Kumamon: Stanley. OI! Where the heck is he?

Rexmon: I think he may be hiding.

Kumamon: Why would he be hiding? Oh Yeah. IT'S BECAUSE HE'S BEEN GONE FOR THREE EFFING WEEKS!!!

Rexmon: Maybe you're being to hard on Stanley-mon. This was a hard chapter to write and he had writer's block for a while there.

Kumamon: How do you know? You know where he is, don't you?

Rexmon: *closes mouth and shakes his head*

Kumamon: Listen here and listen good. Tell your sempai where Stanley is right now and maybe I'll decide not to hurt you.

Rexmon: *Starts sweating bullets and yells out* HE'S BEHIND YOU!!!"

Kumamon: *turns around* aha! Found you!

Me: Rexmon, you traitor! I gotta get out of here! *runs away*

Kumamon: GET BACK HERE, SNAKE-BOY!!!

Rexmon: *starts eating a loaf of bread*

Me: Sorry for the long delay everybody, but before I knew it three weeks had passed by since I released the last chapter. I apologize. Now in last chapter I got a my second digimon. I realize that many of you may have mistaked him for the popular Guilmon, which is who I all wanted you to think it was at first, but Rexmon is my own creation largely based on Guilmon. Now please enjoy your long awaited chapter. Kumamon, leave me alone! I'm sorry!

Disclaimer: Pyrorynox does not own digimon and he may not even own a life if Kumamon catches him.

"OI!!! WAKE UP YOU IDIOT!!! CRUD!!!" shouted Grizzmon as the serpent digimon slithered ever closer to my now unconscious form. He galloped towards the unknown digimon and jumped into the air. "Take this!" "GRIZZLY SLASH!!!" He brought his claws down in an X shape and fired his golden shock wave attack. The golden grizzly bear head roared as it grew in ferocity, but fizzled out as it collided with the back of the digimon's back. Grizzmon was definitely surprised. "What the? My attack didn't work!?" He gave off a low growl as his eyes narrowed at this strong digimon. "Just who is this guy?"

Rexmon had watched this all with slitted, yellow eyes. Normally he would be peaceful, even downright goofy. But now his primal lust for battle had taken over his normally naïve and childlike nature. He growled as he slowly approached the snake/human hybrid. Like a predator he circled around him, sizing him up for his assault.

Grizzmon just watched with interest. This was how Rexmon had acted when he first entered the clinic, but after the whole licking incident Grizzmon thought that maybe he had imagined seeing Rexmon acting like that, even though Gabumon had stated himself that Rexmon was feral most of the time. Now that he was seeing this attitude for a second time there was no way he had imagined it before. That goofy raptor was a natural born fighter.

Rexmon finally lunged at the serpent digimon with a series of jabs aimed at his chest, but because of his flexible body it was able to just weave itself around the jabs. "Sss. You think a rookie would be able to beat me? You guessssed wrong!" He took his long tail and wrapped it around Rexmon's body, then sent sailing into the air.

Rexmon gave a snarl as he went airborne, but somehow used his tail to stabilize himself while he was in midair. He opened his mouth in the Digimon's direction prepared his attack. "PYRO SHOT!!!" He shot off fireball after fireball as he flew towards the ground, but they did little other than to create a smokescreen around the digimon.

Grizzmon ran under Rexmon and caught him before he hit the ground. "Nice try, but it jack squat. What now?"

Rexmon said a rough growl, "Get Stanley-mon and go back to Gabumon! That is digimon is strong." Grizzmon looked from him to the smokescreen and saw that the rookie raptor had planned this.

"How come all idiots are always full of surprises? Oh well." He turned around and scooped me up in his mouth and weaved in between buildings to get back to Gabumon's clinic.

While this was going on, the snake digimon had slithered out of the smokescreen and out of the city. He had made note of the way I had reacted to his appearance and began to scheme. "Ssss. The digidessstined child ssseemsss to be afraid of me and without him hisss digimon ssstand no chanssse agianssst me. Fufufu. Sssinsse they are no threat, I'll have some fun with my prey before I kill it."

