Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Shinobimon Trilogy ❯ Suspicions ( Chapter 2 )

Prologue

As the digidestines neared the portal that would bring them home, Davis was getting himself all worked up over what just happened with Shinobimon.

"Why can't he just stay put?" shouted Davis.

"You should calm down Davis, there's no point getting your self all worked up over this."

"Kari's right Davis, you should get some sleep. Once we get back to my room we should all call it a night," Agreed Yolei "Digiport Open!"

***

They all come tumbling out of Yolei's computer with the usual lack of grace and landed on the hard floor, right at the feet of a very surprised Chris.

Not missing a beat, Yolei said, "Guys, meet Chris Anderson. Chris Anderson, meet my friends."

"Interesting friends." Said Chris.

***

Suspicions

By Jack

This is the second chapter in the Shinobimon Trilogy.

***

After the initial introductions, Yolei spoke up,

"Chris! What are you doing here?" said Yolei as she pushed herself off her bedroom floor.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" Exclaimed Chris, his eyes wide with surprise. "I come over to see if you're alright then, one minute I'm here alone and the next you guys come spilling out of a computer!"

"Calm down Chris, just give us a second and we'll tell you." Said Davis to the nearly hysterical boy in front of him as he motioned the others into a huddle. "So, what are we going to tell him?" whispered Davis once the group was together.

"We could say he's dreaming all this." Suggested Cody.

"No, I don't think he'll go for it." Said T.K, "Anyone else?"

"We could knock him out."

"I don't think so Gatomon," said Yolei, "He may not look it but he's strong, when he pushed me out of the way of that truck I could feel it. He could put up fight and someone could get seriously hurt."

"Maybe we should tell him the truth." Said Kari.

Everyone just stared at Kari, not believing that she actually suggested that.

"Well," shrugged Kari, "he's already seen us come out of the portal. Besides, wouldn't it be good if we could talk to another kid who isn't a digidestined about our experiences?"

There were nods of approval going through the group as each one of them considered Kari's idea. It would be nice to tell another person about their secret. It would feel that they aren't alone fighting a war that no one knows about.

"I don't know, are you sure we can trust him?" asked Cody as he watched as Chris cautiously taped on the computer screen as if afraid it might reverse and suck him into it.

Everyone turned to Yolei. "Yes, I'm sure we can trust him, after all, who's going to believe him if he decides to tell someone?" she assured them.

"Ok, so who's going to tell him?" asked Davis.

"I'll tell him, he trusts me." Volunteered Yolei, "Chris, could you come over here?'

Startled out of his examination of the computer, Chris jumps slightly. "Uh, Ok."

"Ok, What I'm about to tell you may be a little, umm, unusual so you'd better sit down." Said Yolei gesturing towards the bed.

Once they were all seated around the room Yolei began. "Chris, do you believe that there are other alternate dimensions?"

"Uh, yeah. I believe that there are more alternate realities than anyone can imagine." He said and paused a second, "Where are you going with this?" raising an eyebrow.

"Well, you're right. There are other dimensions, other realities, and we been to them. Well only one actually, it's called the digital world. It's made up entirely out of digitized data and is populated by all kinds of different creatures called digimon. We travel to this dimension through a computer by opening a gateway with these," she pulled out her D3 and showed it to him. "The reason we can do this is because we, as cliché as it sounds, were chosen to save the world. We're called digidestines and we are pared with a digimon to help us. Mine is Hawkmon, Kari has Gatomon, Davis, T.K and Cody have Veemon, Patamon and Armadilomon. And what you saw was the portal opening and us coming back through it from the digital world; unfortunately we haven't got the landings down yet."

After Yolei had finished her impromptu explanation of the digital world, everyone was watching Chris to see how the guy would take this life altering news.

He blinked. He blinked again. Slowly he got up off the bed and began pacing slowly across the room. "So your telling me that there you five with the help of monsters made up of purely computer data, travel to an alternate dimension in order to save it every day." He said calmly.

"Well, yes. Sounds crazy doesn't it? But it's all true." Said T.K

"I see…" Was all he said as he continued to pace across the room.

"For a guy who has just been told something that will alter the way he sees reality, you're taking it rather well." Commented Armadilomon.

"Hmmm? Oh, that's because I'm in shock. Once my brain gets around the sheer immensity of what you've just told me you'll get a bigger reaction." He said as he continued his pacing.

"Oh? And when will that be?" asked Davis.

