Digimon Tamers: Eternity and not a moment longer

by commander-kron-CNL

The tamers search for a way to get their friends back, after the portal Takato found is destroyed by Yamaki. The tamers are looking for trouble or has trouble found them, may be change to M at a later date.

4. Chapter 4

Waiting for eternity, and not a moment longer

Waiting for eternity, and not a moment longer.

Chapter 4 – kidnapped, crushed and lost.

"So, what was it you wanted to say? You drag us out of bed on a freezing night!" Kenta asked, he was dressed in a long black coat that was obviously not as warm as it appeared to be, underneath it he wore jogging pants and a thin t-shirt. "I'm surprised that there aren't icicles hanging from my ears."

"We pulled you out to freeze, because we thought you would like to know that Takato has located a gate to the digital world." Rika looked at him with a slight frown, although the sarcasm seemed to have gotten lost in the cold air.

"Ok, I knew that, but why on such a cold night!" Kenta said, as he rubbed his arms with his hands.

Everyone ignored him, he already knew why so there was no point in explaining further, and he was just being his usual self anyway. Secrecy was the main reason.

"I found a gate back and I intend to use it no matter how dangerous it may be."

Takato said proudly. He was convinced that he would succeed.

"Are you for real chummily or are you pulling our chains!" Kazu asked, in a mocking tone. He knew Takato would not joke about such things, but they all seemed to lose hope as they moved further away from the time they spent with the Digimon.

Kazu was dressed in a thick winter jacket of a dark navy blue colour and matching jeans. He wore a pair of black shoes, with yellow shoelaces.

"I don't think Takato would joke about something like this." Kenta decided to defend Takato, while he was cleaning his glasses, he put them back on his face and continued what he was saying. "So where is it?"

"Its in the tunnel that links this town to the next one over, the place where our Digimon had to hang out that one time when they were too big to take home." Takato said proudly.

"Tunnel?" Kazu inquired, clearly puzzled. We did not tell him about that, Takato suddenly remembered.

"The one we were told about that one day at school, remember?" Takato said trying to jog his friend's memory.

"The one our teacher told us about that one time?" Takato could see the realisation in Kazu's eyes, Takato knew that for once Kazu actually knew what he was talking about, and it was actually a relief.

"I'm guessing that you brought us here to see if we wanted to stay behind or if we wanted to risk it all and come with you?" Kazu said.

"Erm…yeah" Takato said surprised that Kazu was capable of putting it in such an eloquent way.

"Of course we'd be willing to come with you, right, Kenta?" Kazu turned towards Kenta who looked slightly hesitant.

"You guys have to understand that it might be dangerous." Henry tried to warn them and remind them that if things went wrong there may not be a way back for them.

"More dangerous than going to a digital world where we might be reduced to some Digimon's lunch?" Kenta replied. "Did pretty well last time, didn't we?"

Before Henry could say anything more, there was a rustling to the left of where Rika was sitting. From out behind the bush, a boy with familiar dark brown hair, wearing a black sweater top and jeans emerged.

Rika had been unnerved for a second, he seemed to do that every time they ran into each other, he just seemed to glide out from the shadows, appear out of a side alley or simply jump out of thin air. To be honest it gave her the creeps, reminding her of the time she had once been stalked by an Icedevimon.

How long had he been standing there?

"Hey, guys," he said, smiling and announcing himself with a wave of his hand and a broad wink. He then turned to Rika and tried unsuccessfully to give her a charming smile, which she rebuffed by giving him a scowl and an almost silent 'humph'.

Damn him, she muttered under her breath. She closed her eyes for a moment hoping he would not say anything and go away. Rika had no such luck.

When she opened her eyes, he had moved a little closer, and he was still looking her directly in the face. Ryo's own face was impassive, but his lips were curling at the edges of his mouth as though he was trying not to laugh at her. "Hello, to you too. Princess." He gave her a small bow.

Rika barely managed to stop herself from hitting him. She silently screamed to herself; if he does that one more time I am going to beat him senseless! She would have done it right then and there if he had continued to stare at her like that a moment longer. Thankfully, or not, Ryo had already return his attention to Henry.

"You were saying something about danger?" Ryo asked, moving to sit down next to Takato, who was sat down alone.

"Well, that might take some explaining, if you don't mind me having to lecture you about the difficulties of inter-dimensional travel?" Henry said, he knew that it might be quite hard to tell them exactly what the risks involved might be, especially when his own work added to them.

"I don't mind listening if you don't mind explaining the big words for the goggle boys here, in other words, just get on with it, cause our parents are bound to miss us at some point. And I don't want to have to tell you what might happen then." Rika spoke with tension, apprehension and desire to get this over with, in her voice. Henry knew that no matter what Rika would go wherever she needed to, she always had.

Perhaps that was even one of her attractions, Henry thought then gave his head a quick shake; where had that come from?

Henry decided to take them through it one step at a time; he wanted to make sure that they understood exactly what was going on and how it would affect their efforts to go to where their friends were and bring them back.

"Yamaki came to my house a few days ago, and as far as I can tell he has no idea what is going on in the network, at least he hasn't mentioned anything."

"So hopefully he doesn't know about the gate we found?" Takato asked obviously bothered, after all if Yamaki found out where the gate was he would have it surrounded and closed it up before they could sneeze.

"No, he would have told my dad by now," Henry said, "but Yamaki isn't really that much of a concern, he's got some people who he knows keeping an eye on what they are doing with the system."

"Wait, so why was Yamaki visiting your dad?" Kenta was clearly curious.

"He pops around every now and then to complain about how these 'new guys' have no idea how to use the systems' simpler functions, let alone deal with some of the larger issues, he must have used the words incompetent fools, and complete morons at least a dozen times." He laughed at the memory of Yamaki striding across the floor, spouting his grievances.

"Basically, he doesn't like people playing around with his baby, I think I can sympathise. " Rika spoke with barely detectable sadness in her voice, stirred by memories of happier times.

Henry looked over at Rika. He had been right. As strong as Rika pretended to be she missed Renamon greatly.

"So what has Hypnos's successor having teething problems got to do with us?" Kazu obviously had not listened to anything Henry had ever mentioned about his work with Yamaki and the monster makers.

"The barrier that Yamaki, and the monster makers installed in the network, or at least in the area directly related to Japan was designed to be self perpetuating. It still requires routine maintenance, recalibrations and repairs however. Stuff which gets done periodically by Yamaki whenever he gets time, he literally has to hack into his old workplace's computers and do it himself."

"Wait a minute he literally has to hack into his own systems, why?" Just like Kenta to not know what Henry was trying to get at.

"Ever since Yamaki left Hypnos, they've refused to even listen to him. If it weren't for Yamaki hacking in at the risk of getting arrested, the barrier would not even be running at all. The danger for us is in the question of when Yamaki last recalibrated the system. If he hasn't done it recently then we might have a chance."

Kenta looked puzzled. It seemed as though he had an idea of what would happen if Henry was wrong, but he decided to ask anyway. "So what would happen if he has recalibrated it 'recently'?"

"Well, in theory, it should just stop us from entering the gate, but in practice they've only been able to get it partly operational." Henry explained.

"The biggest problem is that the longer the system goes before being recalibrated the more errors enter the system, such as instability or reduced coverage. It was due to a flaw that allowed that gate in Guilmon's home to appear."

"I see," Takato said, while everyone else was listening intently.

Henry continued "Apparently those who are now in charge of Hypnos, have no idea how to run half the operations they are supposed to, and are making loads of mistakes that are throwing the barrier out of whack. Which is why Yamaki is hacking in and making the correct adjustments himself."

"However because he is doing this behind those people's backs, he can't monitor it twenty-four seven, and thus he can't always be there to stop it from going out of alignment." Henry finished.

"Are you saying that the reason for the existence of this portal is because Yamaki hasn't had a chance to reconfigure it?" Rika asked.

"Maybe, it could be due to a number of reasons. Who can say why a portal appears. What is more important though, is the effect that the barrier has on portals." Henry said.

"Effects the barrier has…on portals?" Kenta asked straight, paying a little more attention.

"Ok, it's like this, the greater the misalignment the greater the distortion. So if the Barrier has drifted ten percent from optimal calibration holes begin to form, now one would assume that the greater the misalignment, the more stable the resultant portals would become." Henry explained.

