In the immortal words of one Russell Casse…

Hello, boys! I'm back! *Cue massive explosion*

Not really that long of a hiatus, eh? Well, it's good to be working on this again.

Just to clarify, this 02 is gonna be a little different than the one we all know, but nothing too different. Point A and Point B will be mostly the same, but getting there is going to be a bit different, and I think you may like.

For those who are just joining, this is a sequel to my earlier story Sweat, Tears, and Evolutions. I would recommend reading that but you don't have to, though I would really appreciate it.

Finally, huge thanks to MadDogLucario96 for doing some workshop with me and ironing out some details. You rock man. And thanks to the incredible JubiaMajo on DeviantArt for her work such as the cover picture.

One last thing, as usual... I don't own this show, I just play in it.

Well, that's about it, so let's put the pedal to the metal, drive like we're Sammy Hagar and get this show on the road!

Prologue

'Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!' – King Henry, Henry V

Shinbashi District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. Dec. 31st, 2016. 1002 Hours.
P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery

"My situation, never changes! Walking in and out of that door! Like a stranger, for the wages, I give you all, you say you want more! And all I could see was the end of the week. All the things we sign, and the things we buy, ain't gonna keep us together. Girl, it's just a matter of time!" My radio cranked out while me and Ren danced to the music as we were getting on the highway. One of the great things about being a parent is that you can indoctrinate your kid into liking the stuff you like. I'll make darn sure that boy will love the 80s and none of that crap that plays normally on the radio.

Anyways, where was I with my tale? Oh right. After we stopped that virus that Koushiro later named Diablomon, our lives mostly went back to normal. Now there was one more thing involving the Digimon shortly after my birthday in May of 2000, but it's not important to the story at this moment. By the start of 2002, the gang was still meeting up and hanging out everyone in a while, but we were all moving on to our own things. Taichi still had his soccer. Yamato was starting a band called the Teenage Wolves where he was the lead singer. Jou, who was now starting high school, was on his way to becoming a doctor. Sora was now taking up tennis like her mother. Koushiro was part of the school's computer club. Takeru and Hikari were both doing some school activities but they were still in elementary school while the rest of us excluding Jou were in junior high.

As for Mimi… well, there's a quick little story I'd like to tell, which we all call 'The Mimi Situation'. One day in late 2000, Mimi had inadvertently came across her father's resume which he had left on his computer. When she asked about it, her father explained that he wanted to move back to the States and that he was putting out his resume to employers. Now, Mimi would've been fine with this, though sad to leave and say goodbye to us, but her father let something slip that he wouldn't have told her until after they were settled in. See, Mimi never actually explained to her parents about the Digimon so her mother was so worried to live in Tokyo because she believed that all this stuff would happen again. I don't blame her; the Odaiba Fog Incident was pretty terrifying for those who weren't a Chosen Children. Anyways, Mimi gathered all of us and explained what was going on. Koushiro and I had to go to her house to tell her parents that this wasn't going to happen again and alleviate their fears. I guess it worked, as Mimi's folks never moved.

Of course, the world kept turning even while we were living out our pretty normal lives. Towards the end of 2000, the US Presidential Election came close to a tie, but Florida just barely called for Al Gore who narrowly defeated George W. Bush. Even with the Lewinsky Scandal, to which comedians like Whose Line were cracking a lot of jokes about, Gore and the Democrats managed to win, though that might have had something to do with Clinton winning both Korea and Vietnam.

There was also a moment when the United States nearly got struck with a catastrophe. On September 10th, 2001, a large conspiracy by the terrorist organization of Al-Qaeda to attack the World Trade Center in New York was exposed and stopped by the FBI before it could be carried out. The reason why it was discovered is that one of the perpetrators came forward and in exchange for immunity to prosecution, explained the plot. Why he panicked and went to the FBI goes back to the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen back on the 12th of October in 2000. After Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility of the attack, Clinton declared that the perpetrators would face justice. In December, US Special Forces found Osama Bin Laden and other leaders of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and killed them in a large firefight. With the leadership of the terrorist organization removed, the will of the plotters of the WTC attack was greatly shaken which led to the eventual turncoat. The aftermath was truly a wakeup call considering how close the plotters got to succeeding. It brought about a bunch of changes in America like heightened airport security and expansion of security forces in the Federal Government.

