Fan:Digimon: Another Time, Another World/Chapter One

Before we begin our tale, I advise that you will only be needing the bare basics of what you know about Digimon. Everything else, such as people, locations, events, such knowledge may be handy, but ultimately irrelevant.

Are we clear on that? Good.

Imagine a near-duplicate of our world as we know it today. The date is roughly sometime in December, 2009. Digimon, as humankind are aware, only exist in fiction – the anime, the games, the comics, the original virtual pet, fan-fiction, and so on and so forth. As you can imagine, that will change rather quickly.

Oh, are you pondering my identity? I assure you, it's irrelevant, for now. There's a tale to tell, and I will not keep you from it any further.

Enjoy.

Chapter 1: A New Day
Tap, tap, tap.

A teenage boy, sixteen years of age, continued to type at a rapid pace on his desktop PC. Lines of C++ code covered the LCD screen.

Tap, tap, tap.

His surroundings are the apartment he lives in, fairly spacious, enough for adequate human living standards. And enough for him. But not terribly organised, all the same. Some parts of the apartment are quite messy. Otherwise, not unlike a regular teenager's apartment in terms of organisation and contents. The apartment itself was situated on the fifth floor of the building, giving a good view away from the Sydney suburbia, and towards the local forests. It was 3:45 PM.

Tap, tap, tap.

The teenager himself had brown hair that wasn't in any particular style, but well-brushed all the same, no widow's peak. He also sported brown eyes to match, and a medium-sized nose. He had a thin build, but far from underwieght. His outfit consisted of a blue tee-shirt with a red “dragon” logo design on the front, and a pair of shorts in a 'military camouflage' design. He also wore a watch, but no footwear, considering the generally hot weather. All things considered, he was a fairly good-looking teenager.

Tap, tap, tap.

His name was Keith Windslow.

He stopped typing. A small smile appeared on his face, as he called up an IM window on the screen.

MajorWind: Okay, I'm ready. You got things set up on your end?

NeoMaelstrom: of course duh lol

MajorWind: Alright, I'm gonna compile and run the program.

With a click, the code began to compile into machine language, ready to be used and executed. Keith picked up the cup of coffee next to his keyboard, and took a sip. Programming was one of his major hobbies. He was serious about it, despite his age. He wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to program, but he loved just doing it, and experimenting with code. Considering the end of school for the year and 5 weeks of summer holidays were coming up, he would have all the time in the world to do what he loved. Well, unless he was working on his part-time job.

The program finished compiling. Right now, he was working with a friend, Jase Merson, on an code experiment involving the sending and receiving of data packets. Keith's program was the sender, the receiver was on Jase's end. The program started, and began sending packets as expected.

Then the screen freaked out. A combination of static, electricity and some strange warping stuff occurred on-screen, but only for several seconds, before going back to normal and the program claiming that the packets had been sent and properly received. This left Keith, who had fallen out of his chair in shock, utterly bewildered. He got back up onto the chair, typing.

MajorWind: HOLY CRAP, did you see that?!

NeoMaelstrom: see what

MajorWind: When I executed the program, it just went... Haywire! I'm not sure if I can even describe it! It says you got the packets, though.

NeoMaelstorm: uh... no? I didn't.

MajorWind: … Seriously?

NeoMaelstorm: maybe they got lost in the process?

MajorWind: … I'm gonna try again...

Keith quickly re-checked the code he had just written. No syntax, logic or run-time errors he could see. He had checked his code multiple times previously – nothing should have gone wrong. He clicked the “compile” icon again, with hesitation. As he waited for the program to compile, he placed two fingers on the bridge of his nose. Perhaps it was a one-time occurrence? He hoped so.

Unfortunately, he was wrong.

The screen began to freak again, but the effects were more... Stable. Or, at least, so he figured, it looked less chaotic. But the new thing was, in the middle of the screen, was a circular opening, slowly expanding out, showing something new – a window to what appeared to be another location, a forest, and a figure looking back at him that seemed as shocked as he was.

