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Chapter 21

Death and Life

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I dropped down beside Rika and Renamon joined us seconds later. The sidewalks were crowded with panicky, fleeing people so we ran in the roadway. The lanes outbound from the digital fogbank were, unsurprisingly, free of traffic.

"Indramon," Rika read out his stats from her digivice for us. I didn't much care for the sound of that 'Horn of Desolation' but I wanted to get at him so bad, I was twitching.

Then, as welcome as a fly in a punchbowl, Impmon showed up and challenged the deva to single combat.

No-- really.

My Bigdamn Pony laughed at him, of course. I was too mad to laugh. "Get out of our way, you crazy little twerp!" I yelled at him.

"Shut your face, dog-boy! You stay out of my way," he yelled back at me, "or else!" And he flung one of his little fireballs in my direction.

I swatted it out of the air. "Rika?" I was hoping she'd tell me to swat Impmon as well but it was Renamon who answered.

"Let him fight," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What?" I said in surprise. "But he's gonna get--" I stopped. Of course he was going to get himself mangled. It couldn't be more obvious. Had Renamon finally gotten sick of Impmon's bad behavior and abrasive manners and given up on trying to salvage something out of him? I could only hope.

"Okay," I shrugged, "fine by me."

Impmon took a ridiculously long time to summon up the energy for his opening special attack. Indramon waited patiently. The blast of flame of the Inferno Funnel was more impressive than Impmon's usual firecrackers but it looked as pitiful as a flaring match head when it impacted Indramon's vast chest.

"Ooh, that tickles!" the deva said, not moving a muscle.

A sense of humor, huh? I thought. I might like this guy if I got to know him. Too bad I'm going to kill him soon.

Indramon flicked out one of his enormous hand-hooves and batted Impmon like a cat playing with a moth. The little digimon slammed into the pavement and rolled over and over. It hurt just to watch it. He staggered to his feet and faced his opponent again just and the rest of the gang showed up. In the way of good guys everywhere, they immediately wanted to go to Impmon's aid-- but Renamon stopped them.

"He wants to do it himself," she told them. "We should respect his wishes."

I wondered if our lovemaking could transfer something more than attack energy configurations-- maybe my twisted sense of humor, for instance?

A couple more hits from Indramon's gigantic hooves and Impmon was flat on his back, looking distinctly fuzzy around the edges.

Yup, I thought, there he goes-- one more tap and he'll fragment. It was weird-- I didn't really feel happy about that.

The rest of the gang could see it, too. Except for Rika, they were all agitating for a rescue but Renamon held them back.

Indramon went to grind Impmon into the pavement and at the last possible instant Renamon flashed under the massive descending hoof and snatched Impmon to safety.

My Bigdamn Pony lost his sense of humor right about then and smacked Renamon a good one in frustrated anger.

The warm-up comedy show was over and it was time for the main event. Out came the cards and we all digivolved into our Champion forms. Indramon unslung the Horn of Desolation. No more messing around for any of us.

The air crackled with all the energy we were raising for our attacks and I couldn't figure out why horse-face was smiling. Even for an Ultimate deva, facing four Champions, standing shoulder-to-shoulder should be a daunting--

Shoulder-to-shoulder? Oh hell! I stared down the maw of that mysterious horn Indramon was holding and my hackles rose. "Scatter!" I yelled urgently. "Scatter! Spread out!" I leaped sideways and did a jump-turn off a wall, trying to get around the deva. He turned to follow me-- but he wasn't smiling any more.

"Eat this, you plow horse!" I yelled as I released my Razor Tail attack energy. I spun and flung the shining blades off of my tail and straight for his head. He raised the horn slightly and the glittering blades disappeared into its maw and vanished without a trace.

How many cute tricks does this guy have? I was asking myself just as he began to grow.

Yeah, grow.

That damned horn must have enabled him to absorb attack energy and use it for himself. He must have gained two meters in height before the other attacks hit him. Gargomon's Gargo Lasers raked one side as Kyuubimon's Dragon Wheel burst on the other. Indramon staggered and roared in anger just as Growlmon's Pyro Blaster smacked into his back. His head snapped violently backward, the long hair that hung down over his face flew up and his blazing eyes met mine for the first time.