…............................

Meanwhile, in a dark place concealed by a cliff face, ten shadowed figures watched this development with less than pleased looks. Well, most of them did anyway. One figure waved one sword in front of his face, then a second and a third.

"What is that fool thinking? He should not be underestimating the digidestined," he said as another figure slammed a fist against the wall.

"Must he always play around with his opponents like this? If he weren't one of our brethren I'd kill him for his stupidity," he said with a slight snobbish accent as a small stream of water came out of the crack that he had put into the rock wall. He almost flinched as another one of the figures put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "What is it that you want, my brother?" he asked in a now annoyed voice.

This figured smiled kindly in the darkness and spoke in a more kind voice. "You should calm down. I'm fine with what our brother is doing since I believe there's no point in defeating an opponent that stands no chance. I find it dishonorable."

The snobbish sounding figure scoffed at his comrade. "Your pacifist ideals with the end of you one day, but I'll try to keep my head." He and the others looked towards the screen that they were watching everything from that seemed to be built into the rocks. "Serpentmon may fail, but we will all get our chance at destroying the digidestined. Fufufu."

…......................................

The heat was finally starting to get Grizzmon again as he finally reached the doors of Gabumon's clinic. He nudged them open with his head and slowly walked in. Gabumon was surprised when he saw the hulking grizzly bear enter his clinic, but when he saw Rexmon and I, still unconscious, on the back of him he realized who the grizzly bear was.

"Welcome back. What happened out there?"

Rexmon hopped off of Grizzmon's back and ran up to Gabumon with his tail wagging excitedly. "Gabumon, you missed it. We ran into a BIG digimon," he stretched his arms to emphasize, "but he was really strong so we ran away."

Gabumon looked from Rexmon to Grizzmon, but Grizzmon only shook his head. Then his eyes wandered to my unconscious form on Grizzmon's back. "What happened to Stanley? Did that digimon get him?"

Grizzmon snorted. "This idiot fainted at the very sight of that digimon. It was the snake-like digimon that we had heard about before. The sovereign, Serpentmon." At the word 'serpent' a groan was heard from my direction. I rubbed my eyes as I slowly sat up.

"Hey, what just happened?" Grizzmon growled at me as I tried to get off of him, but then bucked me off. "Hey! What's the big idea!?"

"YOU COWARD!!! HOW COULD YOU FAINT LIKE THAT IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT!?"

I thought back to a few minutes ago and finally remembered the snake digimon from before, the memory of it sending a shiver down my spine. "That snake thing. What was that digimon?"

"If I had to wager a guess, I would say it was Serpentmon." said Gabumon.

I pulled out my digivice and looked up Serpentmon's data.

"Serpentmon, champion level Sovereign. Type: Snake-man digimon. Virus type. Family: Nature Spirits and Nightmare Soldiers. Attacks: Serpent Strike."

Grizzmon grunted as the digivice displayed its information. "So the big boys have finally come out to play. Guess they got tired of losing. Anyway, that guy was really strong. If it weren't for Chumley's smokescreen I'm not sure sure if we could've gotten out of there with our fur intact." As he was saying this Rexmon could be seen in the background, pointing to himself confused at the word "chumley". "On the other hand, if we had been at full strength then I'm almost certain that we could've taken him out. But because of a certain goggle-headed idiot we were at a great disadvantage."

I hung my head in shame as he said that. I realized that it was my fault we couldn't fight our best. I knew from the digivice that Serpentmon was only a champion, but he was still a sovereign and that had to mean that he was probably a lot stronger than your typical champion level digimon. One champion digimon couldn't have beat him. "I'm sorry, Grizzmon."

"BAKA!!! 'SORRY' IS NOT GOING TO CUT IT HERE IN THE DIGITAL WORLD!!! FAINTING LIKE THAT IN A FIGHT WILL GET YOU KILLED HERE!!! WHAT WOULD WE DO THEN IF YOU GOT KILLED!? WE NEED YOU IF WE'RE GONNA SAVE DIGI- WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?" He had to stop as I had suddenly bolted out of the front doors of the clinic.

