Disclaimer: I do not own Data Squad
Brother, Where Art Thou?
"I still can't believe she did it!" Sarah raged, still in the underground DATS basement beneath the police station.
"Honey, calm down. Thomas and Yoshi will look after her." Spencer soothed, but she only turned her blazing glare on to him.
"This is all because of your hair brained fixation with that damned place! It's already taken our son, and now it has our daughter as well!" she stormed, and Spencer flinched, and she immediately deflated slightly.
"I'm sorry, that wasn't fair, they're both your kids, and Marcus in particular was always going to find out about the digital world, I just wish there was something we could do to stop them being so into it." She said with a forlorn sigh, and he squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.
"Sarah, she's safe, according to Yoshi's message they made it to Marcus' capital, she's safely there." Sampson assured, her, and Yoshima nodded.
"Exactly, and from what Yoshi said there's a small army protecting her now, she'll be fine. Foolish, certainly, but fine." He assured her, his brow furrowed.
"What, what is it?" Sarah asked, and Sampson steepled his fingers together, considering the screens in front of him.
Sampson frowned. He figured they may as well come clean. After all, if the signs that they were getting were accurate, things were soon going to go very wrong for everyone concerned.
"The war between our two worlds caused untold damage, as you know. Kurata almost destroyed the digital world, and in retaliation, the Royal Knights almost destroyed ours. Since Drasil was stopped, the worlds have been at peace. That's the line the public and most of the world governments believe. But, its actually a lie. Well not entirely. Instead, there's a sort of Cold War situation going on with the digital world and our own."
Yoshima nodded.
"Exactly. You see, when Drasil was stopped, and he called a stop to the war on their side, many disagreed. They wanted to make us pay for what Kurata had done, and now that the Knights and the rest of the digital world know the truth about King Drasil, many of the other powerful Digimon weren't quite as keen to stand down as they were meant to be. We've been worried most about the other members of the Olympus Twelve, like Merukimon was. Some of them are incredibly powerful, and they weren't inclined to stand down. For the last five years, the DATS teams that weren't disbanded like ours was have been watching the digital world, and now, it seems like things are finally coming to a head." He admitted, and Spencer sighed wearily.
"Exactly. The powers in the digital world are on the move. A war is brewing, and it could affect our world. The threat of war is why so many Digimon have been coming through into our world recently, they're fleeing from the conflict that's about to begin. But its getting out of hand. Something is moving in the digital world, and it could draw our world in as well. That's why we need to be prepared." He explained, and Sarah turned a furious gaze onto her husband.
"Wait, you knew about all this? You knew Marcus, and now Kristy, were heading into a potential war zone?" she demanded angrily, and Spencer flinched as both the other girls turned to glare at him as well.
"No. The signs that things weren't stable didn't start until after Marcus had left. At first, we reckoned the powerful Digimon there might eventually stand down, and for a while they did. But for the past five years, things have been looking increasingly worse, and we were afraid that it might one day affect our world again. That's why the three of us have been keeping an eye on the situation for the past few years, and that's why this base was built. To protect against what we felt could very well be an inevitable war." Sampson explained, and Spencer sighed wearily as his wife once again turned her furious gaze onto him.
"I swear, all we did was examine the world from afar, I didn't have any way to contact Marcus, if I had done, I would have told you." He insisted, but she was still glaring at him angrily.
"All we've been doing is scanning for anything untoward, which we didn't need the entire group for. We had everything set up, so if a crisis came along, we could quickly respond. The other DATS groups across the world have been keeping an eye on the digital world as well. That's part of the reason this place was ready to go, they've been alerting us to the small rips in the fabric between the worlds that the Digimon have been coming through. Digimon infiltrations are up across the world, but most of them seem to be by accident. But now...portals are opening all over the world. They're becoming more frequent, and what's more, the active DATS groups that are pursuing them, can't find them. We think they're beginning to infiltrate, in preparation for a major attack." Yoshima explained, and Miki's eyes widened in realisation.
"So you think there might be more to Keenan's disappearance? And that's why you were so keen for Thomas and Yoshi to go through! Because if there is more, and a war is coming, we'll need the digital dive operational, and we'll need our Digimon back!" she said in realisation, and Sampson nodded.
"That's exactly it. When Keenan first disappeared, I didn't think that there was something else involved, but as time goes on, I'm becoming less and less convinced that his disappearance is just a result of what happened with his family. Keenan once occupied a very important place in the digital world, and his presence there was significant for many reasons. It stands to reason that he might be targeted." He said, and Megumi frowned.
"Wait a minute...if Marcus has taken over as a warlord like we heard, then doesn't that mean...?"
"That he might have some powerful enemies, yes. That's part of our concern, but it's also an added benefit. The fact that Marcus has become so powerful during his years away means we have an ally on the inside, we just need to talk to him. But the fact that he has become powerful might well have provoked powerful digital enemies. And I expect that anyone who has heard of him in the digital world..."
"Will know full well what he would do for Keenan. You think someone took Keenan to get to Marcus?" Sarah asked, and Sampson made a small noise of assent.
"It's only a recent theory, but it's the one we're working with. Keenan would be a sure fire way to goad Marcus into doing something foolish. The fact that there isn't even a trace of Keenan makes me more inclined to believe he actually was taken to the digital world." He explained.
"But that begs the question of how! The gates have been sealed shut, its only rips and tears that the other Digimon have been entering through, isn't it?" Megumi asked curiously, scanning the digital world, and Yoshima frowned.
"That's part of our worry. So many have been opened...we're beginning to fear they aren't rips in the barrier, but are actually deliberately made holes. We're afraid it's the precursor to an invasion, which is another reason we were so keen to establish contact with Marcus, because like you said, we'll need our Digimon. And Marcus certainly wouldn't hurt either." He said grimly, and Miki was about to say something else when her screen started to blare, and she quickly got back into her usual role.
"Sir, something is emerging!" she called, and Sampson stood, the better to get a look at whatever was about to happen.
"I swear I don't know how Marcus is! Well, not yet." Spencer assured his irate wife, and she nodded slightly before turning her attention to this new crisis.
She was worried. Sampson wouldn't have set this base up if he didn't seriously believe that there was a significant possibility of a war between the two worlds again. And Marcus was still in the digital world, and could very well be a target of whatever Digimon it was that was risking a war with both worlds. And now, to make matters worse, Kristy was in the digital world, and unlike her brother, who admittedly could look after himself and also had a Digimon who was his official partner, had no protection. And then there was Keenan, a boy she had come to view as her own, who had vanished from home, and due to finding no trace of him, was considered to have gone to the digital world, but now was possibly a kidnap victim of the same place. She closed her eyes and shook her head wearily. She wanted all three of them back, safe and sound. And she would have liked that Spencer hadn't kept anything from her as well. But more than anything she didn't want another war with the digital world. Last time it had nearly cost her her entire family, she didn't want to go through that again.
She still remember the heartbroken look of disbelief on Marcus and Kristy's face when King Drasil had assumed her husband's form. She didn't want to ever see her children look at her like that again.
"Searching..." Megumi reported, and she let out a slight yelp of surprise.
"What is it Megumi, where is it emerging?" Sampson demanded quickly, and she turned to look at him in shock.
"Here!" she cried, just as a gate opened right above them.
They all covered their eyes as there was a bright flash, Spencer covering his wife slightly, and a second later it was all over, the gate shut, the flash faded, and to their surprise, there was no sound of an attacking Digimon.
"What the hell was that?" Spencer demanded, and Sarah looked past him in surprise to see what was sitting in the middle of the floor.
"I reckon it was that." She said, and as one, the entire room turned to look at the digiegg, covered in pink crosses, that was sitting in the middle of the floor, glimmering in the light from above.
"A digiegg? How come a digiegg came through a digital gate?" Miki asked, and Yoshima frowned musingly, exchanging a dark look with Sampson.
"There's no way, not without it getting some serious help." He said darkly, and Sampson nodded significantly as both Spencer and Sarah approached the egg curiously.
"The last time we had one of these it hatched into Biyomon." Sarah mused, remembering that particular day very well.
Spencer was studying the egg intently. Yoshima was right, there was no way that the egg could have gotten here under its own steam, someone had sent it here. This was a test run, it had to be. An egg carried much less risk than anything else. He pursed his lips worriedly. After five years of watchful and tense peace, it looked like something was about to happen again. Something was brewing in the digital world, and it was spilling over here.
The one bright side? He might get to see his son again.
And then he noticed Sarah reaching out to touch the egg.
"Sarah, don't!" he cried, and as she laid her hand on the egg, turning to her husband in surprise, a small crack emerged from where she had touched it.
Everyone in the room went still, their eyes fixated on the egg. And a second later, the top of the shell shattered, revealing the small white Digimon within, which then turned its eyes onto Sarah hopefully.
"Oh no." She whispered, as the little Digimon leapt towards her, cooing happily.
XX
"This isn't going well!" Gomamon complained as another plume of snow threatened to crush them.
"Can't you reason with him? He's part of your digivolution line!" Flamemon yelled, shivering as he did so.
"And that'll make him listen to me?" he demanded back, Anderson cursing as another attack got too close.
Virtually, ever since they had arrived they had been pursued like dogs on a hunt. A powerful and angry Zudomon had started pursuing them as soon as they had landed in a place called Illusion City. Emerging into the throne room, they had discovered a black and white jester like Digimon, who had been furious to discover the humans walking around his palace, demanding to know how they had gotten there. Unfortunately, a Zudomon had been there with a delegation, talking about an army of some sort, and he vowed, that as a gesture of friendship, he would kill these humans for him and allow this jester like Digimon to mount them on his wall. They had been pursued ever since, though by now they had now passed from the bizarre land where nothing was what it seemed, through a land of pipes and sludge, the smell making all of them faint, until they had finally found a railway.
Once there, a passing Trailmon had offered them a lift, promising to take them to Glacial City, where they could find friends. Relieved, they had been given a chance to get their breath back, and they had skirted the coast and had passed through at least two more lands before they had crossed the border into a land covered with snow.
And it was there that Zudomon and his party had caught up with them, bearing down on them with their own train like Digimon, though this one was more akin to a steam train than a car, and the smaller Digimon had been obliterated off the track, the egg smashed by the gargantuan Digimon. Ever since then they had been on the run, Zudomon right behind them, determined to crush them.
"Filthy humans!" Zudomon bellowed, using his hammer to rip open another hole in the earth as they ran from him.
"Alright, enough of this, its time we turn and fight!" Kain urged, but Anderson shook his head.
"No, we can't, it'll only make things worse with the Digimon." He insisted, and Sally looked at him disbelievingly.
"You do realise this guy is trying his hardest to kill us?" she asked, and he nodded.
"Yes I do, but I also know who he is. He was part of a delegation, talking to another digital head of state, by attacking him, we could be starting the war we came here to try and stop." He explained, and Gomamon nodded.
"Yeah, we get that, but we also get that we can't keep running from him, because eventually we're going to have to turn and fight!" he urged, and Anderson nodded.
"Yes, but we need to go far enough to be certain that neither the clown or Zudomon's boss have any jurisdiction so we don't risk making this ten times worse than it already is." He explained, and Britney pursed her lips.
She understood his reasoning, but she didn't necessarily like it. But she also thought they were far enough away now that they could justify defending themselves. But she also understood that if they did, they could very well be starting the very thing they were trying to avoid.
"We might just have to turn around and face them now." Curtis said miserably, and Sally looked at him in shock.
"What makes you say that?"
"Maybe the fact that we don't have anywhere else to run?" Goblimon pointed out, indicating that they had somehow been outflanked by Zudomon's forces and they were now surrounded.
"How did they manage that?" Flamemon demanded, aghast that they had been outsmarted so easily.
"Sir, with respect, we're morons. We've allowed the enemy to flank us. This is a clear failure of strategic thinking." Commandramon said helpfully, and Kain rolled his eyes.
"Really? I never would have guessed." He said scathingly, and Fredrich grinned in amusement.
"Don't mind him Commandramon. Should we do it?" he asked eagerly, and Zudomon chuckled.
"I don't really think there's any need for you to do anything my little insects. You see, this is the digital world, and we are the Digimon. You are trespassing, and we will not tolerate the presence of human filth here any longer. Your filthy species has soured our world long enough, and now we're going to make you pay." He vowed, and Dokunemon looked at him defiantly.
"We aren't going to back down from you Zudomon. Arriving where we did was a mistake." He said, and Zudomon glared.
"Sure it was. We know full well it was the precursor to an invasion, problem is, it didn't go so well for you did it? Ever since your attempted genocide, we've been preparing to stop you when you came back to finish the job. And here you are, trespassing in our world, ready to go again. Well we won't allow it. Lord Marsmon has decreed that all humans must die for their crimes against us. We were slaughtered by your kind once, we will not be so again! We will take out all humans who dare defy us, and we'll begin with those who are arrogant enough to trespass in our world!" he snarled, and Kain did a quick survey, realising just how outnumbered they were.
Along with Zudomon, there were two BlackGarurumons, several Boarmon and Rhinomon, a couple of Orochimon and an entire squadron of Reptiledramon. A flock of Saberdramon were cawing mercilessly above Zudomon, who was flanked by two Apemon, who were holding the leashes of two Cerberumon and Dobermon each. Right behind Zudomon was SkullMeramon and Cyclonemon.
The odds weren't insurmountable, but they also weren't in their favour.
"You're going to begin with trespassers? Funny, isn't that what you're doing?" a voice asked from behind Zudomon, and he turned in alarm to see who had talked.
Kain was actually suitably impressed by the other guys arrival. Much the same age, this guy was dressed in a black top, with a red and white fighting hoody wrapped around him, as well as a fur cloak. Armbands were tied around his wrists, and he had long brown hair, tied into a ponytail at the top, his green eyes narrowed in anger.
Beside him, there were two other kids, one a blond guy also wrapped in fur, and on the other side, a girl also wrapped in fur with short reddish brown hair, all of them glaring down at Zudomon from atop the hill they were standing on.
"Other humans, here?" Sally asked in shock, and Anderson nodded musingly.
"I think we've found the kid who left Japan to take control of the digital world." He theorised, and Kain nodded, his eyes covering this guy, there was something powerful about him, a sort of blazing power within him that made Kain instantly respect him, but he was also eager to get involved in a fight with this guy, just to see what he was made of.
"Marcus Damon." Zudomon sneered in disgust, and Marcus' green eyes were narrowed as he beheld the Digimon.
"Unless I'm missing something, you're a long way from Stormhammer and the rest of Marsmon's territory." Marcus hissed, and Zudomon glowered at him.
"You arrogant human wretch. This is the digital world, you have no business here!" he boomed, and Marcus raised an eyebrow in challenge.
"Maybe you're right, but while I am here, this is my territory. And you're trespassing. Which, considering you're doing it with a squad of troops, is technically an act of war. And I can't imagine your boss would be happy being made to look like the aggressor, it would mean the mercantile states wouldn't be nearly so willing to support him. So why don't you run off home, and we'll say no more about it?" he challenged, and it was then that Agumon, Gaomon and Lalamon appeared beside their partners, ready to do battle.
