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(Content Warnings: transformation, heavy mental changes/identity death)

The seven digidestined, after so much wandering, losing each other, and finding each other again, had finally found their way to Myotismon's Castle. With his plan to enter the real world getting closer to fruition by the moment, the chosen children were looking for a way to sneak inside.

"Maybe we could dress up as maids, and just go in through the front door?" Mimi suggested.

"No way!" Tai said.

"Even if we DID want to wear dresses," Joe said, "I don't think Myotismon would be the type to bother to clean his castle."

"And if he was, I think the fact that we're not Digimon would stick out like a sore thumb," Sora added.

"Well, Angemon looks kind of human," Mimi offered. "But I guess you're right."

“We could fight our way in,” Tai said. “We’re probably gonna be doing a lot of fighting anyway once we catch up to Myotismon.”

“That’s WHY we should avoid fighting until we get there,” Matt said. “We’ll need to save our strength until the real battle starts!”

“I’m with Matt on this one,” Sora said. Joe, TK, and Mimi nodded.

“Hey, now that I think about disguises again,” Tai said, “We might not be able to sneak in, but our digimon could!”

---

A couple hours and a very drunk Nanimon later, and Palmon was at the top of the castle walls with Agumon, extending her vines down the side as a rope for the digidestined and their partners. The seven children entered the castle, their partners by their side.

“This is gonna be our most dangerous mission yet!” Tai said as he walked down the hall. “So we’re all gonna need to stick together, and keep an eye out for each other, and anything suspicious.”

“Um, Tai…” Agumon spoke up, “I think we got split up.”

Tai turned around, slack-jawed. Sure enough, the hall behind him looked completely empty.

“OH COME ON! How do we keep losing each other like this? I don’t even think we’ve passed any doors since we came in.” He let out a sigh. “Let’s see if we can find them, Agumon.”

The two quietly wandered through the castle, but couldn’t find a trace of of their friends, or even any guards. The paths didn’t even seem to be consistent, seeming to go in circles sometimes, or led to the two walking on the walls or ceilings at others. Sometimes Tai would go through a doorway and look back, only to see see a blank wall behind them.

They eventually stepped out into what seemed to be a small courtyard, but something about it was very off, even for the digital world. For one thing, despite having a solid stone floor, there were a lot of large pumpkins growing from the ground, their vines sticking straight through the rock without any evidence of a hole or crack to emerge from. What was even stranger were the way the pumpkins and parts of the walls seemed to flicker like parts of a glitchy video game.

“Okay, I’m not interested in falling out-of-world, or getting stuck in a wall or something,” Tai said. “Let’s look for…” He turned around to see the doorway they’d come through had vanished, “...Another way. Great. Looks like we’ve gotta go through the glitchy pumpkin patch. Watch your step Agumon. Who knows what’ll happen if we touch this stuff.”

“Right!” The dinosaur digimon nodded, following his human partner as they carefully stepped over flickering vines and distorting stones. But as he crossed the courtyard, Tai began to start flickering himself, though he didn’t seem to notice. His shorts and legs seemed to briefly blink in and out of existence, his pants legs each time coming back longer and darker in color, while his body did not drop in spite of lacking support. Agumon seemed just as oblivious to his partner’s fate as Tai himself, whatever force acting on the boy hindering the digimon’s perception as well.

With each step, Tai’s shoes began to to change from sneakers to leather riding boots, the laces criss-crossing their way up their length as they reached up to his knees. His shirt turned black as it’s sleeves grew longer, extending down to his gloves. A red cloth appeared around his neck, unfurling behind the boy as a billowing cape. Memories of what had originally brought him to the castle, of the sister, parents, and friends waiting for him back home, of anything beyond the digital world, all seemed to fade and become unimportant. His Agumon, too began to forget his original destiny with his partner, now only remembering the ghostly being Tai was becoming. Finally, the boy’s head and neck seemed to distort, then turn into a collection of floating integers, then vanish completely.

Neither the former boy, nor the digimon, acted as if this was in any way unusual, the boy’s mind having been changed just as much as his body, his only goal being to render any human that crossed his path as headless as he was. Still something was missing. A sword materialized in the spirit’s hand, which he quickly used to cut a pumpkin free of it’s vine, then carve a wicked, smiling face into its side. He lifted the pumpkin above his body, a bright flame lighting up behind the carved face as he did so. It fit neatly on his shoulders.

With this change finished, Agumon felt a sudden burst of energy.

AGUMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… WISPAGUMON!

Agumon’s legs disappeared, leaving the dinosaur digimon floating above the ground as his body began to radiate erie blue flames all over. The headless spirit turned its pumpkin face back to its partner, with a hint of satisfaction. When the two reached the courtyard, the two found a shadowy, black horse waiting for them, that had not been there when they first entered. The headless horseman climbed atop the horse, and began to ride through the castle halls in search of victims, his will-o-wisp like partner following close behind.

---

“TK! TK where are you?” Mat called out. “Ugh! I can’t believe I’ve lost him again.”

“I’m sure we’ll find him again, Matt,” Gabumon said. “We’ve always managed it before. And he can’t have gone far!”

“Right,” Matt said, taking a deep breath. “Getting worried isn’t gonna help anything. Still, we’d better hurry! Who knows what kind of evil digimon he might run into in this place.”

The pair’s wandering through the castle was just as confusing for them as it had been for Tai and Agumon.

“Gabumon, hadn’t we been going down any time we came to a set of stairs?”

“Yes.”

Matt sighed, as he looked up at the moon from the top of the ramparts he had just walked onto. “Then the digital world is making even less sense than usual today.”

Not seeing any point in going back the way he came, Matt continued straight ahead, not noticing as the moon seemed to suddenly and rapidly switch through colors, as a sound of static grew in the background. Matt felt strangely warm in what had otherwise been a cool night, and absently scratched at his arm, the thick, brown fur growing from his skin not really registering, even as it spread over his hands and up his arms. The skin on his palms and fingertips swelled up and turned a darker color, while taking a leathery texture. His nails receded, claws growing in their place, tearing through his gloves.

As the fur spread to his chest, it began to feel itchy against his shirt. Matt idly scratched as it went down his back as well. New bones began to form on his back, which soon pushed out into a tail covered in thick brown fur. Matt’s thoughts became clouded, and he found himself staring at the moon. The flashing colors just made it even harder to think as he stared. As the fog grew heavier, memories of his past, and of the expectations of civilization, grew distant, a primal need to hunt and feed taking their place. No longer concerned with their purpose, the wolf-boy tore off his uncomfortable, restrictive clothes, and tossed them aside, revealing that the rest of his body had already been covered completely in fur. Gabumon showed no reaction, looking as if such a drastic transformation was nothing more abnormal than yawning.

Matt’s feet snapped upward, his shoes slipping off as his feet became longer and thinner, leathery pads growing underneath them just as they had on his hands. As his face was covered in fur, his hair turning the same brown color, the boy’s head began to change. His ears moved toward the top of his head, stretching into a triangular shape. His teeth sharpened, and his tongue grew longer as his jaws pushed forward. His nose moved forward with it, growing larger, and turning black and wet reshaping to look more canine. The werewolf closed his eyes and let out a howl at the moon. When he opened them, his once blue eyes were now a bright yellow.

The strange, flashing moon affected Gabumon as well.

GABUMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… SKULLGABUMON!

As the light faded around the Gabumon, any part of him not covered by his pelt now seemed to be painted with images of bones. The digimon, like his partner had undergone a mental rewrite giving him a wilder, more savage personality, but retaining his loyalty to his werewolf friend.

The werewolf sniffed the ground, picking up an interesting collection of scents, and the two started to follow the trail in search of its origin.

---

“Myotismon sure has… interesting ways of decorating,” Sora mumbled. She and Biyomon had found their way into a room that looked somewhat like a chapel. Though, even if Sora wasn’t too familiar with the religions of other countries, she was pretty sure it wasn’t typical to depict bats and vampires on stained glass windows in churches, or to have to have grotesque statues of weird creatures on the INSIDE of the building.

“Maybe these are his family pictures?” Biyomon suggested, looking at the stained glass.

