Victoria slowly opened her eyes, seeing the sword was mere inches from her face. In panic, she stepped backwards and tripped over the fallen Were Garurumon, landing on the grass behind her. "Owww..." Victoria whined a bit before she scrambled up to her feet. Terriermon ran to Victoria's side to see if the girl was okay.

Elena sighed. She couldn't believe how stupid she was. Even the girl wasn't her niece; she nearly killed a Destined child over a stupid battle. There was something about Were Garurumon that even a young girl like that would defend him over.

"Elena!!" a voice called out as a girl approached the area, followed by a Gotsumon. Elena recognized her as Rosa, but she turned around, not being able to face her after what just happened. "Elena! Is something wrong?" Rosa asked as she reached her friend.

"No, nothing's wrong," Elena replied, before turning and walking away from her, wanting to be alone. Dinohumon devolved to Kotemon and ran up to her partner.

Rosa was still concerned, but she made a mental note to talk to Elena later. She had to talk to the other girl that was here. She tried to think which member of the San Antonio team this could be, but considering there was only one Mexican-American female among the team, Gotsumon had already approached the young girl and Were Garurumon, talking with them, and seeing if they were okay.

Victoria looked up at Rosa, seeing that she was of Mexican descent. Rosa walked up to Victoria. "You must be Victoria Gonzalez of the San Antonio team, correct?" Rosa asked in Spanish.

"Yes, who are you? And what are you doing here?" Victoria replied in the same language.

"My name is Rosa Garcia. The girl that was with you earlier was Elena Rodriguez," Rosa introduced. Victoria smirked at that last sentence. Elena was not exactly with her, but she decided to leave what happened out. "We are the Digi-destined from Mexico City. Carter sent us to find out what happened to you."

Terriermon and the rest of San Antonio's child digimon with them gathered around Victoria. They had no clue what was being said, but the situation seemed non-threatening. They just wanted to be careful. "I have no clue where the others are. We went into that building over there," Victoria pointed towards the Alamo. All Rosa could see in it was it was some kind of old fort or Spanish mission. "And we were sent into some sort of sub-dimension. It was like some sort of test."

"A test?" Rosa asked.

"Yes," Victoria replied, before taking out her totem and showing it to Rosa. "I ended up getting this for surviving it."

"That's must be some sort of evolution item," Rosa replied, looking it over. "So what's going on with the other members of your team?"

"If what I went through was any indication, they're in grave danger," Victoria replied grimly.

Alamo Diaries
Entry 10: Overcoming Obstacles, Part 2
By: Izumi Ryu
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. This is part of Archive's Diaries series. Do I really need to put this up?

Richard slowly stood up in serious pain. This game turned to his clone's favor in just the first turn. Plus, everything he felt was real. He looked up at the carbon copy, to see it smirking.

"Want to give up? You don't look so well," the fake Richard taunted.

Richard didn't buy it. "If I lose or give up, I die anyway. I'd rather get out of this place alive."

The clone just nodded as Richard got up. "It's your turn then."

Richard picked up the top card of the deck, then immediately played it. "I'll play Pot of Greed," Richard said before picking up two more cards from the top of his deck. This duel is going to be different, since we both were forced to shuffle our decks, so I gotta be careful, Richard thought to himself. "I'll set a monster face down and another card face down and end my turn."

The clone just drew the next card, and then he placed a monster card face-up on the field. Warrior Dai Grepher appeared on the other side of the field from where Richard was, a level four warrior-type monster with 1700 attack points. "Gotcha! Activate Torrential Tribute!" Richard said, flipping over his face down trap card. The trap destroyed all monsters on the field when a monster was summoned to the field. Water seemed to gush down on the field, washing away both monsters, and revealing the Witch of the Black Forest in the process.

"And since Witch of the Black Forest was destroyed, I can search my deck," Richard continued, picking up his deck and searching out for Summoned Skull, before putting it in his hand and shuffling his deck.

"Your move," the clone told him, after setting another card in his Magic/Trap zone.

