Digimon 02: Waking the Dragons

by Quinton Notwen

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

21. World War III Part Tri

World War 3: Part Tri

8888

"Things could be rough down there." Yamato said to Sora, looking down at the Earth below. "And then there's Mimi..."

"Matt..." Tai gave the blonde boy a sharp glare.

Sora took a chance and peered over the palm of Imperialdramon. It was dark below. The world was dark and serene. If she looked up she could see the hem of dawn burning on the far horizon. She knew deep down inside that below the clouds that the darkness meant the power had been cut across the globe. That war was being waged in streets and villages, across farms and fields. That the global digi-destined were waging battle against the invaders from the Digital World, that the dragons were unleashing pitiless attacks on any population that resisted them. She looked down at her hand, she held up her D-3. She looked to the pink sparrow digimon standing next to her.

"We have to do it though." Sora said quietly. Her eyes came back to Yamato, catching his blue gaze. The moon bounced off his golden hair, and she smiled an unstoppable smile. "We will win. Our friends, our families, they're depending on it. And Mimi isn't a problem, I can manage her and it'll be fine."

"We're coming over New York City now!" Ken shouted, closing his D-terminal. "I just messaged the New York digi-destined." The dark haired boy looked to Sora. "They said they can meet you in Central Park, but..."

"But what?" Yamato asked, his voice rather sharp. A small lupine digimon was standing behind him.

"We're going to have to come in close." Ken said, ignoring the sharpness of Yamato's voice. "So it might get a bit bumpy, evidently another batch of dragons have dropped out of the breach. Mimi and the others are engaging them as we speak, so, Sora may have to fend for herself for a while until the others can get to her."

"Do it, we don't have any time to waste." Taichi said, digging his hands deep into the pockets of his long blue jacket.

"Are you nuts?" Yamato said, his teeth gritting slightly. "It's the middle of a war zone and you want to drop Sora right into it?"

"It won't get any better." Taichi said, turning his brown eyes on Yamato and then to Sora. "I'm sorry. We can't just sit and circle until the conditions improve. I don't want to get caught up in a unnecessary firefight." Taichi put his hand on the head of the yellow tyrannosaur standing next to him. "We can't risk losing Imperialdramon, and neither WarGreymon or Metal Garurumon are fast enough to meet our goals."

"Instead we're going to drop Sora and Biyomon into the firefight and leave them completely alone and defenseless?" Yamato grumbled, his fists clenched.

"Matt, it's fine." Sora said, putting her hand on his shoulder. He turned to her and she smiled at him. She looked down to Biyomon. "And we won't be defenseless."

"I'll protect Sora with the last bit of my breath, Yamato!" the pink bird said, giving a small salute with her blue-tipped wings.

"How soon?" Sora asked, looking past Yamato to the dark-haired boy. She walked towards the boy.

"I'm prepared for dive whenever." The warbling and growling voice of Imperialdramon reported.

"Right, well, good luck!" Daisuke said giving a thumbs up to Sora. "I've been before, it's a pretty cool town...hopefully no Cherrymon sees the Christmas tree this year though..."

"Whenever you guys are ready." Sora nodded, she looked to Matt who was frowning silently. She walked to Matt. "It'll be fine. I know you don't like it, but we'll be fine. Mimi will do fine, and we'll be great. I'm going to be ok, I have to be, my mother is waiting for me in the hospital. I'll meet up with Mimi, we'll defeat the dragons, and then I'll be with you again. Don't worry."

"How can I be fine with this?" Matt growled softly.

"You will just have to be." Sora said and she gave him a soft kiss on the cheek.

"Right...well, here we go!" Imperialdramon said, uncomfortably.

The whole world tilted towards the children. Seconds later the cloud later fled the field, revealing the world below. Fire glowed across the landscape. Smoke reached up to them, greeting them with its acrid breath. Around Imperialdramon there were pearls of light flying both up and down. Red and blue and white lights were bursting around them. The roar of distant thunder thrummed through the wind that whistled around Imperialdramon's hand. It was the sounds of the ensuing battle.

Most of the stray attacks flashed past Imperialdramon as the dragon raced towards the forested area below. However as the dragon approached the land, more and more of the flashes seemed directed at him.

"I don't know if I can get much closer!" Imperialdramon grunted as more and more fireballs seemed to pop against his armor.

"And we can't fight back because we don't know who is shooting at us!" Daisuke grumbled as he tried to hold his feet to the palm of Imperialdramon's hand whilst the dragon attempted to dodge the larger blasts. "The digi-destined could see Imperialdramon as a threat, the dragons could see him as a threat. All we can do is not die!"

"Sora..." Taichi looked up. "This may be as far as we can go. Look, it's not going to be easy, but I trust you can do this."

Sora gulped and nodded. She smiled. "Right..."

"If I project my shield downward to drop off Sora, be aware, I'll have to drop the shield around my hand." Imperialdramon said.

"We know." Taichi said, kneeling down and patting Imperialdramon's palm. "Do it."

"You heard him Imperialdramon." Ken said as he hunkered down.

The blue haze surrounding Imperialdramon's palm faded, condensing around Sora and Biyomon. Sora watched as the boys' hair whirled in the torrent of wind that rushed into the naked palm. Then the whole of the world became a blue blur as the force field sliced through the remaining atmosphere separating the dragon from the ground. It stopped a half a meter above the ground and then like a balloon popped dropping Sora and Biyomon unceremoniously on the ground. Sora looked up to wave to Imperialdramon but all she saw was a vanishing blue blur as the dragon disappeared to the south.

"I guess we wait then..." Sora said quietly as she hugged her knees and looked up into the dark.

An orange haze filled the sky, but it wasn't the pollution of city lights that was blurring out the sky but rather the fires of war. Biyomon walked up next to Sora and put a wing around the auburn haired girl's shoulder.

"Your mom will be ok." Biyomon said nuzzling against Sora's shoulder.

"I know...it's just..." Sora sighed and closed her eyes. "I wish I was there where I could help..."

"We are helping." Biyomon said the pink bird looked at Sora.

"I know..." Sora said in a whisper as she lifted her hand up and patted the bird on the crest of feathers on its head.

Suddenly Biyomon tensed, holding Sora tighter. "Do you hear that?"

There was a rustling in the forest across the clearing. Then a loud smashing.

"No, but I heard that." Sora said as she got up onto her feet.

"Should I digivolve?" Biyomon asked as she looked at Sora.

"No..." Sora said as she looked around and found a small kiosk near a sidewalk. "Quick in here!" The two ran and ducked behind the kiosk. Sora carefully snuck her head around the corner of the kiosk. In the darkened glow of the city she could just about make out the shape of someone or something breaking through the underbrush in the distance.

"Atomic Laser!" came a roar from inside of the forest as the trees flared with a crimson flare.

A large fairy-like digimon exploded out of the forest, crashing to the ground near the two figures that had just managed to escape the underbrush. Sora watched as the two figures ran to the fairy. She heard the rockets of the oncoming WarGrowlmon. Sora gulped as she watched the large mechanical dragon slice and smash its way out of the forest, and stomp down in front of the fairy and what Sora finally was able to identify as the two humans with it.

"What do we do?" Biyomon asked as the bird digimon poked its head from behind Sora.

Sora gave Biyomon a side-long look. Everything inside of her told her what the answer to that question had to be. However there was a portion of her that didn't want that to be the answer.

The fairy digimon wasn't getting up though. The WarGrowlmon lifted one of its massive, bladed arms. The sharpened edge glowed red.

"No choice..." Sora said, mostly to herself as she reached down to the pocket of her blue winter coat and grasped her D-3.

888

"I can't believe it!" Ivan said as looked back to the forest they were trying to extricate themselves from. "It's far stronger than the others."

"This is the worst!" Yoshino yelped as she waded through brambles and smilax thorns. "Where are Kouki and Marcus!? They're supposed to be helping us!"

The two older teenagers pushed through the final wall of underbrush and nearly stumbled into the clearing. Yoshino panted bracing herself against her knees. Ivan had turned around and was looking back into the forest.

Yoshino saw the clearing flare red, and heard the roar from the WarGrowlmon. She felt Ivan grab her by the back of her shirt and literally lift her off the ground and throw her as he ran. Yoshino rolled and lifted her head in time to see Lilamon smash out of the forest, crashing onto the ground a few feet in front of her. Ivan was on the ground his hands over his blonde, crew-cut hair.

"It's coming." He said as he looked back, over his shoulder.

"Lilamon, are you ok!?" Yoshino started to crawl, and then upon getting to her feet run to the large fairy digimon with wide flower-petal wings.

"I'm...going to need a minute..." The digimon said, in a sigh.

"We really don't have a minute." Ivan said more nonplussed than demanding. He looked up to the forest and could see the shadow of the thing following them. "Can you fly, or run, or any way get us away from here?"

Lilamon lifted one arm and then dropped it to the ground.

"I'm going to call Marcus!" Yoshino said sharply, as she grabbed the walkie-talkie clasped to her hip.

"No time!" Ivan said as he knelt down and forced his way under Lilamon's left arm. He heaved and his legs trembled as the mountain of the man slowly lifted the digimon's arm. "Help me...we need to..."

The forest tore open. Yoshino lifted her arm to shield her face from the woody shrapnel. She lowered her arm to see the growling, hulking chassis of the WarGrowlmon that had been chasing them. Its black and red colors seemed to burn against the forest shadows. It lifted one of its bladed arms.

Yoshino gulped quietly. "The worst..."

Then she heard the screech of a bird of prey, an enormous bird of prey. A large taloned foot smashed into the small metal encased head of the WarGrowlmon. The metal dragon rocked backwards as the fire-washed bird pushed off of it and rose into the air. The bird glowed and screeched again; it burned out of the light as a large man-shaped eagle. The eagle-man scrunched together and a flaming aura burned around it that flew up as a ghostly flaming shadow of a bird, that screeched and stooped in the air before dive-bombing downward and smashing into the chest of the WarGrowlmon, sending the dragon digimon staggering back into the forest.

"Are you ok!?" shouted a girl running towards them. She was wearing a blue winter-jacket with furry cuffs around the neck and wrists. She had auburn hair.

"Well..." Yoshino looked over to Lilamon and Ivan who was straining to lift the massive digimon.

"Atomic Laser!" a pair of red beams cut through the forest as the giant bird-man ducked and weaved between them.

"Could be doing better." Yoshino said, looking at the girl. The girl looked familiar, and narrowed her eyes slightly as she thought.

"It's her!" Ivan said quickly looking up at the girl as she ran closer. "It's the yellow ranger!"

"Ivan!" Yoshino chastised sharply.

"The what?" the girl looked at the two humans.

"Code name, just, hello..." Yoshino waved her hand in front of her face and then reached out. "Yoshino, and my friend here is Ivan. You're Sora...then I take it...Takenouchi, right?"

"Um yes, I just got here." Sora said, as she looked to the sky to see the large bird digimon continue sending bursts of flaming aura down into the forest below it. "Like minutes ago, we were waiting for Mimi or someone to come find us. I take it you're it?"

"Err..." Yoshino frowned slightly and looked over to Ivan.

"Actually we're looking for her ourselves." The hulking man under Lilamon's arm said.

There was a loud roar from the forest and the sound of rockets. The WarGrowlmon erupted from the tree-line and raged towards the eagle-man.

"Garudamon!" Sora shouted as the dragon crashed into the eagle.

"Lilamon, please, you have to get up!" Yoshino said turning to the fairy digimon.

Ivan grunted loudly and then the fairy digimon rose up, staggering to her feet. The large black eyes of the digimon winced as she unfurled her lavender-pink wings. She braced against Ivan and lifted her other arm.

"Marvelous Shot!" An iridescent green burst flew from her flowery palm, and exploded into WarGrowlmon's back.

The dragon roared and released Garudamon. The eagle-man kicked free and then lifted her taloned hand, a flaming aura formed around the talons which then came burning down.

"Phoenix Claw!" Garudamon's claws tore through the chassis of the dragon and the metal burst into black data. The dragon fell, twisting towards the ground.

"Now's our chance!" Yoshino shouted.

"Marvelous Shot!" another blast of energy fired up, burning into the naked flesh of the WarGrowlmon.

