Pikatwig: Ladies, gentlemen, an all manner of organisms reading this… welcome to the second chapter of our Digimon Adventure retelling. Glad to see you all here.

KKD: I'm curious to see where this whole thing ends up considering all the changes we made right from the get go. As for that opening… uh… ok?

Pikatwig: ...I had no idea how to open the chapter to be honest, that just made sense to me.

Muk: Fair enough. I have trouble with openings for my stories as well.

Pikatwig: Well, at the time we started this, I hadn't uploaded chapter one yet, so I don't know how reception will be to some of the new elements featured in this story. Regardless, we're just going to keep on keeping on.

KKD: We're already in a bit of a Digital mood anyways with what's been going on outside our own digital realm, so why don't we just dive right into this one?

Muk: In the words of Dory, "Just keep swimming!"

Pikatwig: Well, let's go ahead and get started. Disclaimers.

Disclaimers: None of the writers own the rights to anything in this story other than the original characters and concepts within. Digimon belongs to its respective owners including BandaiNamco, Toei Animation, etc.

"I never recalled a time that I thought that my life would be over prior to that point… but I was a little scared that it would happen, to be totally honest…" Tai narrated, "But things ended up working out in the end…"

As the twenty continued to fall towards the water below them, Gomamon hit the water first and saw the others weren't too far behind him.

"Marching Fishes!" he quickly called out, summoning up an entire navy of fish that formed multiple rafts that caught the falling kids and Digimon before they merged into one.

"Phew! That was a close call," Tai sighed with some relief as the fishes moved along the river that they were all along. They all looked up to see that Kuwagamon had started to move a little, "Guys, that thing is starting to wake up!"

"Move faster, fishies!" Gomamon shouted out.

The raft of fishes began to speed up as Kuwagamon stumbled above before tumbling a bit and flying off in the direction opposite of the group.

"...is he just ignoring us?" Matt questioned.

"He doesn't have a reason to rampage anymore with that gear out of his systems," Salamon informed, "I'll explain a bit more once we reach land, but I'll tell you that I don't know everything."

"That's alright. Any information you can give us will be helpful," Ryo assured the puppy.

"This entire predicament just keeps getting stranger," Izzy sighed.

The group reached dry land, the twenty all hopping off and panting as the fishes swam away. Tai, Matt, and Joe all took a moment to check on their younger family members before they each exhaled a sigh of relief that none of them were injured.

"That was so scary…" Meiko whimpered.

"We're all safe, but that was pretty close… bit too close for comfort," Sora noted.

"What in the world was with those fish, anyway?!" Joe demanded to know.

"Oh, that was my doing," Gomamon informed, "Those fish were random fish I can summon via my call of Marching Fishes. They can help with a lot of things, including being a raft in an emergency."

"...thank you so much, Bukamon…" Joe thanked before he noticed something, "Uh… are you still Bukamon or…?"

"I'm Gomamon now."

"Gomamon… got it."

"Do you all get name changes when you change like that?" TK asked Patamon.

"Yep. I went from Tokomon to Patamon," Patamon informed with a beaming smile.

"We all Digivolved," Agumon informed.

"...I heard you shout that out before you all changed like that, but what does that mean…?" Tai asked.

"It would appear to be a form of metamorphosis," Izzy deduced, "Despite the name, they're really just growing into a larger, more mature state that can fight more effectively…"

"Exactly, just like how I went from weak slime Motimon to my current form of Tentomon, buzz," Tentomon explained.

"I was Yokomon before, but now I'm Biyomon," Biyomon told Sora before she noticed something, "Oh, right. Agumon doesn't like birds… um… we're not going to have any problems, are we…?"

Agumon didn't really say anything, yet gave an 'I'm watching you' motion with his claws.

"Before I was Tanemon, but now you can call me Palmon," the plant Digimon told Mimi.

"You knew me as Moonmon before, yet now I'm Lunamon," the little lunar rabbit said to Meiko.

"First I was Tsunomon, then the digivolution turned me into Gabumon," Gabumon informed Matt.

"I went from Hopmon to Monodramon, Ryo," Monodramon smiled.

"As you can tell, Kari, I grew from the cat-like Nyaromon to my current dog-like Salamon form," Salamon explained, "This is my more natural form."

"As for me, I started off with you as Koromon before digivolving into Agumon with your help, Tai," Agumon concluded.

"Uh-huh… does this make you something new, or are you still just Digimon?" Tai checked.

"We're all still Digimon," Agumon informed before he noticed Kari staring at him, "...um… is everything alright?"

"Just… something about you seems really familiar to me…" Kari explained, "I can't really say why… just… something about you rings a bell…"

"You sure it wasn't some weird dream you had, Kari? You've had a lot of dreams with monsters in them, so it's possible he looks like something from your dreams," Tai pointed out.

All Kari did was shrug her shoulders in response to the question, yet she looked at Agumon for a bit longer.

