A/N: Hope the wait wasn't too long. This will likely be a monthly thing. Age rating will probably go up.

Chapter 2

Tai in no time, reached Mimi first who was crouching with her head held down. "Hey Mimi, what's wrong?" A giant bug suddenly swooped to their level and Tai's head was saved by Matt who tackled him to the ground in time. The bug had a pair of sharp pincers on its head which sliced through the trees behind them. "Oh no, the guys." shouted Tai.

Joe wasn't able to keep his pace for long because of all the running he did. The rest of the group caught up with him as he stumbled along breathing heavily like a dog. "Izzy… you might have to carry me." He said with a barely audible voice. Izzy, for various reasons didn't want to carry the older boy. Firstly, he was carrying a laptop, and secondly, he wasn't the fittest person in the group. "I don't think I possess the strength. Maybe Sora can carry you." The girl walking behind narrowed her eyes and glared at the boys. "What kind of a leader are you!?" She continued her pace. "Please… otherwise I'd slow you all down." The tall, bespectacled pleaded. The girl exhaled strongly enough for him to hear and said "Fine." as she quickened her pace and to get up to Joe. "Thanks..." The boy replied but shortly realised that she was walking past him. "Hey where're you going?" The taller boy also quickened his pace to catch up without himself realising. "I can't walk anymore... hey!" Izzy from behind shrugged to himself and matched their speed. Behind him, TK and Kari were also keeping up with them.

Only TK had been noticing that Kari was covering her ears in distress and he finally gathered enough courage to speak for her. "Where's that sound coming from?" He said it loudly enough to make the children ahead stopped in their tracks. He hoped that they would do something about the buzzing noise so it would disappear. "Whatever it is, I think it's coming this way." Izzy guessed judging from the sound of the rustling trees in addition to the buzzing and the bit of wind he felt lightly blowing to his face. Gradually the sound got louder and the air was hitting his face more strongly as if the subway train was coming.

"Everybody get down!" Sora shouted as she dived into Joe to the ground. The three other members dived down in time before a giant bug swooped over their heads, slicing the leaves, twigs, and branches that was surrounding them.

"Sora!" A familiar male voice shouted. "Tai!" She shouted back. Sora and Joe ran up to join with Tai, Matt, and Mimi.

The other three members were making their way to the group but then they had to stop and duck down when the bug tried to slice them on its return journey.

Tai and co scrambled in all directions when the bug was about to reach them. Branches, twigs, and leaves were falling like rain. Just after he recovered his bearings, he was anxious to find that Sora's arm was bruised. The skin of her right arm was scraped and bleeding, probably caused by a falling branch. Tai helped her back up and wrapped his arm around her to shield the scrape.

"We should split up!" Matt shouted as he ran towards TK, intending to carry him out of the danger.

"No, follow me!" Tai shouted as he, Sora and their Digimon ran to an opening he spotted. Confused, Joe and Mimi stood on their spot looking back and forth between Tai and Matt. Then, like before they felt the buzzing getting louder and the wind getting more intense and without any further hesitation, they picked Tai's direction. Their Digimon also tagged along.

A slightly disgruntled Matt ignored the suggestion and took TK by the hand to hide behind the bushes. "You too!" The older blond said as he grabbed Kari's hand. Izzy followed them since they were closer in proximity.

The bug known as Kuwagamon according to one of the kid's Digimon stopped for a moment to decide which group to pursue. Without any visible reason, the bug Digimon picked to follow Joe. "Oh god why me!?" He screamed, while Mimi was ahead trying to create a bigger distance between them. Then suddenly, they had to stop. "No.. this isn't happening!" He gasped when he came to the edge of a cliff. Below them was a long stretch of river covering the sharp rocks that were its road.

Legs shivering and lips quivering, Mimi was on the verge of tears which then suddenly burst into loud tears. "Waaah this is not fair!" She cried whilst holding onto Joe tightly. It appeared the crying got to him and he let off some emotions while hugging the girl back. "I got so much to do and people who dpeend on me- I can't die yet!" He cried.

