"Everyone calm down!" A boy with messy brown hair held up in a visor shouted
to the other people who had been clustering around the far reaches of the
district of Shinjuku near the school. "Kenta, help me out here!"

"What am I supposed to do?" Kenta cried out. "Lets face it, we're all dead!"

"Don't be giving up on me!" Hirokazu shouted angrily. "There's got to be a
way!"

"A way?" Kenta laughed bitterly. "As if trying our hardest will bring them
back."

"Lets work with the here and now, okay pal?" Hirokazu turned to Gardromon
who stood on a tall building and called out, "Oi! Gardromon! What do you
see?"

"The D-Reaper mass is coming at a rate of five meters per minute!" Gardromon
shouted back. His eyes narrowed and he started to fail in panic. "It's
coming! The D-Reaper is coming with Agents!"

The scared people degraded into mass hysteria as they started to scream.
Children sobbed and men and women picked up broken pieces of metal, ready to
defend themselves to the end.

Hirokazu groaned, clutched his head and whispered, "We need a miracle."

Suddenly, a brilliant glow flared in the middle of the people. Hirokazu
spun, fearing the worst. But a gentle blue glow sat in the center of the
crowd who parted. Three figures materialized from the glow. One had goggles.
The second wore a blue hat. The third, had unmistakable dark hair. In the
goggled boys arms was a Lopmon. In the arms of the other boy was a Wormmon.

The silence was deafening. Then, the goggled boy looked up, turned to look
and his eyes went wide at the sight of the D-Reaper Mass. "What the friggin
hell?" he exclaimed.

"Kenta, pinch me." Hirokazu said. "Because I must be dreaming."

"If you're seeing Zero-One Sora and Zero-Two Ken and some unknown guy with
digimon who looks a bit like Takato, if he was an American, appear out of
nowhere, then I need to be sucker punched." Kenta said, awed.

People stared, and in the crowd, a little girl with pigtails watched them
curiously.

============

D^3 : Digital Diaries Dimensions

Variations 1.6 : Darkline Part 1

written by Shaun G.

Disclaimer : Digimon does not belong to me. It belongs to a bunch of people.
The Diaries series does not belong to me either, it belongs to Lord Archive.

==============

"Excuse me." Eric looked down to see a young girl with reddish hair in
pigtails tugging at his shirt. "Are you Takato-niichan?"

"Takato?" Eric scratched his head. "No, sorry. I don't know anyone by that
name."

Suddenly, a cry went up from the edge of the crowd. A group of
unidentifiable creatures appeared, attached to the red mass by stalks. Sora
frowned as she watched them. "What are those things?"

"D-Reaper Agents!" Kenta shouted. "Everyone run to Shibuya!"

People ran away from the battlefield as ADR-04 types floated before them,
weapon ready. Eric, Ken and Sora drew their swords. "I'm guessing they're
not friendly," Eric said. "Lopmon!"

"Wormmon!" Ken shouted.

"Lopmon evolve!" A egg of energy flared around him as his skin tore off,
reshaping into a tall ape like monster. "Wendigomon! Wendigomon super
evolve!" He stretched out his arms and light reshaped his body into a tall
rabbit. "Antiramon!"

"Wormmon evolve!" Light flared around Wormmon as a green humanoid insect
stood before them. "Stingmon!"

The Lopmon in Shuichon's arms then leapt out of her arms and shouted,
"Lopmon evolve!" A flash of pink light flared out and there stood a similar
Antiramon with an ornate scarf around it's neck. "Antiramon!"

"Lets get busy!" Eric's Antiramon shouted, rushing forward. "Treasure Axe!"
He hacked off two ADR-04 from the stalk and two more took it's place.

"Spiking Finish!" Stingmon's weapon dug itself into the head of another
ADR-04 and his second weapon extended. He dug that into the ADR-04 that
tried to sneak up behind him.

Shuichon's Antiramon and a Gardromon had joined the fray with cries of
"Ashipatoravana!" and "Destruction Grenade!". The Rabbit Deva carved his way
through the ADR ranks as Destruction Grenades rained down on the ADRs,
striking one with each missile.

