Alright, now comes episode 9~

Miyuki: "DemiDevimon and I were on our own again and managed to find ourselves in some pretty deep shit. Luckily, I managed to find those other girls and they helped us. DemiDevimon's hurt, but not too bad. But now, for better or for worse, we're all on the same team."


"Let's get going," Hana told the group.

Miyuki raised a brow. "I don't think so," she said. "Not yet. DemiDevimon needs some rest, in case you didn't notice." The Virus Rookie looked at the blonde, right eye still shut. It was still in pain from when it had been shot while he was Devidramon. "Maybe we could rest here for the night and get going in the morning. Does that sound good?"

"I don't know about you, but we actually have families waiting for us to come home," Hana informed her, arms crossed. "So the sooner we get this thing taken care of, the sooner we can go home."

The brunette paused. Kiira had told her that the other three had been recruited by the government. That meant that their parents probably knew exactly where they were. But she hadn't even left a note for her dads. They were probably worried sick. Hana had a point, but...

"Aren't you supposed to be the logical one?" Palmon asked. "We might have had a long time to rest, but Miyuki probably hasn't."

"Yeah," Labramon agreed. "And did you just kinda miss the part where Devidramon got shot in the eyes by a pair of missiles. If it was one of us, you probably would have stopped to rest."

Yumi nodded. "What's your deal with her?"

"She doesn't trust me," Miyuki answered for her. "Isn't that right? Because I'm some sort of wildcard?" Hana's silence was enough of an answer. "Thought so." She held her partner close. "Fine. You wanna go? Let's go. But me and DemiDevimon are staying out of any fight any time soon, got it?"

"Fine," Hana muttered. "Whatever."

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

They'd been walking for about ten minutes in silence when DemiDevimon was finally able to open his eye again. "You alright?" his partner asked.

"Yeah... it still hurts a little, but I'll be fine in a few minutes," the Virus replied. "Digimon heal a lot faster than humans."

"I can see that," she said with a soft smile. She turned to the other girls, unsure of what to talk about. She'd didn't really like the awkward silence that surrounded them. "So..." she eventually said. "Why'd the government pick each one of you? I mean, what makes you so different from all the others teens in Japan?"

"They wanted kid geniuses," Kiira replied. "I'm fluent in ten languages."

Miyuki's eyes widened. "Holy shit... Ten?" She nodded.

"Yeah," she informed her. "I've been learning since I was little. I just pick things like that up easily." She motioned to Yumi. "Yumi's some kind of super hacker."

"That sounds kind of useful to bring on a trip to the internet," the brunette commented with a grin.

Yumi blushed. "I'm not that great..."

Miyuki's smile fell as she looked over at Hana, who was walking a little bit ahead of them, pointedly ignoring their conversation. She sighed, doubting they would ever get along, no matter how much effort she put into the matter. "And what about Harusawa? Why's she here?"

"She's a mathematical genius," Yumi informed her. "And math is a lot of logic, so it seemed like a good idea to make her leader."

"And math has so many variables..." Kiira commented.

"And we're variables," Miyuki guessed. "And 'undefined', probably."

"Probably," Kiira agreed.

"You said you get 'feelings' about things?" Palmon asked, remembering what the brunette had told them the last time they had encountered her. "What are those all about?"

"They're a little hard to explain," Miyuki said. DemiDevimon had taken his place back on her shoulder, as that hadn't aggravated her back injury like they had both been a bit concerned that it would. "You know how sometimes, you can just kind of feel like you're being watched? Or when you get that kind of pit in your stomach when you just know shit is gonna go to hell?" They nodded. "Okay, now imagine that kind of pit being heavier or lighter sometimes. And just kind of... knowing... if you're supposed to go in a direction, like the same way you know you're being watched." She shrugged. "That's kind of what it's like."

"Have they ever been wrong?" Labramon asked.

The girl shook her head. "Not that I can remember."

Renamon, who had been listening to their conversation, turned to her blonde partner. "I don't think she's a threat," she told her.

"You can't know that for sure," Hana replied, causing the Rookie to sigh. Once again, the human was being hopelessly stubborn. "There's something off about Otori, and I'm going to find out what."

Renamon simply turned her gaze to Miyuki, who was still talking with the others, a smile on her face, before turning back to Hana. She only hoped that she would warm up to her soon. They should be a team, if they were to be able to work together. And she just knew that the only way to defeat whatever was ahead of them required them to be able to work as a unit.

