It was a bright Sunday morning, when a Soccer Ball flew through the air and hit Tai Kamiya on the forehead when he was sitting on the branch of a tree and scanning the area around the summer camp with his binoculars.
"Ouch!" Tai exclaimed screwing up his face in pain. Then looking here and there he noticed a red haired girl wearing a blue coloured cap and a blue T shirt with yellow coloured design on it along with a light blue jeans laughing at him.
"Did the ball hit you hard Tai?" asked Sora Takenouchi his best friend."By the way what are you doing up over there? All the other children are waiting for you on the sports ground, to begin the game. Come fast."
Smiling back at her, as Tai was about to get down from above the tree, something soft, fluffy and cold landed on his head and slowly floated into his outstretched hand. Looking at it he realized that it was a snowflake. Tai was extremely astonished and was about to point this out to Sora, when he heard the rumble of a thunder and at once saw a blizzard of snow starting to fall from the sky which was laden with heavy black clouds.
"Tai get inside the cabin. It has started snowing heavily, you will get wet and catch a cold." Sora shouted in a loud voice after she too saw the unusual sight and started running towards the nearest cabin.
Without wasting any more time, he too followed her inside and closed the door of the cabin to prevent the snow from entering inside. The temperature of area had suddenly decreased in a very short span of time and the once perfectly warm summer morning had become extremely cold. Shivering Tai turned and looked around the cabin taking into consideration its furnishing. He was thankful that the cabin being made out of a strong wood was capable of handling such fierce storms without suffering any damage. It had a fireplace at one side with logs burning in a pleasant red glow which heated it considerably and two windows on the wall opposite the door. There was a table at the centre with four chairs around it. He could see Sora looking at the snowfall out of the glass panes of the now closed window. Davis, the newest and the youngest member of his Soccer team was standing in a corner of the cabin, trying to balance the soccer ball on his knees with his signature goofy grin on his face. He wore a navy coloured shirt with a brown pair of shorts along with goggles perched on his head over his spiked brown hair. His attire was similar to what Tai wore as he adored the elder boy as his ideal.
Eight other children were also present inside the cabin whom Tai did not know. He could see a two blonde boys sitting in an embrace on a rug near the fireplace trying to keep their hands and feet elder of the two wore a green coloured sleeveless shirt along with dark blue jeans and the strands of his hair were so very haphazardly combed that they gave him the typical cool boy look. The younger boy also wore a totally green outfit which was darker in shade from that of his brother in the form of a hat, half sleeved shirt and shorts. Both the boys had strikingly similar facial appearance and deep cerulean eyes.
On the table sat a boy with brown coloured hair and eyes. He was wearing an orange coloured shirt with an olive green pair of shorts. He was typing furiously on a yellow coloured laptop with a drawing of pineapple on its cover but it looked as though his efforts were not very fruitful as he banged the cover on the keypad after sometime. Some distance from him sat another boy with black coloured spectacles. he wore a simple buttoned up white shirt with brown shorts. He had a cream coloured backpack and had spread all the contents of it on the floor which consisted of wads of tissue paper, some ointments, bandages, cotton pads and some other things helping in the basic first aid. He was searching something within the bag but was not able to retrieve it. After not being able to find it for sometime, he shook his head in apprehension and murmured something about having lost his best torch.
Also in the room was another girl wearing a cowboy hat and a completely pink coloured outfit with a belt and a matching pink coloured hat. She was continuously moaning something in a huff about not wanting to come to the camp in the first place but being talked into it by her parents which attracted glares from another girl sitting near her who had lavender coloured hair and wore a red top with a red skirt to match it. She was also wearing a pair of spectacles. With her sat a boy who looked like the youngest of all the children gathered in the cabin. He had a round head with black hair and wore a cream coloured full sleeved shirt and black pants. A kindo stick was propped up beside him and he looked as though he was meditating.
Tai sat in a corner of the cabin and sighed. His thoughts went back to yesterday when had come here to enjoy the school holidays but, now it looked as though everything was going to be spoilt by this sudden change of weather from a warm day to the day with snowfall and freezing cold. This camp could not be called a summer camp any more as a thick blanket of snow was spread around everywhere. It looked more like a winter camp which was generally deserted as no person came out of the house with snow poring all over the place. He was also fearing that the whole lot of the children would be packed home by Mr. Fujiyama their camp organizer due to the bad weather and then the long summer vacation would loom in front of him with nothing to do but boredom to keep him company.
While thinking about all this, his eyelids slowly started drooping and before he knew it, Tai fell asleep.
He did not know for how much time he had slept but suddenly he felt someone tapping him on the shoulder.
