"Salutations."

Taichi fell back, startled by the woman who appeared out of nowhere on his partner's helmet with a bizarrely shaped creature holding a spoon.

Sabrina pointed down at his partner. "I'm going to have to ask you not to bring your bionic buddy into Saffron City. Please land and bring him down to child form."

Taichi slowly reclaimed his grip on MetalGreymon's hair. "I don't know who you are—"

"Sabrina. I'm the gym leader of the city you're about to enter; master of psychic types."

"Sorry, Sabrina, but I've got a friend to find, and I saw that bird chasing her. She's somewhere in that city, and I can't afford to slow down."

Sabrina sighed. Alakazam raised his spoons, and Metalgreymon ground to a halt. "Nobody ever wants to take my advice even when I say I'm a psychic... How about it Metalgreymon? I have no ill will against you, but you're huge, and I consider it my responsibility to keep Saffron city safe."

Metalgreymon looked from Sabrina to Taichi to the city and back to Sabrina. "Sora is very important to us."

Sabrina smiled. "I am aware, and willing to teleport you into town if you will assume the form called Agumon."

That sealed the deal for Metalgreymon, and soon he and Taichi were falling through the air. They had barely the time to grab each other's hands before a white flash filled their vision and they suddenly hit asphalt on their feet.

Taichi whipped around to look for Sabrina, but she was already gone, off on some other mission.

"How did she know me?" Agumon asked.

"Maybe she wasn't just messing around when she mentioned psychics," Taichi answered distractedly. He was less concerned with Sabrina and more worried about where Sora was. Birdramon was nowhere to be found.

"Get out of the way!"

A boy rammed into Taichi's side, tackling him off the street and out of the way of an errant bolt of lightning. He got up quickly, looked to the sky, and looked back down at Taichi, but more importantly, at Agumon.

"Great," he hissed. "Just when I though there were only two of you."

"Two…" Taichi got to his feet, and caught the boy by his sleeve. "Who did you see?"

"Are you an idiot? I'm kind of busy." He hiked a thumb toward Zapdos and his Arcanine.

"Dammit, I can help, just tell me!"

"You can't help, actually. As I understand it, Sabrina intervened because you would probably cause a lot of collateral damage. We'd like to avoid that." Blue smirked. "But when I'm done here, how about we have a battle outside the city? If you win, I'll even tell you where the chick went."

Taichi answered without a second thought. "Deal."

The answer caught him off guard. He had been expecting Taichi to respond with the same ignorantly righteous anger that Takeru had. Instead, Taichi stood there with his arms crossed...waiting.

So not all of you are on the same page... Blue grinned up at Zapdos. Interesting!

Sabrina and Alakazam materialized beside Blue. She glanced back at Taichi, waiting with a patient fire in his eyes for Blue and his Arcanine to finish with Zapdos.

"Blue," she sighed. "Do you really need to egg people on like that? You have such a bad personality…"

"Says the poster girl for the emotionless."

"I have emotions. I was very pleased that Sora's battle style wasn't as rough as what I saw in her past, and I was very excited when I saw her panties. I didn't think girls my age wore such cute things. Now I don't feel childish for wanting those skitty panties they sell at the Celadon Department Store." Behind her, a familiar rough coughing noise erupted from Taichi. "Why does everyone keep making that sound? Is there a bug going around?"

Blue shook his head. "Focus, Sabrina. Huge bird. Shooting rocks and lightning at us. Kind of powerful."

Sabrina shifted her bracelet to check a tiny watch she kept on hand for just these situations. "I am always focused." Right, Alakazam?

The pokémon chuckled.

Right alongside me, then. In 3…2…1…

In perfect harmony, Sabrina lifted her hands and Alakazam lifted his spoons. The air around them vibrated and distorted, and Zapdos ground to a stop in midair. Unlike Metalgreymon, it actively fought their influence. Neither of them would have been able to keep it still by their own power, but together they had the raw mental force to wrap its wings around its own body like a cocoon. Zapdos screeched in agony and discharged lightning in wild, erratic bursts, but they were able to suppress most of that too. They were rewarded for their perseverance by a united cry from above.

"Sanctuary Bind!"

Nefertimon and Pegasmon flew all around the screaming bird, binding it tightly, and quickly darting away. Sabrina and Alakazam lowered it down to street level safely entrapped once within its own wings, again within the golden ropes, and once more in the grip of their power.