“Myotismon really doesn’t seem like the type to love anyone but himself,” Sora responded.

As Sora looked at the rows of strange statues on either side of the hall, she noticed one of the pedestals was empty. Curious, she approached the pedestal to see what might have happened to whatever statue was supposed to be there.

As she felt over the smooth surface of the pedestal, there was a sharp buzzing sound, and the statue suddenly appeared, with Sora’s left hand still inside the space the gargoyle now occupied. Sora gasped and leaped back. Much to her surprise, her hand did not remain stuck inside the stone, and she pulled it out without any issue. Curious, she reached out to touch the statue again, only for her hand to meet solid stoney resistance.

“Weird…” Sora said, looking over her hand again. “We should probably get going.”

As she and Biyomon made their way back to the chapel’s exit, Sora didn’t notice the statue begin to blink and flicker. And neither showed any acknowledgement when Sora’s left hand began to flicker in the same way, switching between a gloved human hand, a claw made of solid stone, and a scale-covered claw, with thin, sharpened talons. These three images were cycled through a few times, before the blue, scale-covered claw finally “solidified.” A similar glitchy flicker happened to her arm, then her torso, her shirt and pants vanishing in the stone and scale-covered forms.

Her mind went blank as her head was affected by the glitch, her cap and hair alike vanishing, leaving her bald, with only a pair of curved horns in their place. Her pupils became narrow slits, while her jaw and nose was replaced by a bulging snout, her teeth sharpening as her tongue lolled out, and her girlish facial features became more monstrous. While her ears were made longer and pointed.

Her legs shifted between clothed human ones, stone, then bare scales, which they eventually “settled” into. Her toes were made longer, each one ending in a claw. Finally, three limbs started to flicker into being on her back. On each shoulder, a new “arm” formed, each with five “fingers” nearly as long as her arms. As these solidified, static appeared between the fingers, before turning into a thin gray membrane. Then, in the middle of her lower back the last limb appeared, a thick tail, with a spade shape at its tip.

As the gargoyle's new form solidified, Biyomon felt herself undergoing a digivolution.

BIYOMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… WITCHBIYOMON!

As the light faded, WitchBiyomon now bore a little black dress and conical, wide-brimmed hat, and had a small broom under her wing.

The gargoyle shook her head as new thoughts and instincts poured into her empty mind. Her sole duty and purpose was to spend each night protecting the castle she became a part of every morning. Having an odd memory of an unusual presence elsewhere, the gargoyle and WitchBiyomon left the chapel in search of the potential in search of potential intruders.

---

“Matt? Are you still here?” TK called. “Where do you think he went, Patamon?”

“I don’t know,” the little digimon replied. “He can’t be far, we went in at the same time he did.”

“Yeah,” TK nodded, trying not to sound afraid. “We ‘ll find him soon.”

TK searched room after room, calling out for his brother each time.

“Matt! Are you… here?” TK stopped talking as he walked into a room filled with all sorts of gold and jewels, with Egyptian hieroglyphics on the wall. “Woah! I’ve never seen so much treasure!”

“It’s so shiny!” Patamon said, wide-eyed.

As TK looked around, examining the items curiously, some of them began to flicker and distort. Startled, the little boy jumped back, bumping into a sarcophagus, whose lid blinked out of existence for a moment, just long enough for TK to fall into it. Oddly, Patamon didn’t seem worried about TK’s predicament. Inside the coffin, TK banged on the lid a few times, before suddenly closing his eyes, feeling like getting out no longer truly mattered. His clothes began to distort, turning to a series of flashing numbers, then a number of long, white bandages, which tightened around him, before growing to cover every inch of exposed skin, covering even his eyes and hair.

At first, the boy felt a sense of peace, at getting his final rest, before his soul was due to be judged. But then, he felt a disturbance; someone was in this castle who did not belong. The lid of the sarcophagus flew open without the small mummy touching it, and the undead stepped out. As he did so, Patamon felt the energy of digivolution flowing through him.

PATAMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… GOLEMPATAMON!

A solid gold digimon, with a character meaning “life” inscribed on his forehead, now stood by the mummy’s side, ready to help wreak vengeance on those that would seek to steal their treasure.

---

Meanwhile, in the deepest parts of Myotismon’s castle, the vampire digimon was directing his minions in assembling the parts needed for the ritual to open the gate to the physical world. Things were proceeding quite smoothly; the weaker digimon scuttled to and fro, desperate to avoid displeasing their master. Better still, there had been no word from any troops about the Digidestined.

Myotismon smiled to himself. Not only was his castle virtually impenetrable, but even if those human children did get inside somehow, the illusions he had cast over the castle’s halls would surely keep them lost for hours, more than enough time for him to complete the ritual and begin his search for the eight child. It was just like that one book had said: “to subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”

The mechanical voice of a guardromon interrupted Myotismon’s thoughts. “Lord Myotismon,” it spoke, “I am here to report that there have been numerous anomalies appearing throughout the castle, since preparations for the ritual have begun.”

“Anomalies?” Myotismon raised an eyebrow.

“Yes lord Myotismon. The data in several places in the castle has destabilized and assimilated new data. It seems that anything that passes through will have its own data severely destabilized as well. Several of our guards seemed to undergo rapid changes, before becoming so unstable that they were deleted.”

“I see. Why are you telling me this?” Myotismon asked, looking disinterested.

“Given the harm this instability is causing both our troops and the structure of the castle, we believe it would be wise to stop or delay the ritual.”

Myotismon groaned. “I see. When I’m this close to my goal, you want me to give up simply because a few digimon can’t handle a glitch. It’s good to know where my subordinates stand on this.” A blood red ring formed around Myotismon’s wrist.

“Lord Myotismon, please, it’s more than that! If yo-”

“CRIMSON LIGHTNING!” Myotismon shouted, the red ring on his wrist extending into a whip, which lashed out and struck Guardromon, splitting the robotic digimon in half, before it disintegrated into hundreds of data particles. “I am not about to let anything stand in my way.”

Gatomon sighed as she watched from the sidelines. She knew they were going to need a few replacements to guard the castle while the invasion went on. Otherwise, what was to keep upstarts like Machinedramon or Piedmon from rising to power while Myotismon was gone? But she wasn’t about to tell Myotismon to not delete a few more troops and end up like Guardromon. Looks like she’d need to find some replacements on her own.

---

“There doesn’t seem to be any logic to this castle’s layout at all!” Izzy said, as he walked on one of the walls of a hall. “One minute we’re in the top of a tower, the next, we’re on the ceiling in the basement!”

“If we find this place’s contractor, you should be sure to give him a piece of your mind,” Tentomon said, hovering beside Izzy.

Izzy awkwardly stepped through one of the sideways (from his perspective) doors, and onto the floor of a room filled with large, elaborate machines, and a table with several wires attached to it in the center, as well as restraints that seemed designed to hold a person in place on top of it.

“Most prodigious!” Izzy exclaimed. “It looks like some kind of laboratory. I wonder if there’s a place I could plug in my laptop? Maybe then I could get a map of this place.”

Izzy examined the machines, hoping there might be some kind of compatible outlet on or around them. As he traced one of the cords, trying to find the source, another cord made a buzzing sound, flickering and and shifting, right as he stepped on it. He suddenly felt incredibly tired, not even noticing as a similar glitchy effect changed the shoe that had touched the wire into a heavy black boot. His pants and shirt both seemed to glitch and warp, eventually looking like something out of the early European eighteen-hundreds.

Underneath his clothes, his skin became a sickly green in some places, and a deathly, pale white in others, as if it was grafted together from several people’s bodies. Some of his limbs became uneven, while his head was made larger, taking a square shape, while an iron bolt appeared on either side of his neck. The tiredness overwhelmed Izzy, and he fell back onto the table in the center of the room.

Tentamon’s mental data had been altered at the same time as his partner’s body, preventing him from panicking at what he’d seen. And then his body’s data was changed to match.

TENTOMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… SCIENTENTOMON!

The light faded, to reveal the digimon now bore a labcoat with flasks of different colored liquids in its pockets, a pair of comically large goggled over his already large compound eyes, and a wig of “Einstein hair” on his head. Looking over the creature in front of him, ScienTentomon instantly remembered what he was supposed to be doing.

