Chapter 2

Later that day the group was walking through the woods with Trace leading the way.

"Are you sure you know where you're going," Toni asked.

"Of course," Trace replied.

The group then came upon yet another fork in the road. "Are you sure?" David Asked.

"Positive," Trace said in upmost confidence. "Now, let's see. The digivice says the closest destined is several miles ahead of us. If that's so, then if we keep following we should come across any villages that they've passed through."

David and Toni gave each other a worried look. "Ok," they replied.

"According to my digivice we need to go left." Trace continued.

So the group took a left. An hour or so later they sat down to catch their breath. The trail that they had been going on had come to a dead end.

"Man, I don't remember ever doing so much walking," David complained as he tried to rub the soreness out of his feet.

"Are you sure we're going the right way, Trace?" Toni asked.

"I'm just following the digivice," he replied.

The group gave one big sigh. Trace, who was sitting on the opposite side across from David and Toni, looked up and saw smoke rising in the sky. From the look of things it was not too far. However, there was no trail that lead to the smoke.

"Hey, I see smoke coming from over there," Trace stated, pointing in the direction of the smoke.

"There's no trail that goes that way. We're gonna have to cut through the trees to get there," David observed.

Minutes later the group was cutting through the trees, this time with a little more enthusiasm than before and finally came upon a village. They had about ten houses that were lined in a circle. In the middle of all the houses stood two dark figures.

"Okay," Trace said. "Is everyone ready?

Moments later the group walked down to the village. As they came closer Toni checked her digivice and said, "There's two digimon here: Shamamon and Gaburimon." All the tamers looked at their digivices and saw who he was talking about. Both digimon looked like ogres, were green (though Gabuimon was a little lighter green), and they carried clubs; the only real difference is that Gaburimon had an orange Mohawk and Shamamon had a yellow one.

The group cautiously approached the two ogres from behind. "Umm…hi," Toni said in with a shaky voice. The two ogres jumped and held out their clubs to the group.

"Who…you?" asked Gaburimon.

"Um…my name is Trace."

"And I'm David."

"Uh…I'm Toni."

The two ogres looked at each other for a second, then Shamamon asked, "What be your business?"

The tamers and their digimon all looked at each other and gave a group, "Uhhhh…."

The ogres took a step forward. David sighed, and then also took a step forward. "We're here to stop the evil tamers that have been roaming around the Digital World."

The ogres simultaneously scratched their heads. Then they took yet another step forward. "Well that be a problem," Gaburimon said.

"Why's that?" Toni asked.

"Because we be servants of the Dark lord."

All the tamers and their digimon gave each other a worried look. Both the ogres jumped at the group. Trace, whose reflexes had always been slow, was hit and went crashing into Kunemon. David managed to duck under the swing and rolled back.

"Spirit Fusion!" David and Toni yelled simultaneously. A light enveloped them both, and there stood the fusion of Chad and Toni on one side and David and Terriermon on the other.

Both the ogres took a swing; Shamamon swung at David and Gaburimon swung at Toni.

"Bunny-Blaster!" David yelled. Shamamon dodged the attack just in time and attacked. David managed to block it, but ended up flying into the tree next to Trace.

Meanwhile, Gaburimon started swinging savagely at Toni, who parried the first hit and ended up loosing her shield on the second. She stabbed at him with her spear but missed.

"David!" Terriermon yelled inside of David's head.

"What is it?"

"David, these guys are too strong. We need to digivolve."

"How do we do that?"

"Just say Digital Evolution!"

David, who was slowly getting up, did as Terriermon said. "Digital Evolution!" A light enveloped David, and when it was gone there stood a tall figure that looked similar to Terriermon's ultimate form, Rapidmon, but with a cannon for its right hand and a green, plasma-like sword in the other.

Gaburimon looked back and stopped swinging at Toni. "I help you." He said to Shamamon.

"Me no need help! Just stay out of way!" And Shamamon jumped up in the air, his club arched back for a powerful swing. While he was still in mid-air David jumped up and slashed Shamamon just before he could swing. As Gaburimon was still focused on David, Toni took the opportunity and stabbed Gaburimon.

Toni and David de-fused with their digimon. As they looked over to Trace they saw that he was still unconscious, a trickle of blood seaming down the left side of his face. Kunemon sat next to him, a look of concern in his eyes.

Toni ran over and asked, "Is he going to be okay?"

Kunemon took a deep sigh and answered, "I've scanned over his body. It looks like he'll be okay soon enough. He managed to block with his arm, but was still hit in the head because of the brute force. He's got a broken arm and was knocked unconscious, but he'll be okay."

"Is there anything we can do," David asked as he approached the scene.

"No, I can use my energy to heal him," Kunemon replied. "He should be back on his feet by the end of the night."

It was the next morning before Trace woke up. As he opened his eyes he saw a fire several feet away from him. David was roasting what looked to be a marshmallow with Terriermon by his side. As David passed a marshmallow to Terriermon he looked over and saw Trace.

"How's it going?" David asked.

Trace grumbled. "I've felt better." As he looked around him he saw that Kunemon was by his side, but Chad and Toni weren't there. "Hey, where's Toni?"

David kept moving the marshmallow around the flames. "Chad and Toni are checking out the village to see if there's any water around."

