Outside the apartment now, I walked among a crowd of people on their way to work and I would be no different. Thoughts of what had transpired only an hour ago still dominate my thoughts, the dream of fighting the Guilmon, Tadashi appearing in my room, and the digivice. There was a fine line of sanity in knowing it was all real, and just in my imagination. Tadashi warned they indeed were not invisible to the eyes of other people, and instead could travel within the digivice when appearing was not necessary. It seemed to pain them to accept that fate, but it would do me no good being the guy wandering the city with a dinosaur.

At least communicating discreetly was possible, if not a little embarrassing, given that I was the only guy with a brick reminiscent of the nineties in twenty twenty three.

Stepping aboard a train that would travel to the center of the city, I took my seat, and in the crowd of confusion got another look at the device stylized in Tadashi's colors. That seemed to be a new nervous habit, questioning just what all this meant now that it was happening. Was I supposed to save the world? The Digital World, fight Digimon? What in the world did having a digimon partner entail?

“Nick, the path of destiny will reveal itself soon, maybe too soon." Chattering from the digivice began as I stared at it in confusion, the pixelated face of the Guilmon staring back.

“What does that mean?"

“A digimon is emerging close by, an evil digimon, we might have to reveal ourselves." That did not assuage my confusion or the newfound anxiety. This could get harry real fast! It was one thing to duel Tadashi in the middle of nowhere when the risk of collateral damage was zero, but now we had to be careful.

The next minute seemed to be normal as I awaited for the supposed emergence, but when the brakes of the train suddenly activated and the lights went out, I knew it had begun. Gasps of fear filled the tight space. It's like being packed inside a can of sardines! While everyone was trying to escape into the next carriage over, I figured out why. At the opposite end of the car, a floating purple creature with long spindly arms, tentacle-like legs, and green eyes loomed like some sort of demon.

“A Keramon! Nick, let me materialize!" Tadashi exclaimed, and almost out of reflex, I pressed the button to do so. Light filled the car temporarily, until the form of the Guilmon took shape. Red scaly skin with a white belly, black decorative shapes and bands on its body, their yellow eyes focused solely on the other digimon. 

A wicked laugh escaped the Keramon, letting loose bullets of light that ricochet through the metal interior. Ducking, thankfully none of them seemed to strike me, but there were singed impacts against the chassis.

“I will deal with this threat Nick," The Guilmon snarled while paying close attention to the other digimon, who suddenly began reaching out with wire-like tendrils, piercing the cabin and attempting to catch both Tadashi and I. My partner managed to dodge, but while I tried leaping out of the way, my leg was caught by the wire and with whiplash suddenly yanked back. I only barely managed to wrap my arms around a pole, which creaked from the stress of Keramon's force.

Then all of a sudden that tension was broken as a snap sounded and sharp pain erupted from my leg, like if a super-sized rubber band suddenly struck back, not to mention being dropped. A haunting screech filled the train as I looked back just in time to see Tadashi begin to tackle the other digimon, slamming into the end as the whole room groaned.

“Fire Mitt!" Fire surrounded its paw as it came down with great force, slamming into the grounded digimon, another loud screech of pain rattling the train car as its body was scorched with flames. As suddenly as Tadashi had control, they lost it as one of its freakishly long arms threw them over to my side. A pole they struck visibly bent in the middle as they groaned with pain.

To say our opponent looked pissed was an understatement, on top of the fact small fires still burned on its body which it tried putting out, its grin was replaced by a deep snarl of anger. Keramon suddenly began a charge at Tadashi as they tried to recover.

Knowing something bad could happen to my partner, I made the snap decision to tackle them away to buy Tadashi time. It was undoubtedly stupid. We landed on the benches and I began striking it with my fists, which while its body wasn't as solid, appeared to absorb the force more readily.

“Nick!" Tadashi yelled out in warning, but before I could do anything in heed of that warning, my arms and torso were wrapped tightly in a coil of wires while being suspended into the air. Who knows what could happen next…

I wasn't expecting to hear the Guilmon's Fire Ball ability to be announced, nor for the Keramon to catch fire once again as it was thrown a few yards, releasing me. A part of the bench was clearly burning now as well. They leapt out and followed the burning digimon as it screeched with pain and tried to put itself out, too distracted to notice that it was in danger. 

“Rock Breaker!" Tadashi announced while smashing the alien-looking digimon with their paw, which by all accounts took the hit like a champ as it slammed into the floor and bounced. The screeching stopped however, and immediately I noticed it began to disintegrate into glowing particles. Whatever was happening, it appeared to have been defeated handily. I wondered if it was gone for good, if it was ever alive, or if it would rematerialize somewhere else.

Nothing seemed to happen, so I finally began to breathe as I fell to the floor, suddenly exhausted as pain in my leg and upper-body returned.

“Are you alright, Nick?" The voice of my partner's gravely voice reached my ears, and I opened my eyes to see them standing close by. Tadashi appeared only slightly concerned, but I appreciated that they cared. “This is going to be very difficult to explain to all these onlookers." They stated matter-of-factly. I was confused for a moment, but then looking back, I saw at least a dozen faces pressed against the window of the rear car.

“Oh god…" I face palmed, realizing just how much trouble we were in. “Tadashi, return to the digivice please." It grunted with reluctant annoyance but did as told, being engulfed in light before disappearing.

Every one of those faces somehow showed some measure of awe, fear, confusion, or apprehension.

Nervously, I stood up and waved like nothing had just happened. Luckily power was restored in that moment as well, which seemed to distract everyone peering into the thoroughly damaged carriage. A sigh of relief escaped my throat as I took a seat at a bench, the train thankfully able to move under its own power once more.

Everyone's gonna know about this wacky event and how I was in the middle of it, great… Undoubtedly someone had caught the whole thing on video, too. Then the intercom activated.

“We apologize for the inconvenience, power is restored and will be underway shortly, please take your seats." To my surprise there wasn't a single additional disruption, and I simply sat alone for the rest of the trip. I was sure police and emergency services would be waiting at the next stop. What to say to them…