up. While on the path to finding Gennai with Izzy and Tentomon, I didn’t say much. I didn’t know what to say. It was weird not having everyone there. Tentomon voiced my thoughts.

“Izzy, are you sure it was wise to split up?” he asked his companion. Izzy just nodded, and we continued our decent up the mountain. We came across some funny signs, mostly saying “Beware of digi-sludge” I didn’t find anything particularly interesting about them. Tentomon freaked out a little, but that’s just him. We took one step forward and started falling down a pit. Tentomon tried flying, but that was pretty hard to do when he was falling upside down. I got my hover carpet going, but it snagged and I lost it.

“That’s not good,” Izzy observed. We were suddenly stopped in mid-air. This voice said that he’d take us out of this hole if Izzy gave up his curiosity. Tentomon and I pleaded with him not to.

“Your curiosity makes up who you are, Izzy,” I shouted. It did no good. He gave it up and we were warped to some spot in space. Strangely, we could breath, but were weightless. Izzy seemed like a zombie without his curiosity. Tentomon and I tried to snap him out of it, but it didn’t work.

Then the voice came back, or should I say the owner of the voice. A strange Digimon with a giant brain, Vademon. I thought he was as ugly as they get, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. He requested that Izzy, in order to achieve inner peace, should get rid of all his personal belongings. Izzy started throwing things into space, including our two tags and crests. Vademon took them. Tentomon was furious.

“Give those back!” he shouted in a vain attempt to get a forward motion going. All he got was a shot from a ray gun in the face. He went flying backwards. Then I tried to get them back. I was expecting him to shoot me too, so I could whip around and use my shell like a mirror. Only when I tried to turn around, I turned upside down and got shot.

“We didn’t even get to use them,” I whimpered. Tentomon and I felt very low. Izzy was doing some crazy exercise and not even listening.

“I’ve lost him,” Tentomon cried, as he started losing energy.

“I’ve failed him,” I whispered. I started losing my energy too. First we became Motimon and Charminder. This got Izzy to stop and stare. Then we warped to our baby forms of Pabumon and Charmon. Weak and upset, Pabumon started crying bubbles. I clung onto Izzy’s leg and cried. This snapped Izzy out of his daze. He hugged us and apologized. That was over. We now had Izzy back to his normal self. Our next plan was we had to get everything back. We found a door that led out of this world, and into some sort of pawnshop run by the big-brained Digimon. Izzy said we should stop and think of a plan. Time was running out so Pabumon and I just ran for it. We led Izzy to his curiosity, which went back to him. He grabbed our tags and crests and we went running.

When we were outside in the strange world again, we digivolved back to our Rookie stages. Then Tentomon became Kabutarimon to fight Vademon. I became Wintortle at the same time not only because I had no choice, but also to protect Izzy from the flying debris that Vademon was creating. Kabutarimon wasn’t strong enough to fight back the boulders. I gave it a shot and was mulled over. This was a powerful Digimon. Izzy’s crest of Knowledge started to glow, and so did the crest of Loyalty. We both Digivolved to our next stage of Ultimate.

“Kabutarimon digivolve to,” Kabutarimon shouted. “MegaKabutarimon!” Then it was my turn.

“Wintortle digivolve to,” I shouted. “Blistoise.” My new form resembled that of a Blastoise. Very nifty. We destroyed the evil Digimon and saved Izzy. A blast blew us out of the strange dimension. I opened my eyes again to find I had de-digivolved back to Charminder. I was very tired and weak. Motimon was too. I crawled up to Izzy’s chest and stared him in the eyes. Motimon fell onto his hand.

“Izzy please wake up,” we begged. He opened his eyes and smiled tenderly.

“Thanks you guys,” he said softly. He picked Motimon up and carried him. That left me to perch on Izzy’s head, which I eventually fell asleep on.