Despite his better judgement, he touched it.

---

Keith felt dirt.

Upon regaining consciousness, he realised that he was lying face-first in dirt. Deciding that staying on the ground with dirt was not a good idea, and noting that he was neither tired nor injured, he sat up, wiping the dirt off his face and clothes, before taking a good look around. Forest. The same forest he just saw. Talk about the worst possible time not to be wearing shoes. Then it occurred to him, wasn't there a-

“Oh, you're okay.”

He blinked, before turning around. The same figure was right behind him, squatting so she (or so he thought) was at eye-level with him. He recognised her almost immediately. A white and yellow vixen with blue eyes, and wore purple, fingerless 'gloves' that extended up to the elbows was hard to not recognise when you surf the web often enough – or happen to be a Digimon fan, for that matter. However, what was different, was that she wore a red scarf. “What the heck?! Renamon?!”

Renamon blinked at him, surprised by the address. “So you recognise my species.”

Keith was frozen in sheer disbelief. It was only natural that he was assuming various weird theories, ranging from hallucinations to a dream. Renamon's response was to poke him in the forehead. “Huh. I would think I would be more surprised at a human appearing in the digital world.”

“Surprised? You mean you didn't expect me?” Recognising that she was indeed real, Keith began to calm down, and rationalise the situation. Something must have happened with his program that created a portal. Or, at least, that's what he theorised. But, from the usual expectations, it would normally be assumed that he would've been called here by 'fate', and that the Digimon he met would have expected his arrival. Which left another conclusion – was his arrival a complete accident?

“Actually, yes. I was experimenting with that terminal you see over there.” Renamon pointed to a nearby tree, and Keith's eyes followed. Attached to the tree, looked like a computer of some sort, complete with a mouse and keyboard, but it also seemed to have various other methods of input. “I was using a program, when the terminal began to act strangely. Then I saw your face, and you just came through, and hit the ground.”

“How long was I out for?”

“A couple of minutes.”

Keith nodded, as he got up, and walked over to the computer. It seemed to be turned off. He tried turning it back on. Nothing. He decided to look for a power source. Nope. He found a hatch, and looked inside. Then he cringed. The internals were virtually fried. The hard drive was, thankfully, intact, but everything else would require a serious replacement. “Oooooooooooooooh crap. It's fried. If I want any hope of getting home, we're gonna have to replace the internals. Unfortunately, I suspect that you Digimon have nothing in the way of-”

“Actually, we do. Why do you say that?”

Keith froze. Then he looked back at Renamon. “Wait, seriously, Renamon? I thought electronics in general didn't work in the digital world.”

“Wherever you got your information on the digital world, I suspect it may be inaccurate.” Renamon smirked. “As perhaps our assumptions about your world. Also, I have a name, you know. I'm Vix. And you are?”

Vix, short for 'vixen', huh? It's a surprise that she has a unique name, but... Very nice, Keith thought to himself, as he took a step forward, outstretching a hand for a shake. “I'm Keith. Keith Windslow. This is... Well, amazing!”

“I could say the same.” Vix took his hand, and they exchanged a firm handshake. “Look, I'll give you a 'tour' of the area, and I'll try and explain as much as I can. I also know someone who can replace those parts. Might be costly, however.”

“As expected.” Keith groaned. “Right, then. We'll need to bring all this stuff with us. Got a bag of some sort?”

It took a short walk to get out of the forest. Keith found the forest relaxing and surprisingly realistic. But what came next, of course, was a shock. A city. No, not some simple settlement. An actual city. The more high-tech, populated settlements such as like the games were presumably set up by humans working with Digimon. Instead, this city was blatantly built by Digimon, though clearly through digital manipulation. Vix noted, “Just don't be surprised if Digimon start staring, okay? They've never seen a human for real. Until now, I thought you humans were fictional creatures, a myth.”

