Episode 1: Lost and Found

Part 2

Josh woke up to a pounding headache. He cursed as he slowly sat up, the fresh taste of blood in his mouth. Not knowing exactly what hit him angered him slightly. He opened his eyes, only to find there was little difference in what he could see. The hallway was pitch black. With his senses slowly returning to him, he felt the small device, still clenched in his fist. He raised his hand to his face, to see if he could make out what it was. The most he could determine was that it was rectangular and slightly translucent.

"Weird," he determined. "Hey! Is anyone else in here?"

He got up, dusted himself off, and listened for an answer, hearing nothing but a faint bubbling and whirring. He noticed that these were not sounds that could be normally heard in a school, but couldn't explain it. Determined to solve this mystery, he stepped forward slowly, feeling in the darkness, searching for some sort of light source. Before long, he bumped into a solid object, which shook, causing its contents to wobble. Staring closer, Josh could barely make out large ovular shapes sitting on a table. Puzzled by this, Josh didn't notice footsteps coming closer from his right. Light brilliantly flooded the room and Josh recoiled at the shock from the sudden change of light. He however was bewildered to find that he was no longer even in his school. He was instead in an eerie room filled with brightly colored and designed eggs, sitting on identical tables. The room was massive. By sheer length alone, it could hold two football fields. He estimated the tables numbered in the hundreds, each with at least four eggs nestled on top. In the distance, he could see a towering sea of black cables, rising from floor to ceiling. Branching out from this tower were more cables, running along the ceiling, providing the light for the room and giving off arcs of violet energy to certain eggs. Were it not for the looming tower and its cables, Josh would have assumed he had ended up in some sort of animal nursery. Josh finally heard the heavy footsteps coming from the hallway to his right and ducked under the closest table. From this vantage point, he was able to see some sort of red-skinned creature enter the room. Josh was dumbstruck as he saw the unearthly appearance of the creature. It had a green mane, orange splotches, and a brilliant blue underbelly, with two sharp tusks to match. It was wearing what looked like some sort of tribal mask, which gave him the appearance of some sort of misshapen elephant. The thing that shocked Josh more was when this elephant-creature started talking.

"Well, well, little ones," the creature chortled at the eggs. "Are you ready to serve the master today? Ha! Of course you are! Now, which one of you should I pick for master's experiment? Ah!"

The monster stopped in front of an egg with a brownish-tan color that looked tattered because of its scale-like protrusions that rose off of its surface.

"You will do nicely," the creature added, with a gleam in its eye as it lifted the egg off of its stand with mighty blue tusks. It then turned back to the hallway, missing Josh completely, and trotted out of sight with its prize.

Josh shook his head violently, trying to bring himself back to reality. A red-skinned, tusked creature just walked in, talked and left. He crawled out of his hiding place when he was sure the coast was clear.

"I've got to get out of here," Josh said, looking around, hoping the way back to reality was somewhere in the room. The eggs, for the most part, each had a unique pattern and color scheme. He finally glimpsed the stand that had contained the egg that was taken. Staring forward, Josh remembered what his chief had said repeatedly in his fire rescue training. "What do we do? We rescue people? No. We don't just rescue people, but anyone. Anything that breathes, and is in danger is our responsibility. Anything that has a heart that beats is our responsibility. Anything that wants to eat, sleep, and live for one more day is our responsibility!" He paused and looked down at the empty egg stand. If that thing spoke to the egg that way, it might not just be alive, it might be intelligent! All of these might be! That monster! The creature is going to experiment on that egg!

"Not if I can help it."

Not knowing what dangers the egg, itself, contained, Josh clenched his fist that contained his small device and ran after the creature as quietly as he could.

Paul slowly opened his eyes. He groaned as he rolled over onto his stomach. Around him, he noticed the twins, Maria, and the tall basketball player in various stages of recovery. He was dumbstruck to find that they were outdoors. Gray clouds loomed overhead, as a small swirl of darker ones circled their surroundings. Pushing off of the ground to get up, Paul immediately noticed that it was spongy and smooth. It reminded him of foam rubber, but was covered in a thin layer of dust. It had obviously been brightly colored and cheery at one time, but now looked sinister. He got to his feet and walked over the strange ground to meet the others. Along the way, he came across many black, burnt, and shattered bricks of the same material as the ground. It appeared as though they had been stacked into towers at some time in the past.

"Ugh. Is everyone okay?" Paul asked, finally reaching Maria.

"Ah. Yea, I guess. My leg's a bit numb," she complained.

"I've been a bit better," the dark-haired boy said.

