Chapter 21


	Liquid simply stood in place perfectly still.  It was hard to tell if it had understood what Faust had said at first, but then it moved its arm gradually staring at the long sharp nails at the end of it.  The nails began to grow longer and sharper like knives.  After they stopped growing he stared back at Faust and without slashed him across his chest.

	"Gah!" screamed Faust screaming in pain as he felt streams of data escape his body.  He was lucky that the cut was shallow, but Liquid seemed dead set on finishing the job as it next prepared to stab him in the face.  However, Faust wasn't about to let that happen as he used his free hand to catch his arm.  "Just who do you think you are trying to kill?"  He then several his arm with his claws and followed up by cleaving the rest of his body in two with his nails.  This would normally have been an impossible task to do even with his nails, but the creature's liquid metal body made it a simple task.

	"Master, are you alright, crazy?" asked Simon looking back and forth between Faust and Liquid.

	"What happened?" growled Faust.  "I thought his programming was complete.  He shouldn't be able to attack me, his master."  As they continued to talk the two pieces of liquid metal on the ground melted silently and combined before slithering towards Simon.

	"Oh, dear, squeeze" mumbled Simon. "I guess it was too soon to activate him after all, sneeze.  We should contain him again before he reforms again, haze."  Suddenly, he felt something against his foot.  When he looked down he saw the liquid metal was there and already forming into him.  "Fuzzy."

	Faust attempted to slash the disobedient machine again, while he still had the chance, but it was quick to run towards the computers and tape on the keys as fast as Simon could.  Then his arms melted into the machine and started to control the computer without the need to press buttons.  Data ran through the computer screens faster than Faust and Simon could read.

	"It knows how to access our files?" asked Faust surprised.  "You didn't give it knowledge of how to do this, did you?"

	"No, pizza.  But its absorbing capabilities may have transferred more than just our appearances to it, amazing," explained Simon.

	Before the two of them could stop Liquid from whatever it had planned, it removed its arms from the machine and reverted to a simplistic smooth form before melting into a puddle and slipping out through an air vent.  Moments later, red lights started flashing and alarms sounded through the facility.

	"What did he do?" shouted Faust.

	"Uh," began Simon as he checked the computer.  "Two things it looks like it, bonanza.  First, it seems to have adjusted all the Cymon to "Total Eradication Mode" meaning they'll shoot anything not another Cymon, including us, hypnotize.  What's worse is that it has set the power plant for this place to go critical and blow this place to bits, pizzazz.  We've got thirty minutes at most to clear out of here, but I might be able to override it before then, gizzard."

	"And give Liquid time to escape," added Faust.  "No.  Forget this place.  We were going to have to abandon it soon anyway.  Collecting test subjects has easily made this place too conspicuous.  Might as well let it blow and take out Team Matrix at the same time.  A more fitting end for them after what they did to me last time.  Before this place blows, however, you must find Liquid and contain him.  He is too valuable to lose above all else."

	"What about the Cymon, zenith?" asked Simon.  "There's no way we'd be able to collect them all up before this place blows."

	"We have all the data back up at our other bases, right?" asked Faust.  "As long as we have the data we can make plenty more.  Now get to work.  We've already lost a couple of minutes gabbing.  I've got to be going to deal with other business."  With that Faust headed out, leaving Simon to handle things on his own.


	Putting together a robot disguise was a lot harder than it looked.  Most of the parts provided were well past their prime and rather rusted at this point.  Luckily, the parts that still seemed good resided in the most still intact robots.  Flint was the first to discover something of use.  It appeared to be a suit of armor that might've been worn by a robot infantry.  It was relatively around his size, but the problem was that it wasn't meant to fit his particular shape.  As a result he had to it to fit him on the arms and legs, stretching fabric and bending metal so that it conformed to his body.  Next he had to struggle to get a hole in the back for his stub of a tail to fit through.  He nearly tore out the back to get it to work, but once he got the helmet on he felt a great sense of satisfaction.

