Disclaimer: I do not own digimon, nor am I trying to make any money with this story.
Chapter 11: Other Voices
Ryo's log: August 2000, Digiworld, somewhere on the Server Continent.
After I managed to steal the third piece of the Golden Digimental and then succeeded in getting out of the city unharmed, I regrouped with the others the next day a few miles west of Tama City.
Luckily there didn't appear to be any pursuit, but one can never be too careful when in Digiworld. Travelling west towards Machine City I tried to maintain a low profile as much as possible, ignoring settlements and digimon alike. Surprisingly Ken didn't really object to this, nor did he press on about finding people to help. I asked both V-mon and Wormmon if they had told Ken what I really did back in Tama City. They said they didn't, but suspected that the young Chosen had figured it out for himself. I'm inclined to agree with them, Ken is very smart for his age and it's hard to put anything passed him. I've caught him making worried glances at me; further acknowledging my beliefs that he knows I stole the third piece. He seems to understand though, which is one worry of my back. Still I would have preferred for him not to know, I don't want to set the wrong example for him to follow. Maybe I should talk to him about it.
Anyway, we are coming closer to Machine City after about six days of travel. I estimate we may reach our destination somewhere during the evening. Soon we will be able to fight Mugen Dramon, but without the Golden Digimental to back us up since we seem to be missing a piece. Does this mean all my efforts in getting the other pieces was in vain or will they still be of use to me? Unfortunately I don't know the answers to those questions.
End log.
Rumours and tall tales had always surrounded the peak. No one knew how the stories started or why they were told, but the lonely pillar of rock in the middle of a dense forest simply had an air of mystery surrounding it. It was tall, at least several hundred meters in height, and about a hundred meters in diameter. The tales told of the Lonely Spire and what it contained were as diverse as the species of digimon themselves, but they all had something in common. It was dangerous.
"Have you heard about the treasure?" A voice said from the forest.
"Not really, but it must be worth a fortune if no one is allowed to come here, let's go get it," A second voice said.
"I'm not so sure, it might be dangerous," A third voice said, more meek then the others.
Coming out of the forest in the slight clearing around the Spire were three digimon. A blue penguin-like digimon, called Penmon. Candmon, who looked like a candelabra and Floramon, the plant digimon.
"Come on girl, where is your sense of adventure?" Penmon coaxed, feeling all macho for getting his two friends to come with him to find out the mystery of the mountain.
"We are simply going to have a look," Candmon said, looking at the rock in front of him, "besides, all those rumours of danger are just to scare children to bed. You're not a scared child are you?"
"N-no, of course not," Floramon said, not wanting to seem like a coward in front of her friends, " L-let's go then."
Afraid she might back out if she waited any longer Floramon took point and moved over to the peak, looking up as she did so. Somewhere, about a hundred meters or two higher she reckoned, a black spot could be seen. It might be a cave, she thought.
"Look! We have to go up there," Floramon said and immediately started climbing before she lost her nerve.
"Hey, wait up babe, "Penmon called out, then started to climb after Floramon, Candmon close behind, though the fire digimon had some trouble climbing considering he only had a candelabra-base for legs.
"Guys, wait for me!" Candmon complained.
The three young friends climbed for quite a while, resting on rocky ledges when they felt too tired, which was mostly Candmon. His species of digimon wasn't really intended to scale mountains.
At long last though, they made it up to the black spot Floramon had noticed when they were still at the base. It was a cave, just like she had thought, and quite a big one too. Slowly the three walked about a meter inside, gawking at the size of the place. They couldn't see much for the cave was completely dark. Luckily for them they had Candmon with them, the small flame on top of his candle head gave of enough light for them to see by, even if it only had a small radius.
"This is great, who knows what kind of hidden treasures could be inside this thing," Penmon said in awe.
"Let's go inside!" Candmon said enthusiastically taking a few steps further into the cave, Penmon following close behind. So caught up in their own little adventure were they that they didn't even notice that Floramon hadn't followed them inside.
"G-guys? I have a bad feeling about this, maybe we should just go." Floramon called out to the slight glow in the darkness, Candmon and Penmon had already descended quite far into the cave.
"Aw, come on Flora, there's nothing else here," Penmon called back.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Another voice said from further into the darkness.
"W-what?" Candmon whispered, scared out of his mind by the disembodied voice. It wasn't just the fact that there was something with them in the cave, but more like the tone of its voice that was the most frightening. It was cold, like coming out of a deep void, and condescending and arrogant towards them, it was the voice of evil itself.
"You should have listened to her," The voice continued.
Candmon started to turn around and try to get out of the cave when a red claw shot out of the darkness and grabbed him. Before the young child could react he was pulled back further into the cave, towards whatever was hiding there. Penmon screamed, he couldn't believe what was happening. Not waiting another second, the penguin ran back towards the cave entrance, now in total darkness without Candmon's flame to light the way. He never saw the claw that crushed him from behind.
Floramon meanwhile had also heard the voice and Penmon's scream when all went silent again.
"No, I have to get away," she muttered to herself, knowing that her two friends were gone and she was likely to follow next. Her eyes started to tear up and she regretted it deeply that she had let the boys convince her it would make a great adventure to discover the secret of the Lonely Spire. She turned around, planning to jump of the mountain and then use her vines to stop her fall when she was away from the cave. She knew she had to try it this way since climbing back down would take to long. Floramon sincerely hoped she was strong enough to pull it of and that it wouldn't hurt a lot. Nearing the edge of the short flat expanse of rock in front of the gaping maw of darkness, her back was now turned to it. The poor Floramon didn't see the darkness of the cave giving way to a green eerie light. She jumped of the edge, hanging suspended in the air for a moment waiting for gravity to do its work and pull her down.
"Heat Viper!" She heard the voice say and felt a sudden heat behind her. That's when the green energy beam engulfed her, erasing her from existence.
"Well, that was certainly an interesting diversion, "the voice said, coming closer to the cave entrance now. The creature's head turned slightly to the west, seemingly able to see or sense what was going on there.
"Hmmm, it seems he's coming closer now. Time for me to reveal myself to him and complete our destiny."
Revealing himself into the sunlight, a gigantic beast of incredible power, he looked out onto the horizon. Spreading his wings, all four of them, the beast with the voice of evil took flight, leaving the cave behind him forever.
The area surrounding the ruined city of the late Dark Master, Mugen Dramon, was usually devoid of any action if not life. Most digimon didn't like to be around such a dark place as Machine City and stayed clear of it. Others, evil digimon or machine digimon, spend their time in the city itself, rarely venturing far out of the city.
Of course some digimon still lived in the desolated plains surrounding the ruins, but they were peaceful and had no need or desire for a more active life, only to continue existing in peace. Since a few days however things started to heat up in the area, child digimon of all kinds started to disappear, kidnapped by what some called the Hunter. From the few eyewitness reports the Hunter was a red flying digimon of the insect type, sleek, aerodynamic and fast. He was armoured, his leg and arms ending in claw-like appendages. His shoulder pads were grey and spiked, as was his armoured head. At his back he had a red tail, ending in a nasty spike. His name, though none of the digimon concerned knew it, was Flybeemon.
Running through the long grass under the trees of a small forest, was a young Elecmon. Only moments ago he had been relaxing in the sun, happy that he'd managed to sneak out of his tasks. Now he was on the run from an evil digimon who was after him for some reason. All that he could think of while he ran was that it was the Hunter, the kidnapper who had gotten to so many other child digimon like him in the area.