"What is your name anyway? I don't think I've met you before," Paul noted.

"You obviously don't hang around in the right crowds. I'm Dan. You know, captain of the basketball team?" he looked at Paul, who just gave him a blank stare. "Useless."

"We don't have time for this." said Nina. "We have to find out where we are. Any guesses?"

"Not a clue. One minute, Pauly here's geeking out on that computer of his, the next, we end up in Timbuck-two!" Dan said.

"This sure racks up on my list of weirdest stuff of all time," Rob stated.

Nina gave him a wry smile. "What, like number one?"

"No. Three. The two-headed duck and Loch Ness Monster are still the top."

They all laughed, despite the strange circumstances, but jumped with surprise when lightning crackled overhead. Staring up at the dark swirl of clouds, they were astonished as they watched a half-dozen eggs slowly float down to the ground. The instant the eggs touch the ground, the swirl of clouds dissipates, leaving only the gray cloud-cover overhead.

"Ooookay. Number two."

Nina nodded absent-mindedly, and stared at the alien objects. The rest were too stunned to move. She walked forward to observe the eggs up close.

"Is it Easter already?" Maria chuckled, trying to hide her fear.

Looking each egg over carefully, June stopped in front of a white one with ice-blue stars. She knelt down to pick it up, but Rob called out to her.

"Hey, sis! Be careful! You don't know if it's safe!"

"Oh, come on. It's not like they're gonna bite me. Aah!" She screamed with surprise when a faint glow from her purse spread to the egg she held, getting brighter by the second. Reacting as if she had been burned, the group ran to her and huddled around her.

"Are you okay?" Rob asked.

Instead of answering, Nina stared at the heavenly appearance of the egg, as the others did the same. The brittle eggshell and glow disappeared, revealing a simple gray mist. Slowly, the smoke-like substance accumulated, igniting a small spark on the top, hands, eyes, and a mouth.

"Hi!"

A group scream pierced the sky as four figures ran in four separate directions. In the confusion, Paul tripped and fell over a piece of rubble. Then, one voice was heard over all the rest.

"Stop it!" Nina shouted. "You're scaring him."

The little ball of smoke shuddered in fear, cuddling close to Nina's palm. Slowly, Dan, Rob, and Maria walk back to Nina. They stare, open-mouthed at the tiny creature.

"It's okay," Nina said softly. "No one's gonna hurt you. I'm Nina. My, you certainly are very warm."

The puff of smoke looked up and smiled at her. "You're very kind, Nina. I'm Mokumon."

"What exactly are you?" Rob asked. Nina gave him a look that told him he shouldn't have asked that.

"That's okay. I'm a digimon."

"Digi-what?"

"Digimon! It's a shorter name for Digital Monster."

Dan laughed at this. There was only so much of this he could stand. What he didn't notice, however, was that the red and white striped egg behind him had begun to glow.

"Digimon? Mokumon?" Dan repeated. "This is getting way too weird. I can't keep track of half your names already."

"Well, then what's your name?" asked a voice behind him.

"Don't you remember? I'm Dan! Captain of the Clearview High Basketball Team!"

A silver, mouse-like creature with a live cable for a tail leapt onto Dan's head.

"Nice to meet you, DanCaptainoftheClearviewHighBasketballTeam! I'm MetalKoromon. It's kinda weird for a name, but not compared to yours!"

Dan jumped up and down, screaming, "Aah! Get it off! Get it off!" MetalKoromon, merely giggled and hopped to the ground. Dan, more shocked than scared, bent down to look at the little creature. "Oh, you think you're soo funny, don't you, little guy?" MetalKoromon merely nodded and giggled some more.

Maria stepped toward a violet and silver striped digiegg and touched it, followed by another familiar glow. She walked back to the group, holding a small, red blob with three horns.

"I'm Punimon!"

Paul had tripped and fallen directly in front of a yellow-orange egg with brown and red splotches. His device dropped out of his hand as he fell, landing in front of the egg, causing both to glow. As the eggshell disappeared, the device stopped glowing, leaving colors to match the egg. When this egg's shell dissipated, a yellow, flower-like creature, complete with a leaf-like tail, is left.

"Um…hi. I'm Paul. Are…you a digimon too?"

"Uh huh. I'm Popomon."

Picking up his newfound friend, Paul walked back to the others to introduce Popomon to the entire group.

Dan looks own at MetalKoromon an asks, "So, I'm guessing you're a digimon too?"

"Yup! Sure am!" answered his companion.

