The first thing Tal noticed when she woke up was that she had no idea where she was.

The second thing was that she didn't know who she was, either. She remembered her name and that was it.

Oh, look! Over there... wait, what?

A small pink blob was tackling an apparently unconsious human child. Tal darted over and rapidly felt for a pulse, and was relieved to find one. (She wasn't sure how she knew to do that.)

Roughly five seconds later, the kid bolted up and coughed up water.

"Gaaaaaaaaah, who the hell are you?"

"I could ask you the same thing, kid," Tal replied.

"Name's Tai. You?"

"Tal Celes."

"Nice name. Hey, what's the pink blob?"

Tal groaned and turned toward the blob. "You heard him."

"Hi Tai! I'm Koromon, and I'm your partner!" the blob (now identified as Koromon) cheerfully said.

"How the hell do you know my name?"

"I told you, I'm your partner!"

"That doesn't answer my question!"

"Can we just calm down and tell me who I am?" Tal suggested.

Koromon scrutinized the girl. "Nah, never seen you before."

"Hey Tai. You have one too?" a new, vaguely British voice said.

Tal turned around. The voice belonged to a spiky-haired ginger kid. Another pink blob was floating at his side.

"Motimon at your service, sir," the other blob said.

"So, what exactly are you?" Izzy asked.

"We're digimon - digital monsters," Koromon supplied.

"So, this is a virtual universe?" Tal queried.

"Pretty much, yeah," Motimon replied.

Just then, a large red something flew over their heads.

"What the hell was that?" Tai and Tal simultaneously yelled.

"That's a Kuwagamon, a rather violent digimon. Run!" a slightly panicked Motimon yelled.

"You die in the Matrix, you die," Izzy muttered. "Just bloody brilliant."

The rampant Kuwagamon circled again - and thrashed backwards, flying away.

Everyone turned to look at the source of the blast.

The source was a human female, ginger, wearing a black shirt, dark grey shorts, and a vibrant, thirty-foot scarf. She held a futuristic-seeming handgun with status lights on the sides, and a small pink digimon with a blue set of leaves at the top stood at her side.

The status lights went out. The girl shook the gun vigorously, before tossing it over her head and muttering, "Out of charge."

"Nice shot, Sora," Tai complimented.

"That's two minutes. We need a new plan," Sora muttered.

A blonde kid sulked in, an orange digimon with a horn on its forehead at his side. Another, much younger, blonde kid wearing a green motorcycle helmet with a blue something at the front walked in with a light pink, quadrupedal digimon at his side.

"Chill, Matt," the younger kid said. "You have to admit, being in a large computer program is cool."

"Shut up Takeru."

And that was when a blocky portal appeared in the sky and a brown-haired woman fell out.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"You're on File Island," the quadrupedal pink digimon stated cheerily.

"I need a drink," she groaned, and passed out.

Tai glanced at Tal.

A girl with brown hair and a large bag slung over her shoulder walked in. A green digimon walked at her side.

"Allons-y everyone. What's the large red Mandibug?"

Before anyone could respond, a shrill scream erupted.

A kid with blue hair was frantically running from a small brown digimon.

"Th-th-this thing, it's at-t-t-tacking me..." the kid stuttered.

The girl with the bag rolled her eyes, and tripped the blue-haired kid.

The Kuwagamon, meanwhile, got up and started circling again.

"Just great," the bag girl groaned. "Terrace-2-3."

Sora kicked the still-unconscious woman from the portal. Her eyes opened slowly.

She got up, and blinked. "Oh."

A blue digimon that looked like a flying pig tackled Tal. "I saw there was an extra tamer, so I'm your partner now!"

"There's two extras," the portal girl pointed out.

The blue digimon blinked. "Oh. Well, I'll partner to the pretty one!" With that, the digimon tackled the portal girl.

The portal girl and the bag girl then, in perfect imitation of the Eleventh Doctor, complained:

"The pretty one?"

"Uh, should we introduce ourselves yet?" Tai asked.

"Go for it," Tal replied.

"Okay. My name's Tai Kamiya. I got sucked here through a portal in some summer camp I don't know the name of."

"Matt Ishida. Same portal."

