By

Jennifer Morton

and

Shelli-Jo Pelletier

* * *

~~~ Alex’s P.O.V. ~~~

Well, guess it’s time for me to fill you in, huh? Here’s what happened last time: Dani’s medical condition was starting to get the better of her. She was getting weaker and weaker and just as this evil Digimon, Musyamon, appeared she fainted! Pandamon digi-volved to Kombatmon (that’s two digi-volutions Dani’s missed!) and sent Musyamon right out into orbit! Pretty good too, because he was real scary! Now all I can wonder is: who will digi-volve next?

* * *

“Feeling any better Dani?” asked a concerned Erica, as she walked closely beside the other blonde.

“Never better,” Dani smiled.

“Ya know, that Musyamon dude was pretty scary,” Cheekomon piped up.

“He was nothing!” Pandamon grinned proudly.

“Yeah, these stupid Digimon have no idea who they’re messing with!” Cunomon added.

“It’s nice to see you guys have so much confidence, but I wouldn’t be so cocky!” said Lexxy.

“Lexxy’s right, these ‘stupid Digimon’ aren’t always so easy to beat. They can get stronger and more powerful,” Lina chimed in.

“Hey, ya know what? I’ve been thinking,” Jennifer began. “I noticed that during this little Digimon adventure, we’ve stumbled across some very familiar obstacles. I mean, a lot of the stuff that’s happened to us didn’t exactly happen on the show, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh my gosh, yeah! Like when Monochromon tried to attack me and Cuno!” Lexxy realized.

“Right, and Piximon’s mansion!”

“That’s right, now I remember!” said Skye.

Everyone stopped walking and turned their attention towards Skye.

“In my saga Piximon had a really huge mansion! With a dining room, and hot tubs . . . but that couldn’t be possible, could it? Are you telling us that our own fanfics have somehow collided with the TV show?”

“Maybe,” Jennifer shrugged.

“That could be a problem.” Lexxy frowned.

“Yeah, so much for not interfering with the storyline,” Dani remarked sarcastically, quoting Lexxy’s earlier advice.

“This is all way too confusing for me!” Foximon shook her head.

“Can we please keep going?” Diratimon complained. “I’m getting tired of flapping my wings in the same place.”

“Well then stop flapping them!” Lina laughed.

The group continued walking as Diratimon planted himself on the ground. “Ah, that’s better. Hey, wait for me!” the little winged dragon called after the others.

* * *

“Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like we’re being followed?” informed Skye, looking around suspiciously.

“I don’t feel anything,” Magimon shrugged.

“Are you sure? Because-”

Lina put a comforting hand on Skye’s shoulder. “Relax, Princess Skye.” She gave an assuring smile.

“You’re right. Thanks, Lina.”

“Don’t mention it. Just think of us as your personal bodyguards.” She bowed playfully.

Skye sighed and continued walking.

Lina felt a little nudge on her shoulder. “Wha-?” She whirled around, only to see Diratimon, who was hanging upside down in a tangled vine.

“Lina, he-mphmmph!” Another vine appeared out of nowhere, wrapping itself tightly around Diratimon’s mouth.

“Diratimon, what’s going on-AHHH!” Lina screamed as another vine shot up from the ground. It coiled and crept around her legs, painfully restraining her. Lina gasped as she noticed the ground suddenly crumbling beneath her boots.

The next think Lina knew, she was falling at a rapid speed and just as quickly everything went totally black.

* * *

When Lina came to, the first thing she felt was cold hardness beneath her hands and body. Her memories returned in a flash, the vines and the collapsing ground. She shot up quickly.

“Ow!” gasped the blonde, as her head hit something hard. She blinked her blue-green eyes, but it didn’t help. She couldn’t see anything. Darkness stretched before her.

“Lina?” a quiet voice came from the darkness. “Are you awake? Are you hurt?”

“Diratimon!” She sighed in relief at the sound of her friend. “I’m okay. Where are we?”

The winged dragon’s voice took on a rueful tone. “You might not want to know. . . .”

Her eyes were becoming adjusted to the darkness, and she could faintly make out a few shadowy outlines. But she flinched and winced as the gloom was replaced with bright lights. Diratimon squawked with pain and covered his eyes with his wingtips.

