I noticed that I haven't done a disclaimer for this story yet. I don't see the point of them really – nobody on this site owns anything they write, but if they did they should say so, instead of having everyone else say they don't. Anyway, I own two dogs but I don't own Digimon or Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Let the crossover begin.
Secret of the 327th
Chapter 3:- Fanglongmon's Warning Begins
Renamon's eyes snapped open. Terriermon's and Lopmon's eyes did exactly the same at exactly the same moment. The three of them leapt upwards from their positions lying beside the tree without even thinking what they were doing or wondering what was going on. Because they already knew full well what was going on.
They had sensed a massive evil Digimon blink into existence and it was extremely close.
Renamon barrelled forwards towards the tent. There was no time for being delicate. Something leapt over her, bathing her in its shadow. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Renamon sprang forwards, claws first. They ripped through the side of the tent, not bothering to use the zip opening. The three Tamers were suddenly extremely wide awake when Renamon grabbed all three in one arm and ploughed on, shredding the other side of the tent and leaping out, performing a forward roll and coming to rest in a crouch, just as a massive clawed, fleshy tendril smashed the tent in from the top.
"What the...!" cried Rika, alarmed.
Terriermon and Lopmon swooped around the claw as it retracted back into the sky. "No time for talking!" yelled Terriermon. "Biomerge now! It's Cyberdramon's elusive Mega!"
Though they had been asleep a mere five seconds earlier, Henry, Rika and Suzie instantly grabbed their digivices and shouted the two words that hadn't come out of their mouths for a good six months, as their partners landed beside them "BIOMERGE ACTIVATE!"
"NO!" shouted a rasping voice above them, as they were enveloped in bright white light which expanded upwards in a tremendous display of flashing, as if a volcano of light had just erupted. Through the light, which looked like it was hot enough to melt boulders, three voices could be heard.
"TERRIERMON BIOMERGE TO..."
"RENAMON BIOMERGE TO..."
"LOPMON BIOMERGE TO..."
The light fountained upwards until it was many, many, many times taller than any of the trees and then it faded, leaving three forms visible; two of them massive, the other quite small and hovering beside the heads of the two others.
Massive, green, metallic, dog-faced android with cannons for shoulders, gatling guns for wrists and thick armour-plating with enough firepower to leave the entire army of Japan in the dust, "MEGAGARGOMON!"
Humanoid shape and sized with a long golden staff, flowing grey hair, a belt with four canisters attached, high-heeled boots and a golden breastplate and mask which resembled the head of a fox, "SAKUYAMON!"
Enormous, pink and white with massive, thick arms and short legs, hovering in the air with massive rabbit-like ears and ring around each one, an angelic face and a jester's collar, "CHERUBIMON!"
"DAMN YOU!" shouted the mystery voice. The three biomerged Megas containing six life-forms finally got a good look at their attacker. He was large himself, but was only about twice the height of Sakuyamon. He also had a bipedal shape, but he was nothing like a human. He had massive silver plating covering his lower arms and lower legs, encompassing his hands and feet with sleek black claws protruding from the armour, which had strange purple symbols on them that looked like a number nine with a dot in the hole, and another large, almost round piece veering his chest and pelvic area. The parts of the limbs that were not covered with thin and fleshy, almost weak looking – they couldn't be much wider than an ordinary human arm, and the visible torso looked like fleshy plating. His head was hidden by a mask that had a beak-like front and pointed horns on the top. What was visible was the blue eye right in the centre of its face. Oddly enough there was no sign of the strange clawed tendril from before.
"Talk about a wake-up call," said Henry. "Thanks Renamon. We could have flattened by that claw thing, wherever it is now."
"You're welcome, Henry," said Renamon.
"This guy is one ugly looking thing," said Terriermon. The digimon blinked calmly.
"Don't provoke him, Terriermon," said Lopmon. "That might not be a good idea. But everything that Cyberdramon said suddenly makes sense now that I can see this guy."
"Say what?" asked Terriermon. "You know him?"
"Yes, I do," said Lopmon grimly. "I've seen him in action before. We thought he was dead, but obviously not."
