Chapter 7 – The Prisoner

"Throw her in with the little boy…"

"As you wish…"

Kari landed on the hard floor. She was completely disorientated. She had no idea where she was or what was happening. Everything was a blur. Voices either slurred together or trailed off in mid sentence. The main thing she was aware of was the small throbbing pain in her shoulder when she tried to move it. It wasn't much, but it was there.

There was what sounded like a door closing behind her and the lock sliding into place.

She felt drowsy, and in no time at all, she was asleep.

Patrick felt himself propelled forward out of the perpetual light and onto his destination. He looked around…well…tried. Wherever he was it was pitch dark. It was a sharp contrast to the bright light from the teleportation.

"Where are we?" he heard Sora's voice ask

"No idea" came Tai's reply

"Ok, nobody panic," Patrick thought for a second. "Yolei?" He asked

"Patrick? Where are you?" he heard Yolei answer

"Over here"

"Where is here?"

Patrick sighed, "Come to the sound of my voice"

Patrick heard movement, then a large 'Watch it!' as Yolei bumped into Tai.

"Sorry" she said to the darkness, and then moved on blindly.

Patrick felt someone bump into him. "There you are" he said

"What do you want?"

"Remember the random, useless junk I dumped in your rucksack?"

"Yeah"

"Something's about to find a use, now where's your pack…" Patrick moved his arm up but met some resistance.

"OW! You just hit me in the face!"

"Oppps, sorry, now turn around so I can get into your pack"

Patrick felt the bulk that was Yolei's rucksack and opened it the best he could in the darkness. He fumbled inside until he found what he was looking for.

"There!" He yanked something free and took a step back, and in the process standing on Sora's foot.

"Ouch! Who did that?" she demanded

"Errrr...I can tell you one thing, it wasn't me" Patrick lied, and then squatted down. He heard a small growl from Sora's direction, then the others heard him hitting something hard on the floor, which suddenly exploded in a bright light.

TK winced in the light, "What the hell is that?"

"A flare" Patrick answer, and started looking around in the new light.

The group took a few seconds to get used to the new light, and then started looking around.

"Ok, now do you have any idea where we are?" Sora asked, sounding irritated.

The group seemed to be standing in a small, concrete room. It was completely bare except for a computer console sitting at one end, and a small blast-door beside it. There seemed to be no evidence of lights.

"I think whoever sent us here wants us to use this console" TK said

"Wonder what gives you that idea?" Patrick answered sarcastically

He walked over to the door and tried to open it.

Locked

He tried pushing it and even shoulder charging, but to no avail.

The group walked over to the lone console. It seemed switched off, but just as Yolei touched the keyboard it shone to life. The screen automatically loaded up with the digiport.

"Right then, to the digital world!" Tai said, taking out his digivice. The others did the same.

"Digiport open!"

Kari had a dream...no...wait...a nightmare.

She was in that school, no wait, the gym. Sora was beside her. They were talking to that man with the gun. Then something happened. Someone came up behind Sora and tried to shoot her, but the man saved her. It was then that two deafening bangs went off, followed by an extreme pain in her shoulder. Then she woke up.

The group landed in a large forest. Patrick looked around. "Secure a perimeter, gogogo!"

Everyone took their digimon and headed into the bushes. Patrick stayed in the small clearing by the TV set. Blackagumon was at his side.

"Everything going ok?" the digimon asked

"Almost too well, why?"

"I was talking to the digimon while youse were getting ready. Kept them busy, like you said," he smiled, "They have no idea about biomerging. They have a version called DNA digivolving."

Patrick thought for a second, "Strange…"

"What about the trust issue?"

Patrick looked around cautiously to see if they were being watched.

"That's what I'm worried about. They're too trustful," he whispered, "Now this might be deliberate, of course, but I don't think so. It's obviously their biggest weakness"

"I'll try to keep them occupied a bit longer, to make sure they don't get sus..."

He stopped when there was rustling in the bushes. TK and the others emerged, along with the digimon.

"Anything?" Patrick asked

"Nope. Not a thing. We set up the sensors along the perimeter, like you said" TK looked at the teenager standing in front of him, as his clothes had changed since they entered the digital world.

The tattered and torn uniform had been replaced with camo-combat fatigues with Kevlar plating, in addition to large hiking boots. The others noticed this change as well.

"Great work. Ok now," he looked at Sora, Biyomon, Yolei and Hawkmon, "Digivolve to Champion and do some surveillance"

"Biyomon digivolve to Birdramon"

"Hawkmon digivolve to Aquilamon"

Patrick looked up at the two huge birds, "Please try to not be seen. If you are, lead them away from us"

The two girls nodded as they mounted their digimon. "No prob" said Yolei, dumping her rucksack along with Sora's.

Once the digimon had cleared the trees and flown off, Patrick looked at the others.

"How did you know they were large birds at champion level?" Tai asked suspiciously

"Experience. I've been a digidestined far longer than you have. All bird digimon are larger birds at champion level, then they generally turn humanoid-bird at ultimate"

Tai looked at Patrick, "You were one of the first digidestined?"

"Yeah. All digidestined are selected generally pre-teen. You might not have noticed, but I'm seventeen. I got my digivice almost seven years ago"

"What was it like?"

Patrick looked at the ground. "That's a sensitive topic," Blackagumon told Tai.

"What do you mean?"

Blackagumon opened his mouth to respond, but Patrick exploded first.

"WE WERE DEFEATED, OK!" He yelled, "WE COULDN'T DEFEAT APOCALYMON!" His crest had started to glow an erie grey colour.

Patrick took a deep breath and turned away from Tai, there was clear emotion in his voice, "They were all killed, every one of them. Except me and…"

He stopped and thought carefully, "…nobody. I'm a survivor of one of the greatest disasters in the digiworld."

