Chapter 4

Doors

BurningGreymon, Koji, and Koichi fell through the darkness that was the pit within the core of the mountain. Around them shards of fractured ice fluttered about threateningly as the rocky surface of the cavity rushed by.

"Well, this feels familiar," BurningGreymon remarked as he rotated around so that he could see the way they were falling and the other two with him.

"Yeah, falling down deep, dark, bottomless pits seems to happen to use way more than it should," Koichi sighed as he stretched out a foot and pushed a large shard of ice away from him, sending it into the wall where it exploded in a cloud of frost.

"Does it bother anyone else that falling to our doom doesn't bother us anymore?" Koji inquired with a sigh while rotating into a relaxed fall.

"Like Koichi said, it happens to us way too much for us to be concerned about it anymore," BurningGreymon laughed.

"I don't know what you're laughing about, your wings are still blocks of ice," Koji retorted.

"Are you serious!" BurningGreymon turned his head around and to his annoyance he indeed found that his wings were still incased in clear blue ice. "Damn it…"

"Well, at least we figured out the whole invisible signal response thing," Koichi smiled as he and Koji took out their D-tectors.

"What we most likely picked up at the top was the signal escaping from the bottom of this pit and out through a thin part of the ice. Whatever rock these walls are made of it must have been enough to block signal detection," Koji remarked as he extended his right arm out and summoned up his fractal code while his brother did the same.

"But wow… How powerful must what we're looking for be to release a signal that traveled all the way up this deep pit and out far enough that Lady Ophanimon was able to detect it in a different Zone," BurningGreymon pondered after giving up on attempting to claw away the ice again. The heat of his flames hadn't done anything to the strange ice, which probably wasn't a good sign.

"It looks like the ground levels coming up," Koichi announced when he saw the darkness peel back to reveal a brown stone floor further down.

"SPIRIT EVOLVE TO…" The twins cried as they started up their brand of digi-volution.

"LOBOMON!" "LOWEMON!"

The Warriors of Light and Darkness sparked to life in the shadowy pit and twisted their bodies so that their legs would be the first things to meet the ground, which they did a few seconds later. The three impacted the bottom of the pit with powerful booms which echoed up and out the hole they had fallen through. Once at the bottom the two who could release their spirit evolutions did to create more room in the narrow cave.

"Hmm, I don't see anything around here that could be giving off the signal," Koichi noted as they looked around the empty room of stone.

"I don't see anything from up here either," BurningGreymon laughed, trying to make the best of his stuck situation. "Well, except for that, which can't be a good thing," he added with a finger pointed up towards the hole they had fallen through.

High above them the fractured and partially melted hole in ceiling of ice which had been providing them with light at the bottom was slowly closing back up. Bolts of the same blue energy that had frozen BurningGreymons wings were dancing along the broken rim of the hole, slowly expanding the ice until the roof closed up again as if nothing had ever happened.

"I wonder if that ice will break as easily a second time as if did the first," Koichi stared up once BurningGreymon ignited his arms with flames, giving them light to see around them again.

"If it's the same type of ice as the stuff that's encased BurningGreymon's wings then I don't think it'll be that easy. We very well might have to look for another way out of this place once we find what were looking for," Koji sighed at how the problems just seemed to continue to increase on the so far short mission.

"Well, I see a good place to start that search," BurningGreymon chuckled as he reached out and placed his flaming hand down on a stone ledge at chest level with his form. "There's a tunnel up here. I can't see very far down it, but it seems to run downward, deeper into the mountain. I think it's our best bet for finding what we're looking for and getting out of here."

"Actually, at this point I think it's our only way," Koichi commented, staring up at the archway illuminated by the digital flames.

"Good point," BurningGreymon laughed, lowering his other hand down so he could lift the two up.

Koichi stepped up on the hand BurningGreymon offered him, but hesitated when he didn't find his brother standing beside him. Looking around the pit he found Koji kneeling in the back, examining a large chunk of ice.

"What's up, Koji?" Koichi hopped down from the Warrior of Flames hand and walked over to his brother and knelt down beside him.

