Human REvolution
by Halomon
*** The characterizations for the new characters are not just my guesses. They are based on Grace Anderson's (Megchan) profiles and a segment of episode 5 that I was lucky enough to see. :)***
"The Digimon Kaizer has done this!" Davis stated with vengeful sharpness. Digital sands whipped at his face, lonely for someone with which to share their barren world.
"But what would the Kaizer have to gain from it?" Cody wondered hopelessly. It was all so strange, so impossible. "And where are the towers? I think the Kaizer himself might have disappeared as well..."
"So devastating..." Kari breathed. Visions of Gatomon shimmered across her eyes, but none were so graceful as to make themselves real.
"Where are they all?" Yolei wondered hopelessly. Her emotions were in a twist, and inevitable tears confused her eyelids.
"Patamon..." was all T.K. could say. He didn't understand it at all. The DigiWorld was barren, a complete wasteland. When they had arrived just a few minutes earlier, they had expected to be greeted by their Digimon friends, and to see the other monsters inhabiting the world. But not a single Digimon, not even a Botamon, could be seen as far as the DigiDestined's collective eyes could tell.
And even stranger than the disappearance of the Digimon was the apparent disappearance of the Kaizer! His Dark Towers had fallen into invisibility, and signs of his growing empire were no longer evident in even the darkest corners of the digital world. This was difficult for the DigiDestined to accept. They couldn't blame the Kaizer for this, and that left a very dangerous void. What exactly could be blamed? What strange entity could cause such immediate ceasing of existence?
What were they up against?
"What are we waiting for?" Davis's timely voice cut in. "We need to something about this!"
"Any suggestions?" Yolei pointed out. "How do you bring Digimon back from the dead?"
"If dead, they are..." Cody surmised. Clearly something was festering away in his mind.
"Kari, have you contacted Matt and the others since they asked us to come to the Digiworld?" T.K. asked. This was big, bigger than anything. It would require all of them. And maybe even Michael and Wallace, too, if they could be reached.
"Well, they were already here, when they called us, but-" Kari's voice became tight with worry. "But I tried to reach them on the D-Terminal... and, there was no answer..." Kari swelled with emotion. "T.K., Where is Gatomon?" Benign tears outlined the circumference of her eyes.
"I don't know, Kari," T.K. admitted in sadness. "Something happened here, something that caused all of the Digimon to disappear."
"But why are we still here?" Yolei asked, strangely.
"Huh?" they all wondered.
"If the Kaizer is gone," she answered. "and the Digimon are gone, there must have been something that affects all kinds of data..." Yolei's voice was becoming wobbly; her fears, evident. "And in the Digital World, we're data, too! Are- are we going to disappear, too??" She burst into a brief spasm of tears, but regained her shaky composure.
"Yolei has a point," Cody explained. "The Dark Towers are gone, and the Kaizer must be, too. If he was unable to survive this, why did we?"
"Yes," Kari added, catching on in great concern. "Surely he would be prepared for something like this, and yet he's gone, too."
"And yet, here we are..." Cody's ominous voice summarized. "Why?"
"Something must be protecting us," Davis guessed hastily. He was worried, and he didn't think this conversation was getting them anywhere. He wanted to find Veemon. "Something about the digivices or the Digimentals could be protecting us, since we're DigiDestined."
"But if that could exist naturally," T.K. surmised, "if this catastrophe could have been expected, why wouldn't such a protection exist for everything in the DigiWorld, and not just us? Surely Gennai would have installed it, if he would have known. Something else must be watching over us..."
"And so my existence is known to you, even before I reveal myself."
"Huh?"
Suddenly a bright light erupted in front of them. Its dazzling luminescence blurred their mortal vision, until their eyes adjusted to the amazing light. It was a creature of pure energy, that rippled out in two directions like flowing wings. The light seemed to create an abstract tail, as well. The being had spoken with a rich, feminine voice that filled the hearts of the DigiDestined with wonder and curiosity.
"What..." Davis gasped. "What are you??"
"I am the side effect of their weapon," the entity answered, gravely.
"Their weapon?" Yolei echoed frightfully, as the other DigiDestined wondered if a weapon's side effect would share its purpose.
"But I am against them," the energy answered, much to the relief of the children. "They cannot control my existence, for their weapon creates it. I am the bane that comes from their own actions."
"Do- do you have a name?" Cody stuttered.
"They call me zhina, but it is not a name. You may use it as one, though, if you wish."
Kari was not as mesmerized as the others. She had seen stranger things, and more important matters captivated her attention. "Zhina," she pleaded. "Who are these beings that you keep referring to? What has happened here?" her small voice stretched to know.
"Your world has been invaded by the Digitox," Zhina answered sadly.
"The Digitox?" Davis asked. "What are they?"
"I think we are about to find out!" Yolei warned, as she pointed to the horizon. Blackish, dark green warriors, made of a leathery, poisonous flesh were running towards them! The muscular warriors had no facial features, but each of them held a leathery sword made of the same toxic flesh as their bodies. Above these aggressors, serpentine spacecraft of similar colors andtextures glided through the sky. Davis and the others were about to get a startling introduction to their new visitors!
"Run!" Yolei urged them, as slimy energy shot forth from the warrior's swords and the starship's hidden cannons. The lasers created explosions of sand, which followed the DigiDestined across the desert landscape as they rushed towards any hope of being hidden in the barren DigiWorld. Zhina's flying energy matched pace with the DigiDestined.
"Zhina, what do we do?" T.K. begged. "Without our Digimon, how can we fight these- these Digitox as you call them?"
"I don't know!" Zhina pleaded. "I really don't know what to do!"
Kari's mind raced almost as fast as her feet. "Maybe we could- AAH!" Her thoughts tangled her steps, and she tripped to the ground as the Digitox warriors advanced with frightening speed.
"Kari!" Davis yelled, and he ran back to help her. He ran right towards his enemies.
T.K. turned around to see if he could help them, but it was too late. The Digitox had caught up with them. One of the spacecraft had captured Davis and Kari in a hollow sphere of pail green energy. T.K. could see Kari's fingertips pressing against her spherical entrapment, but there was nothing he could do against the Digitox.
Content with their capture, the evil warriors jumped on top of the gliding spacecraft, and we're carried back to the unknown location of their base, with Kari and Davis's spherical cage trailing close behind.
"Zhina," T.K. spoke, with a twinge of anger creeping into his voice. "We've got some questions."
"I will give you what answers I can," Zhina promised sadly.
Davis's anger rose as the Digitox warrior threw him and Kari into the dingy, dusty cell. Davis swore to himself that if any harm came to Kari, the Digitox would pay a debt beyond violent comprehension.
"Kari, are you okay?" Davis asked with great concern.
"Yeah, for the moment," Kari answered. She didn't think the moment would last very long, though.
"You have questionsss?" a slithery voice interrupted. Davis and Kari looked outside the cell to see one of the twisted Digitox warriors watching them from the freedom beyond.
"That depends!" Davis yelled. "You got answers?"
"Asssk and sssee," was the warrior's slimy answer.
"Alright, first off, why are you answering are questions?" Davis slyly demanded.
"I anssswer your quessstions for the pure pleasssure of watching your torment. My anssswers will sssend ssshivers up your ssspines." the conniving Digitox answered.
This took Davis back a bit, but Kari's spirit refused to give in to fear. "Who are you?" she asked. "And what are you doing here?"
"We are the Digitoxss," the slithery warrior answered. "We come from a plassse far away, on the edgesss of what you call the universsse."
"Then how did you get here in our DigiWorld?" Davis demanded. It didn't make sense.
"Our sssivilissation iss completely different than yoursss. Our entire culture is basssed around our DigiWorld. From the earliessst timesss, we focusssed our effortsss there, learning the powersss of data-manipulation, ssso that we could control our DigiWorld asss godsss! We have traveled acrosss millionsss of DigiWorldsss from other planetsss, usssing digital portalsss we developed."
"Do you- do you plan to conquer Earth?" Davis asked gravely.
"Of courssse not. Earth isss of no interessst to usss. We would never have the actual transssportation to travel acrosss the universsse, and our physssical bodiesss from our real world are barely capable of locomotion. Asss I sssaid, our entire culture is focused on the DigiWorld. We travel through portalsss to the Digiworldsss of other planetsss, and conquer them. We sssteal their data, to beautify our own DigiWorld."
"I don't understand," Davis protested. "How are you speaking our language right now?"
"It isss a quite sssimple matter. It was sssenturiesss ago when we firssst developed technology to exsstract a DigiWorld'sss native language and implement it into our thought and ssspeech. The living data holdsss ssso much about those who live in it, Davis Motimaya."
Davis was taken aback by the sudden use of his name, but Kari cared little for the aliens' strange ways. She cared about Gatomon. "What have you done to the Digimon? Where are they?"
The Digitox warrior made a sick chuckling sound. "We usssed our sssacred weapon," he alluded. "Asss we harvesst your DigiWorld'sss data, Digimon would get in the way. Ssso we sssimply pusssh them assside."
Kari wasn't exactly sure what that meant. "Did your 'sacred weapon' defeat the Kaizer as well, then?" she asked.
"Why don't you asssk your prissson mate?" The Digitox taunted, as he left them.
"What?" Kari and Davis wondered. They instinctfully turned to one of the darker corners of their cell, where for the first time they noticed the worn body of another prisonor. The darkness hid his countenance, but he slowly turned his startling face towards the children.
"No!" Kari gasped. "It can't be! The Digimon Kaizer!"
"And so their entire existence is based on their DigiWorld?" T.K. asked, after Zhina had explained much of the Digitox culture.
"Yes," Zhina's energy seemed to frown. "And they have spent centuries developing weapons and technology to aid them in their conquest."
"So that is what happened to the Digimon?" Cody surmised. "A weapon?"
"Yes," Zhina confirmed sadly. "Their weapon accelerates living data until it is on a level unreachable by mortals in the DigiWorld. They go to the state where defeated data is reformatted."
"The digital afterlife," Cody identified.
"Then," Yolei's lip began to tremble. "Hawkmon is dead?"
"No," Zhina hastily hushed Yolei's dark fears. "He is in a state of hibernation, until we can restore his data, along with the other Digimon."
"Zhina, how did we escape the weapon's power?" Cody asked.
"I used my energy to protect you," Zhina explained.
"Did you protect Matt and the others, too?" T.K. asked hopefully.
"I... am limited, T.K." she sadly admitted, and they all understood. The older DigiDestined had suffered the same fate as the Digimon. "I had to choose... and I chose you."
"Zhina," T.K. begged. "You say they are in a state of hibernation, until we find some way to restore them.... How do we do that?"
"I don't know," Zhina admitted. "As the side effect of the weapon, I have been reincarnated on thousands of DigiWorlds, but never have I been able to stop my hideous creators. If you could get to the weapon, you might be able to reverse its process."
"But without our Digimon, how can we possibly get past the Digitox?" Yolei wondered.
"Hmm..." Cody was playing with an idea. "Is their some way we could use the power of the Digimentals without using our Digimon?"
"I'm not sure," Zhina spoke, but she was clearly intrigued. "I have seen thousands of different digivolving devices from thousands of DigiWorlds, and I must familiarize myself with your Digimentals." Zhina's energy seemed to slowly lose its shape, and she began to emit a low humming noises.
"Zhina, what are you doing?" T.K. asked.
"I am learning about the Digimentals by examining the living data around me. It is telling me of their nature." After her knowledge was satisfied, Zhina resumed her form, and noted, "Armor digivolution.... very interesting."
"So is there some way we can use their power against the Digitox?" Yolei begged. Zhina kept repeating the words "Armor digivolution..." over and over again, playing with them in her essence.
"Well?" T.K. asked.
"I think I have an idea," Zhina announced, with new hope.
"You were expecting maybe Gennai?" The Kaizer mocked. His cape had been torn into rags, and the right lens of his shades was missing, leaving a definitionless hole, since he had never designed an eye for his digital form. Clearly his data had been placed under the harsh fire of the Digitox, but he had somehow managed to stay alive.
"You!" Davis shouted, and his fists lunged at his arch nemesis. But Kari came between them, and held Davis back.
"Davis, no!" she protested. "There is a more important danger now! My enemy's enemy is my friend!"
"Yes, Davis," the Kaizer mocked. "I'm your friend now," he explained, on the verge of rude laughter.
Davis's eyes burned, but Kari knew he would cooperate for her sake. "Perhaps I chose my words poorly," she added to the Kaizer. "When I said friend, I meant merely ally."
"Kari, what can he do for us?" Davis protested. "The former Kaizer might have had the digital power to fight the Digitox, but look at him! He has been defeated and crushed by them! What can he do now?"
"Watch your words, Davis," the Kaizer warned. "I might be more resourceful than you might think." Out of the remains of his cape, he produced a metallic cylinder, with many lights and displays.
"What is that," Kari asked. "A bomb?"
"Of sorts... Before it came for me, I was able to briefly analyze the weapon that made the Dark Towers and Digimon disappear. I developed this, and it may be able to reverse the process."
"So what are you waiting for, Kaizer?" Davis hissed. "Bring everything back."
"It's not that easy, simple-minded one," the Digimon Kaizer answered. The bomb has the commands and instructions to reverse the process, but it would require a tremendous amount of digital energy, the same amount used to make the Digimon disappear in the first place."
