AN: Song Persona Q's light up the fire in the night, there are now 4455 words in the story, not including this author note, have fun with the improved pacing and condensed chapters, please review.

Light the fire up in the night.

Takuya Kanbara sensed it. A disturbance in the proverbial force. He was about to go to bed, It was the middle of a school night. An evil disturbance that told him his life was pointless and that he shouldn't believe in himself or anyone for that matter.

"My dreams are worth zilch." He found himself saying. It had been Two years since anything about the digital world happened. The warriors kept in touch with one another.

"It would never happen again." Takuya found himself saying. That wasn't true! His thoughts were drifting off course, like that car that almost hit him. Was it worth it to go to the digital world over what might have been a prank, to get hit by a car because he was stupid? "I..." Takuya resisted saying the truth. This statement is false, Takuya lied to himself.

His phone rang in his PJ pockets. It lit up, the light dispelled the dark thoughts for a brief moment. Takuya struggled to not not not not not not not ever pick up the phone. If he did... there would be... ho~pe...lessness.

Takuya snatched the phone from his pockets, he fumbled with the lid, maybe if he screwed up for long enough the call would go away. Takuya hated that thought. He determinedly opened the lid. "What's up?" He answered.

The darkness in his mind was held back by the light of the screen. "Takuya! You're okay!" The voice of Koji practically blasted his ear out. Takuya instictively thrust the phone away from his ear.

"I... need your help. There's a darkness all over town, it's making all of us think awful things. We're going to gather in the park and keep eachother safe. Don't let your phone turn off, the light keeps the thoughts from creeping in." The call hung itself up. Well that was ominous.

Calls from Koji were truly few and far between. Koichi tended to call more often, if only to keep the connection between the warriors going.

Takuya checked his battery. It was low. Of course. Takuya decided it was time to rush, take chances, make mistakes and maybe get hit by a car. Takuya pressed the dpad on his phone to wake it up. That was better. He plugged his phone in but the charging icon didn't show at all. Great, now it was worse, good grief.

He rushed out the door. Downstairs past his already sleeping family. Of course the darkness had gotten to them. He cringed, hoping they would be OK in this hazy darkness. He stepped outside, there were no stars in the sky. The moon was blotted out. Every electronic he passed was off, the streetlamps, the cars, even the clocks. It was like they were also depressed.

Takuya shrugged. There was nothing to do but grit his teeth and push on. He pressed a button on his phone just to make sure it stayed on.

When he arrived at the Park, the Warriors were already there. Zoe, Tomoki, JP, Koji and Koichi. They were fiddling with their phones. "C'mon do something you stupid ingrato!" Zoe complained in italian to her phone.

Koichi shivered. He didn't have a phone to fiddle with. "This thing that's blotted out the light, it isn't pure." Koichi said. Koji rubbed Koichi's back. "I know... Guys. We have to contact Ophanimon somehow." Koji barked harsher than he usually spoke.

Tomoki stared coolly at Koji, well as coolly as an 11 year old could, which was decently. "We're trying very hard. Maybe it won't work." He said. JP nodded sagely. "It could work though, our phones are the only electronics that work on Earth." The others looked at JP as if it shouldn't couldn't be true. "At least I assume." JP tried to support the denial of fact.

Takuya snapped his fingers as if trying to get a spark. "Lets try Digivolving." The rest of the group stared at Takuya blankly. "What?" Takuya said, sensing the tension.

Zoe started laughing. "We should have thought of that first. The angels... well, might not be angels again so soon." Zoe set her phone down and knelt by it. She held her hand over it as if trying to draw the last dregs of digital power out of it. The other Warriors followed suit.

Takuya glanced at his phone, it was in the middle of shutting off so this better work!

Takuya prayed to the fire in his heart. He hoped the fire would light up in the night and burn away the blackness. He held out his phone. He didn't care if the phone was running out of power, maybe even then Agnimon could still hear him. "Please Agnimon, If you can hear me. Set me on fire." The others stared. The silence...

Was cut by Takuya bursting into loud flames. The fire had spread from Takuya's heart.

The darkness cowered for a brief moment before redoubling it's efforts on the rest of the group. Zoe was next. Winds whirled around her.

Koichi prayed to Koji's phone. The light that subsumed Koji cast a long dark shadow on Koichi.

JP's hair stood up, as crazy frizzy as a middle school teacher with a magic schoolbus, which Takuya was unaware of... so it basically stood up straight.

Tomoki's breath was visible, cloudy and condensed, it was winter... but this night was warm for winter.