Okay, Alakazam. Keep it steady.

"Blue," Sabrina gritted. "Now would be a really good time for some hypnosis."

Blue smirked, and released his Exeggutor from its pokéball to put Zapdos to sleep. "I find it kind of funny that the master of psychics doesn't have any pokémon that learn what can arguably be called the most basic of the psychic moves."

Sabrina rolled her eyes. The force of Zapdos' power pushing back against her and Alakazam's powers lessened, and she slowly released the pressure of its being to Alakazam. You know what to do.

Alakazam nodded, and placed a hand against the huge bird's head. In a dim flash, both of them vanished.

Nefertimon landed close to Taichi. Hikari vaulted from her partner's back, and dashed to reunite with her brother. Takeru landed Pegasmon between the pokémon trainers and his friends. His intention had been to thank Sabrina, but he ended up glaring at Blue.

Sabrina sighed. "Really, Blue. Such a bad personality. Thank you for your help, Takeru."

He nodded stiffly. "Thank you for leading me to Hikari."

She waved a hand dismissively. "Zapdos did that. You wouldn't have missed her regardless of whether I interfered or not."

"Hold it," Blue interrupted. "If that's the girl you were looking for, and that guy is looking for the girl with the bird..."

Hikari came over, with Taichi, Agumon, and Tailmon at her side. "You saw Sora?"

"I did. I promised your friend I'd even tell him where she went if he won a battle against me."

Taichi stepped forward, both he and Agumon's eyes set on victory. They were ready to take on whatever Blue might have for them...so they were surprised when he pulled out a wallet and tossed a rail pass at them.

"North side of town. Sabrina put her on the train to Johto. That'll get you there."

Sabrina raised an eyebrow. "Blue..."

"Don't start. You know I never use the thing. When I have somewhere to go, I fly or I ride my Arcanine."

Taichi was looking from the card to Blue and back with his mouth half open, but it was Takeru who posed the question. "Why are you giving it to us so easily?"

Blue crossed his arms. "Personal reasons. And who said anything about 'us'? Pass is good for one person only. He's going to Johto to find his girl. What you and this other girl do is all on you."

Taichi's eyes fell. "Sora isn't my girl, just my best friend. This girl, however, is my little sister Hikari, and I'd be grateful if you could get her to Johto as well."

Blue looked over at Sabrina, but Sabrina shrugged. He sighed. "Your best bet will probably be to go south to Vermillion and try the S.S. Aqua. It is…Monday. Explains a lot. Anyway, boat sails on Wednesday. Unless you wanna stick around til Sunday, I suggest you get a ticket immediately."

Takeru's shoulders sagged. For the first time in years, he was at a loss for what he should do. He was the only one of the four of them who knew anything about what had happened. "Taichi, I could have Hikari home by then. I didn't land in this place like you and Sora. I came here from Spain."

"This place is accessible from...?" The siblings instinctively grabbed for each others hands. "What's going on, Takeru?"

He glanced over his shoulder at Blue and Sabrina, and leaned closer to his friends. "A part of our world-a big part-went missing. The continents you were all on were replaced by this world, separated by some kind of…red code and a field that keeps non-digidestined from crossing."

"Who else went missing? Have you already found others?"

Takeru shook his head. "According to the places that are on the wrong side of the wall… You two, Sora, Jyou, Iori, Daisuke, and Mimi are considered missing. Yamato and Ken are also in this world somewhere, searching for the others. I got here three days ago. I have no idea what may have happened since then. What I do know is that Miyako and Koushiro are safe with the computer, and some new digimon named Amphimon is helping them fix this."

Taichi rubbed pensively at his chin. "How do we get home?"

"Fly north. Eventually, you will pass through some sort of barrier, where the binary wall is in our world. When you pass through that, you'll be somewhere in Europe, I'd guess. Follow the wall east. It goes right around most of Japan…except for Hokkaido and the Kuril Isles, where Jyou was."

"Alright. I'll take those directions with Sora. Get my sister out of here."

Hikari shook her head violently. "I'm not leaving. You go home Taichi. You fly straight to Koushiro, and you tell him that pokémon trainers can get into the digital world."

