The first thing Ryan noticed after he woke up was the splitting headache. He couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or relieved. After all, at least he wasn’t dead.

He groaned as he lifted himself off the ground and scanned his surroundings, at which point he froze in his tracks. He was surrounded by trees and all sorts of strange, tropical plants that he’d never seen before. As in, he was in a [i]freaking jungle[/i]. And that was when his eyes fell on the strange thing that had been sitting five feet away from him the whole time he’d been awake.

“Greetings,” it said. “Welcome to the Digital World. My name is Moonmon.” The creature’s body almost looked like a water droplet. It wasn’t like anything that Ryan had ever seen before. He merely stared at “Moonmon” for several seconds, his face completely blank, as if he wasn’t registering a thing she said.

“Uh, well,” Moonmon continued, hesitantly. “You are probably wondering what you’re doing here. You see, a very dangerous group of Digimon known as the Demon Lords have taken control of this world, and we desperately need your help if we are to reclaim it from them, and make this world a safe place to live once more.”

There was still no reaction from Ryan.

“You have every right not to want to involve yourself in a fight that is not yours, and I understand if you do not wish to do so, but I beg you, warrior from another world, please lend me your strength and help us fight– Hey, where are you going?!”

Ryan had turned around and begun to calmly walk away, still paying no heed to the strange creature. By the time Moonmon started hastily bouncing after him, he was already several paces away, and she struggled to try to catch up. “Hey, listen,” the Digimon told the boy. “I know I said that I would understand if you weren't interested, but it's actually very, [i]very[/i], important that you say yes, so if we could maybe talk about this for a minute, that would be much appreciated! Are you even listening to me?!”

Ryan simply kept on walking for several minutes longer, ignoring Moonmon’s attempts to get his attention. Eventually, he wandered into a clearing. Another kid was lying on the ground, and there was another Digimon, this one shaped like some kind of sun-shaped candle, right next to him.

“Alright,” he said to the other boy. “This may be a weird question, but can you see the freakish abomination at my feet, too?”

Moonmon gasped. “How rude!” she exclaimed.