Her eyelids felt heavy. She didn't feel like getting up, as always. Yet something felt weird. Her back, or what was under it, wasn't her bed. It was wet, and too fresh.

It felt like… grass.

Slowly, her eyes decided to open. The blackness vanished, and instead, her green eyes were met with a powerful light on a sky blue background. Probably because it really was the sky she was looking at.

The rays were fragmentary because of what seemed to be leaves, large, emerald green leaves, spread to every side of her field of view and covering a good portion of the sky and sunrays.

Blinking a few times due to the blinding blaze of the sun, finally her eyes adjusted.

Her first thought was that this looked like a forest. But it was weird. Something was weird, and not right.

Finally, she sat up straight, and got a clear view of this strange alleged forest.

And she knew that this wasn't a normal forest. It felt like a weird mix between all the kind of forest that existed in the world, all jumbled together. The clear grass of a typical wood, the big trees and long lianas hanging from them of an amazon forest. Not a forest she'd ever heard of.

But her this trail of thoughts didn't continue for long.

Suddenly, from the bushes before her, emerged a strange, small, black and white creature, with a red cape draped over it. Like an oversized lizard, with its yellow eyes staring at her curiously. Not with surprise. Maybe it had been there all along, staring at her.

And then it spoke.

"What are you?"

Her eyes stared blankly at the screen before her.

For the fifth time, it read "Game Over" in big, red letters.

Cheeks red from rage and frustration, Faith angrily threw the controller against the wall. The object collided noisily with the surface, only to then fall unceremoniously on the floor.

Faith, meanwhile, gestured towards the screen, anger seeping from her very being.

"Five times!", she cried. "Five fucking times! What even is this boss!? It's not fair, damn it, you can't attack that much!"

A woman's voice suddenly came from outside the room. "Faith! How many times have I told you? Stop throwing stuff around!"

"Ugh, fine mom!", were her words as she reluctantly got up and waddled towards the thrown controller, picking it up.

Her eyes then glanced at her desk. Small piles of books, papers and other stationery were haphazardly placed upon it, silently scolding at her. We need to be done, they seemed to whisper, it's your duty.

Faith merely returned the glare. "Stupid", she muttered.

It'd been almost three years since she'd given up on school. Not because it was hard for her, quite the opposite. Back when she cared, she was above average in her grades, and the future seemed promising for her. That's what all the adults said, at least.

But she wasn't taking any of that crap.

Her simple view of everything began to falter as some bad marks came in. As the looks she received became filled with disappointment, with a silent kind of scorn for what she'd done.

They always say that you must get good grades not to impress others or anything like that, but for yourself.

But the silent glare that she got every time she slipped hurt. It bore through her skin, her being, her everything, and hurt. It was the truth, the harsh truth.

A latent laziness arose as she began feeling the weight of the expectations put on her. Her interest lowered more and more, as she found comfortableness in the quiet shade of resignation that came with never being good; content with mere videogames, internet, the occasional hang out with school acquaintances, all of this was enough for her. She was satisfied with barely passing the school year.

After having picked up what was thrown, Faith plopped onto her sofa once again, to face that dreaded boss for the sixth time. But suddenly, the will to do so gave up on her. Letting go of the gray controller, she let herself fall backwards. Her head was thrown so that she was now staring at the empty ceiling. Another typical day.

Her hand slipped into her jeans' pocket and began feeling around until it got hold of the rectangular object she was searching. Absent-mindedly getting her phone out of her pocket, she pressed the unlock button as she lifted it into the air. The screen lit up, revealing the time of day: five minutes until eight o'clock. Another typical day was ending.

Just as her mind registered the numbers on the small screen, a vibration emitted from the device, spreading through her arms. She just got a message, as the convenient notification which soon popped up indicated.

It wasn't exactly strange; she had quite a bunch of contacts to chat with, after all. But it wasn't exactly the time where she'd usually do that either.

And of course, there was the fact that the message came from an unknown number.

"Again with the spam…", she grumbled out loud. Yet, for some weird reason, she decided to open it nonetheless. Maybe out of pure curiosity, since it was a moment of such boredom.

