Unfortunately due to my incompetence with computers – damn technology – I have lost my original second chapter, so I now have to rewrite it, sorry about that, I will try and make it as close to the original as I can.

This is actually the second half of the original second chapter, as when I rewrote it, it was much longer. So I hope you enjoy it and I apologise for the wait. I will get the next chapter up as soon as possible. Until then thank you to all those who have either read or read AND reviewed this story, I really appreciate it all!
~Blonde-Eko

Jeri woke up with a pounding headache and looked around, groaning slightly.

"Huh?" he grunted, as his brain slowly began to process what he was seeing. He was in a clearing surrounded by trees. Hundreds of trees! That couldn't be right. "Where on earth am I?"

Seconds later an odd looking creature with a long, sharp horn on its head and no hands, feet or paws rushed over to where he was lying, causing Jeri to jump in fright. The creature was the size of a head, round and furry with large amber eyes to match its orange-golden fur. It seemed to be smiling happily at Jeri, as if glad to see him.

Jeri, meanwhile, reacted somewhat differently to their meeting.

At first he froze at the sight of it, wondering whether the creature was some sort of strange hybrid animal experiment that had gone badly wrong. A weaponized furry head… He wouldn't put such things past the Japanese government. Or possibly the Americans?

As he contemplated this, the creature opened its mouth and chirped "Welcome! You've made it to the digital world - finally!"

It then began hopping up and down like a little over-excited bundle of energy, making Jeri feel tired just watching. His brain raced to catch up with events as the creature beamed up at him cheerfully. He had been attacked by a bouncing head. A bouncing head which, by the way, seemed to be quite the chatty fellow. It can talk! A talking monster, fantastic, just what Jeri needed to make today that extra special bit more crazy.

He scrambled to his feet shakily and backed away from the little fur ball as fast as he could. He just hoped that it wouldn't attack him with that painful looking horn or anything… Damn, that could be nasty.

He tried to remember what he had been drinking last night at the awards ceremony. Surely it hadn't been this strong, had it?! I don't think I even know of anything that's this strong…

The horned creature followed him as he backed away, causing Jeri to panic. For the second time that day he was extremely thankful that he was a champion runner, and he sprinted away as fast as he could through the alien trees and woodland.

Leaving the confused little creature behind to wonder what he had done wrong.

Renjiro and Benjiro woke at the same time and sat up, gazing around them in silence. They found themselves in the middle of a large field in a place where the sky was perfectly clear. But this was not the field that they had been in just a second ago and this was not the sky of Japan. Something was wrong; there was not a single sky scraper or sign of civilisation in sight, only grass and trees and endless blue sky. It was unnerving and tranquil and like no where they had ever been before.

Benjiro stood up and stretched, Renjiro following suit. They felt strangely stiff and both had a splitting headache, but the stretching helped a little, as did the unusually fresh air.

"Where are we?" Benjiro asked looking around him and feeling slightly worried.

Renjiro raised an eyebrow, a nifty trick that he had taught himself a while ago which had come in handy quite a lot recently. "How would I know?"

Benjiro shrugged and began to walk around the field, gazing at everything around them in awe. Renjiro followed him casually, wanting to stay close to his twin as he suddenly felt vulnerable in this strange place; if there was one thing he hated it was feeling vulnerable. He was just glad that he had Benjiro here with him, something he would never admit.

"Well, I don't think we're in Japan any more bro," Benjiro said eventually, interrupting his brother's thoughts. They had explored the field for the best part of half an hour so far and it was as obvious as it could possibly be that they were nowhere near Japan. Renjiro had never even heard of a place like this, so tranquil and untouched by civilisation.

Renjiro sweatdropped at the obviousness of his brother's statement. "You think?"

Benjiro shrugged again. "Just saying."

"I could have told you that half an hour ago, Sherlock." Renjiro sat back down on the grass sighing loudly in exasperation.

Benjiro plonked down next to him. "Well, it's a nice field."

"And that makes it all better…" muttered Renjiro sarcastically, glaring at his ever-optimistic brother. Then he took out the device from his pocket and turned it over in his hand, examining it. Benjiro watched him with interest, curious to see what he would do. After a while Renjiro still hadn't dared to press any of the buttons in case they were transported to the moon or something, so he gave up and smashed his fist on the ground in frustration.