"Let's see," said Chris, who had stopped and was considering his watch carefully, "Well, based on the scope of what you just told me, I should be coming out of the shock. Right. About. Now."

Instantly after saying `Now', his eye's rolled up into the back of his head and tipped over backwards, landing with a loud thump on the floor.

"That was not the bigger reaction I was expecting." Remarked Hawkmon dryly.

***

Once the digidestines moved the insensate form of Chris onto the living room couch and had returned to Yolei's room, a pressing question presented itself.

"So, now what?" asked Davis.

"Good question Davis," agreed Cody, "Well, when he wakes up he probably will want to go the digital world and see it for himself."

"Can a non-chosen person go through the portal?" asked Yolei, turning to the two most experienced members on the team.

"I don't know. It's never come up before." Admitted Kari.

"Maybe we should talk to Izzy about this, he should know if it's possible." Suggested T.K.

"All right I'll go talk to him," volunteered Cody, "but what will we do with sleeping beauty in the other room?"

"We should let him rest, if it is possible for him go to the digital world, he'll need all the sleep he can get." Said Kari.

Nodding, Cody got up and left the others to plan their trip through the portal.

As he pasted through the rest of Yolei's house on his way to the front door, he was stopped by a sharp squeal from his digivice. Pulling it out, he looked at it trying to find what had caused it to sound the alarm.

"It's picking up another digivice." He said as he looked around the room, it was empty except the immobile form of Chris who was snoring slightly as he slept on the couch. "It's too faint to get a direction, it must be too far away. I should show this to Izzy." Quickly leaving the house, he headed towards the computer wizard's apartment.

***

"Come on, Come on." Pleaded Izzy as he tried to coax the program on the screen in front of him to show him what was keeping it from working. Sighing, he leaned back and took a sip from his now flat soda.

*Ding Dong*

Startled out of his reverie, he got up out of his chair and padded across the soft carpet towards the front door. Opening it he found a very out of breath Cody standing and panting heavily as if he had ran all the way here.

"Cody? What are you doing here?" He asked.

"I- I found another digivice." Said Cody gasping for breath.

"What?" Exclaimed Izzy. "Were? When? How?"

"I was just leaving Yolei's house to tell you about Chris when my digivice picked it up but it was too faint for me to tell a direction. I thought you might be able to help me tell where or what it is so we could find…"

"Whoa, whoa. Slow down, who's Chris? And what do you need to tell me about him?" Said Izzy as he held up his hands to slow the speed of the information being thrown at him by the young kid in front of him.

"Chris saved Yolei life yesterday and came over today to see if she was alright but he saw us coming out of the portal from the digital world. So we decided that it would be good to have a non-chosen one to talk to about the digital world so we told him everything. He took it rather well until he fainted. We assumed when he woke up he would want to see the digital world but we didn't know if that was possible so I said I would come over here and ask you if it was possible or not. That's when I detected the new digivice, so I hurried over here to see if you could find out what it was. And that's why I'm here."

"Hmmm. You guys have been busy. I don't know if he can travel to the digital world but if one of you is there to open the portal, I don't see any problems. As for the new digivice you detected lets see yours. Maybe we can download the data to my computer so I can analyze it." He said as he motioned Cody inside and closed the door behind him.

***

Since the departure of Cody, Chris's snoring while quiet at first, had grown in intensity until it was at the point that it could be heard through the door to Yolei's room.

"Wow! Chris's a real noisy sleeper!" Exclaimed Yolei.

"Yah, he's almost as loud as Davis!" Laughed Kari.

"Very funny, I'll go wake him up." Said Davis who was visibly upset that Kari was making fun of him. He got up and left the room.

"If Chris's going to be up, we should get Cody back here. We're going to need the whole team together just incase there's trouble and we need to protect him." Suggested T.K.

"Right, good thinking. I'll send him an e-mail." Said Yolei as she moved over to her computer.

***

Davis entered the living room and found Chris, still on the couch and still sleeping, just as they had left him. What had changed was the noise. It was deafening! Was his snoring really this loud? He moved towards him quietly, wait a minute, why was he moving quietly? He was just going to wake him up anyway. Standing up he stepped off the carpet and onto the hard wood floor, which squeaked when he put all of his weight on it. Instantly, it was if the whole house went quiet, even Chris stopped snoring. It was if everything had stopped and was listening to what would move next. Davis stopped and waited, slightly awed at the intense silence that pressed against his ears. After a few moments the normal sounds of the house returned, with a grunt, Chris turned over in his sleep and started to softly snore again. Waiting a couple of seconds to make sure that whatever just happened, wouldn't happen again, Davis moved across the floor quietly, with out anything else happening.