Tai and Sora wanted to alleviate their anxiety but they couldn't come up with anything. They were at the point of a cliff, and now Kuwagamon blocked their only escape… well not only. "I guess this is the end." Sora said, as she turned her head towards the cheek of the boy who had been shielding her arm. In her last moment, she was considering doing something that she wouldn't do under normal circumstances but then Tai pointed towards their Digimon. "Look! Something's happening!"

Sora turned her head back to the front and saw four little Digimon guarding the children.

Koromon, Yokomon, Bukamon, and Tanemon stood in front of the kids. They were barely as tall as the kids' shins. "No! You'll be killed" Joe exclaimed. "Come back Tanemon" Pleaded the crying girl next to him. Kuwagamon slowly inched closer with its feet. Each of the bug's step caused a bit of tremor which made the kids wonder whether they would be eaten or fall first.

Sora was about to call her Digimon but then she noticed Tai holding his chest in slight discomfort. "W-what's wrong?"

The boy exhaled. "I feel something.. surging in me..." He said. Sora wanted to place her hand to his chest to check on it but then she also felt something in her chest. Before long, both of the kid's device they found on the day before glowed. "What's happening?" Joe enquired.

The Digimon in front of them were glowing too and then…

"Koromon digivolve to… Agumon!"

Similarly Yokomon transformed too.

"Yokomon digivolve to… Biyomon!"

For a moment the kids stood in awe of the two Digimon who grew taller, and probably stronger too. But they were still not convinced of their fighting capabilities as Kuwagamon is still much bigger than them.

As the bug inched closer to them, the two little Digimon began their offense.

"Pepper Breath!"

"Spiral Twister!"

Flames of red and green flew at the face of the bug and it hurt him. The bug yelped. Despite the increased firepower the kids had witnessed, they still didn't believe they had enough power to win.

Nevertheless the two Digimon wouldn't go down without a fight and they both fired again. But this time, Kuwagamon levitated off its spot and pulled its pincers wide for an attack.

"Power Guillotine!"

The bug charged down at Agumon and Biyomon with the sharp, pointy end of of its pincers positioned at the front. Agumon and Biyomon were lucky to jump away in time but the pincers managed to pierce through the rock and then the ledge broke off with everyone on it falling, except the bug.

Butterflies were flying inside Joe's stomach. He had always hated this feeling. It's for this reason he never liked going to fairgrounds and amusement parks. His thoughts at first was tuned to the sickly feeling in his stomach. But the distance between the height of the cliff and the river was so great, he was given enough time to adjust to the discomfort and think of something else.

It's my responsibility to protect them. He thought to himself as his arms were flapping about. He could see Tai and Sora were further down, closer to the water below and Mimi was almost next to him. Maybe I can at least save one of them. He was thinking of reaching to grab Mimi's arm and then perhaps use his body to pad her fall but the sudden glow of his device interrupted his plan.

Bukamon felt a surge of energy going through its body and then…

"Bukamon digivolve to… Gomamon!"

The four screaming kids eventually landed on a soft raft made of fishes. They thought for sure they were going to die but after a few moments of lying on the fishes, staring at the blue sky and breathing heavily, they realise they can still move their bodies. They all got up, confused. "I can command fishes to do whatever I want them to." Explained the newly evolved Gomamon. "Oh.." Joe responded while being half-dazed. And then he came to his senses. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!.." Joe happily thanked the Digimon as he was rubbing his face against the creature.

Kuwagamon, who was still at the cliff witnessed it all and was in no hesitation to pursue the kids below, but annoyingly, several stones repeatedly landed on his head. The bug turned around and saw a blond kid continuing to throw rocks at his head and spewing taunts. The spiky-headed blond had a good aim and each one of the endless stones hit on the monster's face. He was in no shortage of insults too and then he spewed the last one.

"You are a one ugly motherf*****!" He spewed out shortly before he was pulled by Izzy and they ran off as fast as they could.. The two younger kids were already ahead of them. "I think those rocks are enough." Izzy said to Matt and in response, he simply shrugged his shoulders and gave off a sarcastic frown, indicating he don't care.

