And the prologue is over. Next chapter the real story line begins and the OC's begin to appear. Read, enjoy, and review.
The small wooden barn headquarters that Leya had established was clearly never meant to hold this many people at once. Light barely trickled in between the wooden slats that made up the core of the building. Will glanced around; his shirt still annoyingly sticking to his skin, his eyes watering at the awful stench he could only assume was them. He distracted himself by attempting to scan the maps and notes that littered the room and his eyes froze on one corner in particular. He strolled over, giving no through to the others in the room and folded his arms before the collection of notes and string. The corner was literally with pictures of familiar faces, the names of locations, and some faces only Will himself should have known.
"Lisa." He muttered quietly as he came across a picture of a blonde Digidestined close to his own age. His heart sank as he realised this corner was dedicated to nothing except looking for himself and Lightmon, with every thread leading back to a picture of himself. There was a small black string leading to a fuzzy picture of a giant world with menacing and evil red orbs for eyes.
"Strikemon?" The picture showed Strikemon glaring his teeth at whoever had taken the fuzzy photo. Will studied it as best as he could, noticing the modern buildings behind Strikemon, and Strikemon's darker than usual fur. He glared at the photo, he had only met one other Strikemon but he was certain it wasn't him in the picture, the fur was too light. He could have sworn he knew the buildings in the background but couldn't make any sense of it.
"Lightmon, you know anything about this picture?" Will asked quietly but Lightmon simply shook his head, unsure of what to say. Written above the photo in thick pen read:
"Strikemon sightings- attacks- Will?" Will frowned; he really had been gone for some time, something he was becoming quickly aware of.
"She searched for you; we searched for you, for a long time. We came across some of your friends who were also seeking you." Komodomon had stalked over to Will without making a noise. Will turned and failed to come up with any sort of response, but he noticed the black sludge, dents and cracks all across Komodomon's armour. He was truly a terrifying foe to be against, seeing Komodomon in battle reminded Will of when he had first met Leya and her Digital partner nearly two years before. He remembered how he and Strikemon had jumped into a battle, around the time they met Trace, they found themselves in a shopping centre flames and he came face to face with Leya. He mentally kicked himself, remembering he had made some awful pun in an attempt to get Leya to talk to him.
"What's that picture?" Will asked as he gestured towards the fuzzy Strikemon image. Komodomon frowned and crossed his arms.
"It was a feral Strikemon; we came across him in the real world. He had caused a huge amount of destruction in a matter of days. Your friend Lisa helped us track him, although the smoking wreckages and burning houses were more than enough for signs. He was feral, and dangerous. I put him down, whoever he was." Komodomon explained it simply and bluntly. Will had a hundred questions racing into his mind. Will barely noticed the sound of heavy and fast footsteps as the door opened and without warning, found a pair of well built arms wrapped around him.
"You're still here! Good! You owe me a drink!" Elegon had raced over and ensnared Will in a hug tight enough to hurt, before slowly letting go and jabbing him in the ribs, knocking the wind out of him. Will could do nothing but attempt to inhale and glare at Elegon.
"That's for leaving." Elegon smiled and happily sauntered away, taking the only free chair in the room.
"Can we get this over with?" It was Trace who raised his voice from the other end of the room. Will coughed and locked eyes with him. He made a mental note to talk to Trace as soon as he could, something had rattled him, and he needed to make smooth things over. Trace didn't just return the look, but glared fiercely at Will.
"Very well, at the very least, it is a pleasure to see you all together again in one piece." Gennai quickly assumed control of the room, stepping away from Leya who was busy editing a map on the only table in the room. Gennai simply smiled at Will, and Will felt every ounce of doubt return to him. It was no coincidence they had all been in the North, it never was when Gennai was involved.
"As you may have all noticed, there is something very wrong with this continent. Each of you were sent here for a different reason, or in your case Trace, bribed. I must remember to thank Kairi when I see her next; she is very good at getting people to help." Gennai smiled as Trace sighed angrily. Gennai began to move around the room in an attempt to address everyone equally.
"This continent has been at war with itself for over a year now. There is chaos and fighting everywhere you look, and it has gone unaddressed for too long. Digimon gaining too much power, humans attempting to create power, something must be done to control and halt it." Gennai's eyes darkened as he began to recall the various reports he had read over the last year.
"Why not send the Odaiba chosen to fight for you, or just get a new bigger team? Why us?" Trace folded his arms as he waited for an answer.
"The Odaiba chosen have something brewing, something they must soon deal with, without your help. I've already sent Tai back for that reason. The five of you however, have demonstrated time and time again your ability to handle larger situations, and there is no one else who can currently handle this." Will felt his temper boil to a point of rage, if there was something threatening his friends in Odaiba he wanted to know about it. The entire reason he was a Digidestined was due to Gennai creating a team of guardians to look out for them, Will's former team specifically. He despised how Gennai spoke of fate and destiny, chance encounters, and experiences that must be handled alone. Will looked around the room and noticed almost everyone had the same reaction.
"I do believe this continent is being manipulated, and it has something to do with the virus I've asked you to look into, Will. So, in short, I need you to stop this virus, and pacify the continent." Gennai smiled gently but it quickly faded when no one in the room answered. The air was stale and it humid, Leya shook her head, whilst Will simply leaned his head back against a wall, choosing to say nothing.
