ZAFT: Hey, where is Takuya? I haven't seen him since the last time we updated.
DarkFoxKit: I don't know. Did he say anything to you about what he was doing?
ZAFT: Nope. But I think he was trying to hide from Danny for some reason. I heard him mutter something about a prank...
DarkFoxKit: Hmm? Danny's planning to prank him? Why?
ZAFT: Maybe it has to do with why Danny's white shirt was pink.
Andy: Takuya thought it would be funny to mix Danny's white shirt with the reds. Danny's not exactly happy about that.
ZAFT: Ah… I see. Whelp, that boy kinda deserves the prank Danny has planned for him.
Takuya: *Pokes head out* Stop Danny, please! He has something… really scary planned… Muttered something about clowns… *shivers*
*There was a sudden knock on the window. There was a shadow of what looked like the clown from the It movie*
Clown: Oh Takuya~ Guess whaaaaat? I can float. And I've come for you~
Takuya: *Screams and runs away* Stay away from meeeeeeee!
ZAFT: Um… I think… we'd better get that boy back to the chapter before he burns everything down in his fright… *Sweatdrops*
(Two symbols, one red, and one blue, spin before colliding and flaring with light as they do so, showing the title)
Digital Phantom!
(Shows three forms in shadow before they are revealed to be Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley)
Three worlds, connected side by side
(A swirling green portal is shown, followed by the sky cities of the living world before a computer monitor is zoomed in on, revealing another world of lush greenery through that)
Connections, with many secrets to hide
(Andy Fenton is shown with a small purple fox-like creature, Dorimon, in his arms as Takuya Kanbara appears behind him, a form in shadow behind Takuya himself)
Is one always chosen by fate?
(Danny is shown transforming into his ghost form, Danny Phantom, flying towards a vampiric looking ghost, Vlad Plasmius)
Or can one make their own destiny?
(Andy is shown looking on as his cell-phone transforms into a Digivice, the D-Arc)
Digital Phantom!
(Andy holds up his D-Arc as a heart symbol appears on the screen)
The power is deep inside!
(Takuya holds up his D-Tector before fractal code surrounds him, dissipating as fire erupts from it, revealing him as Agunimon, lunging out from the fire just as Dorimon glows and becomes Dorumon, firing off a metal ball into the distance)
Digital Phantom!
(The metal ball blasts past Vlad Plasmius as he fires off a ghost ray at Andy, who blocks it with his Fenton Rod)
Destiny is unbound!
(The Fenton Rod is smacked away by Vlad, going spinning before Sam, with a small puppy-like creature next to her, reaches up and catches it, a shadowed form with wings appearing behind her, transparent in appearance)
Digital Phantom!
(Sam throws the Fenton Rod to Tucker, who spins it before throwing it at Plasmius, a big bunny-like being with gun-hands appearing behind Tucker, transparent in appearance)
Fight on, without regret
(Shows Takuya looking up from his D-Tector as he makes eye contact with his Human Spirit of Agunimon, who give a smile back and reaches out a hand as Takuya takes it)
Two sides never rest
(Danny is shown reaching for a glowing Digi-Egg, before the light glows to reveal Patamon in front of Danny, green eyes meeting Danny's baby blue ones.)
Digital Phantom!
(Jazz is shown with the form of Lopmon beside her, a larger, shadowed form behind them both)
Never regret or look back
(Takuya is shown looking up as a ball of fractal code covers his hand, surrounding him before it dissipates to reveal his Fusion form of Aldamon)
Fight on, with victory
(Aldamon fires off a slew of fiery bullets from his cannons, each of those bullets hitting Plasmius before the ghost teleports away, revealing a shadowed form behind him)
Nothing will stand in our way!
(Andy, Dorimon, Danny, Patamon, Tucker, Terriermon, Sam, Salamon, Jazz, Lopmon, and Takuya all appear with Vlad above them, sneering evilly as all ten look on defiantly)
Digital Phantom!
Chapter 62: Confronting the Past Demons
After what felt like an eternity, the group fell out of the white void with the clocks back into the dark, barren wilderness of the Continent of Darkness.
"Ugh… I feel a bit… sick…" Jazz groaned.
"It… felt like… we were falling… in that silent void… for ages…" Dorumon groaned as well.
"So… many… clocks…" Lopmon moaned, showing dizzy eyes as he laid on the ground.
"Ugh… let's… just… try to let it… pass," Andy groaned as well, feeling like he wanted to throw up.
"Where's… Calumon…?" Dorumon asked.
"H-here…" Calumon's voice weakly called out.
Despite feeling sick, Andy managed to turn himself around, seeing Calumon looking rather pale and on the ground, seeming extremely exhausted.
"I-if… you don't… mind after… you recovered… c-could someone… uh… carry me… for a while?" Calumon weakly requested.
Jazz raised her hand weakly. "I… will be happy too… If you don't… mind resting on my head…"
"You… have Lopmon… I can carry… him…" Andy argued.
Jazz groaned. "Fine… You can… carry Calumon… I'm… too tired to argue anyway…"
After the group spent some time recovering from their time travel, Andy was able to pick up Calumon, who was still utterly exhausted. It was taking every fiber of Calumon's being to not revert back to Tommy right now, he did not need this group finding out who he was when they needed to focus right now.
"How far back did we end up? Can you tell?" Lopmon questioned.
"I… I think… so…" Calumon answered. "We're… several hours… back… I think… Takuya and the others… are currently in a Trailmon… riding their way… here now…"
Lopmon nodded at the information. "Then that should give us time to get to my past self's castle and find a way to stop this other interferer." He then shook his head at that comment. "That sounded so weird to say that…"
"How should we get there? I'd imagine that there will be traps to keep intruders away from the castle," Dorumon questioned. "I could try flying us there, but we would be easily spotted."
"Too bad Danny didn't come with us, his invisibility would come in handy right now." Andy frowned.
Jazz frowned as she took in this information. "Hmmm… Maybe we can become 'invisible' in our own way… Like maybe disguising ourselves?"
"Would that work?" Dorumon blinked.
"Maybe," Lopmon spoke up. "If I have no reason to suspect you as intruders, I probably wouldn't even bother to look at you. My focus would be on the Legendary Warriors at this point. Maybe if you, Jazz, and Andy, could disguise yourselves as Digimon, then we should be fine."
"What kind of Digimon could we disguise ourselves as?" Andy blinked.
"Hmm… we have… some materials here to work with… but it might not be easy," Dorumon remarked.
"What… materials?" Andy frowned.
"I see you've kept your school supplies with you in your bag, Jazz, and that includes glue~" Lopmon grinned.
Jazz blinked. "Uh… Okay? What do you have in mind?"
Jazz wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but she was currently wearing some kind of pink rubbery hat on her head with very long 'ears' that was coming down to her side. She was also wearing some glowing moss around her shirt and pants in the shape of a dress. She was also holding a stick in her hands.
Andy, on the other hand, looked a bit more grumpy with his disguise. He had painted white leaves stuck all over the upper half of his body, with his shirt removed so he was just in his pants. He was wearing fake nails over his real nails to resemble claws, he also had to take off his shoes to have the white leaves attached to his foot, as well as the fake nails over his toenails.
"There we go," Lopmon remarked, admiring their handiwork while Calumon was on a rock to rest. "Jazz, from now on, you are Sistermon Blanc."
"And Andy, you are now WereGarurumon! … Puppy addition!" Dorumon announced.
"Puppy!?" Andy groaned.
Jazz snickered at Andy's reaction. "It's kinda cute, Andy… err… WereGarurumon."
"It may not be perfect, but this should be close enough," Dorumon remarked. "We just need to get into the castle, and pretend we're the 'new recruits' or something."
"It's a brilliant idea, but are you sure Cherubimon would fall for these disguises?" Andy questioned, looking at his glued on 'fur'.
Lopmon nodded. "I would not pay much attention to any Digimon that comes in because my focus would be on the Legendary Warriors. The lower Digimon would handle the 'new recruits', and they're not too picky with what they get. They should let us in pretty easily."
"I guess we can only trust your word for it," Jazz remarked.
"Great… we should… go now… can't waste… too much time," Calumon spoke up before Dorumon picked him up.
"Since Andy is covered in leaves and glue, I'll carry Calumon," Dorumon volunteered.
Jazz looked at Andy and frowned a bit. "That… would be for the best, since Andy's disguise may come off if rubbed by Calumon in his hold."
"This… better not be hard to take off later…" Andy frowned, seeing most of his upper body was covered in glue and leaves. At least Danny would only have to go intangible to get this off him…
With their disguises on, Lopmon took the lead. "Come on, I'll take you to the shortest route to my castle."
Everyone nodded as they followed Lopmon through the Continent of Darkness.
It was a quiet trip. There had been a few Digimon around, but none of them bothered them. Lopmon still remembered his way through the Continent of Darkness, which he wasn't sure how he felt about. On one hand, it was helping them right now, on the other, it showed how deeply rooted the place was to Lopmon.
