"Pepper Breath!"
"V-Headbutt!"
Agumon and Veemon unleashed their signature moves, blowing open the prison bars and freeing the Digimon the Digimon Emperor had locked up.
"Everyone, this way! Run!" Davis charged to the front, leading the Digimon as they bolted from the scene and rushed toward the exit.
Once they finally escaped the jail area the Emperor had built in this region, the rescued Gotsumon all collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted. The others were soaked in sweat, and Veemon was panting with his tongue lolling out.
"I'd love to see the Digimon Emperor's face when he finds out about this. Just thinking about it makes me feel great." Davis said, gloating openly.
"But something feels off." T.K. frowned a little.
"What feels off?" Patamon fluttered down from T.K.'s head, and T.K. quickly held out his hands so he could land.
"The prison was barely guarded, and he hasn't been around here for days. I think he's gone somewhere else for some other purpose." T.K. said worriedly.
"Come on, he obviously ran off because he's scared of us. Right, Kari?" Davis kept up his usual carefree attitude, still trying to win Kari's approval at the end.
Kari, however, didn't buy it at all. "No, I'm with T.K. on this one." Davis's brainless explanation was really hard to agree with. "I just don't know what that Digimon Emperor is actually up to."
"Agumon, knock down that Dark Tower." Tai looked up at the Dark Tower standing on the mountaintop.
"Got it, Tai." Agumon Digivolved into Greymon, then fired a single Nova Blast that blew the Dark Tower to pieces.
"All right, let's head back to school. Izzy and Yolei must be worried sick about us by now." With nothing else urgent to chase down at the moment, Tai gave the order. The group walked over to the TV, used their Digivices and D-3s to open the gate to the Digital World, and returned to the computer lab.
At that same time, the Digimon Emperor had no time to worry about them at all. He was sprawled comfortably in the command chair in his base's control room, happily watching a black-and-white map on the screen.
"Another area belongs to me."
As he spoke, a white section of the map flipped to black. On the other screens, images of Dark Towers spread across different parts of the Digital World.
"See those black towers?" The Digimon Emperor stood above the gathered Digimon, delivering a little speech. At the very front of the assembled Digimon stood Gabumon, Matt's partner.
"Those are Dark Towers. Any place that has a Dark Tower belongs to me. And that means all of you are my servants. Got it?"
Looking at the Digimon around him controlled by Dark Rings, Gabumon felt nothing but sorrow. Everyone's being controlled by those black rings…
Out loud, though, he had no choice but to submit to the Emperor's tyranny. "Yes, Digimon Emperor… sir."
Back in the Human World, Izzy could only stare helplessly at Tai as he walked in with a whole crowd of Gotsumon at his back.
"Why did you bring them here too?" Izzy asked.
"We didn't really have a choice." Tai spread his hands, just as helpless. "We don't know when the Digimon Emperor might come back. Leaving the Gotsumon there would be way too dangerous, right, Kari?" He even dragged Kari in as his "ally."
Kari did not disappoint him—she fully agreed with Tai's reasoning.
Yolei, however, was still anxious. "But what if the teachers see them? How are we supposed to explain this?"
"No problem." Cody answered confidently. "We planned ahead, just in case. Okay, everyone, strike your pose."
That last bit was directed at the Gotsumon. Hearing Cody's instructions, they hurried into position and "turned" themselves into statues, each freezing in a different pose.
"How about that? They look just like stone statues, right?" Cody said proudly. A few dark lines practically slid down Yolei's forehead as she watched the scene.
Izzy walked up to Yolei. "Yolei, sorry, but… could I borrow your Digivice for a while?"
"Huh? Why?"
"Your Digivices can trigger Armor Digivolution. Ours can't do that. I really want to know why—what's different between your Digivices and ours."
He paused for a second, then went on: "And after we defeated Apocalymon three years ago, a new kind of Digivice appeared in the Human World, different from both yours and ours. Counting yours, we now know of three types of Digivice.
The difference is, only a few of us have our original Digivices and you D-3 users, but that new kind of Digivice is in the hands of kids all over the world. I've already gotten in touch with some of them. We're going to bring all three types together and study the differences."
The scale of Izzy's plan left Yolei stunned, and she handed over her Digivice without hesitation.
Meanwhile, in the Digital World, a group of Vegiemon controlled by Dark Rings were hauling the Digimon Emperor's chair, shuffling forward under the threat of his whip as he moved on toward the next region.
