It began, as many of these tales do, with a brilliant light in the woods. As the tales go, it was a light so bright it swallowed up the nearby trees and scorched the ground. Silence accompanied it, muting the rustle of wind and the distant singing of bird digimon (or perhaps the singing of some distant village - the tales never are specific). Then the light shrank and flew off into the sky, leaving behind the bodies of several humans. Near each of their hands laid a small ball of light that seemed to burst, leaving behind a small circular device with a screen that blinked its message three times before going blank: 'CONNECTION NOT FOUND'. The wind rustled the trees again, distant song rose once more, and the world held its breath to await the awakening of the new arrivals.

"It was this way! Come on!"

Well, most of the world anyways.

The dark pink ball-shaped creature hovered, insectlike wings buzzing in her impatience. She zoomed forward with a dexterity not reflected in her small, awkward form once her partner entered her line of sight. Her partner took a deep breath, leaning against a tree trunk.

"Please - just a minute-" he gasped, soft feathered wings beating frantically. She zipped back to him, meeting him face to face - she was only a bit smaller, maybe an inch or two.

"I'm gonna lose it soon!"

"The light- or- your temper?" He took another deep breath. His breathing was smoothing out again. He hadn't seen the light, but she swore she had, and he trusted her senses.

"Both!" She gripped at the short pink fur on either side of her face. "It's that chest injury, isn't it?" He didn't answer. She growled. "That stupid egomaniac-"

"It was this way, right?" And now their positions had reversed, the light pink feather-winged creature flying past the other.

"What-? Yeah! Hey!" And now she flew after him. "Get back here!" She only caught up when he suddenly came to a halt. She crashed into him, sending them both tumbling into the scorched clearing. She sat up, rubbing at the side of her face. "Hey! What was that all ab-" And a limb without fingers pressed gently over her mouth. She looked to him, who was silently pointing as best as he could without fingers to the human forms on the clearing ground. She took in the sight, her furless face paled, and she immediately hooked her companion by the golden holy ring around his neck using her spear and dragged him back behind the treeline. He gagged at the sharp movement before his companion grabbed at his shoulders.

"Marineangemon, are those... humans?"

"I... think they may be, yes." Marineangemon nodded with far more confidence than he actually felt. He gently removed her spear from his ring, careful to avoid the linear scar that stretched above the heart symbol on his chest. She looked to the side, at the humans.

"What are they doing here?"

"I'm not certain. Someone, or something, must have summoned them." And that was a reasonable conclusion to draw, if not for the fact all the greater powers in the digital world seemed indisposed in one way or another.

"I mean, yeah. You think they're still alive?"

"Piximon!"

"What, they aren't moving!" And that was true. Marineangemon glanced over to the still humans. Piximon glowered. "Bro, don't-"

"I'm going to check on them."

"Bro!" With that, Marineangemon left the tree line before his sister could snag her spear on his ring again. He lowered himself down to the side of the nearest human - face down, hard to check for signs of life. He had to admit the humans were much bigger than he expected - he was only 30 centimeters long, and the humans easily beat that. Then again, so did most digimon. It never bothered him and seemed to never bother his sister either, who more than made up for her lack of height with a ferocity few digimon could match. Still, the tales Clockmon told never gave much in the way of scale of the humans. And what their friend said...

Well. The less said there, the better.

He gently pushed against the human's shoulder. Then he pushed much harder, with no effect. It was only when Piximon joined in that the two were able to roll over the human. Marineangemon wracked his mind for the things he had been told. Human chests pounded, audibly, if you listened very close. Marineangemon lowered his head, antennae drooping over the human, and listened.

[i]thu-thump	thu-thump[/i]

He exhaled in relief. This human at least was alive. He got up to check on the others when he noticed Piximon rise up beside a human, arms oddly full where they hadn't been before and face half-obscured. "Sis?"

"Yeah?" she asked, as if she didn't have both arms full with flat, oval-shaped objects.

"What are those?"

"These?" Piximon shifted the weight in her arms, tilting slightly as she pulled one hand free with the odd device. Marineangemon floated closer, curiosity overtaking him. "Dunno. They were next to each human. Think they might be digivices? Clockmon said humans usually come with digivices."

"You're [i]stealing[/i] them?"

"I know, I know, but hear me out." She tossed the digivice in her freehand to Marineangemon, who managed to catch it. "Turn it over." Marineangemon managed to flip the device over and studied the patterns of lines and dots on the back. A pattern. A constellation. His eyes widened as he recognized it. "Yeah. They've got all four."

"But...they're gone. How did [i]they[/i] get ahold of these?" He looked at the group of humans. "And who brought them here?"

"No idea, bro, but you know what? I bet [i]he'd[/i] like them." She pulled one of the others from her arm and waved it around, showing its own unique constellation pattern on the back. "Might be nice showing up with something for once, you know?" MarineAngemon swallowed. He knew that tone, usually adding a silent 'take a hint' to the end of the suggestion.

"Well... you're not wrong..." But what to do...