A/N: Get yourselves ready; things are gonna heat up in this chapter!

It was a clear, mild morning on Server, only a few days after Oikawa gave his mission to the others, who had since left the vicinity of the Giga House for a more remote hideout. Before Datirimon had woken up, Arukenimon and Mummymon had left a note saying they had gone off to look for their car, leaving Datirimon to do whatever he wanted. Thus, Datirimon had decided to visit the beach and look around.

And there he was at the moment, strolling down the shore and watching the waves crash onto the sand. The waves made such a nice sound and the sand was so warm and pillowy that Datirimon almost wondered if he would suddenly go from walking to sleepwalking. As he was walking, he remembered everything that Yukio had told them.

If we're gonna be heroes, we have to find people to help. But...I'm a baby digimon, and even though Mummymon and Arukenimon are Ultimates, they might still have a bad reputation in most parts of the Digital World. Yukio said it hasn't been that long since they were evil, so...but I still remember what he said about how they could show everyone that they're not evil anymore. I mean, if Ken could do it...

He looked up at the cloudless sky. I just hope whoever we help actually gives them a chance to explain. The two did some bad things, and even if someone just sees them walking around, they may assume they're up to no good. It makes me wonder: did Yukio tell anyone else that we were gonna be heroes, or did he only tell us? What if the Digidestined come back? Will they trust us? I know Ken used to be evil, and I think one of their digimon partners - Gatomon, was it? - used to work for Myotismon. So maybe they'll listen to us.

To his left, near the waves, he saw a large black rock. He walked over to the side that faced the waves, took a seat, and stared at the ocean. But what is that evil power that Yukio was talking about? I don't think it's Myotismon, since I heard his soul was destroyed. Elecmon also told us about the Dark Masters and the Seven Great Demon Lords...is it one of them? More of them, even? Maybe it's someone we've never heard about? And what are they trying to do, anyway? I wish Yukio could've told us more...

Datirimon was lost in thought as he continued watching the waves roll in; at this point, anything could happen. The waves were so hypnotic that time seemed to blur for him...

...which is why he almost jumped when he began hearing a couple more voices.

He couldn't easily pick out any words from these two voices, but he was still wondering. Is that...no, it can't be. Arukenimon and Mummymon don't sound like that...so who...?

When he glanced in the direction of the voices, and saw one blob of pink-and-grey, and another of green, he decided to disregard the voices; they obviously weren't interested in him. At least, not as far as he knew. Thus, he returned his attention to the waves for a while. He stared and stared, but the voices were not going away. In fact, they were getting closer than ever, and he soon found himself able to more clearly hear what they were saying.

"...the rings can adjust to fit. Kinda like a rubber band, but not quite the same."

"But what about digimon who don't have hands, like me? If I didn't know about the rings and wanted one, that is."

"We can find somewhere else to put them. Like, if we found another Numemon, one who wasn't on our side, we could put it around his eyestalk, or his tooth, or something."

"Shellmon, this isn't a 'we' kind of thing. You heard what Mamemon said; we have to let Divermon handle things to avoid accidentally ringing ourselves."

Datirimon, who couldn't help but overhear the conversation, had a rather confused look on his face. What was up with these rings, and why shouldn't these two wear them? He could hear the two sit down on the other side of the rock as they continued their conversation.

"Yeah, but couldn't he at least bring us along when we trick the Digidestined?"

Trick the Digidestined? Datirimon felt himself tense up; were these guys going to do something evil? He seriously hoped it was just going to be a harmless prank...

"Well, Shellmon, what've we got to help Divermon win over the Digidestined? We can't dance, we can't walk..."

"We can so walk! And what does it have to do with anything?"

"We can move, but since we don't have legs, I wouldn't call it walking. If we were able to do a confident strut, you see, it'd make us look cooler. And anyway, you saw how we screwed up in front of MetalSeadramon. We can't even talk a convincing talk!"

MetalSeadramon? Isn't that one of the Dark Masters? Datirimon started sweating a little. But maybe it's a different one...

"Yeah, well, what are we supposed to do, then?"

"Fight, maybe?"

"But we're Champions! What good are we gonna be when MetalSeadramon and his army start hunting down all the Ultimates and Megas?"