"Chill Renji," Benjiro placed an arm around his brother affectionately as Renjiro began yanking up tufts of grass to vent his feelings of helplessness and the sensation of panic which was slowly building at the thought of being in this strange new environment. "Just look around for a second, will you?"

Renjiro scowled, but complied. He slowly peered around and took in the scenery, the mountains and the whole spectrum of natural beauty of the place they had found themselves in. It is rather pretty, he sighed. If you like that sort of thing.

"So it's pretty. That doesn't change the fact we are stuck with no idea how we even got here." He challenged.

Benjiro nodded slightly. "You're right. But seriously Ren, if we have to be thrown somewhere without a way back, I sure am glad it's here. We could have done a lot worse for ourselves."

"I guess."

"And where ever 'here' is, there's got to be some sort of civilisation around. We just need to find it. Then after explaining ourselves to the authorities we can have them contact mother and father, they'll pay for our plane tickets home – first class, of course," he smirked at his brother, "and before you know it we'll be right back in Japan. Adventure over."

"If we're lucky."

"The real luck," Benjiro grinned and winked conspiratorially at his twin, "will be making the whole thing take just long enough that we unfortunately miss our exams this summer." Renjiro laughed at his brother's humour, finally lightening up. "I mean, I'm sure 'lost and forced to fend for themselves in a strange place for two months' would make for an interesting extenuating circumstances form!"

"Dream on Benji," Renjiro stretched some more before lying down flat to stare at the sky and sighed. "You're gonna have to tackle integration and differentiation at some point soon, whether you like it or not."

"Gah!" Benjiro gasped in mock horror.

It was then that they heard a commotion behind them, which was comprised of a lot of rustling followed by some excited chatter and a squeal of delight.

"It's them, it's really them!" A high pitched voice reached their ears and they turned around in surprise. They were more surprised to see that it was them that the voices were talking about and heading for, and even more surprised than that to see who the voices belonged to. Or what…

Two small creatures rushed towards them, shrieking and chattering with massive grins on their faces, their eyes shining.

One of the creatures looked like a punked up brown baby seal with an orange mohican and big, bright blue eyes. He was quite small and had two long fins for feet and a small tail. He was the louder of the two creatures and it was him who seemed responsible for the bulk of the chattering and screeching.

The other creature looked like a small fireball with two little arms and a stitched up mouth, which began smiling slightly as he looked at Renjiro. He had Rugby ball shaped blue eyes, which looked like orbs, and a trail of flame behind him which crackled with sparks as he moved.

The two brothers felt that they had already had an insane day, so while on any other day creatures such as these would be enough to freak them out and have them running for dear life, today they just stared in disbelief.

Could this day get any stranger if it tried?

So they just lay there in complete silence as the creatures rushed towards them.

Something about the fireball creature appealed to Renjiro. That's my kind of monster he thought, smiling slightly.

Benjiro on the other hand immediately warmed to the goofy, loud, funny little seal. Despite himself he actually smiled warmly as the creatures approached them.

They slowly stood up to greet these funny creatures but were immediately knocked right back down as the monsters ran straight into them, hugging their new found human partners and causing them to topple back over to the ground. Benjiro gasped in surprise at the embrace, Renjiro flinched and his slight smile disappeared immediately.

"Oh Benjiro! It's really you!" the seal exclaimed, wrapping his fins firmly around Benjiro who struggled in vain to get back up.

Benjiro and Renjiro exchanged glances, how did the seal know his name? How did the seal even talk?! What was going on here?

Was this some lame ass TV show, like Candid Camera or Punk'd? If it was they had gone way over the top with this one.

Or were they just dreaming?

Too many questions. None of this made sense.

"Who are you two?" Renjiro demanded gruffly, barely restraining himself from plucking the fireball up and throwing it off of him. He wasn't used to being hugged and shoved to the ground by anyone, especially not by crazy fireballs he had just met, and it had seriously unnerved him.

"Well," the fireball creature said from on top of Renjiro's stomach. "I'm DemiMeramon and this is my friend Bukamon, and we're your digimon partners."

"Digimon partners?" Benjiro asked slowly.

"Yes, we're-" DemiMeramon began.

Bukamon cut him off impatiently and clapped his fins together. "Yes, yes, Jijimon-sama will explain it all, but first things first: we need to take you to him – now! So come on guys, let's get going."

