Digital Phantom Frontier

by DarkFoxKit

Takuya Kanbara was just a normal 12 year old Japanese boy, when he suddenly got a call to the Digital World. There, he meets new friends who were also called to the Digital World. They meet with some Digimon who are willing to guide them. But these Digimon seem to be hiding something from them.

4. Chapter 4: A Chill In the Air

DarkFoxKit: We have a new chapter today. I wonder how this story is.

ZAFT: Seems to be getting a lot of faves and follows, but few reviews… ^^' At least people are reading it if they are following and faving. :3

DarkFoxKit: Yeah, I guess so. But anyway, once we reach a certain point, depending on if people like it enough or not, we may take a little bit of a break. Since we've been slowing down after we reached a certain point.

ZAFT: Very true. Well, let's get to the chapter posted! XD

---

Chapter 4: A Chill In the Air

On the Trailmon that had passed over the bridge continued its run, in one of the passenger cars, Koji and Labramon were sitting on one of the benches. It hadn't been hard to find a Trailmon to head to this Forest Terminal, but it was hard to get the Trailmon to actually take the two of them there. Luckily, Labramon knew how to bargain with the Trailmon, she had some money on her to get a ticket to take them to a place called Breezy Village, which would take them closer to the Forest Terminal.

The Trailmon had been going on for hours. The sun had long since gone down. Labramon fell asleep, curled up next to Koji, and Trailmon wasn't one for conversation. Koji was alone with his thoughts.

Koji lifted up his D-Tector and eyed it curiously as he remembered the words that had come over it. "You must go to the Forest Terminal."

"The Forest Terminal?" Koji muttered to himself. "Sure, why not?" He wasn't exactly happy that he wasn't getting much information on what was going on or why he had to do these things he was being asked to do.

Koji looked over at Labramon. She was a Digimon, but she looked like a normal dog, save for maybe the magenta colors. He thought to himself, wondering what made him decide to take her with him since he didn't want anyone else to follow him. While he had a dog himself, he still wondered what possessed him to take a Digimon with him. It wasn't like he couldn't handle himself without her. But ever since he ended up in this strange Digital World, he felt like something was missing, and it kind of agitated him a little.

But why? Koji wondered to himself. Why do I feel like something is missing? It feels like I need to be here to find out what it is… This is going to be some kind of quest, isn't it?

Before long, the Trailmon eventually came to a stop. "This is Breezy Village. I've taken you to the destination of your ticket, so you should get out now. I gotta head to a rest station and turn in for the night."

The doors opened up. Koji shook Labramon a little to wake her up.

"Hmm?" Labramon groggily blinked her eyes open.

"We need to get off the Trailmon." Koji stated as he gestured for her to follow him out of the train. "I think we could find a place to get some sleep once we get off. I doubt you want to sleep on the train all night."

Labramon yawned before she stood up and stretched herself for a moment before hopping off of the seats, and followed Koji out of the Trailmon's car.

Once the two of them were out, Trailmon closed the doors and took off down the track. Labramon looked around, but it was too dark to see much of anything.

"I can't really see the village like this." Labramon frowned. "Too bad, we could've slept on some beds tonight if we knew where the village was."

"I think I see a bench close by." Koji noted as he pointed it out. "We could sleep on that. It's better than sleeping on the ground anyway."

Labramon raised an eyebrow as she saw Koji sitting down on the bench. She walked over and hopped onto the bench as well, sitting beside Koji. The bench itself was wooden and pretty hard. It wasn't quite as comfy as the seats in the Trailmon, but it would do.

"Are you sure you can sleep like this?" Labramon asked.

"I can sleep fine." Koji replied. "As long as you are next to me."

Labramon was a little surprised by the compliment, and blushed a little. "Y-you really have that much faith in me, huh?"

Koji blushed as well. "I… I just need someone to sleep with me, given I'm in a new world and all. I don't… really trust myself to be able to wake up suddenly if there is an attack." He muttered. "I… need someone to watch my back…"

"Heh, for someone who wants to be alone, you sure like having company with you," Labramon chuckled.

"I just don't like being around other people that much," Koji huffed. "Now are we going to sleep or what?"

"Sure, sure, we'll get some sleep," Labramon replied, still smiling.

---

BlackGatomon had her eyes closed. She and Duskmon had a stroll earlier, but it was rather boring. There wasn't much to see other than trees and glowing moss. And Duskmon wasn't much of a conversationalist. She was trying to get some sleep as she leaned against a wall. There weren't any beds here as far as BlackGatomon could see. Luckily, she was a feline Digimon, so like with cats in the real world, she could pretty much sleep anywhere.

However, her ears twitched a little when she heard some voices talking to each other. They sounded whispered and soft, but thanks to her big, cat-like ears, she was able to hear them.

"Really now? You're going to wake up the whole dang forest with your annoying earthquakes," A feminine voice with a southern accent complained. "I need my beauty sleep, don'tcha know? And you're ruining that."

"Getting back is main objective, so you stop complaints!" A male voice replied in broken speech in a huff.

"I hope you don't start thinkin' you're all that just because you found your Beast Spirit," The feminine voice grumbled. "Learn to control that dang thing so you don't start spilling my water bed all over the place!"

"Me working on it! Not easy to control, you know." The male voice grumbled. "But me making progress on it."

"Good. And while you've been off eating rocks, and whatnot, Lord Cherubimon gave us a new recruit," The feminine voice informed. "But here's the strange thing… you know how all of us are Legendary Warriors, right? This one isn't a Legendary Warrior at all. So I don't know what Lord Cherubimon was thinking there."

"That odd, me think. Never had non-Legendary Warrior join us before." The male voice retorted.

"I guess Lord Cherubimon thought she'd make for a good pet, though admittedly it is nice to have another girl Digimon around here," The feminine voice remarked.

"Hey, hey, would you two keep you's voices down? I'm tryin' to sleep here, right?" Another male voice spoke up, sounding a little irritated.

"Me not trying to be loud…" The first male voice retorted grumpily. "Me kept voice down…"

"Well you're not doing a very good job," The other male voice grumbled.

BlackGatomon jumped down from where she was, and walked over to the 3 Digimon who were talking. The first Digimon was a small gnome like Digimon, with tan skin and green eyes. The Digimon had red markings under his eyes and on his nose and lower arms. He wore grayish blue armor and had a dark tan hat that had a grayish blue spiked ball at the end of it. On his chest armor was a symbol of some kind, like the Kanji for Earth.

The second Digimon was female and had light aqua-colored skin and red eyes. She had a darker blue outfit on that looked like a swimsuit, and her hat looked like a squid's head top. She had red orbs on her hat and on her gloves too.

The last Digimon looked like a wooden android with gears in the elbows, knees, and torso, and this Digimon had a giant mouth below its eyes, which were yellow beads of color.

"Hello," BlackGatomon greeted. "You must be the other warriors I've heard about. It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm BlackGatomon, the new recruit."

The other 3 Digimon looked at BlackGatomon for a moment.

"Well… aren't you the cutie pie?" The female, aquatic Digimon snickered. "Though I suppose it's only fair I introduce myself to the little cute recruit. You may already know me anyways, hon, but I'm Ranamon, the Legendary Warrior of Water."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm Arbormon, Warrior of Wood, nice to meetcha," The wooden android Digimon stated.

"Me Grumblemon, Warrior of Earth." The gnome-like Digimon introduced. "You new recruit, huh? Me not impressed."

BlackGatmon put the back of her paws on her hips. "You guys haven't made the best of first impressions either. Really, arguing like Rookie Digimon in the middle of the night."

Grumblemon and Ranamon had the decency to look embarrassed to say the least. Arbormon chuckled. "Yous guys really don't know how to lower your voices to let others sleep."

"I'm not taking that talk to me, especially by the new recruit who isn't even a Legendary Warrior!" Ranamon huffed.

"What, just because I don't have a fancy title like you, I'm considered not good enough in your books?" BlackGatomon replied back.

"You tiny, no muscle to you at all," Grumblemon pointed out.

"You're not exactly a giant yourself, short stack," BlackGatmon hissed back.

Ranamon actually laughed. "She's got you there, Grumblemon~"

Arbormon chuckled as well. "Seems yous got quite the attitude, Yous will fit in righ' at home 'ere."

Grumblemon lived up to his name and grumbled unhappily.

"I like your spunk, rookie. It's rare to have a fellow girl to talk to, what with these muscle-heads all around all the time." Ranamon grinned.

BlackGatomon grinned. "I know what you mean. Although, since you are wondering if I'm really meant to be here, I could spar with one of you, show you how tough I can truly be. After all, this kitty may look cute, but she's got some claws."

Ranamon chuckled. "Sounds like you're hankering for some chance to get payback! You'll fit in just fine!"

"Whatever," Grumblemon grumbled.

"Perhaps we could take you up on that offer, but for tonight, we should get some rest, right?" Arbormon remarked.

"Sure, just as long as you don't start arguing again," BlackGaromon remarked.

"At least you're a lot livelier than Duskmon," Ranamon stated.

"He isn't one for conversations," BlackGatomon agreed. "But one of these days I'll get Sir Eyeballs to open up."

Ranamon actually laughed at that nickname. "'Sir Eyeballs'? That's a perfect nickname for him!" She cried out in laughter.

"Great… they already bonding…" Grumblemon huffed.

"Ain't that beautiful?" Arbormon chuckled.

"Me just want rest… No girl talk." Grumblemon groaned. "Me tired from trying to control Beast Spirit."

---

Meanwhile, Labramon woke up to something. She sensed someone coming nearby. She looked over at Koji for a moment, seeing he was still asleep. She looked up, seeing a small shadow in the sky, and coming in for a landing. She didn't feel the need to wake Koji up, because she knew this Digimon.

"I was wondering where you went off to… Biyomon," Labramon said quietly as the figure landed, revealing themselves to be a familiar pink bird.

"Sorry… I just… needed to keep my distance for a while." The pink bird, Biyomon, replied. "It also didn't feel like the… um… right time to reveal myself to them."

"Would you want to? After all, Lopmon did say it was best we didn't get too attached to them… especially when the time for us to leave them comes," Labramon whispered solemnly. "Is that why… you've been keeping your distance?"

"Yeah…" Biyomon replied. "I don't want to… form a close friendship with any of them…"

"But keeping your distance hasn't been helping much either, has it?" Labramon said.

"Not really. It's been lonely," Biyomon admitted. "I was surprised when I saw you, Patamon, and even Lopmon staying with the kids. I've been thinking about what to do lately. I wanted to find Kokuwamon, we sent him out days ago to scout ahead, but we haven't seen him since. I'm worried about him, but… if something did happen to him, I doubt I'd be able to save him on my own."

"Do you think you'll try to stay with the group then?" Labramon asked.

"Honestly, I… don't know…" Biyomon sighed, rubbing her beak with a wing. "I'm tired of flying solo… but I don't think it's wise to get too close to them either… yet you're here, with the supposed loner of the group, despite knowing what we'll have to do."

"Yes, but in the end, they are just kids. They'll need our help regardless." Labramon replied.

"Do they though? There's only two of them left who have yet to claim their Spirits," Biyomon pointed out. "And I'm sure they'll get their Spirits before long. Would they really need us then?"

"Remember the rules, Biyomon? It's not until after they all gain their-" Labramon began to say, but Biyomon interrupted her.

"I know… I know, but… still… even with just their current Spirits, they're already leagues above us. They are Legendary Warriors after all…" Biyomon sighed. "The last thing I want to feel is useless, and just being in the way."

"Try telling that to Patamon and Lopmon." Labramon chuckled. "They were helping as best they could with the loner of the group, despite knowing the rules."

"It's-" Biyomon tried to say, but bubbles came out of her beak.

"Remember? We can't say their true names…" Labramon pointed out. "We… can't say our true names. The rules forbid us to."

"Right…" Biyomon frowned. "What I meant to say is that they're naturally… heroic. Of course they weren't going to just stand by and watch, it's just not a part of their nature. But I'm different. I haven't done anything to help them at all."

"You're not helpless, Biyomon. You just need to remember they are friends, and we need to help them anyway." Labramon pointed out.

"I barely know them," Biyomon argued. "And they barely know me. I'd rather keep it that way."

"Well… I can't make your choice for you," Labramon sighed. "What do you plan to do now?"

