"A digivice can map out some evolutionary lines, sure," Melody said as they walked. "But there are a lot of kinds of digimon, especially in the in-training and rookie levels, that have more than one digivolution possibility. So sometimes it's hard to predict which way a digimon will go." She gestured to Moonmon. "Like she has one digivolution, which is fine. But things like Koromon? They have upwards of five, and that's just to get into a rookie-level form. Some have more possibilities after that."

"I read, write, game a little," Ben said. "I'm not big on outdoorsy things... Which I guess kind of sucks for me now, right?"

"Don't worry, Ben!" Sunmon said brightly. "I'll look after you!"

Jordan nodded some as if he understood, but he honestly his entire thing was looking more like a mess. At least there was some hope in seeing what Frimon would turn into... maybe. "How do I... scan him? Is it like that Pokemon cartoon?" He tried pushing various nobs and ridges that might have been buttons, but they didn't get him anywhere close to the identification feature he was looking for.

Frimon giggled "Or you could just wait and see what I do! I think that'd be more fun..."

"Yeah, but what if you turn into a zombie...mon or something and try to attack us? That would NOT be fun."

"I wouldn't eat you!" Frimon protested, looking worried that Jordan would say such a thing about him "We're partners!"

The distressed tone did get noticed and Jordan looked down at the golden ball of fur and frill "...I know... it was just a joke." He took a deep breath and looked toward Melody and Moonmon who were now some paces away from the boys. Jordan hurried to catch up with them, making sure Frimon kept beside him "So... since you did most of the fruit picking maybe we should catch the fish... it's fair, right?"

Casey stretched and pushed a branch out of her way as they found their way to the playground again. "It doesn't suck unless you hate it... then it sucks because you're stuck here. What do you write? Poems and stuff? I never really met someone who said they actually write for fun..."

"Digimon only dark-digivolve under duress," Melody commented. "I've heard of it happening. But if you don't force it, everything should be fine." Melody stretched a bit as she stepped out onto the beach. "Frimon, why don't you show Jordan how to fish? There should be good fishing around here."

"No, no poetry here," Ben said. "Some scifi, though." He looked around the playground and headed towards the other end. "The beach is this way, right?"

No more coaxing was needed to get Frimon bounding out across the sand to the water. He stopped short of the surf and jumped up and down impatient for Jordan to join him. "This is going to be good, come on, Jordan! I'm the best at fishing!" The boast wasn't really true, but he felt like he was.

Jordan was by his side in short order and watched as Frimon hopped over onto some half-submerged rocks to do what he did 'best'. "Don't we need fishing rods?"

"I don't!" he chirped, eyes focused on any and every moving shape under the waves.

"Yeah, that way." Casey said, keeping even with Melody's brother and Sunmon, "So you're writing a book? Aren't you young to be writing a book? I mean... that's usually something people in their 30s and 40s do, right? Mid-life crisis stuff... Unless you're planning on becoming a professional author, I guess..."

More and more the sound of the water penetrated into the trees along with the smell of clean ocean water. Casey looked ahead excitedly, knowing that they would have a nice camp out ahead of them.

"Didn't say I was writing a book," Ben pointed out. "Just that I like to write. There's a difference. But yeah, I guess I do want to write professionally. It's fun, you know? Making a world people can escape to." The irony of that statement was not lost on him, and he grinned a bit to himself.

Melody grinned as she watch the two new partners at the edge of the water. Her grin faded a bit when she saw a huge shape in the water. All of the little fish darted away as a big shell rose slowly up out of the water. Melody tensed, one hand going into her pocket for her digivice, as a Shellmon came out of the water, growling.

"Jordan! Frimon! Away from the water!" she called as she and Moonmon rushed forward. Moonmon digivolved quickly into Lunamon as they headed for the shore, and was getting ready to go one more into Lekismon as soon as she was given the go-ahead.

"Get off of my beach," the Shellmon growled at them. He raised one hand to take a swipe at Jordan and Frimon.

