The five children were sat in a line on one side of the room (with the exception of Ursula, who was leant against the window frame). Skelton and Keble stood facing them, either side of another man and another woman, neither of whom the children hadn’t seen before. The two newcomers were dressed differently; stained shirts, scuffed jeans and a general look as if they hadn’t slept in two days, which, given the current predicament, was a very real possibility. The man was thin, with greasy hair tied back in a man-bun, a nervous fidget and a pencil stuck behind one of his oversized ears. The woman, the larger of the two, was Latino in origin, with dyed red hair and vivid green eyes. They’d brought various bits of paper, a laptop, a jug of water and a plate of Hob Nobs, which, while a nice thought, didn’t exactly instil much enthusiasm in anybody present. Lorelie had stopped crying by this point, but she still sat vulnerably, holding her knees tightly together. Her screen was blank, save for a little circle in the centre that kept spinning. In her hands she held a little device that the guards had brought her; a little keyboard and display, which allowed her to at least communicate.

The woman reached forward and took a biscuit herself, her fingers shaking from exhaustion and caffeine dosage. She paused, holding it in her hand and looking awkward.

“Have any of you heard of the Digital World?”

The children looked amongst each other, and shook their heads. Lorelie displayed a red X.

The woman looked almost disappointed, ate the biscuit, and leaned forwards, clasping her hands. “It’s what we look into here. You can call me Perez, and my colleague is Dominic. We’ve spent the last year or so investigating it ever since it...um...showed up.”

Eleanor yawned. “Does it have anything to do with us?”

Martin shushed her, and Dominic spoke up, “It’s got everything to do with you. It’s...kind of long and complicated to explain.” He twisted a piece of paper round to show them, which revealed a diagram with two globes, interconnected with a few straight and curved lines, and a lot of indecipherable text.

“The Digital World is a parallel dimension; it runs on the same spatial plane as us but separated by a sort of extra layer? We call it the Interface, and it allows the two worlds to run side-by-side and basically all fit in the same bit of space-time.”

He looked hopefully among the faces of the teenagers, but for some bizarre reason his repeated mention of space and dimensions seemed to be passing them by. He cleared his throat, and carried on, “It doesn’t matter. What matters a little more is that there are intelligent beings on the other world, hence we’ve been trying to keep contact. Of sorts.”

Now the children were interested. Callum sat up, and raised his free hand. “Wait wait, back up, are you talking about aliens?”

“Not really. They’re just beings who hold a different molecular structure; everything’s constructed from data bits in the Digital World, as opposed to atoms with everything here. We don’t know much about them, but from the limited information we could get, we can tell they call themselves Digimon. Digital Monsters.”

Callum blinked. Eleanor gawped. Dominic seemed to shrink a little on his seat, aware of the many eyes meeting his gaze. “You don’t believe me?”

“How do you say...?” Ursula muttered to herself, before huffing, “That is the biggest load of bollocks I’ve ever heard.”

Dominic put his head in his hands, and Perez leaned forwards. “You may not like it, but you have to believe us. The Digital World exists, and it’s the reason you’re in this predicament. You remember the incident in England a year ago?”

“Yes!”

Callum jumped as Martin pumped his fist, turning smugly to the others. “I knew that’s what this was all about! I knew it was that portal!”

“We’re not sure if it was the portal. But something’s wrong on the other side.” Perez ran a finger along one of the lines on the diagram. “I know it’s difficult to get your head round, but imagine...imagine both worlds are connected by a few physical pathways, like for example you could open that door and end up in China. They’re really just loose strands, but they do exist, and people do accidentally run into them. Occasionally some humans have gone over to the other side and vice versa with the Digimon. But the main link is a technological one. The very existence of the Digital World is intrinsically connected with our technology, particularly with the advent of computers.”

Callum glanced left, and noticed Eleanor’s confused face. He had to admit, he too was finding it very difficult to follow, but by squinting very hard he was able to get the gist of it. “So basically we can affect this...world...with our phones and stuff?”

Dominic nodded. “And likewise, the digital world can affect ours. That’s what happened back in your town; computers started failing because something’s seriously wrong there.”

“What’s that then?”

“We don’t know what.”

Eleanor scoffed. “Helpful.”

Perez clasped her hands awkwardly as she mumbled, “There’s not much we can do. You can’t just...go to the Digital World and ask to speak to a manager; there has to be a mutual link.”

Callum noticed Lorelie was typing something next to him, slowly but deliberately as she got used to the device. She turned her keypad around, holding it out to the scientists.

“What about our machines?”

Perez and Dominic looked at one another. The woman scratched the back of her neck. “We...don’t know for sure. But we think that might be the link.”

“Huh?”

The woman shuffled through the papers, and pulled out a couple of diagrams, showing what appeared to be technical drawings of several handheld devices. “These things. Physical links that allow one member from our world and one member from the Digital World to interlock, essentially allowing one of them to travel between worlds, or do other things. They call them digivices, though there are many different kinds.”

Dominic shuffled forwards, and held out a small, handheld device in his hand; green with copper edging, with a screen and a basic interface.

“We borrowed this one from someone else in the hopes it could help you, but even he couldn’t figure out how yours ended up like they did.”

He passed it onto Ursula, who twiddled the knobs a little, before passing it on to Martin and scowling, “It doesn’t work.”

“It won’t for you. They’re coded to a specific person.”

Martin frowned. “Where is this guy? Can we speak to him?”

“He’s doing his A-levels.”

“Oh.”

Martin passed the device along to Lorelie. “He’s that young?”

“The people who make the links usually are. Children and teenagers.” Skelton shrugged as she collected the device back. “We’re not totally sure why. Perhaps because you’re going through transitional periods?”