"I don't know. I'm gonna look for the village, and stay there for the night," Biyomon sighed tiredly. "I'll think of something after I've had a good night's rest, and a nice meal. I'll see you later, Labramon… Good luck with Koji."

"Okay… Just be safe, Biyomon." Labramon said softly.

Biyomon flapped her wings and flew up into the air, heading deeper into the forest to look for Breezy Village, leaving Labramon alone with a sleeping Koji. Labramon gave a small sigh. "I hope she comes around before long…"

---

When the sun reached into the sky, turning the night to day, Takuya, Tommy, Zoe, JP, Patamon, and Lopmon continued their way to the Forest Terminal. They left the Candlemon village. They were able to eat a nice fish meal with the Candlemon. However, as the hours dragged on, and morning turned into noon, the group ate some of their canned food for lunch. They couldn't afford to get too hungry, especially if they needed to fight. In Tommy and Takuya's case, they would need their energy to Spirit Evolve.

"We've been walking for hours," JP grumbled. "Are we there yet?"

"Let's see, what's wrong with this picture?" Takuya asked. "Desert looking wasteland… Forest Terminal. I'd say no, we are not there yet, JP."

"Sounds like something you'd say," Patamon nudged at Lopmon.

"Hush you," Lopmon grumbled. "And that doesn't sound like me at all."

"Oh, I think it does." Patamon teased back. "You'd totally say something like that~"

"I do not!" Lopmon huffed, reaching over at Patamon to pinch him.

Patamon flew up, easily avoiding Lopmon's little hands.

"No fair!" Lopmon grumbled, though he was too tired to complain too much.

Unlike Patamon, who could fly to rest his legs, and walk to rest his wings, Lopmon could only walk. His short legs weren't meant for walking long distances. "I knew I should've saved up some cash to buy Trailmon tickets…"

"Hey, the Trailmon tickets are expensive. We have to save what money we have." Patamon retorted.

"But at least with Trailmon, we wouldn't have to walk so much…" Lopmon groaned, and had been trailing behind the group for a little while.

Takuya sighed and reached down, picking up Lopmon. "How about I carry you? You look tired."

Lopmon blinked, and blushed at being picked up. "You don't have to…"

"Nah, it's fine, you're as light as a pillow," Takuya reassured.

"Aww, that's cute~" Zoe smiled, seeing Takuya holding Lopmon. "It's like you're holding a stuffed animal~"

Takuya blushed. "I-I am not! I am just helping Lopmon! That's all!" He squeaked out.

JP frowned as he looked back, seeing that Takuya had Zoe's attention again. "Hey, why don't you let me hold Lopmon?"

"Because I already offered," Takuya huffed.

"You can hold Patamon," JP pointed. "He's already flying beside you!"

Takuya just puffed out his cheeks in annoyance. "You're just jealous of me, aren't you?"

JP grumbled. "I am not!" He retorted.

Lopmon grumbled before jumping out of Takuya's arms and landed on Tommy's hat. "There, I'm not in Takuya's arms, and I don't have to walk like this. Is everyone happy? Oh, sorry, Tommy, I hope I'm not too heavy on you."

"No, no. You're not that heavy at all." Tommy reassured Lopmon. "Actually, you feel like a comfy hat."

Lopmon blushed a little, but smiled.

"Although I am pretty tired myself," Tommy sighed.

"Hey, don't stop now, we should be coming up to a scenic route soon!" Takuya encouraged, pushing Tommy forward, and to also get away from JP.

Patamon rolled his eyes as he flew after Takuya.

JP grumbled as he and Zoe hurried after them.

"You know, I can't help but wonder what it would be like to have a Digimon partner of my own…" Zoe remarked. "It'd still be cool to be a Digimon, but I think there's something special about having a partner too."

"You just think they're cute…" JP huffed.

"I mean they are," Zoe chuckled.

After about another hour of walking, the group heard a Trailmon's whistle coming up behind them.

"Hey… It's a Trailmon!" Takuya exclaimed as he saw the Trailmon coming up to their location.

The Trailmon in question looked like a pink mole. It saw the group waving to it, and began to slow down to a stop.

"Finally!" Zoe huffed. "We can now ride instead of walking."

The Trailmon came to a stop in front of the group.

"Hey, Trailmon. What's up?" Takuya greeted. "Can you take us to the Forest Terminal?"

"Guys, we don't have any tickets," Lopmon grumbled, still on top of Tommy's hat. "We talked about this."

"Still doesn't hurt to ask, does it?" Tommy replied.

Trailmon frowned a little. "I'm sorry, even if you did have tickets, I'm a freight train. I'm only carrying luggage, packages, and such. No passengers, no exceptions."

"Aww!" Zoe pouted. "C'mon!" She whined. "Please! We're super light! And you could think of us as cargo!"

The kids climbed onto the Trailmon's sides.

"Please, we won't make much of a difference if we were cargo!" Takuya pleaded.

But the fingers of the kids made the Trailmon laugh, and they fell off of his sides. "Y-you're tickling me!"

The Trailmon was still giggling as he was moving on the tracks. "I'd like to bend the rules to help you out, but I'm just too ticklish! Just keep going on this track, you'll get there!"

"So much for riding on a Trailmon…" Takuya grumbled as he was on his head.

"Of course it couldn't be that easy…" Patamon huffed, lying on the ground too.

Zoe groaned. "C'mon! Trailmon! Get back here!" She whined.

"Forget it, Zoe, Trailmon is long gone…" Lopmon grumbled on the ground, and Zoe's high pitched voice while shouting was really hurting his ears.

"If only we could fly…" Zoe sighed.

The group, dejected at their failed attempt to ride a Trailmon, decided to continue walking instead of just sitting around and moping.

Eventually, after a while, the group came to a fork in the train tracks, splitting off in two different directions. Patamon looked up at a switch, and jumped onto it, moving it back and forth, seeing that the switch was also switching the train tracks.

"Looks like we've got a choice to make here," Patamon remarked.

"A choice? It should be pretty obvious which way we should go," Lopmon said.

"And which way would that be?" Takuya snarked. "Right or left?"

"I say left." Zoe said as she pointed down the tree-lined path of track.

"I say right." Takuya pointed down the open path of the track.

"No way! There's nothing down there!" Zoe pointed out.

"So you're disagreeing with me?" Takuya retorted.

"I'm just going with the path that is more likely to lead us to the Forest Terminal, which is in the forest." Zoe retorted back.

Lopmon sweatdropped, the reason he said it was obvious was because of what Zoe said, the left had a bunch of trees and such, while the right just continued leading them into a wasteland.

"I'm going to have to agree with Zoe here, Takuya. Why would you think going into the wasteland is the right choice here?" Lopmon asked.

Takuya groaned. "Dang it… Ugh…" He grumbled. "I don't know… I wasn't thinking. I was just reacting."

"Besides, Trailmon only mentioned to stick to the tracks, he didn't say to choose right," Tommy pointed out.

"And these are still the same tracks, technically," JP added.

"Are you just agreeing to get on Zoe's goodside?" Takuya questioned the older boy.

JP blushed. "I-I am not!" He exclaimed, but his blush made the claim lose all of its bite.

"I think someone might have a crush~" Patamon grinned.

"I do not! My face is just sunburned!" JP huffed, trying to deny the claims of Patamon and Takuya.

"Alright, enough!" Zoe shouted. "We shouldn't be bickering, we need to get moving. So, are we going to the forest?"

Everyone looked at Takuya.

Takuya sighed. "I hate to admit it, but the forest seems like the best bet, since we're heading to the Forest Terminal and all. And I don't think splitting up is such a good idea anyway, since we don't know this world very well."

"Alright then, let's get going." Zoe smiled as she began leading the way.

Takuya grumbled to himself. "Who made you the leader?"

Lopmon turned his head over to Takuya while still riding on Tommy's hat. "You know, we never did decide who'd be this group's leader."

"Do we even need one?" JP asked. "I mean there's only 4 of us."

"Well, 6 if you include me and Lopmon," Patamon pointed out.

"Aren't you two supposed to be our guides?" Tommy asked.

"Well, that makes us guides, not leaders," Lopmon pointed out.

"I don't think we should worry about a leader right now." Takuya said. "We just need to get to the Forest Terminal, so that needs to be our main priority."

"Yeah, but having someone as a leader could help us in the long run," Lopmon said. "Though I guess you're right, we don't need one right now. Just as long as you guys don't start bickering too much."

As the group strolled deeper into the forest, Zoe began to notice a nice breeze going through her hair. It was a lot better than the hot sun in the wasteland.

"Wow, the breeze feels so nice!" Zoe exclaimed happily. "It's definitely better than being in the hot sun! It feels so cool and refreshing!"

"You're right about that." Tommy smiled. "This place is way better."

"We must be getting close to Breezy Village," Lopmon said. "It's a forestry village best known for its relaxing breeze."

"Oh, I haven't been there in a while. I hope the Floramon still serve that soup," Patamon drooled. "Speaking of which, I'm getting hungry."

"There's a special soup?" Tommy asked.

"Oh yeah, it's so good, you'll want more and more of it." Patamon replied with a grin.

JP could feel his own stomach growling. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's move along!"

"Weren't you tired just a minute ago?" Takuya deadpanned.

"Being tired is nothing when food's involved!" JP quickly said.

Takuya sweatdropped, as did the others.

"I guess some food would be good…" Takuya admitted, feeling his own stomach growling.

"You and Tommy especially need to eat more if you want to keep your strength up," Lopmon added.

"Then let's go!" Zoe said with a smile.

As they got further in, they saw a huge tree up ahead. The tree, however, looked like it lost a lot of its leaves.

"Whoa! That's one big tree!" Tommy pointed out in awe.

"I've never seen a tree that big before in my life!" Zoe agreed. She then frowned. "But… where are all the leaves? It looks like the tree isn't even alive right now…"

"If this is Breezy Village, the tree doesn't show it." JP frowned. "I can't feel anything like a breeze from here."

"Hmm, something could be wrong with the tree," Patamon guessed. "After all, Digimon have been turning hostile a lot as of late due to Cherubimon's rule."

"I wonder if a Digimon caused the tree to be bare then…" Tommy frowned.

"Welcome, tourists," A familiar voice spat in annoyance, catching the group's attention. "So… this isn't the Forest Terminal, I'm guessing."

"No, this is Breezy Village," Labramon, who was sitting beside the boy on a bench, answered.

"Hey, it's you!" Takuya exclaimed. "Koji, right?"

Koji grunted. "Yeah, don't wear out my name." He replied in a casual manner.

"What are you doing here?" Zoe asked, curious as to why the other boy was here as well.

Koji didn't give an answer, instead, he got up from the bench and jumped down onto the train tracks. He gave a gesture for Labramon to follow him. Labramon stretched herself out before she jumped out onto the tracks and began following Koji.

"Hey! Aren't you going to answer?" Zoe frowned.

"Where we go is none of your business," Koji replied.

"I'm sorry about him, he doesn't want other people following him," Labramon sheepishly said.

JP frowned. "I don't think being a loner is too good for someone."

"Hey, if someone wants to be a loner, that's their choice." Takuya grunted. "Let him go do whatever he wants."

"Jeez, he's so anti-social," Zoe grumbled as Koji kept walking without looking at them, and Labramon followed.

"Shouldn't he stick with us though? Isn't it safer to be in a group?" Tommy frowned.

"Forget about him, he'll come around when he's ready," Lopmon said before he stood up on his two feet and hopped off of Tommy's head, looking at the tree. "We should check out Breezy Village, see if the Digimon here need any help. Who knows, we might find another Spirit while we're here."

"Oh, I hope it's my Spirit!" Zoe exclaimed. "It would be worth being able to protect myself from the attacking Digimon!"

"Hey, I can protect you too, Zoe." JP grinned cheekily.

"How? You don't have a Spirit." Tommy pointed out, which caused JP to pout in response.

"H-hey! I can still do things without a Spirit!" JP huffed.

"Indeed, there's no need to feel embarrassed if you don't have a special power or Spirit," Patamon agreed. "Now come on, let's look around."

The group began to walk around the forest, and JP felt a vibrating in his pocket as they did. He stopped before pulling the D-Tector out from his pocket, seeing it was beeping.

