Digital Connections

Chapter One: The Beginning

Camp Lakina – a large summer camp situated in the middle of a forest beside an old lake in the middle of the country. Kids came from all over Odiba; Japan ranging anywhere in age from six years of age up until seventeen year olds. The camp was situated out in the middle of the country to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and into a slower moving environment. Every summer was similar here, but it always had a twist that would make it different from the prior years. However, this year would be the most interesting and memorable out of all the years.

Yellow buses made their way off of the busy moving highway and onto an old dirt road winding its way down into the heart of the forest where many other idle buses were parked as kids of all ages piled off of the buses and into the campgrounds. The new buses stopped beside the other buses, creating a wall of yellow as more kids piled off the buses trying to find their cabins for the next two months.

A brunette jumped off the bus steps, looking around at her surroundings. This was her first year out of the busy city and into the country; she didn't want to miss a single thing. She was supposed to come last year with her brother, but she got sick a week before the buses left, so only her brother was able to go. Footsteps coming down the bus ramp behind her brought her out of her musing, as her brother came sauntering out of the bus.

"Honestly Hikari, why are you so excited? You pushed everyone out of your way." Her brother muttered, stopping beside her.

Hikari just sighed, looking up at her brother, ignoring his comment. "C'mon Taichi! We're going to have so much fun!" She laughed, grabbing his hand, dragging him off to where the councilors were giving out cabin numbers. "I hope that we meet a whole lot of other people here."

Taichi nodded, half listening to what his sister was rambling about. He didn't mind spending a summer at the camp as he had done it last year as well. It was mainly the fact that his sister was here with him, and what his mom had said before they got onto the bus. "Watch out for your sister, you know with her medical problems, anything could happen. At least, watch over her until she meets a bunch of friends her own age." What a damper on all the camping fun, watching out for your little sister.

"Taichi! Hey!"

Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked up at the sound of his name. A girl with red hair jammed under a hat was running at them, waving as she ran, grinning ear to ear.

"Hey Sora."

"I didn't know you were going to be here Hikari," Sora said, ruffling the smaller girls' hair and then shifted her eyes to meet with Taichi's. "Taichi told me you were sick."

Hikari gave Taichi a look, before looking at Sora. "I feel a lot better now!"

"Well that's good. So, what cabin did you guys get into?"

"Haven't got there yet." Taichi said, taking his hand out of Hikari's grasp and strode over to where the nearest councilor was.

"Well? What cabins are we in?" Hikari demanded when Taichi returned.

"2-A for me, and 2-B for you."

"Hikari! You're in my side of the cabin then," Sora chirped, taking a hold of one of Hikari's hands. "Come on, we got to get there fast and get the good bunks! See you later Taichi!" With that, the two girls skipped off in the direction of 2-B, leaving Taichi to his own devices.

Auburn eyes looked around the campsite as she took in every sight. Her eyebrows raised at the sight of the wooden cabins she would be spending the next two months in. This wasn't something she was looking forward to as she made her way down the dirt path between the cabins looking for her cabin; 2-B.

"I can't believe that mom and dad sent me here for the whole summer! No air conditioning or malls, what am I going to do?" She muttered, as she fixed her hat that was falling off of her brown locks.

Finding the cabin with a sign saying "Two" on it, she made her way up the path, stopping when she saw there were two doors to the cabin. One door had "2-A" scribed into the wood, while the other door had "2-B" scribed into it. Figuring that was how they separated the girls from the boys, she shrugged making her way towards 2-B. As she approached the door, she heard laughter coming from the inside. Whoever her… cabin mates were, they seemed to be having a good time. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as she thought. Just maybe.

Pushing the door open, the laughter stopped. Poking her head around the door, she saw a brunette and a red head looking quizzically in her direction. Inwardly smiling, she stepped into the cabin, closing the door behind her.

"Hi. I'm Mimi Tachikawa." She smiled, her pink hat falling off her head and resting on her shoulders as she dropped her bags on an unoccupied bunk.

The red head smiled. "I'm Sora Takanouchi, and this is Hikari Kamiya."

