It was morning, the sun was shining bright and Brock was sitting on the floor reclining on a tree. "Good morning, and welcome to the ultimate challenge. Our heroes have spent their first night in this mysterious island and are ready to continue their adventure. They have just woken up so lets watch.

Haruka is the first one to come out of her tent. Mako came out behind her "*yawn* We better wake up everyone else so we can be on our way."

"I agree. I'll go wake up the guys and you wake up Quina."

"OK."

Haruka went to the guy's tent and opened it. "Wake up!"

The guys became startled and moved around so much the tent collapsed over them. Agumon was the first to peek out. "Yay! It's morning."

Trunks and Tai got up. "Did you have to wake us up so rudely?"

Haruka smiled "Get used to it, or learn to wake up earlier. I'm not going to lose any time waiting for you."

The whole team was awake and they had already packed their stuff. Tai checked the map "Well, if we make steady progress we should reach this small village by noon."

"Well what are we waiting for then? Let's go" Trunks said.

The team was on their way again. The guys decided to tell the others about the two soldiers in the lake.

Tai: "Hey Mako! About the two guys that were on a like. Those guys were soldiers"

Mako: "Really, no wonder they had such good bodies."

Haruka: "Did you talk to them?"

Trunks: "No. They were from the Red Ribbon army."

Mako: "Who?"

Trunks: "An evil army who tried to conquer the world many years ago."

Haruka: "So what? You could have taken them prisoners."

Tai: "And then what? We could have been in trouble with the rest of the army."

Mako: "If they are as bad as you say we'll be in trouble anyway."

Quina: "In my village we have saying. Take prisoners., but invite them to dinner."

Trunks: "I'm sure we can learn about them in the village."

Mysterious voice: "You won't be going to any village.

The whole team stopped flat on their tracks. "Who's there!?" Haruka yelled.

A lot of laughter could be heard around them, out of the bushes came out many soldiers aiming riffles at our heroes. One of them said "You shouldn't be here. This is our territory."

"Tai!" Agumon yelled.

"Wait Agumon, we can't risk it." Tai said.

"If you try anything funny we won't hesitate to kill you all."

The soldiers lead the red team around the woods, after some time walking the scene changed drastically from a forest setting to a desert setting. A military base wasn't far from the forest's limits. A red flag with the letters RR was held up high above the base.

The soldiers stopped at the entrance and one of them went to insert a code on a panel next to the door. The door opened and everybody entered. Once inside they were greeted by their general. He was a tall man with a black beard, Haruka noticed the man was missing his left thumb.

"So you people are the intruders. We received word from a mysterious source that you people had traspased our territory."

"We never saw any signs saying we were in your territory!" Trunks yelled.

All the soldiers laughed. The general said "Everybody knows this is our territory, nobody would be foolish enough to be around here. Or that's what we thought anyway."

"What do you plan to do with us." Haruka asked.

"Well, we usually just kill the intruders right on the spot. But I wanted to see your faces before we killed you."

"You're going to kill us?" Tai ask.

"Yeah, what do we need you alive for?"

Trunks got angry and said "I don't think so." He moved quickly and hit two men in the gut before they could react.

A soldier was about to shoot Trunks but Quina grabbed his gun with his/her tongue and ate it. "Yuck! Taste bad!"

This gave the rest of the team enough time to get ready.

"Jupiter Crystal Power, Make up!"

"Uranus Planet Power, Make up!"

"Agumon digivolves to... Greymon!"

"Jupiter Oak Revolution!" Jupiter spun around quickly shooting dozens of electricity spheres stunning many of the soldiers.

The general ran for shelter yelling. "Everybody aim your weapons at the intruders."

Quina said "I protect! Mighty Guard!" All the team members were protected in an energy shield, even Greymon. The enemy lasers could not hurt them.

"World Shaking!" Haruka's attack hit many soldiers in her path.

"Nova Blast!" Greymon's attack blew away a tower. He had many soldiers run away in fear.

Trunks was kicking butt everywhere, soldiers well falling in dozens.

It didn't take our heroes more than fifteen minutes to clear the whole base, those who weren't laying unconscious on the ground were running for their lives.

Greymon went back to being Agumon but the senshi kept their senshi outfit.

