[Sung to the tune of the Digimon theme]

Poke Poke Poke...
Poke Poke Poke...

Pokémon Pokémon
Poke Poke Poke...

Pokémon Pokémon
Poke Poke Poke...

Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters,
Pokémon Are the Champions!
Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters,
Pokémon are the Champions!

Change into Pocketal Champions
To save the Digital World

Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters,
Pokémon Are the Champions!
Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters,
Pokémon are the Champions!

Pokévolve into Champions!
Pokévolve into Ultimate!

Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters,
Pokémon Are the Champions!
Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters,
Pokémon are the Champions!
Pokémon, Pocketal Monsters,
Pokémon!

____________________________________________________________________________

	The soft, gentle serenade of the evening forest played its hypnotic tune 
as a lone sullen boy sat atop a toppled tree.  The trees rustling, the distant 
trill of Caterpie as they spun their melody of love and joy, the gentle stream 
nearby rushing past age-worn rocks and down steep waterfalls...it created a 
harmony of nature that seemed to play only for the boy as he wallowed in his own 
misery, mourning his loss.
	
	'How?' he asked himself over and over, clutching his head as if trying to 
stop his mind from repeating that single question for the trillionth time.  'How 
could I lose?  Didn't I want it badly enough?  Didn't I train hard enough?'  The 
only answer came in the form of a flock of Spearow, their cries adding to the 
soft song of the forest.  He wasn't sure what the answer was...maybe there was 
no answer at all.  Maybe it was just meant to be.  'Maybe I was never meant to 
win...'
	
	A soft rustling in the bushes brought his mind away from the recent upset 
at the Johto League Tournament.  With a sharp 'Pika!' and a toothy snarl, Ash 
Ketchum's oldest friend and partner sprang out of the bushes and proceeded to 
attack the boy with a playful, impish grin set on his tiny face.  Ash laughed 
half-heartedly, wrestling with the mouse until he finally got his Pokémon 
settled in on his lap, purring contently.  He knew what Pikachu was trying to 
do, and he appreciated it more than words could say.
	
	"So, those regen treatments made you feel better?"  Pikachu nodded, 
arching his back as Ash stroked him gently.  "Good."  Pikachu had taken some 
nasty hits in the final round, and it did Ash's heart a world of good to see his 
companion back on all four feet.
	
	"ASH!"
	
	He looked up at the mentioning of his name and smiled once more.  Unless 
his ears deceived him, he was about to get another visit, one that was just as 
welcome as Pikachu's.  Sure enough, a slender, spry young redhead clad in a 
yellow tank top and an old pair of Ash's jeans came struggling through the thick 
underbrush.  She was his second-oldest friend and partner...though "partner" 
wasn't quite the best word to describe their relationship.  Their relationship; 
it still sounded strange to Ash.  A year ago if someone had told him that he was 
to fall in love with Misty Waterflower, he would have called that person a liar 
to his or her face...and meant it, too.  Now, though...
	
	"Hey, Misty."
	
	Misty dropped down onto the log with an exhausted sigh, leaning forward 
and resting her elbows on her knees.  "I've been looking all over for you." she 
breathed heavily, trying to make up for the air she had lost running about the 
forest, shouting Ash's name.
	
	"Sorry," he replied lamely, not really sorry at all.  "I've been thinking 
about...stuff."
	
	"Me too." she muttered softly.  For a moment, there was an uncomfortable 
silence, accompanied, of course, by the song of the forest.  Then, without 
warning, Misty blurted out, "Ash, I'm going back to Cerulean."
	
	Ash nearly exploded with shock and disbelief.  "What?" he cried.  Misty?  
Going home?  Leaving him?
	
	"I'm going home, Ash." She couldn't even bear to look him or Pikachu in 
the eyes, instead letting her gaze rest on her ragged red sneakers.  "It's been 
a long time since I've been home.  I...I miss my family."
	
	His face grew red with anger and betrayal.  "That's a lie and you know 
it!" he snorted.  If there was one thing that Misty could not do, it was lie 
convincingly, especially to him.  "You can't stand your family!"  As cruel a 
statement as it was, it was also dead accurate; Misty loved her sisters dearly, 
but the four of them had never been able to coexist in the same room together 
for more than five minutes before some sort of fight broke out.  "Misty, how 
could you?  What about..." he sighed with bitter frustration, trying to 
understand she would do this to him 'now', of all times.  "What about us?"
	
	Now it was her turn to be angry.  She turned on him, her aqua blue eyes 
burning icily with intensity.  "What 'us', Ash?  There is no US!  All we do is 
walk and train, walk and train, walk and train!  There's nothing to our 
relationship!"  When she saw the utterly devastated expression on his face, her 
conscience got the better of her, letting a little guilt slip through.  "I'm 
sorry, Ash.  I really am." Misty's voice softened a bit as the volume of her 
words sunk in.  "Sometimes...sometimes excitement and adventures aren't enough.  
I need something more in my life."
	
	"Pika?" Pikachu first cast his curious eyes towards Misty, then up at Ash.  
Neither teen was looking at the other, and neither was saying a word.  The 
silence between the two was almost deafening.  "Pika.  Pikachu!  Chu, pika-
pikachu!"
	
	"There's nothing left to say, Pikachu." Ash told his Pokémon bitterly.  
His eyes were locked out front.  There was no doubt in his mind that if he dared 
a look at Misty, he would start bawling like a five-year-old.  Ash's stubborn 
pride refused to let Misty see him cry.  "She's made her decision."
	
	Brock chose that moment as his entrance cue, coming on to the scene with a 
steaming pot of rice held in his potholder-protected hands and a sense of bad 
timing that would make Jerry Lewis cringe with disgust.  "Jeez," he kidded them 
jovially, "I've been calling you guys for the past ten minutes.  Dinner's 
getting cold." His good humor was frozen in its tracks after he caught a closer 
glance at the pair of morose teens through his ever-squinting eyes.  "Woah...you 
guys look like you just lost your best friend, or something."
	
	"I don't want to talk about it." they said in unison, which only annoyed 
each of them further.  It was clear to Brock that something had happened between 
them, but he didn't want to pry.  Besides, they would be bothering him with 
their problems soon enough, anyway.  Instead, he looked up at the night sky, 
setting the pot down by his feet and unholstering his hands from the potholders.
	
	"Cheer up." he told them, "After all, it's a beautiful night."  The sky 
always seemed beautiful at twilight, especially out here in the middle of 
nowhere.  Brock always preferred the bright, twinkling stars of the darkened 
forest to the dim, pale stars of the bright, noisy city.  However, the beauty of 
the unending universe received little more than a grunt of recognition from Ash 
or Misty. 
Pikachu, on the other hand, knew how to appreciate a beautiful sky full of 
stars, and lifted his head to do just that.  In a strange twist of fate, he got 
so much, much more than that.  "Pika!" A small, bright flash caught his 
attention.  Pikachu pointed upward frantically, trying to get the others to 
notice the foreign light in the heavens.  "Pi-kaaaa!"
	
	Brock tried to see what had made Pikachu so excited.  "Oh, hey, I see it.  
Cool!  Think it's a shooting star?"  He got no reply, and shook his head in 
disgust.  Looking back up at the ever-brightening spot, he remarked, "Well, 
*I'm* going to make a wish." Secretly, Ash and Misty both looked up at the 
falling star and made wishes of their own as well.

	I wish I were anywhere but here.

	I wish I could just get away from everything.

	"Done." Brock nodded in satisfaction, turning his attention back to the 
stone-cold rice.  Then he stopped and looked back up at the falling star.  It 
had become huge, almost the size of a quarter from their perspective.  Stranger 
still, it didn't appear to be moving, only growing.  "Uh...guys?"  Ash and Misty 
seemed to be having a contest tonight; Who Wants To Be The Least Responsive?  
Unfortunately, Regis was nowhere around, and the "star" was only getting larger.  
"Guys!  You guys!  I think that thing is heading straight for us!"

	This got their attention, as they both looked up once more at the object 
of Brock's anxiety.  It was even bigger now, and a faint whistling sound had 
begun to sound the alarm of its arrival in the distance.  The whistling grew to 
a dull roar, and the falling star so heavenly any more, glowing a blue-white as 
it bore down on the trio.  They could see it picking up speed, heading straight 
for them with destructive finality.

	"Scatter!" Ash yelled, diving off of the log and starting out in a dead 
run.  Misty and Pikachu were quick to follow his example, with Brock hot on 
their heels in third place for the race of their lives.  Brock's pot of rice was 
left behind, forgotten for the moment in place of their own mortal existence.

	With an earthshaking force, the fallen star ripped into the ground behind 
the trio, throwing dirt, teenager, and Pokémon alike high into the air.  
Curiously enough, the landing didn't bring the huge explosion they expected.  
Rather, the comet's crash had an unseen force that pulsed out the instant it 
hit.

	Ash picked himself up off of the ground and brushed the dirt from his 
black T-shirt and battered jeans.  Spying his Pikachu moaning, flat on his face, 
he opted to help his pal up as well.  "You okay?" Pikachu nodded, crawling onto 
Ash's shoulder.  "Everybody else okay?"

	"Fine." Misty coughed indifferently, groaning.

	Brock struggled to his feet.  "I'm okay." Cautiously, the trio approached 
the small glowing crater left behind by the falling star, shielding their eyes 
from the blinding light.  After what seemed an eternity of inching forward, they 
reached the luminous hole's edge and, swallowing their fears, gazed down in 
unison.

