Disclaimer: Like a little burnt up mouse like me owns Digimon. HA!

The Crest of Balance

Prologue: The Cloaked One

Twelve years ago...

A creature in a white doctor's coat entered the room and stopped in front of a middle aged man.

"Sir, I wish to congratulate you, and to convey my most sincere apology," the creature said.

"What happened?" the man asked.

"I wish to congratulate you because you are now the father of twin boys, but I must convey my sorrow, because your... significant other was deleted... the stress was too much, I'm sorry," the creature said solemnly.

The man sat down as another creature, this one in a nurses dress, entered and handed him two baby boys. The two creatures left the house as a large bipedal lion entered.

"Did I miss anything?" the lion asked.

"I've lost the love of my life, but she left me these two miracles," the old man told him.

"It'll be okay, remember we digimon don't really die," the lion said comfortingly.

"Thank you friend," the man said.

"It's late you should get some sleep. I'll stay the night in case you need me," the lion offered.

"Yes sleep sounds good, you're welcome to stay as long as you want," the man told his friend before getting up to put the babies in the nursery that had been built for them. Once the babies were situated he went to his own room and crawled into his bed.

The man awoke to the sound of his children crying. As he entered the nursery he smelled the reason why. He picked up one and placed him on the changing table. As he removed the wrapping the nurse creature had put on the child, he saw a birthmark on the child's left thigh and gasped. He turned to pick his other son up and place him on the next to the first and removed the wrapping. His face turned white when he saw the mirror image of the first child's birth mark on the second child's right thigh.

"LEOMON! Come here quickly!" the man shouted.

"What's the matter Gennai?" the lion asked as he entered the nursery.

"I've lost all three of them," the Gennai said as tears slid down his face.

"You don't mean..." Leomon started, but couldn't finish.

"Yes, they are the Digidestined of Balance. One good the other evil to the core," Gennai said sadly.

"But they aren't even fully human," Leomon protested.

"It doesn't matter. We must send them through a portal to Earth as soon as possible," Gennai stated, giving his children a look of sorrow.


Four years later...

The small child wandered the streets. He was alone, his goody-goody brother didn't have the guts to come with him. His brother had probably told the administrator that he had left the orphanage. As the boy was about to head back there was a flash of light and a loud screech. He looked up to see a huge bird fly past. His eyes were locked on the giant.
As it landed a fireball from the other side of the street hit it square on the head. The bird laughed and fired a crackling bolt of energy at the source of the fireball.

When the smoke cleared he saw a huge red dinosaur. The dinosaur stood and lauched a stream of blue fire at the bird. The bird stumbled under the blow and feathers went everywhere. The two monsters grappled and the dinosaur was thrown down. The bird rushed the dinosaur while it was down but again they grappled, and again the dinosaur was thrown down. This time the bird fired off another bolt of energy and the dinosaur was out. The bird began to advance so it could finish off the dinosaur. Just as it was getting into an attack position an ear piercing whistle was sounded, causing the bird to stop in surprise. When the whistle ended the dinosaur opened it's eye's and stood. It inhaled and fired a stream of blue fire. The fire was so intense that it consumed both the bird and the dinosaur.

"That was amazing," the boy said to himself, "No one's gonna believe this... At least not without proof." The boy picked up two feathers and headed back to the orphenage. His twin brother was going to be so jealous.


Four years later...

The young child walked calmly up the stone stairway. He missed his brother already. Today the orphanage went to summer camp. Unfortunately his brother had come down with the flu the day before they left. So he wasn't able to come. As the child reached the top of the stairs he saw a group of seven kids standing by the lake. He was about to say hello, but a rift opened in the sky and seven objects shot down to the Earth. Each object had landed in front of a kid and started floating up. Before the objects got too high the kids grabbed them and were pulled into the rift. As the last kid entered the rift another object fell towards the ground, unfortunately this one was headed straight at the boy. The child put his hands up as if to catch the object, even though he knew it was futile. The object stopped it's descent a mere foot above the boy and lowered gently into his hands.

There was an uncomfortable stretching sensation as he was pulled toward the rift, then came a sickening sensation as he moved at impossible speeds once he was inside. As he came out the other end of the rift it snapped shut and he was falling, fast. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't. He flung his arms out in front of him, as if they could break his fall, and the object he had caught started to glow and a sphere of energy appeared around him and carried him safely to the ground.

