One World

[Hagaren Gao]

One World

I'm finnaly getting back into the world of Fanfiction! I posted my fic on Fanfiction.net as well, my account is here.

This is a Digimon Tamers fic, and it takes place three years after the end of the series. Enjoy!
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One World

Chapter 1: And So It Begins...

“We’ll play again soon, won’t we, Takato?”

“Yeah...Yeah!”

-----

It was summer in Japan. Summer Break, to be exact - The sun was shining, few clouds dotted the sky, and it was pleasantly warm. One of those rare near-perfect summer days.

Despite how nice a day it was, there were very few children at the park. A few kids on the swings and such, but that was just about it. Except for a small group of teenage boys.

The said group was inside an odd little structure that looked like a purple dinosaur, complete with a tail and legs, but had a gold-trimmed clock where its head should be. It was relatively big, enough for three or four young kids to fit inside, or if you set things up just right, three teenagers and a Digimon card game mat. It had been their hangout for years.

Takato, now 13, wore a white shirt with a blue button-up over it. He had baggy grey cargo pants that might have been a little too big for him, and finished his outfit with black shoes. His brown hair was as shaggy as ever, and odd as it may seem, he was goggleless. He was relatively crammed into a corner to give his friends room to play.

His companions, Kenta and Hirokazu, were playing a noticeably one-sided duel. Kenta was clad in a white T-shirt, brown shorts, and green and white sneakers, while Hirokazu (Kazu for short) wore blue jeans with a black shirt and shoes. Unlike Takato, Kazu continued to wear his trademark headgear, a grey sun visor.

Kazu slapped a card down on the mat. “Game over, buddy!” he said triumphantly, while Kenta slouched over in yet another defeat. “Man!” The blue haired boy exclaimed, “That’s the third time! With all those rare cards, there’s no way for me to beat you!” It didn’t help that Kazu put all of his money into cards, while Kenta actually SAVED his money from time to time

“Sure dude, blame it on the cards. We all know I’m just THAT skilled.” He gathered his cards from the play mat, taking a few seconds to admire his game-winning Andromon card before shuffling it back into his deck. “So, Takato. You gonna actually play a duel with us for once, or you still too good for Digimon Cards?” He asked boy at his left, who hadn’t spoken much that day.

Takato blinked. “I never said I was too good for it, just...” Ever since he met Guilmon, he never felt the need to buy the cards anymore. He had his own real Digimon! After you get your own Digimon, you don’t really feel the need to emulate battles with cards. Unless you were Kenta or Kazu. But, Takato had been bugged to bring his cards to play, mainly since Kenta wanted to see someone besides himself lose.

“Fine, fine,” Takato chuckled, producing a deck of green and blue cards from his pocket. “I think these things need a good workout.”

Kazu scoffed. “Then again, you sure you wanna play me with those old school cards? You should at least buy a pack or two every so often, or else you won’t be able to compete.”

“Mmm-hmm. We’ll see about that.”

The cards were placed on the mat and the game began.

----------------------

The sky was slowly turning an amber gold, signaling it was time for the boys to go home. Takato and Kazu had played three rather intense rounds, and Kazu came out as the winner.. “Toldja bud. Your deck needs a serious upgrade, or else you’ll ever be able to beat the Super Kazu/Andromon team!” He jeered, lovingly dusting off his Andromon.

“I only lost because there isn’t a Guilmon card,” Takato laughed.

He had to admit, it was kind of nice to play again. Brought back memories. It wouldn’t hurt to buy a booster pack, too see the new Digimon and strategies, and if Kazu stopped calling him ‘old school’ that would be an added bonus.

The downside would be that his allowance for this week would be gone. Oh well, equivalent exchange.

“Well, same time tomorrow then?” Kenta asked the other boys. The three nodded their approval and said their goodbyes, then went their separate ways home; Of course seeing as Kenta and Kazu lived so close to each other, this really meant only Takato walked home alone.

“You know, maybe I’ll go to the game shop before I go home..” Takato said to himself. The game shop wasn’t really out of the way, so it would only add a few minutes to his walk. As long as he was home before dinner, it was ok, right? And he really had plenty of time before then...

-----------------------------

With a chime of a bell, Takato left the small game store, a metallic blue pack of cards in his hand, and a Digimon capsule toy in his other hand (He was shooting for Agumon, but Betamon was cool too). Decided not to open the card pack until he got home, since it would be no good if he dropped the first cards he bought in who-knows-how-long on the pavement. And he certainly would not put that past himself... He may have changed since he met Guilmon, but some things never change.

Guilmon.

He hadn’t seen Guilmon in about two years. Even so, that was only a short time.

It was three years ago when Takato found a Digital Gate. The D-Reaper had been defeated not long before, meaning the Digimon had to go back to their own world. Every so often, he would check the hut where Guilmon lived, never expecting to find anything, but still trying. That was where the Digital gate appeared again.

He was so excited! He was finally going to see Guilmon again! But first he had to tell the other Tamers, pack supplies to take with him...and plenty of Guilmon Bread! Who knew how long he would be gone this time?

But when he came back the next day, his friends with him, the area around the Digital Gate was surrounded by a concrete wall. It was Yamaki’s doing. He had also found the Gate, and knew that it was too risky to keep it open. So not only did he build the wall around the Gate, he installed a firewall inside of it so that nothing could come or go through it.

This broke Takato’s heart. He was so close to seeing his friend again...his best friend...he said some terrible things to Yamaki, although deep down, everyone knew it was the right thing to do.

But around a year later, the Tamers were presented with a gift: A new Ark! With this, they could safely travel to the Digital World, and thus Tamers and Digimon, at least for a while, could be united. The Digimon came back to the real world for a few days to celebrate Rika’s birthday, but somehow a swarm of Parasimon came to the real world the same way the Ark did.

The Parasimon were defeated, but the Digimon once again had to go back to their world, and wouldn’t come back until the Ark was perfected. Another Digimon attack like that would be unacceptable.

It has been two years, and there is still no foolproof way of getting to the Digital World...

By the time Takato stopped thinking and walking, he realized he was next to the park where his dinosaur friend lived. Just like he always used to do. And something was beeping. “Aw nuts,” He sighed, not meaning to come to this spot. He wouldn’t find anything different from last time he came, or the time before that, or last year...

Takato groaned. “Guess I WILL be late for dinner after all...” he said, tossing his backpack against the stone wall of the park, and sitting down beside it. After coming all this way, he may as well stay a while. He wasn’t in the mood to walk all the way back home quite yet anyway. He debated calling his mom on his cell phone to explain that he would be late, but he wasn’t exactly sure how to explain why he was going to be late. Besides, if she really wanted to know, she could call him.

