DiGE: Digital Genesis
Explanation: This is a prequel to the Digimon series. DiGE takes place three years before the Digimon series. Hope you like it! (I also have pictures of the characters and their digimon.)
Summary: Five kids from around the world (Jake from America, Aleks from Russia, Nadia from Zimbabwe, Dannie from Israel, and Suli from Japan) are given digital devices, called D-Zeros, and then sent to a blank, white world. They find each other and suddenly their D-Zeros project the image of a young woman, Gaia. Gaia is their Digital Guardian.
The Digital World has just finished being built, but the Meta Virus has destroyed the Digital Holithesis, which is key to bringing the Digital World online. The Digital Holithesis is a powerful book containing all the digital codes that make up the Digital World. Each page contains instructions of the DigiSafeties to keep the Digital World stable. But since the Holithesis could never be deleted, only taken apart, bits of data have been scattered into the Data Rift, a place where possible Digital Worlds exist in bits and pieces.
These five are the First Digidestined. They must enter the Data Rift, find the pages of the Digital Holithesis, and then find the objects created in the Data Rift and bring them back to the Digital World to be installed. But they have one enemy: the Meta Virus, a sentient being with no shape or form, that can manipulate digimon with a black "MV" mark on their foreheads. The Meta Virus wants to build the Digital World its own way, and will destroy the Digidestined if necessary!
DiGE
digital genesis
episode one:
***** Newberry District, New York, 7:15 AM
"Jake! You'll be late for school!"
Jake opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, staring at his ceiling. School...school again...
He rubbed his eyes and sat up, still yawning. "Man...I hate school...fifteen of the best years of my life, wasted..."
"Jake!"
"Coming!" he yelled back. His feet found his slippers and he stood up. He padded towards the door, but halted and turned, looking at his computer. The monitor was on, his Beatles desktop shining in all its glory.
"Weird, it wasn't on last night." He went over to it, trying to fix his unkempt hair at the same time. "Hey. I have mail."
He moved the mouse-pointer and double-clicked on the icon.
The screen went blank.
"Aw man!" he complained. He stretched his arms and scowled. "This stupid piece of-"
The screen flickered, and a message started to appear on the screen.
PLEASE ENTER YOUR NAME.
Jake blinked, his face blanking into shock. "What the-" he whispered, leaning into the screen. "Type my name?"
He looked to the door. Nobody was watching him. He looked to his left, at his bedroom window. Closed, shades down but open, letting sunlight hit the floor.
He shrugged, and typed in his name.
The screen went blank again, and Jake hit the monitor with the flat of his palm. Come on, he thought, this is too weird for you to break now.
Suddenly a bright spinning light illuminated his screen. "Whoah!!!" he yelled, jumping back and staring at his screen. The light pulled itself out of the monitor and hung there in the air between Jake and his computer.
"What's going on here!" he yelled, shielding his eyes from the light. It faded and there remained a blue glowing device. Jake dared to look at it, blinking rapidly, and then glanced at his computer screen.
THIS IS YOUR DIGIVICE.
PLEASE TAKE POSSESSION OF IT.
Jake stared, blinked, and stared again. He looked at the glowing thing- digivice? -and at his monitor. "Wait a second!" he yelled, clenching his fists and shaking his head. "This doesn't make any sense at all!"
He took a few deep breaths. "Okay, think Jake, think. Something has just popped out of your computer, it glows, and your computer is talking to you."
He paused, and shrugged. "A dream of course. And if it's a dream, whatever I do, it doesn't matter."
He looked at the digivice, which had stopped glowing, took a shaky breath, and grabbed it, his face determined.
YOU MUST RETRIEVE THE
Jake waited patiently, but nothing further appeared. "The what?" he prompted.
STRINGFAILURE R*(#(*#(&*258609
ENTER DIJITAL WYRLD &@!78351
Jake laughed. "This is the weirdest dream..." He looked at the digivice in his hand, and peered at it closely. It was dormant, a cool weight in his palm. He held it up to the chaotic screen of his monitor.
Jake grinned, totally at ease. It's just a dream, he thought, but I feel like I'm jumping into an action movie.
"All right. Magic words...I'm Jake Jameson. This my, uh, digivice. Take me to the Digital World!"
