Dark Omens

Chapter I: Premonitions

Takato looked up at the sky, it was a beautiful day for a trip to the beach. After All, everyone deserved a break, especially the tamers since the final battle with the D-Reaper.

It has been about a year and a half since it's defeat. Mush has changed since then. The city was still rebuilding parts of downtown Shinjuku, and Hypnos was just rebuilt.

Even though the D-reaper was long dead, Takato could still remember the final battle like it was yesterday. The twisted mass of data nearly defeated him... but with the help of his friends they were able to pull through for each other and become victorious. But victory had a price to pay. When the Tamers de-evolved the D-Reaper, their Digimon were de-evolved along with it, and were forced back into the Digital World.

It was a painful part of Takato's life, but he had to accept the fact that Guilmon and all of the other Digimon were gone. Takato shook off all of those dark thoughts and focused on the main reason on why he was here: to have fun.

Takato admired the sunshine and the beautiful view of the coastline. He could hear the waves as they crashed along the shore. The sound was relaxing.

Then the 14-year-old scanned the beach and saw Jeri, Rika, Kenta and Kazu playing volleyball. From the top of a small hill, (where Takato sat) he could see that they were having fun, and it looked like the boys were winning the game.

The brunette continued to look for his friends and spotted Ryo sunbathing on a towel and listening to the radio. Next to Ryo was Susie- Henry's little sister, who was playing with her dolls. Just above them was Mr. Wong, who was trying desperately to get the barbeque grill lit. Takato searched for Henry, but he was nowhere in sight, just then...

"Hey Takato!"

"Ah!" yelped Takato when a voice from behind him called out. He turned around and found Henry laughing at him hysterically.

"You should've seen the look on your face!" laughed Henry, "You nearly jumped out of your skin!"

"Come on, knock it off," whined Takato, who playfully punched Henry in the arm, "Did you follow me so you could scare me, or was there something else?"

"As much as I like to see you wet your pants...no," replied Henry, "I was just wondering if you'd like to have a Digimon Card battle," the blue haired boy informed.

"I don't know..." said Takato, not exactly in the mood to play just now.

"I just put together a new deck..." taunted Henry.

"Alright! I'll play, just don't expect me to go soft on you," answered Takato confidently. He dug into his pocket and retrieved his own deck.

"Just don't cry when I beat you," teased Henry. Henry started to set up his cards.

It was a light-hearted duel, but in thirty minutes into the game, both players were down to one Digimon.

"I must say Takato, you've impressed me. I thought that I'd beat you ages ago," congratulated Henry.

"Same to you," replied Takato and drew a card from his deck. A grin escaped his face, "Well Henry, it's been a great game, but I think that we should end it now,"

"I attach this upgrade card to Gallantmon and I destroy your digimon, I win!" exclaimed Takato happily.

"Well I don't know how you did that, but you actually won!" said Henry who was amazed.

"I guess you're losing your touch," gloated Takato.

"Well I could always beat you in Poker, you could never keep a straight face," retaliated Henry, "Remember the time when I won your WarGreymon car-"

"All right, all right! I get the point!" interrupted Takato as he quickly packed up his cards. "Ooops," said the tamer as he dropped his prized Guilmon card. Takato bent down to pick up the card but he stopped midway. All of the memories and times of fun that Takato had with Guilmon came rushing back.

"Hey Henry, I really miss Guilmon, he was really fun to be with in times like these," said Takato sadly.

"I know what you mean, but we'll see Guilmon and all of the other Digimon someday, I know it," said Henry encouragingly and put the Guilmon card away himself.

"Thanks Henry, you're a real pal," said Takato meaningfully.

"Well I guess you're right abo-" said Takato but was interrupted by a shout.

"Watch out!"

"What the-" said Takato but a volleyball hit his face and rolled off to the far side of the beach, "Ow! That hurt!" exclaimed Takato and rubbed his right cheek.

"I said "watch out"," said Jeri, who was trying to suppress a giggle.

"Hey Kazu! What are you standing around for? Go get the ball!" interrupted Rika.

"Why me?" asked Kazu in an annoyed tone.

"Because you're the one who bumped the ball out of the court!" shouted Rika.

"Hey, what's your problem? You're always so bossy," complained Kazu.

"You're my problem, now get the ball!" repeated Rika impatiently.

"Come on guys, break it up," said Jeri, who tried to settle the argument.

"You stay out of this!" snapped Kazu. The 2 stubborn tamers continued to exchange profanities and threats, it was impossible to stop them from killing each other.

