The tall man was carrying a briefcase in one hand and his coat in the other

Author's note: Not sure how many chapters this one'll be, but to me it seems pretty spread out. Anyways, here's the prologue. Hope you enjoy. Oh, btw, I've discovered that I really like to write Matt experiencing a lot of angst. So be prepared. *grins evilly*

Oh and also, for most of you that don't know, I tend to only write about season 01, Matt being my prime objective. Don't get me wrong, the second season had its moments, but I think the first was the best!

Disclaimer: Ya already know I don't own this stuff.

Rating: PG for violence (whatever your definition of the word may be).

Prologue

Yamato Ishida's father carried his briefcase in one hand and his coat in the other.  It was well past midnight when he had arrived, and the signs of tiredness and exhaustion were already present on his face.  He yawned as he put his key in the door.  Anymore late nights like this, he thought, and he'd be dead within the week.

He was very cautious and quiet upon entering the house; he did not want to wake his eldest son.  He felt bad for not being around much to watch his son grow up, but the bills needed to get paid, and when his job called he had to answer.  His son was doing alright though, he had good friends and was turning out to be an excellent musician, he thought.

He made his way down the hall towards his room, to drop off the few articles he carried.  He really felt bad about tonight though, tonight they were supposed to do something together.  Usually no matter what, they set a side one night each week to spend time together.  This was that night, but he had called and told Matt that he would be running late.  He had hoped that it wouldn't be too much of a disappointment.

When he went to check in Matt's room, he realized his son was not there.  Not wanting to over react he started to search the other rooms of the house, until he finally found the blonde boy asleep on the couch, remote control in hand.  Poor guy, he thought, I really need to make this up to him.

He picked his son up and brought him into his bedroom, where he laid him on the bed and covered him with a blanket.

"I promise I'll make this up to you," he whispered as he quietly shut the door behind him.

When Matt woke up he realized that there was smoke everywhere.  He covered his mouth and began coughing as he tried to reach the door to his bedroom.  At first touch he noticed it was very hot and he drew his hand back instantly.  He immediately came to the conclusion that the house was on fire.

"DAD!!" he called out.

He was unsure if his father had made it home yet or not, but was determined to find him.  Throwing caution to the wind, he ripped the door open and crawled on his stomach out the door and towards his father's room, as he watched the flames and smoke rise to the ceiling.

Just as he was about to open the door to his father's room, it burst into flames, which threw him back against the wall.  Matt shook his head in order to clear it, and peered into the bedroom.  Everything was on fire.  He shielded his eyes from the heat, which started to become unbearable.

Perhaps his father had not made it home yet, but as he focused in closer he saw the charred remains of his dad's briefcase in the doorway to the closet, or what was left of the closet.

"NO!!" Matt cried, tears welling up in his eyes, "This can't be happening!"

All he knew now was that he had to get out of there, and fast before the entire building collapsed under the flames.  The smoke stung his eyes, and he could barely see what was in front of him.  He made his way to what he perceived to be an exit, the fire escape.  Before he could take another step a flaming beam came crashing down in front of him.  He jumped back alarmed.  The inhalation of smoke began to disorient him.  He tried to think of another way out, but before he could come to any decision another beam came crashing down, pinning him to the floor.

"Aaauugghh!" he cried as the splintering wood cut into him.  He couldn't move now.  All was lost he thought, and started crying out for help, but his cries went unanswered.  Matt lay on his back coughing and choking on the smoke.  It would take a miracle now.  He wished Gabumon were there, he wished his dad were there.  His thoughts became no more, when he looked up and saw a shower of flaming debris about to land on him.

"NOOOOOO!!!" he cried.

Matt flew up out of his bed, sweating profusely and gasping for air.  His eyes were wide with fear, until he snapped out of it and gazed around his darkened room.

"A….a..n-nightmare," was all he managed to say amid his trembling.

He sat upright in his bed and pulled his knees to his chin.  He held on tightly, trying to get the shaking to stop.  He could have sworn he heard some light giggling, but dismissed it as being a hallucination brought on by his nightmare.

He had to be sure though, so he got up and crept down the hall barefoot.  His dad must be home, he thought, because he fell asleep on the couch and woke up in his room.  He slowly opened the door to his dad's room and poked his head in, relieved to see the still form of his father lying asleep in his bed.

