- Escort Mission -

"We are pulling apart all the stockpiles of Control Spires at their construction sites, but the placement of my forces for that isn't the greatest," Ken Ichijouji said from the monitor. "Generally my factories either produced Spires or constructs, and there are only a handful of the new drone factories right now to build forces that are secure enough to actually help."

"We are a bit limited on help there too," the combat leader of Team Upload, named simply Bob, informed them. "Those two decided to head deeper into Imperial territory, and we just can't project our forces that far while also trying to stockpile energy as fast as we can. It just takes too much to establish the systems to maintain a Hackware presence for any real length of time."

Tai looked over at the fourth monitor, where he had a feed from the third floor of the base. Davis had taken his half thought out plan to keep the younger kids busy, and somehow turned it into a competition to see how good a dozen armor digimon and pokemon could get at taking down an Ultimate. Maybe two depending on what Wishiwashi's fused form counted as, and the sight of Zudomon battling the others alongside the floating shark was still awkward to see.

"I have a full report ready on what I know about Arukenimon, which is horribly out of date," Gazimon said from the third screen, and just what little Tai had heard so far wasn't too great. He could fully understand being reluctant to take down someone you had taught back when they were a kid, and he could almost forgive the digimon for letting the pair get away. "I barely even knew she had joined Myotismon's forces."

"Dokugumon and Devidramon went along with the invasion for the specific purpose of opening a new gate from the other side so they could all get back," Dark Tyranomon rumbled from behind the Blossomon. "I can't quite believe those two are the same people. Arukenimon seems so cold, and you could barely keep those two apart before. Well, I can buy Mummymon being Devidramon, that almost makes sense."

"Oh shit," Gazimon said in response to that information. "She's seen the Digidestined creation documents before. I let the kids who worked ahead look at them, I barely even thought about that. There are notes there on how to travel between worlds."

"Izzy already assumed that they used some detailed scans of the new Digivices," Tai noted uncertainly. "Was there really a lot more than what they could get from one of those?" He turned to the paperwork that the genius had already created on those documents with Ryuuji and Kazuo. "I thought we made the Gatecrashers just from looking at them."

"That's actually a good point. I'm not sure she looked at the Digivice stuff specifically, and that is what we needed to work out how to make those," the rabbit monster said with some relief, and then frowned. "But I don't think we can assume that. Do you have any high tech sites she could use to build stuff? Any near these Spire facilities would be likely targets."

"One of the largest collections of spires fits both criteria," Ken informed them and used a vine to bring another display into view. On the other screen was a map of the digimon world with a highlighted square. "It is one of three locations that have more than one hundred Spires currently present, the core stockpile that was going to be used to shore up the eastern lines. Unfortunately we were still using constructs to move them from that site, and it has an incomplete drone factory being implemented."

Tai looked at the Digidestined training session again to make sure it still wasn't too harsh to interfere with this. "How quickly can they get there from where we lost them?" he asked tiredly. "Do we have anyone that can get there quickly?"

"They should already be there if that was the target, but if we leave now they will only get one or two of their Ultimates done before we show up," Dark Tyranomon complained. "I'm going with you guys to make sure this is done right this time."

"Arukenimon, how do we know this one will actually listen to us?" Mummymon had to ask after all the betrayal they had dealt with so far.

"I have a fairly unusual plan for just that purpose," she replied while she prepared for the most powerful construct yet. The failure to control the Dark Spore had them both worried, but her old life's memories did have other options available. "We will just ensure that the orders are ones that will be followed."

She then checked her preparations for a third time, and started before Mummymon could talk to her more and make her lose her nerve. With a swift motion she sent out hairs into the largest collection of stored Spires, one hundred of them was the most she dared to try at one time, and the remaining fifty some could then be made into a number of Ultimate constructs to join Megadramon.

