Digimon 02: Waking the Dragons

by Quinton Notwen

The theft of an old artifact is the beginning of a process that seeks to unleash an ancient force upon the Digital World, a force that wants to destroy the Human World as well as dominate the Digital World.

11. The Battle Across the Breach

I don't own digimon or Tankdramon's (evo line) characterization….

The Battle Across the Breach

888

It was just before dawn. The waves were washing up on the soft sands of File Island. The sands were dark from the dawn's twilight. The waves swirled suddenly as a behemoth serpent rose out of the water. It had blocky armor the shimmered blue and gold against the twilight. A blunted horn was at the tip of its squared-off snout. Its head fell down and landed on the sand. It opened its mouth and extended its tongue.

"For-ward – MARCH!" screeched a shrill scream.

Heavily armored, cybernetic, bipedal dragons marched out of the gigantic sea serpent's mouth. Twenty-seven of the beasts marched out onto the sand in three phalanxes. Each phalanx was three rows long and each row had three in it. They drove heavy spears into the sand. Behind the three phalanxes rolled three heavy tanks.

"Uuu-nit – 0-1 – will – ex-aaaa-mine – the – ruuuu-ins," the lights that topped the triangular tops on their chassis blinked in time with the screeching syllables. "Uuu-nit – 0-2 – will – eeee-limmmm-naaaate – is-land - deee-fenses! Uuu-nit – 0-3 – will – proceed – to – the – Pri-mary – Vill-aaage – and re-trieve the da-ta con-den-saaation corrre!"

"We – O-BEY!" announced the bipedal dragons, saluting. The dragons then started to march forward with the tanks following them. As they left the beach the sea serpent slipped back into the ocean, disappearing under the waves.

From behind a number of bushes two figures hopped out upon the sand. One was a twisted headed creature with long arms. The other creature rode atop the first, it was a pink mouse.

"I think we should tell someone," the mouse yelped. "Quickly, Sukamon, let's get to Toy Town and warn Monzaemon."

"Uh…ok, Chuumon," the twisted headed creature nodded scratching its head. "Which way's Toy Town?"

"Gah, that way!" yelped the mouse pointing to the left. "Come on!"

"Ok…" Sukamon chirped as he bounced away to his left.

888

"Keiko. " the voice was in her head. She could hear it pleading in the darkness of the void. "Keiko, hurry, something's wrong…"

"What's wrong?" Keiko asked to the darkness. A circle of light appeared in the darkness and an egg appeared. Its white body was decorated with lavender stars. Keiko moved forward in the darkness. "What's going on?"

"I need you, Keiko…" whispered the voice. "Please, come!"

Keiko leapt up in her bed. She stared out into the morning shadows of her room. She looked down at the D-3 that laid on her bed stand. It was chirping with activity. She reached over and picked it up.

"I have to talk to Ken," Keiko turned and slid out of bed. She ran over to her desk and picked up her D-terminal. She flipped the little messaging machine open and quickly started to type at it. She looked at her D-3 and the watched as the glowing screen depicted an egg on it shaking, "Don't worry, I'm coming."

888

Ken walked out of the shower rubbing his wet hair with a towel. He hung the towel over his shoulders. He walked across the hall and opened his bedroom door. He quickly padded into his door and closed it behind him. He walked over to his dresser where his clothes for the day were laid out. He untied the loose knot he'd made in the towel he'd wrapped around his waist. He quickly got dressed as he heard the small beeping of his D-terminal. He was slipping a dark blue T-shirt over his head as he walked over to his desk and opened the center drawer where he kept his D-3 and D-terminal.

"Minomon where are you?" Ken called out as he flicked the D-terminal open. He sighed quietly and smiled. The small grub peeked over the edge of his bed down at him.

"What is it, Ken?" asked the bug in one of the cutest and most innocent voices Ken could imagine. "It's Sunday, I thought you were going to sleep in…"

"No such luck," Ken smiled up at Minomon, "Keiko, says she had a dream about Salamon, she said that Salamon called to her…"

"That's great!" Minomon hopped off of the bed and Ken caught the little grub.

"So I think we'll go with Keiko today to File Island and get Salamon's digi-egg," Ken quickly typed an answer, single-handedly, back to Keiko. Minomon hopped up on Ken's shoulder. Ken smiled at the grub and walked out of the room. He took in a deep breath of frying eggs and sausage. He could hear his mother humming in the kitchen and the rustle of his father's newspaper. He walked along the short corridor into the living room.

"Hey sport!" His father chirped, the man's cherubic face beamed with a wide smile.

"Good morning, Ken," his mother bustled out with a plate of toast. "The eggs are nearly done…dear."

"Actually, I think I'll just take a few slices of toast," Ken said as he walked up to checker-clothed table and picked up four slices of toasted bread.

He adeptly laid the bread out on the tablecloth and snatched up a jar of jelly with the knife in it in one single move. He speared on the purple gel and then scooped up the slices of bread, giving one to Minomon. The grub eagerly snatched the toast and instantly started consuming the jelly loaded bread.

"Takeru called while you were in the shower, Ken," Ken's father said off-handedly. Ken looked up at his father, who'd resumed reading his paper, "he said something about a meeting of some sort at that Izumi Koushiro's…"

"I can't," Ken said as he took a bite of grape jellied toast. He licked his upper lip where a glob of the purple jelly had affixed itself. "I kind of already have plans…sort of…"

"Oh?" Ken's mother poked her head out of the kitchen. "What kind of plans?"

"Well, Keiko sent me a message this morning," Ken started as he lifted another piece of toast up to Minomon, who was licking his hands.

Ken's father's paper lowered slightly enough to let the man give his son a mischievous look. "Well, have I met this, Keiko?"

"I have," Ken's mother stated disappearing back into the kitchen. She came out with a plate topped with scrambled eggs. She put it on the table, "She's one of Ken's Digital World friends…she's kind of cute."

"Mom!" Ken blushed brightly as he nearly choked on a hunk of dry toast. He coughed trying to readjust the toast in his throat.

"Thataboy!" Ken's father cheered. He beamed happily at his son.

"She had a bit of a disaster…her partner, this cute kitten digital creature was in an accident," Ken's mother continued as she turned around and bustled back into the kitchen.

"An accident?" Ken's father looked at his son.

"Yeah, that's why I'm meeting her," Ken said as he broke a piece of toast off and fed it to Minomon, who'd inhaled his second piece of toast. "We're going to the Digital World to this special place where digimon are reborn…" Ken rubbed the back of his head. "It's hard to explain. Anyways I promised to go with her, and she sent me a message saying that her partner contacted her."

"Do you want me to call Takeru then to tell him you won't be at the meeting?" Ken's mother walked out of the kitchen carrying a plate with sausages on it.

"Ken, I'm still kind of hungry," Minomon whimpered.

Ken grabbed some more toast and even a couple of sausages and slowly fed them to the little grub as he snacked on one or two of his own.

"It shouldn't take that long," Ken said as he ate the last sausage he'd snatched. "But then again, you never know…"

"I'll call him just in case," Ken's mother sat down and smiled up to her son, "You better get going, wouldn't want to leave Keiko waiting."

Ken nodded and smiled at his parents, "I'll be back later today, depends if I get a hold of Daisuke and the others. Love you Mom and Dad…"

"Have a nice trip, Ken," Ken's mother blew him a kiss. His father waved and then resumed reading his paper.

"It's so nice," Ken heard his mother say to his father as Ken shut the door behind him. "He has so many friends now…"

"Yes, dear, he's become quite the young man," his father said with a cheerful voice as he rustled his newspaper.

Ken lightly jogged to his elevator. The door gently opened with a ping and he stepped in. He gently brushed his hands on his jeans as he looked at the buttons. His fingers were greasy from the sausage and he wiped them on his blue jeans. He shook his still, slightly moist dark hair as he pressed the button for the ground floor. The small cabinet shook as the tethers it hung by moved. A few minutes passed and he felt the floor jerk up under his feet and the closet pinged again. The doors slid open. He walked down a corridor with beige walls and to a door. He opened the door and he was outside. The streets were yet relatively calm, it was only eight or nine and it was Sunday. He walked down the sidewalk easily weaving through the sparser than usual stream of people. She told him to meet her at a park about six blocks from his house.

People looked at Minomon as he walked past. Ken gave the little grub a sidelong look and gently cupped him into his arms and hugged him close. Normal people without digimon were still very ignorant to many things. Most of them didn't equate the small bug in the pine cone with the attacks enacted a year earlier, which made things a little easier for him and the other digi-destined since most people simply ignored their partner's In-Training forms. There were a few people though, usually family members of people with digimon or friends of people with digimon, the kind of people who knew enough to see the connection but ignorant enough to draw the wrong conclusions. He'd never had problems with people but he'd heard that some of the children had been harassed by their neighbors or by bullies, some even having their families kicked out of their apartments.

Keiko's parents were on the edge. They neither acknowledged nor denied their child's partner, and since Keiko's partner's deletion, her mother had become more and more interested in the Digital World, to the point of talking extensively with Ken about it after he'd finished talking to Keiko. Ken liked to think that it was this that had had caused Keiko to finally overcome the depression that had swallowed her for the last month. He stopped at a street corner. The park was across the street. He waited for the light to change.

The light shifted from stop to go and he waited for the traffic to pass and then carefully sprinted across the street. He walked along the brick wall that hemmed in the park and came to a gate. He opened the gate and walked along the asphalt path that wound further into the park. He came upon a set of benches made of composite rocks, cement mixed with different pebbles.

Ken saw Keiko. She was with a group of kids. She had a red blouse on with a soft blue skirt. There were four other kids with her, two girls and two boys. He recognized three of them, they were Dark Spore children. One was Noriko, the small little girl with dark hair and eyes. She had a small, brown ball of fur with a forward curved horn on its head. Noriko sat on the bench with Keiko. Standing directly behind Noriko, was a young man, he was maybe a year younger than Daisuke. He had dark brown hair and was wearing a heavy jean jacket. A pink bulb with a tiny flower on its head was sitting on top of the boy's hair. A younger boy was sitting in front of Noriko; he looked like he was Iori's age. Curly, brown hair covered his head. He had a green shirt on and was wearing a pair of jeans like Ken was. A Tokomon was bouncing in his lap. The last child was a young woman; she looked as if she was Miyako's age. She was wearing a white fronted T-shirt with blue sleeves and a pair of jeans with a belt tightly affixed to her waist. She had red hair pulled up into a tight, spiky bulb.

Keiko jumped to her feet as she saw Ken approach.

"I was worried you wouldn't come," Keiko said with soft puppy dog eyes looking at Ken mournfully. Her long, straight hair slightly fell over her eyes.

"I'm sorry, but my parents," Ken said with a smile. "You shouldn't have worried though I said I was coming; I keep my word."

"I know," Keiko shifted uneasily from one foot to another. She was holding a briefcase like backpack, it looked like laptop carrier.

"Uh, so…you're not alone," Ken stated as he looked at the others that were around the bench.

"Oh, yeah," Keiko snapped out of malaise and turned around and extended an arm to Noriko, "You already know Noriko…and her partner, Tsunomon." She pointed to the boy in the jean jacket, "This is Hiroshi and his partner Yokomon," She pointed to the younger lad. "And this is Takashi and his partner Tokomon…" she turned to the red haired girl, "And this is my cousin, Ruki…She's going to be watching the computer while we're gone…" Keiko turned around and smiled, "Don't worry, she's ok, she even has a digimon partner…"

Ken noticed the digivice attached to the girl's hip. He looked up at the girl's blue eyes, "You didn't need to leave your partner at home…"

"She's not at home," The girl replied as she looked up into a tree across the path and nodded. Ken turned around but he didn't see anything in the tree, though he could've sworn he saw the branch shimmy for no apparent reason.

"We're the last of the Dark Spore children in Tokyo," Takashi said as he stood up. "The others' parents thought that it was unsafe here…so they all moved everywhere…"

"Setsuna's parents moved to Okinawa," Noriko nodded in agreement.

"Inari's went north," said Hiroshi quietly as he looked down. "The others all just kind of dispersed in all directions…"

"Can't really blame them," Ruki said in a disaffected way. "Their kids got kidnapped by digimon…and a psycho…"

Ken frowned slightly at the red-head's bluntness but shook it off. He looked at Keiko, "Well, I suspect we should get going…"

"Right," Keiko nodded and kneeled down in front of the bench and lifted the computer tote up and laid it on the seat. She unzipped the tote and took the computer out. They sat around waiting for the computer to boot up and then after a few quick clicks, Keiko stood up with a smile, "We're ready to go…are you sure you don't want to come with us, Ruki?"

"No thanks, plus what if someone snatched the computer, you'd be stuck there and your mom and dad would be pretty pissed at you," The red-head circled around the bench as the Dark Spore children got up and stood in front of the computer. Ruki sat down next to the computer.

"Salamon, here I come," Keiko cheered as she lifted her D-3. "Digi-port open!"

888

"Why are we here again?" Daisuke yawned, as he sat in the computer room.

"Important news from Gennai," A cinnamon haired teen announced as he walked around the room. They were sitting in a semi-circle around him.

"Well what is it, Izzy?" Miyako yelped. Her pink hair was still clinging to her face from her shower.

"Don't worry about Ken, his mom said he had this date with that Keiko girl," A blonde haired boy announced as he held his sailor hat in his hands.

"I'm not worried about that, TK," Koushiro stated. "I was waiting for your brother, and for Taichi, I know Jyou is doing something with his father, touring colleges or something."

"Tai, got roped into visiting my grandparents with my mom," A young girl stated as she looked at Koushiro.

"Great," Koushiro rolled his eyes, "Thanks for saying that Hikari."

A young woman with short, dark hair looked up. She was wearing a pastel, knitted sweater and a sunny, yellow skirt. "Yamato is sick, something he ate last night."

"Hey, didn't you cook for Yamato last night, Sora?" Hikari asked as if it had just dawned on her. Hikari scratched her head ruffling the golden hair, there.

"It wasn't what I made that made him sick!" Sora yelped defensively as she looked at the young girl in the white and pink T-shirt. Sora instantly looked down, "Sorry, Hikari, it's just, I'm kind of self-conscious about my cooking."

"Don't worry, Tai, has made some real stinkers," the girl giggled as she held her nose.

A small, puppy-kitten was sitting in her lap, nodding furiously. "Not even Koromon would eat what he made two nights ago…"

"I bet I would!" yelped a plush blue creature, sitting on Daisuke's lap.

"That's because your mouth is a black hole," said the young man as he leaned back on his chair, stretching.

"His isn't the only one," A younger boy said. He had a bland, beige shirt and soft, tan hair. "Upamon ate a package of those special hand soaps, you know like the ones in hotels…"

"They looked like candies!" yelped the little ball with frilly ears.

"Don't worry, Iori, Poromon ate a napkin holder because it was one of these designer ones that look like huge chocolate chip cookies…" sighed Miyako quietly.

"Humans make everything look like candies, I think they're obsessed," stated a pink, feathered ball.

"Well, if you weren't obsessed with eating everything in sight, you wouldn't have eaten that salt shaker either," Miyako huffed as she gently noogied the feathered ball. "Right, Poromon! Just because it looks like corn doesn't mean it is!"

"Ack!" yelped the bird as it squirmed.

"Excuse me…" Patamon sat up on TK's head.

"Yeah, Izzy's trying to say something important!" yelped a small, pink creature that looked like a skirt with arms.

"If this keeps going," A pink bulb with little tentacle feet, sitting on Sora's lap, spoke up, "we'll never get out of here…."

"Thanks, Patamon, Motimon, Yokomon," Koushiro looked at the others and lifted a small clicker.

The cinnamon haired boy clicked the button and the large screen behind him flickered to life. It showed a gigantic tree out in the middle of the artic. It was a coniferous tree, a pine of one kind or another. It's entire trunk and branches seemed to glow with a holy aura. The light filtered through the pine needles.

