Chapter 5: Make Way for Strikedramon!

Monodramon folded his fists and furrowed his brows. "'Leave' over my dead body!" he growled. "Beat Knuckle!" He sent out a flurry of punches, stunning Youkomon by surprise.

Youkomon caught her footing in time, her neck fur bristling. "You're such a hardy punk! Blazing Sphere!" She parted her jaws open to send out a flaming ball of fire, striking the table and splitting it into two, burning pieces. Soos knew that this was the right time to leave. He called for his digimon but Monodramon refused, only staying in his spot. Soos snatched Monodramon by the shoulder, hauling him out of the restaurant. Monodramon complained until they were finally outside in front of the restaurant.

Soos wagged a finger. "Now, dude, sometimes you gotta listen to your uncle Soos," he disciplined. "Sometimes, you can't win all fights."

But Monodramon frowned. "Yes, I must win every fight!" he protested.

"Dude," said Soos, a disapproving look on his face. "You're sounding like a power-player. A winner must not win all fights; I winner must learn from his mistakes. A winner must—" When Soos had opened his eyes, he realized that he was talking to thin air. With the rest of the group meeting up with him outside, Soos stared at the entrance with anxiety. Oh, no!

"Beat Knuckle!"

"Sticker Blade!"

A loud grunt came from Monodramon from inside of the restaurant. "…Beat Knuckle—Gah!" A loud thump came afterwards.

"Give up, fool," growled Ryudamon. "You'll never be as great as you want to be."

Someone had tugged at Soos's arm and Soos turned around to see that it was Dipper.

"Come on, we have to go!" he said.

Soos only stared gaped and wide-eyed at Dipper, shifting his gaze back on the battle that stood before him. Soos felt hopeless that there was nothing that he could do to stop his digimon from hurting himself further. As much as he wanted to jump in the digital fight, he forced himself to stay back.

Yelling drew closer and closer as Monodramon was shot out towards Soos like a limp rocket. Soos stretched out his arms, astonishment flooding over him. "I got you, dude!" he called out. Monodramon landed soundly in Soos's arms, his eyes closed as he released an exhausted groan.

Youkomon teleported three, swift times until she was in front of Soos, nearly nose-to-nose with him. Her eyes were icy with disgust. "Shall I repeat my order to you filthy humans?" she hissed. "Leave the Digital World and never return."

Monodramon stirred in Soos's arms, opening one eye wearily. "Oh yeah?" he grunted. "Well, we'll be glad to leave. Look out behind you, Youkomon, 'cause we'll be looking for you." He suddenly flinched and soon relaxed in Soos's arms, closing his eyes as if he was trying to have a peaceful slumber. Soos couldn't help but stare down at him with care in his eyes. No matter how hard the dude kept getting hit, he thought, he kept going in the fight just to protect me.

Soos felt Youkomon—then Sangloupmon and Ryudamon—glower after him as he caught up with his friends. They were back in the forest where they'd first arrive at the Digital World. Soos realized that Dipper looked frustrated. Wendy was just as speechless and, for some reason, Soos remembered that fleeting look she kept giving Ryudamon. Does she know him from a video game or somethin'?

Mabel's eyes were wide with distress while Cutemon stood and consoled her with gentle strokes on the arm. She was visibly shaking from when they all had experienced DigiTamamon's data being sucked up by Sangloupmon, in the same manner as that of a vampire, only it was to his leg. Veemon looked defeated—not physically, but he looked as if he could've done better if he had the time. He kept pacing to and fro in front of the distressed Dipper, who stood while rubbing his chin in thought. Soos was thinking that everyone had the same thought in mind: Was the Digital World even a safe place for humankind?

Finally, Wendy was the one to speak up, her eyes still clouded with memory. "We need to find a way to stop those three from following us," she declared.

All eyes turned towards her, some leaden with misery while others were sparking with surprise.

Dipper strode up towards her, an angry Veemon behind him. "We'd be just as lucky if you had your very own Digimon," he told her.

"How did you three get yours?" she asked him.

Mabel stepped up. "I found Cutemon beneath my bed," she stated. "She appeared after a flash filled the room."

