Disclaimer: I did not create and do not own Digimon.
Chapter 2: The Fall
The following afternoon Ken and Wormmon went to a warm, sunny part of the digital world, where they planned on meeting with some of the other digidestined.
T.K., Davis, and Kari were doing homework on the grass—or, rather, their homework books were coincidentally open on the grass. Davis and T.K. were playing with their digimon, Kari was picking flowers while Gatomon napped in her lap.
Ever since Myotismon's defeat, the digidestined children had been able to come and go to the digital world as they pleased. Everyone knew the digiworld existed, so they didn't have to be furtive about it. They went often, even though they rarely had a reason to go. Except for the occasional tremor or rift as the digiworld reformed itself from Myotismon's attack, there were no real threats to speak of, a fact for which they were all grateful.
"Hey, Ken!" T.K. shouted in greeting.
"Hi, guys," Ken replied pleasantly as he and Wormmon found comfortable seats in the lush grass.
Davis stopped playing. "Ken, can you help me figure out my math? It was supposed to be due today, but I told my teacher a snimon ate my homework."
"Sure. No problem, Davis." Ken explained the homework easily, and Davis found to his surprise that solving two-variable algebra through substitution was so easy it was kind of fun.
After a while, Ken noticed that Kari hadn't said anything. She seemed distracted. "What's wrong, Kari?" he asked.
"Nothing..."
"She had a nightmare last night," T.K. explained quietly.
Ken spoke his next words so only Kari could hear. "You too?"
She looked up, surprised, but said nothing. Ken went back to talking and joking with the other two. A few minutes later, Kari walked off into the woods, followed by Gatomon. Ken followed as soon as he thought his departure wouldn't be noticed, leaving Wormmon playing tag with Veemon and Patamon. He caught up with Kari, and they walked side by side in silence for a minute.
"It seemed so real," Kari finally said.
"I know," Ken replied. "I was walking along a sidewalk by a park..."
"I was at my school," Kari commented, "But..."
"It was so empty," Ken commenced. "It almost felt..."
"Dead," said Kari. "And then I was falling through darkness, and landed in..."
"Mud. And the sky was..."
"Red?" Kari inquired. "And then there was a wall..."
"A black brick wall with a door," Ken took up. "And then..."
"Another wall. I was trapped. And..."
They silently looked at each other as what they were saying sank in.
"What did the voice say to you?" Ken asked Kari.
"It said I wasn't really digidestined, and it said I would come to them, whatever that means. You?"
"It said evil would get me back." Another long pause.
"Do you think it has something to do with the Dark Ocean?" Kari asked hesitantly.
"I don't know. Maybe. Should we tell the others?"
Kari thought for a moment. "Maybe we shouldn't make them worry until we have some idea what it all means."
Ken nodded.
"Well I think you should tell them," Gatomon stated authoritatively, making the two nervous digidestined children jump. "It's just that keeping things to yourselves has never really turned out to be a good idea in the past."
"She may be right," Ken conceded.
"Let's head back. We can decide on the way," suggested Kari. They turned around and began retracing the trail. "Gatomon is right," she admitted a couple of minutes later. "It must mean something that we both had almost the same dream. That's pretty strange."
Ken nodded. "I'd just rather not make them worry, if we can help it.
Gatomon suddenly stopped. "Shhh. I heard something." Her eyes scanned the tree branches. "There." She pointed to a dark shadow among the leaves. Ken and Kari could see nothing in the diluted light of the forest. "Four of them," Gatomon continued.
One suddenly moved, revealing itself to the humans
"Is that an owl?" Ken asked.
"Yes," Kari answered.
Other than having only one leg, it looked like a perfectly normal owl
"Isn't it odd for a digimon to look like a real animal?"
"You should see the other three," Gatomon suggested.
The owl stretched its wings and effortlessly fluttered to the ground, blocking the path. Another landed behind them. This one had two legs, but was bright red in color, with green on its tail and wings. One with razor-sharp feathers landed to their left. When Kari saw the fourth one land to their right, she stifled a scream. It was nothing but a human skull with owl wings.
"Kari, look out!" Gatomon launched herself at her partner.
"Darkness Door!" the owls shouted in unison.
Kari collided with a tree and grabbed a branch as the ground between the owls dissolved. Ken fell with only a grunt of surprise. Gatomon had successfully pushed her partner to safety, but was herself knocked back into the hole.
"Gatomon!" Kari made a grab at her digimon, but missed.
The four owlmon dove after the two falling figures. The hole retracted behind them.