Walking down the path to the park was Dai Motomiya who was dressed in a pair of jean shorts, yellow spaghetti strap top and black convers while her long hair was tied up in a bun while she had her goggles around her neck and her D-3 clipped to her jeans' pocket while her D-Terminal was in her other pocket.
It was a beautiful day about a month after the Digidestinds had taken care of Diaboramon so she was off to meet up with Ken to hang out for the afternoon.
Plenty had happened after that day like the fact that Mimi had moved back to Odaiba and was dating Izzy while Sora and Matt were in a stronger relationship while Kari was taking a chance on dating Ken which surprised everyone.
Soon after, Dai asked Tai if he wanted to try dating and he agreed since he couldn't help but find her utterly adorable with how flushed she was from asking and he agreed.
In a deep part of himself he was being selfish in dating Dai to help himself get over Sora, but he tried to act more into the relationship with the mahogany haired girl to make her happy because he couldn't take it to see her sad face.
He swore that she looked like a kicked puppy and she had been the one to invent the look and he never wanted to see that look because of him, so he did his best to be the best boyfriend he could be.
Thankfully she never demanded anything from him and they just hung out like they usually did, except they also held hands now when they were walking around.
Returning to the present situation, Dai smiled as she and Veemon enjoyed their day as the sun shone down on them.
Veemon was sitting on her shoulders with a happy grin as he looked around at the people in the streets, some even talking with digimon.
"Ooh, look!" he exclaimed as he pointed to the sky.
Pausing, Dai looked up with a frown as she saw red lines in the sky as the clouds all seemed to have faded away.
"That doesn't look good." She said.
Just then, her D-3 started beeping wildly as some cars' alarms went off making cats yowl and dogs bark or howl at the sounds of disturbance all around them.
Veemon jumped down as he grew tense when a beam of red light shot down from the sky and slowly started to move towards them.
"Is that a digimon?" he asked.
"I don't know and I don't want to. Run!" Dai yelled.
They both turned and took off running, the light chasing after them and picking up speed as it went.
Curious, Dai looked over her shoulder with arched brows to see that the light wasn't doing any damage at all, but seemed more intent on chasing after them.
"What is this thing? Why is it only chasing us?" she asked.
As they kept running, the light started to get faster as Tai, Agumon, Kari and Gatomon ran out from around a building to see what was going on and gasped when they saw the light.
"What is that thing?" Kari asked.
"I'm not sure. I've never seen anything like it before." Agumon said.
"Come on, Dai! Pick up the pace!" Tai called out to his successor.
"What do think we're doing?!" she yelled at him.
The light then reached Dai, shining down on her as she was then lifted up off of the ground.
"The light is taking her." Gatomon gasped.
Dai yelped as her body felt weightless as she was lifted up, Veemon running into the light but he wasn't being pulled up like she was.
"Take my hands." He called as he jumped up.
She took hold of his hand and she seemed to stop, so the others ran over and grabbed at her arms as they tried to pull her out of the light.
"Just keep holding on. We'll save you." Tai grunted.
The light flashed a darker shade as the magnetic force grew stronger as it pulled at the girl, making it harder for her to hold onto her friends as they almost lost their grip on her.
"This isn't working. We need more help." Gatomon called.
"Why is it only taking Dai?" Agumon asked.
"You wanna ask it?" Kari asked.
"OK, sure. Why are ya takin' her?!" Veemon yelled as he pulled harder as he tightened his grip on his partner.
"Like that's helping!" Dai yelled as her bottom half was up straight in the air.
Tai groaned as he started to skid on the pavement along with the others as the light grew stronger as it pulled on Dai even harder.
It obviously had the advantage and wanted her more than they did for some reason.
Suddenly, he let go as he was tripped over his own two feet and fell on top of the others, Dai screaming as she was sucked up into the light that was shooting down from the sky.
"Oh no!" Kari gasped.
As soon as Dai was at the lines in the sky, the light faded away and she disappeared from their sights without a trace.
Everything was silent as the sky turned back to normal, then grew dark as storm clouds rolled in.
Ken was then seen running over towards them with Wormmon on his shoulder.
He stopped as he saw the distressed looks the others had on their faces while Veemon had tears falling down his face.
"What happened?" Ken asked.
Kari turned to him with a sad look which made him worry.
"It' Dai. She…she's gone." She sniffled.