"So what are you saying?" Kari demanded.
"The weapon itself must be capable of generating the amount of energy we need. If we can find the weapon, and hook up my cylinder, we might be able to bring things back."
"A likely story!" Davis challenged. "It could just as well be a bomb to destroy *us*, Kari. He doesn't care about bringing the Digimon back. Why is he doing this?"
"Davis is right," Kari agreed, giving a hard stare to the Kaizer. "Why are you doing this?"
"I want the Dark towers back," the Kaizer explained evilly. "I want my empire. And what makes you think I don't want the Digimon back as well? For without Digimon," his voice became daunting and desolate, "who would I rule?"
"Well, what is it?" Yolei asked. "What's your idea?"
"The Digimentals create armor for their Digimon," Zhina explained. "Why should they not create it for their human?"
"What?" T.K. asked. "What do you mean?"
"I am saying that with my aid, the Digimentals might be able to transform you into digital warriors."
"With your aid?" Yolei echoed.
"Yes," Zhina confirmed, and her energy split apart into three strands, each strand traveling into one of the digivices, where her essence rested inside of them.
"Ummm... Zhina?" T.K. called, slightly alarmed at the pace at which this was happening. "Are you there?"
"I am here," Zhina's voice echoed from within all three digivices. "It is time for you to do your part, digital warriors. You must activate the powers of your Digimentals."
"And than what?" Yolei burst out. "Digital warriors?? Zhina, what are you talking about? Is this even possible? How could we could we wear the Armor meant for our Digimon??"
"Here inside your digivice, I will use my energy to make it possible. My presence will allow the armor to meld to your bodies," Zhina promised.
"But even if we're wearing armor," Yolei protested, "we don't know how to fight! What good would we be??"
"Speak for yourself," Cody pointed out in a calm, meaningful voice. A sudden vision of Izzy passed before his eyes:
*Remember, Cody. Our preparation is what gives us knowledge, and you've been preparing for a long time.*
"I know I can do this." Cody spoke, after witnessing Izzy's words. "I trust that Zhina will grant me my armor, and I have been learning the art of fighting for years. My kendo training has always given me focus and strength of mind, but now it is time for its skills to be used in battle, like they were for my father. I know I can be the warrior Armadillomon needs me to be!"
And with that, Cody's digivice glowed, and the glow was matched within by Zhina's pulsating brightness. The Digimental of Knowledge appeared above Cody, and it opened up, pouring glowing power all over the young boy, until T.K. and Yolei could no longer look at the dangerous brightness. When it subsided, Cody was covered from head to toe in a soft but strong exoskeleton of a pail gold color. Transparent insect wings graced his back and gave him flight, while similar wings protruded forward from his wrists. These sharp wing-blades could be used for combat, like the ancient katanas of old. The submol of Knowledge was written in black on Cody's chest, and he had made the transformation into an insectoid warrior.
"What?" Yolei screamed. "What happened to him???"
"It's okay, Yolei," Cody said from behind his exoskeleton. "This is my armor, and I understand. I can do this!"
"I am glad to hear it," Zhina warned. "For your skills are about to be tested! The Digitox shall observe your digital power on their radar, I am sure of it!"
Sure enough, three of the serpent spacecraft arrived with frightening speed, each carrying a battalion of Digitox warriors, which quickly jumped down from their transports. Hissing with battle cries, they rushed towards the insect warrior as a sea of dangerous black and green.
Cody let out no battle-cry, but stood in a waiting, ready stance. When they were upon him, he erupted into explosive kendo action. He slashed and parried, knocking their leathery swords back with his wing blades. Energy shot forth from their fleshy swords, but he used the wing-blades protruding from his wrists to deflect the bolts.
But they were getting smarter. All three battalions surrounded him, and he couldn't fend them off from all sides. He back flipped into the air, and stretched out in the new-found flight of his back wings. Shimmering in his golden exoskeleton, he seemed safe above them, but the three Digitox gliders now entered the frey, and they chased him in a frightening aerial battle. Though he could fly, Cody didn't have the amazing agility of the starfighters, and they soon shot him out of the sky.
Back on the ground, he managed to get up, but the scores of Digitox warriors were again advancing towards him.
"Yolei! T.K!" Zhina cried from inside their digivices. "He needs your help!"
"I want to!" Yolei sobbed. "But- but I just- I can't! I'm not a warrior! I don't know how to do any of this." A leathery sword forced Cody to the ground again, sending tears forth from Yolei's eyes. A vision of Sora flashed before her eyes.
*It's okay, Yolei, I know you're scared, but here in the DigiWorld, we have to do what we need to do for each other, no matter what it takes.*
"I don't understand any of this!" Yolei wept in torment. "But Sora's right... I can't let Cody die! I could never do that! I care about him too much!" Zhina's essence brightened as Yolei's heart made her digivice glow. The Digimental of Love appeared above her, and washed over her entire body with blinding energy. When the light dimmed, Yolei was revealed to have metallic silver armor covering everything except her head. Huge metal wings graced her back, and she had traded in her glasses and helmet for a beautiful tiara of silver with purple jewels, which brought out the color of her hair. In her right hand, Yolei clutched a silver scepter with similar violet gems, and the symbol of Love was engraved in purple upon her silver-clad chest. She was the princess of the skies, and her kingdom would soon be cleansed of the Digitox gnaves.
"Cody! I understand now, too!" She cried, as new instincts enveloped her mind. The armor hadn't just given her power; it had given her the ability to use it. She suddenly knew how to fight with the Armor of Love. She knew how to be a warrior now, and she was more than willing, which surprised her a little. In the past, she had fought with Hawkmon when she had to, but on the whole, she didn't like it, and she had never thought of *herself* as a warrior.
Until now. It was strange, but it was what the situation demanded of her, so she refused to disappoint. Her silver body leaped into the sky, and her brilliant wings allowed her to soar to new heights. She twisted and turned with such effortlessness, as though the sky were a playground that she had simply never discovered.
In the blink of an eye, she turned her focus towards Cody. With her hands stretched strongly in front of her, she shot head-on towards the legions of Digitox attacking Cody on the ground. With aerial strength, she plowed them back, and glided upwards towards the sky.
"Cody," she beckoned in a voice whose competence surprised her. "Can you handle things here on the ground? I'll keep the skies clear!"
"Got it, Yolei!" Cody confirmed. He got back to his insectoid-clad feet with the aid of his wing-blades, and gave the Digitox a kendo lesson they wouldn't forget.
Meanwhile, Yolei soared to speeding heights to keep the Digitox gliders off of Cody's tale. She chased one of the fighters across the sky, until she was close enough to act. Utilizing new instincts, she pointed her silver scepter at the Digitox glider, and purple energy shot forth from the weapon's jewels, causing the reptilian fighter to explode.
But as the fragments of the explosion subsided, it revealed a terrible sight. A Digitox glider was heading straight for Yolei!
It shot a series of green energy bolts at her, but stretching out in the incredible agility of her metallic wings, she evaded every one of the blasts with aerial loops and turns. She pointed her scepter forward, and flew straight towards the advancing glider. A dangerous game of bravery ensued as the enemies rushed towards each other for a dangerous collision. Who would pull up first?
Yolei could feel her heart tremble as the fighter came closer, but she refused to break off pursuit. From within the Armor of Love, a new perspective of courage inspired her, and she increased her speed as she headed towards the Digitox fighter. It immediately pulled up, not willing to chance a collision any longer. Yolei stopped dead in her aerial tracks, pointed her scepter above her, and vaporized the vertically escaping fighter.
She returned to Cody's side as they chased the remainder of their attackers off into retreat. Yolei smiled beneath her tiara, glad that it was over, at least for the moment.
"You did it!" T.K. exclaimed. "You drove them off."
"That was incredible..." Yolei breathed. "I didn't know I had it in me!"
Cody's voice rang clear behind his armor, "I guess we showed them what the inhabitants of *this* Digiworld can do."
"But they will be back," Zhina warned from within the digivices. "If we are to be victorious, it shall not be as easy as that. Greater danger lies ahead, for we must now rescue your friends."
"Zhina," Cody said, trapped by a thought. "Why didn't T.K. get armor? Is there something wrong with his Digimental?"
Before Zhina bothered to answer, T.K. replied in a care-free tone, "I wouldn't worry about it, Cody." He winked slyly. "If there's one thing I've learned from the DigiWorld, it's that some things are worth the wait."
"I have shown you what I can offer you," the Kaizer explained. "And now I would like to know what you can offer *me*."
"What?" Davis demanded angrily.
"I have a bomb that could bring everything back, and stop the Digitox weapon. That is my use to you, now what is your use to me? Alliances are based on mutual benefit, Davis. I suggest you make your benefit known."
"And I suggest you-"
"Davis," Kari stopped his angered tone. She turned to the Digimon Kaizer. "We can offer you a chance of escape," she promised.
"What?" the Kaizer scoffed. "You're stuck in here the same as I am!"
"But we have friends," Kari pointed out. "On the outside."
"And what makes you think they haven't just been captured and put in a different cell?" the Kaizer challenged. Davis frowned at this, for he could find no way to disprove it.
"They have not been captured," Kari spoke from within her heart. "I just know it..."
Suddenly, a distant explosion rocked the cell.
"What was that?" Kari asked with a tinge of worry.
Davis rushed to the edge of their imprisonment, to the see through the bars of the prison cell, a terrible battle raging outside. "Someone's attacking the base!"
"Do you think it could be..." Kari wondered, thinking of T.K. and the others.
"I'm not sure," Davis said, squinting for better vision. "Wait! I can see them now! It's two Digimon. An insect one, and some sort of humanoid one, with silver armor and wings. I wonder how they escaped the weapon-"
"Boo!" T.K. suddenly jumped out in front of the cell, startling Davis incredibly.
"T.K.!" Kari cried. "What's going on??"
"Well, you might call it a rescue mission," T.K. explained, brandishing some newly stolen keys. As he started to open the Digitox lock, his eyes fell on the haggard form of the Kaizer. "Kari! Behind you!"
"We know, T.K.," Davis blurted with flat eyes, thinking it should be obvious. "But he has a cylinder that can counteract the effects of the weapon if we can reach it, so he's coming along for now."
"We're all in this together," the Kaizer smiled, loving T.K.'s torment.
"Well, come on then," T.K. grunted, getting a reassuring glance from Kari. He opened the door and the prisoners exited to freedom.
"T.K.," Davis called, as they ran towards the battle under T.K.'s guidance. "Who are those Digimon, and how did you find them?"
T.K. stopped running, and gave Davis a funny look. "Digimon?"
"Yeah, the ones fighting the battle. The insect and the-"
T.K. started laughing slightly, as he realized Davis's error. "Those aren't Digimon!" he proclaimed. "They're Cody and Yolei!"
"What?" Kari asked. "How?"
As if in reply, the energy of Zhina from T.K.'s digivice spread out to inhabit the digivices of Kari and Davis as well.
"Huh?" Davis wondered.
"My presence in their digivice allowed them to use the armor of their Digimentals," Zhina explained from inside the digivices. "The insect is Cody, inside the Armor of Knowledge. The silver princess of the skies is Yolei, in the Armor of Love."
"You mean they used the armor meant for our Digimon on themselves?" Kari asked, playing with the strange idea as it unraveled itself in her mind.
"That's right," T.K. confirmed.
"Interesting," the Kaizer commented with something less than enthusiasm.
"You mean *I* could be Freidramon?" Davis asked, loving the idea.
"Something like that, but for now we must get to Yolei and Cody," T.K. said, running towards the raging battle once more.
But before he could get very far, a huge Digitox figure landed from the sky to block his path. The winged giant was like a leathery Digitox warrior, only twice as big, and with two swords instead of one.
"Not so fast!" its booming voice echoed, brandishing his twin leathery swords.
"What are you?" Kari asked fearfully.
"By your native tongue, you might call me a Digitox sentinel, but I suggest you refer to me simply as danger!"
He lunged his twin Digitox swords at Kari, and she jumped out of the way with a scream. Davis went to her former position, and yelled at the sentinel, "You better not touch her!" But *What do I do?* was what he was really thinking. He was so afraid of their strange power, but Tai's face filled his vision.
*Davis, you can't let this happen! It doesn't matter if you don't know how, or if you think you can't do it, sometimes you just gotta' get up and fight!*
Inspired by his idol, Davis realized something within himself. "I am sick of you Digitox scum! And I am not afraid of you anymore! My desire to restore the DigiWorld is more important than my fear!" Davis's digivice began to glow, and Zhina's light within the digivice complimented it. Davis looked up, and saw the Digimental of Courage floating above him. "What's happening??"
"You're getting your armor!" T.K. explained in awe.
"Amazing," Kari breathed, as the Digimental opened up and doused Davis in a bright light. When T.K., Kari, and the Kaizer could look at him again, they beheld everything but Davis's head clad in a large armor of a reddish stone material, and instead of Tai's goggles on his head, he had a set of futuristic sunglasses around his eyes. His reddish stone boots shot forth fire like rocket engines, allowing him to attack the tall sentinel from the aerial level of flight, and the symbol of Courage was carved upon his rocky chest. "This is incredible!" Davis exclaimed, and his lopsided grin told the others he was ready for action.
