Starlight in the Chasm

"Alright, this is it," I said to my partner Digmon. "We've got to find the others and get our shit back."

A few years ago, some people had managed to extract our data from the digital world. They'd tried to use us in their own games, but they were so fucked up they didn't even realize that their attempts were murdering us. My partner, a Digimon called Digmon, and I escaped along with two others. We took shelter in an apartment complex for several months, hiding from the people who wanted to kill us for what we knew about them.

Now, we needed to go back to that apartment complex. The people who'd taken our data had put it into a game like Minecraft or Roblox, called "Reality Check", and we had to find it and get our bodies back before these people killed us for real. The other two who escaped with us were Tai and Matt - currently living as children in the bodies of their partners Relena and Agumon.

"I hope you're right about this place," said Digmon as we walked through the forest towards the apartments. "It's been years since we've been here."

"It hasn't changed much," I replied. "Most of the damage was caused by them trying to kill us. I don't know how long after we left they gave up on that idea and started using us instead."

"This whole 'Reality Check' thing is scary," said Digmon. "If we get back our bodies, how are you going to explain all this? If they can make a game that looks exactly like reality..."

"Don't think about that now," I told him. "I don't have any answers yet."

"Well at least you won't be alone on this one," said Digmon in a comforting tone. "We'll figure something out together."

"Yeah..." I mumbled as I looked down at my phone, which displayed a map showing where we were headed. We turned down a street and approached my old apartment building. It was still standing, but there was no way of telling if we'd find anything useful inside - everything we left behind would be long gone by now. We got within 50 meters of the building before stopping dead in our tracks when we heard voices from inside it.

I looked around frantically for somewhere to hide, but there was nothing nearby except trees and bushes... then suddenly, one of those bushes started moving! It was getting closer! Before I could react, a figure jumped out of the bush right in front of me! Before I could clench my eyes shut again and pretend nothing happened, I saw that it was another kid wearing an orange T-shirt with an insect face on it... holding a sword?!

"Hello there!" he said with a friendly smile as he sheathed his sword behind his back - although he didn't look any older than 10 or 11 years old either. "My name's Cody!" He stuck out his hand for me to shake it - something that never fails to make me feel awkward when kids do it.

"Um... hi..." I said as I shook his hand awkwardly - then immediately regretted doing so when he pulled me into a hug! He let go quickly afterwards though, probably because he realized that maybe hugging random strangers isn't such a great idea... especially when said stranger is taller than him!