"Gone? What do you mean?" Ken demanded.
Tai was oddly silent as he was on his knees staring at the ground blankly, Dai's screams still echoing in his mind as the red light took her away from them.
She was his successor and his girlfriend, he was supposed to take care of her and now she was gone.
"Something took her away." Agumon said.
"It was a red light. Dai's digivice acted weird when the sky changed and then that light shot down and started chasing after us." Veemon said as he tried to blink back his tears.
"That was what that was?" Ken asked with wide eyes.
"We saw it from the park so we came to check it out in case it was a digimon." Wormmon said.
Kari was crying now as Ken walked over to her and pulled her into his arms, patting her back to comfort her as Tai remained where he was.
"No more crying. We need to get to the others and tell them what happened." Gatomon said.
Tai then stood up and walked off while the others watched him in worry as they knew he must have been taking this hard.
(Later…)
When the group was all called, everyone was worried when they heard about Dai's disappearance as they started brain storming on what could have happened.
"Who would have taken Dai?" Matt asked.
"Maybe it was one of our old enemies." Sora suggested.
"You think it could be the Dark Masters?" Joe asked.
"No way. They're gone." Biyomon said as she shook her head.
"Yeah, we defeated them good." Gabumon said.
"True, but Myotismon and Diaboramon still came back." Palmon pointed out.
"Who else could it be?" Patamon asked.
"I'm not sure. I mean, who would want to hurt Dai and what reason would they have for taking her?" TK asked.
"Maybe they know her." Yolei muttered but everyone heard and gave her a look.
"What?" she asked.
Her answer was Tai slamming his hand down on the table in anger and everyone jumped as he got up from his seat as he started to pace the room.
Tentomon then cleared his throat.
"What doesn't make sense is if it was the Dark Masters, why would they come after Dai? She has no link to them." He said.
"True, if anything, they would have come after one of us older kids or even TK and Kari." Izzy pointed out.
"So why didn't they?" Gomamon asked.
"That's what doesn't make sense. They don't know Dai; she never did anything to them so they have no reason going after her." Matt said.
"How do we know it is the Dark Masters? What if it's a new enemy?" Cody asked.
"He's got a point. Dai is our leader and without her, there's no Imperialdramon." Armadillomon said.
"That would leave us down a power. But if it wasn't the Dark Masters, then who could it have been?" Hawkmon asked.
"That's what we need to find out." TK said.
"Oh, poor Dai. I hope she's all right wherever she is." Mimi sighed sadly as she thought of the girl.
Again, Dai's screams echoed in Tai's head as he saw her getting sucked back up into the sky.
He was the one who had let go and fell on everyone else making them lose her.
"We need to try and look for her." Ken said.
"He's right. Maybe we can pick up her signal in the Digital World." Kari said.
"What if she isn't there? She could have been pulled into some other world for all we know." Sora pointed out.
"Well, we should still check it out." Ken said.
Meanwhile, Veemon had been silent throughout this entire meeting as he felt horrible for letting Dai go.
He was with her the entire time, he could have digivolved but he didn't.
Agumon noticed his depression and placed his paw on the dragon's shoulder.
"We'll find her, don't worry." He said.
"Aw, come on Veemon. Everything will be all right." Biyomon cooed.
"I hope. But I feel sick inside like I ate too much." He whimpered.
"Maybe you did." Armadillomon said.
"No, no. He must be worried sick about Dai." Hawkmon said.
"I don't blame him." Gabumon sighed.
Later on, all of the other kids walked off to get to work on finding their missing friend while Veemon stayed with Tai and Agumon.
Veemon looked over at the child of Courage who was sitting on his bed as he was deep in thought over what had happened.
"Tai…do you think Dai is OK?" he asked.
Tai didn't say anything which made the dragon whimpered sadly as that sick feeling came back into his gut.
"Um, I'm sure she's fine. After all, this is Dai we're talking about. Nothing can take her down so easily." Agumon said.
Nodding, Veemon gave him a small smile but it didn't stop the pain.
Hearing what Agumon said, Tai then turned to the two digimon.
"Veemon…do you think I was a good boyfriend to her?" he asked feeling a bit sheepish.
The two digimon looked at him confused from the sudden question.
"She always smiled more after she got home from spending time with you. She seemed happier, so I think you were a good boyfriend. Then again, you're her first boyfriend so I wouldn't know." Veemon said.