"I won't be dictated to by the likes of you boy. As you are about to learn!" Zudomon vowed, raising his hammer, and to the Europeans surprise, Marcus used his foot to rocket himself into the air, zooming right towards Zudomon, and before the large Digimon could do anything, Marcus' fist slammed into his snout, creating an orange burst of digisoul all around him, making him glow.
"He just punched a Digimon!" Britney exclaimed in shock, she had never seen something like that before.
"I think that's our cue to let things get a bit hairy. Shall we?" Anderson asked, and his group nodded as Marcus landed catlike with his friends, grinning towards Agumon.
"Boss?" Agumon asked eagerly, and Marcus grinned back.
"It's fighting time again!" he declared, making Thomas and Yoshi grin.
"Oh it's good to be back!" Yoshi cried in delight, as she and Thomas activated their own digisouls and the three revealed their digivices, which looked slightly different from those of the Europeans.
"DNA full charge!" they cried in unison, their digisouls consuming them.
"Agumon warp digivolve to...RizeGreymon!"
"Gaomon warp digivolve to...MachGaogamon!"
"Lalamon warp digivolve to...Lilamon!"
Zudomon snarled in annoyance and beckoned for his troops to make their move, and Kain grinned in anticipation, it was about time they got to fight back.
"Our turn troops, let's go!" he yelled, revealing his red digivice, and Commandramon tensed in anticipation.
"Right behind you sir!" he said eagerly, as the entire group was consumed with their own digisouls.
"Let's do it Commandramon!" Kain ordered as his red digisoul surrounded him.
Britney smirked as for the first time the other humans registered the presence of the European DATS team, Thomas' eyes widening in faint realisation as she activated her own lilac digisoul.
"Let's show them what we're made of Penguinmon!" she commanded, and her partner got into a ready stance.
"On it!"
"Dokunemon, let's show them how we do it where we're from." Fredrich said, and his little insect partner sprang from his shoulder, eager to fight.
"Time we even the odds!"
"Gomamon?" Anderson asked mildly, and his partner winked at him before moving forward, ready to fight as his partner was consumed by his white digisoul.
"Let's do this Flamemon, the best defence is a good offence!" Sally yelled, and her partner made his hands into fists in anticipation.
"Couldn't agree more ma'am!" he replied as her yellow digisoul surrounded her.
"Goblimon, Shamanmon, SnowGoblimon, digivolve!" the three triplets cried, one surrounded by a navy blue, one by a dark green, and one by a deep red digisoul.
"DNA full charge!"
"Commandramon warp digivolve to...Tankdramon!"
"Penguinmon warp digivolve to...Deramon!"
"Dokunemon warp digivolve to...Scorpiomon!"
"Gomamon warp digivolve to...Zudomon!"
"Flamemon warp digivolve to...Volcdoramon!"
"Goblimon warp digivolve to...Minotaurmon!"
"Shamanmon warp digivolve to...Etemon!"
"SnowGoblimon warp digivolve to...BlueMeramon!"
"Where did they come from?" Yoshi asked, and Thomas smirked.
"Europe, they're the European DATS branch, I recognise some of them from when I helped set it up. But we can talk about that after we deal with Zudomon." He said, as the Digimon sprang into action.
"Sir, what do we do, we're outnumbered!" Cyclonemon cried in alarm.
"Kill them you idiot!" Zudomon roared in response as the Digimon closed as one.
"Trident Revolver!"
"Howling Cannon!"
"Lila Shower!"
"Striver Cannon!"
"Royal Smasher!"
"Twin Sword!"
"Vulcan's Hammer!"
"Volcanic Fount!"
"Earthquake Drill!"
"Dark Network!"
"Ice Phantom!"
Against their combined force, there was never any doubt. Suddenly vastly outgunned, Zudomon blocked RizeGreymon's attack, and as the various attacks filled the air, he took the opportunity to make good his mistake. Blocking another hit from MachGaogamon, Zudomon headed for the tracks as the various other fighters ripped into the forces that Zudomon had brought with him.
MachGaogamon blew away both BlackGarurumon easily with his attack, and even their defeat was enough to send the rest of Zudomon's forces from dispersing, and they all began running off in their own direction, realising that they were clearly outmatched. Scorpiomon took out one of the Bullmon, before repeating the process with a Rhinomon, although he was forced back by a bombardment from the Reptiledramon who were launching missiles everywhere, backed up by the Saberdramon, who were swooping down at the humans who were present. Volcdoramon roared in defiance, his attack taking out half of the entire Saberdramon squadron and making the other flies retreat from harm's way. The four dog like Digimon remaining were barking, trying to rip open Kain and his group, but Deramon blocked their way, his attack destroying the two Dobermon and making the Cerberumon retreat, whining pitifully.
The Boarmon fired at Marcus' position, forcing the three standing there to take cover, but Lilamon was there in an instant, destroying another two Boarmon before they caused any more damage. Below them, the friendly Zudomon had just taken out one of the Orochimon, and was about to be ambushed by an Apemon before Etemon took him out with a well placed attack. Minotaurmon opened a chasm in the ground which dropped a Rhinomon and a Boarmon into an endless abyss, while BlueMeramon sniped down a Reptiledramon with his icy fire attack. RizeGreymon took down another Saberdramon before turning his weapon onto the rocketing Reptiledramon, who had apparently started to realise that they were overmatched and were now attempting to retreat.
Tankdramon also noticed that the enemy, now in a panic, were trying to retreat, and unleashed several of his attacks, blasting two Boarmon from existence, while also taking out another two Rhinomon, sending the enemy cavalry into disarray as they tried their hardest to escape. MachGaogamon destroyed the remaining Orochimon and finished the last Boarmon as they tried to escape the rout that the combined forces were dealing them. A Cerberumon was killed by Zudomon flinging his hammer like a boomerang, and Lilamon destroyed the last Apemon as he too tried to make his escape. Minotaurmon then took down another Rhinomon, while Etemon managed to hit one of the escaping Saberdramon, denying him his escape. BlueMeramon then took out the last Cerberumon as Lilamon finished off the Saberdramon flock.
"Boss?" RizeGreymon asked as both SkullMeramon and Cyclonemon were both making a run for it.
"Take them out." Marcus ordered coldly, and a well placed shot blew SkullMeramon apart with a scream.
Cyclonemon turned as if to fight before a missile collided with him, blowing him apart, leaving Tankdramon looking very pleased with himself as he took out the last enemy commander as the shattered remnants of Zudomon's force fled, now only five strong, completely wiped out by the power of the combined DATS force.
"That was fun." Agumon commented as he returned to his usual form, joining Marcus and the others as they headed over to the newly arrived group of humans and their Digimon partners.
"Ah! I take it you're Marcus Damon?" the oldest bearded man said, strolling forward and extending his hand.
"Yeah, and you are?" Marcus asked, shaking his hand back.
"They're DATS Europe. This is Commander Heath Anderson. It's nice to see you again Commander." Thomas said in greeting, also shaking his hand.
"Ah, Norstein, it's good to see you again. I don't believe we've met?" Anderson said, and Yoshi stopped forward to shake his hand.
"My name's Yoshino sir, it's nice to meet you." She said, shaking firmly.
"This is my team, Gomamon here is my partner. This is my second in command, Sergeant Sally Prosser and her partner Flamemon. At the head of my team here is Kain Volger and his partner Commandramon," he said, and Kain shook hands with each of them, his blue eyes locked in an intense battle of wills as he shook Marcus, both of them grinning slightly, trying to outdo the other, while Commandramon saluted them all happily, "Fredrich Guter and his partner Dokunemon," he said, allowing him to shake hands, his gaze lingering on Yoshi, and Dokunemon nodded at each in turn, "Britney Sands," and she too shook hands, smiling a bit more as she shook hands with Thomas while Penguinmon shook all the Digimon's hands, "and the triplets, Curtis, Cameron and Callum McGuire, and their partners, Goblimon, SnowGoblimon and Shamanmon." He said, finishing the introductions.
"It's good to meet you all, but, what are you guys all doing here? In case you missed it, humans aren't really popular around here." Marcus commented, gesturing to the distantly visible retreating enemy forces.
"You're telling us. We just had bad luck, we wound up in the middle of some clown's throne room, and Zudomon was there and said he'd hunt us down, and we've been on the run ever since. They chased us over the entire damn continent, and destroyed our train." Britney explained, and Gaomon looked at her curiously.
"They destroyed the train? An odd move." He said, and Thomas looked at him.
"It makes perfect sense to me. Since they escaped on a train, blow it up, you make them need to run, which is why they look so exhausted." He said, because they all looked completely knackered.
"Yeah, we've been running since we entered this rotten cold area. My feet are killing me." Flamemon complained, and Agumon shot him an affronted look.
"Hey, this rotten cold area is our home I'll have you know, and the place you're probably going to wind up staying." He said irritably, while Lalamon turned to look at Marcus.
"While it makes sense, the fact that they destroyed a Trailmon doesn't make sense though does it Marcus?" she asked, and Yoshi looked at their favoured warlord, his furs fluttering in the freezing wind, his face pensive.
"No, she's right, it doesn't. The Trailmon network is the thing that links all of the kingdoms together, its the travel and supply route for the entire continent, it even serves Neptunemon, and a line goes through each state, its the only way that all the kingdoms stay connected. Zudomon attacking the Trailmon these guys were on means he isn't that concerned about any possible reprisals from the GranLocomon Collective." He mused, thinking hard.
"Which means what exactly?" Kain asked curiously, and Marcus frowned worriedly.
"That we're in trouble. No matter how much they hate humans, they wouldn't destroy a Trailmon to get to them, especially when one of the GranLocomons actually supports Marsmon. They're willing to jeopardise their supply lines to get to humans, because the Trailmon network would retaliate for the destruction of one of their own. They're willing to risk an embargo to come after us. They don't care anymore, and they don't think they need the Trailmon anymore. They're coming for us." Marcus said in cold realisation as he turned to face in the direction of Stormhammer.
Marsmon was coming for him. He was coming for them all.
Marsmon was coming for war.
XX
"Kristy!" Biyomon cried in delight, as he jumped into her arms in greeting.
"Biyomon, oh its so good to see you, I told you we'd see each other again!" she greeted enthusiastically, Taomon smiling as she watched the reunion out of the corner of her eye while she filled in a requisition form, they were running low on several supplies, and to her great dismay, the coffee levels were frighteningly low, and looking after Marcus, she needed all the coffee she could get.
"Gatomon? Where is she?" Gotsumon asked, and she sniffed.
"The flea bitten little rat is on a mission for the general, why?" she asked, and Gotsumon looked at her nervously.
"I'm wondering..." he began and she sighed wearily.
"For goodness sake Gotsumon, Craniamon doesn't give two hoots if you live or die. Besides, he's helping Crusadermon train new Knightmon for his army." She explained, unconcerned by his paranoia about the Royal Knight.
"That's a load off." He said, trotting off looking happier.
"And it's all changed now Biyomon!" Kristy said excitedly, and he nodded eagerly.
"Yeah, we can be together again, and help Marcus, he's been great. Not as great as it is to see you again though. We're right back where we started, back together again and not knowing quite what to do." He said cheerfully, and Kristy grinned.
"Not quite. Look what I have." She said, and Biyomon's mouth opened in surprise as he saw the yellow digivice.
"A digivice!" he exclaimed in shock.
That made Taomon look up in surprise.
"Excuse me? Where did you get a digivice?" she asked in shock, heading over to them, and Kristy showed her it, with the Digimon looking at it in surprise.
"Elecmon gave it to me." She said simply, and she looked at her in surprise.
"Elecmon? Kristy, there isn't an Elecmon in all of Glacial City." She said weakly, and Kristy shrugged, apparently unconcerned.
"Either way, I've got a digivice, it's mine now." She said, taking it back and heading off with Biyomon while Taomon looked at her disappearing form weakly.
"What's up with you?" WereGarurmon asked curiously, and she pointed to where Kristy was disappearing.
"Kristy has a digivice, which an Elecmon gave to her. As you know..."
"There isn't an Elecmon in the city." He said suspiciously, and she nodded grimly.
"Exactly. We can't allow her to use that digivice. She'll be safe here, I believe their partner needs to be in danger to force a digivolution. But either way, we have a problem." She said worriedly, and he nodded.
"Yeah. She has a dubious digivice...and one of us needs to tell Marcus the good news." He said, a tone of slight glee to his voice, and Taomon groaned slightly.
"Can't we get Gotsumon to do it? Marcus will do his raving nah-nah." She said wearily, and he shook his head.
"Nah, it has to come from one of us. Rock paper scissors?" he asked, and she nodded tiredly, and made the motions choosing paper.
And then swearing loudly as WereGarurumon began to chuckle as he had chosen scissors.
XX
"Well your forces chased those intruding humans away, true enough, but I can't see why I would ally with you in a war with Marcus Damon. After all, it is your battle with him, no one elses." Piedmon pointed out, and Marsmon smiled as the two of them sat on Piedmon's balcony, sipping wine.
"I admit, my problems with Marcus Damon are personal. However, there is a larger issue here Piedmon my friend. Humanity almost destroyed our world. And now, as you say, there are even more humans in our world. Don't you see where this is leading? Marcus is expanding everywhere, he has turned many of our people against the way we ought to be, domesticated and turned into his willing servants. He is a plague upon our lands and it is getting worse. You must see this." Marsmon said, and Piedmon sipped his wine, mulling it over.
"I can't deny, that ever since he appeared Marcus has been something of a problem. Mind you I haven't suffered personal losses as you have."
Marsmon looked at the jester like Digimon curiously.
"Really? How has he made a nuisance of himself to you?" he asked, and Piedmon toasted him with his glass.
"It's more his presence. He acts as a distraction, as you yourself have seen. Dianamon and Venusmon are both hopelessly taken in by him, ClavisAngemon tolerates his presence when he really shouldn't. The nominal states, who were my best customers, have rallied around he and your sister, and many of my business opportunities have dried up. The other states around my own have also become more brazen, as I'm sure you've noticed. While this is all very well in some aspects, such as Raijinmon, who has always been a good friend of mine, but ones such as PlatinumNumemon? They're all overstepping their bounds, and its all down to the presence of Marcus Damon. And what's more, he interfered with my business opportunities across the continent. And has made Dianamon, ClavisAngemon and the Royal Knights much less cooperative. You are right that his presence is...shall we say, distracting to the way we do things." He said silkily, and Marsmon nodded slowly.
"Indeed he is. He is a threat to us all my friend, as you have seen. Humans are a blight on our world, and it is only going to get worse. They will not rest until they have all but destroyed our world. Look at the damage done by the defiler Kurata. We cannot allow ourselves to be put into that position again. Marcus is a time bomb waiting to go off. He is a human, and they are not to be trusted. Do I have your help my friend? I need all the help I can get." He said, and Piedmon chuckled darkly.
