Updated: 4/11/21

I DO NOT OWN DIGIMON ADVENTURE, 02, TAMERS, FRONTIER, OR SAVERS!

Chapter 22: Attack on the DigiDestined

Frontier Digital World: Location: Candlemon Village

When Yutaka woke up the next morning in the Candlemon Village, he and the others were treated to a nice warm meal for breakfast. Before they resumed their travel plans, however, a pair of Candlemon returned from morning patrol in a panic, talking about a strange light in "the cave."

Intrigued, the new Warrior DigiDestined decided to check things out before continuing their journey and followed the Candlemon to help investigate. "The cave" turned out to be a hole in the cliff wall near the river reachable by only a small ledge of rocks. It was where Tommy had discovered the spirit of Kumamon according to Bokomon and Neemon, only now the cave wasn't covered in ice. It was just a bunch of normal rock walls, but further in, there was a faint glow.

As the DigiDestined approached the light, a beam of yellow energy shot forth and would have hit Umi, if Shinya and Rikuto hadn't tackled her to the ground. Instead, the beam clipped Rikuto's shoulder, causing the young man to cry out in pain.

Yutaka didn't hesitate and transformed into Tetsukomon, deflecting more beams with his mirror shields, allowing his friends to recover. In a few seconds an angry looking Ningyomon was standing beside him and Mokuseimon was returning fire with his bow from a crouched position on his other side over Rikuto, who was clutching his shoulder.

The poor Candlemon, Bokomon and Neemon cried out in alarm and took cover behind some rocks.

"You two stay here and lay down some cover fire. I'm going to try and get closer," Tetsukomon said, moving forward minutely behind his shields.

Ningyomon looked like she wanted to protest, but nearly got hit by another beam of light and growled a reluctant "Fine." Mokuseimon only nodded and tried to maneuver Rikuto towards the Candlemon, Bokomon and Neemon.

"Light Reflector!" Tetsukomon shouted, allowing one of his shields to absorb a number of the light beams and aimed with his other shield and sent the energy right back at the attacker. The cave shook and some debris fell from the ceiling, but all was quiet for a moment.

"Is it over?" Ningyomon asked, looking shocked from where she and the others were taking cover.

Then there came a terrible whining sound, like something powering up, before a large blast of light came streaking out at Tetsukomon. The Warrior of Steel had instinctively brought up both shields before impact, but was still flung across the cave and into a wall.

"Taka!" Mokuseimon cried. "Are you alright?"

Before Tetsukomon could respond another bolt of energy raced toward him and rammed against his still raised shields, crushing him into the cave wall.

The others stared on in horror as a massive shape slowly emerged from the back of the cave. It was a large hulking shape, very draconian in appearance, like what they'd seen of BurningGreymon, only this creature looked like it'd been fused with a machine. It's wings were great sheets of metal made to look like folded fan-like wings, each blade shaped like a long feather. The glowing yellow eyes were bright pinpricks of light shining out of a metal skull-like faceplate. Tubes and gears pulsed and worked around a metal jaw, pumping and hissing as the creature moved.

While everyone else was staring at the monstrosity, Tetsukomon recovered and managed to pry himself out of the cave wall with a near silent groan.

"What is that thing?" Rikuto grunted, holding his injured shoulder. Mokuseimon and Ningyomon only stood there, shaking in shock.

"I'm afraid I don't know, lad," Bokomon said softly, "but now might be a good time to retreat."

No sooner had Bokomon said that, the creature launched another attack, twin beams of light shooting out of it's yellow eyes, a loud steamy hiss screeching after it. Ningyomon and Mokuseimon finally snapped out of it and grabbed Rikuto, the Candlemon, and Bokomon and Neemon in time to dart out of the way.

"Get them out of here!" Tetsukomon shouted as he dove towards the monster and further threw the thing's aim off course. That resulted in him getting smacked across the cave by one of the metal wings, which nearly tore through the armor covering his arm.

Tetsukomon stared in shock at the shredded plating. Nothing he'd come across so far (which admittedly wasn't a lot) had been able to even make a dent or a scratch on his armor plating. It was made of the toughest chrome digizoid armor that only some of the most powerful megas had, like WarGreymon. Or so Bokomon had said. For this creature to have the ability to just tear through it like tissue paper it had to be made of the same metal.

