The day was like any other day. He was walking his route, patrolling his section of the island. For the months he had been doing this nothing had happened, so he often found himself slacking off. One would find it hard to believe that someone could sleep and walk at the same time, but the little orange digimon would argue that he'd done it multiple times.

His clawed feet crunched into the gravel of the path, and his eyes drooped wearily. The sun was beginning to set, and his shift would soon be over. One of his friends would take over for him in a bit, he would just have to get through the last half hour or so. The last half hour always took the longest.

His feet continued to crunch into the ground as he walked along, eventually reaching a denser part of the forest he was patrolling. The sun was almost entirely blocked out of it, and the trees hung over him like massive spider webs. A chill went down the small digimon's spine, as the change in his surroundings brought him to attention. Suddenly, he wanted to alert one of his friends that he was nervous. He wanted to alert one friend, in particular. However, as he thought and walked along, a mysterious figure appeared in front of him.

The little digimon stopped in his tracks. "Who are you?" He called out, a bead of sweat dripping down his neck.

The figure did not respond. It looked almost two dimensional. It was nearly black, and the shadows cast from the trees helped disguise it more.

"You're not supposed to be here," the digimon continued, "you're trespassing."

To that, the figure took a step forward and growled. However, the orange digimon stood his ground. He'd seen a lot of bad things, and he was sure this wouldn't be worse.

"Pepper breath!" The small digimon called out as a ball of fire was released from his mouth. It momentarily lit up the forest before going out against the figure's black chest. "It… it didn't do anything.."

"Of course not," the figure finally replied, in a deep voice. There was a slight growl underneath it, as if it's throat was sore. "your attacks are futile against me."

"What do you want here?" The orange digimon asked, still standing tall.

The black figure chuckled manically and took another step forward. "You."

"W-what?" Was the digimon's only reply. He knew the opening of the forest wasn't too far behind him, however he couldn't bring himself to move.

The figure, though, continued to move forward. "You need to be punished for all you have done."

A few more beads of sweat began to form on the digimon's neck. He watched for a moment as the figure advanced towards him. "What do you mean? What I've done?"

"You'll see." The figure said, flashing an evil grin the digimon could now make out because of the lack of distance between the two of them. The little orange digimon turned to run, but he couldn't get far enough away before the figure formed his attack.

"You won't get away, Agumon." It said. "Darkness cannon!"

The figure put it's two hands together and released a large black ball of energy towards the fleeing digimon. It hit him square on the back, causing him to collapse. The figure ran up to him and put a foot on his head, pushing him farther into the ground. He smirked down at Agumon as the little digimon's eyes began to close.

X

Taichi Yagami nearly jumped out of his bed, pushing all of the covers off his body. He ran one of his sweaty hands around his sheets to find his phone, and when he found it, he checked the time. 3:42 A.M, it read. He threw his phone back down onto his bed and wiped some of the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. He felt like he was burning up. Quietly, so he wouldn't wake his sister, he crawled down from the top of the bunk bed and walked into the bathroom. There was a thermometer in one of the drawers, he knew, but first he really needed some water.

Taichi looked at himself in the mirror and noticed the redness of his skin. His cheeks, especially, were a dark shade of crimson. The boy groaned as he reached for one of the cups that sat on the counter. He hated being sick, but at least he wouldn't have to go to school. Taichi filled the cup and brought it to his lips. He could almost feel the cool liquid running down his throat. However, once the first drop of water came in contact with him, it evaporated. The boy didn't notice for a few seconds, but once he became aware of the fact that he wasn't swallowing anything, he looked down at the cup and the steam now coming out the top of it. Taichi gasped and dropped the container, causing it to shatter across the floor.

To this noise, Hikari fidgeted in her sleep. Gently, her eyes popped open, and she noticed the light that was coming from the bathroom. She ran a hand through her messy hair as she slowly sat up, squinting her eyes to try and see into the bright light.

"Taichi?" She asked, her voice a little crackly from the dryness of her throat. "Are you alright? I heard something shatter."

She listened closely, but could barely make out the response. 'Good job Taichi, you woke your sister up.'

The girl furrowed her brow at his odd answer. 'Taichi?"

Hikari swung around so her feet were on the cool floor and stood up. Stretching gently, she walked closer to the bathroom. "Are you alright?" She asked again once she got closer to the door.

Taichi spun around and tried to kick the broken glass under the sink with his feet. He felt small prickles go through his skin, and he let out a small gasp. However, the pain didn't last for long. The boy lifted up his foot, but no more shards remained. His eyes widened as they melted and dripped down off the bottoms of his heels.

'Shit, what am I going to tell Hikari. She'll know something's wrong. I don't even know what's wrong!'

Hikari stared at the boy for a moment, and he stared back. The girl put one hand in front of her mouth and tried not to freak out. She had heard her brother say something, but he hadn't opened his mouth.

"What's wrong with her?"

The boy still stood in the bathroom, looking incredibly perplexed. Hikari, however, said without thinking, "What do you mean what's wrong with me?"

"What?" Taichi asked, "What is she talking about?"

