The sound of multiple crashes, one after the other filled the air. After a few seconds the dust settled, revealing nine large craters in the ground. For a few seconds there was silence, and then groans could be heard coming from several of them.
"Guilmon, are you okay?" Takato asked, getting up from the dirt. He looked over to the red lizard digimon, who was sitting in another nearby crater, sadly shaking a backpack.
"It's gone. The bread went bye-bye," Guilmon said with a groan. All of the bread had fallen out during the fall into the digital world.
Takato groaned at his partner before looking up and seeing a strange orb in the sky. It was green and blue, vaguely like Earth, except for the large craters and weird projections. "Is that Earth? Wait a minute… did we fall from all the way up there?"
Guilmon wasn't listening, still mourning the loss of his precious food. "My poor bread…"
Nearby, Takato's friends got up from the craters they were lying in. Kazu, in his visor and a black shirt expressed his own disbelief. "There's no way!"
In the crater next to his, more movement could be seen. Levering itself up from the dirt was a large bronze robot, Kazu's partner Guardromon. "Well," he said, "According to my sensors, we did indeed fall a very long distance."
"There's no way we could have survived," Jeri said from another nearby crater. She knelt on the ground, brushing dirt off her green dress as her partner offered a massive hand.
"Welcome to the Digital World," Leomon said in an abnormally jovial tone. "Need a hand?"
Jeri took the proffered hand as Henry struggled to emerge from the crater he was in. Terriermon was perched on his shoulder.
"So this is the Digital World," Henry said in awe.
"What did you expect? Everything to look like a video game?" Terriermon said sarcastically from Henry's shoulder.
"No…" the blue-haired boy said, "I guess I pictured something different. I just never thought it would be so real."
The last member of the group, Kenta, sat up from the dust, adjusting the glasses on his face. "Well, I'll probably never forget that experience," he said, joining everybody in looking up at the strange orb high in the sky.
Guardromon's mechanically enhanced eyes were the first to spot the movement in the sky. "Incoming!"
Kazu pulled out his digivice, the ring around the screen as bronze as the twin buttons on his face. A screen popped into being, hovering several inches over the display, showing what Guardromon was seeing.
"What could it be?" Henry asked, straining to see. After a few seconds, he could see a dot heading straight towards them.
"I think its another person," Kazu said, not even Guardromon's superior vision able to make out more than that. "And it's falling fast."
Yelling could soon be heard, getting louder as the falling person got closer. In a few seconds, everybody turned their faces away as whoever it was impacted with the ground, sending up a massive cloud of dirt.
"Woah!" Takato exclaimed, "Is that what happened to us?" As one the group ran over, circling around the freshly formed crater. Kazu waved an arm, trying to clear the dust as the newly fallen person slowly got to her feet. "It's amazing we made it here in one piece."
"Hey, that's-" Kazu began, recognizing the newcomer.
"Rika!" Jeri exclaimed, as the girl in question began to brush stray dirt from her hair and shirt.
"You were expecting somebody else?" Rika said, one eyebrow raised, as she straightened the collar on her brown trench coat.
"We weren't expecting anybody," Kazu said, "let alone you." Rika chuckled wryly.
"You know, not to be rude or anything," Henry said, "What exactly are you doing here?"
"I came for the view," Rika said sarcastically. "Why do you think I'm here? If all of you can become Tamers, there's no reason why I can't too."
"Well," Kazu said, "Except for the fact that you, Rika Nonaka, the Digimon Queen, one of the best Digimon card players in Japan, aren't while I, who, as you put it at the last tournament, couldn't tame my way out of a wet paper bag, am one?"
Rika narrowed her eyes angrily, and crossed her arms. "Yes, despite all that," she grimaced.
"Well, what are we going to do about her?" Takato asked.
"Since we can't exactly send her back," Henry said, thinking out the situation, "I guess we should take her with us."
"Damn straight," Rika said, climbing out of the crater.
"Well, at least there's someone else around who doesn't have a partner," Kenta piped up. "We got something in common," he said to Rika.
"Hmmph," Rika grunted, turning her back on Kenta.
Kenta sighed and walked over to Kazu, taking the flag with everybody's picture on it, and jabbed it into the ground, calling out to the others.
"How about some pictures?" Kenta said, pulling out a digital camera. "They'll make good mementos."
"I hate cameras," Rika grumbled, turning away from the group.
"Nobody's forcing you," Kazu replied, gathering everybody else in for a group shot.
"Come on Rika," Jeri urged the reluctant girl, smiling, "it's just a couple of pictures."
