Throughout the entire area of the Digital World, the echoing, thunderous explosions rocked the ground and hurt the ears of anyone nearby as two enormous monsters clashed. One was a giant, grey bug with dark red markings covering its body, while the other appeared to be a humanoid dinosaur with four wings, two grey, two blue, and insectoid armour covering its form. White, blue, black and green coloured its form, with a red and black covering its head, only revealing the red eyes underneath. To finish it off, a pair of guns clung to its hips.

In addition to the energy blasts and body slams crashing with the ground, a mountain sized mix of rock and metal lay nearby, contributing to the chaos with its own explosions and smoke. To the naked eye, the monsters were the biggest threat to anyone around, constantly moving and fighting viciously. However, everyone there knew otherwise. The giant structure, a defeat, once extremely powerful base, was drawing in more and more of the powers of darkness and the system was overloading, creating a warp in space. If not stopped quickly, the entire area would be annihilated and the balance of the Digital World would be irreversibly destroyed.

"It didn't work." Cody cried, looking up from his D-Terminal, his face showing suppressed panic. "The warp's getting worse."

"I was afraid that this would happen. My crest is meaningless." Ken sighed, staring at the ground.

"There has to be something we can do!" Davis cried, staring desperately at Ken for answers.

"Is there something you're not telling us Ken?" Cody asked coldly, angry at even having to need the former Emperor, let alone having to talk to him. Caught off guard by the statement, Ken whipped his head up to face the youngest member of the Digidestined. "If anyone knows how to shut off this base, it would be you."

Too bad I don't have the mad genius skills anymore. Ken sighed mentally, scanning the area frantically. Come on Ken, think. What powered the... that's it! Noticing the pipes, his eyes snapping wide open in realisation. "We have to follow these pipes."

Elsewhere, in a very different world where the Digidestined were thought to be no more than a kids show, stood a dark building that broke into two towers. Like in the other world, this world was also attacked by evil Digimon and as such, this building was given the job of housing a defence. The secret, Government organisation known as Hypnos.

Down low in the building, amongst many researchers in lab coats, stood a man with blond hair, clad in a dark suit and sunglasses. A cold smirk covered his face as he stared at a overly large machine in the room. His ultimate program.

"Play time's over, you insignificant piles of data." He sneered as he opened and closed a lighter in his hand. He opened his mouth to talk more, but was interrupted as the com device on his ear came to life.

"Yamaki, preparations for the Juggernaut program are complete." A female voice stated, causing his smirk to grow.

"Activate the test now." He commanded, getting a 'yes sir' before cancelling the connection. "Sayonara, lifeless nuisances."

As the program activated, various machines, both inside and on the roof of the building, came to life, giving off a bright glow. The light continued to increase as the power did until a column of energy as wide as both tower roofs shot into the sky, eliciting gasps from everyone in Shinjuku. The light died down a moment later, however it was replaced by an even more amazing and fearful sight: a hole ripped in the sky.

If that wasn't enough to frighten the city, shivers were sent down their spines and panic ensued as horrific cries of fear reverberated everywhere from digimon, all of them being dragged by some invisible force towards the hole. Yamaki however, as he moved to the control room could only laugh.

"What the? How did this occur." A teenage boy shout, jumping out of his seat as he stared at his computer screen, his face paling considerably. Through his time both in and monitoring the Digital world, he had seen many things that once he would have considered absolutely impossible. It took a lot to surprise Koushiro 'Izzy' Izumi, but this had done just that.

On his computer, he'd been monitoring the building warp and approaching explosion, his body tensing more and more with each second. However, now another enormous fluxuation of energy had rushed into the area from God only knew where and was having an unknown reaction with the warp that was already occurring.

"I've got to warn them!" He cried, immediately typing a message to Cody. Get out of there! And other source of energy appeared and is reacting with the warp. There's no telling what might happen!

To say Takato Matsuki was worried was an understatement. One minute, his young, T-rex partner, Guilmon, tenses and states a big digimon is coming and the next, the sky is ripped open and digimon are getting pulled in to the hole like a vacuum sucks in dirt.

"Takato, I don't feel so good." Guilmon moaned, breaking Takato from his shocked trance to look at his partner. He gasped, fearfully at the sight. Guilmon's form was blurring and stretching towards the hole, as if someone was playing tug of war with him.

"Guilmon! You've got to pull yourself together." He cried wrapping his arms around the dino, trying vainly to shield him from whatever it was causing it.

"I don't know ho- WHOA!" Guilmon cried in surprise and fear as the pull of the hole one and his feet left the ground. Takato screamed in pure terror as it happened. He refuse to let go of his partner and as a result, he was taken into the air too. "Takato, let go." Guilmon shouted, desperate to protect the boy trying to protect him.

"No way Guilmon." Takato replied between shouting. As they quickly rose in altitude, it became too dangerous to just drop down anyway and he tightened his grip, burying his face in Guilmon's shoulder. "No matter what happens Guilmon, I'm not abandoning you. You're my best friend and I promised that we'd always be together.

Guilmon had not response to that in any way but appreciation. Besides, even he knew that if he forced Takato to let go now, he would not survive the fall. So, instead of following his instinct to leave Takato behind, he wrapped his arms around his tamer. "Thank you Takato."

"Henry, whatever you do, don't let go." Terriermon cried, clasping his small hands into Henry's vest for dear life. Though inside Henry's bedroom, the vacuum sucking up digimon was still producing the full effect over the bunny digimon and only the walls had stopped him from being sucked away before Henry found him. However, it proved not to be enough as only a moment ago, the window gave way, making Henry's grip the only thing protecting the pintsized smart-aleck.