The girl stared at her brother for another moment before letting her eyes drop to the ground. "Nothing." she responded, feeling a bit embarrassed. She swore she had heard her brother speak, but his lips didn't move. Perhaps she was just tired. She couldn't really have been reading her brother's mind or something. No, that was impossible. "I-I think I'm going to go back to bed," the girl continued, "but you should drink some water. You look hot."

As Hikari left the room, Taichi gave her a weird look before turning to look at himself once again in the mirror. His face was still red, and he could still feel his skin swelling with heat. Whatever was going on with his sister was nothing compared to what was going on with him. The boy turned on the faucet to try and run cool water over his hands, but the moment he put his hands close to the flowing stream, it turned to steam.

"What?" Taichi exclaimed. "This is impossible!"

X

A few hours later, on the other side of town, Yamato awoke for school. He lifted up the multiple blankets he had piled on during the night and stood up. He was still freezing. Throughout the past couple of hours the boy had been woken and woken again from sleep because he was shivering so roughly. No matter how many layers he put on, he was still cold. The boy, after willing himself to get out of bed, walked over towards his window and let the warm sun hit his skin. It helped, but not much. Perhaps he was sick?

Yamato crossed his arms and hugged himself, moving his palms up and down against his goosebump-filled skin. He knew he had to go to school today, so it didn't matter if he was sick or not. The boy really just wanted to warm up. He walked over towards his closet and pulled out a pair of heavy jeans and a v-neck sweater. After putting them on, he felt a little better, but his skin still felt like ice.

"What is going on with me?" Yamato asked to himself.

He walked over towards his bedside table to check on his digivice, as he did every morning since his friends and him had left the digital world. However, instead of there being the familiar red dot which pinpointed Gabumon's location, the screen was blank. Yamato raised an eyebrow and placed his digivice in his backpack. 'The stupid thing must be out of batteries.'

As the boy walked out of his house, he knew he looked a bit odd. Although it was quite warm outside, he was dressed like it was winter. He got a few odd looks on the street, but nothing unbearable. Everyone was just excited to be outside in the sunny weather. For the past couple of days, it had rained on and off, and there were still puddles left everywhere on the ground. Yamato carefully avoided them. He didn't want to get his new shoes wet, but it was nearly impossible to avoid them all. The boy stepped off the curb and into the street, not seeing a giant puddle that hid itself next to the cement where the street drooped down. Yamato gasped, unable to stop his step on such short notice. However, instead of splashing into the deep puddle, the boy felt a hard surface.

"What?" The boy asked to himself as he looked down. The puddle had frozen into a giant section of ice. Yamato, a little shaken, simply shook it off and kept moving forward. He had seen weirder things before, but still, what was happening to him?

After a few more minutes, Yamato reached his school. Once inside his classroom, he could relax. His skin was still filled with goosebumps, but at least his skin was entirely covered.

"Hey, Yamato." He heard a voice say. The boy turned around and found Koushirou walking towards him.

"Hey!" The blonde answered as his friend took a seat next to him. "What's going on?"

Koushirou shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing, really. I'm tired though, I was trying this new format for my computer last night and I got a bit carried away with it."

"You say that like I should know what it means." Yamato laughed.

"Yeah, yeah." The boy sighed. "Hey, it's pretty cold in here."

Yamato raised an eyebrow as Koushirou put on a light jacket he had brought with him.

The boy continued, "It wasn't this cold before."

"Well I've been freezing all morning." Yamato replied, furrowing his brow. "Join the club."

Koushirou huffed. "Right."

Suddenly, after a few moments of silence between the two, a quiet beeping could be heard from inside Koushirou's bag.

"What's that?" Yamato asked as he watched the boy unzip his backpack.

"It, It sounds like my digivice." Koushirou responded, a little confused. He rustled through his bag a bit and eventually got the device in his grip after seeing the blinking red light that came from it. It buzzed rapidly in his hand, enough for the boy to feel the need to keep it hidden just under the folds of his backpack.

"It's freaking out!" Yamato exclaimed, peering into the bag.

"You think? Gah!" Koushirou cried as he dropped the digivice from his hand. A shock moved from his hand, to up his arm, to down his spine, making the boy's body spasm for a moment. Quickly, once he regained control of his body, he pulled his arm out and rubbed his hand with his other one.

"Are you alright?" Yamato asked, clearly concerned.

Koushriou drew in a big breath before responding. "Yeah.. yeah.. it just shocked me."

Yamato raised an eyebrow. "Shocked you?"

"Yeah.." Koushirou responded as he went digging through his bag once again, this time much more carefully. However, the blinking red light that had helped him find it last time was gone. "The screen went out.." Koushirou mumbled, carefully touching the device with one of his fingers. Once he deemed it safe, he picked it up once again and examined it. It was cold. The redhead bit his lip. "The whole thing seems to be dead."

-surflilu

I'm so excited to write the rest of this story. I hope you all enjoyed it so far! Please let me know what you think. I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can! (And you'll get to see what weird things are going on with everyone else!)