Deep within her sleep, there was annoyingly consistent sound. It was similar to a clock, but larger and from the reverberation, it was confined. Abruptly, the girl became conscious and pulled herself from her sleeping position. Where was she? Clang! Clang! Tink, tink. Clang! Clang! That was all she could hear and her vision, blurred from sleep, was certainly taking its time on functioning. When the sleep was wiped from her eyes, the teenager stared down at the sleeve of her kimono.

Memories bubbled up to the surface of her mind. Of course! She had seen a flash of light from her compute. Gasp! The website! The website called "The Digital Portal"! She had accidentally typed it in some how and Tako-kun had...!

'You're quick, Saki-chan,' the Osakan-accented voice of her alter-ego cooed. 'Didn't think you'd ever catch on, sleepin' like that.'

"Tako-kun! What have you done?! Where are we?"

'Have a look.'

Sakiko lifted her brilliant, blue eyes from her customized kimono to the world around her. Her jaw dropped at the scene of a giant factory surrounding her. There were unmanned assembly lines putting things together and, on the other side of the room, taking them apart. Logic in reverse! Was that possible? She sat up on her knees and twisted her head left and right in an attempt to find life among this place.

"My, my, has Sleeping Beauty decided to grace us with her presence?"

The sarcastic voice of a male came from above her. She had to tilt her head all the way back to look straight up above her: there was a strange, bipedal white cat perched upon the railing of a crosswalk above her. Was he...smirking? There was a bleeping noise immediately from her right hand that jerked her attention from the cat to the actively blinking gadget around her wrist. The screen loaded up a picture of the cat.

"Tailmon. Attribute - Vaccine. Type - Holy Beast. The Holy Ring around its tail gives it power. Without the ring, it is the equivalent of a Child-level Digimon."

"Tailmon? Digimon? N-nani?"

"Hey, hey! Let me do the introductions, ya yoinker!"

The cat glared at her gadget as if it had insulted him, but she couldn't understand why he felt insulted. Without warning, the feline leaped from the crosswalk above and in mid-fall performed a flip, landing on the ground before her in a one-kneed bow. She didn't think it was very impressive; her facial expression remained devoid of emotion.

"The name's Nitro. Adventurer, bomb expert, and, well, the rest can be saved for later. Got a name, kid?"

There wasn't much for her to say. A cat was talking! Cats did not talk! Not unless they were a cartoon or otherwise played by a ventriloquist. She could not see such a person around. He snapped his fingers in irritation to get her to talk, tapping his foot as he did so with his other hand--er, paw--on his hip, half-doubled over towards her, and one ear flattened to the side with the same eye squinting at her in scrutiny like she was a broken object. Sakiko did not like this look.

"I'm not crazy," she said at once. "My mother had me tested. However, I'm starting to doubt the results now that an odd cat standing on his hind legs is snapping at me and asking me my name. Perhaps I should be retested?"

"You think you're crazy, eh? If you were crazy and this was just some illusion, could I do this?"

He gave a sudden swipe of her arm with a single claw. Immediately, she retracted it in pain.

"Ouch! What was that for?!"

"To prove that I ain't an illusion. You could be crazy, it's too early for me to tell, but I'm giving you reality. This reality, the Digital World, is a harsh one that will bite and scratch you and tear your intestines inside out if you don't get on your hind legs and GET A MOVE ON!!"

The cat was now yelling at her. She stared at him with a blank yet gaping look on her face. Was this real? The pain in her hand certainly suggested it was. Sakiko's blue eyes drifted lazily down to the scratch where blood was now trickling down her hand. GERMS!

"Okay, but our first stop must be the local pharmacy. I need to pick up a tube of triple antibiotic ointment, cotton balls, Hydrogen Peroxide, and let's not forget some Flintstone band-aids, okay? Where's my money?"

Nitro fixed her with another one of his "is there something wrong with her?" looks. The girl was getting on her feet now, carefully dabbing at the scratch on her hand with the sleeve of her kimono. He shook his head in disbelief, turned, and began to lead the way; she followed. From behind, she could now understand why he would have been insulted by the gadget: he had no ring on his white-and-purple striped tail and, therefore, a limited amount of power.

"Where is your tail ring?"

"I wasn't born with one. Kinda like that way. It means I'm unique among my species."

