the digidestined had wandered through the desert, complaining about the baking sun overhead, and when they had thought they saw shade, had found only a mirage that turned out to have been gennai contacting them again. however, all he did was to confuse them with warnings about the tags and crests, as well as saying they were not looking after the digimon properly. their worries over how to properly care for their digimon partners were interrupted by a strange sight in the desert. a cruise liner sailing over the sands. it soon emerged it was not a mirage, and after moving quickly out of the way, they soon wound up on board, thanks to mimi flirting with the numemon crew. they wandered into the ship itself.

'this is one wierd ship.' tai said.

'the fact it's sailing through a desert didn't clue you in?' matt smirked.

'no, look. all these weird statues.'

the others were already looking. the place was like a floating gallery (which of course was sailing through a desert). statues of various digimon were everywhere. some were fairly normal, smiling figures in the usual sort of statue poses. there were three floramon in the middle of the hall they were in, standing together as if posing for a photo. there was a slightly olbivious looking gazimon statue nearby staring off into space. then there were the odd ones. a renamon that seemed to be in the middle of a battle, a look of determination carved into the face. a group of numemon that looker utterly terrified. all of them were very detailed.

'well, they're weird, but pretty good. they look almost real.' joe said.

'maybe they are.' izzy said. the group looked cautiously again. tai moved up to the five numemon statues and knocked on one. the dull sound of solid stone was all he heard.

'nope. they're real stone.' tai said.

'maybe they got turned into stone?' mimi wondered aloud.

'that seems highly unlikely. i doubt it's physically possible for even a digimon to be able to induce complete body petrification on another digimon. these detailed sculptures are just that.' izzy proclaimed

'...what?'

'he means it's not possible for living things to be turned to stone.' sora said.

'but i heard about a petrified forest somewhere.' tk noted.

'that is technically incorrect. the trees have not turned to stone, simply the organic material of the wood has absorbed water bearing minerals that as they built up...' izzy tried to explain, but was soon hushed. no one really wanted to know how. the fact it apparently took a while was enough to convince them it was impossible these could be real digimon petrified.

***

the digidestined soon forgot about the odd statues as they explored the ship. matt, izzy and tk found a spread of food laid on and after not too much hesitation, began to eat. sora and mimi took the chance to take a shower. tai and joe found the swimming pool and dived in. but not all was as it seemed. the numemon had reported their prescence to the captain of the ship. he tried to then contact his superior, etemon. however, the dark network that made etemon such a threat to the digidestined was temporarily down.

the captain of the ship decided that he would have to deal with the chosen children himself. and he felt himself more than capable. he wouldn't waste a chance to eliminate any of them and he would soon have one.

***

'um, matt, i need to go.' tk said.

'go where?' his brother asked.

'you know, go.' the youngest digidestined squirmed.

'oh, right. well, you can find the bathroom yourself surely?' matt said, more intrested in the spread of food before him.

'but there's something weird about this place.'

'tk, the statues are just statues. they won't hurt you.' izzy said.

'but...'

'tk, seriously, either go find a bathroom or pee your pants.' matt snapped. tk made his way out of the room carrying tokomon with him.

'i don't like this.' tokomon said.

'me neither. i'm not sure this place is really safe.'

eventually, tk did find a room marked as a toilet, but it had the pink symbol of a woman.

'why not use that one?' tokomon asked.

'because that's a girls toilet. i'm a boy.' tk said.

'well, the girls are all in the baths so it's not like anyone will know.'

tk had to agree. plus he couldn't see any other toilets nearby and wasn't sure he could keep looking. he was about to go in when tokomon protested.

'wait, leave me outside.'

'what? why?'

'cos i don't want to get caught going into a girls toilet.'

'but you said... oh never mind.' tk sighed and left tokomon outside.

he went as fast as possible, still worried about being caught somewhere he shouldn't be, and left after finishing. he was about to pick tokomon up when he realised there was someone at the end of the corridor. he yelped in surprise at being caught before he saw that it was a giant white chicken.

'who are you?'

'i'm cockatrimon and this is my ship you're breaking the rules on.' the chicken proclaimed, cawing its way through the sentence.

'what?!' tk said, backing up, only to trip over something.

'no boys in the ladies bathrooms.' the digimon cawed.

tk had been surprised by the fall but was even more shocked to see what he had tripped over. it was a statue of tokomon.

'what...'

'i put him into my collection while you were in the toilet. he broke the rules too.'

'you turned him to stone? but that's...' tk said. he never finished the sentence as cockatrimon's eyes glowed green. tk cried out as he felt himself turn cold all over and then it was done. in an instant he had been petrified like his digimon partner, the only clues he was not always a stone statue his clothes and the lifelike detail he had, but anyone looking at just the blank marble eyes would make the same mistake the digidestined had with the other statues.

'that's impossible? i think you know better now. and you'll know better not to go places you shouldn't. well, i suppose that's a lot easier, since now the only place you're going is the garden as a lawn sculpture!'

tk's lifeless stone eyes still stared at the evil cockatrice digimon, but his open mouth did not reply to his petrifier.

***

sora and mimi had spent some time showering, and sora was now intending to go to the pool. mimi however had other plans.

'you'e going to have a bath? but you just had a shower!' sora said.

'so? that got me clean but now i want to relax!' mimi said.

sora shrugged.

'oh well. i'll see you later.' sora said. she had already changed into her swimsuit and she didn't see the point in sitting around in the bath when there was a whole pool.

'hey, biyomon, race you to the pool!' she shouted, running on ahead to the protests of her digimon partner that she was cheating. sora had got quite far ahead when she skidded to a halt.

'what is it with all these rulebreakers?' cockatrimon half-cawed, half-snarled.

