Chapter 113: Time is Ticking Part 5

Hey there readers. I hope you're all doing well :D

I'd like to say my thanks to Gadget30thAnniversery, Sakura0410 and Raxius for your reviews of the previous chapter. I'm glad that you thought that the last chapter was a good one and that you liked the cliff-hanger. As I'm sure you've guessed by now, I love my cliff-hanger endings to chapters and I try to include them where I can.

Now it's time to pick up where that cliff-hanger left off …

TK felt everyone's gazes fix onto him and Kari as they delivered the news. He could see the worry quickly rising up in their eyes and he couldn't blame them for feeling that way. Maybe doing those experiments here in Odaiba and right in front of the base wasn't the best idea that they'd had. With hindsight, all of them really should have flown on Imperialdramon to a quieter and more open area before doing the tests.

"Are you sure?" Tai asked as he continued using English so that the American Digidestined could still understand him. "Are they coming for us?"

TK double checked with his extra sense, using it to follow the dark energy being emitted by the evil monsters out in Tokyo Bay. They were definitely moving towards them and the Digidestined had to decide what to do quickly. He shared a glance with Kari, who gave him a nod before he turned back to face Tai. "We're sure of it."

"Shit!" Davis groaned using their comms as Imperialdramon landed in the carpark in front of them. "This isn't good."

"Sorry guys," Izzy gulped as he looked sheepishly at his friends. "I wasn't expecting this to happen. I didn't think that we'd attract any attention like this because we would be far enough away."

"Don't worry about it." Tai gave him a smile. "I thought that we would be safe here too."

"It's ok," Willis added. "We all thought that we were safe."

"Yeah, don't worry, honey." Mimi placed her hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "We'll sort this out just like we always do."

Davis' voice left their earpieces again. "So what do we do?"

"We have a few options," Tai replied before he glanced around the group. "We can fly to another part of the city. We can get on Imperialdramon and follow this group to see what they do. We can also fight them."

"I think that we should fight them." Kari was the first to reply before she glanced into TK's sapphire eyes. He didn't need to exchange any words with her to know what her plan was as he gave her a nod of his head. "We can fly further down the coast and fight them on the next island south."

"We can make these tests look like they're part of a plan to ambush them. If they're tracking us, they'll still come towards us regardless of where we are," TK took over from his wife. "We can fly to the island on Imperialdramon and then have our Digimon digivolve. We can wait and see what happens next. I expect that they will attack though because they were going in another direction until we started the experiments."

Tai nodded his head. "I like this plan. Let's get going."

"It's got my vote," Davis added before blue light was emitted down from the bubble on Imperialdramon's back. "Hop on, dudes."

Izzy and Tentomon led the way with the other Digidestined and their Digimon following them. TK took Kari's hand in his as they headed over to Imperialdramon and into the blue beam. TK suddenly felt weightless, which only lasted a few moments as he was lifted up onto the giant dragon before he and Kari were gently placed down on his back. The couple and their Digimon quickly stepped aside so that they weren't in the way of their friends.

TK glanced over the edge of Imperialdramon and watched Tai directing the others into the light. Matt hopped onto Metalgarurumon's back before they took to the air and waited for their friends. It didn't take long for everyone to be onboard Imperialdramon, with Tai making sure that he was the last one left on the ground. Tai stepped into the light and everyone watched as he and Agumon were pulled up before they were placed on Imperialdramon's back with them.

The armoured dragon flapped his wings, taking to the air and turning southwards to where Kari had suggested that they perform this ambush. He followed the coastline with Metalgarurumon behind him and TK could sense that they were moving closer towards the group of dark monsters. The Digidestined reached the island rather quickly and hovered over it before the two mega Digimon set down on a part that had recently been reclaimed from the sea.

"Well that was the shortest flight I think I've ever taken," Willis quipped as the group made their way back to the light that carried them down to the ground.

Davis chuckled as he, Ken and Matt joined the others, which would allow Imperialdramon and Metalgarurumon to take more evasive manoeuvres during the battle. "Thank you for flying Imperialdramon Airlines. The best rated and fastest airline in the world."

TK laughed too and wondered what some of his American friends thought as he and Kari followed them down in the light. It was a rather serious moment but, once again, Davis was making light of it and trying to lift the mood. TK had gotten used to it over the years, but he knew that someone who wasn't familiar with Davis' ways might have thought that the younger of the goggle-heads wasn't taking things seriously. However, the blonde teen knew that couldn't have been further from the truth.

