Ch 35: Machinedramon's pursuit

The past

They were getting closer; she could hear them even from the second floor of her makeshift house. They were too far from the castle dimensional gates for them to escape together. Which meant...

Sirene looked left and right, then held her infant daughter to her bosom. "I'm so sorry my little girl. But I would rather you live far away than watch you be killed."

And she knew just the place. The nymph waved her hand gently, revealing a portal from beyond it a cottage can be seen.

"I'm so sorry Father...I won't be coming home..." The nymph whispered tearfully. "Please care for my daughter."

She then looked to her baby, removing one of the extra baby blankets.

"Be strong, my Kylie." The nymph kissed her forehead. "And know that your mother will always love you...Farewell."

And she held her infant daughter to the portal, sending the baby straight to the domicile of her grandfather. Once through the portal closed one last time.

Now to stare down her executioners. Grimly, the nymph fetched a rag-doll and wrapped in the blanket she removed earlier and pretended to cradle it close. Hopefully this trick will keep them from tracking down her child long enough.

"So we meet at last, Nymph."

Sirene forced herself to tense up and place the doll into the empty bassinet then stand protectively in front of it.

"We finally meet face to face, Piedmon." The nymph replied coolly, knowing the swords in his hands were intended for her and for Kylie.

She spread her arms out as if hoping to stop his advance towards the cradle.

"Do you truly believe you can stop me? It is to laugh!" the jester sneered.

"I can very well try." Sirene answered. She never even flinched at the advance upon her.

So, the sword was plunged right through her heart. The nymph gasped; red blood stained her gown.

From the door frame, a woman's voice laughed. "Oh, nicely done, my son." The Voice of Despair spoke.

Briefly Sirene looked at her own wound, eyes full of acceptance and resignation.

"Aslan will not allow you to win..." she choked.

She stumbled a little before falling on her back, the final word she breathed was the name of her child. "Kylie..."

"Maybe..." Lady Despair chuckled. "But let's see him fare so easily, when I have your daughter executed before your beloved subjects very eyes." Sierra turns to the bassinet, clutching her hands together eagerly. "Come with me, you little..." Lady Despair pulls back the blanket, only to choke out a gasp of shock, which soon turned to rage. "WHAT!? IMPOSSIBLE!" She picked up the ragdoll, and hurled it at Piedmon, who impaled it on his sword, gaping in disbelief.

"SHE GOT AWAY!" Lady Despair fumed. "HER DAUGHTER IS GONE, HIM ONLY KNOWS WHERE!"

Lady Despair spins back to point a finger at the bassinet, and pink flames shoot out and burn the bassinet, and the flames soon spread throughout the house.

"I want her FOUND, Piedmon! Do you hear me!?" Lady Despair storm towards her son, as crimson mist teleports herself and him to safety. "Find me that girl. FIND SIRENE'S HEIR!"


Present day

The guardians nor the Chosen children knew of this for they were still reeling from Despair's revelation even as they walked down a lone highway in the middle of the desert. Gatomon was also dumbstruck but chose to remain stoic, fearing that a breakdown would crumble the others' willpower. Yet she and the others were also very worried about Kylie's emotional state.

"Let's just keep moving, it'll give Kylie time to process this information." Zaira said awkwardly. "Right now, she's going through the seven stages of grief. Shock..."

Kylie looked as though she'd gone tharn on them. "But how?"

"Denial and bargaining." Zaira listed off then did a double take, "Oh wait, nix that she skipped on to fear."

Kylie shivered. "He did it... "

Zaira continued uncomfortably, "She should be reaching her angry phase right about... now."

Then the blonde bookworm's face hardened considerably. "I'll make him pay dearly."

Zaira then sighed. "Lastly discouragement."

Only for Kylie to actually shout into the distance, "Just wait you Piedmon, once we've finished Machinedramon, you're next!"

Sora shook her head sadly. "Nope, she's stuck on anger."

Kari meanwhile had been coughing for the past hour yet refused to admit she was ill. The eight-year-old girl slowed down as the group kept marching ahead as Dana noticed what was wrong. Then as Kari was about to fall over the youngest Pantheon daughter caught her.

"I don't think Kari looks to well." Dana said in concern.

Tai rushed to his little sister's side. "Kari!"