"That's a lot of pine cones," Daisuke dropped forward and pulled down his blue T-shirt so that his tan stomach wasn't exposed anymore.

"That place looks familiar," Takeru stood up and walked up to the screen.

"Hey, isn't that where one of the Destiny Stones was?" Iori asked looking at Koushiro.

"Exactly," Koushiro nodded happily. "It seems that this last couple of weeks' quietness was all a prelude to this."

"To what?" Daisuke squinted his eyes.

"It seems that the Great Dragons have decided to lift the stakes," Koushiro clicked the slide changer again. The earlier picture zoomed in. "This was taken about fourteen hours ago…by Mimi, she was visiting the area. She's still there waiting for us."

Airdramon were circling around the top of the tree. The children looked at each other with worry.

"Why are they attacking a tree?" Daisuke scratched his brown haired head.

The others looked at him as if he'd just asked the stupidest question ever.

"Don't you remember?" Takeru looked at the boy with his blue eyes.

"Remember what?" Daisuke shook his head and looked blankly at Takeru.

"After we freed Azulongmon," Iori hinted looking at Daisuke.

"Yeah…so?" Daisuke's face scrunched up slightly as he tried to figure it out.

"Oh for crying out loud!" Miyako snapped and jumped up. She grabbed Daisuke by the shirt and shook him. "THE SEEDS OF LIGHT AND HOPE, NIMROD!"

"Oooooh!" Daisuke said as it finally clicked in his mind. He looked at Miyako and her pink shirt. "What exactly about them again…for those of us that don't remember…"

Miyako slapped her forehead started to growl. The hand she had on Daisuke curled tighter and her other hand rose up flat as she prepared to smack the boy silly.

"Miyako, count to ten," Hikari said as she stood up. "Right, when Azulongmon was freed, he told us that the Destiny Stones were made up of the powers of Hope and Light…and he released seven seeds to replace the broken Destiny Stones…"

"The seeds took root," Iori continued.

"And grew," Takeru nodded.

"But trees that size would've taken hundreds if not thousands of years to grow," Sora looked up at the tree. The thing looked like it was about the size of Mount Fuji. "Well, maybe millions of years…"

"This is the Digital World, remember," Koushiro reminded the brown haired girl as he turned. "The growth of this tree is more of a representation of the ascendancy of the powers of Light over the last year than an actual biological process, and considering Oikawa Yukio's sacrifice. I wouldn't be surprised to find the Destiny Trees to be this large; Oikawa's sacrifice was probably the best fertilizer the seeds could've gotten…"

The other children and their digimon looked at Koushiro with a half disgusted grimace.

"Uh, Izzy," Motimon tugged at the boy's reddish shirt.

"I think my analogy was maybe too close to the truth…" gulped the young man as he looked at the others.

"Uh, yeah," Miyako stated in the most obvious voice she could muster.

"Anyways, the dragons are attacking the Destiny Tree," Koushiro stated as if he was trying to shuffle everything under a carpet. "I suspect their goal is the same as Arukenimon's."

"Then it may be important to nip this thing in the bud," Daisuke said as he looked the picture. "Show them that we're not going to just sit there and watch them chop down the trees."

"We do have an advantage," Miyako said tapping her chin, "This time there are more of us and we know the landscape…"

"Evidently so do the dragons," Sora whispered as she looked at the screen. "They wouldn't have found it otherwise…"

"Enough yammering," Daisuke clapped his hands together, "Let's go already!"

"Well, someone's an eager beaver," Sora looked at the brown haired boy.

"You get used to it," Iori said as Daisuke clambered toward a computer, tripping over a desk chair. "Then again there are things that just keep surprising you…"

"Digi-port open!" Daisuke shouted as he pointed his D-3 at the computer with the digi-port program opened.

888

"Thizzz- is – the – Looo-cation," Tankdramon squadron leader 008 announced as it rolled to a stop.

The phalanx of SEALSdramon halted with a single stop. Tankdramon extended a small metallic rod from the front of its chassis with a red beacon on the end of it. The beacon blinked as a fan of blue light extended from the beacon and slid over the front of the brick ruins in front of them.

"Ad-vance!" commanded Tankdramon as it rolled forward. The phalanx of SEALSdramon marched after him into the darkness of the ruins' opening.

"A-lert! A-lert!" the squadron leader halted. It rolled around and faced the SEALSdramon. The headlights on the squadron leader glowed, glinting off the bluish-green armor of the SEALSdramon. "Life-forrrrm – deee-tected. It – is – ruuuun-ning with-in – stealth – par-am-e-ters! I – can-not – lock – on-to – it! Beeee – cau-tious! Ex-tend - Mon-o-Eye – scan – to – two – hun-dred - for-ty – me-ters!"

"We – O-bey!" announced the SEALSdramon as their red, mechanical eye focused.

The squadron leader rolled back around, "Ad-vance!"

Tankdramon rumbled forward rolling its treaded tires over the vines and broken masonry. The joints of the SEALSdramons' mechanical limbs hissed and their heavy, metal feet clanked against the ground. Tankdramon continued forward his headlights glaring against the sandy walls of the ruins. Beyond the short arc of light everything was plunged into darkness, at least on the visible light spectrum. Within its metal cocoon, Tankdramon had reassigned his optical sensors. It was taking in readings from both Infrared and Ultraviolet spectrums. It got read backs from bats fluttering past it, on a giant blue colored view screen on the inside of its metallic chamber. A constant sonar feed was fed into the sensors on Tankdramon's treads. The cybernetic digimon's mind was filled with floor plans and tastes of air. All the while the sensation of life was rumbling in his head from all directions. If there was one thing that Tankdramon could identify as frustration it was the omnipresence of the life signature it was detecting and the subsequent inability to focus the sensation into a single pulse that could be exterminated.

Tankdramon continued forward; sensors feeding information into its head as it moved onward. Suddenly something felt wrong and Tankdramon stopped. Ground sonar feeds stopped coming in from in front of the tank's treads.

"HAAALT!" The SEALSdramon froze in position obeying Tankdramon's screech. Tankdramon rolled back cautiously, "There – is an – ex-panse – a-head! An – A-byssss!" Tankdramon extended the metallic probe from the front of its chassis. A burst of light fired from the red beacon on the end of the rod. The rod slowly retracted back into Tankdramon's chassis. "There – is a – leeeedge – cir-cumventing – the – ex-paaaanse. It – is too – naaar-rooow for Tank-dra-mon – uuuuse." Suddenly the omnipresent pulsing in Tankdramon's head focused itself. It was close, within one hundred meters and moving fast. Tankdramon instantly swiveled around on its treaded wheels. "A-LERT! A-LERT! LIFE-FORM CLO-SING!"

"Solar Ray!" beams of energy roared out of the darkness behind the SEALSdramon phalanx.

The three aft-most SEALSdramon in the phalanx were struck in the back. They howled loudly as yellow sparks of energy engulfed their body.

"AR-MOR COMPROMISED!" whined the three SEALSdramon as they jerked and jostled. "DAM-AGE SUS-TAINED! MONO-EYE IN-OP-ER-ABLE! VISION IS IMPAAAAAIRRRRRED!"

"EXTERMINATE THE LIFE-FORM!" demanded Tankdramon as the struck SEALSdramon collapsed to the ground. The others turned around pointing their spears into the darkness.

"Identify your-self!" The SEALSdramon commanded to the darkness.

"You should be the ones to identify yourselves," returned the darkness in a dictatorial voice. "This place is under my care! You are intruders in this place!"

"The – carrre-takerrr?" Tankdramon dove into his memory, into the vast ocean of knowledge downloaded into an organically accessible computer database. "It – is Centaurumon! HE SHALL BE EXTERRRMINATED!"

"EXTERMINATE!" screeched the remaining SEALSdramon. The arrowheads at the tips of their spears sparked with blue energy.

Blue bursts of light shot into the darkness and faded into the shadows.

"THE LIFE-FORM, PERRR-SISTS!" Tankdramon announced. The life reading pulsed in Tankdramon's head though it was fading into the background. "SEALSdramon – u-nits – 004 – through – 006 - per-sue – the - life-form! U-nits – 001 – through – 003 – come – with – meeee!"

The three SEALSdramon that had made up the second row of the phalanx marched forward, stepping over their fallen comrades. The remaining three turned to Tankdramon.

"The – casu-alties – are – per-sisting!" announced the center member of the three SEALSdramon standing with Tankdramon.

"They – are – dam-aged," the left SEALSdramon announced.

"Con-sider-able – dam-age was in-fliiiic-ted – to their mo-bility sys-tems," the right dragon reported.

"They – will – slow – us – dooown," Tankdramon turned back around towards the expanse. "EX-TERMINATE THEM!"

"We – O-bey!" the three SEALSdramon turned around and pointed their spears at their damaged brethren. The spears glowed with blue energy that rifled through the fallen dragons until they exploded into data. The SEALSdramon turned back towards Tankdramon. "Extermination com-plete."

"El-e-vate!" Tankdramon rolled up to the edge of the expanse. An energy source from under Tankdramon sparked to life and the massive metal beast rose into the air. It hovered awkwardly. "Ad-vance!"

The SEALSdramon sidled along the narrow edge that bordered the abyss. Tankdramon slowly hovered over the abyss. Tankdramon finally touched ground again on the far side of the expanse. The metal dragon rolled into the next corridor. The SEALSdramon filed in behind Tankdramon and they all advanced into the shadows.

888

"Look it," Noriko and Penguinmon walked up at the top of the hill. She pointed down at the town below. Smoke was streaming up from burning buildings. The streets were filled with fluffy white stuff. "Is it snow?"

"More worried about the smoke and fire," Takashi whispered as he and a yellow caterpillar scrambled up next to the short haired girl.

"That's Toy Town!" the yellow caterpillar's scratchy voice announced.

"Kunemon's right," a purple and white mushroom ran up next to the caterpillar. "What's happening!?"

"I don't know, Mushroomon," Penguinmon looked worriedly at the fungus digimon. "But it can't be good…"

Ken looked at the digimon as they peered over the hill at the town. He looked down at Wormmon.

"This is horrible," Hiroshi whispered. He stood next to Ken. "What could have done this?"

"Is it, is it Magnamon?" Keiko's voice gulped as she looked down at the city.

"No, he's gone," Ken replied as he looked over at her. One of her hands was twisting her shoulder-length brown hair. She was biting the knuckle of the other one. Ken walked forward with Wormmon at his side, "I can guess what has happened though…A week ago, a city was destroyed so was the forest around it. Remember how I told you about the Great Dragons and why it wasn't safe to come to the Digital World alone anymore?"

The other children looked at Ken with wide eyes and nodded. Noriko looked down at the city, "Are you saying…?"

"Let's get down there and see if there are any survivors," Ken said walking past the children and briskly jogged down the hill with Wormmon bounding behind him.

The other children looked at each other and then ran after Ken. The dark haired boy was more than a ten meters ahead of them, his strong soccer legs gave him an advantage over the others when it came to running. He staggered slightly as the ground changed angle as he came to the bottom of the hill.

Ken skidded to a stop. The other children tumbled along behind him staggering a little as they slid past him on the grass. Ken walked forward slowly. He could see it on the streets and the buildings of Toy Town, there had been a pitched battle. He walked forward carefully walking onto the brick streets. Fluff filled the street. It was creamy-white like, cotton. Scorch marks covered the buildings, windows were broken, giant craters riddled the street. Ken staggered as his foot fell into one concealed by the white fluff.

"Ken, if they have attacked Toy Town…" Wormmon whispered up at the dark haired boy.

"We need to see if anyone needs our help," Ken stated firmly, "before we can deal with the Primary Village."

"There may not be a…" Wormmon started.

"Don't say that too loudly," Ken whispered as he looked back at Keiko. The brown haired girl was looking around wide-eyed awe.

"What is this stuff?" Takashi picked up the fluff in his hands.

"You don't want to know," A gruff little voice said. The children jumped and spun around. A small mouse wandered out of the alley. It was pink and walked on its hind legs.

"Who are you?" Hiroshi asked as he ran forward with Mushroomon behind him.

"I'm Chuumon," whispered the little creature as it staggered forward, barely wading through the fluff. "I saw everything…it was horrible…"

"Chuumon…" Ken walked forward. "Don't you normally travel with Sukamon?"

"We do…but we're destined to be apart it seems," Whimpered the little mouse as it looked up into Ken's eyes. "It was horrible…"

"What happened?" Noriko asked as the little girl looked at the mouse.

"They came…the…dragons came," Chuumon shuddered as he looked around. "Metallic, tanks…and robotic ones…they came. We tried to warn Monzaemon…everyone…but they came."

"And…where's Monzaemon?" Ken looked around trying to find the massive teddy bear. "Did he retreat to Primary Village…?"

Chuumon shook and his body trembled and all of a sudden tears exploded from his tiny eyes. "YOU'RE STANDING IN HIM!"

Ken's blood froze. He looked at the others. Takashi dropped the fluff he had in his hands and backed away. The others started to wade backwards through the fluff as if they were walking through blood, which was appropriate. Ken picked up Chuumon and Wormmon and retreated with the others.

"Where'd they go…the ones that did this?" Ken looked down at the mouse in his arms.

"Don't know…but we…I mean Sukamon and I, saw them come on the island," Chuumon whimpered curling up tighter in Ken's arms, "They came in three big groups and one group was going to Primary Village, one was going to the old ruins Centaurumon watches and the other was sent out to destroy anyone that resists…"

"Primary Village," Keiko looked up at Ken instantly. "What about Salamon!?"

"I don't know, but we're going to Primary Village now," Ken stated sharply as he walked forward. "Wormmon…"

The caterpillar leapt off of Ken's shoulders and jumped onto a clear piece of pavement. Ken held out his digivice. Wormmon glowed as the energy was transferred.

"Wormmon digivolve to…" The green worm grew into a tall, wasp-like warrior. "Stingmon!" Its red eyes looked down at Ken as the dark haired boy nodded and let a pink ball of energy free from his D-3. "Stingmon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to DinoBeemon! The Strong Heart of Kindness!"

A heavily armored dragon-like insect hovered in the air, its wings blowing fluff in all directions. Muscular blue arms reached upwards. Green armor covered its torso, head and legs. Ken was quick to get on DinoBeemon's back. He reached down and grasped Keiko's hand. The girl climbed up behind Ken. Takashi and Hiroshi with Kunemon and Mushroomon climbed up after him. Noriko looked down at Penguinmon and then up at the crowded back of DinoBeemon.

"No, Penguinmon and I can do this," The short, brown haired girl looked down at her blue, penguin friend and lifted her own D-3.

"Penguinmon digivolve to…." The flightless, marine bird burst with light as it morphed into a totally different form, an equine form. A white horse with black, feathered wings stepped forward with hoofed feet. "…Unimon!"

Noriko gently climbed up on the horse's back. "Ok, lead the way, Ken."

Ken nodded and DinoBeemon's slow flapping became loud, helicopter like thrumming. The giant insect wobbled as it readjusted its mass and then thrust itself forward. Unimon flapped its wings and galloped after the insect.

888

Koushiro trudged through the snow. Fortunately the transport to the Digital World had given him some winter clothes when he materialized. It was a green, down coat. Sora was lucky enough to get a light blue coat with a faux fur lining along the collar and hood. The others seemed to have their normal winter wear materialized around them. Daisuke was shuddering under his brown and red jacket, swearing about hating the cold.

He looked up and saw Mimi dressed in her green jacket. Her pink hair was tucked under a red stocking cap. Huddled next to her was a green, humanoid plant with a pink flower on its oval head. The plants arms were wrapped around its body.

"Mimi!" Koushiro shouted as he ran forward. Tentomon buzzed along beside him, the red ladybug flew slightly ahead of him.