Smiling, Mimi made her way over to where they were sprawled across one of the beds, and sat down on the edge of it, smiling awkwardly.

"This is my first time coming here. My parents thought that it would be a good idea to come out and see what it's like out of the city. I think, I'd rather stay at home in the city though. How about you two?"

Hikari nodded, agreeing partially with what the girl, Mimi, was saying. "This is my first time here as well! I couldn't come last year because I got sick and had to stay at home. My brother came last year and all he did was tease me about it when he came home in September! I'm glad that I'm here though, then I can't be teased and I get to see lots of people!" Hikari chirped, smiling ear to ear.

Mimi nodded. 'Happy little thing, this one is.'

"I've been here before, I came here last year with Hikari's brother; Taichi. It's a lot of fun Mimi! We're going to have so much fun, and the guys aren't that bad either." Sora laughed.

"What's with the A and B sorting? Is it too keep boys and girls separate?" Mimi asked, remembering the other door.

Sora and Hikari nodded. "Basically yeah," Sora replied. "But for group activities we have to work with 2-A, theirs eight people to a 'cabin'." So there will either be another girl in her… or another boy over there. Either way, there will be eight of us."

Mimi's nose curled slightly at the idea of doing group work with a bunch of boys. All the boys in her neighborhood were annoying and immature. "Do we do a lot of… group work?"

Hikari laughed at the look on Mimi's face and Sora nodded. "Uh-huh, a lot of group work. But, don't worry! Just keep them in line and smack them if need be. Some of them can be so immature. After a few days, you'll be fine with it though." Sora explained.

Mimi nodded once again. "So… does this place have air conditioning?"

A small, blonde boy wandered up the steps to the door of 2-A, happy to be back at the camp for another year. Swinging open the door, he stopped suddenly, seeing another blonde boy there, with his back to him.

"Yamato?"

The other occupant of the room, turned around curious to see who would know his name. "Takeru?" He said, with an equal amount of shock as his brother.

"I didn't know you were going to be here too!" Takeru chirped, throwing his bags down on the nearest, occupied bed. "Dad sent you here as well? Mom thought it would be a good idea to come again this year! Maybe mom and dad planned this!"

Yamato shook his head at his brothers' optimistim. 'Like mom and dad would have planned this, they can't even be in the same room together.' Putting on a smile, he looked back at his brother. "Maybe they did… who knows?"

"I wonder who else will be in our cabin! My cabin was awesome last year, we had a lot of fun in it!" Takeru said, sitting on his bunk, looking at the other luggage laden beds. All but one had luggage on them.

"Humph. I just hope that Kamiya kid isn't in our cabin." Yamato muttered, thinking of the brown haired soccer jock from last summer.

Takeru laughed. "You probably just jinxed yourself, you know?"

Walking up the dirt path, Taichi slung his bag off his shoulder. He had been in cabin 2-A a couple years ago, and worse, he had gotten there late and got stuck with the bad bed. Since a whole lot of buses had just pulled up, he was betting that his cabin mates were just getting here and he could get the good bed for a change. This year, he was sure that it wouldn't happen.

"Ha Ha." Taichi thought, as he swung the cabin door open.

"…jinxed yourself, you know?"

Taichi sighed someone was already there. Closing the door behind him and turning around he was surprised to meet two people instead of one.

"Augh! Not you!"

Looking at the taller of the two, Taichi inwardly grinned. 'Looks like Ishida's in my cabin.'

"Awe, Ishida, don't tell me you're still upset that I creamed you last year."

Takeru looked between the two and sighed. "Don't tell me, this is the Kamiya kid?"

"The names Taichi." He muttered, looking in the smaller blonde's direction.

Takeru nodded, and silence ensued between the three as they stood there, looking at one another. The silence was broken however as Taichi cast a glance at the bunks, luggage was on them all except…

"That's the only bunk that's left!"

Yamato smirked, leaning against the ladder of the bunk beds. "Yeah Taichi, that's the only bunk that's left."

