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![Good Enough [Sorato]](GoodEnough.jpg){kind=small} |
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![Soar with Love [Sora and Taiora]](soarwithlove3.jpg){kind=small} |
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| Ledgend of the Digi-Destoned ---By Blitzkrieg--- |
| Run, run, run run, run, run run, run, run run, run, run Well, baby, better take my advice a black cat crossed your path twice the moon came out next to the sun you opened your umbrella in a room you'd better run, run, run run, run, run run, run, run run, run, run Well, you ain't the luckiest girl I know and you won't get luckier the way you're going your horseshoe's rusty and your mirror's cracked you walk under ladders and you walk right back You'd better run, run, run (pack your bags and go) run, run, run (you'd better believe) run, run, run (that you gotta go) run, run, run Now when you dropped that little pin you never thought what a mess it would get you in little pin, little pin, bring me luck because I stopped to pick you up You'd better run, run, run (get away) run, run, run (pack your bags and go) run, run, run (now, you'd better go) run, run, run Now, little girl, I'm helping you I want you to believe what I say is true whenever you run, I'll be running too wherever you run, I'll be following you! You'd better run, run, run run, run, run run, run, run run, run, run run, run, run run, run, run run, run, run... "Run Run Run" (no duh) By Pete Townshend from the album "A Quick One" by The Who Chapter Seven: Duck And Run The never ending hum of the machinery could be heard long before they were even inside. There wasn't any one single sound that could be pulled up from the cloudy bog of the racket and be recognized on it's own; they all blended into a single, mournful hum. As the un-earthly sound echoed from the tall, narrow gap that served as an entrance to the mountain-like factory, most of the enthusiasm of investigating the mysterious structure evaporated from the dwarfed explorers. "You know what?" Joe said "Why don't Gomamon and me stand guard out here?" "Nice try." Matt said "Now come on. If we needed to be guarded from anything, it'd be on the inside." Besides Matt added silently if we were posting guards out here, I'd call first dibs. "OK," Sora asked "What exactly are we looking for once we're actually inside?" "Well," Izzy answered "to be honest, I have no idea." "Hopefully, it'll be clearly marked." Matt joked, deadpan. "Oh, funny." Mimi grouched "Very funny." As it turned out, the group was much farther from actually entering the compound it's self than they'd assumed. Once they were through the massive front gate, the fourteen found themselves in what appeared to be a large storage area. Far below the narrow walkway was a gapping trench that stretched roughly a hundred feet across and wrapped completely around what seemed to be the actual facility. Looking down the dizzying depths of the trench, a maze of unmarked tanks and canisters was sparsely peppered along the floor. While there was a considerable number of them, it seemed obvious that the trench had been designed with a far greater load in mind. "I wonder what they keep in there?" Agumon wondered as they slowly made their way across. "What ever it is," Izzy commented, taking the great size of the area into account "it would appear that much more of it was intended." "You wanna know what this place needs?" Mimi asked. "If we say know, will you be telling us anyway?" Matt asked back. "One of those moving sidewalks." Mimi said, ignoring Matt "Whoever designed this place should die." Any hate of the designers was replaced, momentarily at least, by total admiration upon entering the actual factory it's self. The first and most obvious thing that came to mind was that the interior resembled a man-made mountain range. Jutting up throughout the domed interior were innumerable smaller structures, most of which shared a common, rough pyramid like appearance. It was almost impossible to tell where one structure ended an another began, thanks to a web of pipe and walkways connecting them all. In the center, a huge, multicolored column, connected to everything else by cables, sprouted out of the mess and continued until it hit the distant ceiling. "Well, we're here." Tai remarked "Now what?" "I have no idea..." Sora said, in awe of the massiveness of the facility "They don't believe in small around here, do they?" "Well, this whole thing was your idea, Izzy." Matt said "Got any bright ideas?" "I'm working on that..." Izzy answered "I suppose that the structure in the center would seem the logical place to start looking." "Uh, guys?" Joe offered nervously "Maybe first we should take a look around the rim here where it's nice and close to the exit." "Come on Joe!" Sora chimed, tugging him along by the arm. ******************** "WARNING> INTRUDER ALERT> ACTIVATE SECURITY PROCEDURES>" With a quiet hum, the sentry switched to life. It was quickly provided with a rudimentary assessment of the situation. "INTRUDERS IDENTIFACATION: ONE AGUMON ONE BIYOMON ONE GABUMON ONE GOMAMON ONE PALMON ONE PATAMON ONE TENTOMON> SEVEN TOTAL> STAGES: BASIC> THREAT: MINIMAL> UNIDENTIFIED: SEVEN TOTAL> STAGES: UNDETERMINED> THREAT: UNDETERMINED>" The assessment was far from satisfactory. That as many as seven intruders could be totally unidentifiable was almost impossible. But still, a full diagnostic had been performed only 17.5 days ago. The possibility that the security monitoring system could have become faulty in such a short time was almost non-existent. Instead, the sentry pulled up a visual of the intruders. "OPTICAL SECURITY FILE 17468> GRID 567>" The sentry took a moment to apologize to the monitoring system, he couldn't identify the seven either. Their bodily construction was quite unlike anything on record, although the basic shape was slightly reminiscent of a number of species (including his own). Their muscular structure was far from threatening, and the scans showed absolutely no sign of any attributes whatsoever. The only thing that was in anyway remarkable about the seven was the neural scan, which indicated an unusually level of adaptability. Still, without any defenses of their own, they proved even less of a threat than the digimon that accompanied them. Disposing of them would not be difficult. ******************** "WHOEVER DESSIGNED THESE WALKWAYS MUST HAVE BEEN DRUNK WHEN THEY DID IT!" Mimi whined as the long, winding trip to the center of the factory continued "THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO GOOD REASON FOR THE WAY DOWN TO TAKE THIS LONG!" "Stop flapping you jaw, Mimi." Tai groaned "We're almost there." "Well, we should have been almost there a long time ago!" Mimi countered. "I don't know why I'm taking so long to ask these things," Sora piped up "but just what do we think this thing is?" "That's what we're on our way down for!" Tentomon answered "To find out!" "Do we have any expectations?" Gabumon asked. "I make it a practice to never have expectations." Izzy explained. "That's the smartest thing I've heard today." Matt commented, impressed. It certainly was a good thing none of them had expectations, as what turned up most likely wouldn't have lived up to them. The outside of the column was totally undecorated aside from a ring of torches on the wall that bore the same inscriptions as the ones previously seen in the temple. The only other change in the mostly unchanging surface was a small door. While the door it's self was almost indistinguishable from the rest of the column, a single handle protruded quite obviously from the center. "So are we going in or what?" Agumon asked when no one else did. "Are you sure it's safe?" Palmon asked. "I know how to find out!" Tai said grabbing the handle and giving it a good tug. The door slid out several inches and stopped for a moment. Tai assumed that this meant it was stuck and went on to give it several more tugs. When he finally quit tugging (but had yet to let go) The door automatically slid upwards, taking Tai with it until he caught on and let go (insuring a painful plop onto the floor). "Bravo." Matt mocked as he passed his somewhat out of it comrade. "OK, that was weird." Tai moaned, rubbing his sore head. Whether or not the interior was worth the trip inside depended on who you asked. Technically speaking, there was absolutely nothing in there, simply an empty shaft not too terribly larger than a big closet capped off by an unfathomably long distance to the top. Still, the shaft was hardly barren: the walls were covered in digi-script. Correction: they weren't completely covered, roughly nine feet up, the wall became as blank as they were on the outside. "Well, this was certainly a big, fat waste of time!" Mimi complained (surprise!). "Are you kidding?" Izzy countered "This writing is obviously of significance!" "Yeah, this writing that NONE OF US CAN READ!" Gomamon reminded. "HEY! Look at this!" T.K. interrupted from the side where he'd found something unusual "Isn't this where you plug a phone in?" Sure enough, T.K. had discovered not only a phone jack, but an electrical socket. "YES!" Izzy shouted, rushing over. Without a blink, he'd plugged his lap top in and was watching is boot up contentedly. "I thought that thing wasn't working." Agumon said, confused. "He said it was out of batteries." Gabumon corrected. "ALRIGHT!" Izzy exclaimed again "It's working!" "And that's good, why?" Joe asked, anxious to get moving again. "I have several decryption programs that just might be able to decode all this!" Izzy explained. "Why do we care what all this stuff says?" Mimi asked "I thought we were trying to find who ran this two bit dump." "Well, it would seem likely that the builders of this facility would have considered this to be of some importance if they placed it here in the middle," Tentomon offered "so it would also seem likely that if we knew what this says, we'd have a better chance of locating them." "Very good, Tentomon!" Izzy commented, impressed. "So, just how long is this decoding junk going to take?" Tai asked, becoming impatient with being crammed in the chamber with every one else. "It's impossible to tell." Izzy mumbled dismissively, all ready engrossed in his work "Not any sooner than a few hours, at least. And that's extremely optimistic." "AN FEW HOURS?" Palmon whined. "AT THE LEAST?" Mimi added. "Hey, these things take time." Izzy explained, too busy to be offended by their disrespect. "I hate to rain on your parade, Izzy," Sora cut in "but is it really safe for us to just hang around here? We don't know what all's running around in here, and it's a long way back out." "I know a good way to find out what's `running around'." Tai said, making his way to the door. "Wait a minute! What about them?" Agumon objected, pointing at Izzy and Tentomon. "Hey, if the professor wants to hang around this hole, that's fine with me!" Tai shot back. "Hold on." Matt said, gabbing Tai's shoulder "I don't like the idea of leaving any one by himself in here." "No one will be by himself!" Tentomon objected "We'll both be here together!" "All right, allow be to correct myself:" Matt said, annoyed "`I don't like the idea of leaving anyBODY here by THEMSELVES.'" "We'll be quite all right." Izzy insisted "I have great faith in Tentomon's ability to protect me." "REALLY?!?!?!? YOU DO?!?!?!?" Tentomon shouted, quite honored by the complement. "No offense, Tentomon, but I still don't like it." Matt insisted. "Well, no one said we had to check out the entire factory at once." Sora pointed out "We can just pick out one section near here to check out so we won't be that far away!" "Excellent suggestion, Sora!" Biyomon complemented. "And it's not like it'll be hard to find this place again." Gomamon added. "Sounds good to me!" Gabumon agreed, nudging Matt to give him the hint that the solution was right in front of him. Matt, however, didn't see things that way. "I don't know;" he said "it seems very easy to get lost in here, and if we're going to get lost, we should do it with everyone in one place." "Well, I guess I can see the logic in that." Joe commented. "Logic, shmogic." Tai smirked, hopping past Matt "Let's go." "That's fine with me!" Mimi agreed, following him. "Me too!" Palmon added, jogging along. "Me three!" Gomamon shouted, joining the pack. "Wha-WAIT FOR ME!" Joe shouted, running to catch up. Before he'd gone, however, he dumped his bag by Izzy and called back "If we're just going to go a little ways, will you watch it for me? Thanks!" with that, he was gone without waiting for an answer. "Well, it looks like we're going." Sora sighed to Matt as she jogged off to join the others. "I don't believe this..." Matt grumbled to himself, shaking his head, as he slowly followed. Now left in the shaft, Izzy silently went about his work "All righty then!" Tentomon said "What are we going to do?" "Decipher this digi-script." Izzy stated as he began to rummage through his backpack. "Well, I figured that." Tentomon replied "I meant how?" "First of all," Izzy began "I intend to enter all of the digi-script into the computer. Then, I'll run it through all of my decryption programs and hope for the best." "Uh, OK." Tentomon answered. It was the last thing he said for several minutes. After a while (not that long really), he'd had enough. "Any luck?" he asked. "I haven't even begun." Izzy explained, fiddling with a digital camera. "Well, what have you been doing all this time?" Tentomon asked, perturbed. "This is the device I intend to use to enter the digi-script into the computer, I need to make sure I don't miss any detail." "OK, sure." Tentomon said , this time resolving to keep his mouth shut. So much for that. "Any progress?" he asked, not even a minute later. "No." Izzy replied curtly without turning around. "How about now?" Tentomon asked impatiently after a few seconds. "Tentomon." Izzy said, still staring into the camera "It is very difficult for me to work with your continued interruptions. If you want this to be done quickly, I ask you to refrain from conversation." Giving out an exasperated sigh, Tentomon gave up and plopped down on the other side of the room, settling in for a long stay "Something tells me this is going to be a very long couple of hours..." ******************** The sentry mover slowly through the service shafts of the facility. The tracking systems showed that the intruders had penetrated the power core, fortunately, they hadn't caused any damage, all but two of them had left, and toe two remaining seemed to pose no threat. They would be dealt with later. For the moment, the larger group posed 145.5% more of a threat. They would be eliminated first. ******************** "...so them Madeline's eyes get, like, huge and she shouts `Wait...Did you say your PARENTS bedroom?'