Chapter One: Welcome
Tamara Takana laid her card down with a flourish. "The Dark Magician," she said. "Sorry, Inny, I just took all your lifepoints."
Inero Takana sighed and gathered up his deck. "Mara, my deck isn't any good..."
"That's because you never bothered to learn strategy, Inny."
"That's the fourth time you beat me, Mara, and I had a strategy."
"Not much of one. You really should watch Yu-Gi-Oh, little brother."
Inero shrugged and stuck his dueling deck into his jacket pocket. "Dad doesn't believe in television, Mara."
Tamara rolled her eyes and put her own deck into her pocket. "We'll watch tomorrow, then. You're here all weekend."
"Yeah, but you have to go to school tomorrow."
"So?"
"I'll be bored."
"You can watch my taped episodes. G'night, Inny."
"Good night, Tamara." Inero watched sadly as his sister skipped out of his room.
~~
Tamara met up with her friend Kaishi Izumi early the next morning. "My brother is visiting," she said importantly.
"My sister is driving me crazy," he muttered, running a hand through his unruly red hair. "Dad is, too. His friend Mimi moved back to Japan a month ago, and he's always going out to eat with her and his other friends. I get stuck hanging out with Mimi's daughter, Yoko, and Yamato's son, Chino. Luckily, the others need /real/ babysitters, so I'm not stuck with them."
Tamara shook her head sympathetically. "Don't Chino and Yoko go to our school?"
"Yeah, but so what? They're younger, and they drive me nuts. Chino is a sports freak, always trying to watch baseball and soccer on TV, and Yoko's...kinda weird, really. She likes pink."
"Gross," Tamara agreed.
"Oh, and then there's Sandra. She's the American exchange student, and she lives in the apartment across from me. She's always borrowing things. She's driving me crazy, too."
"Anyone else?" Tamara asked, her dark eyes glittering with mirth.
"You bet, m'dear darlin' girl, there's you. You're driving me nuts with this Yu-Gi-Oh craze of yours."
"It's a fun game, and face it, if Yami Yugi were real..."
"Girls." Kaishi filled the word with profound disgust and hatred. "Oh, and on top of the weirdoes and my family and you, there's my computer. It's so messed up. Dad keeps getting the strangest emails about some Tentomon. He freaks out. And the other day, I got a package in the mail with these." He swung his backpack off his shoulder and rifled through it, pulling out a small blue device and a necklace. The necklace had a small piece of glass covering a gray rectangle with the picture of a linked circle and square on it.
Tamara's eyes widened, and she lifted her red and orange shirt to show him the blue device clipped to the belt of her jeans. "My necklace is at home. It's yellow, though, and the symbol is a leaf with a raindrop in the middle."
"That's weird," Kaishi agreed. "Let's get to class."
"Mara!" a small voice shrieked. Tamara turned to see Inero racing toward her, the yellow necklace dangling from his fingers. He skidded to a halt in front of her and held it up. "Mara, I have one of these. Why do you have one? Did you buy it?"
Tamara opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, a soft voice spoke. "If you did buy it, could you tell me where?" She whirled to see Sandra, the American girl Kaishi knew. Her necklace was purple.
"We have them too," another girl said, her cinnamon-colored eyes wide. "I'm Yoko Atayari, and this is Chino Ishida and Sandra Charlotte."
"Six of us, then," Kaishi said, nodding sagely.
The bell rang, cutting loudly into the sudden silence. "Let's get to class," Chino said nervously. "I'll get kicked off the baseball team if I'm late again."
The look on Kaishi's face at that comment was priceless. Tamara quickly covered by saying, "We'll meet again after school to discuss this."
Gravely nodding, the children went off to class--or, in Inero's case, home.
~~
Ryukumon placed a card on the table. "I play this card, face-down until I choose to activate it."
"And I'll play this," Farasimon snarled, her nails clicking on the table as she threw down the card. "Digital Gate, open!"
"I counter with this," Skydramon said quickly. His long white arm snaked in through the window and set down a card. "Digital Guardian, awaken! I summon...Aerodyemon!"
~~
Tamara and Kaishi were packing up in the computer room when the screen of Kaishi's computer began to glow brightly. "What the heck?" he said, stepping back quickly. The other students stopped what they were doing and stared.
