"The Circle of the Digidestined," written by Freedom Fighter

Disclaimer: None of the characters, human or Digimon, belong to me, the writer.

Author's Warning: The following fanfic features gruesome character death, both of the human and Digimon kind, violence of varying levels, some profane language, and some suggestive situations. Please do not read this fanfic if you're underage or feel that you cannot handle any of said features.

This particular episode features mild profanity and gruesome depictions.


In an unknown location somewhere in the real world, White was watching video feed of each of his accomplices' attempts at wreaking havoc in the Digiworld. In the background, sounds of recording and analyzing equipment rang and buzzed endlessly as notes were compiled to be later used for formulating a strategy to take down the Digidestined and both the real world and the Digital World.

"Soon and very soon, my plan will be realized! Now that we know who the Digidestined are and what they are capable of, we can plan accordingly!"

White then turned his attention to the video feed labeled 'Red,' and saw some unsettling footage...


"Believe me, I have my reasons," Red said.

"Well, I'd like to hear them!" Kari was standing right in front of Honda,
practically in his face now.

"I..." Honda said slowly, "I did it... I did it for you."

"If you think that what you did would impress me, you're sadly mistaken!"


"Hmmm..." White noted. "Maybe he was right. His old feelings for the Digidestined of Light are resurfacing. Well, we'd better nip this in the bud before it causes him to make a careless mistake."

He walked over to a nearby desk and picked up his beige brown D-3 off of it. He pressed a button and started to talk into it.

"I've got a new assignment for you... and the Digidestined will inevitably help in the fall of one of their own."

White smiles evilly at his last comment as he ends his communication.

Episode Twelve - Highway to the Danger Zone (05.30.05)

In Sector 7.14 in the Northern Quadrant, Patamon, Gatomon, and Veemon were searching the ruins of the now completely burned down village, all still with hope that they might find a survivor or two. On the hill overlooking it, Kari was tearing pieces off of TK's shirt to use as a makeshift tourniquet to try and stop the bleeding. TK had been torn up pretty bad by Gizamon's Spiral Saws, and he was having trouble staying conscious.

"Hang in there, TK!" Kari shouted worriedly, doing everything in her power to keep TK alive.

She then turned towards Davis, who was punching buttons on his D-3 in a panic.

"Come on, come on!" he yelled. "Why won't this stupid portal open?"

"What's wrong?" Kari asked.

"It's not allowing me to open a portal back to the lab! My D-3 says there's a lack of resources."

"That shouldn't be. It's not like we're in a remote part of the Digiworld... gasp... unless the others are trying to get back at this very moment too!"

"So... we can't get back to Osaka?"

"Not the lab... the system's probably overloaded with transport requests. See if you can access any other portals in the city. We need to get back to the real world, now!"

Kari then turned back towards TK and ran a hand through his hair, despite that some of his blood had gotten onto her while she was working on him.

"Don't worry, TK... you're going to live through this! I promise!"


At the Digimon Research Laboratory in Osaka, the portal was still active from June's recent exit, though neither June or Izzy were present. Yoshi was, though, and he was trying to figure out why the portal wasn't closing.

"What is wrong with this thing?" he asked aloud. "The longer this portal remains open, the greater the chance of the power grid overloading!"

"We've got two incoming!" exclaimed an assistant. "One human, one Digimon. Uh... Digimon DNA confirmed... it's a Gabumon!"

"A Gabumon? Then that means..."

Matt Ishida and Gabumon came flying out of the portal, crash landing on the floor in front of the portal, which shut off immediately after they had gotten through. The scientists all run over in a scramble.

"Wow... talk about a wild ride," noted Matt as he slowly got to his feet.

"That's the last time I travel back to Earth that way!" Gabumon exclaimed, rubbing his sore horn... among other things.

"We've been expecting you," Yoshi said, relieved at Matt's long-awaited arrival.

Matt shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I wasn't exactly in position for an immediate response. So... what's going on?"

"Follow me and Izzy'll explain everything."


