I want to apologize for everyone for the time it has taken to get this up. I had started working on it a while ago, but then I found out my brother, who lives on the other side of the country, was hospitalized for several days before he died. I was not in the right state of mind to work on this and put it off for a long time. But now, I hope to push on and at least get through the first arc of this story before I decide what to do from here on. And I hope you will join me long enough to see it through.

All right, enough sad talk, here's the first chapter.

File #1: Into a New World

A sunny day in downtown Brooklyn was the perfect thing to kick off the first day of summer vacation in Sam opinion. No more studying, no more hair-tearing exams, no more getting pulled by the ear by a teacher when he fell asleep in the middle of a lecture. Just ten weeks of spending the day doing whatever he wanted without someone nagging him for it. And the thing he wanted to do today was try to beat his best friend, Jamal, in a game of basketball. The key word here being 'try'.

Sweat was dripping profusely down Sam's brow, catching his breath after having run up and down the neighborhood court for the past three hours, while his best friend didn't seem even the least bit winded.

It wasn't fair in Sam's mind. Jamal was a tall, athletic African-American boy who had played varsity for their school for three years, while Sam was a full head and shoulders shorter than him with thin, gangly limbs compared to his Hercules-like muscles. Sam ran a hand through her short, shoulder-length orangish-red hair, which was drenched in his sweat; his bright-orange t-shirt with the elaborate golden lion decal was sticking uncomfortably to his chest and the jean shorts held up by the leather belt were riding in his unmentionable region. His feet were throbbing inside his black-and-orange high tops, and, quite honestly, the black fingerless gloves weren't helping as much as he thought they would.

As Sam leaned forward, resting against his knees, a long shadow fell over him, and the redheaded boy tilted his head back, staring up at his best friend's cocky smirk.

"So, that's like, what, eight games to me?" said Jamal haughtily, dribbling the ball right in front of Sam, practically tempting him to take it. "Aaand…remind me, how many games have you won so far?"

"You…just got…lucky…," Sam wheezed.

"Luck ain't got nothing to do with it, my brother," said Jamal confidently, now spinning the ball on his finger just to show off. "You just ain't got the skills to pay the bills. Maybe with a little practice, you miiight win at least one game…if I broke both my legs and went blind," he concluded with a teasing smirk before casually banking a three-point shot.

"Yeah, keep talking, LeBron James," said Sam, taking a deep breath through the nose and standing up straight. "I'm just getting my second wind. We're not leaving this court until I kick your butt."

"Then we should start picking out tombstones," said Jamal taunted.

"Har, Har, go get the ball, you dweeb," said Sam, rolling his eyes in a joking way.

Jamal ruffled Sam's hair, knowing it annoyed him, before pacing himself to the other side of the court to retrieve the basketball. Sam stretched his arms over his head, cracking his stiffened joints, when he heard a cellphone going off on the sidelines. He turned toward the benches where he and Jamal had set their duffel bags down, recognized the ringtone, and saw that the pocket of his black vest-jacket was vibrating. Sam waved down his friend and shouted, "Hey, time out for a minute, got a call!"

"If that's your sister, tell her I said hi," said Jamal as he picked ball up off the ground, sounding almost eager about it.

"Dude, I am not telling my twin sister that you said 'hi'," Sam retorted with an annoyed expression. "And for that matter, stop trying to hit on my twin sister! It's, like, ultra-weird!"

"I can't help it, man – she's hot," Jamal admitted.

"I could have gone my whole life without ever hearing you say that," Sam grumbled.

Jamal just shrugged his shoulders and went back to taking free throws. Sam quickly paced over to the benches and picked up his vest, digging around the pocket top retrieve his orange smart phone. She turned the screen on and his brow rose curiously. The notification said he received a text message, but there as no name or even a phone number to tell where it came from. The only thing he could tell from the message was that the subject was about something called "Iliad". Sam should have just sent it to the spam box – he knew he should have – but an inkling of curiosity welled up in the back of his mind. He hesitated for a few second before deciding that there was probably no real harm in checking it out.