Richard nodded as he picked up the next card from his deck. "I'll summon Cave Dragon," Richard said, a large green dragon appearing in front of him. Cave Dragon was a level four dragon-type monster with 2000 attack points. However, by its effect, it could only be summoned when there’s no other monster on his field, and can only attack when there's another dragon on the field. "Then, I'll play Fusion Gate," Richard said, putting the Fusion Gate card in the Field zone. It allowed both players to summoned fusion monsters by removing the required monsters from the game. "Then, I'll remove Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Summoned Skull from the game, summoning the Black Skull Dragon." A black, skeletal dragon appeared right next to the Cave Dragon. The odds of him finally dealing damage looked great, so it seemed to be the best time to finally attack. "Direct attack!"

A Black Skull Dragon formed a fireball and spat it out towards the clone; Richard noticed what looked like a reflective force field in front of him. "Shit, it's a Mirror Force!" he yelled as the ball suddenly turned into split beams, returning back towards his two monsters. The monsters were instantly vaporized from the reflected attack. Richard just sighed at the sight. "I'll end my turn."

The clone just smirked as he drew his next card, and then summoned the Spirit Ryu to the field. Spirit Ryu only had 1000 attack points, but its effect allowed the clone to discard dragons to make it gain 1000 more attack points per dragon discarded until the end of the turn. Then, the clone discarded the Red-Eyes and Cave Dragon from his hand, boosting Spirit Ryu's attack to 3000.

The wind attack that followed muffled Richard's screams as he was blown back from the direct attack. He slowly struggled to his feet after hitting the ground, now in serious pain from that last attack. He only had 1000 LP left now, and things weren't looking good.

"Your move," the clone told him, seemingly disappointed in this duel.

"Great, now what do I do?" Richard muttered. Looking down at his hand, he only had one playable monster before he drew, and it couldn't really do much for him, except be bait. He drew his next card and smirked. "I'll play Raigeki, destroying your Spirit Ryu," Richard said as a lightning bold struck the dragon, obliterating it. "Then, I'll set one monster and end turn."

"During my turn," the clone said while drawing his next card. "I'll take advantage of your Fusion Gate. Remove three Blue-Eyes White Dragons from the game," the clone said.

Richard paled. He didn't have three Blue-Eyes in his deck, so how was this possible? Not to mention, he doesn't have THAT fusion. He just started trembling, as he looked straight up at a white three-headed dragon. "Blue-Eyes...Ultimate...Dragon?" Richard stuttered.

"Obliterate his monster," the clone said as the dragon fired white beams that converged on the lone monster.

Dwayne sat on the ground, still shaken by what just happened. His breathing was a bit labored as he tried to regain his composure, but considering an arrow nearly went through his head, that would be a bit difficult. He looked across the hall at the cat that just stood there, obviously wanting Dwayne to follow it. "Are you out for blood or something, cat?" Dwayne asked, glaring at it.

Then, he stood up from the ground, trying to figure out how to get past the trap. Chances are there were others like it, but how on earth would he deal with something like that. "Well, I could die just standing here," Dwayne muttered. "I did dodge that arrow, what if I dodged them going forward. It's probably not going to be as bad as getting through Starmon's attack."

Dwayne started to run forward, stepping where he had set off the arrow before. Just like before, an arrow was fired towards his head from his left side. It seemed like it was flying at him in slow motion to him as he took another step forward, the arrow barely missing the back of his head. As he continued to run forward, he set off another trap, an arrow flying from the right towards his chest. It didn't seem like a problem for Dwayne at the time, knowing to run right by it. Though he got a bit nervous as it tore a whole through the back of his shirt. "Yikes! Better be careful now!" he muttered, trying to run towards the platform the cat was standing on. As he felt his foot sink in, he started to do a full spin on one foot as an arrow shot from the ground towards the ceiling. "Geez...someone's sadistic," Dwayne muttered, starting to run forward more. Next trap he set off, he had to jump forward into a forward roll, as a stream of fire shot pass where he was. "That's NOT an arrow!" Dwayne yelled, as he found it better to make a mad dash for the platform.

