Aquilamon, Pegasusmon, and Nefertimon flew through the air towards mount
Fuji. A base, no a city lay on top of the mountain. The mountain, which was
a thing of beauty back in their world, was nearly jet black with spires. A
dozen Kuwagumon, Drakemon, Meckanorimon, and other digimon flew in a wide
perimeter around the base, circling like vultures. "Stay back here!" TK
shouted. "They'll spot us otherwise."
"So now what?" Yolei shouted back. "We can't stay here forever."
"We won't need to!" Ken shouted from the back of Pegasusmon. Everyone looked at him, still not used to seeing him in his gray shirt and pants instead of his Digimon Emperor outfit. Before they set off, they ransacked an old computer store. Thousands of dollars of computers and electronics lay in the open, and no one touched them. TK guessed that people had other things to worry about, like food and water. "These black spires may have different uses then mine, but they're based on my computer coding. I guess they were built in the digiworld, then transported here somehow."
"So what do we do now?" Davis yelled over the blowing wind.
"All of the Council forces were made immune to their effects. I'm guessing they have a jamming chip implanted in them or something similar. But that's only when the spires broadcast at a single frequency." Ken took a laptop and hooked his digivice to it. "Now I can hack into the spires, and randomize the frequency the spires transmit, and given the violent tendencies of the viral digimon.Done!"
Nothing seemed to happen at first, then an Airdramon brushed up against a Kuwagumon in mid air. The Kuwagumon immediately turned angry with spire controlled rage and attacked the Airdramon. The Airdramon fired a blast of fire from his mouth, missing the Kuwagumon and hitting a Drakemon. The fight escalated as the black spires began to fill the flying digimon with rage. "Quickly! Get down before the spires reset themselves!"
The digimon flew down low, under the enormous air battle above them. They landed in the middle of Ladydevimon's lair. Even by the time the spires reset themselves, the flying viral digimon would be too exhausted to battle. Hundreds of buildings lined the streets, making a small futuristic type city. They landed in an alley, jumping off their digimon as they reverted to their rookie states. "Neat trick." Davis commented as Veemon took form behind him.
Ken wasn't paying attention. He had plugged his laptop into an outlet he found. After a few seconds, Ken stopped typing. "There's a rather sophisticated security program. I can't do much more without a password. We'll have to search building by building." Ken was already forming his plans; "We better split up. We're too big a target together, and this city's too large. We should go in groups of two, and each pick a direction to search. We'll meet back here in an hour."
"I'll go with Kari!" TK and Davis shouted together. Both boys faced one another, anger in their eyes. The spires began to work on the two, turning them to their rage.
"STOP IT!" Ken went in-between the two, pushing them both to the ground. TK and Davis were too surprised to do anything. "Now I am going to save my brother along with everybody else. I will not allow you two to screw this up. You two can go with one another. You'll either learn to work together, or kill each other. Got it?"
TK and Davis weakly nodded, surprised by the outburst of emotion from the once Digimon Emperor. "Come on Ken." Kari grabbed Ken, wanting to search for Tai as soon as possible.
"I'm going with you Kari!" Agumon announced.
Kari nodded, expecting as much. She insisted Agumon not come along; he was only a rookie. Agumon was more insistant. "Of course, you came this far." Kari motioned for Agumon to follow.
"Well, that leaves me and Cody." Yolei mentioned. "We'd better get going." Hawkmon, Armadillomon and Cody followed her in the opposite direction that Ken and Kari left. "Behave you two!" Yolei shouted as she disappeared down the streets. TK and Davis merely looked at one another and grumbled, before taking off in another direction.
Ken, Kari, Agumon, Wormon, and Gatomon where moving down the street, keeping close to the buildings. Most of the buildings looked rather unimpressive. Ken could only guess at their function. He was looking for something that stood out, such as that enormous dome structure in front of them. "This looks promising." Kari walked up to the doors, which were large enough to get Machinedramon through. "How do we get inside?" Kari asked.