Quickly they got her to a bus stop where there was more shade. Sara G felt the child's forehead then pulled out a water bottle and handkerchief which she moistened with the water it to place on Kari's forehead. "I'm no first aid expert but if I had to take a guess, it looks like heat stroke."

"No. Her cold must have come back." Sora theorized. "They do say summer colds are hard to get rid of."

It would make sense that Kari could relapse from her illness if she had only just recovered from it - especially after spending so much time outdoors.

Gatomon leaned over the bench to look at her human partner. "Kari… how do you feel?"

Kari gave her a weak smile. "I'm fine." Of course, no one believed it with the state she was in.

"Why didn't you say something before? I bet you haven't been feeling that great for a while now." Tai questioned grimly.

"Because… If we don't hurry, our world will-" Kari coughed again.

"But Kari…"

Don't worry, I plan to put the part where they talk to Vanessa - the detail is that the group did when Tai, Izzy, Beth and Kylie had already gone out to get the medicine for Kari.

"It would've been better if we hadn't brought Kari with us to this place." Tai said to himself.

"What!? We can't save either the Digimon world or Earth without Kari's help. She's a Chosen Child too." Izzy protested.

"But she's still in second grade… And she just got over her cold only to get sick again… "

Beth pointed out, "T.K. is in second grade, too…Yet he made the choice to come here of his own free will too."

"What's wrong, Tai?" Izzy inquired, there wasn't something Tai wasn't voicing out.

"It's nothing. It's just- She tends to keep quiet and endure things when she doesn't have to, you know?"

"Sounds like someone I know." Beth remarked nodding her head in Kylie's direction.

"You're worried, Tai…"

"Izzy, I've found something!" Tentomon informed them.


Later on Kabuterimon's head and with the guardians flying alongside, they saw a bridge within a large body of water surrounding a city but not just any city…

They all gasped in amazement.

"It's North America!" T.K. shouted. For the city greatly resembled New Work city complete with the twin towers and the Chrysler building, however there were other few little details.

There was St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. "But those buildings are from Italy." Izzy remarked. "Now it's the Arc de Triomphe! That's in France!"

"I see the kremlin and St. Basil's cathedral! Right by the Brandenburg Gate." Haruna pointed.

"That's Big Ben and Parliament hill!" Kylie cried.

"But… the whole place looks uninhabited. This feels weird." Sora observed.

"There's no Digimon either." Piyomon added.

Kari looked as though she was starting to run a fever.

"Hey! Can we find some place where to rest? This is an emergency!" snapped Tai.

Izzy agreed. "Yes, right away!"

They had reached the world of cities. This world was ruled by Machinedramon. All of the cities in the Digital World were lined up and divided into regions in systematic fashion. However, there was a great deal of inconsistencies in the mix of different landscapes. It was a clear display that, to Machinedramon who had the heart of a machine, a perfect blueprint of his cities did not include an artistic eye to judge whether or not it was also beautiful.
Tankmon filed in patrol formations along the wide roads that formed the grid-lines of the cities. Their cannons were propped up, ready to fire at any intruder that showed up on their radar. The patrol took place in intervals of fifteen minutes, so he used that time to move ahead and hide on repeat.

Andromon, along with all of Factorial Town, had been pulled into the world of cities, and now he was leading his group of comrades in an underground resistance movement. To put it into more concrete terms, they were using the underground cables to infiltrate the network, manipulating them to secretly keep in contact with their comrades and hack into the enemy's secret information. In doing so, they had a general idea on the process that had led to this catastrophe. According to Andromon, "The program that Datamon made was the trigger for this catastrophe."
When Datamon was worked like a slave under Etemon, Datamon received orders from the Dark Masters to develop a certain program. The program was built to divide all the information of the Digital World into the elements of city, forest, ocean, and darkness that would be reconstructed into separate areas that would each be ruled by the Dark Masters.

During all of this, the Dark Masters had left control of the Digital World to their siblings Myotismon, Etemon, and Devimon. When the sealing away of the four Holy Beasts was at last complete, they started up the program that would restructure the world.
"I don't think that was all," Andromon said. "There may have been another reason for all of this. After Etemon was defeated, an abnormality in the net— Well, the venerable Gennai and Centaurmon are investigating that right now, so we should wait for their report."

