[IC] Digimon: Fallen Knights

[Cleveraptor]

The day was going by as it normally did for humans all over the world. People went about their day as they usually did. Running errands, working jobs, nothing out of the ordinary. However, for a select handful of the seven billion humans on Earth, they had been chosen for something special. It was up to them to decide whether or not to accept the offer that was being sent to them. An angelic being read over the message that was going to be sent out, frowning. "And you're absolutely sure that this will get their attention?" she asked, glancing over at her superior, an angel clad in pure white

"How am I supposed to know?" the other angel said, shrugging. "Last time we tried, they didn't respond at all. Apparently the messages we sent all wound up in something called a 'S'paham Folda'. No idea what that is."

"Well, let's hope for the best then." The angelic Digimon flicked her hand, sending the message out into the humans' world wide web.

---

In a little convenience store on the outskirts of Tokyo, a young woman sighed quietly behind the counter. It had been a slow day with few customers. She couldn't really complain, though. The few people that had come in were regulars. Kids getting snacks on their way home from school, college students looking to buy cheap food on a meager budget, and that one older man who wanted a cup of coffee on his walk. They were all kind enough, though there was always that one kid who tried to push his luck trying to sneak candy. Her supervisor, an older woman named Hiiragi, came out from the break room. "Still quiet?" she asked.

"No customers," Yui confirmed. "Just one of those days, I suppose." The young woman took her phone out to check the time. "Mind if I take fifteen?"

"It's not a problem, Azuma," Hiiragi answered. "There's some snacks that were about to expire in the break room. Figured it would be better than throwing them out." The older woman gave a warm smile, and Yui did her best to return it, though she found it hard to meet Hiiragi's eyes.

"Thanks. I think I'll have some." Yui passed by her supervisor and went into the break room. Sure enough, there was a box full of snacks on the table. Most of them weren't very popular with anyone under thirty, but beggars couldn't be choosers when it came to free snacks. Yui took a moment to dig through the box until she found something she liked before sitting down in a chair and taking out her phone.

Din-don!

One new email, from someone she didn't recognize. It wasn't in the spam folder, so Yui simply assumed it might have been from a friend of her mother's. She opened it up.

The Digital World Needs Your Help!

Evil is afoot in the Digital World. Rival armies vie for control of the land, and heroes are needed to save the innocent! You've been chosen to protect those who can't protect themselves. What say you?

I want to help!

Yui cocked an eyebrow. Was this some kind of ad for a new game? It sounded like it to her. It couldn't possibly hurt to take a look, right? She tapped the link and-

---

There was a flash of light, and the next thing Yui knew she was somewhere she didn't recognize. It was bright, and the walls and floor seemed to be made from polished marble. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. The room she was in was relatively large, and shaped like a perfect circle. "Um... okay..." she mumbled. Yui was soon aware that she wasn't alone in this room.

[Psyker Landshark]

Shinozaki Yurie

A few miles away in Tokyo, an apartment door swung open, and Yurie walked through with a groan, slamming it shut behind her. God, she hated the commute to and from campus. If there hadn't been a test today, there'd have been no chance she bothered to even attend. Not for the first time, Yurie questioned her choice of staying in Japan and not attending college in America instead. She'd spent half her childhood there, leaving Japan after elementary school and only returning in her second year of high school thanks to her parents' jobs. Cali sucked, but at least she got English fluency out of it.

Yurie flopped into her chair, not even bothering to change out of her clothes or take her shoes off for the moment as she popped open the mini fridge next to her desk and took out a can of sugarfree energy drink. Second sip of the day. She'd need it for the rest of the evening and night. After all, now that class was done, she could get back to what was actually important. Yurie took a swig of her white Monster as she opened her email inbox.

"Let's see...no job offers? No weekend binge this week, I guess." She murmured to herself as she checked her mail. Well, at least it gave her free time to work on trying to crack some security systems-

You've got mail!

Yurie blinked. From the title alone, it looked like spam. So how the hell had it gotten past the filter? She opened it, being careful to not click on anything past that.

"...What the hell is this?" She murmured incredulously under her breath. Whoever decided to cook up this new variation of the Nigerian prince scam deserved points for creativity, at least. Damn, now she was curious. A few clicks forwarded the email to a burner account, and Yurie yanked her ethernet cable out of her tower as she switched over to her second machine. Her crappy five year old Thinkpad was a solid test bed for dealing with security stuff, considering it didn't have any personal information on it anymore. Just because she was curious didn't mean she was going to be stupid about it. She set up a virtual machine before accessing her burner account, opening the email as she did before. The same message greeted Yurie, and she clicked the link inside, only to be greeted by a blinding light.

"Oh come on-" She yelled in exasperation before the world seemed to shift out from under her.

___

"-a flashbang prank?!" Yurie finished her scream as she fell onto her ass. Wait, what? She opened her eyes, only to be surrounded by polished marble and...other people? Holy hell, was her boomer juice spiked?