	Ash wasn't certain what meteorites were supposed to look like, but he was 
fairly certain that they didn't normally appear like this; in place of the 
white-hot rock he had expected sat a trio of small metallic objects, resting 
unharmed at the bottom of the crater as if they had been placed there, and not 
thrown from orbit.  If he didn't know better (and he didn't), he would have 
sworn that the devices were Pokégear.  They looked exactly like them.  That was 
impossible, though; Pokégear were insanely expensive electronic communication 
watches produced by Silph Co.  They came from factories and black market 
dealers, not from the heavens.  "What the hell?"  The panels on the Gear-like 
machines darkened, leaving the three trainers with spots swimming in their 
vision.

	Throwing caution to the wind, Ash reached down to pick up one of the 
techno-meteorite gifts from God, but was stopped when Misty clamped her iron 
grip on his wrist.  "Are you stupid, or just insane?" she cried out, yanking his 
hand out of the hole.  "Those things just fell out of orbit, they must be a 
million degrees!"  He broke her grip with a sneer and a disgusted snort, 
disregarding her sage advice.  He reached down slowly, though, hesitant to 
vaporize his finger.  He touched one of the objects...

	"It isn't hot." he whispered.  Gently, gently, he picked up the device and 
held it in his palm.  It was different than any Pokégear he had ever seen, with 
a slightly different user interface, and a yellow and black casing.  "Wow..." 
Seeing that it wasn't dangerous, Misty and Brock each reached down, still with 
the same hesitation Ash had shown, and selected one of the 'Gears out of the 
hole.  In the meantime, Ash continued to admire the heavenly piece of 
technology, turning it over in his hands.  Nearly bursting with excitement, he 
undid the clasp and slipped it over his hand onto his wrist, snapping the latch 
back into place with a soft, metallic 'click'.  The instant he did, the screen 
on the small 'Gear began to glow once more, though nowhere near as bright as 
before.  "Coooooool."

	Misty frowned, slipping her own 'Gear onto her slender wrist.  As she did, 
she couldn't help but wonder where they came from, or whom they belonged to.  
Each one was nearly identical, with coloration being the only difference; Hers 
was a pretty aquamarine, while Ash had a sort of Pikachu-pattern to his.  She 
caught sight of Brock's dull brown 'Gear as he slipped it onto his wrist, 
clicking the clasp closed.  Just as Ash's had, theirs began flashing after they 
had put them on.

	Moments after all three were in place, they ceased blinking and instead 
displayed a simple text message: "Digital Evolution Prototype Active.  
Initiating Gateway Transfer Sequence."

	"Gateway transfer?  Digital evolution?" The words echoed from Ash's mouth 
as he and Pikachu scratched their heads in unison, staring down at the glowing, 
ominous letters.  "What does that mean?"

	That was all the wondering Ash had time for before all hell broke loose.  
With a blinding explosion and a deafening crack of thunder, the heavens 
themselves opened up.  It was like nothing they had ever encountered before on 
any of their journeys together; like twin waterfalls of pure energy flowing up 
instead of down, merging into a single vortex at some point in the 
distance...perhaps beyond infinity, or even further.  
A powerful force began to tug on them, trying to rip them from the Earth itself.  
It felt as though they were in a vertical wind tunnel, being ripped off of the 
face of the planet.  Through it all, Ash somehow noticed that nothing else 
seemed to be affected by any of it except them.  The trees and grass remained 
motionless, oblivious to the teens' plight as they and their Pokémon companion 
were drawn up into the vortex like dust mites into a vacuum.

	"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Ash screamed in terror as he tumbled into the sea of 
infinity, helpless to do anything but watch as Misty, Brock, and Pikachu 
screamed right along with him.  Finally, the whirling, swirling forces became 
too much for his dizzy, disoriented mind.  He caught one last, longing look at 
the forest before he succumbed to blissful unconsciousness, the image of his 
world being burned into his memory.
____________________________________________________________________________

	Sora's eyes fluttered open, stinging at the greeting of the bright morning 
sky.  She squinted, trying to shield herself from the harsh glare.  "Huh?  
Where..." Her head was pounding, and her eyes felt red and puffy.  Had she been 
crying?  She rubbed her temples as she sat up, slowly, trying to remember where 
she was.  This wasn't her house, and she wasn't on her bed.  What was she on?  A 
couch; she was on a couch...but where?  In a room...what room?  Whose room?  
Where was the room?  A house.  'Duh,' she thought to herself disgustedly.  It 
was obviously a house...wasn't it?  No.  No, this was a ranch.  Jennai's ranch.  
She was on a couch in Jennai's ranch...and she had one of the worst headaches of 
her life.

	"I must've fallen asleep here last night." she groaned, trying to work the 
stiffness out of her arms and shoulders.  Then she blinked, taking a look 
outside.  Why was it so bright?  The lake; it was gone!  Jennai had somehow 
drained the entire lake.  Hopefully he had managed to move the fish and other 
creatures that lived there out beforehand.  Jennai was usually thoughtful enough 
to think of such things.  She blinked again, trying to will her pupils to shrink 
faster.  Down at the murky depths, the digital sun was filtered down to a soft 
ambiance.  Now, with the murky depths less...well, murky...the sun was free to 
cast its warmth across the parlor through the great bay windows.
Sora glanced out across the small landscape as she continued her morning 
stretch.  The small, artificial lakebed looked almost like a desert without its 
water or aquatic inhabitants.  Her eyes wandered the beds of soppy wet kelp and 
mossy rocks, until catching something unexpected.  As tired as she was, she had 
nearly missed it; in fact, she had to check again, just to make sure she wasn't 
seeing things.  Pressing her face against the glass until it was nearly flat, 
she squinted into the distance.  No mistake about it, there was something out 
there!  Something...or someone, maybe...was on the ground, wearing blue, white, 
black, and a small patch of red.

	"Hey!"

	She leapt off of the couch, her stiffness and headache forgotten for the 
moment as she tore down the hallway, shouting with excitement.  "Matt!  Kari!  
Jennai!  Tentomon, Agumon, Gomamon...any-mon!  Come quick!  There's something 
out there!"  Matt and Kari both emerged from their rooms just in time to see 
Sora fly past like a blur.  "I saw something!" she shouted back to them as they 
ate her dust, flinging the door open wide and careening outside.  Her friends 
exchanged glances and shrugs, then took off after her.

	Sora led the pack outside, making a beeline for whatever it was she saw.  
As she got closer, her hopeful suspicions were confirmed; it was a person!  More 
accurately, it was a boy, and he looked as though he had seen better days.  He 
was unconscious, and looked to be a bit delirious with his black matted hair 
plastered down on his forehead, which was covered in sweat and blood from dozens 
of tiny cuts.  A red and white ball cap lay next to his head among the tiny 
rocks and sand, bearing only a stylized 'L' on the front.  Each of his cheeks 
featured a deep, dark 'Z' mark underneath each eye, standing out like a beacon 
on his pale skin.  Matt and Kari caught up to Sora as she knelt over him, 
examining him breathlessly.

	"Who do you suppose he is?" Kari asked, bending down to get a better look 
at the boy's face.  Try as she might, she didn't recognize him from any of the 
Digidestined she had ever met.  But then, hadn't Jennai told them that these 
Digidestined came from another universe?  It was rather exciting, actually; she 
had never met an extra-dimensional teenager before.

	"I don't know." Matt had the same thoughts running through his own head.  
All the while, though, his mind also wondered at a mile a minute.  'Is this the 
help Jennai said would come?' he asked himself.  He wasn't surprised when there 
wasn't any answer.  Before he could think any more, something caught his 
attention out of the corner of his eye.  Glancing over, he caught a glinting 
flash of orange-red on the sandy desert landscape.  "Hey, there's another one!"  
He took off running, chasing his own rogue and leaving Kari and Sora to deal 
with the first.

	Kari leaned down to whisper in Sora's ear.  "Y'know," she hissed 
mischievously, "He's kind of cute."  Sora's face whirled around to meet Kari's, 
her complexion turning bright red as she blushed.  She gave the younger girl a 
stern look, but only half-meant it.  "Well, he is!" Kari insisted with a 
chuckle.
____________________________________________________________________________

	Ash's mind came back to reality with a sluggish jolt.  His entire body 
hurt, from his toes all the way to the tippy-top of his raven black hair.  Just 
the thought of opening his eyes made them throb, so he kept them closed for the 
moment.  Through the haze in his brain, he could hear voice starting to creep 
into his pounding head, voices he didn't recognize.

	'Fantastic,' he thought, 'Misty was right; I finally lost my marbles.  I 
hate it when she's right.' He briefly felt a pang of regret, remembering his 
last conversation with Misty.  Try as he might, he couldn't help but feel angry 
and betrayed, even though he knew, deep down, that she was right.  He really, 
*really* hated it when she was right.  It almost always meant that he was wrong.

	"Shut up!"

	"Hey, you're the one who can't take your eyes off of him!"

	It was strange...voices were supposed to talk to you, or through you, not 
about you.  His curiosity overrode his aversion to pain, so he decided to open a 
single eye, just a crack.  He was rewarded for his efforts with a thin stream of 
blinding light.  Ash groaned and flinched, snapping his eye back shut.

	"He moved!"

	'Wait a minute...' Ash's muddled mind came to a dawning realization...he 
just wasn't quite sure what that realization was at the moment.  Whatever it 
was, though, it was important.  Gritting his teeth in the meantime, he flung 
both eyes wide open, greeting the blinding white light with his tired amber 
irises.  For a moment, the world refused to focus.  Shapes and blurs played 
across his vision, tantalizing him with a surreal world that seemed to mock and 
infuriate him.

	"He's coming around."

The trainer blinked hard several times, clearing his watering eyes and clearing 
the clouds in his vision to a certain extent.  At the very least, he could 
see...sort of.  What he was able to make out surprised him a bit; hovering mere 
inches above him was a soft, feminine face.  It possessed an earthly beauty, 
plain at first glance, but open and caring.  "Misty?" he groaned his mind still 
befuddled.  For some reason, he felt uncomfortably hot, and his head hurt quite 
a bit.

