Disclaimer: I do not own digimon, it belongs to someone else.
Chapter 10- Down in a Hole
Joe looked at his surroundings expecting to see a bright light, or angels, or something similar. But what he really saw was something he did not expect. Joe along with Cody, Red, and their digimon were standing in a dark cavern with only a few speckles of visible light coming from above, they all must have sunk into the cave before the beam of light struck them. Joe celebrated quietly that he was still alive, upon studying his surroundings a little more he saw five Drimogemon standing around the group.
"C-C-Cody" Joe said shakily "Are you ok?"
"Yes I think so, Ryan? Digmon? Ninjamon? How are all of you?"
"Dang I feel like I just went out on the town last night" Ryan said "My head is thudding pretty bad." The boy looked up to see the digging digimon that encircled them. "Hi fellas" He said "Was it you all who dug up this cave?"
The Drimogemon nodded.
"Did you all do it to save us?"
Again they nodded; the one nearest Joe spoke up. "We heard the on-going battle and recognized the glass-eyed one" He pointed at Joe "As one of the Digidestined, he and his friends saved me a very long time ago, and I had to repay the favor"
Joe thought very hard (When did I save a Drimogemon?) Suddenly it hit him, his first trip to the digital world a Drimogemon had a black gear. "Wow Drimogemon you actually remember me and my friends?"
The digimon nodded again "We Drimogemon are relieved to see the Digidestined have returned to help us in our time of need, these spires are causing trouble for all the digimon far past here, extending even further than File Island."
Joe and Cody looked at each other worriedly "It's even worse than we thought" Cody said "How we will be able to contain this outbreak of spires? Destroying the bunkers doesn't seem to be the solution and destroying them one by one will be exhausting and could take months if not years."
Gomamon had reverted back to his rookie form, "Uh guys we still have the issue with how to get out of here"
"We can lead you out of the tunnels" The Drimogemon said "If you will help us with that menace in the sky, we can't leave the tunnels for fear of attack and we're starving."
Joe sighed "Everyone is asking us for favors today"
"You mean that giant beam of light came from a digimon?" Ryan asked quite shocked "What kind of digimon has that much power?"
Joe didn't know, but if it was causing harm to digimon it had to be stopped. "You have an agreement, on one more condition, after we defeat that menace you will search out Fridgimon and assist him in any way you can."
The Drimogemon all nodded, "Follow us" they said as they sauntered into the dark of the caves.
"If we're really going to face that thing we're going to need help" Cody said as he pulled out his D-Terminal and began messaging the others fervently.
(Back in the real world)
Tai was at his part-time job as a bartender for a downtown sports bar paying more attention to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Chiba Lotte Marines playoff baseball game, he hated fall because it meant soccer was over and baseball was ending and then the bar was empty except for those cheap businessmen who never tipped him. He watched as Makoto Kaneko struck out yet again for the Fighters meaning he was going to have to buy Matt beer again, unless the Fighters could score 4 runs in 2 innings.
He sighed and turned to his cell phone seeing that he had a text message from Cody. It simply stated "Digital World Emergency! Help ASAP!"
Tai looked around, the bar had been emptying because all the fighters' fans had begun to shuffle out in embarrassment and there were many more of them then Marines fans.
"Hey Tina I'm taking off you can have my tips ok?" He called to the blonde at the other side of the bar.
"What Tai no you can't leave me by myself I'm waiting tables and-"
But Tai didn't hear her; he was already unlocking his car door and tossing his apron aside, heading straight for Izzy's place, (I hope Cody is ok, God only knows what the little guy has gotten himself into)
(At Davis' and Ken's apartment)
Davis had spent the whole night on the couch; he had come home from his date to find himself with a distraught Ken. Ken wouldn't stop blaming himself for frightening Yolei and as his best friend Davis made his best efforts to stop all of Ken's nonsense talk. Now at 2 in the afternoon barely awake he and Wormmon were still trying to convince Ken to cheer up.