"I wonder why Datamon gave that info to the Dark Masters," Sora said. "He knew that Etemon was created by Lady Despair, didn't he know, they were Despair's children too?"

"I think, at the time he was focused on getting revenge on Etemon," Beth said. "And thought once he had your clone and crest, he would be able to handle them too, since he gave them the data, he knew how to disrupt it too."

"Fat good it did him," Sora said with a crossing of her arms.

The heroic group took refuge in a stately French château however the interior decoration looked as though it was done in the 80's or 90's. Inside, they scoured the building for medicine. Agumon found a box of cold medicine but it was empty.

Kari was already in a bed with Gatomon by her side, Sora watching and Sara G moistening a washcloth to keep Kari cool. Behind her, Dana was heating up water in a kettle and holding some chamomile tea.

"We'll go out to look for medicine. How is Kari doing?"

"She just fell asleep. She started sweating a lot, hopefully that will help to lower her fever…"

"She needs more fluids, preferably soup. We can do that right here with all the right herbs, she isn't allergic to any certain foods is she?" Haruna said as she dabbled with a mortar and pestle.

"None." Tai shook his head.

Haruna nods once, "Then I'll make her some broth."

"Yeah. Well, you girls take good care of her for me?"

Of course!

"Sure. Be careful, Tai."

We're going with him. Beth affirmed with Kylie nodding.

"Tai, I'll go with you to look for her cold medicine." T.K. offered his help.

Tai declined. "No, I want you to stay with them, T.K. We don't know when the Dark Masters will attack us next."

"Okay then. I'll make sure to protect everyone!"

"Leave it to us!" Patamon chimed in.

"Same here!" Dana agreed.

Now the two boys with their digimon and the elder Pantheon sisters raced through the British part of the city.

"There it is!" Izzy pointed to a telephone booth. "We'll only be wasting time if we search in the fog without any leads." He pulled out a cord connecting to his laptop and plugged the other end of the cord into the phone. "All right! I've got a map of the city!"

Alright then so where do we search? Kylie asked.

"The closest hospitals and drug stores around here are…" Izzy was typing away.

The map then flashed yellowish lights indicating the places containing the medicine.

"Here they are!"

"All right!" pointed to an area just left of them. "Let's go to this one!" He quickly ran out.

"Tai! P-Please wait for me!" Izzy cried as Beth, Kylie and the digimon ran after them.

None of them knew of the grievous error they'd done.


"She's sick, we need to figure out what to do," Zaira exclaimed. "But wha...oh! The mirror!"

Zaira referred to a small hand mirror the Dark Spectre Queen gave them to allow for communication, since she still couldn't enter the digital world. Unfair as that was since Lady Despair was now there, and able to use her magic, as long as she stayed on Spiral Mountain or near one of her Dark Masters.

Zaira pulled out the mirror, which flashed brightly, before the face of the Ruler of the Eastern Seas, Most Merciful and Stern appeared.

"Zaira, what's the matter? I sensed the death of a Dark Master," Vanessa said. "So, two down, two to go."

"It's Kari." Sora walked over to the mirror, looking worried. "She's ill."

"Ill?" Vanessa exclaimed. "That can't be, I ensured none of you kids could get sick with an enchantment before you left..."

"You did?" Sara G exclaimed in surprise.

"Well, I wanted to ensure you wouldn't have anything to hold you back," Vanessa explained. "Let me see her."

Zaira brought the mirror over to Kari and Vanessa stared at the child, and gasped.

"Oh, oh dear. This isn't an illness, it's worse..." Vanessa gasped.

"Worse?" Haruna gasped as she had Kari's head resting in her lap. "What do you mean?!"

"She's not sick, she's become...possessed. Someone, or something...THING, is trying to use her as a living cell phone. Like my mirror I gave you, but a human body isn't equipped to handle that much energy, or power."

"Is there nothing that you can do?" Sara G asked the Dark Spectre Queen through the mirror.

"As long as you are in the digital world," Vanessa frowns sadly. "All I can do is pray, and tell you to do your best to keep her comfortable, her tag and crest might take the strain off her."

"Then we better tell Tai and Izzy!" Piyomon suggested.

"Too late, Beth and Kylie went with them to get the medicine for Kari!" Zaira exclaimed worriedly.