The door banged open, and Sandra dashed in, almost colliding with Tamara. "What's going on?" she asked.
Moments later, Chino and Yoko arrived, followed closely by Inero. "I'm kinda scared," Inero confessed.
"Let's get outta here!" Tamara snapped, turning to run.
But the Digital Gate card had other plans. The screen faded into a deep blue, and a program popped up. The Gate opened and dragged the new Digidestined into it.
~~
Senauramon had been watching intently as the others played their cards. Now it was her turn again, as Kemaimon's Double or Nothing card had impaired him for two turns. She idly perused her hand. What could she play? Neither of the two Monster cards would help. She had a Weapon card and an Armor card, but she didn't want to arm her chosen Digidestined just yet. The other card, however, seemed just right for the occasion...
Negligently she flipped her card onto the table. "Elimination," she clarified, seeing the awed gaze of the other players. "After one full turn has passed, all Monster cards on the field go to the cemetery. Better hope it's a good turn, Skydramon..."
~~
Kaishi swore colorfully upon arrival in the Digiworld. The six children had landed in a heap, with him on the bottom. "Ow."
Inero got up, stumbled, and groaned. "My head hurts, Mara."
"Where are we?" she asked, wriggling out of the pile and staring at their surroundings. "Look at this place. The trees are different colors, and the grass is really dark..."
A gust of wind sent all six tumbling backwards as something enormous flew by overhead. "I hope that thing is friendly!" Chino shouted over the wind.
Something small and brown leapt into Chino's lap then. "Howdy!" it said, also yelling. "I'm Darmon!" Darmon looked a bit like a dinosaur, with stumpy arms, a whiplike tail, and a metallic mask covering his face.
"What are you?" Yoko asked.
"A digimon," he said.
"Tornado of Wind!" the creature flying overhead said in a deep, booming voice.
~~
Farasimon found it strange that Ryukumon had a Wind Attack in his deck, but she ignored it and played two of her favorite cards. "I give you a gift, Sandra," she said, knowing that the girl wouldn't hear. "This is my Rainbow Baton, and I add to it the magic of Crystal Shield!"
~~
No one was more startled than Sandra when a shimmering baton appeared in her left hand. She screamed, throwing it away in horror. It trailed sparks through the air as it fell amid the bushes.
The wind picked up, and a cyclone began to form high above. "We have to stop it," Yoko announced. "Go get that thing, Sandra. Maybe it will help."
"I doubt it," the American muttered, walking to the bush and picking up the baton. She swung it in a wide circle, scattering sparks everywhere. The sparks solidified and grew, rapidly encasing her in a glittering shield.
"See, it helped," Yoko said smugly. "Now let the rest of us in."
Sandra poked the shield tentatively with the tip of the baton, creating a small hole. She rapidly erased part of the wall and stepped back, waiting for the others to get inside the shield.
Chino, Darmon, and Inero made it in before the tornado of wind blasted a large hole in the ground. Tamara, Yoko, and Kaishi dove out of the way, acquiring scrapes, but nothing serious.
"That wasn't very nice," a small voice pouted. A blue and green cat with a short tail and large, round ears leapt from the bushes and into Yoko's arms, peering upward angrily. "I'm Celamon, and I don't like your attitude, Aerodyemon."
The large flying creature high above paused, waiting for something...
~~
Skydramon drew away from the window, staring nervously at his hand. With Kemaimon unable to move, this was the last card he could play before Senauramon destroyed Aerodyemon. The way he saw it, there were two options: he could wait indefinitely, enabling Aerodyemon to shake off the compulsion of the cards and attack on his own, or he could play an Attack card.
His claws trembling with the suspense, he reached out to the deck floating on a wisp of wind and drew.
~~
Aerodyemon, high above, shook his head slightly to clear it of the haze that made him attack. Waiting for instructions, he peered down at the Digidestined below. They were so /small/, so...utterly pathetic. Did the Element Masters actually /enjoy/ tormenting these pitiful souls?
Before he could pursue that thought any farther, the haze returned, a single thought penetrating it. "Attack. Attack. Attack. Conflicting Winds Attack, now. Your Master commands it of you!"
Unable to do anything else, Aerodyemon reached out to the still air and set it moving. "Conflicting Winds," he called, just to warn the humans below, as he sent two bursts of air rushing at each other, with the aim of crushing the Digidestined in between.