"It's strange… All of the pieces of the ceiling that we knocked down were either slightly melted or fractured with jagged edges, but this piece is almost perfectly square," Koji noted while he ran his gloved fingers over the smooth sides of the block, pondering how it could have happened with a suspicious look on his face.

"It is weird. You'd almost think it was carefully cut; but weirder things have happened," Koichi remarked as he stood up and walked back over to BurningGreymon.

"You're probably right," Koji ended up agreeing before he stood up as well and accepted the Warrior of Flames offer.

"This place is great," Kari smiled as she set her pink suitcase down on the bed and looked around the room.

The hotel they were staying at was modeled off of the kind ski lodges one could find in the west. A variation of an old fashion log cabin, but built to accommodate sixty or seventy hotel rooms and function with modern conveniences. The room she was sharing with Sora and Yolei had soft brown wooden walls, a small gas fireplace pumping heat into the room, shaggy white carpets, a white couch and armchair, and two beds with white linen; a kings size near the large porch windows and a twin on the other side of the room.

"An amazing room and only a five minute walk from the slopes. It's perfecto!" Yolei beamed as she threw her bag onto the same bed as Kari before running to the glass doors and throwing open the curtains; marveling at the snow covered mountains a short distance away.

"I'm glad you're so happy with it," Sora commented with a smile as she placed her bag on the twin bed and watched the two younger girls excitedly explore the room. "It's a rare occasion that being the only girls among a group of boys is a good thing. While we get this whole room to ourselves they have to share a single room between the eight of them."

"To bad Mimi couldn't get her next visit from America to correspond with this trip," Yolei sighed depressingly at the thought of their missing friend. They had invited her to come along, but she had been back to visit only a month before and just couldn't swing another trip for only a weekend of skiing.

"It was pretty short notice when Matt got comped the rooms and lift tickets after playing here last week," Kari stated, pushing down similar thoughts of missing the only other girl in their group.

"Enough of that kind of thinking! Let's get dressed, get the boys, and hit the slopes," Sora shook them from their thoughts and got them focused on the positive. "We've only got two days in this place, and I don't know about you two, but I intend to enjoy every second of it."

"Right," the two preteens agreed with enthusiastic nods before unzipping their bags and digging into them for the skiing cloths they had bought the day before.

"Man, this is a long tunnel," BurningGreymon sighed as he maneuvered his head around a stone stalactite hanging from the ceiling. They had been walking down the slight downward sloping tunnel for a half an hour now and it was starting to bug him. While it was a comfortable walk for Koji and Koichi, he had to hunch over and shuffle his feet to move forward since the ceiling was lower than his upright position.

"We might be well below the base of the mountain at this point," Koichi commented as he stared up at the brown stone ceiling illuminated by BurningGreymons fiery arm.

"If we had known, we could have saved all of the time we spent climbing and dug down to this tunnel," BurningGreymon laughed, knowing that hitting the narrow corridor in the earth would have been nearly impossible.

"And you could have avoid turning your wings into popsicles," Koji chuckled as he ran a hand along the wall, examining it with his fingers.

"Thanks, for that," BurningGreymon sighed as his mood declined.

"Now, this is interesting…" Koji's inquisitive tone leaked out, bringing the other two's attention to the front.

Ahead of them they found what Koji seemed to have found so interesting. There was a large set of double metal doors built into the wall of the stone tunnel at the very end. It was polished steel, riveted with bolts around the edges, suggesting that it was built of multiple layers of reinforcement.

"This definitely doesn't look like it belongs here. It's obviously man-made… or at least something with intelligence," Koichi ran a hand over the door, inspecting its smooth, cool surface.

"I didn't notice it until now, but these doors might explain the tunnel. Besides from the stalagmites and stalactites the walls of this corridor are perfectly rectangular and the same dimensions as the doors," Koji noted as he looked from the door to the wall and back again, making mental comparisons of the two.

"So you're thinking that the tunnel was made to connect to this door. Making the real question here, what's beyond the door?" BurningGreymon remarked, tapping his metallic fingertips against the door, pondering what could be on the other side.

"I have no idea, but it's probably safe to assume that whatever it is, it's not going to be more rocky caves," Koji replied.