As he reached the couch Chris' snoring was trying to return to its previous volume, not wanting to hear that again he quickly reached over and shook his shoulder. Unfortunately for Davis, he chose that time to blink. Had he kept his eyes open he would have seen Chris launch himself off the couch and tackled Davis to the ground. What Davis did see was Chris on top of him with his knee on his chest and a fist poised ready to strike. But that didn't surprise Davis; though only a short time in the digital world it had expended most of the things on the list that could surprise him, but what did surprise him though was that Chris did this while he was still asleep!

(A/n: Apparently this one slipped onto the list while no one was looking.)

Sure enough, Chris' eyes were closed and he was breathing slowly, almost if he were sleepwalking.

"Hey! Whoa! Chris! Wake up!" called Davis, snapping his fingers in his assailant's face.

"Huh? What?" Said Chris as he woke up with a start, "Davis! What are you doing on the floor?"

"You attacked me in your sleep! And you were about to punch my face in before you snapped out of it!" yelled Davis.

"Oh, well, you probably have a good reason to be upset then." He said as he got off Davis.

"What's going on Chris? Why did you do that?" asked Davis.

Chris seemed to ponder this very carefully, "Well, I guess because I grew up with two younger brothers, I need to act first and ask questions later. I just didn't know I was that high strung. It must have been from that news you guys gave me." He explained as he scratched his head. "So when do I get to go to that, what did you call it?" he asked as he changed the subject.

"The Digital World?" Offered Davis as he brushed himself off.

"Right, can we go now?" asked Chris who had by now recovered from his sleepwalking and seemed very excited at the idea.

"Well, at the moment we don't actually know if you actually can travel with us to the digital world." Said Davis.

"Why not? Don't those D3 things open the gate?" he asked.

"Yes but the gate only transported digidestines before, we don't know if a normal human can travel through it. That's why Cody went over to Izzy's house to ask him." Explained Davis.

The blank stare that appeared on Chris' face told Davis he needed to explain a little more.

"You see; we aren't the first digidestines."

"You mean there's more of you?" asked Chris.

"Yah, in fact there's digidestines all around the world, each of them have a digimon protector. I've actually met a few in the digital world. Izzy is part of the original team of digidestines that traveled to the digital world almost four years ago and defeated the first of the dark masters. Understand?"

Chris nodded his head. Paused, then realized that he didn't have a clue as to what Davis was telling him. He told him so.

Davis sighed, "We'll explain it better when we get to the digital world. Come on! Cody should be getting back by now, we'll leave as soon as he gets here."

***

Meanwhile, Izzy and Cody were finishing up at Izzy's house.

"Well Cody, I've got the data your digivice collected running through my analytical programs on my computer, I should have the results in a couple of hours."

"Great! Now we better get back to Yolei's, I just got a message from her saying that Chris' up. If he's going into the digital world, the others will have their hands full keeping him out of trouble. And we'll need you to watch the gate incase something does go wrong or we need to get out of there in a hurry if the digimon emperor shows up."

"Ok, lets go." Said Izzy as he grabbed his coat as he made his way to the door.

***

After Cody got back with the older Izzy in tow, they found that the rest of the digidestines were crowded around the computer in Yolei's bedroom. When the two new arrivals came in Chris came over and introduced himself to Izzy.

"Hi, you must be Izzy. My name's Chris." Said Chris as he shook Izzy's hand.

"Nice to meet you Chris." Said Izzy, "So, are you ready to go to the digital world?"

"You mean I can?" asked an excited Chris.

"I don't see any problems, but you must keep close to the others. If you get separated you can't get back to this world and you'll be stuck in the digital one." Cautioned Izzy.

"Right, don't worry, I don't want to get lost in any crazy dimension." Laughed Chris. "Can we go now?"

"Yes we can go now." Smiled Kari, "Digiport open!"

And so, the new digidestines disappeared into the digital gate linking the two worlds together, with Chris following right behind them. Izzy watched as they disappeared into the void.

***

The screen that sat in a large meadow glowed slightly before expelling its cargo of inter-dimensional travelers onto the hard ground of the digital world.