	"Who?" the face's lips didn't seem to move in tandem with the words they 
produced...or maybe it was just Ash's poor lines of thinking.  He tried to get 
up, but was stopped somehow.  He could feel a hand pressing gently on his chest, 
keeping him down.  "Take it easy..." the face spoke once more, giving him a 
small smile.

	Ash panicked, doing just the opposite of the girl's suggestion.  Later, as 
he thought about it (and apologized profusely for it), it was understandable.  
After all, he had been delirious, probably suffering from a head injury, and all 
after being sucked into another dimension.  Defying every aching, protesting 
muscle, Ash shoved the girl off of his chest and staggered to his feet, 
stumbling like a drunk at three in the morning.  The world was spinning, just as 
it had in that mysterious tunnel, and his head hurt even worse when he was 
standing.

	He felt another hand clamping down on his wrist.  Shooting his bloodshot 
eyes to his right, he saw another girl, this one clearly younger, trying to get 
him to stop.  "Calm down!" she cried out, "Everything's all right!  We-"

	Still not thinking clearly, he tore his hand from her grasp.  'Charizard 
will teach these yahoos not to mess with 'this' trainer.' Ash thought.  He 
reached down to his belt, searching for the flame dragon's Pokéball, and was 
more than a little surprised when he couldn't find it.  Looking down in horror, 
he discovered that each and every one of his Pokémon was missing, disappeared 
right off of his belt.  For the first time since awakening, he realized that 
Pikachu was nowhere around.  "WHERE ARE THEY?" he roared at the younger girl.

	"Where are who?" the girl stumbled back, her voice quavering.  Her soft 
eyes grew as large as saucers, dilated in fear.

	His eyes narrowed, locking onto her in anger and confusion.  Then they 
sought out the first girl, who was now picking herself up off of the dusty 
ground.  "You're with Team Rocket, aren't you?" he demanded.  "AREN'T YOU?"  
Neither girl spoke, too afraid of saying the wrong thing and really setting him 
off.  "ANSWER ME!"

	"No." Sora said at last.  She held out her hands, palms up, trying to show 
that she wasn't the enemy.  "We aren't with...Team Rocket."  She walked forward, 
stopping a few feet in front of him.  "We aren't Team Rocket.  We...We'll help 
you find them."

	"Good." he sighed.  He still didn't know who they were, but as long as 
they weren't Rockets, he didn't care.  "I have to find them..." he stumbled, 
regaining his balance with a major effort.  If only he wasn't so tired...maybe 
then he could do something.  "I have to get my Pokémon back...gotta get 'em 
all..."

	"What's a Pokémon?"

	The high pitched, childlike voice emanating behind his back caused Ash to 
panic again.  He whirled around, looking about with a wild, feral glint in his 
eye.  The glint gave away, though, under the sight of the strangest thing he had 
ever seen.  Standing behind him at a full three feet tall was some sort of 
Charmander...one unlike any he had ever seen.  It had gold-yellow skin and large 
eyes set almost on either side of its oversized head, and nasty, long claws on 
its hands and feet.  "Hello!" it waved at him, grinning with several rows of 
sharp, vicious teeth.

	It was more than Ash could take.  With a tiny moan, his eyes rolled back 
into his head as he fell to the ground in a heap.  As the world faded to 
blackness for the second time in recent memory, Ash could hear the squawking 
Charmander asking the pair of young women, "Was it something I said?"
____________________________________________________________________________

	"Ash?  Ash, get up."

	It was like deja vu all over again.  This time, though, Ash felt a soft, 
downy mattress beneath him in place of the previous nightmare's hard, coarse 
sand.  It had been a nightmare, hadn't it?  "Misty?" he groaned, his eyes 
fluttering open slowly.  He was relieved to see her face above him this time, 
and not a strange face like before.  "Oh, my aching head..."

	"Take it easy." The redheaded Waterflower put a glass of water to Ash's 
lips, tilting it forward and letting the cool liquid contents dribble into his 
mouth and down his throat.  "Everything's okay." she soothed him, patting his 
still-throbbing head gently.

	He looked up at her, giving her a weak smile in thanks as he soaked in the 
water, as well as his new surroundings.  There wasn't much to the room he was 
in; it appeared to be fairly small, with only the bed, a lamp, and a small chair 
on the other side of the room for furnishings.  Thankfully, the lamp was only 
emitting a soft, gentle light that went easy on his eyes.  "Oh man, am I glad to 
see you."  He propped himself up on his elbows, resting them on the squashed 
pillow behind him.  "I had the weirdest dream."  Ash couldn't help but laugh at 
the memory of the entire ordeal.  "We all got sucked into this scary hole in the 
sky, and these two girls were attacking me.  I tried to fight back, but my 
Pokémon were gone...even Pikachu."  He rubbed his head, grinning slightly.  It 
all must have sounded very silly to Misty, but she hadn't even snickered yet.  
"I must've gotten hit on the head, or something..."

	"Let me guess." Misty sat down on the edge of the bed, looking him 
straight in the eye with a deadpan expression.  "One of the girls was tall, with 
sandy brown hair, about my age, only taller?"  She went on to describe the first 
girl with alarming accuracy, then moved on to the second, younger girl, equally 
as descriptive.  "And they had some sort of weird Pokémon with them, too?"

	"H-h-h-how could y-you know?" Ash was dumbfounded.  His mouth flapped open 
and shut as he tried to search for words to match the absolute confusion he 
felt.  Had Misty suddenly become a mind reader?  Or...and this seemed far more 
likely, in a sick and twisted way...had he actually become as transparent as his 
companions had always kidded him as being?  He held up his own arms, as if 
testing whether or not they were real.  They were real, all right.  
Unfortunately, so was the yellow and black 'Gear strapped on his wrist, resting 
against his skin with the cool, heavy sensation of metal on flesh.

	"It wasn't a dream, Ash."  She pushed off of the bed and headed for the 
room's only door, leaving Ash trying to sort out his grip on reality in her 
wake.   All the poor trainer could do was stutter out half-words, looking first 
to her receding form, then to the device that had attached itself to his arm, 
then back to Misty.  Only one phrase managed to squeak out of his confusion, 
summing up the way he felt almost perfectly.

	"Oh hell!  Misty, wait!" he called out after her, throwing the sheets 
aside and chasing after her.  He crashed into the door, which she closed right 
on his face, swearing again as he threw it open and ran after her down the hall.  
"Misty!  Hold on!" he shouted, "Hold on a second!  Damn it, Misty, what's going 
on?"  He nearly lost track of her, making a few wrong turns in the twisting 
series of hallways.  Wherever they were, it was large, sparsely decorated, and 
not at all easy to navigate if you didn't know where you were going.  Somehow, 
though, he managed to stay only a few strides behind her, staying with her from 
corner to corner.

	After a moment that seemed to last an eternity, they made it through the 
series of halls and rooms into a large, friendly parlor.  Part of the living 
room's charm came from its old, quaint furnishings; a battered wingback chair, a 
few couches, a pair of dirty, scratched coffee tables, complete with old rings 
from drinks without coasters, and the like.  The other half of its friendliness, 
however, came from the bodies that rested in those furnishings, and the faces 
that accompanied those bodies.  Some of the faces Ash could recognize, such as 
Misty's as she took a seat on the end of one of the couches.  He was also 
relieved to see that Brock was with them, delicately sipping some sort of tea 
from a cup and saucer.

	Other faces were less familiar to Ash...but not entirely unknown.  Next to 
Misty, on her perch atop the couch, were the two girls from his dream...which 
was clearly a stark reality that he didn't remember all that well.  First was 
the girl who had pinned him to the ground.  He was relieved to see that he 
hadn't hurt her, at least not badly enough to lay her out as he had been.  She 
seemed different, though.  No longer did she look at him with curiosity and 
wonderment, but instead her eyes betrayed a cold suspicion, as if she didn't 
entirely trust him... knowing at least half of what he had done, he couldn't say 
he blamed her.  

	The younger girl sitting off to her left, though, wasn't nearly as 
unforgiving.  She gave Ash a smile and a small wave, giggling slightly, as girls 
her age were wont to do sometimes.  Her age...it was funny of him to think of 
her that way.  She couldn't have been more than a year younger than he was.  
Maybe it was just that some of his...experiences...had aged him far more than he 
would have liked.  After the death of his father, and the start of his journey 
two years after that, he had been forced to adapt and grow up pretty quickly.  
The girl didn't seem to have that problem.  She seemed so...innocent, so young.  
Yet at the same time, something told Ash that she wasn't exactly as she seemed.  
There was something supernatural about her, almost like a hidden power.  He 
would make it a point to keep an eye on her...if not for himself, than certainly 
for his own friends.

	The third one Ash had never seen before.  He differed from the girls 
largely because...well, he was a boy, and not a girl.  His head was topped with 
a thick mop of corn blonde hair, which seemed almost as unruly as Ash's own 
raven tangle.  His eyes, though, were a startling Prussian blue, which seemed to 
glimmer in the light of the parlor.  What's more, they were shifting about the 
room, as if looking for trouble.  Ash locked eyes with the older boy for only a 
moment before the gaze was broken.  He seemed to be carrying on a conversation 
with Brock, seemingly about the breeder's own experiences with Pokémon and their 
different attacks.  Even though his focus was spread out over the room, he 
seemed genuinely interested in what Brock had to say.

