One World

Chapter 1: And So It Begins...

"We'll play again soon, won't we, Takato?"

"Yeah...Yeah!"

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It was summer in Japan. Summer Break, to be exact - The sun was shining, few clouds dotted the sky, and it was pleasantly warm. One of those rare near-perfect summer days.

Despite how nice a day it was, there were very few children at the park. A few kids on the swings and such, but that was just about it. Except for a small group of teenage boys.

The said group was inside an odd little structure that looked like a purple dinosaur, complete with a tail and legs, but had a gold-trimmed clock where its head should be. It was relatively big, enough for three or four young kids to fit inside, or if you set things up just right, three teenagers and a Digimon card game mat. It had been their hangout for years.

Takato, now 13, wore a white shirt with a blue button-up over it. He had baggy grey cargo pants that might have been a little too big for him, and finished his outfit with black shoes. His brown hair was as shaggy as ever, and odd as it may seem, he was goggleless. He was relatively crammed into a corner to give his friends room to play.

His companions, Kenta and Hirokazu, were playing a noticeably one-sided duel. Kenta was clad in a white T-shirt, brown shorts, and green and white sneakers, while Hirokazu (Kazu for short) wore blue jeans with a black shirt and shoes. Unlike Takato, Kazu continued to wear his trademark headgear, a grey sun visor.

Kazu slapped a card down on the mat. "Game over, buddy!" he said triumphantly, while Kenta slouched over in yet another defeat. "Man!" The blue haired boy exclaimed, "That's the third time! With all those rare cards, there's no way for me to beat you!" It didn't help that Kazu put all of his money into cards, while Kenta actually SAVED his money from time to time

"Sure dude, blame it on the cards. We all know I'm just THAT skilled." He gathered his cards from the play mat, taking a few seconds to admire his game-winning Andromon card before shuffling it back into his deck. "So, Takato. You gonna actually play a duel with us for once, or you still too good for Digimon Cards?" He asked boy at his left, who hadn't spoken much that day.

Takato blinked. "I never said I was too good for it, just..." Ever since he met Guilmon, he never felt the need to buy the cards anymore. He had his own real Digimon! After you get your own Digimon, you don't really feel the need to emulate battles with cards. Unless you were Kenta or Kazu. But, Takato had been bugged to bring his cards to play, mainly since Kenta wanted to see someone besides himself lose.

"Fine, fine," Takato chuckled, producing a deck of green and blue cards from his pocket. "I think these things need a good workout."

Kazu scoffed. "Then again, you sure you wanna play me with those old school cards? You should at least buy a pack or two every so often, or else you won't be able to compete."

"Mmm-hmm. We'll see about that."

The cards were placed on the mat and the game began.

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The sky was slowly turning an amber gold, signaling it was time for the boys to go home. Takato and Kazu had played three rather intense rounds, and Kazu came out as the winner.. "Toldja bud. Your deck needs a serious upgrade, or else you'll ever be able to beat the Super Kazu/Andromon team!" He jeered, lovingly dusting off his Andromon.

"I only lost because there isn't a Guilmon card," Takato laughed.

He had to admit, it was kind of nice to play again. Brought back memories. It wouldn't hurt to buy a booster pack, too see the new Digimon and strategies, and if Kazu stopped calling him 'old school' that would be an added bonus.

The downside would be that his allowance for this week would be gone. Oh well, equivalent exchange.

"Well, same time tomorrow then?" Kenta asked the other boys. The three nodded their approval and said their goodbyes, then went their separate ways home; Of course seeing as Kenta and Kazu lived so close to each other, this really meant only Takato walked home alone.

"You know, maybe I'll go to the game shop before I go home.." Takato said to himself. The game shop wasn't really out of the way, so it would only add a few minutes to his walk. As long as he was home before dinner, it was ok, right? And he really had plenty of time before then...

