Digicross Tamers Side Story #1
'The New Frontier'

Ryoko Kamiya walked up to Hiroki Hida. The boy had given no indication of having noticed her, which did not surprise Ryoko a bit these days. Everyone was on edge with Hitomi missing; all the children of the digidestined from Japan were very close; they all wanted to do something to find their missing friend.

"Hey, kid," Ryoko said, tapping Hiroki on the shoulder, "we were going to do some sparring, right?" She saw where Hiroki was standing; every time he had come here, he had looked in on where Ryoko's father was searching for Hitomi. A second lab had been built, and Izzy, Ken, and Gary Oak were using a specially built system to scan the space between worlds, looking for the hole that Hitomi had fallen through.

Though they were too worried to spend much time researching it, the search had turned up some interesting discoveries, namely the existence of *several* digital worlds, and signals from digivices in those worlds. Some had only a few, some had only one, and some had dozens of digivice signals. Fascinating as it was, it made the search all the harder; the searchers had to sift through and isolate each digivice, trying to find one that matched Hitomi's. In addition, they had to check back every now and then to make sure they had not missed a signal in the confusion.

"If they find something," Hiroki started to say.

"Then they'll tell us." Ryoko replied, smiling. All of the kids knew Hiroki had a huge crush on Hitomi, even if he didn't realize what it was he was feeling yet. "Hey, come on, they're not going to search any faster with you hovering over them like a vulture." Hitomi led Hiroki away.

Inside the makeshift lab, Ken looked at the two leaving. "Looks like Ryoko had to drag him away again." he sighed.

Izzy, taking a break from searching, smiled. "Well, I told the kids to keep an eye on him. I hope he doesn't do something stupid."

"Like charge in and try to save Hitomi himself? I can't imagine where he'd get such an idea." Tentomon replied drily. "Face it Izzy, he's acting just like you did when you were his age."

Izzy frowned. "That's not funny."

Gary, working on the portal itself, looked at Izzy. "From what Davis told me, it sounded like quite a riot, actually. I'm ready to test the stabilizer."

Sighing, Izzy ran the program. "Running now. What I'll do is send a signal to one of the digital worlds we've already scanned; if it works, we'll get detailed information on every digivice there. It should make finding Hitomi's digivice a lot easier."

==

Some distance away, Ryoko and Hiroki called orders to their monsters. Fighting for Ryoko, Sneasel, descended from the Sneasel that her mother and her friends fought 'when they were young' (As Ryoko like to think of it) waited for Armadillomon, Hiroki's digimon, to attack.

"Diamond Shell!" Armadillomon said, rolling into a ball and launching himself at Sneasel. Expecting the attack, Sneasel jumped, easily avoiding the blow. However, Armadillomon came out of the attack sooner than expected, and used the momentum to throw himself into the air, tackling Sneasel in midair.

"Better!" Ryoko said; she had been giving Hiroki a few tips on pokemon battling, and was pleased to see the boy picking up what she told him. "But can you follow up?"

"Why should I?" Armadillomon asked, sitting on Sneasel. "I got him pinned." As he spoke, Sneasel abruptly shifted his weight, knocking Armadillomon off. "I asked for that one." the digimon complained.

"Yes, you did." Sneasel said, nodding his head. "Still, you're getting better. You been practicing that Rollout attack?"

"I haven't gotten the TM yet." Hiroki replied. "With everything that's happened..."

"No rush," Armadillomon said, "I haven't felt like practicing much, myself."

"That's a dangerous attitude." Sneasel warned. "There's no telling when the Dark Ocean might attack again. Or someone restarts the Machine Wars."

"Besides," Ryoko added, "who knows? You might be the one called on to save your girlfriend?"

"Hitomi's not my girlfriend!" Hiroki yelled, a bit too quickly. His face going red didn't add anything to his credibility. "She's a friend, yes, but that's it!"

==Between the worlds

Digimon never truly die; Davis made that observation once. This is doubly true for the incredibly ancient digimon, who always manage to maintain themselves in some form, be it a general presence in the digital world they come from, passing a part of themselves into another, or empowering an ancient artifact for those who are (relatively) pure of heart to find.