Takeru and Taichi's faces both went blank. A shadow passed over them, and they reflexively tensed, but it was only Joey's fearow. He landed next to Hikari and tucked his pokémon away.

"What happened to you? Ah! Are these more digimon? Are these people from the other world too?"

Hikari introduced them. "Takeru, Taichi, this is Joey." She carefully placed herself between the two of them and the boy, and held out her arms defensively. She licked her suddenly dry lips. "He got into the digital world and ended up burning down the Koromon village."

Taichi's face darkened, and he suddenly towered over her in a way he hadn't since she was very young. "Move, Hikari."

"No. You don't understand what happened."

Blue shouldered his way into their huddle. "Sorry, what did I just hear?"

Joey's eyes lit up. "Ah! You're one of the former champions of the Indigo League! You're Blue!"

Blue ignored him entirely, and looked down at Hikari. "He burned down what?"

She hesitated to answer. Tailmon hopped up onto Takeru's shoulder and answered for her. "It was an accident. In this world, you capture your partners. In the digital world, your partner is born only for you. Joey crossed the divide without realizing it and believed he had found a new species of pokémon. He attacked them with a Charmander's flame. Things got out of control, he got hurt, and the village burned down. He was just doing...what a trainer does, I guess."

"What a trainer does, huh?"

Hikari had scarcely the time to get out of the way of Blue's punch. It scored right across Joey's jaw, and sent the boy sprawling to the pavement. Blue's arrogant smirk was absent. His eyes were cold and he was audibly grinding his teeth. He caught Takeru and Patamon's stunned expressions.

"What," he growled. "Did you think we don't punish our own?" He looked at Hikari. " Did he kill any of them?"

Hikari reclaimed her place between Joey and the others. "He didn't! Not intentionally."

Takeru, eerily calm given the situation, stepped closer to Hikari. His voice was steady, gentle, and so quiet that it sent a chill up her spine. "We're listening, Hikari. Go ahead and explain."

"He got one in a pokéball before I showed up. The Koromon were the most terrified of that. It turns creatures into data or something, but I don't think it knows how to reconfigure digimon. The Koromon that came out…" Her skin broke out in goosebumps. The fire. The blood. The senseless milky eyes. Not even hatred in them. Nothing in them at all. "It was all wrong! It barely even looked like a Koromon! They said...it made him a virus type. But virus types are generally evil, this thing… It just attacked because he was there, and all those scars… His arms and his face. It did that! He was almost dead when I… My digivice and Tailmon's ring…"

Taichi's fists loosened, and he held his trembling sister tightly. "It's ok. We get it."

Blue snorted. "I'm surprised you're not as bad off as this guy." He nodded at Takeru. "If all you know of trainers is this, it's not a wonder. That's trash on the level of Team Rocket."

Sabrina slapped the back of Blue's head. "Do not badmouth him. You were a worse brat when you were his age." She walked by him, and helped Joey up. She didn't spare the slap for him either, but she didn't lecture him. She could see that Tailmon had drilled him about it enough in the past few days. She addressed the digidestined instead. "You should hurry. There are far worse people than this boy that might get into this other world, and even the best of us have no way of knowing that an attempt to catch a digimon could cost lives."

Taichi squeezed Hikari's hand. She tried to look exasperated, but it didn't work. "I'm alright, nii-chan." She squeezed back. "I'll have Takeru, and I even have Joey…kind of. Sora is all alone."

"Alright…" He fumbled with his pocket, and handed her the heart scale he'd received. "I got that from a nurse on Cinnabar. She said you can show it to any nurse at any pokémon center and they'll help you. If we get home before you…I'll come back for you, I promise."

"Don't," she said sternly. "You'll waste time. Help Koushiro fix this, immediately. I'll go to the Johto region with Takeru, and we'll keep our eye out for the others, and for anymore trainers trying to catch digimon." She rubbed fretfully at the hairs on her nape. "I don't want them running around. Tailmon's holy ring… I don't know. Maybe it purifies them, so they'll be reborn right. I…"

"Shh. I get it. But don't be here more than a week. We will definitely fix this by then."

"Before you go," Takeru interjected, holding up Punimon. "This is Kawada Noriko's partner."

Taichi's eyes widened. "Noriko-chan's? Why do you have him?"

