Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon in any form. All characters and Digimon of this story are owned by their respective owners. No copy right infringement intended.

AN: It's been a while guys. I would have had this up sooner, but I had to get my study on you see. I just finished my finals for the year, so I didn't really have much time to type. Now that I'm out for the summer though, I should have more time. That said, I hope to bring a decent number of chapters over the break. Also, thanks for the reviews. They got me motivated even after taking off so much time to study. By the way, since I'm kind of fed up with the site messing with my scene dividers, I've just decided to use my own. Hopefully they're pretty obvious.

Well, on with the show.

The Search Begins

Tai waited for Davis to calm down before asking him to explain exactly what happened. After taking a breather, Davis did just that.

"It began when Ken and I arrived at Gennai's place. He was in danger and there was this female digimon with him."

==X==

Davis and Ken had spent hours searching for Gennai; nearly a day. They didn't know why he insisted on moving around so much these days. He had multiple safe havens, but it's not like he would be attacked so why even migrate between them? Unfortunately, as fate would have it, the two of them were about to see that Gennai was not just being paranoid.

Davis and Ken looked towards Gennai upon their arrival at one of his many safe havens. His expression was tense and he was giving his best glare to a half man, half Jaguar Digimon across from him. Not wasting any time Davis, Ken, Veemon, and Wormmon got between him and the seemingly injured Digimon next to him. Marsmon looked at the humans, curious of their presence. Unlike the old man next to Ceresmon, he could tell that the children were not digital beings. Wondering why they were here, he asked who they were.

"We're your worst nightmare!" exclaimed Davis, slipping into some of his younger tendencies, Ken Ichijouji, Davis' best friend and one of the second generation Digidestined, put his arm on Davis' shoulder. He is the bearer of the crest of kindness. Ken has dark blue hair that parts on the left and reaches past his chin, blue eyes, and a pale skin tone. Though his favorite color is still gray, he no longer wears his long-sleeved shirt, exchanging it for a blue shirt and a grey jacket. He still wore grey pants and black shoes.

Ken, once burdened by his deeds as the Digimon Emperor was finally able to let it all go. Now that his initial adventure in the digital world has ended with the defeat of Armageddemon, he often spends his time with Yolei and Davis. His family moved from Tamachi to Odaiba not long ago, so he's had plenty more time with them. Personality wise, Ken hasn't changed much. He's still the somewhat quiet, kind, super genius he was after Armageddemon's defeat. If anything he's acquired a better sense of humor and is now more outgoing than he used to be; a definite side-effect from hanging out with Davis so often, not that anyone minds. The two boys complement each other pretty well and Ken could easily keep the hot head in check.

"I thought we agreed you wouldn't antagonize the enemy before a fight anymore," sighed Ken. Davis looked to him, scratching his head. He had said something like that hadn't he?

"Uh… whoops?" Ken shook his head and looked to Marsmon only to find the Olympian mega trying to stifle a laugh. Marsmon thought the Maroon haired child was hilarious. A mere human was supposed to be his worst nightmare? Preposterous.

"Thou art humorous, child," stated Marsmon, no longer caring for their identities, "but move aside. My business is not with thee," he added, crossing his arms.

"Davis," called Gennai, "You and Ken must take Ceresmon and run. This opponent is a Mega level." Davis gave a funny look at Gennai's behavior; he was acting more worried than he should have been. This wasn't the first mega he and Ken had ever fought. He thought of BlackWarGreymon, Daemon, MaloMyotismon, Kerpymon, and Armageddemon. Davis didn't think that anything could be as bad as that last one. Besides all that, he wasn't the type to leave people in danger. He wouldn't let Gennai try and fight this guy alone.

"Don't worry, we got this guy, right Ken?" Ken simply nodded and before Gennai could protest Veemon and Wormmon digivolved into ExVeemon and Stingmon before DNA digivolved into Paildramon and finally digivolving once more into Imperialdramon Dragon Mode.

"Please stop!" yelled Ceresmon, seeing that the humans and Imperialdramon intended to fight, "Marsmon is not someone you can take on." She could tell Imperialdramon was strong, exceedingly strong, but he was nowhere near Marsmon's level. Davis and Ken were about to ask her what she meant, when Marsmon interrupted.