"Alright then…" Agumon shrugged.

"It's rude to stare…" Tai reminded.

Kari eventually exhaled before going over to Salamon and picking her up to cuddle her, "Now then… you said you would tell us about that gear thing?"

"Right. That was a Black Gear, something that makes Digimon lose control and attack everything around them," Salamon explained.

"Why would somebody use those things?" Matt asked.

"We don't know who sends them out or why they send them out. All we know is that they come from the mountain at the top of the island," Salamon informed, pointing to the mountain at the very center of the island with her paw, "It's because they come out of there that we didn't travel beyond the region where we met you all at. We could have been victims of the gears as well…"

"That sounds risky. Maybe we should stay here," Joe suggested, getting looks from everyone else.

"...If we stayed here, Joe, then how will we get back home?" Tai asked.

"I'm all for going home!" Meiko quickly shouted.

"Aww, really?" Kari asked, "But I wanna see how many other Digimon there are. The ones we've seen so far are really cool and I wanna meet more of them!"

"I kind of want to see some other Digimon too," Ryo admitted as he took out a notebook from the bag on his back, "It could be an expedition unlike any in our history before."

"I'm up for that," TK added in.

"I'm not leaving you out of my sight, buddy," Matt told his younger brother.

"But where would we even go?" Joe checked.

"Anywhere but here. Let's start walking and see where we end up," Tai suggested.

The others simply nodded and they began to walk forward.

The group continued forward without saying much of anything, the forest and river seeming to stretch on for miles and miles without end.

"I can walk fine on my own, Kari," Salamon stated, still in Kari's arms.

"Sorry. It's just… you're just too cute! I don't wanna put you down now!" Kari beamed.

"I would get too big for you to carry if I get any stronger, so you may as well get used to not carrying me…" Salamon tried to argue.

"That just gives me more reason to hold on to you as much as I can!" she squealed, hugging Salamon tighter.

"...ok… um... Patamon, can you really fly with those wings?" TK asked Patamon to distract himself a bit.

"Of course," Patamon confirmed, taking off and trying to fly… only to start to lag behind the others.

"Hah, I can fly much better than that," Biyomon beamed… only to lag further behind Patamon.

"Maybe you two should just try and walk," Sora suggested.

Meiko nervously looked at Lunamon for a little bit without saying anything.

"Is there something wrong?" Lunamon asked.

"...you're cute…" Meiko whispered, "So cute… and plush-like…"

"Well, I… thank you, I guess."

A bit further down, Gabumon sniffed the air.

"I can smell the sea from here," he noted, as Gomamon smiled.

"There it is, folks! Whoever's up for swimming, get in the water!" Gomamon cheered.

The others followed forward before Tai stopped and seemed to hear something.

"Something wrong, Tai?" Agumon asked.

"I thought I heard a ringing sound…" Tai informed, looking around a bit

The ringing was a bit soft, but the others could hear it once they stopped moving.

"Why does it sound familiar…?" Matt muttered.

"Wait a minute…" Ryo muttered. He then patted one of his pockets and realized something, "Guys? Do any of you have your phones?"

The other humans in the group then realized that they hadn't actually checked and proceeded to do so, only to realize that none of them had their phones.

"And Matt, you said that ringing sounded familiar?"

"Yeah…"

"What are the chances that it's one of our phones?"

All of the humans then started to make a run for the direction of the sound, eventually coming across a beach, and seeing ten cell phones of various sizes, shapes, and colors laying on the sand.

"Looks like our phones, alright," Izzy figured as Tai rushed to pick up his orange phone, but stopped when he noticed something.

"Why'd it stop ringing, Tai?" Agumon checked.

"I… don't know…" Tai admitted before he looked at the corner, "The heck?! No signal?! It was just ringing!"

The others proceeded to pick up their phones, Matt's being blue with the silhouette of a wolf on the back, Sora's being a hot pink shade that had a few charms hanging off the end of it, Izzy's being purple and having what looked to be some customizations, Mimi's being light green with pink highlights, floral pattern and fake gems on the back, Joe's being a simple grey phone without anything special, TK's gold phone had some feather designs on the back, Kari's was light pink with yellow and blue highlights with an image of a chibi monstrous dino on it, Ryo's was an old school flip-phone that was a crimson color, and finally Meiko's was black with white highlights and had various cute animals on the back of it.

"Do any of you have signals?" Tai asked.

"I don't," Matt stated simply.

"Nope," Sora informed.

"Curious. It's as if wherever we ended up has had a significant effect on our signal strength or is outright jamming the phone's signal…" Izzy muttered.

"I'm just glad the sand didn't get stuck on the casing," Mimi admitted.

"Battery's still strong, but I'm not getting any signal," TK added.

"Hey, Salamon, look at the back of mine isn't it cool?" Kari asked.

"Mine's fine…" Meiko whispered. Tai gave a bit of a confused look since he couldn't hear her, but Meiko just showed her phone to indicate it was fine.

