Welcome to the second book in the Dimension's series. If you haven't read the first, I suggest you do so as to have a fighting chance of understanding this story. You can find it in my profile.
DISCLAIMER: Blazing Chaos does not own Digimon, but does own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories.
This book starts 13 months (more or less) after the previous one; hence everyone is 14 (except Henry, who is 15 because as established in the Epilogue of the previous book, his birthday is a few days before this one begins), based around them being 13 in the original series and also the first book. It's probably worth reading the epilogue of the previous book in order to know what happened in the interim. Just to note about Japanese schools: They have compulsory education from 6 to 15, and then there is non-compulsory (although taken by practically all students) education from 15 to 18.
DIMENSIONS
BOOK 2 - POWERS
CHAPTER 1
Boredom
REAL WORLD
Class 29A, Shinjuku Girls Academy
15:03 JST, 24th November 2008
The clock slowly ticked away. Despite the fact that time is meant to be a steady stream, to one girl it felt like it was purposefully going slow. Class 29A was currently studying maths. Well, studying is a bit misleading. A more accurate description would be chatting, comparing clothes, passing notes and mocking one person in particular who was doing none of it. Unlike boys, however, this was not upfront confrontation. Talking behind people's backs was the way of this school.
It was the last lesson of the day, which was a typically boring Monday for that matter. The droning voice of the teacher, ironically a male teacher in an all girls school, helped no end to continue the tedium.
"Now, I will go over it again. In a right angled triangle, the hypotenuse is equal to the squared value of the lengths of the two other sides."
The chalkboard was a mix of Katakana and algebraic expressions. The redhead sitting on the 4th row, 2nd column couldn't care less. To her, the board blurred into a white mess of lines. A note was placed on her desk. She sighed, and opened it.
Rika Nonaka ½ human+ ½ angry bitch+ ½ murderer - ½ human
She screwed up the paper. Her eyes flashed blue for a fraction of a second, unbeknownst to anyone, particularly since her eyes were violet to begin with.
"Erm, Mr Matsumoto!" a squirming girl nearby with brown hair called out, raising her hand.
"Yes Mrs Tada?" asked the teacher in response.
"I need to go to the bathroom, now!" the girl said desperately.
"You will have to wait until lessons are over in about five minutes" was the reply.
The girl continued to squirm. Rika chuckled quietly to herself.
'Ah, a fantastic way to get revenge, works every time.'
"Huh?" Rika said surprised, looking for the source of the voice. "Who was that?"
"Mrs Nonaka, do you have a question?" interrupted the teacher.
"Erm…" Rika said, still looking for the source of the voice which had now all but vanished. "…no…"
The teacher nodded and returned to the work. The girls nearby giggled.
'Just one more year…just one more year…' Rika thought to herself.
Rika continued to attempt to study, but the boredom nearly made her fall asleep. The bell rang throughout the school. The girls stood up, Ayla Tada still squirming, and Rika still chuckling about it. She still had no idea where the voice came from.
"Class is dismissed" the teacher said in a booming voice. Most of the pupils bowed, whilst Ayla simply ran out of the room in a hurry. Rika casually left the classroom and headed down the hall. She was eager to see someone but it wasn't worth hurrying and giving the others even more material. She exited the school building and walked into the bright dazzling sunlight, which was the antipathy of her dull grey school uniform and dark school. She noticed the sun was beginning to go down, and that it would be night-time within hours. She silently cursed the winter evenings for taking away any chance she could have had for easing her boredom. Leaving the school gate and heading left, she strolled alongside the wide road. Cars roared past, quickly passing through her universe. The arrival of the red light lead to the cars stopping. Passing road after road and getting further and further away from the school and her fellow pupils, she reached a point away from the potential discovery of one of her secrets.
"Renamon…"
A tall, yellow bipedal vixen phased into reality alongside her.
"How was your day?" Renamon asked inquisitively.