The towers immediately began to outright shatter, the quantity altering the process strangely. Instead of the black material merging in a solid mass it had reduced to powder that now was collecting in the massive form of an armored digimon. The deep black armor of the reptile digimon that resulted from this attempt was a noticeably different shade than the towers, and his yellow hair and markings were actually a bit strange for a creature that should have been so steeped in darkness.

Looking at the result, the Mega digimon in front of her, a part of Arukenimon that was still lost in memories couldn't help but worry. If merely 100 of the spires held the energy to make a Mega, how much had they collected in all of them? "BlackWarGreymon?" she asked aloud of the creation, which looked at both of them with a critical gaze.

"I am," the construct actually replied with a calm, if slightly confused tone. She could see Mummymon tense next to her at the reality that this one was smart enough to talk. The Mega's head drifted from side to side as if searching for something. "Why am I?" he asked her after spending a long moment watching the non-reaction her Megadramon had at the proceedings.

"We require protection," she simply replied. "Our past mistakes have caught up with us, and I have the power to make Control Spires into artificial digimon. You are my latest and greatest creation, made to hopefully defend the two of us against our enemies."

Mummymon gave her an incredulous look, probably because her 'unusual' plan was in fact to try and just ask nicely. "You are all weak looking," BlackWarGreymon noted with a hint of uncertainty. "Are your enemies that much stronger?"

"So far none are stronger than us on their own, but there are many of them and only the three of us," she answered with a cool tone, and was relieved to see that the thing she just made seemed to be able to think. There had been a real worry that the result would just be a mindless weapon their foes could simply distract and pick apart, even if it was a Mega.

Then one of her alarms went off. "Although it appears we are out of time for pleasantries."

Gatomon wasn't sure she could handle any more digimon from her past showing up. Gazimon had been a chance meeting that didn't mean much more than reminding everyone it happened, but Dark Tyranomon had been a terrible surprise, and now there was the full of herself tech spider and her boy-toy bodyguard back from the dead. Those two had been ready to cut and run before the trip to the human world. She knew they were because it had been her job to crush them when they tried, that was the whole point of having a strong Vaccine attribute in a group of Virals, and without knowing she was a Digidestined's digimon that was why He had taken her in the first place. She had known the two of them wanted to run, and not even considered asking if they were up for helping when she left the group herself.

"Alright everyone, stay sharp. They had more time than I like and we probably should have held back a bit more with training," Davis told them as they approached the facility, which was now worryingly clear of Control Spires. "If everything goes right then we're just here to keep them busy until we can catch them." The blob monster looked uneasily at the nearly empty lot. "So be ready to run, because I doubt everything is going right."

"It does have that sort of feeling in the air," Dark Tyranomon rumbled in that thoughtful tone Gatomon had heard on the rare occasions when the two siblings had actually talked around the rest of them. Gatomon had often found herself wondering if that was the sound of the real Dark Tyranomon, or if she really was the brute and it was just how she acted around her kinder brother. The cat digimon did not like how she was only getting the answer because that brother was gone now. "I hate real fights," the dinosaur digimon complained as they spotted of all things a black colored WarGreymon. "Boss man, keep the teleporters ready. We might need to run here."

"We are just after the Ultimates," T.K. suggested quickly. "I think we can keep a Mega busy long enough to capture them." He then looked at the massive clearly Dark digimon tiredly. "And if all else fails Patamon should be able to kill it," the Digidestined of Hope mumbled.

Gatomon looked over to Kari, and the BlackGatomon nodded at her. They couldn't hold back for this one, so everyone that could was getting out Artificial Crests to hit Ultimate, herself and Patamon included there. In a flash she was a winged human shaped digimon again, something she now knew was far different from being an actual human, while most of the others took two flashes of light to get there.

However, even the appearance of eight Ultimate digimon was nearly lost in the red light that poured in as Upload sent reinforcements as a response to the Mega showing up even earlier than expected, with a smattering of black from the Emperor's mechanical minions. Angewomon had to pause for a moment to consider how there was an entire army truly alongside them for this fight, and how strange that was compared to the way the previous conflict had ended. Then Basirablemon burst from the ground and she started to actually feel a little bad for the brand new Mega.

