"The Prisoner of the Pyramid"
OK, thank you to everyone for your suggestions. I really liked the Crest ideas I was given.
Determination, Strength, Harmony, but 5 people voted for Miracles. I guess I'll just have to wait to see what happens. I might also make up a chapter for Daisuke and V-Mon when they find her Crest. Thanks everyone and please enjoy and review!
"What is it, Izzy? Some kind of power generator?" Tai asked as we crowded around some weird looking metal box that was connected to the black cables.
"Even better, Etemon has hardwired the entire desert, creating an extensive computer network. My guess, this is one of the remote data access terminals." Izzy said.
"Great, let's crash it." Tai said.
"It could be a booby trap." Sora said as Izzy hooked up his lap top to the machine.
"If it is Etemon's, I say we cross the wires and mess it up good." Matt said.
"What are you going to do with that?" Tentomon asked when the red head unhooked more of the wires.
"I wonder…it's entirely possible have compatible systems." Izzy said as the wire hooked up to his lap top, showing something weird on the screen.
It was black with these white connecting lines on the screen.
"And if they do, I can tap into Etemon's network." Izzy said as he typed into some codes into his lap top.
Yay to having a super genius for a friend!
"Hey, you have mail." TK said pointing out the red box that showed up that said 'Mail'.
"That was quick. Who even knows I've logged on?" Izzy asked.
"Oh no, it's Etemon." Joe said.
"Open it. It's probably just spam." Tai said.
"Right." The child of Knowledge (Izzy's Crest) said as he opened up the e-mail.
"Help me! S.O.S. Mayday. I'm being held prisoner! Help me escape and I will guide you to the Crest you seek!" a robotic voice said.
"Do you think he's for real? I mean, who could it be?" Sora asked.
I don't know who it is, but I don't trust them.
Then again, if they have a Crest, then we really have no choice.
I swear, if I were old enough to curse, I would.
We all started walking to where the message had come from, deciding to listen to the digimon who was asking for help.
"I don't like this. I don't like this one little bit." Joe said and I agreed with him.
We were now entering a canyon.
"I don't like the look of it, I don't like the smell of it,-"
"Don't have a brain drain, Joe. You're turning green around the edges." Mimi said.
"Yeah, somebody asked for our help. We gotta at least check it out, right?" asked Tai.
"According to my lap top, we should be getting close." Izzy said as typed into the keyboards as Sora, TK and I held our Tags out.
The three of us are the only ones left who have to find them after all, so we were holding them out in case they started glowing.
"Hey, look!" TK said as his Tag started blinking yellow.
"It's glowing." Matt said.
"Ha! TK, come over here. Look what I found." Tokomon said running over to an opening in the canyon.
"Look. Another Crest." Sora said when we saw the sun looking symbol with what looked like a tail engraved in the wall.
We all ran over to the wall, the Tag glowing stronger as we got closer.
"Watch it!" Tai yelled as the Crest glowed white, blinding all of us as it shrunk down and slid into place in TK's Tag.
Now Sora and I are the only ones left.
I better not get a pink Crest.
"Awesome, my own Crest." TK smiled.
"Congratulations." Tokomon said.
"Now TK, don't think this means you can stay up any later." Matt said.
"Sora and Daisuke's Crests are the ones left the find. Maybe if we rescue this guy, he can lead us to one of them." Izzy said.
"Well, what are we waiting for? To the rescue. Da da da da ta da!" Tai cheered pumping a fist in the air.
"Oh. What's that?" Mimi asked making us all look over to see what she was looking at.
The place where the Crest was revealed a tunnel with writing all over the walls, so we all walked in to see what we could find.
"See these hieroglyphs? Look familiar?" Izzy asked as he typed away on his computer.
"This is definitely the same writing we've come across before. Wait a second. This is a new one." The red head said as he touched one of the markings.
He whipped the mark away and the dark tunnel lit up making it easier to see.
"Prodigious. This is amazing. Do you know what I'm thinking?" he asked.
Do we ever?
"I have a feeling you're going to tell us." Mimi said.
