Disclaimer: We do not own Digimon, nor any of the recognizable characters of the show. We do own the original characters that we have created and ask that anyone who wished to use those characters ask us first.

AN: Ayanna Wildfire: Sorry it took so long to get this new chapter up. We just couldn't stop writing and ended writing two chapters instead of just one. Then I got the fun job of editing Blackbird's horrific spelling.....He's so going to kill me for that.

Anywho, enjoy the new chapter. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter out in the next couple days.

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Takuya: After the gang dealt with the Pumpkinmon problem, they headed out to find some of their Digimon partner. Fortunately, Ray didn't have to wait long because his partner Tentomon found him! Unfortunately, they were attacked by a horde of Goblimon and taken back to their village and imprisoned. While there they ran into Luxmon and Wizardmon, who helped them escape and fight the Goblimon and their leader Orgemon. Too bad Orgemon had an ace up his sleeve in the form of Golemon, but then Ray and Tentomon Fusion Digivolved into TenchoTentomon and whupped butt! Seems like they're off to a good start.

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In the early hours of the morning, one lone figure stood tall among the group of sleeping forms at his feet. He carefully walked away from this, doing his best not to step on anyone's foot, or hand or anything. When he was finally free he walked away from the camp to the tree he had spent time at the night before, remembering that it had an excellent view. He watched as the digital sun came up over the digital landscape. It was still hard for him to believe that this was all some kind of computer program.

Ray sighed in contentment as he continued to stare at the morning sun's rays watched over everything. It all seemed so peaceful, he could hardly believe that he and the others were in a war fighting to free this world. Right now he couldn't even believe there was a war going on. Then he remembered what had happened the night before and it all came crashing back to him. The fear of himself or the others being killed, the uncertainty of what he should do next and the power that came from fusing with Tentomon. That was the thing that stuck out the most to him. It was such an odd feeling. It wasn't like they were two beings sharing a body, but that they truly were one being with one mind and one purpose. Vaguely he, as TenchoTentomon, had heard Angewomon mention that this was their true power and given what he had felt and was able to do, it didn't doubt it. But still, he had had some trouble fighting that Golemon thing and that was just a lackey. How was he suppose to able to take down one of these generals or even Serpentmon himself? And what about the others? So far only Jennifer and Rebecca had found their partners and there was no telling when they others would find their partners and when they would evolve.

He let out another sigh, this time one of confusion and weariness. All of this was getting to be a strain on him and apparently their adventure had only just begun. He just wondered why he was worried so much about protecting the others. He felt like he was taking up the role of leader without so much as a vote and wasn't sure anyone would be willing to listen to him. It's not like he had a powerful presence or anything. Hell, all through high school he was just kinda there and didn't really stand out at all. So if he was chosen to be the leader, how the hell was he suppose to handle it?

When something brushed against her leg, Jennifer stiffened in her sleep. About to yell out, the offending object disappeared. However, the sensation had been enough to wake Jennifer from her sleep. Lifting her head slightly, the girl looked around trying to figure out what it had been that brushed her leg. When she saw nothing that could have brushed her leg, Jennifer took another look around. After a moment she noticed that Ray was not there. Worried about the other digidestined, Jennifer carefully got up and looked around for the boy. Noticing him over by the tree he had been under the night before, Jennifer made her way out of the group huddle and over to where Ray was. Walking silently over to the tree, Jennifer sat down beside Ray and the end of the sunrise.

"Beautiful." She said quietly.

Ray jumped a little at the sudden break in the silence and his reverie then calmed down when he saw that it was only Jennifer.

"Yeah. Use to watch the sunrise all the time when I was home. Course it was usually cause I had been up all night building something, but still..." he let the sentence go unfinished as he looked at the newly risen sun.

"Yeah...I usual only see the sun rise when my dad takes me camping.... where I was going to go before getting dragged here." Jennifer paused for a moment, "What's it like?"

"Huh?"

"Being a Digimon, what's it like?" Jennifer asked a little quieter, as if embarrassed at what she was asking.

"It's...interesting," Ray replied, even though he knew it wasn't a very good one. "Really kinda hard to explain though. There's definitely a sense of power but also...familiarity. Kinda like coming back to an old house or something."

"So....we may have done this before? How else could it be familiar?" Jennifer asked as she rested her head on her hands and her elbows on her knees, "Maybe we're Digimon that were born as humans....wouldn't that be funny?"

"Maybe that wasn't the best way to explain it. I dunno, like I said it's hard to. Something you really have to experience yourself. Which, according to Angewomon we just might."

"That will be....different... I mean have you SEEN my partner? Luxmon....he's a giant! I don't even want to consider what we'd become."

"Yeah I'm sure that'll be something," Ray chuckled a bit. "Probably doesn't help that he's male too. Oh man, that's probably gonna be REALLY messed up!"

"Gee thanks a bunch. What are we going to be....bisexual? Or maybe asexual....that's just too disturbing to think about....this early in the morning." Jennifer said as she considered the possible outcomes.

"Sorry, sorry, just couldn't help myself," the goggled boy replied as he controlled his laughter.

Another silence enveloped them as they simply sat there and stared at the landscape.

"So why do you think you're here?" Ray asked suddenly

"What do you mean? I thought we were all here to save the Digital World." Jennifer replied, somewhat unsure of what Ray meant.

"But why us specifically? I mean out of everyone in the world, why were WE chosen?"

"Luck, chance, fate...take your choice. Maybe we're the best they had to choose from. Or maybe it's our destiny. I don't' know. All I know is that we're here and we have to save this world." The girl answered.

"No pressure right?"

"None at all. I mean this is normal, right?" Jennifer let a smirk appear on her face while trying to hold back the laughter that threatened to erupt from her.

"Of course. Everyone's been to another world they had to save from a mad tyrant while at the same time being able to fuse with some weird animal digital monster thing. They just never told us about it," he added to the air of amusement.

"Well...that just proves it...I'm ALWAYS the last to know anything....I guess this means we're on our own and have to find out how to defeat the mad tyrant ourselves. I mean how hard could it be? There's thousands of people like him..." Jennifer managed to say before she broke down into soft giggles.

Ray tried to add retort but it was lost in a fit of his own giggles. Eventually the two were overcome by their amusement and were laughing out loud quickly. They laughed for several minutes, letting their laughter push aside all the worry and confusion floating through their minds.

Too quickly for them though the fit subsided and they where left catching their breathes and wiping away stray tears from their eyes.

"Well that was fun," Ray remarked.

"Yeah, I think we needed that." Jennifer replied.

"Would the two of you SHUT-UP!! Some of us are still tryin' ta get some Sleep!" Alex's voice came from the camp.

"Like that's not going to wake everyone up?" Jennifer queried the boy beside her.

"Personally, I don't think he cares much," Ray replied.

"No, he doesn't seem to. That could be a problem....Rebecca did a reading the first night we were here...we have the power to do what we will in this world. We can save it or ....we can destroy it... That's what Rebecca's cards said." Jennifer told the goggled boy.

"Well don't look at me to confirm that I don't understand or even believe in that stuff."

"I'm not...I'm just passing information on. If Rebecca really DOES have magic....maybe her cards is how she uses it. She seems to know a lot about them." Jennifer replied.

"I guess," Ray said as he looked back towards the sleeping from of the girl in question. "Still I'll believe it when I see it."

"You did already see magic though. Wizardmon turned himself invisible, right in front of us. He knows about magic, if he says Rebecca has magic....shouldn't we believe him enough to help Rebecca find out for herself?"

