Note: I do not own Digimon

I just want to say a massive thank you to all those who reviewed my last chapter and gave such wonderful feedback and ideas! I am going to weigh up all the options but just so you know I am still debating with myself who Osamu should have for a Digimon Partner.

It is currently between (Cupimon-+Impmon), (Dorimon-+DORUmon), (Hopmon-+Monodramon), (Kuramon-+Dracmon), (Wanyamon-+Leormon) and (Chapmon-+Kamemon).

{{Thank you to Substitute Deathberry, Naomi Shihoin and NatNicole for these brilliant ideas, so many awesome ones to choose from!}}

Any suggestions on who you think could work well from this motley crew would be much appreciated :}

(Osamu's digimon partner will make an appearance from next chapter. I stalled because I am just so damn indecisive)

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Chapter Two ~ Dodging Pincers: Some Quality Bonding Time

Ken groaned slightly as he tried to open his eyes. Everything hurt. His head, his knees, his back, even his socks seemed to be in pain.

"That's because the poor things aren't meant to be paired with sandals," in his mind Ken could almost hear the throw-away quip his brother would make, almost see the look of amusement as Osamu ripped into him for his strange habits, almost feel the large hand as it would ruffle his hair with affection.

Oniisan...

That's right, the last thing he remembered Osamu had been clutching him protectively because there was a strange storm or something at camp. There had been snow too, such beautiful, thick snow. And strangely curving, coloured lights which looked like something from one of his favourite Sci Fi shows. Then there had been a blinding white light which engulfed everything, all of Japan as far as Ken could see, and that was the last thing he remembered.

I wonder if the ground shaking like that was because those crazy lights were really aliens coming to say hello to us? He smiled to himself at such a thought but immediately regretted it. Turns out his smile muscles hurt too.

He squinted slightly against the bright light all around him, hoping to be able to make out the figure of his big brother somewhere near by.

That's strange, maybe he was dreaming. His eyes seemed to be insisting that he was laying against a giant tree in the middle of a forest. The summer camp was in the countryside surrounded by trees, yes, but not ones like this; it was beyond huge and would be as out of the place in the Japanese countryside as a dragon would be on the Tube. A giant, smelly, fire breathing dragon.

So he must be dreaming, right? Because this definitely wasn't Japan.

He wrinkled his nose slightly, this place even smelt strange.

Where am I? he squinted against the daylight again, this time managing to open his eyes almost fully for a few seconds. And where's Oniisan?

His head began to swim, feeling heavy and fuzzy and he began to see flitting sparks behind his eyes. Before he knew what was happening he had slipped quietly back into the cold depths of unconsciousness.

Minomon scoured the third quadrant of the forest with as much eagerness as he had combed through the first two. Today was the day he was going to meet his partner and undomesticated equines could not keep him from putting his whole heart and soul into this search.

He wondered how the other Digidestined Digimon were faring with their searches. He hoped they would all be successful as it would just be so heartbreaking to think that something could have gone wrong on today of all days. Not that he doubted the prophesy, but he did have a tendency to over think things, especially ones as momentous as this. It was fate-of-the-world stuff after all, but more than that it was huge for him personally as today he was going to get to meet Ken.

Ken. Ken. Ken. Just thinking his name gave Minomon a shiver of anticipation. Very soon he would have a face to call to mind when he thought of that name, a laugh to recognise and friend to get to know. More than just a friend; he would have a partner.

It was just at this moment that Minomon saw a human child laying unconscious against a tree before him. A jolt of... something... coursed through him and time stood still for a moment as he stared at that child. Ken? Could it be you?

All of a sudden Minomon grew shy and for a second he allowed himself to ask the question he had not even let himself consider before. What if he doesn't like me?

But as quickly as such doubts had surged, he squashed them back, focussing on the reality not the possibilities. The reality was that the being lying just before him could very well be his Ken.

He slowly sidled up to the small child, amazed that such an innocent looking creature could be the key to defeating the evil which had gained a foothold in their world. He looked so peaceful, so fragile. A powerful surge of emotion coursed through Minomon as the desire to protect and provide for this strange new creature overwhelmed him. I won't let anyone hurt you, Ken. I promise you will be safe with me.

