“Second time in the digital world,” Eric remarked as he cracked his back, “and we wind up in a heap on the ground.” “How many times do we have to do that to get used to it?” Raine asked as she untangled herself from Lopmon and Labramon. “Probably a few hundred trips or so,” Labramon said. “With that settled, which way is that Benjamin guy’s place?” Lopmon asked, climbing onto Eric’s head. Eric took out the map that he printed off and said, “Looks like we go about half a kilometer north. We should come to a bridge that leads into a desert.” “So we have to hike into the desert?” Labramon sighed. “We’re not cut out to be Digi-destined digimon.” “None of us are cut out to be what we are,” Eric said, “But at least we stocked up on stuff.” Raine nodded. “Too bad Lee couldn’t come along.” “I’m sure someone needs to hold down the fort back home, AND his D3 is broken. I think that accounts for something.” Eric checked the map. “This way.” <><><> Digital Diaries : Adventures 2003 written by Shaun Garin set in Lord Archives Red Digivice Diaries/War Diaries <><><> File 11 : One Small Step “C’mon, c’mon, yes, yes... aaaaaaaaawwww.... crap.” Renamon giggled. “You are two hundred years too early to beat me,” she said, wagging her finger at Piximon who relinquished his hold on the PS2 controller. “This sucks,” Piximon grumbled. “What, being stuck in perfection or being stuck outside the digital world?” the female digimon asked. “Well it definitely ain’t being stuck as a perfection digimon,” Piximon said with a grin. “I’m two levels over you.” “Don’t care, don’t matter,” Renamon said offhandedly as she plugged in a new fighting game. “I can go to ultimate with Hikaru’s help. So neeer!” Piximon pouted as he crossed his arms. Lee hid a smirk as he prepared to go against the toughest player he had ever known. “So, when’s Hikaru coming back home?” Lee asked. “She’s got band practice. And then she’s working at McWonder for a couple of hours. We’ve got a lot of time left.” Renamon grinned. “Besides, it’s my turn to cook dinner.” “Fun. What’s your specialty?” Piximon asked. “Pasta of all sizes and types,” the fox digimon said. “I can cook it well enough.” Lee hoped there wasn’t any fur in the food. <><><> “It’s so hoooooottt,” Labramon panted as the quartet walked in the middle of a desert. “And there’s no stupid oasis in sight.” “I guess that’s why they called it the Desert of Eternity,” Eric said, wiping his forehead free of sweat. “It goes on with no end in sight.” “Great.... now all we need is....” Raine gaped. “whoa....” Eric blinked. “What?” “Take a few steps forwards,” Labramon said. Eric shrugged as he took a few steps. Suddenly, a large oasis with a medium sized Ben Kenobi type of house appeared, sitting at the edge of an oasis. The only jarring note was the large modern looking furnace on the side. “Must get cold at night.” Raine nodded as she stepped up to the door and knocked on it. The door soon opened to reveal a man, about twenty five-ish with short cut hair and a ponytail. He had a jarring resemblance to the young Obi Wan Kenobi. “Um, hi, are you Benjamin?” “Yes I am,” he replied. “Oh, you must be the new digi-destined I called here.” He looked around. “Where are your elder counterparts?” “Holding down the fort back home,” Eric said. “May we come in? It’s roasting out here.” Benjamin nodded as he allowed them inside. <><><> “Wow... it looks smaller from the outside,” Lopmon said, looking around the area. “Most of our buildings have a tendency to have that effect,” Benjamin said with a slight grin. “So, got a reason why you called us?” Labramon inquired. “The reason is that there has been some unusual disturbances here in the digital world. Parts of the digital world have been disappearing and reappearing in the real world, the digimon within that area vanishing along with it,” Benjamin said. “The digital fields,” Raine surmised. “It must actually be a concentrated amount of digital world data that was compressed when it came over.” “That does seem to be an idea....” Benjamin brought up a picture of the western hemisphere of the digital world with some areas highlighted in red. “The red areas are places where the digital fields have been taken from, and from that, one or two digimon at a time.” “Carter once said that the digital world overlaps the real world closely,” Raine said slowly. “Could the digital world and the real world barriers be slowly weakened?” “That I am not certain. Gennai would know, and unfortunately, I do not have the full extent of his knowledge.” Benjamin sighed as he adjusted a control to reveal a few places highlighted in dark. “This Dark Matter has appeared in the digital world. I suspect that it will soon appear in the real world as well.” “This is all fine and dandy but why call us?” Lopmon asked. “I mean, there’s almost half a hundred digi-destined in North America alone according to Koushiro’s website. Surely a more experienced team would help a lot more.” “Because digital fields are only being opened in Canada. Edmonton to be precise.” The psudo Gennai clone sighed. “If this Dark Matter continues to spread, we may have a problem on our hands. As such, Jijimon is already working with the US teams while I split my time between the US and Canada.” “So we just have to check out the Dark Matter, is that it?” Labramon asked. “Seems simple enough.” “I would keep a close watch on things,” Benjamin warned. “Just be very careful when you approach the area. There is no telling what there is underneath the area where the Dark Matter is being formed.” Suddenly the ground shook from a staccato