Sam tapped the notification and opened up the mailbox app, looking over the new message that had popped on the screen:

Gods have fallen
Darkness is rising
Reunite the twelve
You have been chosen
Iliad awaits

"…Is this some kind of new Haiku or something?" said Sam strangely. "Whatever…."

Just as his thumb hovers over the trash button to delete the message, Sam is taken aback when his smartphone screen suddenly starts to light up. He is forced to shut his eyes by the strength of the glow and nearly calls out to Jamal when he feels his feet leave the ground. It felt like something had latched onto his navel as he was lurched forward, straight into his phone's screen. A strange tingling sensation washed over him and –

He was gone. The light quickly dimmed just as suddenly as it started; Sam's smartphone clattered on the pavement, cracking the screen. Jamal, who heard the rattling, spun around toward the source. He first noticed his best friend's broken smartphone lying uselessly on the sidelines, and the fact that his best friend, who had been standing there seconds ago, was nowhere to be seen.

"Sam?" Jamal called out uncertainly. "Buddy? Where'd you go…?"

He doesn't know how long he had been unconscious, or why he had been knocked out in the first place, but when Sam started to come around, the back of his head throbbed painfully. Grumbling under his breath, Sam slowly opened his eyes, but winced and raised his hand to shield himself from the blinding rays of the sun looming overhead. Sam laid there for a few moments before slowly pulling himself into a sitting position. He tenderly touched the back of his head, which was still sore under his fingertips.

"Ugh…did anyone get the license plate off that truck?" said Sam, grimacing. "Hey, Jamal, you see what happened? …Jamal?"

Sam looked around for his best friend, not only realizing that he wasn't anywhere nearby, but he always wasn't in downtown Brooklyn anymore.

For some reason, Sam had found himself sitting in the middle of what looked to be a ruin street in the middle of a bunch of ancient-looking ruins. The road was made up of very solid dirt and scattered amounts of concrete blocks ("That explains the headache," said Sam) and either side was surrounded by low walls that looked to have been broken off from larger structures. Down the road, he could make out the faint outlines of tree tops in the distance, and to his right, a massive mountain loomed overhead like a towering sentinel – it looked bigger than Mt. Everest, in Sam's mind. As he scanned the area to his left, Sam spotted vest-jacket plopped on the ground next to him…and something was floating on top of it.

Sam could only describe it as a little orange spike ball that resembled a crayon sun that Sam used to draw in kindergarten, including the big black eyes and wide smiley face. Though the little flame on top of its head was a nice touch.

A long pause passed between them. Sam blinked owlishly…the little sun blinked back.

"…Okay…so there's a little cartoon sun floating over my clothes," said Sam slowly. "There's only one logical explanation for this…I've finally gone crazy. I always though it would happen in my fifties."

"You're not going crazy," said the little sun happily. "I'm Sunmon. It's nice ta finally meet ya, Sam."

Sam stared at the little sun in silence, his eyes growing wider after hearing the strange creature speak. Very slowly, Sam reached for both of his cheek and pulled them in either direction as far as they could stretch. It was excruciatingly painful on top of his headache. When he let go, his cheeks were red from the severe pinching and looked back at Sunmon; the creature was still there.

"Okay, so not a dream," said Sam. "But it's still possible that I've lost my mind."

"You haven't gone crazy, Sam!" Sunmon shouted gleefully, suddenly shooting forward and throwing himself into Sam's hands. "You're just as sane as I am!"

"That doesn't fill me with confidence," mumbled Sam. "So…who are you, exactly?"

"I told you, I'm Sunmon!" Sunmon announced cheerfully. "I've been waiting a long time for ya to show up, Sam, and you're finally here! That's so great!"

"Sunmon?" said Sam, confused. "You've been…waiting for me? But…how did you know I was even coming? And how do you even know my name?"