"Well, you see, it's quite possible that these hieroglyphs are not a form of writing at all, but rather code. Computer code. If you change a piece of the code, then you change the program." The child of knowledge said as he kept whipping some markings away.
A transparent map appeared in front of us making everyone gasp.
"Like that for example." Izzy said.
"Wait, back up. Are you telling us that this whole place is some kind of giant computer game and none of it is really real?" Joe asked ruffling his hair.
Dude, I've got the bruises and weight loss to prove you this is real.
Seriously, I think I lost twenty pounds since we got here.
Oh, I'm starving!
"Oh, it's real all right. You know, I'm thinking that everything we see and everybody we meet in this place are actually data that are programing given physical form." Izzy said.
"Wait a second. If that's true, and this whole thing's one big computer, then how did we get here? Did we squeeze in through the floppy drive?" the child of Friendship (Matt's Crest) asked.
"No we're just kilobytes of data too. I mean, the versions of us that are in here." Izzy said.
"If I'm just data, why do I still feel like I'm flesh and blood?" Tai asked.
"And I still have to go to the little girls' room." Mimi said.
"And I'm starving." I said as my stomach ached from fas…fas…fasting for three days.
"You don't really; you just think you have to." Izzy explained.
"Oh, well, I hope you're right, 'cause-"Mimi was cut off by Matt.
"Where's the real us? Our flesh and blood bodies." The blonde asked.
"I don't know. I suppose we're back at the camp grounds still. Yeah. We're alive back there. We exist symotansiously with our other selves. We're in a parallel digital universe like the digimon." The red head said as we all looked at each other and the digimon.
Too…many…big words.
"Does that mean I don't have to worry about brushing my teeth anymore?" TK asked making me crack a grin.
"We've got bigger things to worry about now, TK." Izzy said.
"Although, do us all a favour and don't stop brushing." Matt said.
"Yeah, please. Hey, wait a second. I've got an idea. Let me see. If I can just correct this program…" the red head said as he typed away again.
"Uh oh. He's in computer dork mode. This could take a while." The child of Sincerity teased.
The map changed and became a globe of the earth.
"I've called up a holographic map of the Digital World. You can see how physically similar it is to the planet earth. In fact, there are a lot of parallels to our world." Izzy said as some other images were shown.
"That's terrific, Izzy. Great time for a geography lesson." Matt said sarcastically.
"Pay attention and you might learn something." Izzy said.
"Yeah?" the blonde asked looking at him.
"If I enter the e-mail address of the person who contacted us, I can find his location in the Digital World here." Izzy said as a place of the map started to blink with a red dot.
"Now look, that e-mail address is from a web domain in our world have logged onto it a thousand times." Izzy said.
"Is there a point to this somewhere?" the child of Courage asked the question we were all wondering.
"Is the person who sent the message in our world or the Digital World?" Sora asked.
"That's just the thing. He's in both." Izzy said as another map appeared beside the first.
"The Digital World's on the left. The world we know is on the right. And if I overlay them like so…" he said as the two came together, these lines they held looking the same.
"The white lines match up perfectly. What does it mean?" Sora asked.
"That reminds me of the balls of yarn my kitty used to play with." Mimi cooed.
"That's the world's digital network. Through those lines, every computer on earth in connected to every other computer. The Digital World is a physical embodiment of the data passing through them. Guys, we're seeing something nobody else has ever seen. Nobody even knows about the digital shadow world of our own. And they're not just parallel, they're physically linked. Everything we do here will have effects on the other." Izzy said.
"For real?" Matt asked.
"Intense." Tai said.
"Yeah and here's the coolest part. Wherever this person is in the Digital World, I think I can take us there just by entering his e-mail address and clicking on it, accessing a web page." Izzy said.
"Hey, all this techno talk is making my head spiny." TK said.
"No kidding." I said.
"Computer guys can never just do something, TK. That'd be too easy. They gotta spend all day explaining how they'll do this." Matt said bending down in front of us as Joe sat down.
"This is depressing. Even as computer data I have allergies." The bluenette said.
"Look on the bright side, Joe. If you weren't here, you never would have met me." Gomamon said cheerfully.
