AN: So umm... I'm sort of back after a long while. Hopefully some of my former readers are still around.

The short of it is that I ended up volunteering for something. Got called up a lot sooner than I expected to and was halfway around the world before I knew it. Ended up loving it and kept re-upping my volunteer status. Now here I am nearly five years later and finally back home. I've spent the last month getting back into the swing of things and actually took some time to edit today and post a chapter I'd written before I left. I'll start trying to update again, but I'm kind of rusty at this so don't expect frequent updates for a while until I've gotten back into this.

Chapter 25

A Day in the Digital World: Five

The group of partner digimon so far- Agumon, Biyomon, Gabumon, Palmon, Patamon, Tentomon, Wormmon, Armadillomon, and Veemon.

"This has to be one of the creepiest places I've ever been." Palmon couldn't help but shiver as she looked around the tunnels of dull gray webbing that covered every wall, the only comfort around being the presence of the other partner digimon. Behind the weds they could make out different shapes, things accidently pulled in or had been in the halls before being covered, and small bits of light peeking through, giving them just enough to see the path downward.

"It might even be creeper than that empty metropolis we found on Spiral Mountain." Tentomon added, probably the most nervous amongst the group. Being a beetle insect type traversing a massive spider web was not something he wanted to be doing.

It felt and looked like they were walking into a spiders den, which was exactly the case since they were descending into the depths of the Dokugumon's lair, or what they had learned had once been the Town Hall of the city of Stone Edge before it had been infested and entombed in silk webbing.

"Or when we snuck into Myotismon's castle..." Biyomon whispered, keeping her eyes trained on a shadow moving in the distance, looking for any sign of it being alive and not just a trick of the light.

The truth is that they'd be hard pressed to find a memory of a place where they felt less safe than here, and it had nothing to do with the fact that they were inside a massive spiders nest built into a cave system with lots of large poisonous arachnids scurrying about. No, what scared them was how alone they felt. In all those spooky and dangerous places they'd had their partners by their sides and somehow that had made them feel safe, but now they were alone and not since the days when the Royal Knights were tearing up the Digital World years ago did they feel this defenseless.

Seeing how nervous and essentially scared they were one had to wonder why they had entered the nest in the first place. Why a groups of rookies, admittedly very strong rookies but rookies all the same, would enter the home base of a bunch of vicious bloodthirsty (and quite scary) champion level digimon that would probably have no qualms with devouring them, or cocooning them, or whatever they were doing down there. The answer to that had occurred a little over half an hour ago when they had meet Antylamon, the village chief of Stone Edge.

In that empty home in the light of the full moon they had listened to Antylamon as she told them her story. That she had left the village a few days ago to meet with another chief and had returned a few hours before they had arrived to find the village eerily silent and devoid of all her precious citizens. She had quickly put together the appearance of the Dokugumon and the disappearance of the villagers and tracked the vile digimon back to their nest. She'd even tried to launch an assault on it to rescue those they had taken inside, but unfortunately, due to the Dokugumon's remodeling with their webs she had quickly found herself getting stuck in the shrinking passages and had eventually been forced to flee outside the village to lick her wounds and plan.

She'd eventually came to the conclusion that it was impossible for her to infiltrate the nest and that even if she could the sheer number of Dokugumon inside made victory impossible, so she came up with a new plan to defeat them all in one shift move; collapse the town hall and bring it down on their ugly little heads. Unfortunately, she couldn't do that while her citizens were being held captive deep within the stone structure. She needed to get them out and to safety before she'd even consider bringing the place down, and that's where the partner digimon came in.

Their mission, one they had agreed to since it meant saving a lot of digimon, was not to fight but to infiltrate the nest, find and free the villagers, and then escape through one of the emergency tunnels in the back of the mountain. Once they had Antylamon would bring the place crashing down before the spider digimon had a chance to counterattack.

So far the mission had been going pretty well. There had been some close calls which required them to duck into a small dark corner or take an alternate route using pathways too small for the Dokugumon to fit down, but each time they'd avoided being spotted. Slowly and carefully they had made it down to the lower levels, their best guess as to where the villagers were being held, and while talking might not have seemed like being careful it was keeping them relaxed despite being deep underground surrounded by enemies.

"Okay, according to Antylamon the room the Dokugumon are most likely using to hold the villagers is just around that corner and down the hall." Agumon noted pointing down at the hand drawn map courtesy of the village chief to guide them.

They had reached the village shelter, a collection of large rooms and hallways where the villagers could take refuge in the case of a disaster. Under millions of tons of stone it could pretty much whether anything, unless you knew how to hit it exactly like Antylamon did. It was originally built during Cherubimon's reign and the ensuing chaos of the Royal Knights, but had been abandoned when it became pretty clear that it would do nothing when their enemies were literally devouring the ground beneath them. Instead it was now used for storage.

"We're just lucky that those Dokugumon are so focused on defending the top floors that it's pretty much empty down here." Gabumon leaned over and glanced down the barren hallway from their little hidey-hole in the wall, a cramped little shelter meant for in-training digimon.

"Yeah, we probably have Antylamon to thank for that." Wormmon added.