. The Rumiko realized what's going on and runs, and I mean RUNS out to catch her dad before he gets in, and she catches him just as he's at the door and starts stalling. I don't even remember what it was she said, because as soon as we found out what was going on, we were just about breaking the door in trying to get Mitsuboshi and Tyrone out of there before Rumiko's dad got in..." "Don't you have any stories that don't sound like they came from a bad sitcom?" Matt interrupted. "Let her finish!" Tai laughed, trying to regain his breath "This is great!" "It's ridiculous, that's what it is." Matt insisted. "Aw, screw him." Tai shot back "So go on, Mimi. What happened?" "Well," Mimi picked up "They got back out of the window just before her dad caught on and took a look inside. And, see, Tyrone had left one of his sneakers, just one, in the room and, of course, he wanted to know who's it was. Then Madeline panicked and said it was her's. And, of course, that was so stupid `cause it was way bigger than her size. She just said it was a fashion and, of course, he almost bought that, but then he asked why there was only one. Then she tried to look like she hadn't even noticed that there was only one and said she'd forgotten the other one! I don't know why, but then he must have figured he had better things to do and left." "Let me get this straight." Matt said, incredulously "This guy's just come back unexpectedly, he finds you girls in his house obviously hiding something, and he finds somebody else's clothes-" "ONE SHOE." Mimi corrected. "Whatever." Matt sighed "And he just leaves?" "He'd had a bad day." Mimi explained "He didn't want to figure it out." "Besides," Tai added "It's not like it was his daughter in there." "Yeah," Mimi concurred "if it even looked like it had been, he would have called Interpol to help him figure it out!" "Figure out what?" T.K. asked innocently. "Nothing you need to know about." Matt answered quickly. "Yeah, this is strictly older kid stuff." Tai added. "Whadda ya mean, Tai?" T.K. continued "What was going on in there?" "Your asking the wrong question to the wrong guy." Matt answered, mockingly "I'll bet money he couldn't tell you. Not from personal experience, at least." "You'd be surprised." Tai shot back angrily. "I know I'd be" Mimi, who by this point had migrated up to Tai's side, purred sensuously as she wrapped her arm around Tai's neck "I bet he knows exactly what I'm talking about." You could have draped a shaggy wig on a solid red light bulb, and it wouldn't have come close to capturing how much Tai blushed. He tried to respond, but unintelligent syllables just tumbled out of his mouth. "You'll have to excuse Tai." Sora giggled, coming to her friend's rescue (and putting him back in his place at the same time) "He doesn't handle girls coming on to him very well." "Really?" Matt asked, suddenly quite interested. "Oh, yeah!" Sora laughed "There was this one really bad time at soccer camp...but I really don't need to be talking about something like that." "THANK YOU!" Tai sighed, remembering that particular incident quite vividly. "I still don't know what you're talking about." T.K. said, discouraged. "Uh... Matt?" Joe piped up from the back, worried as usual. "What?" Matt asked, annoyed. "Didn't we pass that big pipe all ready?" Matt was right there in a flash "I...I'm not sure." he said "We've passed a lot of pipes." "OH NO..." Joe said starting up yet another panic attack "WE'RE LOST!!!" "WE MOST CERTAINLY ARE NOT LOST!!!" Matt shot back "Just because this pipe looks familiar, that doesn't mean we're going in circles!" "Yeah," Sora agreed "If we had, we would have run into Izzy and Tentomon again!" "Not necessarily." Gabumon pointed out "We might have wound up in a circle that's two small to get back there." "Hey, who's side are you on?" Matt asked. "Well, are we lost or not?" Agumon interrupted "We still haven't figured that out yet." "We're NOT." Matt insisted. "Well, let's find out!" Tai suggested "We'll just go backwards and see if we get back!" "Are you crazy?" Matt asked, all ready convinced he was "This path may have looked obvious in this direction, but it'll look completely different going back! If we start messing around, then we really will be lost!" "Awww, come on, you worry wart!" Gomamon laughed "We can figure it out!" "Are you sure?" T.K. asked, taking his brother's side. "Sure!" Tai assured him "How hard can it be to walk back the way we've just been?" Matt began to protest, but he saw that every one's mind all ready seemed made up and figured it would be of no use. Thus, everybody made their way back down the winding path back to the center of the factory. ******************** After some time of mind numbing (to Tentomon at least) shooting of the digi-script, Izzy had finally begun to attempt deciphering. Unfortunately, that proved more difficult that either of them had planed. "Any luck yet?" Tentomon asked (once again). "No." Izzy sighed, frustrated (this time, at his lack of progress instead of at Tentomon) "I just don't have enough information to translate." "Well, what exactly do you need?" Tentomon asked, trying to make himself useful. "A Digi-script to Japanese Dictionary would be nice." Izzy suggested sarcastically. "Sorry, can't help you there." Tentomon sighed before having a sudden brain storm "HEY! Would it help if you had some additional examples to compare this to?" "YES!!!" Izzy exclaimed "That would be perfect!" "OK, let's see..." Tentomon thought to himself "Where's some more digi-script we could get to quickly?" "Hmmm...That might prove to be a problem..." Izzy mussed "There's all that writing up at the temple, but we don't need to be leaving without letting the others know where we are." "There's some on your digivice," Tentomon pointed out "let's try that!" At that, Izzy quickly fished out the small device and began to examine it. Sure enough, the ring around it's central screen did indeed bare a small amount of digi-script, unfortunately, only two of the symbols matched any of the ones on the walls. Then Izzy noticed something that had escaped his attention before, on the right side of the digivice a single, tiny symbol of digi-script had been lightly engraved in the casing. Due to it's small size, Izzy couldn't tell if that particular symbol was in the huge mess of characters on the walls or not, so he began to rub on it and see if he could clean it up more. What he did was dislodge the whole side of the casing. At first, Izzy feared he had broken it, but then he realized that the side seemed to have been designed to break away. Izzy figured that he hadn't discovered this because of how gingerly he'd been handling it until now. Not having any better idea, he decided to remove the casing completely. Underneath, Izzy found, to his complete amazement, that the digivice seemed to have been designed to connect with a laptop like his own. "What the devil?" Izzy muttered to himself as he examined his unexpected discovery. "What?" Tentomon asked, not having paid much attention. "I'm not sure, let's find out." Izzy said half consciously as he plugged the digivice into his laptop "I hope that digivices are compatible with Macintosh..." ******************** "`How hard can it be to walk back the way we've just been?' `How hard can it be to walk back the way we've just been?' AAAUGH!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE WE LET YOU TALK US INTO THIS!!!" "Shut up, Mimi!" Tai groaned "Nobody said you had to come too!" "Well it was STILL your idea!" Mimi shot back. "It doesn't matter who's idea it was." Sora butted in "All that matters right now is getting to where we know where we are!" "How can we when we don't know a thing about this place?" Joe moaned. "I think the idea is to wander around clueless and hope on some dumb luck." Gomamon joked bitterly. "That sounds like a Tai kind of plan." Matt agreed. "Well, it still sounds better than a Matt kind of plan:" Tai snarled "`let's all sit on out lazy butts until Hell freezes over' come on!" "Now look Tai;" Matt started "just because...wait a minute..." "What's the matter?" Tai mocked "Forget it already?" "Did you hear that?" Matt asked, not bothering to entertain the jab. "Hey, we're in a factory." Mimi pointed out "there're lots of things to hear!" "No no no..." Matt insisted "This was something different. Nearby too." "Hey, waittaminute..." Gabumon echoed "I do hear something!" Matt started to point out that he wasn't actually hearing anything any more, it had just been at that one moment, but he figured, given the skeptical attitude of his companions already, that it probably wasn't a good idea. "HEY, YEAH! So do I!" Agumon added "It almost sounds like something...I dunno...crawling around or something." "AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!" Joe shrieked "It's gotta be that thing Pumkinmon and Gatsumon warned us about!" "They didn't warn us about a 'thing'!" Sora corrected, trying to avoid thinking about the warnings. "But they did say no one comes out of here alive!" Mimi whimpered, teetering on the edge of falling into the panicky pit that Joe lived in perpetually (try saying that five times fast!). "This isn't the best thing to be dwelling upon right now." Biyomon urged "Let's just be on our way and-" Biyomon never got a chance to finish: straight in front of them, up through the metal grating that made the floor, burst a towering, mechanical nightmare. A least eight feet tall, the instantly terrifying robot was a cluttered mess of cables, gears, boxes, and plates; seemingly on the verge of collapsing upon it's self, yet with an indescribably lethal air. "I SURE HEARD THAT!!!" Tai shouted. "INTRUDERS LOCATED." the giant flatly bellowed in a rumbling, yet tinny voice "INITIATING TERMINATION PROTOCALLS." "T-T-TERMINATION?!?!?" T.K. stuttered unsteadily. "Come on!" Matt shouted, grabbing his sibling "We're getting out of here!" ********************** Izzy's hopes that the Digivice would be compatible with Macs weren't quite realized, but he was too busy being confounded over what he found to care. Once he finished connecting the two, several files were automatically transferred into the laptop. Because they didn't seem to be designed for Macs (Izzy didn't even venture to guess what it was designed for), he had to go through a number of translation programs to get anything to work. Once that was out of the way, he mused for a moment over what he should open first. Finally, he decided to hope that they had been arranged in an intelligent order and went for the first on the top. While he knew it was a text file, the gibberish title (jugfNKvi?®•4eb%$*(%b¥ƒjfkhT^gkoilk) didn't bode well as to it's contents. sure enough, a rather underwelmed Izzy was met with an nonsensical jumble of computer code. "I don't believe this..." Izzy groaned "Please tell me that you're just two overwhelmed about discovering exactly what you wanted to see..." Tentomon begged, trying not to think that all that time had been for naught. "I wish I could," Izzy answered, scrolling through the mass of text and symbols "but I just don't know what to make of all this. It seems to be in programming language, but I don't see how this could ever make any kind of working program." "Well, precisely what is it that leave this unworkable?" Tentomon asked. "EVERYTHING!" Izzy explained "This couldn't form an operating program any more than that jumble of letters and the like in the title make a word!" "Maybe we just haven't read far enough?" Tentomon offered, trying to stay optimistic. "I hope that's it." Izzy sighed "There certainly is more than enough in this file to make that a possibility. This thing is huge." "UH OH." Tentomon stuttered, suddenly apprehensive "I hope this doesn't mean I have to be quiet again..." ********************** With a sickening moan the metal frame of what had, up to that moment, been a huge storage tank fell in on it's self after being split straight through the center. The huge digimon, who the others had identified as Andromon, calmly strolled through the mess of metal like a any of the ones he pursued would walk through a door: without a second thought. Some ways ahead, the group of twelve humans and digimon ran frantically from the imposing figure without stopping to even think where they were going. If they hadn't been lost before, the certainly were now. "WHAT IS THAT CREEP'S PROBLEM?" Mimi screeched as she ran. "I guess he didn't feel like having any visitors today!" Palmon offered. "Well, I'm sure we'd be happy to leave and come back latter if we just knew how." Gabumon panted. "Speaking of which," Sora called "just where are we going?" "I'll worry about that when I get there!" Tai called back, not exactly in team spirit at the moment. "For once, we agree!" Matt shouted "We wouldn't know where we were going even if we had time to figure it out!" Before anyone had a chance to make another comment, the dimly lit walk way in front of them erupted in a spray of smoke and sparks. Nothing had had the chance to settle before Andromon steeped out and began to move towards his prey. "Wha- But- How did he get in front of us?" T.K. sputtered. "He must have gone around!" Matt grunted, Damn it! he thought We should have been paying more attention! "Quick! Let's get out of here!" "To where?" Sora asked, already on her way. "What makes you think I know?" Matt quipped as he passed her. "This is hopeless!" Joe whined "That guy knows every nook and cranny of this place! How are we supposed to get away from him?" "I'M WORKING ON IT!!!" Matt shouted, not wanting to be reminded of the seriousness of their predicament. "In other words, we're screwed." Tai answered bitterly. "We'll figure it out!" Gabumon assured the pessimistic crew "Just give it some time!" The words were barely out of the digimon's mouth when the side wall exploded in another spray of sparks, revealing a familiar, huge silhouette. "Like we've got time..." Gomamon shot back darkly as they began running again. It was hard to tell when it happened, but at some point the group wound up in what seemed to be the basement of the factory. The walkways, which hadn't been that large in the first place, became more like crawlways. It lighting virtually disappeared as well. So there they were: crawling, climbing, and, in other ways, writhing through a mess of pipes and manholes as fast as they possibly could (which wasn't fast at all). Of course, Andromon was always just behind them. Or in front or beside or whatever the case may be. There would be a flash, a quick sound, and there he was. He was never moving, he didn't seem to have even been touching the wall or floor he suddenly appeared behind. He was just there. Then he began to move. That's when the nightmare would really begin... There'd be another flash, this time emanating from Andromon's fist, and everything around him would vanish in a terrifying explosion. In an instant, every wall, floor panel, everything in the vicinity warped and snapped under the sudden stress; except for what was directly next to the blast. That was blown into razor sharp shreds of shrapnel that streaked in every conceivable direction. Usually, in the confusion of the attacks, the terrified prey could slip through the stress fractures caused by the attack and start running all over again. To some, this may seem an incredibly stupid manner of hunting, but Andromon knew exactly what he was doing. He could easily have annihilated the intruders the moment they entered his view, but that wasn't the only thing he had on his mind. His master had made his orders very clear: He was to test the intruders. Record their abilities and try to determine their origins. He would not attempt to terminate them until his reinforcements had arrived. Devimon was not about to take any chances with them. Andromon had not been informed who his reinforcements were, only that he was to wait for their arrival. It somewhat perplexed him; not his being forbiden to destroy them then, Devimon's reasoning was quite clear, given the two previous victories against single assailants he had been made aware of with his assignment. What vexed him was why reinforcements were needing to be sent, as the guardian of the dungeon was always present in the lower levels. Andromon's personal experience told him that the guardian's strength was, at the very least, equal to his; shouldn't he then be summoned as the reinforcements? More over, why had his orders expressly forbid him to enter the lower levels? Andromon only mussed over this for a moment. There was sure to be a reason behind Devimon's decision. There always was. The fleeing prey of Andromon knew nothing of all this, of course. All they knew was, for the moment, their world consisted of nothing more than running and hiding. Seemingly endless minutes of mindless running interrupted by terrifying moments of light, stinging debris, and a mad scramble to get to where they couldn't be seen again. "QUICK!!! OVER HERE!!!" Matt ordered to the others as they fell unceremoniously through a fissure in the floor and into the corridor below. "WHY? What's over there?" Tai asked. "Hell, I dunno, but it looks better than that way." Matt shrugged, already taking off. "That's good enough of a reason for me!" Gomamon shouted, shooting down the corridor. "How can you run so fast when you don't even have feet?" Joe asked as he ran to catch up. "WELL THAT'S NOT ENOUGH OF A REASON FOR ME!!!" Mimi whined, following anyway. "Yeah, I don't recall voting you king of the world." Tai challenged. "What, you got a better idea?" Matt shot back "Seeing how great your ideas have been lately, I'd love to hear it!" "Look," Tai replied "how was I suppose to know that we'd get lost?" "BECAUSE I SAID WE WOULD!!!" Matt shouted "WOULD IT KILL YOU TO LISTEN FOR A MOMENT?" "ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH OUT OF BOTH OF YOU!!!" Sora commanded "THIS ISN'T HELPING THINGS ANY!!!" "Yeah!" Joe added "We've got enough things trying to kill us, we don't need to be killing each other!" "DON'T GIVE ME ANY IDEAS!" Matt warned as he grudgingly let it slide. ********************** Tentomon didn't realize he'd fallen asleep until he woke up. He had been dreaming that he was trapped in a room where time stood still; OK, maybe it wasn't much of a "dream". Izzy was still at his computer, showing no sign that he'd even moved an inch. "OH..." Tentomon moaned unhappily "Haven't you read all that yet?" "I'm afraid not. " Izzy stated, yawning "I have yet to find any discernible meaning to all this either." "So how far along are you anyway?" Tentomon asked, praying that the answer was 'VERY'. "Roughly one fourth of the way." Izzy explained deadpan. "WHAT?!?!?" Tentomon replied, not the least bit deadpan. "I'm trying to be thorough, Tentomon!" Izzy explained. "I'm all for thorough, but this is ridiculous!" Tentomon moaned. "I'm sorry but..." then Izzy froze. "What?" Tentomon asked. "THAT'S ALL!!!" "WHA-but- I thought you said you were only-" Tentomon stuttered. "I did!" Izzy