Infernal Machines Default Chapter Title, a digimon fanfic

The Infernal Digital Machine Infernal Machines

Chapter One: "The Oasis"

[Time: About five days before the Digi-destined found Myotismon's castle and returned to Japan…]

The blistering sun was high in the sky as a group of fourteen individuals slowly trudged their way over the heated desert sand below them. There were no plants glowing nor even the most insignificant of animals scurrying about. It was completely barren. Dunes blocked the group's path as they crossed the searing sands that almost went on into infinity. Far off into the distance before them, the group could barely see the top-most turrets of the castle on a mountain high above them, although it was neither a clear image nor easy to make out among that shadows at the horizon.

"How much farther have we to go?"

"I already told you a minute ago, Mimi", Tai – the self proclaimed leader of the group – called behind to the almost completely-pink girl sprawling at the back-most part of the group. "We don't know yet."

"If I have to go any farther in this blistering heat, I'm sure to collapse. And my feet are killing me; it feels like we've been walking for hours and miles onto end", she started.

"Oh great, she's starting this again", the pessimistic Joe at the middle of the group said, understating the fact that this is the fifth time she's complained about the arid climate today.

"Don't bother her so much, Joe. Let her complain if she wants. I haven't been near water in days myself", Gomamon said from down at Joe's side, just pulling himself over the sands.

"Yeah, and you need water more so than even the rest of us", Agumon said to his right.

"Speak for yourself!" the plant-like Palmon said trudging just a step behind Mimi.

"Gabumon", Matt called over to his wolf Digimon, "How are you holding up?"

"I'm sure I'd do better if I hadn't to wear this fur."

"What about you, TK?" Matt then asked over to his younger brother.

"Well, I'd be going better too if Patamon wasn't resting on my head", he answered looking up at the two orange wings that hang over the edges of his cap from his orange, small Digimon sitting on his hat. "Well excuse me but I'd fly if my wings weren't all dried out and my legs can't carry me as fast as the rest of yours can."

"I didn't mean it that way."

"Oh."

"Tai", Sora said picking-up the pace – her Digimon, Yokomon – in her arms because she couldn't move as fast on her own, "This is not getting any better. We seem to just tread on and on and on. We can't keep going at this rate."

"And we need new supplies", Joe added-in picking through what remained of his utilities pouch slung over his shoulder, "We almost out."

"Of what?"

"Everything."

Yokomon stirred in Sora's arms and directed her voice to Tai: "Use your telescope and see if you can find anything." "Good idea, Yokomon; I almost forgot myself that Tai had one", Sora answered, looking down, and then looked up at Tai.

Tai smiled – he loved the way she always looked at him like that – but quickly snapped back. "Alright, everybody, take four-and-a-half!" Everyone else of the Digi-destined fell down to the sandy ground in a slump when they heard this; next you could almost hear them complain about the break being cut by that half-a-minute.

Tai turned around facing the way they were walking and pulled out his pocket telescope to scan-over the horizon. Not much but sand and more sand for miles around. The dark castle in the distance – even through the telescope – was blurred and hard to make out. He continued to sweep over the desert for anything aside from what they have been seeing for miles past, coming-up empty many times. But then he came over something that caught his eye. He was so caught off-guard by it that he wiped off his eye once and looked again to make sure it WAS actually there and not an illusion.

"Whoa! Out of place!" Tai said, still eyeing the sight.

"What is it?" Sora asked.

"Hopefully a Seven-Eleven, with this weather", and everyone looked at Mimi. "Well, wouldn't it be too much to hope for in this wild place?" This was passed over by everyone but Palmon who asked: "What's a 'Seven-Eleven'?"

"What did you find, Tai?" Agumon asked coming up to the holder of his Digivice.

"Yeah, what do you see: don't leave us hanging", Matt also said being followed by Gabumon up to the slowly growing group in front of the reclining Digi-destined.

"Well, either the sun's getting to me worst than I thought or I spy an oasis!"

"An oasis?! Where!! Just point me in the direction!" Mimi said barging into the group, almost knocking over Matt. She was pulling Palmon along for the ride.

TK came running up too. "An oasis! Aw, cool! Is it close, I hope." "What's an 'oasis'?" Patamon asked from on top of his hat. "A very beautiful place where plants grow and has a lake with water is in the middle of a desert like this."

Joe probably would've joined them in a heart-beat too but he was just getting-up from re-packing his supplies pouch. "Water? Good, we need that the most. We've over-used our supply the past few days."

"And I need a swim", Gomamon said besides him. Then he sniffed the air in Joe's general direction during a big breath. "Come to think of it, so do you." Joe just looked at him sarcastically as he stood: "Ha ha. That was just too funny to laugh at, Gomamon."

"It's off this direction some dozen yards", Tai said putting his telescope away. With a wave of his hand he called, "Come on everybody! Let's go!"

And with that, the Digi-destined and their Digimon began running the direction that Tai had pointed them in. They started off galloping across the hot sand. They were on the slope of a dune so it was easier than if they had to climb. But they didn't get far before Tai looked over his shoulder and then called out, "Hold it!"

Tai, Agumon and Sora stopped just bumping into each other at the head of the group. Everyone else stopped too but they tripped over the person before them and very soon everyone but the first three had fallen on the sand in a pile. "Hey, what gives, Tai?" Matt asked.

"Oh, my dress – it's all sandy", Mimi complained. "Next time warn us before you call 'stop' all of a sudden like that."

Tai turned around and thumbed behind them. "Oh, sorry. We have a straggler." Everyone looked back over their shoulders as they got back up and saw Izzy walking slowly behind them – eyes glued to the open laptop he held in his hands – and Tentomon behind them who was trying to get Izzy to move faster. They were both a good thirty to forty feet back.

"Hm…I can't seem to figure this out. That map I copied from Etemon's Sphinx doesn't point to there being this much of a desert in the area. Could I be looking at the wrong part of the map?" Izzy was saying to no one in particular as he walked.

"That is a good possibility. And I can tell you why: despite that part on the map, we ARE trudging through a desert!" Tentomon answered back in his sarcastic way.

"Well if that's not the problem, then certainly it's mechanical or operational. I should probably shut-down and then go into my computer to search for errors", Izzy said.

"I think you're already in that thing and not your body", Tentomon replied. "Now please try to concentrate and mind where you're going."

"Okay, okay, already", Izzy answered, finally closing-up the window-flap.

As they waited impatiently for Izzy and his Digimon to catch-up they collected themselves off the sand again. No real damage was done to anyone or anything really. Joe handed Mimi her hat that had fallen off when she tumbled on him. "Here you are, Mimi." "Oh, thanks", she answered and then turned the hat over to allow the sand to pour out before putting it back on.

Izzy eventually made it to the front of the group with Tai and Sora. "Okay, that wasted a good five minutes, let's keep moving", Tai answered to his arrival. Sora elbowed him and added: "We found an oasis to freshen-up at."

"An oasis?" Izzy asked as he reopened the laptop cover and started to clack away a bit. "That's funny, it's not on the map." Tai just rested his head in his hand and gave a signal to the others who had gotten themselves back up: "Let's move it out. We're almost there."

"Yeah, let's all go before we dehydrate or something by just standing out here", Matt said.

"I'm going for being 'baked' first", Patamon said.

While the others past him by Izzy remained there working to figure out where they actually were. Only Mimi had to pass Izzy now and, on passing, commented to him, "Come on, Brainiac, close that thing up. We're not going to wait about all day for you." At this, Izzy looked up from his screen and eyed Mimi as she walked away further down the dune. Why did everyone think him an over-intelligent know-it-all? For that matter, why did he put up with it? He knew he put up with it with Mimi only because he…

"Izzy, everyone's leaving. Shouldn't we also?", Izzy snapped out of his train of thought and quickly snapped his laptop shut, slinging it in his backpack and took pursuit of the group with Tentomon flying behind him. "Hey, Izzy wait for me."

The Digi-destined walked into the tropical dot in the desert with a bit of awe – they hadn't seen a live plant, excluding Palmon, in almost three days. Green grass covered the ground in a nice layer; seven palm-trees surrounded the place with two scattered within the perimeter; a nice blue lake was off-center to the entire paradise in a wasteland. A few rocks and small flowers were planted here and there.

"Whoa, its like we just passed into a whole different area of the planet", Agumon marveled.

"Yeah, I know; these things can have that effect on you if you stumble across them", Gabumon said to him walking up to a tree and looking at the coconuts in it. He licked his lips.

"Yeah, I'm sure we can really restock our stuff here." Joe immediately look for something to fill, shuffling through his bag.

"Yeah, this looks like a great place to pick ourselves up until we start moving-out again", Tai said.

"How long do you think we should stay here?" Sora asked putting Yokomon down on the ground.

"As long as we need to."

Palmon planted her roots into the soil to absorb some water but immediately figured something was different about this spot. "Hey, what gives?! There's no water in this…'soil'." Mimi came up to her friend: "Don't worry, Palmon, there's still a big lake of it right over there."