Matt closed his eyes and sighed in relief.  He shut the door and made his way to the kitchen.  He needed a glass of milk to calm his nerves.  That's when he swore he heard the giggling again.

"Come on man," he said to himself, "Snap out of it, it was just a stupid dream."

Once he got his drink, he went back to his bedroom to try and get back to sleep.  However, he was unaware of the pair of red glowing eyes watching him.  They slowly disappeared as he drifted off to sleep.  This time his dreams were left undisturbed by any nightmares and he slept soundly the rest of the night.

The next morning Joe was up with the sun.  He had a very busy day ahead of him, what with all the studying he had to do before school started in the fall.

"Is that all you do is study now?" his brother asked as he poured a bowl of cereal.

"I like to get a head start on these things you know, the early bird catches the worm I always say." he retorted.

"Man, you're just a kid, how boring." he shook his head and laughed at his younger brother. "Why don't you go and hang out with your friends today, it is summer vacation after all."

"Well," Joe pondered, "I guess it couldn't hurt to see what the gang is up to these days." 

He threw his notebooks into his backpack and headed out the door.

"Maybe I'll drop by Izzy's house and see what he's up to and go from there."

"As long as you take a break from those books!" his brother called after him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Izzy was also up with the sun, furiously typing away on his laptop computer.  He was pouring over more data he had found from the digital world.  Gennai constantly emailed him with new things and he wanted to collaborate all the information into one software program.

"Izzy honey?" his mom cracked the door to his room open.

"Yeah mom?" he said in between typing.

"Joe's here."

"Oh send him in, thanks mom!" he said cheerfully.

"You can come in Joe," he heard his mother say off in the distance.

"Hey Izzy, remember me?" Joe said.

"Of course I remember you Joe."

"Well, it's been a couple of weeks and I…" Joe started to ramble.

"Have a seat Joe." Izzy motioned to a chair next to his desk.

"Oh, okay thanks. What are you doing?" he asked as he sat down.

"I'm compiling all this information Gennai sent me from the digital world.  It's a big task and a lot of work is involved, but it's very interesting stuff."

"Oh," Joe said as he gaped at the computer screen. "Have you heard from Tentomon or Gomamon in a while? I kinda miss them you know."

"Actually, I haven't, but I bet Gennai could get a hold of them, if you wanted to say hi."

"Well, not if it's too much trouble, I just figured, well Gomamon must be going crazy and all, it's hard to not be around me." he chuckled.

"Sure Joe, I'll ask Gennai right now." he said as he activated his email account.

"Wouldn't it be great if all the kids could say hi to their digimon?" Joe added.

"I suppose it would, we should call them up one of these days and have everyone come over."  Izzy began.

"Why not today?" Joe asked.

"Hmm…" Izzy thought, "Not a bad idea Joe, why don't you call everyone and invite them over."

"Okay Izzy, you're the boss." Joe said with a smile.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Over here Tai!" Sora shouted as she ran up the field towards the goal.

"Comin' at ya!" Tai hollered as he zipped past a couple of other kids, skillfully kicking the ball in between their legs.

He launched the ball to Sora, who deflected it with her knee and bounced it off her head towards the ground where she belted it into the opposing team's net.  The goalie never saw it coming.

"Yeah! Alright Sora! We won!!" Tai shouted in triumph.

"Yay Tai!"  Kari shouted from the sidelines.  Her and her friend T.K. jumped up and down enthusiastically, celebrating the victory.

"Thanks for inviting me Kari," T.K. said.

"Your welcome," Kari replied.

"I'm just sorry Matt couldn't be here, he said dad was making him do chores today."

"That doesn't sound like much fun." Kari added.

Tai and Sora ran over to where the two younger kids stood.

"Hey Kari, where's Mimi?  I thought she said she'd be here?" Tai asked.

"She said her and her mom were going shopping today." Kari answered.

"Oh brother," Tai said as he slapped his forehead, "They'll be gone for hours."

"Hey!" Sora interjected, "We won! Let's go down to the mall and get some ice cream, we can probably meet Mimi there!"

