Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or Digimon, but I do own my character Nicole, the dragonet Stellath, and the entire Middle World. As well as a bunch of other random stuff.
A/N: Well, I worked hard to try and put this up. There were definite major changes in things here...and since I originally wrote this chapter before 02 came out (rather, before I'd seen the end of the first season and I'd just seen the big Tai/Matt fight in the Dark Masters arc), I had the characters all characterized with their 01 personalities. So there's been some reworking and they've all matured a good deal. And I've fit things in so it works with the entire Digimon storyline. As a note, Nicole lives in the same world as the Digidestined, which of course makes things a bit hard (if it makes it easier to visualize her, think Asian)...and I can speak Japanese (poorly, I might add), but as the characters can understand each other, there's no need to use it. But trust me, the last chapter will probably have plenty of it... Also originally, I was quite obsessed with Anne McCaffery's "Dragonriders of Pern" books, so Stellath was originally based from that. But later on, the relevance to that became obsolete and unused, so I've now created a dragon world that Stellath comes from...and that world is involved heavily in this story now.
Oh, and the words on Matt's shirt are intentional. It's the title of his 01 image song. (Yay!)
Chapter 2
The Adventure Begins
---
"Mom, Kari and I are going down to the park," Tai called out, as he put on his sneakers and adjusted the goggles on his head. Glancing down at his attire, he saw his khaki shorts and blue t-shirt with a bright orange star on the front. Yup, all ready in case a weird portal opened up to another world... or something like that. He nodded to Kari, who was also putting on her shoes in the threshold of the apartment, and the two tried to act as casually as they could.
"Be back before dinner!" their mom called out. "I'm making fungus cookies!"
Tai inwardly winced. "Okay," he called, trying to sound enthusiastic. He was not looking forward to the cookies.
Kari, in her favorite pink shorts and yellow tank top, carefully hefted her backpack onto her back, and both she and Tai winced when they heard a light squeal from inside it. "Kari, why am I in here?!" a voice cried out.
"Shhh, we just need to sneak you down to the park, that's all!" Kari said quietly to Gatomon, who was inside the pack. She adjusted her pink hairclip and the white bandanna around her neck.
"Then why does Agumon get to walk around?"
Tai opened the door, carefully motioning Kari and her protesting partner in the backpack out of the apartment. Then he purposely dropped his mini-telescope on the floor, bending down to pick it back up while doing his best to seem like nothing was wrong.
The signal given, a small figure in a dark poncho practically flew out the door from around the corner, making loud clacking sounds with its claws against the tiled floor. With another wince from the loud racket Agumon had made, Tai quickly jumped out and closed the door before his mom could make an inquiry as to what the noise was.
Tai and Kari looked at each other, and sighed. They'd forgotten the troubles of transporting the digimon without alerting anyone to their presence. After all, it wouldn't do too well if someone saw the digimon and completely freaked out, causing chaos and confusion.
"Agumon doesn't fit in a backpack unless he's Koromon," Kari said quietly to the backpack. "Think of it this way – you're lucky because you get to be carried."
"But I don't want to be carried in a backpack!"
Kari looked extremely apologetic. "I'm sorry, Gatomon. As soon as we get to the park, I'll carry you normally, okay?"
The backpack squirmed, and Tai could tell Kari felt very bad about the entire situation.
Earlier, after both Tai and Kari had confirmed the entire dream with each other, Tai had called the other six Digidestined and asked them to all meet down at the playground at the park. He'd been surprised at the reception he'd received from everyone; they had all been excited to come together again as a team, complete with the digimon. Even TK was taking the subway all the way to Odaiba just for the meeting.
It was their first plan of action, to meet up together and figure out part of what was going on. Then they had to find that last person.
Inwardly, Tai thought wryly, This might turn out to be an Eighth Child type of deal again...
-----
Matt calmly walked down the street, in jeans and a light green t-shirt with the words "Walk on the Edge" in English printed on the front (At least, that's what he'd been told by Mimi, who was working hard on her English skills, seeing as she was moving to America in less than a week), and a backpack on his back. Black cut-off gloved hands in his pockets, he fingered his harmonica in one pocket and his pocketknife in the other, trying to keep his mind relatively blank as he did his best to act casual. A couple of adults had already given him strange looks concerning the small "person" walking next to him, and he didn't really need any more extra attention.
Gabumon, who was wearing a large poncho with a rain hat on top, plus a scarf and other accessories to hide his horn, was trying his best not to attract attention, and failing somewhat miserably. He'd taken to not making eye contact with anyone, and was now spending a lot of time staring down at Matt's shoes.
