How to Take Care of a Computer Virus [Private]

Colin James was a little grouchy at the fact that he was given this assignment at such short notice by his elder sister Sophie, who was the head of their clandestine digimon organization AEGIS. So much so that he felt rather resentful of what the acronym was - “Artificial Extradimensional Guarding and Investigation Squad”. It always felt stupid to him, yet he had to be on board with it to remain one of its deputy commanders.

Yet, the senior high school student understood the importance of what he was meant to do here. In Miyashita park, at this moment according to the sensors from their headquarters at Scramble Crossing, a bond had been made between human and digimon. And so it would be up to him and his partners to make sure it would go through as smoothly as possible.

Colin’s partners being currently disguised in their holosuits, appearing to the rest of the world as young men his age with red and purple hair respectively. And they had been stationed here in Miyashita Park to be on the lookout for unusual activity.

And unusual activity they found. A Kuramon drifting along toward a food stand with a boy frantically chasing him. Colin knew that was the target there.

Well then. That was the plan for now, prevent this situation from escalating in any way whatsoever. And so Colin rushed after the Kuramon, sprinting so that he approached the stand first.

“Yes, hello, could I please have three cotton candies?” he asked the vendor before they could suspect anything strange going on, other than the fact that an 18 year old seemed so desperate for an order.

“Well, okay then…” they replied, and went to prepare their orders. Colin was grateful to see that he had the money in his wallet to cover the cost. He then turned to the boy and his baby digimon partner, as his holosuited partners Luke and Bellamy caught up and stood alongside him.

Colin took a moment to compose himself, before he eventually was able to speak clearly. “Well, hello there. I take it that you only just recently met your “partner” here.” he began, speaking in what he hoped was a friendly voice. “I might be able to help you out with questions you might have about this, because I’m familiar with this situation. Would you be alright to talk somewhere discreet around here? My name's Colin, by the way, I happen to have a background on digital monsters like that Kuramon you have there.”

Colin hoped he wasn’t being too scary about this situation. When he first met his partners at 13, he would definitely have refused the advice of an 18-year old unless he showed definite proof of being familiar with what was going on. But he hoped that this was enough to at least gain his trust to tell him that he had digimon partners and what that involved. A discreet corner bench should be enough for that.

Colin was somewhat glad to see that the boy was defensive of his partner. This was good, it meant that he wanted to take care of it. At once he raised his hands and motioned downwards in a gesture for him to calm down.

“Relax, I’m not gonna take it away. I just want to make sure you know how to take care of it.” he said. “What you have there could grow up into a difficult, even dangerous beast. And what do you think your parents would do if that happened? No, I promise you, I will not take your partner away. But it would be in your best interest that we have a chat about exactly what you have there.”

Colin felt very uncomfortable about talking like this to a young child, he wished that his sister Sophie had come to do this instead. But this was something he was tasked with, and he hoped he could pull through with it. If successful, this kid would know exactly what he was getting into after being “chosen” to have a digimon partner.

“If it helps, I have digimon partners too.” he said. “I’ll show them to you if you follow me” he reached into his pocket and pulled out his digivice, colored purple and red. “I assume you have an object something like this, right?” he hoped that this would be enough proof that he was telling the truth. If the kid agreed, Colin would lead him to a discreet part of the parkland with benches opposing each other, hidden by thick flower bushes from the general public, and would sit on one bench and invite him to take a seat on the other.

Colin was glad that it was resolved as such. The boy had a digivice quite similar to his own, so that clinched the matter that he was also a Chosen. Still though, he had to handle the situation carefully. Once they were seated, Colin at last went with the request to introduce himself.

“My name is Colin James, I’m a deputy commander of an organization known as AEGIS. It’s basically our job to keep Tokyo safe from digimon related activity, and a large part of that is preventative measures. Such as right now, where I hope to tell you the basics in how to take care of the Kuramon partner you have there.”

The boy asked about digimon, and reminded him that he promised to show his own partners. Colin nodded, then spoke to them as he knew they were nearby. “Luke, Bells, it’s safe. You can power down your holosuits for the moment.”

A few moments later, the bushes rustled and two creatures emerged. One resembled a two-legged red and white rabbit, the other resembled a purple and white cat-like imp.



They sat down on the bench either side of Colin, giving friendly looks to the boy opposite.

“These are my twin digimon partners. This is Luke, he’s an Elecmon, and this is Bellamy, he’s an Impmon. They’re both Rookie levels, and as long as you treat it right, eventually your Kuramon partner is going to grow as big as them, if not more.” Colin explained. “So, what do you make of this situation so far?”

“Yeah, we’re pretty friendly.” Bellamy said, swinging his legs over the edge of the park bench since they were too short to reach the ground. “If you’ve got a school project you’re strugglin’ with, Luke here could help ya with it.”

“Bells, hush up!” Luke scolded his brother. Although he so totally would help out others with school projects, given he had done so much of that already with both Colin and Bellamy.

Colin was satisfied with the boy’s reaction to his revelation of his partners. He then asked what he meant by the danger of his Kuramon’s evolution. Colin mulled on his answer, then supposed the best response would be a demonstration. “Bells, Luke, fire an attack into the sky when you’re ready.” he told his partners.

“Uh… are you sure, Colin? With no warning?” Luke asked, a little nervously.

“Yeah, I’m sure. I think he needs to see what you and his partner are capable of.” Colin said. With that, Luke and Bellamy exchanged looks before they did as their human partner asked, and demonstrated the power of rookie level digimon.

