Max

I stumbled into my apartment, quickly making my way to my computer. I put on my headset and joined the voice channel that Willis told me to, saying that it was "important".

"Willis, are you here?"

I heard him pick up his headset. "Max, I'm glad you could make it. Watch this." He used remote access to put a single file on my desktop. He clicked it before I could read the name, inputting some random values. "Max, you're about to witness something awesome."

A familiar screen popped up and I could see into a meadow.

"What am I looking at?" I asked.

"That, my friend, is the digital world."

I stared at my computer screen with my eyebrow raised.

"Willis, are you kidding me? How is this 'awesome'?"

"Yolei's digivice isn't plugged in."

It took a second before that sunk in. "Are you saying that we can open a portal whenever we want?

"That's right. Izzy finally figured out how to open a Digi-Port without a D-3. 'Bout time, too. I haven't seen Terriermon and Lopmon since Yolei graduated." His voice crackled over my headset. It was silent for a moment, then Willis spoke again. "Wanna go right now?"

I laughed. "What? Right now?"

"Izzy asked me to check out a certain sector. Wanna go with me?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Hold out your digivice. The uplink should pull you right through. Remember to take off your headset, or it'll rip the wire out. I'll meet you there." I grinned, giddy from the chance to finally go back to the digital world. I grabbed my digivice from my inside jacket pocket and held it up to the screen. Within seconds I felt myself being pulled from my seat and felt like I was falling. Wind rushed through my hair for a few seconds then I was suddenly just standing in a field beside a TV.

I looked around, seeing some woods nearby. "Willis?" I was no answer from him, so I decided to keep looking. A little more than five minutes later, I heard a female voice from my right.

"How have you been, Max?" I turned to see my digimon partner, Renamon. She lazily walked up to me, a smirk on her face. "It's been a while since you've been here. I thought you forgot about me."

"Not at all, Renamon. I just didn't have a way to get into the digital world without Yolei. Her digivice is the only one that can open the portal, but Izzy found a workaround so we can come whenever we want or need to."

She chuckled, saying, "Great, I'll never get rid of you now." I rolled my eyes at her.

I suddenly remembered why I was even there. "Hey, Renamon, have you seen Willis?"

"No. Is he here too?"

"I don't kn-" I was cut off by Willis flying out of the portal and knocking me down.

He quickly stood up, muttered a "Sorry," and started looking around.

I coughed a couple times since he knocked the wind out of me, then asked him, "What took you so long? I've been here for almost ten minutes now."

"I was downloading some stuff, it must have slowed my connection. The good news is that I should have around 50 movies waiting for me when I get home."

I was suddenly aware of my palm on my forehead.

"Anyways, Izzy said something was causing some interference in this sector. He said it would be east of where we uplinked. Terriermon and Lopmon should be getting here any moment now, then we can go check it out."

I groaned. "I haaaaaate waiting." Renamon chuckled and Willis sent a glare my way.

"Deal with it. Just because your digimon was already here... wait, why were you already here?"

She smirked. "I live in the woods here when Max is gone. It's nice and quiet and there's a glade where the view of the moon is just perfect."

Willis leaned towards me. "Sorry I asked..." He muttered.

Renamon glared at him and he stared back with wide eyes. They stayed that way for a few minutes before Renamon looked over my shoulder. "They're almost here. We can go ahead and start moving, they'll catch up. Terriermon can hear as well as I can."

"He'd better with those ears of his." As soon as I finished my sentence I got hit in the back of the head by Willis.

"Hey, you'd better watch it. I don't make fun of your digimon all the time." He crossed his arms.

"Actually, you do." I said, and Renamon nodded.

He looked between the two of us and simply muttered "Whatever," before walking off in the direction his digimon were coming from.

"Man, he's so easy to mess with. I'd hate to see him actually get mad." Renamon nodded in agreement. We stayed silent for a moment before we heard Terriermon and Lopmon giggling like mad.

"You guys are silly. I probably look ridiculous with the two of you sitting like that." Willis's voice came through. They got a little closer and I could see Lopmon and Terriermon standing on Willis's shoulders. They both had their ears puffed up and were swaying every time Willis took a step. Both of them started crying out, "Hi, Max! Hi, Renamon!" as soon as they could see us.

Willis finally reached us, and the twins floated down to the ground. He pulled out his digivice and D-Terminal and started getting his bearings. "We'll need to head over to that cliff, scale it and what we're looking for should be right over the top. There are pathways that will make it a lot easier to walk."