Matt could tell Gabumon was feeling both awkward and miserable. "Don't worry, we're almost at the park," he said quietly.
"I'm all right Matt... I'd just forgotten about this disguise issue in the Human world," Gabumon replied.
Matt sighed. He inwardly wished he was either bigger, or Gabumon could de-digivolve to Tsunomon, just so that he could carry the digimon and spare his friend from embarrassment. Then he could easily run to the park, and meet up with Tai and everyone else.
The entire meeting was probably going to end up like a huge reunion, with lots of nostalgic comments from everyone and a huge feeling of team spirit. It had been a long time since everyone had come together, especially with the digimon, and with a new sort of mission that Tai had insisted was the case, it would seem even more like the time two years earlier when they'd all traveled as a team to save the world.
Thinking on Tai's request for the meeting, Matt thought back to the dream. He remembered Mewtwo, and the way its eyes seemed to glow blue. In fact, it was the same kind of blue glow that his crest had emitted whenever it activated. He smiled slightly, remembering the shape and figure of his crest, wistfully wishing he still had both the physical incarnation of it, and the inner power that had rested in his heart for nearly a year before having to relinquish it for the sake of the Digiworld. Somehow, the two glows were similar, though Matt had a feeling Mewtwo was not someone who fit the characteristic of "Friendship".
Crossing the street, Matt and Gabumon entered the park. After a few minutes of walking, when they were safely out of view of the street, Matt stopped, grinning at Gabumon.
Gabumon immediately tore off all the extra clothing he'd been wearing, leaving it for Matt to stuff into his backpack. "Ah, much better!" Gabumon sighed, looking over himself and his blue fur coat. "It's so hot under all those layers!"
"It's better than being frozen," Matt reminded Gabumon, as he stuffed the last of the clothes into his pack. Gabumon smiled slightly and nodded. Both still remembered the incident in the Digiworld where Matt had nearly frozen to death, and then Gabumon had gotten sick trying to take care of him.
Grinning at each other, the two began their long trek through the park to the playground where Tai had asked them to meet.
-----
It was past dinner, and Nicole was tired of trying to figure out the prophecy and the dream while sitting in the house. With a sigh, she called out to her mom from her room. "Mom, I'm gonna go down to the park for a couple hours."
The park was quite a long walk away, but Nicole knew her mom would let her go. If Nicole was an ordinary girl, maybe not, but Nicole wasn't exactly normal. After bringing home seven strange and somewhat dangerous creatures from a school camping trip, who were all loyal to Nicole, both of her parents had relaxed a good deal on security issues. It had also taken them a while to get used to the presence of all the pokémon as well.
She glanced around her room, seeing that only Haunter and Stellath were present, and sighing, she walked over to the door and poked her head out. "Team, we're going to the park!"
With a loud shout of "Hooray!" from Charizard, the remaining five pokémon quickly scampered over to Nicole's room, anticipating a great time outdoors.
Nicole smiled, as she held out her pokéballs, and all six pokémon literally jumped into them in bursts of light. The team always looked forward to any excursion outside, especially after having traveled on the road for three years and then suddenly being cooped up inside. It was already bad enough that there were so many random people around the country who insisted on seeing monsters roaming the countryside, and having an extra seven that liked to hang around her house would only cause a lot of trouble.
It had been like that ever since they'd returned from the Pokéworld – restless pokémon, restless Stellath, and restless Nicole. Not to mention that Nicole had been pretty mad when she'd returned home, mostly about two things: The fact that no time had passed at home since she'd left, and also the fact that she'd evidently de-aged three years when she came back, forcing her to relive three years of both mental and physical change. Puberty during her pokémon journey had been bad enough. She'd been extremely irked to have to go through it again.
The pokémon were lucky – they hadn't de-evolved or anything. But after a couple months in the house, they certainly acted as though they'd gotten younger... even Stellath, who hadn't changed at all.
The entire group had come to the conclusion that the switching worlds thing was very confusing. Evidently, there were two Nicole's, two of each pokémon, and two of Stellath who were roaming around, one in Nicole's home world and one in the pokémon world. They were all just living three years simultaneously. The entire situation was enough to make one's head spin.
Hooking all six balls onto her belt, Nicole checked her backpack for the usual supplies. Then, with a nod to Stellath, the small dragon jumped in, and Nicole zipped it up. Then she looked over herself.