They're gonna do what? Datirimon gasped. Did the army know that Arukenimon and Mummymon had come back? How was he gonna explain this to-

"Hey, Numemon, is it just me, or did this boulder just gasp?"

Datirimon froze. Oh, no...

"Shellmon, you and I both know that boulders don't gasp."

"But what about Gotsumon?"

"Those are rock monsters. This is just a rock."

For a moment, Datirimon felt like breathing a sigh of relief.

"Look, I'll prove it to you!"

And then he broke into a cold sweat. As the others came around the rock, he turned towards the rock and crouched down, trying so hard to avoid being seen.

"See, Shellmon? No one's here but us."

"Yeah, but that's a weird green pebble right there..."

Before Datirimon could react, he felt a big hand grabbing him, and he found himself face-to-face with Shellmon and Numemon.

"That's no pebble..." Shellmon held Datirimon at eye level as he spoke. "That's a Datirimon! What do you think you're doing here?"

Datirimon felt chills inside. "Watching the ocean..."

Numemon glared at him. "Uh-huh. Likely excuse. How much of our discussion did you hear?"

With a nervous laugh, Datirimon gave them a weird look. "What discussion?"

"The one we were just having. Don't act like you weren't eavesdropping on us!"

Shellmon brought him closer. "Yeah! We're not stupid! You're gonna tell all your friends about us, aren't you?"

Not wanting them to know he had heard them, Datirimon, noticing the grass-like shock of hair on Shellmon's head, thought of a decoy subject quickly. "Why would they care if you guys were talking about lawnmowers?"

"Lawnmowers...?" Shellmon and Numemon's aggressive looks changed to perplexed looks.

Finally, Shellmon spoke. "What the heck are you talking about? We weren't talking about lawnmowers! We were talking about Metal-"

"Music!" Numemon suddenly shouted as Shellmon realized his error. "Metal music! 'Cause we listened to this one group that made a rock opera about the Dark Masters, and we can't stop talking about it!"

Shellmon laughed nervously. "Yeah, man, how about those guitar solos? I did so much headbanging, I'm surprised my neck is okay!" Thanks, Numemon. You saved me from my big mouth!

Numemon nodded. "And...and we heard the rock opera because our friend, who's a jeweler, had it playing in his store! He said it was one of his favorite songs!"

A bead of sweat ran down Datirimon's forehead. "Heh...well, that sounds interesting. Who made it?"

"I don't know; I forgot to ask our friend." Shellmon set Datirimon down onto the sand and patted him on the head. "Well, you seem like a good guy, but Numemon and I have to go pretty soon."

Datirimon weakly smiled. "Well, okay-"

"Wait a minute..." Numemon glared at Datirimon, much to the latter's surprise. "If you thought we were talking about lawnmowers, what was with the gasp?"

"Um..." Datirimon quivered a bit. "I was watching the waves, and one of them rolled in pretty close, and I thought it was gonna take me away?"

Numemon blinked. "Four Gods, you're paranoid."

"Yeah, riptides aren't that common around here." Shellmon looked out at the horizon. "I should know; I go swimming around here sometimes, and I've never-"

"Datirimon? What's going on here?"

The three turned around at the sound of the new voice; it was none other than Mummymon, who had just stepped out onto the shore and was giving them a confused look.

Before Datirimon could say anything, though, Numemon gasped. "Holy sludge! He's back!"

An equally-horrified look was on Shellmon's face. "Yeah, he's back! What are we gonna do?"

"You know who I'm talking about?"

"No, who is he?"

Numemon groaned. "Don't tell me you don't know Mummymon! One of the 'digimon of the two forms'? I heard he and his girlfriend threw the Digital World into chaos!"

Girlfriend...? Datirimon paused. Does he mean Arukenimon? It matches Yukio's story, but she doesn't even want to be his friend, let alone his girlfriend...

Shellmon dug his fingers into the sand. "No matter what he is, let's get rid of him now!"

"I'm on it! Hi-yah!" Numemon flung some sludge in Mummymon's direction, and he jumped backwards.

"Wait! I'm not-"

"Aqua Blaster!" Shellmon fired some water at Mummymon.

Datirimon watched Mummymon barely dodge the attacks, and he turned towards the others and glared.

