DISCLAIMER: I do not own Digimon or any of its related franchise. However, any OC's are my creation and you must ask me before you use them. Thank you very much.

Jason Andersen sighed. He sighed because it hadn't been the first time his cards had been thrown all over the place that day. Apparently Roderick, the local bully, thought it was funny to throw him against a locker and spill his cards just for the hell of it. And in the middle of the hallway too. People, some laughing and pointing at him, some ignoring the whole situation and going on with their lives surrounded him. He knelt down, picking them up and stuffing them in the deck box he wore on the back of his belt. He'd organize them later. He gripped the Digivice that also hung on his belt. It wasn't a real one of course. Stupid thought. Digimon were just a game, a cartoon show. There was no way such amazing creatures would exist right? 'Right...' He thought, sighing again. "Not going to happen. Snap out of it." He muttered to himself, rising from the ground, the white plastic device still on his hand.

He had always been a fan, ever since he had started to see the first episodes. He got hooked and started buying every game he could. Consoles, computer games, you name it, he had it. Right now his latest passion was the trading card game, as his deck box and Digivice proved. He never left home without them. His parents thought it slightly worrying but they didn't mind it too much.

After all, that's who he is. He has Asperger's Syndrome. A very light variation of it but he is indeed an autistic. That explained his fixation with Digimon, his aversion to loud noises and how he can stand on one end of a room and listen in on a quiet conversation happening on the other end. It explained why he is such a social failure, he just can't express himself. How he lacks any kind of physical capacity but has a mind that can grasp the fundamentals of Quantum Electrodynamics with just a simple reading of the theory. Speaking of that, physically he isn't very impressive, quite the opposite: seventeen years old, barely reaching 1.69m and thin as a stick he could barely even beat his little sister. Black hair and green eyes, slightly paler than usual and a pair of rectangular glasses composed his frail looking appearance.

At that time the bell rang. He let the Digivice dangle again from his belt, pushed his glasses up his nose and slung his messenger bag around his shoulders. He then headed to his next class, Physics. He arrived there and got to his usual seat, next to a bundle of clothes that rose and fell slightly, accompanied by a light snore. He tapped the top of the bundle sharply.

'Wake up Cy. Class has begun.' He said, taking his things from his backpack.

The pile of clothes shook and Cyrus looked up, awake from the nap. 'Bummer man. I was having an awesome dream.' He groaned, rubbing the sleep off his eyes. He looked over at Jason. 'What happened man? You look like shit.'

'Roderick happened.' He answered bitterly.

Cyrus facepalmed. 'Again!? Come on man, you got to tell someone about him. Else he'll keep on trampling you!' He said, looking worried.

Jason looked at him. His tall, built as a closet friend was dressed as usual; baggy cargo pants and a white undershirt with a black hoodie, his headphones wrapped around his neck. His gray eyes showed concern. 'You know I can't do anything. If I talk to anyone then it'll be even worse. The only way to stop him would be to kick his ass but I don't see me even managing to land a punch on him.'

'I still think you should talk to someone.' Cyrus shrugged. The teacher entered at that moment, ending their conversation.

They both left together after school. They both climbed into Cyrus' car, a silver hand-me-down Buick LeSable that he and his father restored a few summers back. It was cloudy today. It would probably rain and the weather forecasts were predicting thunderstorms for the weekend.

'Can you leave me at the shop? The new Digimon expansion is coming out today and I wanted to buy a booster pack just to see what came along. Might get lucky.' Jason asked as they rode away from school. He used to go this game shop, 'Battle Arena' were all kinds of board and card games were sold and they even organized some hours during the weekend so that players could come and play on the shop's back room. The city's trading card games tournaments also were usually hosted over there.

'Sure, no prob.' Cyrus replied, taking a right. He wasn't really a big fan of the thing but he sometimes played with Jason at sleepovers.

Ten minutes later they arrived at a small store with a sign above the window saying 'Battle Arena' in bright colors. Jason hopped off the small car and closed the door. He peered into the car from his opened window.

'I'll be here in five.' He told Cyrus.

'Sure, take your time.' Cyrus tranquilized him, waving his hand dismissively.

Jason nodded, turning around and entering the shop. Shelves after shelves of board games, comic books and manga lined up against the walls. A counter on the far wall with snack expositors on one side and an ancient-looking cash register on the other owned the space. Behind the counter there were at least a dozen rows with booster boxes of every possible and imaginable trading card game filling all the available space. A door to the right of the counter was left ajar.