“SUPER SHOCKER!” ScienTentomon cried out, electricity flying from him to the bolts on the creature’s neck.

The creature let out a groan as it regained consciousness.

“It’s alive! ALIIIIIVE!” ScienTentomon shouted.

“Ugh…” The creature groaned as it sat up. “I feel like I’m forgetting something...”

ScienTentomon immediately took out a notepad and began scribbling. “Subject has no memory, as should be expected from a creature just brought into existence.”

The creature looked down at the ladybug in a labcoat. “Um, hello. I have a feeling there was something I was supposed to be doing, but I can’t remember. I don’t suppose you’d know, would you?”

“Subject is attempting to find a purpose in life,” ScienTentomon, spoke what he was writing on his notepad, as if the creature wasn’t even there. “I will follow, and study it’s reactions to the world around it.”

The creature let out a sigh as it realized it probably would not be getting any help. It got off the table with a thud, and started to look through the halls of the castle, ScienTentomon following with a pen and notepad.

---

“Why’d they leave me all alone again?” Mimi cried.

“I don’t think they mean to. It’s just that a lot of crazy stuff keeps happening,” Palmon said, patting Mimi on the back.

“I know,” Mimi sighed. “There’s just… there’s only so much a girl can take, you know?”

As the two turned a corner, they soon saw something completely unexpected: a very modern looking living room, with pale pink painted walls, and a tea set on a table in front of a sofa.

“This looks wonderful!” Mimi cheered, stepping inside. Then she stopped herself. “But what’s a room like this doing in the middle of a castle?”

“Maybe Myotismon likes to try the finer things?” Palmon suggested.

“Since we’re here, and I am a little thirsty, maybe we should help ourselves before we go.” Mimi went to the table, and picked up a cup. “Wait a minute, it’s plastic?”

“So?”

“I think it’s just a toy,” Mimi said with a sigh. She opened the lid of the teapot, and saw there was nothing inside it. “Looks like we won’t be having any tea for a while.”

The teapot suddenly shuddered and buzzed, turning into a string of numbers and letters in her hand. She gasped and dropped the pot, falling back onto the sofa, and finding that it was made of hard plastic as well.

“What in the world was that?” Mimi stammered.

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen something like that happen before.”

Mimi’s head suddenly felt fuzzy, her thoughts becoming sluggish. Her red dress and hat both began to look like static, then began switching between static and various colors, before finally stopping on black. Her cowboy hat distorted for a moment, before solidifying in the shape of an old bonnet. Her skin briefly changed to a mishmash of pixels, before taking a cloth texture, her gloves and shoes now sewn onto her stubby limbs. Her mouth vanished, replaced by a string, curved to look like a smile. Her hair, with a buzz, became dozens of brown strings, and her eyes were replaced with little black buttons. Finally, the haunted doll shrank down to a size more fitting a children’s toy, able to easily be carried in a child’s arms, while her mind became more simplistic and childish, with only one real goal on its mind.

“Let’s go make some friends. We’ll bring them back to the dollhouse, and can have fun with us forever and ever,” the doll said with a giggle. It “grabbed” the hand of Palmon, forcing a strange energy into the digimon.

PALMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… PLUSHPALMON!

The digimon the cursed doll was tugging at now bore soft, fluffy skin, with little seams down its sides, and big, hard, plastic eyes. The two left their little dollhouse, in search of friends.

---

“It keeps happening!” Joe cried in anguish, as he tumbled into a puddle.

“I warned you about stairs, Joe,” Gomamon said, as he slid down what had been a staircase, until pressure on the third step had triggered a trap, causing all the steps to fold to a 45 degree angle and make them a slide. A slide which continued through a trapdoor.

Joe felt around for his glasses with a groan, feeling relieved to find out they didn’t have a crack in them when he put them back on. He got up and looked around, hearing the sound of running water nearby. “So… where are we now? It seems disgusting.”

Even Gomamon, who normally would try to get Joe to lighten up in situations like this, was frowning. “I think we’re in the castle’s sewers, if this smell is any clue.”

“Just great…” Joe sighed, “The digital world continues to do wonders for my hygiene.”

Joe groped around the dimly lit passages as he and Gomamon searched for an exit. They could never have seen the ground beneath them starting to flicker and distort, nor would they have heard the buzzing over the sound of water, but soon enough, Joe stepped out, and his foot went through a floor that was no longer there, and he fell into the murky water below.

Joe flailed madly for a few moments, desperately trying to figure out which way was up, as water poured into his lungs. His shortness of breath was mercifully short-lived as a set of gills appeared on either side of his neck. His eyelids opened, revealing bright yellow eyes with thin pupils. His hair vanished, and his skin took a green, scaly texture. His glasses fell off and drifted to the bottom of the waterway, as his ears fanned out into fin-like shapes, while a larger fin grew atop his head. His hands vanished momentarily, before webbed claws appeared in their place, while his feet underwent a similar change. His teeth distorted for a moment, before becoming long, narrow fangs.

As the panic and adrenaline rush of drowning faded, the swamp monster’s mind cleared. It was a bit confused as to why it had been panicking while it was in its element, and it was even more confused as to why it had strange rags wrapped around it. It clawed through the cloth with no effort revealing the fins on its scaled back.

As the floor faded beneath Gomamon, he began to undergo a change as well.

GOMAMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… SLIMEGOMAMON.

The digimon that fell into the water beside its partner had the general shape of Gomamon, but was composed entirely of a transparent viscous green substance. He didn’t seem nearly as bothered by the smells in the water as he had been a moment ago, and didn’t really acknowledge the change to his partner; as far as SlimeGomamon was concerned, his friend had always a fish monster.

The two knew they were looking for something, even if they couldn’t remember what, but they had a feeling it was in another part of the castle. While they were reluctant to leave their comfortable, cool, murky water, they felt that whatever it was, it was important that they find it. So they swam to the exit to the sewers, and went deeper into the castle.

---

As Gatomon made her way to the castle’s entrance, her sensitive ears picked up sounds of unfamiliar creatures, all coming to a single point. The champion level digimon was confident in her abilities, but she still preferred the element of surprise, and a chance to study the potential intruders. Climbing into an out of sight hole in the wall, she sat back to observe the incoming creatures.

There was a thunder of hooves and a crackle of flame, and Gatomon saw something that was unlike anything she had seen before: a ghostly black horse, being ridden by what looked like descriptions of humans, but with a jack-o-lantern in place of a head. And by its side was a burning WispAgumon. The horse reared up and came to a stop, as it nearly crashed into a scaly winged creature, accompanied by a little WitchBiyomon.

“Hey, watch where you’re going, hothead!” The Gargoyle shouted. “Wait… You’re not an intruder, are you?”

“Of course not!” The headless horseman said. “I’m supposed to terrify people out of my haunting grounds. This place looks like good haunting material to me. Where else should I be?”

“I… Honestly don’t know,” The gargoyle responded. Her memory was pretty spotty. She thought she remembered seeing humans come in the castle, and this guy may have looked human, but he clearly wasn’t one if he was still walking around without a head.

“I don’t really think you’re going to get very far asking everyone if they are an intruder,” spoke a green-skinned creature with bolts in its neck. “If they are an intruder, and that has negative consequences, they have no motivation to tell the truth.”

“Subject exhibits a certain degree of common sense,” ScienTenomon muttered as he continued scribbling on his notepad.

“Who has come to take my riches?” A young sounding voice came from a small mummy, as it entered the hall, tailed by a golden GolemPatamon.

“Didn’t I just say why phrasing a question like that won’t get you anywhere?” The creature sighed.

“Will someone tell this guy I’m not food!” Came a desperate cry, as a swamp monster with a SlimeGomamon ran into the room, pursued by a werewolf and SkullGabumon.

“Now that’s a much better way to phrase a question if you want an honest answer,” the creature said as the swamp monster hid behind the gargoyle.

