Disclaimer: Although the severely warped and twisted imagination is my own, Digimon Xros Wars and its characters are the property of Akiyoshi Hongo, Bandai, Toei Animation, and TV Asahi.
| Digimon Xros Wars | Xtra | Part 21|
| The Chaos Generals and the Xros Dimensional Adventure | Part 4 |
"Pulse Blast!" Chaos Lord shot down Shoutmon X5 and Decker Greymon with a shockwave from the cannons on his back that seemed to somehow drain them of their power.
"What the heck was that?" Shoutmon X5 was not amused as he crashed to the ground and could barely get back on his feet. "It's like I don't have any strength left at all."
Taiki frowned. "It must be a side effect from Chaos Lord's attack."
"In that case all we have to do is shake it off and blast him into the ground before he has a chance to use it again," Kiriha instructed Decker Greymon. The heavily weaponized dinosaur could felt so weak that he could barely support the weight of his own arm cannon, but he stubbornly defied the protests of his own body to keep the cannon level as he pointed it at Chaos Lord.
"Plasma Deckerdra-Launcher!" Unfortunately, the resulting ball of plasma was only a fraction of its normal size, lacking any real destructive power, and simply fizzled out when it impacted against Chaos Lord's metal body. Kiriha's eyes went wide with shock when he realized the attack had failed to damage the enemy at all.
"It's no use," Chaos Lord disparaged him. With his two opponents so badly debilitated in their weakened state, the machine digimon took the opportunity to fully charge his back cannons with power. Once the cannons were fully charged her fired off a shot and Shoutmon X5 and Decker Greymon, keeping the final shot in reserve just in case. "Chaos Cannon!"
The two Digi Xrossed digimon quickly broke apart into their constituents lying scattered across the ground.
"This guy seriously packs a punch," Shoutmon grumbled as he pushed himself to get back on his feet.
Taiki looked to Nene and Kiriha. They both seemed to be alright, although it looked like Kiriha had taken another sharp blow to his ego from how much of a failure Decker Greymon's last attack had been.
"I think we're going to have to set aside our differences on this one," Taiki spoke seriously. "Since it doesn't seem like any of our usual methods are working against this particular enemy we're going to have to fight him differently. And that means we should cooperate so we don't leave out any options."
"So it's really come down to that," Kiriha sighed. He couldn't deny that Taiki had a point. Chaos Lord had proven to be far more powerful than he had initially given him credit for. It was no wonder that the other Crystal and her partner had struggled so much against him. Perhaps they had even known from the start that they wouldn't be able to beat him on their own. That seemed like a fair assessment.
"Even so, what can we do?" Nene observed as the digimon were slowly picking themselves up as they recovered from the sudden split of their respective Digi Xrosses.
Taiki looked to Kiriha. "Well, we could try that."
"Sure, why not? I suppose a stronger adversary demands a stronger Digi Xros," Kiriha shrugged. "But we better not lose again."
Taiki nodded as he held out his Xros Loader. "Shoutmon, Ballistamon, Dorulumon!"
"Greymon, Mail Birdramon!" Kiriha responded in kind.
"Digi Xros!" they declared together.
The five digimon shot into the sky, each surrounded by their own aura of colored light as they collided and assembled themselves into the shape of their finished Digi Xros. "Shoutmon X3 GM!"
The other Crystal knelt down beside her fallen digimon partner. "You better not quit on me now."
"No way I'm dying again in a place like this," the small dragon voiced her agreement as she picked herself up off the ground. "But since we didn't stop to eat on the way here, you definitely owe me some pizza when we get back."
"Done," the other Crystal conceded. "Now let's get back there and win this thing!"
"Hold it!" Crystal's Zapmon had managed to slip away from Gururumon so she could confront the imposter, twin, clone, or whatever the heck she was for looking like her human. "I'm going with you. I'm getting tired of being kept out of this."
"You certainly make an interesting proposition," the other Crystal looked up as that world's equivalent of her partner came toward them. "You know I'm not your partner, but you still want for me to lead you into battle. I guess that doesn't really surprise me since, at the core, our souls are the same and the connection is there."
The other Crystal's digivice levitated from her pocket as it began to glow and vibrate. The casing became more elongated as a spinning dial filled the space beneath the display screen.
"It became a Xros Loader!" Zapmon exclaimed in surprise.
"Not exactly," the girl's actual partner explained. "Although it has been upgraded to have the same functions. Her digivice is specially formatted to assimilate powers from the different iterations of the digital world we've visited."
"Anyway, if you want to fight, this is your chance," the other Crystal informed the digimon partner of her other self.
"You don't got to ask me twice," Zapmon answered automatically. "My human is still in trouble!"
The other Crystal held up her newly modified digivice. "Zapmonz, Digi Xros!"
The two small, black dragons came together to form an identical dragon at roughly double their original size. "Zapmon Energy Link!"