[Rin]

Briar Rayne

"♫~Love is like a gummy bear, a yummy yummy gummy bear~♫"

Uuuuuuugh. She'd had it stuck in her head all day now. Because of course all it took was hearing some crappy pop song once to have it grip tightly on your brain. It was so insipid, so saccharine, so... So catchy.

"I swear, if I ever meet the kid who sung that..."

Briar sighed as she dragged herself through the front door, just narrowly missing a sudden downpour. That was unusually lucky for her, she thought, although it was balanced out by her thoughts being filled with yummy gummy love.

"Hey mum, I'm home." No answer. Must still be out.

"♫~Yummy gummy I love you, yummy gummy yes it's true~♫"

Damn it, now she was humming it. Hummy yummy gummy get out of my head already. Groaning in exasperation, Briar headed to her room to find something, anything to drown out the sugary sweet sound of gummy bear love. Slumping down onto her bed, she began flicking through her phone looking for something to listen to when she noticed a new email notification flash up. Without anything better to do, she quickly had a peak at it.

""Evil is afoot... Rival armies... You've been chosen... Bountiful amounts of cleavage awaits, my lord..." No idea how this got through the spam filter..." Rolling her eyes, Briar went to delete it... And of course now of all times is when her finger just had to slip.

"Wait no aaargh I didn't want to-"

There was a sudden blinding light, and then...

---

"-do that! ...Huh?"

Well at least it didn't infect her phone with spyware (at least she hoped it didn't). Still, this was... Different, to say the least. She'd been transported into a bright white room, and it looked like she wasn't alone.

Well this is never good.

[Fish of Oblivion]

Sasha Koslova

"Ngh..."

Last Sasha could recall, it had been late evening, the kitchen warm and full of the scent of a freshly-cooked pot of stew. But as she opened her eyes, the sun was long since set, the air now cool around her and the aromas of her earlier endeavours long since faded.

“Must have been more tired than I thought,” she grunted to herself, as she her elbows to lift herself off the table she was slumped over. She remembered now; Nic and Kat were away for the evening, one on a school trip and the other staying at a friend’s. Dad was meant to be home this weekend, so with free run of the house afforded to her, she’d caught up on some outstanding chores- the others had been a little sloppy as of late- and put on some stew to welcome him back.  She must have dozed off at some point, and the clock on the kitchen’s wall confirmed it was coming up on half eleven. That was no real problem; the stew would keep if she got it in the fridge as soon as possible, it wasn’t so ungodly an hour that staying up a bit longer would tank her sleep schedule, and there was still half an hour until-

She jolted fully upright. 

“Гавно!” She belted out, jumping up from the table and making for her room. She’d meant to go to the store earlier to pick up an order that had come in for dad, but had decided to put it off until she was caught up with the housework. Now she was half an hour out from closing time, staring down the end of the day with nothing to show but a slightly creased sweater where she’d fallen asleep on the counter!

The store wasn’t too far away, she thought to herself as she opened her closet and pulled out her coat. The main roads were a long trek, but she knew her way through the in-betweens and alleys that offered a shortcut, and so long as she minded her own business and ran there she could make it up to Mr. Jacobs for the last minute drop-in later. Dad had been working so hard for them, least she could do was make sure his package was here for him when he got back in the morning.

A few minutes later, and she was back in the hall, getting her shoes on. Her phone was on the table by the front door, charging; she’d have been perfectly happy sticking with her old flip-top, but Nic and some of her friends had point-blank forced her to upgrade when they bought her the smartphone. She hadn’t been happy at the time, but it seemed like it was finally going to start being something more than a distraction. She could load up the receipt now while she was still on the wi-fi, have the number ready as soon as she got in. Her fingers quickly and blindly worked at the screen as she pulled the door open, clicking at the first email that came up as she stepped out into the light and closed the door behind her-

---

... Wait, light? It was coming up midnight, why was it suddenly as bright as day?

She turned around, looking either side of her. Gone was the front of her house, and the cool darkness of the midwestern night. Instead, she found herself in what could only be described as an atmosphere of perfect neutrality. All around her was featureless white marble, light and room temperature alike seemingly perfectly perched between warm and cold, and a space that was neither too open or too enclosed; perfectly measured for herself and the group of people around her.

She looked between them, one by one. She paused.

"... Is this like the movie with the spinning top?" She asked, trying her best to make sense of what was going on around her. Short of an alien abduction, all she could guess is that her dreams had suddenly got a lot weirder; and a lot more real-feeling.

[The World]

Kari Primrose

---

Kari sat up in her chair, her arms above her as she stretched from being hunched over in her chair. She had gotten carried away and lost track of time playing the MMO she'd most recently found. With colleges in session already, she felt that she had plenty of time to waste before having to get serious about thinking over what she wanted to do in life. What time was it, anyway? Closing the game, she looked at the corner of her screen to see it was... about noon!? She really had gotten carried away helping those newbies out, she'd been in-game for ten freakin' hours!