A small grin tugged at Tai's lips as he heard this and it only made him feel worst for letting his girlfriend slip right through his fingers.
Shaking his head, he stood up tall.
"We'll find her. Wherever she is, we'll find her and bring her back." He said determined.
With him turning back into his normal self, Agumon and Veemon both smiled at that as they got energized to find the child of Miracles.
(With Dai…)
Screaming had gotten annoying to Dai as she was being pulled by the light like the Digi Gates did when she was being pulled into the Digital World as she wondered where she was going.
"Is this done yet?" she asked.
There were different colored lights all over the room as she was pulled through, curious when she finally stopped as a beam of red light shot out under her feet.
"Oh no." she groaned.
With a yep, she fell right down into the light and neared the ground that looked like a soccer field where a Vilemon was fighting with a tall yellow fox digimon while a red dinosaur and a Terriermon were watching along with a redhead girl, a blue haired Chinese boy and a boy with light brown hair that was wearing a pair of goggles.
"Oh, this is gonna huuuurrrrt!" Dai yelled.
The digimon and humans all looked up s they saw the red light shoot down onto the ground and then the girl fell down onto the ground with a hard thump.
"I knew it." she moaned as she pushed herself up.
"Who is that?" the goggle boy asked.
"I don't know, but…doesn't she look familiar?" the Chinese boy asked.
The red dinosaur trotted over to the girl and gave her a sniff making Dai look at him curiously.
"Hey, what's up? Personal space, dude." She said backing up from him.
"Takato, she smells like digimon." The dinosaur said.
This made the goggle boy gasp while the redhead looked at Dai who was standing up now as her brown eyes took in the area around her.
"Hey, we were in the middle of a fight here!" Vilemon yelled.
"Really? Let me guess; you were losing." Dai commented making him fume.
"That's it girly, you're done for." Vilemon said as he charged at her but she just jumped out of the way and kicked him, sending him back.
"You better back off you little bug." Dai warned.
Sadly, Veemon wasn't with her and she had no idea where she was so she would have to fight on her own.
The Chinese boy gasped as he took in the D-3 the girl wore on her hip.
"Guys, I think that's Daisuke Motomiya." He said.
"Huh? No way!" Takato gasped.
"Oh, please. Don't be stupid. That's just a TV show." The redhead said, but even she had to admit that every detail of the girl was the same as the child of Miracles.
"Renamon, walk all over him." The redhead called.
"As you wish." The fox said.
She then jumped up at Vilemon while he was preoccupied with the mahogany haired girl and rained down her Diamond Storm, hitting him.
"Not bad, but I'm better." Vilemon said as he got back up.
As he was about to attack, the redheaded girl pulled out and white bulky digivice that had a blue ring around the screen with a blue strand with a black clip to it and she also had a card.
"Digi-Modiphy: Clone Activate!" she said as she slashed the card through the slot in the bulky digivice.
Vilemon used his Nightmare Shade on Renamon and she disappeared while the redhead smirked.
"Ha, gotcha." Vilemon said.
"The only thing you've got is the serious case of the uglies. Look behind you." the girl said as she pointed.
"Uh oh." Vilemon said.
Renamon was up in the air and she then rained down her Diamond Storm a second time, deleting him and Dai watched in horror as the fox absorbed his data.
The area around them that was pink with mist around them faded away into night time to show the school behind them and supplies shed.
"Don't bother with any thanks. I did it for the data and that's all." The girl said.
"Data? Digimon are living creatures and you…kill them." Takato said.
His words seemed to have struck something in this girl as she thought things over.
"He's right they are alive." The Chinese boy said.
"No. Digimon are nothing more than data." The redhead said.
Growling in frustration, Dai ran up to the girl.
"How can you say that?! You have a digimon as your partner. She's alive and breathing isn't she? Isn't that enough for you to learn that digimon are alive?" she demanded.
Renamon blinked as she sensed this strange power coming off of the girl and was unsure of what it was.
The redhead bit her lip as she thought over these words, but there seemed to be two different sides of herself that were arguing and the cold side of herself won.
"Renamon." She said in a snooty fashion.
They both turned to walk off, but stopped as they saw a cute little white digimon with big green eyes was hugging the girl's leg.
"Huh? What is that little thing?" she asked softly as the digimon giggled.
