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The Digital World

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Evenings in the Digital World were a spectacular sight to see. Unlike the real world, the skies here were completely clean of pollution. Thus, it was easy to see all the stars in the sky. Of course, one would inevitably start to wonder how those stars got there. Were they from a website about space? Were they just pictures, and not real stars burning billions of miles away? Or were they something else entirely? In the Digital World, you could never tell. All you could do was admire it.

One of these days... I'm going to fly to that giant moon in the sky, and see if it's really there. Seeing it reminds me of home... spending the long nights awake, musing on my past... deciding how best to hide my "children" from Giovanni and his servants. *Sigh*... I hope they're all right. Dragonite is a good caretaker... and the super pokémon know how to take care of themselves if anyone attacked... but still... we were family. There, I was their protector... their guardian. Here... I'm nothing. Over the last six months, I've learned that I'm not needed. If I have nobody to protect… then what use am I?

As these thoughts went through his head, he stared up into the sky, perched upon a high rock like the cat... like the 'predator' that he was. The full moon shined in the background, making his silhouette easily visible in the twilight. To him, the night was like a blanket; it gave him a feeling of security. One might ask why a creature like him would need to feel safe, but you forget. All predators feel safe in the dark... because they know they are in control.

*snap*

A sound. A twig has broken. Instinctively he scanned the area with his telepathic abilities, but immediately he suppressed it. With the full moon shining bright, he felt like letting his wild side come out to play. He lowered his body to the ground as much as possible and stared in the direction of the noise. His ears swerved in the direction of the sound, and his glowing eyes scanned the area for its source. He knew that something was there, but what it was he wasn't sure about. He sniffed the air, calling up old instinctive memories. He wasn't sure what to expect, since in the Digital World even the smells were a little off-kilter. Digimon scents were a little weird to one not trained or used to them. He had been here long enough to get a feel for them though, and it was easy enough to tell that it was a digimon in the vicinity.

Hmm...a familiar scent. The pokémon relaxed a little, realizing whom it was. He let his thick tail move around to pass the time before the digimon found him. He could call out, but that would ruin the fun. Besides, all predators felt better knowing they could hide so well that they couldn't be found even when they were close enough to whisper.

From the brush below the rocky outcropping, a small, plant-like creature emerged. It had a pink flower petal adorning its head, and several leaves beneath it that served as hair for the digimon. She stepped cautiously, since she was a little scared of these parts of the woods. She knew that several large digimon lived around here, and without her human friend there to help her digivolve...

"...Mewtwo?" she whispered. "Are you here? It's me, Palmon."

"Psst... Palmon," whispered another digimon. Palmon turned around as a little pink bird digimon walked up behind her.

Mewtwo thought about talking to them telepathically, but decided against it. He was still curious to see how long it would take for them to find him.

"Biyomon, are you sure he's here?" whispered Palmon. "I don't think anything is around here."

"Palmon, I know he's here. This is where he goes to relax," answered Biyomon.

"How would you know?" asked Palmon.

"Usually he lets me relax with him," she answered with a smile. "When he's in a good mood, he's like a playful little kitten."

"Him in a good mood? You've gotta be kidding," replied Palmon with a smile. "Whenever I see him, he always looks like he's about to blow up something."

"You just don't know the real him," said Biyomon. "He's very calm and quiet."

RRRAHRAHRR!!

"AHHHHH!" shrieked the two digimon, jumping about thirty feet into the air before landing back on the ground in a heap. They scrambled to their feet and searched for the source of the roar. Rather than hear a roar however, they heard something like... laughing? Biyomon and Palmon got up, while Mewtwo sat up so that they could see him easily. He was smiling lightly and laughing in the back of his throat, while the two digimon regained control of their heart rates.

"Mewtwo, what was the point of that!" yelled Palmon. Biyomon couldn't help but start laughing as well. "I just about had a heart attack!"

Mewtwo hopped down from his perch to where the other two were. "Sorry, I couldn't help it," he answered. "Is something the matter?"

"'Is something the matter?'...Where've you been!" asked Biyomon. "Nobody has seen you in weeks. You could have told someone where you went."

"I can take care of myself, Biyomon. I don't need an escort."

