BOOK ONE

Arc One - The Legend of the Keepers

Chapter Three

For a few precious seconds, Harry was suspended in the air, limbs flailing, trying to catch his balance on the nothingness below him, and then Niximon was in his arms, and they were falling.

"Sora!"

"Koushiro!"

"Takeru!"

On either side of them, the digimon who could fly tried to catch and rescue their partners. Harry watched Sora's digimon catch her by the shoulders and struggle to lift them both higher for a moment before the weight became too much and they started falling again.

Harry, falling faster now, saw Mimi and her digimon try to cling to the cliff face with vines, but the rack they grabbed onto flaked away with the rest of the debris and they too continued their tumble toward the river below.

"Brace for it!" Yamato called.

Harry sucked in a deep breath, and squeezed his eyes tightly shut.

Hitting the surface of the water was like slamming into concrete. Then the water rushed up over his head, cold and fast moving, silencing the world above.

Kicking and flailing blindly for the surface, he lost his hold on Niximon.

The current of the river kept a tight hold on him and he rolled arse over teakettle a few times before he caught hold of something solid and broke the surface once more.

Harry gasped for air and sputtered when he got more water then he was expecting.

"It's okay! I've got you!"

Niximon.

She was swimming with powerful strokes of her tail, as graceful in the water as she was on land, her small body warm under his arm.

"Kick your feet, chosen! That's it!"

Harry swished his legs through the water the way he'd seen it done on the telly, and by the littler kids at camp, and let Niximon steer them.

"Marching Fishes!" someone called.

Underneath Harry's legs a life-raft of colourful fish took shape, pushing him and Niximon up and out of the river.

Harry coughed up a mouthful of river water

"Harry! Harry! Are you okay?" asked Niximon, poking her cold nose against the side of his neck.

Harry nodded pushing his wet fringe out of his eyes. He propped himself up on one elbow, looking to see if the others were alright.

The others and their digimon sat or lay sprawled all around him, white-faced and shell-shocked but uninjured.

"Look out!" shouted Yamato.

Harry looked up.

Another big chunk of the rocky outcropping above them broke away from the cliff face and fell into the river.

A huge wave washed over their heads, swamping their life raft and leaving them soaked and sputtering as the fish deposited them onto the shore on the opposite side of the river, fading back into the water with the aftershocks of the wave.

Harry slumped, exhausted, against the nearest tree, Niximon still tucked up under his arm.

After a long moment, Yamato spoke.

"I knew we'd be okay. I wasn't worried."

If Harry could have found the strength, he would have thrown something at him.

"I think we might finally be out of danger," said Sora.

"What was the deal with those fish?" panted Jou, his glasses dangling off the tip of his nose.

"Lucky for us, those fish were having a school reunion," said Jou's digimon, laughing. "Hah, just kidding! That was me! With Marching Fishes I can control fish at will!"

"So, it was you," said Jou, a rare smile warming his face. "You really saved us. Thank you, Pukamon…I mean…"

"It's Gomamon now."

"Gomamon?"

"Mmhm."

"And I guess you're not Tokomon, then," said Takeru, examining his digimon.

"Nuh uh, now I'm Patamon."

"It's because we digivolved!" Agumon said excitedly, hopping to his feet.

"Digivolved…what does that mean?"

"Digivolved," parroted Koushirou. "You mean like a…digital evolution?"

"Evolution," Taichi repeated.

"Normally, it's when organisms in a species change to adapt better to their environment," Koushiro explained. "I would say that digivolving is similar in that it's what happens when they advance to the next level and become more powerful than before."

"That's exactly right, as expected from my chosen! From that digivolution I was able to change from Motimon to Tentomon!"

"And I was able to digivolve from Pyocomon to Biyomon," the pink birdlike digimon next to Sora said, butting her head against Sora's hand.

"First I was Tsunomon, now Gabumon," Yamato's digimon added.

"Which means that you're not Niximon now either, right?" said Harry, glancing down at his digimon.

"Right," she agreed. "I'm Vaporemon now."

"And I'm Palmon!" Mimi's digimon piped up.

"And you're Agumon, right?" Taichi said. "I heard your voice inside my head…"

"Yes," Agumon agreed. "It's because we're partners."

"How d'you figure?"

"Digivolving is a very difficult process," Agumon explained. "I haven't been able to digivolve on my own in years, the only reason that I was able to do it now was because I can share your energy."

"Most digimon spend years storing up enough energy to digivolve to their next level," Vaporemon added. "This way is much faster."

"Then…is it the same for you, Biyomon?" asked Sora. "You somehow shared my energy?"

"Yes," Biyomon said.

"So, it stands to reason that each of you can share energy with one of us, right?"