He was not a happy pony.

"Aww-- 'smatter, dobbin?" I sneered at him. "Upset we're not playing by the rules?"

I really, really, really should learn when to keep my smart mouth shut.

He took a deep breath and blew the horn at me. The pavement of the expressway curled up and raced toward me like a giant breaking wave at the beach. Then the shockwave hit me and I was tumbling backwards, chunks of concrete, steel and asphalt battering against me like I was a mouse in a blender full of gravel. I rolled my self into a ball and tried to ride it out, every part of me screaming in pain.

When things settled down, I struggled to force myself out from under the pile of rubble that covered me, coughing and choking on the dust of pulverized roadway. As I shouldered off the last slab of concrete I saw Impmon charging in to fill the gap I'd left in the circle around Indramon.

"NO!" I yelled hoarsely, "Impmon, don't--" But it was too late. Indramon's hoof smashed into him like a freight train hitting a rabbit. His body blasted clear through the corner of an office building and tumbled away into the distance, limp and broken.

Steam burst from my mouth as my teeth went red hot and I crouched to leap for the bastard's throat. He had let the horn rise above him to free his hooves for his attack on Impmon and if I could get past it before it returned to him--

Suddenly the world went all wonky.

We all felt the force but it was obviously directed at Indramon. He reeled and lurched, his body seeming to twist and deform. I suspiciously thought for a second that it was some nasty new trick he was preparing but, no, he was in serious distress. I flipped out of sync and saw a strange energy field surrounding and ripping away at him. Whatever it was didn't last long but it was certainly unnerving. Indramon backed out of the fight, pulling his vanishing act again.

Kyuubimon came to my side. "Impmon?" she asked. She had been on the other side of Indramon when he'd struck the little guy and hadn't seen what had happened to him.

I pointed with my muzzle. "That way. But--" I shook my head sadly, "he can't have survived."

We looked for him anyway.

The city was in an uproar. Police, news and JASDF helicopters circled everywhere and every police and SWAT team in the city seemed to be in the area. It made searching a big pain in the butt. In addition, we had to worry about Indramon making a sudden reappearance and I had to pause every once in a while to feel for tiny irregularities in the energy fields that would betray the presence of Kunomon, or someone like her, lurking nearby. I was getting damned tired of the paranoid mindset really quickly.

I phased into sync to sniff at a large storm drain. "He might have crawled--" I began to say to Kyuubimon when two bullets smacked into my side. I sighed and turned to the nervous cop who had just shot me. "Relax," I told him, "I'm one of the good guys."

He emptied the rest of the clip into me and fumbled for a reload.

"Really," Kyuubimon said to the policeman as she phased in beside him, "we're on your side. Now be a good boy and stop playing with your gun or I'll come visit you in your dreams." Her eyes suddenly blazed with brilliant intensity.

"Ki-- ki-- kitsune!" the cop gasped out and fell over in a dead faint.

"Wow," I said admiringly, "way to work a reputation! Nobody in this country is that afraid of a coyote."

Rika called us back then. No one had found any trace of the big horse or the little imp. We decided to hold on to our champion forms as long as we could in case Indramon popped back up. We needed to get off the streets, though. Things were chaotic enough without renewed sightings of 'monsters' around the city. Takato led us to a huge tunnel that the gang had evidently used before.

"You guys will be out of sight here while we patrol around with our digivices," Rika told us.

"Be careful," I said to her.

"Don't worry about me, flea-bag. Just be ready for when we find the deva."

"Oh, I'm more than ready to send that nag to the glue factory," I assured her.

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We talked among ourselves for a short time but soon fell silent. Nobody was feeling very chatty. We hadn't lost-- but we sure hadn't won, either, and we knew that the solid hits we had scored on Indramon before the weird event had chased him off really hadn't done that much damaged to him. We still had a desperate fight ahead of us sometime soon.

And we'd lost someone we all knew well-- maybe not a friend, exactly, but a presence that was now a gap in our world. Kyuubimon hadn't said anything at all-- she just lay staring at the tunnel wall. I knew what was troubling her and I knew she wouldn't want to discuss it in front of the others.