He stared blankly at the orange sky. It was a little relaxing, somehow. He took a deep breath and got comfy against the wall. Faint beeping aside, it was kind of nice here. He closed his eyes for a minute.

 

[Hagaren Gao]

There was a boy.

He looked exhausted, as if he had been running from something. He leaned against a tree for support, at his side was a medium-sized striped feline, way to big to be a house cat, but a little too small to be something like a cheetah or lion. Although it must have been some kind of tiger, as it was orange with black stripes .

...The weird part was that it had a mohawk. So it definitely was not your normal cat. A Digimon maybe?

The boy, who looked about the same age as Takato, was dressed mostly in red and black. Red baseball cap over his black hair, matching vest over a black shirt. He wore blue jeans, red-trimmed black tennis shoes, and red wristbands to complete his outfit.

Suddenly, Takato realized that he was flying over everything, or more like floating. It was as if he was standing on invisible ground, looking down at the scene below. His arms were extended as well, and the whole sensation felt very familiar. He was still obviously a bit scared, but soon his fear melted into curiosity about the Digimon/Tamer duo on the ground. It was hard to hear them over the storm, but he could gather some things...

“Darn it... darn it!” The black-haired boy yelled. He slumped down to the ground. “She’s gone too...Jeri...!” He hung his head in despair.

Jeri?

The feline looked at a loss for words, and very sympathetic. He sat down by the boy, apparently also at a loss of what to do.

The sky flashed with lightning once again, lighting up the whole forest. Takato jumped, but the mysterious boy and his Digimon remained unfazed.

That didn’t last for long.

The forest was still lit, although the lightning was long gone. Everything, the boy, the trees, the whole world was glowing white with a ghostly aura. The boy lifted his head, looking at the glow on his hands. It was a beautiful sight, but the boy’s expression said otherwise.

“Oh no!” The tiger gasped, clearly familiar with this event. The lights shimmered, growing slowly, eventually spiraling into the sky. Strangely, they retained the basic shape of what they were attached to, but were starting to get unrecognizable as they stretched more and more to get to their destination.

Takato looked up, and gasped.

There was a ball of light in the sky, certainly not the sun, moon, or anything of the sort. it was distant, in space, but still quite visible. Shades of orange, blue, red, yellow and green circled each other, making a sphere-like shape. The ghostly lights from this world slowly reached towards this mass of color. If it was not from the noise from the earth below, it would have been beautiful.

Looking back down, the brown haired boy realized that not only were these lights still connected to their counterparts below, but it seemed to be causing them great pain. The boy and tiger duo were crumpled on the ground, howling in pain. It wasn’t just them. In every direction, he could hear screams of pain. It seemed the only one who was free from suffering in this world was Takato himself.

It was terrible, the sound in itself caused Takato pain, it was just too much. What was happening? He tore his eyes away from the chaos below to look at the auroras above.

As soon as he did, the silvery lights reached their destination. They met with the rest of the colors, when...

They snapped tight like a stretched rubber band. Before anyone knew what was happening, that ‘rubber band’ snapped, sending the whole world spiraling into the aurora, followed by a massive explosion.

-------

Takato jerked awake, dripping with sweat. He fell asleep, apparently. The dream almost instantly escaped him, he could only vaguely remember bits and pieces...something about a boy who gave his cat a mohawk. “Man, that kid's parents are gonna be mad...”

Wait, it wasn’t cats with mohawks that caused you to suddenly wake up in a pool of sweat, was it? “Well, it was pretty weird,” he reasoned.

He didn’t mean to fall asleep, but it didn’t last for too long anyway, so it was ok. He rubbed his eyes and pulled out his cell phone to check the time. He had only been asleep for about fifteen minutes.

For some reason, he kept thinking of someone. “Jeri...” he said, absentmindedly. Jeri was his longtime friend, and secret crush. Secret as in ‘everybody knows it but he still hasn’t admitted it’. Why she suddenly sprang to his mind, he didn’t know.

He shrugged it off. Just a dream, right? Maybe she had a mohawk cat in his dream too or something.

He sat up a little, realizing that something...was still beeping. He looked around. Come to think of it, the sound ...was coming from him. He flipped open his cell phone again, and was greeted by his normal Agumon display. No calls, text, not even his alarm. Then what could it be?

Takato gasped. His eyes grew wide. This beeping was familiar...

But there was no way.

“No...way...”

There was only one other thing he had...that could make that noise.

He slowly put his phone back into his pocket. It couldn’t be that, it hadn’t activated in years...it was stupid to even think it. Traces of tears welled up in his eyes. It’s just a stupid joke for the world to pull on him...

It hadn’t activated for years, but there was still that chance...

He gulped and reached down to a different pocket and opened it up. Inside, there was a small, white electronic device of some sort, with gold trimming around the screen. His D-Arc. It was beeping, and the screen had a compass-like program running, pointing directly towards...

“No. Way.”

He was standing on his feet before he even realized it, facing towards the whatever the D-Arc was pointing to. He started jogging towards it, doubled back to get his backpack, and then he ran.

And man, did he run. He didn’t need to follow the compass to know where to go. He ran through the trails he had run through so many times before, and before he knew it, he was in front of a giant block that used to house his Digimon. If he had checked his D-Ark, he would have seen that it was indeed pointing to the structure. But there was no need to...

The concrete walls were slightly cracked, glowing vapors of every color were flowing from any opening they could find. It wasn’t supposed to be there...it was supposed to have disappeared three years ago, but this was definitely a Digital Gate.

Well, there was one inside at least.

Gently, Takato placed his hands on one of the cracks, feeling the mist that was coming out. Sure enough, he felt like he was gently being tugged, as if the portal inside was inviting him in. This was real. He leaned on the wall with a sob of relief, looking slightly like he was hugging it. A huge smile crept across his face. He had a chance again! He needed to get Henry, and Rika, and-!...

...And Yamaki would close the gate again before he would get back with his friends. The smile slowly faded. He would have to go now, or else he might not get the chance again. Just for a little bit, just enough to see his long lost friends...

It was settled. He was going through now. “But how will I get inside that room?” thought Takato, but at that moment, another small part of the wall crumbled. Simple enough, he would have to wait it out. The portal itself would take care of it.

-----

As thought, it didn’t take too long. But, Takato did get a little impatient after a while and ‘helped’. With a big rock. Surprising how well it worked.

There was now a hole in one of the walls, just big enough to crawl through. It was admittedly a little awkward and painful, since the hole was in the a few feet above ground, so he had to wiggle and crawl through it. Then he fell through the other side.

Remember why he didn’t want to open the card pack? That’s why.