"Izzy, you came," Mimi said as she poured a steaming liquid out of a pink thermos. She handed Koushiro a cup filled with hot chocolate. "I've been waiting for a while."

"I'm sorry," Koushiro apologized as he graciously took the cup and drank the hot liquid, jerking slightly at the intense heat. Mimi was pouring other cups for the other children as they arrived. "How'd you get your parents to let you stay here for fourteen hours?"

"If you think…" the plant next to Mimi chattered, looking up at Koushiro with large eyes, "we…st-st-stayed here for fourteen hours, you're cr-cr-crazy."

"Palmon and I have been coming and going for a while," Mimi nodded as she gave Daisuke a cup of hot chocolate. "Getting something to eat or some hot chocolate…"

Daisuke eagerly gulped his cup of hot liquid down and only a few seconds later when his throat told him it was scalded did he scream and stick his head in a snow bank. The others shook their heads and gently sipped at their steaming beverages. Mimi gave the digimon some hot chocolate as well, the creatures warily drank it, except Veemon who, like Daisuke, was over eager to warm up and a few seconds later was next to his partner with his head in a snow bank.

"Any change?" Sora asked as she used her hand as a visor and looked at the mountainous conifer in the distance.

"Nope," Mimi sighed sitting on a log. "They just circle. It's like they are waiting for something…"

"Orders?" Iori asked as the little boy sipped his hot chocolate.

"Why, why not just blow it up now?" Takeru asked as he curled his hands around the hot cup, trying to warm them.

"Maybe they can't," Miyako looked down at the brick-red hawk standing next to her.

"It is huge, it would take quite a bit to knock that tree down," Hikari looked at the Destiny Tree watching the small slivers of green gliding around it.

"Well, other digimon have come in the last few hours," Mimi said as she looked up at the other children. "Some ground, some on the wing…"

"Hikari, do you have your spy scope?" Takeru asked extending his hand. Hikari rummaged around in her pants' pockets and pulled out a small telescope. She handed it to Takeru and he extended the scope out with a quick 'schlik' sound. He lifted the mini-telescope to his eyes and scanned the tree. Takeru took a deep breath.

"What is it!?" Takeru nearly leapt out of his skin at the sound of Daisuke's voice right behind him. Takeru snapped the telescope down and turned, glaring at Daisuke.

"Don't do that!" Takeru yelped as he glared at Daisuke. The brown haired boy smiled mischievously as the other stifled a slight giggle. Takeru frowned, "It wasn't funny…"

"Well, what was it?" Salamon implored looking up from Hikari's side.

"There are more than Airdramon in the sky," Takeru replied, handing the scope over to Koushiro. Koushiro frowned as he looked through it. The cinnamon haired boy passed the scope to Sora.

"Megadramon and Gigadramon," Sora whispered as she scanned across the sky. She looked down near the trunk of the tree where the ground digimon were. "I've never seen digimon like that…what do you think, Biyomon?"

Sora passed the telescope to the pink sparrow next to her. The large, hip-tall bird clasped the scope with the claws at the end of her wings and lifted it to her eyes.

"The skinny, muscular ones with the green jeans are Strikedramon…" Biyomon whispered. "The bulky, blue ones with the horns on their heads are Veedramon…both of them are tough opponents…"

"At least there aren't very many of them," Koushiro sighed as he looked at the tree. "It won't be like Format Island where we were simply overwhelmed."

"No, it's not going to be like Format Island," Daisuke said sternly as he and Veemon walked forward, "because this time we're not running away."

"We're going to go in, and wipe them out," Veemon nodded hopping forward and clenching his fists.

"What?" Mimi looked at the boy and his blue dragon partner. Mimi looked at Koushiro and Sora, "What's he talking about?"

"At Format Island, there was considerable fighting," Koushiro explained.

"Our original plan was to simply chase the dragons off," Tentomon buzzed hovering in front of Koushiro. "Unfortunately the dragons did not think that was enough and continued their assault…we were backed into a corner and forced to…"

"Eliminate the threat on a more permanent basis," Koushiro finished quietly.

"You killed them!?" Mimi looked at Koushiro with glazed over eyes.

"Mimi, it wasn't easy for any of us," Koushiro said, instantly, knowing where this was going. "We don't enjoy it, but the Dragon digimon have declared war on everyone! You should've seen the massacre at Loto Dell'Ombra! They didn't hesitate to burn down the forest surrounding the city to aid their search for refugees. We know from reports that Loto Dell'Ombra had a large number of baby digimon…and there were no survivors. None! The dragons aren't playing around Mimi…if we don't do something more drastic than normal they'll just walk over us. Plus, it's not like they are truly dead…they just go back to the Data looms and the Great Dragons bring them back to life…if anything we're just relocating them."

Mimi frowned and turned away from Koushiro. "I can't kill. After Apocalymon I said I wasn't going to destroy another life, and then when we destroyed that little DemiMamon; it just about made me feel sick…"

"So in order to save the lives of a few dragon digimon, you're willing to sacrifice the lives of billions of peaceful digimon," Everyone turned around and looked at the speaker. Mimi stood up and walked to the speaker.

"Miyako…" Mimi looked at the younger, pink haired girl in shock.

"I was at Format Island; I tried my best not to hurt the dragons…" Miyako stated looking Mimi in the eyes, "but they didn't want to be protected, they didn't want to be shooed away. They wanted to kill, and they didn't care if you were helping, hurting or totally uninvolved. If you weren't a dragon you were a target, plain and simple. They have no mercy, no compassion, and…they don't want it. So, I guess I'm saying that we have to fight them. We have to stop them at any cost. Being digi-destined doesn't mean you get to make the decisions, a lot of times the decisions are made for you by others…"

Mimi blinked at Miyako for several minutes and then looked back at Palmon. The child sized plant digimon looked at Hawkmon and then to Mimi.

"We don't have much time, Mimi," Sora said as she looked back at the tree. "These trees are the lynchpins of the Digital World, if they are uprooted…"

"Everything will fall apart," Hikari said looking at the girl dressed in the green coat. "The barrier between the Digital World and earth will shatter and then we'll have the Great Dragons in our backyard."

"Can you imagine something like the Massacre of Loto Dell'Ombra happening in Tokyo?" Iori whispered as he looked down at Armadillomon.

"Or New York," Takeru said looking at Mimi intently.

Mimi bit her lip as she looked at the snowy ground. Her soft, beige gloved hands clenched. A tear drop fell from her eyes.

"I guess…you're right," Mimi looked up.

"Are you sure?" Koushiro asked as he looked at the young woman. "You have to be true to yourself…"

"I knew the dragons were dangerous," Mimi said looking back at the Destiny Tree, "but in New York, everything is so far removed; it's like watching a hurricane hitting a town on TV…you can see it, but it's not really real…at least not to you," Mimi looked at the other digi-destined, "but I'm here now…and the storm is real. I can't ignore it anymore…"

The others nodded soberly. Mimi turned around and looked at the tree, with the dragons wheeling around it.

"We need a plan of attack," Iori said as he looked to the others.

"I think I have one," Koushiro stated as he knelt down in the snow. "It's simple, but it's a plan, and simple plans are the best." Koushiro took a pen out of his pocket and used it to draw in the snow. He drew a large circle with little X's around it. "There are two groups we need to evict from the region…The aerial dragons and the ground dragons, so…" Koushiro drew small triangles in the snow and then slid his pen along the snow until they contacted the X's. "Sora, TK, Kari and Miyako will engage the aerial dragons. Daisuke, Iori, Mimi and I will attack the ground dragons. With any luck such an attack will sufficiently dislodge them from their positions to make it relatively simple to push them away with as few casualties as possible. Without luck, we'll be mired in a horrible fight of attrition that'll lead to us retreating…"

"Let's hope for the first one," Takeru said as he looked at Koushiro.

"I share your sentiments on the matter," Koushiro flicked his eyes up to Takeru.

"Let's go, already!" Daisuke shouted as he stood up, dusting the snow off his pants. "They may have already burned down the tree!"

The others got up and prepared themselves. The first battles may have gone to the dragons but this time, the win would be theirs, or at least that was the plan.

888

The intruders were slow, clunky and loud, but they were also persistent. Centaurumon had tried to lose them in the several hundred twists and turns in the lower catacombs of the ruins, but to no avail. They continued their pursuit. He stopped for a few seconds standing in front of an intersection. He hoped to use the breather to get a better plan. The three chasing him were not the entirety of the invasion force, the other four were probably continuing on their mission. He had to stop them before they reached their destination.

"Cent-aur-u-mon – dee-tec-ted," The shrill voice of Centaurumon's pursuers bounced off the walls of the tunnels, reverberating harshly against the brickwork.

Centaurumon backed away from the corridor the voice came from.

"It – shall – be – ex-terrrminated!" a voice erupted from the corridor Centaurumon was backing into.

Centaurumon twisted around, his four, horse hoofed feet deftly sweeping around. Centaurumon's single eye glanced around but his helmet greatly narrowed his field of vision. He lifted the arm and his gauntleted hand morphed into a solar energy weapon. He could hear two sets of metallic footsteps marching towards him. Centaurumon narrowed his eyes, where was the third pursuer.

"EXTERMINATE!" screeched the voices from ahead and behind him.

The darkness was cleaved by a blue energy pulse. Centaurumon shunted to the left into the intersecting corridor. The energy pulses flew past one another. There were two screeches and then silence, total silence.

Centaurumon sighed quietly to himself. "Two down one to go."

He turned to continue down the corridor he'd shunted into; as he turned he noticed a red light at the end of the corridor.

"Cent-aur-u-mon – de-tec-ted," a grating hiss droned from in front of Centaurumon.

Centaurumon froze. He slowly lifted his arm, charging the weapon attached to it.

"DO – NOT – MOVE!" Two voices shouted from behind Centaurumon. The centaur swept around. Two mechanical, bipedal dragons were standing behind him.

"Impossible! I heard you hit one another!" Centaurumon shouted.

"You – heard – what – we – wan-ted you to heaaarrr!" grated the left dragon.

"You – will – be – exterminated!" announced the right dragon as it pointed its spear at Centaurumon. Electrical sparks played over the edges of the spearhead.

"EXTERMINATE!" Centaurumon reared up on his back legs as an electrical pulse smashed in between his shoulder blades. He pointed his energy weapon down at the two digimon in front of him.

"Solar Ray!" A streak of orange light exploded toward the two dragons.

"De-fense – ar-ray – ac-tiv-ate," chirped the two dragons as the beam seemed to be caught in a film that surrounded the dragons. The dragons pushed their spears forward. "Exterminate!"

Blue energy pulses exploded into Centaurumon's chest. Centaurumon's front legs crashed to the ground and he staggered backward. He slumped forward onto his front knees. He clenched his fists digging deeply into himself searching for fortitude. He rose to one foot. He lifted his gauntlet again. He fired another bolt of solar energy into the dragons before him. The energy beam seemed to only get caught in the ethereal quagmire that surrounded the dragons.

"Your – fire-power – is – in-suf-ficient," announced the left dragon. "Re-sis-tance – is – use-less. You – are – in-ferrrior!"

"You – shall – diiiie!" Screeched the dragon behind Centaurumon.

The centaur had forgotten about that one, though the dragon made quick work of reminding him by pumping his back with the electrical bolts that they used as weapons. Centaurumon sank back down to his knees. The bolts seemed to numb his muscles. His body felt heavy.

More bolts struck him, this time from front and back. Centaurumon's head drooped as his neck muscles became numb and flaccid. The dragons in front of him advanced. Centaurumon tried to make a daring strike as a last ditch effort to escape, but he only succeeded in falling on his side from the exertion. His eye rolled as far as it could to the right so he could see the dragons. One of them pointed its spear at his head. He could see the mechanical lenses in its red lit eye swiveling as it focused. At this range Centaurumon could see that the bluish-green armor of the beast concealed mutated, blue flesh. The spearhead sparked and he heard the shrill battle scream.

"EXTERMINATE!"

888

Tankdramon slowly turned around a corner. They were close to their designated coordinates. It rolled down the corridor, its sensors reaching out like fingers into the darkness. Suddenly there was a ping in Tankdramon's head. It stopped and uploaded a file transmitted by its subordinates.

"Life-form – has – ceased – its – per-sis-tence!" announced Tankdramon to the three SEALSdramon behind him.

"Dra-mon – are – supreme! All – Hail – the – Dra-mon!" the SEALSdramon replied in their screeching tone.

"Ad-vance – to – da-ta – ark – cham-berrrr!" Tankdramon started again rolling forward on its tank treads. The SEALSdramon walked after the tank without argument or conversation.

Tankdramon wheeled around another bend in the corridor and stopped. There was a door blocking its way. Tankdramon retreated slightly. The SEALSdramon took a step back and then stood at attention behind Tankdramon. The front of the tank chassis slid open and the metallic probe extended forward. The red beacon blinked as it scanned the stone barrier in front of it. The triangular prism on top of the prism hissed as the upper portion of the prism, decorated to look like a dragon's head, opened. A mutated, blue-gray fleshed dragon torso rose out of the metallic chassis of the tank. The head and neck were attached, directly to the upper 'jaw' of the metal 'head' of the tank. A slimy, blue-gray arm extended.

"Door – com-bin-a-tion…multi-vec-tored, quan-tum passsss-worrrd," gargled the dragon torso as its voice was only partially filtered through its mechanical voice box. "Cal-cu-late! Trans-ferrr – all – com-put-a-tional – pow-er – to – meeee!"

"We – O-bey!" the three SEALSdramon took a step forward and inserted the spearheads of their spears into ports in the aft sections of Tankdramon. They stepped back and then opened ports on their chests and inserted the back end of the spears into their chests. The SEALSdramon then slunk into a limp posture as if unconscious.

The prism head of Tankdramon closed as the mutated creature inside retracted back into the chassis. The lights on the top of the metal head of Tankdramon glowed ceaselessly as data swirled from the probe to Tankdramon and then was siphoned through the SEALSdramon via the spears, back to Tankdramon and then transmitted, via the probe, to a small access port that flickered with billions of combinations. After thirty seconds seventeen stars blinked on the access panel.

"Dis-en-gage – net-work," commanded Tankdramon.

The SEALSdramon seemed to snap out of whatever trance they had entered and withdrew themselves from their spears and then took the spears out of the back of Tankdramon. The stone door slid open with a slight whine as rock rubbed on rock. A light flooded the corridor from within the chamber beyond the door.

"I – Shall – Ad-vance!" announced Tankdramon. "The – ark – room – must – be pro-tected – at – all – costs! Re-main, as-sume – de-fensive po-sitions!"

"We – O-bey!" The SEALSdramon saluted and then turned to face the shadows behind them their spears pointed into the darkness. A shimmering skin of energy surrounded the SEALSdramon's armor. "De-fense – Ar-ray – Ac-ti-va-ted!"

Tankdramon rolled forward into the light. The room was filled with digi-code in ancient kanji. Each symbol glowed with a golden light and in the middle of the room was a giant ball. Zeros and ones swirled in the orb. Pure, raw data twisted in front of Tankdramon.

"Ac-cess-ing – da-ta – ark!" Tankdramon shouted to no one in particular as it extended the probe it'd used to decrypt the cipher that opened the door. The probe pierced the semi-fluid membrane around the data. "In-i-ti-ate – down-load!"

White lightning jolted down the probe and invaded the metal hull of Tankdramon. It screeched in pain as the data surged through its brain. Specifications, measurements, endurance tests zapped through its mind, each flashing for a second. No meaning, no connections were between the flashes. They were absolutely random. Within in its metal encasement its mutated flesh twitched as the data surge tore through Tankdramon's nervous system.

It screeched again, gurgling as the slime on its flesh sizzled. The orb started to shrink as the raw data was absorbed. Sparks exploded off of the metal exterior of Tankdramon. Its sensors were all inactive and for the first time the beast was in true and complete darkness the only sensation it detected was its own screeches of pain and the smell of its flesh burning. The orb continued to shrink as it funneled into Tankdramon.

