Chapter 1

"Those who journey into darkness"

"Baku! Bakumon, Wake up! Your battle is about to commence!"

Baku slowly opened his large blue eyes, to find a large blue fox-like being standing over him.

"Yaaaaaaarrrgh!!! Dorumon! What are you doing!? You scared me half to death!" Screamed Bakumon. A rather odd looing Digimon, standing less than 3 feet tall, Bakumon was one of the top contenders at this year's Digimon Rumble Arena, A favourite pastime among the Digimon of the desert plane.

"Bakumon, They've been calling your name for ten minutes!" said Dorumon calmly.

"Well, that's all well and good, but I was having the nicest dream. I finally found myself a tamer!"

"Using your Nightmare Syndrome attack to live out your fantasies again, huh?"

"Well, can you blame me?" Asked Bakumon, "Name one Digimon who doesn't want a partner!"

"Me", said Dorumon. "I need no-one. I fight well enough on my own, thank you very much! Now, get your cloudy butt out there and give it your all!"

"Well, what a beautiful day for battle it is here today in Digimon Rumble Arena!" Announced Etemon the commentator, "This year's Rookie division is about to get under way! In the left corner, All the way from Fire City, is Gazimon!"

"Hi everybody! I'm going to turn my opponents into broken data!" said Gazimon.

"… And in the right corner, hailing from Wind City, this year's favourite, Bakumon!"

"Uh… Hi there…" said Bakumon nervously.

Mon, I had no idea how many Digimon were here… he thought.

"Okay! Leeeeeeeeeeettt'sss get ready to rummmmmbbbllle!" roared Etemon.

With the battle under way, Bakumon and Gazimon raced towards each other, waiting to get close enough to use their attacks.

"You're going down, Bakumon!" Gazimon said angrily.

"We'll just see about that, Gazimon! Nightmare Syndrome!" A beam of violet light flashed towards Gazimon, and with no time to react, the attack made its mark, striking Gazimon in the chest.

"Ugh, is that the best you've got? Try THIS!" Gazimon launched his attack straight at Bakumon, but this time, the attack veered off course, almost hitting a cheering Greymon. Gazimon glanced at Greymon briefly, before turning back to Bakumon.

Bakumon pounced at Gazimon, pinning him on the ground, but Gazimon had other ideas.

He flipped Bakumon into the air, jumped up, and kicked Bakumon right in the back of his head.

Bakumon flipped himself over and launched his final attack at Gazimon.

"Deleting Virus!" he screamed. Gazimon's data began to break apart, distorting his appearance somewhat.

Just as Bakumon was about to finish him off and load Gazimon's data, a powerful tremor shook the arena, sending both Digimon tumbling towards the ground, and knocking over many Digimon in the crowd.

"What was THAT?" Said, Dorumon, after scarfing down his twelfth chilli dog.

Another world away…

"Oh, man!" said Dan furiously, "The computer's frozen!"

Dan, a boy no older than 17, with messy, light brown hair and a green shirt, was now rebooting his P.C.

"Why does the computer only ever mess up for me?"

Dan's younger sister, Jaime, a girl with long brown hair and a t-shirt with a Pentagram on it, entered the study.

"Maybe it doesn't like you!" Jaime said sweetly.

"Oh yeah? Well maybe it likes you too much! Oh, wait…" Said Dan.

"Ha-Ha! You are pathetic, Dan!" laughed Jaime.

"Well I'd like to see how you'd react if you'd lost a night's work. Erm, well I'm gonna go to sleep anyway." Dan mumbled grumpily as he stomped off to bed.

"Good night! Oh, and by the way, Game's aren't work!" Jaime smiled cheekily.

Later that night, Jaime woke up to go to the bathroom. As she walked quietly past the study, She saw something like nothing she had ever witnessed.

In front of the computer, stood a seven-foot man, cloaked in flames. She tried to sneak past him, but he noticed her. He turned around and grinned at her.

Jaime woke with a jump, her heart beating a mile a minute.

"Huh!" she whispered, "It must have just been a dream."

After school the next day, Dan went with his friends Duncan, a fellow gamer with curly black hair, and Patrick, a fairly short guy with somewhat of an obsession for collecting Manga, to the local comic shop, while Jaime went straight to her Kendo lesson.

"Come on, Jaime. You aren't concentrating," said her Sensei, "You have to anticipate my movements better. You won't defeat me just by hacking blindly."

"Sorry, Sensei, It's just that I have a lot on my mind", replied Jaime.