Trace nodded and stared at the ground in front of him. "How long was I knocked out for?"

"A full night," Kunemon replied. "Lucky for you I could use my energy to heal your arm. If your reflexes were any worse you might have been knocked out of the Digital World and woken up with a major headache."

Trace smiled. "Thanks Kunemon."

"That's what a digital partner is for." Kunemon said.

There was a rustling in the brush behind them. Chad and Toni stepped put with several water bottles in their hands. Toni dropped the bottles and ran over to Trace to give him a big hug. Chad stayed in place and mumbled a few curses under his breath.

"You're okay," she said with a tear in her eye.

"Thankfully," Trace replied.

David walked over to them and said, "The village we went to didn't have any other digimon around, so we need to get moving on to the next one."

A worried look crossed Toni's face. "I don't know. We didn't do so well last time."

The group stood in silence for a second. "Well, I think we can still do this," stated Trace in a confident voice. "I mean, my reflexes aren't so good, but whenever I fuse with Kunemon I'm much faster and stronger than I normally am." David and Toni nodded. They knew that this was true when they were fused with their digimon partners.

There was another pause before David said, "Okay then. Let's get a move on and hope that we don't get caught off-guard again."

Two hours later the group was walking in the forest again. Trace, who was leading the group, suddenly stopped.

"Are we almost there," asked David.

Trace looked at his digivice once again. "Yes, we should be close now."

They continued walking for a few more minutes before they could see a village up ahead. The trail that they were on wasn't very big, but they could still tell that it was much larger then the last village they were at. As they got closer they saw that it was really more of a small town. There were restaurants, jails, and of instead of huts there were actual houses. The group took a big sigh of relief as they saw that there were many digimon wandering around, which should mean that the tamers probably hadn't been there yet.

Trace looked around at the digimon. I wonder if we can get any information on the tamers. It would be good to know what were going up against after all.

Trace turned to Toni and David, who were both standing to his right. "I'm going to go and see if I can get any information on the other tamers. I should be back shortly."

"I'm coming too," replied Toni.

"Same here," David chimed in.

"Okay then. Let's go," Trace said as he started walking towards the city. Everyone else followed.

As the group approached the city no digimon seemed to notice them. Trace looked around for someone to ask about the other tamers, and ended up deciding to ask what looked like the sheriff of the city, Starmon.

"Other digi-destined?" The Starmon asked. "Why, I do believe that there is word of another group of them roaming around right now."

"Do you happen to know where they are right now?" Trace asked.

"No, not a clue. Haven't seen any of them in a long while."

Trace's blood suddenly turned cold. "You mean they've been through here?"

"Yes, but it's been a few months I do believe." The Starmon looked Trace over and seemed to be considering something for a second. "Did you guys get separated or something?"

Trace froze in his place and could only gap at his new realization: this town must be full of servants. Toni, seeing that the urgency of the situation quickly replied, "Yeah, they sent us to check out the city and see that it's been kept in order."

The Starmon just stared for another moment or two. "Yes…of course."

Trace and David gave a big sigh of relief.

The Starmon's attitude suddenly changed to cheery as he said, "Of course. Digi-destined are always welcomed to come to our small city. Please, let us feed you guys; and after that feel free to stay the night. It's all for free. "

The tamers all gave each other a worried look. Trace looked like he was about to turn Starmon down, so David quickly replied, "We accept your generous offer."

The Starmon bowed. "Only the best for our digi-destined."

Hours later the group was well fed, washed-up, and preparing to go to sleep. Toni came out of the bathroom, rubbing her eyes and slowly making her way to her bed.

Trace, who was sitting Indian-style on his bed, said, "Guys, I'm worried."

David nodded his head. "I agree. Something's not right. It didn't seem like Starmon really believe that we were with the first group."

"Well, what can we do," chimed in Toni as she slumped onto her bed.

Trace nodded. "I don't know, but I'm worried. If the city had been taking over by the other digi-destined then we could be in big trouble."

The group sat in silence for a second, and then David said, "We agreed to take back any city that is under the control of the other digi-destined. However, we're not even sure that it really has been taken over; not to mention the fact that we could be heavily out-numbered."

"I know," Trace agreed. "I think that it might be a good idea to get out of here and rethink what we're doing."

"I agree with Trace," Toni said.

David shook his head. "No, it wouldn't make sense to run; especially if we're not even positive that these guys are under their control or not. We need to stay and figure out what's going on before we can make any decision."

Kunemon sighed. "David might be right. We need to know for sure what's going on. The only question is how."

Trace rubbed his eyes and yawned. "I don't know. I'm too tired to think. Maybe we should stay the night and figure it out in the morning." David and Toni nodded at this; they all wanted to get some sleep.

Later that night, while everyone was deep in sleep, Starmon was making his way up the stairs to their hotel room with a dark, cloaked figure following closely behind.

Starmon slowly crept up to their room from the staircase and pointed to the door . "There," he whispered.

The hooded figure continued his way up to the door and took the key that Starmon was holding out in his hand. "Thank you, Starmon. You've been a big help. Round up the guards and meet outside the hotel."

Starmon nodded and disappeared from sight. The hooded figure took the key and started to open the door. It's time to figure out just who these new digi-destined are.