"We need to set up a defence to stop the Deep Ones if they come onto land." Tai pointed around the Digidestined, drawing out an imaginary circle. "All of the Digimon that can't fly should be part of this defensive line. Those that can fly will be part of our attacking team."

"What about us?" Michael asked as he pointed at Betamon. "Do you want Betamon to be in the water?"

Tai ran his hand through his hair before taking a deep breath. "I think it will be too risky, especially if there are other Seadramon or Megaseadramon coming in that group. We would not be able to tell the difference between them and you. You would also be surrounded, so the risk is too high."

Michael gave him a nod. "Ok, we'll stay here with you guys then."

"Everyone ready?" Yolei asked as she unclipped her digivice, prompting the other Digidestined to do the same. Everyone nodded before she thrusted her digivice in Hawkmon's direction. "Alright! Let's go!"

TK aimed his digivice at Patamon as the familiar light erupted from the screen and engulfed his partner. "Patamon digivolve to Angemon! Angemon digivolve to Magnaangemon!"

The young man watched the angel Digimon emerge from the light of digivolution before Magnaangemon flew into the air. Angewomon quickly joined him as the rest of the Chosen Digimon reached their highest levels and readied themselves for battle. They were all being careful as they took up defensive positions because they didn't want to fly outside of the barrier just yet.

Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon joined Magnaangemon and Angewomon in the sky above them. Willis' Rapidmon flew up to them too as his Antylamon took his place in the barrier between Zudomon and Noriko's Grapleomon. Phil's Flarerizamon, Lou's Tortomon, Maria's Centarumon and Steve's Frigimon joined the defensive line around the Digidestined alongside Shakkoumon, Hiroshi's Blossomon and Keiko's Lynxmon. Lillymon, Megakabuterimon, Silphymon and Garudamon flew up to Imperialdramon as they waited with the others in the air.

"Do we drop the barriers now?" Lou asked as his gaze moved over to Tai. "You know, to lure in the bad guys."

"That would be a very bad idea," Izzy replied for their leader. "Every single member of Dragomon's army would be drawn to this area because they would be able to sense the energy coming from TK and Kari."

"Izzy is right. We need to keep the barriers up." Tai nodded before he glanced around. "Now we wait for them to make the next move."

TK closed his eyes so that he could focus on his extra sense again. The dark energy in the bay was getting much closer and it felt like they were swimming straight for the Digidestined. It wouldn't be long until they got to them if they intended on attacking the Chosen.

"I think we have a minute or so until the bad guys get here," TK informed the others. "Everyone, get ready."

Kari's grip on his hand tightened a little and the blonde teen returned the gesture. The couple stared out over the water and in the direction that their enemies were coming from. The Digimon were all gazing in that direction too, waiting for the bad guys to breach the surface and for the battle to begin.

TK could see some long shadows under the surface that were coming straight for them and, based on their size, they could only be Megaseadramon. There were some smaller snake-like silhouettes amongst them too, which the blonde teen guessed were Seadramon, and there were two larger shadows further back. He guessed that there were a lot of Deep Ones with them as well based on how much dark energy was being emitted by the group.

Several jagged blades pierced through the waves as the Megaseadramon rose their heads above the water. Electricity crackled around them before the sea serpents roared and fired bolts straight at the flying Chosen Digimon. They dodged out of the way before taking this as their cue to make their move.

The Seadramons' yellow heads broke through the surface of the sea before they released their icy beams straight at some of the Chosen Digimon, forcing them to barrel-roll and loop to evade the attacks. Wargreymon was first to retaliate, leading their charge by throwing a large fireball straight at one of the Megaseadramon. He scored a direct hit as Metalgarurumon swooped down and used his rockets to take out another of the sea serpents.

Two Marinedevimon suddenly stood up and water poured off their huge bodies. They spat streams of ink in the Chosen Digimons' direction, forcing them to dodge once again. The thick black ink just missed several of them before it flew over the heads of the Digidestined and smashed into some cargo containers on the island behind them. The wave of ink wrecked several buildings and some of the cranes too as it cascaded over the land.