The boy half-smiled. “We’re moody?”

Skelton shrugged, and Eleanor placed her arms behind her head. “You’ve got that right.”

Perez continued. “Each device is bonded to a single person, with some exceptions. Normally they’re like that; small, handheld, easy to carry-“

Eleanor sat up, and interrupted, “I think I know where this is going. Our cute little digivice things got messed up during delivery and instead we ended up with computer parts in dumb places because life sucks now.”

“That’s our best guess.” Perez nodded sheepishly, and continued, “The link is always there but...with you it seems to have been taken a bit literally.”

“Y’fucking think?”

“There’s one bit of good news,” Dominic interjected, although as the four pairs of eyes and single expectant screen turned towards him he suddenly didn’t feel like the news was so good. He shuffled backwards.

“I mean the casing’s a wreck but the link is actually there. We found that out yesterday during your examinations; those devices are actually sustaining your bodies using energy from the Digital World. It’s kind of symbiotic. So...you know...at least your bodies aren’t rejecting them and you can still breathe and...not need food and water and...not die and-“

Paff

“Ow!” yelled Dominic, as Skelton withdrew her hand from thwacking him in the back of the head. He looked around and became very well aware of the other three adults glaring at him.

“I guess that was too far again...?”

Perez groaned, “Bedside manner, Dominic. Tact in general. Read a fucking book.”

Dominic stuck his lower lip out, rubbing the back of his head. “I’m just saying it could have been a lot worse...”

Lorelie tapped something again and leant forwards.

“No it couldn’t.”

Dominic looked away, not meeting her gaze (screen?). The rest of the children were silent, trying to process the vast amount of information, so Lorelie pulled her keypad back and decided to cut to the big question.

“How do we get them off?”

Perez coughed. “We don’t know.” She looked glum. “At all. This is beyond anything any of us have seen.”

The children waited expectantly, and even she began to shrink back a little. “I’m sorry. I know it’s not what you wanted to hear but...that’s all we’ve got.” She clenched a fist. “I promise, we’ll do everything we can to-“

“That’s not good enough!”

Eleanor’s outburst made everyone jumped, as she tried to stand up, forgot where her leg was, and slammed back down onto the sofa again. Her face was enraged. “We’re kids, we can barely move, you take us away from home and then tell us you’ve got nothing? Fucking NOTHING?”

Martin raised a hand. “Eleanor, wait-“

“You can shut the hell up as well, meathead.”

“I have an idea.”

Eleanor was still seething, but she drew back, as Martin addressed the adults in front of him. “So basically we’re like this because someone in the other world tried to connect with us and it went wrong? This...bio-digital-physical link between two beings or something?”

Dominic and Perez looked at one another, and nodded. “One Digimon, one human. Although there’s usually something else that instigates it.”

Martin bit his lip, and posed a question, “Well, what if we found them?” He sat forwards. “If you can’t do anything then maybe whoever we’re paired to can-“

“Out of the question.”

“I haven’t finished-“

“You don’t need to.” Perez folded her arms. “The Digital World’s dangerous enough as it is, even without your current issues.”

“But I just thought-“

Keble shook his head. “Sorry Martin, but all four of us agreed on this. Whatever happens, we’re not sending you into danger.”

“Isn’t this kind of important?”

“Nothing’s more important than your safety.”

Martin opened his mouth to protest, when suddenly there came a beeping. Each child checked their device, but it was in fact coming from Dominic’s pocket. He pulled out a PDA, and looked at it, his face grim. He turned to Perez. “It’s playing up again. We need to stabilise it.”

They left almost as abruptly as they arrived, with Keble and Skelton in tow. Skelton turned round just before leaving, and smiled at the kids apologetically. “Sorry about that. We’ll...talk again. I promise, we’re going to fix this.”

She stepped outside, waving as she did so. The door closed, leaving the kids alone again, still with the plate of Hob Nobs which had barely been touched. Martin folded his arms (as best he could) across his chest. “It was only a suggestion.”

Ursula peered over incredulously. “Are you actually believing this Digital World stuff?”

“What other choice do we have? There’s not much else we can do regardless.” Martin leaned back. “Unless we do something, we’re gonna be stuck here for a long time.”

Callum leaned forwards, his free hand running down his arm as he spoke up, “I might have seen it. The Digital World, that is.”

“Really?”

“Last night. I tried to move my arm and it just sort of...opened a circle or a window or something.” The boy leant forward, tapping at the buttons below the screen as he continued, “I got a message as well. Hang on...come on, I’ve gotta learn how to work this...aha!”

He leant back, showing off the message on the screen with more pride than was necessary. Eleanor grimaced. “’Send hellip’? They’re obviously rubbish spellers.”

“Maybe they were in a hurry?” Callum posed. “Perez did say the Digital World was going through bad stuff at the moment.”

There was a sharp nudge to his side, and he turned to see Lorelie frantically typing away. Her fingers were slipping on the keys but she was beginning to get the hang of it, holding the device up in front of her screen so she could see. She finished, and turned the screen to show everyone, an exclamation mark showing on her face.

“See other world too. Lots of messages. All asking for help.”

Eleanor had wandered over, and frowned at the message. She looked up at Lorelie, and waved in front of her. “Can you actually see out of that thing?” she asked.

Lorelie raised her finger and thumb. A little.

Eleanor stood up, putting her hands on her hips as she sighed, “If this is someone’s way of asking for help it’s a pretty shitty way to do it.”

Ursula put her hands behind her head, looking up at the ceiling. “Has anyone answered?”