For a few seconds and an infinite number of heartbeats Minomon stood over the young child, watching him breath steadily and working up the courage to wake him. At last he decided to just go for it as waiting would gain nothing.

"Ken?" he whispered, his voice taunt with nerves.

No response.

"Ken?" he tried speaking louder, prodding him slightly with one of the edges of his pine-cone shaped lower body.

"Unnn?" the human child made a strange noise and his face contorted for a second into some kind of grimace, but he did not rouse.

"Ken?" Minomon tried again, this time even louder and giving out multiple pokes with his edges, hoping to get a proper reaction.

"Ushunngwh," Ken managed more syllables this time and seemed to be reacting to Minomon's stimuli on some level.

This encouraged the small creature and he decided to continue with gusto.

"Ken?" a soft voice whispered, trying to reach him. He wanted to respond as something in that voice appealed to him, but he couldn't, the words wouldn't form. The thoughts wouldn't even form. His mind felt like it was wading through mud.

Seconds later the voice returned only with slightly more power behind it. "Ken?"

"Hello?" he tried to greet it. Only he had the feeling his attempt didn't come out in words, more generic sounds.

There was a pause and Ken relaxed, feeling himself being pulled gently back into the calm of the darkness. Floating further and further into the embrace of unconsciousness. All of his thoughts and feelings, who he was, seemed to become more detached with every passing second.

But the voice was persistent and became an anchor for him, lodging him securely as unconsciousness tried to drag him down.

He felt strange sensations as if something pointy were softly prodding his side, his hands and then Oh Good Gracious - his feet!

"Stop!" he cried as he stirred, weakly swatting the air with his right foot in an attempt to shake off whatever it was that was agitating it.

After this he slowly began coming to and as he became gradually aware of his surroundings he noticed a pair of tiny, beady eyes looking up at him uncertainly and he could not help but stare back.

What a weird, um, thing, he thought as he stared at the palm-sized face before him. It seemed to be some sort of miniature green creature stuck in a pine-cone, whose two little arms could be seen peeking out of the top of this cone and who had two perked up ears, some kind of vine growing out of the top of his head and a mouth which looked distinctly bug like.

The mouth caught Ken's attention, he hated bugs. They terrified him. Yuck!

But then, he thought as he further examined the little animal, it wasn't actually a bug, surely? It was far too cute to be a nasty creepy crawly. So it was okay.

"Ken?" the creature finally asked after a few long seconds of the two of them staring at each other.

Ken's eyes widened in shock as he realised this thing could talk and knew his name. At that moment he didn't know which one to be more freaked out by and his mind reeled trying to make sense of everything from the strange snow and lights to this place and the creature who had found him.

"Who are you?" he demanded nervously. "Are you from outer space?" he had only been joking about aliens before, but this was just getting so weird that aliens would be the most normal explanation.

The creature smiled slightly at this.

"My name's Minomon," it chirped "and I'm not from space, I'm from here." Then, seeing the look of confusion on Ken's face, it added "The Digital World."

"The Digital World?" Ken whispered to himself uncertainly. He had never heard of that before, but then he hadn't even heard of some small places in Japan so it may not be that outlandish.

"Yup," Minomon said cheerfully, smiling at his partner. "Where are you from, Ken?"

He was about to give his town's name when he thought better of it. "Japan," he answered softly, realising that he may not even be in his home country any more. He had never been anywhere outside of Japan and the thought that he had somehow found himself in a completely different place outside of that familiarity now was both exhilarating and terrifying in equal parts.

"What's Japan?" Minomon asked, intrigued.

Ken raised his eyebrows at that. How could anyone not have heard of Japan?!

"Its the land of the rising sun," he recalled from his Kanji Explanation classes.

"Oh." said Minomon, unsure how to respond to that. His partner lived in a land made of a sun? Maybe he was sturdier than he looked...

There was an ominous, low humming sound in the distance which grabbed their attention as it seemed to be getting closer. Conversation became hushed and the two of them looked around anxiously.

"What's that?" asked Ken, looking to Minomon with his big, trusting eyes.

Minomon was instantly alert and did not answer Ken for a few seconds but stayed statue still with his right ear pricked up, listening intently.