"Ouch, sorry Chris. You get used to these landings as you do this a lot more." Apologized Yolei.

"Yeah, you get used to them but they don't stop hurting any more." Groaned Davis as he sat up. "Chris?"

Davis and the others soon noticed the usual wonder one got from experiencing the trip to the digital world and the world itself for the first time was oddly absent from their new companion and traveler.

After a quick inspection of the terrain around them, they realized that it wasn't the wonder that was missing. What was missing though was Chris himself. There was no trace of him anywhere. It was if he vanished, or never arrived.

"Ok, nobody panic." Said a calm Cody, "He might not have gotten through the gate at all and is still in the real world with Izzy."

Yolei bent down to the monitor and looked through it. "Hey Izzy! Is Chris there? He didn't come through with us."

From beyond the rift the image of the teen looked worried. "No he isn't, as far as I can tell everything when as it was supposed to. He should be there with you. Unless…"

"Unless what? What is it?" asked T.K

"Well, he could have been bounced to another monitor in another sector of the digital world, or…" he trailed off again.

"Come on Izzy, out with it!" said Kari who really wasn't sure that she wanted to hear the rest of the `or'.

"Or," continued Izzy, "He might not have made it to the other side."

"But if he didn't make it here and he's not there with you, where is he?" puzzled Cody.

"Lost between the dimensions."

Everyone turned to Davis who had spoken. The horrible consequences of that statement were now registering into the thought processes of the others around him. If Chris really was lost between dimensions, then there was nothing they could do to get him back. He would be lost forever, spinning in endless nothing until time itself stopped its procession.

Yolei shook her head and tried to get the image of her newfound friend lost forever out of her mind. "Look, lets not count him as lost just yet. He probably did get bounced to another monitor. He's probably lost and afraid and most likely in some sort of trouble. We better get looking for him."

"Yolei's right." Agreed Kari, who was always choosing to look at the better side of the situation. "Let's go."

And so, the digidestines set of in their quest to find their missing friend all the while calling his name.

***

"Chris!" "Chris!"

The group had been searching for hours. Their throats were almost raw from calling Chris' name but all they got in return was silence. The digital world was a very big place to get lost in; it was impossible to search the entire world in one day but they were determined to do it.

At the moment they were walking through a dense patch of forest and the digital sun was lowering itself down past the horizon in preparation for the coming night. They walked further into the trees and come across a clearing between the trees and were nestled against a tall imposing cliff.

"Oh, my feet hurt," groaned Cody as he sat down against a tree at the edge of the clearing. "We need to rest a bit."

"Cody's right, we can't keep up this pace." Agreed Kari.

"What? I can't believe you guys! Chris can be seriously hurt and you want to rest?" exclaimed Davis.

"Davis," Yolei said tiredly, "We don't even know if he is in the digital world."

"Still, we have to keep searching and go on the assumption that he is." Countered T.K. "But we can't do this ourselves. Maybe we should ask Shinobimon for help."

"No way!" Yelled Davis. "For all we know he could have caught Chris and is holding him hostage! There's no way I'm gong to trust him to help us."

"Your lack of faith in me hurts, Davis." Came a now familiar voice from the trees above their heads.

"Ah! Stop that!"

"Stop what?" asked Shinobimon calmly who was now perched on one of the lower branches.

"The way you keep disappearing and reappearing like that! It's getting on my nerves." Said a now very annoyed Davis.

"I'm a ninja, it's the way I do things." Shrugged Shinobimon.

"Humph! You call yourself a ninja? You are no ninja." Countered Davis.

Shinobimon's reaction to that last remark was subtle but there. His body tensed, his hands griped the branch he was sitting on tightly, and his eyes went cold as steel.

Kari saw this and didn't like it. "Uh Davis, I don't think you should insult him like this."

"In fact," continued Davis, if he heard Kari's warning he chose to ignore it, "You're just a fake! You have no honor!"

Shinobimon's voice matched his eyes in intensity when he spoke. "I accept your challenge."

Davis blinked, "Hun? What?" he asked, "What challenge? I didn't offer a challenge."

"You insulted my honor, we will fight so that I may get it back." Said Shinobimon as he jumped down to the ground.

"Oh Yeah?" asked a now confident Davis. "You're on." He turned to his digimon, "Ready to teach this guy a lesson Veemon?"

"You bet Davis!"

"Uh Davis, We should be looking for Chris. Not fighting." Reminded Yolei.

