It was late in the night. Mimi was sleeping in her bedroom (which was still ready for her, all the time, even if she had been living mostly in the United States those days).
Heartmon was lying in an old dog's basket. This basket has once been bought by Mimi's parents as well, when she told them she would like to own a dog. That had been shortly before she went to the summer camp...
But then she found herself in the Digital World and met Palmon. Afterwards, she could never think of any more loveable companion than her Digimon partner, so she refused to own a dog. But her parents had still kept the basket.
It was a warm summer's night, so Mimi had left her window open. A pleasant breeze blew across the room and made the curtains wave through the air.
Suddenly, Heartmon's ears perked up. He blinked and then sleepily sat up in his little bed. After rubbing his eyes, he climbed out of the basket and hopped up on the window sill.
"Strange..." he murmured. "Something out there... is calling for me."
He already wanted to climb out of the window, but he hesitated and looked back at the sleeping form of Mimi. She had been so nice to him... wouldn't she be worried about him?
But then, he once again heard that calling and couldn't help himself: He jumped out of the window. Upon touching the ground in front of the house, he bounced upwards like a rubber ball and jumped across the street.
Bounding over streets, roofs and backyards, Heartmon followed the calling that echoed in the middle of his heart...
Purring in her sleep, Gatomon wiped her ears with her large paws and licked her lips. She was dreaming her favorite dream, about a large platter with tuna.
She just wanted to raise one of the delicious morsels to her mouth, when the tuna fish suddenly started beeping.
The loud ringing of Kari's D-Terminal woke Gatomon abruptly. "Whazza matter?" she mumbled. "Kari, your D-Terminal is cranky..."
Being woken up by Gatomon and the tedious beeping as well, Kari swung her legs out of bed and sleepily shuffled over to her desk, where the terminal was lying.
While she opened it, Tai sat up in his own bed and rubbed his eyes. "What's up, Kari? Who's sending you a message, that late in the night...?"
"Dunno..." Kari mumbled. "Oh, it's just Mimi... she sent me a mail... Heartmon is gone... WHAT?"
Tai yelped and nearly hit his head on the wall. His sister's shrill shriek was more than enough to wake up the dead. "What, what happened?"
"Mimi writes that Heartmon has climbed out of her window while she was sleeping. Now he's somewhere out there, in a city he doesn't know. Tai, she's afraid that something might happen to him... remember those monsters we fought yesterday."
"You have to call the others, quick!" Tai shouted. "Damn, I wish Agumon was here... I can't really help you against those monsters. But wait, I'm coming anyway." He jumped out of bed and just wanted to climb into his pants, but Kari stopped him.
"Don't panic, Tai, Mimi has already informed Davis and T.K.. Davis will inform Ken, and T.K. Yolei and Cody. We'll take care of that, big brother, don't you worry. Go back to bed, you need your beauty sleep."
"Well, okay, if you say so... HEY!"
She giggled as she put on her shoes. "Gotcha, Tai! Don't worry, we can handle this. It's just one little Digimon, and he can't have gone far. See you later... Gatomon, c'mon!"
"Kari!" T.K. waved. "Over here!"
"Hey guys!" Kari waved back to her friends. "Already find a clue?"
"Not until now," Veemon shook his head. "Yolei, Ken and Cody are searching in the business district. We should check..."
"Hey!" Patamon's voice suddenly came from above. "I saw him. He's heading for Odaiba!"
"Odaiba?" Davis gasped. "What's he doing out there?"
"We just have to find out," Kari said. "Davis, you know what to do."
"Right," the goggle-wearing boy nodded and pulled out his D-3 Digivice. "Digi-Armor Energize!"
"VEEMON ARMOR DIGIVOLVE TO... RAIDRAMON, STORM OF FRIENDSHIP!"
"Get on board," the sleek, four-legged reptile with the black armor said, and Davis, Kari, T.K. and Gatomon jumped on his back.
Running just like greased lightning, Raidramon carried the three Digidestined towards Odaiba, while Kari informed the others over her D-Terminal.
Shortly after Raidramon had arrived in Odaiba, his riders could see Halsemon flying across the night sky, and on his back, Yolei, Cody, Ken and Armadillomon were sitting. Stingmon was flying next to them.
"Already found him?" Yolei shouted.
"Not yet!" T.K. shouted back.
"Hey, take a look up ahead!" Halsemon suddenly shouted.
They could see a shining flash of pink light that was bounding over the buildings like a rubber ball.
"Maybe that's Heartmon," Davis assumed. "Raidramon, go faster!"