The computer monitor and the digivice exploded with light!!
When it faded, there was no one in the room. For a few moments, there was silence. The monitor blinked,
GOOD LUCK, JAKE
{ABORT, RETRY, FAIL?}
Footsteps outside his door, and a harsh knocking. "Jake!" his mother yelled, very annoyed. "You're going to be late!
"Jake!!"
***** Nhojoboro Complex, Zimbabwe, 12:45 AM
Nadia shaded her eyes, looking up into the sun. It was a hot day- it always was. She gazed over the savanna, the quietly bending tall grasses.
"Nadia, take care of this," said her father, handing her his laptop. "I need to head back inside- your mother has more samples-"
"Sure Dad," Nadia smiled. "Can I get online while you're gone?"
"Fine with me, Nadia. Got your cables, phone, etc?"
"Yeah. Thanks Dad!" Nadia waved at him as he got in his terrain Jeep and drove off towards the Complex.
Nadia opened the laptop and connected the modem to her cell phone. She grimaced as she sweated under the hot African sun- (being under the shade of a single tree didn't help enough) and it took her awhile to do the connection properly. She wasn't a tech whiz- she was Nadia. Sixteen year old, half-African, short, animal-lover Nadia. Ordinary kid, all right.
Finally, Nadia managed to log on to Yahoo and open her e-mail, LionsPride. She was surprised to get mail from an unnamed address. Nadia warily opened a virus scan program her father had put on the computer and used it to examine the e-mail, but it was virus free.
Nadia shrugged and opened it. The screen went blank, then flickered on again.
PLEASE STAND BACK FOR THE DIGIVICE
Nadia gaped. Then a brilliant flash of light burst, making her cry out as her eyes couldn't adjust. She shoved the laptop away from her, across the ground, and she could see it- there- something coming OUT of the screen-
With a soft kerplunk, the grayish-blue object landed on the keyboard. It looked like a giant stop-watch, but with a big blank LCD and more buttons than a stop watch needed. There were two short antennas at the top, and in tiny sci-fi looking letters, D-ZERO was on one side. Nadia picked it up carefully, turned it over- D-0 was written on the back. So was AA BATTERIES ONLY.
Nadia cracked a grin. "Digivice?"
WE WILL SEND SOMEONE WHO CAN EXPLAIN.
Nadia's brow furrowed. More objects popping out of the screen? Couldn't that hurt it? And, were laptops able to do this? Nadia wasn't sure...maybe her dad meant this as an early birthday surprise- or something-
Digitized colors swirled on the screen. They formed themselves into a tiny 2-D lion. Nadia smiled. It was a cute icon. The lion paced back and forth as more colors appeared, painting a blocky picture of the savanna, with the lion under a giant tree.
The lion's face got more detailed as it came closer to the screen, as if it was looking at Nadia. Nadia found herself looking into its big golden amber eyes.
Then light poured from the screen, and Nadia let out a gasp, as ears came out of the screen, followed by a shaggy mane. The light became more intense, and by the time Nadia could look up, there was a giant lion towering over her. She could almost see the sternness in his face. He was unlike any lion she'd seen before.
"Don't be afraid," he said in a low growl. Nadia blinked.
"You talked!" she exclaimed, half in fear, half in excitement.
The lion allowed himself a wry smile. "Yes," he growled again. "I'm a Digimon. All Digimon can talk."
"Digimon?" Nadia asked, blinking again. Then her eyes widened. "Digimon...you came from the digital world?"
The lion grinned even wider. "Yes, I did. I'm Leomon, and I've come to explain to you why you, Nadia, have been chosen to save the Digital World."
The lion turned towards the computer screen and stretched his front paws, as if ready to leap. He paused and looked over his shoulder at Nadia, who was standing and watching him curiously.
"Get on my back," he said gently, "and trust me."
Nadia looked down at the digivice in her hand. "You'll tell me what this is?"
Leomon nodded. "That and much more. But you have to trust me."
"I trust you." Nadia knew in her heart that she would trust Leomon all over the world- or the Digital World -even though she had just met him. Nadia climbed atop Leomon clutching the digivice. Leomon crouched again. "Hold your digivice up to the screen and say, 'Take me to the Digital World!'"