It took twenty minutes for the orb to finish streaming into Tankdramon. The metallic beast continued to scream for another five minutes as the energy from the download snapped and sparked across its inner and outer skin. The kanji lined walls' shine faded and went dark. Tankdramon jerkily turned around and exited the room. Its sensors were still blind and it bumped into the edge of the doorway and stopped. It rolled back and turned slightly and then proceeded out of the room.

"Re-port!" one of the SEALSdramon turned around and looked down at Tankdramon.

"I – am – the – da-ta – ark," replied Tankdramon slowly. "Sen-sors – have – sus-tained – dam-age. My – vis-ion – is – im-paired. I – need – as-sistance."

"Trans-fer-ring – Mono-eye – scout-er," The SEALSdramon reached up and twisted its red eye. The mechanical appendage popped out of its socket. The SEALSdramon then knelt before the Tankdramon, "Ex-tend – probe!"

"I – o-bey," Tankdramon returned as the front portion of its chassis slid open and the metal rod extended out like an antenna. The red beacon blinked. The SEALSdramon attached the Mono-eye device to the beacon. The probe started to retract but stopped just as the mono-eye was about to be pulled into the chassis. The rod stopped retracting and the sliding doors on the chassis closed, holding the scouter in place. "Vis-ion – is – with-in ac-cep-ta-ble par-ameters," announced Tankdramon as the red ocular transplant buzzed, its lens twisting and focusing. "We – shall – re-con-noiter – with – the – o-ther – SEALS-dra-mon – un-its."

"Ad-vance," announced the middle SEALSdramon. "The – da-ta – ark – must – be – pro-tected!"

The SEALSdramon marched forward, in front of Tankdramon. Tankdramon slowly followed them. Everything was filtered through a crimson lens. They slowly made their way forward. A ping shouted into Tankdramon's pounding head.

"A-lert, A-lert! In-com-ing – mess-age – from – in-va-sion – un-it – 003!" The SEALSdramon stopped. "Re-in-force-ments need-ed in sec-tor 1."

"Com-mun-i-cate – de-clin-a-tion – to – the – or-der!" The middle SEALSdramon replied. "The – da-ta – ark – is – of – priiii-mary importance! WE – CAN-NOT – PUT – IT AT RISK!"

"I – o-bey," Tankdramon replied as it transmitted the response.

"Ad-vance!" the center SEALSdramon commanded as it turned. The SEALSdramon marched forward with Tankdramon rolling slowly behind it.

888

Ken cupped his hands over his eyes as DinoBeemon broke over the edge of the canopy of the forest that surrounded Primary Village. Chuumon had wanted left off in the forest, and DinoBeemon had obliged the rodent. It was a good thing, too. Ken could already see that the foam earth that made up the grounds of the village was torched. The smell of burning foam burned his nose. Many of the blocks were also burning, or melted or deflated. He could hear a gasp from behind him. He didn't need to look back to know that it was Keiko. The bassinets below were crushed. Little spots of ash surrounded the baby holders. He could also pick out the crushed shards of digi-eggs.

DinoBeemon touched down on the plush earth. Ken leapt down, as did the others with him. Unimon glided overhead, wheeling in the air.

"We're too late!" Keiko yelped as she looked at broken digi-eggs. She cupped her hands over her mouth. "Salamon! SALAMON!"

Ken spun around and grasped Keiko's arm, "SHH! If the ones that did this are still around then you're just going to bring them to us!" He looked up at Unimon, "Can you see anything Noriko?"

"No!" The little girl shouted back.

"Where's Elecmon?" Ken asked himself as he trudged forward.

As if on cue a giant blast of lightning exploded upward into the sky, from behind a group of toy block pillars.

"Umm…" Takashi pointed at the pillars, "think that was him?"

"Thanks," Ken said with a frown. He turned to the others, "Come on!"

He ran backward for a few seconds and then turned in the direction he was running. DinoBeemon whirred overhead buzzing ahead of Ken. Unimon and Noriko flew after the giant insect. He bounded around the corner of one of the pillars and came face to face with a mechanical beast. It walked on its back legs and had a rough draconic look that came through its heavy, blocky, greenish-bluish-gray armor. Its head was slightly triangular with a heavy, metallic crest on its forehead. The beast swept a spear around and pointed the bladed end at Ken.

"Irritant Buzz!" Ken covered his ears as a throbbing noise shook his body. The ultrasonic pulse struck the armored dragon knocking it backward. The beast seized up.

"SON-IC – IN-TER-FER-ENCE!" screeched the beast as it swung around wildly, "SEN-SORS – ARE – COMPROMISED! CIR-CUITS ARE COMPRO-MISED! I CAN-NOT MOVE FOR-WARD! A-LERT A-LERT WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"

"Who are you!?" Ken shouted at the beast as it shuddered.

He didn't get an answer. DinoBeemon buzzed in front of Ken. The heavy clanking of armor clattered in the air. Suddenly the area in front of him was filled with creatures similar to the one DinoBeemon had incapacitated.

"I-dent-i-fy – your-self!" demanded one of the creatures. They had their spears pointed at DinoBeemon.

"You first," Ken replied as the others ran up behind him and stopped.

"We – are – SEALS-dra-mon!" one of the dragon's eyes, a red mechanical device, focused on Ken. "You – are – not – a – di-gi-mon!"

Ken took a step back and hid, slightly, behind DinoBeemon. He didn't like being scrutinized by this SEALSdramon thing.

"That's right," Ken shouted out to the creatures. There were nine of the creatures, including the one incapacitated on the ground. "What are you doing here?"

"We – will – re-trieve – the – da-ta con-den-sation – core," replied the SEALSdramon.

"The what?" Takashi asked in Ken's ear.

"The looming device that weaves data into digi-eggs," replied Ken in a whisper.

"What are we going to do?" Hiroshi asked quietly looking at the creatures.

"Don't know; there aren't very many of them and they seem to be disadvantaged against DinoBeemon," Ken whispered back to Hiroshi. "Can your digimon digivolve?"

"Yeah…" Hiroshi looked at Ken and then back down to Mushroomon.

"You mean we're going to fight them?" Takashi asked as he peered at the creatures. "They outnumber us…"

"We have an advantage…" Ken replied.

"What about Salamon…what if they know where she is!?" Keiko hissed.

"Just a second," Ken said as he stuck his head out from behind DinoBeemon. "How far have you gotten, SEALSdramon?"

"Clar-i-fy, got-ten," requested the armored dragon.

"You are purifying the island, how far have you gotten?" Ken shouted back in annoyance.

"The – care-taker – of the – di-gi-eggs has – proved e-vasive!" the spokesman of the SEALSdramon revealed. "He – has – a group of digimon with him…and a di-gi-egg…they – are – the – on-ly – sur-vi-vors."

"Ten yen says that digi-egg is Salamon," Ken said quietly. He looked to Keiko. "Try and connect with her. We need to find Elecmon."

"Okay…" Keiko nodded and closed her eyes and rubbed her head.

"A-LERT! A-LERT! FLY-ING – DI-GI-MON DE-TECTED!" announced the SEALSdramon. The instantly turned and pointed their spears up to the sky. Unimon flew over the block towers. "EXTERMINATE THE FLYING PEST!"

"NO!" Ken shouted as he watched the spearheads of the staffs glow with energy and blue bursts exploded upwards. Ken looked up at DinoBeemon, "Stop them!"

"Irritant BUZZ!" DinoBeemon thrummed his wings as sonic pulse rifled through the air.

Three of the SEALSdramon were clipped by the ultrasonic blast. They howled their litany of damage as their bodies convulsed. The other SEALSdramon turned and opened fire on DinoBeemon. The huge insect was pushed back by five bolts of blue energy.

"I need help!" Ken shouted frantically to the others.

Hiroshi and Takashi looked at each other and then at their digimon. They fumbled for their D-3s as energy bursts whizzed past their heads.

"Mushroomon digivolve to…!" The mushroom digimon leapt forward with a roar. The roar echoed as the fungal digimon made a huge trans-kingdom metamorphosis. Clawed paws smashed forward and a fanged mouth roared as a mane of dark brown fur flowed around a huge, feline head. It stood forward with all four feet on the ground and roared loudly. Its ears were pierced. Two tails swished behind it. "….RAIAMON!" Energy flowed around the huge feline and collected into its mouth, "THUNDER OF THE KING!"

A lightning bolt snarled forward exploding into one SEALSdramon, causing the creature to explode.

"Kunemon digivolve to…!" The lightning streaked worm bounded forward and glowed. It took on a human form that charged forward. Shogun armor covered its wide shouldered body. A demonic face was twisted into a rage filled snarl. The shogun grabbed one of the swords sheathed at its side. "…MUSYAMON! SHOGUN SWORD!"

Musyamon swept past one of the armored dragons with its sword extended. The dragon turned, pointed its spear at Musyamon's back. Ken was about to shout out, but soon saw it was unnecessary, as the dragon came apart in two pieces and exploded.

"Aerial Attack!" Unimon dove in and out of the pulses of blue energy firing aquamarine orbs of energy into the SEALSdramon.

The armored Dramon retreated, firing bolts of energy at their attackers. The energy bolts swept out into the air and pelted the baby blocks, poofing into ozone scented smoke.

Ken swung around and looked to Keiko, "Anything?"

"I…think so…" Keiko winced and looked up at Ken and pointed to the left, into the forest, "that way…"

"Come on then," Ken shouted as DinoBeemon scooped him and Keiko up in his muscular, blue arms.

Takashi and Hiroshi climbed up on Raiamon's back. The muscular lion bounded after DinoBeemon. Musyamon sprinted alongside the lion, its red armor clattering as it ran. Unimon dove in behind the two ground digimon, with Noriko holding on for dear life.

Blue bolts of energy fired from between the trees, chasing them as they dove into the forest. The dragons may have been taken off guard and may have suffered casualties but they weren't going to give up.

As Ken and the others retreated into the forest, bolts started to explode from all directions. Ken bit his lip. There had been more. DinoBeemon was ducking and weaving through a hail of energy bursts that exploded into trees, causing the wood to explode from water vapor expansion.

"DinoBeemon," Ken shouted over the twisting maelstrom of wing thrumming and explosions. "Can you make your Irritant Buzz bigger?"

"You mean extend the arc?" DinoBeemon rumbled with his thrumming, warbly voice.

"Yeah!" Ken shouted with a nod.

"I can try!" DinoBeemon replied as he pulled back.

"TAKASHI, HIROSHI! KEEP RUNNING FORWARD!" Ken shouted as DinoBeemon rose into the air. He looked at Unimon and Noriko. "Noriko, get out of the way!"

The winged unicorn wheeled away. Raiamon and Musyamon disappeared into the undergrowth of the forest. Ken looked to Keiko and then up to DinoBeemon.

"Let it rip!" shouted Ken.

DinoBeemon blurred his wings, turning them into a misty white wave of motion. The wings heated from the friction with the air. A pulse of ultrasound ripped through the air. The forest shuddered as air molecules concussed against bark, leaves, rocks and earth. The attacks ceased and Ken sighed happily.

"Impressive…" Keiko said.

"Not really," DinoBeemon admitted as he dove back down to meet with the others, "I'm afraid that since I extended the arc of the attack, its potency fell, as such they were only temporarily incapacitated; they'll rouse in about five minutes…"

"Then let's get going!" Ken said with a nod.

888

The Airdramon seemed to ignore them for the most part, at least at first. Miyako frowned as the dragons refused to turn on them. She and Aquilamon glided alongside Birdramon. Hikari, Takeru, Nefertimon and Pegasusmon were gliding further off.

Miyako looked forward; the dragons were still unresponsive to their advance. She may be willing to fight the dragons, but they would have to fight back. They closed within a hundred feet of the dragons and the winged, green serpents continued their oblivious circling. Miyako gulped and looked down. The ground was blurred by clouds disturbed snow. The ground dragons were launching barrages at Daisuke's group. Miyako sighed slightly and looked up. A giant, scaly tail swept right in front of her eyes. Miyako screamed as Aquilamon dove downward.

Birdramon and Sora had taken the high road. The orange, fiery phoenix let out a loud screech as it flapped its huge wings. Suddenly, Birdramon twisted downward. A huge cybernetic dragon with rusty flesh dropped out of the sky. Its heavy metal hands were open revealing a large gun port in the palms. The large metal claws glinted in the sunlight.

Birdramon swept around as the dragon's lavender feathered wings tilted and the huge legless beast twisted to the left. Miyako yelped as the metal helmeted head of the dragon flew by her face. Aquilamon shimmied and twisted as the large, red eagle tried to stay stable in the dragon's air-wake.

"Megadramon!" Aquilamon roared as he twisted out of the massive dragon's wake.

"Attack!" roared the dragon as it rolled around and thrust its fists forward. The metallic claws snapped opened. "Darkside Attack!"

Missiles roared upward and hissed past Aquilamon as they whistled towards Birdramon. The fiery bird quickly swept, flying so that her wingtips were pointed towards the ground. Birdramon sliced between the missiles and they exploded beyond the huge bird.

Miyako hadn't time to think though as Aquilamon jerked downward and a wave of fireballs shot over Miyako's head. The Airdramon were turning towards her.

"It was a trap!" Aquilamon growled as he swept his wings back to slip through a thin strip of airspace between two oncoming fireballs.

"They acted all obviously to lure us in," Miyako grumbled as she clutched the brick red feathers of Aquilamon's shoulders. "They knew we wouldn't make the first strike…Kari and Takeru!"

Miyako lifted her head and looked in the direction the two digi-destined had gone. The Airdramon were swarming around Nefertimon and Pegasusmon, but that wasn't the worst. Another huge, cybernetic dragon was barreling down toward the two Armored digimon and their partners. It had purple flesh and metallic wings but its arms had the same metallic enhancements to them as the rusty dragon.

"Gigadramon!" Miyako yelped. She pulled on Aquilamon's feathered back, "We have to go over there!"

"Meteor Wing!" Miyako heard Birdramon screech. She turned her head and saw a hail of meteors crash down around Megadramon but the hefty Ultimate shrugged off the burning comets with a ruffle of its large feathered wings.

Miyako turned her attention forward again. Gigadramon was looming ahead. Flashes of flame roasted forward from behind her. The Airdramon were still firing on them.

"Blast Rings!" Aquilamon rocketed forward sweeping his wings back.

His beak opened and circular energy rings erupted from his mouth striking Gigadramon in the chest and stomach. The purpled dragon snorted and closed its metallic clawed fists. Gigadramon then raged forward, charging towards Aquilamon.

"Ok…this is bad…" Miyako gulped watching the dragon growing as it closed in on her and Aquilamon.

"Grand Horn!" Aquilamon thrust his horned head forward.

The huge forward curled horns on the eagle's head glowed and speared forward making a glancing blow against Gigadramon's metal capped head. It was enough though and Gigadramon twisted off from his attack run. However, the massive dragon's body produced an even more massive wash of air by swerving; a wash of air the smashed into Aquilamon throwing the stout eagle backward in a maelstrom of wind.

Miyako's knuckles turned white as her fingers dug into Aquilamon's back. Aquilamon opened his massive wings and pushed forward against the wind, to stabilize himself. Gigadramon was coming around for another try. Aquilamon growled and made a massive flap with his wings and propelled himself toward the monstrous, cybernetic dragon. Miyako gulped as she raised her mettle in preparation for another engagement with the huge dragon. She closed her eyes and then opened them. She saw a huge streak of lavender light slice across Gigadramon's mechanical wings.

"Guilty Wing!" Twin bursts of pink energy fired from the tips of the dragon's wings.

Aquilamon arched his back upward in a tight, upward, nearly stalling, ascent. The beams sizzled under Aquilamon's tail feathers.

