DIGIMON ADVANCED

THE NEXT GENERATION

STORY 1

BY THUNDERBOOM

CHAPTER 1

September 17, 2036

"These school uniforms look like what Pokémon Rangers wear!" 13 year-old Sol complained as he looked in the mirror. He was wearing black pants, a black shirt, a red jacket, a red hat, boots, and gloves.

"Hey, this is a Digimon fanfic. You can't say the "P" word." his twin sister, Terra thought of saying, but she decided against it, as it didn't really make a whole lot of sense to say.

Instead, she said, "Consider yourself lucky. Would you rather have a girl Pokémon Ranger outfit?"

"Not at all."

"Then you know how I feel about these uniforms."

"Just be glad it looks like a Pokémon Ranger outfit from the games, and not from the show." Sol commented.

Terra shuddered at the thought. "Oh yeah."

"Well, we'd better get going if we're going to get there in time." Sol said, checking his watch.

"Let me grab a coat first. It's chilly out there." Terra said, and soon she and Sol were ready to depart on the first day at their new school. Before they could, however, their mother, Melissa, did her usual routine to "keep their wits sharp".

"Sol, what's Romulus? Terra, what's IDIC stand for?"

"It's my middle name." Sol replied.

"Well, yes, but I was meaning the homeworld of the Romulans."

"Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations." Terra recited.

"Very good. Goodbye, now." She said, and let them out the door.

As they were leaving, Terra turned to her mother.

"Hey, mom, where's dad? I thought he was going to see us off." she asked.

"Oh, your father said that he 'wasn't going to rest' until he 'discovered a new wormhole'."

"When'd he say that?"

"Right before he took your sisters to school today."

"Well, I wouldn't consider that restful." Terra commented.

Her mother chuckled, "No, I suppose not."

Terra turned to leave but her mother put a hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, Terra, I've been meaning to tell you: my sister called yesterday, and said that they're back in town. Just in time, too, it appears. Avis and Xavier will be starting school today. Oh, yeah, did you hear, Terra? Avis is in the same grade as you two now!"

"She always is, mom. She's a couple months older than us, remember?"

"Oh, yes, that's right."

"How come you're always so absent-minded and forgetful in the morning?"

"I don't really know. I think..."

"Mom! Terra! We need to get to school! At this rate, we'll be late!"

"Sorry, Sol!" Terra apologized, and said goodbye to her mother again.

After walking for a mile and a half, Sol and Terra made it to their new school, Saffron High School. They deposited their backpacks in their lockers, and proceeded to homeroom.

To start the first day off, the teacher did rolecall, and Sol and Terra listened through most of it uninterested, until, halfway through the Js, the teacher read off, "Jones, Avis."

"This is Avis' school? Where is she?" Terra asked Sol, and looked around, trying to find her.

"Here" Avis replied, holding her hand up in the air.

"Oh. There she is." Terra said.

Later, Terra had a chance to meet up with Avis between classes.

Their 14 year-old cousin was sitting on a bench, twiddling her finger through her long, copper-colored hair, while reading a piece of paper.

"Avis, so good to see you again!" Terra greeted her joyfully.

Avis looked up to see who had just talked to her. When she saw it was Terra (and Sol), she burst into a large grin.

"Hey, cuz's. What're you doin' in my school this year?" Avis said in that naturally relaxed and informal tone of hers.

"We're learning." Sol said.

"Ha-hah! That's a good one, Sol. I oughta remember that one."

"That wasn't a joke, Avis." Sol said.

"Again with the kiddin'! See, this here is why I like you fellas. You're always light-hearted, even when the danger is grim."

"We've never been in danger before, Avis." Terra reminded her.

"And would you cut it out with that annoying dialect, already?" Sol asked her.

Avis smiled. "Sure thing, Sol." she replied in her normal voice, which sounded a lot more like Sol and Terra's than the one she had been using.

"So, I'll ask you once again, what can I do for my two favorite cousins?" Avis asked them in a Godfatheresque way.

"You mean you don't like Luna and Astra?" Terra asked her.

"Of course I like them. I just like you better. Those little identical sisters of yours are terribly confusing at times. They'll sneak up on you from opposite directions, and then they'll start hammering you with questions, all strung together and said simultaneously." Avis answered.

"You've got a good point." Sol said.