He let out a muffled moan of pain, having landed on some of the rubble he knocked out, then snapped back to reality. From his crumpled position, he tried to find his way to his feet. He had only gotten to his knees before he saw it.

The Gate.

He knew the gate was there, but still was shocked to see it again. Shocked, and at the same time, relieved. The gate was a swirling ball of light, slowly dragging small pieces of rubble into it, while pushing bits of data out. A green forest was barely recognizable inside.

The boy sat there dumbstruck for a bit. This is where all the doubts came it. Maybe he shouldn’t go quite yet? After all, this was sudden...maybe he should get the others after all? Tell his parents? Get bread?...

“No...It’s now or never!” He enthusiastically jumped to his feet. He was excited, nervous, and all of the above. Heck, if he squeezed his Digivice any harder it might break again. He wasn’t sure exactly where he would end up, just because there was a nice green field in the portal didn’t mean he would end up there. It was a risk, but at this point, his mind was too Guilmon-centric to really care. Typical Takato.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and jumped into the swirling mass of light.

...And he just kinda stayed there. He opened his eyes. No, he was floating! He had entered the Digital World before he even knew it, and was overlooking the green land, not moving an inch. It was an amazing feeling, even enough to make Takato forget about his mission for a minute. That familiar smile worked it’s way onto his face again. “Wow.”

He had to stop himself from giggling like a schoolgirl. He started waving his arms and legs, trying to do some sort of aerial maneuver, or at least move. Without much success, he tried the ‘Superman’ pose, holding one arm in front of him.

To his surprise, it worked! He was moving! “Yeah!”

But he was going the wrong direction...apparently gravity had caught up with him, because he was falling downwards at an alarming rate.

And this is when Takato stopped having fun, and started thrashing his limbs about in total fear.

“AWWWW NUTS!!!!!!!!!”

He met the grassy earth with a loud ‘thump’ and an explosion of dirt.

 

[Hagaren Gao]

One World

Chapter 2: Lost and Found

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Takato awoke, coughing and choking on dirt, inside of a small crater. It took a moment for the past events to come back to him, but when they did, he couldn’t help but debate wether this was turning out to be a good day or a bad one.

It was pretty 50/50 so far.

He slowly rose to his feet, surveying his surroundings. First of all, he was in a crater. Good thing he was digital now, or he would have been person pizza. He still kinda, sorta, really hurt though.

Ignoring his headache, he climbed out of the hole, first poking his head out to make sure it was safe. There were a couple of Rookie level Digimon staring at him in a mix of awe and fear. He just randomly fell out of the sky and lived! They all figured Takato must have been some sort of super-being. The few that were there decided it best to turn tail and run.

Takato let out a weak laugh and crawled out from the crater, sitting on his knees. Looking around, he gathered that this area was definitely not the same one that he arrived at on his first trip here. He was in a bright, green, grassy field. Bright green besides all the dirt that he had launched into the air, of course.

He sat there, thinking what to do next. “This seemed like a better idea before I came here. ” He said to nobody in particular.

He didn’t know where he was. Or where Guilmon was currently living ...or how he would even get back to his world. It seemed a little hopeless, all of the sudden.

“Oh! My Digivice!” The D-Arc had that compass in it, and among other things, could point him in the direction of Guilmon. It took him a bit to remember how to activate the compass, but surely enough, it popped up, pointing into the forest. Great!

He stood up carefully, making sure he could function properly after that fall. Nothing broken, so he dusted himself off and set off towards who knows what.

----------------------

The Digital World seemed to be in decent shape, and had made a nice recovery from the incident three years ago. All damage the D-Reaper caused was gone, at least in this small part of the world. Trees were grown, grass never looked greener. It actually looked bit better than the greenery in Takato’s world.

“Figures that Digimon would be able to take care of their world better than adults could ours,” he joked. He wondered if Guilmon had helped this place with its restoration. Or maybe he tried to help. Guilmon wasn’t much more graceful than Takato himself was. Images of clumsy Guilmons trying to plant trees entered his mind, and he couldn’t help but laugh to himself. He was just as clumsy, but a clumsy red dinosaur is pretty comical in itself.

That’s when he heard something make a small squeak and dart behind a nearby tree.

He stopped in his tracks, looking in the direction of where he thought he saw the creature. Sure enough. There was some little Digimon hiding behind a tree, not very well either. It kept making high-pitched whimpers, and on top of that, part of it was sticking out from behind its hiding place..

“It must be in trouble, or something,” Takato thought. “Hey there, buddy! Are you ok?” he called gently, and started slowly walking towards the Digimon’s hiding spot. This seemed to make matters worse, as the poor Digimon squealed and shook even more than before.

“Ah!” The boy took a couple of nervous steps backwards. “Don’t worry! I’m not going to hurt you. Really! I just wanted to ask a question! That’s...all...” Takato frantically reassured. “...Is that ok?...”

Thankfully, the little creature calmed down just a bit, and poked its shivering head out from behind the tree.

“Is he scared of me? Why? I’m just a human, not some freaky alien...oh, wait...” Takato thought, sheepishly laughing at his thoughts.

It occurred to Takato that this Digimon might have not seen a human before. It was probably a Fresh...no, In-Training level Digimon. He pulled out his D-Arc to make sure. As soon as he pointed his Digivice to the little ‘mon, a hologram grew from the screen, containing the Digimon’s name, picture, and other data. A Puffmon! Just as he thought, it was an In-training Digimon.

Unless someone else came to the Digital World after Takato’s group did, which was unlikely, there was no way any Digimon this young would have seen a real live human before.

“See? I’m not scary!” He said cheerfully, getting down to his knees in order to look less intimidating. “Can you come out for just a minute?” he said as sweetly as he could, a gentle smile across his lips.

The puffy white Digimon thought for a moment, muttered what sounded like ‘Ok’, then cautiously came out from it’s hiding spot.He looked something like a cross between a ghost and the end of a broom. It was semi-transparent, with two big black eyes and an even bigger mouth covering the front of its round body. It had fox ears that were tipped with red, and the bottom half of its body was covered in long fur that quivered when the Digimon moved.

“That wasn’t so bad, right?” Takato said with a grin, to which the fluffball did something which looked like a nod.

“Well, I better ask him and get out of here before I traumatize the poor thing”, the human thought. “Ok! Now all I want to know is...do you know where this area is? Er, what it’s called...?”

Again, the little fluff was quiet for a few seconds, and then the unexpected happened.

It started crying.

“Uwah!” Takato gasped. It wasn’t a loud cry, more like whimpering with lots of tears. But still! “I traumatized a Digimon! My first trip here in three years and THIS happens within minutes!!!” How do you say ‘sorry’ for traumatizing someone? “Uh! Aaah! I’m sorr-” He stuttered.

