Ryan came to a sudden halt, deciding on the spur of the moment that it would be wiser not to burst out the back door, screaming like a lunatic and trying to warn everyone. Instead, he peeked outside and saw that no one had been harmed yet. The clown was continuing his routine, perhaps waiting for the right moment to attack. I can't run out there and blow his cover. He'll hurt someone. And I can't warn the others or the digimon unless I get those kids away from that bogus bozo first. What do I do? What do I do?

A crazy idea formed in his mind. He took out his cell phone and immediately began texting Rika who received it seconds later, breaking off from the group to read it: "I need you to get all the boys and girls attention on me when I come outside in a minute. Don't ask why, just trust what I'm telling you and do it…now."

She had no idea what was going on but, judging by how serious the message sounded, decided to go along with it, stood up on one of the chairs and, at the top of her lungs, shouted, "Hey! If you're all enjoying Skippy the Dancing Clown, then you'll really like…" Ryan came out the door wearing Mrs. Nonaka's long black coat, her black beret, white powder all over his face and black icing smeared on his lips and eyebrows like make-up. Another text came through at the same time. "…Happy the Whimsical Mime!?"

Suzie's face light up with joy after sighting another form of entertainment and led the charge, all of her friends following as she ran over to him.

"Henry, what is he doing?" Janyu inquired, very confused by what he was watching.

Without saying a word, Ryan, using what knowledge he had of mimes, began silently laughing, waving hello and then pretending that he was trapped in an invisible box. Unbelievably, all of the children seemed quite amused. Impmon, having just woken up from an afternoon nap, did a fast double take when he spotted the makeshift mime. "Oh, boy…now I've seen everything."

"Why is he wearing my things?" Rumiko asked, noticing her belongings on his person.

Even Terriermon and Renamon, still perched atop the Nonaka's house, were puzzled by his actions. Though, only the latter knew that, for him act so foolish, something must be amiss but had no idea what.

Noticing that Skippy was starting to become angrier with every passing second, Ryan realized he had to speed up his plan on getting them out of the yard. He made believe he was eating, rubbed his belly and pointed inside. Suzie seemed to get the hint, joyfully yelling out, "Yay! It's time to eat my birthday cake!"

All of the kids stampeded up the stairs and into the house, nearly running over Takato and Henry in the process. Rika and Henry's mother, including Riley, followed after them. Kazu and Kenta, both soaked to the bone and covered from head to toe in silly string, were just relieved to finally have been saved.

"Pyro-Sphere…!" The ball of fire caught Skippy by surprise and sent him sailing across the way.

"Guilmon, what are you doing!?" Takato yelled, shocked by the seemingly senseless assault.

"Takato, that's not a clown!" Ryan had come back outside sans the hat and coat but still covered in powder and frosting. "He's one of Myotismon's goons!"

Indeed this turned out to be true as in one swift motion he tore away his tattered, burnt clothing revealing himself to be a digital monster. "I should've known you were onto me the moment that you appeared in that ridiculous outfit. But no matter, seeing as how it doesn't change my plans one bit." The rest of the tamers digimon, including Lopmon, still in the party attire picked out by Suzie, appeared and were ready for a fight. "Perfect…"

He held the palms of his hands up where two eyes, one red and the other green which matched the markings on his mask, emitted a sudden burst of dark energy that momentarily blinded all who were present. And when they were able to see again, the mysterious digimon had practically vanished into thin air.

"What the heck just happened?" Impmon's words reflected how the rest of the group felt. They had all been expecting a somewhat lengthy conflict.

"Hmm…Maybe we scared him off?" Terriermon replied, shrugging both of his shoulders.

A rustling sound came from the side of the house near the bushes. Renamon leapt through the air and over the foliage. There was a small commotion, thought to be a struggle, until she appeared back from around the side holding the real clown from Hiroki's Party World by his right arm. "Whoa! Cool costumes. What agency are you guys from?"

"Did you accomplish your mission?" Devimon asked, while standing in the center of the main foyer as his protégé arrived back through a dark portal. "Well? Did you or not?"

Dracmon grinned from ear to ear, displaying an early sign that his news was good. "Of course…I had to wait until one of those digidestined realized that I wasn't who they thought I was to bring their digimon together in one place. Still, I did manage to get them all with my Eye of Nightmare attack. Right now they're probably wondering where I disappeared to, completely unaware that I now have total control over their minds at will."