"Mine's still ok. No need to upgrade it yet," Ryo announced.

"...you really need to upgrade that thing, Ryo," Matt bluntly remarked.

"Not cool, Matt. Just let him keep it if he wants," Tai retorted.

Kari looked towards the beach, yet saw nothing that would indicate that anybody was there. She then turned towards the others with a bit of a concerned look, "So… why do you think our phones were here? We landed at a higher area than this."

"You all fell out of the sky, so they must've landed here when you fell," Salamon informed.

"We fell out of the sky?!" Tai shouted.

"Makes sense. I woke up in a tree," Sora stated.

"TK and I were by the water before I ran off to try to find the rest of you," Kari added.

"I ended up in a ditch," Ryo noted.

"...this is really strange," Tai noted.

"So what? If our phones are still working, we MUST be able to get a signal somewhere, so we need to find a good spot and see if we can contact our parents, the counselors, anybody at this point!" Joe shouted.

Tai gave a nod and started to walk around to see if he could get a signal. Matt, Sora, Izzy, Joe, and Ryo all joined him in searching the beach for any kind of signal. Mimi, TK, Kari, and Meiko all ended up sitting down alongside the Digimon as the others continued to search for a signal.

Bouken 02: Roar Out, Champion Level Digimon!

About an hour had passed with no results from the six looking for a signal. Meanwhile, Mimi was keeping an eye on the other three as the others were still trying.

"I'm scared…" Meiko whimpered, curled up into a little ball.

"Don't worry, Mei-chan. We're all here with you," Mimi told her in an assured tone, but Meiko simply looked away from her out of fear. Mimi couldn't help but let out a small sigh before turning her attention to TK and Kari, "How are you two holding up?"

"I'm a little worried, but I have you and Matt with me," TK smiled.

"I'm alright, after all I'm in a world with cool and cute monsters," Kari responded, "What's there not to like?"

"There's no people, there's no safe place to go back to, we nearly got crushed by a giant beetle," Meiko answered.

"...wow, you're a scaredy-cat… and I'm the one with the partner that used to BE a cat!" Kari remarked.

"Be nice," Mimi sighed.

With the others, though, Sora had sat down underneath a tree and took her hat off. Tai noticed this and went over to her side.

"You ok?"

"Tai… we've been at this for an hour now and have had no luck. If there were any signals here, you'd think six people would've been able to find it by now…" Sora told him, then gave off an exhausted sigh, "I want to sit down for a little bit."

Tai nodded in understanding as he took a seat next to her, "I guess we're all pretty tired after the crazy events today."

Matt eventually gave a frustrated exhale and kicked some sand up into the air. Izzy, meanwhile, just sat down and began to type at his laptop to try to figure something out. Ryo ended up sitting down to catch his breath, yet Joe continued to roam around to try to get a signal. Their partners all eventually approached to check up on them.

"Are you okay, Sora?" Biyomon asked.

"Yeah… just a little tired…" Sora explained, wiping some sweat off her forehead, "I miss the snow."

"Yea… I should've seen that coming. You are the 'snowball fighting queen'. But still, I guess we all need a good breather," Tai figured before looking at the others, "Ok, everyone. Let's call it a break for now, we'll move on in thirty minutes."

Kari, meanwhile, had Mimi's hat on and was staying underneath Mimi's shadow to keep cool, "Sorry for worrying you, Mimi-chan."

"Don't worry about it, I know you're not good with the heat," Mimi assured her, "I'm just doing what I can to help you feel good."

Kari just smiled in response before Ryo walked on over to her side, "Hey…"

"Right… you're bad with heat…" Ryo recalled as he quickly took out his survival book and skimmed through it to find the pages about heat-related illnesses just to be safe.

"I could really go for some ice cream at least," Kari sighed.

"What do you think she's talking about?" Palmon whispered to Salamon.

"Probably something from their world…" Salamon figured.

Kari gave a bit of a bored exhale before she turned over to TK and tipped the hat she had on, "Howdy, pardner."

TK couldn't help but snicker a little at her, rather poor, imitation of a southern accent. "Just fine, pardner," he responded with his own poor southern accent. The two of them laughed at their antics, while everyone just smiled at the two youngest members of the group.

"P-Please don't mock me…" Meiko told the two.

"Ok, enough of this, guys. For now, let's make a check of what we've got in our inventory," Tai told the group. Everybody but Joe then walked over to where Mimi, TK, Meiko, and Kari all were.

"Smart thinking, Tai. Anyone have food on them? All I've got other than my phone back is-" Sora began before feeling something and remembering said item, pulling out her Digivice, "Is that Digivice I found when we landed."

"Oh, yea. We all have one of those by now," Tai stated simply.

"Tai and I found out we can use these to scan for information about Digimon," Izzy explained, as he showed off that feature by scanning Agumon.

"That seems kinda helpful," Ryo noted.