"Look up there!" Gatomon pointed to a window a few stories up. Gatomon walked up to the wall, and jumped on jamming her claws against the wall. She unceremoniously slid to the ground on her tail. "Oofff!"
"Are you ok?" Agumon offered a claw to Gatomon.
"Yeah, that wall is made of some sort of Digizoidium. My claws just bounced off." Gatomon got up, gathering up her dignity.
"Let's try a different tactic." Wormon looked at the window. "Sticky String!" A filament of thread shot from his mouth, adhering to the window several stories up. Wormon then attached the string to the ground. "Let's try this."
"Good idea." Gatomon grabbed the string. "We'll try to get the door open from the inside. We won't be long." Gatomon scurried up the wing, along with Wormon. Gatomon found the window more forgiving then the wall was, as she shattered the pane with one punch. "It's pitch black in here. We'll need a light. Think you can help with some pepper breath, Agumon?"
Agumon looked back at Kari quickly, not wanting to leave her alone. But the sooner they rescued Tai and got out of here, the better. Agumon grabbed the silk thread. "I'm coming up!" Agumon began his ascent.
Gatomon and Wormon helped Agumon up to the ledge, and all three disappeared inside leaving Kari and Ken outside.
"We're too wide open out here." Ken mentioned after he surveyed his position. Ken believed that there might be security cameras.
"You're right." Kari pointed to an alley. "We better hide there until they get the door open."
Ken nodded, following Kari in between the two buildings. The alley was remarkably clean, not even any dust on the ground. Kari was anxiously watching the doors, waiting for them to open. "I'm sorry."
"Huh?" Kari turned around, looking at Ken leaning up against the wall.
"You probably understand better than anyone here." Ken breathed in deeply. "I saw how just having Tai captured affected you, and all I could do was sit by myself and think at how.foolish you were acting. But I was the fool. No, I was a monster."
Kari looked over Ken. The young boy was almost in tears again. Kari could not believe the transformation Ken had gone through. She could tell Ken was on the verge of breaking up, just like she was.
Ken was trying to keep himself calm. His entire world had changed in the span of a heartbeat. His brother was alive, and if he didn't find him, the same horrible fate would happen again. Ken was so pre-occupied with his thoughts he didn't even notice Kari hugging him at first. Ken didn't know what to do at first; he hadn't needed anybody since he adopted his Digimon Emperor persona. He also found out that he was hugging Kari back. Ken never realized how much it helped to share similar grief with someone. Kari had her eyes shut tight as she hugged Ken. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
"Oh Kari I am so sorry for all the trouble I caused..." Ken replied, tears in his eyes.
"There there..." Kari hugged tightly back. "I.. can't imagine what it was like for you, losing your brother. I... can't even imagine what I would do without Tai around."
Ken broke the hug, looking down at his feet. "But... I wished for it. I was jealous of him. He was always the better son. Smarter, stronger, everyone loved Sam. I wished that I was an older brother... and... and... it happened. This is my fault."
"No it isn't." Kari answered with certainty.
"Huh?" Ken looked up in surprise.
"Losing your brother was the most painful thing that every happned to you. You didn't know what to do. And then you saw your brother, alive." Kari went on. "I saw the look on your face. I saw the determination you had to go resuce him. Does that sound like someone who wished for his brother to disappear?"
Ken was spechless for a second. Then he smiled softly. "Thank you Kari."
Kari smiled softly back. "No problem." Suddenly, a rumbling filled the street. They noticed the doors to the building, and Agumon, Wormon, and Gatomon were opening them. Gatomon came out, waving the two of them in. Ken and Kari came running across the street, checking to mkae sure the coast was clear first.
"Find anything interesting?" Kari asked Gatomon as she walked in the doors.
"Yes, but you aren't going to like it." Gatomon had a slight scowl on her face. "We didn't get a good look with Agumon's fire, but."