One who got too close met up with the business end of the swords wielded by
Eric, Ken and Sora as they took out the lifeline of the ADR before they
could get a shot off.

But for every one that was taken out, another five took its place. As the
ranks of ADRs swelled, they began to rain attacks down on them. Energy
scarring the land about them, making the humans dodge out of the way.

Hirokazu growled as he rolled to his feet as a blast tore up the ground
where his head used to be. Pulling out a card and his digivice, he shouted,
"This has gone far enough! Card Slash! Seed of Strength!"

Gardromon glowed as his eyes glowed an angry red and he shouted, "Warning
Laser!" A tremendous laser shot out, killing several ADRs in the process.

"What the hell was that?" Eric exclaimed.

"Talk less, fight more!" Ken puffed, slashing another lifeline and diving
out of the way of weapon fire.

"Card Slash!" Shuichon had pulled out her only card and slashed it through
her reader. "Queen Device!"

Antiramon glowed a brilliant pink color as he rushed forward, hacking and
slashing with incredible speed and power. Eric's Antiramon scratched his
head. "How come we can't do that?"

"Different world, go figure," Stingmon said, driving his weapon through
another ADR head. It disintegrated into a reddish ooze that vanished into
the air. He dodged a few more rapid fire shots from the ADRs and grimaced.
"This isn't getting us anywhere."

"Has everyone evacuated?" Hirokazu called to Kenta who was shielded in a
pink heart shaped bubble courtesy of Marine Angemon.

"Yes!" Kenta called back. "They've retreated further back into Shinjuku,
near the Shibuya area. We're good!"

"Full retreat everyone!" Hirokazu shouted, leaping onto Gardromon's back who
took off after them. Shuichon was scooped up into Antiramon's arms, and Eric
and Sora took his Antiramon. Ken and Stingmon flew away after them, and
Kenta followed, his shields holding steady.

============

Stopping to catch their breath, the sound of destruction far away was heard.
The D-Reaper agents were most likely destroying the former school shelter.
Hirokazu sighed as he wiped his forehead. "That was too close."

"Mind explaining what's going on here?" Eric asked, looking up from his
slumped over position, trying to catch his breath. "What WERE those things?"

"Those were ADRs, Agents of D-Reaper." Kenta said, the least winded because
of his escape in Marine Angemon's bubble.

"I think you need to start from the beginning," Sora said, looking up at
them.

"All right. But it isn't pretty." Hirokazu said. He then smirked. "If it
were any other time, I'd go nuts meeting Sora and Ken. But that's besides
the point."

The others exchanged glances as Ken said, "Go ahead. What happened here?"

Hirokazu inhaled sharply to clear his mind and exhaled. "Okay. This world
has digital world, fashioned by the excess data from the Internet by Shibumi
's design. In it, there were four Sovereigns who ruled the four corners of
the Digital World. They were trying to protect the Digital World from the
D-Reaper, an evolved program that was designed to clean out data that had
evolved beyond their original limitations. Thus, the digimon it destroyed,
it mimicked and now, it has evolved to a powerful monstrosity."

"Four of our friends set out to defeat it, and save Juri from the D-Reaper.
She and Culumon are imprisoned in the Kernel Sphere, surrounded by ADR-09.
But something went wrong."

Kenta took up the slack as Hirokazu sunk down to the floor, burying his face
in his hands. "Takato, who could Matrix Evolve with his partner Guilmon,
died in an attack against ADR-08. It used it's Moljinar Thunder and Takato,
wanting to protect Juri's father, took the attack directly. He was vaporized
in an instant."

"There was a wail from the Kernel Sphere, and since then, the D-Reaper had
stepped up it's plan to destroy the world because humans had evolved beyond
their natural functions. It's the ultimate ecoterrorist. Our group of
survivors have been growing smaller by the hour. Men, women, even little
children are being slaughtered without mercy."

"That's heavy stuff," Eric said. He felt saddened by the loss of a boy who
seemed so revered in the fight against the forces that threatened his world.
"You said four. Who were the other three?"