One such spirit shifted its body (for lack of a better word), disturbed by something it sensed. There was trouble coming to one who bore its spirit, and he needed help. Now. He had only just started out, the spirit sensed, and wasn't ready for what was coming...

A signal? It was searching for something. It was inoffensive, but it offered a possible solution

"Help me..."

==New Bark Town

Ryoko, who had been laughing at Hiroki's expression, stopped when she heard the voice. Hiroki had heard it too, as did their partner monsters.

"Was that...?" Hiroki looked around. It had sounded like it had come from right where they were.

"It wasn't me." Ryoko replied, also looking. Sneasel had moved beside her, suspecting an attack.

"Help me..." the voice said again.

"Hiroki! Your digivice!" Ryoko pointed to Hiroki's D-3, which was glowing. A second later, the message repeated, more intently. "We'd better go see my dad."

==Five minutes later

"It just keeps saying 'help me', over and over." Ryoko said, a bit unnerved. "I've never heard of a digivice doing this before."

Izzy looked at Hiroki's D-3. "It is odd. You say it started about five minutes ago?"

"That was about the time we sent out the signal through the portal." Gary said. He checked the monitor. "But there's...wait. Izzy, look at this!"

Izzy looked at the screen. "Is that a transmission intercepting our signal?" He noticed Hiroki looking at the screen too. He's so much like his father, he thought to himself. He moved over and showed Hiroki what he was looking at. "We've been working on a way to speed up our search, and we were testing it out just now. I think what happened is that someone saw our transmission, and used it to send a signal back here. Your digivice must have picked it up. Don't worry, once I shut the beam down, it should stop."

"But," Hiroki asked, "someone's asking for help. Shouldn't we...do something?"

A lot like his father, Izzy amended. "Right now, we don't exactly know where the signal is coming from...Wait. It's traced. And we can't really do anything Hiroki. Even if we could, we don't know exactly where the signal is, what's going on, or who's asking for help. And right now, finding Hitomi is our highest priority. Right?"

"Power spike!" Ken yelled, sitting at another monitor. "Something's trying to emerge through the portal!"

Izzy's eyes went wide, as he realized what it meant. "Hiroki! Run, get out of here!" Hiroki backed up, inadvertently getting to close to the portal mechanism.

"Hiroki!" Ryoko yelled, grabbing the boy, as did Armadillomon and Sneasel. There was a bright flash, and the four vanished, pulled through the gate!

"RYOKO!"

==

Ryoko blacked out for a few seconds, the feeling of moving 'sideways' through the digital gateway proving too much for her. The next thing she knew, Hiroki was shaking her gently, trying to wake her up.

"Ryoko? Ryoko, wake up!" Beside him, Sneasel and Armadillomon looked over the girl, concern evident.

"I'm awake kid, relax." she said, irritated. Sitting up, she looked around. She was sitting in the middle of a peaceful field. Tall grass, flowers, standard deal. "Where are we?"

Sneasel looked around. "I think we're in one of the digital worlds your dad found."

"How do you know it's a digital world?"

Sneasel pointed up. Looking, she saw what looked like a big black bird flying overhead. "Is that a Sabirdramon?" she asked.

"Yeah." Armadillomon replied. "And I picked out a Flamedramon arguing with a Raidramon just after we landed. It's not our digital world."

"Great. I hope dad can find us." A thought occurred to Ryoko. "Hey, Hiroki? Is your digivice still giving you that message?"

Hiroki looked at his D-3. "No. It stopped just after we got here. Do you think that this is where the message was coming from? Could we have been...taken here?"

"It's possible." Armadillomon said, looking around. "I wonder if..."

"What?" Hiroki asked. "Do you think Hitomi might be here?"

"I wouldn't get too far ahead of myself." Sneasel advised. "Izzy said that he'd found a lot of different digital worlds; this is probably just one of many." The pokemon looked around, wondering what they had gotten into this time. "I hope they can get us back."

