Kyle yawned as he looked up at his school. He'd asked his mom to get him up early today so he could talk to Lauren, and straighten things out with his. He sighed. ...which would have been a good idea, except that I forgot and stayed up too late... on the plus side, I got to see a zombie movie... He yawned again. Of course, now I feel like a zombie... mmmm... brains... He chuckled slightly, then looked around quickly. Great, Kyle. Real cool.

He sighed, and walked up the steps and into the school. He looked around, and gulped. I don't know any of these people... come to think of it, I don't really know most of the people here...

He shrugged, and walked down the hall, and turned left to see if Lauren was here yet. No such luck. Of course... He looked back down the hallway, then did a double take. wait... is that... Kirsten? He watched as Kirsten slipped into their first period classroom. Okay... odd...

He shrugged, and leaned against the locker next to Lauren's. Oh well... guess I'll just wait here...

Kyle yawned again. "School sure makes you sleepy..." he murmured, before his eyes fluttered shut.

Kyle felt something tap his shoulder. He shrugged it off, and tried to get back to sleep. It's pretty noisy... what's going on? He cracked open his eyes, and jumped. Another boy had his face about two inches from his. "Move, kid." the boy growled. "You're blocking my locker."

Kyle flushed. "U-um... sorry..." and moved aside. The kid shook his head. Kyle looked around, and saw Lauren standing behind the kid, her usual half-smile on her face. Crap...

Kyle walked up to her. "Um... hi."

Lauren brushed a lock of her brown hair out her face. "Hey." she laughed quietly. "Were you really asleep?"

Kyle blushed more heavily. "Um... I think so..."

Lauren smiled back at him. "I can't believe you came to school early just to talk to me..."

Kyle blinked. "Uh, yeah, I did... um, by the way, what time is it?"

"We've got a few minutes," Lauren replied. She paused for a moment, then cleared her throat. "So, um... do you want to give the date thing another try?"

"Y-yeah!" Kyle stammered.

Lauren smiled fully. "Great! I'll see you at six then, okay?" She edged past him, grabbed a few book from her locker, and walked off down the hall.

Kyle blinked. "Hey... wait a second!" He yelled after her. "Where?"

"Formaggio's!" She called back. "If you don't know where it is, look it up!"

Kyle paused for a moment, then leapt into the air. "Yes!"

The bell rang.

"Crap!" Kyle ran off down the hall.

After school got out, Kyle hurried over to the parking garage where Raustemon and the other digimon were supposed to be. He ran down the ramp, turned the corner, and nearly ran into a wall. He blinked at it for a moment, confused. Um... okay... did I get the wrong place?

The wall in front of him suddenly wavered, then disappeared, revealing an alcove where the others sat, staring silently at him. Magusmon stood in front of him. Kyle cleared his throat. "Um... what was...?"

"A magical barrier, to keep us hidden." Magusmon replied.

Kirsten burst out laughing. "God, you looked like an idiot... did I look that bad?"

"Worse..." Isaac, now sporting a new shade of red in his hair, replied. "You slipped and fell, and started cursing."

Kirsten glared at him. Kyle laughed awkwardly, to prevent Kirsten from saying anything she'd regret. "So, um... what's up?"

Kirsten grinned. "Not much over here... but what about you, huh? You and Lauren getting ready to tie the knot?"

Kyle blushed, Reto shook his head, and Isaac put his head in his hands. "Kirsten..."

"What?"

Kyle gulped. "U-um, no, but..."

Kirsten ignored him. "So, where're you going? And do you have a hotel lined up for after?"

"Kirsten..."

Kirsten just laughed.

Kyle shook his head. "Um, firstly, some place called "Formaggio's", and-" he was cut off by Kirsten gasping. "Formaggio's? Are you kidding? For a first... wait, who suggested it?"

"Um... she di-"

"Oh my god!" Kirsten yelled, and burst out laughing again. "You really better get a hotel room, if she wants to go there!"

"Wait, hold on a second..." Reto interjected. "What's this place?"

Kyle shrugged. "I dunno..."

Kirsten shook her head. "How can you not know? Have you never been dating before?"

Both Reto and Kyle blushed. "W-what about you, then?" Kyle stammered back. "You've never been on a date before, either, I bet."

Kirsten's eyes widened. He mouth moved, but no words came out.

Kyle gulped. "Um..."

Sara spoke up. "It's a pretty fancy restaurant... and, at my school at least, you'd only go there with a guy you're really serious about." She looked around, and realized the others were staring at her. "What?"

