Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or any of it's characters.

Chapter 1

A rather large village, full of old rusty shacks surrounded the large stone temple. To the east of the village is a large sea, to the west a desert that stretches as far as the eye can see. Sora stood at the steps leading to the front archway of the temple. She took a deep breath before beginning her ascent up the stairs. The building was massive; it took up about a third of the village. It towered over ten stories high. The temple was made out of black stone. When Sora reached the entrance there stood two guards. They wore simple brown uniforms holding rifles with fixed bayonets. The guard on the left gave Sora a quick look over. He then simply nodded his head. Sora, trying not to seem intimidated, entered the front doorway.

Inside the dark black stone and no windows required torches along the hallway for any light. Sora slowly walked down the long narrow hallway, in and out of darkness as she passed each torch. The contrast between inside the black temple and the bright and sunny outside, the cool breeze that existed within these dark corridors compared to the hot humid weather outside made it seem as if you were entering into another world. Or at least that is what it felt like for Sora, each time she entered.

After walking what would seem like to most as circles Sora finally reached her destination, the central chamber. Inside light beamed down from an opening at the tip of the temple. This illuminated the center of the room. There standing in the center of the room stood a woman, draped in cloth, holding a golden staff with a diamond sphere on it's tip the size of a baseball. She was murmuring something Sora couldn't make out from a book in front of her.

Sora did not know how to approach the figure. She raised out her right hand to say something but stopped. Then simply took a step forward and took a step into the light and stopped. "Hello, Sora." The woman said in a calm voice, with her back still to Sora.

"Hello Toshiko." Sora said back in a cynical voice.

"Please Sora, enough with the formalities, it's Mother. Now what is the matter child?" Toshiko, Sora's Mother asked.

Sora crossed her arms as she stood there. Toshiko kept her back to Sora. "You've been in here for the last two days. Some of the people in the village are getting worried. You need to leave this place and tell the villagers everything is okay. What have you been doing this whole time?"

Toshiko did not reply. Slowly she turned to face and looked at Sora. Sora took a step back, emerging her into the darkness after seeing the pain and sorrow on Toshiko's face. "I've been reading the prophecy over and over again. And no matter how many times I read it, it never changes."

"Mother?" Sora asked with a perplexed look on her face.

A single tear ran down Toshiko's cheek. "I'm sorry Sora, I always loved you."

Sora tensed up, something was horribly wrong. She felt like someone had just punched her in the stomach. She wanted to say something but could not come up with the words. Her mother remained silent standing, and staring directly at Sora.

Then an object flashed by Sora's eyes. Confused Sora tried to follow whatever it was with her eyes but lost it. She then looked back at her mother, who gave a gentle nod. A black figure appeared directly behind Toshiko. Sora's eyes widened as the figure stabbed a sword right through Toshiko's back. "Mother!" Sora cried out in pain. The black figure grabbed the staff from Toshiko's hands and disappeared into the darkness.

Toshiko's lifeless body slowly descended onto the floor. Sora dropped to her knees unable to move looked down to the ground as tears began to flow down her face. A million thoughts, all of pain and sorrow rushed through her head. In what seemed like an eternity Sora slowly tried to regained her composure. Her fist clenched up as she punched the ground and screamed as loud as she could.

She ran through the dark narrow hallways as fast as she could. The tight corners made it so she continued to smack into the walls as she ran. The pain she did not feel, nor even notice. The only things going through her heads were thoughts of her mother. It had not been easy growing up with the high priestess as her mother. They never really seemed to get along. Her mother always seemed to put the temple and her research above Sora. But now regrets began to swarm her head, so much wasted time over nothing. The regrets switched to anguish, then rage, rage for whoever it was that made it that Sora would never be able to fix her mistakes.

The front entrance came into view. Sora sprinted towards the door and positioned her shoulder before smashing the door open. The two guards quickly turned and looked at her. "Has anyone exited from here since I entered?" she asked, both guards were confused but shook their heads. "Guard the entrance, nobody enters or exits temple under any circumstance." With that Sora ran and jumped over the first dozen stairs, then dashed down the rest.