Yoshi took Matt and Gabumon to the briefing room. Upon entering, they found Izzy in the midst of explaining to Dora what was going on. But instead of being her angry, hyperactive self, she was deathly quiet as all of the horrible events of the day so far were described to her.

"Dora?" Matt asked, noticing her presence there. "What are you doing here? Since when did you gain access to the Research Lab?"

"That's not important," Izzy cutted in. "What is important is that I get you up to speed on everything that's happening. Please, take a seat..."

Matt sat down next to Dora, and Gabumon followed, pushing up a seat next to his partner.

"It all started five hours ago, during a routine census of Sector 3 of the Digiworld's Western Quadrant. Joe was part of a three-person unit assigned to that task. But suddenly, they were attacked by a stampede of Jagamon."

"What?" Matt freaked. "How did that happen? And is Joe alright?"

Izzy sighed. "Sadly, no. All three of them were trampled to death."

Matt gasped in shock. He couldn't believe what he had just heard.

"Poor Joe..." wailed Dora, coming out of her still trance temporarily.

Matt reached over to comfort Dora, who leant over and began to cry into his shirt. He then looked over towards Izzy again.

"How did this happen?"

"Mimi was in the Digiworld at the time, and she overheard five men and their Digimon talking about the incident and how they were trying to get out of the area before they were discovered."

"Do we have ID's on these guys or their Digimon yet?"

"Not yet. We're working on it... you know Mimi's not the best when it comes to having photographic memory."

"So... where is everyone?" Gabumon asked. "Matt's D-3 said that all of the Digidestined needed to report here ASAP."

"Most of them are still out in the field. The perps didn't wait long to attack... and in four separate areas of the Digiworld, to boot! We had to split up... Tai, Mimi, and Catherine went in one group, Sora and I in a second, Ken, Yolei, and Cody in a third, and TK, Kari, and Davis in a fourth."

"Well, if you're back, then that means..."

Izzy nodded. "Yes, your wife is here. She's watching the kids."

"The kids? You mean... Michelle and Sam are here too?"

"Yeah... June paid us a visit, and they were with her."

Matt huffed. "Unbelievable."

Izzy got up out of his seat and started walking around. "We need to figure out what these guys are really up to. They probably weren't expecting us to respond so soon... they must be planning something big."

"You're hoping that the others are able to report on this?"

"Yeah. Until we know what we're up against, we can't exactly fight against it. Not unless we want to be walking into a death trap, that is."

"I see. Wait... what about TK? Is he alright?"

Izzy shrugged his shoulders. "Last time I checked he was. Why?"

Matt lowered his head despondently. "I've got a bad feeling about this..."


"Okay... I got one!" Davis shouted, aiming his D-3 at a nearby arbitrary spot and opening a portal back to the real world.

Kari slowly brought TK to his feet and draped one of his arms around the back of her neck. She then moved towards the portal, TK seemingly going in and out of consciousness in the process.

"Where does it lead to?" she asked as Davis moved to help her.

"I'm not sure... but we're definitely a few miles away from the lab."

Davis took TK's other arm and draped it over his shoulders, so that now TK's feet were no longer dragging on the ground.

"We don't have much time. The moment we get back to the real world, we're calling for ambulance. Then we'll contact Izzy and tell him and the others what's going on."

"What about Veemon and the others?"

"Don't worry about them, Davis. They're just doing damage control right now. We won't need protection in the real world anyway."

The duo walked into the portal one step at a time, pulling TK's injured body along with them.


Somewhere in Osaka, two hands reached down under the dashboard to hotwire a Ferrari Enzo Coupe. After a minute or two, the sportscar's powerful engine roared to life. The car thief slipped in and buckled up. He revealed his identity thanks to the blue short sleeve shirt he was wearing as he put the Ferrari into first gear and sped off. Moments later, the car's owner ran out of the restaurant it was parked in front of.

"Hey, come back!" he yelled. "Man... and I only had one more payment to go..."


Inside the Ferrari...

"Ha ha ha ha!" Blue chuckled aloud. "I'm gonna kill me a bitch!"