"Mines was behind the cooler drinking a can of Pitt Cola," said Soos.

"And Veemon was little when I found him hiding beneath a cardboard box back in town," finished Dipper.

"So basically," mused Wendy, "you guys found yours by coincidence and the unlikeliest of places…" She then blinked, looking around as if she was expecting her very own digivice to get thrown right in her face. She shrugged, as if knowing the face of reality as clear as day. "Maybe I'm just not the right person to get one," she guessed.

"Maybe it takes time for some people," thought Dipper.

"Eh, you're probably right," she shrugged. "You know I'm impatient."

A flash of light came from the direction of where they had come from on their first visit to the Digital World. Energy surged through Soos as Monodramon hopped out of his arms, staring at the direction of the light source. "A portal!" he gasped.

"That's our way out!" exclaimed Dipper, motioning an arm for them to follow. "Come, quick, before it closes!"

Without reconsideration, everyone stormed in a straight line towards the strong light. The light poured through the forest and, as they drew closer, could not see the strange portal anywhere. Instead, Soos spotted a stranded television set sitting right before their feet. Its screen was snowing up, fizzing in the forest. It turned out that the strange ray of light was coming from the TV. Soos felt his digivice go off. He, along with Dipper and Mabel, pulled out his digivice and, for some strange reason, felt like pointing it towards the TV. He didn't know why he did it—even Dipper and Mabel had done the same thing with full, yet newly found, confidence. Soos saw that his body had begun to pixelate and sink towards the TV. Seeing that Wendy had no digivice for herself, he told her to grab a hold onto him. Soos thought he heard Dipper release a distraught sniff but he didn't mind. As their bodies turned into pixels, they were drawn into the television set, whirling around in some new dimension.

Soos felt firm ground beneath his feet once more. The ground creaked beneath him. He was lying on his belly, being literally flung out of the television set. Soos looked up and recognized that he was in…

"The Game Room?" he mused, taking in its dark, dull surroundings. It looked abandoned and unused with spider webs along every corner and dust coated the floor as its own personal rug. He turned around at the sound of more groans of discomfort. Monodramon had begun to stir beside Soos.

"Hey, Soos, where are we?" asked Monodramon, rubbing his head.

Dipper, from somewhere at the far side of the room, rose to his feet and dusted off his knees. "We're in the Game Room," he declared. "Back in our world."

Wendy stood tall on her feet, readjusting her hat. "Great, what a relief," she sighed.

Mabel and Cutemon stood up, their eyes gummy with disappointment. "Ew, this room is gross," commented Cutemon. She then widened her eyes, staring at a shooter game machine that stood behind Soos. Its screen was filtered with snow and Soos turned around to see it for himself. The screen was slightly bulging, suddenly flattening out. Did we just come through that? Is this reality? And why does my nose feel all tingly?

Dipper walked over and observed with. "So many mysteries to observe in such little time," he mused. "That TV in the Digital World must've served itself as a portal back to our world. It must be linked to this game machine. And this place is really old, so I doubt that anyone actually comes here anymore."

Mabel had a ruminating face. She then snapped her fingers, beaming with her mouth full of braces. "We can sneak in this room to go back to the Digital World!"

"Yeah, but Youkomon's threatened us not to come back," pointed out Veemon. "Who knows what'd happen if we returned?"

Soos felt very uneasy. He looked down at Monodramon, who had a stiff frown on his face. Is he really willing to win every fight?

After a few moments of recovering from the shock, they clambered up a flight of stairs, which eventually led to a pine forest. Soos looked around in surprise. They were back to where they had found the strange portal from! But he could tell that the portal was nowhere from being close; he, Dipper, and Mabel had treaded down this path on their way to the Digital Portal.

Soos shifted his feet and felt the concealed, metal door that buried the abandoned Game Room from the rest of the world. He found something engraved in its tarnished hide and took note of what it read:

25-15-21-18 4-9-7-9-20-1-12 8-1-18-2-15-18 9-19 8-5-18-5

But at the time he had noticed it, he realized that his friends were already heading towards the Mystery Shack. Monodramon was still at his side, exchanging confused glances with his tamer and the concealed hatch. Soos gave one last, quick glance at the message before heading off in their direction.