Sora ran down into the dirty and sandy makeshift streets of the village. She continued to run, turning her head in circles trying to see anything out of the ordinary. The same shacks, the same people going upon their daily lives. There's no way that figure could have just completely vanished. They had to be somewhere, they can't escape this easy. The village is surrounded by water and desert; there is no way to leave this place unseen.

Then a figure caught her eye, someone she had never seen before. She quickly ran up to the young man and grabbed him by the collar. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The young man was taken aback by her. "My name is Tai, I'm the leader of a group of scavengers, and we've come here to trade our goods. Now can you please let me go."

This guy was obviously not who Sora was looking for. She let him go and continued to look around the small market area of the village. How could she let this guy slip through her fingers? Maybe he was hiding, no; he'd want to get out of here as fast as he could. A engine roared, she turned to see a figure in a black robe drive off on a motorcycle with a familiar golden glare come from his back, the staff. "There!" Sora nearly yelled but stopped herself to not cause a panic, which wouldn't help. She turned to Tai. "He's killed the priestess! And stolen the golden staff! Help me stop him!" She said to him.

Tai was quick to react. Tai run by and jump onto his dirt bike not faraway, he kick started the bike then zoomed after the figure. "Hey! Wait!" Sora exclaimed.

Tai lowered his goggles down over his eyes as he drove after the figure off in the distance. He took a quick glance back to see no one else following behind him out of the village. That meant it was just him and the guy, Tai didn't mind. He took out his pistol and tried to see if he could get a shot away. The guy was too far ahead and was swerving making it nearly impossible for Tai to get a good shot. He put his pistol back in its holster then grabbed hold onto the handlebars with both hands and hit the gas. The bike's front wheel shot up but Tai was able to bring the tire down and continue his pursuit at high speed.

"Tai? Tai do you read me?" A voice called out from the radio attached to the handlebars of the dirk bike.

"What is it Izzy?" Tai asked.

"What's going on? We're all done here. Where the hell are you?" Izzy replied.

Slowly Tai was drawing closure to the figure, but was still a ways away. "At the moment? I'm chasing down an assassin through the desert who has stolen the golden staff."

"Oh," was all that Izzy could muster on the other line. "You need any assistance?"

"That would be nice Izzy. I'm going to see if I can steer this guy north, try to pick us up on the radar and see if you can track us down," Tai explained his plan.

"Roger that, see you soon." And with that the radio went dead.

Once again it was just Tai and the assassin. As Tai gained more ground he began to angle his bike about ten degrees to the figure's left and sure enough the figure saw this and began to ahead northward. It was around this time Tai realized what he was even doing. Who was that girl back there? He was always very impulsive, quick to jump to things but he thought this probably took the cake for the craziest. Coming back to reality Tai once again took out his pistol and tried to get a good shot. After following the guy precisely with his gun he pulled the trigger.

The assassin took a sharp swerve. Tai thought he had hit the guy for a second. But it looked like the guy had just dodged it. Shit, this was going to be harder than Tai had previously thought. Once again Tai had to put his pistol away to focus on driving. It had been a good decision as the assassin turned north to some steeper dunes. The first one was a five foot drop. Tai had barely even noticed it before he was airborne. The bike smacked down onto the sand and Tai held tightly trying to keep the bike steady. As they drove over, under and around these steeper dunes it became even harder for Tai to even get close to the guy. In fact Tai seemed to even be losing ground.

Another big drop took Tai completely by surprise. The landing was ugly; Tai even put his foot down for a second in order to keep balance. Tai lost a lot of speed, even feared for a second that he'd lost the assassin. But he could still see him in the corner of his eye, as they moved forward they entered a completely flat, dry solid ground part of the desert.

Finally Tai was able to catch up much quicker as it appeared he had the marginally superior bike. This turned into a blessing and curse at the same time, as a bullet flew right by Tai's face. He didn't even see the guy pull out a gun; it must have been hidden under the guy's robe. Tai took his gun out himself and took a shot but missed by a mile. Another gunshot was heard, a ding was heard from the assassin's bike causing him to lose balance for just a second.

Tai turned to his right to see a large white bus speeding towards them. The bus was covered in gear including a large rack of junk attached to the roof. On the roof also sat TK who held a hunting rifle in his arms.