Tamara Takana laid her card down with a flourish. "The Dark Magician," she said. "Sorry, Inny, I just took all your lifepoints."
Inero Takana sighed and gathered up his deck. "Mara, my deck isn't any good..."
"That's because you never bothered to learn strategy, Inny."
"That's the fourth time you beat me, Mara, and I had a strategy."
"Not much of one. You really should watch Yu-Gi-Oh, little brother."
Inero shrugged and stuck his dueling deck into his jacket pocket. "Dad doesn't believe in television, Mara."
Tamara rolled her eyes and put her own deck into her pocket. "We'll watch tomorrow, then. You're here all weekend."
"Yeah, but you have to go to school tomorrow."
"So?"
"I'll be bored."
"You can watch my taped episodes. G'night, Inny."
"Good night, Tamara." Inero watched sadly as his sister skipped out of his room.
~~
Tamara met up with her friend Kaishi Izumi early the next morning. "My brother is visiting," she said importantly.
"My sister is driving me crazy," he muttered, running a hand through his unruly red hair. "Dad is, too. His friend Mimi moved back to Japan a month ago, and he's always going out to eat with her and his other friends. I get stuck hanging out with Mimi's daughter, Yoko, and Yamato's son, Chino. Luckily, the others need /real/ babysitters, so I'm not stuck with them."
Tamara shook her head sympathetically. "Don't Chino and Yoko go to our school?"
"Yeah, but so what? They're younger, and they drive me nuts. Chino is a sports freak, always trying to watch baseball and soccer on TV, and Yoko's...kinda weird, really. She likes pink."
"Gross," Tamara agreed.
"Oh, and then there's Sandra. She's the American exchange student, and she lives in the apartment across from me. She's always borrowing things. She's driving me crazy, too."
"Anyone else?" Tamara asked, her dark eyes glittering with mirth.
"You bet, m'dear darlin' girl, there's you. You're driving me nuts with this Yu-Gi-Oh craze of yours."
"It's a fun game, and face it, if Yami Yugi were real..."
"Girls." Kaishi filled the word with profound disgust and hatred. "Oh, and on top of the weirdoes and my family and you, there's my computer. It's so messed up. Dad keeps getting the strangest emails about some Tentomon. He freaks out. And the other day, I got a package in the mail with these." He swung his backpack off his shoulder and rifled through it, pulling out a small blue device and a necklace. The necklace had a small piece of glass covering a gray rectangle with the picture of a linked circle and square on it.
Tamara's eyes widened, and she lifted her red and orange shirt to show him the blue device clipped to the belt of her jeans. "My necklace is at home. It's yellow, though, and the symbol is a leaf with a raindrop in the middle."
"That's weird," Kaishi agreed. "Let's get to class."
"Mara!" a small voice shrieked. Tamara turned to see Inero racing toward her, the yellow necklace dangling from his fingers. He skidded to a halt in front of her and held it up. "Mara, I have one of these. Why do you have one? Did you buy it?"
Tamara opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, a soft voice spoke. "If you did buy it, could you tell me where?" She whirled to see Sandra, the American girl Kaishi knew. Her necklace was purple.
"We have them too," another girl said, her cinnamon-colored eyes wide. "I'm Yoko Atayari, and this is Chino Ishida and Sandra Charlotte."
"Six of us, then," Kaishi said, nodding sagely.
The bell rang, cutting loudly into the sudden silence. "Let's get to class," Chino said nervously. "I'll get kicked off the baseball team if I'm late again."
The look on Kaishi's face at that comment was priceless. Tamara quickly covered by saying, "We'll meet again after school to discuss this."
Gravely nodding, the children went off to class--or, in Inero's case, home.
~~
Ryukumon placed a card on the table. "I play this card, face-down until I choose to activate it."
"And I'll play this," Farasimon snarled, her nails clicking on the table as she threw down the card. "Digital Gate, open!"
"I counter with this," Skydramon said quickly. His long white arm snaked in through the window and set down a card. "Digital Guardian, awaken! I summon...Aerodyemon!"
~~
Tamara and Kaishi were packing up in the computer room when the screen of Kaishi's computer began to glow brightly. "What the heck?" he said, stepping back quickly. The other students stopped what they were doing and stared.
The door banged open, and Sandra dashed in, almost colliding with Tamara. "What's going on?" she asked.