Ray thought about it for a moment.

"Alright ya got me there," he relented.

"Good, then you can help me think of a way to get Rebecca to try to do magic...it could be...sub-conscious..." Jennifer trailed off thinking of how Rebecca's magic might work.

"Uh...maybe you should talk it over with her. Like I said, I'm not really big into magic and all that."

"I know, but you built things...so you have to figure out how they WORK to make them, right?"

"Yeah but that's different. Those are things I can sit down and study. Things I can hold in my hands. Magic is just too abstract a concept for me to really examine."

"Hmm....but your perspective might help. You view things in a different way and so you might notice something everyone else misses."

"I...guess. I'm not making any promises though."

"Did I ask you to?" Jennifer ask as she stood up, then held her hand out to help Ray up, "Well...I think it's about time we got the others up. What do you think?"

"Yeah," he replied as he took the offered hand and pulled himself. "We should probably be head out early anyway. Course it'd really help if we knew where we're going."

"Yes, it would. But we DO have a guide, so we should probably ask Angewomon." Jennifer said as she started back towards where everyone was sleeping, intent on waking Alex up.

"No need for that," Angewomon spoke up, appearing before them.

"WAHHH! Don't DO THAT!" Jennifer yelled as she jumped half out of her skin.

Jennifer's scream succeeded in waking up the rest of the group only not as peacefully as they had planned. Everyone jumped to their feet, looking around erratically in fear of something attacking them.

"What?! What?! What's is it?! What's going on?!" Jon questioned with his sword at the ready.

"Relax, it's just Jennifer reacting to something again. What was it this time? A bug?" Rebecca asked, her calm teetering on the edge of anger.

"She just appeared out of nowhere! It's not MY fault, she startled me!" The reactive girl replied.

"Forgive me, I forget how easily some people scare by my ability," Angewomon apologized.

"Just...please don't do it again. My cat does it enough to me, I really don't want that to start all over again."

"Besides, we don't need ta wake up to Scardy-cat there screaming 'bloody murder' every morning." Alex growled from where he stood.

"Would you rather not wake up at all?" Sam questioned as she pulled on her leather suit.

"If it's a false alarm....yeah!" Alex told the girl.

"Fine, get killed for all I care. Hell it'd probably do us all a big favor."

"OK, OK, we don't need to deal with this this early in the morning," Ray said as he stepped in between the two. "Let's just get going."

"Who died and made you God goggles?" The angry boy asked before Jennifer elbowed him.

"Shut-UP already. Complain about your feet, at least then we can ignore you."

"He does raise an interesting point though, surprisingly enough," Jon said. "We probably should pick someone to be the leader. We can't just survived on blind luck all the time."

"Luck runs out....so who should lead?" Rebecca asked.

"Anyone but him," Sam retorted pointing towards Alex

"I second that." Jennifer agreed quickly.

"Third," Jon spoke up.

"Fourth," Ray added

"Fifth." Rebecca finished calmly, "So, it will not be Alex. Anyone else?"

"Hey! I can lead, if I wanted to. You losers just don't realize the talent I have." Alex protested.

"A talent for hot air...." Jennifer added quietly.

"Yeah. Now let's think of a good leader," Sam said and then thought for a second. "What about Ray?"

"What?!" The boy in question squawked in surprise.

"Sounds good to me!" Jennifer piped up.

"He was the first to Digi-volve..." Rebecca commented.

"That's gotta count for something," Jon added.

"Indeed. It's not every day something like that happens. In fact, this was the FIRST time that's ever happened," Tentomon said. "But from what I was able to pick up from him when we where fused I think he'd make a good leader."

"Hey, now wait a minute..." Ray stared to protest.

"All for Ray as leader, say 'Aye'" Jennifer said before Ray could continue his protest.

"Aye," the others, save for Alex vote.

"I believe it's decided then. Congratulations," Angewomon said, placing her hand on the newly appointed leader's shoulder.

"Gee thanks," Ray muttered, sagging his shoulders a bit.

"You'll do great!" Jennifer said as she gave Ray a swift pat to his back.

"I agree." Rebecca added.

"And we'll be here to help you out along the way," Sam commented.

"Could have done a lot worse," Jon remarked.

"Yeah, we could have made Alex the leader." Jennifer said as she began to pack up the few things that she had taken out of her bag last night.

"Well then I guess the first thing we should do is pack up and head out. Where will we be heading out to anyway?" Ray asked Angewomon.

"Just follow me and everything should be find. I believe we'll find another one of your partners soon," she replied.

"I bet it'll be Sam's or Jon's. Alex's partner would be running for hills by now." Jennifer smirked as she looked around for a book of matches.

"Actually only in-training Digimon would be afraid of humans. Most others are more than likely to attack him," Tentomon said matter-of-factly.

"Did you hear that Alex? You should stay closer to the group today. Or you might end up as something's lunch." Rebecca commented.

"How can I keep up with you guys when I have to feel EVERY PEBBLE I step on?" Alex yelled at the group.

"How about I cut off your feet? Maybe that'll help," Jon threatened.

"How about I shove that sword up you..."Alex started, but was cut off by a large hand covering his mouth.

"Such comments are unnecessary and distract from the task as hand. We need to stay together as a group and move fast. I will carry you until we can find materials for shoes." Luxmon growled lowly to Alex.

"Alright then, if we're all ready let's move out!" Ray said enthusiastically.

"Whatever." Alex said grumpily as Luxmon picked him up.

"Let's go and find the next Digimon!" Jennifer shouted as she hefted her bag up onto her back.

The others all nodded in agreement and they quickly gathered the rest of their things and headed out. As usual they followed Angewomon as she lead them through the rest of the forest and into a desert like area that consisted mostly of cliffs and dry earth.

***

Their trek consisted of the usual talk and worry about what would spring out at them next. They were so engrossed with their discussions that they failed to notice the winged figure several miles above them. It made a few circles around them before flying off. It soon landed on a cliff ledge where it met up with six other figures.

"They should arriving at the bridge very shortly," it reported to a taller figure.

"Excellent," the other said then turned towards the rest. "We will attack them there and only when I give the command. Is that understood?"

A round of submissive mumbles followed the question.

"For everyone?" The lead figured asked, leaning towards a smaller one.

"Yeah, yeah I got it. I won't attack until you say so, oh fearless leader," a feminine voice replied sarcastically.

"You had better not."

***

The humans and Digimon trekked through the forest until they reached a cliff, still leading the way Angewomon led the group to an old wooden plank bridge. The bridge looked as if it could collapse at the slightest breeze, the ropes looked as though they had been holding the wood up for ages and the planks looked as if they had been chewed on by termites.

"We have to go across THAT?" Alex asked loudly.

"Yes," Angewomon simply replied.

"Uh...I'm not sure if that's such a good idea," Ray cautioned.

"It doesn't look that sturdy." Jennifer commented.

"Sturdy? Sturdy? That thing's ready to fall APART!" Alex yelled.

"I think I can take it," Sam muttered as she slipped on her helmet.

"'Take it'? What do you mean 'take it'?!" Ray shouted as he turned to face the reckless blonde, only to find her on her bike.

Before he, or the others, could say anything else she kicked started her engine and revved it up, effectively drowning out their objections.

"Make way!" She warned.

The others let out a series of started screams as they jumped in every direction to avoid Sam's bike as it roared past them and onto the old bridge. They all watched with baited breathed as the bike jumped slightly while it zoomed over the shaking wooden planks. In seconds that seemed like hours, Sam was on the other side and waving them over.