It was a large relief for Tai to see the rest of his crew. He aimed his pistol and fired, this time hitting the assassin's back tire's frame, severely damaging it. The assassin was able to keep riding it though and fired a second shot from his gun too. This time he didn't miss, the bullet struck Tai on the shoulder. Tai wasn't able to keep steady and his bike leaned over to the left sending Tai flying off the bike.

The assassin seemed to be in the clear but the damage to his back wheel meant he couldn't swerve away from the bus which tried to cut him off. The figure came to a near stop and before he could really get his speed back another bike's engine roared right behind him.

Seemingly out of nowhere Sora came riding a dirt bike at breakneck speed straight towards the assassin. She came up right behind him, before he could get his speed back. She jumped off her bike at full speed and tackled the figure to the ground. The figure was stunned, Sora quickly got on top of him, turned him over, grabbed his collar and raised her fist right to his face. "Who are you? Who sent you?" She screamed at the top of her lungs.

The assassin gave off a slight chuckle, "I'm never going to tell you." He said with a smile on his face.

This enraged Sora, she reached to his side and grabbed his gun that had flown from his hand. Tai had been able to limp his way to Sora, the bus had also stopped and the others looked on. Sora aimed down and shot the assassin in the knee cap. He cried out in pain as he reached for his wound, to which Sora just kicked his hands away. "Do you think I'm fucking joking? Is this a fucking game to you?"

The assassin gave off the same sly smirk. "Yes, and I won."

Sora fired a single shot into the guy's chest. She then dropped the gun at her feet before falling to her knees and crying. Tai placed his hand on her shoulder, about the only thing he could do.

The front doors of the bus swung open. The first to exit was a rather short young female. She took one look at Tai and Sora before rushing to Tai's side. "Tai! You're hurt!"

"It's okay sis," Tai reassured her. "It's just a flesh wound."

The young female grabbed a hold of Tai's arm. She then took a closer look at the wound on his shoulder. "Drop the macho attitude for one second, you could be seriously injured. Joe! Can you come take a look at this?" She called out back at the bus. She then looked back to see Tai still staring down at Sora, who was on her knees in front of them looking at the ground. "Who is she?" Kari whispered to Tai.

"I don't know." Tai whispered back.

Sora wiped the tears from her face and stood up. "My name is Sora." She turned and looked at the brother and sister.

"Kari." Kari said in return.

At that moment Joe finally was able to step off the bus. "Let's take a look at your injury there Tai." Joe said as he approached. Tai rolled his eyes as he took off his shirt to reveal the wound on top of his shoulder with all the blood draped down. Izzy followed behind Joe, but turned his attention to the assassin's motorcycle. Cody and Ken exited the bus; Cody turned his attention to the assassin's body, Ken to Tai's bike a fair distance away.

"Oh my god." Sora said looking at his wound. "Are you okay?"

Tai nodded. Joe looked over the wound, "He'll live." Joe declared. "I'll go get some bandages."

Sora hung her head. "I can't help but feel responsible for getting you injured and I am deeply sorry but I must say I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me and my village."

"Don't mention it," Tai said. "Hey Izzy can you salvage anything from the guy's bike?"

It took a second for Izzy to look up from examining the insides of the bike. "The whole back section of the bike is completely wrecked but there are plenty of salvable parts from the front."

"Sounds good." Tai said as he turned to Sora. "Let me introduce you to my crew. Like I said before we are a group of salvagers." He put his arm around Kari. "This is my little sis Kari. Over examining the bike is my right hand man Izzy, he's a master mechanic and salvager. The guy retrieving my bike is Ken and the short guy next to you is Cody, both are experienced mechanics as well. Joe here is great at salvaging all non mechanical supplies." Tai then pointed to on top of the bus. "The guy standing on top of the bus is TK, one of the best shots you can find. And the lady exiting the bus is our newest addition to the crew, Mimi, our driver."

Mimi slowly walked off the bus with a slight smirk on her face. She walked up to Sora, "Sora was it? Nice to meet you." Mimi extended her arm, Sora was hesitant for a second before shaking it. "So can you tell me who we were chasing here?" Mimi asked looking down at the dead body Cody was examining.