Glancing behind him he saw a red blur shooting through the plant life, racing after him. If he didn't know better Elecmon thought that the Hunter was playing with him, but that just couldn't be, right? If he played with his prey then there was a bigger chance of messing up and getting caught. Then he realized that there wasn't anyone around that could help him or catch the Hunter. He is playing with me, Elecmon realized in horror.
"Buzz, why are you running my little one?" Said Flybeemon, his voice low and slightly buzzing. The insect hung in the air behind Elecmon, looking on as the little child digimon tried to get away. It was all very amusing to him, every time he did this it became more and more fun. He loved playing the hunter, tracking down and then falling upon his prey.
"Buzz, you can run but you can't hide, my prey. Buzz, you can't," he chuckled as he saw the Elecmon started to run a bit faster. With a grin, hidden by his helmet, the Flybeemon shot upwards through the forest canopy. Out of Elecmon's sight, but not vice-versa, the dragonfly waited for the perfect moment to strike to cause maximum fear in his little prey. I love my job, he thought before making a dive towards the ground.
Elecmon had hidden himself beneath a bush with thorns and though the smart protrusions were hurting him a bit, he hoped they would also detain the Hunter from catching him. Biting through the discomfort as the thorns scratched his skin he waited for the digimon to leave, how ever long that might take. A sudden 'zoof' noise made him glance up and he nearly jumped at the sight above him. Hanging above the bush was Flybeemon, looking down on him in contempt and triumph.
"A pity, buzz, I hoped you would be more of a challenge. Buzz, oh well. Maybe next time," He said in his scratchy voice.
Bringing his stinger up he proceeded by making a few quick swipes with it at the bush, cutting it to pieces instantly. With Elecmon's cover now completely shredded the electric rodent digimon's fate was now in Flybeemon claws, but then again it had been since the hunt started.
"Poison Stinger," Flybeemon said, plunging his stinger in Elecmon for a few seconds. The venom from his tail quickly knocked Elecmon out cold.
"Buzz, now to take you to the Master and get out on the hunt again."
Miles away to east other digimon were on a sort of hunt of their own, only they had totally different objectives then the Flybeemon. Back in Tama City things had changed since Ryo's successful attempt at burglary on Devitamamon's mansion. For one, the status of alert in the town was never lifted, more guards patrol the streets then it had before Ryo made his visit to the city. This is mostly due to another side-effect of Ryo's burglary, namely Sorcerymon. Now that the white mage has regained his magical staff, he has pledged himself to overthrowing Devitamamon's tyranny and helping those who've suffered by the demonic egg's greed.
To do this he has formed a resistance group sworn to opposing Devitamamon where they can. So far his little rag tag bunch of renegades didn't have a lot of numbers, but the whole thing of leading a resistance wasn't what he had expected. At first he was just trying to help digimon in need and get out again, but when some of those he helped started to follow him the thought of having more numbers appealed to him. This way he could cover more ground and take on bigger problems.
So far he had five resistance members, himself not included, which consisted of three adults and two children. The younger digimon were all that would join him, sorry to say. The older ones, like most of the adults or perfects, had either lost hope or were heavily in league with Devitamamon. And aside from Devitamamon there were no other Ultimates.
The digimon that joined him were Icemon, a former guard and a fellow adult digimon. Hanumon, who looked like a large yellow ape, carrying a large bone around which he used as a club. He was an adult to and so is the next one, Sepikmon, a strange aboriginal-like digimon who wears an even stranger mask.
The two child digimon are Bearmon and Yuki Agumon, though they are young they're also quite strong and driven. Bearmon looked like a grey teddy bear wearing a blue baseball cap with the word 'bears' on it. Yuki Agumon resembles a very small tyrannosaurus rex, completely white except for his dark green eyes.
Currently the whole group was together in one of the many sewer passages that lay beneath the rank streets of the large city. Helping digimon in need, which meant being hassled by Devitamamon's money brokers, was one thing but it didn't get them very far. Since yesterday, with the addition of Sepikmon into their ranks, they had taken to attacking Devitamamon's stores and warehouses. Right now they were at an exit close to one of the Ultimate digimon's warehouses.
"Sepikmon, do you detect any guards around?" Sorcerymon asked.
"No, the exit is completely deserted," Sepikmon said after a few seconds, "we can leave the sewers without detection."
Sepikmon is the scout of the resistance, by using his boomerang to fly around in an area he can sense and see everything that happens around it, no matter where he himself is located.
"Then we go," Sorcerymon said, looking at his group, "is everyone ready?"
After several acknowledgements the white mage took point and went up the ladder first.
"What a dump," Tsukaimon muttered, his eyes darting from side to side as he fluttered through the crowded street.
"I certainly wouldn't want to live here," Thundermon added, who was flying about a meter above the streets like Tsukaimon.
"Shh, be quiet. We don't want to cause a riot," Turuiemon hissed. Angering the populace of a city of this size wouldn't be the best thing to do; they'd be hopelessly outnumbered if it should come to a fight. And besides, they weren't in the business of starting random fights anymore, only fights against so called 'evil-doers'. After helping out in the ravaged settlement called Chida Village, which was destroyed twice in a few days, the three had started to venture out again, following the direction Ryo had taken. Things seemed to happen around the human boy and that was where they wanted to be. Hearing rumours of Ryo's actions throughout their own trip it was certain they were going the right way. Now the question remained if he had gone through this city as well or if he had taken a completely different route.
"We need information about this place," Turuiemon said eyeing a particular building not to far away, "and I know just the place to get it."
Making their way to the building Turuiemon pointed out, the others could see that it was most likely a bar.
Turuiemon was the first to reach the building and entered, seeing that it was indeed a bar. The tavern had a plain wooden floor and though it was still early a lot of puddles of what looked like beer were spread around on parts of the floor. The floor itself was filled with a lot of round wooden tables, accompanied by simple wooden chairs. About half the tables were filled with a great diversity of digimon, though quite a few were occupied by the same kind of digimon, Icemon. Probably their favourite bar or something, Turuiemon mused as he strode over to the large bar area in front of him. Behind the large wooden bar itself, stood a very large digimon, easily twice Turuiemon's size. He looked like a large man, made completely out of blue flames, Blue Meramon. And behind him stood several very large cabinets, larger even then the barman himself, filled with bottles of a multitude of liquor. Turuiemon himself had never cared much for booze; it killed brain cells and made one slow, which with his life-style was a one way ticket to deletion.
Still, what he needed most now was some information and by the looks of some of the patrons getting it wouldn't be too hard. Let's see if they have anything other then alcohol, Turuiemon thought.
"What can I do you for?" the Blue Meramon asked when Turuiemon reached the bar. While the Perfect digimon could easily rest his arms on the bar without so much as reaching up or bending down, the same couldn't be said for Turuiemon. Given his size he could barely look over the large wooden bar, something which started to annoy him already.
"Something without alcohol," Turuiemon said.
"Ha! That's very funny," Blue Meramon replied.
That's what I thought, mused Turuiemon snidely, but out loud he said," Give me a beer then."
He needed information and to get it he would have to blend in with the crowd. Looking them over once more he made a mental note not to do too much blending. Taking his beer he sat down on one of the barstools close to the tables, Tsukaimon and Thundermon following suit.
"Now keep your ears out for anything interesting, though these guys are probably to drunk to know anything. We need info on Ryo's whereabouts."
"There it is," Yuki Agumon said, eyeing the warehouse from across the street, "let's go and destroy it!"
