Episode I: Torn Apart
The voices are obscured in darkness, hidden in
shadows, yet still they speak, quiet and careful they are, yet full of power.
"Today."
"Today?"
"Yes, it
begins again."
The Citadel
cruiser Matherion prowled over the darkened farther reaches of Refarhk,
enjoying the calm of the desert before the hot burning of the sun could once
again work its way over the far horizon and stare down at them like a baleful
eye. Unlike her water bound
counterparts, the cruiser was a floating fortress, a construct of floating
steel and burnished strange metal alloys that floated two hundred meters off
the ground. Three soccer fields in
length, the huge armor-plated broadsides looked out at the calm desert, a
testimony to the power and force and ingenuity of the engineers who had built
her. Her gaze however was fixed
elsewhere, both electronically and physically on the twisted area of space and
time that formed the world of Refarhk's connection to another world, somewhere
else in the far-flung reaches of space and time.
Captain
Mary Amelaise caressed the smooth metal under her hand, enjoying the feel of
her captain's chair. She knew, as did
every member of the bridge crew that bustled around her, exactly what this duty
entailed, and how many lives depended on it.
They also knew exactly what the cost should have been, exactly how such
a cost might be extracted. Now they
floated, calm in the peace, but awaiting the coming of the storm. Beside them, surrounding them in a faint
cloud-like pattern were the dots of a dozen fliers, a squadron of heavies out
from the carriers back at the exit point, lead by a giant Garudamon. The twelve Digimon contingent and the
cruiser itself presented an awful lot of firepower, especially for a world that
was as empty as this one seemed to be.
But the future was already written in concrete, and Mary knew the truth,
that soon this empty world would be the sight of spilled blood and
disintegrated digital data.
"Captain!"
the shout and the tension behind it sent her tactical officer's voice up two
notches. "We have multiple transit
signatures on the transit point. We are
tracking an emerging vessel." He looked
down for a moment and then looked up again, face utterly expressionless as any
granite monument. "Confirmed target
sir. We have one enemy Dreadnought at
sixty-five kilometers range." A
Dreadnought outgunned their own vessel several times over.
"General
Quarters." Mary was calm. "Helm, bring
us around and get us out of here.
Garudamon, I want you to cover us on our way out."
"Confirmed."
"You got it
Captain."
"Second
transit sir. Dreadnought, headed
straight through." A pause. "Another
Dreadnought. Another Dreadnought. Another…wait, I have new contact, confirm
Supercarrier contact."
Mary froze,
as did everyone on the bridge. Her
cruiser could outrun the Dreadnoughts, two kilometers of floating
battlestation, with ease, but a Supercarrier meant that they had enough fast
long-range Digimon to saturate her fire control. And Digimon outside of their lumbering carriers moved much faster
than her capital ship could. Even as
new data screamed off about launch vectors and incoming threats, Mary
remembered the words that were burned into her memory, the words that mounted
the banner in her office, and now she remembered what they meant.
"Garudamon,
we're going to have to go to Able Three.
Get out of here. Your squadron
can outrun those aerials. We're just
not fast enough. We'll cover you while
you get away."
The huge
bird Digimon gazed back out at her for a second, eyeing her carefully,
observing her every movement, every nuance of her expression, for a brief
second. Then he nodded his massive
head. "I understand Captain." She paused for a brief moment, as if
searching for the words and then, finding none, nodded. "An honor serving with you."
Mary
nodded, unwilling to trust her voice, and the communications link went
dead. She turned with empty eyes toward
her tactical officer. "All right, I
want a full oblique approach, cross their bow and hope that we get a few
moments while they retarget their fire control."
"Sir, that
will lower our missile engagement range.
We don't have enfilade fire capacity.
We'll lower our salvo speed by almost thirty percent."
"That's all
right Commander. We won't get a second
salvo off anyway." Mary met her subordinate's eyes briefly, and that one gaze
said everything. After that he said
nothing, and there was nothing to say.
Captain
Mary Amelaise was right. The cruiser Matherion
died before it could get a second missile salvo off.
Odaiba
looked beautiful in the dawn. As rosy
fingers of light peered over the horizon, trailing their way across the sky the
buildings, covered with their glass and metal outsides reflected the light in
glittering, shimmering cascades across the horizons. Hikari Kamiya stood up in the middle of the balcony and looked
out toward the sunrise, already dressed for school and ready to go. Behind her she could hear the close of a
door as her older brother Tai managed to get himself up and moving, finally
making it to the front room.
"Hey Kari."
His voice sounded tired. Kari giggled
at him as she turned around, his hair looked even more out of control than
usual. For a moment she wondered how he
had even managed to get that to happen, as his hair was usually so unruly that
it was a surprise that it did not attack him each morning.
"Good
morning Tai." She smiled in a happy tone of voice that she knew would drive him
mad.
