Another update. I planned to release Chapters 12 to 16 at one time, but I spent too much time writing new material and too little time editing. Sorry! ^^". I also added an extra piece of Cawmon and Sarah's battle. I wrote it for Chapter Fifteen, but I think it's better off in this chapter. It sets up for her participation in the conflict better.

Please forgive me... I had a terrible rough draft of this chapter that I speed-typed on Christmas Eve, and I fixed it right up. Then my stupid writing program errored out and deleted all of my changes. So I had a little anger fit, and I waited a week to re-edit it. Sorry. I still plan on uploading Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen in the very near future... I Promise. =P

Chapter Fourteen: VS IceDevimon (Part One)

"Metallic Fur!"

Apemon's fur darkened into a shiny metallic gray, and sharp spines were shot out from his body like bullets.

"Don't try to defy the DigiStar Power." Mike said coolly. He effortlessly whipped his Digivice through the air, taking the DigiStar Power from Gallopmon and surrounding them with a powerful forcefield. The needles hit it and fell pathetically to the ground in front of them.

"You can use the Stars to do that?" Celia's dislike of Mike melted away after he saved her. "What else can you do with them?"

"Just watch... DigiStar Power!" Another slash. The Star's energy went back to Gallopmon, this time in his hooves. Powered up again, he made a superpowered leap above Apemon.

"Grrrraaarrrhhh!" Apemon roared in a frenzy, foam flying from his widened mouth. He stood his ground, his two arms covering his head. Gallopmon stomped on Apemon and jumped backwards. He had used all of his power in that one attack, so the DigiStar Power disappeared afterwards.

"What!?" Mike cried angrily as Apemon stood up, as good as new. He must have been expecting a one-turn kill, Celia thought. That was a big weakness of his; he thought too much of himself, and underestimated everything.

She turned her attention back to Apemon, who appeared to be in perfect condition, except for one thing. A spot on his left arm, where Gallopmon kicked him particularly roughly, was turning into a dark, acid-colored green. It soon spread to the rest of his arm, which he pointed Gallopmon's way.

"It's the virus that Musyamon had!" Celia hollered. Mike looked up at her with a curious expression. He doesn't know about the virus!

Apemon's arm, in a surprising movement, extended itself like rubber. It wrapped around Gallopmon's entire body.

"Sheriff Stars!" Gallopmon sprayed Apemon from inside of the virus, but it didn't have any effect whatsoever. In response to Gallopmon's attack, Apemon tore his arm right off of his shoulder. A new one began to grow in the old one's spot, and the old one began to harden like a rock. Gallopmon was now trapped inside of a large cocoon-like structure.

"The Saturn EX Virus will devour your Digimon from inside of the hardened casing," A cold voice echoed through the wind. "There is no escaping it."

"What!? Who are you? Show yourself!" Mike screamed, backing into a building behind him with a look of terror etched into his face. Celia never thought that she would ever see Mike act like that. He actually seemed scared.

"Fine, so be it, human." Further down the street, a miniscule hole began to appear in the ice. It slowly began to grow larger and larger, until it was about five feet in diametre. Then, a tall creature floated out of it calmly. He was tall, about seven feet, and completely blue. The Digimon resembled a devil, with his two horns and large claws, but there was something distinctive about him. He didn't look like a fire-dwelling creature - more like the opposite. An ice devil.

"That's IceDevimon! He's one of the Diabolists!" Jamamon choked from behind her. He was still weak from Apemon's attack, despite Digimon's fast healing. "He's a high-ranking general within them, even higher ranking than Musyamon. He must have been sent here to check up on Musyamon."

"Gallopmon, can you hear me?" Mike shouted, ignoring IceDevimon's presence altogether. He ran at the cocoon and tried to kick the virus, but it melted his entire sneaker away, along with a large portion of his sock.

"If you kicked it any harder the virus would have melted your entire foot off!" Jamamon yelled. Mike looked downwards in shame. Celia felt sorry for him. How could she just leave him like that? She would have to help him somehow.

"DigiStar Power!"