	"How's everyone else doing?" asked Flint seeing they were having less luck than he was.

	"Still looking," said Rex as he hastily rummaged for something that would fit him.  Out of everyone there he seemed the most into it to the point he had already forgotten the danger they were in.

	"I don't know what's worse," stated Jack.  "Who created these robots or that we are planning on using them as disguises."

	"Not like we have much choice about it," answered Fonz laying back and just watching everyone.  "Just be cool about it."

	"What about you?" groaned Jack.  "You haven't even done anything yet.  Are you just hoping we find something for you?"

	"No," explained Fonz.  "I have something planned, but I might as well wait for you guys to finish up before showing it off."

	"Uh, alright," said Flint not entirely sure what he had planned since he hardly seemed to have planned anything.  "How about you Dan?"  He turned to see the big red Digimon, but found him in lesser spirits than the others.  "Something wrong?"

	"I'm just too big," he grumbled.  "Nothing around here can fit and it isn't as easy to force it on like you did."

	"How about this thing?" he asked looking at a large robot body.  It had a large body with arms that had claws and a weird glass head on it.

	"I tried that," he explained.  "But I can't even fit in that."

	"Well maybe if we tried a little something different," suggested Flint as he began pulling it apart and putting parts on Dan.  He had hoped it would turn out a lot better like it had in his head, but it was more a disaster than anything else.  Flint only succeeded in adding on the arms and legs to Dan, hardly enough to give him a proper disguise.  Rex then came to give them a hand and added a robot claw to Dan's tail and the glass head on top of Dan's head.  As a final touch, he took a piece of paper and wrote "Hello.  I am a robot," on it.  He taped it to Dan's belly seemingly confident that it would work.

	"Uh, thanks," said Dan knowing it was the thought that counts.

	"Well, maybe you guys can return the favor and help me with my costume," he said happily.  "I need a bit of help digging it out and putting it on if that's alright with you."

	"Of course," replied Flint happily.  "What did you have in mind?"

	"The thing over here beside that gold-colored clunker," he answered pointing at the small, blue and silver robot.

	"You want to go around dressed as a robotic trashcan?" laughed Jack.

	"It isn't a trashcan," complained Rex.  "It is easily the coolest robot ever!"

	"Even so," commented Dan as he managed to pull it free.  "This this is even too small for you to wear.  I'm starting to think you have a thing for tight spaces."

	"I have no idea what you're talking about," denied Rex.

	"Well there were the log and then the dart board," stated Fonz.

	"Neither my choice mind you," Rex said.  "Now let me try it on."

	"Suit yourself," replied Dan as he shoved it on top of him, encasing his body down to his legs in the robot's body.

	"Does that fit alright?" asked Flint.  Rex only replied with a series of beeps and clicks.  "Can't you talk?"  Rex just beeped a few more times though it was pretty obvious that he couldn't.  "Uh, very good then."

	"I think I like him better alright," joked Jack as he started putting the head of a robot on his own.  "Think we can keep him like that?"

	"Are you feeling alright?" asked Dan sensing him a bit more insulting than usual.

	"I think so," he replied.  "I don't know why I said that.  Maybe this robot side is having some sort of effect on me."

	"That's just ridiculous," argued Fonz.

	"I'll tell you what's ridiculous," retorted Jack.  "Your face, that's what."

	"I can tell you're going to be a load of fun now," grumbled Fonz.  "Just put on the rest of your outfit."

	Jack slipped on the rest of his the robot disguise as he could though he had to ditch the lower half of the suit.  As a finishing touch he placed his bandana around the robot's neck.  "There we go."

	"I've got to say," chuckled Fonz.  "I can hardly tell the difference."  Rex added something after with a series of beeps and clicks that almost sounded like laughter.

	"Well you guys can chew on my purple Digi rump," he countered.  The others just stared at him holding back snickers.  "Why did I say that?"

	"Because you have a purple Digi rump," suggested Fonz.  "So what's with this door on your body?  Can you carry stuff in it?"

