TriceroDragon: Well, I must offer deep apologies. My life has been really busy, and I haven't had much time for updating, I'm suppose High School life just doesn't allow much time for Fan fiction dedication. But, I am doing my best, and here's a new chapter.

Chapter Two...

Izumi...

I thought Takuya was being immature. Impulsive. Even reckless. He was as close as we could get to having a leader. But right now he was NOT acting like it.

I could reach over and slap him, and I almost did; but as I lifted my hand, someone grabbed my wrist. Not roughly or anything, but hard enough to restrain me. I whirled, ready to confront who I though was Junpei, attempting another one of his stabs at romance. But it wasn't Junpei, or Kouji. It was our new companion, Darren.

He spoke, softly. "Don't do that Izumi, he's just venting, I suppose" he said, continuing "I heard from Junpei about you exploits versus the Dark Legendary Warriors. From what I've heard, you've defeated two?" he finished.

I knew what he was doing, but maybe I didn't care, I just felt like talking to someone my own age, who wouldn't freeze me out or try to be my boyfriend. "We've taken out our share of evil warriors since we got here" I commented.

"I've had my own share of encounters with each of them at some point or another, but unless I can find some way of getting Torikmon and Retrimon past Ultimate, I'll have to settle for just fending them off when they attack" Darren said.

I clasped his hand in mine. "Well with your help I'm sure taking down the rest will be easy" I said with a tone of fierce determination present in my voice.

"Well then, I guess things are finally looking up" Darren said, his eyes lighting up. I still didn't know much about our new friend, but he seemed to flow with an eternal optimism; something I guess I'd lost along this journey through the Digital World.

It was about an hour's worth of walking later, or so I guessed, and we'd stopped at what we believed to be an empty old ruin. Bokomon had pulled Retrimon and Torikmon aside to take a look at them.

He had them doing all kinds of poses. Retrimon as a canine-type Digimon had excellent balance, so he had no problems. However, Torikmon, as a dinosaur-type, was having more than his share of troubles. I was helping Darren with the fire as we conversed.

"So how'd you make it here to the Digital World, Darren?" I asked, piling wood on the fire.

"Well it seemed that the train I happened to catch at Grand Boulevard Station, was completely empty. The only reason I was there in the first place was because I got a strange message on my Palm Pilot. I must've passed that station a million times on my way to school and never noticed it."

"So anyway, it started moving. First it was on a rather gradual slope, but then, it started speeding straight down! I completely freaked and grabbed a bar to keep from falling. I started to scream for dear life. Then, an odd shape formed in my pocket where I'd stuffed my PDA, and when I reached in, I found this" He held up his D-Scanner.

I pondered this for a minute then replied. "Sounds like what happened to us. We all got messages on our cell phones, which guided us to a secret basement area of Shibuya terminal, then the train we boarded there sped wildly down a dark tunnel, and then went straight up!"

"Then our D-Scanners formed and what were to be our H-Spirits flickered over us. Then some weird, white floating Digimon squished up against the train window. I got scared and Takuya made some stupid comment about them being ghosts." I said.

Through my long-winded story, our new ally had sat, and listened, more attentive that Kouji or Takuya, and without Junpei's malaise.

Late into the night we told stories and laughed about past adventures.

I don't know what time it was when I suddenly felt hungry. I voiced it to Darren. For a moment he looked thoughtful, and then called over to Retrimon who was on night watch. "Ho, Retri, toss Izumi a spike, willya?"

I wondered at this for a second, and then I saw the dog digimon's eyes glow blue, and a spike fire from the middle line on his back, straight into the dark night sky.

I wondered how Darren would catch the sharp spike. My question was quickly answered. Soon enough a whistling sound was heard.

The spike hit the stone floor, but did not shatter as I expected, but stood straight up for a moment, then the stone around the tip rippled a bit, like water, and the spike sank about a third of the way in.

Darren stood and spoke. "He's a Wind element Digimon. He must respect you a lot, Warrior of Wind" he said calmly, walking over to the spike "He hardly ever does that" he said, starting to tug at the embedded spike. "Show off..." he muttered audibly, grunting with each tug of the spike.

He fell flat on his butt as the spike came free unexpectedly. Retrimon snickered. Darren tossed me the spike and glared daggers at the canine Digimon.

I finished my spike. Darren folded his arms behind his head, and closed his eyes. I followed suit quickly, and soon dozed off near Takuya.

TriceroDragon: Again, sorry for the long update. In the next chapter, chaos ensues over a drink of water, Takuya has a funny dream, and more.