“Oh, the irony...” Keith replied, in sheer awe of the buildings and inhabitants before him, as Vix escorted him through the streets, carrying a bag of computer parts over her shoulder. As expected, there were stares all round. Digimon of various kinds were shocked and amazed by the sight before them, much like Keith's awe at their society. This made him nervous. Vix suddenly started pulling him along faster. “Perhaps we need to disguise you next time.”

She dragged him into a nearby shop, let go, and went over to the counter. The shop definitely was a specialist computer store – all sort of parts, from motherboards to graphics cards littered the shelves. The store itself didn't seem very large, though. “Hey, Shawn!”

“Hey, Vix, I wasn't expecting-” A Gabumon, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, came out from a door behind the counter, and froze upon seeing Keith, who waved nervously. “Holy... Am I seeing things, or that a human in my shop?”

Vix chuckled, leaning on the counter. “Oh, your eyesight is perfectly fine, Shawn. This is Keith. He came into the digital world via a freak accident. Kinda my fault, I guess. Remember the computer out I the forest? Well, that's the cause, and when it happened, a lot of the internal components fired. Can you get replacements?” She opened the bag, showing him the fried parts. Keith walked up to the counter, deciding to make himself friendly. “Uh... Hi.”

Shawn rubbed his chin. “Yeah, but the originals are old. I'll do the replacement job myself, see if the new parts don't fry like these ones. It's on the house. Seeing a real-life human is payment enough. Come back in a couple of hours, I'll probably have it done by then, if I don't call you first. Keith, it's an honour to meet you, kid.”

Keith grinned, as he shook hands with Shawn. “No, the honour is all mine. For some reason, this is just plain weird.”

---

“So, let me get this straight. Digimon, until now, believed that humans were fiction, and have a society like human-kind, and some of the rules that I assumed don't apply?”

Keith was surprised to find that Vix's apartment was... Ordinary. Not unlike his, actually. Except more feminine, but that was besides the point. Vix sat on her purple couch, nodding, as she turned on the TV. “Yes. I'd like to travel to your world and see the differences from the fiction!”

“Imagine this world, except non-digital and populated by humans instead of Digimon.” Keith replied, as he began to look around the place. He was looking through a nearby drawer. He was surprised to discover that Digimon actually owned clothes. “Anyway... I suppose I should tell you a bit about myself. I live in Sydney, Australia, if you've heard of it.”

“Yeah, I have, actually. City with that weird bridge, right?” Vix was flipping through channels. “They're talking about you on the news, by the way.”

“Oh, that's lovely, I always wanted to be on the news because I'm currently the most out-of-place entity on the planet.” Keith replied sarcastically, as he noted that it seems Vix owned underwear, but not a bra. Though, considering she and all of her digi-evolutions don't have breasts, it wasn't surprising. “I'm a programmer. Well, an amateur. Sort of. I'm really good for my age, really.”

“That explains a lot.” Vix noted, as she also took note of what was going on with the news. “I work as a waitress at a restaurant not to far away from here. It's a decent job. Though, it's blatantly obvious that my boss prefers 'mons with breasts. Perverted bastard.”

“I thought your kind don't have genders.”

“Well, not in the reproductive sense, no. Your way of reproducing weirds me out, anyway. Gender, for us Digimon, is just another way of distinguishing between each other.” Vix replied, looking at him. “Doesn't stop some Digimon, though.”

Keith, while still looking around the drawers, found a deck of cards on top of it. “Hey, what are these?” Vix noticed, and replied, “Oh, those? They're 'Effect Cards'. They're used a card game Digimon often play in their spare time.”

What show am I in, Digimon, or YuGiOh? Keith thought to himself, as he examined the deck. Fire, ice, alchemy, healing, steel... Different properties with different effects. “I take it they're not supposed to be used on their own.”

“Of course not. You're supposed to use these cards alongside them.” Vix held up another deck of cards, which Keith noticed had a different set of cards, the bottom of the deck had a sword of some kind. “Item cards. They're the other half of the game. But item card decks are always structured in a specific way.”