"I think all of them are," Maria noted. The small creatures all nodded in agreement.

"Well, Rob," Nina adds. "You seem to be left out. Where's yours?"

Rob looked at the two remaining eggs. One had green and brown stripes. The other was blue with brown stars. Picking the starred one, he touched the top of the egg. The shell disappeared, leaving a familiar mass of smoke. It concentrates to form another Mokumon that floats next to the other.

"What? They're the same!" Rob yelped.

"They're twins!" Maria corrected.

Nina laughed at the irony, saying, "What a coincidence, huh?"

"I'm also Mokumon!" the misty little digimon reassured.

After the rest of the introductions, the group turned to the last egg.

"So what do we do with that one? We could at least see what kind it is," Nina suggested.

"Don't we have enough to worry about?" asked Dan.

Nina walks over and picked up the egg. Unlike the rest, it merely wobbled a bit in her arms.

"What's wrong? It didn't work."

The others walked closer, so they each could try the same, only to find the same result. The egg would not disappear.

"What's the deal, MetalKoromon? Why won't the egg disappear?"

"Well, digimon normally take a lot of care and time to hatch. Something special must have happened for us all to be born right after arriving."

"What could it have been?" Maria asked. She looked around, and noticed Paul's device hanging, which he held in his hand. "Paul! That device that you have! It's changed!"

Paul looked at the now yellow-orange device again and nodded. "Yea. It happened right when Popomon hatched."

Rob took out his own device and was shocked to see that it had turned navy blue with brown details. He announced, "Mine did too!"

The others each take out their respective devices and notice the same changes. Maria's device had tuned violet with silver details, Nina's had turned gray with blue details, and Dan's was now white with red details.

"They look like the colors that were on all the eggs," Maria observed.

"What does it mean?" Paul asked. He turned to the digimon. "Do you guys think these things could've made you hatch?"

"I don't know. We've never seen anything like those before!" Popomon said.

"That still doesn't answer what we do with the last egg," Nina noted.

"You can hand it over nice and slow," came a piercing voice from behind the group.

Finding the room that the creature had entered was easy. Josh crept along the wall to the edge of the doorway. Hearing whispers coming from the inside, Josh peered around the doorway, only to find a vast amount of electronic equipment, cluttering the entire space. At the opposite end of the room, the four-legged creature was typing oddly on a keyboard with its tusks. As Josh scanned the room for the egg, he found it floating, suspended between two halves of another tower-like bundle of wires. Josh waited until the creature had its back turned to him to dash into the room and duck behind a large assortment of equipment. He then silently crept deeper into the room, until he could hear the creature's words clearly.

"Ah! Everything is ready!" it boomed. "Now, my little friend, you are going to be the bringer of destruction to this world in the Master's name. Now, isn't that exciting?" The monster finished typing and listened as the machine warmed up. "I'll leave you to your fate, young one. When this is finished, you'll be the ultimate tool for the Master's conquest of this world." As the elephant-creature savored the words it had just spoken, it turned from the console and began to walk out of the room.

Josh quickly ducked into the shadows, so he was not spotted. Once the footsteps were safely diminishing in the hallway, he emerged next to the control console. He heard the machinery whirring faster and faster, growing louder. As he glanced up at the egg, he saw a black mass appear from the top of the tower of wires. Slowly following their path, the mass descended slowly, growing closer to its defenseless target. Josh frantically punched at the controls, looking for a way to shut the machine off. To his dismay, the keys and buttons were all labeled in some sort of alien language. Nothing he pressed made any difference in the machine. The black mass continued to descend. Frustrated with his dilemma, Josh leapt onto the control panel. From this gain of height, he tried to pull the egg to safety, but was shocked to see that he couldn't touch it. Some sort of force field was blocking his hands. He jumped with surprise when the device in his hand started to glow. A beam of light shot out of the device and hit the black mass. Instead of dissipating, the mass changed into a golden orb of energy, which continued along its path. Once it reached the egg, it entered its outer shell as it transformed. The tattered-looking tan egg became healthy, complete with golden scales. It floated directly through the force field and into Josh's arms. Another glow from his device penetrated the egg, as the shell disappeared. Sitting in his arms was an orange, slimy-looking digimon with a red horn on its forehead. Glancing at his hand, Josh noticed that his once-clear device was now black with gold details.

Not knowing what to think after first seeing the elephant creature, Josh said, "Uh…hey there, little guy."

To his surprise, the creature spoke back. "Hello. My name is Fufumon. What's your name?"

"I…I'm Josh. You can talk!"

"Of course I can. Can't everyone?"

