Two reviews? -_- Drat…Come on, this is semi-interesting…right? If anyone has a better summery, I'd love to hear it!

After this chapter we'll have a little re-cap of what happened before it started, with each of the new kids telling in turn (you know, sort've like what they did in 01/02) So that'll start next chapter, okay? Okay…

Disclaimer: I don't own anything original from Digimon. However, the kids and all the new creatures are mine, so please don't use them.

Before The Beginning…

Episode 2: Teamwork?

Draden groaned a bit, opening his eyes. He sat up, rubbing his temples. "Oh, lord…my head…" he groaned. "What was that…?"

He stopped suddenly, realizing he wasn't sitting on concrete. Below him was lush, green grass, and around him were towering trees that seamed as tall as apartment buildings. Flowers and other plants danced around him, and the sun shone brightly over head.

"Something tells me I'm not in Tokyo anymore…" he muttered under his breath.

Something leapt out of the bushes in front of him. "Draden!" it shouted, excited. "You'reupyou'reupyou'reupyou'reupyou'reup!"

It jumped into the startled kid's hands. Draden let out a cry and threw the thing away from him, scrambling to his feet. "W-Wh-What the…?!"

"Don't do that!" the thing squeaked again in a very high-pitched voice. "I just wanna be friends, Dra-Draden!"

Draden stared at it a moment. Whatever it was, it was small and fuzzy, covered in soft orange fur, with lots of tan stripes in it. It looked sort've like a large blob, maybe about the size of a soccer ball, with big blue eyes and cat-like features. It even had two tiny little cat ears and a long, bushy tail. "What the heck are you?" he finally sputtered out. "And how do you know my name?"

"My name's Pinomon!" the cat-thing laughed, jumping into his hands again. "I think you and I'll get along great together!"

"What's a Pinomon?" Draden asked, turning him over in his hands.

"It's just my name, Draden!" Pinomon giggled, obviously very tickled at something. "I'm a Digimon!"

"Digimon?" Draden wondered, as confused as ever. "What's a…And how did you know my name, anyway?!"

"Uh…I dunno!" Pinomon smiled a big smile. "I guess I'm just smart!"

A voice cut Pinomon off. It was much more human and, to be blunt, female. "Hey." it said suddenly. "Who're you?"

Draden turned. Standing in front of him was a girl, maybe a year younger than him, with a long, auburn brown pony tail and strangely purple eyes. She was dressed in a buttoned-up, long-sleeved, purple collared shirt, black leggings, and plain white tennis shoes.

She had one of the strange creatures…Digimon, Draden guessed they were all called…in her arms as well. This one was also a blob, but it looked more like a white bear's head. It had two little bear ears attached at small purple rings, large purple eyes, a tiny nose and mouth, and a purple stripe around the back of it.

Draden stumbled to his feet. "H-Hey!" he exclaimed. "Did you get stuck here too?"

"Guess so." the girl set the little creature down, then stretched out her hand for an introduction. "My name's Diana. What's yours?"

"Oh…I'm Draden!" he smiled, shaking her hand. He looked down at the small white blob. "And uh…that thing?"

"I'm Cutiamon." the creature said in a voice that was about twice the high C. "Nice to meet you."

The girl looked around. "Are there any other people here?"

"I'm not sure." Draden thought a moment. "There was that girl at the construction site…But I haven't seen anybody around here."

"Construction site?" Diana echoed. "You mean, in Heighten View Terrace?"

"Yeah…" Draden blinked. "Were you there, too?"

Before Diana could answer they heard a huge roar from very close by, followed by a pair of human screams. The two kids glanced wildly at each other, then dove into the bushes with the little Digimon behind them.

~ * ~ * ~

"Help!! Get 'em away from us!"

Draden and Diana slide to a stop. Rushing up through the trees at them were two new kids, racing wildly away from something. One looked about 14, with dark black hair, and the other seamed to be about 12 with a fiery red mane.

Two little blobs were at each of their heels. One was brown with long, floppy ears covered in green tiger stripes with green eyes. The other was covered in long, straight dark red fur, tipped with golden blonde highlights.

Draden grinned, sighing a bit with relief. "Hey guys, relax!" he called. "Those little things aren't gonna hurt you!"

"We know that!" the red-head shouted as they slide to a stop, pointing wildly. "But the big one behind them will!"

The other two looked back. A large, white-and-purple Digimon with a drill-like nose was charging through the trees towards them, roaring wildly. "Uh-oh!" Cutiamon spoke up. "That's Drimojimon! Usually he's a very clam, nice Digimon, but you boys must've gotten him angry!"

"Smooth move, carrot-top!" the black-haired kid growled. "You're the one that got it all mad!"

