Sorry for the long wait on this chapter, I had a massive case of writer's block. Here it is though, in all it's rushed glory. Read, review, and enjoy.

Chapter Twenty Nine: The The Ascension, Part One

Myotismon dashed through the dark tunnel, going as fast as he could to reach the main cavern before he could no longer contain the dark abyss that held the evil digidestined. He burst into the cavern relatively quickly and released his grip on the dark sphere in his arms. The darkness then spewed throughout the room, and faded away a second later. Six digidestined and their ultimate partners stood in awe and confusion.

"What's going on?" Yolei yelled at the vampire as she shook off the shock of traveling within the dark abyss. "Who are you?"

"Don't you dare talk to me like that you insolent little brat!" Myotismon stood angrily above her, raising his chest in an intimidating pose.

"Hey, back off!" Cherrymon pushed his partner out of the way and stood face to face with the undead digimon. Myotismon raised his arm, poking at the organic monster's chest with his cold finger. Cherrymon collapsed in pain, the power of Myotismon surprising to the other digimon and humans.

"Don't you dare defy me again." Myotismon turned back to Yolei, who was staggering backwards in fear. "Now for you."

"You can't take all of these digimon!" Yolei growled.

"We're not going to be 'taking' him at all Yolei." Ken stated cheerfully.

"What? You traitor!" Yolei yelled.

"What's your problem man?" Matt agreed.

"You're just going to wimp out like a coward?" Zoe added.

"The only cowards here if you attack me will be you." Myotismon stated coldly.

"Who are you anyway?"

"Idiots." Ken mumbled.

"What was that?" Yolei addressed.

"It's Devimon." His statement drew the eyes of all the digidestined except for Kazu, who was already bowing in respect towards the demon.

"Master, I'm so sorry!" Yolei quickly bowed in respect as well, shaking after how she had talked to her commander.

"Save it." Myotismon growled, glaring at her with hate while the digimon of the group degenerated and entered a respectful position. "I don't care. What I do care about is that I put you in charge because I thought you would make tactical decisions that would benefit the team."

"Sir, I did. I've been systematically eliminating the most powerful digimon of this continent and absorbing their digi-cores to make your transition here easier."

"And how many ultimates have you destroyed?"

"We've calculate that we've taken out almost 50% of them in the short time we've been here. That's how powerful we've become."

"So that leaves me with only half of the digi-cores that I should have been able to get."

"Sir???"

"You took the digi-cores that were meant for me, all of you did!" Myotismon gave a sweeping glare at all of the digidestined.

"Oh god..."

"That's the expression I was hoping for." Myotismon returned his gaze to Yolei, who was shaking uncontrollably. "Now, thanks to your incompetence, I am going to have to resort to other methods to gain what is rightfully mine!"

"And... what are those methods sir?"

"You remember I told you that you were going to help me reach the Mega level, and now you're going to have a more active part in that process than you ever dreamed."

"You wouldn't take our partner's digi-cores, would you master?" Matt whimpered, stealing a glance at Gabumon, who looked equally concerned.

"As of now? No. Unfortunately you fools are still useful somewhat. What you are going to do, is reach the highest potential you have and then give me all of your energy."

"And how will we do that?" Yolei asked.

"You will fight the hero tamers as hard as you can. Once you've raised your strength as much as possible then I will absorb your energy and use it to attempt another ascension."

"Couldn't you have just done that when we were battling them on the surface?" Ken asked.

"If you've forgotten, there were three digidestined that did not attend that battle, and I need all of you to complete this task. Now currently, Okuwamon is on his way to pick up Koichi and Keramon, and we have the Carter boy with us now."

"We?"

"Me and Henry." Myotismon gave an annoyed look at the boy.

"How will you have us all get into this supreme battle?" Joe inquired.

"The other digidestined are on their way down here now as we speak. You will separate them once again and battle them. Once Keramon and Okuwamon get here, I will have them battle Mr. Carter. They should be here soon, so get ready."

"Yes sir."

***

"My wrist is almost raw, you should really get me that ice." Eric said hopefully to Henry as he rubbed the raw area of his skin that was chained. Henry was sitting on a chair and listening to his MP3 player. He pulled one of the ear pieces out and scoffed.

