[Cue Theme - "Infinity (Red Zone Mix)"]
[A clear blue sky, a few white clouds floating lazily by. Pan down, past the sun, until the skyline of a city comes into view: San Francisco.]
D I G I T A L M O N S T E R S
[We weave through the skyscrapers, before cutting to the streets below, a crowded sidewalk. A shadow quickly moves over them. Cut again to the skyline, then zoom into the top of the TransAmerica Building (the large triangular building), where a figure stands with its arms crossed: Aero Veedramon.]
[Cut to a red background, a silver haired person turns left to face the camera, Ira Caraway, before fading away. Fal Michael fades in and does the same, only turning right, before fading away. David Milliard fades in, turns left to face the camera, then fades away.]
[Aero Veedramon, Seadramon, and Veemon Akira fade in and do the same as their respective partners]
[Cut to a shot of the camera flying over Tokyo bay towards Tokyo itself, the skyline in the distance. Cut again to a shot flying over Shinjuku, looking straight down as we pass over the Tokyo Metropolitan Building]
[Cut to a blue background; Kouyuu Fukushima, "Callie" Stone, and Kaoline Shokai fade in and do the same as the others, followed by their partners: Hitorimon, Psymon, and Dianamon]
[We now see two Earths floating next to eachother in front of a star-filled background. Suddenly, two glowing red eyes open, looking somewhat faded, one over each Earth.]
[Now we are above the clouds, in the distance we see a giant blue-ish dragon, Azulongmon. We rapidly zoom in to the face of a person sitting on his head: Caspian Callaway. Cut to what appears to be a desert, another young man, Shadow, stands alone covering his face with one hand (like Heero in the Gundam Wing intro), we pull back just far enough as Antylamon lands in front of him. Cut again, Garfield Magus and Black Agumon are back to back, Garfield firing two handguns and his partner shooting a fireball. Now we are in a field of tall grass, Jajan appears and shoots an arrow at a target, then Celermon walks up behind him.]
[All of the partner Digimon each appear and fire their signature attacks at an unseen enemy (in order: Aero Veedramon, Seadramon, Veemon Akira, Hitorimon, Psymon, Dianamon, Azulongmon, Antylamon, Black Agumon, and Celermon). We then cut to black. The background lightens to reveal seven shadowed figures: Olympidianamon, Metal Seadramon, Ridatsumon Zero, Imperialdramon, Paladinmon, Black WarGreymon and Adeemon.]
[All of the Tamers (Ira, Fal, David, Kouyuu, Callie, Kaoline, Caspian, Shadow, Garfield, and Jajan) walk into view (like the end of Digimon Season 3's intro), followed by their respective partners.]
DIGITAL MONSTERS FOREVER
--
The Digital World…
"Mwehehehehehehe!"
This strange, somewhat evil laugh came from a virus digimon that could have passed as Pichu's cousin. Yes, this was Ratmon, a complete Pokemon rip-off and freaking proud of it. And at the moment, he was involved in a most heinous crime.
Ratmon laughed more to himself as he dumped trash all over the ground. "Haha, take this, public park! I'm littering and there's nothing you can do to stop me!"
"Hold it right there, oh hideous fiend!"
Ratmon looked up at the voice...and regretted it as he looked into the sun. "Who're you calling hideous?!" he demanded to know as he groped around for a mirror.
"We are!"
Four figures leapt out from behind the bushes, arranging themselves in a dramatic pose.
"Elecmon!"
"Patamon!"
"Wizardmon!"
"And I'm Dianamon!"
Ratmon was still busy groping around for a mirror. "I am not hideous..." he muttered to himself. The group fell over, and then waited patiently as Ratmon produced a mirror, brushing up his fur and oh-so-red cheeks.
"Ya see? I'm gorgeous, even more so than you."
Dianamon pointed a finger at him again. "No creature who commits such atrocities can ever be considered beautiful! Now prepare to be beaten, monster!"
Ratmon was completely ignoring her. Instead, he was fixed on Elecmon. "You!!"
"You!" she spat back, fur bristling.
Sparks darted between their eyes for a moment, then Ratmon ventured to say something else. "Who are you again?"
Elecmon fell over. "I'm your arch-nemesis, you bleeding fool!" she yelled.
Ratmon scratched his nose. "Oh yeah, I knew that face looked familiar...but back to the topic! Prepare for a royal bootie kicking by yours truly!"
"As if," Dianamon said, sweatdropping.