Sunmon opened his mouth to say something when they both heard a sudden noise to their left. Both human and…whatever Sunmon was…looked in that direction, both of them listening closely. A soft series of scuffing sounds were coming the other side of the low wall; it sounded like footsteps.

Sam slowly picked up his vest, put it on, and stepped quietly over to the wall, putting a finger to his lips to indicate that Sunmon should be quiet; the little sun nodded in response. When they were against the wall, the footsteps suddenly stopped. Cautiously, Sam started to raise his head to peek over the wall…and found himself going cross-eyed as he stared at the sharp end of a sword pointed at the bridge of his nose. He instinctively shouted out, unconsciously throwing Sunmon into the air (the little creature floated safely) and fell backwards on his butt. Not a second later, someone hopped over the wall like a professional parkour athlete and landed in front of Sam, the tip of their sword pointed at his nose.

The wielder of the sword, Sam quickly realized, was a beautiful girl around his age with flawless pale skin and curtain of golden blonde hair reaching her waist, held in place by a royal-blue hairband with a little blue bow on the side. She donned a long white dress that stopped short of her knees, embroidered with icy-blue snowflake around the hem, underneath a denim jacket with a golden badge on her breast bearing a fleur-de-lis. She wore formfitting black tights underneath her dress, a pair of polished black shoes, and pair of white gloves. While her left hand was gripped around the handle of the curved sword pointed at Sam, her other hand was wrapped around a black scabbard.

Sam was torn between complimenting her beauty and begging her not to stab him.

"Who are you?" the beautiful girl questioned harshly. "What is this place? Did you bring me here? Answer!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't ask me – I'm as clueless as you are!" Sam squeaked, flailing his hands wildly. "I was playing basketball with my friend one minute, then I get a weird text message, and then all of a sudden, I woke up here!"

"A strange text," said the girl thoughtfully. "Did this text say anything about gods, and darkness, and something called Iliad?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what it said before I got sucked into my phone," said Sam, his eyes still on the sword's tip.

"Then it appears we are in the same boat," said the girl. "I, too, received a strange message before arriving in this strange land."

"Great…so…would you mind getting your sword away from my nostrils?" asked Sam, trying to sound polite.

"It's called a sabre," said the girl indignantly, but nonetheless returned the blade to its scabbard. She offered her hand to Sam, which he gratefully accepted. "I was practicing with my instructor when I received the message. Thank goodness I held onto it when I did, considering the strangeness of the situation."

"Strange doesn't even begin to cover it," said Sam lightly. "Oh, uh, I'm Sam, by the way. Sam Lionheart."

"And I am Celine Lièvre," said Celine with a polite curtsy.

"And I'm Sunmon!" Sunmon shouted, throwing himself into the conversation; Sam had almost forgotten about him. "Nice to meet ya, Celine!"

Celine's reaction was expected: she let out a frightened squeak and instinctively went for her sabre. Sam quickly grabbed Sunmon out of the air before she could pull the sword from its scabbard, held out his hand, and yelled, "Wait, hold up, it's okay! I don't think he's a bad guy!"

"You…found one of those things, too?" Celine asked curiously.

Sam looked at her with renewed interest, wondering what she meant by the statement, when something bounced to the top of the low wall behind Celine. Just like Sunmon, the new creature resembled something like a drop of water with wide black eyes and a smiley face. Celine seemed none too surprised when the little water drop bounced into her waiting arms and gave Sam and Sunmon a tiny bow.

"Greetings, new friends of Celine," said the water drop creature, its tone soft and polite. "I am Moonmon. It is a pleasure to make your acquittance."

"Sunmon? Moonmon?" Sam repeated strangely. "What? Is there a Starmon, too?"

"Yes, there is," Moonmon answered nicely.

"…That was a rhetorical question," Sam responded dryly.

"This…creature…has been following me ever since I woke up here," said Celine. "It somehow knew my name."