Nadia gulped, and held the grayish object to face the screen. "Take me to the Digital World!" she cried out.
The screen became a white vortex of color, twisting the air around them, drawing them in.
"Hold tight!" Leomon roared, springing into the vortex. Nadia closed her eyes and held on to Leomon for dear life.
There was a brilliant flash of light-
***** Tel Aviv Shalom Academy, Israel, 2:12 PM
Dannie concentrated, tuning out all distractions as her pencil scraped across her paper. She was drawing some sort of monster, for some reason. She usually drew only people in that Japanese Animation style she'd learned last year. She bit her lip in utter focus, ignoring the brown strands of hair that fell in her eyes.
"Oi, Dannie! Want to play gaga?" called out a few of her friends. Dannie looked up, blinking. Gaga was a dodgeball/volleyball game that she was excellent at.
I wish they wouldn't interrupt me like that, she thought wistfully, but she put her sketches away and stood up excitedly.
"Sure thing Yakov, be right there!" she yelled back, grinning and waving at them. She turned to her knapsack to get a drink from her water bottle when she saw her assignment book lying open on the grass.
Dannie picked it up and face-faulted. "Oh my gosh, I forgot to type up my literary paper!" she yelled, starting to have a spazz attack. She grabbed her sketchbook and pens, assignment book and hat, and stuffed them all into her bag before tearing off across the school pavement.
"Whoa- was that Dannie?"
"For a thirteen year old, she sure can run!"
"Dannie, what about gaga?"
"Can't!" she yelled over her shoulder frantically, "I have half an hour to hand in my paper! Later!" and she zoomed away into the building, leaves and hats swirling in her wake.
Dannie sat at the computer monitor, trying to type fast and correctly, copying what was written down on notebook paper to the screen.
"And...the...lea-der..." Dannie mumbled. She hated typing!
The screen went blank.
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Dannie wailed, standing up and jaw dropping in disbelief. She was the only one in the computer lab, so nobody was frightened by her wail of despair.
"You stupid piece of-"
The computer screen flickered, then typed up some words.
DANNIE GOLDENBERG, PLEASE ACCEPT YOUR DIGIVICE
Dannie looked around. Nobody there...some sort of joke?
"This computer's broken," Dannie stated matter-of-factly. Then the screen started spinning and a metallic object started coming from the monitor.
Dannie stared, then screamed and flattened herself against a wall. (Insert Author: since it's very hard to get a first impression of a character, imagine Dannie to be somewhat like young Mimi when she was frightened or upset.)
"Oh-oh-oh-oh!" Dannie shrieked. "It's a monster!"
With a quiet klunk, the digivice landed on the keyboard.
Dannie very, very slowly, pried herself off the wall.
Bump! The digivice slipped off the keyboard and hit her chair. Dannie screamed again.
When five minutes passed, and no further movement attempted by the metal monster, Dannie dared to get closer to it. The screen was blinking rapidly with the message,
THE DIGITAL WORLD NEEDS YOUR HELP.
"Maybe this is some weird way to recruit kids for the Israeli guard," Dannie mused. Gingerly, she picked up the metal object.
The screen was blank. Broken? Dannie held it closer to her face, examining it. Nice artisan work, for sure.
Dannie took a deep breath. "I'll just go along with this...this weird weird game. Okay, digital world, here I am!"
Nothing happened.
For seven minutes.
Dannie started to get angry. "Did you hear me?" she yelled. "I said take me to the Digital World!"
With a flash of light, the digivice began to tremble and glow. Dannie could only stare as her body was translated into data, and taken through the monitor to the digital world...
Yakov and Lissa, two of Dannie's friends, tossed a gaga ball between them.
"Wonder if Dannie'll ever finish her paper."
"Probably not."
****** Moscow Luxuriant, Russia, 6:39 PM
"I hate it here, Pooka," Aleks confessed to his goldfish. He looked around the dingy restaurant his grandparents had named the Moscow Luxuriant.
"I mean, Gran-Mama and Gran-Papa are wonderful. But they dream of the days when they and the world were young. I am young now, and I can only dream of the days when I am old!"
Aleks imagined his goldfish nodding sympathetically. "I want to grow up and know everything," he said softly. "Russia is not like America, Britain or Japan. I want to be ahead with technology."
