Chapter Forty Eight: To Win in the World

"Rika, who are the Evil Partners!?" Matt urged the girl in weathered clothing, who was staring at Kumbhiramon and Sakuyamon intently.

"We have to get out of here now." She finally said.

"You said they're ultimates." Izzy started. "That means that we should be able to take them. Sakuyamon and MetalGarurumon are both a level above them, and Rapidmon isn't exactly a pushover." Upon this statement, Rika flipped her head towards Izzy and gave him a horrific glare.

"You do NOT want to fight the Evil Partners." She barked. "We're going now." She tapped Sakuyamon on the shoulder and ran out the door. Sakuyamon then ran out after her, with Kumbhiramon behind.

"Why are they afraid of some ultimates?" Matt questioned.

"Are you coming?" Sakuyamon leaned back to the door. "I would highly recommend it." The four boys looked at each other, but didn't argue with her. They followed Sakuyamon out the door and were surprised to see Rika and Kumbhiramon deep in the forest, almost out of sight. "Hurry up." She then bolted after them.

"Why are three ultimate digimon so frightening?" Matt breathed as the four hurried to run after the fox-woman, who was much faster than them.

"They aren't normal ultimates." Sakuyamon rolled her eyes. "The evil digidestined imbued them with "special" powers."

"What's so special about them?" Before Sakuyamon could answer, a missile flew through the air and crashed into a tree. Instead of it splintering into a million pieces, however it melted into a dark mist.

"That's what."

"Keep running!" Rika cried.

"Rika, we have to fight!" Sakuyamon called to her. Another missile then crashed into a tree just behind Izzy, who was the slowest of the group, and obliterated it into a dark smoke.

"No!" She ordered.

"We can't outrun them!"

"Yes we can!"

"No you can't!" A huge black dragon with metal shoulder pads and missiles and a hovering pack imbedded in the square-like chest piece stomped through the trees and landed right in front of Rika, who was leading the group. The girl skidded to a stop and forced everyone behind her to come to a sudden halt as well.

"You should have listened to Sakuyamon." A Taomon with a dark skin tone then lowered itself out of the sky and landed to the group's right.

"We might not be so annoyed with you right now if you had stopped earlier." A black toned Rapidmon floated down from the sky and landed to their left.

"Matt, Izzy, meet BlackWarGrowlmon, Doumon, and BlackRapidmon."

"Who are your friends Rika?" BlackRapidmon chuckled. "I always like to get to know my prey before I slaughter them."

"I think they're the other hero digidestined Ken warned us about." Doumon suggested.

"Well then," BlackRapidmon smiled, "This should be interesting."

"Rika, they're evil right?" Matt inquired in a quiet voice.

"Of course they're evil." She growled.

"And we'd be better off if they were gone right?"

"Duh. What are you getting at-" Her eyes widened, but before she could oppose his actions Matt had already tapped his digivice. A huge stream of light-blue light then surrounded Gabumon and a second later MetalGarurumon stood at attention.

"So we're jumping right into it. Fine with me!" BlackWarGrowlmon roared happily.

"Hyah!" MetalGarurumon didn't waste any time. Before anyone could react he pounced onto BlackWarGrowlmon and knocked the both of them deeper into the forest.

"Jugonsatsu!" Doumon slapped a paper onto her brush and used the staff to toss the paper towards Sakuyamon, which sliced through the air quickly.

"Talisman Sphere!" Sakuyamon quickly formed a crystalline barrier around the rest of the group and blocked the tag from hitting her or anyone else. It was fortunate, for upon impact the shield disintegrated. Sakuyamon then jumped towards Doumon and slammed her with her staff, knocking them both deeper into the forest.

"What do ya say Terriermon," The BlackRapidmon laughed while smashing his fists together. "Wanna dance?"

"Terriermon digivolve to… Gargomon!" The loaded bunny-dog leaped into the air and dropped dramatically in front of BlackRapidmon.

"Only to Gargomon? That's brave." The ultimate said condescendingly.

"I don't need to be any higher than champion to defeat you." Gargomon said defiantly.

"Oh, is that true?"

"Yeah. Wanna know why?" All BlackRapidmon did was laugh. While his head was up in the air however, Gargomon focused on the ground and then smashed his fist into the rocky soil under him. "Rapid Fire!" Everyone stared at the two bunny-dogs curiously for a second.