"No, we will only destroy what's inside, not the entire building, "Sorcerymon admonished, though he understood the young one's enthusiasm. Hopefully the other's remembered the plan and wouldn't just go attack the building itself. Sorcerymon wanted to cause Devitamamon trouble, but he wasn't willing to completely destroy pieces of the city itself, it could be dangerous to innocent digimon in the area.
After leaving the sewer he had split the group into three smaller subsets so they could try to approach the warehouse from different angles and draw less attention upon themselves.
He had taken Yuki Agumon with him, while Bearmon went with Hanumon, leaving Icemon and Sepikmon in the last group.
"Okay, on my signal we quickly go to the front door, but remember to be careful," Sorcerymon said.
"I know, I know. I'll look after myself," replied the white dinosaur.
"Make sure you do," Sorcerymon said, looking at his companion one more time before he started to run over to the warehouse, Yuki Agumon close behind. While he didn't like the fact that he put child digimon at risk with his resistance, he also knew he needed them.
They made it over to the door without any trouble; a quick Ice Stomp from Yuki Agumon destroyed the lock on the door so they could enter.
The depot was huge, filled with numerous crates and boxes, leaving only a few small walkways between the piled goods. The little white dinosaur stood amazed for a moment, gazing at all the stuff that was kept inside the building, till Sorcerymon gave him a tap on the head to snap him out of it. This was their biggest target yet, but that was no reason to lose focus, in fact it was all the more reason to remain focused. There was no time to waste, the place might have an alarm which then should have gone of when they entered, though Sepikmon assured them there was none. The plan was quite simple, the two of the groups would enter the warehouse from opposite sides and start destroying stuff while making there way through it. Then, when the two forces met up in the centre they would make a new exit and escape. The third group would stay back in reserve, guarding their escape route and if need be create a diversion for the others to make it out.
"Right, let's do it little one," Sorcerymon said, raising his staff to the boxes.
"Don't call me little," Yuki Agumon huffed, but prepared an attack nonetheless.
The three friends sat at the bar for a while, Turuiemon taking only a few sips of his beer only when digimon started to notice he didn't drink anything. Blue Meramon especially gave him a lot of suspicious glances, but he ignored them as much as possible. They wouldn't be here long, in fact he was beginning to suspect this wasn't the right place after all. It was then that he overheard something the Icemon were talking about, some event that happened less then a week ago and still had this city into turmoil. If Ryo travelled west then he would have passed this city about six days ago! Turuiemon thought excitedly, though he didn't outwardly show it. This might be the break he needed to find the Chosen boy.
"Damn that human," said one of the Icemon, who was obviously a bit drunk, "cause of him we have to work double shift."
"What do you care? You don't do a thing anyway." Another Icemon said. This conversation peeked Turuiemon's interest, there weren't to many humans in the digiworld at this time, so the human was most likely Ryo.
"What?! Sure I do stuff," the first one hastily defended himself.
"Yeah, you drink all day," a third one said, sending all but the first into a fit of laughter. Having found his first lead at finding Ryo in a long while, the purple bunny wasn't willing to lose it so quickly, but it wasn't likely the Icemon would continue on this subject. Turuiemon sighed, this meant he would have to go up to them and ask them what they knew about Ryo, for in his mind there was no doubt that the human they spoke about was Ryo. He was just about to go over to the small party, when the doors of the tavern opened and another Icemon entered the building, this one looking very stern and definitely sober.
"You guards!" He shouted to all the Icemon present, "There's been a disturbance in the warehouse district, all of you report to duty now!"
The way he looked at all the Icemon in the bar gave Turuiemon the distinct impression that he found it a disgrace that they were drinking while they should be on duty. Lethargically the Icemon slowly got up, but seeing the other Icemon's angered expression they sped up and left the building. When the other Icemon were gone, the messenger took a look around to see if they had truly all left and then followed the others.
Putting his beer down, which was mostly still full, he quickly spoke to his compatriots.
"Let's check out this disturbance, I have a hunch we might find out more about our human this way."
The three quickly got up and sped to the door, intent on following the Icemon before they got to far away.
"Hey! You haven't paid for that beer!" Blue Meramon shouted after them, but in seconds the Terrific Trio was gone.
"It's been ten minutes," Icemon said, pacing around the sewer entrance, while keeping an eye out for trouble. If there was one thing he didn't like it was waiting, he would rather be in there helping. But if anything went wrong he had the best chance of infiltrating the guards, since he was a fellow Icemon.
"Don't worry, they'll be fine," Sepikmon replied, standing at ease against a wall, his eyes closed. Though his eyes were closed, he could see better then Icemon at the moment. His boomerang was currently hovering over the warehouse, giving him a panoramic view of the building and the surrounding area. As long as he kept a sharp lookout for anything that could spell trouble, nothing would happen. The warehouse stood silent, surrounded by other buildings which didn't show much life either. The streets were empty aside from a casual pedestrian, though he did take a long look at the warehouse before walking on. Come to think of it, that guy did look a lot like that other one that went by ten minutes ago. Must be a coincidence, just like those shapes surrounding the district which looked a lot like Icemon in bad disguises. Everything seemed fine and since no one knew what they were planning there was no way the guards would…wait a minute. Shapes looking like Icemon surrounding the district and more specifically the warehouse?
"Oh oh," Sepikmon said, his eyes snapping open.
"What?" demanded Icemon, who had stopped pacing the moment Sepikmon spoke up.
"We are found out, the guards are surrounding the warehouse, "Sepikmon answered.
"Then we have to get them out of there!" Icemon said.
"Little Blizzard!" Yuki Agumon called out, shooting a whitish-blue ball of energy out of his mouth. Where it hit the crates and boxes the energy froze them and the impact subsequently shattered them. With his little attacks, combined with Sorcerymon's phenomenal powers the two had steadily made there way to the centre of the warehouse, destroying the remaining goods while observing the destruction that made its way towards them. Several boxes in front of them shattered, showing two figures walking towards them.
"Humph, looks like we're done," the tallest of the two, Hanumon said. The four rebels, Sorcerymon,
Yuki Agumon, Hanumon and Bearmon observed their work and were pleased with what they saw. Everything the warehouse had stored was now destroyed and thus completely useless for Devitamamon.
"Seems like it, now all we have to do is get out of here before we are found out," Sorcerymon said, "with any luck we'll be long gone before the guards find out what happened."
At those words however part of the roof just crashed in, drawing the four rebels' glances immediately as they put their guards up. Hovering in the air above them was Sepikmon's boomerang making them all tense up as it flew around in a few circles before leaving back the way it came.
"That's the warning signal! We've been discovered," Sorcerymon said, confirming everyone's thoughts.
"Damn, "Hanumon said, "this was to easy to begin with, of course it wouldn't last."
"We have to get out of here!" Beamon pressed, not looking forward to prison.
"It won't be easy, if I read the signs the boomerang made right, then we are already surrounded. We'll have to break out through who knows how many guards."
"Cool!" Yuki Agumon said excitedly, the others looked at him doubtfully, "uhm, I mean, that's horrible."
The others sighed, even in the face of incredible danger Yuki Agumon still had a lust for combat, it even seemed to increase his desire if the danger was great. Sorcerymon put the thoughts and worries about Yuki Agumon's desire for combat aside, concentrating instead on the problem at hand. He knew what Icemon and Sepikmon were going to do and where, so now it was only a matter for them to get out of the building and into a sewer while their fellow rebels made their diversion.