"Come on Ken you know Yolei still loves you" Wormmon pleaded "Its time to brighten up"
"Look you and Yolei aren't through, there's like no way" Davis said probably for the 100th time, "She just needs some space, you see Ken women are delicate and they can be emotional, not all of them but a lot of them. They can't always be counted on to be rational"
"That's quite a sexist view of women Davis"
"No that is science and no one can argue science"
Ken chuckled a little "You know Davis you use that science line a lot" he hung his head between his arms, "But maybe you are right, maybe if I give Yolei a little space she will come back around" He gave his friend a smile "Thanks for taking the time to make me realize that, now you've been up all night, I think you should get some sleep, I know I'm going to"
"Sleep well buddy" Davis said
Wormmon bowed to Davis "Thank you for helping me set Ken straight, you're a good friend to us both."
Davis nodded back to the little digimon and prepared to slip into a deep sleep when Veemon came rushing out of his room and landed with a hard thud right on Davis's lap.
"Davis look at this" He held up Davis' D-Terminal "Cody is in trouble we need to get to the digital right away"
Davis began to pout "But-But-But I'm so tired" he cried as he shoved his face into a pillow, Ken came running around the corner with Wormmon on his shoulder
"Davis we've got to get to the digi-world…..Oh it looks like Veemon already told you"
Davis placed the pillow down and forced himself to get up "It can't be helped I guess, if one of us is in trouble we need to go and save him"
They prepared a portal the way Izzy had shown Ken and found themselves in the digital world.
"Do we know where Cody is?" Davis asked
"He's in underground at the moment; he will tell us where he is when he resurfaces."
They patiently waited for a good half hour but there was still no word from Cody or Joe.
"What could be taking them so long? How far underground were they?"
Having grown quite bored Davis had begun skipping rocks off of the nearby lake with Veemon what he hadn't noticed was the large digimon at the bottom of the lake who had become agitated by their rock throwing.
Veemon saw it first, a large sleek shadow near the edge of the lake rising up to the surface. "D-D-D-D-DAVIS! WHAT IS THAT?"
Davis saw it too, grabbing Veemon he rushed backwards to get as far away from the water as possible as a monstrous serpent rose out of the water. It was cased in black dull metal and had long gray hair that seemed to sprout from below a golden mask. It began to hover above the waters surface as it gave an ear piercing roar and reared its head toward Davis and Veemon
Davis tried to swallow the large lump in his throat "I'm sorry I was throwing rocks into your lake I can guarantee it won't happen again."
The digimon didn't reply it simply thrashed its enormous tail with force down on the sand where the four were standing nearly crushing all of them Ken and Davis got their digivices ready, they turned to their partners "Veemon! Wormmon! DIGIVOLE!"
Veemon and Wormmon became Stingmon and ExVeemon
"Alright guys if it attacks again be prepared to retaliate" Davis shouted
The flying snake peered down upon the Digidestined and released a torrent of flame, Stingmon and ExVeemon quickly dodged the flame and Ken and Davis barely escaped in time to avoid getting burned. The two digimon flew towards their opponent and began to attack.
STING STRIKE! V-LASER!
Both attacks struck the digimon right in the head but it seemed to hardly notice at all, it swatted away both digimon with its tail and released another breath of fire.
"Well if that didn't work we're going to have to DNA-Digivolve" Ken said.
Davis nodded "You heard him guys"
There was a flash of light and flying ahead of them was Paildramon
"Alright" Paildramon said "Lets see how this beast will take a Desperado Blaster!"
Paildramon's two side mounted guns began rapidly firing at the metal menace, it seemed to have done nothing more than agitate the creature. Paildramon continued its attacks but they proved to be no match, suddenly the metal monster brought its tail swinging up and catching Paildramon in the chest sending him to the ground by Davis and Ken.
"Damn Ken that didn't work either, what do we do now?"
"There is still always Imperialdramon" Ken said "But first I think we need to run"
"Why's that?"
Ken pointed towards the front of the digimon's mask which mask seemed to be emitting a bright light.
"Is it charging up an attack!"
"It looks that way; c'mon we've got to get away." He turned up to their partner "Paildramon get out of there!" He shouted
"No I'll make sure he stays focused on me, you guys won't be able to simply outrun him"
"There is no way you're going to get us to leave you alone!" Davis shouted
"You have to!" Paildramon cried back. The dark digimon was still charging its attack, but the light seemed to be taking shape.