The Digitox sentinel swung his massive right sword at Davis, but he flew up in time to dodge it. But the left sword followed from the other side, and Davis knocked it back with a strong, rock-clad arm.
"Aaargh!" the Sentinel shouted in pain as smoke sizzled off of the rotting Digitox flesh of his sword. Apparently, Davis's armor was hot to the touch!
"If you can't stand the heat-" Davis put his hands together, and hot fire magically shot forth towards the Sentinel "-get out of the DigiWorld!" The fire swallowed the sentinel whole, but when it subsided the massive Digitox was still alive.
"No!" T.K. exclaimed. "It can't be!"
But T.K.'s cries were barely heard over the sentinel's harsh laughter. The massive warrior's hands rushed towards the him and Kari, but they caught the Kaizer instead. The formerly mighty Digimon Kaizer struggled to escape the digital alien's grasp, but to no avail. The sentinel only squeezed harder, and the Kaizer felt breath becoming scarce. "You- better- help... me!" He coughed at Davis. "I'm--- the only one... who knows how to - work.. the bomb!"
Davis rested in the air, the rockets of his boots burning brightly to keep him aloff. He didn't know what to do. Here was his greatest enemy, the villain who had cost him and his friends so much, and yet this enemy was asking to be saved?
"Davis," Kari called in strain to her friend. "Davis, you have to! There's no other choice..." Her eyes pleaded with all that was in her heart.
Still confused, Davis felt like he could see Matt Ishida's face in front of his eyes.
*Davis, friendship is more important than rivalry! Think of the others...*
"I will save him," Davis finally agreed. "But not because he is worth saving. Instead, because I need him in order to save my friends. How I would love to see him defeated! But I will sacrifice that joy, for the sake of my friends! Huh?" Davis gasped as his digivice glowed for a second time. "It's happening again!"
"You're armor's changing!" Zhina's rich voice proclaimed from within the digivice, as her energy glowed to match the surrounding brightness.
The Digimental of Friendship appeared before Davis, and its transparent essence plunged straight into his heart. Davis's new armor crept up his legs, where bulky red stone transformed into a form-fitting black jumpsuit. As the Armor of Friendship crept up his body, even his head became covered like a masked ninja, with only the eyes cut out. His feet were graced with silver boots, which matched the color of the symbol of Friendship upon his chest. Around the black jumpsuit on his hands, Davis wore eight silver rings. On the left hand, he wore four rings with positive signs on them, and on the right, four negative rings. He turned to the Digitox sentinel, and smashed the opposing rings together, forming a mighty strike of lightning that knocked the Kaizer from the sentinel's hands.
The Kaizer hit the ground, but did not get up. T.K. rushed to his side, and quickly checked for breathing and a pulse. "He's alive," T.K. told Kari. "Just unconscious, but he should be alright."
Meanwhile, Davis faced off against the sentinel once again. Putting his rings slowly together, and then whipping his right hand away, Davis prepared a white lightning whip, which he used with his right hand to grab the sentinels feet, and pull them out from under the giant. The Digitox sentinel toppled over, and Davis, the lightning ninja, jumped on top of his chest and stood towering over the sentinel's grounded face.
"For Raidramon!" Davis cried. And he smashed his rings together once more. Despite the previous white color of Davis's lightning, more familiar blue bolts shot out from his rings. They transformed the sentinel's face into a mere crater, and he lay there, lifeless at last.
"Yes!" Davis cried behind his black ninja mask. "Take that, Digitox! Now let's find Cody and Yolei! Something tells me they're going to need our help!"
Davis could not have been more right. Within their armor, Cody and Yolei were truly valiant warriors, but they could not be expected to take on the entire Digitox base. Cody's right wing-blade had been severed off, and Yolei had a hole in the silver of her left wing, which made flying more difficult than it had been before. Still she shot the purple fire from her scepter as Cody fought on with his remaining wing-blade.
Cody was getting really tired. The armor gave him the warrior's energy he would not have otherwise had, but even it was becoming too little to keep up against the endless onslaught of Digitox warriors. He would soon collapse if he and Yolei didn't get any more help.
Suddenly, one of the many gliders shot an energy bolt straight into Yolei's torso, and despite the silver armor's efforts, she headed to the ground, where she crashed painfully.
"Yolei!" Cody called, rushing away from the Digitox to her side. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," Yolei managed to say amidst the pain of her obvious injury. "But... I think I'm going to be down for a while. You'll have to take it... by yourself.... Can you do that, Cody?" Yolei begged as she struggled to breathe.
Tiredness pulsated through Cody's body. *Could* he do this? In front of his young eyes, Joe appeared.
*Cody, I know you're tired, but you can't think about that, right now. Some things are more important.*
Joe was right. Despite his previous wariness, Cody couldn't imagine thinking about himself at a time like this.
"I can do it! You just rest, Yolei.... Pull through, please!" he pleaded to his fading friend. "I'll take care of the Digitox! You can count on me!" And with his promise to Yolei, Cody's digivice began to glow again.
"Take heart, Cody!" Zhina's voice came from within his digivice. "For new armor shall bring new energy to you, and Davis and the others are on the way!" She brightened the already mesmerizing glow of his digivice, and the Digimental of Reliability appeared before Cody in transparent luminescence. It traveled through his chest to his heart, and the new armor traveled up his body, changing the elaborate exoskeleton into a simple light blue robe. A drooping cloak made of pail blue dramon-wing flesh surrounded him, and in his hands, a sharp blue trident was just waiting to wash away the Digitox. The symbol of Reliability strecthed across the two flaps of the dramon cloak. He looked like a simple, yet powerful wizard of waters, but such an image refused to frighten the oncoming Digitox warriors.
It was their loss, for Cody pointed the mighty trident in front of him, and water burst forth from an unseen vortex. Cody's rushing blast of water plowed away at the ranks of Digitox, dividing them and washing many away. He pointed the trident to a spot on the ground where a glider was about to pass overhead. Upon the command of Cody's trident, the spot erupted into a vertical column of water, which the glider passed through before being forced into a nasty crash. Cody refocused his aquatic attention on the reforming ranks of Digitox.
*He's doing it!* Yolei thought between the cloudbursts of pain. *But he cannot do it alone...* she realized. *What am I doing? I'm not a warrior! I hate fighting! And I don't know if I can hold on much longer... Why am I doing this??*
*You're doing this* Mimi interrupted from a vision *for someone else. It's not for you, but that doesn't mean it's not important.*
"I'm doing this for Hawkmon," Yolei realized. "How many times has he done it for me? How many times has he wanted to give up, but protected me anyhow? He's never given up! Never! And neither will I... Hawkmon, you've done so much for me... This is my chance to do something for you!"
"You're going to be okay, Yolei!" Zhina proclaimed as the girl's digivice began to glow. Zhina's energy transformed the glow into brilliance, and the transparent Digimental of Sincerity appeared before Yolei's broken body. It plunged into her fragile heart, and she was lifted to her feet, restored to health and ready for her armor to be reborn. The transformation crept up her legs, and changed shining silver armor into a pail green gown which bore the symbol of Sincerity. As her skin took on a greenish tint, a cape of massive leaves placed side by side flowed from her back, and a wreath of pail green flowers was placed upon her hair, which had changed its color to match the pail green of her gown. As Cody looked on in a somewhat startled manor, Yolei's eyes rolled back into her head until her pupils disappeared, and possessed eyes of solid white were all that returned Cody's glance. The chill of an unseen wind whipped through her hair, her cape, her gown. Green lightning erupted in the distance.
"Yolei?" Cody asked quietly.
In answer to his question, a windy storm of scattered green petals erupted in the sky. The whirling flowers traveled in and out of the Digitox ranks, and wherever they went, warriors fell to the ground, asleep or unconscious. Yolei's strange face was emotionless, but the subtle movements of her head told Cody that she had caused the petal storm. Before long, her strange flowers had stolen the consciousness of nearly the whole Digitox army, leaving very little for Cody's trident to wash up.
"Yolei," Cody asked worriedly. "Are you... okay?"
Her white eyes turned to him, and she nodded somberly, but gave no reply.
"Cody!" the unmistakable voice of Kari warmed the chilling moment. "We were so worried about you, but Zhina said you were doing alright, and I knew she wasn't wrong!"
"I see you've unlocked new armor," T.K. noted, coming up from behind Kari and looking at Cody. His eyes fell on the strange form of the Armor of Sincerity. "Is Yolei..." he began in an odd voice.
"She's fine," Cody shrugged beneath his dramon cloak. "I guess." Yolei remained motionless, steadfast, and green.
"Hey, Cody!" Davis greeted heartily from within the Armor of Friendship, having finally arrived on the scene. Over his shoulder, he carried the unconscious form of the Digimon Kaizer.
"Is that-" Cody gasped.
"Yeah," Davis admitted, not too pleased by the whole situation.
"Why are you-"
"The Kaizer has found a way to stop the Digitox weapon," Kari cut in. "And so for now, we need him."
"But first we need to find the weapon itself," T.K. explained. "Do you know where it is located, Cody?"
"I don't think so," Cody admitted. "I fought mostly on the ground, but Yolei had the aerial view, and she might know."
Still not speaking, Yolei pointed a pale green arm in the direction where she had seen what looked like it could be the weapon they had heard so much about. And so they followed her silent guidance, as she led the way to the terror of the Digitox.
"That's the weapon?" Davis asked. They had reached the valley where the weapon was stored, and were all safely hidden behind a strange Digitox vehicle, sneaking glances at the Digitox weapon. Its base was a large, solid cylinder of black machinery. This was topped by a transparent dome, where inside, strange metallic parts could be seen. A circle of transparent tubing hugged the apparatus, and faint glimmers of blue energy could be seen chasing each other across the tube.
"I'm afraid so," Zhina answered Davis's question from within the digivices. "This weapon has taken so many worlds..." her saddened voice trailed off.
"Well, it's not going to take ours," Davis promised her. "We're going to get the Digimon back, and Tai and the others, too."
"As soon as the Kaizer enables his bomb," Kari added fretfully. "To reverse the process, and bring everything back."
Davis let the unconscious Kaizer fall from his shoulder to the ground, and slapped his haggard face saying, "Time to get up, Kaizer, and do your dirty work."
"I don't think it's going to be that easy," Cody explained. "He looks like he might need medical attention..."
"You'll all need medical attention soon enough," a startling new voice warned. To emphasize the voice's words, the Digitox vehicle they were using for a hiding place suddenly disappeared completely!"
"What?" Kari cried. "How did that-"
"I think *they* made it disappear-" Cody gasped, his eyes wide and his hand pointing straight at the Digitox weapon and the dark sentries guarding it. They looked like the other Digitox warriors, but they each had various silvery, mechanical elements like gloves or half their face. They had the startling appearance of Digitox cyborgs, and they stood protectively in front of the weapon, seeming to know everything about the children's plans.
"Oh, no!" Zhina cried from within the digivices. "I had hoped we might avoid this! Just somehow! I thought that maybe- maybe they would have underestimated your world somehow, and not felt the need to bring the deities! But I was a fool to think it!" The intense strain of her previously noble voice alarmed the children greatly.
"*Alright*," Davis complained. "We'll take care of them; don't worry about it!"
"You don't understand!" Zhina pleaded. "The Digitox deities are the ultimate product of their Digiworld culture! Their countless millennia of research into the manipulation of the Digiworld manifests itself in these warriors! All the secrets of data-manipulation... All the powers..."
"What exactly does that mean?" T.K. wondered.
"It means," one of the Digitox deities interrupted from the distance. "That we can manipulate the DigiWorld on a whim. Our centuries of research have allowed us to have direct control over DigiWorld data. With this power, we can do virtually anything. We are digital gods." With this last foul utterance from his thick voice, he actually teleported himself and the two other deities right in front of the children in the blink of an eye!
Kari jumped at the sudden teleportation. The tall cyborgs now stood within breathing distance of them.
"Alas!" Zhina cried. "Our cause is over! We cannot defeat this..."
"What?" Davis asked, disgusted by her sudden lack of faith.
"The zhina is with them," one of the Digitox deities observed. "That is how they did not disappear at the power of the weapon. The zhina- it is protecting them."
"Accursed side effect!" one of the other deities spat. "But it cannot protect them from us. We shall destroy them ourselves!" He eyed Kari hungrily.
And her lightning ninja acted. Jerking his negative rings away from the positive ones, Davis created an energy whip for his right hand. He swung the silver lightning at the central deity, but to everyone's surprise, the cyborg simply caught the whip in his hands and pulled it away from Davis!
"Ah!" Davis gasped. As the left deity waved his hand, Davis's rings floated through the air and on to the cyborgs own mechanical fingers. "How did they-"
"Ha!" the deity laughed, eyeing his new electric jewelry. "Fashionable, perhaps. But comparatively useless!" And with his mere thought, the eight rings dissipated into digidust!
"Impossible!" T.K. breathed.
"Not at all," the deity's evil voice penetrated.
"Hiiiiiyaaaaaa!!!!" Cody interrupted the show of force. He attempted to swing his trident against the Digitox deities, but it was no use. Out of his control, the trident turned on him and ripped through his dramon cloak before disappearing into useless digidust.
"No!" Cody cried, hopeless. "They control the data around us!"
Yolei said nothing, but hardened her green stare. Out of the flowery heavens, she commanded forth a petal storm, and the swarms of green blossoms thickened the air around them all.