	"Don't be ridiculous," snickered Jack.  There isn't any room with my torso in there."  However, when Fonz opened the door they all stared at the spacious compartment that lacked his body.  After Fonz closed it, Jack rubbed his eyes and checked again to see his body was back to normal, happy face tattoo and all.  "I don't even want to know what that was about."

	"Fonz, you're up," said Flint.  "What are you going to do for a costume?"

	"This," he explained as his afro began to spark with electricity.  The others all stared in amazement as bolts shot from the afro and hit pieces of metal scattered all over the place.  It all floated around Fonz as more was collected and eventually started to come together fitting like a puzzle that quickly took shape.  In a matter of seconds, Fonz was encased in a robot that was even towering over Dan and made all their disguises look like cheap Halloween costumes, though his disguise might have been a bit too over the top for a disguise in this situation.

	"How'd you do that?  That's the coolest thing I've ever seen!" cried Flint with excitement he could barely contain.  That had to be the coolest thing he had ever seen.  Rex seemed to think the same as he was beeping and clicking wildly.

	"Just the power of the techno afro," explained Fonz as it popped out of the back of the machine.  "Lucky I brought it along, huh?  Now stand back because we're going to show them who is boss."

	He aimed his Gatling guns at the door, and even though it wasn't locked he planned to blast it apart.  The rest of the team stood a safe distance away to watch.  However, as he fired all that came out was bubbles.  After all the hype that was built up they all felt disappointed.

	"Well that was a lot of build up for a lot of nothing," commented Jack.

	"The techno afro does have a few bugs in it," said Fonz.  "It doesn't seem to be usable for anything related to weapons.  Anyway, we were planning on using stealth so it isn't really a big loss anyway."  Despite how much he tried to save face, it was clear how embarrassed he felt.

	"Well let's get going everyone," stated Flint as he rallied his team.  "The dangers will be great, but as long as we are together and remain stealthy nothing can stop us."

	With that, he opened the doors for them to make their way to the Master Computer Room they found a large squadron of Cymon walking by.  They turned to look at the group and after a long awkward moment of them scanning over Team Matrix who was too much in shock to move they pulled out their assortment of weapons to fire.  The sound of the safeties going off was the signal for Flint and the others to burst through their ranks and make a mad dash for the Master Computer Room with the Cymon firing red death beams at them in hot pursuit.

	"Well our stealth plan amounted to a load of nothing," complained Jack.

	"It was your plan," argued Fonz.

	"And you guys were the ones who decided to use it," he countered.  "So don't blame me."

	"Do we really have time to argue?" shouted Dan.  The laser fire growing more accurate with each corridor they ran through.  If nothing else, their disguises did double as body armor to shield them.

	"Sorry," Jack apologized.  "This disguise is making me say weird stuff.  I need to take it off."

	"No time," replied Fonz.  "We need to keep moving.  Flint, what should we do?"  Flint wanted to reply, but just one look into those Cymons' red eyes made him freeze up again.  He was lucky it wasn't as bad as last time allowing him to run, but he could barely think straight as he tried his best to lead his team back to the Master Computer Room.  He wasn't sure how accurate he was in backtracking until they came to a dead end and the Cymon were closing in on them, brining our heroes back to where they started before Flint began flashing back.


	Rex struggled in his suit and with all the rock hardness of his head managed to pop the top off of his robot suit and breathe air that wasn't mixed with axel grease and circuit boards.  "Oh sweet air!" he gasped before turning to everyone else.

	"Rex?" asked Flint.  "Are you alright?"

	"You mean besides the fact that we're about to meet our doom?" he asked back.  "A little cramped, but just peachy."

	"Not for long," stated Dan.  "We're about to be filled with enough holes to make Swiss cheese envious."

	"Well, there might be a way out," stated Rex.  "If I use my other attack we should be able to get past them."

