Disclaimer: Again, I do not own any official Digimon who will appear in the fic. The group through, Tucker, Jake, Leah, Charlie and Erin, are mine. Other than that, let us regroup with the team as they continue their journey through the game...

Digimon X: Game 5-The Mystery of the 'Swamp Monster'

By DigiScanner-Shonen

It was getting dark as we continue moving through the area. I don't like the dark. You never really know what's in it. Luckily, Flamon's fire was lighting the way. We had passed through another of what Leah calls "DigiBarriers" and had stumbled upon a swamplike area. It seemed to go on for miles.

"Hmmm," Tucker says, looking the area over, "it goes on for quite a bit."

"Yeah, we can see that, Takeyama," Charlie huffs.

"I think we should make camp," Erin offers, "It's almost completely dark and we've been walking for hours."

"Good idea. All right everyone," Tucker announces, "We're making camp. For now, we need the various stuff before it gets too dark to see. Bearmon, since you're the best cook, you can make something for us."

"All right, but I don't have much to work with," Bearmon says, looking around.

"Charlie, Erin, Labramon and Jake will assist you. Leah, Flamon and I will go and collect the firewood."

Bearmon has a rough idea of where to get some food. Apparently, there are some tasty plants and little frogs to eat. We all wade into a particularly swampy area and start to collect the plants and catch the frogs.

"That's it, keep going," Bearmon tells us as he gathers everything in a pile, "We just need a couple more little frogs now."

"Hey Bearmon, how come you're not helping?" Erin asks.

"Yeah Bearmon. You know all about these things, you should be helping us. We are partners, after all," Charlie states.

"I am helping! I'm trying to determine what kind of entrée I can make with these ingredients," Bearmon defends as he looks at the things we had got, "Let's see...Frog Sushi? Nah, too gruesome for humans...Seaweed and Tadpole Stew? Uh uh, don't have potatoes..."

"Hey Erin," I ask her, "I was just wondering..."

"Wondering what, Jake?"

"Do you think we'll ever get back home? I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a game. It's too big and scary. I wanna go back to Mom and Dad..." I cry, remembering my parents faces, "I only wanted to play this for fun. I don't want to stay here forever! I wanna go home!"

"Oh...oh, oh, oh..." Erin says, pulling me into a small hug, "It's okay. You'll be fine here. There's Tucker and Flamon, Leah and Labramon and Charlie and Bearmon here to protect you. Not to mention you got me here. And I promise to you, we'll get out of here. You'll see your mom and dad again."

I sniff, feeling a bit better. "Erin...you're so nice. I never had a sister. Will you be my older sister?"

"Sure," Erin smiles brushes away a couple of my tears, "Just remember, whatever Tucker or I say to you, goes."

"Okay," I say, feeling much better that Erin was my sister now.

"Hey! If you've got time to hug, keep finding food! It's almost totally dark!" Charlie yells at us.

"Don't worry, Charlie. We're working!" Erin says as she brakes the hug.

A little while later, we have a fire going and we're eating Bearmon's Roasted Tadpole Rolls. Even though it scares me a bit, I eat anyway. It's actually good.

"Bearmon!" Tucker says with his mouth full, "Can you do no wrong with food?"

"Hah! Wrong is a word that I don't see in my DigiDictionary!" Bearmon smiles proudly, puffing his chest out.

"Delicious! What's the recipe?" Flamon asks.

"That's my own little secret! You forget, I was one of the great cooks of Forest Village!"

"Yeah," Charlie swallowed the last of his food, "Anyway, back to original matters. I mean, this is the Digital World and Digimon could attack us at anytime. I propose that we watch in shifts. Bearmon and I will take the first shift."

"I'll take the next one," Leah adds.

"I'm not leaving the both of you to do this alone! I'm in!" Tucker states.

"I guess I'll finish up the night," Erin says, "How many hours do we watch for?"

"Two hours would be good," Leah answers.

"At first light, we'll make our way through this swamp to the next area. Maybe that's where Erin and Jake's partners will be," Tucker says, "For now, let's all just get some shut eye."

"I'm with you on that, Tucker," Erin yawns, "Night all."

"Night," we all say as we fall asleep and Charlie kept watch.

Well, I'm sure the others fell asleep. I couldn't sleep. I keep thinking about Mom and Dad back home. They must be really worried, I think. What if Erin lied? What if we couldn't get back and we'd be stuck here for the rest of our lives?