They couldn't do much else but care for Kari and wait for them to return.


The information that Izzy received had also been tapped on the screen of the headquarters of the third Dark Master that ruled the region: Machinedramon. The Digimon that served under the mechanized beast were gear-shaped creatures with two smaller gears to their sides and red eyes. These were Hagurumon observing the locations that Izzy had searched.

"The line has disconnected, Lord Machinedramon! They were looking up information on hospitals and drug stores."

"Hospitals. Drug stores. Display their locations."

"Yes, sir. There are twelve located within the vicinity."

"All of them will be our targets. Metal Empire Army! Move out!"

"Metal Empire Army! Move out!" The two Hagurumon repeated.

Throughout the city, building walls and city streets were opening up to reveal Machinedramon's forces. These included Mechanorimon and Tankmon. In St. Peter's Square, a hangar opened to unleash two large Digimon to the skies. The first one was is a brown dragon with purple hair and yellow eyes. It has tattered purple wings and two arms, and wears a black helmet and black gauntlets on its arms called a Megadramon. The other was similar except the skin color was purple and its wings that were robotic this one was Gigadramon.

Because Machinedramon was a machine, he felt neither the ruthless joy of hunting prey like MetalSeadramon nor innocent malice like Puppetmon. He moved quickly, without waste, into carrying out his plan to eliminate both the Chosen Children and the scattered guardians.

In other words, his plan involved using his Mugen Cannon to desecrate his own cities and subordinates, if it all meant killing them.
The truth about the world of cities was that the machines on its surface were only a cover; the power generated underground was what were more important. Machinedramon implemented his plan immediately. Quickly, without waste.


The group arrived to the nearest hospital in hopes of finding the cold medicine. Tai and Agumon were the first ones there, as the little orange dinosaur glanced around, never having seen a hospital before. However for Tai… it was as though he was taken back to the past.


Back on that dreadful autumn afternoon in the Tokyo Saiseikai Central Hospital located in the Higashiazabu District, Minato Ward.

He was nine years old again in the waiting area of the ER, waiting anxiously for news of his little sister.

"Tai!" His mother arrived looking greatly out of breath. "Where is your sister?!"


In the present day, Beth noticed Tai gripping his fists tightly.

Tai…Tai! Beth got his attention. You alright?

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah…"

"I've found it! It's in the place I told you about!" Izzy and Kylie waved them over.

They walked into the hospital pharmacy searching for the medicine but none of the formulas there made any sense to them unless they're in the medical field.

"If only Joe was here. His father is a doctor." Izzy remarked.

"Man, he's never around when you really need him!" Tai complained.

"No kidding." Beth huffed, rolling her eyes.

"Couldn't we look through the archives? Surely there's bound to be records of the pharmacy contents." Kylie wondered.

"Wait! I have an idea." Izzy pulled out his laptop, unplugged the telephone and plugged his laptop in.

With this method he was able to able to hack the hospital's archive files to locate the medication they needed. Finally Tai held up a plastic bottle that read ZE-22 Y-ZE.

"Is it this one?"

"Yes, I'm sure of it!" responded Izzy.

"Good, then let's just hurry-"

At that moment, a faint explosion made the shelves rattle and the lights flicker before going out.

What's happening? Agumon yelped.

It came from outside! Kylie said in alarm.

As they neared the front doors, Beth stopped them then took a compact mirror tied it to a selfie stick then held it out to see. Her blue eyes widened with shock. We got company! We better go out the back!

They rushed away, knowing that the army waiting outside would either give chase or start demolishing the building. The former being exactly what they did.

"How did they know we were in here?!" Tentomon asked.

"They must've spotted us when we walked in." Izzy guessed.

"Twinkle Beam!" "Hyper Cannon!" The Tankmon and the Mechanorimon launched their attacks.

Tai shoved open a door for the group to run into before jumping out the window and ducking low to the ground. And not a moment too soon, for the mixed attacks engulfed the entire room in flames!

Fortunately they found themselves up on a building a few floors up watching the patrolling Tankmon.

"How many of them are out there?" Tai mumbled.

"All right, I'll go and fight them!" Agumon volunteered.

"Yeah, we can take them!" Beth suggested.