"You expect us to just go with you?" Renjiro snorted in disbelief. He raised his eyebrow again and DemiMeramon tried to copy him thinking it was cool, but failing miserably.

Benjiro was the only one to notice this and he quickly suppressed a laugh. He then turned to look at his brother. "Renji!" He hissed quietly elbowing him – gently – in the ribs and frowning, shocked at his suspicious and downright rude attitude. He turned to his digimon and smiled encouragingly, "lead the way Bukamon."

Bukamon grinned happily and started to walk, the others followed him. Renjiro scowled, how could his brother be so trusting of monsters –MONSTERS!– that they had just only met in some random field? It was beyond him. DemiMeramon looked up at him sadly, upset that Renjiro was upset.

Benjiro walked ahead with Bukamon and talked happily, asking questions and even getting a couple of legible answers between all of the digimon's random chattering and squeals of delight. It could definitely be said that Bukamon was happy to meet his human partner after all this time.

DemiMeramon sidled inch by inch towards Renjiro cautiously as they walked and soon ended up by his side. He said nothing, remembering the boy's startled reaction to his earlier embrace and wisely decided to keep his head down for a while. At least until the human boy had gotten used to the idea of having a talking fireball for a friend.

Until then he just wanted to be near his human, even if they didn't speak. Renjiro's very presence was enough to make the little digimon feel warm inside.

Renjiro looked down at the nervous little fireball by his side.

DemiMeramon, he huffed, digimon partner… I suppose it could be worse. Which was his way of admitting to himself that he was okay with the idea. Perhaps he was warming to his digimon too, at least, slowly, cautiously and in his own way.

But he would never admit it.

Jeri hid, panting heavily, in a thick bush and glanced around to check that he'd escaped that crazed monster thing. It was following him around, he could swear it was, but now he thought he had finally lost it. He collapsed to the ground and sighed in relief as the blood pounded fiercely in his ears.

Then he heard small panting coming from directly behind him, "You… finally stopped… running?" it asked exhausted. "Did we…. escape wh… whoever was chasing… us?"

Jeri turned around and shrieked, it had found him!

He tried to scramble to his feet but his legs felt like jelly and he soon collapsed back down, he just couldn't run anymore. He lay on the ground and began to break out in a cold sweat as he awaited his fate at the hands of this strange creature.

He could just picture the sharp horn as it speared him again and again and again…

Crumbs!

The monster cautiously approached him, worried he might take off at any minute. All this silly running was just no fun at all. He didn't want to scare his partner any more, he wondered why Jeri had reacted the way he did, all he had done was talk to him.

"Who… What are you?" Jeri asked fearfully through gasps as the creature approached.

"My name's Tsunomon," chirped the creature, relieved to have a chance to introduce himself after all their running – finally. "And I'm a digimon, a digital monster. More to the point," he cleared his throat nervously, not quite sure how Jeri would react, "I'm your digimon. We're partners."

Jeri raised an eyebrow, how odd had this day been?

"Well Tsuno-Tsunomon?" He hesitated, unsure if he'd said that right. Tsunomon nodded in encouragement and he carried on, "I'm Jeri, a human being."

"Hiya Jeri," Tsunomon smiled slightly, "and erm… now that we're speaking does that mean we can stop all that running around? I'm tired and hungry." His stomach rumbled as if to underline the point and he pouted miserably. He hated being hungry.

Jeri blushed and mumbled an apology, feeling very silly.

"So," Tsunomon said, bouncing closer to Jeri, "I think we should get going to meet Jijimon-sama now, he's expecting us and we don't wanna be late."

"Jijimon-sama?" Jeri asked, not really surprised at anything anymore, more just curious.

"Yup yup, he's our wise elder digimon. He's gonna explain to you why you're here and" again Tsunomon's stomach growled, "there'll be food."

"Well that settles it, let's go!" Jeri grinned at his digimon for the first time and Tsunomon grinned back, eyes sparkling happily.

Tsunomon nodded enthusiastically and led the way.

Roka woke up and remembered what had happened, everything from the strange sparks to the odd device falling from the sky.

He was free. Free from those stupid bullies, free from all the pain and humiliation and most of all free from the constant fear.