"Oh boy!" Palmon and Mimi were both just about to go for their 'fair share' first but they were stopped by TK calling from off to one-side of the lake. "Hey, guys, come over here and see what I've found!"

The group huddled their way from their activities to see what TK was looking at to the side of the lake. Mimi was the last to come. "Just one little sip first?" Palmon tugged her away though, for the moment, "Come on, Mimi, everyone's moving." "Oh, alright. But I'll be back once I see what this is about", she said almost warning the water directly.

The group, who was just then joined by Mimi, huddled over what looked like a metal dais low to the ground, jutting out from it – one of Gennai's communicators, no doubt. There were few features on it. The flat platform on the top of it was silvered and divided by rails into fifths. But, new to the design, the base of it near the sand was devised like a large, silver toothed gear. Also, small lights donned the top concave up until platform section.

"Whoa, another of Gennai's gizmos", Tai said leaning over it.

"You think he set this place up?" Matt asked.

"Well he's done just about everything but part the ocean to get us here to Serber, so why not", Gomamon said.

"Clearly this is another's design too", Izzy said coming up from behind the group. "Most of this one's features are different even to his design. Someone else probably uses this one too."

"Who'd use something like this out here, Izzy?" Gabumon asked.

"How should I know, I've never been out here before let alone to a continent known as 'Serber' ", Izzy said standing up.

"Maybe it's a relic from an older civilization of Digimon…" Matt said.

"To think that this place would have such a history – that'd be pretty amazing", Sora said.

Patamon, flew off of TK's hat and down towards the silver-plated disk on top. "Pretty."

But just as he was about to land the device powered-up, the lights on it flickering and blinking random colors and a hum coming from the machine. Patamon was startled and quickly pulled back, landing behind TK's leg and peering out at the machine. Slowly the gear form that seemed to dominate its base began spinning rapidly into a blur and turned out a low-level whine. The disk on top slowly lit-up and then burst upwards in a flash of very translucent rainbow light, forming an image. That image was of an old man, not too much bigger than any of the children huddled about the machine, in an purple and red suit of some sort with a large gray mustache.

"Greetings, kids; I was wondering when you'd arrive at this communicator", Gennai's transmission said hovering in the rainbow light, with his arms almost indefinitely folded behind his back.

"Gennai, it's nice to see you again. We were wondering if this was your communicator – it looks different from the others", Tai answered.

"Eh, ah yes. I had to make repairs to that model from this side of the transmission and didn't have much to work with."

"Repairs? That side of the transmission? But who made the repairs here?" Yokomon asked.

"You leave getting these devices up and working to me", Gennai said humble-like. "Meanwhile, you still have a ways to go through this desert, and I wanted to figure some way to get you kids' attention."

"So you just wanted to make sure we were still okay?" Joe asked.

"And to make sure you were still on the right path to the castle from where you were last, yes", Gennai added.

"So you set up this oasis to draw our attention and help us recover from and for the long walk, right?" Agumon asked, walking up aside Tai, closer to the image. But the response was different than they all expected from Gennai. "Huh? Oh…you mean this set-up", Gennai said in a rather lower tone.

"You almost think, the way he said that, that this isn't really real", Mimi said as Joe moved to lean against a palm.

"Actually, it isn't."

Joe learned Gennai's point first-hand as soon as he reach the 'tree' and found that he fell right through it, crashing to the ground on the other-side. When he looked back up the tree was still there, but the part of it he fell through was flashing with static and going through his stomach. "These trees are holograms around here!" Joe announced swinging his palm through the fake image.

"Yes, er…(clearing his throat) Yes, this oasis is a hologram. I figured that it would do the best to get your attention out here", Gennai admitted.

Gomamon turned to the lake and began to bound as best his four-legged body could. "Well, I can still get a good swim in the lake before we leave, I'm sure of that!" Close enough, he took one more bound and then a long jump, flying towards the water. "Alley-oop!"

Gennai exclaimed: "That hologram was over-laid over a tar pit for convenience of location!"

"Gah!" Gomamon cried as he fell towards the hologram covering the tar-lake.

Joe yelled getting up, "Gomamon!"

Mimi cried quickly, "O' dear! Palmon, use your attack!"

Palmon turned and responded quickly, "POISON IVY!"

Her lower tentacles – which usually functioned as fingers – shot out from the wrists of her arms and towards Gomamon's falling form. With lightning-fast reflexes, they grabbed Gomamon just within an inch of touching what would've been the holographic lake. Gomamon held in place for a moment before opening his eyes and realizing that he was being hung upside-down from his back feet just above tar with a deep sigh. She slowly retracted and brought Gomamon back to the shore, for fear of dropping him if she did it too fast.

"Sorry kids for getting your hopes up but I would've conditioned the image to make it look less realistic at close-range if I had the time", Gennai said looking around, although no one could actually tell if Gennai could see them and not just vice-versa. "Well, enough with this program already. It's causing more trouble than it's worth."

After he had said that, the grass, tress and over-all greenery of the area about them – the entire oasis minus the communicator – began to fade in a field of static that covered the images. When if was done, any traces of their ever being an oasis were gone in a crack of electrical fielding and holograms. "Smoke and mirrors, it goes a long way…that is, used properly with projectors and magnets."

"Of course, Gennai", Sora said.

"Now then, can you tell us anything important?" TK asked.

"Oh, what do you want to know specifically?"

"How's about where we are? A name, maybe?" Matt said with his hands in his pockets.

"Okay, for starters I can tell you that you're in the Kog Desert. It used to be a thriving forest community but the desert from the north shifted here slowly over the years until it was replaced barren. Nowadays, the place itself isn't solidly mapped off with boundaries because the sand tends to shift a lot during the windy season. Sorry again, but I'm about as much help here as a befuddled old man."

"Is he?" Palmon whispered to Mimi, Gomamon having already been put down out of harm's way. Gennai side-looked towards her for a moment as Izzy reopened his computer and started the search again.

"Well thanks anyway, Gennai. Nice to see you're still watching out for us, but we can handle ourselves", Tai answered.

"You'll have to. You've only made it about one-third through the desert and there's a long sandy road ahead of you."

"Don't remind us", Gomamon said slumping, belly to the ground.

Gennai's image then began to flash in some static and distort slightly where it was projected. He seemed to be having similar visual responses on the other-side because he was looking about himself too in the same confused way. "This is a third 'sorry'. I must be having a bad communications lock with this holographer. I have to go now before I blow a fuse or my service charge rises. Just remember: 'use your greatest merits and what you have at hand'…not to mention always call collect." With that, his image zapped out of proportions, disappeared and the machine on the ground shorted to a stop.

"Service charge? Call collect?" Joe said looking over to Izzy, but was receiving little (no) answer.

"Well, everybody must have some calling restrictions", Mimi shrugged.

"Anyway, we're not going to be getting anywhere else just standing about here. There's nothing here. We'd better get back on the road", Tai said.

"Hold it, Tai", Izzy said, sitting down next to the dormant machine and plugging the telephone connection of his laptop into a socket on it. "I think this machine can still be of assistance to us."

"Oh, how?"

"Gennai might've turned-off this communicator but I think he just cut the transmission, not the power", Izzy started to explain while starting to type on his keyboard and the group slowly broke up to look about the immediate area. "Technical difficulties like he was experiencing could only have been achieved by satellite interference so that's how I figure he was communicating to us. I'm gon'na try to harness the capacity of the transmission dish of this holo-communicator to try and control one of Gennai's satellites by transmitting a rough 'Internet' activation signal."

"Oh, I see. You're going to try to get us an eye in the sky?" Sora asked, leaning down.

"That's what I think he said, but then I'm not good with 'computers' ", Yokomon said.

"If I can get control of one of Gennai's satellites then I can display a detailed image of the surrounding desert and determine if there's a safer, faster route to Myotismon's castle", Izzy said clacking away at his laptop diligently. "I just need a few minutes."

"I got that clear enough", Patamon said sitting up-right next to the communicator.

Agumon came up besides Tai. "But what if this side of the transmission was the one that gave him trouble?"

"At this point, hoping for the better end of the stick is worth the wait", Matt answered him.

"Okay everyone, looks like we're taking another four-and-a-half!" Tai called.

Mimi and Patamon were already seated – or rather, slumped forward – over what once was a crystal lake under the cloak of the oasis hologram; it was now a tar pit. Every quality of it was thick, black, crude, stagnant and it looked to have a shiny stickiness to it. Gomamon was just coming up from behind.

"Well, it looks like I'm not going to take a nice cool drink, am I?" Mimi said downhearted, staring at the blackness of the tar.

"Not unless you want your tongue to stick to the roof of your mouth permanently", Palmon said besides her.

"Well, I sure wouldn't want to take a swim in this black goop", Gomamon said stopping aside the 'lake'.

Joe came up besides him too, shuffling through his shoulder pouch. "Yeah, you'd suffocate stuck sinking in that gunk."

"Uh-huh. Thanks for stopping my fall, Palmon."

"Was nothing."