The village chief had launched another attack against the nest a few minutes after the group had entered through a side passage with the hopes of pulling as many Dokugumon up to the front as she could. It had worked pretty well as wave after wave of the insect digimon had cleared out of the halls to give the partner digimon a pretty clear shot at their objective. Of the few they'd run into they were either bringing in captives or building more web, so they were easy enough to hid from or go around.

"You're right, so let's not waste any more time and get to freeing those villager." Agumon knew that the longer they took the longer Antylamon had to keep the Dokugumon distracted. She was much stronger than the Dokugumon and if she was careful she could keep it going for a while, but it was best not to rely on that and get things done as soon as possible. "Does everyone remember the plan and what rooms they're going to?"

"Let me see the map one of time..." Before everyone could respond with a nod Veemon reached out and pulled the map closer to him, trying his best to memorize the layout and the room he'd been assigned to clear by Agumon.

Normally, in the old days, the group would have counted on Tentomon to come up with a plan and assign the jobs since he was such a smart little digimon, but things had changed since then. Tentomon hadn't gotten stupid or anything, he might have actually gotten smarter over the years, but the dynamics of the group had changed. They had needed to change. Without their human partners the group had suddenly found itself in the Digital World without leadership and the situation was made even worse when they suddenly awoke in a reformatted Digital World, bigger and more wild than the one they had known.

The world had suddenly become a dangerous place for them and they needed unity and leadership to get them through it, and that's where Agumon came in. He stepped up and pulled them together and when they got split up thanks to the Royal Knights he was the one who started them on their journey to reunite and look for a way to find their partners. He gave them a shared cause and now they looked to him for strength and what to do.

"Shush~" Patamon's ears suddenly began to twitch and he began moving towards the back of the little shelter.

Trusting the small digimon's ears the group rolled up the map and pressed themselves as far back into the little space as they could. There was a few seconds of silence before they heard the same skittering feet on webs that had caught Patamons attention.

"It's coming from the other way..." Tentomon whispered to the group. The only digimon they'd seen so far were the ones coming down from the floor above to drop off more captured villagers, who they'd have to watch and wait for until they left and headed back up, but this one was coming from the shelter, meaning that it had been there for a while and hadn't run to the surface when Antylamon attacked. The question was why it had been down there so long.

"Finallyyy founnnd youu tast~ttty~" The Dokugumon hissed in the darkness as it crept through the darkness towards the groups hiding spot.

"How'd he find us?!" Palmon gasped, still keeping her voice low despite now knowing that they had been discovered.

"I don't know, but we can't face him in here." Agumon knew that if they waited for him to come to them all it would take was a single attack into the little room to delete them all. They needed to go on the offensive. "ATTACK!"

Without question they all followed his order and burst out of the small shelter and into the hallway, a few feet from the Dokugumon. Wasting no time they turned on the vile digimon and prepared their attacks, hoping that if they acted fast enough they could end the battle in one blitz attack.

"PEPPE-!" The flames chocked in Agumon's throat as he came to a realization. He had made a mistake and he knew that for a two reasons.

The first reason was that the Dokugumon had reared up and its eyes had widened, it was surprised, however, not by his targets suddenly charging him, but by the fact that he hadn't in fact known they were there. The insect digimon hadn't been talking to them, they had let their nerves get to them and made them act rashly, because it had actually been taunting the bundle of webs it was holding onto with it front legs. A bundle that most likely held some poor digimon which was now being used as a shield by the Dokugumon.

"STOP!" Agumon shouted, but it wasn't necessary since seeing the bundle held between them and their target was enough to grind them all to a halt.

For a moment no one moved, not the partners or the Dokugumon, they all just stared at each other in silent thought. The partners were quickly trying to come up with some response to the loss of the element of surprise and the hostage while the big spider digimon tried to figure out what was happening. Nine Rookie digimon had suddenly jumped out at him from the shadows which probably made them enemies, but they were also so deep in their nest that it didn't make sense that they could get that far inside if they were. Luckily the Dokugumon were kind of stupid and slow.

"Now's not the time for hesitation!" Agumon screamed into his head. He knew, they all knew, what they needed to do. They needed to get the hostage away from the spider digimon and take it out quick because if it got away and warned the nest none of them would make it out alive, let alone the villagers.

"BLUE BLASTER" Gabumon was the first to strike before the Dokugumon could react by sending a stream of azure flames into the digimons face in hopes of blinding it long enough to do something to free the hostage.

Upon being hit the Dokugumon hissed loudly in pain and reared up on its back legs, instinctively putting some distance between itself and its attacker. However, its grip on its hostage remained strong.

Despite the still dire situation this battle would be over soon for one reason, the Dokugumon was alone and the partners were a well oiled team. Seeing an opening the group, who after spending years separated from their human partners and stuck as Rookies learned how to move as one, went on the attack. Desperation had taught them how to predict each other's movements, pick the moves and attacks that would complement each other, and overwhelm even an Ultimate level enemy. They couldn't destroy it but they could make it think twice about continuing to mess with them, but Dokugumon was a Champion and they could bring that down.