	"Are you nuts?" asked Jack.  "Well, I know you are, but it is still a stupid thing to do.  You'll get blasted before you even get close to them."

	"I don't know," commented Fonz.  "His Vee Bullet attack was too fast to see, though it couldn't take out all these guys."

	"Well that's why I came up with this special attack," stated Rex proudly as he got into his running stance.

	Seeing Rex's bravery helped Flint get a grip on himself.  "We better get down," he said signaling everyone to take cover.

	"Why?" asked Dan.  "What's going to..."

	Before he could finish, Rex vanishing leaving a burst of wind blowing against them.  He suddenly appeared ramming into a Cymon that was directly in front of his feet first.  The other Cymon quickly took aim to fire at him, but before they could he was already gone and struck at another before anyone even realized it.

MACH 2: Vee Bounce

	Like a crazy pinball, Rex bashed one Cymon after another.  When they attempted to fire at him he was already long gone from that spot and somewhere else.  Flint and the others watched in amazement as he seemed to move faster and faster till they could barely see where he bounced from last.  However, his attacks were become more wild and random as he bounced off of the wall, ceiling and floor, cracking it and leading imprints of his feet in them.  He even bounced dangerously close to his own team.

	"Watch we're you bounce," cried Jack.  "You want to take us out too?"

	"It's the best he can do," explained Flint.  "You know how there are some math geniuses who can calculate angles and trajectories in their heads while playing billiards?"

	"Yeah," replied Dan.  "You mean Rex can do that too?"

	"Not really," admitted Flint.  "He barely has control over this move after the initial attack.  It gets worse once he starts speeding up.  All the blood goes to his feet because he moves so fast and when he makes contact with something it gushes to his head and the process repeats over and over again till he loses consciousness, while still bouncing."

	"You mean the idiot did this know what would happen?" shouted Jack.

	"A bit risky," said Fonz.  "But actually quite effective in this case.  Perhaps even cool.  But how is he supposed to stop?"

	As Rex smashed into the last standing Cymon he bounced off and flew directly towards the rest of his team.  Flint quickly rushed in front of the others with his arms held out in a catching pose.  It seemed impossible for Flint to be able to catch someone moving so fast, but his unblinking eyes managed to keep up with Rex the whole time.  As Rex smashed into Flint's chest he grabbed his arms to stop him from bouncing away.  Instead, when Flint flew backwards from the intense power of the attack, he took Rex with him, breaking him out of the attack and crashing into the rest of their team in the process and scattering pieces of their disguises at the same time.

	"I take it back," moaned Fonz.  "That attack is not cool.  It is pain.  Intensive care type pain."

"Did I get them all?" groaned Rex.  His head and feet were throbbing hugely as the blood in his body was still pumping back and forth through him like crazy.

	"Yeah you got them," panted Flint, holding his stomach that received the full force of his attack.  He was amazed he didn't get knocked out from it.

	"And us," stated Jack.  "But at least I am not saying weird things because of that robot disguise."

	"Yeah," added Dan.  "And you took care of all those Cymon."  Dan's words were short-lived as they started to get up and recover from Rex's attack.

	"Time to get going," ordered Flint, carrying Rex who wasn't in any shape to run now.  "This might be our last chance to get to the Master Computer Room.  It shouldn't be much further from here."  With that they all ran for it.


	As they stormed into the door with the Cymon chasing them a combination of the ones chasing them earlier and any others that crossed their paths Flint barked, "Hold the door, Dan!"

	Slamming it shut, Dan held the door closed, much to the dismay of the Cymon who were struggling to pry it open.  His muscles bulged as he kept it shut with all his might.  "Whatever you guys are going to do, you'd better hurry!"

	Flint put down, Rex as his blood finally settled in his body and carefully scouted the room to make sure it was safe before proceeding to the Master Computer.  Fonz was the one who approached it and began to type on the keyboard.

	"Can you shut off the mind control stuff?" asked Rex watching Fonz work.

	"Give me a moment," he replied.  "I need to figure this thing out first."