He blinked
at her, and then glared and then went back to trying to wake himself up before
High School started. Kari just grinned
impudently and went back to watching the sun rise, wishing, for a moment, that
she could stroke Gatomon into wakefulness beside her, feeling the beauty of the
soft feline under her fingers. Gatomon
had gone back to the Digital World, partially to get away from the crowded
conditions in the human world, but mostly to be around other friends who were
not quite ready to come to the real world.
"Kari,
there's an envelope taped to the door for you!" Kari's mother called out in a
loud voice, making Tai wince again. She
entered looking puzzled. "I wonder
why?"
She took
the envelope and examined it. It was
plain white, in rough paper on which was written, in unfamiliar handwriting in
black ink: To Kari, From a friend.
She opened
the envelope and tipped it out. Instead
of a letter there was an elegantly carved white ring, looking as if it had been
crafted in marble. She looked at it
briefly and turned it over several time, trying to satisfy her curiosity. Whatever it was, it was finely crafted,
there was not a mark on it, and the only decoration it had was a tiny symbol on
the inside, at the top, the mark of the Crest of Light. Kari examined it for another moment, and
then, carefully and quietly put the ring on her finger. It gleamed once and flamed, and then faded
out into normal ivory incandescence.
She shrugged, and then grabbed the odd computer she had gotten and
placed it carefully in her backpack.
Something was happening today.
Another
shadowy scene, another set of voices.
Then a great calamity, a loud bang, and a sudden silence. Then a voice.
"Let the
hunt begin."
"So," Kari
walked alongside TK, Davis on her other flank.
Ken was behind them with Yolei.
Cody followed all of them as he got ready to head off to his own school,
right across the street. "did you guys get some studying done for the test in
Science this morning."
"Ken
study?" Davis joked "When does he do
that, and why would I need to study?"
"So you can
stay on the soccer team." TK suggested.
"Very funny
EW."
"EW? When did I become an E?"
Davis
shrugged uncomfortably. "I dunno. I just ran out of letters that went good
with T."
Everyone
laughed. Then Kari tried again. "Did anybody study?"
"I did." TK
volunteered. "I can give you a quick
hand before class if you need it."
Kari smiled
up at him. "Thanks TK." She told him,
and he grinned back. Davis just
growled.
There was a
sudden flash of darkness. Kari gasped
suddenly, the air driving itself out of her chest in a sudden rush. Ken blinked and suddenly dropped back in a
guarded fighting position. TK narrowed
his eyes and threw his backpack clear suddenly, dropping down to fight whatever
had just occurred. Nobody else reacted
except to stare at the other kids.
"Uh, guys…"
Yolei sounded almost timid. "What's
going on?"
"Why are
you looking like that?" Cody asked curiously, looking around. He saw nothing and then looked back at them
puzzled. Davis just jerked his head
around, looking for something.
The
sidewalk in front of them contorted, suddenly twisting into blackness, a cloud
so dark that it made the night fog look positively illuminating. Out of that blackness came a shape, twisting
into images and figures that turned their stomachs, even though they could not
see it properly. For a moment, the
shape just writhed there, striking out with various tentacles of pure darkness,
holding them paralyzed in fear. Then a
voice spoke, the voice of a thousand corpses moaning in unrest, reaching out
from beyond death to tear at the living.
"So you are
the Digidestined." The voice cackled, "So young, so unready, so tempting. You have the potential to be of much trouble
to me, much trouble indeed. I should
just destroy you right here, rend you to pieces, rip you to shreds and listen
as your doomed souls whisper in torment forever. You can't stop me, nobody can." The Darkness came closer,
floating, writhing, creeping, tendrils of thought moving out to ensnare the
children and rend the flesh off their bones.
"Stay
Away!" Ken's voice, normally controlled, was now high pitched and weak,
sounding like the frail and breakable thing it was.
TK said
nothing, but merely hunched lower, preparing for his attack. His hands rose slowly, and his eyes
narrowed, measuring his chances.
Kari thrust
out a hand to ward the creature away, the hand on which she had placed her
ring. Suddenly, the ring exploded into
ivory flame, burning as bright as the creature was dark, sending arcing loops
of fire out to cleanse the air and fight the overwhelming darkness. The creature jumped back, and now its voice
was the scream of the vengeful who dwelt in purgatory forever.
"He
has been here!" the scream rose to a higher pitch, and now there was a new note
in it. Fear. "I cannot, will not, incur his attentions. Yet this world and its shadow must be
mine. Therefore I shall cast you away,
far away from here. And you will die,
oh yes, twisting forever, lost in the realms of time, abandoned by your
friends. Yes, Digidestined, your time
ends here."
There was a
sudden flash of darkness, and then the six children were falling, falling, into
forever.
"As you
know," the principal intoned dully, "today is the start of your independent
projects. You will be expected to
complete them in a timely manner. Your
groups are assigned by room." Everyone
in the auditorium split and headed for the door.