"That's it?" BlackRapidmon cocked his head. Then a stream of green energy bullets pillared from the ground and slammed right into BlackRapidmon's jaw. The rabbit was knocked onto his back in surprise, but quickly recuperated and jumped to his feet. He was immediately met face to face with Gargomon.

"Bunny Pummel!" Gargomon slammed his fist into Rapidmon's gut and knocked the digimon back a hundred feet into the forest where he obliterated a tree the old fashioned way. Gargomon then dashed forward to confront his opponent.

"Rapid Fire!" Rapidmon jumped up and attacked before Gargomon arrived to attack. His missiles spiraled towards the lower level bunny and forced him to jump into the air to avoid the blasts. They slammed into trees a few yards away and transformed them into dust.

"Does that work with everything you hit?" Gargomon inquired while hanging from a tree.

"Every time. Even megas." He smiled.

"Oh." Gargomon dropped to the ground. "Gargo Laser!"

"Rapid Fire!" Both attacks collided in midair, but closer to Gargomon. The ultimate then jumped over the dust cloud immediately and pounced onto Gargomon. He dodged however and followed up with a punch of his own.

"You'll have to do better than that!" Gargomon laughed while rolling to the side to avoid his opponent's strike. He then followed up with an uppercut towards Rapidmon's jaw. The dark digimon pivoted on his heel and spun around for a powerful kick. Gargomon could not avoid this so he quickly snapped his arms together to defend. BlackRapidmon's foot then collided with Gargomon's Gatling guns and knocked the champion into a tree.

"Rapid Fire!" Rapidmon immediately fired one of his arm missiles at Gargomon. Gargomon then pushed off of the tree and dodge rolled to his left before the missile collided and vaporized the tree Gargomon had made an indention in.

"Gargo Laser!" Gargomon threw his arm forward and fired the laser. Rapidmon jumped to dodge, but then realized that the beads had not come anywhere near him.

"You missed." Rapidmon scoffed.

"Sure about that?" Gargomon smiled. Rapidmon gave him a confused stare, but then realized what had happened when he felt a small gust above him. He looked up just in time to see a tree barreling down on him after having been chopped down by Gargomon's blast. He quickly threw his arms up to block the tree from slamming into his head. Gargomon didn't give him time to prepare himself, however. "Gargo Laser!" He immediately fired both Gatling Guns at Rapidmon, who had no way of defending as his hands were about to block a tree from hitting him. Rapidmon was trapped. He was helpless as the bullets from Gargomon collided with his stomach and forced him to double over in pain, and then the large log above him struck his back hard and fast and knocked him onto the ground.

"Ayah!!!!" BlackRapidmon roared in immense pain at the double attack, but Gargomon wouldn't let up. He dashed towards Rapidmon and then jumped a ways into the air with his fist pulled behind his head and torso.

"Bunny Pummel!" He drove his metal covered knuckles into Rapidmon's head, who bellowed in intense pain as Gargomon used his arm (implanted in Rapidmon's cranium) to flip over and land on the overturned tree, which he did with enough force to draw another cry of pain from BlackRapidmon.

"How did you-cough!-do that?" Rapidmon struggled to say.

"Easy. You're a Rapidmon. I knew how you thought, and how you would try to fight me." Gargomon replied cockily.

"But, you were only a champion…"

"Which made it even easier. If I had evolved to Rapidmon, we would have just mirrored each other and neither of us would have gotten anything done. Besides, this way you let your guard down because you thought you were just fighting a weak champion."

"I've heard about you… from Ken and Imperialdramon. You're not supposed to… be strong or smart. Just an average member of their team."

"Hey! I may not be as good as WarGreymon or Sakuyamon, but when it comes to bunny-dogs I know what I'm doing!" He gave a triumphant smile. "Gargo Laser!" He fired his lasers into Rapidmon's face one last time. What he didn't expect was that Rapidmon had more energy than Gargomon realized. Before Gargomon knew what was happening, Rapidmon knocked the tree up into the air and threw Gargomon across the sky where he crashed into a tree and rolled to the ground.

"Thanks for telling me your plan." Rapidmon laughed. He then raised his arm into the air and fired a missile just before the tree he had thrown into the air hit him again. "Now this'll be much easier."

"Looks like I underestimated you." Gargomon said goofily as he struggled to his feet. "Although you've still underestimated me."

"What does that mean?" Rapidmon growled suspiciously. Then, the tree directly behind him that Gargomon had knocked down with his Gargo Laser just before he told BlackRapidmon of his plan cracked Rapidmon on the head and knocked him unconscious.