Ken grabbed a hold of Davis' collar and tried to drag him towards a small thicket that was nearby, but Davis wouldn't relent.
"Let go Ken we can't leave Paildramon to just die"
"Davis we don't have time to argue, if that thing fires its attack and we die then he'll just turn on Paildramon anyways. I don't want to leave him to fight alone either but at least this way that monsters attention will be split and maybe it will make a mistake" He tugged harder on the back of Davis' shirt but Davis slipped right out of it.
"I'm not going to leave it up to that chance Paildramon digivolve!"
"No Davis if I take the time to digivolve now you'll be left open for an attack!" The digimon cried
The digimon turned to face Ken and Davis once again, and they could see as a large beam began to form and could only watch as the light traveled right in their direction
Davis clenched his eyes shut and braced himself for the impact but it never came, he felt the ground around him get hot but felt himself to still be intact.
He opened one eye to see a familiar ally standing before him.
"WarGreymon!" He exclaimed and he felt a hand being placed on his shoulder he turned around to see Tai standing behind him.
"You ok Davis?" Tai asked
Davis simply nodded "Where did you come from Tai?"
"I got to the digital world as quickly as I could after I got Cody's message. I found him with Joe and another Digidestined about an hour or so ago, we got a tip from some Drimogemon that some menace they were looking for would be here. I never would have imagined it would be MetalSeadramon" Tai's face grew hard. "WarGreymon and I can take it from here, we've handled him before."
"Sorry Tai but we're not leaving" Davis said, perhaps a little shakier than he intended "If this thing is causing trouble for digimon then I'm gonna help stop it."
Tai looked down at his friend admiringly "Alright Davis have it your way, lets take this guy down once and for all"
"Alright Paildramon now is the time to digivolve!"
PAILDRAMON DIGIVOLE TO IMPERIALDRAMON!
Davis and Ken looked on as the large dragon digimon landed close by, it had been a very long time since either of them had seen Imperialdramon, and it had been even longer since he was not in his Fighter Mode.
Imperialdramon and WarGreymon steadied themselves in front of MetalSeadramon. Sensing danger the giant metal digimon began to retreat into the sky
"I'll attack him head on" WarGreymon said "Imperialdramon you keep him from running off"
"Got it, POSITRON LASER!" Imperialdramon fired off the giant cannon on his back cutting off the Mega digimon's escape route, it attempted to serpentine around the blast but found itself face to face with MetalGreymon, MetalSeadramon whipped its tail out towards its opponent but MetalGreymon managed to grab hold.
"I've got you now! Imperialdramon get ready to fire!"
MetalGreymon began to spin in circles with MetalSeadramon's tail still in hand twisting the giant snake until it was tied in knots.
"READY PULL!" Imperialdramon shouted. MetalGreymon released its captive and tossed the disoriented digimon into the air. Imperialdramon fired off a Positron Laser attack catching MetalSeadramon in mid-air destroying the beast for good.
"Phew" Davis sighed as he plopped himself onto the ground "That was more action than I thought we were gonna see today, now I can finally go home and get some sleep."
"Not so fast Davis, we still need to help Joe and the others destroy the bunker that they came here to destroy" Tai said.
"Oh man, are you serious?" Davis groaned. "Fine Imperialdramon take us to the others"
(Back in the Swamp)
"So basically Sepikmon we think it would be safer for you and Frogmon to follow Ninjamon and the Drimogemon and join Fridgimon and his tribe in fighting against the dark digimon." Joe pleaded. He and the others had returned to check on Sam after Tai and WarGreymon had taken off.
"I have never been too far from my home" Sepikmon said sadly "But if another one of those nasty flying meanies were to come back to the swamp I would be unable to defend myself, very well Frogmon and I will help this Fridgimon and we will save the world from the meanies"
"I never agreed to any of this" Frogmon said
"You have no say Frogmon, we are going and if you argue again I will beat you with my stick" Sepikmon retorted. Looking defeated the frog digimon simply nodded
"Well Sam we need to figure out how we're going to get you back with your ankle the way it is." Cody said
"Oh please I'll be fine I may not be able to stand on it very well but Veedramon is big enough to carry me to wherever we need to go, isn't that right you big lug?"