"It'll also probably lead to the source of the signal," Koichi added.

"Either way, there's only one way to find out," BurningGreymon smirked as he pushed on the doors.

The metal hinges creaked out a dull moan as they slowly swung open. Bright white light poured through the door and filled the tunnel, forcing the three to shield their eyes from the sudden change in the degree of luminescence. From within the light a metallic thud echoed forth as the doors came to a rest against the walls.

"That's bright," BurningGreymon groaned, attempting to see through squinted eyes.

It didn't take long for their eyes to adjust to the increased light and make out what lay beyond the door.

"Another hallway…" BurningGreymon unceremoniously remarked as they peered down to brightly lit hallway of polished steel. "At least the metal walls are a change, but they just seem to raise more questions."

"Yeah…" Koichi stepped into the hall along with the other two and placed a hand against the metallic surface. The moment his fingers tips touched the wall his expression changed to one of contemplation as multiple observations came to his mind. "The walls are warm, and I think they might be vibrating a little."

Koji turned quiet as he placed his hand on the wall as well, while above him BurningGreymon pressed his clawed fingers down and closed his eyes. "I'm not sure of what it is, but whatever's producing this heat is far beneath us and doesn't feel natural," the Warrior of Flame remarked as he opened his eyes again, after using out his elemental ability to search out the source of the warmth.

"Not natural, huh…" Koji mused as he removed his hand from the wall and looked down the hallway again, thinking about what BurningGreymons comment could imply. "That could very well fit with this whole place. Something tells me that we're not going to see much in the way of the natural from here on out."

"Whatever the case, we should probably be more careful from here on out since we'll be dealing with what looks to be manmade structures. You never know what kind of traps and hazards might be waiting for us ahead," Koichi peered down the hall with a look of distrust as he thought about what could possibly await them.

Without any more discussion the three headed down the steel corridor. The metal hall was level and only one-tenth the length of the stone one before it reached a ninety degree bend connected to a set of stairs. Descending the human size stairs was easy for the twins, but BurningGreymon had to keep his hands outstretched against the opposite walls to keep himself from sliding down the incline since his large armored feet couldn't find a foothold, turning the stairs into a slippery slope.

At the bottom of the steps they reach an archway that feed into a large circular room. In the center of the room was a circular pit which went down at best count, fifty levels. Each level was comprised of a metal catwalk, wide enough for BurningGreymon to move somewhat freely. Along the walls of each floor were thirty metal doors, each painted a different color depending on the level and constructed of what looked like a solid piece of metal; the ones on their level were a light blue.

"Increasingly interesting," Koji hummed as he left the railing around the pit which BurningGreymon and Koichi were staring down and made his way to the closest door. He made a short inspection of the light blue door before pressing against it. The door creaked a little but didn't give. Not to be deterred he reached for where a handle should have been and tried to feel out something that could open the steel door. "Nothing…" he mumbled to himself as he switched to the other side and began to feel it out as well.

"What's up, Koji?" BurningGreymon planted a hand on the wall over the door and leaned over so that he was close to Koji's eye level; his head was still a foot above the doorframe.

"I can't find a handle, but here on the right there's this slit where one should be. I think these doors might require some kind of keycard to open them," Koji stepped back from the door and began looking it over from a distance. "And with the power still on in this place they seem like they're going to stay locked."

"We'll see about that," BurningGreymon laughed as he ran a hand down to the door and pressed on it with half his strength. Under the pressure the door creaked loudly and the metal whined as it fought being stressed; but with a bit more force from the Warrior of Flame the door gave out and popped with the same sound as the lib of a soda can being opened.

"It was pressurized," Koji noted as he examined the seal around the doorframe, while trying his best to ignore the fact that Takuya had busted it. Beyond the busted entryway was a room filled with darkness and stale air.

"That's a bit too tight of a squeeze for me," BurningGreymon gave the small doorway an annoyed chuckle before kneeling down and reaching his arm through the opening. With a snap of his fingers, his flames erupted from his hand and lit up the room.

With a perplexed look the twins stepped into the now illuminated thirty-by-thirty room and began looking over their surroundings.

