DISCLAIMER: Let's see…first off, I don't own Digimon. However, Anne Connor, Jonathan Dowd, Kamemon and his evos, all the members of the Alliance (except Yamaki), and the woman are all my characters. William Parry is also my character, but I got the name from His Dark Materials. This fic also has a few strong Dragonriders of Pern influences, and I don't own that, either. And, so as not to give things away, I'll be including a disclaimer in EVERY chapter. Yayses.

* * *

A tall woman with long, brunette hair passed a security guard in the doorway. He did not flinch, nor check her ID.

"Good afternoon, Riley," he merely grunted, and returned to his post. She nodded slightly, and continued to the fourth floor. She stopped in the middle of the hallway and took out some sort of a device. She tapped something on the side, and immediately the illusion of Riley disappeared. She instead had shoulder-length, black hair with natural blond highlights. She looked up to the ceiling and noticed a heating grate. The woman smiled, wrenched it open, and hid in the shaft. The screen of the device glowed as the heating grate returned to its proper state, no longer tampered with—except for the fact that she was in it.

The device made a sort of whirring noise as words flicked across the screen.

ARE YOU THERE?

She stated mentally, "Yes. How long do I need to wait?" At once, the words appeared on the screen.

I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN IT IS TIME.

Her mortal self sighed. That would mean a long wait. She brushed away a golden lock of hair as the hours dragged on.

* * *

"Watch out!"

The bike wove through the crowded sidewalk, haphazardly dodging people. Anne bit her lip as it darted through the packed Bedford Street. Sooner or later, she was going to run into someone. "Can't you go any slower?!" she protested. A voice that appeared to be coming from the bike replied, "I don't know how!" Anne groaned and clutched the handlebars for dear life. The "bike" was actually a Digimon, called Kamemon, and she was its tamer.

"Left!" she shouted, trying to point Kamemon in the correct direction of Jonathan's house. Jonathan was a computer master and could hack into any computer in London—maybe even the entire world. He, too, was a tamer, his Digimon being Penmon. The bike—Kamemon—swerved out of the way of a young child and turned a sharp left. It was like trying to hold onto a bucking bronco. After several minutes, they reached the small house Jonathan called home. The bike transformed into a large, green lizard standing upright with a frill on its head and cat-like ears. It then turned into a small rucksack and Anne walked in, upstairs to his room. "Hello?" she asked, peering into the room.

"AAH! …Oh, it's only you, Anne. Hullo." The startled expression on his face was clearly visible even after the shock, along with his tousled brown hair. Penmon, who had been acting as a stuffed animal, immediately hopped down from a chair beside a monstrous computer and said enthusiastically, "Kamemon! You here?"

The rucksack slid out of Anne's grip and transformed into the over-sized lizard known as Kamemon. "Penmon!" he said, then transformed into a Muchomon. The two started laughing as Anne made her way to the computer. She looked at the screen and asked, "What's up in the rest of the world?"

"Nothing interesting," said Jonathan, leaning back. But he instantly snapped up again and yelped, "Oh, crap, I almost forgot! You MUST see this." He began one of his hacking sessions, which, strangely, took a lot shorter than most other times. "This is really weird, from Japan. I was looking around and I noticed something about Digimon."

"And what's so special about that?" questioned Anne. "Digimon WAS invented there, you know."

"You'll see," he said, a slight look of apprehension crossing his face. He usually grinned at a time like this, which made it odd. Then, a page written entirely in kanji was pulled up. "I know, it's in Japanese, but I've got the translated version. Here…" He clicked something and it was replaced with the entire thing in English. He backed away as Anne got in for a closer look. Up at the top, it had "ACTIVITY LOG". Below that, it had several dates and other bits of information. Suddenly, the word "Digimon" showed up. What was that doing there? She read the info below it.

27/08/01

Digimon detected

Yuggoth activated

Anomaly destroyed

"What?!" she cried. " 'Anomaly destroyed'?! They destroyed a Digimon? …Why?"

Jonathan nodded and said, "My thoughts exactly. See what else they have." She scrolled down the list.

04/09/01

Digimon retrieved

Scan successful

Data destroyed

She felt her stomach churn. She didn't like this, not at all. Whoever these freaks were, they apparently had something against Digimon. Nevertheless, curiosity forced her to continue down the page.

06/09/01

Project Juggernaut tested

Unsuccessful

294 anomalies destroyed

This was murder. Cold-blooded, pure murder. She felt her heart pound with rage. But what did it mean, "unsuccessful"? It definitely succeeded in killing 294 Digimon, was it supposed to do 300?!

"Get a load of this," said Jonathan, sliding back into his position. He typed something in, and instantly a bunch of small, blue and white dots appeared on the screen. "Recognize that?" he asked.

She looked closer. She'd been in enough battles to know what that was. "Data," she said, still looking at the screen. "A Digimon's data."