"But what?" Kari asked as she walked into the darkened room. Ken was feeling against the wall, when he found the light switch. The room instantly lit up. Kari and Ken jumped back as enormous figures filled the room. For a moment, Kari smiled. She thought it was all their digimon friends back, in their ultimate and mega forms. Zudomon, Wargreymon, Metalgurumon, Magnangemon, Megakabuterimon, and Garudomon stood in front of them. But then she looked closer. They were simply statues, carved in stone. They had chains around their neck and arms, and were in various positioning of bowing to a holographic figure of Ladydevimon in front. There were also human statues in front of the digimon statues. Kari walked to the stone statues. Joe, Mimi, Sora, TK, and Izzy were there. Matt was absent, that also made sense. They must have just been completed; Izzy's statue wasn't even finished yet. But the most disturbing image was in front of the rest of the statues. Tai's was on his knees, kneeling over the stone form of his sister Kari.
"This is just morbid." Gatomon walked up, and looked at a plaque. "A testimony to those who betrayed me." Gatomon read. "I don't like this."
"I see they left Lillymon and your double out." Ken remarked looking at Gatomon. "Not to mention Matt." Ken turned his attention back to the stone menagerie in front of him. The statue of Megakabuterimon seemed odd for some reason.
Kari's attention was elsewhere. She had found a glass case. In it were four digivices, tags and crests. She opened the case, and ran her hand over the Crest of Courage. "This was Tai's, or was supposed to be."
"I'm sorry." Agumon held Kari's hand.
"It's not your fault." Kari sighed. She reached back into the case and ran her hand from one crest to another, when Ladydevimon's hologram turned to face her.
"You're right, it's mine." The hologram of Ladydevimon sprung to life, surprising them all. They had all assumed it was merely part of the artwork, not an actual transmitter. "A little tribute to myself, what do you think?"
"Where is my brother?!" Ken shouted, not the least bit afraid. He was too concerned about his brother to worry about himself.
"All in good time. But first, a game." Ladydevimon turned to face Kari. "What is missing in that case?"
"Huh?" Kari stuttered and turned around. TK's Crest of Light was there, and so were Joe's Crest of Reliability, Sora's Crest of Love, and Tai's Crest of Courage. Mimi's, Matt's, and her own was gone. That made sense. Gatomon and Lillymon were evil in this world, and Matt used Gabumon as a protector. But something was missing. "Where's Izzy's?"
"I needed it." Ladydevimon looked down at Agumon. "It seems you got to meet all your old friends from File Island except one. But I can change that."
Wormon was examining the Megakabuterimon's statue closely. It seemed to be made differently than the others. Suddenly, the statue began to crack. Shards of rock fell down as the statue broke apart. "What the?!" Ken shouted.
Ladydevimon turned at the crumbling Megakabuterimon statue and smiled. "When Tentomon came to me, he was a pathetic shell of a creature. He spent his whole life searching for his digidestined. I couldn't bear to see him like that, so I took his crest and digivice." The statue blew apart, filling the room with dust. "A little digivolving, a bit of recoding, some genetic engineering, a slew of chemicals, and volia!" A new figure appeared as the dust cleared. It had the same shape as a Kabuterimon, except it was a bit taller. His skin, what was left of it anyway, was a sickening shade of gray. The two arms on his left side as well as his lower torso where gone, replaced by metallic prosthesis, and the left side of his face was covered with metal and exposed wires.
"Tentomon?" Agumon choked out. "Is that you?"
"Yes and no." Ladydevimon answered. "It's still him, but I'm afraid that my digivolving process had a few little side effects, such as the total loss of free will. It's his viral Mega version. I give you CYBERKABUTERIMON!"
"This was a trap!" Ken shouted as he jumped back.
"Of course." Ladydevimon smirked. "And you walked right into it."
Cyberkabuterimon walked forward, lording over Agumon, Gatomon, Ken, Wormon, and Kari. He crushed Tai's statue under his foot. His eyes regarded them as if they weren't even there. He spoke, in a voice like a static radio. "- bzzt- Orders master? -kxxt-".