"We're getting close," Lopmon warned. "Remember, try to act natural, like you belong here."
Jazz nodded, but she felt unsure about this. She had no idea on how a Digimon was supposed to act. "O-okay…"
"Relax yourself, Jazz, there's a reason why I chose Sistermon Blanc for you," Lopmon chuckled. "She fits your personality quite well."
"I hope I don't have to act all feral," Andy remarked.
"Nah, WereGarurumon can howl sometimes, but they are surprisingly civilized," Lopmon answered.
Jazz nodded. "Okay. Thanks, Lopmon. Just act like myself… No problem."
They could now see the large dark castle, it was definitely ominous, and reeked of dark powers. Dorumon couldn't help but growl a little at it. Calumon frowned, he hadn't seen this castle in a long time, and he had hoped he wouldn't have to see it again like this.
"Just a little more now. We need to get past the lower section before we can get to the top where my past self is residing," Lopmon whispered.
Jazz nodded. "Okay." She looked up at where the castle was and frowned as she realized something. "How are we going to get into the castle from down here?"
"We stand in front of the entrance, and wait for a representative to greet us, then we state our business here," Lopmon answered. "In which case, we are new recruits for my- Cherubimon's army. Ugh, this is going to take some getting used to… They should let us in."
"Doesn't sound too hard," Andy remarked. "I hope."
"The hard part will be once we get inside, we'll have to ditch the representative so we can begin our climb to the top, otherwise we'll just be dumped with the other trainees," Lopmon warned.
Dorumon shuddered. "Great, more sneaking around… Well, no time like the present to get more stealth skills in."
Jazz gulped a bit, but did her best to look like she was ready for this.
They approached the front door. They waited as Lopmon instructed. Not long after they waited, the door opened up.
Out from the door came a Digimon that had a green body, and had large mirrors on his arms that were outlined in red with green and yellow accents. On his body were red and yellow accents, with a mirror for his face that showed only his mouth on the mirror itself, and he also had a mirror on his lower torso. His head had a red tip on it, and he had red and yellow accents on his feet as well.
It was the first time for Andy, Jazz, and Dorumon to see this particular Digimon, however, Calumon and Lopmon knew who this was. Both of them paled a little.
I didn't realize Mercurymon would be the one to greet us… Lopmon gulped. I had been hoping it would be one of the lower tier Digimon, or at least Ranamon, with her self centered attitude, she'd be easy to ditch.
Jazz looked nervously at this Digimon. Is this a Legendary Warrior as well? It looks like this Digimon is… different… from the other Digimon I've seen...
I wonder if this Digimon is… Yeah, he does have that Legendary Warrior symbol on him… but he's not one I've ever seen before… But I feel like he's dangerous. Andy gulped a little.
"Greetings. Thou art have a reason for coming here?" Mercurymon asked in old English.
"Y-yes…" Andy cleared his voice to try to sound tough. "We are… here as new recruits for… Lord Cherubimon's army."
"Yes. We wish to help Lord Cherubimon spread his will over the Digital World." Jazz added here, trying to sound noble and believe in the cause.
"We are all here to be trained and a part of Lord Cherubimon's army," Dorumon spoke up, clutching Calumon close to his chest.
"I see… what about that little white Digimon thou art clutching to?" Mercurymon asked, pointing at Calumon.
Calumon tried to look like he was part of the group to join. "I-I wish to join the cause too!" Calumon added. "I wish to become stronger under Lord Cherubimon's guidance."
"You would take us, won't you? I'm sure Lord Cherubimon wouldn't mind having more Digimon to expand his army," Lopmon stated.
Mercurymon looked at all of them, his mirror-like face reflecting each of them. "Thou are… an interesting group of Digimon… but if thou art true, then thou mayest cometh with me."
"Oh, thank you." Jazz said. "It would seem our journey to this place has come to an end." She tried to sound like the group had been walking for days looking for the place.
"Then rejoice in knowing that thou's journey is about to come to an end," Mercurymon stated as he began leading the group inside the castle.
Okay, so we're in the castle now… but the question is how do we ditch this guy so we can get to the top of the castle? Andy wondered. We can't exactly talk to each other with Mercurymon so close by.
Jazz was also thinking about how to ditch Mercurymon. But how? Aw man… I wish it was another evil Warrior we had encountered...
Dorumon looked up at the others, seeing how they weren't sure what to do. Calumon was still pretty weak in his hold. There has to be something we could do…
Lopmon was looking at Mercurymon, trying to come up with a plan of his own. "So… you are… Mercurymon, aren't you? The Legendary Warrior of Steel?"
"Yes, thou is correct." Mercurymon replied as he continued to lead the group into the castle proper. "T'would seem thoust have heard of my reputation."
"Of course, you are known as one of the calmer and smarter of the Legendary Warriors," Lopmon remarked, having the most knowledge of Mercurymon in the group. "I'm just surprised that we were greeted by you of all Digimon."
Mercurymon chuckled. "Well, thoust art correct. But of course, I would greet new recruits. Thou cannot have just any Warrior greet new members to Lord Cherubimon's army. T'would give a bad impression. Thou must have a calm presence to assure newcomers that they have made the correct choice to join our cause."
"I see… so where would we be staying as the new trainees for Lord Cherubimon?" Lopmon asked.
"This way to the barracks." Mercurymon said as he began to lead the group down a new hallway. "T'will lead thou to the area where new recruits stay."
"Great, so while you're taking us there… why don't you tell us how you accomplished as something as big as how you were able to defeat Seraphimon," Lopmon suggested.
"Ah, yes, that battle was thy greatest achievement." Mercurymon said with some pride. "T'was simple really. All thy did was reflect Serpahimon's attack back at him. Then, thoust truly was able to claim the fractal code of the slain Celestial Angel."
While Mercurymon was going on about his greatest accomplishment, Lopmon was gesturing to the others to move away quickly, and find a place to hide until the cost was clear. Andy, Jazz, Dorumon while holding Calumon quickly and quietly made their way to behind the corners of the wall.
"Oh? So does that mean you plan to give the fractal code to Lord Cherubimon?" Lopmon asked, hoping to keep Mercurymon distracted long enough for him to ditch the Legendary Warrior of Steels.
"But of course." Mercurymon replied. "But that will occur after thoust truly makes good use of it myself. Can't let a little code go to waste."
While Mercurymon was talking, Lopmon stopped walking with him, and slowly fell further behind before he hurried away to join the others.
"We better move fast before Mercurymon finds out we're gone," Lopmon whispered to the others.
Everyone nodded.
"But now where do we go?" Dorumon asked. "You said we head to the top of the castle. How do we get there from here?"
"We climb the stairs," Lopmon answered.
"Stairs…?" Andy frowned as he looked up, seeing a long, spiraling stairs leading. "More… stairs?"
"Well, if you could fly, it wouldn't be that much of an issue… but we can't, so stairs it is," Lopmon shrugged. "No digivolving into Dorugamon now, we can't give ourselves away."
"Have you ever heard of an elevator?" Andy groaned.
Jazz gave a nervous laugh. "I guess we're getting some serious exercise during this time…"
Andy wanted to burn every single staircase he ever saw as they started their long trek up the castle. Again, this wouldn't have been a problem if they had Danny keeping them invisible. Next time I decide to go looking for Takuya in the Digital World, I'll need to be sure to drag Danny with me… I wonder how he's doing right now? Has our present changed? Are we the only things remaining in our present?
Jazz could see Andy was thinking about something and decided to ask him what was in his mind in order to get his mind off of the long climb. "Is something on your mind, Andy?"
"Just… wondering if there's anything left in our present, or if we're all that's left," Andy said quietly. "If we were to fail… how much would our present change?"
Jazz frowned as she looked down. "I… don't think I would ask that question, Andy. If we think about failure, we may just fail. But… if I had to guess, I think things would be different in that we may not have our Digimon partners, you would be very lonely, and well… Danny may still be half ghost. Or he could not be half ghost for all we know."
"It could possibly be the end of the world, depending on the circumstances," Lopmon replied. "Lucemon almost got out into the real world, and the Legendary Warriors were the only ones who were able to stop him."
Jazz paled at Lopmon's words. "Then… we need to fix this and fast if that is the case…"
"No… trying to be hasty… would only cost us more," Calumon spoke up. "We need… to be patient and… find out who is… behind this. Only then… could we fix the timeline."
Jazz looked back at Calumon and gave a few nods. "Okay… Right. I need to remain calm." She then groaned. "How do those time travelers in those movies handle the pressure of going into the past to right something that went wrong?"
"I wonder… how anyone could handle… so many stairs…" Andy groaned. "Time travel tends to mess with your head though… it's best not to think too much about them."
Jazz sighed. "I guess that's for the best I suppose…"
"Not to worry, if we play our cards right, then everything will be fine," Dorumon said. "It's just like another day at Amity Park… and the Digital World."
Lopmon's ears rose up. "We better start running."
