Created By: Jason Wong
Matt stood just inside the fence of Odiba Elementary. His old school, and his brother's new school. It had been three years since Tai had vanished after giving up his energy to Matt. They'd returned only once to the digital world in order to defeat Apocalymon and leave a final goodbye to Tai. Though time now flowed equally between the two worlds, Matt had never chosen to open the gateway again. And then, when he had tried, he'd discovered that he wasn't able to. Matt had never achieved the power required for Omnimon to reappear. Izzy had theorized that Tai had brought his friendship out far more than ever before allowing the extra energy to surface. But without that friendship, he couldn't achieve the same level of power.
Matt looked towards the entrance of the school and saw his brother arriving with two other kids. TK started school earlier than Matt, so Matt was able to make sure TK arrived safely. For a fleeting instant, TK's attention was drawn towards the soccer field. Matt glanced in the general direction and stared. There on the field was a young boy wearing goggles.
"Tai?" exclaimed Matt to himself. "No, it can't be. It must be that guy... Davis, yeah, Kari said he reminded her so much of Tai."
"Hey Kari." said Davis. "What luck, you're in my class again."
"I wouldn't call that luck." replied Kari.
"Hey, you'll never guess what happened. This guy said I remined him of someone." said Davis. "Probably thinks I'm a movie star or something."
"Hello class, my name is Mr. Homasaki...." said the teacher introducing himself. "I'd like you to meet a new student."
"Hey, it's that guy." thought Davis as TK entered.
"Hi, my name's TK." said TK bowing.
"Please take the seat next to the girl wearing the camera around her neak." said the teacher.
"Together again." said TK as he sat down.
"Just like old times." said Kari.
"He's making a move on my girl." thought Davis seething.
"Our teacher looks like Ogremon." joked TK as Kari laughed.
"So how's your mom like the new apartment TK? asked Kari.
"I don't know, she hasn't seen it yet. She's been on the computer the whole time." replied TK.
"Hey, buddy." said Davis.
"His name is TK." said Kari.
"All right TC, or TJ, or CJ. How'd you know Kari?" demanded Davis.
"How do I know her?" asked TK. "Oh, I get it, you're jealous of me."
"I'm not jealous of anybody." replied Davis through gritted teeth. (Don't worry, I'm not doing the whole first episode. It'll change allot in just a little bit.)
Davis continued rambling onwards, but TK wasn't listening. A sharp chill had passed down his back. He didn't know why, but he felt something terrible was going on.
"TK, did you feel that?" asked Kari.
"Yeah, something's the matter." said TK. "Hey, Yolei. Just the person I need."
Yolei appeared slightly startled as she passed. "Yeah?" she asked.
"Are you two like, psychic or something?" asked Davis.
"We need to use a computer." replied TK, not even noticing Davis.
"Uhhh, sure." said Yolei.
"Hey, wait up." called Davis in confusion as the others ran off.
They met up with Izzy in one of the corridors on their way.
"Yolei, I've been looking for you. I need to use the computer room." said Izzy.
"You?" exclaimed Yolei, practically bowing down. "The former computer club president is looking for me? I'm honored."
"Did you feel it too?" asked Izzy to TK and Kari.
"Yeah, something bad's going on." they both replied.
The quickly established themselves on the computers. Izzy was quickly typing in computer commands on the screen in an attempt to access the gateway. Yolei had left for Cody's house.
"I don't get it. The digiport won't open for us anymore." said Izzy. "But there's some unknown coding in the system. I'm going to see if I can get at it."
"Hey guys, what's all this about a digiworld?" asked Davis. "Is it some sort of new computer game? Can I play?"
"It's not a game Davis." said TK. "Besides, you need a digivice to get through."
"Got it." cried Izzy. All at once, the terminal filled with light. When it faded, a screen with a digiport on it was sitting there.
"What's this thing?" asked Davis, holding up an object.
"It's a digivice." said TK.
"It's a different model than ours." said Kari holding her's out.
"Hey, can I get Donkey Madness on this?" asked Davis.
"It's not a game." said Izzy. "If the digital world sent you a digivice, there's a reason for it."
"Come on, let's go." said Kari. Immediately she activated the portal.
"Whah?" asked Davis, mouth hanging open as Kari vanished.
"I'm coming Kari." said TK also entering the gateway.
"Come on. You're next, unless you're scared." said Izzy.
"I'm there." said Davis activating his own digivice.
Quickly the entered the digital world. Davis nearly wet himself when a bunch of Numemon came out of a vending machine. They quickly met with up with their own digimon who led them to a cave they said was safe from a new evil. The digimon emperor, the self proclaimed ruler of the digital world. They moved to the back of the cave and discovered a round stone table that contained five eggs. Each one contained a slot with a digiegg in it. On the very back wall, there were three more digieggs, positioned around the central table. In the very center, there was a larger digiegg.
