"So what's going on, Iz?" asked Cody, unable to take the suspense any longer. The older boy had been silent the whole car trip there. Maybe it was partially because Izzy was a really cautious driver, and diverted much of his attention to the road, but he was never this quiet.
"We have ourselves a little problem." Said Izzy tactfully.
"How little?"
"Big little." Cody gave him a look. "It's prodigious, and I don't mean it in my usual 'cool' sense. I'm talking mondo big problem."
"Evil Digimon?"
"Not this time." Izzy filled Cody in on the data-shifting episode they had during lunch.
"How are we going to stop the whatever it is from jumbling all of the data?" asked Cody.
"That's what we're meeting to figure out," said Izzy. He pulled his yellow Volkswagen beetle into the Elementary School's parking lot. "Come on. The rest of the guys are waiting."
Cody jogged alongside Izzy as they made their way through the hallways. "None of us can get into the Digiworld now?"
"None. The whatever-it-is is making the portal reject all program files relating to anything Digidestined, 01s and 02s alike. We're making Willis, Joe, and Mimi try their luck as we speak." He opened the door to the computer clubroom. All of the Digidestined were crowded around a few computer consoles. One was hooked into the vidphone. The screen was split showing Willis and Mimi. Willis frowned as he looked at his Digivice.
"I started up the program like you told me to, Lei, It's not working. I even tried wiring into the hardware."
Mimi rattled the Digivice as if expecting a loose part to clank around. "Mine won't work either. It glowed a bit, then it fizzled out."
"Hey, it worked better than ours." Said Kari. "That happened to Tai, Sora, Matt and Izzy's."
"Confirming our theory." Said Izzy as his way of announcing his presence.
"Hey guys." Greeted Cody. "Izzy filled me in. Any luck yet?"
"Well," said Yolei, passing a print out of computer code gibberish to Izzy. "We found out that the virus tends to favor the 01 Digivices than the 02 versions. Since they have been out of use for a while, they must have been spared some immunity. Just a little."
"Taking it logically," said Cody. "I would assume the virus attacked all the recent history files, the 02s being the most used ones of them all. You guys haven't been into the Digiworld for a while, so I guess it didn't have too much of an attack on you."
"But enough to keep us out." said Sora.
"What if we got new ones," suggested Mimi. "Get new Digivices, and write up a new portal program."
"It's not that easy, Mimi." Sighed Izzy. "There's only one set of Digivices per Digidestined generation." He gestured to each group. "Thus the reason why we call ourselves the 01 Digidestined, and you guys the 02 generation."
"So in short," said Tai. "We need new Digivices to defeat whatever this thing is."
"Or new Digidestined altogether." Added Davis.
"Can we contact Gennai?" asked Matt. "Glowing floating guy always has an answer."
"Whether it makes sense or not is the question." Groaned Mimi. "He didn't even remember Kari's name."
"Let's give it a shot." Said Izzy. He plundered down at a terminal and accessed the Internet. "Let's just hope he's on the IMer." He sent out a message to Gennai."
"But isn't he in the Digiworld?" asked Cody. "If the enemy is messing up the Digiworld, wouldn't he be affected as well?
"I'll search the 'net for something." Said Yolei, sitting at the computer next to him.
"Stuff about Digimon on the internet?" said Mimi. "C'mon."
"There's plenty of stuff on the web. You never know, right?" countered Yolei. "I'm cross referencing Digimon and news. There's usually some kind of prophecy that predicts this stuff, and new Digidestined kids would be showing up whether they know it or not."
"I'll help you out, Lei." Said Cody.
An hour later, Izzy leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms. "I can't find Gennai anywhere. It's like he's disappeared."
"What if he got infected?" Said Sora softly. "Maybe that's why he hasn't responded." There was a deadening silence as the thought was processed.
Tai tried smiling. "Hey, Gennai's pretty strong, well, uh, in spirit anyway. He'll survive. I bet he's too busy helping out the others and finding out a way to beat this to contact us. If he could anyway."
Yolei nibbled at her pen. "Well, I came up with a few hocus pocus legends about the Digiworld on the boards. Most of them are just hacker thoughts, kind of like how people thought of the Matrix in the movie."