"Run up the stairs? Why?" Andy groaned.
"Because Mercurymon just realized we're gone, and he's… speaking a colorful language," Lopmon answered.
Jazz looked up. "Oh boy… My legs will be sore after this…" She groaned before the group began running up the stairs.
By the time the group reached the top of the stairs, they were all lying down, exhausted, and breathing heavily.
I… hate… stairs… so… much… Andy inwardly groaned. I'm going to ask Mom and Dad to make our stairs into an escalator...
"Are… you… doing okay?" Jazz panted to everyone.
"Define… okay…" Dorumon groaned.
"Yeah… elevators would've been nice now that I think about it…" Lopmon frowned. "But… I could easily fly… and teleported… wherever I wanted to go… so it didn't cross… my mind when… I was Cherubimon…"
Calumon looked over at Andy. "Are you… holding up… okay, Andy?"
"Fine… just… no more… stairs… please…" Andy begged.
"Lopmon… are we… at the top?" Jazz asked.
"Almost… we need… to get into the throne… room," Lopmon answered.
"W-wait…." Dorumon frowned, looking up. "If we… face with Cherubimon now… wouldn't he just rip us apart?"
Everyone froze at Dorumon's question.
Jazz frowned. "That's… a good question… Are we going to face Cherubimon… now?"
"We're looking for the time traveler…" Lopmon frowned. "Butt if they're with my past self… then where else could we look to find them?"
Jazz looked troubled. "I guess… we don't have… much of a choice then…" But I hope we don't have to fight Cherubimon…
"We're still in our disguises," Andy spoke up. "Maybe we don't have to confront Cherubimon… just… try to find that time traveler, while trying to make up a good excuse to why we're seeing Cherubimon himself."
Jazz looked down at her own disguise. "Hmmm… That wouldn't be a bad idea…"
Calumon looked surprised at Andy's suggestion. "That… may just work… But it's still… risky."
"Lopmon, you were Cherubimon once… do you have any suggestions on what we could say to him?" Dorumon asked.
"Hmm… I know I would likely want to hear more news about the Legendary Warriors that I didn't already know about at this point in time… or any news about how to gain more power," Lopmon answered after thinking. "I suppose I would also want news on how to… possibly reverse my corruption. Believe it or not, I didn't like staying evil even back then. So… that's why… when Ophanimon claimed she could take away my corruption… I went for it… though it was just a trick…"
Jazz looked at Lopmon in concern. "I think she was more focused on trying to save the Spirits from you at the time. That is why she tricked you. I think she also sensed you were beyond her power to purify. She may have tried, but found it wasn't working, so she went for the next best thing, which was saving the Spirits so they could in turn save you."
"I know why she did it… it just still stings when I think about it every now and then," Lopmon sighed. "But yeah, I suppose those are the main things I would want to hear from some strange Digimon I've never seen before."
"It might be too risky to talk about the possibility of reversing Cherubimon's corruption," Andy noted. "Gaining more power would likely just speed up Cherubimon's process of devouring the fractal code of the Digital World. So… perhaps we could give him made up news about the Legendary Warriors? Something that sounds plausible but wouldn't actually hurt Takuya and the others in the long run?"
"But… what would… we tell him?" Calumon asked.
"That maybe the Spirits are… trapped inside them? That maybe they want out to be a part of Cherubimon's army after all?" Andy suggested. "From what Takuya told me, the Spirits do have minds of their own, but they are very protective of their chosen. So even if Cherubimon tried to convince the Spirits to leave their chosen humans, they won't listen to him."
"Hmmm… That could work, but… from what Lopmon has said, he was able to 'program' the Spirits of Darkness in a sense. Cherubimon here in the past may do that if he heard the Spirits want to 'leave' their hosts." Jazz pointed out.
"Maybe not necessarily," Lopmon said. "The only reason why I was able to manipulate the Spirits of Darkness the way I did was because they were lost spirits at the time, like Ranamon and Mercurymon were. They had no host, no sense of their own selves, they only had me and my words. So when I infused the Spirit of Darkness into Koichi after brainwashing him… well, you all saw the results of that. There was a reason why I never tried with the Spirits who already chose their humans. If I thought they would rebel, I would certainly try, but if they're not actually rebelling against their chosen, then nothing I would say would work."
Jazz perked up at hearing that. "I see… we can use that then to our advantage!"
Calumon smiled weakly and tiredly. "It's… worth a shot… I suppose…"
Andy took a deep breath and let it out. "Lopmon and I can do the talking. Jazz, you, Dorumon, and Calumon will try to keep a look out for the other time traveler while we speak to Cherubimon."
Jazz, Dorumon, Lopmon, and Calumon all nodded at Andy's words.
"It's the best idea we've got," Lopmon stated. "I just hope… my past self doesn't recognize me."
Jazz gave a smile. "Don't worry. Just act like a normal Lopmon, and you will be fine."
"That's not the problem…" Lopmon frowned. "Well, I guess we'll see once we get into the throne room."
The group were standing in front of large doors, feeling dark power coming from it. Dorumon's fur spiked as he hissed at the dark energy.
The doors started to open, likely because the one on the other side sensed the 'Digimon' right outside the door. Jazz and Andy gulped, seeing the large corrupted rabbit Mega floating in front of them. The first time Andy saw Cherubimon, he was half way in the portal. This was his first time truly seeing just how massive Cherubimon was.
Jazz also stared in shock at how large Cherubimon was. Wow… Cherubimon is one massive Mega-level Digimon...
Jazz almost couldn't believe the little Lopmon in front of her could become something so huge and scary.
"Who are you? Why have you come here?" Cherubimon spoke in a deep voice.
Lopmon swallowed nervously before speaking. "Lord Cherubimon, we come bearing news about the Legendary Warriors." Lopmon said, trying to sound like he was bearing good news.
It was very awkward for Lopmon to have to bow to his own past self like this, and speak as though they had no connection whatsoever.
"They are news we are sure you would like to hear, Lord Cherubimon," Andy added. "If you would let us in and tell you, we would be more than happy to."
Cherubimon seemed to consider their words before he grinned. "Any news about the Legendary Warriors is welcome news. You may speak."
Cherubimon led them into his throne room. Jazz, Dorumon, and Calumon began to look around for any signs of the other time traveler.
"We have heard from a… reliable source that the Legendary Warriors who are on their way here, have been having trouble controlling their Spirits lately," Andy spoke up. "It might be possible that the Legendary Warrior's spirits might be rebelling against their humans."
Cherubimon perked up at the 'news'. "Hmm? That's… most unexpected." His evil grin returned. "That is most welcome news indeed. This I was not expecting to hear. You have delivered very welcome news to me."
Cherubimon then looked at Lopmon, giving a bit of a frown. "You… feel familiar to me… Do I know you?"
Lopmon nearly froze at Cherubimon's eyes staring at him. "U-uh… n-no, Lord Cherubimon, I-I don't b-beleve w-we've met."
Hearing Lopmon stuttering made Calumon frown. Uh oh… I didn't think Cherubimon would recognize Lopmon this soon...
Cherubimon lifted up one of his giant hands that made Lopmon float up to him. Lopmon yelped, trying to struggle out of Cherubimon's telekinesis, but it was no use. Jazz looked up at her partner in worry while Andy backed away a bit.
"I do know you," Cherubimon remarked, looking at Lopmon closely. "You're me, aren't you? We have the exact same fractal code and Digi-Core!"
"H-how could we be the same?" Lopmon questioned.
"You are me!" Cherubimon boomed. "I can sense it! The holy power you have inside you is the same as mine!"
"It seems I'm not the only time traveler here, Cherubimon~" Another voice giggled.
Everyone perked up at the voice and began looking around for the speaker.
"Um… Was that the other time traveler?" Jazz asked as she tried to see if anyone else was in the room with them.
A large skull suddenly came crashing down with a maniacal laugh. Everyone, except Cherubimon, looked surprised at this huge Digimon that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, though Cherubimon just looked mildly annoyed.
The Digimon looked skeletal, with blue bones. It was quadruped with red eyes, and bony wings that lacked any sort of feathers or leathery membrane. The head had horns that extended from the sides, and one that rose from the forehead, as well as large fangs like a saber tooth tiger's. The front and back paws had three toes as well.
"What the heck…?" Andy blinked.
Dorumon growled as his eyes flashed. Despite the situation, Andy heard his D-Arc beeping. He quickly turned away from Cherubimon to look at the D-Arc.
"SkullBaluchimon is an Undead Digimon and a carrier of the X Antibody. It is a gigantic Digimon reproduced from the data of several counterfeit fossils, which were in the data of a fossil of what was thought to be the largest land mammal. It's an Ultimate level Digimon, data type," Andy read. "Wait, this thing has an X-Antibody too?"
Dorumon perked up at hearing the words 'X-Antibody'. "You mean like I have the X-Antibody?"
"So…" Cherubimon noted. "You are all time travelers, just like this annoying skull is? Well, that would explain why you're here."