"Same thing with this little guy," said Sam, holding up Sunmon. He looked around for a moment and said, "Speaking of which, any idea where we are?"

"These are the Ruins of Agamemnon," said Moonmon. "Deep in the heart of the Troia Continent."

"Yeah, what she said," Sunmon added.

"That tells us very little," said Celine exasperatedly, turning Moonmon around to face her. "Where exactly are we. I have never heard of any of these places on Earth in my geography or history lessons?"

"Oh, that's because this isn't Earth," said Sunmon casually.

"Excuse me, what?" said Sam, nonplussed.

"He is correct," said Moonmon cordially. "You are no longer in the world you know as Planet Earth, but in another realm known as the Digital World. We had waited a long time for all of you to arrive, and now you have."

"Did you say 'all of us'?" asked Celine curiously.

"Hello…is anyone there…?" a soft, timid voice called from around the corner.

Sam and Celine turned in that direction; Sam felt he should be worried that Celine's first instinct was to drop Moonmon and go for her sabre. It's a good thing she didn't draw it, because the guy who came around the corner looked like he would have passed out if he found a sword pointed at his face.

He was equal in height with Celine, who was a few inchers taller than Sam and had an angular face that made him look almost feminine; the short, somewhat shaggy black hair that touched his shoulders only bolstered the idea. He was a red hoodie with a white rim around the edge of the hood, a pair of grayish jeans slightly torn around the knees held up by a leather belt with a silver buckle, a pair of black fingerless gloves and black boots with white laces to match them. It was Celine's keen eye that pointed out that the newcomer wore black nail polish and a black choker; Sam's mind immediately jumped to the Goth sterotype, but didn't say it out loud, because it was rude to jump to conclusions.

"H-Hello," the new said nervously. "Do you…um…do you know where I am. I'm uh…I'm kind of lost."

"Join the club," said Sam casually.

"Who are you?" Celine asked rudely, shooting him a look of mistrust.

"Oh, uh, I'm…Willow…. Willow MaClay…," Willow introduced himself anxiously.

"Hey, Willow," Sam greeted him kindly. "I'm Sam, and the grumpy one is Celine – "

"I'm not grumpy," Celine insisted.

"And these are our new friends, Sunmon and Moonmon," Sam introduced the little creatures at their feet, purposely ignoring Celine's glare.

"A pleasure to meet you," Moonmon said politely.

"How's it goin'," said Sunmon.

"Oh, more strange creatures," said Willow, suddenly looking more relaxed as he addressed the strange creatures than he did with Sam or Celine. "I found one of those, too, when I woke up. He knew my name, which was very strange. Hey, Babydramon, can you come over here, please?" Willow turned and called out.

Babydramon, it turned out, really lived up to its name as another strange creature flapped over the low wall and joined Willow by his side. It definitely resembled a tiny green dragon with stubby black horns and a wispy tail. Babydramon turned its head to the other human with a wide grin.

"Hey, you found more humans," said Babydramon enthusiastically. "Neat. That makes three now."

"That thing is called…Babydramon?" said Sam, tilting his head curiously. "Kinda on the nose, don't you think?"

"It looks like a little dragon, is it also one of them?" said Celine curiously looking down at Sunmon and Moonmon.

But then, completely out of the blue, something rocketed in the space between the three humans, nearly knocking them over with air pressure it created. Celine did draw her sabre this time and raised it in a defensive stance as her eyes followed the strange creature that was flying over the ruins before doing a U-turn and flying back around. As strange as the other three creatures were, it was a bit jarring to see a living missile shooting around the sky with a pair of robotic arms at its sides and a blue arrowhead-like face with two gleaming red eyes. Celine tried swinging at the weapon-like monster, but the missile beast curved underneath her sabre and flew completely past her, kicking up a huge gust of wind in its wake. Willow ducked behind Sam, who in turn ducked behind Celine, who held her sabre overhead as the missile curved back around –

"Attention!" A tiny voice screamed.

