Chapter Thirty Seven: Enter The Dark Masters
In a dark room, through the lens of a massively powerful telescope, one could see crowds of people on earth staring up at the sky, none of them the wiser about being watched themselves by an evil power. The evil laughter that filled the observatory as what might appear to be a human sat at the controls to the telescope, watching the people of the world of earth.
"Those bit players are frozen with stage fright," the creature that was a digimon said, "Hopelessly waiting for the moment they'll be saved. And yet, there's an unseen twist in the plot!"
"I say we cut straight to the punch line and go straight for the action!" The first of the figures in the observatory appeared human. The second most certainly did not. Long, serpentine body, twin tails at the end and several fins, it would be easy to guess that this was another evolution of Seadramon. As it dove back into the water nearby, that would be proven right.
"Oh, please! That would be boring," another figure appeared, this one much smaller than the last, and once more human in appearance, if only slightly, "I wanna play this drama to the hilt! Let's pull out all the stops and give them what they paid for."
A fourth figure, massive, silent, inhuman, watched the other three converse. It's eyes weren't even visibly as it watched them move about so energetically.
"I'm in complete agreement," the first figure said, floating over towards the smaller humanoid, "A quick victory would be a let down. The Digidestined will be on Spiral Mountain soon. We must rehearse before they get here!" a spot light suddenly shined down on the figure, illuminating him, "It will be their final performance!"
The first of the four dark figures looked like a cross between a mime, a clown and a court jester. White skin, painted red lips, red eyes, and orange hair were the general physical traits, but that was not all. He wore a red petticoat, four swords in blue scabbards crossed on his back, with two light blue ribbons coming off his shoulders. His pantaloons were green and his boots a golden color with curled toes. He had on a half white, half black mask and from the back of that his orange hair came out like a pillar for a good foot of length before turning curly at the ends.
Another spotlight came down just as the serpentine figure popped out of the waves, "Metalseadramon," the first creature announced. Those who guessed it was another evolution of Seadramon were vindicated as the monster was put under the light. It was the size of an average Seadramon, but from the tip of it's hollowed snout, to the end of it's twin tails, it was absolutely covered in metal. Mostly chrome, with bands of gold circling it every so often and a gold helmet, the beast actually had jet engines sprinkled along its serpentine back to make it easier for it to move in the sea or the air. The only part of it not made of metal was it's mane of long, grey hair.
"Puppetmon," the jester digimon announced now, shining a light on the third figure. This humanoid figure only had the general shape right. He was mostly made of wood from head to toe, with bits of metal sprinkled about here and there to make it interesting. It hat red eyes, a red cloth helmet, blue overalls, and a white shirt. On its back was an X shaped wooden panel that had red wires coming out of each end that connected to his legs and arms. In his hands was a large mallet, the head of the weapon looking like a revolvers ammo chamber.
"Machinedramon!" One final beam of light shone down on the final member of this quartet of disaster. It was reflected off of every surface it hit. Withe Metalseadramon, it was easy to see that, while he was covered in metal, he was still flesh underneath. Machinedramon was different. Inside, outside, ever part of this digimon was made of some type of alloy. It's general shape was that of a dinosaur. It had two humongous cannons on its back, and a gun metal black head and neck with two metal horns coming from the back of its head. It was roughly the same size as Metalgreymon, but there was no eye to be seen from the holes made for such.
"I present to you, The Downfall of The Digidestined!" the jester told them enthusiastically, holding his arms up to the sky. The lights shut off suddenly, leaving the four of them once again in the dark in their mountain top observatory.
+-9
The first time the children had entered the Digiworld, they had been drawn into a brightly lit space between the worlds that had lulled them into a nice sleep. Lucy had been the only one who had been able to stay awake to see the dark entity attacking the light and trying to devour them, not that she remembered it. At the moment it was just a half forgotten dream.
This time, as they fell through the space between worlds, there was no light. Darkness ruled it all and their screams of fright as they fell were echoed back to them a hundred fold.
And then, in the blink of an eye, they were waking up in the Digiworld, one by one.