"Courage, love, Hope, Light.... they are emblazoned with our crests." said Izzy. "But I don't see a symbol on the central one. And what's with the positioning of these eggs?"
"Davis, what are you doing?" asked Kari.
"Ahh. I didn't mean to break it." said Davis as the digiegg of courage fell off the table at his touch.
"Interesting." said Izzy. "I wouldn't budge when I touched it. Is Davis the new bearer of the crest of courage?"
In turn, each tried to lift their own eggs. Izzy was unable to lift his own, but Tk and Kari were able to lift theirs.
"Hey, what's going on?" called a voice down the passage.
"Cody? Yolei?" exclaimed TK.
"We were working on Cody's computer when it sucked us in." said Yolei. "What's going on?"
"You have digivices." said Izzy. "Then you must be the ones who can lift the last two eggs."
Yolei and Cody quickly were able to lift the digieggs.
"So what now?" asked Davis.
He was interrupted by five beams of light shooting out of the holes below the digieggs left. Everyone watched in amazement as three digimon appeared. Introductions were quickly exchanged as everyone learned what was going on.
"I feel that this is still highly unusual." said Izzy. "The digiegg of courage shouldn't be active. At least if Tai is dead. So, this means that he's out there somewhere."
"Guys, I've got mail from Matt." said TK holding up his D-terminal. "He says he's been captured, but he can escape easily. And you'll never guess who's with him."
Matt stood in his room at home. His D-Terminal was flashing in his hand. He knew what it meant. It had occurred only once before. A portal to the digital world, for only him had opened. For some reason, his D-Terminal was different. It had the capacity to maintain a gateway. He'd discovered this a year after Tai's demise. He hadn't know what it was and had been sucked through. He didn't find anything unusual. But today, today he knew something was going to happen. he was going to meet a crossroads in his life, now, today. He activated the portal.
Matt landed with a thump on the ground. Almost immediately he found himself knee deep in trouble. He was surrounded by these creatures that were wearing black collars with strange symbols on them. They reminded Matt vaguely of the black gears Devimon used. They immediately seized him and dragged him off to a small cave. They mentioned something about a digimon emperor who would deal with him. Matt wasn't tied up, so he wandered around the cave. All the time he wondered who this emperor was. Suddenly he realized he wasn't alone, there was someone else with him in the cave. A human! But he was wearing one of those strange collars around his neak. The figure looked vaguely familiar and it took Matt a second to realize who it was. When he did, he did a double take. Tai Kamiya! ut it couldn't be him, could it?
"Tai?" asked Matt, cautiously approached. Matt tried various things to get Tai to respond. But to no avail. That's when he noticed that there was something different about the ring around his friend's neak. There were ports on it. Actual computer ports. He opened his D-Terminal to contact his friends about his strange encounter. All the while Tai stood there, looking blankly ahead, ignoring everything that was taking place. After Matt sent his e-mail, he pulled out a small computer chord....
"He's with Tai?" asked Izzy.
"There's more, he says he wants to meet us in the computer lab in ten minutes." said TK.
"I thought you said he'd been captured." said Kari.
"Yeah, shouldn't we rescue him. We have the firepower." said Davis.
"He said he could escape easily." replied TK. "And he means what he says."
Five minutes later the group had reassembled by crashing onto the computer lab floor. Everyone was in a tangled web of body parts. Matt was caught at the bottom of the pile, having been waiting by the computer.
"How did you get into the digital world?" asked Izzy.
Matt held up his D-Terminal. "This terminal can sustain a gateway for a period of time." he said. "But it's only happened twice so far."
"This collar is interesting." said Izzy peering at Tai. "They normally don't have computer imput slots on them according to the digimon."
"How on earth are we going to hide him?" asked TK. "People would ask allot of questions if they saw him walking around ALIVE again."
"I figure we could hide him out at my place. Dad's at work for most of the day and doesn't really pay attention to what I do. He never goes into my room." said Matt. "I've programmed Tai to follow me around. Yes, I know how to program a bit. But getting him out of here could be a problem. This is where you come in TK. No offense to anyone else, but TK is the only one who I can use who won't draw too much attention. I can't use a girl, again, no offense meant. And Izzy, Davis and Cody are to short or would defiantly stand out.
"No offense taken Matt." said Izzy. "I'm sure I speak for everyone, we all know you wouldn't knowingly offend us. But I'd like to inspect Tai, he doesn't look like he's aged at all. Plus I'd like to inspect that collar. So I'm coming with you."
What is Matt's plan? Will they be able to remove the dark collar? How will TK fit into Matt's plan? Find out in the next chapter of "Rebirth of a Leader".
A/N: The reason Tai hasn't aged is because he was reborn in the digital world younger than he was and then aged back to TK and Kari's ages when he was discovered. He is now the same age as he was back in season 1.