Chapter 24: Dorumon's Anger, Death-X Digivolution?!
Dorumon growled menacingly at Lillithmon, taking a single step forward. As Dorumon stepped forward, Lillithimon took a step back, her arms bent in a position showing off her fear. The dark aura surrounding Dorumon spiked, engulfing the Digimon completely in a flame as his Digi-Color unleashed a black light.
Meanwhile, in the virus' chamber, the virus opened its eyes and began shaking violently. DemiDevimon flew over the pillar of light after locking BlackGabumon back in his original room at his master's request.
"Master, what is it?" the small Digimon asked. "What's wrong?"
"I knew this was bad idea," the virus replied, still shaking. The mysterious creature could sense when his power was being used by his minions, and because Lillithmon had infected Dorumon, Dorumon was now using his power.
"Did Lillithmon fail?" DemiDevimon wondered. "Did Dorumon become even more powerful?"
"No, she got him," the virus answered. "Damn! This is why I didn't want to give her so much of my power! I wanted to wait until I could see how BlackGabumon would react to it before testing it on someone as powerful as him."
Dorumon emerged from the black flame, now in his Champion-level form. However, something was different about him. Dorugamon's body was now covered in bluish-black metallic armor, several electrical wires sticking out at the point of his tail. His arms and legs were covered in silver cage-like armor, and his face was covered with an iron mask. His claws and nails were sharper than ever, and his eyes were an angry red color.
"Is that Dorugamon?" Alex wondered, still in AeroVeedramon's arms after being moved to a safe distance so they could watch from the air.
And took out here Digivice and looked down at the strange form of Dorugamon.
"This is weird," she stated. "The Digivice actually has some info on this. It says his name is DexDorugamon, an Undead-type Digimon of the virus attribute. Those wires are what keep him alive, and his energy is, um…" Ana stopped reading for a brief second, gulping as she found it difficult to believe. "His energy is obtained from devouring the Digi-Cores of other Digimon! You never want to be near is Metal Cast or Cannon Ball attacks!"
The others all looked on in disbelief, the Digimon now even gladder that they were farther away. With humans growing increasingly worried about Nero, Qilinmon began trying to think of a way to safely get him away from the danger below.
Lillithmon, too scared to risk a frontal attack, immediately ordered the robot to attack DexDorugamon, forgetting all about Nero. DexDorugamon on the other hand had not forgotten about Nero and stood his ground as the robot raised its arm and released three missiles, one right after the other, at him. DexDorugamon jumped into the air, grabbing one of the missiles with his bare hands and twirling around in place, letting go of it and redirecting it at another missile. The two missiles exploded on contact with one another, but there was still one left. DexDorugamon dove at the last missile, shredding it with his claws as he passed right by it without receiving any injury. The missile exploded behind him; Nero was still safe.
"Whoa!" everyone watching gasped.
"You…!" DexDorugamon roared in a dark, creepy voice. "You dare to put his life in more danger?!?! I'll hurt you so bad that you'll be begging me for a quicker death! Then I'll tear your Digi-Core straight from corpse and devour it before you can even blink an eye!!!"
The ominous aura surrounding DexDorguamon spiked once again, engulfing him another black flame. As everyone else looked upon the scene in horror, Nero began to stir. His eyes slowly opened as pushed himself to his hands and knees, his back experiencing a burning pain. He irked in pain as he turned his head after hearing heavy stomping. Soon DexDorugamon emerged from the flame in his next-level form. It resembled that of DoruGreymon, only his body was completely black, while his hair and wings were a blood-red color. His muzzle now looked like a skeleton skull, and his horn resembled a saw. His tail had split into several red ones, but they wrapped around a silver tail to form a single point.
"Is that…?" thought Nero after witnessing the sight.
"He digivolved again!" Hikaru pointed out.
"Now he's DexDoruGreymon," Ana reported, her Digivice still out. "The information about him is similar to his previous form. He's an Undead-type Digimon of the virus attribute that seeks out the Digi-Cores of other Digimon in order to further his strength. His Bloody Cave and Metal Meteor attacks should be avoided at all times!"
Nero stood up as DexDoruGreymon took heavy steps towards the robot, which retaliated by firing more missiles at the Digimon. The Digimon responded to the action by knocking them away with tail, not even caring where they landed this time. Fortunately, nobody was in the line of fire. Before the robot could act again, DexDoruGreymon lunged at the robot and jammed his horn into its chest, ripping it free and taking a huge chunk of metal with it. As the robot's internal mechanics lay exposed, the Digimon began attacking it wildly with his claws, shredding it to pieces.
"All that effort we took," MetalGreymon uttered. "And he did it in two attacks!"
"Did you think of anything to get Nero to safety?" Andrew asked Qilinmon.
"We can't do anything yet," answered Qilinmon. "Nero's still too close to them!"
"Hey, he's awake!" Alex shouted, pointing over to where was. "AeroVeedramon, let's go!"
