The episode I have been waiting forever to write! Welcome to episode 15, everyone~

Yumi: "We wound up fighting a Mega level Digimon, Chaosdromon, after Miyuki left. Luckily, she showed up almost right after the battle started. Cerberumon was the one to do him in, filling him with fire to make him explode. Miyuki took us to a site she'd been in before to help us rest for awhile. But, with our luck, that rest won't last very long..."


Kiira stretched as she stood, being the last to wake. "So, where to now?"

Hana thought for a moment. "Let's take a minute to go over what we know," she said. "Too much has been happening lately, we haven't really had time to think all this through."

"We don't really know all that much," Labramon admitted.

His partner nodded. "Basically, all we know is that a Virus exists that is trying to take over the internet, but we've known that since we got here."

"That's not everything we know," Renamon argued. "Thanks to Miyuki, we know that it's been here for a very long time. That means it's probably a lot stronger than we originally thought. We need to be careful on how we handle it, should we run into it before we're ready."

"That would be easier if we knew what the Virus was," DemiDevimon muttered. "So, so far, I vote run like hell."

Miyuki nodded. "I'm gonna have to agree with him. There's no reason to throw our lives away. We see it, we run." She looked at Hana. "That okay with you?"

The blonde sighed. "Yeah. You're right. So, what else do we know?"

"We know that the Virus responsible has been sending out viruses to infect innocent Data Digimon and using them to attack us," Palmon pointed out. "And he's using some of the other Virus Digimon as puppets to come after us, too."

"But we can't go judging every Virus, either," Yumi added. "Remember BlackGatomon? She was good, even though she was a Virus." She paused. "And, from what I understand, all the Digimon pulled here are only here because a code was written that matches the data that comprises them in the Digital World."

Kiira thought for a moment. "Do you think someone wrote this Virus we're after?" she finally asked.

She was met with silence for a few seconds. "I don't like the thought of that," Hana said. "Putting a human element in here makes it that much more complicated. If that were the case, and even if we manage to defeat this Virus, there's a good chance that whoever wrote this one can just as easily write another one, and then we'll really be screwed."

"We would need to find the person responsible as soon as we get out of here," Miyuki said with a nod. "However we're getting out of here, that is."

"Well," Yumi said. "The government agents that sent us in here are no doubt monitoring the situation regarding the Virus. So, when they see that it's gone, they'll probably use that machine to send us home."

The brunette frowned. "That's great for you," she began slowly. "But what about me? No one but you guys know I'm in here, and if I'm right, the Spirit isn't going to have enough energy to send me home. I could be stuck here."

"What if you guys just tell them she's in here as soon as you get out?" DemiDevimon asked. "I mean, it wouldn't be that hard, right?"

"Unless they're using the coding we were transferred in as to track us. We have no idea what our coding is, so it's not like we could just tell them Miyuki's," Yumi pointed out. "But... I could probably find some way to piece it together. Then we could get you out. You'd just have to be patient, and in the meantime, we can ask someone to go tell your parents."

The brunette sent her a grateful look, both for the offer and the fact that she didn't reveal Miyuki's specific family situation. "It might be a bit early to be thinking about that, though," she commented. "I mean, we won't have to worry about that until the time comes, and we're probably not getting out of here until the Virus is destroyed. That's what we're here for, right? And I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of just leaving before the job's done."

"Yeah," Kiira agreed. "I don't really want to pass this off to somebody else. It wouldn't seem right, they'd be starting from scratch. Everything we've done would be a moot point."

Hana nodded. "Alright," she said. "Let's head out, then. The longer we stand around here talking, now that we've covered the important stuff, the more time we're wasting that we could be using to get more information and find some way to get closer to getting rid of the Virus." With that, she exited the cave, inching along the ledge, followed by the others. She stopped, however, when she saw someone was very wrong.

"What's the hold up?" DemiDevimon asked before taking off and flying over to Hana.

"The door is gone," the blonde said in slight disbelief.

Renamon thought for a moment. "We know that sometimes these pathways open suddenly. It only stands to reason that they could close and disappear just as suddenly."

"So we just have to wait around for it to open again?" Labramon asked, clearly annoyed.

