((Author's Note: Thank you to 9292 Productions and OPIv2 for the favorite and follows!))

Chapter 02: Into a New and Mysterious World

Tamika returned home from school, and she found her mother in the living room. She was on the telephone and sobbing. This was how her mother had been the last three days. Tamika wanted to ask her where Dad had gone, but she didn't want to bother her. Besides, she had a pretty good idea of what he was doing, which meant he wouldn't be home for a while. Instead, Tamika made her way up the stairs. She walked by the bedroom that belonged to her older brother, Rowan. The door was wide open, but there was no one inside. Both were a strange sight to her, and one that she prayed wouldn't become a common one.

Rowan had been missing for three days. There hadn't been an argument the night before, nor any note signifying that he was running away, and he never even once hinted that he was unhappy or wanted to leave.

The morning he disappeared started out normally enough. Tamika had been downstairs eating a breakfast of milk and cereal and toast. Everyone fended for themselves in the morning as they were all too busy to sit down and have a hearty meal together. Those sorts of mornings were usually reserved for birthdays or Christmas only.

She sat at the small, square table with her dad on her right, scrolling through his cellphone. He always read the news while he ate breakfast. Tamika could hear her mom knocking on Rowan's door. The knocking was light at first but quickly became pounding when he didn't answer her right away.

"Did you hear me?" she demanded. "You're going to be late for school. Again. Wake up!"

Still, no answer. She rapped his door a few more times before letting out an exasperated sigh, loud enough that Tamika could hear her from down the stairs.

"That's it. I'm coming in," she said loudly and barged into the room. All became still, for a moment. Tamika assumed that she was giving Rowan a stern talking to about staying up too late, which happened almost every morning. She believed that everything was normal until she heard a scream.

Her father was the first to lunge out of his seat and run up the stairs. Tamika followed after him and could clearly hear her mom's panicked crying. She was frantically tearing the room apart, searching under the bed and in the closet. Her father tried to talk to her to calm her down so he could understand what was happening. Tamika looked around the room and quickly caught on to what had made her mom a nervous wreck.

Rowan was not in the room. He was nowhere to be found.

They searched the house, but still no Rowan. Her mom got on the telephone and called all of Rowan's friends' parents but none of them knew about him leaving home. She called the police, and then Grandma and Grandpa. No one knew where he was. Her dad got in the car and drove all around town to look for him while her mom continued calling everyone she knew, hoping that any of them had a clue as to where he could have gone.

Tamika ended up missing school that day. Her mother held her tightly and cried. She then urged Tamika to call her friends and see if any of them had seen him. The police arrived at their house within the hour. They took a statement from her mom and she gave them a recent photograph of Rowan. They departed after that, leaving Tamika and her mother alone.

It was late into the night when her dad got home. He had no luck in finding Rowan.

The second day consisted of more searching and another talk with the police. The cops promised to do everything they could to find him, but there was still no trace of Rowan.

Tamika returned to school on the third day. She didn't really have it in her to go and she felt a little resentful for being forced to attend. How was she supposed to learn and study when her big brother was missing?

Tamika and Rowan had been close. Despite the fact that there was a three-year age difference, they got along well and enjoyed each other's company. They played video games and board games together. He had taught her how to ride a bike. He always helped her with her homework, and in turn, she would do his art assignments as she was better at drawing than him.

She went into her bedroom and closed the door quietly behind her. She picked up her keytar and slumped down at her desk. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a couple of textbooks and a notebook. She started on her literature homework first. It seemed easy enough; just read a story out of her English book and write a brief report on it. She opened up the book and played on her keytar as she read.

About ten minutes had passed and she found herself growing restless and quickly losing motivation. She would re-read the passage over and over again, but the text seemed to make even less sense with each revision. All she could think about was her brother.

Might as well check my email first, she thought to herself. She reached for her laptop, which was an older model and tended to work slower, but she wasn't one to complain. She opened up her email and found that she had an unread message from a sender she had never seen before;

"01000100 01101001 01100111 01101001 01110100 01100001 01101100 00100000 01010111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100"

"What's this about?" She wondered aloud. Deep down, she knew better than to click on the mysterious email. It could contain a virus, but curiosity got the better of her and she opened it anyway. It read;

"My name is Veemon. What's yours?"

How weird. She wrote a reply. "My name's Tamika. How are you?"

The reply was instant. "That's a funny name. I'm great. I was exploring Keystone Forest when I stumbled upon this computer in the middle of nowhere. It's old and I'm surprised it works. Have you ever been to Keystone Forest?"

