Alright. Finally back with a brand spankin' new chapter. And this one is around a thousand words bigger than the last. Man if this trend continues, the last chapter will be novella sized : o.

Anyway, enjoy!

Oh and Digimon is owned by Toei Animation, NOT ThatTwoGuy. Of course you know that, but in case you lost all memory between reading the last chapter and this one, I'm letting you know. Then again, if that was the case, I recommend starting back from the beginning : o.

Update 5-21-10: I just noticed that my line breaks haven't been uploading over from open office to this site. Wth... Sorry for any previous readers who may have found no separation between different segments of the chapters to be confusing. I've added the line breaks to the previous chapter and this one.

Chapter Two: Inside The System

At first, Dragon could not see anything. A side effect of the digiport. He was temporarily blinded for about a minute. But during those first seconds, he could feel the slightly chilling wind of the Digital World. He missed this place. "It's been awhile," the sovereign said.

"Hello there." Dragon heard a very friendly voice coming from somewhere in front of him. He positioned his head and his eyes towards the direction.

"Hello?" he asked. Dragon was not sure if the man could tell that he was still blinded.

"Oh, sorry. My name is Kyotoro." When the sovereign's vision returned, he could see a short, chubby man in front of him, outstretching his hand. Dragon shook it. "I manage the portal on the Digiworld side."

The transportation department has a knack for hiring big-boned middle aged men, the sovereign thought. "Nice to meet you." He looked around at the portal station. Unlike the one in the Real World, the portal station here was very open and outdoors. A large, metallic fence circled around a large portal "screen" connected to a mass of machinery. Agents and digimon stood outside the fence, guarding the portal. Some digimon worked directly for DigiCorp's law enforcement and peace keeping departments as agents. But most of the digimon were artificially created ones, programmed to work for the megacorporation. One of the common tailor made digimon was the CrimsonGarurumon. It looked quite like a Garurumon, except with black fur and crimson stripes. Three of these Garurumon variations stood outside the portal station, ever watchful.

"This place is very well guarded," Dragon said. "Is this the station that was attacked the other day?"

"No, sir," Kyotoro stated. "That was G-18. It is still undergoing maintenance."

"Did any digimon escape to the Real World, Mister Kyotoro?"

"Oh, call me 'Kyo.' And no, none of them made it out to the Real World. We are sure of that."

"Oh really?" Dragon looked over at his three guards. They were all looking at the environment around them. It must have been awhile since the last time these three came to the Digital World. He then looked back at the portal manager, awaiting an answer.

"Of course, Dragon. We are very thorough." Dragon noticed that, aside from the agents outside, Kyotoro was the only person inside the fence. The others must have been sent away to make way for the sovereign. Maybe the managers feel they are the only ones worthy enough to see a sovereign off.

"I see. Well I shall be off."

"Do you require transportation? I can call up a buggy. Or maybe a Crimson, if you prefer?" He pointed towards one of the CrimsonGarurumon guarding the station.

"No thanks. I'll walk. Come on." He gestured to his three bodyguards, who followed close behind as the sovereign began walking in the direction of the city. "We are going to East City. See you soon, Kyo."

The manager nodded, smiling. "You too, Dragon. Have a nice stay in the Digital World."

"Oh, I will."

"Daichi! Saru! Run!" I hear his voice clearly, even through all of the chaos. I look back and see Enry, a Tyranomon, holding off the DigiCorp agents. I look over at my green furred companion, nod as she nods, and press on forward.

"Agh!" His screams make me look back. The agents are firing those suppression weapons, guns that seem to shoot a wavy, jagged stream of concentrated energy at Enry. He falls to the ground as he feels the surges of energy course through him. "No!" I think about going back there to help him. But what can I, a mere Rookie, do against those weapons? I look around me and see the other members of our crew: A Gekomon already held on the ground by two agents. A Gargomon, helping Enry hold off the other agents so we can escape. Two Floramon, running away from the portal center, hoping to get away. That just leaves me and Saru, running for our lives towards the portal. Maybe we will make it.

"No..." I hear the Gargomon say. The sound of gunfire dies down completely. He must be out of ammo, but I'm too scared to look back. A guard jumps in front of us, hoping to stop us.