The dragon simply snorted and gave her a nod.
Armadillomon looked out the window just in time to see two digimon rapidly approaching the shack. "Look guys its Imperialdramon and MetalGreymon! Davis and Ken must have gotten Cody's message and Tai must have found them."
The group ran outside to greet their friends "Hey Cody it's great to see you" Davis said as he hopped out of Imperialdramon's travel pod. "And you too Armadillomon" He shook hands with the high school kid. Ken bowed to Cody in respect "It is great to see you again"
"It's great to see you guys as well"
Ken immediately grew serious "So there are more bunkers nearby?"
"Yes but something is odd, when we released the switch nothing happened, none of the spires disappeared even though it was obvious all the functions in the bunker had obviously ceased"
"That is odd" Ken said "We need to investigate this immediately"
Tai jumped out just as Imperialdramon returned to Wormmon and Veemon and Agumon returned to his rookie form as well.
"Sorry it took us so long, we found the menace though and you wouldn't believe it Joe but it was none other than MetalSeadramon" Tai said.
The Drimogemon who had been standing outside Sepikmon's shack heard Tai speak
"So the menace is finally gone? If that is true then we will fulfill our end of the bargain to Cody and Joe"
Cody and Joe turned and thanked the Drimogemon for honoring their promise and the Drimogemon thanked them and Tai for honoring theirs.
Ryan stepped up to the other Digidestined "Look I know its important that we destroy these bunkers but I honestly can't let Sam risk her personal well being any longer and since I don't know how to get back to the portal that brought us here someone is going to have to take us back."
"I'll do it" Tai said "No where is Sam I've really wanted to meet this guy as much as Red has been talking about him"
"Him? Dude does that hair take up brain space? I just said Sam was a girl."
"Sam is a girl? The leader of your old digimon team was a girl?"
Veedramon and Sam had just emerged from the shack in time to hear Tai's statement
"That's right guy, I was in charge and I happen to be a girl, do you have a problem with that?"
Tai looked in shock at the brown haired beauty that stood before him, besides a ridiculous looking brace on her leg she seemed flawless, he immediately switched to his smooth talker persona."
"I don't have any problem with it, I simply shocked that such a pretty girl like you would also have the cool head required to lead a team of teenagers in a world of digimon."
"Nice try dude" Ryan said "Smooth talking never works on Sam; otherwise I'd have been in years ago."
"And you will never get IN anything with me Ryan" Sam stated "So" she said turning back to Tai "Take me back to the real world, as good a job as Joe did to patch me up I'm gonna need a little more than two pieces of driftwood tied to my leg to make it better."
Tai simply nodded and tried his best to contact Izzy, Michael or Willis. When he finally got a hold of someone who could open a portal back home he gathered with Ryan, Agumon, Veedramon, Sam and Kotemon and they were back off to the real world.
"Well now that that is settled I think Cody and Joe should take us back to the bunker"
"Agreed lets hurry" Cody said.
They bade farewell to the group of digimon that had helped them and watched as the misfit entourage walked towards the location of the first bunker, where Fridgimon and his tribe had last been seen.
Soon they were hiking through swamp and forest and quickly found themselves back at the bunker thanks to Cody's impeccable memory.
Ken and Davis went inside to investigate with Veemon and Wormmon while Joe, Cody, Armadillomon, and Gomamon waited outside
Not long after they entered Ken and Davis walked back out
"From what I can tell it's no different than the other bunker really." Ken said "but something about it feels slightly off"
Cody nodded in agreement, "I've been thinking the same thing and I think I may have an answer. If my assumptions are correct this bunker is a fake."
"I see" Ken said "I could see that"
"A fake?" Joe cried "What do you mean fake? Who would make a fake bunker?"
"It seems to me that whoever built the bunker we destroyed before has caught onto us and was trying to lure us into a trap"