The werewolf didn’t seem deterred, but did get distracted by a strangely familiar scent coming from the mummy, buying the swamp monster some respite. The mummy wasn’t bothered by the attention, finding the werewolf’s presence rather comforting. Though nobody could see it under the wrapping, the young mummy smiled as he reached out and pet the werewolf, which didn’t resist, and in fact, seemed to be enjoying it just as much.

“Hello everyone!” Came a cute, girly voice, belonging to a living doll, tugging a PlushPalmon along with her. “Would all of you like to be my friends?”

“I’m supposed to be a vengeful spirit,” the headless horseman said. “I don’t think we’re supposed to have friends.”

“You won’t be my friend?” The doll was smiling, but the voice sounded enraged. Several bricks and torches loosed themselves from the wall and began floating above the doll. A brick went flying straight for the headless horseman’s pumpkin, and he narrowly managed to lift his pumpkin out of the way in time.

“We’ll be your friends!” The swamp monster said quickly. “Just stop throwing things! Please!”

The bricks and torches dropped to the ground. “Yay, I have friends!”

The creature with bolts in its neck spoke up. “Anyway, I was wondering, do any of you remember me? Because something about all of you feels familiar, but I can’t quite place it.”

The headless horseman scratched his pumpkin head, almost accidentally knocking it off his shoulders, though WispAgumon stopped it from falling. “You know, you guys DO seem kind of familiar, but I can’t tell what it is, either.”

“Well, if we can’t remember each other, maybe we can start making new memories together,” the gargoyle suggested. “Plus, I feel like not being friends with the doll is a bad idea.”

The doll giggled.

Gatomon was pretty impressed by how tough and creepy looking these creatures appeared, even if they seemed a little soft when talking to each other. Imagine how impressed Lord Myotismon would be if she came back with this rough bunch. It’d blow Lord Myotismon’s Numemon troops out of the water!

She hopped down into the middle of the group. “Hey! I’m Gatomon, right hand cat to Myotismon, the lord of this castle! He’s looking for troops to help keep humans and upstart digimon out of here while he’s gone. Are you interested?”

“You say we’d get to scare humans out of here?” The headless horseman said. “I’m in!”

“Well, I feel a need to guard this place, so I’m probably gonna do that anyway,” The gargoyle added. The mummy nodded to express a similar sentiment, and the werewolf, wishing to stay with the mummy, followed.

“If my friends say yes, I wanna go too!” The cursed doll said.

“I think I’ll pass,” Said the swamp monster.

“You don’t want to play with us?” The doll said, more bricks levitating around her.

“On second thought, I LOVE the idea of working for this Myotismon guy!”

“I’ll go too,” The bolted creature said, not wanting to anger the doll again.

“Subject makes wise choices when threatened with violence,” ScienTentomon muttered.

Gatomon was beaming. She’d certainly prove her worth to Myotismon tonight.

---

Meanwhile, in the center of the digital world, a being represented by a massive tree, its branches and roots both reaching into every world, paused, and made a note:

>Error: Following files have been determined to be corrupted and/or missing:
>Taichi "Tai" Kamiya.HMN
>Yamato "Matt" Ishida.HMN
>Sora Takenouchi.HMN
>Koushiro "Izzy" Izumi.HMN
>Mimi Tachikawa.HMN
>Joe Kido.HMN
>Takeru "T.K" Takaishi.HMN
>Agumon01.DGMN
>Gabumon01.DGMN
>Biyomon01.DGMN
>Tentomon01.DGMN
>Palmon01.DGMN
>Gomamon01.DGMN
>Patamon01.DGMN

>System cannot recover without these files in place without further damage.
>Restoring backups to previous stable version of files.
>Quarantining corrupted segments of HauntedCastle.Loc

As Gatomon introduced Myotismon to the new troops, the glitchy rooms that had created them each had their doors erased, and all memory of those rooms was eliminated. Meanwhile, at the roof of the castle, the seven children entered, their partners by their side. They would navigate the illusions, getting separated, then finding each other again, before finally figuring out the nature of the illusion, and getting around it by following a squad of Numemon.

By the time the Digidestined reached Myotismon and Gatomon, the newest hires had already been sent to guard other parts of the castle, leaving the Digidestined to try to stop Myotismon from entering their world, only to fail. Nonetheless, the digidestined followed him back to the physical world, ready to stop him at all costs.

And that was the last anyone in that castle would hear of Myotismon, or the Digidestined, for years to come.

---

Davis, Yolei, Veemon, and Hawkmon stopped to catch their breaths. The digital world was always a strange and dangerous place but a they hadn’t expected to see a threat that WASN’T a digimon attack them.

“Do you think… We lost him?” Yolei panted.

“Maybe… Lemme check,” Davis whispered, before looking back around the corner they had turned. And found himself smelling the horrible breath of a werewolf. “NOPE! RUN!”

The two new Digidestined and their partners ran down a flight of stairs, coming to what looked like a sewer.

“Yuck! Why would you bring us someplace that smells even worse than you?” Yolei gagged.

“I didn’t mean to, but this is perfect! That guy’ll lose our scent for sure if we go across the water here!” they ran to the water’s edge, only for a toothy, scaly creature to rise up in front of him!

“I guess the next door’s a better idea!” Davis yelled, immediately turning around and exiting up a different flight of stairs.

Continuing down the hall, Yolei checked the rooms they passed for any signs of safety.

“Hey, I think this room looks safe!” She said, pointing to a room full of dolls, plushies, and other toys.

One of the dolls, in a black dress and hat, turned its head around to look at them. 180 degrees. “Do you want to play with me?”

The two humans and their digimon let out a scream and picked up their run again. As they reached the deepest part of the castle, the room where the previous digidestined said the gate to the physical world had been. They thought they may have finally lost the werewolf, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Then a jack-o-lantern hovered in the air in front of them, a dark horse and headless rider appearing beneath it.

“This just keeps going from bad to worse!” Yolei yelled. She and Davis turned to run, but she quickly found her legs tied in old bandages, while Davis was lifted off the ground by some sort of Gargoyle. GolemPatamon and WitchBiyomon quickly got between the new digidestined and their digimon.

“No! I don’t want to die here!” Davis shouted, as menacing laughter emanated from the jack-o-lantern. Not only that, but the werewolf, swamp monster, and cursed doll had all caught up to them, as well.

All other noises stopped when a strange mechanical noise could be heard from above. The group looked up, only to see Digmon tunnel through the ceiling, before crashing to the ground, bringing Cody, Kari, TK, and the whole group’s digimon with him. “Never fear, Digmon is here!”

The monsters, digidestined, and digimon all took their battle stances… Until the headless horseman paused, then spoke up.

“Gatomon? Is that you?”

Gatomon blinked. She had almost forgotten about these guys. “Yeah, it’s me!”

“Wonderful to see you again, after all these years!” The headless horseman said. “How is Lord Myotismon?”

Gatomon quickly saw a chance to take advantage of the situation. “Lord Myotismon has fallen. I’ve succeeded him. And as your new commander, I order you to let go of our allies!” She pointed at Davis and Yolei.

The mummy and the gargoyle gently released the humans.

“They were our allies?” A new voice said, as a green skinned creature stepped around the corner. “I apologize for having us bother them, then.”

“Ahg! It’s Frankenstein!” Davis yelled.

“Actually,” Cody said, “Frankenstein was the name of the scientist. The creature didn’t really have a name, though some called him Adam.”

“If you want to get technical about it,” Yolei said, “Given the story can be a metaphor for the tragedy of parents abandoning their children, you can argue that, as the abandoned “son” of Dr. Frankenstein, that the monster would have his last name, too.”

“You would have a point,” the creature said, “but as far as I know, I wasn’t built by THE Frankenstein, so you can just call me Adam if you like.”

“Are we done talking about names yet?” Gatomon groaned. “Yes? Thanks. Anyway, I’d like to ask, how interested would you guys be in helping us out beyond the castle?”

“It could be a nice change of pace,” Pines said.

“It HAS been pretty dull,” The Gargoyle said. “Nobody really comes here anymore. We just stuck around to keep our word to you and Myotismon.”

“Well, have we got a scare target for you, then!” Gatomon grinned. “Have you guys heard of the Digimon Emperor?”