Before Saru can wield her large slingshot, a dark gear materializes in front of me and speeds towards the human. He jumps out of the way just as we leap forward, towards the digiport to the Human World. I look back with Saru to see Enry falling to the ground, finally defeated by the agents.

We'll come back for you, Enry.... One day.

"Wake--"

"-- up, Daichi." The gear-shaped digimon felt someone nudge his side and he heard a soft, murmuring whisper.

"Saru?"

"Shh! I think someone is here!" They both looked out the car window. A figure was definitely approaching them holding a small, dull flashlight.

"Wait," Daichi said. "That's... That's Pence!" He stood there on the passenger side, beside the two digimon.

"Press the second button on the door," Pence said, speaking loud enough for the two digimon to hear him from behind the window. Daichi nudged it with his gear-like hand. The door unlocked and Pence opened it. "Thanks, guys. I brought you something..." Pence reached behind him and took off a green backpack, letting it down on the passenger seat beside the two digimon.

Saru sniffed it. "Food...?"

Pence nodded, grinning as he unzipped the bag. He started pulling various junk food out from inside the bag: chips, boxed cupcakes, crackers. Saru started tearing at the bags and boxes of food, stuffing her face. "Saru, show some restraint!"

"Oh stuff it, Dai! We haven't had food since we left our world!"

She was right. Daichi's metallic belly was grumbling right now. "Here," Pence said, handing the little gear digimon a cupcake. "Try this."

Daichi looked at the cupcake in astonishment. He had never seen food quite like this. "Okay..." Pence guided it into his open mouth and he chewed it tenderly, enjoying the sweet taste. He grinned as he took another cupcake from the box and ate it.

"Hmm," Pence thought. "Tatsuya should be here soon. He's bringing some food, too."

"Wow, really!" Saru exclaimed, with chip crumbs falling from her mouth.

"Whoa... Try not to get the crumbs all over Tatsuya's car, okay?"

Saru looked at the human wide-eyed.

"Or I may have to take the food back."

She then looked down at the seat and scurried to wipe all the crumbs out of the car. Daichi just hovered outside the car while he ate, letting the crumbs fall to the garage floor.

"Come on, there has to be something good in here..." Tatsuya was standing in front of the refrigerator in his pj's, looking for some food to bring his new digimon friends. He was pulling out bowl after bowl of sealed food, looking for something they might like. "Broccoli casserole? Eww no... I wouldn't put them through the torture. Hmm.... Meatloaf? No... Oh!" He found one bowl filled with noodles and red sauce. "Spaghetti! They'd love it." He was not quite sure if the digimon would really love it. But it was one of his favorites.

He carefully opened the microwave, so that the click of it opening would not wake anybody. Then he placed a the bowl inside, closed the door, and turned it on. He did not really think that the digimon would care if it was hot or not. But he may want some of it. And Tatsuya was not a fan of cold spaghetti.

Just before the microwave rang to say that it was done, he pressed the button to open the door and took the steaming bowl out so it would not make a sound. "Oh yes, they would love this," he said to himself, picking up a couple noodles with his fingers and putting them in his mouth. He put the lid back on the Tupperware bowl and put it in his backpack. Then he pulled out four soda drinks from the fridge, one for each of them, and put them in his bag.

The boy then walked through the dark across the living room to the door. "Tats? Is that you?"

"Mom?" He looked in the direction of the voice and saw a figure on the couch. She must have fallen asleep while laying there watching TV. His dad or his sister probably turned the TV off for her.

"What are you doing with that food? I heard you using the microwave."

Well, so much for being sneaky about it. The living room was directly connected to the kitchen, so it would not be hard for someone in the living room to hear Tatsuya using the microwave. "Oh, just getting a midnight snack, Mom." He smiled, eyes closed as he scratched the back of his head.

"But... your room is down the hall. Isn't it...?" She sounded drowsy, half asleep.

"Oh, you're right!" He could not go out with his mom sleeping down here. "Say, shouldn't you be in bed? Why are you on the couch?"

"I... Must have dosed off."

