Autumn had made the air at Odaiba University crisp and cool, just how the students liked it. The texture made it enjoyable to the jocks, who were outside 24/7, and the nerds, who only emerged from their dorms for a breath of fresh air. Wind whipped up along the trees, turning over the pages of a student's Medical book. The blue haired boy awoke; he fell asleep from the boredom of microbiology. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stretched. 'What a good nap,' he said and checked his watch. "AGH! It's four thirty! I was supposed to meet the guys 15 minutes ago!" Frantically, he leapt up from the tree and took off. Not even a second later did Joe turn back around and grab his book-bag. "How could I forget that?"
At the school's quad area, four young adults rested on trees and benches the school conveniently had set up. "Like always, Joe is late," Sora checked her watch and sighed. For once she wanted the group to be together again, without any delays. She pulled her jacket in close and took her place next to Matt. She, just like everyone else, had matured and looked different since 5 years ago. Matt's hair grew out a bit almost to the base of his neck. He kept the rocker look and personality, yet behind his eyes one would find a man who kept his heart reserved for his friends. Music became his main point of study, and his band entertained all the students at college. Tai became less of a hothead and more understanding, maybe that was because he let his head breathe more. He cut his hair short recently and it was beginning to grow longer again, but not as wild as his youth. Although he is more cautious, the Chosen of Courage takes on any challenge. Since The Digimon World Tour, he became fascinated in Foreign Relations, which became his studying focal point. Mimi came back to Japan from America to be in college with her friends. She still kept her hair pink and her personality lively. No one could match her skills in honesty and sincerity, as shown by telling Tai how ridiculous his jacket looked on him. Sora smiled and rested he head on Matt's shoulder. Five months have passed since their first official date, and they haven't been happier. She preferred to support his band than anything else. One may call her a groupie, but more of Matt's personal groupie.
"Hey guys, here comes Izzy. Hi Izzy!" Mimi didn't hesitate to publicly express her greeting.
"Hi Mimi!" Izzy returned the greeting with the same amount of enthusiasm. He and Ryo sat down on a bench. "Guys, I'd like you to meet my new friend, Ryo." Izzy motioned to the burnette next to him. Ryo stood and bowed politely. "Hi everyone! Izzy told me so much about his friends, I'm excited to meet you." A big smile appeared on his face. When hearing the words 'so much', Tai shot Izzy a questionable look. Izzy shook off the leader's concerns. "Ryo, this is Mimi, Sora, Tai, Matt and…where's Joe?" Upon the name being uttered, the ocular boy ran into the quad.
"Sorry I'm late guys. I fell asleep reading about Microbiology. I have a test tomorrow, and I know I'm not ready. Hey! Did you know that cells are actually constructs of…" his voice was cut off by Matt laughing. "It's ok Joe; you don't have to worry." Joe sighed and sat in the grass next to Izzy and Matt. No one said anything. They couldn't talk about digimon, the Chosen didn't want to freak out Ryo.
Sora was the first to break the silence. "Ryo, I'm sure we're a little thirsty. Would you mind running to the cafeteria and getting us some waters?"
Ryo stood and smiled. "I'd be glad to." He was off. As soon as he was out of earshot, Tai started questioning Izzy.
"What did you tell Ryo about us?" his voice raised in wonderment.
"I just told him how you guys are my best friends and a little background on each of us. It's not like I told him we have digital creatures as best friends and we saved two whole worlds…twice." Izzy spat back.
"Quit worrying about it Tai. Izzy wouldn't betray us," Matt tried to calm his friend down.
"I can't stop worrying about it Matt. We don't know who we can trust with that sort of information. Besides, my digivice has been vibrating off the hook ever since he sat down."
"Come to think of it, my digivice has been vibrating too," Mimi felt her front pocket.
"It's weird to think it's now becoming active. What do you think it is Izzy?" Sora asked.
"I'm not sure Sora," the studios boy pondered for a moment. "It is quite possible he knows something about digimon and he carries some sort of digivice, but the chances of that being likely are very slim."
"Now why would that be?" Joe brought up a very good point. "Ever since MaloMyotismon was defeated, children around the world have been given digimon partners. Why would this guy be any different?"
"Did your digivice buzz when the new D3s arose in the digital world, or even when Davis, Cody and Yolei obtained theirs? I didn't think so. It makes no sense," Izzy was lost in thought. "I might have to speak with Genai about this."
"Have you been in contact with him?" Matt asked.
"Very little. I've managed to access the school's wifi and trace the Digital World's signal. The connection is slow, but on occasions I've been able to talk to Tentomon and the others."
