Chapter Ten: Dare to Hope, Dare to Live
"Andromon, stand in front of me. This sandstorm is too rough for me to handle." Kazu instructed his newly digivolved partner. The large metal digimon placed himself in front of his partner, shielding him from the vicious desert storm that had appeared out of nowhere. "I hate this continent." Kazu muttered, thinking of the hell that he had found himself in. He knew he had to be here, though. Devimon had given him a very important job, and he intended to carry it out. Besides, he was already half way done, having successfully hidden the tags in an abandoned town far from the river. His only other mission was to find somewhere to conceal the crests, far from anywhere that the citizens of Server might stumble upon them, and then return to help Devimon finish his takeover of the island. It would be much easier now that his crest had helped Guardromon ascend to the tall, thin, silver metallic digimon known as Andromon. He didn't fully understand why Devimon hadn't given them the crests in the first place, as a few Ultimate digimon could probably easily take over that island, but he didn't dwell on it. Kazu trusted Devimon's judgment. Whatever reason Devimon had for concealing such a powerful tool, Kazu believed it was the right one.
A light in the small brown bag wrapped to his belt buckle drew Kazu's attention.
"What?" he mumbled as he stopped and grabbed the bag of crests from his hip. Andromon turned around to investigate as well.
"What is it, Kazu?" the android digimon said, void of emotion. Kazu opened the bag and pulled out the glowing crest. A symbol representing a star sending a ray of light downwards shone brightly on the small stone tablet.
"Damn, this is the second one today." Kazu sighed. He shoved the crest back into the bag. The light soon faded away. "Alright Andromon, new plan: take this bag up into the air and toss the crests in different directions."
"Won't that make the crest easier to find, Kazu?" the soulless digimon asked.
"Not if you take it up a few hundred thousand feet. They may be obvious on the ground but I can guarantee that no one will find all of them."
"Okay." Andromon opened his hand, allowing Kazu to hand him the bag. Kazu backed away as Andromon leaped from the ground and sped into the air like a rocket.
"Hurry up Andromon," Kazu said to himself, "Devimon needs us."
***
T.K. struggled to keep ahead of the jailer, who had pulled T.K.'s arms behind his back and was guiding him down a dark hallway. The boy holding him, a tall, slender kid wearing a tan suit, was walking too fast for T.K., so he had to run to keep the boy from shoving him farther. T.K. kept a sad expression on his face, trying to fool his captor so he wouldn't discover that T.K. was contemplating a way to escape.
There was one major problem, however. T.K. had no idea how to get out of the dark temple. He was clueless to where Ken was taking him and had no idea which hallway led to the exit T.K. had been brought in before. He had spent so much time in that dark cell, crying, that he was too disoriented to remember the layout of the building. But unknown to the boy a golden opportunity was about to strike.
As Ken turned out of the hallway he was in and crossed into a four way intersection, T.K. saw a bright light coming out of one of the hallways. Near the light he could see the silhouette of a boy walking towards what looked like a panel on the wall. T.K. realized this was the exit and faster than he realized came up with a plan.
"Hey, it's the loser!" T.K. yelled to the boy before he could close the heavy doors. Henry turned his head to see the shapes of Ken and T.K. in the distance.
"What did you call me Ken?" Henry yelled as he walked towards the two, forgetting to close the door.
"It wasn't me you moron it was the boy." Ken replied. Henry made his way over to the two tamers. Once he arrived, T.K. stuck his tongue out at him. Henry raised his arm and struck the boy across the cheek.
"You think you're funny?" Henry growled. T.K. cringed at the vicious attack, but remembering his brother, turned to face the boy again.
"Ken, why don't you let me take this little brat up to Devimon." Henry grabbed the boy's collar, almost choking him.
"Yeah, fine. I've gotta check on the other prisoners anyway." Ken released his grip and returned down the hallway that he came from.
"Alright, you little piece of crap, let's go." Henry pulled on the boy, dragging him towards Devimon's chamber. He then realized his absent mindedness towards the door. "Damn you, you made me forget about the door. Devimon would kill me if he found out I left that open, and that's not an exaggeration." Henry turned around and started walking down the pathway towards the door. T.K. waited until they were out of the sight of Ken to make his move.
As Ken walked away, he realized Henry's incompetence. "Henry, did you forget to close the damn door?" Ken growled as he walked back to the entranceway. As he made the corner he was shocked to see Henry lying on the ground, clutching his groin, while T.K. was running for the open doorway.