"That's exactly right," said Tentomon.

"But how do you access our energy?"

"I don't know, exactly," Tentomon admitted. "But when I needed it, it was there."

"Thanks for my magical powers, Mimi!" cheered Palmon.

"I don't even know what I did. The whole thing makes my head spin," complained Mimi, pouting.

"Will you be able to change back?" asked Takeru, unfolding one of Patamon's ear-wings carefully.

"Probably," said Patamon. "But I don't think it would be easy."

"Geez, when you guys digivolved you sure got a lot bigger," said Taichi. "Does this mean that you're something else now, or are you still digimon?"

"Digimon!" Agumon replied.

"I just want to point out that none of that makes any sort of logical sense," said Jou.

"Does it need to?" asked Gomamon.

"Of course! Aren't you worried about what will happen to you if I'm not around to borrow this so-called energy from?"

"Of course not, because I'll be with you wherever you go!"

The older kids all shared a glance.

Harry had an idea of what they were thinking, what would happen to the digimon when they eventually returned home?

"Which brings us to the next question," said Yamato. "What are we going to do now?"

"We need to find a road into town, get to the nearest payphone and call the police, or our parents."

"Is there a town around here?" asked Taichi skeptically. "I don't know about you guys, but I have no idea where we are or how we got here."

"If we could get back to where we started, we might be able to find some clues," suggested Sora.

"Easier said than done," said Taichi.

Everyone glanced back the way they'd come.

There, above the thick treeline, was the peak of the mountain they'd fallen from.

"We were swept pretty far downstream…"

"That's a long way, and it won't be a picnic trying to get back up that cliff either," said Yamato. "I say we forget about going back and explore a bit around here."

"We shouldn't explore anywhere," Jou said, his arms crossed over his chest. "If there's no road around the next logical thing to do is to stay put and wait for someone to find us."

"That's what they say to do in all those boring safety classes," Mimi added. "Stay where you are so that the people looking for you can find you."

"Is anybody looking for us, aside from that giant bug?" said Yamato. "I mean, you guys must have noticed, nothing around here looks anything like the campsite."

"That's why I think we should look for a road," Jou said. "We've got to get to a place where we can find more people and some way of getting in contact with our parents."

"Isn't hiking through this forest dangerous?" asked Mimi. "What if there are more monsters like the one from before?"

"There are," said Palmon cheerfully. "But don't worry Mimi, I'll protect you!"

"I don't want to put anyone in danger," said Yamato. "But I really don't think staying put is going to help us."

"Here's a thought, hey Agumon, are there any other humans on this island?"

"Hoomans?" said Agumon. "You mean creatures like you?"

"Yeah."

"I've never seen any," said Agumon, shaking his head. "You're the first ever. There's never been anything but digimon here."

"Okay, so if I'm hearing this right…you guys are all digimon," said Taichi. "But these monsters, like Kuwagamon, they're all digimon too?"

"That's right," agreed Vaporemon. "Most of the digimon around this part of the island have been here for a really long time and digivolved into higher levels."

"So, they're digimon, but bigger and stronger than you guys," said Sora. "And this island…you call it File Island?"

"Is it really an island?" Yamato interjected.

"I was telling Taichi before, but I've never heard of such a place, if it exists it's bound to be somewhere obscure and remote."

"You're saying that we're not in Japan anymore," Jou said. "That's what you're saying, right? That we're not even in the same country!"

"Calm down Jou," said Taichi. "Panicking isn't going to help anyone."

"Guys…what happens when it gets dark?" Sora put in, shivering even though it had to be thirty degrees out.

"Maybe it never gets dark," suggested Yamato.

"That would be a highly unnatural phenomenon," said Koushiro.

"So, it'd make as much sense as anything else around here," Yamato retorted.

"Okay, well, as much fun as this is, we're not getting anything accomplished sitting around here arguing," Taichi announced, marching over to the river with Agumon trailing after him.

"Hang on a second, where do you think you're going?" Yamato demanded.

"Back up on that cliff, I saw the ocean off this way. If we're on an island we're gonna need to get off it eventually, right? So, we're going to need a boat or something."

"Agumon just said there were no people here, and there never have been. Why would there be boats when there are no people around to use them?" said Harry, mostly to himself.

"I don't know, what's a boat?" asked Tentomon.

"Hey!" Koushiro said. "You understood Harry!"

"Of course, I did," said Tentomon. "Didn't you? He seemed to be speaking clearly to me. Harry, I don't think your human friends can hear you very well, you'd better speak up!"

Harry flushed as the whole group turned to stare at him.

"Er…Thanks Tentomon, I'll keep it in mind," he said.