"Even if this was hot water, I wouldn't mind moistening my dry, aching feet", Mimi said aside.

Joe kneeled down after he finished shuffling through his bag and pulled out an empty bottle. He dipped it into the tar lake and started to fill the bottle. "Joe, what are you doing?" Gomamon asked, looking weirdly over at him.

"Taking a free sample." Joe lifted the bottle out of the tar and started to cap it and put it back in the pouch. "Hey, we may not be able to drink it, but you never know if this might come in handy."

"Just make sure to label that bottle", Mimi said over to him.

Meanwhile, Izzy and the rest of the gang near the holo-communicator were having a problem. Izzy was still frantically clacking away at the keys and everybody was seated about him waiting as patiently as they possibly could. The machine in the center had its lights blinking but nothing else was happening. "Hm…"

"What's wrong, Izzy?"

"I don't know, Tentomon. All the system parameters are correct; the hardware's all ready; the program turns-up one-hundred percent capable of transmitting on the diagnostics but its not activating."

Tentomon stood and put one of his fore-arms to his equivalent 'chin' but then placed both of them in the grooves between the teeth of the gear on the base of the machine. "Well, Izzy…maybe if…" With a good throw of his arms, he spun the gear once and then it began to spin rapidly on its own, slowly working back up to its old engine whine.

"Prodigious! A dynamo. Good thinking, Tentomon. Now, let's see what we can do with this satellite relay." Izzy continued to clack away as features, windows and operations clicked on and off his screen until finally he was left with a window showing a map of some sort. He stopped momentarily and twisted his face.

"What'cha got for us, Iz?"

"Darn."

"What's wrong? You can't get a satellite?" TK asked.

"Oh, I've got a satellite, yes; but it's only a low-grade weather-monitoring satellite. I was expecting something with a bit better quality", Izzy said as he started typing again, slower this time. "And, from the images it's sending me, it still looks like the shortest distance between two points is a straight line."

"I was afraid he'd say that", Matt commented.

"So we get back to walking?" Sora asked looking over to Tai.

"Yep." Everybody started to slowly standing-up.

"Wait a minute, guys. The weather detection systems are indicating stratocumulus quickly moving in from the north heading a front. We should be in for a storm if it keeps bearing", Izzy said.

"Well, that's good", Patamon said. "It's hard to come by rain in a desert."

"Normally, yes; but, these clouds show high traces of sulfuric and hydrochloric compounds held within them, as if they came from an industrial center", Izzy stated, expressing the up-most foreboding.

"What!?" Mimi exclaimed coming over to the group. "Oh, that's bad! That's terrible! That's horrible! That's, uh…what does it mean?" It was the best of Mimi's ramblings for the past few days, no arguments from anyone there.

"Acid rain", came Izzy's cold answer.

"Huh…Oh!!"

"What? No!" Matt said.

Tai stood firmly as everybody begin to get surprised and jumped at that. "Acid rain? Normal rain in a desert is wild enough, but acid? We've got to find cover."

"We're without protection out in the open like this during the storm. We can't just say here", Sora said slowly standing.

"Okay…don't panic! Maybe we can just make some sort of shelter to ride the storm out", Joe said, trying not to panic himself. "Out of what, Joe?" Gomamon asked down at his feet. "Well, we can cut down some of the palm…oh yeah, they were just holograms."

"Okay, scratch that. Anyone else have any ideas?" Palmon asked the group in general.

"Hey, Izzy, what's that there?" TK asked on the ground, pointing to a dot on Izzy's screen.

"What's what?"

"I think he means that color blotch on your map's screen, Izzy", Tentomon said pointing to the object a lot more clearly that TK did. Izzy looked closer and finally saw the small gray 'dot' on the map.

"Oh…I hadn't even noticed that", Izzy said beginning to type again. "Increasing magnification as much as I can…eureka. Hey guys, calm down and come over here!" Everybody turned back from what they were doing and came back over to Izzy, leaning over him to look at the close-up of the image on his screen. "Look at this: it appears to be some sort of structure in the middle of the desert some distance from here. I'm not promising the adequacy of this structure for a possible shelter against the acid rain…"

"But that's a risk well have to take!" Tai said, standing up-right again.

"It's not like we have a choice", Yokomon said.

"Which way is it?" Gabumon asked Izzy.

Izzy typed for a second and then turned, pointing a way aside the route to the castle in the distance. There were fast moving clouds moving in from the north just aside of that direction: "That way – due east. We'll have to risk the acid rain bath just to reach it in time, though. It should start sometime soon, while we're enroute."

"Then let's get moving before we get drenched and melt at the same time!" Joe exclaimed, now panicking. Izzy closed-up his laptop hurriedly and stood up, the connection cord yanking out of the socket on the transmitter and the machine slowly shutting-down.

Mimi to Palmon: "Will this activity include running? (There came a nod in affirmation from Palmon's direction) Ooo…I knew I should've brought running shoes to wear, not boots."

Just as everybody was getting up and preparing to go again, the tar pit literally burst from the pool it lay in. Globs of tar flew left and right, falling from the sky. Everyone covered-up and hoped that none would fall on them. Mimi and Joe fell down opposite the pit when it 'exploded'. From that part of the pit nearest the Digi-destined a large figure started to rise. The massive skeletal mass had tar slowly falling off of its form; a single red fleshy organ dominated the inside of the hunched figure's rib-cage. The skull was that of a horned demon with its red eyes aglow on the Digi-destined.

TK and Patamon, who was in his hands: "Gah! Skullgreymon!"

"What's he doing here!?" Agumon - his Digivolution descendent - exclaimed.

The beast quickly turned glance to the first two who had exclaimed with his arrival - TK and Patamon. With a roar it thrust out a bony, grasping hand at the two. Matt saw this and jumped at his little brother, grabbing him and Patamon and pulling them to one-side as the claw grasped nothing but sand.

"Stay away from my little brother!" Matt called to the monster, who had decide to go after another of the children as they started to scramble out of the way. The creature slashed across what would be the height of their heads but they all dropped out of the way beforehand as the hand swiped over them. Tai and Agumon turned-over from lying face-down in the sand to see the Skullgreymon winding-up for another swing.

"Agumon, go show him what you're made of!"

"Something strong, I hope", Agumon said as he stood up. One moment's pause and then he took a running start at the monster. The creature saw this and took a swipe that Agumon jumped over with ease. While he was in mid-air he attacked: "PEPPER BREATH!" The fireball he breath struck the Skullgreymon in the chin, but didn't even faze it. The creature just followed through with a swipe with the other claw and knocked the momentarily air-born Agumon falling back to Tai.

Gabumon quickly turned himself in a mid-dash and attacked the Skullgreymon in his own way: "BLUE BLASTER!" The skeletal creature absorbed the shot into its shoulder bone like nothing and turned towards the wolf Digimon. Gabumon fired another of his attacks at the creature and hit the chin, dead-center, knocking its head back. But it was a feign and the monster threw the head forward, firing a fireball from its mouth. Before Gabumon could do anything, he was knocked flying backwards into Matt's hands - him then to the ground.

"Excuse me!"

"Oof! No problem."

The creature next turned to Sora who was standing just some distance to the side of Matt and took a step out of the tar. Sora was clutching Yokomon scared as if it were a stuffed animal. The Skullgreymon threw its arm up and then threw it down again with a roar at the human and Digimon cowering there, fear-stricken at the moment. Tai, who was just left of Sora, jumped out from his spot towards her. "Sora!" He grabbed onto and pushed Sora, knocking them both out of the way of the claw which crashed down within only centimeters behind them.

Tentomon flew out from behind where Sora was positioned. "This thing may be ugly but…okay, okay: so it is ugly. SUPER SHOCKER!" The electrical attack struck the creature right in its chest but had no effect whatsoever. The Skullgreymon then tried to literally swat Tentomon out of the air but had little progress.

"Ah! Go away already, you stupid creature!" Mimi yelled at the top of her lungs from the other-side of the tar pits behind the creature. However, her scream was enough to get the monster to turn around and face her. Izzy was off to one side and Palmon was just besides Mimi, standing.

"Uh, Mimi…I wouldn't anger it anymore than it already is", Palmon said nervously to her human friend.

"Oh and why not? It bothered us first!" Mimi said looking over to her friend.

"That's why!" Izzy called out from aside them pointing to the creature. Mimi and Palmon looked and saw the monster moving his hands from what would be his ears - he obviously was not a fan of Mimi's voice - and going into a combination lunge-slash at the two. Mimi screamed, just making the monster more angry - and started to push herself backwards in the sand to avoid the swing. Palmon jumped forward, in front of Mimi and used her attack at the large hand. "POISON IVY!" She caught onto the four fingers of the bone hand and stiffened up, momentarily straining to stop the giant hand from crashing down on them within inches of actually doing so. She looked to be holding the hand up well for a the first two seconds but then fell down to one knee in strain.

"I…can't…hold…it up…forever!"