"If anyone's got a pink one, I'll trade," Mimi offered.

"They're all the same color, Mimi…" Matt told her. He then proceeded to search his pockets.

"I found some stuff," Sora informed, "Nothing much. Some disinfectant spray, some thread and needles, a few spare AA batteries, and some tape."

"Aside from my smartphone, I have my wireless tablet and laptop complete with connection cables," Izzy informed, pulling out, "Of course, aside from signal issues and my phone looking ok, my tablet and laptop weren't working since we arrived."

"You really need to prioritize what to have on hand…" Tai remarked.

"Oh yeah? What do you have?" Izzy retorted.

"Uh…" Tai exhaled as he searched his pockets, "I have a flashlight and the telescope that Mimi gave me a while back."

Kari then looked over towards the bag that she had with her and searched it a bit, "Not much from me either. Some spare clothes, a few books on monsters, a notebook with pencils, a water bottle, a portable charger for my phone, and an empty ice pack that mom and dad said I had to bring if I wanted to bring my books."

"Nothing on me other than my harmonica," Matt admitted, "No food, at least."

"Heehee! I snuck some food in," TK smiled, opening his backpack to show it was full of various snacks, ranging from chip bags, granola bars, some sweet bread, and some candy.

"Wow, TK-chan, you sure have a lot of goodies," Mimi giggled before she got a bit closer, "You wouldn't mind sharing those with your 'older sister', would you?"

"Of course, Mimi. I'm always willing to share," TK smiled, then he turned to Matt, "You want anything?"

"Uh, no thanks, TK. I'm good for now, but maybe later," Matt tried to shrug off.

"Apart from that… the only other thing I have is my camera," TK informed.

"All I've got is my survival books and notes from studying plants and animals near the campsite," Ryo noted as he showed the items off, but then found something else, "And a notebook and a pencil for note taking."

"Mimi, you've got a large bag there. Maybe you've got other things in there that can be helpful," Sora figured.

"Huh? Oh, well let's see," she muttered, pulling things out of her bag, "Lighter fluid, matches, a compass, a pocket knife, a tent, a radio, a first-aid kit, and some bandages. And I did bring some extra clothes like Kari did… and I brought a harp for some reason… as well as a microphone..."

"Whoa!" the other kids gawked.

"Just how rich and prepared were your folks to send you to camp with all that, Mimi?" Tai gawked.

"I'm honestly not sure. Mama and Papa always want me ready for anything. It was this or nothing if I wanted to bring my bag," Mimi admitted.

"I expected this kind of stuff from Ryo," Matt added.

All Ryo did in response was nervously chuckle.

Matt exhaled, then looked towards the compass, "Wait, why didn't you mention that earlier?!"

"...I forgot?" was all Mimi could muster.

"Leave it to Mimi to have a lot of stuff and forget it if it isn't related to fashion or music," Ryo sighed.

"And… I think the compass is broken…" Mimi added as she watched the needle in the middle spin around rapidly.

"I'll have to look into that later," Izzy figured, picking up the compass.

The group then turned towards Meiko, who meekly hid behind Lunamon.

"We're not trying to scare you. We just wanna know what you brought is all," Mimi told her in a calm tone.

Meiko nervously lowered Lunamon, shivering a bit in nervousness, before she showed the only things she had on her person and her bag were some spare glasses, a spare set of sandals, some sunscreen, a blanket, and some manga.

Ryo just exhaled a little bit before looking to see Joe.

"And meanwhile, Joe's still trying to find a signal around here. Even after we decided to stop trying, he refused to give u~huh?!" Ryo noted, distracting his thoughts before noticing the bag Joe was carrying, "Wh-What?! Joe's got the emergency rations for our group!"

Tai, Sora, and Matt all gasped as they realized that Ryo was right.

"Hey, Joe!" Tai shouted.

"Hold on, I think I might be onto a signal!" Joe smiled, but the signal then disappeared, "Oh, nevermind. What is it?"

"You got the bag with the emergency rations!" Sora pointed out.

"Huh, this? Oh yea, I had to drag it with me because I had to give it to Mimi! Today was HER day to carry it!" Joe informed, "She kept talking to TK and Kari, then I got distracted by Mei, so I couldn't give it to her."

"Whoops. Sorry…" Mimi apologized as Joe walked over with the bag in tow, "Are you sure I have to do it? TK and Kari didn't have to."

"Because it's too heavy for both of them! You know that you have to take your turn. The rest of us have all done it!" Joe explained.

"Joe, you're missing the point!" Tai shouted.

"What point?" Joe inquired.

"YOU HAVE THE FOOD!" Tai and Matt both shouted, the sudden yelling causing Meiko to whimper in fear. The two then turned towards Meiko and back to Joe.

"...I'm not emptying this unless you apologize to her," Joe told the two.

Both Tai and Matt just sighed before facing Meiko, "We're sorry, Meiko."

"I-I-It's ok," Meiko apologized.