"Exactly," he said. "Oy, Penmon, c'mere. What's this?" Penmon waddled over and climbed up on the bed to see the screen. Then he gave a little yelp and fell on the floor. He gasped, "That's a Digimon! Where'd you…" Kamemon peered at the screen and concluded, "It looks sort of like a, uh…whachamacallit, DarkLizamon. What's so bad about that?"

"They scanned its data," explained Jonathan, "and destroyed the leftovers. Quite a waste, if you ask me." Suddenly, something started beeping. Two things, actually. Anne got out her D-Power, and so did Jonathan. "Another Digimon," he groaned disappointedly.

"What's the matter with you?" said Anne, chancing a smile and darting out the door with Kamemon—Kamemon being in a different form, that is.

* * *

"But I don't get it, what should we do?"

Yamaki growled. "For the last time, we leave them to their own devices. It's their problem, not ours." The man he was talking to seemed worried. A person from the newly created British organization, the Thread, had reported several incidents concerning Digimon in London. Like he said, it was only Hypnos' problem if the incidents were anywhere near Tokyo. Obviously, this twit couldn't seem to get that through his head.

"But…" he continued. "Are you sure?"

Yamaki was plenty annoyed by now. He suddenly turned and grabbed the man by the collar. "Listen," he seethed. "We have nothing to do with the rest of the world. Hypnos ONLY does its duties for Japan, not Germany, not France, and ESPECIALLY not America! Get that through your empty head!" He released him and continued down the hall, the other man staying behind. He could certainly make an impression when he was mad. And those conceited Americans, thinking they were all high and mighty because there had supposedly been absolutely no reports of Digimon there yet. Yet. He frowned slightly, knowing exactly how much success Hypnos had had with keeping the public from knowing anything that Digimon were real. But, then again, who would believe the words of a child? His anxiety eased a little, but would return again soon.

"Wake up," soothed a mysterious voice in her head. "There is something you need to hear."

She snapped up immediately, and just as soon regretted it due to the fact she was cramped up in that little chute. Her head smacked against the top of it. She hissed in pain, biting her tongue so hard she might've bitten it off. She took out the communicator and it glowed, giving her directions through the building to apparently wherever she was supposed to be. But it couldn't possibly be the mission—she didn't know why. She traveled down the cramped corridor until she heard voices drifting down the chute. The word STOP appeared on the communicator and she obeyed, listening in on the conversation.

"…Status?"

A voice with a German accent replied, "A few sightings, but easily covered up by explaining they must've been intoxicated at the time. Quite an advantage to our nation, no?"

"Erm, yes, quite… All right, Thread. Status?"

This time, a British accent answered. "Like he said, just a few. Just not so easily covered up. There are, however, some difficulties."

"Good. CIA, your status."

A haughty American accent replied. "None."

Suddenly, a French voice protested, "C'est impossible! How can that be?"

"I guess we've just had a bit more luck than you." Then he hesitated. "Especially one person…"

"All right, that's enough. Hypnos, status?"

There was silence. Then, someone said, "We, er, have managed to cover up several incidents. But we have our…difficulties."

The American casually replied before the other person, the one who had been asking their status. "Difficulties? Like the fact that everyone in Tokyo saw the Juggernaut?"

"That was a fluke! It was a simple, tactical error, and it will never happen again."

"Oh, sure, and how will you explain that gaping hole in the sky? Something as pathetic as, 'Pacific currents'? You people make me laugh. It's a wonder—"

"All right, that's enough," interrupted the other man (whom we'll refer to as the "caller"). "Let's get to business. William, you have a new proposal?"

"Yes," replied the British voice. "I know that the Thread is new, but I just couldn't help myself…" There was a rustling of papers and a sound of approval from the "caller".

"This looks nice…what d'you call it?"

"The anti-data barrier, sir. It fully repels any source of bio-emerged data, such as a Digimon, but it also destroys it in the process. But, I'm afraid it is only a defensive program…"

"Oh, never mind that, we'll test it. And, I suppose you have a new one as well, Yamaki…"

This time, the one who had responded when the "caller" asked Hypnos' status replied. "It is not what you think. It is, with all due respect, more effective than Yuggoth, or Juggernaut, for that matter."

"And what is it called?"

"Threadfall."

The one called William interrupted. "McCaffrey, eh? Not exactly original—"

"Will you listen? It is essentially the only way to describe how it works. And it is also mere coincidence that it bears part of the name of your organization, Mr. Parry."

"How does it work, anyway?"

"It seeks out the anomaly, rather than attracting it." He said this with a slight sneer to his tone. "It also does not need to have been targeted previously. Once released, it will target the closest Digimon around, and begin the attack immediately. That is, unless it is already occupied by another Threadfall. It can effectively destroy the anomaly within minutes, possibly seconds. With just one Threadfall, we could easily cleanse an entire metropolis without the public knowing at all."