"Don't worry Terriermon." Henry replied, tightening his grip. He was just as scared out his wits as the bunny was, but managed to keep his tone calm and reassuring. Terriermon didn't need his fear in additions to his own right now.

However, his mask quickly shattered as his digivice gave a sudden jerk and ripped the loop on his pants as it shot towards the window. Whipping his hand out, he caught the device, but whatever was sucking up digital data chose that moment to increase and with a scream, Henry and Terriermon flew out the window and into the sky, just as Janyuu opened his door.

"HENRY!"

"Rika, let it go. You need both hands." Renamon grunted. The bipedal fox digimon had one paw wrapped tightly around a power pole while the other clasped desperately onto a screaming Rika Nonaka. Rika's other hand was pointing towards the hole in the sky, holding onto her digivice as tightly as she could so as to prevent it from being sucked into oblivion too.

"I can't lose it Renamon, I only just took it back up." Rika replied stubbornly, ignoring the strain of her body from the two powerful sources tugging her in opposite directions.

"But if you don't you'll be- RIKA!" Renamon screamed. At that moment, her grip broke and Rika surged off towards the hole in the sky, screaming Renamon's name. Without even thinking of the consequences to herself, Renamon let go of the pole and pushed off it as hard as she could, quickly catching up to Rika, and held the girl protectively. "Whatever this is, I don't think there's any escape from it now." Renamon sighed sadly as they quickly rose in altitude, already above most buildings.

"Then we'll face it together." Rika replied, feigning confidence. Renamon could see through it as plain as day though. The girl was terrified, both for herself and Renamon. However, seeing the brave act for what it was, an attempt both to hide her fear and reassure the fox, Renamon just grinned and went along with it.

"Then it will not defeat us."

It was at that moment that dual screams caught their attention, both of them very familiar. Whipping their heads around, Rika and Renamon couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of Takato and Guilmon being pulled towards the port upside down and facing the wrong way.

"If we don't at least get right side up soon, I'm gonna be sick." Takato cried, wrapping his arms around his stomach.

"Me too, I just ate." Guilmon whined, waving his arms like a bird.

"That doesn't surprise me."

"Only you could fly to your doom like that goggle head."

"Huh?" Takato asked confusedly, trying to see behind him. The owner of the first voice came into his sight first as the Bunny and his worry stricken partner flew up towards him. However, he had to spin his whole body around to find the other. "Henry, Terriermon, Rika, Renamon, you guys are caught too?"

"No, we just learnt how to fly without wings." Rika said sarcastically, rolling her eyes despite the situation.

"That sounds like fun. Let's continue this conversation on the other Siiiddddeee!" Terriermon screamed as they reached the hole. Guilmon grabbed Takato again, his positioning issues forgotten, as they closed in on their doom. However, just as they, and a number of other digimon, were about to reach it, all three digivices simultaneously released bright light that covered them all. A moment later, the city watched in horror as three children went through the hole and disappeared.

This so far past no good. Ryo thought, scowling at the sight before him. His partner had always managed to get them into serious trouble, but this time took the cake. There, standing before him and a growling Cyberdramon, were no less than eight powerful, ultimate level digimon.

"You will pay for your treachery dragon. You and that despicable human will be completely eradicated." The tiger growled, preparing to pounce.

"Not if we...huh?" Ryo's defiance quickly turned to confusion as the ground shook and the wind picked up. His eyes widened a moment later as the world blurred and restored itself repeatedly, as if coming in and out of focus.

"What is this? What have you done human?" The sheep growled, aiming her crossbow.

"Yeah right, like I could do this!" Ryo snapped before a sudden jolt from the ground caused him to fall, only for Cyberdramon to catch him. Before he could mutter so much as a thank you, the final part of the newly created chaos played its part as what looked like a yellow data stream appeared out of nowhere and consumed everyone in the area. The bright yellow energy and the panicked cries of everyone within was the last thing Ryo knew before everything faded to black.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!" The tunnel of yellow energy never seemed to end as the tamers flew through, screaming the whole way.

"How long is this thing?" Takato shouted, squinting against the light hurting his eyes. "Can we just find the end already?"

"I don't think that will be a problem." Renamon responded, glaring ahead. "We're quickly approaching what looks like the end of the line."

"Oh great, now we can all die together." Terriermon screamed.

"What, no momentai?" Henry asked smartly, partly due to his fear and wanting to distract his partner.

"Ready or not, here it comes." Guilmon whined loudly. The group screamed as loud as they could as they met the end and waited for oblivion to take them. However, instead of colliding with something or being vaporised, their eyes and mouths widened in shock as they were thrown out of the tunnel and into the sky of a desert. "WHAAA! Takato, I need wings."

"RIIIIGGGHHHHTTTT!" Takato screamed, grabbing a card from his pocket. "Digi modify! Hyper wing activate!" Six angelic wings instantly sprouted on Guilmon's back and his decent immediately stopped. Taking only a second to sigh in relief, he quickly swooped down and caught Takato in his arms.

"Ok, going down now. You're heavy."

"Excuse me? Who are you calling heavy. You think carrying you around is a piece of cake?"

"Henry!" Terriermon shouted, giving his partner a serious look. Henry immediately copied it and nodded, grabbing a card from his own pocket.

"Digi modify! Digivolution activate!" His digivice glowed immediately after the card was slashed through.