Cherubimon glared at Lopmon. "You are obviously not from this timeline, since you're nothing but a Lopmon."
"Better a Lopmon than a corrupted tool like you are," Lopmon snapped.
Cherubimon sneered. "Who said I was a tool? I am merely doing this of my own free will."
"You don't see what you're doing?" Lopmon frowned. "You're not helping Beast Digimon win this war, you're only making things worse for everyone!"
Cherubimon flicked Lopmon away. Jazz reacted quickly and jumped to catch her partner.
"I have no use for meddlers like you. Unless you're truly here to help me with the Legendary Warriors like that skully over there, then I will destroy you all! Yes, even you, Lopmon," Cherubimon growled.
Jazz glared up at the evil form of Cherubimon. "Why would we help you?!" She snapped. "If anything, we will stop you!"
"I'd like to see you try!" Cherubimon laughed.
"Then we challenge you two to a duel!" Andy suddenly spoke up. "Surely you're confident enough in winning this duel that you have no reason not to!"
"What are you doing?" Jazz asked Andy.
"According to certain Digital Rules…" Calumon spoke up. "Digimon can be challenged to a duel… even the Celestial Digimon. They can choose to take it or not though… but if they win, they get whatever they want from you."
Lopmon looked back at Andy in surprise. "H-how… How did you know about the duel challenges and their rules?"
"Did you really think Patamon wouldn't have beaten this stuff into our heads?" Andy sighed. "He's like a rulebook whenever Danny and I have free time."
"Tell me about it, he's a worse workaholic than Jazz…" Dorumon mumbled.
"I'm not that bad! … Am I?" Jazz frowned.
"You challenged us to a duel," Cherubimon noted. "You… the two of you have no fractal codes, so you're not Digimon, are you?"
Jazz removed her hat, as well as the glow moss that made up her dress. Andy peeled off as much as the leaves as he could, though his skin was going to be red. It was still enough to show they were indeed humans and not Digimon.
"We may not be Legendary Warriors, but we are Digimon Tamers, and we will fight alongside our Digimon partners to take you two down," Andy stated.
Jazz held up her D-Arc. "And we will do whatever it takes to correct the timeline!" She added.
Dorumon had his eyes become slits as he growled at the two Digimon before them.
SkullBaluchimon began laughing again. "As if either of you weaklings would stand a chance against us! I will make darn sure this timeline is forever changed!"
Dorumon growled at SkullBaluchimon. "I can't believe I finally met another Digimon with the X-Antibody, and he's this big jerk!"
Lopmon looked at Dorumon. "I don't think all Digimon with the X-Antibody are jerks like this guy, but you do have a point. This guy is mean and needs to be stopped."
"Bah! Pathetic!" Cherubimon shouted in anger. "Why would any version of myself be partnered up with a human!? I should take both of you out for bringing such shame to me!"
Cherubimon lifted up his hands as a big purple barrier began to cover them. "Nobody leaves until the duels have come to their conclusion!"
Lopmon looked uncertain about this, but he knew he had to stick with the goal. He tensed up for the duels to come. "I don't feel comfortable with this, but if we must do this, then I am with you, Jazz."
Jazz nodded. "We've gotten this far together, we can go further!"
"We will now choose our opponents!" Cherubimon announced. "I will get the girl and my other self. SkullBaluchimon, the other two rift rafts are all yours."
Dorumon growled as he eyed SkullBaluchimon. "This guy's going to be a difficult opponent, Andy."
"Y-yeah, I know." Andy gulped, he had faced with Ultimate level Digimon before, but he had helped back then. Now it was just going to be him and Dorumon.
Cherubimon began to separate the two barriers, one for Andy, Dorumon, and SkullBaluchimon so they couldn't interfere with his duel with Lopmon and Jazz.
"Wait, what about me?" Calumon asked quickly.
Dorumon looked over at Jazz and Lopmon before he quickly threw Calumon over to the other barrier before they got completely separated. "You help Jazz and Lopmon, they're facing with Cherubimon, they're going to need all the help they can get!"
Calumon cried out as he flew through the air before Jazz saw Calumon coming their way. She ran over and caught him, just as the barrier around her, Lopmon, and Cherubimon closed up. "Calumon, are you okay?"
"Fine… I've been tossed around more harshly than that," Calumon answered before floating up from Jazz's arms. "I've recovered enough to be of some help though. I'll try to support you two with my powers."
Jazz nodded. "Okay. We'll be counting on you then."
Andy and Dorumon found themselves face to face with SkullBaluchimon, who was laughing maniacally.
"What have we here? Pigs to the slaughter house?" SkullBaluchimon laughed.
"I don't see what's so funny." Andy frowned. "Who are you, really? How have you time travelled into the past? Why are you doing this?"
"And why are you trying to get the Legendary Warriors on the side of Cherubimon?!" Dorumon hissed, his fur standing on end, which made him look like a big fluffball almost.
"Why do we do anything in our lives?" SkullBaluchimon questioned. "We have our own goals and motivations. If you really want to know, then earn the answers by giving me a good fight! Do you think you two weaklings can do that?"
"We'll give you a fight, alright, and you will tell us everything!" Andy growled before he took out his D-Arc and his cards. "Time to digivolve, Dorumon!"
Dorumon nodded. "Right!" Dorumon was surrounded by fractal code as he felt the energy of Andy's will fill him. "Dorumon, digivolve to…" His skin began to peel away from his face and head, then his stomach and his tail was last to lose the skin. But as he regained his skin, his claws and legs came back first, then his wings came back with skin, flaring open to reveal their larger size, his tail swung around once as it regained the skin, and then his head and face were last to regain their skin. "Dorugamon!"
Now as Dorugamon, Andy quickly hopped onto Dorugamon's back. Despite the barrier they were trapped in, they still had more than enough room to fly around.
"Let's see how well a Champion level can deal with an Ultimate level!" SkullBaluchimon snickered.
Jazz and Lopmon were staring Cherubimon down. Calumon gulped, feeling quite nervous with how this battle would go.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Digivolve so we can have an actual fight!" Cherubimon challenged.
"Let's do this, Lopmon," Jazz said, holding out her D-Arc.
"Lopmon, digivolve to…" Lopmon began to lose his own skin, on his face, and then his legs lost their skin as well. His ears also lost their skin before his skin began to come back, but on his legs and feet first. Lopmon's legs gained shoes and yellow pants with a belt and yellow top that matched, two blades appeared as his hands regained their skin and red gloves, grasping the blades in both hands. The skin on Lopmon's head and face came back, just as a blue bandanna appeared around his neck as well. "Turuiemon!"
Cherubimon started laughing. "That's it!? That's the best you can do? You really have gotten weak."
Calumon floated beside Turuiemon. "Don't worry, Cherubimon may be powerful, but he's not unstoppable. We just need to stall him long enough for Andy and Dorumon to finish off SkullBaluchimon. Keep Cherubimon interested in playing with us."
Turuiemon looked back at Calumon. "I see… so we don't have to beat Cherubimon at all. Keeping him busy is something we can do."
"We'll want to stay alive too," Calumon remarked before his crystal matrix on his forehead glowed. "I'll enhance your endurance the best I can."
Turuiemon felt a powerful tingle going through his body, a blue aura glowed over him.
"W-what… Wow… I feel so much stronger!" Turuiemon said in amazement. "This is going to help big time!"
"Cannonball!" Dorugamon shot out a large iron sphere at SkullBaluchimon.
The Cannonball hit SkullBalucihmon's ribs, but it looked like it hardly phased him.
Dorugamon growled as he saw the Cannonball didn't do much damage. "Damn it… This guy is strong!"
"Of course he is… he is an Ultimate level, after all…" Andy frowned. "We're going to need strategy if we want to win." But this being a one-on-one duel makes it difficult for me to come up with a plan. I normally need someone else to distract our opponent so I can get some sticky notes ready. But we don't have that luxury here.
"But without back-up, that may be difficult," Dorugamon noted. "I do think we can come up with some kind of plan on our own though."
SkullBaluchimon was still laughing before he brought up a skeletal paw. "Grave Bone!"
The skeletal paw suddenly launched itself out of SkullBaluchimon's arm and slammed itself onto Dorugamon's chest, pushing him and Andy into a wall.
"GAH!" Dorugamon slammed into the wall before he looked up, his eyes now slits. He brought his mouth down on the skeletal paw to try and yank it off of his chest.
"Fighting Spirit!" Dorugamon began to power himself up in hopes of being able to do more damage with his attacks.
Andy was groaning, trying to recover from being slammed into a wall earlier. There's got to be a way… if only we could turn ourselves invisible or intangible like a ghost… but we can't...
Dorugamon was able to get the skeletal paw off of his chest and he threw it away from SkullBaluchimon in hopes of the paw not returning to its owner. Now rid of the paw, Dorugamon looked back at Andy. "Are you okay back there, Andy?"