"Nice weather we're having," the central deity mocked, untainted by the power of the petals. He raised his cyborg hands, and each of the many green blossoms became a hideous, blackened bat! The myriad of gothic rodents chased the frightened DigiDestined back, away from the deities. The DigiDestined escaped the evil winged creatures only to realize the hopelessness of the situation.
"It is no use," Zhina explained from within the digivices. It seemed like she was crying. "I was a fool to think we could try it. Your DigiWorld is doomed, as so many others have been! We cannot fight them, for they have power over every kind of digital energy! There is no hope!"
That last part burned T.K.'s ears. "There's always hope!" he cried, "Always! Even when things are as dark as this you can never give up!"
"Because the light will triumph," Kari added crisply. "Mark my words: the light will triumph!"
"Kari! T.K! Look!" Cody cried. "Your digivices are glowing!"
T.K. turned to Kari, and looked into her eyes. "I guess it's our turn now," he said with somber determination.
"Yeah," she agreed with reluctance. She did not know what to expect. "I don't know what will happen, but we're going to fight until the end, T.K. Like we always have!"
But something was very wrong. The Digimentals of Hope and Light were no where to be seen, and T.K. and Kari's armor was not coming forth.
"Cody?" T.K. pleaded. "What's happening? Where is our armor?"
"The process isn't working right!" Cody observed. "Zhina must not be doing what she needs to within the digivice."
"Zhina??" T.K. begged. The Digitox deities we're approaching dramatically on foot, choosing this simple mode of locomotion in order to strike fear in the hearts of their enemies. The tactic was working.
"I'm trying to!" Zhina complained. "I really am- it's just.... There's nothing we can do!"
"Zhina, you can't give up hope!" T.K. demanded.
"But I have been re-incarnated on a thousand DigiWorlds, and I have seen them all fall to the Digitox! All of them!"
"Then you have to rise to the challenge to see that this one doesn't!" Kari told her. "It's up to you, Zhina, you have to find your own Hope and Light before we can get our armor! This is your chance to stand against the Digitox!"
"Observe," one of the deities said, a frighteningly small distance away. "The zhina is failing them. Let us laugh at their calamity. And let us finish them off."
"No!" Zhina cried defiantly "The zhina has failed for the last time!" she stated fiercely. "I do not know what will happen, but I do not need to! I'm putting my Hope in T.K. and Kari! And I will stand up against the darkness of the Digitox just as they need me to!"
The steadied glow of Kari and T.K.'s digivices exploded into a brilliant light as Zhina's heart magnified the brightness. The Digimentals of Hope and Light appeared, and a transformation began to take place. The Digimental of Hope became a cluster of stars...
"That's the constellation of Gemini," Cody observed. "The twins..."
The Digimental of Light transformed into a set of angel wings, which blended into Hope's constellation. The wings and stars spinned together in a whirlwind of energy that unleashed its white power upon T.K. and Kari, adorning them in the Armors of Hope and Light. Their clothes turned completely white, and they were suddenly adorned with winged silver boots and gloves. A silver armament was wrapped around each of their torsos, and mighty angel wings sprung out of their silver-clad backs. Their hair had turned silvery white to match the new colors of their eyes. T.K.'s chest was adorned with the symbol of Hope, and he wielded a mighty silver sword. Kari was blessed with the symbol of Light, and in her hands, she held a small, circular shield. They were the gemini angels, ready for holy action.
"You did it!" Davis observed in awe. "You unlocked your armor!"
"Just in time for you to die," a deity mocked, but the foreboding did not strike the heart of even Zhina, for the angels were ready to do what they could against the evil Digitox.
"It is no use, mortal fools," the central deity hissed. He pointed menacingly at Davis, who began to vaporize into destroyed data! The line of non-existence was creeping up his human legs!
"No!" Kari cried, and she flew between Davis and the Digitox deity. She brought her shield forth, and it emitted a circle of silver energy, which stopped the Digitox's destruction of Davis, and restored the boy's Data.
"Incredible!" Zhina cried. "Your shield stopped his powers!"
T.K. pursued Davis's attacker, and swung his silver sword low, severing the deity's leg right off! "I can't believe it!" he exclaimed. "Kari, we're really doing it!"
"I know!" Kari cried enthusiastically, as her armor instincts took flight. She soared to a new height, as Angewomon had done for her so many times. She pointed her shield at T.K. as he battled the wounded Digitox. The shield formed a protective covering of silver energy around T.K. The Digitox deity formed a fireball out of nothingness, and hurled it at T.K., but it disappeared when it touched the silver barrier. Taking advantage of the cyborg's shock, T.K. thrust his noble sword into the deity's black heart, and for the first time in over a millennia, a Digitox deity perished in battle!
"I can't believe it!" Zhina exclaimed. "You! You killed one of them! A deity has finally been destroyed! You were right, T.K., there is hope!"
"Wrong!" one of the deities darkly challenged.
"But it is right!" Zhina defied from within all five of the digivices as Kari resumed her position at T.K.'s side. "I was wrong when I said you control all digital energies, for there is one digital power that has escaped your grasp throughout the ages. You will never posses the holy digital powers, for they are meant for a better kind than you! You cannot fight them, for you have never been able to understand them! It is not your lack of knowledge, but your lack of worthiness that keeps the holy digital energies from you!"
As the gemini angels turned to the remaining deities, Cody turned to Davis. "Now we must do our part."
"Yeah!" Davis agreed. "We left the Kaizer back there, near the weapon! Come on!" They headed towards the weapon, with Yolei, mistress of the petals, following ominously behind.
When they reached the Kaizer, he was still dangerously unconscious. "We don't know how to use the cylinder," Davis explained fretfully. "We have to wake him!"
"But how?" Cody begged.
Yolei's wordless reply was much welcomed. Her heart called upon a north wind, and it carried forth intensely sweet-smelling petals which danced across the sky. The wind carried the potent flowers to the Kaizer's war-torn face, and their beautiful pungency awakened him. Though tired, he gathered his wits rather quickly, noting, "I see things have proceeded without me."
"There is the weapon," Davis stated flatly to his enemy. "Do what you have to do."
As the Kaizer approached the transparent dome of the Digitox weapon, T.K.'s silver sword approached the second deity's chest, and it pierced his heart with holy digital power.
"Enough!" The final deity commanded with a raging voice. "It is time you knew the true scope of my power!" With each word, his voice seemed to deepen menacingly, and he stretched out his limbs in digital power, growing and growing. He reformatted himself into a giant Digitox cyborg of indescribable size! The white gemini angels were mere specks against his massive blackness. His giant arm batted Kari to the ground before she could even prepare her shield, and though T.K.'s holy sword met its mark in a massive Digitox leg, the tiny wound was insignificant for the giant villain. "Holy or not, you shall not defeat me!" his deep voice proclaimed.
But he had not counted on the Digimon Kaizer, who was now standing on top of the very weapon that had destroyed his Dark towers. He had attached his cylinder and wired it to the massive energy generators of the weapon. As the Kaizer activated his bomb, blue energy swirled faster and faster in the weapon's tubing and dome. The Digitox machine produced a vertical column of perfect energy that shot up to the highest heights of the sky, where it stretched out to cover the whole of the Digital World.
"Take this, Digitox," Ken spoke boldly.
In the energized sky, an amazing storm exploded above even the Digitox giant. Streams of living data rained down upon the Digiworld in vertical droplets. The droplets fell side by side, forming Digimon, plant life, and six familiar faces.
"Tai!" Davis cried. "You're back! You're all back!"
"Yeah," Tai laughed heartily.
"Did you miss us?" Agumon laughed.
"We witnessed everything you all did while our data was inaccessible," Izzy explained.
"And we were there every step of the way," Joe added. "Encouraging you. Did you hear us?"
"Yeah!" Cody exclaimed. "I just thought I was imagining that vision of you, but you really were telling me to push on after all."
"We're so proud of each of you!" Sora told them.
"We really are!" Biyomon confirmed.
"We couldn't have done it better ourselves!" Mimi exclaimed.
"Oh, no!" Matt shouted, eyeing the great peril that was still present. "Look! T.K. and Kari!"
Try as they might, the holy digital warriors were no match for the Digitox giant. They needed some way to magnify their powers; they were just too small!
"T.K." Kari the angel, cried. "I have an idea! Throw your sword into to the weapon!" And with that, she whipped her shield into the Digitox device. T.K.'s sword soared through the air into the weapon, shattering the glass of the dome. The explosion of energy reformatted the weapons into a barrier of silver energy protecting the entire Digiworld from deity powers.
"I think his data-manipulation abilities are gone!" Izzy observed.
"But he's still really big!" Gabumon pointed out quickly.
"It's not over yet! We have to do something," Palmon cried.
"Hey, Matt-" Tai smiled. "The Dark Towers don't seem to have reformatted yet! Are you thinkin' what I'm thinking?"
"Let's do it!" Matt exclaimed.
"But wait!" Cody interrupted, catching on to their idea. "You will need our help, too, but where is Armadillomon?"
"Or Veemon??" Davis added hastily.
"I think your use of the Digimentals seems to be preventing their return!" Izzy exclaimed.
"Then let's get rid of this armor! It fits Veemon better anyhow!" Davis exclaimed. He concentrated within himself and his armor disappeared, his ninja mask became Tai's goggles once more. Cody did the same, and T.K. and Kari followed suit, returning to mortal simplicity once more. Yolei's strange Armor of Sincerity disappeared, and she was safe and familiar behind her glasses once more.
"Woah..." she exclaimed, feeling like the wind had just been knocked out of her. "That was strange!" And then her eyes caught a glimpse of something that she had struggled to see for a long time. "Hawkmon!" she cried in such joy!
"Veemon!" Davis hugged his little friend, who had finally reappeared.
Cody gave Armadillomon a simple touch on the back as a single tear fell from his eye.
"Gatomon! I missed you so much!" Kari cried, sweeping up the cat Digimon in her arms.
"I missed you to, Kari..." Gatomon said, happy to be back in her best friend's grasp.
"Patamon!" T.K. breathed, and his flying friend resumed his fateful perch on T.K.'s hat.
"Well, we're back," Veemon said, "but I can still smell that giant Digitox slimeball."
"I think we'll soon remedy that!" Armadillomon observed.
"Armadillomon armor digivolve to... Digmon!"
"Hawkmon armor digivolve to... Shurimon!"
"Veemon armor digivolve to... Freidramon!"
"Now it's our turn!" Tai cried, still seeing no signs of the yet-to-be-reformatted Dark Towers. "Come on, everybody!"
"Gomamon digivolve to... Ikkakumon!"
"Ikkakumon digivolve to... Zudomon!"
"Palmon digivolve to... Togemon!"
"Togemon digivolve to... Lillymon!"
"Tentomon digivolve to... Kabuterimon!"
"Kabuterimon digivolve to... MegaKabuterimon!"
"Biyomon digivolve to... Birdramon!"
"Birdramon digivolve to... Garudamon!"
"Patamon warp-digivolve to... Seraphimon!"
"Gatomon warp-digivolve to... Magnadramon!"
"Gabumon warp digivolve to... MetalGarurumon!"
"Agumon warp digivolve to... WarGreymon!"
Two generations of DigiDestined turned to face the terrible remnant of the Digitox apocalypse. The massive giant tried to swing his arms at the onslaught of eleven amazing Digimon coming at him, but his deity powers could no longer help him. Seraphimon and Magnadramon held down his left arm, while MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon held down the right.
"Now!" Seraphimon commanded. "Everyone!"
"Gold Rush!"
"Autumn Wind!"
"Fire Rocket!"
"Wing Blade!"
"Vulcan's Hammer!"
"Flower Cannon!"
"Horn Buster!"
Letting go of his arms, the Mega's finished off the onslaught of energy...
"Dragon Fire!"
"Seven Heavens!"
"Metal Wolf Claw!"
"Terra Force!"
The combined energy of the attacks tore away at the Digitox's data, but still it was not enough! The giant's digital essence remained intact though clearly it was struggling... They just needed a little more power...
"Ken!" The newly returned Wormmon cried. "I can help!"
"Wormmon, you couldn't do anything against-"
But the Digimon Kaizer could not dissuade him. "Silk Thread!" Wormmon cried, and the tiny burst of silken energy was all the DigiDestined's attacks needed. The Digitox giant was reduced to tiny digidust, that was carried away by the digital wind.
"We did it!" Yolei rejoiced, as the Kaizer crawled into the shadows of the world, where he could wait for his towers to reformat.
That night, Kari and Davis sat together in the DigiWorld, staring up at the digital stars, and wondering what kind of DigiWorlds lay out there in the dimensions...
"There's something I don't understand, Kari," Davis admitted. "What happened to Zhina? We didn't here from her after you and T.K. defeated the second deity."
Kari's face became saddened. "Zhina was the side effect of the weapon," she said mournfully. "And the Kaizer's cylinder reversed the weapon's process..." A tear fell from her eye.
"Including its side effect," Davis finished for her. Kari nodded. "I wonder what will happen to all of those worlds she spoke about," Davis added with great weight in his mind. "The ones doomed by the Digitox."
"Don't worry," Kari tried to console. "Like T.K. says, there's always hope." She looked up at the stars and they reflected light upon her face. "And maybe someday.... we can help them, too."