"I guess I'll just go the ball," volunteered Jeri as she got up.

Takato stopped her," That's alright, I'll go get it," offered the Tamer and with that, he headed towards the direction of the ball.

***

Meanwhile back at Hypnos, The Monster Makers and the Hypnos staff were just finishing installing the computer components to the building. Even though there were no Digimon anymore, the government had decided to let Hypnos continue it's job- to stop any unwanted Digimon from biomerging in the world.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Babble, " I mean the gate between the Digital World and our world is closed, no Digimon can come through,"

"There's no harm in setting up a defense just in case a virus-type Digimon does happen to biomerge here," explained Yamaki, "It's just a security precaution, I just don't want everyone pointing their finger at me every time a Deva rampages through the city,"

"I think that we installed pretty much every-" said Shubumi, but was interrupted by an alarm, "What's wrong?"

"I- I don't know but... I think that it's a Digimon!" exclaimed Reilly, "It's trying to breach the firewall!"

"What? It can't be, the gate's sealed, there's no way they can biomerge," said Curly.
"Sir! The unknown Digimon is still trying to breach the firewall!" informed Tally.

"Launch the Yuggoth Program!" commanded Yamaki. Tally pushed a few buttons on her consol and the Yuggoth icon appeared on the main viewer and closed in on the red dot but suddenly disappeared.

"The Yuggoth program had no effect, I'm not reading any damage inflicted to the digimon, it's still continuing to breach the firewall!" called out Tally.

"Ready the Juggernaut Program- maximum power!" ordered the enraged Director.

"What are you doing? You don't know the intentions of this digimon!" debated Daisy.

"I think that trying to breach the firewall is an act of aggression and by the actions of this Digimon that it's intentions are hostile," barked out Yamaki, "Do it Tally, Maximum power to the Juggernaut!"

"Yes sir, charging the Juggernaut," obeyed Tally. "Juggernaut, is at 15%, 25% 52%, 82%,"

"Targeting scanners have locked on the Digimon- we are at 100%, ready to fire on your command," informed Reilly.

"Do it! Obviate it!" shouted the blond man.

"Something's wrong, the Juggernaut is having no effect on the Digimon, it is still at full health!" stated Tally.

"Maybe we can increase power to the Juggernaut by shutting down all of the other systems and feed more power to the Juggernaut," suggested Shubumi.

"That may work, Reilly do it," ordered Yamaki.

"Shutting down all non-essential systems, increasing power to 150%," said Reilly.

Tally shook her head, "Still no effect! Biomerge in 20 seconds,"

"Then run a scan! See what we're up against!" shouted Yamaki angrily.

Tally pushed buttons on her consol and once again shook her head in frustration, " I can't get an accurate reading, every time I lock on the Digimon, my scans get bounced back and it keeps feeding me false readings that I cant make heads or tales of what's going on!"

Suddenly, the building began to rumble violently, some support beams fell down and then the computer began to shut down, there was a momentary black out but then some of the computer went back on line.

"What happened?" asked Dolphin.

"The digimon emitted a feed back surge, it crashed the computer core," explained Riley who was tying on her consol.

"Shut down the network and reboot it before-" ordered Yamaki.

"Sir!" interrupted Tally, "The Digimon- it biomerged,"

***

Takato looked around for the ball that he was suppose to retrieve. Then spotted it sitting under a tree, "Gotcha!" exclaimed the boy. Takato started to feal strange.

All of a sudden, a shot of coldness surged through his body. Takato got so cold that he had to hug his arms to stop shaking.

"Why is it so cold? It's suppose to be 30° today, but since when has the weatherman been right? Still, it shouldn't be this cold," thought Takato. Then the tamer started to get weak and dizzy.

Just then a mysterious figure appeared in front of Takato. The figure was tall, and Takato could see the outline of a cape. The tamer was scared stiff.

"I'm coming for you Takato," said the figure evilly.

"Who- Who- are you and- and how d-d-did you know who- I - I am?" stammered Takato out of fear.

"I'm coming for you Takato," repeated the figure.

"Who are you and what do you want?!" asked Takato this time a bit more bravely.

"I'll see you soon..." said the shadow before it faded away.

"Takato, who are you talking to?" asked Jeri, who was right behind him.

"Jeri! There-There was this-this -thing, a shadow-," stuttered Takato, " It said that it was going to get me!"

"Relax Takato, it was probably your shadow," replied Jeri.

"No, I'm not making this up!" urged Takato.