"Yutaka!"

Tetsukomon just barely dodged another blow from the metal dragon creature, but the result of the attack brought down the entrance to the cave. Tetsukomon managed to wedge himself into a hollow in the wall (more than likely formed from one of the monster's previous attacks) and crouched down behind his shields forming a barrier above and in front of himself. The entire cave shook as parts of it collapsed.

When the dust began to settle, Tetsukomon couldn't see anything, meaning that the mouth of the cave had collapsed, so he listened carefully. He could hear a soft sound, like sand and small fine rocks sliding as they sifted and fell. He heard rocks shift and groan as the structure of the cave settled. Then he heard a sound that made his insides freeze. He heard the low soft hiss of steam and clack of gears whirring. The cave had collapsed, leaving Tetsukomon trapped alone with the metal dragon.

Adventure Digital World: Location: Temple of the Digivice

Yumi looked around in awe at the temple before her. It reminded her of ancient Mayan architecture or something like it. The surrounding jungle made her feel like she was in an Indiana Jones movie. Biyomon didn't seem to find it awe worthy though, and was instead speaking with Tentomon and the new kids and their partner Digimon. Momoe and Mantarou were staring at all of the Digimon around the area so Biyomon and Tentomon were telling the teens about them.

Keisuke was talking with Centarumon, discussing the locations of three Control Spires in their area. There was a group of Otamamon and Gekomon that had patrolled the area and had found the spires. One was in a swampland to the south of them, another was north of them a little bit up the mountains, and the third one had appeared overnight to the west in the desert between the Temple and the Yokomon Village.

"Sounds like a plan," Yumi could hear Keisuke say before approaching her and the teens.

"What's up?" Yumi asked.

"We're going to separate into two groups," Keisuke said. "Momoe and I will head west to deal with the Control Spire in the desert. Yumi and Mantarou, you two can head north to take out the spire in the mountains. A pair of Otamamon and Gekomon will act as your guide to show you where it is. Centarumon says he is going to deal with the Control Spire in the swampland since it's a rather treacherous area for those who don't know it. We'll meet back up here. If everyone is not back by sundown in a few hours, assume that those that haven't come back yet ran into trouble and go back them up after reporting to Gennai."

"Right," Yumi and the teens said.

Keisuke had Tentomon digivolve into Kuwagamon and their group flew off heading towards the desert.

"Ok," Yumi sighed. "Our turn. Biyomon?"

Biyomon nodded before turning into Hirotorimon, her red wings bright against the clear blue sky. Their Otamamon and Gekomon guides soon joined them and after Yumi helped Mantarou and Chichimon onto Hirotorimon's back, they took off as well up the mountains close to where Keisuke and Saito had found their partners again with the little group of InTraining Digimon that lived in this mountain range.

"There!" the Otamamon shouted in her ear so that she could hear him over the wind. His clawed hand pointed to a tall black needle looking thing poking out of the trees on the mountainside.

"Take us down, Tori!" Yumi cried.

Hirotorimon banked and landed in a clear area on the mountain just a little ways away from the spire. Then she dedigivolved into Biyomon again.

"Why didn't we just blast it from the sky and be done with it?" Mantarou asked.

"Because of all the trees around it we don't know if there are any Digimon nearby. We wouldn't want to hurt them," Yumi said. "That, and we're supposed to investigate the area to see if we can find any clue as to who is building these things."

The teen only nodded in reply.

They began to hike their way over to the spire and didn't come across a single soul.

"Does it seem unnaturally quiet to you guys?" Yumi asked.

Biyomon nodded, looking concerned as she flew overhead. Suddenly she stopped and seemed to flap her wings in a distressed manner.

"There's no wind down here!" she cried before flying above the trees.

Chichimon was hovering closer to Mantarou, looking around nervously.

Biyomon returned a few long minutes later.

"It's so strange!" she reported. "The wind is blowing in the sky but stops around this area just above the trees. It's like there is a barrier keeping the wind out."

"What's it mean?" Mantarou asked.

"I'm not sure," Yumi said grimly. "But we're going to find out."

The six of them trekked further into the woods until they came upon the control spire.