"Looks like it," his partner said, a bit dismayed.

Miyuki glanced back where they had come from. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm heading back to the cave. I'm not going to just wait here when I could make one wrong move and fall to my death."

"I'm with Miyuki," Kiira said, following, and the others did, as well.

Once they were seated back in the cave, Miyuki leaned on the wall by the entrance, arms crossed. She had a feeling that Unimon might decide to check on them.

Sure enough, the airborne Digimon arrived. "Hello," he said.

"Hi," Palmon replied. "We're kind of stuck here for the moment... Do you know how we can get out?"

"Oh, I know," he replied. "It's not really safe out there for you to leave yet," Unimon continued. "The protector of this area sealed off the entrance so that you won't try to leave and end up getting yourselves killed."

Hana sighed. "Look, going out there is what we're supposed to do while we're here. If it's getting dangerous out there, that's more the reason for us to go. We need to stop whatever's causing all this. Just keeping us here isn't helping anyone but the enemy."

Unimon frowned. "You'll have to take that up with out protector. I'll be right back." With that he left, returning moments later with a blue, bipedal dragon Digimon.

"Name: AeroVeedramon. Classification: Vaccine. Threat: High."

"Hey," Miyuki told him. "We need to get out of here."

AeroVeedramon shook his head. "As I'm sure Unimon told you, it's too dangerous out there."

"I'll tell you the same thing I told him, then. We need to be out there, especially if it's dangerous, like you say it is. This is our job, and you're only helping whatever's out there by keeping us in here."

The Ultimate was silent for a moment. "Very well," he finally said. "I can only ask that you be careful."

"Of course," Renamon said with a nod.

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

As soon as they stepped through the door, they felt cold. The tunnel around them seemed to spin, changing color as it did so. When it finally stopped, the black had turned to white. The binary was gone. Instead, there were pulsing blue lights forming intricate patterns all around them.

"Where do you think we are now?" Hana asked Yumi, turning to the lavender haired girl.

She shook her head. "I... honestly have no idea..." she confessed. "I'm sorry."

"You're in my domain now," a voice spoke, seeming to come from every direction.

Miyuki's eyes widened. "Holy shit..." she muttered.

"What?" Hana asked.

"This is the same voice I heard before, the one that was using Chaosdromon as a puppet." She shivered. "I think we've just met the Virus..."

In response to her voice, shadows began to appear around them, taking form. They were easily recognizable.

There was a BlackGuilmon, Dracmon, Shurimon, Gazimon, Meramon, Birdramon, Centarumon, Devimon, Guardromon, Dokugumon, Arukenimon, Lilamon, MarineDevimon, Etemon, Scorpiomon, Flymon, Okuwamon, and Chaosdromon.

"Holy shit..." Labramon whispered.

"I think this is almost every Digimon, Virus and virus-infected Data that we've fought while we've been here," Kiira said in disbelief.

"Only one thing to do," Miyuki said, already taking out her Digivice. "We take them all out again." With that, she clicked it open.

"DemiDevimon Warp Digivolve to... Phantomon!"

"Renamon Warp Digivolve to... Taomon!"

"Labramon Warp Digivolve to... Cerberumon!"

"Palmon Warp Digivolve to... Lillymon!"

"Shadow Scythe!" Phantomon yelled, swinging his scythe down at some of the shadow-Digimon. They disappeared into wisps of black mist upon contact. He looked back to the others. "They're just illusions!" he yelled.

"Spider Thread!" shadow-Arukenimon yelled, her attack hitting Lillymon, sending the flying plant spinning through the air a few times before righting herself.

The Ultimate glared. "Illusions that can still hit pretty hard! Let's take these guys out quick! Flower Cannon!"

"Talisman of Light!"

"Emerald Blaze!"

All the other shadow Digimon disappeared, but the shadow-Chaosdromon managed to move away in time.

"Hyper Attack!" it yelled, firing at Phantomon. The hit sent him back several feet. Despite not being real, the attack still felt as though the real thing had fired it.