"My help? Surely the God of War doesn't need the help of the Clown Prince." He said mockingly, and Marsmon glared.
"The boy, while a problem, can be overcome. However, there are now more humans, and their treacherous Digimon can mostly reach Mega. While I have my own resources to call upon," he said, and Piedmon shot him a glance.
"Yes, I've heard of your resources. I would advise against using them too much though, the support you have might evaporate when they realise you are utilising the very same hybrids that Kurata used to enforce his will, that support might evaporate." He said silkily, and Marsmon looked at him in slight alarm, then raised his wine glass to him in salute.
"Very good work Piedmon. You are of course correct. I'll take that under advisement."
"Oh...and Marcus' agents are getting closer to finding out about your insurance policy. You know as well as I do that when Marcus discovers that you have the boy in your custody, he will declare war. You have been rumbling for a while now, but he can rumble much quicker, and he has a large following, not as strong as yours, but still strong. And he has support from other nations." Piedmon said idly, and Marsmon sipped his wine as he mulled it over in his mind.
He knew full well that Marcus would soon know that he had Keenan in his dungeons. He also knew that Marcus would declare war on him as soon as he found out. And that was exactly what he wanted. To get Keenan back, Marcus would bring his disgusting little human friends and their treasonous Digimon to Stormhammer. And by invading his fortress rather than just his lands, the rest of the continent would see Marcus as the aggressor, see him for the human that he truly was.
And he would march right into his clutches, and Marsmon would then take great delight in eradicating the boy from the digital world.
"So, do I have your support my friend?" Marsmon asked, and Piedmon nodded.
"Yes. Marcus Damon is a growing nuisance. I shall assist you in destroying this pestilence." He said, and they clinked their glasses together.
Marsmon smiled in approval. Rajinmon, one of his oldest friends, had agreed to join him. Rajinmon was the leader of the cyborg Digimon, in the northernmost kingdom of the mercantile states. During the war with Kurata, he had fought well and bravely, attacking his soldiers mercilessly, only to come to a stop when he had encountered the Gizumon. As the leader of the cyborg Digimon, he believed that the Gizumon were cyborg Digimon and hence ought to be under his protection. Upon realising that the Gizumon were soulless abominations, he was furious and vowed revenge on all humanity for besmirching the nobility of his people, and for creating an abomination in the image of his people.
He now had Piedmon's assistance as well as that, giving him two of the most powerful unaligned states at his beck and call.
He had also whipped the sewer Digimon into a frenzy. Playing on their feelings of resentment and betrayal, having been stuck with the smallest state in the continent, forced to live underground sorting out the sewage and waste of the rest of the continent, he had convinced PlatinumNumemon to right the wrongs inflicted on his people. The fact that he had neglected to tell them that Marcus' kingdom was one of the lowest contributors to waste, and to the fact that the sewer Digimon were in the position they were in, was irrelevant.
He had also secured the support of Pharaohmon. The leader of the kingdom in the digital desert, he commanded his realm from Pyramidis, his capital. Believing that the neighbouring nominal state, controlled by Okuwamon, should belong to him since it was also made of desert, and Okuwamon controlled his realm from a small oasis, he had joined with Marsmon to try and win back the area and expand his empire, and Marsmon was only too happy to oblige. And now, all the pieces were in place.
He had his allies. His forces were ready to move. He had all four Bio-Hybrids. His siblings would not stop him. And Marcus would walk willingly into his trap in an effort to save the boy he viewed as a brother.
Everything was going as he had planned.
XX
"Marsmon is preparing for war, we must take action!" Okuwamon insisted as they sat around the black and white table in Heterochrome City.
The leaders of all the nominal states were there, to decide their roles in the upcoming conflict. It was clear now that Marsmon wanted a war and was prepared to go out and get it. Dianamon, their nominal leader, had asked them to meet to decide on what role their various states would play, as it was clear now that the two strongest powers in the continent, Marcus and Marsmon, were about to come to blows. Raids had been conducted, forces were being amassed, weapons prepared and supplies hoarded. Marsmon was going to war. And, as they bordered the mercantile states, who all unofficially looked to Piedmon as their leader, and worse, many of whom supported Marsmon, they were right in the firing line as regardless of what happened, Marsmon would have to go through their states to enter Marcus' domain.
That of course meant that they now had to decide on their role in the upcoming conflict.
All nine state leaders were there. Pandamon, queen of the Bear Kingdom, known for her compassion and protection of the underdog due to her maternal nature. Then there was HerculesKabuterimon, the powerful king of the Hive Consortium, a collection of all sorts of insect Digimon, known for his firm and steady ruling hand, and for his fighting skills. Then there was Okuwamon, the leader of Oasica, the tropical oasis that governed a section of the great desert which was contested by Pharoahmon, who known for his stubbornness. KingChessmon was next, the ruler of Hetero, and the host of this meeting. There was Wisemon, the wise and scholarly Digimon who played the role of conscience to the various states, who had assumed command of Minervamon's capital and was well respected throughout the land. Parrotmon was there, representing the kingdom of Tornado Gorge, a very conservative and patient leader. IceDevimon, enhanced beyond normal means due to the sacrifice of his loving Icemon to save his life, ruled the isolated Frigid Island, and refused any form of conflict, giving him the reputation of a coward. Blossomon, who lived deep within the tropical Botany Jungle preferred staying hidden in fights, though the number of Digimon that had mysteriously disappeared in her realm was questionable. Last was MegaSeadramon, who ruled the kingdom closest to the coast, which was called Beachprint City, and he was a fickle ruler, as prone to support one side as the rest.
"This isn't our war, this is between Marcus and Marsmon, we have no need to get involved!" IceDevimon proclaimed, and Blossomon looked at him questioningly.
"It may not be our war, but if there is a war, we will become embroiled regardless, we are right in the centre of the two opposing powers, we could be annihilated in the crossfire, we must make a decision." MegaSeadramon said stoutly, and Wisemon nodded grimly.
"Indeed so. We have a duty of care to the people under our leadership. And besides, we all decided that Lady Dianamon was our anointed leader, we must make a decision so she too can make plans, after all, she is the main ally of Marcus Damon, and the sister of Marsmon, her position is most precarious." He said worriedly, and Pandamon nodded.
"Exactly. We must protect the people we command. But we also have a broader responsibility to the rest of the digital world, many others will be caught up in this conflict and we must intervene on their behalf." She said in her soft voice.
"Should we though? All of us together, even combined, have no chance of defeating Marsmon. He is the God of War, we have no chance against one such as he." KingChessmon said miserably.
"Your forces have a better chance to defeat him than mine, mine is only a small state and we don't have much of a military. What is more, Pharaohmon has now thrown his allegiance in with Marsmon, the mercantile states are preparing for war, and all of us are going to be in their firing line!" Okuwamon claimed in a panic.
"Don't panic! The problem before us is this: Marsmon is about to go to war. While he hasn't declared war yet, its obvious that he is. He's making alliances and preparing for war, and if it is declared, he will go through our realms in order to attack Marcus. Marcus is unlikely to move his forces through our realms, despite his nature, he isn't the aggressor in all this, though he will fight when given no choice. So, we either fight him, help him, or do nothing. Simple choices really." HerculesKabuterimon said, and the others all looked around at each other nervously.
"We cannot fight him, he's too powerful." Pandamon lamented, and HerculesKabuterimon shook his head in disappointment.
"And that is exactly the problem! He has accumulated so much power because other Digimon are more than content to let him amass such amounts of it! Why do you think he hates the human boy so much?" he asked of the room at large.
"He killed Apollomon." IceDevimon supplied helpfully, and HerculesKabuterimon had to admit, that wouldn't have endeared Marcus to Marsmon.
"Admittedly, that wouldn't help. His problem with Marcus is that they are very similar, that and the fact that Marcus has stood up to him and has stopped his power spreading across the entire digital world. That's the problem, no Digimon ever fights! Marsmon is a threat to us all. He detests humans, and he's going to stop at nothing until Marcus is dead. Now, while I don't particularly support Marcus either, there is no denying that Marsmon accumulating more power would be disastrous!" he proclaimed.
"But what can we do? Dianamon is Marcus' ally, let her deal with this!" IceDevimon insisted.
"But we are beholden to Dianamon, we nominated her as our overall leader, shouldn't we help her?" Blossomon asked worriedly.
"If she wants to help Marcus get himself killed that's her problem, not ours." MegaSeadramon said sniffily.
"My friends, let us keep perspective. We are all threatened in this coming battle. Dianamon is our ally, and we are beholden to her. However, we all have our own autonomy. We must make a decision. Do we fight, or do we stand fast?" Wisemon asked softly, putting them all back on topic.
"We must all vote. Do we wish to fight, for Marsmon or Marcus? Or do we stay out of it as much as we can do it?" Blossomon asked.
IceDevimon leaned back, his long fingers meshing together.
"I rule my island, which means that despite being a nominal state, with Dianamon as our elected leader, I have no involvement in this coming battle. Marsmon doesn't have to go through my state in order to reach Marcus. I'm staying out of it." He said, and the others nodded, that had been expected, he would never get involved in a conflict if he could help it.
MegaSeadramon hissed in contemplation.
"I will not oppose Marsmon. Unlike you IceDevimon I don't have the luxury of staying well out of it. If he comes through my territory, my people will do nothing to hamper him. Hopefully he will leave us alone." He said grimly, turning to Okuwamon.
"I won't just roll over and let him traipse over my lands. He's allied with Pharaohmon, and that means he's gunning for my state. I won't allow my people to fall without a fight. I'll fight regardless of what the rest of you do." He vowed, and they turned to Pandamon.
She looked at them sadly, not meeting any of their eyes.
"While I can't justify what Marsmon is doing, my kingdom has no chance against him. My heart goes out to those who will be hurt by this war, but I cannot do anything to stop him. I'm simply not strong enough, he would decimate my entire kingdom, and my first duty is to my people. I cannot fight him." She whispered softly.
Blossomon sighed.
"I have no wish for my home to be trampled by Marsmon's forces. I have even less wish for my home to be incinerated by the forces of Marsmon. I will not oppose him." She said grimly.
"I do not have the capabilities to oppose Marsmon I fear. My people are learners and scholars. Not soldiers. We cannot do anything to oppose Marsmon's army, though I have no wish to see him expand in his power." Wisemon lamented wearily.
Parrotmon was up next, looking pensive.
"My people have no love for Marsmon, some have fled from his regime in his realm. But we also cannot fight him. He has no reason to come through the gorge, but if he does, then we will act. We will not go out of our way to battle him however."
HerculesKabuterimon shook his head in despair.
"And here we go again. I'm with Okuwamon, I won't stand down and let Marsmon destroy our regions. The hive will go to war if he goes to battle and dares cross our territories." He declared.
That left only their host, and KingChessmon sighed.
"I can also not do anything to oppose Marsmon, he is too strong for my kingdom. I will allow him to pass through, and I will not oppose him." He said grimly, and the room went silent.
HerculesKabuterimon got up, as did Okuwamon.
"You lot can stand by and let Marsmon walk all over us if you want. We have kingdoms to defend." HerculesKabuterimon said, and both insect Digimon flew off.
"I shall inform Dianamon of our decision when I return to Bibliotecnika." Wisemon said, sweeping from the room.
"Thank you all for coming. I'm only sorry we could not do more to oppose Marsmon's expansion. The decision is made. Marcus and Dianamon are on their own." KingChessmon said sadly, dismissing the meeting.
And he looked out over his black and white city, contemplating what would happen in the coming war. He could not allow his city or his kingdom to get caught up in the coming war between Marcus and Marsmon. They would have to fight on their own. The superstates were too powerful for small ones such as the nominal states to challenge. They would ride out this storm, just as they had all the others.
And Marcus and Dianamon could fight this war on their own.
XX
"More humans?" WereGarurumon asked in shock as Marcus entered the war room with the rest of the humans in the digital world.
"Marcus! I just heard the news, is Keenan alright?" Falcomon asked in a panic, hurrying up to him before he could answer his general.
"I don't know buddy, Gatomon is looking into it. But I swear, we will find him." He assured the Digimon, who looked petrified at the thought of Keenan being missing.
"I don't see why this Marsmon guy would kidnap a human kid from the real world, where's the logic?" Fredrich asked, and Marcus scowled.
"There's a simple bit of logic, he knows Keenan's virtually my little brother. If he's taken him, its to get to me, he wants to lure me into a fight. See, if he acts first, which he technically has, a lot of undecided Digimon might join me. Their states might stay neutral but there's nothing to stop them joining my army. But as Zudomon was chasing you guys, he'll get out of trouble for that one. Which means, if I go to Stormhammer, it'll be seen as me declaring war on him, which will give him a lot of support he shouldn't be getting." Marcus said irritably, looking at the map, wondering just what Marsmon was up to.
"So the war is beginning." Gotsumon said grimly, and Agumon nodded.
"Certainly looks that way. We'd better make plans boss." He said, and Marcus nodded.
"We can help, me and Sergeant Prosser in particular, we're military trained." Kain volunteered and Marcus gave him a nod.
"But we still need to find Keenan." Thomas said grimly, and Marcus bit his lip worriedly, they should have heard back from Gatomon by now, she never usually took this long to find out anything.
"We'll find him sir." Gaomon assured him, just as Taomon entered, Kristy and Biyomon in tow.
"General, I must have a word." Taomon said worriedly, but before she could explain, Kristy, beaming, showed her brother her yellow digivice.
"Look what I've got!" she said brightly, and Marcus, Thomas and Yoshi's mouths dropped open in surprise as they saw the digivice in her hand.
"Where the hell did you get that?" Marcus demanded incredulously, taking it from his sister without preamble.
"Yes, that's what I was going to tell you about. Hey, I'm off the hook! I'll just go and...do something else." Taomon said sneaking away.
"What seems to be the problem? It seems perfectly legitimate to me." Anderson commented, and Marcus glared at him.
"Two problems, there's no way she should have the damn thing, and two, she's my little sister!" he raged, and Anderson nodded.
"Yes, I can see why that might upset you a tad." He said musingly, and Gomamon sniggered.
"Hey, that's mine, it belongs to me and Biyomon!" Kristy shouted, and Marcus looked at her incredulously.
"Yeah but you shouldn't have one! You're my little sister, and you shouldn't be in this sort of danger." He said in frustration, and Biyomon looked up at Marcus angrily.
"But it doesn't matter now Marcus, before she was too young, and I wasn't really her partner, now I can protect her!" he protested, and Marcus sighed.
"I know that you think you can, but unless you missed it, Marsmon is coming for our heads, and I don't even think I'm a match for him, let alone someone who's never gone to Mega." He admitted, and Thomas and Yoshi exchanged a surprised look.
Since they had met him, Marcus had been always confident, to the point of cockiness and arrogance, believing he could beat anyone he came across. To be fair, he usually succeeded with pig headed stubbornness, the same stubbornness that had allowed him to save the world from King Drasil. However, hearing that he didn't think he couldn't defeat Marsmon was a sign of how far he had come, he'd become less arrogant and a lot more aware of his strengths. And his statement about Marsmon let them know one thing: he was scared, which was a first. Something about Marsmon truly scared him, which made them very nervous, why would Marsmon worry him when the king himself hadn't?