"This will only take a minute." Answered Davis. "Digi-armor Energize!"

Veemon armor digivolved to *Flamedramon*

And so, the two combatants faced each other. Each on stood at opposite sides of the clearing, Shinobimon with his back to the cliff and Flamedramon with his back to the towering trees that made up the forest.

"Are you ready to lose Shinobimon?" asked Davis smugly. "Go get him Flamedramon!"

"Fire rocket!" Flamedramon yelled as he launched a volley of scorching fire towards his motionless opponent.

But Shinobimon just stood as still as if he was carved from stone, seemingly oblivious to the missiles that were hurtling towards him. Closer and closer they came but he didn't move, didn't attempt to get out of the way. Everyone stared at the figure as if he had gone mad.

The fire was only a couple of feet away from impacting on its target when there was a burst of movement from Shinobimon. With a flash of steel his sword was in his hand and moving towards the balls of flying heat, and with three deft strokes he sliced them in half. The new six halves, who were deflected by the force of the strike, sailed past Shinobimon and impacted with the cliff behind him. Which immediately exploded, sending dust and bits of rock raining down on both the combatants and spectators.

As the dist cleared, the form of Shinobimon emerged unscathed. Still standing, he reached into the folds of his tunic and drew out three shards. With a yell, he launched them towards Flamedramon. Seeing the shards hurtling through the air, the digimon brought up his arms and covered his face. The iron missiles arrived and exploded harmlessly against the armor protecting his body.

"It seems that missile attacks are ineffective." Called out Shinobimon after letting the smoke clear.

"So it would seem." Agreed Flamedramon.

"Shall we step it up a notch?" asked Shinobimon dropping into a crouch.

"Lets." Answered Flamedramon who mimicked the move.

Shinobimon was the first to attack. He launched himself towards his adversary, sword in hand. Flamedramon blocked the swipe aimed at his head and brought his hand around to deliver a punch to Shinobimon's jaw. The jarring impact knocked the ninja back into a backwards flip; using the momentum, Shinobimon brought his leg up and gave a hard kick to Flamedramon's stomach. The two combatants separated and eyed the other.

"Impressive." Said Shinobimon in admiration.

"You're not too bad yourself." Said Flamedramon.

"Hello? You guys are supposed to be fighting, not commenting on each other's moves!" Yelled Davis.

"Would you like to be fighting instead of your digimon?" asked Shinobimon without taking his gaze off of his opponent.

"Uh, no."

"Then stay out of it."

With that said, Shinobimon leaped into the sky. With a growl, Flamedramon followed. The combatants met in the free fall, Shinobimon attacking with his sword and Flamedramon countering with his fists. Each giving and receiving attacks, they landed back onto the forest floor. Instantly Shinobimon jumped backwards towards the trees and landed in one of the higher branches. Seeing an opportunity, Flamedramon launched a volley of fire, but it wasn't aimed at Shinobimon, it was directed to the tree he was in. The rockets impacted with the wood and the entire tree shattered sending splinters flying everywhere. Seconds before, Shinobimon saw the attack and jumped clear. As he was tumbling through the air something caught his leg. It was Flamedramon. As Shinobimon jumped, he moved quickly beneath him and caught his leg in between the points of his hand. Bringing the now trapped ninja around before he could respond, Flamedramon slammed him into another tree. Shinobimon cried out and fell to the ground clutching his right shoulder, his sword fell to the ground beside him. Flamedramon jumped back, giving his opponent time to recover so they may continue the battle.

Shinobimon groaned and razed himself slowly to his feet. He was obviously hurt but was determined to end this battle and reclaim his honor. He looked for his opponent and found him on the opposite side of the clearing in front of the partially destroyed cliff, waiting patiently for him. Shinobimon calmed himself, letting the pain in his shoulder become nothing more than a shadow on his conscious mind. He closed his eyes, gathering his strength and summoning his remaining power to his aid. Sword poised in front of him, he reached into his tunic once more and brought out three more iron shards.

Letting them fly, the spinning metal headed towards their target, strait and true. As before, Flamedramon razed his hands to shield himself. And as before, the shards exploded harmlessly on the armor. But as the smoke cleared, there was a surprising sight. Flamedramon stood there motionless not moving a mussel, and the glint of steel poised at his throat was a good reason why. Shinobimon's sword was mere millimeters away.