He fingered his secondhand Game Boy sadly. "This was my Christmas present, Pooka," Aleks continued. "They meant well- this is what they thought was a computer. But we're not rich enough."
And then Aleks winked. "I do still like it though." He grinned, thinking of how many hours of fun it had been, playing with his Game Boy.
He stood up and saluted his goldfish. "I'll head down to the pharmacy and meet some of the boys. Later fish."
He waved goodbye to his grandparents and left the store to the snowy cold air. As he trudged down the sidewalk, someone ran up to join him.
"Hallo there Aleks!" cried out Janci, Aleks's friend from school.
Aleks waved. "Hallo Janci!"
"Aleks, you MUST come see this!" Janci grinned, tugging on Aleks's arm. "My brother returned from Singapore. He has a laptop!"
Aleks's eyes widened. "Really?" Laptops were rare, especially among people poor like Janci and Aleks.
"Yes! He's letting me bring two friends to see it. It's so awesome!"
"Sure, I'll go!"
"Well come ON then!"
Aleks, Janci, and Peter crowded around the hi-tech machine (Dell Laptop). They marveled over it, as if it was magic. Jan's older brother, Markos, was twenty-seven and worked in Singapore for a computer manufacturer. This was the first time he was able to come home with a computer (due to Government Regulations).
Markos pressed enter and stood up. "This is the game Sonic. Have fun!"
"Thank you Markos!" the three chorused.
Peter pressed a button and the game screen disappeared.
They stared.
"Fool! Idiot!" Janci hissed frantically. "You broke it!!"
"No, it's okay," Aleks calmed them. "The screen is back."
THE DIGITAL WORLD NEEDS YOUR HELP.
"Wow," Janci said. "This isn't like Sonic at the store."
"Where are all the pictures?" Peter complained.
ALEKSANDER IVONAVICH, PLEASE ACCEPT YOUR DIGIVICE.
"No way!" the boys exclaimed. "It knows your name!"
Aleks stared. "This is cool," he whispered.
The screen started to pulse rapidly, twisting as light poured from it like a waterfall. The boys covered their eyes to keep the light out.
Plink!
Aleks was the first to look out. The light was tolerable and there was a small grey object lying on the carpet, next to the laptop. Peter and Janci looked up too.
"Look at the screen," Janci whispered. It now read
ALEKSANDER IVONAVICH, PLEASE COME TO THE DIGITAL WORLD.
WE NEED YOU.
Peter trembled. "Are your Grandparents in the hospital? Maybe the government is contacting you-"
"Don't be dumb," Aleks replied, shaking his head. "This is...something different."
He crawled over to it.
"Don't break it!" Janci muttered.
Aleks grinned and picked up the grey object. It had two small antenna and lots of buttons. He pressed one. "Digivice?" he said out loud.
The light spun around the room, the digivice glowing and vibrating rapidly. Aleks held onto it tightly and cried out as the light burned his eyes.
ALEKS, COME TO THE DIGITAL WORLD.
THERE IS LITTLE TIME LEFT.
"I'll come," he whispered. He held the digivice up to his face. "Whatever you are, little robot- whatever -take me where I need to go."
The screen blinked
THE DIGITAL WORLD
Aleks paused. "Is that where I have to go?"
Janci and Peter came on either side of him.
"Going? Where, how?" Peter asked. "This is a crazy weapon, that's what I think."
Aleks set his face grimly. "Wish me luck," he said.
Janci gaped in horror. "You're crazy!"
"Take me to the Digital World!" Aleks yelled, holding his digivice up high.
Light swirled around him, drawing him in to the screen. This is the adventure I wanted, he thought happily. This is it.
With a final flash of brilliant green light, he was gone. The boys were silent for a moment, trying to make heads or tails of what had just happened.
Peter started to laugh giddily. "This is a really bad dream! I'm going to wake up any minute now!"
"Look, there's more!" Janci cried out. The two boys stared at the screen.
JANCI, TAKE CARE OF POOKA FOR ME.
They ran out of the room together. "Markos!!"
***** Odaiba Blossom Hospital, Japan, 10:15 PM
A tawny-haired girl sat on the hospital table, clutching her head. She was dressed in a hospital gown, and looked miserable.