Just as he was a few feet from the platform, he felt his feet starting to sink a bit. "Quicksand?" Dwayne asked in surprised as he tried to get stable enough to jump. He found what seemed to be a brick underneath the sand and decided to take it as an opportunity to jump. He reached forward for the platform, thinking he had to vault over it. As his hands landed on top of the platform, he saw the endless pit on the other side, and it was too late to stop him, he was already in momentum.

"Shit!" Dwayne yelled as he tried to flip his body around, reaching back for the platform, he grabbed hold of the edge with both sides. He struggled to pull himself back up, which he was thankful for being in similar situations as a kid trying to climb trees. He slowly pulled himself back up on the platform, and was breathing heavily. "You really ARE trying to kill me, aren't you?" Dwayne asked glaring at the cat.

The cat just mewed once before running over the edge just to the right of Dwayne, and it seemed like he was running on air as he crossed over the pit. Dwayne was confused at what he saw. Then he put a hand on where the cat had crossed and found solid rock. The cliff wall on the other side was camouflaging a land bridge. He hadn't noticed it while he was about to fall into a death plunge.

Not trusting the cat one bit, Dwayne stood up on the platform and stomped on it a couple of times, checking to see if it was stable. What Dwayne did not see was the couple of rocks that fell from underneath of where he stomped.

Dwayne started to slowly walk across the land bridge, knowing that the bridge was solid, but anything could knock him off, even a strong enough gust of wind. After he had walked a couple of feet over the bridge, he started to hear the bridge crumble behind him. "Shit," Dwayne uttered again as he started to make a mad dash towards the other end, each part of the bridge breaking off where his foot had pushed off from. "That damned cat is gonna pay!" Dwayne yelled.

As Dwayne was reaching the other side of the pit he started to dive for the cat, which was waiting for Dwayne. Just as Dwayne was about to catch the cat, the cat jumped out of Dwayne's reach, watching as he landed face first into the rock-hard ground. "Oh, no, you don't." Dwayne muttered, as the cat was about to bolt. He ignored the pain he was in to reach out for the cat quickly, managing to grab it by the tail. The cat, now annoyed, turned around, and lashed out at Dwayne with a paw, ready to scratch him in his already bruised and bloodied face. Dwayne's other hand reached out just in time to catch the paw before it hit his face. Dwayne just glared as he released the cat's tail and grabbed the scruff of the cat's neck. He stood up, glaring straight in the cat's face while holding it eye-to-eye.

"What on earth was this all about? Are you TRYING to kill me?" Dwayne asked. The cat hissed back as a warning. "Don't give me that. I want answers."

Just as he said that, the cat glowed and started to change shape. It started to change into something in a cylinder shape. When the light subsided, Dwayne found himself holding a small wooden pole no bigger than a half-foot long. The cat's image was engraved on it. "What is this?" Dwayne asked before the room was suddenly filled with light.

Garurumon leapt towards Clint with the intent to kill. All Clint could do was jump back, as he missed and hit the ground in front of the boy. Garurumon suddenly looked up at Clint, blue fire starting to form in his mouth. "Fox Fire!" Garurumon yelled as he exhaled blue fire towards Clint. Clint had to side step it, feeling the heat as it barely passed right by him. "Just great. What am I going to do now?" Clint asked, trying to figure out how to beat this guy. His movements are just like any other wolf. "Except wolves don't breathe fire," Clint muttered.

Just as the fire attack stopped, Clint took his opportunity to attack, aiming right for Garurumon's head with the knife, but Garurumon suddenly turned his head to bite down on the blade, then snapped his head, effectively breaking Clint's knife into two at the handle before spitting it out to the side. Clint had a fearful look in his eyes before the wolf digimon knocked him down on his back and stood right over him. The handle had been dropped to the ground next to the boy. The Garurumon tried to bite Clint's head, but Clint suddenly reached up, grabbing its head to keep it from closing on him, which actually proved to be a struggle, both of them trying to push against each other. Clint was grunting at this point, his arms straining from the pressure.

