Chapter 25: The Beast of Darkness
Disclaimer: Don't own.
Duskmon stood in front of his master, AncientWisemon. The mysterious Digimon who ruled this section of the digital world was actually a part of the order that Wisemon hails from, having joined it because of said Digimon's legacy, but ultimately getting expelled from it for conspiring against Yggdrasil. He was known as the Apostate to those in the order, and for good reason for he went straight to violating the one of the order's ideals: that of political neutrality.
Since then, he has been steadily violating more of the order's ideals, even going as far as having the army of El País Occidental go after the order. In response, the order changed the location of the island that they were on and renamed it. However, that wasn't important at the time. "Lo fallecí." [I failed you.]
"Yes you did. I know exactly what the problem was though: you haven't let go of your human side yet."
Duskmon looked up at his master. "Pero, señor, Usted sabe que…" [But, sir, you know that…]
"I know what?" AncientWisemon could speak English quite well, having had the digital world's languages downloaded into him. "You only need to use the Beast Spirit. You remember how to use that, right?"
"I know… but my son! He's among the Tamers!"
"So? The Tamers are a threat to the Digital World! You've seen what they did to the one-time Machine Empire, now named the pathetic Guevara Empire! The only reason I accepted you was because you didn't enslave a Digimon. Instead, you became one! Now, if you're truly an asset to this world and to the Triple Alliance, you will exterminate the Tamers."
"How could I? They're kids." Suddenly, an energy field of darkness appeared around both AncientWisemon and Duskmon. Duskmon felt his grasp on reality loosen and then fall away.
Now Duskmon was ready for action.
"He's back?" Eddy exclaimed disturbing the patrons at the restaurant they were in. "When the heck did that happen?"
"Just a little bit ago," Daniel explained. "Right now, some of our Digimon are engaging him. Zack, can you get Veemon to the Perfect Level?"
"You read the report on our last mission. I do have an idea that might work, though. Let's get to it."
Eddy was ready to get it over with himself. It was nightfall, much like the other time they took on Duskmon, and if Eddy was right, that meant they were at a disadvantage. "Ready Commandramon?" he asked.
"When am I not?" the reptile asked, patting his gun.
"That's what I like to hear." They walked toward the door just as Eddy felt his digivice vibrate. "What the-?" He pulled it out of his pocket and checked it.
"Who is it, Eddy?" Edd asked.
Eddy looked at the device. "It's Wisemon of all people. He says he wants me to meet him at the Tamers' Monument and that I should bring Ingrid while I'm at it."
"Wisemon?" Edd inquired.
"I know him," Kudamon said from around Edd's neck. "He's a member of an ancient order dedicated to the peace of the Digital World. It is said that his order chose the chosen and developed the various models of digivice used in this world."
That solved one problem Zack had: that of potentially activating another Dark Evolution by having Eddy let his Digimon go to Perfect. "Why don't you go with her, Eddy? There's more than enough of us to take on Duskmon," he suggested.
Eddy nodded. "Where's Ingrid, anyway?" he asked.
"Just outside. Is she the blonde chick?"
"Nope, she the kind of gothic but not girl."
"Oh, her, the one with the heavy eye shadow." For some reason, the first thing Zack looks at on girls is their eyes. Then he checks out the rest of them. He goes crazy over girls with striking eyes and nice bodies and almost went crazy thinking about it. Nazz in particular was one he had to divert his eyes from for various reasons.
"Hey, Ed!" Eddy called out to his friend. "You mind giving us a ride with Aquilamon?"
"Sure can do, Eddy. Is that alright with you my little buddy?" Ed asked Hawkmon, who was grateful for being asked permission.
"Why sure. It doesn't sound like a bad idea if I say so myself. I'm not much of a fighter, anyway," Hawkmon responded.
"Alright, let's go!" Eddy exclaimed, running out of the restaurant with Commandramon, who cautioned him.
"What if this Wisemon fellow is a rogue and this turns out to be a trap?" Commandramon asks.
"Easy, Tankdramon and Aquilamon will kick his butt!" Eddy exclaimed loudly, causing Zack to almost trip in response.
They didn't like having to hold off the enemy while their tamers got some of their star players, but they did. They had no other choice. None of them were at the Perfect Level yet, since they couldn't get to that level without their tamers around, but through teamwork and perseverance, they could at least prevent Duskmon from wiping them out.
