In the late 90's, collectible Mons were all the rage. There were several games and toy lines attempting to sell their merchandise and entertain audiences, but one stood out among the rest: Digimon. It began as a manga in Japan that was later adapted into an anime. That anime proved successful enough to warrant an international release, and thus Digimon became popular worldwide. From this popularity, a trading card game was born, one where players built a deck with Digimon they could apply power up cards to in an attempt to overpower their opponent. It proved popular enough, and the Cards remained in print for several years.

But soon a gaming company called D-Connect came along. At the time of D-Connects formation, the Digimon trading card game had waned in popularity, and rights to the cards and monsters they represented were purchased by D-Connect for purposes that were soon revealed. D-Connect's enigmatic President, Ken Kuroda, unveiled his brilliant idea: the D-Scanners. Resembling Digivices, D-Scanners came with a Digi-egg pre-installed. It would hatch into a Digital Digimon, able to be raised like previous popular digital pet games, but this one came with a twist. The Digimon in the D-Scanners were programmed to be compatible with the card game, meaning players could apply power ups from the TCG to boost the Digimon's abilities. Coupled with the D-Scanners' ability to connect via WiFi and allow the stored Digimon to engage in battle, this reinvigorated Digimon's popularity, with D-Scanners selling like hot cakes all over the world.

Now, in the present day, Digimon is as popular as it's ever been. Several new manga and anime series have been made since the original, and both the D-Scanners and the TCG have been regularly updated to keep up with them. In fact, battling Digimon through the D-Scanners have become a rather popular sport in and of itself, spawning tournaments in regions around the world complete with rules and regulations, and even ban lists for the TCG aspect of the game. In fact, it's become all too common for Digimon battles to be used as a means of settling disputes. This popularity and widespread play has made the game far more influential in the economy and politics than it ever was at first, and this of course also applied to D-Connect, the company becoming rather enigmatic in its dealings and Ken Kuroda, its president, making only rare public appearances anymore. It's been the cause for some speculation among the populace.

This only increased further when - on November 29, 2016 - a Digital phenomena occurred in an Electronics store in Tokyo, Japan. Several computers and other devices within the store went haywire and suddenly produced a vicious creature made up of digital data that rampaged. It caused substantial damage to the store, but soon after its appearance it vanished back into the circuitry from which it originally came. All eyes were suddenly on D-Connect when the creature was described as looking vaguely like a Digimon. D-Connect found itself under fire both legally and by the media, and as such was quick to ensure the public that the "Cyber Beast" - as it was dubbed - was not their doing, but that they would work to find out the creature's origin and help create a means to prevent such an attack from happening again in the future.

Behind closed doors, D-Connect greenlit "Project Destiny" and on December 6, 2016 a cryptic email was sent out to a select group of players within their gaming database, the email even being signed by Mr. Kuroda personally. This email informed the readers that they had been chosen for a special promotion of an upcoming update for the game, and they would be given an exclusive tour of D-Connect's headquarters in Tokyo, all expenses paid. As if to sweeten the deal even further, the email promised the recipient an actual meet-and-greet with Mr. Kuroda himself as well as early access to the newest set of cards currently in line for a Christmas release. This email, should the chosen players - the Tamers, as they are called within the gaming circuit - accept the invitation, their world would be changed forever.

Because, you see... it's no longer just a game.

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[h3][center][b][u]D-Connect CEO Office ~ Tokyo, Japan[/u][/b][/center][/h3]

The sun shone brightly on that lovely December morning. There were some odd clouds in the sky here and there, but otherwise the weather seemed to promise an all around nice day, if a bit chilly due to the winter season. It was the morning of the 13th, exactly one week since Kuroda personally signed and sent each of the email invitations that would begin Phase 1 of Project Destiny. Kuroda was thorough, having made sure he did his homework on each of the recipients. He honestly felt like he knew them about as well as their own parents did. He researched their hobbies, interests, and even career aspirations. In so doing he was able to add a personal touch to each individual invitation, playing to that recipient's personality and attempting to appeal to them on a more personal level to give the impression that he knew who each individual player in his game was and wanted each to feel absolutely comfortable with accepting the offer.

"They should be arriving shortly." announced a woman's voice. Having entered Kuroda's office was the seemingly ice cold Samantha Chase. She wore her usual work attire, which was a slick business suit consisting a short black skirt, a black suit jacket worn over a purple sleeveless shirt, and her usual jet black stilettos. Her blonde hair was tied back into a business knot, and her look was completed by a small pair of glasses that gave her an air of cunning intellect to accompany her confident presence. Chase had formerly worked for an American software company, but realized early on just how well the D-Scanners would skyrocket in popularity and sales. She since moved from her previous station to work at one of D-Connect's American Branch offices, but Kuroda was quick to know talent and skill and when he saw it, so it wasn't long before he had her working in the main office in Tokyo.