Lina blinked and rubbed her eyes. Finally things came back into focus. She was shocked to find herself kneeling on the floor of a cage, thick steel bars surrounding her. Diratimon stood in a cage next to her, blinking spots from his eyes. The room they had been put in was large and mostly empty, the walls covered in shapes she recognized as the hieroglyphics from the Digimon TV show. Along the ceiling were rows of florescent light bulbs, now turned on. She searched the walls for the light switch, and who might have turned them on so suddenly. It took a moment, because she was facing the wrong direction, but behind her she found a doorway in which stood-

“Numemon!” cried Lina.

“I’m afraid so,” Diratimon grumbled. “This is what we get for being the last in line in the group. The slimy jerks grabbed us and took us underground!”

“But why?” Lina wondered, bewildered. “What did we do?”

“I sure don’t know,” growled the dragon Digimon. “Why don’t you ask ‘em?”

Lina resisted the urge to smack herself in the forehead. “Hey, Numemon!” she shouted, coming to the front of the cage and grabbing the bars. “What’s the deal?! What did we ever do to you?”

The slimy green and purple blobs drew back through the doorway, muttering quietly amongst themselves. They actually seemed scared by her angry voice. But after a moment they seemed to realize that she couldn’t get to them through the cage. The pack of little Digimon inched back into the room.

One crept toward the cage past the others. It fixed its bulbous red eyes on Lina’s glaring face. “Evil!” he accused in his funny voice. “Evil servants of the Digimon Queen! We have captured you and now you will pay for trying to take over our beloved Digital World!”

Diratimon rolled his green eyes. “Idiots,” he muttered under his breath.

“We’re not helping the Digimon Queen!” Lina protested. “We’re the Digi-Destined! We’re here to save you from her! Haven’t you ever heard of the Digi-Destined?”

The speaker Numemon stared at her suspiciously for a minute, then drew back and spoke quietly to the others. Lina couldn’t hear what they were saying, but soon the speaker (or a new one-they all looked alike to her) came forward again. “No,” said the Numemon.

Lina sighed and banged her head against the bars. “Ow . . . again. . . .”

* * *

“Hey, guys? Where’s Lina and Diratimon?” asked a concerned Alex.

“What do you mean ‘where are they?’” Jenn replied in a cocky tone.

“I mean they’re not here!”

“No way!” Jenn panicked. She began to look around franticly. “LINA!!!! DIRATIMON!!!!” Her voice echoed through the trees. “No! No no no no no!!! This can’t be happening!!!”

“Well, maybe they just went on a potty break or whatever,” Dani suggested.

Jenn paced around, holding her head in aggravation. “Without telling me!?”

“Oh gee, were they suppose to?” Skye retorted.

“ARGH!” Jenn took a deep breath and stood, once again facing the others. “Okay, new plan. Retreat!”

There was something wrong, and Jenn was trying everything in her power not to freak out. No, she was the leader. It was her job to stay positive, for the sake of the team. No matter what.

* * *

Lina sat in the cage, hunched up against the steel bars. She and Diratimon had been left alone, once again.

Her face suddenly lit up as an idea crossed her mind. It just might work! It had to work! “Psst! Diratimon!” She whispered. “Digi-volve!” She slipped her arm though the bars, holding out her digi-vice.

“What are you doing?” Diratimon replied with a blank expression.

“Maybe if I can get you to digi-volve, it will prove to them that we really are the Digi-Destined and they’ll have to let us go!”

“Okay, you lost me.”

“Argh! Okay, don’t get mad at me, but on the show Leomon said that only the Digi-Destined were able to make Digimon digi-volve. I mean, it’s worth a try, don’t you think?”

“Whatever you say!” Diratimon held out both wings and arched his head. “Digi-volve me!” he replied in a heroic manner.

Lina held her digi-vice up as it started to glow.

“Diratimon digi-volve to. . . .”

Just then, three Numemon walked into the room. “Oh no!” Lina gasped, as her digi-vice fell out of her hands and out of her reach. “Oops.”

“So, is there by any chance a plan B?” Diratimon grinned nervously. Lina banged her head on the bars again.

The Numemon approached the cage. “We have returned with your sentence.”

“Sentence?” Lina cried.

“We here by sentence you to . . . DEATH! Take them to the pool.”

“What exactly is ‘the pool?’“ Lina questioned.

“You’ll see.”

The Numemon opened the cage doors and placed both human and Digimon in shackles.