"No!" he yelled, running after him. He yelled "How could you be so stupid!" as he jumped over the other tamer, writhing in pain. Ken dashed after the boy, but the good tamer had too much of a head start. He ran towards the door, smashing his palm into the large red button on the side panel as he did so. This activated the alarm and triggered the heavy doors to begin to close. T.K. didn't care, however. He kept running, aiming for the crack in the doorway that was closing fast. T.K. leaped through the doorway, barely making it outside before the entrance slammed shut. Ken, running to fast, couldn't stop himself before he smashed his face into the door.
On the other side of the door, T.K. had lifted himself off the ground (after having fallen by leaping through the doorway) and was checking his surroundings, allowing his eyes to adjust to the bright light that now surrounded him. He first noticed that the sun had begun to go down, as everything had a red tint. As his eyes adjusted further, he began to see the Fugamon guards scrambling around the outskirts of the Citadel. T.K., having limited options, dove into a ditch he discovered to his left and started crawling forward.
As he started to make some distance between himself and the dark palace, a Fugamon leaped near the ditch he was hiding in and began to examine the area. T.K. dropped his head and held his breath, praying that Fugamon wouldn't see him. The foolish digimon, not thinking to look in the ditch, quickly leaped away, allowing T.K. to continue crawling away. As he got further and further away from the Citadel, he figured he was probably safe from the Fugamon. He pulled himself out of the ditch and observed where he was. The ditch was actually a depository, dumping water down the mountain. A path near the hiding place sloped downward as it spiraled around Infinity. T.K. hurried down the path, aimed to find Patamon and figure out a way to save his brother.
***
"Diamond Storm!"
"Pepper Breath!"
Agumon and Renamon fired their attacks at the steel bars, to no effect. The two had been trying to shatter the bars for hours, with no results.
"It's no use," Agumon complained, "We're too tired to take these out."
"Don't give up Agumon, we have to find Rika and Tai. Diamond Storm!" Rika sent a string of explosive jewels towards the jail door. They blew harmlessly upon impact.
"Damn," she leaned against her cell wall in exhaustion.
"Pepper Breath!" a flame suddenly struck Renamon's cage.
"What are you doing Agumon?" she questioned her friend, who was aiming another blast at her cage.
"If we focus both of our attacks on one cage, we might be able to weaken it-Pepper Breath!"
"Right. Diamond Storm!"
"Pepper Breath!" Agumon and Renamon alternated their attacks. A ten minute exchange proved fruitless as well.
"Ugh," Agumon dropped to the ground in exhaustion. "These bars are just too strong. Huh?" at Agumon's new angle, he could make out a silhouette in the cage across from his.
"Who is that?" Agumon tried to focus on the small shape, but it was too dark. "Pepper Breath!" He fired the blast at the wall near the cage. The flash of light revealed for a split second the small pinkish digimon collapsed in the cage.
"What is it Agumon?"
"It's Motimon!"
"Motimon? Why has he de-digivolved?"
"I don't know. Motimon! Hey Motimon! Wake up!" Agumon yelled to the digimon. The creature slowly began to stir awake.
"Agumon?" the digimon said weakly.
"Motimon, what happened to you?"
"We were attacked by Kuwagamon. He was too strong for me."
"So they grabbed Eric too?"
"Uh-huh."
"Motimon, do you think you can slip through these bars?" Renamon questioned.
"I can try." Motimon lifted himself up and walked (or his equivalent) towards the cell gate. He squeezed his body through the large bars of his cell, escaping to the hallway.
"Finally Devimon makes a mistake." Agumon cheered to his friend.
"Now Agumon, try and find the guard. He must be around here somewhere. Grab the keys and bring them back." Renamon instructed her friend.
"I got that part Renamon." Motimon growled. He then walked off, searching for the guard, whoever and wherever he was. Agumon and Renamon waited for their in-training friend for what seemed an hour, before the digimon crawled back, holding a set of keys in his arms.
"We were really lucky. The guard was asleep." Motimon flipped through the keys, searching for the correct one. "Um, I have no idea what key goes where." Motimon laughed. He then tossed the keys to Renamon.
"I'm amazed any digimon could sleep through the racket we've been making. What type of Digimon was it?" Agumon asked as Renamon fiddled with the keys.
"A Tentomon."
"I've got it!" Renamon exclaimed, finding the right key. She snapped the door open, then glided over to Agumon's cage. "Just a second friend, I'll have you out in a second." Renamon began rifling through the keys again.
