Chapter 2


*Marie's P.O.V.*

I shivered beside Jojo and hugged my small red backpack tighter as we looked up at the cloudy sky, watching the others play in the snow and throw it about playfully.

"Well, the weather has been a bit temperamental lately…" Jojo began thoughtfully, adjusting his glasses just as a series of colorful lights appeared in the sky.

I felt my lips pout slightly. "A bit?" I repeated.

"Okay, okay, so maybe more than a bit," Jojo agreed with a look of worry. "Not much we can do about it though…"

"Izzy, come out, you need to see this!" I heard Tai call out as Jojo and I approached the rest of them to look up at what was undoubtedly an aurora.

"Wow! How romantic, it's beautiful, isn't it?" Mimi said dreamily just as Izzy came up beside Sora and I.

"Hey, is that…?!" Izzy began in surprise.

"Yeah. It's an aurora," Sora finished with an expression of worry etched across her face. "I've never seen one before."

"But… That's impossible! This is Japan, we're way too far south for this phenomena in our area!" Izzy claimed, just as I began to notice something in the distance right where the aurora was.

"We should probably go back towards the main rendezvous point of camp, I don't want any of us catching colds!" I heard Jojo suggest, my body half wanting to join him and half wanting to stay and examine the aurora more.

After a few moments of standing there with everyone (including Jojo), I finally started to notice that something getting closer and more identifiable.

"Hey… Do you see that?" I asked TK, who stood in front of me and squinted at where I was pointing.

"Green light…?" TK wondered out loud, just as it began to grow bigger and bigger until I realized it wad an object- an object headed in our direction.

"J-Jojo…!" I started in alarm, taking a step back.

All of a sudden, from the single green light, the object split into eight and plummeted down towards us at a speed I knew we wouldn't be able to outrun.

I yelped when they came crashing down around us, curling up on the snow covered ground until the loud thumps and the cloud of thrown smoke and dust cleared to reveal…

"Hey, is everyone okay?" Sora was first to shout, making me stand up anxiously along with the others. Scanning our group quickly, I sighed in relief when I realized no one had gotten hurt. Jojo looked a little spooked, but he was nonetheless fine.

"We're alright, Sora," Matt answered for the rest of us who were still petrified of what had happened. I felt like I'd dodged a bullet!

"That was scary," Mimi whimpered, holding her pink cowgirl hat tightly while I got back on my feet at Sora's side.

"Yeah it was! ...But what was it?" Jojo asked, prompting Izzy to crawl to a spot in the ground by my cousin and him.

"Some sort of meteor? Or…" Izzy began until a thin beam of light erupted from the spot he was crawling towards. "Uh, okay, so it's not meteors."

Curiously, everyone else stood up as well, watching what looked to be blue objects floating up from the ground slowly enough that we could grab them.

With everyone else unsure about how to deal with the event, Taichi took hold of the flying object in front of himself first, and then I followed everyone else, Jojo grabbing his last so as not to be left out.

Sora and I looked at the objects in our hand first.

"Wh… What are these?" She asked while I glanced down at the small digital object in my hand.

It was in a slightly octagonal shape with a square mid section and long horizontally lengthened appearance that had a shimmering golden exterior to it.

Glancing over at Sora's, I blinked in confusion when I found hers to be a pale gray color unlike mine. Why was hers different?

Curious, I looked at everyone else and furrowed my brow when I noticed the rest of the kids had gray devices as well. I was the only kid with a gold one.

"Not a clue. They look like electronic devices…" I heard Izzy say just when I noticed something climbing up from the cliff before us, causing my eyes to widen in horror.

I instinctually inched towards Jojo and linked my arm instantly with his. He glanced at me in confusion before he too looked up and then let out a shout of shock.

"Forget the devices, we have bigger things to worry about!" I heard Tai shout in equal alarm.

One moment, I was standing next to Jojo with our arms linked, the next I was falling and flipping through the air by myself through a space in which up and down was in every direction.

The only thing I clung to was the gold device that had fallen at my feet seconds before as my vision slowly began to fade to black.