"I think we may be in trouble," he said eventually, scowling up at the sky as the low humming became louder and louder above them. "I think its a Kuwagamon."

"What's a-?" Ken began.

"Shhh!" Minomon hissed urgently, cutting his partner off. "Follow me, now."

The outline of a large, insect-like creature loomed overhead causing a shiver to creep up the young boy's spine.

Ken wasted no time in swinging his rucksack over his shoulder and rushing after his new friend as quietly as he could, hoping the horrid giant bug hadn't seen or heard them. The humming grew louder and louder until the plants and trees around him were being thrown around chaotically by the air disturbance as Kuwagamon flew closer to the ground and to them.

Ken ran as fast as he could now, no longer concerned with stealth.

Minomon leapt backwards onto Ken's shoulder and began hurling attacks at the giant red bug monster as he was chasing them. None had any effect except to infuriate him even more, yet Minomon was stubborn and refused to stop trying.

"Pinecone!" he yelled, his voice high pitched with anger, as he hurled spiked cone after cone towards their aggressor.

Ken did not waste precious seconds looking around to see if they hit, his main concern was to keep on moving. But he couldn't help but feel a swell of pride for the tiny creature on his shoulder who was crazy enough to pick a fight with such a mean looking monster. He had some nerve.

"Arghhhh!" a girl's scream immediately grabbed his attention and he altered his direction slightly to pursue it, hoping to help yet not quite realising he would be putting said female into danger by leading Kuwagamon straight to her.

Just in the clearing ahead of them stood one of the girls he had seen earlier in the cabin. He recognised the pink hat and weird cowgirl style clothes but he didn't know her name. Not that now was the time to be worrying about such details.

He ran straight for her, panic and adrenaline pushing him far past his usual exercise tolerance, and was only slightly surprised to see that this girl had a creature friend too. Why not.

Suddenly a hazy memory burst to the surface but it was blurred and just out of reach of his conscious mind so he ignored it, instead focussing on the situation at hand.

The one word he recalled clearly was a name. Hawkmon. Why or how or what the significance was he had no idea, but there would hopefully be time to figure it out later. For now they all had other priorities.

"Run!" he gasped once he reached her, grabbing her hand and dragging her along behind him. She protested weakly but allowed herself to be led, although she was far less sure-footed weaving through the dense vegetation than he was.

The bug creature was gaining on them and decided to take this chance to make a dive. Luckily the girl's creature saw this and pushed her and Ken down out of the way as Kuwagamon sped by harmlessly. The rush of wind from the close call threw dirt and debris up into his face, causing him to cough, but he was unharmed.

"Over here," Minomon cried, ushering them into a tree. As Ken watched his new friend disappear into the trunk he didn't even question his faith in the digimon but instantly followed, stepping seamlessly through the bark and into a hollowed out tree where they would be hidden from view. After a second's hesitation the girl followed, her digimon bringing up the rear.

They were safe. He hoped.

No one dared speak as they listened to the sounds of the bug digimon overhead, sweeping the area from the sky no doubt searching for them.

At last Ken released the breath he had been holding in all this time. "Phew," he breathed, "that was close."

Minomon nodded and shook his pinecone, dusting it off carefully and smiling up at his partner. "It sure was, hopefully its over now though."

Ken nodded and fell silent.

Where is oniisan? He wondered, having experienced such a close call he was now worried that maybe his brother had not been so lucky. Please let him be okay.

He was pulled abruptly away from such thoughts, though, by the sob which came from the girl next to him.

"Are you okay?" he asked, looking earnestly up at the girl as she succumbed to a bout of more violent sobs.

"No!" she snapped, scowling at him. "What sort of a stupid-?" At that she broke down even more, quickly becoming hysterical.

"Mimi..." her creature soothed, concern written across his face.

"We're safe now," Ken tried, nervously reaching out a hand and placing it on her shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting manner.

After a few minutes she managed to calm down, but her shoulders still shook and she refused to smile at any of them.

"So, you're called Mimi then?" Ken asked, making an effort to build some sort of a conversation to take their minds off this strange situation.

"Yes," she hiccuped, making eye contact with him for the first time.

"My names Ichijouji Ken, pleased to meet you," he gave her a winning smile and she smiled weakly back.