"Yeah!!! We kicked butt!!" Tai said.

"I'm pretty impressed myself, we worked well as a team, even Quina." Trunks said.

"I pretty tough" Quina said.

"You're right, we would have had a tougher time without you."

"Well, we can celebrate later, we need to get out of here." Haruka said.

Everybody left the base and headed back to the forest to hide, just in case reinforcements were on their way. It didn't take long for an army of tanks to arrive at the scene. Our heroes escaped just in time.

Once in the forest the team stopped to catch their breath.

"I hungry!" Quina said.

"We can't stop for long, they might be after us." Mako said.

"Right! We have to keep moving." Haruka said.

"Just let me check the map to see where to go." Tai said "The village should be north from here. Luckily we didn't move too much off track."

The team continued to run for a while, a moment later the started walking, and a moment later the stopped to rest for a while.

Quina: "I still hungry!"

Agumon: "Yeah! Me too! I can't go on like this!"

Trunks: "We'll see what we can do once we arrive at the village. Right now I just need some water."

Mako: "Yeah, me too."

Tai: "Me three."

Haruka: "Is there a source of water around here?"

Tai: "Well, there is a river nearby. Luckily the river goes all the way to the village so we can just follow it from there."

Trunks: "OK., let's get moving."

Quina: "I still hungry."

The team walked for a while more looking for the river, it took them about 20 minutes to get to it. Everyone but Quina got on their knees and started drinking water from their hands. Quina just needed to stretch her tongue a little.

Tai: "Man! This water is good."

Haruka: "This water seems particularly clean."

Mako: "That's nature for you."

Tai: "What's that?"

Everyone looked at the weird creature on the river, it was blue and had a long body. "Quaaaag." It suddenly shot water from it's mouth getting our heroes all wet.

"Damn.. why you do that?" said Tai.

"Maybe he saw how much we wanted water and gave us some. I mean I do feel refreshed." said Trunks.

The creature was already swimming away.

"I think that was a pokemon." Said Mako

"I don't care, let's just keep on moving." Haruka said.

The team kept moving down the river, they had to stand Quina as he/she kept saying "I still hungry!" about every 2 minutes.

They eventually arrived at the village. At the entrance was a sign that said "Welcome to Highthorn." The village was not exactly what the team expected, everything looked pretty fancy, the houses were small but very pretty. There was just one large supermarket which seemed to be the only store in town. Everyone walked around the streets without a care in the world.

Our team was about to go inside when they heard a voice "Stop right there!!" They looked around and saw a police officer heading to them. Who was it? Who else, officer Jenny. "You can't just enter here like that!"

Trunks: "Sorry, you see we are a team participating in a contest."

Jenny: "Oh, you're from the ultimate challenge! Let me check." She turned on her cellular and dialed a number. "OK., I have some guys here who say they are players of the challenge. Well one is has a lot of hair and has a little orange dinosaur with him, another has a really long tongue, huh? You say that's the red team. OK.!" She hung up the phone and said "OK., you can come in. But you have to accompany me to the station, you simply can walk around here looking like that."

Our heroes were dirty after fighting, running, getting wet, etc..

As they walked to the station Trunks spoke with Jenny.

"So what about this town?"

"Oh.. the only people living here are retired wealthy people. Most of the young people around here only spend a few weeks here working at the supermarket or doing some other small jobs, the salary is real good but nobody will keep the same person for more than 2 months."

"Sounds like a good offer."

"Yeah, but it's really hard for anybody to get here. This is kind of a paradise for these people and they just don't let anybody in."

"Ah..."

Tai noticed a fountain where some creatures were swimming, they were of the same type that shot water at them. "Hey! Those are like the one that got us all wet."

Jenny said "Those are Quagsire, they are pokemon. They are loved around here because they keep the water clean and pure."

"Ah, I see." Haruka said.

"Now I have one more question. Are you one of the challenge's representatives?"

"How did figure it out?"

"Well, you did call someone related to the challenge to identify us."

"Very well, I suppose you want to know about your sidequest."

"You know we do."

"Very well, I'll give you the details once we arrive at the station."

The Red team continued their way to the station, Trunks wanted to ask about the red ribbon army but decided to wait a little longer.

