Aki was distracted from her hysteria by the lean frame of a strange entity phasing into her sight. The being looked almost like a... netnavi? After everything she had seen and heard to this point, Aki was sure she had well and truly lost her mind.

—y... Hey! Snap out of it—you're in danger!

Aki stared at the semi-digital creature at a loss for words. Of course she was in danger—that much was clear from the start. But what kind of supernatural force would not only kidnap them from their home, but also shove them inside of some wacko death game? This world seemed to want nothing more than to pile on questions at every turn, and the teen wasn't sure how she would be able handle any more surprises.

Aki opened her mouth to respond, but the glint of green on yellow in the distance caught her eye. And moments later, Suzi's theories were confirmed. A set of viruses were approaching the group on all sides, the most common enemies in the CyberNet. But these were the weakest malware there was by far, the viruses that were used to teach new players the mechanics and waste the time of veterans to the series. And even without any new battlechips or programs, they didn't amount to much more than than a simple pest.

All of these details combined and cemented into one solid fact. They were in a video game, but they all must have still been in some sort of tutorial. With eyes locked on the single shard of the familiar in this foreign world, Aki turned to face the closest pair of helmets.

What are y—No! Don't!

Despite the program's clear warnings, Aki approached the Mettaur.

Enma's partner was correct, the three humans and their new companions were nearly surrounded. As Aki approached the pair of helmets, she became able to see their slight movements from side to side as they made their way closer to the tower. One of the two stopped when she got within a few feet, while the other seemed to ignore her. Meanwhile, the three to the west stopped their imperceptible movement and the one to the north seemed to be lifted slightly at the front, revealing blackness beneath it and what appeared to be two white rings to anyone who looked in its direction.

Several yards to the east awoke two more humans who had appeared during the flash of light from the tower. There was a small hill between them and the other three, obscuring their view of the other humans. These two humans were a young boy and an even younger girl who awoke to circumstances even stranger than the earlier five had. Underneath their heads, in place of pillows, were two boxes. In the one under Simon's head was five of the blank battlechips that could be found in the boxes near the tower as well as five of the blank capture cards and what looked to be seven battlechips ripped straight from the Battle Network games. Lily's box contained only ten of the blank capture cards and another smaller box with a keyhole on the front of it. The box seemed to be made of ivory with golden accents, and while it didn't have a seam to open at, the keyhole must mean that it can be opened, right?

As they awoke, the two would notice that they already had their Expanse Callers' holographic overlays in their vision. Simon's had a yellow egg with darker yellow splotches on it being held by a sleeping but already initialized person, if they were even that. However, the strangest thing would be that Lily was beset on either side by large eggs. To her right was an orange egg, about the size of her head, and on her left was a light green egg that was just smaller enough than the other to be noticeable.

The sun had moved in the sky enough to be noticed by anyone looking at it in this short amount of time, and the temperature seemed to get even warmer.

Lily found herself in the middle of what had to be some kind of dream. There was a soft bed of grass under her yet it was totally unfamiliar than the fields outside of her family home. Her head was ringing something fierce like she had been knocked on the knoggin by a softball. Very slowly she managed to sit up, taking a deep breath and giving herself a moment to gather her senses. Looking forward, she saw an unfamiliar boy laying there next to her. She had to fight the urge to scream, to cry out or even kick this sure to be kidnapper. Yet once the more wild thoughts dispersed she realized that he was probably just as lost as she was. In front of her she saw a box and two eggs. One light green and other orange.

"I...I think pa needs to change where he builds the chicken coop." Lily mutters as she crawls over to the green egg. It had a slight sheen to it, glowing faintly in the light of day. And when she blinked it seemed to bounce in front of her. This startled the girl, who fumbled back and kicked a bit away from it. This finally giving her a look at just what exactly is happening around her.

In the not so far distance there looked to be people. With her head spinning like crazy it was impossible for her to really get a read on how many people there were. They looked to be older than her. Surrounding the more regular looking strangers were what looked to be dangerous half formed creatures. They were unlike any animal that Lily had ever seen before. Something about them gave off an aura of hunger. She could hear a girl screaming.

She found herself grabbing the box in front of her, sensing that something inside of it would be needed. Yet as the viruses started to advance on the other humans she felt something stir within her chest.

I got to help them she thought and looked around for some kind of weapon that she could use. Or for her phone to call the police. As she did this her foot brushed up against the green egg, finding that it started to spin and leap into the air on its own. Besides her, the orange egg did the same. Twin lights engulfed the young girl, before hatching into two tiny creatures.

while it had been a few days since his birthday Simon could still hardly believe his parents got him an Omniphone Gold, sure the whole resetting thing was gonna get annoying but still. Happy to finally have a phone with a camera he had taken several pictures already, of dogs, the sky, cool cars and so on.