"Alex, wait!" Hikaru called. Alex ignored him as AeroVeedramon headed in their direction. "Damn! HisyaRumon!"
"Yes, Hikaru-sama!" his partner replied, flying after them.
While DexDoruGreymon was distracted after taking out the robot, Lillithmon charged at him with her Nazar Nail aimed forward. DexDoruGreymon countered with his horn like before, but when Lillithmon tried to push herself forward and strike his Digi-Core, DexDoruGreymon brought up his tail and slammed it hard into her, hurling her away wih a violent impact into the ground.
"Metal Meteor!" he yelled in a dark voice, spewing a large metallic fireball at the evil Digimon.
Lilithmon managed to get up and leap away from the blast in the nick of time, but had little time to react as DexDoruGreymon flew towards her with amazing speed.
"We'll continue this some other time at the Floating Temple Island!" Lillithmon announced and pointed towards Nero. "In the meantime, I suggest you keep Lord Yggdrasil safe from them!"
DexDoruGreymon came to a halt as he turned his head to see Alex and AeroVeedramon heading towards Nero. Blinded by anger, he didn't recognize them and mistook them for a threat. He immediately changed direction and identified the two as his new target. Lillithmon cackled evilly as she disappeared from sight, taking one last look at was once the robot.
"Hey, Nero!" Alex called, waving to him from AeroVeedramon.
Nero noticed that DesDoruGreymon had stopped pursuing Lillithmon and changed his course. He understood why the moment he heard Alex's voice and turned around to see her approaching.
"Alex!" shouted Nero. "Get out of here! Now!"
AeroVeedramon alerted his partner to the approaching danger and braced himself, knowing he couldn't escape from DexDoruGreymon in his condition. They were already right next to Nero at nearly ground level. DexDoruGreymon charged head-on, his horn aimed directly at AeroVeedramon. Nero called out for his partner to stop, but he ignored him.
"Alex!" Hikaru cried out as he and HisyaRumon came between them, ready to intercept DexDoruGreymon's attack.
DexDoruGreymon didn't care who it was, all he knew was that he didn't want them near Nero. He continued charging until his horn made contact with something. Hikaru, HisyaRumon, Alex, and AeroVeedramon all gasped as DexDoruGreymon's horn soon had fresh, warm blood dripping from his horn. DexDoruGreymon's eyes showed signs of horror as he saw Nero with a deep gash on his shoulder and his horn placed just above the wound.
"Please, Dorumon…" Nero pleaded, wincing in pain. "Stop this! They're your friend! Don't you recognize them?"
DexDoruGreymon stammered back, his eyes focusing on the horn that was covered with his own partner's blood.
"L-Lord Yggdrasil…" he stuttered. "I… I…"
Nero collapsed to the ground and grabbed his shoulder, the boy in extreme pain. Alex hopped down from AeroVeedramon and rushed over to him, as did Hikaru. The others called out to them from the air, quickly descending towards them.
DexDoruGreymon let out a shriek of horror and buried his head into his forelimbs. The Digimon and Nero's Digivice began to glow as he reverted back to his Rookie-level form of Dorumon. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he thought about what he had done.
"Dorumon," called Nero weakly. "It's okay."
Dorumon looked up to see his partner smiling at him and turned away, unable to face him. Dorumon refused to make eye contact or even speak to Nero the entire night. In fact, he even stayed out of hearing distance because he was afraid he would hear Nero say something about him.
With Nero bandaged up and the Digimon on the road to recovery, the group of humans couldn't help but question Nero about what happened to Dorumon. It wasn't like other Digimon that had been infected by the virus; there was actually data on his forms.
"First of all, keep in mind that when I created this game, it was not with the intention that the Digimon would become real," Nero explained. "When I created Dorumon, I wanted him to be the strongest Digimon, which meant I had to give him the ability to digivolve with any attribute. I called his virus forms his 'Death' forms and they were based off his data digivolution stages. However, once I found out that the Digimon were real, I erased the part of the coding that allowed Dorumon to use them. They were jus far too powerful, and far too dangerous. I was afraid that Dorumon would hurt himself or someone he shouldn't."
"Wait!" said Andrew. "If you erased the coding, then how did he digivolve into them?"
"It must have been when Dorumon was infected," Nero answered, glancing off towards his partner in the distance. "The anti-virus program, which I call the 'X-Antibody,' is supposed to fight against the virus and even prevent Dorumon from being infected. Because Lillithmon infected Dorumon, Dorumon couldn't react while the program tried to do its job. We all know how protective Dorumon is of me. My guess is that when Dorumon saw me injured, his feelings caused the program to temporarily disable itself and allowed the virus to overcome him. I don't know how exactly, but it must have somehow replaced the code and created a 'Death-X' form, or something the X-Antibody tried to prevent."