“Ah, kinda like a traditional deck of cards. The effect cards are the actual trading cards.” Keith smiled, as he walked over to Vix, placing the deck down on the table in front of the couch. “Alright, then. Let's play.”

Vix had decided to pull out some spare cards so Keith could form a deck of his own, and explained the rules to him. The item deck is placed in the middle between the two players, the effect decks to the sides of their players. For each player, there are three item slots. Each item is allowed one effect only unless allowed by a specific effect card. At the beginning of a turn, the players draw three item cards each (each card has an ATK and DEF rating, and possibly a description of other effects, and things such as materials), and place them in particular slots – offense (does damage using ATK), defense (reduces incoming damage using DEF), and support (can act as a secondary offense or defense, or do other things, such as restoring HP). This is called the “Item Phase”. Then, if it is the first turn, the players draw six effect cards each. Every turn after that, the players each draw one effect card. Then, the players can set effects to their items in each slot, placing each effect card face-down. This is called the “Effect Phase”. Then, comes the “Damage Phase”, where the players turn over the effect cards, and damage against each player's Health Points (or HP for short, of course) are calculated for both players depending on the items and effects used. All cards used are then placed in the Discard pile, and next turn occurs. The objective of the game is to reduce the opponent's HP to 0 or less. Each player usually starts out with 30 HP, though the starting amount can be changed.

“So, since damage usually cannot be avoided each turn, the game is normally fast-paced. In Effect Cards, there is no such thing as a stalemate.” Vix shuffled the Item Deck, placing it in its usual spot on the playing field. Keith had an Effect Deck already set up. The pair were sitting on the opposite sides of the table. “I get it. It's not your usual trading card game. Alrighty then, draw!”

Keith found himself with a steel sword (ATK = 5, DEF = 1), a steel shield (ATK = 1, DEF = 5), and holy water (seemingly worthless). A basic start. He placed each of them in offense, defense and support, respectively. Vix had placed a drill in offense (ATK = 3, DEF = 3), chain-mail armor in defense (ATK = 0, DEF = 6), and a knife in support (ATK = 2). Now, Keith just needed to draw the right effect cards. First draw. Fire, Poison, Healing, Titanium, Electricity, and Ice. A good hand. He had an idea of what he could do with this one. He placed Electricity on the sword (+2 ATK bonus), Titanium on the shield (+1 DEF bonus), and Fire on the Holy Water, which granted an offensive boost of +2 ATK, but he also knew there was another bonus.

The pair flipped their effect cards. Much to Keith's surprise, Vix had given a SuperSize effect to her drill, doubling its ATK, titanium to her armour as well, and a Multiply effect to her knife (quadrupling its ATK, as it was a small object – the smaller the object, the greater the bonus from Multiply). Regardless, he smiled. “Nicely done. But my sword bypasses your metal armour's DEF thanks to its electrical effect, halving its DEF. Plus... My fire-enhanced Holy Water does 2 damage to you each turn for the next 3 turns. You lose 6 HP, for a total of 24 HP left.”

“Yeah, but my drill just demolished your shield, and left a gaping hole in your defense, allowing my multiplied knives to take off 8 of your HP. You've only got 22 HP left.” Vix smirked, as she gathered up the cards on the field, and placed them in the discard pile. “I bet you won't last beyond the third turn. Draw again.”

Get real. That means she has to do at least 22 HP of damage in the next two turns, and I have a healing effect. If I can draw another Holy Water... Keith planned, as he drew another three item cards. A steel spear (ATK = 4, DEF = 2) which he placed on offense, a wooden table (ATK = 2, DEF = 4) which he placed on defense, and, of all things, a beer bottle (ATK = 3, DEF = 1), which he placed on support. Vix also had a strange set, with a wooden baseball bat on offense (ATK = 3, DEF = 3), a stone statue on defense (ATK = 0, DEF = 5), and a large book on support (ATK = 3, DEF = 2). Keith was quick to inquire, “I imagine, besides normal weaponry, we'll also have to work with some of the most mundane crap imaginable?”