'Hey Pete! You here?' Jason called out at the door.

A toilet flushing sound answered him. A small man with three-day-old stubble went through the door a few seconds after. He was almost bald and wore glasses with circular lenses. He also wore a black t-shirt with the name of the store on it, the t-shirt slightly stretched because of a small beer belly that grew underneath and a pair of old blue jeans.

'Ah, Jason. Thought I'd see you today.' The man greeted him, offering his hand.

Jason raised an eyebrow at the hand. 'Did you wash your hands?'

'Point taken.' Pete answered, retracting his hand as Jason rolled his eyes. He turned around to the shelves and bent down. 'I still haven't opened them yet. You'll be the first to have them purchased at my store.' He said, standing back up with a stylized paper box with the words "Digimon TCG: The Real World Expansion" printed onto the sides and top. Pete tore the seal open and 36 boosters lined in two rows of 18 each were presented to the both of them. Pete turned back to the counter and set the box on it. 'Wanna pick or want me to work my magic?' He asked with a knowing smile.

Jason shrugged. 'You can "work your magic".' He answered, smiling back. Pete's magic touch had earned him some pretty good cards in the past. It was almost as if he could see which cards were inside each booster before he opened them. 'Can you give me two of them? I'd like to buy Cyrus one.'

'Sure! Two magical happenings coming right up.' Pete said, running his index finger through the top of the boosters. Suddenly, he stopped over one of the last on the right row. He passed his finger over it a couple of times. 'Hmm… Yes. I think this should do.' He said, extracting the booster pack from the box. 'That's yours. Now, one for Cyrus… Huh. This one's good.' He said extracting another one on the left row more towards the front of the box. 'Make sure not to mix them up or else it won't work.' Pete said, chuckling.

'Thanks.' Jason thanked him, accepting the booster packs. He reached for his wallet and opened it. 'Crap.' He had forgotten to bring enough money for both.

'Don't worry. Come back tomorrow, you can pay then.' Pete said, noticing his rather empty wallet. 'But bring what you got there. I'm curious to see if I still got it.' Pete said with a sly smile.

Jason thought his smile was slightly suspicious but nodded. 'Sure. See you tomorrow then.' He said, heading for the door.

'See ya!' Pete waved behind him, the sly smile still on his face.

Jason walked back to the car, seating on the passenger's seat.

'You got what you wanted?' Cyrus asked, starting the car.

'Yup.' Jason answered happily, waving the booster pack in front of him.

'Cool. But if you want to get home in one piece, you'd better let me see the road.' Cyrus said, chuckling at Jason's enthusiasm.

'Oh. Sorry!' He said, stuffing the booster pack into his pocket.

'You're not opening it?' Cyrus asked, taking a left.

'C'mon man, you know how I work. I have my rituals.' Jason replied with a smirk.

'True. You'll first sanctify the cards on your Digimon altar, spray them with holy Agumon spit and then use a Flamedramon head blade to open them.' He joked.

'Knowing myself, that's a legit assumption.' Jason laughed.

Cyrus stopped the car on his driveway. 'Well, here we are.' He and Jason were next-door neighbors. Jason's house was the blue one to the right while Cyrus' was the white one to the left.

'Thanks man.' Jason said, getting out of the car and slinging his messenger bag around his right shoulder.

'No prob.' Cyrus said, smiling.

'Here, bought this for you.' Jason said, throwing Cyrus the booster pack he bought for him.

Cyrus caught it in mid-air. He stared at it. 'Thanks man. Why?'

Jason shrugged. 'Just wanted to thank you for being my friend.'

Cyrus looked at him. 'You don't have to thank me for that, man. I'm proud of being your friend.' Jason stood there, not knowing what to say. Cyrus clapped him on the shoulder. 'Thanks anyway bro. I appreciate the gesture.'

Jason nodded. 'You're welcome. See ya tomorrow.' Jason said, going to his house.

'See ya.' Cyrus answered, making a two-finger salute to Jason.

