The Digital Zodiac
By: Aubrie1234
The gate to the Digital World wouldn't open.
Usually, this would have not been a cause for panic, except today they were supposed to be in the Digital World for an important meeting with Gennai, though he hadn't told them what it was about. And, even if they hadn't had the meeting to go to, they would have found out sooner or later, anyway. As Izzy tried his best to open the gate with no success, this made all of the DigiDestined begin to worry.
"What's wrong with the gate? It usually opens whenever one of us asks it to open." T.K. said, referring to the younger group of DigiDestined.
"Maybe it's a virus." Tai suggested.
"If it was, Izzy would have fixed it now, wouldn't he?" Mimi said; she had permanently moved back to Japan several weeks ago, thankfully for everyone.
"Maybe it's a problem even he can't solve." Yolei said worriedly, "I wonder what Gennai's thinking right now, about us being late to the meeting."
"He wouldn't mind if he knew what happened." Matt said, then peeked into the computer room, where Izzy was working, "Anything?"
"No, unfortunately." the computer geek sighed and leaned back, "I've been at this for an hour with no change. Have any of you been able to contact your digimon or even Gennai with your digivices?" Matt shook his head; they hadn't been able to contact the Digital World that way, and the older Destined's partners were probably worried as well. It had been a while since they had seen each other, even with the annual weekly visits, and this obstacle didn't make anything better.
"Nothing. Not even Davis' and the others' work." the guitarist said.
"Hmm." Izzy pondered, "This is quite strange. I think that, for now, we should go home and rest. I'll try to work this out at home as well."
"Well, do you think that the gate got sealed again, somehow?" Matt asked as Izzy stood and made for the door.
"Possible, but I don't think so. I think someone is intentionally blocking the gate." The rest of the Destined heard this and weren't happy.
"Why would someone do that?" Cody asked.
"Except for all the digimon that are our enemies, I can't think of anyone." Sora said, "And even then we've defeated all our enemies, so none of them should be doing this."
"As I told Matt, I'll be working on this at home, and the rest of you should be going home as well." Izzy explained.
"Hopefully you can get this back up and running soon, Izzy." Joe said, adjusting his glasses, "I don't like this."
"Who does?" DemiV-mon said from Davis' arms.
"I hope the others don't worry too much about us." Patamon said.
"We all do, Patamon." Kari said with a sigh.
However, that night, things weren't as they seemed. While the rest of the DigiDestined and digimon were asleep in their beds, Izzy was still up, trying to figure out what the gate wouldn't open. Tiredly, the redhead sighed.
"I hate to say it, but it's no use." he groaned to himself, "Maybe in the morning this will be easier." With a yawn, Izzy shut down his computer and went to bed. At about midnight, though, the computer started up by itself and 12 mysterious green lights shot out of it, each one going to a different DigiDestined. As soon as the energy entered their bodies, the silhouette of an animal appeared above them before disappearing; even though all of this happened, none of the humans or digimon woke up.
Throughout the next day, each of them had weird experiences.
If I don't hurry, I'll be late! Joe thought worriedly as he checked his watch. Usually he would have gotten to school by now, but his clock's alarm hadn't worked, so he had overslept by a few minutes. Grabbing his bags, he rushed out the door, barely saying goodbye to his parents or brother. Rushing down the sidewalk, he imagined all the extra work he would have at school-
-and then he was there. Joe, both surprised and confused, stopped running to look around. He was in front of the medical school, alright, though he should still have had a 10-minute run ahead of him. Noting to tell the others about this later, he walked inside the building.
Davis was walking to school, DemiV-mon in his backpack, when he saw some little girls, maybe about 4 or so, playing with a ball. He smiled at the good time they were having while DemiV-mon poked his head out of the backpack.
"What's with the squealing?" he asked.
"Just some kids playing with a ball." Davis answered, turning away. However, DemiV-mon's worried shout made him look back.