She regretted it mere seconds later.

"DO YOU WISH FOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT?", it started with big capital letters. "IF YOUR HEART CRAVES FOR IT, THEN REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE. YOU ARE FREE TO IGNORE IT. THE CHOICE IS YOURS."

As she finished reading the cryptic words, Faith snorted lightly. As if, she thought, it's not like you can just want it and get it.

And so, in an attempt to mock whoever sent that message, so foolish in her eyes, Faith decided to reply.

"Yeah, why not?", the message said. She quickly pressed the Send button, and the window closed.

Just as the notification of the message being sent appeared, the phone slipped back into her pocket. She finally gave up on trying to beat the darn boss; turned off the console, she got ready to get out with some pals. A couple of other messages sent and a pair of shoes worn later, Faith stepped out of her house. The ominous question sent to her phone was long forgotten.

"And so this girl comes to me, trying to be all intimidating and stuff, but God, her skirt was pure shit! How could I take her seriously!"

"Hahaha, girl, you should've slapped her bloody face right there!"

"Better that you didn't, Alicia: even if she was a bitch, you'd still take the blame for the slap."

Walking next to each other, the three girls strolled cheerfully, telling of their most recent ordeal. Faith was the one on left, Alicia walked in the middle, and the other girl, Hanna, followed on the right. Faith leaned in.

"Aw, don't listen to her, Alicia: you've got to take the chance when you see it, can't let it get away and regret it!", she said mischievously, a snicker escaping her lips. She covered them with her hand, but it was a half-hearted and empty movement, purely for show: she was not one to hide her malicious intent.

Hanna looked at her with feigned scold in her eyes. "Faith, come on, I'm saying that because it wouldn't have been worth it either way!" Even though she tried to be serious, she couldn't hold the laughter that came soon after her sermon.

"Well, annoying broads aside, look at that! Faith, you should totally wear it! You're wasting your beauty with that hoodie there!" Alicia said, pointing towards a nearby window shop, where a light pink blouse was exhibited. Faith, however, looked at it doubtfully. "Huh… No, I don't like that. And what do you mean by that? I'm perfect even with a hoodie, girl! Besides, while I do think casual is better, I don't disdain skirts and things like that. I just prefer to be comfortable. And hoodies are comfortable!" As if to emphasize what she just said, Faith straightened her grey hoodie, a hint of pride in her eyes. Hanna merely raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, well, at least let's go and take a look: can't hurt to see, right?"

Faith shrugged, not exactly convinced. "I guess… ah, shoot, a message… go in without me, I'll catch up!"

The other two girls ran towards the shop, giggling gleefully, while Faith stayed behind, rummaging through her pocket. Finally managing to take out her phone, she unlocked it, and opened the message that just came in.

A shadow of confusion and surprise passed on her features as she read quickly.

"YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND.", it read, once again in capital letters.

"The Hell is this supposed to-" She couldn't even finish her sentence. A bright flash of light came from the small LCD screen of the phone, but it lasted for a couple of seconds at most before vanishing as quickly as it came, as if it never happened.

But Faith, and the phone as well, vanished along with it.

Alicia and Hanna peeked from the entrance of the store. "Faith, what's the hold u- uuuuh… Where is she?"

The two girls looked around in confusion, as their friend was nowhere to be seen.

"What I am? Have you looked at a mirror recently? I should ask you that question!"

The strange thing looked a bit offended, and readily retorted. "Well, it's not my fault I've never seen anything like you! I can't help it!"

Faith felt offended in return, and pointed a finger at the thing. "And that's true for me as well so I'd say we both have that right!"

Suddenly, she realized how unreal the situation was. What was there to be defined normal when you're bickering with something that might as well be called an alien?

Her hand slowly clasped her head, fingers going through her dark blue hair. Just what the hell was happening?, was the sentence that her brain furiously tried to find an answer to.

The black and white thing, though ready to retort again, stopped, as its yellow eyes watched curiously the girl.