"Well, looks like we're back," Tai said after grunt from the harsh travel they'd just endured.
"Back where?" Mimi asked, looking up at the trees.
"The Digiworld, my home," Lucy said, placing a hand lovingly on one of the oddly colored trees.
"That is affirmative," Izzy said with a grin.
"It's dark," TK observed.
"Yeah," Matt nodded, it's kinda weird.
Sora was looking around at the somewhat familiar land scape before finally turning her eyes to the sky and gasping in shock, "Hey!" she drew everyone's attention, "Look up there!"
The kids all stood to their feet with their Digimon right next to them, their eyes on the sky. From holes in the canopy, they could see... Earth! They could see the world all but one of them belonged in.
"Talk about weird!" Tai said, looking up at the blue and green that was the earth.
"Could that be earth?" Matt needed some confirmation.
"It's merely speculation, but it seems to be a reasonable facsimile," Izzy said.
"Not hard to believe it is," Lucy said, "Think about it, we could see my world from yours. Its not too big of a stretch to think we could see yours from mine."
"A reasonable conclusion," Izzy nodded.
At that moment, Joe realized someone was missing. He took his eyes off the sky and began searching through the nearby flora.
"Gomamon, where are you?" the blue haired boy called, looking for his partner.
"Joe, I've been snoozing over here!" the seal digimon called from Joe's blue duffel bag, popping his head out.
"Huh?" he looked over at the digimon, "Oh, we'll just save the world without you the-"
Before the blue haired boy could finished, a little pink thing flew out of the shin high grass, attacked Joe's face the best it could before jumping away as the ground shifted and churned where the teen landed on his rump after the surprise attack.
"Joe!" Gomamon cried, running towards where he'd seen the enemy digimon disappear to.
The teen in question was hanging off the side of what appeared to be a cliff, "I don't need this," he grumbled.
While that was going on, Gomamon and the other digimon moved to attack their attacker. The seal digimon moved as quickly as he could, but was easily passed by the others, even as they Digivolved.
"Koromon, Digivolve to Agumon!" The dinosaur kept on going.
"Tsunomon, Digivolve to Gabumon!" The furred digimon didn't even pause to look before going after the digimon that had attacked them.
"Motimon, Digivolve to Tentomon!" the bug buzzed by.
"Urimon, Digivolve to Skymomon!" The monkey pulled slightly ahead of the pack with her superior speed.
"Tokomon, Digivolve to Patamon!" the tan digimon took to the air.
"Yokomon, Digivolve to Biyomon!" The pink bird was the final to Digivolve as she passed, but not the last digimon to pass Gomamon by. She was followed by Salamon. Palmon tried to keep up, but ended up tripping over her own roots.
"Hold on!" Kari yelled suddenly, getting the digimon to stop their forward rush. She ran to the front of the pack and crouched down in front of the area where she could see a small silhouette of a creature. She put a kind smile on her face and held out a hand to it as she spoke, "Come out. You're among friends," the creature looked back at her, shivering in it's terror, "We wont hurt you. Don't be afraid."
Finally, the creature seemed to decide that the little girl wasn't lying, and pushed its way forward. It looked like a pink bipedal mouse. It got a few steps forward before it collapsed.
Palmon recognized it immediately, "Oh my goodness! It's Chuumon!"
Mimi came up beside her partner, looking at the familiar digimon she had met so long ago in the Digiworld, "He looks terrible! What he needs is a complete makeover."
"Mimi? Palmon?" The little digimon asked as it looked up at the two of them, hoping it wasn't just dreaming.
'Something bad happened. Sukamon and Chuumon used to be inseparable,' Mimi thought, remembering the two digimon she'd experienced when Devimon broke File Island apart.
"I'm so glad you came back to save us," the mouse digimon said weakly, passing out again.
"Wow," Lucy said calmly, "It's great that you've reunited with an old friend," she glared over her shoulder, "Now, if it's not too much trouble, I could use a hand here!" the last part was not so much spoken as it was growled.