"Tentomon, front and center!" Izzy called to his Digimon zooming about the Skullgreymon's head. Tentomon changed course at Izzy's calling and turned to ram into Skullgreymon's claw. Gomamon was nearby and jumped to do the same (Joe had taken off already, wishing Gomamon the best of luck). Together they collided into the wrist and knocked the hand aside, Palmon and Mimi getting up and running for cover themselves. Tentomon then air-lifted Gomamon out of the way as the behemoth of a Digimon attached to the wrist came crashing forward out of the tar and falling face first into the sand with a crash.

"Ooo…" Gomamon said rubbing his head with his free hand, "That guy's as hard as rock."

"You mean bone", Tentomon said still lifting him aside.

"Whichever. We still have to crack him."

They didn't last long though, because Skullgreymon's flailing tail crashed into them and knocked them both off to one side. Izzy also took off out of the battle zone as the fallen beast began to breath fire in rage.

Tai and Sora were just landing from their tumble down the side of s dune that Tai had sent them when he knocked Sora out of the way. Tai landed back-first on the ground and Sora landed front first on him. Yokomon landed to one side of the two near Tai's head. Tai: Oof! Uncomfortable but then I shouldn't complain at this point.

Sora pushed herself up with her hand planted on Tai's chest and quickly sat-up turning towards the fight off on the top of the dune and Tai sat up rubbing his back with his other hand. He made a point to remember that.

"Tai, the Digimon can't handle that thing alone", she exclaimed as Yokomon came over to her.

"I know that", Tai said standing up slowly. "They've got'ta Digivolve."

"But they can't Digivolve", Joe started running over to them from the direction he was coming, followed by Matt and TK. Mimi and then Izzy were following behind them. "They need energy to do that!"

Matt came up to them finally. "And we haven't eaten anything decent in the last three days."

TK: "This is bad."

Tai: "Well, what else are we going to do? Run?"

"Retreat! Scatter! Just as long as we get away from that horrible thing!" Mimi said, not yet learning to lower her excited voice.

"We stand no chance against him unless we can Digivolve", Yokomon said.

"And, momentarily, that isn't our simplest option in this predicament", Izzy said.

Tai considered for a moment. He was the leader: what would be the best decision for everyone's benefit. Part of him wanted to stay and fight it out all they could but…

"Help me! Ah!" came a voice from high in the air that was falling arced in TK's direction. Everybody turned to its sound and TK backed-up a bit to catch the falling thing as it fell towards him. The orange Patamon landed exhausted in his arms. "I gave him my 'boom bubble' but…it wasn't enough."

"Poor Patamon…" TK said.

"Alright, everyone", Tai yelled as the Skullgreymon was just standing and turning their way, their Digimon also just approaching them from the fight. "It's time to retreat! Izzy, which way is that place that we found again?" Izzy pointed off towards his left, where he had first pointed. "Okay, then let's fall back!"

The group then made their way in a mad dash for that unseen establishment in the desert. The Skullgreymon had stepped completely out of the tar pits and was not willing to lose his prey at all; he gave chase after the kids and Digimon, who all took up the rear except for Yokomon who was carried. The group just ran faster and faster as they saw the monster running-up behind them.

The Skullgreymon bounded through the sand, scattering a pile of it with each stomp. Its long legs carried it over the slopes. The children, meanwhile, ran over the sand as fast as their feet could carry them. Their Digimon also sped as fast as they could. The hot sand added to their haste.

Joe was the first to look over his shoulder again. "Gah! He's still chasing us!"

"Doesn't he have somewhere else to go, like home?!" Mimi said.

"Home?" Izzy said as if he almost had a thought.

"Keep moving, guys!" Tai called behind him.

Just to make matters worse than they already were, two smaller Skullgreymon sprung out from the tar pits behind them all and roared deeply in a breath of fire. One of the two bounded off, out of the tar and after the lead Skullgreymon and the kids he was chasing. Matt looked back and was the first to see the other two.

"Hey, guys, we've got more company! Two more Skullgreymon just poked out of that black goo!" Matt yelled and the Digi-destined alternated looking back and where they were running.

"They brought guests! Typical of people who over-stay their welcome!" Palmon exclaimed.

"We welcomed them?!" Tentomon called.

The lead Skullgreymon stopped where he stood abruptly and leaned downwards towards the ground, revealing a formation on the center of his back. "FISH MISSILE!" it roared in a deep gurgled tone as the bony formation of what may've once been a large fish flew off of his back in a flare and zoomed its way towards the still running group of children.

Gabumon turned about and saw the fish-bone projectile cutting through the air towards them at high speed. "Everybody, hit the dirt!"

"Get down!"

The entire group stopped on a dime when he yelled this and turned themselves to find the missile quickly speeding towards them! Mimi let out a third scream and she was joined this time by Joe and Sora combined. They all quickly fell face-first to the sand before them and the bone missile flew over-head. They could feel the heat from the missile's force as it flew over them almost scorching their backs through their shirts - the Digimon could feel the full heat of the missile as it passed over them. The missile continued over them and collided with a sand dune that rose just before them. The blast was very resounding and scattered sand for dozens of yards around!

Agumon was the first to spring up and quickly attacked the nearest Skullgreymon from a distance. "PEPPER BREATH!" That Skullgreymon ducked under the fireball as it flew past him and towards the one still standing in the tar pit. When it finally reached that Skullgreymon he tried to knock it away with his claw.

Unfortunately, it ricocheted of his palm and flew downwards into the tar pit in which he stood. On impact from the fireball, the entire surface of the tar caught fire and it quickly spread over the entire pit. The Skullgreymon standing in it, looked about dumb-founded for a moment, roared and then began flailing his arms, trying to put the fire out. The Skullgreymon running towards the first turned at the bellow of its comrade and ran back to help him. His roar also got the attention of the first Skullgreymon, who turned about too and stared at the flames.

Tai was the first of the Digi-destined to stand-up and he helped Sora up in turn. "Let's sneak out of here while we can", he whispered to the others, who were also starting to get back up.

"Yes, before Skullgreymon sees us", Patamon said standing up and then took flight back to the top of TK's hat when he was standing too.

"Alright, now you're gon'na get it!" Agumon said, still intent on fighting the first skeletal Digimon as he took another big breath to attack. Tai quickly ran up behind him and cupped his hand over his mouth, closing it on the attack. "Not now, Agumon, we're getting out of here while we can", Tai hissed in a low level voice, slowly pulling Agumon backwards. "I've burnt the roof of my mouth!" he claimed.

Slowly the group began to sneak away behind the backs of the three Skullgreymon who were intent on putting out the fire in their tar pit for some reason. The closest one to them had also decided to take some steps forward towards the pit in case the other two couldn't get the fire down. A few minutes later - and five more steps forward - the other two Skullgreymon had the fire down and out. Then the farthest monster turned about to face the prey he was chasing only to disappointedly find them having disappeared.

The twice dumb-founded creature rotated his head left and right to try to find them but he didn't see them anywhere within range. Enraged at this, he bellowed one breath of fire, roared and then turned to slowly walk back towards the pit and his other two Skullgreymon. But, as he turned, he didn't catch sight of Matt's head sticking up over the edge of a steep sand dune followed by Gabumon's head.

"Did they see us?"

Matt quickly threw his hand over Gabumon's snout, shutting his mouth closed. "Shh. Keep your voice down." Then they both turned about and slide down the ledge of the dune to where the rest of the Digi-destined were waiting for them. "It's okay; they're going back."

"That doesn't make sense", Tai said. "Are you sure?"

"Why don't you go up and ask them yourself, if you're so unsure?"

"Skullgreymon are usually driven to destroy anything madly by their over-abundance of power! I wonder what made them turn back?" Tentomon said.

"Perhaps they thought we we're intruding in their territory or something", Sora said standing besides Mimi, who was pouring more sand out of her cowboy hat.

"That's what I think", Izzy said. "Remember how they all seemed to rise out of the tar pit itself?"

"Yeah, like they lived in it or under it or something like that", Yokomon said.

"Lived in that stuff!?" Mimi said. "That's gross! Why would anyone want to live in that gunk?"

Joe: "Even better: how?"

"Maybe there was an underground tunnel or something like that under it that they lived in; the tar would provide a good protection against being bothered", Gabumon said. "Skullgreymon can be very territorial."

"So they were just protecting their home, thinking that we were going to bother them?" Tai said. "Well, that would explain why they were so concerned with dousing that flame."

"Well", TK started, "I say we leave them alone from now on." Patamon looked down from TK's hat. "I'm with you on that one."

"Yeah, let's get moving before it starts to rain", Gomamon said, looking up at a sky which was already beginning to turn overcast.

"Okay then", Tai said, before turning towards Izzy. "Are we still going the right way?"

Izzy looked about a moment and then grabbed Mimi's arm lifting the compass/watch on her arm up to eye-level. "Yeah, we should just keep going this way and we'll be fine." Mimi indignantly pulled her arm back down.

"Okay, then let's move out."