"Idiot." Gargomon shook his head. "Gargomon digivolve to… Rapidmon!" The ultimate rabbit then walked calmly towards his unconscious enemy and, when he was standing over him in a dramatic pose, aimed his fist towards the monster and said: "Rapid Fire!"

***

Rika stared in awe as the green Rapidmon walked calmly out of the sloped forest and into the clearing that BlackWarGrowlmon had made, which the three humans and Kumbhiramon had moved into after the battles had started. "Please don't tell me you're done already." She gasped.

"He wasn't as strong as you made them out to be." Rapidmon smiled. "You made it seem like he was some all powerful deity that could outwit even a mega."

"They can!" MetalGarurumon jumped into the clearing in a battered state. "I barely made it out of there alive. We need to find Sakuyamon and get out of here now!"

"You finally listen to me!" Rika groaned. "Sakuyamon, let's move out!" She bellowed into the forest. A second later an out of breath Sakuyamon suddenly appeared in the clearing and created a shield around the lot of them.

"They'll be back soon, we can't waste any time." She then raised the sphere into the air and directed it to speed off into the air, towards a location that Matt, Izzy, MetalGarurumon, nor Rapidmon knew of. "They won't be far behind, we need to take evasive action." Sakuyamon reasoned.

"No, they'll wait for BlackRapidmon to return, and when he doesn't they'll go look for him. We have plenty of time." Said Rika.

"Excuse me?" Sakuyamon asked in shock.

"Rapidmon defeated BlackRapidmon." Rika said somberly.

"I didn't just defeat him, I blew his head off." He raised his fist and smiled. Sakuyamon waited half a minute before saying anything.

"Excuse me?" Sakuyamon gasped.

"Ugh," MetalGarurumon dropped to his stomach, "Does it really matter? As long as the job got done, I'm not complaining that an ultimate did a better job than we did."

"Thanks." Rapidmon peeped. "I think."

"How did you defeat him so fast?" Sakuyamon inquired. "I've been trying to for fifty years."

"Yeah, sure, don't listen to me." MetalGarurumon murmured.

"He was a Rapidmon, I knew how he would fight. I tired him out as Gargomon so we wouldn't mirror each other and then digivolved to Rapidmon to finish him off. You should have done that too, I don't know why you didn't think of it with Doumon."

"Since when are you smart?" Rika asked rudely.

"He's always been smart." Sakuyamon rolled her eyes. "He just only used that thing he calls a brain to pull pranks on Nyaromon and Motimon."

"Hey!" Rapidmon protested.

"She sort of complimented you Rapidmon." Izzy calmed his partner. "It was an insulting compliment, but a compliment at that."

***

"That's an impressive mega form." Kari looked up appealingly at HerculesKabuterimon, who was watching Joe and Gomamon with intensity while Eric and Kari talked. "So HerculesKabuterimon defeated Yolei and Puppetmon?"

"Yup," Eric answered proudly, "Good and proper too."

"So I'm guessing they got away, since they collapsed the forest territory."

"It's a bit more complicated than that actually." Eric said nervously.

"How?"

"We caught Yolei and Mushroomon, and had them with us when we were coming to find you," HerculesKabuterimon grumbled, "But on a pit stop that a certain someone just insisted that we had to take, that certain Someone accidentally let Yolei's crest and digivice fall out of Someone's pocket, and she immediately grabbed it and digivolved Mushroomon back to Puppetmon." HerculesKabuterimon spoke with enough emphasizes to cause pain in Eric's ears.

"Yeah, she gets it Kabuterimon. Fortunately she said she had "bigger fish to fry", and then they took off." Eric stated. Kari and Ophanimon looked at each other with ironic thoughts.

***

"Oh my freaking god!" Zoe banged her head repeatedly against the wall of the tactical command center of the castle atop Spiral Mountain. Her self-abuse was due to the fact that a satellite camera had just recorded the brutal massacre of their prized BlackRapidmon by one of the digidestined partners.

"Can't we ever get a god damn break!?"

"Calm down Zoe." Ken said reassuringly.

"Calm down!? They've defeated three of us! They turned Joe to their side! And now they destroyed a third of what was supposed to be our invincible army! Give me one good reason why I should be calm!"

"I'll give you three." Ken smirked. "One, Rapidmon didn't do as good a job destroying BlackRapidmon as he thinks he has. Two, Yolei's escaped Eric and Kabuterimon, and she's on her way right now to tell Kazu about how things are deteriorating over here."

"And three?"