"Ye children intend to engage in glorious battle with me?" inquired Marsmon, a vicious smile making its way onto his lips, "This is good; the digimon looks strong. I shall give ye the first strike. Have at me." Davis' temper flared and he was tempted to say something else, but Ken glared his way. Calming down, he asked Ken if they should go ahead and fight him.

Ken, being the smarter of the two, could see that Marsmon was very confident in his skills. A little too confident in his opinion, considering he was staring down the imposing form of Imperialdramon. Still, this was the only chance they'd have to end the fight without there actually being a fight. Despite a nagging feeling in the back of his mind, Ken told Davis they might as well try.

"Awesome!" Yelled Davis, pumping his fist at his side, "Imperialdramon, show him what you got!" Imperialdramon growled, the cannon on his back pulling in energy. Bracing for the recoil, Imperialdramon fired.

"Positron Laser!" Imperialdramon's attack cut across the earth, razing it as it neared Marsmon. The Olympian mega didn't flinch; he made no move to dodge and his arms remained crossed as the laser crashed into him.

"He didn't even try to block?" asked Davis, bewildered. A cloud of smoke blocked their line of sight, but Davis was sure nothing could take an unguarded direct hit from Imperialdramon's Positron Laser. Scratching his head at how odd the mega digimon had been, Davis turned to Ken. The genius had a contemplative look on his face at how easy it had gone, but otherwise paid it no mind. He had faith in Imperialdramon's power as well.

"Shall we go before Marsmon wakes up? We need to get Gennai and his fri-" Ken was cut short by Ceresmon's voice.

"Look out!"

"Flaming Break!" Ken and Davis turned just in time to see Marsmon emerge from the smoke. He was smiling, steam coming off his body from the heat of Imperialdramon's attack. Aside from that he didn't look like he'd been scathed in the slightest as he lunged at them, his fist flaming.

Ken and Davis were shocked; they couldn't believe their eyes. The Mega had taken a Positron Laser with no injury whatsoever. Before the two of them could compose themselves, it was already too late. Marsmon's attack landed at Imperialdramon's feet and despite the difference in size, the Olympian Mega's pillar of flame tossed Imperialdramon back and the wave of heat threw Davis and Ken as well.

The three of them flew through the air, before they crashed into the ground, unconscious. Imperialdramon de-digivolved into Veemon and Wormmon as Marsmon turned away from them, his cape billowing behind him in the wind.

"That was moderately enjoyable. They were decent opponents," he grinned, "Now then, Ceresmon, it is time for thee to come with me."

==X==

"I don't really know what happened after that; next thing I know I woke up here," finished Davis, "That Marsmon… He was unreal." Tai nodded, patting his younger friend on the back. He knew it must have been a large blow to Davis' pride to be defeated so easily. Kari got up and gave her friend a hug. It wasn't often she would hug Davis, she never wanted him to get the wrong idea, but she could tell the boy needed it right now.

"I guess we'll have to wait until T.K. wakes up to find out how they escaped," commented Matt. Izzy begged to differ, he was sure he could just contact Gennai and he intended to do so. He wanted to have all the information as soon as possible so they could start working on some sort of plan. Opening his laptop, Izzy tried contacting him.

==X==

Ceresmon sat on a park bench in Odaiba. She'd discovered when she got here that being in possession of the spirits belonging to the Ten Legendary Warriors allowed her to feel where they were in a way. It wasn't strong enough for her to know their exact location, but she did have a general direction and while she could tell some of them had been in this city at some point, they weren't here anymore. Unfortunately, she currently had no way to reach them.

Ceresmon had learned a little about the human world from Gennai before she left, and one thing he'd insisted on telling her about was the train system and how it worked. Considering the time of night, she knew the last train was already a lost cause and she'd have to wait before she could use one to get her where she needed to be – wherever that was. She figured she'd be able to find out where she needed to go if she had a map, but she didn't know where to find one of those either.