Jason unlocked his front door and entered. 'I'm home!' No answer. 'Weird. Where did everyone go?' He climbed the stairs to his room. He found a note taped to his door:

Dear Jason,

You've probably forgotten but a friend of ours is getting married tomorrow. We'll be away until Sunday night, since he also invited us for the day after party. Your sister is coming with us because he said to bring one of you and, since you went to Cousin Jeff's wedding and Kate didn't, we thought it was fair that she went this time. Besides, you'd probably rather hang out with Cyrus than be stuck with us all weekend right? :-)

Anyway, you know the house rules, no partying, no alcohol, no drugs, and no property destruction. (he rolled his eyes up at this) There's food on the fridge and some money on your desk if you need. Just don't waste it all in cards okay?

Love,

Mom and Dad

'Oh right.' Jason said to himself. He almost leapt with joy. A whole weekend to himself! Probably rent a few movies and do a marathon night with Cy or something. Maybe even order some pizza. He entered his bedroom, throwing his messenger bag onto his bed and heading for his desk, turning his laptop on. He fished for the booster pack and set it next to the laptop. He opened a folder labeled "DigimonTCG" and opened a Notepad document named "TRWExpansion". He then reached for a x-act and carefully sliced the top of the booster with a straight horizontal line. He always checked which cards were inside and started a detailed list on which cards on each expansion he had. Outside, rain started to pour. He got up and flicked the light switch on since it was getting dark from the clouds. He sat back down, gently extracting the ten cards from inside the plastic wrapper. He collected the wrappers by the way. He had a photograph album filled with them. He fanned the cards out.

'Wait, one, two, three…' He counted them. '…seven, eight, nine. Where the hell is the tenth!?' He flicked the back card to the left and saw the tenth card. He almost dropped them, his mouth hanging open. A thunder crackled outside. He couldn't believe it. Because the tenth card in his hand was a blue card. The same blue card that appeared in the anime, with the yellow symbol with a pixelated, roaring dinosaur on its front.

'This can't be! I searched the Internet when the expansion card set was announced and there was nothing referring to blue cards coming out! Unless they purposely omitted them for a bonus easter egg. But that would be dumb because that way no one would know what the card does, since it doesn't have any text on it, and it would be useless!' He paused for a second. 'Unless… This is the real deal.' He thought. He dropped the other cards on his keyboard, reaching for his Digivice. He gulped. The corner of the card was inside the card reader. He took a deep breath. Then he slid the blue card through the Digivice.

A blinding white light filled the room. Jason was forced to close his eyes. He tried to force the card through faster but somehow it resisted his efforts. He could feel the Digivice shaking in his closed fist. After what were a couple of seconds but felt like an eternity to Jason, the card slid through and the light vanished. He opened his eyes, finding that both his laptop and the lights were dead. The room was really dark, partly because of the lack of electricity and partly because his eyes were still under the influence of the white light. He looked around, trying to see anything in the inky darkness when another thunder flashed. A tall shadow stood against the light it provided, scaring him shitless. He yelped and fell to the ground, pedaling quickly on the floor to get away from it. The shadow followed him until his back hit the bookshelf, the force of the impact sending a couple of books tumbling to the ground. The shadow drew nearer to him, step by step. He curled into a ball, eyes closed and arms in front of his face.

He suddenly felt two strong hands under his arms, picking him up. He curled further still. 'This is it, I'm done for.' He thought bitterly. The creature forced him to stand, his legs feeling like jelly.

One of the hands shifted, pushing away his arms, the other cupped his chin, making him look up although his eyes were still closed. The hand felt more like a paw, furry and soft. A centimeter-long claw slightly pricked his skin. He was shivering in fear, thinking that the creature was about to slice his neck.

'Are you okay?' He heard a female voice ask. Curiosity spoke louder than fear and he opened his eyes a tiny little bit. The power had returned and he could finally see who the shadow really was. A tall yellow-furred fox was looking at him, a tuft of fur in her chest snowy white, her long forearms wearing purple gloves, her yellow tail with a white tip slowly trailing the air behind her and her blue eyes filled with concern.

Jason's eyes widened. 'This… can't be…!' 'Renamon…' He muttered in amazement, his jaw dropping.

She looked at him more relieved. 'Oh so you do know me. They told me you would. For a second I was afraid I had scared you.' She let him go. Jason stumbled but held himself. 'You sure you are okay? What's your name?' She asked.

He nodded. Yeah, I'm Jason. I'm just… God! I mean, you're not supposed to exist! Why are you here!?' He blurted out.

She gave a short laugh. 'What do you mean why am I here? I'm your Partner! You're my Tamer! Why else would I show up?' She asked back.