"H-hey! Guys! My D-Tector is reacting to something!" JP exclaimed, feeling all excited. "It must be the Spirit here! This Spirit has to be mine! Why else would my D-Tector react to it?"

"Actually, JP…" Takuya said as he took his D-Tector out. "Mine's reacting as well."

"So's mine," Tommy said, looking at his own D-Tector.

Zoe was too enamored by the breeze to pay attention to her D-Tector.

"The D-Tectors might be sensing a Spirit nearby," Lopmon noted. "Doesn't necessarily mean it's yours. And besides, you have to be chosen by the Spirit before you can use it."

JP pouted. "Aw man… Seriously? Talk about picky Spirits…"

"You'll find yours, JP." Takuya said as he patted JP's back gently.

"If I get chosen by it," JP grumbled.

"If you think like that, then you will not be chosen for sure." Patamon grumbled. "Negative thoughts will never help you or anyone else."

Tommy looked at JP for a moment, he was about to say something when he noticed Zoe was standing at the edge of a branch of the tall tree. "Uh, Zoe? Are you sure that's safe?"

Tommy remembered his near death experience when he tried to go back home on the train tracks over the void. It was easier to lose one's balance than one might think.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine!" Zoe called back. "I'm pretty good with balance!"

Zoe turned back to try to walk back to them, but then she lost her footing and fell.

"Zoe!" Tommy cried out, getting the other's attention.

"I got her!" Patamon shouted as he dived down after Zoe, and grabbed onto her hand, but Zoe was too heavy for him to stay airborne.

Lopmon was about to jump down to help them, but he saw a group of flowers gathering under Zoe, ready to catch her and Patamon. It didn't take long for Zoe to fall into the flowers, revealing they were actually Digimon. They all giggled when they managed to catch Zoe and Patamon.

Zoe grunted. "Ow… I probably shouldn't have worn a skirt when I came to this world…"

"Did you even know you'd come to this world?" Patamon asked.

"No, but still…" Zoe sighed.

Patamon smiled. "Good news, we found the Floramon at least. And they seemed to be as friendly as ever!"

"Welcome, visitors! It's been a long time since we had guests here!" One of the Floramon smiled.

"What's going on down there?" Takuya asked, looking down from the tree.

"Looks like we found the Floramon," Lopmon said. "Or rather, the Floramon found us."

"They're… friendly, right?" Tommy asked nervously.

"It looks like they are, so that's a relief." Lopmon smiled.

"Thanks for catching me…" Zoe said gratefully. "I was sure I was going to go splat there for a moment."

"We would never let a visitor be hurt while in our little village!" A Floramon replied. "That would be just bad news for our village."

"Come on, let's go down there and join them," Lopmon said to the group.

"Is it really safe to go to a bunch of talking flowers? What if they're man-eating plants?" JP nervously asked.

"Man-eating plants? I think you've watched too many animes," Takuya remarked.

"Besides, if they were, Zoe would've been munched on by now," Tommy pointed out.

"They could just be trying to act all friendly and then lead us to their house before they eat us," JP pointed out.

"I know Floramon, I can tell you that they have no interest in human flesh, as with most Digimon," Lopmon blanched.

"It still could happen…" JP grumbled. "You never know what lurks in a new world you've never explored before."

"So, JP… does that mean you don't want that special soup anymore?" Tommy grinned.

"... What are we waiting for!?" JP quickly said before he hurried down the tree.

"Nice one," Lopmon complimented.

Tommy chuckled sheepishly. "It's kinda scary how easy it is to use that on JP."

Takuya chuckled as well. "That sounds like something one of my cousins would do if he ever met you guys."

Lopmon cleared his throat. "Come on, we can't let JP have all the fun."

---

Meanwhile, Koji and Labramon continued walking. Labramon looked around, wondering if Biyomon was still in the area, and if she was feeling lonely. Then Labramon noticed Koji suddenly stopped walking.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" Labramon asked, before seeing Koji was looking at his D-Tector.

"My D-Tector has picked up something." Koji replied. "Is it picking up a Spirit nearby?"

"Well, the D-Tector is meant to detect Spirits, so it's possible." Labramon replied before she suddenly paused, hearing something in the distance.

"What is it? Something caught your attention?" Koji asked.

Labramon frowned. "I think so… I hear voices, and… footsteps nearby."

Koji quickly headed into the bushes, and quickly gestured for Labramon to do the same. Labramon didn't hesitate to follow Koji into the bushes. Now hidden, they could hear the voices talking to each other.

"Those guys are here now?"

"Yeah, I saw one of them earlier, but now more of them are here."

"Good, then we can take them all out in one fell swoop."

"What do we do about the Mushroomon and the Floramon?"

"They'll be reborn in a village somewhere. Our primary goal is to make sure they fail their mission."

Koji frowned as he and Labramon listened in. "Sounds like someone's up to no good." He whispered to Labramon. "But who are they referencing when it comes to making sure a mission fails?"

Labramon paled. "Who… are these guys…?"

Koji blinked as he looked at Labramon, noticing that she was looking a lot more nervous than usual.

"This isn't right…" Labramon frowned. "What did they do to the Mushroomon?"

"Mushroomon?" Koji asked curiously. "Is that who those guys are?"

"No, they're not, that's why I'm…" Labramon narrowed her eyes as she tried to get closer to see who was talking.

Labramon saw silhouettes, they were definitely not Mushroomon. But they had Mushroomon tied up together, looking rather weak. She crouched down, not wanting to be seen. These guys are…

"Did you get the bombs ready?"

"Just about."

"We'll need to wait a little bit longer before we can use them."

Koji frowned as he peered out a bit more. "Who's talking then?" He asked quietly. "They don't sound pleasant from what they are saying…"

"We should head back…" Labramon whispered. "Something bad's about to happen… I can feel it."

"Shouldn't we try to stop them?" Koji asked.

"No… they're strong, very strong. We wouldn't stand a chance," Labramon warned. "Come on, we gotta get back to the others."

Koji frowned, but nodded. He didn't think facing these enemies down alone was a good idea. "I hate to admit it, but that's the safest bet for now. I sure can't take them all on at once."

With that said, Koji stood up. "C'mon, let's go before these guys see us." He said to Labramon.

"Hey… do you hear something?" One of the mysterious voices said.

"Go!" Labramon hissed.

Koji began to move as quickly, and quietly, as he could, trying to get out of the hearing range of the mysterious voices.

---

In one of the houses, Takuya, Zoe, JP, Tommy, Patamon, and Lopmon were all being treated to lunch by the Floramon. It was some kind of yellow soup that the Floramon had served up for the group.

"It's so nice of you to invite us for lunch." Zoe said gratefully. "We've been walking for a long time and need some food."

"So what is this stuff?" Takuya asked, studying the soup.

"Who cares? It's good, and it's filling," JP replied, not hesitating at all to sip up the soup.

Lopmon and Patamon had their own higher chairs to reach the table. They were enjoying the soup as well.

"I could eat three more of these!" Tommy smiled as he was enjoying the soup too.

Cautiously, and because his own stomach was growling, Takuya took a sip of his own soup. His eyes lit up as he tasted the delicious flavor. "Wow! That is good!" He exclaimed with a grin. "No wonder Patamon spoke so highly of this soup!"

"You see? It's really good. Though I think it's missing something," Patamon said. "Didn't this come with Mushroomon's Mushroom Mousse?"

Floramon all frowned.

"It did, but we haven't seen the Mushroomon in a long time," One of the Floramon said worriedly.

"Do you know when they were last seen?" JP asked as he set his soup bowl down. "Maybe they just got lost or something."

"We haven't seen them for weeks now," Another Floramon answered. "Last we heard, they were collecting ingredients, and growing their special mushrooms."

"But don't worry about that right now, you're here to relax and enjoy yourselves!" Another Floramon smiled.

"True, maybe we can talk about that later then," Lopmon said. "After all, it wouldn't do to worry about this on an empty stomach."

"By the way, what is this soup called?" Zoe curiously asked as she took another spoonful of soup and sipped it up.

"It's called 'Web Soup Ala Floramon'." The first Floramon replied with a smile of pride on her face. "It's all in the way it's prepared!"

"If you'd like, we can show you how we do it." A second Floramon replied.

All the Floramon took out what looked like some kind of fruit. "You just use your head and a ripe Web fruit!" The first Floramon explained.

The humans of the group each got a confused look on their faces.

"Oh?" Zoe asked, intrigued by this.

"Use… your head?" JP questioned, not really sure where this was going.

The Floramon all opened the petals on their heads and put the Web fruits into their skulls.

"All together… two, three, four!" The first Floramon instructed.

The Floramon all began to dance and sing. "~When you take a little Web Fruit and you rinse it in your skull, you make a most delicious soup, the flavor's never dull! We shake our heads both up and down and sing this song quite cheerful, a little bit of us resides in every yummy spoonful!~"

"And it's ready!" The first Floramon exclaimed happily. "Enjoy~" She poured some more of the Web Soup into Zoe's bowl… from her… nose.

The other Floramon poured the Web Soup into the other's bowls as well, thoroughly disgusting them.

"Uh… suddenly I'm not so hungry anymore," JP quickly said.

"That's so cool! You can make soup from your head, and pour it out like a pitcher!" Tommy complimented, looking more in awe than grossed out.

Takuya just stuck his tongue out in disgust at the fact the soup came from the nose of the Floramon. He couldn't believe something so good could have such a weird way of preparation.

Patamon saw Takuya's reaction and just rolled his eyes, then flying up to the boy and slapping Takuya with one of his ears. "Don't be so rude. The Floramon were kind enough to offer us lunch, don't turn your nose up at it."

"Y-yeah, but…" Takuya frowned before he whispered. "The soup is made in their head and comes out of their nose. You gotta admit, that's pretty gross."

Lopmon, having heard Takuya's comment, gave a chuckle. "What's wrong? The soup was delicious moments before you saw how they made it. Now you're too scared to eat anymore just because you saw the fruits being made by some giddy plants? You do know that fruits grow from plants all the time, right? In fact, this is more natural than how humans make soup with their gadgets and whatnot."

Takuya blushed at hearing Lopmon's reasoning. "That's true… Though, to be fair, no living being in the human world makes soup like that, so of course I'm going to be grossed out."

Patamon rolled his eyes. "No need to explain it to us, thank you very much."

"Thanks, this is great," Zoe said politely to the Floramon, though it was clear she was pretty much done with her soup now too.

"I think it's pretty cool. Mom always did tell me I needed to eat more of my vegetables and fruits," Tommy chuckled.

"Of course the little kid likes it…" JP huffed.

"What? It's an interesting way to prepare soup." Tommy shrugged. "You gotta admit, it's unique. We're in a new world, so we may as well enjoy what we witness here, even if it's weird to the rest of you."

"I like the way you think, Tommy." Lopmon smiled. "At least we know you're not too picky."

"Great… then you three can eat the rest of this, we're pretty much full," Takuya huffed, pushing his bowl over to Tommy, Lopmon, and Patamon.

Zoe smiled at one of the Floramon. "Would you mind if I took a look around your village?"

"Not at all, go right ahead." Floramon smiled.

"I think I will join you." Takuya grumbled as he stood up. "I need to get some air."

"Hey, you're not going with Zoe alone!" JP exclaimed as he too stood up.

"You just want to be with the girl, don't you buddy?" Takuya teased JP, grinning as the chubby boy's cheeks turned red in embarrassment.

"I-I do not! I just don't want Zoe to be left with just one of us!" JP protested, trying to hide his red face.

"Both of you shut up," Zoe grumbled. "I don't want two bickering boys ruining my relaxation!"

Both boys deflated from Zoe's response before she walked out of the building to enjoy the breeze that was flowing through her hair and clothes.

"The breeze feels so good," Zoe complimented.

"It's all thanks to our special tree!" The first Floramon, who had accompanied Zoe outside, said, pointing up at the tree. "The winds blow through the many branches, cooling all of Breezy Village."

Takuya and JP walked out as well, looking up at the tree, having heard what the Floramon said about the tree.

"Well, if the tree is that special, it certainly doesn't look that way now." Takuya mused.

"You're being rude, Takuya!" Zoe hissed.