"Come on! Seems safe enough to me!" She shouted back at them

"She's insane." Rebecca said, her eyes wide at the stunt that Sam had just pulled off.

"Yeah, I agree with you on that Rebecca." Jennifer said as she started to get over the shock of Sam nearly running her over and then flying across the rickety bridge.

"Well it did prove that the bridge is sturdy," Tentomon offered.

"What are you worried about? You could just fly over it," Ray quipped.

"Oh yeah."

"I am NOT going OVER that thing!" Alex yelled from where he was standing, Luxmon had put him down after Sam had sped through the group.

"Fine you can stay here and be attacked by some horrible monster," Jon remarked and then began to walk over the bridge himself. He took a few steps onto it before turning back towards the others. "Coming?"

Most of the others shrugged and started across the bridge. Jennifer and Rebecca followed Jon with Ray behind them. Luxmon picked up Alex and carried him over while Wizardmon cast a levitation spell on himself and floated over with Tentomon and Angewomon. Halfway across the bridge began to creak at the weight of having so many people on it.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all," Ray said as the bridge swayed from side to side.

"Ya think?" Alex asked, his arms folded across his chest, glaring at the rest of the group.

"BE quiet Alex. Everyone just needs to move a little faster." Jennifer said as she tried to move across the bridge quicker.

Those that where walking followed her lead and tried to walk faster while the flyers were already across and waiting for them with Sam. Unfortunately, they where so intent on the task at hand that they failed to noticed the seven figures on the cliff above them. The lead figure narrowed his eyes slightly as he stared intently at his targets.

"Now," he started. "ATTACK!!!"

The sudden outburst caused the assembled group below to turn their heads towards the source of it. What they saw were three figures descending on the ones still on the bridge while four more attacked those on the other side

The three descending on those still on the bridge where lead by what looked to be a human insect followed by a humanoid bird with swords hanging at his sides and a white skinned girl in a black outfit with navy blue hair. As they closed in on their helpless victims below, a sadistic smile appeared on the girl's face.

"This should be fun," she muttered.

"Just remember what I told you," the leader scolded.

"Alright. I told ya I already got it. Now I'm gonna get them!"

While the two flyers fought, Ray stared up at the scene with an overwhelming sense of dread. This would be his first battle as the official leader of the group and so far he could only think of one thing for them to do.

"Run," he rasped out from a suddenly parched mouth. "RUUUNN!!!!"

The others stood still as statues for all of second before they followed their leader's advise, trying to get across the bridge as quickly and safely as they could. Being the closest to the other side, Jon made it to solid ground first. Turning quickly he held out his hand for Jennifer so that she could have something stable to hold onto as she reached the end of the bridge. As soon as Jennifer grabbed his hand, he pulled her towards safety. As soon as she had her feet on the ground, Jon turned to back to the bridge to offer his support for Rebecca. As Rebecca reached for Jon's hand, Jon pulled too hard for the girl and she tripped at the end of the bridge, taking Ray who was behind her down as he reached the end.

"Oh no you don't," the white skinned girl smirked.

She held up her right arm and her hand began to glow dark blue. Her smirk turned into a malicious grin as she aimed it at the bridge.

"Plasma Blast!" She shouted then a beam of destructive energy raced towards the group below.

The blast connected with the bridge just behind those remaining on it and split it down the middle and causing the two sides to slam into the cliff sides.

Luxmon held onto the bridge with one hand and onto Alex with his other. Looking down, Luxmon realized that there was not enough of the bridge left for him to get a good enough foothold to carry both himself and Alex up to the edge. Hefting Alex up, Luxmon looked at the human boy and made his decision.

"I cannot carry us both up. The footholds are not good enough to allow that. You will have to pull yourself up to the ledge." Luxmon told the human.

"And how do ya expect me ta do that? I have no shoes! I'll get splinters in my feet." Alex griped.

"It is either that, or we will both fall to our doom." Luxmon replied.

Alex thought it over for a second He realized that he had little choice in the matter, much like everything in the Digital world, "Ok, help me onto to the bridge and I'll climb."

"Good choice." Luxmon said as he extended the arm holding Alex up as far as he could to give the human a better chance of getting a good grip on the bridge.

"This'll be like shooting fish in a barrel," the flying girl said gleefully as she aimed a charged hand at the struggling human and Digimon.

"No!" The bird like creature shouted as he grabbed her arm.

"Karatenmon?! What the hell are you doing?!"

"There is no honor in this KuroiHimon," the other warrior replied.

"Honor?! Honor shmonor! I wanna kill somebody!"

"And we will. But I agree with him, we should at least give them a fighting chance," the leader spoke up. "Besides," his eyes focused on Ray and Tentomon, "I want to see this human/Digimon hybrid for myself."

Meanwhile, Jennifer and Jon were trying to help Ray up onto the ledge. They had had little success due to the fact that every time they reached down to help the goggled boy, their balance would shift and cause them to almost fall over the side. There wasn't enough time for Jennifer to go through her bag for the rope she knew she had. The attackers were getting closer and even if they did get Ray up, there was still Alex and Luxmon to help. Turning so she could look over her shoulder, she looked at Tentomon.

"Can't you help? You can fly." Jennifer asked the insect Digimon.

"Uh...well I can try to fight off our attackers, but I don't think I can lift him up. As you can see I'm not that big," the red Digimon replied.

"You can't maybe ...I don't know...give him a push? You can't fight all of those guys by yourself." Jennifer said as she tried to reach down for Ray again. He had managed to get only plank closer, but it was still not enough for her and Jon to pull him over the edge.

"I can pull him and the others up, but I need someone to keep them away from me," Angewomon spoke up, pointing up to the fly Digimon.

"That's still one against three. I don't really like those odds," Tentomon cringed.

"Two against three. My magic is useless to help humans, but fighting Digimon. That it is very good at." Wizardmon spoke up as he floated over to where Tentomon was.

"I suppose I could hold them off long enough."

"Good," Angewomon nodded. "Do your best and I shall get the others."

"We shall do what we can." Wizardmon said as he headed towards the flying Digimon, throwing one of his Thunder Blasters as he went.

Tentomon followed suit and let lose with one of his Electro Shockers. The two blasts flew towards their attackers, but they flew out of the way in time to avoid them.

"So what do we do now Stingmon?" KuroiHimon asked her leader in a snide tone.

"We attack of course. You two handle the bug and magician. I'll try to get the angel," Stingmon ordered.

"I got the bug!" The longhaired female shouted before diving straight down towards her intended target.

"I shall handle the other one then," Karatenmon said before he too flew forward to meet his opponent.

The humanoid bird dove straight towards the incoming wizard and stopped just short of hitting him, allowing enough space so that he could bow as best he could.

"I am Karatenmon," he introduced himself. "And I shall be your opponent."

"So be it. Terror Game!" Wizardmon yelled out his attack and set it flying toward the bird-like Digimon.

In a flash, Karatenmon drew one of his swords and dispelled the attack. He then flew forward and took a swipe at the wizard. Wizardmon turned at the last second and the swords merely took a small sliver out of his cape.

"Too close." Wizardmon muttered to himself.

His opponent followed up his attack by spreading his arms wide and then bring his right knee up to ram it into Wizardmon's stomach. He flipped the blade around in his hand and then poised the weapon to run his enemy through. As Karatenmon flew closer, the hunched over Wizardmon drew out his wand and fired a Thunder Blaster at the other Digimon. The bird like Digimon let out a howl of pain as the electricity raced through him and after a few excruciating moments, he backed away from the other fighter and shook his head to try to regain his senses. Taking advantaged of the momentary break, Wizardmon eased himself upright and poised himself to attack again.