“Pretty much, yeah.” Vix grinned, as she drew another effect card, as did Keith. He found himself with a “Razor” effect, that enhanced an item's attack by adding extra sharp edges – the extra damage depends on the material. He had four cards. He knew he'd have three cards next turn if he only had two, so he decided to only use two, adding a Poison effect to the spear (+2 ATK, plus an extra 2 damage per consecutive turn for three turns), and Ice to the table (+2 DEF). Vix had taken the same approach, he noticed.

When they turned the cards over, Vix wagged her finger at him, tauntingly. “Not bad, but you're still a newbie.” She was right. A Fire effect on the bat (+3 ATK) rendered the Ice effect on the table worthless, and halved the table's DEF, resulting in 4 damage. She also used Steel on the statue (+1 DEF) that reduced all damage coming at her to a measly 4 (18 HP left, including the fire damage from the previous turn), and the book basically added another 3 damage, resulting in 7 damage total, leaving Keith's HP at 15 HP. “Okay, that's pretty good, but I doubt you'll be able to do 15 damage in a single turn.” Keith remarked, as he drew another three item cards. The vixen Digimon in front of him simply continued to smile.

Keith grinned, as he placed down a Bow and Arrow in offense (ATK = 6, DEF = 0), steel-plated armour in offense (ATK = 0, DEF = 6), and Holy Water in support. Perfect. In the description, Holy Water enhanced the normally +4 healing effect to +8. He also had good offense and defense on his own. Vix, in the meantime, had a chain-based whip/flail (ATK = 5, DEF = 1) in offense, an axe (ATK = 5, DEF = 2) in defense, and a wooden cross (ATK = 2, DEF = 2) in support. She drew her effect card, noting with a smile, “By the way, you can place one effect card of your own on an opponent's item. This is one other way, besides certain effects, to have more than one effect on an item card. Just saying.”

Keith shrugged, wondering why anyone would do that, and drew his next card. He drew a Darkness effect, which he decided to place on the armour (+2 DEF). He placed Razor on the Bow and Arrow (+2 ATK), and Healing on the Holy Water. Vix suddenly placed an effect card on the Holy Water as well, her expression not changing. Then, they flipped the effect cards over. Keith's eyes widened, however, when he noticed that the effect placed on the Holy Water was Poison. Vix grinned, as she explained, “That's why you can. Holy Water isn't typically a good weapon, but it's a fantastic healing item. So, I sabotaged your attempt to heal with a Poison effect, which does damage to you instead of healing, and also adds 2 to that damage – what would've been 8 HP added is now 10 damage.”

Keith looked over the other effects. Vix had placed a Water effect on the whip (+2 ATK), and a Boomerang effect on the cross (double damage). He calculated the damage in his head. The water, regardless of the darkness effect, basically rusted steel as part of its effect, halving its defense. That meant that, on its own, the whip did 2 damage. Vix then placed a finger on the cross. “Then there's this little beauty. 4 damage. Do the math, kiddo.”

10 + 2 + 4 = 16 damage. Minus-1 HP. Meanwhile, Keith had only done a mere 6 damage to Vix, plus the extra 4 damage, leaving 8 HP. Keith had lost the duel on the third turn, as Vix predicted. The teen looked at the cards, then at Vix, and back and forth in disbelief. Vix sat back, laughing, one leg crossed over the other. “It's your first ever match, Keith, you really shouldn't be so surprised. You had as much chance of winning as beating me in an actual fight, no offense.”

“None taken.” Keith sighed, leaning forward, and gathering up his effect deck. “When it comes to Digimon, a human typically would need to fuse with a Digimon to actually not get their asses kicked.”

“I figured as much. Humans don't have any special 'powers' like Digimon do, but I think that's what makes them interesting... Wait, is your deck glowing?” Vix blinked, as she noticed something peculiar. Keith looked at his deck. It was glowing yellow. “That's odd. Does that happen usually?”

