"It's alive!"
- Koushiro "Izyy" Izumi
Digimon Adventure 1
In the rain, the black pavement glowed with the reflection of a hundred neon lights. This part of the city, though still fairly vacant, was buzzing with life in comparison to the desolate streets Jeff called home - there were shops, bus stops, and even apartment buildings that may have looked run-down but still had actual people living inside. It wasn't much, but it was enough to put the man out of his comfort zone. The occasional car driving past never failed to make him flinch, and every time he would roll his eyes at himself and swear it would be the last time.
Jeff looked down at the little Choromon tucked into his jacket as he turned another street corner, wondering just where the Digimon was leading him. It was rare for them to venture this far into the town, as most attacks in their experience happened on the very outskirts of the capital. Jeff wasn't quite sure why this was, but he guessed that the wormholes (at least the largest of them) had a higher likelihood of appearing in large empty spaces where the surrounding wouldn't cause disruption - so what kind of Digimon had manifested in this part of town? Whatever it was, its scent had been strong enough for Guilmon to pick up from miles away. Finally, Choromon would let out a kind of sniffling grunt, making his tamer instantly stop in his tracks as if he had just heard the beeping alert of a metal detector. "Where?" Jeff asked quietly and glanced around, not taking long however to pick up on a troubling distant noise. He turned his attention to a nearby alleyway as the small Digimon hopped out onto the ground. As soon as Guilmon appeared beside him, they both vanished off of the street and down the narrow path which laid in between the two buildings.
Guilmon led the way, swiftly turning corners with Jeff following closely behind. They had started running and the adrenaline was quickly getting to the man's head. He was already tense from being in this area. He tried to focus on Guilmon as he ran, but as his shoulder briefly slid against the wall next to him, he couldn't shake the paranoia. He couldn't shake the thought of the people who were living inside these buildings he was trapped between. The uncertainty of their presence, the almost disbelief of it, turned them into ghosts in his head. The dark, disorienting path was making it hard to think straight, causing his imagination to slowly start infesting his rational thinking - and as they seemed to near the maze's clearing, he couldn't help but conjure the picture in his mind of a nightmarish beast, hideous and blood curdling upon sight, 30 feet tall and pure destruction made flesh. The vision made him shudder and pick up his pace. He needed to see it, he needed to see it now before he had the chance to turn around and run the other way. Something told him to hold his breath as he stepped out into the courtyard at the end of the alley. He was prepared to face it, whatever it was. The first thing he laid his eyes on however wasn't a beast at all - for in that courtyard, surely no taller than 5'2, was a human girl.
Jeff stood still for a second, staring at the girl. She was hunched over and holding something tightly to her chest. He was so caught off guard by the sight, that all he could think to ask himself was Where is it? It wasn't until he heard the girl scream that he finally came down from his adrenaline high. His gaze darted to her face, taking in the sheer distress in her eyes before seeing where she was looking. She stumbled backwards with another yelp, and Jeff soon realized that the horrifying sight tormenting her was none other than Guilmon. As she backed up against the wall, still holding the blanket-wrapped thing in her arms, Jeff turned his attention to the Digimon advancing towards her. "Hey," he said sharply, "stand back!" Accordingly, Guilmon stopped - though he continued to move around restlessly on the spot and sniffing at the air and ground.
The girl had sat down by the wall. Her breaths were audibly unsteady, her lungs appearing to be clawing for oxygen. Watching her in silence, Jeff didn't quite know what to do. The reasonable thing to do would be to walk up and see if she was okay, but part of him feared that approaching her would somehow cause her harm. Still, he couldn't leave. "Are- ... are you hurt," he eventually found the sense to utter. The girl didn't speak for a while. Her eyes flickered between the man and his Digimon a few times. Slowly, she propped herself up and spoke quietly, "He's with you?"