"You've been able to talk to Tentomon? How's Agumon doing? I miss the guy!" Tai's voice became a little too loud for comfort. People in the hallways started to turn their heads.
Izzy laughed, "Agumon's doing well. He's become the chief in his town, telling stories of his adventures with us. In fact, all of our digimon have been bragging about us!" Izzy smiled, then became worried. "The only digimon that Gennai refused to patch me through was to Patamon and Gatomon, and he wouldn't explain why."
"Don't tell TK that," Matt spoke up.
"Or Kari for that matter. She'll do anything just to say hello to Gatomon" Tai pitched in.
"Guys, here comes Ryo. We better cut off the digimon talk." Joe saw the Tamer walking down the left corridor with numerous water bottles in his arms. As soon as he walked onto the grassy knoll, Tai attempted to start conversation.
"So you guys ready for midterms?" Everybody sweat-dropped. Nobody wanted to hear about tests, especially not midterms.
"I'm about ready, just need to study more," Ryo sat back down next to Izzy and took a large gulp of water.
"Hey, me too! What classes do you have?" Izzy exclaimed.
"Computer encoding and programing."
Izzy's face lit up like a Christmas tree. No one else in the group was a computer nerd like him, so the fact that his roommate was interested in such made his day.
"I'm in those classes too! How come I haven't seen you in any classes?" Izzy yelled excitedly.
Ryo was taken aback from the sudden burst of enthusiasm. "Well, I am new, but I am a fast learner."
"Well, I'm sure we can talk about computers when we get back to our room, since these guys would just get lost in confusion."
"Damn straight we would," Matt said cooly. "Seriously Izzy, you have a problem." Everyone chuckled a bit. Blood rose to Izzy's face.
"It's not an obsession…it's…uh…I'm passionate about it!"
Matt chuckled, "I know dude. Just giving you a hard time."
"So Tai," Joe questioned, "why did you call us over here?"
The Chosen of Courage looked around to Ryo, almost speaking directly to him, "Oh, I just wanted to see how you guys were doing, with school and all. Nothing to important." His voice seemed to trail off.
As Tai looked at him, Ryo's D-Arc in his pocket buzzed uncontrollably. He reached down to try to calm it down, but his attempt was unsuccessful. He wanted to see what was going on, but he knew if he pulled out the digivice questions would fly like a flock of seagulls. A voice spoke in his head, "Ryo…he's coming for me." It was Monodramon. Alarmed, the Tamer sprung to his feet and raced from the quad area back to the room.
"Where are you going Ryo?" Mimi called after the sprinting student. "Great Tai, you scared him off."
"What did I do?" Tai felt accused of some sort of crime. He held his hands up in defense. "I was just speaking to Joe!"
Matt let out a sigh, "I'll go find him. You guys need to talk to Izzy about what to do about Gatomon and Patamon missing. Izzy, talk to Tentomon again and see if he's seen them. If you can, trace the Digital World signal to our computers. We'll text you our IP addresses later. For now, I want to find Ryo. What's your guys' room number?"
"Uhhhh…408 in building C."
"Thanks buddy." And with that, the Chosen of Friendship took off jogging.
The door slammed behind Ryo as he yanked his blue and white D-Arc out of his pocket. The vibrating stopped ever since he arrived in the building. Ryo stared at the screen, which became a blinking arrow. The compass function was pointing directly at Izzy's massive computer screen. Puzzled, the Tamer approached the computer cautiously, almost like it was a sleeping animal. He stood over the screen with his digivice in his hand. The compass pointed straight through the computer.
"This makes no sense," Ryo said to himself. Suddenly, a bright purple light emitted from the D-Arc and shot at the screen. The screen lit up with the same purple light. Ryo shielded his eyes as he watched his old gauntlet return to his arm.
"Huh? This again? What's…going on?" Ryo was now scared. He felt himself getting smaller and smaller. He approached the computer screen more and more, almost going right into it.
"Monodramon here I come!"
Matt opened the door to Izzy's room only to see a bright purple light beginning to fade. He thought he heard something, or someone, yell inside the room.
"Ryo? Ryo?" He looked around the room for some clues. He walked over to the desk and opened the student's laptop. Several pages of notes on computer coding filled the screen. Binary code translated to Japanese caught his eye. Scrolling down, he saw that Ryo translated basic words into binary.
"Hamburger. Island. Chair. Monodramon. Star…Monodramon?" He scrolled back up to see the digimon's name on the screen.
"No…It can't be." Doubting his findings, he searched "Monodramon" in the spotlight window. Several pages popped up with pictures, stories, and videos.
"This can't be real."
