There were only six hours left until the portal activated. The battles on the mountain side had been being raged all day long, but both sides had retreated to deal with their sick and wounded. The battlefield itself was watched closely with demons on one side and angels watching the other, both sides just out of reach of fire. The angels in the floating city were preparing for battle, the beast-types were being fitted for riding gear and the human-types were getting weapons and armor. The atmosphere was tense all around as pep-talks were given and missions handed out. The fight was well prepared for and all that was needed now was for a smooth execution.
The Tamers were to be accompanied by a small group of angels, including D'arcmon and Piddomon from the day before. D'arcmon was to lead the small group and the Tamers were instructed to follow her orders to the letter. Brian did not appreciate being told what to do by somebody from a different faction than his own, but he reluctantly agreed to comply.
Everybody gathered their gear and met in the courtyard of the spire. "Alright troops!" D'arcmon told her company as the Tamers approached. "The idea here is to get the children safely into the castle. This is a fast in and out procedure, understood? This may seem like a small and unimportant task at the moment, but I guarantee you that this is an important task for the fate of the worlds. We are making history here boys, so straighten up and do a good job! I'd fight alongside any of you at the end of the world. Make me proud!" she finished with a salute, and was received with salutes in return.
The angels went back to prepping for the assault, except for Piddomon who walked over to D'arcmon. "I vow to protect you at all costs!" he said to her said clumsily. "No harm shall come to you!"
"I appreciate that Piddomon, but this is hardly the time for your affection," she brushed him off. Piddomon put his head down and began to turn to walk away. "Listen," D'arcmon said. "You're sweet, you know. How about we talk after the mission is complete okay?"
Piddomon's spirits were instantly lifted. "Okay! Yeah! Let's do that!" he then flew off to finish his own preparations.
"Sweet guy," D'arcmon mused. "Foolhardy and clumsy as hell though."
"We're ready to set out whenever you are," Brian told D'arcmon.
"Right, we'll all be ready soon. We'll follow your lead to the factory and through the tunnels, map-holder, but once we're inside the castle, you follow me. Got that?" D'arcmon said authoritatively.
"Yes, ma'am," Brian spat back sourly.
"Good. Now go make yourself useful and stand somewhere out of the way."
"Wait!" a voice called out. "Wait for me!" Suddenly, DemiDevimon fell from the sky and hit the ground. "Ow..."
"DemiDevimon!" Gabbie cried in shock. "What are you doing here? You should be resting!"
"I'm well enough to fetch Billy! There ain't nuthin' you's can do about it neither! I'm goin' an' I'm gonna be there for 'im!"
"Let him come," Brian said. "Any of us would want our digimon to be there when we were rescued."
When the angels were ready, Agumon and Gatomon both digivolved to the Ultimate level. Most everybody followed Brian onto the top of MetalGreymon's head while Angewomon carried Hope. "Alright!" Brian called to his digimon. "We're all situated up here! Let's move out!"
With a grunt and a roar from MetalGreymon, the party was lifted off into the air and toward the area where the Black Gear factory caved in, followed by Angewomon carrying Hope and D'arcmon's angels. They landed and dedigivolved.
"So this is it?" D'arcmon asked.
"I sort of always thought they'd be hidden better than that..." Piddomon said. "I feel a little disappointed in us now."
"Everybody needs to be careful down there, okay?" Brian cautioned. "Last time I was down there we got into some trouble with a mind controlling parasite. It was nasty and I don't know if there were more than the one or not."
"Understood," D'arcmon said and then waved her hand. The angels jumped down, weapons at the ready. "Piddomon, report!"
"All clear so far!"
"Roger," she called back. Then to the Tamers, "Okay its safe enough. Let's go."
the rest of them followed the angels down into the darkness. The factory looked exactly as Brian remembered it, although perhaps the air smelled a little less stale after being exposed to the fresh air for the past few days. The piles of broken gears still littered the area across the now inactive conveyer belts.