"You should get in bed with Dad. I'm sure he misses you." Tatsuya prayed that this worked.

His heart raced as he heard his mom moving on the couch. Did it work? Instead of getting up, she just rolled on her side, facing her head against the couch and away from the door.

"Mom?"

"Mmmff..." He could not hear what she was saying, if she was saying anything to begin with. Then, after a short pause, he heard snoring.

Ah well... He slowly opened the door, making sure not to make any noise as he walked out and made his way to the garage.

Falling.

That feeling you get as you drift off. When you imagine you are falling down. But a sudden spasm jerks you out of sleep, waking you up.

Except there is no spasm.

And you continue falling, no end in sight.

You never hit the ground.

"Hey, you!"

The voice woke the boy out of his sleep. He knew he was just experiencing a dream, but could not remember what it was about. When he opened his eyes, he saw a small, grey figure above him. The figure was shaped like a little dinosaur and had light grey skin with dark grey stripes here and there. The digimon had light blue eyes, resembling the shade the boy's eyes were.

The boy sat up. He had been sleeping in an empty alleyway of the vast East City. The boy was homeless, like many humans and digimon alike living in the big city. As he sat up, he looked at this digimon more properly. "Are you... an Agumon?" the boy asked.

"Yes, why?"

"I've never heard of a grey Agumon before..."

"Hey, cut out the teasing or I won't help you!"

The boy was not trying to tease him. He was just making an observation. He had really never heard of a grey Agumon before. A black one, maybe. And the SnowAgumon were white. But a grey one? GreyAgumon? Did they exist?

"I'm sorry... And what do you mean help me?" The boy decided to stand up, dusting off his dirty pants. He looked about eleven or twelve years old and had brown, spiky hair.

"Oh well you just looked lonely, guy. I thought maybe you could stay with me and my new friends."

"But... You don't even know me." The boy seemed dumbfounded. Why would a digimon care about someone they had never met?

"So? Be nice to others. Isn't that your golden rule, or something?"

"Golden rule... I don't have one, I guess." The boy was utterly confused.

"I mean, you humans! Not just you in general, guy. That's what Reks says."

"Reks?"

"Yeah!" The Agumon's eyes lit up. "He's our leader. He says that all humans have a golden rule and we should too."

"A golden rule..." The boy had never heard of such a thing. Then again, he did not know much about people. He had been an orphan for as long as he could remember.

The grey Agumon started to leave. When he noticed that the boy was not following, he looked back and said, "Aren't you coming?"

The boy walked up behind him. "I guess... Where are we going?"

"To our hideout, of course! Oh and what is your name, guy?"

"It's Shero."

"Oh, nice to meet you. I'm Kahn." The digimon gave him a toothy grin before turning back around and continuing on his way to the "hideout."

This "hideout" was just a small abandoned building a few blocks away. The door had fallen off (and was still laying there on the ground), but there was a piece of red cloth hanging in the doorway to give the place a bit of privacy. The grey Agumon held back the curtain with his claw and motioned for Shero to walk inside.

"Go ahead, guy."

Shero nodded and walked in. He was in a short hallway with three rooms connected to it, one to the left and two to the right. Kahn walked past the kid and opened the second door on the right then waited for him to approach. Shero walked up and looked inside.

The room was small and consisted of a large chair at one end of the room. A table, a few more, smaller chairs and stools were situated in front of the bigger chair. There was a window on one wall that was boarded up and a television screen built on another wall with a cord hanging off of it, leading to no where. The cord just ended at a stub with small wires sticking out.

In the big chair was a BlackAgumon while two normal colored Agumon sat in the small chairs in front of him. The one on the right had blue stripes while the one on the left had red. The three Agumon were playing a game of cards on the table. Each Agumon looked up at the two figures in the doorway, particularly the unfamiliar human.

"Hey guys!" Kahn said, walking inside. Shero stood still in the doorway.

"Who is this?" the BlackAgumon asked.

"Yeah, I thought humans weren't allowed," the blue striped one asked, looking over at his red striped counterpart.

"Not all humans are bad, guys," Kahn said. "And he is homeless, just like us."