"Davis!" Looking back at his partner's cry, Davis saw that the ball had rolled into the road and one of the girls was going to get it; except, a car was coming in fast. Knowing he had no time to digivolve DemiV-mon, Davis took matters into his own hands and ran towards the little girl as DemiV-mon ducked back into the backpack, understanding what his partner was going to do. Quickly grabbing the girl, Davis heard the car's breaks squealing; he jumped out of the way just in time, as the car managed to stop where the two had been moments before. The driver got out to check on them as Davis soothed the small girl, who was crying in fear.
"Are you okay?!" The driver asked and Davis nodded continuing to soothe the girl until her parents rushed over, calming her and thanking him. Davis smiled, saying it was nothing as he continued on his way to school. Once they were far enough away, DemiV-mon poked out of the backpack again.
"That was amazing, Davis!" he said, "You were like a superhero out there!" Davis blushed but shook his head.
"I wasn't a hero, DemiV-mon. I just did the right thing at the right time." As the two continued to talk, neither noticed the soft, almost unnoticeable green glow around Davis, or the fact that he had felt like he hadn't tumbled with the little girl, but felt like he flew.
Ken was taking the extra time during lunch to study for his test in the next class when a boy, probably in a younger class, came over to him. He seemed nervous as he did.
"Um, Ichijouji-san, could I ask you something?" Ken smiled, motioning for the boy to sit down.
"Sure." he said as the boy sat down across form him, "And please, call me Ken. What do you need?"
"My name is Kadri. I'm one year below your class, and, well, a lot of kids say you're smart. I was wondering if you could help me with this girl I like, since you're so smart and all. I want to tell her how I feel, but I'm too scared." Ken nodded.
"I see. Well, maybe if you leave her a letter on her desk addressed from you, she might do something. How about that?" Kadri blinked, then nodded with a smile.
"That's a great idea. Thanks, Ken!" the boy stood and ran off through the throng of people. Ken blinked in surprise; usually, even though he had such a reputation, people didn't take his advice so quickly. However, the boy genius shrugged and went back to studying.
Yolei and Cody, over at their own school, were also having lunch, having just gotten out of line with their lunch trays. Spotting their friends, they started walking over to them when Yolei got the feeling that something bad was about to happen. Stopping, she looked around and spotted the banana peel on the floor, which Cody hadn't seen and was walking toward.
"Cody, wait-!" she was cut off as the younger boy let out a shout of surprise as he slipped on the peel. She made to catch him but was surprised when he righted himself and caught his tray which had gone airborne during the spill but hadn't lost any of its contents. Amazed, many people who had seen the spectale clapped at the young boy, who blushed as Yolei joined him and they started making their way back to their friends.
"How did you do that?" Yolei asked, impressed.
"I don't know." Cody shrugged, "When I slipped, I just automatically righted myself, I guess, and caught the tray. Why didn't you slip?"
"I sudden got this bad feeling and stopped to look around, where i spotted the banana peel. Bit too late of a warning, though."
"Better late than never." Cody said and Yolei smiled as they reached their friends, who were the rest of the younger DigiDestined: Kari and Davis. T.K. was missing.
"Wow! I never knew you could do that, Cody!" Davis said as the two sat opposite him and Kari.
"Like I told Yolei, I didn't know I could do it, either. It just happened."
"And the only reason I didn't get caught up in it was because I got a bad feeling, which made me stop and look around." Yolei looked at Kari, "And speaking of looking around, where's T.K.?"
"He went to let the digimon have some lunch." she explained, "Davis and I wanted to help, but he said he would be fine. I'm still a bit worried, though."
"About Akane and his gang?" Cody asked. A few days ago, Akane Misuko had moved into the neighborhood and was the new kid in the school. He had hit off well with a lot of people, but because of the mysterious disappearances, appearances, and the way they always went to the computer lab, Akane had taken an instant disliking to the DigiDestined. He had gotten together a group of his new friends, and now they were all harassing the DigiDestined, wanting to know why they did what they did; it was worse if one of the DigiDestined went off alone, like T.K. had.