Kirsten nodded, but still remained silent.

Isaac sighed. "As much as I hate to interrupt this conversation, weren't we going to talk about something else?"

Reto snapped his fingers. "Oh! Right." He looked over at Kyle. "Sara told us that you found out that the Sentinels started back up their digimon creation program."

Kyle nodded. "Well, more like I told her something, and she figured it out, but yeah."

Reto nodded. "You also got a message yesterday on your digivice, and it might be from an old friend of ours."

"Who?" Isaac asked.

"We... don't really know." Sara admitted. "And for that matter, Reto, I'm not entirely convinced that it was the same person, unless they completely changed their writing format."

"Well, who else could it be?" Reto shot back. Sara shrugged.

"Then we'll assume that it was the same person..." Reto replied. "Now then... Kyle, can we try something?"

"Um... I guess..." Kyle answered.

"Can you take out your digivice, and open the message back up?"

"Sure." Kyle brought his digivice out, and opened the strange message again.

"Okay, now press the button blinking 'reply' and ask it who it is."

Kyle typed in a short message, and hit send. A half-second later, his digivice vibrated, and blinked "New Mail!" Kyle hit open, and blinked. The message was much shorter this time.

Mail Confirmation Denied

I think you will find that I don't like being tested.

Love,

A friend of a friend.

Kyle relayed the message to the others, then re-read it again. He bit his lip. Love? O...kay... Raustemon raised his head into the air, and sniffed a few times.

Reto frowned. "Well, so much for that..." he muttered.

Sara sighed. "Well, I guess we're back to square one..." she looked over at Reto. "...but that definitely didn't come from the guy we knew."

Reto nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, I guess... but then, who sent it?"

Isaac looked over at Reto, and started to say something, when an explosion rocked the parking garage. "What the hell?" Sara shouted.

A voice echoed through the garage. "I can see them inside, Stratamon! Icicle Wave!"

A sound like breaking glass echoed through the garage. Kyle shivered. Did it just get colder?

"Damn it!" Reto yelled, and jumped to his feet. The others got up as well, but Kirsten moved slower than the others.

A guttural voice rumbled through them. "I don't see why we don't just knock the entire building down."

"Don't question orders, Stratamon!"

Sara looked over at Malcamon. "C'mon, let's take these guys out."

The cat digimon nodded back, and followed Sara up the ramp and out of the parking garage, followed closely by the others. Outside, they saw two digimon, one several stories tall and made entirely of rocks, and the other much smaller, about human sized, and... Kyle frowned. "Why is that one made of glass?"

"It's ice, you knucklehead!" The smaller digimon yelled.

"Then why aren't you melting?"

"It's fucking magic ice!" the digimon yelled. It reached down to its waist. "You know what? Die! Icicle Wave!"

The digimon slashed his arm at them, sending several chunks of ice flying through the air. "Watch it!" Magusmon yelled as he dashed in front of the group. He raised his palm, and an energy shield appeared in front of him just in time to stop the ice shards from hitting the group. Several off target shots slammed into the ground nearby, only to sprout up spines of razor sharp ice.

The ice digimon laughed. "That's right! You'll all soon be crushed by the deadly team of the frozen Stalactimon and the eternal Stratamon!" The larger digimon rumbled in agreement.

"Yeah right." Sara grinned. "It's still three on two. We'll kick your asses! Malcamon?"

The cat digimon nodded. "Right! Thunder Claw!"

Lightning arched out towards Stalactimon, but Stratamon raised an enormous hand to block it. The attack fizzled out against the rocky digimon, leaving no damage. Stalactimon laughed again. "Fools! Now we shall crush you! Stratamon?"

"Boom Quake." The earthy digimon rumbled, and stomped the ground.

Sara cried out as the earth shook, knocking all of them off their feet. After a moment, though, the shaking subsided. Reto looked up at the two digimon. "Is that seriously your attack? It didn't do anything!"

Stalactimon frowned. "So it seems..." the digimon nodded. "It appears we have come to an impasse, humans! Give up now, and we shall be lenient!"

"Yeah, right." Malcamon yelled, and jumped up into the air. "Ha!" Stalactimon cried. "You'll never reach me here!" Malcamon began to fall, not even reaching halfway up the massive Stratamon. Raustemon suddenly darted forward, stopping just in front of Stratamon. Malcamon landed on Raustemon's tail, and the dino launched Malcamon even higher into the air, this time coming face to face with Stalactimon. The ice digimon grinned nervously. "Uh... nice kitty?"

"Thunder Claw!"