	"Hi there!" the young girl was the first to speak, pointing to the 
wingback chair in offering.  He gladly took it, still not feeling totally up to 
snuff.  "You must be Ash." she giggled again, eyeing him from top to bottom.  
Although the inspection seemed innocent enough, she seemed to be sizing Ash 
up...but for what?  "Misty and Brock have told us all about you.  I have to say, 
you don't seem nearly as thick and pigheaded as they said you'd be."

	Ash's eyes narrowed, flickering over to Brock.  His older friend only gave 
him an evil grin, taking another long sip of his tea.  "Just give me a few 
minutes," he said slowly, "I haven't said much yet."

	The girl chuckled, crossing her legs.  Then she blushed suddenly, as if 
embarrassed.  "Oh, I'm sorry.  I can be such an airhead sometimes, I swear.  I'm 
Kari." she pointed to herself, then to the brown-haired girl on her right.  
"This is Sora."

	"We...met, didn't we?" Ash scratched his head, still trying to sort out 
the jumbled memories in his head.  He must have taken a nastier fall than he had 
thought possible.  "Before, I mean?"

	Sora nodded slowly, still keeping an eye on him.  He didn't seem as 
dangerous to her now, but she still hadn't convinced herself that she could 
trust the newcomer.  Besides that, she was having doubts that he could survive 
the job Jennai had selected him for...much less complete it.  "That's right." 
she kept her voice low and neutral, careful not to let too much distrust slip 
into her tone, "Out on the lakebed.  You shoved me."

	"Sorry..." he replied lamely, his eyes casting downward in embarrassment.  
That was one of the parts he 'did' remember.

	"Oh, she's fine." Kari waved Sora's moody attitude off, giving Ash another 
encouraging smile.  "Sora's one tough cookie.  Almost as tough as Matt over 
there." she indicated the boy sitting next to Brock, who gave Ash a nod in 
acknowledgement.  "I imagine you have a lot of questions." she added.

	"You bet your sweet Pokédex I do."

	Kari blinked, exchanging glances with Sora for a moment.  "I'm 
sorry...Pokey-what?"  As hard as it was for Ash to fathom, they acted as if they 
didn't know anything at all about a Pokédex.  Who on earth had never heard of 
the compact analysis wonders?  Practically anyone who had ever met a trainer, 
anywhere, anytime within the last forty years, would know what a Pokédex was!  
Had they traveled back in time?  "Anyway, I'd love to answer your questions, but 
I think there's someone who could do it a lot better than I could."

	"Indeed there is.  And you just happen to be sitting in his favorite 
chair." A wizen voice from behind Ash's chair croaked, startling him, as well as 
Brock and Misty.  Ash whirled around in his seat, expecting to come face-to-face 
with whoever had sneaked up on him, only to end up seeing air, dust, and the 
wall beyond.  "Down here." Obediently, Ash let his gaze dip, finally spying the 
mystery voice's owner.  He couldn't have been more surprised if it had ended up 
being Professor Oak dressed as a Clefairy with a pot of noodles ready for 
eating.

	It was a samurai.  A short samurai at that, as far as Ash's knowledge of 
such things extended.  He was old, as well, dressed in a black robe with pink 
trim that seemed nearly as old as he was.  A rusty katana was sheathed 
sportingly on his back, at rest for the moment but ready for battle should the 
need arise.  The old man had a friendly air about him, smiling as he circled 
around the chair so he could see the teens, and be seen in turn.  "Greetings, my 
young friends!  I would like to wish you all a warm welcome to the Digital 
World.  I wish it were under better circumstances that we brought you here, but 
we unfortunately had no choice in the matter."

	"Digi-what?" Ash blurted out.

	"Hold on!" Brock set his tea down gently, his hands shaking with 
excitement, fear, and confusion, all at the same time.  "You mean we're in 
another world?"  The old man nodded, only upsetting him further.  "Just who are 
you, and what kind of joke is this?"

	"This is no joke, friend." the old man assured him.  "Let me explain: I am 
Jennai, a guardian of the Digital World.  You have been pulled, through a great 
effort on my part, to a dimension that exists between all others simultaneously, 
while still remaining a world in and of itself.  Creatures not unlike your 
Pokémon populate this world, this dimension.  Our dimension.  We, however, call 
our creatures Digimon.  It's a bit of an acronym; 'Digi'," he elaborated, 
"Meaning digital, and 'Mon', meaning monster."

	"Digi-what?" Ash asked again.  Despite what the old man had told them, he 
was no more certain of where or when he was, or what he was doing there, or even 
how to get back to where he had been, if it was even possible at this point.

	"Perhaps it will be easier to show you, rather than to tell you."  He put 
a pair of fingers to his lips, whistling sharply.  "It's all right; you can come 
out now!" he called into the next room.  There was a brief moment of pause 
before a stirring in the next room came as response.  Slowly, and very 
hesitantly, three small...creatures...shuffled out of the darkened room and into 
the parlor, looking nervously at Ash, Misty, and Brock.  They were three of the 
weirdest Pokémon any of the children had ever seen, most likely because they 
weren't Pokémon at all.  

	The first was a buzzing, gigantic beetle.  His shell was a bright neon 
reddish pink, with conic spines extending from the top.  The beetle swooped 
around the edge of the room, coming to a halt right in front of Ash's face.  Ash 
stared down the beast, eye to multi-faceted eye, tooth to block-like mandible.  
"Hi!" Despite his bizarre appearance, the bug's voice was nothing but friendly, 
if a little high-pitched and wobbly.  "My name is Tento-mon!  Pleased to meet 
you."  He buzzed in a little closer, raising his clawed appendage as if to 
whisper something.  "Do you like computers?"

	Misty twitched, taking a sharp breath at the appearance of the hideous 
bug.  It took a lot out of her to keep the burning desire to scream trapped in 
her throat.  Her attention was drawn away from the bug when she felt something 
tapping on her foot.  Looking down, Misty saw one of the cutest creatures she 
had ever laid eyes on before; he looked a bit like a seal, with flippers for 
hind legs.  Beyond that, though, he was like nothing she had ever seen.  He 
possessed enormous forepaws, each with three enormous, dagger claws on the end.  
His eyes were wide and smiling, as was his open mouth that reeked of fish.  
"Hey!  I'm Gomamon.  It's ver nice to meet you!"

	"Hi...Gomamon..." Misty said slowly.  She reached down, stroking the soft 
ridge of red hair on his head with only a bit of hesitation.  The aquatic 
Digimon sighed happily, cozying up to her leg as she scratched behind his floppy 
white ears.  Misty couldn't help but chuckle.  "Y'know, you're awfully friendly 
for a monster."

	Meanwhile, the strange lizard had padded over to Ash, and extended its 
claw at the boy.  Instinctively, Ash pulled away, thinking that he was under 
attack.  After the beast had left the claw hanging for a moment, though, Ash 
realized that it wanted him to grab it.  He did so tentatively, and was a little 
surprised when it began to pump its paw up and down in a handshake.  "We met 
earlier.  My name is Agumon!"

	Ash gulped, trying to swallow his anxiety.  In all his experiences as a 
trainer, he had been able to come to at least one stark conclusion about 
Pokémon; any Pokémon that could talk usually meant trouble.  So far, that rule 
of thumb hadn't steered him wrong.  'This isn't a Pokémon, though.' a small 
voice inside his head reminded him, 'It's a Digimon...whatever that means.'  Ash 
returned the handshake, trying to match Agumon's impressive grip.  "Sorry, I'm a 
little fuzzy on what's been happening today..."

	"Aw," Agumon waved off his apology with a toothy grin, "That's just the 
concussion talking."

	Jennai cleared his throat, calling their attention away from the fantastic 
new monsters.  "I'm afraid what you're seeing now is the best that this world 
has to offer." the old man lectured to them, setting a much more morose tone to 
the room.  "The enemies that face you will be much worse, and far less affable 
then our friends here."

	"So how the heck are we supposed to fight these bastards?" Brock asked, 
absently rubbing his fist.  He was growing tired of all of this nonsense and 
hullabaloo about saving the world.  All he could think about right now was 
getting out of this facsimile of a real world and back to his dimension.  As 
selfish as it was, Brock didn't see anything wrong with wanting to go home.  "We 
don't even have our Pokémon anymore.  Besides, from what you tell us," he added, 
"These 'new guys' are too strong for your own team.  What makes you think we can 
do any better?"

	"Oh great," Sora muttered darkly, barely loud enough to be heard, "It's 
another Matt."

	Jennai simply smiled his enigmatic smile, something that had infuriated 
the Digidestined for years, and continued on to work over the nerves of the 
three Trainers.  "Everything will become clear in time.  In the meantime, I have 
something else to show you."

	"More new monsters?" Misty asked, perking up.  She was fascinated by the 
creatures in this new world, even though she had only seen three examples so 
far.

	"Monsters yes," Jennai continued to smile, "But certainly not new."  The 
old man snapped his fingers again...
____________________________________________________________________________

	A tall, dusty brown warrior stood on the ridge of Jennai's emptied 
artificial lake, looking down upon the ranch home with a spark of anticipation 
in his soulless black eyes.  Ever since his conception only a few weeks ago, he 
had begged the Master to allow him to capture the Digidestined himself.  There 
was no soldier more capable, more blindingly loyal than he was.  There was no 
one who deserved the glory of such a victory more than he was.

	He absently rubbed a spiked, rocky fist into his palm, his tendons already 
flaring for the combat to come.  The ridges on his back extended to their full 
length, razor-sharp and capable of impaling even Champion-class Digimon.  He 
knew; he had done so many times in their first strike upon the weak, pathetic 
Digital World.

	"Sandslashmon!"

	He looked down, spotting one of his Sandshrewmon henchmen down by his 
ankle.  The lackey looked excited about something.  "Report!" Sandslashmon 
snarled, his eyes darting back and forth between the Sandshrewmon and Jennai's 
abode.