"Hurry up!" Agumon was growing a little nervous.
"Don't worry Agumon, Tentomon and the like sleep like babies. We'll be fine."
"You mean they wake up every hour crying?"
"Hey!" Motimon protested Agumon's joke.
"There!" Renamon sprang Agumon's lock, releasing him from imprisonment.
"Alright! Now let's get out of here." Agumon led the charge away from the prison cells.
***
"We need to move now!" Gargomon grabbed the two children and dashed away from DarkTyrannomon, with Gatomon at his heels.
"RRAAHH!" DarkTyrannomon roared in anger, stomping after them in a rage.
"Hide here!" Gargomon leaped to a cave overlooking the sloped field and dropped Izzy and Kari inside, jumping away to draw DarkTyrannomon's attention from them.
"Be careful Gargomon!" Izzy yelled to his partner.
"You too Gatomon!" Kari cheered.
"We'll take care of him Kari!" Gatomon turned to the evil digimon hovering over them. It growled evilly before commencing it's attack.
"Fire Blast!" the Tyrannomon launched a deadly attack towards Gargomon.
"Good luck with that- Bunny Pummel!" Gargomon slammed his fist into the attack, throwing it back towards DarkTyrannomon.
"Iron Tail!" Tyrannomon swung his tail at the attack, knocking it away and slamming into Gargomon.
"Lightning Kick!" Gatomon struck Tyrannomon's head with her leg, making it flinch.
"Fire Blast!" DarkTyrannomon raised his head towards Gatomon and fired. Gatomon tried to block, but the attack slammed into her head on, throwing her back onto the ground.
"Hey, why don't you fight someone your own size," Gargomon yelled, lifting himself from the ground and jumping towards the vile creature, "Or at least someone bigger than Gatomon! Bunny Pummel!" Gargomon piled his fist into DarkTyrannomon's head. A small flinch from the dark digimon indicated that he barely felt the attack.
"Iron Tail!" Tyrannomon slung his tail around, piling it into Gargomon's stomach. As he flew backwards he raised his arms.
"Gargo Laser!" Gargomon fired at DarkTyrannomon with force. DarkTyrannomon tucked his head backwards to protect his eyes from the attack. Gargomon crashed into a rock wall before his attack could take full effect, though.
"That digimon's too strong for us." Kari stated.
"I know, but there's nothing we can do." Izzy moved to the back of the cave, setting Patamon down safely. "Gatomon and Gargomon are our only defense. If they can't win then there's nothing we can do."
"I just feel so helpless." Kari hung her head in sadness.
"I know, but there just isn't anything we can do Kari."
"Gargo Laser!"
"Lightning Paw!" Gargomon and Gatomon laid another round of attacks on DarkTyrannomon. He easily swated them away.
"Aahh!" DarkTyrannomon yelled in anger, chasing the two digimon down. As he swung another "Iron Tail" at Gargomon and Gatomon, Izzy noticed something on the digimon's back.
"What was that?" Izzy mumbled.
"I think it was the black gear!" Kari exclaimed excitedly. "Gatomon, there's a black gear on his back!"
"Thanks Kari!" Gatomon leaped above DarkTyrannomon, landing on the digimon's back. "See ya DarkTyrannomon." She latched herself onto the black gear, pulling it downwards. She struggled to pull the device out of Tyrannomon, but she only succeed in pulling the gear down, making it spin violently.
"I think I did it!" Gatomon yelled, just before DarkTyrannomon flew into an angry rage, knocking the feline off of his back. He became even more violent, smashing into the rock walls around him.
"What's happening Izzy?" Kari said frightened.
"I don't know Kari." Izzy murmured. "This is bad. Oh wait!" Izzy suddenly became excited.
"What is it Izzy?"
"Gargo Laser!"
"I think I know how to figure out how to defeat DarkTyrannomon." Izzy explained as he removed his laptop and activated it.
"What are you going to do?" Kari asked.
"Lightning Paw!"
"I'm going to record DarkTyrannomon and see if it'll record his digital signature."
"What?"
"Bunny Pummel!"
"Remember when I told everyone that matter in this world is combined with computer data?" Kari nodded.
"Well that means that any electrical device used in a world like this would be forced to record the electrical signals instead of the physical matter."
"How?"
"It's complicated, but just no that it means that if my theory is right, then I can map out DarkTyrannomon's electrical signal and figure out why that dark gear's spinning made him so powerful."
