Chapter 1: Monsters

The sunlight peered through the window of a boy's bedroom as an alarm rung throughout the room. A small, square, digital alarm clock had the time 8:00 blinking continuously as the buzzer continued ringing for a good twenty seconds before a hand slammed down on it and shut it off. A boy with short and spiked black hair, looking to be about 12 years of age, lay in a bed, half-covered by blue sheets.

"Shu!" a female voice called from outside the room, causing the young boy to stir. "Shu!"

The voice continued calling out to him, but the boy buried himself underneath his sheets. Finally, a woman with long black hair and sporting a purple dress barged into the room. "Shu Kazeki, wake up! It's time for breakfast! Get downstairs now or you'll be late for school again! Don't forget that you have a field trip today!"

"All right, all right! I'm up!" the boy grumbled, sitting up in his bed and rubbing his brown eyes.

Shu's mother sighed and closed the door behind her, heading back downstairs to meet with her husband, a tall man with short brown hair wearing a brown business suit and black tie, and Shu's brother, a boy no older than older 7 with messy brown hair of a medium length. Shu's brother was named Mitsuru, and he wore a simple black T-shirt with brown shorts.

"Well, honey, I'm off to the office!" said Shu's dad, setting a bowl down and getting to his feet. He straightened out his tie and looked down at his son. "Let's go, Mitsuru."

"Coming, dad," the young boy replied, grabbing his backpack form beside his chair and hopping to the ground. His white Tennis shoes clacked against the hard wooden floor as he walked, as did his father's black dress shoes.

By the time Mitsuru and his father were out the door, Shu had arrived downstairs. He was now seen wearing a short-sleeved red and white shirt with an open orange sleeveless jacket over it. He also wore a pair of green shorts, as well as some brown shoes with orange stripes. Perhaps the most noticeable change about him was that he was now wearing a pair of round goggles over his forehead; he didn't need them, it was more of a fashion accessory.

Shu immediately sat himself down at the table and grabbed a bowl of rice, greedily gulping it all down. Thanking his mother for the food, he hastily ran out of the kitchen towards the front door, grabbing his backpack and running off.

A couple hours later, Shu could be seen standing in the middle of a park with a bunch of his classmates. A woman in her early 30s was instructing the class. She had long brown hair that flowed freely down her back and wore a pink sweatshirt with long black pants, the woman seemingly ignoring the heat.

"All right, class," she announced. "The reason you are all here is to finish up your final art project! You are to divide into groups of three, and, using the boards and paints that have been provided, you are to paint the landscape you see before you."

Grabbing a board and some paint, Shu and two of his friends found their own spot in the park and began painting one of the trees with a bird's nest in it. As the trio began painting, a beeping sound could be heard coming from the jeans of one of Shu's friends. The boy's name was Adel, and he could be seen sporting a grey short-sleeved shirt with a black stripe across the center. His hair was a dark brown color and was cut in a bowl shape with the back slightly longer. Adel reached into his pocket and pulled out a rectangular-shaped box-like object with a screen and three buttons; it was a virtual pet, quite popular nowadays. After messing with for a few seconds, Adel put it away.

"Sorry about that," the boy apologized. "Had to feed it."

"You could've waited until we were finished," Shu griped, though smiling a bit.

"Let me guess," the other boy said, working on painting the tree leaves on the board. The boy wore a black T-shirt and tan shorts, his shirt containing a red falcon design. "Still can't find any?"

"Yeah," Shu sighed, replying to the blond-haired boy. "Where did you find yours, Nando?"

"At a small game store downtown," the boy replied. "They only had a few though."

Within the next 90 minutes, the trio had finished their painting and was heading over to hand in their assignment. While Adel and Nando discussed their virtual pets, Shu gazed up at the cloud in the sky. However, as he was looking up at the sky, Shu noticed that the sky seemed to take on a grayish-blue color.

"That's weird," he said. "Hey, guys, look at-"

Shu suddenly cut off his sentence when he looked forward and noticed that his had vanished. Starting to freak out, Shu looked around and saw that everyone in the park, including his class, were now absent. He could also no longer hear the sounds of the city around him.

"Wh-What's going on here?!"

Shu was clearly panicking, unable to see or hear anyone. Within a minute, Shu finally heard a sound, but not on he was used to hearing. It sounded like there was an explosion of some kind, and it was close by. Soon another explosion could be heard; it was getting closer. The boy turned to see a blue and white dog-like creature jumping away from various fireballs being spat at him. The anthropomorphic wore a pair of red boxing gloves over his right and left forepaws, as well as a red headband that covered a four-pointed star on his forehead.