THE END
by Halomon
*** The characterizations for the new characters are not just my guesses. They are based on Grace Anderson's (Megchan) profiles and a segment of episode 5 that I was lucky enough to see. :)***
"The Digimon Kaizer has done this!" Davis stated with vengeful sharpness. Digital sands whipped at his face, lonely for someone with which to share their barren world.
"But what would the Kaizer have to gain from it?" Cody wondered hopelessly. It was all so strange, so impossible. "And where are the towers? I think the Kaizer himself might have disappeared as well..."
"So devastating..." Kari breathed. Visions of Gatomon shimmered across her eyes, but none were so graceful as to make themselves real.
"Where are they all?" Yolei wondered hopelessly. Her emotions were in a twist, and inevitable tears confused her eyelids.
"Patamon..." was all T.K. could say. He didn't understand it at all. The DigiWorld was barren, a complete wasteland. When they had arrived just a few minutes earlier, they had expected to be greeted by their Digimon friends, and to see the other monsters inhabiting the world. But not a single Digimon, not even a Botamon, could be seen as far as the DigiDestined's collective eyes could tell.
And even stranger than the disappearance of the Digimon was the apparent disappearance of the Kaizer! His Dark Towers had fallen into invisibility, and signs of his growing empire were no longer evident in even the darkest corners of the digital world. This was difficult for the DigiDestined to accept. They couldn't blame the Kaizer for this, and that left a very dangerous void. What exactly could be blamed? What strange entity could cause such immediate ceasing of existence?
What were they up against?
"What are we waiting for?" Davis's timely voice cut in. "We need to something about this!"
"Any suggestions?" Yolei pointed out. "How do you bring Digimon back from the dead?"
"If dead, they are..." Cody surmised. Clearly something was festering away in his mind.
"Kari, have you contacted Matt and the others since they asked us to come to the Digiworld?" T.K. asked. This was big, bigger than anything. It would require all of them. And maybe even Michael and Wallace, too, if they could be reached.
"Well, they were already here, when they called us, but-" Kari's voice became tight with worry. "But I tried to reach them on the D-Terminal... and, there was no answer..." Kari swelled with emotion. "T.K., Where is Gatomon?" Benign tears outlined the circumference of her eyes.
"I don't know, Kari," T.K. admitted in sadness. "Something happened here, something that caused all of the Digimon to disappear."
"But why are we still here?" Yolei asked, strangely.
"Huh?" they all wondered.
"If the Kaizer is gone," she answered. "and the Digimon are gone, there must have been something that affects all kinds of data..." Yolei's voice was becoming wobbly; her fears, evident. "And in the Digital World, we're data, too! Are- are we going to disappear, too??" She burst into a brief spasm of tears, but regained her shaky composure.
"Yolei has a point," Cody explained. "The Dark Towers are gone, and the Kaizer must be, too. If he was unable to survive this, why did we?"
"Yes," Kari added, catching on in great concern. "Surely he would be prepared for something like this, and yet he's gone, too."
"And yet, here we are..." Cody's ominous voice summarized. "Why?"
"Something must be protecting us," Davis guessed hastily. He was worried, and he didn't think this conversation was getting them anywhere. He wanted to find Veemon. "Something about the digivices or the Digimentals could be protecting us, since we're DigiDestined."
"But if that could exist naturally," T.K. surmised, "if this catastrophe could have been expected, why wouldn't such a protection exist for everything in the DigiWorld, and not just us? Surely Gennai would have installed it, if he would have known. Something else must be watching over us..."
"And so my existence is known to you, even before I reveal myself."
"Huh?"
Suddenly a bright light erupted in front of them. Its dazzling luminescence blurred their mortal vision, until their eyes adjusted to the amazing light. It was a creature of pure energy, that rippled out in two directions like flowing wings. The light seemed to create an abstract tail, as well. The being had spoken with a rich, feminine voice that filled the hearts of the DigiDestined with wonder and curiosity.
"What..." Davis gasped. "What are you??"
"I am the side effect of their weapon," the entity answered, gravely.
"Their weapon?" Yolei echoed frightfully, as the other DigiDestined wondered if a weapon's side effect would share its purpose.
"But I am against them," the energy answered, much to the relief of the children. "They cannot control my existence, for their weapon creates it. I am the bane that comes from their own actions."
"Do- do you have a name?" Cody stuttered.
"They call me zhina, but it is not a name. You may use it as one, though, if you wish."
Kari was not as mesmerized as the others. She had seen stranger things, and more important matters captivated her attention. "Zhina," she pleaded. "Who are these beings that you keep referring to? What has happened here?" her small voice stretched to know.
"Your world has been invaded by the Digitox," Zhina answered sadly.
"The Digitox?" Davis asked. "What are they?"
"I think we are about to find out!" Yolei warned, as she pointed to the horizon. Blackish, dark green warriors, made of a leathery, poisonous flesh were running towards them! The muscular warriors had no facial features, but each of them held a leathery sword made of the same toxic flesh as their bodies. Above these aggressors, serpentine spacecraft of similar colors andtextures glided through the sky. Davis and the others were about to get a startling introduction to their new visitors!
"Run!" Yolei urged them, as slimy energy shot forth from the warrior's swords and the starship's hidden cannons. The lasers created explosions of sand, which followed the DigiDestined across the desert landscape as they rushed towards any hope of being hidden in the barren DigiWorld. Zhina's flying energy matched pace with the DigiDestined.
"Zhina, what do we do?" T.K. begged. "Without our Digimon, how can we fight these- these Digitox as you call them?"
"I don't know!" Zhina pleaded. "I really don't know what to do!"
Kari's mind raced almost as fast as her feet. "Maybe we could- AAH!" Her thoughts tangled her steps, and she tripped to the ground as the Digitox warriors advanced with frightening speed.
"Kari!" Davis yelled, and he ran back to help her. He ran right towards his enemies.
T.K. turned around to see if he could help them, but it was too late. The Digitox had caught up with them. One of the spacecraft had captured Davis and Kari in a hollow sphere of pail green energy. T.K. could see Kari's fingertips pressing against her spherical entrapment, but there was nothing he could do against the Digitox.
Content with their capture, the evil warriors jumped on top of the gliding spacecraft, and we're carried back to the unknown location of their base, with Kari and Davis's spherical cage trailing close behind.
"Zhina," T.K. spoke, with a twinge of anger creeping into his voice. "We've got some questions."
"I will give you what answers I can," Zhina promised sadly.
Davis's anger rose as the Digitox warrior threw him and Kari into the dingy, dusty cell. Davis swore to himself that if any harm came to Kari, the Digitox would pay a debt beyond violent comprehension.
"Kari, are you okay?" Davis asked with great concern.
"Yeah, for the moment," Kari answered. She didn't think the moment would last very long, though.
"You have questionsss?" a slithery voice interrupted. Davis and Kari looked outside the cell to see one of the twisted Digitox warriors watching them from the freedom beyond.
"That depends!" Davis yelled. "You got answers?"
"Asssk and sssee," was the warrior's slimy answer.
"Alright, first off, why are you answering are questions?" Davis slyly demanded.
"I anssswer your quessstions for the pure pleasssure of watching your torment. My anssswers will sssend ssshivers up your ssspines." the conniving Digitox answered.
This took Davis back a bit, but Kari's spirit refused to give in to fear. "Who are you?" she asked. "And what are you doing here?"
"We are the Digitoxss," the slithery warrior answered. "We come from a plassse far away, on the edgesss of what you call the universsse."
"Then how did you get here in our DigiWorld?" Davis demanded. It didn't make sense.
"Our sssivilissation iss completely different than yoursss. Our entire culture is basssed around our DigiWorld. From the earliessst timesss, we focusssed our effortsss there, learning the powersss of data-manipulation, ssso that we could control our DigiWorld asss godsss! We have traveled acrosss millionsss of DigiWorldsss from other planetsss, usssing digital portalsss we developed."
"Do you- do you plan to conquer Earth?" Davis asked gravely.
"Of courssse not. Earth isss of no interessst to usss. We would never have the actual transssportation to travel acrosss the universsse, and our physssical bodiesss from our real world are barely capable of locomotion. Asss I sssaid, our entire culture is focused on the DigiWorld. We travel through portalsss to the Digiworldsss of other planetsss, and conquer them. We sssteal their data, to beautify our own DigiWorld."
"I don't understand," Davis protested. "How are you speaking our language right now?"
"It isss a quite sssimple matter. It was sssenturiesss ago when we firssst developed technology to exsstract a DigiWorld'sss native language and implement it into our thought and ssspeech. The living data holdsss ssso much about those who live in it, Davis Motimaya."
Davis was taken aback by the sudden use of his name, but Kari cared little for the aliens' strange ways. She cared about Gatomon. "What have you done to the Digimon? Where are they?"
The Digitox warrior made a sick chuckling sound. "We usssed our sssacred weapon," he alluded. "Asss we harvesst your DigiWorld'sss data, Digimon would get in the way. Ssso we sssimply pusssh them assside."
Kari wasn't exactly sure what that meant. "Did your 'sacred weapon' defeat the Kaizer as well, then?" she asked.
"Why don't you asssk your prissson mate?" The Digitox taunted, as he left them.
"What?" Kari and Davis wondered. They instinctfully turned to one of the darker corners of their cell, where for the first time they noticed the worn body of another prisonor. The darkness hid his countenance, but he slowly turned his startling face towards the children.
"No!" Kari gasped. "It can't be! The Digimon Kaizer!"
"And so their entire existence is based on their DigiWorld?" T.K. asked, after Zhina had explained much of the Digitox culture.
"Yes," Zhina's energy seemed to frown. "And they have spent centuries developing weapons and technology to aid them in their conquest."
"So that is what happened to the Digimon?" Cody surmised. "A weapon?"
"Yes," Zhina confirmed sadly. "Their weapon accelerates living data until it is on a level unreachable by mortals in the DigiWorld. They go to the state where defeated data is reformatted."
"The digital afterlife," Cody identified.
"Then," Yolei's lip began to tremble. "Hawkmon is dead?"
"No," Zhina hastily hushed Yolei's dark fears. "He is in a state of hibernation, until we can restore his data, along with the other Digimon."
"Zhina, how did we escape the weapon's power?" Cody asked.
"I used my energy to protect you," Zhina explained.
"Did you protect Matt and the others, too?" T.K. asked hopefully.
"I... am limited, T.K." she sadly admitted, and they all understood. The older DigiDestined had suffered the same fate as the Digimon. "I had to choose... and I chose you."
"Zhina," T.K. begged. "You say they are in a state of hibernation, until we find some way to restore them.... How do we do that?"
"I don't know," Zhina admitted. "As the side effect of the weapon, I have been reincarnated on thousands of DigiWorlds, but never have I been able to stop my hideous creators. If you could get to the weapon, you might be able to reverse its process."
"But without our Digimon, how can we possibly get past the Digitox?" Yolei wondered.
"Hmm..." Cody was playing with an idea. "Is their some way we could use the power of the Digimentals without using our Digimon?"
"I'm not sure," Zhina spoke, but she was clearly intrigued. "I have seen thousands of different digivolving devices from thousands of DigiWorlds, and I must familiarize myself with your Digimentals." Zhina's energy seemed to slowly lose its shape, and she began to emit a low humming noises.
"Zhina, what are you doing?" T.K. asked.
"I am learning about the Digimentals by examining the living data around me. It is telling me of their nature." After her knowledge was satisfied, Zhina resumed her form, and noted, "Armor digivolution.... very interesting."
"So is there some way we can use their power against the Digitox?" Yolei begged. Zhina kept repeating the words "Armor digivolution..." over and over again, playing with them in her essence.
"Well?" T.K. asked.
"I think I have an idea," Zhina announced, with new hope.
"You were expecting maybe Gennai?" The Kaizer mocked. His cape had been torn into rags, and the right lens of his shades was missing, leaving a definitionless hole, since he had never designed an eye for his digital form. Clearly his data had been placed under the harsh fire of the Digitox, but he had somehow managed to stay alive.
"You!" Davis shouted, and his fists lunged at his arch nemesis. But Kari came between them, and held Davis back.
"Davis, no!" she protested. "There is a more important danger now! My enemy's enemy is my friend!"
"Yes, Davis," the Kaizer mocked. "I'm your friend now," he explained, on the verge of rude laughter.
Davis's eyes burned, but Kari knew he would cooperate for her sake. "Perhaps I chose my words poorly," she added to the Kaizer. "When I said friend, I meant merely ally."
"Kari, what can he do for us?" Davis protested. "The former Kaizer might have had the digital power to fight the Digitox, but look at him! He has been defeated and crushed by them! What can he do now?"
"Watch your words, Davis," the Kaizer warned. "I might be more resourceful than you might think." Out of the remains of his cape, he produced a metallic cylinder, with many lights and displays.
"What is that," Kari asked. "A bomb?"
"Of sorts... Before it came for me, I was able to briefly analyze the weapon that made the Dark Towers and Digimon disappear. I developed this, and it may be able to reverse the process."
"So what are you waiting for, Kaizer?" Davis hissed. "Bring everything back."
"It's not that easy, simple-minded one," the Digimon Kaizer answered. The bomb has the commands and instructions to reverse the process, but it would require a tremendous amount of digital energy, the same amount used to make the Digimon disappear in the first place."