"Sora Takenouchi. General madwoman, can't say so much about the box though. Favorite programming language is Python 3. You haven't heard of it, because it won't be released until 2008. Some guy who chats as 'unleashedGenesis' sent me the installer file," Sora stated.

Sora's laptop beeped.

Muttering something along the lines of 'stupid idiot troll,' she opened the lid and sat down.

====== #unleashedgenesis via irc . trollian . net ======

[gallifreyanRadiance] You again.

[unleashedGenesis] ye5, me.

[unleashedGenesis] i under5tand you have expre55ed intere5t in the python project

[gallifreyanRadiance] Who are you and what do you want?

[unleashedGenesis] i am a troll who played a game.

[unleashedGenesis] that i5 all you need to know.

[unleashedGenesis] a5 for the 5econd que5tion, i would like to give you 5omething.

[gallifreyanRadiance] I'm listening...

[unleashedGenesis] open a brow5er and go to, no 5pace5, 54 . 230 . 44 . 81

[gallifreyanRadiance] I'm in. Now what?

[unleashedGenesis] click on the file labeled, no 5pace5, python_3_4_0_x86 . msi

[unleashedGenesis] thi5 will download the in5taller file for python 3-4-0.

[gallifreyanRadiance] You expect me to download a mysterious file for a version of a programming language that doesn't exist yet?

[unleashedGenesis] 5can it with your primitive human antiviru5.

[gallifreyanRadiance] . . . it's clean. Now what?

[unleashedGenesis] in5tall it. you may find it quite helpful on your journey5.

====== unleashedGenesis left the room ======

====== gallifreyanRadiance [you] left the room ======

Sora closed the IRC window, downloaded the installer, and went through the setup process.

"Mimi Tachikawa, extreme gamer. I was also contacted by unleashedGenesis. He/she/xe sent me an interdimensional proxy program, through which I can access another universe's 2015. Oh, and my Twitch handle is recklessren42," the bag girl introduced.

Mimi's laptop made a klaxon sound.

Groaning, she sat down and opened the lid.

====== #unleashedgenesis via irc . trollian . net ======

[remembranceDaleks] WHAT DO YOU WANT THIS TIME?!

[unleashedGenesis] 5tay calm. i would like to provide you with an interdimen5ional proxy program.

[remembranceDaleks] What exactly does that mean?

[unleashedGenesis] there'5 more than ju5t one univer5e.

[unleashedGenesis] there are infinite timeline5 5prawling acro55 the omniver5e.

[unleashedGenesis] thi5 program allow5 you to access the planetary network of another univer5e, in the earth year +2015.

[remembranceDaleks] So, the program assigns me an IP on another universe's WAN?

[unleashedGenesis] preci5ely.

[unleashedGenesis] open your primitive early http client.

[unleashedGenesis] go to, no 5pace5, 192 . 30 . 252 . 128.

[unleashedGenesis] download, no 5pace5, proxy . 8912561204 . x86 . msi

[remembranceDaleks] Done. Install yet?

[unleashedGenesis] ye5.

[unleashedGenesis] i hope you find thi5 program helpful.

====== unleashedGenesis left the room ======

====== remembranceDaleks [you] left the room ======

The portal girl blinked. "Hey, aren't you the one who streamed a no-death run of the Kaizo trilogy?"

"That was me."

"Cool. Anyway, my name's Susie Derkins. A bit of an anomaly. I was just in my universe, the one whose internet you can access with that proxy program. Now I'm in yours. I have no idea how that portal showed up." And then something clicked. "Wait, Sora, you said Python 3 hasn't been released yet?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"When am I?"

"March 8th, 1999."

Susie blinked. "Just. Bloody. Brilliant."

A pause.

Izzy broke the silence. "Izzy Izumi. General oddity. I have no idea what 'the Kaizo trilogy' is, but it sounds like there's more than a bit of time travel involved."

"My name is Tal Celes, and that is all I know," Tal supplied.

The blue-haired kid introduced himself next. "My name is Joe Kido. This 'virtual universe' stuff is making my head spin."

"My name is Takeru Takaishi. I'm sulky here's half-brother. This virtual universe is completely brilliant," Takeru stated. "Oh and don't call me TK. I hate that stupid goddamn name."

