ARRIVAL

What the heck is going on…

That was the question on everyone's mind as the motley crew looked at itself. None knew many of the others. However, two large objects loomed over the rest of crowd. Quatre Raberba Winner looked hard and recognized the other figure as the Gundam Heavy Arms. "Trowa!" he shouted and soon he was out of Sandrock and racing toward the only figure he knew, Trowa Barton, pilot of Heavy Arms. Trowa was relieved to see Quatre although his stoic face showed no emotion. The joy on Quatre's was unquestioned. And yet confusion was there too. The two pilots saw nothing familiar anywhere else.

Trowa asked, " Where are we?"

Quatre had no answer and merely shrugged his shoulders."Wherever we are it is necessary that we stay together and fight to survive."

Trowa could only nod in agreement. He had noticed a man-high perhaps 2-½ meters long dinosaur (he thought) behind Quatre. Trowa motioned to the object behind Quatre and warned Quatre of its presence. Quatre turned to see the creature quake, then came from the creature "DINOBOT, MAXIMIZE!" and a robot appeared from where the animal had been. Dinobot quickly surveyed his surroundings and other than the bombardment that had not stopped, noticed the two Gundams. His interest grew and he scanned them from where he was.

"Impressive, but not self-controlled, to be their best they need, anthropoids extremely capable of handling such fine machinery." Dinobot grimaced, "But it seems a battle rages, and I have no knowledge of the alliances of these many groups." Quatre and Trowa finally reached out of their trance to speak to Dinobot.

Dinobot hissed, "Humans, but they look more advanced than the apelike beings I've seen."

"I am Quatre Winner and this is Trowa, can we make your acquaintance?"

"Cute, the primates have learned communication skills. Very well, I am the warrior Dinobot, of the Maximals."

 Quatre continued, "We are fighters too, we fly the Gundam mobile suits behind you." Dinobot thought this interesting, such human ingenuity he had never seen.

"Then perhaps we are here for a common purpose," said Dinobot. "Then we shall need to make the acquaintance of others," interjected Trowa. The three walked forward. There was a kid about 12 or 13 with a strange creature. Quatre prompted introductions.

"Hey there fella, I am Quatre and this is Trowa and Dinobot." The creature beside the lad certainly looked different. He wore a dog or wolf skin over a reptilian body. It maneuvered between Dinobot and the boy. Dinobot looked down at the creature and glared thinking 'hopeless defense of a devoted one, how noble.'

The creature spoke, "Not a step closer or we will have trouble." The boy meanwhile had introduced himself to the Gundam pilots as Matt.

He said, "That is my digimon Gabumon, he is fiercely loyal and very protective." Quatre looked at the critter and also saw him and Dinobot staring at each other.

Quatre explained, "that is Dinobot, he is our friend, sort of, he won't mean any harm as soon as we tell him that you are okay." Matt was not sure, Quatre and Trowa towered over him and Dinobot was almost twice as tall as they were. But, they were at least friendly (except for Dinobot) and hey, Matt did not know anyone else yet. He called off Gabumon who kept an eye on Dinobot. As Matt joined the trio (plus Gabumon) in walking and introductions although his thoughts were on his brother T.K. and whether or not he was all right.

            T.K. and Patamon were fine. They had ended up beyond the Gundams and were far from Matt and the little group with him. T.K.'s concern for Matt was the same as Matt's for him, but T.K. decided to look around. Interested in the firing, T.K. tried to see what is was. The sight that met him surprised him. Veteran of many digimon battles, T.K. had never seen anything like this before. Many tank-looking robots were bombarding the area near them. Patamon braved the hailstorm and noticed more curiosities, men in purple and blue suits, as well as robots or men in robots with heat blazers. T.K conversed with Patamon on their next move.

Patamon said, "T.K. why don't we keep patrolling along the area under fire, we could find Matt or the others."

T.K. agreed, "Right, here we go!" Soon a small red figure ran toward them, obviously scared of something.

It stopped beside Patamon and panted "Charmander, Char, Mander." The flame on its tale was alarming but T.K. was more interested in the fact the creature had just run over to him.

"What's your name?"

"Charmander," replied the small creature.

Patamon queried, "Are you a digimon?"

"Char!" responded the creature.

"Well Charmander, you can stick with us, we're going to find help," said T.K. cheerfully. Patamon was disappointed, hoping that Charmander was a digimon. Oh well, it was good to have company. Patamon flew above while T.K. and the new arrival walked below. Charmander learned all about Matt and the other Digimon characters as well as T.K.'s family. Patamon had spotted a green figure just floating above the ground and appearing to meditate. T.K. and Charmander ran up and T.K. went to bother the figure. T.K. was naïve but he needed to know the people around them. The figure said a deep "Huh!" and turned behind him. The turbaned green head might of scared anyone else, but T.K. had seen so much that this development did not faze him.

"Are you a Digimon, sir?" The green being looked behind him and noticed the small boy and the characters with him. He muttered something that did not catch T.K.'s ears.

"Hi, I'm T.K. Do you know my brother Matt?" The figure's expression changed somewhat. The youthful face and audacity had affected him.

"I'm Piccolo, kid. You might want to watch out. It could be dangerous around here."

Patamon chimed in, " I'm Patamon and this is Charmander,"

"Char" came a feeble response as the little red one was in awe of Piccolo.

"Mister Piccolo, do you know what those are?" asked T.K. pointing to the area where the fire came from. Piccolo followed Patamon into the air (which surprised T.K.) and looked over the battery. Nothing looked familiar to him but he continued to scan the ground. He thought, -not good, but maybe if I can develop this kid's power level, we can take'em. Those two creatures of his might come to good use too, if they can attack. Piccolo returned to earth shaking his head. Behind T.K. he saw a figure shaped like a man. A not so bright man either for he was in the middle of the barrage. It did not matter the man's loyalties at the moment, Piccolo raced airborne caught the man and brought him out of danger. The fire in that sector stopped then and there and all five of the group realized it was due to the fact that the man was not visible anymore. Since fire continued in other areas it was assumed that others were making the same mistakes. Piccolo turned on his latest charge.

"What were you doing out there, trying to be a target? Trying to leave this dimension sooner?"

"Hold off, I'm just a comedian, not a tactician."

"This is no comedy," declared Piccolo.

"Look, my green friend, you need to calm down. By the way do you always look like that or is it Halloween early this year."

"Are you making fun of my Namekian origin?" Piccolo was angered and began to power up. The man backed off and apologized.

"I'm sorry, my name is Ryan Stiles, please don't kill me." T.K. didn't know if Stiles was acting or not. He quickly made introductions

"Hello, Ryan, I'm T.K. and Patamon and Charmander."

"You got a tripartite personality kid?"

 T.K. chuckled although Piccolo was emotionless as always. Ryan realized that to keep the green guy at bay he had to be chums with the kid. Ryan liked children and with no further need, he had won T.K.'s friendship. He eyed Piccolo carefully as a strategy discussion began almost immediately.

Charmander started, "Char, Char, Charmander, Mander, Char." No one could translate. No matter what kind of strategist Charmander was, his intellect could not be used as a resource.

Piccolo spoke next, "We don't know what kind of enemy we're up against, we have no idea of why they fire on us. In conclusion we need to explore and find allies and then figure if need to fight or not."

Ryan interjected, "Hey, I do not know anything about fighting, and I don't know about the kid and his animals either." Piccolo looked at T.K. and saw the fire written in his eyes, surely this kid would fight.