Jordan gawked at the large figure emerging from the water. Melody's voice was miles away, but Frimon was not. He threw himself against Jordan's chest which automatically triggered a catching response from the boy and jarred him from the frozen shock of simply seeing such a huge beast. The next moment he was running for Melody and Moonmon and dodging the first swipe.

He wasn't sure if he was screaming... Jordan felt like his was screaming, but he didn't hear any sound. Maybe his voice was scared out of him... was any distance far enough away from the beast? Jordan had noticed a strange figure dart past them, but he wouldn't turn to look until he had reached Melody.

Frimon struggled out of his reach and bounced a few times toward Shellmon before being stopped by Jordan's returned voice. "What do you think you're doing?! Get away from that thing! It tried to kill us!"

"But I gotta protect you... and Lunamon is out there!"

Casey shook her head, she just didn't understand. Maybe he meant he was writing a short story or one of those things they had always crammed into literature textbooks...? Certainly there was some form to the project. Writing for fun wasn't something she had paid much thought to before.

"Maybe someday... you might be able to write about stuff that goes on in the digiworld... I bet it's a goldmine of inspiration. I tried bringing some pastels out here to draw with but Dodomon ate them." Off in the distance there was a thundering sound, it's form obscured by the trees but it smacked of run-ins Melody and Casey previously had elsewhere. "Whoa... Did you hear that?"

Casey released Dodomon and gave her a nod. After a flash it appeared that Dodomon had grown legs and a small tail. "Head to the beach and find them, we'll be right behind you, Dorimon."

"Right!" Dorimon barked back, already leaving a dust trail behind her speedy legs.

"We'd better hurry... Something is going on, and chances are it isn't going to be pretty."

"We've got this, Frimon, look after Jordan," Melody called back. As soon as Jordan and Frimon were clear, Melody let Lunamon digivolve into Lekismon. Now it was one champion-level against another, and Melody was confident as to their chance of winning. Lekismon jumped up high in the air, up above Shellmon's head, and came down with a crash and an echoing "Moon Night Kick!" It knocked Shellmon back some, but not a lot. Shellmon replied with a gurgled "Hydro Pressure!" and a strong jet of water. Luckily, Lekismon was small and agile enough to dodge it.

"What's going on?" Ben asked as he and Sunmon followed Casey. He didn't bother asking about how Dodomon suddenly had legs and a voice, it didn't seem quite as important.

"Sounds like there's a bit of trouble," Sunmon said. When they cleared the trees, Ben stopped and blinked.

"What exactly am I seeing?" he asked. "Where'd the ninja rabbit come from?"

"Oh, that's Lekismon," Sunmon said helpfully. "Lekismon is Moonmon's champion form. And the big ugly thing is a Shellmon. They're not very bright, but they have a really mean temper."

Frimon hesitated and watched from where he was, impressed with how strong Lekismon's attack was... and Shellmon's. He wouldn't have stood a chance against him, no matter how badly he wanted to protect his new friends. He looked back at Jordan who was slightly further back than Melody and doing his best not to grab her shoulders and pull her further away from the madness. He was terrified and Frimon was suppose to be there making sure he knew it would be alright.

"Shellmon... Come on, let's get over to Melody and Jordan." Casey ordered and lead the charge.

A blue streak blasted its way to them, joining the gang as the group converged on one another "Dorimon, do you think you have it in you to digivolve again?"

"I don't think so... not yet." Dorimon grumbled, frustrated at her own limitations. "Lekismon looks like she can handle it, though... and if she needs a little help we're all three still here and ready."

Lekismon wasn't having too much trouble, although she was being careful not to let anything near her partner. Another Moon Night Kick and a Tear Arrow, and the Shellmon seemed to back down, right up until it turned and tried to take a swipe at Casey and Ben. Clearly, there were entirely too many humans and digimon on Shellmon's beach, and they needed to be taken care of.

"Ben!" Sunmon shouted, trying to get his partner out of the way. Ben was frozen, though, and Sunmon just didn't have enough weight to throw around to get the young man to move. Sunmon got more desperate, and suddenly, Sunmon became Coronamon. Coronamon tackled Ben out of the way just in time, knocking him to the sand.