Mostly…
Reppamon ran forward, attacking with its tail while Togemon shot needles at the black specter. Unfortunately, the attacks just bounced off the enemy Digimon's armor. Meanwhile, on the other side, Leomon, Waspmon and Pidmon attacked him from the other side, Pidmon launching his Fire Feathers attack while Waspmon launched a projectile. Leomon simply used his Beast King Fist. Again, they simply bounced off.
Kyubimon and Galgomon joined Reppamon's squad. "How is he taking our shots?" Galgomon asked.
"Too well," Reppamon said. "Where is Stingmon?"
"He's joining Leomon's group. We're trying to balance the sides out so that he doesn't find a weak point. It is strange fighting without our Tamers around."
"That it is."
Soon afterwards, though, the Tamers all showed up with Veemon. "Alright, Veemon! Time to show your stuff!" Zack exclaimed.
Veemon nodded. "Heck, yeah!"
Edd examined the situation. Obviously, more than just Veedramon was going to be needed. The whole situation seemed familiar, somehow, as if he had known that this battle was going to come, eventually. "We're going to be in need of Perfect level Digimon, if my analysis is correct," he told the group.
"Yeah, I think everyone realizes that, dude," Nazz said. Like everybody, she was on the edge. The battle had come unexpectedly and they weren't exactly ready. Viximon could barely evolve to Renamon and going further and becoming Kyubimon was even more of a stretch, but she did it. It was now only a question of how long she would last.
Edd watched Zack as he pulled out two cards from the deck attached to his waist. Edd looked closely. Are those… Digimentals? Edd had never once thought of combining two Digimentals at once, but maybe it would work. Still, there was absolutely nothing in canon that suggested that they would or that even remotely hinted at what one would get if they performed that type of Armor Evolution.
Now, though, they could see what happens.
Zack held the cards out in front of his face and performed a slash, closing his eyes for a second as he slid both cards horizontally through his black and blue digivice. "Card Slash! Double Armor Evolution!"
DOUBLE ARMOR EVOLUTION _
"Veemon, Double Armor Digivolve to…"
Veemon's body was elongated while still bipedal while black and red armor attached to his body, fiery red armor on his arms and legs while the black armor attached to his chest, his feet and his hands. Finally, to finish the design were two cannons that attached to his hips, wings on his back, and a lightning bolt that appeared on top of his helmet that looked much like the helmet of his namesake.
"BlastPaildramon!" The appearance of such a Digimon surprised the entire team.
"Good lord! How does something like this even exist?" Edd asked.
"Well, we never knew whether the Armor level was possible through Card Slash until we tried. It was in a Dark Ocean infested area on the south side of Server where I first experimented with it."
"How does that affect evolution?" Edd asked.
"Simple, the Dark Ocean is infested with things called either Control Spires or Dark Towers, depending on what version of the Anime you prefer. These towers are apparently the essence of Deep Ones who sacrificed themselves to the service of Dagomon."
Edd shivered at the thought of the Digimon that had Kevin ensnared and apparently held another unknown Tamer.
"Plasma Cannon!" BlastPaildramon shouted, shooting at Duskmon blue beams of energy wrapped with coiled purple energy from the cannons at his hips. Duskmon was hit head on, receiving cracks in his armor. If the Armor level was normally just a little bit below the Adult level in strength, Fusion Armors were just a bit below Perfect.
Unfortunately, though, Duskmon kept on charging forward. He eventually came face to face with Stingmon who already had his arm blades extended and who was automatically blocked by Duskmon.
"Oh, you again? Didn't you learn from last time?" Duskmon said. His voice was huskier and more frightening than before, possibly from AncientWisemon's influence.
"Attack!" Stingmon yelled before Duskmon was barraged by a number of attacks from the other Digimon, a few of which had energy that seeped through the cracks on Duskmon's armor, damaging him slightly.
Yet, all that did was cause him to jump back and then, as quickly as he could, move behind Stingmon, slicing him across the back, spraying data in his own face.
"Stingmon!" Chaun yelled as his Digimon reverted.
Oh no… This is turning out badly, Daniel though, touching his crest, which glowed slightly.
"Is something wrong, Daniel?" Edd asked.
"No… it's nothing. Well, not entirely." Edd's eyes widened. "You see, sometimes I worry that I didn't get the right crest. I've never exactly been what could be considered Reliable. Sometimes, I wonder if whoever assigned the crests didn't actually know anything about us."
"I know what you mean." Edd looked down. "Many times I've wondered how I could have gotten the crest of Courage, considering how I've never been what I would call courageous. I've even pondered how I'm the only one left that hasn't gotten to the next level."