"So… The longer we wait before going the better, is that what you're saying?" Ryo asked, taking a seat next to Takato on the bench.

"No. I took a quick gander at the portal Takato found before coming here, don't worry I wasn't followed," he said quickly, after seeing Rika give him a warning look, "and it looks to me as though the barrier is all right, for now. Even if it were true that we could limit the risk to ourselves waiting a bit longer before leaving, then I might agree with you, but Yamaki might find it if we leave it too long."

"Wait, what would happen if the portal showed that the barrier was beyond ten percent level of misalignment?" Takato asked, looking a little worried.

"Well, as I said before, one would assume that the greater the instability of the more stable the portal, but in practice once the ten percent is exceeded it would be game over."

"Ok," Takato said.

"As I said, I think that we should be ok. But saying that, only those who are willing to accept the consequences should consider going." Henry elaborated. He hoped they would use their imagination. He didn't want to think about what would happen if he were wrong.

"Game over?" Kazu inquired stupidly, he obviously wasn't paying as much attention as he should have.

Henry signed and was going to tell him what he meant when Rika decided to save him the trouble.

"He is saying that if he's right, we'll make it through, and if he's wrong we'll end up as dust in a coffin. Are you ok with that goggle boy? Don't you know it's bad luck to ask someone to verbalise their fears?"

"I see what he means by dangerous, and yeah I want to know exactly what might happen if we try to go though with this." Kazu shouted the latter half of the sentence to emphasise his point.

"So now you know what could go wrong, are you scared little boy? Gonna run home to your mummy?" Rika jibed at him, her smile suddenly sickening sweet; she wanted to pay him back, in full, for being an idiot.

"I'm still going and yes I am a boy, and not small by any measure." Kazu turned thoughtful for a moment, "but then again, at least I am a boy and unlike you who are a…-" Rika glared at him, she could almost hear the wheels whirling in his head.

As he turned to stand with his back to her, arms folded across his chest. It was then that he made a big mistake; he said the one word that would make her see red, "-Princess!"

It was all she could stand; she had sworn to herself that if someone said that one more time, that person would be sorry. Rika had moved up behind Kazu and twirled him around, before anyone could stop her. She now had her back to the rest of the group. A swift jab later and he was clutching his stomach, groaning slightly.

She did not actually hurt him, just caused him to lose his breath a little. Some people might have thought that he had had enough, but Rika was not finished.

Rika was angry; she admitted it to her self that there was no good reason for her to act so irrationally over something so trivial, but it felt so goods to release all the pent up aggression and stress; worry and loneliness in this way. She raised her right hand to deliver a second strike, intending to give him a good hard slap.

Suddenly she was no longer standing so close to Kazu, someone had pulled her back from him, preventing her from doing what she wanted to do. "Get off me, who…" She began to whirl around to face her assailant, but the sentence died in her throat as she felt a strong, slightly muscled, chest against her back. She suddenly couldn't move, she was frozen by the contact of her body and whoever had stopped her.

She felt her vexation lessen as she enjoyed the way her earlier struggling allowed her to swing slightly against that smooth surface. The grip on her hand was firm but gentle, like steel hidden beneath velvet, several seconds past.

"Rika, you can't just punch someone because they were making fun of you." Ryo was coming from behind her. Just great, that chest had to belong to him, didn't it? She said to herself, as the hand holding her let go. But something didn't feel right, what was it? Rika only realised what was wrong when she turned around to face him.

Ryo was behind her and to her left, as she swung, but nowhere near enough to have restrained her from where he was stood, and Rika could still feel the presence of a warm body at her back. She turned further around and found herself face to face with her former captor.

It was Henry.

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Two days earlier.

The sound of water dripping from a great height onto a metal surface slowly intruded into her mind, rousing her from sleep. She found it hard to lift her eyelids at first, as her head was pounding, but she resisted the urge to shut them again even though she felt dizzy. Her eyes proved almost useless however; wherever she was, the place was pitch black.

Her other senses did not let her down; and told her something of her condition. Renamon could tell that she was inside some kind of confined space, a small room of some description; only that could explain the way the noises around her were echoing.

The sound of breathing and a howling that could have been wind came to her; it could even have been something else, but she wasn't sure.

She wasn't alone; her eyes were not entirely useless in the darkness. She could just about tell that it was someone small; but if it was Terriermon, Lopmon or even Impmon, she couldn't tell for sure. Renamon decided that if she could get close enough, she could identify her companion, but when she tried to move she found that she was unable.

Renamon tried again, but quickly realised that it was futile, her arms were locked above her head by chains made of a metal she could not identify. Her back was against the wall, and her legs dangled down freely, she guessed that whoever had locked her up reckoned that she would be immobilized this easily.

Unfortunately for Renamon, they had been right. There was absolutely no way that she could escape from these restraints, without help anyway.

She thought a little more and began moving the rest of her body, so she could see how restrained her actions were. Renamon discovered to her relief that only her arms had been chained, but her legs, tail and lower body had almost complete freedom of movement.

Renamon came to the conclusion that if she stretched her body just a bit, then it would be possible for her to reach the other Digimon who she was sharing the room with, with her foot. She could kick whoever it was.

Depending on who it is; we could be finding our first step on the path to getting out of here, Renamon thought. She reached out and gave the smaller, shadowed form, a good swift kick.

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Rika jump back away from Henry; slightly shocked at her body's reactions and shook herself.

"Sorry, but I think you should just relax, hitting him wouldn't do any good." Henry said.

"I don't know about that, but it would make me feel better," Rika replied trying to forget what she had just felt. Henry guided her back down to the bench they had shared a few moments before.

"I just wanted you to know everything I did," Henry looked at everyone in turn, "so do you guys still want to come?"

Takato stood up, "I'm going, no matter what."

"I'm ready," Rika added.

"Lets go, dudes, Digital World here we come!" Kazu shouted excited.

"I'm in," Kenta nodded.

"I'll help as much as I can," Ryo spoke clearly and stood up, joining Takato.

Henry knew it would happen this way and he hoped that he was right in his assumptions.

"Ok, then, when are we leaving?" Kenta asked.

"Tomorrow morning, at nine, here in the park. I hope you all have whatever messages you want to give your parents ready."

"'Cause if you don't show up we'll leave without you!" Henry added, forcing himself to laugh; as he tried to lighten the mood, as everyone suddenly looked a little bit gloomy once their parents were mentioned.

"Henry, you don't have to do that on our account, we'll just have to cross the bridge when we get to it. With any luck we'll be back home before our parents even know we're gone." Takato said, smiling.

"Are we done, or is there any other business to attend to?" Kenta yawned, obviously tired.

"No, we pretty much have talked about the rest of the plan during all our other 'meetings', Rika said before, Henry could get any words out.

"Straight to the point as always Rika," Takato said with a broad smile, "We are just reaffirming with ourselves anyway. We just did not know 'when' we were going until tonight."

Henry smiled back, Rika and Takato were right; everyone knew what they were doing long before now.

"Ok, I guess that's a rap," Kazu said, walking around behind his bench and stretching his legs.

"Ok, you guys get a good night's rest, and don't be late." Henry said.

Henry was sure it would have taken longer to get through things than this; suddenly he remembered something he had almost forgotten.

"Don't forget to bring plenty of supplies. Just encase we do need to stay a while longer than planned." Henry shouted as Kenta, Kazu and Ryo disappeared into the trees.

"There shouldn't be any real problem in the digital world, I mean we sorted all the problems out ages ago." Kazu called back, just as he vanished completely out of sight.

"I guess that went pretty well." Henry said to Rika and Takato.

"Well considering how much we have discussed things over the past year, I think we'll run out of things to go over." Rika reminded him.

"I hope that Kazu is right though. The digital world can't be half as bad as it used to be." Takato said slightly concerned that it might be a bad omen.

"It can't be that bad, I mean Kazu is right, things should be pretty much back to normal there by now," Henry said, "besides we did help the Sovereigns out, so I doubt we could get into any real danger with them helping us."

"I suppose your right, Henry, I guess I'm just worrying over nothing again." Takato replied.

"Either way, we better get going, unless you guys want to stay here all night? If you do I'll wake you up with grandma's pepper spray." Rika joked, setting off towards home.

"Ok, goodnight Rika," both boys chortled, before heading their separate ways.

They did not see the man hiding nearby.

