"That's handy" Michael said "Hopefully these two will share the right code with me... right guys?"

Casey covered Michael's mouth with her hand and looked toward the sound like the other digidestined and their digimon. A minute crawled by before there was another snap, this one sounded closer to the pack of kids and was clearly due to something large. Frimon positioned himself between Jordan and the sound protectively but was visibly nervous as to what was out there in the brush.

A figure finally made its way up and around a particularly large tree root, Leomon. He had previous dealings with both the Canadian and American digidestined and proved himself to be not only friendly but a huge amount of help when they found themselves in a tight spot. Today, however, he was not intending to greet his old friends and catch up on their adventures. His expression was serious. His intention for business was clear.

Casey relaxed and removed her hand from Michael's mouth. "Sorry to act like that, Lemon. We were attacked by a Shellmon the other day and thought we might try being a bit more cautious with our noise." - Michael made a face at her comment.

"You should be aware that there have been an increasing number of agitated digimon. I haven't encountered a reason for this yet, but you should be on your guard constantly." Leomon said calmly.

Jordan was beside himself. This digimon looked like he could be even meaner than that Shellmon what with being part lion part... punk-rocker. He gulped, but kept him mouth shut.

Melody nodded.

"Thanks for the information," she said. "We'll keep our guard up." She paused briefly. "Casey and I were going to go explore the floating city off the cliffs. Have you made it out that way before?" She knew Leomon tended to roam, and he'd been nearly everywhere in the digital world. If Leomon had been to the city already, maybe he knew something about it.

Where Jordan was speechless, Ben was wary. The humanoid digimon seemed fierce, but his sister seemed easy around it, so he wasn't going to freak out quite yet. Coronamon, on the other hand, looked star-struck. He'd never seen a Leomon up close before, and Leomon were awesome.

Leomon looked thoughtful for a moment... a flying city. He had heard news about a floating city but he hadn't actually seen it yet-- which was strange considering how widely he had traveled in the area. "I haven't, no. You should be careful about things like that. Don't go too far into the city or you might get lost, or worse, you might not be able to get down before the city floats higher. It isn't unheard of."

The bright face of Coronamon below him caught his attention and Leomon gave the smaller digimon a nod. He seemed friendly enough, and while his warning was quite serious it was comforting to know that the group wasn't being completely steered away from the anomaly. "Perhaps it would be best if we all travel to Temp City. It isn't far if you follow the East road."

"Huh... I've never heard of Temp City..." Casey mumbled and looked at Dorimon who just shrugged. "Up to everyone, I guess. It isn't as if we don't have time for it."

"Yeah!" Michael shouted, using his typical level of enthusiasm to gauge his volume, "We totally have to go, the punk-lion looks like he knows his way around."

Leomon arched his brow and looks at the other digidestined and digimon for their input.

Melody shrugged.

"I don't mind taking a detour to Temp City," she said. "I don't mind in the slightest, I've got plenty of time to kill." She grinned. Ben was a bit more hesitant, but nodded in agreement after a moment or so.

"Sure," he said. "I'm game. Coronamon?" He looked at his partner, and Coronamon nodded quickly.

"Sure!" the digimon chirped. "Sounds like fun! Let's go!"

Brent and Tentamon also nodded. They practically had all the time in the world, since Brent didn't have to be home again for several Earth-hours.

Leomon nodded his head and looked down the path "It will be another day's walk at most."

"Excellent! I can't hardly wait" Kudamon chirped and hurried to be by Leomon's side. Michael didn't leave much room between them as the group started making their way through the forest toward Temp City.

Frimon was absolutely star-struck and felt fortunate that Jordan was there to carry him as their detour started. As far as cat beast digimon went, Leomon was the absolute top as far as Frimon was concerned and here he was talking to everyone so very casually.

"So has there been anything interesting going on in your neck of the woods?" Leigh sighed, jumping down from short drop off. "Over on the Canadian side everything has been pretty quiet lately. It's be nice but the newbie kinda would have found it boring."

Michael shrugged "Hey, I'm more interested in exploring than anything else."

Kudamon chuckled "After we've gone through this sector we can head back to our own and I can show you the waterfall place!"

"Hopefully this won't take us too far away from the portal..." Jordan frowned some "I'm expected back home at, uh, home pretty soon... in Earth time."

That made Melody pause. She weighed a couple of options in her head, and then gave an almost inaudible sigh.

"You guys go on ahead," she said. "I'll catch up. I may as well take Jordan to the portal, so he can get home." After that, though, she would definitely catch up to them in Temp City. She really wanted to see it.