"No hard core facts about it though." Said Willis. "Just theories. Some of them are pretty close, minus the monsters part."
"D1g1t4lUn1v3r53 chat room, right?" said Yolei grinning. "Yeah, I go there sometimes just for laughs. Some of their theories are totally off. They think it's a continent to the west of Canada or something."
"I found something." Announced Izzy. "It's a back door to the Digiworld!"
"That's not one of the natural portals." Said Yolei. "There's only a few places where you can enter the Digiworld from here. Why is there one there?"
"Someone must have hacked it." Said Cody. "How else would you explain it?"
"Gee, you can do that?" said Davis scratching his head. "This guy has gotta be smart. We better hope this guy's on our side."
"And not the creator of the virus." Continued Kari.
"Aaaahhhh!" cried out Yolei. She pointed at the screen franticly. "Look!" The screen swirled and turned black. A picture of a stereotyped black bowling-ball bomb flashed in the corner. /** You have tread upon my turf. LEAVE!! **/
"A hacker…" breathed Izzy. "Most likely the only who created the portal. He typed back. /** What do you know about the DW? **/
/** Who r u? **/
/** We could say the same 2 u **/ typed Izzy back. /** This is our turf. **/
/** Sez who? **/
/** Sez us. **/
"Quit the hacker speak, Izzy." Scowled TK.
/** How do I know ur not the 1 who's messing up the DW? **/
"This guy knows about the virus." Said Tai. "He or she's gotta be genuine."
/** How do we know you didn't. **/
/** Point taken, r we going 2 do this interrogation thing all day, or what? **/
/** This is our turf. Stay away from the DW. **/
A few seconds went by before the next response. /** You guys are the Digidestined, aren't you. **/
"What?!" exclaimed Davis. "How'd? What? Uh…What?!"
"How'd this person know?" said Matt.
/** What makes you think that? **/
/** No one but the Digidestined have access to the Digiworld, I know that as a fact. **/ There was a pause. /** Well, besides me. **/
"What are we going to say?" asked Izzy.
"The truth," said Sora. "I don't see why not. Obviously whoever this is knows a lot about the Digiworld and could help us."
Izzy turned back to the computer. /** Let's assume we are. How do we know we can trust you?"
The bomb icon in the corner flashed off and the screen returned to its previous state. /** You guys have to be. I'm guessing the crest of knowledge is doing the hacking on this one, or perhaps the 02's love and sincerity chosen one. The logs have always shown their involvement in techie Matters. **/
"Ask how much this person knows." Said Tai. "I want to know where we stand."
/** I know as much as Gennai recorded. **/
Izzy rubbed his hands together. "We need to know more about this person." /** How do you know so much? **/
/** I spend a lot of time online. I saw a challenge, I took it, I hacked in. simple as that. **/
/** So you know what's going on in the DW? **/
/** I didn't create the virus, if that's what you mean. I swear. I'm trying to fix it as we speak. Can you get in with your D-vices and the portal? I'd go myself, but I'm no DD. **/
/** Incompatible, **/ replied Izzy. /** We need to find a way to retrieve new Digivices or find new Digidestined. **/
/** So you *are* the Digidestined. **/ Came the retort. /** Tell you what, I'll team up with you guys and help you. You'll need my help to get this new threat under wraps. You just have to let me in on the action, got it? **/
/** Can we trust you? **/
/** You can call me Ntropy. I'm sending you the addy to my pager. You can contact me there. Is that enough? **/
Izzy saved the address and scribbled it onto a notepad. "Has to be one of the good guys." Said Cody. "To trust someone enough to give away their handle and addy is no small Matter. To strangers no less."
"So what do you say guys?" said Tai. "We need an informant on this one. With Gennai gone, we have no way of keeping tabs on the Digiworld.
"Do we have a choice?" said Kari.
"Not really." Said TK. "It's our best shot."
"Agreed." Said Izzy. /** OK we're in. **/
/** What's the first order of business? **/
"I say we find out if we need Digivices or Digidestined." Said Davis.
"Got it." Izzy typed it in.
/** Understood. I'll get back to you guys. Stay frosty. **/ The chat box disappeared.