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Neither of the two boys walking with their backs to him, noticed Hirokkei, who was hiding among the bushes. He wiped sweat from his forehead, that young boy who had been hiding in the bushes had almost knocked into him as he walked past. He now knew him to be called Ryo. He had been so close and yet had not seen him.

Hirokkei had had to move as quickly as he could so he could avoid a repeat of that situation, using that girl's outburst to good effect. She had shouted and he had shuffled as far to one side as he could, side stepping from the boys view and sneaking to the other corner. He had to call Yamaki fast. He had been lucky that he had recognised that boy Takato.

Hirokkei hadn't even meant to be here at this time, he had just come off the evening shift at Xanadu, where Hypnosis's equipment had been relocated in an old office building across town. Secrets often being best hidden not far from where they had previously been seemed to be a reality in this line of work. No one had even bothered to nosy around the area once they found out it had been closed. He personally thought it was a really dumb idea, but when did anyone care for what he thought, not that that was true. Yamaki wasn't so bad about keeping an open mind and listening to the idea's of others, he thought.

Hirokkei moved out of the bushes and walked to the bench that had recently been occupied by the children. Or should I say young adults? He considered.

He came here himself to work on the things that he would pass on to Yamaki during their meetings, but rare worked the shift this late at night. He had protested at the time, but lost to the further protests of the posing party. Namely Tally, who had taken over Riley's role now she had gone. He grimaced at the thought. He didn't know which of them was worse.

Yamaki had tried to convince Riley to stay but she felt an overwhelming pride to stay with her boss. If Yamaki were to be laid off then she was not doing to stay.

A few hours ago, Xanadu had been in a complete panic, one of the alarms had gone off and no one knew what had set it off. No one except me, that is, he thought.

He came here so he would not be disturbed while he copied everything to disk, via the disk burner in his laptop. I didn't imagine I would run into them! While the information was being 'burned' onto a disk, he had heard voices and so hid. What he was doing was quite dangerous, but required.

Yamaki had described the intricate protection system he and the Monster Makers had hastily built into the Hypnos system with no approval from the board of directors. If the system detected, using a hidden line of code imbedded within the programming, that the barriers efficiency fell below eighty-nine percent it would sound an alarm.

Unfortunately this meant that Hirokkei would have to cover up the alarm's true function, it had gone off a few times over the past year, but thankfully the alarms were going off a lot due to a wide range of problems, not just due to the barrier.

This posed a problem; he could silence the alarm and wipe the records, after saving a copy to his laptop that is, but those who were in charge would always close the system down for 'maintenance' to check what had happened. This meant it would be several days before Yamaki could correct enter the system to make his 'adjustments'.

Hirokkei would give the information in his laptop to Yamaki. Yamaki could then, after a day of analysis, discover how to stabilise the barrier.

But because it often took a few days before Yamaki could 'patch' the problem, he would also analyse the data Hirokkei gave him to find and 'rabbit holes'. How does he analyse it so fast? Hirokkei thought.

Yamaki relied on getting the data quickly so he could have correct calibration ready for use the moment he was able to get back inside Xanadu's network safely.

This current situation could not have come at a worst time. There was no way Yamaki could seal the breach by tomorrow morning, the timetable those kids had set up was far too tight, and Yamaki's hacking would be detected easily, especially with the current state of alert Xanadu was in right now. It was far too risky.

Hirokkei would normally have waited till morning, but knew Yamaki would want to know and take action, no matter what the time of night.

At least Yamaki would now know the location of this particular portal. Those children will be upset when they discovered that they themselves gave Yamaki the location without knowing it, but this was for their own safety.

He open up his phone and dialled the number Yamaki had given him. Yamaki had told him to memorise Yamaki's number so that if anyone from Xanadu looked at his phone there wouldn't be any immediate evidence that they were still in contact. His phone had also a scrambler in it so no one could trace the calls.

The phone began to ring.

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Two days earlier.

Renamon's companion gave a loud cry, followed a certain amount of coughing, after she sent it rolling along the floor.

"What's going on, that hurt!" Terriermon wined, finally managing to get his spluttering under control.

"So it was you, Terriermon, I thought it might have been you but I wasn't sure." Renamon said, almost forgetting to apologise. "Sorry about that."

"It's ok, but what's going on. The last thing I remember was the whole castle crumbling around us, and then I blacked out. Something must have hit me on the back of the head. And why do my ears hurt so much?" Terriermon replied, trying too hard to reach the area of his body that was currently throbbing away.

Renamon did not answer his question, although she had an idea.

As much as he tried to reach it he couldn't seem to reach far enough. Terriermon's hands were handcuffed, and his feet manacled, and the chain that connected his feet together was further linked to the handcuffs by another length of chain.

"Where are we and why are we bound like this?" He asked shuffling closer to Renamon.

"I don't know," Renamon admitted; she couldn't quite figure out why they were still alive. What must the ones who did this be thinking? She thought. Renamon breathed deeply, trying to get her head straight.

"Have you seen any signs of the others?" Terrimon asked.

"No, not a signal clue," shook her head trying to clear it, "I was so occupied trying to fight my battle and protecting you, Terriermon."

"Protecting me?" Terriermon asked, not understanding.

"We had to split up, and since I'm the fastest of us the others decided it would be better if I protected you, until you woke up." Renamon stated.

"Since we ended up here, I guess speed does really count for nothing, huh?" Terriermon countered, give a little laugh.

Renamon realised that he was just lightening the mood, given the situation they were in, but she just glared at him in response.

Renamon felt angry with herself, and thought about how shameful it would be if everyone else had escaped and only they had been captured, and how she would not be able to live it down if it were found to be true.

They had been totally unprepared for what had happened, that they were taken completely by surprise, it was just insane. Her mind rolled back to what had happened.

The digital world was made up of several large layers of an indeterminable size, and was a mismatch of millions of lines of code that came together to form, more or less, odd recreations of this that might have been structures from the other world.

They were staying at one such place, ever since an earthquake had destroyed where they had been staying in Azulongmon's domain, one of the other Sovereigns had offered them a place to stay while the damage to Azulongmon's domain was being repaired.

The castle looked like something like those that might have been found in feudal Japan, but the stuff inside was decorated like a Chinese takeaway, complete with everything you would expect including all the utensils. Some Digimon, Guilmon included would consider the place heaven.

The town surrounding it was of a similarly unique layout. The castle sat in the middle, with a large grass plain stretching some one hundred and fifty meters from the castle walls, and then the city sat all the way around that. Some Digimon took advantage of the space at the rim of the castle's perimeter to set up a market selling foods and hand made tools, among other things.

The town itself had large variety of Digimon living and working in it. Digimon who worked to stay alive used trade, mainly services for services. The Sovereigns had decided that it was time to bring some kind of order to the Digital World. They had started with introducing currency, law and placing information boards throughout their world.

Things began to change, just like this town. It had not always been like this.

According to Azulongmon this town, like many of the places surrounding the Homes of the Sovereigns, were often treated with a mixture of awe and fear.

Digimon were equally split into two categories, those who were fighters and those who were not. The reasons for this were not entirely clear.

Those Digimon who were not fighters, seemed to show a benign disinterest in wanting to digivolve and could not understand why there were Digimon who wanted to fight. Fighting was only seen as a way of defending themselves.

At the same time, those who wanted to fight showed little interest in making things unless that absolutely needed to. They believed that their only existence was to fight and be absorbed, and looked down on any Digimon who did not think that way.

When it came to the Sovereigns, however, both types had the same feelings. Admire them while staying as far away from them as possible, thus until recently this town had been empty. It was an understanding that the Sovereigns were gods, and not to be trifled with. So there was no need to go any closer.

It had taken some effort to convince them otherwise. Now this place was full, once the non-fighting types had realised that they would be safe here, and the place had become a metropolis in a few short months. Renamon and her companions had seen the same thing happened in Azulongmon's domain. Digimon realising that they could be whatever they wanted to be. Although there were exceptions, she thought and sighed.

The place wasn't so bad though, and had seemed peaceful enough. The castle was also at the heart of one of the new residential areas that the Sovereigns were building, in these areas fighting of any kind was prohibited to protect the inhabitants. They should have been safe.

We were safe; she corrected herself, and it had been peaceful until about one week after they had arrived. It had been a little bit after dawn that Renamon had awoken to the sound of many Digimon screaming.