"But doesn't that mean you don't have power? I don't understand. Why would you sacrifice power for being unique? That doesn't sound logical at all, especially when there's no definite way of proving that you are the only one of your species without a tail ring."

"I don't care if there's a way to prove it or not. I like thinking that way. Yeesh, are you always like this?"

"Is there some other way for me to be? I am the way I am; I cannot possibly understand a different way for me to be. And thinking that you are special--the only one of your species, I might add--is a sign of egotism, narcissism, or just plain arrogance."

Her matter-of-fact, know-it-all tone and logical thinking was more than irritating to him and he hadn't been talking to her for five minutes. Nitro snapped his tail back and forth like a whip in his irritation. What he wouldn't give right now for a tree to run his claws down or something to rip apart. Even though he was an explosion enthusiast, Nitro was still a feline and when highly aggravated, he desperately needed something to maim and mutilate! Without realizing what he was doing because he was so annoyed with this girl, Nitro made his way into the corridor outside the assembly room.

As the two passed through the door into the corridor, the door slid shut behind them. An electric click was heard as the door remotely sealed from a security terminal on the upper level. To make things worse was the sound of the security system activating and alerting the entire complex.

Before a possible reaction could have been made, yells were from around the corner. Based on the foot steps heard, it sounded like one heavy Digimon and Two lighter ones. As the two Elecmon and a Black Garurumon rounded the corner, they came into contact with Saki and Nitro. "Halt Thieves! You shall not steal the company secrets while we are on guard!" yelled both the Elecmon at the same time. The trio weren't aware of the surroundings.

As the two Elecmon headed into battle the sound of more foot steps could've been heard. In the eyes of Saki, it would have been a yellow light slamming into the Black Garurumon. That yellow light was known as Leomon. "Tamer! Fight the Elecmon while I hold off the Black Garu-"

His yell was interrupted as he was flung off dark Digimon. Now all that stood between Nitro and freedom was two Elecmon.

((Leomon was only a distraction and possibly won't make a second apperance.))

Sakiko became rigid as soon as the door slammed shut behind her and the alarm went off. Someone definitely had used a good warning system, but who? She hadn't seen anyone working there. Was all the staff on break at the same time? What an odd work ethic. The sound of footsteps let her know that someone was definitely on their way which meant someone ran this place after all. She turned, prepared to correct this misunderstanding, when three more awkward creatures arrived on the scene.

"Halt Thieves! You shall not steal the company secrets while we are on guard!"

Thieves? Stealing company secrets? Preposterous! Sakiko wouldn't steal anything, especially not the secrets of a company that made no sense. She opened her mouth to explain herself when a sudden yellow light (yet another unidentified species of animal) attacked the taller creature and told her to take on the Elecmon. What on earth was an Elecmon? Before she could ask, however, the two creatures were engaged in battle.

'YOSH! Party time!'

Nitro had stepped forward towards the Elecmon on the right, his paw clenched into a good fist. He saw something out of the corner of his eye and, when he turned to look at his irritating partner, her upper body glitched. Saki's hair was no longer the pinkish-red color, but was now a very vivid, deep red. Her eyes had turned from their radiant color of blue to an unfamiliar orange color. Something in her demeanor had also changed; she was no longer awkward, but bold and confident with her movements. So confident, in fact, that she started stripping her body of the kimono!

Underneath the loosely fitted garb was a black bikini showing off an enormous chest area. The silk garment fell casually down her legs to the floor below, revealing the short black shorts that exposed the majority of her thighs and shapely legs. Sakiko had the right curves for a very attractive young woman and Nitro's eyes roamed her for a long period of time. He was barely aware that she was taking her hair down from the bun until the tips of her deep red strands were caressing her calves. As soon as she let it down, however, she smoothed her hair from front to back and, using a pair of hair sticks that had been concealed in a pocket of the kimono, swept her mass of hair back up into a ponytail with a single hairpin placed among the red. As she tugged on her fingerless gloves, she gave the Tailmon a wink.

"Ready to kick some digits?"

Nitro's throat was dry; he couldn't answer with words, so a nod had to suffice. The pair of them turned back to the matter at hand with rough expressions. As if someone invisible had said "GO!", the tag team took off towards the Elecmon: Nitro towards the right, his tamer to the left. She immediately created a fist and punched at her runt of a target hard. Nitro did the same in an attempt to punch the Elecmon before him, crying, "Neko Punch!" as he did so.