…..................................

I ran through the city and weaved through digimon to get to the gate. "God, I'm such an idiot! Stupid stinkin' phobia. Now Grizzmon's mad at me. If I'm gonna make up for fainting during a fight then I'm gonna have to take on Serpentmon myself, despite my fear!"

I stopped at the place where we had first encountered Serpentmon, but saw him nowhere in sight. "Damn, where is he?" I ran up to a random digimon and asked where the digimon that had attacked went.

"That sovereign? After that fight he left the city through that hole he made in the wall earlier."

"Thank you!" I shouted quickly as I ran towards the demolished wall. A flame appeared around my waist and formed into a belt as my digivice took on it's fire kanji form. "HENSHIN!!!" As I snapped the digivice into the belt the phoenix fire formed around me and made the armor I had used to defeat SkullGreymon. With one flap of flaming wings, I took off into the sky, towards the forest.

….....................................

Grizzmon stared at the door as if he were expecting me to come back through that door at any moment. After a few more minutes he finally hung his head. "He's not coming back, is he?"

Gabumon took this opportunity to walk up and put a paw on Grizzmon's armored shoulder. "I wouldn't worry about him too much. He's probably just upset and needs time to cool down. Just give him time."

Rexmon gave a goofy laugh as he felt reassured by Gabumon's words. "Stanley-mon afraid of that big snakey anyway. Not like he's gonna try to find it and beat it by himself, right?" At this time, Rexmon had decided to pull out a piece of bread from seemingly out of nowhere and started to eat on it.

As Grizzmon watch Rexmon's feast with annoyance and yet a bit of curiosity as to where Rexmon pulled that bread from, he suddenly realized that what Rexmon said sounded like something I would do. "Oh crud. He wouldn't. Oh who am I kidding, of course he would! Oi! We gotta go you gluttonous lizard!" He grabbed Rexmon and hoisted him onto his back just as he was about to take another bite of his bread. Apparently he wasn't finished yet.

"Wait! My bread!"

"Finish it later! We have an idiot to find!"

.........................................

While all this was going on, Serpentmon was rested in a field littered with demolished trees that he had apparently destroyed. He may have been an evil digimon, but even evil digimon needed naps every now and then. He had peaceful dreams of screaming digimon that ran away from him in fear as he killed and maimed others just for the sheer joy of it. A contented smile found its way to Serpentmon's face as he continued his dream of outrageous slaughter.

…....................................

"He must be somewhere around here if all these knocked down trees are any indication," I said as I flew over the forest in search of my foe. I reached up and pulled the now armored goggles over my eyes. "I've got a scope and I have night vision. Time to see if Kamemon put a tracking device or some sensors in these things." I fumbled around with the goggles until I found a feature that was a lot like the map on my digivice. And, as luck would have it, a sensor picked up something about a hundred yards ahead of me. I flew towards the ground and landed, deciding to run the rest of the way as I could be spotted easily in the air. I pulled my sword from its scabbard and followed the signal to where Serpentmon would surely be.

…..................................

Grizzmon and Rexmon looked all around the city for me and had eventually gone to the site of the previous battle. When they couldn't even find me there, they both began to worry.

"There's nowhere else he could've gone, so where the heck is he?" Grizzmon asked himself worriedly.

While Rexmon was also worried, he was a bit more calm about it. He put his nose to the ground and started to sniff. Grizzmon was curious about this.

"What are you doing over there, Rex?"

"I found Stanley-mon's scent." He followed his nose and walked out of the hole in the wall. "It's faint, but it definitely leads into the trees. But his scent is in the air. That's weird."

"He probably used his armor and flew into the forest."

"Flew? I didn't see any wings on him. Wait." He suddenly started to sniff again, as he had found a new scent.

"What is it?" asked Grizzmon.

Rexmon growled as his eyes suddenly narrowed into vertical slits. "Snakey."

Grizzmon's eyes widened as he heard that. "So he really is trying to find Serpentmon. That idiot. There's no way he's over his fear just like that. He'll need us. Rexmon, lead the way!"