Moments later, Chino and Yoko arrived, followed closely by Inero. "I'm kinda scared," Inero confessed.
"Let's get outta here!" Tamara snapped, turning to run.
But the Digital Gate card had other plans. The screen faded into a deep blue, and a program popped up. The Gate opened and dragged the new Digidestined into it.
~~
Senauramon had been watching intently as the others played their cards. Now it was her turn again, as Kemaimon's Double or Nothing card had impaired him for two turns. She idly perused her hand. What could she play? Neither of the two Monster cards would help. She had a Weapon card and an Armor card, but she didn't want to arm her chosen Digidestined just yet. The other card, however, seemed just right for the occasion...
Negligently she flipped her card onto the table. "Elimination," she clarified, seeing the awed gaze of the other players. "After one full turn has passed, all Monster cards on the field go to the cemetery. Better hope it's a good turn, Skydramon..."
~~
Kaishi swore colorfully upon arrival in the Digiworld. The six children had landed in a heap, with him on the bottom. "Ow."
Inero got up, stumbled, and groaned. "My head hurts, Mara."
"Where are we?" she asked, wriggling out of the pile and staring at their surroundings. "Look at this place. The trees are different colors, and the grass is really dark..."
A gust of wind sent all six tumbling backwards as something enormous flew by overhead. "I hope that thing is friendly!" Chino shouted over the wind.
Something small and brown leapt into Chino's lap then. "Howdy!" it said, also yelling. "I'm Darmon!" Darmon looked a bit like a dinosaur, with stumpy arms, a whiplike tail, and a metallic mask covering his face.
"What are you?" Yoko asked.
"A digimon," he said.
"Tornado of Wind!" the creature flying overhead said in a deep, booming voice.
~~
Farasimon found it strange that Ryukumon had a Wind Attack in his deck, but she ignored it and played two of her favorite cards. "I give you a gift, Sandra," she said, knowing that the girl wouldn't hear. "This is my Rainbow Baton, and I add to it the magic of Crystal Shield!"
~~
No one was more startled than Sandra when a shimmering baton appeared in her left hand. She screamed, throwing it away in horror. It trailed sparks through the air as it fell amid the bushes.
The wind picked up, and a cyclone began to form high above. "We have to stop it," Yoko announced. "Go get that thing, Sandra. Maybe it will help."
"I doubt it," the American muttered, walking to the bush and picking up the baton. She swung it in a wide circle, scattering sparks everywhere. The sparks solidified and grew, rapidly encasing her in a glittering shield.
"See, it helped," Yoko said smugly. "Now let the rest of us in."
Sandra poked the shield tentatively with the tip of the baton, creating a small hole. She rapidly erased part of the wall and stepped back, waiting for the others to get inside the shield.
Chino, Darmon, and Inero made it in before the tornado of wind blasted a large hole in the ground. Tamara, Yoko, and Kaishi dove out of the way, acquiring scrapes, but nothing serious.
"That wasn't very nice," a small voice pouted. A blue and green cat with a short tail and large, round ears leapt from the bushes and into Yoko's arms, peering upward angrily. "I'm Celamon, and I don't like your attitude, Aerodyemon."
The large flying creature high above paused, waiting for something...
~~
Skydramon drew away from the window, staring nervously at his hand. With Kemaimon unable to move, this was the last card he could play before Senauramon destroyed Aerodyemon. The way he saw it, there were two options: he could wait indefinitely, enabling Aerodyemon to shake off the compulsion of the cards and attack on his own, or he could play an Attack card.
His claws trembling with the suspense, he reached out to the deck floating on a wisp of wind and drew.
~~
Aerodyemon, high above, shook his head slightly to clear it of the haze that made him attack. Waiting for instructions, he peered down at the Digidestined below. They were so /small/, so...utterly pathetic. Did the Element Masters actually /enjoy/ tormenting these pitiful souls?
Before he could pursue that thought any farther, the haze returned, a single thought penetrating it. "Attack. Attack. Attack. Conflicting Winds Attack, now. Your Master commands it of you!"
Unable to do anything else, Aerodyemon reached out to the still air and set it moving. "Conflicting Winds," he called, just to warn the humans below, as he sent two bursts of air rushing at each other, with the aim of crushing the Digidestined in between.