Jason stared at her wide-eyed. 'Me? A Tamer? Preposterous! ' He only used long words when he was nervous. And having a 2-meter tall fox telling you you're her Tamer really puts everyone on edge.

'You don't believe me, look at your hip.' She told him.

Jason looked at his Digivice and his jaw fell for the second time in as many minutes. His old white plastic square with a screen had morphed to something that looked more like an actual Digivice. Now it was more compact and heavier, fitting perfectly on his hand. It was yellow with a blue lining around the screen and white buttons, a clear metallic luster emanating from it.

'This can't be... Why me? I'm nothing special.' He muttered.

Renamon heard him and scowled. 'Well, you must be something to the guy who gives off Partners because it isn't like anyone can be a Tamer. You need something to meet the requirements and only he can tell what it is.'

'He? Who's "he"?' Jason asked, raising an eyebrow.

'Beelzemon. He's the one who decides who and when someone receives a Partner Digimon and becomes a Tamer.' She explained.

'Beelzemon!? But, you're the first Digimon I see! I've never met Beelzemon in my life!' He protested.

She smiled, walking to his desk and searching for something. 'Who gave you this then?' She asked, picking up the booster pack where the cards came from.

'I bought them from Pete at the store...' He trailed off, realizing something. 'And he was the one who chose that booster pack...'

'So?' She encouraged him.

'So does that mean... he's Beelzemon?' He slowly asked.

'Good! Now we're getting somewhere.' She said.

Jason thought hard for a few minutes. 'If she's really here that means I really am a Tamer. And Tamers aren't made on a whim. Every time there's trouble, Tamers are made. So if they've turned to me and made me a Tamer, shit's about to hit the fan, if it hasn't done that already. But I can't possibly be the only Tamer around. On every season of the cartoons there was always more than one Tamer to save the world. Wait... Cyrus also got a booster pack! And it was Pete who picked that one too! So... is Cyrus a Tamer?' He wondered. He extracted his cell phone from his pocket only to see that it was also dead. 'Crap.' He muttered.

'What?' She asked, curious.

'Cell phone's dead and I need to call Cyrus, my friend. He also got one of those at the same time I did.' He explained, pointing at the booster pack. 'You mind staying here? I'm just going next door. I don't want him to see you until I've confirmed he's a Tamer. I think he would just freak out. If I call you will you listen?'

'Probably.' She shrugged.

'Good. Then wait for me to call you okay?' Jason asked her.

'Sure.' She answered, smiling warmly.

Jason nodded and headed downstairs. Her smile faltered. Renamon saw him go out the door, braving the rain, and knocking on the front door of the other house. 'He's small and cute. I doubt he has the guts to do this. Definitely not Tamer material. Did Beelzemon make a mistake?' She thought.

Then she took a look around the bedroom. What she saw impressed her. Posters with images of various Digimon lined the walls. Jason's bookshelves were filled to the top with Digimon paraphernalia and boxes marked with stuff like "Action Figures" and "Old Digivices". The keys resting next to his laptop had a key chain shaped like a Guilmon. She looked at the ceiling. On the patch of white on top of his bed were three larger posters, making a triangle. The one to the bottom left was of a Terriermon, a defiant smile on his face, his short little arms crossed. The one to the bottom right was of a Guilmon, the Digimon having a look of curiosity on his muzzle, a claw touching his chin as if in thought. But the top one was the one that made her stare for so long. It was a poster of her. She was portrayed in mid-jump, as if the image was about to jump to the left, landing on top of the dresser. The image was extraordinarily like her. What nagged at her was that she was given the place of honor instead of Guilmon. Intelligence told her that in this world one of the main characters of the so-called Digimon franchise was a Guilmon.

'So why?' She thought. She shrugged. Probably a mistake from the boy's part, she guessed. 'I have to admit however, that he is an avid fan.' She looked around again, noticing a notebook on his desk labeled "Card Battle Combos".

Intrigued, she picked it up and flicked through it. What she saw made her widen her eyes in astonishment. There were depicted combinations of cards, some as big as seventeen cards in a row that, if used correctly, would almost certainly tip the balance of the battle to the user's favor without fail. There was almost no one at Command that could pull something like this.

'This is impressive. I take that back, he has the mind of a genius. Look at all this!' She thought. 'I regret ever thinking anything bad of him. Beelzemon made the right call.'