There was a 'squish' sound, and then Wizardmon said innocently, "What Ratmon?"
"I hate you all," Ratmon muttered from under Wizardmon's foot.
"Okay, that does it! Time for me to bring out the big guns!" Ratmon yelled as he hauled out a cannon. "Prepare to die!"
"Ooh, pretty," Patamon remarked.
"Looks like Civil War vintage," Wizardmon commented.
"It wasn't literal!" Ratmon yelled back, "All right, no more figures of speech for you. Ratmon digivolve to..."
"SPARKYRATMON!"
Ratmon grew. And grew. He ended up around six feet tall, yellow all over with two brown stripes down his back. His tail grew flat and zigzaggedy, while his ears turned long and pointed. "Now I'm going to pound you insects into the ground! Sparkyratmon's Patented Shock Attack™!"
"Ayaaah!" the four screeched as they dove different ways to avoid the attack.
"That was nasty," Dianamon mumbled.
"We can't let him do it again," Elecmon muttered back. She began charging up her own electricity.
"Sparkyratmon's--"
"Not this time, pal!" Patamon yelled as he dived from the sky, "Boom Bubble, pah!"
Elecmon slipped around behind him. "Sparkling Thunder!"
"Owwie..." Sparkyratmon groaned as he was hit by both attacks. He shook his head to clear it and found Dianamon and Wizardmon in front of him. "Uh oh."
"You got it, pal," Wizardmon said dangerously. "Thunder Cloud!"
"Shiroi Gesshoku!" Dianamon added in. The two attacks swirled together and created a Ratmon steak.
"Ow..." Ratmon groaned, twitching slightly as the four walked off.
"We bad."
"Hey, look, someone's jaywalking!"
"Ah well, a hero's job is never done. Stop right there, you!"
--
Dianamon stretched, reaching for another fruit from the basket. "This feels good."
"Hey, don't hog it all!" Elecmon scolded as she grabbed one for herself. Her ears twitched and she looked around. "Where'd Wizardmon go?"
"Where does he always go?" Patamon replied, rolling over on his stomach and letting the sun warm his back. Dianamon looked up at the sky. The sun shone brilliantly down through a sky partially dotted by puffs of clouds. She put up a three-fingered hand, studying the silhouette against the sky. "Hard to imagine there's a ceiling up there..."
Elecmon shrugged as Dianamon rolled to her feet and walked off. "Where's she going?"
"Where does she always go?" Patamon replied.
--
"I figured you'd be here."
Wizardmon whirled, hand tightening on his staff, but he relaxed as he spied Dianamon. "What do you want?"
He caught it, regarding it for a moment. "I've got...other things on my mind," he answered, turning back to the wall which seemed to stretch endlessly high until it became one with the sky.
Dianamon sighed worriedly. "Why do you let this get to you so much? I mean, for all we know, this is all there is to the world. This one city."
"No." Wizardmon's eyes were hard. "There's more, I'm sure of it. There are others out there, watching us. Like animals in a cage!" A fist slammed into the wall.
"Wizardmon, stop it," Dianamon said, tugging on his shoulders.
"Let me go," he said coldly. He paused as he realized the other Digimon's hands had slipped from his shoulders. He turned. Dianamon's eyes were unfocused, as if she was seeing something that didn't belong in the natural world.
"You see them?" he asked quietly.
She nodded slightly, not taking her eyes off it.
He nodded. "Let's go get the others."
--
The bat-like ears twitched as Patamon jumped to his feet. "You mean those Creepmon things?"
Dianamon managed a nod. "They came from Fifth Street. I think it was a fight or something."
Though she could see them, Dianamon could tell the others very little about the imp-like Digimon. She wasn't even sure if 'Creepmon' was the proper name for them. All she knew is that they appeared whenever someone did something evil or wrong and that a lot of them could make a virus digimon more powerful. The others knew the very presence of the things could send Dianamon into terrified fits.
"All right, let's go then!"
--
Toyama, Japan
"KAOOOOO-CHAAAAAN!"
A vein popped out on the tall girl's forehead as she pushed the other girl off her not-too-gently. "Hikaru, how many times have I told you, 'don't call me Kao-chan'!"
"Demo, kawaii desu yo! Kao-chan!" the cheerful blonde squealed, poking Kaoline mercilessly.
"Whatever..." She dusted off her clothes as she entered the run-down mechanic shop where she worked.
"Kao-chan!" her boss greeted her as she came in. She refrained from a sigh of frustration. Apparently Hikaru, her boss's daughter, had got her dad doing it too.