“I...” Callum looked down at his own screen, then back up. “I don’t know how.”

A red X from Lorelie indicated that she was unaware of body-computer-communication procedures either. Ursula huffed. “It would be rude not to. It seems important.”

Callum looked desperately over at Martin. “Any ideas?”

“What am I supposed to do?” replied Martin in an exasperated fashion. “I can’t even see my screen.”

Eleanor chuckled, “Come on, there’s only one thing to do when you don’t know how technology works.”

“What’s that?” Martin looked up quizzically, before he figured it out, and his eyes widened. “Wait, don’t-“

Eleanor brought her fist down and whacked his device on the shoulder-area. There was a resounding clang, and the machine burst into life, causing it to vibrate and churn out a bunch of static gibberish, before settling down into a grumbling hum. Martin looked a little frazzled, and he glared up at Eleanor, who was looking on in amusement.

“That’s not funny!”

“It always works for me.”

“What happens if these things break? Do you wanna kill me or something?”

“Trust me, they don’t break,” said the girl, as she stomped her own leg, silencing it again. “I’ve tried.”

B-ding!

“You’ve Got Mail!”

There was a sudden bleep, and Lorelie sat bolt upright, her screen showing a bouncing envelope. She paused for a minute, before frantically typing at the keypad again and showing it around.

“Message got. Is that you? Two pulses for yes.”

Callum stuck his lower lip out as he pondered, “Well damn. We actually got through to someone helpful.”

“I guess so,” mused Martin, as he rubbed his tingling shoulder, “It looks like these things are all connected. Sort of.”

“You reckon we should answer again,” asked Callum, a little hesitant.

Eleanor had no such reservations; she cracked her knuckles, grinning down at Martin. “Well, you heard the man.”

“Wait, wait-”

Eleanor’s undue metal assault was interrupted by a couple of bangs as Ursula leant forwards and thrust her own body back into the wall. Twice. Her own device leapt into action. She winced, before noticing the others staring at her.

“What? Mine can’t exactly get any worse. If I break it enough I might even be able to walk again.”

The crew waited, watching Lorelie’s screen expectantly. The envelope appeared again, bouncing back and forth. Not just on hers though; now all their devices were beeping and showing the new message.

“OnN my waay.”

The initial joy at something going right for once quickly dissipated, as one by one they processed the mysterious messages from a mysterious sender. Ursula was the one to ask what everyone was thinking, but what no-one had an answer to.

“What exactly have we just invited in?”

Unaware of the fateful decision upstairs, Dominic and Perez were busy perusing through code and trying whatever they could to dampen the numerous new faults in their Digital World monitoring system, which given their current budget and situation, would probably have been more effective with just an iPad and a bottle of cough medicine gaffa-taped to the console.

Skelton sipped from a thermos, looking on at the two in mild amusement. “Have you ever thought of hiring a programmer?”

“Shut up, this is important.” Dominic pointed without looking up. “And don’t drink in here; we can’t afford to replace this stuff.”

Perez leaned back, wiping her brow and squeezing a couple of small rubber balls in her hand. “I asked them for more resource. Repeatedly. I told them this was going to get worse. Bastardos.”

“It’s stabilising again,” Dominic pointed out, as he stared at the various windows opening and closing as the programs ran in unison. “You know, having the kids all together in one room probably isn’t helping.”

“That can’t be helped. We can’t exactly have them in isolation.”

“I was just thinking, wouldn’t it cause some issues with the gate?” The man scratched his stubble as he garbled on in an unfiltered manner, “If we could figure out what each one of them could do in controlled conditions, we could-“

Keble coughed as he walked over, running his hand over the desk. “That’s enough, Dominic.”

“But it could be important-“

“I said enough!”

Keble’s hand banged down harshly on the desk, making Skelton jump and knock Cup-a-Soup over her trousers. “Ah geez...”

Keble glared at the smaller man, who had been stunned into silence. “You can think what you want, but while Skelton and I are here we are accountable for what happens to those children. Who, I would remind you, are children. I don’t care how underground this place is or what your budget’s like or whether those devices are going to rip another hole in time...”

He leant very close, his suddenly harsh eyes glaring into Dominic’s pale ones.

“...the kids’ welfare comes first. Am I clear?”

“Calm down Keble,” interjected Skelton, who had put the thermos down and was busy removing flakes of coriander from her trousers, “He knows. We all know. Christ, we’re not in a dystopia movie just yet, you can stop being so paranoid.”

Keble’s glare morphed seamlessly into an amiable smile, and he walked back, twirling his keys. “I know, I know. Just testing...”

Dominic seemed to have taken the test to heart, as he pulled at his collar. Perez leaned over, pointing at his monitor. “How long is this supposed to take?”

“A minute or so.”

“That’s what I thought.” She reached over, pointing at a tab which had refused to resolve itself, and was currently flashing red. “You seem to have something stuck there.”

Dominic pulled up the source code, scanning it with an expert’s eyes. “Nothing seems to be looping...maybe just a stubborn packet of variables?”

He paused, and restarted, and then tried clearing the cache. The tab flickered, but refused to go away. The progress bar halted, moved forwards, then back, then oddly enough split right in two. Skelton was now leaning over, still holding her thermos. “Is that normal?”

Dominic was looking paler than usual, and Perez was chewing at her nails, her eyes darting back and forth between Dominic’s screen and her own. More tabs were now opening, and command lines, and lines of random numbers just dancing willy-nilly across the screen. Perez looked back at the other woman. “No. It’s not. It’s not normal at all.”