I kept thinking about this, over and over. Soon, I got tired from thinking and fell asleep. My dreams turned bad as I dreamt that I would be trapped in the Digital World forever. The others would abandon me. Even Erin. I'd be dragged down and down into darkness...

"Jake...Jake...It's time to get up," I hear a voice call my name. It sounded like Mom trying to wake me up. Was I home? Was it all just a bad dream? I open my eyes and see Erin's face. "Come on, Jake. We're moving through the swamp as soon as Tucker wakes up."

"Wha...?" I ask. Then I look over at Tucker. He was spread out on his back, snoring loudly with a bubble blowing in and out from his nose. It was funny to see. Flamon uses a Flame Fist on him and Tucker was given a rude awakening. I struggle to keep myself from laughing as he bounced about trying to put out the fire on his backside.

He finally falls into the swamp and has the fire put out. "Okay! I'm up! Let's go!" he says as he turns around and started trudging through the swamp. As he walks, I can't help but giggle. So did the others. It was pretty funny.

"What's so funny?" Tucker asks us. We all say nothing.

"Whatever," he says as we continued to chuckle behind his back.

After all, Tucker does have a giant slab of swamp grass on his butt that Erin vaguely reads as "Kick Me".

We tread through the swamp, Flamon and Tucker in front, Erin and I behind him, Leah and Labramon behind us and Charlie and Bearmon taking up the rear. Even though I feel safe with the Digimon and Erin with me, I feel kind of strange. Like there's something out there, watching you.

I gaze down at the water as we passed. Past a giant lily pad far to the right, I see it. A pair of eyes, rippling in the water. I was being watched!

"Aahhh!" I yelp.

"Jake! What's going on?" Erin asks as the others look ready to fight.

"I saw a pair of eyes! Over there!" I point to where I saw the eyes.

"Don't worry, Labramon and I will check it out," Leah promises as she heads off to where I was pointing. She checks the area around the giant lily pad, "I don't see anything!"

"Jake, were you pulling our legs?" Erin asks.

"No. I really saw a pair of eyes in the water!" I say.

"Maybe it was your imagination."

"Maybe," I admit.

"You made Leah go search for nothing?" Charlie growls, "We just wasted time because of you!"

"Charlie!" Leah scowls, "It never hurts to make sure."

"Whatever, let's just keep moving," Charlie huffs.

We keep on walking. "I really thought I saw eyes..." I whispers.

"I believe you, Jake," Erin whispers back.

"Thanks, Erin," I reply. Even as we kept walking, I still got that same strange feeling every few minutes.

It's a couple of hours later when we make it to what looks like an abandoned village. We are brought to a Digimon's house, up on a platform from a dock, led to by stairs. As we climb, I get that feeling again. Something was watching me and I didn't like it.

Tucker said to ignore it as we head into the small hut of a Gabumon. We all take a seat as Gabumon starts to make some tea.

"We hardly ever get visitors here in the swamp," Gabumon tells us as he hands us each a cup, "Especially because of the 'Swamp Monster'."

"'Swamp Monster'?" Charlie said doubtingly, "What 'Swamp Monster'?"

"This village used to be a nice place to live. Until a few weeks ago," Gabumon began, "when a mysterious monster started appearing in the area. It took residents of this village at random. After a few of us disappeared, the majority of the Digimon in the village moved to other areas. Only a few of us remain to live here. We won't abandon our homes just because a monster takes some of us unguarded!"

"What happens before the victim is taken?" Leah asks.

"Barely anyone knows. But I know a 'mon who knows what happens. He and his friend were just fishing a little ways from here when he saw it. A pair of eyes swimming in the water."

I gulp, knowing that was probably what I saw. Erin pats me on the shoulder and gives me a comforting grin, making me feel better.

"Then the monster attacked! The two Digimon tried to flee, but it was too fast. Suddenly, a giant tail whipped up from beneath the surface, wrapped its tail around the Digimon's friend and took him beneath the water. He was never seen again," Gabumon sniffed, like he was about to cry.

"Who's the Digimon who knows all this?" Tucker asks.

"I am. It was my friend who was taken," Gabumon looks down to his feet, remembering what happened.

"Oh, Gabumon. I'm so sorry," Leah comforts him.

"It's okay. I've been afraid to leave the village in fear that 'it' might get me before I make it out. But that's going to change!"