She felt like a road trainer again. Rolled up jeans, purple t-shirt, green vest, and blue bandanna holding back hair – the same type of outfit she'd worn during her pokémon adventure. Her mental intuition told her that a long journey was ahead, so she'd dressed for a long journey, in the same way she had traveling in the Pokéworld.
She really liked that mental intuition. It was almost always right.
Carefully hefting her backpack onto her back so as not to accidentally injure Stellath, Nicole walked out of the room and over to the door, before slipping her grey sneakers on. Then she left the house.
The first thing she did was hide in the threshold area of her front door. She wanted to try something, having not had much of an opportunity to do anything like it for the last three years. Quickly glancing around to make sure there was no one on her street, and that her parents weren't looking out the window wondering what the heck she was doing, she closed her eyes, and concentrated on an image of the park.
Nicole felt a glimmer of energy, and a quick brush of wind. She smiled, letting the setting sun shine down on her, and concentrated harder. Her teleport was working.
Being a strong psychic definitely had its perks.
Hopefully.
-----
Still walking through the park, Matt was beginning to feel unsure of what he was doing. They'd been walking in the right direction, but he still couldn't see the playground. It was almost as if he was walking around in circles, leading poor Gabumon in a trail of confusion. It was as though something were keeping him magnetically attracted to some area. It certainly didn't help that his Digivice wasn't picking up any signals from the other kids.
Then both he and Gabumon stopped, as they noticed the air in front of them begin to shimmer. There was a quick warp, a glimmer of energy, and then suddenly a black-haired girl his age materialized in front of him.
Matt just stared. He'd seen quite a lot in his lifetime, but he'd never seen someone appear out of nowhere.
The girl opened her eyes, blinked, and looked around in confusion. She seemed to take note of the bright afternoon sun, the tall buildings, and then him. She stared back at Matt, then to Gabumon, then back at Matt again.
Gabumon blinked, then looked up at Matt. All three of them began gazing at each other with looks of incredulity.
Then the girl spoke. "What happened? What is that?" she pointed weakly at Gabumon, before continuing in a bewildered voice. "And...what the heck am I doing here?!"
Matt noticed that she seemed to speaking a completely different language, but for some enormously strange reason, he could understand her. He also recognized the language. "Here's another question – How did you get here? And why are you speaking English?!"
The girl blinked, staring. "And...that's Japanese, isn't it? You're speaking Japanese?!"
"Like all normal residents of Japan, yes, I'm speaking Japanese."
"Then how come I can understand you?!"
"Good question! I can't speak or read English, so I don't know what's going on!"
The girl's eyes suddenly widened in strange realization. "Wait a sec, you're a Japanese person? This is Japan?!"
Matt raised an eyebrow. "Yes," he said somewhat disdainfully, wondering if the girl in front of him were sane or not. There was also the fact that she'd materialized out of nothing.
There was a pregnant pause, and then the girl began repeatedly smacking herself in the head. "I'm an idiot, I'm an idiot, I'm an idiot..." she kept muttering to herself.
Matt looked down at Gabumon, who only shrugged apologetically. Then trying to calm himself down, he asked as politely as he could in his mind state, "Can I ask how you got here?"
The girl turned to him, grinning awkwardly as seemed to realize something. "Um...you saw me get here?"
Both Gabumon and Matt nodded blankly.
She quickly glanced at Gabumon, before sighing, seemingly making a decision in her mind. "Well...I guess I can't hide it, but first off, I'm American. I was trying to teleport to the park...I didn't mean to teleport all the way across the Pacific Ocean..."
At the word teleport, Matt just felt all sense of reality implode on itself. Teleport? American? Pacific Ocean? What?
Overcome with confusion, both Matt and Gabumon simultaneously sat down, staring at the also equally confused girl in front of them. The only good thing was that she didn't completely stare and freak out at the sight of Gabumon. However, the situation only became more chaotic.
A little golden, draconic head suddenly peeped out of her backpack. The small dragon looked around, somewhat feline eyes surveying the scene, before pushing its way out of the pack, unfurling its wings, and leaping into the air. The girl turned when she realized what had happened, and a look of shock and horror came to her face.
- It's safe, there's one with him too! - Matt suddenly heard. He shook his head, wildly glancing around to see who had spoken, but he didn't see anyone.
The girl sighed, seeming slightly relieved, but only momentarily, as something on her belt activated and exploded with bright light. Although the word "digivice" came to mind, it certainly wasn't what was glowing. Matt shielded his eyes, and when the light faded, his jaw dropped as he stared at the huge orange dragon that now stood between him and the girl.