Sighing to herself, Ceresmon decided to do the only other thing she could think of – try and reach out to the warriors through their spirits. Concentrating, she cupped her hands around a bundle of light that had appeared out of thin air.

"Please… Hear me."

==X==

Takuya opened his eyes; light bearing down on him from above. With a groan he held his hand up to block the rays. He looked around, and quickly concluded that he was not in his room. Sitting up, he took another quick look around the white space, hoping to find some way out as he wondered what was going on. He'd gone to sleep, he remembered that, so he assumed he was dreaming, but this was odd. Usually, if he became cognizant of his dreaming, he could wake himself up or something, but right now he couldn't do a thing.

"This is so freaky…" he mumbled as he stood.

"Please."

Takuya's eyes darted to and from at the sound of the voice, still he found no one.

"Please… Hear me." The voice sounded pleading and the warrior of flame was now a little more concerned.

"Warriors… please… "

Takuya's eyes widened. Whoever was calling out knew about the legendary warriors. He looked around again, running through the space this time, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever was calling. He knew the voice, while feminine, wasn't Lady Ophanimon. That revelation only served to worry him. Why wouldn't she be the one calling for the warriors?

"Please… Help."

Just like that, the voice vanished and Takuya woke up, panting. His sheets were all over the place and his heart was pounding. He reached for his phone to try and get in touch with one of his friends when Koji's ringtone barked out. Answering, he started telling Koji what happened, not caring about why his friend had called just yet. When he finished the other end was silent for a moment.

"Koji?" asked Takuya, wondering why he'd gone silent after something so important.

"You too, huh?" Takuya stared at the phone in brief confusion before it clicked. He hadn't been the only one to have that dream. Koji told him Koichi had had the dream too and after that, the two of them called up their other comrades to see if they had also gone through the same thing. Once everyone had confirmed that they'd had the same dream, Takuya called for a meeting at the park after school. They had a lot to discuss.

==X==

Kari sighed as she walked to her brother's place. School hadn't felt the same knowing that her friends were injured. Yolei hadn't come to school either, opting to stay at Tai's and take care of Ken. With no one to talk to, she decided to try her hand at her newest friends. Taking out her phone she made a call to Zoe. She waited for a bit as the phone rang before it was picked up.

"Hello?" said Zoe.

"Hi, Zoe. It's Kari."

"I know," she giggled, "what's up?"

"I just wanted to talk," replied Kari as she stopped at a crosswalk. The Light had just turned green and the cars were moving along, "one of our friends woke up."

"Oh," replied Zoe, some voices behind her sounding urgent.

"Is something wrong?"

"Nothing really," she replied, "just trying to get our other friends caught up on what we told you guys and what you told us, you know? So, what happened when they woke up?"

"Well, the one who was up first was Davis. Ken and T.K. are still sleeping as far as I know. He told us what happened to him." Kari proceeded to retell what she knew to Zoe, who listened quietly, responding every once and a while. The story took a while, so much time in fact that Kari was getting fairly close to Tai's.

"That's horrible," gasped Zoe upon hearing how easily Imperialdramon was defeated, "she didn't really think she could Gage the Digimon's strength, but the Kari made him sound strong and the fact that an enemy stronger than their greatest threat had appeared was nothing to belittle.

"Yeah…" Replied Kari, trailing off as she neared her brother's place, "So how are you?"

"I'm fine, bu-" Zoe was cut off suddenly, a voice becoming clear in the background.

"Zoe, come on."

"Yeah. I'm coming Taku, geez!" yelled Zoe before she returned to her conversation, "Sorry. Gotta go. I'll call you later, bye!" Zoe hung up after that and Kari didn't really mind since she was just about to knock on her brother's door.

==X==

"Remind me to never answer the phone around you, Taku. You're so rude," frowned Zoe as she took her seat next to him. The six of them were sitting in the park, their usual meeting place. It was around 5:30; Takuya had only gotten out of soccer half an hour ago and the others gathered as quickly as possible.

"Sorry Zoe," replied Takuya, offering her a sheepish grin. She sighed and waved it off.