"You bet." Davis nodded, "We're not sure where they are, and Kari thinks they might be waiting for us out in the halls. T.J. was pretty confident, though."
"It's T.K.," Kari rolled her eyes at him with a smile, "And anyway, something happened to Davis earlier, when he was coming to school."
"Yeah, and this is what happened..."
T.K. had just closed the door to the computer lab when he found himself surrounded.
"Well well well!" Akane said, "Look what we have here! A far from the cafeteria, aren't you?" T.K. glared at the older and bigger boy, along with his posse.
"Leave me alone, Akane. What did I or my friends ever do to you?"
"Be suspicious, that's what." Akane poked T.K. in the chest, "You just appear and disappear into thin air, mainly around this one room, and sometimes people hear voices from inside. What are you kids hiding?"
"Nothing. We just love computers." T.K. made to move past him, but one of the other boys grabbed him.
"Then why aren't you in the Computer Club?" the boy asked. T.K. struggled to get out, but the boys kept him in place.
"I think it's time we taught you a lesson on telling the truth, kid." Akane cracked his knuckles before punching T.K. in the stomach. The boy gasped, but it didn't hurt; in fact, T.K. didn't feel out of breath at all. But he pretended that it hurt and he was out of breath so they wouldn't beat him up much more; though, Matt would personally beat these boys up one-by-one if he found out about this.
Akane then grabbed T.K. from the boy's hands and threw him to the floor. T.K. still faked his injuries, though so far, nothing was hurting. Finally, Akane punched the DigiDestined in the stomach once more before he and his posse made off. Once they were gone, T.K. sat up and was still amazed to find himself unhurt.
"The others will definitely need to know about this..." T.K. ran back to the cafeteria as fast as he could.
Matt, after school, was having band practice. He wanted to get in at least one practice before he met up with the others at the middle school, also seeing as many of the older DigiDestined also had something else to do that day.
Except, the instruments never seemed to sound right to Matt. They were either slightly too high or slightly too low, and the volume was always too loud. Eventually, the bassist threw his hands into the air in frustration.
"Matt, you have the ears of a dog if you can hear all this!" he said, "Maybe we should just skip this practice."
"I agree. This is getting a bit out of hand." the drummer said.
"If you guys say so, then okay. I've got someplace to be anyway, but I was hoping-"
"Just go already!" the other guitarist said, smiling, "We can hold down the fort until you come back, and hopefully your ears will be better by then, too." With an unsure nod, Matt packed away his guitar and left the band for the school, though he was wondering how his hearing got so acute.
Sora was practicing track and field, seeing as she had shortly joined the team after Mimi had moved (at the other girl's persistence). In fact, because of her previous experience in soccer, Sora was one of the best on the team.
"Okay, everyone!" the coach said, "I want you all to do two laps around the track while jumping the hurdles. Our big cross-country competition is coming up and I want all of you to be in tip-top shape, so get going!" With a sharp blow from the whistle, the runners (including Sora) ran down the track. Sora never slowed or quickened her pace the entire time, but when she had finished, she found herself way ahead of everyone else.
"Good job, Ms. Takenouchi." the coach said, "You crossed the hurdles and ran perfectly, almost like a horse doing steeplechase."
"Thanks, coach. I guess practice is over?"
"Yeah, but we'll have another one next Wednesday, so stay sharp!" Sora nodded before running to get her bags, where she found she wasn't exhausted from the run or jumps at all.
Strange, she thought, Better tell this to the others. She then gathered up her stuff and went to change before she went to the middle school.
Near the field where Sora had been doing track and field, Tai was having soccer practice. Being the team captain was great, but it was kind of lonely without any good friends like Davis or Sora on the team. This practice, though, was pretty exerting with the nonstop balls and catches and kicks and other stuff. By the time it was over, everyone was sweating and panting.
