Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or any other copyrighted material that may appear in this fic.
Worlds Apart
Chapter 1: Exer
Rika leaned up against a railing overlooking the path towards Guilmon's hideout. She was panting slightly since she had run most of the way here. Knowing that the others were already there waiting on her she quickly started walking again taking the stairs down towards the path.
It had been three long years since the battle against the D-Reaper. Much to all of their surprise not much had changed. Takato, Henry, Rika, Kazu, Kenta, Jeri and occasionally Ryo still spent most of their evenings and weekends hanging out with their digimon at Guilmon's hideout. The exceptions were usually when Hypnos failed to stop a 'Wild One' from crossing into the real world. When that happened they would all meet and head off into battle just like in the old days. Those battles were becoming fewer and further between as the government poured more money and man power into maintaining control over the digital gate.
"Hey guys!" Rika called, still slightly out of breath as she approached the small stone shed. As she reached the entrance she glanced around. Takato was standing next to Henry near the door while Guilmon and Terriermon appeared to be having a staring contest. Kazu was leaning up against the door frame next to Guardromon. Monodramon was watching them both intently while Ryo sat on the ground looking at his cell phone.
"What took you so long?" Kazu asked in a snide voice.
"Like I'm gonna show up here in my school uniform" Rika replied coolly.
"I don't think any of us would mind!" Takato said laughing and holding up his arms to block the punch he figured would be coming.
"In your dreams goggle head" Rika replied, repressing a smile. "Where are Jeri and Kenta?"
"Kenta is sick and Jeri is doing something with her family I think" Takato replied.
"That sucks... Well what do-" Rika was interrupted by a loud beeping as a light show bright through her jeans pocket. She fished her Digivice out of her pocket and looked at it.
"Is it a wild one?" Ryo asked excitedly snapping his phone shut and standing up.
"Looks like it!" Rika replied looking around "So who's turn is it?"
"I think I'm up" Ryo replied.
"I thought it was my turn" Kazu said annoyed.
"Let's sort it out when we get their!" Rika replied rolling her eyes at the two. "Renamon! Let's go!" Rika called as Renamon appeared on top of the shed and jumped forward to join the group as they followed Rika towards the energy signal.
The group followed the signal through the streets. It was a mark of how much the world had changed in the last few years that except for the excited yells of a few children, hardly anyone even bothered to look up as the teens ran passed with their digimon. The group arrived on the south side of Shinjuku, where a rather odd site met their eyes.
At first site the lot appeared void of any digimon. Their was only one being in the lot, and had it not been for her position one would have never guessed she was a digimon. A young woman of roughly 20 years old was sitting cross legged in the middle of the grass. This wouldn't have been unusual except she was floating roughly 5 feet off the ground. In front of her a long staff was hovering horizontally. It looked like a stereotypical priestess staff. It was long and black with gold rings around a circle at the end. She was clad in what appeared to be a white hooded trench coat and white cloak. She had her auburn hair tied back in a braided pony tail that reached the middle of her back.
"I was just starting to wonder if I was going to have to come and find you" the mysterious woman said. She uncrossed her legs and touched her feet to the ground. "I have come to challenge you four" she continued as she pointed to Ryo, Takato, Rika, and Henry one by one.
"You wanna fight all four of us?" Ryo asked disbelievingly "You must be out of your mind lady."
"I'd be careful if I were you" Renamon said warningly. "I can sense her power and she is definitely a mega level digimon."
"This stupid thing can't find any data on her either" Henry said angrily looking at the blank screen on his digivice.
"Very observant of you Renamon" the woman replied. "I am of the level known as mega and while I doubt I can fight all four of you, I am more than a match for any one of you."
"If you don't think you can win then why do you want to fight?" Terriermon asked.
"And why exactly don't you want to fight me?" Kazu asked sounding offended.
"I am only interested in the four that can BioMerge... It isn't personal Kazu" the woman replied.
"How did she know my name?" Kazu whispered.
"Just who in the hell are you?" Rika asked.
"I will explain everything after we battle" the woman replied patiently. "Now hurry up and digivolve!"
"Well you ready guys?" Ryo asked. The others nodded.