Brock "Well the Red team has had their first taste of action, and they appear to work well together. But what about the Red Ribbon army? Will they try to get revenge on our heroes? Does the town of Highthorn have anything to do with them? And what kind of quest will the cute Jenny offer them? Well those questions may be answered some day, but for today we must say good-bye to the Red team. Mina? How is the Blue team doing?"

Mina was in a savanna setting, the blue team could be seen walking behind her. "Well the blue team has finally started their journey and are appearing to be making steady progress. Let's watch"

Mimi: "So here we are. Hiking again."

Palmon: "Gee Mimi, I thought you would have gotten used to it by now."

Beruche: "Palmon, there are just some things a girl never gets used too."

Kari: "This isn't so bad."

Beruche: "Of course not! You're a child, you have energy to spare."

Ranma: "Would you stop complaining!?"

Vivi: "Ranma, Zidinne told me never to shout at a girl."

Ranma: "Bet he never had to deal with girls like them."

Mimi: "Can we take a rest."

Ranma: "No!"

Beruche: "That's it! I'm going to take a rest weather you like it or not. We can't split up you know."

Mimi: "That's right! I'm going to rest too."

Vivi: "Yeah, we have been walking for a couple of hours."

Ranma: "That's it Beruche, I'm fed up! I bet these girls wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't for you. You and I need to have a serious talk if we want this team to succeed."

Beruche: "I want to win as much as you do, but we won't get too far if we push ourselves too hard. You really should try to understand us girls."

All of a sudden it started raining without a warming, luckily Beruche, Mimi and Kari had brought umbrellas. Mimi shared her umbrella with Palmon and Kari shared hers with Gatomon and Vivi. Everybody noticed Ranma had changed.

"Gee Ranma, I only said you needed to understand us. You didn't need to go as far as to becoming one of us." Beruche said. All the girls including their digimon giggled.

"What happened to you Ranma?" Vivi asked.

"It's a curse. And I need to win this if I ever want to get rid of it!"

Beruche said "Gee Ranma, we really started on the wrong foot. Come over here, I'll share my umbrella with you. I'm not as bad as you think."

"Fine." Ranmachan stood next to Beruche "But once it stops raining we'll continue walking."

"All right, I suppose that's good enough. It doesn't seem that it will last long."

Vivi had a suggestion to make. "Why don't we chat for a while? I'm sure we can get along better once we know each other."

Kari: "Yeah, how about you Vivi? Why are you participating in this anyway?"

Vivi: "Well, I wanted to see how far I could go without Zidanne. I'm sorry if I become dead weight for the team."

Beruche: "Don't say that Vivi, I'm sure you can do some great stuff. What about you Kari?"

Kari: "Well I guess I wanted to have more adventures with my friend Gatomon. Also I wanted to show Tai I could do things without his help. To tell you the truth I was really hoping that we didn't end up in the same team."

Gatomon: "I'm glad we can be together again Kari."

Vivi: "That's a nice friendship, I bet it feels nice when you know there's a special someone who'll always be there for you."

Mimi: "Yeah, It is."

Palmon: "Thanks Mimi. See? She's I sweet and nice girl, you just have to give her a chance."

Mimi: "Palmon!"

Beruche: "Your turn Mimi."

Mimi: "It's a little bit the same as with Kari. We don't get too many chances to be with our digimon."

Ranmachan: "I hadn't realize how you get so attached to your digimon. Is it really that important?"

Gatomon: "You could never understand."

Ranmachan: "You could be right. Now it's your turn Beruche."

Beruche: "Well you all probably heard what I said in the interview, my financial situation isn't that great. And I can of missed the adventure, I can also relate with Kari when it comes to showing your siblings that you can accomplish things on your own. I have 3 sisters and I sometimes feel like the other 3 feel they have to take care of me, even though I'm not the youngest."

Vivi: "Is it true you come from the future?"

Beruche: "Yeah, I still miss some things from my time. But overall I'm more happy with my life now than when I was working with the Black Moon family." Beruche's voice started to tremble a bit and her eyes were getting watery. All of a sudden it stopped raining. "Well, we have to be on our way."

Ranmachan: "Are you sure the guardian is at the top of that mountain?" She was pointing at the mountain that could be seen at the distance.

"Pretty sure, they person that told me couldn't be lying."