Before the Dokugumon could clear the smoke and ash from its eyes there was a flash of yellow and a cry of, "SUPER SHOCKER," which was followed by a burning sensation running down it's left side. The tendril of electricity didn't do much against the thick exoskeleton like armor on its body, but as it came in contact with the two of the hind legs a tingling wave shoot through them, temporarily numbing them, and sending the big digimon tumbling over onto its left side.

"PEPPER BREATH" A flash of orange burst to life before the Dokugumon's watery eyes and a second later it was blinded again, heat and smoke pouring over its burned face.

"SPIRAL TWISTER" A burst of whirling green suddenly cut across the big arachnids vision, making it cringe in anticipation, but the hit never came, instead with felt its front pair of legs jerk to the side and the webbing attached to them severe and tear.

"POISON IVY" Again, another attack that didn't make contact, but it did see a blur that looked a lot like the bundle of webbing it had been carrying a moment ago suddenly jerk in mid-air and yank off to one side, out of sight.

Finally shaking off its shock and letting the natural instinct to protect itself take over the Dokugumon attempted to strike out at the blurry shapes of the digimon attacking it with its strong sharp legs, but with its vision badly damaged its attacks met with only empty air and frustration. Never did the digimon consider running or calling for help, instead it wanted to rip the small digimon fighting it to pieces itself. However, that thirst for vengeance would go unattained when it heard a jumble of voices cry out all a once.

From there flashes of multiple colors came into existence and elements of all types bombarded the Dokugumon's body. Due to the low power level of each attack none of them had the power to deliver a quick finishing blow and instead slowly chipped away at their target, burning, freezing, and cutting into it, giving it no chance to ever get back on its feet, before it was finally overwhelmed and died a slow death.

"Finally..." Agumon panted, exhausted by the constant barrage of attack he'd been launching, as he watched Dokugumon smoldering frame twitch a few times before its Fractal Code exploded forth from its body.

They all just stared at it spinning and rotating around Dokugumon's shadowy form in the center having the same thoughts. They'd seen it a few times before, mostly from digimon that had been unfortunate enough to come across the Royal Knight years ago or been the victim of some wild digimon, but it had been a surprise the first time they saw it. There had never been anything like that in their day. In the past defeated digimon would simply burst into digital bits and data, but now there was fractal code, something along the lines of a tangible digital soul or digimon blueprint that carried the power that digimon had cultivated over its life time. One that could be absorbed by the victorious digimon to make them stronger, often looked down upon in polite digital society since it kind of equated to grave robbing, instead digimon would usually use it to repair damage done to the area or to expand things like villages or other places for digimon to live. This was seen as using the digimons untimely passing as a way to contribute the experience of their life into the continued life of the Digital World.

None of them felt like absorbing Dokugumon's Fractal Code, something they had never done and never would, and instead just watched as its rotation began to slow before the code began to break up. With no chance of recovery due to the level of damage to the body and no one to absorb or alter it the big spiders Fractal Code just broke apart and dissolved into thin air.

"I wonder..." Agumon looked down at his claws and then around at the others, "...if we have Fractal Code as well."

They knew that every digimon in this new Digital World had Fractal Code, but they were of the old world... or so they thought, so what would happen to them if they were defeated some day? Would they just burst into data like they'd seen so many times in the past? Or would they have a second chance to try and recover like with fractal code? Somehow the idea that they had Fractal Code was a comforting thought since it would mean that weren't such outsiders in this Digital World, but in the back of their minds that doubt existed.

Three minutes after they had burst into the Dokugumon's path the final remnants of the creatures Fractal Code vanished in a silent wisp of blue light and once again they were the only things wondering about this deep in the giant spiders nest.

"We should probably free that digimon now." Biyomon noted eyeing the bundle of webs resting at Palmons feet (roots?). However, before anyone could move to do so a voice, a familiar voice at that, leaked out of it.

"Please if you would be so kind to release me from this oppressive mass of netting?" The muffled but still recognizable voice begged.

"No way..." Veemon mouthed as he looked around, checking to make sure that the others had heard it to and that it just wasn't him mishearing or wishful thinking. When he saw them all give the cocoon a stunned look, confirming that they'd definitely heard it to, he spoke again. "Hawkmon?"

"Yes...? Do you...?" The voice inside the bundle responded, seemingly a bit confused, but gambled on its own luck and belief that it wasn't just wishful thinking on its part. "Veemon...?"

"Yeah, buddy, it's us!" With a happy cheer Veemon ran to the bag of webbing and climbed on top of it, placing his ear to it so he could hear their friend better. "Can you hear us in there?"

"Veemon..." His voice suddenly sounded a bit strained.

"Yeah, buddy?" Veemon was glad to finally have his little sub-group back together again.

"You're... crushing... me..." He gasped from within the cocoon. "Get... off..."

"Sorry!" Veemon leapt off of it and tried to ignore the looks the other were giving him for his lapse in judgment.

"Let's get you out of there." Agumon brought the situation back into focus and the group quickly, but carefully, began pulling apart the sack of silk threads until their feathery friend appeared.