"The other three were Makino Ruki, Lee Jenrya and Akiyama Ryo. They
destroyed the ADR-08, and used a Red Card make by Shibumi to enter the
D-Reaper. We haven't seen them since. And since then, the base has been
destroyed. Everyone, our families, our friends are dead." Kenta's expression
twisted into hatred and self loathing. "We were able to save a couple of
people, but that was it. Shibumi, Yamaki and Shuichon. That was it. Out of
two dozen people in the base, they were the ones who made it."

Ken frowned. "Akiyama Ryo? I know an Akiyama Ryo. Tall guy, black hair, can
partner with anything under the sun?"

"I don't know about partnering with anything under the sun, but right now he
has a Cyberdramon as a partner," Kenta replied.

Ken nodded in thought. "I see." He then grinned. "I know Ryo quite well.
There isn't any way he could be dead. Detained and trapped, yes. Dead?
Unlikely."

"Where are these two, Shibumi and Yamaki?" Sora asked.

"They're at a safe house in Shibuya. More specifically, they're set up at
Shibuya Station." Kenta answered. "As we speak, the D-Reaper is destroying
more and more buildings and killing people all over the world. And this
world, seems to be doomed as we speak. The D-Reaper has not even sent out
the ADR-Eliminator."

"ADR-Eliminator?" Eric asked.

"An ADR.... that looks like Juri-san," Shuichon answered, hugging Lopmon to
her chest. Lopmon looked a bit blue but it was to be expected because of
Shuichon's grip.

Hirokazu looked up. His face was streaked with tears. "We... we need to keep
fighting. As long as we're alive, we need to keep fighting. Try and defeat
the D-Reaper. Try and save our friends. I have faith they are still alive
inside D-Reaper. Somewhere."

The group lapsed into uneasy silence.

===============

"Takato.... why did you leave? Why did you leave? Takato? Takato! TAKATO!"

Eric sat up with a gasp, roused from his uneasy sleep. Getting up, trying
not to disturb the slumbering teens, he moved past Gardromon who kept an eye
on the red mass far away, and Marine Angemon who floated at his side. Marine
Angemon gave Eric a little "Pipi," of encouragement as he passed them.

As he passed the door, a voice asked, "Where are you going, young sir?" Eric
turned to see Lopmon standing behind him, watching. Subtle differences told
him that it was Shuichon's Lopmon, not his. His was sleeping on top of his
folded cloak, oblivious to everything around him. "Two hours hath passed,
and thus, the D-Reaper has laid dormant whilst waiting. What brings you out
here? Nary a stroll may be prudent tonight."

"I... just needed some air," Eric said. He walked over to the fountain that
still worked and took a long drink. "Bad dreams. That's all."

"Nay, for it is more than that." Lopmon said. "You have been tossing and
turning for nearly two hours. It is much more than that, Eric-san."

"I...." Eric gripped the side of the fountain. "I had a dream. Death, pain,
suffering.... it was like the D-Reaper could feed into my mind, send me its
thoughts. I could see a girl in there, she kind of looked like Jullie. But
that's impossible. Even if she was reaching out to me, there was no way I
could hear her thoughts. It was like..."

"Like she was here," Lopmon said. "But there is a girl, Juri who bears great
torment within the D-Reaper."

Eric sighed as he drank from the fountain. The water was warm, and smelled
like iron. The taste of blood was on his tongue and he spat out the water he
had swirled around in his mouth. "This world," he muttered, "Is covered in
darkness."

"It may be," Lopmon said softly. "Thine path is chosen, thou must walk
within it." Looking towards the D-Reaper Mass which had slowed considerably
since the last attack, the Deva sighed. "Time is nigh, and thus, the
D-Reaper slows its pace."

"That D-Reaper must have a weak point somewhere," Eric said, staring at it.

"There isn't," said Hirokazu, walking out of the shelter. The brown haired
boy sighed. "We've tried, trust us."

"When did you wake up?" Eric asked Hirokazu.

"A couple of minutes ago," Hirokazu answered. "I don't need much sleep."

Propping his foot on the side of the walkway, a breeze picked up, tossing
leaves about, sending the smell of burnt things across their senses. "It's a
dismal place, this is," Hirokazu said sadly. "Our survivors don't reach more
than thirty five, including women and children. This world is lost."