"I am not one who dies easily," grinned the strange Mega Digimon.
"Who is he, Lopmon?" asked Suzie. "That eye of his is scaring me a little bit."
"I can't get to my D-Arc in here," said Rika. "Go ahead, Lopmon."
"This is Parallelmon," said Lopmon. "He challenged and faced off against the Sovereigns shortly after the first defeat of Ogudomon. He was defeated and we assumed that he was dead after he vanished. But we weren't sure. When he didn't appear again after that we thought he must be, so we relaxed our guard."
"The Sovereigns are tough customers," said the Digimon, Parallelmon. "But I escaped. I was not deleted when Zhuqiaomon sent the blasted Blazing Helix of his in my direction. I simply jumped."
"You jumped?" asked Terriermon. "Up? Sorry Loppy but how exactly did you guys miss that?"
"He doesn't mean it like that," said Lopmon. "He is Parallelmon and by jump he means that he jumped to another dimension. Parallelmon has the ability to go to any parallel dimension, anywhere in any universe instantly. We assumed that he would try again to retake the Digital World if he hadn't died, but there was no sign of him."
"I was severely injured. So severely that I was forced to de-digivolve back to my In-Training form," intoned Parallelmon. "I have spent years rebuilding my strength until I once again reached by Mega stage, stranded in an alternate universe and unable to get out. But now I have returned."
"Now, I get it," said Henry. "That's why Cyberdramon only detected him for a few seconds. He was only in this dimension for a few seconds before jumping to the next."
"And HYPNOS haven't picked him up because he wasn't crossing the Digital Barrier. He was coming across a completely different barrier," said Terriermon.
"Great," muttered Rika. "Just great. I knew something like this would happen. He's been keeping an eye on this city for a few days waiting for some of us to split off so that we are vulnerable."
"Well it's a good thing that we're not vulnerable then," said MegaGargomon, tensing his limbs and cocking his Gatling Guns.
"Careful," said Lopmon. "Beware that clawed tendril of his."
"The claw thingie?" asked Suzie. "Where is it?"
"It came from his eye," said Lopmon. "If that claw hits anything Digital then that thing is transported to another dimension."
There was a pause. "Then why hasn't he just done that to us during this conversation?" asked Renamon.
Lopmon, and therefore Cherubimon, shrugged. "I don't know."
"It is not my intention to send you to another dimension," rasped Parallelmon. "I intend to fight you here and now. I was just waiting politely for you to finish explaining about me."
"Why?" asked Sakuyamon. "So that we will fear you all the more? We're not scared of you. It hasn't worked."
"Should have picked your targets more carefully," MegaGargomon laughed. "You're facing the three who took down Ogudomon."
"And we're gonna take you down as well," Cherubimon raised her fists and took on a junior Tai Chi stance that Suzie had been taught.
"Good luck with that," stated Parallelmon, before his legs suddenly tensed and he shot forward with a frightening speed, like a boulder from a trebuchet. He cannoned into MegaGargomon's chest hard. MegaGargomon cried out, surprised, and he stumbled backwards, but he managed to catch himself by throwing one foot out and crushing several trees. His armour was mostly undamaged by the attack.
Battle had been joined. Sakuyamon retaliated and lashed out at Parallelmon with her golden staff, swiping one of his armoured hands. The blow sent him spinning, but he caught himself in mid-air and lanced forwards back at her. Sakuyamon swerved aside at the last second, and Parallelmon found himself in Cherubimon's path. The angelic Digimon swung a massive arm and smashed Parallelmon downwards. He collided with the ground, leaving a large crater, but he scrambled out of it relatively unharmed.
"So you want to make this difficult do you?" he asked, then he leapt to one side as MegaGargomon's foot mashed the ground where he had just been. "Very well." He shot upwards, grabbed MegaGargomon's arm and swung off it, aiming a heavy blow at Cherubimon's head. He was surprised when MegaGargomon swung around, and his other arm connected squarely with him, knocking him to one side. Cherubimon hand reached out to and grabbed him like a ball snug in a baseball mit.