Jordan and Frimon gasped as sand went flying into the air, enveloping the area where the others had been not a second ago.

Casey had thrown herself toward the trees, avoiding the pounding the ground received from Shellmon's mighty blow. She was only rattled, but the call was far too close for Dorimon to stand for such an intolerable act. Right away the tiny blue creature raced toward the behemoth, spitting out her Metal Drop attack like BBs. She could do such much more if only she could digivolve again, but it wouldn't hold for long if she tried to do it now.

"Dorimon, you're too little! Stay back with us!"

The order was delayed for another pass at Shellmon before Dorimon turned to return to Casey.

Jordan gawked at the chaos on the beach and then at the giant shelled creature who seemed to think his attack on the humans was a successful one and was pulling himself further up the beach. The boy grabbed hold of Melody's shoulder, looking for her attention but more so her support "Are you sure we sh-shouldn't... get to the forest?!"

Frimon furrowed his little brow and watched Coronamon and Ben. They were new as well and in a way he was a little jealous that he got to digivolve to his rookie form and protect his partner in this attack while Jordan and Frimon stayed on the sidelines. But then again... they were both nearly crushed by Shellmon.

"Lekismon can handle this," Melody replied, although she did jump back a bit when the fighting got a bit close. "Shellmon is big, but only a champion-level digimon, so Lekismon should be able to take care of things."

"I'll go get her!" Coronamon volunteered, going after Dorimon. Now that the immediate danger was past and Ben was safe, Coronamon felt like he could help out more. So he followed Dorimon, trying to catch her to bring her back to Casey.

Melody saw the two digimon and was instantly on alert.

"Lekismon!" she called. "Come on, finish this up!"

"On it!" Lekismon called back. The digimon jumped up above Shellmon's head again and raised her paws. "Moon Night Bomb!" A ball of darkness formed, and she threw it at Shellmon. Shellmon bellowed, which turned into more of a grumble, and it retreated into its shell. A moment later, muffled snores started coming from inside the shell.

With a sigh, Lekismon landed again and, in a brief flash of light, de-digivolved back into Lunamon.

Jordan kept very still for several seconds after the snoring started. He was struggling with what he was seeing- it was just impossible. First there was a new world, monsters and now what appeared to be magic? There was no way, simply no way this could be real. Frimon was sitting on the sand in front of him, heaving a sigh of relief that the danger was now over and they could get back to fishing... if they dared. He looked back to see what Jordan wanted to do but put it out of his mind observing how upset the boy was.

"It's okay, Jordan... No one is hurt. Shellmon is just really grumpy. We can fish elsewhere and he won't bother us." He offered gently, his enthusiasm traded for a caring tone. "Besides your two friends are back from finding a place to camp for the night and they came out of the forest. You won't have to worry about Shellmon at all anymore."

"But..." How could he say what he was thinking? He was terrified, but he was also so certain he had to be dreaming and he knew there was no reason to fear dreams. Instead he just shook his head "Let me just get my thinks from where I camped last night and... and we'll relocate if people want to."

Casey sat up and shook sand out of her hair. "Dorimon, that was very brave of you but you didn't need to do that. Lekismon had it covered."

"That old Shellmon couldn't have caught up with me." She boasted, eyes half closed and bored looking as Coronamon approached. Immediately her demeanor changed to a rather aggressive one and she bristled "Don't even think about touching me!" Dorimon growled. She wasn't about to be corralled by anyone, not now that she had legs to run.

"Be nice." came the girls commanding but benevolent voice and Dorimon huffed at him.

Melody checked Lunamon over when the digimon came back.

"You're sure you're fine?" she asked. Lunamon nodded. "And you don't have to go back down to in-training? You're okay at rookie-level for now?" Lunamon nodded again.

"I'm fine, Melody, promise," the digimon said.

Coronamon looked at Dorimon for a moment before backing off. He wasn't stupid. His expression brightened and he went back over to his digidestined.

"Ben!" he said. "Ben, look, I managed to digivolve!"

"I can see that," Ben said, bewildered. "When that, uh, thing tried to get us."