Without warning, the missile monster completely stopped dead in the air, just before Celine swiped her sword down, narrowly missing its arrowhead by inches. Sam watched with interest as the missile creature turned robotically in the air, flew to the other side of the street, and hovered at the top of the low wall, waiting. The three humans barely exchanged mystified looks when a pair of small hands grabbed the edge of the low wall and someone pulled themselves up to stand on top, fists on their hips with a stern look.

Sam was taken aback when he realized how young their new party member was. While Willow, Celine, and himself were teenagers, this little girl looked like she had only just reached the double digits. At full height, she only came up to Sam's elbow, who was the shortest of the gathered teenagers. Her skin was even paler than Celine's and her blonde hair was a brighter shade that it almost looked white, but Sam could only see the fringes because her head was covered by an army helmet. She wore a buttoned-up maroon shirt underneath an army-green flak jacket with a nametag on the left side, but Sam couldn't read because it was written in Russian. She also had a pair of dirt-brown padded gloves, a black skirt, and a pair of army boots.

It's just a guess, Sam thought sarcastically, but she might be an army brat.

"Private Missimon, report!" The little girl commanded the flying creature, obviously trying to sound tough, but her voice was so high-pitched that it just sounded cute.

"Three new unidentified humanoid lifeforms and three digital monsters have been located, Captain Polyakov, sir!" Missimon reported with a salute.

"I'm a girl!" said the little Russian.

"Yes, ma'am!" Missimon corrected.

"Uh, excuse me," Sam spoke up, drawing their attention. "But…who are you?"

"Oh, how rude of me," said the little Russian, though she still held a haughty look. "I am Captain Misha Polyakov! I have been on activate duty for ten years and I am a proud defended of the motherland! Glory to Mother Russia!"

"Well, aren't you just the cutest little thing," said Celine with a soft, sincere smile as she holstered her sabre.

That was apparently not what Misha wanted to hear as the ten-year-old army brat went red in the face, flailed her arms dramatically, and whined, "I'm not cute, I'm tough! My daddy says I'm the toughest soldier in the Siberian tundra!"

"That is so adorable," Sam teased.

"WAAH! I'm not adorable!" Misha cried. She jumped off the wall, ran at Sam, and started beating him with her tiny fists, but Sam hardly felt anything. "Take that back, you meanie!"

"Okay, okay, you're a big tough soldier," Sam conceded, chuckling while patting her helmet. Misha puffed out her cheek in the most adorable way and turned away from him with her arms crossed, pouting. "So you got sent here, too, huh? Wonder how many more of us there are."

"If you include me, that makes five," a new voice joined the conversation.

At this point, Sam stopped being surprised and started to think the whole thing was becoming monotonous as yet another teenager scaled over the nearby low wall and hopped down next to Willow, who backed away with a nervous yelp. The boy had a lean build that looked suitable for running with rich-copper skin that contrasted with Celine and Misha's pale tones. His hair was a mess of unruly black hair and had a gold earring on an Egyptian ankh on his left ear. He wore a sleeveless white hoodie with pair of leather straps crisscrossing across his chest, khaki-color cargo pants, a pair of regular sneakers. He was carrying a messenger bag over his left shoulder…and was carrying yet another of these creatures that seemed to be popping all over the place.

Much like Sunmon and Moonmon, the new creature was just a head with fluffy blue fur and a pair of wing-like ear growing from the top of its head. Though Sam found it a little disconcerting that it's flaring-red eyes were crinkled in a mischievous sort of way.

"I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and say you all got a weird text message, too, am I right?" said the new boy.

"That appears to be a common factor," said Celine, shooting him an untrusting look. "And you are?"

"Seth Essam, a humble street thief, if I do say so myself," said Seth with a cordial bow.

"You admit to being a thief?" asked Celine, frowning.

"I admit to many things, but a liar is not one of them," said Seth, sounding almost proud of his statement.