DIGIVOLUTION

"Terriermon digivolve to..." Terriermon's body shed its form right down to its bare data before it grew and altered its form. The body completely reformatted until a much larger rabbit with Gatling guns on its arms and pants was in Terriermon's place. "Gargomon!"

"Hold on tight Henry." Gargomon called excitedly as he carefully pulled Henry into his arms bridal style. Renamon quickly did the same thing for Rika and both digimon landed gracefully and painlessly on their feet as they hit the ground, Guilmon landing a moment later. "Well, that was an exciting ride."

"Yeah, but where did it take us?" Henry asked, his eyes scanning the area. It definitely wasn't anywhere he'd been before and that left him worried. He didn't have a clue where they could possibly b-

"Holy cow! Is that a control spire?" Takato asked, completely astounded as he pointed behind them.

"What? Of all the ridiculous... on second thought, I think you summed it up perfectly." Rika stated, going from annoyed to amazed in an instant as she took a look for herself. "This is really bad."

"I don't get it Takato, what's bad about a tower?" Guilmon asked, staring up at it confusedly. "There are plenty of them back home."

"This is different Guilmon. They were only ever seen in the new season of digimon show." Takato answered, never taking his eyes off of it. "The Digimon Emperor, an evil kids that was just discovered to be Ken Ichijoji, sets up these control spires to power his dark rings that make digimon into his mindless slaves. To make matters worse, they somehow also prevent digivolution. Only armour digivolving can get through."

"But if that's that case, how come I was able to digivolve?" Gargomon asked.

"Maybe we were too high in the sky." Henry theorised, placing his hand on his chin in thought before turning to his partner. "But either way, that thing is dangerous to us. Better destroy it Gargomon."

"With pleasure. Gargo laser!" Raising his arms, Gargomon fired a barrage of green energy blasts at the tower. Unable to handle the shots, the tower quickly broke in two and crashed to the ground, shattering into tiny pieces of data as it hit.

"No doubt about it, that was an item of the Digital World." Henry mused as the data disappeared.

"Which means that we're probably in the Digital world." Takato stated with a nod of his head.

"Oh, well that will explain that then." Rika replied smartly as a loud, earthshaking boom came from behind them. The boys whipping back around with startled gasps, the group looked on in amazement as a humanoid dinosaur and a giant bug fought a vicious battle.

"Wow, they look strong." Guilmon said in childlike awe as Takato pulled out his digivice and activated his analyser.

"The bug is Okuwamon, an insectoid digimon, data type, ultimate level. His special attack is the double scissor claw." He said nervously. "That is one tough bug."

"The other one is Paildramon." Rika stated more calmly, her own analyser up and running. "He's a mutant digimon of the vaccine type, ultimate level. He uses his desperado blaster and sting strike attacks to destroy his enemies."

"Um, I think we should just let them be." Takato said nervously, watching as Paildramon fired his desperado blaster, the impact doing an enormous amounts of damage to Okuwamon. "This looks like it's out of our league."

"We don't even know what they're fighting about anyway." Henry agreed, much to Rika's chagrin.

"I heard Paildramon mutter something about kids taking too long inside the base." Gargomon offered. "I think he's protecting a human partner. Although it's funny. It sounds like two simultaneous voices coming from him."

"What, that guy has a partner?" Takato asked, gaping in surprise.

"Then maybe we should help before that Tyrannomon that came with us attacks him." Renamon commented, pointing at the ground near the mutant digimon. Sure enough, there stood a Tyrannomon, its mouth already filled with flames.

"Gargomon, go!" Henry ordered, pulling out a card. Gargomon was happy to comply, charging into battle before Henry could even get the card to his digivice. "Digi modify! Hyper sonic activate!"

Paildramon grunted as he hit the ground after a particularly brutal swipe of a claw. He hated to admit it, but this was a pretty even fight. For every trick he pulled, Okuwamon had one in return. And it definitely didn't help that the exploding base continuously distracted him with explosion after explosion.

Come on kids. You have to hurry. He thought worriedly as he got to his feet, Okuwamon shooting down at him. Growling, he raised his hands. "Cable catcher!"

Every one of his claws rocketed out towards Okuwamon, connected to his hands by nearly unbreakable cords, and wrapped around Okuwamon's arm. A cocky look crossing his eyes, he lifted himself into the air a bit and prepared to toss him down.

"Blaze blast!" However, a powerful flame struck him right in the chest. Unprepared and off guard, the attack left him stunned with a gasp for a moment, giving Okuwamon an opening he was happy to take.

"Double scissor claw!"

"ARGH!" Two sets of claws struck Paildramon's shoulders and across his torso, causing him to release his hold on Okuwamon and plummet painfully to the ground again. "Now that hurt! And now I've got two to deal with."

"Then save some action for me." Another voice cried excitedly. He lifted his head just in time to see Gargomon jump into the air at speed far greater than his form would suggest and aim his arm threateningly at Tyrannomon's head. "Bunny pummel!"

Tyrannomon's eyes bugged out of his head as the metal fist crashed into it, only for a burst of green energy to come out of it a second later. He crashed to the ground hard at the same time as Gargomon jumped into the air, aiming his arms down.

"Gargo laser!" The barrage of green energy hit dead on and after a moment seemed to increase in strength, something that confused Paildramon as even Gargomon was surprised. Tyrannomon, having looked injured before the initial attack, was unable to withstand the assault and with a scream, burst in to data that Gargomon happily absorbed, again, surprising the mutant digimon.