"Ohayou."
Even as she spoke, the hairs on the back of her neck tingled. She turned slightly, looking back out onto the street. A dark shadow flashed before her.
It's that thing again!
"Stop! Thief!"
The woman's cry brought Kaoline back to the real world. Dropping her tool bag, she began to run after the teenaged punk, oblivious to the yells of her boss.
"Kisama, yamete!" she yelled as she leapt, tackling him and knocking them both down. There was a brief struggle in which Kaoline made it clear that she didn't mind roughing him up if he insisted on fighting back.
What are those things? Am I just going crazy? Kaoline thought to herself. They seemed to turn up every time something like this happened. She couldn't explain it, but somehow, the things terrified her to her soul.
"Kao-chan, daijoubu desu ka?" Hikaru asked as she finally caught up with the taller girl.
"Ee. Call the cops on this scum." Kaoline turned away from her friend, only to stare into two large golden eyes.
As soon as she had seen them, the eyes vanished, leaving her in reality once more.
--
THOMP! THOMP! THOMP!
What was with these people?
THOMP! THOMP! THOMP!
They knew they were in danger yet never even bothered to build trap doors if they were staying in this territory.
Coming into the doorway a large birdlike figure stood at the threshold, it's feline face in place of a beak and ram horns atop his head, watched a figure covered in a sand hued cloak scuttle about the floor like a bug stamping and sweeping at the ground with hands and feet sending up small clouds of dust into the air. He took a moment to look around the inside of the clay and thatched hut, same as the others in the village, with its overturned furniture, broken dishes, and completely shambled facade. "Got water. Anything on your end?"
His partner took a few moments before looking up from his work and began to pick himself off the floor. "Nothing," he dusted himself off. "That makes the fourth village in three weeks. All of its inhabitants kidnapped, not a single escapee, not a single trapdoor. Do you think the Phoenix Armed Forces did this?"
"Well… they claimed much of this area as their own so it's likely. I doubt they'd let this go on without doing something about it if they weren't behind this."
"Probably so," he replied while walking past his partner, back out to the center of the empty village. They stood there for a moment listening to the meek wind that blew and timid clouds of dust that stirred about. Fingering the straps about his cloak about his shoulders he traced one down to the pouch that rested at his hip. Reaching into his pouch, the human shuffled through its contents and pulled out a piece of paper and began unfolding it. "Any guesses at what time they could've came for them?"
"Best guess would probably be at night. Maybe early morn when it's still dark. It's what I'd probably do. They wouldn't see it coming."
The human nodded in agreement and began looking at the sketchy drawings on the paper. This was one that involved much of the surrounding area, various shapes with little detail that marked places, oblong shapes marking water, names of places, notes, and near the edge just beyond a large circle that was noted as the City of Machines was a large question mark. "And if what the Togemon said is true before it went to pieces," he took an index finger and began tracing a path about the paper. "They were all taken to a garrison somewhere beyond the City of Machines."
"From the looks of it," the digimon looked over his shoulder. "It would seem that they're starting from the garrison, moving as far as they can to the farthest village, then return to the garrison. Then repeating the process. That doesn't make too much sense."
"Maybe," the human replied. "But if you start from the farthest point and work your way inward you can regulate any word of your doings from getting out. Those who do escape won't find any help farther down the road. By just starting with the closest, any information that makes it way out of your grasp will. If a mon is able to evade capture they could run farther out, to the next village for help," he turned to his partner. "Get it?"
"Yeah, yeah. That only leaves the problem of whether the villages nearer the garrison know anything about this."
He thought about it for a moment. "That I don't know."
"So… what do we do now?" the digimon rocked on its heels.
"Depends," he began folding the paper and placing it back to his pouch. "You think you're up for the trip?"
"Sure, sure, though that's a lot of area to cover beyond the city. But aren't we going to get help first?"
His partner gave him a skeptical look. "You honestly think they'll help us save a bunch of villagers, let alone villagers that dwelled inside enemy territory?"
The digimon only looked at the ground slightly ashamed. "Guess not. So that means we're going to go at this alone."
"Hopefully not. Hopefully we'll find some help along the way. Maybe villages that haven't been hit yet. Maybe some folks within the city."
"And if we come across Phoenix or the others," he asked as he crouched lower to the ground.
"We'll try not to run into them," he straddled the digimon's back. "If we do… well… we'll just have to wing it won't we?"
"Guess so. Hang on."