“I've never heard or seen that happen, ever.”

“Well, that's helpful. I guess we can figure THAT one out, later!” Keith shoved the effect deck in his pocket. “Mind if I keep it?”

Vix chuckled, as she got off the couch, as the phone began to ring. “It's no problem, it's all spare cards I don't want anyway. Kinda useless without an item deck, though, just warning you.”

Keith nodded, as he pondered. Vix had answered the phone, which was right by the door. “Oh, hi, Shawn. Wait, you're ready? Already? Thank you.” She then hung up. “Keith, I have good news. It looks like Shawn got it done quicker than we expected.”

“Oh, sweet! Let's go, already!”

Keith went over to the door, but Vix quickly went over to the table, and snatched up the item deck and her own effect deck, and also grabbed a belt from the drawer which had two “pockets” for both decks (which she placed said decks in), before walking back over to a waiting Keith.

The pair had hurried over to the forest, but the sight that greeted them was not pleasant by any means. Shawn was on the ground, knocked down by another visitor – a Devimon, who was distinguished by what appeared to be a white beard and a large moustache. Devimon had one foot on Shawn. “Oh, a mere rookie. So... Irksome.” He noticed Keith and Vix immediately. “Ah. About time.”

Keith took a step forward. “What the hell?! What are you doing here?!”

“Ah, my apologies. I am Kazikli. I came after hearing about your arrival in this world.” Kazikli looked towards the terminal. “I waited until the terminal was repaired, you see. Such a fascinating device, don't you think? But more fascinating is the world on the other side.”

“If you intend to go to the human world... Why?” Vix got into a fighting pose out of instinct, despite knowing that she was incapable of beating him. Kazikli's attention came back to them. “To destroy it. It disgusts me how much we Digimon revere humans, yet they are so pathetic. They are nowhere near as powerful as us, and you know this. Boy, I will have the pleasure of killing you first. And I will silence your companions. I will not allow them to spoil my plans. None of you will leave this place alive.”

Vix growled, as she charged, jumping and sending out a cloud of razor-sharp shards. “Not on my watch! Diamond Storm!”

Though Kazikli deflected the attack easily, Shawn managed to slip out from under his foot, and fled behind a tree. Kazikli grabbed Vix by the throat, causing her deck belt to slip off. “You DARE challenge a champion? You have courage, girl, I must admit. You could make a good servant.”

The belt hit the ground, and the item pocket accidentally opened, spilling out cards near Keith, who was frozen in shock, fear and indecision. One of the cards was near his foot, and it began to glow blue. He noticed, and picked it up with his left hand. It was a chain whip card. A shiver went down his spine, as he reached into his pocket, and drew an effect card with his right. Fire. A flame whip. Wait, why was he thinking about trading cards at a time like this?! He looked up at Vix, who was being choked, unable to free herself. He looked back at the two cards, glowing blue and yellow. “Here goes nothing!”

Much to his surprise, the whip card began to transform, expanding outwards in his hand, forming a handle, and then expanding out into metal chains, until it formed the 'mace' portion. It was an actual, physical weapon! He had an idea of what to do next, so he had the fire effect card touch the chain whip. The two practically merged, and the whip (not the handle, though) suddenly lit up momentarily with a powerful flame. Keith figured the flame would emerge every time he attacked, so, he charged towards Kazikli, and swung.

The mace slammed into the Devimon's head, lighting up, and taking him by surprise. He stumbled a few feet backwards, dropping Vix, who began to cough for a second or two as she began to breathe properly again. Kazikli quickly recovered, noticing the weapon and his attacker. “How did you...? Bah, no matter, even with a weapon, you are out of your league.”

Shawn suddenly managed to strike with his Horn Attack, having dived out from behind that tree, warning, “Vix, Keith, get out of here! I called the cops, they'll be here soon! Don't worry about me!”