It gave a roar, eyeing him warily, before the girl suddenly gave a yelp and ran forward, grabbing its arm. "What are you doing?!?!" she yelled.
The dragon stopped, gently flapping its large, blue wings. It gave an indignant snort and gazed over at Matt and Gabumon, giving a strange distinct impression of grinning. It opened its mouth, and it emitted a low, rumbling growl, towards the girl.
The girl gave the dragon an extremely strange glare. "You had better be joking," she commented sharply, before leaving the dragon chuckling.
Gabumon suddenly piped up, staring at the dragon. "I certainly hope he's joking, I taste bad!"
While Matt stared at Gabumon, the girl did as well. "It talks?!" she yelped in surprise.
All five of the motley of humans and monsters took the next minute to stare at each other in complete and utter shock. Finally, they all gave out one huge collective "HUH?!"
Sighing, Matt finally got up off of the ground, smiling slightly at Gabumon. Then he politely bowed to the girl. "I guess we need some introducing. My name is Ishida Yamato, nice to meet you. Call me Matt."
The girl smiled as well, holding out a hand. "Last name before first here in Japan right? It's nice to meet you too, Matt. My name is Nicole."
-----
Tai paced around the playground, kicking at random bark dust chips and feeling extremely impatient. Then finally, with an exasperated throw of arms into the air, he cried out, "Where is he?!"
Everyone else at the playground winced.
The entire group of Digidestined and digimon were all present at the playground, which was thankfully vacant otherwise. The only two who hadn't arrived were Matt and Gabumon, who were certainly taking their time getting to the meeting place.
Sitting on the monkey bars in jean shorts and a red sleeveless shirt, Sora sighed, waving her legs in the air in front of her and watching as one of her sneakers fell off. She ignored it. "I don't want to sound mean, but I think we should all start discussing about that dream last night."
Tai let his brow furrow in thought, banging his head slightly against a metal tetherball pole. He wanted to wait for his best friend, but he still had the interests of the other six pairs in mind. Glancing over at TK on the swings, with Patamon on his head, who also seemed worried, he knew he wasn't alone in conflicting thoughts. But as the leader of the group, he was the one they all looked to for certain decisions.
Sighing, he made up his mind. "Okay, let's all discuss ideas and plans. We can fill in Matt as soon as he gets here, he'll have plenty to say," he said finally, turning back to the others. He nodded towards Izzy, who was leaning against the ladder of the monkey bars. The redheaded computer kid was practically the strategist of the group, and tended to give everyone the information they needed for anything.
Izzy, in a yellow t-shirt and orange vest, spoke up, taking his hands out of the pockets of his cargo pants. "All right. So last night, all of us had the same dream, with the only difference being that the end nightmarish part had changed for each one of us. Although I don't exactly find it logical, I believe this dream has something to do with the future, being as there are studies which show recurring dreams or simultaneous dreams coming true."
"So you mean I have to drown in quicksand?" Joe asked somewhat pessimistically, from his place on the seesaw. He brushed away a little of the blue hair hanging past his chin, sighing as he unzipped his denim jacket, showing a plain white t-shirt. He'd rolled the sleeves back, but the sun was hotter than he'd expected. He'd even worn black slacks, and now he was inwardly smacking himself, dressing for the wrong weather.
Izzy winced as he heard Joe's comment. "I guess so. I'm not too excited about suffocating in a sandstorm either, but then again, I don't even know if my theory is correct."
Tentomon tapped Izzy on the shoulder, and reminded him, "Don't forget Izzy, the second part."
"I'm getting to that. Besides the entire premonition thing, which I still think is preposterous despite the fact I'm bringing it up, there's the entire issue with Mewtwo and all those other creatures we saw. Tentomon here insists that they're not digimon and he's never seen them before."
"But it's true! I couldn't recognize any of them!" Palmon brought up, indignantly. The other digimon present all nodded in agreement.
Kari, sitting on a swing next to TK, with a relieved Gatomon in her arms, brought a hand to her chin, thinking. "If they're not digimon, then what are they? Real monsters?"
Gatomon blinked up at her partner. "But us digimon are real monsters!"
"You know what I mean, Gatomon."
Then Mimi spoke up next, in a pink halter top and purple skort, from where she sat at the bottom of a slide. "But besides all those other monsters, there was also that one girl too. We can't forget her." She reached down and adjusted one of her boots, before flipping her braid back.