"Not if I can help it," Eric said, his hands curling into fists. "There has
to be a way."

"Unless you can leave this world, I don't see where else we can go,"
Hirokazu said bitterly. "I saw my family die, Eric. Crushed by the falling
ceiling of the safe house that we ran our base of operations from. I saw
Takato's parents, shot by ADR's. I saw death, carnage. I honestly thought
this was all a game, until that fateful night, when Takato died, and the
scream echoed across Shinjuku."

Hirokazu collapsed to the ground, burying his face in his hands. "Everyone,
dead! Gardromon is only an adult, and can barely slow down the ADR's. I only
have a handful of cards left to turn into Blue Cards so that he'll evolve
into Andromon. Marine Angemon only knows a shield and healing technique.
Only Shuichon's Antiramon did some damage, and that was with a Queen Device.
We saw everyone die."

"There has to be a way," Eric said, sitting down next to Hirokazu. "This is
your story."

"Don't give me that crap!" Hirokazu snapped angrily. "I can't believe you
think we can stop this thing! I've tried, oh kami, I've tried. But it just
keeps coming. It killed Takato in an instant. It took Ruki, Jen and Ryo and
never returned them. I.... I can barely go on."

"You loved them," Eric said softly. "As you love everyone else. But this isn
't the time to get emotional! Goddamnit, snap out of it! This is the time we
need to show this thing what we're made of!"

Hirokazu looked up, his face contorted with anger. "What would you know? You
haven't killed, right?"

"Yes, I have. And I almost died for it twice." Eric's expression was
distant. "I have two kills. And both times, I wished to see him dead beyond
belief. His name was Ice Devimon, and he hurt the ones I loved."

Eric pulled out his wallet and showed a picture. "That's my family, and my
friends. I fight for them."

"They..." Hirokazu stared. "Fucking hell, they look like us! This guy, here!
He looks like Jen but with gold eyes! And her! She looks like Ruki with her
hair down with freckles and glasses! And you.... you look like Takato with
your hair short like that. And this one here, he looks like... like me....
if we were Americans."

"They say that everyone has a duplicate somewhere," Eric said, his eyes
trailing over the photograph. "Physically, we share similar traits. You just
have to believe that the impossible can happen. This, this is Jullie."

"She looks like Juri. But what is with the wings?" asked Hirokazu.

"It's a long story," Eric said.

"I think I have time."

==============

Sora slowly came to awareness as a chill breeze whipped across her face. She
was huddled in her warm cloak that kept the biting chill of the desolate
winds off her back. Looking around, she then remembered she was sleeping in
the shelter with half a dozen survivors. Ken and Wormmon were still out like
a light, and Ken seemed to be mumbling in his sleep.

Looking around, she noticed that many of the people around her wore
expressions of despair. There were a couple of people still awake, including
the little girl who was partnered to the Lopmon. The girl was shivering from
the cold.

Removing her cloak, Sora got up and walked over towards the girl. Kneeling
before her, she wrapped the warm gray material around her like an oversized
blanket. "There," she said softly.

"Thank you," Shuichon said. "I'm Shuichon."

"Sora," Sora replied.

"Are you the real Sora? From the Digimon Anime?" Shuichon asked curiously.

Sora looked puzzled. "Digimon Anime?"

Shuichon nodded. "Yeah, my brother and I watched it when it was still on TV.
There was a girl named Sora who looks like you, only in animated form."

Sora smiled. "I guess you could say that."

"But then where is your partner?" said Shuichon.

Sora felt a twinge of sadness in her heart. "I... don't have a partner. You
see, I'm a copy, data made flesh and blood. Piyomon.... she belonged to the
original Sora."

"Oh." Shuichon hugged her knees to her chest. "That must be sad. Juri-san
lost her partner as well."

Sora sat down beside Shuichon and hugged her close. "It's okay," she said.
"I didn't loose a partner, I just had to let her go. I may never see Piyomon
again, but the fact being that someone with my name and face is taking on
the fight is more than enough."