The Ferrari then flew off the top of a hill, to the surprise of other motorists and pedestrians in the area.


"What is up with everyone trying to use our portal at once?"

Yoshi and the other scientists were scrambling as once again the portal had suddenly come to life. And with its constant use, the circuits were beginning to overheat.

"Whomever this is better have a good reason for trying to force their way here, or else..."

"It's another human and a Digimon! But the system doesn't recognize either of them!"

"Quick!" Yoshi exclaimed. "Call for a Code Red Alert, Level-One priority!"


Alarms started ringing throughout the facility, grabbing the attention of humans and Digimon alike.

"Code red, code red! Level-One alert! Unidentified intruders attempting to gain access to the facility through the main portal room! I repeat... Code red, code red! Level-One alert! Unidentified intruders..."


Izzy and Matt bursted out of the briefing room and were greeted by Sora and Tentomon. Dora and Gabumon appeared right behind them.

"Sora!" Matt said, overjoyed.

"Matt! You finally made it!" Sora rejoiced.

"This is no time to catch up on your time apart!" Izzy yelled. "Sora... get Dora here to the bunker with the other civilian personnel! Bring the rest of the Digimon with you! Tentomon, you're with us!"

"Oh goody!" Tentomon cheered. "Time to kick some intruder butt!"

"Nice to see you've noticed I'm here," Gabumon spoke up.

"Oops..." Tentomon sweatdropped. "Sorry about that..."

"Let's move!" Izzy exclaimed. "We've got an intruder to take care of!"


In an instant, Izzy, Matt, Tentomon, and Gabumon arrived into the main laboratory, where all but the high-level essential scientists and the base's military personnel had fled the area. The foursome made their way through the crowd and to the front line.

"What's the status?" Izzy asked Yoshi.

"The intruders are somehow getting through our security system! They'll be emerging from the portal any second now!"

"The men are ready!" the squad leader told Izzy.

Izzy nodded. "Matt and I will handle this. But if this intruder turns out to be hostile and we can't dispatch of him..."

"Understood," the leader cutted in.

Izzy then signaled for Matt, Tentomon, and Gabumon to step forward and get into position. All of the men loaded their guns and aimed them at the portal entrance. Tension filled the air as everyone waited for the intruders to walk out.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps became apparent as a human and a Digimon finally began to materialize. The men were expecting a bulky individual with a tough-looking Digimon to come out, ready to bring the whole place down.

What they got instead was a beautiful blonde in an orange short sleeve shirt and an ankle-length yellow skirt. And a cute Digimon in Floramon.

"When you said your security system was tight, you weren't kidding!" Catherine said, holding up her rouge red D-3 for all to see... and it looked like the circuits on it were burned.

"Catherine?" Izzy and Matt asked simultaneously.

"You know this woman?" questioned the military captain.

"Stand down," Izzy said to the men. "She's a Digidestined."

"You heard him... everyone move out!"

As the soldiers began to file out of the lab, Catherine giggled innocently as Matt glared at Izzy.

"I thought this base had a database on all of the Digidestined of the world! We're supposed to be able to get through the portal without any fuss!"

Izzy scratched his head. "I don't understand... Catherine, you should be in the database!"

"I'm pretty sure that's the case. I did send my renewal papers in last month. On time, even!"

"But she's not in the system, Izzy," Yoshi said, in the process of cross-checking the database.

"That's impossible!" Izzy exclaimed, running over. "Every living Digidestined in the world should be registered in the database!"

"Wait a minute... here she is!"

Catherine and Matt walked over and joined Izzy in glancing over Yoshi's shoulders. They all spotted Catherine's name... under the 'Pending Renewal' heading.

"You mean Catherine's info hasn't been gone through yet?" Matt asked.

"It lists a Code 05 and a Code 08," Yoshi said, accessing the profile.

"Uh..." Catherine stammered.

"Japanese for all of us not fluent in geek speak," Matt clarified.

Izzy and Yoshi looked for a rebuttal to the so-called insult, but they didn't have one.