answered, quite surprised himself "But that's all the code!" "Well what's all that?" Tentomon asked, pointing to the continuing writing on the laptop screen. "Greek." Izzy remarked, quite puzzled. "So can you read it now?" Tentomon asked, not that sure what "Greek" was, but hoping it was a written language. "Yes," Izzy answered "And it shouldn't take me as long to read this, assuming there's as much of it as there was code, but..." "I don't like the sound of that." Tentomon muttered nervously. "ARG!!!" Izzy shouted, quite startling Tentomon, who had never seen an outburst like that from Izzy "IT'S MORE JIBERISH!!!" "NOOOOO!!!" Tentomon howled, no longer surprised by Izzy's growl "It HAS to mean something!" "No...It's just as meaningless as before." Izzy sadly explained "Actually, it's even worse. There doesn't even seem to be any sentence structure this time. At least there was some sign of intelligence behind those inscriptions, this is just a chain of meaningless words!" Tentomon didn't even bother to reply this time (a sign of extreme dismay for that particular digimon) and just settled into his little space on the other side of the room again. ********************** Now one could tell how long they had been running by this point. The unimaginable fear of knowing that the monster chasing them could simply pop out of the walls at any moment had a tendency to make time pass rather slowly. All they knew was they couldn't keep it up for too much longer. They were, of course, exhausted; but that wasn't it. The many showers of shrapnel that Andromon's attacks had rained upon them were taking their toll. None of their wounds were serious, but they were still wounds, so they hurt. Plus, the farther down the went to flee the menace, the darker and more cluttered the passages became. Despite their best efforts not to dwell on it, it was obvious that soon they wouldn't be able to see well enough to move quickly. And, obviously, the couldn't afford to slow down. "Does any one have a light?" Matt called back to the rest of the party. "I did..." Joe moaned "Why did I have to leave my bag with Izzy? I should have known I'd need it! STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!" "WELL, YOU DIDN'T, SO SHUT UP ABOUT IT!!!" Tai shouted back, quite ticked off. "HEY! I've got a light!" Agumon piped up. "Hey, yeah!" T.K. replied "You can do that fire breathing thing!" "But that doesn't stay put very long." Sora pointed out. "Well, it'll light things up for a minute." Agumon answered. "Hang on." Matt cut in "If we had something to light, we could make a torch." "Well, what do we have that'll burn?" Joe asked "All that's around here is metal." "We'd just need something to wrap around a poll or something." Matt corrected "Maybe some cloth?" "Well, it's not like we have much by the way of disposable clothes," Joe pointed out "This is all we have!" "Not Mimi!" Palmon replied stupidly "She's got tons of clothes in that suitcase!" Mimi replied only with a hostile glare. "OH, NOT THAT I'M SUGJESTING ANYTHIG, OF COURSE!" Palmon nervously shouted "OH, NO! I'M NOT SUGGESTING ANYTHING AT ALL! NOPE! NOT ME!" "I've got an extra shirt in my back pack!" T.K. offered "You can use it!" "No, it's all right T.K." Matt replied "We'll think of something." "Oh, no favoritism there!" Tai mocked under his breath (but still quite audible). "Hey, shut up Tai." Matt growled "IN FACT, LET'S USE A FEW LOCKS OF YOUR HAIR! YOU'VE GOT PLEANTY TO SPARE!" "Hey, we may not have to!" Biyomon cut in "Look up there!" Sure enough, in the far distance, obscured by the many pipes and girders in the way, a yellow light flickered in the distance. "I hope that's a good thing." Joe sighed to himself. "How could it be bad?" Patamon asked "Now we can see!" "Don't answer him, Joe!" Sora instructed, sure that Joe could come up with fifty things that could be lurking in the distance. "Why not?" T.K. asked, oblivious. "Yeah!" Gomamon added "If there could be big, giant, razor toothed monsters out there, why should we talk about it?" "COOL!" T.K. laughed, not quite grasping the darker side of Gomamon's sarcasm. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any "big, giant, razor toothed monsters" in the light. What did turn out to be there was a sudden patch of stone wall abruptly stuck between the metallic panels. The light came from two flames, similar to the ones they'd seen earlier, on either side of a small shaft in the stone leading down into an inky black none of them could see into. "HEY!" Agumon shouted, peering in "We could hide down there!" "I don't know." Matt replied somewhat needlessly, as every one else knew he was going to object "We don't know what could be down there." "Plus, we've already gone down a long way." Sora added "What if we can't get back up?" "Well, whatever we do, let's do it soon!" Joe pleaded "Andromon's way overdue for an appearance!" "Maybe he's bored?" Patamon offered, desperately hopping he was right. The truth was far more unsettling: Andromon was right beside them, contemplating his next move. If his prey traveled down the shaft they now halted before, Andromon would be forbidden to follow them. At first, it would seem to be prudent to attack immediately. Unfortunately, he was also forbidden to attack in a lethal manner until receiving orders to the contrary. Logically, they would attempt to flee the moment they became aware of his presence, and being so close to the shaft to the labyrinth, they would surely head that way. The only solution that presented it's self was to wait for them to distance themselves from the shaft. But that proved problematic as well. The group already showed signs that they suspected Andromon was no longer seeking them at the moment. They openly talked about waiting by the shaft, as he seemed to be staying away from it. Whether these creatures were incredibly smart or incredibly lucky was beyond him, but it proved beside the point. He simply couldn't stay there, he was incapable of gathering information on the creatures' combat capabilities unless they were in combat! Meanwhile, the exhausted group had indeed decided to rest for a moment (unanimously, in fact; the first time that had ever happened). "OOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!! My clothes are RUINED!!!" Mimi whined "Look at all these rips! And nothing gets blood out! Waitaminute.... `BLOOD?' AUGH!!! I'M BLEEDING!!!" "Yeah, getting blasted with shrapnel does that to you." Tai explained, tending to his own wounds. "So..." Gomamon piped up "Anybody got any bright ideas about what to do after we're done resting?" "I think that's obvious." Matt answered "We've got to figure out some way back out of this place without Andromon catching us." "After we get Izzy and Tentomon." Sora added. "Well, yeah." Matt said dismissively. Actually, he was about to suggest that they simply get themselves out, as Izzy seemed smart enough to get himself out, but suddenly that seemed like a bad thing to suggest, so he didn't. "Of course, it'd help if we had some idea how." Gabumon pointed out. "Well, there's obviously something about this place that's keeping him away." Biyomon offered. "Yeah, but what?" Sora asked. "Gee...I wish Izzy was here..." Patamon sighed when no one else said anything "He knows everything!" "Well, I hate to say `I told you so' yet again" Matt said, eyeing Tai coldly. "Hey, I'm just trying to help out!" Tai shot back. "Well then help us!" Matt countered angrily "DON'T HELP US!" "HEY!" Tai shouted back "Don't you go bossing me around! Nobody said you were the leader here!" "Well, I don't see anyone else here who wants the job." Matt said, pausing a moment to look around. When no one squirmed, he turned his attention back to Tai "And you obviously don't have a clue about anything." "Oh yeah?" Tai continued "Well what makes you so special?" "Hey, I just happen to have an ounce of common sense," Matt answered mockingly "something that seems to be a rare commodity around here." "And just what is `common sense', anyway?" Tai asked "Sitting around in a corner not doing anything? `Cause that's all you ever seem to want to do." "What I want is to wait until I can figure out the whole situation before doing something so that we don't do anything stupid!" Matt answered "You, on the other hand, seem to run on `stupid' exclusively!" "QUIT TALKING LIKE YOU KNOW EVERYTHING!!!" Tai shouted, running low on intelligent arguments. "Would you like me to talk like I don't know anything, like you?" Matt jabbed. With that, Tai snapped. Unleashing a sudden howl of rage, he lunged at Matt and tried to rid him of a few teeth. Unfortunately (for Tai), Matt was out of the way before Tai's fist was anywhere near it's target. Matt then spun his attacker around and, with an unfair amount of relish, landed several punched square in Tai's face. "TAI!!!" Sora shouted, rushing with Agumon to their fallen comrade's side "Are you all right?" "Get offa me!" Tai grunted, pushing them both away. He tried to shoot Matt a dirty look, but when every opening in your head seems to be pouring blood, it's kind of hard. "I hope somebody's learned a lesson here?" Matt admonished with a look of supreme satisfaction. Too embarrassed to say anything, Tai simply got up and ran, blindly, down the corridor. "Tai, come back here!" Sora and Agumon shouted, nearly in unison. "Matt, if Mom was here, you'd get in big trouble for fighting!" T.K. admonished. If `Mom' was here, I'd have given her some too, Matt thought angrily, knowing better than to say it. "Hey, where's everybody going?" Mimi asked, noticing that the group was beginning to dwindle. "Come on! We've got to catch Tai!" Sora shouted from someplace down the hallway. "Oh... All right..." Mimi moaned, loathing the thought of getting up again. Finally! Andromon thought with relief as the intruders began to leave the portal. Speed was now of the essence: he had to drive them far enough away from the portal that there was no longer any risk of them fleeing to the lower levels. This waiting had already taken far to long. He was going to enjoy this. "Whoa! Where're you going Mimi?" Joe shouted back as she and Palmon started running backwards. "Just a second!" Palmon called back "Mimi needs to get her shoes back on!" "What'd you even take `em off for?" Gomamon asked. "Hey, I've been wearing these things for days now!" Mimi complained "I needed a break!" Joe started to say something, but was cut off by a sudden explosion behind him. "I hope that wasn't what it sounded like..." He whimpered, looking behind him slowly. Sure enough, Andromon had emerged between the four of them and the rest of the group. DAMN! Andromon swore to himself I didn't mean to split them up! He now calculated that there was a 95% chance that the four by the portal would indeed use it. Theoretically, it wouldn't hinder all of Andromon's attempts to record information on them; of course, it would be hard to record the rest of their digivolutions when there was only one of the group left on whom the information wasn't already available. Still, it greatly bothered him that he'd made such a mistake. Sure enough, the four of them were already making their way to the portal. At least there was the two in the power center, they would be able to provide some additional information. "MIMI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?" Joe shouted as his companion dove head first into the strange hole in the wall. "WHAT'S IT LOOK LIKE?" Mimi shouted back "I'M NOT STICKING AROUND THIS PLACE ANOTHER SECOND!" "But you don't know what's down there! It could be worse than Andromon!" Joe replied. "Uh, Joe? If that's the way you feel about it, why are we going down this way too?" Gomamon asked from behind. Suddenly (not a moment too soon) Joe came to the realization that he too had dived into the hole and was, at that moment, sliding at breakneck speed into God only knew what. "Oh, crap..." "HEY! WHERE'S JOE AND MIMI?" Sora shouted, looking around fanatically. "AND GOMAMON AND PALMON?" Biyomon added. "YEAH, THEM TOO!" Sora agreed, somewhat unconsciously. "They probably tried that shaft thing!" Matt guessed. "I hope there isn't anything bad down there..." Gabumon mused before turning his attention to more pressing matters "So, now what do we do?" "Running works for me!" Matt said, taking the lead. "Yes sir, oh mighty ruler sir!" Tai angrily shot back. "That works for me too!" Matt answered sarcastically, not feeling like knocking Tai around at the moment. "Tai, I know you're not very happy at the moment, but can you save it for later?" Agumon pleaded. "Hey, it's not my fault he's a jerk!" Tai defended. "Look, we can gang up on him later, `kay?" "Yeah, OK, fine." Tai shrugged. "So what are we going to do about the others?" T.K. panted, quite concerned. "There's not much we can do!" Matt grumpily replied. "We'll come back for them later, don't worry!" Sora assured him. "But how'll we be to find them?" T.K. pressed, for the first time, it seemed, grasping the seriousness of the situation "We don't even know where we are!" "We WILL find them. OK?" Sora answered firmly. "I...uh...yeah, OK..." T.K. agreed half-heartedly. That's right Sora, we WILL find them. We WILL find them...Sora told herself over and over again so she wouldn't forget. "Listen to her lying like that." Tai joked darkly. "Who said she was joking?" Gabumon asked "We just need to shake Andromon!" "Yeah, but how? I don't know it you noticed, but none of you guys seem to feel like digivolving at the moment, and you sure can't take him as you are!" "Hey, it's not our fault!" Agumon insisted "I don't know why it's not working!" "Can we worry about that later?" Matt cut in "There's nothing we can do about it right now, so don't whine about it." "You don't have to be so defeatist about it!" Tai jabbed "We're not quite dead yet!" "I'm not being defeatist, I'm being realistic!" Matt corrected "You should try it sometime!" "Who says I don't?" Tai asked. "I do!" Matt insisted "You don't know a thing about the real world!" "Why, `cause I don't wish I'd just roll over and die like you? What's real about that?" "Well, it's a lot more real that your dainty little picture perfect world!" Matt shot back. "OH! So THAT'S it!" Tai shouted with an odd sense of triumphant "Just `cause my life doesn't suck like yours, I don't have the marvelous wisdom it's given you!" "Yeah, that's about it." Matt grunted. "I think you're jealous!" Tai jabbed. At that, Matt let loose a cruel, jackal-like laugh "ME? Jealous of naive idiot like you? If I've ever said you weren't funny, Tai, I take it back!" "You go ahead and deny it all you want..." Tai mocked. "All right Tai, you listen to me." Matt interrupted, this time dead serious "I would sooner be skinned and eaten alive by mad rats than have to spend a second as you." With that, the group resigned to simply running once again. Silently. ********************** "Tentomon? Tentomon? Where'd you go?" Izzy shouted. "I'm coming! I'm coming!" Tentomon shouted back, hurrying into the large column again "What's the matter?" "Nothing's the matter," Izzy explained "I was just wondering where you were." "Oh, sorry." Tentomon apologized, blushing a bit "I was just looking to see if the others were back yet." "Oh, right!" Izzy remarked. He hadn't forgotten about them (not exactly) but they had been, frankly, the last thing on his mind "Any sign of anything?" "Nope." Tentomon sighed "How about you? Anything worth mentioning?" "I'm not sure." Izzy answered, turning back to the computer "I've completed the Greek section, and a Japanese section that followed it, and a Spanish section followed that. Now I'm reading a stretch of English." "They're not all gibberish like the rest, are they?" Tentomon asked, warily. "Well, yes and no.." Izzy responded "They're all gibberish but I don't think that it's quite as nonsensical as I'd assumed previously." "Pardon?" Tentomon asked, lost (he was getting used to being unable to follow Izzy). "Well, despite the difference in language and grammar," Izzy elaborated "every one of these sections seem to have the same meaning." "I thought you said they were gibberish." Tentomon cut in. "That's tight, I did. Sorry." Izzy grunted, rubbing his eyes, he'd been at this for some time and it seemed to be getting to him "Let me rephrase that: the words are gibberish, but it's the same gibberish repeated in each section." "But what about that computer code?" Tentomon asked "I thought you said something about it not actually being a language." "I know, but there are a few instances in which there seems to be a shared pattern. Look." Izzy directed, scrolling up to the top of the file and point to some symbols "This means `begin', it's repeated a number of times throughout the section. Now in the following sections," he continued, scrolling back to where he had been previously "other words for `begin' are used in roughly the same locations in their respective sections." "So it's