"You think it's another Kari type of situation?" Gomamon asked from where he sat in Joe's arms.
Everyone turned to Kari. The said girl cringed a little, remembering what had happened the last time there was a massive search in the Real world. "If it is, I hope that girl's not being hunted by some sort of evil," she answered, swinging her legs a little, which resulted in her being propelled back and forth a bit.
TK nodded, agreeing with her, in khaki shorts and a collared green t-shirt, as well as his characteristic bucket hat. "That's a good point. Maybe we should try to find this girl first, then we can figure out this entire dream thing. Although, I have to admit, it was pretty spooky..."
Remembering the dream he'd had, Tai suddenly came up with another topic for discussion. "By the way, what kinds of things happened at the end of your dreams? I was falling into some sort of bottomless canyon abyss... thing."
Izzy sighed, absentmindedly fumbling with the strap on his laptop case (conveniently in a backpack type of carrier). "I kind of already said this, but I was in a giant sandstorm and couldn't breathe. You know, like what happened that one time in the Digiworld while we were fighting with MetalSeadramon."
Everyone except for Joe, Mimi, Palmon, and Gomamon winced. They certainly remembered that incident – it had left them all unconscious and nearly dead, whereupon they'd barely been saved from a premature death by the last four said members of the group.
Joe brought his legs up onto the seesaw, staring down at his loafers. "I mentioned mine too. Quicksand. Definitely not a pleasant way to die," he said nonchalantly, as though disasters such as that were commonplace and nothing special.
Sora shook her head. "You make it seem so normal," she groaned, as she kicked her other foot out, sending the other sneaker flying to the ground. This time she winced, and decided she would get both of her shoes later. "Well, in mine, there was this giant monster that seemed to be made out of electricity or something, and it was shooting bolts of lightning at me."
The others blinked. "That's definitely not normal," Patamon commented, adjusting his place on top of TK's head.
TK looked up towards Patamon, though he couldn't actually see his partner. "Well, was yours normal?"
"Um, if you call sitting in glass tube slowly filling up with this weird liquid normal..."
At that, all the other digimon gave a cry of shock. Their respective partners all looked at them in concern, wondering why the digimon had reacted in that way to Patamon's dream end. They soon found out.
"I had the exact same ending!" Agumon yelled.
He was met with a surprised stare from all the other digimon. "Me too!" was the simultaneous reply.
Everyone looked at each other for a brief moment, shocked into silence.
Izzy blinked, then began rubbing his temples. "This makes no logical sense," he muttered.
Sora grinned at the redhead. "Who said anything relating to the Digiworld made logical sense?"
"Izzy did," Mimi shook her head, sighing with a somewhat bemused look on her face. "I guess with that note, I should tell you my dream ending." She took a somewhat deep breath before opening her mouth again. "There was this huge snake serpent thing that had caught up to me and wrapped itself around me. Then it opened its mouth and there were these like, huge decameter sized fangs..."
The others looked at each other, completely understanding why the dream had scared Mimi so badly. Not only was it an exceptionally frightening situation, but Mimi also had a fear of snakes.
With that, the five elder pairs of the group turned to the last two who hadn't spoken of their dream endings yet. While TK stayed silent, Kari fidgeted a little. The two glanced at each other, seemingly speaking without words to one another, until finally Kari sighed. "Okay, well mine... I was falling down a gigantic waterfall."
The others nodded to each other, finally turning to TK, who had been very quiet the entire time. TK looked down at some bark dust chips, seemingly unsure of everyone's reactions if he told his. He glanced over to Kari, who nodded with encouragement, and up, to where Patamon was smiling. Then he spoke, "Well, I actually saw everyone's dream endings in mine..."
While some people yelped, "What?!", many just stared at TK in amazement.
TK sighed slightly, before continuing. "Yeah, that's what happened. I saw everyone's. Matt's was actually being caught in a forest fire, and Gabumon's had to do with fighting some electrical monster thing, kinda similar to Sora's. There was also all those other weird monsters, they had dream endings that had to do with fighting a lot also, only these weird black dragon things besides just the electric monsters... and that last girl had a snow avalanche. Then came mine, where I was... strapped to something, I think, and Myotismon was standing over me. He was laughing for some reason..."
There was a bit of stunned silence. For a moment, everyone looked at each other, unsure of what to think. It had been known for a long time that TK was somewhat special, ever since Angemon had first digivolved, and the fact he had seen everyone's dream endings, plus his own, further proved it. Plus, it meant that something very strange was going to happen...