"Alright map-holder, tell us where to go," D'arcmon told him.
Brian pulled out his digivice and activated the holographic map. He zoomed into the Digital Keys and then in to their current location. The hologram created a map of the factory right before his eyes. "I think this is the tunnel here," he said, pointing at a corridor that seemed to go off into the distance past the factory. "It looks different than the rest of the factory. This way." The angels, digimon, and Tamers followed Brian toward the tunnel entrance. "Well, it's gotta be behind this wall."
"Any idea how to open it?" Piddomon asked.
"Let me take a look," Duane said. He began running his hands over the wall. When he didn't find anything, tried the floor until he found a small access panel. He opened it and examined the circuits for a moment. "Not a whole lot I can do here, actually."
D'arcmon let out a groan. "Babysitting the worst Eight ever..."
"He I said I couldn't. Leomon, I could I actually use your assistance here."
"Certainly," Leomon said taking a step forward. "What can I do?"
"I need you to place your sword here, between these two boxes here, and then push down really hard, okay?"
Leomon drew his sword and did exactly as Duane had instructed. As he pressed down with his sword, there was a few quick sparks and then some smoke. The wall then swung open slowly.
"Excellent! Thanks Leomon," Duane said.
"Let's keep moving," Brian said and then pushed his way past and into the tunnel.
They walked through the tunnels for hours until they finally came to a large open cavern. The ceiling towered over the group. In the middle of the cavern was a large pool of murky water. Piddomon knelt by the pool and tasted the water. "It's sea water," he reported.
"It must be deep then," D'arcmon said. "Probably leads out into the ocean."
"We need to find Billy," Brian said impatiently.
"Very well," D'arcmon said.
Brian fell back and stood next to his brother. "Listen, Peter-"
"What," Peter growled.
"Hey I just want to talk about things," Brian said, agitated now.
"What things?"
"Us I guess. Why we fight and can't get along. Mom-"
Suddenly there was a splash and a roar. Water went everywhere. "D'arcmon!" Piddomon cried. "Look out!"
"River of Power!" a voice boomed. There was a flash of light and Piddomon jumped to push D'arcmon out of the way, taking the majority of the blast on his back. "You are foolish indeed to have come here, Tamers!"
Before them was a long metal serpent with a cannon for a nose and a wicked horn on the top of this head. He shot out another beam of energy form his nose and dissolved the remaining angels into data. "What is it?" Tyler asked. The Tamers all brought out their digivices, ready for the fight.
"I am MetalSeadramon! The Dark Master of the sea!"
"A Dark Master!" Brian exclaimed. "Now you're dead!"
"Brian!" Hope scolded. "You know that he's too powerful for us to fight without Billy! We need to find him first!"
"Always with Billy!" Brian yelled. "We don't need him! I've got this!"
"Oh don't worry about me," MetalSeadramon assured them. "I was just about to leave actually. See, there's a party going on at the top of the mountain that requires my attention. Adios Amigos!" The giant serpent then spun around and dove back into the ocean waters.
"He's going to the mountain!" Tyler said. "He'll destroy the angels!"
"We've gotta go stop him," Brian agreed. "I'm going back!"
"We can't defeat him without Billy though!" Hope reminded him. "Quit being such a dumb-ass!"
"Then you stay here and save him," Brian said. "But I can't go after Billy when I know that the angels are out there fighting a hopeless battle to save our world from the Dark Masters! I'm going, end of story!"
"Perhaps we could split up?" Gabbie suggested. "Brian leads some of us back to the mountain and helps to distract MetalSeadramon while the rest of us get Billy. That'll buy us some time at least."
"I agree," Brian said. "Who's going to come with me?"
"I will," Duane said first. "Always by your side, Brian! Haven't lead us astray yet."
"I'll come as well," Tyler agreed.
"And me!" Christina added.
"Then Gabbie, Peter, and I will go after Billy," Hope said.
