Bam! Bam! Bam!
"Joe, stop it."
Wham! Wham! Wham!
"Joe!"
Clunk! Clunk! Clunk!
"JOE!"
Joe stopped slamming his head into the wall long enough to look at Izzy. He was glaring. Joe sighed and slid to the floor. He had though the head-banging would help, but all it did was give him a headache. He sorely missed Gomamon and his wisecrack mouth.
He looked around the gloomy cell he and Izzy were in. It was stone but had two comfortable beds. Izzy was sitting on one but was doing nothing. They had been stripped of all but their clothing. Joe didn't have his bag and Izzy didn't have his backpack or laptop.
They didn't know where their digimon where. Most likely they were in another cell, either being starved, tortured, or interrogated. Izzy shuddered to think of poor Tentomon; he knew that his digimon would hold out as long as he could, and probably die.
Joe turned and rattled the iron bars across the southern side of their cell. Suddenly, he noticed something.
(This is OOC mostly, but I don't care. It's rather funny. It's very long, so it's also in play form, but it's completely made up of dialogue. Enjoy!)
(Okay, let's get back on normal track here…if that can be found in my fics.)
Joe gently pushed the door open and winced as it creaked loudly. Izzy glared at him, still seething about the hairpin, though his hair looked perfectly normal now. He shoved past Joe and out into a corridor. He recognized it as the one they had been in when the laugh and bright flash of light had taken them to the holey room. Joe followed nervously as Izzy led the way. They went through a series of turns, twisting deeper and deeper in, as it was the only way to go. Finally they came to the center. There was a door in front of them. It looked like a…
"Elevator!" cried Joe. He leapt forward and before Izzy could caution him he had pushed the button. The doors sprang open and both, Joe shrugging to Izzy, walked in. They turned about and Izzy pushed the button for the ground level; they were in the third basement.
But the elevator slowed and dinged at the first basement. The doors slid open, the boys watching apprehensively.
"Oh!" cried a Chengkomon. Joe stepped back in shock at the pretty digimon. Her orange hair hung loosely about her waist and she was wearing the skimpiest outfit he'd ever seen. She quickly regained her composure and walked calmly into the elevator, pressing the Door Close button before the two could do or say anything. She then pushed the button for the top floor; there were 57 floors, not counting the basements. The girl settled herself in a chair in the corner and fixed the two with her gaze.
"We're going to be here a long time," she said. "Sit down."
The boys found two chairs in their corner and uneasily sank into them.
"So," she said, folding her hands in her lap. "So."
Izzy shifted restlessly.
"You are Digidestined."
Joe removed his gaze from the girl and looked into his lap.
"I see you are not comfortable with me." That darn Chengko was still at it! "But you'd better get comfortable, 'cuz this ride'll last five minutes and I won't be leaving then!"
Both jerked up to look at her. Joe caught up his courage and used it.
"Why should we talk to you?" he answered. "You're against us and anything we say can and will be used against us."
The Chengko smiled. "You sound like the cops, but you forgot 'in a court of law'".
Izzy gaped, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly. The girl laughed and stuck out her paw.
"My name is Felina. Remember it." Joe shook unconsciously, realized what he was doing, and yanked his hand away. "So," she continued, "You want to defeat Gasudramon and save the digital world, ne?"
"Of course we do!" said Izzy. "It's our duty as Digidestined to do what is asked, expected, and prophesied of us.
Felina shook her head. "That's just it," she said. "You haven't been asked, no one expects anything, and there is no prophecy. You have no reason to do what you are doing. There—"
There was a thud, bang, and an explosion above them. Izzy felt the floor drop beneath him. He found himself and the other two suspended above the floor of the elevator, falling with it. Felina pulled herself to the button panel, ripped off some metal covering, and began rapidly punching buttons and pulling wires. Meanwhile they continued to drop.
Joe heard a shatter and let out a strangled scream as the side of the elevator was torn off. The wind whipped past him. They were falling down a clear elevator chute and out beyond it was a huge factory. Numemon and Warumonzaemon patrolled the catwalks, doing tests and stirring large vats of sludge. Several were dropping things into various vats and recording the reactions, such as disintegration, steaming, and freezing.
Joe wouldn't have worried much about that except suddenly the side of the elevator chute cracked and shattered. Now the wind was worse and pulling him out. Felina turned from the panel. She grabbed Izzy and Joe under her arms and leapt with feline grace from the elevator.
She landed with cat-like agility on a catwalk (no pun intended) and dropped the boys. Izzy gasped and stumbled back from her. As he did, he hit the rail, intended for the Numemon less than half his height. He flipped backwards over the rail as Joe screamed girlishly. Warumonzaemon yelled and the Numemon rushed to encircle the vat Izzy had fallen into. Immediately they began to record what was happening to Izzy. Here is a copy of what the most accurate Numemon wrote:
Izzy and Felina were cleaned off while Joe gaped at Felina. Finally he got up some nerve.
"Why did you save him?"
Felina looked as though she were about to say something like it was obvious but stopped herself in time. Instead, she replied carefully, "My master the Dark Dragon would be angry if I did not take you both alive."
Joe knew she was lying but said nothing. Instead he looked at Izzy. The muck was mostly off but he seemed to have lost his dignity. While busily gathering it, he said, to cover up the silence, "What went wrong with the elevator?"
Felina shook her head. "I don't know. I created it; I didn't see anything wrong with the designs or the implications."
Izzy muttered and tried to scrub off some more remaining muck. Felina sighed and got up. She paced a bit then stopped and looked at the two.
"I don't want to get further into this. Come with me now; we'll take the stairs. The Great Dragon will want to see you immediately."
She indicated a door, beyond which a spiraling staircase could be seen. Joe hadn't heard of any attacks the Chengkomon might have, or even if they had attacks, but no sense in risking it. Better to be well when they met the guy behind all their problems than unconscious.
But they were soon to see there was not much improvement. "Might have been refreshed if we'd gone comatose," muttered Joe as he moved his aching feet onto the seventh flight of stairs. Izzy was in worse shape, being so short.
After eighteen stories they finally came to the very top. Both the boys gasped and hung onto the rail for support, lest they fall backwards. Felina came up behind and beneath them and pushed them forward. They tumbled into the doors and burst out. They landed on their stomachs and their remaining wind rushed from their lungs. Joe inhaled deeply and pounded Izzy on the back, forcing him to gasp in some air.
Felina
pulled them to their feet and marched them down another hall. It took them only
a minute to go down the single hall and reach the single door at the end. Two
Chengkomon stood on either side, unmoving. Felina gestured to the door. Joe and
Izzy nodded to each other, gulped, and pushed the door open together…