"This is nuts, there are too many," Sepikmon said, observing a part of the Icemon guards surrounding the warehouse. There were at least a hundred Icemon in sight, though they were split up into groups of ten, each separated by fifty meters. The two rebels could only see a few groups; more were obviously at the other end of the building.
"And what do *you* think we should do about it?" Icemon questioned harshly at the monkey-like creature's cowardice.
"We should get out of here while we can," Sepikmon voiced uncertainly.
"And leave our comrades in there? Let them be arrested by Devitamamon's lackeys? I don't think so, now come with me."
"Right," Sepikmon said sighing. This was most likely certain death, but if they failed the resistance now he didn't think he could go back to his former life either.
The two left their hiding place at the sewer entrance and approached the Icemon from behind. This had to be done quickly and without error, to much hang in the balance.
"They seem to be surrounding that warehouse over there, but why?" Tsukaimon said. The three had positioned themselves behind the Icemon's lines to see what was going on in this part of the city. It must be pretty intense to call upon all these guards and one of the most intense of persons they knew was Ryo. Could it be possible that he's here? I have to know, Turuiemon thought. Confidently he strode over to a Starmon, who was obviously in charge of this contingent of guards. Starmon noticed the purple bunny approaching and looked at him suspiciously.
"What do you want here, child. Can't you see we have a situation here?!" Starmon demanded with all the authority he could muster. Normally this worked to get whoever he was speaking to show him respect and, admittedly, also a bit of fear. He wasn't a high ranking officer in the city guard for nothing, you know. He was shocked to see no such reaction in the digimon approaching him; the bunny just smirked at him, seemingly amused. This threw Starmon off guard for a moment so Turuiemon could approach him freely.
"First of, I'm not a child," Turuiemon said easily, an earn of confidence surrounding him that Starmon couldn't muster, "second, I may be of help here with your little situation. Tell me, have you ever heard of a human called 'Ryo'?"
Immediately all the guards present turned towards Turuiemon, the name of Akiyama Ryo was well known to the guards for being the catalyst of the current turmoil in the city. They eyed the bunny suspiciously, having only slight guesses as to why this digimon would ask them about Ryo. Where they friends, acquaintances or perhaps even enemies? Seeing that the guards attention was now focussed fully on their leader, Tsukaimon and Thundermon moved closer as well to offer any assistance if need be.
"He's a known criminal and instigator of the rebellion. Just knowing him is a capital offence." Starmon said, standing right in front of Turuiemon to intimidate him. It didn't work, Turuiemon just smirked wider finding the Starmon's obvious actions highly amusing. Though, since the Starmon was part of the law here in this city, it wasn't all that wise to piss him of. Better end this quickly, Turuiemon thought, this guy is beginning to bore me anyway.
"That's what I thought, "he said, "We've been tracing him for a while now in hopes of capturing him."
"You see, we're bounty hunters," Tsukaimon said, looking Starmon in his angered eyes, but the flying digimon didn't budge. This didn't suit Starmon, who wasn't used to such characters, everyone except his bosses always showed fear toward him and the power he had in the guard.
"We have followed this human's trail of devastation all the way here. You're lucky your city is still standing, one of the places we followed him to was completely destroyed."
"So you see, we've got quite a stake in this situation if it was indeed caused by Ryo. He has been in this city then, but is he still here now?" Turuiemon asked sternly.
Starmon, now completely thrown of guard by what was happening, blinked a couple of time trying to sort out everything that was happening.
"As far as we know he's not here anymore. All that is left is the Resistance which has taken this opportunity when the human stole from Master Devitamamon."
Seeing something happen out of the corner of his eye, Turuiemon tried to look at it but in a way so the Icemon and Starmon wouldn't know that something was going on behind them. Tsukaimon and Thundermon had noticed to but like their leader avoided glancing in that direction. About fifty to seventy meters behind the guards, another group of Icemon was being attacked by two digimon, a Sepikmon and another Icemon. The two had snuck up on the unsuspecting guards and made quite an impact when they struck. Sepikmon was hitting them with his boomerang while doing his Charming Dancing to distract their attention away from the flying boomerang. Meanwhile Icemon was throwing Ice bombs at the other Icemon as well, taking them out effectively. Other groups seemed to realize there was trouble and started going over there as well.
"Hey, what is that all about?" Turuiemon said, pointing at the disturbance. Seemingly as one the guards turned to look at what the bunny was pointing at and as they did so Turuiemon signalled Tsukaimon with a movement of his head. The little digimon fluttered above the guards who were gawking in surprise at the defeat of their colleagues by the two other digimon, so they didn't even notice when Tsukaimon took a deep breath or that Turuiemon and Thundermon had taken a few steps back. The guards, overcoming their surprise, started to move towards Sepikmon and Icemon when Tsukaimon exhaled, spewing a purple fog over all of them. When it cleared, which was after a few seconds, all the guards were knocked out.
"Nobody stands a chance against my Purple Fog," Tsukaimon said, smirking at the prone bodies of the Starmon and Icemon.
"Sorry guys," Turuiemon said, not feeling remorseful in the least, "but if the resistance is spawned because of Ryo then we are on their side."
The situation looked grim, they had defeated the first ten guards with ease, but now thirty guards started running at them. In a way, this was also a good thing. The more guards that came after them, the less could go after Sorcerymon and the others.
"We are so dead," Sepikmon said, bracing himself for what was to come.
"But at least we die in a noble cause," Icemon said with complete honesty. Sepikmon glanced at him for a moment, sizing Icemon up.
"You are really nuts you know that?" Sepikmon said.
"Maybe, but you're doing the same thing I am, so who is the crazy one now?" Icemon said jokingly, which surprised Sepikmon even more then his compatriot's desire for an honourable death. As long as he had known the ex-guard, which was about a day to be honest, he had never heard a joke out of his mouth before. Maybe he said it because he knows we're losing, Sepikmon thought, then the first guards were on top of them.
The Icemon guards didn't use their Ice bombs this time, instead they punched into them, using their Ice Strike attacks. Sepikmon kept jumping back to avoid the attacks but it was no use, they hit him anyway. Icemon wasn't having much luck against his name-sakes either and was beginning to buckle under the strain they put on him.
Behind them, at the warehouse itself, a wall exploded outward. Looking through certain gaps between the guards assaulting him, Icemon saw four figures running out of the building. Sorcerymon seemed to notice what was going on and started changing directions when other guards started to run towards them as well. There were just too many, they both knew it, so the white mage had no other choice then to lead his team out to safety. Icemon and Sepikmon were on their own, with no other help in sight. As the continued pummelling rocketed his body and he started to lose conscious he saw a strange sight in the air above him. The sun seemed to be falling down on the guards in front of him, how very strange since the sun still seemed to be in the right place in the sky at the same time.
"Thunderbolt!" Was shouted by a voice above them, then Icemon could vaguely hear a sort of crashing sound and an explosion before the guard's beating finally made him lose consciousness.
Around the unconscious guard the fight was taking a sudden turn, when three other digimon entered it as well. Thundermon was using his Thunderbolt attack to rain down balls of electrical energy down on the guards. Tsukaimon, who was only at child level and couldn't afford being hit, flew above them using his Purple Fog to put the Icemon to sleep whenever there was an opening. The leader of the group, Turuiemon, took a more direct approach to fighting and simply jumped in the middle of the melee, using the metallic claws on his arms and his fighting skill to beat down the Icemon. Luckily with the escaping Sorcerymon the guards were divided to go after both groups, and most of them were still trying to reach either Sorcerymon's escape route or Icemon and Sepikmon's fight. The Terrific Trio, with their surprise attacks, quickly made short work of the twenty or so guards. Turuiemon looked at the approaching back-up troops then at his friends.