All of the spectators were stunned at what just happened, it was if Shinobimon just appeared in front of Flamedramon. But that wasn't the case. The iron stars were just a diversion, immediately after they were thrown Shinobimon was at their heels. As they exploded against Flamedramon's armor, he entered the smoke and took him by surprise. The others didn't see this because they were following the stars and not watching Shinobimon.

"Do… you… surrender? Panted Shinobimon.

"I guess… I have… no choice." Answered Flamedramon.

"Good." Said Shinobimon as he turned and started to leave. "My honor… is restored."

He only got as far as the first tree before he collapsed against it.

"Shinobimon! You're hurt!" said Kari as she ran up to him but was stopped by Davis' voice.

"Stay away from him Kari! He's dangerous!"

"But he's hurt, we've got to help him." She said as she turned back to the fallen digimon.

But the ninja wasn't there; he had disappeared again. Kari ran up to the spot where she last saw him but there was no trace. The only thing that she did find was a red smudge on the bark of the tree. Touching it with the tips of her fingers she brought the liquid closer to her face for another look.

It's blood. But digimon don't bleed, …do they?

***

Izzy was getting frustrated, he had spent hours looking trying to find which monitor Chris could have been bounced to. All he had to show for it was dead ends and false trails. Finally he gave up on that search and began, with growing concern, to search the space in between the dimensions. That was two hours ago and still he came up with nothing. There was a huge area to search for something as small a person who was floating out there.

"Come on. Where is he?" he asked the monitor in front of him, which stubbornly held onto its secrets.

He put his head down onto the table while he waited for the computer to finish this newest search. He was tired; sleep was a growing threat. He knew that if he went to sleep, the chances of finding Chris would dwindle to almost nothing. But his body was loosing the fight. His eyes were like lead weights and his thoughts were getting fuzzy. His senses were shutting down one by one in preparation for the sleep that he had fought for so long. His skin felt all tingly, his mouth tasted dry, and his ears were beeping.

Wait a minute, beeping?

Izzy razed his head and looked at the screen. The computer had dutifully finished its search and was waiting for its next instruction.

Great, it probably found another dead-end. He thought bitterly as he went through the data.

One piece though, caught the attention of his semi-conscious brain. It was a video link to a particular point of the void. Izzy opened the file and ran it through the descriptor; a swirling mass of golden clouds that made up the space between the dimensions met his eyes. He looked, but couldn't see anything that would tell him why the computer had picked this particular spot to show him. The swirling clouds continued their dance across the screen not wanting to give up the secrets they held. Frustrated, Izzy wiped the screen to get rid of the smudge that had now seemed to take up residence there. And got even more frustrated because it refused to budge. He moved closer to see what it was. And was quite surprised when it moved.

Startled, Izzy realized that that wasn't something on the screen; it was something the camera was picking up. Quickly he selected the area of the image and enlarged it. Immediately he let out a whoop of joy. It was Chris! He was waving his hands in an almost panicked way, trying to get the attention of anyone who could help him.

Izzy quickly sent a message to the others, telling them to get back here as quickly as possible.

***

Kari was puzzled, what could the blood mean? Could have it come from Shinobimon? Or was it there before? How could Shinobimon bleed if he's a digimon? But if he's not a digimon, then…

"Kari! We just got a message from Izzy, he found Chris! He's lost in the void between the dimensions. We need to get back there so we can find a way to get him out." Called Yolei happily.

"All right! Lets go!" said Kari as she ran towards the nearest monitor, deciding to worry about the blood after they got Chris back.

***

They came out of the computer in front of Izzy into a pile on the floor. Quickly getting up from the pile of digidestines, the first thing out of Yolei's mouth was: "Where is he?"

"He's in the void. I almost didn't see him at all. He turned up as just a small speck in the distance that the last search I did. You can see him on the screen over there." Explained Izzy as he pointed to the screen that just brought them back from the digital world.

"Uh, Izzy." Said Cody as he looked at the monitor.

"Yes Cody?"

"How big did Chris look when you found him?"

"Very small, I thought he was a speck of dust on the monitor until he waved."

"And was he moving?"

"Uh, no. He was just spinning a little."

"Well, he's moving now. Right at us!" Cody yelled as he quickly moved away from the glowing screen.

"What?" asked Izzy as he ran towards computer. What he saw was a spinning form that was quickly solidifying into the image of Chris heading right towards the still open gate. "Uh oh. I think we better get out of the way."

Everyone moved away and the screen started to glow brighter. With a yelp of surprise, Chris was thrown from the computer. It was with such force that he flew across the room and hit the wall with a thud.