"Well-" Josh was going to disagree, but heard the familiar footsteps coming closer. "Come on! We have to hide!"

He ducked into the machinery again, with Fufumon tucked safely into his arms. It was just in time, as the elephant creature lumbered back into the room with pride in his steps. He stopped cold, when he noticed the egg was missing. "WHAT? Where is it? Where could it be?"

"Sethmon!"

An enormous image of an obscured face appeared hovering behind the elephant creature. It stared with cold eyes at the red-skinned monster.

"My, my Lord…Your- Your servant is here for you, Master."

"Stop your groveling, Sethmon. Where is the egg? Where is the experiment that I ordered? I thought you said you had it ready."

"Well, yes. I did. You see, the experiment, the egg, rather…well, I may have…lost it."

"Lost it? How could you have lost it? It was in your sight the whole time!"

"Well, not the whole time. I…sort of left. To let the machine run."

"Why would you leave the room? Don't you know what you've done?"

"I wouldn't have had to leave the room, if you hadn't have told me to watch the digieggs!"

"Very well, Sethmon. We will discuss my lack of faith in you later. There. We will now see what you missed."

The screen on the machine turned switched to a bird's eye view of the hologram, Sethmon, and the experiment area. It was distorted a bit, as the figures suddenly moved very quickly. Like a tape being rewound, the scene regressed backward until the egg reappeared. "There!" Sethmon exclaimed. "There was someone else here!" As the scene progressed again, they saw Josh messing with the controls, jump onto the console, and take the egg, which hatched into Fufumon. They paused the screen where it was. "But, what does it mean, Master? What was that creature?"

"Human," came the only reply. "Search the entire room! They have to be here somewhere!"

"We've got to get out of here," Josh whispered. Fufumon jumped out of his arms and floated a couple of inches off of the ground.

"But, how?" Fufumon asked. "They're just too big."

Sethmon was searching frantically around the room, while the face oversaw his work.

"That disgruntled pony is the only thing we have to worry about. Now! Make a run for it!"

They both race towards the exit with Josh running at full speed. As he turns back to make sure no one's looking, he notices Fufumon huffing and puffing, hopping up and down. It was obvious that it was as fast as the little digimon could run. Running back to pick him up, Josh tripped over a pipe, causing a loud sound to echo throughout the room. Josh and Fufumon each stared at Sethmon and the hologram with terror.

"There they are! Get them! Get them now!" the hologram boomed.

Fufumon closed his eyes tightly, as he began to glow. "Fufumon…digivolve to…Kyokyomon!" When the glowing stopped, Josh, Sethmon, and the hologram were all shocked to see a tan-colored, worm-like digimon with four flippers staring back at them.

"He…digivolved?" Sethmon blinked with disbelief.

"GET THEM!" screamed the hologram.

Without warning, Kyokyomon hopped back into Josh's arms and yelled, "Run!"

Josh turned on the spot and broke into a sprint, as Sethmon pawed the ground and growled. The masked digimon charged, gaining a fair amount of speed quickly. Josh ran as fast as he could, but Sethmon still gained on them. He continued out the door and straight into the hallway. Finding it hard to see clearly, Josh rolled to his right to avoid running into the opposite wall. Sethmon was not so lucky. With a resounding crash, the behemoth hit the wall, digging his tusks deeply into the brick. With a thunderous roar, Sethmon tried to pull himself out of the wall, with no success. He screamed with annoyance of his trap made by his own foolishness.

"What do you know? It worked!" hailed Kyokyomon.

"Let's get out of here," suggested Josh.

"Aah! A bug! A big, talking bug!" screamed Maria.

"That's no bug, Maria," said Punimon. "That's Dokunemon. He's a mean-spirited digimon with a poisonous nature."

"You mean there are more of these guys?" Dan asked.

"Yea," answered MetalKoromon. "But this guy is nothing more than a bully."

The green, worm-like digimon laughed. "Oh, you flatter me. I'll be sure to destroy you last. Now hand it over."

Dan walked over to Dokunemon and stared down at him. "Hey! You don't scare us, you little worm! Like Punimon said, you're nothing more than a bully. A little bully, at that. You're not getting the egg no matter what you do."

"Oh, in that case, why don't you reconsider? Mass Morph!" Dokunemon laughed as he started to swell, growing larger and larger, soon growing even taller than Dan!

"Uh…Dan?" Nina asked. "You really need to keep your big mouth shut."

"This is not good," Dan said.

"Now, little worms," Dokunemon chirped. "Hand it over! Or I'll make you do it."