He then pulled away from her leg and gave a big cutesy smile.
"Hi, wanna play?" he asked as his ears expanded.
"Hey, don't you touch him." Takato called making the girl snap out of the trance she was in.
She frowned and then walked around the digimon as she walked off with Renamon.
"Come on, Renamon. Why would I want to waste time with these goggle heads?" she mocked.
"Hey! Technically, TK came up with that first, so that's a copy right thing." Dai called after her.
"What's her deal?" Takato pouted as he crossed his arms.
"You tell me." Dai said as she rounded on the two boys.
Right up in front of them, they could see that she truly was who they thought she was.
"Wow, you really are Daisuke Motomiya. That's so cool! Where's Veemon and can I have your autograph?" Takato asked as he had stars in his crimson red eyes.
Dai felt her eye twitch at his strange behaviour and then grew defensive at the information he had on her.
"How do you know my name and about Veemon?" she demanded.
"Finally, a little fun!" the little digimon cheered making everyone gasp and look at him as he started to bounce off.
"Wait it's dangerous out there by yourself." Takato called.
"Its dangerous here too. And there must be more people who are fun here than you. Bye Guilmon!" The digimon said as he giggled while he bounced off.
"I hope he's OK." Takato said.
"He's a strange little digimon. I've never seen anything like him. I don't know if he even wants a Tamer." Chinese boy said.
"Or how long that Tamer would survive." Terriermon said.
"OK, back to what's going on here." Dai said making everyone look at her.
She did not look amused and they both blanched at the fierce look as they saw that her eyes turning red wasn't just a mistake on the TV when she got mad.
"Well, you see…Digimon used to just be a TV show and you and all your other friends are made up characters from that show." Takato said.
"And now that digimon are becoming real and materializing, the same must have happened to you." Henry said.
Chocolate eyes opened wide at the news as her breathing seemed to grow more fast and harder as she felt her world crashing down around her from the sudden news.
"Um, Daisuke?" Takato called.
"She doesn't look so good." Terriermon observed.
Her skin had gotten pale as she held a hand over her heart as she tried to calm down, but it wasn't working.
"OK, let's get her somewhere to sit down." the Chinese boy advised.
Takato nodded as they both took her hands and led her over to a bench and sat her down as the Chinese boy tilted her head down to go between her knees.
"Henry, what're ya doing?" Takato asked.
"This helps people who have panic attacks. I'm not surprised she's having one though." The Chinese boy now identified as Henry said.
"Does it really help?" Takato asked.
Dai had her hands on her head now, fingers tangling into her mahogany strands as she tried to regulate her breathing before she looked back up at the two boys.
"So…I'm in a different dimension where digimon are appearing, without Veemon or any of my friends or family?" she asked.
"Pretty much, yeah." Takato said.
She whined in disbelief as she pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her forehead on her knees.
She did not need this.
Things were finally going good for her in life.
Tai was her boyfriend (even if he did seem to be just acting the part so she wouldn't get upset by the fact that he was still hung up over Sora), her parents weren't bothering her as much as they used to, Jun had laid off on teasing her as she chased after Joe's brother Jim and digimon were now living with humans peacefully.
Why did things have to get complicated when they were so great?
"Where is she going to stay for now?" Takato asked.
"She can come live with me." Guilmon offered.
"I don't think she'll like where you live." Terriermon teased.
"Well, she can't live with me. My mom won't even let me keep a puppy. You think she'll let me keep a TV character that came to life?" Takato asked rhetorically.
Henry sighed as he helped the girl up.
"Let's just try it. I'll come up with something." He said.
Guilmon went back to his small cave to sleep while Henry and Takato led the girl off to a house that was connected to a bakery, Dai remaining silent during the entire way.
"Well, this is my place." Takato said with smile hoping to get something out of the usually energetic girl, but she remained silent.
Frowning sadly at this, Takato opened up the door to his home and walked inside with Dai and Henry following him and spotted his parents were starting to close up for the night.
The woman looked over curiously when she spotted her son walking in with some friends she hadn't met yet.
"Takato, isn't it a bit late for bringing friends over?" she asked.
"Um, well, you see…this is Daisuke Motomiya. Her parents are out of town for a few months on a business trip, so she needs a place to stay. Is it OK if we let her stay with us?" Takato asked.
Silently, he was praying for a yes and that they bought it.