"Homeless?" the black one asked, standing up from his seat. "This is our home."

"Yeah, but we don't work for DigiCorp," Kahn replied. DigiCorp had full housing and food control. Digimon did their part working for DigiCorp and DigiCorp did their part by giving the digimon homes, food, protection, and very small wages. Agumon, being a physically stronger species than many other rookies, were generally given physical, manual labor jobs. This group of Agumon did not want that. Slaving away building houses or fixing factories all day and night was not something they wanted to do for the rest of their lives. Or at least until they evolved and were given bigger, tougher jobs. That is, if they evolved. Digimon can evolve naturally without fighting, training, or conflict. But digimon adapted to life as beasts of combat. Agumon being a more savage species, the best way to evolve was to fight and grow stronger. A digimon could become an agent for DigiCorp where combat is almost guaranteed. But digimon agents were seen as traitorous in the eyes of other digimon.

"Humans don't have to work for DigiCorp to live here," the blue striped Agumon said.

"But they still have to buy land here in the Digital World to be an official citizen," Kahn said. "Isn't that what you guys told me? And Shero here doesn't have any."

The human boy looked over at the grey Agumon. How did he know that Shero was homeless? He could have just ran away from home, from his parents, and stumbled onto a comfortable alley in an East City slum. Then again, it was pretty obvious.

"He is just like one of us," Red Stripes said.

"Why don't we help him?" Blue Stripes followed.

The BlackAgumon thought to himself for a minute. "Fine... But you gotta find a place for him to sleep, Kahn. And you watch him. If he is your friend, fine. But he is no friend of mine. And I don't trust him."

"Thank you, Reks," Kahn said happily. He looked over at Shero and grinned.

Why is he helping me...? Shero could not get his head around it. He had met this digimon just an hour ago. But there was something about this grey Agumon. He felt some kind of connection between them. Is this fate?

"What's wrong, guy?" Kahn asked. He was tilting his head to the side, looking at his new human friend. "Come in, you can sit by me." The grey Agumon sat on a stool, motioning for Shero to sit in the stool beside him. The human boy followed him, sitting to his right.

The two striped ones looked at him curiously. "I've never been this close to a human before," Blue Stripes said. His head inched closer to Shero as he sniffed him.

"Knock it out, Hoshi," Kahn said. The blue striped digimon, Hoshi, pulled back. "So who was winning?" Kahn pointed to the cards on the table.

"Hisake," Reks said, rolling his eyes. Hisake, the red striped Agumon, grinned.

"Oh, Reks is such a competitive player," Hisake said. "Me and Hoshi knew most of what was in his hand, anyway. He drew the three replacements." Their deck was, of course, a DigiCorp deck. Most of the items sold and traded in the Digital World were manufactured or sponsored by DigiCorp. They had found it abandoned on the ground a few weeks before in almost perfect shape. The only thing wrong was that it was missing three cards. They had to cut out pieces of cardboard to make "replacement" cards for them. And the four friends knew what cards those three were.

"It doesn't matter anyway," Reks said. "We have business to discuss." He was staring at the human boy in the room.

"We can talk about it with Shero here," Kahn said. "He's not going to do anything. I assure you."

Shero looked over at the digimon. Kahn did not even know him. But he was acting like he had known him for years. Yet... it did not seem to Shero that that was out of place. "I won't say anything," the boy said. "Really."

"Hmm..." Reks was still suspicious.

"Should we take a vote, then?" the blue striped Hoshi asked. "I'm all for it if Kahn is."

"As am I," Hisake said. "He doesn't look like a bad guy."

"And of course I am," Kahn chimed in.

Reks grumbled something under his breath. "Fine," he finally said. "He can stay here."

"Yes!" Kahn said. Hoshi and Hisake held up their claws towards the grey digimon. Kahn gave them both high fives.

Shero was a bit puzzled by the gesture, but did not worry too much about it. He just turned to Reks and asked, "What were you guys going to talk about?"

"Well, boy," Reks stated. He sat leaned back in his chair. "We are going to rob a museum."

"A... Museum?"

"Not a pretty sight, is it?" Dragon asked.