"Long story. But he says things in the real world have gotten a bit...political. Koushiro, and likely anyone involved with the project are considered criminal right now." He shifted uncomfortably. "And you should know this for when you get back… Shortly after all this happened, they started… The best way I can describe it is an Inquisition. They were questioning random chosen children and doing short term arrests. Miyako thought it might get serious, so she sent messages to everyone who could receive them to hide. In the case of you, Hikari, myself, and everyone else directly involved with the project, this message was also sent to our immediate families."

The siblings stood there with blank faces, unsure of what to think or feel. It was terrible, but that was both too obvious and not descriptive enough for the thought that someone might arrest their parents, who had nothing to do with the project.

"If you go to Shimoshima… Don't take Sora. Hide her somewhere. Even the digiworld might be safer right now."

Taichi nodded numbly. "Thanks for the warning."

He gave his sister a hug, holding her as tightly as he could for just a moment. With this new news on his mind…he was relieved that she wasn't going straight home.

"Stay safe," he whispered, and ran off with Agumon to the north side of Saffron to catch the next train out.

Sabrina ushered Joey to Blue."Take him a second. I need to talk to these…" She glanced down at the little red glob in Takeru's arms. "…four." She lifted it up and over, resting it on top of Joey's head.

Takeru scowled. "He's an infant. Is there something you honestly can't tell an infant?"

"The infant has no doubts about this world. You four do. Especially you, Takeru…but I want to start with you." She looked at Hikari. "You were in my gym yesterday."

Hikari closed her eyes tiredly. "Please don't say you want to awaken my latent abilities or something…"

"Don't be rude. You were never meant to be the kind of psychic I am. You have an extremely powerful empathy that couples with your compassion and reaches out to everything… a ray of light in any and all darkness, even darkness better left undisturbed. The things here have hurt you because you, in fact, see this world as a living vision of your ideal world, but with impurities. Please understand that pokémon are not digimon. As long as you see them in the exact same light, you will continue to feel great conflict about this place.

"Tailmon, that goes doubly for you. Your path, if you continue to feel so much contempt for this world and its trainers, will grow dark soon, and in a far worse way than you can imagine. Do not hate it all because Hikari is in pain. Pain is a part of life.

Takeru…"

He met her eyes unflinchingly, daring her to say the wrong words to him. She sighed.

"I would never tell you to forget the feeling of losing Patamon. It is important, and it makes up a small, but intense part of you. You too, should realize that this world is not like the ones you know. Today, a rare, powerful bird whose movement alone draws the storm clouds chased your friend here from nearly fifty miles away, and spent an hour trying to kill her. Even I cannot glean an answer as to why that goes beyond something about her just rubbing it the wrong way. That's the kind of world this is. If you startled an electric type and they paralyzed you right outside this city, there's a very real chance that the murkrow and the rattata anything else that was hungry would pick the flesh off you while you were still alive. People need this system to protect themselves and their loved ones."

"What about me…?" Patamon asked timidly.

"You are here because you're the least biased one. It will be your responsibility to help Takeru and Tailmon reconcile with this world. You know exactly what it's like to fight to the bitter end for your partner, and you know what it's like to want to be strong to protect them. You kind of wish there had been a system like ours. Maybe then you would have been stronger, and Takeru wouldn't carry that lingering anger that resulted from your death."

Takeru was unprepared to hear that, just as Patamon was unprepared for it to be revealed. Even Hikari and Tailmon were rendered wide-eyed and speechless. Patamon's eyes welled up, and he darted from his perch on Takeru's head. Takeru stood there limply, his face bleary with remorse, until Sabrina shoved him after his partner.

Hikari whistled for Joey, and signaled that they were going after them. The boy quickly darted away from Blue with Punimon, but Sabrina caught Hikari by her sleeve.

Takeru and Patamon will slowly come to terms with this place due to Patamon's feelings. You have struggled to see the good in this place through the constant clouds of bad, and you are going to need it if you partner does not forgive what she's seen. So allow me to help by showing you my battle…with the greatest trainer I've ever encountered.

Hikari's senses blanked. A single battle in the center of Sabrina's gym filled them. A younger, longer-haired Sabrina battled a single boy. He was not like the trainers Hikari seen so far. Not even the dojo-trainer. His Pokémon moved with absolute faith in him, and he had equal faith in them. He won over Sabrina because it wasn't strictly about winning through overpowering strength or vicious strategy. Win or lose, at the end, he would know his partners did well, and wouldn't hesitate to let them know it. It was about shared determination. About adventuring together. About protecting each other… Even though his gaze was fierce and daunting to be under for any challenger, he was still able to turn the gentlest of eyes on his partners...