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

Miyuki had to stop as the others kept walking, biting her lip. She could already feel the pain returning to her back. She knew the medicine would have unexpected side effects, but she never thought it would have periods of time that it would temporarily wear off. At least some times were less painful than others. But the ache was becoming worse and worse. She couldn't keep walking. She needed to sit for a minute until the pain went away.

"Oh, shit..." she muttered. She had hoped this wouldn't be a problem again now that she had joined the other girls, but obviously, she was wrong.

Kiira was the first to notice that she had stopped. She motioned for the others to stop as well as she walked back toward the brunette. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Palmon came up behind her, also curious and a bit worried. She could see the pain that Miyuki was trying to hide on her face. "Are you alright?"

"We need to rest," DemiDevimon told them, already off of his partner's shoulder. He could clearly tell what was wrong, and they did need to stop.

Hana crossed her arms. "We don't have time for that," she argued. The brunette hadn't taken any serious injuries, so whatever stomachache or something, she would just have to deal with it.

"Can't you see she's in a lot of pain?" Labramon asked, turning on her.

The leader sighed and walked over to join the others. Now that she was closer, she could clearly see the pain that the others could. "Alright," she relented. She didn't know what happened, but she could tell it was bad.

"What happened?" Renamon asked.

"It was before I met up with you guys again in that castle," Miyuki told them, sitting.

"We were in another site and a battle got really out of hand," DemiDevimon continued. "She got slammed into a wall pretty hard, and it did a lot of bad shit to her back. The Digimon there gave her some medicine, but they hadn't really used it a lot, and it was a bad injury, so... they didn't know what kind of side effects it would have."

"So, now it hurts sometimes, and it's not always the same amount of pain." She gritted her teeth as another strong wave a pain passed through. "This one it a little worse than the others."

Palmon frowned, concern clear on her face. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Wait it out," Miyuki informed them. "It always goes away in a few minutes."

Hana's eyes narrowed. Sure, she felt bad for the girl, but now that added just one more problem to their already growing list of issues. They'd probably have to stop every time something like this happened, and she wanted to get home as soon as possible. She missed her family, and she knew the others probably did, too.

A few more minutes passed before the pain subsided to a dull ache that would last for a little while. At least that was bearable. She started to stand when Kiira reached a hand down to help her up. "Thanks," she said gratefully. She suddenly looked above them. "Remember those feelings I get?"

"Yeah..." Labramon said, and he, along with everyone else, didn't really like where this was going.

"I'm having one right now, and it's pretty bad," she informed them.

Almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, three large, spider-like Digimon dropped down from the coding above them.

"We're in trouble..." Yumi commented.

"At least they waited until you were better," DemiDevimon commented sarcastically.

"How sweet of them."

"Alright," Hana said, focusing on the task at hand. "Let's see what these guys are..."

"Name: Dokugumon. Classification: Virus. Threat: Medium."

Yumi shuddered. "I really hate spiders."

"Alright, DemiDevimon," Miyuki told her partner. "You know what to do." He nodded.

"DemiDevimon Digivolve to... Devidramon!"

The other Rookies looked at each other before nodding.

"Renamon Digivolve to... Kyubimon!"

"Palmon Digivolve to... Togemon!"

"Labramon Digivolve to... Seasarmon!"

The humans stepped back, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire of the battle that was about to ensue. "Three of them and four of us," Kiira observe. "This shouldn't be too hard."

"Don't say that," Miyuki told her. "You never, ever say it shouldn't be too hard. Do you wanna jinx us?"

"It's okay, Miyuki, we got this!" her partner called over her shoulder. That was a little reassuring, considering how much larger he was than the others, including their opponents.

"Poison Thread!" all three Dokugumon yelled, aiming their attacks at the Virus, deciding to take out the largest target first.

Devidramon shut his eyes tight, not wanting to get their poison in them. That was the last thing he need, considering how his last battle went.

"Don't worry!" Togemon yelled. "You're not on your own anymore. We've got you covered." She dove forward toward one of the Dokugumon. The kids didn't exactly have anything to take cover behind in the tunnel, so her Needle Spray attack would be a very, very bad idea. "Lightspeed Jabbing!" she yelled, laying into one of the Dokugumon.

He nodded, and as soon as the Dokugumon were distracted by the other Champions, he raised his claw. "Crimson Claw!" he yelled. The movement had clued the others in to move out of the way, and he struck their opponents hard enough to send them flying.