Everyone looked at Sora, she just stood there for a second before choking on her own words "He…stole something…and…ah… killed the priestess."

"Who's that?" Mimi asked.

"My mother."

"Oh," Mimi said as her facial expression changed feeling pretty stupid. "I'm sorry."

"Hey guys?" Cody called out to them. They all turned and looked at him. "I think I've found something." He then pulled out from under the assassin's black cloak a golden staff with a diamond sphere at its tip.

Sora's eye's widened when she saw it. "Give that to me! Now!" She yelled.

Tai reached his hand and placed it on her shoulder to try and calm her. "After seeing what you did to the last guy who tried to steal it. You don't have to worry about us trying to take it from you." He then nodded and Cody handed her the staff. "Can I ask a question though? Is that the Staff of Antioch?"

Holding the staff firmly between her grips, she let off a slight nod. Tai did not need to say anything. He looked around at his crew. It had been quite a day.

"What now boss?" Izzy said as he picked the motorcycle off the ground looking at Tai.

Tai had no idea. "Let's get the two bikes onto the bus, might as well head back to the village to find a place to sleep. I doubt anyone wants to spend any more nights sleeping in that bus than they have to." Tai looked over at Sora. "We can give you a lift."

"My bike's fine, but thanks." Sora said.

"Speaking of which," Tai said as he turned to see Ken walking the dirt bike towards the bus. "What's the damage?"

Ken gave the bike a quick look over as he walked over. "It's in better shape than you are, no major damage that I can see. Might want to give it a closer examination though, that was quite the wipe-out, something could have come loose inside."

"What should we do with the body here? Just leave it?" Joe asked.

It took a second for Tai to think it over. "Might as well let the vultures have it, we've got no purpose for it, probably will only cause trouble. You need it Sora?"

Sora found that question kind of weird. "Uh no." Tai just shrugged and went back to overseeing them collecting the different parts and loading them onto the back of the bus. Sora just stood there for a while, she couldn't get over how casually everyone was taking the situation. She couldn't hold it in and had to ask, "does killing come easy for you?"

"Excuse me?" Tai asked.

"It's just, I've never killed anyone, much less harmed them. I've seen people die but not like that. You all act like it's nothing. Does life come cheap for you?" Sora went on, before catching herself. "I'm not trying to sound condescending or anything."

The others of the crew kind of looked at each other, none really knowing how to answer. "Salvaging is a dangerous business; we've been attacked many times. I personally have killed plenty. I used to even be a mercenary before this." Tai tried to explain to her. "But we don't think life is cheap. For the assassin there it did, we pity him and don't try to care, just as he did."

"We've lost plenty of friends and family, and you can be damned sure we didn't leave them to the vultures." TK said from atop the bus with a look of anguish.

Just the look from TK made Sora feel awful. "I'm sorry; I should have never said anything."

Mimi just shook her head. "It's okay you didn't mean anything by it. Plus you've had it much worse today any of us. I think you get a pass." She walked over and gave Sora a pat on the back.

"We're all done?" Tai asked looking as Ken and Cody loaded the motorcycle onto the back of the bus. "The faster we get out of this blaring sun the better. Ken with a final push got the bike into the back and gave Tai a nod. "Okay good, I guess since we're heading the same way we can accompany you."

Sora agreed and went to her bike. She picked it up from the sand, wiped it off and turned it on. The whole crew filed their way into bus. Mimi took her place at the driver's seat and started the engine. "You all ready?" She asked looking back. They all gave her a reassuring look, "alright, let's kick it!" She said as she grabbed the stick shift next to her and put it into drive. The bus's engine sounded like someone was banging pieces of metal together for a second before finally starting to move forward. Sora kick started her bike and started to follow the bus on its right side.

"If she's the priestess's daughter," Joe began telling to the others. "That means she's practically royalty in that village."

Cody had a little chuckle, "You think they'll hail us as heroes?"

"Not a chance," Tai told them. "Telling the villagers about the priestess's murder is unavoidable. But they won't tell anyone that the assassin made off with and nearly got away with their most precious holy artifact."