"Better. Now then…" Joe replied, emptying the bag to show the rations, "Let's see here… there are ten of us total, and in this sack we're got a total of… uh, let's see… two, four, six, eight-"

"68 meals," Izzy answered.

"Right. So if we divide that up between all of us, then we should have uh…"

"Enough for six days at most."

"Right. Thanks, Izzy."

"Um… there's twenty of us if we include the Digimon…" Kari reminded.

"She's right. We'd only have three days worth," Sora realized.

Joe and Izzy both paled in response at this revelation.

"I mean… I could give up some of mine to make sure they get something to eat," Kari offered, "They finally gave me proof monsters are real, so I'd be willing to do anything to help them out. It's the least I could for them…"

"I'm not allowing that," Tai quickly told his sister, "You need to eat too, so no giving any of your food."

"...what about to my partner?" Kari asked.

"Don't worry," Gabumon assured, "We can hunt and gather our own food if we need to."

"Are you sure…?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, we can, so don't worry about us," Biyomon added.

"Ok. That makes things easier. The rations will be for the humans, and we have enough for at least six days," Joe smiled.

Some of the Digimon roamed around to go in search of food, but Agumon, Monodramon, and Salamon were all nearby their partners.

"Are you sure you want to share?" Agumon asked.

"I'm not going to be able to finish it, so go ahead," Tai told Agumon.

"And you said I couldn't share my food, you go and share it with your buddy," Kari bitterly remarked.

"In my defense, you made it sound like you were planning on not eating period…" Tai explained.

Kari just sighed before she split some of her food with Salamon, the Digimon eating away as Ryo was more focused on writing something down.

"What are you doing?" Tai asked.

"Just trying to make notes about where we've been so we don't end up backtracking," Ryo explained, "It'd be bad if we saw that bug again, even if the gear thing the Digimon knocked out of it is gone. Better to avoid trouble if we can."

"I could've drawn a map."

"Have you seen your drawing, Nii-san? I could draw better than you could before I even knew how to write!"

Ryo couldn't help but chuckle at the siblings before he took a bite of his food, then passed some over to Monodramon, "You helped us out, so I owe you."

The Digimon just smiled as he accepted the portion that was given to him.

Meanwhile, Joe just sighed at the sight before him. He then simply packed away the remaining rations that the others didn't finish, a little annoyed that three of the kids gave food he strictly labeled for humans only to the gathering Digimon.

Underneath the waves, there was a pink Digimon swimming around, alerting Gomamon as he was in the water as well. Gomamon tried to not make any sudden movements so as to not alert the pink Digimon to him being there. The pink Digimon then made a swim over to some coral that was nearby before it chomped down on it to devour the coral. Gomamon gasped in shock, which ended up alerting the pink Digimon.

"We need to move, now!" Gomamon shouted out, surfacing and swimming over to Joe.

"Why? What's going on?" Joe asked only for Gomamon to get sent flying out of the water. Joe managed to catch him, "What happened?!"

"GO AWAY~!" the pink Digimon roared out as it surfaced as well.

"HE happened!" Gomamon shouted as the team all rushed back towards their partners.

Tai held up his Digivice to scan the pink Digimon, "Says it's called Shellmon and they're really territorial. I… think we're on its turf."

"Then let's move! Up the hill quickly!" Joe shouted, only for Shellmon to growl in anger.

"We're going to leave. Why are you upset?!" Kari shouted.

"Those who intrude on my turf need to learn a lesson!" Shellmon exclaimed in anger, "HYDRO BLASTER!"

Shellmon launched a huge torrent of water at the group, who were barely able to move out of the way on time. The Digimon growled a little as they lined up to get ready for an attack.

"Let's get him! Pepper Breath!" Agumon shouted before firing off the attack, which hit Shellmon in the face.

"Blue Blaster!" Gabumon shouted, but his attack didn't get far before it fizzled out, "Huh?"

"Spiral Twister!" Biyomon shouted, but her flames went out before she could even launch it, "Huh?"

"Super Shocker!" Tentomon shouted, but his lightning went away not long after he fired, "Huh?"

"What's going on?" Izzy asked in concern.

"I don't know. It seems that they can't use their power for some reason," Matt concluded.

"Cracking Bite!" Monodramon shouted as he bit into one of Shellmon's arms.

"Boom Bubble, P-..." Patamon shouted, only for nothing to happen.

"PATAMON!" TK gasped in shock as Patamon was knocked away by the large Digimon.

"Sledge Crash!" Salamon responded as she rammed into Shellmon's shell as hard as she could.

"Go Salamon go!" Kari cheered on.

"What's wrong with you guys? I thought you were able to take care of that other big Digimon, why can't you fight this one?" Matt asked.

"I don't have any strength left," Gabumon muttered.

"Maybe they're starting to run out of power like a phone…" Izzy wondered.

"We're just too hungry," Tentomon sighed.

