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Izzy’s eyes slowly opened to take in his surroundings. To his right a white wall, decorated by a single computer poster mostly in Japanese, with “Balloon” being the only English word. He slowly turned his head to the right to take in the small television on a cart, a wooden dresser of drawers, and a shorter dresser with a medium sized round mirror on the top. He realized he was home in his own room.
But how did he get there? He seemed to remember being in a hospital. And a helicopter, he thought he remembered being in a helicopter for some reason. He could only remember small bits and pieces, and he had no sense of what order they occurred in. And what had happened before that? Whenever he tried to remember that part of it, all he could picture was a bright red light, but a light that wasn’t really a light. The light seemed more accurately like red darkness than red light, if that was possible.
“Oh, you’re finally awake?” a familiar voice took him by surprise. He probably would have jumped if he had the strength to do it. He turned his head a little further to his right. There he saw Max, arms crossed, and eyes filled with tiredness. It looked like he hadn’t had any sleep for quite a while.
Izzy tired to speak, “What...happened?” He was surprised to find how much effort it took for him to even say so little. Whatever had happened must have been very serious.
Max’s face went grim, “Sedaimon, that’s what happened.” Sedaimon...the name rung a bell, but not a very loud one. In fact, it was more like a pin dropping. Max continued, trying not to look too tired, “Don’t you remember? We had a battle against the Mamemon brothers, and then Sedaimon showed up and threw those...things at you. I think they drained you and Tentomon’s power or something. Or should I say...”
Max didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he gestured to the Izzy’s left side. As Izzy slowly turned his head back to his left, for the first time he noticed a faint sound of breathing. He looked slightly downwards. He saw what would best be described as a little green blob with a pacifier. Pabumon.
Suddenly the memory of all that had happened rushed into his head. He quickly sat up and started looking around frantically, “Where’s Mimi?! Is she okay?! How did I get here?! What happened to all those people?!” Izzy was in panic now, and Max tried to calm him down.
When he finally had Izzy settled again, he began answering his questions one by one, “Mimi is fine, just physically drained; like you. You and her were helicoptered to the hospital, and after a few hours the doctor decided to send you both home. As for the people...” Max trailed off.
Izzy looked at him sternly, “Max...what happened to those people?” Max still remained silent, but Izzy pressed him, “Are they still missing?” Max slowly shook his head. Izzy continued, “So they’re alright?” Max again shook his head, his face becoming even more pain-filled. Izzy tried to sound sympathetic, “Then what?”
Max closed his eyes tight to hold back tears. He couldn’t help but feel responsible; like he should have done something do stop Sedaimon. He slowly opened his mouth, and explained, “They were found outside the stadium a few minutes later...” He paused to swallow back the knot in his throat threatening to break into sobs, “Oh Izzy...they were completely lifeless. Still alive...but they didn’t talk or move or anything.” This time he couldn’t hold back the sobs or the tears, and he burst out crying, “He took there souls! That monster took their souls!”
Izzy’s eyes shot wide open, and he could only stare at Max in disbelief. Take their souls? Was that even possible? Izzy wasn’t sure if it was. The very though sent a chill up his spine.
R.J. Corrons sat in front of his computer, staring a the screen. He was a rather tall teenage boy, with red hair spiked straight up. Currently he wore the white uniform of “Factory-Mark”, the popular mini-market chain of which he was currently an employee. It consisted of a white golf shirt, with a black lowercase “I” surrounded by a black triangle with rounded corners; the “Factory Mark” logo. He was also required to wear white pants and white shoes, though today he chose to waver that requirement and wore a weathered pair of baggy blue jeans, and a mostly black pair sneakers.