While those two continued to battle, Tentomon sized up his own opponent and judging by the sadistic grin covering her face he had a sinking feeling that he had bitten off more than he could chew. He braced himself but before he could launch an attack, he had one heaved his way in the form of a light blue energy ball. He let out a shriek of terror and surprise and just barely had time to move out of the way of the blast. He then decided that he had been right before and turned to fly away from the insane Digimon behind him.

"Come back here little buggy!" KuroiHimon shouted as she launched blast after blast as the fleeing Tentomon.

The mid-air game of cat and mouse continued for several minutes with Tentomon running flying as fast as he could to increase the gap between himself and his attacker but even with that, KuroiHimon simply increased the amounts of her blasts, slowly drawing them closer and closer to her target. The insectoid Digimon realized she was just toying with him and knew he had to fight back at some point but wasn't sure exactly what he could do. Judging by the strength of her attacks she was a higher level than he was and even if he could land a hit on her, it probably wouldn't have much of an effect.

*Still, anything's better than this,* he thought.

With that thought in mind he quickly stopped his wings to fall down below the other Digimon's attack line. As he had suspected she was flying too fast to stop in time to follow his movements and he used that moment of disorientation to fly back up to her level and let lose with one of his "Super Shocker" attacks. It hit dead on and caused KuroiHimon to cry out in pain, but did little more than damage other than to leave her singed. She slowly turned around to face him, an angry glare replacing the smirk she had early.

"How DARE you!!!" She shouted then brought both her hands forward. "Double Plasma Blast!"

The increased blast slammed into the smaller Digimon with such force that it sent him flying away from her and into straight into the battle between Karatenmon and Wizardmon. Tentomon collided with the cowled magician and it sent them both flying towards the ground below. Karatenmon looked towards the one that had disrupted his fight and narrowed his eyes that the white skinned Digi-girl.

"So I screwed up your battle, shoot me," she shrugged.

"I may take you up on that offer one day," the warrior replied.

"Just try it."

Rebecca had been watching both fights and had become increasingly worried about her Digimon partner when she saw how Karatenmon fraught. Wizardmon had barely missed what could have been fatal attacks. And Tentomon had barely held his own against KuroiHimon before he had been sent flying into Wizardmon. It had been when the two Digimon had hit the ground that Rebecca had realized that their problems were more than just the two Digimon attacking from the air. The rest of the Digimon were advancing towards them on the ground. Not quite sure what to do, the longhaired girl moved over to where the rescue effort was and tried to think of a way to help.

"There are more Digimon coming. Hurrying would be good."

"Well gee, thanks for that insight," Jon remarked sarcastically as he continued to struggle to pull Ray up.

"Don't worry. I have these two," Angewomon said as she floated upwards with Alex and Luxmon in tow.

"So it's only goggle-boy holding us up." Jennifer said as she wrestled with keeping her balance and helping get Ray up onto the ledge.

"Uh guys you seriously may want to hurry," Sam insisted as she watched a Digimon in a blue and white suit with lighting bolt designs on his arms and skates on his feet coming closer to her.

"We're TRYING! Ever think to try and HELP us?" Jennifer yelled back to the girl.

"And turn my back on these creeps?!"

"We would get out of here sooner if we all helped." Rebecca said.

"Ah, are the poor little humans having problems?" The blue clad Digimon snickered as he stepped over closer to them.

"Stay away from us." Rebecca all but growled at the Digimon.

"You gonna make me?"

"If I have to." Rebecca told the Digimon as she pulled out her tarot cards, for a reason she herself didn't understand.

A dinosaur looking Digimon began to advance towards Sam. It looked like a stegosaurus but where the normal dinosaur would have had bone armor, this Digimon had steel. The plates the decorated his back looked razor sharp and just as deadly. Every step the Dinosaur took seemed to shake the earth and that was hindering the rescue effort even more as Angewomon had just managed to get both Luxmon and Alex safely on the ground.

"Trapped like rats," Stingmon muttered as he watched his troops advance on the helpless humans. "This really is disappointing. I'd hope they'd put up a better fight than this. Alright then, finish it."

"I thought you'd never ask!" KuroiHimon said enthusiastically before firing another barrage of Plasma Blasts at the bridge.

Jon and Jennifer were blown backwards as the blasts connected with the cliff wall, creating a shower of dirt clumps and dust clouds as it exploded. Time seemed to slow down as humans and their partners' attention were all drawn to Ray as he fell with the now completely disconnected bridge. He clung desperately to the planks even though he knew they would do nothing to save him from his fate.

"NOOOOOOO!!!" Tentomon shouted and with renewed strength flew down after his partner.

As he flew down towards Ray, his mind raced with ideas of how he could help him. Nothing really came to him but if he could just reach the goggle headed boy then maybe, just maybe...

With the thoughts of rescue filling his mind, Tentomon's body began to glow as he grew ever closer to Ray.

"This is it," Stingmon muttered excitedly as a glow filled the mist covered valley below him.

Soon a new form emerged from the depths, this one the merged from of TenchoTentomon. He flew upwards until he was eye level with who he assumed was the leader of the group that had attacked his friends and very nearly ended his life. He glanced between the other two flyers that flanked each side of him.

"Leave us," Stingmon ordered.

"But-" KuroiHimon started to protest.

"I said leave us! You can have the others, but this one's mine."

"Fine."

The other two flew down to join their comrades on the ground and for a moment TechnoTentomon felt an urge to stop them, but he knew he had to concentrate on the biggest threat right now. He just hoped the others could handle themselves.

"Finally, you're here. And I can test you power for myself," Stingmon said with barely contained excitement as he extended one of the spike on his arms. "Now let's see how strong you really are! Spiking Strike!"

The elongated spike began to glow bright red as he cocked his arm back and then flew forwards. When he was within range he thrust his arm forward, intending to impale his opponent, only to have the hybrid float to the side to avoid it. He then wrapped his arms around the outstretched appendage and brought his fist closet to Stingmon up to punch him in the face.

The other Digimon groaned but quickly shook off the pain and slammed his fist into the hybrid's backpack, causing his jets to flicker for a moment. It was all Stingmon needed to break out of TenchoTentomon hold, however, and once freed he grabbed him by the back of the neck and then began punching him repeatedly in the stomach.

TenchoTentomon let out a few grunts as each blow hit him. His chest armor provided some protection, but he could still feel the hits. During the momentary break when Stingmon reared his fist back, he brought his own forward and punched the insectoid in the chest. He quickly followed that up with a left cross square in the evil Digimon's face that sent him flying into the opposite side of the cliff.

Stingmon growled as he dug himself out of the small crater created from his impact then launched himself out of it straight towards the creature that had put him there. TechnoTentomon maximized the output of his jets and flew forward as well. The two stared at one another as they drew ever closer together. They finally collided with a slight bang sound and grasped the others hands then began a struggle to over power the other.

The others on the ground looked at the struggle while trying to figure out a way to escape from the other Digimon. The pale female was closing in quickly and the ones on the ground were moving to surround them.

"We should retreat." Rebecca told the others quietly.

"But where to?" Jon asked, backing away from the large bird walking his way.

"And how do we get around them?" Sam added, motioning to the other Digimon.

"That, I don't know." Rebecca replied.

"We can not fight all of these Digimon, we need to find a way to get away from them." Luxmon said.