"Biyomon, fly up and see if you can see anything around or on the spire," Yumi ordered.

Biyomon flew off, leaving the rest of them to look around the ground level. The Gekomon and Otamamon uncovered nothing after scouting around nearby and Yumi, Mantarou and Chichimon could find nothing amiss with the spire on ground level.

"Strange," Yumi mused after everyone had returned. "Guess there's nothing left to do except destroy it. Biyomon?"

"Right!" The pink bird threw her wings out and began to glow yellow, but the glow didn't become the blinding light it usually did before a Digimon digivolved. "I...can't digivolve," Biyomon gasped.

"Rats," Yumi growled. "That means that the control spire is active. Gennai warned us that active control spires don't allow Digimon to digivolve in its vicinity."

"So what do we do?" Mantarou asked.

"We'll have to take it out, or at least damage it enough as we are," Yumi said.

Biyomon let out an irritated squawk before launching a number of Spiral Twisters at the control spire. Chichimon let loose a few fireball attacks of his own, with Gekomon and Otamamon firing off attacks as well. The spire looked like it'd barely been scratched.

"This could take a while," Yumi huffed. "Let's hope that the others are having better luck than we are."

Adventure Digital World: Location: Primary Village

Jim looked around at the village where Digimon were apparently born. It looked like someone had taken everything soft and colorful and designed a baby paradise. Elecmon, the village's caretaker, had met his group as soon as they'd departed from Gennai's base.

Just outside of what Jim assumed were the village's limits was a tall obelisk tower. According to Elecmon, there were four more spread out around the surrounding area. It hadn't taken long for their group to deal with that first tower with Piximon and Unimon's help. As soon as the tower was destroyed, Mr. Ishida's Gabumon digivolved into Houkomon, a wolf Digimon that looked different from what Jim was used to seeing Matt Ishida's Gabumon digivolve into.

At the moment Mr. Ishida was talking with the Digimon, discussing who would go take care of what spire next. Piximon was going to take care of the nearest tower with Elecmon and a pair of Palmon to the north of the village, Unimon was leaving with another pair of Palmon to go deal with the spire to the east, and Ninjamon and a pair of Palmon were going to destroy the one further south. That left Jim, Mr. Ishida, their Digimon, and the last pair of Palmon to take the Control Spire to the west.

The trip was rather fast, due to riding on Houkomon, but as soon as they got close to the Control Spire, Houkomon let out a pained growl before shrinking into Gabumon again. Jim was quick to slide off of the shrinking Digimon.

"What happened?" Mr. Ishida asked, helping Gabumon up.

"I don't know. That's never happened before," Gabumon said, frowning up at the Control Spire.

Mr. Ishida was also glaring up at the obelisk.

Jim looked down at his digivice and noticed that it was completely shut off. Not even the time was displayed.

"Whatever that tower is, I think it shuts down our digivices," he reported.

"Damn," the man growled. "Looks like we're doing this the hard way. Come on, Gabumon."

They got up to the spire and began inspecting it while the Palmon scouted the surrounding area to see if they could find anything that might shine some light on who built these towering contraptions.

After their search efforts yielded nothing, they did their best to try damaging the spire. Gabumon, however, was the only one doing any real damage since the Palmon's only attacks involved using their roots, and poor Bukamon could only spit exploding bubbles.

Tamers Digital World: Location: Level 4 - Grassy Plains

"You know," Kai said as their group continued making their way across the open plains, "after being attacked by those Dark Tyrannomon, I expected this place to be filled with massive Dino Digimon."

"We've been traveling all day and we haven't come across a single Digimon," Minami agreed.

"Or anything for that matter," Monochromon growled. "No rocks, no trees, no water… Just flat grassland for as far as the eye can see. It's a good thing we're well supplied thanks to Grapleomon."

"It's a good thing this place is stuck in perpetual twilight," Alice said. "It'd be unbearable if the sun was beating down on us.

"True," Minami sighed, looking up at Jijimon and Babamon who were flying overhead on their broom and staff to see if they could spot anything.

If it weren't for their digivices they wouldn't be able to tell that time was passing at all. Nothing ever changed about their surroundings making it a really depressing level. They could have been walking in circles for all they knew, though Jijimon and Babamon reassured them that they weren't, pointing out the relatively straight stretch of trampled grassland behind them. Not even singing Disney songs managed to lighten the party's mood.