Ladydevimon's semi transparent form faced the five with Cyberkabuterimon standing over her holographic frame. "Bring them to me."
"So now what?" Yolei shouted back. "We can't stay here forever."
"We won't need to!" Ken shouted from the back of Pegasusmon. Everyone looked at him, still not used to seeing him in his gray shirt and pants instead of his Digimon Emperor outfit. Before they set off, they ransacked an old computer store. Thousands of dollars of computers and electronics lay in the open, and no one touched them. TK guessed that people had other things to worry about, like food and water. "These black spires may have different uses then mine, but they're based on my computer coding. I guess they were built in the digiworld, then transported here somehow."
"So what do we do now?" Davis yelled over the blowing wind.
"All of the Council forces were made immune to their effects. I'm guessing they have a jamming chip implanted in them or something similar. But that's only when the spires broadcast at a single frequency." Ken took a laptop and hooked his digivice to it. "Now I can hack into the spires, and randomize the frequency the spires transmit, and given the violent tendencies of the viral digimon.Done!"
Nothing seemed to happen at first, then an Airdramon brushed up against a Kuwagumon in mid air. The Kuwagumon immediately turned angry with spire controlled rage and attacked the Airdramon. The Airdramon fired a blast of fire from his mouth, missing the Kuwagumon and hitting a Drakemon. The fight escalated as the black spires began to fill the flying digimon with rage. "Quickly! Get down before the spires reset themselves!"
The digimon flew down low, under the enormous air battle above them. They landed in the middle of Ladydevimon's lair. Even by the time the spires reset themselves, the flying viral digimon would be too exhausted to battle. Hundreds of buildings lined the streets, making a small futuristic type city. They landed in an alley, jumping off their digimon as they reverted to their rookie states. "Neat trick." Davis commented as Veemon took form behind him.
Ken wasn't paying attention. He had plugged his laptop into an outlet he found. After a few seconds, Ken stopped typing. "There's a rather sophisticated security program. I can't do much more without a password. We'll have to search building by building." Ken was already forming his plans; "We better split up. We're too big a target together, and this city's too large. We should go in groups of two, and each pick a direction to search. We'll meet back here in an hour."
"I'll go with Kari!" TK and Davis shouted together. Both boys faced one another, anger in their eyes. The spires began to work on the two, turning them to their rage.
"STOP IT!" Ken went in-between the two, pushing them both to the ground. TK and Davis were too surprised to do anything. "Now I am going to save my brother along with everybody else. I will not allow you two to screw this up. You two can go with one another. You'll either learn to work together, or kill each other. Got it?"
TK and Davis weakly nodded, surprised by the outburst of emotion from the once Digimon Emperor. "Come on Ken." Kari grabbed Ken, wanting to search for Tai as soon as possible.
"I'm going with you Kari!" Agumon announced.
Kari nodded, expecting as much. She insisted Agumon not come along; he was only a rookie. Agumon was more insistant. "Of course, you came this far." Kari motioned for Agumon to follow.
"Well, that leaves me and Cody." Yolei mentioned. "We'd better get going." Hawkmon, Armadillomon and Cody followed her in the opposite direction that Ken and Kari left. "Behave you two!" Yolei shouted as she disappeared down the streets. TK and Davis merely looked at one another and grumbled, before taking off in another direction.
Ken, Kari, Agumon, Wormon, and Gatomon where moving down the street, keeping close to the buildings. Most of the buildings looked rather unimpressive. Ken could only guess at their function. He was looking for something that stood out, such as that enormous dome structure in front of them. "This looks promising." Kari walked up to the doors, which were large enough to get Machinedramon through. "How do we get inside?" Kari asked.
"Look up there!" Gatomon pointed to a window a few stories up. Gatomon walked up to the wall, and jumped on jamming her claws against the wall. She unceremoniously slid to the ground on her tail. "Oofff!"