"Fine," Brian said. "Agumon, MetalGreymon. Now!" There was the flash of light form digivolution as MetalGreymon suddenly towered over the party. Brian showed Hope how to get to the demon base form here and then he and the others climbed onto MetalGreymon's head and the behemoth digimon walked to the edge of the water. Brian pulled down his goggles as he readied himself for the water.
"Wait, Brian," Hope called. "I just- be careful okay? Promise you won't do anything reckless or stupid, please."
Brian thumbed his nose. "No promises! But I'll do my best to stay alive! Okay, MetalGreymon, let's go!" The giant bionic dinosaur walked into the water and then dove below. The humans and digimon that accompanied him held their breath and braced for the cold of the ocean.
The remaining Tamers noticed D'arcmon kneeling by the water holding Piddomon in her arms. She was humming softly and stroking his head.
"Is he going to be okay?" Gabbie D'arcmon.
"I don't know," she replied. "He isn't dissolving yet, but-"
"Hey," Piddomon groaned. "I'll be fine. You Tamers need to keep going though. You have a world or two to save."
Hope nodded and then said, "What about you, D'arcmon? Are you coming with us?"
D'arcmon pushed her leg into view. It was horribly mangled from MetalSeadramon's energy blast. "I don't think I can. I'll stay here and take care of Piddomon. You go ahead and rescue Billy. You know where I am, so come back for us."
"Of course," Hope said. "C'mon guys," she said to Peter and Gabbie. "Lets keep going ahead."
XXX
The air felt too stale. Something was off. It was wrong. Eduardo couldn't shake the feeling. The arena had been closed. The training grounds closed. It all just felt wrong. Even the sky itself seemed grayer than usual. He and Alyssa had both agreed that they needed to leave. They planned every day in their cabin how they can get away without being seen or stopped. So far they had not come up with anything that didn't require more luck than anything else.
"They've simply got this place locked down too tightly," Eduardo stated. "We're never going to escape."
"Don't be like that," she said back to him with a smile. "We're just thinking about this wrong is all."
"Well what other ways are there to-" Eduardo paused.
"Ed?"
"Other ways to think about it..." he mumbled to himself. "I think I've just figured out how to Jogress!"
"You- what?" Alyssa was taken by surprise.
"C'mon, we need to get outside!" Eduardo said excitedly grabbing her hand and pulling her up. Suddenly there was a crash and a roar form outside.
"What was that?" Gladimon asked.
"Not good," Dinohyumon grunted.
"We need to get outside," Eduardo said more serious.
Outside, the night sky was red. Many of the cabins were on fire or destroyed completely. There were sounds of screaming and fighting all around them. The entire scene was chaos. Digimon were attacking the camp! The Tamers were rallying to try to fight them back, but the camp was so disorganized and kept apart that they didn't know how to communicate with each other effectively.
As Eduardo looked closer at the fighting, he realized that the attacking digimon all had partners. Each digimon was accompanied by two humans wearing an armored jumpsuit similar to the ones Daemon gave his army. "Alyssa, I think-"
"They're the Tamers who were called to Daemon the other day," Alyssa said. "Aren't they? So, does that mean...?" She couldn't finish her sentence.
"Yeah it means that Amber and Austin are out there too, attacking us." Eduardo saw the look of worry on Alyssa's face, a look mirrored on the face Gladimon as well. "C'mon, we'd better try to escape now. The fighting might just be the perfect distraction for us anyway. We need to be ready for what lies ahead, though. It could be anything."
XXX
The water froze Brian to the bone, but his goggles at least helped him see where he was going. The underwater tunnel was longer than the Tamers would've liked but they managed to find an air pocket before long. The space was small and the Tamers and digimon breathed heavily with their faces pressed against the ceiling of the tunnel, using what precious space they had for breathing. Using their digivices for light, the reflections off of the water were green in hue and colored everything around them accordingly.