"Blast Rings!" Aquilamon retorted as his energy rings pulsed against Gigadramon's spine. The dragon curled back around and pointed his clawed fist at Aquilamon.

"Darkside Attack!" rockets roared towards Aquilamon.

Miyako thought she was going to be sick as Aquilamon twirled around and started to swing left and right to evade the missiles being fired at him. The Airdramon seemed to have cleared out. Miyako gulped as she felt Aquilamon jolt under her and watched as the sky the world dipped downward and the white ground reared up towards her. Her pink hair whipped in her face as the ground screamed up to her.

"Dang it…where are TK AND KARI!" Miyako shouted as Aquilamon, at the last possible second, curved upward causing the snow to rush up on either side of his talons.

"Don't you wonder why the Airdramon have gotten off our tail?" Aquilamon said as he rose away from the waves of snow he was creating and curled back around.

Miyako looked up. The two Armored digimon taking on the entirety of the Airdramon, making the fight on their side nearly ten on one.

"We gotta help them," Miyako shouted.

"We have our own problems," Aquilamon retorted as he swerved hard to the left to miss a pair of energy beams directed at him. "I can't stop Gigadramon like this…I need to digivolve. Unfortunately, that means putting you down, and I can't buy us that much time."

Miyako frowned and looked around, "Maybe…not…"

"What do you mean?" Aquilamon lunged to the right as a barrage of missiles rocketed towards him.

"Look," Miyako pointed upward as Birdramon erupted into a ball of light. The orange phoenix disappeared into the light and a huge eagle-human creature flew out of the light. Its large crimson wings flapped heavily as it held its taloned fists in front of its beaked head, and trailed its eagle feet.

"That wouldn't work," Aquilamon said as he maneuvered around a wave of energy bursts. "I'm too small as Silphymon, and would lose all the advantages gained by digivolving."

"That's not what I meant," Miyako said with a snort. "Get up there where Garudamon is…"

"Ok…" Aquilamon flapped his wings and pushed himself upward towards the eagle-man.

Gigadramon continued firing attacks across Aquilamon's bow. The eagle swept left and right maintaining a rudimentary evasive flight path. Aquilamon rose over the back of Garudamon and glided behind the giant, bird-man.

"SORA!" Miyako shouted down at the girl on the back of Garudamon. "Can you spare some room?"

"I think so," Sora replied as she looked back. Miyako turned also and saw Megadramon and Gigadramon chasing after them with extreme gusto.

"Ok," Miyako looked down at Sora. "Aquilamon, bring me down, hover about a meter above Garudamon's back. From there I can jump on…"

"What!?" Aquilamon shouted as he looked back to Miyako. "Are you nuts?"

"What? Daisuke hasn't got a monopoly on inane ideas," Miyako retorted angrily. "It's this or getting blown to bits by Gigadramon!"

"Fine!" Aquilamon snorted angrily as he dropped down. The eagle looked up and grimaced at the sight of the Destiny Tree's bows getting larger in front of him. "Hurry up, we'll be in the tree soon!"

"Don't be pushy," snapped Miyako as she looked down and measured the drop. It was farther than it had looked in her mind. She took a deep breath and jumped. She bounced as she hit Garudamon and the huge, bird-man's forward motion swept Miyako's feet out from her. Sora quickly grabbed the girl and held her close.

"Are you ok?" Sora rasped in Miyako's ear.

"Scared to death…and my legs and arms are shaking…" replied Miyako between gasps for air, "but…I've felt worse…" Miyako blinked and then grabbed her D-3 and pointed it at Aquilamon. "Go for it, Aquilamon!"

"Aquilamon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to…." Aquilamon was engulfed by green and pink light and fell backward as he morphed. His Ultimate form emerged. The man with the white body suit torso and hawk-like legs complete with red feathers and scaled, and taloned feet. The visored head looked at the oncoming Gigadramon and he brandished his claws, "….Silphymon! Warrior of Love and Sincerity!"

Silphymon clenched his fist and drove into Gigadramon's oncoming head. Gigadramon instantly stopped forward momentum and his long snaking body curled tightly up into a bunch like an accordion.

Garudamon put its hand back.

"Sora, Miyako, get in my hand," The eagle-man ordered. The two girls nodded and crawled over to the extended hand. It was scaly like the foot of a bird. Garudamon gently curled the hand back and looked down at the two girls through her red and blue mask. "I think it's time we go on the offensive…"

Garudamon added drag by curling her wings forward. She turned and glared down the orange flesh dragon pursuing her. Megadramon raged forward and fired a wave of missiles at the giant, bird-man.

"Wing Blade!" Garudamon summoned a giant, phantom bird made of fire.

The apparition cut through the air, its heat making the air hiss. The phantom burned through the waves of missiles and crashed into Megadramon's chest. The huge dragon tumbled backward in a low grade tailspin. It regained its composure and curled out of the spin. Garudamon brandished her empty hand as Megadramon charged upwards, flapping his giant, lavender wings with angry thrusts up and down.

"Darkside Attack!" Megadramon thrust one of his arms forward firing a projectile up at Garudamon. The eagle faced man easily avoided the attack.

"Phoenix Claw!" Garudamon dove downward towards him and slammed his open palm on Megadramon's head. The claws flashed with flames and Megadramon howled as Garudamon slammed a foot into Megadramon's chest. The dragon arched backward, smoke rolling off its snout and eyes. Garudamon closed her wings as a red aura surrounded her body. "Wing Blade!"

The fiery apparition flew up from Garudamon's body. The phantom bird then dove down and struck Megadramon. The orange fleshed dragon was bathed in flames and burnt as it fell to the earth, dissolving into data as it dropped.

"Garudamon, let's get over to TK and Kari," Sora called up to the giant bird's head. Garudamon inclined her head and turned around gliding toward where the Airdramon were chasing Nefertimon and Pegasusmon. Miyako looked back to where Silphymon was.

Gigadramon huge compared to the small, human-sized Silphymon. The small white digimon was easily outmaneuvering the larger dragon. Strips of red energy smashed across Gigadramon's back as Silphymon rose above the purple dragon. Gigadramon twisted around. Miyako winced as a pair of purple lasers smashed into the white chested Silphymon. Silphymon charged forward and then Miyako saw a large spinning line of wind smash into Gigadramon. Silphymon rebounded off of the metallic cap on Gigadramon's head. Two energy disks swiped past Gigadramon. The dragon yowled as it fell backward. A giant, crimson burst of energy fired from Silphymon. Gigadramon arched his back as the crimson burst tore through his body exploding out of his back. The lavender dragon let out one last howl before evaporating into black dust.

Silphymon started rushing towards her and Garudamon. Miyako sighed in relief at seeing Silphymon was ok. She looked up. The Airdramon were retreating. Pegasusmon and Nefertimon were firing their beam attacks after the dragons, but didn't press the pursuit beyond that.

"We should follow them," Silphymon shouted as he landed in Garudamon's palm next to Miyako. "Something isn't right…that felt too easy. When we fought Airdramon at Format Island, they actively attacked both MegaKabuterimon…"

"And they don't seem to be going far," Garudamon stated as she pointed with her empty hand. The Airdramon were curling around the far end of the tree.

888

"V-Breath Arrow!" roared the stout, muscular blue dragons. The V-shaped attacks exploded into the snowy earth in front of Ankylomon. The sandy brown, shelled, dinosaur digimon flipped backward.

"Fire Rocket!" Flamedramon leapt forward, bathed in flame and tackled a Strikedramon.

The lithe dragon with the green dragons crashed to the ground and rolled with Flamedramon. Flamedramon pushed away but not before the lavender skinned dragon put a clawed foot into Flamedramon's exposed white stomach. The flame armored digimon crashed into the trunk of the Destiny Tree back-first. Strikedramon's muscular, but thin frame charged forward and leapt high into the air brandishing the long, sharp claws. Flamedramon grunted as he looked up, but was still too dazed to do anything about the oncoming evisceration.

"Strike…" Strikedramon's claws glowed as he pointed them towards Flamedramon.

"Electroshocker!" A ball of lightning exploded into the back of the dragon and it fell to the ground in a heap, as a huge, blue beetle rose behind it.

"Light Speed Jabbing!" A giant, walking cactus with boxing gloves on its hands was smashing blurred fists into the snout of one of the Veedramon. The blue dragon tried to cover up but the red boxing gloves found their way around the arms of the dragon, connecting with its stomach and chest.

"Megaton Press!" Ankylomon, having recovered from the last attack charged forward slamming his shoulders into a group of five Strikedramon.

The lithe dragons were crushed between Ankylomon and Destiny Tree's trunk. Flamedramon dropped down onto the snow and leapt into the air. The flame armored dragon landed on one of the Veedramon's backs. Flamedramon lifted a flame decorated gauntlet.

"Fire Knuckle!" The Veedramon howled as the fiery fist smashed between its shoulder blades.

The blue beetle dove down out of the sky, scooping up Strikedramon, tossing them at three Veedramon that were encircling the punchy cactus.

"Thanks, Kabuterimon!" the cactus shouted as the beetle flew by.

"No problem, Togemon!" the insect called back.

The dragons growled as they rose to their feet.

"Might as well stay down," Togemon said as she pulled her arms over her chest. "Because now you gotta feel my…Needle Spray!"

Togemon extend her arms quickly releasing a wave of cactus needles. The dragons yelped and jumped around and ran away as needles imbedded themselves in the earth at their feet.

"This is the last one!" Ankylomon shouted as he charged towards a blue Veedramon.

Flamedramon ran next to the spiky shelled Ankylomon. The fire dragon hopped onto Ankylomon's back.

"Let's do this one together," Flamedramon said as he clenched his gauntleted fists.

"Right," Ankylomon nodded and put his head down. "Megaton Press!"

Flamedramon leapt into the air as Ankylomon rammed his helmeted head into Veedramon's sternum. The bulky, blue dragon staggered backward. Flamedramon extended his arms and bathed himself in flame. He then spiraled towards Veedramon.

"FIRE ROCKET!" Flamedramon drove himself into Veedramon's chest. Veedramon crashed against the tree.

"Light Speed Jabbing!" Togemon rushed forward and drilled fists into the side of Veedramon's chin. A strong uppercut sent the lumbering dragon into the air.

"And the topper…" Kabuterimon hovered in the air and pulled his arms inward, gathering electrical energy, "ELECTROSHOCKER!"

An orb of lightning smashed into the airborne Veedramon and exploded, leaving nothing but smoke and dust behind.

"That was easy!" Flamedramon shouted to Daisuke.

Daisuke and the others were running down to the battle scene. Their digimon were standing before the trunk, victorious. Mimi waved to Togemon, her pink air bouncing as she ran. Iori ran to Ankylomon. The little boy inspected the dinosaur. Koushiro smiled and looked up at Kabuterimon in awe as the giant beetle landed on the snow. Daisuke punched Flamedramon's shoulder playfully and Flamedramon slapped Daisuke's back, congenially, although this planted Daisuke's face in the snow.

"That was easy as pie," Togemon said as she rubbed her boxing glove on Mimi's head.

"Pie, who's got pie?" Ankylomon looked up anxiously.

"That's a bit worrying," Koushiro said as he looked around. "They didn't put up half the fight we expected…it's like…they were just playing us…like there was…"

The snow shifted under the children's feet. A huge, serpentine head rose up out of the snow. Daisuke, Koushiro, Mimi and Iori fell backward onto the ground. The purple and red serpent hissed loudly flapping its forked tongue at the children.

"Welcome to your doooom!" hissed the serpent and laughed raspily. "Inferno Blast!" A blast of maroon flames exploded from the snow to the left of the serpent's head. The flames drove into Flamedramon throwing the Armored digimon into the air. The flame-decorated dragon glowed and reverted into a blue dragon with a tiny horn on its snout. "Inferno Blast!" a stream of maroon flames erupted from the ground to the right of the serpent and struck Togemon throwing the giant cactus away like a flyswatter striking a fly. "Inferno Blast!" another fire blast erupted from the left of the serpent's head and tossed Ankylomon like he was paperclip. Kabuterimon rose into the air and drew his arms in to collect electrical energy but the serpent only hissed at the blue beetle. "Inferno Blast!"

The serpent opened its maw and ejected a long stream of lavender flame into Kabuterimon driving the beetle into the sand. The children quickly ran to their digimon. Mimi gently touched the fleshy green surface of Togemon. Koushiro knelt down next to Kabuterimon's horned head. Iori rubbed Ankylomon's bumpy head. Daisuke knelt down by Veemon who sat up and rubbed his oversized forehead.

"Ugh, that was sneaky," grumbled Veemon as he looked up at the serpent. "Who are you!?"

"My name issss Orochimon," hissed the snake as it reared its head back. "But soon you won't care who I am! Clouds of Heaven!" The snake opened its mouth and a heavy steam rolled out of its throat. The clouds of steam flowed around the snake and shrouded the digi-destined.

"What is this stuff?" coughed Mimi as she covered her mouth and nose from the smell.

"It smells like…" Koushiro coughed as he sniffed the steam, "…sake…don't breath it in! OR else…"

"How DRY I YAM!" Daisuke hiccupped as he staggered past.

"…you'll get drunk…" Koushiro sighed covering his mouth and nose.

"Ankylomon, we have to clear out this smoke," Iori coughed, raising his D-3.

"Ankylomon Armor synthesis digivolve to…" The ankylosaur glowed and rose up into the air on his hind legs. He continued to change shape as he turned into a terra cotta doll with an hourglass figure and a large, oval head. "…Shakkoumon! Drilling Guardian of Reliability and Knowledge!"

The steam started to swirl into Shakkoumon's mouth as the clay titan started vacuuming the attack in. The shrouds of steam faded to wisps. Shakkoumon groaned as he shook his head.

"What's wrong?" Iori looked up at the terra cotta digimon.

"Everything is. wobbly," Shakkoumon stated as he hovered backward.

"Kabuterimon, get up," Koushiro commanded as he grabbed his digivice and looked at Orochimon. The snake was laughing loudly.

Kabuterimon rose into the air and Koushiro pointed his D-3 at the large blue beetle.

"Kabuterimon digivolve to…" The blue beetle's wings were pulled against its back and a red shell covered its back. His arms beefed up and his horn elongated and fanned out in a butterfly shape at the tip. "…MegaKabuterimon!"

"Togemon, you too," Mimi said as she lifted her D-3 as well. The cactus rose to its feet.

"Togemon digivolve to…" The eye and mouth holes that contributed to the cactus's face exploded with light as the tan botanical fluff on top of its head sparkled and bloomed into a pink flower. The bloom opened revealing a fairy about the size of a human. The shell that was Togemon dispersed into pink data dust that swirled around the fairy. The fairy had a pink unbloomed flower on its head and a flower petal dress around its hips. A pink dress covered its torso and two pairs of green, leafy wings buzzed from the fairy's back. The flower child lifted its thin arms complete with the leafy wristbands. "…Lillymon!"

"Daisuke!?" Veemon yelped as he hopped around the staggering, brown haired boy.

"Oh look…it's a gummy bear…." Cheered Daisuke as he picked the little blue dragon and licked its cheek, "Bleah…tastes like foot!"

"HEY!" yelped Veemon as he struggled in Daisuke's arms.

Veemon growled as Daisuke continued to snuggle him and finally slapped the boy across the face. Daisuke dropped Veemon and blinked looking at the dragonet.

"Woah…that was a trip…" Daisuke whispered as he shook the cobwebs from his head.

"Inferno Blast!" A maroon firestorm roared upward towards MegaKabuterimon. The giant red scarab groaned as he was caught in the flames.

"Don't you think…?" Veemon pointed at Orochimon.

