This has been beta-read by 3 people so far: Link_of_Shadow, Steve Jester, and PrincessSerenity. Thanks to all of you. It was sent to several other people, though, and I couldn't wait any longer for them, so I just posted this thing. If any of my other beta-readers are reading this, I apologize. You're still welcome to send me your critiques.
"Two worlds there are where monsters live,
And fight for glory and for good;
However, at the present time
All is not going as it should.
An evil being on the rise
Is out to conquer both the lands;
The children who can save their worlds
Hold crests and badges in their hands.
When all the chosen children meet,
They can the evil one defeat."
The worlds were in phase. It was about the same time of day in both of them, people were traveling through both of them, and they were both threatened by an insidious evil. The crests in the Digital World were to be part of the connection between the two worlds. It was time for them to make their move.
In an instant, all eight of them flashed out of the sight of their owners.
"Our crests!" exclaimed Tai, the leader of the group. "What's going on?"
"They just abandoned us . . ." said Matt.
"That's unlikely," Izzy responded. "They're too important to us."
"Maybe something took them!" said Joe, terrified.
"If something has, it'll come out soon," said Sora. "Keep your eyes open."
*******
"Wha - ?"
Ash looked quizzically at the inside of his jacket. "My badges . . . They're different . . ."
"How could they . . ." said his friend Misty, looking at the same thing. There were now eight small, flat rectangles with designs etched on them in place of the badges Ash had earned through Pokémon battling.
"There's something strange going on . . ." said their other friend, Brock, quietly.
*******
Before the eyes of the Digidestined, new symbols appeared in their tags. These were more colorful and shiny than the crests; many of them resembled the crests.
"Perhaps the crests have been upgraded," said Izzy, who always tried to be logical.
"You'd think someone would tell us if that happened," said Tai.
Just then, something happened that was strange, but not completely unfamiliar to the Digidestined. A sort of window, like a huge Digiport, appeared in front of them. There were three people and two . . . Were those Digimon? - on the other side. Both sides stared at each other with the same bewildered look.
"What do we do?" Sora asked Tai.
"Try to talk to them, but we can't let our guard down," said Tai. He then addressed the people on the other side of the window. "Hello there."
"Hi," said Ash. "What is this window thing?"
"We don't know either. Are those Digimon?"
"No, these are Pokémon. What are Digimon?"
"I'm one," said Agumon. "It means Digital Monster."
"Pokémon means Pocket Monster," said Ash. "Hey, did your Digimon just talk?"
"Yes," said Agumon.
"My Pokémon can't," said Ash. "They only say their names."
"If Pokémon don't talk," asked Tai, "what do they do?"
"They fight in battles to earn rewards for their trainers. I just earned my eighth badge -" He reached for it, but then remembered. "It's gone, though. Look at this, all my badges changed." He opened his jacket, revealing the crests.
Tai gasped. Without thinking, he ran towards Ash. He stopped abruptly a few feet from the Pokémon trainers. Realizing that he had passed through the window, he looked back and saw his friends looking through it.
"It's open!" he called to them. "Come on through!"
Cautiously, the other Digidestined and Digimon stepped through. Having served its purpose, the window closed.
Tai turned back to Ash. "My crest! All our crests! So that's what happened to them!"
"These things are crests?" said Ash.
"Yes, and they belong to us. Can we have them back?"
"Yes. What are they, anyway?"
"They're symbols of our special qualities. This one's mine." He took the crest of Courage from the array. "It represents courage. It's supposed to go in my tag" - he held it up - "but this thing is in there instead."
"That's my Thunderbadge!" said Ash.
"Yours?" said Tai.
"Yes!"
"Well, here." Tai returned the badge to Ash and put the crest back in his tag. "My friends must have the rest of the badges. Sora?"
Sora took her crest. "Yes, here's mine, the crest of Love . . . and here's the badge I got."
"The Soulbadge," said Ash.
The badges and crests were all returned in this way. Matt had the Earthbadge, Izzy the Volcanobadge, Mimi the Cascadebadge, Joe the Boulderbadge, TK the Marshbadge, and Kari the Rainbowbadge.
"Thanks," said Ash.
"Thank you," said Tai. "Whoa! What's that?"
A swarm of black things was coming towards the group, stopping right in front of them. Close up, the black things were letters with eyes. They spelled out a message.
GREETINGS CHOSEN CHILDREN STOP THIS IS A PLEA FOR HELP STOP
"What's with the 'stop'?" said Ash.
WE USE THE WORD STOP TO INDICATE THE END OF A SENTENCE STOP
"Oh. What's your plea for help?"
AN EVIL BEING CALLED SHINOSAMA IS TRYING TO SUCK THE LIFE FROM THIS WORLD AND FROM THE DIGITAL WORLD STOP YOU MUST DEFEAT HIM STOP
"But we're trying to defeat the Dark Masters right now!" protested Tai.
ABANDON THAT EFFORT FOR THE TIME BEING STOP WHEN YOU RETURN TO THE DIGITAL WORLD VERY LITTLE TIME WILL HAVE PASSED STOP
"So we will get back to the Digital World?"
YES OF COURSE STOP
"Okay. What do we have to do?"
YOU MUST TRAVEL TO JUNCTION PEAK WHERE SHINOSAMA IS BASED STOP ONCE THERE YOU MUST USE ALL YOUR BATTLE SKILLS AGAINST HIM STOP
"I'm there," said Tai.
"Me too," said Ash.
VERY WELL STOP MAKE SURE YOU ALL WORK TOGETHER OR YOU WILL NOT SUCCEED STOP
"Okay," said Ash. "By the way, what are you?"
WE ARE THE UNOWN STOP WE ARE A SPECIES OF PSYCHIC POKEMON STOP WHEN WE LEARNED OF SHINOSAMA WE LOOKED FOR HELP AND FOUND YOU THREE TRAINERS AND THE CRESTS AND THEIR OWNERS STOP WE MADE THE CRESTS AND BADGES SWITCH PLACES AND WE OPENED THE WINDOW STOP
"Wow, you can do all that?"
YES BUT NOW WE MUST RETURN TO WHERE WE CAME FROM STOP WE WILL BE WATCHING YOU BUT WE WILL NOT HELP YOU STOP FAREWELL STOP
The swarm flew away.
"Let's get going!" said Ash. "Junction Peak is only four days from here, and we'll pass my house on the way." He started walking immediately.
"Off on another adventure!" said Tai, following him.
"Here goes," sighed Joe.
"Hey, look, we're in civilization again!" said Mimi.
"And, we can find out all about these Pokémon," said Izzy.
Ash's group, which had expanded very much, was on its way to another of the great battles for which both worlds were famous.
To be continued . . .
Disclaimer: Digimon belongs to Saban, Fox, Toei Animation, et al.
Pokémon belong to Nintendo, Creatures, Gamefreak et al.
The rest is mine. No money is being made off this; I write because
it's fun. :-)