"That's it! Agumon, Monodramon, and Salamon all ate something earlier!" Ryo realized, "Which means…"

"It's up to us!" Monodramon declared.

"Right. Agumon, it's up to the six of us to do something to take care of this big shellfish!" Tai shouted.

"Then someone gimme a diversion!" Agumon responded.

Salamon quickly took up that offer and rammed into Shellmon's shell. She then began to run around Shellmon to distract him, leading the giant Digimon to try and crush her with its hand, only for Salamon to quickly evade it.

"Yeah, you got this, Salamon!" Kari cheered.

Shellmon then growled at her and made a lunge towards her. Salamon managed to rush towards Kari, shoving her out of the way, only to take the force of the impact.

"SALAMON!"

"I'm… ok…" Salamon responded, "Just stay back…"

"Nobody messes with my sister and her friend like that!" Tai shouted as he ran over, grabbing a massive metal pole that was randomly in the ground before slamming it into the big pink Digimon's shell, "Hey! Back off!"

"What he said!" Ryo shouted as he ran up and actually punched Shellmon's shell… only to wince from the pain of the punch, "...why did I think that was a good idea…?"

The pink creature then grabbed the two boys in its arms and pinned them both down.

"Tai/Ryo!" Agumon and Monodramon gasped.

"Leave them alone, you bully!" Kari shouted.

"Why is that girl such a pain?!" Shellmon growled.

"Kari… don't do anything reckless…" Salamon told her, "I don't know if I can keep fighting…"

"But-"

"Just stay back!" Tai shouted at his sister.

Tai screamed in pain as he and Ryo were gripped tighter, Agumon trying to blast Shellmon and Monodramon trying to punch it, but Shellmon was unphased by the attacks. It then managed to slam both Agumon and Monodramon to the ground.

"Agumon!/Monodramon!"

The two Digimon were both struggling to get back up.

"We… can't give up…" Monodramon muttered.

"Not while they're in danger…" Agumon added.

Suddenly, a sharp whistling sound pierced through the area, both Tai's and Ryo's Digivices shaking with energy before they erupted with power that poured right into their partner Digimon as they began to glow and change shape.

(Insert Song: Brave Heart)

"Agumon, Digivolve to~... GREYMON!"

"Monodramon, Digivolve to~... STRIKEDRAMON!"

Agumon stood up as a much taller dinosaur-like beast with sharp teeth, blue stripes all over, and a brown helmet with horns like a triceratops, managing to shove Shellmon off while Tai and Ryo got back to the ground. At the same time, Monodramon turned into a large purple and white dino with orange hair, metallic armor over his head and limbs, red markings on his chest, and green pants.

Kari gave a small gasp as she looked at Greymon as it charged forward.

Years ago, Greymon was seen in a Japanese neighborhood battling a large green parrot, wrestling a bit before piercing its beak to shatter and blasting blue fire which consumed the giant bird. Tai was standing defensively in front of his sister as Greymon did battle…

"It's you…" Kari whispered, only to be snapped out of her flashback by TK pulling her arm, "Hey!"

"I don't want you to be hurt," TK told her quickly.

Kari simply nodded a little, yet kept her eyes on the battle in front of her.

Greymon roared as he began to push against Shellmon, Strikedramon swiping with his sharp claws against Shellmon's shell. Shellmon attempted to fire off another Hydro Blaster, but Strikedramon effortlessly managed to endure the attack.

"STRIKE CLAW!" Strikedramon roared, managing to pierce through the shell and make it crack a little bit.

"Get… BACK!" Shellmon angrily roared as it charged forward, but Strikedramon managed to jump over the attack while Greymon managed to grab Shellmon.

"Not this time," Greymon growled as he managed to pick Shellmon up and tossed him into the air. Shellmon attempted to get into an attack position as it began to come back down, yet was too off balance from the attack Strikedramon caused, "Now go back into the ocean! NOVA BLAST!"

Greymon roared as he sent a massive fireball that rocketed Shellmon away from the area and sent it crashing back into the far ocean.

"Did… Agumon and Monodramon Digivolve again?" Matt muttered.

"Indeed. Agumon turned into Greymon and Monodramon turned into Strikedramon. It says they're both Champion level Digimon now…" Izzy informed as he had his Digivice scan the two.

"Whoa…" Tai gawked.

(End Insert Song)

Kari then took a step forward and blew into her whistle a little. Greymon looked towards her with a bit of a confused look before he gasped a little.

Greymon was on the ground, near unconsciousness, when he heard a sharp whistling sound. A much younger Kari coughed, trying to blow the whistle and wake up Greymon, but ended up running out of breath. Tai then took the whistle and blew into it as loudly and as sharply as he could before blowing it loudly for what felt like a good long minute, and when he took a breath, it took a few seconds, but Greymon awoke and was ready for another battle.

Greymon and Strikedramon then turned back into Agumon and Monodramon, both drained as they laid on the ground and were then approached by the others.

