Guess who's back from the dead? Yep, it's me! I just got so fed up with my writer's block, that I decided to stop for a while until I knew I could keep updating again. So, I hope you like this new addition and, yes, I will update my other stories. The stories that have been put on hold are active again! So please, R&R away and happy reading to ya!

Episode 5:

Alone In Another World

Impmon wandered the Digital World's desert alone, dragging his feet through the sand and dirt. It had been a few days after he lost his sister and right now he didn't care if a strong digimon came and destroyed him. He just wanted his sister back and this pain to go away. But another feeling – vengeance – had also entered his mind and he knew that he had to find the digimon that did this, no matter what.

Stopping, he let the wind blow the sand and dirt around him. His fists clenched and he narrowed his green eyes, showing the anger burning in his heart. Grinding his teeth, he started to growl softly and his body shook.

"DAMN IT!" he exploded.

Impmon went to his knees and started to punch the ground with his fists, making his knuckles turn raw. After minutes of pummeling the ground, he stopped, panting and making anguished sounds in his throat. Tired, not caring that he was out in the open, he fell to the ground and slept. Suddenly, a red beam from the Real World came across and picked up the unconscious Impmon, sending him to another place and another world.

Impmon groaned as he woke up, strange sounds surrounding him. He opened his eyes to see that he was under a tree, the wind blowing lightly and the sun hitting him when the tree branches moved.

Where…am I?

He jumped up into the tree and climbed to the top so he could get a better view. He landed on a branch where he could see everything, but nothing would notice him. His eyes widened at the sight. There were strange things that he had never seen before and there were a lot of creatures walking around. Getting a better look at them, he matched their description with humans.

Am I……really seeing…humans?

He looked up at the sky, seeing clouds and the sun. There wasn't a huge sphere in the sky called the Real World, because he was there.

Gatomon…

He clenched his eyes shut and whimpered. "Gatomon…wanted to come here. Why…why am I here?"

Taking a deep breath, he decided to see if this world was so great like he heard from the stories. He also heard that humans didn't have attacks like digimon, but they carried weapons and could hurt anyone or anything. Deciding to make a wise decision, he jumped from treetop to treetop and then from building to building. When night had fallen, Impmon was tired and needed a place to sleep. Since no one was around, he was walking on a fence in a neighborhood.

"This place…is so weird."

Yawning, he saw a tree by a house. It looked safe enough and he doubted anyone would see him. He rested on one of the branches and instantly fell asleep.

The next morning, he woke up to two voices talking. Trying not to make himself known, he looked down and saw two human children playing. Standing, he watched them play tag with each other, running around the house, their voices and laughter carrying with them. After a while, they stopped and started talking. Impmon leaned over more to listen. He suddenly heard a crack and realized the branch was breaking. Before he could jump, it broke and he fell to the ground with the branch, landing on his butt.

He grimaced in pain from the impact, but then realized the voices had stopped. Slowly, he looked up and saw the two children staring at him, their eyes wide. No one moved, they just stared at each other. Then the little girl started to walk toward him.

"Ai!" the little boy hissed.

Ignoring him, the girl, Ai, kneeled down and smiled. "Are you ok?"

Speechless, Impmon stared at her and then responded softly, "Yeah."

He stood up and saw that he came eye to eye with the girl. She turned and looked at the other human.

"It's ok, Mako. He won't hurt us."

The boy, Mako, slowly walked over to Impmon and looked at him cautiously. Impmon could sense the boy's distrust and wasn't surprised. Then…

"Just what are you anyway? A bat?"

"Mako! That's not very nice!" Ai shrieked.

"I was just asking him!"

"It's still not nice!"

"Neither are you!"

"Kids! Stop fighting this instant!" a woman's voice called from inside the house.

The two froze, huffed, and turned away from each other. Impmon wasn't sure what to do, but he decided to answer the boy's question, despite the rudeness.

"My name's Impmon. And you're…Ai…right?" he said to the girl.

