Boogeymon turned his head slightly. There was a commotion in the back halls. He grimaced.

"Let me in," yelped Demi Devimon. "I have news for Master Boogeymon!" There was the sound of a scuffle, "You stupid sheets let me through!"

"Let him through," growled Boogeymon.

Demi Devimon rushed into the throne room. He skidded past Boogeymon and crashed into a wall. "MY LORD MY LORD!"

"Demi Devimon, I'm right here..." Boogeymon said quietly and looked at the bat digimon.

"Oh...but the Bakemon...have captured one of the children!" announced Demi Devimon.

"Really..." said Boogeymon quietly.

"Yes, my lord," Demi Devimon bowed deeply. "Soulmon is interrogating the beastly thing as we speak!"

"Good..." said Boogeymon. He turned. The two gear digimon had hovered in. "What do you want, Hagurumon?"

"Impmon has returned with you're guests..." simpered the two gears.

"Ah..." A smile cut across Boogeymon's face. "Bring them in..."

"My lord," Demi Devimon looked up. "Maybe I should go..."

"Watch the progress of Soulmon," said Boogeymon. Demi Devimon nodded and took off.

"Yo, Boogeymon," came the obnoxious voice of Impmon. "I found them!"

"So I have heard," Boogeymon turned. The purple furred digimon walked in. Two figures were behind him. One was like a scarecrow archer. A large black bird was perched on its shoulders. The other was a wizard in flaming armor. It had a red wide brimmed hat on its head. Boogeymon smiled, "I am glad you have arrived."

"We were interested," came the charred voice of the wizard. It held it hands on the sheathed pair of matchsticks at its side.

"It is not everyday that one is called before the future ruler of File Island," whispered a voice from the scarecrow, though the scarecrow's mouth didn't move and its eyes looked vacant.

"I need both of you, to fulfill my task," said Boogeymon. He looked to the wizard. "FlaWizardmon, I need for you to divine for me, this location," Boogeymon sent a piece of paper in the wizard's direction.

The wizard narrowed his eyes. He lifted his arms and quietly a shimmering hologram of the island appeared above them. The three moons of the digital world shifted slightly. They came together and a single beam of light fell a spot on one of the lesser mountains. FlaWizardmon looked up, "There is the temple you are looking for."

Boogeymon smirked. It was all coming together. He turned from them. "I need you and Nohemon to go to the temple and retrieve the item. You may take the Fangmon with you. They should keep the guards busy, and when I get the item you may share in the spoils..."

"Of course we will, Boogeymon," whispered the scarecrow.

"Good, Nohemon," smiled the red demon. "I trust you can handle this..."

"It will be as easy as catching fire," smirked FlaWizardmon.

Boogeymon turned to Impmon, "You will go monitor, Witchmon's process..."

"What?" growled Impmon, "What happened to Demi Devimon!? He was supposed to be there!"

"Demi Devimon is attending to important things," replied Boogeymon. He lifted his hand up, "A Airdramon is near by that is under my control you can use it to get close."

"Ugh, fine," Impmon narrowed his eyes, "I still think this is far too dangerous."

888

"You will tell ussss where the otherssss are, digi-dessstined..." hissed Soulmon. He lifted his cold hand under Jason's chin. "You have no choisssce...."

"I have a choice, I could just kick your sheet like butt!" Jason reached out to snatch the ghost's witch hat but the chains that held his hands and feet.

"Foolisssh boy..." chuckled Soulmon. "Without that ssssniveling digimon, you are powerlessssss. Now, ssspeak...or elssse..."

"Or else what? You'll boo me to death!?" retorted Jason and he leaned back against the brick wall he was chained too. He was in some sort of observatory there was a giant window that showed nothing but sky. The rest of the room was bare. Save a small table with a jug and some tools on it.

"You think of yoursssself too highly," growled Soulmon. It lifted his hands. "Necro Magic!" Streams of black energy washed over Jason. Jason felt his muscles tense up and his skin felt warm. "The more you ressssissst the more it will hurt....Soon your mussssclessss will beg for you to sssspeak..."

"Never," growled Jason.

"Necro Magic!" another wave struck at Jason. This time it lasted much longer. The pain increased and didn't fade like the first time.

Jason growled softly. "You're little sparkler show isn't very entertaining...."

"Actually," hissed Soulmon, "I find it very interessssting....Necro Magic!"

Jason felt his body seize up again. His arms and legs pulled against his will. His fingers outstretched, even though they wanted to clench. His eyes felt like they were burning from the inside out.

888

"Come on!" shouted Kevin. He turned to run but a group of Gotsumon stopped him.

"No, we can not let you go, alone..." said the Elder. He put a stony hand on Kevin. "We must think of a plan first."

"But they'll kill him!" Janet growled. "We don't have time to plan..."

"We should go now," said Amy. She looked up at the sky.

"No," said the Elder. "The Bakemon live in a large watch tower." He turned from them, "They would see you coming long before you got there..."

"Elder...they could take the...other trail," said one of the Gotsumon.

"No, impossible, it's too dangerous," said the Elder.

Kevin's face turned red and he grabbed the Elder, "I don't think you understand! We're not going to just let those sheets kill our friend. I don't care how dangerous it is you're going to show us!"

The old Gotsumon blinked and then he gave a small smile, "The true sign of courage...to risk one's own life for the life of a friend..." Kevin dropped the rock man and looked at him in confusion. The Elder looked up, "Follow us...we must go by the old monastery of the Bakemon, it is dangerous...some say there is an evil aura there that ensnares people's souls..."

"We aren't scared," said Kevin.

"We need to get him back," said Otamamon. "It doesn't matter how dangerous..."

The girls nodded quietly, shocked by the ferocity of Kevin and Otamamon.

