A/N: This chapter doesn't feature the protagonists at all; it's one hundred percent the antagonists and their plan.

Some ways off the coast of Server, there lay a small uncharted island. While this was far from the only uncharted island in the Digital World, something about this uncharted island was especially peculiar. This island bore signs of a multitude of at least somewhat-civilized digimon living there...so why didn't it appear on any maps? It wasn't even that far from Server; while one location couldn't be seen from the shores of the other, it wasn't a very long trip for those who knew the way.

And indeed, as the sun was rising, several digimon of all stripes, from the aquatic creatures and mechanicals to the forest monsters and demons of darkness and everything in between, were flocking to this very island. They all had one location on their minds, and it was the pavilion at the center of the island.

The pavilion was dominated by a large rectangular pool, which itself was surrounded by a stone surface that stretched out a moderate distance. On one end of the pool, there lay a desk with a slide projector, along with the projection screen. A strange aquatic humanoid was loading some slides into the projector when another digimon, a metallic orb with arms and legs, ran up to him.

"Divermon! Have you accurately summarized my research?"

Divermon looked up from the projector. "Yeah, I tried to do it in a way we all can understand."

"But did you summarize it accurately? My research data is very specific, after all."

"Look, Mamemon, not everyone understands the technical terms you use. Heck, even I could barely understand half of what you were saying when you told me about your experiments! Remember how I had to keep asking you what you meant?"

"Yes, well, if you summarize it in the most accurate way possible, the audience may find it easier to understand without having to ask questions. Since you brought a visual aid, we should have to worry much less about whether or not the terminology is too complicated."

Divermon was about to comment when two more voices called out.

"Divermon! Mamemon!"

"Hey, guys!"

Mamemon sighed. "Oh, not those two..."

A Shellmon and a Numemon were rapidly approaching them, looking rather excited.

Shellmon moved right beside Mamemon and Divermon. "Did you guys start the presentation yet?"

Numemon approached on the other side. "We're not late, are we?"

Mamemon folded his arms. "Let's see...the two of us were the only ones present until you made your arrivals, and the four of us are still the only ones here, when not even MetalSeadramon himself is accounted for? That seems to be a completely optimal time to begin a presentation, doesn't it?"

Numemon looked at the slide projector. "We just wanted to know if you guys needed any help with your presentation."

"Help?" Divermon gave them a weird stare. "You guys don't even know what our presentation's about!"

Shellmon nudged him with his elbow. "C'mon, guys, don't you think you could use a couple of extra guys to help explain the plan?"

"Well, what about the research?"

"What about the research?"

Divermon rested a hand on his hip. "When we do it, you're never there! You think you can explain the plan when you don't even know what it is?"

Numemon slithered over. "Just give us the notes, and we can study them before the others get here!"

Walking over to the desk drawer, Divermon opened the drawer, pulled out a packet of notes, and handed them off to Shellmon. "Go crazy."

Shellmon took the packet of notes and started thumbing through them. His eyes widened, and he started babbling incoherently.

"What? What is it?" Numemon moved next to Shellmon and took a look at the contents of the packet. Before long, his eyes widened as well. "Is this even written in our language?"

Mamemon walked up to Shellmon and took the notes. "Contrary to popular belief, these notes are indeed written in our language."

Divermon nodded. "Now, why don't you two be good little audience members and leave the presentation to us? We don't want to look like fools in front of MetalSeadramon, after all."

Shellmon shrugged. "Hey, we gave it a shot."

A little while later, after the sun had completely risen, the pavilion was filled with all manner of digimon; some were watching the pool, while others had their eyes on the projection screen, which currently had yet to display anything, as the others hadn't turned the projector on yet. Divermon was pacing in front of the projection screen, while Mamemon was staring at the pool, tapping his foot.

"Any second now..." he muttered.

When the water of the pool began vibrating, everyone stood back.

"I think he's coming!" a Vilemon cried out.