"I don't really feel any different," remarked the newly Digi Xrossed digimon.
"That's because we're not finished yet," stated the other Crystal. "That was just the first step. My Zapmon was already really wiped out from her fight with Chaosdramon, but the Zapmon from this world should be at full power. And, by combining you both together, you should be able to easily exceed your limits!"
Zapmon Energy Link shut her eyes as power began to well up inside of her, manifesting as light radiating out from the silver and gold lightning bolt patterned markings covering her body. The crest in the tag around the other Crystal's neck began to shine as her digivice simultaneously shot out a beam of silver light to form a gleaming pillar around the newly Digi Xrossed digimon. "Zapmon Energy Link Chou-Kyuukyoku Shinka!"
The gleaming pillar of light shattered like a pane of glass as a huge black dragon with tattered golden wings broke away from it. Her arms were proportionately longer than her legs with three-fingered hands tipped with silver claws. Feathered, flame patterned, wing-like protrusions extended from each of her forearms to form colorful retractable arm-blades. Her legs were thick and muscular to support the weight of her upper body so she could stand upright and her large feet were equipped with the same number of digits as her hands. Her muscular tail swung out behind her like a potentially powerful whip, split at the end to form a pair of sharp spikes. The dragon was approximately thirty-five feet tall when standing fully upright.
"Eclipse Zapdramon!" the newly evolved digimon declared. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"
"Did you see that?" Zenjirou turned to Akari after witnessing the emergence of yet another humongous digimon that seemed to appear out of nowhere, not aware that it was actually another form of Zapmon.
"It seemed pretty close by," Akari replied, hugging Cutemon more tightly to her. "I hope Taiki and the others are doing okay. This place seems really dangerous."
"Breath of Perun!" Shoutmon X3 GM exhaled an intense, high temperature breath of flames with enough force to melt a huge gaping hole straight through Chaos Lord's metal body.
"Chaos Cannon!" Chaos Lord took another shot at Shoutmon X3 GM with his back cannons, but the pterosaur digimon was too quick for him and the blast missed him completely. It seemed that the time had come for him to undergo the final stage of his evolutionary transformation. He could sense that the other Chaos Generals had already been eliminated and so, he called to the lingering fragments of their data had become dispersed throughout the surrounding area. The data was pulled toward him like it was being sucked up by an enormous vacuum cleaner and as the damaged section of his body started to repair itself. And, as Chaos Lord continued to absorb the data of the other Chaos Generals into himself, his body began to change, standing more erect like Chaos Greymon with Chaos Seadramon's huge tail swaying back and forth behind him. His right arm became a modified version of Chaos Greymon's equipped with a blood red Dramon Killer gauntlet. Red versions of the ribbons that had floated behind Chaos Piemon fanned out from his armored shoulders. Chaos Dukemon's shield formed at the center of his chest, rotating like an enormous turbine to divert power to all of the machinery covering his body.
"That doesn't look good," Sparrowmon commented.
"Every time we start to beat this guy he just gets even stronger," Shoutmon X3 GM observed.
"It's like when we were fighting with Lucemon in Heaven Zone," Taiki realized. "But I think this is must be his final form because he just assimilated all of his teammates."
"Even so," noted Kiriha. "We're still going to have our work cut out for us finishing that thing off."
"Then maybe we can give you all a hand with that! Quantum Flare!" Eclipse Zapdramon declared from above with the other Crystal perched precariously on her shoulder. A massive golden fireball formed in the space between her huge hands as she hurled it down at the large metal head of the newly formed NeoCrimson D successfully setting the entirety of his metal body on fire. Of course, the flames were readily extinguished by the lack of fuel provided by the sturdy metal, but it definitely got the enemy digimon's attention.
"For a dragon, you must have as many lives as a cat," NeoCrimson D remarked in a hollow metallic voice. "I wonder how many times I have to kill you before you begin to wish you didn't just keep coming back."
He pushed himself into the dark sky to combat his airborne assailant. "Blind Attack!" He lashed out at Eclipse Zapdramon with the Dramon Killer on his right arm.
"You're forgetting that you've never actually succeeded at killing me!" Eclipse Zapdramon extended one of her phoenix wing patterned arm-blades to intercept the attack. The two of them bounced off each other, immediately charging in for another violent collision. "Supreme Slash!"
"Well, this could certainly work out in our favor," observed Taiki.
"The Chaos Generals were after her to begin with," agreed Kiriha. "This digimon doesn't even care that we're here anymore."
"Which means he won't see Shoutmon X3 GM coming," noted Taiki.
"Which means we can finally end this," Kiriha responded with an obvous smirk.