"Terrible and boring, as usual…" she said to her partner as a smile appeared on her face. "Anyhow, the goofy antics of Takato Matsuki will cheer me up…"
Rika arrived at the alleyways surrounding her house. She walked through and arrived at her front gate, which she unlocked with her key. She pushed it open, and walked to the door. She entered the house, and was greeted by her grandmother, who was currently drinking tea at the table.
"Hello dear. How was school?" was the question.
"Boring, as always…" was the answer, as Rika slipped her shoes off. Renamon chuckled at the regular routine. Seiko sighed. Rika walked along the hallway to her bedroom. She slid the door open.
"Renamon, will you check if he is anywhere near here yet?" Rika asked, turning to her partner.
"As you wish…" Renamon answered quickly, having pre-empted the question. They had done this routine for months now.
"Thanks…" Rika replied, walking into her room and closing the door behind her. She quickly ridded herself of her awful school uniform, which was thrown to the floor in a pile, and changed into her usual attire. On went the rolled up jeans and a brown belt, with the usual second belt round the left leg. On went the white and pale blue shirt with blue full heart on the front, which her mother had regularly noted was now too small for her. Rika had to admit, her mother had a point, even if it was intended more in her mother's interests of fashion than in the interests of correct clothes size. Out went the regulation grey hairband and on went a blue hairband, given to her as a gift by Takato for her birthday as a joke. A pair of red wristbands went on each wrist, and the grey socks came off, to be replaced by white socks and red and silvery-gray sneakers. Finally, she clipped a brown card holder to the back left hand side of her belt, and her blue and white D-Arc went on the other side.
There was a knock at the door. Rika smiled, ready for something interesting to happen. She turned round, headed out the slide door, over to the front door, which she opened to see Takato Matsuki, still in his usual attire. Takato looked into Rika's eyes with a questioning look. Rika shook her head, and Takato smiled in relief, pulling her into a kiss. Renamon noticed the body language used to symbolise the lack of Rika's mother, who was unknowing of their relationship. She noticed Guilmon following his tamer.
"Bye grandma!" Rika called out. Takato called out a similar sentiment, but with "Bye Mrs Hata" instead. Renamon excused herself and followed her Tamer out of the gate, and then left along the path.
"So, how was your day Takato?"
"Boring…thankfully, I didn't get a detention today…"
"I still don't know why you fell asleep in class last week. What on earth were you dreaming about?"
Takato looked at Rika and turned bright red. Rika gave him a glare, part in disgust, but part in curiosity.
"Hmm, forget the question Takato" Rika ordered. "…and the answer…" she added.
"Okay…" Takato replied. "So…how was your day?"
"Craptacular…boredom all day, nothing interesting happens" Rika complained. "At least in your school, you have the chance of dino-boy breaking into the school and snacking on the cafeteria…or Terriermon annoying the teacher…or Kazu getting a detention…how can your school be boring?" Rika listed.
"Because you aren't there…" Takato said, stopping, looking into Rika's eyes and smiling.
"Very cheesy Takato…" Rika replied, grinning. She continued to walk onwards. Takato frowned.
"Save it for later…" Renamon added quietly. Takato thought he saw a grin, but wasn't sure.
"What was cheesy about that Takatomon?" Guilmon asked.
"I'm not sure myself boy…" Takato replied. He sighed, and followed after Rika.
The group of four left the streets and entered the park. The sun was getting lower in the sky, and people were heading home. Rika sighed. Each evening they had less and less time to spend here together before it got too cold and they had to go home. She reminisced about the long summer evenings when Takato and her would sit here for hours, just enjoying each others company and comfort. They sometimes talked, they sometimes kissed, and they sometimes simply stayed quiet and relaxed. Since neither Rika's mother, who normally returned home mid-evening, nor Takato's parents, who were there all day, knew of their relationship. They headed up the steps to the hideout together. Rika sat down against the wall, and Takato did the same. Takato put his arm round her. Guilmon sat, bottom down, on the floor of the hideout, while Renamon sat in a tree. They had sat there for minutes, which turned into hours in the past. Today, however…
"I'm sooooo bored!" Rika moaned. Takato pulled the hairband out of her hair and pulled her into a long kiss.