"Pardon, Dragon?" one of his male bodyguards, a blonde headed one, asked.

"The city." They were standing on a hill just a mile away from East City. A two-story tall wall surrounded the city, protecting it from outside threats and keeping the inhabitants inside. Most digimon residents of East City were not allowed to leave except when going to work outside the city limits. The wall had gates on four ends of the city, with guards checking digimon identification. Dragon could see many buildings sprouting above the wall here and there.

To his left, Dragon could see a group of nearby digimon with a few agents. Two Drimogimon and three or four Gazimon were leveling some ground outside the city, readying it for a building to be built. The two Drimogimon dug at the high ground and the Gazimon patted the ground down to keep it level. They would be there all day, even when the agents changed shifts.

"This is why the digimon are unhappy. Over the past century, they've had to change lifestyles. They can't decide their own path anymore. DigiCorp decides it for them."

His bodyguards remained silent.

Dragon pulled off his black glasses and looked at the environment with his bare eyes. The red-headed female guard stepped forward, standing beside him. He looked over at her.

"Wouldn't you hate to live like this, Cale?"

She looked over at him, seeing his blue eyes. She seemed speechless at first. There was something about those eyes that intrigued her. It was like she had seen those eyes before. But this was the first time any of his bodyguards had seen the new sovereign with his glasses off. Dragon looked away and put the sunglasses back on, hiding his eyes. After he did so, all was normal.

"Humans live this way, don't they?" Cale asked, regaining her composure.

"We don't generally have our occupations chosen for us, Cale. My decision to work with DigiCorp was my own. These digimon have to do what they are told in order to survive on their own, now. Either that or they live in the savage lands and risk being deleted by digimon much stronger than they are." A few areas around the world are lands unaffiliated with DigiCorp. These lands are home to savage digimon. Since the laws of DigiCorp have no say in those lands, digimon fight for their lives and become stronger with each passing day. An average digimon grown in a DigiCorp city would not make it a day in those lands.

"But what is wrong with working for DigiCorp?" the blonde haired bodyguard asked.

"The previous Dragons have led you three astray, have they? Digimon are cheap workers. They are given virtually no money because all they really need is food. And if you work for DigiCorp, you are granted food and housing. But there are no laws in the Digital World work place like back home in the Real World. Some jobs are brutal, tough, and dangerous."

"I don't think it would be too bad, sovereign," the other bodyguard stated, a man with grey hair despite appearing somewhere in his twenties or thirties. "They work and they are paid with food and housing. Not to mention protection. Sure some jobs can be tough. And some can be dangerous. But the only thing a digimon can blame is the misfortune of being born as a specific species suitable for the job."

The other two guards were a bit shocked by his short speech. The former Dragon would have scolded the bodyguard for arguing with him.

But the current Dragon just smiled. "Good point, Simon." He turned his back to his guards, looking back towards the city. "But who are we to decide all of this? We are not kings and we are definitely not gods. Just business men." Dragon was not speaking for his bodyguards, just for the sovereign. In the end, all the sovereign were were just business men who happened to have control of an entire world full of cheap workers. And they were cheap only because of DigiCorp's involvement. "Humans have no business here, Simon. Yet here we are."

"It's been this way for years," Simon said. "And it's not going to change anytime soon."

"Oh, what makes you think I was going to change that? I couldn't even if I tried, Simon. We are all wrapped inside the system, aren't we?" The smile left the sovereign's lips as he walked along the road to the city, his bodyguards in tow.

Pence got up at eight o'clock sharp, despite going to sleep pretty late in anticipation to see his digimon friends again. He had already repacked his backpack with more food the previous night so that his dad would not ask what he was up to.

After getting dressed and putting his backpack on, he went into the living room and picked up the phone, dialing Tatsuya's number.

After a couple rings someone answered. "Hello?"

"Miss Hayashi?"

There was a giggle on the other end. "I don't sound that old, do I?"

"Oh... Sorry Miyuki. It's Pence."

"I figured. It did sound like you. And just Miyu is fine, of course. Do you wanna talk to Tats?"

"Oh uh... Yeah of course." She recognizes my voice?