'What was that THING I saw in my dream? It had to have meant something!' She thought. She continued to hack blindly at her Sensei for the rest of the lesson.

Meanwhile at the comic shop, Dan and his friends were checking out the latest Manga, except for Dan, who was checking out the shopkeeper.

"Do you think she'd go out with me?" Dan asked Patrick.

"How am I supposed to know?" he replied, "Just ask her and find out! Ooh! Magic Knight Rayearth!" Patrick's eyes lit up as he read the Manga, until the Shopkeeper started to get irritated.

"Are you gonna buy that?" she asked,

"Why?" grinned Patrick, "I just read it!"

This was the last straw for her. She kicked all three of them out of the store, where they landed facedown in the sidewalk, at the feet of the Fiery Man. Dan, Duncan and Patrick looked up at this Firey Man, but he was gone before they got a good look at him.

"Who on Earth was THAT?" asked Duncan.

"I don't know, Duncan," replied Dan, "I just don't know…"

"I didn't see anything! What are you two talking about?" interrupted Patrick.

"You mean you didn't see him?" asked Duncan, speaking as though Patrick was mad.

"What are you doing?"

"Huh?" asked Dan, looking up to see a tall blond haired girl staring down at them.

"Don't look up my skirt!" squealed the girl as she kicked Dan and stormed away.

"What is her problem!" complained Dan loudly as he stood up, nursing the wound on his face.

"Y'know, it's getting kinda dark- I should probably get home soon! Bye guys!" said Patrick, completely ignoring Dan's constant complaints.

"Kay, bye", said Duncan.

"See ya", added Dan.

Duncan and Dan blinked in surprise as a little girl ran past them.

"Sis! Wait up!" cried the girl.

The little girl just happened to be running behind the tall blond girl, which was a futile attempt, because the older girl had already vanished from sight.

But the little girl would not give up, and kept running, until she collided with a tall teenage boy, with bleached blonde hair and a leather jacket.

"Hey, hey! Watch it kid!" he said.

"Um, I'm sorry mister! My name's Holly! Have you seen my sister?" she asked.

"Well, hello Holly, my name's Drake. So, what does your sister look like?"

Holly looked up at Drake. Her short brown hair blew in the wind, as tears welled up in her big, blue eyes.

"Um, she's tall and blond and mean!" replied Holly.

"Sounds like that could be almost anyone," muttered Drake, "So, did you see where she went?"

"My sister Hannah- that's her name, was gonna go see her boyfriend at the swimming pool. Mama and Papa made her take me, but Hannah ditched me halfway there".

"Fine", snapped Drake impatiently, "I'll take you, let's go."

"Yay!" Holly yelled enthusiastically, "I like you!"

The two of them set off towards the swimming pool, Holly holding Drake's hand tightly.

What is it about this kid? Thought Drake, I mean she's adorable and all, but there's something… Different about her…

Drake and Holly continued to chat for a while, Drake mostly asking Holly about herself, and Holly asking Drake about if he has a girlfriend, and if not, that she could be his girlfriend. Neither of them was aware that they were being watched.

On the roof of a house, fifty meters to Drake's left, a ginger and white cat- like creature followed them, listening secretly to their conversation.

"I can't believe that these strange creatures are the ones to save our world. Huanglongmon better be right about this", he commented, "Otherwise I've just wasted my time! Oh! There's one of the other humans now!"

Below him, in the house, a teenage Japanese girl was getting ready to go out.

"Man", she snapped, "Why do I have to be the one to pick up Yuki! It's so unfair! Just because he's a swimming champ he gets treated better than me! I mean, I'm his TWIN sister for cryin' out loud!"

She put on a pair of ski goggles and stormed out.

"Hannah", said Yuki apologetically, sitting down on a diving board near the pool's edge, "I think we should break up."

"Why?" Hannah asked, "There's someone else isn't there?"

"No, it's because you don't understand what is and isn't important. You're so cold towards your own family, while I've lost a member of my own. You should focus your time on caring for your little sister, Holly, instead of spending every waking moment with me." He said.

"So this is it? You're dumping me because of HOLLY?" She screamed, "I don't need this! We're over, Yuki!"

She stormed away from the pool, bumping into Drake and Holly.

Hannah pushed Drake onto the ground in a fit of anger, and grabbed Holly.

"C'mon Holly." She and Holly turned the corner and headed home.

"But… Hannah", Stuttered Yuki, "I thought I dumped you… not the other way around…"

"Dude", commented Drake, "What's her problem?"

Drake shrugged and left.