Ben blinked.

"What about me?" he asked.

"You can go with them if you want," Melody said. "Just stick with the group, that's all. I won't drag you with me if you want to keep exploring." Ben hesitated a moment, and then nodded.

"Alright," he said. Melody turned to Jordan.

"You want to go to Temp City, or you want me to take you to the portal?" she asked. "Up to you."

Jordan cleared his throat and looked sheepishly back at the group "To the portal. I'm sorry about causing you trouble but I was suppose to just get something really quickly from the store and head back home. My mom worries a lot... even if she doesn't need to and I'd rather her not ask me a million questions if I'm late getting back."

"Didn't they explain to you that time moves differently here?" Michael said, trying to be helpful but Jordan indicated they had with a nod and Michael shrugged to Kudamon.

"At my last school my friends called her a helicopter mom. She absolute has to have me checking in all the time. It's pretty annoying but she does it because she's just... a nervous person, I guess."

Frimon made a face and peered up at Jordan from the corner of his eye "I guess she'd really freak out if she saw me then, huh?"

"Probably." Jordan mumbled and made a similarly screwed face.

"Alright, how about you give us your phone number then. We'll hang out in the real world if we can swing it and then you can tell her you're hanging out with friends while you're really coming here... to... hang out with us. Your friends." Casey offered while poking Dorimon in the side for making a huffing noise at the term 'friend'.

"You know that isn't a bad idea..." Leigh said softly and looked over at Brent and nodded toward Michael "Think we'll have to fight much to get this one's number out of him?" She couldn't keep from smirking midway through the thought and rightly so. Michael was already digging into his pocket to get out his phone to swap numbers with his new companions- American and Canadian alike. He started with turning toward Ben and rattling off several digits expectantly.

Ben blinked and fumbled his phone out of his pocket. He typed the number in quickly, and then worked on actually getting it into his contacts. Melody just adjusted her bag on her shoulders and shifted Moonmon in her arms.

"Come on, then," she said. "I'll take you to the portal. We'll get you back home soon enough." She gave him a bit of a grin, even though it was slightly forced. She didn't particularly want to take the detour, but Jordan said he had to get home, and she believed him. "Let's get moving, the portal should be there by this evening. We're almost to the cliffs, anyways." She turned to Casey. "I'll email you when I get back, let me know where you are then, alright?"

"Sure thing, Mel." Casey nodded and looked toward Leomon "We'll even leave you a little trail to follow. I doubt you'll be behind us for long." Dorimon made a face and shifted. She would definitely liked to have already started moving, but she supposed farewells were in order. After all, Moonmon and Melody were acceptable and them parting ways with her and Casey meant she'd be left basically alone with a lot of lame strangers.

Jordan nodded at the others and shifted toward Melody before they started walking toward the portal location. He was quiet for a few paces before quietly apologizing for the inconvenience "You all seem nice and all but... I just..." He wrinkled his face up a bit, guessing she already knew that but it still didn't make him feel any less like a burden.

"I'll be waiting for you when you get back." Frimon blurted out. "Uh- unless you want me along with you, Melody?"

"So let's get going, huh?" Michael chimed in as the two other digidestined wandered off. "Temp City then a floating city... that should be pretty neat. I wish I remembered to bring a camer-Oh! I forgot to get your number, Brent."

Kudamon bounced along beside Leomon who was growing increasingly serious as they made their way toward Temp City. "You don't think there'll be a place to buy a camera in Temp City, will there, Mr. Leomon, sir?" The long white digimon bounded around toward the other side of Leomon, still brimming with energy. "What does Temp City look like?"

Leomon wordlessly shook his head and left the matter at that.

Melody waved a hand.

"Don't worry about it," she said to Jordan. "I don't mind taking you back. It'll be nice to walk around on my own, for a while, it's been a long time since I've done that." She looked down at Frimon. "And you don't have to come with me if you don't want to. You can hang around the landing point and wait for Jordan, I know a lot of newly-bonded digimon will do that. Just find a good spot to settle in and hide for a while."

Brent rolled his eyes and gave Michael his number.

"Our digivices are connected, you know," he pointed out. "Because we're from the same region. We can send little messages back and forth with them as long as we're in range of a wireless network."

"Do ours do that?" Ben whispered to Casey, having been listening to the Canadians. "Because that seems like it would be useful."

Coronamon was walking close to Leomon, too, but he noticed the beast-man digimon's expression getting more and more somber.

"Is something the matter?" he asked cautiously.

