I don't own digimon.

After

Episode 1

The Calling Sirens

It began again at dawn on a nice Thursday morning.

In a small two bedroom apartment, life was about to take an interesting turn one more for Derek Willison.

"Ugh…" Derek thought and shifted himself up in his bed. "Well, time to start another day."

With that, he got himself dressed. Today's outfit was quite simple, just a white t-shirt with a pair of clean pants. A silver necklace with a large oval pendant hung around his neck, serving as a reminder of a time long gone now. It also complimented his blackish brown hair and emerald eyes.

Now dressed, our 'hero' made his way towards the doorway, just making out a long shadow against the far wall.

"Rora?" he whispered and took a step forward, watching the shadow seemingly disappear just as quickly as it appeared. "It was probably just my imagination."

Derek walked over to his kitchen, making one final glance towards the wall in the process. Afterwards, he pulled his necklace up towards the light.

"Those were the days."

To some extent, Derek still yearned for those days of thrill and adventure. Where all you needed was a couple of snacks, a half coherent plan from a Vietnam Vet, your partner and some friends to take on the Bot Empire.

For a few brief seconds, gray energy surged around his hands, giving the chosen a familiar yet distant feeling. Once it had faded away, he made himself breakfast. In this case, a bowl of cereal and a glass orange juice. The chosen gulped it all down in a hurry, grabbing his briefcase as he headed out the door.

Outside, the hallway wasn't that interesting. It had the typical yellowish brown walls that made up the 'front' of all these abodes. A gray carpet connected the two sides, having waited for it's better days for so long. Not that Derek gave much attention to it, until something caught his eye.

It was a plush, made to look like one of those black cat plush things. It looked to have seen better days, with one of its eyes missing and it looked like it had been in the wild for an extended amount of time in the wild, judging by the missing left arm. Finally, a pair of purple straps had been attached to the back, allowing one to carry it on their back.

"Impossible…" he thought and carefully scooped the stuffed animal up, putting it into his briefcase. "I guess I'll need to stop by the craft store and grab some supplies."

The chosen made a mental note in his head and headed towards the stairs. He made quick work of this obstacle, stepping into the boring lobby. Like the hallway before it, it wasn't that interesting. It looked like something you would see at a hotel, minus the complimentary breakfast dining room. Though, a small cafe had taken up that residence quite nicely. Not that Derek was much a coffee person to begin with, preferring juice and the occasional sugary drink. He quickly made his way outside and sat himself down at a nearby bench with a sign by it.

It didn't take long for the bus to arrive, picking Derek up and dropping him off at a towering structure of stone and iron.

"No time like the present." he thought and headed inside. What followed, was a ride on an elevator and a brisk walk to his desk. There, he would spend the next seven to eight hours making sure the numbers and sales were in the 'black'. If they wasn't, he would have to get his boss and their would be a meeting.

Today, it was the latter.

"Just another day in paradise." Derek thought and turned his computer on. "What will be this time?"

A few seconds passed, the black screen still there. The chosen watched on, still seeing no change within the monitor. By the minute mark, he was debating just unplugging the device and plugging it back in. Though, that would mean having to take apart his entire workstation, unplug the cord from the power strip, plug said cord back and reassemble his desk. Just in time for him to maybe get logged in and just get started looking at the most recent data.

But before he could do any of that, white blocky letters formed upon the screen.

WOULD YOU LIKE A SECOND ADVENTURE?

YES OR NO

Derek just stared at the computer, unsure of how to respond to this monkey wrench in his day. So he did the natural thing one does in that situation.

He clicked 'Yes', watching the letters shift about and rearrange about.

YOW KNOW WHAT TO DO, DEREK WILLISON

Derek pulled his necklace off and pulled the pendant open. Inside was a familiar clamshell-shaped device on the left and a photo on the right. He was twelve when it was taken, currently cuddling with a light blue humanoid creature. A layer of periwinkle permafrost covered the eyes of the creature, rendering it effectively blind. A pair of slits marked the nose, possibly even more effective than his. Long arms had curled around his body, wrapping him in a hug while still hiding the long sharp nails on his partner's hands.

"It won't be too long, Rora." Derek thought and watched the screen of the computer revert back to the usual windows 7 login screen just about everything business-related still uses nowadays. He typed his credentials in and watched the login fade away. All that remained was the sky blue background and the white logging in message. Though, the last time he had checked, it didn't go one letter at a time. "Wonderful."

The chosen took a deep breath, closing the necklace pendant and hanging it back around his neck.

"It's been too long, buzz." a voice announced and Derek turned around, finding a figure standing before him. From a distance, they probably look like a regular person going about their day. But up close, there was always something wrong about them. Always the proportions would be off and/or some particular feature would be missing for some reason.

In this particular case, this 'thing' was cursed with t-rex length arms and no right middle finger for some reason.

"Let me guess." Derek whispered as he grabbed hold of his chair, more than ready to defend himself. "You want revenge for the demise of your leader."
His opponent did not answer, choosing instead to just rip the chair out of Derek's hands and fling it towards him. The chosen chose to duck, allowing the object to just barely graze him. He gave the intruder a swift kick in the privates and made his escape. While he hadn't intended to take this particular day off, the current string of events demanded it. Though, he would call his boss and give an 'explanation' for the broken chair and his sudden departure.

"I'm coming, Rora." he whispered and made a beeline away from the office, focusing on a far-off playground. "I won't be long."

.

Rora took a deep breath.

So far, her day had been kind of a mess. The lioramon had managed to bumbled her way all about the town, somehow managing to drop her plush in the process.

"Play with us! Play with us!" a child announced as part of her tail got lifted up and swung around. Had she been able to see what was going on, maybe she would have scolded them. But alas, this was not the case.

"Maybe some other time." the frost naga remarked and headed forth, not at all noticing the disappointed kids. No, she was more focused on sniffing the air, having noticed a particular smell in the air. It had a sense of familiarity amid it, as if she knew it from the first whiff alone.

"Rora?" a voice called out, with Rora focusing her head in the general direction of the sound. Though, this meant having to work around a couple of shrubs and concrete walls. "There you are!"

For a few brief seconds, time seemed to slow down as the two reached each other and embraced in a hug.

"It's been too long." Derek whispered and released his digimon partner. "How have you been?"

Rora didn't answered, choosing instead to squeeze even tighter around her human. In a way, this was the best way to describe how she felt now.

"You can let go of me now."

Reluctantly, she followed her master's orders. After, he handed over the ruined plush.

"Do you think you can fix it?" Rora inquired, only for Derek to not answer.

"I see that I'm not the only one to get someone back, recon." a voice announced and the duo turned around, giving the figure a salute.

Notes:

Well, this is going to be interesting. Feel free to speculate and ask questions down in the review box. Also, please review. It really does help.

Other than that, I hope you enjoyed this.

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Next time: A trip to the fabric store with a Vietnam veteran.