[A/N: I was a huge Digimon fan as a teenager (Seasons 1 and 2, mostly), and years later, my interest has been greatly rejuvenated, enough to where I have written a story featuring a brand-new set of Digidestined. This is more of a mature look at the series, so I hope you enjoy it! Comments are appreciated, hardly demanded.]

DIGIMON GENESIS

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Chapter One: Awakening

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If I don't get some shelter

Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away . . .

-The Rolling Stones

Light.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying my best to ignore the throbbing pain in my head. It felt like someone had set off a dynamite charge in my skull. I hadn't ever experienced a hangover (something college kids can rarely say), but now I understood. The light was like spikes stabbing into the back of my skull, and I groaned.

I lay there in that darkness, not wanting to move, afraid that if I did the rest of my body would explode with pain. I moved my fingers, flexed them-and they dug into something soft. Dirt. This puzzled me, and I realized I was not in bed, or even inside.

Something else-the sounds. It sounded like the twitter of birds, the rustling of leaves in the wind.

I was outside.

I groaned again, and slowly I lifted my head. I kept my eyes closed as long as I could, not wanting to let the light in . . .

"Are you all right?"

A voice. I rubbed the back of my head, feeling dirt crumble and fall from where it was caked there, and I nodded. "Yeah, I think I'm okay. Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

The voice sounded unfamiliar. Slowly I cracked my eyes open . . . and my body seized up in polarizing fear.

There was a monster in front of me.

It was the size of a deflated soccer ball. It had large liquid-black eyes and a mouth that was turned up in a happy grin. It floated a foot or so off the ground, eye level with me. Its round body bristled with a half-dozen pointed spokes. But what really seized my attention in the moment before my body broke its paralysis was the flame. It shot out of the top of the thing's head like a geyser.

Then my terror kicked in.

"Whoa-ho-holy crap!" I leapt bolt upright, eyes bugging out of their sockets. The creature drifted backwards in surprise, and I looked around for a weapon, something to use in case the thing jumped me.

"Relax!"

It took me a moment to realize that the voice came from the fiery creature itself. It caught me so off-guard that I forgot my weapon hunt.

"D-did you just talk?" I couldn't believe it-but then, I wouldn't have believed that something like this thing could even exist, much less speak.

"Don't act so shocked," the creature said loftily-it had a burr in its voice, like cut glass.

I tried to speak, but all that came out was a strangled half-yell.

"Please, just calm down." The creature inched closer, and I scrambled back automatically with fear. I won't lie; I was a stone's throw away from pissing myself, yammering my head off. And this thing was telling me to calm down?

"I'm Sunmon," the creature said, beaming wildly-no pun intended.

"Sunmon." I repeated the name, and for some reason kept picturing a guy with dreadlocks playing guitar on a street corner. But this creature had no hair to speak off.

"Yup. That's me." The creature bounced about. "And you're Steve, right?"

"Er . . . yeah." For a second there, I had forgotten my own name. My stark terror had subsided to a dull tension, but my nerves were twanging and I felt that if I didn't do something, I would go crazy. "What the hell are you?"

"What do you mean, what am I?" Now this Sunmon thing was looking honestly confused. "I'm Sunmon."

"What are you talking about?"

Now Sunmon was looking at me like a child. "Erm . . . I'm a Digimon."

"A Digimon?" The word held some familiarity to me, like something spoken out of a dream or a childhood memory.

"Aren't you . . . hot?"

"Huh? It's autumn."

"I know, but . . ." I waved my hands at the flame on top of his head. Sunmon's eyes followed my gestures.

"Oh, no - I'm quite all right. It doesn't hurt me - watch!"

He closed his eyes, and suddenly the flame suddenly exploded to a huge blaze. I jerked back, crying out, shielding my eyes - the flame had consumed Sunmon. I looked around again, not for a weapon this time but for something to put out the flames. The poor little guy was toast, I know, but maybe-

Then the burning brightness left, and I looked back, expecting to see the charred remains of the bizarre creature-but it was just sitting there, grinning toothily.

"How'd you do that?"

"Told ya it doesn't hurt," he said proudly. "But it sure makes me hungry. Do you have any food?"

Food? I didn't know. I didn't even know how I'd gotten here. My hands patted my pockets, in case I had a half-eaten bag of M&Ms or something . . . and then my fingers closed on something cold and heavy in my right pocket.

"What . . ."

I reached in and pulled it out. It was a palm-sized device, round and silver in color. It had three buttons circling the tiny screen, which was black and silent. There was a ring of strange markings around the screen, like ancient hieroglyphs. I'd taken Greek and Latin the previous year, and this looked nothing like anything I'd seen before. The device itself didn't have an Apple or a Microsoft logo on it, either. I had never seen it before-at least, I didn't think I did. But it had some kind of cool comfort, resting in the palm of my hand. And I'll tell you something else: I felt a potential for some serious heat within that cold metal.

This doesn't look Mac-compatible, I thought crazily, and I held it up. "Do you know what this is?"

Sunmon squinted at it for a long moment. Then he frowned. "Search me. Is it food?"

"Not unless you eat metal." I pressed one of the buttons, expecting the screen to light up or something-but nothing happened. I pressed another. Still nothing. Ditto with the third.

"Nope."

I shrugged, then tucked the

(digivice)

strange object back in my pocket. I continued rummaging, and found a pack of wintergreen gum in my pocket. I unwrapped a stick and held it out gingerly, expecting to get my fingers singed. But Sunmon hovered right up to me, and I felt the heat baking off of him-but it wasn't searing, like I expected. It was, to be honest, almost comforting, like an electric blanket. He took the gum between his teeth and chewed.

While he did, I glanced about the place. I was standing in a clearing in the middle of a forest. The trees were huge, solid trunks over a hundred feet tall. Redwoods, I thought-but the trees bristled with leaves of many colors, including colors I'd never seen on any plant before. The sun dappled them, causing them to ripple and shimmer. It was beautiful, but also alien and it did not sit right with me.

"Where the hell am I?"

Sunmon swallowed. "What do you mean, where are you? You're on the outskirts of Mod City."

"Mod . . . City?" I had never heard of it. I didn't live to any major metropolitan city, especially ones that bordered a thick forest inhabited by strange fiery creatures that could talk. Still, it was a city, and city meant civilization, and civilization meant-

"Are there people there?"

"People?" Now Sunmon looked even more confused.

I realized it was a stupid question-of course people were there. It was a city, after all. "Never mind. Can you take me there?"

Sunmon hesitated. "Uh . . . why would you want to go there?"

"Can you take me or not?"

Sunmon arched an eyebrow. "For another piece of that food, I will."