"I told you, I'm not coming near you."

"You don't have to come near me, just put some in a ziplock bag and toss it over here. They have zip lock bags in the digital world right?"

"Why would I toss you a bag full of ice? So you could throw it at my head, knock me out and then slip out unnoticed?"

"You're really paranoid, you know that?"

"Just because I'm paranoid, it doesn't mean you're not out to get me."

"You are right though."

"About what?"

"I am out to get you." Eric whipped his hand forward, launching the metal spike that he had slowly been pulling out of the large boulder he was chained to into Henry's gut, the dull end connecting with a thud. Henry clutched his chest in pain as Eric jumped forward and slammed his knee into Henry's head, knocking the boy unconscious.

"You know this never would have happened if Myotismon was watching me." Eric wrapped up the chain attached to his arm into a coil on his arm, holding the metal spike as a weapon. He then pulled the MP3 player off of the unconscious boy's body. "Now you'll get this back when you stop being a soulless bastard." He then grabbed the papers spread out on Myotismon's desk and stuffed them into his pockets, grabbing the torch on the wall to guide his path as he fled the dark chamber.

As Eric ran through the lightly illuminated cavern, he frequently twisted his head around in a searching pattern. Gotta find Tentomon, he said to himself. A flame to his left soon caught his eyes. He twisted to his left and ran down the corridor, coming to a dead end where his small partner Motimon was chained by his waist to the wall. "That was easy." He bent down and, using the spike from his own shackles, picked at the brace around Motimon until it unlocked with an echoing click. This snapped the small in-training out of his unconscious state.

"Eric!" He cheered.

"Quiet," Eric put his hand over Motimon's mouth so the digital monster could not make any noise. "We're not out of the woods yet, get on my shoulder." Eric held his arm out to the digimon so that he could use it as a bridge from the ground to the much larger humans shoulder. Motimon made himself comfortable, and then Eric took off down the tunnel that he came from.

"How do we get out of here?" Motimon whispered next to his partner's ear.

"I'm not sure, but there are sporadic torches everywhere. We should be able to map a path out of here." He said as he turned down a stone tunnel that was lit by torchlight. They ran down the deep corridor, and suddenly came upon four figures walking through the darkness with a torch of their own.

"Aw damn." Eric staggered backwards as Yolei, Ken, and their digimon partners stared at him with understanding.

"Get him Mushroomon!" Yolei yelled in the small cavern, her shrill voice echoing throughout the long tunnel. Mushroomon jumped forwards, balling his hand into a fist to strike at Eric. The human ducked under the mushroom digimon as he came forward, running low as he sped past Yolei and Ken, dropping his torch and snatching the two's digivices from their hips.

"Try and fight me without these!" He taunted as he rounded another corner and escaped into a dark tunnel.

"Dammit, go after him Wormmon!" Ken instructed the caterpillar on his shoulder, who leaped onto Mushroomon's head as he ran off towards the escaping tamer. Ken and Yolei followed as the two digimon rounded the corner. They dashed down the dark tunnel, following the increasingly fading sounds of Eric's footsteps.

"They're catching up to us!" Motimon whined from Eric's shoulder; they could here the pounding of footsteps as Mushroomon picked up the pace.

"I've got an idea- attack them." Eric said between breaths.

"I don't have the strength to do any damage!"

"Just enough to slow them down for a few seconds."

"Okay," Motimon twisted around so that he was facing behind the bolting tamer. He could make out the silhouettes of Mushroomon and Wormmon behind them. "Bubble Blow!" Motimon unleashed a weak, frothy attack from his mouth, which splashed into Mushroomon's face and caused the fungi to stumble over himself and fall on his face.

"Good." Eric slowed down just a bit and slipped off his shoes, wrapping his arms around them as he dropped the two stolen digivices in his pocket. He then increased his speed dramatically, running like a ghost across the stone floor as his noiseless foot steps carried them quickly down the hall. They finally ran into a perpendicular split in the path a few yards ahead of them. "Which way?"

"What?"

"Which way?"

"Uh, oh..."

"Come on!"