…!

My eyes snapped open and I sprung up on all fours with a gasp of horror.

"Jojo!" I shouted off the bat, only to look around and see myself in the middle of what looked to be a metallic tunnel or vent.

I snapped my jaw shut and nervously glanced around before I came to the conclusion that Jojo and the others weren't around.

Around where though? Where am I? I thought as I proceeded to crawl through the tunnel carefully. Wherever I was, vents were definitely not a safe place to reside in.

I eventually came across a split path, but didn't bother to waste my time determining which way was best for me to go through. I didn't even know where I was, I couldn't guess what outcome to expect at the end of either paths.

When I finally emerged from the vent, I found myself in the middle of a forest. My brow furrowed in confusion as I crawled onto a thick tree branch just outside the metal tunnel, looking back only to balk at what I was witnessing.

What?! A random vent suspended by the trees? What kind of joke is this? I thought until a noise caught my attention. It sounded like... Somebody screaming?

I winced at the volume of the noise but managed to bring myself to start climbing down from the tree to get to ground level. I wasn't sure how high I was in the trees since I couldn't see the bottom from where I was.

There was a part of me yearning to shout for Jojo and the others, but my brain was also trying to convince me to be quiet rather than scream all willy-nilly. Something told me to be on guard... And I didn't like it.

"...Ah!" I cried out when I took a bad step and slid from the tree a bit. My palm stung from a scrape of maybe a tree thorn, but I ignored it in favor to regain my footing and continue the rest of the way down until I felt the sensation of grass under my red sandals and toes.

I should have put my sneakers on when we reached camp like Jojo told me to do... I thought bleakly as I turned to regard the forest. Am I near the camp? What was with that tower of water back when we were looking at... The devices!

I looked down at my left hand to find that I'd been gripping the golden device tightly the entire time without any notice.

Still unsure of what it was, I began poking at the buttons curiously until something appeared over the black pixilated screen.

...The time?

"What...?" I wondered, scratching my head in confusion. What was an unidentifiable object falling from the sky doing with an AM/PM clock? And besides that, where did all the snow from before go?

"…Hm?"

I looked up from my golden device at the sound of someone nearby. From the place I stood at, I could see someone standing a few trees ahead of me, glancing over in my direction.

No… Not someone. A bird. Then again… It looked like a big bird- and nothing like the cheerful chirping pigeons around Jojo and I's home.

For a very long moment, I stared at it and it stared back. Despite the urge to start looking for Jojo and the other campers, I couldn't bring myself to walk away just yet.

This bird had big blue eyes much like mine, excluding the fact that we were different species, of course. A soft layer of chocolate brown feathers covered it's entire body, with an olive green coloring around it's muzzle and two long red tipped black feathers serving what I could only imagine were eyebrows.

It barely moved at all, making it appear like merely a statue in the tree. Somehow, I knew I should have been scared of it, but the initial sensations of fear did not flood my senses. If anything, I was much more relaxed than anything, despite being lost and separated from my cousin.

"Um…" I began nervously, my words meant only for my ears since I didn't expect a bird to pay attention to a human it couldn't understand. "Why is it staring at me?"

All of a sudden, as soon as the words left my mouth, the bird's brow suddenly turned down towards the middle and it jumped off from the branch it stood on, landing directly in front of me with a loud thump to give me a better look at it.

My breath was caught in my throat when I found the need to look up at it. The bird was huge! It stood a few heads taller than me, looking down with such a sharp glare that I began to shiver as I stuck the golden device in my knit pants pocket and zipped the zipper shut.

Such a rebellious action to what I'd said seconds before… Could it understand me? It looked like a bird, but was much different to birds I'd seen before… So if not a bird, then what?

"Are you an alien?" I decided to ask, in hopes that my earlier assumption of a successful communication was correct.

To my surprise, it's frown relaxed slightly. It didn't answer me though. If anything, it was giving me a dry look of annoyance.

After a few moments of staring at each other more, it suddenly walked around me and headed in the direction my back faced.

