Among the many developments made, a device capable of teleportation was quickly becoming a widespread proposal.

 

To make this extraordinary vision a reality, unified countries called forward their best thinkers.

 

Nothing like this project had ever been attempted before. Bracing for the unknown, a team of specialists were given a designated testing site; an uninhabited chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Once settled, the determined team started their work.

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★

 

Through years of trial and error, numerous prototypes and relapsing episodes of discouragement, the very first teleporter was introduced in 1986. It resembled two large arches; one for entering and one for exiting. To call it a ‘success’, was a bit of a stretch. When a rubber ball was rolled through, it failed to come out of the corresponding portal. The experts were completely baffled, the ball had to have gone someplace, but where?

 

Weary from this setback, the crew hung their coats for the day, but before the last colleague shut off the power supply, something remarkable happened. Not only did the ball appear, but so did a small monster who was very excited to play!

 

The monster called itself a Digimon, and there were more and more coming through the portal by the minute! What a discovery; this wasn’t a teleporter, but a door to an alternate universe. Somehow this invention bypassed a barrier that separated the real and Digital World. Now, humans and Digimon were able to move freely between the two dimensions.

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★

 

Although it wasn’t what their machine was intended to do, the research team felt overjoyed. They phoned their findings to their respective governments, hoping to hear praise on the other line; but instead, there was fear. Was the project to be abandoned? World leaders discussed at length before coming to a conclusion:

 

move forward, expand the horizon, but do so only in secrecy

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This ultimatum didn’t stop the portal from being overpowered by chaotic Digimon, some of whom were making their way to different parts of the world and wreaking havoc. Soon enough, keeping these strange creatures from the public eye was becoming increasingly difficult.

 

Couldn’t the good monsters fight off the bad? Yes, and no. On their own, the little guys were quite strong, but not enough to bring down some of the more high-powered, dangerous Digimon. But with a human companion by their side, a Digimon could form a bond, learn, and grow. This, in turn, would lead to Digivolution. As it stood, there weren’t enough people living near the portal to pair up with to stop the trouble at its source.

 

★

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After an unruly world meeting, the decision was made to recruit others to the main island. For that, entrusted government workers and prominent individuals within the scientific and tech community were all carefully screened. This volunteer program promised a much better way of life; countless job opportunities, fantastic recreation, free healthcare, and a place to start anew. From there on, the group of islands had an official name; the 'Horizon Archipelago'.

 

Later in the year, people started arriving by ships and planes. They were given assistance to help them adapt to their new environment; By the end of 1986, the offer of a Digimon egg and a digital device was given to every household. With humans there, the island flourished. Charming communities sprung up all over, and the heart of the island, Digimon City, would soon rival cultural hubs like New York and other major metropolitan areas. For years, humans and Digimon worked closely with one another to create a peaceful utopia and any threat that came through the portal was handled in no time.

 

However, on New Year's Eve of 1999, everything changed

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★

 

Once the clock struck midnight, the notorious Y2K glitch crashed the gateway to the Digital World, causing the unstable boundary to grow. This ripped a hole in the wall that separated both worlds, resulting in one dimension partially overlapping the other. Because of this, the island no longer conformed solely to one reality and was locked in a time stasis.

 

Alarms from every car and building pierced the city and running monorail systems stopped dead in their tracks. Computers went haywire, and displayed the incorrect date of January 1st, 1990. However, all the electronic chaos was the least of the island’s worries. Corrupt Digimon started to materialize left and right; decimating towns, ransacking villages, and setting Digimon City mercilessly aflame.

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★

 

Some citizens were able to flee by sea or air, but many met an untimely end. Of the surviving humans, a few were able to biomerge with their Digimon and activate a safe mode to stop the rest of the world from merging with its Digital counterpart. 

 

Due to the glitch, restoration of the two-world barrier was botched, and instead a wall was erected around Digimon City itself, allowing them to keep out the barbarous invaders. Peace had been reclaimed, but the rest of the island was now a hazard zone. The outermost perimeters, were enclosed by an enigmatic, thick fog. This made it impossible for rescue squads to navigate through, and when a ship or plane tried, they were rerouted elsewhere.

 

Help would have to come by other means. But how? 

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★

 

The only way to step foot on the Horizon Archipelago was by something that the testing crew had failed to accomplish—teleportation

 

With that in mind, a duo of desperate researchers that had fled the New Years disaster got to work. They compiled their old notes with the objective of recreating their invention, but with altered calculations.

 

Like their preceding invention, this took some time; nearly two decades worth of assembling, testing, working through kinks and rerouting when hit with roadblocks. Finally, teleportation had been achieved by 2015, but it looked nothing like a gateway, or even a platform. Instead, it took the form of a small chip, and that chip was placed into a device that resembled a Tamagotchi; a D-Vice. These were similar to the ones they had on the island that allowed for Digivolution.

 

Hundreds of thousands of these D-Vices were then sent out to people by New Year’s. This was a recurring time when the teleportation pull was at its strongest, and the islands were most at risk of being completely overtaken by the Digital World.

 

Once teleported to the island these new tamers, alongside the lost tamers, will fight to repair the boundary between the Digital World and the island; a place that time has long left behind.