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With a chime of a bell, Takato left the small game store, a metallic blue pack of cards in his hand, and a Digimon capsule toy in his other hand (He was shooting for Agumon, but Betamon was cool too). Decided not to open the card pack until he got home, since it would be no good if he dropped the first cards he bought in who-knows-how-long on the pavement. And he certainly would not put that past himself... He may have changed since he met Guilmon, but some things never change.

Guilmon.

He hadn't seen Guilmon in about two years. Even so, that was only a short time.

It was three years ago when Takato found a Digital Gate. The D-Reaper had been defeated not long before, meaning the Digimon had to go back to their own world. Every so often, he would check the hut where Guilmon lived, never expecting to find anything, but still trying. That was where the Digital gate appeared again.

He was so excited! He was finally going to see Guilmon again! But first he had to tell the other Tamers, pack supplies to take with him...and plenty of Guilmon Bread! Who knew how long he would be gone this time?

But when he came back the next day, his friends with him, the area around the Digital Gate was surrounded by a concrete wall. It was Yamaki's doing. He had also found the Gate, and knew that it was too risky to keep it open. So not only did he build the wall around the Gate, he installed a firewall inside of it so that nothing could come or go through it.

This broke Takato's heart. He was so close to seeing his friend again...his best friend...he said some terrible things to Yamaki, although deep down, everyone knew it was the right thing to do.

But around a year later, the Tamers were presented with a gift: A new Ark! With this, they could safely travel to the Digital World, and thus Tamers and Digimon, at least for a while, could be united. The Digimon came back to the real world for a few days to celebrate Rika's birthday, but somehow a swarm of Parasimon came to the real world the same way the Ark did.

The Parasimon were defeated, but the Digimon once again had to go back to their world, and wouldn't come back until the Ark was perfected. Another Digimon attack like that would be unacceptable.

It has been two years, and there is still no foolproof way of getting to the Digital World...

By the time Takato stopped thinking and walking, he realized he was next to the park where his dinosaur friend lived. Just like he always used to do. And something was beeping. "Aw nuts," He sighed, not meaning to come to this spot. He wouldn't find anything different from last time he came, or the time before that, or last year...

Takato groaned. "Guess I WILL be late for dinner after all..." he said, tossing his backpack against the stone wall of the park, and sitting down beside it. After coming all this way, he may as well stay a while. He wasn't in the mood to walk all the way back home quite yet anyway. He debated calling his mom on his cell phone to explain that he would be late, but he wasn't exactly sure how to explain why he was going to be late. Besides, if she really wanted to know, she could call him.

He stared blankly at the orange sky. It was a little relaxing, somehow. He took a deep breath and got comfy against the wall. Faint beeping aside, it was kind of nice here. He closed his eyes for a minute.

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There was a boy.

He looked exhausted, as if he had been running from something. He leaned against a tree for support, at his side was a medium-sized striped feline, way to big to be a house cat, but a little too small to be something like a cheetah or lion. Although it must have been some kind of tiger, as it was orange with black stripes .

...The weird part was that it had a mohawk. So it definitely was not your normal cat. A Digimon maybe?

The boy, who looked about the same age as Takato, was dressed mostly in red and black. Red baseball cap over his black hair, matching vest over a black shirt. He wore blue jeans, red-trimmed black tennis shoes, and red wristbands to complete his outfit.

Suddenly, Takato realized that he was flying over everything, or more like floating. It was as if he was standing on invisible ground, looking down at the scene below. His arms were extended as well, and the whole sensation felt very familiar. He was still obviously a bit scared, but soon his fear melted into curiosity about the Digimon/Tamer duo on the ground. It was hard to hear them over the storm, but he could gather some things...

"Darn it... darn it!" The black-haired boy yelled. He slumped down to the ground. "She's gone too...Jeri...!" He hung his head in despair.

Jeri?

The feline looked at a loss for words, and very sympathetic. He sat down by the boy, apparently also at a loss of what to do.

The sky flashed with lightning once again, lighting up the whole forest. Takato jumped, but the mysterious boy and his Digimon remained unfazed.

That didn't last for long.