Curious, I watched it continue until there was a generous amount of space between us. Once I decided that it had tired of my presence, I looked away from it and scanned my surroundings.

Where did everyone go? Are they around here too? How will I find them?

I was just about to take a step in the opposite direction from which the avian creature had left from when a stomp had me freezing mid step.

It came from behind me.

I looked back to see the bird standing in the spot in which I'd looked away from, staring back at me intently with an indeterminable expression on it's face. It had one foot of talons stomped into the ground and didn't look away from me this time.

Strange… Does it want me to follow it?

I jogged in it's direction until I stood next to it, the bird following my every move with it's sharp blue eyes until I'd caught up with it. As soon as I was situated at it's side, it looked forward and started to walk.

Yes, it wants me to follow it, I decided, my legs moving faster to keep up with it's longer bird feet.

Minutes of silence passed, but it wasn't uncomfortable or anything. I didn't know what kind of creature this bird-looking thing was… But it seemed to understand things as well as I could. Not to mention it didn't seem dangerous. If anything, I felt much safer with it than I'd felt when I woke up in the tree vents by myself.

I didn't like being alone…


"…The ocean?" I asked out loud in mild surprise once the bird and I emerged from the forest.

What is the ocean doing here? There was no ocean where Jojo and I were going camping!

I stared at the endless sparkling blue water that greeted me past the shore before shaking the thought out of my head and turning to face the bird that had led me out of the forest I'd been in.

"Thank you very much for leading me out," I said with a respectful bow, making the bird blink at me before then turning to face it's body towards me and giving me a bow as well.

Pleased with the mutual understanding, I smiled brightly and gave it a wave when it headed back into the woods it had led me out of.

"Stay safe!" I called out cheerfully until it vanished between the trees and vegetation.

As soon as I was sure it was gone, I let out a sigh and faced the ocean again. My eyes widened when I noticed a row of what looked to be either telephone boxes or portable bathroom stalls.

My walking was done, I went into a full on run when I spotted them on the shore, only stopping once I was in one of the booths. My excitement spiked when I found a telephone in every single one of the stalls, connected into the earth and ready for use whenever I decided.

I breathlessly swung my red backpack from behind me and opened it up, digging past the snacks (which reminded me that I'd yet to eat anything) and snatching out my orange wallet to pull my phone card out.

"Okay, lets see… I'll try Auntie's home first," I said to myself, closing my back pack and dropping it at my feet as I slid the card on the card sniper and dialed Jojo's house number.

There was a droning dial tone at my ears, and then-

"Konnichiwa!" I heard a woman on the line greet me.

"Auntie! It's me, Mar-" I began until the voice cut me off to continue with, "To make international calls to Jupiter, please deposit seventeen cucumber slices and a frog in the next thirty seconds."

My brow curved down the middle in a frown. Did the phone just say what I thought it said?

It's no matter, maybe the next phone booth?

I grabbed my backpack and slammed the phone back on it's receiver, moving to the next stall and picking the phone up.

I slid the card and dialed the next number I could think of, cousin Shin's number. The elder brother of Shuu and Jojo.

"Please leave a print signature at the sound of the tone. BA-GAWK!"

I yanked the phone from my ear and dropped it so that it hung from it's cord.

Ridiculous! What was going on with these phones? What phone tells you it makes calls to other planets?

I crossed my arms and gave the phone before me a look of disappointment. "Useless piece of scrap metal…"

"MARIE!"

My body straightened at the sound of the familiar voice, causing me to turn my head in all directions until I noticed the large group of both familiar and unfamiliar faces alike headed towards me and the phones.

My massive smile returned when I spotted Jojo and my camping comrades headed towards the phone booths and I. Mostly though, I was just happy to have my favorite cousin back again.

"JOJO!" I chirped in relief, racing out of the phone booth and leaving my backpack abandoned in the second stall as I charged like the road runner past every other person until I had my arms wrapped around my blue haired cousin's waist and my cheek pressed against his stomach.

"Thank goodness! I was so worried when we didn't find you around the forest up in the mountains where we all landed!" Jojo said in equal relief when I pulled back to meet his gaze.