"It's not that we can't hear him," Koushiro said. "But Harry was speaking in his native language, English, and out of all of us here only Mimi speaks it fluently."

"Well, we digimon can all understand Harry just fine, Koushiro, it must be only you humans who have troubles with this language business," said Tentomon.

"Harry is right though," Mimi said with a long sigh, brushing invisible lint off her fringed skirt. "If Agumon is right and there really aren't any people here, there won't be any boats even if we do make it all the way to the ocean."

"That's a good point," agreed Sora, nodding. "I know it's a long way but, I don't know, I think we should maybe try and get back up that mountain. It's where all the clues about how we got here will be, and it's where any people will come looking first when they figure out what happened to us."

"If they can figure it out, and if they could get here after," said Yamato. "I don't know about you guys, but I remember some pretty wild and impossible stuff happening before we landed here. I'm not sure anyone could follow us even if they were somehow able to figure out what happened."

"And if all that is true, we're going to have to rescue ourselves," Taichi pointed out. "Sitting around here talking about it all day isn't going to cut it."

"Vaporemon, will you translate for me? I don't think that Taichi's idea is such a bad one," Harry piped up. "If we get out of this forest, we could build a big signal fire on the beach and airplanes passing overhead or boats that have a route that passes this island might see it and come investigate. I saw that in a film once."

"Ooh, a bonfire! That sounds wonderful, I only wish we had marshmallows!" squealed Mimi.

"Hey that's a pretty great idea!" Taichi agreed, ruffling Harry's hair.

Harry huffed, and tried to flatten it down again to no avail.

"I can get on board with that," agreed Yamato.

"Alright, so it's a plan!" said Taichi. "Now let's get going already!"

Together the group moved to follow Taichi along the bank of the river, where the ground was more or less flat and clear.

Gomamon and Vaporemon both took running leaps into the river and swam alongside the procession of their terrestrial friends.

"I've never seen trees like these before," Sora commented. "They're really beautiful."

"Yeah, they're really different," Koushiro agreed. "At first I though it was just because they were sub-tropical but I know I've never seen anything like them before anywhere."

"Whatever they are, they're aggravating my hay fever," Jou complained.

"Maybe this is an undiscovered island," suggested Mimi.

"I'd say that's possible," said Yamato. "It's not like we've ever heard of digimon before, but this place is full of them."

"That begs the question, who came up with the name digital monsters anyway?" said Koushiro. "Calling them 'digital' implies a more machine-like composition, but clearly these digimon are organic."

"There more like something out of a video game then any animal though," Sora pointed out.

"And they talk," added Yamato.

"Yes, they speak and understand multiple languages, have different abilities and forms, and yet they all identify as subspecies of the group digimon…"

Koushiro trailed off, with a mutter clearly lost in his own thoughts.

"So, Patamon, you were flying before, right?" Takeru piped up into the ensuing quiet.

"Yes, I can fly now! Watch!"

Patamon hopped into the air, flapping his little wings vigorously.

"So cool! But I think it's faster if you walk," said Takeru, hiding a smile behind his hand.

"I can fly much faster than that!" Biyomon declared.

There was no appreciable difference that Harry could see and he bit his lip to keep from smiling.

"Wouldn't it be easier to walk?" suggested Sora as she passed them.

With a sigh the two digimon landed and ran back to their partners looking a bit put out.

"It's alright, you guys just need some practice," Harry said encouragingly. "I used to not be able to run very far at all, but I had to practice running every day and I got loads better."

"Hey Harry, would you teach me English?" asked Takeru, "It sounds so different, plus it's cool! Like talking in a secret code!"

"Er—I can try, if you help me learn more Japanese," suggested Harry.

Patamon relayed the bargain to his partner.

"Sure!" Takeru agreed excitedly.

"Hey Palmon, you look a lot like a plant you know, even though the rest of you look more like animals…"

"Well I am a plant-type digimon," said Palmon. "So, I kind of am like a plant, I can even perform photosynthesis!"

"That's great! You should show me!"

"Mimi," said Palmon. "Do you even know what photosynthesis is?"

"Not really," said Mimi. "What is it?"

"If you don't know what it is, I don't really know how to explain it…" Palmon admitted.

"When I get back home this is gonna make one hell of a story," Taichi said looking over his shoulder at the group of kids trailing behind him and Agumon like bizarre ducklings.

"Yep," Agumon agreed.

"Of course, not a single soul will ever believe me."

"They won't believe any of us, but we'll all know what really happened," said Yamato with a laconic shrug.

"Yeah," said Taichi. "I'm not gonna lie, I'm glad I'm not alone out here."

"Yeah, me too," said Yamato.