She wasn't as coordinated as Mike was, so she did it very rigidly, but coordination wasn't her main focus anyway. She was trying to give the Star instructions... Free Gallopmon... Free Gallopmon...

"DigiStar Power!" Mike assisted her. His Star Power was weaker than her's, because it had little time to recharge, but the two united powers began to melt a small hole in the casing.

"Shady Thunder!" Gallopmon roared. He absorbed the two DigiStar's power, and attacked. A massive beam of black and white light blasted the casing into bits, and swooshed through the air directly at Apemon.

The attack destroyed his data, and also took the building behind it, and the building behind that. There was a massive domino effect, and all of the buildings in the attack's way tumbled backwards. Celia was happy that the city was evacuated, or there could have been countless casualties.

"Is that it?" IceDevimon asked. He raised one of his long arms, and little dots were collected until it made a large white circle of energy.

"That's Apemon's data." Mike noticed before Celia did.

"Yes, how good of you to notice. Now, watch this."

His hand flashed green - the color of the radioactive Saturn EX virus - and the ball of data morphed like clay, splashing around in the air, until a figure began to appear. It was a dark outline or Apemon, but this time his entire body was made out of the virus, and not just his one arm.

"Apemon Digivolve to... Mammothmon!"

Standing before them was a powerful-looking Digimon, larger than any Celia had ever seen before. It resembled a wolly mammoth, but it had a definitive Digimon vibe about it. He had a giant metal helmet with golden emgravings on it, and two large and lethal tusks.

"You can force other Digimon to Digivolve using that virus?" Mike cried furiously. "What level is that Digimon, anyway?"

"Mammothmon is at the Ultimate Level," Celia read off of her Digivice. "Not so good now, are you?" She spat back at him.

Mike glared back at her. Celia, despite their situation, was glad that she was finally able to give Mike a good slap in the face.

"Spiral Cyclone!" Cawmon cried, attacking the Veggiemon Trio all at once. They all tumbled backwards, right out the door. They tried to stretch their vines inside, but she hopped up and clawed at them. "Undead Peck!" Black darts flew from her mouth, and Veggiemon flew backwards onto the sidewalk, where he was overcome by the extending ice. He was completely frozen over.

"Do you need... uhhh... help?" Sarah asked nervously, gripping her Digivice delicately with both hands. Weedmon's vines were approaching Cawmon again, and she decided to do what Celia had done before. "DigiStar Power!"

"Undead Peck!" Cawmon repeated. This time, however, the attack was significantly different. A crescent-shaped dart sliced right down Weedmon's body, and his data exploded. It floated into the air, where it faded away.

"You..." RedVeggiemon growled furiously. His eyes darkened, and he hopped up with his thorny vines extended.

"SPIRAL CYCLONE!"

Cawmon unleashed a large tornado, which sucked RedVeggiemon in. It went right down the street, creating massive rips in the middle of the road.

"Woah!" Sarah oohed. "But - hey! What's with the ice wall over there?"

She pointed further down the street, where a mountain of ice was piling higher and higher. The tornado plunged itself into that ice, making a giant hole in its surface. The tornado faded away afterwards, and the ice seemed to be quickly regenerating itself.

"Sarah, we have to go inside." Cawmon instructed, out of instinct.

Sarah had no idea what was in there, but she trusted Cawmon, so she followed her new Digimon partner into the ice wall, which sealed itself up after their entrance.

Be sure to read the next two chapters for the conclusion of the IceDevimon arc! After that we get into the end of the Real World arc, and the real story begins afterwards. Whew. I can't wait to introduce the rest of the Tamers! I call them Tamers because that is the best theme. It refers to a large group, and not just a couple of chosen children. There are other DigiStars, as you have witnessed earlier on (The one Sarah used on Musyamon to steal the Blue Star), so it is possible for regular humans to have Digimon Partners. Celia and co. just haven't run into them yet, because the Stars are all scattered across the Digital World (only a couple accidentally fell to the human world when the Resistance hid the six "brightest stars" there).