"OK."

In a way the whole team felt different, Vivi's idea had worked nicely.

Kari, Gatomon and Vivi were last in the line.

"Hey Vivi! I know how you feel, being a little guy I bet many people underestimate you."

"Yeah, I guess some do."

"I get that a lot too, but we understand each other. We know there's a lot more to us than what it seems"

"We'll I don't know, I guess I'm doing this to find out."

"Well I'll help you. We'll show everybody that you can't underestimate people just cause their little. And I like my team because I feel we'll be able to prove that."

"Yeah.."

After walking for another hour or so the blue team saw a ponyta alone.

"What is that?" Ranma said.

"It looks like a pony, but he's on fire. He must be a pokemon." Beruche said.

"Yeah he is. I watch pokemon so I know that's a ponyta." Kari said.

The ponyta saw them a stepped back.

"He looks scared." Mimi said. She tried to slowly get closer to the ponyta. Even though he took some steps back Mimi was getting closer.

"Poneeeee.."

"It said that you shouldn't get closer Mimi" Palmon said.

"You can understand him?"

"Um.. yeah. It's not that hard."

"Guess Digimon and Pokemon are more similar than we thought." Mimi said. She faced the ponyta and said

"We're not going to hurt you."

"Ponee.. ponee.."

"He says he's lost."

"Aw.. we can help you look for your friends."

Ponyta got closer to Mimi and she was able to touch him. "Hey! It doesn't burn at all."

Kari said "That means he likes you."

"We don't have time to look for his friends. We need to get to the guardian" Ranmachan said.

"Oh come on! We'll take him with us, sooner or later we're bound to bump with them." Beruche said.

"Fine!"

"There you go with your attitude again, I thought we had left that behind."

The team was on their way again, Ponyta let everybody take turns riding him. Except Ranmachan who would get burned if she tried.

The team made it to the base of the mountain.

"We're in luck, there seems to be a trail that leads to the top." Vivi said.

"Yeah, let's go." Said Beruche.

The mountain wasn't too high so it didn't take long to reach the top. There was a huge temple built at the very top. The blue team was standing at the entrance of the temple and they knocked on the door.

The person who opened the door happened to be no other than Rei Hino.

"Rei!!!" Beruche said with joy and hugged her.

"It's been a long time. How are you Beruche?"

"Fine! What a surprise to find you here. Wait.. are you the guardian?"

"No, I just take care of things here while the challenge takes place. I can't tell you who the guardian is. But come on in!"

Everyone went in and saw there was a big open area in the middle of the temple, probably where the battle would take place.

Rei smiled at the team and said. "Now you won't be able to challenge the guardian until tomorrow, But you can spend the night here. I can cook for you and you may even take hot showers."

Mimi and Kari shouted "Yay!!"

Ranmachan felt relieved when she heard about the hot shower.

"Tomorrow we'll get our first badge" Beruche said with confidence.

Mina is standing outside the temple. "Well, it looks like the blue team got it's act together. Just in time because they're about to face a tough challenge against the first guardian. Of course we'll be there to show you all the action. But right now we have to go with Sora to see how the Yellow team is doing. So what's up Sora?"

Sora came into view, she was sitting on the branch of a tree next to Biyomon. The setting now was a jungle. "Apparently I am! The Yellow team is making slow but steady progress throughout this thick jungle. They almost lost Ryoga back there so they need to keep a close eye on him."

"The jungle is pretty Sora! Biyomon sees lots of pretty birds!"

"Yeah! I'm going to do some bird watching with Biyomon so I'll leave you to let you watch the adventures of the yellow team."

"Bulbasaur! Razor Leaf!" Ash yelled.

"Bulbasaur!!" Bulbasaur used his razor leaves to cut down the many vines that were blocking their path. "Bulba."

"Nice work Bulbasaur."

Goku yawns. "Are we there yet? I thought you said it was only 10 miles."

"Had it been in a straight line yes, but this jungle has too many obstacles. And we're making slow progress." Izzy said "I want to get there as much as you do. I don't want to spend another night around here."

"Why not? This seems like a nice place." Tentomon said.

"Yeah, this seems like the place that would be comfy for a bug." Ryoga said

"I can see the town!" Freya yelled. She was standing on top of the trees. She jumped back down. "If we keep up the pace we should reach it in 20 minutes."