He adjusted his glasses and sighed, pulling his arms back and crossing them thoughtfully. "I'm just glad you didn't have to deal with Kwagamon back there."

My faced went blank in confusion. "Kwagamon? Who's Kwagamon?" I asked curiously.

"Hold on, no need to scare her about it Joe, she might not understand what's around… We don't know what Marie's been through yet, maybe she doesn't know what's going on," Sora suddenly stepped in to my further confusion.

"Did you guys see big birds too?" I decided to ask, causing Tai to shake his head and laugh nervously.

"No, but don't worry about a thing! We're all together now, that's what matters!" Tai said proudly with his hands on his hips.

"Yes, yes! Our team has assembled!" A child sized orange dinosaur…

Dinosaur…

…Dino…saur...

Confused, I looked beside all of them to see a strange creature at each of their sides.

An orange blue eyed dinosaur-like creature by Tai, a pink and blue feathered bird beside Sora, a blue, yellow, and white fur coated single horned creature at Matt's side, A lady-bug like insect beside Izzy, a sweet flower like creature beside Mimi, an orange and tan four legged bat-winged animal with TK, and…

I glanced down at Jojo's side to spot one of the cutest things I'd ever seen in my life.

"Hi!" It suddenly spoke, raising what looked to be a white and lavender striped clawed flipper. Along it's head was a small orange mohawk-like mane, and it looked to be a furry sea critter.

"Jojo, where did you guys…?" I asked, kneeling down by the sea critter's side and gently pulling it on my lap to caress the side of it's face like I would with a cat.

"Yeah, 'Jojo', why not do the honors and introduce us all?" The sea creature jokingly mocked, pressing it's cheek against my hand much like a domestic animal would to signal more petting.

"Let's take a seat together and we'll get you caught up on everything," Matt suggested, making me stand up with the sea critter in my arms.

"Hehe, 'Jojo'…" I heard the critter mutter humorously by my ear, though my cousin's abrupt scoff made me smile a little.

When we all sat down, I found myself next to Jojo (a given), and TK, who held his own little creature friend.

"First things first," Tai began, causing me to tilt my head slightly. "Marie, where did you wake up?"

I looked back at the forest that was now far away from where we all were by the phone booths. "I woke up inside a vent in the trees of that forest over there."

"Eh?! That's Wandering Woods though! How did you manage to get out? Most Digimon never find their way out of that place!" The blue fur coated creature beside Matt spoke up in shock.

"Digimon?" I repeated softly before looking down at the creature on my lap that was watching me with intelligent eyes and a twinkle of glee. "So they're Digimon?"

"Y-yes. You're pretty sharp," Izzy stated across from me in clear surprise.

"Anyways, I didn't get out on my own. I didn't even know I could get lost in there. I met a big bird and it led me out here," I explained, caressing the aquatic Digimon on my lap again.

"Oh? What did it look like?" Matt's Digimon friend inquired.

"Err… it was brown with green feathers around it's neck," I explained, causing all the Digimon to do double takes.

"I'm afraid that's not descriptive enough…" The bug Digimon beside Izzy said somewhat apologetically.

"Well… I could sketch it out then," I said, placing Jojo's Digimon friend aside and getting up to jog to my forgotten red backpack in the second phone booth.

"Ah! We almost forgot! We can call someone and-" Jojo began, just about to stand until I shot the phone a leer of annoyance.

"Don't bother, Jojo. They're useless unless you want to call someone on Pluto," I stated, causing my cousin to blanch In disbelief.

"No…" He sulked while I pulled my sketchbook out and took a seat to start doodling.

Something as simple shaped as that Digimon was fairly easy to sketch, details and all. Took me about five minutes to finish and bring it back over to Matt's Digimon friend.

"This is the Digimon," I said, gleeful to see the immediate look of recognition from the blue creatures eyes.

"Ah, I see! You met Falcomon!" The Digimon exclaimed while I sat back down beside Joe an TK.

Adorably enough, Jojo's Digimon friend crawled back on my lap, where I continued to lavish him with caresses along his back and cheek.