impact, the four toppled to the ground. Lopmon popped out of the pile and checked the window. “Oh man!” “What is it?” Eric joined him at the window and whistled. “That’s one big dragon.” “That’s a Mega Dramon,” Benjamin said. His brow furrowed in anger. “I didn’t even detect it coming this way.” “Silent running,” Eric said, eyes narrowing. “This is too close to our plans.” “Obviously someone sent it here,” Lopmon said. “Come out and play Digi-destined,” the Mega Dramon called out in a low and husky female voice. “I want to fight.” “She’s calling us out,” Labramon said. “I wanna go out there.” “Two champions won’t do much damage,” Raine said, shaking her head. “What level is it?” “Perfection,” Benjamin answered. “You’d best prepare before going out there....” He sweatdropped as Eric and Lopmon were already out the door. “Or you can just rush in blindly.” Raine sighed. “That’s Eric for you.” She turned to Benjamin. “Thank you for your help.” “It’s big, it’s ugly and it’s asking for a whupping,” Eric said with a grin. “Lopmon, go for it!” “Lopmon evolve!” Energy entombed it as it’s skin was ripped off, revealing a grid. It’s form shifted to a large ape like creature as brown and maroon fur covered it’s body. The energy exploded off him as he cried, “Wendigomon!” before revealing his weapons pods. “Destroyed Voice!” The attack simply bounced off the Mega Dramon’s tough hide as she smirked. “Genocide Attack!” The missiles lanced down as Raine and Labramon caught up to them. “Labramon, hurry!” “Labramon evolve!” The dog digimon was entombed with light as her skin ripped off into the grid, reshaping into a large quadruped creature. Ivory and gold skin formed as the energy exploded off. “Shiisamon!” Shiisamon aimed and called out her attack. “Tiidiya!” The spirits intercepted the missiles as they exploded in mid air. “I doubt we can reach her up there,” Shiisamon commented to her partner. “That’s true. Wendigomon, can you reach her?” Wendigomon smirked. “Lets see... Club Arm!” The arm lashed out as it clocked the Mega Dramon with a solid punch that knocked it to the ground. Shiisamon grinned as she reared back, energy pooling at her mouth. “Sekkantou!” A mighty golden blast lanced out and struck the Mega Dramon, forcing it back and driving the digimon into the ground. “All right!” Eric cheered. “You brought it down by surprise,” Benjamin said from the doorway of his hut. “She’s fine.” True to form, Mega Dramon got back into the air as Eric groaned. “Okay Wendigomon, try another Club Arm!” Wendigomon lashed out but the Mega Dramon just flew out of range. “Heh, won’t get me a second time bunny boy.” “I AM NOT A BUNNY!” Wendigomon roared angrily. “Destroyed Voice!” Mega Dramon laughed off the attacks as she blocked a Sekkantou from Shiisamon. “Pathetic. Is this all you can do?” “If Lee was here, Piximon could take this thing down,” Raine said. “But Lee isn’t here,” Eric said in a matter of fact tone. “We need to stop her, or at least, hurt it enough so that she’ll leave!” “Fat chance of that,” Shiisamon grumbled as she let loose with another long ranged Sekkantou. Mega Dramon bid her time as she aimed with both claws. “Genocide Attack!” The missiles exploded around the group as the hiss of devolution was heard, leaving two very tired rookie digimon. “We tried,” Lopmon said tiredly. “Well you need to try harder!” Eric all but yelled. “Eric!” Raine snapped. “They did their best!” “They did their best, and now you die. Genocide Attack!” The missiles exploded in a cloud of dust, destroying a good portion of the oasis. As the dust settled, there was no one in sight. The Mega Dramon, satisfied with the end result, flew away, smirking to herself. After a few moments, five heads popped out of the large piles of sand, spluttering and spitting the grains out. “Man, that was a bad experience,” Labramon said, grimacing at the sand in her mouth. “Not one of our most graceful fights,” Lopmon added as he got out of the pile. “Told you it would work,” Raine said, earning a nod from Eric. Benjamin brushed off his robes as he extracted himself from the piles of sand. “We should leave the digital world for the time being. I will come with you to update your group.” “All right.” Eric looked around and sighed. “Man, it’s gonna be a long trip back.” <><><> Light flared from the computer as two kids and two digimon fell in a heap, Benjamin standing over them. Carter smirked from his high backed computer chair. “Have fun?” “Oh yeah, felt like going through a washing machine,” Eric grumbled, stumbling to his feet. “Find out anything?” Hikaru asked as she walked into the room, followed by Lee, Piximon and Renamon. “Yeah....” Raine brushed back a strand of brown hair. <><><> Authors Notes : Whee.... If you’re wondering, Eric bounces from emotion to emotion like a supercharged rubber ball. He doesn’t stay consistent for very long. Carters Files Name : Raine Hart Age : 11 Grade : 5 Eyes : Green Hair : Very light brown Voice Actor : Veronica Taylor (Amelia version) Name : Labramon Age : ?? Coloring : White and Purple Voice Actor : Labramon (Hikaru, Rayearth Japanese Sub) Voice Actor : Shiisamon (Hikaru, Rayearth Japanese Sub) Raine is a quiet girl, a fact that is rapidly changing due to her exposure to Lee, Eric and Labramon. Raine is very talented in music, especially the piano and has composed and performed some of her pieces for family. Her biggest wish is to have her family around more often. Being the youngest with an elder sister named Gina, the Harts are never around, always going to dinosaur dig sites or other sites around the world.