"Strike one!" she cried and hurled him ground-wards again. As she did so, Parallelmon swung his clawed hands and gouged three deep gashes into her palm. She didn't even flinch and they instantly healed over.
Parallelmon swerved and hit the ground skidding backwards. But he instantly launched himself forwards again, back at MegaGargomon. Suddenly Sakuyamon was beside him, grinning and she brought her staff to bear. "Strike two!" she said and she swung in a blinding flurry, striking Ogudomon across the head, the fleshy parts of both his arms and then she gave him a hefty kick to the stomach, sending him backwards, winded.
"You better not have broken the heel," Sakuyamon smirked. Then she raised her hands and cried, "TALISMAN SPHERE!"
Parallelmon lunged at her but collided with an invisible wall. Blanching, he found that he was now encased in a transparent bubble. "LET ME OUT!" he demanded. But Sakuyamon just smirked and moved her hand. The bubble moved with it and Parallelmon noticed he was moving towards MegaGargomon. The frozen, metallic face almost seemed to grin, before he turned his back. The bubble came to a stop just by his belt line.
"Strike tree," said MegaGargomon.
A hole appeared in the top of the force-field and MegaGargomon activated his jets. The blisteringly hot flames rammed into Parallelmon and a massive scream of pain erupted from his mouth. The bubble vanished down and he dropped earthwards. He managed to catch himself and land on his feet, glaring angrily and three meddling Megas as they stood before him.
They were strong. Very strong. There was no denying that. And these three were obviously used to working together. They were all extremely co-ordinated, almost as if they were predicting his every move or had at least thought out how to counteract everything he did. They were beating him hollow and the battle had barely been going on for three minutes.
He could just use his claw to send them all to an alternate dimension.
But no, that wasn't part of the plan. If we wanted to truly take over the Digital World, he needed these three, not to mention to others. He had to think quickly. They were destroying him and they had yet to use a single offensive attack.
They were all lined up in his field of vision. Perhaps... yes.
"You might be able to defeat me now," he conceded. "But you can't defeat me if you're asleep. ENDLESS TRANCE!"
Green circles of light burst from his eyes and they washed over his three attackers. There was an instant change in them. Their limbs sagged and their shoulders fell as if the muscles were unable to keep them up any longer. Their eyelids dropped and began to close slowly, ever so slowly. Soon they'd be in a sleep from which they would never awake, and then he could get them to de-digivolve and fulfil what he needed.
Or at least, this was what was happening to two of them. Sakuyamon and Cherubimon were both looking bleary now, but nothing was happening at all to MegaGargomon. He blinked, confused, but then when he saw what was happening to the others his eyes narrowed.
"Alright, you're asking for it!" he declared, pulling back his fist and charging forward the ground vibrating beneath each step. Parallelmon's eye widened. How? What was happening?
"POWER PUMMEL!" shouted MegaGargomon and as he brought his massive fist down a sort of wind seemed to erupt from the Gatling gun. It rocketed into Parallelmon and with a cry it sent him flying backwards into a tree.
"What?" he cried, as Cherubimon and Sakuyamon suddenly snapped awake again and took up battle stances again. "What happened?"
"Endless trance?" asked MegaGargomon. "Newsflash. I may be alive, but I'm still a machine. You can't hypnotize a machine."
Parallelmon growled. "Then I guess I'll have to do this the old-fashioned way after all. With my bare hands!"
"Go ahead!" said Sakuyamon. "Let's see what you got?"
Parallelmon sprang forward once more, striking MegaGargomon in the leg, but it barely phased the giant Mega. Parallelmon rebounded off it, then bounced off a tree to come at Cherubimon, aiming for her midriff. As he'd expected, he was blocked by Sakuyamon who got before him and held her staff defensively in both hands. Parallelmon grabbed the staff in his own and tackled Sakuyamon. The two of them shot backwards, corkscrewing wildly and struggling against each other.
They crash-landed in the woods, throwing up clods of earth as they thudded into the ground, Sakuyamon on the bottom. "Get off!" she yelled, and she grabbed Parallelmon by the face and then pushed upwards, using her staff to throw him onto his back. Parallelmon backflipped onto his feet and lunged forward with his claws. Sakuyamon blocked with her staff and whirled around, opening the canisters on her belt.