"Sun's Courage!" Seasarmon yelled, firing at one of the Dokugumon and sending it through the air in Kyubimon's direction. She readied her own attack.

"Dragon Wheel!" she yelled, destroying the opponent on impact and landing hard but remaining on her feet.

Togemon had her fists ready as another Dokugumon flew in her direction. She punched as it flew by, but the angle unfortunately sent it toward the wall. Instead of hitting it like they hoped it would, the Virus went straight through the coding, disappearing but not destroyed.

"Crap..." the green Champion muttered.

Hana glared. "You just let it escape. Great."

"Calm down," Miyuki said, rolling her eyes. "Devidramon?"

He looked back down at his partner. He had a feeling he knew exactly what she wanted. "You sure?"

"I wouldn't have said anything if I wasn't."

"What are you two talking about?" Yumi asked.

Hana raised a brow. "Are you seriously thinking what I think you are?"

"Probably."

"That's insane."

"Aw, worried about me?" the brunette asked. "And here I thought you didn't care." She looked at Devidramon. "Come on, let's go." Without another word, her partner picked her up, curling his hands around her body in case this went wrong and dove for the wall, right where Dokugumon had gone through. As they had hoped, instead of hitting it, they went through it, as well, disappearing from sight.

"You were right," Seasarmon agreed with Hana. "She is insane." He may be a bit of a 'leap before he looks' Digimon, but not even he would attempt something like that.

Kiira looked from the wall and back to their partners. "We should probably worry about her later. She can take care of herself, right? Right now, we have our own problems to deal with."

"Right," Togemon agreed. "Lightspeed Jabbing!"

Kyubimon and Seasarmon nodded at each other. While the remaining Vaccine finished off with the Dokugumon she had been previously attacking, the would finish with the remaining one. "Fox Tail Inferno!" Kyubimon yelled from one side.

"Sun's Courage!" Seasarmon attacked from the other. The joint attacks destroyed the already damaged Champion in an instant. Togemon had just finished with hers, as well.

"Alright," Yumi said. "Now let's get in there and save Miyuki and Devidramon."

Seasarmon nodded and darted to where they had gone through, only to bounce off the wall. "What the hell...?"

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

Miyuki's eyes widened as she saw countless shadows pass by them just as fast, if not faster, than the binary had in the tunnel. Her Digivice was open, but it almost seemed like it was speaking gibberish. Were these all Digimon? If they were, there were too many for the device to keep up. There was only one identifiable figure in front of them, seemingly trying to escape.

"Don't let it get away!" the brunette yelled.

Devidramon nodded. "You got it," he said, speeding up as fast as he could. Slowly but surely, they were gaining on their opponent. But something seemed... off.

Some of the shadowed figured were absorbed into Dokugumon and pulsing, dark energy came off of it in waves. Devidramon growled as he pushed through them. No matter what this thing was doing, they couldn't let it get away.

Miyuki shielded her eyes as an oddly familiar glow surrounded it. "No way..." she muttered.

When the light dimmed, a different Digimon was standing in front of them. It had an almost humanoid torso, with long, messy silver hair and red horns. Its grinning mouth was filled with sharp teeth and its arms ended in giant hands. The lower half of its body, however, belonged to a gigantic red and purple spider, each leg ending in a sharp talon. Her Digivice was still spewing nonsense.

"Devidramon, do you have any idea what this thing is?" she asked her partner.

"It's called Arukenimon," he told her. "And I think we might be in trouble."

"Why?"

"It's an Ultimate."

"Oh, shit," Miyuki muttered.

"Oh shit is right," Devidramon replied. "It'd be really nice if the others could get in here soon."

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

"Why can't we get through?" Kiira asked, pushing on the wall to no avail.

"My guess?" Yumi asked. "It's only available to Viruses. Considering the holes open up to different sites, this is probably some sort of protected tunnel. That place, whatever it is, outside the tunnel, isn't easily accessed. They probably hacked it, so Viruses can get through just fine. Miyuki probably made it in because she was being held by Devidramon, who's a Virus."

"Great," Hana muttered. She didn't really care one way or another, but she did admit that the others had a point with their 'strength in numbers' argument. So, whether she liked it or not, they had to find some way to get her out.

"You're a hacker," Seasarmon commented to his partner. "Can't you just hack the thing, too, and get us in?"

