Present: Negabyte's Hideout

"Roowwrrr!!!!" an infuriated Gatomon growled.  Two Viral Agents flanked her, each carrying her by one of her paws.  "Let me go!"  Repeatedly, she attempted to reach over and bite the claws of her captors.

Kari put up less of a fuss.  She was tired both physically and emotionally.  The past few days had drained quite a bit from her.  Instead of struggling, she took the moment to observe her surroundings.  She and Gatomon had been brought to the crumbled remains of Negabyte's castle and then led underground to a series of cavernous tunnels.  No amount of light save for torches penetrated these dank, murky corridors.  Gloom consumed the air.  "It's freezing in here," Kari shivered.  But the chills she felt crawling up her skin weren't just from the lower temperatures.  No.  This was a different kind of cold she was experiencing.  It was one she knew all too well.  Her voice trailed off into a fearful whisper.  "Darkness..."

"Bring the human here," commanded a booming voice.

"Oh!" Kari gasped.  The voice was thundering and heavy, even foreboding.  But when she lifted her head to see who was speaking, she found no one.  Only the Viral Agents were in this secret chamber with her and Gatomon, and she knew the Agents couldn't talk like this mysterious voice had.  But she would have no time to dwell on it.  Screeching and chirping, the Viral Agents holding her dragged her to a stone altar.

"Kari!" her cat digimon cried out.  She pulled and yanked at her restrained paws, trying to escape.  But it was no use.  There was nothing the Champion-level digimon could do while she watched her Digi-Destined partner being cuffed to a table made of rock.

"Secure that digimon to the wall," the rumbling voice spoke up once more.  And the dark, sinister creatures did as they were told, obeying their creator and their Master.

All of a sudden, tears started to well up in Kari's burgundy eyes.  "Who are you?" she screamed.  Now that she was strapped, the Viral Agents left the table.  Her heart began to race with fright.  "What do you want with me and Gatomon?"

Then, in answer to her tearful questions, something began to appear.  The chamber got colder and a dark, oozing mist drifted from the shadowy corners of the room, glittering against the firelight of the torches.  "Hahaha," the roaring voice chuckled.  "Do you not recognize me?"

Kari just lay there, biting her lip.

"No?" the malevolent voice toyed with his human prisoner.  "Then perhaps you will recognize my younger self!"

Two Viral Agents heaved a limp body over their shoulders, gently laying it down beside the brown-haired girl on the stone mantle.  "Oh!" both Kari and Gatomon gasped.  "Negabyte!"

Gatomon couldn't believe it.  "There's two of them!" she exclaimed.

"That's right," the sparkling mist seethed.  "I am the final stage of evolution of Captain Negabyte and the Internet Virus from hundreds of digi-years into the future.  We have fully mutated and fused into one being."  Then the older, more powerful Negabyte turned his attention to his minions.  "You have done well, my children," he congratulated them on a mission well done.  "My virus of the past will now have a new host," he continued.  "And once the transfer is complete, not only will my virus survive and my strength return, but I will also gain a Queen to sit by my side as rulers of the Digital Universe!"

The room filled with screeches and howls from the ecstatic Viral Agents.

"Oh, no!" Gatomon cried.  "That monster is going to turn Kari into a...a...monster!  Just like him!"

"Noooo!!!!" Kari screamed at the top of her lungs.  She fought against the shackles that tied her down.

"Hahahaha!" Negabyte cackled.  "And then I shall obtain all the magic powers the humans possess and I will finally be able to defeat the Digi-Destined once and for all!"

Gatomon tilted her head.  "Magic powers?" she raised an eyebrow.  "Humans don't have magic powers.  Just the energy they supply to us digimon."  And then, it suddenly hit her.  "Oh!" the cat stopped breathing.  "If that virus takes over Kari's body," she realized.  "Then I'll be controlled by whatever evil monster it turns her into!"