“I dunno...!” Puffmon finally muttered.

It took a minute to contemplate what just happened. “Uh?...Oh. I’m...sorry...Are you lost or something?” He was a thankful that the Digimon was just lost and not traumatized...not that lost was good either.

The fluffy ghost looked up at Takato, tears streaming down it’s face. “Um, okay...” he thought with a sigh. “Well, when did you get lost? Maybe I can help you.” Not that he really knew where he was in the first place.

It was took a few moments for the Digimon to speak again. Still sniffling, he told his story. “I...I was playing with my friends at home...we were playing with a ball...when all of the sudden there was all this light! And the light...it...and...” He broke down again. “Everything was gone! I was here!” He cried into Takato’s chest.

“Aw...That’s terrible!” That definitely wasn’t natural. What could cause something like that? A Digimon attack? No...no. He remembered something that was almost exactly like that...it was...

“Oh yeah. Ryuusei no Rockman.” Takato muttered to himself. He needed to stop watching so much tv. “Well, I’ll help you find your friends, ok?” he said. “Er, are they around here? Or is there a town or something near here?”

“Yes,” the shuddering Digimon responded, “But they are big giant ones, and they’re too scary for me...”

Takato pondered this. Big scary Digimon. That could either be really bad, or an overreaction. After all, Puffmon apparently thought Takato looked scary.

“How about this. We’ll both go check out this place together, and see if these Digimon are really so bad or not. Ok? And we can leave if they turn out to be mean.”

Puffmon thought about it, and agreed it was a decent idea.

Takato smiled. “Great! Can you show me where this place is?”

“It’s this way...” replied the puff, nodding in the direction of the town. With that, both boy and ‘mon headed off towards the mysterious town. Guilmon would have to wait, apparently. But it’s ok. If all goes well, Takato could leave Puffmon in the care of a kind Digimon, and continue on his journey without worries. Worst comes to worst, the two would probably be better off with each other than alone.

After a few moments of silence, the Puffmon turned to Takato. “Thank you Mr. Sky Monster...For being so nice...”

“Sky monster?...” said a confused Takato. Puffmon must have saw Takato fall from the sky! He laughed. “No problem. But about that whole ‘sky monster’ thing...”

 

[Hagaren Gao]

“It’s over there, past those trees.” Said Puffmon after a few minutes of walking. Poor thing, it was too scared to enter the village, but too scared to leave it.

Takato stepped out in front of the trees, and was shocked. Not only did he know where this place was, he was amazed about how different it looked.

The village used to be called ‘The Forgotten Village of Discarded Data’. It very well might still be called that, but it didn’t look quite so ‘forgotten’. What used to be a desert wasteland was now surrounded by greenery of all shapes and sizes, covering the round, mud buildings that dotted the land. Not far off, a crystal-blue lake could be seen. Takato wouldn’t have ever thought this place would have anything of the sort, since the most it had last time he came was, well, dirt and more dirt.

One thing hadn’t changed at all. Chuchidarumon! A muddy version of Frigimon that were as kind as could be. They were somewhat like snowmen made out of mud, their faces dotted with two black eyes and a nose, little bear-like ears on their heads. Unlike snowmen, they had short legs, and large arms that were also rather long, hands not unlike boxing gloves.

“Aw, Puffmon! Those are really nice Digimon! I’ve met them before!” Takato laughed, walking into the village and motioning Puffmon to follow. Puffmon nervously came out of hiding and hopped alongside Takato.

Many of the Chuchidarumon stared at Takato and whispered to each other. Again, many of them had never seen a human before. But there were a few who looked at him with a surprise of a different kind. “Hm, could it be that they recognize me?” Thought Takato. He, along with Henry and Jeri, had passed through this village when they were looking for Calumon oh-so long ago. Although their stay here wasn’t long, they had befriended the bear-like creatures. “It was a while ago, but we did kinda save the world and all.”

The boy waved at the various mudmen energetically. “Heya guys!” he greeted. Most of the Chuchidarumon just gave him confused stares in return. “Eheh...” gulped Takato, “You don’t remember me, do you? ”

There were mummers from the townspeople. Who is he? WHAT is he? Wasn’t he one of the ones from before? It went on long enough for Takato to become a bit uncomfortable. Puffmon, who had less of an idea of what was going on, huddled close to Takato’s legs.

Finally, one of the mud bears walked over to Takato. “Please, follow me.” He said, simply enough. He turned and started walking, looking back to see if Takato and Puffmon complied. The said two blinked, looked at each other, and figured they had nothing to lose. So Takato picked up the smaller Digimon and followed the big one without a word.

----------------------

It only took a minute to reach their destination. It was another mud building, and it didn’t really look any different than any of the others. But Takato had an idea of what would be inside.

The Chuchidarumon he had been following motioned for the twosome to say outside for moment, and entered the building.

Takato and Puffmon were quite unsure what to do with themselves. “Um, ok.” said Takato.

“Are they always like this?” Asked Puffmon, who either sounded tired or bored. Takato didn’t reply verbally, but chuckled a bit.

A Chuchidarumon came back outside, ignoring Takato in its hurry. It ran to a nearby hut, coming out with a platter of what looked like chocolate and running straight back to where it came, this time giving a slight glance to the boy.

“Must be getting the star treatment.” Takato thought to himself.

It wasn’t much longer before the same Chuchidarumon that had led them here (Or that’s what Takato assumed; they all kinda looked the same) came back out. “Please, come in.” he invited, a kind look in his eyes. Takato nodded and strode into the hut, grinning a thank you to the Digimon who was holding the door open to them.

The inside of the building basically looked just like the outside. It was made of mud, had random objects such as computer chips scattered throughout the walls, and was rather dark besides the sunlight shining through the windows. There wasn’t much in the line of furniture besides a wooden table and four matching chairs, although the table had the ‘chocolate’ on it that was brought in earlier. Takato looked at the plate of food strangely. Whatever that stuff was...it wasn’t chocolate. Jeri liked it, but everyone was hesitant to even try it. Why the Chuchidarumon would think he would want it now, he didn’t know.

Takato’s thoughts were interrupted by a voice. “Welcome back, Takato.”

The voice came from a Chuchidarumon sitting at the far side of the table. It was the Elder of the village, exactly who Takato was expecting. Unlike the rest of the village, the Elder had wrinkles on his face, and was more than likely the oldest Digimon of the town.

“Hey there.” Takato finally replied, probably acting a bit more formal that he should.

The brown-haired boy was invited to sit down. “Please, eat your fill.” Offered the bear. “...I see you have a new Partner?” Takato looked confused for a moment before realizing he was still carrying Puffmon, who was so light that he was barely noticeable in his arms. “Oh! No, no, it’s not like that. I just found him wandering outside of the village...Actually, I was wondering if he could stay here for a while.”