"All right!" Ash said "Bulbasaur, keep using your razor leaf.

"Bulba!" Bulbasaur used his razor leaf again to cut down more vines, but they only revealed a stone wall.

"Man!! Not another huge boulder, how many of these can there be?"

"We have to go around it." Izzy said

"I'm tired of this!" Goku said. He put his hand together. "Kaaaa... Meeee..."

"Oh no he's going to do it again. Everyone get out of the way." yelled Ryoga.

Ash withdrew his Bulbasuaur and grabbed Pikachu "PIKAAA!!"

"Haaaaa.... Meeeee...HAAAAAAAAA!!"

Goku shot his Kamehameha at the large boulder, blowing it to pieces and scaring just about every animal in a mile radius.

"The path is clear." Said Goku.

"You should warn us when you do that." Freya said.

"What the hell was all that noise Kupo!" yelled an unknown voice. A little white creature with bat like wings appeared. "KUPOOOO!! You destroyed my house!"

Ash: "What is that?"

Freya: "It's a moggle."

Izzy: "Wow, what an interesting creature."

Mog: "My name is Mukop! Not creature kupo!"

Goku: "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was your house."

Ash: "Hard to tell, we didn't see an entrance on it or anything."

Mukop: "That's because it was on the other side kupo!!"

Goku: "Is there anything we can do to make it up to you. Maybe we can build you another house."

Ash: "We don't have the time! You stay and build it."

Ryoga: "We can't leave him here, we can't split up."

Ash: "Damn! Now what."

Mukop: "I don't want you to make me new house, I will stay with my sister kupo!"

Izzy: "Well, guess that's it!"

Mukop: "That is not it! You have to bring Mukop plenty of kupo nuts!"

Freya: "Kupo nuts? But where can we get them around here?"

Mukop: "If I knew I wouldn't need you bringing me any. And I want many kupo nuts, ten times my weight kupo!"

Goku: "Gosh, that's a lot of nuts. But all right! We owe you something for destroying your house so we'll find the nuts for you."

Mukop: "Thanks!"

Izzy: "We can't lose time with this."

Goku: "It can't be that hard. Let's go."

Everybody started leaving but then Ash stopped when he noticed Pikachu was staring at Mukop.

"Pika."

"Kupo."

"Pika!"

"Kupo!"

"Pikaaaaa"

"Kupooooo"

"Pi... ka?"

"Ku... po?"

"Piiiiiika!"

"Kuuuuuupo!"

"Pikachu! Stop playing around with that moogle!" Ash yelled.

Pikachu left Mukop and went with Ash. "Pika pika!"

"Not the world's most inspiring conversation, was it?" Ryoga said.

"At least we don't have to waist time going around the boulder." Goku said.

"We spent it talking to Mukop anyway. And we'll waist more trying to get those kupo nuts." Izzy said.

"Let's just be on our way. I doubt there are any kupo nuts in this island anyway" said Freya.

"You're probably right"

After about fifteen minutes of walking the team heard some noises, as they walked more the noises become louder and it was now clear it was screaming. They started to run toward the village.

The village was a tree town, all the houses were on top of the tree branches, but there was a huge snake trying to eat the villagers. It was about 60 feet in length and 3 feet in diameter.

"Tentomon!!" Izzy yelled.

"I'm on it Izzy! "Tentomon digivolves to... Kabuterimon!"

Kabuterimon flew above the snake ready to attack. "Electroshock!"

The snake was quick to avoid Kabuterimon's attack and in a blink of an eye it jumped up and wrapped Kabuterimon, and then brought him back to the ground. It opened it's mouth ready to bite Kabuterimon.

All of a sudden a spear struck it's head and pinned it to the ground, courtesy of Freya.

"Heracross I choose you!!" Ash yelled as he threw his pokeball.

Between Goku, Ryoga and Heracross they were able to to free Kabuterimon from the snake's grip. Kabuterimon flew up and yelled "Electroshock!" This time the attack was dead on and killed the snake. He then went back to being Tentomon.

"Thanks guys! I almost lost it back there."

"No problem. That's what the team is for" Freya said.

"Tentomon, are you all right?" Izzy said.