"What's all this noise." a rough voice grumbled from behind the group. Looking back, the four saw a small green digimon stick its head up out of the grass, apparently just having woken up.

"Goblimon." Hiroki said, a bit worried.

"Relax," Armadillomon whispered, "it's just one. We can take him down if he starts anything."

Not noticing Hiroki and Armadillomon, Goblimon stared balefully at Ryoko, assuming she was in charge. "What're you doing here, human?"

"Easy, shorty. We're just leaving." Sneasel moved in front of Ryoko, matching Goblimon's glare.

"Not short, just due for growth spurt..." Goblimon stopped as he caught sight of Hiroki. "YOU!" he shouted.

"M...me?"

"You beat up boss! Now we beat you up!" Goblimon swiveled around, shouting over the field. "Me found one!" As he yelled, another Goblimon stuck his head up, looking at Hiroki. Then another one appeared. Two more. Then a few more. By about the 30th Goblimon head, Hiroki, Ryoko, and their partner monsters were already running.

==New bark Town.

"I hope they're all right." Noriko, Hiroki's mother said. His father sat in a chair, still unable to speak.

"I'm sure they're fine." Ken said. "We know what we have to do, we just need time to get the portal ready." He looked at Hiroki's father. "Cody?" Cody looked up. He hadn't been crying, but his eyes were red. "We could use your help." Ken added. Cody smiled a bit, and got up, eager to bring his son home.

Outside, Kari was trying to calm Izzy down. The stress of searching for Hitomi, combined with this latest development, had caused Izzy to have a bit of a breakdown. "Shh, Izzy, it's me." Kari said. "Come back, please? I need you, we all do."

"God, Kari..it's all my fault. And our daughter is...is..."

"You'll find them," Kari said gently, "you'll bring Ryoko, Hiroki, and Hitomi all home. And we'll all be happy again, I know it. It wasn't your fault, any more than what happened to Hitomi was. But we need you here, together, so we can do it, alright?" Kari held her husband for another few minutes, until he had calmed down.

"Thanks." Izzy said, still a bit shaky.

Kari kissed Izzy on the forehead. "You'd better get back. The others are going to need you." Izzy nodded, kissed his wife, and went back in. When he was out of sight, Kari slumped down. "Ryoko, where are you?" she asked.

Gatomon was beside her. "She's fine, I'm sure of it. I may not get along with Sneasel, but if anyone can see her through this, he can."

Kari hugged her partner. "Thanks."

"It's what I'm here for, remember?"

==Frontier Digital World

"That's it!" Sneasel yelled, stopping. The four had spent the last few minutes running, dodging explosions as the enraged digimon threw bombs at them. "There's no way we'll outrun all of them. You go on, I'll hold them off!" The four had stopped what looked like a monorail track, sitting on the ground. It looked like it had been used recently; there was no sign of moss or other overgrowth on the track, or the ties that sat underneath the rail.

"That's nuts!" Ryoko yelled.

"Protecting you is my only duty! Get going!"

"Forget it!" Hiroki said. "If you stay, we all stay!" Setting Armadillomon down, Hiroki pulled out his D-3. Ryoko did likewise. "Digiarmour Energize!"

"Armadillomon, armour digivolve to...Chameleonmon, kindly forest spirit!"

"Sneasel, armour digivolve to...Yashamon, swordsman of Light!"

The Goblimon horde stopped as the two digimon armour digivolved. "Spirit?" some of them asked, causing Hiroki and Ryoko to blink, confused. Then six of them stepped forward, two groups of three, then started glowing.

"Are they evolving?" Hiroki wondered, as the six attacking digimon glowed, odd circles of what looked like bar-codes swirled around them. The two groups seemed to merge and, when the glow subsided, two Ogremon stood there, ready to attack!

"They DNA digivolved!" Chameleonmon said, stunned.

"They're only champions!" Yashamon snarled. "Don't let them get through!" Yahsamon charged one Ogremon, wooden swords glowing with energy. The two quickly began dueling, Ogremon's club and brute strength matched by Yashamon's paired weapons and agility.