The Elder Chuchidarumon seemed to smile, despite not having a mouth. “But of course, there is always room for one more here.” He said kindly, passing Puffmon a round lump of. ’chocolate’, which Puffmon seemed to enjoy. “I’ll make arrangements for a place for him to stay.” He took a moment to give the baby Digimon another Chuchidaru-snack before continuing.

“I must say, Takato, I’m very surprised to see you after all these years. What brings you here?”

Takato was only half-sure of why he here himself. “Well,” he began, “I found a Digital Gate in my world. I had no idea where it came from or why it appeared. I just kinda jumped through without thinking. I was hoping to find Guilmon somewhere.”

He realized that was sounding more and more depressed as he went along. “So! The village is so...green! I mean, last time I came here, it wasn’t doing so well.” He said with more energy, not noticing the thoughtful look that crossed the Champion Digimon’s face.

Elder Chuchidarumon’s face changed from thoughtful to one of remembrance. “Well, it’s all thanks to you, my friend. You and your companions, I mean.” He said, referring to the other Tamers. “Ever since that time when you defeated that motorcycle, we have slowly been able to make this little village flourish.”

“I’m still not sure exactly what else you children did, but you saved both our world and your world from the Chaos, correct?”

“Chaos?” Takato thought. “Oh, that’s what the Digimon call the D-Reaper.”

“Around that time, this world started changing. It was like the Chaos was sucking the life from this world. When you defeated it, well, you’ve seen the result.” he said, extending an arm towards the window.

Takato was a little shocked. He and his friends had made even more of a difference then they had realized. “Wow.” Was all he could say.

The Elder stood up. “I know we just sat down, but there is something I would like to show you. Your little friend can stay here, if you would like.” Puffmon had apparently fallen asleep on the table, having eaten two of the mystery snacks. Takato smiled. It had been a long day for the poor little thing.

Takato pushed his seat back and stood up, ready to go. The other Chuchidarumon who Takato met earlier was still by the door, perhaps acting as a guard. The two bears exchanged nods and led the boy out of the hut, the guard Chuchidarumon must have known exactly who the Elder wanted Takato to meet.

Whoever it was, they lived in the hut that was practically right next to the Elder’s hut. The lead Digimon knocked on the door. “Excuse me, sorry to disturb you, but you have a visitor.”

A sound that sounded like an evil chainsaw echoed from the inside of the hut. Nope, that wasn’t disturbing at all. Okay, very disturbing. And weirdly enough, kinda familiar. Overcome by curiosity, Takato stood on his toes and tried to peek through the window to see what in the world was living there. Alas, he was too far from the hut and it was too dark inside.

The Chuchidarumon turned to Takato. “Erm, he seems to be asleep. But still, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you went in.”

Go in? Go inside and meet the thing that sounded like it would eat him? Takato gulped a bit, looking to the Elder Chuchidarumon for reassurance. In turn, the Elder nodded, with look on his face that Takato couldn’t quite read. It was like a parent giving their kid a new toy. Or something.

“What am I thinking? The Chuchidarumon are really nice. And they wouldn’t send me to meet a bloodthirsty monster here without telling me first.” Thought the boy. He stepped up to the door, still a tad nervous, and grasped the doorknob. “Here goes nothing...”

Pushing the door open, he peered into the darkness. It was hard to see at first, since the only light came from one window and the open door. Eventually, Takato could see that there was something lumped up against the wall. A very big something. The creature let out another bizarre snore, making the boy jump a bit. Squinting, Takato pushed the door wide open to let more light in. The light hit the creature, making it visible.

It was about the size of a human child, more or less. A lot thicker than a child though. It was red and white with black stripes, scaly...and all of the sudden, Takato knew what this thing was.

“Guilmon?!”

----------------------

Man, I hope the pacing of this story isn’t too fast. If you think it is, then, well, just take it as getting to the juicy stuff faster? It will still take a few chapters until my big plans start.

 

[Hagaren Gao]

Chapter 3? Finally? No way!

Chapter 3: Surprise, Surprise

-------------------------

“Guilmon?!”

Indeed, the snoring red blob huddled against the wall was none other than Takato’s old friend. It was almost too good to be true! Yes, Takato came in the hopes of finding Guilmon, but to find him so easily...it was definitely a welcome surprise.

Takato stepped inside of the little hut, walking over to Guilmon’s side. He usually let sleeping Digimon lie, but this was a special occasion.

“Guilmon...” the boy said, prodding the lizard slightly to wake him.

Guilmon didn’t even flinch. “Guilmon...Guilmon!” Takato urged, getting a little louder with every call. “Guilmooooon!” he cried out one last time before giving up. He shifted to a sitting position. “Jeez. I forgot that you sleep like a hibernating dead guy.” He sighed with frustration. “What am I going to do with you?”

Despite his supposed frustration, that familiar smile was present on his face.

“Okay!” said Takato with determination. “Guilmon! I’ll wake you up if it’s the last thing I do!...But it won’t be!!!” he added. He tended to get random bursts of energy when something needed to be done, or rather, when there was something he really wanted done. His mother always commented on how she wished he would put this energy into homework.

With that, he practically jumped on Guilmon, doing whatever he could to try and get a reaction out of the big lug, which included tickling, poking, shouting in the ears...all of which earned him strange looks from the Chuchidarumon.

Takato was in the middle of pulling the Digimon’s cheeks when Guilmon’s eyes fluttered open.

“Aw, Takatomon, five more minutes...”

With that, Guilmon fell asleep again. Takato didn’t know if that made him even more frustrated, or if it just made him want to laugh. “GUILMON!”

The red dinosaur jumped awake, knocking Takato over. “Uwah!” Guilmon shouted, “I’m sorry Takatomon, I didn’t mean to oversle-”

The wheels in his head started churning. He looked over at the one who had woken him up, who was currently rubbing his head from the fall. Slowly, Guilmon’s expression changed from confusion, to surprise, to pure joy. “Takato!” he shouted, leaping into the air towards Takato.

“Oh dear.”

Guilmon landed on his partner with a large ‘wumph’ (Which Takato seemed to be hearing a lot lately), and the boy let out a groan of pain in return. “Takato! You’re here! How did you get here? You look bigger. Did you bring bread?” Came the flurry of questions.

Despite the fact that the wind was blown out of him, Takato couldn’t help but laugh. He didn’t even bother answering any of Guilmon’s questions. Not right now. He extended his arms and hugged Guilmon closely.

“Aw Guilmon, you haven’t changed at all...” Guilmon noticed a little wetness where Takato’s face was pressed into the lizard’s neck.