"What is that?"

Shu looked over to see what was spewing the fireballs at the dog. It was a Tyrannosaurus Rex-like creature that had a well-muscled chest and forearms, orange skin with blue stripes, and a brown helmet with antler-like horns on the side and a large horn for the nose.

The dog lunged at the dinosaur-like creature, spinning like a tornado and striking the dinosaur's chest with a flurry of punches. The Rex roared out in pain and slashed at the dog with its claws, missing him by inches. The dog landed safely on the ground, only to be struck with dinosaur's tail and sent flying into a tree.

"They're monsters!"

"Gaomon!" a male voice called. Shu looked over to see a boy much older than him running over to the dog-like monster. The boy appeared to be at least 18 years-old, dressed in a fancy white dress shirt with an open gray business jacket and a black tie around his neck. He also wore long greenish-brown pants, as well as black shoes that resembled dress shoes, but were made of a softer and more flexible fabric, making them quite comfortable to even run. "Gaomon, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, sir!" the dog replied in a respectful tone, brushing himself off.

"All right, Gaomon, I'm in a bit of a hurry, so let's finish this guy off now!" the boy told the dog, taking a strange blue device out of his pocket. The device had an oval like shape to it, with the larger portion containing a circular screen. The smaller portion of the device had three pill-shaped buttons attached to it, and on the side of the device were small scanners. On the back of it there was a small hole that resembled a laser pointer.

The boy grabbed the air around the dog, and although neither Shu nor the dinosaur could see it, the boy was now holding a glowing blue light. The light took on a linear shape and began orbiting around his hand. He held it up to the scanner on the side of the device.

"Data Scan!" he shouted as the linear light circled around his hand and into the device before shooting a beam of light at the dog-like monster. "Charge!"

"Gaomon data charge digivolve to…" said the dog as the light engulfed him, his body changing shape. Gaomon's body became larger and more feral-looking, the dog now standing on four legs with sharps claws coming out of the gloves on his forepaws. His head band was removed, and he now had a red scarf around his neck. The wolf-like creature shouted out a different name that better suited his new form. "Gaogamon!"

Gaogamon growled loudly, leaving Shu in awe as watched the battle unfold. Gaogamon opened his mouth and shot a spiral whirlwind at the dinosaur, destroying him rather easily. The dinosaur's body separated into tiny particles of data that gathered back together in the form of an egg.

The boy held out the device he was holding and pressed one of the buttons, causing a small wormhole to open up in the air. The egg was sucked into the dimensional rift, which disappeared immediately after absorbing the egg. He spoke into a small communicator in his jacket. "Greymon successfully defeated and returned to the Digital World."

The boy held out his device and aimed it at Gaomon, whom had returned to his original form after defeating Greymon. A red light struck Gaomon and sucked him into the device. The moment Gaomon disappeared, Shu suddenly found himself surrounded by the park guests once again. In fact, his friends were just a few feet ahead of him.

"Hey, Shu!" Adel shouted. "Quit spacing out and come on!"

Shu shook his head, wondering what had just happened. He glanced over at his friends before looking back to see if he could see the older boy, but he was long gone.

"Hey, did you guys see that?" Shu asked his friends as they walked along.

"See what?" Nando wondered.

"You mean you guys didn't see that guy…and the monsters?" question Shu.

"Monsters?" Adel chuckled, placing a hand on Shu's head and messing up his hair. "Dude, your brain must be fried!"

"I know what I saw!" Shu retorted, pointing off to the side. "They were right there, fighting for at least five minutes!"

"Shu, you were spacing out for less than half a minute," Adle informed, looking over and seeing nothing. "There's no way it's been five minutes."

"B-But…" Shu stuttered.

"I think you need to see the nurse when we get back," Nando snickered. "Your brain must really be fried from all of this heat."

"Damn it!" thought Shu. "I know what I saw!"

As the day went on, Shu saw that none of his classmates even looked the slightest bit concerned about the events that had gone on, suggesting that he really was the only one who saw anything. Later that day, before he headed home, Shu returned to the park to see if he could find any evidence of the fight he witnessed. Sadly, he came across nothing. The ground where the fireballs had not been burned, and there was no dent in the tree Gaomon had slammed into.

"Did I really just imagine all of it? No, I know I saw something!"

Shu returned home that day with the battle still on his mind. He thought about mentioning it to his parents, but they would probably think him to be crazy like his friends. Even if they did end up saying that they believed him, they would more than likely be lying just so they could please him.