Even after doing this for a while, however, they became bored again.
"I wish that something interesting would happen here for a change…" Rika groaned. Her eyes flashed blue for a fraction of a second, again noticed by no-one.
Suddenly, nearby, a spot on the ground began to pulse, as a Digital Field appeared. There was one major difference. This one was a deep sapphire colour. Takato and Rika were alerted via their D-Arcs.
"Finally, something interesting happens!" Rika said happily, standing up. Renamon leapt down to stand next to her. Takato noticed that Guilmon was a lot more feral than normal. He leapt forward, heading towards the Digital Field.
"What is it boy?" his partner asked, standing up. He got no reply. Guilmon had stopped and was staring at the deep sapphire coloured Digital Field. "Whoa…odd colour…"
Rika nodded. "Anyway, come on, I'm not missing out on a battle…" she said, beginning to walk forward.
"Don't you think it's dangerous?" Takato asked. "I mean, digital fields aren't normally blue…" he began to explain.
"You sound like my mother. Well, if you're scared, I'll go alone…" Rika interrupted, as she walked into the field, followed by Renamon.
Takato and Guilmon heard screams from the two females.
"Rika/Renamon!" they shouted respectively. They followed. Suddenly, the floor vanished and they fell down a huge sapphire vortex, Rika and Renamon falling near them below…a bright light flashed over them.
A girl stood nearby, watching the events. She was around 13 years of age. She had red hair, hazel eyes, and wore jeans and a red t-shirt with a Digimon symbol on it (the symbol on the blue cards). On her arm was a large device. She sighed.
"Far too early…" she said, in a feminine yet hardened voice. She pulled another small device, with an aerial on it, a small display and several buttons, out of her pocket. She spun a dial and hit the button again. A flash of white light and she had vanished. The white light quickly died away.
Hypnos Control Room, Floor 29, Tokyo Metropolitan Building
16:09 JST
"What was that?!" Riley said in surprise as two dots on the display vanished.
"Huh?" Tally asked.
"Rika and Takato's D-Arcs just vanished in that Digital Field we were monitoring…" Riley replied.
"Odd…" Tally replied. "Run a full scan…"
"Okay." There was a long pause. "Nope, nothing"
"Contact Janyuu and Yamaki, they'll want to know."
Riley nodded, and dialled a number using her keyboard.
Shinjuku Park
16:20 JST
Henry Wong ran through the park, Terriermon on shoulder.
"Yahoo, a battle, and I was getting bored!" said Terriermon enthusiastically. Henry sighed.
"You know, it's odd that the field still exists, I'd have thought that someone was already at the park, if not several people." Henry thought aloud.
"Yeah, it is strange. Ah well, all the more for me!" Terriermon said, jumping off of Henry's shoulder to see the digital field field.
"Huh?"
"What is it…whoa! It's blue…that's…strange…"
"Yeah, you're telling me…"
"Does it seem different data-wise?"
"Yeah, it doesn't feel at all like a normal digital field when I'm this close to it…"
Henry considered the benefits and disadvantages of going into the field, but he was interrupted in his thoughts.
"Hey Henry!" he heard a girl yell. He turned to see Jeri with Leomon. She had changed significantly in the past year. The return of Leomon had cheered her up, and she had ditched her old look. Gone were the childish green dresses, and the puppet that had been her bane for so long (which Leomon had symbolically destroyed with a 'Fist of the Beast King' attack), and she now wore an orange and amber t-shirt, with black trousers. Her hair now was loose, lacking any hairband, although since her hair was short to begin with the difference was minor. Her yellow and white D-Arc was clipped to her belt. Her smile vanished when she noticed the odd colouring of the Digital Field.
"What is this thing?" asked Leomon.
"We have no idea, but it feels weird to Terriermon…" Henry replied. Terriermon nodded.
"Come on then, let's…" Terriermon began to add, before he was interrupted.
"Henry, wait!" Henry turned to see his father, Janyuu.
"Hey Dad…why are you here?" he asked.