	"So now you're a computer expert too?" asked Jack.  "Why don't you let me have a crack at it?"

	"Be my guest," stated Fonz gesturing him to proceed as well as show him the countless flashing buttons on the controls.

	"Uh, sorry, I just remembered I don't interface well with Macs," he lied. "It's not in my programming.  Flint?  Rex?"

	"Ok!" exclaimed Rex his eyes hungry with excitement and curiosity.

	"Oh, no!" shouted Flint.  "The last time you did that you summoned the granddaddy of all toilets and flooded a desert city."  Fonz and Jack just stared at him.  "Don't ask."

	"Then I guess it is up to you Fonz," concluded Jack.

	"Please hurry!" screamed Dan.  The door was slightly ajar now as they Cymon began to claw at him.

	With the utmost haste, Fonz resumed pressing buttons and looking though screens of data skimming bits and bytes, trying to get the gist of it only to save time.  Finally, he stopped on a screen that made his shake.  "This is not good," he stuttered.  "It is downright the exact opposite of cool.  It is almost Jack squared."

	"Hey!" complained Jack.

	"Sorry," apologized Fonz.  "Cubed, but besides a little bit of poking fun to keep my cool we're in more trouble that we realized."

	"You couldn't figure it out?" questioned Flint.  "Or is it something about Liquid?"

	"No got a decent handle on this," he explained.  "And I found the data on the Cymon there wasn't any information about Liquid on here.  The real problem is that this place is set to self destruct in five minutes."

	"Did you press some buttons?" Flint asked Rex.

	"If I did," he countered.  "Do you think it would have a counter?"

	"Good point," acknowledged Flint.  "We'd already be in the recycling bin."

	"Can you stop it?" cried Jack loosening his scarf, feeling suffocated by the tension in the air.

	"We've got a bit of time on that, but the Cymon are going to get here even sooner than that," Fonz explained.  "We need to figure out how we're going to handle both problems and we don't have any time."

	"Don't worry, I got this," announced Rex with shocking confidence.  The others grew grim faces; feeling like all hope was lost now.  "I just need five RAM."

	"What for?" asked Fonz.

	"No time to explained," he answered.  "But I need it now."

	"I don't care if we are going to die," commented Jack stubbornly.  "I'm not giving you any of my money."

	"Here," groaned Flint as he gave Rex the money.  "Just make it quick."

	"Right," agreed Rex as he ran across the room.  "Thanks Jack."

	"What are you talking about?" he said as he reached into his glove and found he was missing some money.  "Hey!  I'm the guy who steals stuff on this team!"

	They all watched as Rex ran to a machine and inserted the money into a slot.  He then pressed a button causing a Styrofoam cup to fall from a slot and then a hot creamy brown liquid poured into it, steam rising into the air.  He carefully carried it back and filled his friends' nostrils with the unmistakable aroma.

	"Coffee?" asked Fonz more confused with Rex than usual.

	"You don't even like the stuff," added Flint.

	"It isn't for drinking," he explained.  "Now stand back.  This stuff is hot."

	Putting the cup to his lips, Rex filled his mouth with the piping hot coffee, making his whole face turn bright red, and his eyes tear.  He couldn't contain the hot brew for more than an instant before he spat it out onto the computer making it seep into the system through the gaps in the buttons and the casing.  The sound of circuits being fried polluted the room with smoke that escaped from the computer as the monitors flashed.

	As this happened, the Cymon began to stop their struggles to open the door and calmed down.  The redness dissipated from their eyes and the normal ones returned.  Team Matrix, breathed a sigh of relief feeling the danger finally pass.

	"What happened?" moaned one of the first Digimon to recover.  "Where are we?"

	"In an old factory trying to kill us," explained Dan.  "Probably new to you, but becoming disturbingly common for us."

	"That's right," said another coming to their feet.  "We were captured and brainwashed, but you saved us."

	"Well all in a day's work to heroes," Jack stated nonchalantly.