The Deep Ones took this as their chance and charged out onto the island, leaving the safety of the water behind them. TK could spot several Octomon, Gesomon and Ebidramon amongst their ranks, as well as some Scorpiomon. A few glints between the black mass of Deep Ones caught his gaze and he saw that there were also Scubamon in between their foes.

Imperialdramon let out a loud roar, drawing TK's attention as the giant dragon shook off a hit from one of the Megaseadramon. The cannon on the Chosen Digimon's back lit up before he returned fire and vaporised the sea monster. He continued launching his beam as he arced around and cut straight through some of the evil monsters coming onto land. Debris and dust were thrown into the air, blocking out the Digidestineds' views of what was going on.

Explosions and roars continued echoing out over the battlefield as TK used his extra sense to keep a track of their enemies. The foes on land were getting closer now and there wasn't any way of stopping them from getting to their perimeter line because the flying Chosen Digimon were too busy handling the evil monsters attacking them from the water. Kari held TK's hand even tighter, hinting that she'd also realised the same thing.

"I guess that this also confirms our earlier test that Megaseadramon can find us through the barriers," Davis said to nobody in particular. "We're going to have to be very careful around them."

"Yeah." Matt nodded. "Also, I hope that this doesn't draw more of Dragomon's forces towards our base."

The group fell silent as glowing red eyes started becoming visible through the dust cloud. TK gulped as he stepped closer to Kari and they held one another tightly. This was the first time in quite a while that they'd been this close to the Deep Ones because they'd always made sure to keep their distance from them during the ambushes.

"The Deep Ones," Noriko gulped too as she stepped closer to Tai. "Can they see us?"

TK shared a quick glance with Kari as their eyes opened wide. They'd had their barriers set to a rather large radius because of the testing that they were doing and none of the Digidestined had reset them to the normal size. There hadn't been enough time and none of the Chosen had even thought about it as they'd moved to intercept the evil monsters.

"It's the Queen." The murmurs of several Deep Ones reached TK's ears as the dark creatures left the settling dust cloud and stopped. They quickly got louder and were soon screaming and chanting, with their red demonic eyes focused in one direction. "Queen Hikari!"

"The Queen!"

"We've found the Queen!"

"It's Queen Hikari!"

"Capture her!"

"Take her to Lord Dragomon!"

"We can finally crush that traitor, Daemon!"

"There's something wrong." A Scubamon interrupted the shouts of his underlings. "There's something coming from inside her. It's like The One of Hope has put something inside her."

"Oh no." Kari tensed up as she stared at their foes. "Here we go again."

"They're going to go berserk when they figure it out," TK added, as he prepared himself for what he knew was coming. "They're probably going to charge right at us when they realise that Kari is pregnant with my child."

"No!" The scream of another Scubamon echoed over the field between them. "It can't be! Queen Hikari can't be having The One of Hope's child!"

"He has defiled her!" One of the Scorpiomon roared. "He must pay!"

"This has all been for nothing!" A Gesomon wailed. "How can we reclaim our home in the Dark Ocean without her?"

"Get them!" Tai yelled his order to the Chosen Digimon on the ground. "Attack now while they're distracted."

Zudomon roared, leading his comrades into battle before slamming his hammer into the ground and creating a massive spark. "Vulcan's hammer!"

The attack cut straight through the Deep Ones in its path before hitting and deleting one of the Scorpiomon. The other Chosen Digimon launched their attacks too, causing several blasts to echo over the warzone as they hit their marks. All of those on their enemies' frontline were quickly taken out, but it wasn't enough as more soon replaced them and they started flooding onto the land with their eyes clearly locked on two specific people.

TK could feel their demonic gaze entirely on him and Kari as they charged towards them. It was like the Deep Ones and evil Digimon were almost forgetting that there was a line of powerful Digimon between them and their targets. They were enraged and TK guessed that the evil monsters only had one thing in mind now that they'd finally found their goal only to have their supposed hopes ripped away from them. It allowed the Chosen Digimon to make easy work of the Deep Ones as they held their lines against the demonic creatures.

Kari kept her husband in a tight embrace, making TK very aware of her desire to make sure that he was safe. He was holding her just as tightly because he didn't want anything to happen to his wife and their unborn baby. TK knew that he'd do anything to protect them and he was determined that they'd get out of this safely, just like they had done in all of the previous battles during this invasion.