"Good job, everyone." their coach said, "We'll have another practice Monday, so I call this practice over!" With a sharp whistle, everyone sighed in relief. Packing up their bags and stuff, Tai went to fetch his soccer ball from under the bleachers; several other balls were stuck under there, too, in fact. Some of the players liked to joke that the bleachers were a ball-eating monster, seeing as how many balls got stuck under there. They were also pretty heavy, which is why no one went to retrieve the balls.
However, the soccer ball was one Tai had had since he was a kid, and he wasn't about to let the bleachers claim another victim. Crawling under, he reached for the ball and found it stuck; he got closer and pulled on it until it was free, where it rolled safely onto the grass. Proud of himself, Tai went to free the other balls, which came undone easily as well, which was a bit strange, but Tai was too swelled with pride at the fact that he managed to get them free to notice. Happily, he put the extra balls in the locker room and changed, where he grabbed his own soccer ball as his left for the middle school.
Mimi was always one to try out new things, even if it had been only a few weeks since she had come back to Japan permanently. Right now, she was auditioning for the talent show at the high school. Her audition was that she would sing. However, like all contestants, she was a bit nervous.
"Next!" the theatrical arts teacher called. Swallowing her nervousness, Mimi walked onto the stage, to the microphone.
"Your audition is that you're going to sing, Ms. Tachikawa." the music teacher said, reading over Mimi's audition form.
"Yes ma'am." Mimi said, "I'll be singing an American song, called Promise, if you don't mind." The two teachers nodded, OKing Mimi's performance. The DigiDestined took a deep breath, steadying herself, and sang. It was a bit loud, but perfectly done, and the teachers noted Mimi as a candidate for the talent show. Happy at her performance and the praise she had gotten, Mimi made her way to the middle school to meet up with the rest of the DigiDestined.
Kari, being a cheerleader, was also into gymnastics. It helped her stay on the team and keep fit and flexible. Today, she was having a practice with the balance beam and some somersaults. Usually the somersaults gave her trouble, but today, she seemed to have balance on everything. The balance beam was no problem, no matter how many times she crossed it in any way, and the somersaults just came naturally to her, like she had done them all her life. And, every time, she always landed on her feet. Even the gymnastics teacher was impressed.
"Good show, Ms. Kamiya! We'll have another practice on Monday, so keep up the good work!" Kari nodded, a bit breathless, and went to change clothes before going to the computer room.
Izzy was not known to give up easily. However, the problem of the Digital Gate was becoming harder and harder for him. As he waited for the others to arrive in the computer room, he worked on the problem, but it refused to budge. Eventually, Izzy threw his hands into the air in frustration.
"Agh!" he said, "This is one stubborn program!"
"Don't give up, Izzy!" Upamon said. The digimon were crowded around him, wanting to help but also unintentionally getting in the way.
"Thanks, Upamon, but even I have to admit I might not be able to fix this." He then sighed and put hit hands on the keyboard, not ready to give up yet. As his hands neared the computer, though, a spark seemed to leap from his fingers to the computer. Startled, Izzy jumped and the chair fell backward.
"Izzy!" Poromon said, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" he said, then checked on the computer; luckily, it was fine as well. Also, the gate was once again open! Whatever had happened with the spark, it had unlocked the gate to the Digital World. Izzy cheered in triumph, though he wanted to investigate the spark more. However, at that moment, the younger DigiDestined, with the except of Ken and Kari, came in.
I've just read this book, called The Zodiac Legacy, by these three comic book authors (one of which is the famous Stan Lee). It's really cool in the way where these ancient powers are given to these kids and adults. Each power comes from one of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, and even though it's the first book in a series where the second book hasn't come out yet and the full extent of the powers aren't known, I thought of making this crossover! So, I hope you like it, readers, and please review!