The dragon howled before exploding into a thousand pieces. Garudamon dropped down next to Sora, and glowed, reverting to the pink sparrow that she normally was. Sora smiled and put her hand on the little sparrow's head.

"So, then we're all in the same boat." Ivan said as Lilamon glowed and split apart becoming a small bud-like digimon and a black gear digimon. "Looking for..."

"Mimi Tachikawa..." Yoshino said over Ivan. She gave him a sharp glare.

"I wasn't going to..." Ivan started.

"So you're waiting?" Yoshino said looking back to Sora.

There were explosions in the background. Sora looked up at the sky. There were flashes of fire and lightning and other things that flickered and flared in the distance.

"I don't know the city at all." Sora said, her eyes fell back to Yoshino and Ivan. "And we were told someone would come and get me."

"Right, then we'll just wait with you then." Yoshino said nodding. She reached down and grasped the radio from her hip and tossed it to Ivan. "Tell Marcus and Kouki that whenever they're done playing cowboy or street fighter or whatever, that they can meet us here and that we have Sora with us..."

"They won't know who that is..." Ivan said scratching the back of his head. "Should I just use..."

"Then go over there!" Yoshino growled, pointing to the bushes. She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Boys right?"

"Uh...yeah..." Sora said quietly and looked down at Biyomon.

888

"Ivan said he found the yellow ranger!" shouted Kouki over the explosions as he ran down the middle of the empty street.

"Oh, that's disappointing!" Marcus shouted as he charged up the sidewalk of the street. "I'd hoped the file had been wrong, I really wanted to see this Taichi!"

"Yeah, well it is what it is." Kouki shouted. He skidded to a stop and pointed. "There he is!"

Marcus followed Kouki's finger, his eyes saw the flash of black and red that was the Cyberdramon that had attacked them.

"Thunderbirdmon, get him!" shouted Kouki as he moved to run towards the muscled dragon digimon.

"Thunderbirdmon won't do squat!" Shouted Marcus as the two of them rounded a corner. "This is an Ultimate digimon, plus your bird is pathetic!" Marcus grabbed his D-3. "GeoGreymon, shoot him out of the sky!"

"WHAT!?" Kouki shouted, sliding to a stop and looking at Marcus. "You can't just say what you said and then do the same thing I did!"

"What are you going to do about it!?" Marcus narrowed his eyes glaring at Kouki.

"Oh..." Kouki clenched his fists.

"I've been waiting for this for a..." Marcus cracked his knuckles.

"Cyber Nail!"

The sound of Thunderbirdmon and GeoGreymon roaring drew the two boys out of their tiff.

"Dammit that bastard!" Marcus growled turning and looking up.

Cyberdramon was swinging Thunderbirdmon by the tail and then slung the large blue and yellow bird downwards into the spikey tyrannosaur GeoGreymon. The two digimon smashed into a brownstone. The black dragon with red wings swept in closer it curled is claws slicing them forward and drawing the emerald dimensional energy into its cupped hands.

"No!" The two boys shouted as they ran towards the two digimon.

Their digivices flashed to life. The two digimon glowed and transformed.

"GeoGreymon..."

"Thunderbirdmon..."

"DNA digivolve to RizeGreymon!" The two digimon emerged from the light as a metal-chassised Greymon. Large, metallic, blue wings unfurled from its back. Its arm was encapsulated by a large rifled cannon. The mechanically enhanced dinosaur pointed the cannon at Cyberdramon. "Trident Revolver!"

Three bolts fired forward at the black dragon. The dragon dodged around the bolts and pulled back its arms as the green energy formed a sphere in its palms.

"Desolation Claw!" The green energy flew forward and smashed RizeGreymon in the chest.

The dinosaur smashed back against the brownstone, crushing through the walls. The black dragon then raged forward. Smashing punches and claw slices pummeled against the cyborg dinosaur. The faceless black beast dropped back and landed. It hauled its arms back drawing the emerald energy.

"Flower Cannon!" A burst of life energy flared into Cyberdramon's face.

The dragon staggered backwards. There was a pink flash that zipped in circles around Cyberdramon leaving the black dragon wrapped in a tight rope of flowered vines. Kouki and Marcus took a step backward, after the pink blur flew up to them and appeared in front of them.

"Hi, thought I saw you guys having problems. I was on my way to getting back to my partner." The small flowery fairy smiled as her green leaved wings buzzed behind her. She looked back to Cyberdramon as it struggled against her vines. "Right, that should hold him for a bit, I'm going back to my partner. See ya!" She turned, saluted the two boys and then disappeared in a blur of green and pink.

"Wait...was that..." Kouki said.

"RAH!" The boys looked over to find Cyberdramon tearing through the vines.

"No time, RizeGreymon get him!" Marcus shouted.

The cyborg dinosaur pulled itself out of the rubble of the brownstone and swung its cannon forward ramming into the gut of the black dragon. The cannon went off three times and the dragon exploded into data.

"That was the pink ranger's digimon, though." Kouki said as RizeGreymon landed in front of them.

"Sure looked like it." Marcus said, nodding, and rubbing the back of his head.

"Don't you think we should..." Kouki started.

"Of course." Marcus said as he ran towards RizeGreymon. "Don't stand there like an idiot, let's go, that digimon was fast!"

888

"Right, tell them they need to finish that sweep before I can call the all clear across the wards." She said into a walkie-talkie. She sighed as she stood on top of the high-rise.

The last hour had been intense. The second wave of dragon digimon were more aggressive than the first. She leaned against the balcony and looked over the city. The hospital was still intact, she narrowed her eyes slightly at the thought of what had transpired to protect it. At least now the fighting was dying down. There were still some holdouts of a few dragons that had gotten a foothold in the warehouse district, but as the digi-destined converged on them they had started to break. A cold winter breeze swept down the canyon of concrete. She gripped her green jacket closely around her as her brown hair flittered from under her stocking cap.

"Mimi, this is Michael and Tatum, we're taking MegaSeadramon on one last sweep of the harbor, we've not encountered any resistance along the Hudson, I think we've cleared the Seadramon." The blonde boy's voice came over the walkie-talkie.

Mimi lifted the walkie-talkie up to her mouth. "Ok, after that could you head over to Central Park, I think Sora is waiting for us there."

"I read you." Michael said.

"See you at base." Mimi said.

" I think we're clear here, Mimi!" Mimi spun around to find Lillymon hovering over her. "I saw a Cyberdramon harassing a pair of digi-destined but I think it's been neutralized now."

Mimi nodded slightly, and held her arm. "I'm still waiting for a few of the other groups to call in all-clears, then we can head back home." Mimi turned and looked to the hospital in the distance and sighed.

"We did what we could. They took us by surprised, things didn't go as we had liked." Lillymon said as her leafy wings buzzed closer. The pink fairy landed next to Mimi. "If we hadn't made the decision we made..."

"I know." Mimi said quietly, taking a deep breath and turning to Lillymon. "I'm just wonder if this is what Tai was going through all those years ago?"

Mimi was broke from her musing by the sound of rockets roaring towards them. Lillymon grabbed Mimi and pulled her back. The flower fairy lifted her arm summoning the blossom that opened revealing a cannon underneath the petals. A large Greymon with metallic wings rose up from the street below. Two humans were standing on its shoulders.

"I told you it was her!" shouted the brunette boy in the red shirt.

"I didn't say it wasn't her, idiot!" shouted the blonde boy in the blue hoodie.

"Your Mimi, right?" shouted the boy in the red shirt.

"Um, yes..." Mimi said looking at the two boys.

"Ace!" the boy in the blue said, pumping his left arm. "Yoshino is going to totally be jealous!"

"Well, we're here to help." the boy in the red said, ignoring the boy in blue. "I'm Marcus, this is..."

"I'm Kouki." the boy in blue said jumping down from the Greymon and landing on the roof top.

"I was going to say that, if you'd give me a second!" Marcus said as he skidded down the Greymon's arm, sliding down the large cannon and landing on the edge of the fringe of the building.

"I don't need you introducing me!" Kouki shouted glaring at the boy in red.

"Mimi, this is Cory, we've done our last pass through the Bronx, it's clear." a voice hissed over the walkie-talkie.

Mimi snapped out of her stupor and picked up the walkie-talkie. "Thanks, Cory, see you back at base, over."

The two bickering boys looked to Mimi, and walked up to her. "You need any additional help?"

"I think we've got it for now, just waiting for Harlem to report in." Mimi said with a smile. "You aren't one of the kids I know though..."

"Well, no, we came from Washington DC." Marcus said, he looked to Kouki. "We, umm, worked for a group named HYPNOS."

"Worked?" Mimi narrowed her eyes.

"Well, we were recruited, by the government. Been helping to get the government prepared for this stuff and fighting digimon when they come across the breach. But we weren't ready for the dragon invasion, or rather weren't ready for that ship. DC fell, in the first four hours." Kouki explained. "HYPNOS headquarters was overrun, our director..." Kouki's fists tightened. "That assault ship, we couldn't stop it. Our last order from our boss was to find the Chosen Children. He believed you were the only ones that could stop it. We've been travelling since...fortunately we got to the Baltimore safe-line before the second wave hit."

"Baltimore safe-line?" Mimi shook her head. She had to admit she was a bit out of the loop.

"Yeah, seems that the other digi-destined in the Northeast have set up a front line stretching from Baltimore to Lake Eerie, and it was holding when we flew past it," Marcus said, picking up the conversation, "but that was, what five hours ago, and way before this second wave hit."

"I feel we'd know if the line broke though." Kouki said, narrowing his blue eyes at Marcus.

"Oh because you're such a mastermind?" Marcus growled, turning on Kouki.

"More so than you!" Kouki retorted.

"Guys!" RizeGreymon sliced its cannon between the boys. "Not in front of the Chosen Child!"

The two boys looked at RizeGreymon and then to Mimi and Lillymon. The two boys then blushed brightly and rubbed the back of their heads, apologizing.

"Yo, Meems, we've finished our search, don't see any drag-heads." a voice shouted over the walkie-talkie.

"Right, thanks umm...Jerome..." Mimi said trying to remember the boy's name.

"J-Dawg, girl, you know it!" the voice came over the radio.

Mimi grimaced slightly. "Right, meet you back at the base..." Mimi sighed, "...J-Dawg..." Mimi turned to Marcus and Kouki. "You're welcome to come and join us."

"We have two others with us, when we were last in contact they said they were with your friend Sora...I think it is..." Marcus said.

"I'll tell Michael, but we should be getting back, we don't want the others to worry." Mimi said, nodding.

"Want a lift?" Kouki said extending his arm back to RizeGreymon.

"Thanks, I'm beat!" Lillymon replied before Mimi could respond, the fairy glowed, turning into a small green digimon with a flower for hair, and hopping onto RizeGreymon's cannon and running up to the dinosaur's shoulder. "Come on, Mimi!"

Mimi smiled to herself and shook her head before approaching RizeGreymon. The cyborg dinosaur extended its other hand and she stepped daintily onto the dinosaur's palm, followed by Marcus and Kouki. Mimi pointed in the direction of their base. A few blocks down the street. The dinosaur digimon's jets roared to the life and the group of children rushed in the direction Mimi pointed.

888

Gumdramon shuffled uncomfortably in the darkened shadows that bathed the bridge against faded red illumination from multiple monitors. He looked up at the darkest part of the shadows to the figure towering over him in the captain's chair. He clasped his hands in front of himself and swallowed a few times.

"You have a report for me?" the voice from the chair called down like a mountain avalanche.

"Umm, yes..." Gumdramon shifted against and rubbed the back of his head with his clawed hand. "Good news first, we've utterly flattened this city. The military forces here have been eliminated. The government offices have been destroyed. There are no survivors." Gumdramon gulped slightly waiting for the captain to say something. Nothing was said. Gumdramon sighed quietly and shook a little in place as he continued. "However, our forces are having a hard time breaking forth to the north. The second wave seems to have not taken a bridgehead in the north at all. Reports would suggest that the Chosen Children are in a city called New York."

The tall shadow grunted a disinterested grunt.

Gumdramon gulped again. "Other dragon forces across the country are struggling to hold their advances. It really is only here and on the west coast that we've established a bridgehead. Our forces in Colorado are being pushed back to the east. Our forces in Texas are being pushed south. Our forces in, Georgia while holding position, are trapped against the coast. Our forces in Minneapolis are being stymied by a blizzard."