"No, he's right. Our tree used to be full of leaves and cherry blossoms back then," Floramon sighed. "We used to get happy visitors to visit our village in the past. Trailmon would often stop here with those visitors. Our village was a nice green hamlet, so visitors wanted to relax in our lush green landscape. Blooming bushes, trees, colorful flowers, and all sorts of pretty plants were all over the station. Our village was the perfect green paradise that everyone wanted to see. We would serve our special meals along with the Mushroomon to these visitors, helping them enjoy themselves."

"Well… that big tree still looks pretty cool," JP complimented in hopes of helping the Floramon feel a little better.

Floramon sighed. "Thank you for the compliment, but we know this place looks like a dried up dump."

"These days we're lucky to see one train come through here a month," Another Floramon said.

"You and your friends are the first visitors we've had here in a month," The other Floramon stated. "So we thank you, we're indebted to you for your kindness."

"Hey, I'm sure we could find a way to restore this place." Takuya said with a smile. "I mean, how hard could it be? Just plant a few new flowers here and there, find some good spots in the ground to plant new plants, then things should be good to go, right?"

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Floramon said. "For one, we're not strong enough to dig into this hard soil. And replanting takes a lot of strength."

"Well, that's why we could help." Takuya replied. "I mean, if we help, it can't be too hard." He then grinned. "And the girls love a strong man who helps~" He teased JP.

"W-well, I don't know. I've never done farm work in my life!" JP frowned.

"But Takuya's right, you know. I love strong guys who do things for others without being asked to~" Zoe grinned.

JP smiled instantly. "That's me alright!"

"Hang on, guys," Tommy spoke up as he, Lopmon, and Patamon walked out of the building, having heard their discussion. "I think you're missing a crucial point."

"What point would that be?" Zoe asked.

"I mean… we haven't really asked what caused the plants to wither and dry up in the first place. Who's to say the same won't happen to the plants we try to replant ourselves," Tommy pointed out.

"He's right, you know. It'd be foolish to start working on replanting until we know what caused the plants to die out in the first place," Lopmon agreed.

JP and Takuya blushed at Tommy's point.

"That's a good point." Zoe conceded. "We'd need to know what happened before we did anything." She then looked at the Floramon. "Do you know what happened to the plants here, what made them wilt and die?"

"Their fractal codes were taken away," Floramon answered. "At first it was because the Mushroomon began acting cold and aggressive to us one day. They seemed to think that all the guests only cared about us, but not them, or something silly like that. So in their anger, they took away our plants and other greenery's fractal code, leaving this wasteland. Even if we tried to replant new seeds, they would come and mess it up."

"But these days we haven't seen the Mushroomon in weeks. But even so, our home's fractal code has yet to be restored, and now we're worried about the Mushroomon," Another Floramon added.

"So the Mushroomon suddenly became aggressive and violent. Then they suddenly disappeared," Lopmon noted. "Cherubimon could've been behind the Mushroomon's sudden change in behavior, he seems to be pretty good at corrupting good Digimon after all. But why would they suddenly disappear? That doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe the Mushroomon ticked off the wrong… um… Digimon?" JP offered up. "If they were so aggressive against this place, then what's to say they didn't mess with a stronger Digimon?"

"Do you always think of the worst case scenarios?" Takuya deadpanned to JP.

"No! Not always!" JP huffed back. "I'm just trying to be cautious, that's all!"

"Well, messing with a stronger Digimon is a possibility." Patamon admitted. "But I wouldn't say it was the thing that made the Mushroomon disappear."

"Then what could've happened to them?" Zoe frowned.

"We're not sure. We've been too afraid to anger the Mushroomon by going into their part of the forest these days that none of us investigated what happened to them." Floramon frowned.

Zoe gave it some thought. "Hmm… well, you say they usually come here to mess up whatever you try to replant, right? How about we try doing that now and see if we can get the Mushroomon to come out of hiding?"

"That sounds like a good idea." Takuya admitted. "But we'd need to be on our guard in case the Mushroomon try attacking us directly because we were helping the Floramon as well."

"That's a sound idea." Patamon agreed. "If the Mushroomon don't attack, then something has happened to them, but if they do attack, then they were just biding their time."

"It sounds like as good an idea as any to lure the Mushroomon out, if they aren't being detained elsewhere," Lopmon remarked.

Tommy frowned for a moment, but smiled. "Hey, this might be a good experience for us. I've always wanted to try gardening."

"You can help plant the seeds, Tommy," Zoe said. "But you should leave the labor working for the older boys. They'll plow the fields."

"What about us?" Patamon asked. "We're strong too, right, Lopmon?"

Patamon tried to show off how strong he was by flexing his arms. Lopmon looked over at Patamon and rolled his eyes.

"Maybe if we were able to go to Champion form, but we're way too small to plow the fields properly," Lopmon grumbled.

Patamon deflated at hearing Lopmon's words. "Why do you ruin the mood…? I mean we were able to go claw to claw against an Ultimate level Digimon!"

"Correction, we were able to annoy an Ultimate level Digimon. Takuya had to take care of her permanently," Lopmon reminded them.

"Hey, you two could help water the plants, you know we're going to need those," Zoe suggested.

"Alright…" Patamon grumbled. "But Lopmon and I are still stronger than you think!"

"Oh, I don't doubt it, but you two are still in your cute forms, so you don't get to say much about it." Zoe grinned.

"Hey! Being cute doesn't mean we're not strong!" Patamon whined.

"I'm sorry about him, he has some self esteem issues," Lopmon sighed.

Tommy put a hand over his mouth to hide a smile, though he did chuckle.

"Don't worry, it'll take all of us to create a nice garden patch around here." Zoe smiled.

---

Meanwhile, out in the wasteland desert, Biyomon was flying further along. She was scouting around, having a bad feeling.

I wonder… Did Kokuwamon go this far out when we asked him to scout ahead? Biyomon frowned. We told him not to go too far…

Biyomon landed to take a break from flying, when suddenly the ground beneath her talons started to break apart. Biyomon's eyes went wide as chunks of the land began to lift up into the sky. She heard a loud voice yelling out, but she didn't have time to comprehend what they were saying. She was too tired to fly, so she quickly ran away from the shattering ground with her wings spread out in a panic.

More and more chunks of land went up to the sky and began to shatter into bits of data around her. Biyomon continued running, not wanting to get caught up in whatever was causing this chaos.

Biyomon kept running and running, trying to avoid the rising chunks of land. She took one big jump, having seen a gap between her and the other side of the cracking ground, and landed on the other side safely. She was panting as she got back to her feet and looked back. The ground was continuing to crack and rise, but it was slowing down its approach to her location.

Luckily, it looked like the ground finally stopped collapsing and shifting just as it reached her talons. Biyomon slowly backed away. Even though she could fly, she didn't want to risk falling into the void. She looked out at the land before her. There were large cracks and crevices, the train tracks were in ruin now.

What the heck happened? Some kind of earthquake? Biyomon frowned.

Then she heard a grumble coming from under the ground. Biyomon blinked as she saw a gnome looking Digimon climbing up on the other side of the now shattered ground.

"Me not find Spirit here. This waste of time." The gnome-like Digimon grumbled, obviously displeased with his search if the way he folded his arms in annoyance was any indication.

With Biyomon's keen eyes, she was able to see a mark on the gnome-like Digimon's arm. She recognized the symbol, and the Digimon. No way… that's… The Warrior of Earth, Grumblemon! What's he doing here? … It sounds like he's looking for one of the Spirits. But all the way out here? He… must've been the one that made this crevice. Either with his attack, or… by eating chunks of fractal code.

Grumblemon turned around, and noticed the lone Biyomon staring at him from the other side of the cliff that was created seconds ago. Biyomon froze, not sure what Grumblemon would do to a random Digimon way out here.

Grumblemon frowned, but he didn't consider Biyomon a threat, or even worth talking to, because he then just turned around and began to dig another hole before disappearing into it. Biyomon felt like a breath she didn't know she was holding in was released.

It seems he doesn't consider me as much of anything. Good, I was worried what would've happened if he decided to attack me. Biyomon sighed in relief. But I better get back to Breezy Village. It's clear I can't go any further like this. I'm getting too tired and hungry to keep flying on my own.

Biyomon turned back and flew into the sky. The last thing she needed right now was more drama.

---

Biyomon didn't expect to see the group of humans, along with Lopmon and Patamon, to be planting flowers in Breezy Village when she arrived. She knew they would be arriving in Breezy Village, just not doing this. Biyomon blinked as she had been flying over the group. Zoe noticed a shadow over them, and looked up in the sky to see Biyomon looking down at them from the sky.

"Hey, it's you!" Zoe exclaimed, recognizing Biyomon from before. "Is this where you disappeared to after our encounter at the Flame Terminal?"

The others looked up at Biyomon. Biyomon was considering flying away and coming back later, but then Patamon smiled and flew up to her.

"Hey, Biyomon. You look tired, maybe you should land and rest for a bit?" Patamon suggested. "You know it's not good to push yourself."

Biyomon frowned as she looked at Patamon. "Fine."

Biyomon really was tired, and she didn't want to go back to the desert right now anyways. She and Patamon landed on the grass.

"What are you and Lopmon doing?" Biyomon asked Patamon. "You know we shouldn't get attached to the humans, don't you?"

"Look, we need to look after them right now anyways, right? Not all of them have their Spirits yet," Patamon said back. "I'm sure it'll be fine. And working with them has been making this a lot easier."

Biyomon looked down. "That may be, but you know the rules. We can't get attached to the kids for… well… you know why…" She said, "It's not worth the risks."

"Well it's a bit too late now," Patamon sheepishly said.

"I swear-" Biyomon began before pink bubbles came out of her beak. "I mean Patamon, your heroic mindset is going to lead us to trouble, especially now. I'm surprised Lopmon even agreed to this."

"What can I say?" Patamon shrugged with a small grin. "A-" He was cut off as he coughed out a small greenish cloud, like a foul burp. "Ah… I mean Lopmon has his reasons, you know that."

"Unfortunately we have another problem. I saw Grumblemon," Biyomon warned, making sure to keep her voice down so the others, except for maybe Lopmon, wouldn't hear her. "He's not too far from Breezy Village. I think he's looking for the Spirits right now."

Patamon's eyes went wide as he felt his heart clench with apprehension. "Crud… If Grumblemon finds the Spirit first, we're going to be set back…"

"If the events are playing out like they should though, it shouldn't be a problem… right?" Biyomon replied.

"Hey, so uh… what are you two talking about?" Zoe asked.

Patamon looked up at Zoe. "Just some Digimon stuff."

Patamon looked back at Biyomon before smiling. "Hey… Biyomon, maybe you should say 'hi'. This meeting has been a long time coming."

"What are you doing?" Biyomon hissed at Patamon.

"Come on, don't be shy~" Patamon smiled as he moved behind Biyomon and pushed her closer to Zoe.

Biyomon stumbled forward before looking up at Zoe, who was looking at her curiously. Biyomon blushed with embarrassment. "Erm… h-hello. I'm… uh… Biyomon."

Zoe smiled at Biyomon. "No need to be shy." She said before holding out a hand. "I'm Zoe. It's nice to meet you."

"I'm not shy… I just didn't expect to be put on the spot," Biyomon huffed, glaring back at Patamon, who just kept smiling at her.

Biyomon grumbled as she looked at Zoe's hand. "Sorry, no hands to shake with. My wing claws might hurt you if I tried."

Zoe blushed. "Whoops! I didn't think about that. Sorry." She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "I forgot, not all Digimon have hands."

"So who's this bird? Are you gonna join us too or something?" JP asked.

"Hey, the more the merrier, right?" Takuya asked.

"I haven't decided on anything," Biyomon grumbled.

"Hey Biyomon, it's good to see you again," Lopmon greeted.

"Don't 'hey Biyomon' me. What happened to the plan you came up with?" Biyomon grumbled at Lopmon.

"Things sort of spiraled out of control," Lopmon sighed. "It's not like I ended up sticking with them on purpose. In fact, Takuya and Zoe both literally dragged me into a hole with them."

Biyomon raised an eyebrow in skepticism. "Really?"

"Hey, it wasn't our fault!" Takuya exclaimed, his cheeks slightly red. "Lopmon just happened to be with us when we fell!"