"SPIRIT STRIKE!" she cried, and the four brightly-coloured fox spirits poured out and swarmed Parallelmon, lacerating all the unarmoured parts of him and causing shrieks on pain. Then a large tree, clutched in Cherubimon's enormous hands like a club, swept forwards and smashed Parallelmon broadside, catapulting him backwards. He struck the ground and rolled into the brook.
"Stop polluting the water!" Parallelmon wheeled about and leapt upwards but was unable to avoid MegaGargomon's massive kick that sent him hurtling backwards, flipping head-over-heels before landing headfirst and creating a large furrow in the loam, Bristling, he got to his feet again and yelled, "Let's dance!"
He leapt forwards and vanished in mid-air with a loud BACKEW noise. MegaGargomon faltered in surprise, and then something thudded forcefully into his back. Shocked, MegaGargomon fell to his knees and lashed out behind him, but with another BACKEW noise, Parallelmon vanished again.
"He's dimension-jumping," cried Cherubimon. "He could come from any direaagh!" She was suddenly struck in the side of the head by Parallelmon who blipped out of existence once more.
"That's cowardly fighting," seethed Sakuyamon. With intuition she leapt to one side, just as Parallelmon appeared and slammed into the ground where she'd been. She leapt again, grabbing his arm and vaulting onto his shoulders, before bringing her staff down on one arm and her foot into the side of his head. But Parallelmon reached up and grasped her by the leg, yanking her off and grabbing her head and launching her bodily into a thick tree trunk.
Then he was gone with another BACKEW!
When he appeared again he had with him two large rocks and he appeared him mid-air hurling them at MegaGargomon with all his strength. Henry quickly took over and, despite the massive bulk, MegaGargomon swerved around one and brought his fist smashing into the other, shattering it into pieces. Parallelmon grimaced. Then Cherubimon suddenly came forwards and grabbed him, swinging him around and tossing him over her shoulder. Parallelmon crashed face-first into the ground. MegaGargomon loomed over him and a cavity on his chest opened. A missile launched downwards and struck the ground beside him, sending the evil Mega tumbling to the side.
"Nobody said we could play with explosives," growled Parallelmon, after he came to a stop and flipped onto his hands and knees.
"Nobody said with could play with dimensions," countered MegaGargomon.
"Well you can't play my game, but two can play yours." BACKEW!
"Where's he gone?" Sakuyamon whirled around.
"I don't know but I don't like what he just said," said Cherubimon. Hurriedly she picked up two fallen trees in her hands and held them like weapons. MegaGargomon then did the same and the two stood back-to-back. Parallelmon appeared off to one side and he was indeed riding a large missile. A very large one.
"Incoming!" yelled MegaGargomon and both moved to block using the trees. Parallelmon leapt off the missile and it struck the trees, sending splintering wood into all directions and knocking MegaGargomon and Cherubimon to either side. MegaGargomon lost his footing and fell onto his back. Cherubimon caught herself in mid-air but still managed to knock over several trees.
"Oh, it's on now!" cried Sakuyamon. She leapt forward to attack and Cherubimon did the same while MegaGargomon rolled onto his front, flattening woodland as he did so.
"No more playing around!" declared Cherubimon. Her hands crackled and sparked with thousands of volts of electricity and a sparking bolt appeared in each of them. "LIGHTNING SPEAR!" she cried and hurled both of them. Her aim was dead-on. Parallelmon rolled to avoid one but it still struck him in the side and the other crashed full into his chest. He erupted with powerful sparks as they coursed searing pain through him.
Sakuyamon swooped low to the ground and shot sideways, going right in front of him. As she drew before him she yelled "AMETHYST WIND!" Huge shards of purple diamonds burst from nowhere behind her and swept past her with ease, slamming and cutting into the armour on Parallelmon's body, and causing him to fall, the two attacks leaving him severely weakened.
There was a loud thud as MegaGargomon dropped from the sky to land right behind him. Sakuyamon shot out of the way as his chest cavity opened again, along with just about every part of his body except his face.