"Hey helmet head, don't you have a battle to win?" A voice shouted impatiently, catching his attention. Running in his direction were three humans and two more digimon, none of which he'd seen before.

"Gargomon, MOVE!" A boy, one with a skin tone he hadn't seen before shouted, his eyes suddenly widening in panic. Turning back around, he quickly saw why as Gargomon's unusually high speed was the only thing that allowed him to dodged the surging evil bug digimon.

I'll worry about them later. "Sting strike!" Creating a pair of energy stingers on the back of his hands, he jumped forward and thrust them ahead as hard as he could. Both hit home and dug into Okuwamon's head, causing him to scream as is skin shattered. Behind him, Paildramon could hear the kids gasping as the material of the control spires was exposed to the light of day and their eyes as he kicked the overgrown insectoid imposter away.

"It's time to end this." He stated, grabbing the charging guns at his hips and directing them forward, straight at the hole in the fake skin. "Desperado blaster!" Shot after shot of blue energy struck Okuwamon without a single miss. It proved too strong for the already cracked structure of the control spires to hold and shattered with a scream before their eyes, just as Tyrannomon had moments before.

Sighing in relief, Paildramon let his muscles relax for a moment. However, another explosion from the base quickly reminded him that R&R had to wait.

"Thank you for your help Gargomon." He said, giving the bunny and his companions a hasty, but grateful look. "I'd love to stay and chat, but Davis, Ken and the others need me. I'll be back shortly." With that, he took off towards the base as fast as he could and, instead of stopping, crashed right through the wall, leaving three absolutely flabbergasted children behind.

Hearing Davis complaining, again, Paildramon ignored the small tunnel and crashed right through the walls again, quickly finding the team.

"Did someone call for a hero?" He asked cockily.

"Paildramon." Ken and Davis cheered, happiness and relief covering their faces. Ken's however, quickly turned serious again as the clearly dark energy continued to leak into the area. "You have to seal that opening now!"

"Consider it done. Desperado blaster!" The blast were quick and on target, effectively destroying the source of dark energy. That was too close. The danger finally adverted, Paildramon landed on the ground and sat down, letting his aching body relax.

"You did great Paildramon. But before you dedigivolve, there's just one favour I need to asked of you." Ken said, resting a hand on the mutant digimon's claw. Paildramon looked down curiously, but silently prayed that the task wasn't too strenuous.

"Did I hear him right? Did he really just say Davis, Ken and the others? As in the new Digidestined?" Takato asked slowly, his brain so shocked it was having trouble processing.

"Yeah, but how is that possible?" Rika asked, just as shocked as Takato. "I mean, they're just characters on a TV show. And even if it were real, I don't remember any of them having a digimon that digivolves into Paildramon. I've never even heard of him."

"And he said Ken too. As if they're all on the same team." Henry added, bringing his hand to his chin again as he thought it all over. "In addition to all of that, they couldn't even digivolve to the champion level in the show, let alone Ultimate! And since when are there digimon with control spire filling?"

"Taking all of this into account, perhaps it is real." Renamon suggested, just as calmly as ever.

"Huh! But how is that possible?" Takato asked, dropping his jaw along with the others. "I mean, even if it was, the show only just revealed Ken to be the Digimon Emperor yesterday and the show's going on hiatus because they haven't managed to complete any other episodes yet."

"Perhaps that is more evidence to my suggestion." Renamon responded. "Would a TV show recounting actual events be up to date with history? Could you possibly have seen this event on TV if it hadn't happened yet?"

"And didn't we think that digimon were nothing more than fiction previously too?" Henry asked lowly, catching on to her way of thinking. "If someone was watching the events of another world, it would take a lot of time to recreate every significant event into a TV show. And if this place wasn't real, there's no possible way we could exist in it. Even the world's greatest technology will never have a chance of putting real people or things into a world that isn't there."

"Ok, as crazy as it sounds, you two would have to be right." Rika stated, still looking more than a little shocked. "But the question now is how did we get here and how do we react."

"Why not see if the people Paildramon mentioned can help us?" Guilmon asked happily, not understanding exactly what's going on, but not really caring anyway. "He seemed really nice and I'm sure his friends are too."

"Yeah. They are." Takato said quietly, causing the others to worry, before exploding with excitement. "We're gonna meet the Digidestined! This is so cool, I've always wanted to meet Tai and Davis."

"Great, multiple goggle heads." Rika said sarcastically, shivering deliberately at the thought. "Just what the world needs. With them in charge, how does this world still exist?"

"With highly intelligent people like Izzy and experienced, resourceful people like TK knocking some sense back into the situation." Henry answered before turning back to the base with a frown. "Maybe Guilmon has the best idea. We don't know what's going on here and if they're fighting ultimate level digimon, who knows how dangerous it is. Maybe Izzy could figure out how we got here and how to get home."

"And now Einstein's meeting his match." Rika muttered. "Am I the only one that's unique around here?"

"Actually, you remind me of Sora. At least in the first season." Henry responded lightly, the only one not to flinch at the glare she gave him as a response. "But back to business, do we all agree?"

"Yeah." Rika huffed, not seeing any other way, as the digimon nodded. "But we let them approach us. I am not making myself look desperate." The boys could only chuckle at that as they sat down, waiting for the inevitable, curious approach of the Digidestined.

The Digidestined watched with relief and satisfaction as bursts of blue energy shot in every direction from the base as Paildramon destroyed it.