"So uh… you're Lopmon and Patamon's friend, right? Why've you been avoiding us?" Tommy curiously asked.

"Well… Try not to take this the wrong way, but to be honest, none of us really should be hanging out with you guys," Biyomon replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?" JP frowned.

"It means what it means." Biyomon grumbled. "We can't get attached to you guys, for… reasons."

"Reasons you can't tell us, I'm guessing?" Tommy asked.

Biyomon just gave a solemn nod.

"I guess that's why you haven't tried talking to us before," Takuya noted. "But… Patamon, Lopmon, is that true?"

"Don't worry about it," Patamon said. "We've already made our choice."

"And so has Labramon," Lopmon added.

"Of all the people Labramon could hang out with though…" Zoe frowned, scrunching up her face as she remembered how cold Koji treated them.

"Are there… anymore friends of yours we should know about?" Tommy asked Lopmon.

"There are two of them you have yet to meet," Lopmon answered. "I'm not sure if you'll see one of them any time soon though. She's… got her own thing to deal with far away from the rest of us. But the other one… we haven't seen him since he suggested scouting ahead before you guys arrived in the Digital World."

"Wow, so you have more friends to meet us, huh?" Takuya said before he grinned. "I can't wait to meet them. I bet they're just as helpful as the rest of you."

"So wait… there's you two, Biyomon, Labramon, and two others we haven't met yet," JP noted, counting with his fingers. "So that makes… 6 of you in total, right?"

"Yeah," Patamon confirmed. "There's 6 of us together."

"So are you guys in a club or something?" Takuya questioned.

"Heh… you could say that," Lopmon chuckled.

"Is it some kind of exclusive club?" Zoe asked, raising an eyebrow.

Biyomon puffed up her feathers. "No, it's not an 'exclusive club', thank you very much!"

"Biyomon's got issues with exclusiveness," Patamon explained.

"So does this club of yours… have something to do with us?" Tommy asked. "Lopmon, you and Patamon seemed to have known we were going to be here in the Digital World. So surely it has something to do with us, right?"

"There have been humans coming into the Digital World lately," Lopmon answered. "So of course we knew more was coming. We had to make sure you stayed safe in this world."

"I don't know… it kinda felt like you were waiting for us, specifically," Tommy pointed out.

"I think you're reading too much into it," Lopmon pointed back.

Biyomon frowned as she looked at Tommy. He may be the youngest, but he seems to be the most observant of the group. Better be careful with him.

"Well, enough about us," Biyomon spoke up, wanting to derail the conversation before Tommy figured something out that he shouldn't. "What are you guys doing?"

"We're trying to help the Floramon restore Breezy Village's greenery." Zoe replied before she looked down somberly. "It seems like the right thing to do, given how lovely the place sounded before things began to turn bad here."

Biyomon blinked as she looked at the Floramon, who were either looking at them curiously, or planting the flowers into the soil that the others helped them with.

"You're helping restore Breezy Village's greenery just because it's the right thing to do?" Biyomon questioned.

"I know, right? Seems like something you'd like to do if you could, am I riiiiight?~" Patamon teasingly said.

Biyomon blushed slightly. "I would not!" She exclaimed, but her bright blush gave away Patamon was right on the money, which made said flying hamster Digimon grin as he looked back at her.

"Oh, you so would~" Patamon teased back. "I know it, Lopmon knows it, everyone in our group knows it~"

Takuya snickered. "It seems Patamon is in a teasing mood today."

"We wouldn't…" Zoe pointed out.

"I meant the 6 of us, not you guys," Patamon quickly amended.

"Oh," Zoe blinked before looking at Biyomon. "Wait, you would?"

"I like nature," Biyomon admitted, rubbing her cheeks. "If I could help it, I would."

"Kinda makes you wonder why you're not a Floramon," Lopmon chuckled. "Or some other plant type Digimon yourself."

"Well, it doesn't matter anyways," Biyomon huffed. "We should probably get them out of here, especially with you-know-who being nearby."

"We can't leave yet." Lopmon frowned before he lowered his voice, careful not to give anything away. "After all… the two humans here haven't gotten what they need here yet."

Biyomon looked somber at Lopmon's words. "But we can't just stay here… Not unless we start looking for what these humans need right away…" She replied back, also in a softer tone of voice like Lopmon had been using.

"You know the rule, we can't interfere with what needs to happen too much. We're only here to guide and protect them," Lopmon added.

"How well has that been working for you?" Biyomon raised an eyebrow.

"Just fine, thanks," Patamon huffed, looking a little embarrassed at the question.

"Hey, guys? I don't mean to interrupt, but we should get back to work," Zoe spoke up. "We're waiting for the Mushroomon to show up."

"I don't mind taking a bit of a break though…" JP grumbled.

"You heard the lady, JP." Takuya grinned. "Time to show her you can do stuff like gardening~"

JP grinned. "What are we waiting for then? It's back to work!" He ran off to find a new place to dig a hole eagerly.

Tommy chuckled. "Wow, JP will do anything to impress the girls."

"You just have to know how to use that to your advantage." Takuya replied with a bit of a smug grin.

Patamon leaned in towards Lopmon slightly. "I think you're starting to rub off on Takuya, Lopmon~"

"When have I done anything of the sort?" Lopmon grumbled.

"I can count several instances where you've rubbed off on Takuya." Patamon grinned back. "Of course, do you want me to name them all?"

"Never mind that now," Lopmon said, deciding to change the subject as he looked at Biyomon. "What do you plan to do now? It's a big Digital World out there. It might not be good to travel on your own."

"I've done well on my own!" Biyomon huffed, but remembering how Grumblemon had claimed the fractal code of the desert a ways back, she shivered despite her best efforts to suppress it. "I have been fine on my own…"

"The way you're shivering says otherwise." Patamon noted in concern.

"Hey…" Zoe spoke up with a small smile at Biyomon. "Why don't you stay here for a while? I'm sure the Floramon would love to have you as a guest here."

Biyomon hesitated. "I don't mind staying for a bit to recharge, but… after that, I'll be on my way."

"To where?" Zoe asked. "You're not just going out alone again, are you?"

"I shouldn't be… here." Biyomon frowned.

"Stop being so stubborn," Patamon grumbled. "It's not going to hurt you to stick around with us. Safety in numbers and all that."

"Besides, considering how hard your exterior shell is, I'm sure you'll be able to keep yourself from getting too attached. You might be able to learn better skills while you're here. Or are you too proud to even try to stick with us?" Lopmon grinned.

Biyomon huffed. "No way! I'm not going to just leave you boys to handle this on your own!" She retorted. "Besides, being the only girl amongst bull-headed boys will not be good for Zoe. She needs another female around so she doesn't feel so left out. Besides, I know a thing or two about gardening, you need my expertise if you really want to bring greenery back to this village!"

Zoe blinked before smiling. "Alright, glad to have you on board!"

Zoe and Biyomon joined Takuya and JP in the field. Tommy was looking at Lopmon and Patamon.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Patamon said to Lopmon. "And you just said you didn't rub off on Takuya."

"Oh hush," Lopmon grumbled. "Would you have rathered Biyomon went off on her own again?"

"I think that was a smart thing to do," Tommy chuckled. "I don't think I'd feel very good knowing a small Digimon like her would be off on her own like that."

"At least Tommy agrees with me," Lopmon said.

Patamon rolled his eyes. "Yes, the 8 year old child agrees with you, what an accomplishment. Besides, I didn't say I disagreed with you, just pointing out how you just played Biyomon like a fiddle."

"Don't make it sound like a bad thing," Lopmon huffed.

"It's not a bad thing. I just think it's amusing." Patamon teased back.

"Well, we should probably get back to helping plant the seeds, right?" Tommy chuckled.

"Yeah, we should. Hopefully that'll keep Mr. Amuser too busy to find me so amusing," Lopmon remarked.

Patamon rolled his eyes.

Though Tommy was still suspicious of these little Digimon's motives and purpose for sticking with them, it didn't look like they had any ill intentions for them. So for now, Tommy decided to keep his questions to himself.

---

"They're here."

"Heh, of course they are."

"Despite the rules, they just couldn't help themselves, could they?"

"Don't jump the gun, they haven't broken any rules yet."

"Then we'll have to give them a little scare. Show them what they're dealing with if they ever should break any of the rules~"

"Yeah, just make sure you don't break them, otherwise we'll be the ones breaking the rules, and that won't be pretty."

"Oh I don't intend to break them… physically."

"Oooh, you plan to break them mentally? That is quite sinister of you! I like it~"

"Of course you would, that's just like you."

"How could I not like it? You seem to have the most sinister plans!"

"That's because you inherited our creator's sadism."

"Quiet, all of you! They're waiting for the Mushroomon. So… let's give them what they want."

---

"These flowers are all so beautiful and lovely…" Floramon said before sighing. "It's just a shame that the Mushroomon will wreck it…"

"You said that the place lost a lot of its greenery due to the loss of the fractal code, right?" Biyomon questioned the Floramon.

"Yes, I did." Floramon replied with a solemn voice. "I hope that the Mushroomon don't come back and claim the rest of the fractal code. It would be a terrible loss to lose the remnants of our great tree."

"Well, isn't the point of doing this is to lure them here in the first place to see if they're even okay?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, but still… we rather they didn't wreck it…" Floramon sighed.

"I know what you mean. I have a greenhouse back home, I take great pride in all the plants I cared for, even the exotic ones," Biyomon reminisced. "I'd hate for anyone to come in and destroy my hard work, not to mention the poor plants themselves suffering for it."

"Digimon can have greenhouses?" JP asked, to which Takuya just shrugged.

"But… isn't it possible to get all of that back if we're able to find and release the fractal code? Or does the fractal code just… kinda vanish from existence after a certain amount of time?" Biyomon asked.

"Hmm? Well… the fractal code itself doesn't vanish, but rather they can be converted into something else," Floramon stated.

Patamon took Bokomon's book out from his belly warmer, to which Biyomon stared in shock for a moment. "How did you do that?"

"... Bokomon's power?" Patamon sheepishly replied as he was flipping through the pages of the book.

"What? What did I miss?" Biyomon frowned.

"Bokomon entrusted Patamon with his book, and his belly warmer, which is a pocket dimension," Lopmon answered. "Don't think about it too much."

"Ah, it says right here," Patamon began, finding the page he was looking for. "A fractal code's nature can change depending on the environment. If a fractal code is ripped from the form they took, they can be converted into something else entirely. Or if they're consumed by a Digimon, and aren't extracted in a certain amount of time, the fractal code becomes a part of the Digimon, strengthening their Digi-Core and body."

"So there was a real chance that Cerberumon would've permanently consumed the village at Flame Terminal if Agunimon hadn't defeated her quickly enough?" Tommy frowned.

"Yeah, but the larger the fractal code, the longer it would take for the Digimon to… well, essentially digest it," Patamon assured before he shut the book and put it back into the belly warmer. "So it would've taken weeks if not months before Cerberumon would've been able to fully digest the village she tried to consume."

"That sounds kinda scary if you think about it." Zoe shivered. "It's kinda like a survival of the fittest mentality."

"Well, normally we Digimon live in peace with each other," Floramon sighed. "Or at least, most of the time, when the 3 Celestial Digimon were governing our world."

"It's only recently that it's gotten as bad as it did when Cherubimon turned against the other 2, and started corrupting other Digimon," Another Floramon remarked.

"Sounds like we may have to defeat Cherubimon to restore peace to this world then." Takuya noted with a frown before he ran a hand through his hair nervously. "Talk about a tall order."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Lopmon spoke up, worried that the children would try to fight Cherubimon. "Our priority is to get you kids to the Forest Terminal. Don't try to fight Cherubimon yourselves, I can guarantee it will not end well for any of us."

"Not like I wanted to get involved with this Cherubimon guy," JP shivered.

Biyomon frowned. "I was just hoping to use the fractal code that was already stolen and bring it back here, but if the code had already been consumed a while back, then it might be too late…"

"Doesn't mean we can't try to help it regrow, right?" Patamon said, hoping to make Biyomon feel better.

Lopmon frowned as he lifted up his ears. "I hear footsteps coming this way."

Biyomon blinked before she heard the sound too. "It sounds like a few Digimon may be heading towards us." She noted nervously. If it's Grumblemon, we're in trouble… The Warriors aren't ready to fight him yet!