The Alarm continued to sound as the battle started. Its noise rung through out the station and caused others to be alerted to the present. It would announce that if they couldn't get to the security terminal to shut it down, then they would be overrun by more guards that even Leomon could defend the two from.

As for the Elecmon, their bodies were put into a temporary paralysis as Saki removed her kimono to reveal a sexier dress. Yet that wouldn't stop the girl from charging her opponents. Taken off guard by the sudden transformation, the first Elecmon felt the fist collide with his skull. The impact was bone jarring as the head smashed into the metal floor leaving a dent. A concussion would be present if he survived.

The second Elecmon had a little more reaction time but not enough to dodge the punch. The fist landed directly on his snout and sent the other Elecmon into a cough. Just like a normal dog, he was in more pain being punched in the noise then he would've been somewhere else located on the Digital Body.

The alarm kept going; surely there were more than just these two pipsqueaks there to make sure they didn't "steal company secrets", right? The more mature-looking version of Sakiko stood straight up again, picked up the kimono she had cast aside to carry it, and started walking along down the corridor to the right. Nitro, who gave his target a last punch in the face to make sure he wouldn't get up again, took off after her.

"I didn't expect that from you," he admitted.

"No one ever does. Name's Takomaki, but you can call me Tako for short. Saki does."

"You're not Saki, then?"

"Other half, secret identity, alternative personality. Any of those'll work, but don't mistake me for her."

"I wouldn't dream of it," he said sarcastically. "Does Saki know how to fight at all?"

Tako gave a derisive snort before turning the corner.

"Not one bit. I would have done all the fighting, but there wasn't much of a need before. No one bullied her--at least, not at school. Which brings me to a question or two: where are we and what's the low-down?"

The Tailmon opened his mouth to reply, but he could hear footsteps rushing at them from up ahead. Tako immediately tossed the kimono to the floor, spread her feet into a sturdy position, and raised her fists. She was anticipating a second fight with a look of glee on her pretty face.

Indeed Tako and Nitro were correct as more footsteps could be heard in the hallway ahead of them. With the alarm still sounding, the two new digimon appeared around the corner. Unfazed by the fight the Leomon was occupied with. "Well brother, look what seems to have made an intrusion." said Sorcerymon one.

The brother sneered at the duo. He looked as if he was going to enjoy this. "Well Brother, should we hit them with something wet?"

Sorcerymon chuckled and replied, "Lets do it."

Without sudden hesitation, the Sorcerymon raised their staves and yelled, "Drowning Aquarius!"

As the staves lowered, two torrents of water headed for the duo. These torrents also filled most of the hallway. One might react to why electric and water are equals here. The main reason is the walls surrounding the equipment. Grade A digizoid that allowed water not to penetrate.

"Have fun little girl." Sorcerymon Two said.

The two that were coming were...! ...Midgets?! No, no! Midgets in cloaks! Tako would have laughed had the situation not been serious. The two Sorcerymon looked more like a couple of kids dressed up in costumes than they did enemies. On the other hand, Takomaki was not the kind of girl to underestimate her opponents. She was correct in her assumption that they wouldn't be easy to handle.

As the water flooded toward them, Nitro let out a dangerous hiss and dove head-first towards the rushing liquid. He was quickly snatched up by the tides and started to float past his tamer when she snatched him up, tossed him upwards towards the pipes that ran along the cieling, and jumped upwards herself to grab hold. The pair of them dangled there until the water calmed itself before the tamer finally let go and started moving through it.

"Think you're hot stuff, eh?"

The water did not hold her back as they might have liked. Though the water was indeed slowing her down and giving them plenty of time to launch a second attack, there was no doubt that the pair of them would be in deep trouble once she reached them. However, Nitro didn't seem to think it was fair giving them this chance. His bare paws, devoid of the usual Saber Leomon gloves, continued to move along the pipes overhead in the same manner that a child crossed monkey-bars. Tako thought that his plan may have been better for getting to the pair, but he was just as open to an attack as she was.

"Let go, cat!"

"What for?"

He paused to look down at the female that stalked underneath him before she, too, stopped.

"Just do it!"