The lights went out. Then they came back on. Both computers were still going haywire, and beginning to smoke. Others within the room were seemingly starting up off their own accord, in a flurry of lights and sounds. Keble marched over, wedging his head next to Dominic’s. “I thought you said it was stabilised!”

“It was! It just...stabilised around something.”

Perez glanced to the side. “A virus?”

“No, it wouldn’t be doing stuff like this. It’s moving with purpose.” His face went scarlet. “Crap, it’s in my e-mails now.”

“What’ll it find in there?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

The screen flashed, and Perez jumped a mile. “Don’t give it to me!”

“I didn’t give you anything!”

BANG

Dominic’s computer went up in flames, setting off the sprinklers. He backed away, coughing as smoke filled the area, while Perez desperately typed, and pressed as many buttons as she could get her hands on. Her colleague leaned forwards.

“Isolate it! Now!”

“I’m trying!”

“I meant pull the damn cable out!”

“I said I’m trying!”

“I’ll get it-“

Another bang as another computer exploded. Keble banged his fist on the desk. “Get someone!”

“Who the hell do we get? A doctor? A secretary? Jared the cleaner?”

“I don’t care, just stop this before it gets worse-“

Perez yelped as her monitor flashed, beeped, juddered for several seconds and went dormant, leaning forwards like a forlorn dog. The scientist held her hands up, her eyes wide as she looked all around. She settled on the far wall, and the wires trailing up it.

“Shit, it’s in the LAN!”

She turned to face Keble, whose face was crimson. “Catch it then!”

“Can you run faster than electricity?”

Skelton raised a hand. “Er, pardon? What just happened? What’s in the network?”

Dominic turned round. “Whatever that was, it was moving with purpose. It had a destination and the means to bypass our security and means to stop it-“

The woman shook her head. “Small words, mate.” She turned and asked Perez instead, “What is it?”

Perez clasped her hands. “You know what we said about the Digimon earlier?”

Skelton blinked, and pointed at the wires. “You’ve got a living creature in there? What the hell does it want...” She stared ahead, and her hand tipped forward, spilling carrot and coriander soup on the floor. “Oh......fuck.”

“The kids! It’s going after the kids!”

Keble was at the door in four seconds, with Skelton not far behind, leaving the other two in a ruined computer lab. Dominic put his head in his hands, moaning, “I quit. I wanna retire.”

Perez leaned over, and patted his shoulder. “You’re not allowed.”

“I know.”

“Ah!”

Not two minutes after Ursula had asked the question, Eleanor’s leg had started vibrating. She slammed it down, twice, but it wouldn’t listen, letting out alien beeps and a fair bit of steam. Martin’s device had followed, then Ursula’s, then pretty soon all five of the children were hanging on for dear life to whatever they could as the five devices were moving into overdrive, and playing a flawless rendition of the Smoke Alarm Overture Electronica.

Eleanor tried to stand up, but her leg shot out straight, twisting her whole body round as if it were searching for something. “WHOSE IDEA WAS THIS?”

“Don’t...fight it...”

“I’LL FIGHT IT AND IT CAN’T STOP ME!”

Still, she didn’t have much choice; all five of the children were being manoeuvred, largely not of their own accord, towards the centre of the room. They formed a circle, and stood up straight, the devices dictating their every move. All five of their screens were showing concentric circles, each with a flashing dot in a different place. The dots location changed, becoming closer and closer to its neighbours, until all of a sudden they were all flashing in unison. There was a bang and a flash of light as a plug point in the corner of the room exploded, causing everyone to jump.

“Geez!”

“Argh!”

Martin instinctively held out a hand. Ursula did the same, and where they were pointing, in the centre of the circle, a window of light was forming. Callum gasped; it was the same as the one he’d seen last night, only stronger; two devices working in unison. He brought his own arm forward, and the light grew more intense, causing his whole body to rattle. Lorelie clutched her head, and Eleanor thrust her leg forwards, each of them focusing as best as they could, trying to channel the power within their devices.

Eleanor gritted her teeth as she forced the words out, “This...better...be worth it...”

The window grew, and became an orb, spinning at an immense speed with the sound of an electronic whistle.

And from within, something appeared. A squat, furry figure, looking back, forth, then straight at the window from the other side. They ran. They jumped.

And they landed, tumbling to the floor inside the sealed room.

The window closed with a pop, sending the children clattering backwards and flailing wildly. Callum steadied himself, staring at the newcomer, who sat there, shaking their head.

They looked incredibly odd, with short, lilac fur covering their body, and a pale shawl like a leopard skin thrust over one shoulder. Their hands and feet were stubby, with four fingers and three toes, each ending in a conical claw. A long, furry tail stretched out behind them, beating the ground. They had a protruding snout that turned up at the end like a pig’s, four pointed ears, and a wad of spiky orange hair sticking straight up in between.

The newcomer shook her head, and stood up to her full height (which wasn’t huge). She staggered for a little, looking dazed, before looking round.

“My name is...my Aardmon is name and I...help...need your Aardmon...need your...help...”

Her eyes uncrossed, and she got a good look at the four terrified faces and one terrified screen with a terrified emoticon on it. Her mouth fell open. “Oh...shit, I...oh that’s not...that’s not what’s supposed to happen...I...”

She laughed nervously.

“What the hell happened to you guys?”

Callum blinked at the odd creature standing before them. “What...what in the bloody hell are you?”

Aardmon scratched behind her head, her head darting around. “I’m...oh, this is bad...I’m not going to hurt you...I swear...”

She walked forwards, but Callum shuffled backwards. Or at least, he attempted to, but his arm shot out all of a sudden and he fell sideways into Lorelie, who in turn fell onto Eleanor and so on around the circle. The five of them all went over like dominoes with a mighty clatter, with Aardmon watching in the centre of the circle of chaos, grinding her teeth.