"Do you two smell that?" asked Gabumon. "There's nothing like the smell of the ocean breeze."

"I see it guys!" called Gomamon. "The ocean! We're not far now!"

"Come on guys, we're almost there!" called Taichi.

The group climbed the last hill and pushed through the underbrush, coming out on the crest of a shallow bluff, where the mouth of the river flowed into the ocean.

They all paused for a moment just admiring the view.

Harry had to admit it was pretty incredible. Vaporemon picked her way over to him and wound herself in between his legs like a cat.

"Isn't it wonderful," she sighed. "I love the ocean!"

"Everybody in the water!" called Gomamon.

"Let's build a giant sand castle!" suggested Takeru.

"Too bad my bathing suit is back at camp," sighed Mimi. "I want to go swimming, maybe get a nice tan…"

"We're not here on vacation, Mimi-chan," huffed Sora.

"Hey, everyone, pipe down and listen," said Yamato.

Harry strained his ears and faintly, in the distance, he heard a sound like…ringing?

"Is that…a phone?" asked Taichi.

"Why is there a phone ringing in a place like this?" said Sora.

"Who cares? Let's go answer it and find out!" Taichi said, taking off at a run.

The rest of the group followed him, and sure enough, as the rounded the bend and the grassy bluffs faded into a pristine white beach, they spotted the source of the ringing.

Five telephone booths stood, completely out of place, in the middle of the sandy beach.

"I told you!" whooped Jou. "I told you! All we needed was a phone! We're saved!"

Taichi and Agumon broke out into a dead sprint in a bid to make it to the phone before it stopped ringing, but just as Taichi yanked the door open and reached out to grab the receiver, the phone stopped ringing.

"Why'd it stop?" asked Agumon.

"I don't know," Taichi said. "Wrong number?"

"I can't believe there are phone booths out here in the middle of the beach," said Sora.

"My theory is aliens," said Koushiro. "This is clearly a trap."

"They look like the phone booths you see normally," Yamato commented.

"They're the same as the one's next to my house," agreed Mimi.

"Maybe we are still in Japan!" said Jou.

"Well, hey, let's see if we can find a place that'll deliver and order a pizza," suggested Yamato, grinning.

"Whatever you get, no anchovies for me!" chirped Mimi.

"I don't know anyone in Japan who'd agree to put phones in the middle of a perfectly nice beach," said Sora.

"They're clearly here so that people can call their parents for a ride home," Jou insisted.

"That doesn't seem likely," Harry said.

"Harry's probably right, Jou," Koushiro said. "There is absolutely no reason for these things to be here unless it's an alien plot."

Harry rolled his eyes.

"And that is even less likely," he added.

"Koushiro, lend me ten yen!" Taichi said.

"What for?" asked Koushiro, already digging around in one of his many pockets.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm calling home."

"Here, you can use my phone card for that. The aliens can bill me."

"I have a question," said Gomamon. "What exactly is a parents?"

Jou leveled his digimon with an incredulous look.

"That's it, I am out of here," he declared, marching into the second phone booth.

"Your parents are the people who take care of you while you're still to young and small to take care of yourself, Gomamon," Harry answered, patting the digimon on his fluffy head to ease some of the sting from Jou's insensitivity.

"Don't you guys have moms and dads?" asked Mimi.

"I don't think so," Palmon answered.

"So then where do digimon come from?" asked TK

"We hatch from digieggs," Patamon answered.

"But who took care of you after you hatched?" Sora asked Biyomon.

"I don't remember, it was a long time ago," the bird-type digimon answered.

"Nii-san, do you have money? I wanna call mom!"

"We'll call collect," Yamato answered.

"I'm calling Daddy!" Mimi declared, picking a booth.

"I'm going to connect to the internet," Koushiro said.

"Dibs on booth four!" cheered Sora.

The digimon all followed their partners to the telephones even though it was clear that they had no idea what the phones were for, precisely.

Harry, on the other hand, toed off his shoes and socks, rolled up the ragged hems of his jeans and padded through the flour-soft white sand to stand with his feet in the ocean.

Vaporemon followed him down to the shore, splashing happily in the little wavelets that lapped and his calves and ankles.

"I've never been to the ocean before," Harry told her. "It sure is big."

"It sure is," agreed Vaporemon. "But Harry, don't you want to call your parents, like the others?"

Harry glanced down. She was blinking up at him with her big blue eyes, and he gave her a scritch behind one finned ear.

"I don't really have any parents," he told her. "Mine died in a car accident when I was a baby. I don't even remember what they looked like."

"Then, who takes care of you?"

"Ah, well, I'm living with my aunt and uncle, but if I called them, they'd probably just leave me here," Harry said.

