The girl walked silently through the cavern, looking intently at the marks on the wall. Beside her, an Eevee kept pace, ears alert for any sign of danger. Suddenly, the pokemon twitched.
"What is it, Eevee?"
Eevee looked around. "I don't know. I thought I heard something. Hitomi, you'd better use Noctowl; he can see better in here than I can."
Hitomi nodded, pulling out a pokeball. "Noctowl, go! See if there are any pokemon hiding in here." The bird pokemon appeared, hooting softly as he looked about. Then, his eyes glowed red, and on one wall, one of the runes shimmered, revealing a black shape that seemed to be alive.
[CG Pokedex sequence]
"Unown type 'T'. Little is known about these creatures, though it is believed that they can affect reality with their psychic powers. It is rumored that as their numbers increase, so do their powers."
[End Sequence]
"An Unown? YES!" Hitomi pulled out a pokeball, and threw it at the creature. However, it rippled and vanished again before the ball could hit. "Noctowl, can you find it?" The bird flew around, but couldn't spot it. "Nuts." Hitomi checked the time on her pokegear watch. "We'd better get going, dad'll be getting nervous soon" she sighed.
"Ahh, it's only because he cares" Eevee replied. The trio exited the cave, heading to a group of tents.
"Professor Hale! We're back!"
A tall, attractive woman came out of one of the tents, wavy blonde hair swaying in the light breeze. "Hitomi, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me 'professor'? It makes me feel old! You are allowed to call me Ms. Hale, or even Molly, if you want!"
"Ah...sorry. I'm ready to go home now, if that's alright."
"Of course it is. Did you see anything down there?"
Eevee nodded. "Yep. Saw a 'T'-type Unown, but it got away before we could catch it."
Molly Hale's eyebrow arched. "An Unown? They're pretty rare. What happened?"
Hitomi answered. "Well, Noctowl picked one out using Foresight, but it vanished before I could get it with a pokeball. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it. They're pretty slippery. Believe me, you have no idea what Unknown are capable of. Even I don't know all the answers, and I'm the only one here with any practical experience." A rumble from the tent could be heard. Molly sighed. "Alright Ursa-chan, I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Ursaring getting moody again?" Eevee asked.
"You know him. That old bear always gets grouchy when he's hungry. Or when I call him 'Ursa-chan'. Come on, I'll take you to the research center." After stopping to feed her Ursaring, Molly Hale walked out, took a pokeball off her belt, and opened it, revealing a large Fearow. The bird pokemon cawed loudly, eager to take to the air. Hitomi recalled Noctowl into his pokeball, let Eevee climb up on her shoulder, and climbed on Fearow behind Molly.
"Let's go!"
[Opening sequence]
Song: OK! (Pokemon 3rd opening)
Digicross Tamers
"Episode 1: So you want to be a Tamer!"
After Professor Elm retired from active pokemon research, the research center in New Bark Town floundered a bit, especially in the wake of all the drastic changes that had happened after the Digital World was revealed. New laws had to be made, Team Rocket had to be halted from grabbing stray digimon that crossed over, and the various Leagues had to deal with the fact that many trainers had creatures capable of rapidly upgrading their attack power. That one Charizard/Gargomon match at Indigo, for example...The rules never covered monsters that had gattling guns on their arms. But this writer digresses
Hitomi entered the lab, looking for a familiar face. There had been a lot of new hires lately....
One person, a red headed gentleman, recognized Hitomi and greeted her. "Hitomi! How are you doing?"
"Uncle Izzy! Hi!" She ran up and hugged her 'uncle', Koushiro 'Izzy' Kamiya. "Where's Aunt Kari?"
"She's taking Ryoko and Kyoko to Goldenrod. Emiko's sleeping in the bedroom, and I really don't want to have to put her back to sleep again. What brings you by?"
"Eevee and I were just headed home. Is it OK if I use the portal?"
"Should be. Just one sec while I check the connection. You're heading back to Stone Town, right?"