"You and I are going to go down there and handle Rika, Matt, and Izzy ourselves. Our mega level partners combined with the "Evil Partners" will ensure our victory. There's no way they can take all five of us on."

"Unless Rapidmon finds some way to digivolve." Zoe grumbled.

"Stop being so pessimistic. Now I'm going to go on ahead and head down there; you grab Betamon and catch up to me."

"Fine." She groaned as Ken ran out of the room. She turned to head for the door as well when she suddenly heard a voice.

"Oh Zoe…"

"Ayah!" She grabbed a staff that was sitting in a mounted position on the table and flipped it around her in a defensive stance. "Who's there!?"

"Zoe, I have a job for you." The voice appealed.

"I don't take orders from anyone thank you very much!"

"Are you sure about that? Because I seem to recall Ken Ichijoji bossing you around not 30 seconds ago."

"That's different. We respect his decisions but break them anytime we feel like we have to disagree."

"I'm sure that's a great system, but I think things worked better when I was in charge." The voice hissed creepily.

"When you were in charge?"

"Yes."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Oh Zoe, you were always such a simple one. It was always "hit things first, ask questions later" with you. That's why you're perfect for this job. All you have to do is knock someone around a little bit."

"If you want me to even consider helping you, then you had better reveal yourself right now!"

"Zoe, I'm going to be very disappointed if you do not realize who I am before I am forced to reveal myself, and if you know me at all you'll know I don't like disappointment. Remember what happened to the last guy who disappointed me too much? I kicked him out of the club."

"Kicked him out of the…" A thought in her head clicked. "Oh god, master Devimon!" She immediately dropped her staff and bowed in respect towards the table, where she assumed correctly that her old master dropped from the shadowed ceiling to stand.

"More or less. But I'm still the same mon." He joked with a seemingly dual voice.

"Master, please forgive us. But we realized that we would be able to take over this world for you better if you were… absent for some time."

"I don't want to hear your excuses Yolei. I'm not happy about your betrayal, but you are right, it could not have worked out better."

"It couldn't?"

"No, for you see, these hundred years have been most productive. My seeds have been growing, and they're almost ready to harvest."

"Harvest what seeds?"

"You'll find out soon enough. But I need you to do something for me first."

"Of course. But I should tell Ken that-"

"You will tell Ken nothing!" DemiDevimon yelled.

"Of course sir," Zoe agreed nervously, "But why?"

"You've grown more insolent in your old age. There was a time when you would have asked me if you could have asked the question before you actually asked it."

"Forgive me master," Zoe bowed again, "May I ask why we needn't tell Ken?"

"I've been watching what's been going on here for some time now. I have no doubts about the loyalty of you, Yolei, Kazu, or Koichi (and of course Joe is out of the picture), but I think Ken rather likes his total control status."

"If I may, he doesn't have total control. We have the power to overthrow him if he gets too power hungry."

"I'm sure that's what you believe, but we don't need to worry about that right now. At the moment, we have bigger fish to fry. Or I should say seeds to harvest."

***

"Um, Sakuyamon…" Rika tugged at her partner's side and pointed behind the sphere that the mega fox was steering. She turned her head for a second to see three dark digimon racing towards them.

"It looks like somebody wasn't entirely truthful when they said they defeated BlackRapidmon." Sakuyamon said judgmentally.

"I told you, I blew his head off!" Rapidmon defended himself.

"Uh, I don't think Rapidmon was lying!" Matt pointed out the sphere directly to BlackRapidmon, as the three had gotten disturbingly close to them. As the seven focused on the supposedly defeated opponent, they noticed that his real head (and massive ears) were gone, and that all that remained was a black mist in the general shape of his head.

"Matt, Izzy, get on my back." MetalGarurumon ordered.

"Rika, Kumbhiramon, hold on to me." Sakuyamon followed suit.

"You guys get out of here." Rapidmon demanded. "I have a score to settle."

"Don't be foolish Rapidmon," Sakuyamon denounced the green armor covered rabbit, "You decapitated him, and yet there he is, flying towards us. They cannot be destroyed."

"I won't be insulted like that. He's going down!"

"Rapidmon-" MetalGarurumon began.

"Look! Elecmon told me a long time ago that I had potential, and that I should remember that when the time came! Well now we're in danger, and this guy's insulting me just by being alive! I'm taking him down!"

"I just wanted to say be careful." MetalGarurumon said in a surprised voice. "You blew his head off and he's still alive. It might be a tough fight."

"Oh. Thanks."