"Definitely," Daisuke nodded pointing his blue D-3 at Veemon

"Veemon digivolve to…" Veemon grew as the light filled him. His snout extended and the horn there curved upward. A pair of wings sprouted from his back as he crossed his arms over his 'X' tattooed chest. "ExVeemon!" Daisuke nodded and a red and blue stream of light circled around ExVeemon. "ExVeemon Armor Synthesis Digivolve to…" Black gauntlets covered ExVeemon's hands and green armor covered his torso. Extra wings sprouted from the dragon's back as a pair of hip cannons flashed into existence on his waist. "…Paildramon! Thunderous Firestorm of Friendship and Courage!"

"Ssssso…" The serpent looked at the four Ultimate digimon hovering in front of him. "It'sssss you four againsssst ussss eight…."

"Eight?" Iori looked at Orochimon with a confused look.

"Yeah," The serpent laughed. "Usss eight!"

The ground shook again as seven huge serpents rose out of the snow.

"Of course," Koushiro said snapping his fingers, "Orochimon is from that story about Susano-o no Mikoto; it was an eight headed serpent that captured a princess or something…"

"Susano-o promised to save the woman and defeated the dragon, pulling a sword from the tail," Mimi said, nodding emphatically. The others looked at her, a bit surprised. Mimi looked at the boys, "What? I like the kind of story where the hero sweeps in to save the girl!"

"He got Orochi drunk," Iori said, quietly with a touch of aggravation, "and then killed the beast in its sleep."

"Well, that is slightly less heroic…" Mimi said putting her fingers on her chin.

"Enough of this!" roared the center head of the eight-headed beast. The eight heads reared up, "Inferno BLAST!"

Mimi yelped as Lillymon grabbed her and lifted her away from the flames. Shakkoumon dove in front of the flames and Paildramon snatched up Daisuke. MegaKabuterimon dropped down and crouched between Koushiro and the wave of flames, putting his heavy, red wing casing against the flames.

"Hot, hot, hot!" MegaKabuterimon yelped as the flames washed over his back.

"Our turn!" Daisuke shouted and pointed down to Orochimon. Paildramon put Daisuke on his shoulders.

"Desperado Blaster!" Paildramon shouted as he swung his hip cannons up and released a spitfire blast of energy pellets into Orochimon. The multi-headed serpent twisted back and forth as the heads evaded the energy pellets.

"Flower Cannon!" Lillymon put Mimi down and swung around.

The leafy wristband on her right hand bloomed into a huge flower with a cannon muzzle hidden in its center. The cannon fired and a green burst exploded into furry chest of Orochimon.

"Justice Beam!" Shakkoumon narrowed his heavy, clay eyelids and a pair of red lasers sliced into one of Orochimon's left heads with a mechanical jaw.

"Horn Buster!" MegaKabuterimon turned around and a bolt of orange lightning fired from his horn and struck the middle head.

The other heads instantly retaliated by firing blasts of maroon flames at the digimon. The four Ultimates retreated as best they could but with eight heads it was hard to evade the flames.

"This won't work," Iori frowned as he watched Shakkoumon attempt to Kachina Bomb Orochimon and then subsequently watch the eight heads swerve around the spinning, clay discs. "There are too many targets…"

"Thunder Blast!" Paildramon thrust a fist forward releasing an arching flash of lightning at Orochimon. The serpent snorted at the attack as its heads twisted around and fired a concentrated blast of flame at Paildramon.

"I got it," Koushiro looked over to Mimi, "Lillymon can use that rope thing…"

"Huh?" Mimi looked over at the cinnamon haired boy.

"The flower rope thing!" Koushiro said swirling his finger in the air.

"I know what he's getting at!" Lillymon said with a smile. "You guys have to rein in the outer heads and I'll tie them off!"

"You heard Lillymon," Koushiro shouted up at MegaKabuterimon.

The beetle nodded with a grunt and jetted forward. "Horn Buster!"

MegaKabuterimon's lightning bolts forced the outer, left-most heads to rear up high in the air.

"Justice Beam!" Shakkoumon fired crimson rods of light at the right-most heads.

The right-most heads had a similar reaction as the left-most, rearing up defensively.

"Now!" shouted Iori as he looked up at Orochimon, with all his heads lined up together.

"Flower Wreath!" Lillymon rushed up to Orochimon and then swinging around the multiple-headed snake began to lasso the heads. She became a green and pink blur as she revolved around the snake's necks. She suddenly appeared and yanked a leafy rope tight. The eight heads were lashed together with a flowered vine.

"Now, Paildramon!" Daisuke shouted, looking at Paildramon.

"Desperado Blaster!" Paildramon gripped his cannons as they fired down on the clumped together heads. Orochimon roared as the bolts of energy smashed into his collective necks and furry chest. Orochimon's heads then collapsed on the ground, flinging earth and snow into the air. The giant, mythic hydra then exploded into data.

Daisuke punched the air and cheered as Paildramon landed. The other digimon surrounded Paildramon. Daisuke leapt down as the other children ran toward him.

"Where are they going?" Mimi asked as she pointed up towards the sky. Daisuke and the others looked up and saw Garudamon and the others flying around the far side of the tree.

"Let's follow them," Daisuke shouted as he stepped on Paildramon's foot.

"You can ride with me, Mimi," Koushiro said as he extended his hand to the pink haired girl.

"Uh, ok," Mimi said taking Koushiro's hand. MegaKabuterimon picked the two children.

Shakkoumon lifted Iori up to his shoulder. Iori looked at the others, "This day has gone reasonably well…"

"Too well," Koushiro said with a frown. "I know we should be happy but this feels wrong."

888

The intruders on their purification were moving west, southwest. The SEALSdramon were on a follow, do not engage command. Tankdramon rolled forward through the underbrush. Trees in its way were destroyed by firepower. The Data ark was theirs and all that was left was the retrieval of the data condensation core and to finish the purification of the island. Tankdramon unit 003 was retrieving the condensation core, and this Tankdramon was fully appreciating the fact that it was closing in on the last things standing in the way of full purification and that it was going to be the one to exterminate the last of the infestation.

The intruders were a problem though. They took out over half of Tankdramon unit 003's SEALSdramon and temporarily incapacitated its own SEALSdramon. The intruder was powerful, but it was an intruder and all intruders would be exterminated in order to fulfill all requirements given by the Great Gods.

He continued forward the blue tinted images of the island glowing in front of him. Radar systems detected the flying infestations. Tankdramon continued to rumble forward. The flying infestations were slowing down. Tankdramon stopped and watched them as they circled a certain area and then landed.

"It – is – time – to – en-gage – the en-e-my," Tankdramon hissed in its mechanical squawk. A sonic pulse rippled through the earth as nine SEALSdramon stomped their first step forward.

888

"There! There!" Keiko yelped, pointing down at the forest. "She's down there!"

Ken nodded and pointed down to the ground. DinoBeemon tilted downward and buzzed towards a small opening in the forest. Unimon dove after the bug. They breached the leaves of the canopy.

"Fireball!"

"Dark Claw!"

"Subzero Ice Punch!"

"Super Thunder Strike!"

DinoBeemon and Unimon dipped and dove and ascended, attempting to evade the attacks flying up to them.

"Stop! We're friends!" shouted Ken loudly waving his hands.

The attacks stopped and Unimon and DinoBeemon lowered peacefully through the canopy. The tyrant insect touched down in front of a group of four digimon. Unimon landed behind DinoBeemon.

"Unimon…?" a red rodent walked forward. "That's not you; is it…?"

"Not your Unimon, no," replied the winged equine.

"Ken!" The rodent leapt forward and looked up at him, "You came, but it's a little late, though! The entirety of the island has been…"

"I know, Elecmon," stated quietly as he looked at the egg that Elecmon held. He turned his head to Keiko, "Keiko, is that…"

Keiko walked forward and knelt before Elecmon. She brushed her dark brown hair out of her eyes and she reached forward. Elecmon pulled the egg back slightly but he looked into her eyes and he stopped pulling back. Keiko's fingers touched the smooth shell egg. It had crescents designing it. Keiko drew the egg close and hugged it, caressing the shell. The egg rattled and then exploded with a huge puff of smoke. Keiko looked down and smiled broadly as her eyes fell on the small, snow-white ball of fluff with its huge ears.

"YukimiBotamon!" Keiko giggled, hugging the creature tightly.

Ken smiled broadly as he looked at Keiko and her partner. He remembered when he and Wormmon reunited. A warm bubble of compassion rose in his chest. He was about to say something when the bushes rustled. Ken and DinoBeemon turned around as Raiamon and Musyamon broke out of the forest. The lion, Raiamon, snarled as he looked back at the forest.

"They're coming," Raiamon growled as he turned back to Ken. "I can smell them…"

"They've been tracking us," Musyamon nodded his demonic face frowning angrily.

"You led them to us!" a ghost rushed forward to Ken. "You've killed us!"

"Bakemon, stop," A large, rotund snowman said as he walked forward.

A man doused in flames surveyed the shadows of the forest with his blue eyes, "They won't take long to get here…"

"Then we should get out of here!" the ghost shouted.

"Frigimon, Meramon, Bakemon, please," Elecmon walked up to Ken, "Can you stop them?"

"I don't know; if you mean the SEALSdramon, then maybe," Ken said looking to the forest.

"They are close," Raiamon said as he turned around. "Takashi, Hiroshi, go to Ken and Keiko…."

The two boys on the lion's back hopped off and ran to Ken and Keiko as ordered. The forest suddenly was filled with the sounds of cracking and snapping trees. The four indigenous digimon started to get skittish as the sounds got louder.

"YOU – ARE – SUR-ROUND-ED!" the screeches shouted from the shadows of the forest. "DO – NOT – MOOOOVE!"

"What are we going to do?" Bakemon gulped as he looked around into the shadows.

"DinoBeemon…" Ken whispered softly. "You need to open us a window…"

"Ok, Ken," The insect turned slowly.

"DO NOT MOVE!" screeched the voices simultaneously.

"Irritant…" DinoBeemon's wings started to whirr but the surrounding force wasn't going to have it and blue bursts of energy started exploding out of the forest in all directions.

Ken and the other kids dove for the ground as energy bolts erupted around them. DinoBeemon staggered back and then pushed himself over the children defensively.

"Unimon!" yelped Noriko as she saw the winged unicorn struck by a burst. The horse reverted to Penguinmon.

"Thunder of the King!" roared Raiamon, firing a bolt of lightning into the forest. There was a gurgling, squawky scream along with the thunderous sonic pulse in response to the lightning strike.

"Irritant Buzz!" DinoBeemon snarled as his wings really buzzed releasing a wave of sonic discord into the forest.

"I – HAVE – LOST – CON-TACT – WITH – THE WESTERN TROOPS!" screeched a voice from the forest.

"That's your cue," Ken said, grabbing Keiko by the waist and pulling her to her feet. "You and the others run to the nearest digi-port, there's one about a hundred meters to the west! I'll hold off the SEALSdramon. The rest of you digimon just run!"

"But we can help!" Takashi yelped, looking up to Ken.

"Yeah, we'll help!" Hiroshi shouted.

"EX-TERMINATE ALL LIFE-FORMS IN THE CLEAR-ING!" Blue energy exploded out of the forest.

Raiamon leapt backward as the energy bursts hailed down from in front and on the sides of him. One of the bursts struck Raiamon's golden muscled flank and the mighty lion roared as his body was consumed by light and he reverted to Mushroomon. Musyamon tried deflecting the energy bursts with his swords but there were too many bursts coming from too many directions. Three burst converged on the shogun and he collapsed into a burst of light that turned into a yellow lightning striped worm.

"Fireball!" Meramon flung fireballs out of his hands into the dark shadows of the forest.

"GO! NOW!" shouted Ken as he pushed Keiko and the others out from under DinoBeemon.

The Dark Spore children staggered forward as energy bursts exploded into DinoBeemon. Their Rookie digimon bounded next to them looked back and then pushed the children into the forest.

"Irritant Buzz!" A second sonic stream was thrust from DinoBeemon's wings into the forest.

"Elecmon, take the others and run," Ken said as DinoBeemon circled around and fired another burst of sonic interference into the forest.

"But you…" Elecmon started.

"Just go!" Ken shouted as he turned around. The bursts died down as DinoBeemon finished his circuit.

"Stay – where – you – are!" shouted a voice, deeper than the SEALSdramon, but still squawky and unnerving.

"Run," Ken said, not looking at Elecmon. The forest crackled and rustled.

Elecmon and the other digimon backed away and then ran, leaving Ken and DinoBeemon alone.

"You – are – a – hu-man," said the voice as the undergrowth in front of Ken rustled. The front of a tank chassis pushed through the bushes, followed by a pair of energy cannons and then a pair of older style Gatling cannons. Atop of the tank chassis was a triangular head decorated like the head of a dragon. "You – are – a – di-gi-des-tined!"

Ken glared at the tank digimon as it continued forward. "What do you want?"

"Pur-i-fi-cation, ex-termination! You – are – an – in-fes-tation!" the tank said, coldly, "I – want – the – in-fes-tation – to – be – de-stroyed!"

"Why? Why can't you just live with people who surrender to you?" Ken looked at the tank angrily.

"They – will – con-tam-i-nate – the – reign – of – the – GODDSSS!" the tank screeched. "We – can-not – al-low – the gods' – reign – to be – con-tam-i-nated!"

"So you kill anyone that's not like you, not like a dragon," Ken narrowed his eyes as he glared at the tank.

"That – is – cor-rect," the lights on the top of the head of the tank blinked with the syllables. "Non-dra-gon – life – is – ex-pend-able. As – we – con-verse, the – re-main-ing SEALS-dra-mon – are – hunt-ing – down – the – ex-pend-able – life-forms!"

Ken's eyes widened as he took a step back and turned.

"DO NOT MOVE!" roared the tank, loudly. A blue and green, striped energy beam exploded in front of Ken.

DinoBeemon growled, moving forward. "Don't hurt a hair on his head!"

"I – do – not – take – or-ders – from – in-fer-i-or – life – forms!" replied the tank as it pointed its energy cannons at DinoBeemon.

"I'll show you inferior life form!" DinoBeemon's wings throbbed. "Irritant Buzz!"

A sonic pulse smashed into the tank's body.

"Your – of-fen-sive – a-bil-i-ties – are – in-ef-fec-tive," announced the tank. "Tank-dra-mon – u-nits – are – in-su-lat-ed – a-gainst – son-ic – in-ter-fer-ence."

"Fine, then deal with this!" DinoBeemon glowed as he vibrated intensely. "Hell's Masquerade!"

DinoBeemon thrust forward as a stream of pink light. DinoBeemon phased through Tankdramon and then sliced back and forth through the tank. DinoBeemon sliced upward through the tank and hovered above the beast, re-solidifying.

"Ex-terminate!" the tank shifted its energy cannons and fired upward into DinoBeemon.

The tyrant bee roared as his body was bathed in bluish green light. DinoBeemon crashed to the ground in front of Ken and reverted to Minomon. Ken ran forward, grabbing up the little grub digimon.

Ken turned and ran from the mechanical beast behind him.

"DO NOT MOVE! STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" screeched Tankdramon as energy bolts exploded on either side of Ken.

888

Ruki leaned back and tapped her foot on the ground to the rhythm of the music being pumped into her head via a pair of earplug headphones. Her head bobbed slightly as the music went into a wordless riff. The sun was warming the air considerably. It was going to be a warm October, the humidity wasn't yet unendurable but there was a sense that the afternoon could yet be unpleasant. Her blue eyes flashed upward as she looked up at a large oak tree that stood across the walking path from her bench.

"Where are they?" Ruki grumbled as she looked at her watch. "They said they were going to go pick up an egg and get back…it's been two hours…"

Just as the redhead made the statement; the laptop computer beside her glowed, brightly. Ruki pulled her headphones from her ears and heard the computer beep and click. The light spread forward from the screen and deposited four children on the pavement with four digimon. Ruki ran forward as the light continued to glow from the screen. The kids got up and looked in fright at the screen behind them.

"What's happened? Where's that Ken kid?" Ruki shouted as the light continued to squeal from the computer screen.