Rexmon nodded and then took off into the forest as Grizzmon followed after.

….................................

I sighed as I finally reached a clearing surrounded by uprooted trees, with Serpentmon being in the center of it, apparently asleep. I slowly began to sneak over to where he was, raising my sword above my head in preparation for my attack. As I got closer and closer to him though, I started to tremble. I bit my lip and tried to calm myself.

"Calm down, Stanley. If you can just sneak up on him before he wakes up then you can just finish it quickly. If you focus on his upper half it won't feel like you're fighting a snake digimon. Yeah, I just need to think like that. I can do this!"

Without realizing it, I had made it to Serpentmon and was moments away from slashing down with my sword. "Here we go," I said slowly, still a tad bit afraid.

At that moment Serpentmon's eyes shot open and he looked up at me. I looked into those eyes and froze on the spot.

"Well well well. What'sss thisss? A little digidessstined hasss gotten himssself lossst in the foressst. Let'sss sssee if we can't help you find your way home. Ssss." He slowly rose up and slithered around me, his coils wrapping loosely around me.

As he faced towards me and flicked his tongue I suddenly screamed and scrambled out of his coils. To afraid to remember that I could fly, I ran back into the forest, frantically trying to get away.

Serpentmon licked his lips and began to give chase. "Let the chassse begin."

….................................

I ran blindly through the forest as I tried desperately to get as far away from the snake digimon as I could. I wasn't even paying attention as a long, slimy tail suddenly appeared in front of me. I had no time to evade as the tail slapped me on the side of the head and sent me flying into a tree. The force of the attack made my armor disperse in a burst of flames. I didn't even have time to get up as a scaly hand wrapped itself around my neck and hoisted me into the air.

"Now you didn't think you could get away from me, did you?" asked Serpentmon mockingly as his hold on my neck tightened. I clawed his hand, frantically trying to get him to let go as I started to lose air. Serpentmon chuckled at my useless attempts to get out of his grasp. "Ssss. Doesss it make you afraid, knowing that you're going to die in mere sssecondsss?"

"GRIZZLY SLASH!!!"

A roaring grizzly bear head flew at Serpentmon but before it could hit him, he slashed through it with his other hand. "It ssseemsss that help hasss come for you."

Grizzmon suddenly came flying through the trees and ran at Serpentmon. "LET HIM GO, TEME!!!"

Serpentmon waved a finger in front of his face in a disapproving manner. "Tsssk. Tsssk. Tsssk. Sssuch terrible language coming from sssuch a young digimon."

Grizzmon growled as Serpentmon mocked him. "Kisama!" "MAUL ATTACK!!!" Grizzmon began to attack Serpentmon with his claws and teeth, but even with me in one of his hands he was still able to dodge all of Grizzmon's strikes. He then grabbed Grizzmon by his hind legs and threw him into the ground. With Grizzmon down for a minute he then focused his attention back on me as applied more pressure on my neck. I could feel my life slowly slipping away as I suddenly felt no energy in my arms and the slumped to my sides.

Serpentmon began to laugh mercilessly as he felt me slowing slipping away, but suddenly screamed and opened his hand, releasing me from his grasp. Looking down at his tail he saw that Rexmon had grabbed onto it and had sunk his teeth razor sharp teeth deeply into it. He quickly swatted Rexmon off of his tail and started to blow on it.

As Serpentmon was busy tending to his tail, my two digimon had gotten up and ran to my side as I caught my breath.

"Stanley-mon, are you okay?" The raptor digimon smiled as I slowly gave a thumbs up. Grizzmon, on the other hand, wasn't as happy.

"What were you thinking, running away like that and trying to fight a sovereign by yourself!? Have you lost your mind!? Have you forgotten that about how scared you were earlier!?" He was certainly giving me the guilt trip.

"Grizzmon, I'm sorry for fainting like I did earlier. I thought maybe I could make up for it by beating him by myself. But I was thinking out of fear and just being stupid. If you two hadn't showed up I would definitely be dead right about now." I smiled at the two of them. Grizzmon sighed and finally smiled.

