Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Building Smoke

Izzy groaned in exhaustion. Heavy bags lined his eyes as they looked over long lines of code for the hundredth time. It has been a few days since the fights and everyone seemed tired, especially the Bearer of Knowledge. "ARGH! What's with these codes!?" Izzy sighed. He grabbed his cup of coffee and swallowed the entire cup in one sitting. He took a gasp of air and returned to his computer. The Bearer of Knowledge jumped when he felt something on his shoulder.

"Anything yet Izzy?" Matt asked. The Bearer of Friendship looked equally tired, looking at another screen in the room.

"Tch, no. These codes are encrypted so well that my programs can't decipher them. Anything on the radar?"

"No." Matt sighed resting his head on the desk. "How do you think he's doing?" he asked.

"Cheer up Matt." Gabumon said as he lumbered into the room. "We'll find him soon. Something's bound to happen eventually."

"Yeah, but will we be ready for it?" Izzy said, looking over his data once more. "If I can discover the codes that differentiate Tai's watch and our Digivices, then perhaps I can potentially upgrade ours as well."

"But you have squat." Tentomon buzzed into the room.

"Yeah…" Izzy admitted. "The programs I have running it aren't responding to any of these codes as if they are… different – THAT'S IT!" The Digidestined furiously typed into his computer.

"You got something Izzy?" Matt yawned, picking up his cup of coffee.

"Yeah, I thought these codes were different because they were a newer model of the Digivice."

"Isn't it?" Matt questioned, remembering the programs that the watch could do.

"Let me finish. Though I could easily identify the original Digivice's coding in Tai's device, I found unidentified codes in it as well that created the upgrades. Using the D3 data as a base, I created a program to find the new coding."

"My head hurts." Tentomon complained, "Cut to the chase if you don't mind Izzy."

"If the codes weren't new, then they are probably older codes."

"Older?" Matt asked, taking another sip of his drink.

"Yeah, perhaps this is an inert code that was already in the Digivice, not like the codes that created the D3's. Hold on I just need to modify my program a bit." Izzy murmured while typing. "Alright! This should – ACK! Matt! What's wrong with you?!"

Izzy scrambled to grab a towel to wipe away the coffee from his machines before they damage the circuits. He turned over to Matt to yell at him, but noticed that the Bearer of Friendship had collapsed on the desk.

"NO! MATT!" He turned to the Digimon. "Make sure he's alright, I'll call an ambulance." Suddenly the phone rang.

"Hello?" He asked.

- Izzy!

"Mimi? What's the matter?"

- It's Sora, she collapsed all of a sudden!

"What? The same thing happened with Matt!"

- Oh no! Did you call the hospital?

"I'll do it now, did you?"

- Kari's calling right now. What's happening Izzy?

"I don't know… Alright then I'll go and call the – AH!" Izzy exclaimed. Pain seared through his chest. It felt like a heart attack, but then it started to drain his energy. All his strength left him, and he collapsed on the floor.

- Izzy? IZZY!

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Tai paced nervously in front of the hospital door. Koromon bounced along on by his side. "Tai." His friend squeaked, knowing that in some way, he was blaming himself.

The Bearer of Courage picked up his friend. "Come on buddy, let's see if anything's happened."

"It's only been ten minutes." Koromon sighed.

Tai entered the hospital room, his five of his friends slept in the beds. The doctors told him that all of them had collapsed from exhaustion. He scoffed at the memory and sat next to Matt's bed. Their Digimon partners also collapsed at the same time. A ruckus appeared at the door and moments later, the remaining Digidestined funneled into the room.

"Are they still out?" Kari asked worriedly, handing him a canned drink.

"Cold." Tai replied.

"Well it was straight from the vending machine." DemiVeemon chuckled, trying to lighten the mood, and failing.

"Why do you think this happened?" Gatomon sighed.

The group thought for a moment. "Maybe it has something to do with their crests?" Cody suggested. "They did say that Dagomon had orbs that had the crest symbols inside of them."

"But even if Deamon is behind all of this, how do we get to the Dark Ocean." Upamon pointed out. "Ken could struggle to open a gate, but he got kidnapped."

"Right." Poromon sighed. "I believe it is fruitless to attack them directly."

"He's right." Cody said. "There's nothing much we can do but wait for them to come to us."

"So what do we do now?" Davis asked.

Tai lifted up his Digivice. "Well, Izzy was researching about this for the last couple of days. So maybe he had something before he crashed.

"Alright then!" Davis suddenly declared. "We're going to Izzy's!"

"Quiet down in there." A passing nurse scolded.

"Ah, sorry." Davis whispered. Demiveemon and Minomon hopped over to Izzy's bed and took his keys.

"Let's go!" The blue Digimon chuckled. The group left as swiftly as they came. Tai chuckled and prepared to follow them. He put his hands into his pockets and felt something in them. Pulling out a piece of paper, Tai read the small amount of text

Kari poked her head back into the room. "Tai, are you coming?" She asked sweetly.

"What? Um, no." Tai said, slipping the note back into his pocket. "Something came up."

"Alright then, see you later."

"Bye, and don't let Davis wreck the computer."

"Hey!" Davis exclaimed from the hallway. "It's not my fault I keep getting the millionth visitor prizes!"

"Will do." Kari said before leaving.

Tai took another glance at his sleeping friends and quickly left the room with Koromon bouncing quickly to catch up.

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He clicked on the lights and groaned at mess that appeared out of the darkness. Papers were scattered about on the floor, boxes knocked over with their contents spilling out with a trail leading to a messy hiding place.