Stalactimon cried out as the electricity coursed through his body. He stumbled, and fell off of Stratamon, crashing in a heap at the foot of the giant digimon, smoking. Malcamon landed on Staramon's shoulder, and grinned. "Magusmon?" Stalactimon looked up to see the wizard digimon standing in front of him. "Oh, fuck it all..."

Magusmon raised his hand. "Magical Shocker!" Stalactimon was knocked into the air, and vaporized. Kyle laughed. "Nice one!"

Stratamon rumbled. "Sta...lactimon?" The ground began to shake. "You... shall pay... for this... Terra's Ire!"

The ground below Magusmon shifted slightly. The digimon looked down just as a giant slab of stone slammed up from below him, sending fragments of asphalt, as well as Magusmon, flying through the air. The wizard digimon landed in a heap, and lay still. "Magusmon!" Reto yelled.

"You'll pay for that!" Malcamon yelled. She jumped in front of Stratamon's face, her eyes glowing violet. "Dark Nightmare!"

Stratamon's eyes rolled back into his massive head, but the rock digimon only roared, and slapped at Malcamon with his hand, dealing only a glancing blow due to his blindness. As Malcamon found out, even a glancing blow from something that weighs a few tons is a rather serious thing indeed.

Malcamon slammed into the street, skidded a few meters, and lay still. Sara yelled something, but it was inaudible over Stratamon's groan as he fell to his knees, his eyes still rolled back. Raustemon ran in front of the giant digimon, and opened his mouth, flames licking in back of his throat. "Raust Flare!" The fire impacted Stratamon's face at close range, washing over the digimon. The rock digimon groaned one last time, and vaporized. Raustemon closed his eyes, and the data floated down and merged with him.

Isaac breathed a sigh of relief, and ran a hand through his fire red hair. "Well, I'm glad that worked out..." his voice trailed off as he saw Sara run forward to pick up the knocked-out Malcamon. Reto sighed. "Man, just shut up, okay?" Isaac bit his lip, and said nothing.

Kyle sighed. He looked over at the victorious Raustemon, running over to him grinning. Well, at least he's happy... Kyle suddenly jumped slightly as his pocket vibrated. He reached in, and grabbed his digivice as Raustemon walked up to him. Reto came over as well.

The digivice read "New Mail!" Kyle tapped the open button.

Reto nodded as the letter opened. "Ah, a proper message this time..."

Your Mortality! (My Summer Vacation)

Congrats on your pyrrhic victory!

I wish I'd been

there

to see it.

In spirit will do.

Do you remember,

Yet?

Wait.

Return what is not yours

or lose everything but it.

For now,

The thirteenth is yours.

Lucky you.

-A friend of a friend

Kyle looked up from the perplexing message to see both Reto and Raustemon staring intently at the message. Raustemon suddenly grinned. "Oh, you know Joyeuse?"

Reto's head snapped up, and he stared at Raustemon. "What?"

Raustemon looked back. "What?"

The two stared at each other for a moment. Reto blinked once. Raustemon giggled "I win!" and ran off.

Reto stared after Raustemon. "...what the heck is wrong with that digimon... it's like he's possessed, or something..."

Kyle flinched as he remembered what the Sentinel had told him. "...I just activated his databanks. All the info he needs is in there. Including his reason for existing..." "...well kid, it looks like you get to keep your pet, at least for another week..."

Kyle sighed as he stared at Raustemon cavorting around the street. Today, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday... then time's up... Monday. One week from... He sighed again, and looked over at the others. Reto was trying to catch Raustemon, and failing miserably. Sara was holding Malcamon, watching the two of them. Isaac was standing guiltily near Kirsten, who was... Kyle blinked as Kirsten looked away from him. That's funny... it looked like she was glaring at me, almost... He shook his head. Going crazy again...

He looked over at Raustemon. I can't let them take him away... no matter what happens...

Shadow- "I'M ALIVE!!!!!

(ahem)

So, yeah. Hi everyone. I'm totally not dead, even though my teachers conspired to kill me with copious amounts of work. I have survived, am victorious, and as way of celebration, I bring you another chapter, and tentatively promise weekly updates from now on!"

Renamon- "Yeah, we'll see how that works out... oh, and hi as well. Did you miss us?"

Shadow- "Question, comments, and rants about how I'm insane can be left in a review by simply clicking on a button below this. Really. It's that simple."

Renamon- "Shadow does not own digimon, despite all of the scheming. So, you'll have to wait on season 6 for a while yet."

Shadow- "Until next time, everyone!"