Tai brushed
his hair back with one hand as he entered his room. Izzy was sitting there already, tapping at his computer. "Hey Izzy," Tai called, "Do you think that
we got the group that we wanted."
Izzy
nodded. "I got at least the five of
us. The principal was very receptive of
what I was saying to him. Being the
school's star student occasionally has its advantages, and this happens to be
one of them. I managed to get all of us
here, but one student is from out of school, and I couldn't influence that
choice."
"Yes!" Tai
thrust his fist in the air.
Just then
Sora entered the room, dropping her backpack on the ground beside them. "What are you so excited about Tai?" she
asked, taking in his awkward position.
Tai blushed
suddenly. "I was just excited that Izzy
managed to get us all in the same group."
Sora
smiled. "That's great Tai, but it
wasn't that important, was it. It's
just for a few days, right?"
Tai calmed
down a bit. "I guess, but it seemed
important that we all be together."
"Hey guys!"
Matt and Mimi entered, looking happy to find themselves together. They quickly sat down in a little cluster.
There was a
knock on the door. A tall, brown haired
woman entered, followed by a shorter dark-haired man and another black-skinned
man, all of them carrying briefcases of some sort.
"Good morning
students. I understand that you know
your last member, Mr. Kido." The woman told them.
Joe
entered, waving at the others. They all
grinned and broke into exclamations of happiness. The woman waited a moment for them to subside.
"I see that
you do know each other. Well, I'll be
blunt. You are supposed to pick a
project here that will demonstrate your grasp over the different things that
are required of you as students. In
addition, you are supposed to participate in something that will change the
world for the better. Correct?"
They
nodded.
"We have a
project for you, but I have to warn you, it is potentially very dangerous. In fact, it could be the most dangerous
thing you've ever done. I will say that
it will help a lot of people. The question
is, will you accept it."
"Don't
worry." Matt told her confidently.
"We've done more dangerous things before. A lot of them."
Sora
elbowed Mimi and they giggled.
"Well, I
suppose…"
Beside all
of them the sky, still lighting up from the dawn exploded into tendrils of
flame. There was a sudden explosion
that shook the windows as something went up in the distance. Everyone turned to stare.
"What in
the…" Tai stammered, his mouth falling open.
The three
people at the front shook off their shock immediately. Physically, they wrenched the other children
out of their seats and hurled them towards the door, pushing and shoving as
they came along afterwards.
"Come on!"
the woman screamed above the sudden cacophony from outside. "We've got to make it to the computer lab."
"The
computer lab?" Izzy shouted back as other students begin to run through the
hallway. "Shouldn't we get to somewhere
safer?"
The shorter
man grabbed his shoulder. "You'll be
safe enough there." He told Izzy quickly, jerking him on.
Another
explosion rang out, causing pieces of plaster to fall from the ceiling and fall
around the floor like snow. Other
people where now screaming, and the sounds echoed around the corridor,
deafening anyone trying to listen.
Then, three
people approached from the top of a low rise.
All of them were wearing black business suits, straight ties, and a
number of other items suggesting they were proper business people. Somehow, they looked wrong, as if someone had
lost the ability to draw them straight, and the lines that should have been
right were just a little bit crooked.
Beside Izzy
the short man swore violently.
The woman
stopped, suddenly standing straight up, thrusting herself in front of the
group, forcing them to stop. Her
features, quite pretty actually, hardened into granite, and her eyes flamed in
the sudden calm that engulfed them.
The eye
of the storm, Izzy thought quietly.
"I'll take
it from here. You guys get to the
computer room, and get them going." Her voice, suddenly very quiet carried
perfectly through the chaos.
"Amanda…"
the short man spoke up, extending an arm.
The tall man laid his hand on his companion's gently, reminding him of
something. The smaller man sighed and
nodded.
"Go!" the
woman thundered. Then, to herself,
"This is going to get ugly…"
The two men
grabbed the Digidestined and started jerking them off to the side, almost
dragging them behind, as they gaped.
Something was not right, everyone knew it. Besides the explosions and fire outside, the screaming inside,
something big was about to happen right in front of them and they had no idea
what it was.
The woman,
Amanda stopped moving at all. A light
seemed to float out of her heart and solidify in front of her, and for a moment
she was bathed with the light of a thousand stars. Then her voice rang out over the hallway, like bells in a tall
cathedral filling a narrow valley, bouncing and rebounding a thousand times
over until the halls rang with a million different notes and inflections.
"The Seal
of Light….The Embodiment of Life….Evolve to…."
For a
moment the light just increased, then it changed color, passing through every
member of the rainbow, ascending up into the heavens, as if where she stood was
some point through which dreams passed upwards. Her figure got so bright it became blurry, indistinct, glowing so
bright that they were all forced to close there eyes. Then, as they stood, the light battering through their closed
eyelids, there was a sudden concussion so powerful that they could feel their
hearts rattle in their ribs, yet they all knew that not a single stone had
moved.