"Ugh... Alright, nap time." Kari stood up only for her stomach to growl at her. "... Alternatively, food." And so she went to her fridge and got out leftover pizza from the night before. Taking it and a soda back to her computer, she started pulling up something to watch while she ate.

Twenty minutes later she remembered that she was going to go to sleep and slowly pulled herself away from the videos she had been watching. Was there anything pressing that she had to do before bed? She couldn't think of anything, so the last thing to do was just making sure she didn't have any new texts or emails. Grabbing her phone and swiping the unlock pattern on it, she opened her messaging app and saw only a text from her mother telling her that Kari's parents were hoping she'd come by for a visit in the coming weeks. She replied to it that she should be free for that, and then switched over to her emails. There were only two messages, and it looked like both were just spam.

"Find hot singles in your area... No thanks." -Delete-

"The Digital World Needs Your Help? What, another game?" She glanced at her computer. Did she have time for another game? Yeah, probably. She clicked on the message to open it. "Let' see... 'Evil is afoot, save the innocent... protect those who can't protect themselves...' Jeez, have these guys been buying my info or what?" She stood for a moment, only a moment, before sighing and clicking the link. If it trashed her phone somehow, she'd be p-

---

There was a flash of light that made her close her eyes, and when she reopened them she was standing in a room that could really use some redecorating to add some color, where there seemed to be some other people in various states of confusion.

Oooookkay... Apparently I fell asleep without realizing it. She jumped. Nothing. She tried again. Still nothing. ... That usually works. She glanced at her hands and groaned. They looked perfectly normal, which was rare for a dream, and that usually meant she wasn't going to be able to influence it much. New plan.

"Hey, so... Where am, err, where are we?" She asked, directing her question towards the group of others as a whole.

[Crimson Flame]

Cameron Mason sat in front of the well-lit vanity mirror in his dressing room, surrounded by an array of colorful costumes and accessories. The room itself was colorful, filled with posters of past performances and fan art adorning the walls. Behind him, there were several people rushing about getting ready for the upcoming performance.

Admist the chaos, Cameron kept up his cheerful demeanor. He was eager to start the show. He studied his reflection in the mirror, and adjusted his cap, while applying glitter to his eyelids "♫~Love is like a gummy bear, a yummy yummy gummy bear~♫". He sang out loud. Even he got his own songs stuck in his head.

There were going to be a lot of costume changes in this show. But for his first look, he would wear his signature outfit. Even though there were people pulling him in every direction, Cameron kept the smile on his face, and shared laughs and hugs with everyone.

As the final touches came together, Cameron flashed his signature smile at his reflection. “Time to spread some joy!” he declared to no one in particular.

Of course, before Cameron could bounce out of his dressing room to start the show, his cellphone pinged. Cameron was quick to answer it. “The digital world needs your help” Cameron didn’t think twice about clicking on it. No matter how much his assistant told him it might be spam. And in a flash of light, the young pop star was gone. Leaving his entire entourage in a panic.

—-

The next thing Cameron became aware of, he was no longer in his dressing room. Instead, it was some weird white room filled with other people.

Cameron was confused, but he didn’t let this setback bother him. “Well this is weird… But, I’m sure someone will come get me eventually. In the meantime, you lucky people get a free private shooooow!” And with that, Cameron started to dance and sing his hit song. "♫~Love is like a gummy bear, a yummy yummy gummy bear~♫"

[Lord Orgasmo]

---

Isaac let out a groan as he collapsed down onto his bed. Another day, another dollar. Though there were rumors of a pay raise going around the office. Maybe then he could afford a nicer place. His current arrangement wasn't bad per se, just kind of cramped. At least the internet was good. Maybe those two extra years of college for a bachelor's degree wouldn't be such a bad idea. But could he really afford it? Maybe could get a grant or a scholarship. Or if he was truly lucky, maybe the company would help pay for it. He should talk to his boss about that tomorrow.

Isaac looked to his alarm clock on the dresser next to him. Looks like he still had a couple of hours left in the day. What to do, what to do... Well, he definitely knew a trip to the grocery store was in order, his fridge was getting pretty bare, and it wasn't exactly going to just spawn in new food, despite how much he wanted it to. Fortunately, there was a grocery store right across the street. Talk about prime real estate.

Now outside and standing at the intersection, a loud beeping sound went off as the crosswalk lights changed. Yet just as he took his first step onto the street, he heard the sound of a car horn as a massive box truck barreled past him, the wind from its passing causing him to nearly fall backwards. "Jesus Christ!" He yelped. He looked around to see if anyone else had just seen what he had. Strangely, there were no others on either side of the crosswalk, and few down the streets either didn't see or didn't care about what had just happened. He'd better stay more vigilant, he wouldn't want to end up on one of those sappy TV commercials about not texting and driving or something.