"Leave my friend alone!"

As soon as he was done saying that, a bright light enveloped his body.

"What the-?" Numemon and Shellmon dropped what they were doing and stared at what transpired before them. Even Mummymon was a little surprised!

"Datirimon digivolve to..." He burst out of the digivolution egg, now sporting four feet, a new face, and a stem with two leaves. "...Tanemon!"

Numemon, having quickly gotten over the shock, rolled his eyes. "Oh, no. An In-Training digimon. Whatever are we to do? It's not like we're Champions or anything."

Shellmon smirked. "I can do this! Aqua Blaster!"

He fired another stream of water, this time at Tanemon, who could just feel it graze him as he leapt out of the way.

"Bubble Blow!" Tanemon fired some bubbles at Shellmon, who just smiled, shook his head, and withdrew into his shell right before they hit him.

"Nice try." Numemon started snickering. "But it'll take more than some bubbles for us to-"

"There you are! Finally!"

Tanemon and Mummymon looked out at one end of the beach, and there was Arukenimon, running up to them, looking very irritated.

"Arukeni!" Mummymon ran up to her. "It's nice to see-"

Her fist met his jaw in a rather unpleasant collision. As he fell onto the sand, she glared at him. "Next time you find the car, stay where I can find you. You know I hate having to walk everywhere!"

"Sorry, pumpkin..." Mummymon glanced over at the confused Tanemon. "Oh, did I tell you we found our car?"

"No."

"Well, we did."

"Great!"

With a horrified look on his face, Shellmon pointed at Arukenimon. "Four Gods! He brought his girlfriend!"

"One of 'em's fine, but two is too much!" Numemon hopped onto Shellmon's shell. "Let's get outta here!"

Mummymon started forward. "Hold on! We're not-"

"You haven't seen the last of us!" Shellmon pushed himself into the water, and started swimming away.

Numemon's voice rang out across the water before they disappeared. "We'll be back before you know it!"

Mummymon, looking slightly panicked, ran up to where the water met the sand. "We're not evil anymore!"

"And I'm not his girlfriend!" Arukenimon let out an aggravated sigh. Seriously, how hard is that to figure out?

When he was sure that Shellmon and Numemon couldn't hear him anymore, Tanemon looked up at Mummymon and Arukenimon. "Uh, guys? They're not going after you because you used to be evil. They're going after you because you're Ultimates."

"What are you talking about?" Arukenimon gave him a look of disbelief, and Mummymon also tilted his head in confusion.

"I overheard them talking about a plan to hunt down all the Ultimates and Megas."

"They're Champions, Datirimon."

"Tanemon."

"Whatever! The point is, two Champions don't stand a chance against every Ultimate and Mega in the Digital World."

"But apparently, they're working for MetalSeadramon, and there's a huge army..."

"MetalSeadramon? As in the Dark Master?"

Tanemon looked at Mummymon. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"I read a book about them once." Mummymon looked at the recently-formed clouds in the sky. "You think maybe that's the evil power the boss was talking about?"

"Well, I haven't heard of any other villains around. Maybe it is."

Mummymon started walking away from the ocean. "Since we have our car now, maybe we should go back to the hideout."

Tanemon followed him. "Yeah, we can discuss the plan there without worrying about when MetalSeadramon and the others are gonna attack. What do you think, Arukenimon?"

"As long as I don't have to walk the whole way..." She joined them on the short walk.

Soon, they reached the yellow jeep and got in. As they drove to the hideout, Mummymon told the story of how he found the car.

"...but shortly after I called Arukenimon, I heard your voice from the beach." He looked at Tanemon. "I was wondering if everything was okay, so I decided to check for a moment. But as you know, it ended up being longer than a moment."

Arukenimon leaned back in her seat. "Don't remind me."

Eventually, they reached their current hideout, an unassuming house in the middle of the woods. When they all got inside, Tanemon took a seat in one of the living room's chairs.

"...I've been thinking."

"What's on your mind?" Mummymon sat down in one of the chairs next to him.

"Since MetalSeadramon's hunting down all the Ultimates and Megas, maybe you two should, you know...lay low for a while?"

"You mean stay here?"