Palmon stomped up to the much taller Mewtwo. "Just because you think you're all big and bad doesn't mean you can just disappear without telling anybody! What if something happened to you, and nobody knew where you were?" Mewtwo glanced over at Biyomon, who looked at him wordlessly. She didn't have to- her eyes showed the concern that was in her mind.

"...I'm sorry, but I needed some time to think. I didn't mean to worry you."

Biyomon smiled lightly. "It's okay… but don't make us worry like that."

"She was the only one worried," added Palmon. Biyomon whacked the other digimon from behind, and whistled innocently when Palmon turned around.

Mewtwo looked at the night sky to get a feel for what time it was. He looked back down at the two digimon. "Well, since you two are here, I might as well fly you home." Mewtwo picked the two digimon up carefully and lightly floated into the air as he headed west towards the main continent.

"By the way, how did you two get here?" asked Mewtwo. "It's a long way to Server."

"Biyomon gave me a ride when I offered to come with her," answered Palmon.

"Yeah, but I didn't expect her to have gained a few pounds," said Biyomon playfully.

"Hey, I've been cutting down!" said Palmon defensively. "You've just gotten weak in your old age."

"Old age! I'm only five! You're the same age as me!"

"Hey old lady, you're ten seconds older than I am!" retorted Palmon. "And besides, I look much younger than you."

Biyomon gasped from the insult. "What's that supposed to mean!" Mewtwo couldn't help but smile as the two digimon bickered in his arms.

*ping*

Mewtwo's eyes instantly focused into a determined stare, causing the two digimon to stop. "...Mewtwo?" said Biyomon tentatively.

The pokémon looked slowly towards a spot far to the southwest. "...Something is wrong."

****

"It's about time you guys showed up," said Davis. Davis glanced down at his D3 for the time as TK, Kari, and Yolei met him and Cody at the gate. "We're already late for the dance."

"Just relax Davis. There's still plenty of time for you to lean against the wall and watch everyone else dance with their dates," said Yolei.

"Yeah right Yolei. So what loser did you get to go on a date with you? Bernie from the Science Club?"

Yolei turned red slightly. "Well, I uh... I'm going with Ken," she said with slight embarrassment.

Cody's face twitched. "Let's just get back home," he said angrily. Yolei kept her eyes on the ground, while the others stared in surprise at the little digidestined. Cody turned to the TV with his digivice held out. "Digi-port open!"

Nothing.

"Huh?" Cody tried again. "Digi-port open!" Again, nothing happened. Cody looked at his D3. "Don't tell me my battery ran out! Man, what a night..."

"Let me try," said TK. He held out his digivice. "Digi-port open!" They waited for several seconds, but again nothing happened.

"What's goin' on?" asked Armadillomon. "Is the TV broken?"

"Maybe we should look for another one," added Davis.

"The closest one is probably a mile away though, at least," said Hawkmon.

"Something weird is going on," said Cody.

Beep Beep Beep..."Guys, you there?"

"Izzy?" Davis held up his D3. "What is it Izzy?"

"Have you tried to use the gate yet?"

"Yeah, we tried but it didn't work," answered Davis. "Is something wrong with it?"

"Not only is something wrong with the gate, but there's something strange happening at a place near your position." On their D3's, a beeping white dot appeared on their Detect mode screen. Judging by the position of the dot, it was about a hundred yards to the north.

"What do you mean? There's-"

A low, rumbling noise began. The ground seemed to vibrate slowly, causing pebbles in the vicinity to shuffle around.

"You were saying?"

"What is that!" yelled Veemon. "We don't get many earthquakes around here!"

"As far as I can tell, something is disrupting the data of the Digital World in that area. It's sending out waves of static that seem to be messing up the digital information. I've never seen anything like it, but it seems to be causing the problems with the gate."

"Can we stop it?" asked TK quickly.

"Possibly. The source of the problem seems to be an entity of some sort."

"An entity?" repeated Davis. "Don't you mean a digimon?"

"I don't know if it really is a digimon. It seems to be digital...but it doesn't have a definite form to it. It looks too random to be alive, but it registers on the Digimon Analyzer somehow."

"Well, does it have a name?" said Davis as they ran towards the center of the rumbling, which seemingly grew stronger as they got closer.

"The picture is just static, and the other data is just a bunch of zeroes!" replied Izzy. "The analyzer can tell it's a digital life form, but it has no data on it."

