DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon, but I do own the OCs introduced in this story, earlier stories and later stories (except where stated).
CHAPTER 21
Elements, Qualities and Chances
REAL WORLD
New York City
16:17 EST
27th May 2010
Kristy looked up to her partner, gazing down at her with a flaming arrow clutched in his bow. She began to doubt what she had just done.
'He's going to kill me!'
She panicked, before a surge of determination ran over her, as a realisation came to her and her necklace flashed.
'He's still my partner…I can calm him down…' "Sleipmon, stop…" she ordered calmly. Sleipmon paused, and Mari breathed a sigh of relief. Kristy glared into the centaurs eyes, and was met with a similar glare.
The glare suddenly broke, as Sleipmon's eyes returned to berserk 'mode', and he held his arrow out once again, aiming for Kristy. "BIFROST!" he roared.
Shinjuku, Tokyo
05:17 JST
28th May 2010
"Izzy, what do we do?" Cody asked from within TigerVespamon.
"You die for the glory of Yggdrasil!" Gallantmon X interrupted.
"Who is this Egg Timer guy?" Gomamon asked.
"Lord Yggdrasil is almighty! You insult him, and you will pay!" Gallantmon X declared, turning, his lance sparking with electricity, to face the sea monster and his blue-haired partner.
"Hey, excuse a bit of mispronunciation!" Gomamon pleaded. "Potato, Potato and all that!"
"Dear Lord, what are you talking about?" Gallantmon X asked, vexed somewhat.
"Never mind…why do you follow this Yggy guy?" Gomamon asked.
Gallantmon X looked angered by the name. "We follow him because he is our God!"
"God?" Joe asked.
"I've never heard of him…" Gomamon noted. "Not a very prominent God is he? Not as well known as Chaos or Harmony?"
"How dare you refer to those false Gods and him in the same sentence?"
"What has he ever done?" Gomamon asked.
"He regulates the Digital World, creating Digimon and managing the peace…"
"Why have we never met him then?" Mimi asked.
"Because you are the enemy! Yggdrasil has declared you so!"
"Have you considered that he could be lying?!" Mimi asked, vexed somewhat.
"Yggdrasil never lies! His word is truth!"
"Pah…" Mimi replied. "Sounds like he's lying to me!"
Gallantmon X growled angrily. "LIGHTNING JOUST!" he roared, firing a blast of electricity at the pink-haired girl. She screamed, as Palmon leapt into the way, before being thrown back onto her. Unbeknownst to her, her Digivice smashed to pieces and reformed into a white D-Arc, with a green circle and orange buttons, which was then thrown to her chest at high speed.
BIOMERGE DIGIVOLUTION
Palmon Biomerge Digivolve to…
A red female human form rose tall, before finishing in a rose-like petal shape on her head. Black boots ran down her legs, and a white cape topped with green leaves attached to her back. To top it all off, a long vine-like whip appeared in her hand, and she announced her title.
…Rosemon!
Mimi looked down at the sphere around her in amazement. It had all happened so suddenly, and so surprisingly. Gallantmon X gritted his teeth in annoyance.
"You are all so persistent! It will never save you!"
"Hey Joe, you try that D-Arc thingy too!" Gomamon told his partner.
"How?" Joe asked, clutching his Digivice.
"Your crest is reliability! Be reliable!" Gomamon told him, as Gallantmon lifted his shield again.
"SHIELD OF THE JUST!"
Joe's digivice splintered into data, replaced by a white D-Arc with a gray ring and white buttons.
"Just in time!" Gomamon joked, as Joe clutched it to his chest.
BIOMERGE DIGIVOLUTION
Gomamon Biomerge Digivolve to…
A large white-furred form replaced the pair as Joe fell back onto his partner. Armour and cream-furred torso clothing appeared, and a pair of maces appeared on his back. He roared his title.
…Vikemon!
"Now this rules!" Gomamon cheered.