"Sora, does this mean that we don't exist? That we're really not friends?" Biyomon asked.
"Of course not. This may be a make believe world, but that doesn't mean our friendship isn't real. Truthfully I don't get it, but it sounds right." Sora said.
"Dai, I don't really care if we're real or not, I'm just happy I met you." V-Mon said smiling at me.
"Aw, V!" I said hugging him.
"You're my best friend ever." I said as he hugged me back.
"Oh well, where ever we are, we're here. So let's figure out what we're going to do next. Come on brainiac, what are you waiting for?" Tai asked our computer genius as he worked.
"OK, OK. All I have to do is click on the guy's e-mail address and bingo." Izzy said.
"Oh, I hate Bingo. It's so confusing with all those different letters and numbers. Hey, look. A door." Mimi said as the map faded away and the tunnel opened up at the end to show a door to a new place.
"All right, last one through's a rotten egg." Tai said.
"Our electronic pen pal is right out there." Izzy said.
"Or it could be a trap." Sora said.
"No way. We're just bits of data, so I uploaded us by-"Izzy was cut off by Sora.
"OK, OK, I believe you." The orange haired girl said.
We walked to the opening and saw that we were in the mouth of a sphinx and around us there was an upside down pyramid.
"Whoa, check this out." Tai said as he pulled out his telescope looking at the pyramid while a trailer being pulled by a Monochromon appeared.
"Heads up. Etemon at 9:00." My brother said as Sora and Matt looked over us.
Etemon got out of his trailer with his Gazimon and he went into the pyramid.
Nightfall came and we found a cave to spend the night in to rest, my stomach making a sound that was too much like a growling bear and aching more and more from the lack of food.
"Uh, I think I left the water running back at the sphinx." Joe said nervously.
Tai took first watch outside as we all slept, then Sora would be going next.
The things Izzy said kept repeating themselves in my mind, freaking me out.
Man, I really don't care if Izzy says we're data here, bad things can still happen and they have happened to us.
The memory of Kaitoumon's steel toed boot slamming into my back was the most painful memory I had, other than that blast Devimon hit us with.
We're just as real as anything else.
I wonder if my Crest is the one in that pyramid.
Oh well.
Morning soon came and we all got up ready to go search for the crest.
"Remember, there's one that's important to keep in mind. This is more than a parallel universe. It's a shadow world physically linked to our own. Anything that happens here in the Digital World will have a direct effect on the things in the other." Izzy said to me and Sora as we stood outside the cave.
"Then…the same thing goes for us, right? We're the shadow versions of our other selves." The orange haired girl said.
"Right, exact computer copies." Izzy said.
"So whatever happens, we have to be just as careful as if we were our physical selves." Sora said with a frown.
"Well, duh." I said.
"Hey, sometime this year!" Tai called.
"Man, you guys talk more than my mom's boo club. Can we go?" my brother asked since he was already in the tunnel waiting on us.
"Alright." Sora said as me and Izzy followed after her.
"I got into the program and found the most direct route to the center of the pyramid." Izzy said as he typed into his computer showing a map of the pyramid.
"Hey now, let's get this straight. We're only going in there to find this guy and get the Crest that could be either Daisuke's or Sora's, right?" Joe asked.
"Right, right." Tai said.
"That means no fights, nor adventure or dangerous stuff." Joe said.
"You whimper more than my puppy." Tai said making me give him a look.
We don't have a puppy.
We have a cat named Miko that we've had since I was a baby.
"Matt, Mimi, TK stay here and stand guard. Let's go in." my brother ordered.
"If you really don't think you need me." Mimi said.
"I miss you guys already." Palmon said.
"We'll be back in time to eat." Gomamon said.
"Or get eaten." Tai joked.
He, Joe, Sora, Izzy, our digimon and I jumped down onto the sand ready to go.
"See ya guys. Come back as soon as ya can!" TK and Tokomon said as the blonde waved.
The ten of us nodded then ran around the sphinx, waiting for our chance to go into the pyramid.
"OK, keep together." Tai said as we ran to a sand dune and hid behind it.
