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The Digital World is in a time of great unrest. Already strained relations between factions are reaching their breaking points as the primarily tribal portions of File Island break out into small-scale war. Something is pushing the chaos across the island, and piece by piece its civilizations are being lost. At this point, only the great cities and the traveling bands are managing to properly hold off the oncoming destruction.

There is more to this than simple clan wars or territory expansion. Something darker drives this unrest, and some are beginning to suspect that at the heart of it all lies a digimon by the name of Barbatos. It's not known how, but the wars started around the same time as this member of the formerly revered Progeny was rumored to have arrived.

The Digital World's own defense mechanism has been triggered. From the human world, children have been called forth from their homes, their schools, their gyms, their camps... All to fulfill what some could call destiny. They would awaken to find themselves in dense jungle, soon to meet the mysterious creatures who would be their partners...

Daedalus slept, sitting on the ground and leaning against a tree. He hadn't fallen asleep there, but he wasn't yet aware of his change in location. "Hey, get up!" a girl's voice said loudly to his face, waking him.

"Shut up. Who do you think you're tal-" he lazily replied, slowly opening his eyes and ending his sentence all of a sudden upon finding the source of the voice. Having just woken up, he was more than a little confused at finding that he was sitting in the middle of a jungle and a long-eared creature that vaguely resembled a dog was talking to him. He tried to think of something to say but could only stare at the creature, standing on its hind legs, an oversized spiked collar hanging loosely around its neck, with its grey fur all messy and covered in black stains that appeared to be dry blood, looking at him impatiently with its red eyes. It all gave him a sense of dread that was hard to hide.

"The insults will never stop, will they?" it scolded him. "You're just napping here peacefully while I'm going through all this! I really got the short end of the stick in this deal. It's so easy on you, isn't it?"

Daedalus didn't even bother trying to understand what it was talking about or where he was. There would be plenty of time later. For now, getting a safe distance away from the creepy talking dog monster was priority. Making an effort to remain as calm as possible, he stood up and started walking away trying to act natural, like the beast wasn't even there.

"Hey, hey! Where are you going? You'd better not be thinking of leaving after doing this to me!" she said, walking after him.

Daedalus turned around to look at her. "If you're talking about your injuries, I couldn't have possibly done that." he said, somewhat annoyed now that he was being accused on top of not even knowing what was going on.

"Of course not. You're a human, after all." the dog said with a smirk. "But you're the reason it happened."

"Really? Explain, please." Daedalus said, not really interested but feeling like humoring it would stall it long enough to try and figure things out.

"We Gazimon hate humans, but you came to this world to become my master." she started. "I don't know who predicted this and tipped them off, but now I'm not welcome in the pack anymore. They even put this on me after beating me up just to ridicule me." The creature pointed at the collar around its neck. "Being a pet is the opposite of what the Gazimon way of life stands for."

"That's too bad..." Daedalus said, not really interested in that either. "So why don't you take that thing off and forget about it?"

"I'm already a pet. I'm not gonna be a crybaby too. Gotta stand up to them if I want to get my dignity back, right?" she said, looking at Daedalus, who nodded to her but was actually calculating his chances of outrunning her by now. "Besides, I'm all over that now."

"That soon?" he asked.

"Yes!" the Gazimon replied, wagging its tail. "Because now you'll take responsiblity for me. You give me the impression of a sneaky, insensitive punk, so maybe you'll be a proper master."

Reiji was quite confused, seeing as he woke up in a jungle five minutes ago and is now being followed by a talking lizard. Reiji and Desmond kept walking, while Desmond explained where he was and why he was here instead of watching the Andromeda Strain. "So," he said, with little optimism in his voice, "You mean to tell me I'm in another world and i have to save it from a coming darkness of some kind?" "For the most part, yes..." Reiji just chuckled. "I don't know, i usually end up hurting myself and the world gets destroyed anyways..." "That's not funny, and I'm serious the whole saving the world part..." Then Reiji and Desmond both heard a sound that made their hearts stop. Voices, they sounded human. Reiji sat down and hid behind a tree, motioning Desmond to stay put,lowering his guitar to the ground. he slowly moved out from behind and saw someone talking to a dog-like creature. "Hello person, dog-creature..."

Coren sat in the bough of a tree, his bokuto propped across his lap, watching the human walk below him. He could tell it was Kenji, the strange creature that he was destined to protect and grow stronger with, but the Kotemon was having a hard time accepting it just yet.
For one, the human looked to be completely and utterly lost. He stumbled over things, made way too much noise calling for others, and apparently had a habit of talking to himself.