The shadow grunted again.

"We are being called to assist, sir." Gumdramon stated quietly.

A large finger that looked not unlike the barrel of a gun pointed down to Gumdramon. The little dragon gulped as the gun-port pointed at his face.

"Tell the Tankdramon to bring us around. We shall head to this New York." the voice thundered. "Once the chosen are defeated the morale of the rest will fall. This ship will break the defensive line to the north, our forces will swarm up the coast, eradicating all resistance in the way."

"Yes, sir." Gumdramon said, his eyes not leaving the large cylindrical hole that was pointed at him. "Umm, could you not point at me...please...I'm afraid you'll go off...sir."

The large cannon-like finger disappeared back into the shadows.

Gumdramon bowed slightly and then turn and fled back into the shadows.

888

"SORA!" Mimi's voice nearly screamed across the hotel lobby. Sora looked up and saw the teenage girl rushing through the throngs of children and digimon in her green winter's jacket. Before Sora knew it Mimi had her arms around her in a tight hug. Palmon was pushing through the kids as well. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"I...saw you a week ago..." Sora said slightly embarrassed at the attention she was getting.

"It feels like years." Mimi said hugging Sora more tightly.

"Everything went ok? No problems right?" Mimi said, finally letting Sora go.

"Well..." Sora looked back at Ivan and Yoshino. "We did run into one dragon digimon..."

"Two dragons..." Ivan said, the hulking blonde crossed his arms over his chest.

Sora looked over to Michael and Betamon. There was a bandage on Betamon's forehead, on a couch a little further over and Tatum the blonde girl that had arrived with Michael was sitting with a purple digimon that looked like Patamon. "There were...some misunderstandings." Sora looked back to Mimi. "No long lasting issues though."

"Good, have you eaten? I suppose the time difference is a bit weird..." Mimi said as she took Sora's hand and led her towards a doorway to the side of the lobby. The two of them and Biyomon and Palmon slipped out of the lobby and into a small darkened dining room. There were some candles burning giving a flickering warm glow. "Sorry, about the candles, but there's no electricity, really. The hospital is the only place with electricity but that's all generator produced. I guess this place has one as well, but I made the decision to send what fuel we had to the hospital, they couldn't get it evacuated you see, and I thought that they may need it more than we would.

"The main lobby has a fireplace, which is what we've been using for heat...fortunately the ovens are all gas so at least we can cook."

"That's ok, it was similar in Odaiba...after the first strike." Sora said as she looked around. There were kids huddled around the tables eating from fancy plates in the half dark.

"Ten hours and things have come to be a bit of a third world country." Mimi said as she walked up to the end of a line of children. She turned and smiled to Sora. "But we're holding our own, more or less."

"So have you heard from the others?" Sora asked as she shuffled behind Mimi. She heard Mimi tut as the girl in the green jacket moved down the line and looked at the selection on the tables.

"It's what you get for being the leader, all the fruit has been taken..." Mimi sighed as she looked at the pot filled with beans in front of her. Mimi looked up at Sora. "No, nothing, other than from Ken when you arrived. However, communications have been a bit scatter shot, the dragons took out the broadcast transmitters, and the interference has knocked out the cell phones, and though the military has radios they are rather short range, and they won't let us use their satellite phones, if they can get them to work that is. Even these..." Mimi took one hand and reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her D-terminal, "don't always get through...sometimes they do though. I know that Wallace has been leading a campaign to retake the west coast, but he's stuck in the mountains somewhere. A kid named Joshua has been leading the digi-destined in Saint Louis outwards towards Chicago."

Sora simply nodded, she had to admit her concept of American geography was limited. Mostly she knew New York was in the northeast, Los Angeles was somewhere in the west in California, and Florida looked like something rude in the southeast. Everything else was a vast expanse of America that all rather seemed like a giant melting pot of grain from what she could remember of social studies classes.

"Then these kids I found today said that they were from Washington DC..." Mimi said as she spooned some pasty gravy onto a set of biscuits. She seemed to stare into the bubbling grayish substance, she looked up at Sora. "They said that there's a defensive line holding from Baltimore to Lake Eerie, so...it could be worse."

"So you met some others from Washington DC then?" Sora whispered, she saw the two teenagers she'd met in Central Park move into the dining room. They were followed by a blonde boy in a blue hoodie and a brunette boy in a red shirt.

"Yeah, from what I gather they were part of some sort of program." Mimi said, less surreptitiously than Sora. Mimi looked up and then turned and walked towards a table. Sora followed her and sat next to her at the table. Mimi leaned over to Sora. "The others don't need to know right off that Washington DC fell..."

"Right..." Sora said as her eyes stayed on the kids from Washington DC. "They said they were here to help us."

"Yeah, their boss, thought we were the only hope." Mimi said, as she started to eat. "I guess he's right...kinda?"

"I wish we knew if Koushiro was right." Sora said quietly, looking down at her own plate. She wasn't entirely sure when she'd picked the food but she had. She looked over to Biyomon who was eying the food and slid the plate over to the pink sparrow, which ate quickly. "I mean, about this DNA digivolution thing."

"Izzy's never been far off before!" Mimi said smiling. Sora could see Palmon eating quietly on the other side of the girl.

"Even so..." Sora looked from Biyomon to Palmon, and then she looked to Mimi.

It was at this time she realized that the kids from HYPNOS were walking towards them with their digimon in tow. They shifted chairs around the table that Mimi and Sora were at and then sat down. Their digimon sat at an adjacent table.

"So, this is your base?" the boy in the red shirt said.

"It is for now." Mimi replied, smiling.

"Where's the National Guard?" the blonde boy in blue asked.

"They left with the evacuation, there's a colonel and a small group of people down at the hospital, and I think some engineers." Mimi said as she ate.

"I saw that hospital; it should've been evacuated with everyone else..." The boy in red said.

"It was one of the areas initially hit when the dragons moved in. There wasn't time." Mimi replied quickly, she put her silverware down. "We barely could hold it in the first wave. Fortunately the second wave tried further north. I guess the hospital and its patients are stuck now."

"Is the electricity off all over the city?" The hulking mass Sora knew as Ivan asked.

"I suppose there could be places where the electricity is still running, but we assume the power grid is completely down." Mimi replied. "Unless it has a maintained generator that is..."

"That's not good..." Ivan said furrowing his blonde eyebrows.

"What do you mean?" Yoshino asked looking up at Ivan.

"It means that regardless of how well we hold off the dragons, we may still lose the city." Ivan replied. "The city is built on a marine marsh, the subways and underground network need to have pumps constantly running or water will flood the subways and sewers and eventually tear the city apart."

"I think I remember the colonel saying something about it..." Mimi said, she twisted her lips slightly. "Either way I haven't been worried about it, and we really haven't had time to consider it, since we only had an hour or two between waves. I've been more concerned about keeping everyone comfortable, which without water is difficult, if you catch my drift. I've tried talking to the colonel about it but he's...not always helpful."

"Wow!" the blonde in blue looked at Mimi. "Pink Ranger's got her stuff down! I thought for sure we'd be dealing with princess of the ball, but between your digimon handling that Cyberdramon like a pro, and this...I've gotta say I'm impressed."

"Umm...Pink Ranger?" Mimi blinked at the boy and then looked to Sora.

Sora was simply staring at the table in front of her. The boy wasn't wrong. Sora was half expecting to see Mimi in a frilly pink dress. Something inside her made her wish she was.

"Code name..." Yoshino said quickly.

"I don't understand..." Mimi looked at all four kids sitting across from her.

"Well..." the boy in red started.

"It's silly really..." Yoshino tried to interrupt.

"We kinda made up silly names for all you guys..." Ivan said, as he pulled a small duffle bag up onto the table and opened it and pulled out files. "You and Sora are the Pink and Yellow Ranger, partially because you're the girls of the group...and partially..."

"IVAN!" Yoshino yelped.

"Partially what?" Mimi asked looking intently at the boys.

"From what we can gather, you're mildly useless to the team." the boy in blue replied.

"KOUKI!" Yoshino yelled.

"Useless?" Mimi's eyebrows quirked.

"Not useless just...inconsequential." the boy in red replied. "I mean take you, Mimi, you're pretty, you're kinda ditzy, you need saving...and you've got a relationship with one of the leaders of the group...basically you're the Pink Ranger from Power Rangers."

"MARCUS!" Yoshino yelped, she then sighed and placed her head in her hands. "This is the worst..."

"And then there's the Yellow Ranger..." Marcus turned to Sora. "Athletic, competent, but isn't remarkable, generally can hold her own until the real threat of the episode shows up then needs the leader or someone else to save her. Obviously once or twice she's the hero...but the defining characteristic here is unremarkable, like the Yellow Ranger, whom neither me nor Kouki could remember who did the acting for that character only to find out that they'd changed the actress at one point, substantially, and let's be honest here, my kid sister watches the Power Rangers...and I'd forgotten that they'd changed actresses...that's how remarkable the Yellow Ranger is...so remarkable that I didn't remember they'd changed the actress. Basically, no one remembers the Yellow Ranger."

"Mimi, Sora, I'm so sorry! This was not my idea, the boys came up with these 'codenames' without me!" Yoshino placated, putting her hands up, glaring at the boys. "I mean they are glossing over some important things..." Yoshino doubled down on her glare at the boys. "Some really important..."

"No, they aren't entirely wrong." Mimi said, almost cheerfully. "I was and am, really a bit of a girly girl. The boys and Sora have saved me lots. I couldn't even handle Cherrymon on my own last year." Mimi folded her hands in front of herself. "I ran away during the fight with the Dark Masters. I wasn't exactly the model hero when we were on Server, or on File Island. Even this year, I had some troubles when the dragons started becoming a real threat. "

"Mimi..." Sora looked over to her peer.

"However, part of being a digi-destined is working through that." Mimi said. She looked at the four kids from Washington DC. "When I realized that the dragons weren't going to 'go away' I started talking to the others in New York, started putting together plans and ideas for defending the city if the day ever came when we would be facing a real invasion. I wasn't going to let last Christmas happen again. I'm a Chosen Child, I can't ignore that responsibility, especially when it comes to protecting my friends and family and the innocent people. It isn't who I am; it never really was."

Sora didn't say anything as she looked at Mimi. She could only be surprised. Mimi has grown up so much, in such a short amount of time.

"Right, so I think you and you," Mimi looked at Marcus and Kouki, "said something about a ship?"

"Yeah...it obliterated Washington DC." Ivan said, maybe slightly loudly. The other kids at the surrounding tables looked up.

"Yes, did everyone get out?" Mimi asked, in a hushing manner.

"Civilians and government officials yes, were evacuated over three days ago." Yoshino replied, she coughed and sat up straight. "As per Policy 39."

"Policy 39?" Sora asked looking bewildered at everyone else at the table. Mimi simply shrugged.

"After the Odaiba fog incident, and the World in the Sky incident, the US government deemed that this 'other world' could potentially be a threat, as such protocols were put into place to allow for the US government to survive a potential incursion and attempt to manifest an effective counterstrike if said incursion were successful in disrupting US governmental sovereignty of its territory." Ivan said almost from rote memory as he shuffled files that he'd taken from his duffle bag. "This includes the evacuation of a quorum of senators, federal court justices and of course the chief executive. It also created the HYPNOS organization, that monitors the activities of the other world. Tangentially it puts together evacuation plans for all major metropolitan areas, and initiates military protocols. The policy was tested both during the Diablo Virus Event and last year's Christmas Invasion. Needless to say neither went as expected."

"That's why they recruited us!" Kouki said, as the blonde thumbed his nose haughtily. "Training us so we could fight the monsters when it was discovered that the military hardware wasn't up to the task."

"I see." Sora said looking to Mimi. "What about the other digi-destined in Washington DC?"

The four teenagers broke eye-contact and looked at the table. Yoshino was the first to respond. "Like we said, we weren't expecting a ship. The city was razed. We can hope that most of them got out...but..."

"You said your boss sent you here to find us, what do you want us to do?" Mimi asked, steepling her fingers in front of her and pushing the conversation forward. "We're in the same boat as you more or less."

"We'd gotten some reports, before DC fell apart, from Asia that Chosen Children turned the tide." Marcus said. "We guess that's you guys."