At a steady pace the digimon traveled with his partner atop him. Atop him the human cloaked himself as much as he could to keep himself guarded from the sun as he kept lookout for anything be it another village or a digimon, to warn his partner of, only taking a moment every now and then to give his eyes a rest from strain and mirages.
Across the parched land and rocky outcroppings they traveled, little grass and no water in sight from what they could tell. Eventually they came onto another village, and upon investigation came upon the same results as the last and continued on.
"Eh? Celermon, do you see that?" he rubbed his eyes for a moment then pointed to a small gray pillar in the distance.
"Yeah. Another village?"
"Another village."
"Fire seems to be dieing out from the looks of it. Maybe they've been attacking during the day?"
"If so then the villagers that were there must've found out what they were during beforehand or were able to fight back. Let's get a closer look. Go slow, tread carefully," he stated setting his bow on his lap and reaching within his quiver.
"Will do."
--
"Found the problem yet?"
"Chotto matte yo!" she snapped back as she squirmed a little, working her way under the 2066 Toyota Cecila. "Damn transmission...now, what's the problem?"
A spare bit of metal caught her eye. "Aha." With a grunt, she shoved her wrench into the crack and managed to wrap her fingers around the thing. It let off a soft glow. "What kind of idiot drops their GBA into an engine?" she muttered.
With a significant amount of tugging and cursing, coupled with a liberal spreading of grease and general filth, the piece came forth. The thing wasn't a GBA as she had first guessed, it was too small. "Must be one of those virtual pet things or something," she shrugged as she stuffed it in her chest pocket and began working on repairing the transmission.
--
"Wizardmon..."
The digimon whirled; tense, until Dianamon stepped from the shadows. "Oh, it's you."
"What are you doing?"
"I can't take this," he snapped. "Here we're nothing more than animals in a cage for people to gawk at!" He fired a beam at the unimposing wall.
Dianamon's eyes widened as the wall cracked. "Stop that!" she hissed. "You're going to get caught!"
"I don't care!" he yelled.
Dianamon froze, hoping no one had heard. To her horror, she heard the sounds of someone approaching...sounded like three. "Get down!" she hissed impatiently, dragging the other to the ground.
A pair of bat-like ears popped into view. "Wizardmon? Dat you?"
Dianamon sat up. "Oh, it's you guys." Wizardmon sullenly threw her off. Ignoring him, she went over to Patamon and Elecmon, the latter prodding forth Ratmon, who seemed to be holding something.
A slight chill went down Dianamon's spine. "What's this about?"
"We caught him sneaking around with this," Elecmon said, pushing him forward.
Ratmon sulked as he clutched the digiegg to himself. "I found it, it doesn't belong to anyone! I want to keep it."
"Iie..."
The others looked at her. "What's up, Diana?" Patamon queried.
"So-sono tamago..." she stammered, pale, "A...Akuma da!" she screamed before collapsing in a heap.
"Dianamon!" Wizardmon caught the girl digimon.
Ratmon looked at Elecmon and Patamon. "What'd she say?"
"Beats me," Patamon replied.
Wizardmon looked up as a slight hum reached him. "Oh, shit! Dronemon!"
The robot-like digimon were part of an almost-secret police force; they rarely showed up as their main job was keeping digimon from leaving the city. Wizardmon threw his cloak over Dianamon's still form, covering her. Patamon and Elecmon dove for cover, leaving Ratmon out in the open as the Dronemon arrived, taking in the lone Digimon and the cracked wall.
"SUBJECT MADE ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE. INFRACTION PUNISHABLE BY DEATH. SET PHASERS TO DELETE."
"Hey, wait!" Ratmon yelled, panicked. "I didn't do anything!" He hid behind the only cover available to him, the egg, as the Dronemon fired.
Space around the egg and Ratmon almost seemed to warp. The beams seemed to curve, some striking the wall behind Ratmon, more reflected back at the Dronemon, deleting them by their own weapons. Stray shots went everywhere. Wizardmon leapt, snatching the covered Dianamon off the ground. Her eyes were wide open, and she clung to him like a frightened child, shivering.
The first thing Ratmon noticed when he opened his eyes again was that he wasn't deleted, nor was anyone trying to kill him immediately. The second he noticed was the gaping hole in the wall. "Well, screw this!" he squeaked, racing out the hole.
The four remaining Digimon regrouped, staring at the hole. Patamon spoke first. "There is a world outside the city, after all."
"Wizardmon, put me down," Dianamon said quietly. "I have to go after him. The egg..."