The other kids and digimon looked over to see what the problem was. They found Lucy trying to lift Joe up. Unfortunately, she was too small and couldn't get enough leverage to do more than keep the teen from falling into the abyss.
"Hey," Tai said as he and Matt came over, "Quit fooling around!"
"Who's fooling?!" Lucy snapped, "Help me!"
The two older boys grabbed Joe by the back of his shirt and arm respectively, helping the pink haired girl lift the teen back onto solid land.
"Work with us, Joe," Matt said when the boy started panicking after looking down.
Gomamon sat before his partner then, "Sorry about that buddy, we kinda forgot about you."
"Oh, great," Joe panted, "You were off in Lala Land while I get to hang by my elbows."
"Hmm," Gomamon hummed, looking at his left fore flipper, "I wonder what it's like to have elbows."
"What's happening?" Matt asked, looking out at the sections of the forest that began to drop into the abyss below, "Everything's gone wacko!"
"Who," Lucy paused, "What could have done this to the digital world? I kind doubt it was the black gears this time."
across the way, sitting at the base of a tree with his computer out, Izzy was typing rapidly on the keyboard, hoping to get some kind of information about what was going on.
"Are you trying to get a hold of Gennai?" Tentomon asked.
"Well, I'm not playing solitaire," the boy told him.
While he was doing that, the rest of the group had gathered around Mimi and Chuumon, whom she was holding in her hands.
"Chuumon's a mess," Palmon said, "I wonder what happened to him."
"Well, whatever it was, it wasn't very pretty," Biyomon suggested.
"I think that's an understatement," Skymomon added, sitting in one of the tree branches.
"Poor thing," Sora sympathized.
Slowly, the little, pink mouse began to regain his consciousness. His eyes blinked open, and Mimi held him up before her face.
"Chuumon?" the girl asked softly.
"Mimi," the mouse groaned, "I wasn't dreaming, it's really you after all."
"Poor thing," the brown haired girl said to him, "Why don't you tell Mimi all about it?"
"What happened to your friend, Sukamon?" Palmon asked. The poor little digimon grimaced as he closed his eyes in remembrance.
"I... I," tears began to gather in the corners of his eyes, "I'm afraid I lost him," he began wailing in depression as he thought about what had happened. He calmed down enough to explain after a couple seconds, but he was still leaking tears from his eyes, "It happened years ago. After you guys left File Island, Sukamon and I went on with life as usual. You know, eating, eating, and more eating. When suddenly," he sniffed dramatically as he remembered it, "the whole island began to shake! We had no idea what was happening, so we ran for our digi-hides. But the ground broke apart and Sukamon fell," he looked up at Mimi with his water eyes, "I never saw him again, and a powerful, evil force took over the land, causing all kinds of bad things to happen. Then it rebuilt the digital world so it would be easier to conquer!" he hung his head, "I've been hiding ever since."
"You mean the digital world is completely changed from what it was?" Tai asked, incredulously.
"How's it different?" Izzy asked, having closed his computer without contacting Gennai.
"Everything's been discombobulated and taken apart!" Chuumon almost screamed, "The digital world has been relocated way up there!" he pointed to a humongous mountain made of forest, desert and sea, all spiraling upwards, "It's called spiral mountain!"
The kids and their digimon looked up at the swirling tower, disbelief written clearly on their faces. It was kind of hard to believe that all of the digital world had been taken and twisted up into one, giant mountain. But there it was, for all of them to see.
"There's nothing left here of the old world, except some ruins," Chuumon continued.
"So, you're saying it's all up there?" Matt said as he looked at the huge peak, "Huh?"
"Color me cynical, but nothing surprises me about this place," Joe said.
"What force could do this?" Lucy breathed, "Who could be so powerful?"
"Where did all the other digimon go?" Tai asked, "Are they up there, too? Where's Leomon?"
"I don't know," the mouse said, holding onto Mimi for dear life, "But, but I've been told they'll destroy anyone who get's in there way!" he hunched down in the girl's grip.
"Who will?" Sora asked him gently.
"Who?" he opened his eyes again, looking up, "The Dark Masters!"