Mr. Matsuki walked over with his wife, both looking the girl over as she had this kicked puppy dog look on her face.
"I'm not sure. We'd have to get in touch with her parents first." Mrs. Matsuki said.
"Aw, come on dear. I'm sure we can make some room for her. Think of it, this could be like our chance to have a daughter!" Mr. Matsuki said eagerly.
She gave him a stern look.
"We still need to speak with Daisuke's parents. It's the proper thing to do." She said making him whine.
"My parents already left for their trip." Dai said softly making them look at her.
She gave them her best watery eyed look as her bottom lip trembled to show how distressed she looked.
"They told me to find a friend to stay with and then left. They're very busy and hardly have time for me, so…" she trailed off as she turned her head away to try and hide her tears.
This broke the Matsukis' hearts; even Takato was tearing up while Henry and Terriermon were staring at the mahogany haired girl in awe.
"Oh, poor dear. Of course you can stay with us. We'll find a place for you to sleep. Takato, clean up your room and Takehiro, get the spare futon." Mrs. Matsuki ordered as she placed her hands on Dai's shoulders.
"Uh, right, Mom!" Takato said as he rushed off.
"Of course, dear!" Takehiro chirped as he ran off happily since he now had a surrogate daughter for a little while.
Mrs. Matsuki then turned to Dai and dried the tears that escaped the two big chocolate eyes with her apron.
"Now, don't worry. You can stay with us as long as you need to. My name is Mie and as you heard, my husband is Takehiro. Feel free to call us by our names, honey." She said.
Dai then gave a cheerful smile at Mie to show her appreciation.
"I will. Thank you again for being so kind!" Dai said with a bow.
Mie smiled at that and then looked over to Henry.
"Now, why don't you two go get cleaned up for dinner. I'll have it ready soon." she said.
"That's all right, Mrs. Matsuki. I have to get home before my parents worry, but maybe next time." The blunette politely declined.
"All right, if you say so. Why don't you go say goodbye to Takato then?" Mie suggested.
"Yes ma'am." Henry said.
He and Dai then walked upstairs to see Takato pushing his stuff inside of a closet while Takehiro placed a futon down on the floor beside the bed.
Brushing his bangs out of his face since he had taken off his goggles, Takato looked over to where Dai and Henry were standing.
"Hey, hope it's good enough." He said.
Takehiro looked over and smiled.
"Where's Mie?" he asked.
"She said she was going to be cooking." Henry said.
"Ah, right. Well, I'll just leave you kids to talk and go help cook. Daisuke, if you need anything, feel free to just ask." Takehiro said as he left the room.
As soon as he was gone, Henry closed the door.
"That was easy." Terriermon said.
"No kidding. I wish I was able to make my mom give me whatever I wanted like that." Takato said.
"You can try to copy my awesome skills all you want, but it's gonna fail. You have to be a natural at it for it to work." Dai said with a grin while Terriermon giggled.
"I bet I could copy it." he bragged.
"Really? Prove it then." Dai challenged.
Before he could, Henry picked the bunny up and turned to walk out of the room.
"We have to get going. If you need any help, just call me." he said.
"Got it. Thanks, Henry." Takato said as the Chinese boy walked out of the room.
Looking out the window, they watched as Henry walked off down the street and Dai then turned to Takato with an expectant look.
"Mind explaining what happened earlier with that girl?" she asked.
"Uh, sure." He said.
They both sat down and he explained about how Digimon was a TV show, manga, movie and card game too which helped with the new digivices which were called D-Powers.
The cards helped give the digimon more power when the Rookies couldn't digivolve, then he went into how he created Guilmon by drawing him up and wishing really hard for him to come to life.
Rika and Henry had different ways how they got their digimon, but he wasn't sure what they were or why Rika was such a cold person that regarded digimon as only data.
It got under Dai's skin as she thought back to how Ken once thought the same way and did so many horrible things.
Afterwards, they washed up and then ate dinner with Mie and Takehiro, Dai explaining things about herself while they decided to transfer her to Takato's school since she was 'home schooled'.
That night, Dai was lying in her futon and had her D-3 in her hands, looking at it sadly as she wondered how the others were dealing with her disappearance.
Would they be looking for her, would they even care like they did when Kari was taken to the Dark Ocean?
Sighing, she turned over and went to sleep with her D-3 clenched tightly in her hand.
To be continued…