"Are you like Aladdin?" asked Sam curiously. "Like how your actually dirt poor and you need to steal to survive?"

"No, my family owns a successful farmland along the Nile," Seth admitted with a teasing tone. "I just do it for sport."

"Wow, you really are blunt about it, aren't you?" said Sam, sweatdropping.

"Disgraceful!" Misha shouted with authority. "A thief stealing for sport! Unacceptable! I swear on the glorious name of Mother Russia that I will see you thrown into Black Dolphin Prison, you miscreant – "

"Here, have a lollipop," Seth offered suddenly, pulling out the candy from his messenger bag.

Misha's hardened expression quickly shifted to delight with an excited squeal as she snatched up the sucker and started nibbling on it like an adorable little squirrel. All four teenagers couldn't help thinking how cute their little companion was.

"Um…excuse me," Willow suddenly spoke up, catching Seth by surprise, apparently having not noticed him standing there. "But um…who is that?" he asked, pointing to the blue fluffball under Seth's arm.

"Huh? Oh, this is…uh…," said Seth, looking down at the creature cluelessly.

"I'm Pagumon," aid the little fluffball.

"Okay, so there are five of us here and we each found our own, very weird, little monsters," said Sam. "Is there anyone else coming?"

Almost as if on command, a sharp, squawky kind of screech sounded from down the road, making everyone turn in alarm and Celine immediately went for her sabre. They were expecting to see another human, possibly one in danger from another strange creature, but as it turned out, it was the opposite. Another creature that resembled a baby chick with a long red ponytail was being chased by a teenage girl who was laughing herself silly while she pursued the monster.

The human girl was around Sam's level of height – finally, Sam thought – with chin-length tawny-brown hair that was parted to the right side by a golden hairclip. Sam liked to watch anime with his sister, so he knew what a shrine maiden was, and that was exactly what this girl was dressed as: long, scarlet divided trousers, a pure white kimono robe with billowing long sleeves, a pair of sandals, and a long necklace of black beads strung together with a wooden talisman. In anime, shrine maidens were usually portrayed as cool, calm and collected…this girl looked nothing like that.

By the time the chicken monster reached the group, the shrine maiden took a flying leap and tackled the poor creature from behind, sliding across the street on her belly, kicking up a cloud of dirt that made everyone choke. The girl soon rose to her knees and pressed the chicken monster into her chest with a happy squeal, unknowingly suffocating the poor creature in her embrace.

"Ooh, you so cute and FLUFFY!" she howled joyously. "I just wanna hug you forever!"

"Help…me…," the chicken monster choked.

"Uh, excuse me," Sam spoke up. The shrine maiden up, only just realizing there were others around. "You might want to loosen up a little. I think he's suffocating."

"Oops, my bad," said the shrine maiden, finally relenting; the chicken creature let out a dramatic gasp. She stood up, brushing the dirt off her uniform, and said, "Hi, I'm Miyata Kozoe, but my friends call me Miya."

"I'm Sam Lionheart," Sam introduced himself, offering his hand to shake. "That over there is Celine, Willow, Misha, and Seth. And those…things," he gestured to the unknown monsters grouped together, "Are Sunmon, Moonmon, Babydramon, Missimon, and Pagumon. Does you…whatever it is…have a name, too?"

"I…most certainly…do…," the chicken monster gasped between breathes. Taking a moment to collect himself, it coughed importantly into its wing and said, "I am Chicchimon, a balance-class holy species, and I – "

"Am so adorable!" Miya cooed, snuggling Chicchimon against her bosom again.

"If I might ask," said Celine with a curious expression, "why are you dressed in such a way. Is that some type of fashion where you are from?"

"What, no," Miya giggled. "This is my Miko uniform. I work part-time at my family's shrine Nachi-Katsuura. I was just sweeping the grounds when I got this weird text message."

"The one that said something about gods and 'Iliad awaits'?" Seth asked.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Miya gasped surprisingly.