Curiously, just as he thought of that, he felt a buzz in his pocket as his phone alerted him of a notification. Quickly crossing the street, he pulled out his phone to see what it was. It was an email, from someone he didn't recognize. Something about saving the digital world from evil armies, and protecting the innocent. Was this a game ad? Usually these get sent straight to the spam folder. Then it clicked. One of his friends at work kept bugging him to play some MMO with him. Was this him? How'd he even get his email in the first place anyways? Well, the least he could do was sign up.

Upon clicking the link there was a blinding flash of light, as Isaac desperately covered his eyes with the black sleeve of his jacket. He let out a grunt as the pain in his eyes subsided, lowering his arm. Only now he wasn't on the streets, but rather some sort of marble room. Was this one of those pranks where they build a room around you while you're not looking? Or...

"Did that truck... actually hit me?" He muttered to himself, readjusting his beanie.

[AlteredTundra]

---

"But I set fire...to the rain, as I watched it pour down your face~"

The musical hummings of an eighteen-year-old kid echoed through the streets of Seattle as the sounds of the wheels of his skateboard added an unique background noise. This kid, Jackson Drake, looked, talked, and acted like someone straight out of the 2000s. With loose jeans and a graphic tee that, out of his entire collection, what seemed daunting was Spongebob and Squidward all decked out in their best rapper cosplay. Jackson was a fan of vintage style and it didn't get more vintage than the glorious decade of the 2000s and the style is unmatched and unrivaled.

Jackson had the sounds of Adele blasting in his wireless headphones that were connected to his cell phone and it was connected specifically to his Spotify App. He was just fresh out of high school, graduating with a GPA of 2.3, which he was immensely proud of...mainly because he wasn't sure if he would graduate at all. Fortunately for him, he had a few teachers who either hated his guts so much they let a student who didn't deserve to graduate do so with his friends or took pity on him and rounded up his tests to the best possible score that would allow him to get out of there and live his dreams.

He liked to believe it was the latter.

Jackson was a part-time delivery man who worked for the Chinese takeout place near his apartment that he shared with his older brother. They weren't too picky over his mode of transportation since most of the orders came in within a three-block radius, so he could get around in practically no time. He used his cruiser board to get around his neighborhood with relative ease.

"And here we are!"

Jackson popped off his board and slid like a champ into a local grocery store. He was very familiar with the owner's daughter. "Denise, how's it hanging?" He flashed her a smile, rizzing her up the best he could.

Denise was five years older than him but that didn't stop him for trying to shoot his shot. He loved adventures. He loved new experiences. Rock climbing, going to the abandoned mansion outside of town, and even trying to hit up a woman way out of his league who never showed any kind of interest in for as long as she knew him.

With an unphased reaction, Denise just handed him a twenty. "You got my chow mein and two entree order of walnut shrimp and spicy beef?"

With a heavy sigh, Jackson placed the bag in his hand on the countertop. "Yep. And it's really only fifteen bucks. You want change?"

The woman shrugged. "Nah, keep the change. Maybe you can use it on some unlucky girl who falls for your charms..that isn't me," she added to ensure that he didn't have any hope left.

Well, mission accomplished.

"Oh come on. Maybe you'll think differently--"

beep beep

"Seems like you have another order waiting for you."

Disappointed but refocusing, Jackson whipped out his phone as he saw a notification from his Gmail. He always checked it and cleared out most spam E-mails he received almost as soon as he did. His boss also preferred to send it through email. The system he set up was that every order that needed to be picked up would automatically be sent out through Email. It was a bit odd, but Jackson liked the system because it meant he always needed his phone with him.

He opened his Gmail app and while he did see the message from Mr. Li, he also noticed he got another email. This one caught his attention.

"The Digital World needs my help?" Jackson was riding his board slowly, looking at the message. It mentioned something about evil being afoot and a whole bunch of extra words. Stopping at a crosswalk, Jackson was mentally scratching his head. "I don't even play these games, but this sounds kinda sick." While he never took great care in downloading shady apps, he usually felt a sense of comfort doing so from the Play Store and seeing 'protected by Play Protect' as some sort of guarantee that it wasn't going to give his phone aids.

What harm could downloading it from Gmail be?

With a light shrug, he clicked the link without even looking at his phone. It was an absentminded phone touch and he was looking ahead at the crosswalk, waiting for some cars to move past. He just didn't realize the light from his phone getting brighter until it was all that he could see. The moment he blinked, he opened his eyes to look around him. Aside from the group of people who he assumed were around his age, Jackson didn't recognize where he was nor did he recognize any of the people who were nearby.

And when he did, he realized one very important thing.

He was not in Seattle anymore.

"Wait, is that Cameron Mason?" Jackson squinted and rubbed his eyes with his hands, and blinked again. And then another for good measure. "Hot balls, it really is him!" He said a bit louder than he thought he did, not realizing he had his headphones still on. "Whoops, did I say that too loud?"