"I miss Jen-niichan. And Ryo-niichan, and Ruki-neechan, and
Takato-niichan...." Shuichon hung her head as her shoulders began to shake.
"I miss them so much!" She then began to cry as she clamped onto Sora for
support.

Sora held her and let the girl cry. Across the room, Ken opened his left eye
and smiled at the sight of comfort.

==============

"I've come up with a plan," Eric said the next morning. The D-Reaper had not
attacked since the last day, and the remaining Tamers and travelers had
clustered around the fire to keep themselves warm in the early morning
chill. "We take the Gate out of here."

"Where to?" Sora asked. "Our options are not exactly open."

"Far away from this world. Perhaps one back. If we can, we'll head back to
the previous world." Eric answered.

"But then what? We regroup and attack from another world?" Ken asked.

"No, we provide the populace a place to live for the rest of their lives.
The choice is theirs." Eric said. The others gaped for a moment before
Wormmon recovered first.

"Make a human settlement in a virtually unknown Digital World? Are you mad?"
Wormmon exclaimed.

"Nope, not mad, and I agree with my partner," Lopmon said. "I'm sure
everyone would like a place to stay, free from disaster."

"I've been running the idea through the populace," Kenta said as Marine
Angemon nodded in agreement. "The people want a place they can live without
fear. I'm sure we can help build a home for them somewhere else. Even if it
is another Digital World. Everyone who wants to go is gathered in the middle
of Shibuya Station."

"It's now or never," Hirokazu said. "We should get going, move people
through to the other world as soon as possible."

"I guess we'll have to teach the people how to survive in the Digital
World." Ken made a face. "Lets hope that there won't be any major fighting
when we get there."

A few minutes later, they found the whole remaining populace of survivors
standing in the middle of Shibuya Station. Heading them was a man in a dusty
suit with his blonde hair messed up from the situation at hand and another
man who seemed to be on the verge of hair loss, with an unkempt beard. The
man in the suit nodded to the group. "Are these the ones who will transport
everyone over to another world?"

"Yes," Hirokazu said. He then turned to Eric who had fiddled with the Gate
of Alantis enough so that it was pulsing a glowing blue color. "Go for it."

Eric let it float out of his hands as it opened up and expanded into a two
meter wide blue circle. "I'll go first," Eric said. "Just to make sure we
don't wind up in a war zone."

Eric pushed through the glowing circle of energy and everyone waited for
him. After a couple of minutes, he pushed back through and grinned. "All
right, everyone through! No shoving or running please!"

After a long nervous five minutes, everyone had filed through orderly. After
letting the remaining survivors through, the rest leapt through.

As Hirokazu took his first step into the new world, he was greeted by a
pretty girl with blonde hair. She also sported a huge grin as she
practically jumped to greet the newcomers. "Hi! Welcome to the Digital
World!"

Hirokazu blinked and stuttered out, "N-nice to meet you."

"Hey Izumi," Eric said as the portal closed up behind him.

"Is this everyone?" Izumi asked curiously.

"Yes," Ken said, nodding. "Has everyone made it through safely?"

Izumi nodded as she pointed to the people who were celebrating their freedom
and safety with loud whoops and yells. The rest of the Chosen, Kouji,
Takuya, Junpei, Tomoki and an unknown dark haired boy stood to the side,
watching them. "We just defeated the Royal Knights, prevented Lucemon's
rebirth and got the Digital World mostly back to normal."

"That's great news!" Sora exclaimed.

"The six of us have decided to stay here for a while, help settle in the
survivors." Izumi explained. "We were about to head home after the battle
but the Train tracks need to be rebuilt again before we can head to the real
world. Besides, we can't say no to you three." She winked at Ken and Eric
and the boys blushed.

"So, is there a place we can set up a home for them?" Ken asked. "We need
places for everyone."

"Leave that to us!" Izumi winked and turned to the other legendary warriors.
"All right guys, lets get to work!"

=============

Tree after tree fell as digimon and human worked to rebuild their homes. The
chosen of the current world had evolved into powerful forms, and were
felling trees and digging up soil for small rivers and irrigation. The
neighboring Poyomon from the Poyomon Village had brought over supplies for
building homes such as strong glues and things to create houses. The sounds
of hammering, sawing and the occasional shout of an attack helped to build a
house and fell trees needed for human sustaining homes.