"They don't sound like very nice people," Vaporemon pointed out.

"They're not nice people," Harry shrugged. "Not to me anyway. Honestly, I'd rather stay here with you."

Vaporemon butted her head up against Harry's knee.

"I'm glad. I'd rather stay with you too."

A few minutes late Koushiro wandered over to join them, Tentomon buzzing in his wake.

"Any luck," Harry asked.

"No," Koushiro answered, plopping into the sand next to Harry's shoes with a gusty sigh. "I'm telling you, Harry, it's a twisted alien plot! I couldn't even rig the phone for a dial up internet connection."

"What about the others? Did they manage to get a hold of someone?"

"None of the others was any more successful than Koushiro," Tentomon reported.

"No matter who we call all we get is random information," Koushiro explained. "It looks like Jou is trying every number he knows. He's really torn up about the whole thing, but it looks like we really might be on our own out here."

Looking back at the phone booths Harry could just make out the figure of Jou, stabbing another set of buttons and running a hand through his hair. The others had long since given up and were watching him with mild interest. Even Gomamon had abandoned him to go play in the water.

"We should probably go back to others and figure out what our next plan is going to be."

Harry sighed but he turned away from the water and trudged back up to the beach scooping up his shoes and socks as he went.

The sand stuck to his wet feet and legs and to Vaporemon who wrinkled her nose at the sensation.

"Hey guys," Taichi said when they got within hearing range of the rest of the group, "Did you see any driftwood or anything we can use to start that signal fire we talked about?"

"Nothing like that, I'm afraid," Koushiro said shaking his head, "This beach has to be one of the cleanest I've ever seen."

"Alright, then, we should probably get back to the forest and start picking up fallen branches or something," he said getting to his feet.

"Wait a sec, just because we can't call out doesn't mean that other people can't call in," Yamato pointed out. "The phone was ringing before. I think we should stay here for a while and see if anyone calls. Besides, everyone could use a rest."

Yamato had a good point.

Mimi, Sora and Takeru were sprawled out in the sand in an exhausted heap.

Harry's stomach gave a familiar empty twinge and Harry sighed. So much for his regular meals. He missed camp already.

"I'm getting pretty hungry too," said Koushiro.

"You know why, cause we haven't eaten anything all day!" said Taichi.

The blizzard had hit camp just before breakfast so none of them had had a chance to eat anything beforehand.

They had only been wandering around this strange island for half a day, but with everything that had happened it seemed like so much longer.

"Okay, break time!" Taichi declared.

"Does anyone have anything to eat?" asked Sora. "I think all I have is…" she paused as her hand encountered the little device she had clipped to her belt, "…that gadget that fell out of the sky before."

"I forgot all about those weird gizmos," Taichi said reaching under the hem of his shirt to retrieve his.

"If anyone has a pink one, I'll trade," Mimi said glancing at hers.

"It looks like everyone got the same," said Yamato.

"What are they anyway?" asked Takeru.

"If I could take mine apart…" Koushiro mused, his face taking on that faraway look it got when his mind was busily making connections.

Then his stomach burbled loudly, interrupting whatever train of thought he'd taken and bringing him back to earth.

He flushed, and favoured them all with a sheepish look, "That is, after I get something to eat. I'm famished."

"Well, the only thing I've got is my emergency supplies," Sora said reaching into her pink belt-pouch, "It's got a first aid kit, some bandages and some antibiotics but that's about it."

"I have my trusty laptop computer, and a digital camera, oh, and a small cellphone too. Of course, none of them has worked since we got here," Koushiro said with a put-upon sigh. "I was sure I had a full charge on most of this equipment too."

"I still can't believe you brought all that computer stuff with you to summer camp," Taichi said.

"Well, what do you have?" Koushiro countered.

"Uh, well, there's my pocket telescope," Taichi looked over at Yamato and Harry. "What about you guys?"

"Nothing to eat," said Harry.

"Sorry," Yamato shrugged, his hands in his pockets, "I bring any food with me either."

"I did!" said Takeru, swinging his backpack off his shoulders and revealing a small hoard of junk food.

"Ooh, look at all those goodies! Why don't you be a good little boy and share some of that food with dear, sweet Mimi."

"Don't worry Mimi, I happy to share, you're the best!" Takeru said with a wide grin, "Isn't she cute?"

"Where did you get all that?" asked Yamato.

"I bought it at the rest stop with the money mom gave me."

"Mimi-chan, what did you bring? Your bag looks pretty big," asked Sora.

"Oh, this? Well, I've got some cooking fuel, a swiss army knife, a compass, flashlight, and a bunch of other things like that."