Kenji shouted again, trying to make contact with someone...anyone, in this strange real but not real dream he'd found himself in. He was amazed at the smells, the feels, the sights. Everything was like he'd actually woken up in a jungle.
"Can't be real, I can't be here...I've got practice in an hour or so..." He muttered in between shouts of 'hello?' and 'is anyone there?'

Coren jumped across the dense tree branches, making his way ahead of Kenji, but keeping him in sight. He looked ahead, and saw more humans, two to be exact, and each of them were being followed by another Rookie level digimon. Behind his mask, Coren's left eyebrow raised, his hidden face overcome with puzzlement. He sighed as he came to a stop, then looked back at Kenji...He supposed it was time to make himself known to his partner.

Kenji kicked at a small patch of gravel in the small path he'd been traveling, his gloved hands balled into fists and his mouth pressed into an angry line.
"Double U Tee Eff! This's the weirdest and loneliest dream I've ever had in my-" He swallowed the rest of what he was about to say when he heard something land solidly on the ground in front of him. Before he knew what he was doing, he snapped to his basic fighter's stance, unsure of what he was about to do, but positive that he'd do it with everything he had.
Suddenly, a bipedal lizard walked from around a tree, dressed in a kendo uniform, complete with face mask. Its yellow glowing eyes peered out from the mask, and two horns graced the top of its head, poking through the mask.
"Hello Kenji. My name is Coren, and I am a Kotemon. I am your partner digimon, or digital monster, and you, I, and others like are us are destined to save the Digital World." It said, one of it's hands resting casually on the wooden bokuto slung on its hip.
Kenji felt his jaw drop as the thing started talking, and by the time it stopped, he had resumed standing slack-jawed in the middle of the jungle, his arms dropped at his sides.
"This is the worst nightmare I've ever known!" He moaned to himself, his entire body sagging with the gravity of the situation.

Daedalus didn't say anything and just stared at both strangers with an unfriendly look, hesitant about talking to them. "Hawthorne." he reluctantly said before turning over to his new, unwanted pet, expecting her to introduce herself.

"Like I'd have a name. Stray digimon don't need that." she said, looking very proud of herself for some reason probably no one but her would understand. "And even though it's none of your business, I don't normally hang out in this dump. It's too hot for me. I used to live in the outskirts of the cemetery just north from here up until last night."

"That's not important. It was a nice place. There's black clouds over it all the time, so it's got a pleasant, cool shade. But I bet my new home will be better." she said.

"You were just talking to me about how your family kicked you out, right?" Daedalus asked with a smirk on his face.

The Gazimon turned her back to them, impatiently tapping on one of the spikes of her collar with one of her nails. "Yeah, but I don't care anymore, so it's not important. It's just like I said." she said, with a mixture of exhasperation and embarrasment. "Why am I even talking to that human? My master is one thing, but I have no obligations with anyone else." she muttered just before climbing to the top of the nearest tree.

"Hm... It can talk AND climb trees. Pretty weird dog." Daedalus said, watching her go up the tree.

"I guess there's weirder things..." Daedalus said, now looking at Desmond with a bit of curiosity. "Anyway, sure, whatever." he said. "Hey, dog. You know where to find more humans around here?"

"No." the Gazimon barked out from the top of the tree.

"Could you maybe track them?" the boy asked.

She looked down at him from her position for a moment, leering at the trio from amidst the foliage. "I don't think I want to." she said, laying on her back on a branch.

"Fair enough." Daedalus said with a shrug, looking like he didn't care either way. "I'll do it myself. Have a nice day." He started walking away when all of a sudden the Gazimon slid down the tree's trunk. He turned around and saw her looking at him, still upset and begrudging before she dashed off through the bushes. "Good girl." Daedalus said with a confident smile on his face as he calmly headed in her direction.

The Gazimon ran, trying to follow the much hated scent of a human, which seemed to be comming from at least two more locations. She had no choice but to obey, though half of her hoped that the group would be unable to keep up with her speed and 'accidentally' get lost on the way. She didn't have to run for long, however, before spotting a girl, on her knees, right in front of her.

"How about running the next one with no legs? Would that be enough of a challenge for you?" the Gazimon said without even turning to look at him.

Daedalus snickered, just now getting there. "Behave, kids." he said.