Renamon had been the first to reach the window, and she could see that at least twenty Digimon were encircling the castle, killing anyone who got in their way. There were several different types she could identify by sight alone, and some she couldn't.

She had thought it strange at the time. It was not that unusual for a group Digimon who were of the same type to travel and fight together as a pack, but to see such a bizarrely wide range of types working together was unheard of.

It was also their behaviour that also struck Renamon as strange. It just seemed wrong somehow, this was a pretty large city, so why did they wait until they had reached the centre before causing trouble?

It didn't really make much sense, as Digimon did not usually think of things such as home turf, enemy territory, or the advantage of terrain. Anywhere would do for a battlefield to a battle hungry one, so why were they being so careful.

Renamon had noticed, the attackers seemed very interested in what their victims were, they seemed unwilling to destroy them unless they had had a good look at them. Are they looking for someone?

That's ridiculous, it wasn't as though Digimon carried Identity cards or a drivers licence, she thought getting nervous. Looking back, she should have known she was trying to tell herself that something was very wrong.

Soon enough any Digimon that had been near the castle's perimeter had been killed, although the odd one or two remained within sight, the attacking group no longer seemed concerned about them.

Renamon then spotted something she had not spotted at first. Each and every one of the attackers was wearing something on their heads, it look like some sort of headgear.

What is going on here? Are they receiving orders from someone? She asked herself, and something inside of her was unsettled by this turn of events; but she could not say why.

I soon understood why! She thought back, the memory clear. Suddenly one of the Digimon, below, had pointed up at her. "That's one of them!" She heard a big nasty Machine MetalTyrannomon shout, followed by a smaller chorus by two what looked to be Garuramon.

She only managed to think to herself, 'one of them', when suddenly everything went nuts. The whole place shook as the building was bombarded by heavy fire and everything seemed to happen at once.

The castle collapsing, Terriermon getting knocked out by a bit of falling debris, everyone was trying to make a run for it, in their own little groups. They had made plans for if anything happened, but they hadn't counted on this kind of opposition.

Just our luck, Renamon had cursed. They were so far out numbered; she believed that even Rika would have thought it would be difficult. It would have been an easy battle if Rika and the other Tamer humans were here, but their human friends were currently a world away, so they had no choice but to do what they could.

Renamon tried to keep a track on what was going on with the others, but she had her hands full protecting the unconscious Terriermon, who was dangling by his ears in her left hand.

She saw only glimpses of the others. The teams they had originally formed for situations like this were slowly falling apart. They had counted on being able to outnumber any opposition they encountered, since it was rare to find more than three or four Digimon working together, let alone eight.

Right now though, eight of them would not be enough, they were out manned by a factor of nearly three to one. It was not just that that was worrying Renamon, dust from the castles collapse and smoke from some nearby buildings that had been set on fire, was hampering there co-ordination, she did not know about her friends, but it was almost impossible for her to work out what was happening.

A Single Flarerizamon ran toward Renamon out from a thick plume of smoke on her right, it's eyes glinting mercilessly through mere slits. 'Blaze Buster', it screamed and sent a barrage of flame flying toward her.

Renamon danced away, avoiding the fireballs with the grace of an acrobat. Her opponent moved just as swiftly, his fire covered body making him appear to move like a blur himself.

Renamon knew she would not get the opportunity to strike him with her Diamond Storm, so she would have to rely upon her techniques at hand-to-hand combatant.

The Flarerizamon attacked her from above this time, and despite the fact that she tried to dodge, she still felt his claws tear at her shoulder. There was a flash of pain and she threw herself away, aware that while the cut was minor, it was surrounded by burnt flesh. She blocked out the pain flowing from her right shoulder, so she could concentrate on what happened.

She should have remembered. That was the Flarerizamon's special skill, they could direct the heat of their bodies into their claws, and thus dealing greater damage than the claws would have inflicted on their own.

The technique she was about to use, would allow her to win, but she had to be careful. She was going to try to use 'Power Paw', an ability that allowed for the channelling of her MP to her hands and feet causing them to be engulfed in a powerful flame, which she hope would give her enough of an edge to win.

The problem lay in the reality that she was still carrying Terriermon in her hand, if she was not careful, she might risk killing him, but she dare not put him down in case some not so friendly adversary found him while she was distracted. She also knew that if she tried and failed she would be that much closer to exhaustion.

Her enemy attacked her for a third time, and she somehow managed to avoid it clean. She saw her opponent smile; he knew what she knew, if he could keep her on the run, the sooner she would run out of steam. It was only a matter of time.

Focusing her resolve, she closed her eyes; calling up her powers silently so she would not give the game away. "Power Paw," she whispered, and felt the power inside her take form as she heard something.

She performed a virtually perfect back somersault over the Flarerizamon, as it attempted to attack her from behind, she almost got away with it to. He had managed to rake the upper portion of her tail, almost causing her to lose control.

She swore that the Flarerizamon's next attack would be his last; she just needed to hold on a little longer. Her enemy moved to assault her from above once more.

"Raging Inferno!" He screamed as he fell towards her. She already knew what that technique was designed to do; it would surround the area in a ring of flame that he would limit her mobility. It was a small pity then that Renamon was more than happy to remain where she was.

A wave of heat washed over her, as she became surround by a firestorm, just as she had expected. Renamon had been hanging her head as though admitting defeat, then she felt the energy redirect itself away from her hands and into both her feet, she was finally ready.

Renamon threw her head back, and looked her foe directly in the eye. "Not today handsome." She said as though she was flirting with him, a radiant smile on her lips.

The Flarerizamon must have realised the situation had changed because his face betrayed a look of confused horror. He must have known that he had committed to an attack, where he was unable to change his trajectory.

Renamon leaped into the air, and turned her body once she got close enough, so that she brought her tip of her right foot crashing down onto her adversary's upper left arm. She felt her foot pass through his bones and knew she had severed his arm.

The flames that had spawn from his technique vanished at he retreated back through the wall of smoke.

Renamon felt rather exhilarated, having won her fight, and succeeded in keeping Terriermon out of harms way. The dust was beginning to clear up a bit.

She could just about make out Cyberdramon wrestling on her left with, what looked like two Garurumon, she still couldn't see clearly enough. He seemed to be holding his own.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, there was a bright flash, and the Ultimate Digimon fell backwards, growling out in pain. He then hit the ground and did not move to get up.

Renamon felt her elation at being in battle again, crumbled to dust.

What could take down an Ultimate? Renamon asked herself.

Renamon knew it wasn't impossible for a high level Digimon to be defeat by one or more lower level opponents; she had done the same thing with her champions when she was only at the rookie stage, although she had Rika's help back then, but to think that Cyberdramon could go down like that seemed so unreal to her.

Renamon suddenly realised that she could no longer hear any other sounds of battle.

The dust cleared more, she saw with her own eyes what she already knew in her heart. Guilmon was being held against the floor; she had never seen ones like them before, so she could not identify them. Guilmon himself was still struggling, but his captors were smiling, confidant that he could not escape their grasp. They had already managed to muzzle him.

The others were scattered around in various states of exhaustion, and some were injured. Impmon was nursing an ankle in his hand, from the way he held it, he might just have broken it. Marineangemon was trapped inside some kind of container.

Guardromon was being carried, on the shoulders of a Cyclonemon, it's huge clawed right hand holding him in place. She saw no sign of Lopmon at all; with any luck she had the smart enough to escape before this point, Renamon did not want to contemplate any other possibility than that.

"We got them, My Lord," One of the larger Digimon said into a microphone in his headset. There seemed to be some kind of response coming through the earphones, but Renamon could not hear what was said.

"You," the largest Digimon pointed to a lone Kabuterimon, "summon the Mekanorimon outside the city, our Lord wants his new toys delivered as soon as possible. To the desert, and to our Master, with them."

The Kabuterimon moved quickly out of sight.

'To our Master,' that Digimon had said, so they were all needed alive. The actions of this team of warriors became clearer now. Whomever this 'Master' was wanted them alive, so they had ended all those innocent lives because they were ordered to bring Renamon and her friends to the one they reported to. They were like an army.

They also killed anyone near the castle so they could make sure that they did not accidentally lose their prey in such a congested place. If all those who weren't their targets were dead, they would easily be found. It was a crude, but effective strategy.

Renamon realised that she had to escape and try to find a way to save the others later. But first I have to find a place to hide, She started thinking, not knowing it was futile.