The online article which had currently captured R.J.’s attention was headlined, “Monsters In Concert”. It detailed the recent tragedy at a Mimi Tachikawa concert. How anyone remembered the name Tachikawa was something R.J. couldn’t quite understand, but that wasn’t what he was focused on. Aside from the utterly amazing idea of monsters battling at some concert, it was one of the photos which had caught R.J.’s eye. In the picture stood one of the monsters, and beside it a person. The monster looked a bit like a cross between a dinosaur and a dragon, and it was blue and white with two large horns. But next to it stood a person who looked very familiar to R.J., very familiar indeed. He could swear on his life that the person standing next to the monster was none other than his best friend, Max Summers.
He glanced sideways at the small creature sitting next to him. It wore a large metal mask/helmet with two pointy ear-like extensions on it. Other than the helmet it was mostly a purple haired racoon head with a raccoon tail. Kapurimon.
Max trotted down the sidewalk, on the final stretch of the long walk home. He hadn’t much looked forward to the idea of walking the full two miles, but he dared not ask Izzy for a ride home in his condition. He hefted the bookbag higher up on his shoulders, hearing the shuffling of the small blue creature he had befriended what seemed like a long while ago.
He stopped suddenly when his house came into view. In front of the door stood a very oddly dressed boy. A single glance at the hair tipped him off, though, and he ran to meet his friend R.J.
R.J. turned around and Max stopped dead in his tracks. He stared wide-eyed at what R.J. held in his hands. He wasn’t sure, and he hoped he was wrong, but the thing looked very much like a digimon. The sniffing sounds coming from inside Max’s backpack from DemiVeemon confirmed it.
R.J. greeted him, “Hey Max. Hey, I need to ask you about something.” So much for friendly conversation, “Have you by any chance recently been at a Mimi Ta-shee-mama concert?” Max almost fell over.
Max and R.J. sat in Max’s room; Max perched on the side of his bed and R.J. on the chair which usually stood in front of the small desk. DemiVeemon and Kapurimon sat on the floor next to each other, staring back and forth at the two as they conversed. R.J. spoke, “Digi-destined?”
Max nodded, “Yep, that’s what Izzy...erm, Mr. Izumi told me. And since you’ve got one of these, too,” Max gestured at R.J.’s digivice; blue in color and bearing a symbol that looked like a dottles yin-yan inside a circular shape with two protruding parts on each side, “That makes you a digidestined as well.”
R.J. looked the digivice over in his hand, “So your saying we’re like, supposed to save the world and stuff?” He shrugged, “I don’t know, this sounds a little too weird for me.”
Max picked up DemiVeemon and sat him on his lap, “Well, you can’t exactly deny it. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding.”
DemiVeemon glanced around and sniffed the air, “Pudding? What pudding, I don’t see any pudding.” Max sighed, and gave him one of the Jello pudding cups from his backpack. Digimon were bottomless pits, plain and simple.
R.J. continued the conversation, “What about that place you were talking about...the Digital World? What’s it like, I mean, have you ever been there or anything?”
Max shook his head, “No, I haven’t been there myself. But Veemon and Izzy told me about it. They say it’s a lot like our own, but more naturey, and with digimon instead of people.” Naturey; what a word.
R.J. stood up, and started for the door. Max stood up as well, “Where are you going?” R.J. replied as he exited the room, “I’m trying something out. Come on.” Max shrugged and followed after him. The two chocolate-covered digimon looked up from the shredded plastic cup, and quickly followed after their human friends.
Once in the kitchen, Max dabbed at the squirming DemiVeemon’s face with a napkin while R.J. sat down in front of Max’s family’s computer. After Max had successfully removed most of the pudding from DemiVeemon’s face, he walked over to R.J. and peered over his shoulder, “Just what are you doing, anyway?”
R.J. looked at the digivice in his hand, “You said this Digital World exists in the world wide network of computers, right?” Max nodded, and R.J. continued, “And you said that the only way to get to the Digital World is with one of these?” R.J. held out his digivice, and again Max nodded. R.J. then proceeded to hold the digivice up to the computer screen. A strange program appeared; in the center of it was a small window which appeared to be a picture of some forest. To the side was writing in several different languages.