There was no way that the young man was going to let the Deep Ones or evil Digimon take Kari to Dragomon. Although, if the fury that was now radiating from the Deep Ones was anything to go by, it would be unlikely that they were going to attempt to capture Kari like they had been doing for the past few months. As with the previous times any of the evil monsters had found out about their baby, they seemed intent on trying to kill them both in a blind rage.

TK continued watching as the Chosen Digimon on the ground repelled wave after wave of the dark amphibians and aquatic beasts. They launched salvo after salvo at the evil monsters that were charging straight for them, claws and tentacles raised with the intent of ripping them apart. If there was one positive out of this, TK realised that it was making them entirely focused on him and Kari, which ensured that none of the dark beings were going to escape and potentially give away the location of their base.

The blonde teen's gaze shifted from the ground battle to the one raging between their flying Digimon and the foes still in the ocean. The dust clouds had thinned out, allowing him to watch as Magnaangemon and Angewomon teamed up against one of the two Marinedevimon. His partner fired a multicoloured beam as Angewomon released a large pink cross at the towering humanoid squid, striking it directly in its chest. The Marinedevimon roared in agony before it was vaporised.

Lightning flashed past both angel Digimon, forcing them to loop over the attack and focus on several Megaseadramon below. Magnaangemon and Angewomon dived down, launching another salvo at several of the Megaseadramon and Seadramon that were taking aim at them. They scored direct hits once again, taking out another portion of their enemies.

A loud explosion rang out over the battlefield, capturing TK's attention. He watched as Imperialdramon sliced through the remaining Marinedevimon and turned it to data. Several more of the Megaseadramon and Seadramon were taken out by the Chosen Digimon at the same time, thinning their numbers further as the battled continued.

TK closed his eyes for a moment to focus on the dark energy being given off by the demonic creatures assaulting them. Their power was definitely waning and the Digidestined were getting the upper hand. Thankfully, this group wasn't strong enough by itself, even if the Megaseadramon were giving their Digimon a lot of problems.

"There aren't many bad guys left," TK informed the others. "If we keep this up, we'll beat them soon."

"Yeah, the dark energy coming from them is getting weaker." Kari nodded as she confirmed what her husband had said. "Also, we need to make sure that none of them escape."

"I agree." Tai glanced over his shoulder at the couple. "We do not want to give away the location of our base, so we must beat all of them."

Davis cupped his hands around his mouth. "Let them have it, guys! Don't let them escape! Kick their asses!"

The Chosen Digimon continued to rain their attacks down on the evil monsters swarming in their direction. TK could see that the Deep Ones were still entirely focused on him and Kari as soon as they entered the barrier around the Digidestined. Their all-consuming rage appeared to make them oblivious of the Chosen Digimon, or at least they just didn't seem to care about them. It was like they wanted revenge because he had got Kari pregnant and ended whatever vile plan that Dragomon had.

Flames from Flarerizamon and Lynxmon engulfed the Deep Ones that TK was staring at. Shakkoumon launched several of his clay bombs at three Gesomon and a Scubamon, scoring direct hits and deleting them instantly. Grapleomon and Antylamon teamed up to wipe out a Scorpiomon before they turned several Octomon and the Deep Ones around them to dust.

TK could see that the flying Chosen Digimon had thinned out the number of Seadramon and Megaseadramon even more. The sea monsters were frantically firing back as they tried to evade the attacks coming their way. However, it was to no avail as one by one they quickly fell until there were none left.

The remaining Deep Ones and evil Digimon charged out of the sea and found themselves surrounded on both sides. They couldn't turn back because the Chosen Digimon in the air were blocking their route and the Digimon on the land blocked their path to their goal. Some of them seemed to realise as they stopped and it looked like they didn't know where to go.

The dark monsters paused before one Scubamon raised his spear. "Kill the One of Hope! Make him pay for defying Lord Dragomon!"

"Punish him for what he did to the Queen!" The only remaining Scorpiomon roared. "Chop off his head so we can present it to our Lord."

"We must kill Queen Hikari too!" Another Scubamon added, pointing his harpoon at the brunette teen. "She must never be allowed to have the One of Hope's child. She must pay for ending our dreams of returning to the Dark Ocean and defeating the traitors!"