Jason dashed down the stairs and into the rain, his mind still racing from the events that had just occurred in his bedroom. 'So I'm Renamon's Tamer eh? This will be awesome.' He thought with a huge grin on his face. Yet, the threat that something evil would happen weighted on his mind. 'Whatever, we'll deal with it once it starts. And I guess Pete… I mean, Beelzemon will have something to say if he really was the one who chose me as a Tamer.' He still couldn't believe that the sloppy store manager was indeed a powerful Digimon. He banged at Cyrus' door. Cyrus appeared after a few seconds, a look of disbelief etched on his usually calm face.

'Dude! I was about to call you! You gotta see this!' He said before Jason could open his mouth, pulling him inside.

Jason laughed mentally. Cyrus had probably seen the Blue Card too and used it out of curiosity and now he had a Digimon too. This would be interesting.

Cyrus led him all the way to his bedroom where he found Cyrus' little sister, Amy, petting a two and a half feet tall white cat-like creature with yellow gloves and a golden ring on her stripped tail, who was purring with its eyes closed from the attention. 'There.' He told Jason, pointing at the Digimon.

'Hi Amy.' Jason greeted her. She waved. Jason then walked to the Digimon. 'Hello Gatomon, nice to meet you. My name is Jason.' Cyrus looked at him, astonished.

Gatomon opened her eyes, surprised that he was there but smiled. 'Hi Jason! Nice to meet you too.' She looked around. 'Where's Renamon?' She asked, confused.

'I'll call her.' Jason said. He opened the window and yelled at his own window. 'Renamon! Could you come here please?' Cyrus was still staring at him, baffled.

'What the…?' But he was cut short by Renamon phasing next to Jason while he was closing the window, effectively scaring him. 'Whoa man! You should warn me before you do something like that!' He said.

Amy stared at Renamon with wide eyes. 'Wow! You're beautiful Foxy!'

Renamon looked at Jason, raising an eyebrow. 'Foxy?' She asked, a faint blush on cheeks.

Jason shrugged. 'That's Amy for you.'

Then, Cyrus suddenly recognized Renamon. 'Hey, isn't that...?'

Renamon ignored him and greeted Gatomon cordially, almost like they were work colleagues.

'Yep.' Jason turned to Renamon. 'Renamon, this is Cyrus. Cyrus, this is Renamon.'

'Nice to meet you Cyrus.' She said with a smile, offering her paw.

'Uhh... Nice to meet you too.' Cyrus answered, lightly shaking hands with her. He turned back to Jason. 'Why is this happening!?'

'You found a Blue Card didn't you?' Jason asked. Cyrus nodded. 'Me too. We're both Tamers now. Renamon is my Partner. And Gatomon there is yours.' He explained, signaling the cat Digimon, who was still sitting on Amy's lap.

Cyrus looked at both Digimon, still unsure that they were real. 'But were did those cards come from?'

'Pete.' Jason answered, crossing his arms. 'He's actually Beelzemon.'

Cyrus stared at him, shocked. 'You mean to tell me that Pete, the fat, bald, beer-loving guy that owns 'Battle Arena', is actually a Digimon, and a powerful one at that?'

Jason chuckled at his friend's reaction. 'I know, right? Couldn't believe it myself but I asked Renamon and she says it's him.' He paused. 'Anyway, we should go there as soon as possible. If we were made Tamers that mean something's up. And who better to tell what that is than who made us Tamers?' Cyrus nodded. 'By the way, where are your parents?'

'Thankfully they're both out for errands. Else it would be a pain to explain this to them.' He said, signaling both Digimon.

Jason nodded. 'But you know, we should tell them as soon as possible. That way it'll be one less thing we have to worry about later on.'

Cyrus scratched the back of his head. 'You're right.' He glanced at his watch and fetched his car keys. 'Well, we should get going. The store closes in half an hour. If we want to talk to him still today it has to be now.'

Jason nodded. Gatomon rose from Amy's lap and climbed to Cyrus' shoulder, unbalancing him for a second before he managed to straighten himself up. He headed downstairs, closely followed by Jason, Renamon and Amy.

'Can I come too big bro?' She asked hopefully.

Cyrus sighed. 'I guess so. It won't be much fun though.'

'It's better than staying here alone!' She retorted, pouting.

'True.' Cyrus conceded with a smile, patting her on the top of her head. 'But let's hurry up okay?'

They all piled up into Cyrus' car after he left a note to his parents stuck to the TV. Then, he started the engine and they headed towards the 'Battle Arena'.