Taichi muttered something incoherent before shaking his head and dumping his bags onto the empty bunk. Looks like it was the old, beaten up bunk from a couple years ago. Taking a glance that the other bunks around him, and two blondes talking about something – the small one very animatedly. Tai shook his head, jumping up off the bed.

"Wonder what Sora and Hikari are up to?" He muttered, making his way towards the door, then stopped and turned around. "Hey, little man!" Takeru looked up from what he was talking about, looking at him questioningly. "My little sister is here as well… about the same size – probably age to – she's next door with Sora if you want to come too."

Smiling, Takeru jumped off the lower bed, chasing after the brown haired teen. "C'mon Yamato!" He waved before disappearing out the door too.

Yamato frowned, before going and poking his head through the cabin door. "Takenouchi's here too!"

"You wanted to go to cheerleading camp?" Sora asked, eyebrows raised. "Why would you want to go there?"

Mimi just laughed it off. "I'm a cheerleader at my school, and all my friends were going there. But… my parents thought that I needed to see other people and know other classes." Mimi said, brushing out imaginary wrinkles in her cowboy dress.

"Sora isn't into the cheerleading, she's our tomboy!" Hikari chirped, latching onto Sora.

A knock on the door interrupted the conversation, as three sets of eyes swiveled over to the door before Hikari chirped 'Come In!'

The door swung open and a mop of brown hair walked in, followed closely by a short blonde haired kid. Hikari looked in interest at the small blonde haired boy; he looked about her age… and a lot of fun.

"Hey Taichi!" Sora called, jumping off the bed. "How's your cabin, anyone interesting in it?" Upon seeing the small kid behind him, Sora kneeled down, ruffling his hair. "Who's this little guy?"

"I'm Takeru."

Sora nodded, standing up again and looking Taichi in the eyes. 'Why's he here?' She mouthed.

"Hey, Hikari!" Taichi called, waving his sister over. "This is Takeru from my cabin. He's about your age."

Directing her attention over to the other guy, Hikari beamed and jumped off the bed as well. "Hi Takeru, I'm Hikari!" She chirped and then grabbed his hand. "Hey, want to go outside and do something?"

Nodding, the two of them, ran out of the cabin, the chant of 'you can't catch me' not that far behind them. Mimi looked around awkwardly, not knowing what to do, as she had never been around boys that much.

"Anyways," Sora started, trying to break the ice, then motioned over towards Mimi. "This is Mimi Tachiawa, and this is Taichi Kamiya."

Mimi nodded in his direction. "Nice to meet you."

Taichi looked dumbfounded at her. What was someone like this doing at a summer camp? Snapping out of his thoughts, Taichi looked back at Sora. "You remember the guys from the soccer field last year, Sora?" Sora nodded. "There all here again… and want to start up a game. Want to go?"

"Yeah!" Sora grinned, grabbing her hat and jabbing it onto her head. "Hey Mimi, want to come as well?"

"No thanks. I don't like sports."

"Alright then… see you later!" And, with that Sora and Taichi ran out of the room at top speed.

Mimi sighed; both of her cabin mates were out doing something. Looking around the wooden room, she shook her head and stood up. Pushing her bangs out of her eyes, she made her way to the door, wanting to go out and do something. Maybe there was nature walks going on around here? Or maybe… she could pick some flowers. Smiling at the idea, she skipped outside hoping something exciting was going on.

After looking around for a while, Mimi sighed. There was nothing to do around here, there were no nature walks… only a looming forest, and there wasn't any flowers… not even a lake was near by! She couldn't even go swimming. What were her parents thinking sending her to a place like this? This wasn't her idea of fun! Stopping, Mimi looked around wondering what she could do? Maybe Hikari and Takeru were around somewhere…

"Hey! You're blocking my satellite connection!"

Snapping out of her thoughts, she turned around. No one was there. 'Hmm…' She thought, her eyebrows knitting together. Then, looking down, she saw a red haired kid looking up at her, computer sitting on his lap.

"Did you hear me? Can you please move, you're blocking my connection."

Mimi nodded, and then shifted over a bit. "There is that better?"