"Good idea Sora!" Tai said.

"Let's go!" Kari shouted as she took off down the street with T.K. in tow.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

At the mall, Mimi and her mother were going crazy, running in and out of the numerous shops.

"Look mom, how cute!" she squealed as she picked up a bright pink fuzzy cowboy hat.

"Oh it's adorable sweetie!" her mom replied.

They both looked at eachother, whipped out Mimi's dad's credit cards and yelled, "Charge it!" like Wilma and Betty from the Flintstones.

"I love mother/daughter day!" Mimi shrieked.

Across the crowded mall, Tai, Sora, T.K., and Kari were busy indulging themselves with ice cream sundaes, but Mimi's familiar squeals and shrieks were easily recognizable and it wasn't long before all five children met up with each other.

Mimi's cell phone rang a few minutes after their rendezvous.

"Oh hi Izzy!" Mimi chirped into the phone, "Yeah the others are here with me.  You're going to do what?  Oh that's great! We'll be there!" She hung up and turned to the other children.

"Hey guys, that was Izzy! He said that he would set it up with Gennai so we could say hi to our digimon!!"

"That's awesome!" Tai shouted.

"Let's get over there right now! My mom can give us a ride!" Mimi added, "I can't wait to talk to Palmon again!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, as the other children made their way to Izzy's house, Matt was still at home finishing up his chores.

"That's that." he said as he pulled the last bit of laundry from the dryer and dumped it into the hamper. "Now all I gotta do is fold this stuff and I can go hang out with the other kids!"

As Matt was busy folding away, the same pair of red eyes that had watched him the night before peered out of the hall closet.

"This kid has to be one of those digi-destined!" he squeaked. "I will destroy him!  What a more perfect plan than to pick them off one by one while they aren't in the digital world and don't have their lousy digimon to help them." he said trying to suppress his evil laughter.

This particular digimon was pitch black in color.  He had long red talons, red eyes, and a pair of black bat wings.  He carried a charcoal colored dream catcher around his neck and stood about four feet tall.  His face was all distorted and looked nightmarishly horrible, but only the parts that could be seen from under the black mask he wore.  His robe was the same fashion as the Grim Reaper's minus the scythe.  He laughed devilishly as he threw the closet door open.

Matt had heard the loud thud of the door hitting the wall. "What was that!?" he questioned in surprise.

Matt left the laundry room and made his way down the hall.  As he rounded the corner he came face to face with the evil digimon.

"Y-you're a digimon!" Matt exclaimed completely shocked at the digimon's appearance.

"Are you the one they call Matt?" the evil digimon sneered, giving Matt the once over in order to size up his opponent.

"How do you know my name!?" Matt said, becoming extremely defensive.  He didn't like the looks of this digimon and could tell he would be trouble.

"That's for me to know!" spat the dark digimon, "and now that I know who you are I can destroy you!"

With that the evil digimon began to approach the boy.

"Who are you!?" Matt yelled.

"I'm Maremon!" he proclaimed. "The dark digimon who possesses the power of altering dreams.  My Nightmare Attack is a killer!" he smirked.

Matt knew that he wouldn't be able to defeat this digimon without Gabumon, so he did the first thing that came to mind and ran.

"Come back here you little twirp!" Maremon shouted.

All the while Matt ran, he tried to figure out how this digimon had got to the real world.  Just as he was about to make his way out the front door something wrapped itself around his neck and pulled him from behind.

"Where do you think you're going!?" Maremon yelled.

Chains had formed out of his right arm and he used those to snare Matt.  He jerked back on the chains, which sent the blonde boy flying backwards.  Matt landed with a thud on the living room floor.  His fingers dug into the chains that had begun to tighten around his neck, cutting off his air supply.  He pulled on them, trying to free himself, but his attempts seemed to be futile.

"This is too easy," Maremon laughed.

Matt then saw his chance; he reached out to the coffee table and grabbed a vase full of flowers off of it.  He flung the projectile at Maremon, who was busy laughing.  The vase hit him upside the head, which surprised him and he released his grip on Matt.

"You little brat!" Maremon cried with venom in his voice. "I'll get you for that!"