"We have to hurry, Tsukaimon scout ahead into those streets, Thundermon help that Sepikmon up, then help he drag this Icemon with us." Turuiemon ordered.
"T-thanks for y-your help," Sepikmon said weakly.
"Let's leave the 'thank you' for later," Thundermon said, helping the injured digimon back to his feet. Sepikmon, who mustered all the strength he could muster, ran with a limp behind the retreating form of Tsukaimon while Thundermon and Turuiemon dragged Icemon with them. Looking behind them they saw that the guards were approaching rapidly and were gaining on them. Not surprising considering the condition of two of them. Putting Icemon on the ground, Thundermon turned back to the guards.
"Thunder Bomber!" He shouted as he charged his body with energy. He then flew right into on of the alley's walls, ricocheting into the wall on the other side just as quickly. With a loud crash the walls started to collapse, blocking the guard's way so they could escape.
"Well done my friend," Turuiemon said, then the both of them continued to carry Icemon away. After about a minute Tsukaimon came back from his scouting with Sepikmon in tow, the little digimon seemed a bit concerned.
"The coast seems clear for now, but I don't know how it will be further up," Tsukaimon said.
"We should get out through the sewers, I know an entrance not to far away," Sepikmon said after Tsukaimon was done.
"Take us there," was Turuiemon's reply.
"So you guys are rebels?" Tsukaimon asked when they had all entered the sewers.
"No, what gave you that idea?" Sepikmon said quickly, a bit too quickly. Tsukaimon gave one of his trademark smirks, something which all three of them had perfected at one time or another.
"Oh I don't know, that riot up there was a big hint." Tsukaimon said, still smirking. Sepikmon glanced around nervously, wondering how he was supposed to get out of this one.
"We want to talk to your leader, "Turuiemon said with a huff before Sepikmon could make another excuse, "and don't give me any more bullshit."
"What? I can't do that!" Sepikmon said, truly surprised at this digimon's blunt statement before realizing his mistake when both Turuiemon and Tsukaimon looked at him, both smirking of course.
"So you are a rebel then," Tsukaimon said, laughing.
"No use denying it now," Thundermon voiced, annoyed that he had to carry the unconscious Icemon.
"Alright, I'm a rebel. You want to turn me in now?" Sepikmon asked.
"We already knew you were a rebel and could just as easily let the guards take you, "Turuiemon said," Like I said, we want to talk to your leader about something."
"That's it?"
"That's it," Tsukaimon said, answering Sepikmon's question.
"I don't really have a choice here do I?" Sepikmon said.
"Of course you do," Turuiemon said sarcastically, "either you take us to your leader or you don't. But it's in the best interest for all of us if you take us there. After all, we helped you escape and can be of even more help."
"But what if Sorcerymon objects?" Sepikmon asked, then realized he made yet another mistake. It must be the stress, he reasoned. Though mentioning Sorcerymon's name wasn't all that big a deal since the entire city already knew.
"Well if Sorcerymon objects," Thundermon said, trailing off.
"Just tell him I hit you," Tsukaimon added, drawing amused glances from all present. A groan drew their attention to Icemon, who was recovering.
"He should wake up soon," Turuiemon said, "but for now just take us to Sorcerymon."
"Icemon, Sepikmon! Where have you been?" Bearmon asked excitedly when the two rebels entered the lair. During their trip Icemon had regained consciousness and was none to happy to find out Sepikmon had spilled just about everything about the resistance to three questionable strangers and was in the process to take them to Sorcerymon himself. But there wasn't anything he could do about it when he was finally conscious enough and they did risk their data in trying to rescue them.
"We were busy," Icemon said brusquely, not in the mood for anything after their fiasco. It was then that Bearmon noticed the three figures behind the two rebels.
"Hey who are you!" Bearmon said loudly, alerting the others that something was wrong. Soon all the rebels, Sorcerymon in the lead, were assembled, looking at the three newcomers.
"We are the ones that saved your friends," Thundermon answered. The others looked at Sepikmon and Icemon waiting for a confirmation.
"It's true, they took on the guards so we could all escape, "Sepikmon said, immediately followed by Icemon. "They say they want to speak with you Sorcerymon."
"What about?" Sorcerymon asked.
"About the resistance and a certain human acquaintance of ours, a kid named Akiyama Ryo." Turuiemon said.
"Let's talk, but just you and me," Sorcerymon said, looking at everyone in the hide-out, "and no funny stuff from anyone."
The leaders or respectively the Resistance and the Terrific Trio left the others and went into another chamber, a lot smaller then the first, so they could have some privacy, leaving the others to mingle.
"You wanted to speak with me?" Sorcerymon asked Turuiemon when they sat in Sorcerymon's office.
"Yes, about Ryo. You know him right?" Turuiemon asked. Sorcerymon looked at his staff, smiling under his cowl though no one could see it.
"I know him, I owe him a lot."
"So do we," Turuiemon said,
"we've been looking for him for a while now. A while ago we were together at Chida Village,
a place far into the east."
"I've heard of it, "Sorcerymon said, "It's quite a peaceful place."
"Yeah it was," Turuiemon said a bit sadly.
"What do you mean?"
"It was attacked twice, almost completely levelled. Together with Ryo we protected the village as best as we could. When Ryo had to move on we stayed behind to help and protect, till the village was put to order. Now we've been following him, hoping to be of help again." Turuiemon smirked. "Wherever Ryo goes there is trouble and we don't want to miss out."
"He was here, I take it you've deduced that much. He returned my staff to me, which was stolen by Devitamamon, the ruler of this city. I then helped Ryo escape the city 'cause he stole it back from Devitamamon and the guards were after him. During our escape attempt we used the sewers and I realized how it could be used for a hide-out. Devitamamon's policies have enslaved many digimon, so after I got my staff back I started fighting back. "
"And what about the others?" Turuiemon asked, "If you don't mind me asking."
"I don't, "Sorcerymon said lightly, "it's not a secret and I'll gladly tell a friend of Ryo's. If you see him again you can tell him how we are doing."
"At first I was all alone, intend on helping others as much as I could. It was the day after Ryo had escaped town when I came across Bearmon. He was being harassed by Devitamamon's money collectors. He couldn't afford to live in one of Devitamamon's apartment buildings, so he lived on the streets. That's illegal in this town so they arrested him in order to put him to work somewhere in Devitamamon's slave-run factories. I saved him and was about to leave when the little bear came up to me and asked me why I helped him. I answered that I was fighting to oppose Devitamamon and he declared he wanted to help me. I didn't want to involve a child, but if I left him he would probably be arrested again.
The next day the two of us were walking through back streets and alleys when we came into a similar situation. Hanumon was protecting Yuki Agumon from Devitamamon's slave catchers, but they were hopelessly outnumbered. We came in and after a tough fight got them out of there. Like Bearmon, they wanted to join us and the basis of the resistance was formed. "
Sorcerymon stopped for a moment and looked at his little band of brothers through the opening that connected the two chambers. They had gone through a lot together already and it seemed they would have to go through a lot more before all is said and done.
"And the other two, the ones that took us here?" Turuiemon asked, he was always interested in knowing as much as he could about possible allies or enemies.
