Hey, sorry for the late update, guys! Little things like life, work, and semester projects took priority. So there's just one very short chapter left, then a revised version of Part 2 will be up in late April - my last exam is on the 15th, and I won't be working on those revisions until I'm done with that.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon Frontier or any of its characters

WORD COUNT: 3097

Saturday, April 7th, 2007

"What are we doing down here, again?" Kōichi asked as Kōji led him down a flight of stairs.

"Don't you remember what Bokomon said? We have to get our Spirits back. Bokomon thinks they were hidden in the same places as before, and this is where I found mine." They came to an opening and onto a ledge overlooking the interior of a large cave with lots of holes in its walls, letting in enough light for them to see by. A deep pit was located in the centre of the floor. Grabbing onto one of the long poles that stretched from floor to ceiling, Kōji slid down, Kōichi right behind him. They stood at the edge of the hole. "Don't follow me," Kōji warned him before jumping down. Kōichi hoped his brother knew what he was doing.

A flash of light, and a sight not seen in five years. Wolfmon, Legendary Warrior of Light, rose up out of the hole, landing easily. "Need a lift?" he asked. Kōichi nodded, climbing onto his twin's back. Wolfmon took a huge leap, and both landed safely on the ledge.

"Now, let's get out of here. I never liked this place five years ago, and I don't like it now."

Kyōsuke was growing impatient. Both sets of brothers had run off to go get what they called 'Spirits' and left everyone else to explore this freaky terminal place. He didn't get anything around here. The creatures wandering around were unlike anything he'd ever seen, up close or in books – of course, he wasn't really a fan of fiction books and all that fantasy crap, so maybe there was something like these things in those. The problem was that they weren't supposed to actually exist in real life. Yet now he and his new friends were surrounded by a whole swarm of them. Lexi and Juan, like Kyōsuke, kept their distance, while Izumi, Junpei, and Tomoki gladly accepted their attention. The creatures kept calling them their 'saviours' for some reason. Beside him, Juan was muttering nonstop in Spanish. Kyōsuke had no idea what the kid was saying, but he had a feeling it was something along the lines of 'I want to go home'. He checked his digital watch, to figure out how long they'd been waiting, only to see that it'd gone haywire. 'That's just great,' he thought, 'First I'm summoned to some alternate dimension, which shouldn't even exist in the first place, and now my brand new watch breaks. What else could go wrong?' As if the universe was answering his question, an earthquake shook the ground. Now what?

"What's going on?!" Lexi cried. Before anyone could react, a huge hole opened up only a few feet away from where the group – minus Takuya, Shin'ya, and the twins – stood. The rumbling and shaking stopped as suddenly as it had begun. A hissing sound came from the hole's depths. Most of the little monsters fled, terrified. Juan almost followed them, but Junpei managed to grab his arm.

"No!" he insisted, "Juan, you're a Legendary Warrior just like the rest of us. You have to stay, too." The other kid looked back to the hole, and pulled away, still talking to himself. He ran after the rest of the creatures. "Hey, Juan! Come back!" Junpei shouted, chasing after him. Despite the younger boy having a head start, Junpei quickly caught up to him and grabbed his arm again, this time with a tighter grip. "Didn't you hear what I said? You're a part of this team now, and we have to stick together!" Another sound came from the pit, this one louder and deeper than just hissing.

With a loud roar, a huge monster leapt up from its depths. It was the most terrifying thing Kyōsuke had ever seen. It looked like a lion with blood-red fur – and its head was that of an old man's, albeit a horribly disfigured one. Kyōsuke froze in terror. This wasn't real. This wasn't real. THIS WASN'T REAL! The monster roared again, and he could smell its putrid breath. It sure smelled real.