"Hey, this guy is now facing two DATS squads. He can't be that powerful." Kain reasoned, but Marcus simply didn't answer.
"Marcus, I've got one now, it's too late, and you can't do anything to stop it now. Its my digivice and Biyomon is my Digimon." Kristy said fiercely, taking her digivice back.
"Where did you get it Kristy?" Gaomon asked curiously.
"From Elecmon." She responded, and Marcus frowned as he considered her statement.
"We don't have an Elecmon." He said in vexation, as WereGarurumon surveyed the newcomers.
"More humans...what can you lot do?" he asked, and Flamemon grinned.
"Lots, see!" he said, creating a fireball, which turned into a plume and narrowly missed WereGarurumon's nose.
"Heh, sorry." The smaller Digimon muttered as WereGarurumon glowered at him.
"Alright, I'll deal with Kristy later. WereGarurumon, where do we stand?" Marcus asked, and he looked at the floor.
"Right here." He said, deadpan, and Marcus rolled his eyes.
"I mean with our forces." He said, and Britney frowned.
"Well how much does this Marsmon guy have to throw at you?" she asked, and Marcus frowned.
"A lot. He commands a massive portion of the continent, and has a lot of support in the mercantile states. As you saw, Piedmon is usually his first point of contact and he has a large army, no ones is as large as Marsmon. The Royal Knights entire army is strong enough, but they're each divided into each one's individual armies, and besides, some of them still haven't fully replaced their losses from the war." He said, and Thomas looked at him in surprise.
"He's that strong? How many troops do you have?" he asked worriedly, and Agumon did some mental calculations on his claws.
"About a third of his forces." He told him cheerfully, and Commandramon looked at him sceptically.
"I don't see what there is to be so happy about, you're seriously undermanned and underprepared for this." He told him bluntly, and Lalamon looked at him, most put out.
"Easy for you to say, we're much more spread out than Marsmon's forces, and besides our region is colder than his is, there's less Digimon here. We know we're in danger, but we can have people summoned from all over the continent if we need to, people will rally to Marcus cause when they see what Marsmon is up to." She explained, but Curtis and Goblimon exchanged dark looks.
"From what you've told us about this guy, I don't think that he's going to give you that chance. He doesn't sound stupid. He's bound to have a plan to stop you from recruiting any other Digimon." Curtis explained, and Goblimon nodded in agreement.
"Yeah. Besides, even with our help, you're still very outnumbered. Not necessarily outgunned though." He reasoned fairly.
"What about your allies?" Yoshi asked, because she was beginning to grow very worried, it was starting to look like they had arrived just in time.
"Until we have genuine proof that Marsmon is threatening the human world, the Royal Knights will not intervene. Venusmon will also not fight unless she gets what she wants from Marcus." Kudamon explained, and Fredrich looked at the blushing Marcus curiously.
"What does she want exactly?" he asked, and Marcus went scarlet, giving the other member enough of a clue that he didn't ask any more questions, he just grinned maddeningly.
"What about the other allies you've got?" Thomas asked, and Marcus pointed to the narrow band of blue on the map.
"The nominal states support Dianamon, but they're independent. In other words, even if she fights, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will. To be frank, most of them probably won't. They're cowards." He said in disgust, and Kudamon twitched his tail at him.
"They have their reasons. Besides, some will fight, for all the good it will do them. However, on the other side, ClavisAngemon won't fight, he refuses to get involved in any conflict between us and Marsmon. Neptunmon won't fight his brother either. And on top of that, none of the mercantile states will take our side, they have no love for us at the best of times and if Piedmon is siding with Marsmon, we have no chance." He concluded, and Cameron looked at them all in disbelief.
"Wait, you knew this guy was out there and a real threat, and you didn't do anything to stop him? And you don't really have any allies either?" he asked, shocked, and Marcus glared at him.
"Hey, it isn't my fault that most of this world is content to let him walk all over them. Dianamon is on our side though, but she won't and technically can't do anything until he actually makes a move, even if she does have my back." He explained, just as Gatomon entered, looking very grim.
"General, we need to talk." She said significantly, and Marcus jerked his head to beckon all the humans and their partners to follow them, and without saying a word, WereGarurumon and Taomon appeared right behind them, also falling into step behind them as Gatomon led them into a command room away from the main war room.
"What have you found out?" Marcus asked as they entered the command room she had led them to as she leapt up onto the table to sit beside him, looking very grave.
"First off, we have a serious problem. Marsmon has been travelling the mercantile states, making alliances left right and centre. Piedmon is the most obvious one, but you know what he's like, he's a backstabbing wretch and always will be, he'll have his own agenda. Either way, it looks like Marsmon is gearing up for a big showdown, and we're technically the only game in town." She explained, and Thomas nodded.
"We suspected as much since Zudomon didn't seem that bothered about his raid here."
Gaomon frowned musingly.
"What about Piedmon though? We all know treachery is like breathing with him, and so does Marsmon. How can we be assured he's on Marsmon's side?" he asked, and Kudamon snorted derisively.
"Please, he has no love for us. But that doesn't mean he has an overwhelming love for Marsmon. He is treacherous by nature, which could be used to our advantage." He reasoned.
"What else did you find out Gatomon?" WereGarurumon asked, and she little cat narrowed her blue eyes.
"Marsmon has access to technology that he shouldn't, stuff forbidden by king Drasil. And whatever he has in that hangar, he does not want me seeing, or anyone seeing for that matter. That and his science labs are locked up incredibly tightly. He's up to something big in them. And I've got a feeling I know part of what he's been doing. There's rumours that he's been performing experiments, trying to do something."
"Trying to do what?" Kain asked suspiciously, and she looked at the newcomer in surprise, shrugged, then went about answering the question.
"He's been messing around with portals. Which is how we did what he did. I confirmed it. Marcus, Marsmon has Keenan. He has him in his dungeons, and I've got to tell you, he isn't looking good." She relayed, her face looking sad and miserable at the thought of bringing her leader this news.
Marcus green eyes narrowed in fury, his fest clenching, his entire demeanour turning to one of blazing, fiery anger. Kristy looked at her brother in fear, though her own eyes were clouded in anger as well. Thomas jaw was clenched, his entire body tense, and Yoshi suddenly went stiff as they heard the news. Falcomon made a little noise of fear at this news as well.
"How on earth could Marsmon have taken Keenan, he was in the human world!" Yoshi exclaimed, and Gatomon turned her eyes to face her.
"That's what I've been telling you, he's been experimenting with the portal. I think he must have opened a portal that allowed them to grab Keenan. Either that...or he had help." She said darkly, and Britney looked at her sceptically.
"No one in the human world would have a way to get to the digital world, it doesn't make sense." She said dismissively, but Thomas shook his head.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." He said, his mind abuzz with possibilities.
Before any of the others could ask him what he meant, Marcus slammed his fist into the table furiously, making them all jump in shock.
"Boss?" Agumon asked hesitantly, and Marcus turned his furious gaze onto his partner.
"He's crossed the line. WereGarurumon, get the army. He's gone too far. We're going to war." Marcus ground out, and Yoshi laid a restraining hand on his wrist.
"Marcus, I know you're mad, we all are, but you need to stop and think about this!" she urged, but to her surprise Kristy shook her head.
"No Yoshi, we don't. Marsmon has Keenan, and we can't sit around doing nothing!" she said defiantly, and Anderson patted the air to forestall the brewing argument.
"I agree with Yoshi, we ought not to rush in. But Kristy is right, Marsmon has a human in his custody, the boy you all came here to find. We need to take decisive action and we need to take it now." He said, and WereGarurumon nodded.
"Agreed. I'll marshal our forces, send out for recruits, but if this is the start of it..."
"It is. This is war, and he knows it. Marsmon has kidnapped a human, regardless of who he is. That means he's threatening the safety of both worlds. And if Gatomon is right and he has illegal technology, he's clearly up to something dangerous. We need to stop him. And we need to stop him now." Marcus growled, and Kain nodded.
"I agree, we've done too much since the war to let another one start up again. But going after Marsmon right now wouldn't be a good idea, you need to clear your head." He advised, and Marcus glowered at him.
"You don't get it. Marsmon has Keenan. Keenan's like my little brother, and I am not going to let that scumbag keep him any longer than I have to. He knows what he's done, and I'm going to end him for this. So, either way, I'm going to wipe Marsmon off the face of the earth, so either help me, or get the hell out of my way, because Keenan needs us!" he said savagely, and Kain flinched slightly.
"Alright, enough. Acting rashly won't help Keenan. So, what's the plan?" Sally asked, trying to keep Marcus and Kain from going at it.
"Marsmon has Keenan. He's kidnapped someone close to me, he's kidnapped a human. Both are an act of war and he knows it. We're going after him." He said, and Thomas reluctantly nodded.
"Loathe though I am to admit it, Marcus is right." He said, and the entire room looked at him in surprise.
"Sir?" Gaomon asked, shocked, and Thomas exchanged a look with Marcus.
"We can't leave Keenan in Marsmon's clutches, we need to rescue him. And by taking Keenan, Marsmon has proved that he doesn't care what he does anymore. He's goading Marcus into declaring war. I say we do it." He said, and Kristy nodded eagerly.
"Exactly. So let's help Keenan." She said stubbornly, and Yoshi looked around at the others in a panic.
"This is the worst! Marcus, you're talking about declaring war for Christ sake. War! Not a normal fight, but a war, that could gets loads of people and Digimon killed!" she cried, and he glowered at her.
"Don't you think I don't know that Yoshi? I know what this means, I know what war means! I remember what Kurata and the Knights did, and Marsmon is just as dangerous if he's threatening both worlds! I can't stand back and let him get away with all this. And besides...he has Keenan. I promised I'd look after him, and Marsmon has him. That's ending. Now." He said fiercely, and Agumon nodded grimly.
"I'm with you boss." He said stoutly, standing by his partner's side.
"Marsmon is threatening everything we've done in the last five years. You aren't facing him alone." Thomas said, and Marcus gave him a small smile as he stood beside his friend.
"Sir yes sir." Gaomon said loyally, standing by his partner.
Anderson looked at Sally, and at Kain, who both nodded.
"It seems this Marsmon is the reason we came here in the first place, he's the one behind all this. We need to investigate if nothing else, and you sound like you could use the help. We're with you." He said, and Marcus nodded.
"Yeah. And besides, I'm interested to see what you're made of." Kain challenged with a grin and Marcus smirked back.
"Soldier or not, I could wipe the floor with you." He responded, and Kain scoffed.
"Think so street thug?" he said teasingly, and Britney groaned.
"Oh brother. We're with you too." She said, and Penguinmon nodded as well.
"These guys aren't leaving me behind." Fredrich informed them.
"And I'm not staying here by myself." Dokunemon added.
The three triplets and their Digimon all exchanged glances, and nodded as one.
"We're with you too." They said in unison, and Yoshi sighed.
"Alright, I don't like that we're going to war, but we need to stop this, and fast. And get back Keenan. I'm with you." She said, and Lalamon floated behind her head.
"Me too." She added eagerly.
"Keenan is like my brother too, I'm not staying here while you go and fight Marsmon." Falcomon added.
"And Keenan...I'm going with you!" Kristy said, though no one couldn't not notice that she had changed what she was going to say halfway through.
Marcus frowned, and then nodded.
"We're going to war. We're going to make Marsmon pay." He vowed darkly.
"I'll prepare the forces general. We'll be ready as soon as you give the word." WereGarurumon assured him, and Marcus nodded determinedly.
"Good." He said, and Kudamon looked at him curiously.
"You realise Marcus that if you plan to raid Stormhammer..."
"Yeah I know. We're going to have to talk to Piedmon. He's the only one who can get us into Stormhammer." He said in disgust, and Thomas looked at him worriedly.
"But if he's on Marsmon's side?" he asked pointedly, and Marcus shook his head.
"Not completely he won't be. We'll have some wiggle room, don't worry." He assured him, but didn't look entirely convinced.
"Might I suggest the triplets stay behind? They have some experience in coordination, they might be able to help you prepare your forces for war." Anderson suggested, and the triplets nodded.
"Yeah, and handsome though we are, we're not really fighters." Shamanmon lamented, and Taomon nodded in agreement.
"They can be of help to me as I prepare for the region for battle. I'll find a use for them, don't worry." She assured them, and Marcus turned to her.
"Keep Kristy here too." He said, and Kristy look at her brother, furious, her expression betrayed.
"Marcus!" she protested and he turned to face her.
"Kristy, I know you have a digivice and I know you care about Keenan and want to help, but it's not a good idea to do it right now. You've never even tested it out, and the fact that you have one is suspicious enough as it is without me declaring war on Marsmon on top of it. Stay here where I know you're safe please? I swear I'll get Keenan back. Just stay here alright?" he asked, and she glared at him rebelliously.
"We'll make sure she goes nowhere." Kudamon volunteered, to the nods of the PawnChessmon and Kristy glared at him too.
Marcus nodded.
"Good. Now, we've got work to do. WereGarurumon, you know what to do. Taomon, get the triplets and Krsity to work. If we're going to war with Marsmon, we need to be ready. Kudamon, start calling the other states and tell them what's happening. I'm getting Keenan back. Now." Marcus said dangerously, sweeping from the room with the others in tow.
XX
Glacial City was a hive of activity when they left, the news had spread that war was in the offing, and now Digimon were flocking from all over towards Marcus' capital to take up arms and fight against Marsmon and his soon to be approaching army.
Dianamon had been alerted, and she fully supported Marcus' decision. However, she was less than trhilled when she reported that the nominal states refused to fight, to Marcus' disgust. Only HerculesKabuterimon and Okuwamon had decided to take up arms, and neither of them would make much of a fight against Marsmon's forces. That problem aside, she too began rallying her forces and promised to support him when the time was right.
The others however weren't quite so helpful.
ClavisAngemon flat out refused to get involved, saying that this was a problem between Marcus and Marsmon, despite being told about Marsmon's interference with technology that would take him to another world. The Knights, to Kudamon's irritation, also claimed that without proof, they would not get involved. Venusmon's response was to ask if Marcus was free for dinner, so he put her under the lost cause column, and Neptunmon was currently dealing with a crisis in his city (a Whamon had taken the wrong turn somewhere and had now blocked up his entire city) so he hadn't even taken the call.
The triplets, and a rebellious Kristy who was pestering Taomon for news every five minutes, had been put to task, helping to stockpile supplies for an extended siege. The Infinite Ice Ridge offered a very good defensible position, as did the city itself, but supplies were difficult to keep up here, and that was a problem. Hence, they were now stockpiling while WereGarurumon prepared the army, which was increasing in size by the hour, for war.
Marcus and the others knew none of this however, as they were currently on a Trailmon bound for Illusion City.