"Who are the main players?" Blackwargreymon asked with his deep gravely voice, Will opened his eyes to look for Blackwargreymon whose armour helped him too easily blend in the shadows of the room. Gennai smiled gleefully as he walked over to the table, pulled the map from it and quickly pinned it to a thin wooden wall.
"We're here, at the southern most point in this town with a strong port nearby. In this region, further north from here, towns and settlements have been vanishing, left in nothing but flame. Further north is a medium sized city, you may find some allies there, or enemies, depending how you play your hand. Towards the west, there is a Digimon masquerading as a god, quickly finding supporters as they move through the region. Here along the trade routes between the four main cities of the region, there are bands of Digimon and humans raiding. Here, in the east however, is your biggest problem. There is a powerful force here that has been quickly expanding; they've reached the point where they refer to their human leader as a King, who currently controls nearly a fifth of the continent. Of course this doesn't include random gangs, murders, raiders, so on and the like." Gennai circled various points on the map and as he did do, felt the mood and morale of the room plummet.
"A human has started conquering this continent?" Blackwargreymon followed his question with a serious growl of anger.
"It's not the first time, after all Ken did it as the emperor." Leya answered bluntly, her and Elegon and their partners had been in the region for some time so this came as no surprise to them. The room remained silent once again, not a single person or Digimon made a move to break it. Leya glanced around the room, she could remember times Gennai had asked them to carry out tasks and the team would respond happily and even look forward to being together. She sighed as she saw Will with this head against the wall, he had never gotten along well with Gennai and it appeared that it would never change.
"I'm in." The silence was shattered by none other than Will who didn't even bother to open his eyes, knowing that Lightmon by his side was nodding his head in agreement.
"Why not? I'm already dead." Alex spoke up for the first time since the battle, reminding the group he was actually in the room. Alex looked away as he felt very aware that Gennai would insist he help anyway. Elegon and Leya both spoke in agreement to no one's surprise.
"No thanks." Trace said it so bluntly, and so quickly, he caught everyone off guard as he carefully and swiftly exited the room closely followed by Blackwargreymon who only looked backed and nodded. The room fell into a deathly cold silence. Will glared at the door Trace had used to leave, whilst Elegon simply stared on with his jaw hanging open. Leya lowered her head and sighed dejectedly.
"To think I was expecting it to be Will to leave…" Alex muttered in the corner. Will rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"Gennai always chases me down or black mails me, or just bribes me, or just sends you lot after me! All things considered, this place actually sounds like it needs help and I have to be here anyway. I have my own things to do." Will glared venomously at Gennai who returned it with a smile and cheerful nod. Elegon sighed and pushed himself off the table he was sitting on and felt the need to get the conversation back on track.
"So I suppose first thing would be looking at where we're moving too first?" Elegon asked, partially dejected despite his best attempts to appear positive.
"Oh no, not this time. You will all be operating from this wonderfully growing town!" Gennai smiled as his pointed at the town's location on the map. Will raised an eyebrow out of curiosity; typically Gennai had them constantly moving from place to place. Gennai looked around the room at the reactions and flanked up at the ceiling before shutting his eyes, clearly annoyed.
"You know Digidestined, you should all read your history. There is a very good reason Leya was asked to protect this town. This was the final place the original five Digidestined came too. Somewhere underneath this town is where they finally lay down their Digivices, relics, and who else knows what before they left this Digital world." Gennai smiled devilishly, little was known of the Digidestined who came before the Odaiba chosen except they were the first heroes who sealed away evil behind the wall of flames.
"You don't know where it is?" Lightmon asked, choosing to look away from the notice board and picture of the rogue Strikemon.
"Those Digidestined were here long before Alex, and even Gennai were alive as digital beings. Whatever is locked away under the town must not fall into the wrong hands. " Leya stood and folded her arms, stating the information in a matter of fact tone that made Will laugh. He had similar tales of deadly digital items before but this time he simply accepted it.
"So basically…this town is like our base? Awesome!" Elegon laughed, grateful to have a central location for a change. Will leaned his head back and shut his eyes; it had been a long couple of days with a lot to process. He had been gone for months only to be suddenly woken up and told to go find some deadly virus. He had punched Trace to steal back his own Digivice, essentially been kidnapped by Alex, climbed a mountain to investigate the virus, reunited with his old team in an unexpectedly short battle, and now here he was listening to the others plan and debate the next move. His thoughts raced from point to point as he felt his joints ache and muscles burn from fatigue and it suddenly hit him. He hadn't been home in months, and he could feel it. He felt as if he had been working for the entire time he was gone, like waking up after an awful night's sleep. He just barely heard Lightmon yawn next to him, the past couples of days hadn't just been rough on Will but his partner too.
"Will? What do you think?" Will wasn't sure who had asked for his opinion. He had only half listened to the conversation and had missed many of the details. He opened his tired eyes and looked around the room before looking at Lightmon and nodded, as Lightmon rubbed his tired eyes and sat against the wall.
"I'm…going to go back to my flat for a while, and then I'm going to drag Trace back here after talking some sense into him." Will stood and checked his Digivice was still attached.
"Since when do you two talk about things?" Leya asked comically.
"You're right, we'll probably punch each other."
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