It turned out that Digmon—the one who had dealt with Kuwagamon—dug a tunnel underground right along the path they had to take, letting them slip out of the Digimon Emperor's range of control.
"Digmon…" Cody felt like happiness had come way too suddenly.
"Thank goodness we made it in time." Digmon felt incredibly relieved. If anything had happened to Cody…
With Digmon carving the way ahead, Izzy and Cody stopped traveling aboveground and moved through the tunnel instead, only coming back up once they were far outside the effective range of the Digimon Emperor's Dark Digivice. Then they had Tentomon Digivolve into Kabuterimon to carry them away from there.
"So that's Kabuterimon…" the Digimon Emperor said, standing atop Devidramon. Not only did he show no frustration at letting them escape—he even looked a little pleased. "Now I can get more data about him. Hahahaha!"
A flash of light, and Izzy and Cody returned from the Digital World. Tai and the others had already finished searching a long time ago and were waiting in the room for the two of them to come back.
"Where's my mom?" The very first thing Izzy asked after returning was about his mother, terrified she might find out what they were doing—after all, what they were involved in was still pretty dangerous.
"Don't worry, she's not back yet." Tai's answer made Izzy let out a breath.
"We found the Digimon Emperor's base! There are tons of Control Spires built there!" Cody said excitedly.
"Everyone, come take a look," Izzy said as he pulled up a map of the Digital World on the computer, talking while he operated it. "First, this is the area Davis and the others went to. Over here is where T.K. and the others went. And this is where Matt went. Finally, this is the area Tentomon and I went to. If we connect all these areas…"
As Izzy worked, the map of the Digital World zoomed out. What appeared was a pattern that was almost connected into one whole shape.
"The Digimon Emperor is invading the Digital World in a systematic way."
"Our Digital World…"
"Curse that Digimon Emperor!"
"He really is conquering the Digital World bit by bit!"
"We're running out of time!"
The five Digimon sitting on the bed all started chattering at once, each one angrier than the last.
"Now that we've found the Digimon Emperor's base, what are we still doing here? Let's go destroy it right now!" Davis said, fired up.
"Wait. We can't be reckless about destroying the Digimon Emperor's base—we have to make a plan first," T.K. objected, refusing to let Davis charge in carelessly.
"And we can't do it like before this time," Yolei said.
"Yeah. We can't be like before and go there and come back in the same day," T.K. agreed.
"Ah…" Yolei startled and turned her head away awkwardly. "That's true. If we keep worrying about when we have to get back, we won't be able to focus on attacking the base."
Kari stood up and said firmly, "If we don't defeat the Digimon Emperor, we absolutely aren't coming back. Everyone has to be prepared for that."
"Prepared…?" Yolei's eyes grew a little unfocused, but her thoughts were racing. I do want to be prepared like that, but if I'm not home by dinner time, Mom's going to worry like crazy…
"Just tell a lie, right? Like saying you're staying over at a friend's house or something," Davis said, sharing his "experienced" advice as they started discussing how to explain not coming home to their parents.
"Davis, you do this kind of thing a lot?" Kari said with a look of obvious disdain.
"I'm just giving an example! I've never done that, Kari—believe me!" Davis hurriedly tried to explain, flailing a little.
Meanwhile, Tai, Matt, and Izzy stayed gathered in front of the computer, staring at the Control Spires spread across the map of the Digital World.
"I can't believe there are so many Control Spires built in the Digital World," Izzy murmured, staring at the screen with a mix of amazement and unease. "If this keeps up, then aside from Agumon, our Digimon basically can't Digivolve at all."
"Even if we all go together, would we still not be able to help them?" Matt said guiltily. "There are so many Control Spires built around the Digimon Emperor's base—there's no way we can destroy them all at once."
"Hey, what if we say we're going camping?" Tai suggested. "That way everyone can go out together, and we won't have to worry about our parents panicking if we're not home at night."
"Good idea. We'll say it's a camping trip, but really we'll go to the Digital World," Matt agreed. "And Izzy and I can stay at the campsite, so if your parents call the campsite, we can cover for you."
With the plan decided, the kids all started preparing on their own—packing clothes, food, and other necessities. Matt and T.K. went to talk to their dad and ask him to come along as the supervising adult for the "camping trip," so the other parents would feel more at ease. Plus, he already knew a lot about Digimon, so they wouldn't have to explain too much later.
Early the next morning, the kids gathered at Matt's house. From the moment Yolei arrived, something felt off—she was absurdly hyped, like she'd chugged ten energy drinks.