"Whatever, we've just got to stop it! Let's go guys!" said Davis. The team ran as fast as it could towards the problem source, noticing that the ground was shaking even more violently the nearer they got. Soon, they came into a clearing, where the ground was being forced outward like ripples in a pond. At the center of this ripple, a strange mass of swirling black dots, with blue energy crackling between the various marble-like objects floated. The digidestined couldn't tell if it saw them, since it didn't have any eyes as far as they could tell.

"Hey!" shouted Davis. "You better stop this or we'll have to teach you a lesson!"

Kari gave him a cock-eyed glance. "Was that your 'all-powerful' statement of courage to the enemy?"

"Well what do you want me to say?" he replied. "Hello Mister bad guy, could you please stop making this earthquake?"

The rumbling effect around the monster increased, and a wave of force swept through the ground, shattering earth and sending the kids and their digimon flying backwards. They landed with a thud several yards away, aching and groaning.

Veemon got to his feet first. "That's it! I've had enough of this guy! V-headbutt!" The blue digimon sped through the air like a speeding bullet, and slammed through the enemy with ease. When he came out the other side, he was screaming in pain, and crackling with blue energy like that within the creature. He convulsed on the ground, flickering as its body's pixels visibly weakened.

"Veemon!" cried out Davis as he ran over to Veemon.

"Let's go guys!" ordered Gatomon. "Don't let it touch you!" As the digimon charged, the kids held their D3's up high, and started the digivolving sequence.

Hawkmon, armor digivolve to... Halsemon, the Wings of Love!

Armadillomon, armor digivolve to... Digmon, the Drill of Power!

Patamon, armor digivolve to... Pegasumon, Flying Hope!

Gatomon, armor digivolve to... Nefertimon, the Angel of Light!

Davis kneeled beside Veemon and held him up carefully. "Veemon! You okay?"

The digimon growled with pain. Slowly the odd crackling halted, as did the pain...well, most of it. "That guy... sure has some spank in him."

Davis smiled. "Yeah, you're alright. Are you up for some digivolving?"

"I...I'll try," said Veemon as he managed to get on his own two feet. He clenched his fists and grunted menacingly as Davis whipped out his digivice.

Veemon, digivolve to... Patamon?

Davis practically fell over. "What the heck happened?" he cried. "You're Patamon!"

'Veemon' screamed frightfully as he looked at himself. "Ahh! I'm a flying pig!"

Pegasusmon shot another Star Shower at the mystery being, who shimmered as he moved quickly out of the line of fire. "Flying pig? Why you... Watch it!" he said as a high-pressure water blast was launched towards Nefertimon nearby. The two armor digimon dived out of the way.

"Veemon, de-digivolve and try again," said Davis quickly.

"Got it!" the digimon said, in Patamon's high voice. The digimon glowed momentarily, and soon Veemon was back again. He patted himself to make sure, then checked his head for wing-ears, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay..."

"Veemon, digivolve to... Exveemon!"

"*Phew*... all right, go get him Exveemon!" yelled Davis.

"With pleasure! Exvee Blast!" A blast of energy shot out from the digimon's chest towards the opponent, and slammed into its floating form with enough force to send just about all its pieces flying to the ground. The multi-marbled creature crackled as it tried to reassemble itself and float back up, but the blast seemingly took out the last of its strength, causing it to disappear into thousands of tiny pixels.

"All right!" cheered Davis. "We got it!"

"Don't celebrate just yet Davis!" said Exveemon. "Look!" When they looked over at the place where the creature had just turned into a million itty-bitty pieces, they were shocked to see the pixels themselves actually gather. They shoot off in a seemingly random direction, leaving the kids and the digimon in shock as the rumbling stopped.

"Where'd that thing go?" asked Exveemon as he de-digivolved into Veemon once again. "I've never seen anything do that before!"

"Is everyone alright?" asked Kari as she picked up Gatomon.

"Yeah, I think so," answered Davis. "So what is that thing?"

"...Missingo," said a soft, deep voice as it landed. The digidestined and digimon turned to see a familiar face- Mewtwo, along with Biyomon and Palmon hopping down from his arms.

"Missingo?" repeated Yolei. "That doesn't sound like a digimon name..."

Mewtwo frowned. "That's because it wasn't a digimon. It was a pokémon... from my world."