After that, they sank back into the water and continued through the tunnels until they finally found an exit. The coral and fish were beautiful, but Brian didn't care. They only thing he cared about was reaching the mountain again and stopping MetalSeadramon from getting into the Real World. MetalGreymon sank to the ground and pushed off hard with his feet, flapping his wings to gain momentum as they rose from the water. They broke the surface into the warm air and MetalGreymon flapped his wet wings harder, trying to get as much of the water off as possible and obtain flight.
As soon as he caught the wind, they were off. The Tamers clothes clung to their skin in wet masses. They were cold and the wind rushing past them did not help. The four Tamers and their digimon held onto MetalGreymon tightly as he flew towards the mountain ahead. The behemoth digimon dropped off the Tamers and digimon on the mountain, as close as he could get to the battle.
"MetalGreymon!" Brian called up to his friend after he had pulled his goggles back up and climbed to the ground. "Fly to the fight and help out! We'll be there soon."
MetalGreymon roared in acknowledgment and then flew off again. Brian drew his battleaxe. Tyler, Duane, and Christina likewise drew their DigiBlades; a katana, halberd, and chakrams respectively. Before they left, their digimon digivolved as well, and soon the Tamers, SkullMeramon, Grapleomon, and Crescemon were all running up the mountain to join the fight ahead.
XXX
Hope, Peter, and Gabbie continued through the secret passageways leading to the castle until they finally came to the entrance. They pushed through the door and found themselves in a kitchen, filled with cast iron stoves, pots, pans, skillets, and other assorted wares. "Any idea where we should start looking for Billy?" Peter asked quietly.
"I would imagine the dungeons," Hope suggested.
"I agree," Gabbie said. "It was too easy for us to escape from the tower last time, so let's start there in the dungeon."
They all agreed and then made their way towards the stairs and began heading downward. "You'd think there would be more demons here," Gatomon said quietly.
"Yeah no kidding," Peter agreed.
Dobermon lowered his ears and narrowed his eyes. "This makes me uneasy, Gabbie," the brutish dog growled.
Gabbie stroked his back softly. "We'll be okay. I've got you by my side." Dobermon seemed slightly less tense, but all the more vigilant.
"I jus' wanna find Billy A.S.A.P.," DemiDevimon said from Gabbie's shoulder. "So, you's needs to start walkin' fastah, ya hear?"
The stone staircase spiraled downward for a long time as the Tamers walked. It seemed to never end. Ignoring DemiDevimon, they remained cautious and slow as they walked down the steps, careful to check every corner for enemies, yet finding none. They eventually found the bottom of the staircase and were greeted by two large wooden doors bound by iron.
"Think this is the place?" Peter asked.
"Let's find out, I say." Hope pushed the doors open slowly, careful not to make it creak as she peered inside. The room inside was dark and smelled musty. A red glow could be seen on the peripherals of her vision however.
"I think it's safe enough," she whispered pushing the door open further and stepping inside. The red glow came from a large pit. Above that pit hung a topless Billy, suspended by chains wrapped around his torso, neck, and limbs. He had burns, bruises, and scratches all over his skin.
"Billy!"Gabbie cried.
DemiDevimon flew off her shoulder and landed on the chains the suspended Billy over the pit. "Geez, boss. You's don' look so good, ya know?"
"DemiDevimon..." Billy grunted. "You all have to get out of here..."
"Don't be stupid," Hope said. "We need you, so we're here to rescue you."
"Hey! Over here!" Peter said. He had located a wooden wheel. "I bet this controls the chain mechanism."
Hope and Gatomon ran over to help Peter turn the wheel to give the chain more slack. As the wheel turned, the chains groaned and clanked as Billy sank further down into the pit. DemiDevimon flew behind Billy and pushed his Tamer over to the edge of the pit where Gabbie helped him out of his chains.
"Can you stand?" she asked, placing his arm around her shoulders.
"I think so," he said. He tried to stand, helped up by Gabbie. Billy grunted with pain and used his free hand to grope at a sore spot on his ribcage.
"Be careful," she said to him gently as she supported his weight. "We'll get you out and to safety, okay?"