As she turned begin her flight, she was struck in the back. She only felt pain for a moment. Renamon assumed she had only been grazed, but as soon as she tried to move her body; it simply would not obey. She discovered after a moments struggling, that she could no longer feel her legs or tail.

She began to feel numbness spreading into her arms, and her vision and hearing began to fail. Unable to keep her balance, she toppled over and landed hard.

She found it hard to turn her head to view the Digimon who came to stand next to her immobile body. It was an Angemon; he was holding in his hands a long metal weapon of some kind. The weapon appeared to be equipped with some kind of scope.

Renamon may not have seen an Angemon in a long time, but she could tell his weapon was not something that should exist in the Digital World. He looked down at her with an evil grin on his lips, "How did you like my little toy, darling? Not so tough with a little paralysing agent in you, huh?"

Renamon's body finally gave up fighting what had been done to it; before she finally lost consciousness she felt someone clamping something around her neck.

"That was the last thing I remember, before waking up here and knocking you out of bed." She told Terriermon.

"So, you think Lopmon got away?" Terriermon asked her.

"I said I didn't see him, but we can hope so," She replied optimistically, "I think we should start planning to get out off here…"

Renamon stilled herself, as they saw a Digimon passing the cell door; it was a Greymon who was pulling along a very black looking Digimon, that was so messed up you could not guess what it 'might have' been. It's arms looked like they had been burned off, and it's legs were no longer there.

It did not look as though it was still alive.

"Before we all end up like that!" Renamon finished letting her meaning go unsaid. She only just realised that what she had heard before was no the wind, but whoever that had been, screaming for his life.

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Yamaki threw himself fully dressed on top of the couch in Riley's apartment; he was exhausted.

It was hard to believe that he had actually planned to have some relaxation time over the last few days. Instead he ended up spending half his time on the phone and the other half running from one side of the city to the other.

It was surprising how hard it had been to organise so many things on his own and it was going to cost him a fortune. He never really, fully, grasped how much work he had expected his former subordinates to work.

Yamaki no longer had the resources of Hypnos to support him, so he was forced to hire help from wherever he could find it, or call in favours from people he knew in his former employment, like Hirokkei. He felt lucky that he lived in Japan where there were always people awake and willing to do any job that they came across, no matter the hour.

He sat up and began to undress himself, trying to be as quite as he could. Riley was out tonight, with some girlfriends of hers, but he shouldn't get too used to that being the case.

This was, after all, 'her' apartment and not 'their' apartment; he wasn't that much different from a free loader anyway. He had to learn to keep it down.

He was tired and wanted sleep, but at the same time he wanted to keep awake and alert, so he could not help but to make himself a coffee. Riley would often remind him that he couldn't have both; so if he was stuck, then he should just pick whichever action served him best at the time, rather than the one that was in favour of his work. She had always been like that, and that was the bedrock of their relationship. He knew she would have scolded him if she knew.

He sat down, coffee in hand, and let his mind wonder. He had so little time to just sit, that the memory seemed to float like a dream.

Yamaki often compared Hypnos to other jobs in his own unique way. He saw it as it really was; sort of like suddenly being asked to run a marathon everyday when you were only used to running in a 100-meter dash. In others words; periods of rest were shorter, less reliable and there was little time to be distracted by anything else.

If the job had not been so intensive, and had not been required so much of his time, he would have made fewer and less explosive mistakes. His biggest problem was that the longer he spent working on a difficult problem the more obsessed he became with fixing it. His solutions would also become more complex and far reaching, simply because he was allowing them to get on his nerves.

He had been working for a few weeks; things were not working out at all and he was getting frustrated. The staff might have found him a little intimidating. Things got so bad that the whole place was practically grinding to a halt every time he started brooding. Eventually the staff just stopped coming to him.

Yamaki remembered that he had been sat near the vending machine, drinking canned coffee and contemplating the problems encountered while searching for hackers based across a sixth phased system, when this woman just sat down next to him. He didn't even know her name.

I really didn't pay any real attention back then did I? Yamaki scolded himself.

She just sat down, and started asking questions. Her long dark hair hung over her shoulder, and her dark eyes staring straight at him. More like through me! He admitted; he had been quite shocked by her actions and did not understand what she was playing at.

"Do you have any hobbies?" she asked, smiling at him, even though he looked like he was going to spit nails.

"Hobbies? Why do you want to know?" He asked suspiciously, wanting to know what she was up to, given the fact he was obviously busy thinking.

"No reason, you just look like you needed to talk," she replied, and proceeded to answer her question, herself. "I like swimming." She then just got up and walked off, leaving him none the wiser.

He just sat there drinking coffee for the next few minutes with a serious look on his face, and it took someone from the main offices to tap him on the shoulder to remind him to return to work.

On one hand he felt suspicious, and on the other, he felt quite refreshed for no reason he could discern. His mind wondering back to her every few seconds. No sooner had he started back to the problem at hand, that he suddenly realised he was thinking of her again.

He couldn't see any real way that she could be using the conversation for any particular purpose; she wasn't really getting anything out of it. Yamaki thought that she might just be making conversation for conversations sake, or maybe she was hitting on him.

Women were like that, trying to get attention from someone they liked, not that Yamaki would reciprocate, as he did not think such things should happen in the workplace. He was very strict about staff flirting in working hours.

The next few days passed by with the same routine. He had once walked off around the ground to find that she was beside him. He would have thought she would have left him alone when he did this, but she just got up and walked beside him, not saying a thing. He ended up watching her as they walked instead of thinking the problems he had through. When he got back to the office, the solution to his problem hit him.

Even though he had been slightly disturbed by it at first, he allowed it became a regular thing. Allowing her to just sit next to him and talk about things that had nothing to do with work or to wonder the grounds.

As long as it did not affect his work, he was fine with it; in fact, he actually started looking forward to it.

He had never linked the woman to anyone he knew at work. It really was a mystery to him; one that he decided to work out for himself. Yamaki never liked using the simple methods when it came to problem solving, so why restrict himself now.

He could have just followed her back to wherever it was that she came from, or just looked for her picture in the staff records, but he deplored such things as not being half as fun. He thought of just asking her, but it was not his way. As long as I continue to do my job it should be all right, he reasoned.

The day after he made this resolution, he waited for his break to come and sat down next to the vending machine and bought a can coffee as usual. She came and got a drink herself.

"What are you drinking today?" She raised her eyebrow, at his question. It was that usual for him to ask a question of her first. Today he had decided to record in his own mind as many details as he could about her.

"A black coffee," she responded, "I don't really care for anything else." Her voice seemed to have a natural lint to it, that encouraged a person to speak more openly and he almost wanted to ask her straight out whom she was; he restrained himself.

Her voice was quite soft, he noted. She wore the same clothes as the rest of the other female staff, but hers was really well cared for, which he did find interesting.

It suggested that she had pride in her work, mainly because although there were significant signs of wear, it did not have a single mark that could have been caused by carelessness however.

This suggested to him that she was duty driven. He still did not know what department of Hypnos she belonged to. So he decided to start his inquires with a more direct approach. "Work a lot?"

"I work most of the day. If you're asking me my hours, you could almost say they were all over the place at times." She answered; seemingly taken out by the new direction their 'relationship' was taking. It almost seemed like she was playing the same evasion game he was, never giving more away than was necessary.

"Interesting," Yamaki said, preparing to change subject again." What do you think of your boss?"

She chuckled, which seemed to overflow into a little laughing fit. He was afraid that she would start choking or something so he went to get up and pat her on the back, but before he could do anything, she had managed to stop herself.

"He's a quite strict, he doesn't really like the people who work for him to be absent while he is, but as long as we return to our posts before he comes back, everything usually turns out alright. He's a little intimidating to tell you the truth." She said, and Yamaki could sense utmost sincerity from the woman.

Yamaki was the head of the heads of staff inside Hypnos, so he saw knew who was in charge of what in the others departments, of which their were twelve. He knew that only four of those departments had females at the top of hierarchy.

That meant that she worked in one of the departments that were headed by a male. Four down, eight to go, he added to himself.

She suddenly glanced at her watch. "Sorry, I've work to do." She got up and disappeared through the foyer doors.

A few days later, Yamaki continued his investigation.

She sat down as usual and ordered something different from the vending machine that day, a can of green tea.