“Having fun yet?” Diratimon joked, as they were pulled along by an army of Numemon.

“Shut up!” Lina grumbled.

* * *

“Hey guys! I think I found something!” Jaymon called. She was perched on a branch, pointing to a large hole in the ground.

“What in the Digiworld happened here?” Magimon frowned.

“It looks like Garurumon tried to bury a bone here or something,” Jenn laughed.

“Yeah, a really big bone,” Tania nodded.

“Lina and Diratimon! They were here!” Foximon sniffed. “You don’t think. . . .”

Jenn suddenly felt sick to her stomach.

“There’s no way they could have survived that!” Cunomon commented, poking his head down in the hole.

Jennifer slid over to the hole, perilously pushing Cunomon out of the way. “LINA!!! Can you hear me!!!!!!”

“We have no choice but to go down there and get her,” said Lexxy.

Jenn cringed. She hated climbing, especially down dark holes, but this was a matter of life and death. There was no other choice.

“Jenn?”

“Oh, yeah. Let’s go then.”

One by one, they each made their way. Someone would occasionally call out their names, in hopes that the missing duo would be close by.

They finally reached solid ground. By this time their eyes had pretty much adjusted to the darkness. In front of them was a path that reached out for miles. Stone walls surrounded them, and pipes ran from one end to the next.

“What’s that smell?” Pandamon complained.

“I think were in a sewer,” said Cheekomon.

“No duh!” replied Cunomon.

“Okay, everyone listen up. Let’s split into two groups. Alex, Erica, Kristina and Tania, you and your Digimon take the southern rout. Skye, Lexxy, Dani, Em and I will keep going north.”

Everyone nodded in agreement and went there separate ways.

* * *

Kristina led the others through the dark tunnels as the Digimon acted as bloodhounds, sniffing their way around each corner.

They entered the very room where their friends had been held prisoner. “Look!”

Huntermon gasped, pointing over to an open cage.

“Hey, look what I found!” Nerimon approached the group, holding a familiar metal object: Lina’s digi-vice!

“Good work you guys!” Kristina smiled, retrieving the object from Nerimon.

“Hey, they can’t be too far,” said Emily.

“Mmm hmm!” Kristina nodded, closely studying the digi-vice in her hand.

“Then let’s go already!” said Yazumon, making a dash for the door.

Jaymon flapped around Kristina wildly. “Come on Kristina!”

“Oh, right!”

* * *

When Lina and Diratimon found out what ‘the pool’ was, they wished they hadn’t.

“You can’t throw us in there!” Lina gasped, looking at the HUGE pit filled with purplish-pink sludge. Diratimon flapped his wings a few times, but the chains that held them were much too heavy to fly. Lina realized that if they were tossed into the pool of sludge they would drown.

A snickering went up from all the Numemon, and someone pushed both the Digi-Destined and the Digimon forward. A long walkway suspended over the pit, and this was what they were being propelled down. Lina fought, but there were too many slimy appendages forcing her forward. The same was true for Diratimon. He tried shocking the smelly Digimon with his Electric Wind attack, but every time one fell another would take its place and continuing shoving him forward. There were just too many of them.

“You are powerful Digimon and human,” declared one of the Numemon, probably the leader. “We will sacrifice you to our Digi-God of Sludge. He will be happy and save us from the Digi Queen!”

Lina and Diratimon were now perched on the very end of the walkway, staring down at the pool of sludge. Lina felt her face go green. She knew what the sludge really was. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she muttered.

“LINA!”

“DIRATIMON!”

Everyone in the vast room turned. Lina’s eyes lit up joyfully as she saw Erica, Alex, Tania and Kristina-along with their Digimon-standing in the doorway. All her friends’ faces were drawn into fearsome scowls.

“Lina! Catch!” Kristina held something in her hand that glittered with light. The brown-haired girl hurled it into the air, and then Jaymon swooped in and carried it across the long room.

The Numemon hissed in anger. “Into the pool!” the leader yelled, rushing forward to give Lina one last push. She shrieked. But just then Jaymon flew in and dropped something into her shackled hands. It was her digi-vice!

Diratimon surged with white light, causing the Numemon to fall back. “Diratimon digi-volve to . . . Dracomon!”

“AH!” Lina screamed. With the sudden increase of Diratimon’s size, there was no room at the end of the gangplank. Lina was falling to the pit of sludge below!