Blue fire started to form in the wolf digimon's mouth again, causing Clint's eyes to widen. He suddenly shoved Garurumon's mouth upward as Garurumon fired the attack into the woods. Clint instinctively grabbed the handle as he rolled under the adult-level digimon. When he looked at the handle, though, it was no longer the brown wood it once was. Instead, it seemed to be made of some sort of metal, but colored the same as his D3. He hadn't noticed this before. What concerned him was that the blade was still missing.

The Garurumon turned around, growling at Clint, even more annoyed than before. Clint was scared stiff, but he knew he had no other way out of this situation. He had to figure how to beat this wolf, but without a weapon, that was near impossible. Garurumon fired another Fox Fire attack at Clint, but this time, Clint lifted the handle. Something was telling him what to do it seemed like. As the attack was about to hit Clint head-on, Clint's knife slashed down and split the flames into two directions, keeping him unharmed.

Clint looked down at the handle, which showed a silver blade that seemed to be radiating with a strange light. The metal was definitely not iron or any other metal that could be used. Maybe he should have someone take a look at it to see what it was later, but he shook the thought from his head. Now to see what this thing can do, Clint thought, holding the knife forward rather than behind him. This knife was apparently a good defensive weapon.

Clint and Garurumon started to dash towards each other. As Clint came into range, he ducked under one of Garurumon's paws as he shoved the knife into the underside of the wolf's muzzle, then continued to slash the wolf as it flew by. The Garurumon dispersed into data particles as it was about to land behind Clint.

Clint turned around and looked at where Garurumon was supposed to land, seeing only data particles dispersing into the air. What surprised Clint more was that some of Garurumon's data was compacting and solidifying into a pole-like object, obviously small enough for him to hold in one hand and hide in his pocket. On the pole was the image of a wolf.

Clint picked it up off the ground as the world around him started to change.

"What do I do now?" Rita muttered. She was being stared down by two adult level digimon that seemed rather angry. She was too concerned that they would kill each other that she stepped in without realizing that one shot could kill her. She was really wishing she kept her mouth shut, but she always hated such arguments.

"We're waiting," Pegasmon said, getting impatient with the human girl. Very tempted to just attack her and get it over with. Rita just fell down to her knees, completely stumped on what to do or say now. She never had to deal with a situation like this. Of course, it's not like the boys she deals with are interested in girls at their age, at least not in this sense.

Rita suddenly looked up as she saw a large white paw step right in front of her. Nefertimon was standing between her and Pegasmon, looking up at the horse digimon. "She has nothing to do with this. One attack on her, Pegasmon, and I won't hesitate to fight back," she warned.

Lighdramon looked towards Nefertimon. "What's wrong with you lately?" he asked Nefertimon. This was definitely not like her.

Lighdramon suddenly jumped back as several star beams hit where he was. "Don't talk to her," Pegasmon growled.

The fight continued on, which appeared to be even despite Pegasmon's aerial advantage. "Nefertimon, why don't you try to stop them?" Rita asked the Adult level digimon in front of her.

"Because, if I did, I might have to hurt one of them," she replied, which made the girl with her more curious. "I care about both of them deeply. I wouldn't want to hurt either of them, even to a point where I..."

"You had sex with both of them, didn't you?" Rita asked. Nefertimon nodded in reply. "That shouldn't matter. If you don't stop them, one of them will die, if not both of them."

"But, how? Who should I?" Nefertimon started to ask. She started remembering the times before they evolved. She remembered how V-mon had always gotten them into some sort of trouble. Patamon was always close to her, always there for a kind word. V-mon, being the strongest of the trio, always got them out of trouble he didn't quite get them into. With V-mon it was fun, with Patamon, she was secure, and comfortable. 

"That's for something for you to choose, and if you don't, it could be too late," Rita warned, just as Lighdramon finally took a hit. He fell to the ground, unable to move. "Lighdramon!" Rita called out.

Just as Pegasmon got ready to land the deciding blow, he had to dodge a stone slab that was launched at him. He looked down at Nefertimon in surprise. "Why?" Pegasmon asked.

"I really don't want either of you to die," Nefertimon asked. She may have been the weakest of the trio, but now, she couldn't feel any stronger. "Especially Lighdramon. Pegasmon, I care for you, but not as deeply as I thought. At least, not in the way that would allow me to be your mate."