“...I’m so glad.”

-------------------------

Takato and Guilmon had made their way down to the lake, and were sitting on the fluffy green grass. The Chuchidarumon had left the two alone so the reunited friends could catch up with each other.

“So Guilmon, you’ve been living here ever since I last saw you?” Asked the shaggy haired boy.

“Mm-hmm.” Guilmon replied. “After we got back from your world, all of us went different ways. It was really sad. I kept walking and walking and I ended up here!” he said, spreading his claws accenting ‘here’. “The Chuchidarumon remembered me, and said I could stay here!”

Takato stared at the glassy water, glistening in the sun. Ever since he found Guilmon again, he had this slight smile that just refused to leave his face. “Awesome,” he said after a few moments. “But why would you guys separate, anyway? I mean, you’re all friends. Why couldn’t you live together?”

Guilmon shrugged, his tail flopping around lazily. “I dunno. Renamon said she wanted to be alone, Cyberdramon wanted to train...it was really sad seeing them go..” he said innocently.

Takato could certainty imagine that. First the Digimon had to say goodbye to their partners, but they said goodbye to each other? It was too weird. “Do you know where any of them are?” he asked. Guilmon must at least know where Terriermon was...they were good buddies.

Guilmon thought for a moment, sticking one claw to his chin in thought. “Just one.” He finally replied.

“Oh, really? Who? Where are they?”

Guilmon pointed behind Takato. The boy turned to see something small and white rocketing towards his face, emitting a ‘Uwah-ha-hoo!’ sound.

“...Nuts!”

There was that ‘wumph’ sound again.

Whatever hit Takato got him right in the face, causing him to fall over from the force of the blow. Guilmon made a leap to keep them from falling into the lake, landing on Takato’s legs. “I don’t remember the Digital World hurting so much...” thought the poor boy.

Meanwhile, the thing latched to Takato’s face seemed to be overjoyed, laughing with a child-like innocence, shouting Takato’s name over and over and saying how much he was missed. This was a voice Takato remembered. How could he forget? He put both hands on the round creature and pulled. Guilmon could have sworn he heard a small ‘pop’ when the creature detached himself.

“Takato!”

“Calumon!”

The puffy white Digimon somehow escaped Takato’s grasp only to hug the boy again. Calumon was a round, white, mouse-like Digimon. He had small arms that ended in fingerless tips, and little legless feet that were tipped purple. His eyes were big, green and sparkling, above them was black fur shaped like a small triangle, another upside down red triangle over it, although this one seemed to be some sort of gem.

“Takato!” He squealed, “You’rehereyou’rehereyou’rehereyou’rehereYOU’RE HERE!!!!...Did you bring any cream puffs?”

Takato sighed in mock frustration. “Nice to see you too. Why do I suddenly feel like I’m only loved for my food?” He then proceeded to poke Calumon’s head, causing the little white thing to giggle.

“I guess I should have figured that at least you two would stick together.” Takato admitted. Calumon and Guilmon were always playing together back on Earth. He was surprised that Terriermon, a small rabbit-like Digimon that was another close friend of Guilmon, didn’t stay with the other two.

“Hey, Takato? Where are Jeri and Rika and the others?” Calumon asked innocently.

Takato laughed nervously. “Well, I kinda came here before I thought to tell them...so, uh, they are probably eating dinner at home by now?”

No soon had Takato said ‘dinner’, everything turned dark. The boy was startled, but the Digimon acted like it was natural, mainly because, well, it was. The transition from day to night in the Digital World was instant, without dawn or dusk. It was officially nighttime.

Which made Takato realize...

“Oh man!” He yelped, standing up with a jolt (and a very surprised Calumon in his arms). “It’s night! And dinner...? Ooooh, Mom is going to ground me for life!” He had totally lost track of time, and by now his mom was worrying about him. How long had he been there? An hour? Two? More? He couldn’t even call his mom, since being in the Digital World jammed up most electronics...

He wasn’t even sure how to get home.

Takato went pale as this fact dawned on him. He didn’t know how to get home. Getting home would require flying into the giant, green, moonlike data mass in the sky. Last time, he had the Ark that could carry all of the tamers and their Digimon back, but that certainly wasn’t an option now. And as far as he knew, portals to his world just floating around.

Takato let out a loud groan and fell over onto his back in frustration. “Is something wrong?” Guilmon asked innocently.

“No, nothing besides the fact that I’m stuck here.”

Calumon’s ears shrunk in confusion, confusion that was shared by Guilmon. “You want to leave? Did we do something wrong?” Asked the dragon.

“Ah!” Takato shot back up into a sitting position. “Nononono NO! It’s not like that...I...I just didn’t think things through.” he held his knees and rested his chin on them. “I don’t want to go home yet, it’s just that mom and dad will get worried. But I don’t know how to get back to my world...”

Both of the Digimon made sympathetic ‘awws’.

The wind blew over the group silently, rustling the greenery and making the reflection of his world shimmer over the lake. There were no background noises like in Takato’s world, he realized. No cars, sirens, radios, nothing like that. There was some chatter amongst the Chuchidarumon, or course, but the rest was just natural noise. It was incredibly relaxing. Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t be bad staying here for a bit...

Takato un-curled himself and stood up. “Well, I guess it can’t be helped, huh? I better figure out where I am staying before it gets too late.” He smiled at his friends and turned, and they eagerly followed him. Yeah, it wouldn’t be so bad.

 

[Hagaren Gao]

Finding somewhere to stay was simple enough, he just stayed in the same hut that Guilmon and Calumon lived. Hours had passed, and the two Digimon were asleep, worn out from playing with Takato and Puffmon after their dinner of brown mudball things (Which Takato politely declined, despite the fact that he hadn’t eaten since lunch). Puffmon was staying with a Chuchidarumon family in another hut, as she needed care, and Guilmon wasn’t exactly a mother figure. Guilmon and Calumon were huddled against the same wall as Takato discovered him not long ago, while Takato himself lay on the, until now, untouched bed, the moon illuminating all of them.

He was as wiped out as Guilmon and Calumon, but too restless to sleep. He was thinking about his parents...his mother probably called the army to search for him by now. He felt guilty for just running out on them like that. If only he had a way to send a message back to them...His parents, Yamaki, anyone. He turned his D-Arc around in his hands, slightly frustrated.

He still had no clue why his Digivice had activated, or why a Digital gate suddenly opened up in Guilmon’s hut. Digital Gates only seemed to open when a Digimon got strong enough to come through to Earth, if it was manmade, or, most importantly, if the Tamers were needed. Why else would Guilmon stumble upon a Gate when they needed one the most, three years ago? But this made the brown-haired boy even more confused. Were the Tamers needed now? Maybe Henry, Rika and the others had found gates as well? Or was the one he found somehow made by something like Hypnos? Why would someone make a gate now?