Then Izzy, who'd been thinking ahead of everyone, burst out, "But Myotismon is dead!" Everyone looked at him, and Izzy sighed, regaining his composure. "I'm just saying, if it's true that these dream endings all have something to do with the future, then why is Myotismon in TK's? We destroyed Myotismon two years ago, it's impossible for him to still be alive."
Everyone glanced at each other, thinking over the possibilities of what could possibly happen if Myotismon was involved in whatever was going on. But before anyone could make another comment, Izzy popped back in again. "Then again, digimon never really die, so I guess it is possible...he could have been reformatted or something..."
Before Izzy could continue on explaining theories to everyone, like he frequently did, Tai, who had been glancing at his digivice every few moments, suddenly stood up straight and with an exasperated sigh, yelled, "Finally!"
Everyone turned to him, and he just grinned. "Matt's finally here, I've got his digivice signal," he explained, seeming extremely relieved.
While everyone nodded, happy, Sora jumped off the monkey bars, wincing as the bark dust chips dug in through her socks. "I'm going to go over to him and find out what took so long," she said concernedly, as she picked up one sneaker, and started hopping over to retrieve the other. Biyomon flew over and picked up the shoe first, handing it to a thankful Sora.
Seemingly, everyone was equally worried though, as everyone got up from their places to approach Matt and find out what had taken so long for him to arrive.
-----
"So Gabumon, you're a digimon?" Nicole asked the dog-like creature, as the entire group walked through the park towards the playground. Having explained everyone's situations to each other, they were now making some small talk while going to meet with the rest of the Digidestined.
Gabumon nodded. "Yes. And there are tons more digimon in the Digiworld."
Matt also spoke. "Yeah, and the other seven kids also have digimon partners too. We're our own team here."
Nicole smiled, looking up at the sky for a moment. "It must be great, having other kids you can relate to with digimon..."
Matt glanced at her. "You don't? You mean there aren't other pokémon trainers or masters around your area?"
Nicole shook her head. "No. I don't know if any others exist in the world besides me. And I would know if there too, because it is kinda hard to hide six large pokémon..." She turned her head to the large crowd behind them.
After Charizard's unexpected entrance, Nicole had reluctantly let out the rest of her team. Now, besides Stellath, Gabumon, and Charizard, Scyther, Blastoise, Venusaur, Haunter, and Raichu were all walking along behind them, chattering with each other. Gabumon stepped back a little to talk with the many 'mons, while Nicole and Matt watched, both grinning. Stellath, perched on Charizard's head, kept nodding vigorously, as she listened to the entire giant 'mon conversation.
"They're excited," Nicole stated blandly, though still smiling. "They haven't had any other 'mons to talk to for about three years."
Matt sighed. "It must be hard," he commented, watching them. "It's probably weird for Stellath too, as she hasn't seen any of her race in years..."
Nicole let her gaze fall to the ground. She solemnly froze for a moment, remembering words Stellath had spoken, the first time they'd met. The poor confused dragon, who had nowhere to go, who had been shoved out of her home world as a fugitive. Nicole had taken Stellath under her wing, and from their similar scenarios, being in a world different from their own, they'd formed a special kind of mind bond...
She glanced over to Matt, who was still walking, though watching Gabumon out of the corner of his eye. She'd had to explain the entire concept of pokémon, of being a pokémon trainer and master, and even her psychic abilities, though she knew she would probably have to explain it again to the others Matt knew. Matt and Gabumon had taken it very well, and had in turn, explained to her about digimon. She still knew almost nothing about how Matt and Gabumon had met in the first place – Matt had told her that he would wait to explain until after they met up with the rest of the Digidestined.
Somehow, Nicole simply knew that Matt was a person she could trust. She could sense that he'd been through a lot of adventures, and had a very close bond with Gabumon. And from her sense, she had a feeling that she would be able to trust the other Digidestined as well. Despite language barriers, she thought it would be fun if she could become good friends with all eight of the Digidestined, through that trust. After all, she didn't have any real close friends...at least not in this world...
At that point, Nicole noticed something blinking on Matt's belt. "Uh, Matt, I think your digi-thing is blinking."
"Digivice," Matt automatically corrected, glancing over to his belt. "We're getting close to the others." Then he unclipped it from his belt, bringing it up and eyeing it carefully. He raised an eyebrow. "Then again, they're also getting close to us too..."