"Won't Piedmon be less than pleased to see us again?" Dokunemon asked, and Fredrich shrugged.
"Probably not, but it's not our fault where the damn dive landed. What I want to know is how you know you can trust him not to betray us to Marsmon straight off, especially when you know he's on Marsmon's side." He asked Marcus, who was glaring out of the window, his mind filled with thoughts of Keenan languishing in Marsmon's dungeon, and his sister's fury with him.
"Piedmon only ever does what's best for him. He's treacherous by nature, Marsmon would be a fool to trust him. He might have allied with Marsmon for the moment, but he also knows that Marsmon presents a potential threat to him too, and he knows that Marsmon doesn't fully trust him either. He's always open to another angle. That should be enough to get us to Stormhammer with his help." Gaomon explained.
"And what do we do once we get to Stormhammer?" Sally asked musingly, reading the newspaper someone had left behind on the train, as she had given up with the crossword.
"Get Keenan and give Marsmon a beating he isn't likely to forget any time soon." Marcus said dangerously.
"And if Piedmon isn't happy to see us and just tries to kill us when we go through the front door?" Commandramon asked, and Agumon grinned.
"We take him down too don't we boss?" he asked excitedly, and Marcus nodded, a slight grin on his face.
"Yeah, after all, we'd be thanked by a lot of people for taking out that creep." He said, and Lalamon nodded.
"I wouldn't mind taking out someone who turns his enemies into keychains." She said, and the European DATS team looked at her in shock.
"Seriously? He turns people into keychains?" Flamemon asked in shock, and she nodded.
"Yes, you should see his throne, there's dozens of keychains of all his enemies that he's defeated hanging from it. He's not a nice person." She summed up, and Penguinmon looked at Marcus curiously.
"Um, what do we do if he tries to turn us into keychains?" she asked, and he shrugged.
"Hope he misses, the guy turns people into keychains, I'm not sure how we can beat that." He admitted as the train headed towards the station in Illusion City.
As Piedmon's land was considerably warmer than Marcus', there was no longer any need for them to be wearing the thick winter cloaks that they had had to wear in Glacial City. Instead they were now all just dressed normally, though Anderson privately felt he would feel a lot happier if they had something to cover the fact that they were human, they were getting an awful lot of attention just for walking up the street.
Piedmon's realm was a place of strange contrasts. While it was dark and shadowy, the land mostly barren, jagged and lifeless, Illusion City was anything but. A sprawling metropolis of black and white buildings, they were all marked with symbols from a deck of cards, all the street names also keeping up this motif. The windows were either diamond or spade shaped, while the doors were shaped like clubs or hearts. Red suits and black suits were emblazoned across the buildings, adding decoration. Each tower or building block was topped by a green garden, which Piedmon used to feed his populace. The city was filled with Digimon, all of them very creepy looking, darting around in the relative darkness of Piedmon's realm, dark shadowy figures looking at them wherever they went. They couldn't quite shake the feeling that they were being watched as they neared Piedmon's citadel, a tall tower made of stone, with slatted windows, and a large door flanked by four massive swords. Marcus, fearing nothing, entered first, however the rest of the group, particularly the European DATS team, hovered slightly before following him in.
"For the record, I don't like this place." Gomamon said, perched across Anderson's shoulders, and Britney bit her lip worriedly.
"I'm not too excited about it either." She admitted, and Falcomon looked at Marcus questioningly.
"Do you really think we can trust him to help us?" he asked, he was eager to get back Keenan, and the longer they delayed the greater danger he was in.
"Of course we can't." Marcus said plainly, and Falcomon looked at him, aghast.
"Then what are we doing here then?" he demanded angrily, and Gaomon laid a hand on his shoulder.
"We're here because we can trust Piedmon to help himself. And he is the only one who can send a Trailmon into Stormhammer without arousing suspicion, he even checks the trains from Venusmon and Neptunmon's kingdoms, which is ironic because everybody knows that Piedmon is a treacherous scumbag, he actually trusts him enough to not send any nasty surprises for him by rail." He explained as they reached the top of the tower, which was where the Europeans had arrived last time by accident.
"He isn't going to be happy to see us." Dokunemon pointed out, and Yoshi shrugged helplessly.
"He might not be, but what can we do? We need all the help we can get." She said, and Lalamon breathed out slowly.
"Just as long as we don't wind up as keychains." She said, and Marcus opened the door, revealing Piedmon's inner sanctum.
The floor was just like a chessboard. The door was flanked with sword like sconces, with fire coming from what would be the hilts. Piedmon's throne was raised upon the intersecting point of four swords, with a powerful Digimon standing at the end of a handle on each one. NeoDevimon, MetalPhantomon, IceDevimon and Phantomon all stood at each end of the cross, facing towards Piedmon, who was in the middle, with LadyDevimon standing behind his chair.
"Well well, if it isn't the hero from another world. And my trespassers. To what do I owe the pleasure?" he asked in his soft, cultured voice.
"Simply kill them Lord Piedmon, Marcus has shown that he has no regard for our laws by bringing them here. After all, humans are as welcome as a corpse at the dinner table, and not nearly as entertaining." LadyDevimon purred in his ear, but he held up a hand to silence her.
"Now my dear, Marcus is our guest. But I must admit to being curious as to why he's here, and even worse, why he has brought several more of his pestilent species with him, especially when some of them have already had the bad manners to intrude in my citadel once before." He hissed, his eyes flashing dangerously.
"We can only apologise for that, we didn't mean to wind up here, it was a problem with our equipment." Anderson said, and Marcus took a step forward, directing Piedmon's attention onto him before he could respond.
"I need your help." He said, and Piedmon laughed softly, the very sound chilling them to the bone.
"You need my help? Why on earth would I want to help you, hmm?" he asked, and Marcus sighed.
"I need to get to Stormhammer, and you're the only one who can get me in." He admitted, and Piedmon barked in laughter, getting up from his throne, and their eyes were drawn to his armrests.
Dangling from them were numerous Digimon keychains, close to fifty it looked like, of Digimon of all levels. As they studied them, they saw that many of those present were in fact Mega level. Piedmon was clearly not someone to be trifled with.
"And why, pray tell, would I help you get into Stormhammer?" Piedmon asked, and Marcus narrowed his green eyes.
"Because you know more than you're telling. You know as well as I do that Marsmon has committed an act of war, not only against me, but against the human world as well, because as I'm sure you know, he's kidnapped a human from our world and brought him here as a prisoner. And when people on my side find out, well, I can just imagine the ranks of Gizumon the government would create to try and obliterate this world once and for all. Now, I don't want that, and you don't want that. So the only way to stop that happening is for you to help me." Marcus declared, and Piedmon chuckled.
"Your little human friends are more than welcome to try their luck. I am the Clown Prince, they won't stand a chance against my power." He hissed, and Marcus shook his head.
"The Olympus Twelve are stronger than you, and look how many of them we have left. Do you really think after the Knights attacked the human world they were just going to sit back and do nothing? They'll have a plan if the digital world gets out of hand, and now Marsmon is encouraging them to do it. So stop stalling and get me into Stormhammer, otherwise we're going to be facing a full scale invasion." He told him and Piedmon glared at him before retreating to his throne and sitting down, mulling it over.
"You are a bold one Marcus Damon. I must admit, nothing would make me happier than to see Marsmon...humbled. He can be quite hard headed. But what will you give me in return?" Piedmon asked, and Marcus smirked.
"Amnesty. I know full well you've joined forces with him Piedmon. And I'm sure you've noticed that both him and I are going to war. Provided you keep out of our fight, I won't have any reason to come after you. If not...well, let's just say Illusion City will be looking for a new leader." He promised, and LadyDevimon took a furious step forward, the other guards readying themselves.
"I ought to tear you apart for your impudence!" she shrieked, but Piedmon simply laid a hand on her wrist and pulled her back.
"Calm yourself my dear. He's just a cocky lad aren't you? Well, you shall have your wish. I shall make the arrangements, feel free to head to the station. Marsmon can be quite belligerent, and quite frankly, in some ways, he's my biggest rival. So, do what you will, and best of luck." He said, in a tone of voice that made them doubt whether he was wishing them any luck at all.
Marcus beckoned to the others, and Kain edged closer to Marcus when he saw the worried look on his face.
"What's up?"
"He gave in far too easily. He's up to something." He whispered as the humans left the room with their Digimon, leaving Piedmon contemplating the door.
"Human impudence, you shouldn't entertain him my lord." MetalPhantomon growled, but Piedmon just nodded.
"He suits my ends." He answered simply, and LadyDevimon looked at him curiously.
"Then why help him?" she asked, and he smirked.
"Well my dear, it is simple. Like it or not, Marsmon, despite officially being our ally, is a war monger, and a danger to the entire digital world, Marcus is right about that. And he is a danger to us, after all, he wants to control the entire continent, and he is our next door neighbour. He needs to be distracted, and if need be, culled. On the other hand, we have Marcus, a human who has created a kingdom in our world, and he is making himself more and more powerful by the day, and attracting the support of powerful Digimon. He too presents a threat, to the safety of all Digimon by virtue of the fact that he is human. He cannot be allowed to continue to persist when he offers a threat to our entire world, or when he is such a thorn in my side. By helping him, I cut out the middle man...and help Marsmon and Marcus get together. And then...they'll annihilate one another. And once they're dead...the continent will be mine!" he vowed, before starting to cackle maniacally.
XX
"Rose Spear!" Rosemon cried, and finally landed the hit, her attack puncturing right through Parasimon's eye, destroying the Digimon and reverting it back to the digiegg.
Fredrich was swearing fluently in German, as Scorpiomon returned back to normal.
"Tell me again, why did we have to do this?" he asked irritably, dusting himself off, grinning as he offered his hand to a shell shocked and big haired Yoshi.
"Do what? Come through here or leap off of a travelling Trailmon going god knows how many miles an hour?" Marcus asked cheerfully, watching as Yoshi turned her frightened gaze onto him.
"Why did we have to jump off a moving train? It's a miracle none of us died!" she shrieked, and Lalamon floated around her head.
"Calm down Yoshi, we all got down in one piece." She assured her, and Yoshi turned madly to her partner.
"It's alright for you, you can float! And Thomas...he shoved me off the train!" she cried hysterically, and Thomas went scarlet, hanging his head.
"I'm not proud of it Yoshi, but we didn't have a choice, you were taking too long. Besides, Kain shoved off Sally, I was just following his example." He admitted lamely, and Fredrich made a clucking noise with his tongue.
"No idea of how to treat a lady." He scolded, and pulled Yoshi into a one armed hug.
"Down boy." Britney whispered as she passed.
"I actually agree with Yoshi, there was no need to leap out of a travelling train!" Sally cried weakly, as Flamemon patted her knee.
"I don't see what the problem was, it was fun!" he said eagerly, and she just made a noise of disgust in the back of her throat.
"Look, we didn't have a choice. The final station, the one actually for Stormhammer, wouldn't help us because we'd get caught as soon as we got out the train. And besides Piedmon is bound to have sold us out, so we needed to get out before we met Marsmon's welcoming committee." Marcus reasoned.
"Besides, Gatomon went to a lot of trouble to find out these secret path existed, and she gets very upset when we make her work and don't utilise what she's found out. She gets very catty." Gaomon said, and Commadramon chuckled.
"Good one." He said, and Gaomon looked at him, not comprehending what he found amusing.
"We need to get into Stormhammer without Marsmon knowing we're here, otherwise, he'll be on us from the start, or worse, he'll hurt Keenan to punish me. We need to go in quietly, which is why we're doing it this way. It's an old spice route according to Gatomon, it used to be used for smuggling. When Marsmon made it his fortress, he put his pet Parasimon here, and she was generally enough to keep intruders out, but he didn't count on us coming in this way. His forces generally avoid it because she was likely to eat them as much as any intruders she would come across. And that means we should be able to get into the fortress without alerting him to the fact that we're here." Marcus explained, continuing on down the tunnel, Kain and Thomas following him.
"Either way, I've got to agree with the girls, I'm not too keen that we had to jump out of a moving train, fun though it might have been. Mind you I suppose he did slow up, and the landing was kind of soft." Kain admitted, and Anderson groaned as he adjusted his back.
"Yeah until you hit a rock on the way down." He grumbled, Gomamon plodding along beside him.
"So, now that we're close to getting in, what do we do now?" Thomas asked, and Marcus frowned, he actually hadn't thought that far ahead.
"We find Keenan, and get out of here. We'll need to watch though, he has Megadramon and Gigadramon patrolling his airspace, and weapons to take down any unwanted flying Digimon, we're going to need to be careful." Marcus said, and Agumon looked at Marcus.
"Boss, do you reckon we should do a bit of spying as we go along? We might as well find out what's going on here since we have the people to do it. All of us can reach Mega, so we can fight the bad guys off if we're discovered and make a run for it." He pointed out, and Marcus nodded.
"That's a good idea." He admitted, and Anderson nodded.
"Agreed. And besides, we have less chance of being spotted if we're all going about separately. So, this is what I propose. You have a science lab and a hangar to investigate yes? Sally and I will take the science lab while my three take the hangar, leaving you three to go and find your friend with Falcomon, how does that sound?" he asked, and Thomas nodded.
"Agreed. It's a good plan. And we've got the hardest problem since we're going to have to get into the fortress itself." He pointed out as they carried on down the tunnel, smirking as they heard Yoshi and Sally cursing them all in the back.
They continued down the narrow tunnel, the size of which had prevented anyone but Rosemon going to Mega as without Keenan they had no access to Ravemon. They then arrived at a stone wall, and Marcus was fully aware of Yoshi in particular glaring at him.
"Marcus, if you made me jump off a speeding Trailmon and brought me down a dead end tunnel, I'm going to...!" she began to vow, before Agumon pushed a stone, resulting in the door sliding open, and Marcus turned and favoured her with a superior grin.
"You were saying?" he asked cheerfully, before she shot him a scathing look and headed inside.
"Mind your-" she warned, before Thomas yelped in pain as he hit his head on the low ceiling of the passage.
"Head." Yoshi finished lamely as they all pressed into the tunnel.
They had emerged into a small supply room, filled with numerous crates, that upon inspection, were filled with rockets.
"Um boss, these could do a lot of no good to our walls." Agumon said worriedly, and Marcus nodded.
"You're right. That means he mustn't be sure that his artillery Digimon can break our walls if they attack them, he reckons he needs added juice to finish the job. As much as I'd love to sabotage these, we've got other things to worry about just now. Come on." He said, edging the door open.
As Gatomon had reported, they were in one of the small silos that were dotted all the way along the walls, which connected to the massive fortress that was Stormhammer itself. Digimon patrolled the walls, and at each corner, there was a large circular column which served as a landing pad for various flying Digimon. The massive gate that marked the entrance to the complex was flanked by dangerous looking Digimon, and various heavy weapons lined the walls, discouraging any approach. There were several large buildings throughout the complex, many of them sprawling, all of them armed, all of them crawling with various Digimon, all of them serving some military purpose. The hangar and the science labs, the two buildings that were closest to the fortress, were rife with patrolling troops, and also had their own dedicated airforce Digimon. There were also various barracks and homes, workshops and shops closer to the edge of the wall, which also made up a large area, clearly the civilian quarter, separated from the military buildings by a network of small outposts with a dangerous looking Digimon outside each one.