Taomon raised her brush. "Talisman of Light!" Once it was gone, she turned to the wounded, but quickly recovering Phantomon. It appeared that the effects of the shadow attacks disappeared after just a few moments. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine," he reassured her with a nod.

Now that they had finished off their shadow opponents, they looked around, but they saw only the scenery around them. There was still no sign of their true attacker.

"What was the point of that?" Hana asked. "That was easier than anything we've ever done."

Miyuki crossed her arms. "It was to wear us down a little." She looked to their partners. "I mean, sure, they didn't use a lot of energy, but they're going to need everything they have, and maybe more, if we're going to make it out of this battle alive. And this thing knows it, too. I'm pretty sure this was his plan, all along. Wear us down before showing his own ugly mug."

"Very perceptive," the same voice spoke. Dark bits of data came together to form a Digimon above them, seeming to stand on an invisible platform. It was brown and blue, with long arms ending in pale maroon claws. He had large, dark blue pauldrons on each of his shoulders.

"Name: Diaboromon. Classification: Virus. Threat: Critical."

"That's the first 'critical' we've got..." Kiira whispered.

Due to the distance, they couldn't see his expression, but the evil smirk was clear in his voice when he spoke. "We finally meet, face to face."

"Yeah," Hana said. "We do."

"How did you even get here?" Palmon asked. "The rest of us were either pulled in here by you, or our coding matched something the humans programmed you. What program got you stuck in here?"

Diaboromon shook his head. "I'm afraid you're mistaken. I never came from the Digital World. I was programmed straight into this world's internet."

"So you were made by a hacker..." Yumi whispered. "Who was it? Who programmed you?"

There was a long pause, and the smirk was back in the Mega's voice. "Don't you recognize your own creation?"

Time seemed to stop as his words sunk in.

"No..." she finally said. "That's... that's not possible. I would never... I didn't..."

"Four years ago," he stated. "That was when I was programmed. When you brought me into this world, Yumi Orihara."

She was about to deny it when a thought occurred to her. She remembered. Young, eleven year old Yumi had wanted to see if she could create the ultimate virus. She was never going to send it anywhere, she just wanted to see if she could do it. She thought she hadn't... "You were already gone..." she said. "When I went to check again, there was nothing. I thought I failed. But you... you jumped into the internet." And then it hit her like a bus. "This is my fault... All of the troubles the Real World has been having because of this... the Digimon getting pulled in here from their home... all of the innocent Data Digimon that were forced to attack us and their friends... Leomon... All of it was my fault..."

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault," Miyuki told her, though her hardened gaze was fixed on Diaboromon. "You had no idea what was going to happen. Saying it was your fault would be like saying it was the Wright Brothers' fault that the World Trade Center was taken out in America. If you had meant for some evil Virus to take over the internet and trap us all here, okay, yeah, it would be your fault. But it's not." She finally locked eyes with the lavender haired girl. "And if you still feel responsible... you can make up for it by helping us take out this freak."

Cerberumon nodded at his partner. "She's right, you know," he told her. "So come on. Let's get to work."

"Thousand Spells!" Taomon yelled, attacking first. The talismans appeared around their opponent, but he showed no reaction when they detonated. He simply waved away the smoke, jumping from his invisible ledge to the ground. He wasn't as large as they had been expecting him to be, maybe twice as tall as Taomon, if that.

He tilted his head in an almost taunting manner. "Is that the best you've got?" he asked mockingly.

Phantomon glared, raising his scythe. "Shadow Scythe!" he yelled, but as the blade came down, Diaboromon's arm shot out, blocking it by hitting the staff, causing it to go flying.

"Cable Crusher!" he yelled in retaliation, attacking the Ultimate with his claws. Almost immediately, Phantomon was sent flying just like his weapon before returning to his Rookie form, too weak to continue the fight.

"DemiDevimon!" Miyuki yelled, running over to her partner, who had luckily landed far enough away from the battle. "You okay?"

"Been better," he admitted.

Lillymon flew above Diaboromon, putting her arms together. "Flower Cannon!" she yelled. To her surprise, he reached a hand up and caught the blast, crushing it in his fist.