Nitro let go and dropped into her outstretched arms. By the scruff of his neck, she drew her arm back and chucked him forward at the pair of Sorcerymon. He drew his fist back and sent a Neko Punch straight towards Sorcerymon 1's face that would pack a pretty punch with the momentum from being hurled by his partner if he were to connect. Meanwhile, Tako tried to walk as fast as she could toward the group without slipping and falling in the water.

The two brother laughed as the stream hit their targets, but their eyes weren't off the battle ahead of them. As they watched the field change to their advantage, they caugth sight of the tamer. She had her partner in her hands before he was thrown straight toward Sorcerymon 1. "I got it!" Sorcerymon two said.

The reaction was sound and smooth. What seemed to be a bullent toward the brothers now seemed to be a bullet to Tako. How? It wa sthe fact that Sorcerymon two played a game of baseball and connected with a clean hit. "Great job brother." Sorcerymon one said.

They decided to wait and see what was going to happen witht the "thief."

((Short but to the point. Be back Sunday night))

Tako was stunned the entire time that the cat came flying at her. She ducked once she realized that his hand was jutting out still in a Neko Punch and looked over her shoulder to see the feline bounce across the water like a skipping stone several times before finally sinking. He re-emerged from the surface of the water splashing, coughing, and muttering inanities. It would have been a good laugh for the pair of Sorcerymon.

"You okay, cat?"

"My name is Nitro," he hissed angrily. "Why did you duck, chika? You could have caught me!"

"Yeah and I would've caught a face-full of fist if I had, too."

"Okay! We're doing this my way!"

He grabbed her gloved hand when she offered it, climbed up her arm, and stood on her shoulder with a malicious, Chesire-cat grin directed toward the two Sorcerymon. If attacking them directly wouldn't work, he'd just have to attack them indirectly. For the second time, he took a bold leap up to the pipes above. He bit, clawed, and mauled it the best he could, but the pipe just wouldn't budge. A livid hiss was made at the pipe before he dangled upside down by his legs.

"Could you maybe...?"

The female hid her grin behind a quick cough, drew her fist back, and punched upwards at the pipes that were at least one foot above her head. With the power she packed behind her punch, it was no question that the pipe broke loose and fell with the Tailmon's weight downward while he bent the end upward so as to block off the steam that would have otherwise spewed forth from it. He laughed maniacally, gripping the pipe while he rode its descent, rocked himself upwards, and aimed it at the two Sorcerymon.

"Say your prayers, boys!"

Another maniacal laugh that was more high-pitched and insane this time rang through the corridor. Nitro cut the piece of pipe off that he had turned into a flap so that the pressure from the steam that had built up could shoot out towards the pair of them. Hopefully, this would work well enough that Tako and him could at least rush past them.

Sorcerymon [A] and [B] laughed as the cat went skipping across the water. It was a well struck hit, and it sure caused some damage to him. It seeme dthat no matter what happened, they would not let the two pass.

To their dismay, the Tailmon and Tako teamed up to break the steam pipe. The ride down to their level with a blocked off vaulve was bad news. "Well it was fun while it lasted." Sorcerymon [A] said as he gave his brother a hug.

Sorcerymon [B] nodded and both flew against the wall at a high velocity. The sound was bone shattering, but with tthe Sorcerymon, they were unconcious and unable to fight.

Tako yelled victoriously at the sight of the unconscious duo. While Nitro himself jumped from the pipe to land on her shoulder, the young woman fished around in the water for the kimono. By the time she picked it up, it was soaking wet. Her smile slid from her face in the same manner as the dripping water.

"Oh no. Sakiko's not going to be happy about this."

The alter-ego turned and headed along the hallway. She managed to sneak around a few corners before finally reaching the switch and shutting the alarm off. Now, hopefully, no one else would show up to accuse them of stealing company secrets. How troublesome! The feline flipped from her shoulder to the dry floor below, his big blue eyes searching the room, and he found another door.

"This way, Pretty Woman."

Nitro's tone was dripping with sarcasm. Clearly, he didn't approve of his tamer's alter-ego running around scantily clad. She sure was sexy, but a major distraction! He only hoped she wasn't the kind of tamer to go boy hunting like the rest of the humans that were running around the Digital World.

"Is there a cafeteria in this place? Fighting that hard works up a girl's appetite."

"I think we'd better go see Mr. Bossman first. Don't wanna get blamed for stealing company food, do we?"

Tako's golden eyes rolled.