	"Sir!" The Sandshrewmon saluted, "We have made an initial recon of the 
house, and have discovered that both Jennai and the three remaining Digidestined 
are within."  An expression of confusion passed over his angled, narrow 
features.  "However...there appear to be three other children inside as well, 
children that we are unable to identify."

	"Are these, perhaps," Sandslashmon mused aloud, more to himself than to 
his brainless lackey, "A new set of Digidestined?"

	Sandshrewmon nodded vigorously.  "It is very possible, sir!"

	"Very well." Sandslashmon turned once again to face the ranch, his dark 
eyes narrowing.  "Assemble the men.  I want you to lead the initial strike.  
Flush them out of the house, but *I* want to make the capture personally."

	"Yes sir!" The Sandshrewmon scurried off, as eager for battle as 
Sandslashmon was.  The desert division had a reputation for being the toughest 
of the tough, and it was well earned.

	Sandslashmon tried to peer into the window, hoping to catch a glance at 
the new children.  The thought of more Digidestined intrigued him.  How would it 
affect the Master's plan?  No matter.  They already had six of them, and it 
appeared that they would soon have six more.

	"Gotta catch 'em all." Sandslashmon chuckled softly.
____________________________________________________________________________

	"P-pikachu?"

	The small monster that Ash held certainly bore a resemblance to Pikachu, 
but was much, much smaller.  The tiny electric sacs on its cheeks were just 
beginning to form, as they were supposed to for this creature's "apparent" age, 
and its tiny thunderbolt tail, as well as the ridge around its tiny, tufted 
ears, were jet-black.  The small creature looked up at Ash with wobbly black 
eyes and a tiny, toothy grin.

	"Pichu!  Pi, pichu!" He greeted Ash warmly.  The tiny electric mouse 
reached up, grabbing Ash's nose and tugging on it playfully.  "Pii!" he laughed, 
moving on to pull at Ash's lower lip.

	In the meantime, Brock and Misty were trying to figure out exactly what 
had happened to their own Pokémon.

	"Poliwhirl..." Misty held up a tiny blue Poliwag, inspecting the Pokémon 
carefully to make sure he hadn't been hurt.  "You've lost some weight...and your 
arms..."  Poliwag giggled, squirming in her grip.  A small bit of water dribbled 
from its beak-like mouth, dropping onto her jeans.  "Jeez...you even leak like a 
baby Pokémon, too."

	"I don't think they're in Baby form right now..." Matt shook his head, 
inspecting the Poliwag more closely.  "If I had to guess, I'd say they're at the 
In-Training level.  They look to be a little too big for Baby forms."

	"Trust me," Brock groaned from beneath the living boulder sitting atop his 
lap, "They're more than a *little* too big!"  He grabbed the boulder by its 
tiny, twig-thin arms and tried to haul it off of his lap, but the basketball-
sized rock refused to move.

	"Geo!" Geodude protested, crushing Brock's legs as it bounced up and down 
in his lap.  "Ge, geodude!"

	"D-ahhhhh!" Brock groaned, curling down around Geodude as pain exploded 
through his lower body.  All he could see were stars flashing in front of his 
eyes as he moaned, shoving Geodude off of his lap.  The thick, sentient boulder 
fell to the floor with a thunk, mumbling grumpily as it rolled over and lifted 
itself up on its arms.  "What happened to my Golem, Jennai?"

	Jennai went over to the fallen Pokémon and lifted it up, examining it for 
any injuries.  Considering the digital warrior's size, it was nothing short of 
amazing that the old timer could even move Geodude, much less pick it up.  "I'm 
afraid that, in order to digitally convert your Pokémon, it was necessary to 
reduce them to their simplest forms of evolution.  If I hadn't changed them into 
what you see now, they could never have interfaced with your Pokévices."

	"Oh, well that just makes perfect sense." Ash nodded vigorously.  "But, 
uh, just for Misty's sake," he rubbed the back of his neck, "Why don't you 
explain to us just what a Poké-whatsit actually is..."

	"Hey!" Misty cried out, "As if you understood anything that creepy old guy 
said either!"

	"Children, please!" Jennai tried to calm Ash and Misty.  He managed to get 
them to quiet down, but they still continued to glare at each other.  "The 
Pokévices were created to interface with and enhance your Pokémon's' natural 
evolutionary properties."  He grabbed hold of Ash's wrist, examining the device 
strapped to his arm carefully.  "It still seems functional, even after your trip 
through the gate.  Excellent!"

	"This thing?  You mean the thing that fell from the sky can make Pika...I 
mean, Pichu...It can make him evolve?"  Ash stared down at the device with new 
wonderment, pulling his hand away from Jennai's wizen grip slowly.  The machine 
patiently awaited any sort of input, remaining still until needed for something.  
"How does it work?"

	Matt spoke up, pulling out his own Digivice.  A small pang of loneliness 
and sadness flew past his features as he remembered that the piece of 
extradimensional technology was functionally useless without Gabumon.  "Well," 
he started, thumbing the device's control face to activate it, "If your Pokévice 
is anything like our Digivice, it'll only work if you really need it to."  
Memories flashed past his mind's eye, back to the times when he and his friends 
first entered the world...back to simpler times, when they had no idea what was 
happening to them.  Seadramon's wrath had brought forth Gabumon's evolution, 
creating Garurumon and sending the fearsome sea serpent packing.  It had been 
the first miraculous change in both Gabumon and Matt, but it hadn't been the 
last.  Now, though, he didn't even know if his partner was still alive.

	"How does it know when things get really rough?" Brock inquired, picking 
Geodude back up and setting the massive Pokémon next to him on the sofa, between 
himself and Matt.

	This time, Kari spoke up with the answer.  "Actually...we don't know."  
She shrugged, pulling out her upgraded D-3.  She, too, took a brief trip down 
memory lane before continuing on.  "The Digivices have always been a sort of 
mystery to us...we're not sure where they came from, or how they work.  All we 
know," she replaced the Digimon-less device back on her belt, "Is that they've 
always been there for us, just like our Digimon."

	"Except for now..."

	Sora's comment placed the room in an eerie silence.  Not even Tentomon nor 
Gomamon, the two most talkative of the destined Digimon, could break the somber 
tone that the young woman had imposed.  She looked at her fellow Digidestined, 
taking on an air of seriousness.  "Let's face it; these new Digimon are tough, 
tougher than anything we've ever faced.  For the first time, we've come up 
against an enemy we can't handle."  Her face lowered as she looked down at her 
own shoes, unable to stare into the bleak expressions of any of her friends, new 
or old.

	"C'mon, Sora..." Matt got up and walked over to her, placing a soft hand 
on her tense, sinewy shoulder.  "I'm supposed to be the group's realist, 
remember?"  He got closer, whispering in her ear.  "Tai and the others wouldn't 
want us to give up.  Besides, these three kids have come a long way, and left 
their whole world behind, just to fight for us.  We have to have faith in them, 
and in Jennai."

	She batted his hand away, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.  "No!" 
she cried, getting up.  Gomamon and Agumon scrambled to escape her trampling, 
clumsy feet as she stormed hysterically to the window, staring out at the bleak 
vista of the dried lakebed.  "Stop being stupid, all of you!  There were nine of 
us at that fortress, and we were all fighting at our best.  What chance do you 
think three fresh-faced kids can do against an entire army of these super-
Digimon?"  Her forehead dropped against the glass, tears streaking down her 
cherubic cheeks.  "We're all dead, and we don't even realize it."

	There was a long pause, before Ash opened his mouth and gave his best 
attempt at a pep talk.

	"Oh, will you put a damn sock in it?"

	"Huh?" Sora couldn't believe that this...this child!...was talking to her 
like that.  She turned, anger beginning to well up and replace the sense of 
foreboding dread inside of her heart.  "Listen, loudmouth-"

	"No, you listen!" Ash jabbed his finger at her, holding Pichu in his other 
arm.  He rose from the couch and made his way around the other furniture, coming 
up behind her.  "You people have been going on about how awful this army of 
Digi-whatsits is, and how we're all doomed, as if you've already lost the 
fight!"  He placed Pichu on his shoulder, letting the tiny mouse cling to his 
battered league cap.  "Well, let me tell you something, girly.  My friends and I 
have been through a couple of bad scrapes of our own.  We're not quite as green 
as you seem to think when it comes to rough-and-tumble fighting, and we're not 
afraid of some stupid monsters inside of a computer."

	"You'll be singing a different tune when they come for all of us, twerp." 
Sora shoved him away from her angrily, her tears still flowing like tiny rivers 
of agony and angst.  "They'll come for you, your Pokémon, your friends...and 
once they're done with us, they'll take everything we care about."

	"Let 'em come, then!" Ash clenched his hands into fists, getting back up 
into Sora's face.  "I'm not afraid!"

	"Pi!  Pichu!"

	And so they came.

	The gorgeous bay windows of Jennai's fantastic underwater ranch (sans 
water at the moment, of course) burst inward with an invisible force, knocking 
Ash and Sora flat on their duffs and showering the room's occupants with shards 
of razor glass.  Before Ash, Sora, or even little Pichu got the chance to move 
or speak, dozens of tiny black silhouettes darted into the room, pouncing upon 
the Digidestined, their mismatched Digimon, and their Poké-world counterparts.  

	Ash managed to pick up one of the things that had latched onto his arm and 
throw it violently into the wall, getting his first good look at the beast.  It 
was small, though not as small as his Pichu, with hard, rocky skin, a soft white 
underbelly, and deadly claws tipping each appendage.  A pair of dark, beady eyes 
glared back at Ash from beneath the organic armor.

	"These things are Sandshrew!"