"Not us..." Sora said looking to Mimi. Then a light flashed in her mind. "Koushiro and Jyou...though!"

"You think it worked?" Mimi said smiling to Sora.

"Must have..." Sora said, a flicker of hope jumping on her heart.

"What worked?" Yoshino asked quietly.

"Our friend Koushiro thought maybe us Chosen Children could DNA digivolve our Ultimate digimon into Mega digimon, to combat the Mega digimon that are leading the dragon armies." Sora said quickly. "Like the Mega digimon that is undoubtedly in command of the ship that took Washington DC."

"MIMI!" a voice shouted from the edge of the dining room. Sora looked up to see Michael with his head poking through the door. "I need you to come in here...there's a digi-destined here that wants to talk to you."

888

"Ttch!" Jonathan crumpled onto the pavement of the alley.

"Brother!" Sammy turned and caught the fifteen year old boy as he tumbled forward. The boy's dark black hair brushed against Sammy's face as he braced against the younger brother. A small dinosaur made out of transparent building blocks rushed alongside Sammy and helped lift the teenager. Sammy looked down at the torn jeans that clung to the teen's calf with a crimson-purple stain. "We have to stop. Your bandages have come undone, you're bleeding."

Jonathan growled softly as he leaned slightly to the side and fell on his butt to the ground and wincingly arched his injured leg. He slowly rolled the pant sleeve up, revealing the large red claw mark that gashed across his calf. His entire leg was a flaming red. The assumed bandages were twisted and dirty and completely saturated.

Sammy reached forward, and Jonathan, viper quick, snatched the younger boy's arms. However, Sammy felt the pulsating heat throbbing from the leg. Sammy looked to Jonathan's face, the sweat was trickling down his brother's face, in spite of the freezing temperatures.

"Damn it!" The fifteen year old screamed, as the blood poured from the wound. He was breathing hard.

"We should go to the hospital tent." Sammy said, his small hands holding his brother upright.

There was an explosion in the distance, or rather a larger explosion than the constant low rumble of battle that ricocheted up from the Chesapeake bay. Jonathan's dark brown eyes looked up. Sammy followed them upwards seeing the snaking shadows in the smoke. Dawn was weakly breaking to the east, though the clouds and the smoke concealed most of it.

"Flaming Arrowheads!"

"SHIT!" Jonathon shouted as he grabbed Sammy by the arm and threw him against a dumpster and covered the younger boy with his body.

The entire block exploded into fire. Sammy curled up, his hands over his head as the nearby buildings exploded. The thunder of bombardment washed past them and further to the north.

"Johnny are you ok?" Sammy asked as he wormed out of his brother's grasp.

"I can't run anymore..." Jonathan whispered, as he rolled over and laid on his back. "My leg's shot. If they are this far north then Camden has fallen...you know what that means..."

"You can't know that!" Sammy shouted, as he tried to put himself under his brother's arm.

"Omar and RookChessmon are gone..." Jonathan looked at the D-3 he was holding in his hand. Sammy could just make out the static flickering on the screen. "I can't protect you...I can't run. Someone has to tell the Chosen Children that the dragons are coming."

"I can protect you!" Sammy shouted, glaring at his brother. "ClearAgumon can..."

"I will just be more weight...and slow him down." Jonathan said, shaking his head.

"Then let me get someone, we have to get you to someplace that can patch you up..." Sammy retorted.

"There's no time..." Jonathan whispered, as he pushed the boy away. "I've lost too much blood al-" Jonathan coughed, wincing. His eyelids lifted heavily and looked up at Sammy and swallowed drily. "I won't make it. I'll just slow you down, you need to get to New York, you have the map still, right?" Sammy looked down at his brother and nodded. Jonathan smiled weakly and lifted his hand putting it lightly on Sammy's. "Then you have to go."

Sammy shook his head, tears were welling up in the corner of the seven year old boy's eyes. He felt the hot streaks slice down his cheeks, followed by the icy flush as a cold wind blew across the tracks.

"I'm not leaving you, brother." Sammy cried, grabbing his brother's arm and trying to drag him up to his feet. Jonathan grunted as he pushed back. ClearAgumon stood back looking at the two of them.

"No, I can't..." Jonathan grunted.

"HU-MAN - CHIL-DREN DE-TECT-ED!" the mechanical voices screeched from the street at the of the alley. This was followed by the clank of armored feet.

"You need to leave now!" Jonathan growled. He glared at ClearAgumon. "You get him out of here, you get him to New York, you protect him!"

"I'm not leaving you!" Sammy shouted.

"HU-MAN CHIL-DREN ONE HUN-DRED MEE-TERS A-HEAD! WEAPONS CHARGED!" droned the voice as small red-sighting lasers flickered from the shadows.

"GO NOW!" Jonathan shouted. He weakly reached out into the shadows and found a large piece of pipe on the ground near the dumpster and used it to brace himself onto his feet. He staggered out from behind the dumpster. Jonathan turned his head to ClearAgumon, looking at the digimon intently.

The toy-dinosaur gulped and nodded. A light filled Sammy's vision as the small digimon digivolved into a lean, lithe, ice-skating digimon that Sammy knew as Rinkmon. Before Sammy knew it he was in Rinkmon's arms and the digimon was skating away to the far side of the alley towards another a street.

"YOU CAN'T!" screamed Sammy as he wrestled against Rinkmon's grasp. "YOU CAN'T! GO BACK! GO BACK!"

Sammy saw the silhouette of his brother standing forward. Then there was the call to arms from the SEALSdramon. Rinkmon swooshed around the corner of the alley, as electric blue lights flashed in sizzling pulses from the alley. Rinkmon held Sammy tighter as the boy froze in horror and then a second later exploded into kicks and punches as the digimon sped up, cutting his bladed feet against the icy ground.

888

Mimi, Sora, Michael and the kids from Washington DC were standing around the black-haired seven year old. He was sniffling as he finished his story. The skin on his face was still red with tear streaks and his eyes were puffy. The small translucent digimon next to him, didn't look anyone in the eyes, opting to stare at the carpet as if in shame.

Mimi knelt down in front of the boy and gently ran her hands through his hair before slowly and carefully hugging him. The boy started to cry again as she hugged him tightly, rubbing his back. She let him simply bawl for several minutes, not shushing him or trying to soothe him, but rather just letting the child cry as loudly and freely as he needed. After the boy's tears had started to wane and devolve into random bouts of hiccupping Mimi pulled back and looked the boy in his eyes. The boy sniffled some more and Mimi stood up and asked for one of the other children to take the boy into the dining room for something to eat.

She looked to the other children that were encircled around her.

"What are we going to do, Mimi?" Michael asked, looking back towards the dining room. "If the dragons are coming, with their ship..."

"We have to fight them, right?" Marcus said, looking at the others. Kouki was nodding.

"How?" Sora asked, pointedly. "You said that you guys couldn't do anything against it."

"That was then." Marcus rebutted. He looked at Yoshino and Ivan, the two older children didn't make a move. "Come on, we can't give up and run away with our tails between our legs, that's not the manly thing to..."

"I have more than ego to worry about." Mimi said, quietly cutting Marcus off. She looked Marcus in the eyes. She looked to Sora. "But we can't just run away." Her eyes lifted back to the door that the little boy had been led to. "I-I - need some air."

Mimi turned and walked towards the doors of the hotel lobby. Sora ran after her. The others didn't move. Sora pushed through the hotel doors and into the cold morning. She shivered as a wind whistled down the empty street between high-rises. Mimi was walking determinedly down the street, hunched forward, head down, hands deep in the pockets of her green coat. Sora jogged after her. She had the vague sense that Biyomon and Palmon were padding along behind her. She turned and indicated to the digimon that they hang back and the two digimon slowed down trailing behind but never really stopping.

"Mimi..." Sora finally said as she caught up with the girl. "Are you ok?" Mimi looked up at Sora as if she had two heads. Sora broke eye contact and weakly tutted to herself. "That was a stupid question huh?"

"He was just a little boy..." Mimi said as she continued to walk forward, with a definite destination in mind. "No older than TK was when we were in the Digital World the first time." She looked at Sora. "For him to see that...it's...it isn't right."

"We're not that much older than him, and younger than his brother." Sora said, looking forward as they walked down the middle of the empty, silent street.

"I know." Mimi said quietly. Sora saw her purse her lips in thought. "I need to show you something." She looked up at Sora. "Everyone thinks I've grown up...and maybe I have." Mimi looked forward. Sora looked up and saw the hospital further down the street. "I'm not so sure that I have."

They continued to walk quietly as they approached the hospital. Mimi walked towards the front doors. There were sandbags placed around the base of the hospital. Mimi waved to the men dressed in military fatigues as they got closer. The men seemed to ignore the waving, a couple nodded slightly, one may have saluted, though it was quick and half-hidden. The automatic doors didn't open and Mimi reached up to a small hand-hold on the front of the door and grunted pushing the doors open. She and Sora squeezed through the doors. The hospital was silent for the most part, most of the lights were off. However, Sora could detected the hushed sounds of whispers and frantic shifting of nurses on rounds somewhere in the distance.

Mimi continued down a hall, walking down some stairs. Sora was close behind. They continued down the stair well.

"This place was supposed to be evacuated with everyone else." Mimi said quietly, as she stopped at one of the corners of the stairwell. "We were helping evacuate people out of the city when the dragons attacked. That's how I met Colonel Wainwright. The dragons came through the breach almost on top of this hospital. I decided that we needed to hold this hospital, the hope being we could get the patients out, or at least keep them from being slaughtered." They came to the bottom of the stairs. Mimi walked forward to a heavy metal door. Sora's English wasn't very good, though the D-3s translated spoken languages, they evidently didn't have a knack of translating written language. Mimi reached up slowly and pushed the doors open. There were tables laid out inside the room. Mimi turned and looked to Sora. "I had a choice, you see, there were these digi-destined, they got trapped behind the dragons' line. The dragons were bombarding this area, we were barely able to hold the hospital, it took everything we had to push back. There simply wasn't anything we could do..." Mimi's eyes searched Sora's, looking for something. She turned and took a step towards the room stopping short of breaching the doorway. She looked down and clutched her hands into fists. "I couldn't send anyone to save them...I had to choose, save the digi-destined or protect the people trapped here in this hospital." Mimi turned to Sora. "What would you have done, Sora?"

"I-I..." Sora looked into Mimi's eyes, the depths opened and Sora saw the truth. "Mimi..."

Mimi turned and looked into the room. She took a step into the room. Sora followed slowly, stopping at the doorway. Mimi looked at the wall of cabinets on the far side of the room. Sora could see that on the table there were forms under the blankets, hidden just out of view, but their shapes belied the nature of the forms underneath, small, human shapes.

"I am the leader of the New York digi-destined. I made a decision." Mimi turned and looked to Sora. "They look to me, Sora. They treat me like we treat Tai, but I'm not Tai." Mimi looked to the cloaked forms laying on the tables around her, tears were forming at the corners of her eyes. She pointed to the tables. "Sora...this was me...I did this."

"Mimi..." Sora closed in on the girl. "You can't think like that, not now. You didn't do this. The dragons did this."

Mimi leaned forward as Sora hugged her. Mimi's tears dripped on Sora's jacket. "I made the decision to ignore their calls for help...there had to be a better way."

"Mimi, you did what you could, you saved all those people upstairs." Sora said, trying to comfort Mimi. Sora gently stood back and looked Mimi in the eyes. "I don't know if I could've made the same decision in your place. I think I may have been frozen...you did something that needed to be done at the moment, you chose."

Mimi sniffed loudly and nodded. She looked over to the tables. "I just wish...there was something we could do."

"There is," Sora looked at Mimi, "we win."

Mimi nodded quietly. The two of them left the room and Mimi closed the doors behind them. She looked to Sora. "First thing we need to do is evacuate this hospital. If the dragons are coming then we need to get these people out of here."

"Right." Sora said smiling. "I'm surprised they didn't try as soon as possible..."

"We haven't had much of a chance, there was only a couple of hours between when we finally cleared the first wave and when the second wave hit." Mimi said as they climbed the stairs. "We may not get another chance if that ship arrives, we need to start now. I'll talk to Colonel Wainwright, I need you to go back to the hotel and get the others ready."