"Okay, right!" Eric then slapped his hand over Motimon's mouth, ducking into the left path and pressing himself against the wall so he could not be observed by anyone from the original path. Motimon was about to protest, but then slapped his mouth shut as he saw Mushroomon with his insect rider run into the fork in the tunnel, and then break off into the right path, disappearing into the darkness. Ken and Yolei arrived a few seconds later, barely recognizable in the darkness, and vanished down the right path as well.

"Sorry I had to yell at you." Eric whispered as he leaned down to return his shoes to his sore feet. "But I didn't have time to explain what I was doing."

"That's fine just be more patient next time." Motimon replied in the destines ear, who stood up after returning his hiking boots (fortunately) and continued down the tunnel. "We need another torch, it's too dark in here."

"I know," Eric placed his hand against the wall as he walked to guide him. "We'll find one soon, there are torches placed sporadically all over the place."

"So how are we going to get out of here?"

"I'm not sure. I figured we would wait until you have enough energy to digivolve and then fly out."

"What kind of a plan is that?"

"The kind coming from a guy who has no idea what he's doing."

"He tricked us, go the other way!" A scream erupted from behind them.

"Crap, I thought we'd have more time than that." Eric began running, letting his hand glide along the wall for safety.

"Fungus Crusher!" A tiny object flew through the air and slammed into the cavern wall behind Eric, exploding with ferocity.

"Run faster!" Motimon instructed as Eric began sprinting through the cave. A small light emerged at the end of the tunnel, so Eric picked up the pace, his hand eventually separating from the wall suddenly as they stumbled into a medium sized cave lit by a few torches.

"Fungus Crusher!"

"Silk Thread!" A mushroom and a thick white string zoomed towards them.

"Now is a good time to digivolve Motimon!" Eric whimpered as he realized this was a dead end.

"I'll give you a little more than that, Motimon, warp digivolve to... Kabuterimon!" The champion evolution surprised everyone in the room, making Eric stagger backwards and Mushroomon and Wormmon fly back onto the ground.

"Mushroomon- damn!" Yolei and Ken dashed into the chamber, only to find the mammoth that was Kabuterimon standing in their way.

"Wormmon, do your stuff." Ken whispered in his partner's ear as he pulled him away from the towering champion. Wormmon nodded and scurried out of sight of the Kabuterimon, who's eyes were trained on Yolei and her partner.

"Okay, now let's rethink this pattern here." Eric smiled as he came around Kabuterimon's hulking body to come within eyesight of Yolei. "How about, instead of you chasing me, Kabuterimon here chases you?" Kabuterimon breathed deeply in an intimidating move. Yolei, Ken, and Mushroomon all flinched in response. A sudden stream of silk suddenly shot across Kabuterimon however, shoving into Eric's pocket and taking away one of the stolen digivices. "Damn."

"Wormmon, this cave's too small for Paildramon!" Ken instructed his partner as his digivice flew from the insects thread into the tamer's palm.

"Got it. Wormmon digivolve to... Stingmon!" The humanoid bee hovered in the air, facing off against the much larger yet equally powerful beetle.

***

"Which way?" Tai asked as he aimed the flashlight in between the two paths. Agumon sniffed the air, trying to detect a proper path.

"I smell a lot of different things in the right path." Agumon replied, "Like a blend of a lot of different places."

"As if there are a few different digimon down there." Renamon supplemented.

"Then let's go." Tai started walking down the right path, the others following closely. He waved his flashlight over the walls of the cavern ahead, repeating this motion every few seconds to determine the shape of the path.

"Why did you have a flashlight with you anyway T.K.?" Izzy questioned the young boy, who was walking as fast as he could just behind the others.

"It's not important." T.K. mumbled.

"People don't just carry flashlights around in their backpacks T.K.," Rika said, "What else you got in there?"

"Nothing important."

"Stop saying that."

"Well it's not."

"Just tell us T.K." Izzy groaned.

"It's personal."

"T.K.'s right, it isn't important." Tai stated from the front of the line. "The point is we needed it and now we have it."

"Thanks Tai."

"We should be getting closer to wherever everyone down here is." Agumon stated as he took another sniff of the air.

"Yes, we're definitely getting closer." Renamon agreed, also sniffing the air.

"There are some voices behind us." Terriermon whispered in fright as he stared to the groups rear on top of Izzy's shoulder.

"Crap." Izzy sighed as the group twisted around to try and observe the voices.

