Disclaimer

I do not own Digimon. I do own the following characters: Aaron, Pyromon, Intramon, and Arima. I do own the attacks: Molten Claw, Red Eye Laser, Ruby Illusion, and Crimson Fury.

Down The Dark Path

Part 1 / Chapter 1

The Dream

Aaron awoke with a cold sweat on his forehead. The nightmare had come to him again. This time it was unforgiving. Aaron rolled slowly off his bed and walked down the stairs to the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of ice water. He drank a little to calm his headache. Then he walked back upstairs. He didn't know why the nightmare had come to be so powerful. What did it want? He had nothing to give it. Maybe he should type what he could remember down before he forgot. There was no reason to go back to sleep, for Aaron knew the nightmare was waiting for him, gathering force. Aaron opened his door and sat down in his desk chair. He switched on his completed laptop. He had made it himself by his custom configurations. When the laptop had finished loading the operating system, Aaron double clicked on the word processor icon. Then he started typing.

Begin of file Dream1.doc

I'm running through a thick forest. Shadows dart around me in a dance. The clouds unleash their force, beating down on me with small fists. Lightning brightens the sky for milliseconds. Thunder follows its trail. Off in the distance I hear huge creatures roaring. I can barely make out their dragon-like shadows. They must have seen me, because they are turning. I think I can make out one more shadow, the shadow of a boy, wearing a flowing cape. I keep running. There is a large tree up ahead. Maybe I can hide in its branches. The shadows are getting closer...

End of file Dream1.doc

Aaron stopped typing. It was almost morning and he could remember no more of his dream. He heard the sounds of his mother and sister, Arima, downstairs cooking. Dad was probably off to work, already. Aaron slowly left his seat and trudged downstairs for breakfast.

+ + +

"Good morning Aaron!"

"Good morning Arima."

"What is wrong with you today?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Great! Then you can come with me shopping!"

"You aren't going shopping, you're looking for that CD!"

"What CD?"

"The Free Internet CD I told you about!"

"Oh, the one with no ads?"

"That's it. And if you find it, I will let you use it first."

"OK, deal!"

+ + +

"How long could it take to find a simple CD?" muttered Aaron.

It had been almost three hours since Aaron had finished breakfast. At least, it felt like three hours.

Suddenly, Aaron's door was thrown open.

"I've installed and scanned the CD. Here, I'm going test and see if this thing actually will get me online," said Arima as she gave the CD back.

"Your welcome!" said Aaron.

"Oh, thanks." And with that, Arima closed the door.

+ + +

It was done. Aaron had finally finished installing the ISP. Now it was time to test it.

"Aaron, dinner!" his mom called.

Darn, Aaron thought. Testing would have to wait. He hoped his mom bought pizza tonight.

+ + +

Dinner was not pizza. It was Mac and Cheese. Not that he had a problem with Mac and Cheese; he just really wanted pizza.

Well, at least I can test my new ISP, Aaron thought.

He rebooted his computer and started the operating system. He then brought up his normal browser. The connection might not work well with custom browser.

Aaron then clicked on his taskbar and found the directory where he hid the connection behind a personal firewall. He clicked on 'Connect'. Then Aaron's screen went blank for a second. It came back on with a weird looking program running.

It seemed like another browser, except this one had a very small window. There was a picture of a dark forest that filled the small browsing area. Aaron knew he had seen it somewhere else, but he couldn't quite remember. Aaron couldn't find an address bar, so he exited the program and brought up his default browser. The connection worked perfectly! In seconds Aaron was busy setting up his e-mail account and changing parameters. This is Great!

+ + +

It was 10:00 and dark outside. Aaron knew that he would have to get off soon, but had too much to do. I hope Mom forgets to tell me to get off.

"Lights OUT Aaron!" called his mother.

Aww Man."Just a few more minutes!"

"NO, I said lights OUT!"

"Ok, Ok. I've got the idea!"

Aaron wanted to try one more thing before he went to bed. He searched his computer for the browser he saw when he first connected. It was something like DigiGate Version 2.0 or something weird like that. His search finally came up with results. An old DOS type application file named Digital Gate 2.0 was the only file found that was even minutely similar to his query. He double clicked on its old style icon and the familiar program started to run. This time he noticed something different. There was a bar across the bottom of the screen. It had weird buttons like 'Transport,' and 'Sync Data with D-Terminal.' The little picture in the center was still the same, the dark forest looked even more intimidating than before. But one other thing was different, the round red button below the picture turned into a green on with the word 'Go' on it. Aaron thought it couldn't hurt to go to the default homepage, besides, the gloomy forest was bothering him.

Aaron clicked the green button. His screen went blank, and then went black, and then changed into a blinding white light. He had to shield his eyes from the glare. When the bright light had faded, he was no longer in his room.