BlackWarGreymon had not existed very long, but he still had expected these two to have at least partially exaggerated their situation. Looking at the sea of red crystals and islands of massive hostile digimon he realized they were instead trying to downplay the threat. He had been given a task, and without any previous life he did not even consider that he could choose not to make at least an attempt at that order. So he braced for combat, and tried to work out how exactly to defeat all of these enemies without harming the three Ultimates that gave him the goal.

"Do not think just because there are so many of you that I am afraid," he declared loudly, and the more unique enemies seemed to pause with unease at his voice. He did not glance at the strangely mindless Megadramon, but he started to suspect that was what they had expected from him.

"Surrender is still an option, Arukenimon," the two headed snake replied with both of its mouths at once. "We're after Myotismon, not the two of you."

"What the hell does the vampire have to do with anything?" the spider shot back. "I wouldn't go back to that asshole if he offered us the entire digimon world."

"Maybe that's what Oikawa found," the mummy noted quietly, but the spider made a sound to quiet him.

BlackWarGreymon didn t understand what this particular argument was about, but he was able to work out that his ability to speak had somehow changed things. Nevertheless the army before him was not planning on letting them go, and his objectives were refusing to give up for their own safety. "Against this many foes I cannot hold back," he warned the army in front of him, uneasy with the reality of that many opponents all at once. He would greatly prefer to test his enemies individually to see just how far he could push them before overwhelming their abilities.

"Ha! Hear that Shawn? Someone else has to put up with that for once," the blue eyed head of the snake said to the red eyed one, and BlackWarGreymon discovered that this distraction was likely intentional as the two headed snake struck first with a barrage of cutting leaves that was wide enough to force him to rapidly move to intercept the attack with his armor.

"True enough Serp," the other head said in reply as the army crashed forward. "I wonder how he will handle it," the other head coldly said as a barrage of toxic globs flew from the massive serpentine root, quickly joined by other attacks from the many Ultimate combatants.

A rough pulse of his own dark power managed to stop that barrage, and the wave shattered a massive number of the smaller red crystal constructs. Unfortunately it also pushed Megadramon, Arukenimon, and Mummymon out from behind his body, and he had to move quickly to get both of them back to a place where he could at least attempt to protect them. Despite this there were now clear cracks on the Megadramon's body. That minor failure fully chased off any idea of going easy on these foes.

The two sea monsters, a massive turtle and a floating shark, were both able to spray water strong enough to cut through the stone buildings that had made up the base. He targeted them first, as he felt as if they were moving the most easily of all the Ultimate foes. The shark turned out to be a mistake to hit first, as it simply shattered into a swarm of scale shaped fish before merging again after his claws passed, but a stronger blow to the turtle caused both of them to return to smaller forms and quickly be removed from the field in flashes of light.

The two headed snake was the next most dangerous, but that was because it could easily swamp the battlefield with wide attacks that risked his objectives rather than direct power. The root monster also was well behind the others, and clearly moved through the ground slowly enough that BlackWarGreymon could simply grab his charges and fly off if his foes were reduced to just that monster. So instead he went for the harsh Light of the two angels, although that nearly lost him an arm as a black cat hidden among the smaller enemies flashed out with a massive wave of that Light that split the air once she realized his intent.

It was the first attack to truly threaten BlackWarGreymon himself, instead of just being a threat to the other two on his side. He realized grimly that his own power did not seem to be enough to complete this task on its own, and yet BlackWarGreymon did not want to give in to defeat yet. So he decided to try and end this now, by repeating his initial attack more powerfully, and hopefully far enough from Arukenimon and Mummymon to not fail by his own actions.

The resulting massive dome of dark energy worked out alright to defeat all of them, although most of the crystal foes escaped before the wave hit and all of the others survived with enough energy to glare at him as they left as well, but BlackWarGreymon was exhausted by the power required to pull that off. Given that they had mostly survived his own attacks that meant he had won only for the moment, and he had no idea if they would recover before he had the chance to do so.