The annoying part of the phone resetting became very clear when he was in the middle of typing a book-report and his phone suddenly rang, the fact that all he heard was static was just weird but that it caused the phone to reset without giving him the chance to save his work was far more upsetting in his mind. Not in the mood to redo the last half hour and feeling oddly tired Simon decided that a nap was a good idea.

When he opened his eyes again the first thing he noticed was some person with a flaming bowlingball for a head holding an egg. As he looked around he noticed more and more odd things about his surroundings, like the word welcome floating in his vision, the fact that he was outside and some unknown but cute girl. "I don't suppose you know what is going on."

While he managed to sound reasonably calm since he didn't want to make the young girl even more scared then she no doubt was he honestly was pretty close to panicking.

At first he thought he had to be dreaming but it all felt too realistic and he had never had a lucid dream before.

@LegendBegins
Enma looked around them, realization dawning him on whats happening as the hats moved closer. As he turned arouind he made eye contact with the mettaur behind, the large blank white eyes of the virus starteled him as he stumbled forward the opposite direction towards Aki. Seeing that the girl was approaching the group of hats. "Wait wait wait what are you doing?! Y-you don't know .. WHAT these things are, get back here!" He warned the girl as he tried to stand back up.

"It's too late to create distance! You need to go on the offensive before its to late." Commanded the Navi in his expanse caller.

Enma looked down at the device, still on the ground, "What am I supposed to do? I don't know how to fight!" He complained back to the red navi as he looked back at the staring mettaur behind them, its blank, cold eyes staring back at him.

Lily looked down to see the boy open his eyes, hearing him ask if she knew what was going on. The young girl was just so happy to hear another human voice, to know that this wasn't some terrible schizophrenic break with reality. Her whole body was shaking as the little monsters seemed to be getting closer and closer to the two of them. Tears from the fear of it all were running down her face and she dropped to her knees, paralyzed now that the bravado of it all had started to wear off for her. Every single second, every moment told her more and more that this was no dream at all. This was some kind of reality, twisted though it may be and beyond mysterious.

"n...no I don't...I'm sorry I don't know anything that's going on but I want....I want to go home right now!" The red haired girl cried, covering her face as the monsters started to get closer and closer to the two of them. She was on her hands and knees, dirt scraping against her dress. This was enough to make her have a near full blown panic attack. Not even the potential comforting thought that this might be a dream was coming to her. This was the reality of her situation, and all the evidence was mounting that she was a very scared little girl that was about to be eaten by monsters.

"Anyone! Please help us!" Lily cries out, covering her head and getting closer to the boy so that he can protect her.

One of the little monsters seemed to have heard the cry more than the others had. It saw her and the boy, their glowing Omniphones almost like beacons for them. It made a lunge towards Lily. Yet through it the eggs final crack open. Before Lily's eyes the there is a green little bouncing head hurling itself into the creature, just to be smacked down. A puff of greyish smoke floats near her, rubbing her cheek and seeming to put itself between her and the monsters. The red head cowers near the boy, sure now that she has totally lost her mind.

C:\Expanse\Data\User_Data\Suzuki_Takada...

The little white creature kept moving in its little space. The innocence of the act kept Suzi’s attention for a good while, as she ignored her surroundings. A childish longing smiled in a lull at the little monster. Maybe things aren’t so bad… She took in a “big girl breath” and released it. Her attention averted towards the sky, naturally, noting the warmth increasing around her skin.

Suzi’s feelings shifted around, and her front teeth continued caressing the plush of her bottom lip, “Wh… why is it getting s-so warm?” She stuttered in a question. The sun was blazing brighter and reminded her of a British book she had read called The Magician’s Nephew. There was something otherworldly about how it burned in the sky. She looked back down at her Digimon and glanced at her white prayer beads.

Drawing in another breath, the young girl tried to melt away her fears. God would not give her more than she could handle. Besides, the innocent smile on her little monster’s face had to mean something.

Of course the girl didn't know anything, Simon supposed that was more likely than her having all the answers somehow. He missed her cowering at first because the box had caught his attention though the fact it was filled with battle chips of all things only raised more questions. When he finally noticed how scared the girl was he didn't blame her all things considered and while he wanted see if the could wake bowlingball-head up and ask them some questions he figured he had to calm her down a little first. "Hey, are you okay? I'm sure we can find some others humans over at that phone tower we can ask for help."

Aki paused as the Mettaur stood in front of her. How did it go from here again? In the games, Megaman would always just run into them in a cutscene, or the player would walk up and hit the interact button. Still delusional, Aki decided to strike one of the viruses.