"Tell me about these creatures you've been seeing," said a psychiatrist kindly.
"I'm not crazy!" she protested weakly. "I don't know what's wrong!"
"Just tell me what you're seeing, Suli."
The girl gave up and sighed. "Everywhere, a few days ago, I started seeing these weird monsters popping up everywhere. It was strange- just one or two at first. I must have seen six today."
"Can you describe them?"
"They were all different. Some were really scary, dark and twisted skeleton things, and some were cute and fuzzy. There was this one..." and Suli shut her eyes, trying to remember. "It followed me sometimes. It was red, sort of reminded me of a puppy. It was friendly- some others reached for me like they wanted to hurt me."
"Right...do you know your age, Suli?"
Suli glared. "Fifteen. Lasr week."
The doctor stood up. "I'll need to talk to your mother now, Suli. I'll just step outside."
Suli watched him leave and noticed the door was open just a hair. She got off the table and looked outside the door.
She could see her mother talking with him.
"The chip? It's malfunctioning?" she said in shrilly voice. The doctor nodded.
"Has to be that...and it's giving her all these hallucinatory images."
"She'll need more surgery then! But I won't allow it! Fix it without opening her skull!"
Suli leaned back and sighed sadly. She had guessed it was the visual implant, but she didn't want more surgery. She clenched her fists in sudden anger. It wasn't fair...
When she was three, Suli had lost her vision to unexplained macular degeneration. To save her left eye, doctors had put a computer chip in the back of her retina to help her see. It had been a miracle of medicine- she could see perfectly, and the scars from that surgery were barely visible anymore. But Suli had had horrible nightmares and visions and dreams about fire and darkness and screams of people yelling strange names. As she grew older, they became less frequent. They had stopped altogether…until now.
More surgery...she'd probably lose her sight if they had to remove the chip. And the dreams would come back. Suli wanted to cry. Things had been going so well...
The door opened. "Come out, Suli," her tearful mother said gently. "They're going to give you a computer color test to see how well your vision is holding up."
Silently Suli followed until they sat her into front of an aging monitor inside a tiny, but well-lit, room.
"Click the mouse every time you see a black dot on the screen. It's a half-hour long test. We'll be outside if you need anything."
Suli nodded. The doctors and her mother left the room.
As soon as they had shut the door, the creature appeared again, sitting on the left of her chair.
"Hello," Suli said softly. The creature seemed to smile kindly.
It had a deep red fur, but it's belly and part of its muzzle was a light gray. There were three blades on its head, like claws. It had beautiful, sparkling blue eyes. They made it look intelligent.
Suli turned to her white screen, only to find it with new text.
PLEASE ENTER YOUR NAME.
Suli shrugged. "Part of the test," she said out loud. The creature was hoppping up and down in excitement, but Suli ignored it. If I ignore all these visions, maybe they'll go away, she thought furtively. She clenched her jaw and typed out
Suli Kodachi
The screen exploded with a tinkling of broken glass and light!
Suli screamed, throwing her arms in front of her face to protest herself. She felt heat and wind swarm around the room like a tornado.
She opened her eyes and lowered her arms a moment later.
The screen was not broken, but it was definitely glowing. A metallic object was floating there, glowing red. Suli stared as the screen continued to type
THIS IS YOUR DIGIVICE.
PLEASE TAKE POSSESSION OF IT.
Suli grabbed the digivice with her left hand, staring at it. It was pretty...what was it, a pacemaker? A new chip to put in her head? They'd have to remove her whole brain to do that, it was so big.
Suli looked down. The monster was practically doing leaps for joy. She smiled in spite of herself. "You're cute," she said. The screen flickered again to catch her attention.
YOU MUST RETRIEVE THE DIGITAL HOLITHESIS.
"The what?" Suli exclaimed incredulously.
THERE IS NO MORE TIME. THE VIRUS IS COMING.
COME TO THE DIGITAL WORLD.
"Where?" she intoned mindlessly. This was way beyond her comprehension, and she wasn't any dummy.
"The Digital World!" a squeaky voice cried out.