"Yeah. And maybe I can go out and see if I can learn anything else that might be helpful."

Arukenimon scoffed. "You're out of your mind."

"Well, what do you think we should do? I'm an In-Training digimon; they'll be less likely to go after me."

"And how do you plan on getting around? You can't even drive."

Tanemon gave her a "Seriously?" kind of look. "I can walk. It's not that bad. And if someone suspicious or dangerous comes along, I can hide. Besides, you never answered my question: if my idea is dumb, what should we do instead?"

Arukenimon paused, thinking for a moment. They had to get information somehow, but if MetalSeadramon's army was hunting down Ultimates and Megas, she and Mummymon would probably be two of the major targets. And Tanemon, unlike them, had yet to build up any kind of reputation in the Digital World, positive or negative. But an In-Training digimon, her master's partner, no less, going out to interrogate others? Who was going to take him seriously?

Finally, she sighed. "Just don't let yourself get killed. If Oikawa finds out about it, he'll never let Mummymon and me hear the end of it, even if you do come back."

"I'll be careful."

So, for the next four days, Arukenimon and Mummymon stayed in the house while Tanemon went out to try to gather information, and he would always return at sunset with whatever he learned. Day one yielded no information, but on day two, he learned that there was an island where some chaos of some sort was going on (that was all that the digimon he talked to knew about the island). On the third day, he heard a rumor about some rings (possibly the ones Shellmon and Numemon were speaking of); specifically, he had heard that the rings do...something to alter the internal digivolution mechanics. Finally, the fourth night, July 30th, didn't have him hearing about MetalSeadramon or anything to do with his plans. Instead, the Digital World was abuzz for the upcoming celebration of the Digidestined, as August 1st was the anniversary of their arrival. On the next day, their digimon partners would come to the Digital World and plan a party (that would occur on the first day of August) for their human partners; many denizens of the Digital World were waiting with bated breath, curious as to what their heroes would do on the day of celebration.

Arukenimon, however, couldn't care less. "I wish they could have given us some actually-useful information, instead of 'There's gonna be a party for the digi-brats!' Do any of them even know about the rumors going around?"

Tanemon, watching the weather forecasts on the nearby television, shrugged. "Maybe not. I mean, we didn't know about what kind of evil was brewing until I overheard MetalSeadramon's minions the other day. And those other digimon probably think the rumors are just rumors." For all they knew, some digimon, jealous of the attention the Digidestined were getting, could have just started a nasty rumor about one of their old foes returning, hoping that they'd cancel their party.

Mummymon leaned against the wall. "Maybe the Digidestined can stop MetalSeadramon. They've done it once before, and they've only gotten stronger since."

"I'll just be glad when this whole thing is over." Arukenimon took a sip of coffee.

Eventually, she decided to go to bed, and Mummymon followed not long after. Tanemon, meanwhile, continued watching TV, flipping through the different channels until deciding to settle on the music channel. He watched music videos, both from the Digital World and from Earth, until he drifted off; appropriately enough, the video that was playing as he fell asleep featured puppets singing about a world of chaos.

Meanwhile, on the faraway island, MetalSeadramon's army was making their final preparations. Asuramon, the leader of one of the squads, was barking out orders as his underlings ran through various drills. Shellmon, Numemon, and some other minions were having target practice in another part of the island. Mamemon was radioing the Server stronghold, making sure everything there was running smoothly. And Divermon was talking to MetalSeadramon; both were taking a sadistic glee in the anticipation of the plot finally coming to fruition.

"So, you know where the Digidestined are going to be?" MetalSeadramon asked.

Divermon nodded. "You'd be surprised as to how much everyone else knows about the party! Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they knew more about it than the Digidestined!"

MetalSeadramon laughed. "They're gonna wish they kept quiet about it! This is gonna be rich!"

"And I have the rings all ready to go. Tomorrow morning, I'm heading out!"

"Excellent!" MetalSeadramon looked up at the partly-cloudy sky. "You hear that, Digidestined? By the first of August, you're not gonna be celebrating your victories! You're gonna be celebrating me! And that's if we don't kill you!"

His evil laughter could be heard from almost everywhere else on the island.

A/N: Next time, Divermon gives a "friendly gift of appreciation" to the Digidestined...