Frimon fidgeted in Jordan's arms. He wasn't sure how long Jordan would be and of course Melody and Moonmon would be off doing much more exciting things than sitting there and waiting... but he'd be waiting for Jordan. And what if Jordan got back really soon and there was a Kuwagamon or something scary there waiting for him instead? "I'll wait for Jordan... you have a fun time at Temp City and everything." He said finally, sounding a bit envious.

Jordan grimaced some and looked away from Melody, embarrassed despite her reassurance "Can I get your number? That... guy had a good idea with that. I mean we might live near one another and everything and I'd kinda appreciate making sure this isn't some dream, still."


"Wait, seriously? Oh man that's so perfect! I was already kinda running low on minutes and texts. Will we be billed or anything or is it kinda free? I'd guess it'd be free because, I mean, what is the bill gonna say to send in the check or whatever, right? Heh... 'Return to Vendormon' or whatever? Heh... eh... um... Will they work like that here? I kinda guess this whole place has wireless, doesn't it?"

Casey nodded and turned her head toward Ben to reply "Yeah, it's the same system except we're on the American network instead of the Canadian one. Check it out when we're in a wifi zone of Temp City... Well I imagine there'd be wifi zones there with it being a city and all." She smiled lightly and shrugged "if not we can text in the real world on it when you figure out how to get to that window. I'll admit it took me a while to learn how to navigate these things."

Leomon eyed Coronamon a moment then put his gaze back on the path ahead. "Something is off about this place. Usually there is more foot traffic and digimon around but we haven't seen or heard anything."

Melody nodded.

"Sure," she said, digging a pen out of her bag. Taking his hand, she carefully wrote her cell number on his palm. "Here." After a moment, she also wrote her address. "I live there. Anywhere near where you are?" That was important to know, since they would both be getting back to the real world via Melody's initial entrance at the library. "There's a library about four blocks from where I live, that's where we'll be landing on the outside. You'll have to follow me out for your first trip home, but after that, you'll always land in the same place you came from."

"That's awesome," Ben said to Casey. "This place keeps getting better and better. I can see why Mel is always coming here."

"Off?" Coronamon asked. That was worrisome. Even as inexperienced as he was, he knew that there was supposed to be heavier traffic than what Leomon was describing. "Well, that's what digidestined are for, right? They'll fix things."

"Hey," Ben called to his digimon. "Come on, buddy, don't bother him."

"I'm not!" Coronamon replied. Then he hesitated and looked at Leomon. "Am I?"

Jordan read the address a few times over trying to put together a mental map of his neighborhood but the best he could do was come up with a vague familiarity with the street name. "I guess I should pay more attention to streets and not landmarks..." he admitted sheepishly, putting the address in his pocket. "You said you were in a library... maybe I can just do a search for directions there and we can see how far away we are from one another?" He hoped it wouldn't be far. He needed to get to the store again to replenish the supplies he had used his first day in the digital world.

"Yeah, she comes here to hang out with me." Casey said, grinning. She was joking around, but hoped there was enough truth in the statement. Casey figured Melody as her best friend after all. "So are you planning on tagging along on all of our adventures? It's okay if you do. I mean she'll totally tease you mercilessly if so but you can't really beat it with anything in the real world."

Leomon nodded to Coronamon and then looked over at Ben when he called out to the little solar digimon. "It's alright. He was only asking a few questions." With a soft huff he muttered "Probably important questions."

"We can figure it out when we get back," Melody said. "Come on, let's keep going. We need to get back to the cliffs, or else we'll spend a few days chasing the portal around." She stretched a bit and adjusted her bag on her shoulders. "Once we're back on the outside, it'll probably be a good idea for you to put together a travel pack. Change of clothes, some non-perishables, maybe some camping gear, things like that. Most small-group digidestined like us do that, because it's so easy to find yourself here on your own without the others. Or you may want to go it solo on purpose, I do that sometimes. But either way, a travel pack is a good idea."

"I'm totally going to tag along," Ben said, grinning. "You kidding me? This place is amazing. I want to learn everything I can about it, I don't care if Mel makes fun of me for following you guys around." And he meant it: exploring this new world was more than worth the price of listening to his twin.

Coronamon looked at Leomon for a moment.

"Leomon, what's happening?" he asked. "What's going on? You seem like you know something."

Jordan nodded and picked up his pace a bit. "I'll do that. Um... is there a particular time you usually come out here? I don't think I'd do well on my own--"

"But you won't be on your own, Jordan!" Frimon huffed.

"I-I know, but just the two of us... What if we run into something? I just want to play it safe."