"Look, it's probably your imagination, it's all in your head," comforted Jeri, "come-on, let's go eat, Mr. Wong made hamburgers" suggested Jeri and grabbed Takato's arm and dragged him away before he had a change to complain.

"Alright kids, here's your lunch, if you want seconds, finish your first serving," instructed Mr. Wong.

"Hewe you are angwy boy," said Susie and handed Takato his lunch, "Daddy made this himself,"

"Um- thanks Susie," said Takato and took the hamburger, "and the name's Takato, not 'angwy boy' "

"Okay, whatever you say angwy boy," answered Susie and left.

Takato let out an annoyed groan and rolled his eyes.

"Isn't she cute?" asked Jeri.

"Cute isn't what I had in mind..." said Takato. Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring, just then Mr. Wong's cell phone rang.

Janyuu picked up his phone and turned it on, "Hello? Hi Yamaki," but then his usual smile slowly diminished, "Are you sure? Hmmm... alright, I'll be there as soon as possible,"

"Sorry kids, we have to cut this break short," replied Mr. Wong, who started to pack everything up.

"What was that about?" asked Henry.

"Oh, it's nothing too big, Yamaki said that one of the Junior Officers sort of -," lied Janyuu quickly.

"You're lying..." interrupted Henry, who noticed his father's panicked look.

Janyuu gave a sigh and replied, "Yamaki said that he detected a Digimon that tried to biomerge,"

"Biomerge?" asked Ryo, "I thought that the gateway between both worlds were closed,"

"That's what everyone else thought," answered Janyuu, who was loading the grill in his van.

"What kind of Digimon was it?" asked Kenta curiously.

"We don't know, but what ever it is, it exceeded the Mega level," replied Janyuu.

"Maybe it could be one of the sovereigns?" suggested Takato.

"No, I doubt it. The Sovereigns wouldn't just try to breach a firewall, it's definitely a Virus-Type," said Mr. Wong.

"So why did you get called by Yamaki?" asked Henry.

"Well Yamaki said that the Digimon crashed the entire Hypnos computer core and needs me to help fix it, that's why I need to get there as fast as I can," replied Mr. Wong.

After a long and silent drive back to the city, Janyuu dropped off everyone at home, soon only Takato was remaining. Janyuu slowed to a stop as he reached Takato's house. Before Takato stepped out of the car, he turned to Janyuu and asked: "Mr. Wong, do you think we'll ever see our digimon again?"
Janyuu knew deep inside that the odds were against them ant the chances of re-opening the gate is very slim, but he decided not to worry Takato and lied: "Yes, you will, I promise you that someday we will be able to re-open the gate to the digital world,"  Janyuu stated confidently. "Until then, you let us worry about that, and get some rest. Okay?"

"Whatever you say... Well bye," Said Takato as he stepped out of the car and closed the door. He watched Mr. Wong's car sped into the night, before walking towards the bakery.

As Takato was about to open front door, he could have sworn he had heard a noise behind him, but when he turned all he saw as a shadow slipping out of sight...

"It's all in your head, it's all in your head..." Repeated Takato nervously as he opened the door and headed inside.

***

Back at Hypnos Headquarters, everything was a mess; the main computer was so damaged that it couldn't do simple operations like keeping the lights on, which really irritated Yamaki because he kept bumping into consoles and walls every time it flickered off. Just then Janyuu burst through a door all sweaty and out of breath.

"I'm- here-," replied Janyuu wearily.

"Janyuu why are you all sweaty and breathless?" asked Yamaki.

"The-elevators were out- so- I -had to- take the stairs," answered Janyuu, still tired.

"You mean you walked up100 flights of stairs?" asked Yamaki with a bit of surprise in his voice.

"Just give me a damage report," said Janyuu irritably. Yamaki picked up a clip board and highlighted the damaged systems.

"Let's see... fallen support beams in the control room, 87th floor, the armory and the parking lot, 27 exploded computers and consoles, 34 fused relays, an the computer core is crashed," explained Yamaki as he walked towards a computer. Just then the lights flickered off and then off again, "Will somebody fix those damn lights?!" shouted Yamaki angrily.

"Well I suggest you clear your calendar, you'll be here for a while," said Yamaki and threw the clipboard to one side of a desk.

"I had a feeling you'd say that, I better get started on those "damn lights"," answered Janyuu.