Tailmon's voice interrupted. "Hikari?"

The present snapped back into place. Hikari looked ahead. Takeru and Patamon were still in sight. It had been seconds. Only seconds. She glanced at Tailmon, and looked over her shoulder at Sabrina, before hesitantly taking a few steps forward and running after Takeru.

Blue strolled up to Sabrina's side, and watched them go until they were completely out of sight.

"This has been as interesting as you promised," he said, crossing his arms. "But now I want the facts, Sabrina. What the hell is going on?"

"Something big," she answered solemnly. "So big that I cannot tell if I should be in wonder or in terror."

"Izumi," Miyako pleaded tiredly.

"Inoue," he answered flatly.

Miyako closed her eyes and tried to remain patient. The earlier flicker had been caused by a purposeful shutting off of their power. Their back-up system was up and running, and could hold them for weeks if they maintained it properly, but Koushiro had been in a semi-hysterical state ever since they had stabilized. The bottom floor of the building—the true bottom floor—was little more than a hole in the ground with a bunch of fuse boxes, and he had been in and out of it, mumbling and ducking and glancing up at the ceiling. And now he was poking around in the closed room where they'd first opened Alice's Door, carrying all types of strange supplies in and scattering them like toys. He had yet to answer any of her questions, and the air felt eerily similarly to when they'd hit roadblocks in the past. She hadn't heard him refer to her by her first name all day.

"The power is going to be fine, Izumi. Why are you still on this?"

He tossed a set of pliers, and poked his head out. Koushiro no longer resembled a cool-headed scientist. His sleeves were rolled up, and he'd swept his hair back into a ponytail so short it was almost a waste of a rubber band. Dirt, dust, and cobwebs coated his skin and clothes, and his palms were red from all the things he'd hauled in. Even building the computer hadn't made him look like this.

"Because if we're not prepared, the power isn't going to be fine." He rubbed his hands distractedly on his coat. "I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner. Lots of other stuff on my mind, I guess. In a war, what is the first step if direct, theoretically overpowering force fails to get results?"

"Siege?"

"Broad, but correct. Resources, Inoue. They'll separate us from our resources. The back-up system is great, but it's not meant to be used back to back like that. The cells only last 12 hours. We've got five of them and two charging stations. How many of those rapid cycles of draining and charging do you think they were built for?"

Her eyes lit with understanding…and subsequently welled with dread, flitting up toward the lights and back to Koushiro."They'll at least last long enough to get everyone back and fix this, right?"

Koushiro could almost feel the bags forming under his eyes. "With Amphimon unable to do her job, and this thing attacking... I don't know. I'm not sure we can find the attacker, destroy it, get all our friends back, and give Amphimon the time and power to do her thing. That's not even considering what other trouble this political power-grab bullshit is going to cause next."

She began to pace and whirl, glaring at nothing and nibbling fiercely at her nails. "They don't know what could happen… the others could be trapped in that other world permanently… or that thing could get a hold of Amphimon and Alice's Door!"

"That's right." And you don't know what I know about where that thing is operating from. His eyes darted to the lights again. "I don't know when or how, but they're going to attack our back-up power, and I don't intend to be caught off guard if they successfully damage it. I'm no electrician and there's a very real chance this will fail in practice, but we've got a few days to figure it out or even ask other digidestined about how to do it to give ourselves a fighting chance. We're going to see if we can't turn this testing room into a generator of some kind. Any kind. It's the most impenetrable room we have. Right now I'm banking on Kabuterimon's electricity."

She rolled up her sleeves and walked by him into the testing room. "Why didn't you tell me all this sooner, Izumi?"

"I was kind of hoping I wouldn't have to involve you…"

"That's all?" She turned fierce, defiant eyes on him. "You're coddling me again!"

"No, I—"

"Yes, you are!"

He picked up the pliers he'd carelessly tossed. Maybe she was right. Should he tell her about Bene...? About the Dark Ocean...?

Yes…But not right now. Right now we've got to work on this power problem.

He smiled apologetically. "I guess I am coddling you again. Sorry, Miyako."