"...Kari… that whistle…" Agumon said, approaching her, "I remember somebody blowing me a whistle in a battle against another Digimon."

"And I remember an orange dinosaur fighting for me and Tai a long time ago…" Kari admitted, "...wait… are you…?"

"The same…?"

"Kari? Agumon? What're you guys talking about?" Tai checked, looking rather confused.

"Do you remember Hikarigaoka and how there was this large attack on it?" Kari asked.

Tai thought for a moment, looking between his sister and Agumon before gasping as if he recalled something.

"You don't remember?" Kari asked.

"...only a little, but… this whole thing feels very familiar. I vaguely remember you talking with some kind of throw pillow that had eyes and then us being outside and blowing your whistle…" Tai admitted.

"It is you two!" Agumon gasped before he hugged them, making them fall to the ground, "I never thought I'd see you ever again!"

"Agumon~!" Kari giggled, hugging the orange dino while Tai just stared a little in shock.

"...am I the only one lost here or…?" Ryo began to ask the others.

"I do remember being neighbors with Tai and Kari back in Hikarigaoka back when we were a lot younger and there being a gaping hole in the wall of their apartment before we all moved out, but…" Sora stated, "I think I remember seeing something the night before."

"Yea. TK and I were together and we heard the noise from across the street," Matt realized.

"I remember that's where I met Kari, but I really don't remember much else…" TK admitted.

"I was in the middle of a phone call trying to explain what was going on to my folks about why I was still awake at the time… then the battle caused the power to go out mid-call," Joe added.

"Um… I remember having woken up because of all the noise…" Meiko informed, this time being loud enough for everyone to hear.

"My parents and I were visiting family that day," Ryo stated, "I was up reading when I heard something outside."

"I was trying to decide on what movie I wanted to watch when I had friends over the next day and then I got to witness something that was more life-like than a movie…" Mimi explained.

"I had seen… something that I don't want to talk about and went outside to get some air…" Izzy added.

The group exchanged looks between each other, all stunned that this memory they thought was unrelated had come back and they were all connected to each-other.

"So… in other words… I know what the actual cause of Kari's monster obsession is…" Tai realized, now glaring at Agumon, "She said it was caused by watching an orange dinosaur and a green bird fight each-other and we always thought it was a movie."

Agumon then gulped a little, "...am I in trouble?"

All Tai did was sigh and give Agumon a very light bonk on the head, just light enough to not actually hurt him, yet still a bonk on the head regardless, "But I can't be too angry at you. You have saved my life at least three times now. Thanks for everything you did, little guy. I guess I owe you more than I thought."

Agumon just smiled shyly while rubbing his head.

"You two did amazing," Ryo added, "You really saved our hides back there."

"No need to thank us, Ryo. We were just doing what came naturally to us," Monodramon told him.

"Though, I have to ask, why didn't you stay like that?" Tai asked out of curiosity.

"It's an energy thing. I can't just stay that way after using all of my energy like that," Agumon explained.

Tai simply nodded in response in understanding.

"Hey, Agumon? Thanks," Kari smiled before she hugged him.

"For what?"

"Just… thanks…" Kari told him.

"Ok, now that all this memory recall is over with, what do we even do now?" Joe asked the group.

"I guess we keep going and hope that thing doesn't find us," Matt guessed. He then walked over to Joe, took a ration out of the bag, and handed it to Gabumon, "If you guys can't fight without getting some food, then we should give you some food to make sure we all stay safe."

"No time to argue about that, Joe. We need to make sure everyone's fed and ready to do anything," Sora countered Joe before he could even say anything. Joe silently conceded and allowed everyone to take something out of the bag and hand it to a Digimon.

"Hey, Agumon? You're a lot smaller than I remember you being…" Kari informed, "Why is that?"

"I don't know…" Agumon shrugged.

"Oh well…" Kari responded before she handed him some food, "Eat up."

Agumon simply accepted the food before Kari turned to Salamon and handed her food as well.

"You still did an amazing job, Salamon," Kari assured, "Sorry you couldn't help as much, but you were still awesome."

"...It's fine. I just needed to ensure you were safe."

Kari then gave Salamon a kiss to her forehead, leaving the pup to just smile before she ate.

Meanwhile, Tai just exhaled a little and thought about the fact that he had met Agumon in the past, yet didn't remember it whatsoever.

"You ok?" Sora asked.

"Yeah. Just… bit surprised that I didn't remember what happened, yet my little sister did…" Tai admitted.

"...Well… a lot of people didn't want to believe it was real…" Sora figured, "I'll admit that I didn't remember because my parents convinced me it was a dream."

"Same," Tai told her, "I just accepted it was a crazy fever dream from eating chocolate before bed."

Sora simply gave a nod before she watched Kari get onto Agumon's back and ride him like a horse.

"You're not angry at Agumon about what he indirectly caused, are you?" Sora couldn't help but inquire, turning her attention back to Tai.