New York City
16:18 EST
27th May 2010
Ryder wasn't entirely sure at the time what he was doing as he watched the arrow fly, but later on he would put it down to his abilities as the First Angel of Time. "RETCON!" he yelled, his hands glowing white. The arrow suddenly changed course slightly, skimming past Kristy and crashing harmlessly to the ground below.
"Ryder, what did you just do?" Mari asked.
"I'm not sure…" he replied, looking at his hands once again.
Kristy continued to stare into her partner's eyes, each trying to break the other. "Sleipmon, I can still stop you from hurting my friends, and bring you back to normal…" she declared. Sleipmon didn't even seem to register what was said. He walked towards the girl menacingly, icy arrow drawn. "Even now I know that I can stop you…"
Sleipmon flinched for a second.
"What's going on?" Terriermon asked.
"I have no idea…" Henry replied.
"We should try to thaw out the ice sculptures over there, don't ya think?" Terriermon suggested. MegaGargomon moved around and started to smash at the ice, slowly cracking it.
"ODIN'S BREATH!" Sleipmon roared, the arrow flying forward. Kristy suddenly grabbed it in mid-air, before staring at what she had achieved in amazement, a similar expression to that of the others. The arrow splintered into data, reforming around Kristy's arm. She looked on in shock as a D-Vice in watch form with a light blue ring around the watch-like screen appeared. She felt strange all of a sudden as she stared at it in shock, tapped the screen and watching as it became a lower-arm device, identical to Ryder's and Rey's but with pale blue instead.
Something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Or rather, the lack of it.
She looked around, her expression changing to shock as she realised that she now had no clothes (except her D-Vice), no hair band, and she was floating in a pale blue orb with darkness around it. At the same time, she could see the road, with the Tamers looking around in confusion.
"Kristy!" Mari called, fearful for where she had gone, as Ophanimon's ice shattered.
"I'm over here…" Kristy said, unsure about what was so confusing about where she was.
Mari's gaze turned to one of confusion. "Sleipmon? Kristy…did you biomerge?"
Kristy looked down, to see her new form, that of the centaur known as Sleipmon, as Imperialdramon's ice shattered.
"What happened?" she asked.
"You vanished…" Jeri replied.
"Kudamon, are you okay?" Kristy asked. She felt fearful when she got no reply for a while, as the sound of Phoenixmon and WarGreymon's ice shattering tinkling through the air.
"Yeah…" the ferret replied weakly, from far away. Kristy suddenly felt herself losing energy, and the sphere vanished. She landed on the ground back in her normal form, her partner in her arms. "Sorry…" he told her, before fainting. The other biomerges were quickly cancelled, leaving Tamers and partners to run over to see the redhead.
"Are you okay?" Mari asked.
Kristy nodded, glancing to her partner. "What happened to him?"
"Good question…" Ryder replied. "Henry, any ideas?" he asked.
"Huh? No, why did you ask me anyway?" he replied.
"Just a hunch…anyway…"
"Can I see your D-Vice?" Kari asked. Kristy nodded, and put out her arm.
"Wow, that's so cool…" Veemon said.
"I want one!" Davis said.
"Put it on your Christmas list then…" Kari told him.
"I would, but I'd never get one…my parents always give me coal…" Davis replied. Kari chuckled.
"Jeri, are you okay?" Henry asked. Jeri nodded confidently.
"I've just got a headache…" she replied.
"Sorry about that…" Terriermon apologised.
"Don't worry; it wasn't your fault…" she replied.
"Ryder, what was that retcon thing?" Tai asked.
Ryder glimpsed to his hands. "I'm not sure…" he replied.
"It was like time running backwards…" Biyomon noted.
"What did you mean earlier by First Angel of Time?" Mari asked.
"The Angels were created at the dawn of time by Chaos and Harmony to protect the world and themselves. Since good and evil are by definition matched, the pair would need something to give them the edge. They put their powers into nine beings, who have reincarnated throughout time, but have never awakened until now."
