Episode 3:

A Warrior's Journey

Ryo yelled as he fell through the plates of the Digital World. He put his arms in front of his face as he made impact with each one. Soon, he could see the ground of the Digital World below and he also realized he wasn't slowing down. The ground kept getting closer and closer as he tried to think of a way to slow down. He found none as he made impact with the ground and blacked out.

"Ryo! Are you ok?"

Ryo groaned as he heard a voice calling out to him and started to come to.

"Ryo!"

"…Please…5 more minutes…" he groaned.

"RYO!"

He painfully opened his eyes to see Cyberdramon standing over him, who was obviously the one calling out to him. He sat up carefully as he held his pounding head.

"What…happened?" he asked.

Cyberdramon looked at him and said, "You fell into the Digital World and landed your head on a rock."

"…I…did…?"

Cyberdramon nodded.

He chuckled nervously and said, "Well…that explains my head hurting."

After he thought he would be ok, Ryo stood up and looked around the Digital desert. He was wondering where to go next and who to talk to.

"Now what?" he thought aloud.

Cyberdramon went up to him and said, "Someone wants to see us."

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier?" he asked, annoyed at his partner.

"You didn't ask."

Ryo chuckled, remembering that his old self used to talk like that. As he hopped onto Cyberdramon's back and he flew toward their destination, Ryo wondered about his partner.

Maybe he'll go back to the way he was. Maybe he can defeat Millenniummon's attitude he gave Cyberdramon and just be the way he was.

His thoughts were cut off as they entered a part of the Digital World where there was blue and white flooring and a huge white castle stood in the center of it. As Cyberdramon landed, Ryo looked around at the place.

"I'm guessing we'll have to go into that castle over there to meet whoever sent us," Ryo said as they headed toward the castle.

They entered it and it was the same coloring as the outside, with huge picture windows lining the hallways to let in light. They continued down the long hallway and finally got to a pair of silver doors, which opened as soon as they came up to it. Inside the room were torches with blue fire spewing out of them and in the center of the room was a huge digimon. Ryo and Cyberdramon went up to the digimon, with Cyberdramon on his guard.

"Hello Ryo. It's nice to finally meet you," he said, his voice bellowing through the room.

"You're the one that called us here?"

"Yes. I am Azulongmon, one of the four sovereigns."

"I figured. So why have I been called here?"

"Legendary warrior…"

"Please don't call me that and I'm sorry I interrupted," he said quickly.

Azulongmon nodded and continued. "Ryo, for years our world has had peace without chaos ruining the world. You see, years ago a great enemy flourished in our lands and destroyed countless digimon and ancient guardians until one day it disappeared. We don't know what happened to it…but now it has returned. Unfortunately, we do not know where it is or where it will strike first when it comes. I want you to find it, Ryo Akiyama, and try to destroy it. There will be others who will be fighting as well…but I'm not sure if they will join you on this journey."

"Yes someone told me of this. The other children, I mean."

"I hoped so. Now then, will you do this for me?"

Ryo nodded. "Of course. I would be more than happy to."

"Thank you."

"Where do I start, Azulongmon?"

"You will start in the lower part of the Digital World and work your way on up from there. You will search the Digital World and once you find it, you must destroy it no matter what. Your journey will begin immediately but it will be a long and hard journey. There are things you'll discover about this world that don't apply to normal life, but I will let you discover for that yourself."

Ryo chuckled and said, "I see. Won't give me all the answers, will you?"

"Of course not. Now then, do you understand your responsibility and how hard this can get?"

"Yes I do."

Cyberdramon nodded in agreement with Ryo.

"Good. Because once your decision is made, you cannot go back on it. You will be stuck here until your mission has been completed or you fail it, which I hope you do not."

"I hope not, too. I wouldn't want to fail any mission anyone gives me."

Azulongmon nodded, as everything was quiet for a moment until Ryo started to leave.

"Well, we better get going if we need to save this world."