just using the code as another alphabet?" Tentomon asked, hoping he had it right. "I believe so." Izzy explained "However, most of the code doesn't seem to have a direst meaning in traditionally language, so I can't speak with absolute certainty." "Um, OK." Tentomon sighed, deciding that since he knew what was going on for the moment, he should quit while he was ahead "I'll just stay out by the door in case the others get back. You just give a holler if-" "Tentomon!" Izzy interrupted suddenly. "-you need me?" Tentomon stuttered, finishing his sentence and asking what was going on at the same time. "I'm at the end of the document!" "Does it give an explanation?" he inquired, dashing to Izzy's side. "Maybe, look." Izzy directed, pointing to a small grouping of text at the bottom "These actually have a message." "YES!!!" Tentomon joyfully shouted "What do they say?" "`Go to...' and then there's another jumble of symbols I can't read." Izzy explained "However, I believe that it's the title of the next document." "That thing's better not be another bunch of gibberish again." Tentomon half threatened. "Don't worry," Izzy assured him "It's an image file this time." "I wonder what king of image?" Tentomon wondered as the pic loaded. "What...it's DIGI-SCRIPT!" Izzy exclaimed. "Oh, GREAT!" Tentomon moaned "At least we could read the other stuff-" "WAIT!" Izzy interrupted gazing intently at the black and white page of Digi-script while pulling up the previous page again. "What is it?" Tentomon asked timidly, somewhat stunned by the command. Instead of answering, Izzy simply read over the Japanese portion of the text, jumped back to the Digi-script, and back again. "Uh, Izzy?" Tentomon asked again. "Could it be?" Izzy thought aloud. "What?" Tentomon begged. "I...I don't believe it!" Izzy whispered, eyes widening. "Don't believe what?" Tentomon asked urgently. It was obvious that something good was happening, and he wanted to know what it was! "It's a Rosseta Stone!" Izzy half laughed (the first time Tentomon had ever seen anything like that out off him). "A WHAT?" Tentomon shouted, almost in tears with frustration. "THESE FILES MAKE UP SOME KIND OF TRANSLATION KEY!!!" Izzy exclaimed. Tentomon tried to respond, but he was to overwhelmed with the concept to articulate it. They actually had a key to Digi-script? He hadn't believed that such a thing could even exist! "How...How do you know?" he finally muttered. "Look!" Izzy giddily exclaimed "Remember when I showed you that word that was repeated in every portion of the text? Well, there's a symbol that's repeated in every respectable section of this Digi-script! And that's not the only instance! Virtually every one of these symbols seems to equal the words before!" "WOW...." Tentomon mumbled, still in awe "Does that means you can translate all the writing in here?" "I don't know, there seems to be quite a lot of symbols that aren't in this file, but I might!" Izzy answered, typing even more frantically than before "In the mean time, I'm going to see what these other files are for!" ********************** "...I just couldn't resist, you know? There's just something about Tai that makes it easy to pick on him. I don't know what it is, just something." Joe didn't actually say anything about it, but didn't Mimi ever shut up? She'd just started rambling a minute after they got an idea where they were, and now she wouldn't shut up! The only thing that struck him as more amazing than her ability to ramble was the fact that she's managed to keep that big suitcase with her in that dive. It was almost like it'd been surgically attached to her hand. "But, I mean, it's not like I was lying about anything." Mimi continued "He is pretty cute. He oughta get a haircut, of course, but it's not that bad, you know? Matt's pretty cute too, but he just seems so frigid and all that. I bet he's never even had a girlfriend..." "Don't you have anything else to talk about?" Joe sighed finally "This is getting old." "Of course, they're not the only cute boys around here!" Mimi purred sensuously, suddenly right next to him with arms draped around his neck "There's a certain guy with glasses who's not too bad either!" "AUGH!!!" Joe panicked "STAY BACK, VIXEN! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE! GO PIC ON TAI SOME MORE!" "JOE, YOU ARE PATHETIC!!!" Gomamon guffawed, thoroughly enjoying the entire scene. "Honestly!" Mimi sighed, shaking her head "Doesn't anyone know how to take a compliment around here?" "Not if they're Joe, they don't!" Gomamon snickered. "Oh, you're a lot of help!" Joe shouted before storming off, thoroughly embarrassed. "Come on, Joe!" Gomamon called, rushing to catch up "You have to admit it was pretty funny!" "No I don't!" Joe replied steadfastly as he made his way down the stony corridor. These new pathways were, thankfully, easier to navigate than those in the factory. In fact, they bore very little resemblance to the said factory whatsoever. Reasonably, if not spectacularly, tall and wide, the halls didn't really seem to have anything else remarkable about them. Everything seemed to be made of the same stone that made up the walls around the shaft that lead them there. Everything in these passages (much to Mimi's distaste) was quite plain, the only detail gracing the walls, outside of scattered cracks, was occasional torches lighting portions of the labyrinth. Labyrinth was, unfortunately, exactly what this place was turning out to be. While the factory was simply confusing, whoever designed these passages obviously had only an urge to mislead. In the few short minutes that the four had been searching for an exit (the shaft was too steep and slick to climb back up), they had already encountered five dead ends. Fortunately, they hadn't encountered Andromon or and friends of his. Still, they hadn't encountered much of anything, so it wasn't much comfort. "You wanna know what this place needs?" Mimi asked (well, it was almost a statement the way she said it.) "I bet you're going to tell us." Joe said under his breath, loud enough to hear though. "EVERYTHING!" Mimi answered "This place is soooo boring! At least that factory had some activity!" "Oh, I'm sorry!" Gomamon cut in "I didn't realize you enjoyed being hunted down to be killed!" "I was talking about the decor!" Mimi corrected "I'm not much for all that gray, but all the different levels was pretty cool. But this crapy basement thing...AUGH!!! I can't wait `till we get out of here!" "And that would be how, exactly?" Joe asked. "Well, um...let's see..." Mimi began, straining her brain to the limits (oh, that's far) "Well, we just...um...Why don't we listen for some noise from outside, and we'll follow that?" "There aren't any noises coming in from outside." Joe shot back, becoming more annoyed by the moment "In fact, the only noises in this whole...whatever it is are the ones coming out of you." "Uh, OK..." Mimi replied, searching for a new solution "...well...OH! We can look for a map or some kind of directions!" "There hasn't been directions, ANYTHING for that matter, in this whole place so far. And even if they were, we wouldn't be able to read them." "Maybe you couldn't, but us Digimon can!" Palmon replied. "Like you could read that stuff that Izzy stayed behind to check out?" Joe asked. "Um..." Palmon stuttered, embarrassed, before shifting attention to someone else "Any more ideas Mimi?" "Oh..." Mimi moaned, getting discouraged but trying not to think about it "...um...There was something on that kid's meal bag that said how a blind person could get out of a maze...What was it?" "Get someone who can see to help him!" Gomamon joked. "OH!!! NOW I REMEMBER!" Mimi exclaimed "You just keep one hand on the wall and start walking! Eventually, you'll get to the exit!" "But to do that, we'd have to walk down every single hall in this place!" Joe pointed out, having had that same kid's meal himself "It could take days. WEEKS even!" "OOOOOOOOOOhhhhhh!!!!!!" Mimi moaned, bursting into tears "You're right! We're not ever gonna get out of here! We're just gonna wander around until we starve to death and die!" "Oh, HELL, NO!" Gomamon cried, covering his ears "Not this again!" "Hey, come on Mimi!" Joe shouted over the din "You don't know that!" "Yes I do and so do you!" Mimi cried. Joe couldn't help but winch at that; he had been acting jerk a jerk lately... "Hey, I didn't mean all that stuff, Mimi." he insisted, trying to sound like he meant it. "But you were right..." Mimi whimpered, her breath starting to give out "We're just going-". "NO WE'RE NOT!" Joe said, mustering up all the force he could manage. Mimi was too startled by Joe's outburst not to shut up. Indeed, Joe himself was rather surprised to hear it coming out of him. But he certainly wasn't about to put up with Mimi's whining much longer. Well...That and... Well... He just couldn't stand the thought that he'd made her cry like that. "Look," he continued, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder "I was just sounding off. But we're never going to get out of here if we can't be level headed about things." "I...I..." Mimi stuttered, blushing a bit "...OK, I guess..." "OK, so what do your level heads think we should do to get out of this little maze?" Gomamon mocked. "I don't know," Joe confessed "but we'll come up with something." "Hey, why don't we ask him?" Palmon piped up, pointing behind them. There, at the far end of the hall, stood the first sign of life they'd seen since falling into the maze. And, frankly, they didn't like it: a single, red eye burned in the murky distance; coming towards them. "Uh, oh..." Gomamon growled lowly, positioning himself in front of Joe. "Level head, Mimi. Level head..." Mimi whispered to herself. "WHO GOES THERE?" bellowed a deep, strangely noble voice. "Uh...Friends?" Mimi yelped, trembling. Suddenly, the speaker stepped into the light of one of the torches. It was a huge, centaur-like creature covered in pieces of armor that seemed to be bolted directly into it's deep brown skin. It's face was totally hidden behind a steel, gladiator's helmet aside from that single, red eye. "HEY!" Palmon shouted "That's Centarumon!" "I've heard of you!" Gomamon said, suddenly looking much happier "You're supposed to be the greatest warrior on File Island!" "Uh...That's not the kind of person I want to meet lurking around in a place like this." Mimi commented. "I have trained longer than you have been in existence to earn that title. You are correct." Centarumon answered "Now what is your business in this place?" "Oh, we don't have any business!" Palmon giggled "We're just lost, that's all!" "WHAT?" Centarumon snarled "You violate this temple for no reason?" "TEMPLE?" Mimi started "I thought the temple was outside this place!" "Fool!" Centarumon hissed "That was but a security barrier! This is the temple! Do you know nothing?" "Hey! Take it easy! They're not from around here! " Gomamon laughed nervously, not mentioning that he wasn't from the area himself. "It is of no consequence." Centarumon interrupted "You will be punished for this incursion!" "...P...P...`Punished'?" Palmon stuttered. "Remember that stuff I said about staying level headed?" Joe asked, his voice quivering "Forget it; every word." With that, he took off down the dark hall way, the other three rushing to catch up. "But we just got away from Andromon!" Mimi shrieked "We're not supposed to still get chased! It's not fair!" "Welcome to the real world!" Gomamon sneered, not bothering to look back at her. ************************ "Ahh, there we go!" Izzy sighed contentedly. "All right!" Tentomon exclaimed "Is it working now?" "I believe so." Izzy answered "It would appear that all the remaining files were components of a single program." "Do we know what it's for yet?" "I'm about to find that out." Izzy replied, activating the program. In a flash, the screen was filled with a control panel of some sort. Just over half of the panel was a series of buttons that were labeled in an alphabet Izzy was unfamiliar with. The rest of the screen was a window of some kind that was totally empty. "FINALY!" Tentomon joyously exclaimed "Something I can read!" "Is this Digicode?" Izzy inquired "You bet!" Tentomon nodded "I can tell you about everything that's there!" "Very well, what does it mean?" "Um..." Tentomon hummed, scratching his head "That looks like...and then there's...OK, so that's...I have no idea." "Tentomon..." Izzy sighed, exasperated. "Sorry!" Tentomon apologized "I can tell you what this stuff says, but I don't know what it's talking about. Most of the buttons seem to be for changing some kind of settings, but they're all stuff like "alpha" or "twelve", stuff that doesn't tell you much." "But that's only most of them, right?" Izzy asked. "Yeah." Tentomon replied "For example, that top one says `select file for translation'" "YES!" Izzy shouted, for the second time that day "This program must be designed to translate the Digi-script into other languages!" "But...wasn't that what the other thing was for?" "I don't believe so." Izzy answered "Well, not any more. It would certainly seem quite redundant." "Well, anyway. How do you think it works?" "Why don't we find out?" Izzy proposed, clicking on the "select file" button. Upon being activated, the button grew into a window containing a list of file names collected from through the computer. Among these files were the photos of the Digi-script lining the chamber walls. Sure that an intelligent message couldn't be found from only on portion at a time, Izzy selected all of the photos at once. Somehow, the translation seemed to be able to determine right away that the photos had been taken of a circular chamber because, when the selection window closed, the main window contained a diagram of all the Digi-script in a three dimensional column. "Well now, that's convenient!" Tentomon commented, admiring the diagram. "Tentomon?" Izzy asked, more interested in the task at hand "I assume that one of these controls is to initiate the translation procedure?" "OH! That's right, the bottom one." "All right." Izzy mused "Cross your fingers." "I would be if I had any." Tentomon assured. With a click, the screen changed once again. Instead of a page of text, which Izzy had been hoping to find, the new window was simply a gauge of some kind, not unlike something you would find on a car dashboard. There didn't seem to be any markings along the vertical column, it simply rose to the top of the screen, a new one overlapping the previous when it reached the top of the screen. Izzy was about to look into shutting the simple program off when he noticed two odd details. First, with every trip to the top, the gauge/column started moving faster. Second, as the speed rose, a faint whistling sound began to emanate from the laptop. Izzy checked the speakers, but the didn't seem to be the source of the whine. Deciding to investigate the rest of the laptop, Izzy discovered a third thing, this time something quite troubling: the laptop was beginning to get hot. VERY hot. Izzy was so startled by the sudden heat that he dropped the laptop unceremoniously to the floor. As he cradled is slightly burned hand, realized that the screen was beginning to glow strangely. "Uh, Izzy?" Tentomon asked nervously. "I know, this is becoming quite unusual." "Well, yeah, but that's not what I meant. Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?" "Yes, the laptop is becoming quite hot." Izzy answered, gently rubbing his hand. "No, I meant `is the ROOM getting hotter?', because I'm beginning to feel rather ill." Izzy looked back to answer no, but couldn't manage much more that a stifled gasp when he saw that Tentomon was beginning to glow in the same manner as the screen. "Tentomon! What's happening?" "That's what I was asking...AUGH!!!" Tentomon screamed, only then realizing his luminescence and promptly panicking "HELP! HELP! I'M RADIOACTIVE OR SOMETHING! IT'S A DIGIMON MELTDOWN!!!" "TENTOMON, CALM DOWN!" Izzy instructed "Running around like that may only aggravate your condition!" "`Condition'?" Tentomon continued "AUGH!!! I'VE GOT A CONDITION!!!" "TENTOMON, CALM DOWN!!!" Izzy shouted. "HOW CAN I CALM DOWN? I'M BURNING UP AND I'M GLOWING AND IT'S SCARING THE HECK OUT OF ME!!!" Izzy frantically turned back to the laptop to try and determine if and how the program was affecting Tentomon. Unfortunately, all of the laptop was glowing by this point, and the heat emanate from it grew more incredible by the second. Even though it was already unheard of for a program to physically affect a computer in that fashion, Izzy was even more dumbfounded as to how Tentomon could be affected by it, as he was in no way connected to the computer. Wait... "Connected"? That was it! Trying to get as close as he could without burning himself, Izzy examined the Digivice, still plugged into the laptop. Sure enough, it seemed to be affected by the program. Not only was it glowing and whistling as well, but the center screen was displaying a quickly rising meter just like the laptop had been (it was glowing to brightly to see now). There was something else, however, the large, round button on the left was flashing as well, despite the fact that Izzy had never seen any sign of a light in it. Confusion aside, Tentomon had made it reasonable clear that there must be some connection between the digimon and the Digivices if they actually did trigger the digivolving process. Not waiting to figure things out any further, Izzy wrapped his hand in his shirt sleeve and mashed the laptop's power button. In an instant, the glowing and whining stopped increasing and began to fade. Likewise, Tentomon began to return to normal. "WHEW!" Tentomon sighed, collapsing against the wall "What just happened?" "I'm not sure." Izzy confessed, his mind raising even faster than usual. As he wrestled with the perplexing questions at hand, Izzy couldn't help but drift off into other subjects (something that happened VERY rarely with him). Ever since his arrival, Izzy had been continuously greeted with more and more questions every day; questions like Izzy had never know he would need to ask. Suddenly, reality it's self seemed to have been turned upside down. Nothing seemed to make sense any more. Perplexing as it was, however, Izzy found that he was far more exhilarated by it that disturbed. Often, without really meaning too, Izzy had entertained the thought that, given his unorthodox intellectual capacity at his young age, he might eventually learn and do everything he could well before the end of his life. What would he do then? Of course, he quickly discounted these macabre thoughts, as there was probably no way for anyone to learn "everything" in a single lifetime. Still, it had already started to happen in a way. In the back of Izzy's mind he'd begun to feel dissatisfied with his studies. Having mastered the "basics" to almost every subject ever taught in schools before he'd even begun going to school, virtually all of his life had become dedicated to researching various theories, philosophies, postulations, and other ideas most people didn't even know existed. They were fascinating at first, but Izzy had begun to notice several disturbing threads that seemed to run through them all. They all seemed to be re-dressings or perversions of previous concepts; old philosophies applied to different subjects and passed of as new ones. Even worse, as intellectually challenging as they may have been, Izzy had grudgingly begun to accept that most of them had very little bearing in reality, usually requiring the student to forsake all logic to follow. He had been pretending not to care, but it was beginning to bother perplex him greatly. But none of these things seemed present in the digital world. The very thing that confounded him the most, the fact that all law of nature and physics and...well, everything, they simply didn't apply anymore, it fascinated him to no end. Nothing seemed to be simple rehashes of past thought; in fact, it sometimes seemed that there was no thought at all. But that wasn't true at all, everything seemed to fit together perfectly, despite the ever present conundrums that should have pulled it all apart at the seams. What was more, he could see and touch everything. Everything, even the episode with the laptop and Tentomon, occurred before his own eyes, not simply in the mind of some strange collage lecturer. The shear freshens of it all was quite unlike anything he had ever known. The total newness of each an every question only seemed to power him that much more in his quests for solutions. Wait a minute... "powered..." Izzy snapped back to the matter at hand when the word cut into his mind. The top of the column was covered with cables that seemed to spread into every room and facility in the building. Why? There didn't seem to be anything in the column but the Digi-script. Suddenly, Izzy thought of something else: where was the light in the shaft coming from? Rather than having any specific lighting fixture, the walls themselves seemed to be glowing. So where was the power coming from? All those cables could have been providing the power, but they didn't seem to be coming out of anything and entering the column, but the seemed to be feeding off the column into the rest of the facility. Could the column it's self be the source of power? If so, how? Again, it was empty aside from the Digi-script. Suddenly, Izzy was greeted with a sudden flash of inspiration that he almost shunned without even intertwining. It was totally ridiculous! Sure, the rest of the digital world made little sense, but this was totally laughable! Still, Izzy felt that he needed to find a way to test it. Gazing up at the Digi-script, Izzy formed a rough idea for a test and began to rummage around in Joe's duffel bag. It certainly proved to be an enlightening journey; the bag must have had at least one of every trinket ever conceived by man. After a good minute of searching, Izzy came up with a small box of meddling clay. What possible use Joe could have had with it was beyond Izzy, but he certainly had a use for it. "Uh, Izzy? What's going on?" Tentomon asked. "I may have figured something out, but I'm not sure yet," Izzy explained "So I'm going to test my idea." "What exactly is that idea?" Tentomon inquired. "Believe me," Izzy half laughed "if I told you, you'd never believe I even considered it." While Tentomon puzzled over the odd answer, Izzy began to apply the clay into the crevices that made up one of the Digi-script characters. He had only begun to do so when, suddenly, the column went pitch black. At the same moment, the grinding drone of the machinery suddenly came to a screeching halt. Quickly, almost panickingly, Izzy pulled the clay out and everything became normal again. "What in heaven's name did you just do, Izzy?" Tentomon shouted. Rather than answer, Izzy quickly dove back into Joe's bag and fished out a note pad, a pencil, and a pack of bandages. With this odd assortment in hand, Izzy ran outside of the column. "Hey, wait up!" Tentomon called, tagging along "What are you doing now?" Izzy simply set work silently, tearing some of the sheets and bunching them together into a good sized ball. He then took the bandages and pencil and turned to Tentomon. "Could you give me a boost so I can see that torch?" he asked. "Um...Well, I can try." Tentomon agreed, weeping his arms around Izzy and taking flight. Correction, trying valiantly to take flight. In reality, they only made it a few inches off the ground. "WOW!" Tentomon panted "You're a lot heavier than you look!" "We don't have to got very high," Izzy assured "just close enough for me to get a good look at the Digi-script." Eventually (it seemed much longer to Tentomon than Izzy), they made it up to the torch and Izzy quickly began to copy the Digi-script onto one of the bandages. "Are you finished with...whatever you're doing?" Tentomon asked wearily. "Not yet." Izzy answered. "How about now?" "Not yet." "NOW?" "TENTOMON! I'm going as fast as I can!" "Well go faster than that, please, you seem to get heavier all the time!" "OK! There!" With that, Izzy and Tentomon fell unceremoniously to the floor. While Tentomon stated where he'd fallen, taking a well deserved rest, Izzy tore the bandage off it's roll and wrapped it around the ball of paper so that the copied Digi-script mimicked that found on the rim of the torch. For a moment, nothing seemed to be happening. Then, a small wisp of smoke snaked out of the top. In a second, the entire ball burst into flames. Watching the flame consume the paper ball, Izzy's mind was lost in such a furious mess of ideas that he could scarcely begin to comprehend what he was seeing. Somehow, he'd been right. "But..." he thought aloud "This is impossible." ************************ Andromon was steadily becoming more and more troubled by the situation as it developed. The most immediate of the increasing problems was the unpredictable nature of his prey. The seemed to relish in behaving irrationally: making bizarre turns time and time again despite his continued attempts to herd them to areas where they would be more manageable. He constantly left painfully obvious routes for them to follow, but, far too often, the would react in truly idiotic manners. Just as troubling was the six who were unaccounted for. The four in the lower levels probably wouldn't be able to cause much trouble, they would no doubt be annihilated by the guardian soon. It would definitely reflect badly upon Andromon for allowing them to escape, but the two in the power center worried him far more. At first, he'd assumed that the couldn't cause any trouble, but the momentary loss of power seemed to suggest otherwise. Still, he couldn't risk loosing sight of the rest of his prey to deal with them. Everything seemed to be going wrong that day. If Andromon thought he was having a bad day, he should have asked his prey how they were doing: "MATT!" T.K. panted from behind "I don't think I can run any more!" "You're going to have to!" Matt instructed "We can't stop until we shake Andromon!" "But how do we do that?" Gabumon asked, discouraged. "HOW SHOULD I KNOW?" Matt snapped. "GASP!" Tai mocked "OUR FEARLESS LEADER DOSEN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!" "Oh, and I suppose you do?" Matt challenged. "No, but at least I don't pretend that I do." Tai shot back. "Man..." Sora moaned "I hope Joe and Mimi are having more fun than we are." ************************ "Impressive." Centarumon bellowed "You're ingenuity far surpasses your physical ability." "Well I'm glad he approves." Joe whispered, trying his best to stay out of sight. "Still, all the ingenuity in this world won't keep you safe forever." Centarumon continued, not caring that he couldn't actually see who he was addressing "I won't continue to be as forgiving as I have been." Indeed, he had been extraordinarily forgiving. For some time now, the fearsome digimon had been playing cat-and-mouse with the foursome. Not wanting to end the game too soon, he'd given them several chances to evade him when they were sure that he'd cornered them. "I...can't...take...much...more...of...this!" Mimi whimpered, teetering on the edge of crying again. "MIMI!" Gomamon hissed "I FORBID you to cry!" "You can't forbid me anything!" Mimi hissed back. "Sure I can if it'll keep helmet head off our back!" Gomamon insisted. "`Helmet head' eh?" Centarumon laughed, suddenly next to them "AUGH!!!" Gomamon screamed, leaping almost to the ceiling "I-I-I meant that in the most respectful way! REALLY!" "Your humor is considerable." Centarumon responded, sarcastically "Perhaps I should keep you alive just too make me laugh." "YEAH! YEAH! THAT WORKS FOR ME!" Gomamon quickly agreed "ESPECIALLY THE `KEEPING ME ALIVE' PART!" "SHUT UP, GOMAMON!" Joe shouted, grabbing the digimon and tearing in the opposite direction of Centarumon. As usual, he waited until they were out of sight before giving chase. ************************ Tentomon was getting more and more worried about Izzy. After his little fire-starting escapade, he began pouring over the translation program, not saying a thing outside of demanding a translation for the buttons. The, all of a sudden, he jumped up and ran out into the factory. It was all Tentomon could do to keep up. "I don't mean to sound insubordinate," he panted, dashing behind Izzy "but if you don't explain just what's happening, I'm going to get quite annoyed!" "I've got to find the others!" Izzy explained, for the umpteenth time. "Yes, we've been over that." Tentomon replied "WHY?" "I this information I've discovered about the Digi-script!" Izzy stated "I've got to tell them!" "When you're done with them, I trust you'll finally get around to telling me!" Tentomon poked, hoping to guilt Izzy into an explanation. It didn't work. "OH, COME ON IZZY!" he finally shouted "I WANNA KNOW WHAT YOU FOUND!" "Somehow, that set of Digi-script is powering these whole factory!" Izzy finally explained. "What?" Tentomon asked, suddenly unsure of Izzy's mental state "Are you sure you didn't bonk you head when we hit the floor?" "Tentomon!" Izzy insisted "Didn't you see what happened in that room? That Digi-script made up some kind of program that generates energy! That's why everything powered down when I obscured one of the characters! And what about when we reproduced it in the computer? The same kind of power generation must have begun within the laptop!" "Uh, OK..." Tentomon stuttered, comprehending Izzy but not sure where he was going. "And then, when I reproduced the Digi-script around the torches, it produced an exothermic reaction! That Digi-script program must have been what was generating the flames!" "But...HOW?" Tentomon finally piped up "I understand what you're saying, but...I...I just don't see how it could happen!" "I'm afraid I don't know how either." Izzy confessed "All I know is that it is." "So...What does it mean?" Tentomon asked. Izzy didn't respond. Common sense dictated he keep his mouth shut on the theories quickly developing in his head until he knew whether or not they were true. Under most circumstances, he wouldn't even have entertained them outside of his dreams, but given everything else he'd seen over the past two weeks, he knew these were far from "most circumstances". "WHOA!" Tentomon shouted suddenly "WHAT IS THAT?" Izzy, pulled back to reality, came to a screeching halt on the edge on a gapping hole in the walk way. The immediately area around the hole, and some distance down the hall on the other side, carried a general look reminiscent of a house of cards after an earthquake. "What happened?" Izzy wondered, not quite aware that he was speaking. "Um, are you sure this is the way they came?" Tentomon asked, worriedly. "Hopefully, I was mistaken." Izzy replied "Even if this is the way they went, we can't follow over that hole." "Well, there was a junction a ways back." Tentomon offered. "Really?" Izzy started, not recalling it. "I'd say ten, fifteen minutes ago. It was rather obscured by several support beams in front of it." "I suppose that would be worth investigating." Izzy agreed, setting of backwards. ************************ Pumkinmon and Gatsumon hadn't been able to pull themselves away from the temple. The couldn't convince themselves that their friends would ever return from the massive factory, but they simply couldn't leave knowing they were in there. It had been some time since they last were this depressed. "AWWWW, THIS SUCKS!" Pumkinmon moaned, getting up "That's it, I'm really gone this time!" "OK, bye." Gatsumon responded without looking. After ten seconds he added "Welcome back." "Yeah. Well, maybe ten more minutes." Pumkinmon grudgingly responded, resuming his spot "But they're not coming out." "You should listen to your friend." a low, raspy voice suddenly said from behind them "He's quite correct." The two digimon whirled around and found themselves face to face (well, face to knee) with Leomon. At least, it looked like Leomon, sort of. His normally yellow/orange fur was now dark black and betrayed a sickening array of bulging veins all across his body. He stared down at them with a pair of blank, glassy eyes hissed at them "Leave this place. Now." "Uhh, OK!" Pumkinmon and Gatsumon shouted in unison, breaking into a mad dash for the Pea. With the two pests no longer a concern, Leomon traveled up the winding stairs that lead to the temple gates. Andromon may have proven unable to handle the situation, but he wouldn't disappoint Devimon. ************************ The other pathway Tentomon had spotted lead straight to a large, descending staircase. Although there was little sign that anyone had traveled the staircase, curiosity eventually prevailed and the two traveled down. After a disconcerting amount of time spent traveling down, Izzy and Tentomon found themselves in a room that seemed to be the exact opposite of the factory above. Instead of more machinery, the entire chamber was made of some kind of stone. Directly across from the opening where the walkway opened into the chamber stood a giant doorway of some kind. Somewhat predicably, the far left and right walls were covered in Digi-script. "Hey, do you think that they went exploring this passage way?" Tentomon asked, peering into the doorway and finding a winding stone hall. "I don't know." Izzy mumbled "I think I know something that would seem to take precedent, however." "Oh, no..." Tentomon moaned "Not more Digi-script." "Don't worry." Izzy assured him "This shouldn't take anywhere near as long." "Well, what do you want to do?" Tentomon asked, not sure he wanted to know. "Come here, I'll show you." Izzy instructed. When Tentomon obeyed, he explained "Look, there's some kind of buildup over several of these characters. Now I believe that this Digi-script makes up another program, like the