"Again, that's the really hard part," Sam repeated.

"There has to be someway out." Jennifer said as she backed into Luxmon.

"Only one way I can see it," Jon said through gritted teeth as he drew his sword. "We damn well better be the chosen ones or we're about to get our asses thoroughly kicked."

"I'd say our asses are gonna get kicked." Alex said from where he was standing.

"Not if I can help it," trench coat laden man said as he walked forward. *Just hope I know what I'm doing,* he though in dismay.

He continued to walk forward until he was sure he was a good distance from the others then stopped and took a defensive stance. Much to his surprise his would-be opponent stopped as well. He drew one of the swords from his belt.

"I am under the firm belief that one should know his opponent before engaging in battle. I am Karatenmon," he said with a slight bow.

"Jon McCloud," the human replied, returning the bow with after a slight confused pause.

"Good. Now we may begin."

With that, the bird Digimon flapped his wings to levitate himself off the ground and then rushed forward, his sword at the ready. Jon's body seemed to act on its own as it drew his own sword upward to block the swipe that his foe took at him. Unfortunately, the attack held such force behind it that it knocked him off his feet.

"Great," he muttered.

Before he could say or think anything else Karatenmon followed up with his attack by slicing downwards, but again Jon countered it with his own blade. He pushed the sword away then jumped to his feet and tried to take a slice out of the Digimon's side only for his blade to be countered with time. The blades when back simultaneously and each combatant took a defensive stance, readying themselves for the next bout.

***

Wizardmon had made his way over to Rebecca as soon as the battle between the swordsmen had started, he watched the results of the battle with interest. A human facing one of the most skilled sword-digimon was unheard of. A human in the digital world had been unheard of before these humans had appeared. Turning to his human partner, Wizardmon saw that the girl was worried. He could not see it on her face as it was almost emotionless, it was Rebecca's fighting fingers that told him that the girl was worried. Her tarot cards still in one hand, the girl was unconsciously shuffling the cards.

"Why do you not help with your magic?" Wizardmon asked his human partner.

"I don't know how to use magic." Rebecca calmly replied to the Digimon.

While the Rebecca and Wizardmon watched their teammate with concern, Jon had his attention focused solely on the opponent in front of him. From the brief exchange they just had he could already tell that this Karatenmon was a skilled swordsman or Digimon, or whatever. The point was he was really good and Jon was...well not. He knew a few moves from his exercises but not enough to take on some with this level of skill. Still...something inside him seemed to push him on. Something that told him he could stand a few minutes with this enemy, but not much longer than that. Still, maybe it'd be enough to let his friends get away. Or at least keep them from worrying about Karatenmon attacking them for a bit.

He took a deep breath to steady his nerves then grasped the handle with two hands and held it towards his side as he began a charge towards the other swordsman. Karatenmon accepted the silent challenge and mimic Jon's actions. They stopped mid way in their charge and swung their weapons forward, the blades meeting with a loud, echoing "clang" and a small shower of sparks.

The two held their blades together for a moment before pulling back and beginning a dangerous dance of perries and thrusts.

Worrying about the other Digimon that were advancing on their position, Jennifer tried to see where her bag was. The girl thought that if she could just get to her bag, she might be able to use it as a projectile weapon at least once and maybe scare off one of the attacking Digimon. Her backpack however was over by Sam and she was on the other side of the sword battle from it. Thinking of sprinting over to were her bag was, Jennifer started to tense and make herself ready to run past the duelers, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her from taking the risky run.

"You cannot get to it. Trust one of the others to retrieve it. It would be foolish to run past a sword battle for a bag of items, no matter how precious those items are." Luxmon's voice rumbled from behind her.

"But I could use it. I could throw it at one of the Digimon, maybe scare it off." Jennifer said, trying to convince herself that her hastily though up plan would work.

"These Digimon are warriors. You can see it in how they fight. One bag would not scare them off." Jennifer's Digimon partner told her.

"I have to do something. I hate being helpless." Jennifer replied.

"Not may of us do." Luxmon said as he watched the progress of the Digimon that were ground-based.

"Well if you really feel that way then I'll give you something to do," the white skinned girl said as she floated down in front of them.

Since she was so close to them they could clearly make out her attire now. It was all navy blue with a sleeveless top and mini-skirt with a segmented ring of metal wrapped around her waist. She had knee high boots with steel plates on the toes and two, arm length, fingerless gloves. She gave the human and Digimon standing in front of her an evil grin as her eyes began to blue bright blue, as did her right hand.

"So, who wants to be first?" She asked.

"I will fight you." Luxmon said as she stepped in front of Jennifer, hoping to shield her from the other Digimon's attack.

"Fine by me. So let's start it off with this. Plasma Blast!" KuroiHimon shouted as the fired a blue bolt from her hand.

Luxmon drew a sword out of the sheath be his side and used it to block the blue bolt of energy that descended on him. Once he was sure that he had control over the blast, Luxmon forced the blast away from himself, sending it flying towards on of the ground based Digimon, who were still closing in on their position.

"Child's play. Try this. Sword Blaster!" Luxmon yelled as he aimed the tip of his sword at KuroiHimon. The sword split down the middle and started to collect an energy blast. Once the energy was at it's maximum, it was sent flying towards the air-borne Digimon.

KuroiHimon's eyes widened a bit as she saw the blast coming towards her and then took to the air just in time to avoid it. She hovered above her two targets and after a quick growl she unleashed a volley of blasts on the two.

Luxmon blocked as many blasts as he could, the number of blasts made it impossible for him to block all of them. He did his best however, only missing three of the ten blasts. Jennifer managed to dodge the blasts that Luxmon had missed, even so the last one was far too close for her comfort, the blast had hit the ground less than an inch from her.

With her eyes wide and gasping for air, Jennifer tried again to see if there was a way to get away from the advancing Digimon. The only way that was open to them was down the cliff, and that was not a good option. The cliffs were almost vertical and ragged. No one could survive climbing down them or falling down them. Wishing she wasn't so helpless, the girl watched as Luxmon returned fire on the flying Digimon.

The Digimon in question continued her assault in vain until she calmed down enough to think of a good strategy. She altered the angle of her hands and fired at the ground, causing a cloud of dust two envelope the Digimon and human girl. She took the moment of confusion to fly downward and land a hard right punch squarely on Luxmon's jaw.

Grunting as he fell, Luxmon didn't have time to try and avoid hitting Jennifer. The oldest girl, for her part, had been trying to find a way out of the dust that had clouded her vision when Luxmon crashed into her.

"Ouch." Jennifer said from beneath Luxmon.

"Now that's what I like to hear," their attacker grinned. "Just get ready to do some more screaming."

"You are the one who will be screaming." Luxmon said as he got to his feet and started firing at the other Digimon.

"Oh really? Well then bring it on!"

"I intend to." He replied as he pouring everything he had into his attacks.

KuroiHimon jumped, ducked, flew and anything else she could think of to avoid the brunt of the attacks, but some of them still grazed her. Unfortunately, for all the effort Luxmon was putting into them they seemed to have very little effect on her. He growled and fired another blast, which she also dodge, but her movements caused her hair to flow just in the way of the blast.

Time seemed to stop for her as the smell of charred hair reached her nose. She stood motionless for several seconds before grabbing the end of it and holding it up to her eyes. Her pupils seemed to shrink as they fell upon the blanked ends.

"My hair," she whispers. "My beautiful hair. YOU CHARRED MY HAIR!!!!"

"I will char more than that." Luxmon said as he charged the female Digimon.