"How?" I ask.

"Because you're here! You came to take care of our problem, right?" Gabumon wondered.

"Of course!" Tucker grins, answering for all of us, "Taking care of bad monsters is our speciality!"

"Then, you'll help?"

"Yeah! After all, it's all part of the..."

Erin clamps his mouth this time. "How many times do we have to tell you not to say that!"

"Oops, heh heh," Tucker nervously muffled.

"Great! Just go on out and defeat that monster! Tell me when you defeat it," Gabumon says as he motions us out the door, "I'll be rooting for you!"

The door then slams shut.

"Well, that was rude," Bearmon comments. We climb down the ladder to the platform. As soon as my feet touch the dock, I get that feeling again.

"Jake, since you saw the eyes, you'll be our alert system for the 'Swamp Monster'," Tucker says to me, "How do you feel about that, buddy?"

I couldn't answer him. My eyes rolled to the side and I saw the eyes, larger than before. I couldn't move.

"Jake? I said, 'How do you feel about that?'" Tucker repeated.

"Nervous," I whisper, "He's here."

"Where?" Charlie wonders. Then a gigantic tail arose out of the water.

"There!" I scream. As soon as I said that, the tail wrapped around me and I was lifted into the air, "HELP ME!!"

The Digimon all launched attacks at the tail, but it dodged every one of them. Tucker orders Flamon to Flame Fist the tail directly. Flamon did as he was told and there's a scream from beneath the water. The tail loosened a bit.

"It's working! Hang in there, Jake!" Erin tells me.

"Bearmon! Claw it!" Charlie commands.

"Bear Claw!" Bearmon cried as he swiped at the tail. Another scream and the tail loosened a bit more.

"One more should do it! Labramon!" Leah cries.

Labramon just headbutts the tail, instead of an attack. It works anyway and I'm released from the tail and dropped back on the platform with the others. Tucker catches me in the fall.

"Whew! That was close, eh kiddo?" Tucker grins.

"Yeah," I nod, "What does it want with me, anyway?"

"I don't know, but we'll find out soon," Erin tells me.

There was a long green shape, the 'Swamp Monster'! We followed the direction from where the attacker was going. After a few minutes, we reached murky water and the trail had disappeared.

"Man! We'll never find it now!" Tucker clenches his fist, "Who knows where it is!"

"Obviously not you," Charlie snorts.

"Erg! Do YOU know where it is, then, smart guy?"

"No! But why are YOU leading us when you don't even know what you're doing? Who made YOU leader of this group?"

"I'm trying to get us home! YOU just choose to follow me! If you don't like what I'm doing, LEAVE!"

"Boys! Now's not the time!" Leah tries to break them up.

"Stay out of this, Leah!" Charlie barks at her.

"You can't talk to Leah like that!" Tucker says angrily.

"I just did! What? You have something for her?" Charlie asks.

"ARG! Why you..." Tucker begins to curl his fist while Leah tries to break them up. During all this, I feel uneasy again. I turn and see through the murky water, the eyes. Again.

"Guys..." I whisper.

"...I was the first one to have a Digimon..."

"So? That automatically makes you leader! HA..."

"Guys..." I say louder. The eyes seem to get bigger.

"...don't make me laugh, Takeyama. You couldn't lead a Girl Scout troop to save your life!"

"What makes you think I can't?"

"Guys!" I yelp as the tail reaches out, "IT'S HERE!"

"Huh?" Both Charlie and Tucker say at the same time.

The tail wraps around me again and I'm lifted into the air. "JAKE!!" is the last thing I hear from them as I'm taken under the water. It's so murky and I can barely see as I move through the water like a missile. I see shapes running after me. The others. I can vaguely make out things like "Jake, no!", "We're coming!" and "Hold on, kid!" from them.

I can't hold my breath for much longer. I never learned extended breath- holding from swimming lessons. I can't take anymore. I have to breathe! I try to move upwards to the air to breathe and let the others know where I am, but it takes all my strength to move since the tail wrapped around me is strong.

My mouth opens and I breathe in water. I can feel water rush past me as I'm no longer going horizontal, but diagonally. I'm going down into the darkness. The others abandoned me. They can't come to me. They don't want to come.

The darkness increases. They don't care. I'm not sure I care, either. I'm out of air. I can't last. I feel it swallow me whole.