As everyone worked to rebuild a home, Eric and Ken ported back to various
cities and refugee stations and brought back many people at a time.

Digimon from all over the Digital World came on Trailmon to help build a
home for the humans. With much of the threat against the Digital World
subdued, and the three former Great Angel digimon, now child digimon, were
playing, progress went smoothly.

Nanomon and a contingent of digimon from the northern sections of the
Digital World came with supplies and furniture. With some quick tweaking,
they created a source of electricity to power the electronic devices the
survivors had brought over.

Soon, the small two dozen band of human survivors grew exponentially as
everyone wanted to leave the dying world. Almost 150 people worked together
to rebuild a home for themselves as Eric and Ken made more trips back to the
other world to pick up random survivors.

Some people were leery around the digimon, but the resulting friendliness of
the digimon calmed most of their fears. There were some who had taken to the
work with the digimon straight away but there were some who were still
afraid of them. It had taken a talk with Tomoki to straighten out most
fears. Very few could argue with the Warrior of Ice, despite the fact that
he was an eight-year-old kid.

Soon, a huge area had been cleared and log houses had been built. Power had
been supplied by the generators that Nanomon had brought over. People were
fed by the Burgermon and people marveled at the pristine lands of the
Digital World.

As Eric hefted a particularly heavy log into place with the help of the head
and shoulders taller Blitzmon, Eric asked, "So how was the adventure?"

"Tiresome," Blitzmon replied with a laugh. "It was a narrow battle but we
won. All of us can evolve to an Advance Spirit and Takuya and Kouji evolves
to Kaiser Greymon and Magna Garurumon. I'm out of chocolate, and we still
have to rebuild the stations that leads us back home."

Eric laughed with Antiramon who was holding the other side of the log.
Together with Blitzmon, they hefted the support beam and shoved it into the
ground.

"I'm surprised no one was greeted by a digimon partner when they arrived,"
Ken said as he and Stingmon helped Sora and Fairymon move a tricky beam into
place to compliment the roof of the main lodgings.

"Different Digital World I guess," Sora said. She almost then lost her
balance as a Lopmon crashed into her with a Plotmon and a Patamon with a
pink waistband. "Careful you three," she said as the children giggled.

"Patamon! Plotmon! Lopmon! Be more careful up there! You're disturbing the
work process!" The one scolding them was a Boarmon with a pink waistband who
then snorted and stomped in a motherly way. "Don't make me come up there!"

The three giggling Great Angels scampered off as the Boarmon sighed and
turned towards the workers. "Sorry everyone, those three are a handful."

Boarmon trotted off as Sora turned towards Fairymon and asked in disbelief,
"That was Bokomon?"

"Yep," Fairymon said with a small nod. They moved the beam in place and
Fairymon wiped her forehead. "Bokomon learned how to evolve a while ago, and
now he's being a real mother hen to those kids. He can evolve back and forth
now on a whim."

"Those Kids, who are they exactly?" Ken asked curiously.

"Those are the Great Angels," Vritramon said, walking over with a huge log
on his shoulders. "During the fighting, those three were reborn as a
digitama. They haven't grown up yet." He then set it down and cracked his
back. "Neemon is still useless as ever. He hasn't evolved yet. But he does
make a mean meat apple pie."

"You mean those three are the rulers of this Digital World?" Stingmon asked
in disbelief.

"Sure. They might be just kids, but they still retain their powers,"
Vritramon said.

"Now I've seen everything," Ken said with a shake of his head.

As the day wore on, several standing structures were erected. The main
community lodge was half finished with a canvas like rooftop. Since it did
not rain often in that particular section of the Digital World, several
Piyomon used a plant based coating to cover the material and make it water
proof.

Smaller homes that housed ten or so people stood all around the area, shaded
by the remaining trees. The wind pumps brought from Breeze Village provided
water from the ground. A large generator hummed in the back of the main comm
unity lodge as several computers and random pieces of machinery were set up.
People had begun to move indoors for the night and various tents were being
set up from the Digimon who had come to work on the human settlement.