Trying not to seem rude, Nicole carefully edged over to get a good look at the digivice screen. Peering at it, she saw a blinking red dot in the center of the screen, which she supposed was their current location. Quickly approaching it was an array of seven more red dots, all clustered closely together.
It was about then that she sensed the presence of another group. She also heard the familiar noise of pounding feet and the sounds of speaking, which she could still understand, even though it was all in Japanese. She shook her head. Everything was becoming more and more confusing by the minute.
Then a large group of kids – or rather, three teenagers and four preteens – ran into the clearing area, followed by seven small monsters – digimon, Nicole decided. She looked over the group as they stopped dead, her mind registering that these kids had to be the Digidestined, with their partners. She glanced at Matt, who nodded in confirmation and clipped his digivice back onto his belt, seemingly reading her mind. Grinning, she raised her right hand waved at the group, completely unaffected by the presence of seven digimon.
The group seemed somewhat more shocked, having stopped dead in their tracks. Nicole blinked, and carefully followed their gaze to the large group of pokémon, who were all blinking and smiling in amusement at the humans. She momentarily wondered why the group had reacted so strangely to the pokémon, since they had digimon with them, and then had to mentally remind herself that in this world, normal people didn't have monsters accompanying them places. She guessed that seeing the humans and digimon together had almost given her the thought that she might be going to the Pokéworld again.
Then one of the boys, who seemed about her age and was wearing goggles, gave a shout of surprise as he pointed directly at Charizard. "Whoa, I recognize that monster! It was in the dream!"
While the others began commenting to each other, all agreeing with the goggle wearing boy and staring in amazement at the pokémon and Stellath, and also glancing at Nicole every few moments, Charizard narrowed his eyes and huffed. "Hey, I recognize you too kid... and do ya' realize that I'm standing here and can understand everything you're saying?!"
Nicole sighed. It was relatively obvious that the goggle-headed boy could not understand Charizard... or any of the other pokémon for that matter.
She glanced at Matt, who was giving her an apologetic look. Then Matt nodded, walking up to the others, Gabumon following him. Nicole decided to sit back and listen, being as that she didn't know any of the other humans and digimon besides Matt and Gabumon, and also because of the somewhat irked expressions of the pokémon.
Stellath took flight from Charizard's head, and carefully landed on Nicole's shoulder. – We're a pretty conspicuous group, huh? – she commented, cocking her small head to one side.
Nicole shrugged, letting Stellath bob up and down on her shoulder. – Well, we can't exactly help it, can we? – she spoke psychically and privately to Stellath. Thinking slightly, she added, – Then again, I guess the Digidestined have the same problem... –
About then, she felt a sudden vibration in the air. Narrowing her eyes, Nicole glanced up around, trying to sense the source of the vibration, as she faintly recognized the feeling it gave her. A glance at the pokémon's expressions told her that they also felt the vibrating air, and faintly recognized it for what it was. A subtle tightening of claws on her shoulder told her Stellath could also feel it.
Nicole had felt the vibrations a few times in the past three years, but had never been able to reach or sense the source before the vibrations stopped. She'd only managed to encounter the source of vibration four times in her life, three of them by accident, the last through a sudden flaring of psychic powers...
The source of vibration was a portal to another world.
In the back of her mind, she remembered Mewtwo's words. Find the Middle World. Her inner senses told her that the portal creating the vibration was the key to the whatever the Middle World was...
She closed her eyes, letting herself release all thoughts and focus on nothing but the vibrations. And she mentally began searching for the portal.
-----
Matt grinned as TK practically flew at him, and the two hugged briefly before separating. It didn't matter that they were two years older, that both of them had matured a good deal, and that TK was really very tall for his age and stood only five inches shorter than Matt. They were still brothers who didn't see each other often due to their family's living arrangements, and any opportunity they had to see each other, they valued greatly. Due to TK having grown up somewhat, the two were able to travel and see each other much more often than they had previously. Plus, TK had told him that their mom was debating on whether to move to Odaiba or not, which meant that if all went well, he and TK would be living in the same city again for the first time in six years.
After separating from the hug, Matt glanced over to where the other six pairs of Digidestined and partner stood. He'd expected the group to be somewhat annoyed and irritated, wondering why he had been so late, and was slightly surprised to find everyone grinning at him instead.
"Awesome Matt! You found that girl from the dream, that's why you were so late!" Tai grinned, pumping a fist into the air in happiness. Seemingly, all previous irritation had vanished with the sighting of Nicole and the pokémon.