"You guys shouldn't have come," Billy grunted. "It's a trap."
"What are you talking about?" Hope asked.
"They wanted you to come after me. They wanted you all to split up."
"What? Why?" Peter asked.
"Yeah, boss," DemiDevimon said. "What's goin' on, eh?"
"The demons knew you'd come for me because you need all of us to defeat the Dark Masters easily. Sure, seven of you could do it. It'd be a lot harder, but you could do it. They didn't want to take chances. They split you up. Why did you think there weren't any demons here? They're heading to the battlefield early! They're going to kill us all here now and you walked right into the trap. Then they're going to kill Brian and the others at the mountain. Then there will be nobody to stop the Dark Masters from taking over the human world, unless Daemon or Lilithmon want to get involved."
"Ah and now the cat is out of the bag," a smooth sinister voice said from a dark corner. Lucemon walked out of the darkness. "It seems as though the entire plan has now been pieced together. You were spared and placed on this island because you were necessary in opening the gate to the real world, and now we have split you up to make it easier to kill you all. The best part is that we only need to kill a few of you all at once in order to be undefeatable. Then my demons, lead by the Dark Masters, will enter your human world and create a new Hell for us to rule over."
"We won't let that happen!" Hope said. "That's our home! Gatomon!"
"Celestial Arrow!" the now digivolved Angewomon yelled as she fired an arrow or purified light.
Lucemon casually knocked the arrow aside with a backhand. "Nice try, but not good enough."
"Hellfire!"
"Metal Meteor!"
The attacks of Cerberumon and DoruGreymon collided with Lucemon. The angel-demon digimon survived the attack without a scratch on him however.
"Please, I am far more powerful than other Ultimate level digimon," Lucemon taunted. "Defeating you will not be nearly as much fun as I would like, but then again we all need to do the boring menial tasks once in awhile, don't we?"
XXX
Brian and the others rushed in to battle to aid the angels against the demon hordes. The four Tamers and their digimon cut down enemies left and right as they ran for the angel's battlefield outpost. Meanwhile, MetalGreymon flew around the mountain breathing fire on enemies and swooping them with melee attacks. When they arrived at the camp, Brian ran past the sentries and burst through the captains tent door. "We have bad news!"
"I thought I told you to finish your mission at the castle!" Seraphimon said angrily. "You are jeopardizing everything!"
"No you don't understand," Tyler said. "This is important."
"There's a Dark Master on his way here, if he isn't here already."
"Oh he's here alright, damnit," Cherubimon said. "No doubt your fault too!"
"We encountered him while in the tunnels on our way to the castle. His name is MetalSeadramon and he killed most of the angels you sent with us and hurt D'arcmon and Piddomon really bad," Brian told them all. "Listen we knew you guys couldn't fight MetalSeadramon by yourselves, so we split up. My group is supposed to hold off MetalSeadramon long enough for the others to rescue Billy and come help us out.
"I advise against this entirely," Cherubimon said.
"We don't have the troops to fight off MetalSeadramon," Seraphimon replied. "There are twice as many demons here as we were expecting. We're losing men left and right and MetalSeadramon is ravishing our army. If these children can at least distract the monster, then I'll allow it."
"I suppose you are right, Seraphimon. But I still don't like it."
Without another word, Brian ran back outside and whistled for his digimon to return. MetalGreymon was there in a flash and climbed onto his digimon, leaving Duane, Christina, and Tyler behind.
"Guess we'll just wait here until Brian can ground MetalSeadramon," Duane suggested.
"Perhaps we should fight demons?" Chrstina suggested.
"No, we need to be ready for MetalSeadramon at a moments notice," Tyler said. "I think we can wait until they get close enough and then start firing."
Brian pulled down his goggles and held on tightly to MetalGreymon's horn as the duo flew towards the Dark Master. "This is it, boy," Brian said to MetalGreymon. "We'll show them all what we can do."
XXX