Wait, you have to listen to me!

The neurotic girl ignored the voice and, unperturbed by its warnings, launched what she believed would be the first virus battle of this kidnapping.

As Lily cried out for help, her new partners seemed to understand as they jumped between her and the viruses, of which one had moved at astonishing speed past the other humans and the tower, towards her and Simon. As it reached them, it lifted up to reveal a small creature in and of itself. Simon and Lily's now Expanse Callers would chime up at this, stating "Mettaur, Class F virus found" in their wearer's own voices.

Similarly, the helmet that stopped when Aki approached would lift up to reveal itself as well, resulting in the same message from her Expanse Caller, once again in her own voice. It was at this moment that her strike connected, hurting her hand as the virus' hardhat felt rather like one a human might wear while constructing a building.

The Mettaur that Enma was watching also stood up, and for a third time the message "Mettaur, Class F virus found" would ring out, this time in his voice from his own Expanse Caller, and at the same moment from Suzuki's in her voice. It seemed that these "viruses" were somehow hidden when they were flush with the ground, but when they rose up the range that they were detected by the Expanse Callers was relatively large. The small creature in Suzuki's vision turned to face the virus that Enma had gained the attention of, its expression shifting almost imperceptibly towards a more "battle ready" one, if it could be called such a thing from such a small and fluffy creature.

The remaining helmets continued their approach towards the tower, two from the west and one from the south, without standing up. Their approach was slow but now obvious from the distance they had moved.

There didn't seem to be any innate hostility towards the humans from these viruses, yet the varied digital beings aligned with the five humans seemed to recognize them as a threa

Before Simon could any leeway towards the tower a small familiar creature revealed itself. Even without his phone telling him what it was he would have recognized it as a Mettaur which at least explained the battle chip but in a way that raised only more questions. Still forcing himself to sound calm he addressed the girl again. "I have no idea what is going but that is an enemy from a video game I've played. We should be fine as long as we don't stand directly in front of it." Following his own advice Simon side stepped until he and the Mettaur were standing diagonally from each other.

Meanwhile either due to Simon's Omniphone sending some kind of signal upon detecting the virus or simply because some timer ran out Solarman began to wake up.

"God dammit, have you never been in a fight before? Pathetic." The Navi within the screen sighed in frustration. "If you can't fight then I'LL do it for you! But theres a step you need to do first! You have a blank chip right?"

Enma for his part nodded, as he rustled through his pockets at the other item he'd gotten from his box, a hand full of chips. Looking them over he realized some of them were without pictures. "T-this right?!" He asked panicked, still on the floor as he looked at his caller..

The Navi nodded. "Yes. Now listen carefully, this is the technical part. You need to stand up, and get close enough for the card to activate. The card will give you the ability to copy an ability of your enemy. Now listen," The navi said with a serious tone. "You NEED to pick Actualization! And then once you finish, insert the chip immediately!"

Enma scrambled to stand up, his eyes still locked with the Virus. "A-and then?" He asked as he took out the chip and began to inch towards the Virus. The chip beginning to glow as the process began.

"And then?" The Navi chuckled. "And then I'll show you how a real man fights!!" He yelled as Enma chip began to glow, an image burning into the blank square.

The second the process finished, Enma scurried back as he quickly activated the chip. "A-ACTUALIZATION!!!" Enma shouted in panic. D-did he do it right? Would this really be enough?

Lily felt like she was about to burst into tears again, shaking right there on the spot at the helmet monsters make their way to to her. Somehow having a name for them didn't make her feel better, but rather much worse. She was truly about to be devoured by monsters, a stranger in a strange land who had no idea what exactly she had gotten into. All she wanted to do was go home and find herself under some covers after having this nightmare. Tears ran down her face but she heard the boy say something. These were monsters from a video game, and he knew how to at least avoid their attacks.

One of the little yellow helmets fires a ball of energy towards them, and Lily dives to hide behind the boy. Just as he said, the attacks flies harmlessly to their side since the monsters could only attack straight. This seems to give her green monster some sort of room, yet it bounces off the helmet without so much as a scratch.

Clutching the box, she feels a sudden warmth in her hands as a voice whispers to her. Guiding her even if she can't quite make out what they are saying to her. Closer to a feeling or instinct than a plan, Lily grips the box and the expense caller close to her heart.

"Acualtization!" She screams at the top of her lungs as rings of light seem to come all over her body. Closing her eyes, the two balls of light and data suddenly freeze in midair.

"Minomon digivolved to..."

"DemiMeramon digivolvrd to..."