Description
(Content Warnings: transformation, heavy mental changes/identity death)

The seven digidestined, after so much wandering, losing each other, and finding each other again, had finally found their way to Myotismon's Castle. With his plan to enter the real world getting closer to fruition by the moment, the chosen children were looking for a way to sneak inside.

"Maybe we could dress up as maids, and just go in through the front door?" Mimi suggested.

"No way!" Tai said.

"Even if we DID want to wear dresses," Joe said, "I don't think Myotismon would be the type to bother to clean his castle."

"And if he was, I think the fact that we're not Digimon would stick out like a sore thumb," Sora added.

"Well, Angemon looks kind of human," Mimi offered. "But I guess you're right."

“We could fight our way in,” Tai said. “We’re probably gonna be doing a lot of fighting anyway once we catch up to Myotismon.”

“That’s WHY we should avoid fighting until we get there,” Matt said. “We’ll need to save our strength until the real battle starts!”

“I’m with Matt on this one,” Sora said. Joe, TK, and Mimi nodded.

“Hey, now that I think about disguises again,” Tai said, “We might not be able to sneak in, but our digimon could!”

---

A couple hours and a very drunk Nanimon later, and Palmon was at the top of the castle walls with Agumon, extending her vines down the side as a rope for the digidestined and their partners. The seven children entered the castle, their partners by their side.

“This is gonna be our most dangerous mission yet!” Tai said as he walked down the hall. “So we’re all gonna need to stick together, and keep an eye out for each other, and anything suspicious.”

“Um, Tai…” Agumon spoke up, “I think we got split up.”

Tai turned around, slack-jawed. Sure enough, the hall behind him looked completely empty.

“OH COME ON! How do we keep losing each other like this? I don’t even think we’ve passed any doors since we came in.” He let out a sigh. “Let’s see if we can find them, Agumon.”

The two quietly wandered through the castle, but couldn’t find a trace of of their friends, or even any guards. The paths didn’t even seem to be consistent, seeming to go in circles sometimes, or led to the two walking on the walls or ceilings at others. Sometimes Tai would go through a doorway and look back, only to see see a blank wall behind them.

They eventually stepped out into what seemed to be a small courtyard, but something about it was very off, even for the digital world. For one thing, despite having a solid stone floor, there were a lot of large pumpkins growing from the ground, their vines sticking straight through the rock without any evidence of a hole or crack to emerge from. What was even stranger were the way the pumpkins and parts of the walls seemed to flicker like parts of a glitchy video game.

“Okay, I’m not interested in falling out-of-world, or getting stuck in a wall or something,” Tai said. “Let’s look for…” He turned around to see the doorway they’d come through had vanished, “...Another way. Great. Looks like we’ve gotta go through the glitchy pumpkin patch. Watch your step Agumon. Who knows what’ll happen if we touch this stuff.”

“Right!” The dinosaur digimon nodded, following his human partner as they carefully stepped over flickering vines and distorting stones. But as he crossed the courtyard, Tai began to start flickering himself, though he didn’t seem to notice. His shorts and legs seemed to briefly blink in and out of existence, his pants legs each time coming back longer and darker in color, while his body did not drop in spite of lacking support. Agumon seemed just as oblivious to his partner’s fate as Tai himself, whatever force acting on the boy hindering the digimon’s perception as well.

With each step, Tai’s shoes began to to change from sneakers to leather riding boots, the laces criss-crossing their way up their length as they reached up to his knees. His shirt turned black as it’s sleeves grew longer, extending down to his gloves. A red cloth appeared around his neck, unfurling behind the boy as a billowing cape. Memories of what had originally brought him to the castle, of the sister, parents, and friends waiting for him back home, of anything beyond the digital world, all seemed to fade and become unimportant. His Agumon, too began to forget his original destiny with his partner, now only remembering the ghostly being Tai was becoming. Finally, the boy’s head and neck seemed to distort, then turn into a collection of floating integers, then vanish completely.

Neither the former boy, nor the digimon, acted as if this was in any way unusual, the boy’s mind having been changed just as much as his body, his only goal being to render any human that crossed his path as headless as he was. Still something was missing. A sword materialized in the spirit’s hand, which he quickly used to cut a pumpkin free of it’s vine, then carve a wicked, smiling face into its side. He lifted the pumpkin above his body, a bright flame lighting up behind the carved face as he did so. It fit neatly on his shoulders.

With this change finished, Agumon felt a sudden burst of energy.

AGUMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… WISPAGUMON!

Agumon’s legs disappeared, leaving the dinosaur digimon floating above the ground as his body began to radiate erie blue flames all over. The headless spirit turned its pumpkin face back to its partner, with a hint of satisfaction. When the two reached the courtyard, the two found a shadowy, black horse waiting for them, that had not been there when they first entered. The headless horseman climbed atop the horse, and began to ride through the castle halls in search of victims, his will-o-wisp like partner following close behind.

---

“TK! TK where are you?” Mat called out. “Ugh! I can’t believe I’ve lost him again.”

“I’m sure we’ll find him again, Matt,” Gabumon said. “We’ve always managed it before. And he can’t have gone far!”

“Right,” Matt said, taking a deep breath. “Getting worried isn’t gonna help anything. Still, we’d better hurry! Who knows what kind of evil digimon he might run into in this place.”

The pair’s wandering through the castle was just as confusing for them as it had been for Tai and Agumon.

“Gabumon, hadn’t we been going down any time we came to a set of stairs?”

“Yes.”

Matt sighed, as he looked up at the moon from the top of the ramparts he had just walked onto. “Then the digital world is making even less sense than usual today.”

Not seeing any point in going back the way he came, Matt continued straight ahead, not noticing as the moon seemed to suddenly and rapidly switch through colors, as a sound of static grew in the background. Matt felt strangely warm in what had otherwise been a cool night, and absently scratched at his arm, the thick, brown fur growing from his skin not really registering, even as it spread over his hands and up his arms. The skin on his palms and fingertips swelled up and turned a darker color, while taking a leathery texture. His nails receded, claws growing in their place, tearing through his gloves.

As the fur spread to his chest, it began to feel itchy against his shirt. Matt idly scratched as it went down his back as well. New bones began to form on his back, which soon pushed out into a tail covered in thick brown fur. Matt’s thoughts became clouded, and he found himself staring at the moon. The flashing colors just made it even harder to think as he stared. As the fog grew heavier, memories of his past, and of the expectations of civilization, grew distant, a primal need to hunt and feed taking their place. No longer concerned with their purpose, the wolf-boy tore off his uncomfortable, restrictive clothes, and tossed them aside, revealing that the rest of his body had already been covered completely in fur. Gabumon showed no reaction, looking as if such a drastic transformation was nothing more abnormal than yawning.

Matt’s feet snapped upward, his shoes slipping off as his feet became longer and thinner, leathery pads growing underneath them just as they had on his hands. As his face was covered in fur, his hair turning the same brown color, the boy’s head began to change. His ears moved toward the top of his head, stretching into a triangular shape. His teeth sharpened, and his tongue grew longer as his jaws pushed forward. His nose moved forward with it, growing larger, and turning black and wet reshaping to look more canine. The werewolf closed his eyes and let out a howl at the moon. When he opened them, his once blue eyes were now a bright yellow.

The strange, flashing moon affected Gabumon as well.

GABUMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… SKULLGABUMON!

As the light faded around the Gabumon, any part of him not covered by his pelt now seemed to be painted with images of bones. The digimon, like his partner had undergone a mental rewrite giving him a wilder, more savage personality, but retaining his loyalty to his werewolf friend.

The werewolf sniffed the ground, picking up an interesting collection of scents, and the two started to follow the trail in search of its origin.

---

“Myotismon sure has… interesting ways of decorating,” Sora mumbled. She and Biyomon had found their way into a room that looked somewhat like a chapel. Though, even if Sora wasn’t too familiar with the religions of other countries, she was pretty sure it wasn’t typical to depict bats and vampires on stained glass windows in churches, or to have to have grotesque statues of weird creatures on the INSIDE of the building.

“Maybe these are his family pictures?” Biyomon suggested, looking at the stained glass.