"It's not like I meant to or anything!" the other exclaimed. "I thought it was a hill or something!"

"Uh, excuse me?" Diana suddenly muttered, her voice pretty even, all things considering. "I hate to interrupt, but shouldn't we be running or something?"

The boys froze in mid-argument, glancing back in fear. The Drimojimon was knocking row after row of trees down in its wake. "She's right, run!" Draden exclaimed, taking to his heels, the others following.

"No way!" Pinomon jumped forward, bounding towards the Drimojimon. "We've gotta fight it!"

"What?!" Draden slide to a stop, jumping back and tackling the creature before he could go further. "You're crazy! No way!"

"Leggo! I gotta! Bubble Blow!" Pinomon suddenly spat out a series of odd pink bubble that hit the Drimojimon and stuck like blobs of chewing gum.

The Drimojimon rubbed it off irritably, then charged forward, shouting in rage. Draden scooped Pinomon up and scrambled into the trees. "What the heck were you thinking?!"

"I just wanted to help…" Pinomon muttered quietly.

"Help?" Draden gasped. "You nearly got us killed!"

He didn't see the others anywhere ahead of him. "I hope those guys are okay…" he thought wildly. "This forest place is way to weird! What's with the monsters…?"

Before he could finish his thought someone grabbed him by the collar and yanked him roughly into a patch of bushes.

Draden hit the rocky ground hard. It took him a spilt second to take in the stone walls around him until someone pushed him flat on the ground. "Shhh…" she whispered, not Diana but some other girl. "Keep quiet."

Draden gulped in the silence. There was the crashing sound of the Drimojimon storming past, then silence. The girl's voice came again. "Okay then. All clear."

Draden looked up. The other kids were there, Diana and the two boys, but there was also a new girl, with pale white-blonde hair and emerald green eyes. She had a small black backpack slung over her shoulder. "Hey…" Draden muttered, standing. "You're the girl from the building!"

"Yeah." she nodded, smiling just a bit. "My name's Akane. And you are?"

"Draden." he nodded, glancing around. There was a new little creature in her arms. It was covered in bright yellow feathers decorated with small, blue spots like a speckled egg and sky blue eyes. She had a small mouth and no nose.

"This little thing's Jinimon." Akane shrugged. "She's been following me around."

"Nice to meet you!" Jinimon piped up.

The red head stood up, brushing himself off. "We haven't introduced ourselves yet, have we?" he asked, nodding to the black-haired boy beside him. "The name's Chris."

"Jett." the other boy muttered, by way of introduction.

"A pleasure, I'm sure." Diana murmured, still sitting cross-legged on the ground. It was obvious she didn't have much interest in meeting any of them at all.

The little red and yellow fur ball that had followed Jett in was sitting by his feet. Jett, for some reason, seamed a bit calmer with it than with the other humans. Actually, they all seamed to have a strange connection with the critters that were following them around.

"I am Mochimon." it purred at he picked it up. "Please to meet you."

"And I'm Natlomon!" the green-and-brown stripped thing laughed, bouncing around excitedly. In one jump it leapt from the floor to the stone wall then latched onto Chris's shoulder, rubbing up into the boy's fiery red hair.

Draden looked down at Pinomon, who was already fully recovered from the attacks. He picked the orange cat-head up and turned it over in his hands, examining it closely. "What are these things, anyway?"

"Didn't I tell you?" Pinomon giggled, ticklish. "We're Digimon!"

"Diggy-what?" Akane asked.

"Digimon!" Jinimon piped up. "It's short for Digital Monster!"

"Digital?" Chris wondered. "What the heck does that mean?"

"I'm not sure…" Diana muttered quietly, putting a hand to her chin in thought.

"I think I've heard my dad talk about it some." Jett shrugged. "His company works with some computer thing in the US…the call it 'apple' or something stupid like that…I guess it's got something to do with computers."

"Computers?" Draden thought a moment. "You mean like the mainframe at Tokyo U?"

"Yeah…" Chris perked up. "I hear they're tryin' to get one of those in every single house!"

The kids all snickered to each other, muttering various disbeliefs. Jett continued to look Mochimon over. "Still, what do computers have to do with these weird little things?"

"I dunno." Draden shrugged.

Akane stood up. "I really don't care!" she exclaimed. "I just wanna know where we are, and why the heck we're here!"

Chris got a strange look in his eyes. "Hey, maybe we got abducted by aliens!" he muttered, looking completely serious. "And now we're stuck on their home planet!"

"Idiot." Diana rolled her eyes. "That's only in B movies."

"But you have to admit…" Akane sighed after a second. "It does seam strangely possible…Where else would you find wild monsters like this?"