"Right!" Sora said as they came to the ground floor and stepped into the hallway. Sora stopped and looked at Mimi and smiled. "Mimi-" Sora said, and Mimi turned and looked at Sora.

"Yes?" Mimi asked, looking at Sora.

"In case you're ever unsure, you have grown up." Sora said and she started to walk down the hall to the front doors of the hospital.

888

"Right, I talked to Colonel Wainwright." Mimi said. She sat at a table with Sora, Michael, Tatum and the children from Washington DC. "Good news first, as they say, he agrees that we should get the patients out of New York, evacuation is already underway, we're hoping it'll be finished within the next three hours."

"That's great." Michael said smiling.

"He also said that he's been in contact with what military forces remain..." Mimi continued ignoring the small cheer form Michael. Her face was stern. "The dragon ship is coming here, there's no doubt." Mimi took a deep breath. "The greater Baltimore area is a death zone, the defensive line is shattered, and Tankdramon and other dramon digimon are executing any digi-destined they encounter, no questions asked, no surrender offered. Projections are that fatal casualties are near ninety percent."

"My god..." Kouki said, sitting back against his chair. The blonde seemed truly winded by the news.

"The ship is shielded, and heavily armed." Mimi powered through, ignoring the others' reactions. She looked up. "So far no one has been able to penetrate the shielding."

"Has anyone seen what kind of Mega digimon we're dealing with?" Sora asked, looking to Mimi.

"No..." Mimi said, she swallowed hard. "I've called you guys here, because, we need to really think about what our next move is."

"We fight." Marcus said, sitting forward, his fists pressed against the table.

"We can't, that ship hasn't gotten any weaker." Yoshino said, looking to the others. "We've seen it, it's huge. It'll flatten New York like it did Washington and Baltimore."

"If we don't fight it, it'll just rampage up the coast, and then go from city to city." Marcus growled, looking to Yoshino. "This isn't a time to pussyfoot around!"

"This isn't pussyfooting about, Marcus!" Yoshino retorted, glaring at Marcus. "There's a difference between cowardice and going into a suicidal situation!"

"This isn't suicide!" Marcus returned. "We have the Chosen Children, they'll DNA digivolve their digimon and we'll win!"

Sora and Mimi looked at each other, and then down to Palmon and Biyomon. The two then sat uneasily.

"It's...not that simple." Sora said quietly.

"What do you mean?" Marcus asked.

"There's a level of tact to DNA digivolution." Sora replied, she looked over to Mimi. "At least as I'm led to believe from our friends. Our hearts have to synchronize...or something. We've never done it before...which means we're not sure it will work or what will be produced..."

"It can't be that hard, I did it with that knucklehead." Marcus said throwing a thumb at Kouki.

"OI! If anyone is the knucklehead here it's you!" Kouki retorted, raising out of his chair, Marcus responded in kind.

"Sit down the both of you!" Yoshino sniped.

"So, if it is down to synchronization of hearts does that mean..." Ivan looked over to Yoshino.

"NO!" Yoshino grumbled and shook her head. She returned to looking at Marcus. "So you see, we can't be sure that we can stop the ship!"

"At least not with brute force..." Michael said, the blonde New Yorker said, tapping his chin.

"What do you mean?" Tatum asked, the girl looked quizzically at the boy.

"What if we engaged in some sabotage?" Michael asked, as he looked down at Betamon.

"Sabotage?" The others looked up at him.

"Betamon digivolves to Seadramon and with Tatum and Tsukaimon's help he further digivolves to MegaSeadramon..." Michael said quietly. "Surely the dragons would lower the shield to let one of their own in, right?"

"Possibly, the dragons have shown a level of fidelity but also ferocity in dealing with their own kind." Ivan said, rubbing his chin. "They might lower the shield to let one of their own in, but I don't see how this will help, they'd just raise the shield again and trap your digimon inside."

"It's only a trap if you don't want to be inside of it." Michael said, as he scanned the others.

"You mean..." Tatum was the first to catch on.

"If we get inside, MegaSeadramon can attack the ship from the inside." Michael said. "Maybe we take out the power core or the shields." He turned to Mimi. "You said Koushiro sent you plans for the ship that the others ran into in the Digi-world right?"

"Yeah he sent them to all twelve of the Chosen Children." Mimi said, nodding. "But this ship could be different..."

"I doubt it..." Ivan replied. "These ships may be different superficially but I bet they use the same construction template. From what footage we saw just before the blackout hit, they all looked similar. Enough so that we could use that against them."

"That's still not ignoring one big problem." Sora spoke up, looking at Michael and at Tatum. "If MegaSeadramon does get in, and does this sabotage, the ship is crawling with dragon digimon, worse yet, the ship will be blowing up with MegaSeadramon inside." Sora looked to Betamon and Tsukaimon. "How does MegaSeadramon escape?"

"You mean how do we escape." Michael said, looking to the others. "We have to go with MegaSeadramon, our cameras won't work, neither will our radios. We'll have to be with MegaSeadramon to make sure we're at the right place. The only things that will function will be our D-3s and our D-terminals. Plus, I don't intend to let Betamon go into this without me there to back him up."

"No..." Mimi said, she stood up and looked down at Michael. The others looked up at Mimi.

"But..." Michael started.

"You could get killed." Mimi replied. She shook her head. "I can't let you do a suicide mission, it isn't worth it."

"You can't just shoot this down, it could be our answer to this whole thing." Michael replied. "If it saves the city..."

"We'll find another way." Mimi replied, curtly. "Sora and I can figure out this DNA Digivolution thing. No one has to die..."

"People are already dead, Mimi." Tatum said, the blonde girl looked meekly up to Mimi. "If Michael and I can do this, we could stop a lot more people dying..."

"We have to look at the plans, Mimi." Michael said quietly. "There could be some kind of access shoot or a coolant plate or something that would let us slip out before everything hits the fan."

"It's too dangerous!" Mimi replied. "I can't ask you to do this."

"Then don't ask, Mimi." Michael said, he looked at Mimi. "This is the only reliable strategy I can think of, and I've been thinking about this since that kid from Baltimore arrived. If we don't knock that ship out, it will do to New York what it did to Baltimore, what it did to Washington DC, and then it will go to Boston and onwards across the country. Maybe Tai and Matt get around to stopping it, or Hikari and Miyako, or Koushiro and Jyou, or Takeru and Iori, or Daisuke and Ken, but maybe they don't, either way lots of people will be slaughtered by that thing if we don't stop it sooner than later." Michael took a deep breath as he saw the look on Mimi's face, he turned his eyes downward. "I'm sorry, I..."

"I can't stop you." Mimi said quietly. She looked at Michael and Tatum. "I will send the file to your D-terminal." She turned and started to walk away.

"Mimi, just wait..." Sora started, getting up from her chair.

"Tell Steve and Phil, and Lou and Maria that they are escorting the last trucks out of New York." Mimi said as she started climbing the stairs that led to the hotel rooms on the upper floors.

Sora stopped and looked as Mimi disappeared up the stairs.

"I'll talk to her." Palmon said as she walked up to Sora's side. "Mimi's just stressed, she's been up for almost a day straight now. She needs her rest. Don't worry."

888

"Mimi..." Palmon walked slowly down the hall. The darkened hall was only lit by daylight, and long shadows were cast along the doors on the hallway. Mimi was standing in front of one of the doors. "Isn't that the room..."

"Yeah..." Mimi replied her eyes turned to Palmon's. "I don't think he needs to be here when that ship hits. I think he should go with the hospital evacuees. I just got done telling him he's to leave with the Phil and the others when the last trucks leave."

"Are you ok?" Palmon asked walking up to Mimi and reaching to her hand.

"I guess." Mimi said, biting her lip. "It's just. This plan is dangerous."

"Yes, it is." Palmon agreed.

"Michael, Tatum...they could be..." Mimi closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "There aren't that many people left in the city..."

"Why didn't you say that?"

"Because they are right." Mimi replied, sighing. She looked to Palmon. "If we don't stop them here, they'll keep going, and eventually they'll find a refugee camp or a shelter."

"So, then what's the problem?" Palmon asked.

"They are my friends." Mimi said shaking her head. "I can't...I don't want them to..." She growled and stamped her foot. "I can't order them to do something like that, or even let them think of...but I know that if we don't do something..."

"I know you only want to protect them." Sora's voice said, coming from the end of the hall. Mimi and Palmon looked up to see Sora and Biyomon walking towards them. The auburn haired girl looked at Mimi and smiled. "I learned though you can't shield people from danger when they see something worth fighting for." Sora looked down at Biyomon. "If you love them you gotta let them try to fight for themselves." Sora looked back to Mimi. "We're going to try our best to protect them and make sure they don't get hurt, but they have to fly for themselves eventually."

888

"Actually it looks like if we go straight up this core rod goes all the way up." Michael said trailing his finger over a electric screen along a schematic.

"The trick would be getting ourselves close enough to the top but also doing enough damage to the core to knock out the ship." Betamon said as he looked at the screen.

"I think you're ignoring the fact that this hull component represents like ten yards of metal, reinforced armor, wires, pipes and other structural obstacles." Ivan said crossing his burly arms over his wide chest. "Could MegaSeadramon blast through that?"

"And then there's the dragons on board." Tsukaimon replied his bat-like ear-wings flapping as the purple hamster hovered over the shoulders of the children.

"It will be like punching a hornets' nest from the inside." Tatum said sighing slightly as she looked at the screen.

"Cold feet?" Michael asked.

"You don't?" Tatum returned.

"Well..." Michael stopped and looked up at Tatum. His eyebrows bunched slightly. "I always assume that stuff like this will work. I mean with my dad..."

"Your dad is an actor and his stunts are choreographed." Tatum said, grumbling.

"Yah...but..." Michael stopped. He thought a bit, shook his head and looked back to the screen. "It has to work. They should be so surprised and busy trying to fix things to do anything as we escape."

"Not so easy being the action star when the action's real is it?" Marcus said with a smirk.

"I'm perfectly fine with the risk." Michael said looking up at the boy in the red shirt. "We can do this!"

"We don't have a lot of time to refine it." Ivan said as he looked at the screen. "That ship is probably on its way here, and there's really nothing stopping it."

"That's why we're doing this in the first place." Michael said, looking around at the others. "We have to stop it, and this plan will work."

"Not if we go into this blind." Michael and the others looked up and saw Mimi and Sora walking into the room.

"MIMI!" Michael and Tatum said.

"We need a perimeter." Mimi said as she walked to the table. "We need to talk to Colonel Wainwright, the army's weapons may not affect the ship or the stronger digimon but undoubtedly some of their equipment will be helpful." Mimi leaned on the table. "This isn't going to be easy, it isn't going to be safe, and I want to make sure everyone involved knows this. Michael go get the others, we will need as many people as we can get."

Michael nodded and got up and ran off.

888

"So, you think Meems has a thing for me?" J-Dawg said as he leaned against the air conditioning unit on the top of the building.

"No." The other boy said. He was in a loose green T-shirt, and blue jeans. His skin was dark brown, and his hair was cut tight against his scalp. The other boy looked up and shook his head at J-Dawg. "Jerome, she cringes when you drop lines on her."

"Nah, dawg, she just playin' hard-ta-get." J-Dawg replied. He shoved his gloved hands into the pockets of his black jeans, and used his shoulders to push off of the air conditioning unit. His hair was black and formed into a tight afro. "She made me leader after all."

"No, you kinda became leader after Terrell moved to Atlantic City." the other boy said as he turned his attention back to the D-terminal in his hands. "Plus, she has a boyfriend, doesn't she?"

"Oh come on, Tyrese, that boy is like way off in Japan, no way that long distance relationship is gonna work, right!?" J-Dawg said as he walked to the edge of the roof and looked out into the gloomy winter afternoon. "Plus, no way he could pack what I..."

"His partner is WarGreymon...they've known each other since they were kids." Tyrese said as he stood up and looked at J-Dawg. "Why you have to harass her, man? She's not interested. You've been at her for what, nine months, ever since she invited us over for that big conference. She's never been interested."

"Dude, why you bein' so rude?" J-Dawg turned and looked at Tyrese. "I just don' get it."