Max scanned down it quickly and located the English writing, and read aloud, “Digiport closed.” He scratched his head, “Now what do you suppose that means?” He held his digivice to the screen, but there was no change.
By this time, the two digimon were also focused on the screen as well. R.J. thought for a moment, then spoke, “Well, Digiport, why don’t you open?” The English text highlighted in green suddenly, and with a flash of light...
Max examined his surroundings wide-eyed. Where his kitchen had previously stood there was nothing but trees and the bare ground. Where they stood matched the image of a forest Max had seen on the computer screen perfectly. The sudden realization hit Max suddenly; they were in the Digital World.
R.J. looked all around, jaw dropped in awe, “So this is the Digital World...” Where they were seemed like a normal forest, but not exactly. It had a look of fakness to it, almost like a low-quality photograph. And strange specks of color seemed to randomly dotted things here and there, but blended in when looked at directly. “Like pixels on a computer screen...” R.J. thought outloud.
R.J. looked down at the digimon at his feet. It defiantly wasn’t Kapurimon. He picked it up and shook it, “Hey, you! What have you done with Kapurimon!”
The digimon wiggled free of R.J.’s hands and hopped to the ground, “I am Kapurimon, R.J. But I digivolved to my rookie form, Elecmon.” The digimon had red colored fur, and was animal like in appearance. It had long pointed ears with blue on the ends, and a red peacock-like array of what at first glance appeared to be feathers with blue tips. On closer inspection, R.J. concluded they weren’t feathers at all. Though he wasn’t quite sure what they were. Elecmon also had a splotch of blue on his back, and stood on all fours.
Max stared in all directions, fascinated by their new surroundings. He couldn’t help but feel awe at the fact that they had entered into a world made up of computer data, yet everything seemed so real; so much like the real world. He glanced down at Veemon, who had a disturbed look on his face. “What’s the matter, Vee?” Max asked.
Veemon turned his face up to Max, “I’m not sure.” He thought for a second, seeming to be listening for something. Again he spoke, “Something just feels...wrong.”
Max looked around more, weighing and considering everything. “I think I know what you mean,” he said, “But it’s hard to tell. This is my first time here, after all.”
Elecmon sniffed at the ground, shooting glances left and right. R.J. crouched down to talk to him, “Do you feel something too, Elecmon? Or smell something?” Elecmon slowly nodded, but R.J. just shrugged, “Well I don’t feel anything wrong, and I certainly don’t see anything wrong. You three are just being paranoid.” The ground shook.
“What the heck was that?” Max asked, looking around through the trees. He squinted into the distance, but saw nothing.
“Oh, it was probably just another digimon.” Veemon said shrugging. He looked around as well, “I think we’re in Native Forest; lots of digimon live around here. It’s nothing to worry about.” The ground shook again.
“Whatever it is,” R.J. said with a slight shake in his voice, “It sure sounds big. I don’t think I want to wait around to find out what makes the ground shake like that.” He looked down at Elecmon, “What’s the fastest way out of this forest?”
“Well,” Elecmon answered, “I’m not EXACTLY sure, but if memory serves, Primary Village should be just near a mile in that direction.” He pointed with one of his front paws. He turned and pointed in the opposite direction, “And I think File City should be a few miles in that direction.” Another shake.
R.J. shrugged, “Well, that cleared things up sooo much, thank you very much, Elecmon.” Elecmon smiled, and R.J. barley stopped himself from slapping his forehead. He remembered the one night he had been up until three in the morning; trying futilely to explain the concept of sarcasm to his less than brilliant digimon partner. He hoped wisdom would come with age. Shake.
“Well, this Primary Village place sounds closer. I guess we should head there.” Max said, and they headed off in the direction Elecmon had pointed out. Shake.
After they had walked for a few minutes, R.J. suddenly stopped. “Okay, that shaking is getting really annoying!” he complained, “And it keeps getting worse and worse.” He shouted into the air, “Whoever is doing that, knock it off!” The shaking stopped.