He uncurled himself and stretched, basking in the warmth of the sun's rays. He looked around him and jumped up for joy when he saw that he was on a beach, and not only that, but he was the only person in miles. He had a whole beach all to himself!

He slipped off his shoes and socks and rolled up his school trousers happily, running over to the sea and paddling his sweaty feet in the refreshingly chilly water. The foam hit his face as he splashed about, waking him up. It was wonderful. He leapt over the waves as they broke on the shore and kicked the water high into the sky, causing it to fall down and reflect the sun at funny angles. The falling droplets looked like diamonds as they glittered in the glare of the tropical sun. Some of the splashes fell onto Roka's hair, dampening it and causing small droplets to run down his face. He shook his head and his long-ish blonde hair waved around as he dried himself off like a dog. He giggled as his hair fell back in a damp mop around his eyes. He soon dried in the hot sun.

Eventually, though, Roka got bored with splashing around in the sea, there was only so much you could do on your own and he began to wish he had a friend with whom he could share this amazing beach that he had somehow discovered here. Where ever 'here' was.

"I know, I'll make a sand castle instead." He smiled, he didn't need any help with that and it would be just as fun on his own as it would be with a friend. Well, almost.

He dried off his feet and busily started to build his sandcastle with his little hands, digging and patting, piling up and splashing occasionally. He soon had a very big lump of semi-wet sand and a circular ditch around it for the moat. It wasn't a work of art but it was still impressive and Roka stood back to admire his work.

Then he yawned, it was tiring work all of that building and the sun was still glaring down on him. He realised that he was beginning to get hungry and thirsty but more than that he felt sleepy. He could just curl up and fall asleep right here happily. But it was too hot to fall asleep right where he was, he'd get burnt to a crisp. He looked around for a better option and saw a tree which cast a large shadow, causing an alluring patch of shade under it. He made his way over there to sit down when he noticed a strange pink blob flying towards him. It looked like an over sized hamster and he rubbed his tired eyes in astonishment.

The blob was heading right to him and he stood still, blinking occasionally in case this was a mirage. The blob set itself down next to him and grinned. It was pale pink with little black beady eyes and long thin ears/wings which it used to fly. It was small and round with four tiny legs and a grin shaped in a 'w'. Its cheeks blushed a little with two slightly darker circles of pink under his eyes. He smiled up at Roka, who smiled back cautiously and introduced himself.

"Hiya I'm Roka, who are you?"

"Hi Roka, my names Tokomon and I'm your digimon." He smiled up at him and his eyes closed as he bowed slightly, "Your best friend and partner." He added.

"Digimon?" Roka mumbled confused, before shaking his head slightly, did that matter? He had a friend. "Best friend?" He asked a bit louder.

"Yup, best friend." Tokomon grinned and flew up to perch on the boy's head. "Say Roka, your head feels really warm," Tokomon pouted as he curled up on his human's head and nestled into his hair. "I think you need shade."

"Yeah," Roka nodded slowly, "I was gonna go sit under that big tree."

"I've got a better idea," Tokomon closed his eyes, comfortable in his new nestling place. "Jijimon-sama is expecting us, his mansion is nice and cool and he will have food and ice-cold drinks. Sound good?"

Roka nodded enthusiastically.

He had no idea who Jijimon-sama was but right now he didn't care as the thought of shade, food and drink was enough to motivate him. His nodding disturbed Tokomon's perch for a minute and he flew off startled. Roka giggled and apologised when he realised what he had done and Tokomon giggled too, settling back down and pointing the way to Jijimon's mansion as they chattered away excitedly.

Yumi opened her eyes slowly, not remembering how she had come to be asleep again. She looked around her and gasped, where on earth was she?

As her eyes adjusted she saw another pair of eyes staring right back at her, belonging to some sort of furry head-like creature with a long tail and cat's eyes that appeared to be guarding her as she lay there. Yumi sat up and the creature smiled at her, hazel eyes lighting up with excitement now that her human had woken up. Yumi frowned, feeling disoriented, not knowing what was going on and not used to being smiled at.

The creature was rather cute, Yumi noted as she stared back at her guardian critically, with its yellow-green fur and big hazel eyes. It had purple stripes across its tail and no real body as far as she could make out; in fact it appeared that its head was its body. Its mouth was big and crooked, grinning up at her and stretching nearly from ear to ear.