"Many thanks... It was nearly suffocating in there..." Hawkmon, his feathers ruffled and still sticky with webbing, panted as he looked over the group. "I can't believe we've finally reunited... and here of all places..."

"Yeah, this isn't exactly where I thought we'd meet up again after all of these years." Armadillomon laughed. He felt a whole lot better now that the four youngest digimon partners were back together.

"Nothing would please me more than to relish our reunion, but there is a more pressing issue at this time. We need to find Gomamon." Hawkmon stated while trying to carefully pull a sticky wad of spider silk from his tail feathers.

"Gomamon's here!?" A few voices cried out and were instantly hushed when they remembered where they were.

"Gomamon's here?" Agumon whispered this time, still wanting his question answered but keeping it quiet since they didn't want to attract any attention, but considering they just fought and deleted an evil digimon without anyone sounding an alarm it might have been safe to assume that the lower levels were abandoned.

"Definitely. We've been traveling together for the last couple of months and arrived in the township a day ago... Just in time for all of this to happen..." He waved a wing around the tunnel of webbing, illustrating his point as he continued on. "We tried to defend ourselves, but as we were... we didn't stand a chance against that many Champions... and we got nabbed and dragged down here..."

They could all relate to being in a situation where the level difference made them feel helpless and powerless, but somehow they'd always survived. There was just something about being a partner digimon that let them endure. Maybe it was the hope of seeing their human partners again that kept them going and encourage them to pick themselves up and keep fighting.

"Do you know where he is?" Gabumon questioned, his eyes darting up and down the halls, making sure nothing snuck up on them.

"He was right beside me before that nasty Dokugumon came looking for me..." He responded a bit nervously, as if he had suddenly remembered something back.

"Looking for you?" Biyomon seemed to have caught her attention on his choice of words.

"Yeah, he came down here looking for Gomamon and I, and it wasn't for anything pleasant I'm sure." He replied. "I'm pretty sure he knew who we were. And I mean knew who we were."

The meaning of his words weren't lost on the group. He meant that the Dokugumon had somehow known that he wasn't just some random digimon, but a partner digimon. In the past almost any digimon in the Digital World could have picked them out as the famous heroic digimon partners of the Digidestined, but that wasn't something they'd had to deal with for the last couple of years since no digimon they'd run into had even ever heard of the Digidestined. To everyone, they were just a bunch of nobodies, which had the advantage of letting them go unnoticed. They had become so unknown now that it was actually surprising, and a bit suspicious, maybe even dangerous, that some digimon would suddenly recognize them.

"I might know why it knew us too..." He took a moment to look the group over in the dim flickering light of the tunnel, maybe trying to emphasize what he was about to say before he continued. "It claimed that it was ordered to bring us to their queen... Arukenimon..."

"ARUKENIMON!" Once again their voices rose a bit too high, but considering what they had just heard it was understandable.

"It can be... She's... She's dead!" Wormmon really didn't like the idea that the women/digimon that had manipulated his partner could possibly still be alive.

"I don't know if it's truly her, but it said that she wanted Gomamon and I brought to her... so I sort of put two and two together..." Hawkmon replied, sounding a bit unsure of his own logic while also fearing the implications of what it meant if he was right.

"So we can't be sure if it's actually her..." Gabumon sighed, "That's just our luck. We can't find a single friendly face that knows us, but we find an enemy that does. Just great." He let out another depressed sigh which the others joined in with.

"Right now it doesn't matter if it's actually her or not. We need to free the villagers and save one of our friends." Agumon like the rest felt like wallowing in that realization, but he knew they had to keep moving; more so now that they knew one of their own was in danger.

"Yes." The others whispered an agreement.

"This looks like the right way." Hawkmon whispered to those ahead of them. "I'm sure they took Gomamon this way."

"Considering it's also the only way we haven't gone yet you're probably right." Gabumon noted.

"That and the fact that it's getting creeper and creeper the further we go down..." Agumon added looking around the dark corridors of webbing. The Dokugumon webs had grown thicker and beyond them they could swear that they heard feet skittering about and every so often they'd spot a shadow out of the corner of their eyes, but nothing was ever there. They'd have sworn they were being led into a trap if it weren't for the fact that the Dokugumon didn't seem to be smart enough to lay one.

"There is that." Hawkmon agreed, a shiver running down his back as he looked over his shoulder to the empty corridor behind them. "I really wish the others were still with us."

Right now their group consisted of just the three of them. Shortly after freeing Hawkmon they'd followed him back the way he'd been taken from and found multiple rooms containing hundreds of silky pods hanging on walls and dangling from ceils or just dumped on the floor. Each pod had contained a villager which the partner digimon quickly set about freeing, however, they realized that it was going to take a while to free them all and most of the villagers were too weak to fight or even guide themselves towards the secret exit, so the rest of the group had stayed behind to help while the three of them went after their captured friend.

"Hopefully we won't have to fight and won't need them." Agumon replied while he imagined a scenario where they'd manage to find their friend dropped off in another room further in or being able to take the Dokugumon carrying him by surprise and with a quick attack manage to liberate him and book it to the exit, letting the impending manual collapse of the tunnel take care of any pursuers.