"Well, another day gone where I prove I'm awesome." Davis stated proudly as Paildramon flew back towards them. The rest of the group, minus Ken just sighed and shoot their heads in response as Paildramon glowed and dedigivolved, leaving two ball like creatures in his place, one green with a leaf on its head and the other blue with what looked like a sock protruding from its head. Looking down, the proud look on Davis' face was replaced with his typical confused one.

"Did we do a good job Ken?" The green one asked as Ken bent over and picked him up with a smile.

"Yes, you did a very good job Leafmon."

"Hey, You're Veemon right?" Davis asked unsurely.

"Well actually Davis, you can just call me Chibomon now." The blue ball stated happily.

"Well whoever you are, you're awesome." Davis responded with a thumbs up before picking the laughing digimon up.

"Well, it's time for me to go." Ken said softly, turning away from the group.

"Ken wait." Davis called, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Why do have to leave, join us."

"Join you?" Ken asked, facing him with a look of amazement and doubt. "I don't know, I've done a lot of bad things, stuff I'm not proud of at all."

"Well yeah, you were a jerk, but you've paid for your mistakes and now even our partners have united into one digimon." Davis said stubbornly. "You came all this way to help us and after all that, we're friends. Trust me, I know friendship."

"I don't know Davis." Ken said sadly, turning and walking away. "I need some time to think about this."

"Bye." Leafmon called sadly over his shoulder.

"I don't get it. Why won't he be friends with us? I'd want to be friends with me." Davis asked, confused and disappointed as he watched Ken and Leafmon disappear.

"Maybe he just finds you too annoying." Yolei suggested happily, giving him a cheeky smile as he turned around, facing them irritably.

"You always come on so strongly Davis." Kari stated, giving him a light smile. "You can't force him to be your friend if he's not ready yet, you have to let it happen naturally." Davis sighed in defeat at that and dropped his head.

"Maybe those other kids will be your friends Davis." Chibomon said happily, trying to get his partner to cheer up.

"Huh? What kids?" Davis asked, looking at him with surprise, the others all gaping at what he'd said.

"While I fighting Okuwamon, an injured Tyrannomon attacked me too. Then a rabbit with guns came out of nowhere and took him down so I could focus on Okuwamon." Chibomon replied happily. "After that, three kids and two more digimon appeared and I know that the strange coloured boy was the bunny's partner. They're over there, see? The dinosaur sticks out."

"Even more Digidestined are running around the world now?" TK asked in disbelief. "Who knew?"

"Well, let's go meet them." Armadillomon suggested, taking off at a run. "Maybe we'll be in luck and they'll even have snacks."

"Always thinking with his stomach." Hawkmon chuckled.

"But he's right though, let's go." Yolei said enthusiastically, taking off after him with Hawkmon right by her side.

"Hey, wait for me." Davis cried, running to catch up. Grinning at their friends' enthusiasm, TK, Kari, Cody, Gatomon and Patamon followed leisurely behind.

"Hey, you guys over there." Yolei called, breaking the trio from their conversation. Renamon had already alerted them to their approach, so it was no surprise, they had just been trying to decide how to word what they knew it the ensuing conversation.

"Hi." Takato said nervously, giving her a small smile as stood up and shook the sand from his clothes. "Your name's Yolei, right?"

"HUH? Y-yeah, how did you know?" She asked, stopping mid-step, dropping her jaw.

"Maybe he's psychic?" Armadillomon suggested, just as surprised.

"Or he might just go to the same school as her, though I've never seen him before." Hawkmon added, scratching his head.

"Great job goggle head." Rika sighed, not even bothering to look up. "The conversation hasn't even started and you've already managed to leave them speechless."

"See Davis?" Chibomon shouted as the others caught up, most of them looking at Yolei's expression confusedly. "Three kids and a bunny with guns next to a strangely coloured boy."

"Chibomon, don't say that!" Davis cried, noticing the Gargomon tense and the slightly offended look crossing Henry's face. "He's just Chinese. It's no more different than my skin tone or anyone else's. It just means he's from a different place in the world."

While Davis dealt with his digimon, Cody turned an apologetic look towards Henry.

"I apologise for his poor choice of words. He's not aware of all the variety of skin colours in humans or how using them could be seen as offensive." He said with a small bow.

"It's ok. I'll get over it." Henry replied with a small grin towards Cody. He always was the one most comparable to myself.

"Great, no offenses were made by Chibomon, assuming Gargomon isn't about to blow us to bits, so how about we get back to how you know Yolei's name?" Hawkmon asked hastily, both because he really wanted to change the subject and because he was genuinely curious.

"What?" Davis asked, the rest of the of group frowning at that piece of information.

"That's a long story." Takato started, looking from one of his companions to the next, desperate for help. "And I guess I should start by saying that we know all of your names. And since that leaves you guys at a disadvantage, let's take a step back and start with introductions. I'm Takato Matsuki and this is my partner Guilmon."

"Hi Takato's heroes." Guilmon said happily, bringing an embarrassed look and a sweat drop to Takato's face. That only seemed to confuse the Digidestined even more.

"I'm Gargomon, usually Terriermon, and my partner is Henry." Gargomon jumped in happily, causing Henry to shaking his head in amusement.

"With you around, I might not even have a mouth."

"Yes, you do. How else are you going to tell me off all the time?"

"Like you listen anyway?" Henry retorted. However, he was still grinning as he said it and the Digidestined could definitely see his fondness for the rabbit.