Just as Matt whirled around to try his second attempt at escaping, he felt a stinging pain across his left arm as Maremon tore his red talons into the boy's shoulder.

"Auughhh!" Matt yelped in pain.

The digimon was now sitting on his chest.  He was about to make a fatal blow by driving his talons into Matt's forehead, when the boy kicked him in the stomach, sending the dark digimon sprawling to the floor.  Matt picked himself up and clutched his left shoulder.  He ran out the front door of his apartment and down the hall towards the elevators.

"Come on!" he pleaded as he hit the buttons on the wall panel, hoping that his urgent pleas would speed up the elevator's progress somehow.

As soon as the doors opened, Matt flew into the elevator and slammed the door close button just as Maremon was inches away from the elevator doors.  He hit the button for the lobby, and sighed in relief that he had so far escaped the evil digimon. Before Matt could get too comfortable the elevator lurched to a stop on the first floor knocking him off his feet.  He looked up to see red talons tearing through the metal of the elevator roof.

"Uh oh," he said as he dove towards the elevator doors and wrenched them open.

The minute he got out he glanced down the hall in both directions, trying to devise an escape plan.  To the left was a giant glass window that overlooked the street, and to the right were the stairs.  Without hesitating, Matt raced down the hall towards the stairs.

Maremon was seething.  When he finally managed to tear his way through the elevator ceiling, he teleported in front of Matt, blocking off his exit.

"What!?" Matt said in surprise.

Before he had time to react, Maremon threw his hands up in the air and created a large ball of red energy.

"Nightmare Attack!" he shouted, as the energy ball created a shock wave that sent Matt crashing through the huge window at the other end of the hall.

He wasn't wearing his gloves and the glass cut through his fingers and hands as he grabbed onto the shards that bordered the frame of the window.  Large pieces of glass went flying into the streets and Matt dangled from the first floor window, as Maremon hovered over to finish the attack.

"Now digi-destined," he said, eyes glowing blood red, "you die."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Izzy was tapping away furiously at the keyboard.  His correspondence with Gennai was not as casual or friendly as he had anticipated.  Gennai was warning them about two new dark forces that somehow escaped the digital world, and were out to seek vengeance on the digi-destined.

"The first one's name is Maremon." Izzy told Joe, who sat biting his fingernails.  All he wanted to do was say hi to Gomamon, but no, it can never be as simple as that he thought.

"He controls people's dreams, or should I say nightmares.  He carries a dark dream catcher around his neck that he uses to trap dreams…and other digimon."

Joe gulped. "Can he catch people with that thing too?"

Izzy's face twisted in despair, "I'm afraid so."

"We need to warn the other kids," Joe said.

"Luckily they're on their way here right now.  I think this little bit of information is going to disappoint them though."  Izzy continued. "I guess we'll be having a reunion with our digimon after all." he added.

"This isn't the kind of reunion I was hoping for." Joe said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

________________________________________________________________________

"I know!" T.K. shouted. "Let's go pick up my brother, so he can say hi to Gabumon!"

All the children had somehow piled into Mimi's mom's car and were now headed down the street.

"Okay," Mimi's mom agreed.  "I'm so happy this thing with those monsters are over now, I was so worried about you Mimi."

"Oh mom, it's okay," Mimi began, "we defeated the dark masters and everyone else that was causing damage to the digital world.  Now there's nothing to worry about."

"I think you spoke too soon!" Tai shouted as they rounded the corner to Matt's apartment complex.

"Is that my brother!?" T.K. screamed and pointed to the boy dangling out of the first story window of the building.

"It is!!" Tai confirmed as Mimi's mom slammed on the brakes, and the car screeched to a stop.

"We have to help him Tai!" Kari shouted.

"Let's go!" Tai yelled as all the kids piled out of the car.

"Not again!" Mimi's mom wailed.

The children ran to the spot just below where Matt was hanging.

"What do we do now!?" T.K. cried.

"Hang on Matt!  We're coming!" Tai yelled up to his friend.

Matt glanced down at the street to see his brother and his friends standing just feet below him.

"Hurry up, I don't think he's going to wait!" Matt yelled

Maremon poked his head out the window, "Ahh, more digi-destined. Perfect." he smiled maliciously.

"We need something to catch him with!" Tai yelled.

