Hey guys, Lunamon810 here, for the second time in one day. I couldn't leave the story for the night with such a short chapter, plus I was in a writing zone for this story! I'm much more pleased with this chapter, there's almost twice as many words in this one than the last one. Plus I liked this chapter. Also, I'm sorry that my fight-scenes suck. They've always been my downfall. I hope you guys enjoy these chapters anyway! Oh no...only four more chapters left for me to write now...I hope Latina Shewolf is back tomorrow. I want her to be here when it's over, so she can comfort me through my post-story writing depression that I can already feel coming yet I've never experienced before. Also, the number forty as a chapter number for one of my stories? This is new for me. Before CoT my longest story was like, eleven chapters. This pretty much blows it out of the water...Well, enjoy~

Amber and those who went with her were walking up their respective path up the hill. The sun beating down on them was making them thirsty, so Amber passed out the water bottles. As they all chugged their waters, Amber suddenly stopped, and the others stopped, Felix almost bumping into her. They stopped to look in the direction she was staring. She'd heard something whimper. She looked over to see a Budmon with it's tail stuck under a rock. Amber rushed over and lifted up the basketball sized dense rock off of it's tail. She looked at the tail. "It looks pretty badly crushed."

"How can you tell? It's a leaf." Tazzie pointed out.

"Well, it's crushed up into a smaller shape than it should have been. There were Budmon in the grassland, their tails were a lot wider and a lot rounder. This one's tail is smaller and a bit disconfigured."

"Oh, I see."

"So where are you from little guy?"

"Well, there's a clan of Budmon like me in a cave a little bit up the mountain. I was coming down to search for help, a lot of us have fallen sick, and we have no way to transport the sick out of there, and we're all too weak to digivolve, we haven't eaten in weeks. But this illness some of us have come down with is causing our data to wither away, and it causes us to be unable to be reborn."

Several of them gasped, and Clary looked at Joe. "Oh no..."

"I'll carry you home, we'll help your clan." Amber said, picking the small Budmon up in her arms, though Moonmon was not happy having to share her space with another digimon. She started leading the group up the mountain, until the Budmon stopped her.

"Stop, there's the cave," He said, nodding toward the medium sized hole in the side of the mountain. "They're all in there."

"Alright." Amber nodded. "Lets go guys! We can let another Budmon waste away!" They all rushed inside, and Amber carefully sat the Budmon down on a patch of hay that the Budmon had carried up into the cave. Clary and Joe somewhat took over, being the most advanced in medical treatment. Amber worked on getting food for all of them, while Felix and Felicia carefully gathered water from a small pond on the side of the large mountain. The others worked on doing a head-count of the digimon, and separating them into groups of sick and unsick.

"I can't figure out what it is," Clary said sighing, a bit of aggravation in her voice. "They have nothing but a fever and some coughing. It shouldn't be making them deteriorate and leaving them unable to be reborn."

"I can't figure out anything either. And if we can't figure it out, we can't cure it." Joe said, also aggravated.

"I guess we'll have to feed and water them and hope that it's just some strange sickness from starvation and dehydration." Joe nodded in response and Felix and Felicia came in with the remainder of the Budmon's clay bowls in with water. They brought over the bowls and let the Budmon drink to their heart's content, then fed them pieces of apples slow enough that their stomachs wouldn't get upset. Clary cradled one in her arms. "Joe, this one doesn't look too good. I think that-" She was cut off as it faded away. Her eyes widened and she closed her arms tighter around what was left, though speedily disappearing, of the Budmon. "No, come back!" She cried out, but it was gone. She felt tears welling up behind her eyes, and he put his arm around her.

"There's nothing we could do. There's no logical explanation for what's going on to these digimon. Obviously it has to be a digimon-only illness, and unfortunately we don't know too much about stuff like that. At least it left with a full stomach and a quenched thirst." She leaned her head on his chest as she let loose a few sobs.

"I know but, but it wasn't fair what happened to it. And it's going to happen to the rest if we don't do something Joe! And who knows, it might spread to the other digimon if we don't stop- Oh no! What about our digimon Joe?"