Takuya willed himself to burn brighter, to send the temperature skyrocketing. In the sky he could see the Digital world also covered in darkness, at least that's what it looked like. So many points of light were summoned from places Takuya couldn't see. Mabye those lights were people chose to battle whatever Maloicious Force that was sucking this planet of joy. He held up his hand instinctively.

The fire streamed from this world to the next. Like a spirit passing on. He could feel the fire delivering a nasty blow to the digimon up there.

Takuya smiled, and pressed more fire out of his heart. "C'mon guys, lets crush this darkness!" Takuya shouted. Wind and Lightning joined together to a pillar of air, burning with friction and static. Tomoki's ice joined Takuya's fire creating steam, beating out the other two pillars for the number of elements involved. Darkness couldn't travel the same way Koji's shaft of light could... but the shadow cast by the light stretched as far as Takuya's eye could see.

Takuya kept pushing, Zoe kept pushing, Koji kept pushing, Tomoki kept pushing, Koichi kept pushing... JP kept pushing.

All at once the darkness vanished. Butterflies flew in Takuya's stomach... along with relief. Illogically, He was upset that it was over now.

There was a moment of peace before Tomoki's voice called. "Hey guys, I brought a soccer ball. Wanna have a match?" The butterflies in his stomach vanished. "You're on!"

Page 2.
AN: I expected this to be a oneshot but then somebody put this story on their alerts so I decided to continue it. See if you can guess the song I listened to while writing this.

Catching Fireflies.

The rest of the night after Takuya lit himself on fire was... fun. All the way until something started nagging Takuya. He talked with Zoe and Koji. He and Koji played played a game of soccer in the park with Tomoki and JP.

The something nagging at him was on the tip of his mind, teetering on the edge. It was irritating. Even as Koichi and Zoe cheered for Koji. "Go Koji-! Go Koji-! Go Go Go Koji-!" Thanks Zoe by the way.

Tomoki scored a goal between the bright lampposts thanks to the distractions. That thing was seriously bugging Takuya. "CUT!" yelled Takuya. He waved his hands wildly.

"Cut yourself. That goal was absolutely legitimate," JP said. Koji shot JP a glare. JP flushed and twiddled his thumbs.

"There's something on Takuya's mind," Koji said. Takuya nodded a thank you to Koji. Koji put his hand on Takuya's shoulder. "What's bothering you Takuya?" Koji asked softly.

"I don't know, there's something nagging me about what we just did," Takuya admitted. What on earth was bugging him he wondered? His eyes wandered to the lamppost. It twinkled like a star.

Tomoki ran over from where he had kicked from. "Takuya? Are you sure it wasn't Zoe's cheering?" Tomoki asked. Zoe's glare turned to Takuya. Takuya shook his head.

"Uh... Maybe?" Takuya suddenly felt unsure under the glare of Zoe and the glare of the lampposts. Koichi coughed. Takuya felt a well of concern spring from his heart.

Everybody felt the same obviously, because they were glaring at Koichi's cough instead of Takuya. "I was just clearing my throat." Koichi clarified. "Geez you're all such mother hens," He said under his breath.

The glares shifted to Koji as if he was responsible for Koichi's rude and independant behavior. The tension broke and everyone laughed. Takuya thought it was funny. "As I was saying... Where do you guys think those other lights came from?" Koichi asked.

The lights, The lights. Takuya facepalmed and gritted his teeth. "Of course. It was obvious. Zoe, care to guess?"

Zoe shrugged. "It could be... The electronics lighting up due to the power of the elements?" Everybody shook their head at this explanation.

"That doesn't sound plausible." JP said.

"What if it's the other kids who got on a Trailmon?" Tomoki suggested.

Koji nodded, though not affirmatively. "That kind of evil banishing light doesn't seem like it came from kids that didn't even spent 2 minutes in the digital world."

"Lets go on a hunt for the source. Then we can know for certain." Zoe suggested wagging her pointer finger.

"How can we find the source when the lights are gone?" JP wondered. That was a good point. The mood dampened. "This is so nostalgic, isn't it? We haven't had something like this happen ever since... well ever," JP said with his arms behind his head. He failed to salvage the mood from where it had fallen. "It took effort to save the Digital World, why would this be any different?" JP nodded to himself, he wasn't the best at this but he tried.

Takuya nodded in response. "Well are we just going to stand and stare or are we going to make a plan?"

Koji sighed. "We already WERE making a plan. How about we try looking around our schools for strange things?... What is it Koichi?"