The forest was still lit, although the lightning was long gone. Everything, the boy, the trees, the whole world was glowing white with a ghostly aura. The boy lifted his head, looking at the glow on his hands. It was a beautiful sight, but the boy's expression said otherwise.

"Oh no!" The tiger gasped, clearly familiar with this event. The lights shimmered, growing slowly, eventually spiraling into the sky. Strangely, they retained the basic shape of what they were attached to, but were starting to get unrecognizable as they stretched more and more to get to their destination.

Takato looked up, and gasped.

There was a ball of light in the sky, certainly not the sun, moon, or anything of the sort. it was distant, in space, but still quite visible. Shades of orange, blue, red, yellow and green circled each other, making a sphere-like shape. The ghostly lights from this world slowly reached towards this mass of color. If it was not from the noise from the earth below, it would have been beautiful.

Looking back down, the brown haired boy realized that not only were these lights still connected to their counterparts below, but it seemed to be causing them great pain. The boy and tiger duo were crumpled on the ground, howling in pain. It wasn't just them. In every direction, he could hear screams of pain. It seemed the only one who was free from suffering in this world was Takato himself.

It was terrible, the sound in itself caused Takato pain, it was just too much. What was happening? He tore his eyes away from the chaos below to look at the auroras above.

As soon as he did, the silvery lights reached their destination. They met with the rest of the colors, when...

They snapped tight like a stretched rubber band. Before anyone knew what was happening, that 'rubber band' snapped, sending the whole world spiraling into the aurora, followed by a massive explosion.

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Takato jerked awake, dripping with sweat. He fell asleep, apparently. The dream almost instantly escaped him, he could only vaguely remember bits and pieces...something about a boy who gave his cat a mohawk. "Man, that kid's parents are gonna be mad..."

Wait, it wasn't cats with mohawks that caused you to suddenly wake up in a pool of sweat, was it? "Well, it was pretty weird," he reasoned.

He didn't mean to fall asleep, but it didn't last for too long anyway, so it was ok. He rubbed his eyes and pulled out his cell phone to check the time. He had only been asleep for about fifteen minutes.

For some reason, he kept thinking of someone. "Jeri..." he said, absentmindedly. Jeri was his longtime friend, and secret crush. Secret as in 'everybody knows it but he still hasn't admitted it'. Why she suddenly sprang to his mind, he didn't know.

He shrugged it off. Just a dream, right? Maybe she had a mohawk cat in his dream too or something.

He sat up a little, realizing that something...was still beeping. He looked around. Come to think of it, the sound ...was coming from him. He flipped open his cell phone again, and was greeted by his normal Agumon display. No calls, text, not even his alarm. Then what could it be?

Takato gasped. His eyes grew wide. This beeping was familiar...

But there was no way.

"No...way..."

There was only one other thing he had...that could make that noise.

He slowly put his phone back into his pocket. It couldn't be that, it hadn't activated in years...it was stupid to even think it. Traces of tears welled up in his eyes. It's just a stupid joke for the world to pull on him...

It hadn't activated for years, but there was still that chance...

He gulped and reached down to a different pocket and opened it up. Inside, there was a small, white electronic device of some sort, with gold trimming around the screen. His D-Arc. It was beeping, and the screen had a compass-like program running, pointing directly towards...

"No. Way."

He was standing on his feet before he even realized it, facing towards the whatever the D-Arc was pointing to. He started jogging towards it, doubled back to get his backpack, and then he ran.

And man, did he run. He didn't need to follow the compass to know where to go. He ran through the trails he had run through so many times before, and before he knew it, he was in front of a giant block that used to house his Digimon. If he had checked his D-Ark, he would have seen that it was indeed pointing to the structure. But there was no need to...

The concrete walls were slightly cracked, glowing vapors of every color were flowing from any opening they could find. It wasn't supposed to be there...it was supposed to have disappeared three years ago, but this was definitely a Digital Gate.

Well, there was one inside at least.