"What do you mean, awakened?" Tai asked.
"The First Angel…none of the others can awake until I have…"
"So who are the Angels?" Sora asked.
"Not too sure on that…"
"So what does this make you then? Related to Takato and Rika?" Terriermon asked.
Ryder shook his head. "None of the Angels are direct descendants of the line, namely because since the dawn of time, the pair have hated each other. But, I mean, could you imagine it? A direct descendant of Chaos and Harmony, with the powers of both?" Ryder chuckled. "They could tear a hole in the universe, take over a planet…they'd have all of the powers and none of the disadvantages that come with only having one side of them…"
The wail of police cars came from nearby, interrupting Ryder's thoughts out loud, as the ice slowly melted in the street. A breeze swept down it, and Ryder looked to the sky.
"Kristy…" Kudamon said weakly and quietly, waking from his unconsciousness.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"I now have Sleipmon's memories…my own memories…"
"Really?"
Kudamon nodded. "All of the Royal Knights are dead, except Gallantmon…"
"But…Gallantmon is in Tokyo?!" Davis asked. "He'll be attacking our friends!"
"That decides it then…" Ryder noted.
"Decides what?" Donmon asked.
"We're going back to Tokyo on the Red Eye…tonight…"
"What?!" the group asked.
"Look, no-one else is going to attack the rest of the world until all the Tamers are dead. While we're all split up like this, they aren't going to attack the rest of the world. We have to get back to Tokyo and defeat Gallantmon, and whatever else Yggdrasil sends at us!"
"What about the UN?" Tai asked.
"Forget them; they've been busy for days with something in the Middle East…" Terriermon commented.
"Ryder's right, we have to get back to Tokyo…" Henry decided. Ryder nodded, as did most of the group. He looked to Mari, looking for a response.
"Mari…" he began. Mari grabbed his hand.
"Do you really think I'm not going to follow you? I'm sick of being lonely in that tiny apartment…I want to see some real adventure…" she said chuckling. He nodded, smiling.
"But you don't have a partner..." Davis noted to Mari.
"Davis, at times you can be really innocuous…" Kari complained.
"But I hate needles!"
Tai patted Davis on the shoulder. "Davis, that's inoculations…"
"Meh, anyway, house prices are sky high, I'll get a bundle for that place…" Mari joked.
"Flights are on Yamaki!" Elecmon cheered.
"Okay, back to the hotel then…" Ryder decided, as police began to arrive.
"I'm going back to my place; I can book the flights…" Mari told them. "Once you've packed up, Ryder will show you guys to my apartment…he knows the way…"
Ryder nodded, before whispering to his partner. "Donmon, can you remember?" he asked. Donmon nodded. "That's good then…"
"One question remains…" Terriermon began. "What's the Red Eye?"
"It's an overnight flight Terriermon, so named because that's what you end up with because of tiredness…" his partner replied.
"Oh, but I don't want red eyes!"
"It's a metaphor…"
"What's a metaphor?" Terriermon asked. Jeri chuckled.
Shinjuku, Tokyo
05:20 JST
28th May 2010
"ROSES RAPIER!" Rosemon called, an electric shock passing along her whip as she cracked it and hitting Gallantmon X, who winced in pain. Rosemon chuckled, before trying again. "ROSES RAPIER!"
Gallantmon X grabbed the whip, and swung her into a building, before lifting his lance to Vikemon. "LIGHTNING SPEAR!" Cherubimon yelled, and Gallantmon X screamed in pain, before slamming his now electrically overpowered lance into the beast man digimon, who grinned as Gallantmon X looked amazed.
"Sorrie…doesn't affect me with thick fur…" Gomamon replied in a dumb voice, laughing.
"Please stop making jokes!" Joe complained. Gomamon chuckled, and Vikemon raised his maces.