"…empty…" The three gave the room a blank stare. Even from the outside Takuya could tell that the room was devoid of anything but dust.

"Let's try the next room," Koji's eyes narrowed as he exited the room. BurningGreymon followed him to the one to the left and busted it open like he had the last one.

"Another empty one…" BurningGreymon stared into the new room. It was exactly like the last in size and shape, even down to the dust covered floors and pale white walls. "The next?" he sighed, stepping back from the busted door and moving to the next one in the line; there he repeated to break it down like the first two, and again the room was empty.

"I'm starting to think we're not going to find anything on this level. How about we check a different one?" Koichi looked over the banister to the levels below them, wondering which of them could possibly hold something beyond their door. "However, that seems to raise a question about how we get down to the different levels. The only stairs I see on this floor are the ones we came down and they stopped on this level."

"That seems like a bad design," BurningGreymon chuckled as he stepped back up to the railing. "But considering that wouldn't make any sense, maybe whoever built this place had a different method of getting between floors."

"That's probably the case, and I'm willing to bet it has to with the same keycards we're missing for the doors," Koji remarked as he moved in beside BurningGreymon and joined the two in looking down below.

"Well, either way, I know how we're getting down," BurningGreymon grunted before he stepped over the railing and lowered himself over the edge until his shoulders where level with the banister. The twins silently climbed up and got a firm grip on the armor on either shoulder. With the two secured BurningGreymon let go and dropped down to the next level where he wrapped his claws around the walkway to stop their descent.

"I'll start checking here," Koji stated as he jumped from BurningGreymon to the walkway, drawing his D-tector as he did.

"I guess that means we'll take the next two," Koichi looked to BurningGreymon, who nodded in agreement before releasing the banister and dropping to the next floor, just ahead of the flash of Koji's spirit evolution.

"Thanks for the lift," Koichi laughed before he exited onto the next floor, lined with yellow doors, and did the same as his brother.

"Good luck," BurningGreymon commented before letting go again and dropping down to the next floor. "Lucky red," he smiled at the color of the doors he was going to be checking.

As he approached the first door he could hear the popping of pressure and bending metal coming from above as the twins used their spirit forms to open their doors. He had heard five separate cases so far, so he guessed that they weren't having any luck so far.

"Come one don't~" he drew out the, don't, as he pressed on the door, forcing it open with the normal pop. "…be empty…"

Another room filled with only dust and stale air was what lay on the other side of the now damaged door. If he wasn't absolutely sure that he had gone down three floors he'd swear that he was looking into one of the rooms they had opened up top.

"Great… generic empty rooms…" He sighed before moving onto the next door.

After fourteen more red doors he was more than halfway done with his floor and still hadn't found anything.

With an increasingly dejected look on his face BurningGreymon reached out for the next door. "So much for lucky re-!" His words caught in his mouth when the door he had been preparing to break down swung open on its own, and on the other side was…

"Oh, I didn't know I had company," a girl with slightly spiky maroon colored hair stood in the doorway with a confident smile on her face.

The girl appeared to about seventeen years of age. She had on a gray leather jacket, lined with white faux fur to keep her warm, from under which the neckline of a black shirt poked out of. Her pants were a pair of reinforced biker's jeans, dark blue in color and well worn by the looks of the scraps and small tears in the fabric. But what Takuya noticed the most about her, were her maroon eyes. Despite the fact that she was standing defenselessly before the hulking form of BurningGreymon, her eyes didn't betray the least bit of concern.

"Got anything to say big guy?" she smiled as she relaxed against the doorframe and raised an eyebrow at him. "Or are you just going to stand there all silent like?"

"I... Um… Who…" BurningGreymon tried to stutter out a response through the combined surprise of her appearance, when he assumed that the three of them were alone, and her attitude towards him.

"Am I supposed to assume that, Who, was a question?" she laughed before extending an open hand towards BurningGreymon. "Hey, so what brings you to this corner of the large, creepy, mysterious facility?"

A most unexpected event has unfolded before Takuya on an already unexpected mission. How will this change affect the course of the mission and the three Warriors future as Runners?

To be continued…