"What's up with her?" Patamon quietly asked Tokomon about Yolei.
"No idea. She's been like that since she got up this morning," Tokomon said, equally confused.
And sure enough, ever since she arrived, Yolei had been nonstop—kicking, punching the air, and rattling on. "Digital World, GO! GO! We're gonna wipe out the Digimon Emperor! Yah! Yah-yah!"
Finally, Izzy finished setting up the computer. Davis, Kari, and the other five went to the Digital World, while Matt and Izzy followed Hiroaki, putting on an act and heading to the campsite to deal with the parents.
"They left?" Hiroaki asked.
"Sorry for the trouble, sir," Tai and Izzy said politely.
Over here, Matt was about to get into the car when he noticed someone who absolutely shouldn't have been there—Davis's sister, Jun Motomiya.
"Hi! Morning, Matt!" Jun greeted him with a beaming smile. But to Matt, that smile was downright terrifying.
"…" Everyone in the car froze in shock.
"Why is she here?!" Tai blurted out. "How did I not know?!"
"I didn't know either…" Matt's mouth twitched.
"Just figure out a way to fool her," Tai said, patting Matt on the shoulder like it was all on him.
Matt got out of the car and forced himself to greet her, clearly unwilling. "Hi."
"I heard you guys are going camping, so I came along too," Jun said—and with that one sentence, she sold her little brother out completely.
"I see…" Matt still looked polite and gentle, but in his mind he had already beaten Davis up a thousand times.
"Huh? Where are Davis and the others?" Jun asked, looking at the car and realizing there were only three people inside.
"Uh…" Matt stared up at the clouds. "They took another car and went ahead."
Seeing Matt struggle so hard, Tai and Izzy in the car couldn't help but grin, thoroughly entertained.
Izzy whispered into Tai's ear, "Looks like Davis is going to get chewed out hard by Matt this time."
Matt kept staring at the clouds. "They're riding in my dad's coworker's car."
At that, Tai and Izzy finally cracked and started laughing.
"Oh! Got it," Jun said. It wasn't so much that she believed without question—more like she didn't care about anything else right now.
Still facing away from her, Matt continued, "So… could I ask you a favor?"
Hearing her crush asking for a favor made Jun's face turn bright red. "What is it?"
"Could you turn around and count to ten," Matt said, still watching the clouds with his back to her. "And if you can close your eyes, even better."
Even Matt felt embarrassed saying it.
"Sure! One, two, three…" Jun turned around immediately, shut her eyes, and started counting.
Matt seized the chance, sprinted back into the car, and blurted out anxiously, "Dad, go! Hurry!"
Hiroaki glanced sideways at his son, clearly unimpressed by him tricking a girl like that. "Just leaving her?"
"It's fine!" Matt's mind was completely focused on getting away from Jun as fast as possible—he didn't even care about how he looked in front of his dad anymore.
"Six, seven, eight, nine, ten!" Jun's counting continued as the car started moving. When she opened her eyes, she stared in disbelief at the car carrying her crush already far down the road. "Huh… Matt…"
Meanwhile, the kids had arrived at the location Izzy and Cody found—the spot where the Digimon Emperor's base was supposed to be. As he climbed, Cody kept reminding them, "Everyone, be careful," worried someone might repeat what happened to him before.
But Yolei, on the other hand, sprinted up the mountain like she was running a hundred-meter dash. Hawkmon kept warning her to be careful, but it was completely useless.
"Everyone, bad news— the Digimon Emperor's base is gone," Tentomon reported after returning from scouting, dropping a bombshell on them.
The kids hurried to the summit. Yolei had already been up there for a while, enjoying the view. But when the others arrived, all they could see was that the place where the base had been was now just a massive hole, plus a field of Control Spires stretching out so far they couldn't see the end—everything else was barren and desolate.
As for the Digimon Emperor's base…
"That big hole… there used to be something sticking out there," Armadillomon explained.
"Huh? Where'd Yolei go?" Gatomon looked up and realized Yolei—who'd been standing there—was already gone.
Kari patted Gatomon's head and pointed down. "She's down there."
Following Kari's finger, they saw that Yolei and Hawkmon were already sliding down the mountainside at incredible speed. It was fast enough to make you worry whether she'd land safely.
Hawkmon chased after her, calling out in panic, "Wait! Wait, Yolei!"
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Davis asked, wanting to confirm.
"Absolutely. But how did a hole this big get here?" Cody said, utterly baffled. "The Digimon Emperor's base was definitely right here before."
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