The days passed one by one, and Shu never saw any sign of the boy again, nor did he see any more monsters. Even he began to think that it really was just all in his head, but it seemed so real to him.

Then, on Saturday, Shu was busy checking out some of the shops downtown for a virtual pet. He walked out of one game shop Nando had suggested with his head held low, once again unsuccessful. He heaved a deep sigh and walked down the sidewalk.

As he continued down the sidewalk, he looked up and, to his surprise, was the boy he had seen with Gaomon earlier in the week. The boy was casually walking down the side of the road, reading a book of some kind. Shu gasped at the sight of him, thinking that he might finally be able to get some answers. Shu cautiously approached the boy.

"Um, excuse me," Shu said, attempting to grab the boy's attention.

"Hello, can I help you?" the boy replied kindly, looking down from his book. The boy was roughly 5'11'', while Shu was about 4'10''.

"Um, hello," Shu responded, trying to think about what to say. "My name's Shu, and I was wondering if could help me with something.

"Nice to meet you, Shu," the boy said back, closing his book and lowering his arms. Base don his tone, he seemed very kind. "I'm Akira. I don't know if I can be of any assistance to you, but go ahead and ask any question you have."

"Well, um, were you in the park on Tuesday?" the younger boy asked, looking up at Akira.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid I wasn't," answered Akira.

"Hmm, that's odd," Shu stated. "I could've sworn it was you. Do you have a brother or something, because there was guy that looks just like you there? He was with some kind of giant blue and white dog."

Akira glared down at Shu when he mentioned Gaomon, wondering how Shu knew about him.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about," Akira told him, looking away. "Giant talking dogs, eh? Are you sure you weren't imagining it?"

There was a long pause as Akira turned back towards Shu, whom was blinking curiously.

"Wait a sec… How did you know it could talk?" Shu asked, dumbfounded.

Akira cursed in his mind, embarrassed that he let something like that slip. Before Shu could utter another word, Akira placed his right hand into his pocket. In the blink of an eye, Akira suddenly disappeared right before Shu's eyes.

"What the-? Where'd he go?!"

Shu couldn't believe his eyes as Akira vanished from his sight. He had no idea that Akira was hiding behind the corner of a nearby alleyway.

"Are you it's wise to open to a dimensional gate like that?" Gaomon's voice called to Akira.

"I had no choice," said Akira, his breathing heavy and his heart pounding.

"How did he see that fight in the park anyway?" Gaomon wondered.

"It's not unheard of for a human to get caught in a dimension when one is opened," Akira explained. "He probably wound up there on accident when I opened the gate with my Digivice."

"Should we apprehend him and have his memory erased?" asked Gaomon.

"Nah, there's nothing to worry about," replied Akira. "There's no way anyone would believe a kid like him."

As soon as Akira finished his explanation, he heard a beeping sound coming from his pocket.

"Damn it! Now of all times!"

Meanwhile, disappointed with the lack of information he received, Shu resumed his trek down the sidewalk, stopping at a crosswalk as he kicked the ground. This had just not been a good day for him. The crosswalk soon had a little white man blinking, signaling that Shu could cross.

"There's one more place I could check," he thought, placing a hand under his chin. "But that place never gets any new merchandise in. I might as well just go home."

Shu continued kicking the ground as he walked, as if kicking an invisible pebble. He suddenly bumped into something and fell to his rear with an "oomph" sound.

"Oh, sorry," he apologized, scratching the back of his head and looking forward to see who he had bumped into it.

To his surprise, it was not a person, but a little dragon about a foot smaller than him. The dragon was a bluish-green color from the top of his head all the way down his back to his tail and feet. His belly had a white color, as did the half of his muzzle. He had two small red wings protruding from his back, and two red antler-like horns sticking out of the top of his head just above his eyes.

The dragon blinked curiously as he examined Shu with a pair of big red eyes. As scary as he looked with his sharp teeth, he did give Shu any reason to fear him. Rather, the dragon looked sort of cute with the way he was looking at Shu. The dragon sniffed the air and suddenly jerked his head away from Shu.

"No!" he gasped, surprising Shu even more.

Before Shu could even say something to the dragon, the dragon ran off, seeming very afraid of something.

"Th-That…was a monster!" Shu stammered, getting to his feet. "Just like that dog and dinosaur! I wasn't imagining it after all! I knew it!"

Desperate not to let his chance to prove his story slip away from him, Shu chased after the dragon, running in the direction he saw him flee.

