Chapter 21: Gabumon and Patamon's Showdown
Gabumon and Patamon leapt away from the many Blue Blasts from Gataermon, the combination Digimon combining the power of Terriermon's Bunny Blast and Gabumon's Blue Blaster to attack his foes, filling the area with wide wisps of flame.
"You two cannot avoid me or my power forever! You may have beaten three of us, but us three will be more than enough for you!" Gataermon said as he kept up on his attacks, keeping Gabumon and Patamon on their toes as both Digimon continued to remain on defence.
"You're right about being tougher than your buddies, but we will never give up. Boom Bubble!" Patamon called back, just as he attacked, gathering up as much air into his mouth as he could, before he spat it out, launching his attack, which managed to shoot past the flames and made contact with the fused Digimon, who skidded back slightly from the attack.
"Good work, Patamon." Gabumon said, praising his friend, while seeing a chance to Digivolve, quickly gathering his power and reaching his Mega form, MetalGarurumon.
"Now it's my turn. Ice Wolf Claw!" MetalGarurumon then bellowed, attacking by unleashing all the missiles from the various compartments upon his body, bombarding Gataermon and sending him back further from the onslaught.
"You may be a warrior made of three Digimon, but it's still two against one." MetalGarurumon then pointed out, before asking. "Don't you want Shorudramon or Agveuilmon to back you up?"
"They'll be fine on their own. Besides, I don't need my allies to help me crush you two." Gataermon said as he slowly rose, ignoring the damage MetalGarurumon had unleashed upon him and resumed to battle.
"I don't understand you. You speak of friendship like it's a virus or something." Patamon said.
"Don't get me wrong. I too treasured friendship, but Aguveuilmon treats it like it's a bad thing. I hope one day we can convince him that it's not." Gataermon said, allowing some feeling to come out through his words, only to then say. "Still... you two managed to make it this far, but now I think I played on long enough."
Finished with his words, Gataermon began to power up, concerning MetalGarurumon, who called in warning. "He's Digivolving. Patamon, we better watch ourselves or we'll get thrashed."
Looking at gataermon, the Digimon of Hope and the Digimon of Friendship saw their foe achieve his Mega form, which consisted of a powerful looking warrior that had Seraphimon's build and wings, a helmet that resembled MetalGarurumon's head covered the upper section of his face, showing off a hostile expression through grit teeth, while his armour was similar to MegaGargomon's armour, only decreased in size and weight, allowing the new Digimon to move around freely.
"I am now MegaSerapGarurumon!" He then announced, showing some of his power as a blade of pure energy extended from the right bracelet mounted to his wrist. "And I am going to be your defeat!"
"We'll see about that!" Patamon said back, quickly Digivolving to Seraphimon, who then stated. "No copy of my Data will be my undoing."
"Don't think you can defeat me. Strike of Seven Wolf Claws!" MegaSerapGarurumon called, bringing his blade to the air, causing seven orbs of icy light to appear, which he then cast forward with a swift rush of his arm, causing MetalGarurumon and Seraphimon to dodge the attack as best they could.
"Now he's combining our attacks?" MetalGarurumon questioned, looking to see the area where MegaSerapGarurumon's attack landed now encased in ice.
"I know, but we have to stay focused." Seraphimon replied, confident they could defeat their enemy.
"Hallowed Knuckle!" Seraphimon then announced, gathering light into his right fist, that he then threw, converting it to a beam of pure energy.
"Giga Missile!" MetalGarurumon followed up, launching a missile from his chest, shooting his attack alongside Seraphimon's, though MegaSerapGarurumon shrugged off the attacks like they were nothing, dodging the light and using his copy of Seraphimon's Excalibur to slice MetalGarurumon's missile in half.
"If that's all you can do, this match will end sooner than expected. Mega Missile Ascension!" MegaSerapGarurumon called, causing the turrets on his shoulders to suddenly open and release a stream of missiles, each filled with light energy and ice, giving the two Mega Digimon no time to respond, where both were blasted by the missile stream, causing both to cry out in great pain as they were thrown away by the force of the attack.