"Well, we got another applicant just the next day, Icemon. He was part of the city guard, but felt uncomfortable with the way things were run here. He was aware of the slave driving and couldn't stand it anymore so he quit. We, or should I say, Hanumon and I, came across him in a bar. He was trying to persuade others to quit the guards but he was ignored. Or so it seemed, 'cause a patrol of the city guard entered the tavern to arrest him."
"Why didn't the guards who were in the bar arrest him right of the bat?" Turuiemon wondered out loud, Sorcerymon gave a small laugh.
"Because then they would have to leave the bar and their drinks."
"Figures," Turuiemon muttered.
"Anyway, Icemon didn't want to be arrested and started to fight back, screaming that he wouldn't be silenced and that real justice will be served. Hanumon and I attacked the guards and helped Icemon escape. He was grateful and after hearing what we were about he wanted to join us as well.
The last to join us is Sepikmon and he is a bit of a strange case. He only signed up with us two days ago. We were going to attack one of Devitamamon's buildings to hit him where it hurts, well, the operation was well under way when Sepikmon showed up saying the guards were coming. When we retreated he told us he'd been watching everything as it went on due to his special boomerang. I don't know exactly why he wanted to join us; frankly he's a bit of a coward and would rather stay here then go out on a mission. Still, he's an excellent scout and, as demonstrated today, comes through in a pinch. "
"Interesting, " Turuiemon said. The troubles in this city were pretty severe. He wondered if he should stay to help or go of finding Ryo. He was still considering this when a strong shockwave rocked the underground hideout.
"What the…" Turuiemon muttered.
It was a pretty good day with barely a cloud in the sky. On the southern part of the east wall an Icemon guard stood staring of into the distance. He should be patrolling the walls but who would want to attack the city anyway? Ever since the fiasco with that human thief, he couldn't quite remember the name, the guards had been made to work more and more. It's not fair, he thought and sighed. On the outside of the wall a vast plain of grass with rocky outcroppings lay, as far as the eye could see. While it did look extremely empty and devoid of life, it still gave the Icemon a feeling of serenity. Caught up in reveries about his life, living in general and the surroundings, he didn't immediately notice a black spot on the horizon till it was quite close.
"Heat Viper!" The sky seemed to boom by the intensity of the voice and the beam of energy it heralded. Before Icemon could even begin to wonder what was going on the large beam of green energy crashed into his part of the wall, destroying it and him on contact. The beam continued on and exploded when it impacted with the ground taking a big part of the buildings there with it. The city shook on its foundations, signalling the arrival of a great evil. Chimeramon had come and he would destroy them all.
The sight that greeted them when they reached the surface was horrendous; almost the entire city was engulfed in flames. Flying high above it was a huge, malevolent creature, which seemed to be composed of parts of other digimon. His head looked like Kabuterimon's head, a large grey helmet-like thing with a sharp horn protruding from it. He had red flaming hair, seemingly taken from the cyborg dinosaur, Metal Greymon. His body was that of the dinosaur greymon, orange colored with blue stripes. The creature had four arms, the two upper ones were long black, sleek arms from the demonic Devimon. His lower left arm is the pincher claw of the red insect, Kuwagamon and the right arm the skeletal limb of SkullGreymon. He has the powerful legs of the white wolf, Garurumon and the powerful tail of the armoured rhinoceros, Monochromon. Four wings sprouted from his back, two different pair. The upper pair where beautiful white wings, the wings of the angelic digimon, Angemon. The lower pair where red reptilian wings from Airdramon. Truly, this was a being of nightmares with power almost unequalled in the entire digital world, and it was still only a Perfect level digimon and not at its peak.
"What in blazes is that?" Tsukaimon exclaimed in shock. The compositional digimon seemed to take a deep breath and boomed the name of his attack through the air. The energy of the Heat Viper levelled an entire block of houses and obliterated every digimon present. The Icemon guards were all attacking the beast but they didn't seem to be having much luck.
"We have to stop this beast!" Turuiemon called out and together with his friends rushed of to fight the threat of Chimeramon. Sorcerymon and the resistance watched them disappear through a column of smoke from a nearby burning building.
"Everybody," Sorcerymon said, turning towards his own comrades, "we have to destroy this evil digimon. He would destroy everyone we've been trying to save from Devitamamon! Follow me!"
Sorcerymon turned towards Chimeramon and he to ran towards the location of the beast, his friends following close behind.
The city was burning beneath him and he took a moment to admire the beauty of this destruction. Chimeramon knew he shouldn't waste time in getting to his destiny, but what meant destiny if you couldn't have some fun on the way. And this was fun, destroying the city and the digimon in it. A lot of white rock digimon had rallied and were currently attacking him, but their charges felt like flea bites.
"Heat Viper!" He roared, firing his powerful attack from his mouth at a group of those attacking digimon, Icemon he realized they were. But the names of his victims didn't really matter, a lot more would find their death by his hands before it would all be over. As his energy washed over the guards, he basked in the moment of their deaths.
Looking around him, he saw that most of the city was either destroyed or in the process of being so by the fires. However, one large building stood almost completely intact, ruining the painting of destruction he was making. He smirked, feeling a high power level coming from the building. Obviously it was the home of the master of this city, but not for long. Chimeramon laughed his booming laugh and hovered slowly towards the building, savouring the moment.
"Get me up there!" Turuiemon said to Thundermon. With Chimeramon in the sky he couldn't do anything since he only had physical attacks and couldn't fly himself. Holding on to Thundermon while the ball-like digimon flew up to Chimeramon the purple rabbit only had a few moments to reflect on what he was doing. Most likely he would be destroyed by that beast and even if he didn't die there was almost nothing that he could do. Still I have to try, he thought, what else can heroes do? Ugh, I must be insane to do this.
Soon they were flying above Chimeramon, who seemed to ignore them as they posed no real threat to him. Turuiemon swore he would change the beast's ideas. Leaping away from Thundermon, Turuiemon fell towards the exposed back of the synthetic digimon and he prepared his attack.
"Swift Secret…" he muttered, powering up his strongest attack as he approached. Then, when he was only about a meter removed from his target one of Chimeramon's angelic wings suddenly made a swing at him, knocking him away from evil beast and on a course for the ground below.
"Shit!" Turuiemon exclaimed before he fell out of earshot. Chimeramon laughed, thoroughly amused by all these antics to stop him.
Out of the corner of his right eye he saw another form rapidly descending upon him, Thundermon with his body charged with electricity in his Thunder Bomber attack. Chimeramon almost laughed again at the futile gesture made by this little Adult digimon, who was still only a child compared to him. Lashing out with his skeletal claw he defused the electricity and knocked Thundermon down towards the earth like his compatriot.
Only one of the Terrific Trio was now left to fight, but Tsukaimon knew he didn't stand a chance. However he couldn't just run away when his friends had shown their courage in attacking that beast, so he couldn't just back out know. Tsukaimon, nervous as hell, flew in front of Chimeramon's face, being watched by the amused demon. The child gulped and took a deep breath.
"Purple Fog!" He shouted and blew a huge purplish fog in Chimeramon's face, intending to send the digimon to sleep. When the mist cleared Chimeramon was still there, smirking at the little digimon.
"Was that supposed to do anything?" He remarked, then lashed out his devimon arm knocking the last of the Terrific Trio away. During this little altercation Chimeramon had succeeded in flying over to the last unharmed building, the large power signal was also still there.
"Heat Viper!"