"There's a hidden back door to the program that can be used to get in. it should be somewhere up ahead." Izzy said as we snuck over to it.
"That's funny, it should be right here." Izzy said as we stood in front of the wall of the pyramid.
"Where's my friend banana sandwich? You I like to eat after my nap?" we heard Etemon say.
"Tai, what is it?" Joe asked as my brother jumped back with me to the wall out of view from the orange monkey.
"It's Etemon." Tai said.
Joe and Agumon gasped, but then covered their mouths in case Etemon heard.
"Who's there?" the monkey called as he started to come our way.
"What do we do now?" Biyomon asked.
"Quiet, Biyomon." Sora said to the pink bird.
We gasped when the wall behind us let us all phase through it, safe and away from danger.
"I must be hearing things." Etemon said.
Tai smirked as he stuck his arm out of the wall.
"You who!" he called then quickly pulled his arm back in as V-Mon, Sora and I all glared at him.
"You know, I'm gonna have to have this place completely exterminated because something's starting to bug me." We heard Etemon say.
"We've got him talking to himself." Tai laughed.
"Really funny, Tai. Are you crazy?" Sora asked annoyed.
"Yes." V-Mon and I said with our arms folded as we glared at my smug looking brother.
"What if you had gotten us caught?" Sora continued.
"but we weren't, were we" he asked giving a thumbs up.
"Now that we're in, what do we do?" Joe asked.
Ditch my brother before he gets us into trouble?
"I guess next we try to find a way through these walls. The trick is finding the one-"Izzy was cut off by Agumon.
"Hey, I found one!" the lizard said.
He slammed his head against a wall, but it was solid and hurt a lot.
"As I was saying, Agumon, the trick is finding the weak points. Let's use heads, not hands." Izzy said.
We started walking going down a staircase looking for the weak points as Izzy said to.
"Hey, check it out. You can see right through this wall." Tai said as he stopped near a wall that we could all see through.
"Yeah, here it is. Another breach in the system security." Izzy said as he looked at his lap top.
"Gazimon!" Agumon gasped making us look over to see those dog digimon walking by the wall.
"Be still." Sora said quietly.
As soon as they passed, my brother ran through the wall, making us all stare at him in shock as he made a cawing noise, startling the Gazimon, then dived back in.
"What's the big idea?" one of the Gazimon asked.
"What do ya mean?" the other asked.
"Don't give me that. Just 'cause the boss likes me." Gazimon1 ranted.
"Have you gone nuts?" Gazimon2 asked.
"Nuts to you!" Gazimon1 said as he punched the second, both getting into a fist fight as my brother covered his mouth, laughing quietly while Sora and I glared at him.
Must not kill brother.
I love him and I can't kill him even though he is a moron and is so close to getting us killed.
We continued on our way, safe from the Gazimon and Sora took that chance to yell at Tai.
"You could have gotten us all captured back there, Tai. You're so immature!" she ranted.
"Could ya yell a little quieter, huh?" Joe asked.
"Gee, Sora. Relax, kid. Get a grip. Who elected you the Queen of the Fun Police?" Tai asked.
Kari and I can kiss our dreams of having her as our future sister good bye.
"Yeah, this is tones of fun. And getting caught will be a blast." SOra said.
"Couldn't you just pass notes? It's much quieter." Joe said feeling very nervous.
We found another wall that had a weak point and passed through it to see a wall of metal wire in front of us with no other way out.
"This looks nasty. We don't have to go through here, do we?" Tentomon asked.
"This firewall is the system's last line of defense. There appears to be only one safe way through it." Izzy said.
"And if we pick the wrong way, they'll scoop us up with a spatula." Joe said.
"You're not scared are ya, Joe?" Gomamon teased.
"Maybe I am a little." The child of Reliability frowned.
"Relax, it's not like we're human or anything. We're just bunches of kilobytes, remember?" Tai said with his arms folded behind his head with a smile.
"The weak pint should be…here." Izzy said as he walked over and pointed to it near where my brother was.
"Cool." Tai said as he walked right through it, making us all cry out in surprise.