Vegiemon were carnivorous plant-type Digimon with long vines and a huge mouth. They lured small Digimon in with the sweet smell they spat out and then dragged them in with their tentacle-like vines. They were nasty Digimon, but at this stage they didn't have much offensive power and couldn't really stand up to large Digimon. Once fully grown, Vegiemon would bloom and bear fruit.
Back at the Emperor's prison, Gabumon peered out through the little window in his cell door. Seeing the Digimon Emperor move off into the distance, he knew it was his chance to break out.
"Blue Blaster!"
His compressed flames blew the door apart, and he rushed out with Gazimon in tow. They had barely gotten very far when a spiked, club-like object suddenly came hurtling toward them, smashing Gabumon from the front and slamming him straight into Gazimon behind.
"Did you really think you could escape? That's impossible."
A sinister voice echoed out.
"Who are you?" Gabumon struggled back up to his feet.
"I am the terrifying fully-ripe vegetable, RedVegiemon!"
A fully red Digimon stepped into view in front of Gabumon.
RedVegiemon was a plant-type Digimon with a blazing red, overheated body, an enhanced version of Vegiemon. Nasty and cunning, it was still only a Champion, but its disaster-level stench attack made it far more dangerous than regular Vegiemon.
"What are you going to do?" Gabumon asked helplessly. With the enemy so strong, he had to keep his head down—for now.
"Attempting to break out of prison is a serious crime. As punishment, you get one hundred hits."
RedVegiemon lifted its thick arm and started pounding on Gabumon.
"One, two… three sixty-nine, seventy, seventy-one, seventy-two…"
With each blow, Gabumon cried out in pain. Gazimon, off to the side, could only cover his eyes with his paws, unable to bear watching his friend suffer.
"Seventy-three!"
With that final hit, RedVegiemon swatted Gabumon right off the cliff and into the river. Gabumon thrashed desperately in the water, but soon sank beneath the surface.
"Tch. Only seventy-three hits and he's already down? Pathetic. Well, there's no way he survived that." RedVegiemon muttered, then turned back and shoved Gazimon into a cell.
Still, Gabumon managed to drag himself up onto the riverbank. When he lifted his head, he spotted a TV sitting nearby.
"I can't die yet… I have to tell everyone… I have to warn Matt…"
Before he could finish, his injuries and the water took their toll. Gabumon lost consciousness and slipped back into the river.
At that very moment, Matt was still up on stage, pouring his heart and sweat into his performance. With a guitar in his hands and the lights on him, he looked effortlessly cool.
Thunderous applause rose from the crowd as his fans waved and shouted themselves hoarse. Matt Ishida was the textbook example of "that perfect kid"—the kind every parent loved to compare their own children to, and the existence those kids absolutely hated being measured against.
After the show, Matt met his younger brother T.K. in a glass-walled corridor outside. T.K. told him about the current situation in the Digital World, and about their mission to rescue more imprisoned Digimon.
Looking out at a green tree beyond the glass, Matt summarized what T.K. had said. "So basically, we have to look everywhere except where Gotsumon was hiding."
"Don't you have any ideas where they might be, Matt?" T.K. asked, sounding a little disappointed.
"Well, I—"
He was cut off by an unexpected visitor.
"Could I have your autograph?"
The visitor was none other than Jun Motomiya, Davis's older sister—apparently a hardcore Matt fan.
"Sure." Matt signed his name across the back of her shirt as he spoke.
When she found out T.K. was Matt's brother and also Davis's classmate, she made him sign as well, complaining that Davis wasn't nearly as obedient or cute as T.K. There was plenty of envy in her voice over Matt having such an adorable little brother.
Right then, Matt's Digivice started flashing a warning signal. A bad feeling washed over him.
"Gabumon…?"
"Whoa, my D-Terminal got a message too. 'SOS received—come to the clubroom. —Yolei.'" T.K. said in surprise.
Matt and T.K. took off at a run, racing for the computer lab as fast as they could. The others were already gathered there. At Yolei's shout of, "Chosen Children, move out!" they opened the gate and dove back into the Digital World to save Gabumon.
The moment they stepped out of the TV in the Digital World, they saw Gabumon lying on the sandy riverbank, covered in wounds.
"Gabumon, hang in there!"
Hearing his partner's voice, Gabumon forced his eyes open and saw Matt and the others standing over him. "Matt…"
"I missed you so much, Matt…"
After a few emotional words, they got the story: not far from here, in a town called Horn Santagania, the Digimon Emperor had a prison where countless Digimon were being held.
The kids immediately decided to head there and free every Digimon locked inside.
The battle with the Digimon Emperor had begun.
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