"The
Guardian of Light!" the voice was even louder now, and it rang triumphantly
over the world, setting every bell vibrating with raw energy.
"Oh boy,
now it gets nasty." The short man muttered looking over his shoulder.
Where
Amanda had been standing there was now another figure. Faintly feminine, but not really, standing
sheathed in brilliantly glowing white armor, letting fire run out of it like
little dancers making their way onto the floor. A set of four armored wings protruded from its back, glowing
slightly more golden. A massive ivory
and gold sword was resting lightly in the figures right hand, and a staff
bearing twisted silver and gold metal on the surface was in its left hand. Everywhere you looked the Guardian was
glowing with inner fire, covered in angles and hard metal, except for the eyes,
which were still too bright to look at.
Although, judging from the dimensions, it was approximately the same
height as a very tall human, it somehow looked much taller. Diamond-like bolts of light reflected off
those impossibly polished surfaces, raining down on squinting eyes like a
rainbow made of silver.
"Go!" the
voice thundered, somehow echoing a thousand times over in the enclosed space.
"All right,
all right!" the short man started them running again. "I can take a hint."
Behind them
there was a terrible crash, and then the light faded and the sounds of combat
erupted, somehow farther away. The
sounds of destruction got steadily farther away, even if they were still
dreadfully loud and they still rattled the walls. More students ran out of their classrooms. From the expressions on their faces Izzy was
suddenly glad that none of them were looking backward. The combination of fear and awe and the
questioning look that told him that the people watching were wondering whether
to cower with fear or simply wet their pants where they were told him volumes
about what was proceeding behind him.
Within a
few minutes of running around fallen lockers and toppled plants the six
students and their two companions ran up a flight of stairs and into a small,
blue painted door. Fortunately the
computer room was mostly undisturbed, computers sitting on plain white tables,
monitors dark, beeping occasionally.
The lights were flickering and the printer was making funny noises, but
other than that, everything looked like it normally did.
The short
man turned to his companion once all of them were within the room. "Sama, how about we get some air cover up
here. I feel positively naked in this
building."
Sama shook
his head, black skin gleaming. "I
tried, Cortell, I tried. We've got a
Paildramon standing by for air suppression, but I don't think we'll get any
more. Most of them are tied up fighting
all over the city."
A sudden
explosion rocked the building.
Sama looked
up again. "And I wouldn't get anywhere
close to where a Guardian was mixing it up with anything."
"Right, I
guess we can deal with that." Cortell turned and grabbed the keyboard nearest
to him. Then, as the Destined looked
on, he started talking to air.
"Gennai, I
need the transfer program to standby, and the update files online. Activate the secondary tensors, but leave
the primaries offline for now. Bring
transit to standby and prepare for a hard bounce. And then tell the transit teams to standby. I want the portals locked down now. I don't care who gives authorization
orders."
A moment's
pause and then he began to shoot out technical talk, spitting numbers and
symbols into the air. He stopped even
working on the computer and began to type into empty air, and complicated
patterns of lights began to jerk around his head. Another explosion punctuated his computations.
Sama jerked
his head around. "How did he… never
mind. All of you, you've got a choice."
The others
reacted as if they had been slapped.
"All right, here it is, flat out.
We're in a war with the forces of darkness, a war that you've been
conscripted to fight before, but never like this. Now the battle threatens thousands of worlds. The bad guys already struck first, they
kidnapped the other Digidestined" he ignored the gasps of shock, "and sent them
spinning into the void. They're
supposed to rot there forever, but Andrel has that covered, he'll take care of
that." Two windows exploded
inward. A light fixture broke down,
half-falling from the ceiling in a shower of sparks that illuminated the room
briefly.
"He'll be
able to grab your friends and take them to another world, but it's a world that
isn't directly connected with Earth. It
will be up to you guys to save them, if you choose to do so. I won't mince words, it will be hard, the
most dangerous thing you've ever done, and there is a high probability that someone
will die while doing it. That's your
choice."
"How do
we…" Izzy began while the others were trying to catch up to events.
"Remember
the gate in Myostismon's castle. It's
still intact somewhere in the Digital World.
If you can find it, you can make it to your friends, and you can
possibly save them. But it will be
hard. You have to choose, because we're
going to close off all transportation between worlds shortly."
Tai stood
up suddenly, shaking his head. He
mouthed a single word. "Kari."
Matt stood
beside him and touched his shoulder.
Tai
coughed. "I know that you guys may be
uncomfortable with the idea, and I'd be totally cool if you decided not to
come, but the two of us…"
"Don't be
silly." Joe stood up. "We're a team
Tai. We may not act like it sometimes,
and we may fight and not talk to each other, but we're a team. I think we all know that, but even if we
don't want to admit it, I'm going."
Mimi stood
up. "Count me in."
Izzy gave
all of them a thumbs up and shut his laptop with a snap. "All systems go."