"ANYWAY, back on track, I'm Rika and this is Renamon. All done." Rika stated impatiently, Renamon nodding in greeting behind her.

"Ok, it's nice to meet you." Kari responded, giving them her usual, friendly smile. "But how do you know who we are? And how did you get into the Digital World?"

"Um... well, you see..."Damn these goggles. Takato cursed as he stumbled over his words. The Digidestined were looking to him for the answers and he knew it was because of his headwear. After all, at least in this world, they marked him as the leader of the team. Unable to string his words together, he turned desperately to Henry. "Help?"

"We should start at the beginning." Henry stated, drawing everyone's attention to him. "That being that we come from a different world."

"Well duh! This is the Digital World. No humans are native here." Davis replied.

"True, but we don't come from your world either." Henry responded, drawing gasps from all ten of them. "We come from another place, one that has its own real world and Digital World. And in our world, humans have discovered the digimon's existence."

"There's even a TV show currently in its second season." Takato continued, feeling a little more capable now that the story had started. "That's how we know you guys. Somehow, someone from our world has been seeing into yours and made your adventures into a TV show."

"What, I'm a star?" Yolei cried excitedly, stars in her eyes.

"HUH? This is beyond even Digital World weird." Cody gasped, completely astounded.

"Hey, I always knew I would be famous. As if there was any doubt." Davis bragged, liking what he was hearing. He couldn't even understand half of what Izzy said, let alone how such a thing would work, so he just decided to go with it, getting sighs and shaking heads from the last two humans as a result.

"If that's so, then what are you doing here?" Kari asked. She, TK and the digimon quickly got over the shock, the digimon because it just seemed like another day to them and the kids because after four years, they were just used to sudden surprises, especially after the dark ocean. Kari and TK were more interested in how they got to their world then worried about the idea of staring unknowingly in a show. Although, I have to admit, I'm curious as to just how accurate this show is and how much about us they know.

"Through a hole in the sky." Guilmon answered, as if it was the most simple thing in the world. However, it only caused those bothering to pay attention to the latest piece of information to widen their eyes, dumbfounded.

"Forget that, what's the show like? I bet I'm the star, right?" Davis asked boastfully.

"Oh please, we're all just as important to the team as you are." Yolei snapped, whipping around to her cocky leader. "Why in the world would they make you a bigger star than the rest of us?"

"Because I'm the leader."

"And I'm the computer pro, Cody's the voice of logic and reason and TK and Kari are by far the most experienced members of the team." Yolei retorted fiercely.

"Yeah, but the leader always-"

"ENOUGH!" Rika shouted, a nerve appearing on her forehead. The arguing duo jumped in freight at the scream and quickly turned back to the Tamers, partially worried about incurring the unknown girl's wrath. "Davis, you are no more the star than any of the others. Now would the two of you stop acting like little kids or do I have to have Renamon break you up?" She demanded fiercely. Terrified, both of the kids in question nodded their heads in submission and didn't relax from their shaking forms until Rika's gaze had gone elsewhere.

"We can ask more about this show thing later, I admit that I am curious about it myself, but first, let's get back to how you guys got here." TK stated, bringing the subject back on track.

"Yeah, you said you came through a hole in the sky?" Patamon asked, visibly perplexed. "How did that happen? And what did you do, fall up?"

"If it's all the same to you, could we discuss this with Izzy present?" Henry asked almost pleadingly. "I'd really rather only going through this once and you guys know as well as I do that he's going to want to know. And he's the only one who might figure the whole thing out. We don't know exactly what the hole was."

"Yeah, only that anything from the Digital World was sucked to it like a magnet. And every digimon that went up before us was destroyed." Gargomon added, shivering at the idea of how close he came to destruction.

"Sounds fair enough. Izzy's waiting for us anyway." Cody nodded in agreement, though more out of caution than anything else at the moment. This group of other-worldy Digidestined hadn't told them enough to make him comfortable with them yet and at least in the real world they were less likely to attack, due to the need for secrecy. And if they do, it'll be in a confined room and they'll be outnumbered.

"OK, let's go." Davis said impatiently, wanting all the answers as soon as possible. Not that he was suspicious like Cody. He just wanted the important stuff out of the way so he could ask more about how their world worshiped him.

"Hey, I got a question." Chibomon stated as the group headed back towards the TV, his eyes zeroing in on Gargomon. "Well two actually. The first one is if you're usually Terriermon, why are you still Gargomon?"

"I can't change back at will like you guys can." Gargomon answered. "It has to happen naturally and that can take up to a whole day to happen, or more."

"That's weird. We never had any trouble dedigivolving." Gatomon commented.

"Yeah, we sometimes found it too easy." Patamon agreed from TK's head.

"So what was your second question?" Henry asked kindly, before the baby digimon could forget.

"The other one is how did Gargomon get a sudden power boost? Even he didn't look ready for it when he was fighting Tyrannomon."

"Huh?" Yolei and Armadillomon gasped, the others dropping their jaws and barely remembering to continue walking. That being except for Kari.

"Well, it's not like that hasn't happened before." She commented. "Remember when we were fighting Machindramon and the digimon went from drained to surging with energy? It was so much that they were forced to digivolve."

"Yeah, but that was your doing." TK responded, causing the new Digidestined to turn their looks to Kari. "And the crest of light. None of you guys possess that crest, do you?" He asked, turning his attention to the Tamers.

"No, that's not how it happened." Takato answered, shaking his head as he shuffled through his pockets. "It was because of these." Raising his hands, he showed them his digivice and a card.