"Very good…" The miniature virus type accepted the praise like any underling would. "...Master Myotismon will be most pleased."

"What should I have them do first?" Eagerly awaiting and anticipating his first act of villainy.

"Nothing…" Dracmon looked at Devimon as if he was crazy. He had just become the puppeteer to a new set of puppets and was not allowed to pull the strings. "We wait and allow the tamers to believe that nothing is wrong. And, when they've let their guard down...crush them in a way they never thought possible!"

Back on Earth, the tamers, along with their digimon, were in a special convoy bus bringing them to the new D.A.T.A. base, which had been under construction since the destruction of Hypnos several weeks prior, for a debriefing about the events that unfolded at Suzie's birthday party. Aside from Yamaki, Riley, Tally, Janyu and the rest of the Monster Makers, none of them had seen the new headquarters and were anxious to see it.

Most of the ride had been uncomfortably silent, until Impmon burst out in a fit of laughter which he had tried to suppress but failed to do. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Happy, da Whimsical Mime! Ha! Ha! Ha! That's too funny!"

Ryan covered his eyes and shook his head with embarrassment. "Will you please shut up?"

"Dude, why didn't you just come out and just tell them the cake was ready?" Kazu asked, taking off his signature visor and scratching his head with it. "Even if it wasn't, you could have at least saved face."

"It was all I could think of at the time! And it worked! I got all the kids out of the yard, didn't I?"

"That's only because you managed to get yourself out of that imaginary box first! Ha! Ha! Ha!" Ai and Mako were trying to stop their partner from continuing his out of control behavior but to no avail. Ryan started to get up, having had enough of being made fun, of until Renamon's paw pressed him gently back down, as if to say "allow me", while making her way over to the purple imp. "Hey, Fox Face, what did you think of our boyfriend's disguise? Pretty hilarious, don't cha agree?"

Having been further embarrassed, Ryan sunk down into his own seat. Someone just kill me now.

"He's not my boyfriend. But he is my friend. And I don't appreciate the way you're treating him right now." His laughter finally subsided until it ceased all together. "Regardless of how he went about it, he managed to save the children and warn us without anyone getting hurt…including Ai and Mako. Instead of laughing you should be thanking him for saving their lives."

Impmon's entire attitude changed after hearing the vixen's words. "You're right, toots. This is the second time in the last few weeks I've had to put my foot in my mouth. Sorry. To you too, kid."

"Don't worry about it. I…I…wow…" Everyone joined Ryan and looked out the windows at the large dome shaped building they had pulled up to, in awe by its sheer size. Although they knew it was the new base of operations for D.A.T.A. a normal citizen would never have been able to tell based on how normal the exterior appeared. "This place beats the heck out of Hypnos, that's for sure."

Yamaki was there to greet them as they were led off the bus. "Glad almost all of you could make it." Referring to Ryo, who was too far away and busy with school work to make it for the grand tour. "Let's go. There's a lot to see."

"Question: when will we be given out standard issue neuralyzer?" Only Ryan began to laugh while the rest just gawked at him. "Okay, for real, we all need to get together every weekend for a movie night or something because the fact that not one of you understood what that reference was from is more frightening than Myotismon and Devimon combined."

Entering the building's lobby, which had a grey and white motif and only of a single receptionist desk in the center, the tamers were all a bit thrown off by how blasé everything seemed. "Man, this place could sure use an interior decorator. Feels like a prison in here."

"Seriously Kazu…? It's just the lobby." Rika snapped at his rudeness. "Besides, how would you know what a prison feels like?"

"Simple…I go to school every day." Kenta giggled at his cohorts answer then high fived him.

Takato also laughed but at both their dimwittedness instead of along with them. "Come on, guys, I'm sure there's more to this place that meets the eye."

"As a matter of fact there is, Takato." Yamaki reassured him and, subsequently, the rest of the tamers at the same time while waiting for an elevator. "You're all aware that the entire world found out about the existence of digimon during the D-Reaper incident. Since then there have been varying opinions about them by citizens and governments across the globe. Fortunately, thanks in part to the subsequent Locomon incident last year, the United Nations meeting on the issue several months ago yielded the funding required to begin the preparations to create D.A.T.A."

"I remember watching that on TV." Zack chimed in on the matter. "They also agreed that all digimon would be given all the rights and privileges of any living creature."