"We do deserve a bit of luck considering we originally came down into this deep, dark, pit of horror to rescue a bunch of strangers." Gabumon really hoped that the fates would smile on them for their good deed and give them a hand, even a small one.

"One can dre-!?" Agumon cut himself short when they rounded a corner and torchlight filled the end of the hallway. Instinctively they all stopped moving and fell silent which allowed them to pick up the faint sounds of voices, but too soft to make out at their distance. "I think we found where they went."

Slowly and silently they crept towards the distant corner. As they got closer the voices became clearer but they still couldn't make them out. Ducking their heads around they found the next hallway to be much better lit, but it still wasn't the source of the light, so once again they crept down the next hallway and huddled together at the corner and taking a deep calming breath the three bent around the edge to get a better view.

"Woah..." They let out small gasps at what they saw. The room around the corner and down a short corridor was massive and brightly lit. The whole place looked as if it have been carved out of the stone and earth of the mountain and carefully rubbed smooth into different shapes, figures, and other things to decorate it. However, at the moment that was all they could see since it seemed that hall came out at the top of the room, close to the ceiling, while the rest was sunken deeper down.

"Quietly..." Agumon hissed dropping down on all fours and crawling towards the entrance of the large room. The other three mimicked him and followed behind until they reached the lip of a walkway. The room went down at least another six stories and each level of it could be accesses by a zigzagging arrangement of stone ramps and platforms.

"Do you see him or his pod?" Gabumon questioned, his eyes staining to look into the furthest parts of the room.

"I do..." Hawkmon answered in a distant tone, "..and I also see some pretty terrible things..." As the one on the right side he was the first to see what was on the right side of the room, which made up most of the space.

"Wha..." The others began to question his remark but once they looked towards his side they felt their mouths go slack and their eyes widen.

"I'd really hoped that they'd all gone out to fight Antylamon like in the plan..." Gabumon grumbled as he stared out over a large crowd of Dokugumon that literally carpeted half the room with their large hairy bodies.

"That's not the worst of it..." Hawkmon's distant and depressed tone didn't change as the other two followed his line of sight to the front of the crowd.

The horde of Dokugumon ran nearly all the way to the back wall, but stopped short of it by about 20 feet where a small set of stairs carved out of stone ascended to a platform. It looked as if the platform at one point had been used as a stage, probably for town meetings or entertainment, but now a collection of stones had been built up in the center and webbed together to make a big chair. Or more likely a throne. And sitting upon that throne was...

"Has that foolish Village Chief been dealt with yet." A raspy voice hissed at the crowd. It didn't care which one of them answer, just as long as one of its minions did.

"No, Mistress Arukenimon." One near the front responded, making the half-woman, half-spider, digimon shift uncomfortably on her impromptu throne. "She continues to fight, but she's begun to weaken and soon we'll capture her like all of the others."

"Good. Good." Arukenimon seemed satisfied by that response. "It was foolish of her to come back, but fortunate for us. It was going to be a big problem for us if we let a powerful Ultimate like her slip through our... fingers..." The word, fingers, came out unnaturally, maybe because she couldn't figure out a better world to use despite the fact that most in her army didn't have fingers.

"Remember, you can hurt her, hurt her a lot, but she's to be captured alive. Just like all the other Champion and Ultimate digimon of this village." Arukenimon added, glaring at her small army.

"Yes, Mistress!" The one who'd spoken up yelped before breaking from the crowd and heading up the layers of ramps and platforms to reach the exit. It was most likely heading towards the surface to relay Arukenimon's order... or maybe that had been a threat.

"I just realized something..." Gabumon whispered to the two hiding on the ledge beside him.

When the Dokugumon rushing to deliver Arukenimon's orders had begun rushed towards them they had to think fast and with a bit of luck had spotted an alcove in the wall to their right, separated from the walkway by a small gap. It looked as if at one point a statue had stood there, but had been recently been pulled down, most likely to build Arukenimon's throne, which was fine with the three of them since with a small jump it gave them a place to hide as the panicked Dokugumon ran by and back up the tunnels.

When Gabumon saw that their attention was on him he continued. "All of those digimon we set free were all In-Training and Rookie level, but I didn't see any Champion or Ultimate level ones."

"That is a problem. Arukenimon certainly claimed there to be Champion and Ultimate level's here and I do remember seeing some before the village was attacked, but they aren't here..." Hawkmon felt worry build in the pit of his stomach.

"Then where are they?" Agumon questioned. He didn't think any of them knew the answer but he still felt like asking. "Could they be being held somewhere else?"

"It would have to be somewhere other than here underground." Gabumon responded. "According to Antylamon we've been in every room of this place and there's been no sign of them."

According to Antylamon's information the only room that was big enough to hold the bigger web pods of Champion and Ultimate digimon was the room they were looking into, but there was no sign of them and that meant one of two things. The first that Antylamon's information was wrong, which was highly unlikely, or the spider army had a second location, separate from the underground town hall, where they were holding the stronger digimon villagers. The second option was the most likely one.