"Are you comin' in or are you just gonna stand there all day?" the goggle head asked as he poked his head through the wall.
I'm killing him.
I swear, I'm killing him.
We all followed him through, Sora and I looking very annoyed.
On the other side was a room that was made of metal.
"This is the host's computer." Izzy said.
"Yowza." Tai said.
"Do you think it comes with a CD rom drive or is that optional?" Tai asked as we saw a little robot stuck under a glass case.
"And what do you suppose that thing is?" Sora asked.
"I've heard of him. His name's Datamon. A super intelligent, robotic digimon. He disappeared without a trace some time ago. Nobody ever knew what happened to him." Tentomon said.
"Maybe that's the thing that sent us the e-mail. He kinda looks like he's a prisoner." Sora said.
"Of course it was. Who else?" Datamon said as his image appeared on Izzy's lap top screen.
I don't like or trust him.
"Today is your lucky day. And mine." Datamon said.
"I get it. He's communicating with us through the infrared port on my lap top." The red head said.
"Oh, hardware fan. Well, listen. We haven't much time. Long, long ago I fought Etemon and lost. One of my rare miscalculations. Anyway, I was severely damaged and he imprisoned me here and forced me to act as his web master, administering his network. Without Etemon knowing, however, I was able to slowly repair myself, restoring my capabilities bit by bit over the years. Eventually I regained control over Etemon's network, not total control, but enough to bring some misery to that blubbering baboon. At last, I'm ready to free myself, but I need your help to break the cyber lock." Datamon said.
"What about the Crest? You said in your message that you could lead us to it." Sora said.
"Um, yes. Whatever you want. Just please, help me out of here." The robot said making V-Mon glare at him.
Yeah, I'm not buying it either.
"Can we trust this talking can opener?" Joe asked.
Thank you!
"Etemon is your enemy as well as mine. That makes us allies. Please, you're my only hope." Datamon said.
"OK, you're on. What do you need from us?" Tai asked.
"Translating instructions for the cyber lock." Datamon said as Izzzy ran over to a screen in the wall and started working.
"Hey, push that lever for me, would you, Tai?" the red head asked pointing to the lever.
"Got it." Tai said as he pulled the lever, revealing cracks and buttons where Izzy was.
"Quickly, quickly before Etemon returns!" Datamon said as Izzy worked.
"OK Tai, pull the lever back to its original position. That should be the last step in the process." Izzy said after he pushed the button.
"Hold it!" said Etemon as he came into the room.
"Etemon!" Tai gasped.
"I've been watchin' you on surveillance cameras and you're an annoying little brat, you know that?" Etemon said as the Gazimon from before jumped into the room.
"Kid."
"Trouble maker."
"He-hey, it's been my pleasure." The child of Courage said nervously.
"Great, why don't you just call them ugly too?" Joe said sarcastically.
"An' all this time I thought it was these snot nosed kids who caused my network to go on the frits, but it was you wasn't it you digital dumpster?" the monkey said to the trapped digimon.
"Well, I a word, yes." Datamon confessed.
"You little rat!" Etemon roared as he went ot attack.
"Digimon, help out!" Agumon cried.
"Agumon digivolve too…GREYMON!"
"Tentomon digivolve too…KABUTEIMON!"
"Biyomon digivolve too…BIRDRAMON!"
"Gomamon digivolve too…IKKAKUMON!"
"V-Mon digivolve too…XV-MON!"
Etemon punched Greymon in the stomach, then grabbed Ikkakumon's horn, ramming him into Kabuterimon as Birdramon and XV-Mon hovered above to watch for an opening while Tai pulled the lever, opening the glass cage.
"I'm free! Now let's see how you like it." Datamon cried.
Datamon blasted the glass over to the Gazimon and Birdramon, hitting them all and Etemon.
"Biyomon!" Sora cried as the red bird returned to her Rookie form.
"Hey, we set you free!" Tai said.
"And I do appreciate that, you chumps!" Datamon said.
"I knew he was evil!" I yelled.
"Then why didn't you say anything?" Joe asked.
"Would you have listened?" I asked.