"What should we do?" Kari whimpered.

"I can take them." Omekamon replied.

"What if they evolve to champion." Tai asked.

"They shouldn't be able to fit in here."

"Woodmon and Chrysalimon could."

"Oh."

"We need to keep moving." Rika hissed as she began to walk slowly away from the voices.

"She's right," Said Renamon, "If we want to have a chance against them we need to get into an open area."

"Let's move." Tai began walk quickly down the tunnel, shuffling Kari ahead of him. The twelve humans and digimon all began to hurry down the tunnel, scurrying to escape the cavern before the voices behind caught up with them.

"I see light!" T.K. cheered silently as the group hurried through the cavern.

"Hurry!" Tai weaved around the others until he was positioned behind them, shepherding them down the tunnel.

"The exit!" Izzy exclaimed with a whisper, dashing forwards as he broke out into a burst of torchlight. The rest of the digidestined and their partners caught up with him a few seconds later, and the lot of them looked around the room to see that they were in a large cavern with many torches resting along the walls.

"Where are we?" Rika inquired.

"Look how easy it was to get them down here." A dark voice laughed from the shadows.

"What? Who is that?" Tai blinked and flinched as he spun around, trying to determine the source of the noise. Just then a dark shadow dropped down over Kari, sweeping her up in the darkness and dashing out through another cave.

"Tai!" Kari called out as she disappeared into a tunnel across the cavern.

"Kari!" Tai burst after the shadow, Agumon and Salamon followed close behind.

"Tai wait!" Izzy called after him.

"My sister... not waiting!" Tai's words came out scattered as he vanished into the cavern as well with his two digimon companions.

"We need to go after them." Rika stated as she started towards the tunnel.

"No, it might be a trap!" Izzy protested.

"We can't leave Kari and Tai alone down there, we need to go!"

"But what if that's exactly what they want us to do?"

"It doesn't matter!"

"Uh, guys," Omekamon was staring at the tunnel they had used to enter the cavern, "I think we already fell into their trap." The rest of the digidestined turned around to see Matt, Zoe and Kazu with their partners blocking the tunnel entrance.

***

"He's coming in from the right!" Eric exclaimed to Kabuterimon, who was breathing heavily on the ground as Stingmon rose into the air and struck down on the beetle's left side. Kabuterimon rolled over at the last second. Stingmon instead crashed into the ground, his purple saber plunged into the earth. Stingmon struggled to lift his arm out of the rock, freeing himself and jumping away at the last second before Kabuterimon retaliated by swiping his hand at the humanoid bee.

Suddenly two figures jumped onto Eric, pinning him down on the ground. Eric tried to cry out to his partner, but his mouth and part of his eyes were covered by what he assumed was Mushroomon's hand. He felt a human hand slip into his pocket and pull away Yolei's digivice. Both of the figures then leaped away, dashing back into the previous tunnel past Ken, who was watching the battle between the two insects. Eric watched Yolei and Mushroomon disappear into the tunnel, sighing at his stupidity.

Kabuterimon in the meantime launched another fist at Stingmon, who expertly dodged the attack, landing on the ground and leaping up to deliver a saber attack at the larger bug's arm. Kabuterimon rolled away, finding little room to dodge in the cavern. Stingmon then rushed in for another slash. Kabuterimon thrust his arm at the charging Stingmon, letting the beetle's blade slash into the larger monster's palm. Stingmon's victorious attack was soon revealed to be a clever rouse by Kabuterimon, who grasped the smaller insects arm and pulled him up into the air, slamming the evil digimon into the wall. Kabuterimon released the digimon, who had degenerated his sword after the brutal attack. Stingmon rolled to the ground, seemingly beaten.

"Don't lose Stingmon!" Ken yelled, tapping his digivice. A dark stream then burst from his crest and digivice, which both wrapped around the unconscious bee. A second later the dragon/bee hybrid Paildramon stood tall. The two gargantuan digimon now took up most of the room in the cave, and Eric and Ken had to stuff themselves in the corners of the cavern and the tunnel respectively. Paildramon then raised his fist and slammed it into Kabuterimon's face. The beetle tried to block the attack, but was too slow, and his massive body was thrown a few feet into the wall behind him.