"Yeah, I think I'm thinner too."

Ash said "Good work Heracross."

"Heracraw!"

Ash called back Heracross into his pokeball.

The villagers all came out to thank our heroes. The chief elder who didn't appear to be that old greeted them. "Thank you for saving us! How can we ever repay you!"

Goku had his arms behind his head and laughed. "Can we eat the snake?"

Ash and Izzy appeared disgusted, Ryoga and Freya were indifferent.

"Of course, you'll have a great feast!"

"But where did that giant snake came from?" Ryoga said.

"They live in the swamp west from here, but it's the first time one made it's way here."

Another villager said "I think the explosion in the jungle might have lured it here."

Ash, Ryoga, Freya and Izzy looked at Goku. He laughed nervously and said "Ooops.."

The chief said "But it doesn't matter. We're safe now, but I don't feel the feast is enough to repay you. Can't we do anything for you?"

Izzy said "Well, we're competing in a challenge and..."

"Ah.. you're one of the teams. Well I can tell you where to find a badge."

"Really? That's great!" Ash said.

"It's the least we can do to repay you. The badge is there!" He pointed at a volcano that could be seen at a distance."

"In a volcano?"

"Yep! I chopper flew over it and simply dropped it."

"I wonder what kind of box they used" Izzy said.

"Well why don't you look around our village while we get the feast ready."

The chief left and all the villagers went to meet the heroes who saved them from the snake.

Izzy went over to Freya. "Freya.. um.. thank you for saving Kabuterimon's life."

Freya smiled "Don't mention it. Your monster is impressive, but sometimes a quick and accurate strike is all that is needed."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I can now see why you're so respected as a Dragoon."

"Thanks for the compliment. Now I wish to be alone."

"Um.. no problem. I want to explore this village with Tentomon." Izzy left Freya alone.

Ash and Pikachu were surrounded by the village children.

"This is Pikachu! He was my first Pokemon."

"Pika!!"

The children cheered and wanted to play with Pikachu.

"Want to see more pokemon?"

The children kept cheering.

"OK., go Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charizard, Heracross and Chikorita!" Ash's pokemon came out of their pokeballs, the children went to play with them. "You too Pikachu!"

"Pikachu, pika pika." he left Ash's shoulder and went to play with the children.

"Hey, you seem to like entertaining the kids." Said Ryoga who was standing behind Ash.

"Well, I do it for my pokemon as well. They are having fun and I think it's important to keep them happy."

"You take this pokemon business seriously don't you?"

"Of course! I'm going to become the greatest pokemon master of all time."

Ryoga smiled "Well you be careful out here, the beasts around here are more fierce than any wild pokemon. You wouldn't want any of your pokemon getting hurt, would you?"

"Of course not! I know how dangerous this is, especially after what almost happened to Kabuterimon. I'll be careful"

Ryoga put his arm on Ash's shoulder. "Just remember this time you have human partners too."

"Thanks!"

A few hours later the feast was all set up and our heroes were treated to the giant snake. They also served plenty of water.

Goku: "Yay! I'm so hungry!" He didn't waste a moment and dug in.

Ash: "Isn't there something else to eat."

Pikachu: "Pika Pika"

Ryoga: "Just try it. It tastes just like chicken."

Izzy: "Everything tastes like chicken."

Tentomon: "I don't care, I'm hungry."

Freya: "Would you mind?"

Ash, Ryoga, Izzy and Tentomon: "Sorry."

It didn't take long for our heroes to finish eating, Goku ate almost all of the snake. "Yum. That was delicious!"

The village chief stood before our heroes. "Why don't you spend the night here? Tomorrow I will have some of my people lead you to the base of the volcano. They know the area very well."

"That would be greatly appreciated. We are very grateful for your hospitality."

"No, it's us who are grateful and are honored to have you here."

Sora was nearby, many villagers saw the camera and were dancing behind Sora. "Well the yellow team seems to be doing OK. But how will they get to the bottom of the volcano? Will they keep their promise and get all those kupo nuts?"

Biyomon was trying to fly away from small children.

"And will Biyomon save herself from the curious children? All this questions will be answered soon so stay tuned. This has been Sora reporting for the ultimate challenge, see you next time!"

(To be continued...)

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