"I'm on it!" Raidramon growled and sped up. The other Digimon followed him.
Finally, they found Heartmon. He was standing in front of a big building in the middle of Odaiba. The pink heart on his stomach was shining like a bright star.
Kari looked at the building. "That tower..." she suddenly gasped. "I recognize that building. Here, we fought Myotismon for the first time."
"Yes..." Gatomon replied with mixed feelings. "It was here where I digivolved into Angewomon for the first time... and where Wizardmon died."
They had almost reached their new friend. Heartmon was just standing there, looking up at the tower with a strange expression on his face.
"Heartmon!" Cody shouted.
But just before they reached him, they appeared, out of nowhere... rising out of the ground, or appearing in strange clouds of darkness.
Halsemon landed, and the Digidestined jumped off their mounts.
"Those are the same monsters we fought yesterday," Stingmon said.
Ken grimaced and clutched his heart. "Yes... they're the same... they're still calling out for me."
"Strange," Yolei muttered and cleared her ear with an index finger. "I can't hear anything."
"Heartless..." Ken grumbled. "What do you want?"
"Be careful," Armadillomon shouted. "Here they come!"
Three voices shouted as one: "Digi-Armor Energize!"
"ARMADILLOMONMON ARMOR DIGIVOLVE TO... DIGMON, DRILL OF KNOWLEDGE!"
"PATAMON ARMOR DIGIVOLVE TO... PEGASUSMON, FLYING HOPE!"
"GATOMON ARMOR DIGIVOLVE TO... NEFERTIMON, ANGEL OF LIGHT!"
The Heartless didn't seem very impressed by the changed appearance of the Digimon. They attacked from all sides at once. Several of them wore a strange armor, but they didn't look much more intimidating than their shadowy brethren.
Using their attacks, the Digimon started to fight their enemies.
"Star Shower!"
"Rosetta Stone!"
"Thunder Blast!"
"Gold Rush!"
"Tempest Wing!"
"Spiking Strike!"
One after another, the Heartless fell under the strength of their opponents.
"We're gonna win!" Davis cheered.
Meanwhile, Kari was looking over to where Heartmon was standing. He was still staring up at the tower, not even noticing the battle nearby. Luckily, the Heartless seemed to ignore him, as they all seemed to focus solely on Ken.
"Heartmon?"
"Keyhole of the world," Heartmon murmured. "Are you there?"
And suddenly, a blinding light streamed out of the building's walls. On its side, a giant keyhole that looked like it was made of light suddenly appeared, and Heartmon was fixated on it.
"The Keyhole..." Heartmon muttered. "This is where the Master of the Keyblade will come to, right? Here I can meet him... Then, I can back home... to Daddy!"
'What's wrong with him?' Kari thought and clutched the key chain that she had been carrying in her pocket. 'Does that have to do anything with this?'
"Hey, what's that strange keyhole up there?" Yolei wondered.
"We can worry about that later," Davis shouted. "After we win!"
And then, the final Heartless fell under an attack of Raidramon: "Blue Thunder!"
But then, Kari gasped. "Look!" She gestured up to the top of the tower.
It was a dark silhouette, with wings as dark as the night.
For a horrible moment, Kari believed it was Myotismon who had yet again risen from the dead. But it was something else... A giant made of darkness, with tiny wings on his broad shoulders, gorilla-like arms and a heart-shaped hole in the middle of his body.
Heartmon apparently saw the giant shadow as well, as he yelped in surprise and jumped back. He clutched the heart symbol on his own belly. "Go away, Darkside!" he yelled. "This is my heart! Go get your own!"
"Quick, we have to help him," T.K. shouted, and everyone rushed to Heartmon's side, just as the giant Heartless called Darkside came jumping down from the tower. Only Ken yelped, as he once again felt a sharp pain in his own heart.
"Ken, what's wrong?" Stingmon asked in worry.
"The darkness..." Ken whispered. "The darkness that surrounds him... it is so strong! He IS darkness..."
Darkside looked down at the tiny children and the strange animals that were standing at their sides. His gaze was fixated on Heartmon... unlike his lower henchmen, he was powerful enough to concentrate on his real mission.
But then, he felt a powerful heart behind him. The heart of this world...
Like all Heartless, his first impulse was to turn around and to consume that heart. But he also knew his orders. For a while, instinct and common sense waged war inside of his head.
The instinct won.
Darkside twirled around like a tornado of shadows, and leapt up the building.
"NO!" Heartmon shouted. "Leave the heart of this world alone!"