"Oh my goodness!" Bokomon cried, pulling a book out from his pink haramaki, "It's Mantimon! He's one of the evil Digimon I was warning you about! Get away!" Kyōsuke still couldn't move, purely out of fear. He felt someone grab him under the arms and drag him back as the monster moved forward threateningly. The creature opened its mouth, revealing three rows of sharp, stained teeth – was that blood on some of them?! – and a torrent of flame burst out, burning the grass only a few inches away from Kyōsuke's toes. The heat seemed to make his legs work again; he jumped up and ran, pulling Izumi with him, but they were stopped by a huge building very inconveniently sitting in their path. All the so-called heroes were backed in against the wall with nowhere to go. Mantimon took another deep breath, ready to attack.

Just as the blazing wall came barrelling down, a tall figure, a silhouette against the fire's glare, appeared in front of them. While a smaller figure slid off its back, the first held out his hands and pushed the flames away. Mantimon growled at his new adversary. Just then did Kyōsuke realise that the smaller figure was Shin'ya. "Go, Takuya!" Tomoki cheered, "Kick his butt, man! Yeah!" Kyōsuke took a closer look at their saviour. He had long, wild, straw-coloured hair and was decked out in some impressive-looking scarlet armour. But he was way too tall to be Takuya!

"Be careful!" Izumi called.

"Alright, Agnimon!" Junpei shouted to their hero.

"You're kidding about all this, right?" Kyōsuke asked, "I mean, how could a bunch of kids fight monsters?"

"We were all given the Spirits of the ancient Legendary Warriors," Kōji explained, crossing his arms, "So we were sort of infused with their powers, I guess. It's kind of hard to explain."

"Yeah, I was the first to get a Spirit." Takuya leaned even farther back in his seat casually. "Cerberumon had no chance once I became Agnimon. The dude was toast in five minutes!"

So that was Takuya! He was pushing forward slowly, beating back the flames Mantimon kept blowing his way. Suddenly, the tail swung around, hitting Agnimon and tossing him out of the way. Growling, he advanced upon the others. "At last," he declared in a deep, rumbling voice, "I shall eliminate the Legendary Warriors for my Master. I shall be revered among all his most loyal followers!" O-kay. Now the big monster was talking. Kyōsuke really wanted to wake up now.

"LICHT SIEGER!" Kyōsuke looked up to see another warrior, this one in white armour, leap down from the top of a building, wielding a bright white blade that looked like a lightsaber. It was official: this was the weirdest dream he'd ever experienced, but he might as well go along with it. He'd wake up once the worst part came, anyway.

Kōichi stood on the roof, too, fists clenched in clear anxiety. So that meant that this one was Kōji. Kōji took a swing at the tail, slicing half of it clean off. Kyōsuke and the others cheered, but Mantimon wasn't through yet. Baring his sharp teeth, he swung at Kōji with one of his huge paws. He missed on his first shot, but caught him off guard with a swipe from the other side. Kōji landed on the ground – hard. A swirl of light surrounded him for a few seconds, and when it disappeared, he was back to normal.

"Kōji!" Kōichi yelled, climbing down. His brother lay unmoving, a sitting duck for the monster glaring down at him. Mantimon inhaled. In a matter of seconds, Kōji would be burnt to a crisp. Without even thinking, something he normally always did first, Kyōsuke ran over to his new friend and tried to pull him out of the way, but Kōji was too heavy. As the blaze shot towards him, Kyōsuke saw Agnimon step in front of him. At first, he seemed to have no trouble holding back the flame, but it became clear that he was weakening. Kōichi suddenly appeared at Kyōsuke's side, and the two of them dragged Kōji over to the others.

Agnimon, finally tired out, was thrown back by the force of the blast. Another flash, and he too was back to normal, clutching his side in pain. Mantimon roared and stomped on the ground. The tremor he'd created knocked everyone off their feet. Kyōsuke stumbled and fell into the pit. Someone screamed his name. Kyōsuke reached out to grab something, anything, to hold on to. His fingers scraped against the walls of the deep pit, cutting into the palms of his hands. Finally, he gripped a stone jutting out, stopping his fall, and slammed into the wall. The impact nearly forced him to let go, but he hung on by his fingertips. More shouts came from above, all calling out to him. "Kyōsuke!" Izumi screeched again.