Eevee answered. "Yeah, she promised mom we'd be home by dinner."
"Heavens forbid I should get between a pokemon and his dinner" Izzy joked. He checked his computer, and replied "OK, it's all clear. Say hi to Kyle and June for me!"
Hitomi nodded, and held up her digivice. "Digiportal 2, OPEN!"
Neither Hitomi nor Izzy noticed the odd shape on the back of Hitomi's backpack start to ripple as the energy from the portal flooded over it. The last thing Hitomi clearly recalled was a strange sensation of being pulled...sideways...as she was pulled through the portal.
==Digital World. Not the one that Hitomi knows, mind...
Calumon ran, madly zigzagging in a vain attempt to get away from Maildramon before the armour digimon trampled the small creature under its metal hooves. Calumon was saved at the last minute when another digimon tackled Maildramon.
Extending his ears, Calumon floated up, watching the two digimon fight. Then, there was a bright glow as the reptilian digimon abruptly changed shape and became stronger. As he changed, a second flash of energy caught Calumon's eye, and he saw two...no three figures appear briefly.
"Someone to play with? I hope they're nicer than Maildramon!" Hopeful, Calumon flew towards the newcomers, falling through the portal that opened up before the hapless travelers.
==Pokeworld
"HITOMI!" Izzy yelled, but he was too late. The young girl and her Eevee were caught in the energy from the portal, and Izzy watched as the two were caught in a freak energy wave, and vanished. Almost immediately, the phone started ringing. Numbly, Izzy picked up the phone.
"Izzy?" Kyle Ellison's voice came over the phone. "What happened? The computer at my house showed a portal opening, and then it blew up. Is everything alright?"
"Kyle...Hitomi was using the gate..."
==And, in a different world altogether.
Nami Asaji rubbed her eyes. It had been a long, LONG day, and the marks that she had recorded for the last month had somehow transformed from her usual neat, flowing strokes to some form of spidery, half blurred script that made no sense.
"That's it, I need a break." Sighing, Nami saved what she had done ejected the disk, and started to push away from the computer, thinking a quick nap and some food might help a bit. That was when the computer started to act oddly, to put it mildly. For a second, a bizarre graphic that Nami didn't recognize appeared, and then the monitor did something most monitors don't normally do.
Out of the screen, a young girl, maybe about 11, appeared. She had short red hair and was dressed in an odd outfit; long sleeved jacket, red t-shirt, knee length shorts, and was accompanied by what looked like a small puppy, but with a thick white mane and large brown and white tail. Both were unconscious.
==Pokeworld.
Izzy worked frantically at the computer, trying to track where the portal had sent Hitomi. SO far, he had determined that the portal had opened, and she had been dropped somewhere, but for the life of him, he couldn't determine where.
On impulse, Izzy looked behind him. In the center of the lab, a sphere of bright blue energy formed, as Mewtwo teleported into the lab. "I sensed danger," the guardian said, "so I came as soon as I could. What has happened?"
"Hitomi was using a digital portal to get home, but there was some sort of energy wave. And I still can't find her!"
"Calm down. The other guardians and I will help in any way we can. Azulongmon is already scouring the Digital World, Ebonwumon and Zhuqiaomon are probing what they can of the Dark Ocean. If she is there, she will be found."
"And you?" Izzy asked sharply. "Sorry, I..."
Mewtwo held up a paw. "Do not concern yourself. I came because I am more familiar with this side of the portal, as well as some of the phenomena in this area. I may be more help here than in the digital world."
"We'd better get started then," Izzy said. "I've already called Gary, he's going to be coming down, and Kyle and June won't be far behind."
==Tokyo. Not the one Hitomi's thinking of, either...
Nami Asaji finally sat down, exhausted. She'd carried the young girl and her...pet? into her guestroom, where they were resting. As she had carried them, a small red object had fallen out. She held it in her hand, studying it. It was rectangular, and had some sort of concentric circle design on the front.