"Y-yeah… just a bit crushed is all," Andy answered. "That won't stop me though. Just keep the guy busy until I can think of something."
Dorugamon nodded. "I will see what I can do." He pushed off the wall and began to fly around again, keeping a wary eye on SkullBaluchimon below him.
Dorugamon had to keep dodging SkullBaluchimon's Grave Bone attacks while Andy was trying to figure out a way they could fight back. Andy still had his cards he could use.
Instead of thinking of what I don't have, I need to think about what I do have. Andy realized.
"Okay, it's time to try to slow this guy down!" Andy called out, holding out a card.
Andy then held up the device and his card. The card spun before Andy caught it in two fingers, looking up from the shadows. He then held the device over his head, the card slot facing down towards his head. He stuck the card's edge into the slot and dragged it through, the card being pulled towards the right side of his body and the device towards the left side of his body. "Digi-Modify!" Andy called out. He pulled the device and card apart from each other. "Etemon's Dark Network, activate!"
Dorugamon summoned dark wires from the ground that grabbed onto SkullBaluchimon's feet, and began to zap him with dark electricity.
"Ooooh! So you can be pretty good after all!" SkullBaluchimon laughed despite being shocked.
Dorugamon gritted his teeth at the scene below him. "This guy is laughing while being attacked?! He's not just a jerk, he's also nuts!"
SkullBaluchimon's body suddenly started to turn into cubes, and started to glitch in and out for a moment, before he completely glitched out of the Dark Network attack.
"What the?" Andy looked in shock, having not expected that. "What the heck did you just do!?"
Dorugamon blinked in shock as well. "What was that?!" I've never seen a Digimon do that before!
"That would be my little secret~" SkullBaluchimon replied as he sneered up at Andy and Dorugamon. "Now, how about I show you guys a little trick of my own?~"
SkullBaluchimon suddenly jumped towards them, covering his body with dark vapors of smoke. "Deadly Fear!"
Andy and Dorugamon were quickly ensnared by SkullBaluchimon's dark vapor.
Andy blinked open his eyes, finding himself in some kind of strange void. "Where… am I?"
Andy noticed Dorugamon was gone, and he was alone. "Dorugamon!? Dorugamon, where are you!?"
A familiar form appeared in front of Andy. It was his twin brother, Danny. But he was in his ghost form and his back was facing Andy.
"Danny?" Andy asked, surprised to see his brother was here. "What are you doing here…? How did you get here?"
Andy noticed Danny hadn't responded to him. Worried and confused, Andy approached his ghostly brother, wondering if there was something wrong. "Danny?"
Danny turned around, revealing his eyes were not that calming ecto-green color, but a glowing red color. He looked impassive for a moment before he began to grin, revealing he had sharp fangs in place of his teeth. "You seem to have found me, bro~"
Andy flinched back from Danny's sudden strange, and creepy looking appearance. "D-Danny? What… what happened to you? Why are your eyes red? Why do you have fangs?"
"Didn't you know?" Danny chuckled. "I've become Vlad's son~"
"W-what!? N-no! You couldn't have… why would you!?" Andy shouted in disbelief.
"Vlad is the best one to raise me, considering he is just like me." Danny chuckled evilly. "And now I am free from all those things that kept my ghostly side oppressed. No longer do I have to hide being a ghost~"
"What have you done?" Andy frowned.
"I'm free, but it would seem I have one more loose end I need to tie up," Danny responded, glaring at Andy with such intense hatred that it made Andy want to melt, Danny's red eyes glowed fiercely. "I need to get rid of you before I can truly be free."
"N-no… w-why?" Andy asked as he started to back away from his brother.
"You are the only thing holding me back." Danny hissed. "I already got rid of the Legendary Warrior who called himself our cousin when he tried to convince me to come back, and now you are the only thing left that I need to get rid of. No more connections to the human world, and I will be truly a ghost."
Andy could do nothing but run away. Danny was laughing before he started chasing Andy down like a relentless hunter. Andy yelped as he felt scratch marks appearing on his arms and back. Andy wanted to cry, he didn't understand what had happened to his brother, why he became like this so suddenly, but all he could do was run.
Meanwhile, Dorugamon was flying away from something. He didn't even hesitate, from the moment he saw that silhouette, he knew he had to get away.
SkullBaluchimon grinned, seeing how Dorugamon and Andy were trapped in the dark vapor, unable to move while their strength and energy were slowly being sapped away as they were confronted by their own worst fears.
"Very few could ever find the will to break through such a nasty fear~" SkullBaluchimon laughed.
Meanwhile, Jazz and Turuiemon weren't having much luck themselves. Turuiemon attacked with Gauntlet Claw, only for Cherubimon to flick it away like it was nothing. Despite Calumon's enhancing abilities, Turuiemon was still barely doing anything other than mildly entertaining his past self.
Turuiemon landed next to Jazz and panted a bit. "I knew fighting my past self would be difficult, but I never imagined it would be this hard."
"Indeed… I never realized how powerful a Celestial Digimon was until now…" Jazz frowned. The times we saw any of the Celestial Digimon in their mega forms were… none actually. I wasn't there when ShadowSeraphimon attacked us at the college reunion, and by the time we found Ophanimon, she was already Salamon.
"Don't give up," Calumon spoke up. "We can't let ourselves give up hope."
"But what can we do?" Turuiemon asked as he looked back at his Mega form. "I know we have to keep my past self busy, but it seems nothing we do is working! He's not that interested in fighting us."
"Of course I'm not that interested. You fight like an infant!" Cherubimon boomed. "The Legendary Warriors would've been a more entertaining fight! I still can't believe how far you let yourself fall! Relying on a human, a weak one no less!"
Jazz frowned. Am I… really just weak? Have I been letting my partner down?
Turuiemon glared back at his past self. "Jazz may be a human, but she is not weak! I should know! She is still learning, yes, but she is getting stronger!" He snapped back.
"Look at how weak you are compared to me," Cherubimon pointed out. "What makes you think that relying on this pathetic human girl is going to do for you now!? I ought to just finish you off here and now!"
"No!" Jazz called out as lightning began to gather in Cherubimon's hands.
"Lightning Spear!" Cherubimon threw a spear of lighting at Jazz.
Turuiemon, seeing this, quickly jumped and pushed Jazz out of the way, though his back got grazed by the Lightning Spear, which was enough to cause his fractal code to appear around his body.
"Turuiemon!" Jazz screamed out in fear.
Calumon reacted quickly and flew over to Turuiemon, his triangle mark turning green as he covered Turuiemon in healing energy, quickly fixing up the fatal wound on Turuiemon's back, and stopping the fractal code from surrounding the Digimon.
Turuiemon groaned as he regained his senses. "Ugh…" He shook his head and looked back at Calumon. "Thanks…"
Calumon panted. "We better… be more careful… I can't keep this up…"
"Turuiemon, I'm so sorry… because of me… you almost…" Jazz shook, her mental walls breaking down. "I'm… I can't believe how useless I've been to you…"
Turuiemon looked at Jazz in shock. "Jazz… You're not useless! You just need to get more experience with Digimon! I wouldn't have become your partner if I felt you didn't have it in you to become stronger."
"But I'm too weak to be of much help to you now! We're getting creamed out here, and I… what am I doing? Crying here while you almost lost your fractal code." Jazz frowned.
"Listen to me, Jazz; while you may not be physically strong, you are strong in your own right. You were the one who saw Danny for who he was, whether he was human or ghost, something his twin brother is still having trouble distinguishing. You saw through Takuya's Legendary Warrior's mask. You teamed up with me in order to save your little brothers despite knowing the dangers. You've helped me and them when our minds were giving us trouble," Turuiemon went on. "You're not useless, Jazz, you're just not used to this kind of combat. But I believe in you, I know you can pull through. But do you believe in me, Jazz?"
Jazz looked up at her partner. She knew she should, but she was still feeling like she was weak and useless. However, she remembered how she had fought alongside her dad as a ghost hunter for the first time, and she got used to that. So, if I can get used to ghost hunting, then I can get used to this kind of combat as well.
Jazz looked back up at Turuiemon again. "I do. I do believe in you. I believe you can do more. I just need to believe in myself as well. Even if I am not a master of fighting Digimon, at least I can learn to fight them so I can get better." She then gave him a smirk. "After all, isn't that what learning is about?"
Calumon couldn't help but smile at them as his crystal matrix began to glow red. I can feel it, their bond is making them stronger.
"Yes, of course," Turuiemon answered before looking at Cherubimon. "And… I will not be afraid of my past anymore. It is and always will be a part of me, but it doesn't have to be a bad part, not when I can learn from it. Learning from your mistakes is also a part of learning after all."
Jazz nodded as her D-Arc began to glow brighter. She blinked at it, seeing how it was beeping quite loudly, and Calumon's triangle began to glow brightly as well.
"MATRIX DIGIVOLUTION!"