"Kabuterimon, he's too strong for you!" Eric tried to object as Paildramon drove his fist into the beetle's chest. Kabuterimon coughed violently as the monster began to consecutively pound his fists into the champion. "Degenerate and get out of there now!"

"Your partner is not going anywhere!" Paildramon laughed as he twirled around for a powerful kick. Kabuterimon attempted a block, but the powerful Paildramon burst through the beetle's defensive arms and landed into his chest again, causing a jerking reaction from Kabuterimon.

"No!" Eric stood helpless, unable to assist his partner. Paildramon leaped away, ready for another charge, but bumped into the wall instead, the cave too small for him to maneuver effectively. This was the chance Kabuterimon needed. Upon realizing he couldn't reach his full potential for the attack, Paildramon retrained his eyes on Kabuterimon, who had leaped from the ground and tried to pounce on Paildramon. The hybrid blocked with his arms, his claws interlocking with Kabuterimon's in a struggling effort.

"He doesn't stand a chance." Ken smiled.

As the two digimon were struggling, a dark light suddenly entered the cave. A scream of pain sounded from the two battling behemoths, and when the darkness vanished and the torchlight returned, Wormmon and Tentomon were both laying on the ground, defeated. Ken rushed up to his partner and grabbed him off the ground, returning to the tunnel as Eric came to his partner's aid. Ken then turned to his opponent and smiled before dashing out of the cave.

"Phase one Complete."

***

"Kari, Kari!" Tai called to his sister as the darkness carrying her away flew fast ahead of him. Tai breathed heavily as he tried to match the darknesses speed. It soon outran him, however, reaching into the depths of the tunnel and escaping Tai's eyesight. The darkness fled through the cave, arriving at a circular alcove far in the tunnel. Henry, Yolei, Koichi, and their partners were all waiting there. The darkness dropped to the ground, releasing the young girl onto the ground. Myotismon then shook off the dark aura around him, landing on the ground next to the four humans.

"Why did you bring her here sir?" Yolei questioned her master, who was breathing semi-heavily after the flight.

"I need Koichi to take her to another part of the cave, so her partner can follow and engage Keramon in a match to build up the two monster's power." He replied.

"What should we do?" Henry asked.

"Yolei, go to the large cavern down this path," Myotismon pointed down the tunnel he had just emerged from, "and wait for Tai there. Engage him when he arrives and I will be there shortly."

"Yes sir." Yolei nodded, her and Mushroomon running down the tunnel to face against Tai. Koichi then grabbed the unconscious Kari and started walking down the opposite tunnel, his partner following close behind.

"What do you need me to do sir?" Henry asked as the four sets of footsteps began to die down. "I can go and-"

"You will do nothing!" Myotismon snapped at the boy, towering over him.

"Sir?" Henry whimpered.

"You let Eric escape!"

"But you were going to-"

"I don't care what I was going to do! Your job was to keep the American in the prison until I needed him released, and you couldn't even do that!"

"But-"

"You have constantly failed me Henry. I am tired of it. You are through!"

"What?" Henry staggered backwards, his partner leaping in front of him to protect him.

"You won't do anything to Henry!" Kokuwamon announced.

"I'm not going to do anything to him, I'm going to do something to you!" Myotismon lashed his arm towards Kokuwamon.

"Kokuwamon, warp digivolve to... Okuwamon!" The giant digimon took up most of the room in the cave, but his evolution was short lived. Myotismon's hand slammed into Okuwamon's chest, piercing the digimon's armor and wrapping his palm around the insect's digi-core. Myotismon yanked the glowing sphere out of the monster's chest, the orb flowing into the vampire's arm, power surging through him. Okuwamon fell to the ground as his data burst into nothingness.

"O...okuwamon...?" Henry whimpered as Myotismon walked down the tunnel after Yolei.

"You brought this on yourself Henry."

***

"Yolei!" Tai burst into a large cavern, where Yolei and her partner were staring at the three from the other side.

"Salamon, go find Kari, we'll take care of her and meet you." Agumon commanded. Salamon complied, dashing across the cavern and dodging Yolei and Cherrymon, who seemed only interested in Tai and Agumon.

"I'm glad you made it Tai," Yolei smiled, "You're just in time for the party."