"VIKING AXE!" he yelled, slamming the maces into Gallantmon X, who was thrown to the ground nearby, armour dented.
"Now!" TigerVespamon declared, and his allies prepared to attack.
"FORBIDDEN TEMPTATION!" shouted Rosemon.
"ATOMIC RAY!" shouted HiAndromon.
"ACCEL ARM!" shouted Justimon.
"CORONA DESTROYER!" called Beelzemon.
"STORM OF JUDGEMENT!" called Cherubimon.
"METAL WOLF CLAW!" called MetalGarurumon.
"ELEC-KUGEL!" Raijinmon yelled.
"FENRIR SWORD!" Valkyrimon yelled.
"GRANDIS SCISSORS!" GrandisKuwagamon called.
"GEAR STINGER!" TigerVespamon called.
"SEVEN HEAVENS!" Seraphimon yelled.
"ARCTIC BLIZZARD!" Vikemon yelled, a blizzard sweeping towards the fallen knight.
Gallantmon X screamed in pain, every painful attack being added to by another even more painful one. He felt his data fizzling, and knew that his time was up.
"The Royal Knights die with me…" he said. "Pah…"
Gallantmon X burst into data, the X-Antibody exploding as it did so, a safeguard of Yggdrasil.
A collective sigh of relief filled the air. They had won.
But it took an entire team to win. What would happen if something even more powerful appeared?
53rd and 3rd, New York City
17:05 EST
27th May 2010
Donmon unceremoniously chucked Ryder's suitcase onto the bed with his claws, it opening as it landed. "Thanks buddy…" Ryder said sarcastically.
"Always glad to help!" Donmon replied, not getting the sarcastic tone. Ryder looked around the room, he still hadn't much to pack, but it was far more than the day before. "Hey Ryder…"
"Yeah?"
"Wasn't Mari supposed to be watching you every day except when you were in the hotel?"
Ryder nodded. "Meh, like it matters…"
Donmon chuckled, as Ryder put his jacket on the chair, before proceeding to check around to see what he could put in the suitcase. Mari had bought him a few things during their stay in New York, and his previous outfit remained hung up in the wardrobe.
'Ooh…glitzy…what's this in Ryder's jacket?' Donmon thought, standing fully up on two legs by the chair and pulling a small bag out of Ryder's jacket. He carefully opened it, a difficult thing owing to his claws. The bag opened, and the sparkle he had seen became clearer. He gawped at the golden shapes.
"Donmon?" Ryder asked, noticing the odd position of his partner. His jaw dropped. "What are you doing?"
"Ryder, what are these?" he asked. Ryder sighed, and walked over to him.
"Same as mine, Rey's and Kristy's necklaces…"
"What do they mean?"
Ryder sighed, laying out each on the floor in front of his partner. "They are the Pendants of the Angels…there are ten of them, each for one of the Angels…"
"Ten? But you said there are nine…"
"Rey is the Tenth…she's the Tenth Angel of Destiny…I'm not sure why she's different though…"
"So why not mention her?"
"Because she does not exist yet…she's from the future…"
"Huh? I get the fact that she's from the future, but how is she an Angel then?"
"I can feel it…each of the Angels…I'm not sure who most of them are…they aren't awake so it's not directional…but I can feel their signals…and one of them is extremely weak, and another is extremely strong, but it's the same signal. It's Rey's…"
"Why do you think it's like that?"
"No idea…something major is going on here though…"
"So do you have any idea who the Angels are?"
"Well…I know that I'm the First Angel of Time, that Kristy is the Ninth Angel of Hope, and that Rey is the Tenth Angel of Destiny. Anything else is just guesses…"
"But why did you never tell me this?"
"I only found it out recently, when I awoke. I'm not sure on it, but I think that the Angels gradually awake, as they become more conscious of who they are. And I think I'm fully awake…"
"So who do you guess that the other Angels are?"