"Nah. He saved my life at least three times now. That more than outweighed the bad," Tai explained, "Though, if my parents ever found out about this world, I think Agumon would be in a lot of trouble…"

The two just chuckled a little before Tai got out his phone and snapped a picture of Kari on Agumon's back, the older brother smiling at the scene as the group soon prepared to venture off further into File Island...

Pikatwig: So, yeah, unlike canon, the two Agumons are one in the same here.

Muk: Wait, you mean they weren't the same in canon? I always thought they were.

Pikatwig; Nope. Some movie book in a released version of episode zero said it wasn't the case.

Muk: Wow… this whole time I believed something that was not true.

Pikatwig: And speaking of the movie… I remember that since the movie came out in English during 02's run, I thought the backstory was made up in the middle of Adventure's run rather than being a special aired the week before the first episode.

KKD: First off, it aired the day before Adventure, not a week before. As for the movies, I really enjoyed them, though I prefer the original versions. Episode 0 was a fine prologue with only slight edits for American viewers. Our War Game is great either subbed or dubbed, but the third one… I need to refresh my memory on that one, though I admit the dub on that movie was the worst.

Muk: It's been a while since I saw that movie, but I know I saw it after I saw Tamers. So I was confused when I saw that Terriermon was there.

Pikatwig: In what can be said in the defense of the writing staff, they were forced to combine all three movies. The movie was originally supposed to be Episode 0 and Our War Games, but they were under orders to combine all three into one.

KKD: I still say that was a stupid move.

Pikatwig: Anyway… this time will be the last major episode that'll have a large amount of overlaps with the original. Next chapter will have more divergences from canon.

KKD: I look forward to checking out the next chapter and see how different it will be.

Muk: Same.

Pikatwig: Now then… thoughts on the chapter?

KKD: An epic one to be sure, with an additional digivolution on top of the Episode 0 content revealed much earlier than normal.

Pikatwig: Quick thought… I can't be the only one who finds it odd that the character who is tied at second youngest actually remembers the events of that, yet the kids who are all older than her didn't remember it until they saw collateral damage that made them remember. Like… that's odd, right?

KKD: Yea. That was really weird.

Muk: Yes, yes it is. Especially considering how that was her only exposure to Digimon at the time, while everyone else was in the Digital World for… I don't know weeks? Months? You think they would've had a flashback or something.

Pikatwig: Admittedly, Kari didn't completely remember it, since she knew the name Koromon but couldn't remember where she heard it from.

KKD: Still strange, but… whatever. We got that kinda remedied here.

Pikatwig: And I did have fun with this chapter. I thought about scrapping the phone booths in exchange for cellphones because of the fact the group is from 2018. The only person who I can think of that would use a phone booth would be… somebody who doesn't have a cellphone. Also, I had fun with some of the interactions with the group.

KKD: I could tell. Further developing the characters with Mimi more of an older sister figure this time around, too.

Pikatwig: Speaking of, what do you two think of that idea?

Muk: I like it. I'll be honest, I was not a fan of Mimi for a majority of the original, but having her character developed as an older sister to the youngest members of the group, it honestly makes sense to me. I say it works.

KKD: Ditto. I didn't like Mimi's whining, and I thought she would've improved with TK at least, but we did get used to her then. I think I'll be liking a lot of what we're doing a lot more.

Pikatwig: I'll openly admit that I don't remember how I came up with the idea. I at least think partial inspiration came from a line of Mimi's in the dub of the episode that was retold here where she, jokingly, called herself TK's "big sister" when he showed off the candy.

KKD: That was a joke, but I can see that being a legit thing happening.

Pikatwig: Anyway, Muk, your thoughts on the chapter?

Muk: A very fun chapter to write. Just like you I enjoyed writing the interactions between everyone else. While action packed fights are always fun, it's these interactions that make the characters more likable and fun to write.

Pikatwig: I do remember hearing this statement in a review for Digimon Adventure once. "You come for the giant monsters, but you stay for the characters and how they grow".

Muk: A statement that I 100% agree with.

KKD: Here here. And personally, I feel it's because of that that I think the original Digimon Adventure holds up so well even after 20 years or so.

Pikatwig: I suppose so. I'll admit I can't name my favorite season because it changes so much, but Adventure is still good.

Muk: Yeah.

Pikatwig: Now onto favorite part. Bit of a tie between the scene with Mimi caring to Kari to make sure she didn't get sick from the heat and then the scene where Tai and Kari realize that they met Agumon in the past. Just cute. Also, the part with Kari and TK both poorly mimicking a southern accent was funny.

KKD: Oh my goodness, there's just so much in this chapter I like, I can't pick a single favorite moment.

Muk: Got to agree with KKD here, there's just so many great moments in this chapter that picking one is just impossible for me.

Pikatwig: Alright then. Well, wrap up time. Just Live More.

KKD: *salutes* Jaa ne.

Muk: Sain'ofu.