"Let's see if you can last much longer now!" he cried. "MEGA BARRAGE!"
It was like metal rain that exploded on contact.
Cyberdramon, with Ryo still astride his back, exited Tokyo city and soared towards the action zone as fast as his wings could take him. He'd sensed the evil Digimon a good seven minutes ago and he felt extremely annoyed that Ryo lived so far away from the place where the others had gone camping. Ryo was thinking along similar lines and was cursing himself from relaxing his guard too soon. He hoped that the three of them were strong enough to stop whoever this was.
Cyberdramon had also faltered a couple of minutes ago because the Digimon had disappeared, but then reappeared almost instantly. And this had kept happening. After sorting out that he'd find out what was going on once he'd arrived, he powered forward, pushing his speed to its limits.
"Ryo! Cyberdramon!" Ryo turned his head to see the familiar metal shape of Gallantmon swoop towards them and fall into place beside them so the two of them were soaring in the same direction.
"You were right," said Guilmon. "I can sense something too now. This is a big one."
""Perhaps we should have stopped the others from going," said Takato.
"I agree," said Ryo. "I was so stupid. Cyberdramon himself was worried about this one. I should have, I don't know, put my foot down."
"That wouldn't have helped," said another familiar voice. The two looked to one side and saw Beelzemon Blast Mode approaching off to the right. The two Megas, Ultimate and Tamer flew together towards the signal that all three of them could sense clearly now.
"Good thing you called me," said Beelzemon. "I didn't even notice this thing until you did because I was eating cream-puffs with Ai, Mako and Calumon." Try as he might, Beelzemon had not yet managed to find a way to biomerge with his Tamers, but he remained optimistic.
"Where are the others?" asked Cyberdramon.
"Saw SaberLeomon running down the street at one point," said Beelzemon, "but I ain't seen any sign of MarineAngemon or HiAndromon yet. Then again, MarineAngemon's pretty easy to miss."
"Who do you reckon this guy is?" asked Gallantmon. "And do you think the others are doing okay."
"Don't know," said Ryo. "But this guy has got to be tough. Not even Cyberdramon is all that keen to fight it for some reason."
"Where are they?"
Then ahead of them, all three heard a colossal explosion and a cloud of smoke billowed upwards about a mile ahead.
"That answer your question?" asked Beelzemon and the three made for it with all haste.
Parallelmon was on the floor face-up, battered, bruised, his armour chipped and cracked but he was alive. But not by very much. He felt his data flicker slightly as Cherubimon leant down and leaned one massive hand on his arm, pinning it to the ground firmly, but not painfully. It meant he couldn't dimension jump without taking her with him and he knew she knew it. He remembered the Antylamon that he had almost destroyed once in his fight against the Sovereigns.
MegaGargomon also knelt and leaned on both his legs with another hand. He peered downwards at their attacker, ex-attacker, and said, "Alright, I know that we all have a couple of questions we'd like to ask you."
Parallelmon growled, but said nothing. Sakuyamon spoke next, "You attacked the Digital World last time. But now you've chosen to assault the Human World. Why?"
"It is not the Human World I want," said Parallelmon. "I couldn't give a damn about it. What I wanted was you."
"To kill us?" asked MegaGargomon. "Was that all? Did you think we were a threat?"
Parallelmon said nothing.
"Answer this," spoke up Cherubimon. "I know for a fact that you have an attack that could have transported us to another dimension and you could have left us there. Why didn't you? Anything data could have gone. Why?"
Parallelmon growled again, but he answered this one. "I wanted something from you that I wouldn't be able to obtain by sending you to an alternate dimension. I wanted the humans."
"Us?" asked Suzie's voice alone. "Why?"
"You are Tamers," said Parallelmon. "On my travels and getting back to strength I discovered that my attack can ingest Tamers and that the power and the strength that they give to their partners could be given to me."
A chill ran up the spines of all three Megas. "So that's why you attacked out tent first," said Henry. "You were trying to eat us."
"Yes," said Parallelmon. "And once I have the strength of all the Tamers I could have finally challenged the Sovereigns. But you then and went and threw a spanner in the works," he glared at Sakuyamon. "I have to admit that you have good reflexes."