Yumi sighed. "I wish I could, but I don't think I have that kind of power in here. Give me a keyboard and a mouse, and I could probably do it, but right now, I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Where do you think they are?" Kiira asked Yumi. The lavender haired girl was getting asked a lot of questions, but between everyone in the group, if anyone had the answers, it would be her.

"Hmm... Well, they're not in the normal part of the internet, they're sort of... hidden." She paused, eyes widened. "Holy shit..." she muttered. "I think they're in the deep web."

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

"Okay, what do we do?" Miyuki asked, staring at their grinning opponent. "There's no way we can take this thing on our own."

"Spider Thread!" Arukenimon yelled, causing Devidramon to curl his hands around his partner to avoid her getting hurt. He winced as he was pushed back a bit.

The brunette looked around frantically, trying to think of anything they might be able to take advantage of. The only things in sight, though, were Arukenimon and the passing Viruses. Wait a minute... "I have an idea," she told him.

"I'm all ears."

"If Dokugumon could absorb all those Viruses to Digivolve, why don't you?" she asked.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" he questioned.

Miyuki shook her head. "No, I'm not. But honestly, it's that or get destroyed here. I'd rather go with 'what could happen' than 'we're gonna die'."

"Alright, but how do I even do that in the first place?" the four eyed Digimon asked.

"You got me," the brunette said, shrugging.

"Spider Thread!" Arukenimon yelled. Devidramon once again protected his partner, trying to ignore the pain from her attacks. Obviously, they were really strong, and they had to find some way to get to Arukenimon's level.

The Champion looked around at all the shadows and concentrated. Very slowly, one of the shadows veered off the normal path and moved toward him, seeping into his back. He growled, and another flew into his shoulder while yet another swept right over Miyuki and into her partner's chest. A familiar pit began forming in the human's stomach.

"Okay, that was a bad idea," she whispered as her partner growled louder. "A very bad idea!"

He managed to keep a hold on her as he raised his other claw, swiping down at Arukenimon. The attack, surprisingly, sliced the Ultimate right in half before her data flew toward Miyuki's still open Digivice. Her partner, however, hadn't calmed down.

"Devidramon, stop," she told him, hoping she could get through whatever had a hold on him. They'd already been through this once. They could do it again. "You're stronger than those other Viruses. Don't let them control you. You're not evil, so don't let them make you act like it." Nothing worked. Another shadow started moving toward them. If she didn't act fast, she'd probably lose her partner for good.

She jumped out of Devidramon's hand, being pushed along by the Viruses around her. Now that she was closer, she could make out vague shapes. But that wasn't what mattered. She had to use these things to find a way out. She just hoped that there was enough of her partner left to get him to follow her.

She was right. As she flew forward, so did Devidramon, gaining quickly. She looked around. She needed a way back into the tunnel.

Miyuki's head snapped to the left. Her gut told her that there would be an opening coming up soon, and she knew from experience that the gut feeling was probably right. She moved to the left as best as she could, hoping to make it before her partner caught up. This wouldn't really work out that well if he caught her before she made it.

The next thing she knew, she was falling. Landing hard on her butt, she looked up to see Devidramon falling as well, but when he was halfway down, he reverted back to DemiDevimon. He landed in her lap, unconscious.

"Well..." she muttered with a sigh. "That was something I never want to do again." Slowly standing, making sure that there were no severe injuries, she looked around. The others were nowhere in sight. Not that she expected them to be there, since they had traveled quite far. "Time to start looking," she groaned, beginning off in the direction she had been coming from.

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

After another five minutes, Hana said, "I don't think she's coming back. Not this way, anyway. We need to keep moving."

"And if she comes out later?" Kiira asked.

Renamon stepped in, hoping to act as a mediator to prevent an argument. "If she comes back to the tunnel from here later, we're bound to find each other again. We do have a habit of doing that."

"Alright, okay," Kiira said.

"I just hope she's okay in there..." Yumi said softly.

Next time:
Kiira: Good to see you again! What happened in there?
Miyuki: I don't want to talk about it...
Leomon: You shouldn't be here.
Miyuki: What?
Leomon: I know about what happened with the Viruses. It's only a matter of time before he succumbs to his true nature.
DemiDevimon: Hey!

Whoa boy... The deep web thing caught me off guard. And I did not mean to explore an idea that DemiDevimon might be having issues. This just got thrown at me by my own mind. So I can honestly tell you: with a few exceptions much later in the series, I have no idea what the hell is going to happen. I'm probably just as clueless as you are.

See ya on the flipside~ Elisa out~