"Rapid Fire!" The (Headless) BlackRapidmon on the other side of the sphere then shot a missile towards them. All three digimon jumped away from contact with it as the sphere was disintegrated. Then Sakuyamon and MetalGarurumon flew off in separate directions, with Doumon and BlackWarGrowlmon following either one of them.

"It's just you and me again BlackRapidmon." Rapidmon stated boldly while pointing at the dark monster in a dramatic pose.

"Hassah mannasssassa." BlackRapidmon hissed.

"Sheesh, looks like I did do some damage after all." Rapidmon joked.

"Sooshoo Kalabah!" BlackRapidmon charged towards him with a fist raised.

"Bunny Pummel!" Rapidmon did the same, and soon they collided punches and were drawn into a flurry of fists and kicks.

"Ayah! Ayah!" Rapidmon spun around twice in opposite directions to deliver forceful kicks to his enemy, but BlackRapidmon was adequet at dodging them and then countering with punches of his own. Rapidmon had to roll backwards to dodge this counter attack. He then shot his leg upward in an attempt to catch BlackRapidmon in the gut, but the dark rabbit blocked with his arms and pushed away into the air. Rapidmon spun around just in time to see BlackRapidmon aiming his arm at the green bunny.

"Zozon Bon!" A missile blasted out of his arm and spiraled towards Rapidmon. Rapidmon countered with a "Rapid Fire" of his own, and when the two attacks hit each other he spun around the cloud to attack BlackRapidmon, but the monster was already gone. Once the smoke cleared Rapidmon could see that BlackRapidmon had done the opposite thing and rounded the cloud to get at Rapidmon.

"I told you," Rapidmon raised his fist at the darker him, "We're just mirroring each other. There's no use in fighting, because neither of us will win." BlackRapidmon then immediately dropped down into the forest. "Hey!" Rapidmon chased after him. When he landed, he saw an innocent Gummymon being manhandled by the evil digimon. "Back off him!" Rapidmon raised his fist, but backed off when he saw Rapidmon placing the in-training on his head (covering the mist). The green monster's eyes suddenly went white.

"We are not evenly matched you fool." Gummymon said in his voice but in BlackRapidmon's words. "The powers bestowed to me by Master Ken are stronger than you could possibly comprehend. As long as my heart remains intact, I cannot die." Upon these words Rapidmon immediately slammed BlackRapidmon in the gut and knocked him into the sky. Rapidmon then raced after him, catching the Gummymon that had fallen off of his foe's head on the way and placing it in a tree, and then going to confront the BlackRapidmon. His moves were fast.

"Thanks for the tip no-head!" He immediately grabbed BlackRapidmon's neck (what was left of it) with his left arm. It had an unexpected affect for BlackRapidmon, whose head was immediately combined with the object. Unfortunately for him, the combination of these two body parts was useless. "Now prepare for a most humiliating defeat!" He then commenced to drive his fist into BlackRapidmon's chest piece, slowly cracking it more and more with each punch. After a few minutes, he had broken past the metal and was punching directly into BlackRapidmon's gut. A couple dozen power housed fists later, Rapidmon penetrated BlackRapidmon's ribcage and pierced his heart. BlackRapidmon tried to let out a scream but, was obviously incapacitated, and so all he could do was struggle violently as pain consumed him and he eventually faded away into data. At this particular point, MetalGarurumon and Sakuyamon had doubled back for tactical purposes, so they, the human partners, Kumbhiramon, Doumon, and BlackWarGrowlmon were there to watch the whole thing. After most of BlackRapidmon was gone, Rapidmon dropped his shoulders so that the last bit of BlackRapidmon streamed across the sky in a tail of data. He then turned around to face Doumon and BlackWarGrowlmon, who were looking at him with horror-struck faces. He made an advancing move, and they both let out a small cry of panic and flew away.

"I don't believe this," Sakuyamon said in awe as the three hero digimon converged in the center of the sky. "You actually did it. It was ruthless and gruesome, but you actually did it."

"That was pretty brutal Rapidmon," MetalGarurumon said in awe as well, "I don't think even I would have done something so gorrific." He then whispered to himself "Is that even a word?"

"You heard him, "Rapidmon said with a large grin on his face, "That was the only way to defeat him. It wasn't even a real challenge. I could have done that in my sleep."

"BOOM!!!!" Trees shattered under the slip stream of Imperialdramon as he came like a rocket to a few dozen yards in front of the four digimon and three humans.

"Now him, I might have a problem with."