"Falcomon?" Mimi said, leaning over the Digimon to get a good look at my work. She audibly gasped. "Wow, Marie! You're very talented at drawing!"

"Thanks, that's just a rough sketch though. I could still do with some improvement too," I said modestly, pulling my hands from the Digimon to grab at my blonde ponytail insecurely.

"So Falcomon led you out of the forest… And then?" The blue Digimon beside Matt pushed.

"Well… I thanked it and when I saw these phone booths, I thought I could try to call someone for help. I dialed Jojo and I's home, but those phones don't really work well."

"Hmm, You tried the first two?" Tai asked, to which I nodded at him once the Digimon in my lap untangled my hands from my ponytail and got me to continues showering it with attention. "Can't hurt to try the rest of them once we get you caught up."

"Hey, Marie… Didn't you wake up with a small Digimon near you too?" TK asked at my side curiously, hugging his orange batty friend.

"No. I was by myself," I repeated, causing a heavy silence to fill the circle. Anxious at the sudden looks of worry on their faces, I stopped caressing Joe's Digimon friend and bit my lip.

Did I say something wrong? Was I supposed to wake up with my own Digimon friend?

"G-Guys, don't worry! She's got all of us to take care of her," Jojo spoke up at my side, suddenly wrapping an arm around my shoulders and giving me a smile that I didn't hesitate to return. "Don't be scared, your favorite cousin is here with you, okay?"

"Okay, Favorite Cousin Jojo, time for introductions," his Digimon friend said on my lap, looking at me after regarding Jojo. "I'm Gomamon! Joe's Digimon partner."

"I'm Gabumon, and Yamato is my partner," the blue fur coated Digimon by Matt said with a respectful bow in my direction as he handed my sketchbook back to me.

"Sora is Piyomon's partner! Sora is the best!" The pink bird beside Sora cooed ever so sweetly by the orange haired girl. Sora looked kind of embarrassed and maybe a little annoyed, but I found Piyomon's affection to be rather cute.

"I'm Patamon! I'm partners with Takeru!" The Digimon in TK's arms chimed in cheerily.

"You can call me Palmon. I'm with Mimi!" The green Digimon with a pretty pink flower atop it's head said beside Mimi.

It was then that I noticed that Mimi was staring very intently at me, causing me to tilt my head in confusion. "What's wrong, Mimi?" I asked.

Her nostrils suddenly flared. "SO. CUTE!" She squealed, suddenly stamping her feet lightly and grabbing Palmon for tight hug that had the plant Digimon coughing and begging for air. "Isn't Marie so adorable? I wish I could take her home with me!"

I felt my cheeks heat up considerably but managed to look at the next pairing.

"My name is Tentomon. I'm partners with Koushiro-han," The insect Digimon declared, turning to face Izzy.

"Agumon! Partner to Taichi!" The small orange dino-digi shouted with shining eyes.

"Okay, well now that she knows you, meet Marie Kido. She's my cousin and in the third grade!" Jojo introduced me to the Digimon with a grin.

"Nice to meet you all," I said happily.

"The pleasure is all ours!" Tentomon said before the other kids all stood up and turned to look at the phone booths.

"Alright, let's try a few numbers then. I have a phone card if anyone needs to make a call," Izzy said, making me stand up as well after putting Gomamon down.

"Here Jojo, you can use ours," I said, unzipping my pocket to hand the phone card to him.

"Thanks!" He said before hustling after the other kids.

Rather than follow for more disappointment, I sat back down and pulled my knees up to my chest.

"…Gomamon," I voiced after a second, hearing the Digimon hum for me to continue. "What did Joe mean when he mentioned Kwagamon?"

I looked down at Gomamon to my left when I heard him audibly squeak in discomfort.

"Never mind, don't answer that," I decided since I could only come up with two scenarios as to why Sora and the others didn't tell me what had happened. I bit my lip. "I guess I already know."

Gomamon gave me a sad look but then smiled reassuringly and moved to crawl onto my lap. "I promise I'll take care of Joe for you. Nothing will happen to him as long as I'm around!"