"So that's how she found me." Sigma chuckled to himself. He rummaged through the debris and started to cram various objects back into the boxes. "Wow, this stuff is so old." The teen commented. Old cellphones, homework sheets, and knickknacks went back into their boxes.

He continued to put away the various objects, stopping occasionally to brush his bangs away from his face. Sigma picked up an object and paused to look at it. "Weird, did Neo leave things over here again?" He fingered the cracks and sharp edges on the metallic mask, and then looked over at the time. "I'm sure they're home."

Sigma headed for the door, then took a glimpse at the mess that remained behind him. "I'll do it later." He convinced himself as he left.

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"Hi Mrs. Izumi." Kari greeted as the group entered into the house.

"Hello Kari." Izzy's mother greeted. "Is Izzy alright?" She added worriedly.

"Yes, the doctor said that he'll recover once he gets some rest." Kari answered.

"Alright then." She sighed with relief and let the group into the house.

The younger Digidestined went into Izzy's room. They looked at the codes that he had been looking at. After a moment or so, most of them could hear Davis groan at the amount of text streaming across the screen. "So do you guys know how to work this thing?" Davis studdered.

Yolie cracked her fingers and sat down on the coffee smelling chair. "No problem." She chuckled.

After a few minutes, Yolie slammed her head on the table in frustration. "Big problem." She complained.

"Are you alright?" Poromon asked worriedly.

She rubbed her eyes and went back computer. "Yeah, it's harder than I anticipated. No wonder it took Izzy a while. But with all the work he put in I should have this finished in no time!"

-LATER-

"I can't do this." Yolie groaned in despair.

"Maybe you need a break." Cody suggested. "You can't accomplish much if you're tired. I don't think any of us have gotten any sleep ever since the attacks."

"Yeah, I'll go lie down for a bit." She agreed.

"I'll take over." Davis said.

"What." The others said flatly.

"What?" Davis asked back, sitting down on the chair.

Kari and Cody looked at Yolie. Since neither Ken nor Tk were here now, Yolie had to deal with Davis over the last couple of days. She sighed. "Whatever, just don't break it."

"Really?" Poyomon asked.

"Come on, if Izzy couldn't do it, do you think Davis can?"

"No, but he might break it, and then Izzy will go to jail!" Upamon whimpered.

"Come on!" Davis exclaimed. "It's not like it'll explode if I touch it!"

"I don't have the energy to deal with this." Yolie sighed, turning to the door. "Let him do what he wants. As long as he doesn't break it then – " Yolie got cut off by a loud alarm. "DAVIS WHAT DID I JUST SAY?!"

"I didn't touch it!" Davis cringed.

"It's coming from here!" Kari said, pointing out to a laptop next to the computer.

"What is it saying?" Demiveemon said as he jumped up to desk level to look at the screen.

"A disaster is occurring in the Digital World." Kari read. "They're here."

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Earlier:

"Do you have it?" Deamon impatiently asked.

"Of course." Dagomon said. He tossed a Black Spore to the Deamon Lord. The black sphere hummed with power and pulsed quickly. "We need only one more Crest before they are all like that." The aquatic Digimon reported.

"Great! Or as that annoying Digidestined girl keeps saying, 'Perfecto'." Deamon chortled at Ken's expense. The Bearer of Kindness looked bad and had Tk sleeping next to him. Ken gave no response to the comment, all of his spite faded a few days ago. Now he just wanted to go home. "Tsk, no fun anymore." The Demon Lord of Wrath commented. "SKULLSATAMON!"

"YES SIR!" SkullSatamon screamed into Deamon's face.

"DON'T – sigh – don't do that. Here." Deamon said before handing the spore over to the skeleton.

"So it's my turn." He chuckled, sizing up the pulsing item in his hand. "Who are we getting now?"

Deamon hovered to the cage and pulled out Tk. "Tie him up and try not to damage him too much." He said, tossing the boy at SkullSatamon.

"Why?" SkullSatamon asked, considering the lack of strength he actually had to use to crush every bone in the DigiDestined's body.

"Because having a live hostage will be better than having a dead one." Deamon explained.

SkullSatamon gave TK a soft growl before shifting the sound back to his usual chuckle. "Fine then, but you still have to tell me who you want me to target."

Deamon opened a portal. "It's pretty dark in this place." The Demon Lord stated. "It'll be great if we had something to Light-en up the place."

"Perfect." SkullSatamon chuckled as he entered the portal.

As the portal closed, Deamon brought his claw to his chin under his cloak. "MarineDevimon." He ordered.

The demon emerged from the black waters and bowed in front of Deamon. "You called for me Master?"

Deamon tossed him a Black Spore and created another portal. "Watch him."

"As you wish." MarineDevimon bowed before heading into the portal.

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Tai stepped out of the computer and swiftly walked down the Tokyo streets again. "Tai, why are we here?" Koromon asked.

"I need to talk to them again." Tai answered, much to the confusion of the other people in the street.

"Rei and the others? Why?"

"Because I just realized, if Neo also crashed, then maybe he has some memories as well! So if we match up what we remember, then maybe we can discover something to help take down Deamon!" Tai grinned as he continued to race down the street.

"That's great!" Koromon exclaimed. "So how do we get to their house again?"

Tai suddenly stopped in the middle of the street. "Crap."

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Hey guys... It's been a while. Things have been crazy here and cooldown chapters aren't my forte, but here it is.

Well anyways, thanks for reading. Special thanks to those who followed and favorited.

Another thanks to : Kojo208, Brandon-mudk, Emeraldpichu, AntauriFangirl13, and guest for reviewing.

Till next time,

-453