[Cleveraptor]

Yui glanced around at the other people. They seemed just as confused as she was. However, some of them spoke another language. English? She didn't have the best grasp on the language, aside from lyrics to metal and rock bands she listened to.

"It never occurred to you that the humans might speak different languages?" came a feminine voice. Yui looked over to see a winged humanoid figure shaking its head, seemingly in irritation, at another, masculine angelic being.

"My mistake," the second angel said, waving his hand dismissively. "I'll just create an algorithm and attach it to the humans." He waved his hand, and what appeared to be a holographic screen appeared in front of him, filled with ones and zeroes. He tapped at it furiously until he seemed content before collapsing the screen into balls of light. With another wave of his hand, the spheres flew towards the humans before colliding with them, seemingly disappearing into their bodies. "There we go. Should be able to understand each other now."

True enough, Yui could understand the other people perfectly. The male angel cleared his throat to get the group's attention. "I know you have questions, and if you want them answered, you're going to have to calm down and listen. I'll start with the most likely thing you're wondering: 'Where am I?' This answer might be difficult to believe, but right now you're in the Heaven of the Digital World."

[Fish of Oblivion]

Sasha Koslova

As the apparent reality of her situation set in, Sasha took another look around the others assembled in the strange place she'd somehow been transported to. Most of the others there were girls like her, presumably around the same age as her. Each of them seemed to have a very particular dress sense, ranging from all-black to hoodies and shorts to what looked like a punk ensemble, and their heights further made their exact ages a little hard to determine; and for a moment, a cold pit formed in her stomach and the hairs on her neck began to stand on end as she wondered if she'd been abducted by someone with motives. A moment later, however, and she shook her head, noticing there were also a handful of boys; so whatever it was they were here for, it probably wasn't that. Their ages were a little easier to clue out, with one of them looking like a grown man, dressed in warm clothing not unlike one of dad's younger coworkers, another looked to be a similar age to her and the other girls, with a similarly elaborate style of clothing and one outright appeared to be a small child.

Said child(?) then proceeded to jump into an impromptu song and dance routine, their glaringly pink apparel flashing about like the display of a bird of paradise, and one of the older boys yelled something in excited response loud enough for Sasha to wince as she was snapped out of her thoughts. Well, clearly not everyone was as confused by their current circumstances as she was. Maybe they knew something more about all this than she did?

"It never occurred to you that the humans might speak different languages?" At the new voice, however, she flinched and turned to see two new individuals amongst them, a man and a woman; and while they looked human at a glance, their height and wings stopped that train of thought dead in its tracks.

The two spoke between themselves for a moment, in voices that weren't heard so much as felt. Though their mouths were moving, the words they spoke seemed to resonate and reverberate through her head, as if they were bypassing verbal communication to transmit their thoughts directly into her brain and only providing a comforting imitation of speech. She wondered, again, if they had been abducted by aliens; she'd read some of her dad's old collection of science-fiction stories while he was teaching her Russian, and many of the beings from beyond the stars described there communicated their minds rather than through spoken words.

A moment later, however, and the man(?) called up a cluster of lights and sent them flying towards herself and the others assembled there. On instinct, Sasha threw up her arms to block the one he'd sent her way; but not only did it easily pass through them, as it did it seemed to disappear into her, and the bizarre sensation of the beings' voices faded. Now, as she lowered her arms and looked at them, their voices registered as no different from those of the other humans. She still didn't understand exactly what he'd done; but she didn't get much of a chance to dwell on that, as he promptly continued.

"I know you have questions, and if you want them answered, you're going to have to calm down and listen." Now that she wasn't so overwhelmed by the man's(?) words, his voice and manner pricked at her a little. He just grabbed them all up out of the blue and expected them to be alright with it? But nothing prepared her for what came next; "I'll start with the most likely thing you're wondering: 'Where am I?' This answer might be difficult to believe, but right now you're in the Heaven of the Digital World."

... Heaven!?! Was she dead? Just like that? Another one ripped away from dad, Nic and Kat without rhyme or reason, just like-

'No, no, calm down.' She whispered to herself, taking a deep breath to air out the panic and long-buried grief before they could swallow her up; she was stronger than that. She didn't know what was going on yet, but as quick pinch of the skin on her left hand elicited an involuntary wince of pain, it at least seemed like she was alive. And as much as that was the barest minimum she could ask for, it was a comfort nonetheless; enough to embolden her to look at the two beings and speak up.

"Excuse me, but you- you say that like we should know what it means." She said, crossing her arms and levelling a light glare at the man(?); perhaps not the most authoritative display, however, as her voice came out a little shaky, and she could feel herself trembling slightly from the residual shock. Nevertheless, she pushed on before she could doubt herself. "What on earth- or off of it- is the Digital World, and why did you just snatch us all here?"