The cave they were in suddenly started to shake. The kids stumbled to their feet, looking up fearfully. "We can argue about this later!" Draden exclaimed, "Right now, let's get outta here!"

The others had no arguments and ran like heck out of the cave, the little creatures either following or being carried out. The cave behind them fell inward as they got back into the trees and they heard a much to familiar roar.

"It's Drimojimon again!" Cutiamon yelled.

The giant drill-like nose was pointed right at them, spinning wildly with the monster's roar. The kids tensed their muscles expectantly, ready to run for it, when Pinomon suddenly leapt forward.

"No way we're running this time!" he cried.

"You're right!" Natlomon shouted, jumping after him. Each of the five little blobs struggled free from their human friends and leapt forward with the other two, bearing whatever teeth they had, snarling and growling.

"Oh, not again!" Draden exclaimed.

The Digimon all took in a deep breath of air. With a chorus of "Bubble Blow!" they fired various multi-colored bubbles identical to the pink bubble-gum stuff Pinomon had used earlier, and it had much the same effect, just making the Drimojimon madder. He lashed out with his claws and knocked the little blobs to the ground, then fell back to scrape the bubblegum off his face.

The kids scrambled to each of their new friends, respectively lifting them gently out of the dirt.

"What did you guys think you're doing?!" Chris shouted.

"You could've gotten yourselves killed!" Akane exclaimed.

"I'm sorry…" Pinomon muttered quietly. "We couldn't stop him."

"That's what they're worried about?" Draden asked himself, then whispered to his new friend. "Hey there, don't you worry about that."

The Drimojimon roared, having gotten the goop off and as mad as heck again. "This is touching and all…" Jett scrambled to his feet. "But we really need to be running now!"

The kids scrambled to their feet and ran for it, hauling the little Digimon in their arms. "Jeez, doesn't he ever give up?" Chris panted after fifteen minutes of running. "I'm getting tired!"

"Stop complaining, carrot-top!" Jett shouted. "Would you rather be monster chow?"

"Leave me alone, airplane!" Chris yelled back. "It's not like anyone's trying to…"

"Children!" Akane exclaimed, looking back for a split second. "Can we not fight right now? We're kinda in the middle of something here!!"

"Wall!" Diana suddenly shouted, sliding to a stop.

"What?" Draden asked, right before running head-long into the stone wall that seamed to just appear before them. "Ouch…"

"Well, this isn't good." Akane gulped, looking up the vertical climb. "There's plenty of hand and foot holds, but there's no way we'll get up there before that thing catches up!"

"So now what do we do?!" Chris demand. He looked wildly around. There was nothing but trees for miles around them, and the cliff stretched as far as the eye could see. "We're trapped!"

"No we're not!" Natlomon exclaimed. He and the other Digimon jumped away from their friends. "We can take 'em!"

"Oh jeez, cut it out already!" Draden exclaimed, losing hold of his friend as he slipped away.

"You're no match!" Akane shouted.

"Mochimon, come back!" Jett exclaimed.

"We can't stop them." Diana whispered, watching them charge forward. The others all turned to look at her questioningly. "They'll fight 'til they're dead. There's nothing we can to about it."

"No way!" Draden insisted. "There's got to be some way we can help them!"

As if in response to his cries, there was a loud ringing noise from somewhere on each of the kids. From pockets, belt buckles and backpacks came a beam of golden light, and a separate one hit each of the Digimon, respectively. And then…

Pinomon, Digivolve to…Felinimon! In Pinomon's place was an orange cat, about twice the size of a normal housecat, with terribly sharp claws and a long tail that was probably taller than he was and tipped with sharp spikes. His eyes were large and blue and he crouched down to the ground, ready to pounce.

Cutiamon, Digivolve to…Tiamon! This creature looked like Cutiamon was its head, only now it had two strips and longer, puppy-like ears. It's body looked like a white teddy bear, covered in purple stripes and with rounded paws so she didn't really have hands or feet.

Mochimon, Digivolve to…Moponomon! Moponomon had a head that was shaped much like a husky's or a wolf's, but it was mounted on a two-foot high body that was completely covered in the long, red-with-gold-tips hair. The hands and feet that came from it looked more like paws with dull, dog-like nails. There was a brush-like red tail coming out of the rear, also tipped with the same bright yellow.

Jinimon, Digivolve to…Cyprimon! This Digimon was like a large bird, maybe half a size smaller than Felinimon. She was yellow, with blue speckles like an egg, thing blue legs with powerful, gold claws at the end and a blue beak. Other than that she looked rather like a large raptor.

Natlomon, Digivolve to…Dryadmon! Looked like a small green…animal, that's all you could call it. He stood on two legs and seemingly had brown skin, but was covered with sparse green leaves and vines. His face looked rather like a snake's and was framed with the same curves of vines that looked like hair or a mane.