"Of course you don't, because you're so blind." Tyrese grumbled. He shook his head as he looked out towards the southern horizon. He looked to J-Dawg. "Jerome, just be yourself, you ain't no gang banger, you ain't no street kid. You're dad is a professor at a college! Your mom is an assistant district attorney. You live in the suburbs!"

"Dude..." J-Dawg hissed, and looked around furtively.

"Come on, no one is around." Tyrese said.

"Well, the others don't need to know." J-Dawg replied, folding his arms over his chest.

"Dude, the others know, the others can't not know..." Tyrese chuckled. "That's what I mean when I say you're blind. You think everyone is fooled by your 'game'." Tyrese motioned with his fingers when he said the last word. "Man, no one is trippin' enough to be fooled by your game." Tyrese leaned against the edge of the roof and looked at J-Dawg. "We don't listen to you because you're street, Jerome. We listen because we agree that you've got good ideas when you aren't being blind."

"Umm...guys..." A squeaky voice came over J-Dawg's D-3. "I think we've got contact..."

"Ya sure, Pips?" J-Dawg asked, grasping his D-3.

"I'm picking up the same signal." A second voice, this one mildly aristocratic, came from Tyrese's D-3. "Shall, Pipismon and I return?"

"Meems said to get confirmation." J-Dawg said, looking to Tyrese.

"Right, umm, how about a mile long triangle of metal cutting through the cloud bank?" the squeaky voice asked.

"What?" J-Dawg and Tyrese spun around and looked to the south. A black triangular shadow as cutting through the lower haze of the cloud bank. J-Dawg's fingers clutched the masonry. "Aww crap...it's about to get real!"

"Aurumon, let's get back, we'll fire the flare." Tyrese said as he ran back to the air conditioning unit.

"I can't believe..." the squeaky voice started.

"There's hundreds of them..." the aristocratic voice said.

"Hundreds of what?" J-Dawg called as he ran to Tyrese's side. The other boy was pulling out the flare gun, raised it above his head and pulled the trigger.

"Tankdramon!" the two digimon voices shouted.

"Get back now!" J-Dawg shouted. "Should we send a message to Meems?"

"We shot the flare." Tyrese said.

"Yeah but the flare's not gonna tell them about the Tankdramon." J-Dawg replied.

A large bat flew up from the side of the building, this appendages all ending in hooks. Next to it a cyborg, chunky owl flew next the bat. The two digimon looked back in the direction they came from.

"This is a lot worse than we thought!" the owl digimon said. "There are battalions of them!"

"Did they see you?" Tyrese asked as he ran to the edge of the roof. He could make out the movement of something slowly moving through the streets several blocks away, and could make out the distant sound of engines turning heavy wheels.

"No, I don't think so." The bat digimon said. "They are still quite a distance away, but they are moving unopposed. They will be here soon!"

J-Dawg looked up as he saw another flare fire further north, followed by three more. "We did our job. Let's get back to the others."

"Right!" Tyrese said, as he grabbed onto one of the bat digimon's arms. J-Dawg snagged the other arm. The bat opened its wings and flapped, launching itself off of the side of the roof and sweeping around cutting northward, the owl digimon close behind.

888

"Seadramon are attacking along the docks. Cory and his group are getting pounded though, asking if they should pull back." Shouted Marcus as looked up. The evening sky was flashing with firepower. "The ship is still hanging out towards the south over the harbor."

"Tell, Cory to hold his position as long as possible. " Mimi instructed and looked to Sora. "Now's the time!"

"Michael, Tatum, go now!" Sora said into the radio. She grasped her D-3 and lifted it to her lips. "Garudamon, when you see MegaSeadramon come over the skyline you go after him. Lillymon and the others will meet you on the way."

"This is going to work right?" Yoshino asked as she watched Lilamon glide up through the cement canyons.

"I guess we'll find out." Ivan said lifting a pair of high power binoculars to his eyes.

MegaSeadramon breached out of the Hudson River and wormed its way up into the sky. Soon Garudamon, Lillymon, RizeGreymon and Lilamon were rushing towards it. Flickers of energy flew past the MegaSeadramon as it twirled around attacks. A bolt of lightning lackadaisically flickered back towards the four Ultimate digimon, which they dodged.

MegaSeadramon rushed over the city and rushed towards the ship that was hanging above the harbor. Garudamon and the others charged after it. Puffs of smoke flew off its scales. MegaSeadramon contorted in response as the attacks fell. A blast of ice fired back towards the Ultimates. RizeGreymon twisted off as portions of its wings froze.

"Jeesh..." Ivan muttered as he watched. "I know we said make it look real, but..."

"Yeah, that's getting a bit 'on the nose'," Kouki said, lowering his binoculars and passing them to Marcus.

"We can't let up, if the dragons think this is a trick we'll have just sacrificed Michael and Tatum for nothing." Mimi said as she looked through a spy scope. "I just hope that they don't get hurt from all this."

"Let's hope the dragons take the bait." Sora said as she squinted and looked over in another direction. Several blocks away buildings were shuddering and explosions ripped through the air. Military artillery was going off, and popping against the metal bodies of Maildramon. "The line is coming closer this direction." She scanned the area. "I thought Jerome's group was supposed to be covering us..."

"We might have to evacuate this position." Ivan said. "Sora's right it's getting too close."

"Right, down the fire escape." Marcus shouted.

888

"Sir...we have a MegaSeadramon coming towards us..." Gumdramon said as the little purple digimon swept its clawed hands over a screen in front of it. "It is under concerted attack from the digi-destined digimon."

"Is it calling for assistance?" rumbled the voice from the shadows of the command chair.

"Umm, no, it's not responding to hails." Gumdramon reported.

"Hmmm."

"Communications could be scrambled." Gumdramon rationalized, as he furrowed his brow. "Shall I open a shield cell to let it in?"

"Target the destined digimon." grumbled the voice.

"Aye, sir, Tankdramon in the forward weapons array are acquiring targets." Gumdramon reported. "The MegaSeadramon is taking a lot of hits, sir, what shall we do about that?"

"Open shield grid 3 mark 4 mark 8." the voice replied after a few seconds of silence.

"Aye, sir, opening shield cell now!" Gumdramon yelped jumping to the direction. "Air-lock port is open!"

"Fire upon the destined digimon when ready." the voice replied.

888

"DIVE!" shouted Garudamon as spiraling beams of energy lanced out from the hull of the airship.

Lillymon and Lilamon rolled downwards as bolts sizzled past them. RizeGreymon growled loudly and returned fire with his revolver arm. The cannon blasts belched forward and exploded against the ethereal force against the ship. The air wobbled but the ship was unharmed.

"Did it work?" Lilamon asked as she glided past Garudamon. Garudamon hadn't realized how large Lilamon was until now. She was much larger than Lillymon who buzzed past Garudamon like a small fly. All three of them dipped and shifted around bolts of energy that flew past them.

"Look!" RizeGreymon rocketed backwards, passing Garudamon on the left. "MegaSeadramon is getting away into the ship!"

"Right, then our job is done." Garudamon said. The eagle-man digimon scanned the sky and saw the swarms of digimon near where they had left the kids. "The dragons have taken the command location...the kids could need us!"

"And we're not going to get anywhere like this." Lillymon said as she darted around laser bolts.

"Then we retreat." Garudamon said as she slashed her wings back and forced herself into a rapid dive towards the city below.

888

"I think we're in." MegaSeadramon whispered.

"Shh, I'll patch our D-terminal into your vision." Michael whispered in response. He walked forward and snatched a cable that hung down from somewhere on MegaSeadramon's inner body cavity. Michael shivered slightly in his slicker and slowly plugged the cable into the D-terminal. The device's screen flickered and fizzled before forming a rough black and white image. He looked over to Tatum, who was also in a rain slicker, and smiled. "This may actually work."

Tatum nodded slightly and walked over and looked at the D-terminal. "So this is what MegaSeadramon sees?"

"Err, kinda, it's more an interpretation," Michael said, slowly kneeling down. The 'ground' was squishy, from what Michael could gather they were somewhere just above MegaSeadramon's stomach. They were far enough from his mouth not to be frozen if he had to use his ice breath but not so far from MegaSeadramon's central nervous system that they couldn't patch into it for navigation. It still, however, required them to wade largely through digestive fluid and assorted gooeyness, "but for our purposes, yes this is what he sees."

"There are a lot of them." Tatum said as she pointed at the Tankdramon that seemed to roll beneath them. She gasped and pointed to the phalanxes of SEALSdramon marching down the corridor. "I didn't think there'd be that many..."

"Ignore them." Michael said, furrowing his brow. "MegaSeadramon keep going down this corridor, when it becomes a 'T' take the left, and then follow that. That should open up into the core generator room."

"Right." MegaSeadramon tried to say under his breath.

"How do you think the others are doing?" Tatum asked, curling up onto her haunches next to Michael.

"I don't know, the dragons are hitting us with everything so I suspect it's tough." Michael replied, as his eyes stayed locked on the D-Terminal.

"HALT!" a voice echoed through MegaSeadramon's body. The view of the screen swept down to a Tankdramon below him. "ARE YOU IN-JURED?"

"Uh..." MegaSeadramon's voice reverberated through the digimon's alimentary canal. "Nothing I can't handle."

"WHERE ARE YOU GO-ING?" the Tankdramon interrogated.

"I am going to tell the chief engineer about a destined plan to use a new weapon on the ship...he's in the engine room right?" MegaSeadramon replied, hesitantly.

"YOU CAN IN-FORM ME!" the Tankdramon replied.

"I...uh..." MegaSeadramon's voice wavered.

Tatum gulped hard and looked to Michael. Michael frowned.

"We don't have time for this..." Michael growled, staring at the screen. "Tell him you can't because you believe there's a spy onboard!"

"Are you nuts!?" yelped Tatum.

"It's not a lie." Michael said with a smirk.

"Yeah but it is a bit too close to the truth." Tatum replied.

"Go ahead, MegaSeadramon." Michael said.

"I can't...because the security of this ship has...been...compromised." MegaSeadramon said haltingly as he reiterated Michael's explanation.

"Com-pro-mised?" the Tankdramon restated. "EX-PLAIN!"

"No, I can't. Only the chief can be trusted!" MegaSeadramon replied and started to go forward, leaving the Tankdramon behind.

The Tankdramon trundled behind the serpentine digimon. MegaSeadramon grumbled as he got to the T intersection. The sea dragon turned left, slithering down the hall. The Tankdramon was incessant in its following of MegaSeadramon.

"Can't you shake him?" Michael hissed.

"Not in here, I'm hoping I can give him the slip when we get into the core room." MegaSeadramon replied.

"Should only be a few more feet." Michael said, as he watched the screen. The repeating arches slid past as MegaSeadramon snaked forward, finally they peeled away opening into a huge tube that seemed to extend upwards out of sight. Michael whistled slightly. "I still don't understand how they fit it all inside of the ship..."

As soon as MegaSeadramon entered the core room he swooped upwards, hoping to leave the Tankdramon behind. Around the periphery of the core room were ramps and bridges that intersected with the central column that glowed with power. Tankdramon and SEALSdramon moved around the inner sanctum like ants.

"Where do we need to be..." MegaSeadramon whispered.

"Three levels up, and then give them hell." Michael said.

"Right..." MegaSeadramon said as he glided upwards. Periodically a Shadramon would flutter past, carrying some sort of flat-computer pad.

MegaSeadramon rose up, curling around the center column, rising to the third level.

"We're here..." Michael said. "You have to hit it in three places, full blast."

"Got it." MegaSeadramon said.

"HALT!" the screeching voice of a Tankdramon raged behind MegaSeadramon. "Ex-plain your pres-ence!"

"Ok..." MegaSeadramon said as his jagged horn sparked to life. "THUNDER JAVELIN!"

Bolts of electricity flew forward smashing into the center column. The whole ship shuddered as explosions rippled up and down the column. A second and third blast smashed into the central column. The whole core room erupted into electronic screams as the lighting flickered and went out.

"GO NOW! UP!" shouted Michael as the D-terminal screen went dark.

888

"Power systems are failing!" Gumdramon screeched as he ran in the dark bridge. "The center column has been destroyed! The core is down!"

"How did this happen?" snarled the form in the middle of the bridge.