"No, I guess not. Lead on, then, kitty cat."

"The name is Nitro!"

He hissed at her, though did not look back. She waved a hand dismissively as she followed behind the digital creature.

"Yeah, I got that memo, thanks."

The two walked on in silence for some time, turning a corner here or peering ahead at the long corridor they were walking along. Finally, they reached a really big room with more gadgets and assembly lines doing things that didn't make sense to Tako at all.

The machines all made different noises for different things being made. The sound of a needle moving very fast on one of the tables indicated it sewing clothes. The sound of a mixer could be heard as wet cement was being pressed into bricks. Apparently, this facotry provided materials and trade goods to be sold in the Digital City.

As the two stood there, a PrinceMamemon made his way to the duo and spoke with a pleased tone. "Oh what do we have here? Travelers? Thieves? Maybe even a Digimon Tamer?"

He didn't exactly know if he got one of those questions right, but he wanted to give them teh great tour of the facility. "If you may be wondering, I'm the head honcho around here. Now, let me give you a tour of the place." he said as he walked off.

Tako-kun stopped dead in her tracks to stare at the thing that could be seen walking up. Suddenly deciding she'd had enough, Tako took her hair down, removed the pin and gloves, and faded from consciousness. Saki came back, much to the Tailmon's surprise. The tamer stared down at the soaking wet kimono in her hands, her own gaze dipping down to her almost fully exposed chest and gasped.

"NANI?!"

Someone was talking. When she raised her gaze, the teenager jerked the kimono up to her neck in front of her to hide her body. Clearly, she was embarrassed by the audacious display of her figure.

"Oh what do we have here? Travelers? Thieves? Maybe even a Digimon Tamer?"

"Allow me to point out that--"

"Tamer," Nitro interrupted.

"If you may be wondering, I'm the head honcho around here. Now, let me give you a tour of the place."

He walked off and left a surprised, half-naked teenager in his wake. She raised her eyebrows at the bipedal cat-creature and waited for him to say something. When he only started to walk forward, she cleared her throat. He turned abruptly.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to apologize?"

"For what?"

"For interrupting me. It's ill-mannered, rude, inconsiderate even. You should apologize."

"You're right. I should."

The cat walked off after the other Digimon. Saki looked completely taken aback by his statement and lack of apology. She hurried after him, though it wasn't hard to catch up with something one-quarter of her size. Despite its wetness, the tamer wrapped the kimono around her from the front like a toga.

"You need to apologize, now twice because you walked away in the middle of our conversation! That is also rude."

Nitro sighed.

"You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"No, I'm not," she said flatly.

The feline smirked, faced his tamer, and bowed deeply. His entire tone was seeping with sarcasm.

"Oh, my illustrious tamer! My deepest, most sincere apologies for interrupting you when you should have answered and for walking away when you so humbly pointed out my faults. Do you forgive me, madam, or shall I die if I do not receive your good graces?"

His large, blue eyes rose up with a tiny cat-smirk painted on his lips as he waited to see her angered face at being made fun of. Her reaction wasn't anger at all; it was a satisfactory nod and a smile.

"You're forgiven. Don't let it happen again."

With refreshing energy, the tamer trudged away after the PrinceMamemon. It was in that moment, immobilized by shock and wonder, that Nitro realized she hadn't caught the sarcasm. Could she be immune? The most wicked and cunning of all cat smiles illuminated his face as he rose and watched her backside walking away. Oh, the fun he would have...

((Sorry bout being late, I meant to get to this as soon as possible))

PrinceMamemon looked behind him and smiled at the duo. The girl seemed cute despite the kimono that she wore. Such things weren't as common in the digital world, and he knew that. Continuing onward, he entered another set of doors. On the other side, a lot of Digimon could be seen working. "These are our workers. They help get the products boxed up and placed onto the trucks that take them to trailmon about a mile from here. From there they get distributed to the entire Digital World in less then a day."

He was proud of his knowledge, and it didn't take them long to get to the next section. It was the cafeteria and it smelt really good. Everything was being made fresh and all of which consisted of different styles of food. They have everything from American to lugnuts for most meal. Here they stopped and motioned for them to get a meal on his behalf. "You see," he said as he picked up a plate of pasta, "this place is always on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We have no breaks considering that everyone works to provide the digital world with products on a daily basis."