others-" "But because all thus stuff in on them, it's not working?" Tentomon interrupted. "Exactly!" Izzy confirmed "So, if we clean them out, we should be able to find out what the program's function is!" Quickly, Tentomon set to work scrapping away the crust residue that filled in the Digi-script. Suddenly, however, he stopped. "Um, Izzy?" he asked "What if we don't want to find out what it does?" "We'll wait until it's working to worry about that." Izzy explained, scrapping away. "So, Izzy," Tentomon piped up again after a few minutes of silence "How are we going to know if we've got the program running?" The words had barely left his mouth when a bright green glow suddenly enveloped the room. "That would be a good sign." Tentomon muttered. The bulk of the room was now filled with a huge, hologram of some kind. It was made up almost entirely of green, vector-like graphics making up some kind of 3D maze. The only things that weren't green in the diagram were a set of colored dots that seemed to be attempting to travel through the maze. Their progress appeared to be hindered by stray dot that made a habit of intercepting the others and driving them in the opposite direction. Izzy reached his hand out into the diagram to see if it was, in fact, a hologram and was met with quite a surprise. While his hand did pass through the lines, the changed from being simple lines to a detailed depiction of a stone passage similar to the ones next to the doorway. After waving his hand around for a moment or two, he determined that it was a map of passages stretching from the passage they were in at the moment and had been designed to provide greater information when the user indicated the section he desired it in. Not wanting to trouble Tentomon again, he explained all of this too him as he thought of it. "OK, I guess that makes sense." Tentomon agreed "I don't know why they'd wand a big maze under the factory, though." "It also doesn't tell us what these dots are." Izzy added, he attempt to bring up a more detailed look at the as he had with the passages, but encountered an embarrassing obstacle. "Um, Tentomon?" "I'm one step ahead of you." Tentomon responded, walking directly under the dots and balling up on the ground "There you go!" Using Tentomon as a stepping stool, Izzy quickly selected the four dots. "Well? What do you see?" Tentomon inquired from below. "Is that what it look's like?" Izzy asked himself, scrutinizing the hazy images that released the dots. "What does it look like?" Tentomon asked again. ""IT'S JOE AND MIMI!" Izzy shouted. "WHAT?" Tentomon replied, instinctually jumping up and sending Izzy toppling down on top of him. "OOoooohhh...Sorry about that." Tentomon groaned. "Don't worry about it." Izzy replied, watching the stray dot intercept the again, I can think of some other things you should worry about." "Yeah." Tentomon agreed "Like `what is that other thing that's chasing them?' and `why are they the only ones in there?'." "Exactly," Izzy agreed, pulling out his laptop "and I think I know how to answer those questions." "What are you going to do?" Tentomon asked. "Well, hopefully Mimi's cell phone isn't experiencing the same difficulties my computer was. I'm it's not, I may be able to contact her and get some answers." Izzy explained, suddenly glad that Mimi had insisted upon giving her number to every boy at the whole camp. ************************ "Gomamon?" Joe panted "Now would be a very good time for you start digivolving!" "Whaddaya think I've been trying to do?" Gomamon shot back. "Well what's wrong?" Mimi asked. "How the hell should I know?" Gomoamon complained "I'm not exactly an expert!" "But I thought we just had to be in danger and you'd do it!" Mimi continued. "Yeah, me too!" Gomamon added "But that's not working, is it?" "Uh, Mimi?" Palmon interrupted "Something in your pocket is making a weird noise." "Huh?" Mimi started, fishing her cell phone out "Who'd be calling me now?" "Who cares?" Joe answered "ANSWER IT!" "Hello?" Mimi nervously said into the phone. "Mimi? can you hear me?" a familiar voice asked. "IZZY?" Mimi shouted "Is that you?" "Yes!" Izzy sighed "What's going on? How'd you get down here, and where are the others?" "`Here'?" Mimi asked instead of answering anything "Where are you?" "I'm at the entrance to this maze, or whatever it is." Izzy explained "There's a map of the entire maze here, so I'm going to try and guide you out." "YES!" Mimi cheered "THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!!!" "What?" Joe shouted "What's going on?" "So where do we go?" Mimi asked, ignoring Joe. "First things first." Izzy insisted "Where are the others?" "Last I saw, they were still in the factory being chased by Andromon." Mimi explained. "WHAT?" Izzy shouted, sincerely hoping that "Andromon" wasn't the cause of all the damage they'd encountered earlier. "He's this big, creepy digimon that was chasing all of us until the four of us jumped down here." "Well then, who's that chasing you at the moment?" Izzy asked nervously. "Huh? How'd you know about that?" Mimi asked. "There are indicators on the map that represent everything in the maze." Izzy curtly explained "Now who is it?" "It this big weirdo called `Centarumon'." Mimi answered "Anyway, how do we get out?" "Huh? Get out?" Joe asked, surprised. "Fill us in! We're dying over here!" Gomamon begged. "Izzy's got a mop of this place and he's gonna tell us how to get out!" Mimi exclaimed joyously. "Let's see if he can tell us something else." Joe said, snatching the phone. "HEY! Give that back!" Mimi complained. "Izzy?" Joe asked, ignoring Mimi "You've got this whole digivolving thing figured out, right?" "Um, I wouldn't go that far..." Izzy confessed. "Well, anyway, Gomamon and Palmon can't digivolve down here. I thought you said we just had to be in danger for it to work." "That was my theory, yes." Izzy answered "But it's not happening?" "Nope." Joe confirmed. "Well, I suppose that...wait a minute." Izzy said "Turn around, you needed to take a left at that crossroads." "Oh, OK. Everybody this way!" Joe directed. "Good. Good." Izzy replied, watching their progress "Now, don't turn off of that hallway; keep straight." "So, how long `till we get out?" Mimi asked, snatching the phone back from Joe. "I won't be able to make an estimate until I see how quickly you can...wait..." "Izzy?" Mimi asked, annoyed. "It's Centarumon!" Izzy shouted "He's at the other end of the hall! Take that other path to the right!" "Wha...OK!" Mimi replied, hurriedly informing her companions where to go. "OK, good" Izzy mumbled, watching their progress "Now take the next left. Don't take the coming left, but the next one." "Uh, right! Err-left! Uh, you know!" Mimi replied, nervously. "NO WAIT!" Tentomon shouted, tugging at Izzy's shirt. "I SEE IT! I SEE IT!" Izzy shouted back. "See what?" Joe asked, the shouting having been loud enough for him to hear. "Centarumon again!" Izzy answered "Somehow, he managed to slip into that hall too! Just keep going straight!" "Izzy," Mimi said, getting mad "I'm starting to lose faith in your directions." "I can't help it!" Izzy insisted "Centarumon must know some passages that aren't on this map! Anyway, take a right at that fork an then take the first left." "So, um, where is Centarumon?" Mimi asked after they had taken Izzy's directions. "Technically, he's nearby," Izzy replied "but your paths don't seem to connect." "I don't like that `seem' there." Mimi complained. "Well, as I said," Izzy explained "Centarumon seems to know of passages that aren't on the map." "So hurry up and put some distance between you and him!" Tentomon finished. "That sounds good to me!" Gomamon replied, having been eavesdropping on the conversation. "You'll want to...uh oh." Izzy mused. "Did he just say `uh oh'?" Palmon whimpered. "Centarumon's moving parallel to your position!" Izzy shouted "He must know that you're over there!" "Get moving! NOW!" Tentomon instructed, needlessly. The foursome tried to comply, but Centarumon decided to demonstrate how he knew of passages not on the map: he made them. With a sudden, thunderous crash, he exploded through the wall directly in front of them. "AUGH!" Tentomon screamed "I CAN'T WATCH!" but he did anyway, as did Izzy, as the four dots that represented their friends made an abrupt 180 and began to flee in the other direction. In the maze it's self, the four fugitives ran as fast as they could to the nearest hall without thinking to ask Izzy if it was a good idea. "OK, Izzy, now what?" Mimi finally asked when Centarumon was out of sight "Izzy?" But Izzy was more interested in Centarumon's dot: "Why isn't he following you?" "He's been playing cat and mouse since we got down here." Joe moaned "Every time he catches up with us, he lets us run again." "Of COURSE!" Izzy laughed "THAT'S IT!" "HUH?" Mimi started "What's so funny?" "That's why Palmon and Gomamon can't digivolve!" Izzy explained "In the previous instances, the digimon only digivolved because their partners were in mortal danger! If Centarumon hasn't actually made any serious attempts on your lives, it must not be enough to trigger the Digivices!" "WHAT?" Mimi shouted "That's totally STUPID! I don't want it to wait until I'm about to die to kick in!" "I have to agree." Tentomon concurred "It really doesn't seem that intelligent." "I concur..." Izzy said, thinking hard "Could it be...Mimi? Joe? Have you been watching your Digivices?" "Uh, no." Joe answered "We've kinda been busy watching Centarumon." "Well start watching them." Izzy instructed "I've got an idea." "I'd better be a good one" Mimi warned. "What is it?" Palmon asked. "The next time you encounter Centarumon," Izzy instructed "check the screen in the center of your Digivices." "Wait a minute!" Mimi complained "You're not going to send us right up to him are you?" "Of course he won't!" Tentomon insisted "You won't, right?" "I not going to try, if that's what you mean." Izzy assured them "But given his apparent familiarity with this labyrinth, I wouldn't be surprised if confrontation proves inevitable." "Oh, that's comforting." Gomamon laughed bitterly. "Will you stop that, Gomamon?" Palmon complained "You're worse than Matt!" "There's another fork coming up." Izzy interrupted "Take the right." "Uh, Izzy?" Tentomon whispered, pointing to Centarumon's dot. "I see it." Izzy whispered back "I don't think he's close enough to be a danger yet. Besides, I'm trying to guide them out, not simply away from Centarumon." "Uh, what about now?" Tentomon asked again, nervously. "Um, Mimi? Joe?" Izzy asked "Now would be a good time to start watching your Digivices." "That had better not mean what I think it means!" Mimi shouted. Unfortunately, it meant exactly what she thought. With a deafening blast, Centarumon burst straight through the wall in front of them. "You're doing better!" Centarumon half complemented, half mocked "But you're going to have to improve much more if you hope to escape this place." "OH, THANKS A LOT, IZZY!!!" Mimi screamed at their guide as they ran the other direction. "I'm sorry!" Izzy insisted "WAIT! Don't go that way; take the other hall!" "NO WAY!" Mimi complained "I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU ANY MORE!" "Come on, Mimi!" Joe replied "It's not Izzy's fault! Don't yell at him!" "Well, I'm not as scared of Izzy as I am of Centarumon," Mimi firmly declared "so he's have to do!" "Oh, Mimi..." Palmon moaned "Lighten up!" "No way!" Mimi insisted "As soon as we get out of here, I'm pounding your head in Izzy!" "Not if I get to him first!" Gomamon warned. "You're not helping, you two." Joe cut in "Right now we just need to...HEY! WHAT'S THAT?" "What's what?" Izzy asked. "Yuck!" Palmon shouted "That big hole doesn't match the decor at all!" "HOLE?" Izzy asked "Is there a hole connecting that hall to the next one?" "Well," Joe explained "it's connected to something." "YES!" Izzy exclaimed "Take that hall and go left! That will cut a HUGE amount of time out of this!" "There, see Izzy?" Mimi replied smugly "I knew what I was doing all along!" "Oh, sheah. RIGHT." Gomamon sneered. "Shut up, flipper face." Mimi warned. ************************ So...Some one's been cheating Centarumon thought to himself. Apparently, the four intruders had an accomplice: someone who seemed to know the lay out of the labyrinth. He knew for a fact that no one had been in the labyrinth long enough to form a decent map, much less escaped to tell anyone else about it. This new intruder must be in the map room. But how did he know to repair the map? He and Unimon had disabled the Digi-script- WHAT? With a start, Centarumon tried to recall that strange thought once again, but couldn't. It frustrated him to no end when this happened. Far more often than he'd like to admit, these flashes of memories would appear and vanish as soon as he noticed them. They were always the same, from what little of them he could retain. They all seemed to reflect some kind of past that he knew to be false. All ways little details about some existence outside the temple labyrinth. But that wasn't possible! All of his existence had been guarding the passages! He had never been outside at all. Then how did he know about the map room? Stop it he told himself There's no time to worry about petty things like this. His task for the moment was totally clear: He had to annihilate the intruders. There would be no more toying with them. Not if they were receiving help from the outside. Their next meeting would be their last. ************************ "So, did either of you remember to watch your digivices?" Izzy asked once Mimi cooled down. "Oops." Joe blurted out bashfully "Um, no." "I assume that you failed to as well, right Mimi?" Tentomon asked. "Uh...Maybe..." Mimi said embarrassed. "Well, at least somebody here knows how to follow orders..." Gomamon said smugly. "YOU did?" Izzy asked incredulously. "Of course!" Gomamon insisted "You're the only person here who knows what he's talking about, so I'm sure as Hell gonna do what you say right now." "Wait a minute." Palmon asked, confused "I didn't think Izzy was actually here. I though he was just talking to us through that `phone' thing." "ANYWAY," Gomamon continued, trying to ignore Palmon "what do you want to know about it?" "Did anything appear on the screen while you were in close proximity to Centarumon?" Izzy inquired. "Uh, you mean when he blew through the wall?" Gomamon asked back "Yeah, I guess you do. Yeah, something did show up." "Well, by all means, share it with us!" Tentomon insisted. "Did it seem to be some kind of meter rising?" Izzy asked as soon an Tentomon had finished. "YEAH!" Gomamon confirmed, surprised "It got bigger when he showed up and got smaller when we ran." "Did the large button on the left begin blinking at any point?" Izzy asked, this time with great anticipation. "Yeah!" Gomamon confirmed again, getting confused "When the meter got really high; right before we started running. How'd you know that?" "Never mind that." Izzy instructed "Now, I'm going to do my best to get you all out of that place, but I'm worried that Centarumon may try to attack you again, so listen closely. I believe I know how Gomamon and Palmon can digivolve." "I thought you said they couldn't because he wasn't trying to kill us." Joe interrupted, confused. "Well, as you pointed out," Izzy explained, somewhat perturbed at how often we was getting interrupted lately "that made very little sense, as this little episode proves how essential digivolving would seem even in non-fatal situations. I believe that the process is not, in fact, reliant exclusively upon mortal danger, but that the automatic triggering of it in the instances we've witnessed was actually a fail safe." "WHAT?" Mimi interrupted, totally lost. "Get to the point Izzy!" Gomamon shouted. "All right, I'll try again." Izzy sighed "I believe that you can trigger the process yourselves using the digivices. I believe that the meter that appeared was a part of the mechanism that detects danger. When it becomes high enough to trigger digivolution, I assume that the large button begins to blink as a warning. Hopefully, pressing that button when it's blinking will cause the process to begin. The times Agumon, Gabumon, and Biyomon digivolved was, I assume, the result of the digivices being designed to work automatically, should the danger level become too high." "Uh, sure. OK." Joe replied, figuring that Izzy must have known what he was talking about to use such complicated terms. "Hopefully, you won't have to test this any time soon." Izzy added, not wanting Mimi on his case again "But I figured that you should know, just in case." "And we appreciate the though, Izzy." Joe said "ISN'T THAT RIGHT MIMI?" "Yeah...Whatever." Mimi shrugged, not wanting to appear fickle in her grudges. "Oh, as long as we're on the subject," Izzy remembered "you haven't seen a gear or disk of some sort protruding out of