”Baddaboom!” Bellamy cried as he hurled an oddly colored fireball into the air.

”Sparkling Thunder!” Luke snarled as his tail feathers sparked with electricity and launched a bolt of lightning into the sky. Colin then looked at the child in front of them.

“That’s what a rookie level digimon is capable of. If you’re careless around them, they can burn down your house. So you’re going to have to treat them right. Keep them occupied and friendly. Never mistreat them. And make sure that you have plenty of food for them as well. That’s what it means to be a ‘chosen’ tamer, at your age.”

Colin waited a few moments for the boy to absorb the enormity of the explanation they had provided just now. “Do you understand us so far?” he asked, hoping that he was making himself clear to this young new Chosen.

Colin and his partners smiled, it seemed that the child was taking their advice seriously. And that his partner seemed happy about it too.

They asked if there was anything else they needed to know to take proper care of the digimon. It was no surprise to them that as a Kuramon, it could consume data directly and be satisfied from that. “Nah it’s fine, we digimon are usually fine with eating most things.” Luke said. “I haven’t eaten anything from this world that’s made me sick. So Daten can eat pretty much anything you have available. But don’t break the bank though, it must be hard for a kid to get too much extra food…”

Luke wandered off from speaking when he realized that this kid would probably have to keep the digimon hidden from his parents. It wasn’t his place to probe into such a thing, so he’d leave it to him.

Bellamy picked up the conversation next. “Yep, there’s heaps around. And not only tamers like you and Colin here, there’s also Xros Generals, who often command a small army of digimon once they’re fully recruited. And there’s Spirit Users, who use special totems that help them transform into digimon themselves. Ah, and there’s heaps of digimon without partners that are still friendly to humans. But be careful of the ones that aren’t, those guys suck big time.”

Colin then would bring up some further advice.

“You might want to head to Terminus City when you get the chance and get some upgrades to your digivice that’ll make it easier for you to hide Daten from others that might get scared of him.” Colin advised. “There’s holosuits, that can make him look like a regular human, or there’s the V-pet system, where you can store him in a sort of pocket dimension in your digivice. My partners went for the holosuits themselves.”

“Only because we look even better as humans than normal humans do.” Bellamy quipped.

“Ah, to get to Terminus City, the best way is to go from the Shibuya Terminal.” Colin continued. “To get there, the easiest way is to head into the elevator, alone, then hold your digivice up to the floor button panel. That’ll bring you down to the hidden level, where you can ride a Trailmon to the digital world. But be careful not to stray too far, the digital world can be a very dangerous place if you’re not prepared.”

Supposing that was almost it, Colin almost wrapped it up there, but Luke reminded him of something.

“What about Tamernet?” the Elecmon asked.

“...oh! Right!” Colin said, reaching into his pocket and pulled out his D-Terminal. “Do you have something like this? If so, you can use it to communicate with other tamers and digimon. It’s helpful for when you need it. It should've appeared with your digivice.”

It seemed that they had reached an understanding for now. Colin nodded at the child’s question about others walking around without their knowledge.

“Yep. That’s right. Just they know not to kick up a fuss and show up on the evening news, now that would be pretty messy if it happened.” Colin replied.

It seemed that Daten was uncomfortable about holosuits, so it would seem that the V-pet option was ideal for them. “Okay then, that’s your call.” the young man said with a nod.

To the trio’s relief, it seemed Ryu had come across a D-Terminal, and could thus access the Tamernet for assistance. “Yep. With that thing, you can send out messages to anyone else who has a D-Terminal, which incidentally includes any other chosen that’s on the side of humans.” Bellamy assured him.

Colin hoped that there wouldn’t be any more complications. It seemed that their conversation just now covered everything a new tamer had to know – to treat their partner right, to access help when needed, and to keep a low profile.

“Ah, by the way, this is for you.” Colin said, giving the last of the three cotton candies he had purchased earlier to Ryu. “It was what you wanted to buy for your partner after all, right?” the other two he gave to his own partners.

“So, unless you have anything else to talk about, I think we’re done here, yeah?” Colin said, supposing that was all there was to this meeting, unless there was anything extra to be brought up.

“Pretty much, yeah.” Colin agreed with Ryu’s question about keeping on the down-low. He hoped that he would trust his own instincts when it came to that, and not get involved with shady people related with digimon, but that wasn’t his call to make.

“Heh, yeah, Luke and I use the Tamernet all the time.” Bellamy said to the question about Daten using Tamernet too. “Although it helps to have hands, you don’t generally grow those until the rookie level though, sorry to say.”

Colin gave a smile as Ryu taught Daten manners with the cotton candy. It seemed that these two would probably be just fine. “That’s alright, no harm done.” he replied.

Ryu then asked what the requirements were for joining AEGIS. Colin rubbed his own chin at that question.

“Hmm. Well, usually we’d only accept tamers that are at least 15, since we don’t want to put kids in the line of danger.” Colin said. “Sorry about that. But stick around for a few years and prove yourself enough and we might consider you then. Just we do have some leverage with the law enforcement in Tokyo and I don’t think they’d appreciate us enlisting children as agents.”

“But we’d definitely scramble out and help you if you get into trouble and call for us.” Luke reassured him. “Give out a message on Tamernet if you get into trouble and you should get someone to help you out. It depends on who’s closest at the time. Might be an AEGIS agent on patrol, might be a freelance Tamer, but overall we try to look out for each other, no matter what we’re affiliated with.”