Elsewhere, the dragon continued running away, resembling a child in a costume to any humans who saw him. Most humans thought nothing more than something like that. The dragon skid to a stop after ducking around the corner of a building, finding both Akira and Gaomon blocking his path. No other humans seemed to be on the block.

"I'm impressed you managed to catch Gaomon's scent so quickly, even though he was still stored inside the Digivice," Akira stated, holding up the device from before and pressing one of the buttons. "But that's as far you go! Dimension open!"

The device Akira called a Digivice began to glow, emanating a strange light that engulfed the entire area within a one-mile radius. As Shu ran towards the scene, he found that the sky looked exactly the way it did when he saw the battle between Gaomon and Greymon. For some odd reason, none of the other humans nearby seemed to get drawn into the dimension Akira's Digivice had created. A small profile of the dragon appeared on the device. His name was Dracomon, a Rookie-level dragon-type Digimon of the Data atribute.

"Now, Gaomon! Take him out!" ordered Akira.

"Yes, sir!" Gaomon replied, charging at the Digimon.

Dracomon retaliated by launching fireballs from his mouth at the dog-like creature. Gaomon easily avoided the attacks and thrust his right arm forward at the dragon, trying to punch him. Dracomon countered the punch with his tail, managing to hold Gaomon back.

"You're pretty strong for a Rookie," Gaomon complimented. Akira was also surprised that Dracomon was able to hold off Gaomon.

Gaomon finally managed to overpower Dracomon, throwing him off balance with his fists and striking the dragon at close range. Dracomon extended his wings, hovering in mid-air and recovering from Gaomon's attack. Gaomon charged at Dracomon without giving him any time to relax, spinning violently and striking Dracomon with a flurry of punches much like he did Greymon. Since Dracomon was weaker than Greymon, the attack heavily damaged Dracomon, knocking him to the ground and onto his belly.

"It's over!" Gaomon announced, raising a fist and preparing to finish off Dracomon.

"Wait!" a familiar voice cried out, causing Gaomon to halt his plans. He looked up to see Shu running over towards Dracomon and leaning down to check his injuries.

"Shu?" Akira said in a shocked tone. "What the hell are you doing here? How'd you get in here again?!"

"What are you doing?" Shu responded, ignoring Akira's questions. "Why are you attacking this dragon?"

"Shu, get away from him!" Akira demanded. "Dracomon's a dangerous creature that doesn't belong in our world! There's no telling how many humans he could hurt!"

"From what I can see, you guys are the only dangerous creatures here!" Shu snapped back. "I saw you fight that dinosaur the other day, and I don't know what it did, but this dragon hasn't done anything wrong. I saw it earlier, and it didn't harm me."

"It isn't something you could possibly understand!" Akira announced. "Now move, Shu! I need to send Dracomon back to where he belongs before he can do any real damage!"

Shu looked down at Dracomon and saw that he was cringing in pain, appearing completely harmless. Dracomon had come to the Real World in order to escape the fighting that was going on in his homeland, but it looked like he couldn't get away from them even here. Dracomon had heard stories of humans who attacked Digimon that appeared in the Real World, but he didn't think he'd encounter them so fast.

When Shu refused to move, Akira placed his hand on his forehead, finding the situation to be very stressful. Akira told Gaomon to hit him just hard enough to knock him out, enough to convince him that he was dreaming. Gaomon didn't appreciaite the idea of hurting a child, but he would do whatever Akira asked of him. He lunged at Shu, whom closed his eyes tightly as Gaomon approached. Gaomon suddenly froze in place when a bright white light appeared between Shu and himself.

"Is that…?" Akira gasped as a green Digivice emerged from the light.

Shu opened his eyes when he felt nothing, noticing the Digivice and watching fall towards him. He held out his hands to catch it, lifting it up and looking at it. "What's this?"

Gaomon blinked in surprise a few times before holding his fist back up and lunging at Shu once again.

"Gaomon, stop!" Akira ordered.

Gaomon did as he was told, stopping his assault and looking at Shu and Dracomon curiously. Akira slowly approached Shu and bent down on one knee.

"Guess there's no point in hiding any longer," he sighed. "Shu, I'm a what's known as Digital Dimension Warrior, someone who uses a Digivice, something you now hold, and partners up with a Digimon to stop other Digimon from causing havoc in the Real World."

"Digimon? Digivice?" Shu questioned. "What are you talking about?"

"Come, we have a lot to discuss," Akira told him.