"Well, they couldn't be too much tougher than anyone else we've wrestled with before," Tai assured everyone.
"No way!" Chuumon exclaimed, panic in his tone, "They'll beat the pants right off of you!"
"We got rid of Myotismon, so, we can get rid of them, too!" the wild haired boy said with a grin, holding his fist before him.
"Don't worry about it," Mimi told the mouse digimon reassuringly, "As long as the nine of us are together, we'll keep those big bullies away from you."
Then evil laughter filled the air. The children gasped as they looked for the source of this maniacal cackling.
"I've been waiting for you, Digidestined!" the forest exploded upwards and out of the smoke came a metal covered digimon.
"No!" Chuumon cried, "It's Metalseadramon! This guy is one real hard nose, and I mean hard nose! This is one train you'll wanna miss!"
Metalseadramon began to charge at the children and they did the smart thing. They ran for their lives. They ducked down, barely avoiding his low pass, and rolled to a painful stop.
"Okay," Matt groaned as he got back to his feet, "If that's the way you want it, we can play rough, too!"
While the monster circled in the air above, Tai held up his digivice, "Get ready, Agumon!"
"Right!" the yellow dinosaur said, "Agumon, Digivolve to Greymon!"
"Now, it's our turn!" Matt said as the other digimon jumped in as well.
"Gabumon, Digivolve to Garurumon!"
"Biyomon, Digivolve to Birdramon!"
"Tentomon, Digivolve to Kabuterimon!"
"Gomamon, Digivolve to Ikkakumon!"
"Palmon, Digivolve to Togemon!"
"Skymomon, Digivolve to SkyYetimon!"
"Patamon, Digivolve to Angemon!"
"Salamon, Digivolve to Gatomon!"
Metalseadramon didn't seem at all impressed as he came in for another attack. Greymon powered up his signature attack, then fired a Nova blast right at the evil monster. But it was useless. The metal covered digimon cute through the attack like a hot knife through butter, then knocked Greymon aside like a rag doll.
Birdramon tried next, "Meteor Wing!"
"Howling Blaster!" Garurumon through his lot in with her.
The result was the same. Metalseadramon ignored the attacks entirely, bashing into the digimon, nose first, and knocking them to the ground.
"Electro Shocker!"
"Harpoon Torpedo!"
"Needle Spray!"
Just as he had with the last three attacks, all they did was draw the evil digimon's attention to them, and he quickly smashed them as well.
Angemon, Gatomon and SkyYetimon jumped forward next, preparing their attacks.
"Tornado Hammer!"
"Hand of Fate!"
"Lightning Claw!"
None of the attacks affected him at all, and Gatomon nearly got eaten by the sea serpent. The end result turned out to be the same as all other attacks, they were smashed to the forest floor.
"Angemon!" TK cried.
"Oh, no!" Kari was right beside, fearful for her partner.
"That wasn't according to plan," Lucy said, sitting by her fallen digimon.
"You should know that your powers aren't enough!" Metalseadramon shouted down at them as he circled about.
"How come he's beating us so badly?" Mimi asked Izzy, crouched next to Togemon.
Izzy gasped as he brought up the page on this new digimon, "It's because he's a Mega digimon, and even nine Champions can't overtake one Mega. He's stronger than all of us combined!"
"Then we're lost without more power!" Tai exclaimed.
"Ever notice we're at the wrong place at just the wrong time?" Joe asked as he looked up at the monster that was heading right for them.
"Now, it's time to take one nasty ride!" Metalseadramon announced as the barrel at the end of his snout began to glow with a blue white energy for a second. After that charge time, he shot a beam of energy out of his nose that slashed across the forest, crossing the Digidestined and all their digimon, sending them flying. The digimon grabbed their partners and protected them as best they could, but they had no idea how far they would fly before they landed, they only knew it was going to hurt.
When eventually they did land, the impact was enough to knock all of them for a loop, aside from Angemon. The angel digimon was on one knee as he held TK in his arms, looking the boy over for injury.
"Are you alright?" he asked the boy.