When Grunkle Stan wasn't around in the Mystery Shack, Soos would pull out Monodramon from the tight spaced closet and let him get used to his surroundings. Some time ago, Monodramon had told Soos that he was surprised that he wasn't back in his In-Training Level when they returned to the real world. Soos had asked what that was and Monodramon said that it was like a baby version of a digimon, the youngest being Fresh-Level. He assumed that it was the strong power coming from his digivice that allows him to remain in his Rookie level, even when they're in the real world. Monodramon guessed that Veemon was like this as well, with Cutemon not being an exception.

Soos and Monodramon were blowing up hot dog wieners in the microwave. They were both chanting, "Go! Go! Go!" as they pumped their fists in perfect rhythm. Monodramon then touched the microwave and the microwave went haywire. The microwave stopped working in one movement, plumes of smoke billowing from the burnt machine.

Soos looked at him in surprise. "Whoa, dude!" he chuckled. "How did you did that?"

Monodramon shrugged arrogantly. "I'm digital, remember?" he said, a smug look on his face.

Soos then had a random, yet stupid, thought in his head. He grabbed Monodramon by the shoulders and hauled him inside the tiny microwave. Only Monodramon's head was able to entirely fit in, if not at all. Soos was pushing force on Monodramon's lower back to try and make him go in further.

"G'aah!" shouted Monodramon. "What the Mon are you doing!?"

"Trying to make the microwave explode!" he replied with amusement.

Footsteps stopped beside Soos and noticed that it was Dipper and Veemon, both eating a bag of potato chips. They stared blankly at the scene.

"I'm not taking part in any of this," said Dipper flatly as he turned around and walked away.

"Ehh, I'm not buying it," commented Veemon, following Dipper in the same manner.

Moments later and Monodramon fell out, falling right on top of Soos's belly. The two chumps fell down hard with a muffled thump and drove into a laughing fit. Even Monodramon was laughing, a few marks on his shoulders. He then coughed up the smoke, rubbing the curve of his neck. Soos rolled over and sat up on his knees, with Monodramon sitting on the wooden floor.

"Dude," said Soos, holding up a fist towards Monodramon. "You and I make a great team. Nothing can beat against us. When it comes to blowing up hot dogs, you truly are the best." He kept his folded fist there, his face bathed in friendliness and respect.

Monodramon paused for a moment, looking confused at Soos's folded fist. As if slowly getting it, he raised up a large, winged hand and folded it as well, carrying it out into a fist bump with Soos. Monodramon kept his hand touching Soos's, his eyes glowing.

As the day went by, Grunkle Stan had returned from where he had left. Soos went outside, avoiding Stan's pressing questions on why he was leaving at a time like this. Yeah, sure, Soos was missing his favorite show, but this meant more to him than the show. He could record it and watch it later—heck, they didn't even have cable!

Soos and Monodramon slithered like stealthy snakes looking for prey deep within the dark glades of the pine forest. The moon hung still in the deep blue sky like a white claw. Milky moonlight filtered through the pine forest, giving off a silvery tint throughout the air. Shadows slanted across the ground and the backs of Soos and Monodramon. Their eyes were glowing beneath the moonlight.

Soon, Soos had slowed down to a halt. A heavy shadow fell across his face, his eyes narrowing down at his feet. "There is it," he murmured.

The concealed hatch stood beneath them. Monodramon looked up approvingly at his tamer, giving him a brusque nod.

Soos hunkered low and undid the hatch, quickly opening it as it creaked with age. Soos was glad that the hatch was wide enough for him to easily slip through. He had let Monodramon go through first, with Soos following swiftly afterwards.

Once they entered the filthy, unexploited Game Room, Soos searched and rummaged for the first-person shooter game machine. He finally found the strange, glowing light that came from the game. Soos and Monodramon paced up towards it, their eyes glowing from the strange light. They stood there silently for a few moments before Soos dug in his pocket to pull out his pale green digivice. He looked at his digivice before confidently, yet uneasily, aiming it towards the glitching game screen. The game screen reacting violently and almost immediately. Soos began to feel the ground vanish from beneath him as his body began pixelating into the screen, with Monodramon right beside him.