"Dumb kids. You'd think by now they'd learn to trust no one." Etemon laughed.
"Trust me…this will hurt." Datamon said as his fingers turned into wires and sent out these mini bots to Etemon.
Etemon countered with his Dark Network, an orb of green and black, causing an explosion of green flames.
Sora ran over to Biyomon while XV-Mon flew over to me, picking me up in his arms to protect me as the roof was blown off.
"Biyomon!" Sora said as she knelt by the pink bird.
Datamon was thrown over to where they were by Etemon.
"Tough luck. Looks like I won again." The monkey smirked.
"It's not over yet monkey breath." Datamon laughed as he got up and wrapped his arms around SOra and Biyomon.
"Just wait. With their power harnessed for my own, I'll be more than a match for you." Datamon said.
He then flew away with the two, Etemon going to chase after them, but Greymon, Kabuterimon and Ikkakumon stood in his way, not happy.
"Sora!" Tai cried as XV-Mon put me down to go chase after our friends with my brother, Izzy and Joe as our partners stayed back to fight.
We stopped at the firewall, not knowing which way to go.
"TAI!" Sora cried.
"They're gone back out through the firewall." Izzy said.
"OK, the weak pint was here, right?" Tai asked as he started to walk towards it.
"Wait a minute. Let me get back on line so that I can find it." Izzy said.
"We don't have time for that, Izzy. What could happen? This isn't the real me, right?" my brother asked smirking.
"Don't test those theories now!" Izzy yelled.
"Pain still hurts, Tai!' Joe said as he grabbed my brother, stopping him from going through.
"What are you thinking, Tai? That we're in a video game and nothing can happen to us because we're not our real selves here?" Izzy asked making him stop struggling and look back at us.
"Uh, yeah, something like that." He said.
"Are you insane?!" I yelled.
"This is all too real! If we die here, we die in our world. I know from experience since Kaitoumon almost killed me when we were first separated. The only reason I'm fine now is because XV-Mon digivoved and the light somehow healed me. Everything here is real." I said.
"I couldn't have said it any better." Izzy said making my brother grow worried and shocked as he looked back at the firewall.
"I can't…move." Tai said fearfully as he went limp.
"The weak point is one meter to your right." Izzy said.
"No way. Just one false move and it's over." My brother said looking pale.
"Hey, Tai." Joe said.
"It's safe, Tai. We came through it all right on the way in." the child of Knowledge said.
"Yeah, but I didn't know… that…" Tai trailed off.
"Go on, it's OK." Izzy insisted.
"Come on, Tai. We're wasting time. Sora needs us. What's wrong with you?" Joe asked as my brother stood para…paralyzed with fear, shaking in place.
"Tai?" Izzy asked.
"Tai, wake up." I said grabbing his hand just as something blasted their way into the room we were in.
Agumon, Gomamon, Tentomon and V-Mon were lying on the ground weak.
"Sorry…we held him…as long as we could." The orange dino said.
"Now to finish off you kids and out an end to your annoying interference." Etemon said as he stepped through the hole he made.
The ceiling was blasted open and Matt jumped down riding Garurumon with Togemon, who sent her Needle Spray towards Etemon and Garurumon used his Howling Blaster to keep the monkey back as Matt jumped off and ran over to us.
"Come on, let's move." He said.
"Tai, what's wrong with you? Come on!" Matt yelled as he grabbed my brother and pulled him away with us since he wasn't moving himself.
We all got out and ran back to the cave to hide out and figure out what to do next.
"I don't get it. When the creep grabbed Sora and Biyomon, why didn't you go through the firewall after them?" Matt asked as we crowded around my brother as he sat on the ground, head between his legs as he shook with fear.
"I couldn't…I couldn't move." He whimpered with tears streaming down his face as I hugged his back.
"It's not your fault. We're all in this together, Tai. We'll find a way to get him back." Joe said.
"It's all my fault! Sora. It's all my fault!" he sobbed loudly.
Oh, I haven't seen him like this since the time Kari was sick.
We are going to get her back no matter what.
We can't just give up.
TBC