She smiled and said, "Uh-huh. And this is my brother, Makato."

He grimaced at the name. "My name's Mako."

Ai giggled and then whispered to Impmon, "His real name's Makato, but he thinks that Mako is a better name for himself."

"I heard that, and it is."

Ai rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Mako then walked by Impmon. "So…Impmon huh? What are ya, anyway?"

Before Ai could say anything, he said, "I'm a digimon."

Both of them stared at him and simultaneously said, "Digimon?"

He nodded. "It's actually short for digital monsters, but it's a lot better to say digimon."

"Cool! A real, live digimon!" Mako said in excitement. He then grinned at his sister. "And you said it was a stupid show."

Ai huffed. "It is. There's no point to it."

"So…you know what I am?" Impmon asked, puzzled.

Mako nodded and Ai did a slight tip of the head. They suddenly heard a grumble that was coming from Impmon's stomach. Impmon blushed at his growling stomach.

Giggling, Ai said, "I'll go get us something to eat."

Later that night, Impmon was in their room with them. Mako gave up his top bunk so Impmon could sleep there and they agreed to keep Impmon a secret. He had never been in a real bed before and was surprised how comfortable and warm it was. Making himself comfortable, he slept and was happy to have found some new friends.

A couple of months went by since Impmon first met Ai and Mako. At first, things were going great and it seemed like it could last forever. But it didn't. After a while the two started to fight. At first, Impmon saw it as sibling rivalry and decided not to get in the middle of it. But it seemed he was just another thing to fight over and he was soon caught in the middle of their fights.

Today was no other exception. Impmon was upstairs, when he heard Ai yelling and screaming. Impmon ran into the room to see what was going on. Ai's face was red and Mako was just looking mad at his sister. Impmon walked up to them and looked at them.

"What's going on?" he asked, afraid of the answer.

Suddenly Ai yelled, "Mako was a bad boy and broke my toy. So go and teach him a lesson, you hear me?"

"Bad boy?" Impmon repeated nervously.

"It was broken in the first place!" Mako yelled back. "Besides, what about the video game you took from me?"

"I took it because you took one of mine!"

"Yeah, well Mom said I could play with it and she's the boss! So take that, fat face!"

"You're a big liar! I'm going to send Impmon after you and you can bet he will find out the truth!"

Impmon got even more nervous as the two youngster's small hands grabbed around his arms and started to pull on them.

"Impmon! She's a brat and a big fat liar!" Mako told him.

"Don't listen to him!" Ai said. "Now get him before he breaks something else!"

"Impmon!" Mako protested.

"Impmon!" Ai said back.

They started to pull on him more and more, yelling at him and at each other. His whines and panting fell on deaf ears as he felt his arms being pulled out of their sockets. They couldn't see that they were hurting him.

"Knock it off!" he yelled.

Not hearing him above their yelling, they kept pulling on him. Finally, he couldn't take the pain and started scream. The two of them stopped, with Impmon panting and whimpering. They both let go of him and he slumped to ground, rubbing his sore arms. It was quiet for a bit, but it didn't last too long.

"You hurt Impmon!" Ai accused Mako.

"Me? You were pulling on him too!"

"Yeah, but it's your fault!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

Seeing his chance, Impmon slowly stood up and walked out of the room. Not noticing him leave, they kept yelling at each other. Impmon didn't want to stay there any longer. He went to a hallway window and opened it up, and then he leapt onto the nearest telephone pole and bounded away, leaving them behind.

As the sun set, Impmon was in a small hideaway in Shinjuku Park. He was sitting in the dark alone, rubbing his bruising arms. He shuddered at what they did to him. He didn't think humans could be so cruel. At the same time, he felt anger towards them, hating them for doing this. That day, Impmon made a vow to himself.

I will find a way to digivolve and destroy that digimon……without the help of a human partner.

From then on, Impmon knew he was alone. And in his heart, he knew it was better to be alone in this new world than have the possibility of getting hurt again.