"Alright, let's get going," said Yamaki.

With the exception of Ken, Davis, and Ryo, the DigiDestined and their new friends began heading for a group of black vans.

"And just where do you think you're going, young man?" asked a relatively young, dark-haired man.

"Oh come on dad!" said Kazu. "It's only for a little while!"

"I don't think so," said a youthful blonde woman, quickly identifiable as Kazu's mother. "In case you already managed to forget, you're grounded for the rest of your life. Of course there's nothing to stop that big, metal friend of yours from leaving."

"Aw, man!" whined Kazu. "This is totally unfair!"

"Fair or not, you're coming home NOW," said Kazu's mom.

"Jeez, I'm home five minutes and they already pounce on me," muttered Kazu. "I wish they'd get off my back once in a while."

"But Kazu," said Guardromon. "They are not on your back. They're standing over there."

Kazu just sighed and rolled his eyes. "Come on, looks like we're both in trouble."

"Hold it right there," said Yamaki. "You're coming with us."

"What?!" asked Kazu's mom.

"The boy should come with us, Mrs. Shioda," Yamaki explained. "We have questions that need answering."

"Fine," said Mrs. Shiota. "But you have to get him dinner."

"And don't let him have any dessert," said Mr. Shioda.

"Fine," said Yamaki.

"Yes!" Kazu said discreetly.

"Bye mom! Bye dad!" said Kenta, waving goodbye to his parents.

"Hey! What about us?" asked Wargreymon. "I don't think we can fit in those vans!"

"So follow along behind us," said Izzy. "This isn't rocket science."

"I don't think it would be wise to have your digimon seen out in the open," said Henry's father. "At the very least, the really big ones should remain here."

"I can see your point," said Izzy. "Alright. Wargreymon, Metalgarurumon, Rosemon, Valkyrimon, Magnadramon, Seraphimon, Diaboromon, and Bahadramon can come along. The rest of you… just try to keep from being seen."

"Dang!" said HerculesKabuterimon.

"This is size discrimination!" said Imperialdramon.

"Hey, it's just so we won't arouse any more suspicion than we already have," said Izzy. "Just please lay low for a while. We can fill you in later, and maybe you guys can keep an eye out for the virus."

"Okay, okay…" said Preciomon. "Say, if anyone has a really big deck of cards we could play some poker!"

"Preciomon, what have I told you about grifting?" Joe warned.

"Sorry…" said Preciomon ashamedly.

"Yeah right," said Joe. "Just stay out of trouble. We'll see you guys later."

The whole group began piling into cars. Kenta and Kazu got into one of the black vans, along with Tai, Matt, TK, Kari, Sora, Jack, and Guardromon, the last of who made the ride rather cramped. Yamaki sat in the passenger seat and one of his agents took the wheel. Squeezing into the second van were Izzy, Joe, Mimi, Michael, Willis, Yolei, Cody, Henry, Terriermon, a little girl whom the DigiDestined quickly realized to be Henry's sister, and a Lopmon. One of Yamaki's agents drove and Henry's dad sat in the passenger seat. Once everyone was in position, the cars roared to life and headed into the street with a group of digimon following as stealthily as possible.

Several minutes later, Takato found himself at a train station. He'd just had something of a run-in with security. The man was a bit startled by Guilmon, but after a few kind words he seemed to take a liking to the big red lummox, and left him alone. Now, Takato was in a car that was empty with the exception of Jeri, Guilmon, and the white digimon known as Calumon. Guilmon had eaten both his own and Calumon's dinners. Takato was smart enough to protect his food from the red menace, but Calumon hadn't really minded losing his meal. He was focussed on Jeri, who was locked into a painfully clear depression. As Takato slurped down his noodles, he noticed that Jeri hadn't as much as opened the box of her dinner.

"Poor Jeri…" Takato mumbled to himself. "This has all been really hard on her. I just wish…"

"Takato?" asked Guilmon.

"Huh?" asked Takato, suddenly waking up from an almost trance-like state.

"Are you gonna' finish that?" asked Guilmon.

"Go ahead, boy," said Takato, handing over the remains of his dinner.