After what felt like forever, running and turning, they finally lost the giant bug by hiding in a hole covered in branches and leaves. They ran so far away and without any sense of direction they didn't know how to get back to the cliff.

Both parties spent the entire day searching for each other to no avail. After countless attempts to plead to Tai to stop looking for the day, he finally agreed to it. "Don't worry, I'm sure they will take good care of her. We''ll find them once we wake up, full of energy." Sora comforted the boy. The three kids noticed that the boy was getting anxious and withdrawn. "Perhaps, we'll run into some grown-ups tomorrow, and then they can call the police if we can't find them." The bespectacled boy added, but some of them were beginning to think they're not in anywhere near human civilisation. Tai had pretty much subscribed to that conclusion which reinforced his worry for his sister.

In the next morning, Kari was coughing and swaying a bit when she walked. When asked whether she was sick, her reply was a no each time. Finally, she collapsed to the floor. "Kari!" TK and Nyaromon called her name which caught the attention of the two older children at the front. The older blond ran up to the girl and placed his hand over the girl's forehead. "I think she's burning up!" He guessed as he placed his hand over his own forehead to compare the temperatures. "I think Joe might know how to handle this." Izzy said. Matt contemplated what to do next as this sort of thing was out of his comfort zone. "Are you okay?" Matt said softly. The expected "Yeah." was the reply. He didn't know why he wasted his breath asking that but it seemed like the normal thing to do. "I'm going to pick you up, is that okay?" He continued with his softer tone rarely used on strangers. The girl nodded and he got to it. He was careful to observe the body of a girl, and then ultimately, he decided to put any sort of awkwardness in the back of his mind and just carried her to his back like how he carries his younger brother sometimes.

The group which consists of Izzy, Matt, TK, Kari and their Digimon trawled through the seemingly endless forest. Kari tried hard not to cough too much as she didn't want to spread her illness to Matt. After what felt like hours had passed, they finally found a river which could be the same as the one before. They followed along the currents, hoping to meet with the others but the longer the journey dragged on, the more they felt it wasn't the right river.

Suppressed coughs could be heard from the girl, and the occasional loud ones she couldn't hold in burst out here and there. After about the 12th huge coughs of the day, Izzy turned his head towards the little girl to observe the state of her.. She appeared to be fatigued and dozing in and out of sleep. "Matt, maybe we should rest a bit." He suggested. The eldest of the little group looked at Izzy who evidently had Kari in mind when he said that. It caused the older blond to place his hand across the girls' forehead and to his shock, it was much warmer than before!

"She's burning up!" He gasped with much concern. It was rare to find Matt agitated over someone. Perhaps she reminds him of his little brother but mainly, he felt that mistreating her would be like breaking someone's property.

The older blond placed the girl lying down next to the river. He cupped his hand and scooped a bit of river water for her to drink. "Here, have some." She gently sipped the water from his hand. The four little Digimon by their side, gathered some variety of leaves and petals. "Maybe these can help." Suggested Nyaromon who looked like she was on the verge of tears. Izzy observed the colourful leaves and petals with his hands. None of them were familiar looking and they felt like paper. "Are these herbs?" The four Digimon thought for a bit and then shook their heads together. "We don't know what they are but we've seen other Digimon eat something like them as medicine."

Izzy looked at the two other boys who were looking back at him for assertion. "Erm.. we shouldn't risk putting these things in our mouth… we could try soaking up the leaves to put on her head."

The two other boys agreed and picked the biggest leaf to be soaked on water and then placed on the girl's forehead. "Are you feeling a bit better now?" The older blond asked. The girl weakly nodded and closed her eyes.

The three boys sat down, wallowing in their guilt. Each three had their own reason for it…

"I should have checked her from time to time. I had her on my back for chrissake!"

"Hmm… maybe I should think about people more instead of speculating on my curiosities."

"Why wasn't I brave enough to speak for her like I did yesterday?"

To break from the sombre atmosphere, Matt suggested eating. Fortunately TK was carrying a backpack full of snacks so they didn't have to worry about food for tonight at least. They learned to their relief that their Digimon can find their own food rather than eat their snacks.