“Oh, this is really, very, very bad...”

From her position with one cheek wedged into the carpet, Eleanor spat out the words with a glare, “We know!”

“I...I need your help!”

Eleanor pushed herself up angrily, and tried to stand, wobbling on her leg and waving her finger around. “Was this you? Did you do this to us?”

“Uh...I, uh...”

“I swear, I’m going to hit you SO. HARD.”

Martin, taking a break from rolling back and forth from his downed position, raised a tentative finger. “Um, please don’t hit the mystical purple thing.”

“Why not? It’s her fault we’re like this.”

Aardmon jabbered, “No it isn’t! I didn’t do this! Well...I suppose...it wasn’t...I didn’t do this to you!”

“Bollocks!”

“It’s true! I’m a victim too!”

Callum raised his free arm high. “What the hell is going on?”

A klaxon went off, and the lights above started flashing. Aardmon yelped, and turned to Callum, clasping her fingers together. “We don’t have time! I need to bring you with me!”

Callum blinked, and pointed at his chest. “Me?”

“All of you. I need...we need...all of you, right now, I can’t explain here...”

“Why not?”

“It’s complicated.”

“It’s already complicated.”

“Just open the portal, please!”

Lorelie’s screen buzzed, and showed a question mark. Eleanor wobbled and fell to one knee, screeching through clenched teeth, “ We don’t know how!”

“You just did it!”

“That doesn’t count!”

The door flew open, and Keble and Skelton rushed in, clearly out of breath. Their eyes fell upon the purple beast, who squeaked, threw her hands up, and then rushed over towards Martin, who had managed to sit up.

“Step away from the kids!”

Keble drew a taser, but Aardmon raised her right palm, little particles of sand dancing around in it. Eyes wild, she chattered, “I-I-I-I-I-I-I swear don’t come any closer! I’m very dangerous!”

“Now!”

Martin shot a panicked look at the guards. “Wait, shouldn’t we-“

Keble fired, and Aardmon’s body jerked, her cheeks wobbling around and sand particles flying everywhere. She dropped down, unconscious, and Keble moved in straight away, waiting for a few seconds and then hoisting the squat body up over his shoulder. He went immediately for the exit, with Skelton following behind. She stopped in the doorway, looking back inside and smiling sheepishly. “Sorry for the intrusion. We’ll have this sorted as soon as we can.”

The door closed before anyone could answer, leaving the five children sprawled out in the room. Callum let out the breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding, and Lorelie fell backwards into a star shape, her arms spread out and a swirly-eyed face showing on her screen.

There was a clicking sound, and they turned to see Ursula, lying on her back and snapping her fingers in the air.

“I can’t get up.”

Martin looked down at his own predicament, and sighed. “Hold on. We might be a little while.”

“That’s okay.” Ursula closed her eyes. “If I go to sleep right now, maybe this will all go away and I can be happy again.”

With the piles of sand lying everywhere, the still-beeping klaxon, the sprinklers going off and the remnants of several kilojoules of energy still running around all of their bodies, that was seeming like a long shot.

The Cardiff Digital Anomaly industrial estate, as it turned out, was somewhat lacking in high-security prison cells. After a few minutes of marching up and down corridors and mouthing ‘fuck’ repeatedly under his breath, Keble had eventually given up and all but lobbed the barely-conscious creature into the nearest bedroom, locking the door after him. Skelton had managed to catch up with him by this point, but Keble had just marched off. She called after him, but he was just muttering under his breath about ‘bloody Digimon’ and ‘bloody scientists’ and ‘gin and tonic’.

Aardmon came to almost as soon as the door was slammed shut. She ran at it, pounding desperately and holding her eye up to the peephole, not that it helped. Skelton stood on the other side, her hands in her pockets as she groaned, “Aye aye aye...”

The banging on the other side persisted. Skelton sighed, and slammed a fist back against the metal, which calmed the Digimon’s tantrum down for all of two seconds.

“Let me out! This is a matter of utmost importance!”

“That’s usually the case when you lot are involved.”

The banging stopped. Then there was a thump, as Aardmon sat back against the door, her head in her hands. “This is really, so very, very bad,” she muttered again and again.

Suddenly she stopped, and tentatively rapped against the door once more. “Pardon me, but, what do you mean ‘us lot’? Were you expecting me?”

Skelton sighed, “Not really. But we – well, not me, but the other guys - figured you – well, the Digimon –were involved somehow.” The woman twirled her keys. “Something knocking out a whole district of electronics? Strange portals? That’s you alright.”

There was a pause. Skelton briefly considered leaving her post (hey, she hadn’t officially said she’d watch the cell, had she?) and returning to her poor and abandoned soup. But she decided against it. Soup could come any day. She had to admit, you didn’t get many opportunities in your life to have a conversation with an inter-dimensional being.

Somewhat calmer than before, Aardmon spoke again, “What do you know about us?”

“You’re asking the wrong person.”

“You obviously know something.”

“I know the basics. You exist, you control technology here, sort of, and whenever something goes up the shitter here it means that something’s gone up the shitter where you live.” Skelton plugged her hands behind her back. “I’m a special case though. Your existence isn’t really well known. Although we still have that portal hanging around which you haven’t done anything about.”

“Oh. That.” Aardmon laughed nervously, “We don’t like to talk about that.”

“Is it causing you problems?”

“No...we just...try to get people to stay our side. You might want to seal it up yourself at somepoint.”

“Well...they built a wall around it.”

“What?”

“A wall. About thirty feet, metal; it’s got barbed wire at the top.”