"Wasn't courage originally Eddy's brother's crest?" Daniel asked.
"That it was. I've also wondered why Eddy didn't just inherit the crest himself."
"How did Eddy get kindness in the first place?"
"He found it in a box that used to be in his brother's room. It was where he found a number of cards as well as a card scanner that became part of his digivice."
"Did he know who had it before him?"
"No… and I've been trying to figure it out myself. Perhaps Eddy has a connection, familial or otherwise, with the almost mythical First Tamer."
"Somehow that wouldn't surprise me. As far as I know, though, Zack doesn't have any more missing relatives, so maybe family ties could be marked off. Also, I did some work to figure out when the Tamer came here and came up with the late 1990s."
Daniel walked up to Zack. "Hey, Zack, you don't have any relatives that could be the First Tamer or anything, right?"
Zack looked at Daniel strangely. "Okay, we're in the middle of a battle and you have to ask that… As far as I know, no. And didn't the First Tamer get stuck in the Dark Ocean or something?"
"Yeah… That's what I hear."
Zack's attention immediately fixed itself back on the battle. "Get him, BlastPaildramon!"
Soon, though, the battle took an even darker turn when Duskmon struck Kyubimon, knocking off several of her tails and forcing devolution back to Viximon. Then BlastPaildramon shot him again before he could go for a killing stroke, knocking him backwards. The cracks were becoming even more pronounced now and a piece of armor fell off.
"Guys, there's a weak spot!" Zack yelled.
"Everyone, get him all at once! We need to take advantage of this development!" Edd shouted.
Each of the Digimon shot at the part of Duskmon's chest where the armor was missing, damaging him heavily. Duskmon hunched over.
"Surrender now, or else," BlastPaildramon said, pointing his guns at Duskmon.
"You think I can be defeated that easily?" he asked, his voice becoming even more disturbing as his body glowed purple and black. "Slide Evolution!" Duskmon turned into an ugly, decaying black and purple bird.
Edd looked at his digivice and recognized the name.
Velgmon…
"So, why do you think this Wisemon character wants me to come along?" Ingrid asked Eddy while riding on the back of Aquilamon with Ed and Commandramon.
"Maybe he's gonna give you a partner. I mean, seriously, you've been doing nothing since we got here!" Eddy exclaimed.
"Yeah, you freeloader," Ed taunted.
"Forget I asked," Ingrid responded.
"Hey, what do you think Ingrid's gonna get?" Ed asked.
"Who knows! Maybe Wisemon's going to be her partner," Eddy said in response.
Ingrid didn't know what Wisemon was except from a description of him given to the other part of the team by Daniel. Still, he did not sound like the stereotypical partner Digimon. Chances were that he was going to give her a Child-level like all the other kids.
Of course, there were exceptions: Zack and his sister's Digimon normally stayed at the Adult Level, and so did Daniel's since evolving him to Pidmon for the first time. And then there's the interesting case of Eddy's Digimon Commandramon who remained as Sealsdramon for longer periods of time than normal. As far as she knew, Digimon had to absorb large amounts of data in order to stay at such forms and yet, at the same time, Commandramon hadn't absorbed that much data if any.
Eventually, they landed. "Well, this is the place! Ed, Chaun and I came here yesterday and it reacted to my green digivice," he said. Of course, now he knew for the most part what the statues represented. Still, one thing bothered him: what does Examon have to do with him and his siblings?
"There may be a reason for that," Eddy heard a voice say from up ahead. Walking out from behind one of the statues was Wisemon. "Right now, the identity of the original Tamer is not important, but you will need him once you go back to the Human World."
"Yeah! Why don't you tell me now, hoodie?" Eddy exclaimed.
"Because the information on that person is too much for you to handle."
"So what? Do I have yet another brother?" Eddy asked.
"No, thank Yggdrasil."
"Oh, and another thing: you said that I would need him in the human world. That Jijimon guy said that he was stuck in the Dark Ocean!"
"Yes, he is. Due to a malfunction of his digivice, however, he is in the real world as well. But, that is not why I'm here. I bade you to listen."
"Whatever that means."
"It is foretold that in the next couple of days your brother's troops will arrive to take either you or Zack to the Imperial Fortress. When that happens, you will have to surrender yourself."
The shock on the eyes of the kids that were gathered there was apparent. "Crackers," was Ingrid's response.
"Oh, no, not Eddy!" Ed exclaimed, hugging his fat friend who was just as shocked.
"What good is that gonna do?" Eddy asked.
"Simple, it will be your ticket to your world."