"So we can defeat him, right?"
"Right."
"Fire Blast!" Izzy activated a program in his computer.
"Okay, here it goes." Izzy twisted his computer around, letting the web cam built into the upper screen of his computer record the battle that was ensuing.
"Gargo Laser!"
"Lightning Kick!"
"Iron Tail!"
"That should be enough." Izzy twisted his computer back around, closing the web cam. "Now let's see what I got." he activated another program on his computer, examining the video he had just recorded. "I was right! Look at this Kari." Izzy showed the screen to the young girl next to him, revealing to her a video showing a mass of data scrambling around a screen.
"How do we tell the difference between everything?"
"See this dark cluster of data right here in the center? That's DarkTyrannomon. The two clusters of data swirling around it are Gargomon and Gatomon."
"So how does it help us?"
"There's a bunch of really dark clusters within DarkTyrannomon," Izzy explained, "I think those are the dark gears in him."
"Gears? So there's more than one?"
"Bunny Pummel!"
"Yeah, that's why he's so powerful. When Gatomon pulled that dark gear down, it began to churn, activating all of the other dark gears inside of him."
"That's bad."
"I know. But this also means we have a way to stop him."
"How?"
"If we can take out the key black gear in the front of his chest," Izzy pointed to the largest mass churning in front of DarkTyrannomon, "then all of the black gears will lose their support, and they'll slowly disintegrate. At least I think."
"How can you be sure?"
"I can't, but it's the best theory I have."
"Alright then, I trust you." Kari turned back to the battle. "Gatomon, start attacking his chest, there's another black gear in there!"
"Gargomon, you do the same!"
"Gotcha Izzy!"
"I'm on it, Kari! Lightning Paw!"
"Gargo Laser!" Gatomon and Gargomon aimed their attacks at DarkTyrranomon's chest, pummeling it with fire.
"Ayah!" DarkTyrannomon flew back in pain.
"I think we hit a soft spot!" Gargomon said excitedly. DarkTyrannomon quickly recovered though. He jerked himself back and head butted Gargomon, who flew back in pain. "Nevermind!"
"Lightning Paw!" Gatomon struck the DarkTyrannomon's chest.
"Bunny Pummel!" Gargomon struck back, smacking his cannons into DarkTyrannomon's chest.
"Aahh!" DarkTyrannmon curled himself up, writhing in pain.
"What's going on Gargomon?" the feline by his side questioned.
"I think we did it!" Gargomon yelled excitedly. This time he was right. The dark gear inside DarkTyrannomon's chest burst out of of the digimon, fading away. DarkTyrannomon screamed in pain again. Gargomon and Gatomon stumbled, taken aback by their success. It didn't end there though. The four tamers and digimon watched as another dark gear fell out of DarkTyrannomon's chest, disappearing as DarkTyrannomon screamed in pain again. Another gear then fell out of his chest, and then another. Five more gears fell out of the digimon's chest, and as each one exited the digimon DarkTyrannomon became lighter and redder. By the ninth gear, DarkTyrannomon had reduced to his normal size and color, reverting to Tyrannomon.
"We did it-sort of!" Kari cheered.
"Only one thing left Gargomon, take out the gear in his back!" Izzy instructed his partner.
"You got it Izzy!" Gargomon leaped from his place on the ground and soared over the Tyrannomon, who was too exhausted to fight.
"Gargo Laser!" Gargomon's beams drilled into the dark gear on Tyrannomon's back, destroying the evil device.
"Way to go Gargomon!" Gatomon cheered to her friend. Gagomon bounced off of the rock wall in front of him and leaped back to Gatomon. Gargomon fell in exhaustion, de-digivolving to Terriermon. Gatomon, tired as well, flipped her tail ring onto her claw.
"Terriermon, Gatomon, that was great!" Izzy and Kari yelled as they slid down the steep slope that led them down from the cave to the battlefield. Izzy carried the tiny Patamon with him as well.
"Good job Terriermon." Izzy congratulated his partner as the bunny-dog leaped onto his shoulder.
"How are you Gatomon?" Kari asked her partner.
"I'm tired and I think my tail's about to fall off, but other than that I think I'm okay."
"That's good to hear." A groan from behind them ended the reunion. The four turned to see Tyrannomon lifting himself up after the grueling battle.
"Oh, no. What do we do now?" Kari groaned.