Matt shrugged. "Yeah, I ran into her wandering around down here. Her name is Nicole, she's American."
Mimi immediately spoke up, excited and overjoyed. "That's great! I can really practice my English now and know what it's like in America!"
Palmon blinked and looked up at her partner. "Are you suddenly really interested in America or something Mimi?"
"Uh...no...my family's moving there in about a week..."
At that, all the humans sighed. They'd already given Mimi a goodbye party a few days earlier, and were all going to miss her greatly. But they would still keep in touch – after all, they were Digidestined together.
Matt thought about the strange language conversion between English and Japanese, and wincing, shook his head. "Well...there's a lot of really strange things going on, language being part of it, and other such things as monsters, psychic powers, all tied up in that dream we all had last night. Although, about the Middle World..."
There was a slight pause as everyone fell silent, contemplating everything Matt had said, plus the mention of the Middle World. Everyone remembered Mewtwo speaking of it in the dream, and although the image of the Digiworld came to mind, they had a feeling it wasn't where the problem was.
Then the pause was interrupted by a sudden shaking feeling and vibration in the air. With a loud collective gasp, the group turned, looking around and trying to find out where it was coming from. It felt similar to an earthquake, which Japan had a lot of, and at Tai's nod, the entire group jumped down close to the ground. While Gatomon grabbed onto Kari for support, who grabbed onto TK, who reached out for the closest thing to him and simultaneously grabbed both Patamon and Matt at the same time, the others glanced over to the pokémon, who had also followed the Digidestined's example and come down close to the ground, and then over to Nicole.
Matt, who'd just fallen over due to having to support two humans and three digimon (Gabumon had grabbed on too), noticed Nicole with her eyes closed and seemingly concentrating though looking serene and tranquil. Stellath on her shoulder, also in the same state, slowly unfurled her wings and let out a small cry.
Nicole opened her eyes slowly, though they looked strangely blank, as though she was in a trance. With half-lidded eyes, she calmly raised her right hand, and pointed straight in front of her, into what seemed like thin air. But Matt could sense something too, and he tried to follow the direction she was indicating towards.
He noticed as both Kari and TK widened their eyes, looking towards where Nicole was pointing. The two children nodded at each other, before both holding up their digivices. "You guys too!" TK called out to everyone.
Simultaneously, all eight of the Digidestined raised their digivices towards where Nicole was pointing. Something was becoming more clear, as their digivices began to glow, shining towards the spot. The air seemed to be pulsing, as the digivices shone, and soon everyone could see what Kari and TK had seen moments earlier.
A shining vortex of bright light swirled in the air, illuminated by shadows both within and behind it. The gentle tendrils of light seemed to reach out towards the entire group of humans, digimon, pokémon, and single dragonet, urging them to enter.
Nicole slowly nodded, still in a trance, as she raised a hand towards the vortex. Her eyes began to glow blue, as she stared into it, and slowly, the glow in her eyes came to surround everyone, as the portal grew brighter. What everyone recognized was the kind of glow she emitted...it was the same glow Mewtwo had created in the dream...
Then everything grew blindingly bright, as the shaking of the ground grew violent. It suddenly lurched, as though it was throwing everyone forward, and then the entire feeling of gravity faded, leaving the sensation of floating. Then the light covered everything in a gentle, warm breeze.
And then there was nothing.
This Chapter's NG:
The Barbeque, Courtesy of Charizard
The girl sighed, but only momentarily, as something on her belt activated and exploded with bright light. Although the word "digivice" came to mind, it certainly wasn't what was glowing. Matt shielded his eyes, and when the light faded, his jaw dropped as he stared at the huge orange dragon that now stood between him and the girl.
It gave a roar, eyeing him warily, before the girl suddenly gave a yelp and ran forward, grabbing its arm. "What are you doing?!?!" she yelled.
The dragon eyed the girl, seemingly grinning, before pulling its arm away from her. It turned towards Matt, with a strange gleam in its eye. Matt glanced over to Gabumon, and the two of them simultaneously gulped.
The girl's eyes widened. "CHARIZARD - "
Charizard opened its mouth wide, and gave a roar, before its trainer could do anything.
FOOM.
Once the flames had died away, the girl stared wide-eyed at the blackened Matt and Gabumon. With an extremely apologetic look at them, she jumped up over to Charizard and pulled his head down by the knobs, shaking it vigorously with a very angry gleam in her eyes.
Matt and Gabumon, too fried to care about anything, just fell over and fainted.