“Myotismon really doesn’t seem like the type to love anyone but himself,” Sora responded.

As Sora looked at the rows of strange statues on either side of the hall, she noticed one of the pedestals was empty. Curious, she approached the pedestal to see what might have happened to whatever statue was supposed to be there.

As she felt over the smooth surface of the pedestal, there was a sharp buzzing sound, and the statue suddenly appeared, with Sora’s left hand still inside the space the gargoyle now occupied. Sora gasped and leaped back. Much to her surprise, her hand did not remain stuck inside the stone, and she pulled it out without any issue. Curious, she reached out to touch the statue again, only for her hand to meet solid stoney resistance.

“Weird…” Sora said, looking over her hand again. “We should probably get going.”

As she and Biyomon made their way back to the chapel’s exit, Sora didn’t notice the statue begin to blink and flicker. And neither showed any acknowledgement when Sora’s left hand began to flicker in the same way, switching between a gloved human hand, a claw made of solid stone, and a scale-covered claw, with thin, sharpened talons. These three images were cycled through a few times, before the blue, scale-covered claw finally “solidified.” A similar glitchy flicker happened to her arm, then her torso, her shirt and pants vanishing in the stone and scale-covered forms.

Her mind went blank as her head was affected by the glitch, her cap and hair alike vanishing, leaving her bald, with only a pair of curved horns in their place. Her pupils became narrow slits, while her jaw and nose was replaced by a bulging snout, her teeth sharpening as her tongue lolled out, and her girlish facial features became more monstrous. While her ears were made longer and pointed.

Her legs shifted between clothed human ones, stone, then bare scales, which they eventually “settled” into. Her toes were made longer, each one ending in a claw. Finally, three limbs started to flicker into being on her back. On each shoulder, a new “arm” formed, each with five “fingers” nearly as long as her arms. As these solidified, static appeared between the fingers, before turning into a thin gray membrane. Then, in the middle of her lower back the last limb appeared, a thick tail, with a spade shape at its tip.

As the gargoyle's new form solidified, Biyomon felt herself undergoing a digivolution.

BIYOMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… WITCHBIYOMON!

As the light faded, WitchBiyomon now bore a little black dress and conical, wide-brimmed hat, and had a small broom under her wing.

The gargoyle shook her head as new thoughts and instincts poured into her empty mind. Her sole duty and purpose was to spend each night protecting the castle she became a part of every morning. Having an odd memory of an unusual presence elsewhere, the gargoyle and WitchBiyomon left the chapel in search of the potential in search of potential intruders.

---

“Matt? Are you still here?” TK called. “Where do you think he went, Patamon?”

“I don’t know,” the little digimon replied. “He can’t be far, we went in at the same time he did.”

“Yeah,” TK nodded, trying not to sound afraid. “We ‘ll find him soon.”

TK searched room after room, calling out for his brother each time.

“Matt! Are you… here?” TK stopped talking as he walked into a room filled with all sorts of gold and jewels, with Egyptian hieroglyphics on the wall. “Woah! I’ve never seen so much treasure!”

“It’s so shiny!” Patamon said, wide-eyed.

As TK looked around, examining the items curiously, some of them began to flicker and distort. Startled, the little boy jumped back, bumping into a sarcophagus, whose lid blinked out of existence for a moment, just long enough for TK to fall into it. Oddly, Patamon didn’t seem worried about TK’s predicament. Inside the coffin, TK banged on the lid a few times, before suddenly closing his eyes, feeling like getting out no longer truly mattered. His clothes began to distort, turning to a series of flashing numbers, then a number of long, white bandages, which tightened around him, before growing to cover every inch of exposed skin, covering even his eyes and hair.

At first, the boy felt a sense of peace, at getting his final rest, before his soul was due to be judged. But then, he felt a disturbance; someone was in this castle who did not belong. The lid of the sarcophagus flew open without the small mummy touching it, and the undead stepped out. As he did so, Patamon felt the energy of digivolution flowing through him.

PATAMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… GOLEMPATAMON!

A solid gold digimon, with a character meaning “life” inscribed on his forehead, now stood by the mummy’s side, ready to help wreak vengeance on those that would seek to steal their treasure.

---

Meanwhile, in the deepest parts of Myotismon’s castle, the vampire digimon was directing his minions in assembling the parts needed for the ritual to open the gate to the physical world. Things were proceeding quite smoothly; the weaker digimon scuttled to and fro, desperate to avoid displeasing their master. Better still, there had been no word from any troops about the Digidestined.

Myotismon smiled to himself. Not only was his castle virtually impenetrable, but even if those human children did get inside somehow, the illusions he had cast over the castle’s halls would surely keep them lost for hours, more than enough time for him to complete the ritual and begin his search for the eight child. It was just like that one book had said: “to subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”

The mechanical voice of a guardromon interrupted Myotismon’s thoughts. “Lord Myotismon,” it spoke, “I am here to report that there have been numerous anomalies appearing throughout the castle, since preparations for the ritual have begun.”

“Anomalies?” Myotismon raised an eyebrow.

“Yes lord Myotismon. The data in several places in the castle has destabilized and assimilated new data. It seems that anything that passes through will have its own data severely destabilized as well. Several of our guards seemed to undergo rapid changes, before becoming so unstable that they were deleted.”

“I see. Why are you telling me this?” Myotismon asked, looking disinterested.

“Given the harm this instability is causing both our troops and the structure of the castle, we believe it would be wise to stop or delay the ritual.”

Myotismon groaned. “I see. When I’m this close to my goal, you want me to give up simply because a few digimon can’t handle a glitch. It’s good to know where my subordinates stand on this.” A blood red ring formed around Myotismon’s wrist.

“Lord Myotismon, please, it’s more than that! If yo-”

“CRIMSON LIGHTNING!” Myotismon shouted, the red ring on his wrist extending into a whip, which lashed out and struck Guardromon, splitting the robotic digimon in half, before it disintegrated into hundreds of data particles. “I am not about to let anything stand in my way.”

Gatomon sighed as she watched from the sidelines. She knew they were going to need a few replacements to guard the castle while the invasion went on. Otherwise, what was to keep upstarts like Machinedramon or Piedmon from rising to power while Myotismon was gone? But she wasn’t about to tell Myotismon to not delete a few more troops and end up like Guardromon. Looks like she’d need to find some replacements on her own.

---

“There doesn’t seem to be any logic to this castle’s layout at all!” Izzy said, as he walked on one of the walls of a hall. “One minute we’re in the top of a tower, the next, we’re on the ceiling in the basement!”

“If we find this place’s contractor, you should be sure to give him a piece of your mind,” Tentomon said, hovering beside Izzy.

Izzy awkwardly stepped through one of the sideways (from his perspective) doors, and onto the floor of a room filled with large, elaborate machines, and a table with several wires attached to it in the center, as well as restraints that seemed designed to hold a person in place on top of it.

“Most prodigious!” Izzy exclaimed. “It looks like some kind of laboratory. I wonder if there’s a place I could plug in my laptop? Maybe then I could get a map of this place.”

Izzy examined the machines, hoping there might be some kind of compatible outlet on or around them. As he traced one of the cords, trying to find the source, another cord made a buzzing sound, flickering and and shifting, right as he stepped on it. He suddenly felt incredibly tired, not even noticing as a similar glitchy effect changed the shoe that had touched the wire into a heavy black boot. His pants and shirt both seemed to glitch and warp, eventually looking like something out of the early European eighteen-hundreds.

Underneath his clothes, his skin became a sickly green in some places, and a deathly, pale white in others, as if it was grafted together from several people’s bodies. Some of his limbs became uneven, while his head was made larger, taking a square shape, while an iron bolt appeared on either side of his neck. The tiredness overwhelmed Izzy, and he fell back onto the table in the center of the room.

Tentamon’s mental data had been altered at the same time as his partner’s body, preventing him from panicking at what he’d seen. And then his body’s data was changed to match.

TENTOMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… SCIENTENTOMON!

The light faded, to reveal the digimon now bore a labcoat with flasks of different colored liquids in its pockets, a pair of comically large goggled over his already large compound eyes, and a wig of “Einstein hair” on his head. Looking over the creature in front of him, ScienTentomon instantly remembered what he was supposed to be doing.