"Tyrannomon should be our friend now that we've taken out all of his black gears." Terriermon ran off of Izzy's shoulder and walked towards the beaten digimon.
"Terriermon, wait." Izzy called to his friend. The digimon didn't listen though.
"Tyrannomon, how are you?" Terriermon comforted the champion as it recovered from the vicious battle.
"Better... I think. I can't thank you enough for freeing me from that curse."
"It was no problem. Besides, we had nothing better to do." Tyrannomon chuckled.
"Thank you again, and please accept my sincerest apology for what I did to you all." Tyrannomon pulled himself fully off of the ground.
"Ugh," a soft noise near Izzy drew the attention to him.
"What?" Izzy looked down at his arms, where everyone else's eyes were drawn. Patamon was struggling to wake up.
"Hey Patamon!" Izzy shook the small digimon, fully awakening him. The digimon opened his eyes and looked up for the first time in days, now recovered from the exhausting battle he had earlier with Garurumon.
"Izzy? Where's T.K.?" the small digimon was still disoriented.
"Don't you remember?" he replied.
"Oh, no. T.K.! He's been taken by the evil tamers." Izzy nodded. "We have to go save him!"
"We're working on it Patamon, but a lot's happened since you've been asleep."
"May I ask what they're talking about, young Terriermon?" Tyrannomon inquired of his new friend.
"Patamon's partner T.K. was taken away by the evil tamers, and now he's trapped in Devimon's Citadel."
"Tamers?" You all are-" Tyrannomon was taken aback when he realized that the two figures in the background talking to the wounded Patamon were humans. "I don't believe it. You've actually come!"
"Huh?"
"We heard rumors that a new generation of digidestined would arrive to stop the evil tamers, but we never thought it would actually happen. You've digivolved to Champion, correct?"
"That's the only way I defeated you."
"Then we have a chance after all."
"There are more of us," Izzy joined the conversation, "But they've been captured by the evil tamers. They're probably in the Citadel too."
"Then we must hurry," Tyrannomon said ominously, "Devimon is a heartless and malicious creature. There's no telling what he'll do to your friends. It might be too late even as we speak. We need to go to the Citadel and rescue your friends before Devimon decides their fate."
"You're gonna help us?" Kari asked.
"It's the least I could do after you saved me from the hell I was in."
"Well then, let's get going!" Gatomon cheered. She turned around, facing the path that led up the mountain. As she did, they heard a series of footsteps running down the mountain.
"Oh, no." the group said simultaneously. Kari and Izzy ran behind Gatomon, Terriermon, and Tyrannomon as they waited to discover who was coming down the mountain. Thinking it was an evil digidestined, the group was shocked when a young boy wearing green dashed onto the plane. He jerked back when he saw the line of digimon, but let out a sigh of relief when he saw Izzy and Kari behind them.
"Izzy, hey!" he yelled to the boy. Izzy was shocked.
"T.K.? Ha ha, T.K.!" Izzy ran in front of the three digimon, coming to greet the boy. Patamon raced ahead of him, however.
"T.K.!" the little digimon yelled as he flew into the boy's arms.
"Angemon!" T.K. said happily, meeting the digimon again.
"Actually my names Patamon."
"Patamon, Angemon, whatever. I'm just happy to see you."
"T.K., how did you escape?" Izzy questioned with excitement.
"They were taking me to that evil creature Devimon when I saw that someone had left a door open, so I went for it."
"I can't believe it, way to go buddy." T.K. hugged the boy, relieved to see that he had escaped the evil of the Citadel intact. Kari then made her way to the reunion.
"Did everyone else make it out okay, T.K.?"
"What do you mean?"
"My brother, Rika, and Eric are all trapped in the Citadel too."
"What?" T.K. was stunned.
"I'm glad you've found another one of your friends, but if we want to save the rest of them, we need to go now. Who knows what Devimon is planning to do to them." Tyrannomon said as he started walking towards the path.
"Tyrannomon's right, we need to go now. Kari, T.K., come on!"
"Who is that, Izzy?" T.K. asked the boy as the three humans and four digimon made their way up the mountain.
"I'll explain later, but we have to go." Tyrannomon lowered himself so that the other digimon and humans could climb upon him. Tyrannomon then made his way up the mountain, towards the Citadel, towards their captured friends, and most importantly, towards Devimon. As they made their way up the mountain with the help of Tyrannomon, T.K. thought to himself. Don't worry Matt, I'm coming.