"That won't be necessary," he said seriously. "I'll carry you out. You don't seem like you need to walk for a bit, anyway."
Her eyes widened slightly. "Wizardmon..."
"You think I'd let a chance like this go by?"
"I'm coming too," Elecmon said. "I don't trust Ratmon. Whatever's out there, he'll probably screw it up."
Patamon flapped his ears. "Well, I'm not staying here without you guys. C'mon, let's get out of here before more of those Dronemon show up!"
Four digimon stepped into the unknown, into the night.
--
Kaoline collapsed in her chair as she started up her email program. The reassuring tone informed her that, yes, someone did know her email existed, after all.
"Spam...spam...spam, spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam. Is there anything interesting in here?" She paused at an email from an address she didn't recognize with an attachment.
"Probably that damn Klex virus...again." Unlike most of the previous virus-infested emails she'd gotten, this one seemed to have an actual message. She scanned the preview without opening it.
Kaoline Shokai
It's not Klex. (How reassuring, she thought.) This little video has something you've seen before.
"Oh, goody," she muttered, her finger hovering over the delete button. Curiosity got the best of her, but didn't overcome her caution, so she scanned the file for viruses before running the small AVI. She watched in slight bemusement as some critters scampered across the screen and some robots came and fired upon one unlucky one. "Poor sod. Someone's having too much fun with their 3D animation programs, though they get points off for the Pokemon wannabe. I want to know how they did that warp effect, though..."
She paused suddenly and halted the video, skipping back a bit and staring at the still frame of the Pokemon wannabe clutching an egg. It wasn't that in itself that interested her but the strange creatures clinging to the shell.
"I've seen those before..."
--
I need help, she thought feverishly. Why? What are these things, and how come I'm the only one who can see them?!
"You can see them too?"
Golden eyes stared back at her. Who are you?! Kaoline demanded.
The ground under her feet suddenly ceased to exist. Kaoline let out a scream as she fell into an endless void.
While tossing and turning in her sleep, she had unwittingly grabbed the small device she had left on her nightstand. It glowed slightly as Kaoline vanished from the Real World.
--
[Cue End Theme – "I'll be there – Megumi Hayashibara"]
[In a dim, trash-filled alleyway, we see Ira Caraway, his hands in his coat pockets as wind blows his silver hair into his face. Panning up slowly, we see Aero Veedramon looking down at him from atop the building to his right. Cut to a street in Sacramento, overlooking San Francisco Bay. David Milliard is on the sidewalk, leaning against a building and staring towards the ground, as rain falls from a dim and cloudy sky. As we pan to the right, dissolve into a similar view of Veemon Akira, who is doing the same except he is in a devastated village, the way he is leaning giving the impression that they're standing back to back. The sky is black, but glowing red as is rains lightly]
[Cut to a beach on the Southern California coast at sunset. Fal Micheal watches as the sun slowly sinks below horizon, bathing him in an orange-red light. Quickly zoom into his eye, then back out to see Serpentmon doing the same. Cut to Kana Stone sitting on a windowsill, staring out across Tokyo as the Sun sets in the distance. Dissolve to a similar scene in the Digital World with Psymon, only she is sitting on the opposite side of her window, staring out across a devastated city with columns of smoke lazily drifting across the red-orange sky.]
[On an empty road on Okinawa, we see Kouyuu Fukushima leaning against his car staring towards us as a heavy rain falls from the dark sky. Cut to the Digital World, Kaoline Shokai, Dianamon, and Wizardmon stare up at the Digital star filled sky. Pan and zoom to a tree to the right, Jajan looks out from behind it at her, Celermon behind him.]
[Cut to a gray background, the shadows of Azulongmon appears. Then, Shadow and Caspian Callaway fade into view, Lopmon Mist on Shadow's shoulder. Cut again to a dark room, where Garfield Magnus loads a handgun as Black Agumon looks on]
[On the plains of North America, Alan Maxwell and Oppimon stare at the dark clouds brooding in the distance ominously. In the Digital World, Titaniumon Utora stands in the shadows of some city.]
[A park in Tokyo, Shiro Arkov walks silently in a heavy rain, several shadows passing by him. A short distance away, Tim Areo and Dashamon watch.]
--
Episode 12 Cast (In Order of Arrangement)
Kaoline Shokai . . . . . . . . . Tiakall
Dianamon
Wizardmon
Elecmon
Patamon
Ratmon
Dronemon
Jajan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blue Meth
Celermon