Darkness fell over the Digital World. Soos had ended up in an entirely different area; he wasn't in the first forest anymore. He looked around and found himself in a deserted-like grasslands. A small tent was found at the edge of two thorn bushes. Had someone been camping out here? Soos and Monodramon silently went towards the tent. To his avail, he found Ryudamon lying on his back, snoring noisily. Soos and Monodramon froze dead in their tracks, nearly inches away from the tent's threshold.

"We can't let him know that we're here," hissed Monodramon. "We wanna take him by surprise…!"

"Boys, boys, boys!"

Soos flew his eyes towards the cunning voice of Youkomon. The nine-tailed Champion looked on at Soos from a gentle mound in the grassland, her eyes narrowed to slits and glowing purple beneath the darkness of the night.

"You came back," she scorned. "Even though I strictly told you not to come back." She let out a wily chuckle. "This should be fun."

Soos took a few steps or two forward, concealing his fear with his makeshift pride. "Oh yeah?" he jeered. "Well… I… I'll… I'll take you down with my own bare hands!" He knew that he sounded greater than injudicious.

"Oh?" Youkomon inclined with amusement. "And how would you do that?"

For once, Soos felt lost in this situation. He had wanted him and Monodramon to come alone to handle this business once and for all. He felt that Monodramon's need to battle face to face with Youkomon was personal.

"You imprudent fool." Youkomon teleported twice until she was directly in front of the scared Soos. "Show me that you can actually strike me with your own bare hands!"

Soos frowned, feeling annoyance and embarrassment flood over his body like a tidal wave. He swung a chubby arm towards her face, only meeting thin air as Youkomon simply leaned over, dodging it. Soos paused before letting out a couple of more blows, only leaving Youkomon to dodging them cleanly.

"Face it, human, you don't have what it takes to defeat a digimon with your own hands." Impatience edged in her voice. "I'm growing impatient. I wouldn't want to waste my time with you and your digi-pet." She teleported out of Soos's reach and lifted her muzzle into the starry night skies. "I must summon out a worthy opponent—apparently, I'm too worthy for you." Youkomon had did a quick motion with her nine tails, the flames at its tips flaring up in a sharp contrast against the dark sky. She then vanished into thin air, along with an icily shrewd laugh.

A loud roar filled the air, causing the ground to shake. Soos was driven back to his memories during Monodramon's first fight with a Tyrannomon. But as a large shape loomed out from the far side of the grasslands, it turned out that it wasn't a Tyrannomon at all. A large, green reptile stomped towards them, its huge tusks aimed towards them. Its eyes glowed hungrily in the moonlight, its shadow slanting across from its side and onto the ground.

Monodramon shot up from Soos's side. "Beat Knuckle!" he shouted as he sent out a flurry of punches on the newcomer's nose. But the newcomer froze and swung his head hard, cracking against Monodramon's body with a loud thump.

From inside the tent, Ryudamon had arisen, his eyes wide with surprise. He poked his head out of the tent and jolted with fear when he realized that the large newcomer had approached. Ryudamon stormed out of the tent, leaving it to be crushed under the newcomer's large feet. It let out a deafening roar.

Soos saw that Monodramon had staggered back up on his feet. "You'll get what you deserve, big guy!" he sneered. But before he could move a muscle, Soos had pulled out his digivice to record the newcomer's information.

"Tuskmon," he read aloud. "This dude is a Champion-Leveled Digimon with its renowned large tusks on its head. It uses Horn Buster to fire lasers from his horns, along with Slamming Tusk, crushing his opponents with his massive tusks."

Tuskmon roared once more, as if jeering at Monodramon. Tuskmon was much, much bigger than Monodramon. When Monodramon used Cracking Bite, which is like a killing bite to the opponent, he clearly missed and crashed into the grass. Soos felt hopeless. He kept cheering on for Monodramon, even when it was clear in his face that they were losing. Tuskmon was about to stomp on the unmoving body of Monodramon, roaring to the world.