"You're kidding, Willis. There is no way that we're doing all that. That's like 5 miles just to the cliff, then we have to hike? Have fun."

He gave me a look that plainly said, "Are you kidding me?" and kept going on. "There's a cave up right at the top that we'll be able to stop in if we need to overnight."

"Overnight? You didn't tell me that this was going to be an overnight trip. I have a job, you know. Gotta get that paper and such." I looked at my watch. "It's already noon. If we're going to do this, we need to get going."

I then had a brilliant idea. "Hey, Renamon, maybe you should digivolve. It'd make this trip a lot easier if we had a ride, and I know it won't wear you out to run a little as Kyubimon." She raised one eyebrow higher and higher as I spoke. "Pleaaase?" I blinked and grinned at her. We stood there in a non-verbal standoff for a few moments before she sighed.

"Fine." She muttered, narrowing her eyes as I readied my digivice. I held it out to her and it immediately started glowing.

"Renamon digivolve to..."

I closed my eyes, waiting for the normal flash of light. A moment later, I opened my eyes to see Renamon standing in front of me, looking at her hands with wide eyes.

"Why can't I digivolve?" Her voice was smaller than normal and it lacked its usual sarcastic tone. She looked up at me and asked, "Is your digivice working?"

I inspected it. "Seems fine. What's going on?"

Willis looked at his. "Let me see if it's something wrong with you guys. Terriermon, you ready?"

"Yep. Let's do this." Willis's digivice glowed in his hand.

"Terriermon digivolve to..."

He did a flourish before yelling, "Gargomon!" He looked at each of us, then looked down. "Darn."

"Okay, something is going on." I looked towards the cliff. "Whatever's causing Izzy's interference must be causing it."

Terriermon sat on the ground while Willis started on a tirade. "This is great. No digivolving. We're sitting ducks if something attacks us. In fact, why don't we just lie down in front of a train? I'm sure that..." Renamon and I looked at each other, and sighed simultaneously. He continued on for a few minutes before saying, "I say we go home until we can have reinforcements."

"Are you kidding? When's the next time we'll be able to get anyone else in? Let's just do this thing then go home." Renamon nodded in agreement with me.

He sighed in defeat. "Fine." He looked at the cliff. "We might as well get going, then."

I grinned. "Best idea you've had all day."


A few hours later, we'd made it to the cliff and scaled a good portion of it.

"Good thing Renamon spotted that shortcut. That cut off almost an hour. We'll be up here in no time." I said, trying to stay positive. "Wish it wasn't so hot though."

"Max, you can complain about anything, can't you? First, it was the long walk. Then it was how steep this path was, and now it's the heat. Next you'll complain about something dumb. Like being outside, or something."

I laughed. "I do hate it outside." I turned around to see his eye twitching. "C'mon, Willis. I'm just messing with you. After all, what's the point if we aren't at least somewhat enjoying ourselves?"

He stayed silent.

I looked around, noticing my surroundings. We were a good five hundred feet in the air, and I could see that the cave that Willis had mentioned earlier was not more than a few minutes away. "Wiiiillis," I sang, "I see the cave. That means we're almost at the top, right?"

He looked up. "Yeah, it's only about a hundred yards past that, then it should be an incline downwards at the top."

"Well, let's go in the cave when we get there. It'll probably be a good place to cool down."

Terriermon piped up. "I like that idea. I'm tired of walking."

Lopmon chimed in as well. "And I'm tired of being Willis's hat."

"Well, there's no point in making this take any longer. Race ya!" I started sprinting, and I could hear Willis pick up the pace behind me as well. Renamon just took long strides, easily outpacing all of us, and she was waiting in the entrance when we all arrived, completely out of breath.

"Are you all that out of shape?" She smirked. "You shouldn't be issuing challenges you know you can't back up."

"I. Was. Talking. To. Willis." I wheezed. "You're. Too. Fast."

She chuckled, which turned into a full out laugh when Willis started coughing. "You boys need to exercise."

When we all had gotten over running, we started going into the cave. To my surprise, it was lit. There were torches all along the walls that lit as we walked in farther. I could hear water running, which got louder and louder, and it got cold as we walked.

"Man, maybe today was a bad day for shorts." Willis said. I looked back and he was hugging himself.

"Willis, it's not that cold." I rolled my eyes.