"I'm Tanemon," chirped the other creature, beaming up at the young boy. Tanemon was nearly as unusual a creature as Minomon, Ken thought, with four stubby legs and a head-shaped body, large orb like maroon eyes and what appeared to be a large leaf springing up from her head she was certainly no household variety puppy. But she had a warm smile and friendly manner, so all things considered he was very pleased to have her around right now.

"And I am Minomon," his own friend added, blushing slightly. "Nice to-"

"Oh yes," Mimi suddenly cut in, snapping her fully attention to Tanemon who stood protectively by her side. "You were just telling me about why I'm here," she puckered her lips and looked expectantly at the creature, who smiled apologetically at Minomon before nodding.

Well hi to you too, Minomon sighed.

"Yes, I was wasn't I. Well you're here because-" Tanemon did not get very far as right at that moment the tree they were sheltering in began to shake. The humming noise was back again, muffled but definitely near by. Kuwagamon.

The children and digimon stared at each other in horror. "You said we were safe!" Mimi accused, eyes wide in panic.

"I-" Ken began, but didn't know what to say. Now wasn't the time anyway.

"RUN!" Minomon and Tanemon ushered their partners out of the tree and the chase was back on.

For a moment Kuwagamon was so engrossed in shaking a tree to see if that was the one they had been in that he did not notice their escape. That is, until he heard Mimi's scream as she tripped over a large tree root on the ground.

"Ouch!" she shrieked as her knee was grazed against the bark of the tree roots.

Kuwagamon froze midway through shaking the tree and turned to look their way, seeing the girl splayed on the floor before him. He then began making his way slowly towards them, clicking his two large pincers together in anticipation.

Ken ran back for her and yanked her up roughly by her elbow. She's far heavier than she looks, he groaned silently as he handled the once more hysterical girl, herding her away from the scary bug towards safety.

"Hey!" she hissed, shaking the younger child off her. She was so sick of being thrown around everywhere by people today.

Meanwhile Tanemon and Minomon leapt in between Kuwagamon and the two children, bravely throwing their best attacks at the champion level digimon in a desperate bid to buy time for their partners to escape.

"Run Mimi, run!" Tanemon yelled at her partner, fearfully.

"Go!" cried Minomon as he rained down yet more pinecones on the looming Kuwagamon.

The two children staggered clumsily once more through the under growth, the sounds of the battle behind them gradually getting fainter and their limbs getting heavier.

Minomon... Ken frowned, thinking of his new friend standing up to such a powerful monster for them.

It was coming to the point where the boy could run no longer, he had already passed his limits long ago and he now fought frantically for every gasp of air into his lungs. They felt like lead, weighing him down with pain.

It was then that they broke through the vegetation suddenly and found themselves on a cliff side, staring into the faces of the other children from the cabin as well as a strange assortment of other small creatures.

There was no time for greeting though as the low humming was there again, just behind them.

Ken struggled to find enough breath to warn the other children of the danger, but all he could manage was a faint wheeze as he fell to his knees. In the corner of his darkening, splodge-filled vision he could make out Mimi falling to the ground beside him.

They were done.

Osamu stirred, trying to open his eyes yet being greeted only with darkness.

What happened? Where am I? he rifled through his mind for clues, trying to remember the events leading up to this moment, but they were so hazy and illusive that he couldn't make any sense of them. Blurs of images flew around in his mind's eye: Ken, snow, light, darkness. Peanut butter. Faces, many new faces. Fragmented pieces to a puzzle he had no idea how to construct.

He groaned and tried to move, but failed.

Wait, Ken. Where is Ken? He had been in my arms, I was protecting him. He needs me.

He recalled the awed expression on the younger boy's face just as the Aurora Borealis had become visible and suddenly the pieces of the puzzle made sense. They had been at camp. Strange phenomena followed by darkness.

Was that were he was now? In the darkness?

"Very good, youngling" a voice caressed his mind from nowhere and everywhere. "We have called you and you answered."

He didn't have time for this. "Where is my brother?" he demanded, feeling strangely vulnerable.

A rich, quiet laugh greeted him in response.

"All in good time, ser." it promised, sending a chill up Osamu's spine.