"How do you know?" Cody asked.

Tai just shrugged, "when she saw the assassin drive off, she didn't call out for everyone to chase him, she just enlisted the nearest person, me, for help. Obviously she didn't want the greater populace to know." He then flinched in pain as he grabbed his shoulder.

"Um Tai?" Mimi called out to the back. Everyone turned their attention to the front. "We've got a problem." Tai quickly limbed over to the front of the bus. Looking out the front window he could see about half a dozen men on motorbikes dressed in the same black cloak as the assassin. They were stopped a couple hundred meters away directly in front of them. The figures opened fire, bullets rattled the front of the bus. "Holy Shit!" Mimi yelled as she and everyone ducked from the bullets and shattered glass. Impulsively spun the steering and swerved left. Sora who also came under fire ducked behind her handlebars and swerved right instead.

Four of the figures kick started their bikes and headed after the bus, the other two headed after Sora.

Ken was the quickest to react, he grabbed an assault rifle from a container on the ground where he had fallen and laid some covering fire for everyone out the window. "Fuck!" Tai called out as he felt the back of his head for any bits of glass. He looked over at the others. "Anybody hurt?"

Everyone slowly emerged from their cover shaking their heads. Joe scurried over to where Ken was shooting, he grabbed the gun from Ken's arms and began to fire himself. Ken moved over and grabbed another rifle from a container, passed it to Cody before getting one for him. Tai looked over at Mimi who raised her head up as she continued to try and get the bus under control. Izzy peered over at the radar. He then raised his head up to look out the window of the bus. "We got four on our tail. Sora's got two on her tail heading west. Shit, they split us up."

Hearing that Tai got up and limbed right over to the back of the bus where he grabbed onto his dirt bike. His arm was pulled away from it though by Kari. "No way bro, you're hurt."

"I'm not about to leave her!" Tai exclaimed.

"Then let me go after her." Kari said in response.

Tai's fist clenched knowing his inability and slammed it onto the bike's seat. He then looked Kari straight in the eyes. "Okay." Tai turned around and started to head to the front. Kari jumped onto the seat of bike and walked it up to the back doors of the bus. "Let's get some covering fire down and for fucks sake kill these bastards!" Tai commanded of his crew.

Kari kicked open the back doors and then proceeded to kick it started and drive it right off the back. The bike flew into the air for a second before hitting the ground and driving off in the opposite direction of the bus. Joe, Cody, and Ken were all laying down covering fire at their attackers.

The figures chasing the bus were surprised by the bike emerging from the bus. The gunfire from the bus made it almost impossible for them to chase after her, though one attempted to. TK who was lying on top of the bus holding onto the rack saw the attacker follow after Kari. He quickly turned over, held his rifle and aimed at the figure. It was an easy target, heading in a straight line after her. A single shot hit the pursuer right in the back. The lifeless body fell forward as his bike crashed into the sand. Holding onto his rifle and not the rack meant when the bus hit a bump TK flew nearly a foot into the air crashing into the back of the rack away from his gun. This meant having to lay flat on top of the bus, out of sight from the other attackers but unable to do anything.

Sora was panicky, she had two pursuers hot on her tail. Luckily she had driven into a more hilly part of the desert, this made it hard for her attackers to even get a shot away, let alone a good one. Adrenaline filled her body as she pushed her bike to the limit speeding as fast as she could. A gunshot rattled her concentration for a second but the bullet missed by a mile. She turned sharply around a hill but found her driving straight into flat ground. Knowing her advantage was quickly about to change she took out the assassin's pistol she had grabbed. She turned around and fired twice at one of the attackers, a headshot sent the figure flying back off their bike. Before she could turn her sights to the other her bike was rattled with bullets hitting her back tire sending her flying off her bike.