"What do you mean 'that isn't the Mega'? It just took us all down!" Tai demanded after the fiasco that was the latest development. The only good news so far was that nobody had been seriously hurt as they fell back to another of the Emperor's nearby bases just in case they could get ready for another attack quickly.

"I mean that the chance to catch them isn't actually gone yet," Absol tiredly replied, and admittedly the pokemon had been right there alongside them to give the warning to brace and evacuate. "Although the timeframe is a lot shorter now. Tomorrow at the earliest, and no more than three days if we can't catch them."

"We do not have a plan for tomorrow!" Alice complained from right next to the canine. "We barely managed to distract this one, and you're saying this isn't even the worst of it?"

"I have a plan that will get us however much time we need," the Architect noted with a sinister tone. "Although, I would like to speak with the Porygon of DSS to refine the concept further."

"Oh? You are actually going to try that one?" either Shawn or Serperior asked, nobody was sure which of the Grass snake pokemon with an added Poison type was which just yet. The tone of this question sounded closer to Shawn s though.

"Anderson why does he know what you're planning before we do?" Absol asked with a frown, but got no reply before his leader moved aside to discuss the topic more with the two serpents.

"I've got enough recovery items here to get us back in action as soon as an hour if we want to try tiring them out," Joe suggested before the disaster sensor could chase after them. "Is that a good idea or not?"

"Uh," the pokemon said and clearly took a moment to check. "Do you want to guarantee tomorrow for the worse Mega? Because that's a bit more likely if we try that and don't catch them by the third attempt, and we actually get a chance of today if it makes it to a fourth."

"In that case we should rest today, and be ready to go tomorrow if we do need to," the Floatzel sighed. "Tai, calm down. We had scanners on that guy, he used a good chunk of his energy in that last blast. It might be enough to save them today, but if we can't make sure we win against them then we might as well let them think they won so we can put off the bigger threat."

Arukenimon was shaking slightly as she looked at the massive cratered landscape that used to be a factory complex. It wasn't the power of the Mega that had her worried, or even how she had only barely convinced it to work to protect them. No, the issue was that BlackWarGreymon was panting slightly now, and she knew quite clearly that their enemies had many ways of restoring their own energy.

"We're dead," Mummymon quietly grumbled. "They will be back before sundown and we're going to be dead."

"They want us alive," she reminded him. It wasn't reassurance. "BlackWarGreymon, are you okay?"

"I will be fine," the artificial digimon said. "They are wounded now as well, does that not give some time to recover?" He asked looking at the sorry state of the Megadramon construct.

"They possess at least two methods of recovering their energies," she informed her creation. "We need to get moving before they recover enough for a round 2."

"Protecting you is very hard," BlackWarGreymon noted simply, and the lack of emphasis said that he was considering not doing so.

"We just need a bit of time," she replied tiredly. "Three days at most." They couldn't afford to lose him, and it was just like when they had been trapped with the boy. Arukenimon was getting sick of running out of other options so quickly. "Maybe less."

"I wish we could just bring Oikawa here," Mummymon complained with a huff.

"We haven't used the rig I was making," Arukenimon realized at that comment. "I forgot about it entirely after we- After we had to be remade." The device Myotismon would have used to return to this world was well hidden, and she doubted that any humans had found it given the Digidestined weren't active in the human world. It had also been close enough to complete to at least give her a boost to any travel attempts to the digital world. "If we can make a big enough breach we can target him directly- Mummymon, you're a genius!"

"You can complete your goal that makes it so you cannot surrender?" BlackWarGreymon questioned, and in doing so reminded her of his presence. "Or is that something that also requires my aid?"

She cringed at that question. "We only need protection in the long run, but I will need something that is powerful enough to create the breach," she explained uneasily.

"Very well. I shall continue to test myself with defending you from harm," the Dark digimon said. "And perhaps even assist in this task."