"Ruki! GET DOWN!" Ruki didn't have time to look as a weight crashed down on her and the other children.

Ruki lifted her head in time to see lots of bluish blasts fly overhead. The laptop screen faded as the digi-port closed tightly behind the blasts. The weight lifted from her. Ruki stood up and helped the other kids back to their feet. She turned and looked to the lithe, bipedal fox standing behind the other children. A number of people witnessed the event and were gasping and murmuring as they pointed at Ruki's cousin's friends and then to the fox.

"Renamon…" Ruki whispered quietly. "Thanks…"

"It was my pleasure, Ruki," the fox inclined its head and then disappeared in a swirl of leafy wind.

"Where's that Ken kid?" Ruki persisted as she dusted off her jeans.

"He stayed behind," Keiko said as she looked down at the small snowball in her hands, sadly.

"Why?" Ruki didn't like the look on the girl's face. "What happened?"

"We were attacked…Ken's holding them back so we could escape…" said the smallest boy.

"We can't leave yet, he could be right behind us…" The little girl with the short hair said.

"Noriko's right, we can't just strand him," The older boy nodded. "Please?"

"Of course," Ruki nodded as she looked back at the screen of the laptop and looked at the small box labeled digi-port.

888

Ken continued to stumble forward, tripping on roots, rocks and divots in the earth. All the while the sound of the heavy, diesel-like engine rumbled behind him. The tank had decided to stop firing on him, evidently pursuing him was enough, or the trees were providing enough in the way of interference to keep it from getting a proper lock.

"Ken…" Minomon whimpered, as he looked up at the boy's blue eyes. "I could try to…digivolve again…"

"And get hurt again?" Ken replied, sharply, making Minomon wince. "Don't worry, it's not far now…"

Ken continued to run. It was times like these that he was exceptionally glad that he was a soccer player and that his legs were used to running. The forest was so eerily silent that it was unpleasant. The only sound was the intermittent hiss of tree leaves in the breeze, the clack of dead branches on each other and the monotonous rumble of the tank's engine.

Ken ran around a large tree. Suddenly the bark of the tree exploded with a blue flash. Ken slid to a stop. The hiss of joint actuators met his ears as a SEALSdramon moved out from behind a tree. Its spear was pointed at him.

"EXTERMINATE!" the spearhead burned with blue energy.

Ken dove for the ground as the blast smashed into the tree behind him. Ken scrambled as the SEALSdramon pointed the spear downward. Ken got to his feet and sprinted as another blast exploded at his heels. Ken's feet slipped and slid as he tried to get momentum on the leafy undergrowth. Fortunately his clumsy attempts to get a sprint proved sufficiently evasive to avoid being blasted by the SEALSdramon's attacks. Ken dove for the cover of a bush.

Ken took a deep breath. His heart thumped in his ears. He could hear the SEALSdramon closing. Ken stood on his haunches and scurried like a mouse in the bushes trying to slip away but the SEALSdramon seemed to be following him. Ken grimaced; the red eye that the creature possessed had looked mechanical. Ken surmised then that it must be used to get multiple sensor readings, and probably could trace body heat.

"DO NOT MOVE!" announced the tank's voice from behind Ken. Ken froze. "WE – CAN – SEE – YOU – DI-GI-DES-TINED! AT-TEMPTS – TO – ES-CAPE – WILL – BE – MET – WITH EXTERMINATION!"

"Oh, yeah and if I stay here you won't execute me," Ken grumbled from his concealed spot in the bushes.

"If – you – run; we – may – miss!" announced the tank. Ken heard its engines rev up and could hear its wheels move forward. "If – we – miss; you – may – not – die – efficiently."

Ken frowned and then turned. The digi-port couldn't be more than twenty meters away. He could sprint for it.

"I think I'd prefer not dying at all," Ken shouted as he bounded forward into a sprint.

"EXTERMINATE!" screeched the SEALSdramon as blue pulses of electrical energy exploded into the trees ahead of him.

A streak of twisting blue and green energy burned into the ground to the left of Ken. The engines of the tank revved as it rumbled forward.

"Ken…" Minomon looked up weakly.

"Shh, nearly…" Ken looked up, he could see it. A computer screen was ahead. It was so close, but then he saw them in the trees. SEALSdramon were in the trees, their spears pointed at the computer screen. Ken stopped. "…there…"

Ken narrowed his eyes. The engines were rumbling behind him. He looked down at Minomon. The little grub looked like he was in exceptional pain. Ken didn't have a choice.

Ken reached down and grabbed his D-3 and leapt forward into the clearing. The air erupted with energy as explosions ripped into the ground. One explosion blew up in front of him throwing off his momentum and sent him collapsing onto the earth. Ken heard the SEALSdramon crash down from the trees. There were three of them. The tank rolled up behind them and pointed its energy cannons at Ken. Another SEALSdramon marched up behind Tankdramon.

"You – will – be – ex-terrrrminated!" announced the tank with its grating voice.

Ken backed up, scooting across the ground. His back rubbed up against the smooth glass computer monitor screen. The SEALSdramon the lone Tankdramon closed in around him. The SEALSdramons' spears buzzed with sparking electrical energy. The tank's energy cannons hummed as they charged.

"EXTERMINATE!" screeched one of the SEALSdramon.

"EXTERMINATE!" roared yet another.

"EXTERMINATE!" cheered a third.

"EXTERMINATE!" yelled a fourth with even more fervor than the first three.

"EXTERMINATE!" the tank's voice was filled with greedy anticipation

"Well…" Ken gulped as he looked up at the digimon advancing on him, "I guess…this is goodbye…" Ken made a slight upward motion with his hand, "DIGIPORT OPEN!"

"YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!" screeched the tank as the computer monitor's light engulfed Ken, yanking him out of the Digital World just as the tank and the SEALSdramon opened fire.

888

Paildramon, MegaKabuterimon, Shakkoumon and Lillymon rounded the huge pine tree. As they did so, they saw twin pairs of lights glow into existence. Daisuke winced as he looked down. Two angels were hanging in the air, a female angel with a pink ribbon and a wide-shouldered, male angel with a tall, lavender helm. A giant, half eagle, half humanoid was hovering in the air next to a smaller, cybernetic man with avian lower limbs.

MegaKabuterimon jetted next to the giant bird-man. "Garudamon, what's going on?"

"Look," said the eagle as he pointed down to the snowy earth with a taloned finger.

"This is not good," Koushiro stated as Paildramon glided next to the head of the giant, red scarab.

"What?" Daisuke asked as he looked down.

A huge, metal creature was standing on a ridge, facing the tree. It had a toaster-shaped head made of a dark black metal. The rest of its body was silvery with multiple, thick cords running coolants and lubricants to its mechanical joints. Its two front limbs were different. The left limb sported a hand with three thick, clamp-like claws with a barrel to some sort of weapon in its palm. The right limb had a simple four, metal clawed hand. Its chest was a single box of thick steel. Its neck was sectioned and extendable. Its back was dominated by a pair of giant, turbine-like cannons with hoses running up to the cannons.

"Machinedramon," Koushiro whispered, as he looked down at the scene with a frown.

"He's not alone either," Silphymon stated as he pointed a white, clawed finger down to the other creature standing shoulder to shoulder with Machinedramon.

"I've never seen him before," The female angel stated as she looked down.

The creature was the same height as Machinedramon, but it was covered in red armor. It also stood upright on its hind legs, unlike Machinedramon, who was supporting its weight on its front legs. Machinedramon's companion had a rounder, more oval head with a large horn projecting from its snout. The arms were different like with Machinedramon. The left arm had specialized, blunted, but insanely long, claws, whereas the right arm was more generally clawed. The red digimon seemed much more organic with portions of crimson flesh exposed to the air from under metal armor. The back of the red dragon supported a power pack as well as two, long barreled cannons that looked as if they could swivel into firing position. Currently the cannons were folded back and the barrels pointed to the ground behind the dragon.

"We're in trouble," Takeru said. Both he and Hikari were hitching a ride with Sora and Miyako on Garudamon. "Machinedramon's a Mega digimon…and I bet that his buddy is one, too…"

"It may be wise to retreat," Iori said quietly.

"No," Daisuke shouted. "No retreating this time! We can handle a couple of buckets of bolts! We could handle Black WarGreymon and there were only three of us, we can sure as heck handle two rust buckets!"

The other children looked at him in disbelief.

"Are you nuts?" Miyako shouted from Garudamon. Silphymon flicked a glance at Miyako. The girl didn't notice.

"Fine, we run away, they blow the Destiny Tree to heck…" Daisuke said crossing his arms and pouting. "Let's let them destroy both worlds!"

"I'm not saying that!" Miyako shouted clenching her fists. "It's just that…it's pointless to fight a futile fight!"

"Oh well, a futile fight…" Daisuke said with an heir of smugness. "Let me call MaloMyotismon and Daemon and tell them nowadays we don't do futile fights!"

"Daisuke, that was different!" Miyako growled.

"Was it, Miyako?" Daisuke glared back at the girl.

"Well, first off we had Imperialdramon," Iori said in his minute fashion.

"I think we can do this," Daisuke said frantically, "and if we put our heads to it…we can do anything…"

"Really…" Takeru started. The other children looked to the blonde haired boy as he tapped his chin. "We'd only have to hold them off from attacking the tree…Hikari, send a message to Yamato…tell him we need him. Send one to Tai, too, just in case."

"I can't believe we're even thinking about doing this," Miyako said in frustration. "What part of facing off against two, big, Mega digimon don't you comprehend!?"

"The same part that says, 'if we don't then we may as well kiss our butts goodbye'," Daisuke said sharply.

"It won't be safe," Lillymon said as she buzzed around MegaKabuterimon. "You kids should hang back; we don't know how bad things will get."

Paildramon, Shakkoumon, MegaKabuterimon and Garudamon glided to the ground and landed, dropping the children off. The four digimon then rose into the air. Garudamon, MegaKabuterimon and Paildramon rendezvoused with MagnaAngemon, Angewomon and Lillymon. Shakkoumon glided around the tree, taking up a defensive position between Machinedramon and his crony and the conifer.

"Let's just hope that Matt or Tai get here in time," Takeru said as he watched the Ultimate digimon moved forward.

888

The data condensation core was in place in GigaSeadramon's mouth. The data ark was retrieved and loaded. The remains of the SEALSdramon were marching into the massive maw of the blocky sea dragon. Tankdramon 002 and Tankdramon 003 rolled forward.

"Mis-sion – com-plete!" announced Tankdramon 002 as it rolled forward.

"Life-forms – on – island – e-liminated!" announced Tankdramon 001. "Dra-mon – are – vic-torious!"

"De-mon – tech-nology – will – make – our – dom-i-nance – com-plete!" announced Tankdramon 002. "We – will – be – un-stop-pable! We – will – be – un-break-able! WE WILL BE LORDS OF THE DIGITAL WORLD! WE WILL BE THE SUUUU-PREME BEEE-INGS OF THIS WORLD! NOTH-ING WILL STAND IN OUR WAY!"

"ALL IN-FERIOR LIFE FORMS WILL BE EX-TERRRRMINATED!" screeched Tankdramon 001. "ALL NON-DRAMON LIFE WILL BE EX-PENDED! ON-LY DRAMON LIFE DE-SERVES EX-ISSSTENSSSCE! THE IN-FEST-AAAA-TIONS WILL BE CLEARED FOR DRA-MON LIFE! THOSE WHO STAND IN OUR WAY WILL BE EX-TERMINATED!"

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" the SEALSdramon chorused in response.

"DRA-MON CONQUER AND DE-STROY!" shouted the two Tankdramon as they rolled into GigaSeadramon's mouth. "DRA-MON CONQUER AND DE-STROY!"

"CONQUER AND DESTROY!" The SEALSdramon howled as GigaSeadramon drew upwards from the beach and started to close its mouth. The chorus of the SEALSdramon could still be heard as the sea dragon closed its mouth. "CONQUER AND DESTROY! CONQUER AND DESTROY! CONQUER AND DESTROY!"

GigaSeadramon sealed his mouth closed. The blue beast then slipped back underneath the waves, leaving no clues that the massive sea creature was ever there.

888

Ken looked up at the five faces looking down at him. Minomon was lying on his chest.

"You're alive!" Keiko shouted as she pounced, hugging him tightly.

"Hmmf! HMMMF!" yelped Minomon as Keiko squeezed Ken.

"Ok, Keiko, ok!" Ken said as he wriggled out of the girl's embrace. "You're smothering Minomon."

The girl blushed and then stood back up and extended her hand down to Ken. Ken smiled and took the hand and then with help got to his feet.

"I'm glad to see you're all ok," Ken said as he dusted his T-shirt off.

"We were worried," Hiroshi said as he looked at Ken, "you took a long time getting back…"

"I had a troop of those…things chasing me," Ken said quietly. "It took a little longer than expected. Either way, we're all relatively safe now that we're back. All in all, everything was a success…considering the fact that we weren't expecting to drop into the middle of a no-man's-land."

"But File Island," Noriko said as she pointed to the computer.

Ken looked down at the ground. "It was over before we got there. Even if we'd pushed the SEALSdramon and their boss back; they'd have just come back when we wouldn't have been able to stop them."

"So, what now?" The redheaded cousin of Keiko asked her blue eyes burrowing into him. "You're just going to throw up your arms and walk away? It sounds like you never even considered the chance of winning or the chance of making them come to justice."

"You don't understand, Ruki," Keiko sputtered as she straightened her posture. Keiko walked up to her cousin. "We were outnumbered, we were…out muscled…and there was no one left when we got there!"

"I thought you said these digi-destined kids were strong and brave and all that stuff. You said that if anyone could protect you and your friends it'd be him and his other friends," Ruki said with a tone of disbelief, "I just see some kid who had no intent on doing anything than running away in the first place…"

"I would've liked to see you do better, Ruki!" Keiko fired back at the redhead, angrily. "You didn't even go!"

"Keiko, don't worry about it," Ken looked up. He held Minomon with his left arm. "You should get home and give YukimiBotamon some food…the faster you feed her; the faster she'll evolve into Nyaromon."

Ken heard the girl sniffled as he turned away and started to walk back home.

"Ken, don't go! I'm sorry!" He heard Keiko, but Ken didn't really care.

He just wanted to go home. Keiko, Ruki, none of them understood how frustrating this was. The Great Dragons were blowing them out of the water at every front. Villages were burning, islands sinking, entire regions were being upturned and they, the digi-destined, saviors of the Digital World, were powerless, ineffective, and usually no where to be seen. Daisuke never let anyone know, but Ken could see it in his moods, and hear it in the brown haired boy's voice. Daisuke was feeling it even more than the others. He wasn't used to feeling this ultimately impotent. Even when he failed he would always find the bright spot.

Ken walked through the metal gates of the park and looked up at a gray cloud passing over the midmorning sun. There wasn't a bright spot. Ken knew that Daisuke knew it, but was either too proud or too duty bound to say anything. It would only be a matter of weeks, maybe days and the dragons would lay claim to every sector of the Digital World. They controlled the data looms of all four Primary Villages. They had the Dark Digi-core, and they were already manufacturing Mega digimon.

Ken saw a can on the ground and he swung his foot forward, launching the can high into the air. It disappeared down the street, clattering as it returned to the earth.

No one could know what it was like to be the last thread between the destroyers and the destroyed. No one could know what it was like to be impotent against those that sought out destruction. No one could know what it was like to see innocence being slaughtered for no reason at all.

888

Machinedramon and his companion, Chaosdramon stood stoically, as they were assaulted by the full firepower of the destined digimon. Electrical surges, bursts of natural energy, beams of justice, heavenly arrows, phantoms of heat, spitfire bursts of energy, static discharges even an attempt to remove their souls, it was all impotent against their august power.