The pale skinned girl growled and charged as well, but unfortunately it was broken as a large, green and black figure fell on top of her. Luxmon stopped mid-step and both he and Jennifer looked up in time to see TenchoTentomon floating down towards them.

"Sorry about being late, but I had my hands tied up," he said.

"Better late then never." Jennifer said from where she was slowly getting up.

"Yep. So then, how many are left?"

"Too many for you alone to handle." Luxmon told the fused Digimon.

"True but at least I could help."

"No!" Stingmon protested as he pulled himself to his feet. "You will not put me aside so easily."

"I guess not. I was really hoping I could though," TenchoTentomon said as he readied himself for another round.

Sam looked on at the impending renewed battle between TenchoTentomon and Stingmon then cast her gaze over to the navy clad female Digimon that was starting to stand up and then over to the two beast like Digimon approaching Rebecca, Wizardmon and Alex. She stared at them all with a sense of helplessness. She wanted to help out her friends, but she wasn't sure how. The only thing she had that could be of any real use was here bike. But...she couldn't damage that, it was too important to her. Not to mention there was probably no way she could get it fixed while in this world. But if she didn't her new found friends could be hurt.

*What do I do?* she asked herself in a moment of indecision. *What's more important, the lives of human beings or the perfect bike?* She paused. *Damn that's a lot harder question than it should be.*

Taking another step back, Rebecca moved closer to Alex. Wizardmon moved with her, possibly understanding what she was doing. Moving to protect the most venerable member of the group, Alex. Alex for his part was not being too supportive of the move, seeing as how it blocked his view of the fights.

"Move aside already 'Becca. I want to see Stingmon go down. Why aren't you fighting like everyone else anyway?" Alex complained as Rebecca moved in front of him again.

"I'm trying to protect you, idiot. If you haven't noticed, you can't exactly fight back." Rebecca said somewhat bitingly.

"What's it with you dumb girls? I don't need to be protected. If you'd just leave me alone, so would the Digimon." Alex retorted in a huff.

"'Those who do not carry swords, can still die upon them.'" Rebecca quoted.

"You know that's not what I need to hear right now!" Jon shouted as he barely avoided another swipe from Karatenmon's blade.

"You have a sword." Rebecca blankly replied as she took another step towards Alex.

"Lot of good it's doing me," Jon muttered as his own attack was blocked.

He gritted his teeth as he tried to hold his opponent's blade down to gain some kind of advantage. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. This Digimon was strong and a lot more skilled than he was. Of course that wasn't surprising considering he had never actually fought with his sword before. What was surprising was that fact that he was able to hold his ground so well. It was like he had known and practiced these moves his whole life, like it was second nature to him. But how? Was it something he actually did have hidden within him or something the Digital World was feeding into him?

*Well, no time to worry about it now,* he thought as the bird Digimon broke the stand off.

Jon jumped back as the blade swung forward and cut his shirt. He looked down in shock and was relieved to find it was only his shirt that was hit. Still that was too close for comfort.

As she watched the fights continue, Sam finally came to a decision. She slipped on her helmet and mounted her bike.

"I'm sorry baby," she cooed as she patted the gas tank.

She then started the bike up, but before she could make a move, Rinkmon jumped in front of her.

"And where do you think you're going?" He cackled.

"Right through you," she replied, narrowing her eyes behind her helmet visor.

She revved the bike up once and then drove full speed towards the spiky Digimon. His eyes widened in surprise and he barely jumped out of the way in time. He looked back at her in surprise as she spun the bike around to face him again.

"Are you crazy?!" He shouted.

"Been called that and worse," Sam replied, then revved her bike again.

She charged him again, but this time he took a crouching position and waited until she was about a foot or so away before leaping forward and knocking her off the bike. She cried out in pain as her back was slammed into the ground. Rinkmon smiled maliciously down at her and raised his fist to shatter her helmet when an arrow of light stuck into his side. He shouted in agony and fell off of her, withering on the ground. Sam groaned and leaned on her elbows to see Angewomon giving a reassuring smile.

"Thanks," she said. "Did you happen to save my bike as well?"

"Don't worry, it's just fine," Angewomon replied.

"Good."

The dinosaur Digimon, Stegomon, having been deprived of his primary target, turned his attention to the next digidestined he saw. Rebecca was still trying to protect Alex, much to his annoyance, and didn't realize that Stegomon had started to move in her direction. She was so caught up in what she was doing that she didn't even notice the slight tremors that accompanied the heavy Digimon's stride. Luckily, Wizardmon saw that Stegomon was about to charge Rebecca.

"Vision of Terror!" Wizardmon exclaimed. The attack caught Stegomon off guard, and soon the dinosaur Digimon was caught up within a nightmare of his own mind.

Peacockmon had been advancing on Jennifer and Luxmon when he was practically run-over by Stegomon. At the last second, before Stegomon collided with him, Peacockmon had been able to use his arm wings as a shield against the dinosaur's attack. It did the metal bird little good, Stegomon's charge had enough speed and power behind it to push the bird off the side of the cliff. The dinosaur Digimon stopped just short of going over the cliff himself. Stegomon then looked for another opponent.

"WHAT are you DOING you lumbering OAF?!" Peacockmon yelled at the dinosaur, and was promptly ignored by Stegomon. Flying down in front of the land-based Digimon, Peacockmon started yelling at him again. "You IDIOT! I was almost to those two that KuroiHimon was battling! I could have BEATEN them, IF you hadn't ATTACKED me!! WHAT do you THINK you're DOING??"

Stegomon ignored the bird Digimon and attacked again. This time however, Peacockmon was not prepared for the attack and was thrown across the battlefield into Karatenmon. Stegomon turned again and saw his new target...KuroiHimon. Charging, the dinosaur gave an anguished cry and tried to attack the human-type Digimon.

"What the-?!" the female Digimon cried as she saw her supposed teammate charging towards her.

She took to the air and watched as he roared up towards her.

"You turning traitor on us?!" she shouted at him. "Well that's just fine by me. Never liked you anyway."

She charged up one of her Plasma Blasts and was about to fire down at the enraged dinosaur when a hand reached out and grabbed her own. She slowly turned her head, ready to vaporize the fool who dared stop when she saw her commander Stingmon staring back at her.

"Stop. It's not his fault," he told her.

"Oh? And then who's fault is it?!" she shouted back.

"His," the insectoid said, pointing down to Wizardmon.

Taking advantage of the lull in the fighting, Luxmon and Jennifer carefully made their way over to Rebecca, Alex and Wizardmon. The stopped for less than a second, once they were out of Stegomon's sight, so that Jennifer could retrieve her backpack. Jennifer noticed that even as they were making their way over to where Rebecca and Alex were, the others were starting to make their way over as well.

It took only a moment for the rest of the group to join them. Seeing at there was no need for him anymore, TenchoTentomon de-digivolved back into Ray and Tentomon.

"I'd ask what you guys did, but I think right now we'd better get the hell out of dodge," Ray suggested

"I agree. If we leave now, we might not attract their attention as much." Rebecca commented.

"So where we do we go?" Jon asked.

"Uh...that way," Ray said, pointing towards his left.

"Works for me," the longhaired man shrugged.

Grabbing Alex, Luxmon followed behind the humans. It was only when he had taken a few massive steps that he realized that Wizardmon had stayed. Turning, he called back, "What are you doing wizard?"

"Keeping them busy. Go ahead, I will be right there." Wizardmon replied, as he concentrated on keeping Stegomon locked inside the nightmare.