	"You recognize them?" Tentomon screeched, beating his wings and flying 
upward as he tried to get away from the malicious desert rats' blitzkrieg.  
"I've never seen anything like them before, and I'm a walking Digimon database!"  
One of the creatures leapt onto his back, forcing him down to the floor with a 
violent thump.

	"Sandshrewmon, actually." The creature hissed at him, raking Tentomon's 
hard exoskeleton with its dagger claws.  The claws left long, painful welts, but 
didn't do any lasting damage to the technocolored beetle.  "Prepare to fry, 
weakling!"

	Another of the Sandshrewmon had managed to corner Gomamon against Jennai's 
easy chair, sneering maliciously at the aquatic Digimon.  "That's it!" Gomamon 
proclaimed, "I'm through playing around with these new kids.  Ocean Claw!"  
Sweeping his oversized foreclaw around, he smacked the Sandshrewmon clean off of 
its feet, sending it tumbling back a few paces.  However, the move also left his 
sensitive skin searing, screaming in pain after striking the sinister monster on 
its diamond-hard exoarmor.  "Yow-ow-ow!  These suckers are tough!"

	"Pepper Breath!" Agumon tried to keep a pair off of Matt and Brock, 
spraying an oncoming onslaught with red-hot fire.  Every time the Rookie-level 
hero took down one, three more took the fallen one's place.  "And they just keep 
coming!  I don't think we can keep this up!"

	"We have to!" Ash gritted his teeth, kicking one of the Sandshrewmon off 
of his leg.  "If we can't beat them here, then we'll never beat them at all.  We 
have to make a stand, right-Pichu!" 

	Pichu leapt from his grip, flying at one of the Sandshrew.  The tiny mouse 
latched onto the larger rodent's face, effectively blinding it.  Before the 
Sandshrewmon could scrape off they tiny yellow annoyance, Pichu began to glow 
with a golden light, sparking at the cheeks.  "Thundershock!" he squeaked, 
lighting up with a powerful electric shock that traveled through Sandshrewmon's 
body, frying its nervous system and sending it collapsing to the ground.

	Ash stood, gaping as his Pokémon leapt off of the fallen Digimon attacker.  
Sora, standing next to him, was twice as amazed.  She pulled away from the 
Pichu, unsure of what the lemon-colored mouse was capable of.  "H-he took out a 
Rookie...when he was only In-T-Training..." she stuttered, "All on h-his own!"

	Geodude took one look at Pichu, then exchanged a knowing look with 
Poliwag.  Together, the two tiny Pokémon leapt down to the floor and straight 
into the mix.  Shoving Agumon aside, the living boulder wrapped its arms around 
the circumference of its body.  "Rolling Tackle!"  With a grunt, Geodude pushed 
off and sped towards a thick column of Sandshrewmon, striking them with such a 
force that they went flying every which way, landing in individual heaps.

	"Bubblebeam!" Poliwag, in the meantime, had been spewing bubbles at the 
Sandshrewmon.  The tiny, silvery packets of water smacked into their faces, 
blinding them and confusing them.  "Poli!"  Misty's Poliwag caught one of the 
tiny, malevolent rodents straight in the eye, causing it to shriek in pain and 
clutch at its face.  "Poliwag!"
____________________________________________________________________________

	Sandslashmon stared intently at the broken windows, listening to the 
intense cries and screams of the battle inside.  From what his ears could 
discern, it was not going well for his side, not well at all.  At one point, one 
of his lackeys was actually thrown from the room, riding a stream of radiant, 
wobbly spheroids and tumbling out onto the sandy ground below.  The grizzled 
warrior grunted, narrowing his eyes.  "Lieutenant!" he barked.

	"Yes sir?"  One of the Sandshrewmon stepped forward.  The only thing that 
distinguished this one from the other gaggle of creatures was a long, dark scar 
that ran from the tip of its nose all the way to its back.  Sandslashmon's 
lieutenant had been with him since the Creation, and had obliterated nearly as 
many weakling Digimon as he had himself.

	"Lieutenant, take the rest of your men into the fray.  I had hoped that a 
single assault group could handle a small group of children and their Rookie 
Digimon..." his disappointed tone wasn't lost on his Lieutenant, nor was his 
sarcasm and undercutting warning, "But it appears that we will require our 
*full* forces."

	"Yes sir.  I'll deploy the men straight away."
____________________________________________________________________________

	Matt gritted his teeth, shoving off a pair of the Sandshrewmon from his 
legs as he fought alongside Agumon and Kari.  "The new kids seem to be holding 
their own with these suckers."

	Kari caught a sideways glance of Pichu as it latched onto and promptly 
fried another of the Sandshrewmon.  "Holding their own?  Matt, these kids are 
mopping 'em up!"  She gave one of the Sandslashmon a swift kick in its soft 
underbelly, sending it screeching as it flew back into the couch.  "Keep it up, 
guys, we've almost got them!"

	"Uhhh..." Ash looked out the window, swallowing the rising bile in his 
throat.  "You might want to reconsider that last one, Kari..."  His eyes widened 
at the sight of another squad of the despicable creatures, three times the 
number of the one they were fighting.  Their leader gave out a shrill war cry as 
they tumbled down the edge of the cliffs into the dry lakebed.

	"Death to the Digidestined!" 

	"That is *NOT* a friendly sound!" Misty slammed two of the Sandshrewmon 
together, gulping in fear.  That polished off the last of the enemy's initial 
attack, but the new force was approaching them quickly, and they were already 
tired.

	Brock leaned over, his breath coming out in short, gasping gulps.  He 
shook his head, stumbling over to Ash as the young boy stared out the window in 
horrified shock.  "It looks like this is the end, guys."  He grimaced in pain as 
the stitch in his side flared up.  "I have a confession to make...I was the one 
who ate all of the peanuts out of the trail mix last month."

	"That was you?" Ash couldn't believe it.  "I thought you hated peanuts..."

	"Guys, could we *please* get back to the matter at hand here?" Kari rubbed 
her temples.  Honestly, what was it with guys?  Were they just naturally stupid, 
or was it something in all of the red meat they ate?  She looked over at Matt, 
who looked even more pale than usual.  "What do we do now, Matt?"

	"You're asking me?" he sounded shocked.  Truth be told, he didn't have 
anything that even resembled an idea.  His anger flared inwardly, cursing his 
own inadequacies.  As much as he hated to admit it, he was not the leader Tai 
was.  If it had been possible, he would have sold his soul to the devil then and 
there if it meant that his friends...*all* of his friends...would be safe from 
this terrible threat.  There were no sulfurous red deities in the neighborhood 
at the moment, though.  It was all riding on his shoulders, for some reason.  
"Uh...I guess we'll have to stand and fight."

	Sora shivered, her mind buzzing and whirling.  The entire room seemed to 
be spinning as she lost control, diving into a blend of past and present.  "It's 
happening again..." she murmured, sinking to her knees.  "It's happening all 
over again..."  Sora's eyes went blank, lolling about in her head.  Her lips 
seemed to move independently of her conscious though, which had walked calmly 
out the door and had slipped down the street for a friendly drink at the 
neighborhood pub.

	Clenching his fists tightly, Ash glared at the small, oncoming army.  
"Bring it on!" he shouted loudly at them, "I'm not afraid!  I'll take you down 
just as easily as your cousins, you shell-headed freaks!"  

	As he shouted, his Pokévice began to beep and quiver, humming on his wrist 
as it began to activate.  "Wha...what's this thing doing?  Is it going into 
overload, or something?"  He brought the device in front of his face, examining 
the display.  The graphic had switched over to a small series of bars, which had 
nearly reached the top of the tiny screen.  Bit by bit, the bar grew larger, 
until finally the screen exploded in a bright flash of light.

	Ash jerked his head away, trying to blink away the spots from his tearing 
eyes.  As he did, his gaze inadvertently caught sight of Pichu, fixating on the 
mouse as it, too, began to glow with a similar light as his newly acquired 
evolution tool.  Brock and Misty watched on in wonderment as their Pokémon, as 
well as their own Pokévices, began to mimic Ash and his Pichu.

	"Pichu..." the yellow thundermouse rose into the air, rotating slowly.  He 
was little more than an inverted silhouette, a being of pure light that hung 
above the floor through sheer force...where that force was coming from was 
anyone's best guess.  It was the same power that had aided the Digidestined for 
years in their fight against the forces of darkness, a power that had now 
entered the new soldiers of the Digiworld.

	"Pichu..." the tiny mouse squeaked.

	"Poliwag..."

	"Geodude..."

	"Pokévolve to..."
	"Pokévolve to..."
	"Pokévolve to..."

	The three Pokémon erupted in individual flashes of pure white light, 
blinding human and Digimon alike.  When the glow had faded, three new Pokémon 
stood in their places, larger and more powerful than their predecessors.  One 
was an immense boulder, standing on two squat, thick legs of living stone, with 
four limbs protruding from its spherical armored body.  Another was a short, 
round-bodied beast, with a snowy, swirled belly and large, bulbous eyes jutting 
out of the top of his head.  The third was the smallest of all, a yellowish 
rodent with soft, golden hair and long, black-tipped ears jutting out of a tiny, 
silly little head.

	"Pikachu!"

	"Poliwhirl!"

	"Graveler!"

	"H...Hah..." Ash was speechless.  His mouth opened and closed slowly, but 
words never came out as he stood there, stupefied at what had just happened.  
Pikachu shook his head, as if clearing the wooziness from his brain, then leapt 
into Ash's arms, laughing.  All Ash could do was hold the giggling Pokémon at 
arm's length, unable to move, unable to speak.  "Hah...hohhh...how..."