The kid nodded, and went back to typing madly. Mimi looked at him type away quickly before kneeling down beside him. "What are you doing?" She asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Trying to connect this to my satellite connection back home. But these trees are interfering with the connection, nothing wants to start up."

"Uh-huh…" Mimi trailed off, standing up. "Have fun with that kid…" Shaking her head, she continued down her path to find something to do… or find someone to talk too.

"Hey Takeru… where are you?" Hikari called in a singsong voice as she ran down a gravel path trying to find the well-hidden Takeru.

'No fair… he's a really good hidder…' Hikari mused, wondering where the blonde might have went off to.

Seeing a flash of blonde running down the stone steps to where the 'Mess Hall' and such were located, Hikari smiled, figuring out why she could never find him. 'He keeps moving the little bum.' With a grin plastered over her face, Hikari ran off.

"Takeru! I know you're down here!" She called from the top of the steps, looking for a sign of motion. Seeing a movement between the mess hall and the boys' bathroom, Hikari grinned. "Think you can hide where I can't go! Think again! I'll wait you out!" She said to herself, running down the stairs, arms spread.

To be quiet, Hikari walked slowly up the gravel driveway, hoping to have the element of surprise. Reaching the bottom of the stairs leading to a small platform, Kari smirked. She heard water running inside, and then the hand dryer. Leaning up against the wall, she waited, listening to the persons' footsteps that were starting to come closer.

"I got you now!" Kari yelled, jumping out of her 'hiding place' as the person walked out of the bathroom.

The two of them crashed to the floor, Kari laughing at her amazing capture of the hidden Takeru. A cough brought her out of her thinking, and looking down she jumped back, surprised at what she saw. A boy who glasses and a mop of blue hair, was staring at her impatiently.

"You're not Takeru," She cried out, surprised. "Sorry for jumping on you." She added as an afterthought.

The boy simply nodded, fixing his glasses. "Just watch where you're going next time, OK kid?"

"Kari! I can't believe you jumped on him!" Another voice called out, and the two looked over at the new voice.

"Takeru!" Kari called, and started to run after him as he bolted up the stairs to where the cabins were. "I'm going to get you, you little bum!" Kari called, starting up the stairs.

"It's great too see some old and new faces in the crowd. This year will be better then ones past, as here at Camp Lakina we have many new plans of activities, both group related and unrelated." One of the Camp Councilors; Mr. Jadiken said, then passed the microphone over to a smaller councilor standing behind him.

"This is the first of the group activities. Each cabin – both A and B – will be given a map of the surrounding wilderness. The goal of the group is to find an interesting item from each of the red 'X' area's located on the map. After an item is found in each area, made your way towards the waterfall located over there," She vaguely pointed behind her, where a mountain could be seen on the horizon. "There we will have a picnic and spend the day swimming. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?"

"Now, get to it! Everyone come and get a map." Mr. Jadiken said, waving the maps around in his hand.

"I hate the wilderness! Why couldn't I have stayed in the city all summer? All this heat is destroying my hair!" Mimi whined, brushing her bangs behind her ears.

"Just shut it will you? Your whining is doing nothing for us." Yamato replied, shooting the brunette a glare.

"Both of you; be quiet. Matt just help us find the last red 'X'. And, Mimi; quit your whining. If you help us to find the last red 'X', your hair will be fine. We're going to a beach." Sora said, stepping in between the two.

"A beach!" Mimi said, currently forgetting about her hair. "Let me see that map! I want to go to the beach!" She screeched, snapping the map out of Taichi's grasp.

"Hey I was looking at that!" Tai muttered, looking at his map less hand.

Mimi however, didn't seem to notice anything Taichi had said as she was staring intently at the map in her hands. "We should go south-west, it looks like the quickest way." Mimi said, walking forward, the map in her hand.

The others' just stared at her as she walked ahead a little bit. The daddy's little girl, pink princess knew how to read and navigate with a map. "How do you know that, Mimi?" Koushiro asked, voicing the question everyone was thinking of.

The brunette just laughed, looking back at the red head. "The map at the mall, silly. That's how you find out where all the new stores are."