"Sorry little guy, but we need to get moving," Sam said as she grabbed his cape while she passed him on her bike.

The motion of being dragged by his cape, broke Wizardmon's concentration, thus releasing Stegomon from the nightmare that had kept the Dinosaur from attacking the humans. All Wizardmon could do was cry out no as he was forcefully dragged from the battlefield.

From high above the former battleground, Stingmon and KuroiHimon watched as the humans and their Digimon ran off.

"They're getting away!" KuroiHimon shouted as she struggled against Stingmon's grip.

"Let them. Right now we need to tend to our wounded and regroup to plan our next strategy," the commander replied.

"Our strategy should be blowing them up! Sitting back and talking about all this crap only gives them more of a chance to get away!"

"Not if they're heading we I think they are. And for this trap to work I need to see if Stegomon is alright."

"And if he's not?"

"Well improvise. For now though we find out if he's alright, what caused him to go crazy and most importantly," he paused to yank her close so that his face was inches away from hers, "how to work as a team."

With that, he forcefully tossed her arm aside then floated down to see to his other teammates. KuroiHimon stayed in the air and glared down at him. How dare he treat her like that! She was his best soldier and he knew it. And if he didn't, then maybe it was time for a new leader. She smiled at that thought then floated down to join her "teammates", waiting to hear what great words of wisdom their "leader" would turn out.

Ray led the charge away from the group of Digimon that had attacked them. He really had no idea where he was going, but as long as it put distance between them and their attackers, it was the right way. Briefly he glanced behind himself and saw that the others were following dead on his tracks, with Angewomon and Tentomon flying while Luxmon carried Alex. He then looked over to his right and saw Sam riding her bike slightly ahead of him with Wizardmon now seated behind her.

*Good. Everyone's here. Now I just need to figure out where we're going,* he thought.

"Hey can you hurry it up?! It's killing me to ride this slow!" Sam complained.

"Well sorry excuse us if the rest of us forgot to bring our motorcycles along!" Ray snapped.

"This mechanical machine is quite...fast." Wizardmon spoke up so he could be heard over the engine of the bike.

"Trust me, this is nothing. When we find the time and space I'll show you what this baby can REALLY do," Sam gloated.

"I...look forward to that." Wizardmon said hesitantly, as his face was nearing a sickly shade of green.

Ray ignored the conversation as he continued running. This area had little in the way of cover and by the way the ground was squishing beneath his feet, it was easy to tell that it had rained recently. Idly, he thought it was weird to have rain in a digital world, but pushed it back to focus on the matter at hand.

When he did, his eyes widened as he saw a steep hill right in front of them. He looked over at Sam and could just barely see her eyes from behind her visor looking back at him in horror. They both stopped at the same time, but unfortunately, her slipped on the slick grass and mud beneath them and tipped over. She slid a bit and came to a stop just before going over the mud drenched hill.

Ray let out a startled gasp both at what had just happened and that fact that his effort to stop was no better than Sam's. He had tried to dig his heals into the ground, but it was no use. He slipped and collided with the girl, sending her, her bike, Wizardmon and himself sliding down the steep hill.

The others soon followed suit, slipping on the wet ground and finding themselves taking a rather rough and tumble trip down the hill. Even Angewomon was literally dragged down with them as Alex had reached out and held onto her leg to keep himself from falling. The only one who had avoided the unpleasantness was Tentomon, who gently flew down and landed at the base of the hill in front of the pile of tangled human and Digimon limbs.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked hesitantly.

Multiple groans replied Tentomon's question. Those were soon replaced by shouts as everyone tried to get untangled.

"Would someone get this big lug offa me!" Alex yelled from somewhere under Luxmon.

"AHH! Who just grabbed my leg?" Jennifer cried out.

"Ouch. Whoever is stepping on my hair, MOVE!" Rebecca yelled in a rare moment of anger.

"OW!! My eye!" Jon shouted.

"I think I fell on my keys," Ray groaned.

"My bike. Is my bike-AAAAHH!!! Who just grabbed my breasts?!" Sam roared.

"Sorry, it was an accident. I thought that was someone's knees." Alex apologized somewhat half-heartedly.

"Can someone please move whatever is poking my in the back?" Wizardmon's muffled voice came from the middle of the pile.

"This is...not going as planned," Angewomon groaned from the bottom of the pile, she had somehow found herself in.

"I hate to rush you all, but we might have more problems," Tentomon said as he looked at an approaching group of rock Digimon.

"Alex, if that's your hand on my butt, I'll KILL you!" Jennifer yelled out.

"Trouble? Tentomon what is happening?" Rebecca asked as she gritted her teeth when someone stepped on her hair again.

"We appear to have landed in a Gotsumon village and the locals have spotted us. Normally, they wouldn't attack us, but with what's happen recently..." the bug Digimon explained.

"Do not worry, I shall defend you from them." Luxmon said as he tried to carefully untangle himself from the pile, only to trip over someone's legs.

"Well that's a nice thought there, but I think we need to get out of this mess before we think about fighting," Jon groaned.

"I agree." Wizardmon said as he tried to move his hands to a point in the center of the pile, "If I could just....Gale Breeze!"

The top half of the pile was suddenly blown off the pile. Alex, Jennifer and Sam landed hard against the muddy slope they had fallen down. A series of groans and muttered curses came from the remaining pile as those still left, untangled themselves from each other. When that was done, everyone made their way to their feet to find their clothes, faces, and hair caked in mud, save for Sam who still had her helmet it on at the time of the unfortunately incident. The others, however, had not been so lucky and suffered some bruises on top of now being dirty.

"Bug-guy, you didn't mention that the entire village was comin'. How the hell are we suppose ta fight all of those little rock jerks?" Alex complained from where he was trying to stand in the mud.

"As best we can," Jon replied as he unsheathed his sword, which now felt ten pounds heavier.

"Please, we mean you no harm," one of the Gotsumon spoke up. "We simply heard the commotion and wanted to see what was happening. I think I can speak for everyone when I say we didn't expect to find humans."

"So is that good or bad?" Sam asked, a little weary of these strange Digimon.

"It's...interesting. But if you need help, we'll gladly assist you."

"Uh...hold that thought," Ray said as he turned towards the others and motioned for them to come close to him. "So what do you guys think?"

"We do need a place to rest and...clean up." Rebecca said as she looked at a section of her mud caked hair.

"Don't really have a choice, do we? If we try to continue we'll be sitting ducks."Jennifer commented, adding her vote for staying.

"As long as this place ain't a mile away, I say we stay." Alex commented, for once seeming serious, "Besides we'll all have to have a bath sometime, ladies."

"Keep dreaming prev. Actually that reminds me," Sam said as he reached over and smacked Alex hard across the face. "There, that's better. And yeah, I agree with Becky and Jen, we need to rest."

"Yeah. We're all too tired to fight. But that doesn't mean we can't be on our guard," Jon cautioned.

"Well sounds like the humans agree, but how about you guys?" Ray asked, looking over at the Digimon.

"Well the only real concern with the Gotsumon is their numbers. They're not known to be fighters," Tentomon informed them.

"Indeed, and I believe we should be safe here. For a little while at least," Angewomon agreed.

"We have not been followed yet, but that does not mean that our attackers will not come." Luxmon said as he nodded in agreement with Angewomon's statement, "I think the wizard would agree, if he were awake."

At that statement, Rebecca spun to look for Wizardmon. She found her partner quickly, as Luxmon was carrying the sleeping Digimon. "Is he ok? He isn't hurt badly, is he?" Rebecca asked the bigger Digimon.