"Tai wake up, come out and look. You will not believe what is happening!" Sora exclaimed in excitement.
Slowly opening his eyes, Tai rubbed the sleep out of them and looked around the cabin. He saw that he and Sora were the only people present inside. The snowfall had halted for the time being, and had turned the world outside completely white. He could also hear the awed voices of the other children.
Getting up, he followed Sora outside and what he saw nearly made him fall down from the steps of the cabin. The sky was completely covered by a mist which was coloured like a rainbow.
"What is that happening to the sky Matt?" asked the younger of the two blonde boys.
"I don't know TK. It looks like it is short-circuiting." said the elder one.
"To put it into more precise words, it looks like the aurora." the boy with the laptop exclaimed.
"What is an aurora?" Davis asked.
"Gosh! You don't even know what an aurora is? It is the northen lights which appears only twice an year in the sky. Everybody knows about it and if you don't, you are surely the dumbest person on earth." replied the lavender haired girl.
"Did you just now call me dumb? Who do you think you are?" asked Davis shaking a fist at her.
"Huh, see you were not even able to understand such a simple thing even when I made my point very clear by speaking in an easy to comprehend manner. This is what proves that you are really dumb. And to answer your second question, my name is Yolei." she answered.
"What, you think yourself to be someone great, I will show you..." but before Davis could even complete his statement, or do anything else, Yolei seeing him advancing towards her, put her feet in between his legs and made him fall on his face in the very cold snow which attracted some giggling from the other children.
This angered Davis even more and when he was about to get up and strike back at Yolei with a ball of snow made by him after he fell and held in his hand, Sora shouted at the both of them,"Stop it you two. This is not the time to fight with each other. We should try to find out what is this strange phenomenon taking place in sky. I think Mr. Fujiyama might know about it and he might be able to tell us more as, grown-ups are better informed about such things."
"I agree with Sora." Tai said and all the other children also nodded in agreement. But as they were about to go and talk to Mr. Fujiyama an explosion in the sky attracted their attention. As they looked above, they saw some strange objects falling from the sky and heading towards them. No one moved, all the children stood rooted to the same spot where they were standing.
One by one, the objects falling from the sky, hit the snow very hard making small explosions and creating craters on its surface. There were about ten of those mysterious objects and each fell in front of a child present there.
After all the objects hit the ground, suddenly a bright light shone out of each crater and all the objects simultaneously came out of the craters and started floating in front of the children. All of them were so surprised that no one did anything but stare at the mysterious objects.
Tai was the first one to recover and grabbed the strange floating object in front of him by outstretching his hand. The light shining from the object went out and he was able to observe its appearance. It was a small square shape turquoise coloured instrument with a screen in the centre and three buttons, two on the left and one on the right side. It also had a socket at its side through which it could be connected to some other electronic gadget. At the back, it also had a hook so that, it could be strapped to other things.
Following his lead, all the other children also took hold of the objects floating in front of them.
The boy with the yellow laptop particularly, looked very excited as he observed the one he was holding in his hands by turning it over and over in hands.
"Prodigious! This instrument looks like some highly advanced electronic device. I think after its thorough examination, I will be able to understand for what purpose, it has been devised and even find out how it works." he exclaimed and switched on his laptop, connected it with the device through a cable plug and started typing something on the keyboard.
"Jeez, I don't have any need to waste my time on examining this device. I know what it is..." shouted Davis.
"So brainy boy, why don't you share with us what you know about it?" asked Yolei with an exasperated look.
"I was about to tell everyone about it but as always you have poke your dirty nose in everything that does not even concern you. For your information, according to me, this is some kind of a new video game manufactured by a company and distributed free of cost so that we can play games on it and give them a review of whether we like it or not." answered Davis glaring at Yolei.
She let out a mirth of laughter and shouted at Davis in the midst of it,"You baboon, you have once again proved that the thick skull placed on your body is totally empty and does not contain even an ounce of brain tissue within it. Do you really think that the others will agree with you in saying that it is some kind of a video game? Personally, I don't believe it is a video game. It moreover looks like a gadget used for finding your friends when you get separated from the group provided, that they too have this device with them because I can see ten red dots on the screen of the device which according to me point outs the people who posses this device."
"I think I agree with Yolei in this matter because even I can also see the dots on the device which I am holding." said Sora.
"Even the device in my hand shows the dots, so whatever Yolei is saying might be correct because when I move, one dot goes in the same direction as I am walking and when I come back to my original position, it also moves to the same place?" exclaimed Tai.