The cold, sinister mist hung low in the air, hovering above both the younger Negabyte's body and Kari's.  "And once you are the host of my virus from the past," the cloud snarled, "I will no longer have to worry about that annoyingly persistent daughter of yours."

Kari scrunched her brows.  "Daughter?" she gulped.

"Tsuriai has proven to be a most resilient adversary traveling all this way back in Time just to confront me," Negabyte went on.  "Just like her brother.  But now that you are mine," he said.  "You and that Takaishi boy will not be able to produce the children who came so close to destroying me!  The Takaishi family of the future will never exist!" his voice boomed with an evil laughter.

"Tsuriai?" Kari's head swam as the information sunk in.  "Takaishi family?  From the future?!"

"Soon that meddlesome pest of a human will disappear from existence altogether.  And so will her digimon partner," Negabyte continued, ignoring the soft words of the human girl below him.  "It's a pity, really," he chuckled.  "I would have enjoyed crushing her just as I did her twin brother, Ryoichi."

"No..." Kari's voice trailed off.  "Tsuriai..."  The last memory Kari had of the blonde girl she had just met a few days ago played through her mind.  Kari had let her go, allowing the girl to escape the Viral Agents that took them prisoner.  And as she fell to the ocean below, Tsuriai reached up for her, crying and screaming the word 'Mom'.  Kari swallowed hard, trying to moisten her dry throat.  "I'm...her...mother..." she finally realized.  Things were falling into place...

All of a sudden, Negabyte's rumbling voice roared through the cavern.  "Pirates!" he called.

From the corridor entered ten insect and reptilian creatures: a locust, a wasp, a preying mantis, a spider, a newt, a lizard, two fire ants, and a poisonous frog.  All these creatures were led by a roach...the very same roach that almost purged Tsuriai at the battle of Primary Village.  "Reporting as ordered, Captain," they all bowed.

"Pirates!" Gatomon hissed.  "I thought Centaurumon and Momongamon eliminated all of you!"

"Ah, yes," Negabyte smirked.  "Centaurumon and Momongamon.  Those despicable creatures obliterated my entire army of Pirates!"  The mist began to move a little.  "Except, of course, for the Pirates Tsuriai and Leomon allowed to live.  Tisk, tisk," Negabyte mocked.  "That little human has such a soft heart.  She should have allowed Leomon to delete them all instead of freezing their data and leaving them at Primary Village."

The small platoon of Pirates nodded their heads and laughed amongst themselves.  "Good thing she didn't, huh Boss?" the roach asked.

"If there is one thing about humans that I have learned in all my encounters with them," Negabyte answered, "it's that compassion is their weakness."  Now the glimmering cloud glided through the air slowly, headed toward the open corridor, leaving the room.  "Now," he turned his attention to other matters.  "Agents!" he called.  "Prepare my virus for the transfer procedures.  You must keep my younger self alive until it has fully infused itself into its new host."

"And once your virus buddy has his new body," the roach Pirate added, "we can start invadin' the homeworld o' them Digi-Destined.  Them humans ain't gonna give us anymore trouble."

"Oh!" Kari gasped.  "No!"

"Correct, Lieutenant," Negabyte countered.  "We will begin the invasion shortly after the procedure is completed.  But, until then, I will need you and your men to protect me.  My virus from the past will be weak until it drains the energy it needs from its new host, and, in turn, I will remain in my weakened state as well."

"No prob., Boss," the roach saluted.  "Pirate body guards at your service!  With that boost ya gave us when you injected us with part o' your virus, ain't nobody gonna stand a chance against us!"  The roach lifted four of his arms, indicating his fellow Pirates.  "Each one o' us is just as strong as Captain Negabyte was."

Finally, the sinister mist disappeared through the doorway and down the hall.  "Excellent.  Now," Negabyte continued.  "Come with me.  The transfer should take no longer than a day's time.  We must ready the Viral Agents for the invasion."

Scene 4

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