“Who’s gonna make me?!” a digimon shouted, as he leaped out from behind a group of trees. The digimon looked like a large man in a bull costume standing on two legs. He stood at least seven feet tall, and looked strong as a bull as well. He wore battered leather boots, a bull ring through his nose, and for some reason had a zipper running up his chest. But his most noticeable feature was the large jackhammer-like device that sported his left arm.
R.J. gulped and stepped back, “Oh, uh, I didn’t mean that. I was just joking, you can make earthquakes whenever you want.”
Veemon stepped forward and eyed the digimon warily, “That’s Minotaurumon. He’s not the nicest digimon in the world, and he likes to shake people up with his earthquakes. But other than that, he’s nothing to worry about.”
“Oh, you think so, do you?” Minotaurumon asked tauntingly. He lowered the quake machine on his arm to the ground, “Darkside Quake!”
The ground erupted underneath the four, and Max and R.J. couldn’t stay on their feet. They fumbled around, struggling to stand amongst the sinking and rising fragments of ground. Max took hold of his digivice, and thrust it out, “Veemon, help us out!” A flash of light...
Veedramon, standing much taller than the others, managed to stand relatively stable in the midst of the quake. R.J. looked up at him in awe, “That was amazing! Geeze, I know you told me about this digivolving stuff, but I didn’t think...wow!”
Veedramon took a few steps forward to face Minotaurumon, who he now stood several feet taller than. He looked down at him and lowered his head to breath on Minotaurumon’s face, “You don’t look so tough now, small fry!”
Minotaurumon smirked, and replied, “You’re a bigger fool than I though!” He jammed the earthquake device into Veedramon’s gut, and yelled out, “Darkside Quake!” Veedramon’s head shot up to face the sky, and he roared with pain as the black shockwaves pulsed through him.
“What does he think he’s doing?!” Max screamed, stable now that the quake below him had stopped. He stared at Veedramon with angry eyes, “Veedramon, fight back! He’s smaller than you!”
Elecmon charged forward, and R.J. tried unsuccessfully to grab him before he got far. R.J. called after him, “You’re going to get hurt, too!” Elecmon ignored him and leaped at Minotaurumon. He called out, “Super Thunder Strike!” The feather-like things glowed yellow, and a thick bolt of electricity streaked from them to hammer into Minotaurumon. It drew his attention away from Veedramon, but it didn’t seem to hurt him at all.
Veedramon fell to one knee, and Max ran to his side, “Are you alright, Veedramon?” He examined the area where the quake had epicentered. It was already starting to bruise.
R.J., meanwhile, looked on with terror as Minotaurumon smashed into Elecmon with his horns, “Bull Fighting Attack!” R.J. jumped up to catch the injured Elecmon in mid-air. Elecmon lay still for a moment, but quickly began struggling free of R.J.’s grasp. Elecmon protested, “Let me go! I have to fight him to protect you!” R.J. held on tightly, “I can’t let you go!”
A faint blue glow appeared in R.J.’s pocket, and when he noticed it, Elecmon took advantage and broke free. As he ran at Minotaurumon again, he yelled back, “You have to understand! I must protect you!” R.J.’s shoulders slumped, and he was again surprised by the glow in his pocket, as if seeing it for the first time. He reached in and grasped the digivice, and with a flash of light...
R.J. stared at Lemon wide-eyed. Leomon stood about as tall as Minotarumon. He looked like a cross between a lion and a man. His fur was light brown, with a dirty blonde mane surrounding his head. He wore a pair of black denim pants, with a belt and buckles on the pant legs holding them slightly above his feet. A roughly three foot long tail swished behind him, below a horizontal sheath holding a straight-edged sword. Several leather buckles decorated his left wrist, with one around his hand, and a strange bead necklace dangled on his bare, fur-covered chest.
Leomon called out, “Fist of the Beast King!” and thrust his right fist forward. A fireball in the shape of a roaring lion’s head shot from his fist, and smashed into the side of Minotaurumon’s head. Minotaurumon fell to one knee and clutched the side of his head.