Rika agreed with a grumble, and Kenta began taking pictures of various groups of Tamers. Kazu and Guardromon somehow managed to be at least partially in every shot, but the others didn't seem to notice.
Afterwards, Takato sat down a short distance away; pulling the device Yamaki had given them out of his backpack.
"I don't suppose there's any bread in there?" Guilmon asked, hungry as usual. He sniffed around the bag, but Takato shook his head.
"Sorry boy, all the food was in your pack," Takato told the disappointed lizard.
"Oh no!" Kenta exclaimed, checking out the pictures stored on his camera. "What's wrong with the pictures?"
Henry took the camera from his friend, glancing over the photos. "They're all pixilated, like it couldn't get a clear image."
"That's not all that's wrong," Takato added, pressing a button on the communicator device a few times. "This thing won't connect. It's not receiving any signal."
"Hmmm," Henry muttered, forehead furrowed in thought. "It's as if there's some sort of interference. Maybe we need to boost the signal somehow?"
"Would an antenna do?" Rika asked, staring off into the distance.
"Well, if there were any around here, it might work," Henry told her.
"What about those?" she said, pointing at several strange shapes on the horizon. "They look like antennae to me."
"All the way over there?" Kenta protested. "It's a long way to walk."
"Well," Takato said, "If it helps us get in contact with everybody back home, I say it's worth it."
"Then it's settled," Kazu said. "Not like there are any better ideas." Guardromon reached an arm down and Kazu hopped on, perching on the robot's shoulder.
"Need a lift?" Guardromon asked, offering an arm to Rika. "It's really not a problem."
Rika shook her head. "I don't need a lift. I'll be fine just walking there."
"Don't even think I'm going to give you a lift," Terriermon told Henry from his usual perch on the boy's head.
"Jeri?" Leomon offered, but the girl shook her head too.
"If Rika can walk there, so can I."
Rika chuckled but said nothing, and soon the group was off and moving, off towards the antennae in the distance. Henry walked beside Rika, trying to engage the girl in conversation.
"What exactly is it you're hoping to accomplish by being here?" he asked, naturally curious.
"I'm… not quite sure," Rika told him. "I just get these weird feelings from time to time, you know? Like I'm supposed to be here."
"You and weird feelings," Kazu said, Guardromon pulling up next to the duo. Rika growled, and Henry looked between the two of them, confused.
"Am I missing something?"
"The Card Battle Tournament last year," Kazu explained. "Rika was favored to win, especially since Ryo wasn't scheduled to compete."
Rika grumbled louder at the mention of her rival's name. He was the only card player she knew who could actually beat her, and not by pure luck. It infuriated her. Kazu ignored her and continued.
"And yet, she never made it past the first round. When she was interviewed later, all she had to say was 'Something just didn't feel right.'"
"Well, it was true!" Rika protested. "I don't quite know how to explain it, but it felt like something was missing. Like something that was supposed to be there wasn't."
"Oh no!" came the exclamation from the front of the group. Everybody stopped to see the source of the problem. After a couple hours of walking, they had reached their destination. The only problem was, their destination turned out to be a formation of rocks. From a distance, they had looked like antennae, but up close they were nothing more than large hunks of ground.
"All that walking for nothing," Takato sighed, plopping down onto the dusty earth.
"There's one good thing," Leomon told the group. "They'll provide good shelter. It's almost nighttime."
"Are you sure?" Jeri asked, looking around. "It doesn't seem to be any darker than before."
"Just watch," the lion digimon said in a low rumble. A few seconds later, a rush of movement appeared on the horizon.
"Umm, what is that?" Kazu asked, staring in horror.
"Night is falling," Guardromon explained as a huge wave of darkness descended over everything. Night truly fell, brightness giving way to blackness as if by the flick of a switch.
"Well," Rika said as soon as the shock passed. "That was interesting."
"We really are a long way from home, aren't we?" Takato asked nobody in particular.
"At least there's a good light show here," Terriermon said, watching large purple beams sweep over everything.
"What exactly are those?" Henry asked.
"Data Streams," Guardromon told him. "Rather nasty little things. Tend to suck you up from somewhere and spit you out somewhere else entirely. To say it would be a good idea to stay away from them would be an understatement."
Just then, Rika noticed some movement in the corner of her eye. "Umm, guys? I don't think we're alone."
"What do you mean?" Kenta asked, looking around nervously.
"I can detect no strange presence," Guardromon told everybody, scanning the area.
"There!" Rika exclaimed as something came into sight on top of a rock formation.
"What kind of digimon is that?" Henry asked.
Rika was the one to answer. It had always been one of her favorite Rookie digimon. "If I'm not mistaken," she said, "that's… Renamon."