"Ha. And you expected him to be awake?" bureaucratic

"Well could you wake him and tell him to meet me?"

"I can try, but he is a deep sleeper."

"Just wake him up somehow, okay?"

"Oh you shouldn't say that to me. I have some very creative ways of waking him up." Pence couldn't see her, but he could tell there was a smile curling across her face. It was a sister's job to make her little brother miserable. He was sure she knew several ways of waking a deep sleeper like Tatsuya up.

He felt a little bad about it, but the digimon needed them. "Do whatever it takes, Miyu. I'll, uh... see ya later?"

"Of course, Pence. Later." She hung up, probably on her way to Tatsuya's room. He placed the phone back down and made sure he had his cell phone in his backpack just in case. Then he set out to the garage.

Pence found the fifth floor of the garage nearly empty. Most of the cars were gone as they were needed for the residents to go to work. He saw Daichi hovering left and right beside Tatsuya's dad's car, pacing in place. He almost cursed the digimon right there for staying in plain sight.

"Dai!" The gear-shaped digimon turned towards him.

"Pence!" He looked nervous. "Uh... Hi."

"What's wrong? Where's Saru?"

"No where!" A voice came from underneath the car. She was obviously trying to hide and apparently thought that no one would question whose voice spoke up from under the car.

"We have a problem..." Dai stated, looking down.

"What is it?" Pence asked, approaching the car and putting his hand on the unlocked door. "Why aren't you in here?"

"Well...." Dai sighed as Pence opened the door and started coughing.

"Ugh... what is that smell?" He looked inside and saw a pinkish material curled up like the top of a short, fat ice cream cone... Or like a turd. "What the hell?"

"Saru.... couldn't hold it."

"It was an accident!" The voice from under the car again.

"It's... It's okay Saru." He closed the door and sat down beside the car. He pulled his phone out and dialed Tatsuya's cell phone. He was probably on his way by now.

"Hello?"

"Tats! Uh, where are you?"

"On my way to the garage. Why?"

"Well... could you go back to your house and get some cleaning supplies? And... an air freshener?"

"Why....?"

"Sar--"

"Shh!" Saru hissed.

"Uh, someone made a mess in your dad's car."

"I doubt he'll care about a few crumbs on the seat," Tatsuya said.

"No, I mean someone made a mess."

"Oh! Oh... Damn. Okay I'll be there."

"Now what?" Daichi asked.

"Now we wait... So, anyone up for some snacks?" Just as Pence was pulling his pack off his shoulders, Saru jumped from under the car and grabbed the bag, zipping it open immediately.

"Yay! I'm starved!" She began opening each bag and box of snacks, even when she did not eat anything from them. Daichi joined in, eating what he could grab before Saru snatched it.

"Well... I guess she is okay, now," Pence thought aloud.

"Of course," Daichi stated. "She has food."

After some time, Tatsuya walked up to the group, carrying a backpack presumably full of cleaning materials. The top of his tee shirt was wet and his hair was pretty damp. "What happened to you?" Pence asked.

"Miyuki woke me up..."

When Saru heard Tatsuya's voice, she jumped back under the car.

"It's okay Saru!" Pence said, reaching under the car for her. She then proceeded to bite his hand. "Ow!" he yelped, pulling his hand back.

"Yeah, it's alright, buddy," Tatsuya said. "We all have our... accidents."

She peaked her head from under the car. "Really?"

Tatsuya smiled. "Of course."

"Okay!" She ran out from under the car and jumped up, latching her arms around Tatsuya.

"Saru.... You're squeezing me..." Not only that, but he was having trouble holding the digimon up.

"Oh! Sorry!" She jumped back down and hugged his leg instead.

"She is a weird one," Pence said. "Anyway, let's get to cleaning. Be sure to breathe through your mouth, Tats." He opened the door.

"Oh God!"

"I said breathe through your mouth."

"Yeah, but I didn't think it'd be that bad!"

Saru drooped her head down and blushed. Tatsuya patted her on the head. "It's okay, Saru. Really. We'll clean it up."

"Yay!" She smiled up at him and clinged to his leg again.