Yamaki nodded his head as the elevator bell dinged and the doors opened. "That is why our old methods of handling bio-emergences have changed. We can no longer terminate wild ones unless they pose an immediate threat."

"That shouldn't be a problem since almost everyone we've faced from the digital world has tried to kill us!" Terriermon exclaimed, his ears perking up with anxiety.

Once inside the elevator car, Yamaki took out his ID card and scanned it on the panel. "Mitsuo Yamaki, 25217715208."

Upon descending down the initial shaft, a secret compartment opened allowing them access to the hidden lower levels. "The upper floors are our R & D labs, where Henry and Suzie's father will be working along with the rest of his colleagues, the medical wing, etc. This, however…" Yamaki pressed a button on the console which lowered all four side panels, revealing an outer Plexiglas shell and the destination. "…is D.A.T.A. central command."

Before them, as they continued to descend, stood a stadium sized room filled with a number of catwalks leading to unknown areas, multiple computers of all different sizes, numerous workers doing their jobs and a set of stairs directly across from the elevator itself that lead to the main control room. "This place is incredible. How far underground are we?"

"We're precisely one mile beneath the surface." He promptly answered Takato's question. "It's safe, secure and well hidden. Even if Myotismon found out where this place was our new safety protocols will prevent any attempt made to infiltrate or attack this base. For instance: the entire building above is protected by a data barrier. No digital being can enter without being registered in the system, which is why I took the liberty of clearing all of you already."

After exiting the lift, Yamaki led them up a long staircase and into the main control room which was considerably smaller than the previous one but far more advanced and accessible. Tally, now equipped with her own work station, spun around in her chair to greet everybody. "So, how do you guys like the new place? It's cool, right?"

"Tally…is the D.I. System up and running yet?" Her boss interrupted, trying to keep her mind on business.

"Not yet, sir…" She spun around, returning to her post with haste. "There are still some bugs that need to be worked out. It should be up and running by tomorrow afternoon at the latest."

"D.I. System?" Takato inquired while Guilmon began to wander off without detection.

Yamaki nodded to Riley who typed in several prompts on the keyboard in front of her. "The D.I. stands for Digi Identification. Once operational we will be able to identify any digimon we need to, including the ones scanned by your digivices."

"Speaking of which, does anyone know who that little twerp was at Suzie's party?" All of the smaller digimon in the room shot Ryan a sarcastic glance. "Ha…sorry…no offense to you guys. Kazu, Kenta, you guys are like the digimon encyclopedia. I'm sure one of you two must have recognized him."

They both shook their heads, and Kenta answered, "Sorry. Neither one of us have ever seen that guy before today."

"Listen…until we can figure out the identity of that digimon, I need all of you to assume that we haven't seen the last of him." The statement put all of the tamers on edge, worse than they had already felt. "From what we know and have learned about Myotismon I'd gather that the clown not trying to destroy you was part of a much bigger plan. For now, feel free to walk around and explore the base. You'll all be working here for the foreseeable future."

Calumon looked to his left and right while being held in Jeri's arms. "Where'd Guilmon go?"

A check of the monitors by Riley showed that Guilmon was at the buffet in the cafeteria scarfing down as much as he could stomach. "The lunch room…of course…goggle-head, you want to put a leash on your dinosaur before he eats every bit of food in this place?"

"Ha, ha….right…" Takato replied and hurried down the steps to locate his partner.

While the others began to tour the base, Ryan pulled Renamon aside to talk. "Listen, I was just wondering if you'd like to come to the dojo in Fox Hollow tomorrow. I know I mentioned that my sensei hired me to manage it but he's going to let me assist him in instructing a class for younger kids. I thought you'd like to check it out. And you can even bring Rika along if she'd like to come. You would just have to keep a low profile, of course."

"I would be honored." Renamon closed her eyes and bowed her head forward. "Let us just hope that what happened today doesn't repeat itself tomorrow."

"I doubt it. I've never seen clowns do karate before. Ha!" Even the vixen found some humor in his joke and chuckled a bit. "Besides, after today's two fiascos, I don't think anything in either world could top it."

Idiot! Why would you even say that!? Oh, I hope I didn't just jinx myself…but knowing my luck…

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay everyone. Been kind of busy the last few days. Here's an interesting tidbit: Yamaki's number password has a hidden meaning. See if you can decipher it.