	"T-they evolved?" Kari bent down to meet Poliwhirl eye to eye, slowly 
reaching out to the Pokémon.  The young girl began to stroke him gently between 
his large eyes, grinning as she did.  "Wow.  These guys made it to Rookie 
level...and a lot faster than our Digimon ever did!"

	"Oh, sure," Tentomon whined, still hovering over them, "The new guys 
evolve right away, and suddenly everyone forgets about the old-school gang."  As 
usual, no one paid too much mind to the oversized bug's complaints.

	Matt rubbed his chin thoughtfully, sizing up the situation.  The new 
arrivals had held their own against higher-level Digimon, and now they had 
evolved faster than any Digimon he had ever seen.  "We just may have a chance at 
this thing..." he mused.

	"Heads up, guys!" Ash warned them.  "Here they come!"  Pikachu leapt down 
from his arms, snarling at the Sandshrewmon as they reached the threshold of the 
window and began piling in.  In half of a heartbeat, the room was once again 
swarming with clawed, armored beasts that roared and slashed at the children at 
every turn.

	"Grav!" Graveler crossed two of its arms, trying to shield itself from a 
particularly nasty pair as they clawed at it fiercely.  Finally fed up, Graveler 
roared in anger and snagged the duo in its other two arms, gripping each one 
with thick, oversized fingers.  "Seismic Toss!"  Drawing the pair back, Graveler 
hurled them straight and true, throwing them so hard that they actually flew 
across the room and crashed through the wall, leaving jagged tears in the 
drywall and wooden siding as they passed.

	"Woah!" Gomamon cried out in awe, trying to beat off several of his own 
bothersome foes.  "That's one way to get rid of uninvited houseguests!"

	As Graveler began tossing Sandshrewmon left and right, Poliwhirl and 
Pikachu were making short work of whatever their rocky comrade missed.  They 
stood back to back, firing off bolts of lightning and short blasts of 
pressurized water, respectively, and began clearing the room of any opposition.

	"Thunderbolt!"

	"Watergun!"

	Bam!  Blam!  Another two down.  Already, the Sandshrewmon were beginning 
to realize that they were losing the battle.  By this time, they had already 
lost half of their forces, and the other half didn't know up from down.  One of 
the Sandshrewmon, a particularly strong one with a long, jagged scar, screamed 
an order for a retreat just before Graveler snagged him and chucked the Digimon 
out the window.

	"We've got them on the run, guys!" Ash yelled excitedly as the attack 
force (those that were still conscious) poured out the window, stepping on each 
other and shoving one another out of the way.  "Let's finish 'em off!"

	"Ash, wait!" Misty cried out, but it was too late.  Ash, already drunk 
with battle-lust, leapt out the window after the Sandshrewmon with a howling 
battlecry, shouting curses and insults at them as he chased after the sand 
rodents.  Pikachu leapt after him, shooting out of the window like a bullet from 
the muzzle of a gun as the tiny powerhouse raced after his trainer.  Misty 
simply shook her head, climbing up onto the windowsill.  "God, they are such a 
pair of idiots."

	"Let's get 'em!" Gomamon called out to his 'brothers', jumping up onto the 
sill.  He very nearly knocked Misty out of the window as he did so, landing 
amongst the broken glass and skidding out the open portal.  "Charrrrrrge!"  
Agumon and Tentomon were right behind them, eager for their own piece of the 
action.  After the defeats they had suffered from the terrible new Digimon, the 
thought of payback was more than a little appealing.

	Sora exchanged glances with Misty, giving her an apologetic shrug.  "Looks 
like it's contagious." she remarked.

	The redhead sighed, cracking her aching knuckles.  "Well, we can't just 
stand around and let them get killed, can we?"

	"Nope."

	"C'mon."  Pushing off, Misty followed the rest of her troupe out of the 
high-traffic window, with Poliwhirl quick to follow.  Sora, Brock, Kari, and 
Graveler were quick to follow, with the large Pokémon going out behind the three 
humans.  It nearly got stuck in the small width of the window, but managed to 
widen the frame a bit as it wiggled through, grunting as it did so.  Matt 
glanced back, asking Jennai if he was to come out onto the battlefield as well.

	Jennai was nowhere to be found.

____________________________________________________________________________

	"That's right!" Ash jeered, picking up rocks and hurling them at the 
receding hindquarters of the Sandshrewmon.  "You'd better run, losers!  Tell all 
your friends about me!  Ash Ketchum, the new Digimon Champion!"

	"Pika!"  Pikachu sent a few stray volts at them to accompany Ash's rocks, 
yelling out its own taunts and insults.  "Pikachu, pika, piiii!"

	Misty's shrill voice called his attention back.  "Ash, you moron, that's 
enough!"  She skidded to a halt on the sandy ground, her tennis shoes sliding 
before coming to a stop next to his.  "I think they get the message.  Let's not 
push our luck."

	"Push our luck?" he laughed.  "Oh, please.  We already mopped the floor 
with those guys.  What are they going to do to us?"  As he laughed, a dark 
shadow grew over the pair and their Pikachu companion, blotting out the sun high 
overhead.  Noticing the sudden darkness, Ash looked upward, seeing a dark form 
moving up on the ridge.

	"DIGIDESTINED!" A large, dark voice boomed from high above.  The 
Digidestined and their Pokémon allies could feel their bones quaking with the 
force and the volume of the tone.  The dark shadow leapt downward, impossibly 
quick, and landed in front of Ash, Misty, and Pikachu, sending tremors through 
the ground as the rest of their friends ran to join them in the fight.  This new 
warrior was a good deal larger than any of the Sandshrewmon, though he bore a 
passing resemblance to his underlings.  He possessed large, jagged spikes that 
ran all about his outer shell, rows of them that shifted on his back and lined 
his rough, rocky knuckles.  "I am Sandslashmon, emissary of The Master.  You 
have one chance to surrender."

	"Oh fudge." Ash murmured, his face growing pasty and pale with fear and 
his feet glued on the spot.  Try as he might, he couldn't run in terror, though 
his legs were screaming at the rest of his body to do exactly that.

	Misty elbowed him, backing away slowly and grabbing hold of Ash to pull 
him away as well.  "You were saying, Mr. 'Digimon Master'?"

	"Well?" Sandslashmon growled, taking another step closer.  The ground 
shook with each work, and with each step there was a veritable earthquake.  
"What is your answer?"

	"Pikachu," Ash gulped, "Light this guy up."

	"Pika!"  Pikachu hopped between Ash and the fearsome Digimon, glaring at 
him with pure hatred leaking from his black, wobbly eyes.  "Thunderbolt!"  A 
jagged, golden streak of lightning lanced out of Pikachu's body and struck 
Sandslashmon squarely in his armored chest.  Sandslashmon staggered slightly, as 
if a strong breeze had suddenly sprang to life, and quickly regained his 
balance.  A look of annoyance passed over his features as he brought his foot 
back and swiftly kicked Pikachu high into the air, sending the mouse tumbling 
end over end and smacking into the side of Jennai's ranch.

	"If that is your answer, then we shall do this *my* way."  With a roar of 
fury, he brought his fist back, ready to strike.  Before he got the chance, 
though, a small beam of water struck him in the face, blinding him.  "Bah, what 
is this mockery?" he snarled, trying to block the water shot with a massive 
hand.  "I will crush you all!"

	"Poli!" Poliwhirl kept the Watergun going, but was beginning to show the 
slightest signs of fatigue, as well as some pretty serious dehydration.  It was 
clear that the mutated tadpole would not be able to keep up the attack for long.  
"Poliwhirl."

	Matt saw their brief window of opportunity, and tried to organize his 
friends as best as he could.  "We have to move!" he cried, planting a hand 
firmly on Kari's shoulder and steering her in the opposite direction.  Silently, 
he vowed to watch over the young girl for as long as Tai was away.  It was just 
as Tai had always done whenever he hadn't been able to be there for TK, and it 
was the least of what he owed his friend.  "C'mon, let's go!"

	"No!" Ash argued weakly, even as Misty dragged him away.  "No, we can't 
go!  We have to stand and fight, or we're history!"

	Misty forcefully whirled him around, grabbing hold of his shoulder and 
shaking him with adrenaline-powered terror.  "Have you gone completely off your 
nut?" she screamed, trying to jostle some sense into him.  "That *THING* over 
there wants to grind our bones to make his bread, and you want to fight???"

	Ash was about to retort, but stopped himself as a tiny voice of reason 
awakened inside of him.  It was nothing short of amazing, considering that the 
small pseudo-conscience had remained silent for nearly a decade now, allowing 
him to embark upon act after dangerous, stupid act.  Now, though, it was in full 
bloom, screaming at him with a force greater than Misty could ever hope to 
achieve.  'GET OUT OF HERE, YOU IDIOT!  WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?' the voice, 
after so long a silence, seemed to have saved up every ounce of volume it could 
ever hope to muster for this very moment.  'THAT MONSTER IS GOING TO BITE YOUR 
FREAKING HEAD OFF AND EAT IT!  RUN!  RUN LIKE THE WIND!'

	Ash never really did like that voice.

	"Take your hands off of me." Ash said in a low tone, so that only Misty 
could hear him.  He locked his gaze with hers, casting rays of anger at her sea-
blue eyes with his own amber irises.  "Now."

	"Ash," she murmured, "If this is about us..."

	He gently lifted her hands off of his shoulders, letting them drop down at 
her sides.  "There is no 'us', remember?"  Turning away from her, he marched 
towards the furious Sandslashmon, leaving her in his wake of rage.  She just 
stared at his receding form, breathless.  Never before had she seen him like 
this, like some sort of embittered soldier.  It frightened her, not because of 
what he might do, but because of what might happen to him.

	"Ash...Ash!"