"Yup!" Coronamon nodded. "You were in trouble so I got stronger to help you!" He paused. "I'm really hungry now, though, digivolving is hard work. When can we eat?"

Casey smiled at Lunamon "Wonderful to see you in fighting form again, Lunamon. I'm sure we'll be getting food out and ready any second now."

Dorimon huffed at Coronamon and trotted her way over to Casey on her own. For such a small digimon she certainly had an enormous amount of attitude. Normally she'd be a bit jealous of Casey talking to another digimon, but Lunamon... was alright. She would be hard pressed to admit to being friends with her, but was fairly certain Lunamon understood where they stood without it having to be expressed. "I might be able to digivolve as well after another meal."

"No point in rushing it if you don't have to. If anything we'll all fit in the cave a bit better if some of you stayed small." Casey smirked and rustled Dorimon's fur. Dorimon didn't look very approving of the pat, but didn't shy away from it, either.

Jordan, meanwihle, was carefully making his way over to his previous camp to collect the last of his things he had temporarily discarded before his run in with the other digidestined. Everything seemed so quiet after Shellmon's attack. He was certain there would be no further trouble on the beach but at the same time was terrified of anything that may or may not be there.

It didn't take long for them to move everything into the woods. Melody carried her bag with the fruit in it, and Lunamon walked beside her. The digimon seemed a bit drowsy, but she perked up more as the sun started to set. At the same time, Coronamon seemed to droop a bit as it got darker, but he still cheered up a bit at the thought of food.

"So, uh," Ben said as they sat around a small fire, "how long are we stuck here, again?"

"Few days," Melody said nonchalantly, handing a mango to Lunamon. "Not that we don't have tons of time left. A week here is about a minute back home. But we'll take the first portal back, no big deal." She grinned. "I'll just come back later on my own, if you don't want to join me."

Frimon was watching the fire quietly for a while, letting the other digidestined and digimon speak among themselves. He had been silent since the beach, clearly deep in thought."You'll come back, right Jordan? After you go back...?"

Jordan blinked at the furry little creature and tilted his head some. There had been such a change in Frimon's manner since they had met, clearly something was troubling him and if this was it... But then again this place was full of danger and staying here meant subjecting himself to them. "I don't know." He hoped the words didn't come off completely cold... at least it wasn't a 'no', but it didn't seem to comfort Frimon any. Instead the digimon lowered his eyes and went back to watching the fire.

Inwardly he was chastising himself for being so overenthusiastic... had he scared Jordan? It had to be his fault somehow. All of the other digidestined seemed to have liked their digimon.

Jordan eyed his grocery bag and pulled out a packet from his purchases "Does anyone want jerky since we didn't get any fish?"

"That sounds good, just a little for me thanks." Casey said, holding out her hand. Dorimon's eyes snapped to Jordan while he handed the girl a portion of jerky before nudging Casey's leg with her head "If you want some you need to ask for it."

Dorimon frowned and studied him again but decided against it in the end.

Nibbling on her small piece of jerky, Casey leaned back and stretched out her arms "So we were thinking about going to a floating city when you two showed up... does that sound interesting? There could be a lot of cool things to explore there."

Melody saw the exchange between Jordan and Frimon. She had never seen a digidestined so opposed to their digimon before, and it didn't sit right with her. A digimon was supposed to be like an extension of yourself, and you couldn't deny yourself.

"Jerky is fine," she said finally even as she pulled out a pocket knife and cut up a mango. She handed Lunamon a mango, as well, and the rookie hummed softly as she bit into it. Absently, she pulled out her digivice and pushed a few buttons, checking how much time had passed in the real world. She knew it hadn't been long, but she still wanted to check.

"What are you doing?"

Melody blinked and looked at her brother.

"Nothing," she said. "Just playing with it."

Ben looked over her shoulder at the screen of her digivice. There were two clocks next to each other, except one wasn't moving.

"What are those?" he asked.

"Time here and time back home," Melody replied. "Back home, we've been gone about seven seconds."

"Seven seconds?" Ben asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I told you a week here is a minute there, and time moves at a constant rate, and we've been here about a day. So seven or so seconds."