Aardmon blinked. “That’s rubbish. Walls don’t do anything.”

Skelton rolled her eyes. “You’re telling me.”

Aardmon rested her head on her folded arms and whined, “Not that it matters at the moment; the portal keeps moving all over the place on our side. And at the moment it’s not very accessible anyway; I think it’s about sixty feet underground at the moment?”

“Ah.”

“Yeah, when you visit your side of the gate, you might want to ask them to clear out the dirt.”

“I’ll pass it on.” Skelton leant back a little further, looking back at the blank metal. “So what’s happened? Why is everything going nuts?” she asked.

“Everything is terrible. That’s why.” Aardmon plonked her head down. “It’s the Funnyman. He’s doing all this.”

“The what now?”

Aardmon laughed, “I know. The Funnyman. That’s what he calls himself.” She breathed in. “I’m...I’m an engineer. I keep an eye on the digital core, which runs the general workings of the Digital World. I don’t need to do a lot often, aside from general housekeeping, but something happened and...he appeared. Just like that.”

“What is he? One of you guys?”

“I have no idea. Nobody knows. It’s bad though. It’s even giving Yggdrasil problems.”

Skelton took in a breath. “That’s not good. Isn’t Yggdrasil your...god, I guess?”

“It’s complicated.”

“It always is.”

Aardmon stretched her legs out, staring up at the ceiling. “The Digital World abides by certain rules, whichever state it’s in. Some of them change on occasion, but some are constant; Digimon levels, Digimon reincarnation, physical laws, spatial laws and the like. They’re all supposed to work the same way. At the moment they’re not. At all.”

“How ‘not’ are we talking? Like, you’re all flying or something?”

“Like, I fell through three different timezones on the way here in the space of about a second.”

“Whoops.” Skelton rubbed her arm. “No wonder all our technology’s lost it. The map’s broken.” She chuckled without thinking, and then continued, “So then...why did you come here?”

“I, uh...panicked.” Aardmon hunched her shoulders. “I figured...given the Digital World is in crisis...that the thing that usually happens in a crisis is that...humans are called. Children, usually. So I looked for the gate and came to check.

“Well, they certainly were called.”

“I saw.”

“You’re not having them.”

“Please.”

“No.”

“I’m begging you-“

Skelton banged her fist on the door. “Look, we’re not so gullible anymore when it comes to your lot. I’ve seen about three of these incidents now, all over the world. I think it’s a really crappy thing of you to do to just call humans over to fix your messes; they’re kids, for god’s sake.”

Aardmon mumbled. “Children and adolescents tend to have a better integration with their-“

“I really don’t care! We have rules here to stop children getting into stupid situations where they might die! Apparently, you guys still don’t seem to get that.”

“I’m sorry!” Aardmon curled up even more. “I’m just the messenger. I don’t know what to do. My world is literally falling to pieces and I’m scared.”

Skelton forced herself to calm down. “I know. It’s not your fault. If Yggdrasil chose these kids, well...” She trailed off, and looked aside at the door.

“I do get it. It sucks, but I do. You understand though, right? It’s not as simple as just taking them to your world and saving the day. There are consequences for us, as I’m sure there are for you.”

There was no reply. Skelton stood herself up, and stretched, as Keble turned into the corridor. He beckoned to her.

“Leave the Digimon. We need to talk.”

“The Funnyman? Really?”

Skelton shrugged. “I don’t see the problem. It’s succinct.”

“No, it’s just, from what I gather these big threats to the Digital World call themselves ChaosDeathHellWreakermon or something insane like that. It just seems a bit weird.” Dominic put his head in his hands on his desk. “What am I talking about, it’s all weird. My pay is nowhere near high enough for this.”

Skelton sat down, popping her feet up on the next chair along as she gave her thoughts, “I think she’s being sincere though. ‘Fact she seems to be really taking it hard.”

Perez wheeled herself over, resting her arms on the back of the chair. “I don’t doubt it. The sad thing is though there’s not a whole lot we can do.”

Skelton popped her lips. When nobody interjected, she decided to bring up what they were all thinking.

“Well...there is.”

Keble sat on the desk and shook his head, sighing “No, Skelton. Not happening.”

“What else do we have?”

Perez ran her fingers through her hair. “We’ll find something. We’ll find another way.”

“Oh, stop bullshitting me. I’m not a child.” Skelton tapped the desk in an irritated manner. “Look, I’m as aware as you are of the danger and the many, many human rights violations it would be breaking, but is no-one even considering the possibility that we might need to do this? There’s not a lot we can do to change things now. It’s happened before, right?”

Keble nodded. “True, it has. With mixed success. And a lot of therapy for the participants.”

“Isn’t this...the whole reason we have a place here? ‘Cause the Chair wanted to help kids and Digimon get along together? If we gave them proper support-“

Perez interjected. “You really want to put your trust in the Digimon? I’ve seen them before as well, Rona. They’re not all as benign as you might want to think.”

Skelton glared at her, but didn’t have a response. Perez leant back, and looked wearily over at Dominic. “You and I, we’re supposed to be clever, aren’t we? We can think of something.”

“Bugger off; I’m not clever. I can just do numbers good.”

Perez raised an eyebrow, and patted her colleague on the back of his head “You and me both.”

Keble’s expression was growing darker by the second. “It’s a vicious cycle. The longer we leave it, the worse the Digital World will get. And the less we can do. But we can’t do anything about the Digital World from here because we can’t get the technology to work because the Digital World is busted.”

Dominic raised a thumb, not even looking up. “Bingo.”