"That digivice is a new model." Cody said, looking at it curiously. "But how does that help your digimon grow stronger anymore than ours do?"

"Because of these." Takato said, waving the card. Turning it around, he watched as Cody's eyes widened at the picture of Ankylomon. "This is from the digimon cad game. But we discovered that we can use them to alter our digimon. We can increase their strength and speed, give them wings, other digimon's attacks and much more. Henry used his power card to help Gargomon."

"You guys can do a lot more for your partners than we can." TK commented, suddenly having the feeling of being obsolete. "All we do is provide a way to digivolve and a strategy for them to use here and there."

"That's probably just because there are more things in our world that can be brought into play." Henry said reassuringly. He didn't want them to feel small and insignificant because of something that they'd gotten only by luck.

"Maybe Izzy can figure out a way that we can help our digimon more. Let's ask him now." Davis suggested as the group arrived at their destination.

"Let's hope our digivices work enough like yours do." Henry said nervously as they raised the coloured pieces of metal to the screen. A moment later, the screen exuded a bright white light and they disappeared from the world.

"Eep!" Izzy cried as the gate opened up on his laptop. Desperate not to be piled on, for the thousandth time, he dived at his bed just as the first figure came through. Feeling nothing but the soft mattress against him, he side in relief and turned back to the screaming kids, and openly gaped as three knew kids and digimon popped through. "What the? Where did you guys manage to find human hitch hikers in the Digital World?"

"It's a long story and only about to get longer." Yolei sighed, pulling herself out of the pile. Noticing a speck of green and a weight on her head, she reached up lifted what was discovered to be a small rabbit digimon.

"Hiya! Looks like the portal was enough to make me dedigivolve. That'll be a time saver if we have to stick around, don't ya think Henry?" Terriermon ask, unphased by being dumped in a mass of bodies. Though, in retrospect, being on top wasn't nearly as bad as the bottom.

"Great. Now could someone please get their knee out of my stomach?"

"Fascinating." Izzy muttered, processing the whole story from where they were from, the show, the different digivices and cards and how they got here. "So you say that the building below this digital vacuum was powering it?"

"Yeah. And I think that Yamaki guy was the one responsible." Takato stated, turning a firm look to Henry. "He's always on us for being involved with the digimon, he thinks that they're a lifeless menace and he captured one I was fighting before I could finish it just last night."

"It makes sense." Henry agreed before turning back to Izzy. "But how could that digimon destroyer bring us here?"

"It must have been targeting your Digital world too, for a start." Izzy answered as he type away on his laptop. "And to do that, it would of have to cut through the balance of both of your worlds, throwing them both off. At the same time, Ken's old base was blowing up and causing a warp in our world, one where the balance is already being disrupted by something. And while all this was going on, this happened." He said as he turned his laptop around, sowing them the recording he'd made of what happened. "The warps from both sides were so big that they crashed into each other and the light of your digivices used it to create a portal when they came to life." He explained as a bright light suddenly appeared where a black line from the base met a yellow one that the Tamers came through. "At least, that's my theory."

"Well, it beats the alternative: destruction for digimon and a painful death for the humans dropping from the sky." Terriermon stated from his place in Henry's lap. "So can you send us back?"

"Sorry, but I wouldn't have the first clue how." Izzy sighed, looking apologetically at the suddenly down Tamers. "The only way I know is recreating the event, but that is extremely dangerous to both worlds and has to occur in both. Even if we recreated our world's warp and you left our world, who knows where you'd end up."

"So we're stuck." Rika said emotionlessly with a shrug. However, it wasn't only Renamon that noticed the flicker of sadness in her eyes.

"I'm afraid that's correct." Izzy sighed as the room went quiet at the revelation. The Digidestined watch on sadly as the Tamers all fell into various degrees of sadness and worry.

"Mom's probably already worried about me. Or shouting about me." Takato muttered, saying his second sentence with a sad smile. "Dad will be panicking too."

"My dad saw me smash through my window. My whole family will be hysteric." Henry said softly, his eyes watering.

"Grandma will end up crying herself to sleep." Rika mused, staring out the window and into the night sky. "Mom may not even know I'm gone until she gets back from that modelling trip."

"Speaking of parents, I hate to sound uncaring, but we really need to go or ours will go nuts." TK said, rising to his feet.

"Oh man, I wanted to hear more about what their world thinks of me. I mean us." Davis added quickly, getting irritated looks from his teammates.

"But what about them?" Kari asked worriedly, turning to the depressed trio and their partners. "We're are they going to stay? If they're stuck here, they'll need somewhere to live."

"I can talk to my mom about taking in an exchange student for a couple of months." TK suggested, turning to Henry. "That should solve that problem for a little while if you're ok with living with me Henry?"

"Yeah, of course. Thank you" Henry replied, trying to look as appreciative as his saddened state would allow.

"Sorry, but my house is full already." Yolei apologised. "And my dad's shop already pays for half the food you guys consume so it's not like we have the funding to take another person in either."

"Mom would never allow a stranger to just show up and live at our home." Cody sighed, ducking his head.

"Well, I just got my own room, so someone could stay in Tai's with him." Kari suggested. "Of all of our parents, mom's probably the one that'll ask the least questions and she's always willing to help mine or Tai's friends."

"And I'll give Sora a call." Izzy said, shutting his laptop. "Her mom already knows about the return of the digimon anyway and they have plenty of room. In the meantime, I'll see you three can stay for dinner and stay overnight until we can get you all fixed up."