"Basically," Izzy spoke up after a second, "05 means you turned in a paper form and some item on it wasn't cleared, and 08 means your form didn't receive final approval clearance from me."

Yoshi chuckled as he glanced at Catherine. "You still use the paper form? Hello... it's the 21st Century here!"

"I cannot help it if I am, how do you say, an old-fashioned girl!"

Izzy sighed. "We'll take care of the logistics later."

Yoshi stood up and motioned for Catherine to hand over her D-3. She did so quickly.

"The technicians will have this fixed and back to normal working order shortly!"

With that, Yoshi ran off with Catherine's D-3. Before Catherine could catch her breath, though, Izzy pressed her for a report.

"So, what's the word on that incident in the Western Quadrant?"

"The word is, Monsieur Izumi, is that we were attacked."

"Attacked? By whom?"

"A Hagurumon, I believe it was. And his human partner."

Matt looked at Izzy. "Are there any Digidestined who have a Hagurumon?"

"Not that I'm aware of," replied the resident genius.

"So, what happened to him, Catherine?"

"He escaped. And he said 'This is only the beginning!'"

"What about Tai and Mimi?" Izzy asked. "Are they okay? And have they stopped arguing?"

Catherine giggled again. "They're fine. In fact, they're more than fine. I'd even go so far as to say they're making up... real French-like, even!"

"Now I'm the one confused," Izzy said, scratching his head.

"Um..." Matt began, "maybe we should give Tai and Mimi a little more time."

"Fine, whatever," Izzy agreed, still not getting the point. "We'd better check on the others. See if they've found out anything about our enemies."


"I applaud you all for finding out so much about our enemies!"

White and the rest of his accomplices, minus Blue, were gathered around a table and were hard at work discussing their next move.

"So what's our next move, boss?" Yellow asked.

Green reached over and smacked Yellow upside the head. "Will you let him tell us first?"

"Our next move is already being played as we speak," White smiled.

"What are you talking about? And where's Blue?" Red wondered out loud.

"You shall see..."


The dinner rush was in full effect at Luciano's, the only real Italian-flavored pizza place in all of Osaka. Luigi Marcolia was the manager on duty, and he was also working the register. At this particular point in time, he was dealing with an unruly customer.

"1100 yen for two slices of pizza?" a tall, teenage boy asked. "Are you serious?"

"We're the only place in Osaka that serves pizza the way it's served in Italy!" Mr. Marcolia said back. "And that means we get fresh ingredients straight from my home country! You don't like it, then you don't have to eat it! Simple as that."

The teenager grumbled as he forked over the exact amount for his food. But as the restaurant manager was about to punch it into the computer, a Digiport appeared, pushing him back into the brick wall behind him.

Kari and Davis walked out of the Digiport, each with one of TK's arms draped around their necks. The employees and customers alike were stunned at TK's condition, especially since his face was starting to look pale.

"What is this tomfoolery?" Mr. Marcolia asked.

"We need an ambulance!" Kari and Davis said simultaneously. "NOW!"


Using his D-3 as a tracking device, Blue drove ferociously towards his target, with no care for any traffic, vehicular or pedestrian, that stood in his way.

"This is my chance," Blue thought to himself. "This is my chance to prove who the superior gender in this world is! The only gender that deserves to live!"


"Let's lay him down here," Davis suggested.

With the help of some of the patrons in line, Davis and Kari had managed to get TK to an open place on the floor to lie flat on.

"Okay, he needs some air!" Kari yelled, as she watched Davis attempt to keep everyone from crowding around TK.

"There's an ambulance on the way!" one of the female employees yelled from the kitchen door.

"Thanks, Maria!" Mr. Marcolia yelled. "And where's Akira with that first-aid kit!"

"Right here, sir!" Akira shouted as he emerged from the stock room.

Akira knelt down beside his manager and opened up the kit. Mr. Marcolia reached in and pulled out some dressing to replace the tatters of TK's shirt that Kari had originally wrapped TK's wounds with.

"Are you gonna tell me what's wrong with him?" he asked as Kari began unwrapping the makeshift tourniquet.