"Uh...well..." Gumdramon stopped. "According to the Tankdramon...it was...that...MegaSeadramon..."

"What?"

"It would seem that that MegaSeadramon...we let in...wasn't...one of ours...exactly." Gumdramon gulped.

"I see..."

"How could we know...I mean it's a simple mistake...anyone could've made it, sir." Gumdramon said, staring at the hands he kept entwining in front of his face. "I mean...it's probably kinda funny if you think about..."

"Gumdramon."

"Yes, sir?" Gumdramon looked up to the figure in the middle of the bridge.

"I am not amused." A revolver barrel pointed at Gumdramon. "Is the ship lost?"

"Auxiliary power is up, but...shields are down, weapons are done...and auxiliary will only last a few more minutes." Gumdramon said, shaking as the gun barrel stared him in the face.

"Yes, I just wanted to make sure." the shadow said. "This is most certainly not amusing."

"Please, sir, please don't..." Gumdramon pleaded.

The pleas were for not as the barrel glowed red. Gumdramon scrambled to run but the explosion caught the little digimon and the entire floor of the bridge exploded open. The shadow in the center of the bridge pushed forward. Its gun-metal body glistened against the flames. Two giant wing-frames composed of the bodies and barrels of guns closed slightly as it walked forward. The knees had small cannons projecting from it. Its tail was a cannon. Its two arms ended with long barreled revolvers rather than hands. Its metallic head even had two small horns that were small pistols.

"I will not be made a fool of." Growled the dragon as it pointed its arms upwards and blew a hole in the roof of the bridge.

888

"We can't break through!" Marcus grunted as he fell backwards as a Commandramon sliced its claws forward. Kouki flew past drilling his feet into the little army digimon. The digimon grunted as it staggered backward.

"Where's Jerome!?" Yoshino grunted as she swung a two-by-four at a Dracomon.

"Garudamon's bottled up with some Majiramon." Sora said as she stood back and watched Ivan kick a Monodramon.

"There's too many, we can't keep this up..." Mimi said as she looked around for an escape.

"V Headbutt!"

Everyone looked up as Ivan was sent toppling backwards. A black Veemon walked forward, snarling. It was followed by three more, and then a hulking ExVeemon. The winged dragon snarled, its wings flared.

"Not good..." Yoshino gulped as she backed up.

"Get off of me!" roared Marcus as he smashed his way through the Commandramon.

"You can't be thinking to..." Sora started as she watched Marcus charge towards the ExVeemon.

The gray dragon grunted as Marcus smashed his knuckles against its chest. The dragon lifted a knobby fist and swept Marcus away with a muscled backhand.

"Marcus!" Mimi yelped running towards the boy as he smashed against the wall of a building.

"Mimi, watch out!" Kouki shouted.

The ExVeemon folded its arms across its chest. "V-Laser!"

There was a pulse of light from the dragon's chest. Mimi leapt on top of Marcus as the light rushed forward. She gulped as the light illuminated the wall. Then there was darkness. Mimi heard Sora scream. Mimi winced and looked up to see the gold trimmed, blue double-breasted suit, the pale face with golden hair and a red bat-shaped mask covering the eyes. A high collared cape flared as the laser burned across the digimon's back.

"My-My-My..." Sora gasped.

The humanoid digimon snarled and twirled around, its gloved hands curled around a forming red vine of lightning. The lightning lashed outwards sweeping away the assorted Rookie digimon and smashed into ExVeemon. The winged dragon growled as it skidded backward. The humanoid digimon then curled its cloak together before releasing a black wave of chittering bats. The ExVeemon roared as it was blasted out of the alleyway into the street, dissolving into dust.

"Sorry guys!" Jerome and Tyrese ran around the corner. "We got caught up in a skirmish with some Tankdramon."

"That's...that's...that's..." Sora's eyes were wide in horror as she looked at the vampire digimon standing next to the two new kids.

"Uh, I should've told you..." Mimi said as she stood up. "Jerome and Tyrese's partners DNA digivolve into...well...a..."

"Myotismon..." Sora hissed as she took a step back.

"It's about time you got here!" Marcus grumbled as he slowly stood up. "We nearly got massacred!"

"But that's..." Sora said independent of Marcus.

"I know; it was a bit of a surprise when I first saw it too..." Mimi said as she reached up and gripped Sora's arm. "But this one is really kinda nice."

"But...it's...it's..." Sora said, still staring at the vampire digimon.

"I said we're sorry...Chantal and Denise got caught behind the bulge in the line, we had to punch back through to save them." Jerome said.

"If you don't mind." Myotismon said quietly, looking to Jerome and Tyrese. "I think I should help the others."

"Yes, of course My man." Jerome said with a smile.

Myotismon floated into the air and then flew off. As Myotismon flew off there came a huge explosion from the harbor. The kids looked up and ran out to the street. In the distance, they could see the giant dragon airship listing on its side. Smoke streamed from the top of the vessel.

"Quick, get your lenses on it; see if MegaSeadramon got out!" Mimi shouted grabbing Ivan's arm.

Ivan lifted his binoculars up to the ship. "Hmmm..."

"Well, did he get out? Did he!?" Mimi yelped.

"I think...I think I see him." Ivan said, squinting. "We're a bit far away, but there's a serpentine digimon, but...there's another digimon."

"Who?" Mimi yelped grabbing Ivan's binoculars and nearly choking the large teenager as she struggled to look through the lenses. "That's not one of our...oh...no.."

"What is it?" Sora asked.

"I think MegaSeadramon just got shot down..." Mimi said.

Garudamon dropped down next to the others with a grunt.

"Are you ok?" Sora asked as she looked up at the panting eagle-man.

"I'm fine, Myotismon...though..." Garudamon started.

"I had a similar reaction." Sora said.

"He's made a difference, cleared a lot of the dragons." Garudamon replied.

"Can you get us closer to the harbor, I think MegaSeadramon will need our help." Sora said.

"Right." Garudamon said lowering her hand down to the ground. "Get on."

"Right, I think Chantal, Denise and Bastemon can handle the leftovers." Jerome said as he ran to the eagle's taloned hand. "I'll text Devon and Marcello, and see if Matadormon can help sweep the area."

"Let's go!" grunted Marcus as he climbed on.

"Right!" Sora said as Garudamon pushed off.

888

It was a interesting situation, Michael had to admit. The feeling of suddenly 'inside' being no longer around and being surrounded by outside. Michael's head was still swimming as the energy from MegaSeadramon had split apart and left Michael and Tatum falling towards the harbor below. He looked over and saw Betamon unconsciously twisting in the air. Tatum was flailing trying to reach out to Tsukaimon who was also unconscious. Michael twisted around looking up. The dragon ship was listing on its side. Smoke was pouring out of the top of it. He saw the gun-metal dragon digimon that had attacked MegaSeadramon, resulting in their current condition. It wasn't a digimon Michael was familiar with.

He considered the fact that they were falling through the air. He looked down to the murky water below. He was pretty sure that the impact with the water would kill both him and Tatum. At the very best case it would shatter their skeletons, and then they would drown. He furrowed his brow as that thought wasn't as helpful as he had hoped it would.

"Michael!" Tatum shouted.

Michael turned his head and looked to Tatum. "We were so close!"

"What are we going to do?" Tatum shouted.

"Enjoy the ride..." Michael replied, smiling and pointing as a shadow past over his head, and he saw large brick red wings sweep past him.

"GARUDAMON!" Tatum shouted, waving her hands.

The large eagle-man digimon swooped around, matched speed with the falling humans and slid her hand under them and snatched them out of the air.

"Are you ok?" Garudamon asked as she flapped her massive wings.

"Betamon and Tsukaimon are unconscious but we're otherwise fine. We were attacked by that big dragon digimon up there." Michael said as he was hugged by Tatum.

"Yeah, Lilamon says that that digimon is called Gundramon." Garudamon replied as she lowered towards the docks below. "He's the general, and a Mega digimon. We're going to do our best to contain him."

"Contain him!?" yelped Tatum as she looked up at Garudamon.

She then looked up to the sky where the ship was still lazily hanging, though ever lower by the minute. There was a glint of metallic reflection as the setting sunlight bounced off of Gundramon's gun-metal body. The air was filled with artillery fire and the roars and growls of fighting.

"The others are bunkered down over in that warehouse, Cory and his group are with them." Garudamon said as she opened her wings, and with a flap that produced a gust of wind that nearly knocked Tatum and Michael to the ground the giant bird digimon was in the air, wheeling upwards towards the ship.

"Hurry, let's get going." Tatum said as she put Tsukaimon on her head, and grasped Michael's arm.

"Yeah, let's go." Michael said as he stooped down and picked up Betamon.

888

"So, any idea how this is going to work?" RizeGreymon asked, as he hovered below the ship.

"Gundramon's armament has one hundred percent coverage." Lilamon said, frowning. "His defense is nearly total that metal doesn't yield."

"We have to slow him down at the very least, to help cover any retreat." Lillymon said buzzing next to Garudamon's head.

"Maybe we can tie him up, literally." Myotismon said, looking to the others.

"Not a bad idea...new guy." Garudamon said, giving the vampire a sidelong look.

"Umm, I realize that I'm a Myotismon...but I'm not THAT Myotismon..." the vampire said clenching his fists slightly. "I don't want to drown the world in fog or kill any kids, I want to protect Jerome and Tyrese from this..."

"I'm sorry, it's just...a bit difficult to get past it..." Garudamon said.

"And that could work." Lillymon said, buzzing forward. "I could snag him with my Flower Wreath and you could get him with your..."

"Crimson Lightning..." Myotismon finished.

"Yeah...that." Lillymon said, unconsciously wincing when the phrase was side.

"You two would never get close enough." Lilamon replied, "He'd see you coming and his coverage is..."

"Yeah, yeah one hundred percent." RizeGreymon growled.

"Then we'll need a distraction." Garudamon said. "RizeGreymon, Lilamon and I will attack him head on, whilst he's distracted with us, Lillymon and...Myotismon will come in and try and tie him up. Then when tied down we'll try our best to smash him before he breaks free."

"That sounds like a plan." RizeGreymon nodded.

"How many times has this actually worked in the past?" Lilamon asked, looking to Garudamon and Lillymon.

"Umm...it worked on Orochimon that one time...and didn't so much on VictoryGreymon." Lillymon replied.

"It's still a plan," RizeGreymon said.

"Not a sterling plan!" Lilamon retorted.

"Better than none at all." Garudamon said, she looked to RizeGreymon and Lilamon. "On 'three' we break, got it. One, two, three!"

The three large digimon shot off upwards, breaching the side of the listing ship. Lillymon looked to Myotismon.

"Don't worry, we'll do it somehow." Lillymon said to the vampire. "I can't possibly understand how you feel, though, I can guess you must always feel a bit iffy considering how others will look at you."

"I'm not concerned about it, let's just get this done." Myotismon said quietly as he looked up.

888

The human mortar shells popped against Gundramon's metal skin. Each one was more or less a mosquito bite against his gun-metal body, and less than worthy of his notation. He looked down to his command ship, slowly sinking towards the harbor below. That worm of a MegaSeadramon was dealt with, and its human fleas were last seen falling below the smoke of the collapsing ship.

The plan may have been altered slightly but Gundramon was still going to flatten this city, and all other cities. He'd just have to use his own personal armory than that of his command ship. The bridgehead would still be made, and reinforcements would come from the Digital World. Once he had secured his bridgehead then the final order would be implemented. The planet would be sterilized. All resistance would be utterly crushed and his gods would replace the feeble life here with...

"TRIDENT REVOLVER!"

Three bolts of fire struck Gundramon's shoulder breaking him from his musings. Gundramon turned his head only to get pulses of green energy exploding into his face. A giant raptorial man flew in front of him and swerved around slashing his chest with a flaming set of talons. Gundramon snarled as the three digimon swooped around him. A scaly theropod foot kicked him in the face as a spray of pollen rushed around him making him cough as his respiratory bypasses plugged slightly.

"Wing Blade!"

A fiery phantom of a bird burned towards him, crashing into his chest. Gundramon slid backwards slightly to reassess the situation as the three Ultimate digimon swung around for another pass. Gundramon lifted his arm revolvers. In his computer-augmented vision he locked three cross-hatches on the three digimon.