[Psyker Landshark]

Shinozaki Yurie

Alright, so she wasn't the only one taken completely off-guard by whatever the fuck was going on. That was somewhat comforting. Most of the people around her sounded North American based on the accent, with one other Japanese girl by the sound of it. Thank god she was bilingual.

"♫~Love is like a gummy bear, a yummy yummy gummy bear~♫"

Motherfucker who was playing that stupid Cameron Mason song-

Yurie swung her gaze around and did a double take. She was stuck in a room with Cameron Mason. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. She'd heard enough of his saccharine pop crap when he started getting big during her last year or two in America, and it'd started spreading to Japan too. Why the hell was he here?! Why couldn't it have been an EDM artist?

"Wait, is that Cameron Mason? Hot balls, it really is him!"

Even worse, she was stuck in a room with Famerons.

Screw what the angels were saying about heaven, this was hell. And speaking of, the fact that they were apparently able to manipulate binary of all things piqued Yurie's attention. The hacker part of her brain latched onto that, and she paid special attention to the fact that whatever it was doing suddenly killed the language barrier, apparently. Not that it would have mattered for most of them.

"That's like the least helpful explanation I've ever heard." Yurie nodded in agreement with the blonde girl, folding her arms under her chest as she glowered up at the apparent angels. Then something in her brain clicked as she recalled the details of the email. Dragged into what seemed to be another world. Ostensibly to save it. And they were in some kind of heaven right now.

Isekai was real. The only thing they were missing was the truck. Wow, she couldn't hate her life any more at the moment if she tried. Yurie took a deep breath. Then another. Fuck.

"Alright, skipping past the part where we all clearly deserve this for clicking on a spam email, if that's how you got everyone else," She glanced around briefly for confirmation. No point in complaining about her own actions in getting this far. Even with all her safety precautions, Yurie had sort of deserved this for even bothering to click on an obvious spam link purely for shits and giggles. She could admit that much. "Whatever you want to make us do for you, are you even going to pretend we can say no? Also, much as I don't want to know, what do you want from us?"

[AlteredTundra]

---

Jackson was too involved in the realization that he was in the same room with Cameron Mason to register anything else happening at the moment. He knew what people were thinking: he didn't look like the kind of dude that vibe with the kind of manufactured pop music that Cameron Mason put out. It didn't make sense for him sometimes, either. He was a rocker. He lived and died by the axe, but every once in a while, Jackson leans towards that manufactured pop music and it just hits. Like going thirty into a brick wall, so obvious yet you never see it coming until you start jamming out to the private concert they put on.

Jackson kept singing and humming to himself, mouthing the words to the song that Cameron had started to sing, but then he heard other voices. Whether it was his natural curiosity to do dumb shit, Jackson took half of his head out of his own ass and looked around. One by one, he looked to the others eventually landing on..."Angels? No fucking way!"

And that's when everything Jackson had ever thought he knew was a lie. Jackson's folks were heavy religious nuts. He spent some of his life in Sunday school and spent the last three years rejecting the fuck out of angels, religion, and even the idea that God was even real. He spent those years as a big-time atheist and only believing in his board, the teachings of Tony Hawk, and the top five artists on his Spotify Wrapped.

But there were legit angels in front of him (and everyone else too).

And wait did they say they were in heaven?

"Holy. Fucking. Shit..." Jackson's mind was officially blown.

Wait...did that mean he was dead? Crap! If he was dead, then that meant no more fried twinkies. No more Law and Order!

Jackson took a few moments to allow himself to properly freak out in his mind as he tried to process everything. He clicked a link on his phone, thinking the game sounded pretty dope and come to find out, not only was that a terrible fucking idea because he was fucking dead, but there were two angels here.

Which could only mean one thing.

"So does that mean God is actually real? Was Ariana Grande right? Is God a woman?"

[The World]

Kari Primrose

---

Kari took a closer look around at the others. Aside from the one boy who was singing, it looked like everyone else was freaking out quite a bit. Some of them seemed to have it mostly under control, but seeing other people acting that way only reinforced the thought that she was not dreaming. As several thoughts ran through her head, the more masculine of the two... angels? How did she not notice there were angels in the room with them? The two angels spoke to each other, saying something that Kari didn't understand.

When a ball of light came flying towards her, her first instinct was to dodge. Her second instinct was to push the nearest person out of the way in case the sphere would harm them. It was her third instinct that she listened to, staying still and trying not to react to the strangeness at all. A moment later she was glad that she did, as she found herself able to understand the angel now.

"This answer might be difficult to believe, but right now you're in the Heaven of the Digital World."

Oh. Oh good. I freakin' died.

... Not exactly where I was expecting to end up, if I'm honest.

It took a moment before she made the connection to the email she received. It had mentioned a "digital world," hadn't it? Apparently that message was genuine. Kari simply stood and watched, she didn't have any questions that she didn't think were obvious enough that the others wouldn't ask anyway, so she stayed quiet for now.