And then there was the fortress itself. Massive, built up into the mountain, with various landing pads dotted all around it, it had Digimon and weapons on every wall, Digimon taking off and landing every second, and a massive phalanx of troops guarding the front door.
"Whoa. No offence to you Marcus, but compared to this guy, your defences suck." Britney said, and Marcus gave her a dirty look.
"Marcus...he's armed to the teeth." Thomas hissed as they all peered out the same crack in the door.
"Yeah, I know. Gatomon said he'd been recruiting and arms building, but this is a hell of a lot more than I thought he had. His army was already massive, especially since he controlled Apollomon's too, but this...he's been preparing this for ages." Marcus muttered to himself, as Dokunemon looked at a patrolling band of DarkLizardmon.
"Spread out you ladies! You heard Lord Marsmon, apparently Marcus Damon is going to try and get into Stormhammer! Let's not let that happen!" one bellow, and Dokunemon hissed in annoyance.
"You were right not to trust Piedmon, he's tipped Marsmon off." He told him, but Gaomon looked pensive.
"Yes he has, but not completely, otherwise we'd have walked right into a trap. Why wouldn't he sell us out completely?" he mused, and Penguinmon cocked her head at him, as if pitying him.
"Obvious isnt it? If Marsmon wipes Marcus out, no offence to you hotshot," she began, and Marcus looked at her in surprise, "Marsmon is a very powerful 'ally'" she said, trying and failing to make air quotations with her wings, "who is right next door to Piedmon. This way, he's hoping that between the lot of us, we can do some damage if we're discovered, and it will also undermine Marsmon's authority if the leader of his opposition could stroll into his fortress and drop a massive whoopsie before being caught." She explained.
"What's a whoopsie?" Thomas asked, having never heard of this term before, and Britney quickly closed Penguinmon's beak before she could continue.
"You don't want to know." She assured them, but Marcus looked at the bird like Digimon.
"I am not doing that. Anyway, I reckon she has a point. I reckon Piedmon might be getting slightly antsy about the amount of troops he's got at his back door. And unlike Glacial City and Stormhammer, Illusion City isn't easily defended." He said with some satisfaction, it would make him very happy if Marsmon took out the creepy clown.
"So what do we do now? Since, you know, the three places we need to go are the most heavily defended buildings in the place, and there's a city worth of Digimon to get through first, and even if we get through all that, there's an army to get through before we even reach the damn buildings." Gomamon muttered, and Marcus looked to the others, all of their minds buzzing.
"We could disguise ourselves." Lalamon ventured, but Yoshi shook her head.
"That wouldn't work, we would stand out, Marcus in particular. Look." She said, pointing to the next silo along the wall, and to their surprise, a picture of Marcus was staring back at them.
"Hey, that's quite a good picture of me." Marcus said, impressed, and Thomas whistled.
"Yeah, and quite a good reward too. If I didn't know you wouldn't haunt me if I turned you in, I might be considered to do it, and I don't even live in the digital world." He said, and Britney looked at him curiously.
"Didn't you get about a million quid for the Nobel Prize?" she asked, and he grinned as Marcus looked at him in shock.
"What? I thought you just got a pretty piece of paper, you get cash too?" he asked in surprise, and Thomas rolled his eyes.
"Yes Marcus, I got money too. I donated most of it, after all, my family don't need money that much anyway." He said modestly, and Kain bent closer to Marcus.
"If this goes badly, reckon we could bump him off and take the cash? Think of how many campaigns you could fund. I could help hide the body." He said with a grin, and Marcus sniggered.
Thomas smirked.
"I've left instruction that should I meet an untimely end in anything other than Digimon related, and Marcus is still alive, steps are to be taken to rectify that." He said, and Marcus looked at him in shock.
"You'd have me whacked?" he asked, affronted, and Thomas smirked.
"Yeah, I figured that if I died an untimely death, it's most likely something to do with you. Yoshi does too. Even if it's to do with the digital world, it's probably down to you." He reasoned and Marcus harrumphed.
"Thanks a bunch." He said irritably, though he was grinning slightly.
"Um, could we not discuss this while we're smack bang in the middle of the fortress of a Digimon who would like to use our heads for decorative purposes? Though I agree, this goes south, we say we're here to claim the bounty on Marcus." Anderson said, and Marcus rolled his eyes.
"So, how are we going to do this?" Fredrich asked, and Marcus looked at the rockets behind them musingly, and Yoshi and Thomas felt their stomachs plummet.
He had a hair brained scheme in mind.
"I've got an idea." He said evilly, and both of them groaned.
XX
"Get that fire under control!" yelled Wendigomon, who had left the fortress in order to take control of the chaos that was developing within the barracks.
About half an hour ago, a rocket had apparently ignited inside a silo, and its explosion had set off the various crates of rockets that they had within the silo, and now rockets were shooting everywhere, scattering Digimon and sending flames and smoke billowing into the air as Marsmon's forces tried to get a hold on it. And it was the distraction and the smoke that had allowed Marcus and his group to leave the silo, drop down to ground level and cling to the wall as they watched Marsmon's troops running back and forth trying to bring the various fires under control and restore a bit of order. And with everyone's gaze focused on the chaos that Agumon had caused, it allowed them to approach the edge of the fortress courtyard.
"According to Gatomon, there is a small drainage grate around here...ah!" Gaomon said excitedly, as the others kept a frantic lookout.
"This is it then. You know where you guys are going?" Marcus asked, and Anderson nodded.
"Yep, Sally and I have the science lab, the others have the hangar. Best of luck." He said, clapping him on the shoulder, and with that, they all parted ways, bound for each target while Wendigomon fought to regain control of the courtyard.
XX
"Admit it...you like him." Fredrich teased as they edged closer towards the gargantuan hangar which had Marcus and Gatomon so interested.
"Admittedly, he is very nice to look at. At least I'm subtle though, you're about as subtle as a brick through the window with Yoshi. It wouldn't be so bad but you'll only use her and cast her aside like you always do." Britney said scathingly, and he affected a hurt look.
"You wound me Britney." He complained, and Kain rolled his eyes.
"Truth hurts doesn't it? Anyway, keep quiet, we're getting close to the hangar." He said, and Commandramon looked at him curiously.
"Do you think Marcus' plan will work? Of getting Keenan back?" he asked, and Kain shrugged.
"I've got no idea. But I'll give him his due, he does seem to know what he's doing. He's pretty good. Not as good as me obviously." He said cockily, and Britney rolled her eyes.
"Oh brother. But I'll give Yoshi one thing, she is right, something isn't quite connected in that head of his." She grumbled, and poked Kain as he seemed to have zoned out.
"But you do like Thomas?" Fredrich asked curiously, and Britney sighed wearily.
"Why is it always of such interest to you who I like? I don't keep tabs on all the women you like...mind you that's because there's so many it would be a full time job." She muttered, and he shrugged.
"Hey I just want you to be happy." He said, and Penguinmon leaned close to her partner.
"Maybe he likes you." She said mischievously, and Britney wrinkled her nose.
"Ew no." She retorted as they peered around the final corner to observe the hangar.
"Huh...not quite what I was expecting." Kain said, standing with his hands on his hips as he examined the building in plain view.
"Do you have a death wish? Hmm...guy's got a point." Commandramon admitted as he joined his partner, and the other two exchanged befuddled glances and then peered around the corner, having to admit that Kain was right to be a little shocked.
"Where is everyone?" Dokunemon asked, seeing no troops anywhere near the hangar, which in and of itself was very bizarre.
"Maybe they're all dealing with the chaos we caused when we came down?" Penguinmon theorised, but Kain shook his head.
"No. Hate to say it but this stinks of a trap." He said, and Fredrich nodded.
"Agreed. But there's no way to check what's inside, and only one way in. So I say, we spring the trap." He said cheerfully, and Britney looked at him sceptically.
"Is that really a good idea?" she asked, fearing what might be inside.
"We don't have much choice. And look at the bright side, at least we don't have to actually fight our way into the hangar. They've left it unguarded for us." Commandramon said, readying himself to move forward.
Kain frowned. This didn't sit right with him. There's no way that something the enemy had gone to such lengths to make sure remained undisturbed would suddenly be left unguarded. Something else was going on here. Something was waiting for them inside, it had to be. They were walking right into a trap.
Luckily for them, they had a wide experience of springing traps meant for them, and they were still standing. All he could do was hope that this time wasn't when their luck ran out.
"Let's go." He said, his eyes narrowed and the blond headed soldier led the way into the hangar, and after receiving a nod from the other two, opened the door.
"Did they not pay the electricity bill?" Dokunemon asked, as they entered the cavernous hangar, which was pitch black.
"Something like that. Why go to such lengths to hide something, then not power it? And what would he have in a hangar? Marcus already knows about his air force, large as it is." Britney pointed out, and Kain frowned, he could feel the hairs at the back of his neck standing up, it felt like they were being watched.
"Huh, well let's not stand in the dark like a bunch of numpties, let's see if we can't get a little light on the subject. Ah." Fredrich said, using his torch to give them a little bit of light.
"Oh my god." Penguinmon said in horror as she beheld what the beam of light landed on.
It was another army. Small yes, but probably ten times more deadly than the rest of Marsmon and his allies forces put together.
The hangar was filled with rank upon rank of Gizumon.
The purple abominations created by Kurata, and there were nearly a hundred in here. There was the original spidery form, then the shielded AT form, and then last the humanoid XT form, all of them filling up the room.
"Son of a bitch..." Kain breathed, and Dokunemon rattled his tail furiously.
"He's using those abominations to further his own ends, he's not fit to be called a Digimon! Let's destroy them, here and now, before they slaughter anymore innocent Digimon!" he growled, and the others were inclined to agree when they heard a light chuckle that froze them all to the bone from behind them.
"I don't think Lord Marsmon would appreciate that." A soft, quiet girly voice said, and Fredrich turned his torch onto the newcomers, taking a step back as he saw two humans emerge into the light of his torch, both of them blocking the door.
One was a girl around about their age, dressed in a puffy black dress with a small black top hat on top of her flowing blonde hair. Her face was painted quite white, and had little red spots on each cheek.
The girl beside her was slightly younger, a bit older than Kristy. She was thin and sallow, her face grim, her blue eyes narrowed dangerous. She was clad in an oversized black bomber jacket and tshirt, and she had brown hair tied into a ponytail.
"Who the hell are you guys?" Kain demanded, and Fredrich surveyed them before turning to his leader.
"Call me cynical, but I don't think they're good guys." He whispered, and the older girl smiled.
"We're just a couple of kids looking to make our way in the world, nothing wrong with that." She purred, and Britney glared at her.
"Really? I'd say working with Marsmon is wrong, because you are, aren't you?" she demanded, and the girl smiled.
"Do you really think he could have gotten all of those Gizumon working again without our help? Do you really think he could have made Shina here what she is without my help? Do you think we would be what we are if it weren't for me? I doubt it a lot. Now, if you'd kindly step away from the rank and file, we have work to do." She said sweetly, and Shina grinned excitedly.
"Nanami, does that mean I can finally go all the way?" she asked excitedly, and the other girl smiled at her.
"Of course it does Shina. I reckon we should give them a little show. After all, I've not met these ones. They won't know what a-" she began, and it suddenly clicked as to what they were.
"A Bio-Hybrid, we read your file. You were experimented on by Kurata, to make you part Digimon. You're even more of an abomination than the Gizumon." Dokunemon growled, and Nanami giggled.
"You flatter me. Shall we get started? Though I should warn you...you won't win." She purred, putting down her umbrella as she and Shina pulled out their digivices, Nanami's burgundy and grey, and Shina's emerald and grey.
Kain narrowed his eyes. From what he had heard, the Bio-Hybrids had been virtually impossible to stop until the DATS team had discovered more power. While they had the same power, the Bio-Hybrids were experienced, at least Nanami was since he couldn't recall reading about this Shina girl in any of the reports, and something about them seriously gave him the chills. And the fact that there were two of them as opposed to three of his group and they didn't seem remotely concerned made him worried they had something else up their sleeves.
"Sir?" Commandramon asked, all business.
"Don't give them the chance to get the better of us. Let's show them what we're made of." He said determinedly, as they all got out their own digivices, making Nanami laugh and Shina smirk in cold delight.
"Bio hybrid DNA charge!" they cried together, and they were suddenly surrounded by a glimmering purple digisoul.
"Bio hybrid digivolve to...Bio-Quetzalmon!" Nanami yelled, now in her Digimon form.
"Bio hybrid digivolve to...Bio-Harpymon!" Shina screeched, as she too reached her true form, her head a red colour just like Bio-Quetzalmon's.
"Well, I've officially seen everything. Let's go Penguinmon!" Britney said, and her partner leapt in front of her.
"Yeah, let's take them down!" Dokunemon yelled, springing from Fredrich's shoulder.
"We're not done. Observe. Bio hybrid DNA full charge!" Bio-Quetzalmon purred, and Kain's eyes widened in shock, they had only had one form at a time, how were they now able to attain both forms? And more to the point, how did they even activate their digivice without hands?
"Bio-Quetzalmon bio hybrid warp digivolve to...Bio-Rotosmon!"
"Bio-Harpymon bio hybrid warp digivolve to...Bio-Ornismon!"
Nanami was now a towering figure, dressed in white and purple, with her head now green as opposed to red, having assumed her Mega form of Bio-Rotosmon.
Shina was now a purplish blue bird with a bright green beak and red head, having turned into Bio-Ornismon.
"That isn't good. Let's do it guys!" Kain yelled as the two hybrids laughed mockingly.
"DNA charge, overdrive!" the three of them yelled, and their Digimon sprang into action.
"Dokunemon double warp digivolve to...GrandisKuwagamon!"
The little green insect had now turned into a fully armoured bug soldier, clad in black and yellow armour, with deadly claws emerging from his arms.
"Penguinmon double warp digivolve to...Eaglemon!"
The blue bird had now assumed her mega form, a golden armoured Digimon with two massive feet and two dexterous arms.
"Enough. Seven's Fantasia!" Bio-Rotosmon cried, a powerful beam of rainbow coloured energy heading right for them.
"Cosmic Ray!" Bio-Ornismon screeched, a shimmering kaleidoscope ball of energy blasting out from her mouth.
And despite the best efforts of GrandisKuwagamon and Eaglemon, the blast hit them before Commandramon had completed his digvolution, and the room dissolved in a flash of pure energy.
XX
"Something about this is just all wrong Sally." Anderson said, and she nodded.
"Yeah, not the least of which is we just got into his highly guarded science labs which aren't quite so highly guarded all of a sudden. Where have all the troops gone?" she asked, and Gomamon looked at her pityingly.