Turuiemon was surrounded by fractal code as Jazz's D-Arc began to glow brightly. "Turuiemon, digivolve to…" His skin began to peel away around his legs before the same happened with his arms and chest. His head had the same thing happen as well. Then, skin reappeared on his arms, with a cream square on his lower arms in front and two matching stripes across his lower arms just above his hands. The fur was a brown color as well. Pants appeared on his legs, a light purple color with a red waist covering. Skin and fur reappeared around his face, the main part around his nose and mouth a cream color while the rest of his face was brown. His ears had pink tips, and his eyes were pink as a cream top appeared on his upper torso, complete with a purple bandana. "Antylamon!"
Jazz was looking up at her newly digivolved partner in shock, he had gotten so much bigger now. He wasn't as big as Cherubimon, but he was definitely huge. So much so that Antylamon could easily put Jazz on his head, and she'd fit like a snug accessory on one of his three horns.
"So, you've managed to digivolve," Cherubimon noted. "But why should that matter? You're only an Ultimate after all."
"You shouldn't underestimate me just because I'm not at the same level as you, Cherubimon," Antlyamon stated before he looked down at Jazz. "Jazz… will you fight alongside me?"
Jazz shook herself out of her shock and grinned. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
Antlyamon then reached down with his hands to carefully pick up Jazz and put her on his shoulder. "Then you better hang on tight, Jazz, this will be a rough ride."
Jazz held onto the material of Antlyamon's bandana. "I will."
Calumon looked exhausted, but he was smiling. "Go get him…"
Cherubimon floated towards them, grinning. "Let's see how well you stand up to this! Storm of Judgement!"
Cherubimon summoned dark clouds over Antlyamon and Jazz. Knowing what this attack was, Antlyamon didn't hesitate to jump towards Cherubimon before the lightning could strike down on them. "Bunny Blades!"
Antlyamon turned his hands into giant axes, slicing into Cherubimon's stomach in order to distract him enough so his Storm of Judgement would miss them completely.
Cherubimon cried out in pain at the attack hitting him, causing the Storm of Judgement to miss both of his opponents by a large margin.
Seeing that Antylamon's hands were pretty much axes and had cut into Cherubimon's flesh, Jazz took this chance to slide her own card through her D-Arc.
The card spun around before two fingers caught it, Jazz's face emerging from the shadows from the left as she looked up. She then held up her D-Arc above her head before swiping the card down through the slot towards the ground. "Digi-Modify!" Jazz cried out as she pulled the card and D-Arc away from each other. "Soulmon's Dark Claw, activate!"
Antylamon's axe hands had dark undead energy emerging. Despite Cherubimon being in his evil form, he was still considered a holy-like Digimon, and the Dark Claw ripped through his being like poison. Cherubimon let out a loud cry before he grabbed onto Antlyamon's legs with his hands and pulled him away, before tossing Antlyamon away from him.
Antlyamon and Jazz cried out as they were thrown back into the barrier. Jazz had barely held on to Antlyamon's bandana, but she had managed to somehow.
When Antlyamon was able to spin onto his feet, hitting the barrier before allowing him to land on the ground. "Are you okay, Jazz?"
Jazz groaned, but nodded. "Yeah… I'm fine… just a bit shaken up, but I'll live."
"We're starting to get him on the ropes," Antlyamon noted. "Thanks to Calumon's enhancements, I'm able to keep up with my mega form despite only being Ultimate right now."
"Great… I just hope Andy and Dorugamon are doing just as well too," Jazz remarked.
Andy didn't know what to do, he hated that Danny was chasing after him with the intent to destroy him. He ran until he tripped over something and fell to the ground. Andy covered his head and curled up as Danny's ghost rays smashed into the ground beside him. Things shouldn't be this way… it's all wrong...
"What's the matter, bro? Are you giving up? Because it would make this so much easier if you just did." Danny sneered in his evil voice.
Andy took a deep breath, trying to think through this haze of fear and worry about what happened to Danny. Something's gotta be wrong. Danny wouldn't have just… joined Vlad and wanting to kill me and Takuya like that… Think Andy! You've been through something like this before, right? It's gotta be a hallucination. A dream, a nightmare maybe. I just… need to break out of it! I…
Andy yelped when he felt something cold grabbing him from behind and lifting him up.
"There you are, bro. Now I can finish the job and be rid of you forever~" Danny sneered as he grinned, revealing all of his sharp and pointy teeth.
Andy stared at his sneering brother, knowing if this was a nightmare, then there was only one way to break out of it. He just hoped it wouldn't bite him in the butt. Before Danny could do anything, Andy suddenly reached out and hugged Danny.
Danny froze at the sudden hug. "W-what?! What is this?! Why are you hugging me?!"
"Because… this isn't you, Danny… the Danny I know would never hurt me like this," Andy said quietly. "He loves me, no matter what. Even when our parents hunt him down, he still loves them. And I love you, bro… I may have some fear regarding your ghost half… but I still love you, Danny."
The evil Danny remained frozen before he slowly reached up and hugged Andy back. "I… I love you too, bro…"
Then the void around Andy suddenly vanished around him, and so did the evil Danny. Andy blinked, seeing that he was back in the barrier, and on top of Dorugamon.
"What?" SkullBaluchimon asked in surprise. "Well color me surprised! The boy was able to get out of his worst fear!"
"I knew it…" Andy frowned before seeing Dorugamon was currently frozen. "Dorugamon! Wake up! You're only having a nightmare!"
Dorugamon didn't move at first, but then he slowly began to come out of the nightmare. He blinked slowly once, then twice before his eyes regained their clarity and didn't look glazed over anymore. "W-what… Ugh… Whatever happened… I don't want to experience it again…"
Andy rubbed the back of Dorugamon's head. "It's okay, Dorugamon, I'm here… you're not stuck in that nightmare anymore."
Dorugamon looked back at Andy. "I was in a nightmare? I just remember running from something and that is it."
"I have to say, I'm impressed," SkullBaluchimon remarked. "It's not every day I come across someone with the will power to shake off the Deadly Fear technique. I'd say you both earn some answers from that."
"Great," Andy grumbled. "Then tell us why are you in this timeline?"
"Patience, my little human friend," SkullBaluchimon chuckled. "First, I must tell you that I am no ordinary Digimon. As you saw before, I am able to glitch out."
Dorugamon glared at SkullBaluchimon. "We saw that. What Digimon are you?"
"To be specific, I am not a Digimon at all, but a collection of corrupted data that glitched out due to a failed fusion between a Digimon and a ghost," SkullBaluchimon answered as his body began to glitch out, turning into squares and fuzz at random. "I suppose if you had to give me a name, you could call me Glitchmon. I have taken the form of a SkullBaluchimon so you could comprehend a form for me."
"'Glitchmon'?" Dorugamon asked. "I've never heard of a Digimon by that name."
"Do you have cotton in your ear? I just told you I am not a Digimon, not a real one anymore anyways," SkullBaluchimon a.k.a. Glitchmon repeated.
Dorugamon hissed. "So why did you travel back in time then if you are a glitch Digimon?"
Andy couldn't help but wonder what could've happened to cause Glitchmon to come into being, especially since it was apparently caused by a Digimon and a ghost fusing together. Could that have become the result of Techatamon eventually?
"You don't know what it's like living as a glitch Digimon," Glitchmon remarked, before laughing. "The loneliness, the shame, the outcast, it's enough to drive anyone to insanity!" Glitchmon laughed more.
So all that laughing… is his deteriorated mental health… it's like with the Joker almost… Andy noted with disturbance.
"Only one Digimon even attempted to care for something like me!" Glitchmon grinned. "But thanks to the Legendary Warriors, he is no more. That is… unless I succeed."
Dorugamon;s eyes turned into slits again. "You mean… Lucemon?!" His fur bristled at the realization he had come to. "He is the one who tried to reach out to you?!"
"Give the Digimon a prize!" Glitchmon laughed as his body started to flicker in and out of reality. "Lucemon was the only one who cared about my existence!"
"You realize you were likely just being used as a tool for Lucemon, right?" Andy frowned.
"A tool? I don't care. Being someone's tool is better than being nothing at all!" Glitchmon laughed even more. "And I will bring him back, no matter what!"
Dorugamon glared at Glitchmon. "We won't let you! Lucemon is one Digimon that needs to stay deleted! Even if he was the only one who tried to help you, the rest of the Digital World shouldn't suffer under Lucemon's rule!"
"And what makes you think you can stop me? You can barely keep up with me!" Glitchmon snickered before glitching out of existence.
"Where'd he go?" Andy frowned.
"Grave Bone!" The skeletal hands suddenly trampled down on top of Dorugamon and Andy.
Dorugamon yelped as he felt the skeletal paws land on his back. He flared his wings and managed to wiggle out from under the paws, but it was close. He barely managed to get out and fly away from where he would have hit the ground had he remained under the paws. "I'm really starting to dislike this guy…" Dorugamon hissed angrily.