Koushiro just nodded; of course it would be shopping related.

"Give me the map, I'm the leader!" Taichi said, grabbing the map back, earning a small 'hey!' from Mimi.

Yamato looked at Taichi, eyebrows raised and arms crossed. "You're the leader? Whoever made you the leader? We never voted you to be the leader."

Taichi shrugged, continuing in the direction that Mimi was heading in. "C'mon, let's just get to that X so we can go swimming."

"That was totally the wrong direction!"

"My hair! It's ruined!"

"My laptop! Get off me Joe, you're crushing it!"

"Tell me again, why did we go this way?"

"It wasn't my fault, Mimi started going this way…"

"And you believed her? The girl thinks the world is pink!"

"I do not!"

"Are we there yet?"

"I'm bored. Why don't you pick up something here and pass it off as something from there?"

"No. I think we should stick to the rules provided by the camp councilors."

"Don't be a stick in the mud! We'll be here all day otherwise."

"Hikari's right, just pick up something from here!"

"Fine Sora. Now everyone, get off me!"

One by now, everyone slowly got off the pile that the eight of them had made at the bottom of the hill, slowly got out of the pile, standing once again on their own to feet. They had ended up following Taichi, while he and Yamato fought most of the way with Mimi and Joe whining in the background about this and that, when it happened. Taichi, while still walking turned around to yap off at Yamato again, when he fell off a well hidden ledge and took everyone with him, as they neared the ledge to try and see how far he fell, when the mossy area that they were kneeling on, caved in as well.

"That hurt you know, having seven bodies fell on me!" Taichi accused, glaring at the seven of them.

"Whew, my computers fine." Koushiro said, looking his laptop over completely. "You all could have really damaged it!"

"Here's a flower. We'll use this as the red X area, now let's go." Sora said, plucking a flower from her feet.

"We can go to the beach now? Let's gooo!"

"Cabin 2, nice to see you've finally decided to join us. Looks like the wild didn't really like you, eh?" A small councilor – the same one who organized the event – laughed, seeing their ragged appearances with leaves and small twigs fitted throughout their hair.

"We took a wrong turn." Sora said, shrugging her shoulders.

"I can see that… well since you're here… go and enjoy what time's left." She replied, waving to what was behind them and walked off to see what the other councilors were up too.

"Time left? What do you mean by that!" Mimi yelled, stalking after the smaller councilor while the others' made a beeline for the water.

The small councilor turned around. "Time left, there's about an hour left before we head back to camp. You guys were out there for a long time… you guys must have took one serious wrong turn." She laughed.

Mimi scowled. "Yeah and it was all Taichi's fault! Now I'm going to miss spending all day here!" Mimi whined, sighed.

"Enjoy it while you're able do." The councilor replied, before heading off in the direction she was headed before, leaving Mimi standing there, who sighed and made a beeline for the sunshine.

"Too bad we had to leave the beach early it was awesome! Did you guys see the view from the top of the waterfall? Takeru and I went up there… we were going to jump off but Taichi and Yamato appeared…" Hikari giggled the next day, sitting on Mimi's bunk the next day pouring over some magazine's Mimi had brought with her.

"No, I didn't see that. If there was more time, I think that I probably would have. But, I didn't to tan… if I'm going to be out here all summer, I need to have proof of it." Mimi replied, flipping a page of the magazine.

"I wished I could have as well, but it was just so hot and the water was amazing. That and that water gun fight some of the others had going on, that was a lot of fun as well." Sora laughed, taking some more stuff out of her suitcase to put it up around her bunk.

"Do you guys want to see it? We can probably get back there, I took the map from Taichi when he wasn't paying any attention at the top of the waterfall," Hikari laughed, producing a map from her pocket. "I wanted to go back, is anybody else in?"

"Sure, I'll go." Sora said, zippering up her suitcase, and heading towards the door.

"Count me in as well, it sounds wonderful!" Mimi giggled, closing the magazine and following after Sora and Hikari as they made their way out the door.