"I thought I was broken," TK said, looking up at the angel, "But I guess I must be okay."
The angel chuckled with TK, nodding to the boy. He gasped then when he heard the sound of machinery moving.
Angemon set the boy down and picked up his staff.
"What is it?" TK asked him, looking out into the thick mists with his digimon.
"I don't know," the angel admitted, "Wait, I'll be back." He took to the air to investigate this new threat. He made it only a hundred feet forward before a yellow blast hit him, making him cry out in pain, a second hit and sent him flying backwards. He hit the ground, rolled, and de-Digivolved between one bounce to the next.
"Angemon!" the eight year old boy cried out, waking the others and their digimon, "Oh no," he pulled the little guy into his arms, "Poor Patamon."
Tai and Matt rushed over to see if they could get a view of the monster that was attacking them now, hoping it wasn't Metalseadramon again.
It wasn't.
It was a huge, metal, dinosaur. And it didn't look happy.
"Be prepared for another Mega digimon!" Izzy said, looking at his laptop, "He's called Machinedramon! This metallic mutant can blow out a digimon just like a birthday candle!"
"Not happening," Lucy said, holding up her Crest. The others did the same. Nine Champions couldn't touch Metalseadramon, maybe eight Ultimates could make a few dents in this one.
The process of transformation for all eight of the digimon, minus Patamon, almost seemed faster than normal, like they were used to Digivolving now and could do it quicker.
As a group, they moved forward, with Angewomon and Wildangemon at the lead as two of the fastest.
"C'mon, guys!" Tai shouted, "Show 'im what you're made of!" He pumped his fists back and forth to mimic boxing.
"Hope they're made of something strong enough," Kari said, catching her brother's attention.
"Giga Cannon!" Machinedramon hissed out as they charged, firing several more yellow blasts. The Ultimate level digimon didn't even get a chance to attack, being knocked away like annoying bugs by the massively powerful attacks.
"Angewomon!" Kari cried, moving to catch her digimon, but the angel was so much larger that the little girl was almost knocked flat by the attempt.
So far, the only one not to get blasted was Wildangemon. The angel type was dodging the blasts left and right, almost making it look easy.
"Go, Wildangemon!" Lucy cheered, "Get that metal chump!"
Once she was within range, the angel leapt into the air, using her wings to guide her around more of the yellow blasts as she called out her second, more powerful attack, "Spear of The Sky!" The spear in her hand began to glow the color of the sky, humming to life with a massive amount of energy. As she slammed down on the massive digimon's head, stabbing the spear right into the center of his fore head, a pillar of pure, blue light shot up into the sky, clearing the immediate area of fog.
"Wooh!" Lucy pumped a fist in the air, "That oughta teach him a lesson!"
"When the light cleared, Wildangemon stood on the head of Machinedramon, staring in horror at the insignificant amount of damage she'd done with her most powerful attack. A scratch, a single divot in the very top of his head.
"Giga Cannon!" The mechanical dinosaur hissed again, both his back mounted cannons swiveling to target the angel.
"Oh, this is gonna hurt," Wildangemon said, bracing herself for the twin yellow blasts at point blank range. The explosions sent her careening back to the rest of the group.
Even so, the monster didn't stop firing, quite literally blasting the ground out from under the group's feet.
The children naturally screamed when they fell into what seemed like an endless black pit. Their digimon, injured as they were, did their best to keep their partner close, ready to take the brunt of the damage from the fall again.
But it would seem they wouldn't have to. Their fall came to a gentle stop, slowly down gradually until their were just floating in the air.
"We stopped," Izzy gasped.
"I can't complain," Mimi said with Chuumon still in her arms, "It's sure a lot better than falling on our heads."
"I second that," Lucy said, raising her hand.
Off to one side, Weregarurumon and Garudamon seemed to still be on an adrenaline rush that they needed to work out. As such, they were pummeling each other back and forth, just tossing out punches at each other over and over.
"Hey!" Matt said as Sora floated over by him, "Can't you two take a break for one minute?"