*******

Almost an hour later, the original Skullgreymon was still standing guard outside of the tar pit which he came. The sky had become badly overcast but it fortunately hadn't rained yet. The creature was watching over the sky, but was bothering less about the clouds. It was just watching and waiting for something. Behind him, the tar spilt earlier had been cleaned up the best it could and placed back into the pit.

The red eyes of the Skullgreymon swept back and forth across the sky, watching everything that looked to move. By now, the sun had almost been completely blocked by the clouds so he had to watch carefully not to miss anything. The sand underneath its feet had been shuffled greatly, indicating the skirmish had occurred earlier.

Suddenly, the Skullgreymon say out of the corner of its eye what it had been hoping to see high in the sky. A lone black and yellow figure flying below the clouds headed towards Myotismon's castle off in the horizon. It looked almost like a dot against the clouds being so high. The monster on the ground roared but the creature continued on its path, evidently not hearing the call. Angered, it roared a second time and still the creature in the air didn't hear it.

Quite peeved, the Skullgreymon leaned down again revealing the weapon on its back. "FISH MISSILE!" it roared and then fired the missile upwards towards the creature flying above him. When the missile finally exploded, the flying monster was just to one side of the blast and that caught its attention. Wavering in its path and almost losing it, the creature looked down on the ground to find the source of the attack - Skullgreymon. It quickly changed course and then flew downwards towards the skeletal behemoth as fast as it could, anxious about the incoming acid rain it had heard about.

"What? What is it?" Flymon quickly asked as it reach head-hieght of the Skullgreymon. Quite contrary to his name, he looked more a like a large bumblebee with hair. "There's an acid rain forecast going about and I don't want to be caught out in…"

"Shut up!" the Skullgreymon grumbled. "I have news to report."

"Thiz had better be good."

"Flymon, you'd be useless to me if not for your far-reaching travel; I would've gotten rid of you already so don't try my patience!"

"What patience?"

The Skullgreymon gave a dirty look at Flymon and then went back to his normal conversation charisma - which wasn't much better than the previous. "The seven Digi-destined children were just here."

"What!? They were here!!" Flymon said excitedly, wavering in mid-air.

"They moved-on about an hour ago. They've learned about the acid rain and are already enroute to the 'project' for cover."

"Huh? Well, why didn't you stop them, you left-overs dinosaur?"

This angered the Skullgreymon worse than he normally was and the beast breath a blast of fire at the Flymon, forcing it to the ground next to the pit. "Don't tempt me, you rotten 'fruit-Flymon'! If I had more of a jurisdiction in this desert I would've chased them down." The Flymon was just beginning to get back-up. "But as it is, Lord Myotismon doesn't like me to run too far from this set-up!"

The Flymon, now slightly crisped, took flight again and leveled off at Skullgreymon's head height again - this time, a bit further away than before. "Okay, okay. I get the picture! Geez, say it; don't bray it!"

This angered the Skullgreymon again, but he continued nonetheless. "As that caused a disturbance, today's shipment was delayed almost indefinitely! We're still recovering here." He moved aside as a pipe slowly rose out of the tar pit as he spoke, extended to one side and stopped with its open end over the top of the communicator. A circle opened on the top of the communicator, in the silvered transmission dish, and the pipe lowered onto it, fitting snuggly and securely onto the hole. Tar from the pit pumped itself through the pipe and through the communicator.

"Zat's your problem!" Flymon said. "What do you want of me?"

"I want you to do the only thing you do - fly - and rendezvous with the 'project'. Warn D.D. to prepare himself: he's about to have company", the Skullgreymon said, pointing Flymon off in the direction the Digi-Destined had taken and towards the so-called 'project'.

"Very well, that is the closest structure out here to take shelter in anyway from the acid." Flymon said. "Should you want me to tackle the Digi-destined and stop them from getting to the plant?"

"No." Skullgreymon said turning back to him. "You're not capable of stopping them. They're too powerful for the pathetic likes of you, even in the weakened state this desert has put them in! Just go and warn D.D. the fastest you can."

"I can't handle the Digi-destined!?", Flymon exclaimed enraged. "I'll sting them to death! Be they at full power or…" Skullgreymon, who was right now getting as mad as ever, leaned down and aimed another of his 'fish missiles' at Flymon, who stopped speaking as soon as he saw it. "Fine! I'll just tell D.D.! Nothing else!" Without another word, Flymon turned around and took off into the air, flying the direction Skullgreymon had just pointed.

Skullgreymon was tempted to fire his missile at the insect Digimon which annoyed him more than anything anyway, but decided against it. 'D.D.' needs to know about the Digi-destined when they arrive. He has to be ready for them, the creature thought as it reluctantly leaned back-up. With a sigh it jumped feet-first into the tar pit again. It felt it had done its civic duty to 'Lord Myotismon' for the day.

*******

Some mile or so away at the base of a sand dune that had just been climbed down, the Digi-destined were walking along on their way towards the structure the satellites showed earlier. Izzy was still walking with his laptop in his arm in case it may be needed but didn't have it open due to popular vote. The group was walking again in a line whose order was similar to other ones they walked in - Tai, Sora, Matt and TK, Mimi and then Izzy - each person aside their Digimon companions.

"How much longer are we going to have to walk?" Mimi asked, eyeing Palmon who was beginning to slouch badly with her walk.

"I don't know. We'll find out when we get there", Tai answered from the front of the line as he began scaling the side of another dune they would all have to pass.

"Who knows how much longer the rain will hold out", Sora asked putting Yokomon down on the ground to allow herself to climb the face of the dune. "The sky is just getting cloudier and cloudier."

"Don't worry, everyone", Izzy said, slinging his computer into the slide pack he had on his back.

" 'Don't worry?' No one's worrying", Gomamon said looking up at Joe.

"Oh no", Matt said with his dead-pan sarcasm. "We'd all just like to know when it would've been better to melt: in the blazing sun before or the acid rain later?"

"I set an alarm off of what information the satellite sent back to my computer: only when it goes off do we have to worry", Izzy said stopping as the queue did. Tai was trying to find the sturdier part of the sand dune to climb as he had numerous times before.

"The let's hope it doesn't go off at all", Patamon said.

"With our run-of-luck this week, that'd be a miracle", Joe said.

Tai immediately stopped trying to scale the side and turned about, sliding down the dune from what height he had gotten to. He looked at everyone with a pessimistic face and a sort of scolding look to him as if he were not actually looking at them but something behind them. "What's with you guys? I'm trying to look to the positive side of things and you're all bumming me out."

Sora: "It would be easier if we didn't have to worry about the rain coming."

"Yeah, and for me that fear goes two ways", Mimi said. Everyone looked at her. "Well, these clothes aren't drip-dry."

"Mimi, if we don't find shelter from the rain, they'll drip", Matt said and Mimi looked at him. "Oh yeah, they'll drip right off you along with your skin." Mimi cringed at the thought.

"Well, try to keep in high spirits, people. If we don't we'll never make it to where we want to go", Tai said. He turned to resume his finding of the best part of the dune to climb but then quickly turned back towards Sora. "Sora, try to help lift everyone's spirits up when you can."

"Tai, I can only go so far as to…"

"We all can only do our best", TK said. "We've been walking in the sun for weeks and I hoped that the sound of rain would be a nice, cool change of pace. But now that we've got this harming stuff…we've got to get to that safe place out there."

Tai looked down at TK and then back at Izzy, whom he almost expected now to have his laptop open working on their situation. But, instead Izzy was not on the machine; he was paying close attention to the conversation. With one of his only signs of intellectual encouragement from the group gone, he turned towards Sora again. "Let's just try to keep on our best spirits everyone."

"Yeah, and in the process not turn into ones when it rains", Agumon said.

"Well, why not try telling a story as we go? Or what about singing a song; that always cheers me up when I'm not feeling my best", Sora suggested, fishing for a good suggestion. "Matt, you can lead the tune with your harmonica."

"Uh…yeah…sure, I can do that."

"But what song should we sing?" Gabumon asked.

Gomamon looked up: "We Digimon don't know that many songs. So you guys pick one."

"How's about I Can See Clearly Now the Rain is Gone?" Mimi asked from the back of the group, now looking directly at Palmon. The plant looked in back shape: her colorful leaves on her head looked to be wilting slightly, and she was slouching even worse than before - standing still and holding tightly onto the side of Mimi's skirt for support.

Mimi looked up for a moment and found, once again, everyone looking at her.

"Okay, so maybe that is such a bad selection given our situation", she said apologetically. "But then, one can hope can't they?"

Tai waved that off and turned back towards the side of the dune, Matt coming up besides him. Tai started climbing again, having found the sturdiest part of the side. When he was near the top: "Okay, everyone, let's forget about the song for the moment and concentrate on where we're going." He reached down for Sora's hand and helped pull her up the side. Matt was just starting up along with TK riding piggy-back.