Tai was about to ask what did he mean by 'and…nobody', but Blackagumon stopped him, "Don't go there. You'll regret it later."

"I think I have the right to know"

"Ok, but don't say I didn't warn you"

Tai turned back to Patrick, "Now come on, we beat Apocalymon. Where do you go wrong? Were you not strong enough..."

Blackagumon winced and waved slightly to Tai, "Nighty night"

Patrick swung around and punched Tai right across the face. Tai fell backwards, holding his face.

He raised his hand for a second strike, but TK grabbed his arm, "Come on guys we're all friends here". TK started having bad memories of four years ago, when Tai and Matt would fight all the time. Except this version of Matt was towering over Tai and was far stronger.

Patrick's crest started to diminish as he calmed down.

TK let go of Patrick's arm, "Sorry, Tai can be a bit…impulsive, sometimes"

Patrick sighed, "Thanks, but it's ok, I needed to blow off some steam anyway."

Tai slowly sat up and was met by Blackagumon, "Can't say I didn't warn you"

He turned to the two and went back into military mode, "By the time the girls come back I want a camp set up."

"What like?" Tai asked

"Get some wood, start a fire, I'll take care of the rest"

Patrick walked off into the bushes, leaving Blackagumon behind.

TK turned to Tai, "Your bleeding"

"I know. It's not broken though"

"At least you learn't not to get Paddy angry" Blackagumon said

Tai wiped the blood off his nose, "Amen to that. Now lets get this camp set up"

Ten minutes later

Sora and Yolei jumped off their digimon and looked at the fire the boys had set up.

Tai looked over his shoulder and got up. He opened his mouth to ask them how it went when Patrick finally reappeared. Under his arms he held a few largish looking bags. He dumped them near the fire when he saw the digimon.

"What's in them?" TK asked

"Tents. Now what's the situation ladies?"

Yolei turned to Patrick, "Well, we think we found their base…"

Kari woke up when she felt a stabbing pain in her shoulder.

"Ouch, ahh," she looked around in confusion, "Where am I?"

"A cell" an answer came. Kari saw a boy get off a bed and walk over to her. "Drugs worn off yet?"

Kari just looked at the boy. "The last thing I remember is, well, being attacked. In that school, then I blacked out. Everything after that is a blur"

The boy sighed, "God, they must have gave you one hell of a dose of morphine". He couldn't have been any older than Kari.

He stood up and walked over to a barred window, "Your in a containment facility. We were all taken from our schools and brought here"

He shivered slightly, "The stuff they do here is inhuman. Everyday is just endless interrogations, experiments and working. Won't be long now before it's my round again"

He looked down at the girl on the floor, "For some reason, they're going easy on you. I don't know if it's because your new or something"

"Maybe girls get an easier time"

The boy turned to Kari, "Defiantly not. I know this one girl a few cells away that they gave up interrogating a while ago. Now she's just tortured day in, day out. Poor lass, she'll be dead in a matter of days if this keeps up"

Kari looked shocked, "…dead? They kill people?"

"Without hesitation. There was this one time a kid broke free of his guards. Tried to escape on an outbound transport plane. Never made it that far. As soon as he left the containment complex he was caught by one of those riflemen. Shot on the spot"

Kari started shaking with fear, "How…many are…there left...of us?"

"Only a few, including you and me. Not sure how many digimon are left…"

Kari almost jumped up, but was stopped by her shoulder, "Digimon?"

"Of course. If you haven't noticed, this is the digital world. Another thing you might want to know is that it's in the future"

Kari started to look almost happy, "But I'm a digidestined, I could help you out!"

The boy just started laughing at Kari. "What's so funny" she demanded.

"Look, we're all digidestined here. Every one of us."

"Yep, I'd say your right" Patrick lowered his field binoculars as he stared at the large building in the distance.

About ten kilometres away, on top of a large hill was a huge castle. The digidestined had a view of a drawbridge letting vehicles across a long stone pier, which disappeared out of view.

They were on top of Birdramon, as Aquilamon and Yolei went for another closer look

"All you need is the lightning in the background and it would be your typical cliché dark-evil-castle-on-top-of-a-mountain."

"It's also got a lake around it. You can't see it from here because of the trees, but it's there" Sora told them.

Patrick took another look through the scope, "Hmmm…SAM sites up top, heavy looking emplacements. Drawbridge looks like the only way in..."

Just then, Aquilamon returned with Yolei.

"You're not gonna believe this, but there's a hanger actually inside the mountain it's on. At the foot of the mountain is a dock, and there also seems to be a way for the lake to pass out to the ocean," Yolei reported.

Patrick thought for a second, "Good eye. Either one of them would be bad on their own. It's the combination that's worrying."

"Why? Air support?" TK asked

"No, the hanger's linked to the navy some way. I think it's for dispatching new aircraft"

"To where?"

"Where do ya think?" Patrick smiled slightly, "Carriers"

TK shivered, "Hope none of them arrive"

"Ok then. We attack tomorrow," Patrick announced

"What! How?" asked Tai.

"I'll work on the details tonight. As for now, get some rest. Your gonna need it."

"…and then I was brought here" The boy had just finished explaining how he had ended up in this facility, "Whatever happened to you got you shot. Twice by the looks of things."

Kari started having a flashback of the gym where she was hit. She shivered at the memory.

The boy quickly snapped his head up, "Hear that. Footsteps"

"They're coming?"

The boy looked at his watch, "Damn. My turn. Well, it was nice knowing you…errr"

"Kari Kamiya"

The boy smiled and shook her hand, "I'm Declan O'Reilly"