[Lord Orgasmo]

---

"Oh my God that truck did hit me." Isaac said in disbelief. Well, that sucked. Though, that then raised the question of the whole "Digital World" thing. Was the Simulation Theory real? Was it all just a Simulation? Is he going to have to take the blue pill? Well... whatever. Guess there was only one way to find out.

There were also a number of other people here, too. Were they also dead? Ugh, too many questions. Hopefully that angel lookin' thing would explain more, that and his voice would probably get overshadowed by everyone else's voice. Given how little he talked, his voice wasn't always the loudest. Either way, while they were all talking, now would probably be a good time to see who he would be taking the stairway to heaven with.

Looks like there were seven others, the loudest of which was some comically short blonde guy. What the hell was he wearing? What, was he cosplaying as some J-Pop idol? Or was he just... like that? Either way those clothes were way too loud for his taste. Another one that stood out was a black-haired girl with a suspiciously similar aesthetic to him. She was also the second tallest here, next to him. Maybe tall people were just drawn to darker colors?

It also occurred to him now just how much taller he was than everybody else here. At least for the humans. The big angel guy was way taller than he was. It this what it felt like to he on the other end of the height spectrum? Why was he so preoccupied with this? There were more important things here!

Or, were there? If he's in heaven, then that means he's dead right? So... no more worries? Isaac stood, grasping at his cross necklace, letting out a low "Hmmm..." As the gears in his brain began to turn. Though externally, the scowl on his face began to deepen, as his resting bitch face began to take over.

[Cleveraptor]

The feminine angel raised the staff it carried and gave Yurie and Jackson each a swift, accurate rap on the head that could charitably be described as a "bonk". "Please refrain from using that kind of language here," she said. Though masked it was easy to see the disapproving expression on her face. "To make a long story short, no, you're not dead. When you clicked the link in the email it opened up a portal between your world— the human world— and here. The digital World is a dimension created by the advancement of human technology. As your species began creating things like the world wide web, data from that created a parallel world. This world is inhabited by beings like us, known as Digimon."

The masculine angel cleared his throat. "Speaking of us," he interrupted, "I am MagnaAngemon, and this is D'arcmon. We are angel Digimon who serve the will of Yggdrasil. For lack of a better word, Yggdrasil is the god of this world. He surveys and watches over it, but rarely interacts with it or the Digimon that call it home. However, he's seen fit to instruct us to bring in humans in order to restore balance. To my knowledge, we angel Digimon have tried summoning humans once before, but it ultimately failed."

D'arcmon nodded. "We do not always understand why Yggdrasil does what he does, but we know his will is to keep the Digital World safe. All we know is that, according to Yggdrasil, humans are able to unlock the potential inside of a Digimon that would normally take decades— even centuries— for them to achieve on their own. Hence why you are here."

[Psyker Landshark]

Shinozaki Yurie

"Ow! Bitch!" Yurie hissed in annoyance as she was bonked on the head, scowling up at D'arcmon while rubbing the spot where she was hit. Her irritation, however, was summarily forgotten about as the angels went on. The advancement of human techology wound up creating an entirely different world? What the fuck? Well, points for creativity, at least. Even if this was some sort of insane hallucination brought on by too much energy drinks and Strong Zero, what else was she going to be able to do but play along? Like it or not, this was where she was at.

These specific artificial intelligences apparently took the form of Christian imagery...what, were they derived from TempleOS's data? Still, at least this was somewhat familiar territory for her.

"Alright, saying I buy this," Yurie finally let up on her scowl at the female angel, instead looking at both in turn. "If you're all just, what, AIs? This whole potential thing. How? You want us to just screw with your registry until you're stronger? Actually, second question: which Digimon? You guys?"

She paused, looking to MagnaAngemon specifically.

"You could already hit us with a universal translator, so it can't be as easy as getting us to just open up the command line. How do you do that, anyway? And what code are you running on?"

[Lord Orgasmo]

---

Isaac stifled a laugh as he watched the angelic figure thwack the two on the head. Though he listened rather intently as the two angelic forms spoke. Digimon? Digital World? So this was... a parallel universe created by the internet? Maybe that Hawking guy wasn't smoking crack after all. Or did somebody stick a VR headset on him while he was blinded? Judging by the fact that he could still adjust his beanie and hair, probably not.

So some guy named Yggdrasil was the God of this place, and needs humans to help these guys reach their full potential? That just sounds like every monster catching game ever made.

"So say we do go along with this. How ecactly do we go about this whole 'unlocked potential' thing? The power of friendship? Do we fuse our souls together to make some kind of new creature? Or does our mere presence just magically somehow make you more capable?"

While Isaac was completely genuine, his face was almost completely expressionless, aside from the slight scowl he normally wore. Most of his emotion seemed to come from his tone and gestures as he talked.

"And also, even if we can unlock these potentials, what exactly are we supposed to be doing? Going town to town recruiting an army? Do you have an army we're supposed to train? Are we supposed go find monsters in the woods to capture and use? We need more details, man." Isaac lifted his arms out as he spoke eventually dropping them back to his side as he finished speaking with a thud, his voice getting ever so slightly more exasperated.