Down at the bottom, Mimi knelt down to her friend Palmon who looked to be almost too tired to walk. "Are you okay, Palmon? You don't look one-hundred percent. Do you want any help?" The turning-green (hard to do for an already green plant, mind you) Palmon turned in the general direction of her voice and said, waving her hand, "Oh don't worry about me Mimi, I'll be fine. I just wish it weren't so hot and humid still!" Mimi looked at her friend, "Oh you poor dear…here, take my hat, if that helps anyway." Mimi took off her cowboy hat and balanced it on Palmon's head. "Now let's get going. Everyone's leaving without us."

At the top of the dune, Tai reported that he still couldn't see the structure that Izzy had seen on the radar; but, Izzy still held his opinion that there was something large and tall out there so they started off again, hoping that was the case.

Minutes passed, another hour of anxiety passed and then finally Palmon passed. Mimi stopped concerned over the out-cold Digimon as if it were her own child. She tried to rouse it again with the last of the drinking water Joe had in his pouch but when that didn't do any good she resorted to carrying the poor thing the rest of the way, leaving her hat on Palmon's head to shade her from the faint sun that crept through the dark growing clouds.

"Only ever saw her more concern about her wardrobe", Matt whisper/commented to Tai as they walked.

So they continued onwards over the sand that still blazed below their feet despite the over-all lack of heat from the sun and Izzy was explaining 'acid rain' to TK, Patamon and Gabumon using some real-life instances from Earth the best he could without mortifying them.

Tentomon suddenly stopped in the middle of a stride and called, "Stop everyone!"

To his instructions, everyone stopped what they were doing and then turned to him.

"I think I hear something."

"Something…?" Yokomon asked skeptically.

"Something…familiar", Tentomon said looking up-wards to try and improve his highly-sensitive hearing. Everyone was looking at each other with a quizzical look on their faces. Patamon only lift his wing-like ears high into the air.

A few hundred feet upwards and some few feet away from the Digi-destined on the sandy ground, Flymon zoomed across the sky underneath the cloud-cover. He was doing his best to make time before the rain came - he could almost sense when it would begin. Close. He didn't want to risk flying above the clouds for fear of over-shooting his target. Air currents greatly slowed him down but he wasn't that far now and thought he would make it.

But then he looked down over the ground to see if he could catch sight of his target and instead saw the Digi-destined group standing around at the base of a small sand dune. They seemed to be just standing about waiting for something to happen. For it to rain? No, they weren't that idiotic, especially that one with the little button machine that told them everything about everything.

Looking at the children, his thoughts then trailed back to the conversation he had just had with his superior - Skullgreymon: "You're not capable of stopping them. They're too powerful for the pathetic likes of you, even in the weakened state this desert has put them in!" At this he became full of envy and anger at the weak way everyone in Myotismon's organization held him - even his military inferiors.

I can't even handle a bunch of kids, they say!?, he thought to himself. These kids don't look too able. I shalln't scare them like I did before, and was doing a pretty good job before that Birdramon came along may I add: I shall finish them off by myself and prove to those that mock me that I can handle perfectly well!

With that resolution, and forgetting about his orders and the acid rain that was still oncoming, he swooped downwards at the group just as that insect one who went with the button machine kid was turning about. He was still looking upwards and was unsuspecting.

Down on the ground, Tentomon was still turning slowly following the sound which only he seemed to hear. Everyone else was trying to remain as silent as they could to help his concentration. Tai was getting impatient in the meantime that this was wasting their time.

"Anything yet, or should we get moving again?" Tai asked, arms as crossed as he was, in his best voice. Sora elbowed him slightly: "Shh. He's listening."

"I can still hear it", Tentomon up-dated the others, almost completely turned around.

"I can hear it too, Tentomon!" Patamon said sitting-up on TK's hat with his two bat-like wings pricked. "I hear it too!"

"Cool, what's 'it' sound like, Patamon?" TK asked.

"It's getting closer….", Tentomon said, almost completely turned about now. 'And…it…sounds…like…" He was now completely turned about and looking directly at a black and yellow figure hurling towards them with blurry flapping wings buzzing on each side of him. "Flymon!" he exclaimed throwing up his claws in surprise. Everyone looked where he was and saw Flymon swooping downwards towards them at high speed and they all jumped at his presence.

"GROUND STINGERS!" Flymon screeched as he ripped through the air and fired numerous of his spike attacks at the group below. Everyone jumped downwards and hit the dirt…er, sand as the attacks crashed into the ground all about them. Palmon and Yokomon accidentally flew from Sora's and Mimi's hands as they jumped to the ground. Tentomon was the only one still as startled to remain standing. Luckily, he wasn't hit; they all passed by him.

Tentomon suddenly hit the dirt as Flymon swooped down and just missed ramming into the other insect Digimon. He was ranting something like: "Bwa ha ha! You humans will meet point-first with my stingers!" He tripped slightly on the spike on the shell of the Digimon though and wavered slightly but quickly recovered. Its speed blew-up a very good breeze that knocked Mimi's hat off and scattered some sand about even more, blowing some of it in Joe's face. The strong breeze also forced everyone further to the ground. After it swooped down like that it began to climb again and circle about to get another shot at the humans and Digimon group.

Tai was just pushing himself back up off the ground face-first and spat some sand out of his mouth. "P'tui! Hey, watch where you're going, you Sunday flyer!" He then looked over to his right, where Sora had hit the dirt as he did. Sora was there, yes, but her predicament wasn't the best one: one of Flymon's stingers had embedded itself into Sora's lower right arm - some red blood creeping from the wound. Sora was biting her own lip, trying not to scream from the pain, but Tai could easily see by the tears forming over her fear-squinted eyes that she was in pain. Her arm lay there as if the offending stinger pinned it…no, it didn't!, Tai's mind exclaimed in blind hope. "Sora!"

Tai jumped to a crawl over to Sora and quickly examined the wound: the stinger was embedded near her muscle and nowhere that looked to be near any vital veins. "Sora! Are you okay? Does it hurt bad?" Sora looked up holding the same expression that sent chills down Tai's spine.

"Just get it out, okay?" she said though her gritted teeth. Tai quickly reached down to Sora's arm, where the spike was, and gradually loosened it until it was fully out. He then threw the weapon off to one side. Sora lifted her arm off the ground once sitting upright and gripped the wound with her other hand in a vain attempt at stopping the bleeding.

Mimi quickly scrambled over to where Palmon had fallen and picked her back up in her arms; Patamon jumped back onto TK's hat and then into the air. Joe was looking for his glasses and Izzy was recovering along with Matt.

"TK!? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Where'd my computer fall to?"

"Anyone see my glasses, cause I can't…oh, here they are."

Tai then stood-up as everyone else was too and said to the Digimon who were already standing: "Swat that fly out of the air!"

Gabumon turned first and aimed: "BLUE BLASTER!" The neon blue fire shot out his mouth in a stream and headed towards where Flymon was making his turn. It would've hit if Flymon hadn't of seen it and dodged to one side before completing his turn around. "Bah ha! That was an attack?"

Tentomon quickly took to the air and flapped his wings up to the speed where the static grew enough for him to perform his attack: "SUPER SHOCKER!" Agumon then jumped below him and joined in with his fire attack: "PEPPER BREATH!" Flymon just dodged to one side and then the other as the attacks flew past him. He was awful close to the ground again so he decided to swoop over again. "Gah! GROUND STINGERS!"

Everyone covered up, be they still on the ground, in the air or standing, as Flymon swooped over them again and fired his stingers at them at random. No one was hit this time but the force of the breeze he stirred-up knocked Joe and Matt to the ground again. Flymon took upwards to the air again and decided to turn for another swoop. These little pests didn't stand a chance as they were, he figured.

Tai: "Alright, he's coming about for another pass! Get ready everyone."

"To what?", Matt commented.

"Running would be good", Joe said.

"No, not 'running'. We're fighting!"

"I was afraid he'd say that."

Flymon was about to the half-way of his turn around when he heard the seal Digimon that was with the human with the glass over his eyes yell: "MARCHING FISHES!"

He didn't realize it at the moment but a school of five technicolor fish had appeared behind him in the air, from above the clouds, and moved to pester about him quickly. "Hey! What do you think you're doing! Get away!" Flymon panted, trying to swat the fish away in vain. "You're not flying fish! Hey, stop biting on my wings!"

Joe meanwhile just looked on as the fish made Flymon waver as he began to descend towards them. "Fish flying out of a river - I'd believe that. Out of a fountain - a bit strange but I'd believe it. But just out of nowhere in the middle of a desert - now that's just getting too ridiculous for me!"

"Now get out of here! Go! Shoo!" Flymon finished as the fish called off their attack and flew away above the clouds again. Flymon then looked right where he was going again and found himself to be hurtling right for Tai and he couldn't pull away in time. Instead, he decided to sting him when the collide! "GROUND STING!" But Sora jumped aside just as Flymon was about to crash into him and knocked them both out of the way and Yokomon jumped in the path of the fly.

"BUBBLE BLOW!" Numerous pink bubbles blew out of the small in-training Digimon's mouth and towards Flymon's face. He was already going to fast to avoid them and had to plow right though. The bubbles popping on his face disoriented the flying Digimon enough so that he could keep steady and swooped across the ground again and into the air erratically, wiping his face off like something we on it uncontrollably. Yokomon landed just to see Flymon zoom past Izzy on his right side and then escalate into the air quickly.