"So, should we be afraid of him or something?" Veemon wondered, remembering the description of Dorumon's virus forms.
"No," Nero assured, smiling a bit. "Remember when my Digivice started glowing earlier? If it's like the first time Dorumon was infected, then it forced the program to go into overdrive and cured Dorumon."
"Hold on," Zaki said. "You said that Dorumon's virus forms were based off his data ones. If Dorumon has an anti-virus program, shouldn't he be using his vaccine forms?"
"That would make sense," Nero chuckled. "It is true that his vaccine digivolution stages would increase the power of the X-Antibody, but it doesn't mean it can't be used with his other attributes. His data forms give him the greatest balance of power, speed, defense, etc. To be honest, I originally planned for Dorumon to use his vaccine forms. His emotions, though, overpower his desire to complete his mission, and therefore cause him to take the forms that best suit him for protecting me. Unless Dorumon stops being so overprotective of me, the X-Antibody will never be at is strongest."
Dorumon looked back for a brief second, giving Nero a glimpse of how truly awful Dorumon felt about hurting him. Dorumon didn't even join them for dinner. Once everyone fell asleep, Nero took the opportunity to approach him.
"Are you okay, Dorumon?" he questioned as he sat down beside him.
"I should be asking you that," responded Dorumon. "I hurt you! I'm a failure as a partner."
"That's not true, Dorumon," Nero told him, extending an arm and petting him on the head. "It's not like you did it on purpose. Besides, this wound is nothing, and you've saved me a few times already. You're a great partner, and my best friend! I wouldn't trade you for any other Digimon!"
"You're my best friend too," Dorumon replied, leaning into the petting. "But I don't want to hurt you ever again! That's why I've decided… I'll never digivolve again!"
"WHAT?!" Nero exclaimed, his voice loud enough to wake the others up. "Dorumon, you can't do that! What about your mission?"
"I'll find another way to complete it," Dorumon stated firmly, leaning away from Nero and looking off into the distance.
"Do you honestly think you have the strength to defeat the virus as a Rookie?" Nero yelled, more worried than angry. Dorumon didn't answer, remaining completely silent. "Do you?! You saw how strong Belphemon and Lillithmon were!"
Aimi, being the youngest and least like to understand, got up and started to approach. Alex reached out and grabbed her arm, telling her just to let them be.
"Anyway, Lillithmon told me where she ran off to," Dorumon announced. "I remember that much. She said to face her at the Floating Temple Island."
Nero sighed and realized that Dorumon wouldn't change his mind tonight, and probably wouldn't digivolve unless he was in danger. Still, Nero would never put his own life in danger on purpose, not only because he wasn't so foolish, but also because he didn't want to do something like that to Dorumon. After noticing the others were awake, Nero stood up and walked over to them so they could discuss the next course of action. Dorumon remained where he was.
"I know that was a mistake," he admitted to himself. "I just can't risk hurting Nero. I have to protect him, but how can I do that if I'm the one who is a threat?"
The next morning, Dorumon did join the others for breakfast, but he didn't really say anything. Nero had told the others about Dorumon's foolish decision, but they spoke nothing of it. Nero wondered if perhaps the other Digimon could comfort him and convince him to allow himself to digivolve.
Meanwhile, inside the temple Lillithmon had spoken to the virus from before, Lillithmon once again made contact with her master.
"You have some nerve contacting me after that pitiful display!" the virus grumbled. "I see now an even bigger threat instead of none! And, rather than stay and try to get him under my control or dispose of him, you fled!"
"I-I'm sorry!" Lillithmon stuttered in fear. "You don't have to worry though, master! I told them to come here, and I'm certain they will!"
"Very well," the virus sighed. "Make sure you dispose of everyone except Lord Yggdrasil!"
"You mean you don't want Dorumon anymore?" questioned the female Digimon.
"No," answered the virus. "Lord Yggdrasil's interaction with him caused that accursed anti-virus program to reactivate and neutralize my power. I'm not going to risk letting you use any more of power to infect him if I can't even control him. Don't fail me this time!"
Lillithmon promised she would succeed and the transmission was cut. While Lillithmon awaited the arrival of Nero and the others, the virus gave DemiDevimon an order. "Send word to Beelzemon that his services will be needed after all. Also, inform Daemon that I am requesting his presence. I have another task for him."
"There's no need to contact me!" Beelzemon announced, stepping into the chamber as DemiDevimon took off. "I just stopped by to give my report on the two humans in my sector already. You needn't worry… I've judged their strength already based on my observations."
"Good!" the virus commented. "You may be the most unpredictable of the lot of you, but your skills in judging the strength of others has been invaluable to me so far."
"Whatever," Beelzemon replied, turning away. "Since I've given my report and know Lillithmon will fail. I'll be going now."
Elsewhere, a few hours had passed and Nero's group now stood at the bay, looking off towards Floating Temple Island in the distance as an ominous wind blew past them.