Then suddenly, they saw what looked like mushroom people coming out of the bushes and walking up to them.

"It's the Mushroomon!" The Floramon yelled.

But something was off. The Mushroomon weren't making a lot of noise. They were just staring at them with dead looking eyes.

"Um… I thought you said the Mushroomon were acting aggressively and hostilely towards you, Floramon." Zoe noted, feeling uncomfortable at the dead-looking eyes of the Digimon before them. "These Mushroomon are acting more like zombies than the hostile Digimon you mentioned."

"They usually are! Something must be wrong with them." Floramon frowned.

"They usually start insulting us or snickering right now." Another Floramon pointed out.

"But… it doesn't look like they're doing anything other than staring at us," Tommy noted, he was getting creeped out by this.

"Guys, stay back, we're going to try to check this out," Patamon spoke up, looking at the human children.

Lopmon, Patamon, and Biyomon looked at each other, all 3 getting a very uneasy feeling about this. They slowly began to approach the 3 Mushroomon.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Takuya asked in concern, not wanting them to get hurt.

"Not really, but we're doing it anyway," Patamon replied back.

"Hello in there? Is anyone home?" Biyomon questioned as she lifted up a wing to tap on one of the Mushroomon's cap.

There was no response.

Lopmon walked up closer to the Mushroomon in the middle, squinting his eyes to try to peer into the Mushroomon's eyes. There was… a slight glow in Mushroomon's eyes, an unnatural glow. Lopmon's eyes widened as he quickly backed away.

"Move!" Lopmon shouted.

The 3 Mushroomon suddenly threw out smaller mushrooms at them, and the mushrooms exploded like grenades. Due to Lopmon, Patamon, and Biyomon's close proximity, they were blown back into the trunk of the tree.

"Oh no!" Zoe exclaimed. "Biyomon!"

"It's not them we need to worry about…" JP gulped. "Those Mushroomon are attacking, and they don't look too happy!"

"You don't say, JP?" Takuya gritted his teeth.

"What's happening to you guys!?" Floramon shouted, not sure how to react to this.

The Mushroomon didn't give an answer. They began approaching the group, holding their mushroom grenades, still without speaking a word.

"Ouch…" Patamon groaned before he shook his head to regain his senses. "I think that answers the question of if the Mushroomon are hostile or not… But they are still acting like zombies."

"But why?" Biyomon asked as she shivered at the dead, yet glowing, eyes of the Mushroomon. "This isn't normal for any Digimon, at least… I think."

"It's not," Lopmon said as he got to his feet. "This… shouldn't be happening."

The zombie-like Mushroomon began throwing more of their grenades. The Floramon attempted to restrain the Mushroomon with their Poison Ivy vines, however, one of the Mushroomon threw out a different mushroom that covered the Floramon with some kind of yellow spores. Upon touching the spores, the Floramon couldn't stop laughing, losing their hold on the Mushroomon.

Zoe looked at the Floramon in concern. "I don't get it, what's so funny?"

"The Mushroomon's spores seem to be acting like laughing gas to these Floramon." Tommy frowned.

"How does a squirt like you even know what 'laughing gas' is?" JP frowned.

"Does that really matter right now?" Tommy questioned.

"No, I guess it doesn't…" JP grumbled.

"We have more important things to worry about right now, like these Mushroomon and their odd behavior." Takuya pointed out nervously. "We can't just sit back and let these Mushroomon get away with this!"

"Yeah, but how can we stop them if we don't know what is wrong with them?" Zoe pointed out.

"Maybe we just need to purify their fractal code and they'll go back to normal," Takuya suggested. "I can Spirit Evolve and-"

"Maybe don't do that in a forest where you can easily create a forest fire?" Zoe quickly argued. "How well can you control your powers right now anyways!?"

Takuya looked nervous, but he didn't back down. "I know I may not have much control, but I can't just sit back and do nothing!" He exclaimed as he clenched his fists. "I mean, what else could I do?"

"Tommy can also Spirit Evolve." Zoe pointed out. "You're not the only one who can do that now, remember?"

"Yeah, I know that, but Tommy only has one battle under his belt, so to speak." Takuya retorted.

"Boom Bubble!" Patamon shot out an air bubble at the incoming mushroom grenades, causing them to fall back and explode on the ground. "Whatever you plan to do, do it soon! You don't have time to argue on the battlefield!"

"Blazing Ice!" Lopmon glided through the air, freezing the Mushroomon's head and hands. "That should slow down the mushroom grenades, but keep your guards up!"

Tommy looked up and frowned, he wasn't very confident in using his Digimon form yet, but his friends needed him. He took his D-Tector out, however, before he could Spirit Evolve, one of the Mushroomon jumped at him. Tommy yelped as he rolled away from the incoming attack, and another Mushroomon headbutted him from behind, causing Tommy to hit the ground and drop his D-Tector.

The last Mushroomon jumped at Takuya, kicking him in the forehead to knock him back.

"They're aiming for the two who have their Spirits!" Lopmon realized.

"Oh, c'mon!" Patamon exclaimed. "That's just low!"

"We need to help them!" Biyomon added, feeling her feathers bristling at the low move she was witnessing.

"They're Rookie level Digimon, so we should be able to handle them!" Lopmon quickly said.

Lopmon, Patamon, and Biyomon tackled the Mushroomon. Since there were 3 of them, they decided to fight one-on-one with each of the Mushroomon.

Biyomon slashed the Mushroomon she was fighting with her talons, leaving several cuts.

Patamon tackled the Mushroomon he was dueling, and knocked it back with his Boom Bubble.

Lopmon turned himself into a mini-twister, slapping the Mushroomon he took silly.

For a moment, it looked like Lopmon, Patamon, and Biyomon had the upper hand. However, that soon went downhill when all 3 Mushroomon's eyes glowed red all of a sudden.

Biyomon was knocked back by a sudden powerful punch by the Mushroomon, a punch that was far stronger than what a normal Mushroomon could do.

Patamon's eyes went wide in shock when the Mushroomon in front of him suddenly disappeared. This caused Patamon to hesitate from confusion long enough to be blasted by some kind of pinkish red beam from the Mushroomon's hand. Patamon yelped in pain as he hit the ground.

With Lopmon, he suddenly couldn't hit the Mushroomon. His Tiny Twister and Blazing Ice attacks kept going through the Mushroomon like he wasn't there. It took Lopmon a moment to realize why his attacks aren't working. Intangibility!? How!?

However, despite this knowledge, the Mushroomon ran at Lopmon and went through him, going behind the little rabbit Digimon. Lopmon gasped as he tried to turn around, but the Mushroomon shot out red electricity at Lopmon. Lopmon let out a cry of pain from being shocked by such intense energy.

"No! Lopmon!" Patamon yelled. He flew at the Mushroomon attacking Lopmon. "Get away from him!" He exclaimed angrily.

"They're getting slaughtered out there! We have to do something!" Zoe called out.

"What can we do though? They're Digimon, we're not!" JP pointed out.

"We can Spirit Evolve, they're distracted," Takuya spoke up.

"Takuya, you're gonna make things worse if you cause a forest fire!" Zoe pointed out.

Tommy picked up his D-Tector as he rubbed his back. "It's okay… if Agunimon starts a fire… I can douse it quickly with my ice. Lopmon and the others need our help though."

Takuya grinned. "Then let's do it!" He exclaimed as he held up his D-Tector.

Takuya held out his D-Tector and the blue digital form of his first Spirit appeared visible on the screen of his D-Tector as he formed the familiar fractal coding on his left hand. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he knew by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital, and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the power of the Spirit flowed into his body. Red armor formed and latched onto his body as his hair changed to blonde and became long and wild. His height increased, as did his strength and agility. His eyes snapped open, now a brilliant blue instead of brown, and his teeth were sharper than a human's as well. He landed, crying out his name. "Agunimon!"

Tommy followed Takuya's lead. The light green digital form of his first Spirit appeared on the screen of his D-Tector and he formed the familiar ring of fractal coding around his left hand. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he knew by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the power of the Spirit flowed into his body. He lost his hair and his body became white as snow. His fingers became like paws almost and he gained a more cub-like appearance to his body. Green chest armor formed on his body and his feet gained green and red boots. A headband that had the image of a bear on it formed on his head, and he gained a shoulder pad on each side, but one was red while the other was gray in color. He slid down and landed as a mushy pile before he reformed and grinned, calling out his name. "Kumamon!"

While this was going on, Patamon was helping Lopmon up as Biyomon quickly rushed to them. They were looking at the glowing eyed Mushroomon as they began to gather up.

"They're not Mushroomon… they're using powers that shouldn't be available to them…" Biyomon frowned.

"Yeah… they're using… ghost powers," Patamon hissed. "But how…?"

"They might be… possessed by ghosts…" Lopmon guessed, his body all tingly from the electrocution.

Biyomon felt her feathers puff up upon hearing Lopmon's words. "Ghosts…? Here?!" Her feathers being puffed up made her look like a big pink puffball.

If the situation wasn't so dire, Patamon would be laughing at how puffy Biyomon looked right now.

"Hey! You leave them alone!" Agunimon shouted at the 3 possessed Mushroomon.

The Mushroomon all turned their heads to Agunimon as he was rushing at them.

Agunimon gritted his teeth before he held up his left hand, fire flaring from his silver wrist armor. "Pyro Darts!" He sent small bits of flame at the Mushroomon.

The Mushroomon hissed before their bodies went intangible, causing the Pyro Darts to miss them and hit the grass instead. Before the fire on the grass could spread, however, Kumamon came in and blew a small bit of icy wind at the flames, turning the flames into harmless bits of snow instead. The Mushroomon jumped up high, and were now floating in midair.

"They can fly?" Kumamon frowned.

"Not normally…" Biyomon replied, looking up at the floating Mushroomon. "Be careful you two! These Mushroomon aren't normal!"

Agunimon felt his face growing pale as he saw the hovering Mushroomon. He hadn't expected this, and it made him wonder what else was going on, if Biyomon's words were right about Mushroomon not being able to fly. However, he wasn't about to back down. "So they can fly? How much harder could it be to fight them?"

"Never ask that question." Kumamon grumbled.

The Mushroomon gathered around in perfect sync. They began throwing mushroom grenades at the group. Instead of the yellow spores that made the Floramon drop into a giggling fit, however, these spores were green. The second the green spores touched the plants, the plants withered and began to glitch out, showing the fractal codes.

Seeing this, Patamon's eyes went wide in horror. "Don't let those green spores touch you!"

Seeing the spores coming at them, both Agunimon and Kumamon jumped away, landing on separate sides of the battlefield and away from the spores. Agunimon noticed the glitching out that was occurring.

"W-what's… happening?" He asked, feeling like he should be scared of that stuff for some reason.

Something deep inside him was screaming at him to stay away from the green spores, and he didn't know why. It was like… a deep instinct or something, and his body was shaking.

"Look out!" Kumamon's voice shouted over Agunimon.

The icy bear took a deep breath and shot out his icy wind on the ground, freezing it to ice. Though curiously, he did this without shouting out the move's name. As soon as the ground was icy, Kumamon's boots created a pair of skis under him. Using this, Kumamon skated to Agunimon, grabbing his arm with his hand, and using his momentum on the ice to pull him away from the incoming green spore. Once the spore touched the ice, the ice, and the grass below, glitched out as they began to disappear into bits of data.

Agunimon was rather shocked that Kumamon was able to think past his instinctual fear and managed to pull him away from the green spores.

Agunimon gave Kumamon a grateful look. "Thanks…" He rasped out. "I… I don't know what came over me back there…"

"Try to keep your head together, Agunimon," Kumamon said. "I know it's scary, but we can't let fear make us freeze when we're needed to keep our friends safe."

Despite being an 8 year old, Kumamon sounded like he was speaking from experience. Which made Agunimon wonder what Kumamon went through. But there wasn't time to ask about that. He needed to focus.

"Quick, Zoe, JP, help us get the Floramon out of here! If they're caught up in the crossfire, they could die!" Lopmon shouted over at his friends, and the other non-Legendary Warrior humans.

Zoe and JP both looked at Lopmon before they each nodded.

"That we can do." Zoe replied nervously.

"Anything to get away from those freaky Mushroomon." JP agreed with a shiver. "They're creeping me out!"