The attack instantly destroyed the left wing of the building, leaving behind smouldering ruins of the once statuesque part of the mansion. Another attack did the same to the right wing, leaving only the centre and the shop intact. The front door opened and a very angry and disgruntled Devitamamon stepped outside.
"What is the meaning of this?! Why are attacking my city!" He shouted to Chimeramon, fully expecting to see the beast cower in fear for his Ultimate Might. Instead the beast just continued to hover, grinning at the display of Devitamamon.
"Because I can," Chimeramon finally answered.
"What?!"
"Heat Viper!" the attack came so suddenly Devitamamon barely had time to react. Pulling his appendages inside of his shell and closing the holes, he brazed the attack but was thrown back into the remains of his home which was incinerated around him. Now Devitamamon's mansion was completely destroyed, but the egg was still alive.
"Dazzling Eye!" Devitamamon called out when he left the protection of his shell, shooting lasers out of his many eyes. Chimeramon chose that moment however to make a dive, so all the lasers missed. He charged at the egg and when he came close enough he started to use the Ultimate digimon as a punching bag for his four arms. This time the egg couldn't retreat into himself so he had to bare with the attack. After only a few seconds of constant beating Devitamamon fell back and started to lose consciousness. Seeing that his opponent was unable to continue fighting, Chimeramon took off into the air again. Looking back at the form of Devitamamon he fired one more Heat Viper. The smouldering remains of the mansion were blasted away even more and Devitamamon's power signal almost completely died out.
"There, that's that." Chimeramon boasted. Content with what he had done to the city and slightly bored with encountering so few good opponents he started to fly west again towards his ultimate goal. As he neared the city's western edge however he heard a shout from below. A group of Icemon and several other digimon were together, planning to attack him no doubt. Chimeramon laughed, the sound boomed down to the ground beneath him, he would indulge these fools before moving on.
Yuki Agumon was afraid and he was alone, which was the cause of even more fear. It had all started well enough, aside from the whole attack in general, but now all seemed to go wrong. In all the smoke and fire he had lost sight of the others and now he was all alone walking through ruined streets surrounded by ruins and fire. One building only had a foundation and a few pieces of wall left, but at least it wasn't on fire anymore. In his despair Yuki Agumon sat down against the ruined wall and put his arms on his head.
"Why is this happening to me?" He muttered. The city, always full of life was now only a shadow of its former self. And though he had hated the place and never really felt at home here, the little dinosaur was still saddened by its destruction. He had always dreamed to one day leave this town behind, to show that he was better than this place. But he didn't want to leave like this, with everyone dead.
"What should I do?"
"You should die." Another voice suddenly resounded from close by. With a yelp Yuki Agumon was on his feet again, trying to find the source of the voice. For a moment he feared it was the monster that was attacking the town, but on second thought he knew it couldn't be. This voice sounded evil, but it was unlike that of Chimeramon.
'W-who are you?" He asked, his voice quavering by fear. The little dinosaur's eyes darted around, but still he had no luck finding the one behind the voice. Too late he realized that if the enemy wasn't around him, then he was most likely above him. With this sinking in he looked up he saw a red demon, covered in strange archaic tattoos leering down at him. The last thing Yuki Agumon saw was the devil's trident piercing his skull.
"This power is amazing," the demon said, grinning. He then took of to find more victims among the debris.
"He's coming! Prepare yourselves!" Sorcerymon called out to his resistance members and the remains of the city guard they had joined forces with. Icemon had taken it on himself to lead the now leaderless guards in this final strike against the beast.
"Ice Bombs!" Icemon called out to his former colleagues and all Icemon started throwing their bombs of ice at the beast swooping down from the sky. When the creature came low enough the bombs hit him and exploded on contact. The shards of ice that were released had no effect, Chimeramon just kept going.
"Heat Viper!" Chimeramon shouted. Everyone immediately tried to get away from the incoming blast, but unfortunately Icemon and his guards were unable to get away fast enough.
"Aaaaahhhh!" Icemon shouted before the green fire overtook his position and burned him into a crisp. Of him and the guards nothing remained after the blast dissipated. The survivors, who at this point were only the remaining Resistance members, looked in shock but Chimeramon wasn't quite done yet. Having fired his attack when he was still swooping down, he was now close to the ground and to Sepikmon. The shaman digimon had no chance to escape the red pincher claw as it grabbed him and lifted him of the ground. Chimeramon and his prey ascended a few meters, and then he turned towards Sorcerymon, Bearmon and Hanumon.
"Argh," Sepikmon managed to say, being in the vice grip of Chimeramon was slowly killing him. The others looked on in horror, knowing they could do nothing to help Sepikmon now, the shaman was in the beast's mercy. And from what they had seen so far Chimeramon had none. For a moment the claws loosened, giving Sepikmon a small tingle of hope that he might still survive this encounter. That hope was shattered however when he heard Chimeramon's sadistic chuckle. All of a sudden the pincer snapped shut completely, severing Sepikmon in two. Everyone gasped as the saw both pieces fall away for a few seconds before bursting apart into small data fragment which were quickly blown away by the wind created by Chimeramon's four wings.
"How could you, you Monster!" Hanumon shouted angrily.
"Flattery will get you nowhere, little ape," Chimeramon quipped back, "well it's been fun, but I really must be going now. So much to destroy, so little time. Heat Viper!"
"Barrier!" Sorcerymon shouted, raising his staff above his head. Chimeramon didn't take the time to see the effects of his last attack, he was already annoyed with this scene of destruction. It kept him away from his destiny long enough.
Chimeramon had left, but that didn't make the city anymore safe then when the beast was still there. Many buildings were destroyed and what was left could collapse at any moment. Tama City was lost, but that didn't sadden Devitamamon much. All he cared about was that he had lost all of his possessions when the monstrous beast levelled his home, not even his high security vault had survived. To make matters worse, he still lay on his back unable to move. Chimeramon had managed to beat him to an inch of his death, but he was still alive at least. Slowly and painfully he tried to move his appendages, but gave up when a searing pain flared up and coursed through his body. I'd better lay here and rest for a while longer, he thought angrily.
As he lay there a shadow suddenly fell over him and he opened his eyes to see what it was. It was a digimon, but one he had never seen before. The digimon was taller then he was, with a flaming red skin, almost scaly. Strange archaic symbols were tattooed on his muscled body. He had a strangely forked tail, red bat-like wings and demonic horns on his face. The sadistic grin wasn't to comforting either, nor was the trident he kept in his hand.
"Who are you?" Devitamamon hissed. The digimon made a mocked look of disappointment.
"Why boss, don't you recognize me anymore? Your chief supplier?" He said.
"Pico Devimon?" Devitamamon questioned," but how…oh no it was you!" The egg said, realizing that Pico Devimon had been helping Ryo break into his house about a week ago and that it was he, and not Ryo, who had stolen the Black Items.
"You fool, you've actually used them?! Pico Devimon what have you done! There's a reason I never used them to increase my own power." the egg could barely believe it. Pico Devimon had used the cursed items to force his evolution, but the nature of the devices he used was that of pure evil and control. Though they can boast one's energy they also make the recipient completely loyal to the master of the items. With Pico Devimon as master they would make him a slave to his own darkness, fuel the desire to destroy and rule. In short, it quite possibly might have created a new Dark Master. Though it didn't sadden Devitamamon in the slightest, the old Pico Devimon was lost forever.