Sora
grinned at them. "You think I'm letting
you guys go anywhere without me? Who
would get you out of trouble?"
"I guess
it's decided." Izzy confirmed.
Sama was
smiling. "Good, we expected as
much. Hold out your digivices."
They each
held up their blue-white device in front of them. Suddenly they swirled, turning into twisting patterns of light.
"Transformation
commencing." Cortell reported, still concentrating on what he was doing.
The light
swirled again and then solidified in a rush, taking a new, but recognizable
form.
"Hey!" Tai
yelled. "We have D3s now!"
"Prodigious."
Izzy confirmed.
The D3s in
their hands blinked rapidly. They were
all the same color as their earlier Digivices, but were definitely of the newer
model.
"All
right." Cortell jerked around to face them.
"We can transport you to the Digital World and the Digital World only
right before we shut everything down."
Another
explosion rattled the room. There was a
crash from further down the hallway.
"Unfortunately,
we already shut down the direct connection.
We're going to have to send you through the back route, and you don't
want to know about that. Let's just say
that we'll bounce you off Citadel. It
won't be pleasant."
"How
unpleasant?" Joe asked.
"It won't
do any physical damage, but it will feel like you've run into a brick wall at
full run."
Joe winced,
but looked determined.
"We'll have
someone explain it to you on the other end.
Here you go!"
Suddenly,
the computer room shrank away, and they were flying, rushing away, the worlds
slipping beneath them like a torrent, images and bits and pieces speeding past
them so fast they could only recognize occasional images. Everything else just blended together into a
rainbow of different colors.
And then,
for a moment, there was a huge city of golden-white spires, tall towers,
massive palaces stretching towards the heavens…
Cortell had
lied. It was nothing like hitting a
brick wall at full tilt. It was more
like what it must feel like when someone falls out of an airplane and hits
concrete, the sudden feeling as if the lungs are being driven out through the
backbone. For a moment, the image of
the towering city froze, and then it rushed away, as if they were being pulled
back at enormous speeds and vanished into nothing as the world faded away.
Tai groaned
and lifted his head, squinting in the sudden sunlight. He put a hand in front of his eyes to block
out the light that was streaming in from above, raining down on his head. He groaned again, and then sat up.
Around him
lay a number of other bodies, picking themselves up. Matt was lying next to him, Sora was at his feet, Joe and Izzy
were a step away and Mimi was shaking her head to his right. The ground was a grassy meadow, in the middle
of a gentle forest, with faint tips of mountains rising in the distance. Above them the sun gleamed, illuminating the
gentle green leaves of gnarled oak trees and the petals on the pink flowering
plants all around them. Everyone
groaned a few more times. Tai shook his
head to clear it.
"Well."
Izzy blinked and sat up. "It looks like
we all made it. But what happened to
our clothes?"
Tai jerked
around to look at Izzy and then down at himself. Instead of his usual school uniform he was wearing his blue shirt
and his jeans, Izzy was wearing a red shirt and pants, Matt his black clothes,
Sora her red shirt and blue jeans, Mimi a pink shirt and flared jeans, Joe his
navy blue shirt and dark slacks. There
other clothes were nowhere in sight.
They picked themselves up slowly.
"What
happened?" Matt asked, holding his head.
"I mean, does anybody remember what happened when we hit that wall?"
"That must
have been the bounce he was talking about.
I think it misaligned my cranium." Izzy shook himself again. "So, Tai, what do we do now?"
"Uh…" for
some reason Tai could not think of a thing.
Sure, Kari's face was echoing in his head but for some blasted reason…
"…then
launch the reserve squadrons to cover the flank. I want the southern Battle Squadron to have enough time to get
their shields back up again before they go into missile range again. If we lose that squadron you can kiss your
carriers goodbye anyway. Have the
gunships take the forward groundpounders, and then they're supposed to stick to
the battleships like they were nailed there.
Got that?" the voice appeared out of nowhere directly behind them,
causing them to leap up and turn around, searching in vain for the source of
the voice.
Suddenly
there was a flare of rainbow light and Gennai was standing in front of them,
talking to someone they could not see.
"Good Admiral, take command of the Fleet."
He turned
back to them. "Greetings
Digidestined. I don't have much time,
so I'll try to fill you in fast. You're
friends and companions have been kidnapped, and sent to another world. If you remember when I told you how to use Myotismon's
gate, I mentioned the existence of other worlds. It is to one of these that your friends are going to arrive any
moment now. We can't afford the time to
go get them, as we appear to have a war on our hands right now, so you're their
only hope. You have to find that gate,
and I can't help you. I've sent someone
who will aid you, but he's late, and I have to go. Good luck kids, you'll need it."
His imagine
suddenly blurred and disappeared.
"Gennai,
wait!" Matt yelled. Tai cursed at the
suddenly empty air, but it did no good.