"Patamon!" Gatomon called out in concern and shock from hearing and then seeing the Digimon of Hope suffer in such pain.
But refusing to give up, Seraphimon emerged from the dust, his form scathed, but he continued to fight.
"MetalGarurumon, are you ok?" He asked, turning to face his friend and was filled with a terrible concern, looking to see MetalGarurumon was badly damaged, his helmet now broken and showing some of his face, while his legs, arms and chest seemed damaged, with his chest is now showing through his metal plating.
But what was most concerning to Seraphimon was seeing that MetalGarurumon was bleeding.
"I'm fine. He got me good with that attack, but I can still fight..." MetalGarurumon groaned, pushing himself past his limits and stood on shaking legs, doing all he could to ignore the pain that filled his being.
"I suggest you surrender, you cannot beat me in that condition." MegaSerapGarurumon pointed out.
"No. I must protect Matt's memories. Even damaged, I can still fight!" MetalGarurumon said in reply, before he charged again.
"MetalGarurumon, wait!" Seraphimon called out, only to find his words were of no use and were too late.
"Mega Missile Ascension!" MegaSerapGarurumon called, once again firing multiple missiles from his shoulder mounted turrets, blasting MetalGarurumon once again and damaging him more and more.
But despite this, MetalGarurumon rose, his being further damaged, but he refused to quit.
Meanwhile, as Seraphimon and MetalGarurumon found themselves against their combined foe, Agumon, Veemon and Guilmon continued their harsh battle against Agveuilmon, with the merged Digimon still giving them trouble.
But whether it was skill or just luck, all three managed to lay some blows on their opponent.
"I don't know where you guys get this strength from but do you really think that would be enough?" Agveuilmon asked bitterly.
"Heh. You haven't seen what we can do yet." Agumon replied with a confident smirk, deciding to turn up the heat as he harnessed his power, Digivolving to WarGreymon.
And following in his lead, Veemon Armour Digivolved to Flamedramon, while Guilmon accessed the data within him needed to Biomerge and changed to the mighty knight Digimon, Gallantmon.
Seeing the two Megas and the Armour Digimon, Agveuilmon just asked. "You think Digivolving will be enough to beat me?"
"Well we'll find out now won't we? Flame Shot!" Flamedramon called back, casting his gauntlets in flame and throwing the inferno at Aguveuilmon head on.
But despite a direct attack, Agveuilmon remained unfazed by Flamedramon's attack.
"This could be interesting." WarGreymon said, causing Gallantmon to say. "Or trouble if you want to put it in a bad way."
About to combat Agveuilmon, WarGreymon stopped when he heard MetalGarurumon's yells of pain, causing the Digimon of Courage to turn around, shock to see MetalGarurumon had De-Digivolve to a heavily damaged form of Garurumon, bleeding and battered and bruised.
But despite that, he still got up.
"Why don't you stand stand down? You know you're beat!" MegaSerapGarurumon questioned, somewhat confused, while getting frustrated at what he believed to be stubbornness to accept an obvious defeat.
"No! I won't let you take our hope so lightly!" Garurumon groaned.
Angered by Garurmon refusing to call it quits, MegaSerapGarurumon was distracted long enough to allow Serpahimon to attack.
"Hallowed Ascension!" The Digimon of Hope called with a great might in his voice, bringing down several bolts of lightning, which struck MegaSerapGarurumon from above making the merged Digimon yell in pain as he was electrocuted and blasted back, giving Seraphimon time to stop fighting and check on Garurumon's current state of wellbeing.
"Garurumon, you cannot continue like this. You're hurt and far too exhausted!" Seraphimon pointed out, hating to admit it, but knew Garurumon was in no condition to fight.