"Then it is decided," said the Elder and he turned, "We should eat first, no need entering a battle on an empty stomach...not to mention it is near daylight, it would be prudent to wait till sunrise...The Bakemon aren't in their best element in the light of day."

888

Mud Frigimon watched the young boy sleep. He frowned. Something was wrong. As soon as Mark had started traveling with him, he'd noticed the increase of evil digimon in the area. They'd been fortunate that the digimon had not been too close, but still it was worrying. Maybe this new ruler of File Island knew about Mark. He had to protect the child as best as he could, but where was the human's digimon partner?

The sun coaxed itself over the horizon. Mud Frigimon blinked. He stood slowly and tapped Mark on the shoulder. "We need to be gittin' little buddy. I donna like stayin' in one place fer long...it's not safe..."

Mark yawned quietly. "What about breakfast?"

"We'll be findin' vittles as we are traverlin'," said Mud Frigimon. He lifted the boy on to his shoulder.

"Ok," said Mark and he stretched and leaned against Mud Frigimon's head.

"I don't know how long I can stay out of the patrols' way," grumbled Mud Frigimon in his mind. "But don't you worry, little buddy, I'll protect you if it means giving up everything..."

888

Stephen made them wake up before the sun had risen. He had been making them do this since the first night. Labramon's leg was getting better. Brendan seemed to be getting more and more enthusiastic.

"I smell, him," announced Labramon. "He's close..." She frowned... "Oh dear..."

"What!" Stephen nearly grabbed the retriever.

"I smell another digimon," said Labramon. "Mark's smell is mixed with it. Who ever it is they've taken him that way," She pointed forward. "They aren't far ahead."

"You mean to tell me that he's been caught!" shouted Stephen. "Damn, see I told you, we were dawdling too long! Now they're going to kill him or something, it's my fault!"

"We shouldn't jump to conclusions," said Michelle. She walked up and hugged Stephen.

"That's right, without all the facts," started Brendan. He walked forward, "we only have circumstantial evidence, and for all we know; this is a good digimon."

"That's right," said Ryuudamon. "We can't give up hope on Mark."

"If the digimon was going to kill Mark..." Tapirmon said quietly. "Wouldn't it have done it already..."

"That's right, I don't smell any blood and there's no real signs of a struggle," said Labramon. She looked around, "If Mark had run he'd have left deep foot prints in this soft soil."

"Maybe he got caught in his sleep!" shouted Stephen. Tears were in his eyes, "and maybe Boogeymon had orders to have Mark taken to him or something!" Brendan frowned and sat down and opened his laptop. Stephen sneered, "Oh great..."

"What? I'm just thinking," returned Brendan. "I've had this figured out for awhile now..."

"What?" Michelle walked next to Brendan and looked at the screen.

"Well, I think I can make our digimon digivolve..." said Brendan. "It's just...I haven't tested it yet..."

"How..." Michelle was surprised.

"Well I've been studying the digivice info you guys gave me..." said Brendan. He showed her charts upon charts of information. "The same string of DNA data is used by digimon...it's slightly different in each digimon, but it's in the same area of code. When a digimon digivolves a bit of information is added to the DNA string, it acts like a conduit for energy...that's why the first time digivolution of Ryuudamon and Snow Agumon took so much energy...I suspect the same happened with Labramon and Renamon. The extra energy was needed to make this conduit...and now it should be easier..."

"And how does this help us?" asked Stephen. He growled softly under his breath.

"Well, just think about it..." said Brendan. "If all of our digimon digivolved we'd be unbeatable."

"So how do you go about doing this?" asked Tapirmon. "I mean, you know where it is in the code but do you know how to change it?"

"Well that's the thing," said Brendan. "The champions' codes were only fractionally different from the code than that of the code between In Training and Rookie digimon..." explained Brendan. "I suspect that has something to do with your ability to maintain your rookie forms but not your champion forms...but anyways I think it's a matter of running a simple guess and check program and putting in variables until we hit the right one...I've already started on yours Tapirmon, but I haven't found a compliant...." Suddenly Brendan's computer bleeped loudly, "Wait..."

"What?" Tapirmon hovered close.

"I think we just found a compliant code!" Brendan's eyes grew large. "All I have to do is push insert and transmit..."

"Umm," Michelle stood up. "I don't think this is a good idea...I mean what if Tapirmon gets like Lucemon...."

"Yeah not to mention how invasive it is for Tapirmon," growled Stephen. He turned. "I think you should just forget it."

"But all this work..." Brendan looked up.

"Maybe should wait, until we understand things more..." said Tapirmon, slightly worried about being forced to digivolve.

888

Traveling with Wizardmon was nice, but Lucemon often felt lonely. The wizard didn't say much. They often traveled in silence and ate in silence.

Wizardmon always seemed preoccupied by something. It just showed in those hazel eyes, something was worrying the wizard.

"Wizardmon," Lucemon looked across the fire, "what is troubling you?"

"This search, it is not going as fast as I had hoped," said Wizardmon. He opened his eyes. "The patrols have increased around this mountain, I fear Boogeymon is also searching for your human boy..."

"I had also noticed a darkness folding over the mountain," said the angel quietly, "but I had expected it to be the general darkness of Boogeymon."

Wizardmon's eyes shifted slightly, "This mountain is supposed to be protected. It seems even its power of protection is fading slowly."

"The sun will be breaking over the horizon soon," said Lucemon quietly.

"We will eat and then we shall continue forth, we must find Mark, before the shadows of evil do," said Wizardmon.

Lucemon nodded slowly. Now he was truly worried. Mark was in danger with out him around to protect the boy. Lucemon had to find him. They had to reunite, if only to find how Mark how felt.