While the Digidestined didn't understand what their little friend meant, they realized that it must be very bad if that monster would reach the shiny keyhole up there.
"GO! STOP HIM!" they told their Digimon partners.
The Digimon shot out their attacks, and one or two even hit Darkside, as he was clinging to the tower like King Kong to the Empire State Building... but that wouldn't stop him.
"Kari! The Key of Light!" Heartmon suddenly said.
Kari pulled the key chain out of her pocket. "Wh-what do we need that for now?"
"Open a pathway of light! That will banish him!"
"But how?"
"Trust me! You can do it!"
Kari believed the words of the small Digimon. She grasped the pendant and pointed the tiny key at Darkside.
Inside her heart, she felt that the powers of the light were resting inside of her... she just had to unlock them... using that key.
In a commanding voice, she shouted: "Pathway of Light! Open up!"
A thin beam of light got projected from the tiny key and created a shimmering oval of light in the air, right above the assembled children and Digimon.
Darkside got distracted from the keyhole and shielded his face as suddenly, the shining portal began sending out beams of light. He felt a strong suction that pulled him away from the tower. He tried grasping it with his broad hands, but they missed, and his dark body vanished inside the light.
Now that their enemy was defeated, Kari tried to close the pathway again, but found it impossible to do.
"What's happening?" she shouted. "Why doesn't it close?"
"Similar to a Corridor of Darkness, a Pathway of Light is created to travel between worlds," Heartmon said. "And once activated, you have to use that gate to travel, that's all I know."
"Kari, what did you do?" Yolei yelled. "Well, whatever it was, you can stop now, the monster is gone."
"Hold on everybody!" Digmon shouted as he crouched down and tried shielding Cody from the suction.
But it was too late. Heartmon was right... the pathway has been activated, and unlike a Corridor of Darkness, it would only close after it has been used by the person who has opened it.
Only seconds later, the suction became too strong for even the powerful Digimon to hold on to the ground, and everyone got sucked into the pathway, Heartmon as well.
In a final flash of light, the pathway collapsed and vanished, leaving no visible trace of the Digidestined or their Digimon...
At the side of the big building, the keyhole shimmered one last time, then it vanished as well.
"Ooooh... now what was that?" Kari groaned, as she slowly opened her eyes.
"Kari!" the enthusiastic voice of her Digimon partner shouted. "Finally, you're awake, sleepyhead."
Kari sat up in the bed she was lying in. It was a very big bed, with silky sheets and ornamented bedposts. It was standing in a big bedroom with marble walls that had a black-and-white, checkered pattern on them. Various paintings hung on the walls, and various pieces of furniture were standing around, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe and some chairs. Rays of light shone through a small window.
Gatomon stood next to the bed and smiled. "I'm glad you're awake. Seems that you knocked your head on something when we landed."
"Landed?" Kari tried visualizing what had happened before. They had fought those shadows... the giant one headed for that keyhole... and then...
"Oh, right," she said. "I opened a Gateway of Light..."
"Is that what it's called? I only know that after it got rid of the monster, it sucked us all in. Did you do that with that keychain of yours?"
The keychain! Kari's hands reached for her pockets, but then she realized that she was wearing something different from her usual clothes.
Sure, pink and white still were the prominent colors, but the pants and shirt she was wearing somehow were shaped as if she was dressed in some sort of... harness, even if it was a harness of cloth. Some belts and straps were holding the garments in place. She also couldn't help but notice the somehow big shoes and the numerous zippers on her new clothes.
"How... Who gave me new clothes?"
"No one," Gatomon said. "They changed shape as soon as we left that big portal of light. Heartmon said that it happened because your clothes 'adapted' to the new world we entered."
"A new world? Gatomon, where are we exactly? And what happened after we went through that gate?"
Gatomon was going to answer, but then, the door opened and someone entered.
It was a very small someone, with a stubby nose and big, round ears. He was wearing garments that somehow looked similar to her own, new ones. He also had a thin tail.
He also looked like a child-sized, humanoid mouse.
"Ah, you're finally awake I see," a somewhat squeaky voice exclaimed. "You sure gave me and my guests quite the surprise when you appeared in the middle of our festival. Your little friend with the heart on his tummy has explained to us where you came from."
"Heartmon?" Kari asked and swung her legs out of the bed. "Is he all right? Where are we, anyway? And who are you?"
The bipedal mouse waved his arms to calm her down. "Now, now. Everything's fine. He is in another room, where he's talking to some of my guests. And to answer your other questions: You are in the guest quarters of Castle Disney. And I am the king of this castle, King Mickey Mouse."