The figure approached slowly towards the wreak. Sora had fallen directly behind her bike. The attacker tried firing a couple rounds into bike to try and get the gas can to explode but to no avail. Sora waited gripping her pistol as hard as she could. The figure stopped about twenty meters away and got off his bike. Sora took a deep breath, she then threw her arm over the bike and fired two shots at the figure. A bullet hit struck the figure's arm forcing him to drop his gun. Sora then jumped to her feet and ran to the figure. The figure took out his knife with his one still functioning arm. Sora dodged his single swipe and tackled the guy to the ground. From there she grabbed the guy's gun off the ground and pulled the trigger. Sand had gotten into the gun and jammed it. This allowed the figure to take another swipe with his knife, the tip of the knife cut across Sora's cheek. Running on pure adrenaline she didn't even notice and in return smashed the blunt of gun into his skull, then again, and again.

Looking at the bloody carcass with brains splattered everywhere Sora felt her hand shaking. She fell to the ground and laid there trying to catch her breath and come to terms with everything that just happened. The blaring sun beamed down on her face. She slowly moved her hand across her cheek to feel the cut on it. Then shadow began to cover where sun had been. Her mouth drew open as she saw a black figure with black wings descend from the sky.

Mimi ducked again as bullet rattled the front of the bus, which was taking quite the beating. "Hey Joe? You want to ride shotgun?" Mimi called out. Joe who was at the side of the bus quickly ran to the front with his head down. He placed himself behind the front siding by the door. There he smashed away any remaining glass to give him a better shot.

Reaching into his holster Tai took out his pistol and then looked at Izzy who was examining some of the equipment on the bus floor. "Any ideas?" Tai asked.

"They're breaking off a little, I think they're plan was to get two on either side. But with one already gone, them splitting up might go to our advantage, I don't think they're aware how many we are in here. Mimi go right about twenty degrees that should be enough incentive for them to split from the back." Izzy explained.

Mimi nodded and turned the steering wheel just a tad. Sure enough the attackers split one heading onto the left side, the other two on the right side. The one on the left began to fire at the back tires, but the tires were reinforced and caged as to prevent being blown out. Cody now on the left had a clear shot, forced himself out of the window and blasted the figure with his rifle. The guy rattled with bullets hit the ground hard. "Ha ha! I got one!" Cody told the others. "Left side is clear!"

Everyone's attention was then turned to the right side. The two remaining attackers were at the back right corner of the bus trying to gain some momentum. Tai crouched over to an equipment box he grabbed a grenade from it and tossed it to Joe, "Hit'em with this!" Tai ordered.

Joe nodded as he caught the grenade with one hand. Joe swung his rifle behind his back and opened the front side door. He then looked over at Mimi, "Swerve left when I say!" Mimi gave him a nod. Joe took a deep breath before pulling the pin of the grenade. He held it in his hand and counted silently in his head for a second, "Now!" He yelled as he lobbed the grenade out the door. Mimi immediately swerved the bus as hard as she could. Everyone was sent flying to the right side. Joe was barely able to prevent himself from being thrown out the door. The grenade dropped right in front of the attackers and exploded right away. The explosion sent one attacker flying into the air. The other was stunned and tried desperately to keep his balance. This distraction made him an easy target for Ken who shot the guy right off his bike.

A large sigh of relief filled the bus with all the attackers dead. The sole exception being Tai of course, "Izzy, get a lock on Sora and Kari on the radar. Give Mimi the coordinates. We're not out of this yet people."

Sora couldn't move as the large black winged figure descended in front of her. She looked over for any kind of weapon but the best she had was the blunt end of the rifle she smashed the other guy's head in with. The winged creature had a humanoid figure but was definitely not human. Once the creature's feet touched down on the sand Sora charged at it with her the rifle but it easily swatted her to the ground. Out of options she looked on as it stretched out its hand reaching for her face.

A gun shot echoed through the distance. Sora turned to see Kari zooming her way on a dirtbike. Kari's second shot was a bulls eye striking the creature's outstretched arm. The creature let out the most hideous scream. Kari charged at the creature. She leapt from the dirtbike at the last second, allowing the bike to crash into it. Finally the creature retreated back to the air and flew away injured.

Kari helped Sora stand, "Was that what I think it was?" Kari asked.

"Yes, a Digimon." Sora replied.

Afterword:

The first chapter of a story I'm unsure about whether or not I'll continue but I thought it was fun enough to post it. In case you're wondering yes Matt, Davis, and Yolei are present in the story, but where and how is the question.