"I know, but I will never give up. Matt told me this. That is why I want you to take us both out!" Garurumon said in reply, confusing and shocking Seraphimon.
Concerned, Seraphimon asked. "Garurumon, what are you planning?"
"I am planning to hold him tight so you can attack to knock us both out. Both of us have reached our limits anyway." Garurumon replied with a confident smile in his friend.
"And don't forget. Agumon and the others are still in this. They can finish what we couldn't." The Digimon of Friendship then pointed out, taking a moment to observe the other fights, looking around to see Shorudramon knocking DATS Agumon with a punch, before blocking a series of punches from Gaomon.
Shoutmon slowly rising to his feet, regaining his strength and continuing to fight, while Gallantmon and Flamedramon continued fighting Agveuilmon and saw WarGreymon watching them from a distance.
"Agumon, I leave the rest up to you. Don't worry about me. You must fight on" Garurumon spoke up, smiling at the Digimon he saw as his best friend.
From his words, WarGreymon expression was filled with doubtfulness and concern, but trusting Garurumon, the Digimon of Courage then nodded and resumed his fight with his friends, determined not to lose.
'Garurumon...' He thought, feeling fair solemness at what the Digimon of Friendship was planning, but promised to make sure such a sacrifice wasn't for nothing.
As soon as MegaSerapGarurumon began to rise, Garurumon leapt up and used his front legs and hind legs to wrap around his form, restraining him.
"What?! You still have that much strength? Let me go!" MegaSerapGarurumon yelled as he tries to fight him off, but found Garurumon's grip was too tight.
And with Garurmon so close to his form, not only was MegaSerapGarurumon unable to use his bladed weaponry, but knew if he tried another missile attack, then both would get blasted.
"Garurumon! Keep holding him!" Terriermon called from the stands, encouraging Wormmon to add his own cheer. "Don't let him go!"
"Seraphimon, do it now!" Garurumon then ordered.
At first, Seraphimon hesitated, but knowing Garurumon had made up his mind, that it would bring them closer to their victory, he then nodded and charged up his being with a great amount of light energy.
"Excalibur!" The angelic Digimon called with a great might, summoning his blade and casting it pure light, before charging forth, avoiding Garurumon and stabbing his sword into MegaSerapGarurumon's chest, the impact of the light attack was so great that it slammed all three Digimon off of the stage and into the darkness, where Gabumon and Patamon reappeared in the Universe Seven spectator stand, while Gataermon appeared in Universe Eleven's stand.
"Gabumon, are you alright?" Calumon said with worry, hating to see his friends in pain, before Lunamon did what she could to treat Gabumon's wounds.
"Yeah, I'll be alright." Gabumon promised, smiling as Lunamon finished wrapping up the wounds, making him feel a whole lot better from the caring medical attention from the rabbit-like Digimon.
"Sorry, Gatomon, but I was at my limit." Patamon said, thinking he had let Gatomon down, but was caught by surprise when the Digimon of Light wrapped her arms around Patamon, smiling as she embraced him close to her body.
"You fought as best you could. Patamon, I am so proud of you." Gatomon whispered, continuing to hug Patamon, who blushed at first, before wrapping his arms around Gatomon, holding her close and hugging her back.
"Now it's up to our friends." Renamon pointed out, but had faith in Guilmon and those still fighting for them.
"It seems their teamwork is greater than ours'." AguniLoweeobomon commented, which caused Gataermon to agree at his comrade's words, before smirking and saying. "At least I know friendship and hope are not taken for granted. They beat me fair and square. Now Shorudramon and Agveuilmon are all we have left."
"You guys can do it!" Gabumon cheered as both sides continued to face off their final battles.
With WarGreymon, Flamedramon and Gallantmon, the three confronted Agveuilmon.
DATS Agumon and Gaomon still defended themselves and Shoutmon from Shorudramon.
And knowing it was nearing the end, all the Digimon continued to give all in their fights, determined not to lose after getting so far and after so many had sacrificed for them.