"So what are you saying?" Kari demanded.
"The weapon itself must be capable of generating the amount of energy we need. If we can find the weapon, and hook up my cylinder, we might be able to bring things back."
"A likely story!" Davis challenged. "It could just as well be a bomb to destroy *us*, Kari. He doesn't care about bringing the Digimon back. Why is he doing this?"
"Davis is right," Kari agreed, giving a hard stare to the Kaizer. "Why are you doing this?"
"I want the Dark towers back," the Kaizer explained evilly. "I want my empire. And what makes you think I don't want the Digimon back as well? For without Digimon," his voice became daunting and desolate, "who would I rule?"
"Well, what is it?" Yolei asked. "What's your idea?"
"The Digimentals create armor for their Digimon," Zhina explained. "Why should they not create it for their human?"
"What?" T.K. asked. "What do you mean?"
"I am saying that with my aid, the Digimentals might be able to transform you into digital warriors."
"With your aid?" Yolei echoed.
"Yes," Zhina confirmed, and her energy split apart into three strands, each strand traveling into one of the digivices, where her essence rested inside of them.
"Ummm... Zhina?" T.K. called, slightly alarmed at the pace at which this was happening. "Are you there?"
"I am here," Zhina's voice echoed from within all three digivices. "It is time for you to do your part, digital warriors. You must activate the powers of your Digimentals."
"And than what?" Yolei burst out. "Digital warriors?? Zhina, what are you talking about? Is this even possible? How could we could we wear the Armor meant for our Digimon??"
"Here inside your digivice, I will use my energy to make it possible. My presence will allow the armor to meld to your bodies," Zhina promised.
"But even if we're wearing armor," Yolei protested, "we don't know how to fight! What good would we be??"
"Speak for yourself," Cody pointed out in a calm, meaningful voice. A sudden vision of Izzy passed before his eyes:
*Remember, Cody. Our preparation is what gives us knowledge, and you've been preparing for a long time.*
"I know I can do this." Cody spoke, after witnessing Izzy's words. "I trust that Zhina will grant me my armor, and I have been learning the art of fighting for years. My kendo training has always given me focus and strength of mind, but now it is time for its skills to be used in battle, like they were for my father. I know I can be the warrior Armadillomon needs me to be!"
And with that, Cody's digivice glowed, and the glow was matched within by Zhina's pulsating brightness. The Digimental of Knowledge appeared above Cody, and it opened up, pouring glowing power all over the young boy, until T.K. and Yolei could no longer look at the dangerous brightness. When it subsided, Cody was covered from head to toe in a soft but strong exoskeleton of a pail gold color. Transparent insect wings graced his back and gave him flight, while similar wings protruded forward from his wrists. These sharp wing-blades could be used for combat, like the ancient katanas of old. The submol of Knowledge was written in black on Cody's chest, and he had made the transformation into an insectoid warrior.
"What?" Yolei screamed. "What happened to him???"
"It's okay, Yolei," Cody said from behind his exoskeleton. "This is my armor, and I understand. I can do this!"
"I am glad to hear it," Zhina warned. "For your skills are about to be tested! The Digitox shall observe your digital power on their radar, I am sure of it!"
Sure enough, three of the serpent spacecraft arrived with frightening speed, each carrying a battalion of Digitox warriors, which quickly jumped down from their transports. Hissing with battle cries, they rushed towards the insect warrior as a sea of dangerous black and green.
Cody let out no battle-cry, but stood in a waiting, ready stance. When they were upon him, he erupted into explosive kendo action. He slashed and parried, knocking their leathery swords back with his wing blades. Energy shot forth from their fleshy swords, but he used the wing-blades protruding from his wrists to deflect the bolts.
But they were getting smarter. All three battalions surrounded him, and he couldn't fend them off from all sides. He back flipped into the air, and stretched out in the new-found flight of his back wings. Shimmering in his golden exoskeleton, he seemed safe above them, but the three Digitox gliders now entered the frey, and they chased him in a frightening aerial battle. Though he could fly, Cody didn't have the amazing agility of the starfighters, and they soon shot him out of the sky.
Back on the ground, he managed to get up, but the scores of Digitox warriors were again advancing towards him.
"Yolei! T.K!" Zhina cried from inside their digivices. "He needs your help!"
"I want to!" Yolei sobbed. "But- but I just- I can't! I'm not a warrior! I don't know how to do any of this." A leathery sword forced Cody to the ground again, sending tears forth from Yolei's eyes. A vision of Sora flashed before her eyes.
*It's okay, Yolei, I know you're scared, but here in the DigiWorld, we have to do what we need to do for each other, no matter what it takes.*
"I don't understand any of this!" Yolei wept in torment. "But Sora's right... I can't let Cody die! I could never do that! I care about him too much!" Zhina's essence brightened as Yolei's heart made her digivice glow. The Digimental of Love appeared above her, and washed over her entire body with blinding energy. When the light dimmed, Yolei was revealed to have metallic silver armor covering everything except her head. Huge metal wings graced her back, and she had traded in her glasses and helmet for a beautiful tiara of silver with purple jewels, which brought out the color of her hair. In her right hand, Yolei clutched a silver scepter with similar violet gems, and the symbol of Love was engraved in purple upon her silver-clad chest. She was the princess of the skies, and her kingdom would soon be cleansed of the Digitox gnaves.
"Cody! I understand now, too!" She cried, as new instincts enveloped her mind. The armor hadn't just given her power; it had given her the ability to use it. She suddenly knew how to fight with the Armor of Love. She knew how to be a warrior now, and she was more than willing, which surprised her a little. In the past, she had fought with Hawkmon when she had to, but on the whole, she didn't like it, and she had never thought of *herself* as a warrior.
Until now. It was strange, but it was what the situation demanded of her, so she refused to disappoint. Her silver body leaped into the sky, and her brilliant wings allowed her to soar to new heights. She twisted and turned with such effortlessness, as though the sky were a playground that she had simply never discovered.
In the blink of an eye, she turned her focus towards Cody. With her hands stretched strongly in front of her, she shot head-on towards the legions of Digitox attacking Cody on the ground. With aerial strength, she plowed them back, and glided upwards towards the sky.
"Cody," she beckoned in a voice whose competence surprised her. "Can you handle things here on the ground? I'll keep the skies clear!"
"Got it, Yolei!" Cody confirmed. He got back to his insectoid-clad feet with the aid of his wing-blades, and gave the Digitox a kendo lesson they wouldn't forget.
Meanwhile, Yolei soared to speeding heights to keep the Digitox gliders off of Cody's tale. She chased one of the fighters across the sky, until she was close enough to act. Utilizing new instincts, she pointed her silver scepter at the Digitox glider, and purple energy shot forth from the weapon's jewels, causing the reptilian fighter to explode.
But as the fragments of the explosion subsided, it revealed a terrible sight. A Digitox glider was heading straight for Yolei!
It shot a series of green energy bolts at her, but stretching out in the incredible agility of her metallic wings, she evaded every one of the blasts with aerial loops and turns. She pointed her scepter forward, and flew straight towards the advancing glider. A dangerous game of bravery ensued as the enemies rushed towards each other for a dangerous collision. Who would pull up first?
Yolei could feel her heart tremble as the fighter came closer, but she refused to break off pursuit. From within the Armor of Love, a new perspective of courage inspired her, and she increased her speed as she headed towards the Digitox fighter. It immediately pulled up, not willing to chance a collision any longer. Yolei stopped dead in her aerial tracks, pointed her scepter above her, and vaporized the vertically escaping fighter.
She returned to Cody's side as they chased the remainder of their attackers off into retreat. Yolei smiled beneath her tiara, glad that it was over, at least for the moment.
"You did it!" T.K. exclaimed. "You drove them off."
"That was incredible..." Yolei breathed. "I didn't know I had it in me!"
Cody's voice rang clear behind his armor, "I guess we showed them what the inhabitants of *this* Digiworld can do."
"But they will be back," Zhina warned from within the digivices. "If we are to be victorious, it shall not be as easy as that. Greater danger lies ahead, for we must now rescue your friends."
"Zhina," Cody said, trapped by a thought. "Why didn't T.K. get armor? Is there something wrong with his Digimental?"
Before Zhina bothered to answer, T.K. replied in a care-free tone, "I wouldn't worry about it, Cody." He winked slyly. "If there's one thing I've learned from the DigiWorld, it's that some things are worth the wait."
"I have shown you what I can offer you," the Kaizer explained. "And now I would like to know what you can offer *me*."
"What?" Davis demanded angrily.
"I have a bomb that could bring everything back, and stop the Digitox weapon. That is my use to you, now what is your use to me? Alliances are based on mutual benefit, Davis. I suggest you make your benefit known."
"And I suggest you-"
"Davis," Kari stopped his angered tone. She turned to the Digimon Kaizer. "We can offer you a chance of escape," she promised.
"What?" the Kaizer scoffed. "You're stuck in here the same as I am!"
"But we have friends," Kari pointed out. "On the outside."
"And what makes you think they haven't just been captured and put in a different cell?" the Kaizer challenged. Davis frowned at this, for he could find no way to disprove it.
"They have not been captured," Kari spoke from within her heart. "I just know it..."
Suddenly, a distant explosion rocked the cell.
"What was that?" Kari asked with a tinge of worry.
Davis rushed to the edge of their imprisonment, to the see through the bars of the prison cell, a terrible battle raging outside. "Someone's attacking the base!"
"Do you think it could be..." Kari wondered, thinking of T.K. and the others.
"I'm not sure," Davis said, squinting for better vision. "Wait! I can see them now! It's two Digimon. An insect one, and some sort of humanoid one, with silver armor and wings. I wonder how they escaped the weapon-"
"Boo!" T.K. suddenly jumped out in front of the cell, startling Davis incredibly.
"T.K.!" Kari cried. "What's going on??"
"Well, you might call it a rescue mission," T.K. explained, brandishing some newly stolen keys. As he started to open the Digitox lock, his eyes fell on the haggard form of the Kaizer. "Kari! Behind you!"
"We know, T.K.," Davis blurted with flat eyes, thinking it should be obvious. "But he has a cylinder that can counteract the effects of the weapon if we can reach it, so he's coming along for now."
"We're all in this together," the Kaizer smiled, loving T.K.'s torment.
"Well, come on then," T.K. grunted, getting a reassuring glance from Kari. He opened the door and the prisoners exited to freedom.
"T.K.," Davis called, as they ran towards the battle under T.K.'s guidance. "Who are those Digimon, and how did you find them?"
T.K. stopped running, and gave Davis a funny look. "Digimon?"
"Yeah, the ones fighting the battle. The insect and the-"
T.K. started laughing slightly, as he realized Davis's error. "Those aren't Digimon!" he proclaimed. "They're Cody and Yolei!"
"What?" Kari asked. "How?"
As if in reply, the energy of Zhina from T.K.'s digivice spread out to inhabit the digivices of Kari and Davis as well.
"Huh?" Davis wondered.
"My presence in their digivice allowed them to use the armor of their Digimentals," Zhina explained from inside the digivices. "The insect is Cody, inside the Armor of Knowledge. The silver princess of the skies is Yolei, in the Armor of Love."
"You mean they used the armor meant for our Digimon on themselves?" Kari asked, playing with the strange idea as it unraveled itself in her mind.
"That's right," T.K. confirmed.
"Interesting," the Kaizer commented with something less than enthusiasm.
"You mean *I* could be Freidramon?" Davis asked, loving the idea.
"Something like that, but for now we must get to Yolei and Cody," T.K. said, running towards the raging battle once more.
But before he could get very far, a huge Digitox figure landed from the sky to block his path. The winged giant was like a leathery Digitox warrior, only twice as big, and with two swords instead of one.
"Not so fast!" its booming voice echoed, brandishing his twin leathery swords.
"What are you?" Kari asked fearfully.
"By your native tongue, you might call me a Digitox sentinel, but I suggest you refer to me simply as danger!"
He lunged his twin Digitox swords at Kari, and she jumped out of the way with a scream. Davis went to her former position, and yelled at the sentinel, "You better not touch her!" But *What do I do?* was what he was really thinking. He was so afraid of their strange power, but Tai's face filled his vision.
*Davis, you can't let this happen! It doesn't matter if you don't know how, or if you think you can't do it, sometimes you just gotta' get up and fight!*
Inspired by his idol, Davis realized something within himself. "I am sick of you Digitox scum! And I am not afraid of you anymore! My desire to restore the DigiWorld is more important than my fear!" Davis's digivice began to glow, and Zhina's light within the digivice complimented it. Davis looked up, and saw the Digimental of Courage floating above him. "What's happening??"
"You're getting your armor!" T.K. explained in awe.
"Amazing," Kari breathed, as the Digimental opened up and doused Davis in a bright light. When T.K., Kari, and the Kaizer could look at him again, they beheld everything but Davis's head clad in a large armor of a reddish stone material, and instead of Tai's goggles on his head, he had a set of futuristic sunglasses around his eyes. His reddish stone boots shot forth fire like rocket engines, allowing him to attack the tall sentinel from the aerial level of flight, and the symbol of Courage was carved upon his rocky chest. "This is incredible!" Davis exclaimed, and his lopsided grin told the others he was ready for action.