Sure enough, the upper body of a large, metallic sea serpent burst out of the water. His golden helmet glimmered in the sun, and water was dripping from the purple locks of his hair as he stared at all the gathered digimon, who all fell to their knees (or at least looked down) in respect.

Divermon walked up to the serpent and knelt down. "Good morning, MetalSeadramon. Your helmet looks exceptionally-"

"Yeah, yeah, cut to the chase." MetalSeadramon shot him a disapproving glare. "We came here to talk about the plan, not my helmet. Even if it is awesome."

"I have the notes right here, sir." Mamemon held up the aforementioned notes. "Divermon has prepared a slideshow to help us further understand the plan. Would you care to start that for us, Divermon?"

"Sure." Divermon began making his way to the slide projector.

"Brown-noser!" Numemon whispered as Divermon walked past.

"Shut up." Divermon switched on the slide projector, and the first slide appeared on the screen. It read as follows:

Operation: Stagnation

A plan to take over once and for all!

Research conducted by Mamemon and Divermon

Mamemon walked in front of the screen. "For some time now, Divermon and I have been conducting extensive research on ways to help the last Dark Master rule again. Of course, we quickly determined that our greatest obstacle comes in the form of the Digidestined, especially Tai Kamiya, their leader. His digimon, Agumon, is the one who, at the Mega level, wields the Dramon Destroyers, and those are what terminated MetalSeadramon's rule last time. Thus, in order to ensure that MetalSeadramon can rule without having to set up a large measure of resource-draining defense mechanisms, we decided that it was imperative that we find a way to prevent Agumon and his allies from being able to reach the Mega level."

Divermon switched the slide to one that showed the normal digivolution chart for a digimon.

"As we can plainly see, the Digidestined are normally able to utilize the various digivolution levels to suit their needs in battle. Divermon and I decided that we needed to develop a convenient, simple method to inhibit this process." Mamemon reached into the desk drawer and started rummaging through it. "After an extended amount of time, we finally conceived a method that was simple, yet efficient."

He pulled the invention out of the desk drawer and held it up for all to see.

The look on MetalSeadramon's face was not impressed. "You invented a ring?" Indeed, what Mamemon was holding looked merely like an ordinary golden ring.

"Ah, but this is no ordinary ring!" Mamemon looked at Shellmon. "Shellmon, would you come up here?"

"Finally, I get to help out!" Shellmon went up to Mamemon, who took his hand and slid the ring onto his finger. "Okay, now what?"

Mamemon smiled. "Now, try to remove it."

Shellmon grabbed the ring. "This shouldn't be too-"

He pulled, and the ring did not budge.

"Huh?" He tried tugging harder and harder, but no matter how hard he tugged, the ring stayed right where Mamemon had placed it. "Did you coat the inside of this with superglue or something?"

"Actually, he didn't." Divermon took Shellmon's hand and gave the ring a gentle tug, and the ring slid off just as easily as if it were a normal ring.

Shellmon was dumbfounded. "How...how did you do that?"

Mamemon took the ring back from Divermon, who switched the slide to a similar digivolution chart, only this new one featured a digimon with a ring on it, and the Ultimate and Mega levels were crossed out. Storing the ring in the drawer again, Mamemon continued his explanation. "These rings contain a mechanism that renders it impossible for any digimon up to and including those at the Champion level to remove them. Only an Ultimate or a Mega has the ability to remove these rings. However, we have created these rings in such a way that if a digimon wears one, the internal mechanisms within will inhibit the digimon's natural ability to reach a higher level, thus effectively causing the wearer's digivolution line to terminate at the Champion level."

MetalSeadramon gave Mamemon a slightly confused stare. "Have you been hanging out with Machinedramon? Say it again in my language, or at least talk more slowly!"

Divermon walked up next to Mamemon. "What he's saying is that if a digimon wears one of these rings, they can't digivolve to Ultimate or Mega. We tried to cut it off at Rookie, but we couldn't make a working prototype."