"Hypnos asked me to inspect the Digital Field."
"Why, isn't it a normal one?"
Janyuu sighed. "Rika and Takato were here earlier. Their D-Arc signals vanished into thin air when they entered this field." This prompted gasps from the group of Tamers and Digimon. "They may be trapped, but we cannot be sure. It could be a technical fault, but diagnostics have not brought anything up."
"So what do we do?"
Janyuu handed Henry a D-Nav. "We can't be sure where it goes, so I want you to take this. I just hope that it is a field which has them trapped, since otherwise it could be a portal or worse. But, I trust you son…" he said, placing his hand on his son's shoulder.
"Thanks Dad…" Henry replied. "Come on then Terriermon, this could be anything, but here goes…" Henry nervously said. Terriermon jumped on his shoulder, and the pair walked into the Digital Field. Suddenly, Janyuu, Jeri and Leomon heard a scream.
"HENRY!!!" Jeri shouted, and ran into the mist, followed by Leomon. Both screamed. Janyuu stared on in shock.
"What have I done?"
He considered entering the mist himself, but his common sense overpowered his urge. He turned and ran.
'Hypnos must be able to find where they are…'
Hypnos Control Room, Floor 29, Tokyo Metropolitan Building
16:26 JST
"Jeri and Henry's signals have now vanished as well." Tally reported.
"What on earth is going on in that field?" Riley questioned.
"Run another scan" Yamaki ordered.
A line crossed the screen, along with a beeping as each of the Tamer's D-Arcs were picked up by the scan.
"None of their D-Arcs were found" was the response.
"Send a tracer into the Digital Field"
"Okay, sending tracer now…" was the reply from Riley, as she tapped in a command on her keyboard.
There was a long pause. Riley suddenly gasped.
"The Tracer has been destroyed…"
Yamaki smashed his hand against a door. The sonorous ring rang throughout the room.
"We did get some data before it was destroyed." Tally added. The numbers came up on the screen. Yamaki looked at them.
"But that's impossible! That's far outside any parameters we've seen so far, our scan is nowhere near powerful enough to do that."
The doors slid open. A worried Janyuu Wong arrived.
"Janyuu…I presume you wish to know the status on whether we've found the D-Arcs?" Yamaki asked. Janyuu nodded. "We have not" Yamaki added.
"Have you tried running an increased power scan?"
"Yes, we had no results"
"Have you tried a tracer?" said an increasingly desperate Janyuu.
"Yes, but it was destroyed by an unknown force."
Janyuu slammed his hand against the door in anger.
"I can't lose him!"
"But we have some data that we got back from the Tracer before it was destroyed…"
"Good, can I see?"
"It's on the screen, have a look…" Riley commented, pointing at the large wrap-around screen. Figures flashed up on the screen, similar to coordinates. Janyuu looked at them for a second, them gasped.
"But that's impossible!"
"Yes, we know. Normally the coordinates have first digits of 00 for the real world, 01 for the digital plane, and 02 for the digital world. But these ones have 29."
"But…what does it mean?"
"We have no idea, but it means that the scanner will unable to reach that far at present, and neither will the signal on the D-Nav."
"So what do we do?"
"We can try to increase the range, but it'll require a lot more power. We need help from the Monster Makers, they understand the way the data works more than we do." Riley commented, now out of her chair and talking to the other two. Janyuu nodded.
"And if we succeed?"
"Then we can get them back from that distance using the Arc…the only question is, where on earth, or rather, the universe, is that place anyway?" Riley answered.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Well, we have ourselves set up for a story here. There was a cameo in this story, which really won't be significant until much later on in the saga. We'll see her again, but in the mean time you don't need to worry about her.
Please read and review, because this story is going to be a lot bigger than the previous one. Takato/Chaos' obliteration will pale in comparison to the firepower used this time around.
Next time…
Where have the Tamers ended up? Will they ever get back home? Are there really any other questions to ask so far based on what we've seen?
Find out in 'Confusion', Chapter Two of Dimensions Book Two: Powers.