"You're awake," it smiled happily.

"Fantastic observation skills," Yumi scowled at the creature contemptuously. "What's it to you?"

The creature looked slightly taken aback by Yumi's attitude, but then shook its head slightly and smiled again. "Well I'm your digimon, it's my job to care."

"My what?" Yumi asked, staring scornfully at the creature who met her gaze with no sign of discomfort, only a fair amount of guarded curiosity. Impressive, people normally backed off from her glare.

"Your digimon," the creature paused slightly, "your partner and" now the creature dropped Yumi's gaze and blushed, "best friend."

Yumi glared in disgust, "I don't need a best friend, fuzzy."

The creature looked up again, staring right into the girl's eyes and making her squirm uncomfortably. "You're wrong. Everyone needs a friend Yumi."

Yumi jumped up at the mention of her name. "How the hell do you know my name? And for that matter," she frowned, "how can you even talk?"

"I'm your digimon." The creature stated, as if that explained it.

"My digimon? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that we are bonded," the creature beamed up at her. "We're best friends!"

"Listen to me fur ball," Yumi said angrily, "I don't know what you think you're playing at but you're nothing to me." How dare some little creature claim to be her best friend, partner and digimon – whatever that meant?

"But Yumi…"

"Don't 'but Yumi' me, just get lost. I don't need friends. So I suggest you turn around and crawl back into whatever dark hole you came out of, got it?"

"So that's it then. You think you've got all the answers?" The hackles on the back of the creature's neck suddenly rose as she bared her razor sharp teeth at her human. Its gaze had become hostile and its eyes blazed wildly, stalling Yumi momentarily.

"Well if I don't I hardly think I'll get any from some ridiculous furby reject!" She retorted after a brief pause, red in the face.

The creature's eyes narrowed and it hissed at her. "You're ridiculous! You won't last a day out here on your own and neither will I. We need each other and you know it."

"Yeah," Yumi scoffed, "Because I would feel so safe from danger knowing I have you watching my back." Although I gotta admit, whatever it is, it's fierce. And those teeth look deadly.

"Well you're not exactly a Leomon yourself you know!" the creature snarled defensively. "But that's not the point," It took a deep breath and calmed down again, taking a more reasonable tone and staring up at Yumi earnestly. "I will protect you because I am your digimon and I care about you. We can help each other and I hope that one day we can become friends. But even until then, I'll be here for you. I'm going nowhere."

Yumi weighed this creature up, fiddling with her fingers, a nervous habit she kept trying to stop. No one had ever really wanted to be her friend before; she had always been too cold and dismissive for anyone to consider actually getting to know her. Yet here she was faced with some talking head that seemed to want to be her 'best friend'.

Pah, not likely. And how pathetic - "best friend" what was she, six?!

Friends were nothing but trouble and that was something she could do without, thank you very much. Yumi didn't need anyone.

"Like I said earlier, everyone needs a friend." The creature swished it tail casually, while her eyes bored into Yumi's soul. Reading her.

"Not me." She was now shaking slightly and didn't know why. What was it about this creature that had got to her, that had just caught her off guard?

"Tough," the creature puffed its little chest out determinedly, "because now you've got one. The name's Nyaromon."

Yumi grunted.

Nyaromon, such a pretty name…

But who cared what its name was?

She turned away and Nyaromon bounded up to her. "We should go to meet the others now Yumi," it said softly. Handling her.

Yumi flashed a scowl, no one handled her. Besides, like hell would she just skip on along to meet these 'others' Nyaromon spoke of. How stupid did this thing think she was?

Yet at the same time what other option did she have? She had no idea where she was or what she had got herself into this time. Nyaromon had been right when she said Yumi needed her. Just her luck.

Against her better judgement she nodded coolly to the little digimon and allowed herself to be lead away to God knows where.

Nyaromon looked up at her partner sadly; their meeting hadn't exactly gone as she had always imagined it would, to say the least. Nothing worthwhile was ever easy, she told herself determinedly, and this included friendships. They would be friends yet, that was for sure, deep down in her heart she knew it to be so. Yet she was not afraid to admit that right now she had no idea of what to do to make that happen.

She'd figure it out though. Eventually.

And Yumi would just have to get used to having a friend around 'cause Nyaromon wasn't going anywhere.