"Well it's not like I'm afraid of absolutely nothing, but if you ever run away like that I'll kill you. Now, if you're feeling a bit braver, how about we all have roasted snake for dinner."

I had felt better, but now I just frowned. "As much as I want to fight, I'm still afraid to go near that thing, especially since he nearly killed me."

Rexmon came up to me and licked my cheek affectionately. "It's alright to be scared; everyone is afraid of something. But if you stand up to your fear and have faith in yourself you'll become stronger for it."

I smiled, knowing there was truth to his words, but I was still unsure. Grizzmon could sense my doubt and it annoyed him, much like everything else in the digital world.

"Geez, what would your friends in the human world think of you if they could see you right now?"

"My friends?" I thought about their reactions if they saw me cower before something like Serpentmon. Erica, Malcolm, and Shelby would think I was right to cower before such a menacing foe, but Ashton-" It suddenly hit me when I thought of Ashton. "It's the thought of Ashton that'll give me the strength to fight. If I think of her, I can fight anybody."

Both Grizzmon's and Rexmon's ears perked up in confusion.

I picked up my digivice that had fallen on the ground and taken on its regular form and pointed it towards Rexmon, then let go of it as it floated in the air in front of me. "Rexmon, if we're gonna beat this guy then we need to be at full strength. It's time you got an upgrade."

Rexmon yipped happily as his body began to glow gold as my digivice and the back of my hand did the same. Connecting the symbols from my palm to the digivice, Rexmon began his evolution as an outline of a rather large digimon shot out of the digivice and surrounded him.

"REXMON DIGIVOLVE TO..........." Rexmon began to growl larger, much larger. The tiny ridges on his back began to grow into large, spiky ridges. The blades on his elbows grew long and sparked with electricity as three spikes came out of his head, one from the end of his snout and two out of his forehead. Spiky, white hair began to grow from his head as he finally reached his full height and gave a mighty roar. "RIDGEMON!!!"

Grizzmon and I stood in awe and slight nervousness of the now massive digimon. He even dwarfed Greymon by a few feet.

"Ridgemon, champion level dinosaur digimon. Virus attribute. Family: Dragon's Roar. Attacks: Shocking Strike, Lightning Blade, and Magma Blast, and Ridge Slash."

Ridgemon looked at himself as he got a feel for his new body. "Did I just have a growth spurt?" Even in his new menacing form, he was still as oblivious as ever, which annoyed Grizzmon.

"You dummy! Don't you even know what digivolving is!?" Ridgemon shook his head, causing Grizzmon to mutter something under his breath that sounded a lot like 'stupid, huge dinosaur'.

Looking from Ridgemon to Grizzmon I had a sudden case of curiosity. "Grizzmon, how come you're not that big?"

Grizzmon's eyebrow twitched as he suppressed the urge to throw back to Serpentmon. "Because some digimon don't need to be massive, just really strong. Now can we please finish our fight with the snake. He's been standing there forever, waiting for us to finish."

"EH!?" shouted both me and Ridgemon as we turned in Serpentmon's direction. He had indeed stopped blowing on his tail and was looking at Ridgemon with slight interest.

"I remember you. That sssavage digimon from earlier. Thisss may be more of a challenge than I though." He gave a smug grin.

I faced forward with a fire in my eyes. "You may have gotten me earlier, but I'll fight you with no doubts in my heart and faith in myself. HENSHIN!!!"

Serpentmon flicked his tongue and slithered towards us as I donned my armor. "Fufufu. Take thisss!" "SERPENT STRIKE!!!"

Suddenly, a dozen aura snakes flew from Serpentmon's mouth and flew towards the three of us.

"You're nothing but a big meanie!" shouted Ridgemon with a new roughness to his voice. "MAGMA BLAST!!!" Ridgemon inhaled and a long stream of fire erupted from his mouth, colliding with the aura snakes just before they got to us. As the collision caused a small explosion I ran through the resulting smokescreen and aimed a punch at Serpentmon's face.