Kuroda smiled, looking like nothing less than a grandfather who had just been told he would soon see his grandchildren. Ken Kuroda was a man now pushing fifty years old, but he didn't look it and certainly didn't act like it either. Even in the early days of D-Connect some fifteen to twenty years ago, Kuroda was universally described as the Willy Wonka of the gaming industry. He was cheerful, playful, still very much like a kid at heart. But he was also charismatic, almost inhumanly so. With just his smile and personality alone, he could probably convince a person to buy a house they already owned. Most importantly, Kuroda was a dreamer. Evidenced by the design specs of the D-Scanners, Kuroda put much more priority in ensuring user friendliness and players having fun over cost efficiency. He was very much like John Hammond in his "spare no expense" approach to business. Sure it meant ventures could be more costly, but it also meant that they could turn much greater profits in return.

"Fantastic!" the man exclaimed, clapping his hands together in an excited gesture. Kuroda was practically the polar opposite of Samantha. Where as Samantha was ice cold and pure business, Kuroda was instead instead warm and very informal. Even Kuroda's wardrobe was... not all businesslike. In fact he dressed very casually, in blue jeans and sneakers, even wearing some kind of floral shirt as if he were on vacation. His office was also very eclectic in its decor, reflective of the man himself. There was Digimon memorabilia all around him. He had figurines of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon on his desk, posters for the various anime on his walls, a bookshelf with some of the mangas kept on it along with some business files. He even had two Digimon arcade cabinets in the corner where he also kept a small refrigerator and coffee machine, sort of a personal break area. Finally there was his pride and joy, a shelf containing plushies of all eight of the original Digimon partners: Agumon, Gabumon, Biyomon, Tentamon, Patamon, Palmon, Gomamon, and of course Gatomon. They were sitting on the shelf in alignment, with Agumon and Gabumon taking the center spots, but with Patamon next to Gabumon and Gatomon next to Agumon. Their human partners [i]were[/i] siblings after all.

"I still advise against this." Samantha said coldly, "They're civilians, kids at that. Who are we to-" she stopped when Kuroda put up a hand.

"I'm well aware of the risks. But we also agreed that doing [i]nothing[/i] was an even [i]worse[/i] move."

"Yes but-"

"Relax. Yes, it could be risky. But that's why they call it a 'gamble'." at about this time, Kuroda peeked out of his office window and saw what could be described as a conga line of limousines, "Ah, they're here! Fantastic!" in addition to providing first class air fare to those that needed it, Kuroda also went to the trouble of arranging limousines for the emails' recipients as well. After all, he spared no expense.

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In one of the Limousines pulling into D-Connect, Makoto Houjou had been reading and rereading the email he received. Truth be told he probably should have opted out of the tour, since it would require missing some of his classes. But the words in his emails appealed to him on a surprisingly personal level. It clearly wasn't something the company just copy and pasted several times and Kuroda stamping his signature on them. No, the letter seemed too painstakingly personal for that to be case. Made even more surprising when the invitation flatly referred to Makoto as M quite a few times, meaning whoever wrote these up had certainly done their research. One excerpt in particular stuck out to Emu, though:

[i]I am aware you wish to pursue a medical career. Certainly a worthy aspiration, and I will happily wish you nothing but the best in that pursuit. But if you truly wish to retire the Genius Gamer, then why not play one last great game? Go out with a fantastic bang![/i]

Emu stared at the passage and then smirked to himself, "One last game, huh?" he said to himself softly as his Limousine came to a stop and his door was opened for him by the driver. He closed the email on his phone down and put it away in his pocket. Unlike the other recipients, who probably made sure to bring all their necessary Digimon gear, Emu instead apparently decided to come empty handed. He had no D-Scanners with him, nor any Cards. He just looked like a random student.

"Welcome to D-Connect Headquarters, Mr. Houjou." the driver spoke. Emu looked around and noticed others getting out of their Limos in similar fashion. He then looked to the building to spot a smiling man eagerly awaiting to greet the arrivals, at his side was an American woman tapping silently on an iPad.

"Welcome! Welcome Tamers! To D-Connect!" said Kuroda, making a point to personally greet each arrival, "You're all on time, that's fantastic! Today, you're about to make history!"