"You would rather be with Lighdramon?!" Pegasmon asked, starting to get even more upset at the situation.

"Yes," Nefertimon replied, walking over to her fallen mate. She bent over and nuzzled the dragon digimon. "Are you okay?" she whispered.

"Never better," Lighdramon replied sarcastically, causing Nefertimon to chuckle a bit.

Pegasmon looked like he was about ready to attack, before he suddenly heard a voice in his head saying, "Please, stop this. No more." The Pegasus finally looked around, confused at where the voice was coming from, but it sounded oddly enough like the human that was with Nefertimon and Lighdramon.

"Pegasmon, if you don't stop, you'll only cause more pain. Do you honestly want that?" the voice continued. Pegasmon seemed to calm down a bit, as he watched the two mates below him. He didn't like the fact that he lost, feeling the pain of their betrayal. Then, he looked down at the human girl, who looked like she was lost in a trance. The girl may have saved him from killing his former friend, but she didn't save him from the pain. He just finally flew off, wanting to be alone to sort out his own thoughts.

Rita finally broke from her trance, and looked around. Pegasmon was nowhere to be found, and Nefertimon was nuzzling the wounded Lighdramon. It looked like they succeeded in stopping the crisis. Now, she just needed to figure out how to get back to the others.

She looked down as she kicked something she hadn't noticed on the ground before. It looked like the totem she saw earlier with an image of a dove carved on it. Rita reached down and grabbed it, as her world started to turn white around her. 

Nefertimon and Lighdramon started to look around for their human companion, who was nowhere to be seen. She couldn't have walked off so fast. They were worried for a bit that Pegasmon may have gotten to her.

"Don't worry," a young masculine voice assured the couple. "Rita is fine, and chances are, you may meet her again." A brown-haired man in a brown cloak walked up to the couple. The hood of the cloak was off, revealing the man's face.

"Who are you?" Lighdramon asked, a bit wary of such a being appearing.

"Just a friend. Oh, and congratulations," he said before disappearing, leaving Lighdramon even more confused. If Nefertimon could smile, she would have just then, figuring out what the human was referring to.

Jorge tried to follow the snake he had seen silently, more to make sure he wasn't noticed by security than by the snake. Jorge believed the snake already knew it was following him, or else it wouldn't have waited while he took out the security guard earlier. He suddenly stopped as he saw a shadow appear at a four-way intersection coming from the left side. He suddenly ducked along the side of the wall, and then aimed the gun that was in his hand towards the corridor. He wasn't sure whether he would kill the security guard or not. That actually depended on the guard. As the guard appeared in the intersection, he followed it silently with the gun as he walked across the intersection, not even looking to the sides. Had he even once turned his head towards Jorge, Jorge wouldn't have hesitated to fire.

Jorge looked down at the snake again, which followed the guard that just walked past. Great, now I have to tail the guy without him noticing? Jorge asked himself. He tried to take as silent steps as he could while following the guard. All Jorge could really think of was getting out of this maze, and all he had to go off of was a snake that seemed smarter than it should be. He shook his head at that thought. He's dealt with a lot, but as ridiculous as it was, that's how things went. Everything he's been through has been enough to put him in an insane asylum.

The guard in front of him stopped at some sort of door. He looked like he was going through several security measures, including a palm reader and retina scan as well as some sort of PIN pad. Jorge just stood silently, and as the door opened, the man turned around, finally noticing the young boy. "Shit," Jorge muttered as he aimed the gun at the man's face as the guard tried to bring out his own weapon. Jorge fired without hesitation, taking his own survival as more important than this man's life. The bullet ripped right through the man's skull, before the man just fell over, lying on the ground deathly still.

Jorge started to breathe heavy. Looking at the dead man in front of him forced the boy to remember things he didn't need to now. It reminded him too much of when his father was killed, but the only difference was that the blood was on Jorge's hands, not the hands of some gangster. Then, he heard footsteps from down the corridor. For a while, he considered letting himself be found, so he could be killed for his crime, but the next second, he ducked into the opened door, which closed behind him.