"Seven... seconds?" Jordan uttered incredulously, passing Melody the jerky. "You're kidding..."

Casey eyed her digivice and shook her head "Mm, actually that's about right. You can see why Melody and I are like old friends when we've only know one another for about a year."

"You've been coming back here for a year? Why?"

"Because we love our digimon... and the digital world is in need of protecting. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty intimidating at first but you get used to it." She grinned at Ben and Jordan after a moment "Besides, you two get it easy... you've got some experts to guide you. We started out with nobody until some kids from another region showed up."

A little bit more perspective took away a bit of the hardness of Jordan's expression, but he still looked bogged down with questions. "Have you have to fight a lot of different digimon then? Like that Shellmon? I mean... is that common?"

Frimon frowned a bit harder for a moment. Perhaps the problem Jordan had with him wasn't personality... he must have viewed him as weak. How could little Frimon defend him against something so large as Shellmon?. He wrapped his long tail around himself and closed his eyes. It was best to leave these thoughts before they started getting ready to sleep or he might have bad dreams and embarrass Jordan further. At some point he would digivolve and Jordan would know he would be safe in Frimon's care.

"I've got an idea," Casey chimed in "Ben, since your write stories you have to come up with them, right? Could you tell us one? Like... you can shorten it down if you want." She smirked at Melody "Unless Melody has heard them all that is... or if people have any objections?"

"Fights with champion-level and higher digimon aren't too common," Melody replied. "Shellmon, as a species, just pick fights because they're bad-tempered. Some digimon just like competition, others prefer not to fight, it's really something that differs by species and individuals."

"And actually, I had a few more questions, if you don't mind?" Ben asked, deftly skirting around the suggestion for storytelling. "How do they even pick... what did you call us... digi--digidestined?"

"That's kind of a hard question," Melody said. "You have to come into contact somehow with the digital world when you're little."

Ben blinked at her.

"So how did it get us?" he asked. Melody grinned a bit.

"Remember that neighbor we had, who lived next door to us when we were like six?" she asked. Ben nodded.

"Yeah, he babysat us a lot," he replied. Melody nodded.

"He was a digidestined. Looking back, I remember he had a Labramon around." Taking out her digivice, she pushed a few buttons until a projection of a Labramon appeared. Ben jumped and swore a bit when he recognized it.

"That was his dog!" he yelped.

"That was his digimon partner," Melody corrected.

"Are there places that have digimon with better attitudes, then? Wouldn't it be wisest to go there?" Jordan asked before looking over at Ben for his question. He was curious about the answer to his question as well.

Casey half smiled "What a nice idea... though I think we might need to work on a few things before I could take you to our world, Dorimon."

"If you had a large yard I could run around in that could be alright."

"Unfortunately I'm in a town home with my mom. The yard is absolutely tiny." Casey admitted and pet Dorimon gently "I don't think I could get away with taking you there if you're grown past your rookie stage."

Dorimon smirked some "You mean people wouldn't want to see a dragon?"

Casey laughed "A fuzzy purple dragon in the middle of a city? Yeah, I don't think it'll go over too well, Dorimon."

Jordan took a deep breath and tried his best to remember anything this flavor of peculiar from his childhood. There was another ball of golden hair, he remembered that but there was no frill and the tail was so different... Where had he seen it before? A concentrated expression masked his face for a few minutes until he pin pointed the memory. "It must have been when I was... I guess I had to be seven or eight. My mom volunteered a lot and we would go over to her friend's house when they were planning things out. One of them had a daughter with this... I thought it was a doll or a pillow. I swear I saw it move a few times." He shook his head, letting the memory go "It kind of looked like Frimon does, but it's tail was puffier and there was no frill."

Ben nodded his agreement to the question, but Melody shrugged.

"We're pretty much okay no matter where we want to go," she said. "We have our digimon with us, and both Lunamon and Dorimon have enough experience to digivolve high enough to defend us if we need it. And Frimon and Coronamon will get there soon enough. It's no big deal. That's why we were planning to go explore the floating city. It should be fun."