Gennai disappeared. After a
moment Sora went over to him.
"You can
cry if you want to Tai. We all know
you, and how much Kari means to you."
Tai shook his head resolutely, but a few trickles began to roll down his
face. Matt just turned away.
"Don't
worry, they're tough. They'll be fine."
The new voice was louder, gruffer, a challenge to life if there ever was one,
clothed in a clear, deep baritone.
Everyone turned around in confusion, before Izzy jerked his head up and
pointed at the sky. "Look!"
Hovering
above them was a figure in glowing golden armor. He looked down at them with flashing eyes and then suddenly fell
to the ground and transformed into the shorter man Cortell from earlier. "Greetings once more, and sorry I'm
late. We had to close everything down
once Amanda finished cleaning up Japan, the demons made quite a mess of
it. But it's all under control now, and
don't worry, nobody got killed. We made
sure of that."
"What's you
name, Cor…something, can you tell us how we can save the others? Gennai said something but…" Sora stammered
to a halt as Cortell held out a hand.
"Cortell. Of course I can. Come on, let's get you moving." He gestured and all of the kids
started walking, almost without their own volition.
"Here's the
abbreviated story. There are forces of
darkness of incredible power in the universe.
Long ago they discovered the network of interconnected worlds, of which
Earth and the Digital World are only parts.
That started a war, but that was a long time ago. Let's just say we managed to restore the
balance, but it took a lot out of us, and stretched us rather thin. The darkness began to recruit local warlords
and despots to cause trouble, to keep us busy, so we countered in kind by
creating heroes in many different worlds.
You, the Digidestined, were one of our better attempts. But that's neither here nor there.
"The thing
is, the Darkness knows how powerful you are, but more importantly, how powerful
you can be. That potential scares the
Dark, and it needed to eliminate you.
However, attacking you directly would have aroused to much attention,
especially from Him. So they
settled for kidnapping the other kids and sending them away. They tried to do the same to you, but we got
there first. Anyway, the other kids got
sent into the void between worlds.
Normally they would be lost there forever, but we know where they are
and can rescue them and set them down on a nearby world. The problem is that the Dark already has
control of that particular world.
They'll have to fight there way out and we don't think that they can do
it. However, if you find the gate and
make it through, you could be able to tilt the balance. Gennai's the one that tells the future, not
me, so I can't say for sure."
"So that's
it, we find the Gate and go save the others from some evil thing? Any other clues?" Mimi asked. "Like what to wear?"
Cortell
grinned. "I can't tell you much except
this. This war has been long in the
planning on both sides. They have
filled the Digital World with evil powers, and likewise they have filled the
other world with evil as well. We have
our hands full as well with other things, you'll be on your own."
"You mean
you can't help us?!" Tai exploded, wrenching away from Sora "You mean you're just
going to stand there and watch while Kari and the others could get killed! You insensitive…"
"Tai."
Cortell's voice could have stopped an avalanche. "You're going to have a quarter-million evil Digimon on Earth in
three days if somebody doesn't stop them, and that's one of our minor
worries. We'll keep the worlds alive
while you do your thing, but that's about all we can do. Even for us, five million demons is not an
easy task to deal with. This is war,
and you're the only ones who can be spared to help your friends."
Tai's voice
died off. Cortell touched his shoulder
gently and continued slowly. "Now, we
can do some things to help you. We've
taken time offline, so for every day that passes for you and the others, a
minute passes in the real world. With
luck, nobody will notice that you are missing.
That means that you won't have to worry about that part of things, or
ruining your life, because we all know how that picks at your brain. We'll drop by to give you advice from time
to time, and with any luck…ahhh…here they are."
In the sky,
six blots of light appeared suddenly, streaking earthward like homesick
meteors, plunging toward the children.
There was a moment of fear, a split second of terror and then the lights
turned into six confused and flustered Digimon, who dropped to the ground.
"Agumon!"
Tai grabbed his friend tight. The
others were also greeting their companions.
By the time they looked back up, Cortell was grinning again. "We have some other things for you."
He handed
Tai a pair of goggles, but they looked a little funny, black banded and square,
without black boxes attached to both sides.
"This is one of our field view scanners. We nicknamed them goggles, and thought that you might want
them. They work just like binoculars,
but they have some extra features that you might find coming in handy."
He walked
over to Matt and handed him a harmonica.
"This is a harmonica, not very surprising, but useful. It has some interesting abilities. You may find it useful."
To Sora he
gave a small flower-inscribed stick, about the length of her hand. "Don't ask what it is. You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Just don't lose it."
Mimi
reached out a hand to receive a gold colored necklace. "I don't know, I'm not much of a necklace
person…"
Cortell
laughed, this time lightly as a spring shower.
"We specialize in special items.
Think of it as your own magic necklace, but with a few more tricks added
in for good measure. It will serve you
well."