"Don't try that again," Jorge muttered. It wasn't the fact that he killed the guy that was getting to him. If he had problems with killing, he would have hesitated, and he would have been the one killed. He just didn't want to see another corpse like that again.

As Jorge sat hidden in the corner a dark corner of the room, he looked around, trying to get an idea of his surroundings. It looked like some sort of laboratory. At the time, it didn't look like anyone was around. In the middle of the room sitting on a table was the totem he remembered from earlier, the image carved on it was a snake.

"Makes sense," Jorge muttered. He stood up from his spot in the corner. If anything, he probably needed to grab that item somehow. Of course, part of him wondered if he should even bother with it. It was that thing that got him into this trouble in the first place. He brushed his own doubts aside and just slowly walked towards it.

As he approached the table, he heard another door in the lab open, Jorge suddenly ducked underneath the table where the totem was as two scientists walked in, talking about the item. They were mentioning something about mystical properties of the item on the table. It seemed strange and they wanted to figure out how to use it for their own purposes.

Jorge had no altruistic ideals as not allowing for military or something to have powerful items, but he still had this strange feeling that letting them have it was not a good idea. Jorge made sure the scientists were facing the other way before he attempted to reach over the table and for the totem. As he felt the wooden cylinder at his fingertips, he tried pulling it towards him to get it in his grip, and then quickly pulled the totem under. Jorge didn't have the time to sigh in relief, as the world seemed to disappear around him.

"Where are the others?" Dwayne asked as he looked around the fort. He noticed Rita, Clint, and Jorge walking out towards him, only Richard and Victoria seemed to be missing. Just the thought of Victoria being missing made Dwayne cringe, unsure of what Jorge would do if something happened to her.

"Maybe they aren't out of their illusions yet," Rita suggested, though it was hard to call what she experienced an illusion. It just felt too real to her.

"We should at least check on our digimon," Clint said. "Lord knows what happened while we were out. Remember that Pail Dramon and his men were attacking us."

Jorge only nodded. He didn't like leaving his sister alone in this situation, but there wasn't much choice in the matter. He just silently followed the others out of the fort. All he could do was wait for things to take their course.

"What happened here?" Dwayne asked, looking around outside. All of their digimon were in their child forms, while Were Garurumon looked roughed up a bit. Victoria was already out talking with a Mexican girl, and another Mexican girl also stood in the area.

"Hey, guys! Over here!!" Victoria called out, seeing that her friends were out of their trials. Rosa became a bit nervous, seeing so many boys around, especially Jorge. Jorge had this gloomy appearance to him that reminded her way too much of Pedro, or a worse version of him.

"Vickie, who are these two girls?" Dwayne asked.

"They're Rosa and Elena from the team in Mexico City. Carter sent them to check on us," the young girl explained. Then, she turned to Rosa, who looked really nervous at the moment. "It's okay, Rosa. They're just my friends."

"I know. I've just been extremely nervous around guys lately. I don't really feel like talking about it," Rosa replied with a forced smile. Victoria seemed easy to talk to, but there are just certain things that she shouldn't talk about to a young girl. Rape was one of them.

Dwayne was wishing he could speak or understand Spanish at the moment. The girls did not seem like they were in a good mood, and he's always been able to cheer people up. However, he had other things to worry about. "Where's Rich?" Dwayne asked.

"Richard is still in his trial, and from what I'm sensing, he's not doing so well," Were Garurumon explained.

"What?!" Dwayne asked. "Richard's failing some sort of trial?!"

Were Garurumon only nodded in reply. Dwayne looked towards the Alamo. C'mon, Rich. Even an idiot like me passed, how can you fail? the African-American thought. His best friend could lose his life in there, and there seemed to be nothing he could do about it.

He calmed a bit as he felt a hand on his shoulder. Rita was trying to calm her long-time friend down. "He'll make it through," Rita said, not even believing her own words. Clint and Jorge even looked towards the fort, wishing they could help their comrade somehow. Richard had bailed them out before against Revolmon, he should be able to bail himself out of whatever jam he's in now.

