PROLOGUE

The digital world, a world that exists along side our own. It is said that this world came into being when the first computers, Atanasoff and ENIAC were activated in the 1940s. Within this world were also created life forms known as digital monsters, or Digimon. Many of the Digimon that populated the digital world were kind, but there were also many that were evil. Some of these evil Digimon were so powerful that they threatened the existence of both worlds. To combat this evil, fate chose eight human children to be partnered with eight powerful Digimon. The emotions of these children allowed the Digimon to evolve into a powerful force, and together they defeated the evil Digimon that threatened both worlds. However, there was one evil Digimon that the eight DigiDestined could not defeat on their own. One day, a mechanical dragon Digimon called Machinedramon, which was mortally wounded, encountered a Digimon that was made of parts from other Digimon called Kimeramon, which was also mortally wounded and on the brink of death. For perhaps no other reason than for survival, the two dying Digimon merged into one, creating an insanely powerful Digimon called Millenniummon. Millenniummon's power was so great, that he was able to distort time itself, and he used this power to resurrect other evil Digimon that the DigiDestined had already destroyed. Millenniummon's powers were so great that the DigiDestined needed help to defeat him. So fate chose another child to aid them.

On a cold December night, a young boy named Ryo Akiyama was whisked away from the safety of his home to the digital world. There, Ryo joined forces with the DigiDestined's Digimon partners and other allied Digimon and defeated Millenniummon, but that would not be the last Ryo would see of the evil Digimon. Months later, Millenniummon returned and used his powers to distort the digital world, and Ryo was once again called in to fight him. That time though, Ryo had help from a new DigiDestined child, a young boy named Ken Ichijouji, and his Digimon partner, Wormmon. Together they destroyed Millenniummon, but when Millenniummon's body exploded, it left a dark spore in the back of Ken's neck, causing Ken to become sick. Ryo and Wormmon tended to Ken for weeks until he was well enough to return to the human world. Weeks later, Ryo was chosen to participate in a special tournament being held by one of the four Holy Beasts, the Digimon guardians of the digital world. The Holy Beast told Ryo and the other contestants that his three counterparts had turned evil, and were plotting to destroy him. The tournament was being held so that the Holy Beast could find the strongest of the DigiDestined children to join forces with him against the other three Holy Beasts. Ryo won the tournament, even defeating the original DigiDestined children, but as it turned out, the tournament and the reason behind it were a rouse. The real purpose of the tournament was to train Ryo to become strong enough to fight Millenniummon once again, who had survived the last battle and evolved into the spectral Moon=Millenniummon. At the end of the battle on Moon=Millenniummon's floating castle, Ryo was triumphant, but Moon=Millenniummon survived and blew up the castle with himself and Ryo still inside. Afterwards there was a search for Ryo, but in the end everyone assumed that Ryo had died. Everyone except Ken, who still had hope that Ryo was alive.