"Yow! Hey, watch where you're flying!" Izzy said, dropping his computer again and getting knock leftwards by force of Flymon's near-miss.

Patamon: "BOOM BUBBLE! Pow!"

The energy attack that looked like rippled, disturbed air flew from the cute little Digimon's mouth and hit Flymon right in the back with a powerful jolt. "Gwah! Ow! Hey, I just had those thin hairs combed back there!"

Patamon just said rudely to the attacking Digimon, "Serves you right then for attacking us!"

Agumon stood up and looked at the creature as it turned as best it could. "PEPPER BREATH!"

The fire bomb struck the creature dead in its back and knocked it into a tail-spin towards the sandy ground!

"GROUND STIN…Gah! I've been hit! Mayday! Mayday!"

Agumon once again fired a fire bomb attack at the creature as it fell ("PEPPER BREATH!") and that one also hit it directly in its back. This time Flymon started to smoke as he fell, leaving a trail of black cloud as he fell, and his wings were slowly falling apart. "AH! I'm going for the big beehive in the sky!" Just seconds later, the form of Flymon crashed into a smoking heap on the other-side of a dune in the direction which the Digi-destined had been originally heading.

Tai, Matt, Izzy, Sora and their Digimon immediately started running-off towards where the creature had crash-landed. Mimi picked the limp, but unharmed form of Palmon back up from the sand again and did likewise with her hat - after pouring out even more sand. Joe was just getting-up and hurriedly collecting some things that had fallen out of his bag.

"Hey, guys, wait-up for me…er, us!"

"Palmon, do you feel okay? Can you hear me?" Mimi asked nursing the green Digimon in her hands. Palmon only groaned but it sounded like a healthy groan to Mimi who was satisfied by the reply.

Over at the crash site, Flymon lay face down in a small crater of pushed away sand. His wings were almost falling apart on their stalks and his back was scorched a black. The fall had been rough on him.

Tai and Agumon were the first to look over the top of the dune and find Flymon crashed there; next came Matt, Sora -holding her arm, Izzy and their Digimon. Flymon leaned-up in the sand and saw the eight standing there looking at him. "Curse you…" was all he could get out before he deleted.

"Good riddance", Tai said as he looked over his shoulder at the others just starting to catch-up to them.

"Yeah, he was a nuisance ever since we crossed-paths as Birdramon", Yokomon said.

"Well, I wouldn't need to complain about him now", Matt said.

"Unless you're him", Tentomon said bluntly.

"I bet he was coming along to slow us down from getting to Myotismon's castle", Izzy said as Joe and Mimi holding Palmon followed up the dune.

Joe looked over at Sora's arm. "Sora, you've been wounded." Sora looked down at her own bleeding cut: she hadn't even paid any attention to it after she got it, she barely felt it anymore. Joe reached down into his bag and rummaged around for sometime to use a bandage.

"Oh don't worry, Joe, I'm a big girl. I'll just grin it off…"

"Nonsense, Sora", Tai said. "You don't want it to get infected." Joe produced the best he could to help bandage the cut up: toilet paper, as given by Gomamon's head popping out of the bag. "But let's do this while we're on the move; we've already…"

BEEP BEEP!

Everyone looked at Izzy and Izzy thus looked down at the laptop in his hands. He lifted it to eye-height and opened it up, looking in horror at the screen. "Guys, it's time!"

Just as he said that, a drop of rain fell onto one of the keys of his laptop. But, when it hit the key, it didn't splatter normally: it hissed against the plastic key. Izzy jumped back almost dropping his computer in surprise at the timing. "And it's happening right now!" Everyone looked around as lonely drops slowly fell out of the sky in a very small but wide-spread drizzle. Mimi let out a small scream as one of them crashed through the tip of her hat. And everyone looked about as they started falling a bit faster and faster...

"Ouch! This stuff burns!" Sora said grabbing her shoulder and forgetting about her cut.

Agumon jumped as a drop landed on his toe. "Ow! My foot, my foot!"

Joe just kept on his guard and slowly inched his head beck into the bag. "Uh guys, its gon'na get hotter soon!"

Matt just leaned over TK to block the rain from him and Gabumon lifted his arms over his head likewise. "Matt, I'm scare!"

"Just stand still."

Tai jumped to one side hoping to avoid a big cluster of the rain drops but they hit into his arm anyway. "Yeouch! No…don't stand still! We…Ouch!…have to keep running!"

Izzy looked up from cringing from the rain as it slowly burned his skin. Luckily the rain was weaker than expected but he knew it would get worse before better. His computer screen was flashing a bit from all the rain damage it had already taken but Izzy caught the map's compass rose in-between flashes of static. He thrust out his hand. "That way! And don't stop running! Ow!"

"Everyone! Get out of the rain!"

The group began another mad-dash that they all hoped they wouldn't have to take. The rain droplets were still wide-spread enough not to be overwhelming but they were enough to pain each of the Digi-destined as they ran. Sora kept Yokomon under her chest to avoid any harm coming to the poor little Digimon. Izzy ran with his computer still open, flailing attached to his right hand swinging; Tentomon ran as fast as he could and would've flied if the rain wouldn't of damaged his wings. Mimi had Palmon covered under the brim of her enormous hat. Agumon and Gabumon could only do the best they could to avoid the rain.

"Ooo…Eee…Ahh! This is getting very uncomfortable!"

"You think this is uncomfortable? You should run with fur AND the rain to boot!"

Matt was leaning over TK as they both ran to try shield him from the rain - unfortunately the rain was falling the way they were running; Patamon curled up in his own wings in TK's arms. Matt's back of his shirt was getting warped by the constant acid rain that was slowly falling on it and was weakening faster and faster. Joe was running as if there was no tomorrow and Gomamon curled up against the inside of the bag with his eyes shut.

"Gah!"

Another scream from Mimi as she tripped and fell forwards into the sand. Palmon fell out her arms and fell in front of her, but still under the brim of her hat. "Ooo...that hurt! Palmon? You…Yah!" A drop of acid rain fell on the back of her neck and burnt like a needle. That startled Joe who was right behind and he jumped over her but tumbled down into a fall when he landed.

"Ah! Hey watch where you're throwing me about, Joe!" Gomamon called from inside the bag.

"Oh, like I wanted to fall down", Joe retorted picking it back-up and turning around to make sure Mimi was okay. Lying down on the ground, she was getting burnt more-so than anyone else. She was almost paralyzed in pain. But Izzy behind her saw this and immediately knelt down when he reached her side. Joe then continued.

"Get up! This is no time to be lying down!" Izzy said as he pulled Mimi up by the arm.

"Palmon!"

"I've got her", Tentomon said picking the limp green form back up in his claws and Mimi placed the hat on her friend again, shielding her. When Mimi got fully-up she quickly started running. Izzy just quickly followed behind the best he could and, when it looked like Mimi needed it, he actually used his exposed computer as a sort of umbrella for her. But she didn't notice at all, she had her arm covering her eyes from the drops.

"This is not good! This is definitely not good!" Joe said as he ran.

"Oh, and what gave you the notion that it was to begin with! Yeouch!"

"Tai, we're gon'na collapsed from pain soon if we don't get anywhere!" Sora called to Tai.

"I know…ow!…but we don't know how far we have to go!" Tai said. "And we can't stay around here!"

"Use your binoculars!" Agumon said alongside him.

"We should be close!" Izzy added in, taking a quick glance at his computer's screen during intervals of using it as Mimi's protective umbrella as she mumbled: "Oh, my dress is going to be completely ruined in the morning!"

Tai reached into his pocket and pulled out his small telescope. He quickly scanned over his immediate surroundings but still saw nothing. Just sand and more sand! The overcast day didn't help light-up anything that he may easily miss either. Scanning over the horizon and as beyond as he could, Tai could feel the rain burning his head as it was looking forward, his hand holding the telescope and he even thought he heard the telescope being burnt by the rain.

"Yah!" he yelled as a good-sized drop crashed into his hand and he pulled it and the telescope down. "I still don't see anything!"

"We should be right on top of it!" Izzy called.

"Keep looking, Tai!"

Tai turned around again and looked about for this mysterious shelter again and, this time, saw something that he had almost over-looked the first. There was a glint of a metal structure strutting out from one of the dunes that appeared to be very deep. The dune must've been steep to conceal it because as they got closer, more and more of it was revealed slowly to them.

"You see anything?" Sora called.

"Yeah, I do but I don't know what it is! It's beyond that dune top over there!"

"What's it look like?"

"It's made of metal for one thing…"

"Then head for it!" Izzy called. "That's the best lead yet and it's right where this 'structure's supposed to be anyway!"

"But what if it's not any help for…Yeouch!…us?" Joe asked

Mimi: "Oh, I hate this! I do! Let's just go!