"Wait, young one. There is something else I need to do."

"What is it, Azulongmon?" he asked as he came back to the sovereign.

"In order for you to complete your mission, you need to have the right equipment for it. You already have the cards…now you need the right digivice."

"I do have a digivice," he said pulling it out. "But it's different than what I saw those children have."

"Yes. It's called a D-Arc and their very handy little things. Bring me your digivice so I can change it."

Ryo held up the digivice as two little white digimon he saw before came and took it. They held the digivice in their hands and started to concentrate as it started to glow. It glowed a brilliant white light and then subsided as they glided back down to Ryo with a new digivice. Ryo held it in his hand with amazement and wonder. It was a small device that was blue with a black trim and had a black strap on it to hook onto his pants.

"Amazing…"

"Yes, they are. Let me show you the different features on it…"

Azulongmon went through demonstrating how the D-Arc worked. He showed Ryo the compass to track down his digimon and any digimon nearby, the special control whip for him in case Cyberdramon went out of control, the scanner in it to read a digimon's stats, and of course the card scanner feature to scan any card Ryo put in to help his digimon partner. He tried the features out a bit by scanning Cyberdramon and putting some modify cards in his D-Arc to see how they worked. Once he was done figuring out the D-Arc, Azulongmon let him go onto his journey.

"Be careful, my friends."

"Don't worry. We will."

He nodded as his eyes glowed white as he transported Ryo and Cyberdramon to the lowest plain of the Digital World. Before they knew it, they were in a forest alone.

"Well, I guess we better start."

They traveled for days, searching for the enemy the sovereign wanted them to destroy. Sometimes a digimon would randomly attack them and Cyberdramon would destroy them with the help of Ryo. Sometimes, though, Ryo had to try to bring him back in control once Cyberdramon got too carried away. Ryo soon learned that he didn't have to eat everyday like he had to in the other Digital World and that the places here were a lot weirder. He discovered that one when he walked into a part of the world where it was nothing but white, gray, and black and found a weird looking castle which he slept in. He had found another part of the Digital World that was surrounded by clocks and he met Clockmon and Hagurumon. It wasn't too long until he heard a battle going on in that dimension.

"Cyberdramon! We have trouble!"

They ran towards the battle just in time to see a fox digimon get attacked brutally by her opponent. Ryo watched as a young girl ran to the hurt fox as he decided to stop this.

"Cyberdramon, go!"

Cyberdramon growled as he leapt into battle and started to brutally attack his opponent. Once Ryo thought it had enough, he told him to stop. But Cyberdramon wouldn't stop. He kept attacking, attempting to destroy the digimon.

"Cyberdramon! That's not the opponent we're looking for!" he yelled as he went up to his partner.

Cyberdramon wouldn't stop, as Ryo knew what he had to do. Ignoring the stares from the girl and two other kids, he took out his D-Arc and commanded the control whip to come out. He wrapped it around Cyberdramon's arm and started to pull him back. Cyberdramon started to resist him, as he wanted to keep fighting.

"Stop it! You will obey me Cyberdramon!"

After a little bit, Cyberdramon finally gave up and calmed down. Ryo was sweating slightly from trying to stop him. He wiped the small sweat off of his brow as he turned around to see the girl staring at him.

"Hi there," he said to her.

She stared at him and, if he didn't know better, she looked slightly annoyed. The other two kids came up to him and asked if he was actually Ryo. When he convinced them, they seemed overly excited but he tried to ignore it. Later on that night, they were talking about the Digital World and what was happening. It wasn't until the kid named Kazu told him about Ryo defeating Rika that he remembered where he had seen her before. He was so wrapped up in his journey, he didn't notice. A little later, she walked off with her partner and looked pretty mad. Ryo couldn't understand it and now he was stuck with two kids that weren't tamers, who seemed big fans of Ryo's.

Man, what next?

Poor Ryo. Anyway, the next episode is going to be a different story and I'll hopefully get it up soon.