"Can we just get started already?" asked Koji, already getting a little annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah," Takuya responded, "don't get your bandana in a twist." Koji raised a brow, seemingly asking if his friend has seriously just said that.

"Shut up and start, idiot," the light warrior frowned. Takuya smiled his way, feeling somewhat accomplished. He knew his insult was a lame one, but it had worked nonetheless, maybe even a little better than usual since it was so stupid; that alone seemed to have upset his best friend.

"Ok." Started Takuya, the smile leaving his lips as he grew serious, "Before we get to the dreams, we've got news about last night." Koichi, Tommy, and J.P. grew curious at this. They hadn't heard from their friends at all last night and were curious about what had happened, but they hadn't expected anything noteworthy enough to need such a serious mood – until Takuya started talking.

"We met people who knew about Digimon."

"You What?!" interrupted Tommy, yelling in surprise. J.P. sat there slack jawed and Koichi hummed amusedly.

"They were the ones who had Taku's D-Tector," Zoe informed, "and that's not even the half of it," she added. From there, Zoe, Takuya, and Koji proceeded to tell their other friends about everything that occurred the night before. Their three friends listened, similar questions rising in their minds.

"They never mentioned Trailmon?" asked Koichi.

"No Lady Ophanimon either?" J.P. inquired worriedly, "We need to meet this Gennai and Azulongmon. Maybe one of them can tell us What happened to her."

"If they're old enough," replied Koji, "the odds are against us on that. You know what six months there was in the real world. Comparing that to how much time passed here since the end of our adventure – thousands of years could have passed."

"Ever the optimist," teased Takuya, smiling.

"Says the one who couldn't stop making up absurd scenarios on the train," Koji returned. Takuya frowned, grumbling. He could see that this round would not be going to him.

"Don't get started you two," interjected Zoe. She wasn't up for the two of them bickering right now.

"Moving on," said Koji, "What of our dreams?" Everyone grew silent. They were worried, yet excited. This was their first direct contact with anything digital since the end of their last adventure, but it certainly didn't seem to be starting off on a good note. Not only was the one seeking them out in need of help, but it wasn't Lady Ophanimon. Their worries were starting to pile up and the implications of the Chosen Children's adventure were beginning to be confirmed. Lady Ophanimon was no longer in power and something happened to her.

"All we can do now is wait it out," said Takuya, bringing the others from their thoughts, "Whoever they were, they'll contact us again. We won't be confused this time so we should try our best to respond. Who knows, maybe with any luck, we'll be able to find them somehow."

==X==

It had been a few minutes since Tai let Kari in and she was already relieved, sitting on the couch were T.K. and Ken. The two of them were awake and she couldn't be happier.

"Hey, Kari," T.K. smiled.

"We were waiting for you, sis. T.K. was about to tell us how they all got away." Kari nodded and made herself comfortable on the floor next to her Brother and Mimi. Izzy was across the table, sitting on the floor with Matt, Sora, and Cody. Yolei, was of course, next to Ken. Their three injured friends were sitting on the couch and Yolei was on its arm, fussing over Ken affectionately. Joe was on the other arm of the couch, trying – without success – to get Davis to take an aspirin. He didn't know why the stubborn boy wouldn't do it. It's not like it would harm him or anything.

"So," started Tai, "the sooner we get this over with, the faster we can try to help Gennai."

"Well," T.K. started, "I got there just in time to see Davis and Ken go down. Marsmon was about to attack Gennai and another Digimon when I showed up. Hoping I could help, I had Patamon digivolve to MagnaAngemon. I didn't plan on defeating Marsmon or really fighting him for that matter, but I thought I could at least distract him long enough for everyone to escape."

Based on the injuries he'd returned with, the others assumed that hadn't gone as well as he'd hoped.

"MagnaAngemon did what he could, but Marsmon was beyond us. It didn't take him very long to subdue MagnaAngemon. He was so strong that even I was injured from thee attack he used on MagnaAngemon. Thankfully, before he could delete him, that injured Digimon intervened. Gennai called her Ceresmon and apparently, she had some sort of deep connection with Marsmon. She'd yelled for him to come to his senses, not that it worked."