"Thank you," said Renamon curtly.
"I cannot ingest a human if they are merged with their Digimon. They'd just be transported to an alternate dimension too. That was why I was not using my attack. I was trying to get you to de-digivolve first so I could then send the Digimon to another dimension so no-one could warn the Sovereigns and then assimilate the Tamers."
"You are sick," said Rika, pronouncing each word carefully. "We're just children."
"I don't make exceptions. You are Tamers and that puts you on my menu."
"Guys! Are you a—Oh, I guess you are."
"Typical Gogglehead," said Rika as Gallantmon, Beelzemon and Cyberdramon soared in, Ryo astride his partner's back. Ryo raised his D-Arc and it displayed the stats.
"Parallelmon, Virus Type, Mega Level, Attacks: Absorbent Bang and Endless Trance."
"A Tamer?" asked Parallelmon.
Instantly, they saw where this was going. "RYO!" cried Henry. "BIOMERGE NOW!"
"What?"
"DO IT!"
Stunned but recognizing the tone of fear which meant there was no time to argue, Ryo quickly grabbed his D-Arc and yelled "BIOMERGE ACTIVATE!"
"CYBERDRAMON BIOMERGE TO... JUSTIMON!"
The three Megas that had just battled the evil Digimon breathed a sigh of relief. But Parallelmon had other ideas. Absorbing a Tamer now wouldn't do much good anyway. He was too weak and he knew it. He had to leave while he could and regain his strength for another attempt, but he couldn't dimension jump now, or they'd be taken with him and then they could finish him off.
However, he could transport them first. And asking about the Tamer had provided an adequate distraction.
"Nice fighting with you," he said. "But I have to be going now. ABSORBENT BANG!"
"NO!" cried Lopmon, knowing where this was going. She tried to pull away but an enormous fleshy tendril with five clawed fingers on the end suddenly shot out of the wide-staring eye. It wrapped around Cherubimon's retreating arm, before shooting sideways and whipping around on of MegaGargomon's as well. Almost as an afterthought, they clawed tip grabbed Sakuyamon by the leg.
A split second later, there was a loud BACKEW, Cherubimon, MegaGargomon and Sakuyamon all vanished into thin air.
A split second later, the three other Megas let loose ear-splitting cries of horror and then charged, roaring at Parallelmon. Parallelmon could not fight them now, so he merely flipped onto his front, said "This isn't over" and BACKEW he vanished too. Gallantmon's lance speared the ground where he had been.
"NO!" cried Gallantmon. "MEGAGARGOMON! SAKUYAMON! CHERUBIMON! WHERE ARE YOU!"
"WHAT HAPPENED!" yelled Beelzemon. "WHAT WAS THAT ATTACK!"
"I don't know," whispered Justimon.
"Hurry!" cried Takato. "Split up and search the forest. They've gotta be somewhere around here."
Gallantmon shot off into the trees without a moment's thought. Beelzemon lifted off and flapped in another direction, scanning the area for any signs of anything. Justimon just stood in the clearing, slumped and disbelieving.
"This is my fault," Ryo almost sobbed. "This is all my fault!"
The world was a dark purple on the whole, but there appeared to be flashes of colour all over the place. Red, orange, yellow, blue, green, white, pink, just about any colour you could think of except black danced before the eyes of the three Megas. None of them had any control of their bodies as they tumbled, spinning and rolling, flailing helplessly, unable to sort themselves out or form any concept of direction.
MegaGargomon's massive foot came swinging towards Sakuyamon. Through their link Terriermon saw this happening and he quickly took over and caused him and Henry to separate, de-digivolving until both of them were themselves again, but they were still rolling uncontrollably. Sakuyamon copied their example, splitting into two, and Cherubimon did the same shortly afterwards, until Henry, Rika, Suzie, Terriermon, Renamon and Lopmon were all hurtling along at break-neck speed together.
Henry reached out and grabbed his screaming sister by the arm, pulling her close to him with the intent to protect her as they helter-skeltered through what appeared to be some sort of vortex. There was something like a wind howling all around them so they could barely hear the sounds of their own yelling.