"Thought you didn't like anything other than coffee?" He asked politely. She replied that she liked a change once in a while, and that it kept things interesting, smiling. She looked a little tired, as though she hadn't slept that night; he was aware that he had also had to pull an all night shift; some departments had had too.

That point became another line of reasoning to him. It sparked his curiosity, but before he got too excited he had to make certain that he was right.

"Pulled a night shift?" He asked feigning slight interest.

She put her head to one side as though considering what her best response would be, after a minute or so she answered, "you too?"

They way she said it made him think. So the department she works in must pull night shifts often enough for her to be cynical about them! He could have simply checked up on what departments had been working late last night, it would not have been so hard to do, but he was having too much fun at the moment to take the 'easy way out' as he called it.

Yamaki used his brains though; he knew that two of the remaining eight departments were sealed up every night by security and were never required to work at night. Six departments remaining, he smiled inwardly. He was closing in. He would have chuckled but he only did this when he knew the other staff were not looking.

He continued to narrow it down to the department she worked in, using the same system. Ask a specific question and get the answer and cross the other ones off the list.

It was then he noticed a small symbol on the left arm of the suit she wore. Only a few departments had that. Day by day he kept closing in. Their time together would sometimes be very short and he wouldn't even have time to ask anything specific. He also found the 'game' fun and so limited he questions to one every three days. This left the other times free to discuss whatever they wanted. He also hoped she would not realise what he was doing by doing this.

With only three remaining, he could feel the game coming to an end, but at least he would have the satisfaction of knowing that he had been providing himself with sport, and no one would be any the wiser.

She had come and sat down next to him and bought her usual can of black coffee, and he asked, if she had come across any departmental problems, while taking a sip of his own drink, as though her answer would have no real meaning to him.

"There was a little problem with the computers, but nothing serious." She answered candidly.

Yamaki sat quite stunned, as it was the first time that he had received an answer that he had not expected, or understood. He had been expecting a completely different reply, that she would have evaded the question, or not answered at all. He did not say anything more for a few minutes.

The woman had become quite uncomfortable with the situation and shuffled a little before saying goodbye, excusing herself, and throwing her half finished drink into the crash can opposite. He just nodded and then shook his head, as though he was trying to clear it of something irksome that had gotten inside his skull. Yamaki wondered at her response.

Yamaki knew exactly what had been going on in the two departments he suspected; one was currently undergoing discipline after it was discovered that some of their logs showed inaccuracies, and the other was running smoothly. There had been no reported problems with their software.

The only department that was suffering with computer problems was the System Core Operations Department or S.C.O.D for short. Yamaki's very own Department.

He was angry, and he knew very well why. He prided himself on knowing the name, and voice, of everyone who worked directly below him. Yamaki often travelled outside of the Hypnos complex, on jobs. He had never heard that woman's voice on the end of the phone, when he had had to call his office.

Yamaki knew that he did not know every single man and woman who worked in Hypnos, but he knew his own department. He decided that the 'game' was over and it was time to get the whole business over with.

She did not reappear for a few days and when she finally did, he let her drink her coffee; then he asked her directly.

"What did you say your name was again?" He pretended that this was just another of their normal conversation.

"Riley, Sir," She answered.

"Your not Riley, you and she sound nothing a like." Yamaki said emotionlessly.

"I am Riley, you can check my file." The woman had responded coldly.

"Can I really?" He asked sceptically.

"If you have any doubts!" She shouted over her shoulder as she collected another can of black coffee, holding it tightly in one hand.

"If you are Riley, why do you sound so different?" He asked, wanting to understand why she had just started talking to him out of the blue six months earlier?

"Because above everything else, you are my boss and I am your employee, and my job is to make your job easier to handle. The job comes before anything else." She stormed off.

Her voice vibrated off the walls inside his head. When she had said that, he knew she was telling the truth, she had responded with Riley's voice.

He remembered the first thing she had said to him when he had been introduced to her, the day he had started working at Hypnos. She seemed to look different back then, or was it now, then the realised she wore her hair differently and when he had been introduced she had had the customary goggles that he was used to. Now she was out of the high chair, she looked very different. Her hair, which was normally pinned back at the sides, was now left to fall over her face a little. She quite obviously had a different tone for the situations she was in, a 'work' voice, and her 'normal' voice. He almost couldn't believe he hadn't recognised her, but then he never thought of anyone having a private life.

His mind skipped a little, back to the first time he saw her.

She was in the chair that she always occupied during working hours, beside Tally, that was mounted on hydraulic arms. She and her fellow operators had been up there testing the stability of the system, so were understandably too busy to comer down for the normal 'interviews' new employers normally used to get to know their staff.

Yamaki had not had time and told them to work. He had not been bothered by not interviewing them. He knew their credentials inside out, so he had simply asked them a few questions when he had had the time. He asked them both the same thing. How did they end up in the job and why did they want it.

Tally had been really straightforward; She simply told him that she had been recommended for the job, and had accepted the job because she felt that there was nowhere better to go. It had been a normal enough answer.

Riley had been more mysterious. She simply replied, "I found out about the job through some friends of mine and had asked for the transfer herself. When she has been told she had the credentials they were looking for, she accept job wholeheartedly," she had added, "I took this job knowing that it wouldn't be easy. I wanted to see if I could keep a promise, to the best of my abilities."

At that time Yamaki had not needed to see her face properly, he had accepted at that time that faces would be meaningless in this word of wire anyway. He knew they would never see the true faces of their employers, so why should his employees be any different. As long as he knew what they were capable of and what their voice sounded like, he knew the job would get done.

Yamaki had to admit that her answer puzzled him, so at that time he asked her, "What promise?"

"The promise that I will always put the job first." She had replied truthfully; he had not really understood what exactly she had meant.

Yamaki's mind floated back to his original thoughts of the argument. Over the next few days she stopped coming to the vending machines. Riley continued doing her job in the same way she always did, but she no longer tried to talk to him during breaks. After a week or so, he actually began to miss their little chats.

Yamaki tried to work out the meaning behind her actions; perhaps there was some ulterior motive that he could not see. Was she up to something sinister? Finally, it got to him, and he decided to track her down at the end of shift that day and solve the mystery. He had idea where he could find her.

He had been right of course. There were only three places you could relax in the whole building.

There was a cafeteria, positioned just below where the structure split in half, forming into the two towers that was the distinctive characteristic of the Hypnos facility. The other two were the small rest rooms with their vending machines. One of the smaller rooms on the ground floor with had an outside and inside area, so smokers could go outside, and the other on was on the 15th floor. Since Riley liked black coffee, and he knew how caffeine affected people, he knew she would have to drink some sooner or later. Going to one of these should lead him to her.

Yamaki decided to stake out the bottom floor, as soon as his shift was over, so he would get there first. Riley was avoiding him, and therefore she avoided the 15th floor, where he would usually be at this time of day.

She showed up, about a few minutes after he had gotten there himself. Yamaki realised that if he wanted some answers, he was going to have to be more diplomatic.

He cleared his throat and she turned around, surprised to see him there. "Sorry about before, I was out of line." Yamaki apologised. Riley was a hard worker, and he had wronged her when she had not done anything to deserve it.

"I had guessed what you were doing; I should have just introduced myself when I had the chance," she said sympathetically, "I know you hate to lose. I know you weren't angry at me, but at yourself, for missing something like that." Riley added.

"That's true." Yamaki admitted. "Why didn't you just mention who you were?" Yamaki asked, because he did not understand her at all.

"I didn't want you to think I was after something. I thought maybe if I told you who I was, it would ruin our working relationship; the truth is, I don't trust people easily."

"Your beginning to sound like me, Riley." Yamaki laughed, trying to clear the air. He was sure that there was more too it than she was telling, but he didn't press her.

"Why did you start talking to me?" Finally getting to raise the point that had been bugging him the whole time.

"I can't answer that; don't you remember that I promised to always put my job first?" her reply came with a warm smile.

"What has that got to do with this?" Yamaki commented, not sure what she was trying to say.

"Basically, I wouldn't have much of a job if my employer kept spacing out on us every time he hit a problem that gave him a hard time." He nodded understanding what she meant.

Yamaki had been chosen to be the heart of this operation because he understood how all this technology worked, and how to get the best results from it. The staff knew how to work their equipment but relied on him to give them instructions.

If Yamaki was not focusing on the whole picture, and kept himself fixated on trying to solve one thing at a time, that whole system would fall into disorder.