	"But weren't you guys scared?"

	"It takes nerves of steel," exaggerated Jack.  "True heroes are not afraid of anything."

	"Uh, guys," began Fonz grimly.  "The Cymon control program might be shorted out, but the self destruct is still counting down.  We've got three more minutes."

	Quickly, Jack grew very pale before panic set it.  "Gah!  We're going to die!"  He began running around crazily, like a chicken with its head cut off.

	"I don't understand it," said Rex scratching his head.  "That hot coffee should have stopped it... unless that was programmed in something other than java."

	"Makes about as much sense as everything else we do," commented Flint.

	"Everyone, start evacuating," shouted Fonz as he hit the emergency alarm on the wall.  "That should open all the doors in this place and inform all the other recovering Digimon to get out of here immediately."  The Digimon didn't need to be told twice to get out while they still had time, leaving Team Matrix in the room alone.

	"Well let's get going too," said Flint as he moved towards the door.  He stopped as he saw something dripping from the ceiling.  It was forming a small puddle, but it wasn't a normal liquid, but a silvery metal.  As he looked up, his eyes bugged out upon seeing the substance oozing out of a vent in the ceiling.  "What in the Digital World is that?"

	The rest of the substance gushed out like a normal liquid at first before it began coming together into a ball shape before taking its neutral form.  It wasn't hard for them all to realize that Liquid was standing before them.  Of all the times for this to happen, they knew this was by far the worst.  They didn't have the time to deal with it now; they barely had enough to get out in time.

	"Forget that thing," shouted Dan.  "Let's just run for it."

	Dan's words seem to provoke the creature as it morphed into a snake-like creature and attacked him with incredible agility.  It slithered up his legs and towards his back.  Before Dan could even react, it morphed into a metallic-colored Guilmon, with strength equal to Dan's.  Without giving him the chance, it knocked Dan to the ground and pinned him under his foot.

	"It can copy our appearance?" cried Flint.  "Does that include out special attacks?"

	"Don't worry," groaned Dan, struggling to breath as his opponent was pinning him down at his chest.  "I don't have any."  Liquid seemed to disagree as his mouth started to tremble before he opened it wide and formed a ball of red cracking energy.  "At least I'm pretty sure I don't have any."  None of them knew if this attack was powerful, even though they figured it probably was.  It didn't matter since he was aiming to shoot Dan's head off.

	"No you don't," growled Rex as he attacked first to stop him.

MACH 1: VEE BULLET

	In the blink of an eye he appeared before Liquid, kicking him in the jaw with deadly force.  It was enough to redirect Liquid's head to the ceiling right before he fired his attack.  The ball of energy collided with the ceiling and exploded on contact, vaporizing a large chunk of the ceiling beyond the initial point of contact.  If Dan could breathe, he'd have given a sigh of relief that Rex had just saved him.

	Celebrating that small victory needed to be postponed, however, as Liquid's body was already morphing into a Veemon, with his Guilmon head becoming an arm that quickly wrapped around Rex's body before he could recover from his attack.  He then imitated, Rex's Mach 2: Vee Bounce, sending them both bouncing around the room even faster than Rex had before.  It was clear that Liquid had a lot more control over the move than Rex, bouncing in such a manner he didn't bounce on anything but the walls and ceilings, avoiding the machines and the members of Team Matrix as well.  Once he finally stopped, he released Rex who looked green with nausea on top of being out cold.

	The next target of Liquid was Jack as he turned to him, reverting to is neutral form as he stepped towards him.  Jack cautiously backed away till he was up against the wall and had nowhere to go.  Liquid grabbed one of Jack's shoulders and morphed into him and stood their staring at Jack with Jack's usual smirk.  Then he reverted to his neutral form again and turned to Fonz to get him.

	"What?!" shouted Jack furiously.  "I'm not even worth defeating you ugly, uh, whatever you are."