The four of them fell into silence, listening to the steady bip-bip-bip of the few remaining machines they had. Skelton looked up, her eyes meeting with Keble. He shook his head. “I don’t like it. I really don’t like situations like this.”

“Maybe you’re right.” The guard glanced over at the door. “Would you at least believe me if I said that Aardmon isn’t dangerous?”

Perez narrowed her eyes. “I wouldn’t go that far. All Digimon are dangerous to a degree.” She leant back, and relented. “But malicious? I suppose not.”

“Can’t we at least let her talk to the children?”

Keble went to stand up, but Skelton raised a hand, “Come on, James, they’re teenagers. They can handle a discussion. They’re involved already; just at least let them know what’s going on, for crying out loud.”

Dominic had pulled himself up, and was lying back in his chair, his fingers clasped. “It might be of help to us.”

Keble looked between the three of them, then back to Perez, who wasn’t saying anything. He placed a hand on his hip. “Alright.” He pointed at Skelton. “But you and I will be listening. One attempt to do anything funny, and the Digimon’s going right back in her cell.”

“It’s a bedroom.”

“What’s the difference? It’s Cardiff.”

About an hour later, the children were gathered around as Aardmon was telling her story. Keble and Skelton stood just outside the door, able to hear everything that was being said. More than once Keble went to go inside, but his partner stopped him.

“Let them listen.”

Aardmon finished, tapping her claws together and looking down, away from the penetrating gazes of the people around her.

Callum sat back. “I don’t get it.”

“I’ve explained as best I can. I’m sorry there’s nothing I can do about it-“

“No, no, I get that. The whole...Digital World calling us and messing up our bodies and...” He trailed off, and frowned. “Okay, I don’t get that at all, but that’s not what I meant. I meant why us?”

The aardvark shrugged. “It’s Yggdrasil’s choice. Or at least it’s supposed to be.” She gestured at Callum’s arm. “As you can see, things went a little awry.”

Ursula folded her arms. “So you know what these things do?”

“Vaguely. They let you travel between worlds by linking you with your partners. They do other stuff as well, but...it depends.”

Lorelie was tapping away, and she flipped the keypad round. “ Partners?”

“Digimon. Like me. They’re waiting in the other world.”

“Can’t they do it on their own?”

“ It’s not that simple. Normally it takes a very long time for us to grow in power, if we do at all. And Yggdrasil’s changing so fast that the power dynamics are shifting before any Digimon can do anything.”

Eleanor ruffled her hair, snorting. “So basically, without us, you’re stuck. And without as long as you’re stuck, we’re stuck like this too.”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Thanks a fucking bunch.”

Callum turned to her. “Come on, it’s not her fault. She didn’t do anything wrong.” He looked back at the Digimon, who was knelt down, gently rocking back and forth. “Maybe...we should do something. Maybe we have to.”

Aardmon shook her head. “Your carers are very adamant to keep you safe. I can respect that.” She sighed. “Besides, it’s not as though there’d be much you could do when you got there. Most digital threats can be solved if you punch them hard enough. The Funnyman is...different.”

There was a snigger, and Aardmon glared up at Eleanor, who raised her arms. “You can’t expect me to take that name seriously.”

“’Course not. He isn’t.”

The Digimon stood up, and brushed her knees off. “I should go, before I corrupt you with any more terrible ideas.”

She knocked on the inside of the door, and it opened. Keble and Skelton were waiting. For a moment they looked down at the forlorn little creature. Skelton put a hand on Aardmon’s shoulder, and she walked her away. Keble glanced in. “You need anything? Lunch? We can order pizza in.”

Callum looked among everyone. “Is anyone hungry?”

Nobody seemed to be that enthusiastic. Lorelie sat back, wrapping her arms around her knees with a scowling face on her monitor. Callum looked back at Keble. “Maybe just one?”

The man winked, and the door closed behind him. Martin raised an eyebrow at Callum. “Do you really think now’s the time?”

“I live by a code of never turning down free pizza and I will stand by that code even during my darkest moments.”

Ursula grunted. “Moron.”

“You read my mind. We’ll get along well.” Eleanor hoisted herself back up onto the sofa, burying herself in its folds. “And I’m bored again. Maybe we should go to the Digital World just for something to do.”

Martin grinned. “I agree. We’re their only hope; we have to do this!”

Callum got to his feet, and nodded. “Should be fun.”

The two smiled at one another, while Eleanor looked on with incredulity. “Guys, I wasn’t actually being serious.”

Callum helped Martin up, who shrugged as best as he was able. “I was. I still am. We should totally go.”

He became aware of half the room giving him some very weird looks. “What? It’s as you said, we’re not going to get anything useful done just hanging around here.”

“I never said any such thing.”

“I’m paraphrasing.”

“Well don’t, it’s rude.” Eleanor looked over to Ursula. “Tell them this is a dumb idea.”

The taller girl tsked, and looked the other way, neither confirming or denying anything. Eleanor pouted, and turned to Lorelie instead, her voice taking on an almost pleading tone. “Tell them...or, you know, type or something...whatever.”

Lorelie buzzed, and refused to type any such thing. Eleanor sat back, folding her arms. “You’re all useless. Or insane.”

She gestured dramatically.

“I would like to remind you that two of us can barely walk, one of us can’t talk, and pretty much all of us are currently physically fucked. And you seriously want to go into some dumb world which, we’ve established, is also fucked? As far as I remember, fucked plus fucked doesn’t equal not fucked.”

Martin grimaced. “Remind me to feed you soap at somepoint.”

“Bite me.”

Lorelie twisted herself round, and began typing away.“Maybe these partners can help with that?”