The Digitox sentinel swung his massive right sword at Davis, but he flew up in time to dodge it. But the left sword followed from the other side, and Davis knocked it back with a strong, rock-clad arm.
"Aaargh!" the Sentinel shouted in pain as smoke sizzled off of the rotting Digitox flesh of his sword. Apparently, Davis's armor was hot to the touch!
"If you can't stand the heat-" Davis put his hands together, and hot fire magically shot forth towards the Sentinel "-get out of the DigiWorld!" The fire swallowed the sentinel whole, but when it subsided the massive Digitox was still alive.
"No!" T.K. exclaimed. "It can't be!"
But T.K.'s cries were barely heard over the sentinel's harsh laughter. The massive warrior's hands rushed towards the him and Kari, but they caught the Kaizer instead. The formerly mighty Digimon Kaizer struggled to escape the digital alien's grasp, but to no avail. The sentinel only squeezed harder, and the Kaizer felt breath becoming scarce. "You- better- help... me!" He coughed at Davis. "I'm--- the only one... who knows how to - work.. the bomb!"
Davis rested in the air, the rockets of his boots burning brightly to keep him aloff. He didn't know what to do. Here was his greatest enemy, the villain who had cost him and his friends so much, and yet this enemy was asking to be saved?
"Davis," Kari called in strain to her friend. "Davis, you have to! There's no other choice..." Her eyes pleaded with all that was in her heart.
Still confused, Davis felt like he could see Matt Ishida's face in front of his eyes.
*Davis, friendship is more important than rivalry! Think of the others...*
"I will save him," Davis finally agreed. "But not because he is worth saving. Instead, because I need him in order to save my friends. How I would love to see him defeated! But I will sacrifice that joy, for the sake of my friends! Huh?" Davis gasped as his digivice glowed for a second time. "It's happening again!"
"You're armor's changing!" Zhina's rich voice proclaimed from within the digivice, as her energy glowed to match the surrounding brightness.
The Digimental of Friendship appeared before Davis, and its transparent essence plunged straight into his heart. Davis's new armor crept up his legs, where bulky red stone transformed into a form-fitting black jumpsuit. As the Armor of Friendship crept up his body, even his head became covered like a masked ninja, with only the eyes cut out. His feet were graced with silver boots, which matched the color of the symbol of Friendship upon his chest. Around the black jumpsuit on his hands, Davis wore eight silver rings. On the left hand, he wore four rings with positive signs on them, and on the right, four negative rings. He turned to the Digitox sentinel, and smashed the opposing rings together, forming a mighty strike of lightning that knocked the Kaizer from the sentinel's hands.
The Kaizer hit the ground, but did not get up. T.K. rushed to his side, and quickly checked for breathing and a pulse. "He's alive," T.K. told Kari. "Just unconscious, but he should be alright."
Meanwhile, Davis faced off against the sentinel once again. Putting his rings slowly together, and then whipping his right hand away, Davis prepared a white lightning whip, which he used with his right hand to grab the sentinels feet, and pull them out from under the giant. The Digitox sentinel toppled over, and Davis, the lightning ninja, jumped on top of his chest and stood towering over the sentinel's grounded face.
"For Raidramon!" Davis cried. And he smashed his rings together once more. Despite the previous white color of Davis's lightning, more familiar blue bolts shot out from his rings. They transformed the sentinel's face into a mere crater, and he lay there, lifeless at last.
"Yes!" Davis cried behind his black ninja mask. "Take that, Digitox! Now let's find Cody and Yolei! Something tells me they're going to need our help!"
Davis could not have been more right. Within their armor, Cody and Yolei were truly valiant warriors, but they could not be expected to take on the entire Digitox base. Cody's right wing-blade had been severed off, and Yolei had a hole in the silver of her left wing, which made flying more difficult than it had been before. Still she shot the purple fire from her scepter as Cody fought on with his remaining wing-blade.
Cody was getting really tired. The armor gave him the warrior's energy he would not have otherwise had, but even it was becoming too little to keep up against the endless onslaught of Digitox warriors. He would soon collapse if he and Yolei didn't get any more help.
Suddenly, one of the many gliders shot an energy bolt straight into Yolei's torso, and despite the silver armor's efforts, she headed to the ground, where she crashed painfully.
"Yolei!" Cody called, rushing away from the Digitox to her side. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," Yolei managed to say amidst the pain of her obvious injury. "But... I think I'm going to be down for a while. You'll have to take it... by yourself.... Can you do that, Cody?" Yolei begged as she struggled to breathe.
Tiredness pulsated through Cody's body. *Could* he do this? In front of his young eyes, Joe appeared.
*Cody, I know you're tired, but you can't think about that, right now. Some things are more important.*
Joe was right. Despite his previous wariness, Cody couldn't imagine thinking about himself at a time like this.
"I can do it! You just rest, Yolei.... Pull through, please!" he pleaded to his fading friend. "I'll take care of the Digitox! You can count on me!" And with his promise to Yolei, Cody's digivice began to glow again.
"Take heart, Cody!" Zhina's voice came from within his digivice. "For new armor shall bring new energy to you, and Davis and the others are on the way!" She brightened the already mesmerizing glow of his digivice, and the Digimental of Reliability appeared before Cody in transparent luminescence. It traveled through his chest to his heart, and the new armor traveled up his body, changing the elaborate exoskeleton into a simple light blue robe. A drooping cloak made of pail blue dramon-wing flesh surrounded him, and in his hands, a sharp blue trident was just waiting to wash away the Digitox. The symbol of Reliability strecthed across the two flaps of the dramon cloak. He looked like a simple, yet powerful wizard of waters, but such an image refused to frighten the oncoming Digitox warriors.
It was their loss, for Cody pointed the mighty trident in front of him, and water burst forth from an unseen vortex. Cody's rushing blast of water plowed away at the ranks of Digitox, dividing them and washing many away. He pointed the trident to a spot on the ground where a glider was about to pass overhead. Upon the command of Cody's trident, the spot erupted into a vertical column of water, which the glider passed through before being forced into a nasty crash. Cody refocused his aquatic attention on the reforming ranks of Digitox.
*He's doing it!* Yolei thought between the cloudbursts of pain. *But he cannot do it alone...* she realized. *What am I doing? I'm not a warrior! I hate fighting! And I don't know if I can hold on much longer... Why am I doing this??*
*You're doing this* Mimi interrupted from a vision *for someone else. It's not for you, but that doesn't mean it's not important.*
"I'm doing this for Hawkmon," Yolei realized. "How many times has he done it for me? How many times has he wanted to give up, but protected me anyhow? He's never given up! Never! And neither will I... Hawkmon, you've done so much for me... This is my chance to do something for you!"
"You're going to be okay, Yolei!" Zhina proclaimed as the girl's digivice began to glow. Zhina's energy transformed the glow into brilliance, and the transparent Digimental of Sincerity appeared before Yolei's broken body. It plunged into her fragile heart, and she was lifted to her feet, restored to health and ready for her armor to be reborn. The transformation crept up her legs, and changed shining silver armor into a pail green gown which bore the symbol of Sincerity. As her skin took on a greenish tint, a cape of massive leaves placed side by side flowed from her back, and a wreath of pail green flowers was placed upon her hair, which had changed its color to match the pail green of her gown. As Cody looked on in a somewhat startled manor, Yolei's eyes rolled back into her head until her pupils disappeared, and possessed eyes of solid white were all that returned Cody's glance. The chill of an unseen wind whipped through her hair, her cape, her gown. Green lightning erupted in the distance.
"Yolei?" Cody asked quietly.
In answer to his question, a windy storm of scattered green petals erupted in the sky. The whirling flowers traveled in and out of the Digitox ranks, and wherever they went, warriors fell to the ground, asleep or unconscious. Yolei's strange face was emotionless, but the subtle movements of her head told Cody that she had caused the petal storm. Before long, her strange flowers had stolen the consciousness of nearly the whole Digitox army, leaving very little for Cody's trident to wash up.
"Yolei," Cody asked worriedly. "Are you... okay?"
Her white eyes turned to him, and she nodded somberly, but gave no reply.
"Cody!" the unmistakable voice of Kari warmed the chilling moment. "We were so worried about you, but Zhina said you were doing alright, and I knew she wasn't wrong!"
"I see you've unlocked new armor," T.K. noted, coming up from behind Kari and looking at Cody. His eyes fell on the strange form of the Armor of Sincerity. "Is Yolei..." he began in an odd voice.
"She's fine," Cody shrugged beneath his dramon cloak. "I guess." Yolei remained motionless, steadfast, and green.
"Hey, Cody!" Davis greeted heartily from within the Armor of Friendship, having finally arrived on the scene. Over his shoulder, he carried the unconscious form of the Digimon Kaizer.
"Is that-" Cody gasped.
"Yeah," Davis admitted, not too pleased by the whole situation.
"Why are you-"
"The Kaizer has found a way to stop the Digitox weapon," Kari cut in. "And so for now, we need him."
"But first we need to find the weapon itself," T.K. explained. "Do you know where it is located, Cody?"
"I don't think so," Cody admitted. "I fought mostly on the ground, but Yolei had the aerial view, and she might know."
Still not speaking, Yolei pointed a pale green arm in the direction where she had seen what looked like it could be the weapon they had heard so much about. And so they followed her silent guidance, as she led the way to the terror of the Digitox.
"That's the weapon?" Davis asked. They had reached the valley where the weapon was stored, and were all safely hidden behind a strange Digitox vehicle, sneaking glances at the Digitox weapon. Its base was a large, solid cylinder of black machinery. This was topped by a transparent dome, where inside, strange metallic parts could be seen. A circle of transparent tubing hugged the apparatus, and faint glimmers of blue energy could be seen chasing each other across the tube.
"I'm afraid so," Zhina answered Davis's question from within the digivices. "This weapon has taken so many worlds..." her saddened voice trailed off.
"Well, it's not going to take ours," Davis promised her. "We're going to get the Digimon back, and Tai and the others, too."
"As soon as the Kaizer enables his bomb," Kari added fretfully. "To reverse the process, and bring everything back."
Davis let the unconscious Kaizer fall from his shoulder to the ground, and slapped his haggard face saying, "Time to get up, Kaizer, and do your dirty work."
"I don't think it's going to be that easy," Cody explained. "He looks like he might need medical attention..."
"You'll all need medical attention soon enough," a startling new voice warned. To emphasize the voice's words, the Digitox vehicle they were using for a hiding place suddenly disappeared completely!"
"What?" Kari cried. "How did that-"
"I think *they* made it disappear-" Cody gasped, his eyes wide and his hand pointing straight at the Digitox weapon and the dark sentries guarding it. They looked like the other Digitox warriors, but they each had various silvery, mechanical elements like gloves or half their face. They had the startling appearance of Digitox cyborgs, and they stood protectively in front of the weapon, seeming to know everything about the children's plans.
"Oh, no!" Zhina cried from within the digivices. "I had hoped we might avoid this! Just somehow! I thought that maybe- maybe they would have underestimated your world somehow, and not felt the need to bring the deities! But I was a fool to think it!" The intense strain of her previously noble voice alarmed the children greatly.
"*Alright*," Davis complained. "We'll take care of them; don't worry about it!"
"You don't understand!" Zhina pleaded. "The Digitox deities are the ultimate product of their Digiworld culture! Their countless millennia of research into the manipulation of the Digiworld manifests itself in these warriors! All the secrets of data-manipulation... All the powers..."
"What exactly does that mean?" T.K. wondered.
"It means," one of the Digitox deities interrupted from the distance. "That we can manipulate the DigiWorld on a whim. Our centuries of research have allowed us to have direct control over DigiWorld data. With this power, we can do virtually anything. We are digital gods." With this last foul utterance from his thick voice, he actually teleported himself and the two other deities right in front of the children in the blink of an eye!
Kari jumped at the sudden teleportation. The tall cyborgs now stood within breathing distance of them.
"Alas!" Zhina cried. "Our cause is over! We cannot defeat this..."
"What?" Davis asked, disgusted by her sudden lack of faith.
"The zhina is with them," one of the Digitox deities observed. "That is how they did not disappear at the power of the weapon. The zhina- it is protecting them."
"Accursed side effect!" one of the other deities spat. "But it cannot protect them from us. We shall destroy them ourselves!" He eyed Kari hungrily.
And her lightning ninja acted. Jerking his negative rings away from the positive ones, Davis created an energy whip for his right hand. He swung the silver lightning at the central deity, but to everyone's surprise, the cyborg simply caught the whip in his hands and pulled it away from Davis!
"Ah!" Davis gasped. As the left deity waved his hand, Davis's rings floated through the air and on to the cyborgs own mechanical fingers. "How did they-"
"Ha!" the deity laughed, eyeing his new electric jewelry. "Fashionable, perhaps. But comparatively useless!" And with his mere thought, the eight rings dissipated into digidust!
"Impossible!" T.K. breathed.
"Not at all," the deity's evil voice penetrated.
"Hiiiiiyaaaaaa!!!!" Cody interrupted the show of force. He attempted to swing his trident against the Digitox deities, but it was no use. Out of his control, the trident turned on him and ripped through his dramon cloak before disappearing into useless digidust.
"No!" Cody cried, hopeless. "They control the data around us!"
Yolei said nothing, but hardened her green stare. Out of the flowery heavens, she commanded forth a petal storm, and the swarms of green blossoms thickened the air around them all.