	Liquid didn't respond to him and continued towards Fonz who wasn't going to wait for him to come.  He lunged at him, hoping there might be some weakness while he wasn't transformed yet, but as he clawed at him, it was no different from before.  His body wasn't solid enough to attack physically and all it accomplished was transforming him into an Elecmon.  Nonetheless, Fonz continued to attack, managing to scuffle with Liquid as the timer continued to count down.

	"You might be able to copy me," shouted Fonz.  "But my cool is something that no cold-hearted machine can understand."  With that he charged up a surge of electricity in his techno afro and blasted Liquid against the wall.

AFRO THUNDER

	The attack was hardly as powerful as it could have been if he had his thunderstorm afro, but it seemed to do that job, at least until Liquid got up again.  "I thought that would have friend your circuits," stated Fonz.  "But it looks like you need a few more zaps."

	As Liquid got to its feed, it started forming an afro that Fonz knew all too well.  It was the thunderstorm afro!  It them morphed a bow from its arm and pulled an arrow from its head.  Fonz just stood there and watched as Liquid fired a shot right through him, sending intense amounts of electricity to his body.  It didn't matter what he did and Fonz knew it.  With his accuracy, there was no way he could dodge the attack.  As Fonz fell, he turned his sight to Flint.

	"Bring it," Flint said holding out his hand ready to accept the challenge.  Liquid seemed to understand this and took his hand, transforming into an Agumon now.  And the battle began, with only two minutes remaining on the clock.

	The battle was quite awkward for Flint, fighting a mirror image.  The only difference between the two of them was their stamina.  Flint still drained from his ordeal was fighting a being who despite fighting the rest of his team didn't seem even a bit tired, if it could be.  If it wasn't for Flint's fighting spirit he'd have been on the ground defeated like the rest, but he proved able to match Liquid blow for blow.

	Tired of a battle that was going nowhere; Liquid leapt back and decided to finish Flint with his own special attack.  Seeing it coming, Flint readied to do the same, burning the fire in his belly to flare up as hot as he could make it.  Sweat poured from every pore as his body temperature skyrocketed to match a volcano's heat.  Liquid's body bubbled indicating he was doing the same.

TORCH BREATH

	As the two let their attacks fly it was a simultaneous assault that clashed at the midpoint between them and created an explosion as the fire came out of their control as they collided with one another.  The blast knocked Flint against the wall, singing his scales in the process, though miraculously he managed to get back to his feet to face down Liquid.  To his surprise, Liquid's body had lost stability after all the heat it was exposed to and began melting, but it didn't last long as his Agumon shape quickly returned to it.  Seeing this gave Flint an idea, but he couldn't do it alone.  If fact, there was only one Digimon that could help him.  Looking at the rest of his team, they were struggling to get back to their feet, save for Jack of course who was hurting more in his ego than anywhere else.  They saw enough as well to get the same idea that Flint had.

	Immediately, Flint was charging up his Torch Breath attack for a second try.  Doing so was a tough task after having just used it, but he gathered as much fire as he could.  Liquid did the same, though it didn't seem hindered like Flint was, building up an attack equal in strength to his last one.  As they were about to attack again, they all saw the small window of opportunity appear for them as one of them made their move.  The instant before they launched their attacks Jack stood in front of Liquid and pressed his gloved hands against his muzzle.

	"Guess my sticky gloves had a use I didn't even consider," chuckled Jack as his slipped his hands free.  The gloves remained on Liquid's mouth clogging the only way the fire had to escape causing it to expand as the fire pressed against him.

TORCH BREATH

	Jack ducked just as Flint's own attack fired, colliding with Liquid and knocking him back.  As the heat inside and outside melted Liquid's body it created a hole for them to connect and create another explosion, this one centered directly on the metallic monster scattering its body all over the room and evaporating into the air.  A small chunk managed to remain and formed into a miniature version of Liquid's neutral form.

	Seeing this, Jack walked over and grinned at the thing that didn't even come up to his big toe.  "Hey there, small fry," he joked.