"Please wait!" Izzy interrupted. "We don't have an accurate idea of their fighting strength. It's too dangerous!"

"Then what are we going to do, Izzy?!" Tai demanded.

"I'm investigating where the enemy is positioned, so that I can map a safe route for us to travel. Our top priority is to make sure we get that medicine to Kari."

"Y-Yeah… You're right." Tai acknowledged softly.

"All right! I've pinpointed their locations!"


"Lord Machinedramon! An access point has been spotted in Sector B-12!"

"Change the location of our target. Sector B-12!"


Suddenly Izzy gasped, his face had drained of color.

"What's wrong, Izzy?" Kylie questioned, before walking over to see. When she did, she let out yelp of fright.

Izzy croaked out. "The enemy is concentrating on surrounding this building…"

"What! How?!"

Beth and Kylie's unnerved gaze fell on the laptop cord both teenage girls coming to the same conclusion: The enemy must've been using Izzy's computer access to track them down!

Kylie lunged and pulled the plug. "I got it!"

"Too late!" Agumon yelled.

Beth turned to the window before hollering, "Heads up!"

One of the Megadramon flew right through the window causing the group to leap out of the way.

"Agumon, digivolve to… GREYMON! Mega Flame!"

Fortunately the Megadramon got stuck in the window pane but didn't make it any less dangerous. So the group was forced to escape.


On Spiral mountain, Piedmon was in the observatory, watching Machinedramon's forces hunt down the group.

"This is wearisome to watch. He never lets down his guard nor shows signs of weakness. Truly, he is a Digimon who exists only to destroy. That is Machinedramon. I suppose it is he who will bring the Chosen Children or the Heir to their doom. It's a shame I won't have the chance to play with you or the red-locked amazon." He lifted his glass of alcohol with a dark smirk.


However, the group was quickly able to give their pursuers the slip by taking refuge in a replica of Notre Dame.

"I'm sorry, it was an oversight on my part." Izzy apologized. " The enemy located us by using the signal from my computer connection."

"Your oversight almost got us killed!" Tai yelled in Izzy's face. "While we're stuck in here, Kari's state is growing worse!"

Beth, Kylie and the digimon try to separate the two boys. Tai, that's enough!

"Tai, what's wrong with you?" Agumon asked. "This isn't like you!" His words were enough to get Tai to calm down.

"I-I'm sorry." Tai apologized before turning around and falling to his knees.

"Did something happen, Tai?" Izzy questioned. "You've been on edge of late."

"There was a time when… Kari… She almost died once because of me."

The others gasped, stunned.

"This happened when I was in second grade and Kari in preschool, it happened one day in the Fall…." Tai began to tell his story.

Kari didn't attend because she'd caught a cold. But when I came home, Tai found her sitting on the couch watch T.V. Impulsively, he thought she was feeling better, so her took her to the park to play soccer with him. At one point, he kicked the ball to her and she weakly kicked it back. Tai at first rebuked her, for it only to see that she fallen over on the very spot. Fortunately someone called an ambulance taking him and Kari to the hospital, where Kari immediately admitted into the E.R. There in the waiting room, Tai tensely waited until his parents arrived. When they found out what happened his mother actually slapped him because of his carelessness. "I told you she was sick!" She'd screamed at him.

Kari remained between alive and dead for three whole days. When she was finally brought back from the hospital, the first thing she said to Tai was…

"Onii-chan… I'm sorry I couldn't kick the ball very well…"

"She's always thinking about other people before herself, and she'll never tell anyone that she's in pain or having a hard time, even if it kills her! That's the kind of girl she is!" Tai was in tears. "The thing is, she might not have even wanted to come to this stupid world at all… But when people tell her that the fate of the world is in her hands or something, she could never refuse! That's what Kari is like." He miserably punched a pew in front of him, "That's why… That's why I'm supposed to look after her and protect her… B-But I…"

"Tai, I understand." Izzy said soberly.

Beth suddenly sputtered out: "You're wrong! She WANTED to come!" She wiped her eyes. "But the fact is you keep blaming yourself for that so much, you've blinded yourself into making assumptions and making the decisions without even bothering to actually talk to Kari to see what she truly thinks!"

"Wh–What are you talking about…" Tai was at a loss for words.