"Wait, so my brother got the portal up and working again?" Eddy asked.
"No, the portal in question was built by Mugendramon's troops so that he could conquer the human world after conquering this world. His plans never came to fruition as you well know because your brother defeated him as BlackWarGreymon. You will see the way to your world once you get to that point and receive instructions as to what to do."
The three let that all sink in. Ingrid didn't know Eddy that well, but she heard a bit about what he went through while living with his brother. The guy was a sick, twisted individual from what she knew.
"Certainly there must be another way," she told Wisemon.
"There is more to this that I have not told you," Wisemon replied. "Now, about you: what are you doing here?"
"What?"
"What are you doing here? You are in a world that is on the verge of global war and you do not even have a partner Digimon."
"I was told to come here by my superior," Ingrid's thoughts turned to a certain Jr. Commissioner Vallejo. "Believe me, if it was me, I would have stayed. I'm missing far too many days of school."
"On the contrary, you have not missed any. Scarcely ten minutes have passed in your world since you have come here."
Ingrid was shocked. "How?"
"A little thing called Time Dilation. Many Digital Worlds can be set up to go at a faster speed than the Human World they're connected to. Have you ever heard of Brane Theory?"
"As a matter of fact, I have. I am wondering, though, how did these myriad alternate realities come into existence?"
"Boring! I'm sorry, but only Double D would care about any of that," Eddy exclaimed. "Besides, the others are taking on Duskmon while we're here talking!"
"In a way, he is right, Ingrid. Now to the point: are you going to stay here or are you going to go home? It will not be easy either way. We have received reports that Somnus has captured your friends Horatio and Cornelius."
Ingrid's eyes widened. "Crackers. I'll stay, then."
"If that is the case, you are going to have to have a Digimon partner."
"Alright, I'll do it. Just tell me what I'll get."
"You can come out now."
Out from behind the statue of the mystery Digimon came a small, black imp with a mask colored in red and green eyes and a massive smile.
"So, this is who you're gonna give to me, eh? Honestly, how do you know she's going to be any better than the last idiot I was partnered with?"
Ingrid was taken aback by her partner's demeanor. He seemed pessimistic.
"Unlike your previous partner, I have been watching this girl," he told the diminutive imp. The one thought that ran through Ingrid's head was that his head was bigger than the rest of his body. "Ingrid Third, this is Dracmon."
Ingrid walked up to the Digimon and held out her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
The Digimon didn't respond in kind. "Well, at least she acts like she likes me, unlike that idiot David. I hope he gets his just rewards after all this is done for throwing me off the side of a cliff. Doesn't he know that that can kill me? Sheesh!"
Dracmon was definitely embittered by the whole situation. Of course, the mystery of who this David person was intrigued her. "I'm sorry about your former Tamer. I'll try my best to be a far better person than he was."
"That ain't hard, girl. What's your name, Ivana or something?"
"Ingrid."
That was when Dracmon shook her hand. "Okay, Ingrid! Just no funny business or I'll sneak into your room in the middle of the night and suck your blood dry! Got it?"
Ingrid didn't know how this was going to turn out. "Before you go, Ingrid," Wisemon said, "you may need this." Wisemon handed the girl a purple digivice with orange trim. The model was a bit different than the ones that the rest of the team had, having edges that weren't smooth. The digivice was boxier because of that. "I am quite sure you already know some of the basic functions of the device, so I will not elaborate on them at this time."
Ingrid nodded. "So, who was David?"
"He was a seventeen-year-old who was thrust into the digital world by his father. Unfortunately, he was already slightly warped and that through him over the edge."
"In my case, literally," Dracomon commented. "Believe me: you don't want to go there."
"Eventually, he decided to take on a new identity and leave his brother and sister behind, opting to go to Server continent. However, he still has contact with his father and he is doing some of his bidding."
Eddy was trying to put two and two together, but he couldn't. Then it hit him. "No…"
"You are correct Eddy and because of him, your brother is in danger. He has far too much power at his disposal and he plans to use it, being one of only a handful of Tamers in this reality that can reach the Ultimate or Mega Level. He even has a new partner that's far deadlier than most, being one of the few Digimon with a form past Mega."
Eddy knew who he was. It all made sense now. However, that confrontation was for another day. Now, however, he had Duskmon to deal with.
It was all just one step at a time.
A/N: I hope you didn't think I was jumping the shark by including the idea I had about armor digivolution in this chapter. Heck, it'll bite Zack in the rear end next chapter when Commandramon becomes Sealsdramon.