Devil Spark

	He flicked the tiny flame at Liquid knocking it to the ground with a splat.  Jack made a victory pose and declared.  "Looks like I'm the one who defeated him."

	"Uh, Jack," said Rex finally back on his feet along with everyone else.

	"What?" asked Jack.

	"You're bandana is on fire," he stated bluntly.

	"What?" cried Jack seeing this was true as Flint's last attack managed to catch it on fire.  Jack tried to save it, but it was already too last to save it.  He took it off and watched it turn to ash before it hit the ground.

	"Not bad, magazines," said a voice from above.  The team looked up and saw Simon jump down and stand by the Master Computer.  "I didn't think anyone could handle Liquid even at that early stage of development, freeze.  Too bad you've run out of time, zone."  It was true.  The time was down to the last thirty seconds.  "I can stop it, but you need to give me two, no three things, zeta."

	Team Matrix didn't have any other choice.  They couldn't even think about it.  Flint just nodded and asked.  "What do you want?"

	"First, I want what is left of Liquid, gaze," he began.  He tossed Flint a container.  "Just put him in here, wizard."  Flint crouched over the remains of Liquid and pressed a button on the container sucking it up.  He then tossed it to Simon.  "Now I want that wig, zipper.  I was watching enough to see it has some interesting technology in it.  As much as Fonz hated to forfeit his wig, he had no choice and handed it over.  "Lastly, I want his pants, zero."

	"What?" cried Jack.  "That's all I have left."

	"Just kidding, hazard," he laughed.  "Just a group picture of you guys, sizzle.  I've got a built in camera to take it, pizza."

	With only a few seconds left, they all gathered together and raised an arm together and shouted, "Team Matrix!" as Simon took the picture.  Then Simon stopped the timer just in time, only a couple of seconds remaining.

	"I think you should be able to get out in three minutes, zebra," he stated as the reset the self destruct to three minutes.  "Goodbye, zucchini."  With that, he vanished via teleporting with the three items in hand.  With no time to dawdle, Flint and the others ran for it.  Still, it bothered Flint that of the three things he wanted it didn't include the Chimera Fang.  Faust may not have known what it was, but it didn't mean he couldn't request it.  This left a sense of uncertainty in his mind.


	Simon appeared in a room of blinding white light.  It was almost impossible to see anything at all in this place even an inch past his face.  "Oh, my eyes puzzle," he cried as he shut them.

	"Oh, forgive me," said a voice in the light that was the same as the one Faust has spoken with.  He light around where Simon stood faded to be more merciful on his eyes.  "I didn't expect you to come here so soon.  You weren't supposed to arrive here for a few more weeks."

	"A complication occurred, master, zoo," Simon said.  "We had some intruders that forced me to move things up, but at the same time provided valuable assistance in both testing data, and a gift of technology that could prove very useful, fuzz.  Still, it was a rushed job, buzz.  I barely had enough time to program Liquid to go out of control the way he did, but now we have him, the DG Program and so much more, dozen."

	"And to think," laughed the Digimon.  "This all wouldn't have been possible if not for my dear little brother."

	"You know he won't be happy, zealous," commented Simon.  "Once he discovers I'm gone along with all the data on Liquid, size."

	"Let him try," he chortled.  "I'm more concerned about those intruders than him.  Did you happen to capture an image of them?"

	"Of course, sizzle," answered Simon as he printed out a picture and tossed it for his master to see.  "They call themselves, Team Matrix, squeeze."

	"Team Matrix huh?" he mused.  "Perhaps, they are the key to our little game."  He looked up, above him at the blue dome floating there.  It was difficult to see what was inside, but it was radiating an intense power was very different from anything else in the Digital World.


	Flint shot up in the middle of the night again.  Despite saving everyone in the factory and getting out of it before it exploded with nothing worse than a few minor injuries between them all it wasn't gone.  Those same red eyes appeared in his sleep and that filled him with an intense dread.  Whatever was behind them has yet to come.