Author Note: And a second chapter is up already! I'd like to take a second to thank LawlessOutlaw () for their review, along with his good sense, and byebye360 for their Favorite, along with anyone else who is purposefully reading this and moved on to the second chapter.

This is the first time I've done something purposefully aimed at a lower age category than my own, so I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions or problems you have with the writing, especially whether this is okay rated K+.

Chapter 2: Mesme the Fio'La

Tamas tossed the hexagonal machine into the air and caught it again in his hand. Its body was white and elongated, giving the central screen a pair of "wings" on its sides while the data screen itself was ringed by a red circle. Tamas glanced at it, before breaking into a rapid series of flailing arm gestures that eventually made Tamas stumble and lose his balance.

Saldramon watched him with curiosity, confused by Tamas's actions. As soon as Tamas regained balance he made a show of brushing of his coat and faked a cough, changing the subject.

"So, you call this place the 'digital plane', right? Why is that?" Tamas asked, gesturing at the surrounding plain of brown stone. Saldramon shrugged.

"It just is." He said as a non-answer. "What else could it be?" Tamas gave a shrug of his own.

"Dynapolye, my home planet." The human said. "At least I wish it was." Tamas said, glancing around. He still hadn't seen the local sun, but just from how cool the air was and how spectacularly blue the sky was he had begun to admit to himself that he couldn't possibly still be on his home world.

"What's a planet?" Saldramon asked. Tamas smacked himself on the forehead as he was reminded of how stupendously stupid his companion was. Right before he could decide not to explain, someone else joined in the conversation.

"Hey, uh… human guy!" Tamas and Saldramon turned to see Mesme, the tau Tamas had met the day before, running towards them with Piramon perched on her head.

"Argh, what do you want?" Tamas asked, already having enough on his hands with one friendly alien (though one that claimed not to be an alien).

"I saw some kind of giant flame go up over here. Did you see what happened?" Mesme asked.

"Flames?" Tamas said proudly. "Ha, that was just me and Saldramon here teaching some dark eldar brat a lesson." Mesme shivered when she heard Tamas's boast.

"Dark eldar?" She asked, frightened by the mere mention of the name. Meanwhile, Piramon had jumped off her head and now was deep in conversation with Saldramon, leaving the human and the tau to their own discussion.

"Forget about it." Tamas said. "We sent him running after Saldramon fried his dog."

"He was a tamer!" Piramon yelled out, causing Tamas and Mesme to look at him.

"A what?" Tamas asked.

"Saldramon said the black guy was tamer." Piramon said, bouncing on its fins in panic.

"Okay," Tamas said, not amused by Piramon's answer. "First I never said he was black. He just wore a lot of black. Second, what do you mean he was a 'tamer'?"

"Aren't you a tamer?" Piramon asked. "Saldramon's your partner, right?"

"Yeah." Saldramon nodded in agreement, far too eagerly for someone who had only got onto Tamas's good side a few hours ago. "He even got his D-Spex during the fight with Reavmon." Tamas looked down at the machine in his hand, while Mesme noticed it for the first time since she had arrived, and began to calm down from her initial fright.

"Oh, yours is red?" She asked. "I guess it makes sense. Mine is yellow." Mesme reached into one of the numerous pockets on her pants and pulled out a machine nearly identical to Tamas's save for the yellow ring around the screen. Tamas took a few seconds to look at Mesme's so called 'D-Spex' before looking in confusion at Saldramon.

"You know what this is and you never told me?"

"You never asked." Saldramon replied innocently. "Why? Do you not know?"

"No." Tamas said belligerently. "This doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before."

"But-" Saldramon began to protest, but Mesme cut him off.

"It's okay, I had to have it explained to me too." She said, beginning to reach for a pat on the shoulder, but deciding against it. "The D-Spex is what make marks you as a tamer, and makes Saldramon more than just a friend."

"I wouldn't exactly call him a friend." Tamas muttered.

"The D-Spex lets you command him so he can fight better." Mesme continued, missing Tamas's aside. "And it also can do some other stuff, like tell the local time and identify other digital beings."

"Digital beings?" Tamas asked, eyeing Saldramon and Piramon. "Is that what these guys are called?"

"Yeah, like how you two are both meat bags." Piramon replied.

OOOOO

As Tamas continued to be instructed, none of them were aware they were being watched. The creature could understand what they were saying, but was far from caring about the workings of the world it was already in. All it saw was four beings just waiting to be devoured. Only the green one looked like anything close to a threat, but that was only if he could touch the creature, and that was far from possible. Slowly, crouched low to the ground and staying behind the stones and hills that dotted the landscape, the creature approached.

OOOOO

"So how do you operate this thing? I don't see any buttons on this." Tamas asked.

"Just spend some time, messing around with it, that's what I did. I'm still not sure exactly how I did it." Mesme answered.

"Well that's not much help." Tamas said as began poking various spots on his D-spex, eventually falling into a natural handhold. He was quite surprised when the machine finally acknowledged his silent request and lit up, projecting a blue circle above it. Three blinking red dots and a yellow dot were spread out around the holographic field. "Woah, is this the radar you talked about?" Tamas asked.

"Yeah." Mesme answered. "You, that is your D-Spex, are the white dot in the center, and I'm the yellow dot. Those red dots are our partners."

"There's three of them." Tamas said, focusing intently on the screen as he processed the thought, quickly realizing what it meant.

"He's back!" Tamas yelled, turning around to face the direction the radar had indicated. "We've got to get out of here." The creature struck him first. He was down before anyone had seen it, but it paused long enough as it pinned him down.

Instead of the black canine Tamas had been expecting, it was a scarlet cat-like thing with warped and deranged features, a pair of tendrils sprouting from its back. Saldramon moved to attack the diminutive creature, but ended up clawing at an afterimage as the feline moved out of his grasp and disappeared from view.