"So what do you think of these new high school uniforms, Avis?" Terra asked her.

"I, for one, hate 'em. My legs are freezing! I mean, why are they making us wear shorts in the middle of autumn?!"

"That's what I thought at first, too, but they seem to have grown on me. I'm actually getting used to them." Terra commented.

Just then, a couple of familiar girls came walking up behind Avis. the younger of the two was still older than Sol, Terra, and Avis by about a year, and the older one was at least two years older than that.. The youngest, who was wearing combat boots rather than the normal boots, and whose forehead was oddly bare, put her hand on Avis' shoulder, and said, "Hello, Mei."

Avis turned around to face the newcomers.

"The name's 'Avis', not 'May', Kathryn." she told the girl.

"No, the Chinese word, 'Mei', not the name, 'May.'"

"Oh." Avis turned back to her cousins. "Sol, Terra, let me introduce you to my friends, Lucille and Kathryn Lee."

"We've met before." Lucille said.

"Really? Where?" Avis asked her.

"Um... our parents were all on the same team."

"Team of what? For what?"

"Digidestined." Terra told her, ignoring the urgent looks on the Lee's faces.

"It's okay, our aunt was on the team too, occasionally." Sol reassured them.

"Well, I never would've guessed that your parents were the Alistair and Amity." Avis told them.

"Hey, Kathryn," Terra asked her, "How come you're not wearing your goggles?"

"Well, I'll tell you." she began, "One year ago, when I as a newbie like you three..."

"The term's 'freshmen', Kathryn." Avis reminded her.

"Oh, right. Anyway, back when I was a freshmen, just starting out in this school, I asked for 'special permission' to wear my goggles..."

"You mean like Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation?" Sol asked.

"Could you stop interrupting me?"

"Sorry, our mother's a huge Sci-Fi fan."

"Anyway, back to my story: And so, I was unable to obtain permission to wear my goggles. At least not if I wanted to spend a couple hours each week with the school counselor, to 'help me with my obsession with goggles'. And so, naturally, I had to decline, so every day, for eight hours, I do not wear my goggles. Just this red park ranger outfit."

"Is there anyone in this whole school who doesn't have a problem with these uniforms??" Avis inquired.

Lucille closed her eyes for a few moments, and then opened them again.

"No one in the general vicinity." she informed them.

"Isn't it considered trespassing when you read people's minds without their consent?" Kathryn asked her sister.

"Yeah, it seems pretty unethical to me." Avis agreed.

"It's like Mind Melding. Spock never did it unless he received explicit permission from them first. You ought to adopt the Vulcan's philosophy." Terra said.

"Fine. I will try not to read everyone's mind. Happy?" Lucille asked them.

"Yes, please." Kathryn replied.

"Hey, you take that back, Avis!" Lucille demanded.

"I didn't say anything." Avis said.

"Exactly. You didn't say anything, but you sure thought something!"

"Lucille, could you please try to control your telepathy?" her sister asked her.

After taking several deep breaths, Lucille calmed down.

"Thanks, sis." she said.

"You're welcome, Jei-Jei."

"Hey, Lucille, shouldn't you be in college or something by now? You are a super-genius, right?" Sol asked her.

"Nope." she replied, "This is my last year here, though. But my smarts are only average. I do get nothing but straight A s, though, but that's only because I can read people's minds."

"Yeah, didn't your teachers stop calling on you after your third day, or something?" Kathryn asked.

"It was my second one, Mei-Mei."

CHAPTER 2

Luna & Astra's First Day

"Bye, daddy!" Luna said.

"Farewell, father." Astra said.

"How come you two always have totally different dialects?" Jonathan asked his two 6 year-old daughters.

"I'm afraid now would not be a preferable time, father, to explain ourselves, as we currently have academic studies to attend to." Astra replied.

"Yeah, daddy, we have to go to school now." Luna rephrased.

"I understood your sister, Luna." said Jonathan.

"Alright, Mr. Clark, you're going to have to leave for now. I'll send for you when I'm ready." Aurelia told him in her teacherish sort of way.

Jonathan waited outside the classroom until Astra came out, and informed him that he could give his presentation now.

"Hello, children." Jonathan started, once he was sanding at the front of the room, facing the students, "Mrs. DuBois, who's an old friend of mine, has told me that she would like someone to come every week, and tell you about what they do. I volunteered for the first week, which is today. I'm Jonathan Clark, and I'm an astronomer..." Jonathan recited, trying his best to use words that a group of six year-olds would be able to understand.