"He is fine. He simply sleeps from exhaustion." Luxmon reassured the concerned girl.

"That is good. I'll carry him, if you put him on my back. That way you will only have to worry about Alex." Rebecca told Luxmon.

"I guess it's unanimous then," Ray said before turning back to the crowd of Gotsumon. "Alright, we'll stay here for a bit. Uh...do you guys have a way for us to get cleaned up?"

"We have a creek at the other end of our village where you can wash yourselves and you clothes off," the lead Gotsumon replied.

"Alright. Do you have any towels?"

"Towels? Well...we have some wash rags we use to polish ourselves with, maybe those can help you."

"Only one way to find out. Lead the way."

Rebecca sagged slightly as the weight of her Digimon partner settled on her back. Gritting her teeth she started after Ray and the Gotsumon, praying that the village wasn't far. If she had realized that Wizardmon weighed more than her cousins, who were the same height as the Digimon, she might not have offered to carry him. As it was, she was barely keeping with the others. Even Luxmon, who had to retrieve Alex, had already passed her.

"Just what I need, to get lost on the way to a temporary safe-haven." The burdened girl muttered to herself.

Jon heard her muttering and turned his head to ask her what she had said when he noticed how far behind she actually was. He looked towards the other for a moment before turning around and walking back towards her.

"Here, let me help," he offered.

"I can do this." Rebecca said stubbornly, "He is my Digimon partner. We need to be able to take care of each other."

"True, but it won't do him or you any favors if you break your back carrying him."

Rebecca stubbornly took a few more steps before she sagged to her knees from the combination of Wizardmon's weight and her own pain and exhaustion.

"I should be able to do this, why can't I?" The girl asked herself in a whisper.

"Because no one can carry the weight of the world by themselves. Or in this case a Digimon," Jon said with a shrug as he stood above her.

"Does you offer for help still stand?" Rebecca asked as she looked up at Jon.

"Of course. We're a team after all, we're suppose to help one another out," he replied as he held out a hand to help her up.

"I think I might take you up on that offer." Rebecca said ask she took Jon's hand and carefully pulled herself back up without dropping Wizardmon.

"Well now that that's settle, which end do you want to carry?"

"I'll take his feet...his hat would be a distraction." Rebecca told Jon.

Jon raised an eyebrow at that statement and was about to make a comment, but shook his head when he thought better of it. He carefully grabbed the unconscious Digimon's head and then turned around so that he would be walking backwards.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all," he muttered as he strained his neck to see behind him.

"If you have a better idea, I'm open to suggestions."

"Right now I just want to get to this village so I can rest."

"Frankly, I want to get clean before I rest. I cannot stand leaving my hair in such a state. It would be as hard as cement in no time at all."

Jon chuckled. "Yeah, I know how that can be."

Rebecca grinned slightly, then set her face behind her emotionless mask once more. "I hope that Jennifer has some shampoo. There is no way all this mud will come out with just water."

"As far as you know. Remember the physics of this world could be a lot different than ours."

"The gravity is the same. Time passes the same. So I do not see how the rest of physics will not be the same."

Jon glance down at the sword tucked away in his belt and remembered how he had been able to stand his ground against Karatenmon so well.

"Maybe," he said

"I think....we have lost the others." Rebecca said as she looked ahead of them and saw no one, and no sign of a village.

"Wonderful. Well let's just keep walking this way, that's the last place I saw them heading so hopefully we'll find this place eventually."

"Hopefully." Rebecca said as she continued to walk towards where the others had be last seen.

They continued their trek for several more minutes, stopping only to adjust the weight from the not-so-little Digimon. Eventually, Rebecca had spotted the outline of the village and they picked up their pace slightly. When they reached it they found the others standing in the middle of a crowd of Gotsumon, deep in some kind of conversation. It was Jennifer who first noticed them approaching.

"Rebecca! Jon! Where have you been? We thought those other Digimon might have gotten you." Jennifer called out as she jogged over to where the two humans and sleeping Digimon were.

"Wizardmon was....heavier than he looks." Rebecca replied simply.

"A lot heavier," Jon added in a groan. "Is there anywhere we can set him down?"

"Bring him over here. You can let him rest over here." A Gotsumon told the two as it pointed towards something that looked like a combination of a park bench and a daybed.

They did as they were instructed and carefully laid Wizardmon down on the bench. When they made sure he was as comfortable as he could be and that he wouldn't fall off they let go and stood up. As he did so, Jon let out a loud groan and held his back.

"Damn. That'll be the last time I do something like that," he grunted.

"Thank-you." Rebecca said quietly, before she turned and walked over to where Jennifer and Sam were talking.

"So what's going on?" Jon asked, as he too walked up to the group.

"Well, the Gotsumon said they're willing to let us use their creek clean up whatever we need to and they'll let us sleep here tonight," Ray explained.

"Sounds good."

"Of course there is a problem," Sam spoke up.

"And that would be?" Rebecca asked.

"Since the Gotsumon are so much smaller than we are *this* is what they have for towels," she replied, holding a small rag that when tied properly wouldn't even reach around her waist.

Rebecca's eyes widened a bit, then turning to the males of the group, and surprising everyone, "Women have first chance at cleaning up. And you ...'men', if you are caught trying to take-a-peak.....we'll let Sam deal with you."

"And trust me, it'll be ten times worse than anything those guys we just fought would do to you," she threatened, giving them all an evil glare.

"Thought never crossed my mind," Ray said.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Jon added.

"And not to be rude, but I don't find human woman to be particularly attractive," Tentomon spoke up.

"Shut-up Bug-boy! And like I'd want to look at you flat-chested bunch of nags." Alex sneered from a nearby bench.

"Can I PLEASE kill him!" Sam pleaded, trembling with rage.

"No. We might need him yet. He IS a part of this group, whether we like it or not." Jennifer said as she put herself between Alex and Sam.

"One of you finally figured it out. Took you long enough." Alex snorted.

"But we CAN teach him some manners." Jennifer said before she slapped Alex's face, then turned and stormed off towards the creek, grabbing her bag as she went.

"And don't worry, I'll stand guard so that none of them will be tempted to peek," Angewomon said as she followed behind Jennifer.

"Sounds good. I need to get this junk out of my hair. Come on Sam, let's leave the boys to talk." Rebecca said as she waited behind Sam, until the other girl moved towards the creek and away from her possible murder victim.

As the boys watched them leave a single thought began to run through their minds and they looked at each other in a slightly nervous manner.

"Alright I'll be the first to say it, there's no way in hell I'm bathing near any of you," Jon said, looking back and forth between the male humans and Digimon.

"Same here," Ray agreed.

"Oh sure, like I was planning on that, ya sword swinging freak." Alex's sarcastism was clearly heard.

"You know, maybe we should let Sam kill him," Jon retorted.

"Let's just leave that alone for right now," Ray said as he turned towards one of the Gotsumon. "So you guys got anything else for us?"

"Well the creek is large enough so that you should be able to bath far enough away from one another," one of them explained.

"Guess it'll have to do. Alright, grab a couple towels and pick your spot."

The remaining members of the group did as their leader instructed and walked away from one another to steak out their place in the creek. After they were out of side, the Gotsumons' eyes all narrowed and they looked at each other.

"We'll keep them here, you go find the master," the lead one had instructed the one next to him.

The Gotsumon in question nodded and then ran off, leaving his brethren to plan their actions against the humans and the traitor Digimon with them.

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