Back home, things were going on like normal. We had made some new friends with some familiar faces. The first was a girl named Inoue Miyako, born on May 28th, 1990, who actually sent us a message during our fight with Diablomon. Nice girl with a fiery personality, she was in Koushiro's computer club and took a great liking to our computer genius. Funny enough, she never actually made the connecting between the Digimon fight over the internet and us, so she never asked Koushiro about the Digimon. Next was this young boy that was good friends with Miyako named Hida Iori. He was born on October 22nd, 1993 and was kinda of a quiet boy but somewhat makes sense considering that he lost his father at a young age. His father was a cop that had died preventing an assassination of a Japanese politician in London.

Finally, there was a boy that was completely enamored by Taichi. His name was Motomiya Daisuke and he was born on August 30th, 1991. They met in Taichi's soccer club during the sixth grade, when the third grade Daisuke was finally eligible to be on the team. This was also the same kid I found unconscious at Big Sight during Vamdemon's invasion, the one who disturbing looked like Taichi. Well, it turns out his personality was just as similar to Taichi's as well. Hot-headed, arrogant, basically Taichi before our adventures in the Digital World. The main problem I had with him was that he had a crush on Hikari, though he kept it to himself. Consider it me being a protective big brother and thinking that no guy was good for her, but that was my main problem with him. However, Taichi liked him, so I kept my animosity to myself. Still, little did any of us know what role those three kids would later play in 2002.

Even more so was that if you had told me that on my first day of the eighth grade that I'd be fighting a war, I would've laughed in your face…

Yagami Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. April 7th, 2002. 2132 Hours.

"Ah, Captain Katarn. What a pleasure it is to finally meet you face-to face."
"The pleasure's all yours, I'm sure."
"The Ors woman thinks quite highly of you, did you know that? She must have whimpered your name on at least seventeen different occasions over the last few days."
"Is that supposed to make me angry? I'm past that, Galak."
"Oh, really, Then what if I tell you that, even as we speak, Desann is descending on the Jedi Academy with thousands of his Force-enhanced, lightsaber-resistance warriors, eliminating the scourge of the Jedi for all time!"
"I'd say you're insane."
"Insane? Then what about this? Within hours, Desann will have eradicated those annoying Jedi, clearing the way for my accent as leader of the New Empire! I, Galak Fyyar the First, the genius who conceived of the Shadow Armor, will rule the galaxy with a cortosis fist; Worlds will tremble, stars will shudder-"
"Your shields will fall!"
"Raaaaaar!"

"So, even in a galaxy, far, far away, bad guys will still uselessly monologue." Taichi joked.
"Yeah, never do that with Kyle Katarn in the room." I snickered.
"No doubt about that. Man, this game is great."
"Hey, you boys probably need to start winding things down, you've got class in the morning." reminded Yuuko who came into the room which caused us both to groan.
"Aw, come on, Mom!"
"No, Taichi, I will not have my son start eighth grade by falling asleep in class." I tapped him on the shoulder.
"Come on, let's just go with it." I told him. He reluctantly agreed and we both went to his room where we were going to be sleeping tonight.

As we walked into the room, we could see Hikari sitting Taichi's desk, looking out to the stars through the screen door and holding her Digivice.
"Feeling sentimental?" Taichi asked. Hikari quickly looked at us before she put her Digivice on her desk.
"Uh, yeah." She admitted.
"Not a day goes by that I don't miss them." I informed.
"I only wish we had gotten to spend more time with them."
"Well, we didn't have a choice. You remember what Gennai said, we stayed, the Digital World would've seen us a threat and try to delete us." Taichi remembered.
"Yeah, talk about being grateful." I muttered as I crawled onto the futon on the floor while they climbed into the double bunk bed which normally Taichi and I shared for the past few months but Hikari wanted to sleep with us for tonight. Drew, who was sitting in the corner, walked over to me when I patted the floor. Drew was slowly starting to get up there in age, but he was still going, as opposed to Miko, who sadly passed away a few months ago.
"I hope I don't sound crazy, but I kinda miss our adventures." Hikari told us.
"No, I know what you mean, Hikari. I feel like when we said goodbye, we had to say goodbye to something that made us unique." Taichi responded.
"Look, we're all clearly tired, let's all get some sleep. We've all got class in the morning. Night." I said as I turned out the lights.
"Night." "Good night." They aren't wrong though. I really do miss our adventures and being some sort of hero, even if I didn't feel like it. God help me, I missed it, and really wanted to do it again. I know crazy, right? I really would like something to happen again just to break the monotony of a normal life. But, you know what they say, 'Be careful what you wish for'.