To Joe he
handed a small box, gray with a red circle on the front. "This is our field first aid kit. It has a guide to the plants and creatures
of the Digital World as well as the first aid supplies that you might have been
missing.
Izzy got,
to his surprise, a laptop. "Don't ask
what it does." Cortell advised. "Don't
ask what it can do, you'll have to figure it out for yourself."
He stood
up. "Now, that's all the help I can
give you. You'll have to do the rest
yourself. Good luck."
"Wait,
can't you tell…" Tai screamed.
"You have
to find the gate yourself, or else this is all meaningless." His form wavered
like a broken television transmission.
"Remember, the Dark hates you because the Dark fears you. Their fears are well justified. You have the power within you to beat
them. Remember, look within…" then he
faded and was gone, blowing out like a candle.
Tai stared,
defeated, at the spot for a moment. Then
Izzy spoke up. "Come on guys, let's
find somewhere more protected, and we'll think this out."
Kari got up
and shook her head. "Where am I?" she
asked herself out loud.
The where
was pretty obvious, she was inside the school gym, but there was something
odd. Everything was quiet, as if the
background of Odaiba had disappeared into some sort of stasis, as if the
perpetually running cars, trains, airplanes and people had simply vanished. Outside the high windows she could see
outside, but there was no sky, none of the buildings that she should have seen,
only a dull whiteness, like a bright, overcast day. Everything else was empty.
She stood up slowly, suddenly recognizing that she was wearing different
clothes. Her school uniform had been
replaced by her white shirt and a pair of tan slacks. She shrugged.
"Hello?"
she called, letting her voice echo around the gym. "Is anybody there?"
There were
a few moments of silence and then running footsteps. The door to the gym burst open and suddenly TK, wearing his green
pants and shirt with his vest and familiar hat, burst into the room. He skidded to a halt and stared up at
her.
"Kari!"
"TK!"
They gave
each other a quick hug halfway up the bleachers and then stepped back.
"So what
happened?" Kari asked.
"After that
thing got us, I blacked out. I woke up
in the computer room here, but none of the computers were working. I went and looked outside the windows. You won't believe this, but were floating in
some sort of white fog. I don't know how,
you can see the whole building, but nothing else. I didn't try getting out of the doors."
They sat
quietly for a while, and then Kari perked up.
"I'm sure we'll find a way out sooner or later."
"Yeah… I
guess." TK did not sound very confident.
"Let's
check to see if anyone else is here."
They went
around the school a few times. "No,
nobody."
"Play you a
game of basketball." Kari grinned at TK shakily, trying not to show her
nervousness. What if they…no point
thinking about that.
TK smiled
back, and a few minutes later, he was soundly beating her at basketball. Kari grabbed the ball, and suddenly broke
past him, shooting a perfect two point shot without him even moving. She turned back and grinned at him
triumphantly, but broke off in consternation when she noticed that he was
staring blankly at the bleachers.
"TK, what's
wrong…gasp" Standing on the top of the bleachers, arms crossed was a
man. He was wearing a black outfit with
a white sash, and his dark brown hair trailed down his back. His face was indistinct, but it was calm,
and Kari could feel his smile.
He was also
hovering about a foot above the ground.
"What in?"
Kari dropped back and clutched TK's arm.
The man
floated forward until he was three or so meters away, and then snapped his
fingers. The gym, the basketball, the
bleachers, everything vanished, and they were alone in the whiteness. Both of them shied back from the sudden
change. Then the man spoke.
"You're
really very good you know. Any normal
human would have been driven mad here, but your subconscious allowed you to
create somewhere to be safe, mentally and physically. You don't need it anymore." He snapped again and Ken, Davis,
Yolei and Cody appeared, each frozen.
Ken was wearing a black, button-up shirt and slacks, while Ken, Davis
and Yolei were each wearing the clothes they normally transformed into in the
Digital World.
"Where are
we?" TK asked.
"You're in
the void. It is what lies between the
worlds. I can take you to a world on
which you can survive, but you will have to find your own way home."
"Can you
help us?" Kari asked.
"In more
ways than one. But you won't see that
much of me. Don't worry, you have
everything you need. Good luck. We'll meet again one day."
"Wait…what…"
And then
he, and they, were gone.
Kari
blinked in the bright sunlight. She and
TK were standing in the middle of a clearing at the top of a small hill. Around them on two sides, they could see
tall gray mountains stretching off, losing their peaks in the clouds. Everywhere else there were just hills,
blocking the view. The other four lay
around them unconscious, but a few groans and mutterings convinced the two
observers that they were waking up.
Quickly they assembled, and Kari related what they had just seen while
the others stared in disbelief.