Koichi had raised his hand while Koji spoke. "Haven't we already been looking for signs?" He said. Koichi had a point but...

"This is different, now we know there IS something." Takuya shot back.

Zoe crossed her arms. "Why not use our phones? They obviously still have some connection to the Digital World if they can set gogglehead over here on fire." Zoe said. Takuya's mouth twitched at the 'endearing' nickname.

"How do we use our phones as D-Tectors?" JP asked. "Do we just ask for it?" JP made a good point.

"Maybe." Takuya said.

"I still can't make myself believe that worked." Koichi said. "Though these things did bring me back to life... so anything's possible."

"I'll try it then." Tomoki withdrew his phone from his pocket. "Please detect the lights that were in the sky," Tomoki said. He pressed his phone to his forehead. The phone didn't do anything. Tomoki looked at his phone, disappointed. "Why isn't it working?" He looked to Takuya for advice.

"Try digivolving first..." Takuya suggested. The others looked at Takuya. Their stares said "It wasn't really digivolving.".

"You know what I mean." Takuya raised his hands in defeat.

Tomoki pressed his phone to his forehead again. Koji leaned back against a lamppost. "I'd like to make myself believe this would work again. But our phones may be running out of Digital World power, they already reverted to regular flip phones," Koji said. Tomoki's breath was cold and visible, it sparkled a little in the lamplight. He wasn't a digimon per-se but there was an effect. Koji stepped toward Tomoki. "I don't believe my eyes."

"It worked!" Tomoki celebrated. Takuya peered over Tomoki's shoulder. Zoe and JP prayed to their phones too. A breeze went through the trees. JP's short hair stood up taller than usual.

"The screen's different." Zoe commented. Sure enough Tomoki's phone screen was a black and white map made of squares and thin lines. Six white squares stood in what looked like a drawing of the park.

"That's us isn't it?" Koichi said as he peered over Tomoki's other shoulder.

"Looks like it." Koji said. Tomoki pressed the D-pad on his phone. The map scrolled a little but hit a grey boundary.

"This looks like it doesn't know anything about where we aren't." Tomoki said. A yawn leaked out of his mouth. Tomoki crumpled into himself, clearly embarrassed.

"Sleepy, huh?" Zoe stated. "Let's call it a night, I for one am almost too tired to fall asleep."

Takuya nodded. "Me too."

Zoe said goodbye first.

Then Koji and Koichi, albeit in seperate directions. JP lead Tomoki away holding his hand and jostling it to make sure he didn't fall asleep.

Only Takuya was left in the park. He gazed at the lamp posts near and faraway, they were still he thought. Would these lights be so easy to catch? Or would they drift away like the fireflies? Takuya walked home slowly.

His bike rested against the house's wall. It was something he had gotten for last Christmas. It had a bell, and it's reflectors showed the streetlights. It had been one of his dreams to get a bike eventually... When it arrived, he practically burst at the seams.

"Takuya? What are you doing up?" It was his brother, Shinya peeking out a window on the house's second floor.

Takuya blanched. "AH-uhhh, I was just taking my bike for a spin."

Shinya accepted this explanation, because he closed the window and didn't say anything else.

Page 3.

Pointing Fire,

AN: song, fire by the pointer sisters.

Takuya was riding his bike. The pedals felt difficult to push, and his legs were tired and floppy, but it was a good morning nonetheless. Takuya wondered if he could stare into the sun and not get his eyes burned... on second thought, maybe he'd put that off for later.

As Takuya rode along his usual route, the smell of somewhat polluted air, the smell of a chicken mcnugget, hit him. It made him wrinkle his nose just a little, despite the prospect of Takuya wrinkled his nose, he squinted, and when he opened his eyes, everything was too bright.

So as Takuya shaded his eyes, he noticed something unusual for the route. There was a girl, carrying her backpack in front of her. The girl was shaking. Not in a nervous way, but like the ground was unsteady.

"Hey are you okay? You're shaking pretty badly." Takuya asked. The girl stopped and dropped, but didn't roll. "Yeah I'm okay." She was still shaking. "Are you sure?" Takuya pressed. "It's just a medical condition." She waved her hand at Takuya. "That sounds rough."

Takuya quickly pedalled away, he didn't want to pity the girl. Overall he was unsure of how to handle the situation. He squeezed the brakes on his bike. The school loomed over him, threatening him with homework in one proverbial hand, and baiting him with friends and soccer in the other.