"Can't you just appreciate a good break when we get one?" he asked, and Flamemon shook his head.
"Not when it's liable to bite us in the rear she can't. But I reckon she's right, something isn't right here. It was far too easy to get into here." He said darkly, looking around.
"And shouldn't this be crawling with Digimon? After all, this is a science lab. Unless they're under the same contract as British bin men, surely they should be doing something?" Anderson asked, looking around the place, through all the glass panels, and seeing no one in sight.
"Anybody else beginning to think we just walked into a trap? Commander, this stinks of bad mission planning. Kain will never let me hear the end of it if we get ambushed." Sally said, and someone laughed up ahead.
"Oh don't worry, he won't have a leg to stand on, after all, he's getting ambushed too." A young sounding voice said gloatingly, and Flamemon and Gomamon both tensed for battle.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" Anderson commanded, and a slightly deeper, mocking voice sounded from the depths of the lab.
"Come and find us old man!" the other voice crowed, and Anderson looked most affronted.
"Old? What a cheek!" he said, perturbed, and Sally swatted at him.
"Never mind that now, we need to get out of here." She said, and the younger voice chimed back.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. After all, there's an army out there just waiting for you guys to stroll on out before you've introduced yourself to us. Did you really think we would just let you all walk into these places without having a reason?" he taunted, and Anderson beckoned Sally with his head, signalling they should move forward.
"After all, even though most of the Digimon may be stupid enough to fall for a trick like your thing with the rockets, I know Marcus of old, it had his fingerprints all over it. Besides, Piedmon told us you guys were coming, so we sidled on up here so we could meet you with open arms." The older voice said as they approached the voice.
"I knew we shouldn't have trusted that clown." Anderson said with a scowl.
"Faster faster!" the younger voice sang, and Sally gritted her teeth in irritation.
"Don't worry, when we find them, I'll torch him." Flamemon assured her as they emerged onto a balcony that overlooked a large lab, and it became clear just what Marsmon had been doing in here.
There were several long workbenches, and they were covered in oscillation devices, and they were in the form of grenades. Marsmon had been creating weapons to blow open a path into the human world. And the fact that the owners of the two voices were sitting at the end of the lab with massive grins on their face, it was perfectly clear that Marsmon didn't care who saw these weapons anymore.
"Well you came all this way you might as well see what you came for." The older one gloated, dressed in a blue hoody with a yellow stripe on it, with a head of thick blond hair.
The boy behind him was younger, clad in a white jacket and red tshirt, with scuffy jeans. He was also wearing a green jacket with a red turtle neck beneath it, his black hair in a slight quiff.
"Who are you two?" Anderson asked as he and Sally descended to their level, both of them sitting there, all too at ease, something wasn't right.
"I'm Kouki, you might have heard of me. And this is Hiro, the last of the original bio-hybrids." He said proudly, clapping the younger kid on the shoulder proudly as Hiro grinned.
"Of course..." Anderson said, feeling like he wanted to kick himself.
The bio-hybrids had almost helped Kurata destroy the digital world before Marcus' team had finally stopped them. Insanely powerful and with all three of the members suffering from some mental defect of some sort, Kouki being a sadist, Nanami with a god complex and Ivan being completely unable to keep his thought quiet, they had posed a very real threat until the DATS team had finally overcame them. But how were they here? According to the file, there had only ever been three of them, yet Kouki said this Hiro lad was one as well. And how was Kouki one when he had been defeated?
"So, you think you can just waltz in here and help Marcus win? I don't think so." Hiro said, getting to his feet, and Kouki grinned.
"Yeah, see, I owe that jackass for my beating me once before, and I'm not going to stop until everything he values is dead. And that means, we start with destroying his realm, and then, his friends, and then his family." Kouki gloated, and Sally glared at him in fury.
"You're sick." She hissed, and Kouki grinned.
"Hardly. In fact, I haven't felt this good in a long time. Let's show them what we can do shall we Hiro?" he asked, and the kid smirked as he pulled out his red and grey digivice while Kouki pulled out his own blue and grey one.
"Don't wait for them to take the first shop, you've heard what these two are capable of, digivolve!" Sally ordered and the two Digimon sprang into action.
"Bio hybrid DNA charge!" the two young men yelled, covering themselves in purple digisoul, Kouki in particular grinning maliciously.
"DNA charge, overdrive!" Anderson and Sally yelled, activating their own digivices.
"Bio-hybrid digivolve to...Bio-Thunderbirdmon!" Kouki yelled, becoming the dangerous looking Digimon with a red head, laughing mockingly.
"Bio-hybrid digivolve to...Bio-Peacockmon!" Hiro cried, becoming the blue armoured Digimon, his head also a brilliant bright red as the two powerful Digimon appeared before them.
"Gomamon double warp digivolve to...Vikemon!"
"Flamemon double warp digivolve to...Spinomon!"
With the massive armoured walrus and the vicious looking dinosaur facing them, Anderson at least hoped they would back down ever so slightly, but they simply laughed.
"Pathetic. Bio hybrid DNA full charge!" the two hybrids yelled in challenge, digivolving once again.
"That's impossible, how are they able to do that?" Sally shrieked in alarm as their two Digimon made sure their partners were safe.
"Bio-Thunderbirdmon bio hybrid warp digivolve to...Bio-Darkdramon!"
"Bio-Peacockmon bio hybrid warp digivolve to...Bio-Gryphomon!"
The towering form of Bio-Darkdramon, clad in his blue armour and his green head, snarling viciously, made to block Vikemon whereas the winged form of Bio-Gryphomon, also with a green head, moved to challenge Spinomon.
"Let's see if DATS has gotten any better in the last five years. Dark Roar!"
"Viking Flare!"
Bio-Gryphomon tensed and sprang right for Spinomon, laughing eagerly.
"Solo Roar!"
"Blue Prominence!"
The four attacks slammed together, and the fight was truly on.
XX
"Marcus, slow down!" Thomas urged as they headed along another stone corridor, having just ducked in to avoid a passing Meramon.
Marcus leaned against a wall, hissing in annoyance as an Ogremon went past, barely avoiding seeing them as they had darted into a doorway just in time.
"Thomas, we're nearly there, we can get Keenan back, and get him to safety." Marcus said, and Yoshi nodded.
"I know you're worried about him Marcus, we all are, but a few more minutes either way aren't going to matter much. Just slow down, we can't do much if we get caught as well." Yoshi said, and he hissed in annoyance as he sagged against a wall.
"He's doing this because of me Yoshi. He's taken Keenan and hurt him because of me. How am I meant to deal with that?" he asked weakly, and Thomas laid a hand on his shoulder as he saw how devastated his friend was, how much this was getting to him, how guilty and worried this was making him.
"Far be it from me to encourage you, but we deal with it the same way you deal with everything else: you beat the crap out of Marsmon." He encouraged, and Marcus grinned slightly.
"We won't let you down Marcus. Now, let's go get Keenan." Lalamon said, edging herself around the corner before leading them down the corridor.
They made their way through the corridors, heading to the cells that were beneath the fortress, all of their minds abuzz with what was going on here. Fears of what they would find when they found Keenan, fears that he wouldn't actually be there, fear for their friends, fear for the future, all of them were plaguing them as they marched along the corridors towards the cells.
"Wait." Thomas said, peering around the corner into the long cell block.
Despite Marsmon being who and what he was, his prison cells were largely Spartan affairs. A long corridor of small tiny cell doors was all that it was, with an alcove halfway along which belonged to the overseer.
"Only one guard? This is weird, I don't like this." Yoshi said, and Agumon nodded in agreement.
"She's right boss, this is too easy." He agreed worriedly, and Marcus closed his eyes in realisation.
"He knows we're here, he knows we're in the fortress. He wants us here, and we walked right into it." He admitted, and Thomas nodded.
"My guess would be the same as Marcus', but we've come too far now. We get Keenan, then we deal." He said, and Falcomon nodded eagerly.
"I endorse that, we must rescue Keenan. After that, I can digivolve and help you fight if need be." He said, and Lalamon nodded.
"Exactly. Stay here, I'll deal with the guard." She said, floating along the corridor to where a Gorillamon was sitting with his feet up on the table, sulking.
"How come Wendigomon gets to torture the kid, why can't I? I'm the prison master, it's my privilege! There's no one here, where's my stick?" he asked mutinously, and Lalamon made her move.
"Sing a song!" she called cheerfully, and the large ape Digimon fell backwards off his seat and to the floor where he promptly started to snore.
"Good work Lalamon. You reckon this is Keenan's cell?" Yoshi asked, and Falcomon nodded as he approached.
"I can feel that it is, I can feel him inside, hurry!" he urged, and abandoning all pretence, Marcus kicked down the door, shattering the reinforced wood while briefly wondering why Keenan hadn't tried to get out.
And as he beheld Keenan, his friend, damn it, his little brother, he immediately knew why, and vowed to rip Marsmon's head off with his own bare hands.
Keenan was chained to the wall like a dog, a massive iron collar around his neck, and another one to his ankles, which were crossed uncomfortably, and a further chain was attached to his crossed hands. His body was bruised, beaten and bloodied, his bare shivering chest covered in blue, black and yellow bruises, along with deep, scarlet cuts and a few shining glinting burns. Blood had dried on what was left of his trousers, long thin gashes running down his legs and across his ankles. His arms were in a similar state, and it looked as if both shoulders were out of place, both of them jutting up painfully. Marcus then looked to his face, and his breath caught in his throat. His face was a yellow and purple mash of his features, his lips thick and bloodied, his face covered in blood, his nose looking slightly squashed, scars marked around his eyes, his breathing was laboured, and clumps of blood were in his black hair. Marsmon had tortured him.
And now he would pay.
"Keenan!" Falcomon cried in alarm as the group rushed into the cell.
"Keenan, hey buddy, we're here, we're here." Marcus soothed, sliding to his knees in front of Keenan and taking his face in his hands.
Keenan groaned in pain as Marcus very gently tilted Keenan's face to meet his, refusing to let the scratchy feeling in the back of his throat or the stinging in his eyes get the better of him. Marcus just held him there, and slowly Keenan's slightly better eye opened to reveal his pained, tortured and saddened brown eye. And as he saw Marcus, Marcus could see a little spark of hope returning into his body, and Keenan kind of tried to make himself more upright.
"Marcus?" he croaked weakly, revealing that his mouth was now missing teeth as well.
"It's us kid, we're here." Marcus whispered to him, as Yoshi began undoing the chains.
"Oh my god Keenan, I'm so sorry it took us so long to get to you, we'll get you out of here, don't worry." She assured him, and Thomas knelt down beside Marcus.
"Marcus, I need to examine him. Can you and Falcomon give me space?" he asked softly, and Marcus nodded, not saying anything, just sitting back a little bit as his doctor friend inspected Keenan.
"Boss...we need to kill Marsmon. Like right now." Agumon growled, and Marcus clenched his fist, his green eyes blazing furiously.
"Damn right we do." He bit out, and Falcomon hovered behind Thomas in a panic.
"Will he be alright?" Falcomon pleaded, and Thomas turned to face him.
"Falcomon, why not go and get your digivice, it was on the guard's desk?" he asked, and Falcomon clearly got the gist as Thomas finished checking Keenan over.
"I can't do anything for you here, and I'd rather not move you, you might have internal bleeding but we can't leave you here. Let's go." He said softly, and Keenan looked up at Marcus hopefully.
"I kept hoping you'd come. I told him you would. It's good to see you." He said earnestly, and Marcus gently helped Thomas get him to his feet.
"You too buddy. But let's get out of here. Don't worry Thomas, Taomon's fixed me up loads of times, she can fix this." He assured his friend, but his voice shook slightly, Taomon had never had to deal with a case like this before.
"Marcus...I'll take Keenan, you and Agumon are better fighters. You too Thomas, Falcomon and I have him don't worry. We need to find the others and get out of here." Yoshi offered, and after receiving a nod from Thomas, Marcus reluctantly surrendered a weak Keenan to her, and he gasped in pain as he was forced to take some weight on his shattered knee caps temporarily.
Marcus then clenched his fist furiously. He didn't care, he was going to kill Marsmon, here and now, if he came across Marsmon, member of the Olympus Twelve or not, he'd kill the bastard for doing this to Keenan, war be damned.
"It'll be ok Keenan, we just need to get back to Glacial City, once we get the others, then Taomon can patch you up with Thomas ok? You don't want Kristy to see you like this do you?" Lalamon asked, and he managed to pick his head up ever so slightly in hope.
"Kristy's here?" he asked, and Marcus grinned.
"Yeah, and believe me, she's going to be as pissed as I am when she sees what Marsmon has done to her boyfriend." He said, and Keenan made a noise of protest in his throat.
"Not my girlfriend." He slurred, and Thomas shook his head in disbelief.
"Seriously? He's lucky to be alive and he still has the stubbornness to contradict us on that? He's as bad as you." He said to Marcus, and Marcus looked at Keenan proudly.
He was about to say something else when Anderson and Sally were suddenly blown into the wall at the end of the corridor, a barely stirring Gomamon and Flamemon landing roughly beside them.
"That's not good." Yoshi commented, and Marcus felt his jaw drop as their attackers strolled into the corridor.
The kid, who was about Keenan's age, he didn't recognise. But the blond who was leering at him with a smug smile on his face, he certainly did.
Kouki.
"Hello Marcus. I see you found your friend. Leaving so soon Keenan? And after I had to do so much to bring you here in the first place?" Kouki asked in a mock baby voice, and the entire groups blood immediately boiled at his taunt.
"You brought him here?" Thomas demanded furiously, and there was a simpering laugh from behind them, making them whirl to see Nanami and a girl they didn't recognise enter the corridor as well, with Kain and his group barely conscious at their feet, the three Digimon looking very worse for wear.
"That we did Thomas H Norstein." Nanami simpered, and he scowled at her, while Britney and the other two started clawing their way towards the trapped DATS members in the centre of the corridor, while Anderson and Sally did the same, all of them dragging their partners with them.
"They're so strong..." Sally breathed in shock as she reached Marcus, who laid a hand on her shoulder.
"They can reach both forms now..." Anderson breathed, clutching Gomamon.
"And the new girl, she's powerful, she's different somehow." Kain breathed as the four Bio-Hybrids advanced on them, all of them smirking triumphantly.
"So these are the famous DATS members? I can't believe you lost to them Kouki." Shina taunted, and he glared at her slightly, before grinning smugly at Marcus.
"That was before, this is now." He boasted, and Marcus tensed, he had never wanted to kick the crap out of Kouki as much as he did now, it was his fault that Keenan was in this mess.
"I don't care how you managed to become a hybrid again, but I'm going to enjoy pummelling you into paste." Marcus snarled, and Agumon started growling beside him.
"Really? When I now have both forms available to me? How do you plan to manage that?" Kouki taunted, cracking his knuckles as Marcus glared.
"Um sir? Perhaps for your next project, you could use some of your funds to make sure this lot have no more digital DNA in them." Gaomon suggested as he glared at Nanami.