"Some kind of computer?" she wondered. She found a catch, and opened the cover. Seeing a button marked 'ID', she pressed it, hoping for a clue. Instantly, a metallic voice started speaking.
"I am Dexter, a Pokedex registered to Hitomi Motomiya. Please return to the nearest Pokemon Center if found."
"That told me a lot," she said to herself.
She couldn't get past that screen, though. There was some sort of
code preventing access. Getting up, she walked to the guestroom.
"Who are you" she asked out loud. Then she noticed that the small
animal wasn't where she left it. "Now where did...I hope that thing's
housebroken-" Her train of thought was derailed by a hard impact
on her back. She was knocked down, tried to roll over-
And found herself being attacked by the small
puppy.
"OK lady, where are we and what did you do to Hitomi?!"
"You...you can talk?"
"Yeah, and I'm housebroken too. This isn't Stone Town, and if you've done anything to Hitomi, I swear I'll..."
"Easy, Easy! I'm not responsible!" The absurdity of the situation struck her. First a girl appears out of her computer, now she was being threatened by what looked like a talking stuffed animal. Surreal to say the least. "You both appeared out of my computer unconscious, I swear I didn't do anything to either of you! You're in Tokyo, Japan, planet Earth!"
The animal relented. "Tokyo? Oh, that's OK then." He then realized what he was doing. "Oh, uh, sorry about that.."
"No, no, it's alright." What else do you say to a stuffed animal?
"Nrrr...Eevee, where are we?" The girl, wakened by the noise, sat up.
"Hitomi!" Eevee said, running to the girl. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine." She looked at Nami. "Who are you?"
"I'm Ms. Asaji, I'm a school teacher here. Umm, if you don't mind my asking, where did you come from?"
"Oh, I'm from Pokeworld, don't worry."
Nami looked confused. "Pokeworld? What's that?"
"You know, Pokeworld. Where pokemon come from? Other side of the Digital World?" Hitomi was starting to get scared. Everyone knew about the Pokemon World...
"Digital World??"
"Sure, you know." Hitomi checked her pocket. "Where's my Digivice?"
Eevee looked around. "I'll check" he said, hopping down from the bed and running into the living room. After a minute, he came back, object in his mouth. He tossed the object up to her. "It was under the computer, must have fallen out and tumbled back there when we came through."
Nami looked at the device as Hitomi held it. It was grey with white handgrips, had a small screen on it, two triangular buttons by the screen, and a small black antenna. "Where have I seen that before?"
"Huh?" Eevee said. "It's a D-3, everyone knows that."
Nami didn't like the way this conversation was headed. Something about what Eevee said tugged at her mind. "Could you excuse me a minute? I need to check something." Nami went over to her bedroom, where her briefcase from school was. Opening it, she pulled out a large manila envelope marked 'Confiscated'. Necessary policy, some kids had been filching some of the more expensive items from her desk. She opened it, and pulled out a smaller envelope, marked 'Takato'. She opened that, and pulled out a set of game cards, and looked at them. The first card had 'D-3' on the top, and matched the object Hitomi now had. The second card, 'Portal', matched the image on her monitor just before Hitomi came through. Nami sat down, stunned.
"Ms. Asaji?" Hitomi asked from the doorway.
"Yes?"
"Um, I'm really sorry about all this. If it's all right, I'll just go back the way I came."
"Oh, sure." Nami watched as Hitomi and Eevee walked over to the computer. Hitomi held her digivice up, and it stated to beep.
"Digiport Open!" The graphic formed on the computer monitor, then it started to blur. Energy shot out, and enveloped Hitomi. She screamed, writhing in pain as the energy seemed intent on tearing the girl apart!
"Hitomi!" Eevee said, tackling the girl. The attack knocked Hitomi clear, and the portal dissipated. "Hitomi, wake up! Can you hear me??"
==New Bark Town
"BLAST IT!" Izzy shouted.
"What's wrong?" Gary asked. Professor Gary Oak was another specialist that had been called in to help out with the current crisis.