Frimon made a face. He was rather bothered by his lack of digivolving since meeting Jordan. He was certain it would be an immediate thing which it hadn't been. With an embarrassed half smile "I promise I'll be more than enough for anything when you get back!" His confidence was forced, but enough for the two of them to feel a bit easier about the possible scenario. "You have fun while you're over there and make sure to pack me something tasty!"

Jordan laughed. Yeah, Frimon was definitely a little cat-like at least.

"Glad to hear it, newbie." Casey smirked and pulled her backpack up on her shoulders a little more.

Dorimon trotted closer to Leomon and Coronamon, trying to overhear what they were talking about a little better but Leomon was being silent for a moment. Finally he turned toward Coronamon and softly murmured "Some places lately there... there are no digimon. In others things are colored oddly... I'm not sure what is causing it."

"Not really, I just kind of take every spare moment I can," Melody replied. "No real set schedule." She considered it for a moment. "I can always text you or something when I'm about to make the jump, if you want. Or you text me if you want to come back, it wouldn't take me too long to join you."

"That... is kinda scary," Coronamon said, frowning. "It doesn't sound right at all." He glanced from Leomon to the humans and back. "Maybe we should ask them. I mean, digidestined always know how to fix things, right? Maybe they know what's going wrong."

Jordan nodded and offered a smile "Yeah, that'd work. How is the signal out here?"

This could work out. Melody was certainly friendly enough and Casey and Ben certainly weren't hard to get along with by any means. The worst he would have to endure is Dorimon or Dodamon or something and, well, gigantic monsters trying to destroy him for all that they were worth-- okay, maybe that wasn't the most comforting thought. Then again... Jordan looked down at Frimon. The little digimon was so eager to show Jordan he could and would protect him no matter the odds. Surely he didn't want for that to happen, but he had to admit despite his peculiarities the cat-ball-thing was starting to grow on him.

"Do your parents check your phone? Should we have like... a code or something?" Jordan laughed awkwardly. His parents were a tad overbearing at times and he didn't want to cause Melody any problems he anticipated for himself.

Leomon nodded and stopped walking "We should ask them now. The sooner they know, the sooner they can start working on the problem." His eyes turned toward Brent, Casey and Leigh who were clearly the senior members of their current party and raised his voice. "Coronamon has brought up a good point and I believe it should be acted upon immediately. You should be aware that there is something strange happening in the Digital world and while I do not know many more details about it the last time something like this occurred it was because Devimon, a very powerful virus type digimon, had taken control of File Island. I do not believe he has come back, but the situation could be just as serious."

Michael squeaked some and looked to his superiors. None of that sounded good to him!

Melody shook her head.

"No, my parents don't check my phone," she said. She grinned. "Not after they realized that Ben and I text each other in code and they couldn't crack it. But it should be fine; how would your parents even know what you're talking about in your texts if we talk about this place? Just tell them it's a new online game or something."

"Is that bad?" Ben asked, looking at the others. "That sounds bad."

"Very bad," Brent confirmed, nodding. Tentamon nodded as well. "Devimon was seriously bad news, he was spreading corrupt data to the point of crashing parts of the world. I think we should take a look and see what's going on, if Leomon thinks that this is comparable to that."

"Yeah... that could work" Jordan said, clearly still considering it. "Maybe we can meet up in the real world when you all get back? Like... have lunch together or something so they don't think I gave my phone number to people I haven't met before."

Leomon turned back toward the road and started back on their path "Keep an eye out for anything you might find strange. I have a feeling that is why there have been new digidestined. The digital world is calling on reinforcements."

"Pardon me but isn't a floating city kind of... strange?" Michael offered and looked between the group and Kudamon who was shaking his little head. "I mean we don't have them in the real world... should we expect bizarre things but not... too bizarre? Like where is the line that bizarre becomes too bizarre?"

Leigh shook her head "Don't sweat it, we'll tell you. You'll figure it out pretty soon, anyways." She rolled her shoulders and picked up speed to catch up to walk with Brent. After a moment she looked over toward Ben and Casey and asked "You don't happen to have any other digidestined in your zone, right?"

"Not that I know of and I'm here with Melody all the time." Casey smiled and nodded at Leomon "Let's get into town and we'll ask you more questions there, alright?"

"Sure, no problem," Melody said, looking at her schedule on her digivice. "If it works for you, I'm free tomorrow afternoon, if you want to meet up for lunch. I can drag my brother along, and see if Casey wants to join us."

"If something is happening that's causing corrupt data, and all of a sudden there are new digidestined..." Brent mused. "I think you're right, Leomon. I think the digital world might be reacting, and sending us in like antibodies, or an antivirus." He glanced at the others. "I definitely think we should look into this. As soon as we get to town, we need to figure out exactly what's going on."