It was hours before they finally came upon a straightforward open spiral staircase that twisted up into the clouds.

"Is this it?" Kai asked. "Seriously? I mean, I get why no one is here. Nothing could possibly survive on this level. But is it really so simple to get to the next level?"

It appeared so. Nothing stopped anyone from going up the stairs. No one was attacked as they made their way up, but the hatch found at the top of the stairs - a seemingly simple trap door deal - was sealed up tight.

"Now what?" Minami asked.

"We could try to break it in," Kai suggested. "It's a wooden door."

"A wooden door with a lock," Alice said, pointing out a keyhole in the wood.

"How does that even work?" Minami asked. "It's in the wood, not a metal insert that consists of the gears and springs a basic lock requires."

"This is the Digital World," Alice said. "The only logic that applies to this door, is that you need a key to unlock it."

Kai only shrugged. "So we need a key. How do we find it? What do we even look for?"

"We'll have to establish a spiral search grid going out from around the base of the staircase," Alice reasoned. "So far all of the methods to unlock the way to the next level have been found near the doorway."

Everyone agreed and descended back down the stairs and began to search the grassy ground for a key of sorts. They must have searched for hours going round and round and further out and away from the staircase before calling it a day. They'd mowed and trampled down an impressive ring around the staircase. Kai even commented that from a few stories up off the ground on the staircase it looked like a crop circle you see in crappy American alien movies.

Just as everyone was settling down to rest, the clouds above them suddenly turned grey and it began to rain.

"Well now we know why the grass is always green despite no evident sources of water," Kai mused.

"But even so, wouldn't there still be puddles, small lakes and rivers and things like that from erosion?" Minami said.

"Again, you're applying logic in the Digital World," Alice sighed. "I bet all this water just filters down to the lower levels."

"Ah, newsflash," Kai suddenly said, "but I think this sudden downpour is going to cause a flash flood."

"Why do you say that?" Minami asked.

"Because there's a tidal wave headed right for us!" he shouted.

The girls looked up and saw what looked like a huge wall of water coming at them in the distance. That got everybody scrambling, gathering up their supplies and racing for the spiral staircase. Those few that could fly were quick to snatch up the smaller Digimon and fly them up to higher points on the staircase before diving back down to retrieve others. Those larger Digimon, like the Chuchidarumon, Monochromon, and the Infermon grabbed others as they raced up the stairs. Kai, Minami, and Alice all rode aboard Monochromon's back as he hurried up at the front of the line. They were more than relieved to see that their party had made it up off the ground far enough to avoid getting swept away by the first wave.

They raced all the way up to the damn door that led into the clouds, looking out at what now looked like an ocean, rather than a never ending scape of grassland.

"Holy crap," Kai breathed. "If this is how the fourth level is, it's no wonder no one lives here. If living in the purgatory that is the grassland doesn't kill you, the flash floods will."

"And if that's a regular part of a cycle in how this level functions it's no wonder we didn't find any kind of key," Alice sighed. "It could be swept away to any corner of this level."

"So what can we do?" Kai asked. "Does that mean we have to wait for the sea to go down and start our search again? That could take forever! So much for these methods to unlock the way to the next level being close to their door."

"I don't see why that's suddenly changed. It's not like the lock has been getting farther and farther away from the entrance. In fact, they've been getting kind of closer, haven't they? And technically we've found the lock. All we need is the key, but for the key to be located so far away seems kind of… wait… Oh, of all the stupid-!" Minami suddenly cried, smacking her forehead.

"Uh… Minami?" Kai said, staring at her.

"It's insanely simple," Minami huffed, reached up into the cloud above their heads that held the door, moving her hand around it until she snatched it back and revealed a gold key.

"Seriously?!" Kai shrieked. "The key was here all this time?!"

Alice chuckled tiredly, shaking her head. "Just unlock the door, Minami so that we can move on."

Minami huffed and did just that.

Adventure Digital World: Location: Vending Machine Valley

Saito watched with satisfaction as the damned Control Spire they'd been working on all afternoon finally began to spark after another barrage of attacks from Agumon, and their ToyAgumon patrol.