"Are you ok?" Agumon offered a claw to Gatomon.
"Yeah, that wall is made of some sort of Digizoidium. My claws just bounced off." Gatomon got up, gathering up her dignity.
"Let's try a different tactic." Wormon looked at the window. "Sticky String!" A filament of thread shot from his mouth, adhering to the window several stories up. Wormon then attached the string to the ground. "Let's try this."
"Good idea." Gatomon grabbed the string. "We'll try to get the door open from the inside. We won't be long." Gatomon scurried up the wing, along with Wormon. Gatomon found the window more forgiving then the wall was, as she shattered the pane with one punch. "It's pitch black in here. We'll need a light. Think you can help with some pepper breath, Agumon?"
Agumon looked back at Kari quickly, not wanting to leave her alone. But the sooner they rescued Tai and got out of here, the better. Agumon grabbed the silk thread. "I'm coming up!" Agumon began his ascent.
Gatomon and Wormon helped Agumon up to the ledge, and all three disappeared inside leaving Kari and Ken outside.
"We're too wide open out here." Ken mentioned after he surveyed his position. Ken believed that there might be security cameras.
"You're right." Kari pointed to an alley. "We better hide there until they get the door open."
Ken nodded, following Kari in between the two buildings. The alley was remarkably clean, not even any dust on the ground. Kari was anxiously watching the doors, waiting for them to open. "I'm sorry."
"Huh?" Kari turned around, looking at Ken leaning up against the wall.
"You probably understand better than anyone here." Ken breathed in deeply. "I saw how just having Tai captured affected you, and all I could do was sit by myself and think at how.foolish you were acting. But I was the fool. No, I was a monster."
Kari looked over Ken. The young boy was almost in tears again. Kari could not believe the transformation Ken had gone through. She could tell Ken was on the verge of breaking up, just like she was.
Ken was trying to keep himself calm. His entire world had changed in the span of a heartbeat. His brother was alive, and if he didn't find him, the same horrible fate would happen again. Ken was so pre-occupied with his thoughts he didn't even notice Kari hugging him at first. Ken didn't know what to do at first; he hadn't needed anybody since he adopted his Digimon Emperor persona. He also found out that he was hugging Kari back. Ken never realized how much it helped to share similar grief with someone. Kari had her eyes shut tight as she hugged Ken. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
"Oh Kari I am so sorry for all the trouble I caused..." Ken replied, tears in his eyes.
"There there..." Kari hugged tightly back. "I.. can't imagine what it was like for you, losing your brother. I... can't even imagine what I would do without Tai around."
Ken broke the hug, looking down at his feet. "But... I wished for it. I was jealous of him. He was always the better son. Smarter, stronger, everyone loved Sam. I wished that I was an older brother... and... and... it happened. This is my fault."
"No it isn't." Kari answered with certainty.
"Huh?" Ken looked up in surprise.
"Losing your brother was the most painful thing that every happned to you. You didn't know what to do. And then you saw your brother, alive." Kari went on. "I saw the look on your face. I saw the determination you had to go resuce him. Does that sound like someone who wished for his brother to disappear?"
Ken was spechless for a second. Then he smiled softly. "Thank you Kari."
Kari smiled softly back. "No problem." Suddenly, a rumbling filled the street. They noticed the doors to the building, and Agumon, Wormon, and Gatomon were opening them. Gatomon came out, waving the two of them in. Ken and Kari came running across the street, checking to mkae sure the coast was clear first.
"Find anything interesting?" Kari asked Gatomon as she walked in the doors.
"Yes, but you aren't going to like it." Gatomon had a slight scowl on her face. "We didn't get a good look with Agumon's fire, but."