Gently, Takato placed his hands on one of the cracks, feeling the mist that was coming out. Sure enough, he felt like he was gently being tugged, as if the portal inside was inviting him in. This was real. He leaned on the wall with a sob of relief, looking slightly like he was hugging it. A huge smile crept across his face. He had a chance again! He needed to get Henry, and Rika, and-!...

...And Yamaki would close the gate again before he would get back with his friends. The smile slowly faded. He would have to go now, or else he might not get the chance again. Just for a little bit, just enough to see his long lost friends...

It was settled. He was going through now. "But how will I get inside that room?" thought Takato, but at that moment, another small part of the wall crumbled. Simple enough, he would have to wait it out. The portal itself would take care of it.

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As thought, it didn't take too long. But, Takato did get a little impatient after a while and 'helped'. With a big rock. Surprising how well it worked.

There was now a hole in one of the walls, just big enough to crawl through. It was admittedly a little awkward and painful, since the hole was in the a few feet above ground, so he had to wiggle and crawl through it. Then he fell through the other side.

Remember why he didn't want to open the card pack? That's why.

He let out a muffled moan of pain, having landed on some of the rubble he knocked out, then snapped back to reality. From his crumpled position, he tried to find his way to his feet. He had only gotten to his knees before he saw it.

The Gate.

He knew the gate was there, but still was shocked to see it again. Shocked, and at the same time, relieved. The gate was a swirling ball of light, slowly dragging small pieces of rubble into it, while pushing bits of data out. A green forest was barely recognizable inside.

The boy sat there dumbstruck for a bit. This is where all the doubts came it. Maybe he shouldn't go quite yet? After all, this was sudden...maybe he should get the others after all? Tell his parents? Get bread?...

"No...It's now or never!" He enthusiastically jumped to his feet. He was excited, nervous, and all of the above. Heck, if he squeezed his Digivice any harder it might break again. He wasn't sure exactly where he would end up, just because there was a nice green field in the portal didn't mean he would end up there. It was a risk, but at this point, his mind was too Guilmon-centric to really care. Typical Takato.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and jumped into the swirling mass of light.

...And he just kinda stayed there. He opened his eyes. No, he was floating! He had entered the Digital World before he even knew it, and was overlooking the green land, not moving an inch. It was an amazing feeling, even enough to make Takato forget about his mission for a minute. That familiar smile worked it's way onto his face again. "Wow."

He had to stop himself from giggling like a schoolgirl. He started waving his arms and legs, trying to do some sort of aerial maneuver, or at least move. Without much success, he tried the 'Superman' pose, holding one arm in front of him.

To his surprise, it worked! He was moving! "Yeah!"

But he was going the wrong direction...apparently gravity had caught up with him, because he was falling downwards at an alarming rate.

And this is when Takato stopped having fun, and started thrashing his limbs about in total fear.

"AWWWW NUTS!!!!!!!!!"

He met the grassy earth with a loud 'thump' and an explosion of dirt.

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Chapter 1: End

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Bwah ha ha, blatantly copying somebody else with this little segment :D

I know this is rather rushed so far, but I kinda suck at beginnings, plus, well, I wanna get to the next chapter? I swear, the next chapters won't feel so rushed. Maybe.

Decided to use English names for the Tamers and Digimon, just because I know more dub names than original names. But don't be surprised if I use terms like Card Slash, since I sometimes prefer them to their dub counterparts (In this case, Digi-Modify).

Takato is 10 in the Japanese version of Digimon Tamers. This story takes place three years after that season, so the characters are all around 13, with the exception of Suzie, who is now 10. I'd use the dub ages since I'm using dub names, but different sources say different things, so I stuck with what I knew...and yes, they are older in the dub by at least 2 years.

And I'm really not sure how far away Takato's house is from the park, so I made it just far enough that Takato didn't want to walk back. Convenient, no?

'Aw nuts' is the universal 'curse' for Digimon it seems. Takato and Beelzemon say it in the dub, and I'm relatively sure it was said in other seasons too. I'm also rather fond of Takato and Henry's 'Criminy Crumbcakes' line from the manga.