Chapter 74: Secured!
Matt heard a noise…it was something at his door. He looked, and someone was slipping an envelope under the door.
"Great…another survey," Matt sighed. He tore into the letter and looked at it…it was from June. After debating in his mind whether of not he should read it, the word "apology" caught his eye in the first paragraph. Hmm…
"Dear Matt: I owe you a huge apology. I'm only writing like this because I can't bring myself to say three coherent words around you. I'm not mad at you for not liking me. I just realized what an idiot I've been, all on account of love. I just saw someone who was the same way towards me, and that made me feel awkward…now I know how you felt. I wish there was some way we could shape up our minds…
"Sincerely, June." (The word "love" was crossed out right before the word "sincerely".)
Matt sighed. "Great…I'm off the hook!" he sighed in contentment. "…although, I wonder if Tina is off the hook, yet?"
******
"♪♫Eighty-six bottles of beer on the wall, ♫ eighty-six bottles of beer---"
"Lightning Joust!"
"YoNon Gazrii!"
"---♫if one of the bottles should happen to fall, ♪there'd be eighty-five bottles---"
"Agumon, digivolve to…Greymon!"
"---of beer on the ♪ wall. Eighty-five bottles ♫ of beer on---"
"Nova Blast!"
"Non Gazrii!"
"Praze-tor-epio, noh kreshnaiona djom…praze-tor-ortei!"
"---the ♫ wall, eighty-five bottles of beer! If one of the bottles should happen ♫ to fall---"
"Greymon, digivolve to…Metalgreymon! Giga Blaster!"
"…Oh, who am I kidding??" Tina muttered. "This song just isn't working out!"
"Are you a little bored, Tina?" Takato asked.
"More than a little!" Tina answered.
"Just because you're not fighting doesn't mean that you have to be bored! Isn't watching a battle like this for an opportunity good enough for you?"
"Nope."
Takato sighed angrily. "Well at least stop singing!"
Termon crawled up from her hole. "Tina, we're ready for Joey!"
"Finally!"
"You might want to put your raincoat on, there's water dripping from the ceiling of this tunnel. Or there's another option… Termon, mode-change to…streamline mode!"
"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Tina asked, climbing into the cockpit.
"Sure! You look like you could use a massage."
"AAAAA-A-A-AA-AA---A-A-AAA!!!" Tina screamed as Termon went careening through the bumpy, poor-excuse-for-a-road tunnel. As Termon skidded to a stop, Tina said, still shaken-up, "Please don't do that again!
"So," Tina asked, shaking her head to get her senses back. "Where is Joey's console?"
"It's in the lab."
"How do you know that?"
Swampangemon suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "I told her."
"I take it you're my escort the rest of the way?" Tina asked.
"That I am. C'mon."
Tina climbed up onto Swampangemon's back, and they flew towards the alien lab. The aliens had repaired the hole in the roof, but their human prisoners were still in the lab, with their skin oils still being harvested. "So…how do we get them out of there?" Tina asked.
"That's Joey's department," Swampangemon answered.
"Joey!" Tina said, half-singing.
Joey squeaked and poked his head out of Tina's pocket.
"Can you figure out how to get the people out of the vats?"
"Joey fix-it!" Joey answered. He hopped to the controls and began furiously working them. The vats lost power, drained, and then their plastic cylinders lifted and let the humans and digimon fell out.
Tina and Swampangemon began un-hooking the oxygen tubes from the prisoners' face masks, and they could hear breathing underneath the masks: they were alive.
"Now…how do we get them out of here?" Tina wondered.
"Leave that to me!" Swampangemon answered. "Swampangemon, mode-change to…giga mode!" Swampangemon made another hole in the roof. Gallantmon flew down into the building and began picking prisoners up and putting them in Swampangemon's pockets, and Tina began loading people into Termon's cockpit for her to carry into Swampangemon's pockets.
"Is that it?" Swampangemon asked.
"There are a few human's I'd still like to get out," Tina answered.
"Who?"
"Terrance's personal collection."
Yolei cut in, "Tina, you're too young to be going in where---"
"Mom, this is a rescue attempt! I won't be in there long, and besides: I'm more mature than I was when we first left Minnesota. I know what those robots are doing to people, and I know what Terrance was doing to his 'personal collection'. That's why I want to help them out of there!"
Yolei shook her head. "All right, but I'm going with you!"
They found that each girl's spirit had been broken inside the collection. They had all been outfitted with some kind of implanted device in their necks that injected chemicals into their brains to make them more afraid. They would have to have Joe remove them. None of them were adequately dressed, and, even though they were afraid of Tina and Yolei, they didn't lift a finger to resist them as they lead them out of the harem. It broke Tina's heart to see them like this, and she shed a tear on a seven-year-old girl's forehead as she held her in her lap, wrapped up in a blanket to cover her nakedness and keep her warm.
"So, now is everyone out?" Swampangemon asked.
"Yes, they are!" Yolei shouted back.
"Then let's get out of this place! Omicronmon, have at it!"
"My pleasure…Omicron Torpedo!" He fired at the base, and one hit was enough to blow it to smithereens. That was it for the Linonian presence in Japan.