"Come on, we're all supposed to be on the same side," the girl added.
"We can't control it!" Garudamon grunted as she threw and took more and more punches.
Weregarurumon took another punch then spoke, "That's right! Our bodies are doing this all by themselves!"
"All by themselves, huh?" Sora did not sound convinced. Not until her own body started moving independently, making her take a weird pose, "Oh!"
Joe grabbed onto Zudomon's horn and began to kick his legs like he was running.
"I've always hated any form of exercise!" the boy complained, "What's happening to me?"
Izzy was the first to notice the nearly invisible wires connected to his every limb and finger.
"We've become string puppets," he said loud enough for everyone to hear, "And someone's operating us!"
"Heh! Well, aren't you a little smarty pants," a childish voice called down to the children. They looked up to see a living puppet.
"Who are you?" Izzy asked, his voice tinged with fear.
"How 'bout if I help you look up my profile on your special computer," the digimon held out his right hand and began to wiggle his fingers. Izzy was forced to open up his laptop and typed rather woodenly to pull up the digimon identification program.
Izzy gasped, "He's also a Mega digimon!" he informed the others, "Puppetmon has a controlling personality and a rotten temper. Get him mad and he'll bop you with his hammer!"
Puppetmon jumped down from the ledge he'd been sitting on to confront the Digidestined face to face.
"If you have to hit something, you should bop yourself for wearing that stupid helmet!" Mimi exclaimed, glaring at the evil digimon.
"Mimi!" Lilymon tried to get her stop before she made the digimon mad.
"I'm gonna have to let you go for now," the wooden digimon said, lifting one hand into the air to separate the human's from their digimon partners, "I promise to destroy you," he hefted his unique hammer over one shoulder, "Puppet Pummel!" blasts of energy shot out of the head of the mallet, smashing into all the Ultimate level digimon and draining them of their energy.
One by one, the digimon reverted to their In Training forms, the only exceptions being Agumon, Gabumon and Gatomon. Urimon was still suffering from the point blank blasts from Machindedramon.
When all the digimon had de-Digivolved, Puppetmon cut the strings and let the children continue their fall into the dark pit.
Luckily for them, their fall wasn't so far below. They landed, painfully, but they were otherwise okay, suffering only bumps and bruises. They were all groaning as they sat up.
A sudden honking nearby drew Tai's attention, then everyone elses.
From around one of the pillars in the coliseum they'd landed in, a clown appeared, balancing on a a big red ball.
"Well, hello there, boys and girls!" He said dramatically to the Digidestined, "And welcome! Today, I'm going to tell you an amazing story!" He pulled a crayon drawn picture of the group of children and their digimon in front of himself, "Once upon a time, there were nine Digidestined. They went with their digimon companions to try to save the world," he pulled that card away to show another of the group climbing the spiraling tower that the world had become, "The children had discovered that, in order for them to do it, they had to climb up to the top of Spiral mountain," he pulled that card away to show another crayon drawing of the kids falling to their doom, "But, to their dismay, the Dark Masters defeated them. So sad!"
"Hey, clowny, no one is laughin' at your story!" TK said loudly, holding up one fist.
The clown smiled at him, "Oh dear, I'm sor sorry, did I happen to mention this is a true story? I wanted to give you a preview of the plot!" His laughter turned maniacal as the clown facade faded away to show an evil digimon floating in the air before him, "Fools!" He was the fourth, as yet unnamed, Dark Master.
Chuumon was screaming his little head off as he saw the monster standing before them, his fear overriding his mind, "It's Piedmon! He's a Mega phantom digimon of the worst kind! You never know what he's gonna look like next!"
"Well, I think your plot needs a few rewrites!" Tai yelled up to the monster, turning with Matt to their digimon, holding out their Crests to focus their power, "Agumon!"
"Gabumon, you can do it!" the blonde boy said.
"Agumon, Warp Digivolve to Wargreymon!"
"Gabumon, Warp Digivolve to Metalgarurumon!"
"Yeah!" The wild haired leader of the Digidestined said, "Let him know we mean business, Wargreymon!" The digimon in question flew over his shoulder at the evil digimon.