Takato just kept on staring at Jeri as Guilmon snarfed down his first half-decent meal in a long time. He let out a deep sigh.

Elsewhere, in a rather beat-up car, Ryo and his companions rode toward his home. Ryo's father was driving, a stern look on his face. Ryo sat in the passenger seat while Ken and Davis sat in the back with Monodramon between them.

"So Ryo…" said Mr. Akiyama. "Nice of you to come by. Planning on staying long?"

"Dad, we have guests…" whispered Ryo.

"Fine," said Mr. Akiyama. "But don't think we won't be having a talk at the first chance."

"I'll pencil it in," said Ryo.

"Hey Ken…" whispered Davis. "Is it just me or is the tension in here thick enough to choke on?"

"Tell me about it," Ken whispered back. "It's even worse than Ryo told me. I guess things have only gotten worse in the last few years."

"Okay Ken, time to start explaining," said Davis. "How do you know this guy?"

"Well, it all happened when I first got my digivice," said Ken. "That was about three ago. Anyway—"

"Ooooooooh!" said Monodramon, leaning way forward. "What's this button do?"

Monodramon began fiddling with the knobs and buttons on the radio, much to the chagrin of Ryo's dad.

"Hey, stop messing with that," Ryo chided.

"Sorry," said Monodramon, leaning back and looking down at his feet.

"So Ryo," said Ken, desperately looking for a way to change to mood. "What have you been up to?"

"Oh, not a whole lot," said Ryo. "Just taking things one day at a time."

"Cool, cool," said Ken, sensing his plan had failed. "Oh! I'm so stupid! I forgot to introduce you to my friend here! Ryo, this is Davis. Davis, Ryo."

"Nice to meet ya'," said Davis.

"A pleasure," said Ryo.

Meanwhile, back in one of the vans, the whole group was still stuck in the middle of a rather awkward phase.

"So…" said Henry. "Um…"

"Uh… hot enough for ya?" asked Terriermon.

"No complaints," said Willis awkwardly.

"Actually, I could use a cold drink," said Mimi.

"I bet we can find a vending machine once we stop," said Joe.

"Yeah," said Michael. "Probably…"

Again, an awkward silence fell upon the group. Aside from the rumble of the engine and a cough from Cody, all was quiet.

"Gee Henry, can't you break the ice or something?" whispered Terriermon.

"Okay, I guess I could try…" said Henry reluctantly.

"So you have digimon too?" asked the little girl before Henry could make his move.

"That's right," said Yolei. "Is that Lopmon with you?"

"Of course I am!" said the lady Lopmon. "Suzie's my tamer!"

"Tamer?" asked Joe.

"Yep!" said the little girl, who the DigiDestined now knew to be named Suzie. "We'we pawtnes!"

"How neat!" Yolei said very pleasantly.

Henry sighed with relief, knowing that he wouldn't have to be the one to get the conversation going. As the dialogue began to progress, Henry reached into his pocket and pulled out a deck of cards, which he promptly started to sort.

"So, young man," said Henry's dad, directing the question at Izzy. "Tell me more about this 'virus' of yours."

"Well Mr., uh, I'm afraid I didn't quite catch your name," said Izzy.

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry," said Henry's dad. "I'm Janyu, Janyu Wong."

"Nice to meet you," said Izzy. "You can just call me Izzy."

"Right," said Mr. Wong. "Now then…"

"The virus," said Izzy.

"What can you tell me?"

"Not a whole lot. It first showed up in our world about four years ago when it appeared out of nowhere on the Internet. It latched onto a digiegg that my friend Willis, over there, created. I won't bore you with the details, but we managed to knock the stuffing out of it. The thing was, it just kept on coming back. We had to destroy whatever digimon it could get control of, and every time it would show up again bigger and badder than ever! This latest time is the worst, and it's not over yet."

"Interesting," said Mr. Wong. "But what about the specifics of the thing? Do you even know its name?"

"Oh yeah," said Izzy. "Back when it had us all hostage, it told my friends a whole mess of stuff that even I can't quite make sense of. I think they said it's name was Omega Two… or maybe Genocide, or something along those lines."