"So... digimon can move into the real world?" Ben asked after a moment. Melody nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "It takes a bit of finagling, but it can be done. Usually it's with experienced digimon who have enough data to translate into mass. Like I could probably take Lunamon, though it would be easier if she was Moonmon instead, since Moonmon is smaller, but once she's there, she could digivolve like normal."

She paused when Jordan mentioned the other digimon.

"Here," she said, "take out your digivice, I'll show you how to look up digimon species."

Jordan took out his digivice and watched as Melody manipulated the buttons on her own to get to the correct menu and began searching through the database. "Thanks..."

"I'll digivolve soon, Jordan, I promise." Frimon mumbled, looking over at the group from the corner of his eye.

Casey made a bit of a face and pat the ground between her and Jordan. "Of course you will but don't try to rush it if you're not ready for it, little guy. It doesn't help digivolving if you can't hold your next form for long." She offered a bit of a comforting smile when the digimon bounced his way over. "Just be patient for that and for Jordan to get a hang of this place. It's a huge change for both him and Ben."

Frimon nodded and looked over at Jordan who was just about to put his hand on Frimon's head. Embarrassed he pulled his hand back and cleared his throat. "So we're planning on getting up early tomorrow and walking? Do we have plans for a breakfast? And is, uh... Is the path we're going paved or will we be going through some mud?"

"Is that important?" Casey asked quizically.

Jordan frowned at his digivice as holograms of various shapes and sizes blinked in and out of existence before him "Well yeah... I only have one pair of shoes here and I'd prefer not to get them dirty."

"It's about a day and a half back to where we were when you landed," Melody said. "We came through the mountains, and part of that is the cloud forest. It's not bad, just a bit wet in the clouds, but it is kind of a hike." She grinned. "It's really not bad, though. We've slogged through much worse before."

Ben just looked at his sister, kind of speechless. They were such city kids, he had no idea she even could hike, let alone seemed to enjoy it.

"I figure we can be up and on our way by, what, a couple hours after sunrise?" Melody continued, glancing at Casey. "Something like that?"

"Sounds good to me, Mel." Casey nodded, stretching her arms out in front of her before standing up. "I'll see you fine folks bright and early tomorrow morning!"

The early mornings didn't bother Jordan but the promise of wet, sloggy, sloshy mud tomorrow did. These were nice, in-town shoes to match the rest of his attire. Before going to the grocery store he had been to a job interview and while the place he had applied for was cutting edge enough not to require a full suit, he was fairly certain his business casual attire would not be fit for mountain climbing. Then again, what option did he have? "Are... you just going to sleep... on the ground? Don't you have sleeping bags or yoga mats...?"

"We do, I'm not sure what you're going to do."

Frimon sat up some, seeing an in "I can go find you some grass and leafs so you can have a comfy bed, Jordan!"

"No, that's alright." He was rather put out.

Dodomon meanwhile positioned herself near Melody's side in hopes for a pat before going off to sleep beside Casey for the night. She was disturbed when Jordan sat up quickly and pointed at a hologram of Relemon that his digivice was projecting. "That's it! That's what the girl had! Rel-ee-mon... Huh..."

"I'm surprised you actually saw it in it's normal form. They can transform into anything smaller than itself." Frimon blinked at the hologram, then smiled up at Jordan, "Maybe she already knew you were going to come here and didn't feel like hiding?"

Melody did indeed indulge Dodomon and give it a couple of ear-scratches before turning her attention back to her bedding. She unzipped her sleeping bag so it was double-wide and laid it out. She paused when Jordan finally found the picture of the digimon he'd seen. "A Relemon? Interesting... Maybe it was just pretending to be a stuffed animal while you were there, I've heard a lot of in-training and baby digimon do that when there are people around." She sat down on her sleeping bag. "Ben, may as well share with me tonight, you don't have much other choice."

Ben blinked. "What?"

"Oh honestly, Ben, it's not like we're strangers or something, you're my brother. My twin, even." Melody shrugged. "If you don't want to, fine, that's on you. Maybe Jordan will want the spot instead."