"We'll have to assume they took them somewhere else. Somewhere where they could restrain the bigger and more powerful villagers." Hawkmon didn't want to sound cold, but there was no way they'd missed such a large group.

"We'll have to look for them once we get out of here with the other and..." Agumon stated as the three pairs of eyes shifted to the left side of Arukenimon's throne, "...Gomamon."

"And you," with her decision made about Antylamon's fate Arukenimon turned to the other pressing matter, namely the little digimon wrapped in spider silk and hanging from a long strand of webbing attached to the high ceiling, leaving him dangling a foot from her throne, "little Gomamon."

"Ah, yeah?" Gomamon gave her an inquisitive look which he hoped hid any nervousness.

"Why do I feel like I know you...?" Her look wasn't one of anger or villainy, it was one of honest confusion.

"..." He didn't reply right away and instead took a moment to think to himself.

For the last couple of minutes, ever since he'd been rushed into the large room and the top of his spider pod ripped off he'd been trying to figure one thing out... was this actually the Arukenimon they'd know and fought? Or was it just some random one and evil just ran in its type? There were things about the way she acted and insisted she felt like she knew him that suggested she was the same one, but at the same time he'd yet to run into any digimon who recognized them before now so it would be a pretty big coincidence that the first one he'd run into, other than the other partner digimon, was her.

"Don't make me ask again." She growled in her raspy voice.

"..." But again he was still to lost in his thoughts to answer.

Then there was the fact that why would Arukenimon be the one to recognize him. He was pretty sure that he could count the number of times he meet her on a single flipper and even then he couldn't remember having any direct communication or interaction with her. He could understand remembering Hawkmon, which was why he was glad and a bit worried that he hadn't been brought down yet, but why him.

"Why do you feel familiar?" Her voice became a bit rougher and anger, shaking Gomamon from his thoughts and forcing out a response.

"Ahh~ Don't know... Why do you think?" He tried to not let his tone sound sarcastic or like he was lying, both of which he pretty much failed, but it didn't seem like Arukenimon caught on.

"Why do you feel familiar?" She had become even more agitated, however, this didn't seem to be Gomamon's fault. Well, not directly anyways.

"A lot of women feel that way around me?" Hopefully sarcasm would make him feel a bit braver in this hopeless situation, or at least that's what he thought. "There it is again. She didn't say she knew me... but felt like she knew me... That somehow I feel familiar?"

"You know I can kill you right? Quite easily actually." She reached and palmed the top of his head in her big furry hands, trying to be as threatening as she could. "It wouldn't take much. Just a single strong squeeze."

"I think that's pretty obvious..." He gulped and tried to stop himself from responding sarcastically again, but failed.

"Good~" She almost purred with delight seeing him cower a bit. "Now tell me why I feel this way."

"Look, lady, I have no idea why you feel that way." Several times he considered telling her what might have been the truth, that they might have been enemies many years ago, but he was still unsure if she was actually the Arukenimon they'd fought. And what he did know was that if he told her they might have been enemies in the past that she'd more than likely delete him.

"Raaaahhh~" She grabbed him by the head, pulling him right up to her face and growled a frustrated growl into his. For a moment she considered crushing his head and being done with it, but something stopped her. Maybe it was the knowledge that if she killed him she'd never get any answers, so instead she released him, leaving him to swing back and forth helplessly.

"Where the hell is that other one I told you to bring down!" She turned her frustrations on her minions. It had been several minutes now since she'd sent for the two digimon but the one currently hanging to her left was the only one that had shown up so far.

The mass of Dokugumon could only shudder as she looked them over like the fault of one of them was all of their faults. The Dokugumon's selling points were that they were big, strong and violent, not that they were bright.

"Haa..." Looking out over the sea of scared and confused compound eyes Arukenimon could only sigh in disappointment.

"Not too helpful are they?" Still swing back and forth in small arches Gomamon still managed to make a sarcastic remark, most likely to distract himself from throwing up. The swinging combined with being hung upside down as doing a real number on his stomach.

"You have no idea..." She rested the side of her face in one of her hands and sigh before reaching a hand out towards Gomamon. "They're about as helpful as you're being." With that she pushed him, sending swinging in large nauseating arches once again.

"Gonna throw up..." Gomamon groaned as he tried to focus on keeping his lunch down, but not making much progress. "Definitely... Definitely gonna throw up..."

"Don't you dare or I'll k-!?" Before she could finish her threat two other voices cut in over hers.

"PEPPER BREATH" "BLUE BLASTER"

All eyes turned towards the ensuing explosion and not the source of the voice, the blast being the thing to fear more at the moment. The sound of fiery impact turned all eyes upward just in time to spot the large tapestry that had once hung behind Arukenimon's mockup throne now dropping down onto the dais as a raging fire of burning fabric.

"WHAT THE!?" Arukenimon yelped as she dove forward into her crowd of minions to avoid being set on fire when the burning tapestry crashed down on her throne, engulfing the whole thing in flames.

Upon impact with the ground the burning tapestry released a cloud of ash, embers, and smoke into the air along with a wave of heat that sent the hairy insect digimon scurry over each other to get some distance.