"…Lucky guess," Seth said after a stupefied pause.

"You all know what this place is, don't you?" Miya suddenly spoke with a serious expression, drawing everyone's interest. "It all makes sense when you think about it. The strange text message, the flash of light that brought us here, this odd new land that we have never seen before, these unknown creatures that have waited for our arrival and seem to know our names. There is only one reasonable explanation for all of this…."

The other unconsciously leaned closer, hanging on Miya's every word. Could it be that she knew the reason why they had all been summoned here? Could Miya actually –

"We've been taken to the spirit world!"

- and they all fell flat on their faces.

"It's the only thing that makes sense!" Miya declared with firm commitment. "We have all been chosen by the spirits of the other world to embark on a grand quest, and they have sent these noble Yokai" – she held Chicchimon over her head – "to guide us in our sacred mission!"

Celine stood up, brushing herself off, turning to Sam with an exasperated look, and said, "Do you get the feeling that she's going to be a hassle?"

"I don't know, I think she's kinda interesting," Sam remarked.

"While I don't generally believe in 'spirits' or the afterlife, I do agree that we must have been called here for a reason."

Someone came up behind Miya and they nobody seemed to have noticed him until the shrine maiden had stepped to the side. Sam openly wondered if at some point they were going to run out of new kids as he looked over the newcomer that settled inside as the center of everyone's attention. He recognized the kid as Latino in origin with dark olive skin and semi-short dark hair with fringes that partially hanged over hiss droopy looking eyes. He wore a white t-shirt with a robot decal splashed in the front with italic words written in Spanish on the top and bottom, a pair of khaki cargo pants, black tennis shoes, and wore what looked like a smartwatch on his wrist. Like Seth, he was also carrying a bag over his shoulder, though this one more suitable for carrying a laptop.

And, unsurprisingly to everyone present, he was also traveling with a creature of unknown origin, which was riding on his right shoulder. It was super tiny in comparison to the rest of the monsters that had showed up, resembling something of a metal mouse with lightning bolt-shaped ears and glowing red eyes. A wire was raised up from its backside, occasionally discharging a quick spark that didn't seem too safe in Sam's opinion.

Celine sighed exasperatedly, rubbing the bridge of her nose, and muttered, "Great, another one shows up. Why do…ugh, never mind. Do you and your…friend have a name?"

"Gee, since you asked so nicely," the boy retorted sarcastically. "If you must know, my name is Luca Hernandez. And my friend, as you so eloquently called him," He gestured to the metal mouse on his shoulder, "says his name is Metalkoromon…. He doesn't really talk much. Honestly, he doesn't even move much, either. When I found him, he gave a quick introduction, climbed on me…and that's pretty much it."

"Well, aren't you lucky," Seth remarked, briefly looking up at Missimon, who was still flying restlessly around the air.

"Anyway, back to what I was saying," Luca continued as if he were continuing a conversation they already started, "all of us were summoned to this interesting world – "

"The spirit world!" Miya jumped in with conviction.

"…This interesting world," Luca brushed her off, "and there must have been a logical reason that we just don't understand yet, like some kind of a test or experiment. But the problem I am having difficulty understanding is what sort of an experiment it would entail. Usually, the test subjects would have to have something in common. But I can't fathom that there would be much that a sweaty American, a rich French girl, a Russian army brat, an Egyptian thief, a wallflower that is probably from the UK, a Japanese shrine maiden, and a Latino gearhead like myself would have in common. Any more than I can understand how seven kids from different cultures can communicate with each other so naturally."

"Huh, now that you mention it," Sam hummed interestingly. "I was wondering a French and a Russian girl knew English."

"What are you talking about?" said Celine with a raised brow. "You're the one speaking French."

"You guys are speaking Japanese to me," Miya stated with a curious stare.

"And all I hear is Spanish," Luca said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Whatever this world is, it seems to have affected us with a sort of…universal translator feature. Even though we're speaking different languages, we can all hear each other in our native tongue. This world just keeps getting more interesting by the minute."