After an explanation from Victoria, Rosa and Elena became concerned. They didn't need another death among the Chosen or Digi-destined children, especially one so early in his career, but from what they heard, there was almost no hope for Richard.

"He'll make it," Hagurumon said. The child-level digimon was the only one that believed those words. How bad could it be in there? Richard had dealt with worse.

The Blue-Eyes' attack obliterated Richard's defense monster, revealing the Sangan that was facedown. Sangan, just like Witch of the Black Forest, allowed for Richard to search his deck for a monster, but this one had to be 1500 attack points or less. However, as he was looking through his deck, he was starting to lose his focus. The pain in his body was taking its toll on him. All he pulled out of his deck and into his hand was a Time Wizard, which was the first useful card he came across. He shuffled his deck real quick, before picking up his hand.

"My turn," he said, his voice trembling a bit. He could attempt to destroy the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon with Time Wizard, but it was a bit risky. Then, there was Monster Reborn, but there wasn't anything in either graveyard useful enough. Then, he drew his next card, and he got a minor surprise as he read the card name. Scapegoat? But I don't run a Scapegoat in my deck, Richard thought. It was useful enough though, allowing him to summon four monster tokens in defense mode. However, he was hesitant to play the card. Instead of four sheep on the picture, there was a picture of Rita, Clint, Jorge and Victoria. If it meant anything, it's probably that they'll be summoned instead.

Richard shook his head, not wanting to put his friends at risk like that. Instead, he summoned the Time Wizard he just drew. "I'll summon Time Wizard and activate its effect, Time Roulette," Richard told his clone. A clock with legs and arms appeared between the two. The wizard was also carrying a staff with a small roulette arrow on it. If the arrow pointed at one of the four castles, all of the clone's monsters would be destroyed. If it landed on a skull instead, though, all of Richard's monsters would be destroyed and Richard would take half of the total attack points of the destroyed monsters as damage. Luckily, Time Wizard was the only monster, which had only 500 attack points.

Richard was practically holding his breath as the arrow on Time Wizard's staff spun. Time seemed to go slowly as he waited for it to slow down. Eventually it did, then, it gradually came to a stop...on a skull. Richard could only cover his eyes as Time Wizard was sucked into a white vortex, and then clutched his chest as more of his own life was drained by the effect.

Great, Richard thought. Well, Scapegoat can provide me with four turns of defense, but... Richard never finished his thought; his friends' image was still on the card. So instead, he pulled out the Monster Reborn card. "Time for Round two," Richard muttered. "Monster Reborn." Monster Reborn was a spell card that allowed its user to special summon any monster in either his or his opponent's graveyard. Richard had already picked his monster. The Black Skull Dragon has never failed him before, but it looks like this time, it will. "I'm sorry old buddy, but no choice on the matter. I choose to summon the Black Skull Dra...what?!" Richard interrupted himself. Instead of the Black Skull Dragon appearing before him, it was a familiar African-American human. "Dwayne?" Richard asked.

"Heh...looks like you've been banged up quite a bit, Rich," Dwayne spoke to him. "Let me handle this for you," he told his best friend.

"But you don't stand a chance alone," the white boy told him.

"So? Send me some help," Dwayne told him.

Richard just smiled; this was typical of Dwayne as much as he hated it. No matter how many times he tells Dwayne to leave things to him, it was against his nature to do so, and Richard needed everyone now more than ever. Then, he looked at his hand, seeing the Scapegoat card, but the Owl Totem card he saw earlier wasn't there anymore. In its place was a much more useful equipment card called United We Stand. It boosted the equipped monster's attack and defense by 800 points for every monster on the field. Richard just smirked at this development and decided to take advantage of it.

"I'll equip the Black Skull Dragon with United We Stand, boosting it to 4000 attack points. Then, I'll set another card face-down," Richard said, playing the remaining two cards in his hand. "You're move," he told the clone.

"Is that the best you can do with the totem?" the clone asked as he drew his card. "Blue-Eyes attacks the Black Skull Dragon." Once the Black Skull Dragon was out of the way, there would be no stopping the clone from winning. Unfortunately, he played right into Richard's trap.