Joe looked over his shoulder at Ren. "Hey, Ren, can you get our digimon out of here? We're afraid they might catch what these Budmon have."

"Sure." Ren nodded, and he lead all of their in-training digimon out of the cave, safely to a smaller crater-like hole in the side of the mountain.

"I'll stay here with you guys, I should keep an eye on you. In case one of you are already infected with whatever those poor Budmon have."

"Hey Ren, can I join you? I'm not much help in there." Lana said from behind him, and he turned and smiled at her.

"Sure."

Inside the cave, Joe and Clary were still wracking their brains trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with the Budmon and how they could cure it and save them. The others were tending to checking the other Budmon to make sure they weren't catching it. "Clary, Tazzie, Felicia, could you help me go get some more water?" Amber asked, holding the stack of now empty clay bowls.

"Sure!" They all said in unison a the followed her out. No one heard the bowls hit the ground as the four were caught and had tape over their mouths. They all struggled, trying to get away, but couldn't. The next thing they knew, they were in Etemon's train again. Amber looked at him, realizing she'd forgotten about him, as had the others most likely.

As usual, the monkey-based digimon was bursting with energy has he reintroduced himself to Amber, Clary, and Tazzie, and for the most part the first time to Felicia. "I conveniently put these deadly germs on those Budmon, and crushed that one's tail! And now, you're in my clutches! Ha-ha-ha!"

Their tape was removed, and they withheld their screams of pain. Amber narrowed her eyes. "How could you do that to those poor innocent Budmon! They're gone, they're never coming back! They can't be reconfigured like you were!"

"I knew you would jump on the situation the more serious it was! Besides, why would it matter to me? They're just a clan of insignificant little leaf digimon!"

"All life matters, whether it directly concerns you or not, you cold, heartless monkey!" Clary screamed, her heart pounding. She was mad and horrified. How could he do such a thing to those innocent little digimon?

"It's wrong! Can't you understand that? There's a reason the digidestined tried to get rid of you! All you do is things that are wrong! You're the one who deserved to be infected with those germs! Not those little guys!' Tazzie protested, mad like the rest of them.

"Yeah! How would you feel if you knew you were going to die and never come back you over-sized idiotic monkey!?"

"Aw, now, now, that's enough little girls. There's nothing you can do about it! Move on!"

"No way! Besides, we can't just let you get away with this!" Amber took a deep breath, and looked at her partner digimon, along with the other three digimon. She had a determined look in her eye as the four digivolved, Crescemon so big she had to bend over, then she jerked up, smashing the roof of the train. She used her axe to smash the rest as Taomon cut the ropes binding the digidestined.

"Aaagh! You destroyed my beautiful stage! Oh what am I saying, the world is my stage! And allow me to present to you, a special concert just for you! Concert Crush!"

"Plug your ears!" Amber called, then shoved her pointer fingers in her ears, as did Clary, Tazzie, and Felicia. Until they knew it was over, they didn't uncover their ears.

"Talisman Spell!" Taomon said, painting a sign in the air, and a shield covered the four digidestined.

"Ice Archery!" Crescemon called out, shooting Etemon with an ice arrow.

"Bunny Blades!' Antylamon said, then spun on it's axis like a tornado, and used the Treasure Axes to hit Etemon while it acted like a tornado.

Taomon chanted an incarnation "Bon-Hitsu-Sen" as she painted a sanskrit letter in the air, then she threw it at Etemon, and as it made contact it exploded, and when the dirt and dust cleared, Etemon was gone. Amber cheered as she punched the air, then high-fived her fellow digidestined. The digimon dedigivolved to Moonmon, Viximon, Kokomon, and Tsunomon. They caught their digital friends and headed back down the mountain, where they were greeted at the cave by the worried digidestined.

"Great news!" Joe said happily. "The Budmon all recovered a minute ago! It was sudden, but no one else deteriorated!"

"That's great!" Clary said.

"But, where did you disappear to?" Davis asked.

"Etemon kidnapped us again." Tazzie said sighing, shaking her head. "That monkey caused way too much trouble."

"Caused? Does that mean...?" Seth stopped and Amber nodded.

"He's gone."

As they cheered, they were completely unaware of what would attack them next.