"Which leads me to the next phase of the plan..." Mamemon walked in front of the screen as Divermon switched the slide to one reading "It's Their Choice..." and showing a picture of MetalSeadramon's army on the left, and a skull-and-crossbones on the right. "Soon, I plan to have us hunt down all existing Ultimates and Megas who are not already part of our army. We will force them to choose between joining us or dying."

Numemon scoffed. "Oh, great, you wanna use force to convince our enemies that we're the best guys you'll ever meet. Yeah, like that's worked every time someone else tried! Seriously, who do you think we are, the Dark Masters?"

MetalSeadramon cleared his throat and glared at him. "Um, hello?"

Numemon gasped and looked up at MetalSeadramon. "Uh...the other Dark Masters?" He laughed nervously.

"Nice try." MetalSeadramon turned back towards Mamemon. "So how will you get them here?"

"We have Mushroomon concocting a special potion that causes whoever imbibes it to experience intense hallucinations. Once the potion is ready, we will offer it to other Ultimates and Megas in what appears to be a friendly gesture. After the potion takes effect, that will be our cue to lead the affected digimon to a prison cell. Eventually, when the effects wear off, we will present them with their choice."

"Yeah, and what do the rings have to do with all this?"

Divermon once more switched the slide; this time, it showed the Digidestined digimon, and text above read "A Special Present for Them".

"Somehow, we need to have the Digidestined digimon acquire these rings and wear them." Mamemon looked through the crowd. "Would any of you have any ideas as to how we're going to execute this plan?"

Numemon hopped up. "I say we put the rings in a treasure chest, bury it somewhere, and give the Digidestined a treasure map so they can find it!"

Some members of the audience cheered.

A Candlemon raised his hand. "I say we hold a fake awards show where they win in all of the categories, and give the rings out as prizes! This way, we know they'll actually wear them!"

More cheering.

A Roachmon waved all four of his arms in the air. "Hey, guys! Let's pretend to open a new jewelry store, and have them try on the rings as free samples! Way less suspicious!"

Even more cheering.

In the excitement, Shellmon threw a fist in the air. "I say we force them all to live in apartments with astronomically high rent, and when they can't pay the rent, we throw the rings on them and kick them out! It's brilliant!"

He let out some maniacal laughter, failing to notice that no one was cheering. As his laughter died down, he looked around and noticed that everyone was giving him odd stares. From Divermon and Mamemon, to the digimon in the crowd, to MetalSeadramon himself...even Numemon was staring at Shellmon like his ice cubes had just slipped out of his drink!

Finally, Divermon took a deep breath. "Shellmon?"

"Yeah?"

"You're weird."

"That's what they tell me."

"Anyway..." Divermon looked back at the crowd. "I actually was thinking that we could pretend to be nice and give them the rings as gifts to thank them for saving the Digital World." He smirked. "Of course, they'll have no idea that we're gonna put it right back into danger! And they won't be able to do a thing about it! Who's with me?"

The crowd erupted into cheers.

Mamemon nodded. "And after we deliver the rings to the Digidestined, we will deliver more to the rest of the population. They'll only be allowed to have their rings removed if they surrender to us and join our alliance."

MetalSeadramon gave Divermon and Mamemon an evil smile. "That's it. From now on, you two are gonna be my commanders!"

Once more, the crowd cheered.

Divermon knelt down. "No need to thank us, sir. It's what we're here for."

"Yeah, but I still need commanders."

"Well, there is that."

"Construction on our Server stronghold is almost complete." Mamemon gave the crowd a devious look. "Isn't this marvelous? Very soon, our plans will come to fruition. The last Dark Master will reign once again!"

And the crowd went wild.

The plan that MetalSeadramon's newly-minted commanders formed seemed to be foolproof...

...but was it?

A/N: Next chapter, the allies of Oikawa and the minions of MetalSeadramon collide.