"Wormon!" Said the green one, landing ahead of her dead on with the virus. "Great to meet ya Lily! I'm Wormon, what say you we kick some butt!?"

"Candlemon!" The other declares, holding out its...arms of sorts to protect her, "Stay behind us, we'll take care of this! That's what digimon do!"

Lily was stunned, Wormon firing off string to wrap up the monster as Candlemon sets it alight with fireballs from its mouth. Her heart was racing as she looked at the creatures, "Digimon...my own digimon?"

C:\Expanse\Data\User_Data\Suzuki_Takada...

Suzi’s attention on the warming of the sun was interrupted by the sound of her voice coming from the device around her. Her voice sounded like it mentioned something about a Mettaur, Class F virus found.

“Hu?” Her brows knitted a bit, and her teeth quit nursing on her bottom lip. Her eyes darted around, seeing Aki. She took a step back, noticing the hard hats, and the other girl (Lily). Her Digimon was evolving! “Aye…” Suzi took another step backwards with a childish hesitation. A quirky curiosity sprouted in her.

“Pafumon, Digivolve!” Her small voice commander triumphantly. Suzi felt a strange sense of excitement and urgency as she said this. A bright light encircled around Pafumon as the little monster began to evolve into a slightly larger digital monster.

“Kyaromon!” The newly transformed Digimon exclaimed. It’s tail whipped with a puff of intensity, and despite the immediate dangers, Suzi had to hold back a glee of exuberant happiness.

Aki yanked her hand back, throbbing red after the foolish blow. She managed to shake off the pain—her arm strength wasn't anywhere near enough to seriously hurt herself. Not yet, anyway.

Dodge!!!

The creature reared back with its pickaxe, broadcasting an obvious attack. Aki stepped to the virus' diagonal as its mining tool swung past her figure and struck the ground, inducing a piercing shockwave that rocketed past her, blowing her auburn hair to the right in the resulting wind. The earth groaned at the strike, receiving the judgement of the weak-looking program in place of Aki. If anything about this world was real, it was this: the entity that loomed below could kill her.

In that moment, something broke within the older teen. The impossible reality of their new home, the fictional creatures attacking them, the very real chance that one or all of them would die—several dangerous thoughts struck her all at once. She was no longer concerned with figuring out what had happened, with finding a way to escape. For a brief reprieve from this terrifying new world, thought and reason left Aki.

The girl lashed out against the virus wildly, striking the beast with as much strength as her meek arms could muster. Several blows connected with its helmet, others at its softer obsidian body, and yet others missing the Mettaur entirely. And because the universe somehow chose not to return the teen to the real world in the midst of her breakdown, she continued her barrage indiscriminately.

Aki! Snap out of it!!

The Mettaur leaned back to launch another shockwave with its pickaxe, this time, directly into the face of its opponent. Unperturbed by the assured death warrant staring her in the face, Aki defied rationale and reached for the pick mid-swing.

The virus Simon had stepped away from seemed to have its attention taken fully by the two digimon, Wormmon and Candlemon, and was ignoring him now that they'd changed. It seemed that Lily's desperation had been the trigger needed for her partners to digivolve into their Child stage, finally battle-ready. Though the box's contents remained a mystery, and likely would stay as such for now, at least now there was a fighting chance for the two children on that side of the hill, perhaps more-so now that Solarman had awoken.

As Enma activated the chip, inserting it into one of the small slots near his wrist, his partner Fefnir.exe's silhouette appeared in red in the world in front of him before filling from the bottom up with red 1s and 0s, his form realizing as they passed each part of him. Within a second, he was standing there in full force, ready to fight. It seemed that the egg in Enma's vision was unaffected by the chip, however. Perhaps the user's intent had something to do with its effect?

Similar to Lily, Suzi's desperate command had brought about digivolution for her partner, and though it remained safe and secure within her Expanse Caller, it was now in its In-Training II stage and closer to being ready for a real battle.

Aki's hand went to the pickaxe, and to the virus' immense surprise, and likely to everyone else's as well, the pickaxe stopped as it bounced off her hand. The force behind it was enough to injure her where it connected, but she had managed to stop the attack before it finished, and in some miracle of timing, had -COUNTER-'d the attack, stunning the Mettaur for several seconds. Unfortunately, the Mettaur that had ignored her before in order to continue to the tower seemed to sense this, instantly turning back around and jumping up to its full size. It stared at her for a moment before firing a bullet of energy at her. It seemed that these viruses weren't just limited to their pickaxe attacks as they were in the games some of the children knew them from, but could use the attacks of their predecessors from the earlier Megaman games as well.

C:\Expanse\Data\User_Data\Suzuki_Takada...