This miniature army of monsters faced down the Drimojimon, who slid to a stop and roared for a fight. The kids stared in surprise, mouths open in shock.

"W-What happened to them?!" Jett gasped.

"Dang!" Chris exclaimed. "They got huge!"

Felinimon bristled all over, hissing. "Let's get 'em!" he growled. He lashed his tail forward, sending a small blast of gold energy flying like a sling. "Cat's Tail Strike!"

Cutiamon folded her arms in, concentrating all her energy between them. "Playtime Hearts!" she giggled, firing heart-shaped bullets of pink energy.

The two attacks hit at the same time, knocking Drimojimon back to one side. While he was distracted, Dryadmon appeared at its side. "Jungle Vines!" he exclaimed, and the vines on his body wrapped around Drimojimon's foreleg, tying him down tight.

"Razor Wing!" Cyprimon swiped her wing forward. A beam of golden light flew off it, sharpening in midair.

"Fire Claws!" Moponomon's paw became engulfed in fire and he slashed down with it, scraping Drimojimon's hide.

"Wow, he's on fire!" Chris exclaimed.

"Lay off the bad jokes, carrot-top." Jett rolled his eyes in annoyance, but he had to admit that they were doing great.

The Digimon landed in front of the kids, standing in a sort of V formation with Felinimon at the top. "Alright then." he coached. "All together! Cat's Tail Strike!"

"Playtime Hearts!"

"Jungle Vines!"

"Razor Wing!"

"Fire Claws!"

Drimojimon roared in annoyance, falling to his back on the ground. The Digimon grinned with victory, enjoying themselves. The kids stared in amazement, then Draden started laughing. "You did it…" he whispered, then cheered. "You did it! I can't believe you did it!"

The Digimon spun around to meet their partners, greeting them with hugs and mostly getting returned. Draden was on his knees, hugging Felinimon and babbling excitedly. "That was amazing!" he gasped. "So cool!"

"Far out!" Chris cheered, throwing Dryadmon up in the air with a victory yell. "How cool is this?!"

"Did I do good?" Cyprusmon asked, landing on Akane's shoulder.

"You did great." the girl whispered, rubbing her head up against the bird.

Jett looked down at Moponomon, standing next to him. Neither of them was very emotional about this. Diana was down on the ground with Tiamon, but she hadn't said anything much at all.

They were suddenly interrupted by an angry roar. Drimojimon, drill spinning, was charging straight at them! "It's not over yet!" Jett exclaimed, grabbing his friend and jumping out of the way. The others did the same.

To their surprise, Drimojimon did not come after them. Having had enough, he simply bored his way into the cliff, hit a long tunnel and took a sharp left turn, disappearing into the dark.

Chris sat up. "That was close." he sighed gratefully, looking around at the others. "So, I guess we'd better find someplace to camp tonight, huh?"

"Whattya mean, 'we'?" Diana asked curtly, standing and brushing herself off.

"Hey, come on." Draden insisted. "We really should stick together, you know? Our little friends here seam to make a good team."

"Doesn't mean we will." Jett muttered, throwing a sideways glance at Chris. "I'm with the girl, there's no way I'm staying here."

"My name is Diana." she muttered tersely, picking up her bag. "And there's no way I'm sticking around. You guys can go on a safari for all I care, I'm finding a way home."

She started into the tunnel that Drimojimon had made. "You're not going down there are you?!" Akane exclaimed. "What is you run into the drill thing again?"

"He went left, I'll go right." Diana tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. "Less chance of running into anymore weirdoes. For all we know, it's a subway train."

Jett nodded sagely as she vanished to the right, Tiamon running along behind her. "She's got a good point." he muttered, "But I'm going this way. Jungles are much easier to get out of than caves."

"H-Hey, wait!" Draden cried, but he and Moponomon disappeared into the woods.

Chris looked around. "Well…At least the three of us can stick together, right?"

Akane shook her head. "Sorry boys." she muttered, picking up her own bag. "But I really don't work well in teams. See ya around."

With Cyprimon on her shoulder, she left in the opposite direction Jett had. Chris looked in the three directions helplessly, then over at Draden. "You're going too, then, I guess…"

"Nope." Draden looked up the edge of the cliff. "I wanna get up on the top of this thing. Maybe you can see a city of something from up there."

"G-Great!" Chris exclaimed, eager for a little company. "I was planning on that too! And hey, with Dryadmon's vines here, we can scale it in no time, right?"

Draden nodded. Dryadmon and Felinimon grinned at each other. Okay, so the team was having a little problems. But these two could work together, so maybe the others could to…

To be continued…