"Nice weather we're having," the central deity mocked, untainted by the power of the petals. He raised his cyborg hands, and each of the many green blossoms became a hideous, blackened bat! The myriad of gothic rodents chased the frightened DigiDestined back, away from the deities. The DigiDestined escaped the evil winged creatures only to realize the hopelessness of the situation.
"It is no use," Zhina explained from within the digivices. It seemed like she was crying. "I was a fool to think we could try it. Your DigiWorld is doomed, as so many others have been! We cannot fight them, for they have power over every kind of digital energy! There is no hope!"
That last part burned T.K.'s ears. "There's always hope!" he cried, "Always! Even when things are as dark as this you can never give up!"
"Because the light will triumph," Kari added crisply. "Mark my words: the light will triumph!"
"Kari! T.K! Look!" Cody cried. "Your digivices are glowing!"
T.K. turned to Kari, and looked into her eyes. "I guess it's our turn now," he said with somber determination.
"Yeah," she agreed with reluctance. She did not know what to expect. "I don't know what will happen, but we're going to fight until the end, T.K. Like we always have!"
But something was very wrong. The Digimentals of Hope and Light were no where to be seen, and T.K. and Kari's armor was not coming forth.
"Cody?" T.K. pleaded. "What's happening? Where is our armor?"
"The process isn't working right!" Cody observed. "Zhina must not be doing what she needs to within the digivice."
"Zhina??" T.K. begged. The Digitox deities we're approaching dramatically on foot, choosing this simple mode of locomotion in order to strike fear in the hearts of their enemies. The tactic was working.
"I'm trying to!" Zhina complained. "I really am- it's just.... There's nothing we can do!"
"Zhina, you can't give up hope!" T.K. demanded.
"But I have been re-incarnated on a thousand DigiWorlds, and I have seen them all fall to the Digitox! All of them!"
"Then you have to rise to the challenge to see that this one doesn't!" Kari told her. "It's up to you, Zhina, you have to find your own Hope and Light before we can get our armor! This is your chance to stand against the Digitox!"
"Observe," one of the deities said, a frighteningly small distance away. "The zhina is failing them. Let us laugh at their calamity. And let us finish them off."
"No!" Zhina cried defiantly "The zhina has failed for the last time!" she stated fiercely. "I do not know what will happen, but I do not need to! I'm putting my Hope in T.K. and Kari! And I will stand up against the darkness of the Digitox just as they need me to!"
The steadied glow of Kari and T.K.'s digivices exploded into a brilliant light as Zhina's heart magnified the brightness. The Digimentals of Hope and Light appeared, and a transformation began to take place. The Digimental of Hope became a cluster of stars...
"That's the constellation of Gemini," Cody observed. "The twins..."
The Digimental of Light transformed into a set of angel wings, which blended into Hope's constellation. The wings and stars spinned together in a whirlwind of energy that unleashed its white power upon T.K. and Kari, adorning them in the Armors of Hope and Light. Their clothes turned completely white, and they were suddenly adorned with winged silver boots and gloves. A silver armament was wrapped around each of their torsos, and mighty angel wings sprung out of their silver-clad backs. Their hair had turned silvery white to match the new colors of their eyes. T.K.'s chest was adorned with the symbol of Hope, and he wielded a mighty silver sword. Kari was blessed with the symbol of Light, and in her hands, she held a small, circular shield. They were the gemini angels, ready for holy action.
"You did it!" Davis observed in awe. "You unlocked your armor!"
"Just in time for you to die," a deity mocked, but the foreboding did not strike the heart of even Zhina, for the angels were ready to do what they could against the evil Digitox.
"It is no use, mortal fools," the central deity hissed. He pointed menacingly at Davis, who began to vaporize into destroyed data! The line of non-existence was creeping up his human legs!
"No!" Kari cried, and she flew between Davis and the Digitox deity. She brought her shield forth, and it emitted a circle of silver energy, which stopped the Digitox's destruction of Davis, and restored the boy's Data.
"Incredible!" Zhina cried. "Your shield stopped his powers!"
T.K. pursued Davis's attacker, and swung his silver sword low, severing the deity's leg right off! "I can't believe it!" he exclaimed. "Kari, we're really doing it!"
"I know!" Kari cried enthusiastically, as her armor instincts took flight. She soared to a new height, as Angewomon had done for her so many times. She pointed her shield at T.K. as he battled the wounded Digitox. The shield formed a protective covering of silver energy around T.K. The Digitox deity formed a fireball out of nothingness, and hurled it at T.K., but it disappeared when it touched the silver barrier. Taking advantage of the cyborg's shock, T.K. thrust his noble sword into the deity's black heart, and for the first time in over a millennia, a Digitox deity perished in battle!
"I can't believe it!" Zhina exclaimed. "You! You killed one of them! A deity has finally been destroyed! You were right, T.K., there is hope!"
"Wrong!" one of the deities darkly challenged.
"But it is right!" Zhina defied from within all five of the digivices as Kari resumed her position at T.K.'s side. "I was wrong when I said you control all digital energies, for there is one digital power that has escaped your grasp throughout the ages. You will never posses the holy digital powers, for they are meant for a better kind than you! You cannot fight them, for you have never been able to understand them! It is not your lack of knowledge, but your lack of worthiness that keeps the holy digital energies from you!"
As the gemini angels turned to the remaining deities, Cody turned to Davis. "Now we must do our part."
"Yeah!" Davis agreed. "We left the Kaizer back there, near the weapon! Come on!" They headed towards the weapon, with Yolei, mistress of the petals, following ominously behind.
When they reached the Kaizer, he was still dangerously unconscious. "We don't know how to use the cylinder," Davis explained fretfully. "We have to wake him!"
"But how?" Cody begged.
Yolei's wordless reply was much welcomed. Her heart called upon a north wind, and it carried forth intensely sweet-smelling petals which danced across the sky. The wind carried the potent flowers to the Kaizer's war-torn face, and their beautiful pungency awakened him. Though tired, he gathered his wits rather quickly, noting, "I see things have proceeded without me."
"There is the weapon," Davis stated flatly to his enemy. "Do what you have to do."
As the Kaizer approached the transparent dome of the Digitox weapon, T.K.'s silver sword approached the second deity's chest, and it pierced his heart with holy digital power.
"Enough!" The final deity commanded with a raging voice. "It is time you knew the true scope of my power!" With each word, his voice seemed to deepen menacingly, and he stretched out his limbs in digital power, growing and growing. He reformatted himself into a giant Digitox cyborg of indescribable size! The white gemini angels were mere specks against his massive blackness. His giant arm batted Kari to the ground before she could even prepare her shield, and though T.K.'s holy sword met its mark in a massive Digitox leg, the tiny wound was insignificant for the giant villain. "Holy or not, you shall not defeat me!" his deep voice proclaimed.
But he had not counted on the Digimon Kaizer, who was now standing on top of the very weapon that had destroyed his Dark towers. He had attached his cylinder and wired it to the massive energy generators of the weapon. As the Kaizer activated his bomb, blue energy swirled faster and faster in the weapon's tubing and dome. The Digitox machine produced a vertical column of perfect energy that shot up to the highest heights of the sky, where it stretched out to cover the whole of the Digital World.
"Take this, Digitox," Ken spoke boldly.
In the energized sky, an amazing storm exploded above even the Digitox giant. Streams of living data rained down upon the Digiworld in vertical droplets. The droplets fell side by side, forming Digimon, plant life, and six familiar faces.
"Tai!" Davis cried. "You're back! You're all back!"
"Yeah," Tai laughed heartily.
"Did you miss us?" Agumon laughed.
"We witnessed everything you all did while our data was inaccessible," Izzy explained.
"And we were there every step of the way," Joe added. "Encouraging you. Did you hear us?"
"Yeah!" Cody exclaimed. "I just thought I was imagining that vision of you, but you really were telling me to push on after all."
"We're so proud of each of you!" Sora told them.
"We really are!" Biyomon confirmed.
"We couldn't have done it better ourselves!" Mimi exclaimed.
"Oh, no!" Matt shouted, eyeing the great peril that was still present. "Look! T.K. and Kari!"
Try as they might, the holy digital warriors were no match for the Digitox giant. They needed some way to magnify their powers; they were just too small!
"T.K." Kari the angel, cried. "I have an idea! Throw your sword into to the weapon!" And with that, she whipped her shield into the Digitox device. T.K.'s sword soared through the air into the weapon, shattering the glass of the dome. The explosion of energy reformatted the weapons into a barrier of silver energy protecting the entire Digiworld from deity powers.
"I think his data-manipulation abilities are gone!" Izzy observed.
"But he's still really big!" Gabumon pointed out quickly.
"It's not over yet! We have to do something," Palmon cried.
"Hey, Matt-" Tai smiled. "The Dark Towers don't seem to have reformatted yet! Are you thinkin' what I'm thinking?"
"Let's do it!" Matt exclaimed.
"But wait!" Cody interrupted, catching on to their idea. "You will need our help, too, but where is Armadillomon?"
"Or Veemon??" Davis added hastily.
"I think your use of the Digimentals seems to be preventing their return!" Izzy exclaimed.
"Then let's get rid of this armor! It fits Veemon better anyhow!" Davis exclaimed. He concentrated within himself and his armor disappeared, his ninja mask became Tai's goggles once more. Cody did the same, and T.K. and Kari followed suit, returning to mortal simplicity once more. Yolei's strange Armor of Sincerity disappeared, and she was safe and familiar behind her glasses once more.
"Woah..." she exclaimed, feeling like the wind had just been knocked out of her. "That was strange!" And then her eyes caught a glimpse of something that she had struggled to see for a long time. "Hawkmon!" she cried in such joy!
"Veemon!" Davis hugged his little friend, who had finally reappeared.
Cody gave Armadillomon a simple touch on the back as a single tear fell from his eye.
"Gatomon! I missed you so much!" Kari cried, sweeping up the cat Digimon in her arms.
"I missed you to, Kari..." Gatomon said, happy to be back in her best friend's grasp.
"Patamon!" T.K. breathed, and his flying friend resumed his fateful perch on T.K.'s hat.
"Well, we're back," Veemon said, "but I can still smell that giant Digitox slimeball."
"I think we'll soon remedy that!" Armadillomon observed.
"Armadillomon armor digivolve to... Digmon!"
"Hawkmon armor digivolve to... Shurimon!"
"Veemon armor digivolve to... Freidramon!"
"Now it's our turn!" Tai cried, still seeing no signs of the yet-to-be-reformatted Dark Towers. "Come on, everybody!"
"Gomamon digivolve to... Ikkakumon!"
"Ikkakumon digivolve to... Zudomon!"
"Palmon digivolve to... Togemon!"
"Togemon digivolve to... Lillymon!"
"Tentomon digivolve to... Kabuterimon!"
"Kabuterimon digivolve to... MegaKabuterimon!"
"Biyomon digivolve to... Birdramon!"
"Birdramon digivolve to... Garudamon!"
"Patamon warp-digivolve to... Seraphimon!"
"Gatomon warp-digivolve to... Magnadramon!"
"Gabumon warp digivolve to... MetalGarurumon!"
"Agumon warp digivolve to... WarGreymon!"
Two generations of DigiDestined turned to face the terrible remnant of the Digitox apocalypse. The massive giant tried to swing his arms at the onslaught of eleven amazing Digimon coming at him, but his deity powers could no longer help him. Seraphimon and Magnadramon held down his left arm, while MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon held down the right.
"Now!" Seraphimon commanded. "Everyone!"
"Gold Rush!"
"Autumn Wind!"
"Fire Rocket!"
"Wing Blade!"
"Vulcan's Hammer!"
"Flower Cannon!"
"Horn Buster!"
Letting go of his arms, the Mega's finished off the onslaught of energy...
"Dragon Fire!"
"Seven Heavens!"
"Metal Wolf Claw!"
"Terra Force!"
The combined energy of the attacks tore away at the Digitox's data, but still it was not enough! The giant's digital essence remained intact though clearly it was struggling... They just needed a little more power...
"Ken!" The newly returned Wormmon cried. "I can help!"
"Wormmon, you couldn't do anything against-"
But the Digimon Kaizer could not dissuade him. "Silk Thread!" Wormmon cried, and the tiny burst of silken energy was all the DigiDestined's attacks needed. The Digitox giant was reduced to tiny digidust, that was carried away by the digital wind.
"We did it!" Yolei rejoiced, as the Kaizer crawled into the shadows of the world, where he could wait for his towers to reformat.
That night, Kari and Davis sat together in the DigiWorld, staring up at the digital stars, and wondering what kind of DigiWorlds lay out there in the dimensions...
"There's something I don't understand, Kari," Davis admitted. "What happened to Zhina? We didn't here from her after you and T.K. defeated the second deity."
Kari's face became saddened. "Zhina was the side effect of the weapon," she said mournfully. "And the Kaizer's cylinder reversed the weapon's process..." A tear fell from her eye.
"Including its side effect," Davis finished for her. Kari nodded. "I wonder what will happen to all of those worlds she spoke about," Davis added with great weight in his mind. "The ones doomed by the Digitox."
"Don't worry," Kari tried to console. "Like T.K. says, there's always hope." She looked up at the stars and they reflected light upon her face. "And maybe someday.... we can help them, too."
THE END