Veedramon wasted no time taking advantage of the situation, and ran forward at Minotarumon. He clenched his right fist, and swung it yelling, “Hammer Punch!”, and connected with Minotarumon’s stomach, sending him to slam back-first into a tree, arms hugging his stomach tightly.
Leomon snarled a bit, and yelled at Minotaurumon, “That’s what you get for picking on innocent people and digimon, you mythological reject!” He crossed his arms and turned to Veedramon, “I think he’s learned his lesson.” They both swung their head as Minotaurumon, still clenching his stomach with his head down, began to laugh.
“I think we are yet to see just who is teaching THIS lesson, Leomon! You seem to forget that you two are mere Champions, while I am an Ultimate!” Max’s eyes bulged as Minotaurumon said this, and R.J. took on an expression of puzzlement, “What does he mean, Max?”
Max suddenly remembered to breathe, and he slowly turned his head to R.J., eyes still near falling out, “Izzy explained it to me,” he all but whispered. He cleared his throat and spoke up, “What it means, is that he’s digivolved even further than our digimon; which makes him much stronger.”
R.J. just cocked an eyebrow, “Well it looks like our digimon are kicking his butt anyway.” But no sooner had those words exited his mouth than they became untrue. Suddenly Minotarumon leaped up, and dashed at Leomon, smacking head-first into Leomon’s stomach with his horns, “Bull Fighting Attack!” Leomon gasped as the air escaped from his lungs, and fell to his knees, clenching his stomach.
Minotaurumon wasted no time as he rounded on Veedramon, and jumped up in a half-spin to smack the quake machine on his arm into Veedramon’s jaw. Veedramon grunted, stumbling to the side, and a small trickle of blood running down the bottom of his mouth.
R.J.’s face became sullen, “But...we were winning! How did he just recover so quickly?!” Max gulped, and responded slowly, “He was faking, of course.” He laughed dryly, but there wasn’t any humor in it.
Leomon struggled to stand, and reached back to unsheathe his sword. He got to his feet, and swung the blade in front just in time to block Minotaurumon’s quake machine, metal meeting metal with a loud “clank!” The two struggled against each other, until Minotaurumon called out, “Darkside Quake!” and a black pulse erupted from the quake machine, knocking Leomon to his back with a grunt.
“V-Nova Blast!” Veedramon called out as the blue V-shaped blast spewed from his mouth. Minotaurumon rounded on it and called out, “Bull Fighting Attack!” He leaped through the air, smashing with ease through the V-Nova Blast and again smacking into Veedramon’s jaw. Veedramon toppled backwards and laid on his side.
Max called out, “No! Veedramon!” He ran to be at his digimon’s side, but was stopped cold in his tracks when Minotaurumon leaped in front of him. Slowly and nervously, Max lifted his head to stare into their attacker’s eyes. They were dark eyes, insane eyes. Eyes he had seen before.
He heard R.J. call out, but he wasn’t sure what. He was almost hypnotized by those dark eyes. He didn’t even notice Minotaurumon’s quake arm slowly raising into the air to hammer down on him. Minotaurumon swung his arm down...
“Magical Game!” someone shouted, and Minotaurumon disappeared from Max’s sight, replaced by a blue streak of light whizzing by. He turned to see Minotaurumon on the ground, belly-up. Max shook himself back to awareness, and looked to his other side. Running towards him were two humans and a cat-like digimon. Or one human, a cat like digimon, and a strange looking caped digimon. Max wasn’t sure.
The definite human girl was pretty. She appeared to be Asian; Japanese as best as Max could guess. Her short brown hair clung to her head, with short bangs on each side of her face. She wore a pink sleeveless shirt with a thick white stripe across the middle, and yellow bicycle shorts. And as she ran, the compact digital camera which hung on a string around her neck swung back and forth.