Andy frowned as he looked at Glitchmon, seeing it was glitching in and out of existence as a way to teleport, or move around while 'invisible'. Andy knew he had to stay calm and try to think.
He's able to glitch himself away from being bound up by the Dark Network… if I think about it with ghost logic… because he is fused with a ghost… then he should be vulnerable to being frozen. Devidramon's Red Eyes should also stop him from moving as his glitches wouldn't be able to save him from being paralyzed by the Red Eyes. Now if only we could get in close enough to use it… Andy thought to himself. "Dorugamon, keep flying, and don't turn around until I tell you to."
Dorugamon nodded. "I can do that no problem, Andy." He said as he continued to fly around, keeping an eye out for any more Grave Bone attacks.
Dorugamon barely dodged more skeletal hands attacking from above, the sides, and even under the ground. Dorugamon didn't know how much more flying he had to do, nor did he know how long it would be before the Grave Bone attacks would eventually catch up to them. With Glitchmon able to glitch himself at anywhere, any time, it was difficult to tell where he would pop up next. Andy could see a bit of a pattern, however. Glitchmon was pretty unpredictable, but he seemed to favor appearing from behind them.
Andy turned his head around, seeing the glitches of the skeletal hand starting to appear behind them. Andy quickly took his chance and swiped a card on his D-Arc.
"Turn around!" Andy quickly instructed Dorugamon. "Digi-Modify! Frigimon's Icy Breath activate!"
Dorugamon turned around quickly and opened his mouth to let out the Icy Breath attack. "Icy Breath!"
Glitchmon let out a sudden shout of pain as his skeletal hands started to freeze over quickly. This allowed the glitches to form around the skeletal hands, showing Glitchmon's form.
"Look into his eyes!" Andy instructed Dorugamon as he swiped another card. This better work! "Digi-Modify! Devidramon's Red Eyes activate!"
Dorugamon's eyes glowed red as he glared into Glitchmon's own eyes. "Red Eyes!"
Glitchmon's body started glitching out badly as he was hit by the Red Eyes. Despite the constant glitches, Glitcmon couldn't go anywhere. It was as if his body was trying to materialize somewhere else, but couldn't.
"Looks like... we've got him... on the ropes now," Andy noted, panting from all the Digi-Modifies he had been doing.
"Then we need to end this." Dorugamon said. "But do you have enough energy left for one more Digi-Modify?"
"Yeah… Let's do this," Andy answered, pulling out one more card. "You thought you could get away with messing up the timeline, reviving Lucemon, keeping Cherubimon evil, and getting my cousin potentially killed or reborn as a bad guy? Looks like your judgement day has arrived. We'll end your misery with this. Digi-Modify!"
Andy swiped the card on his D-Arc. "Phantomon's Shadow Scytche activate!"
The Shadow Scythe appeared in Dorugamon's claws. "Now, let's fix the timeline once and for all!" Dorugamon hissed. "Shadow Scythe!"
The dark purple scythe appeared on Dorugamon's claws, and he swung it down at Glitchmon.
"Don't think just because you stopped me means that Lucemon can never come back!" Glitchmon shouted as the scythe swung through him.
Corrupted data and ectoplasm squealed out of Glitchmon's body, seeming to be screeching out in pain from the Shadow Scythe. The corrupted data and the ectoplasm ended up consuming each other, turning into goops of black onto the ground.
Dorugamon panted as he looked down at the remains of Glitchmon. "Did… did that do it?" He asked warily.
The barrier around them suddenly cracked and began to break. "I think so!" Andy answered.
Calumon looked through the barrier he was in. "Jazz! Antlyamon! Looks like Andy and Dorumon did it!"
Antlyamon looked back and, sure enough, the barrier around Andy and Dorugamon was coming down, with no sign of their opponent anywhere. "They did! I don't see SkullBaluchimon anywhere."
"What!?" Cherubimon looked quite shocked. "But how!?"
"This is why you don't underestimate humans," Antlyamon remarked. "It had cost me before, and it will cost you now."
Jazz grinned as she glanced at the evil form of her partner. "And now your partner's evil plans will never come to fruition."
"And how do you know that? How do you know SkullBaluchimon hadn't already told me what I needed to know to stop the Legendary Warriors?" Cherubimon challenged.
"If he had already told you, would you have kept him around?" Antlyamon questioned.
Cherubimon glared at his good self. "You are quite the nuisance, aren't you?"
"Well, I am you." Antlyamon grinned.
Jazz and Calumon tried to keep from snickering out loud, but were doing a horrible job of hiding it. "I didn't know you were such a snarky Digimon." Jazz remarked with a grin.
Jazz suddenly heard her D-Arc ringing, and saw Andy's heart shape symbol on the screen.
Jazz pressed the 'talk' button and answered the call. "Andy! You won!"
"Yeah, well, I can see you're having more issues with winning right now. I don't think you're able to take on Cherubimon. So, you need a way to get out of that barrier," Andy's voice answered.
"Yeah, I kinda figured we would need to escape…" Jazz admitted. "But we can't just convince Cherubimon to let us out. He won't let us do that. So, we need to break that barrier."
"You'll need to distract Cherubimon or knock him out before we can try, otherwise he'll just knock you out," Andy answered back. "Dorugamon and I will try to attack the barrier from the outside, while you and your partner attack from the inside, but only after Cherubimon is distracted or knocked out. And considering how tough Cherubimon is, your best bet is to distract him."
"How can we do that though?" Jazz questioned. "We would need someone else to do that or something."
"I… I can do it," Calumon volunteered, getting back up on his feet. "I'll keep Cherubimon distracted… you and Antlyamon attack the barrier."
Jazz looked back at Calumon. "Are you sure?" She was unsure about this plan. "How do you plan to do that?"
"I have my ways… you just focus on the barrier," Calumon answered before he floated up. "Now hurry!"
Calumon flew over to Cherubimon. "Hey, Cherubimon! I bet you didn't know that I could bring Digimon out of their eggs as soon as I touched them, did you? Or that I could digivolve them into their Mega Forms right away?"
Jazz didn't like what was going on, but she had to focus on her own task at hand. "Antlyamon, let's attack the barrier. Head to where Andy and Dorugamon are. If you two attack at the same time, maybe we can break through."
Andy and Dorugamon could see that Lopmon was definitely different, that he was much bigger and stronger than he was as Turuiemon, but wasn't quite Cherubimon. Dorugamon flew up over the barrier as Andy checked his D-Arc.
"Antylamon is an Exalted Beast Digimon. It is the "Rabbit" Deva, and serves the Digimon Sovereign Azulongmon. As a follower of Azulongmon, it is the owner of a gentle spirit. It's a data type, and an Ultimate level," Andy read. "Nice… Jazz was able to digivolve Turuiemon."
"Yeesh, I'm getting kinda envious," Dorugamon chuckled.
"Heh… well, let's help them get out of there," Andy chuckled. "Time to power you up!"
Andy took out a sticky note. "Open wide, Dorugamon~"
Dorugamon grinned as he opened his mouth nice and wide. "Ahhhh!"
Andy stuffed the sticky note into Dorugamon's mouth. Dorugamon held onto the note in his mouth before he began to fly towards the barrier. Antlyamon, seeing Dorugamon was flying at a certain point of the barrier, knew where he had to aim.
"You ready, Jazz?" Antlyamon asked his partner while Cherubimon was trying to grab at Calumon, who was very slippery.
Jazz nodded. "I am. Let's get out of here."
Antlyamon jumped up at the barrier Dorugamon was aiming at. His entire body began to harden to the level of Chrome Digizoid. "Arm Bomber!"
"Cannonball!" Dorugamon shot out a large iron sphere at the barrier.
As soon as Antlyamon's arms that were as hard as Chrome Digizoid slammed into the barrier, Dorugamon's Cannonball smashed into the barrier as well, causing a massive explosion and a shockwave. The barrier shattered rather quickly from that.
"Now's your chance!" Andy called out.
Jazz looked back at Calumon. "Calumon! We're leaving now!" She called back before looking down at her partner. "Let's go Antlyamon."
Cherubimon was shocked as she watched Antlyamon jumping out of the large hole of the barrier. Calumon, quickly using Cherubimon's surprised distraction to his advantage, quickly flew up after Antlyamon through the hole in the barrier.
Calumon landed on Antlyamon's shoulder, where Jazz picked him up. "That was clever thinking." She told the smaller Digimon. She then smiled at him. "We did it."
"Not quite yet," Antlyamon spoke up. "We need to get the heck out of here first."
Cherubimon was now screaming in anger, lightning began to pour down in the throne room.
Dorugamon yelped as he flew in a zigzag to avoid being electrocuted. Andy ducked his own head, worried about that as well.
"Hurry, we need to leave!" Andy shouted. "Out the window!"
Antlyamon made for the closest window before jumping out, Dorugamon close behind him.