"Interesting or not, we have no idea where we are, why we were brought here, or what these…," Celine glanced over at the gathered creatures, which now included Chicchimon and Metalkoromon, "weird creatures are."

"Stop calling us weird creatures!" Chicchimon snapped, frowning. "We're not weird!"

"Then what are you?" asked Willow curiously.

The tiny monsters looked at one another with amused smiled, faced their human counterparts, and spoke together in perfect unison:

"We're Digimon – Digital Monsters!"

"…I still don't get it," Miya voiced everyone's thoughts, tilting her head.

"Humans are always so slow on the uptake," said Pagumon snidely.

"I know it's a lot to understand, but you'll figure it out quick enough," said Moonmon understandingly.

"You kind need to if yer gonna survive Iliad," said Sunmon bluntly, which earned him a small headbutt from Moonmon. "Ow! What'd I say?"

"Wait…this is Iliad?" said Seth interestingly, tilting his head back to look toward the sky, which was a strange shade of blues, greens, and purples. "Like from the text message."

"Technically, this is the Troia Continent," Babydramon explained. "Iliad is the name of the server that this version of the digital world exists in."

"Server? Like a computer?" asked Luca, blinking owlishly. "Are you telling me we're inside a giant computer?"

"That is correct, sir!" said Missimon dutifully.

"Okay, I am seriously tripping out right now," said Sam, holding his head in his hands. "Digital world? Digital monsters? This is like something out of a bad cartoon."

"I was thinking more of an isekai anime," Miya quipped.

"All right, everyone calm down before we start loosing our heads," Celine said with an authoritative tone. "The fact of the matter we have no idea where we are or why we were brought here. So, until we can get a clearer idea of what our objective is and how we can get out of this…digital world, we need to keep our wits about ourselves and watch each other's backs."

"Yes! Rally the troops!" Misha cheered.

"Banding together might be the best option since we know next to nothing about…what is this place again?" asked Seth.

"Iliad," Sunmon answered helpfully.

"Yeah, that."

"Maybe…we should start looking around," Willow mumbled quietly. "See if there's anyone nearby…maybe even a town or a campsite we could find."

"That's probably a good idea – a lot better than waiting around for something to come get us," said Sam. With Sunmon floating over his shoulder, Sam brushed past Celine and started walking down the road. "Follow me, guys. Maybe we can see something by climbing the trees in that forest over there."

"Hey, I'm the captain, you should follow me!" Misha shouted, stomping after her American comrade.

"Cease and desist!" Missimon shouted after them.

Celine rubbed the bridge of her nose for what must have been the hundredth time in the last twenty minutes, silently cursing herself for ending up in this situation with these weirdos. Nonetheless, the French girl lifted Moonmon into her arms and gave chase after Sam and Misha. The rest of their motley crew followed behind; Seth, with Pagumon under his arm, stayed close to the French girl, which earned him a mistrustful look over her shoulder. Luca checked to make sure MetalKoromon was firmly on his shoulder before following, trying to ignore the Miya standing next to him, practically choking the life out of her Chicchimon. Willow stayed in the back of the group, having needed to be encouraged by Babydramon to move.

None of them had any idea how they got here, or why they were summoned in the first place, but they all agreed on one thing: this was going to be the longest, and shortest, summer vacation they ever had.

Once again, sorry for the long wait, but I hope you understand that it was for personal reasons and I will try to do better in the future. I originally wrote this chapter to be longer, but I lost steam along the way and decided to wrap it up as an introductory chapter before moving ahead to the meatier parts of the story. I hope I stayed true to everyone's characters, and if you feel there are any problems with it, please let me know via PM so I don't make the same mistake again going forward. That being said, I am open to helpful criticism as long as it's not outright flaming – helping me learn from my mistakes will improve the quality of the story.

So until next time, please read and review.