“SUPER SHOCKER!” ScienTentomon cried out, electricity flying from him to the bolts on the creature’s neck.

The creature let out a groan as it regained consciousness.

“It’s alive! ALIIIIIVE!” ScienTentomon shouted.

“Ugh…” The creature groaned as it sat up. “I feel like I’m forgetting something...”

ScienTentomon immediately took out a notepad and began scribbling. “Subject has no memory, as should be expected from a creature just brought into existence.”

The creature looked down at the ladybug in a labcoat. “Um, hello. I have a feeling there was something I was supposed to be doing, but I can’t remember. I don’t suppose you’d know, would you?”

“Subject is attempting to find a purpose in life,” ScienTentomon, spoke what he was writing on his notepad, as if the creature wasn’t even there. “I will follow, and study it’s reactions to the world around it.”

The creature let out a sigh as it realized it probably would not be getting any help. It got off the table with a thud, and started to look through the halls of the castle, ScienTentomon following with a pen and notepad.

---

“Why’d they leave me all alone again?” Mimi cried.

“I don’t think they mean to. It’s just that a lot of crazy stuff keeps happening,” Palmon said, patting Mimi on the back.

“I know,” Mimi sighed. “There’s just… there’s only so much a girl can take, you know?”

As the two turned a corner, they soon saw something completely unexpected: a very modern looking living room, with pale pink painted walls, and a tea set on a table in front of a sofa.

“This looks wonderful!” Mimi cheered, stepping inside. Then she stopped herself. “But what’s a room like this doing in the middle of a castle?”

“Maybe Myotismon likes to try the finer things?” Palmon suggested.

“Since we’re here, and I am a little thirsty, maybe we should help ourselves before we go.” Mimi went to the table, and picked up a cup. “Wait a minute, it’s plastic?”

“So?”

“I think it’s just a toy,” Mimi said with a sigh. She opened the lid of the teapot, and saw there was nothing inside it. “Looks like we won’t be having any tea for a while.”

The teapot suddenly shuddered and buzzed, turning into a string of numbers and letters in her hand. She gasped and dropped the pot, falling back onto the sofa, and finding that it was made of hard plastic as well.

“What in the world was that?” Mimi stammered.

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen something like that happen before.”

Mimi’s head suddenly felt fuzzy, her thoughts becoming sluggish. Her red dress and hat both began to look like static, then began switching between static and various colors, before finally stopping on black. Her cowboy hat distorted for a moment, before solidifying in the shape of an old bonnet. Her skin briefly changed to a mishmash of pixels, before taking a cloth texture, her gloves and shoes now sewn onto her stubby limbs. Her mouth vanished, replaced by a string, curved to look like a smile. Her hair, with a buzz, became dozens of brown strings, and her eyes were replaced with little black buttons. Finally, the haunted doll shrank down to a size more fitting a children’s toy, able to easily be carried in a child’s arms, while her mind became more simplistic and childish, with only one real goal on its mind.

“Let’s go make some friends. We’ll bring them back to the dollhouse, and can have fun with us forever and ever,” the doll said with a giggle. It “grabbed” the hand of Palmon, forcing a strange energy into the digimon.

PALMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… PLUSHPALMON!

The digimon the cursed doll was tugging at now bore soft, fluffy skin, with little seams down its sides, and big, hard, plastic eyes. The two left their little dollhouse, in search of friends.

---

“It keeps happening!” Joe cried in anguish, as he tumbled into a puddle.

“I warned you about stairs, Joe,” Gomamon said, as he slid down what had been a staircase, until pressure on the third step had triggered a trap, causing all the steps to fold to a 45 degree angle and make them a slide. A slide which continued through a trapdoor.

Joe felt around for his glasses with a groan, feeling relieved to find out they didn’t have a crack in them when he put them back on. He got up and looked around, hearing the sound of running water nearby. “So… where are we now? It seems disgusting.”

Even Gomamon, who normally would try to get Joe to lighten up in situations like this, was frowning. “I think we’re in the castle’s sewers, if this smell is any clue.”

“Just great…” Joe sighed, “The digital world continues to do wonders for my hygiene.”

Joe groped around the dimly lit passages as he and Gomamon searched for an exit. They could never have seen the ground beneath them starting to flicker and distort, nor would they have heard the buzzing over the sound of water, but soon enough, Joe stepped out, and his foot went through a floor that was no longer there, and he fell into the murky water below.

Joe flailed madly for a few moments, desperately trying to figure out which way was up, as water poured into his lungs. His shortness of breath was mercifully short-lived as a set of gills appeared on either side of his neck. His eyelids opened, revealing bright yellow eyes with thin pupils. His hair vanished, and his skin took a green, scaly texture. His glasses fell off and drifted to the bottom of the waterway, as his ears fanned out into fin-like shapes, while a larger fin grew atop his head. His hands vanished momentarily, before webbed claws appeared in their place, while his feet underwent a similar change. His teeth distorted for a moment, before becoming long, narrow fangs.

As the panic and adrenaline rush of drowning faded, the swamp monster’s mind cleared. It was a bit confused as to why it had been panicking while it was in its element, and it was even more confused as to why it had strange rags wrapped around it. It clawed through the cloth with no effort revealing the fins on its scaled back.

As the floor faded beneath Gomamon, he began to undergo a change as well.

GOMAMON SLIDE DIGIVOLVE TO… SLIMEGOMAMON.

The digimon that fell into the water beside its partner had the general shape of Gomamon, but was composed entirely of a transparent viscous green substance. He didn’t seem nearly as bothered by the smells in the water as he had been a moment ago, and didn’t really acknowledge the change to his partner; as far as SlimeGomamon was concerned, his friend had always a fish monster.

The two knew they were looking for something, even if they couldn’t remember what, but they had a feeling it was in another part of the castle. While they were reluctant to leave their comfortable, cool, murky water, they felt that whatever it was, it was important that they find it. So they swam to the exit to the sewers, and went deeper into the castle.

---

As Gatomon made her way to the castle’s entrance, her sensitive ears picked up sounds of unfamiliar creatures, all coming to a single point. The champion level digimon was confident in her abilities, but she still preferred the element of surprise, and a chance to study the potential intruders. Climbing into an out of sight hole in the wall, she sat back to observe the incoming creatures.

There was a thunder of hooves and a crackle of flame, and Gatomon saw something that was unlike anything she had seen before: a ghostly black horse, being ridden by what looked like descriptions of humans, but with a jack-o-lantern in place of a head. And by its side was a burning WispAgumon. The horse reared up and came to a stop, as it nearly crashed into a scaly winged creature, accompanied by a little WitchBiyomon.

“Hey, watch where you’re going, hothead!” The Gargoyle shouted. “Wait… You’re not an intruder, are you?”

“Of course not!” The headless horseman said. “I’m supposed to terrify people out of my haunting grounds. This place looks like good haunting material to me. Where else should I be?”

“I… Honestly don’t know,” The gargoyle responded. Her memory was pretty spotty. She thought she remembered seeing humans come in the castle, and this guy may have looked human, but he clearly wasn’t one if he was still walking around without a head.

“I don’t really think you’re going to get very far asking everyone if they are an intruder,” spoke a green-skinned creature with bolts in its neck. “If they are an intruder, and that has negative consequences, they have no motivation to tell the truth.”

“Subject exhibits a certain degree of common sense,” ScienTenomon muttered as he continued scribbling on his notepad.

“Who has come to take my riches?” A young sounding voice came from a small mummy, as it entered the hall, tailed by a golden GolemPatamon.

“Didn’t I just say why phrasing a question like that won’t get you anywhere?” The creature sighed.

“Will someone tell this guy I’m not food!” Came a desperate cry, as a swamp monster with a SlimeGomamon ran into the room, pursued by a werewolf and SkullGabumon.

“Now that’s a much better way to phrase a question if you want an honest answer,” the creature said as the swamp monster hid behind the gargoyle.