Aki’s act of surprise against the pickaxe caught Suzi’s attention. Her eyes darted around looking at the others. Her mouth made a small o, as she observed. There was something scary about all of this. There had been a backdrop of terror this entire time, but the fear was dripping away, as she saw what was happening.

This is not scary. It was the same inner voice that told her the city of Tokyo was a new adventure. This was a new adventure. It was different than other adventures she had experienced, but it was definitely an adventure, and it wasn’t scary. She wished to believe it never had been scary.

Her eyes focused on her screen. Kyaromon She wished for her Digimon to be right beside her. How would she come about this? Her mouth closed with a childish concentration, pressed into her right cheek. It was as if an invisible wall was holding her back. She was staring at her Digimon and then back at the other children. There was not a chance she would try to attack any of the viruses with her bare hands as did Aki.

Her mind went back-and-forth, to-and-fro about how to change the situation. Finally, she drew in a deep breath. Her small chest puffed a bit, “Kyaromon! Digivolve!” Her voice commanded, again. She knew what Kyaromon would look like next, and it excited her. What she did not know, was if this was how it would happen. The circumstances were different than with her virtual pet monster that had been gifted to her at her birthday.

As Fefnir began to digitalize into reality Enma fell to the ground, scraping his arms as he scurried away. "W-what is this?"

The completed silhouette looked back at Enma with a smirk before wordlessly charginmg forward at the Mettaur, his arm grabbing the flame firng weapon on his back and shoving it under the cap of the virus, before firing and roasting it from underneath. "This is how a true warrior fights, burn it into your memories!!!" Fefnir shouted out in a roar as it looked at the other Mettaur around. "Who wants some?!"

Enma could only stare in awe, disbelief of the situation he was in beginning too crumble away as he had to accept that fefnir had just DIGITALIZED in front of him.

Lily felt like her lungs were on fire as she ran, pumping her legs as hard and fast as she can while fleeing from the little virus. Little balls of yellow light flash over her head, exploding or sailing by harmlessly. They seem to be half aiming for her and half chasing her. Clutching the box to her chest, the young girl felt that it must be important if monsters wanted it. And if the type of monsters to attack little girls want it then there was no way she was going to let them have it.

Whatever had inspired the evolution of her partners was starting to wear off. Cabdlemon hoped along feebly, throwing back what she realized were loogies of wac at the monsters, "We...we can't keep this up..." He told her in a strained voice, finally stopping to catch his breath before getting nailed by one of the attacks. In a flash of light Lily suddenly found herself holding a little fire ball. She knew she should throw it away or get away...but little DemiMeramon was neither burning her or too hot for her to handle. It seems that it's flames either did not burn those around him or whatever bond they shared had protected her from it burning her.

Wormon though fights fiercely, head butting one of the little creatures and giving the trio time to flee over the cress of the hill. Yet even now the green larva loomed exhausted, a similar flash of light transforming it back into Minomon.

All seemed lost until she saw...people. Lily could see them fending off the monsters with something...or someone. She didn't have much of a choice. Scooping the two into her arms, she sprints for towards the older people, what looks like a boy and a girl. She yells out, "Help us!" Before tripping and stumbling head over heels down, clutching the box and the two baby digimon to her chest.

Aki, follow my instructions or you're going to die. Jump!

Something of the digital creature's instructions got through to Aki. At the cost of her now-seared arms, she jumped out of the way of the incoming bullet, narrowly escaping its range.

Listen very carefully. Walk to the tower and open your pack.

P-pack?!

The box by the tower. It has your name on it.

One-track minded as always, Aki fled from the viruses and toward the center of the tower, opening her marked pack. Inside, she found several blank chips, along with a few other goodies. The girl didn't have time to wonder about their purpose before her navi barked its next instruction.

This is going to be difficult. Aim carefully, and throw one of those blank chips at the Mettaur.

Throw it?!

Throw it!

Following the software's instructions, Aki hurdled the chip with all her might into the small virus. The card glanced off its helmet, but after the brief contact, managed to copy the enemy's actualization. Aki rushed for the chip, now lying face-down on the ground.

Now put it in the slot!

O-okay!

With what remained of her focus, Aki slid the card into the small slit in the band on her wrist. Suddenly, the voice she heard towered in front of her, a navi with powerful red armor and gorgeous blonde hair.

What are you—

Aki, I'm going to get you out here, okay?

The girl heard what sounded like some sort of spaceship charging up before a purple light surrounded the navi. Out of nowhere, the light released and a green sword materialized on her hand, which was now in a downward swing directly into the face of the small virus. This navi had cut it cleanly in half.