Sora frowned. It sounded like their internal problems had dragged them all in. She didn't understand how wrong she was yet; she didn't know the true danger waiting. Marsmon was only the tip of the iceberg.

"Ceresmon digivolved – I think," T.K. continued, "She turned into a giant earthen bird. Her digivolution didn't last long; I don't think she had enough energy to sustain the form for any decent length of time. Before she changed back though, she and Marsmon fought. She was stronger, and was able to injure him in one attack, but the power of their clash caused some pretty heavy damage. It knocked me out and trapped me under some rubble. When I woke up she and Gennai were gone. Davis and Ken were still out and that's when I made my way to the nearest TV so I could get back here."

Tai nodded, now that they had the full story he asked Izzy if he could get in touch with Gennai. They had a lot of questions and needed to tell him about the new Digidestined. While Izzy got to work on that, Tai took the time to tell Davis, Ken, and T.K. about their meeting with the warriors.

"You guys missed quite a bit too," said Tai, proceeding to tell them all about what happened with Takuya and his friends.

==X==

Marsmon walked up the steps leading to the summit of the digital Mount Olympus. Dark clouds blotted out the sun and thunder boomed overhead; a clear sign that Jupitermon was around. He assumed Jupitermon would be somewhat disappointed finding out that Ceresmon would not be returning with him, but Marsmon figured there was nothing he could have done about that. Whether those humans had appeared or not, Ceresmon could have gained enough time to reclaim her full power and the results would not have changed.

Upon reaching the summit, Marsmon met Mervamon's gaze.

"She is not with thee?"

Marsmon shook his head, telling her he would explain when Jupitermon was present. The two of them walked through the corridors of the building at the summit, soon reaching a large round room. In the center there was a table, twelve chairs encircling it. Large white columns reached to the ceiling, keeping it up. They waited, but not for very long. Jupitermon made his way into the room, the shadows shrouding his form, much like they did for Mervamon and Marsmon.

"Thou have failed?" asked Jupitermon, taking a seat. Marsmon and Mervamon sat as well as the Mega level war digimon nodded.

"There was much in my way. I shall explain." Marsmon relayed his little battle with the Digidestined before telling Jupitermon what Ceresmon had done. The other two Olympian Mega's listened intently until the end.

"I see," said Jupitermon, "Give Ceresmon no more time to recuperate. Find her caretaker and we shall find her. Go." Marsmon gave a swift nod, stood, and walked out of the room. The search for Gennai and Ceresmon was underway.

==X==

"Gennai said we can come see him now," said Izzy. Tai nodded and the Digidestined made their way to his computer. Kari opened the gate and they were pulled into the digital world. They met up with their partners and after a brief walk, arrived at one of Gennai's Safe Havens. It was a field of flowers, encircled by tall cliffs. It was a pit of sorts, a small entrance on the ground level with the sun shining into the hole from above. The elderly man was waiting for them and when they arrived he greeted them warmly before getting down to business.

"I'm sure you all have questions, but first I must tell you of the danger the Digital World may now be facing," said the elderly digital existence. Gennai summarized what he'd heard of Ceresmon's story and the Digidestined started to realize that what they'd gotten caught up in wasn't just some little internal problem.

"Ceresmon needs your help," said Gennai, "but she does not think it will be enough." Davis, until just recently, would have taken offense to that. Things were different now though. He'd had the chance to witness Marsmon's might and there were supposed to be more Digimon as strong as him? Stronger even?

"But who will she get help from?" asked Matt.

"She's gone to the human world in hopes of finding the children from her story. The original Digidestined."

"But that was thousands of years ago!" yelled Davis.

"Yes, thousands of years in the digital world. Davis, you understand that we did not always share the same flow of time, do you not? The original Digidestined are probably not too much older than any of you." Davis nodded slowly, taking in Gennai's words. He'd forgotten about the whole time thing for a while.

"What can we do to help, Gennai?" Kari inquired.

"I only ask that you try and help Ceresmon search. Hopefully there will be more progress if two forces are working to find them."

The Digidestined agreed; the search for the Ten Legendary Warriors was on.

To Be Continued…