The location of the final crest that DigiDestined needed to find that being Sora's was given to Izzy strangely enough through his labtop (which must have the longest battery life in history of labtop computers) which somehow gotten access to the Internet allow him to get e-mail. The mail was telling them that the sender had the final crest of which they sought. Under the agreement that they would free them from their prison, Sora would be given her crest. The DigiDestined traveled to upside down pyramid to find small robotic digimon known as Datamon. A sworn enemy of Etemon that was not only beaten and severely injured by the Elvis impersonating digimon. Rather then being left for dead Etemon imprisoned Datamon in his pyramid where the core of the Dark Network was. Though the old saying of the enemy of my enemy is my friend was one of the few thing this so called genius digmon had no concept of as once Sora had gotten close to him. The small machine like digimon kidnapped her and then when she refused to help him get his revenge against Etemon. He began to clone her so he could make the clone do his bidding for him instead.
However even this plan ended in failure as now enemy of both DigiDestined and Etemon. The two force storm into the pyramid looking for him to either kill him for real this time(Etemon's goal) or simply take Sora back which still result in him being killed if he attempt to attack or take back Sora (Digidestined's goal). Though Tai managed to save Sora, Etemon would not get his chance to kill his old rival. For in final attempt to gain his revenge Datamon tried to turn Etemon's dark network against him by unleashing his Nano Spores into the core of the Network. Causing it to absorb anything and everyone in it reach though Tai, Sora, and their digimon managed to escape before getting sucked in.
Both Datamon and Etemon seem like they were killed in the attempt, although it was later reveal that Etemon avoid being killed even he merged with the network increasing his power even more then before. Though his brush with death was only met with another brush with death as Tai managed to harness power of his crest. Using its power to have Agumon digivolve to his Ultimate form of MetalGreymon. Once Tai's digimon had assume this form the power up Etemon was defeat in only two hit. With that defeat Tai and Agumon vanishing in the process leaving his friends particularly his oldest friend Sora begging him to come back.
Through where Tai and his small dinosaur companion found themselves after being sucked in the portal created though Dark Network empowered Etemon's death was not the great beyond of the afterlife but the vibrant and lively park located in Tai's hometown. Somehow the two of them had transported back to Earth after their battle. However they were not the only ones that had arrived on Earth as there was third party that had come along for the ride.
Datamon who was thought have been dead had survived getting sucked into the Dark Network as well. Though he was weaker and nearly killed by Etemon once before, the small machine like digimon was still at the Ultimate level. Thus anything that Etemon could survive, he could as well since the might have differ in power but not status. Another thing that help Datamon survive was the fact that while Etemon had the raw power to overcome being absorbed into the Dark Network, Datamon had the smarts. He was always smarter then his rival which part of the reason Etemon imprisoned him after his defeat to put his rival's brain to use for his own purpose. Though been so close to the core of Dark Network for years let him developed that Nano Spores he used to specially do what they did as it was not just some random attack. The 'suck anyone and anything' aspect of it was not part of the original plan yet it worked out to his advantage in the end.
Like Etemon, his brush with death over his latest failed attempt to kill the puppet digimon (that what Etemon is classified as) left him changed as well. He had not become a giant with the everything below his torso being nothing more then mess of wires and cords though being thrown to Earth along with Tai and Augmon effected his new appearance as well. He was now a more humanoid in appearance as he looked as if he was young human child that close to T.K's age. While he lost two of the four legs he had in his original form what he gain was plug like tail that he would later learn he increase ability to interact and control machines.
With his new appearance he found it was rather easy to get around the human world as long as used as cloaking feature he now had obtain during his 'upgrade' so to speak after becoming part of the Dark Network. Another thing that he acquired was a vast amount of information that was store in the Dark Network itself as it was more then just fancy GPS system for locating one's enemies, controlling electronics, or reverting medium strength Champion digimon back to their rookie form. There was far more too the Network then that. However Etemon overlook these things and focus only the battle aspects of the Network. Thus while Etemon was busy trying to fight off death in limbo by absorbing the power of the Dark Network to become even more powerful as MetalGreymon's attack did not kill him not completely at least. Datamon had taken all the valuable information that store within along with him as he separated himself from the Network yet still got a power up thank to his timing cosigning with Tai and Augmon being warp to back to the Real World.
What he had acquired by uploading all that information straight to his processor was the fact that their were not just seven DigiDestined children but nine. The Eight and Ninth however being potentially more powerful then Sora who he had kidnapped because he believed her to be the strongest thus would work best with his plans. Not when it came to just pure strength or anything like that was only one way of measure just how strong someone was.
The strength Datamon was thinking of was how strong Sora and Digimon could be even the negative aspect of their power. Of the seven he originally thought existed each one of them could only be useful if they were using their powers in positive way as once the negative aspect of their power was invoked they would become powerless. There was no clear case of this then with the De Facto Leader of the Chosen Child himself. Thanks to the information he obtained from the Dark Network it was all clear to him know. Tai as he was called was the holder of the Crest of Courage thus he got his power from that aspect of himself. However when his courage failed him that the negative aspect of his crest it was painfully clear just how powerless that made him and his digimon.
Sora however was different as unlike all the others her crest did not have debilitating downside to it after all the test he ran and he did not know why until now. The reason was because it was the Crest of Love. Though he did not understand the concept of love, Datamon was all to familiar with it polar opposite hate. For that what he felt towards Etemon and was actually glad he found that crest as taking any other one of the Chosen Children would proven to have been a pointless effort as they would be of no use to him. For they be some use to him for awhile but eventually they would be useless as they all the negative use of their power would activate the negative aspect of their crest thus making them powerless.
Sora, Eight, and Ninth Child were like this as their negative aspect of their crest was just powerful as the positive for their power did not come scraps of metal and plastic known as the Digivice, Tags, even the Crest. Though things were use booster and limiter according to the information stored in the Dark Network. The real power was within the children themselves but it was dangerous double edge sword to let them use their power directly from the source as they could easily become as worse as those they were fighting if not careful.
Thus Datamon's attention was bought to the one he now believe to be the most powerful of all the DigiDestined, as of yet unknown to anyone without access to this information, was the Eight Child which was the holder of the Crest of Light. Getting this child under his control would prove to be more useful then Sora ever would have since what great double sided power could their be then Light and Darkness as both were unrivaled expected when pitted against each other.
Finding them would prove to be easier then he would have thought for all he had to do was follow Tai as the Eight Child was none other then his younger sister Kari Kamiya.