"Wha-ahh!" Suli yelled, jerking to one side. The monster was more clear now, solid, not transparent like a ghost. It was bouncing up and down and grinning.
"Come on, Suli. You're one of the Chosen! You're a Digidestined!"
Suli blinked slowly. "My chip is REALLY malfunctioning."
The creature shook its head. "Nope, that chip makes you special! I'll explain it to you when we get there."
"Get where?"
"The Digital World! Come on, Suli!"
Suli blinked again, looking at her digivice. "So, I wasn't dreaming? You're real?"
The creature sobered. "Yes. All those 'monsters' you saw are called Digimon, for digital monsters. We come from a place called the Digital World."
"Right," Suli nodded. "Uh-huh. And I told the doctor I wasn't crazy!"
"The Digital World is in big trouble," the creature went on explaining. "It was almost done being built when a dangerous virus swept through and stole the codes."
The screen blinked again
HURRY SULI. THE GATE IS CLOSING.
"I'll explain on the way! We only have a minute left!" squealed the 'Digimon'.
Suli took a deep breath. "Okay," she finally said. "I'll find out what these hallucinations really are." She looked at the creature. "What do I do?"
"Hold up your digivice and say, 'Take me to the Digital World!'"
Suli held up the now trembling digivice to the screen. It seemed to curve inward like a funhouse mirror.
"Take me to the Digital World!" she yelled. Her digivice glowed brightly twice, then starting pulsing a bright pink light.
"Here we go!!" yelled the enthusiastic Digimon. Suli looked down to see herself holding the fuzzy creature with her right arm and she smiled to herself.
Then light and cold air surrounded them, and with a crack of electricity, they disappeared.
TRANSMISSION COMPLETE.
***** Digital World, ??, ????
Jake stood up, brushing himself off. "Where am I?" he asked himself. He stared at his surroundings...which there were none.
It was emptiness. Blank whiteness stretching on forever. Jake looked down at himself to reassure himself that he was really there, and he had to blink from the glare of color.
"Hey! Anybody out there!" he yelled. "Where am I?"
"Good question," a voice said, and Jake spun to see another boy sitting down, watching him. Only he wasn't sitting on the floor- didn't seem to be a floor. He looked like he was sitting down, but he was eye level with Jake- floating almost. He had light blond hair and icy blue eyes, which seemed harsh in the room absent of color.
"Ahh!" Jake replied, pitching backwards, losing his footing, and falling. He stopped falling.
But he hadn't hit anything.
"What the-?" he said. He was floating too now.
The other boy smirked, but not unkindly. "I did that too, when I first got here," he said. He fingered one edge of the red scarf he wore. He looked dressed for snow. "Took me half an hour to sit up," he added.
Jake flipped around, and found himself positioned as if he was reclining against a big bean bag. "This'll do," he said.
He and the boy looked at each other.
"So," Jake finally spoke, "who are you?"
"I'm Aleks Ivonavich," Aleks said, extending his hand to shake Jake's. "I'm from Moscow. You?"
"Wow, Moscow! That's pretty far," Jake marveled. "I'm Jake Jameson, I'm from New York."
"The United States! I've always wanted to visit," grinned Aleks.
"Hey, who are you two?" said a third voice.
The two boys turned to see a girl clutching her knapsack tightly. She had auburn hair and amber eyes to match. She was very pretty, but she looked very nervous and frightened. She was definitely dressed for summer.
"I'm Jake, he's Aleks," Jake said, pointing to Aleks. "Who are you, where ya from?"
"I'm Daniella- I mean, Dannie," said the girl, a little less nervously. "I'm from Tel Aviv. Israel, y'know. Hey, where are we?"
Both boys shrugged. "Beats us. We were just going to school-"
"Well, I was at a friend's house-"
"-and we ended up here."
All three looked at each other. Then Jake grinned and pointed at them. "Hey! You have those digivices! I have one too!"
They all pulled out the digivices and compared them.
"Do you know what these are?"
"No idea..."
"They have SOMETHING to do with bringing us here!"
"They're called Digivice-Zeros, or D-Zeros for short," offered a gentle voice.
They looked around and saw a dark-skinned girl with brown frizzy hair and dangly hoop earrings. She too was dressed for hot weather. She giggled at their confused expressions and held up her own digivice, which glowed a faint yellow. "I talked to a Digimon before I came here. Leomon. He explained to me that we've been chosen to recover some lost treasure."
