Chapter 1

"Tai! You'll never guess wha- oh, hello Mrs. Kamiya."
A slightly embarrassed Koushiro 'Izzy' Izumi chided himself on his hastiness. Who knows what could have slipped out?
"Oh, hi Izzy. Hold on, I'll get him. TAI! Izzy's on the phone! Seems to be something important!"

 A teenage boy with a huge mop of tousled brown hair came out of his room. His younger sister followed close behind him. Taichi 'Tai' Kamiya and his sister Hikari (or 'Kari') had been talking about their favourite subject; their adventures in the Digital World a couple of years before, and their Digimon partners, Agumon and Gatomon. But this was a subject they could only talk about in secret, between themselves and the other DigiDestined. Tai took the handset from his mum, and Kari listened in.

"Hey Izzy, what's up?"
"You'll never believe this but Gennai-"
"GENNAI!" "GENNAI!"
"-just sent us an e-mail. He wants us all to meet up at my house. He'll speak to us then."
"You're right. I don't believe you."
"So when do we come over, Izzy? Now?"
"That would be the most preferable scenario."
"Ya-wha?"
"He said yes. Come on Tai, let's go!"
"Well why didn't he say that", said Tai as he put down the receiver, "instead of using all those long words? Not everyone's a genius like him."

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"So, we all here?" a blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy asked Izzy as he walked through the door of the Izumi residence with a small, similar-looking boy with him. "Sorry we're late. Had to pick T.K. up from the station". Yamato 'Matt' Ishida and his younger brother Takeru Takaishi lived separately since their parents divorced several years before. T.K. now lived across town.
"And get candy." piped up T.K.
"That's OK. Yeah, we're all here." All three walked into Izzy's bedroom where the other DigiDestined, Sora Takenouchi, Mimi Tachikawa, & Jyou 'Joe' Kido were waiting with Tai and Kari.
"Right, we're all here. So what's all the commotion, Izzy?" Sora voiced what everyone was thinking.
"Well, like I said on the phone, Gennai contacted me a little while ago. He said he'd contact us again when we're all together."
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Gennai appeared on Izzy's computer screen.
"Greetings, DigiDestined. Good to see you all again. I'm only regretting we must meet again like this. The Digital World needs your help once more."
"Can you give us a heads up on the enemy this time, Gennai?" asked Joe.
"I'm afraid I have no information at this moment in time. I was captured by him, but managed to escape. Unfortunately I found no information on the new enemy. Whoever this is knows how to keep themselves to themselves. He's a very slippery character."
"You mean he's a coward. Well, we'll show him if he messes up the Digital World, he answers to us. Right guys? When Tai got himself fired up, it was hard not to follow his example.
"Yeah! We'll show him whose boss! Let's get him! We'll get to see our Digimon again too!"
"Well now that that's settled, I have a question. How do we get to the Digital World?" This slightly out-of-character, insightful statement from Mimi stopped the general kerfuffle of noise exploding from Izzy's room. In an instant they all remembered the last time. Gennai had said that the gate between both worlds was closed.
"Hold your Digivices up to the computer screen. The Digital Gate has opened."
"Yay, I'll see Patamon again!" T.K. remembered the pact the two made at the end of their last adventure. All the DigiDestined now had their Digivices at the computer. A bright light surrounded them and dragged them into the screen. Just as the light faded, Izzy's mother knocked on the door and entered with an assortment of snacks and drinks.
"Izzy, you there? Funny, I could've sworn I heard them a minute ago."

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"Why did you let that old oaf get away?!" A cruel, evidently annoyed voice growled at the small Digimon at the voice's owner's feet.
"I'm sorry, Your Grace, but..."
"I DON'T WANT EXCUSES!" The voice rose to an angry snarl.
"I'm sorry." The winged Digimon hung its golden head respectfully. The voice's owner sighed and started to pace the room.
"Well, what's done is done. We must simply make the best use of a bad hand. This turn of events has upset the plan and perhaps pushed it back somewhat, but hopefully we can turn it into an advantageous situation rather an unlucky screw-up. But that doddering idiot will call for back up, the DigiDestined no doubt. We must prepare for their arrival. Go, summon the troops and brief them on the situation. I will personally give them further orders when the time comes."
"Hkum hai!" (It is an order!) The Digimon bowed and left what appeared to be a planning room or study. The other presence in the room moodily slumped into a chair, lifted its right arm and a computer appeared from a manacle stretching almost to the elbow. The only sound was the faint tapping of buttons and one statement-
"Yes, we will be ready for them."

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"WOOOOOAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! OOOOFF!" It was always a rough journey to the Digital World, and this time was no exception.

"Are we there yet?"
"I think so, well, we're on solid ground anyway."
"We'd better find Gennai, see what's happening."
"I wonder where our Digimon are." Her wondering was soon answered, for after walking for about 10 minutes, a metallic voice was heard several feet above them.
"IZZY!"
 "TENTOMON!" Izzy was extremely pleased to spot his red, robotic, mosquito-like partner swooping down to greet him. After a quick hug, Tentomon led them to the lake underneath which Gennai's house was located. All the other Digimon had gathered there and an extremely happy reunion was had by all the partners- Tai and Agumon, Matt and Gabumon, Sora and Biyomon, Mimi and Palmon (rather emotional), Joe and Gammon, T.K. and Patamon, and Kari and Gatomon. After all the catch-up had been done, and a quick meal, they all gathered around the fireplace to discuss the situation (a bit of a squeeze with 17 people and Digimon).
"Right, so, does anyone know anything about this new guy?"
"Our digivolving's gone. We can't digivolve to Ultimate at all." Gabumon started the conversation on a very serious note.
"But I thought the energy for you to digivolve to Ultimate came from us and the Crests."
"Certainly at first," put in Gennai, "but once you had actually done it a few times, and especially since you fully realized that the power came from within, the Digimon were able to do it without you actually being there."
"Until this guy showed up," continued Gabumon. "We sometimes digivolved to Ultimate to cross big distances or solve problems. Suddenly you can't digivolve and you don't know who to trust. We've kept in a very tight group since the new evil appeared. Made sure no outsiders-"
"Outsiders'?
"Digimon not in our immediate circle. We think that some Digimon have become evil, but there's no obvious sign that they are evil. It seems a few Digimon have been persuading others to join the cause. There's been a few surprises as to who's joined."
"Like who?"
"Some of our friends from last time, as well as some very powerful Digimon. Andromon, Monzaemon, Leomon, the list gets bigger every time we look."
"Wow, I wonder who's doing this, and how."
"But the weird thing is, the Digimon disappear for a few weeks, but they always come back like nothing's happened and simply go about their business as usual."
"It sounds as if whoever has them under their control is waiting for something to happen."
"I think you're right Izzy, or maybe they're spies gathering info for this most heinous villain."
"You've been watching those James Bond movies again, haven't you?
"No..."
"You so have."
"Matt, call her off."
"Leave him alone, Sora. Leave him to his little childish fantasies." Matt smiled and put an affectionate arm around Sora. The two had become an item some months before.
"Hey, a guy can dream, you know. You're the one that said you wanted to be an astronaut."
"When I was 6!"
"Will you please stop bickering? There's more important things to worry about!"
"You tell them Joe."
"Joe's right, we won't stop this new evil taking over if we just sit around." Gomamon turned around from staring through the window at the fish in the lake.
"All right, it's settled then. From tomorrow, the DigiDestined are back in business!"
"Yeah!"

So, what's to be expected for the DigiDestined this time? And who is this new enemy, and what in the Digiworld is up? Just read Chapter 2, then!