"Think hard," said Mr. Wong, sounding very serious. "Was the name 'Omega 002'? Or perhaps the 'Genocide Virus'?"

"Yeah, yeah," said Izzy. "That's right."

"Oh no…" said Mr. Wong very darkly.

"What is it?" asked Izzy.

"A bad memory," said Mr. Wong. "Somehow, I knew this would come back to haunt me someday…"

Meanwhile, things in the other van were just plain weird. Kenta and Kazu just stared starry-eyed, looking from one DigiDestined to the other. The DigiDestined just returned the looks with silent confusion.

"Does this seem weird to you at all?" Jack whispered to Sora.

"You mean how they're looking at us like rabid teenage girls?" responded Sora.

"So it's not just me," said Jack.

Finally, TK just came out and asked the obvious. "Are you two just gonna sit there or should we try communicating?"

The two boys suddenly snapped back to reality, not having realized how transfixed they had been.

"Oh wow!" said Kazu, finally starting to unload some of the pressure that had been building since he first saw the new arrivals. "I can't tell you how awesome this is for me! I never thought in a million years I'd actually be talking to you guys!"

"This has got to be the coolest thing that's ever happened to us!" Kenta joined in. "I love you guys!"

"It was so rad when you fought Apocalymon!" said Kazu, getting more excited. "The look on his face when—"

"Can I have your autographs?" Kenta asked excitedly. "I know it's a little tacky, but—"

"Oh! I can't forget the fight against Blackwargreymon, how—"

"Just make it out to Kenta Kitagawa—"

By this point they were both talking at the same time and as fast as was humanly possible. After a few seconds of this, Tai and Matt looked at each other, nodded, and moved in. Tai clasped his hand over Kazu's mouth, while Matt took care of Kenta. Now tranquilized, the boys began to calm down again. A few more seconds passed.

"Now then," Matt said as he slowly removed his hand. "From the top."

"Sorry about all that," said Kenta. "I don't usually get that excited, but I'm sure you understand why."

"Now we're getting to the heart of the matter," said Tai. "The thing is, we don't understand why. You two batter start explaining how you know so much about us, who you are, and what the heck is going on around here."

"So… you don't know?" asked Kazu upon being freed to talk.

"Bingo," said Tai.

"Well then, I guess we'd better fill you in!" Kazu said.

At about that time, Ryo's dad was pulling into a parking space. He put the car in park and turned off the ignition. All five occupants stepped out. Mr. Akiyama started heading down the sidewalk immediately, but Ken, Ryo, and Monodramon waited while Davis stretched his legs for a moment.

"So Ken, you really don't remember all the stuff we went through?" asked Ryo.

"Well, sort of," Ken tried to explain. "My memory is a little jumbled. I definitely remember going up against Milleniumon though."

"Who could forget THAT?" asked Ryo. "He was a tough one, and he just wouldn't go down! Did you know I had to take him on twice more after we parted ways? And each time he got tougher!"

"You're not the only one that had to face him," said Ken. "I've had to face him every day since that battle ended…"

"Hey guys!" called Davis from up ahead with Monodramon. "You coming or not?!"

"Oops!" said Ken as he and Ryo quickly dashed to catch up.

The group walked about another block. The street lamps that they passed under once every few seconds offset the dark night sky overhead. Soon enough, they all came to the front door of an apartment building. Looking up, Davis found himself surprised by the condition of the place. It was dilapidated to say the least. The building was brick and five stories high. Broken windows were common sights. A mangy, yellow dog scavenged food from a nearby pile of trashcans. There were assorted pieces of graffiti lining the external wall of the building. The night seemed unusually still in this area, as Davis took a quick look over his shoulder. Mr. Akiyama jiggled the handle on the door and it opened right up, as the lock had long since been broken and never replaced.

"Home sweet home," Ryo muttered under his breath, following his dad inside.

Davis was a little surprised. Sure, the car hadn't been in the best of shape, but it hadn't occurred to him that—

"Hey," said Ken, giving Davis a slight nudge. "Come on, we don't want to fall behind."

"Right," said Davis, as Ken, Monodramon, and himself all went inside.