"You're pretty prepared for survival," Yamato said.

"It's been a long time since I went camping and I wasn't exactly sure what I'd need…so, I borrowed all my dad's gear…without telling him."

"You know, you really don't need to bring stuff like this to a kid's summer camp. Though I'm not complaining since we might end up needing it," said Taichi.

"We could use the cooking fuel to start that signal fire," Yamato suggested.

"We still don't have any wood," Taichi pointed out.

"I vote we barbecue some telephone," said Sora.

"If there were any flammable components, I'd join you happily," said Koushiro.

"Okay so that's everyone except Jou. Looks like he's still making calls, but I doubt he brought snacks since he's such a stickler—wait a sec! Jou's got the emergency food supply!"

"That's lucky!"

"Jou! Hey, Jou! You're carrying the emergency rations!"

"Don't you know it's rude to interrupt someone when they're on the phone?" snapped Jou.

"We need your bag!"

"Oh, this? I've been trying to hand this off to Mimi-kun all morning," said Jou, finally leaving the phone booth long enough to stomp over to where Mimi was sitting with Palmon.

"Me?"

"Yes! Mimi-kun, it was your turn to take charge of the group's emergency rations! You can't just put them down and leave them! You need to keep the bag on you at all times in case of an emergency!"

"But it's so heavy!"

"Don't be so selfish! You have got to stop thinking only of yourself and do something for somebody else for a change! Take a little responsibility!"

"Hey, whoa, don't fight!" said Taichi. "The important thing is knowing that we have something to eat. Now let's all sit down and have some lunch!"

"Alright," Jou said, setting the bag down in the centre of their little circle. "Let's figure this out. Each group is given a bag of emergency rations that are supposed to feed the whole group three meals, for three days. Since our group had six…six times three times three is…"

"Fifty-four," Koushiro answered promptly.

"Right! So, if we add in Takeru's snacks and divide that evenly between eight people that gives us, uh…"

"About enough food for two days," Koushiro said.

"Right," agreed Jou.

"We could ration it down to two meals a day," suggested Harry. "Make it last longer since we don't know how long we're going to be stuck here, or if we'll be able to find more food."

"But even if we do that, if you count the digimon we only really have enough food for today and maybe tomorrow morning," Sora pointed out.

"Oh…right…" sighed Jou.

"Not a problem!" said Gabumon, "We digimon hunt and forage for ourselves."

"Yes, no need to include us in your calculations," Tentomon agreed.

"Are you sure Biyomon?" asked Sora.

"Of course, absolutely, we can do alright on our own," she said. "We've been feeding ourselves up until now, haven't we?"

"Great, that's a big help," said Jou. "Let's go ahead and divide the food we have between the eight people here."

"This is great!" said Taichi, opening one of the bars and handing another to Agumon. "I could eat a dozen of these!"

"Taichi!" snapped Sora.

"What do you think you're doing?" demanded Jou. "We just agreed this food is for humans!"

"It's fine, isn't it? Don't be so stingy, Jou!"

"It's already done Jou, there's no sense wasting time whining about it," sighed Yamato, glaring.

"Taichi can just go hungry, cause that counts as two of his meals, no big deal," Sora said.

"Hey!" Taichi protested.

Suddenly, Biyomon hopped to her feet, feathers flared and eyes narrowed nearly to slits.

"What is it?" asked Sora.

"Something's coming," chirped Biyomon.

"What kind of something?"

"A big something."

"Do you hear that?" asked Takeru.

There was a low rumble underneath them, like a train passing through the underground, and, all of a sudden, geysers of water began to sprout from the beach.

One by one the telephone booths were destroyed, and a little further down the beach the sand bulged up into a hill.

The sand slithered down the hill, revealing a massive spiked shell underneath.

"Oh no!" cried Tentomon. "Shellmon! This area must be his territory!"

"What's a Shellmon?" demanded Koushiro.

"Shellmon is a highly territorial champion-level digimon that lives under beaches and riverbanks. His shell acts a little like a drill, helping him to dig vast burrows underground. He's slow moving but powerful!"

"Run for it!" cried Takeru.

Everybody scrambled to obey. Racing away from the water, leaving their belongings abandoned in the sand.

"Now what?" demanded Sora.

They'd reached the cliffs on the far side of the beach but they were to steep to get up without climbing.

Out of the giant spinning shell, Shellmon emerged.

He was a dinosaur-type digimon, his body a bright salmon pink with a head crowned with a mop of seaweed green tentacles, and long fingers tipped with suction cups. He was also at least fifteen feet tall, and bellowing at them angrily.

"Everybody!" called Jou, who was already scaling the cliff face. "Up here, this way!"