"What do we do now?" Rob asked.

Paul thought about the question for a moment. He then ran toward Dokunemon, as he yelled, "Protect that egg!" to the others. He stopped next to Dan and stood, ready to fight.

"Don't tell me you suddenly grew a backbone," Dan chided.

"Shut up, Dan. Any bright ideas?" Paul asked.

"Hair Mist!" Paul as shocked when Popomon hopped onto his shoulder and then into the air, sending hair-like needles at Dokunemon.

MetalKoromon jumped onto Dan's shoulder, who also jumped with surprise. "Powder Blow!"

"Hey, guys! Stop it!" Paul beckoned. He held Popomon back.

"Yea. Let us big guys handle it," Dan said, catching MetalKoromon as well.

"We want to protect that egg just as much as you do!" Popomon yelled, as both digimon broke out of their grip and continued the attack.

The other three digimon hopped out of Rob, Maria, and Nina's arms as well. Punimon hopped forward, with the two Mokumon floating behind, giving a charging yell.

"Acid Bubbles!" Punimon's attack came, hitting Dokunemon square in the beak.

Both Mokumon attacked in unison, giving an echoing, "Smokey Blow!"

Dokunemon wavered, and then recovered himself. "Ugh. You're annoying me. Allow me to finish you off. Worm Venom!"

A violet mist emerged from Dokunemon's beak and floated towards the baby digimon. It covered the area, causing both the digimon and humans to fall to the ground, gasping for air. Dokunemon laughed in triumph and descended on the egg, now unguarded.

Punimon sat up, struggling, and gathered his strength to speak. "We have…to fight. For the digiegg!"

Each digimon began to glow, bathing the ground in light.

"What's happening?" Paul asked, to which no one could answer.

"Popomon…digivolve to…Frimon!" The yellow, flower-like digimon was replaced by a frilled, tabby, feline head complete with a tail to match.

"MetalKoromon…digivolve to…Kapurimon!" The silver mouse-like digimon disappeared, leaving a white and blue raccoon-like creature with a metal mask and ringed tail.

"Punimon…digivolve to…Tsunomon!" A yellow-orange creature with a single brown horn replaced the red blob.

Both masses of smoke said in unison, "Mokumon…digivolve to…DemiMeramon!" and became larger balls of flame, but with more defined hands and facial features.

Dan looked up at his raccoon-like companion. "Uh, does anyone want to tell me what just happened?"

"We'll talk later," Kapurimon said. "Howling Blow!" A shower of energy shot out of Kapurimon's mouth as a tiny howl was heard.

"Bubble Blow!" came Tsunomon's attack, throwing a steam of bubbles.

"Fireball!" both DemiMeramon said together, launching identical firey blasts at Dokunemon.

Frimon jumped up to Dokunemon's head and whipped his tail around, smacking him repeatedly, saying, "Tail Slap! Take that! And that! And that!"

Dokunemon roared, as he shrank back to his normal size. "Just you wait! I'm gonna tell my brothers! Lousy brats!"

"Bring it on!" Frimon said. "We'll beat them up too!"

Dokunemon scampered off, jumped into the bushes, and out of sight. The digimon each turned around to face their friends, who were dumbfounded.

"Whoa. You guys actually did it!" Dan exclaimed.

"But what happened to you? You look so different now. So much…bigger," Maria added.

The digimon laughed and said together, "We digivolved."

"Digivolved? More digi- words?" Nina asked.

"Yea. We grew to the next level," said DemiMeramon.

Rob shook his head in disbelief. "Weird. This is just plain weird."

"Well, that explains everything," Dan said sarcastically. "You sure do look different, though, MetalKoromon."

"I'm Kapurimon now."

"What?" Dan yelped. "You mean I just now remembered your name and you changed it?"

"That's what happens when we digivolve," said Kapurimon

Rob and Nina looked down at their flaming friends. "And you're…"

"DemiMeramon," they each said.

Maria looked at the horned digimon. "Tsunomon."

The frilled digimon gave a slight bow. "Frimon."

"Wow. Do you digi…" the word slipped Paul's mind. "Do you guys change like this all the time?"

"Well, we're always changing. But we can't normally digivolve. It usually takes time to do it. This was weird that we were all able to do it today," Frimon pointed out.

"Great. You're just as clueless as we are, then?" asked Paul.

"I'm afraid so," Frimon answers.

A low rumble caught their attention, as they looked off into the distance at a towering mountain. Dark clouds covered the top, as lightning crackled menacingly.

"Not good," Paul said.