Oddly, only his daughters, Luna and Astra, seemed the least bit interested. The rest of the class didn't seem to be terribly enthusiastic about someone who spend all of his time looking at stars

CHAPTER 3

Simon's Puzzlement

"Hello, Lucille, Kathryn. Who're you talking to?" Simon DuBois, a 15 year-old boy (whose birthday was in three days), asked as he came walking up to them, "Oh, it's just you, Avis, Sol, and Terra."

"Simon? What're you doing here?" Avis asked him.

"Um, I got to school here, Avis."

"Oh, yeah. It's just that it's my first day, and I'm so used to only seeing you when you come to our store."

"Which I do frequently, because it's the only store in town."

"Hey, bro, did you forget we have a mall?" asked a girl with bright pink hair, who happened to be walking by. She looked like she was at least four years younger than Sol, Terra, and Avis, and thus looked greatly out of place.

"Zoe?! What the heck are you doing here?!" Simon asked her.

"What, no one told you? I just skipped fifth grade, sixth grade, and junior high school all together."

"Since when are you so smart?" Simon asked his sister.

"Uh, since forever."

"Well, why are you being skipped up now, then?"

"It was probably the thesis on quantum mechanics I wrote last year."

"You wrote a thesis on quantum mechanics?!" Simon asked, flabbergasted.

"Simon, if you were to actually partake in socializing with your family, I'm sure you would be a lot more up-to-date on thing."

Sol, who appeared to have just figured out something, burst out laughing.

Lucille, wondering what was so funny, decided to figure out.

"Oh." she said.

"What is it, Lucille?" Kathryn asked her.

"Sol finds it amusing that your paper on quantum mechanics allowed you to skip several grades, as quantum mechanics includes time travel, which you have just demonstrated a variation of."

"Lucille, what did we just tell you about using your telepathy?" Kathryn asked her.

"I'm very sorry, Kathy, and I won't do it again." Lucille said very innocently.

"You'd better not."

Terra looked at Sol.

"Lucky you. You just got your mind read. I am so jealous." she said enviously.

"Yeah, I did, didn't I? What great experience that'll give me!" Sol realized, and he got out a small notepad, and starting writing down notes.

"Not this again." Lucille muttered.

"Hey, Zoe, do you ever come to our store? I don't seem to recall you being there ever, though..." Avis asked Zoe.

"Nope. I do all my shopping at the previously-mentioned mall."

"Also, that's a very interesting hair color you have there." Avis commented, looking at her bright pink hair.

"Do you like it? It's 100 all natural."

"Huh? How could your natural hair color be pink?"

"Beats me. It just is. I think my doctor called it a 'unique case of pigmentation'."

Simon continued trying to figure out the signs that pointed to his sister being a genius.

CHAPTER 4

A Very Brief Chapter

The rest of the school day passed rather uneventfully.

CHAPTER 5

Zoe's Rainstorm

Lucian looked out the window.

"Yep," he said to no one in particular, "It's pouring down rain out there."

"Really?" his 9 (soon to be 10) year-old daughter, Zoe, asked him.

"Yeah, we must've gotten three or four inches of it by now." he replied.

"In that case, bye, dad!" Zoe said, and she put down the book she had been reading. She hopped out of her chair, slipped on a pair of yellow rain boots, put on a yellow rain coat, grabbed an orange umbrella, and headed out the door.

Lucian watched her through the window.

Zoe stepped out onto the water-soaked walk, looked up at the clouds, and froze, deep in thought.

Lucian, who was no stranger to this odd practice of Zoe's, thought to himself, Well, ever since I first saw her little headful of pink hair, I knew there was something distinctly different about her.

Just then, his 13 year-old son, Malcolm, came down the stairs. He looked around, and then turned to his father.

"Hey, dad, have you seen Zoe? She was here a minute ago, reading a book." Malcolm said.

"Yes, but she's gone, now. She just went outside to go stand in the rain."

"She's still doing that? I thought we had seen the last of it."

"So did I, but apparently we haven't."

"I wonder what she does out there." Malcolm commented.

Without looking up from her book, his 8 year-old sister, River, answered him.