'who are you?'

'who? who? do i look like an owl?!' he said, and glared at her. she too suffered the same fate as tokomon, tk, and the various digimon before them. only the detail and the swimsuit the statue wore would tell anyone she had once been a flesh and blood digidestined and not a marble statue.

biyomon caught up and gasped. she recgonised the statue.

'sora? what did you do to her?'

'what I'm doing to you, cutie pie!' cockatrimon told the other bird digimon. unlike sora, biyomon wore no clothes, and one would need to notice that every feather was perfect to realise it was not just a statue.

'judging by the swimsuit you were heading for the pool. and have no fashion sense. well, bad news, digi-brat, the pool is closed. i was just on my way to get everyone out.'

***

his numemon helpers were already trying to help, but they had let koromon evovle to agumon and were not holding their own. though tai and joe had been caught in a net, the two digimon were free. not for long. one petriflare later and the pair joined sora, tk, biyomon and tokomon in becoming rocks.

'the pool is closed!' cockatrimon yelled, and glared at the water. tai and joe were shocked to have the pool petrify and trap them. they didn't get to say anything else though, as a second later they became the same as the water, being transformed into two statues floating in a stone pool.

***

'tk's taking a long time.' matt realised.

'maybe he got lost?' gabumon pondered. matt sighed.

'probably. i'd better go find him.'

izzy and tentomon were left alone, as matt and gabumon went searching. they soon found someone, but not who they expected.

'is that sora?' gabumon said, spotting a shape at the end of a corridor.

'no, that's a sta... wait...' matt said as he got closer. he saw that it looked a lot like sora, but it was a statue. then he saw that the swimsuit was out of place.  then someone else arrived.

'matt! you need to come quickly, it's... oh no, not sora too!' palmon said. she had decided to head for the pool too, to get some sun and soak. but she had instead wandered into the petrified form of the youngest digidestined.

'this is horrible.' matt said, stunned. he had realised sora had really been turned to stone and had not properly heard palmon's shout.

'a critic eh? maybe you can do better!' cockatrimon shouted. matt wheeled round and yelled out as he stared right into cockatrimon's eyes. palmon and gabumon were shocked to see matt transform into stone as well

'guess not, even with that ugly swimsuit i think your friends make better statues.'

the two digimon were angered now, and were about to try and fight. cockatrimon laughed, clucking/chuckling triumphantly. they too became statues.

***

'where is everyone?' tentomon wondered.

'well, mimi and sora were in the showers, tai and joe went to the pool, and i think tk must have fallen in the toilet or something.' izzy said.

'i know where they are.' cockatrimon said. digimon and digidestined looked up. they were petrified instantly by his petriflare gaze.

'they're heading for a gallery, just like you!'

***

mimi was blissfully unaware that she was now, apart from cockatrimon and the numemon, the only unpetrified living thing aboard the ship. she had decided sora had been right and had put on her own swimsuit when she was startled by the door kicking open. she screamed and tried to run the opposite direction, but slipped on the wet floor. this was actually lucky for her as cockatrimon's petrifying gaze then struck and petrified a mirror, but also bounced off to turn a part of the wall opposite into granite, narrowly missing cockatrimon himself.

'stone the crows, that was close!' he remarked, looking in surprise at his near self-petrification.

mimi had noticed this though and had thought fast. she grabbed a small item from her belongings and held it up as the digimon tried again.

'well, girl, you're the last one.' he said, and attacked without looking properly. but as he shot out the green beams at the cringing mimi, he noticed she held up a makeup mirror. the beam bounced straight back.

the mirror was petrified in mimi's hands for a second, but the cockatrice digimon however became petrified and stayed petrified. unknown to mimi, across the ship, the other victims of the evil digimon had turned back to normal. the other petrified objects reverted as well.

***

'what just happened?' tai asked. he'd not remembered a thing about being petrified and to him, the world he could see had suddenly changed in the blink of an eye.

'i don't know.' agumon said.

'me neither. a second ago a cockatrimon turned us all into rocks. i guess someone must have taken care of him.' gomamon said.

***

in the hallway, tk finished his sentence, with only tokomon around to hear.

'what's impossible?' tokomon asked, confused. he had not even noticed being petrified.

'...never mind.' tk said.

'oh, okay. are we going back to matt and izzy now?'

***

the various statues scattered in the other corridor reverted in states of confusion also. all wondered what had happened.

'we need to find the others.' matt realised, rushing off to try and find his brother first.

'wait a second matt, tk was upstairs, you're going the wrong way!' palmon shouted after him.


***

'...did you see something? like a big chicken in the doorway for a few seconds?' izzy asked.

'i think i did. maybe it was just another mirage.'

'do mirages follow you into air conditioned ships in the digital world?'

'maybe. i've never seen many mirages before'

***

that everyone was safe and back to normal was the good news. the bad news was jumping off the side of the ship. the various statues of digimon who had been petrified in the hall had reverted and took their rage out on the numemon crew. they had fled from the mob by jumping overboard with the former statues giving chase. but they had left a problem for the digidestined, the ship had changed course.

'we're heading for that giant cactus!' tai shouted.

'i hope it's another mirage.' mimi said. the ship crashed into it. after the noise died down and everyone made sure they still had all their pieces  and everyone else was fine, there was a pause. they had been throw into the sands below, but the ship had crashed into and cut down the cactus.

'...shouldn't one of us point out it wasn't a mirage?' joe asked.

'it might have just been a really solid mirage.' tentomon said.

however, the pause had been caused by the fact the cactus had been sliced open to reveal a crest, which turned out to be mimi's crest of sincerity. this was good news, but now they had a problem. they would have to walk across the desert once more.