"Chris! Are you all right?" asked Davis.

"Yeah, fine." He said as he picked himself of the floor with a groan. "Wow, what a ride."

Even though to the contrary of what he assured them, they looked him over to see if he was hurt at all by his trip. They couldn't find anything wrong he was in perfect health. The only thing left was to find out what happened.

"Well," Chris began, "when we went through the gate I was behind you guys. It was an amazing ride, up until the point where I stopped. It was if I hit an invisible wall, and I watched as you guys went on without me. I tried to get your attention until you disappeared. Then that's when I started floating away from the gates. I was like that for hours, I kept on yelling and waving my arms incase you guys were looking for me. Then when I was getting the idea that I was going to be stuck out there forever, I saw you guys coming back through the portal. I waved and called but I was too far away for you guys to hear or see me. Then you disappeared. I was just about to give up when I realized that I was moving, not further away from the portal but towards it and I was going faster. When I got to it, it sucked me in and tossed me against the wall of your room, Yolei."

"Wow, I guess humans can't go through the portal. Sorry, it must have been horrible." Apologized Izzy.

"What? Are you kidding? That was amazing! If not for the fact that I could have been lost forever, it would make a wild ride!" Exclaimed Chris.

Just then, a bleep sounded from Izzy's pager.

"Oh, it's my computer." He said as he checked it. "I set it to contact me when it was finished with the data analysis of the new digivice."

"Wait, hold on a minute." Interrupted T.K, "what digivice?"

"On my way to see Izzy, I found a signal coming from another digivice but it was too faint to get a direction. So when I got to Izzy's, he started his computer analyzing it so we can tell where it come from." Explained Cody.

"You mean there's another digidestined here?" Asked Chris.

"It looks that way." Nodded Izzy. "I should go over there and check the data. See you guys tomorrow."

"I'll come with you Izzy," said Cody, "I want to know where that signal came from."

"All right, come on."

As the two left the apartment, Chris turned to the others.

"It's getting late, I better get home. See you guys!" he said as he turned and left.

"He's right, we all should get home." Agreed Kari. "Bye Yolei"

After saying their goodbyes, the digidestines each went off to their houses. Turning towards her room, Yolei found herself alone with her thoughts.

Too bad Chris couldn't come to the digital world; I would have liked to show him around. But I wouldn't want to risk that he would get lost in the void again. Maybe I could help Izzy find a way to do it. I should think it's possible. It's not like it's going to cause the end of the digital world if one human enters it…

"Oh, what's this?"

Noticing something on the floor that wasn't hers had shaken her out of her reverie. She bent down to grab it. She turned it over in her hands.

"It's a wallet. Let's see who it belongs to." She said as she opened it up.

Inside were some bills and a couple of coins. Looking around, Yolei found a worn picture that was starting to fade. The picture on it was of a young boy who was standing in front of a roller coaster waving at the camera and smiling happily. The caption underneath was in English, fortunately for Yolei, she was taking the language in school.

"Canada… Day… Celeb…Celebration, Alb… Alberta, Canada." She read out loud with a little difficulty. "This must belong to Chris. It must have fallen out of his pocket when he hit the wall. I hope he's not too far away so I can't catch him."

She grabbed her coat and ran out the door in search for Chris.

***

Yolei hurried through the streets looking for a sign that her quarry had passed that way. She had almost given up and was checking the last street around her house. It was the street leading up to the school. Walking towards it, Yolei scanned the shadows looking for movement. She passed the school and was about to turn back when an odd noise caught her attention. It was like rusted metal scraping against concrete. Yolei spun around in time to see Chris entering the school grounds through the old gate.

Why would Chris be going into the school at this hour? Yolei asked herself.

Her curiosity aroused, she followed the boy quietly into the school. Through the empty halls an up the deserted staircases Chris led Yolei up to the third floor. That's where she lost him. When she reached the top of the stairs she couldn't see him anywhere. She started to check each classroom one by one. She got to the fourth room when a white light bathed the floor, spilling out of the computer room. Hurrying to the door, Yolei found nothing, just an empty room just like the others and no Chris. But there was something unlike the other rooms; the gate to the digital world was open on one of the screens. She peered into the gate in hopes of seeing whatever went through but saw nothing.

***

For the final truth about Shinobimon and Chris watch for the third and final chapter in the trilogy - Revelations.