A few of the kids he had seen were scattered around the clearing he had landed in. Just as he knelt down to try to wake up a boy with really messy hair, he heard a voice call him.

"Douglas..." the voice called, "Douglas, come here."

"Who's there?" The child asked.

"I'm your friend, I've been waiting for you," the voice called from the shadows, "I want to show you the destiny that awaits you."

"Destiny? What do you mean?" Douglas asked curiously.

"You are supposed to bring peace and balance to this world and every other," the voice told him.

"Why me?" Douglas questioned.

"You were Chosen Douglas," the voice told him.

"Why me?" Douglas asked again.

"It's fate, Douglas, it's Digi-destiny!" the voice cried joyfully.

"I don't know how to bring peace to a world," Douglas told the voice.

"I'll be with you every step of the way Douglas, I'll help you!" the voice called enthusiastically.

"Alright... But who are you anyway? And where are you?" Douglas asked.

"I'm right here," the voice said. Douglas jumped in surprise as a small weight settled onto his shoulders.

Douglas grabbed at the weight and held the creature in front of him. It was shaped like a ball. It had bright eyes. The top half of each eye was blue, while the bottom halves were green. The creatures skin was soft like silk, it had a slightly blue tinge to it. There were silver-green slashes of color at random spaces of it's spherical body. Abruptly it jumped out of Douglas' hands and started bouncing around him.

"I like your name Douglas. It's fun to say. Douglas, Douglas, Douglas. Hey! I know! Let's sing!" the creature said, while bouncing around hyper-actively.

"Uh, what's your name? You know my name but I don't know yours." Douglas told the ball.

"That's right! I forgot to tell you my name! I'm Utamon! I'm gonna be your buddy." the ball shouted happily.

"Okay Utamon, what are you?"

"I'm a Digimon!"

"A digimon?"

"It's short for 'digital monster'." Utamon told him, calming down somewhat.

"Where are we?" Douglas asked, remembering his fall from the sky.

"This is the Digiworld." Utamon seemed to be getting a second wind, as he had started bouncing again. "Come on follow me!"

"Wait! What about these other kids?" Douglas asked motioning towards the unconcious forms.

"They're path is not for us. They will do great things for this world and your own but, you will be responsible for bringing the two worlds to balance. We need to go, their partners will be here soon." With that the ball creature was off. Douglas had no choice but to follow.

Today.....

It was your average school day in seventh grade. He hadn't been in a fight for over three months. He hated it. He had changed alot since his twin disappeared during summer camp. Ever since that day he felt like part of himself was missing. He still kept the feathers he had picked up, but even though he had had proof no one beleived him about the monsters. All his story had gotten him was a trip to the therapist once a month. He carried the feathers everywhere he went. After that night the feathers had shrunken to the size of normal feathers.

He was a nicer person now. He didn't sneak out as much anymore. He still got into fights, that seemed to be the only time he could forget that his 'better half', as the people at the orphanage called his brother, had dissapeared. He was still punished, harshly, for fighting. He wasn't sure, but it seemed like Ms. Kanri enjoyed his punishment.

Sometimes he wished he could go back and start being nice sooner. It still amazed him how much he had missed when he was younger. He hadn't cared about anything then. Now, though, he found he could care. He even had a friend or two.

As he passed the main office, on his way to the next class, he saw a rather tall person wearing a cloak enter. The boy slowed down as the person entered the hall traffic and began walking in the direction the boy had just come from. Something didn't feel right about this person. So, for no obvious reason, the child decided to follow this tall, cloaked figure.

Out of the blue it struck the boy why this cloaked figure seemed wrong, besides the fact that he was wearing a cloak, no one seemed to notice the person. The boy started paying closer attention, the person seemed to be looking for someone. It reached the class that the he had just come from and looked in. He decided to try to get behind the figure, but as luck would have it the bell decided to ring at that moment. In a mere split second he and the figure were alone in the hall. To make things worse at that moment the figure turned and it's gaze fell upon the boy.

"Oh no! I'm late!" the girl repeated to herself for what must have been the tenth time since waking up forty five minutes ago.

"I've found you." the figure said.

"I guess you did." the boy answered.

"Don't mock me, boy. I have powers beyond anything you've ever seen." the figure hissed.

The boy was about to laugh when an unexpected punch caught him in the face, causing him to stumble back about five feet. Just as he steadied himself and prepared a counter strike he heard a familiar female voice.