"My mom has a picnic blanket in the trunk!" Mimi suggested.

"Let's get it!" Tai said as he ran for the car.

All the kids assembled right below Matt and each held a corner of the blanket.

"Okay Matt, when I say so, let go of the window sill!" Tai shouted.

"Like I have a choice!" Matt yelled back as his fingers began to slip from the sill.  It was agonizing pain, because the broken glass continued to dig into his hands.

"Okay everyone, hold on tight," Tai commanded, he glanced up at his friend, "Alright Matt! Now!!"

Matt propelled himself backwards and time seemed to stand still as he began his descent.  Just when he thought he might be in the clear, Maremon's chains wrapped around his neck again.

"Oh no, you're not getting away that easily!" Maremon sneered.

"Maaattttttt!!" T.K. cried.

Matt sat there dangling from the metal noose.  He had to get free somehow before his own weight broke his neck.  The fact that he could barely breath was not helping the matter.  Just when things looked their grimmest another digimon appeared on the scene.

He was more gruesome than the last.

"Fearmon!" Maremon shouted angrily. "What are you doing here!?"

"I have come to destroy the digi-destined!" the other digimon replied.

This one had a black cape and no physical body.  He had long, spindly arms with giant hands, and emerald talons.  His eyes glowed red as well, but his face was merely a black ethereal cloud, much like the rest of his body.  He wore a black hood that covered his head.

Luckily for Matt, Maremon's attention was diverted, and he released his hold on the young boy's throat.  Matt fell conveniently onto the blanket his friends had outstretched.  T.K. immediately dove at the boy when he reached the ground.

"Oh Matt, I'm so glad you're okay!" he cried. Then he took a better look at his brother. "Wait a minute Matt, you're not okay, what happened to your arm!?"

He reached down and grabbed Matt's hands. "And your hands!?"

"It's nothing T.K., let's just get out of here, while those two goons are busy arguing!" Matt said.

Everyone piled back into the car and headed over to Izzy's house to report their new findings.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Wow!" Izzy exclaimed, "Maremon did this!?"  The boy asked as he examined Matt's wounds.

Matt clenched his teeth, as Izzy's mom poured iodine on the cuts on his hands and fingers.  She had already bandaged up his arm, which had stopped bleeding, but was very sore.

"Well, it wasn't a Nomamon!" Matt spat sarcastically trying to fight back crying out in pain.

"Easy Matt, he was just wondering." Joe commented.

"Sorry," Matt said with a remorseful look.

"It's okay Matt, I understand," Izzy said. "Well then, I guess there's no need to tell you about Maremon and Fearmon since you apparently have already met." Izzy added.

"Does this mean we get to go back to the digital world?" Kari asked.

"Most definitely," Izzy replied.

"Oh boy, that mean old digimon won't know what hit him when I get Angemon on him!" T.K. began, "No one hurts my brother and gets away with it!"

"Settle down there squirt, I'm alright," Matt assured him.

"At least we'll get to see our digimon again." Tai said, trying to sound optimistic.

Izzy's mom and Mimi's mom looked at eachother and sighed hopelessly.

"You children are not leaving again!?" they both wailed.

"I'm afraid so mom," Izzy said.  "We need our digimon to fight these new evil digimon."

"Just be careful!" Mimi's mom cried, giving her a big hug.

"Let's go you guys!" Tai hollered.

"Alright, Gennai's setting it up right now!" Izzy said as the computer monitor began to glow bright yellow.

Mimi and Izzy's moms just watched as the children disappeared off into the digital world.

"I hope they'll be okay," Mimi's mom sobbed.

"I'm sure they will, they've done this before, remember?" Izzy's mom reassured.

To be continued…

Closing Note: Wow! This is actually the very first Digimon fic I ever wrote. Since not very many people reviewed my last fic, I figured they didn't like it much. I'm still going to finish it, but I thought I'd post this one to see if anyone takes an interest in it. Please R+R!!! I'll post the next chapter if I can get at least one review. =) Also, being as this was the first fic I ever wrote, I felt it needed more work with sentence structure and stuff like that, so if it doesn't seem as well written as my last few stories, it's cuz it was my first and that'll be my excuse. lol.