Dracomon, a large, four-footed purple dragon with lightning bolts covering his body, soared down and caught his Digi-Destined before she could fall into the disgusting pool. With one swipe of his claws he removed her chains.

The Champion Digimon flew over the hoard of Numemon, growling. “This is what you get for messing with the wrong Digimon, you foolish sewer-dwellers! Thunderclap!” A ball of black and yellow electricity formed in his claws (luckily Lina was riding safely on his back by this time) and he launched it at the slimy crowd. The Numemon shrieked and ran for the doorway. Alex and the others had to scramble to get out of the way so they wouldn’t get run over.

“Need a lift?” Lina yelled down to them. The group piled onto Dracomon’s back one by one as he flew out of the room.

They flew through the long tunnels and were being pursued by an angry mob of Numemon. Lina climbed up onto Dracomon’s head. “Ha ha! Faster Dracomon!”

“That’s right, try and catch us you little snotwads!” Emily taunted.

This angered the Numemon even more. Now Dracomon found himself dodging huge blobs of digi-sludge.

“Not this again!” Lina sighed.

More and more sludge was thrown and Dracomon’s body became covered in pink goo, causing him to loose focus. The turbulence made Lina loose her balance. She fell off of Dracomon and into a large puddle of water.

“LINA! Hold on!” Dracomon called back as he hurled his body the other way.

Seeing the huge dragon coming towards them, the Numemon quickly scattered out of the way.

Lina was crouched in a fetal position, face down in the puddle with both arms braced behind her head. Dracomon landed over her, shielding her body with his. He snapped at the approaching Numemon.

“Hey!” a voice cried out. It was Jenn and the others. “What is going on here!?”

“Humans! Evil!” a Numemon spoke up.

“We’re not evil,” Lexxy began to explain.

“Sha, good luck, Lexxy. I’ve already tried that,” Lina interrupted.

Magimon approached the head Numemon calmly. “Tell us, Numemon. Why are you doing this?”

“The Digi Queen!”

“Uh huh. How ‘bout telling us something we don’t already know?” Jenn replied dryly.

“For the last time, we do not work for the Digi Queen!” Lina snapped.

The Numemon suddenly noticed Skye’s locket and reacted immediately. “Princess!” one Numemon said. The room filled with a chorus of “oohs” and “ahhs.” The entire crowd made way for Skye as each Numemon in the tunnel bowed his head. “Princess Skye, you’ve come back to us!”

Skye just stood there in silence, once again without a clue of how to react. Jenn ran in front of the blue-haired girl protectively. “Yeah, she’s the Digi-Princess, and we’re taking her back to the Digi Palace so she we can whoop that evil Digi Queen’s butt!”

“That’s impossible!” said a Numemon.

“The Digi Palace disappeared years ago!” another informed.

“What do you mean ‘disappeared?’” Skye gasped, pushing Jenn out of the way.

“After Queen Sonomi took over the Digiworld, she used her magic powers to separate the land on which the palace once stood. It was broken into a small island, which would float far off into the ocean. The weight of the palace was too heavy to keep the island afloat, and so it sank.”

“Queen Sonomi, huh? So she does have a name!” Jenn smirked.

“Wait a sec, you mean we’re busting our butts searching for this place and it doesn’t even exist!” Dani cried furiously.

“Dani, calm down,” Pandamon whispered.

Meanwhile, on the other side of room, the other Numemon were apologetic. “We are very sorry for our mistake,” the Numemon said. “Please forgive us.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it,” Lina giggled. She climbed back onto Dracomon’s back and whistled for the others. “Come on, you guys! Let’s blow this Popsicle stand!”

“Ready for take off!” Dracomon chuckled. With that he flapped his wings. The Digi-Destend looked down at the Numemon and waved.

“Goodbye, Numemon! Take care!”

The Numemon jumped up repeating the same gesture. “What a nice bunch of kids!”

~~~Lina’s P.O.V.~~~

have to admit, those Numemon aren’t all that slimy once you get to know them. It’s nice to know that there are other Digimon out there that are willing to take on something as evil as the Digi Queen or maybe even worse. And I know that the Digi Palace is still out there and we’re going to find it! Even if we have to swim all the way to the bottom of the ocean and bring it back up again. . . . All right, so I’m way in over my head here. Hey, this is my episode and I can be as dramatic as I want, so there!