Staring to the ground with a granola bar in his grasp, Tai appeared to be absorbed in his own thoughts. Thoughts about.. pretty much the same thing he had been thinking about all day. Out of the three, he trusted Izzy the most but he didn't seem the type to be good at caring for children.

He could picture Kari walking off to a dark, gloomy cave while Izzy, with the back of his head towards her, would be typing away on his laptop completely oblivious to his surroundings.

Then there was Matt. He barely knew him...

"I'm… scared..." Kari pleaded which caused Matt to narrow his eyes at her. "So what!?" He shouted as he was towering over and staring down at her with his cold blue eyes. "We all are! Now go away!"

Tai shook his head to stop the thought. If he didn't know much about Matt as a person, it wouldn't be productive to conjure up negative fantasies of him.

And then there was that young boy… TK wasn't it? Too young...

"Hey Kari, let's play by the flowers over there." The little boy suggested excitedly. The two ran over to an opening full of colourful flowers and healthy, green grass. Once they got there, the grass turned grey and dark, hazy figures with red eyes surrounded them. "Oh no… help! Tai! I'm scared!"

Tai shook his head again to stop his imagination from running wild. He could have pictured something more optimistic which would have helped his mood and energy. "Aren't you hungry?" A Agumon asked.

The boy shook his head. "You can have them." He mumbled.

"You know I can't have them..." The dinosaur replied but Tai lifted the granola bar to his friend's mouth. The Digimon understood well he shouldn't eat human food as it could be the only thing they could eat. But he couldn't resist sniffing at it. His instincts tell him it'll taste good. "..Maybe just a nibble..."

Agumon took a small bite at the grain bar... tt was chewy... and sweet. He swiped the whole thing and ate it all. Seeing his Digimon friend enjoying the snack a lot, Tai nudged a pile of crisps, cookies and other things for him to have.

The dinosaur Digimon knew he can't have those... but perhaps one packet of those crisp things won't hurt. He cut the top of the packet easily with his nail and grabbed a crisp out of it. He gave it a few sniffs before putting it in his mouth. Straight away as if he was starving (which he wasn't), he wolfed down all of the contents of the packet, possibly eating a bit of the wrapping too, and then moved on to the other snacks without hesitation. It was so rabid, Tai was taken aback by the ferocity of it but he smiled, knowing he made his friend happy which was something he hadn't done all day.

Joe and the others came back from repeatedly trying to use the several telephone booths which was strangely lining up along the sandy beach. When he saw Agumon eating Tai's allocated food, his heart skipped a beat. "What are you doing!?" He asked the gogglehead with a frown. No matter how angry he felt inside, Joe could never properly exude it and his tone came off as more to disappointment than angry.

Tai looked at him half-apologetically as if he had to exert effort into the expression. Agumon's food-filled stomach now felt like physical manifestations of guilt. He decided to speak for him. "I'm sorry, it was all my fault. I just couldn't resist trying them and as soon I took a bite, I couldn't hold myself."

The eldest and the camp leader, Joe couldn't stay mad when he heard Agumon's voice. These Digimon such as Agumon were like little innocent children who you wouldn't blame for their faults but they posses formidable fighting power that would be useful for this dangerous camping adventure. And luckily for Tai, he was surrounded by empathetic people.

"I'm sure we can find our way back to our home soon." Sora said, while sitting down beside the gogglehead. Her words were a bit soothing but evidently, a bit empty. "Did you get a hold on anyone?" Tai asked and the other three shook their heads. "We keep getting the same voice messages no matter what we dial. If Izzy is right about this place, those might be props for children to play with." The goggle-head sighed towards his feet. By now he was convinced that they're no longer on the same planet as Earth. He had witnessed so many strange things in the past couple of days and there is no way that 20th century special effects can produce all of it.

The ground shook like a small quake and it woke the children and Digimon from their afternoon nap. "What was that?" Sora asked while she rubbed her eye. "It's coming from the sea!" Mimi answered in fear. Before long, the sound of shattering glass from the phone booths could be heard.