Fires sprang to life to cook the healthy supply of meat apples. Neemon could
be seen with the Burgermon, slicing and peeling Meat Apples to make into
pies for the next day and popping them into a small baking area that had
been built. Several Floramon came with fruits and vegetables as well for the
meat pies and desserts for the tired workers.

A communal bath had been set up in the far side of the woods as Wolfmon had
helped a pack of Gotsumon dig up a hot spring. It was here, that the Chosen
relaxed for the day.

Kenta sank into the waters on the men's side of the hot spring with a happy
sigh. "Wow, I had forgotten what a hot shower was like!"

"We got so much stuff done today," Ken said as he climbed into the large
spring. "I think everyone did well today, pitching in to help build the
settlement."

Takuya tested the water and then jumped in, sending water everywhere. He
then surfaced with a gasp and let out a "Ah," of contentment. "Man, am I
beat."

"Everyone is beat," Kouji said. Everyone else nodded from their places
around the hot spring. "But it's a good kind of tiredness, like you did
something important."

"Of course we did something important," Eric said with a smile. He then
sighed. "I just wish I could have found more people. But we've cleaned out
most of Shinjuku and the outlying wards."

Tomoki, Junpei and Kouichi just relaxed and let themselves soak up the heat
of the water.

As they relaxed and soaked, Hirokazu looked up at the top of the fence. "The
girls are kinda quiet, aren't they?"

"Yeah, a bit too quiet." Eric agreed.

"Do you think they're sleeping?" Tomoki asked.

"Probably not," Junpei said. "They're just being really quiet."

"I dunno," Takuya said, getting out of the water. "I'm going to check."

Takuya began to climb the wall divider as the other boys sputtered angrily.
"What the heck are you doing?" Ken exclaimed, aghast.

"Yeah! Trying to sneak a peek at the girls!" Eric added. He then grinned
lecherously. "Move over!"

Despite the others efforts to try and drag the pair down, the pair popped
their heads over the divider wall to take a look to see if anything was
going on. Takuya got a nosebleed and Eric grinned.

"What do you see?" Junpei called up.

Takuya couldn't reply as Eric grinned and said, "A whole lot."

Suddenly, a washbucket smacked Takuya in the side of the head as a voice
distinctly belonging to Izumi shouted, "Hey! Perverts! Quit spying on us!"

"We thought you guys had passed out from exhaustion!" Eric retorted, ducking
a few more wooden washbuckets. "So we were worried."

"Is he suicidal?" Kenta asked Ken. Ken shook his head.

"Not suicidal, just being a pervert right now." Ken then smirked. "And Sora
is going to kick his ass."

Suddenly, Eric was yanked over the side of the dividing wall and the sounds
of pain were heard, along with a couple bits of Eric's yelps of pain. Takuya
laughed, and then was yanked over the wall as well to share his fellow
goggled boy's fate.

Junpei scowled. "Serves them right."

"Why didn't you try to sneak a peek?" Kouichi wondered.

Junpei just smiled.

Soon, night fell on the Digital World as everyone retired to the lodges for
the night. Eric and Takuya sported a few bumps on their heads and several
scratch marks and bruises. Ken rolled his eyes at his friend. "You just HAD
to pull a stunt like that, didn't you?"

"What can I say? I wanted to." Eric said with a laugh. Sora scowled from
behind them and kicked him in the ass, making Eric jump and rub his butt.
"Ow."

"Idiot," Sora muttered.

=============

That night, Shuichon lay in her bed, awake as the others slept around her.
Ken seemed to be tossing and turning, probably having a nightmare while Eric
was sprawled on his straw bed, muttering about something.

Tossing her sheets off, Shuichon picked up her D-Arc and walked out of the
house. Looking up at the sky and its three full moons, Shuichon sighed. "It'
s so pretty tonight, isn't it?" said a voice behind her. Shuichon turned to
see the Patamon with a pink waistband behind her. It flew over and perched
on her head. "Can't you sleep?"