"Thank you Izzy. We appreciate it." Takato replied, blushing when his stomach growled. Chuckling, the others got up to leave.

"TK's mom won't be ready at least until tomorrow, but mine and Sora's houses should be fine tonight." Kari said, turning back to the Tamers as she headed towards the door. "So I'm assuming I'm getting Takato and Guilmon... I think I'll just have to be honest with mom. See you later." Smiling, she waved goodbye with the rest of the team.

"Hey mom, is it alright if we have a few guests for dinner?" Izzy asked as he entered the kitchen.

"Oh, we have guests? Sure Izzy, how many are there?" Mrs Izumi asked, her eternal smile plastered on her face.

"Um, three kids." He said nervously. Well, six technically.

"Ok honey, I'll make some extra for their digimon too." She replied, her smile turning knowing as Izzy gaped at her.

"Wow, I'm glad I never have to hide anything from you." Izzy sweat dropped. "Oh and um, one of them will need to spend the night. TK's house should be ready for him tomorrow though. Is that ok too?"

"You are going to give me the whole explanation about this later, right?" Mrs Izumi asked lightly. "It's fine sweety."

"Great. Thanks mom, you're the best." Izzy said happily. "I'll bring them all out of my room so you can meet them. Oh, but don't when you see the digimon. Two of them are bigger than most rookies."

Dinner had gone by very well for all things considered. Mrs Izumi's cooking proved delicious and her happy nature quickly rubbed off on the kids, even after Izzy told her the full story behind them. She was very sympathetic to their dilemma and promised to help if any issues with the other parents occurred. It proved unnecessary for now however, as everything went as planned. Sora was quick with a positive answer and she and her mother soon arrived to pick up Rika. Kari and TK called not long after dinner was finished too, both letting them know everything went fine and that Mrs Kamaya and Kari would be by to pick up Takato and Guilmon at eight, much to the goggle bearing boy's excitement. By eight thirty, both of the remaining boys had bathed and were sitting in Izzy's room, Henry borrowing some of his clothes.

"Henry, I was wondering, could I see your digivice?" Izzy asked from his computer chair, barely holding back his excitement. "I'm curious as to how else it s different from ours, aside from the card reader and modify program."

"Yeah, sure. After the surprise of opening a portal, I'd like to know what else it can do too." Henry replied, handing it over. His grey eyes lit up with amusement as Izzy took it and immediately pressed a few buttons. The red head was so much like him, give him a piece of new technology and he'll think Christmas came early. It was nice to finally find someone near his own age who was keen to gain mechanical knowledge.

"So what else do you know it can do? Hey, is this a compass? But it's not pointing north." Izzy asked, a million questions popping into his head.

"Oh nuts, another, more intense Henry." Terriermon sighed. Henry and Izzy just ignored him, the former not paying attention and the latter just used to blocking out his comments.

"That's the D-tracker. It can detect when a digimon enters the area and tell you whether it is. Plus, mine can always find Terriermon wherever in the world he is." Henry answered. "I also know it can tell time and has a built in, holographic version of your digimon analyser."

"What? Now way!" Izzy cried, both from shock and increased excitement. "Up until now, even the D-Terminals weren't able to take on my analyser. How does yours work?"

"I hold down the big button and I get data of whatever digimon is in Terriermon's sight." Henry answered, getting and pressing the button. The blue, holographic screen immediately appeared, showing a hologram of Henry's back. "It also allows me to see and hear whatever Terriermon does."

"Prodigious! This is by far the most advanced digivice I've ever seen. Even the D3's couldn't hold a candle to it." Izzy said excitedly as he pulled out one of his many cables from his draw. Connecting it to the computer, he plugged the other end into the digivice and immediately set to work on examining its programs.

The next few minutes were almost unbearable for Terriermon, the constant tapping of keys and the excited sounds Izzy made when he discovered a new program the only things breaking the silence. Bored, he was about to break it himself with one of his not so funny jokes when a confused from crossed Izzy's face.

"That's strange. Your digimon detection program is a far more advanced version of ours and your digivice still works to transfer energy from the hum to the digimon, but your digivice doesn't hold the power of the light like ours all do and you have no program for tracking each other. To find each other, you'd have to luck out and detect each others' digimon." Izzy reported, looking completely thrown off.

"That would probably be because despite the fact that Tamers are basically Digidestined, we work differently to you guys and with a different job." Henry responded, getting a look from Izzy to go on. "You guys were designed to fight to protect the Digital World and to do that, you have to work as a team. Plus, you'd forever be in the line of sight of the powers of darkness, so you needed the light to protect you and the world. Tamers work to protect the real world from invading, violent digimon and normally work as individual agents. It's just a coincidence that Rika, Takato and I met. Rika and I were Tamers long before any of us met. So we had no need for a program designed to find other digivices."

"I see. It probably wouldn't be of much use to you anyway, it doesn't work from very far distances in the real world." Izzy muttered, nodding his head. "But now it might be better if you are equipped with the program. I'll see what I can do about making your digivices compatible with some of our programs."

"See if you can reverse that plan too." Henry suggested brightly. "See if you can get our programs compatible with your digivices. It would help the new team out a lot."

"Sounds like a good idea. Here, I'll connect my digivice to my other computer. Let's see what we can do."

"I'm in for a long, boring night." Terriermon sighed as he watched Izzy move his laptop to the bed so Henry could sit at the desk, both going into computer dork mode. "Why didn't I go with Guilmon?"