He saw the whole pattern now. Riley had been helping him, by making sure he remained sufficiently distracted, so that he would not dwell on the problems during his breaks. Breaks, which were dictated by Yamaki himself, usually whenever he met a problem he was having a hard time fixing.

A change of topic was probably the best thing, so whenever he was stuck she would provide one. It was so obvious; Yamaki turned towards her intending to ask her who had put her up to it. When she gave him a most extraordinary answer.

"I volunteered myself from the task to helping you do your job, so I can do mine," She gave him another dashing smiled.

"Sorry, I got to get back on duty." With that, she walked out the door.

Yamaki was left laughing.

When Yamaki thought back on it like that, he found it hard to believe that their 'business only' relationship had developed the way it had. His and Riley's colleagues were shocked to find out that they were actually a couple.

A lot has happened in three years, Yamaki added.

Yamaki finally decided that it would be best to heed Riley's advice, and made the decision to get what sleep he could, while he could. Typical, he thought, as the phone began to ring, and he forced himself to answer.

"Yamaki here." He answered.

"Yamaki, I found it!" Hirokkei shouted down the line. He could only assume he was refer to the matter they had disgusted earlier that week.

"The portal," Yamaki chuckled, knowing full well that Hirokkei must have been joking there was no way he ever showed skills in systems analysis, "when did you learn to do that?"

"I didn't." The man on the other end of the phone answered truthfully.

"What?" Yamaki asked confused.

"I'm not joking Yamaki, I know where it is!" Hirokkei's volume had increased; he was deadly serious.

"How the did you find it then?" Yamaki said, returning to his more level tones, a little lower maybe and for a moment he thought that Hirokkei hadn't heard him.

Hirokkei gave Yamaki the details. Unfortunately Hirokkei had only given Yamaki the 'good news'.

"And you just stumbled onto their 'secrete meeting', what luck." Yamaki smiled at his fortunes, and laughed.

"There is something else, Sir, and your not going to like it." Hirokkei added, Yamaki swore that he had never heard such deadly a voice coming from his old friend, almost as though he was bracing himself for something.

Yamaki didn't like the tone one bit. "Ok, what is it?"

"What? Tomorrow morning…" Once he had heard the full story, Yamaki almost slammed to phone down.

Some days I don't know if my luck is supposed to be a blessing or just plain torture, Yamaki spoke beneath his breath, not meaning Hirokkei to hear.

"What was that Yamaki?" Hirokkei asked, with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Nothing, it's all right," Yamaki breathed in deeply, "okay, this is what I want to you to do for me." Hirokkei listened as his old friend to do him some favours, and he was more than happy to help.

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Three days earlier.

Lopmon had run when Guilmon had told her too, he said that he couldn't guarantee her safety, and that it would be better if someone could escape and try to get help.

She hadn't made it far before encountering trouble, so she had darted under an overturned wagon. She was close enough to hear where they were intending to take Guilmon and the others. The Desert was a pretty big area, but at least that gave her a starting point for when she finally got round to looking for them.

A number of questions flashed before her mind, which worried her.

- The desert, why would they be going there since so much of it was a wasteland?

-Who was thing Master who was commanding them?

-What did this Master want with Guilmon and the others?

Lopmon stored the questions in back of her mind, and decided to see if she could get further away from here, as it looked as though the attackers were going to make one last quick sweep before leaving. She guessed that they knew they had missed one of their targets.

Lopmon had narrowly avoided discovery the first time, and did not fancy hanging around, as her hiding place just couldn't stand up to closer inspection. It would only require one blast to leave her dead or vulnerable to capture.

She noticed that her pursuers had their back to her hiding spot, so she ran as fast as she could for another piece of cover that she thought might be safer. It was the burned out shell of some poor soul's home.

It was across the road, and there was a partly destroy market stall between the wagon and the building, that she could hide behind if she needed to. The two Digimon who were searching around, were currently looking at a piece of metal that was sticking out from under the rubble in front of them.

Lopmon seized her chance, and ran for it. I can make it, she told herself forcefully. She was halfway the stall, which was positioned at the middle point of the road, when she felt her foot come into contact with something slippery. The stall she had bet her life and freedom on, had belonged to a melon merchant.

She quickly put it all together. A melon must have fallen from the stall and had been smashed during the earlier confusion of the attack. It was spread across the floor in a layer thin enough for her not too have seen it, yet thick enough to make her unsteady.

It was very sticky and limited her movements as she skidded along. Lopmon was unable to stop herself, and fell. As she fell, she collided into an undamaged melon that was laid on the floor in front of her, sending it bouncing along the ground.

Without warning, two metallic hands wrapped themselves around her middle, and she dare not make a sound in case she drew unwanted attention, so she let them reel her in. Within moments she found herself stood next to a Datamon, they were often known as shrewd businessmen, and providers or couriers of information.

His arms repositioned, one remained wrapped around her middle and the other slid over her mouth.

"Watch." The small waste paper basket sized Digimon said. The Datamon pointed at something that was hanging from the stalls almost collapsed roof that she hadn't noticed.

Almost as though in slow motion, the melon rolled into the stall, and suddenly a ringing noise could be heard. It was a wind chime, but at the moment there was no wind at all.

"What was that?" The larger of the two searchers asked. They turned around, and seconds later, they had reduced the stall to burning ash. Lopmon gulped.

"Someone's round here." The smaller of the two, a Gabumon, said to his partner who was a Mamemon.

Suddenly there was another loud bang that came from somewhere up the street. "Must be running that way. Must be the prize, lets go." The Gabumon shout again, as he took off up the street, followed closely by the Mamemon.

"That was close. You have to learn to be more careful." The Datamon said, his hands still firmly gripping over Lopmon's mouth. Lopmon figured that the Datamon was scared that they might be seen, as the two enemies returned.

"She has to be around here somewhere; but I don't think we need bother, this place was a waste of our MP anyway," the Gabumon said, sneering, obviously bored now that the fighting was over, "those Digimon who were guarding the place were barely worth my time."

"But won't Master be upset that she got away?"

"He won't miss one insignificant Digimon and we got the rest; he should be more than satisfied. Sometimes I think he's an idiot." The Gabumon scoffed.

A loud noise that was like metal scrapping against metal filled the air. Lopmon had not heard such a horrible sound in her life. The ground also shook as though responding to that terrible noise. She did not know what was causing it; she only hoped it didn't mean that things were going to get more dangerous than they already were.

The two Digimon before of them put their hands to their headsets, covering their ears. "Our rides here." The Gabumon said and both he and the Mamemon set off.

An hour later, the Datamon finally let go of Lopmon. She walked ached after standing for so long in one position, and stepped into the sunlight. Other Digimon began to come out of places they had concealed themselves in. They surveyed the damage to their homes and places of work, with horrified looks.

Lopmon could understand; they had been brought to this place, under the understanding that they would be protected but instead, for a lot of them, it had morphed from home to tomb.

Not that dead Digimon usually left enough remains to be buried, she commented bitterly.

Lopmon looked around as her saviour dusted himself off. The whole place was a complete mess; it was unbelievable. Pieces of the castle where she and the others had spent some happy times were scattered all over the place.

She looked around her for a sign that any of companions had also hidden away, but from how that Gabumon had spoken, she already doubted that anyone else had made it.

She had to find them if she could, but first she had to find someone who could help her. If she moved fast she might have been able to pursue her friends captors. It looked as though many of the Digimon, who could fly, had either been injured or killed in the initial attack.

She came up with a sudden flash of inspiration; something had caught her attention. A wheel, attached and suspended between two long cylindrical metal tubes, with a headlamp at the top. She remembered that it was something that Impmon had been building; he called it a bike.

She had always been wary of it, but she had seen it moving about on it's own, at times. Impmon had said that he hadn't completed it yet, but Lopmon figured that it was the best option. She had noticed that its headlight was on; she knew that that meant it was awake.

That's something, she thought.

She hoped if she could free it, she would be able to convince it to help her.

Lopmon spoke over her shoulder, as she heard the Datamon approaching from behind her. "Thank for saving me, Datamon. I owe you my life already, but could I trouble you one more time, I want to go and save-", out of the blue, something plastered itself over her nose and mouth.

She struggled, but it was no use, her body went completely limp. An object of some kind was clipped to her ear.