"Crimson Lightning!"

A crimson whip wrapped around Gundramon's neck. He felt another burst of electricity wrapped around his legs. Gundramon snarled as he struggled against the bindings. He moved to point his revolvers towards the three digimon that attacked him before.

"Flower Wreath!"

He felt his arms tightening against a binding. He struggled to get his head forward to look down, to catch the fading blur of pink as he found his arms bound together by a liana of flowers that extended tethering Gundramon to a small, pink, flowery fairy.

"Hit him hard!" Shouted the fairy.

"Wing Blade!"

"Marvelous Shot!"

"Trident Revolver!"

The phantom bird merged with the emerald bolt of energy, and the three bolts from the Greymon orbited around the phantom. The attack smashed into Gundramon's chest. Gundramon winced as the energies washed over his body. His snarls slowly transformed into chuckles as the energy subsided.

"Are you done?" Gundramon asked, calmly.

"We won't ever give up!" RizeGreymon snarled. "We don't care how long it takes!"

"You assume I couldn't break free of these bindings at any time." Gundramon said.

The large revolvers that constituted the primary feather coming directly off of the wrist of his wing-plate swiveled around, pointing to Lillymon. Gundramon's tail flicked upwards. The three gun barrels fired. The flower liana broke into tethers and the lightning fizzled to nothing. Gundramon roared as he stretched his legs and arms and neck.

"Scramble!" the Garudamon shouted as the eagle-man tilted its wings and dove.

The afterglow of the day colored the bottom of the clouds bright orange.

"Grizzly Wing!" hordes of black bats swarmed around Gundramon's head.

"Flower Cannon!" pulses of green energy pelted his armor.

"Try and get him tethered again!" Lilamon shouted as the larger, wider winged fairy fluttered past her own bolts of energy popping around Gundramon's shoulders.

"Nothing you do, can stop me." Gundramon said, quietly. "Until now, I've allowed you to try, but I'm afraid your luck has run dry."

"Keep hitting him, don't let him lock on!" the Garudamon said as the giant bird-man swooped past. It swept around and released a fiery shadow that struck one of Gundramon's knees.

RizeGreymon growled as he swung his revolver up. "Eat my boomstick! Trident Revolver!"

"You call that a boomstick?" Gundramon chuckled softly as the fire bolts exploded into his chest. He didn't look at any of the digimon as they swirled around him barraging him with attacks. He extended all of his appendages. "That is not even a sparkler. Allow me to introduce you to real firepower. Der Blitz!"

All of the gun ports on Gundramon's body flared to life. Five Ultimate digimon roared as the cannons fired. Gundramon chuckled as he watched the RizeGreymon and the Lilamon crash into the harbor. The fairy Lillymon and Garudamon twisted in the air before crashing into the rows of warehouses near the dock. Gundramon tilted his head back to see the vampire digimon that had attacked him from behind fall into the water.

"Garudamon!"

"Lillymon!"

Gundramon turned his head and saw two human females running towards the grounded digimon. His eyes narrowed as he realized that the two females were heading to each digimon.

"Ah, I see, so they are the Chosen Ones." Gundramon tilted forward and rushed down towards the docks. Under his metal skin a scarred smile curled into existence. He lifted his revolver arms. "Goodbye, Chosen Ones!"

His revolvers blasted. The two girls looked up. The ocean exploded as a black shade formed in front of the blasts. The vampire hovered in front of the girls and pushed his arms forward. The blasts flared as they engulfed the vampire.

"Myotismon!" Garudamon and Lillymon shouted.

The vampire digimon crashed onto the dock rolling in front of the two girls. His cloak and suit was burnt and singed with smoke rolling off his body.

"Myotismon..." Sora said walking towards the humanoid digimon.

"It doesn't change anything." Gundramon said pointing his revolvers at the digi-destined.

"Trident Revolver!"

"Marvelous Shot!"

Gundramon snarled and twisted around as the bolts hit his stomach and the two other Ultimate digimon rushed towards him. Gundramon slashed his revolver arms at the two oncoming digimon smacking them away and sending them crashing into buildings.

Two boys were running to the scene. Gundramon turned his revolvers on the boys. They both had dark skin.

"Myotismon, are you ok?" the boy in the lead shouted as he skidded to the side of the fallen vampire.

"I...did well...didn't I?" Myotismon whispered, looking up at the boys.

"Of course!" the lead boy said as the other boy knelt next to him.

"I suspect this sacrifice is meant to be empowering." Gundramon said as he hovered in front of the children. "However, I haven't time for this, so goodbye..."

Gundramon leveled one of his revolvers at the group of humans and digimon.

"Jewel Shot!" crystals exploded into the side of Gundramon.

The kids looked up to see an emerald armored Stingmon-like digimon rushing towards Gundramon. Following behind was a metal clad, humanoid stag beetle. Behind the digimon two sets of children followed. The beetle lifted its gauntleted hands and fired lasers from the fingers. Gundramon snarled in annoyance at this next affront to his domination.

"No!" The girl with the long hair shouted.

"Violent Zealot!" Gundramon's arm cannons fired.

The two insect digimon were smashed into the dock. The kids following them were laying on the dock, unconscious. Gundramon snarled as he scanned across the area. He pointed the cannons at the insect digimon as they slowly struggled to their feet.

"Cory, Tanya, Sonya, Meredith..." the long haired Chosen Child said. She clenched her fists. "I won't let you die for protecting us!"

Gundramon ignored the girls behind him and the spinners on his revolvers turned and the guns clicked. "These ones die...be patient, you will follow soon!"

"Myotismon, no!" one of the other children shouted. Gundramon knew the sound of a last gasp.

"We...have...to do something." Garudamon grunted.

Gundramon heard the debris from the crushed building the large bird digimon had been laying in shift. Gundramon turned to see the phoenix digimon lurching forward. The fairy was up on its feet; its arm lifted with the flower on its wrist bloomed into a cannon. The two dark-skinned children were kneeling in front of an empty patch where the vampire had been laying. The two Chosen Children stepped forward, in front of their digimon.

"You are nothing." Gundramon said, turning his back on the two digimon. "Had you been Omegamon, I may have been concerned. But you are nothing, utterly forgettable."

"Your brethren have slaughtered our loved ones, hurt our friends." The short haired girl said. "You've killed innocent children protecting their families and innocent people." The girl's hands clenched into fists at her sides. She narrowed her eyes. "I really don't care if we're remembered or not. That's not the point." She looked to the other girl. "The point is doing what we can to protect who we can. To be true to ourselves. We will make our stand here."

"To defend our loved ones." The girl with the longer hair said, taking up the point. "I had to make horrible decisions, and I lost a lot of people I got to know very well over the last few weeks. I listened to a little boy talk about how your soldiers killed his brother, how your army slaughtered thousands. People who were defending their loved ones, who were fighting a futile battle to protect their families and friends..." The long-haired girl closed her eyes and a tear dropped down from her eyes. She looked up at Gundramon. "No more..."

Gundramon snarled. "Fine, I'll end it for you!" He pointed his revolvers forward. "Die!"

The Chosen Children glowed one green, one pink. Their digimon became amorphous as the large Garudamon and the tiny Lillymon seemed to fold into one another.

"Lillymon..."

"Garudamon..."

"No you don't!" Roared Gundramon, as his cannons flared to life.

"DNA digivolve to VALDURMON!" The light exploded outward, pushing the blast back towards Gundramon.

A large taloned foot smashed into Gundramon kicking the dragon out towards the harbor. Gundramon visored his eyes with his revolver as the new digimon rose into the air. It glowed a soft pink, a greenish lavender aura surrounded the large six-winged bird. It was covered with fur-soft looking plumage.

"I will destroy them still." Gundramon growled as he splayed his appendages. "I'll flatten this city in bombardments." The gun ports across Gundramon's body glowed to life. "Der Blitz!"

"Purge Shine!" Valdurmon flared its wings and the aura surrounding the large raptor expanded outwards into a giant shield.

The blasts exploded across the shield. The aura shimmered against the explosions consuming them. The giant bird flew forward, rushing towards Gundramon. It smashed its foot into Gundramon's chest, pushing the gun-metal skinned digimon backwards further out into the harbor.

"Even if you destroy me, those humans are still dead." Gundramon chuckled, glaring up to the giant bird hovering above him. "Their lives still ended pointlessly, in a meaningless battle, that won't change anything. Even you can't stand against my gods."

"Pointless, no, they fought to protect others, their stalwart actions drove us further..." Valdurmon replied, looking down at Gundramon. "As to your gods, when I go to see them, I will inform them of your faith."

"Heh, do you think you can destroy me?" Gundramon pointed his cannons forward.

"No, I know I can." Valdurmon growled. The aura around the giant bird condensed into a single point in front of the large bird's face. "Your an evil, callous beast. Your threat to this world will end here. Aurora Undulations!"

The condensed point of aura roared forward as a flood of spectral light tore forward. Gundramon fired his cannons. The fire power was flooded by the light which washed forward, tearing into Gundramon. The light burned into the joints and crevices of his armor. His flesh burned as the light seared under his metal casing. His cannons exploded as the barrels warped from the heat. Finally the dragon exploded into a massive burst of data.

888

Valdurmon turned back, rising into the sky as the setting sun's final glow disappeared. Valdurmon was like a second pastel sun in the sky as it looked over the embattled city. The birds six wings opened.

"No more." Valdurmon said, as a tidal wave of spectral energy washed over the city.

The sounds of battle faded. Across the city the dragon digimon intent on murder and extermination exploded as the aura washed through the streets and between the skyscrapers. Valdurmon glided towards the docks and as it prepared to touch down it glowed brightly dissolving down into Palmon and Biyomon who dropped down into Mimi and Sora's arms.

"Are you ok?" Mimi asked as she hugged Palmon and looked down at Jerome and Tyrese.

"He can...he can come back right?" Jerome asked, looking up at the two.

Mimi looked uncomfortably to Sora. Sora's eyebrows bunched together as she tried to find a way of explaining the truth of what happens to fallen digimon in the human world.

"I'm...I'm sorry..." Sora said quietly as she knelt down next to Jerome.

They were soon joined by the other digi-destined, by Cory and Tanya, Sonya and Meredith, by Ivan and Yoshino and Marcus and Kouki, and by Michael and Tatum. After a few minutes they helped Jerome and Tyrese to their feet, and they started to walk back to the hotel they had made their base, hoping it had survived. They were receiving D-terminal messages from other digi-destined from around the city. It wasn't long before Mimi sent out an all-clear.

"You realize this isn't the end." Marcus said, after they had returned to the hotel, which had been roughed up but was still inhabitable. "We have the rest of the country to liberate."

"Yeah..." Mimi said quietly, looking over to Jerome and Tyrese. "But tonight, let's just let things be."

888

AN: Yeah more or less just Mimi and Sora left, though there's some more before we take it to the Great Dragons. The girls are always tricky for me. To me this chapter just seemed to go on and on, and I needed to get it done, but I felt the need to build this whole thing up, though I fear I got impatient at the end, and then a Myotismon happened. I apologize for how long it took. This chapter had quite a few changes in outline as it is relatively dense, I guess. I initially wanted to flip the script on what most people would expect, with Sora being absolutely catatonic from the battles, and Mimi being forced to be the 'competent one' and snapping Sora out of it. Some of that survived as I have secretly been hoping to make Mimi seem a bit more competent than what she's normally displayed, I may have over shot a smidge. That being said, she's the same Mimi, but she's realized that she can't run from her responsibilities anymore. Now of course this won't mean behind closed doors this Mimi won't break down in tears and she still has these flashes of childish indignation, but she's actually a much matured Mimi to even what we saw in 02...and I like to think some of that is due to Miyako calling her non-violence policy out at the first Destiny Tree conflict.

This is Mimi that we get once she realizes what it means to be the only Chosen Child to be in New York with all these new digi-destined when the planet is truly going to be invaded by a malevolent force. We also forget that Mimi helped with 9/11 so she's some stuff.

This chapter is also part of my desire to see Lillymon be taken seriously, which is something I've been showing in the other chapters; she takes on macho dragon digimon in a number of the Destiny Tree battles, she saves WarGreymon and Metal Garurumon by leading a charge against Ouryuumon. Bottom-line Lillymon is kinda badass.