There was an explosion coming from Cherubimon's throne room, and it blew the group away. Antlyamon grabbed onto Jazz to keep her from getting blown away from him, while Dorugamon wrapped his wings around Andy as they were being carried away. Calumon's triangle began to glow a golden color, and a golden barrier surrounded the group, attempting to shield them as much as possible from the blast. They were soon thrown into the forest.
Dorugamon crashed through a few trees before landing on the ground in a heap, groaning as he regained his senses. "Ouch…"
Antlyamon landed not too far off on his back, making a large imprint of his body as he did so. "Ow!"
Calumon flipped into a patch of flowers, which was a rather soft landing for him. "Is… everyone… okay?"
"Define okay…" Jazz groaned.
"I feel like a fly tangled up in some spider's web…" Andy stated, having been tangled up in Dorugamon's wings and tail after the crash landing.
"I… think the world is spinning…" Dorugamon groaned as he got up before shaking his head.
"That was… quite the distance we were flung…" Antlyamon noted as he got to his feet as well.
"Indeed…" Calumon floated up into the sky while the rest of the group tried to untangle themselves and get into a more comfortable position.
Calumon was looking out at Cherubimon's castle, trying to determine the damage that was caused. Closing his eyes, Calumon's crystal matrix glowed. Please tell me… does this have any consequences to the timeline…?
Calumon felt the link to his Spirits come alive. "Do not worry, Tommy." Kumamon's Spirit said reassuringly. "Things revert back to normal now. Glitchmon is gone, so with his deletion, Cherubimon's memories of you guys and the influence he has on Koji will be erased."
How are you so sure about that? Calumon asked.
"When Clockmon bestowed us the ability to use Time Revolution, we were able to see into the timeline after you defeated Glitchmon. Glitchmon was the main source of the changed timeline, which was why we couldn't see anything until he was deleted," Kumamon answered. "Once we go back to Clockmon and return the ability to reset time, however, we won't be able to look into the timeline anymore."
Calumon nodded before he floated back down to the group, glad to see that they were mostly okay, if not a little scuffled.
"Wow, Jazz… I still can't believe you managed to get Lopmon to digivolve into his Ultimate form, he looks so awesome!" Andy complimented, looking up at Antylamon now that they were out of the tree and on the ground.
Antylamon blushed at the praise as Jazz beamed with pride. "Well, we couldn't have handled Cherubimon without it." Jazz replied. "And I wasn't about to let my partner struggle alone. I mean, I may be a human, but even humans can be strong when they have to be. Maybe not physically, but mentally yes."
"Indeed, I've learned that the hard way in the past and present," Antylamon chuckled. "I've also realized not to be afraid of my past anymore. Working with my partner, and accepting my past is what helped me digivolve in the end."
"I'll bet I'll be just as cool when I digivolve into Ultimate one day myself," Dorugamon said proudly. "Right?"
Andy chuckled sheepishly. "Maybe, I guess it depends on what you'll become though."
Dorugamon pouted. "Awww…"
Jazz chuckled at Dorugamon's response. "Don't worry… I'm sure you will look just as cool when you digivolve."
"Everyone, listen up!" Calumon spoke up, getting everyone's attention. "With Glitchmon gone, Cherubimon will have no memories of meeting us here today. He'll likely think that explosion was caused by an experiment he was doing that went wrong or something. Meaning the timeline is likely going to go back to normal, but we might want to stick around just to be sure before we get back to our present."
Jazz looked back at Calumon. "I think that would be best. I don't want to go through all of that and then find out things were not returned to normal."
Dorugamon shuddered at that idea. "All of that hard work for nothing… That doesn't sound like a pleasant idea…"
"Then we won't leave until we're sure the job is done," Andy promised. "But… you two might want to go back to your Rookie forms before we go see how the Legendary Warriors are doing, the last thing we need is to draw attention to ourselves."
Dorugamon and Antylamon nodded before fractal code surrounded both of them and they reverted back to Dorumon and Lopmon.
"Okay, good, hopefully we can relax a little more after this," Jazz sighed.
So Andy, Jazz, Dorumon, Lopmon, and Calumon all went to check out what the Legendary Warriors were doing. They had to wait for a bit since they just got out of the Trailmon and started walking into the Continent of Darkness. But from there, the group easily watched and followed them until the moment of truth, when Agunimon was facing with Duskmon, Koji, as KendoGarurumon, jumped to take the hit himself. Duskmon saw KendoGarurumon reverting back to Koji and began to freak out, covering the entire area in darkness, and warping everyone.
Andy found himself in some kind of station with Jazz, Dorumon, Lopmon, and Calumon.
"Where are we?" Andy asked.
Jazz looked around. "Is this… a station?"
"This is a Trailmon station!" Lopmon realized. "We were somehow sent to a Trailmon station."
"I think this is what happened to Takuya after Duskmon freaked out," Calumon noted. "This is a Trailmon station, but there's something… off about it. Time… time itself is warped here."
"Can you tell that because of your Time Revolution ability?" Dorumon asked.
Calumon nodded. "Yes… I think there's someone else here."
As soon as Calumon said that, a sleek, dark shape came in, looking like a Trailmon, but this one was black with red, glowing circles on the sides and front, looking like glowing red eyeballs, but at the same time not. It was a Dark Trailmon.
"Ah… I see you have arrived…" Dark Trailmon said in a deep voice.
"W-whoa… is this a Trailmon?" Jazz asked in surprise, she had seen a few Trailmon before whenever she helped take the Digi-Eggs to the underground subway so they could be returned to the Digital World, but she had never seen a Trailmon like this one before.
"I think so… but he's definitely different from the Trailmon we usually see," Andy noted.
"You could say I'm a special case, dealing with special passengers, or those who have lost their way," The Dark Trailmon responded, sounding somewhat amused.
"Can you take us back home?" Jazz asked. "We did kinda get lost… in a sense… Since we don't know where we are…"
"Duskmon had taken you to a space in time, you're not exactly anywhere right now," Dark Trailmon remarked.
"So… could you take us back to our timeline, back to our home?" Lopmon questioned.
"I could. It's a one way trip, however. Are you sure you have everything done here before I take you back?" Dark Trailmon asked. "Calumon, your ability to reset time will be taken away once you get on board. Are you okay with that?"
Calumon nodded. "As long as it goes back to the original owner, then yes, I am. If the timeline is fixed, we have no reason to stay here… right?"
"Hmm… Then all aboard." Dark Trailmon said as he opened his passenger cars for the group to get onboard. "You have done well in your mission."
"I'm so glad… we can finally go home," Jazz said in relief as she picked up Lopmon and went into the passenger car.
"We can trust this Trailmon, can't we?" Andy asked skeptically.
"Yeah, he helped Takuya before, so I don't see why we can't," Calumon said before he went into the passenger car himself.
Andy and Dorumon looked at the Dark Trailmon, who was looking back at them.
"Don't worry, Andy, I won't bite," Dark Trailmon chuckled.
He knows my name… and he seems to have a sense of humor at least. I guess it's either trust this Trailmon or risk staying stranded out here. Andy decided before he and Dorumon walked into the passenger car.
The doors shut as Dark Trailmon began to head out of the strange station and back into a more familiar timeline.
Andy, Jazz, Lopmon, Dorumon, and Calumon all looked out the window as Dark Trailmon was going down a trail through the Continent of Darkness. They wondered for a moment if they were truly going back home or not. Then, all of a sudden, the Dark Trailmon went through a wormhole of some kind, going through a vortex while still on a trail. The group let out a gasp as the cars they were in began to shake and tremble.
"Uh… is this normal?" Jazz asked uncertainly. She was not liking the shaking and trembling going on all around her.
"We better brace ourselves," Lopmon warned.
The trembling got worse, and suddenly it felt like the entire train was flipped over on their heads. The group let out a scream of shock and surprise before everything went black for them. The last thing Andy heard was the Dark Trailmon's voice.
"End of the line."
Titanic X: DarkFoxKit: Well, here ya go. XP
GhostHex: ZAFT: Well, we wanted something unique for Andy and Jazz, so here we are. XD
DarkFoxKit: There's always something going on with the characters, it just takes a lot of time to come up with something for all of them considering we're kinda swamped with characters.
Dp-Marvel94: DarkFoxKit: You really made ZAFT's day when you reviewed. We both like your DP stories.
ZAFT: I actually had a fangirl moment when you did. I was so happy, and I hope you will continue to do so. :3 So enjoy this next one when you get to it. :3 And as for the Soul Shredder stuff, that was the fun part, getting into Andy's and Danny's heads. XD
DarkFoxKit: The whole Jack and Maddie finding out about the Digimon wasn't planned, it just sort of happened. As for Vlad, I do think he would try something like that. What's funny is that we wrote this chapter before we saw your story Danny and His Blob Ghosts, which was similar to what Vlad tried to do with Andy. Of course this did affect Andy quite a bit, and Andy's worried what the future has in store for Danny, since he knew a lot of things could happen to Danny being a half ghost kid.
ZAFT: Ironic how that worked out with Andy's almost fate being similar to those of the clones. XD