Centarumon's body, have you?" "You mean like what Matt said he saw in that big snake thing?" Mimi asked. "Exactly." Izzy confirmed. "I'm not sure." Joe answered "I don't really recall anything like that. But there's all kinds of stuff stuck into Centarumon, so I might have just missed it." "Well, if you encounter him again," Izzy directed "you should look for one. Hopefully, if such a gear is present, it can be exploited in the same manner as Seadramon's was!" "IF we encounter him again." Joe pointed out "No offense, but I don't think any of us feel like testing out any more hypothesizes today." "Nor do I." Izzy concurred. "Now you remember that." Mimi cut in. "Give it up, Mimi." Gomamon sighed. ************************ The Temple gates didn't seem as impressive as Leomon had, for some reason, expected them to be. He wasn't sure how he could have formed any opinions of the gates previously at all; seeing as he had never been there before that moment. In fact, he'd never left Infinity Mountain before. This was the first time Devimon had dispatched him anywhere; which was, of course, why he had to do a good job. There was no way he was going to inaugurate his first venture into the outside world by failing. ************************ "Aren't we there yet, Izzy?" Mimi whined, for only God knew what time. "I already told you!" Izzy sighed, exasperated "You should only be five to ten minutes away!" "And remember it this time!" Tentomon added. "Anyway," Izzy continued "there's another crossroads ahead. Just stay straight and..." "AND?" Mimi angrily inquired. "I'd suggest that you try to move quickly. " Izzy warned cautiously "Centarumon seems to be up to something." "HUH?" Mimi stupidly asked, almost stopping "What's going on?" "I'm not sure." Izzy confessed "He's taking a different route that puts several halls between him and you; none of which seem to connect." "Isn't that good?" Palmon asked. "You would think so," Izzy explained "but Centarumon has been quite consistent until now. I don't see why he would be putting more distance between himself and you." "Maybe he's giving up?" Gomamon suggested hopefully. "Why?" Izzy asked. "I guess you've got a point..." Gomamon gloomily agreed. "So, anyway," Joe asked "what exactly is he doing? Pulling back?" "The opposite, in fact." Izzy answered "This new path he's on dead ends not incredibly far from the exit but fails to connect with it. Still, he's making...OH NO!!!" "WHAT?" all four of the adventurers shouted at once. "He just crossed one of the paths!" Izzy shouted "He's going to try and cut you off!" "Wha-How long before he gets to our hall?" Joe shouted, nervously. "...Now" Izzy gulped. "...Oh darn..." Joe muttered, gulping as well. Right on cue, Centarumon exploded out of the wall slightly in front of them and approached, slowly this time. "You've performed with remarkable bravery for opponents so overmatched." Centarumon grimly congratulated "It is quite a tragedy that you didn't have a sense of honor to match it." "What are you talking about?" Gomamon demanded, trying to sound tough. "Do you take me for a fool?" Centarumon growled "Don't insult my intelligence. I refer to your receiving help from your friend in the map room." "Oh, that..." Gomamon nervously laughed "Well, you see-" "SILENCE!" Centarumon bellowed "You have proved yourselves to be without honor! Thus, I will no longer show you the mercy you have received so far." "OH, THANKS A LOT IZZY!" Mimi screamed into the phone. "Your accomplice will be dealt with latter." Centarumon explained "You, however, will not be so lucky." "What are you waiting for?" Izzy shouted "DIGIVOLVE!" "I bid you farewell." Centarumon coldly said raising his arm and allowing a large, cannon like device to cut out of his hand "SOLAR RAY!" In a moment, the entire hallway was enveloped by a blinding light, accompanied by a sudden flash of intense heat. When Mimi and Joe, who and instinctually fell to the floor at the first sign of the attack, finally got around to opening their eyes, they found their entire section of the hall blackened by the blast. But that was hardly the focus of their attention. It was the two giant digimon who had appeared between them and Centarumon that was. Directly in front of Mimi stood a creature that, it seemed, was some sort of humanoid cactus. The towering digimon was covered with huge needles from head to toe. That is, if it had a head. As it was, there was only a crude representation of a smillie face carved in what seemed to be the front. In sharp contrast to the almost totally plant-like appearance of the creature, it's "hands" seemed to be two huge boxing gloves. The result was as comical as it was imposing. Standing before Joe was an even larger digimon: a bulky, shaggy furred walrus befitted with two imposing tusks and an even more imposing horn protruding from it's forehead. It and the large cactus took up so much of the hallway in front of the two humans, it was obvious that they had absorbed Centarumon's attack. In fact, Centarumon could no longer be seen from behind the bulky Digimon. However, he could certainly be heard. "WHAT IN ALL HELLS?" he bellowed, thoroughly in shock. "Wha-Wha-What's going on?" Mimi whimpered, cowering in fear. "Hey, it's just us!" the cactus laughed in a gruff, yet unmistakably feminine voice. "What's the matter?" The walrus guffawed without turning around "Don't you recognize your old pal Gomamon?" "Wha...You digivolved?" Joe babbled. "You bet! The name's Ikkakumon!" the hairy digimon replied. "And I'm Togemon!" added the cactus "Nice `ta see ya again!" "Impressive! Most impressive!" Centarumon mussed "Digivolving is quite a trick, I wouldn't have thought that you could pull it off. However, that alone isn't enough to save you." "Oh, quit your bellyaching and fight!" Togemon interrupted. "Well, what do we have here?" Ikkakumon guffawed again. "I beg your pardon?" Centarumon asked, bewildered. "On the right." Ikkakumon whispered (well, as close to a whisper as he could muster) to Togemon "Under the arm." "Somebody tell Izzy we found his gear." Togemon whispered to Mimi. "You got it." Mimi said, whipping the cell phone back out again "Izzy?...IZZY?...HELLO?" "What's the matter?" Joe asked, apprehensively. "How should I know?" Mimi shot back, starting to panic "IZZY ANSWER ME!!!" "Mimi? I think we should get out of here!" Joe said, nervously. "IZZY, I SWEAR I WILL BEAT YOU HEAD IN WITH MY BEAR HANDS IF YOU DON'T ANSWER THIS PHONE!" Mimi shrieked into the phone. "Mimi? Joe?" Togemon interrupted "Run. NOW." The words had barley escaped her mouth when a second blast of light erupted from the other side of the barrier the two digimon formed, knocking them both backwards several feet. "HEY!" Mimi shouted "Watch where you're stepping!" "I think it's time we did some stepping of our own!" Joe yelled, grabbing Mimi and taking of in the opposed direction. "But...But..Will they be OK?" Mimi mumbled worriedly as the sounds of combat began to echo through the labyrinth. "I hope so." Joe said, not looking back. It was a good thing he didn't, as he would no doubt have been quite discouraged at what he would have seen. Ikkakumon attempted to blast Centarumon with his attack "harpoon torpedo", but the attack didn't seem to have been intended for close combat and missed by a mile. It did, however, succeed in temporarily blinding Togemon, who wound up taking the brunt of another "solar ray". "OH, THANKS A BUNCH, SNAGGLETOOTH!" Togemon shouted at her alleged comrade. "Hey! I'm new at this!" Ikkakumon apologized (sort of), making a close to a chair at Centarumon as his massive bulk would allow. Sadly, it wasn't anywhere near close enough: Centarumon was behind him in a second. Needless to say, the result was far from pleasant for poor Ikkakumon. "Pick on somebody your own weight, horse-boy! NEEDLE SPRAY!!!" Togemon shouted, unleashing a hail of razor sharp needles upon Centarumon; with little effect. "Tour's going to have to do much better than that!" Centarumon mocked, tossing Togemon over his head and into Ikkakumon's with only one hand. "OW! You hurt!" Ikkakumon howled "You should have a `falling down' attack, it'd be pretty effective!" "Shut up..." Togemon moaned, stumbling up again "He's got us out gunned ten-to-one." "Yeah, I kind of noticed that." Ikkakumon grunted "If we can't out-fight him, we've only got a chance if we knock out that gear." "We can't knock any part of him!" Togemon pointed out "He's too fast!" "It's not hard to avoid attacks you can see coming from a mile away!" Centarumon laughed, knocking Togemon back to the floor again. "I'm getting real sick of you!" Ikkakumon bellowed, charging straight into Centarumon, only to be flipped over him into the ceiling and held there. "Don't worry, soon there will be a greater distance between the two of us than you could possibly imagine!" Centarumon coldly snickered, readying another solar ray. "Perhaps, but it'll be you who leaves!" a new voice hissed from behind the three combatants. Before Centarumon had a chance to look for the speaker, he was enveloped in a sudden cloud of electricity. Centarumon lurched back, more in surprise than pain, and dropped Ikkakumon to the floor. When he looked up, he found himself at the feet of a tall, black, lanky insect digimon. "Sorry I'm late." the big bug hissed again "Are you two all right?" "I'm sorry, do I know you?" Ikkakumon grunted, regaining his footing (er... if he had feet, that is). "His name is Kabuterimon." a familiar voice rang from behind the new arrival "He's the digivolved form of Tentomon." "Izzy? Is that you?" Togemon asked, working on getting herself up again. "Good." Centarumon grunted, charging at Kabuterimon "I was hoping that I wouldn't have to leave to find you two." "WATCH OUT!" Ikkakumon shouted "HE'S EVEN STRONGER THAN HE LOOKS!" "Not that bright, though." Kabuterimon laughed jumping to the ceiling "COME AND GET ME!" "Gladly." Centarumon replied, whipping the cannon out of his hand and aiming at Kabuterimon. "IKKAKUMON! TOGEMON! WAKE UP!" Kabuterimon shouted to the other two digimon. It took longer that it should have (they were a bit punch drunk, after all), but the two finally realized that, in aiming at Kabuterimon, Centarumon had exposed the gear in his side. "I GOT IT! LIGHTNING PUNCHES!!!" Togemon shouted, landing a blinding flash of jabs into Centarumon's side. In an instant, he had collapsed on the floor, though his painful contortions kept Togemon from getting very close. "Nice, if not prompt." Kabuterimon congratulated, coming down from the ceiling. "Hey, you could have explained things better." Togemon pointed out. "Centarumon would have overheard." Izzy pointed out, keeping his distance from Centarumon "Speaking of whom, someone had better remove that gear before he recovers." "Happy to oblige!" Ikkakumon bellowed, hobbling up next to Centarumon "Stand back everyone! University of the BIG OL' EXPLOSION, MEET THE PROFESSOR!!!" in a moment, that entire portion of the hall was filled with the derbies of a rapid chain of harpoon torpedoes. "HEY!" Togemon coughed "Hid him, not us!" "I don't know what you fools are doing, but I intend to put a stop to it immediately!" Centarumon shouted, trying to sound as imposing as he had before, not really succeeding. "Oh, shut up!" Kabuterimon hissed, fishing Centarumon out of the dust and getting a death hold on him "OK TOGEMON, DO YOUR THING!" "You got it bug boy!" Togemon agreed, punching ferociously at the gear, getting kicked in the head several times but not letting up. Suddenly, somewhat before Togemon realized it, the gear shattered and disappeared. ************************ It had taken far longer than Andromon had intended, but the eight intruders had finally been pinned up in an area where he could keep an eye on them. There really wasn't much of a reason to guard them, none of them were in any condition to escape. In fact, Andromon could probably have left them to find the other six, but the eight pests below him had already proven to be such pests, he wasn't about to allow them to run about unsupervised. Of course, that was exactly what he was allowing the others to do. If the two in the power center had discovered how to disrupt the flow of power through out the facility, the could reek unimaginable damage; and the very thought of the other four being in close proximity of the guardian of the dungeon greatly disturbed him. He wasn't sure why, but it for some reason did. All in all, he was becoming more and more impatient as every second passed. He couldn't remain up on his perch baby-sitting much longer. His reinforcements couldn't arrive soon enough. ************************ "What's he doing?" Sora whispered to herself, watching the faint outline of Andromon perched on the top on one of the walls that fenced them in. It had been several minutes since they had unintentionally run into the dead end where they were now, but Andromon hadn't even tried to come in and attack them. The only time he'd shown any aggression at all was when Tai tried to make a dash for the passage that brought them into their little alcove. Even then, he's simply scared Tai off, not wounding him any. Matt guessed that Andromon had been trying to force them into the dead end for the whole ordeal, but he couldn't figure out what, if anything, he planed to do with them now that he'd fenced them in. "Sora?" Biyomon weakly asked "Are you scared?" "Yeah." Sora whispered back "How about you?" "No." Biyomon lied, timidly. "Oh, of course." Sora played along "You're just shaking like that because you're so tired." "Yeah, exactly." Biyomon quietly agreed "I'm not worried." "I never thought you were." Sora lied, patting Biyomon on the head. It was unbelievable to her how seriously these digimon took their self-imposed duties. Their entire world seemed to revolve around their human "partners". That kind of devotion was totally alien to Sora. It didn't used to be Sora recalled bitterly but time sure change, don't they? Suddenly, Sora's train of thought was abruptly derailed by Tai's obnoxious snoring. "How can that idiot sleep at a time like this?" Matt sighed, shaking his head. "Well, it's not like we've got anything else to do." Gabumon pointed out "A quick nap would probably do us all some good." "I'm not shutting an eye until I've got plenty of distance between me and this hell hole." Matt firmly declared. "It's way too scary in here to sleep anyway." T.K. agreed. "And too noisy!" Patamon added. "You mean the machinery or Tai?" Gabumon joked. "HAHAHA...Good one!" T.K. giggled. "Well, it seemed like something Gomamon would have said, so..." Gabumon trailed off "What do you think happened to them?" "Hopefully, they got as far away from here as they can." Matt answered. "And then they could go get help and come get us!" T.K. piped up enthusiastically. Matt started to say that, if they knew what was good for them, they should forget the ever knew the rest of the group and make trails, but he caught his tongue and simply nodded. ************************ "Where are the rest of them?" a sickly, yet powerful voice snaked up behind Andromon. Caught totally by surprise, something that happened to him very rarely, Andromon whirled around and found himself face to face with a new digimon. His analyzers recognized the new face as Leomon, but he deviated from the established appearance of the type in several respects, most notable being a drastically different fur tint. All these deviations were quickly explained when a quick scan revealed the presence of an unusually large black gear in the digimon's system. The standard black gear was known to cause subtle changes in the host's physiology, thus, a gear of increased size would, of course, trigger more drastic deviations. Andromon's scans, while thorough, proved quite tedious, lasting a full 2.35 seconds. In this time, Leomon seemed to have become impatient. "What have you done with the other six insects?" he hissed, angrily. "Contact with targets in questions lost in pursuit of present targets." Andromon explained curtly, sparring the more detailed report for later. "`Lost'?" Leomon angrily repeated, an annoying habit exhibited by many digimon. "Tentomon and unidentified target four last recorded in power core area. Current location unknown. Gomamon, Palmon and unidentified targets three and six last seen entering lower levels. Pursuit not authorized. Current location unconfirmed." "FOOL! You should have followed them!" Leomon snarled. These fools were so pathetic in their stupidity. Devimon wanted loyalty, but not blind idiot loyalty. "Next time, do what Lord Devimon wants, not what he says." "...Understood." Andromon replied, not understanding at all. "Anyway, your orders to avoid the labyrinth have been temporarily withdrawn until the creatures have been destroyed." "Inquiry:" Andromon interrupted "Why did they stand earlier?" "What does it mean to you?" Leomon asked cautiously. "A thorough understanding