"..." For a moment Arukenimon stared at her burning throne, glad to be alive or at the very least unhurt, before another thought crossed her mind. Her gaze shifted to beside where her throne once stood to where the little annoy digimon should have been screaming while he was roasted alive over the flames, but instead she found nothing.

"Where!?" She almost roared as her eyes darted around the room until they caught sight of something moving in the distance far above her head. "Impossible!? How did they get in here!?"

"Hawkmon!" Gomamon cheered as he looked up the cable of silk that had once suspended him from the ceiling now a lot shorter and clutched in his feathered friends talons. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you!"

"I can hazard a guess my friend." Hawkmon chuckled while trying to focus on flying as fast as he could.

A few tense moments ago the three partner digimon had come up with a plan. From where they were Agumon and Gabumon had set the giant tapestry alight with their attacks while in the confusion Hawkmon swooped in, cut the web ropes connecting Gomamon to the ceiling, before grabbing said rope and high tailing it to the others and the exit. He knew that they needed to move quickly because it was only a matter of time before the chaos calmed enough for someone to notice what had happened.

"STOP THEM!" And it would seem they'd been noticed.

"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" Hawkmon heard Agumon order from up on the ridge before he and Gabumon turned back down the hallway at a full sprint. They knew that they couldn't possibly move as fast as Hawkmon could fly so they were going to need a head start if they were going to keep up with him.

"Was that Agumon and Gabumon?!" Gomamon inquired, his voice a mixture of surprise, confusion, and joy. "What are the chances in this place of all places?"

"It's not really the time to discuss that my friend." Hawkmon groaned. He was really only used to flying himself and not while carrying someone who weighted just as much as he did. However, he powered through and reached the hallway entrance in a few seconds.

As Hawkmon banked into the dark hallway he spared a single glance back into the room to see Arukenimon pushing her way through the clamoring mass of her dark minions who were still milling about in a panic over the spreading flames. Every so often she'd slap one or roughly shake it, trying to focus it and get it after the four fleeing rookies.

Now in the tunnel the four made a mad dash for the hidden escape route. For a few seconds the only sounds they could hear was that of their own heavy breathing and footfalls, all except Gomamon who was still tied up and being dragged along by Hawkmon. That relative silence didn't last long before the hustle of a lot of hairy legs began to echo from behind them.

"THERE IT IS!" Agumon yelled pointing a claw towards the entrance to the hidden exit, now uncovered by the others while they'd been evacuating the villagers.

The four dove in using their claws and wings respectively to cut at the webbing around the side, hoping to knock enough of it loss to cover up the entrance so that maybe the horde of Dokugumon would miss it and scurry by. And luckily for them it seemed to have as a wave of black shadows blew past the weak curtain of white web as they headed deeper into the now empty halls.

"I can't believe that worked..." Gabumon huffed as they took a few seconds to catch their breath and untie Gomamon in the safety of the hidden tunnel.

"Guys!" Gomamon gave them an enthusiastic whisper and a hug once he was freed.

"Not the time." Gabumon simply stated and they began to move again.

Down a long straight tunnel of carved stone, used to ensure fresh air circulated down this deep, they went until they reached the end and burst out into the cool air of the night. Wasting no time Agumon turned his head skyward and prepared to give the signal. The signal that would tell Antylamon to collapse the underground series of caves and bury the horrible creeping army of spiders.

"PEPP..." Was as far as he got before he hesitated and looked back down the tunnel. He thought he could do it, give the order, but all he could think about was how they still didn't know where the Champion and Ultimate level villagers were. He kept thinking about how his decision could condemn them to the same fate of being buried alive like their enemies.

"You're out!?" Biyomon's surprised voice suddenly cut through the air as she came gliding down to them. It would seem that after being gone for so long she'd become worried enough to chance reentering the spiders den to find her friends.

"Biyomon!" Gomamon cheered, surprised and happy to see yet another of his long lost friends.

"Why haven't you signaled Antylamon yet?" She set down in front of Agumon who was still staring at the tunnel entrance, trying to make the life and death decision.

"Biyomon, we can't. The Champion and Ultimate level villagers might still be in there." She managed to shake him from his thoughts.

"No, they're not. When we freed the other villagers they told us that they were taken somewhere else. Somewhere not in the village. They heard them mention something about a hideout or something like that." Biyomon replied, quickly trying to alleviate Agumon's concern.

"Are you sure?" He questioned and when she nodded a, yes, he turned his head skyward and released the signal.

"PEPPER BREATH" "PEPPER BREATH" "PEPPER BREATH"

Three quick shots of his flaming breath erupted from his mouth and streaked high into the night sky before burning out. Then... there was silence for a few seconds before a loud thud rang out from somewhere in the night followed by the return of silence. However, it didn't stay long and was quickly replaced by a roar of clashing earth and stone, and a rumbling from beneath their feet.

The five quickly fled the foot of the mountain and down to the valley where they were greeted by a crowd of the freed Rookie and In-training level digimon villagers and the other partner digimon. No greeting were exchanged as instead they all turned to watch as the mountain shook, it's thick layers of dirt and rock hiding the destruction taking place deep within its tunnels, halls, and rooms as they collapsed in on themselves.