"Hey Donovan! What are you doing? We're late, hurry up and get to class." a dark red-haired girl ran past.

"Elaine?" the boy made the mistake of taking his eyes off of the cloaked figure to watch one of his two friends run past. He paid for his mistake. He was thrown against the lockers by a kick from the cloaked figure.

A loud crash caused Elaine to look back towards Donovan. He was trying to regain his balance by leaning against the lockers, he was holding his stomach. As he regained his feet he slammed up against the lockers again, then was sent sprawling onto the ground by sme unseen force. Elaine hurried to her friend and knelt beside him.

"What are you doing?" Elaine asked, offering him a hand up.

"Can't you see him?" Donovan asked her.

"Who?" she asked in confusion.

"The man in the cloak. He's right th..." as he turned to point he stopped speaking and grabbed at his throat as his face turned slightly red.

Elaine figured this was one of his stupid jokes. That is, until the boy was slowly lifted to a standing position. She stood to look Donovan in the eyes, but he was to tall. Wait, she was at the least two inches taller than he was. Elaine looked at the ground and realised her friends feet weren't touching the floor anymore.

She came to the obvious conclusion. She was dreaming, or something she couldn't see was holding one of her friends by the throat. Wether or not this was a dream she didn't like seeing her friends hurt so she took a swing at the place she thought the invisible thing might be. She felt her hand connect with something and Donovan fell to the floor, gasping for air. Before she could kneel down to check on him a terrible pain exploded on her face and the world seemed to spin. When it stopped she realized she was a good twenty feet from where she had been.

Donovan watched as the cloaked figure threw a devestating punch at Elaine, sending her sliding down the hall way. He was on his feet so fast it was as if he had never been laying on his back at all. He pulled back his fist and launched it into the cloaked form that had just attacked his friend. This time it was the cloaked figure who was thrown into the lockers. Before the figure could recover, Donovan was upon him. With a strength and ferocity that could not be matched by anyone neither he nor Elaine knew.

If not for the fact that his friend had been hurt Donovan would have been having the time of his life. The only time he truly felt alive was when he was fighting. He would have felt the exhileration of knowing he might not win. Donovan had only felt that excitement once. Taichi Kamiya, the only person ever to best him in a fight. But all the excitement and exhileration was blocked out by one of the most powerful and wild forces a human can tap into... Rage.

In an instant he went from offensive to defensive as the figure pushed him away and pulled a club from the folds of the cloak. Donovan backed away so he could act on this turn of events. The figure swung, but Donovan ducked the blow and came up behind the figure. He grabbed the cloak and heaved with all of his strength. Unfortunately the figure managed to shed the cloak at the same moment Donovan pulled.

The 7th grader was unprepared for what he saw. He had been expecting a man, instead he found a monster. The creature had green skin, white hair, and a grotesquely large mouth that seemed to be incapable of closing.

"What are you? Why did you attack us?" Donovan demanded.

"Call me Ogremon, I was sent to bring you back. I attacked you 'cause I was bored, the girl just got in the way." The creature explained.

"Bring me where?" Donovan demanded, ignoring Elaine.

"To meet the Master." Ogremon told him, also ignoring Elaine.

"Let's go meet this master of yours," Donovan said.

"Come with me," Ogremon gestured them to follow as he turned and strode away.

"HEY! Where are you going!?!" Elaine shouted and followed Donovan's retreating form.

"The master's in here?" Donovan asked when they stopped in the computer lab.

"No, this is just where the portal is," Ogremon explained.

"Then hurry up and open it," Donovan demanded.

"Open what?," Elaine asked.

Ogremon walked to a computer and pushed a few buttons. A bright flash forced the two humans to sheild their eyes. When they opened them they were in a forest clearing.

"Your on your own now," Ogremon told them.

"I thought you were supposed to take us to the 'master'," Donovan said calmly. He wasn't to shaken about the whole going-through-a-portal thing. It felt natural, like he belonged here.

"I was just supposed to bring you to the Digital World. Besides I'm bored, I wonder what Leomon's doing." Ogremon said as he disappeared into the trees.

Donovan looked over to Elaine to find her whispering 'it's all a dream' over and over again to herself. He also noticed she was wearing different clothes. Looking down he realized that he was too. He sat down on the ground to think. He probably should have just killed Ogremon.


.........................................................................

You like it? No? Then tell me why not. Review please