"Cable Crusher!" he attacked, attacking her as he had done to Phantomon. Similarly, she was forced into her own Rookie form when she landed. Taomon didn't even get the chance to raise her brush before she was targeted, as well. "Cable Crusher!" the Mega called out again. The result was the same as the others.

Hana ran over to her partner, noticing Kiira already by her own partner's side. "Renamon, are you alright?"

"I'll be fine," the yellow fox said weakly. "I just... need a moment."

Cerberumon growled a little to himself. He looked back at Yumi, who was still in shock about the bomb Diaboromon had dropped on them all. He agreed with Miyuki, Yumi wasn't to blame, but the hacker wasn't convinced. Looks like he'd be doing this on his own.

"Emerald Blaze!" he yelled.

Diaboromon had no reaction to green inferno surrounding him. All he did was wave a hand and the flames died immediately. "Cable Crusher!"

Yumi finally snapped out of it and ran to Labramon's side as soon as he landed. "No..." she whispered, convinced that her partner's wounds were her fault.

"And now, to take care of the rest of you."

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

Yue Tachikawa looked up from the monitors. She had been keeping track of the data signals she'd been getting from the girls and their anti-viruses. They'd been fluctuating a lot, but the signals from the anti-viruses were at an all time low. Something had to be wrong...

"Sir?" she said. Her boss, Daichi Kagurazawa, looked over. "We have a problem."

"What is it?" he asked, walking around the large console to look at her monitor. There was a large screen filling the wall behind them, showing a world map. The landmasses had initially all been red, but many parts were now black. This showed areas that had been affected by this mysterious super virus his people had been tasked with monitoring.

The woman pointed to the small screen in front of her with a pen. "I think they're in trouble," she said. "If their protection is this weak, this could be very bad. These girls are in danger."

"It was a mistake to send children..." he whispered, mentally chastising himself for putting young lives in danger. "Do you have a lock on them?"

"I do," Yue replied.

"Get them out of there."

Yue nodded, already beginning to type. It was a complicated process to initiate the program to bring the girls back from the internet. It would take some time. She and Daichi just hoped that they would last that long.

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

"I knew we weren't ready..." Yumi whispered. "We're not going to make it..."

"We have to," Hana said, trying to convince not only the others, but herself, as well. "So many people are counting on us. If we fail..."

"Let's not use the word fail," Miyuki commented.

Diaboromon gave an amused chuckle. "Your partners are useless. What do you think you, mere humans, will be able to do against me?"

Miyuki was about to respond when another feeling hit her. This one was worse than anything she'd ever felt before. Something very bad was about to happen. And it was about to happen to Hana.

Even before the Mega raised his arms, the brunette yelled, "Harusawa, move!"

Hana looked over at her, not understanding. "What?" she asked.

"MOVE!" Before anyone could react, Miyuki was running.

As soon as she reached the blonde, she pushed her out of the way just as Diaboromon called out, "System Failure!"

A black sphere, crackling with energy, flew from his hand, hitting Miyuki in the ribcage. Her eyes widened as the pain hit. The others watched in stunned silence as she slowly began to disappear, data streaming off of her, starting in her legs, slowly working its way up. In a matter of moments, Miyuki Otori was gone.

"No!" Hana yelled. The other girl had just taken a hit, a fatal hit, to save her life, and she paid the price for it. She clenched her fists. There had to be something she could—

Her train of thought was cut off when an odd sensation came over her. It felt the same as when they had been sent into the internet. She looked to the others to see that they were fading, and looking down at her hands, she saw that she was, as well.

They were going home.

Next time:
Daichi: I don't understand. There was another person in there with you?
Kiira: Yeah. But now she's gone...
Hana: We need to find her parents. They need to know what happened.
Yue: Did you learn anything about the Virus that could help us?
Yumi: ...

Oh my god! I have been wanting to write this since the concept of Digimon Hacked! first came to mind. Now, I know Diaboromon is kind of a standard, already used, villain, but I have a reason. Whenever I think of a Digimon that could be considered 'the ultimate computer virus', I think Diaboromon. This is probably because of the movies.

And be honest. Were any of you able to guess that Yumi was behind our big bad?

See ya on the flipside~ Elisa out~