A giant, pink turtle-like creature was approaching to the shore. It doesn't quite resemble a turtle fully because it appeared to have hands with five fingers and its mouth is so big, a human child could probably fit in there.

"It's Shellmon!" Biyomon said. "He's a champion level Digimon." If Sora recalled from their conversation this morning, Digimon have several levels of forms. She was told that Kuwagamon was at champion level so this could mean that Shellmon would be as dangerous as that bug Digimon.

"We should run now!" Sora shouted but the four little Digimon by their side walked or hopped towards the monster, ignoring the calls of the children. "It's too dangerous, don't!" Tai shouted to no avail as the four Digimon began their attack.

"Pepper Breath!"

"Spiral Twister!"

"Marching Fishes"

"Err… Bubble Blow!"

Beams of fire, fishes, and pink bubbles were heading towards Shellmon. The turtle-like Digimon didn't move at all and he let those attacks hit him. The orange flames did nothing to his soaked skin; the green flames spiralled in and likewise did nothing; the stream of fishes that followed felt like they were gently slapping his cheeks; and those bubbles helped wash off the fishy smell on him.

"RRRRAAAAWWWWRRR" The turtle Digimon's threatening roar made Mimi and Sora clutch on each other. It was so loud the sound wave managed to knock Tanemon a few steps back, falling unconscious in the process. The three Digimon at the front was visibly shaken by the intimidating sound and huge presence of the Digimon. Sensing fear and hesitation within the team, Agumon felt the urge to motivate them. "C'mon let's give it our all. We're not going down without a fight!" The worse made the other two Digimon snap out of their fear and their face became determined again.

The three were about to fire their projectile attacks again but Shellmon beat them to it.

"Aqua Blaster!"

A strong beam of water shot out of the mouth of the monster and shoved the three little Digimon back towards a tree behind the children. Just the sight of the powerful water beam was enough for each of the children to call their respective partners while running up to them. Agumon, Biyomon, and Gomamon appeared to be hanging on to consciousness barely and in no condition to fight. "We should run away. There's no way we can win." The children agree with Joe but his words got Agumon fired up inside and he stood up and looked as though he was going to continue the fight. "What good am I if I can't beat anyone? I was born to fight."

"W-What!?" Tai murmured as Agumon wobbled about before regaining his balance and plunged himself towards Shellmon with his right claw in position to slash that monster. "Agumon no!" Tai called but it was ignored. As soon as his claw made contact with the skin of the monster, he found out that it didn't do any harm to it. This monster was simply out of his league. Shellmon roared out of irritation and knocked the little dinosaur Digimon out of the way with his head. Agumon was surely in no condition to continue this time, and even if he was, he simply didn't have enough fighting abilities to defeat the monster.

Tai ran up to him despite being dangerously closer to Shellmon. The others called to him but he ignored them like his Digimon did. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." Agumon replied weakly while pulling a smile. "…We should run away." The boy said softly to his Digimon, not entirely sure he felt like doing what Joe said. Agumon shook his head. "Tai… there are lots of Digimon like him in this world. We have to learn to beat them someday."

A train of thoughts came flashing before the boy's eyes.

There was one time when he said something similar to his soccer mates during half time. The score was 2-0 to the Osaka team. Their head-to-head against them hadn't been great lately and the Odaiba team were losing morale. "We're gonna get beat again." Said one of their midfielder, Hiroshi. The others nodded in agreement and to Tai's sadness, Sora was sitting quietly at a bench with her head in her palms. It was a friendly match. But this match held importance. It was a test of all the practice and commitment the teams had done in the past months and sadly for Odaiba, it was going to amount to nothing.

"What's the use of practising? We're never gonna beat them!"

"Yeah, I'd rather stay at home and play games all day than practise for this."

"I'm just gonna walk around from now on. We lost already so there's no point in wasting more energy."

The last statement by one of his team mate ticked Tai off and out of anger, he couldn't help but say a thing or two about it.

"C'mon guys. Can we really say we tried our best? I don't want to go home thinking what if we played like we did in practise. Just this morning, you said we're gonna win the cup! What happened to that? We have to learn to beat them eventually..."