Biyomon looked over at Patamon. "You should stay with Agunimon. He might need your help."

Patamon frowned. "I… I can't do it, Biyomon, not in front of them… it's against the rules, remember?"

"Then stay there in case they get knocked out or something, and you're the only one who can stop them," Biyomon reiterated. "Our lives are at stake right now, we can't afford to hesitate."

Patamon nodded, but he was feeling nervous and unsure about helping out. There was only one way to handle those creepy Mushroomon, but he wasn't sure if using that was a good idea right now. "O-Okay… I'll try to help…"

The Mushroomon threw more mushrooms that released the green spores again, causing more data to glitch out.

"Don't worry, Agunimon, we don't have to get in close, just hit them from afar. As strange as they are, they're still plant type Digimon, right? So they don't do well with fire or ice," Kumamon said, trying to strategize and keep things calm on the battlefield.

Agunimon realized Kumamon was right and took a breath before letting it out. "Yeah… Yeah, you're right… Long range can work just as well." He agreed, trying to keep himself calm.

Standing up, Agunimon got to his feet and held his arms out to his sides before slamming his fists together. Fire appeared around his hands and he pulled his arms apart before launching the fire from his hands at the Mushroomon in the air. "Pyro Punch!"

Though Agunimon normally punched the opponent with the attack as it did far more damage, he was able to shoot out flames from the Pyro Punch without having to get up close and personal to the Digimon.

"Blizzard Blaster!" Kumamon took out the gun from his back and fired snowballs into the air, letting them rain down as icicle-like spears onto the Mushroomon.

The attack was flawless, and normally, would end the Mushroomon easily. However…

Agunimon's eyes went wide, and Kumamon hissed, as their attacks went through the 3 Mushroomon's bodies.

"They can go intangible at will, so long they see your attacks coming, they can easily make themselves transparent," Patamon warned as he saw this.

"Crap…" Agunimon hissed through gritted teeth. "That's definitely going to make things difficult. How can we hit enemies that can turn intangible?!"

However, Agunimon felt like he had seen this ability before, it felt familiar, but he didn't know why.

Patamon frowned as he thought about what to do. Agunimon and Kumamon were powerful, but even they lacked the utility needed to fight against opponents that could go intangible at will.

The Mushroomon growled in irritation. While they were able to dodge attacks, and send out some dangerous attacks themselves, they could also see they were getting nowhere fast.

Some shadows watching the battle began to speak in low voices. Biyomon took notice of them.

"This battle is going nowhere."

"So what should we do?"

"Make them stronger. Force those weak mushrooms to digivolve. Maybe they'll be able to get the job done then."

"What?" Biyomon frowned. Who are they?

A dense fractal code shot at the 3 Mushroomon, causing them to cry out.

"W-what was that?" Patamon asked.

A cocoon of fractal code surrounded the Mushroomon, transforming them.

Kumamon and Agunimon's eyes went wide when they saw the fractal code surrounding the three Mushroomon. That didn't signify anything good, Agunimon and Kumamon knew from experience.

The fractal code dissipated, revealing a hovering Digimon that looked like a tree with eyes and a mouth. The eyes had little white dots in the center, and the mouth was just a hole in the trunk below the eyes. It had limbs made of tree limbs and bark that was pointed at the ends like hands and toes.

"The Mushroomon became stronger…" Agunimon realized. "But… where did that fractal code come from? It seemed to come out of nowhere…"

Lopmon hurried over to Biyomon while JP and Zoe were trying to get the Floramon safely inside their houses.

"Did you see that?" Biyomon asked Lopmon.

"I saw something being shot out from over there," Lopmon replied.

The shadowy figures weren't in the area anymore, but they were likely still nearby, watching the battle.

"They're the ones responsible for making the Mushroomon do this…" Biyomon frowned. "They're playing with their fractal codes like they're just programs."

Lopmon frowned as he looked at Biyomon. "Don't… let yourself get too attached to this world, Biyomon. Remember why we're here."

Biyomon groaned. "I know that, Lopmon, but we can't just let these guys get away with this!"

Biyomon spread out her wings and began flying to where she saw the shadows.

"No wait! Don't go off on your own! We don't know what we're dealing with!" Lopmon shouted after Biyomon. I hate that she can fly and I can't!

"What happened to those Mushroomon?" Kumamon asked Patamon.

"It… it looked like they combined with each other and digivolved into a Woodmon," Patamon answered. "Be careful, Woodmon is a Champion level Digimon, so he's much stronger now."

Agunimon growled. "Just like that Wizardmon. We can't be careless, since we know nothing about how this Digimon fights." But… I feel like this is familiar somehow… a Digimon being controlled like this… Why? I've never seen this before, and yet it feels like I have…

Agunimon got into a fighting stance, keeping an eye on the Woodmon, just in case it tried to attack them.

The Woodmon suddenly flew at them with such speed that Agunimon blinked, and it was suddenly right in front of them. It launched its branch-like arm at Agunimon and Kumamon.

"Branch Bash!" Woodmon shouted in a voice that had an unusual echo to it.

Agunimon's armor protected him from the brunt of the attack though the force still sent him back a few feet. Kumamon on the other hand, had his stomach struck through by the sharp branches. Kumamon let out a gasp of pain. Instead of being pushed back like Agunimon, he was stuck on the branch.

Patamon flew at Woodmon's head. "Boom Bubble!"

Patamon expanded before shooting out the air bubble at Woodmon's head. Woodmon grumbled a little when the air bubble hit his head, and rubbed it like a bee gave a sting to it.

Agunimon grunted as he staggered, trying to regain his sense of balance. He managed to, but barely before he glanced up and saw Kumamon impaled on the branch that had attacked them. His eyes went wide before he found himself running at Woodmon to save Kumamon. He didn't let out a shout or anything as he ran at Woodmon. Fire coated his left fist, without saying a word.

I hope this works… Agunimon thought as he reached Woodmon, which was busy with Patamon at the moment. Agunimon struck Woodmon with his fire-coated fist.

With Woodmon busy with Patamon, and having one of the Legendary Warriors trapped, he failed to notice Agunimon's silent attack until it was too late. Woodmon gave a shout as the fiery punch hit him. His branches got burned, and he slid back a little. But despite this, Woodmon stood his ground. He angrily threw Kumamon at Agunimon, then slapped Patamon away with his branch arm.

Kumamon landed on top of Agunimon, throwing both Legendary Warriors to the ground with a grunt, and in a tangle of limbs.

"Ow…" Agunimon groaned. "That Woodmon has some serious strength…"

"Ugh…" Kumamon groaned as he managed to melt his body for a moment, then get off of Agunimon before solidifying himself.

Kumamon quickly checked his stomach for any serious injuries, after all, he was just stabbed there. Though he found some wounds, he was surprised there were no holes, or blood leaking out of him.

"How am I… just okay after being stabbed in the stomach?" Kumamon found himself asking, a little freaked out by this.

Patamon shook his head, getting up after being slapped away by Woodmon. He noticed Kumamon was losing his cool, and his focus. "This isn't the time to be freaking out! You're a Digimon right now, you can take much more than a human can!"

Unfortunately, this little distraction was all Woodmon needed to power up, and fire a green beam of energy at them. Agunimon gasped and quickly pulled Kumamon close to his armored chest to shield him from the attack.

The attack hit Agunimon right in the back, causing serious damage to his armor and even making it crack slightly. Agunimon hissed in pain as he felt his back aching. "That… hurts like heck…" He hissed.

"A-Agunimon… are you okay?" Kumamon asked in worry.

Woodmon grinned as he began to power up again to attack. Patamon flew at Woodmon, and tried to tackle him. Patamon only bounced off of Woodmon's wood-like hide. He fired another Boom Bubble, but that wasn't stopping Woodmon from powering up another green beam. Patamon paled, realizing he wasn't strong enough as he was now to stop Woodmon.

Zoe and JP managed to get the Floramon into their houses, and away from the battlefield, but they could see the battle wasn't going well at all. Patamon wasn't doing much to Woodmon. Kumamon and Agunimon still weren't used to using their Digimon forms and powers. And they had no idea where Biyomon or Lopmon disappeared to. They were on their own.

"We have to do something, JP!" Zoe cried out.

"I-I know, but what can we do? We don't have any powers, or any ways to fight back! We'd just be in the way," JP pointed out.

"Well, sitting here isn't going to help either!" Zoe exclaimed. "Why are we here if we can't find some way to help?! We could use something in our environment to help out, or something similar!"

"You mean like throwing rocks and whatnot?" JP asked skeptically. "Wouldn't that tree-like Digimon just ignore it?"

"Do you have any better ideas?" Zoe remarked, raising an eyebrow.

JP frowned. He didn't have any better ideas, but he wasn't sure about risking his life like this. Zoe, however, didn't seem to share his sentiment. When JP didn't give an answer, Zoe ran forward.

"H-hey! What are you doing!?" JP shouted after her.

"Helping our friends!" Zoe shouted back.

Zoe grabbed the nearest stick and ran at Woodmon. "Hey, eyes on me, bub!"

Zoe swung her stick at Woodmon's head from behind. Of course, the stick did nothing but snap in two. But it did get Woodmon's attention. He turned his head to see what tried to hit him from behind, only to see this human girl standing there, shaking.

"Y-you… leave them alone!" Zoe shouted.

"Zoe! You're going to get yourself killed!" JP shouted.

"Zoe!?" Agunimon shouted as well, shocked to see her in the battlefield.

"Get out of there!" Kumamon called out.

Patamon flew up, his body a little battered, but he saw Woodmon planning to fire the beam at her now. Narrowing his eyes, Patamon flew in front of Zoe, creating some kind of green shield around them before taking the beam's hit. The shield was thin, so it broke easily. Patamon let out a scream as he was hit by the beam.

"PATAMON!" Everyone cried as Patamon fell to the ground.

Agunimon growled as he saw Patamon getting hurt. "That's it…" He hissed. "Attacking us is one thing… but attacking Zoe and putting Patamon into a position where he has to protect her is quite another!" He was wondering about that green shield Patamon had put up to deflect the beam, but that would have to wait until after Woodmon was defeated.

With a grunt, Agunimon got to his feet despite the pain racing down his back. "Hey! You wanna fight someone?! Fight me!" Agunimon shouted at Woodmon.

Woodmon looked back at Agunimon. Agunimon was more than ready to fight. Kumamon got to his feet, though he was still wondering about how… not-very-human he was right now, he knew he needed to focus. Losing focus on a battlefield meant death, or the loss of an ally.

Woodmon charged at Agunimon and Kumamon, his body turned intangible so their attacks wouldn't be able to hit him as he was coming at them.

"Move!" Kumamon shouted, knowing this was a freight train they would not be able to stop.

Agunimon jumped to the left while Kumamon dodged to the right, Woodmon charging right through where they had been mere seconds before. Agunimon hissed through gritted teeth at the aching his back was giving off. Crud… I didn't think that beam would hurt so bad, even with my armor on…

Woodmon charged at Kumamon first, and swung his branch arms. However, Kumamon tried to act faster. He was still holding his gun, and fired out his snowballs at point blank. He didn't shout out his move, he didn't have time to. Woodmon, seeing the gun at his face, turned intangible again. However, when he did, his branching arm went through Kumamon instead of hitting him. Kumamon quickly took notice of that.

Woodmon flew back from Kumamon before noticing Agunimon's weakness, seeing how he was hobbling over due to his injured back, Woodmon took this chance to fly at Agunimon, powering up another beam in his smaller hands.

"Look out, Agunimon!" Kumamon shouted a warning.

Agunimon saw the beam powering up as Woodmon flew at him. His eyes went wide and while he knew he could dodge, his back burned with pain, making it hard to react. He couldn't just let himself get hit though. Patamon's injured form flashed through his mind and Agunimon remembered that shield Patamon had put up. If Patamon can do something like that, I can too!

Concentrating, Agunimon put his arms up in a defensive move, and focused on his power over fire. Fire flickered from the openings in his armor before surrounding him in a fiery sphere that then became semi-transparent. Please let this work…

Woodmon fired off the beam at Agunimon, but the beam hit the sphere Agunimon had created instead. Of course, while the sphere held stronger than Patamon's tiny shield, it was Agunimon's first time making it. And it was in haste. The sphere began to crack as Woodmon was still firing his beam. Agunimon's eyes went wide as he struggled to hold the sphere the best he could. More and more cracks began to spread through the sphere. It wouldn't be long before the sphere shattered.