"But what?" Kari asked as she walked into the darkened room. Ken was feeling against the wall, when he found the light switch. The room instantly lit up. Kari and Ken jumped back as enormous figures filled the room. For a moment, Kari smiled. She thought it was all their digimon friends back, in their ultimate and mega forms. Zudomon, Wargreymon, Metalgurumon, Magnangemon, Megakabuterimon, and Garudomon stood in front of them. But then she looked closer. They were simply statues, carved in stone. They had chains around their neck and arms, and were in various positioning of bowing to a holographic figure of Ladydevimon in front. There were also human statues in front of the digimon statues. Kari walked to the stone statues. Joe, Mimi, Sora, TK, and Izzy were there. Matt was absent, that also made sense. They must have just been completed; Izzy's statue wasn't even finished yet. But the most disturbing image was in front of the rest of the statues. Tai's was on his knees, kneeling over the stone form of his sister Kari.
"This is just morbid." Gatomon walked up, and looked at a plaque. "A testimony to those who betrayed me." Gatomon read. "I don't like this."
"I see they left Lillymon and your double out." Ken remarked looking at Gatomon. "Not to mention Matt." Ken turned his attention back to the stone menagerie in front of him. The statue of Megakabuterimon seemed odd for some reason.
Kari's attention was elsewhere. She had found a glass case. In it were four digivices, tags and crests. She opened the case, and ran her hand over the Crest of Courage. "This was Tai's, or was supposed to be."
"I'm sorry." Agumon held Kari's hand.
"It's not your fault." Kari sighed. She reached back into the case and ran her hand from one crest to another, when Ladydevimon's hologram turned to face her.
"You're right, it's mine." The hologram of Ladydevimon sprung to life, surprising them all. They had all assumed it was merely part of the artwork, not an actual transmitter. "A little tribute to myself, what do you think?"
"Where is my brother?!" Ken shouted, not the least bit afraid. He was too concerned about his brother to worry about himself.
"All in good time. But first, a game." Ladydevimon turned to face Kari. "What is missing in that case?"
"Huh?" Kari stuttered and turned around. TK's Crest of Light was there, and so were Joe's Crest of Reliability, Sora's Crest of Love, and Tai's Crest of Courage. Mimi's, Matt's, and her own was gone. That made sense. Gatomon and Lillymon were evil in this world, and Matt used Gabumon as a protector. But something was missing. "Where's Izzy's?"
"I needed it." Ladydevimon looked down at Agumon. "It seems you got to meet all your old friends from File Island except one. But I can change that."
Wormon was examining the Megakabuterimon's statue closely. It seemed to be made differently than the others. Suddenly, the statue began to crack. Shards of rock fell down as the statue broke apart. "What the?!" Ken shouted.
Ladydevimon turned at the crumbling Megakabuterimon statue and smiled. "When Tentomon came to me, he was a pathetic shell of a creature. He spent his whole life searching for his digidestined. I couldn't bear to see him like that, so I took his crest and digivice." The statue blew apart, filling the room with dust. "A little digivolving, a bit of recoding, some genetic engineering, a slew of chemicals, and volia!" A new figure appeared as the dust cleared. It had the same shape as a Kabuterimon, except it was a bit taller. His skin, what was left of it anyway, was a sickening shade of gray. The two arms on his left side as well as his lower torso where gone, replaced by metallic prosthesis, and the left side of his face was covered with metal and exposed wires.
"Tentomon?" Agumon choked out. "Is that you?"
"Yes and no." Ladydevimon answered. "It's still him, but I'm afraid that my digivolving process had a few little side effects, such as the total loss of free will. It's his viral Mega version. I give you CYBERKABUTERIMON!"
"This was a trap!" Ken shouted as he jumped back.
"Of course." Ladydevimon smirked. "And you walked right into it."
Cyberkabuterimon walked forward, lording over Agumon, Gatomon, Ken, Wormon, and Kari. He crushed Tai's statue under his foot. His eyes regarded them as if they weren't even there. He spoke, in a voice like a static radio. "- bzzt- Orders master? -kxxt-".
Ladydevimon's semi transparent form faced the five with Cyberkabuterimon standing over her holographic frame. "Bring them to me."