Kari
thought of something. She reached back
over her head and pulled out the computer device that had gotten to her
earlier. When she activated it while
everyone else looked on, it beeped, and displayed a message:
Kari-
The
Darkness tried to destroy you, but could only banish you and your
companions. You have been sent to the
world we call Parsifal, a world that is currently under the control of an
incredible force of evil. I wish we
could have sent you anywhere else, but such as life. In the castle of this evil force is a Gate similar to Myotismon's
Gate back in the Digital World that has the ability to take you home. You must defeat this evil to use this
gate. The other Digidestined are on
their way, but for now, your survival is up to you. Good luck.
There was
no signature, just a funny symbol, like a sword.
"Well, that
was as clear as mud. I wonder what he
was talking about?" Davis jerked up and tried walking around. Ken just frowned and stared at the computer.
"INCOMING!"
Davis screamed, pointing up. Six points
of light were descending toward them like missiles, howling in aiming at each
of the Digidestined. TK blinked once
before he was hit in the stomach by something that felt like a bowling ball. He fell back off his feet, losing his
breath, hitting the ground hard. On his
chest, there was a flash of orange and white as a small mammal shook itself
off, wiggling its nose and its two large ears, and then TK was looking into two
familiar wide eyes.
"TK? TK, are you all right? TK?"
TK hugged
his small companion to his chest hard, smiling and giggling hard at the feel of
his friend squirming against his chest.
"Patamon!"
The others
were already hugging their Digimon.
They looked just the same as they had the last time they had been
together, a few days before.
"All
right!" Davis yelled after a moment. "I
can take on anything now. Evil or not,
they're going down."
"Uh,
Davis…" Ken started.
"Maybe we
should come up with a plan." Cody suggested.
"Are you
kidding? We don't need a plan. Veemon and I will scout out the land, we'll
find this castle and we'll get back home.
Right Veemon?"
"You got
it!" the blue lizard exclaimed.
"All right,
now that that's settled, here we go…Digi-armor energize!"
Nothing
happened.
Everyone
looked around. Davis frowned, then his
face broke out in panic and he hit his jacket.
"Hey!" he yelled suddenly, jerking around this way and that. "What
happened to my D-Terminal?"
"Mine too!"
"Mine's missing
also."
"They're
all gone."
Ken was
looking around. Something was wrong…
"Of course
they're gone you silly fools. Do you
think that those fools at Citadel would let them within my grasp?" a voice
boomed out loudly. It made Davis' skin
crawl just listening to it.
Something
dark loomed out above them, growling and resolving itself into a dark cloaked humanoid. Kari's computer screen beeped frantically.
Demon-High
Level in Close Proximity
"So you
have one of those toys, eh? It won't
help you against me."
"Oh yeah!"
Davis demanded, raising his D3 in his hand.
"We'll still stop you. C'mon
guys, let's go."
Veemon….Digivolves
to…..ExVeemon
The flying
blue and white Digimon rose out of the ground.
"I don't know who you are, but you're going to take quite a ride if you
mess with my friends!"
"And not
alone either." Yolei rushed up. "Let's
do it guys."
Hawkmon….Digivolves
to ….Aquilamon
Armdilamon….Digivolves
to…..Ankylomon.
The bird
and the dinosaur thundered in front of the Digidestined.
"Wait for
me!" Ken called.
Wormmon
Digivolves to ….Stingmon
TK held up
his D3, waiting for something to happen, but the light that burned on its
screen refused to flare up into fire.
He stared at it dumbly "It's not
working…"
Kari looked
at him and shrugged, indicating that hers was not working either.
"Without
them, your chances have become even more pathetic. I am called Khartan, but you can call me Master." The last word
was spoken with a sneer. "And if you
surrender now, I may be lenient."
"Forget
that!" Davis yelled. "We'll let you
have all the lenient you can stomach.
Get him guys!"
ExVeemon
threw himself forward at full tilt.
"V-Laser!"
Stingmon's
Spiking Strike slammed into the dark creatures shoulder. Aquilamon's Great Horn raked his side, and
Ankylomon's Tail Hammer slammed into his stomach.
"Boom
Bubble!" yelled Patomon, feeling that he should contribute something.
The smoke
obscured the figure for a moment, and then it cleared, revealing Khartan
standing there, looking amused. "Was
that all you had?"
"This isn't
working!" Davis was frustrated. "Let's
take it to the next level guys. We have
the tail ring with us, so we can do it."
"Yeah!" Ken
yelled back. "Stingmon, time to dance,
DNA style."
"Gatomon,
you ready?" Yolei asked.
Cody looked
at the disconsolate TK and shrugged.
"Let's do
it!" Kari howled defiance at the dark figure.
ExVeemon….Stingmon….DNA
Digivolve to…..Paildra…Paildra….?
Aquilamon….Gatomon….DNA
Digivolve to….DNA Digivolve to….DNA…
"It's not
working!" Stingmon called out, fear filling his tone.
Gatomon
simply looked up. "I think we have a problem."
"You
untrained fools thought that could work here?
You're more helpless than I thought!" Khartan was laughing at them now.
"I think…"
Davis muttered. "That we're in trouble now."