Eight Ultimate digimon loomed in between them and the tree. The lower ranking dragons had been called away, their survey mission was over and the two, draconic Megas didn't need to worry about a handful of insignificant Ultimates. The red scarab was charging forward, its horn was lowered as it was going to gore Machinedramon.

Machinedramon rose up on its haunches and lifted its left arm with its heavier claws. The claws spun into a drill. The beetle continued forward, roaring loudly. The scarab's horn sparked with electrical energy.

"Horn Buster!" a jolt of orange lightning struck the metal casing of Machinedramon's chest.

The grounded and insulated innards of the casing weren't affected by the burst and Machinedramon barely felt the attack's momentum against him. The massive scarab was still hurdling towards him. It, however, would have the mass to force him backward, and the insect probably had extensive physical strength, at least enough to hold him, temporarily, in a fisticuffs style scuffle. It wouldn't come to that though. Machinedramon smashed his spinning claws into the side of the beetle's horn. The scarab pitched heavily towards the right, Machinedramon then thrust his other clawed appendage upwards throwing the off balanced beetle up into the air. The steel dragon then pointed his left arm upward and opened his clawed hand, revealing the gun port cushioned in the left hand's palm.

"Dragon Fire!" A comet of flame erupted into the beetle's upward tumbling body.

The bug wasn't destroyed, but it was in pain. It quickly rolled out of the flames and jetted away from Machinedramon. The metal dragon watched as the charred scarab retreated back to its accomplices.

Chaosdramon stepped forward and lifted its heavy, long clawed, left arm. The claws reluctantly came open with a spark. The claws were in a simple, triangular formation. Chaosdramon heaved the claw up and pointed it at the pair of angels gliding in the sky. A stream of lavender energy bounced from one claw to the next until a triangle of energy hovered between the claws, using them as vertices. Each point of the triangle released a stream into the three-sided energy stream's epicenter. A ball of energy formed in the triangle's center and then with a forward thrust.

"Chaos CRUSHER!" A stream of high density plasma roared upwards toward the two, winged, humanoid digimon.

The larger of the two, a male, rushed in front of the slighter, female angel. He swept an arm in a huge circle and a large golden portcullis formed in the air. The portal opened revealing a shimmering, silvery dimension beyond. The plasma stream was pulled toward the portal. The dark purple energy sizzled into the silvery dimension.

Machinedramon dropped down to all fours and arched his back, pointing his vertebral cannons forward. He pumped water through the electrolysis machine at the rear of the cannons and then filtered the hydrogen from the oxygen ions. The hydrogen was put into a small container in the cannon, where it was it was exposed to high temperature. The heated ionized hydrogen quickly sizzled, as a volatile plasma within his cannons. He turned slightly to point the cannons at the angels. The silvery void in the male angel's portal was turning a muddy purple as Chaosdramon's attack spilled into its dimension.

"Giga Cannon!" Two blasts of churning, high temperature plasma sizzled through the air.

The male angel attempted to move his gate to intercept the twin volleys, but Chaosdramon's attack seemed to have increased the gate's weight. The angel seemed to be unable to shift the gate even minutely without the greatest of strain. The female angel pointed her arm forward a feather, wing-shaped bow flapped from her wrists. A bolt of white light exploded from the feminine angel's wrist slicing through the sky as an energy arrow.

The arrow exploded into one of the Giga Cannon's emissions, but it only budged the trajectory minutely. There was a flash as the two bursts exploded into the angel. The ground shook with the thunder. The two angels tumbled through the air. A green-armored dragon and a giant bird-man dove down, catching the angels. That's when the male angel's gate failed. The energy that it had captured ruptured the gate's walls and rushed out of the portcullis like water out of a dam. The bird, the dragon and the two angels were caught in the deluge of lavender energy that drilled them towards the ground.

All that was left were the two small digimon, the cyborg and the fairy, the beetle, which was still smoking from its last offensive, and a clay digimon that stood emotionlessly directly in front of the tree. The fairy and the cyborg were zipping back and forth across the airspace.

They then drove forward together. Machinedramon turned his toaster-shaped can of a head to Chaosdramon. The red beast didn't flinch or show any concern. Machinedramon turned back to the two oncoming attackers.

The fairy had pink flowers on its head and hips, and a pink blossom cannon pointed at him. The cyborg had a white fuzzy torso with a humanoid face augmented with cat-like ears and the red feathered legs of a hawk. The cyborg drew a static field into its palms.

"Flower Cannon!" The fairy suddenly pulled back pointing the cannon forward. She used to the cannon's kickback to propel her retreat.

"Static Force!" The cyborg pushed its palms forward releasing the crimson burst of static energy.

The static attack converged with the green, nature attack. The converged attacks ballooned into a large, dark-orange ball of light that smashed into Machinedramon. The metal dragon roared as he felt his chest compress. His front legs left the ground as he was pushed backward by the combined force of the attacks. Chaosdramon turned his head to Machinedramon as the steel beast staggered backward.

The two, long barreled cannons on Chaosdramon's back rolled forward from their retracted positions, pointing to the ground behind the crimson dragon. The transparent casing around portions of the cannons glowed as the barrels charged. The cannons hummed a bulge of energy domed out of the barrels' mouths.

"Hyper Mugen Cannon!" Chaosdramon released the collected energy in two, red, cannonballs of high energy radiation.

The fairy and the cyborg swung out of the way of the cannonballs. The red spheres of death roasted the air as they continued forward. The only thing between the cannonballs and the tree was the clay digimon. The titan glided forward on its footless legs. The two crimson projectiles exploded into radiation shrapnel as streams of red light sliced threw the air in all directions. The sky even was tinged with red as the energy fled the scene of the explosion. The crimson glared cleared and the clay digimon was imbedded into the bark of the tree. Its eyes were pulsing red.

The clay creature raised the clay shudders on its eyes, "Justice Beam!"

Two crimson spotlights smashed into Chaosdramon. The red chrome digi-zoid armor hissed as the energy burned across its surface. The lights traveled down from the chest armor toward the exposed red flesh.

Machinedramon dropped onto his front legs and quickly injected his cannons with fuel.

"Giga Cannon!" a pair of yellow plasma bolts exploded forward. The pair of beams sliced into the sky as the bolts struck home. The clay creature was still living but it was now lying on the ground, glaring its energy beams into the sky, harmlessly.

"Horn Buster!" electrical bolts fired down on Machinedramon from above. Machinedramon instantly looked up to see that the scarab he'd toasted earlier was still insolent enough to re-engage.

"I will deal with this one," Chaosdramon said with a snort. He turned his head to Machinedramon, "You start cutting the tree down…"

Machinedramon nodded and glared at the tree. It was the reason they were here, to destroy it. They, however, had gotten sidetracked with the enjoyment in toying with the puny resistance put up by the digi-destined. The time for idle games was over.

Machinedramon dug into the ground. He primed his cannons. Two pulsed rifled forward from his back, quickly followed by two more and then another pair of bursts. The tree shuddered when the first two attacks exploded into its trunk. The loud creaking ran up and down the mountainous conifer and pine needles the size of telephone poles fell to the ground, lifting dust into the air. The dust was quickly swept away by the second explosion. The tree leaned heavily back. The third attack sent house-sized hunks of bark flying in all direction. The wood crackled as fibers snapped.

The smoke cleared revealing a giant bite taken out of the tree's trunk. Frayed shards of tree poked forward against the lean of the tree, as if straining to hold the tree together.

Machinedramon lifted his left hand and closed his heavy metallic claws. They spun into a fury. He had to get the roots.

Out of the side of his eye he saw the scarab that Chaosdramon had promised to be rid of jet away with a streak of lavender energy chasing after it. Machinedramon turned to look at the crimson dragon. Chaosdramon lifted his augmented claws up and together Machinedramon and Chaosdramon drove their claws into the earth.

"DRAGON FIRE!"

"CHAOS CRUSHER!"

The ground vomited forward as a gash split the earth releasing flaming spires of lavender energy as it wormed towards the tree. The clay beast that was lying on the ground raised itself upright in a single motion. It fired a pair of thin lasers at the gash, ineffectively, and then was tossed aside by the spires being emitted from the fault line. The tree shook as the gash tried to split the tree horizontally.

"One more blast should finish the tree," Chaosdramon stated as he pointed his vertebral cannons at the tree.

Machinedramon followed Chaosdramon's motion.

"Hyper Mugen Cannon!"

"Giga Cannon!"

The volleys fired forward, arching through the sky towards the tree trunk.

"Metal Wolf Claw!" Missiles exploded into Chaosdramon covering the red armored dragon with bluish ice.

Machinedramon whipped his head up in the direction that the missiles came from. A mechanical, blue wolf in gold chest armor rocketed towards them. Machinedramon targeted his cannons at the mechanical lupine creature.

"Dramon Destroyer!" Machinedramon twisted around hearing a voice from behind.

He saw a raised, golden gauntlet and orange tinted claws charging towards him. Machinedramon lurched backward as the claws sliced past his face, missing by the smallest of margins. A golden dragon warrior twisted around and glared at him. His orange flesh bulged from the yellow armor and gray breastplate. Its horned head was inclined, looking down at him. The wolf hovered next to the dragon warrior.

Behind the two newcomers, the dramons' attacks exploded into the tree. The tree screeched as its wood was plied apart by the force. Chaosdramon exploded from his frozen cage and tossed his head forward, pointing his cannons at the two digimon hovering in front of him.

"Hyper Mugen Cannon!" Chaosdramon roared in fury as his cannons released energy bursts, one after another.

The wolf and the dragon man scattered, the wolf going right and the dragon warrior going left. The wolf rocketed forward. Gun ports opened on all of its forward sections and releasing thousands of missiles into Chaosdramon.

"Terra Force!" The dragon man arched his back as he heaved a monstrous ball of energy over his head. The ball flew forward and Machinedramon groaned as it bowled into his chest.

"Metal Wolf Snout!" A wave of arctic ice washed over Chaosdramon.

The red dragon was frozen in place. The wolf drove forward slamming its clawed feet through the frozen Dramon. Chaosdramon shattered into a thousand ice shards that clattered onto the rocky ground. Machinedramon looked forward. Chaosdramon's rage filled, red, cannonballs exploded into the tree, each one smashing through the wooden monolith of the tree trunk, cracking its infrastructure.

The dragon man and the wolf dove towards Machinedramon. He dropped to all fours and primed his cannons one last time.

"Giga Cannon!" roared Machinedramon as his cannons fired twice before the wolf's icy breath smothered him.

The dragon man's claws sliced through him and Machinedramon felt himself dying but not before his attacks hit home. The tree creaked loudly and then howled as it toppled backward. Machinedramon sighed in relief as he exploded into dust.

888

Daisuke held Veemon as he sat on MegaKabuterimon's back. The other children held their digimon too. Hikari gently caressed Salamon's burnt frame. Takeru rubbed Patamon's stomach. Iori held onto Armadillomon who sported scorch marks on his shell. Biyomon had singed feathers and Sora had put band-aids on some of the pink bird's scrapes. Mimi and Miyako both sat, gently holding both Palmon and Hawkmon, who remained mostly uninjured.

Metal Garurumon and WarGreymon were flying behind MegaKabuterimon. Yamato was sitting next to Sora, wrapped in about twelve feet of muffler and sporting a huge, blue puffy jacket. Tai was sitting between Takeru and Hikari, wearing his normal blue jacket that hung well below his waist down to his knees.

In the distance, a black vortex was swallowing the remains of the destroyed Destiny Tree. Yamato and Taichi had appeared at the same time. Taichi and his parents had just gotten home and Yamato had been trying to get up, but his medicine had made him sluggish so it had delayed him. The vortex finally slowly faded behind them as the remnants of the Digital World's defenses repaired the inter-dimensional rift created by the tree's destruction.

Daisuke clenched his fist and shook angrily. Another defeat, another loss, another failure, that's how it had ended. The dragons won again. Even though it was a pricy victory the dragons would accept it. What are a few casualties when the dragons can just replace the lost; it made no difference to them. Daisuke glared down at the burnt face of Veemon. He didn't know how to fight them, and he didn't like the feeling of hopeless that was building in his chest. He looked at the others. They for the most part looked like they had come out of pictures of refugees from an air raid, like the pictures he'd seen on the news, all huddled, sad and defeated. Daisuke wondered if he looked like that.

Daisuke wondered about a lot of things, as he watched the storm created by the rift rage even though the rift was gone, and most of his wonderings weren't good.

888

Computer screens glared in the darkened room. The rapid clicking and clacketing of mice and keyboards was overplayed on the near silent hum of the electronics.

"Report?" said a man as he walked out of the darkness of the room into the light of the computer screens. He was blonde with a pair of black sunglasses covering his eyes.

"Network disturbance at level 9.86…" shouted a man in a white shirt sitting in front of a man with an amplitude monitor on the screen of his computer. "Verging on 9.87…reaching levels that had been recorded a year earlier before the Great Blackout…"

"And the Christmas Incident…" said the man with the sunglasses. "Hard copy the scans now!"

"There has been a shift in internet connectivity, but it's stabilizing," replied a young woman with curly brown hair.

"The Barrier is reestablishing its cohesion but I can get an inward scan across the remaining tear," shouted a black haired woman.

"Do it, let's see what the heck is going on in there," said the man with the sunglasses. A giant multi-paneled flickered to life. Streaks of lavender lightning sliced across the panels' surfaces. Black wind swirled around a peaceful epicenter. "There, section 4 mark 4…" The man pointed at the middle of the screen. The picture zoomed in and a filter washed over the blurred image.

"It's a tree, sir," replied the black haired woman.

"A big tree…right in the middle of a giant rift," The man frowned. "Harrison, print off the image. I'm calling Pentagon."

"Yes, sir, Mr. Johnson, sir!" said the brown haired woman as she went to work.

The man walked out of the room into a diluted, white lit hallway and walked down the hall. He passed three doorways and stopped and looked at the plate on the door.

'Gary Johnson: Director of H.Y.P.N.O.S'

Gary smiled as he gripped the door and opened it. After the Christmas Incident and subsequent incursions from across the 'breach', the United States decided to create the High Yield Pan-Network Observation System to monitor and maintain the security of the United States and her allies. The human race had also learned their lesson from last time. All scans, readings and knowledge about the world beyond the 'breach' was filed on hard copies and placed outside the domain of digital access.

Mr. Johnson lifted the phone off the receiver. He pressed the red extension number. The tones played as the phone dialed itself. The telephone purred a ring into Johnson's ear.

"Hello, this is Director Johnson of H.Y.P.N.O.S," Johnson said congenially into the phone. A secretary was on the other end. Johnson frowned as he listened to her prattle on to him about an important UN phone call. He groaned and finally spoke up, "Fine, Fine, tell General McIntyre that Project Devolution should be implemented, that H.Y.P.N.O.S has reason to believe that a situation is presenting itself…" Johnson stopped talking as a click came into his ear.

"Johnson that you?" a gruff voice snorted into the receiver.

"General McIntyre!" Johnson yelped in surprise.

"I was just on the phone with that Udabi man at the Digital Access and Transmission Sentinel," McIntyre's voice sounded bored and slightly grumpy. "He says that DATS has some kind of rift thing…going on."

"I was just telling your secretary…she said you were in an important conference call," Johnson replied hurriedly.

"Nah, just with that buffoon at the UN's DATS program…" grunted the general.

"Well, then that confirms our findings," Johnson said scratching his chin, "We detected a similar rift event here. I was just telling your secretary that Project Devolution should start being implemented. With the size and endurance of the rift we just detected, and it's similarities with the rifts detected last year, it is my belief that an incursion from beyond the breach is soon to happen."

"I will make the appropriate overtures to the Secretary of Defense and the President…" McIntyre said with an annoyed sigh, "but it won't be easy to convince them to go into a massive refit phase in the middle of a war overseas…"

"If we aren't ready for the incursion, it won't matter what's going on overseas…" Johnson said sternly, "we'll have a war here, in our backyards!"