However, they didn't get to far, as Sora and Hikari had stopped as soon as they stepped outside, Mimi walking right into them, as she hadn't seen them stop. Crashing into them, Sora and Hikari threw Mimi a glance, then to Mimi's confused look; they pointed up. Following the girls' raised arms, Mimi looked up into the sky – only it wasn't blue like it was before.

"What! What's going on?" Mimi screeched, stepping backwards.

"I have no idea… hey! Is this snow?" Hikari exclaimed, looking up at the sky as something flaky and wet fell on her. "It is snow… but in July?"

"I think we should go back inside, the waterfall can wait. Heck, I don't even think that any of us brought clothing for snow." Sora said.

"Oh, this would be the perfect weather for my pink fluffy boots!"

"Mimi? You actually brought snow boots…"

"There boots. Not snow boots."

"What's the difference? Their both shoes." Sora shrugged.

"Woah! It's snowing!" Takeru called, the door to Cabin 2-A slammed open as Takeru ran out, Yamato following close behind him.

"Takeru come back, you'll catch a cold." Yamato called, following Takeru out into the open.

"Hey guys!" Sora waved, seeing the two. "What do you think of the snow?"

"It's impossible. Due to molecular combinations it is highly hard to believe that it is snowing. It's an allusion or something." Koushiro called, walking outside his laptop underneath his arm.

"I think we should all come back inside, we're all going to get sick if we continue to stand out here!" Joe said, also coming outside, arms crossed in an attempt to stay warm in the wind.

"With all the snow, I think that we should have a snowball fight, that'd be fun!" Taichi called down from the tree that he was perched in.

"Sure thing! I call Captain!" Sora called, arms on her hips.

"Other Captain!" Taichi called, jumping down.

"All we need now, is more snow so we can actually make snowballs…" Taichi muttered, kicking the dusting of snow on the ground.

"Hey! What's that up there!" Joe suddenly called, pointing up at the sky.

Instead of the sky being blue – or ever the faint greenish colour it was a few minutes prior – it was definitely green now, swirling around as well.

"That's… not normal!" Taichi shouted, surprised.

"Ahhh!" Mimi shouted, backing up. "I'm too young to die!"

"We're not going to die." Koushiro explained. "Something horrible is going on though."

"Great, just great." Sora muttered, shaking her head.

Then, the green swirling vortex in the sky stopped moving and eight point of light could be seen inside it… and the lights were slowly coming closer to the ground.

"Ahhh! Run!" Mimi yelled, whirling around to try and get under the roof that was on the cabins' front porch, Joe following suit.

However, the two didn't get far as the beams of light, hit the ground with a force, sending the eight falling to the ground, screaming, waiting for the dust to clear.

"What was that?" Hikari exclaimed, crawling over to the hole the light fell into.

"Hikari! Don't get to close!" Taichi called, seeing his sister.

Then, as if on cue, the holes in the ground started to light up, and the eight beams shot out slowly, revealing a device within the light.

"Woah, what is it?" Hikari asked, sticking her hand into the light and pulling the device out. "It looks really technology-like." She said, throwing a look at Koushiro.

"Really? Hmm…" Koushiro said, sticking his hand into the light and pulling out the same device as Hikari did. "Weird, I've never seen anything like this before, I wonder what it is." He said, examining the device in his hand.

"Maybe it's really old?" Joe asked, as him and the others' grabbed their devices out of her lights as well.

After grabbing their devices, the ground started to rumble under them, sending those not sturdy enough crumbling to the ground.

"I think I broke something. Is this an earthquake?" Joe asked, trying to get back onto his feet.

"I don't think so…" Koushiro trailed off, as the ground cracked open feet in front of them, a wave rising out of the crack. "What? That's not possible!" He exclaimed, seeing the water rise up.

"Well… surf's up!" Taichi yelled, as the wave crashed down on them, sending them off in and down the direction that the wave had come from.

"I knew I should have gone to cheerleading camp!" Mimi, the last one to be taken by the wave yelled, as the ground closed up leaving no trace that the eight kids and the sudden wave of water had been there.