I nosed her flank. "Take a little walk with me, will you?" I asked her. To the others I said, "We'll be back in a little while, guys."

She glanced at me and for a second I thought she'd refuse but she got to her feet and walked slowly down the tunnel by my side.

We walked about a mile or so in silence before I spoke. "I'm so sorry, lover."

She stopped and leaned her head against my shoulder. "I feel like I failed him," she said quietly.

"The hell you did! You gave him every chance-- and more credit than any of the rest of us." I hung my head. "I-- I didn't like him much and I teased the heck out of him a few times. I'm sorry for that now." I rubbed my cheek along the top of her head.

"I don't know why I felt such a need to help him," she said, "but I thought I was getting somewhere just before--" she raised her head and looked up at me. "I think he had a tamer once."

That shocked me. "Like-- like me?"

"I'm not sure," Kyuubimon shook her head, "and now I'll never know."

Damnit! I thought, why am I always lacking arms when she needs a hug so badly? I made do by rubbing myself against her and licking at her muzzle. "Kyuubichan, every day I find more reasons to love you. None of the rest of us were kind enough to make an effort with Impmon. Where did you learn compassion like that?"

She didn't say anything. It was a stupid question, anyway.

I kissed her-- or tried to. That was the first time we'd been together while both in our Champion forms and we weren't yet accustomed to the combination. But we figured it out quickly enough.

What started out as a comforting embrace turned passionate with surprising speed. We rubbed against each other, a warm exchange of energy flowing between us. All the love and tenderness I usually felt toward her was still there but the desire that suddenly swelled in me overwhelmed everything else.

I leaned over her shoulders and nipped at the base of her neck. She moaned something unintelligible and I put one of my forelegs across her, pressing down firmly and stroking the powerful curve of her back. She shuddered and curved herself against me, pressing her hip against my flank, moving in a slow, sensual way that drove every rational though out of my head.

There was no physical reason to take her the way I did-- but it felt right-- no, more than right, it felt necessary. Kyuubimon parted her glorious fan of tails and I slid up over her back, gripping her magnificent body with my forelegs and burying my muzzle in her thick ruff-- drinking in her scent. I pulled energy from deep within me and thrust it into her as my body flexed above her. Her back arched and she cried out my name in a hoarse, breathy whisper. Then her muscles surged and rippled down the length of her exquisite form and the same energy came flooding back into me, changed in some subtle way.

I could give no thought to what was happening then-- I was driven by an urgent need to connect with my lover in the most primal way possible, and my body moved of its own accord, flexing and curving against hers as the energy surged between us, seeming to grow with each exchange.

Our lovemaking had never been like this before-- never so needful. The walls flashed with patterns of light and shadow. Actinic bursts of blue and red mingled with the softer hues shining from my fur patterns as the crackle of static discharge mixed with a deeper throbbing pulse of sound that echoed down the tunnel. We moved with a savage intensity, exerting all our physical strength against each other in concert with our expanding shared energy until the world flew to pieces.

There was a light so bright that, even with my eyes squeezed tightly shut, all I could see was whiteness. There was a sound so loud that it became silence. For an instant or an eternity I was only a white-hot cloud of ecstasy with no other form or purpose.

And then I was Coyomon again, spinning through a strange place lit by a whirling maelstrom of light. Renamon was facing me, turning as I turned in the small, enclosed space we found ourselves in. Her fur rippled and parted as the first brightly glowing blue line emerged from her body. I gasped at the feeling of one of my own nurbs leaving my belly. It should have been frightening, feeling myself come apart like that, but it was just the opposite. I felt at peace.

More and more of the lines that defined our very essence came away from us both, until a few dozen turned in a writhing cloud between us. Renamon and I watched them as they wove themselves together into a ball.

No, it wasn't a ball.

It was an egg.

Particles of our outer skin came away and condensed around the egg's shape, giving it a rich golden color that was shot through with flakes of rusty red. We had only a few moments to admire the wonder we had unknowingly created before the energy vortex surrounding us dissipated and the egg vanished in a sparkle of light and dark pixels-- leaving us alone together in the dark tunnel.

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