Jordan nodded "That'd work out great, yeah."

Frimon looked over at Lunamon and wondered if she would make similar plans... except maybe for dinner or dessert... something at night. He wanted to get to know the other digimon too but then again between her and Coronamon, planning would be difficult at best.

"Definitely." Leigh agreed and took a deep breath. She had enjoyed her fairly carefree time in the digital world thus far. Sure when she first arrived there were a few minor virus types to get rid of with Brent, but those were anything like what they were talking about. "And we'll be able to rest up and think of some strategies... Who knows. Maybe the digimon in this city will know more about it than we do right now?"

"That is very likely." Leomon added, "But for now it would be best to speak up about any anomolies you see while we are walking. Strange shadows. Colors being off. Anything that could be caused by data corruption of any kind."

Michael's eyes were instantly anywhere but the road. He was determined to put his energy into being helpful at least.

It didn't take them too much longer to get to the cliffs. Taking out her digivice, Melody hit a few buttons and studied the screen briefly.

"Just in time," she commented, hitting the buttons again but keeping the device in hand. "Portal should be here any time now." She looked at Jordan. "There's a button on your digivice, right near the top left. When the portal gets here, let me go first, then point your digivice at it and hit that button. That's what tells your digivice to take you through the portal back to the real world."

Brent nodded.

"Yeah, we'll keep an eye out," he said. They definitely want to take care of the corruption as soon as they could; it would turn into a legitimate virus, otherwise, and spread to corrupt even more.

Coronamon looked a little scared at the thought of data corruption, but nodded as well and went back to walk beside Ben. Ben, to his credit, didn't look any more wary than before, but he did stick a little closer to the rest of the group.

"Will Mel be alright out there on her own?" he asked. "I mean, if something bad is going on..."

Jordan nodded and looked at his digivice for the button she was talking about. A concerned look had only started to grow on his face when suddenly a brilliant, shimmering surface erupted from a thin platform. There was a high pitched but wailing of energy and what sounded almost like a dial tone and just around the waving holographic surface there appeared to be a jumble of characters which were wholly foreign to him. "Uhh..." He hesitated.

"Whoooa..." Frimon said in awe of the sight of the portal before brightening up. "Don't forget about me, Jordan! Have fun and come back soon!" It was clear he would be waving if he had arms to do so.

"Sure thing." Jordan said and turned toward Melody "Which way is up on this th- AH!" He gasped when her feet vanished through the shimmering surface and pulled his arm in toward himself nervously, only squeezing the appropriate button in doing so and was sucked through the portal immediately after Melody fully disappeared from view.

Casey nodded "Melody and I have helped quarantine and correct some data corruption... actually a couple of times before. She'll be fine... especially if she finds it at night so Lunamon can help her out with it. Personally I'd be more worried about how Jordan reacts to it."

From below Casey can a huff from Dorimon "He'll go running for his Momma."

"Like you didn't when you were young, tough stuff." Casey chuckled "Give him time, he'll get there."

Melody set Moonmon down and held her digivice out towards the portal. Almost immediately, she dissolved into a bright cloud of data, and appeared on the other side in the library where she left. She adjusted her bag on her shoulders and slipped her digivice onto her belt again and waited for Jordan.

"Welcome back to the real world," she said, grinning, as he appeared next to her.

Ben nodded, a bit hesitantly. If Casey thought Melody could handle it, he'd believe her. After all, Casey was the one who spent the last year with his sister, right?

"Well, if you're sure she'll be able to catch up to us... How big of a time difference did you say there was between here and there?" He looked at Casey, and then at the Canadians.

A blinding flash of colors, the wailing of electronic noise and then the deafening silence of Melody's neighborhood library hit Jordan like a brick wall. It took Jordan a moment to register exactly all of what he had just experienced before nodding vaguely to Melody, recognizing her chipper welcome. His heart was racing in his chest, but he still managed to force his body to start acting more naturally for his new environment.

"Thanks... So this is your library?" Jordan whispered, awash with wonder. He was fairly sure he hadn't been there before, but the look of the buildings outside the library's windows appeared to be about the same style as his own neighborhood. "Can we check MapQuest or GoogleMaps or something so I can figure out how to get home from here?"

Casey stretched her arms lazily. "Every five minutes over there is like a week here. There's a specific number of hours and minutes but, I mean, it's baaasically a week. Maybe just a bit less than that. I doubt we're going to be going anywhere she can't get to really quickly, though." She smiled.