"Hey! My digivice is back on!" Chizuru cheered, waving said device up in the air, showing off that it's screen was indeed lit up.

"Awesome!" Saito cried, pulling out his own digivice and saw that it was blinking its display back at him. "Agumon! Let's barbecue this thing!"

"You got it, Sai!" Agumon said, before glowing yellow and digivolving into Greymon X.

Greymon X let out a challenging roar before he fired a Nova Blast at the spire, easily setting it ablaze. With a mighty, but well aimed swipe of his tail, the dino sent the tower toppling away from where everyone was standing.

"Alright!" Chizuru and her Koromon partner cheered. "They did it!"

"Let's head back everyone!" Saito called, grinning as he watched Greymon X stomp down on the tower, extinguishing his previous attack, but also getting satisfaction in destroying the tower even further. "Come on, Greymon, let's blow this pop stand!"

Greymon X grunted, indulging in one last vicious stomp before rejoining the group. Saito helped Chizuru climb aboard Greymon X's back, watching with amusement as the group of five Toy Agumon climbed up and sat along the tail.

"Take us back to Toy Town, old friend," Saito sighed. "With any luck, Haru and Jun are there waiting for us."

"Sorry that I wasn't much help," Chizuru said after a while, her Koromon nodding sheepishly. They were about halfway back to Toy Town.

"Hey, no biggie," Saito said, grinning. "You two searched all the vending machines in the area and kept watch to let us know if anyone was waiting to ambush us. It wasn't much of an exciting venture anyway."

"I have a feeling that that's about to change," Greymon X growled. "Haru and Patamon's Control Spire is still up, and I hear what sounds like a fight."

Without another word, Greymon X picked up the pace and began racing towards a section of woods where the tip of another Control Spire could be seen peeking up over the tops of the trees. The closer they got, Saito began to hear sounds of fighting as well.

Saito felt Greymon X tense, like he had earlier in the day just before he'd shrunk back into Agumon when they'd reached their designated Control Spire.

"Fire now!" Saito shouted.

It just showed how well they still worked together when Greymon X loosed a Nova Blast at what they could see of the control spire without question. The large dino began to glow, but Greymon X had hit the spire dead on and damaged it enough to prevent himself from dedigivolving.

"Hang tight!" Saito shouted, snapping his goggles on over his eyes as Greymon X moved to rush through the trees, knocking many of them over as he went. Saito could feel Chizuru flinch and press tighter into his side. He wrapped an arm around her as he pressed close to his partner's neck to avoid most of the whipping foliage.

It wasn't long before Greymon X crashed through into a clearing and the sound of fighting became clear to him. The Toy Agumon with them were quick to jump off Greymon's X's tail and rushed into the battle, spitting out cover fire, for their pinned down fellows. The attacking Digimon weren't like any Saito had ever seen before in his previous trip to the Digital World. They were gray rubber suited Digimon with a face mask that looked like a gasmask. They had some kind of pack on their backs and wielded machine guns.

There was a bright flash of light before Piddomon suddenly appeared and began blasting the attacking Digimon into digital bits. Not far from where the angel Digimon had appeared, Saito could spot Haru, Jun, and the girl's Bukamon.

"There, Greymon!" Saito shouted, pointing out where their friends were.

Greymon X snarled, lashing out with his tail at the attackers as he waded through the battle.

"Are you guys alright?" Saito demanded, sliding off Greymon X's shoulder when they reached them.

"Shaken, but fine," Haru sighed. "They just keep coming."

"From where?" Saito asked.

"There," Jun said, pointing to the ruined control spire. The base of the obelisk was still intact, however, and indeed had more of those gray Digimon trickling out.

"Then that's where we end it," Saito said grimly. "Haru, call Piddomon back. We're going to storm the spire and see if we can't get some answers to what's going on around here. Greymon, help the Toy Agumon and hold this position. You four stay here," he said, turning to Jun, Chizuru, Bukamon and Koromon. The girls looked like they wanted to protest, but they looked too scared to argue. They instead nodded and held their partner Digimon close.

Saito nodded before he, Haru and Piddomon made their way over to the destroyed control spire. The angel Digimon blasted his way through the gray Digimon and stormed his way in. Saito and Haru were quick to follow, squinting through disintegrating data as they followed Piddomon down into a spiraling staircase.