Yuki gathered his things, and prepared to go home, when Yuki's sister arrived on her Moped.

"Hey, Yuki!" she said cheerfully, "Wanna ride?"

"Yumi!" Yuki laughed, "Sure!"

Yuki jumped onto the back of Yumi's Moped and they rode away.

"All you ever do Daniel", said Dan and Jaime's Mother angrily, "is stay on that phone, talking about video games!"

"Well", Jaime said, "He could be doing worse things that you wouldn't approve of!"

"Whatever", muttered their mother irritably.

Jaime wandered off towards the computer and booted it up. She logged on to the Internet, and accessed the site of her e-mail provider.

You have 3000 new messages. Your email inbox has exceeded its allocated limit. You may not be able to receive any more messages.

"Odd…" commented Jaime, "They're all from the same person. Hmm… the messages are only one kilobyte, so they should be safe from viruses".

She opened one of the e-mails.

You have been chosen. We will come for you soon. Be prepared.

"Hmm, that's kinda spooky. Oh well, it's probably just someone trying to scare me".


Little did Jaime know, that there was more to this e-mail than just a stupid prank. Jaime deleted the messages, logged off and shut down.

Drake had received the e-mails too, and he had hacked whoever sent the email to try and find out what the message had meant.

"Oh my god!" exclaimed Drake, from his small hotel room where he was staying, "This guy has no internet service provider, no home address, no phone number! Absolutely nothing! It's like he doesn't even exist!"

Drake was completely unaware of the cat-like creature behind him.

Meanwhile, Dan was speaking with Duncan on the phone, when suddenly the line went static, and both of them heard a different voice.

"Please… Da.. Dan… help me… make me stronger! Make me… Digivolve!"

"Dun…Duncan… I need you… I can't fight alone… you and I are destined to be together… I need you… so I can… become stronger… so I can… so I can…"

The line went dead.

"Duncan, if this is your idea of a joke", said Dan, "let me tell you… it's not very funny!"

"Dan, Dan! Are you there, Dan?' asked Duncan, "If you're trying to scare me, it's not working, okay?"

The next day at school, Duncan and Dan were talking of their unusual phone call the previous night.

"So you're telling me that you heard something completely different?" Dan asked.

"Yeah, it was almost a growl than a voice, but yeah- I definitely heard something!" Duncan replied.

"Hey guys", said Jaime as she sat down with them, "Whatcha talking about?"

"Oh, we had this weird phone call last night. We were just talking, when the line went all static and these two voices said that they needed us to help them." Said Duncan.

"My guess is that it was aliens", Dan interrupted, "You can't trust those Greys- they probably abducted us in our sleep and possessed our brains. They're using us for their plans of global conquest!"

"Aliens possessed your brain, huh?" Hannah said as she walked past, "Not likely! I bet your brain's possessed by a rock! Ha-ha! Although, I did get this weird e-mail last night…"

"Oh my god!" exclaimed Jaime, "I got it too!"

"Whatever. Just because we were both sent unusual e-mails doesn't make us friends, got it?"

"Like I'd want to be friends with you!" yelled Jaime.

Yumi noticed this argument from the cafeteria queue and rushed over as quickly as she could.

"Okay, break it up, you two!" said Yumi, as she tried to restrain Jaime and Hannah, "Man, can't you two give it a rest for fifteen minutes?"

"Not my fault she's a jerk!" mumbled Jaime.

"Not my fault she can't insult people properly, you… stupid head!" retorted Hannah.

"Stupid head?" commented Patrick as he sat down, "That's not even very clever! Anyway guys, did anyone else have strange things happen to them last night?"

"Yeah", everyone at the table said, including Yuki who sat down with Yumi, after glaring at Hannah.

"…Because while I was watching TV, the image went fuzzy and I saw this silhouette of some sort of… thing. I don't know what it was, but it told me that it would come soon. It was freaky!" he said.

"Hm", said Yuki, "It seems like all these weird things that have been happening to us have got to do with electronics! I wonder what's going on?"

Just then, a shockwave blasted through the cafeteria, and at the epicentre a thick blanket of fog settled.

"Huh!" commented Duncan, "yet ANOTHER strange thing."

All of a sudden, seven beams of light flew into their hands, forming small, white digital devices; Hannah's hitting her head.

"Heh- heh…" laughed Jaime, "Karma."

Suddenly three figures started to walk out of the fog. The first two were recognised by Hannah as Drake and Holly, the third was short, cat-like, with ginger and white fur.

"Greetings", it said, "My name is Mikemon. You have been chosen".