The werewolf didn’t seem deterred, but did get distracted by a strangely familiar scent coming from the mummy, buying the swamp monster some respite. The mummy wasn’t bothered by the attention, finding the werewolf’s presence rather comforting. Though nobody could see it under the wrapping, the young mummy smiled as he reached out and pet the werewolf, which didn’t resist, and in fact, seemed to be enjoying it just as much.

“Hello everyone!” Came a cute, girly voice, belonging to a living doll, tugging a PlushPalmon along with her. “Would all of you like to be my friends?”

“I’m supposed to be a vengeful spirit,” the headless horseman said. “I don’t think we’re supposed to have friends.”

“You won’t be my friend?” The doll was smiling, but the voice sounded enraged. Several bricks and torches loosed themselves from the wall and began floating above the doll. A brick went flying straight for the headless horseman’s pumpkin, and he narrowly managed to lift his pumpkin out of the way in time.

“We’ll be your friends!” The swamp monster said quickly. “Just stop throwing things! Please!”

The bricks and torches dropped to the ground. “Yay, I have friends!”

The creature with bolts in its neck spoke up. “Anyway, I was wondering, do any of you remember me? Because something about all of you feels familiar, but I can’t quite place it.”

The headless horseman scratched his pumpkin head, almost accidentally knocking it off his shoulders, though WispAgumon stopped it from falling. “You know, you guys DO seem kind of familiar, but I can’t tell what it is, either.”

“Well, if we can’t remember each other, maybe we can start making new memories together,” the gargoyle suggested. “Plus, I feel like not being friends with the doll is a bad idea.”

The doll giggled.

Gatomon was pretty impressed by how tough and creepy looking these creatures appeared, even if they seemed a little soft when talking to each other. Imagine how impressed Lord Myotismon would be if she came back with this rough bunch. It’d blow Lord Myotismon’s Numemon troops out of the water!

She hopped down into the middle of the group. “Hey! I’m Gatomon, right hand cat to Myotismon, the lord of this castle! He’s looking for troops to help keep humans and upstart digimon out of here while he’s gone. Are you interested?”

“You say we’d get to scare humans out of here?” The headless horseman said. “I’m in!”

“Well, I feel a need to guard this place, so I’m probably gonna do that anyway,” The gargoyle added. The mummy nodded to express a similar sentiment, and the werewolf, wishing to stay with the mummy, followed.

“If my friends say yes, I wanna go too!” The cursed doll said.

“I think I’ll pass,” Said the swamp monster.

“You don’t want to play with us?” The doll said, more bricks levitating around her.

“On second thought, I LOVE the idea of working for this Myotismon guy!”

“I’ll go too,” The bolted creature said, not wanting to anger the doll again.

“Subject makes wise choices when threatened with violence,” ScienTentomon muttered.

Gatomon was beaming. She’d certainly prove her worth to Myotismon tonight.

---

Meanwhile, in the center of the digital world, a being represented by a massive tree, its branches and roots both reaching into every world, paused, and made a note:

>Error: Following files have been determined to be corrupted and/or missing:
>Taichi "Tai" Kamiya.HMN
>Yamato "Matt" Ishida.HMN
>Sora Takenouchi.HMN
>Koushiro "Izzy" Izumi.HMN
>Mimi Tachikawa.HMN
>Joe Kido.HMN
>Takeru "T.K" Takaishi.HMN
>Agumon01.DGMN
>Gabumon01.DGMN
>Biyomon01.DGMN
>Tentomon01.DGMN
>Palmon01.DGMN
>Gomamon01.DGMN
>Patamon01.DGMN

>System cannot recover without these files in place without further damage.
>Restoring backups to previous stable version of files.
>Quarantining corrupted segments of HauntedCastle.Loc

As Gatomon introduced Myotismon to the new troops, the glitchy rooms that had created them each had their doors erased, and all memory of those rooms was eliminated. Meanwhile, at the roof of the castle, the seven children entered, their partners by their side. They would navigate the illusions, getting separated, then finding each other again, before finally figuring out the nature of the illusion, and getting around it by following a squad of Numemon.

By the time the Digidestined reached Myotismon and Gatomon, the newest hires had already been sent to guard other parts of the castle, leaving the Digidestined to try to stop Myotismon from entering their world, only to fail. Nonetheless, the digidestined followed him back to the physical world, ready to stop him at all costs.

And that was the last anyone in that castle would hear of Myotismon, or the Digidestined, for years to come.

---

Davis, Yolei, Veemon, and Hawkmon stopped to catch their breaths. The digital world was always a strange and dangerous place but a they hadn’t expected to see a threat that WASN’T a digimon attack them.

“Do you think… We lost him?” Yolei panted.

“Maybe… Lemme check,” Davis whispered, before looking back around the corner they had turned. And found himself smelling the horrible breath of a werewolf. “NOPE! RUN!”

The two new Digidestined and their partners ran down a flight of stairs, coming to what looked like a sewer.

“Yuck! Why would you bring us someplace that smells even worse than you?” Yolei gagged.

“I didn’t mean to, but this is perfect! That guy’ll lose our scent for sure if we go across the water here!” they ran to the water’s edge, only for a toothy, scaly creature to rise up in front of him!

“I guess the next door’s a better idea!” Davis yelled, immediately turning around and exiting up a different flight of stairs.

Continuing down the hall, Yolei checked the rooms they passed for any signs of safety.

“Hey, I think this room looks safe!” She said, pointing to a room full of dolls, plushies, and other toys.

One of the dolls, in a black dress and hat, turned its head around to look at them. 180 degrees. “Do you want to play with me?”

The two humans and their digimon let out a scream and picked up their run again. As they reached the deepest part of the castle, the room where the previous digidestined said the gate to the physical world had been. They thought they may have finally lost the werewolf, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Then a jack-o-lantern hovered in the air in front of them, a dark horse and headless rider appearing beneath it.

“This just keeps going from bad to worse!” Yolei yelled. She and Davis turned to run, but she quickly found her legs tied in old bandages, while Davis was lifted off the ground by some sort of Gargoyle. GolemPatamon and WitchBiyomon quickly got between the new digidestined and their digimon.

“No! I don’t want to die here!” Davis shouted, as menacing laughter emanated from the jack-o-lantern. Not only that, but the werewolf, swamp monster, and cursed doll had all caught up to them, as well.

All other noises stopped when a strange mechanical noise could be heard from above. The group looked up, only to see Digmon tunnel through the ceiling, before crashing to the ground, bringing Cody, Kari, TK, and the whole group’s digimon with him. “Never fear, Digmon is here!”

The monsters, digidestined, and digimon all took their battle stances… Until the headless horseman paused, then spoke up.

“Gatomon? Is that you?”

Gatomon blinked. She had almost forgotten about these guys. “Yeah, it’s me!”

“Wonderful to see you again, after all these years!” The headless horseman said. “How is Lord Myotismon?”

Gatomon quickly saw a chance to take advantage of the situation. “Lord Myotismon has fallen. I’ve succeeded him. And as your new commander, I order you to let go of our allies!” She pointed at Davis and Yolei.

The mummy and the gargoyle gently released the humans.

“They were our allies?” A new voice said, as a green skinned creature stepped around the corner. “I apologize for having us bother them, then.”

“Ahg! It’s Frankenstein!” Davis yelled.

“Actually,” Cody said, “Frankenstein was the name of the scientist. The creature didn’t really have a name, though some called him Adam.”

“If you want to get technical about it,” Yolei said, “Given the story can be a metaphor for the tragedy of parents abandoning their children, you can argue that, as the abandoned “son” of Dr. Frankenstein, that the monster would have his last name, too.”

“You would have a point,” the creature said, “but as far as I know, I wasn’t built by THE Frankenstein, so you can just call me Adam if you like.”

“Are we done talking about names yet?” Gatomon groaned. “Yes? Thanks. Anyway, I’d like to ask, how interested would you guys be in helping us out beyond the castle?”

“It could be a nice change of pace,” Pines said.

“It HAS been pretty dull,” The Gargoyle said. “Nobody really comes here anymore. We just stuck around to keep our word to you and Myotismon.”

“Well, have we got a scare target for you, then!” Gatomon grinned. “Have you guys heard of the Digimon Emperor?”