Last time on Digimon: Rangers, Matt and Blaze ran into a thief name Kosokutemon, who literally stole the clothes off Matt's back! Matt and Blaze chased the digimon into a building, which turned out to be a trap set by Mercurymon. Agumon got switched out by a different Agumon, who then tried to pretend to be Blaze's Agumon. Blaze managed to identify friend from fake though, and Agumon defeated him! Then, Agumon managed to use the datastream from the evil Agumon to Digivolve, but somehow his Digivolution was altered by Mercurymon's trap, causing him to Digivolve into Agunimon instead of Greymon. The group defeated Mercurymon, and Matthew got his stuff back, unknowing that his clothes were a trap itself thanks to Mercurymon. Talk about a fashion disaster!

As the group traveled through the forest, Max could not help but keep thinking about Matt. Matt was prone to wander and explode and adventure, but he was in serious danger here. Why cant he see he needs to be careful and stay close? Is he just that blind to danger? I have to keep him safe, but he refuses to make it any easier for me in any possible way.

"Hello? Are you asleep?" Guilmon asked as they kepted walking. "You were just staring ahead, and you weren't responding. Did I wake you up? Did you manage to walk and sleep at the same time?"

"No, I was just deep in thought is all" Max told him.

"Oh" Guilmon replied. "What does that mean?"

"Its a long story" Max told him.


Hawkmon and Sally watched as Max and Guilmon continued to talk. Actually, it was mostly Max explaining what deep thought was to Guilmon.

"Why the long face" Sally asked Hawkmon.

"Just worried, is all" Hawkmon mentioned.

"About what?" Sally asked.

"I have never heard anything close to Digimon using humans for their needs. For one to do what they did to Matt, and then to hack the Digital Bridge just to make sure he gets to the Digital World and keep him here...we have a target on our backs. And Matthew, if his ability was used for evil, or taken by someone evil, the damage...I am just worried about what might happen".

"He is our friend though" Sally told her.

"I know, but even friends can be dangerous. Max can only see the danger others pose to Matt, but he is blind to the danger Matthew poses to others" Hawkmon told her. "I am not saying anything drastic. I am just saying that a power like the one he has is dangerous, and great care should be taken with it".

Sally wasnt sure what to say to that, so they decided to keep moving. The rest of the day went by rather peacefully, and once the sun started to set they decided to set up camp. Max took another look at the map.

"It seems like we are about a few days away from wherever this map leads. Hopefully a way out of here" Max commented.

"I don't know. I am starting to like it here!" Matt mentioned. "No rules, no school! Just adventure and excitement! Besides, we are like superheroes! We have to help people!"

"Matt" Maxwell was not smiling. "No, its too dangerous for you".

"Is not!" Matt argued.

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"This is not a debate. I am taking you home" Max told him.

"Your not the boss of me!" Matt yelled at him.

"Calm it, both of you!" Sally yelled at them. "Can you both stop argueing for a second? We are tired, so how about we get some rest before we start fighting each other?"

"Fine" they both said, Matthew sleeping a good distance away from Max.

After they were all asleep, Hawkmon found herself waking up hearing a strange noise. Sally seemed to have been woken up by it as well. As they went to investigate, they heard some voices coming from behind a tree. They peeked out from behind it, they saw some kid with a Terriermon. However, the kid and the Terriermon turned around and spotted them. "Oh, hi. We wake you up?"

"Who are you!" Hawkmon quietly demanded. "Are you following us?"

"Not entirely" the kid mentioned. "We are looking for something. Its complicated, hard to explain. And apparently, it is somewhere in this area".

That is when they heard a strange noise coming back from the campsite. They ran back, only to see that everyone was still asleep, but all the light seemed to have been sucked out. That is when they saw a strange digimon in the darkness, before seeminly disappearing into the black.

"Its not friendly" the kid mentioned, taking out his Digivice. "Name is Jack, by the way".

"Sally. And this is Hawkmon" Sally told him as she tried to wake up the others. "They wont wake".

"They are stuck in a dream state. Very few Digimon hold this power" Jack told her.

"And fewer work together!" a voice announced. DarkCalumon and NightTerrormon jumped out, prepared for battle. "We won't give you what you want!"

"Then I will have to take it from you!" Jack told them. Sally took out her Digivice, and scanned the Digimon.

"DarkCalumon and NightTerrormon, both of them Artificial Digimon, a Corrupted Holy and Dark Beast Digimon. Looks like DarkCalumon's Shadow Dream's attack can keep people locked in slumber, and so can NightTerrormon's Terrorscape. Any single ability could be broken, but both abilities on already sleeping targets is inesccapable from the inside!"

"We have to save them!" Terriermon announced.

"Don't worry, we have this" Sally mentioned. "Ready Hawkmon?"

"Ready!"