TK heard their remaining foes let out a battle cry before they charged straight towards the Digidestined, specifically him and Kari. The couple continued to hold each other tightly and TK found his right hand reaching down to the gun on his hip. He was, like all of the Japanese Digidestined, still bringing his gun on patrols just in case they needed them again.

The demonic creatures ran straight at Zudomon, who swung his giant hammer through the hoard coming for him. He wiped out their entire frontline in one go but he wasn't quick enough to stop the second wave. The Scorpiomon reached out for him, forcing Zudomon to counter and let the Deep Ones by.

Some of the other Digimon ran in behind their comrade to help out, defeating several of the Deep Ones before the few remaining Gesomon, Scubamon, Ebidramon and Octomon occupied them. The aerial Digimon did their best to aid the others but they couldn't attack like they had done before because there was a large risk of them hurting their friends now that the bad guys were so close and focusing their attacks.

Several Deep Ones kept slipping through the Chosen's ranks as they were forced to battle the aquatic Digimon that were distracting them. The Gesomon were first to drop but their efforts allowed their comrades to get closer and closer. TK could see the features of the Deep Ones clearly now as three of them broke through the backlines and ran straight for him.

Gunshots rung through the air as the three dark amphibians charged with their claws out and ready to tear through anything in their way. TK placed his fingers around his own gun because he knew that he had to stop them. He didn't care if he got hurt as long as Kari and their daughter were safe.

A bright arrow of light suddenly pierced through the chest of one Deep One, turning it to dust before it could hit the ground. More shots rang through the air before the other two dropped to floor. Their motionless bodies slowly whispered away as they turned to nothing.

TK glanced to his left and saw both Tai and Noriko with their guns out and he realised that they'd taken the shots that he'd heard. Angewomon landed in front of the Digidestined and was quickly joined by Magnaangemon. They took out another two Deep Ones that had managed to get beyond the others before the battlefield fell silent.

"Thank you." TK let out a large breath that he didn't know that he was holding in. "Thanks for dealing with them."

Tai gave him a wink. "Don't mention it."

"That was a close one," Willis sighed too as the Digidestined finally started to relax now that the group of enemies had been defeated. "I thought that we were in real trouble there as those final ones broke through."

"We were," Izzy confirmed. "However, that will be less of an issue during our plans to fight back against Dragomon and his army. The Guardromon and Tankmon are particularly good at forming organised battlelines that stop those kinds of attacks."

"What do we do next?" Davis asked as Imperialdramon landed near the Digidestined, ready to pick up them and the other Digimon. "Are we going to continue with our ambushes?"

Tai ran his hand through his hair as he thought for a moment. "I think we should do, unless anyone thinks that we shouldn't."

TK glanced around the group, checking to see if anyone was going to back out of today's patrols. The Digidestined were silent for a few moments as they waited to see if one of their friends would decide not to go. It wasn't like the Japanese Digidestined hadn't been through that kind of thing before because, after all, they had been in this situation plenty of times at the beginning of the war.

"From a strategic standpoint, I think that we should do more ambushes." Izzy was the first to speak up. "We should go to other places in the city and ambush more of Dragomon's army. If we don't do that, this battle will standout and it might lead Metalseadramon to this area. He might find our base."

"We didn't come halfway around the world to just back out after one fight," Willis added as he clenched his fist. "We want to help out and get in on the action too."

The other Digidestined joined in, making it clear that they were all up for the fight. Tai heard them all loud and clear as he nodded in response. "Alright then. We'll continue and perform our ambushes as we originally planned. Just remember to keep things safe."

I really enjoyed writing this battle and really got into the flow of it. Hopefully it's ok and that you enjoyed reading this as much as I liked writing it.

One thing I originally did but decided to edit out was each individual Digimon in the group digivolving. That turned into quite the long list, so I decided to cut it down to just Patamon digivolving because this chapter is from TK's point of view. I decided that I'd just show the rest had digivolved too in other ways. Hopefully that made that bit easier to read than it would have been if I'd left all of the digivolutions in.

One thing that I want to mention is that the Digidestined were lucky that it wasn't Metalseadramon's group here. Obviously, they wouldn't have done any of those experiments if Metalseadramon was that close to them. However, if he had been there, things would have turned out much worse and Metalseadramon would have found out where their base is.

Please can you let me know what you think about these things and this chapter as a whole by posting a review? :D

Stay well and stay safe! Oh, and have a good Halloween! :D