"Aw, c'mon, Davis, it's not that bad."
"What do you know? You never changed out of the blue like this before. I mean, sure you did, but that's something else. I mean, look at me: I'm standing on four, furry paws. I have a TAIL!"
Veemon snickered while looking at the animal his partner had become. Sure, he had kept his hairstyle and goggles, but...
"Will you feel better if I tell you that those spots suit you?"
"That's not funny, Veemon," the leopard cub growled.
He groaned. "This is a mess. We don't know where we are, the others are nowhere to be seen, I'm walking around on four legs and I'm hungry as well."
"Hey, maybe the others are somewhere close by. We won't accomplish anything by just sitting here, you know?"
"I guess you're right," Davis sighed and rose to his four legs. He then looked around. "You know, this scenery really doesn't make me feel comfortable around here."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Veemon nodded.
It was a gloomy landscape, filled with rocks and gnarled trees that looked like they would never grow any leaves. Marshes and mires were visible through the misty fog that was covering the land like a shroud.
Davis shuddered. "I wouldn't want to know just what kind of creatures live in a land like this," he muttered.
"Maybe the scary, furry kind of beasts, that jump out of the mist to scare you out of your wits," Veemon said with a chuckle.
"S-stop it, Veemon."
"Yeah, and once they have cornered you, they will pounce on you and use their shiny teeth to..."
"GRRRRAAAARRRRR!" A dark shadow came jumping out of nowhere and landed on a big boulder in front of them.
"WHAAAAAAH!" Davis and Veemon yelped. "A MONSTER!"
But it was no monster that was crouching on the boulder, with leery eyes, a furry tuft of hair on his head and a waving tail behind him.
It was a lion cub, with dark brown fur.
Davis let out a sigh of relief. "You really gave me a scare there, little guy. I almost believed you were..."
"What are you doing here?" the lion asked in a threatening tone of voice. "Since when do leopards hunt within the borders of the Outlands?"
That made Davis gulp down the words he was going to say. He stared into the lion's yellow eyes and said: "You can talk..."
"What's that supposed to mean?" the lion asked him in an alienated voice. "Do they tell you in the Pride Lands that we Outlanders are savage beasts that can't even talk? Yeah, that's just like them..."
Davis shook his furry head. "Look... I'm sorry I said that, okay? But can you tell us where we are? We are kinda lost..."
"Yes," Veemon nodded. "We are looking for our friends."
The lion seemed to have noticed the blue little dragon only just by now. "What are you supposed to be?" he snorted. "Some lizard mixed with a meerkat?"
He chuckled and jumped down from the boulder. "You two really must be some dim-witted rookies if you don't even know about the Outlands."
"Well, I am a Rookie, but..."
"Veemon, let me take care of this, okay?" Davis said. "Look, um... what's your name again?"
"Call me Kovu," the lion replied in his gruff voice.
"Okay, Kovu, I am Davis and that's Veemon. Now, can you show us the way out of here or not?"
"Maaaaybe I could," Kovu grinned and looked at his forepaws with a sneer. "But... what's in it for me?"
Davis sighed. He really didn't like that lion very much...
"Just ssstare into my eyes and everything will turn out just fine," the giant snake hissed while its head circled around Yolei.
Yolei gulped. "No, thanks. I don't know how I can hear you talk, and I really don't wanna know. I'm just searching for a way out of here..."
"Oh, there isss one."
"Oh, really now?"
The enormous python nodded while grinning and looked at her with those strange eyes. "Right into my mouth and through my stomach, my dear."
Yolei gulped as she tried freeing herself from the many coils of the snake's body. "That doesn't sound too pleasurable, thank you. I just wanna get off this tree..."
"Would old Kaa ever lie to you," the snake almost purred in its soothing voice. "Trust in me, just in me, shut your eyes and trust in me. You can sleep safe and sound, knowing I'm around."
Yolei tried very hard to look away from the swirling pupils of the python, but found herself unable to do so. And somehow, she suddenly felt very tired...
"Slip into silent slumber, sail on a silver mist," Kaa continued his rhythmic singing. "Slowly and surely your senses will cease to resist."
Yolei's eyes closed themselves, as she fell into a deep slumber, caused by Kaa's hypnotic voice and dancing. Slowly, the curls of the snake wrapped themselves around her until only her head was visible.
"Trust in me, just in me, close your eyes and trust in me."
Having ascertained that his victim was asleep, Kaa chuckled to himself. That was some easy prey. It would be very tasty, too. It had been such a long time since he had enjoyed the taste of a fresh human...