Eleanor grunted. “You’re really buying into all that partner stuff?” She glowered intensely, but still she waited patiently while the other girl fumbled around with the keys.

“Or someone else. If we can’t get these things off here, maybe somebody can there?”

She sat back, folding her arms and showing a triumphant face. Eleanor blinked. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

Lorelie let off a little burst of smug static. Ursula hobbled forwards a little. “What about our parents?”

Martin hummed to himself. “We’re already having issues; surely they couldn’t get more worried than they already are.”

He paused as Callum gave an uncertain ‘uuuuuh’ and Lorelie gave an all-too-certain vigorous nod. Martin began to pace. “Well, they are nearby. They do know the situation. Sort of. At least they’d know where we were.”

Callum looked up at him. “Do you think we could get the scientists to help? They can look into the Digital World; maybe they could help us while we were inside?”

“It’s all very difficult. But do we have any other options?”

They all paused, thinking it over. To say it would be tough would be an understatement. They could none of them move properly, they had no idea what they were doing or what they would be looking for, and the threat of the Funnyman added more layers of danger.

Martin sat back, galumphing into the sofa.

“Maybe we will need that pizza after all.”

Down in the facility’s lab (if you could call it that) Dominic was desperately trying to tune the radio to keep the news of the current technological developments coming in.

It didn’t sound good. Half the channels were barely even working, with no sound, or just speakers going haywire. The few that were revealed snippets of far more worrying news; banks crashing, systems going down in emergency services, in hospitals, in cars on the road. It was mostly local, but the damage was clearly spreading.

The latest channel collapsed into static. Dominic turned the device off, and grimaced. “The millennium bug has arrived. Thirteen years late, but whatever.”

Perez looked up. “Thirteen is an unlucky number.”

The thin man leaned back, clasping his hands. “Is this how the world is going to end? Seems so...boring, weirdly enough.”

A wad of papers slapped him across the nose, and he started, “Ow!”

“Stop being morose. It’s not helping.” Perez wheeled his chair over and plonked a keyboard in front of him. “We’ve kept these boxes isolated from the network; with any luck we can actually do some proper work on them.” She winked. “You may not have been listening, but I have a plan.”

As she entered her password, Skelton and Keble shared looks behind her. “You do?”

“This Funnyman’s basically taken over the core of the Digital World, right? But if we can pull that core out and replace it with an identical copy, theoretically we can isolate the Funnyman and power cycle the Digital World at the same time.”

Skelton seemed unconvinced. “Won’t that, you know, cause issues?”

“Not necessarily.” The woman adjusted her glasses, and began opening several windows. “From what Aardmon explained it’s only the configuration of the Digital World which has been affected; that’s why it’s having such a base effect on us. There’s nothing wrong per se with the core, it’s just being...controlled weirdly. If it was damaged then nothing would be working at all.”

Dominic clicked his fingers. “I get it. All the memory of the core should be intact; we just need to replace the control panel.”

“Essentially. Hopefully. Maybe.”

Keble folded his arms, looking uncertain. “That’s a lot of maybe. How exactly do you plan to reach the core?”

“If that Digimon – Aardmon’s – telling the truth, she should be able to point the way.”

“And then what? It’s not just a case of walking there.”

Perez paused, and turned round, slowly. “It...might be.”

Keble blinked, and Perez explained, gesturing as she did so. “If you’re in digital space your body treats it the same as physical space. Taking a data package to a specific address means literally taking it to a certain place.”

“And you’d get Aardmon to do this?”

Skelton bobbed her head. “She’d probably be willing, but if what she says is true, the Funnyman probably won’t let her very easily.”

Dominic nodded. “That’s right. And we can’t exactly pinpoint any dangers with a couple of old Windows machines.”

Skelton nudged Keble, and pulled him back. She went to whisper in his ear, but he held up a hand. “I know what you’re going to suggest.”

“I know you know. And I know it’s gonna be dangerous. But if they’re couriers, not necessarily fighters...and besides, at the moment they’re the only ones who can open the gate anyway.”

Keble closed his eyes, exhaling. “I don’t like it.”

“You’ve heard what’s going on.” Skelton glanced over at the scientists, who were busy typing away. “If we don’t do something soon it really will be too late.”

Keble folded his arms. “Can Aardmon really find their ‘partners’? If they’re going, they’ll need all the help they can get.”

“We can only hope.” The woman nudged his arm. “Besides, we don’t have to send them in empty-handed ourselves. We can keep an eye on them from out here if we do this right.”

The tall man sighed, rubbing his chin. “You’re telling me this is the best plan we have?”

“No.”

“But it’s the only one.”

“Yes.”

“This is gonna be an utter pain to explain to their parents.” The man pointed at the door. “Have a word with the kids, and take Aardmon with you. If they’re up for it, we’ll give it a shot.”

Skelton nodded, and headed for the door. Keble turned to see both scientists looking for him. Their expressions were grim. Keble smiled nervously. “So, uh...”

“We heard.” Perez looked forlorn, before shaking her head. “Or we guessed. One of the two.”

Keble nodded at the screen. “How long’s it going to take to make the...package...reboot...core thing?”

“A day or so, if we work the night.”

The taller man took off his glasses, and held the bridge of his nose. “Come on guys...is this really the only option we have left?”

The awkward silence gave him his answer more clearly than anything. He readjusted his glasses, and folded his arms. “I really don’t like it. At all.”

Perez reached up, patting his shoulder. “None of us do. But at least we can do something to prepare them for it. Sort of.”

Dominic forced a weak smile, and raised his arms.

“Besides, think of it as a summer holiday for them. I’m sure they’ll love it.”

Nobody else seemed convinced.

TO BE CONTINUED...