The darkness...

Everything's dark. I can still hear Mom's voice calling me to wake up. I don't want to get up. Why should I even bother getting up when everything's dark?

Her voice calls again. This time, to open my eyes. Is that all the darkness is? My eyes closed? I decided to humour her and open them. I see a rocky ceiling. I sit up and find myself sitting on rock. There is a pool of water about a few feet away. Walls surround me on all sides. I look around and see several Digimon beside me. What were they?

Elecmon is one. Another is Otamamon. Around me, in total, are seven Digimon. They all look a little scared.

"Hey, kid," Elecmon asks me, "You okay? The Digimon tied you up with this." Elecmon shows me a stretched tail extension that fits on what looks like a giant tail.

"Yeah, I'm good. Why?"

"We never thought we'd see the day a human came to the Digital World. This might be a good thing. Maybe we can escape!"

"Escape? Why?"

"We were taken by the 'Swamp Monster' a few days ago. I was personally separated from my friend, a Gabumon, when we were fishing," he tells me. So this is Gabumon's friend! "I don't know what he plans to do with us, only that it's probably not good."

"Can you tell me who this 'Swamp Monster' is?" I ask.

"Well, he was once a resident of the village. He was more of a loner. He didn't have any family or anything, so he'd do anything for attention. One day, a small group of our younger ones invited him to a little village party. He was more than happy to participate. He had planned to show them a special exhibition of his work as being an aquatic Digimon so that he'd be noticed. Well, one of our younger ones thought it'd be funny to sabotage his exhibition. When this Digimon tried to show us a special move in mid- air, the young one and a couple of his friends scared him so that he'd land on his face and ruin the big finale he had in store at the end. We had a bit of a laugh, but the Digimon didn't like what he was hearing. That's when he said it..."

"One day, you'll be sorry! You'll all be sorry for laughing at me! I worked so hard on this and when I try to show you, you all laugh? One day, when you least expect it, I'll come back and you'll be scared silly of me! When that day comes, I'll be the one laughing!"

"...he left the village soon after that and we never saw him again."

"I guess I can empathise," I say as I remembered a similar thing happened to me at school at a talent show when I tried to show everyone how well I could juggle. I wasn't seeking payback, Mom and Dad comforted me and said I'd show them next time. But, then again, that Digimon didn't have anybody. I ask, "But who IS this Digimon?"

I see something come out of the pool of water on all fours. It's covered in silver armour with some fins sticking out on the front legs and it's neck. The claws on the front of the armour look sharp. It's pink below it's torso and on it's hind legs. His tail looks a ordinary grey while it's blue eyes have a cold look. I know this Digimon from the Encyclopaedia.

"Coelamon," I say aloud, quoting from the program encyclopaedia, "He's a Champion-levelled, Ancient Fish Data Digimon. His Fossil Bite and Ancient Bite attacks leave his opponents with a vague sense of what hit them."

"I see you've heard of me, little one," Coelamon says, "My reputation precedes me."

"I know why you've brought these Digimon here, but why me?" I ask, "I never did anything to you!"

"True," Coelamon admits, "But your friends did. They attacked me. They're trying to hurt me. Just like those villagers did to me two months ago! I was merely defending myself with my new weapon."

"What weapon?"

"Digivolution. I tried to show them, but when I was about to perform it, the villagers scared me and I failed it. I worked so hard to Digivolve to show them I could be useful and what do they do? They laugh at me! How do you think that feels when someone laughs at you when you foul up?" Coelamon asks.

"I...I..." I begin, "It hurts. Yes, people laugh at you for fouling up. But there's always next time. That's when you show them just what you can really do."

"That's exactly what I'm doing. Except I'm showing them through fear. Now, like I promised, I'm the one laughing! Ha ha ha ha!"

"You're showing them your potential through fear and anger? That's no way to show how good you are! That's just showing them how bad you can be! Think about it. True, their youngsters sabotaged what you were going to do, but is scaring the pants, or lack thereof, off these Digimon showing what good you can do for them? Or is it only what harm you can do?"

"But, they laughed..."

"Yes, it hurts, I know. I personally was in the same thing a couple months ago. But I didn't want revenge, I wanted another chance to show them. I ran away because I didn't think I could get it right again after the way they laughed. But I know I'll do better next time if I work hard enough!" I tell him as I move closer to Coelamon, "Tell me! Is what your doing getting you another chance to show everyone what you can really do?"