"Metalgarurumon, teach that joker a lesson he'll never forget!" Matt ordered his digimon. The cybernetic wolf flew up towards the sinister clown right behind Wargreymon.
"Nova Force!" the Mega evolution of Agumon shouted as he summoned a small sun that he threw at Piedmon. The evil digimon just dodged around it like it was the easiest thing in the world to do.
"Ice Wolf Claw!" Metalgarurumon breathed a torrent of cold straight at the monster, but he just drew one of the four swords on his back and cut through the blast before it could even touch him.
"Trump Sword!" Piedmon yelled as he pulled the other three swords from their sheathes and threw them at the two other Megas. They hit, to great effect, knocking both Agumon and Gabumon out of their Mega forms and right back to the ground whence they came.
"This is bad news," Joe said.
"Even two Mega digimon couldn't put him down," Sora added, "That's really bad news!"
"Not to mention he's a fashion disaster," Mimi said next.
"Your two Megas are newly Digivolved," Piedmon said as he floated down towards them, "How can you hope to have them compete against an experienced and, might I boast, a superior digimon?!"
"Tai," Agumon was barely managing to speak, "Sorry."
"Please, permit me to present my fellow actors in this charming comedy of errors!" he held one hand over his chest then gestured to his left, "Metalseadramon!"
The evil digimon floated out of the way of an explosion as the serpent in question flew up out of the ground.
"Machinedramon!" Piedmon introduced next, gesturing to his right as the metal dinosaur, now with a visible scar from Wildangemon's attack on his gun metal black head, crashed through the side of the coliseum. He hissed an angry growl at the children, looking particularly at Lucy and Urimon.
"Puppetmon!" the jester floated back as the wooden Mega came down from the sky, upside down with a grin on his sinister face.
He giggled evilly as he looked at the children from his upside down position, "You thought you were through with me, but I wanted to have more fun!" He flipped over and got in formation with the other Dark Masters.
"And myself," the evil clown finally said, "Piedmon! We'd like to start by asking for audience volunteers! Who would like to be the first to be destroyed?" no one answered the call and the digimon grinned, showing fangs in his mouth, "Oh, come now, don't tell me you have stage fright."
Mimi was standing there, looking at all this overwhelming force arrayed against them and could feel the breath of the grim reaper on her neck. Her eyes well up with tears and she began to cry.
"I didn't even want to go to want to go to camp in the first place! I just wanted to go to the mall!" she sobbed, "Can't somebody else save this silly world, besides me?"
"Mimi!" Sora said, trying not to sound scolding.
"Come on," Lucy said to her, trying to be sympathetic, "I know how you feel, but this isn't the time to break down."
The girl just ignored the two of them, "I just wanna be a normal kid and not have any big responsibilities, okay? I mean, come on, is that too much to ask? It's not fair!"
"Regh!" Piedmon grunted in annoyance, "Your incessant whining is getting on my nerves!" He lifted a hand into the air, summoning a dagger to his hand, "You will be the first one to go!" The girl gasped as she realized she had drawn the evil digimon's attention, but she couldn't make herself move when he threw the knife.
But Chuumon could. He was afraid, more afraid than he ever was at any time in his life. All four of the Dark Masters stood before him, ready to destroy these children with their full powers, and he would just be collateral damage, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. But he could at least stall it.
The little pink mouse jumped into the air, right into the path of the knife, stopping it from getting to Mimi. The knife broke apart into raw data, and soon Chuumon would, too.
Mimi gasped and kneeled beside the little digimon, lifting him into her hands again, "Chuumon, speak to me, you poor thing!"
The mouse barely opened his eyes, "Mimi," he managed to say, "it's time for me to be deleted... ungh!"
"Chuumon!" the girl cried, even as the little creature broke apart into a sparkling stream of data.
The children all hung their heads in depression as the data streamed away from them. None of them could, nor would, make light of that little digimon's noble sacrifice.