Chameleonmon stared down the second Ogremon, placing himself between the attacker and Hiroki. "Come and get me!" he called, taunting the Ogremon. Roaring, Ogremon attacked, swinging his club downwards, trying to smash the armor digimon into the ground. Chameleonmon hopped back, smacking Ogremon with well aimed strikes from his froglike tongue. "You know you got a lousy aftertaste?"

Ogremon roared, smashing his club where Chameleonmon had been. A second later, Ogremon opened his eyes, looking where the club had hit. There was a small crater, formed from the force of the blow, but no sign of Chameleonmon. Behind the digimon, a part of the air shimmered, and Chameleonmon, dropping his cloak of invisibility, reappeared, wrapped his tongue around Ogremon's legs, and tripped the monster.

Yashamon saw all this out of the corner of his eye, pleased that his friend had become so good at defending Hiroki. Then he returned his attention to the Ogremon he was battling. His movements were limited; like Chameleonmon, he was blocking the attacker from reaching his partner. Catching Ogremon's club on one sword, he caught the attacker under the chin with his second sword, spun as the Ogremon reeled back, and kicked the attacker in the chest, throwing him back. Ogremon retaliated with his 'Pummel Whack' attack; Yahsamon caught the attack on the small shields on the back of his wrists, jumped, and launched his strongest attack.

"GRAND CROSS!" Swords glowing, Yashamon flew at Ogremon, swords cutting a pair of slashes in the shape of a plus sign, glowing white for a few seconds. Critically wounded, Ogremon glowed, and split back into three Goblimon. Hoping he didn't look too drained after that attack, Yashamon stared down the rest of the Goblimon there, daring someone else to attack. "Ah, nuts." he muttered, as the rest of the Goblimon, confident in their superior numbers, advanced.

The Goblimon stopped when they heard a train whistle in the distance. Looking down the track, Ryoko and Hiroki saw what looked like a train coming down the track at high speed.

"Trailmon." One of the Goblimon said, backing away.

"Trailmon?" Ryoko asked.

"Must be the guy that's running the train." Chameleonmon said, reverting to Aramdillomon. "He must be pretty strong to scare these guys off." As he spoke, the train stopped behind them.

"Get on." a voice said from the train. The four clambered on, and the train left, leaving the Goblimon standing there.

"Humans blast off again." One Goblimon observed. The other Goblimon edged away from him. He always was the odd one of the group. "Place is becoming lousy with them."

On the train, Hiroki and Ryoko looked for whoever was controlling ht train, while Sneasel and Armadillomon recovered from the battle. "Hello?" Hiroki called. "Where are you? Thank you for stopping the train!"

"Train?" the voice said again. "TRAIN? I am Angler, a Trailmon! I am no mere...vehicle!"

The two humans blinked. "The train..." Hiroki muttered.

"Is a digimon." Ryoko completed. Her pokegear began ringing at that point. "Hello?" she said into it.

"Ryoko!" Kari's voice came over the phone. "Are you and Hiroki alright? Where are you?" Ryoko and Hiroki could hear the panic in Kari's voice.

"We're fine for now Mom." Ryoko replied. "I think we're in one of those Digital Worlds dad mentioned."

Izzy's voice came over the small speaker. "Ryoko? Where are you and Hiroki now? Are your digimon OK?" Quickly, Ryoko recounted what had happened to them so far. "OK, listen carefully. We've managed to track the trail the portal left behind, so we know what world you're on. We're working on a way to get you back, but it's going to take a day or two. Find a safe place to hide and STAY DOWN." Izzy placed extra emphasis on those last two words. "No heroics, you don't know the situation there. I'll call you back in a few hours, alright?"

"Right." Ryoko let Hiroki speak to his parents, who were also in a state of panic. Their son reassured them he and Armadillomon were fine. Ryoko signed off, giving the power cell in her pokegear a chance to recharge.

==New Bark Town

"Fifty Goblimon?" Izzy said, looking at the speaker after Ryoko closed the connection. "And a train digimon."