of the reasoning behind the order will serve to better prepare for any incursions into the area." "Very well." Leomon sighed "The digimon residing in the labyrinth is of remarkable physical prowess, and the black gear implanted in him has only a partial control over him. Because of the precarious nature of the gears effects on him, contact with him has been prohibited to prevent it being further compromise." "How?" Andromon asked, having never heard of a black gear having only partial control over it's host. "You question Lord Devimon's decision?" Leomon asked, threateningly. "Only that I may understand it." Andromon answered. "You need only fulfill his wishes, not understand them." Leomon admonished "Now, we have a more pressing matter to attend to." "What of the eight already present?" Andromon inquired. "Your research on them is complete. They are no longer of any use to Lord Devimon." Leomon replied, making his was to the gate to the labyrinth. It was obvious what he meant. Andromon prepared to element the pests once and for all. Before he had begun, however, a sudden commotion behind him demanded his attention. Looking back, Andromon found, to his complete astonishment, three champion level digimon rushing towards him, all of whom could easily have digivolved from the three missing rookies. But they were the least of his worries. Centarumon was with them. ************************ "They must be down in that alcove!" Centarumon shouted to his companions "You get down there and bring them out! I'll take care of that mechanical menace!" "Understood!" Izzy, ridding on Kabuterimon's back, shouted over the roar of his beating wings. "I'm sorry, but I'm having trouble adjusting to having this guy as a friend." Mimi said to Joe, both of whom were ridding on Ikkakumon (Mimi wasn't comfortable with the thought of being held by a cactus). "Well, you have to admit," Izzy pointed out "It's much better to have him as a friend than an enemy." "He does seem to know his way around this place better than any of us." Joe added. "Yeah, mister navigator!" Mimi shouted at Izzy "And I'm sure he knows how to answer the phone when someone's screaming at them to answer!" "I told you!" Izzy replied, for what must have been the fiftieth time "I had to shut down my computer when we came to help you!" "Well that's no excuse!" Mimi insisted "I'm still going to beat your head in when we get out of here!" "We've got other people's heads to beat in first!" Ikkakumon interrupted. "Yeah, let's knock that tin can silly!" Togemon agreed. "First, let's get some reinforcements." Kabuterimon said streaking for the alcove. To say that the rest of the group was "surprised" to see their friends would be like saying that the surface of the sun is "warm". If any of them had any intelligent thoughts they were trying to communicate in the sudden volley of exuberant shouts, it didn't get expressed very well. "Where have you been?" Matt finally asked. "No place you'd want to go." Mimi assured him. "We can catch up latter. Right now, we have something much more important to take care of!" Izzy shouted over the commotion "Quickly, take out your digivices!" "We already tried to digivolve, if that's what you mean." Gabumon answered "It didn't work." "Well, I think we can assist you." Izzy assured him "Are the large buttons flashing of your digivices?" when everyone nodded, Izzy continued "Press that button and you should trigger the digivolution process." "It'll take up a lot of space quick," Kabuterimon added "so make room." In a moment, the entire alcove was enveloped in a succession of blinding flashes. One by one, freshly digivolved digimon began to emerge and started searching for Andromon to gain some well deserved revenge. Well, all but Patamon. He might have digivolved and gone with them, but T.K. never pressed the button. Instead, he simply held the digivice with slightly trembling hands. "Do you want to digivolve?" he asked Patamon. "I want to protect you." Patamon timidly replied, avoiding T.K.'s actual question. "But do you want to digivolve?" T.K. pressed. "Not really..." Patamon confessed "It looks scary." "Yeah." T.K. agreed "And I like you the way you are. I don't think I want you to be one of those big things." "Well, you know," Patamon gulped, trying to sound courageous "all the others have changed back to the way they used to be afterwards, so maybe-" "But what if you get hurt?" T.K. interrupted "Andromon's all big and scary! You could get really hurt!" "Well..." Patamon stuttered, trying not to show how badly he feared that very thing. "I don't want you to!" T.K. insisted "I don't want you to get hurt!" "Oh...OK." Patamon agreed, glad that he didn't have to fight, but worried about something else "What if the others think I didn't want to protect you?" "Don't worry!" T.K. assured him "I'll just tell everyone that I wouldn't let you go!" In the meantime, the digimon who had gone off to battle Andromon found themselves feeling rather useless, as Centarumon obviously had things more than under control. The new arrivals ended up forming little more than a rooting section. "YES! BEAT THAT BUCKET O' BOLTS SILLY!!!" Greymon shouted. "THAT'S IT! YOU GOT HIM WHERE YOU WANT HIM!!!" Togemon added. "WATCH YOUR LEFT!...Oh, you wanted him to do that...OK, CARRY ON!" Kabuterimon called from directly behind. "Get back here, you!" Birdramon grunted, grabbing the giant insect and yanking him back to where she had been. "Just trying to get a good view!" Kabuterimon insisted. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE FIGHTING HIM! DON'T GIVE HIM POINTERS!" Garurumon howled, quite annoyed at the absurd "coaching" that Centarumon was providing his opponent. "No no NO! Don't put all your weight into the punch! A quick kick in the knee and you're eating floor!...See?...AND DON'T GET UP SO SLOWLY!!!" "YOU CAN TEACH HIM ALL YOU WANT LATER!" Ikkakumon insisted "JUST WHACK THAT GEAR ON HIM FIRST!!!" "All right, I suppose that failure is the best teaching tool." Centarumon sighed "This is what happens when you don't guard your weak spots!" With that, he delivered a savage jab into Andromon's stomach, where a gear similar to the one that had been in him was located. In a moment, Andromon collapsed in a heap onto the floor. ************************ Leomon watched the entire episode with great displeasure from the rim of the factory. He could have gone down and assisted Andromon, but had decided against it. Centarumon was too powerful for him to at ease in the first place. Even together, it would have been a close battle. And then there were the six other digimon. Even together, they weren't anywhere near as powerful as Centarumon, yet Leomon would certainly have been significantly weakened in battling the afore mentioned digimon; he might not have been able to defeat them. Instead, he would return to Infinity Mountain. Even though Andromon had been defeated, he had fulfilled him primary purpose: Devimon now had enough information on the strange creatures to form a more direct assault on them. One that wouldn't fail like this pitiful escapade. ************************ With no one trying to kill them anymore, the group of exasperated travelers finally found themselves getting what they had been seeking all along: Answers "All my life, I've been waiting for this moment." Centarumon sighed, quite overwhelmed "This is...I...Wow..." "I appreciate the show of admiration," Izzy replied, a bit embarrassed "but I'm not sure it's warranted." "There's nothing else that's suitable for the Digidestined." Centarumon firmly stated. "The who?" Tai asked. "You don't mean us, do you?" Gabumon continued. "Do you know what he's talking about?" Matt asked. "There's not a digimon in existence who doesn't!" Centarumon laughed "You're only the saviors of this world!" "Heh heh...Yeah, sure. Right." Tai laughed "You've been down in that maze for a while, haven't you?" "Don't you question my intelligence on this matter." Centarumon replied "I am completely serious." "But how could we be the digidestined?" Biyomon asked, sharing Tai's sentiment "I don't know about Sora and the others, but there's nothing that special about us digimon!" "And I don't think there's anything too remarkable about us either." Sora added, taking a glance at her fellow humans. "I'm not sure I understand what's going on." Izzy interrupted "What exactly is a `Digidestined'?" "I believe I already said that." Centarumon responded. "Well, could you please explain it to greater detail?" Tentomon requested "After all, they're new here." "Very well." Centarumon sighed "For longer than anyone in this world can remember, stories have been told of a group of beings from another world who, in times of darkness, would journey into this world and bring peace. It is said that these beings would each be accompanied by a digimon guardian and that they would posses devices that can cause the digimon to digivolve. Sound familiar?" "Hmmm..." Izzy mussed "The similarities to our predicament certainly remarkable." "So where did you get all this?" Matt asked. "They came from writings collected over the centuries." Centarumon explained "Most of them were recorded by myself and my ... 'associate' Unimon." Centarumon had to pause for a moment to attempt to find a word that adequately defined his relationship with Unimon. In the end, "associate" was nowhere near enough. But that was beside the point. "They were collected in the gates you passed through to enter this place." Centarumon continued. "The ones we found destroyed?" Izzy asked. "Yes, though these writing only made up a portion of the scrolls that were housed in the gates." Centarumon confirmed "They were also fighting techniques, maps, all kind of information." "So who would have wanted to destroy them?" Izzy continued. "No one." Centarumon explained "Most digimon would have given anything to know what they contained. Therefore, I believe that they were destroyed by someone who already knew them." "Unimon?" Izzy offered. "No, he was infected by a black gear even before me." Centarumon answered "I believe the deed was done by Leomon." "WHAT?" all the digimon cried in unison, totally shocked. "Why would he do that?" Tentomon demanded. "I believe your other friend can tell you the answer." Centarumon sighed, pointing to Andromon who had been keeping to himself on the far end of the room "Tell them who was sent by Devimon just before our battle." "The reinforcements Devimon supplied was Leomon." Andromon stated plainly. "Wha-wha-WHAT?" Tentomon stuttered, voicing all the digimon's sentiments. "Leomon was our student." Centarumon said mournfully "He had a remarkable hunger for knowledge, but I'm afraid he was also rather rash. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he attempted to destroy Devimon on his own or something of that manner." "Apparently, that didn't pan out too well." Matt said. "I'm afraid not." Centarumon agreed "You are the only ones who posses a power great enough to destroy Devimon. Despite his lack of clear decision making, he was far from stupid and probably destroyed the scrolls to insure that no one attempted to steal them should he no longer be able to guard them." "Wait a minute; back up." Joe interrupted "What was that part about `us defeating Devimon'?" "I believe that was self explanatory." Centarumon replied "you have been brought here to destroy the tyrant who holds this island in bondage." "Uh, OK. See, I've got a little problem with that." Joe stammered "For one thing, we couldn't even handle Andromon without help. How are we supposed to beat up somebody who this Leomon couldn't even handle?" "You are only beginning to learn of the power you posses." Centarumon assured him "In time, you will see how strong you truly are." "I think I've got a pretty good idea how strong I am." Joe shot back. "You are only as strong as you think you are." Centarumon replied, sagely. "Oh no. This isn't going to turn into one of those `believe in the power inside you' things is it?" Tai sighed "I hate that crap." "I still have questions." Izzy interrupted. "Oh, there's a surprise." Mimi joked. "I believe I have a relatively good grasp on how to use the digivice, but I'm still confused about Digivolution it's self." Izzy continued, ignoring Mimi "Namely, why do the digimon seem to hold the form they are in at the moment, but they only hold their larger forms for a short time." "Digivolving is normally brought on by a combination of numerous conditions within a digimon." Andromon explained "It is normally a rare event that only occurs once or twice in a digimon's life span relying mostly on physical condition combined with mental and combat experience and is usually permanent. I would presume that the digivolution triggered by the digivice operates on a different principal than the digimon's statistics and, as such, would yield different results." "I see..." Izzy mumbled, thinking hard "Perhaps they produce a blast of energy that mimics those conditions. Because it's brought on by an outside source, it would seem logical that the effect would only be temporary; leaving the digimon to revert to it's previous form as it's current... statistics, was it? Well, they wouldn't be high enough to hold the larger one on it's own." "Remarkable!" Centarumon mused, thoroughly impressed "That's more than most digimon could be able to figure out in their life!" "Well, that's Izzy for you!" Tentomon proudly exclaimed. "Yeah!" T.K. gleefully answered "He's a genius!" "A genius who we owe, right?" Palmon whispered to Mimi, nudging her with her elbow (well, if she had had one). Mimi simply fidgeted uncomfortably without saying anything. "One more question." Izzy continued, ignoring the compliments "I understand that these `black gears' are tools of Devimon's to control other digimon, so why did he not begin using you the way he used Andromon and is now using Leomon?" "My mental disciplining is far above that of either of them." Centarumon explained "I was able to partially fight it's effects. I couldn't reverse it's memory erasure or emotional agitation, but I was successful in preventing Devimon's direct influence and concealed myself in the depths of the temple. Devimon didn't want to risk causing a lose cannon like me interfering with his plans, so he just let me be." "Excuse me." Matt interrupted "You mean this whole place is a temple?" "That is correct." Centarumon nodded "Everything within the golden barrier is a temple erected by those who created the digivices you hold." "Who was that exactly?" Izzy asked, trying to conceal his excitement over what the answer might be. "I'm sorry to disappoint you." Centarumon confessed, seeing how badly Izzy sought an answer "But I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that. The effects of the black gear has somewhat clouded my memory of times that far past." "I see..." Izzy sighed, dejected. ************************ Andromon waved good-bye from behind as the Digidestined left with Centarumon. They tried to talk him into leaving with them, but he insisted that he needed to stay and repair the damage to the machinery that had been done that day. So they left without him into the eerie Digiworld night. "Man..." Tai said to no one in particular, gazing at the murky kaleidoscope above them "I never thought I'd miss that sky." "I'll still take blue any day." Matt replied. "Amen" Joe concurred. "Actually, I suppose there is some good thing to be said about this sky." Izzy pointed out "Seeing that there's no sun, we don't have to worry about sunburn." "That sounds really nasty!" Patamon piped up "Getting burned and sick just for being outside! YUCK!" "Say, Izzy." Mimi said, walking up beside him "I need to give you something." "Uh, oh..." Izzy gulped, vividly recalling Mimi's threats from earlier. "Here you go!" Mimi said, bending over some and planting a quick kiss on Izzy's cheek "I think you earned that." "Wow..." Tai whistled from behind "Whatever you did, teach me to do it!" Instead of replying, Izzy just cradled the cheek gingerly with a spaced out look on his face. "Earth to Izzy, come in!" Tai joked, waving his hand in front of Izzy's face. "Leave him alone, Tai." Matt insisted "You want me to tell Izzy about how well you handled Mimi's affections?" "HEY!" Tai shouted, embarrassed "Don't make me hurt you!" "Speaking of which," Mimi said to Sora "You never explained what happened to him at soccer camp!" "SORA!" Tai warned "If want to see your next birthday, you'll think carefully before saying anything!" "Relax, Tai!" Sora laughed "I'm not telling!" "I'll give you ten dollars." Mimi whispered to Sora "Twenty! How about twenty?" "Sorry, Mimi." Sora giggled "I'm not telling." "You want a new blouse?" Mimi continued "Heck, how about a whole new outfit!" "Nope!" Sora sighed "Not gonna do it!" "You want my watch?" "NO." "OH, COME ON!!! I WANNA KNOW!!!...Aww man, this is gonna bug be all night..." To Be Continued... |