"Um… Are you okay?"

Faith snapped, her hands leaving her hair and gesticulating hysterically. "Of course! Yes, I am totally okay! It's not like I've just met an alien or shit like that! It's not like I don't even recognize this place! It's not like I don't even remember getting here! Yes, I'm just PEACHY!"

The creature, visibly taken aback, looked as if it didn't know what to do. Almost timidly, it tried to speak. "B-but I'm not an… alien, or whatever that is… I'm a Digimon."

Faith raised her head, which she placed in her hands earlier, as the creature uttered the word. "Digi… mon?"

The creature- the Digimon, suddenly looked happy, like a child who was talking about their favorite thing, and there were no more traces of the previous astonishment. "Yeah! I'm a Digimon, a Digital Monster! My name's Hackmon!"

"Hack… What? Like, hacking stuff? With computers and hackers?" As she said that, Faith realized she was still sitting, and decided it was about time she got up.

The Digimon named Hackmon looked at her as if she had just spoken into another language. "Hacking…? No, I'm just Hackmon! You still haven't told me who're you, though."

Faith looked at Hackmon doubtfully. This situation was beyond anything she knew about the world, and about reality, for that matter. Yet… probably exactly because of that, she could just go along with it.

"... Faith. Faith Armstrong. You can call me just Faith, though. And, just so you know, I'm a human."

"Faith… Human…? I've never heard of any Digimon with those names."

Her eyes twitched a bit in slight exasperation. "That's because I'm not a Digimon…"

"Well, that doesn't matter! Because!" The small Digimon suddenly ran up to her and looked up, visibly excited about something. "I think this is destiny, or something! I was told to come here and I met you: it can't be a coincidence!"

Her interest suddenly picked, Faith raised a questioning eyebrow. "Wait, called…? I was called here too! I think… kinda…"

The Digimon merely started jumping in response, even more enthusiastic than before. "See, I told you! It can't be a coincidence! We were both called here! Now we gotta go find whoever called us!"

"We-?" Faith was skeptical. "Look, I don't know about you, but I would like to-" but before she could finish, the thought struck her. Could it be that whoever they needed to find was also the one behind the messages? If so, maybe they could send her home. A feeble hope indeed, but it was better than nothing.

With a heavy sigh, she decided to go along with the situation, this time for good. "Okay, well, I've got very limited options here. You said that we need to find… the caller, let's call them. Do you know where to search, though?"

"Of course I know!" The small Digimon puffed out his chest a little, as if proud of knowing more than her. "When I was training, there was suddenly this little sphere of light, yeah? And it started talking! It asked me if I wanted to become more powerful, to which I said yes, of course, and then it became a light trail and told me to follow it! That's how I came here! And when I arrived, before I met you, it told me to go to File City afterwards! So maybe they're there! The caller, I mean!"

Faith couldn't exactly grasp why the Digimon looked so excited. But one thing was sure: Hackmon's "caller" was the same as hers, for she too received a question like his. "Yeah, that happened to me too, somewhat… I got a message asking if I wanted to be acknowledged, to which I answered yes, and then shortly after I get another weird message with something like "your wish is my command" in it and then BAM! A flash of light, and I wake up here!"

Faith placed a finger on her chin. "What's all this supposed to mean…? It's definitely connected, but I don't understand... Wait a second, you said something about a 'File City'? Where the Hell is THAT supposed to be?"

However, Hackmon was already gone: behind her, to be more precise, and was furiously pushing her forward. "Enough talking, Faith-mon! We gotta go to File City, at once!"

"Whoa- Hey! Careful! Your head's all spiky, you're going to sting me! And it's not Faith-mon, it's just Faith! Gah, would you please be more gentle, fucking Hell…!"

And so, the two began marching, albeit one of them somewhat reluctantly, towards their first known destination: File City. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Faith, her phone, mysteriously back into her pocket, received a new message.

"THE RACE BEGINS. WILL YOUR DESIRES BE SATISFIED, OR SHALL THEY STAY MERE DELUSIONS FOREVER?"