"You're wearing pants and a suit jacket! Of course it's not that cold to you. It feels like there's a Fridgimon in here to me."

We walked a short distance more before hitting a dead end. There was a lake with a rock in the center, and the rock had a lever on it.

"This place gets weirder and weirder." Willis shook his head. "Why can't anything make sense?!"

I rolled my eyes. "You sound like that Joe kid Izzy introduced us to last time. Can you calm down for five minutes?"

"Do you enjoy pissing me off-ff-ff-ff-ffuck it's cold."

"Renamon, think you can pull that lever? Maybe it'll make Willis warmer."

"Of course." She jumped up and kicked off of the wall to propel herself through the air. She landed gracefully on the platform and gave the lever a tug. "It's stuck." She started pulling on it harder. "It. Won't. Move!" She grunted in between tries. She gave up and leaned against it, which made it move right away.
"You must have loosened it." I chuckled, seeing her puzzled expression. She pushed the level the last bit and an opening on the far wall appeared. At the same time, stepping stones came out of the water on the opposite side of the cave. "How is that supposed to help?"

"Hey, there's another lever here," Terriermon said as he jumped on top of it, trying to get it to move. Lopmon attempted to help, but it did nothing. Willis grabbed it and pushed it over, and two more stones came up on our side.

"Well, let's go." Willis jumped to the first rock only to have it tilt and almost dump him in the water. He scrambled to get to the center, then turned around very slowly. "I'd be careful if I were you." He turned back and jumped to the next rock. Renamon leapt from the center to the middle rock on the other side, then kicked off before it had time to tilt, landing in the opening. Terriermon and Lopmon jumped to the edges of the rocks at the same time, balancing each other.

Eventually, everyone except me had crossed.

Willis yelled across. "You gonna come or not?"

I looked at the water then back to him. "Now would probably be a bad time to mention that I can't swim."

Renamon facepalmed, Willis crossed his arms and the twins started giggling. I sighed, then clenched my teeth, backing up. "Well, here goes nothing. Renamon, you'd better come fish me out if I fall." I took a deep breath and started running. I jumped to the first rock and to the second rock fine, but landed badly on the middle. Luckily, I landed on the rock, face down. I heard the twins giggle again and Willis sigh, but the only thing going through my mind was, "Ow,". I pushed myself back up and got ready again, running across the large rock. I managed the first two jumps fine, but landed offcenter on the third. It started to tilt backwards and dump me off, but I saw Renamon put her paw out to me. I gave one last kick and grabbed it, and she pulled me over the rock and flung me into the entrance.

Willis walked over to me, looked down, then started walking up some stairs in the passageway while laughing. Terriermon got up on my chest and commented, "If there were pins here, that would have been a strike," laughing as he walked off. Lopmon just giggled as he passed, and Renamon stood over me, holding out her paw.

"Get up, Max. We need to go." She said calmly, motioning for me to grab her paw again. I took it, and she hauled me up.

"Oh, man, that's going to hurt in the morning. Actually, it hurts now. Oww." I twisted and loud cracking noises came from my back. "Ow. Ow. OW. Oh. Ahh. That's nice." I said as my back popped and loosened up.

She had her eyebrow raised. "Are you finished?" I nodded. "Let's go. The others are already gone."

We walked up the stairs. They spiraled upwards what felt like about two floors before letting us out in a much smaller and warmer cave. Willis and his digimon were inspecting something on a rocky pedestal.

"What's that?" I asked, and he turned and shrugged.

"It looks almost like a digi-egg, but it's stuck to this pedestal." I walked over to it and looked at the army-green egg. It was long and skinny with a curved blade-like spike coming out of it at one end, and it had a symbol that was three diamonds pointing into the center on it.

"Should we take it with us? Izzy might know something about it."

"I would say yes, but it's stuck. I'll just take a picture of it with my D-Terminal." He started to rummage through his pockets in his shorts.

I walked over to it, clapped my hands together, and grabbed the egg. "No need. Watch and learn." I pulled up on it as hard as I could...

And flew backwards into the wall with it in my hands. A blinding light came from the pedestal.

"Max, are you alright?" Willis yelled.

"He seems to like walls today, doesn't he?" Terriermon jested.

Renamon was above me in an instant, helping me up for what felt like the hundredth time today. I steadied myself, before posing in what I considered a heroic fashion. "Toldja I could get it."

Willis facepalmed.