"Just a little bit further guys, we’re almost there,” Tai called back to the group behind him. “Didn’t he say that almost half an hour ago?” Davis asked. Kari giggled but quickly shushed him. Suddenly Izzy stopped and the whole group collided into each other, toppling to the ground. “Ahh! Get off me! Your squashing my calculator and by that I mean my head!” Izzy squealed from the bottom of the pile. “Oops, sorry there Izzy,” TK apologized as he helped the red headed genius to his feet. He brushed himself off, checked out his laptop to make sure there was no damage to it than smiled at the group. “It’s okay, everything appears to be in working order. Now as I was about to say before that sudden distraction, I think Matt may be nearby.” Izzy told the group. “Really! Where?” Tai asked. “From my calculations, he’s actually heading towards us.” “Good! That means no more walking!” Davis declared as he plopped down onto the ground. “No it doesn’t, we’ll meet up with him halfway,” Tai decided. “Aww, pooper sticks,” Davis mumbled as he got back to his feet. “No need to Tai, he’s coming here at an alarmingly high speed. He should be here any minute,” Izzy informed him. “Yeah!” Davis exclaimed as he once again fell back onto the ground. “Get back up Davis, we’re going to go and meet him halfway just in case he accidentally makes a wrong turn,” Tai said. “Aww dang it!” Davis exclaimed as he slowly got to his feet. “Davis, this isn’t the time to complain to stop it right now,” Tai scolded him. “Man Tai, you sound like my mom,” Davis complained. Tai glared at him than headed off in Matt’s direction.
"Hey Tai! Wait up!” Davis yelled. He sprinted up to the former leader and fell in step with him. “What is it now?” Tai asked. “Look Tai, I’m sorry about back there. I was just kinda tired that’s all. I didn’t mean to be a pest.” Tai smiled at his young look alike. “It’s alright Davis, I guess I’m just a little stressed and I just decided to vent it out on you. Just please try not to complain so much k?” Tai said. “Sure thing ding a ling,” Davis replied, jokingly saluting him. “Did you just call me a ding a ling?” Tai asked cautiously. “Yeparoo piece of poo!” “Ok, that’s enough with the potty mouth Davis. How about you try acting you age?” “I was just trying to cheer ya up a bit Tai, I didn’t mean anything by it.” “I know Davis, but really shut up.” Davis looked up at Tai and than his eyes grew wide. He pointed to something that was high above Tai’s head just as everyone else joined them. “What’s that?” Yolei asked. “Looks like an Airdramon that has some sort of cage hanging from it,” Cody said. “Yeah, and Ken’s there too,” TK stated.
"Ahh! Well isn’t it the little Digi-Destined. Tell me, how’s it going down there?” Ken asked as he peered down at the group below. “Look Digimon Emperor, we don’t have time to settle with you now, we’re kinda busy,” Taichi responded. “Let me guess, you’re looking for the bearer of the crest of friendship aren’t you?” Ken asked. “So what if we are?” Tai asked. “Well, it’s just a waste of time because I already know exactly where he is.” “Oh do you? Than please, do tell,” Tai said sarcastically. “Fine, maybe I will. Airdramon, take us down.”
Slowly the Airdramon lowered himself so that the cage below him settled on the ground while he remained hovered above it. Ken jumped down from the Digimon and landed on his feet with ease. “Now Digi-Destined. Would you like to see what’s in my cage here?” he asked, acknowledging the covered sanctuary behind him. “Look Emperor, we don’t have time to play games now!” TK yelled. “Oh, but I think you’ll enjoy this one!” he said as he took hold of the cloth and pulled.