Takato let out yet another sigh. The more he thought, the more confused he got. Rika would tell him to ‘stop thinking and do something’! He chuckled at the thought. Of course, he couldn’t do anything until he figured out a way to get out of this mess, and he couldn’t do that until he thought some more.

If a Digimon got strong enough, it could break through the world border. How? Guilmon was pretty strong, but neither of them knew how they would go about breaking borders. The Chuchidarumon didn’t know either, but they had no desire to know anyway.

He got an idea. He still had his whole deck of cards with him! He sat up a bit and pulled them out of his pocket. Thank goodness he had them in a deck box, or they would probably be damaged by now from walking around the forest.

He opened the box and scanned through the cards, each one suddenly bringing back memories. Power Modify! This is the one Kazu gave me...Brave Shield, Henry gave that one to me...Hyper Wing! I used this one in my first combo! Each new memory made him laugh. I could have used Hyper Wing a little better the second time around.

As great as a trip down memory lane was, he had something more important to think about. There had to be a modify card that would make Guilmon strong enough to break the border. Hyper Wing maybe? That would make it so he could fly, but he would need to make Guilmon Digivolve...he had never flown on Guilmon either.

It could be really cool! Then again, he had never ridden on Guilmon before, it might be too risky...

He picked up his D-Arc again and slashed Hyper Wing, but only scanned the right side so that the card didn’t activate. He didn’t want Guilmon to grow wings in his sleep, afterall.

Nothing happened, of course. Takato gave a small glare to the Digivice, as if he was mad at it for not giving him some brilliant idea, then he shrugged and placed it beside him ‘Let’s try this whole sleeping thing again.’ he thought. His cards were placed back in his pocket, his head sunk into the rather large pillow, and within the hour he was asleep.

-------------------------

Takato found himself in a dream again. He dreamed that there was a storm raging around the Chuchidarumon village. The wind was scraping against the mud huts, tearing chunks from their walls, ripping vegetables from the ground around them. The lightning flashed for an abnormally long time, it was visible many seconds after it struck. It also struck abnormally often. Takato instantly knew this wasn’t a normal storm.

Takato heard someone yelling at him. He sat up in bed, very cold, since the wind roared into the hut and snatched the covers away. Guilmon was calling for Takato’s help as he chased an airborne Calumon who was being tossed to and fro.

That’s when Takato realized that this was no dream.

“Agh!” He gulped as he jumped out of his bed, chasing Calumon in circles. With a leap, he held the dizzy creature against his chest. “Where did this storm come from?!” he called over the howling wind.

“I dunno, but you are a deep sleeper, Takatomon!” replied his partner. In any other situation, Takato would have laughed.

Takato chanced a look out the window. This storm certainly was not making the village any prettier. “Guilmon, I don’t remember hearing about this last time I was here!” he called. “Is this normal?”

“No! There was one this morning too... but it wasn’t here!” Replied Guilmon. “It was somewhere...that way!” He pointed after a moment of thought, pointing outside one of the windows.

Takato wasn’t quite sure what that meant, being rather occupied with the storm. He stared outside, clenching the windowpane for a few seconds before turning back to Guilmon and voicing his thoughts. “Guilmon, something isn’t right about this storm, I don’t think it’s natural! We should go check it out, and make sure everybody is ok!”

Guilmon agreed, and Takato put Calumon under the bed, seeing it as the safest place for him to be at the moment.

The duo started outside, but there was way too much debris flying around to be safe. “What do we do, Takato?” asked Guilmon with a slightly shaky voice.

“I-I dunno!” What could they do? There was no safe way to even go outside, unless they could find some way to shield themselves. “...Shield...”

The cards.

Takato still had his whole deck of cards from earlier! Guilmon watched as Takato frantically tore the deck box out of his pocket and rooted through it’s contents. There had to be something here that could help!

A strong gust ripped a few cards out of his hand, sending them fluttering across the room. “Oh no!”

The boy leapt to retrieve his flying cards. He caught one right away, and after a minute of chasing in circles, got a second one...but he wasn’t so lucky with the third.

“AW NO!!!”

Takato watched helplessly as the card flew out the window. He’d probably never see it again, so hopefully it wasn’t important...He looked down at the two cards in his hand that was able to catch, and his eyes grew. “Hey! Guilmon! We can use this one!” he turned the card to show his friend, who got the idea. The card had a picture of a golden shield with the emblem of courage, a bronze sun, engraved across it.

Takato reached for the Digivice that should have been in his pocket..but it wasn’t there. Guilmon, having figured what Takato was planning, had grabbed the D-Arc from the bed (In his mouth, since he didn’t exactly have any fingers) and brought it over. “Oh! Thanks Guilmon! You ready?” Takato asked, to which Guilmon gave an eager nod. “Heh! Just like old times!” Takato grinned.

Card in his right hand and Arc in his left, he brought them together, carefully sliding the card through the slot on the left side of the small device.

“Digi-Modify, Brave Shield Activate!”

Within seconds, Guilmon was armed with the same shield that was on the card. The shield was almost as big as Guilmon himself, and heavy, but it would be better than being smacked in the head by a tree or something.

“Let’s go!” Guilmon called, leading the way out, but the force of the wind was too much against the shield, and Guilmon started to topple over. Takato yelped and rushed over to support the weight of the shield, and between the two of them, they just barely could hold it up.

“This was a dumb idea, wasn’t it?”

“Uh huh.”

Calumon looked on from under the bed. “...I’ll stay here and guard the bed.”

The twosome forced themselves onward, seeing as they had gotten this far. The going was slow, and several times they had to stop to avoid getting crushed by their own shield. But they didn’t dare put it down, as various rocks and other debris kept clanging off of it that would otherwise go straight to their heads. They liked their heads, and didn’t want to have gaping holes in them.

“Takato, where are we going?”

“Um, I’m working on that!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Guilmon saw part of a hut crumble away, exposing the Chuchidarumon inside to the harsh wind. Guilmon gasped, it was a wonder THEY could even stand up to this wind! “Takato, look!” he called, jabbing his nose in the direction of the broken hut. Takato thought for a second before they both tottered towards the hut, getting pushed towards it by the wind anyway.

They reached the foot of the house and braced themselves in front of the hole, putting their legs, claws, or whatever they could around the edges in an effort not to fall over. “Hey! Are you guys ok?” the boy called to the two Digimon that were hiding behind a bed. One nodded, but both looked afraid. Understandable. The whole place was a mess, and the wind still clawed its way around the shield and inside.