Rika clutched at Renamon's arm, before grabbing at the back of Henry's shirt, which she caught after a couple of attempts. Terriermon and Lopmon were close enough now to link ears with each other, then Terriermon stretched out the other to his mate, who grabbed it strongly and firmly in her large paw.
"What's happening!" shouted Suzie. "Are we going to die! I don't want to die, Henry! I don't want to die!"
"I'm so stupid!" shouted Lopmon. "I should have seen that coming. I just assumed that since he hadn't tried to transport us so far that he wouldn't then, but he had nothing to lose and his life to gain. Stupid, stupid, stupid!"
"Don't blame yourself," yelled Renamon. "You can't expect to know everything that goes through the mind of an evil Digimon unless you are one! But what is going on!"
"We're being transported to another dimension!" cried Lopmon. "We must be crossing the wall right now! He did this to many Digimon during his first attack! We always wondered what had happened to them. I suppose it was something like this!"
"You mean, there's no way back?" asked Henry, loudly.
"Sorry," said Lopmon, "but none of those Digimon were ever seen again."
There was silence save for the tremendous whooshing noise of the wind. Then Suzie started to cry. Henry did his best to soothe her but it didn't particularly work very well seeing as it felt like they were hurtling through space at hundreds of miles an hour.
"This must be what Fanglongmon meant," shouted Rika. "But why did he not warn us? Why didn't he give us a clearer perspective of what was to come!"
"I don't know!" answered Henry. "But we're not dead. We may never get back home..." his voice broke slightly here as he thought of his family and friends... "but we'll stay alive."
"I'll never get to say sorry to Jaarin for making her sit in that bucket of cold water," sighed Terriermon.
"Don't think like that!" cautioned Henry. "It'll get us nowhere. And we may not be stranded. We may find a place where we can..."
Henry never finished his sentence because at that point there was a colossal explosion nearby and they suddenly seemed to increase in speed, although that had barely seemed possible. Rika lost her grip on Renamon's arm and the three humans suddenly went tumbling off in a different direction. Renamon lunged after them but they were quickly whipped out of sight.
"RIKA!"
"HENRY!"
"SUZIE!"
The three Digimon watched in horror as they Tamers vanished from site, plunging through the vortex where the rules of gravity didn't seem to apply. It hadn't seemed possible that the day could get any worse. But it just had.
"No!" cried Renamon. "NO! NO!"
"It's too late!" wailed Lopmon. "They've gone!"
The three of them watched futilely, hoping against hope that their Tamers would re-appear. But they didn't.
"We'll find them!" declared Terriermon. "If we have to search for the rest of our lives, we'll find them! Momentai guys, we'll get through this!"
"Yes, we will," nodded Lopmon. "And we'll do it together!"
"I love you, Renamon," said Terriermon, suddenly.
"I love you too, Terriermon," said Renamon.
Lopmon, even after all that, couldn't help but smile. "Don't go all sappy on me!"
"Oh, don't worry," said Terriermon. "We w..."
There was another random explosion and what seemed like a shockwave punched against the three Rookies. Terriermon's ear suddenly slipped through Renamon's fingers and they were sent shooting in opposite directions. Lopmon was still with Terriermon, as their ears were almost knotted together.
"NO!" shouted Renamon again as her mate and sister-in-law were lost to her keen vision as well. She could still sense where they were but they were being separated at unimaginable speed. They were already hundreds of miles apart. Renamon's eyes narrowed in determination.
I will find you! She sent.
We know, chorused the bunnies.
Renamon turned to face the direction she seemed to be heading in as best she could. It seemed like she was on her own for hours, but she couldn't really tell how long she stared at the vortex around her. It could have been a mere second.
Then she saw it. The light at the end of the tunnel. There was a bright white light opening directly ahead. Renamon hurtled towards it faster than the eye could track, and then she was through it and hurled out into brightness.