"The let's finish this!" Shoutmon X3 GM flew around behind NeoCrimson D as the energy radiating off of his wings began to grow in intensity until the burning glow surrounded his entire body. "Wild Burning!" he declared as he swiftly dodged around NeoCrimson D's long, serpentine tail inherited from Chaos Seadramon and plowed straight into the middle of his opponent's back, briefly being met with resistance from NeoCrimson D's sturdy metal armor, but managed to punch through by raising his speed using the energy radiating off of his wings for additional propulsion power. Flames spread from the gaping wound as Shoutmon X3 GM burst through the front of NeoCrimson D's chest, breaking through the turbine that had been formed by Chaos Dukemon's shield.
"Alright, now you can deal maximum damage by blasting him in that open wound!" Kiriha called up to him.
"Way ahead of you!" Shoutmon X3 GM declared as he spun around to face NeoCrimson D. "Breath of Perun!" He exhaled another breath of intense, high temperature flames into the exposed opening he had broken in his opponent's metal armor.
"Dragon-Fire Shockwave!" Eclipse Zapdramon ignited the surface of her body with a combination of golden flames and a strong, silver-colored electric field before extending it into the exposed opening in NeoCrimson D's metal armor.
The overload of fire and electrical energy flowing into NeoCrimson D caused a major disruption to his internal machine components that caused him to completely destabilize as his body was rapidly disintegrated from the inside out. Before he completely faded away, NeoCrimson D managed a few parting words in his hollow metallic voice. "Remarkably well played young humans and digimon. This defeat will surely be a memorable one."
"Looks like the fireworks are over," Crystal whistled appreciatively as NeoCrimson D was eradicated from the battlefield.
"That's a load off my mind," Slashdramon heaved a quiet sigh of relief. "For a second there I was beginning to think I might have to somehow make it up there without the aid of wings."
"Guess we're going to have to work on that," Crystal agreed.
"That was pretty intense," Shoutmon began popping his joints to help ease his fatigue.
"In a way it was lucky that it happened in this area," noted Taiki. "There weren't any other living beings occupying this space that could have been hurt by our battle. If this had happened in an actual Zone it could have been an even bigger problem."
"For you maybe," Kiriha retorted. "But I would never subject myself to holding back against a powerful enemy."
"That isn't something you should be proud of," Akari quickly reprimanded him as she and Zenjirou finally returned on Crystal's Gururumon and Lighdramon.
"At any rate it looks like almost everyone is accounted for," noted the other Crystal, her own Zapmon having assumed a perch on her shoulder after reverting back and breaking from the earlier Digi Xros. "That means I'll be able to take you all back to where I found you before we came here."
"No way," the native Zapmon was staring incredulously at Slashdramon as if he had caused her some terrible injustice. "How come Slashmon gets to evolve before I do?"
Slashdramon crouched down so Crystal could climb off of his head. "Maybe it's because you've still got a lot of growing up to do."
And so, the other Crystal made them a path back to the Fossil Zone from that dark other world where they had fought off the Chaos Generals. It was refreshing to be back in an environment with a little more color, even if it was just a barren wasteland littered with ancient skeletons.
"Alright, I've fulfilled my purpose here," she looked around at the rest of them. "I should probably head back to my own world before they decide to send a search party." She began fiddling with her digivice to open up a portal before she added, "One last thing. It's possible that you guys might encounter me again and I might not remember any of you. That's because even though this is technically our first meeting for all of you, I've actually met you all before, but I don't think that actually happens until sometime in the future. It's something to think about. Oh, and if you happen to run into a guy named Blaze, tell him I said to stay out of trouble!"
Of course, before she could explain herself, the portal had formed and she took off without another word, taking all possibility of a solid explanation along with her.
"Well, that was sufficiently weird," Crystal couldn't get over the fact that she had just met another version of herself. "Oh, I almost forgot!" She dug around in her pocket and pulled out the piece of the Code Crown she had taken from Chaos Dukemon and handed it over to Taiki. "I got this back after Slashdramon took down Chaos Dukemon so I want for you to have it."
This was, of course, met with an angry glare from Kiriha. "Is that the thanks I get for helping to save you?"
"But didn't you say that you had absolutely no interest in trying to save her and that you were only tagging along so you could get back the piece of the Code Crown that was stolen from you, not that it ever actually belonged to you in the first place?" inquired Zapmon.
"That's definitely what I heard," agreed Shoutmon.
"You both talk too much," Kiriha huffed and stalked away from them. It wasn't like he had any business hanging around with the members of Xros Heart when there were still more Zones for him to claim for his own Blue Flare army.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: And that finally concludes the AU Crystal cameo arc. Now that that's over, I think I'm going to take a little break from insanely complicated, over the top story arcs for some more simplistic and fun ones to give my mind a chance to cool off before I delve into anything else that demands so many drastic shifts in perspective. Anyway, I hope those of you reading this enjoyed that little voyage into absolute insanity and don't mind if I tone it down a notch so I can get on with the rest of the story without making my brain explode. See you next time!