"He was attacked in the Digiworld by a Digimon," Kari said. "It got him really bad in his left shoulder."

"This wouldn't have anything to do with the pandemonium in the Digital World I heard about on the news a few hours ago, would it?"

"Yes. This is related to that, in a way."

Mr. Marcolia, as well as everyone else in the restaurant, peered in and saw just how bad TK was hit. The skin covering the blade was almost non-existant, and the cartilage that connected TK's shoulder blade to his left arm was exposed, though it looked practically undamaged. The flow of blood had been reduced significantly, but with the wound uncovered, it was attempting to pick up again.

TK, semi-conscious at the time, winced and writhed in pain, especially now that his wound was exposed to the air again. Some of the restaurant's customers couldn't stand the site of the open wound, and they decided to step away... either outside, or to the restroom.

"Okay," Mr. Marcolia said, readying the dressing. "You're going to have to lift his shoulder off the ground so I can wrap this around."

Kari nodded. Akira pulled out two pair of gloves and handed them to Kari and to his manager. Once they were set, they immediately went to work.

"Lift gently... we don't want to make his condition any worse!"


"Almost there!" Blue yelled, pushing as hard as he could on the gas pedal. "She'll be out of our hair for good!"


Kari held TK's left shoulder up and moved her fingers around carefully as Mr. Margolia began dressing the wound. Her mind should've only been on TK, but Davis noticed a wandering look in her eyes. One that didn't look normal to him.

"Uh, Kari, are you okay?" he asked. "You want me to take over?"

Kari looked up at Davis as if to respond, but she didn't nod or shake her head.

"Okay... I'm coming over! Quick, a few of you move Kari away from TJ once I take her place, okay?"

Two nearby males nodded as they let Davis slide in under TK's exposed shoulder, without gloves, no less, and then they pulled Kari out of the way.

"She doesn't look too well," one of them said.

"Maybe she's just freaked out?" suggested the other as they watched Kari begin to breathe a little quicker than normal.

"She might need air," Mr. Marcolia told them. "Find something to hold the door open and then lie her face up beside it! And check her pulse and heartbeat, just to be sure!"

The restaurant patrons worked together to help Kari walk over to the door and to comfort her, if needed. Meanwhile, Mr. Marcolia was finishing up on TK.

"Just a few more times around..."

"Hurry..." Davis said, repulsed at the blood dripping on his hands.


"It's time for you to DIE!" Blue screamed at the top of his lungs.

The Ferrari he had stolen and was driving screeched as it flew over the crest of the hill overlooking Luciano's. Having unlocked the doors in advance, Blue leapt from the driver's side and rolled onto the pavement, right into a nearby lamp post. The car,
meanwhile, uncontrollably barreled down the hill, right at the restaurant!

Immediately, people on the streets and those right by the front door inside quickly ran to get out of the way. Those who had carried Kari over to the door were swift enough to get her out the door and were pulling her to safety. But despite Kari's strange state of mind, she seemed to be awake enough to watch helplessly as the Ferrari crashed through the front of the restaurant and the screams that accompanied it.

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"


Author's Notes:
Wow... I bet you're all saying. The last episode of this series was posted in June of 2003, and here we are almost two whole years later, and I give you this heartstopper.
Nice way to say 'welcome back to the fold,' huh?

Um... I think everything's self-explanatory for this episode. The one or two things that may have to be... I won't, because they will be in future episodes.

The one thing I will say, though... the whole sequence of running a car into the restaurant wasn't the original plan. Originally, TK, Kari, and Davis were to return to the real world, get a hold of a car, and then drive to the hospital. On the way there, it was Blue that was supposed to force them into an accident... one that he intended for none of them to walk away from.

Next Episode - Don't Go to the Light
The other Digidestined are regrouping at the Research Lab, unaware of what has transpired at Luciano's just a few miles away. Meanwhile, as local law enforcement dig through what's left of the restaurant, who will survive this horrific accident?
The answer will shock you, and will bring a few grown men to tears.