Kazikli sighed, recovering immediately and knocking Shawn away. Keith tried to swing his whip again, but he fumbled, missing completely. Vix covered her fists and feet with ghostly blue flames, leaped up into the air, and came down on Kazikli, using her Power Paw to strike with a series of kicks and slices, but she was knocked down. “Honestly, did any of you believe you could even make a good delay?”

He suddenly blasted Keith with his Wicked Laser, making him drop the whip, and sending the teen crashing into a tree with a loud thud. Keith was surprised to find himself still alive and not actually burnt, but it hurt like hell. Vix and Shawn were trying to attack Kazikli, but it was obvious it would take a lot more to take him down. Vix urged, before she got knocked down again, “Keith, it's you he wants, run!”

Keith was horrified. The only two Digimon he actually knew and thought of now as friends were going to be killed in front of his eyes, yet the pain nearly paralyzed him. No, he had to do something, anything! He had dropped the whip, and if he tried to retrieve it, Kazikli would probably attack him. He needed another way to attack. A few other cards lay at his feet. He picked up a Wooden Cross card, and drew some effect cards, finding a few good ones. Alchemy, Light, and Boomerang. Alchemy allowed him to use two effects on a single item, so he used all three effects on the cross. The cross formed in his hand, glowing. “I guess this is how Simon Belmont feels when he fights.”

He managed to get to his feet, despite the pain aching in his body, and threw the cross. Kazikli did not expect this attack either, and was promptly struck in the chest, making him roar in pain. The cross bounced away. “A vaccine...? No, a similar effec-GAH!” The cross had come back, slammed into his back, and came back to Keith, who managed to catch it. The Devimon then noticed the cards. “Oh, I see what you're doing... Clever. But the time for games is over.”

He suddenly charged at Keith, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him into the tree, forcing him to drop the cross. “Even with these weapons, you're still a weak human. You couldn't even use that whip properly.”

Keith objected with his foot, kicking Kazikli in the stomach, surprising him, and leaving him open for a Diamond Storm plus Blue Blaster combo from Vix and Shawn, knocking him away into another tree. They covered him as he grabbed the cross and the whip, and then faced Kazikli again. “You say humans are weak, huh? Let me give you a little info on why humans managed to become the dominant species of planet Earth!”

Before Kazikli could properly recover, he was hit in the head with the mace. Keith decided not to do anything fancy with it, as he knew he couldn't use it well. “Though most people in today's modern society don't realise it, humans are very near the top of endurance compared to other creatures. Especially in hot climates. We have so many advantages, we're the Terminators of the animal kingdom.”

Kazikli managed to stand firm, and was about to attack when he was double-attacked by Vix and Shawn again. Keith, as soon as they were out of the way, hit him with the cross. “We can chase prey for hours, and we could do it for DAYS back in the days when we were hunter/gatherers. We can hold grudges forever. Rip out our "claws"? We don't care, we'll pull out new ones and throw them at you. Like what I'm doing now. We can warp reality so that everything is trying to kill you.”

The devil Digimon was backed up against a tree, and another whip strike, combined with the Digi-attacks, knocked him down. Keith spun his whip, noting, “Where we don't have brute strength, we have endurance, smarts, wits, and the ability to use whatever the heck is available to us. If I was a better fighter, I wouldn't need fancy-shamncy powers to kick your ass. But that's where Vix and Shawn come in.” He looked between the two, smiling. “Humans and Digimon can combine their strengths to become something greater than the sum of its parts. Well, that's what I've learned from watching too much Digimon anime, anyway.”

Vix and Shawn smiled back at Keith. Vix asked, “How do you know stuff like that?” Keith was quick to reply, “TvTropes. Long story.”

Kazikli was clearly unable to fight. Three other Digimon arrived on the scene, wearing what appeared to be police uniforms – a Leomon, an Angemon, and an Angewomon. Keith, Vix and Shawn noticed them, and as soon as they did, Keith collapsed from sheer exhaustion, now realising that the fight took a lot out of him. Leomon caught him as he fell, though. “It's alright. You're safe, now.”