Aayla brought the AT-RT to a halt. Gracefully she vaulted over the side to land smoothly on the ground, knees bending to absorb the shock of the impact. She was at the site of the appearance of the mysterious flying object, but there was nothing out of the ordinary here. Nothing physical anyway. It was an abandoned Christophsian city some walking distance from Chaleydonia and it had the usual paved streets, cracked and broken from thermal detonator and rocket fire, the usual blue spires that had been hollowed out by the locals and many of which lay crumpled and forlorn-looking, not having been occupied for some time.
And yet it was there, stronger here than it had been at any point save when the shape had appeared and disappeared. The strange ripple in the Force. Like there was some sort of hole in existence that had been opened and then suddenly shut. This was bizarre.
The Rutian Twi'lek was utterly bewildered. She wondered whether this little mission have been a wild bantha chase, just a fool's errand. She could be back by the capital assisting Bly and Cody on the assault on the marching Separatist droids. She couldn't help but feel slightly bitter. If this did prove to be a false alarm then how many clones had died from a blaster bolt that she could have deflected.
She thought of Cody and Bly and wondered how they were getting on. They were definitely still fighting – somebody would have contacted her if they'd finished. Unless they'd all died.
Aayla squashed this line of thinking. She had to keep her mind on where she was and try to figure out this mystery, if only so she could finish it and go back to help the clones.
After about twenty seconds or so of staring at an unchanging landscape, Aayla felt the Force ignite with power. A sudden white hole seemed to appear right out of nowhere to her left. Her senses nudged her and she swiftly ducked as some large thing came hurtling out of the light, almost colliding with her head and brushing her lekku.
Aayla whipped around to see a humanoid, furry, yellow creature crash to the ground on its side, sliding roughly across the paved road until coming to a sudden halt with a sickening crunch as its head collided with one of the giant crystal towers.
The creature groaned and said, "Ow," before lapsing into unconsciousness.
Aayla approached it swiftly but cautiously, taking in its appearance. It was yellow, except for hands, feet, belly and a white mane of fur around its neck. It wore no clothing except for long purple gloves that went up to its upper arms. It had a pointed muzzle and large pointed ears. There also appeared to be a strange purple symbol on each of its legs. To top it off a long, thick, bushy, yellow tail came from behind it, with a white tip.
Aayla crouched beside it and laid a hand on its shoulder, fingers between three strange, quill-like projections. "Are you alright?" she asked. There was no reply. Whatever it was it was definitely out cold. Aayla examined the body for any sign on injury, but other than a few scrapes the only problem was its head. Aayla wouldn't have fancied her chances of staying conscious when thrown at such speed into the crystal tower.
But it was definitely alive.
"What are you?" Aayla quietly asked, more to herself than the creature. She had never seen anything of its kind before. That wasn't all that surprising – there were a lot of creatures she'd never seen before. But this one was definitely sentient. It had said "Ow," before passing out.
As a Jedi it was her duty to protect those in need. She put one arm under the creature's body and began to haul it upright. "Don't worry," she said soothingly. "You're safe now."
She slung the creature over one shoulder. It was surprisingly light for its size and Aayla had no problem at all, with clambering back onto the AT-RT using only one hand. Gently she laid the creature down on the metal before her. The AT-RT wasn't really designed for two passengers but it'd have to do. She's have to us the force to make sure it didn't fall off the sloping front.
Aayla sat down, and after making sure the mystery being wouldn't fall out she restarted the AT-RT, before wheeling around and controlling it to move back to Chaleydonia with all speed. Aayla glanced at the creature. Whatever it was she could sense no deception or evil coming from, in fact quite the opposite. It almost seemed to shine with good will. Aayla didn't doubt her decision to bring it with her at all. Besides, it might be able to answer this strange phenomenon she had just witnessed.
Then the Twi'lek turned her attention back to the path ahead. The AT-RT's metal feet pounded the ground as it pelted across the blue landscape and back to the action zone.
Yay! Let it be! The Clone Wars and Digimon have finally met. Thanks to Rainbow35, Starowner and Bookworm Gal for the reviews. And also to Movie-Brat. I hope you mean fascinating in a good way.
Next time...
Renamon wakes up to find herself surrounded by armed humans. How does she react?
Coming up:- Chapter 4 : A Galaxy Far, Far Away