"Good idea." Thomas growled, glaring at his nemesis.
"I knew it! I knew you had something to do with those robberies Kouki, and now I know how you did it! I ought to arrest you!" Yoshi shouted, and he grinned maliciously.
"You're welcome to try toots." He challenged, and she seethed in anger.
"Kouki, you're so bad. We can't let our newest additions go unsatisfied, they need to see what this lot can do. Shall we?" Nanami asked, and Hiro grinned.
"Yeah, let's see what's so good about them, shall we?" he asked, and Shina smiled in anticipation.
"Bio hybrid DNA charge!" the four hybrids yelled as one, and Marcus couldn't help but suppress a small amount of pleasure, schooling this lot was going to feel so good.
"It's fighting time again!" Agumon growled, and Gaomon nodded.
"Couldn't agree more!" he muttered darkly, and Lalamon flew to help cover Shina and Nanami while Falcomon jumped to side with Agumon while the weakened European DATS members got to their feet and to relative safety behind Marcus and Thomas, Anderson taking Keenan from Yoshi.
"Poor lad. I've got him lass, don't you worry, you just kick these little thugs back to kingdom come." He ordered as Gomamon made a faint noise of approval.
"I'm sorry Marcus, we held them for as long as we could, but they're just too strong!" Kain breathed weakly, and Marcus put a hand on his arm before advancing to a shimmering Kouki.
"Go on Marcus, I'll let you get off the first punch, since I know you need to. Go on, make it count." Kouki baited, and Marcus roared and slammed his fist right into Kouki's nose, activating his own digisoul, and Kouki toppled to the floor, dazed.
"You let him hit you?" Hiro asked in disbelief, and Kouki smirked as he mopped the blood.
"Don't worry, I was just making it interesting little dude." He assured, getting back to his feet.
"Bio hybrid warp digivolve to...Bio-Darkdramon!"
"Bio hybrid warp digivolve to...Bio-Rotosmon!"
"Bio hybrid warp digivolve to...Bio-Gryphomon!"
"Bio hybrid warp digivolve to...Bio-Ornismon!"
"That's new." Yoshi commented as she joined Thomas, who nodded as he surveyed the two new hybrids, this was the last thing they needed.
"We'll manage. Marcus?" he asked, and Marcus glared at Kouki.
"You're going to pay. Fighting time Agumon!" he yelled, as a weak Keenan still found the strength to take his digivice.
"DNA charge, overdrive!" all four of them yelled as their souls burst to life.
"Agumon double warp digivolve to...ShineGreymon!"
"Gaomon double warp digivolve to...MirageGaogamon!"
"Lalamon double warp digivolve to...Rosemon!"
"Falcomon double warp digivolve to...Ravemon!"
As the four Megas materialised, the hybrids tensed, and a seething Marcus clenched his fist, wanting nothing more than to beat Bio-Darkdramon into a puddle.
"You've made a serious mistake coming back Kouki." He ground out.
"Not as serious as yours I fear." A deep voice said from behind the two male hybrids, and all the hybrids retreated slightly, as the speaker entered the corridor, making Thomas and Yoshi turn to face the newcomer.
It was Marsmon.
"Marsmon." Marcus hissed in shock, and Kain looked at him worriedly, there was a slight shake to his voice, and he could well understand why, the last thing they needed now was a fight with Marcus archenemy, none of them were in the state for it, not with the hybrids here too.
Marsmon chuckled as he saw the assembled group of humans and Digimon in the middle of the corridor, stalking along leisurely.
"I see you've met my allies. And found your friend. I must thank you for coming all the way here Marcus, it means I don't even need to leave the comfort of my own home to wipe you across the floor. Come now, we mustn't stand on ceremony here Marcus, we both know what's about to happen. I'm about to crush you. Darkdramon here will be irritated, but he can console himself by wiping out your pet and then your army." Marsmon promised, and Darkdramon scowled, before turning his gaze onto ShineGreymon.
"For someone who hates humans, you've got a few working with you don't you?" Yoshi challenged and he inclined his head.
"Yes, but they are not pure humans. Kurata, foul as he was, did this lot a favour. Well, he did Darkdramon, Rotosmon and Gryphomon a favour. He was the last you know, Gryphomon. Kurata was fed up of that stupid pigeon dismantling his Gizumon, so he amped up dear Hiro too to make him the superior being you see before you. Ornismon though, she's a different matter. When Kouki kidnapped Keenan and brought him here, she asked to come alone, she was so disenchanted with the human world. And when she agreed to let Nanami continue Kurata's work on her, well, she fit right in." Marsmon explained as he neared their group.
"We need to get out of here, now." Fredrich whispered, and Kain nodded in fear.
"This ends now Marsmon." Marcus said, strolling in front of the others, as if to protect them from the God of War as he came to a stop.
"I agree Marcus. This ends now." He said, and the group's eyes widened in fear as dozens of Marsmon's minions surged into the corridor, all of them cawing and chattering loudly, excited to see the battle that was about to begin.
Persiamon strolled to the front of the crowd, smiling slightly as she beheld her lover.
"Rub him out my love. All bets are on Marsmon." She purred as more Digimon surged in the back, all of them gathering around to watch Marsmon fight Marcus, all of them whistling and shouting encouragement.
"Hybrids...deal with them." Marsmon said, and he gave a roar and stampeded at Marcus.
At the same time, Darkdramon flew right into ShineGreymon, pinning him against the wall, and Gryphomon got off an attack that sent Ravemon hurtling up the corridor. On the other side, Rotosmon slammed her staff into MirageGaogamon, while Ornismon sent a laser blast right into Rosemon's chest, crashing her into the ceiling.
"We need to get out of here, there isn't enough room for them to fight, the hybrids have the advantage!" Anderson cried, trying to protect Keenan as much as possible as rubble rained down on them from above.
Marcus' fist clashed with Marsmon's, and he gave his opponent an appreciative nod as their fists connected together, the entire corridor shaking with the impact, Marsmon's minions whistling in approval.
"Impressive. You fight like a Digimon, with nothing held back. An admirable course of action." He said, before crashing his other fist into Marcus side, sending him across the corridor and crashing him into the wall.
"Admirable, but mistaken." Marsmon taunted, as Marcus propped himself up, shaking his head blearily.
"Boss!" ShineGreymon cried, as Darkdramon used his blade to pin him to the wall, allowing him to batter him mercilessly.
"Marcus, get away from him!" Thomas yelled, tackling Britney to the ground as a chunk of masonry was dislodged by MirageGaogamon firing his attack and missing Rotosmon.
Marcus gasped, his side was killing him. Marsmon was double his size and about ten times his strength. And he had him trapped, Marcus couldn't risk running past the battling Digimon. And Marsmon knew it.
He slammed his fist down, and Marcus barely avoided the attack, diving to the ground and rolling back to his feet. Marsmon laughed mockingly, grabbing hold of Marcus and then viciously throwing him into the wall, Marcus' head slamming into the concrete.
"Ah, so weak humans are. One single blow costs you your strength. Your body has defeated you." Marsmon said chidingly, as Marcus tottered back, stars flashing in his eyes, feeling blood run down his face.
"Marcus! Commandramon, you need to help!" Kain begged, but his partner was still out cold, as were all the other Digimon.
Marcus turned, deciding to risk going through the battling Digimon, as Gryphomon savaged Ravemon with his claws and slammed the Digimon to the ground, when Marsmon was on him again. Marsmon staggered with the impact, and then he saw Marsmon's fist flashing towards him. Raising his hands weakly, Marcus barely slowed the attack, the force of the impact knocking the wind out of him, and Marsmon then followed up with a savage backhand that knocked Marcus to the ground.
"We need to get him out of there, Rosemon, get Marcus!" Yoshi screamed, otherwise Marsmon was going to kill him.
Rosemon however had her own problems as Ornismon was now taking great delight in trying to peck the head off of her pinned partner.
"Alright, that's how you want to play it?" Marcus challenged, shaking his head and punching upwards.
Marsmon, who had been too busy saluting his followers, wheezed in surprise as Marcus heavy blow caught him in the stomach. Ignoring the jeers of the crowd, Marcus crashed a fist into his tusk, reeling the Digimon back before Marsmon collided his foot with Marcus breast bone viciously. Marcus screamed as he was knocked off his feet with the impact, his ribs shattered.
"A good warrior uses any tools to fight a war. A powerful lesson to the uninitiated. But we are initiated, aren't we Marcus? Brother warriors! Only...you are human and have no business being one!" Marsmon snarled, stamping on Marcus outstretched left arm and shattering the bone.
"Marcus..." Keenan gasped as the Europeans Digimon started to come to, but Kain already knew that by the time they could help, Marcus would be dead.
"Cosmic Ray!" Ornismon screeched, and Rosemon shrieked in alarm as the blast hit her point blank, turning her into a blackened and smoking form of Lalamon again.
"Lalamon!" Yoshi cried, trying to run to her partner, but Ornismon turned back to Shina, who slapped Yoshi to the ground with a vicious, sadistic smile on her face.
"On your feet Marcus! Come now, I thought you would provide sport!" Marsmon taunted, and to his credit, Marcus, struggling against the seething pain in his entire body, threw a wild punch that caught Marsmon on the tusk.
"Ah, good show! But not good enough!" Marsmon growled, kneeing Marcus in the gut and then slamming his fist into his back and dropping Marcus to the ground with a feeble moan.
"We need to save him, please, wake up!" Fredrich urged Dokunemon, but none of their Digimon were of any help.
"Marcus!" Thomas cried in shock, seeing how badly Marsmon was beating him and fearing for his very life, but before he could try and run to help, MirageGaogamon dislodged another downpour of rubble that stopped his progress.
"Solo Roar!" Gryphomon bellowed, and Falcomon screamed as he returned to his normal form, crashing to the ground where he lay unmoving, and Gryphomon padded over to Allomon, who clapped him proudly on the shoulder as they stood back to watch the battle.
Marsmon grabbed Marcus long hair, and then slammed his face into the dirt, before repeating the process. There were only two other battles still raging, but trapped as they were by the close quarters, the DATS Digimon were losing the battle.
"You see Marcus, I was a warrior before I was even grown. I was moulded by war. You are nothing," he explained, splitting Marcus' leg in two, "compared to the God of War," he continued, gut punching Marcus several times, making Marcus vomit up blood, which covered his ruined clothes, "by the time you started wearing diapers, I had won by first ten wars," he elaborated, knocking several of Marcus' teeth flying as he punched him in the mouth, "and by the time you won even won fight, it was as insignificant as a sneeze compared to me!" he finished, breaking Marcus other leg.
"Seven's Fantasia!" Rotosmon shrieked, catching MirageGaogamon right in the head and then hammering him with her staff, dropping his defeated Rookie form at her feet.
"Boss!" ShineGreymon screamed as the others all took advantage of all but one battle being over to run towards Marcus, but Gryphomon pounced up the corridor and blocked their progress, growling.
"And now, I'm preparing to bring balance back to my world. And my first task, is to destroy your legacy!" Marsmon snarled, shattering his remaining arm.
"Dark Roar!" Darkdramon bellowed, and the group of humans dove out of the way to avoid the skidding form of ShineGreymon before he returned to the unconscious form of Agumon.
Marcus was barely keeping conscious, he was just no match for him, and without Agumon, he had no chance. It was over, he had failed. The darkness was claiming him.
"I will make you this promise: everyone you care about, will suffer." Marsmon promised, propping Marcus up against the wall and then began hammering the life out of him Marcus grunting and wheezing with each blow, his face a bloody, shattered mess, his ribs and limbs shattered, joints dislocated, his hair gunged up with congealed blood, teeth missing, his clothes ripped to shreds, exposing his beaten torso, and his life fading.
"Ah, not yet Marcus, we aren't yet done! See?" Marsmon asked, ripping Marcus dogtags off his neck and squeezing them into dust.
Marcus saw his dogtags, once his fathers, fall as metallic shards of dust, and he could feel the sense of devastation. His dad, he has failed his dad, his mom, his sister, his brother, his friends, everyone, he had failed them all, and now...this was the end.
Marsmon had won.
And he was dead.
"Ah, I wondered what would break first! It seems those little accessories of you meant the world to you. Well then," he said, and Marcus gagged weakly as Marsmon started crushing his long neck, Marcus gasping for air, though his breathing was very laboured and he wouldn't last a minute like this, his eyes were rolling in his head, "allow me to bring your world to an end!"
And Marsmon then lifted a choking Marsmon up by the neck, held him horizontally above his head and virtually broke Marcus in half by pulling down on his legs and shoulders, effectively breaking him, and his back, in two.
He then laughed victoriously, enjoying the screams of Marcus' friends, and threw Marcus hard into the ground, where his shattered and beaten body crashed, face down, moving no more, bowing as he heard the cheers from his own people. In contempt, Marsmon then kicked Marcus body roughly, revealing Marcus bloodied and shattered front, his eyes rolled back in his head. He nodded as he surveyed his crippled enemy, admittedly impressed that Marcus chest still had a slight rise and fall to it, he was still alive.
Just.
He stood over Marcus, laughing mockingly as Thomas, Kain and Yoshi rushed to their friend's side, screaming at him wildly as Marcus' breathing slowed more and more. And then Thomas screamed that he had stopped breathing.
"And so, the beat of war rises. And Marcus Damon lies defeated at my feet. It is over." He purred, and with a nod, Darkdramon, Rotosmon, Gryphomon and several of his other minions including Wendigomon and Allomon, all surrounded the petrified and panicking humans, all gathered around the rapidly dying body of Marcus Damon.
"I am the one true God of War. And Marcus Damon..." he began, smirking as he saw the horrified expressions of his enemies as Thomas struggled to keep him alive.
"Is nothing!"
Firstly, apologies. What with so many stories, some get forgotten when I update and hence there are months between updates. I didnt actually think it was that long since I had updated this one but clearly it was, so many apologies for how long it took. But while I appreciate reviews from those of you still dedicated enough to read it (many thanks for sticking with it since its been so long) it just takes me a long time what with so many stories to write, so sorry
Anyway, to business! So, we're updated at long last, and a lot has happened this chapter!
Piedmon is a nasty piece of work, we havent seen the last of him, and he truly comes into his own. I hope you liked the view into the nominal states, dont count them out just yet, we havent seen the last of them, and there are a fair few of them. And just what is going on in the human world in the Dats base?
But its digital problems that are the big news. Alliances are being made, Marsmon is preparing for war and events are spiralling out of control. Just what does Marsmon have planned? Why does he need oscillation grenades? And why does he have all those Gizumon? Will that news affect his relationships with his allies? And what do the hybrids want, where do they fit into this?
And most worrying of all, what will happen to Marcus? Will he somehow manage to survive his horrendous beating at Marsmon's hands? Or is this the end of our favourite fighter?
You may be able to guess who Marsmon was was inspired by in this chapter actually, particuarly in the last scene.
Anyway, thank you so much for sticking with it, I hope it isnt too long before the next chapter and I hope to hear from you all soon!