I guess I'm not the only sharp tool around here, I thought humorously before smiling at Gomamon. "Thank you," I said, caressing his cheek and making the Digimon slump over as if he were in heaven.

"Hey, Joe, you're about to lose Gomamon to Marie," I heard Sora laugh as she headed back over towards me with Piyomon at her heels.

"You we're right about the phones, they're fishy alright," Piyomon said after Sora took a seat beside me. Gomamon simply flopped over in my lap so I could rub his belly too.

"Yeah. I don't think we're near the camp grounds at all," I said while TK started walking over to us with Patamon, Matt, and TK.

While staring off ahead and running my fingers through Gomamon's fur, I got lost in my thoughts.

Something was strange about this place. I couldn't put my finger on it, but this place… Since I woke up, I felt like I was somewhat too relaxed for being in a strange place. Shouldn't I have been worried? Maybe I was tired? I didn't feel sleepy… Actually, now that I was thinking about it, I felt a bit agitated. Like I woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something.

"Doesn't look like your cousin's going to give up quite yet, eh?" I heard Tai say near me, causing my heart to nearly leap out of my ribcage then and there to run off into a sunset.

I felt my entire body lock up, releasing me from my previous relaxed sensations as I looked at him carefully and smiled. "Oh, yeah… He can be a tad bit stubborn, but I'd like to think it comes useful since he's good at school."

"Hm… What about you? Are you a brainiac like Joe?" He asked next, arms resting behind his head as he glanced down at me from where he stood.

"Taichi!" I heard Sora scold Tai, resulting in a small laugh from me.

"I'd like to think I am, but I'm pretty sure I'm not at Jojo's level," I said modestly.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again… You're too reserved, Marie," Jojo said as he approached the rest of us, swinging the first aid bag off from his shoulder and onto the ground beside Sora, Piyomon, and I. "Marie is a genius actually. Ask her straight 'A' report cards. Besides that though…"

Joe turned his attention to Mimi, who sat on TK's other side with Palmon. "Hmm? What?" The cowgirl wannabe asked when Jojo trained his gaze on her.

"Did you forget it was your turn to carry the first-aid bag?" Jojo inquired, causing Mimi to pout and bring her knees up to her chest.

"I can't. It's too heavy for me! I'm way too fragile to carry that!" Mimi claimed, frowning a little at Jojo.

"Never mind that, guys! Is there any other food that we have?" Sora spoke up again, making Mimi and I grab our bags and dump out a few items hidden in them. I simply gathered whatever wasn't ingestible back into my bag. Mimi didn't seem to have food on her, just survival gear tucked away for later use.

"Wait a minute, is that a compass?" Matt suddenly asked in disbelief as he snatched it up off of the ground. "Why didn't you tell us you had one back when we needed it?!"

Mimi gave him an innocent smile. "Oh, well… It doesn't work. It's broken, actually."

Matt looked ready to snap at her, but Izzy quickly stepped it. "Well it's a good thing it didn't work. Or else Marie would still be by herself," the red haired kid pointed out, causing Matt to relax at the thought.

"Huh, good point," Matt agreed, crossing his arms like he somehow didn't like the truth of it.

As if it would troublesome to find me if I were lost. Was this really the same Matt that had been thoroughly concerned when I'd hit my head back in camp?

"Excuse me for being trouble, meanie," I huffed heatedly to myself under my breath, low enough that it seemed like no one heard me.

"I have a few snacks," TK said while I hugged Gomamon against me gently, watching TK turning over his own backpack to show his snacks to everyone.

"Ooo, those look tasty!" Mimi said between the two of us as she and Palmon glanced from each pile to the other.

"Lets see what I've got… I think all I have is-?" Sora began before a look of surprise crossed her features. I turned my attention to her as she pulled out one of the gray devices she'd gotten before we'd landed here. "Oh, look!"


Chapter 2 End

A/N: Hope this is satisfactory work! Thank you for reading! I know only one person has Faved and Followed so far, but THANK YOU anyways!