He tried moving his leg forward with her clinging to him, to no avail. "Uh... Saru... I can't move with you on my leg like that."

"Oh.. Sorry." She let go. And the four friends got to work cleaning the back seat.

"How long do I have to stay at Grandma's?" Shou asked. He pulled himself up from the back seat of the car to position his head between the two front seats in order to talk to his dad. Normally, he would have asked to sit in the front seat beside his dad, but Akira was hiding in the trunk of the car and Shou wanted to be as close as he could to his new friend.

"Just a few days. They have me working nearly non stop until Thursday. And I don't want to leave you home alone."

You work all the time anyway, Shou thought. And I have Akira to protect me at night when you're not there. Not that you know that...

"Shou? Don't worry. It won't be long, you'll see."

"If you say so, Daddy."

His dad was leaning back in the driver's seat, reclining. He let the auto-drive take them to his mom's house. Shou had asked his dad once why you have to get a license to drive a car if most people just set it to auto-drive anyway. He said that sometimes, especially in emergencies, you may want to manually drive. That and if you were in a hurry, it was better to drive yourself since auto-drive follows the speed limit.

Their car was on the top-tier highway leading into Odaiba. Due to the massive amount of cars on the road, many big cities adopted the multi-floored highway system around the world. A few of the highways passing through Odaiba had three tiers, one stacked on top of each other. There was enough space between them to let sunlight in to the bottom two roads, but generally the buildings got in the way of the sun. So lights were installed on the bottom of the top and middle floor to give the middle and bottom roads enough light.

Shou looked out the window and saw a nearby building with the word "DigiCorp" written across it. Akira came from around here when he traveled to the Human World.

Even through sound dampeners in the car and the distance between the highway in the building, Shou could still hear what sounded vaguely like an explosion. A beam of blue energy shot out from one of the buildings surrounding the DigiCorp HQ. And the building happened to be the closest one to the car Shou and his dad were in, just a few miles away.

"What the hell was that?" Shou's dad leaned out of his seat and looked towards the building. The beam of energy dissipated before it could do any more damage. But it left a huge hole on the side of the building. Out of the hole came three blue dragon digimon with red wings and skull-like heads, a trio of Airdramon. A black and grey four-legged figure jumped out of the hole as well, landing on the top tier highway a few miles ahead of them. The horned Monochromon started running down the "wrong side of the road," heading straight to their location.

"Shit!" Shou's dad shouted. "Buckle up." They put their seat belts on and he took it out of automatic, taking control of the car.

"What are we doing? We can't drive straight towards them," Shou said. He was a bit worried. How did the digimon get here?

"I know, son," his dad said. The next ramp down to the second-tier was just a mile away. If he could make it there before the Monochromon got to them...

The car sped down the highway, passing by the other vehicles on the road. Ahead of them, the Monochromon was causing chaos, knocking into cars as he rammed forward like a stampeding rhino. Nothing could stop him. Shou winced as he saw one car knocked clean off of the highway, falling to the ground eighty feet below them.

The three Airdramon had passengers on them. Two of them had quite a few digimon on their backs. The other only had one small digimon. It was far away, but Shou could almost make it out. "Is that..."

"Shou," Akira whispered through the back seat. "What's going on?"

"No... That's a MetalMamemon!" Shou shouted.

"A what?" his dad asked, hardly paying attention. He was trying not to wreck the car.

Shou knew that species because it was constantly on the news. One of the head generals of Sincerity, Rizer, belonged to the MetalMamemon species. And there was no doubt in Shou's mind that this digimon and the general were the same individual. They had found their way to the Human World, most likely using one of DigiCorp's portal stations.

"Sincerity!" Akira yelled. "Let me out, Shou!"

"Did you say something?" his dad asked. They were almost there. But the Monochromon was gaining fast.

I can't let him out, Shou thought. Akira wouldn't stand a chance against him. Or would he? Shou had never seen Akira fight. He was not even sure if he could fight at all. But that Monochromon out there was a champion. And a rookie was at a major disadvantage.