"At least they're ok." Kari said. "But why would Goblimon attack them? Ryoko said it sounded like they recognized them."

Ken looked over the readings on the world the two children were trapped on. "According to this, there are other digidestined on this world. It could be that they were mistaken for them. Izzy, wouldn't it have been better to lead them to those other digidestined?"

"No." Izzy replied, voice firm. "We don't know what's happening there, or what those digidestined are like. For all we know, they could be like the Emp..." Izzy stopped, remembering who he was talking to. "I'm sorry." he said quietly.

"No," Ken said, "you're right. It's better if they stay low." Ken looked at Gary, still uncomfortable being reminded of his time as the Digimon Emperor. "Well? Can we get them?"

"Not yet." Gary replied. "I sent Cody and Noriko to help get some of the parts we need from Goldenrod."

"Wouldn't it be faster to have them go through the digiports?"

Gary shook his head. "Not after all this. Besides, I figured they needed to do something to help."

"Good call." Kari said, smiling. "I'd...I'll go look in on Kyoko and Emiko."

==Frontier Digital World

As the group traveled, Angler (as the Trailmon introduced himself), filled the four in on the events occurring on this particular digital world.

"OK," Ryoko said, not fully convinced, "so a Mega level angel digimon goes nuts, and the Digital world is falling apart."

"Correct." Angler replied.

"And why hasn't anyone been doing anything about this?"

"We can't. The Chosen Children are supposed to be doing something about it, but I haven't seen them since they arrived."

"'Chosen Children'?" Hiroki looked at Ryoko. "Do you think he means digidestined like us?"

"The last I heard," Angler continued, "they had broken up a gang of Goblimon and a Snimon that were enslaving a bunch of electric type digimon."

"That must be why they attacked us." Armadillomon said. "That horde must have been part of the group those other kids broke up. Maybe if we keep going this way, we'll meet them."

"Didn't Izzy say to keep low?"

Ryoko looked at Sneasel. "Will you stop being so suspicious, already?" As she finished, the train shuddered to a halt.

Hiroki looked out the window. "I think we have to find other means of transit." he said, stunned.

"What? What happened?" Ryoko looked out the window. Outside, she saw that the land in front of them, including the track and everything else for several miles, was gone. "It's... all gone."

"Yes," Angler rumbled, "I said as much. Well, back the way I came." Noises of machinery grinding together could be heard as Angler reversed gears. "You might want to get off here."

==Next Day

Night had fallen shortly after the foursome had gotten off the train; they managed to find a small cave to rest in.

The next morning, the group set out, interested in learning more about the area they were in.

"I think I saw a town or something ahead" Armadillomon said, running back to the group. "Maybe we can get some food there. I'm starving."

"You're a rookie digimon," Ryoko cracked, "you're always hungry." She noticed Sneasel was looking off to one side. "What is it?"

"Battle." he said, tensing.

Hiroki looked in the direction Sneasel was looking. "I hear it too. Is it coming this way?"

"If it's a running battle, maybe. Come on." Sneasel led the group behind a small hill, then climbed to the top and looked in the direction the sound was coming from.

"Well?" Ryoko called up.

"I see some Gotsumon and..."

"And?"

"You're not going to believe this...

==

Gigasmon grinned, herding the rookie level digimon into his trap. "You'll be excellent bait for those children." he gloated, ignoring the hail of stones that pelted him. Casually, he kicked one, watching the small stone digimon go flying.

"GRAND CROSS!" Gigasmon stumbled, nearly knocked over by the attack. Swiveled around, he saw a digimon he didn't recognize. Humanoid, midnight blue, holding a pair of wooden clubs like swords.

"Another one?" Gigasmon couldn't believe it; he thought all the humans had been accounted for. "Never mind. I'll beat you like I beat them. Earthquake!" Gigasmon slammed his fist into the ground, ripping the earth apart underneath Yashamon.