"Activate Scapegoat," Richard said. Scapegoat was a quick play spell card, which allowed him to play it as if it were a trap when it's set. The remaining four members of San Antonio team appeared on the field, and boosted the Black Skull Dragon's attack points by 3200 points, giving the Black Skull Dragon 7200 attack points. Instead of the attack destroying the Black Skull Dragon, the attack neutralized itself, then Richard's dragon quickly retaliated, shooting off a fireball from its mouth that destroyed the three-headed dragon and dealing 2700 life points of damage to the clone.

Richard, then, drew his next card, which didn't matter really. It was more of a formality than a necessity. "Finish him, direct attack," Richard ordered. The demonic dragon charged up another fireball before shooting it at the clone, completely obliterating it. "Take that," Richard said, before staggering a bit. The pain was starting to be too much, but he only got a welcome relief when he saw he was back in the fort in the next second. Richard then noticed the totem in his pocket, the image being an owl.

"There he is!" Dwayne yelled, pointing towards the Alamo's exit. Richard was limping out of the fort in tremendous pain. He just continued to walk to the group before falling to the ground in front of Dwayne's feet, unable to stand much longer. "Rich!" The others started to rush to the fallen boy's side as he hit the ground.

"Stand back," Were Garurumon told the others, causing Dwayne to step back and the others to stop where they were. Were Garurumon walked up to Richard's side and kneeled down. He started chanting in a language incomprehensible to those around him, holding his hands towards Richard with his palms facing the boy. His hands started to glow as he started channeling what spirits he could find. Then, Richard started to glow as he sent them through the boy, trying to mend what damage had been done to the boy's body. As soon as he was done healing Richard, Were Garurumon told the others "He's fine now, but he's still fatigued. Let him rest a while."

Those words caused Dwayne and Rita to sigh in relief, they all made it through alive. "Thanks, guys," Richard muttered while unconscious, which confused those around him.

"He took a lot of punishment in his trial," Were Garurumon told them. "It's a miracle he didn't just die."

"That's Rich for ya," Dwayne muttered. Dwayne knew if Richard had the option, he'd take on Pail Dramon himself. Of course, he would never allow his best friend to do such a thing.

"Rosa said we should contact Carter soon to let him know what's going on," Victoria told the others. Of course, besides Victoria, the only one that didn't need the translation was Jorge.

"We should get him back home, anyway," Clint said. "With Pail Dramon around, this isn't a good place to rest." Everyone pretty much agreed, minus the two girls from Mexico, who couldn't understand a word he said.

"We're about to head home anyway, it seems. Maybe we'll see each other again," Victoria told Rosa, in a rather cheerful tone.

"I'd like that," Rosa said, forcing a weak smile. The young girl seemed like she could get all the help she could get, especially from those that can relate to her more.

Rita, Dwayne, and a barely conscious Richard appeared in a house they didn't intend to go to. "Wait a sec. This isn't home," Dwayne said.

"Master of the obvious," Richard muttered, while hanging onto Dwayne's shoulder. The room had looked normal, but had some Native American decorations. Otherwise, it had your television set, radio, and sofa among other things that would make up the necessities of a living room.

"Your spirits have grown since I last saw you," a male voice said. The three children looked at each other, recognizing the voice, which made them worried. Of course their digimon were more confused than their partners. They had no clue who would live in this house.

"Kiowa?" Rita asked. Then, the man came out, dressed in casual wear rather than the professional wear they're used to seeing him in. "What just happened?"

"I summoned you here," Kiowa said. "And don't worry, your secret is safe with me." The man smiled, seeing the three digimon that surrounded the children. "You may want to let Richard rest here a while. I'll explain everything."

"But why...?" Dwayne asked.

"Let's just say you and I have a lot in common," Kiowa said trailing off.

Next chapter:

Texas Freeze-- School's canceled due to icy conditions. Dwayne gets the idea to go to the Digital World, which should maintain the stereotyped heat of the state. Unfortunately, Dwayne was wrong, as they find out that the Digital World is worse off than the real world. Of course, that didn't mean some people could have fun in the cold conditions, until Starmon shows up.