Jou was a surprisingly adept climber. He made it most of the way to the top of the embankment, before Shellmon roared and attacked him.

Another geyser of water burst from the crown of his head, and blasted Jou clear off the ledge, sending him tumbling towards the beach.

Yamato and Taichi rushed forward to break his fall.

"Jou!" cried Gomamon.

Shellmon turned his attention to Gomamon and blasted him down the beach and into the surf with his water cannon.

"Digimon attack!" cried Agumon.

The digimon scrambled to get between their chosen and Shellmon, Agumon leading the charge.

"Pepper Breath!" he cried.

The fireball that sprouted from Agumon's mouth hit Shellmon full in the face, giving the other digimon time to catch up to him.

Gabumon, Tentomon, and Biyomon reached Agumon first, and tried to execute their own attacks.

The key word there being tried. None of them were very successful.

Gabumon's Blue Blaster was barely more that a puff of blue smoke. Biyomon could barely keep herself in the air as she tried to generate her Spiral Twister. Tentomon produced a small crackling spark between his wings, but even that was nowhere near powerful enough to deliver a bolt of electricity.

"Something's wrong!" called Koushiro.

"Their attacks aren't working!" said Yamato.

Shellmon blasted the assembled digimon off their feet and out of the air with another burst from his water cannon.

Agumon sprung right back up, but the others lay in the sand, too exhausted to move.

Sora, Yamato, and Koushiro, darted forward to kneel next to their partners, checking them over for injuries.

Meanwhile, Patamon, Vaporemon and Palmon used the distraction the others had provided to get within attacking range.

"Boom Bubble!" cried Patamon, but his attack fizzled out before it could reach Shellmon and he was swatted out of the air by one of his green tentacles.

"Patamon!" shouted Takeru.

"Palmon, get out of there!" shrieked Mimi.

Palmon, just like the others, attempted to use her Poison Ivy attack, only to find herself staring at her hands in shock as no vines grew.

"Vaporemon! Duck!" called Harry.

Vaporemon dodged nimbly out of the way of a whip like tentacle and scrambled back down the beach towards Harry.

"Pepper Breath!" cried Agumon, getting between Vaporemon and the attacking Shellmon.

"What's happening?" demanded Koushiro. "Why is it only Agumon who can attack?"

"We're just too hungry," Tentomon groaned.

"Gabumon?"

"I don't have any strength."

"Guys, Agumon is the only one who had anything to eat!" said Sora.

"That explains it," agreed Koushiro. "With the energy expenditure of digivolving and fighting Kuwagamon…"

"None of the other digimon have the reserves they need to fight," Yamato finished.

"Agumon, looks like it's just us!" Taichi called, running forward to join his digimon.

"Alright, then give me a diversion!" Agumon called back.

Taichi began running across the sand shouting.

"Hey, Shellmon, ugly! Down here! Over here!"

"Be careful, Taichi!" Sora yelled after him.

As a distraction, Taichi worked beautifully.

Shellmon turned his attention on him and Agumon crept up in his blind spot and hit him with another fireball at close range.

Shellmon groaned, shaking his head, dazed.

Taichi picked up a long piece of broken metal from one of the smashed telephone booths and began using it to hit and jab Shellmon in the sensitive looking flesh that joined the digimon to his hard shell.

Shellmon rumbled angrily, but was too large and unwieldy to escape Taichi's onslaught.

"Look out, Taichi!" called Yamato.

One of Shellmon's tentacles had snaked down behind Taichi, and wrapped him up pulling him off his feet and dangling him in the air.

"Hang on Taichi!" shouted Agumon.

Agumon made as if to charge Shellmon, but Shellmon gave a low roar and pinned Agumon to the beach with one massive hand.

"Get out of the way!" yelled Taichi as Shellmon turned his attention back to the fallen digimon and their chosen.

With a low roar, he blasted them even further down the beach with his water canon.

Harry landed sprawled half on top of Vaporemon's lithe body and pulled himself up to crouch protectively over his dazed digimon. Spitting the sand from his mouth, he looked up through the dripping curtain of his hair, watching with growing dread as Taichi squirmed against Shellmon's crushing grip.

"Everyone, just run!" called Taichi. "Go! Get out of here!"

Taichi screamed as Shellmon tightened his grip.

"Taichi!" shouted Agumon, alarmed. "Taichi!"

On Taichi's belt, the strange little device began to glow and beep urgently.

"Digivolve!" cried Agumon.

Light gathered around Agumon, just as it had when the digimon had digivolved to fight Kuwagamon, building and building like a rising wave.

"Greymon!" Taichi bellowed, like a war cry.