The armoured pokemon jumped, dodging the attack. He took my strongest attack without flinching, he thought. Must be a high level champion, maybe even an ultimate! "Get out of here!" he yelled to the Gostumon who were watching the fight. "I don't know what you are, but I'm not letting you hurt more digimon. PLASMA CUTTER!" Two blades of light energy shot at Gigasmon.

A Light element attack, Gigasmon realized. That boy found another one? "Got tired of the wolf act?" He noticed the attacker step back, confused. "So, you're not him. Well, I'll see what kind of spirit you have then." He stepped forward, then tripped as a long tongue snapped out and wrapped around Gigasmon's legs.

Grunting, he stood up. "Who dares?"

Chameleonmon appeared, standing some distance away from Yashamon. "Me, basalt breath!"

"Watch it," Yashamon said to the armoured digimon, "he knows Earthquake. Stay back, I'll handle him."

"And you're doing such a good job too." Chameleonmon remarked drily, fading out of sight. Sighing, Yashamon charged in again. He knew that one hit from this monster's oversized arms would end the fight, forcing him to spend more time dodging than attacking. Just a few more seconds...

Two red beams of light shot out, catching Gigasmon in the back. Roaring, he spun around, but Chameleonmon had already faded out again and had changed position. Yashamon used the distraction to land another set of strikes on Gigasmon.

Time to change tactics, Gigasmon thought. "Slide Evolution...Grottomon!" Quickly, Gigasmon's body shrunk and reshaped itself. Surprised by the change, Yashamon missed his next strike, leaving Grottomon a chance to dig underground.

"A mode change?" Chameleonmon wondered, reappearing.

"Look out!" Yashamon yelled, but it was too late. The ground underneath Chameleonmon buckled, and the armoured digimon was sent flying as Grottomon reappeared, launching an attack from underneath. Chameleonmon landed several yards away. Grottomon watched as the spiral of digicode appeared around him, then saw the digiegg (which Grottomon mistook for a Spirit) fly away.

A digimon? Grottomon shrugged, ready to attack. He then stopped as he saw a human ran out and grabbed the fallen digimon. "You! Slide Evolution...GIGASMON!" Thinking he recognized the boy, Gigasmon charged at Hiroki, fist raised to smash the boy.

"Leave him alone!" Yashamon body-checked Gigasmon, trying to stop him.

"You're in my way! Hurricane Bomber!" Swinging his fist, Gigasmon caught Yashamon across the chest, flinging the digimon back.

Yashamon landed on the ground, body wracked with pain. Struggling to get up, he felt something was wrong with his digivolution. "What...what's happening...?" Before his eyes, he saw what looked like a bar code spinning around him, a small dark object forming inside it. "My...digiegg..."

"It's mine now!" Gigasmon yelled, jumping forward. Landing in front of Yashamon, Gigasmon opened his mouth, and swallowed the digiegg. Jumping back, the monster opened a hand, and a small silver ball appeared, the crest of light on it. "And now for you." Slowly, Gigasmon advanced on the now devolved Sneasel, who could barely stand up. So he's a digimon after all, Gigasmon concluded. Well, it's a bit better, anyway.

Ryoko ran out and grabbed Sneasel. "Get away from him!"

"Ryoko...get out of here!" Sneasel gasped, still trying to regain his breath.

"All this and a human too." Gigasmon mocked the two. "My lucky day." Gigasmon's fist came flying down. Ryoko and Sneasel closed their eyes, hearing Hiroki scream for Gigasmon not to do it. The next thing she knew, there was a loud crash as if Gigasmon had his something... metal?

A large bug-like digimon had blocked the attack, placing himself between Gigasmon and Ryoko and Sneasel. A metal Heracross? Ryoko wondered.

"That's no way," Blitzmon said confidently, "to treat a lady!"

Part 1 end

Next Episode: Ryoko and Hiroki meet the Chosen Children of this digital world, and learn more about Gigasmon, Spirit Evolution, and the problems here. And, Gigasmon gains a frightening new power in the wake of his theft of the Digiegg of Light.
'Garmmon versus Wolfmon: Round 1!'