"Whatever you all say might be right but, I still believe it is some kind of a video game and I will prove it." saying this, Davis pressed the right hand side button of the device very hard. For some time nothing happened seeing which he was very disappointed but after a minute or so, it emitted a similar light as it had before which shot up into the sky. All the children turned their gaze towards the light and saw it slowly moving upwards and disappearing into the clouds.
"Vow! This instrument also acts like a torch." Davis exclaimed.
"What did you do with that device that it reacted in such a weird manner? asked Yolei."Izzy did you find anything about these devices on your computer?"
"No Yolei, there is no information available about these devices anywhere. As you can see, I have been searching for a long time but to no avail." Izzy answered,"And now Davis's device reacted in such a manner which is ever unheard of. Davis can you tell me, what command did you enter in it for that light to shine out?" he asked.
"I just pressed the ride hand side button and with the noise like a soft beep, the light started emitting from the screen and now, even after I am trying to switch it off, it is just not shutting down." Davis answered.
"This is just so strange, I..." Izzy started to speak but before he could complete the statement, the devices in the other children's hands started vibrating and shooting similar lights towards the sky like Davis's did. The children were extremely astonished and before anyone could say something the ground began to tremble.
"What is happening?" asked Tai.
"I don't know, it looks like an earthquake to me." answered Sora.
"No, it can't be an earthquake. I don't want to die in an earthquake, suffering in pain and without saying goodbye to my parents!" exclaimed the girl with the cow boy hat.
"Matt, if we are going to get killed, I want to be with you. Please hold my hand and stay near me." cried TK.
"Don't worry TK nothing is going to happen to us. I will protect you and not let any harm get to you. I promise." said Matt taking hold of TK's hand.
"I think we should get inside the cabin before anything serious happens!" exclaimed Izzy.
"Come on let's go inside then." shouted Yolei.
As they all started to run towards the cabin, suddenly the trembling stopped and the lights coming out of their devices automatically started switching off one by one and the devices stopped vibrating.
"Look the light coming out of these devices has gone off." exclaimed Izzy.
"And I think the earthquake or whatever it was has also subsided." exclaimed the boy with the cream coloured backpack.
"Whew! I was really afraid that this was the end." Tai said heaving a sigh of relief.
"Yeah!" said Sora.
"Look out everyone!" the boy who had the kindo stick shouted. As they all looked in the direction where the boy was pointing, they saw a very big wave of water like that of a Tsunami wave heading towards them.
"Oh my God! what is that?" exclaimed the girl with the cow boy hat.
"What does it look like to you Mimi?" spoofed Yolei in exasperation,"It is a giant tsunami wave."
"What are you guys discussing standing over there, Run..." shouted Sora and taking both Mimi's and Yolei's hands in hers, she started running in the opposite direction away from the wave.
"Come on Davis don't keep goggling at that wave like a fool. Save yourself. You others also move fast or else you will drown in that wave." shouted Tai picking up the boy with the kindo stick in his arms and running in the same direction behind Sora.
Davis took hold of Izzy's hand and called the boy with the cream coloured bag to follow him. The boy was in no time running along side them. Now only Matt and TK were left and even they started running behind the others. But suddenly, TK's leg twisted and he fell down crying in pain.
"Matt, my foot hurts. I cannot move any further. You save yourself Matt go, run!" he cried
"No TK I am not going to leave you alone. I will stay with you and not let any harm get to you." he said and launched himself over TK to shield him from the wrath of the oncoming wave.
"Matt, you are very nice. I love you brother and as want to tell you that I am really proud of you." exclaimed TK.
"I love you too little brother." said Matt with a small smile on his face.
Finally both the brothers closing their eyes awaited with anticipation for the wave to wash over them.
"Are you both mad." they heard someone shouting. Opening their eyes, they saw Tai and Sora standing in front of them and glaring. "Now get up fast and run or else all of us will get killed." exclaimed Tai and taking one of TK's and one of Matt's hand in his, helped them to get up from the ground. Then both he and Matt lugged TK on their shoulders and started running with Sora trundling behind the. Soon they came near the others and told them to run faster as the wave was gathering speed.
But as fast as possible they tried to run, the wave finally reached to the place where they were running. One by one all the children were splashed by the wave and they started to float in it.
"I am not able to breathe." Tai heard Sora shouting but before he could respond or help her out, he saw her being sucked away and before his very eyes, she disappeared. Tai looked around and saw the other children also floating inside the wave and like Sora, they were also sucked by the wave and disappeared. Now Tai was the only one left floating in the water but not for long as, he too felt a force trying to pull him towards it and slowly he too got sucked behind the others.
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooo." he shouted before he felt his eyes closing as he fainted and everything in front of him blacked out.
"Tai Yuh-huh Tai."