"You just wanted to have them in your collection, that's all," he said, brushing away the egg's warnings, "and I'm no longer Pico Devimon. You can call me Boogeymon. At least for the few seconds of life you have left."
"W-what…" Devitamamon couldn't finish his sentence as Boogeymon's trident lashed out at him. The tree spikes had been driven through the demon's head and into his shelled body. Weakened by the fight with Chimeramon the egg could do nothing as his body collapsed into small fragments of data.
"And so ends the not-so-glorious rule of Devitamamon," Boogeymon said, "such a pity! Ha!"
"Hey what is the meaning of this!" a voice behind Boogeymon demanded. Boogeymon smiled to himself, yet another one to fall against him. He turned around slowly and saw there were in fact three digimon behind him, two of them seemed to be of his level. They had been in a fight, he could easily tell by their appearances, but they still had a lot of fight in them left. A white wizard, a yellow monkey and a grey teddybear stood only a few meters away.
"Not that we mind getting rid of Devitamamon," Hanumon said, "but we were kinda planning on getting rid of him ourselves and alive at that."
"Dead, alive, makes no difference to me." Boogeymon said coolly. He then eyed Bearmon, making the little child very uncomfortable under the sudden attention.
"You remind me of that other baby I killed," he said.
"What?!" Sorcerymon demanded, standing protectively in front of Bearmon. He had a gut feeling that Boogeymon was talking about Yuki Agumon, though he had no proof to back up his suspicions.
"Yes, that little white dinosaur." Boogeymon said, noticing the looks of shock on the faces of the three digimon.
"Oh? Did you know him?" he smirked.
"Y-you bastard!" Bearmon shouted and started running towards Boogeymon.
"Yes quite," Boogeymon replied, not at all impressed by the little child's efforts, "Ruby Eye!"
A crimson beam shot out of the demon's eyes and knocked the poor Bearmon back towards the other rebels. Seeing their comrade treated this way and wanting vengeance for what had happened to Yuki Agumon they attacked as well.
"Bone Rod!" Hanumon shouted, throwing his bone at Boogeymon like a boomerang.
"Crystal Cloud," Sorcerymon called out, firing his own attack at the red devil. Flapping his wings Boogeymon took to the sky, evading the incoming attacks.
"You think that's enough to stop me!" He shouted to the three digimon on the ground, "well, guess again! Death Cra…"
"Evil Banishment!" Sorcerymon shouted before the demon could finish his attack. A slight flash of white light emanated from Sorcerymon's staff before Boogeymon suddenly shouted out in pain, grasping his chest. Sorcerymon's spell was reacting with the Dark Items inside his body, trying to destroy them completely. Boogeymon knew he had to get away as soon as possible and with one more hate-filled glare he took of to the south. Leaving behind the ruins of Tama City and the remaining rebels, he vowed to get back at them and the entire digital world.
"No he's getting away!" Bearmon said.
"Leave him, we have more important things to do," Sorcerymon said solemnly, looking at the ruins around them, "like taking care of the survivors. Our vengeance will have to wait for now."
Slowly the surviving digimon started to gather at the site of the ruins of Devitamamon's former mansion. Out of the several hundred digimon that had lived cramped in the city only a meagre twenty had survived. Though everyone was saddened by the deaths that had occurred that day, there was also a feeling of happiness; they were finally free of Devitamamon's reign.
Far to the west at the end of the day four figures reached a hilltop overlooking Machine City, the home of the machine tyrant Mugen Dramon. The city spread out further then the eye could see, at least from where they were standing. It was a collection of different style of buildings, from tall skyscrapers to smaller houses. There were barely any colours to be discerned from the buildings, all seemed to be a dull concrete grey. On closer inspection, not all the buildings were standing as they should. Some stood at odd angles, others had toppled over completely and more were just damaged in some other way. Large holes in the structures were seen even from the distance and none of the windows seemed to have glass in them. It was a veritable ghost town.
"We made it!" Ken said enthusiastically, "now we can beat Mugen Dramon!"
"Well, not exactly now Ken," Ryo said calmly.
"Huh? Why not?" Ken asked, in his eagerness he overlooked the obvious.
"Because we aren't in the city yet and the sun is already setting. We'll never find Mugen Dramon in the dark and besides that we've been walking all day. The digimon will need to be at their best to take on the machine dragon so we'll have to take a rest first."
"Oh right," Ken said, a bit embarrassed he didn't think about that. He wanted to show Ryo that he could be as good as the older boy, but he always seemed to forget something in his eagerness.
"Let's go then," V-mon said, "we can stay in one of the houses at the edge of the city. We don't know the situation in there so venturing in to far isn't a good idea."
"And if we take a house at the edge instead of further in the city we have to walk less," Wormmon said slyly.
"That to," V-mon said unabashed.
Not wanting to waste anymore time the four of them quickly proceeded down the hill to find a place to rest inside one of the strangely ruined buildings of the city.
On another hilltop, this one strangely located inside the city, a lone figure looked in the direction where Ryo and the others were. He smiled, though his face couldn't be seen in the black hood and cape he wore. A slight buzzing sound drew his attention away from the Chosen and he looked to the side, seeing a red dragonfly-like digimon land.
"Flybeemon, " the cloaked man said.
"Master, buzz, I've brought another one with me," Flybeemon said, holding up his claw and the child digimon he carried in it, a Patamon.
"Good, put it with the others," the figure ordered, motioning to all the cages standing on the hilltop. The cages were small, barely large enough to house some of the child level digimon. Flybeemon went to the last unoccupied one and tossed the unconscious patamon inside, locking him up. The dragonfly looked at all the digimon, they were scared and depressed, but some still had the desperate courage to be obstinate, glaring at him with hate and anger in their eyes. It didn't matter how they felt to Flybeemon, after he had caught them he had lost all interest in his former prey. However it did matter to the cloaked figure that had created Flybeemon and had set him on his hunt. Their anger would make a perfect feeding ground for the Digimental of Darkness making them more powerful as a result and power was something that always interested him. Speaking of power, he turned towards the east peering towards the horizon and the being he knew was approaching. He will arrive here some time tomorrow, he thought, then things will really get interesting.
Looking at the little device in his hand for a moment, he looked at the part of town Ryo currently was.
"Sleep well Akiyama," he said coldly, "it's going to be a busy day tomorrow."
Authors Notes:
Well it took me long enough to finish this chapter, didn't I? Sorry about that, but I've been really busy these last couple of weeks and it doesn't seem to be getting any less soon. I'll try to get the next chapter out soon, though I can't really say when.
This chapter was a bit of an interlude, allowing me to tie up a few loss ends and to create a few new ones. The most important thing I wanted to do in this chapter was to introduce Chimeramon and send him on his way to Mugen Dramon.
A smaller part was for Pico Devimon and the items he stole (Black gear and Dark Network cables) which I didn't really go into much last time. Pico Devimon, or Boogeymon as he is called now, won't return in this story again, but he is going to star in another fic I'm planning to write when I've got more time. This fic will feature another team of Chosen who haven't been given much spotlight and they will have to fight against him on their first visit to the digital world. That's all I'm going to say about that for now, since it will more then likely take a long while before I can start writing it. After all, Legendary Tamer is my top priority story and I have barely enough time to work on that as it is.
Translations:
Hanumon = Apemon.
Yuki Agumon = Snow Agumon
Preview of the next Chapter:
Ryo and Ken are scouring Machine City for Mugen Dramon's hide out, but time is running out. With Chimeramon coming closer and the Master who's up to his old tricks again, things don't look good.