Takato started to turn himself slowly around. “Ok Guilmon, on three!” Guilmon moved himself a little closer to Takato, knowing what he was planning.

“Three!”

Both of them half-jumped forward, and the shield slammed itself into place against the wall. It wasn’t perfect, but it kept the wind from getting it.

Takato and Guilmon were panting. “Takato, let’s not do that again.” Guilmon breathed.

“I’m fine with that...” Takato gasped in return, his back bent over and hands on his knees. After a few moments of rest, he stood up again. “There. It’s a temporary fix, but it’s probably another bad idea, so stay out of its range, ok?” he said, with a little more cheer than should be expected. The Chuchidarumon relaxed slightly and nodded a thank you.

Takato scratched his head, a bit discouraged. “That really didn’t work as well as I thought is would, and now if we go out there without any protection, we’ll turn into Swiss Cheese.”

“Mmm, cheese!” piped Guilmon.

“Only you would think of food right now, Guilmon.” Takato replied, smiling again. Even in this situation, it was hard not to smile at Guilmon.

“Sorry, I’m still hungry, and you brought it up...” Guilmon said slightly apologetically, claws on his tummy.

Before Takato had time to laugh, thunder sounded through the village accompanied by lightning lighting everything in a blue glow. Takato gasped and lurched over, but it had nothing to do with the storm. He felt...weird...

“Takato, something doesn’t...feel...!” Guilmon’s words were cut out with a groan as some sort of yellow/gold plasma floated from his body. “G-Guil-!” Was all Takato could manage before he couldn’t speak either. The same plasma was seeping out of his skin as well.

Looking through half shut eyes, he could see that the gold glow was attached to everything, and slowly expanding upwards. He could hear moans from the Chuchidarumon behind them as well, meaning they were apparently sharing the same experience.

“What is this?” he wondered to himself. It was a bizarre feeling, it didn’t exactly hurt, but it was just...uncomfortable. Like he was being stretched. He tried feebly to wipe away the vapors, but he wasn’t even able to feel them, much less move them. Despite his efforts, they still stretched towards the sky, farther and farther...

Until they disappeared as quickly as they came.

Takato opened his eyes and blinked. Whatever had been covering them was just...gone. He stood up again...he had fallen to his knees...when did that happen? He absentmindedly helped Guilmon, who was lying on the floor, back to his feet. “Uh, what was that?” He asked to nobody in particular. He went to tend to the Chuchidarumon, when Guilmon made an observation.

“Hey, the storm is gone!”

Storm? Oh yeah, there was a storm. Whatever had just happened was so bizarre that Takato actually almost forgot. “How weird...what was all that about?” he asked, again, to nobody in particular, which was just as well, since nobody had an answer. It’s not often that two natural disasters happened at the same time like that...although one didn’t really seem so natural.

Takato and Guilmon stepped outside to observe the damage. The wind was still blowing, but it seemed quite lazy compared to the harsh winds of before. A few mud-huts collapsed, a few of them had gaping holes. There was random debris everywhere, uprooted plants...but despite all the damage, the Chuchidarumon seemed to be unharmed, at least the ones that dared to venture outside already. That was a bit of a miracle.

Or maybe not. Guilmon eyed one Chuchidarumon oddly. It was standing...but it wasn’t all there. Half of it was missing. But it didn’t look in pain, just...not all there...

“Takato, that one...looks broken.” Guilmon gulped, thumping the boy with his tail to get his attention. Takato made a small ‘meep’ sound upon seeing the Digimon, but noticed that something else wasn’t right about the scene. He squinted his eyes in concentration.

“Guilmon, look...where that Chuchidarumon is...standing...it doesn’t match!” It was true. The small area next to the bear Digimon was slightly different. The Digimon seemed to be standing in an illusion of sorts, which looked like it was showing a city, rather than the village that they were in.

The Chuchidarumon walked from behind the apparent illusion, all limbs intact, apparently not noticing the floating hole or Takato and Guilmon’s horribly confused faces.

After a few exchanged glances between the duo, they carefully walked up to the illusion. It wasn’t big, about the size of Takato itself, and its borders were so faint that you could hardly tell where it began or ended, hence why it was so unnoticeable. The more Takato looked at it, the bigger Takato’s eyes got.

“Its home!” Takato gasped. “It’s a Gate! The storm must have ripped it open...look, that’s the shop where I got that pack of cards today!” he said, pointing to the card store that was seen on the left of the portal. He half expected his finger to touch the gate like a TV screen, but it passed harmlessly through. This was a pretty slick gate, it looked like he could just step through without having to fall from the sky or anything. Thank goodness there was nobody to see if from the other side.

“Takato! Guilmon!” Called a familiar squeaky voice. As the two turned they spied Calumon darting from house to house, as if the storm would start again at any moment. “What happened? And why are there all these spooky scary pictures everywhere?!” He yelled again, hiding behind a rock for a moment before flying the last stretch onto Guilmon’s head.

“All?” Takato gulped. “What ‘all’? I don’t see any more...” Guilmon apparently didn’t share Takato’s confusion, as he was sniffing at the Gate curiously.

Takato, his finger still pointed inside the Gate, studied his surroundings again, only to get an exasperated look on his face. He moved to point in various places, making an odd ‘myeh’ sound.

It was hard to see, but there were actually Digital Gates of varying size everywhere. They were so blurry around the edges that they almost blended in to everything else, like the one the group stood next to. The Chuchidarumon either still didn’t notice, or just didn’t care at the moment, most of them still trying to pull themselves together.

“Oh dear. This is bad...” Takato gulped. “It’s one thing to have one Gate, but there are so many...! That makes it that much easier for someone to walk through either side...and then people would freak out. They’re good at that.”

“Well, what are we gonna do, Takato?” Guilmon asked, trying to look at the white mouse Digimon that was clinging to his ears.

Takato sighed. “I...We have to go back and get Henry, Rika, and the others!” He decided, turning to Guilmon, hands in fists, a determined look clad on his face.. “I don’t know what else we can do, but I’m sure Henry can think of something! And having Rika certainly wouldn’t hurt. Well, much.” All three chuckled nervously.

Takato pointed out all the gates he could see to the nearest Chuchidarumon and asked that he keep all the others away from them, then without explanation, Takato, Guilmon and Calumon jumped through the Gate to the game store.

-------------------------

When is the last time I updated this? Before summer? Sweatdrop Well, um...it’s 11 pages worth this time!!! Please don’t hurt me!!!

Thanks for GeminiStar and Pinky for giving this chapter a much-needed Beta-ing!

Cookies for anyone who can find the vuage Kingdom Hearts reference XD

The next chapter is gonna be...interesting. Hopefully you won’t think Im crazy.

And im done with this random stuff here, so bye now!