After a few minutes the shaking finally stopped and the night became silent again. The only sound being that of the wind and small rockslides stirred up in the moments of violent chaos. Now they were left in the stillness of the night to think and hope that their plan had really worked.

Time passed. The partner digimon had a short reunion with Gomamon while they attended to the frightened villagers and after a while Antylamon came limping into the valley, much to the relief of all the digimon gather there. She looked rather tired and pretty banged up after fighting for so long, but she was alive and would recover. However, before she could she had to know what had become of the missing higher-level digimon villagers.

"Damn!" She growled at the news that the missing digimon had been taken somewhere far from the village. She really didn't want to think of the reason why. "If I'd know that I would have chased that woman and her surviving Dokugumons..."

"Arukenimon survive!" The partner digimon gasped. They'd really hoped she'd been buried and crushed with her army.

"Yes, she didn't leave through the main entrance, but as I was crossing the mountain to get here I spotted her and about twenty or thirty of her Dokugumon scurry down the foot of the mountain on the eastern side. She probably escape the same why they'd gotten in unnoticed." Antylamon squeezed her large fists in anger over her missed opportunity, which was probably for the best since in her weakened state she most likely would have only gotten herself killed or captured if she confronted them. "And probably how they took away my citizens."

"She must have figured out it was a trap and made a run for it." Hawkmon noted, hoping he'd seen the last of that particular female spider. "She always was a tricky one."

"Someone needs to inform Lady Ophanimon of what happened here. She'll be able to help us and know what to do about those that were taken." The village chiefs voice reflected her lament over the loss of her citizens and the level of destruction that had befallen the city. She wanted nothing more than to rush into the night to deliver her plea for help to the Digital Worlds overseer, but she knew that more than ever before her people needed her there with them. With all of the Champion and Ultimate digimon carried off by the Dokugumons and their spider queen, Arukenimon, she was the last line of defense. The only chance they had if the village came under attack again. That left her with the only option of trusting her request to others.

"We'll do it, Antylamon!" To everyone's surprise, even his own little group, Agumon spoke up and volunteered for the mission.

"But..." A few members of the partner digimon spoke up but quickly went silent again as a memory crossed their minds.

"But Lady Ophanimon's castle lays in the opposite direction of Crossroads Village." Antylamon gave him and the small group an empathetic look as she stretched her arms out in two different directions, illustrating her point. "If you're to have any hope of catching up to Leomon you don't have the time to make such a lengthy detour."

The Chief of Stone Edge was right. Chief Leomon already had a few days lead on them, but Crossroads Village was only a day's walk from here and they might actually be able to catch up if they walked all day and night, also assuming that he perchance hung around in the village for a bit like he seemed to each time. Even if they didn't catch up to him at Crossroads Village they were pretty confident that they'd be able to at either the next town or the one after that, but Lady Ophanimon's castle was at least a few week's journey and Leomon would have grown a massive gap between them and him during that time. With that much of a gap he could be halfway across the Digital World before they were able to pick up his trail again.

However that didn't matter as the same memory beat against the partner digimon's brains. Memories of what their partners would do in this situation. How selfless they would all be by putting saving the villager as their top priority.

Agumon could almost see Tai jumping at the chance to help. He even imagined that Tai might have been a bit annoyed with him for not volunteering sooner; he had paused for a few seconds to consider his options, but Tai wouldn't have. He would have seen the problem and been on it in the next second, heck, he'd probably have begun chasing down the Dokugumons and Arukenimon already. That imagine in his head made the same dino digimon chuckle before smiling up at Antylamon.

"Thanks for your concern, but our search can wait, your villages problem can't. Besides..." there was a sad hint to his tone, but he quickly erased it as his smiled widened a bit more, "...if we didn't help you we'd never be able to face our friends again."

"I..." She paused to think for a moment, trying to come up with any digimon they could spare to go in their place, but there just wasn't. She was the last evolved digimon in the village, it's last safeguard should the spider digimon return, and of the rookie digimon still left she knew none of them were experienced enough to survive a trek to Lady Ophanimon's castle, especially now that there were Dokugumon bandits wandering around apparently. But this plucky band of Rookies was different. They could definitely make it, even if they ran into trouble. They'd proved that in helping to liberate the village. "I understand... and I am grateful. I wish that there was another way, but I can promise you that when you return and the village gets sorted out I'll help you in any way I can. For now though we can offer you supplies for your journey and a place to rest until you leave."

"Thank you." He gave the chief a nod, sealing the deal between the two of them, before turning to his fellow partner digimon. There was no sign of doubt in them now that the decision had been made, so with the plan agreed on they headed off to grab something to eat and some sleep before they would leave in the morning at first light.

The partner digimon's time in Stone Edge village had reunited them all but for one, Gatomon, however their new mission would put them on the course to finding her and what they've been seeking for years now. Before they reached Lady Ophanimon's castle a lot of what was wrong in their world would be right again, but it would also put them on a collision course with the greatest threat the Digital World had ever faced. One that would unite the generations in hopes of defeating it.

To be continued...