"No, I can't," Shuichon replied sadly. "I miss my daddy and mommy and
Jen-niichan and my brothers and sisters.... all I have is Lopmon now."

"They died, didn't they?" Patamon said sadly. "I can feel it."

Shuichon nodded, almost throwing Patamon off her head. "Uh huh."

Patamon lifted off her head and flew in front of her. "We'll help." he said
firmly. "We'll help you win back your homeland against this D-Reaper thing."

"Really?" Shuichon asked.

"Really," Patamon said with a wink. "Now come on, lets get you to bed."

=============

The mood around the morning breakfast was somber as the small group of
chosen and Legendary Warriors sat around the morning fire. People had come
out of the houses to get breakfast, and there were some milling around,
others making improvements on their homes. Hirokazu sat, munching on a plate
of rice and curry, an unusual meal for the morning, when Shibumi sat down
next to him.

"To think, digital world as pristine as this one could exist," Shibumi said
as he took his cup of Floramon fruit juice and sipped at it.

"Yeah, there wasn't much flora in our Digital World," Hirokazu said with a
nod. He took a bite of his curry and said, "This isn't just a social call,
is it?"

"No. I made something to help you and your friends combat the D-Reaper."
Shibumi took out a green card with the logo of the Blue and Red Cards on it.
"A Green Card. This will help by giving you the program algorithms to help
combat the D-Reaper without any ill effects."

"Ill effects?" Kenta asked, sitting down with a burger and Floramon juice.
"What kind of effects are we talking about?"

"The Red Card algorithms would have caused everything digital to be sent
back to the Digital World, including your digimon and yourself if you were
inside the D-Reaper. With the Green Card, I've made it possible that you can
pass between the D-Reaper, if a digivice has touched the card first."

"Which means we can get inside the D-Reaper and defeat it from the inside
out!" Hirokazu exclaimed.

"But why go back?" Kenta asked.

"Because there's still people there," Hirokazu answered. "We may have gotten
all of Tokyo's survivors, but there must be still millions of people alive
in that world, all trapped. And... it'll be a chance to see if the other
Tamers are alive within the D-Reaper, still fighting."

"Yes, that is true. But it will be difficult. Are you two up to the risk?"
Shibumi asked.

"Yes," Kenta said and Hirokazu nodded.

"Fine. We'll just run this by the others then." Shibumi said.

"No need, we heard everything." Eric said, coming up behind the trio. "You
two are not fighting it on your own. We're here to help." He was accompanied
by Shuichon, Ken, Sora and the rest of the Legendary Warriors.

"Are you sure?" said Shibumi. "It will be dangerous, inside and outside."

"Danger is our middle name," Lopmon quipped from Eric's head. "Besides, we
can't just sit around while another world is in danger now can we?"

"And I want to help," Shuichon said, a glint of fierce determination in her
eyes. "Lopmon and I will fight."

"We're just helping where we can," Sora said. "Lets do this."

"We're in this together. We can't let another world suffer." Takuya grinned.
"Everyone is behind you guys."

Kenta and Hirokazu smiled as Hirokazu took the Green Card and tossed it
"Card Slash!" It slashed through Shuichon and Kenta's D-Arcs, ran past the
shimmering D-3 screens of Ken and Eric, and was scanned by the tops of each
Legendary Warrior's D-Scans before returning to Hirokazu who then ran it
through his own D-Arc. "Green Card!"

"I'll wait for you guys here," Sora said. "I'll just be in the way without a
digimon partner."

The small group nodded as they opened the shimmering blue portal. "You are
now entering the Secret Cow Level," Lopmon quipped as everyone groaned.

"That was bad. Even for you," Wormmon remarked.

Then, one by one, they vanished back to the other world.

=============

Authors notes : Took a bit longer than I thought but at least it works.

Some liberties taken with the end of Frontier. Considering that the
involvement of the travelers last chapter has altered the timeline of that
Frontier world, things have become a bit different.

Yes, that ending was a blatent remark to Diablo 2 : Lord of Destruction.
Secret Cow Level. Who CAN'T resist the chance of getting your butt kicked by
halberd wielding cows standing on two legs?