"First of all, the Angels are as follows…" he pointed to himself. "First Angel of Time…" He pointed to the second pendant, and then the third. "Second Angel of Control, and the Third Angel of Knowledge. They are the top of the hierarchy, also known as the Elements: the flow of time and probability, the power to control items in space and the knowledge to plan how to use those powers."
Donmon nodded.
"Then we move onto the next row…" he said, moving the next three below the first set. "Fourth Angel of Light, Fifth Angel of Courage and Sixth Angel of Spirit. The Qualities, the second level in the hierarchy. By the way, I say levels, but apart from me being the leader, there aren't any real hierarchies, it's just the way we're sorted. The Qualities are the power for being good, Light, the power for being brave, Courage, and the power to heal and make people feel better, Spirit."
Donmon nodded. "So the last four are?"
Ryder moved the two remaining ones below the others. "Seventh Angel of Miracles, Eighth Angel of Love…" he then gestured to the door. "And of course, the Ninth Angel of Hope……no, I didn't mean she was here, it's just a demonstration tool" he added as Donmon looked to the door. "These are the Chances; all of them are based on luck. There is the Luck that Miracles will happen, Luck that someone will fall in Love, and of course, the Hope that something Lucky will happen. So you have Elements, Qualities and Chances."
Donmon nodded. "So what about Rey? Where does she fit in?"
"That's where I hit a brick wall…I as the First Angel have never heard of her, never met her in any incarnation or been told of her before. It's like…she's a New Angel, outside the three layers of the hierarchy that already exists."
"So, as I already asked, do you have any guesses on who the others are?"
Ryder nodded. "They mentioned that Kari and Davis survived fatal attacks. That makes them Angels in my book, and, owing to what we saw in the TV Series, I think they probably belong to their respective crests…Light and Miracles…"
"Any other ideas?"
"Not anything with proof enough to be worth mentioning…"
Donmon nodded. "So why didn't you tell Mari about these?"
"I really don't know…they're actually Rika's, I just took them when we were in their room before. I know I shouldn't have, but at the time I couldn't stop myself. I felt like…they were my items to guard…I guess I know now why I felt that way…" Ryder sighed, and looked at his pendant. "The Leader of the Angels…" he chuckled. "I'm not even remotely religious…"
"Do all the Angels have Digimon?"
"I guess…I mean, I've got you, Davis and Kari have got Veemon and Gatomon, Kristy's got Kudamon, and Rey's got Rejimon or whatever it is…"
"So are you human or…?"
"Yeah…hold on…wait…"
Ryder looked to his hands, thinking for a few seconds.
"The DNA…but Kristy's was human…so it must be like a really early level of awareness…so…what awakened it? Was it the trip from my world to here?"
A thought occurred to Donmon. "But I saw elements of Rika's and Takato's extended DNA in yours, how can you not be related?"
"Each of us Angels has a strand of ADNA, Angelic Deoxyribonucleic Acid, from Chaos, and a strand from Harmony, in addition to our own. But…until we awake…it must be formed when we awake…at least at an early stage of awakening…"
"This is making my head hurt…"
"You're not alone in that, it confuses me too…it's like…I've got two sets of memories, and one of them has only recently become accessible, and I'm now searching through it…"
"Cool…what role do I play in this?"
Ryder rubbed the top of his partner's head playfully. "You're my partner, and we biomerge to the coolest dragon-like biped since BlackWarGreymon!" Donmon chuckled.
TO BE CONTINUED…
A few more explanations (and mysteries) given here. Not much else to say, please review though, I value every one (and reply to any questions as best I can without spoiling anything).
To explain about the D-Vices, most are a dull black with a colour in addition. However, Rika's has a blue glossy tint to it, almost as if made of some kind of jewel.
Next time…
Will Mari manage to get them the flights? Will they get back in time? Will she be able to quit SDCO?
Find out in 'Red Eye', Chapter Twenty-Two of Dimensions Book Four: Gods.