"BIOMERGE ACTIVATE!" they all yelled in unison as a bright light engulfed all four of them.
"Gallantmon!"
"Justimon!"
"MegaGargomon!"
"Sakuyamon!"
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Henry asked from within MegaGargomon.
"I must do this" the woman replied smiling casting off her cloak and extending her hand out to grip her staff.
The tamers spread out encircling her. As she placed her hands on the staff and struck a fighting pose a pulse seemed to run out from her. It traveled beyond all of them. It did no damage but was more than a little unnerving.
"I don't know what her game is but we need to be careful" Renamon said to Rika as she felt a chill ascend her spine.
"Right" Rika said staring at the women.
Just then the woman made the first move. She propelled herself forward and brought her staff around full force into MegaGargomon's chest. MegalGargomon stumbled backwards slightly as the women landed on his armor and propelled herself back towards the others.
"Amethyst Wind!" Sakuyamon yelled sending a storm of rose pedals in the woman's direction. The women turned and propelled herself upward but part of her left arm was hit by the attack.
"Light of the Heavens!" The woman yelled as she sent a blast of white light towards Sakuyamon.
"Crystal Sphere" Sakuyamon said as a bubble appeared around her. The blast hist her head on but the shield held. The force of the impact pushed her back into the adjacent building.
"Justice Burst!" Justimon cried sending a storm of lighting orbs toward the woman. She turned and deflected them by spinning her staff. This Gallantmon an opening as he came up behind her and brought his lance into her back full force, sending her spiraling down. She recovered just in time to hear
"Gargo Barage!"
A moment later she was engulfed in a torrent of missiles. She spun and managed to avoid some but was ultimately engulfed by a large explosion.
"Did that do it?" Justimon asked as a cloud of smoke spread over them. A few moments passed before they heard a voice call-
"Seraphic Wrath!" A jet of white fire shot out from the cloud of smoke and hit Justimon dead on. Justimon spun to the earth as a light engulfed him. Just as he hit the ground he split back into Ryo and Monodramon.
"Ryo!" Gallantmon yelled "are you alright?"
"Yeah yeah fine!" Ryo called massaging the back of his head. "Just finish this bitch will you?"
A few seconds later Sakuyamon charged in front of Gallantmon with another shield up as the woman came hurtling out of the cloud of smoke with her staff raised. A second later the staff connected and Sakuyamon's Crystal shield cracked. However it held together.
"Dammit!" the woman yelled as she was propelled backwards by the force of her failed attack. Sakuyamon flew out of the way as Gallantmon and MetalGargomon looked towards the women.
"Shield of the Just!"
"GargoMissles!" The two attacks both hit their mark causing a large explosion. The women floated down gentle towards the earth looking dazed. She landed in a kneeling position, leaning on her staff for support. The woman seemed to regain herself as Sakuyamon landed in front of her and pointed her staff towards her.
"Had enough?" Sakuyamon asked in a triumphant tone.
"Yeah... Yeah" The woman replied breathing heavily. "I'd say you've proven yourselves." All the tamers separated from their digimon and approached the women who was still kneeling before the spot where Sakuyamon had stood. Rika and Renamon were both standing in front of the woman with their arms crossed.
"I think it's time you explained yourself to us" Rika said commandingly as the rest of the group gathered in around them. "Let's start with your name." The woman chuckled slightly.
"A bit demanding aren't we?" the woman asked as she used her staff to push herself up. The tamers were surprised to see that she had few signs of having been in a battle recently. Her coat cut in a few places and was quite dirty. She had a few cuts on her face and arms, she also seemed to be moving gentle making them think she might have a few cracked ribs but considering the battle she had been in, it didn't seem very significant. "My name is Exer" the woman continued. "I am sorry about what I had to do but I had to make sure you were truly the legendary tamers."
"Exer?" Takato said questioningly. "You aren't a mon?"
"I am neither digimon nor human" Exer replied. "That is something I will explain overtime but for the moment just know that I am your ally."
"Exer isn't exactly an ordinary human name either" Ryo chimed in.
"Hm I'm sure the girl who I got the name from would think differently" Exer replied sounding annoyed for the first time.