About 5 or 6 of the team were inspired by Tai's outburst and they performed better during the second half. They managed to score their first goal and then when Tai scored the team's second goal, all 11 of the team lit up in the last few minutes and they managed to slip in their third goal.

Since then Tai believed that a little more faith can make the difference and although dangerous, it felt like the right thing to do. He nodded to Agumon and encouraged him. "We'll find a way to beat him."

Agumon blinked his eyes and lightly grinned. "Do you…. do you really think so Tai?" The boy chuckled inside. The Digimon is like him in many ways. He gave assurance by nodding to him and the Digimon appeared to have regained the strength to stand up.

The Digimon seemed to have more than enough strength to stand up actually. Agumon was quick in making his way towards the head of Shellmon. The turtle Digimon opened his jaw, and a large beam of water shot out of it but it failed to land a hit on Agumon as he was quick enough to dodge it while skipping nimbly ahead.

Once he got to the head, he made a good slash with his sharp nails. It was a good hit and this time, the monster felt it and was visibly angrier. Unfortunately it was nowhere near enough to beat the monster and the turtle Digimon simply flicked his head again to knock Agumon down to the sand.

Wanting to finish this once and for all, Shellmon lowered his head closer Agumon with his mouth wide open and within seconds, he caught the little dinosaur Digimon in between his teeth.

"OOOWWWWW!" Agumon was wailing in immense pain and blood was leaking out of the grips of the teeth. The monster didn't let go but waved his head about, shaking the trapped Agumon. The pain wouldn't stop and gradually, Agumon stopped wailing and began to lose his consciousness.

What have I done? Tai thought to himself. Doubt and regret filled his mind. It felt as though a needle had pushed through his heart for sending someone to die.

The goggle-headed boy had to do something and without thinking, he desperately ran up to the huge Digimon and repeatedly kicked him in the hands while shouting at it to let his friend go. Shellmon did that... and then he lowered his head closer to Tai with his mouth opened.

Determination turned to fear as Tai couldn't move his legs for a moment and when he finally could, it was too late. Shellmon enclosed the boy's entire body into his mouth. Luckily none of Tai's body parts got caught in between the teeth but now he had to worry about slipping into the throat.

The tongue was curled and tilted upwards to nudge the boy into the wet and immensely stinky hole. The stench in the mouth was bad enough but Tai had no time to worry about that and appropiately, he focussed on rolling out of the way and slip himself under the tongue.

Outside, the monster appeared to be agitated as his food was stuck underneath his tongue. The other three Digimon finally regained their strength to help and they each got up and fired their projectile attacks.

Annoyed that he couldn't swallow his food, the monster spat out the boy and opted to crush him instead. The three active Digimon were hoping that their repeated attacks could distract the monster away from the human boy but the monster acted as though the attacks didn't hit him at all. The boy didn't have enough time to move out of the way and he was quickly being grabbed and squeezed by the hand of the monster. Tai's tense expresion was showing a lot of pain and Agumon could witness it. He tried and tried with all his will to move a single muscle but none of them bulged. all he could do was watch his human partner being squeezed and squished to death.

This monster obviously had way more strength than everyone on this beach combined, and Tai knew he could do nothing about it but it didn't stop him from wiggling and jerking about. It was hopeless from where the other kids were standing but Tai still believed he could get out of it. He had to… otherwise his sister would have been left alone…

Suddenly a bright glow emitted from a device on his waist. The same device that glowed and made Agumon evolve yesterday was glowing again. And likewise Agumon was glowing too. Strength and energy was returning to the little dinosaur Digimon and then he grew in size.

"Agumon digivolve to… Greymon!"

A bigger, more muscular dinosaur creature stood in Agumon's place. He was upright and stood taller than the turtle Digimon. Based on appearance, this new Digimon could probably match Shellmon in strength and the sight of it made Shellmon dropped his object without knowing he did so. It was a challenge the turtle Digimon instinctively accepted and both creatures stood on their spots staring at each other moments before their fight begins.