"She thinks. Thinks about all sorts of things. Trivial things like why the sky is blue, why water is clear, why grass is green, why clouds are white. Philosophical things such as why are we here, what's the meaning of life, and is it all really worth it. She also does some occasional theological thinking."

"But why in the rain?" Malcolm asked.

River looked up from her book, adjusted her reading glasses, and replied, "She says that's the only time she can ever truly think. Beats me what she means by that, though."

"When did she tell you all this?" Lucian inquired.

"The one time I went out with her."

"She won't ever tell me what she's doing."

"That's because you never go out there." with this, River went back to reading "A Christmas Carol".

Lucian decided to try something. he put on a rain coat and galoshes, grabbed an umbrella, and headed out the door.

"So," he asked Zoe when he reached her, "What're you doing out here?"

"Oh, just thinking."

CHAPTER 6

Be Careful What You Wish For

Melissa came rushing through the Jones' front door, soaking wet. She was accompanied by Terra, who was also soaked.

"Aunt Melissa? What are you doing here?" Avis asked her aunt. Avis had been sorting items on one of the many shelves that lined he store. Her 12 year-old brother, Xavier, had also been restocking the shelves. He occasionally stopped to think, during which he would, like his sister, fiddle with his copper hair.

"Yes, Avis, is your mother here?"

"Yeah, she's in the back, reading a book." Avis said, and she pointed her thumb behind her, at a door.

"Thanks, Avis!" Melissa said, and she stepped out of the Jones' store, and into their house.

Terra stayed behind to chat with her cousins, while she waited to dry.

"So how come you're here?" Xavier asked her.

"I don't know. my mom said that she had to see Denise about something, I went along with her, and shortly before we got here, a downpour started, and we decided to keep going, as your house was only a couple of blocks away, and our house was a couple of miles away." Terra answered.

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a Digidestined, like our parents?" Avis asked off the subject.

"Well, I always have thought it would be interesting to be one." Terra replied.

"Me, too." Xavier said.

As if on cue, three beams of light shot out from the store's computer screen, each one arcing to land on the floor in front of each child.

Each beam of light changed into a oblong electronic device with an antennae. Each one was different color, pink, green, and orange, to be exact.

Terra reached down, and picked up the pink device at her feet. Her cousins did the same.

"Could this be a Digivice?" Avis asked.

At the precise moment the Digivices materialized, many more were materializing around the world, including at last nine others in Saffron.

Also, Tobias, who was in the Digital World at the time, found his black Digivice suddenly transforming itself into a black version of the oblong Digivices.

River suddenly found one in front of herself, sitting on the bookcase.

Simon found one sitting on his computer.

Sol found one suddenly in his hand.

Luna and Astra found two lying at their feet.

Zoe found one falling out of the clouds with the rain, which she caught perfectly.

Malcolm found one that fell on his head.

Lucille found one in her violin case.

Kathryn found one in her boot.

In the nearby city of New Lawrence, James Picard, 12 year-old son of Lucilla Picard, formerly Lucilla DuBois, found two, along with his 8 year-old brother, Jean-Luc, lying at their feet.

In France, Loretta Moore-Smith's children found three: Isaac found one when it fell out of a book he opened; Albert reached for a pencil, and instead picked up a Digivice; Stephen, who was playing with another five year-old, tripped over one.

"Well, it looks like you got your wish, Avis." Xavier commented, looking at his orange Digivice.

"I wish I was dry." Terra said, and the Digivice she was holding shone with pink light. Terra gave off a faint pink glow, as well, and soon, incredibly, she was dry. Then that light faded.

"Whoa. Our mom's Digivice can't do that." Avis said, wide-eyed.

"Well, these do seem to be newer models than the other Digivices I've seen." Terra commented.

Suddenly, something burst out of Terra's Digivice, landed on the floor, and hopped up onto her shoulder. It looked like a red ball with a face and two wing-like ears.

"Hello, I'm Jyarimon." it introduced itself.

"Um, hi, I'm Terra." Terra said to the Digimon on her shoulder.

Just then, two small, brown, feathery balls popped out of Avis and Xavier's Digivices, and they caught them from midair. They both introduced themselves as Puwamon.

The other new Digidestined soon met their partners, as well.

"Well, it looks like a whole new adventure is just beginning." Terra commented.

To Be Continued…