"We have more important things to worry about than whether or not her name is 'ordinary'" Rika said in an authoritarian tone. "Why did you need to make sure we were the tamers?"
"Because I need your help" Exer replied. Exer walked over and retrieved her cloak. She swung it around herself and fastened it. The group could see a symbol stitched into the back of the cloak. It looked slightly familiar but none of them could place it.
"What do you need our help with?" Henry asked.
"For the moment I only need you to accompany me to the digital world." Exer replied turning to face them. "There I will be able to explain everything."
"And how are we supposed to get to the digital world?" Ryo asked tauntingly. "it's not like those digital fields just open on comman-" he broke off in mid sentence as a field of data mist surrounded them.
"Did you ever stop to wonder how I got here in the first place?" Exer said amused as they all began free falling through a storm of data towards the digital world.
The group burst through the top of the clouds as they plunged towards the rocky ground. Rika spun round and round trying to retain as much about the terrain as she could. There were tall mountains in two directions. One direction seemed to head towards a desert. The other direction seemed to head towards a large canyon where she was almost certain she could see a small group of people standing. The group miraculously stopped dead about 15 feet above the ground and floated slowly the rest of the way. The group noticed Exer's staff was glowing and figured she must have been responsible.
"We're a little further from the rendezvous point then I intended but we can walk." Exer said as they landed.
"Next time how about a little warning before you go dragging us to other dimensions lady!" Terriermon said indignantly. Exer turned to face the bunny who was riding on the back of Henry's head. In the mean time Kazu was bent over holding his knees trying to keep himself from hurling.
"Momentai" she said smiling before turning away and pointing towards some hills. "The others should be just over those hills at the edge of a large canyon. The group all exchanged nervous glances. This woman clearly knew a lot about all of them.
"So who exactly are you?" Henry asked.
"I thought I told you my name is Exer!" she replied giggling.
"Yeah that much we got but how do you know so much about us?" Henry replied patiently. After 3 years of putting up with Terriermon's smart mouth remarks, Henry was not rattled easily.
"I have learned much about you... Some of it through observation, other things I have learned from word of mouth... I know quite a lot about you, as well as your friends and the others." Exer replied as they reached the top of the first hill.
"Who are these "others"?" Kazu asked. "Are they others like you or are they digimon?"
"Well one of them is like me and some of them are digimon." Exer replied.
"So are some of them human beings?" Ryo asked excitedly. "Are there other tamers that we haven't met yet?"
"No they aren't tamers" Exer replied.
"Then what are they?" Rika asked getting slightly annoyed at Exer's unwillingness to give them straight answers.
"Have you ever considered that there might be other worlds out there?" Exer asked clearly enjoying Rika's annoyance.
"We're in the the digital world and you ask us a question like that?" Rika spat back.
"Calm down girl, I meant have you ever considered that there might be other worlds like yours out there?" Exer replied laughing.
"Well... I guess I hadn't" Rika replied "Are you saying there are other human worlds?"
"Several as a matter of fact... but digital data is digital data no matter where you are so they all link to the same digital plane of existence." Exer explained as the group began to climb another large hill. "We are going to need the help of you as well as the others to do the job at hand."
As the group neared the top of the hill they could hear voices coming from the top. It sounded like a rather large group of people were talking. They all were all curious about these people from other worlds, but nothing could have prepared them for what they saw when the reached the top of the hill. At the top of the hill stood a young man in a early 20's. He was clad in the same trench coat that Exer wore. Though his was jet black and had no matching cloak. He was tall about 6'3 or so with shoulder length brown hair and acid green eyes. However the groups attention was immediately drawn to the large group of people standing next to them. They all felt their jaws drop, because what they were seeing simply couldn't be real.
"Ah you're here" the man said in greeting as the group walked up.
"Sorry... We had to walk a little further then I intended when we crossed dimensions" Exer said cheerfully glancing at her companions. "I see you guys recognize the 'others' now."
"Oh" the man said stepping aside to reveal the group as a whole "Takato, Rika, Henry, Ryo, Kazu allow me to introduce you to Davis, Kari, T.K., Yolei, Cody, and last but no least Ken" the man pointed at them as he said their names. "I think you guys will know them as the digidestined... and me? My name is Liam"