	"Hey, you!" Ash hollered, pointing angrily up at Sandslashmon.  By now, 
the armored warrior had Poliwhirl gripped tightly in his hand, and was slowly 
squeezing the life out of the tiny limbed tadpole.  Sandslashmon snorted, 
looking down at Ash as the teen stormed at his feet.  "Yeah, you, you ugly son 
of a bitch!  I'm talking to you!  You think you're so tough?  I've seen monsters 
in my world that would make you look like a wind-up toy!"  He picked up a hefty 
rock and tossed it at Sandslashmon's leg.  The rock pinged off of the warrior's 
armor, falling harmlessly at his feet.

	Sandslashmon snorted, dropping the battered Poliwhirl and advancing on 
Ash, venom seeping into his eyes.  "The Master will not require you, new one." 
he rumbled coldly.  "I will enjoy digesting the meat from your broken body."

	Ash backed up, praying that Poliwhirl wasn't dead.  He tried to lead 
Sandslashmon away from his friends, back towards Jennai's house.  "That's right, 
bright-eyes.  Come on back.  Just you and me this time."  Silently, he prayed 
for some sort of plan to enter in to his empty head.  At the moment, all he 
could think of was protecting his friends, and trying to guess at just how many 
pieces Sandslashmon would tear him into before finally eating him.  So far, the 
count was up to fifteen.  "Hey!  Right here, ugly!"

	Pikachu finally managed to pick his broken body up off of the ground, 
squeaking in pain as his muscles protested loudly.  "Cha..." If the world 
continued to insist on spinning like that, then he wasn't going to be able to do 
much.  It was Ash's voice, though, that managed to cut through the haze in his 
brain as his trainer shouted to encourage Sandslashmon towards him.  "Pika!"  
Shoving off of the ground, Pikachu stumbled off, crying out as he tried to save 
Ash.

	"Pikachu?"  Ash looked over with a mixture of horror and relief as his 
partner made his over for a big comeback fight.  He was all right at the moment, 
but he would probably be a lot more dead if he kept coming Ash's way.  "Pikachu, 
get out of here, now!  Go!"

	"Pikachu!"  The mouse cried out, wobbling  towards Ash.  No matter what, 
he had to protect Ash.  He knew that much.  "Pi...Pika-cha!"

	"Bold words." Sandslashmon raised his hand to strike Ash dead, scowling at 
the boy who dared to defy not only his power, but the awesome might of The 
Master as well.  "This ends now."

	Ash would never be sure of what happened next.  At first, all he could see 
was an enormous hand coming down at him, almost ensuring death.  He closed his 
eyes, his arms instinctively shielding his face, as if they would make any 
difference after Sandslashmon made pizza out of him.  Then, from the sidelines, 
came a flash of blinding white light, painful to look at even through his 
eyelids.

	"Pikachu..." his partner's voice sang out, "Pokévolve to..."  The ground 
seemed to shake, as if a giant were playing hopscotch, as little Pikachu's voice 
changed and warped.  At that point, Ash noticed that he hadn't been turned into 
a two-dimensional pancake.  Cautiously, he opened one eye, fully expecting to 
see Sandslashmon's hand still coming down upon him.

	He was floored when, instead of death, he saw Sandslashmon struggling with 
another monster, a new monster that equaled him in stature.  It was an enormous 
rat.  It was Ratzilla!  The new monster, whatever it was, looked painfully 
familiar to Ash.  He had never seen a Pokémon in this proportion before...aside 
from Sandslashmon, of course.

	"Raichu!" The monster snarled, grappling with Sandslashmon's arm, pulling 
it away from his trainer.  With impossible force, the towering Raichu got 
underneath the bulk of Sandslashmon's weight and heaved him with a modified judo 
throw, tossing the dark Digimon away from Jennai's beautiful (if slightly-
damaged) ranch.  "Rai, rai rai!"

	"Impudent mouse!" Sandslashmon roared with fury, picking himself up off of 
the desert lakebed and charging at Raichu with all the speed his heavy legs 
could muster.  "Now you die!"

	Raichu held his ground.  Rather than take any sort of defensive stance, 
instead he concentrated his energy, his cheeks beginning to spark and shine.  
The air around the enormous mouse became superheated, turning the sand red-hot.  
Ash backpedaled from his Pokémon, knowing full well what came next.  "For the 
love of God," he screamed in terror, "Everyone cover your eyes!"

	He had shouted the advice just in time, for Raichu's attack was ready.  
Electricity began to emanate from his body, surrounding him in a heavenly light 
that sizzled and popped.  "Thunder!" With a double-charge of his arms, he sent a 
blinding bolt of pure energy blasting into Sandslashmon.  The dusty rodent 
screamed and writhed in agony.  His eyes burned away, replaced by the horrible, 
beautiful thunderous light.  In one final, glorious blast of light and sound, 
the Champion-level soldier vanished in a hail of photons and pixels.

	"Wow..." Ash was breathless as Raichu, too, was engulfed in light.  Rather 
than dying, though, the Pokémon began to shrink, readjusting itself until he was 
back into a regular Pikachu's body.  The trainer stumbled forward, laughing as 
he scooped up Pikachu.  The Pokémon appeared to be dizzy, and very, very 
confused, but okay nonetheless.  "Pikachu, that was amazing!  That was 
fantastic!"  He paused, rubbing his friend behind the ears.  "What the hell was 
that, anyway?"

	"He..." Matt huffed, leading the pack as they ran up to meet the 
victorious Pikachu and his foolhardy trainer.  "He digivolved...or 
whatever...into a Champion level!"

	"That was incredible!" Agumon grinned, "I've never seen anything like it."

	"Champion level this quickly?  It's never been done." Gomamon agreed, 
shaking his fringed head with amazement.  "Looks like the new kids pick up real 
quick, huh?"

	Kari, as usual, was more concerned than elated.  "Is everything okay?  Are 
you guys all right?"  She began poking and tugging on Ash in various places, 
trying to see if any of his bones had been broken.

	Ash caught Misty's line-of-sight, trading looks with her for a moment.  
She turned away, an unreadable expression on her face.

	"Everything's fine." Ash said, not taking his eyes of Misty.  "Just fine."
____________________________________________________________________________

	"Now, my young friends," Jennai cautioned the Digidestined and the 
Trainers, "The journey will undoubtedly be dangerous.  I want you to promise to 
be careful, and to write me at least three times a day."

	Matt grinned, hefting the field pack that the old warrior had given him 
and the rest of the children.  He knew that Jennai was half-kidding about the 
last part.  Both of them undoubtedly wished that there was some way to keep in 
contact, but that was impossible without Izzy's laptop, or anything similar to 
it.  Their D-Terminals had remained inoperable ever since the threat had come, 
and probably would be that way until the darkness was once again driven out of 
the Digital World.  "We'll be fine, Jennai.  Thanks."

	"I want you to see to their safety personally, Matt."  The digital being 
gave him a stern nod, placing a hand on Matt's arm.  "They're counting on you to 
lead them."

	"Me?  No, I can't." Matt pulled away, eyes immediately darting to the 
ground.  He was no leader, he was a musician.  "I'll never be able to replace 
Tai, Jennai."

	"No one's asking you to, my boy.  We just need someone to..." he sought 
the right choice of words for a moment, rubbing his thick mustache, "Play backup 
for him while he's away."

	"Backup?" Matt still wasn't sure.  "I...I guess I can try."

	"That's the spirit!" Jennai gave him a hearty slap on the back as the 
others filed out of the ranch house, packs firmly on their backs and a monster 
at each of their feet.  "So, are we all set?"

	"We're as ready as we'll ever be." Brock nodded, giving a half-hearted 
grin.  "Is that everything?"

	"Actually, I have one last gift for you.  Bend down, if you would."  Brock 
gave him a quizzical look, but did as he asked.  "You two as well, please." he 
indicated Misty and Ash.  They both dropped to one knee, too curious to fuss.  
"Now," Jennai mumbled, searching his person for some sort of object, "Where did 
I put those?  Ah!"  Reaching in to his robes, he pulled out three oddly shaped 
necklaces, each with a small tag on the end.  In the middle of each tag was a 
darkened rectangle beneath a layer of glass.  "Put these on."

	Ash took the necklace from Jennai, slipping it over his hatted head.  
"Nifty." he quipped.  "What is it?"

	The three Digidestined were in awe, wide-eyed with amazement as Jennai 
handed them each a token of great power.  "The crests..." Sora whispered softly, 
putting a hand to her mouth.

	"Crest, huh?" Misty said, inspecting her tag carefully.  "Don't crests 
have some sort of pattern on them?  This one's all dark."

	"Mine, too." Brock added.

	Jennai smiled, motioning for them to stand once again.  "All will be 
revealed to you in time, children.  For now, though, you must go.  It is a long 
journey, and the perils are many.  Be on your guard, and watch over one 
another."

	"You're not coming with us?" Ash asked.  The old man merely laughed in 
response, shaking his head.

	"I'm an old man, my boy, and this virus in my creaking old back gives me 
an awful ache just at the mention of a trip."  He walked back towards the house, 
still chuckling.  "No, I shall remain here, and keep watch over your other 
Pokémon."

	"Will you be all right on your own?" Agumon spoke up from his place by the 
children's legs, tilting his head in question.  He loved the old man dearly, and 
feared for his life.

	Jennai turned back one last time, a glint of foreboding in his old eye.  
"They aren't after me, my friend.  They want you."  With that, he entered the 
house and closed the door behind them, leaving the Digital heroes more confused 
than before.

	"This all still doesn't feel real yet." Misty commented as they began 
making their way for the enormous staircase that led out of the dried lake.  
"It's just too weird...it feels like a dream, or something."

	"Give it time." Matt warned her.  "Soon enough, it'll feel like a 
nightmare."

TO BE CONTINUED...