[Fish of Oblivion]

Sasha Koslova

Sasha blinked as both another of the girls and the apparently female angel mentioned an email: had she clicked on anything like that? Nothing sprung to mind, but considering the rush she'd been in on the way out of the house...

She grabbed her phone back out of her pocket, flicking through the lock screen; and just as it disappeared, there it was, purple link and everything. She blinked again, and hit the back icon to confirm. Right at the top of her inbox, right above the one for dad's order, was the offending email. Had she really been spirited away to another world because she hadn't taken the time to check her emails; because it had just been there when she was rushing through to load up the receipt on the way to the store?

"Well, that's just great." She muttered to herself. It only stood to reason that that damn phone would be the end of her. She looked up gingerly, trying to get a read on how the others were responding to things-

"Hey!" She just about shouted, the sight of the female angel hitting the other two over the head emboldening her to raise her voice and jump-starting her back out of her momentary funk. She didn't rightly appreciate the language either, but- "You're the one imposing on them, mind your own damn manners!"

She glared at the angel for a moment, with as withering a look as she could manage, before she went back to appraising everyone else's reactions. The girl that had spoken up after her before had bounced back pretty quickly from being clonked and was rattling through a laundry list of words that she could only assume made sense to her. Well, power to her, she guessed. The oldest-looking of the boys, meanwhile, seemed about as accepting of the premise of things, but was asking things that she could more readily understand; right, she'd tuned it out a little, but the angel had mentioned something about drawing the potential out of 'Digimon'.

"Alright, alright, let's just- let's just move past you grabbing us without our knowledge or proper consent for the time being." She could get back to that once she understood things a little more. Maybe they actually had a good reason and a legitimate need for them to be here, however shoddily they'd gone about it. "How do you intend for us to draw out this 'potential'? Do we have some kind of magic in this world, or are you just expecting us to coach you through it?" If they were in another world, it was only a small leap of logic to assume they'd have gained abilities in the transition; but it was still a lot to assume considering how little she really knew or understood of what was being said.

"And why exactly do you need this potential unlocked?" And seeing as they'd spoken a lot about the what without going much into the why, she figured she might as well bite that bullet. As she finished her sentence, she paused, pondering; admittedly, if she had some kind of mystic hidden potential, she'd want it unlocked; she could help dad and the others a lot more. But it stood to reason, if it was urgent enough to snatch them from another world, it probably wasn't in the sole interest of self-improvement. "Why now, I mean?"

[AlteredTundra]

---

"Ouch!" The skater boy groaned when he felt the full force of the lady angel's staff on his and the pink-haired girl's head. Jackson had been struck one too many times in the head than he should have, but the force of that staff...thing hurt a lot more than it should have. Even after a few long, drawn-out moments, it still felt sore. "You know you could have just said 'no fowl language' without the need for violence." Jackson stuck his tongue out at the lady angel like the mature technical adult that he was.

He readjusted his attention on what was going on around the group. The angels had the talking stick and they mentioned how they, meaning Jackson and the others who were brought here against their will, had some potential. "Do you not realize how many times I've heard that one? Adults have been trying to tell me about how I haven't risen to my full potential all my life and it hasn't worked yet. Why would a few angels...sorry, Digimon?" He looked at the scary lady angel first. A familiar shivering feeling was felt down his spine. That was true fear and that lady was scary. "Anyway, sorry if I'm not willing to take your word for it."

Jackson stretched, looking around. He didn't know about the rest of them, but he wasn't buying into this idea that they could have potential in them. Maybe Jackson was too much of a pessimist to believe it or just too stubborn to listen to any kind of adults, regardless if they had wings and a violent streak or not.

[Crimson Flame]

The other people didn’t seem happy to be here, but Cameron paid them no mind. Cameron was happy to see one of his Famerons here. “Yep, that’s me! It’s nice to meet a Fameron.” He flashed a peace sign in the middle of his song and dance routine. “My manager came up with that. It’s supposed to be Fan + Cameron, but I think it should be Family + Cameron. Because you’re all my family.”

Then, two angelic looking figures came in and joined the party. The feminine Digimon explained that they were in the Heaven of the Digital World. Cameron immediately panicked. “OMG! I’m Heaven?! OMG OMG OMG OMG!” He started flailing his arms and running around in a circle. “Nooo, I’m too young to be dead! I have so much to live for!”

Cameron calmed down once she explained that they were in fact not dead. “Oh…”It all went back to that E-mail he had clicked on. Apparently, this Digital World needed to be saved, and they needed humans to do it. A few of the others sounded skeptical, but Cameron was on board right away. His big blue eyes lit up. “OMG! Guys! We get to be superheroes! I always wanted to be a superhero! This is great! We’re gonna help save the world! This is great! I’m in. What do we have to do?”