The light faded, and Shellmon was tossed to the side as Greymon shrugged off his hold, and rose to his full height.

Taichi yelped as he hit the sand rolling for a few feet before staggering upright, apparently uninjured.

Greymon shifted so that he was between Shellmon and Taichi and let out a bellowing roar that rattled through Harry's bones.

He was huge. Built like a T-rex and still vibrant orange, stripped with blue. A boney brown helmet complete with sharp looking horns had also grown to protect his head.

Shellmon righted itself and charged Greymon headfirst, trying to bring him down with a tackle. Greymon caught the other digimon and held his ground. Not giving and inch.

"Come on!" Taichi shouted in encouragement.

Shellmon lowered his head and attempted to overpower Greymon with a quick blast of his water cannon, but Greymon dodged with surprising speed for his size, and countered the jet of water with a stream of flame, sending huge gouts of steam streaming into the air.

Using the fog for cover Greymon managed to get his horned snout under Shellmon and use that leverage to toss him high into the air over the ocean.

"Nova Blast!" rumbled Greymon.

A fireball the size of a small car erupted from between Greymon's powerful jaws.

It struck Shellmon in the middle while he was still in the air, eliciting a shriek from the defeated digimon and propelling him even further out to sea.

Greymon gave a triumphant roar that was echoed by Taichi's whooping shout, shaking his great muscled neck.

Before he could take more than two steps however, he groaned, his body flooding with light again and shrinking as he de-digivolved back into Agumon, and lay belly-down in the sand.

"Agumon!" Taichi shouted, dropping to his knees in the sand next to his partner. "Are you alright? You changed back! Talk to me buddy!"

"Taichi…" moaned Agumon. "Do you have anything to eat?"

"Anything for you, buddy, you were amazing!" Taichi exclaimed, earning himself a weak grin from Agumon.

"I vote that we feed our digimon and worry about meals for ourselves later," Koushiro said. "All in favour?"

"Aye!"

With that ringing endorsement, a feast of emergency rations was laid out for the digimon, who gobbled it up gratefully.

"Chew, and then swallow," Harry scolded Vaporemon as she tried to swallow one of the bars whole.

"No need to rush, there's plenty, and you can have as much as you want," Sora said, kneeling next to Biyomon.

"Well," said Taichi surveying the damage done to the phone booths, hands on his hips. "There's no reason to stay here now."

"What about the signal fire?" asked Yamato.

"Shellmon wasn't destroyed," Koushiro pointed out. "Just temporarily removed. We should pack up and leave before he decides he wants to come back for round two."

"True enough," agreed Yamato. "Who wants to break the bad news to Jou?"

Jou had found a phone that was mostly intact among the wreckage and was desperately trying to make it work.

"Jou!" called Taichi. "We can't stay here, man, pack it in!"

"In that case," Jou put in shrilly, standing up and leaving his precious telephone. "We should go back to the forest because if anyone's looking for us that's where they'll go!"

"Jou, we've had this conversation before," Sora said gently. "Even if there are people looking for us back at camp, we're clearly so far from there that they might not even know where to start looking. Besides all that we fell off a mountain and floated down a river to get here and getting back is a really big job."

"Plus, if we go back up there, we could run into Kuwagamon," Mimi added as she packed up the sparse remnants of the digimon picnic.

"Listen, even considering the possibility of an alien trap, logically speaking, if there are phones here, there must be people around to use them, or be trapped by them," Koushiro said. "Perhaps Agumon and the other digimon are misguided in saying that there aren't other humans on this island. I think it makes sense to try and find those people."

"That…does make sense…" sighed Jou.

"It certainly does," Sora said.

"Except, we could wander around for days and never find anything!" Jou burst out.

"Or we could find some real help, food, shelter, an adult to explain what's going on and where we are," Yamato pointed out.

"It's the best plan we've come up with so far," Tai agreed. "So, let's get going! We're burning daylight!"

"Anywhere you want to go, I'll go Taichi! You just pick the direction!" Agumon said grinning widely.

"Then let's get out of this place!"

"And let the monsters beware!" added Yamato.

"My plan is to avoid the monsters altogether, yep, that's my plan," said Jou firmly.

"Not a bad plan, all things considered," Harry said, moving to walk next to Koushiro.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm being made fun of?"

"Lighten up Jou," said Gomamon. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Didn't anyone ever tell you guys that adventuring is dangerous?"

"Come on Joe, we're leaving!"

"Right then, everyone, make sure that you don't leave anything behind!"

"Hurry up, Jou! Or we'll end up leaving you behind!"

EDITED 08.24.2020

AN:

Please let me know your thoughts! I hope you enjoyed, but am, as always, open to comments and suggestions for improvement!