Yagami Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. April 8th, 2002. 0640 Hours.

"I swear, every time I put this jacket on, I feel like I've won the Masters." I joked as both Taichi and I were getting ready for class. Since going to Odaiba Middle School, we had to wear the standard school uniforms. They were a white buttoned long sleeve shirt with a green blazer jacket, grey pants, and white socks. At least we were allowed to choose our shoes, of which I had a pair of red and black sneakers, while Taichi had some white and blue sneakers.
"Yeah, well, it's one more year of this before the dress code gets really strict in high school." Taichi reminded.
"You know, if we were back in the States, we wouldn't have to deal with this. We'd get to wear what we want, to a reasonable sense of course." Taichi nodded.
"Still can't believe we're starting another grade, where did the time go?"
"It was so much simpler back then." I smiled.

"You guys ready yet?" Hikari said from the other side of the door before she opened it. Hikari today was starting the fifth grade but since she was still going to Odaiba Elementary, she didn't need to have a school uniform. She was wearing a white short-sleeve shirt and a pair light red pants that matched her sneakers. She also had a digital camera hanging around her neck as a replacement to her whistle which she had left with Tailmon. Last, she had recently been experimenting with red hairclip in her hair which now pulled her bangs to the left.
"Just a minute." Taichi explained as he finished tying up his sneakers.
"You guys better hurry, don't you guys have to start class at 7:30?"
"We do, meanwhile, you get an extra 15 minutes. Lucky." I said. Hikari chuckled.
"Come on, Mom made us a big breakfast, and if you don't hurry, Drew might jump on the table and steal it." As soon as she said that, Taichi and I sprinted for the living room, as Drew had been known to do that.

"Bye, Mom!" "Bye, Yuuko-san!" The three of us shouted as we headed out the door after finishing breakfast and gathering our school supplies. We headed down the stairs and towards the street intersection where we were being waited by a familiar face.
"Hey, Takeo." I waved as we walked up to him. He was wearing the same uniform as Taichi and myself and while the two of us still had the same hairstyle as we did three years ago, his had changed. His black hair had gone from short but messy to a now more clean style, somewhat similar to my own.
"What kept ya?" He asked.
"Big breakfast. We don't have to fight for our food as opposed to you and your three older brothers." I teased. He laughed.
"Got that right, it's a mad house!" He claimed as we begun to cross the street. After walking a few blocks, we parted ways with Hikari who went off to Odaiba Elementary while the rest of us went on the middle school.

Odaiba Middle School, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. April 8th, 2002. 0724 Hours.

"What was our homeroom number again?" Taichi asked as we were walking through the crowds of middle school students who were trying to get to their homerooms.
"Ugh!" I got bumped into by a guy who was running fast. "Uh, E-13."
"That's a floor up! Come on, we gotta hurry!" Takeo insisted.
"Yeah, wouldn't look good on us to be late to our first class!" Taichi cried as we all ran for the stairs. We finally got to the room and on the teacher's desk was sheets of papers that signified what our class schedule were for us. I looked around the room and aside from some faces that I recognized throughout the years; the only real friendly face was Mimi's. Mimi's uniform was the same as all the other girls, a green and white sailor uniform with a blue neckerchief, white stockings and red shoes. Since she no longer had her hat, she was now wearing her hair out with a ponytail in the back tied up with a red bow. Both Taichi and Takeo took the two empty seats near the back which left me with a few options. Thankfully, there was an empty desk right next to Mimi and I took it. We both smiled at each other before the teacher walked in, preventing us from talking.

"Good morning." He began. "For some of you returning, welcome back. For those of you who are joining us, let me be the first to say 'Welcome to Odaiba Middle School'. I'll be your homeroom teacher for this school year. As I can see, you've all gathered your respective schedules so be sure to follow them…" He soon began to drone on before going to our first lesson. Once again, it seemed like it was just going to be yet another normal school year.

However, a few hours from now, was going to be anything but ordinary…

Ain't that the truth, huh?

Anyways, it's real good to be back and writing this once more. I'm going to enjoy this just as much as last time.

Don't worry about the next chapter. You get the gift of two today! See you on the next one.

"Push the button, Frank."