"Frozen Tundra!" Agunimon heard a familiar voice shouting from above.

A giant icy stalagmite fell from the sky. Woodmon gasped as it pierced through his wooden hide, tearing off one of his limbs, and taking a good chunk of his right side with it. The giant icy stalagmite hit the ground. Agunimon looked rather surprised as he saw the icy stalagmite melting into a pool of white before reforming into a familiar white bear.

"I figured it out… While we can't hit Woodmon while he's intangible, he can't hit us either. He has to be solid in order to hit us," Kumamon stated. "And he was so busy with you, he didn't bother to see what I was doing."

Woodmon hissed as fractal code started to come out of him. However, another stream of thick fractal code launched at him from out of nowhere. The extra fractal code caused Woodmon to regenerate his right side and arm, and made him grow bigger.

"Oh come on, that's not fair!" Kumamon groaned.

"Since when is anything easy with these Mushroomon?" Agunimon growled out.

While this was going on, Zoe slowly picked up Patamon, who appeared to be unconscious. "Poor Patamon… I'm sorry… it was my fault that you got hurt… If only… if only I could be strong, like Tommy and Takuya… or Koji… but I'm not. I'm always just a helpless girl…"

"You're not helpless…" JP spoke up softly, having walked over to Zoe, seeing the state Patamon was in. "You were braver than I was…"

"But Patamon still got hurt…" Zoe said softly. "And it was my fault… If I hadn't run out there… He'd be okay…" Her heart twisted in guilt over what had occurred.

JP frowned as he looked at Zoe tearing up.

"You… you were right… it was foolish to try to help them when we… can't do anything ourselves…" Zoe said sadly.

"... You want to know the difference between you and me, Zoe?" JP replied. "You cared enough to want to help… I can't say that's a bad thing. We made a lot of friends here with the Floramon because you wanted to help them. I'm sure they can help nurse Patamon back to health."

Zoe smiled. "Yeah, you're right. I can't just quit because of one little mistake. Tommy and Takuya need our help, and if we stand by and hide away, they may not be able to win this battle."

"There's the Zoe I remember." JP smiled.

Suddenly, something glowed brightly from within the tree. This caught their attention. JP and Zoe looked at the tree to see what was making that bright light, and a figurine floated out.

"Is that… a Spirit?" JP asked, surprised. "It was here the whole time?"

"I… think it was…" Zoe agreed. "But… why is it coming to…" She trailed off as she saw what the Spirit was. It looked like a humanoid female form in a kneeling position with large butterfly-like wings and purple hair, situated on a hexagonal base. Zoe felt herself getting lost in the figurine's appearance. She saw an image of herself merging with a female humanoid form that matched the figurine's appearance. Small wisps of wind appeared in her irises as she felt the figurine calling out to her.

JP looked over at Zoe for a moment, noticing how she was looking at the figurine, and how the figurine stopped a few feet in front of her. He had seen this enough times to know what this meant. A part of him was uneasy, but he couldn't keep being selfish, especially when their lives were on the line.

"Go for it, Zoe. I'll take care of Patamon. The others need you," JP said encouragingly as he carefully took Patamon from Zoe's arms.

Zoe, as if hearing JP despite being in a trance, reached out and took out her D-Tector, pointing it at the Spirit. The screen lit up as the Spirit entered the D-Tector through the scanner. A pink symbol appeared on Zoe's D-Tector's screen as a voice spoke to her.

"It is time."

JP had to shut his eyes as when Zoe began the process of Spirit Evolving, it got pretty bright.

The magenta outline of her Spirit appeared visible on the screen of her D-Tector as she held it up. Fractal coding appeared on her left hand and she slammed the D-Tector against it as she brought the two together. Zoe then called out the familiar phrase she knew by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" Her body became data as her clothes ripped away. Coding surrounded her in a cocoon of sorts and the power of her first Spirit flowed into her. Her hair became longer, flowing past her waist and turning a purple color. Her body grew in height, increasing her strength and speed. A bikini-like outfit appeared on her body as gloves, and high boots formed on her arms and legs, with shoulder guards appearing as well as a visor that covered her eyes. Butterfly-like wings appeared on her back and she landed, letting out a cry as she unleashed a kick before she came to a stop and said her name. "Kazemon!"

The fractal code cocoon dissipated, revealing a female humanoid Digimon. She had long purple hair, and wore an outfit that could almost be described as a bikini, but with straps on it. She wore long boots and silver gloves on her lower arms that had wings on them and a symbol in the center of each. She had large butterfly wings coming from her back, and she had facial markings on her forehead and cheeks, and a silver visor covered her eyes.

When the light of the spirit evolution died down, JP was able to open his eyes again. He saw Kazemon in her full glory. "Whoa…" She looks hot even as a Digimon!

Kazemon looked down at JP and Patamon. An instinctual knowledge came to her mind before she held her hand out onto Patamon. JP watched, not sure what she was doing, but he trusted her. Pink energy flowed through Kazemon's hands, and the wounds on Patamon healed up. Patamon slowly opened his eyes.

"Huh…?" Patamon blinked, and looked up at Kazemon. "You… you are…"

Kazemon smiled at Patamon before she flew up and floated down in front of Woodmon, more than ready to fight herself.

Agunimon looked over, and his jaw dropped when he saw the female Digimon.

"Hey there, boys, need some help?" The female Digimon grinned.

"Who are… you?" Kumamon asked.

"Just call me Kazemon." The female Digimon said, giving the other two Legendary Warriors her name.

"Any help would be appreciated." Agunimon said, trying to keep his mind focused on the battle and not more teenager-related thoughts.

"Of course~" Kazemon smiled.

Woodmon hissed as he turned to face the newcomer. He jumped at her, firing another green beam. Kazemon, very graceful in the sky, easily dodged. Woodmon growled as he turned himself intangible.

"Intangibility won't save you from the force of wind," Kazemon stated as pink little twisters began to form on her fingers. "Hurricane Wave!"

The winds blasted out at Woodmon. Despite being intangible, he couldn't stop himself from being sucked into the wind's force, spinning him around and around.

Agunimon and Kumamon saw what was going on, and while Kumamon was surprised, Agunimon couldn't help but grin at the irony of the situation.

Woodmon was then spat out of the twister and returned to a tangible state, landing on the ground with a loud THUD.

Woodmon hissed and growled, he was trying to get back up. Kazemon pinned him down with more wind.

"Finish him off, quickly!" Kazemon quickly said. "I'll keep him down so he can't use intangibility to get away!"

Agunimon nodded as he dropped his shield. "Right!" He looked at Kumamon. "Let's go, Kumamon! Now's our chance!"

"Then don't hold back," Kumamon replied before he held his gun up. "Blizzard Blaster!"

The snowballs turned into icicle spears as they began to rain down onto Woodmon.

Agunimon called forth fire from his wrist armor and coated his fists in fire. "Pyro Punch!" He punched the fire at the downed Woodmon.

With all of their attacks connecting, Woodmon let out a scream as his fractal code began to show around his body. The 3 noticed that the fractal code was green and goopy, dripping all over the place. It wasn't natural, whatever that was.

"W-what's wrong with the fractal code?" Agunimon gasped. Again, this seemed familiar to him, but he didn't know why. It was like… he had seen it before, but this was the first time he was seeing this as far as he knew.

"It's tainted…" A familiar voice spoke up, catching Agunimon's attention.

Patamon flew over to them, with JP right behind him. Patamon looked a little battered, but he was far better than he was earlier.

"Patamon? Are you sure you're okay?" Kumamon asked in concern.

"I'm okay. Kazemon here healed most of my wounds," Patamon explained. "Thanks."

"It was the least I could do after you protected me," Kazemon replied softly.

"Protected you?" Agunimon repeated.

"Yeah… you didn't notice? That's Zoe." JP grinned.

Agunimon's jaw dropped upon hearing Kazemon was Zoe. That's Zoe?! She looks downright gorgeous!

"Whoa, you look pretty, Zoe." Kumamon complimented.

"Heh, thanks a lot," Kazemon chuckled sheepishly. "I'm just glad I was able to find a Spirit to help you guys."

"It's a bit too early to celebrate, you need to purify these fractal codes," Patamon spoke up. "They're tainted with something that should not be mixed with digital data. It's poisoning their Digi-Core."

Agunimon, Kumamon, and Kazemon all nodded.

Agunimon faced the first set of fractal code and took out his D-Tector. "Let the comfort of the flames return you to normal." He said as he held up his D-Tector. Agunimon pressed the button on the left side as the scanner on the top lit up. The symbol of Flame appeared on the screen at the same time. Agunimon swung his arm, scanning the fractal code with his D-Tector. "Fractal Code… Digitize!"

The fractal code was purified of the green goop that dripped from it, returning to its usual blueish-purple/whitish appearance. Agunimon held his D-Tector to his chest, the scanner going dark. "Purification, complete."

Though the fractal code still had some strange thickness to it, and a sense of wrongness.

"There's more fractal code that shouldn't be on this Woodmon," Patamon noted.

"We'll take care of that." Kazemon smiled.

Kazemon held up her own D-Tector. "May the blessing of wind guide you to the right path."

Kazemon pushed the button on the left side, and the symbol of Wind appeared on the screen. She swung her arm as the D-Tector scanned the fractal code. "Fractal Code… Digitize!"

The extra fractal code was absorbed into the D-Tector. Woodmon soon reverted back to the 3 Mushroomon.

"Ugh…" The Mushroomon groaned.

"Looks like you did it," Patamon said. "No need to return them to egg form."

"What happened? Last thing I remember was trying to create a new recipe for our mushroom mousse…" One of the Mushroomon groaned.

"I don't know. I just remember trying to find some ingredients for a new soup recipe…" The second Mushroomon replied. "Why do I feel like my memory is a blank…?"

The third Mushroomon looked up and yelped. "Whoa! Who are you!?"

"Easy now, we're all friends here," Kazemon gently said to calm them down.

"We helped you guys when you were attacking the Floramon," Kumamon explained.

"We… attacked the Floramon?" The third Mushroomon frowned.

"Why would we do that? Floramon are our friends," The second Mushroomon questioned.

"Did anything or anyone approach you at all before you blacked out?" Patamon asked. "Anything would be helpful."

"Um… I think there were these new guests coming to us," The first Mushroomon said. "We were going to treat them with hospitality, since it's been a long time since we had any guests here, but… I can't remember much after that…"

"When you attacked, you were acting more like… um… mere shells of yourselves." Agunimon explained. "Like you weren't even living anymore. It was really creepy."

"Those guests, do you know what they look like?" Kumamon asked.

"They… glowed, I think… but I don't remember what they really looked like." The second Mushroomon frowned.

"Did they… do something to us?" The third Mushroomon asked in concern. "Are the Floramon alright?"

"They're okay, they're in their houses," Kazemon explained.

"Hey, uh…" JP spoke up. "I don't mean to rain on everyone's parade after the big awesome fight, but… has anyone seen Lopmon or Biyomon?"

The others began to look around, trying to find any sign of Biyomon or Lopmon.

"That's odd…" Kazemon frowned. "I swore they were here, but now they're not…"

"Did they see something? Or did this enemy that brainwashed the Mushroomon get them too?" Agunimon asked, feeling worried about Lopmon and Biyomon being off alone against such a powerful, and mysterious, enemy.

Patamon frowned as well, now worried for them. "I'm going to look for them."

Patamon flew off before anyone could stop him.

"I'll look too. Since I can fly, I'll be able to get a better view of the area," Kazemon stated.

Kazemon took off as well, following Patamon into the sky above.

The two Digimon began to look for any sign of Biyomon or Lopmon.

"Where could they be?" Patamon asked in worry. He didn't want Lopmon, or Biyomon, to be hurt or worse. He didn't want them to be hurt because Lopmon was… And Biyomon was…

---

pokemon fan 1991: DarkFoxKit: I'm glad you think it was a good chapter, but that doesn't really tell us much.

ZAFT: Yeah, we need to know what you liked, what could be improved, etc. ^^'