The digimon that ran on all fours at her side was slightly bigger than an average cat. It had smooth white fur, and big ears with small tufts of blue fur on the tips. Her big cat’s-eyes reminded Max of two large marbles. And on her front paws were two yellow and orange tiger-striped coves, each with three claws on them. A long tail flowed behind her, blue striped along its length with a larger tuft of blue hair on the end.
And finally, the third member of the group Max finally labeled as a digimon from the bluish color of its skin, which only showed on the small part of his face around his eyes that showed through. He wore a large pointed, purple, wizard’s hat with a skull on the front. He wore a yellow jumpsuit with red stripes and long zipper-pockets that made the images of faces. He also wore a red vest, brown gloves, and a long purple cloak that flowed behind him as he ran, and the unparted collar covering the bottom half of his face. The only hair that showed was light brow, with just a few bits coming out from under the hat here and there. And in his hand he carried a gold wand, with an egg-shape on the end with sunbursts surrounding its circumfrance. The fading blue light around the egg shape gave Max an idea of where the blue beam had come from.
Max jumped when R.J. yelled, “I said, are you alright Max?!” from right behind him. Max turned, “Yeah, but...who are those guys?”
R.J. turned, and eyes widened as if he hadn’t even noticed the group of three running towards them. The two digimon kept running past them, after Minotaurumon, but the girl stopped in front of them, “That was too close. I hate to be blunt, but just who are you, and what are you doing in the Digital World?”
Max glanced at the goofy look on R.J.’s face, and gave him a quick nudge in the ribs with his elbow. R.J. winced, and turned his face back to its normal expression. Max then spoke up, “We’re, uh, the digidestined...” and he quickly added, “ma’am.” noticing for the first time she actually appeared much older closer up. Perhaps in her twenties.
The girl’s face grew puzzled, “What do you mean you’re digidestined? I can see you have digimon, but do you have...”
“A digivice?” R.J. finished her sentence for her, and he held up his digivice. Max did the same. The girl’s eyes widened, “That’s the same kind that I just got!”
The cat digimon leaped at Minotaurumon, right claw outstretched in front of her, “Lightning Claw!” She streaked by Minotaurumon’s face, slashing him in a yellow streak of lightning. Minotaurumon yelped and clutched his face in his hands. The wizard digimon held his hand palm-up, and a orange ball of electricity formed just above the gloved hand, “I suggest you be on your way now, and don’t think about attacking anyone else, or we’ll be after you again.” He let the ball pulse a bit for effect, “And you DON’T want us after you.”
Minotaurumon sniffed loudly before slowly nodding, turning, and running off out of the clearing and back into the thick of the forest. The two looked at each other and nodded, then turned to join their human friend.
“Wait, so you know Koushiro...erm, Izzy?” the girl, Kari, asked Max and R.J., “And his digivice changed like mine did?” Max nodded, and the girl scratched her cheek ponderingly. She looked about to say something, when the two digimon strode up to them.
The cat spoke, “He’s gone now, and I don’t think he’ll be bothering anyone for quite a while.” She studied one of her claws passively, “I guess I still have some strength, even without...” She looked back at her tail, and winced for some reason.
Kari looked up at Max and R.J. again, “I’m sorry, how rude of me. This is Gatomon, my digimon. And this here is Wizardmon. He’s...” Kari looked around, “Billy, it’s okay, you can come out now.”
Wizardmon turned to a tree, and walked up to it. He stepped behind it, and re-appeared with his hand on the shoulder of small Japanese boy, who couldn’t be older than nine or ten by Max’s guess. The boy had frizzy, dirty-blonde hair, not really brushed in anyway. He wore a pair of glasses with oval-shaped lenses and thing black frames. His shirt was a light purple golf shirt, only tucked in one side into his dark brown khaki shorts. On his feet were a pair of worn looking sneakers.
The boy bowed humbly, “Hello everyone. My name is Bill, Bill Shindo.” Max looked him over briefly, noticing last the yellow colored digivice clutched in his hand; identical to his and R.J.’s, and Kari’s own pink one. It appeared their little team was starting to grow.