They were almost to the turn off for the ramp when the monster jumped upwards, landing right in front of them. "Oh hell!" yelled his dad as he turned the wheel, trying not to hit the beast. The car spun around 180 degrees and skidded slightly passed the digimon against the middle median railing of the highway. The Monochromon's tail slammed against the top of the car, holding it in place.

Shou's dad could not move the car. The tail was pressing down hard on them. The monster turned around and jumped forward, his front two feet landing on the hood of the car. Shou yelled but his dad remained as calm as he could. He had to be strong for his son.

"Let me out, Shou! Now!"

"Humans everywhere!" the beast yelled as he stared into the car, showing his sharp teeth.

"Dad! Open the trunk!"

"What?"

There was no time for Shou to explain. He pulled his seat belt off, jumped forward between the front seats, and pressed the trunk release button.

"Son! Get back!" His dad pushed him to the back of the car so that he landed against the cushion of the seats. From his peripheral vision, his dad saw a red and blue blur jumping from the trunk when he turned to make sure Shou was okay. Then he saw a stream of blue electricity shoot through the air and hit the side of the Monochromon.

The dinosaur digimon turned his head towards the Elecmon and pulled himself off the hood of the car. This new digimon proved a slightly bigger threat than two trapped humans.

"Who is that? Did he come from our trunk?" Shou's dad was utterly confused.

But Shou just looked out the window, trying to find where his friend was. He saw the electricity streak through the air, but he still couldn't locate the little digimon. "Be careful, Akira..."

Then he saw something shining on the floor of the car. Whatever it was, it must popped out of one of the seat compartments during the crash because Shou knew it was not on the floor before this chaos started. But who put it there in the first place? And what was it?

He picked it up. It was about two inches long and an inch wide. It's frame was vaguely rectangular shaped, with a curved bottom and a straight top. It had a V that began from the middle of the device and the sides of it sprouted outwards a little from the sides of the device. Inside the V itself was a triangular screen. The frame was colored grey while the V was colored brown. Under the V were five buttons. Three of them consisted of two brown half circles, one on top and one on bottom, with a third, grey button in the middle of the half circles. The other two buttons were located on either side of the first three buttons and were skinny rectangles going up and down. They, too, were colored brown. A brown clip hung from the bottom of the device and on the top was a small, squarish prong jutting out that appeared like it could connect to other prongs.

"What is this thing?" The screen was what was glowing. When he pressed a random button, the middle circle one, the shining stopped. The white screen was replaced with a black one with the words "D-Vice" sprawled across it in white.

Author's Note:

Time to discuss Digimon names a bit. If you noticed, most digimon have Japanese names, like Akira and Saru (not really a name, but it does mean monkey :P). But others have different names, like Enry and Rizer. This is because, in my hypothetical future, digimon have adapted naming after mass exposure to humans (then again, I always assumed that digimon would have names anyway. And that the reason they didn't in the show was just because of lazy writers... .). Generally, a digimon names itself as it doesn't have any true parents to name it. Sometimes they take common or even obscure Japanese or English names, like Akira or Enry (which is really just a self-made variant of "Henry," a common English name) and others have names they may think are cool, like Saru or Rizer.

Adventure 0X Files

Shero

Partner: Kahn, a grey Agumon.

Shero is an orphan who has lived in East City for as long as he can remember. He remembers trying to look for his parents, but stopped when he couldn't find them. And realized that his parents abandoning was a possibility. It wasn't really that rare. In the Digital World, DigiCorp taxes families based on their family size when it came to housing. He thought maybe he wasn't wanted and was thrown out to skip on bills. He lived day by day by stealing his food and taking shelter in alleyways.

I know there aren't any terms. I didn't see any I needed to put down here. But then again I wasn't really looking (I forgot). If I find any next time I read I'll put some down.

Chapter 3 Preview: Danger has come to Odaiba as a radical group from Sincerity terrorizes the city. Will this be what awakens the new digidestined and brings them together? Also, Shero, Kahn, and co. steal from a museum.

(I know it's been a bit slow introducing all the characters and everything. But it's time for some true, digimon on digimon action (no, not that kind of action, you perverts). This next chapter shall be a very fun one to write :P. Until next time, digifans (ridiculously lame pun .)! Bye!)