***
Takato has just finished taking a shower and changed into his yellow pajamas. He was thinking about the events that had just taken place today. "Am I going crazy? This is all so weird," Thought Takato, not liking the thought one bit. "I think I'm fine, but what about that strange voice, it sound so evil..." He said to himself mentally. "Was Jeri right? Is this all in my head, or does this have something to do with the digimon that Mr. Wong mentioned?" He sighed inwardly. "But it all seemed so real..." "Maybe I should get some rest and think about it in the morning..." and with that, Takato climbed into bed and fell asleep.

Soon, Takato slowly drifted to sleep, but once again Takato felt the same feelings at the beach. The tamer felt extremely weak- like all of his strength had been drained away. Then Takato felt dizzy, things around him felt like it was spinning. Not to mention the same cold feeling that he felt.

The next thing he knew when he opened his eyes, he noticed that he was in a cell of some sort. It was like one of the medieval cells in a dungeon. The walls were made from stone, and it was rugged. The smell was cold and damp. The dungeon was poorly illuminated, it was very dim and dark, and the only sources of light were 2 small torches located just outside of the rusty iron bars of the cell. Takato tried to move his hands but couldn't, he looked side to side and realized that they were chained to the wall. The frightened Tamer tried to move his legs, but they too were chained.

The shackles were extremely tight, there were cutting into his skin. Every time Takato struggled, the more painful it became and he just gave up. Then, Takato hear a sound- like footsteps. They were getting louder and louder. The Tamer could see a distant shadow, and it was moving closer and closer. Takato could swear that he heard a faint sound of mechanical whirs. The tamer was scared; he was shaking uncontrollably. Not only from the cold of the dungeon, but from the anxiety and fear of the figure coming closer to Takato. He couldn't tell what it was but so far this dream hadn't been pleasant, and he was almost sure it wasn't going to get any better.

The mysterious figure opened the cell door and stepped in, and the light from the poorly lit torches reveled what it was. Takato recognized the Digimon. It was a Myotismon. He even had that card in one of his decks. But this one was bigger and a lot more intimidating too. Also this Myotismon was kind of different. It had metal implants through out its body. He was like a half robot and half digimon. The Digimon's right hand was made out of a metal Takato couldn't identify, and half of his left foot was mechanical. Also the digimon had an implant on his right eye.

The sight of such a twisted hybrid of machine and digimon send Takato shaking. Beads of sweat started to accumulated on Takato's forehead.

"Takato Matsuki..." began the Digimon and examined the trembling Tamer from head to toe, "So, this is the leader of the tamers, nothing but a mere boy, I am MetalMyotismon." Stated the evil digimon. That voice, that was the save evil voice that had haunted him at the beach.

"W-Wh-Why did y-y-you bring me h-here?" Asked Takato fearfully.

"Because I am here to tell you that I am here to destroy you all, I will kill every one of you and then when I'm done, I'll control both worlds," Replied MetalMyotismon with a grin.

"Why are you doing this?" asked Takato trembling.

"Because..." Trailed off Myotismon as he came closer to Takato until they were face-to-face, "...I...don't...like...you."

Then the evil entity slowly backed away and shouted "Nightmare Claw!" The attack came at Takato at full speed and struck the boy in the chest. Takato yelled from the pain that felt like fire, the only thing he could hear now was the haunting sound of MetalMyotismon evil laughter...

Takato then woke up in a cold sweat and was panting. The tamer fell out of bed and got on his feet, then wiped the sweat off his forehead with his right hand.

"It was just a dream- I was just having a ah!!" Takato jumped when he saw his wrists, they were all red and so were his ankles... from being chained in the dungeon, looking closer he noticed that in the skin had torn in some places, drawing blood.

***Flash Back***
"Why are you doing this?"

"Because...I...don't...like...you."

"NIGHTMARE CLAW!"
***End Flash Back***

Takato gasped for breath as he recalled the pieces of his nightmare. The tamer was trembling hard. He kept thinking, "This is impossible, how could this happen?" but then his mother interrupted his thoughts.

"Takato are you awake yet? You better hurry up or you'll be late for school!"

"I-I-I'm awake," stammered Takato. The tamer looked at the clock and realized that it was 8:30 AM and Takato would be late and decided to hurry up. The brown haired boy quickly put on his usual blue sweater outfit and then headed towards the door. On his way to school, he happened to pass by Guilmon's old shack. Takato knew that he'd get a week's worth of detention if he were late. But Takato couldn't help but step inside. A weeks worth of detention, a month, a year, it didn't matter to Takato now, all that matters was that he'd see his partner again.

A tear rolled off Takato's eye, "Guilmon, where are you?" asked the frightened tamer softly.