"I'm okay!" he hollered back, even though he doubted she could hear him. He strained to find another handhold or foothold. He had to help Izumi. He had to help the others. He had to do something. He'd come here for a reason, hadn't he? Sure, it had felt like some strange dream, but the pain in his hands screamed otherwise. As twisted as this trip was turning out, it was the real deal.

The rock he was hanging on to was beginning to loosen. Kyōsuke looked down. Now he could just see the bottom of the pit; it wasn't too far down. He took a deep breath and let go, landing roughly on his feet, but not quite sticking the landing, losing his balance and falling over. "Ow." Kyōsuke got up and looked around. It was very dark down there. He pulled his mini-flashlight out of his back pocket. Playing the beam around, he noticed that the portion of the wall to his left had a huge hole in it. It was a large, dug-out tunnel, one that stretched out so far back that he couldn't see the start, or a curve. Just a long, straight, endless passageway. "So that's how she got here," he mused aloud, "But where did she come from?" A bright light suddenly flared up, growing more and more intense by the second. "What…?" It became so bright, it nearly blinded him. A weird tingling feeling came over Kyōsuke. Realising it came from his vest pocket, he reached in and pulled out his cell phone – or what used to be his phone. It had been turned into that strange yellow and brown device back on the train. What were they called again? V-Scanners?

Out of the glare, something was coming towards him. Another monster? No, this thing didn't feel threatening at all. In fact he felt drawn to it. As it came nearer, he realised what it was: a Spirit. His Spirit. He pointed his V-Scanner at it instinctively. The Spirit shrank until it had been absorbed into the V-Scanner. As he held his hand out in front of him, a glowing ring of data appeared around it; he swiped the end of his V-Scanner at it. "SPIRIT EVOLUTION!" he shouted, without really knowing what he was doing.

The feeling that came over him was amazing. He felt newfound strength and power like he'd never felt before. He was Gnomemon.

If he could see himself in a mirror, Kyōsuke would see that he'd been transformed into a tall, wiry warrior with yellow-orange skin and pointed ears like an elf's. A reddish-brown hood covered his hair, except for chin length brown bangs a bit lighter than his original colour. A scarf of the same as his hood covered his lower face, showing only his now blue-green eyes. Purple metal plated armour covered his chest and shoulders, and he also wore boots that went up to his knees and arm-guards, both fashioned from the same metal. Under the armour, he wore a grey sleeveless shirt and leather pants the same colour as the hood and scarf. A brown leather belt with a huge buckle depicting a symbol similar to the kanji for earth, and a long-handled grey stone hammer fastened to his back by another leather strap completed the look.

Stronger than ever, he leapt out of the hole in a single bound. Coming out, he saw that everyone had scattered, trying to get away from Mantimon, who was breathing fire in pretty much every direction. Kōichi and Junpei were supporting a still-unconscious Kōji between them, while Tomoki and Izumi were doing their best to help Takuya move around. The smaller Digimon-things, along with Juan and Shin'ya, had escaped to the safety of a rooftop. But wait, what about Lexi?

Gnomemon looked around, but it was as if she'd vanished. He heard a shrill scream, and then he saw her. Lexi was backed up against a wall, Mantimon just barely shielding her from his line of sight. The beast opened his mouth, about to toast the girl. Gnomemon had to do something.

It was as if something else was guiding him through the whole fight. Gnomemon pulled out his hammer and brought it down and pounded the ground at his feet. "ROCK SLAM!" he shouted. The earth rumbled and cracked beneath Mantimon's paws. A stone spike erupted from that spot, launching the beast into the air.

As he landed, his massive body turned dark, and another ring of data, this one much bigger, appeared around him. Gnomemon's V-Scanner appeared in his hand. "All right, you twisted freak! Show's over!" He slashed the V-Scanner sideways. "DigiCode, Scan!" The device absorbed the data, and Mantimon – or what was left of him – disintegrated.