Someone whistled in astonishment. Then the American snapped, "But what effect will it have on other organisms?"

"None at all. The program can easily be covered up, if needed."

"This does sound rather intriguing," said the "caller", wisely settling a dispute before it could get any worse. "But you remember what happened last time with the Juggernaut."

"That was a fluke," he repeated. "This one will work. I promise."

"Now, see here," said the American. "Can we really trust you on this? You're not a very trustworthy person, and I know that this program will blow up in our face like the last two. This 'Threadfall' could be seriously dangerous to the public. If it can destroy a Digimon, what's to stop it from harming a human being?"

"It does no harm to living organisms! It passes right through them!"

"All right, ENOUGH!" said the "caller". "Must we endure this any longer? All right…anybody else disagree with the program?"

"Well," started the French, "zees 'Threadfall' does zound a tad bit powerful, but do we have a choice? I mean, it just might be zee thing we need…"

"I say ve do it," said a new voice, with a Russian accent. "It sounds like the perfect thing ve need to get rid of these infernal creatures."

There were other murmers of agreement. "Then it's settled," said the "caller". "We'll test this 'Threadfall' and see how it works. And if it doesn't, then there's no harm done, CORRECT? Right, then… Dismissed." Then there were sounds of people leaving the room.

She thought a minute. So, this thing she was looking for was called Threadfall. Good. At least she wouldn't have to search through tons of junk just to get to one thing. She smiled to herself, thinking about exactly how easily this mission was going along.

* * *

"I said right, RIGHT, not LEFT!" shouted Anne. She absolutely hated it when she had to ride on Kamemon the Bike, but the Digimon was in St. James Park, and the fastest way to get there without looking suspicious was on the "bike". Jonathan was on his own bike—lucky him—and decided it was time to take the lead. Kamemon obediently followed. It took about 10 more minutes to get there, where a Veedramon was waiting.

"Uh, hey, Anne," said Jonathan cautiously. "I think I'll, uh, just hang back on this one."

She groaned and said, "Fine, fine. Kamemon needs the data anyway." Then she took out her D-Power and a card. "DigiModify! Digivolution activate!"

Then Kamemon started to glow. "Kamemon, Digivolve toooooo… Nisamon!" Where Kamemon had been just moments before, there was now a silver dragon-like creature (without the wings), only about a few hands shorter than a horse. It was still as long as one, though. "Petit Dragon Blast!" it called out before emitting a blue bolt of energy from its mouth. The energy slammed into the Veedramon, but not quite defeating it.

"Right," said Anne. "Digimodify! Kyubimon's Dragon Wheel activate!"

Nisamon then leapt high into the air, about 10 feet above the Veedramon's head. The great blue monster looked skywards and Nisamon curled up and spun rapidly, turning into a blue fire. "Dragon Wheel!" he called, and descended onto the Veedramon, knocking it senseless.

"Finish it!" yelled Anne.

"Petit Dragon Blast!"

The Veedramon groaned in pain, and then dissolved into data, to be absorbed by Nisamon. Anne sighed in relief and said, "That wasn't too hard, was it?" Nisamon nodded in agreement and de-Digivolved back to Kamemon. Jonathan looked over his shoulder and said, "Let's get out of here before anyone notices. You never know who might be watching."

* * *

Yamaki walked out of the building, finally released from his tension. Threadfall would come along perfectly, and no one opposed it. Well, except for that American. Yes, the one who always tried to blame anything that went wrong on HIM. But, no matter. This time, he wouldn't have to be blamed for anything. He knew it.

An odd beeping penetrated his thinking. "Hm?" he wondered aloud. "What's this?" He took out a small controller of some sorts, which flashed, "WARNING – INTRUDER". It then turned on a small recorder, which caught the words, "What have we here…"

Oh, dear. He turned on his heel and set at a run straight back to the headquarters.

She was awakened by the whirring noise of the communicator. The words flicked across the screen.

IT IS TIME.

She snapped awake again and slowly slid out of the air duct. She glanced at a clock on the wall, which stated 11:02 PM. She started for the stairs, but slowed down a little by the elevator. How could it hurt? She had a long way to go, anyway.

When she reached the floor, she climbed the short set of stairs to the control room. "So," she thought, "this is what the place looks like after all." She was expecting a stuffy, white room like the ones at Cape Canaveral, but no, it was a domed room with two chairs set high up and a large computer over on the side. She walked over to it and slid a black disk into it. The computer started up immediately and she searched for the program, "Threadfall". At last, a complicated-looking program appeared on the screen. "Well, hello there," she said. "What have we here?" She began to download the program onto the disk immediately.

After about five minutes, it was finally done. The program closed out automatically. But only then did she notice a small window blinking "INTRUDER ALERT" in the corner.

"Oh, sh—"

BANG.