"Sorry about that," the Datamon bragged, "but you owe me your life, so until you pay me back with something of equal value, you will be working for me. You're going to attract quite a bit of money for me in the arena." He gloated knowing full well she couldn't respond. Her eyes staring blankly into space, some Digimon possessed their own secret techniques to inflict paralysis and pain.

"I can't wait to get home. You're going to love Server seven. See you on the other side." He laughed cruelly.

The Datamon tired Lopmon up, and holstered her into a cage that was just big enough for her to fit inside, then vanished. Datamon were, couriers and information traders for a reason, because they could teleport over large distances.

He had woken up at the right time, although he had missed the main battle. If he had been upright, he could have done something. The bike knew it was hopeless to try anything, just yet. He did not want to be left like this, just because he scared the locals, so he would conserve energy and think up a plan.

He had been knocked for six by the castle's implosion, and trapped for the better part of two days, but at least he had a lead on Master's friend, and perhaps through her he would find his Master to.

He would normally be able to sense his Master, but right now he couldn't sense Master's power, so he didn't know where his Master was.

When was freed, he fired himself up. The bike had spent two days thinking about what he would do next, he could have gone after the rabbit like one, but without a rider of sufficient calibre, he would not get very far.

So he decided that he would have to go to the Sovereigns that his Master had held in his memories, and seek their help, as they were the most powerful beings in this world. He could sense their strength even from this distance; not the strength of a rider, but a great power none the less.

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Yamaki and Janyu Wong had talked about it and decided that it was best if they waited for the children to get together and then ambush them. They were hidden in the bushes, along with several people he had hired in case of a situation like this.

He and Janyu had taken a look at the data that Hirokkei had delivered to him during the night. The portal might have seemed safe enough, but the data said otherwise, even Yamaki admitted that the entrance was stable, but a more detailed examination suggested that there was a blockage of some kind inside.

The chances were that they might have become trapped somewhere between the digital and real world's, who knows what would have happened then.

The portal was his main concern, as it was so very dangerous; Yamaki didn't want to think that someone might accidentally stumble upon it, in the time it would take him to get the situation resolved. Xanadu was still in a state of lockdown, only when that ended would he be able to get the barrier back to normal.

He still hadn't discovered why it was constantly destabilizing like it was, but he could worry about that later.

"Are you sure that the children didn't get to the portal before you sealed it up?" Janyu asked, concerned that something had gone wrong; the kids were late for their 'secrete rendezvous'.

"I'm sure, no ones been near the thing all night, it was the first thing I dealt with." Yamaki tried to reassure Mr Wong.

Yamaki had gotten some of the men he had hired to stand guard at either end of the tunnels to make sure people kept out of them, it was actually quite expensive to have people guard it day and night.

Thankfully they shouldn't have to keep it up every long; hopefully in a day or so, he would be able to affect a more permanent solution. Yamaki admitted that he was a little worried himself, but those children were; well, still children, so they weren't always as punctual as one who expect an adult with responsibilities to be.

They would just have to wait.

The children finally arrived all at once, they were carrying all sort of bag packs and things.

"Ok, is everyone ready?" Takato nodded to the group.

"You bet!" Kazu and Kenta chanted together.

"Then it's off we go." Takato was the first to step forward.

Yamaki moved out from cover, followed by Janyu. It was best to get things over with.

"I'm sorry, but your going to have to put you're little trip on hold." Yamaki moved to head Henry off; if he needed to convince someone it would be him. Henry had showed that he could be argumentative if he thought he was right; which made him dangerously unpredictable.

Yamaki repositioned his glasses on his face. He chose to go for Henry's throat, figuratively speaking. "Henry, I have the data right here. Take a look." He pulled a floppy disk out of his jacket pocket and a man carrying a laptop came out from behind a tree behind him.

Mr Wong looked surprised. I hadn't noticed him there, he mumbled to himself.

"As you were there when I built the barrier, you'll know better than anyone, what these readings mean. If you really think it's safe then take a look at the data yourself. It's time stamped and has an authentication code attached, there's no way I could fake it." Yamaki gave the disk to the man carrying the laptop, who slotted it in, passed the laptop to him and Yamaki carried it to Henry.

Yamaki thought the other Tamer children stood in shocked silence, they would be thinking that after all their hard work; it looked at though everything would fall apart after all.

It seemed to only take the boy a few minutes to accept the truth; the portal would never have had been stable enough to take them to the Digital world. That his portal had been a death trap the moment it formed. The boy looked rather ashamed. Yamaki guessed he was disturbed by his own inability to see it; the boy's expression hardened.

Henry stared at Yamaki with contempt. Yamaki knew what he'd be thinking that the whole situation was partly his fault anyway.

Yamaki saw Henry shake himself; now reality would be sinking in. He would acknowledge that Yamaki had just done what was right, where Henry was just being selfish. Looking for anyway without checking the true facts.

"Yamaki, I…" Henry started, looking solemn.

It was all rather incredibly frightening and happened without warning. A vortex opened above the park, almost as though a super tornado had decided to form and had confined itself completely to Shinjuku Park.

The strange thing was that the sky had been relatively clear a moment before. Yamaki could not understand it, until he caught a glimpse through the cloudbank; the sky had been ripped open.

The effect was far more contained than the last time he had seen such a thing, but it was definitely the same as what had appeared over Hypnos headquarters more than a year ago.

A huge golden funnel of mist descended towards the ground. It engulfed everything, within a twenty-meter radius of the whirlwinds centre; and the mist was so thick that Yamaki couldn't see a foot in front of him.

After a minute, the whole thing retreated into the sky and vanished as though it was never there. Yamaki had a bad feeling about this; he looked around.

Yamaki wondered what on Earth had happened. As the fog cleared, he immediately realised the children and gone. But to where? He looked around but could not see them. They would not have gotten far enough to not be spotted running in the distance. What in the world has happened? He wanted that answer and badly!

"Is everyone all right?" Yamaki shouted. Mr Wrong was pulling himself up, as was several of the men Yamaki had hired.

"We're okay. How about you?" One of them asked. "And what was all that about?"

"I'm glad you're all fine," Yamaki smiled briefly, "but do you remember when I warned you that I would be unable to explain if you happened to have a strange encounter."

"Yeah?" The man had asked curiously.

"Consider this one of them. You guys can go home now and you will be paid, double the standard rate. If anyone asks, you helped a rich old lady across a busy road." They all nodded and left.

"Yamaki. What happened to Henry and the others?" Janyu Wong enquired once he caught his breath, but he was clearly agitated at the disappearance of his son.

"The children are gone. I know for a fact it only something extremely powerful could have opened that gate. I just hope that whoever was responsible is friendly, but regardless we won't find out anything standing around here." Yamaki stated.

Yamaki began to run, Mr Wong running along behind him. "Come on, we have to get as far away from here as we can, I doubt that those fools at Xanadu could have missed that."

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Takato felt his feet land on something and he opened his eyes. He could see that he was standing underneath a massive archway. He found himself staring down a corridor that was in front of him.

It was so long that he could not see the end of it. The walls were painted in a blue colour, with the purest white clouds he had ever seen painted on top of that, and hanging down from brackets on the walls were baskets that contained combinations of exotic wild flowers. The floors were covered in green, blue and silver tiles, set down an amazing mosaic.

"Hey. Guys, were do you think we are? This place is beautiful?" Takato commented.

"Takato, I would turn around if I were you?" Henry said; his voice was shaking.

"Why?" Takato asked, but he did not really require an answer.

Once he had turned around he realised that he had obviously materialised facing the wrong way. He was left speechless. The room that now filled his senses was gigantic and perfectly circular; it carried the beauty that he had seen in the corridor to a completely different level, but that was not all.

The room was dominated by four enormous chairs; each in a different colour on it, red, blue, green and black. In the very centre of the room was a golden throne, and there was a golden Digimon sat upon it.

Takato had never known such a Digimon existed. A golden dragon with shimmering scales, with six crimson eyes and surrounded by several red orbs. It had four large horns on two on the head and the two on the mid point of the back. It possessed four legs; each had ending with three clawed. Its tail was swishing around the back of its chair.

"Welcome Humans, the Digital World needs your help." The Digimon spoke in a beautiful voice that sounded like that of a young woman. She spoke sorrowfully.

"But I am afraid that I have some bad news."

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To be continued…

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P.S. ok, sorry about how late this chapter is; it just kept growing in size. Well, I hope that you enjoy it.