He hadn't gotten timid because Kari was with them. But it was true that he had gotten more careful so that no one got hurt or pushed themselves. That was a problem that Tai needed to agonize over and conquer from here on. He just needed some more time on it.

"You were just a small child, Tai." Kylie said. "Your mother should've not hit you. She was hysterical, but you couldn't have known better." The blonde teenager kneels down to hug him close. "You have been the best brother ever, but you must not get lost in protecting her, or do it because you believe it's the only way you can make up for it."

"You're her older brother and it's not wrong to want to protect her, I'd do the same for Dana and Kylie… but you've got to take the time to listen and Kari let her make her choices too. Take care of her, but don't let her forget that she still her voice to speak out."

Tai looked at his feet. It was true, he was so just so worried about keeping his sister safe that he forgot to actually listen top Kari and have a heart to heart about her opinions too.

"I swear to you, we are going to get that medicine back to Kari." Izzy promised and he came up with a plan. "Since it's impossible to break through them head on, it's best to use the enemy's own strategy to our advantage!"

"What do you mean, Izzy?" inquired Tentomon.

"This software program will prevent them from finding out where I'm accessing." "That way we'll easily deceive our enemy!"


"We've caught their access point!" One of the Hagurumon grinned.

Only for multiple yellow points to flash on the screen. It turned to its master.

"What should we do now, Lord Machinedramon?"

Machinedramon said nothing, only a low rumble. Finally he came to a decision. "Initiate Plan Z as of this moment!"

"B-But that plan is…!" A Hagurumon protested.

"Defeating the Chosen Children is our utmost priority. Prepare the execution at once!"

"Y-Yes, sir!" The two Hagurumon complied. "Prepare to execute Plan Z!"

"Plan Z… Execute!" Machinedramon ordered.


Back at the château, T.K. looked out the window and saw the flying dragons headed for their location. He, Patamon and Dana exchanged nervous looks. Then Dana whispered, "I think it's time we pull another El-ahrairah…"


The group left Notre Dame after seeing how at first Machinedramon's forces weren't moving an inch. Only to see two of the flying dragons fly overhead and begin to level the city.

"What are they doing?" Tai asked.

"They're shooting all over the place." Tentomon said.

But they don't know where we are. Do they? Kylie questioned nervously.

"I-It can't be…" Izzy stuttered and he slumped over. "The enemy grew weary of searching. But now, they're destroying the city with us in it!"

Tai and the two teen girls were shocked. Their only chance now was to run but then Tentomon noticed something.

"He's heading towards where the others are!" Tentomon shouted.

"Damn it…!" Tai growled. "Kari!"

They hurried back to the back to the château where it was still standing.

"Good, they're still safe!" Izzy observed.

"Kari!" Tai ran towards the building… only for the château to be hit by a missile!

The explosion blew them all back and the sight chilled them to the bone. Beth and Kylie gasped, their skin blanched from horror.

"Impossible…" Izzy stammered.

"No… KARI!" Tai screamed.

Another missile headed towards them only to be blown away by a gold burst of light. Surprised, they turned to see Angemon and Dana in her Digix form flying right behind them.

Then from the hedge, T.K.'s head popped out. "Tai, Izzy, Kylie, Beth, are you okay?" He asked.

Haruna, Zaira, Sara G, Piyomon, Gatomon, and Sora hopped out of the bushes, with was hanging on to Sora's back.

"Kari!" Tai cried out with relief.

"You're all safe!" Izzy said.

"Oh thank goodness! " Kylie gasped.

"We took cover when they started bombing the city." Sora explained.

"T.K. thought it up." Haruna said, patting the little boy's head.

"I was able to protect everyone!" T.K. beamed proudly.

"Great job, T.K.!" Tai praised.

But their little reunion was interrupted when a bright light tore out from nearby and they turned to see horrifically familiar face three feet away from them!

"Machinedramon!" Izzy screamed.

The group ran into the neatest building in an attempt to escape.

"Now you are all finished. Mugen Cannon!"

The deadly canons threw the entire building its foundations and the floor beneath them crumbled, sending the them all falling.

"Onii-chan!" Kari screamed.

"Kari!" Tai called back.

The heroic group fell downwards into the dark abyss due to Machinedramon's surprise attack they headed to the bottom of the darkness that invaded the Digiworld.

To be continued…