"I sure hope the others are alright," Haru huffed.

Saito nodded grimly, a small trickle of fear and worry shivering down his spine. He sent up a silent prayer that his wife, friends, and the teens would be alright.

Adventure Digital World: Location: Mountain Control Spire

Mantarou yelled out in alarm, ducking behind a tree just as one of those stupid rubber gas-masked goons took a shot at him.

"Mantarou!" Chichimon squawked. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," the teen grunted, flinching as a tree a few feet away got blasted, sending splinters all over the place. "I'm getting really sick of these guys."

"We should find Mrs. Yoshimura and Biyomon," Chichimon said.

"She and the Gekomon and Otamamon are a little busy at the moment," Mantarou snapped, before racing for another tree, just in time too. The tree they'd been standing behind burst into flames. "Shit!"

"So what do we do?"

"We run like hell!"

Mantarou tucked his new partner under his arm like a football, despite his protests, and after taking a fortifying breath, made a break for it. He was a lot faster than those gray Digimon, but their machine guns came close to hitting him a good too many times for his liking. He raced down the incline of the mountain, darting from tree to tree for cover as much as he could and ran until it was a good five minutes since he'd last heard the attacking Digimon's gunfire. He slowed to a stop behind a large boulder and let Chichimon go.

The little yellow bird Digimon fluffed out his feathers clucking in irritation. Mantarou winced. He'd worked up quite a sweat racing through the mountain woods in the still air… that now had a breeze to it.

"Hey, Chichimon."

"What?"

"There's a breeze… We must have run so far that we're out of the Control Spire's strange barrier."

"So?" the little bird asked, but just at that moment Mantarou heard a branch snap behind them and dived for the ground, snatching Chichimon out of the air again.

It was a good instinctive reaction too as bullets flew over his head. Mantarou scrambled into a crouch and ran as fast as he could, but in his hurry he slipped on some loose gravel and went sliding down the mountain's slope for a bit and ended up sprawled at it's base. Chichimon fell out of his arms somewhere in that chaotic descent. When he looked up he saw two of those gray goons pointing their guns right at him.

"Mantarou!" Chichimon screeched, flying towards him before being engulfed in a bright light. "CHICHIMON DIGIVOLVE TOOO…. PENGUINMON!"

Mantarou stared. In the place where his tiny yellow partner had hovered was now a purple bird with a round belly. It looked like some kind of mutant penguin.

"ICE PRISM!" the penguin Digimon squawked before shards of ice exploded out of its mouth in a bright beam of light, freezing the entire cliffside, including their gray garbed pursuers. They broke through the ice easy, however, and began to make their way down the cliff.

"Mantarou, take cover!" Penguinmon said. "Don't worry, I got this!"

Then faster than Mantarou thought possible for the slightly tubby bird, Penguinmon zipped across the ice, launching himself from rock to rock back up the cliffside to intercept their attackers. Before one of those things could even bring up it's gun, Penguinmon streaked past it.

"Slide Attack!" Penguinmon shouted as he clipped the two of the gray Digimon on his way by.

The attack sent the two enemies reeling and they began to slip down the icy cliffside. Somehow Penguinmon managed to slide past them again until he ended up in front of them and met their uncontrolled descent with another Ice Prism attack at point blank range, freezing them and then shattering them with a Super Slap attack, hitting them until they were frozen chips of data.

With a happy little twitter, the not-so-little anymore purple bird slid the rest of the way down the cliff and stopped beside a stunned Mantarou.

"Dude… that was awesome!" Mantarou cried.

"Aww, it was nothing," Penguinmon giggled before his eyes narrowed and looked back up the mountain side. "But we should head back and help Biyomon and Mrs. Yoshimura."

"Right," Mantarou sighed, looking up at the profile of the Control Spire just in time to see it explode.

Adventure Digital World: Location: Plains West of Primary Village

"What the hell are these things?" Jim cried.

"No idea, just stay down!" Mr. Ishida shouted at the young man from where he was crouched behind a small boulder that barely shielded him.

The damn things had appeared to have come from nowhere and had chased them into a nearby ravine, but now that they'd been forced to back off Jim could see that the gray Digimon were coming out from the base of the tower.