The digimon introduced themselves next. "Hi! We're Koromon,"

"Motimon,"

"Yokomon," Sora's partner introduced,

"Tanemon," the green one stated,

"Tsunomon," the horned orange one stated,

"Tokomon," the quadrupedal one said,

"Bukamon," Joe's partner introduced,

"and Tsukaimon," Susie's de facto partner completed.

And that was when the Kuwagamon clamped its pincers.

"In here!" Motimon yelled, and dragged everyone into a holographic tree. "It's called a hiding tree."

Kuwagamon swooped by again.

"We have to fight that thing!" Koromon shouted.

Susie pretty much lost it. "Are you mad? There is no reasonable way seven In-Trainings and a Rookie, or eight Rookies for that matter, can get rid of a Champion!"

"In 95% probability, we won't be able to pull it off," Motimon replied. "The 5% probability is what we're worked up about."

Then everyone except the humans and Tsukaimon charged.

"Koromon digivolve to... AGUMON!"

"Tsunomon digivolve to... GABUMON!"

"Yokomon digivolve to... BIYOMON!"

"Tanemon digivolve to... PALMON!"

"Motimon digivolve to... TENTOMON!"

"Bukamon digivolve to... GOMAMON!"

"Tokomon digivolve to... PATAMON!"

Susie stood up. "I don't know about you guys, but I have had enough running for one day! Tsukaimon, how big of an acid bubble can you make?"

"I can give you a 1.5-metre radius. Why?"

"Wait until Kuwagamon goes by, and hit him in the eye with it."

"Understood, sir!"

As predicted, Kuwagamon swooped by. Tsukaimon shrieked "ACID BUBBLE!" and hit Kuwagamon with the bubble.

The enemy digimon was knocked back, then resumed circling.

Sora yelled, "With Kaizo, you don't solve the level when you hit the goal, you solve it when you realize, 'ohhh, I have to take that P-Switch from earlier and drag it all the way here so I can spin jump up a staircase of coins and avoid the chompers.'"

"Why are you reminding us that?" Mimi shouted back.

"Because I just found our P-Switch!" she shrieked.

Sora ran over to the cliff face and jumped.

"SORA, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Tai shouted.

On the cliff face, Sora was hanging, unfazed, from the Fourth Doctor scarf around her wrist.

She kicked off her shoes - she wouldn't be needing those.

As she felt for a hold, she muttered, "God, I hope this works."

Tai leaned over. "What the hell is she doing?"

"No clue," Susie replied.

Sora turned to her right, and felt for another hold.

She slowly shifted her mass to the new hold.

She repeated this process, faster and faster, until she was essentially running along the cliff face.

Staring at this, Izzy muttered, "Sora, you bloody GENIUS!"

Sora started waving her arms and shouting.

"THERE ARE WORLDS OUT THERE WHERE THE SKY IS BURNING! WHERE THE SEA'S ASLEEP AND THE RIVERS DREAM! PEOPLE MADE OF SMOKE, AND CITIES MADE OF SONG! SOMEWHERE THERE'S DANGER! SOMEWHERE THERE'S INJUSTICE! AND SOMEWHERE ELSE THE TEA'S GETTING COLD!"

As she reached the height of her path, she finished:

"Come on Ace. We've got work to do."

Sora ran the full length of the path and jumped, tearing the scarf off of the crevice it was attached to. As she got close to Kuwagamon, she thrust her foot forward and impacted a small black protrusion.

Kuwagamon roared, reared, and exploded. A black gear flew out of its stomach.

"Swarm your stupid fishes in 3... 2... 1..." Susie stated.

Sora grabbed the gear.

Gomamon concentrated. Thousands of pixelated fishes generated in midair, and swarmed towards Sora.

Sora hit the ground and rolled right, exactly as a swarm of pixelated fishes veered to her left. She whooped with exhiliaration while the swarm dissolved to reveal eight humans and eight digimon.

"You are BRILLIANT!" Izzy shrieked.

"How did you know that would work?" Tai asked.

"Simple. At one point when that Kuwagamon went by, I noticed it had a black protrusion. I figured if I hit it, I could deal a lot of damage very fast. The rest of it, the Ace speech, was just me trying to get its attention, so when I jumped, I could kick the protrusion."

"You are BRILLIANT!" Izzy repeated.

"Uh, could we stop repeating how brilliant she is and try to at least set up camp?" Takeru pointed out.