Soos's eyes became as wide as a full moon, swollen with fear. His heart skipped a beat or two. "No!" he cried. "Don't you dare step on my pal! I wish to fight with you, but—" He was forced to think back at when he was attempting to throw punches at Youkomon, only to have her dodging them.

Her callously voice rung in his head. "Face it, human, you don't have what it takes to defeat a digimon with your own hands."

Soos folded his fists, his face twisting with a feeling he's never felt before. It was the feeling that he felt when his dad wouldn't come to his birthdays. It left him feeling hopeless and lonely. He knew that that problem was out of the way, but the feeling clung to him like dew to a cobweb. "—I'm too useless to fight a digimon!" he finally finished in a loud wail.

Tuskmon brought his colossal foot down towards Monodramon. Through watery eyes, Soos could make out Monodramon's body in the squelchy world. A pair of white eyes flashed on Monodramon, a strange new wave of energy flowing from him. Soos could feel a low, menacing growl coming from his fellow Monodramon. Soos felt his digivice reacting rapidly. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew that something was about to go down.

Tuskmon had seemed to be moving in slow-motion, his bellows sounding distant. Monodramon's body flashed a blinding white. His body had seemed to be growing and growing.

"Monodramon digivolve too…"

Bit by bit, Soos saw parts and growths forming and departing on Monodramon at one. His body was more slender and he appeared to be wearing baggy pants. His tail swirled and whisked twice as longer, the wings on her arms gone. Soos saw something spiky behind his neck on Monodramon's glowing white body, later realizing that it could possibly be hair. Even Tuskmon was frozen with astonishment. Once it was all over, a new digimon stood hunkered in Monodramon's place.

"…Strikedramon!" roared the newcomer.

Soos's eyes grew big as the newcomer, Strikedramon, practically rose up to his feet and held Tuskmon's large foot with both hands, pushing him up until the larger digimon tumble over to the side. Tuskmon roared with surprise. Soos stared at the newcomer; Strikedramon was standing tall and valiant, looking challengingly at Tuskmon through his concealed eyes. Who is this dude?

"Strike Fang!" roared Strikedramon. The metallic pieces on his body began glowing a scorching red. He lunged himself at the stunned Tuskmon, his feet practically lifted off the ground. With great force, Tuskmon slid back against the grass, his this tail whisking in the air. Strikedramon landed near the top of Tuskmon's tail-tip, grabbing a hold of his tail. With a grunt, Strikedramon hauled the massive Tuskmon and began spinning in circles, twirling the Champion with unsurpassed strength. He finally released with a loud roar, sending Tuskmon soaring for a thicket of thorn bushes. He staggered up before Strikedramon used Strike Fang again, causing Tuskmon's body to vanish into thin air.

Soos was frozen to the ground with awe. He was stiff with happiness and wonder as Strikedramon courageously strode towards Soos, looking down at him. Strikedramon was nearly twice as taller than Soos. Even though his eyes were covered by a helmet, it still seemed as if he could see him.

"I saved you, Soos," murmured Strikedramon in a deep, mature voice.

Soos's heart skipped a beat. Was he looking up at Monodramon? "Monodramon…?" he whispered.

Strikedramon flitted his tail flamboyantly. "I'm Strikedramon now," he said with arrogance. "With your power, I digivolved into Champion-Level!"

Soos stared at him for a moment then smiled. He had never felt so happy in his entire life. He felt as if he was a father to Monodramon. And seeing him grown up was more than just being happy.

So Monodramon has digivolved! Way to go, Soos!

Please review, rate, or whatever! And you probably have thought "why not Pokemon?". First of all, I wanted to be original and use Digimon because everyone treats it like a dead topic. I don't think Digimon is a copy- they are FAR BEYOND from being like Pokemon (you don't collect monsters and the monsters are like your friends "that can talk").

Sadly, I am not a Pokemon fan. I prefer Digimon. I GREW UP with Digimon. And I thought about the possibility of the Digital World and Gravity Falls being involved somehow.

And please comment on what you think. This story has no comments yet and I'm kinda scared for it lol

But thank you for reading and I'll update soon! ^-^