"Chuumon was a fool!" Piedmon's voice interrupted their mourning, "So, now that he's out of the way, who would like to be the next one to make their grand exit?"
Tai grit his teeth and clenched his fists as he looked up at the monster, "Piedmon, you're gonna be washed up when we're through with you!"
This only caused the assembled Dark Masters to laugh. A haughty declaration and nothing more, that was. They stood on Death's door step, with nothing they could do to save themselves.
"Be my guest," Piedmon told the wild haired boy, inviting any among them to hit him with their best shot, knowing it would be useless.
"Pit Bomb!" A little black winged bomb with a smiley face on it streaked through the air. It exploded just before it reached the four evil digimon, blinding them momentarily.
When the light faded away, the Digidestined were nowhere to be found.
In truth they were encapsulated in a floating bubbled, all but invisible. At the head of the bubble, maintaining it and keeping it flying, was a familiar pink puff ball of a digimon.
"Hey, Piximon!" TK exclaimed happily, "Perfect timing!"
"Never thought I'd be so happy to see a walking powder puff in my life," Lucy added.
"I missed you," the digimon said with a smile.
"Prodigious," Izzy intoned with awe as he looked at their bubble, "You cleverly used a barrier to avoid detection!"
"I sure did," the pink digimon nodded.
"Piximon," Tai said now, "You said it was possible to save the planet if all nine of us were together. How come it's not happening, huh? What's up with that?"
"The truth is, being together's not enough," Piximon told him, "There's still something else that you need to do to beat 'em."
"How are we going to find out if you wont help?" Sora asked.
Joe agreed, "Yeah, enough with the riddles!"
"This is something you will discover on your own," Just then, the barrier took a hit and the little digimon cringed.
"Aha!" Metalseadramon said, Piedmon right beside him, "Here you are!"
"I'll try to stop them," Piximon said, "Meanwhile, make a run for it and climb to the top of Spiral Mountain, but you better move it!"
"You can't stop them!" Matt said, clenching his fists, "They're all Mega digimon!"
"I know I can't win, but I should be able to distract them long enough for you to get away," the pink puff ball told them.
"That's not acceptable!" Lucy said firmly, "My dad didn't believe in necessary sacrifice and neither do I!"
"Yeah!" Tai agreed, "I'll stay with you!"
"No way!" Piximon said, finally exerting some authority, "This isn't just for you, this is for the sake of all digimon! We need you on Spiral Mountain! You're the only ones we can count on!"
Outside of the barrier, Metalseadramon was firing up his main attack, the barrel at the end of his snout starting to glow with bright blue-white light, "River of Power!" The wide beam of pure energy slammed into the barrier, but it didn't break. Instead, Piximon came out with a growl in his throat as he glared at the Dark Masters.
He turned to the children in the barrier, "Please, go now, you have an important task ahead of you! Once you succeed, no one will ever be able to stop you again!" He pulled his spear over his head and swung it at the invisible bubble, sending them flying off before the evil digimon could stop him, yelling one final message to the Digidestined, "I know you will make me proud of you!"
"He's stronger than he looks," Gabumon commented.
"He'll have to be," Matt nodded, the coliseum being left far, far behind them.
"Do you think it's possible he can do it?" Kari asked.
"I don't know, Kari," Matt's digimon spoke again, "I hope so."
Before long, they were sent so far away from the coliseum that they couldn't even see it anymore. Lucy was standing right at the edge of the bubble, glaring back at the coliseum with her hands on the bubble. She couldn't believe he did that, sacrificed himself. She knew why he did it, and it was for all the right reasons, but she couldn't let herself think it was the right decision. Her adoptive dad had told her all about the idea of the sacrifice of the few for the needs of the many. How people saw it as a necessary evil. He told her straight up that he'd never agree with that, that he'd fight it at all costs, and she told him that he was right.
"I wont let your sacrifice be in vain," she whispered to herself. She'd never agree with it, never initiate such a move, but she would use what he'd given them to the fullest. They'd stop the Dark Masters. There was no other option now. Not after what he and Chuumon had done for them.
Chapter Thirty Seven: End.
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