"Sir, we need to retreat!" Jim cried. They'd already lost one of their two Palmon guides, and Gabumon, Bukamon, and the remaining Palmon weren't going to last much longer from where they'd taken shelter.

"Damn," he heard the man growl before raising his voice. "Gabumon, we need to get out of here! Try to cause a rockslide."

Gabumon and Bukamon suddenly shifted their fire to the wall of the ravine and caused the narrow passage they'd managed to bottleneck earlier to temporarily be cut off.

"That won't work for long," Palmon warned as she darted over to the humans.

"I know," Mr. Ishida sighed. "So let's go while we have the chance."

Jim grit his teeth as he picked up his tired partner and followed Mr. Ishida, Gabumon and Palmon back to Primary Village. Gabumon was too tired to Digivolve from the fight, so they had to travel there by foot.

When they arrived, it was around sundown and Ninjamon was nursing his own injuries from a similar confrontation. Piximon, Elecmon and Unimon looked a little worse for wear, but apparently they had no trouble taking out their assigned towers and had gone to aid Ninjamon with his since his tower had been a lot closer to the Village than the one the DigiDestined had gone to. Ninjamon for once wasn't very boastful about his successful fight with the strange gray Digimon that had flooded out of his tower too. That was probably because it had been Unimon and Piximon that had destroyed the Control Spire.

"So that only leaves one," Unimon mused.

"Perhaps," Piximon said. "We can't count on the fact that they might build another Control Spire overnight. We didn't get rid of them all, and those we fought at Ninjamon's spire in the South don't sound as numerous as those that Jim and Hiroaki faced."

"What do you think it means, Piximon?" Elecmon asked.

"I think that the one that the DigiDestined went to was their main base in this area," said Piximon, "It was more guarded. You did say that the western spire had been the first to appear in the area, correct?"

"It was," Elecmon mused.

"So tomorrow morning we should focus our efforts on destroying that Control Spire," Unimon said.

"No," Piximon said, surprisingly. "We can't give them time to regroup. We should attack them tonight. Yup yup! They'll expect us to try again tomorrow, so we should try to catch them as off guard as possible. And I don't think we should destroy the spire right away. No, if it is their main base as we suspect, then we could gain some valuable information."

"So we disable it," Hiroaki said. "Jim and I won't be much help if our Digimon can't digivolve."

"Then we should split up into two groups," Elecmon said. "One larger group should focus on the attack and damage the spire enough to allow digivolving, and another smaller group should infiltrate their base and learn what we can before we destroy the tower."

"I'll lead the infiltrators," Ninjamon growled.

"Excellent," Piximon cried. "And Jim, Bukamon, and a couple of Palmon should come with you."

"Wait, why me?" Jim asked. "Mr. Ishida is much better at computers. I won't know what I'm looking for!"

"But you're smaller, younger, and easier to conceal," Ninjamon pointed out.

"Not that much smaller," Jim protested. "I'm fairly tall."

"Bah!" Piximon huffed. "So is your brother, Joe. You remind me of him quite a bit, actually. He was afraid to take responsibility too when he was younger. But from what I hear, these days there is no one more reliable than Joe Kido. He's come a long way from the frightened kid he was back then. He's braver and more capable than he looks, and I bet you're the same."

Jim hummed noncommittally, looking up at the sky, wondering how his younger brother was fairing. Joe wasn't a kid anymore. He was 18 now and was supposed to be starting his freshman year at college in a few weeks. He wasn't that nervous little boy he used to be growing up. Becoming a DigiDestined had changed him. Joe was more sure of himself. Of course, after facing down so many monsters in the Digital World, going to college and med school was probably a piece of cake.

And if his little brother could do it, so could Jim. He couldn't wimp out now that things were starting to get tough; now that things were just starting to get scary. What he was facing now was nowhere near as dangerous as what Joe and the others were facing right now in that other Digital World.

"Alright. I'll do it," Jim said, staring determinedly at them all.

What's up with all of the gray gas-masked Digimon attacking the Adventure DigiDestined? Will everyone be alright? What about Yutaka? Will he survive his fight with the strange metal dragon Digimon? Find out next time on Digimon: Digital Monsters!