A while later, in the middle of the class before Lunch, Takuya started thinking about Zoe.

A year ago Zoe had transfered to Takuya's school. Takuya had been shocked to see her, he had thought she had moved away. Zoe had just bopped him on the nose, leaving him embarassed in front of the whole class. Takuya didn't mind though, a friend was a friend through thick and thin.

The bell rang. Chiaki and Teruo waved as they left the class. They were acquaintances now... not true friends, but acquaintances. Takuya shook his head and picked up his bag.

He walked out to lunch and started thinking. Though Takuya usually sat with the soccer team, Takuya sat with Zoe at lunch at least some of the time. The soccer team never judged Takuya, even this day. That was nice of them.

Zoe waved for Takuya. Takuya grinned, today was definitely a Zoe day. He walked to Zoe sat down. as he withdrew his ziplocked burger from his bag...

"You look like you've got something on your mind." Zoe said.

"I saw something funny on my way to school today." Takuya said. Zoe lifted an eye brow. "Spill the beans."

"Well, I was riding my bike." Takuya started dramatically. "It was a usual day, but then I saw a girl holding her backpack, She was shaking... hard." Takuya took a bite of his burger. "It wasn't like she was shivering, but like the ground was unstable."

Takuya swallowed. "I asked her if she was okay, and she said it was a medical condition." Takuya wasn't expecting it but, Zoe was fishing in her bag for something.

Zoe, equally as dramatic as Takuya, withdrew her phone from her bag. "And you didn't think to question her on that? I know that girl's a liar. She was definitely hiding something." Zoe hovered her hand over her phone, a slight breeze blew through the area. Takuya caught on immediately. "You think she's connected to the digital world?" He whispered. Zoe simply nodded.

"I dunno know for certain but it seems likely. I doubt she actually has a medical condition." Zoe pressed the DPad on her phone. Takuya peeked over her shoulder. There was a drawing of the building. Two white dots were in the courtyard, representing Zoe and Takuya. Takuya scanned Zoe's phone screen. In one of the classrooms, there was a yellow dot.

"There." Zoe said.

"That yellow dot is definitely suspicious." Takuya agreed with a nod. The yellow dot was in the classroom he started in.

"We can follow the dot after school..." Zoe said. "If! it leaves." The hunt was on... Bing Dong Ding Bong... and their short lunch was over. Takuya swore it got shorter every year. Back to class with Takuya's butt.

Takuya sighed, School would be a pain for the rest of the day. This would be so exciting, and that meant time would slow to a crawl.

Something rustled behind him. Takuya turned on his heel. There was nothing but a loose grocery bag, floating in the wind like an industrial tumbleweed.

Page 4

Chasing Fire

AN: song; Chasing Fire by Since90s on youtube.

Takuya was done with school, the bribe of friends was not enough to soothe his patience. As soon as the final bell went "Ding Bong Bing Dong" he was outta there.

He hadn't been able to check on the signal in class, Setting himself on fire wouldn't go down well with the teacher... or the fire alarm.

Takuya remembered walked to the classroom, Zoe had promised to meet him there, because that's where the signal had been. The school hallways smelled of lemons, which itched Takuya's nose.

Takuya only needed to wait 10 whole agonizing minutes before Zoe showed up... by then the halls were empty. "Hey Zoe, what took you so long?"

Zoe shrugged. "I was finishing up my bellwork. Enough of that, lets get tracking the signal." She opened the door to the classroom, it was empty.

The signal probably wasn't there... was it?

Takuya held out his phone between his hands and prayed. He felt his emotions pour into hands. "Takuya!" Zoe exclaimed. She saw his wrists were on fire, somehow not damaging the phone. It was the best in him. Takuya flipped his phone lid open, and looked at the map. "The signal isn't here anymore." He pressed the DPAD towards north, towards the school gates... The signal was on the border of the map.

"Zoe! We need to run, The signal's almost off the map." Takuya said. pocketing his phone. Zoe nodded, she held her hand over her phone, and the air pressure rose. Waiting further would be useless, so Takuya dashed off.

The floor scrolled beneath his feet, he was running faster than usual. A wall was imminently approaching, Takuya dug his heels into the floor. He skidded to a stop. A trail of burnt rubber showed behind him. The acrid smell hit his nose. "Those were my soccer cleats too." He mumbled.

The corner was turned, and Takuya raced past several more, managing his speed more carefully. Zoe passed him at one point, able to turn more precisely, because her feet were hovering a quarter inch above the ground. She was walking on air. Takuya grinned and recklessly sped up, pushing through a door. It flew open dangerously fast, almost catching him on the rebound. There was a fence ahead, it was short, so he could clear it without making any news.