"I almost had it, but I lost the signal! Now what do we do?"
"We keep looking. I managed to trace the signal, I think we can find it again." Gary surveyed the partially burnt out gear. "But we're gonna have to do a lot of repair work."
==Tokyo, HYPNOS Main lab.
"Any sign of that new signature" Yamaki asked the two ladies.
One of them replied. "There was a brief energy surge, but we lost it before we could trace it. It was not another bio-emergence as we initially thought. The signal originated outside the realm the other digimon have appeared from."
"Keep trying to trace it. If this is something new, I want to know about it as soon as possible."
The other lady spoke up. "Sir, I have confirmed that the new signal definitely came from our dimension. However, I still have not traced its exact location."
The man toyed with the cigarette lighter in his hand. "Is it similar to the prior emergence?"
"No, this was like nothing we have detected before." The two ladies went back to work.
==Nami Asaji's apartment.
"Hitomi? Hitomi, wake up!"
"Nrrr....Aunt Kari...?"
Nami blinked, not recognizing the name. "No, it's Ms. Asaji. Are you alright?"
"What...what happened?"
Eevee hopped up on the bed Hitomi was resting on. I don't know. As soon as the portal opened, there was some kind of energy surge. I knocked you clear, and the portal vanished."
"Then I'll just have to try it again" Hitomi said. She tried to get up, but Ms. Asaji put a hand on her shoulder.
"While you were out, Eevee and I talked. Hitomi, what year is this?"
"2025, what kind of question is that" Hitomi replied, confused.
"A serious one" Eevee said. "It's 1999."
Hitomi blinked, not believing what Eevee had said. "that can't be..." she pulled out her pokegear, trying to call home. The screen blinked, synchronizing with the local cellphone network, but didn't connect.
"No....no..." Hitomi started shaking. "I have to get...home..." She started crying.
"Hey, don't worry" Eevee said, trying to console his trainer. "I'll get you home. Promise."
"And you can stay here until you figure out what to do" Nami said. Hitomi and Eevee looked at her. "Hey, it's small, but I can room one extra. Just make sure you hide, Eevee, right?" The pokemon nodded. "The landlord's not too big on pets."
"PET!?? I resent that!!"
Despite the situation, Hitomi and Nami chuckled. "I take it back" Nami said.
"Ms. Asaji, I appreciate what you're doing. But what do I do now?"
Nami thought for a minute. She looked over the girl, making a few mental calculations. Then, smiling, she asked "how's your algebra?"
==One week later
"Are you sure about this" Hitomi asked uncertainly. "I don't have any records or anything."
"Don't worry" Nami replied. "I pasted the information from your Pokedex into the school computer." Nami smiled, pleased with herself. "One of the advantages of being a sub for the computer teacher. I have you in my class, but I'm only in there once or twice a day." The two stepped into the classroom.
Ms. Asaji cleared her throat. "Class, I would like to introduce a new student. This is Hitomi, and she will be joining your class for a while."
Hitomi blushed slightly, and bowed. "Hello everyone."
"Hitomi, please take the seat by Hikaru." Hitomi nodded, and took the seat indicated. Hikaru introduced herself, and her friend Jeri.
After everyone was settled, Ms. Asaji took her seat, got her lesson plan and books out. She cleared her throat, and in a calm voice said "You can come in now, Takato." A muffled "D'OH!" could be heard outside, then young boy walked in.
-He looks like Takeru-chan- Hitomi thought,
remembering her cousin. She snapped out of it, as Ms. Asaji started
the course. -I promise I'll come home, mom, dad-.
Ending: "Never Too Far From Home" (Totally Pokemon CD)
Next Episode: Think Hitomi's settled in? LIKE HECK!
A chance encounter with Takato, Guilmon, Rika, and Renamon leads to a fight,
and we learn just who's holding Kyle's digiegg these days...Next on Digicross
Tamers,
"Eevee vs. Renamon!"