The intense feeling of power was suddenly gone, and he sank to his knees in exhaustion, somehow a human again. "That was amazing!" Izumi cried, running over to him and hugging him. "Welcome to the team, Kyōsuke!"

Welcome to the team. Yes, he was part of this crazy team, wasn't he? He didn't respond to Izumi's words, because he was too busy going over the events of the past hour in his mind. Had it really only been an hour? This was the most unbelievable experience he'd ever gone through, it seemed impossible that it'd happened in such a small amount of time. Of course, the impossible didn't seem so… impossible anymore.

"Kōji?" His head was throbbing like mad. "C'mon, budd-y, wake up!" Takuya's loud tone really wasn't helping Kōji's headache. He reached out and waved his hand around, making contact with someone's face.

"Owchie!" Neemon cried, "Why'd you do that?"

"Sorry," Kōji muttered, "I was aiming for Takuya. My head hurts, and his shouting is not helping."

"Are you okay?" Kōji opened his eyes at Lexi's voice, finally realising where he was: on board a moving Trailmon, with everyone crowded around him, even the Digimon. "That thing hit you pretty hard." What thing? Then it all came back to him. Mantimon had knocked him down – and apparently, out cold – in front of everyone. Great. Just great. How were the new kids supposed to take the old warriors seriously if they were getting smacked all over the place?

"I'm fine." He tried to sit up, but Takuya grabbed his shoulder and forced him back down, knocking his head on the armrest. "Ow. Watch it!"

"You should've seen it, man!" Tomoki cried, "Kyōsuke actually got a Spirit and saved us!"

"Which one?"

Tomoki grinned a little. "He got the Spirit of Earth."

"Grottomon?" Kōji laughed a bit, stopping when his head started pounding harder.

"No, it was a different form," Izumi explained, "Now that all those Spirits have been purified, they've completely changed. It's like what happened with the Spirits of Darkness, remember?"

Once everyone finally stopped fussing over his brother, Kōichi and the others took their own seats. At first they had a talk with Kyōsuke about calling their D-Scanners 'V-Scanners', but then Takuya started discussing their plan of action. "Okay, so our long-term goal is to take out the leader of these guys, but to do that, we need to find those other Spirits."

"Thanks a lot, Captain Obvious," Kōji commented dryly, "I think we've already figured that one out." At least he was back to snarking at Takuya like usual.

"We should head to that cove near Seraphimon's castle," Junpei announced firmly, crossing his arms.

"Why there?"

"Because there are three Beast Spirits there, remember? Water, Wind, and Thunder."

"Thunder? Oh, I get it. You just want to get your own Beast Spirit back."

"Look, were almost there," Izumi cut in over Junpei's protests, "How about we just meet up at my place tomorrow, and sort out the details there? It's been a long day." Kōichi had to agree. All he wanted to do was relax for a little while.

"I still can't believe the Digimon are actually coming home with us," Kōji added, "How are we supposed to hide them in the Human World, anyway?"

"Well, it's already been decided we should split up," Bokomon explained, "To make hiding a little easier. But Neemon will have to go with you and Kōichi."

"Why us?!"

"Because it will most definitely take two of you to watch him."

"Hey, Kōji?" Neemon asked, "When we get to your house, can we jump on the bed? I've never done that before. Please? Pretty, pretty, pretty please?" Both twins groaned.

"Have fun," Takuya chuckled. Both shot him a glare.

As the Trailmon screeched to a stop, Kōichi noticed that Lexi had barely said a word the entire trip. She'd spoken to Kōji a little when he'd woken up, but she'd been completely silent otherwise. Shin'ya, Kyōsuke, and even Juan had come to accept the truth, but Lexi still seemed like a non-believer. What was it that made it so hard for her?

So yeah, just one chapter left, very short, more of an epilogue, really. Then I'm afraid I'm on hiatus until the end of April.