"What was that?" Mesme, catching her breathe out of shock at the creature's sudden attack. Meanwhile, Tamas was already ramming his thumb onto his D-Spex, and the response was immediate.

'Khymramon' The projection read. 'Half-Real Cat being'

"That's useless!" Tamas yelled, thumbing the machine harder. "I could see it was a cat."

"Tamas, what should we do?" Saldramon begged, tugging on his tamer's shoulder to pull him up. "It's too fast for me."

"I don't know." Tamas said, shaking his D-Spex. "This stupid thing isn't saying anything useful.

"Tamas, watch out." Mesme called out, causing b,oth Tamas and Saldramon to turn to face her, too slow to understand her warning. The Khymramon struck Saldramon from behind, knocking him down and leaving blurry wounds on his back.

"Saldramon." Tamas yelled, heart pounding as he saw the Khymramon race out of site again. Tamas knelt at the side of the green reptile, shaking its shoulder only to receive a groan of pain in response. He looked up at Mesme, desperation and fear written on his face. "We need to get out of here." He said.

"I don't think we can escape it." She said, her near permanent smile gone.

"Saldramon's hurt." Tamas said, meaning far more than just those words. The wound looked serious, as if the stripes on the green lizard's back were literally going to fade out of existence. Tamas needed to help Saldramon. If there was a fight both of them would be worthless. It was up to Mesme and Piramon.

"What do you expect me to do?" Mesme asked. "I'm a circuit builder, I can't fight."

"What about me?" Piramon asked. "That's why I'm here after all." Mesme looked down at her partner, wondering whether something so small could really challenge

"We can't just sit here and die." Tamas said, gritting his teeth. "Even if you don't want to fight, you still need to protect yourself." Mesme paused.

"I'll need your help." Piramon said. "We'll need brains to beat it, not just brawn." The tau finally nodded

"Alright." She said. "Tell me what to do." Piramon flipped around and braced itself.

"That's the spirit." The fish said. "Tell me where it's attacking from and I'll do the rest." Mesme followed her muscle memory as she tapped on her D-Spex to bring up the radar. She saw the enemy's dot circle around them, hanging out of sight. The dot paused for the briefest of seconds, and Mesme cried out.

"Behind you!" Piramon spun around and spat, releasing a cloud of glowing, watery bubbles.

The Khyramon dodged the first bubble, and a second and a third, but its agility was overtaxed by the shear amount it had dove into. The scarlet cat dodged one only to plunge headfirst into a second, waving its limbs wildly as it tried to escape the entrapping water. Piramon charged forward and finished the fight with a slash of his head fin, sending the beast tumbling to the ground.

Howling in pain as a blurry wound appeared on its side, the Khyramon ran off into the wastelands, Mesme following on her radar until the feline was well out of range.

"Alright, you did it." Mesme cried out, her smile reappearing on her face.

"I'd have been useless without you." Piramon pointed out.

"All-" Mesme began to say, but she was quickly cut off.

"You were great! All I do in a fight is yell and flail my arms." Tamas said. Saldramon began to push itself up from the ground, and Tamas turned his attention back to his partner. "Hey, are you all right?"

"I was made to be tough." Saldramon replied, standing up and brushing himself off. "It'll take more than a scratch to worry me." Tamas chuckled dryly, relieved that the attack was over.

"So what do we-" Tamas did a double take as he turned to address Mesme, before bursting out into an honest fit of laughter.

"What?" Mesme asked, wondering what he found so funny.

"Man, I was so scared by that monster I forgot you were an alien." Tamas said.

"So?" Mesme asked, not sure what the imperial human would do next.

"Eh, it's nothing." Tamas said. "Your nothing like what my teachers ranted about, and you did save our lives, so I guess I kinda' owe you one."

"I was helping myself too. You don't need to-" Mesme began.

"Are you crazy?" Piramon said. "We'll be safer if we stick with him. Saldramon would have flattened that cat if it hadn't gotten the drop on him."

"Well, allies then?" Tamas said, spitting on his left hand and holding it out. Mesme looked at it in confusion. "Uh, I guess tau don't shake hands, huh?" Tamas said, noticing Mesme's expression.

"Yeah…" Mesme replied.

"Well, as long as we can understand each other." Tamas said, wiping his hand off on his pant leg. The group of four began to walk, Piramon perched on Mesme's head and Saldramon following close by Tamas's side.

"By the way, what do you want me to call you?" Tamas asked. "The name you gave was kind of long. Does Fio'La work?"

"That's a bit formal." The worker of the Earth caste replied. "You can just call me Mesme."

"Well, hi Mesme, I guess. I'm Tamas."

OOOOO

The Khymramon hissed as it struggled to crest the hill. Thinking it was safe the feline collapsed on the ground. It would need time to rest and easy prey to regain its strength. Maybe there was an egg…

The Khyramon's train of thought was cut off by a sharp set of claws in the back of its neck.

"Why quickly?" Reavmon asked out loud as he watched the feline dissolve into tiny shards of color and light.

"Didn't you hear me the first time? You digital beings are worthless to me." Jalith said, walking up from behind while fiddling impatiently with his dagger. "Just hurry up and absorb his data."

"Not data, just power." Reavmon mumbled as he began to inhale the shards of light.

"Shut up and do it." Jalith hissed. "I don't care if it'll reform after this. You let yourself be beaten by that mon-keigh's mongrel, and you're lucky I kept you."

"Of course master." Reavmon said, turning and bowing, leaving the shards of color to sink into the ground.

"Once you evolve, I'm going to teach that human a lesson that he'll never forget." Jalith declared, sheathing the dagger in one smooth motion and bursting into maniacal laughter.