A computer? In a forest?

"No, I've never heard of it," she wrote back.

"Oh! What continent are you from? Directory or File? I'm from Folder."

"I'm from America."

"Never heard of that place before. You're weird."

Tamika was confused by the person she was talking to. This had to be some kind of prank. She made a video call to the mysterious sender, assuming that the person on the other end wouldn't bother to answer.

To her surprise, they did. What greeted her was not what she had expected. On the screen was a strange, blue creature, with horns and a little yellow 'V' on his forehead. He looked like a strange dinosaur of some kind. She couldn't do more than gape at the monster looking back at her.

"You're a funny-looking digimon," the creature said.

"What are you?" Tamika asked in shock.

"A digimon. Isn't that what you are?"

"No, I'm a human."

"Never heard of a humon before."

"Human. Not "humon" or whatever you called me."

"Tamika, was it?"

"And your Veemon?"

"Yup. Great to see you in person. So, Tamika, are you not from the digital world?"

"No, I'm from Earth." Was she talking to an alien of some sort? The last three days had gotten stranger and stranger.

"That's so cool! I never thought I would meet someone from another world," Veemon said.

There came a sudden howl from the distance, and it sounded like a wolf. Veemon's smile quickly faded and was replaced with a look of sheer terror.

"What was that?" Tamika asked.

"It's Fangmon. I was sure I had lost him. Can you help me? He's after me."

"How can I help?"

"I don't know. Do something!"

Tamika had no clue what she could do from her end of the line. The howl came again, louder this time. Whatever was after Veemon was getting closer, and fast. She put her hand on the screen, wishing there was something she could do.

Suddenly, and without warning, Tamika began to feel dizzy. The world spun around her, and she felt electricity coursing through her veins, burning and growing numb at the same time. Tamika closed her eyes tightly. She was terrified by what was happening. She tried to let out a scream, but no sound came out.

Then she felt like she was submerged in water, with calming and gentle waves washing over her. She could breathe and when she tried to open her eyes, all she could see was a multitude of bright and flashing colors. She shut her eyes again, so terrified by what was happening to her.

Just as quickly as those horrible sensations came, they faded away. She felt normal again, but what she saw when she finally dared to open her eyes was anything but. She was standing in the forest that had appeared on her computer screen. She looked around and was amazed to find rock-like keyboards hanging from the branches of the trees. Pixelated particles floated about the air like pollen, and there were no sounds of wildlife to be heard.

"Tamika?"

She turned around and saw Veemon, standing before her. He was only about half her height, something Tamika hadn't quite expected. Right behind Veemon was a stump, and on top of the stump was an old-looking computer and keyboard.

"How did you do that?" Veemon asked.

"Where am I?" Tamika asked, disoriented.

"This is Keystone Forest. It's one of my favorite places to go exploring."

"I can't believe it…" Tamika moved slowly and cautiously. She was in shock. Had she really been pulled through her computer and sent to a different world? That had to be impossible.

"Today just keeps getting weirder," Tamika mumbled to herself. Her keytar was still slung over her shoulder, and she adjusted it so it was resting on her back. She didn't figure she would need it.

"Oh no!" She heard Veemon gasp. He was hovering over the computer monitor and smacking the top of it. "This monitor is what you shot out of, but it's turned off. I can't get it to turn back on."

Tamika tried pushing the power button on the side of the monitor but nothing happened. She tried pressing keys on the keyboard but only got the same result.

A howl came from the distance, loud and clear. Whatever that thing was, it was very close to them.

"That's Fangmon," Veemon explained. "It's a wild digimon. Usually, they leave me alone, but this one is trying to eat me."

"We should hide, then."

"They have a very keen sense of smell. There's no hiding from them. We'll just have to get back to my house."

The sun was setting, painting the sky with a beautiful mixture of dark blues and bright pinks. They had less than an hour to get out of the forest before nightfall. They heard multiple howls as well as loud snarling and barking. It sounded like a pack of them were fighting amongst themselves. Now seemed like the perfect time to escape.

"Let's go. We can come back here in the morning when those guys are sleeping," Veemon continued. "It's just too dangerous out here at night."

Veemon was just about to lead them through the forest but stopped. Tamika felt her heart skip a beat and her stomach knot when she saw, standing before them, a large wolf, the likes of which she had never seen before. Its fur was deep red, its long snout was lined with razor-sharp teeth, and its bright, yellow eyes were staring at them. Saliva dripped from its jaws as it slowly made its way over to them.