Takuya kept accelerating and jumped from a nearby picnic table clearing the short fence in a single bound. Takuya hit the ground running with a slam. Several other students stared at him. Takuya waved. "Go!" Somebody cheered. It made him smile. Takuya didn't bother slowing down as he opened his phone.

It was raining, it lightly sizzled against his skin. Several drops hit his phone, only to steam off. The yellow dot had turned down a street ahead. Takuya cut through a yard full of dead grass after he crossed the street, he smelled burnt plant. "Hey Takuya! I bet you can't catch me!" Zoe said. She flipped herself onto the nearby concrete fence joining the backyards of the nearby homes.

"You're on!" Steam poured out of Takuya's nose. He glanced at his phone, the signal was one block ahead. He took to the streets like a car... to the streets. The wet pavement sizzled behind him. Rushing as fast as he could, he was at the signal's source in no time, Zoe was behind him. He looked up from his phone, skidding to a stop. A peculiar thing happened when Takuya stopped. A fire lit under his feet, and grew bigger as he travelled more distance, as he slowed the fire grew and grew. A pillar of fire shot over his head when he stopped completely, making the source of the signal scream. "Eeek!"

Takuya couldn't see through the flames, though he could hear, and hear he did. A compressed guitar riff played from an electronic device. "Kunemon, digivolve too... Flymon!" When the fire around Takuya died down there was a giant yellow bee with a red stinger and torn red butterfly wings. a backpack was hanging from the stinger. Behind the bee was the girl from that morning, cowering on the ground. Takuya had probably messed up. "Takuya!" Zoe called, as the Flymon charged.

Page 5
AN: This chapter is Fight Fire with Fire by metallica

Takuya started the fight with an uppercut to the Flymon's jaw. It hurt a little, but he managed to leave behind a scorch mark. That mark didn't stay for long. Flymon quickly flew out of range. "Don't hurt my Rise!" It called, it angled it's stinger towards Takuya. "Poison Stinger!" The bee dropped. Takuya sheilded his head with his arms.

"Takuya!" Zoe called again, she was on it. She ran up into the sky as if she was climbing stairs. She tackled the Flymon halfway. She and the Flymon fell. Takuya would have seen the girl mouthing "Superheroes." silently... But he was worried for Zoe.

Zoe was about to crash in that moment, how could Takuya be worried about anything else?

Takuya scrambled under Zoe's shadow, ignoring the plummeting Flymon, He jumped up to catch her, meeting her halfway.

Now Takuya had done a very idiotic thing. Humans whether with super elemental powers or not, Were not meant to fall even half that distance. He couldn't land somewhere closer like the concrete fence even, due to a lack of air control.

Life was no video game.

So Takuya threw Zoe up and away from the concrete fence, remembering that every action had an opposite and equal reaction. So as Takuya's falling direction shifted to the concrete fence, Zoe was now technically falling from a quarter of the distance she had been before. A human could survive that, especially a human with wind elemental powers.

Pain shot up Takuya's wobbling knees as he scored an 8 point landing on the fence. He barely managed to keep his balance. The Flymon thudded on the ground after him. And Zoe thanks to the extra time floated gracefully to the ground.

The trouble wasn't over yet. Flymon easily picked itself off thr ground and flew into the air, circling like a vulture.

"Flymon, calm down!" The girl called. Flymon didn't respond immediately... but the vulture circle slowly descended.

Zoe took the time to guide Takuya down from the fence. "I miss Aldamon's wings." Takuya mumbled. Zoe nodded as if agreeing.

They didn't take their eyes off of Flymon. Even as they carefully, casually approached the girl as if it were a regular day. As if several superhuman feats hadn't just occured.

"What is this world coming too." The girl said as she checked over Flymon's body. "First I find out monsters are real, then superheroes show up out of nowhere?" She mumbled under her breath. Takuya felt proud of being called a superhero. Zoe punched him in his arm.

"OI! You two oughta come over here and apologize to Flymon right now!" The girl called. Takuya and Zoe stepped over to Flymon's side. "We're sorry, it was a misunderstanding... You're a Digimon right?" Takuya couldn't help but ask.

"Last I heard, Digimon couldn't survive in the real world." Zoe commented.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "You know about Digimon too? What the fudgesicle is going on here?" She sounded angry.

"Well I can explain." Takuya said.

to be continued