"What did you do to him!?!” Tai exclaimed, as he stared at the sight in front of him. Inside the cage, Matt lay on his stomach, his eyes closed and his face twisted in pain. He was paler than before and he was shivering uncontrollably. “Oh, I’m guessing that you didn’t know that Syncmon’s poison returns every five years. You see, I knew because I’m a genius and you are all just pathetic low lives,” Ken said mockingly. “Matt!” TK screamed as he tried to make a dash for the cage. Kari and Yolei each grabbed one of his arms and held him back with much trouble. Cody grabbed onto his legs while sitting on his feet, this helped only a little though. “Is this some kind of sick joke? Let him go!” Tai yelled. “Yeah right, I still need him so that I can carry out my ultimate plan. If you want him back, than you’ll have to do it yourselves,” Ken told them. “How do we know that’s him? He may be another one of those Bakemon that you used to trick me the last time,” Davis said. “Hmm, you do have a point there. Here, I’ll prove it to you,” Ken said as he opened the door to the cage. “Get up now!” he yelled as he took his whip out and lashed Matt across the back. Matt’s eyes opened and rolled away from the angry Emperor. Wincing in pain, he looked at his surroundings and his eyes filled with sorrow when he saw his friends just a small distance away from him. “Tai, TK,” he croaked out. “Quiet you, I didn’t tell you to talk,” Ken said as he whipped him again.
"Matt! I’m coming!” Tai called as he dashed forward. “No, you’re not,” Ken said as he signalled for the Airdramon to lift off. “No! Come back!” Tai yelled as he stood beneath the airborne cage. Matt looked out through the cage and let his arm hang out. Tai looked up and choked back a sob as he watched his best friend being taken away from him once again.
"Matt!” TK cried out as he too watched the Digimon fly away with his only brother. “That bastard. What’s he going to do with him?” he asked. He threw his hat down onto the ground and than stomped off to Tai. “So what do we do now?” TK asked. “I don’t know TK. But I do know that we have to get Matt away from Ken before he does something worse than just whipping him,” Tai said. TK nodded in agreement. Than turned around to rejoin the group with Tai following.
"Izzy? What was Ken talking about when he mentioned Matt being poisoned by a Syncmon five years ago?” Yolei asked. “Yeah, I don’t remember anything like that ever happening,” Kari chimed in. “That’s because it happened before you joined up with us Kari. I guess none of us really brought the subject up did we?” Izzy said. Kari and the new Digi-destined shook their heads. “That’s because Matt didn’t want them to know,” TK said. “But why not?” Cody asked. “I guess it was because it brought back some painful memories that Matt just didn’t want to remember.” “Can you tell us what happened? Maybe it will help us devise a plan to get him back,” Yolei said. TK looked at Tai and Izzy who slowly nodded their heads. “Ok, this is how it happened...”
"I suppose this happened right after we defeated Etemon but before our first fight with Myotismon. Back than Matt was very... well... he was very closed off. During one of his fights with Tai, he accidentally missed him and hit me. He than ran off. The next day we were attacked by Syncmon and Matt came and saved Tai’s life, but unfortunately Matt got sick because of it. Well the rest of us went in search of Gennai to hopefully find a cure, Tai stayed behind and watched after Matt,” TK told the group. “Than when I came back to help, he had...” he tried to say but was overcome with tears. Tai came up to him and started to rub his back. “Shh TK, it’s ok. Do you want me to finish the story?” Tai asked. “No, I can do it,” TK assured him. “He had died. He was dead and it was all because of me! It was my fault that he had died and I felt horrible but than something amazing happened. The light from my crest and his crest kinda fused into one and drove the poison out of his body and brought him back to life. And after that he was just fine.”
"Did you find out anything about Syncmon yet Izzy?” Cody asked. “Just the information that I already knew. It turns out that the poison does return and if we don’t do anything about it, Matt’s just going to keep getting sicker and weaker.” “But what can we do? That Digimon Emperor has him under his clutches!” Davis pointed out. “Yes Davis, I am fully aware of that. First we have to get Matt out of there and than we should take him to Gennai’s place and see what he has to say about it,” Izzy said. “Sounds good to me but how do we get him?” Tai asked. “That’s the problem, I think Ken did something with his Digi-vice because I can’t locate it. I also can’t locate his D-Terminal.” “So you don’t know where he is?” Kari asked. “Precisely.” “Well isn’t that just great!” Tai huffed. “So what do you think we should do than Izzy?” Yolei asked. “I think that we should just let Ken come to us. You know he will. He won’t let an opportunity to act all powerful go by him,” Izzy said. “I guess that’s what we’ll have to do than. He’d better not do anything to Matt though, or else he’ll pay dearly for it,” TK threatened.