====Datastream Manipulation! Light Cannons and Armor!====

Suddenly, both Sally and Hawkmon were armored, and holding light cannons, capable of shooting powerful beams of light that are especially effective against corrupt and dark based Digimon.

"Allow me and Terry to give some assist then" Jack told her. "Now Terry!"

====Jack and Terriermon, Power of Hope activate! Energize!====

What the...there are no more Digimon Rangers apparently, so what power is that? Sally wondered. Hawkmon snapped her out of it though. "We need to defeat them and free our friends!"

"You think a couple of rookies can beat us!" DarkCalumon asked. "You will never get it!"

"Oh yeah? Lets show them what we can do Hawkmon!" Sally yelled. She and Hawkmon fired their light cannons at them, which definently seemed to do damage. Meanwhile, Jack and Terriermon flanked them, firing their own light attacks. However, NightTerrormon managed to directly hit Terriermon with a Darkened Slash attack, which seemed to wound Jack as well. Sally and Hawkmon quickly took the moment to attack NightTerrormon before he shifted focus, dealing enough damage to reveal his datastream. Sally quickly scanned it, and immediately after it went out of her Digivice and into Hawkmon.

They then fired at DarkCalumon, but DarkCalumon projected a shield to prevent the attacks from hitting him. "You do not have the power to beat me! Nor to save your friends!"

DarkCalumon then fired at Max and the other sleeping Rangers with a dark energy blast, but Sally dove in front of it. Hawkmon lept after her. "Sally no! I will save you!"

Suddenly, Sally's Digivice activated.

====Hawkmon Digivolve to...Aquilamon!====

Aquilamon's armor was now big enough to take the whole hit, preventing anyone else from getting injured. "You okay Sally?"

"Yeah, I am fine. You managed to Digivolve though!" Sally announced. "Lets show him the true power of the Digimon Rangers!"

Aquilamon nodded. "Yeah!"

DarkCalumon started to back away a little. "Hey, I was just defending myself! No hard feelings, right?"

"You should have chosen better friends" Aquilamon told him. She then hit DarkCalumon with an attack strong enouugh to seriously injure him, and knocking him back into a tree as Jack got up. The others also started to wake up, apparently having had some really bad dreams. Jack went over to DarkCalumon.

"Now, tell me what you know DarkCalumon. Tell me everything about the Digital Core" Jack demanded, as the others walked over. Sally explained to them what happened while they were asleep.

"What do I know that you don't yourself. We both know the legends. The Digital Core exists at the center of all Digital Worlds, accessible by all and none. And clearly, you know enough to jump between Digital Worlds like me and NightTerrormon did" DarkCalumon told him.

"Don't lie to me. You know more then you let on" Jack said in a threatening manner.

DarkCalumon sighed. "Only a legend. And I didn't mention it right off the bat because I don't know if its true or not. Supposedly, the hybrid will either be the key to accessing the Digital Core, saving it, or destroying it. The legend is sketchy at best, cryptic at worst. I believe the official translation is 'Doom will occur and the hybrid will stand at the center, known to have been what made the battle possible at all'. People disagree whether it means the hybrid will bring about the doom, or will be the only chance of it being saved at all".

Sally and Hawkmon both could not help but notice Jack reacted to the word Hybrid. Not only that, they had a good idea of what a hybrid was. Something, or someone, that was both human and Digimon. Something Matthew seemed to fit just nicely as.

Guilmon ended up asking what a hybrid was anyways.

"A hybrid is something of both human and Digimon origin or construction. The first attempt was made by someone named Myotismon years ago from where I come from, and then he got close after he became VenomMyotismon. He also tried again a few years later, using dark seeds and a grieving, misguided man. There was an organization who was interested in the same thing. There was also a thing created called Biomerge Digivolution. How it happened at first still remains a mystery, just that it only worked temporarily. There were also a few who were infused with the spirits of Legendary Warriors, but that is even more obscure" Jack told them. "Then there are...rare exceptions".

"So, what he said" Matt mentioned. "Are you like, from another world?"

"Yeah, sort of. I am touring all of the Digital Worlds I can find after what happened...what I saw. I have seen a lot of things. And recently, I have seen a lot of different versions of Digimon-Human hybrid attempts. Too many to be a coincidence".

"Wait, do you mean like me?" Matt asked rather bluntly. "I can turn into Digimon anyways. Only one out of all of us who can".

This seemed to catch Jack's attention. "Yeah, that sounds exactly like what I mean. How did this happen?"

"Don't know. Arrived at the Digital World, could do Datastream fusions. Its not really that hard" Matt told him.

Jack looked through his journal. "It seems like its rare anyone ever knows how. Alright then, at least this gives me another lead to track down. Maybe I will run into you later then, but I better get going. Sounds like we both got work to do..."

Woah! Talk about a revelation! But what does this mean for Matt? And what about this whole Hybrid situation? Will this cause even more tension between the group? Find out next time on Digimon: Rangers!