The Angewomon examined the scene momentarily, and looked at Kazikli. "Sergeant Furey, arrest the suspect." The Angemon proceeded to do so, and then the Angewomon introduced herself. “I am Inspector Riza, these are Sergeant Havoc," she motioned towards the Leomon, "and Sergeant Furey. We came as quickly as we could. Thank goodness you survived, but it's amazing that you actually managed to defeat him.”

Furey noticed the whip and cross as he was handcuffing Kazikli, who didn't speak. “Did... You actually defeat a Champion Digimon? All three of you? I can see you have, but it's just... Unbelievable!”

Keith burst into relieved laughed, as Havoc set him down into a sitting position next to a tree. “I did? Wow. No, I didn't do it al-”

Then Vix slapped him. “Idiot! You could have gotten yourself killed!” Shawn sighed, as he looked at his shirt, which was rather torn. “I honestly though I was gonna die.” He looked up at Keith, grinning. “I owe you one, kid – no, really. We couldn't have pulled that off without you.”

Havoc checked Keith's injuries, and found nothing that couldn't be fixed with some rest. “Are you going back to your world? As soon as you do, get some rest. You deserve it.”

As Furey lead Kazikli away, the Devimon pouted. “Enjoy your victory while it lasts. I will not be the first to try and crush your world.”

“Oh, go to hell, like the devil you are.” Keith rolled his eyes.

---

Keith blinked, as he found some footing. They had managed to establish a portal back to Earth, a crude but workable program that replicated what created the portal, on both sides, without having another person on the other side. But was he back in his room? A mere look around confirmed this, though it was sunset already. Then came a sigh of relief. “I'm home. Incredible.”

“Huh, so this is your room.”

Keith turned around, to find Vix sitting on his desk. The Renamon smiled, turning her head to look around. “I like it.”

Keith chuckled, as he motioned for Vix to move away, before sitting down at the desk, and opening up MSN messenger. Oh, good, Jase was still on. “Before I take you on a tour, I've got something to do...”

NeoMaelstrom: oi, keith whats going on dude

NeoMaelstrom: keith?

MajorWind: I'm back.

NeoMaelstrom: dude where the hell have you been

MajorWind: I'm about to get to that! But I bet you'll never believe me.

NeoMaelstrom: try me.

MajorWind: Okay, I will.

MajorWind has set up a video conversation

MajorWind: Jase, meet Vix.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes: And this is what you get when you have too many ideas swimming in your head.

For a person who hasn't really touched Digimon for a while, I guess this could rekindle the Digimon fan in me – maybe I should finish watching Tamers and actually watch Savers, it's kinda embarrassing when the last series of the anime I watched was Frontier, which I thought was good, but a good portion of the fanbase just hates. Thankfully, I'm not touching any particular season, or game, manga, or whatever. This is basically my idea of what Toei could potentially do if they actually did a sixth season of Digimon. Another clean slate, so to speak. I dunno if I can match the quality of the actual series, but I'll try and do the best I can. Of course, provided that I can juggle this with my other fics. Gah.

And, about the card game. Unless you guys actually enjoyed reading it (it's hard to pull the sort of “what do you mean its not awesome” stuff you see in YuGiOh with just text, how they make a card game, well, not boring), but at least I tried to keep the duel short, unlike certain card game shows that take ages with their duels. I just had the idea for the game, you see, and I threw together some rules and tried to keep it simple enough to constrain it to a paragraph, and I just came up with cards and stats on the spot. And part of the idea was actually making the cards practical outside of the game itself, so you don't see such silliness as determining the fate of the world over a children's card game.

Also, here's a fun activity for those who haven't spotted these – spot the three Fullmetal Alchemist references! They're pretty easy. There's also a reference to Dracula in there, but it's more an obscure one more to do with the historical person, rather than the fictional character.