The group turned slightly to head towards the metal object Tai had seen with his pocket telescope. Mostly the group ran blindly as the rain got a bit more volatile and harder. The back of Tai's shirt was almost about to peel through as was Matt's woolen shirt. Mimi's hat over Tentomon and Palmon seemed to be taking less damage than Izzy's computer but it was still functioning…somewhat.

The dune wasn't to far off for a group running like they were, it was level with the ground they were on but obviously steep on the other-side, and before they knew it, Tai and Agumon were standing at the crest of it. He stopped and forced his eyes open to see what they had found before they got any further…

"A factory!? Out in the middle of a desert!?"

The factory almost completely occupied the base of the dune indent, taking up more than a good two hundred feet square. Metal silos stood out here and there among the square and other peculiarly-shaped building tops. Some smoke stacks stand dormant,scattered about the confines. There were some external catwalks above openings in level of the building but most of them were covered with metal awnings and the majority of the complex looked to be in-doors.

Almost all of the Digi-destined stopped at the top of the dune looking down into the factory at awe for a moment, forgetting about the acid rain.

"A factory? How weird", Matt commented

"But fortunate", Patamon said under TK's arms.

"So that's where all the acid compunds are coming from", Izzy said looking over the building.

"Yeah, terrific" commented Joe.

But they were all snapped back to there senses by a bolt of lightning followed immediate crash of thunder, indicating the storm was right on top of them! They started running down the side of the dune towards what looked to the entrance door underneath a conspicuous metal awning that didn't look to be too sturdily built. It weakly held out the acid rain for the moment though. The group made their way with speed down the side and then right under the awning, everyone fitting under there with a some room to spare. There they quickly wiped themselves off to make sure the slowly deadly rain was off of them and checked for wounds: lots of very minor burns but nothing terrible.

"Isn't it lucky we found this place?" TK said, wringing his hat out in front of him.

"Lucky? We'd be lucky if this place were clean", Mimi commented, shaking her hat. Palmon was now back in her arms, still unconscious.

"Uh, guys…sorry to burst your bubbles, but we're not out of the rain yet", Matt said looking upwards at the awning they were standing under. Looking up, they could see stain-like spots forming on it and hear the sound of it sizzling as the rain pounded on it.

"Wha? No way!" Tai exclaimed.

"The acid's eating its way right through the metal!" Tentomon said.

"Not again…", Gomamon - head out of the bag - trailed-off.

"The consistency of the rain being acidic must be increasing quickly", Izzy commented, looking upwards with the same awed expression on.

"And I was always worried about some pulling a rug out from under me…", Joe said.

"Would you settle for the opposite?" Gomamon said up to him.

"We've got'ta get inside!" Sora called pointing (with her good arm) over at large metal door embedded in the side of the building underneath the very end of the awning at the wall. The door was scratched-silver like much of the rest of the building and two tracks along the outside of the door demonstrated that the door must slide open into the wall.

The men from the group and their Digimon walked over to the side of the door opposite of the tracks and started to grudge, pulling it towards the other wall to open it. They struggled, forced but in the end just ended-up tiring themselves out. Matt paused for a minute to catch his breath and check on the condition of the awning: small holes were starting to be burnt through and the metal supports that stretched to the ground were slowly being eaten away. He then looked down at TK doing his best like the others.

"Com'mon, stupid door!" Matt groaned through his teeth resuming his pushing, "Open!"

Sora was standing back nursing what was turning into being a very powerfully stinging wound besides Mimi who was nursing Palmon. They both were cheering the guys on as they tried their best. However, they both saw that the door wasn't budging.

"Sora, this is terrible. What do we do if the door won't open?"

Sora: "We fry. Huh?" Sora put that thought on pause and looked over at a wall at a panel they had overlooked. It wasn't a button but more like some sort of circuitry panel like the kind in computers without all the attachments that would stick onto it. Two sideways 'U' shaped figures with two forked, jagged lines passing between them was featured on the form.

Now, this wasn't Sora's best area of expertise but she had a good notion of what that may've been. Mimi didn't know why she had cut her previous line short and ask, "What is it?"

"Izzy", Sort'a said, "That panel on the side of the door!"

Izzy backed-away from the door and looked at the panel Sora was indicating. "Hey, I didn't see that before." A quick scan-over of the scratched metal panel revealed a telephone port of some sort in the side. He quickly reached behind his back to his computer and pulled what remained of it out. He had forgotten that the acid had done a number on its plastic earlier: a small hole was exposed on the flap cover, some of the keys were eroded and the screen (it was still on) was flashing static.

"Well, Iz?" Tai called over, still budging the door with the others. "What is it?"

"A locking panel of some sort", Izzy answered turning about as Tai backed-off from the door momentarily. "I'd be able to access it but I'm not sure what's left of my computer would work."

"Then what good would that do for us?"

Izzy looked back over the panel again and examined the design on it for a moment. "Nothing from that angle. But that design looks like a pair of magnets: that might an indication how the door is being held closed."

"Magnets?" Gabumon said, backing-off from the door.

"Yes; we probably have to break some sort of magnetic lock holding the door. A few of our Digimons' attacks should accomplish that."

"How can you be sure?" Matt said, joining the group talking. "It might be just a waste of time we don't have." The group of Digimon still budging at the door stopped as the majority of the entire group had stopped.

Just as they did that, the furthest section of the metal awning over their heads up to the section just behind Mimi and Sora collapsed onto itself and settled down on the ground in a slowly disintegrating heap. Mimi and Sora had jumped over to the others when they first heard the metal loudly crack.

"Oh, I don't care what we do", Mimi said excitedly, "but whatever, just do it now!"

"Okay, chill. Everyone stand as far back as they can. All the Digimon will fire at the door and hope that they break something", Tai said. Sure, better instructions were given by others at even more drastic of times but they all complied as they were told: the kids all stood back near the end of the awning extent that had collapsed and the Digimon stood out towards the door.

"One question, Tai", Gabumon said. "What do we do if this plan doesn't work?"

"We wing it!" Patamon said.

"Don't worry, this has to work or we're puddles", Tai said. He then turned to Agumon: "You ready, buddy?"

"You bet!" Agumon said. "HYPER BREATH!"

"SUPER SHOCKER!"

The first two attacks struck the door and a fizzle of neon purple electricity and sparkle was seen to snake over the entire door in sheets. The door remained standing though.

"BLUE BLASTER!"

"BOOM BUBBLE!"

After those two attacks the door crackled and fizzled even more loudly. The purple electrical disturbance which covered the outside of the door almost completely dominated the surface. But it then quickly died off.

"No, wait a minute! Save your energy! This is getting us nowhere!" Matt called.

Izzy: "He's right! Don't aim at the door! The panel! Aim at the panel!"

"Right! SUPER SHOCKER!"

"BLUE BLASTER!"

"HYPER BREATH!"

All the attacks struck the panel at once. It fizzled in electrical sparks and the voltage passing through it; likewise, the 'magnetic shielding' that held the door closed sparked itself and flashed on and off. "It's almost broken!" TK called.

"Wait, I still have to go! BOOM BUBBLE pow!" With that attack striking it, the panel burst open and fell off the wall, hanging by a few stray wires. The electrical current over the face of the door flashed brightly and then faded off with smoke and a loud clap (or it may've been the thunder; no one could be sure). "I did it!"

"Good job! Now force that door open!" Tai called as he ran over to the crease between the door and wall again and pried his finger into in. Everyone else did too, some preparing to push the door, others ready to pull it open. The Digimon joined in as before. "Now!" The entire group began to pull at the surface of the door again, trying to move the lumbering mass. At first nothing happened to the door, it remained steady, but it soon began to creak into the wall, opening at their combined strength. At the side of the door where it went into the wall, Gomamon watching from a distance like the girls thought he saw sparks and heard metal cracking, bending and breaking as it opened.

Once the door was forced back into the wall and open, the group ran into what looked to be a dark room from the outside. Izzy and Tai remained besides the door and made sure that everyone made their way in as fast as they could.

"Tai, give me one second", he leaned down to pick up the remains of his laptop.

"Sure thing, Iz, but only make it a second." And he ran in too to make sure that they hadn't actually walked right into a trap like on some many occasions they did - they hadn't; the room was empty. Mimi was the last person to run through the door into the factory for shelter but before she completely went in she stopped aside Izzy and turned: "Thanks for getting us out of the rain, Brainiac!" She then continued in.

Izzy meanwhile just looked at her, wondering whether to smile for the compliment or frown for the nick-name he disliked; he was caught in a mid-face. Tentomon pulled at his hand and said, "Com'mon Izzy, before the cover falls in!" Izzy snapped-to just as he heard the metal above his head creak in complaint and he quickly jumped through the door into the room. Just as he did, the full awning crashed down and settled into a similar pile of slowly burning rubble as did the first section. They were all in. But not out of the fire.

{Legal Mumbo-Jumbo: I do not own Digimon nor any of their characters so don't flame me on this one…Yaddy yaddy yada… This is my first actual Digimon fanfic so bear with me. Don't expect Ch.2 anytime very soon but it will come when I get the chance.}