Coelamon is quiet. He's taking this all in. I think I can see a tear forming in his left eye. "The laughing..." he says, "It's died down. I could always hear the laughing. But, now...I can't hear anything."

He begins to cry fully now, "I can't hear anything!" I pull him into a hug, like Erin did to me yesterday, "Now I understand. It was the pain of that that fuelled my hatred. But after what you said...it's all gone. I can't even remember what they were laughing about now."

"You see? It'll all be okay. Just let us go and apologise for what happened and you'll get your second chance, I promise," I tell him.

"All right," Coelamon sniffs, "You can all go now. We're about twenty minutes from the village."

"But how can we get back?" An Otamamon asks.

"I'll take you all back myself! Put the tail extension on me and hold on tight!" Coelamon instructs, "Kid, you can ride on my back."

"Really? Great!" I cheer as I get on his back, "By the way, the name's not 'Kid'. It's Jake. Jake Kinochi."

"Well then, Jake Kinochi, hold on tight and hold your breath because here we go!" he says as we all hang on tight as he dives into the pool. My eyes are shut as water rushes past again. I hope it doesn't take too long to get to the surface. I feel us climb upward from the where we currently are. A little longer, a little longer, I tell myself as my breath begins to run out.

Soon I here a large splash. I can't help it anymore, I have to look. My eyes open and I'm greeted with the swamp's sky. I breathe in the air as we swim to the village. As we get further in, Digimon from behind jump off to rush home. The tail just kind of clips off as Coelamon and I continue the swim.

"Coelamon, let's go to Gabumon's house! Maybe my friends will be there," I say to Coelamon.

"Right! To Gabumon's house!" Coelamon says as we make our way to the house.

"Guys! Hey guys!" I call to my friends as Coelamon and I get on the dock. "Erin! Guys! It's Jake!" I see the others come out of the house. They all spot me and rush down the ladder to greet me.

"Jake! You're alive!" "We were so worried about you!" and "What happened, kid?" are some of the words told to me as Erin gives me a big hug and I hug her back. Then Tucker notices Coelamon.

"Whoa! Jake, stand back! We'll take care of this!" Tucker says as he motions for Flamon to attack.

"Hey wait! Tucker, stop!" I wave my hands, "Things have changed! Coelamon was once the 'Swamp Monster', but no more! He let go all the Digimon he kidnapped and is looking for a second chance! Just let him talk to everyone and have him apologise for what he did, please?"

"All right, Jake. If you say so..." Tucker says.

"Come on, Coelamon," I say to him, "Let's go start with Gabumon."

An hour or two later, Coelamon has apologised to everyone and is forgiven. I smile as Erin places her hands on my shoulders.

"See? Doesn't it feel good to be able to have another chance?" I ask Coelamon.

"It sure does! But, I'm not going to take it with them."

"What? But Coelamon..."

"After what you did for me, I'd like to show you!" Coelamon says as he glows and De-Digivolves. In a moment, another, smaller Digimon stands in his place. It looks like a weird looking tadpole with a straight line of hair sticking up and blue lines surrounding it. He's got just one claw on each leg. His red eyes show kindness.

Charlie pulls out his DigiVice and analyses the new Digimon. "Betamon. An Amphibian Viral Rookie. His Electric Shock and Beta Slugger attacks are used only in self-defence, but can be quite powerful when needed to be."

"Please let me join you, Jake. I promise you won't regret it," Betamon bows his head, asking humbly.

"Betamon..." I say in awe of how he's changed, "Of course I will! I wouldn't want anyone else by my side."

Betamon beams with joy and leaps into my arms. I happily welcome him and hug him back.

"Jake, look!" Erin points. I see a glowing orb come floating towards me. I touch it and it becomes a DigiVice, like Tucker, Charlie and Leah's, but it's green. My own DigiVice and my own real partner!

"This is great! I knew a Betamon was on my D-Card's information, but I never expected my partner to be the infamous 'Swamp Monster'!" I laugh. Everyone laughs with me as I pull Betamon into a stronger hug.

A new partner. A new sister. Could life get any better for me now? Well, it could if we could just find out way home.

And I bet that'll be soon.

TO BE CONTINUED!

As always, please review! Like these stories? Check out some of my other work. My bet is that you'll like them, too. Be on the lookout for chapter 6, coming soon!