"Cool! Treasure!" Jake laughed. "This just gets weirder and weirder!" He and Aleks high-fived.
Dannie smiled at the new girl. "I'm Dannie, and Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum over there are Jake and Aleks. Who are you?"
"I'm Nadia," she smiled. "Are you from Israel? I overheard you say Tel Aviv."
"Yeah, I am!" Dannie grinned. "I'm the artist-genius of Tel Aviv. Where are you from?"
Nadia giggled. "I'm from Zimbabwe. My parents are zoologists there."
"Can you tell us more about these digivices?" asked Aleks. Nadia shook her head.
"I know we've been chosen- from all over the world, it seems -to help save a place called the Digital World." Everyone nodded- that made some sense. "I think these Digivices help us. I don't know what they do, though."
"They help us stay in contact with each other, and help our Digimon digivolve," said a quiet, tired voice.
All four of them saw a girl "sitting" up above them. She looked very tired and unhappy, holding a digivice close to her heart. Her eyes were closed as if she was sleeping, but she opened her eyes and looked down at them. She began to descend.
"Who are you?" asked Jake suspiciously. Then, seeing she looked ill, "are you okay?" he added kindly.
The girl was on their level now, so she "stood" and nodded to Jake, smiling a little. She looked a little healthier up close. "I'm Suli Kodachi. I'm a Digidestined, just like you."
"How do you know so much?" asked Dannie incredulously. Suli shrugged.
"Before I came here, I talked to a Digimon, and she explained everything to me."
"You too?" exclaimed Nadia happily. "I talked to Leomon. He didn't get to tell me that much, though."
Aleks looked from one girl's face to the other. "You all have seen Digimon before?" he gaped. "What are you talking about?"
Dannie took out her sketchbook. "Are these Digimon?" she said, handing it to Suli. Suli glanced at them, and nodded. "Yes, they are. How did you get those?"
It was Dannie's turn to shrug. "I just started drawing them today, I don't know why."
Jake took a deep breath. "Okay, let's recap. We all have Digivices to save the Digital World. Why?"
There was silence as they all observed each other. They were "standing" in a rough circle. Suddenly their digivices vibrated and shot out beams of colored light. "Ahh!" they all cried out, as the light merged together to project the holographic image of a young woman with silver hair.
"I am Gaia," she said, opening her bright golden eyes. "I summoned you, the first Digidestined, to the Digital World."
"I'm dreaming," Dannie whispered.
"No," Jake said, his voice firm with a strength in it he didn't know he possessed. "It's very real."
Gaia smiled at them. "Follow me. I'll try to answer your questions as best I can."
The image turned and in front of it opened up a hole of color. They could see a beautiful green land and forest and mountains stretched out through that window. Gaia 's image quickly stepped through, her passing accented by flashes of light.
"Do we go?" said Dannie fearfully.
"I think we can trust her," Nadia said softly, but doubt was in her voice.
"It's an adventure!" Aleks declared. "Don't be scared, Dannie."
Dannie glared at him. "You go first then!" she retorted.
Aleks shut up.
"We follow her," said Jake, and he stepped towards the window. He heard someone behind him and turned over his shoulder- it was Suli.
She grinned, and gave him a thumbs-up. "Let's go, fearless leader."
Nadia, Dannie, and Aleks came up to them. "What do we do now? Walk through?" Aleks asked.
"Grab hands everybody, so we stay together," Suli suggested. They all did so, except Dannie, who still looked dubious.
"Digital World, here we come!" Jake yelled. He, Suli, Nadia, and Aleks charged through together, holding hands and grinning. With a flash of light, they disappeared.
Soon Dannie was by herself. She folded her arms and frowned. "This is really just a dream. I'll wake up any minute. I'll just wait." She tapped her foot, passing time.
"Hey!" she cried out suddenly. "That girl still has my sketchbook!" Dannie ran to the window but stumbled just as she reached it. "Whoa-oah!" she shrieked as she tripped through.
With a flash of light, the window disappeared.
And so the adventures of the First Digidestined begin!
Stay tuned for episode two: enter the digital world