"PHOENIX PUNCH!!!" The flaming punch sailed right into his face and sent him flying painfully into the air."

Seeing an opening, Grizzmon ran out and jumped over Serpentmon. "You like throwing digimon into the ground huh? Well take this!" "BUZZ CLAW!!!" Grizzmon brought his now glowing claws down and slammed Serpentmon into the ground. He hit the ground with so much force that he bounced off of the ground, and gave a loud grunt as Ridgemon suddenly rolled into him with a cry of, "RIDGE SLASH!!!", tearing into Serpentmon repeatedly with the ridged on his back.

Serpentmon skidded across the ground but got up slowly, blood all over him from taking that last attack from Ridgemon. "Thisss isss impossssible! None of you were thisss ssstrong before! How are you doing thisss!?"

Grizzmon ran forward and jumped into the air. "CRECENT GRIZZLY SLASH!!!" Grizzmon spun forward rapidly and flowed as he rammed into Serpentmon's chest. "You came here alone, didn't you Serpentmon. You wouldn't know anything about being on a team!" Grizzmon spun even faster and ripped through Serpentmon's chest. Despite Grizzmon's size, the hole wasn't that big, but could still be seen through.

"My turn!" shouted Ridgemon as he ran towards Serpentmon next. "LIGHTNING BLADE!!!" The blades on his elbows jutted out and began to spark with electricity as they connected with Serpentmon's tail. "We each have faith in ourselves that makes us stronger. But we also have faith in each other. That takes our strength to a whole new level!"

Serpentmon hissed and howled in pain as his tail was separated from the rest of his body. He lifted himself up on what little tail he had left and glared at the one who had yet to attack. Me. "Your digital petsss may have ssseverely injured me, but you're terrified of me! You're too afraid to finisssh the job!"

I looked down as I listened to his words. "You're right. I am still afraid of you." Serpentmon smirked in slight triumph, but his eyes widened in horror as I slowly raised my head and glared deeply into his eyes without a hint of fear in them. "But I just realized something. I have a friend back in the human world named Ashton. If I think about her then I can face just about anybody." I flapped my wings and took off towards him with my sword drawn. "I can fight you because even though I'm afraid of you, SHE'S THE ONE I FEAR MOST OF ALL!!!"

Both Grizzmon's and Ridgemon's jaws fell at my proclamation. "THAT'S THE REASON YOU CAN FIGHT HIM!?" they both shouted.

"BLAZING SLASH!!!" My sword burned with fire as it entered Serpentmon's skull and exited through the stub where his tail used to be, cutting him in half. With now dead eyes, Serpentmon's body dissolved into a digi-chip with an engraving of a mountain with a snake overlapping it. I bend down and picked it up. "Sovereign of earth, Serpentmon. Roasted." Out of pure exhaustion, I fell to the ground beside Ridgemon and Grizzmon.

As they reverted back to their rookie forms, my armor vanished in a flash of fire. As we all laid on the ground, too tired to even lift a finger, we all began to laugh.

…......................................

The shadowed figure watched with anger in his eyes as his brother was defeated by the digidestined. He may have considered Serpentmon a fool, but he was still a member of their brotherhood. He and the rest of the sovereigns sat in a moment of silence for their fallen brother.

"The digidestined will pay for this. I'll be the one to fight him next and I will avenge Serpentmon!" said the figure with six arms. All of the other figures nodded in agreement.

One of the figures in the back looked on with red eyes. There was something different about this digimon. His eyes were kind and held knowledge beyond his years. He had felt sorrow for the now fallen Serpentmon but he couldn't help but to give a small smile from his beak. He spoke softly to himself. "I knew he could beat Serpentmon."

Kumamon: One sovereign down, over a dozen more to go.

Rexmon: This is gonna be a looooong journey, isn't it?

Me: Yes, but at least we won't have to worry about ole snakey anymore. I hated to type his speaking parts. Also, we'll make lots of new friends along the way. Afterall, we still have four more partners to find.

Kumamon and Ridgemon: Right! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. See you all in about a week. Please review.