Disclaimer: If I owned Digimon, I would be swimming in a pool full of hundred-dollar bills right now. I'm not, which means I don't own Digimon no matter how much I wish I did.





Izzy opened his eyes and blinked a few times to clear his foggy vision. He had the worst head- ache he had ever had in his life. It was pounding in his temples and his eyes hurt.

He tried to rub his aching eyes, but found that he was hanging chained by his arms against a wall. His feet were a good four feet from the ground.

His new surroundings were so different from the forest. He was in what looked like a dungeon or a torture chamber. The floor and walls were all made of the same materials: cold, gray stone. A tiny window let in a bit of light, but it was too high to even dream of climbing out of the window. Even if by some miracle anyone reached the window, it was obvious it was much too small to climb out of.

Izzy looked to his left and noticed he wasn't the only one in this new place. Mimi was chained to his left and Matt was chained to his right. Both of them were still unconscious. He tried to see if anyone was beside them, but he was unable to see.

"Matt, Mimi!" Izzy shouted, trying to kick one of them awake. His legs weren't quite long enough and the wall he was chained to was too bumpy to attempt to swing on.

A different voice answered: "Izzy, is that you?"

Izzy recognized the voice as Tai's and answered: "it's me, Tai."

"Is anyone else here besides Matt?" Tai questioned. "I'm to his right and there's no one on my other side."

"I'm between Matt and Mimi," Izzy answered.

"What about Sora?" Tai quarried. Then, as an afterthought added: "or Kari, TK or Joe?"

"I don't know. She might be next to Mimi," Izzy responded. "Can you touch the ground, Tai?"

"No," Tai answered.

"Where are we?" Matt questioned upon waking up. Then: "Never mind. Piedmon got us."

Another voice inquired: "hello? Is anyone else here?"

"No, Sora," Matt answered, recognizing Sora's voice easily. "Izzy, Tai and I are all here too."

"Sora, is anyone beside you?" Izzy questioned.

"Mimi's on my right, but no one's to my left," Sora answered.

"Then that means we're the only ones here," Izzy grimly responded. "I wonder what happened to TK, Kari and Joe, the Digimon?"


~*~

Joe stood staring wide-eyed at the clearing where his friends had been only moments earlier. Piedmon had disappeared as well, but he left behind him a lingering feeling of evil.

Finally, Joe stepped from his hiding place and surveyed the scene. It was very strange.

The fire was still burning out steadily, casting an eerie glow across the clearing. Mimi's nail polish had been tipped over in the confusion and it was still dribbling thick pink liquid. Tai's mini-telescope lay forgotten where he had once been sitting. No reminder of Sora remained at all. Matt's harmonica lay near the dying embers of the fire, reflecting the glow brightly. Izzy's laptop sat just finishing its start up process in the spot Izzy had once been sitting.

Joe shook his head sadly and looked over at Spiral Mountain, wondering what could be happening to his friends. Piedmon would be back for him soon, that much he knew.

I should get out of here, Joe thought, backing away from the clearing he was standing in. Panic was gripping him, but he forced it from his mind.

I've got more important things to worry about, he thought. I might be my friends last hope!

He ran from the clearing and began running back into the forest, hoping to make it harder for Piedmon to find him.

I'm coming, guys, he thought. I'm coming.


~*~

Patamon opened his eyes and glanced around his new surroundings. His last thought before he was captured had been that maybe Piedmon was taking them to wherever TK and Kari were, but he found that to be untrue.

He was in a small room with the other seven Digimon. He was also the first one awake.

What happened to everyone? Where's TK? Patamon wondered.

He noticed that Tentomon was awakening.

"Tentomon," Patamon said. "I'm worried about TK."

Tentomon looked around the room and finding it void of any humans answered: "I know what you mean. I wish I knew what's happening to Izzy."

An intercom crackled to life and a staticy voice blared: "now I have you all just where I want you. You pathetic Digimon will fail in attempting to save your precious Digidestined."

"Piedmon, you let them go!" Patamon cried.

The voice answered: "I will not have you getting in the way of my world domination" before the intercom clicked off.

"What are we going to do now?" Patamon wondered.

"I wish I knew," Tentomon quietly replied.


~*~

"So you want a rest, huh?" the monitor Digimon barked at TK as his legs fell out from under him from pure exhaustion.

"Get up, lazy little ingrate!" the Digimon bellowed, giving TK a slap that sent him reeling. "Even the girl is still working!"

Kari had had more than enough of this Digimon's abuse. She threw down her tools and shouted: "Leave him alone! I just got here and he's been here for days, probably being starved!"

"What was that?" the Digimon growled, turning to Kari.

"You heard me, leave him alone! Maybe if you treated him like a living person instead of a machine he could work just as well as anyone else!" Kari angrily answered.

Immediately, Kari wished she had said nothing. The monitor Digimon's eyes were flashing in anger. He advanced on Kari, towering over the young girl.

"Don't hurt Kari," TK muttered.

The monitor Digimon grinned and kicked Kari, knocking her backwards into a bin of coal. The coal gave her cuts all over her back.

Now the monitor Digimon was advancing toward TK when a small walkie-talkie like object crackled to life.

Immediately, the monitor Digimon stopped walking and spoke into the device: "yes, Piedmon, my lord?"

"Bring the two young Digidestined to me. I shall deal with them myself," Piedmon's voice crackled.

The huge Digimon smiled and easily lifted TK and Kari. He carried them away, their struggles doing little good...


~*~

"So what does Piedmon plan on doing to us anyway?" Mimi wondered. "Do you think he's just going to leave us down here until..."

A silence followed this question until finally Izzy said: "I would rather he did that than the alternative."

"Which is?" Mimi questioned.

"He could be torturing us," Sora explained. "Worse than he is I mean."

"Something tells me he's not going to leave us alone much longer," Tai muttered.

"I wonder what's happening to TK and Kari right now?" Matt said.

Before anyone could answer, a door across the drab room shot open and Piedmon swaggered in accompanied by a hulking Digimon that was carrying both TK and Kari.

"Your question will be answered," Piedmon smirked. "And now, it is time for the show."

The other Digimon nodded and dropped TK and Kari before lumbering back out the door and shutting it with a snap behind him...