A message appeared on four D-terminals, and only four, but the recipients couldn't know this fact. The bureau had never got in the habit of publicly listing the recipients of each e-mail; Miyako had asked them about it once, but Maki said it was just easier on their servers to send every message individually. At the time, she chalked it up to typical government incompetence.
Obviously, the bureau (only its employees ever remembered the full name) was secretive, but Koushirou had assured her it was a legitimate government office. He had heard that Gennai was working with them to control the pace at which humanity learned about the Digital World and cut down on dangerous incidents.
And honestly, a quest in the digital world sounded like a nice break from school life. Miyako missed it, like everyone did. But... "Shouldn't we wait for Takeru-kun and Hikari-chan?" she asked.
"Our opponent is a Dorugamon, we should be able to handle it with armor digimon alone," Daisuke reassured her.
"Besides, if anything does go wrong, we have Imperialdramon in our back pocket," Ken added.
"And wouldn't it make more sense for Hikari-san and Takeru-san to super evolve? I hate to say it, but I think jogress is off the table regardless," Iori said, to Hawkmon and Armadimon's evident disappointment.
"Cheer up, guys," Miyako said. "Most digimon never even get the chance to armor evolve, and I'm sure Halsemon and Digmon will be really helpful in what's ahead. Digital Gate, open! Chosen Children, let's rock!"
Not one of them realized they were walking into a trap.
Daisuke and V-mon never saw Alphamon coming, never had the chance to fight. Ken just stood there in shock. Miyako and Iori did armor evolve up, although Hawkmon became Shurimon, not Halsemon; Iori indeed went with Digmon, as suited a land battlefield. Their partners fired shuriken and drills respectively at any dark splotch of Alphamon's armor, anything that looked remotely like a black gear or an evil ring; surely something was controlling this enemy. It got them nowhere.
Iori suggested a retreat after seeing how badly their attacks failed, but Daisuke and Chibimon were out cold and they weren't going to leave a friend behind. Miyako refused, but her digimon wasn't up to the task, and the only thing she got for her trouble was a pair of broken glasses.
Iori and Ken saw no alternative but to run away, Stingmon trying to grab the wounded in the process. Iori was halfway through the gate when Alphamon took him out, leading to a strange duplication bug in the agency's digivice tracking software; Ken was still a few feet away when he fell.
Miyako saw the final battle from her hospital window, and it reminded her of the last time she saw Omegamon. She did have a digimon this time around, but Poromon was in no condition to fight whatever that creature was, the one that stood up to tank artillery and most Ultimate digimon alike. Upamon was surprisingly confident in his ability to absorb hits from Ordinemon once he evolved up to Ankylomon, but Iori wasn't able to actually evolve him; all that time in a stasis pod meant his body hadn't actually recovered from the Alphamon fight.
Daisuke probably would have rushed out anyway with Chibimon if he knew what was going on, but his room faced the wrong direction, and he never connected the explosions to any digimon incident.
Ken also faced the wrong way, but did figure it out by the sounds — why did anything else explode in Tokyo? But he was too perturbed by Minomon's weird behavior to think of fighting; once he learned about the reboot and digimon losing their memories, he understood why his partner had been so disturbed and standoffish at first, and then crying while apologizing to him later in that day.
A wiser group of Chosen Children, after such an overwhelming defeat at Alphamon's hands, would have stayed far away from dangerous adventures in the digital world. However, wisdom must be regarded as a strength predominantly belonging to their predecessors. Said predecessors had managed to defeat Meicoomon — no, to kill her, Hikari had angrily insisted when Miyako used the word 'defeat' in her summary — but had done absolutely nothing about Yggdrasil and his agent. And just as that agent promised, he didn't stop with the failure of the Meicoomon infection plan; his next act was to undo Demon's banishment.
"Who's this Yggdrasil asshole anyway? The only gods of the digital world we acknowledge are the Holy Beasts and Homeostasis!" Miyako yelled.
"Not Homeostasis…" Hikari muttered, sadly, quietly.
"Right. Sorry, I was out for that, kind of forgot. Just the Holy Beasts, then," Miyako said.
Demon would not be an easy foe, even for all twelve remaining Japanese chosen children together, and the correct move from a strategic standpoint was obviously to wait for more firepower. It was revenge which drove the younger children back into the digital world — not revenge on Demon (who had, after all, been banished last time before he could do any real harm), but on themselves, on the weakness which left four of them spending an adventure in stasis pods.
And in Hikari's case, for letting Ordinemon be born, for almost killing Tailmon, for not finding a way to save Meicoomon. In the moment, she and Holydramon had fought beside her brother, although Omegamon delivered the killing blow. But now, she absolutely refused to participate in any mission under his leadership; she wasn't sure if she hated Taichi more for it, or herself.
Takeru and Patamon had the fewest regrets of anyone in the party; hiding Patamon's infection had caused them no shortage of aggravation, but unlike with Meicoomon, their lost memories had returned. It was over, done with, no permanent harm, Seraphimon spent the whole battle on the correct side. But he wasn't just coming along as a favor to Iori and Hikari; now that Patamon remembered who he was and what he had done, he was itching to take down some evil digimon. His partner had insisted "Besides, if it's Demon, we have the advantage!" and Takeru was never one to miss out on an adventure.
Takeru had started a blog about his digital world experiences, initially to keep the international chosen children in the loop, although between his poor French, poorer English, and the state of machine translation, it didn't exactly do a great job. What it had done was get a following among Japan's own growing digimon-raising community, and provide an alternative perspective to a media eager to treat digimon like alien invaders.
He would have liked to bring a camera, but found out after his first attempted post that someone or something was keeping his digital world photography off the internet. But he was sure this quest would make for some wonderful, text-only updates.
Night never ended in this strange corner of the digital world, and only the lack of water assured Hikari that they had not crossed the border into the dark ocean; Ken wasn't so sure on that count. Miyako wasn't left out this time, although she wished she was; the strange feeling of discomfort bordering on despair all but overwhelmed her.
"It's not the Dark Ocean," Takeru, however, said confidently. "It's what Demon's made of the digital world."
"I don't get what's so scary about some stupid ocean anyway! We beat him before, we can do it again!" Daisuke encouraged them.
"But we didn't beat him. That's why I had to…" Ken began, then stopped; why had it been so hard to open a gate to the dark ocean? At the time, it was so painful, but it felt stupid to worry when they were already practically in one.
"And we can't banish him again. Or rather, I think Yggdrasil would undo it, if we tried," Iori said. "We have no choice but to fight, and this time we must win."
"It's a bit arrogant to talk about winning so soon… Chosen Children."
All six humans and their digimon partners turned to see Demon — not the red hooded figure commanding the Demon corps, but Demon in his true form, the creature beneath the hood, with a grotesque, fanged blue face to match his goatlike horns and giant purple wings.
V-Mon and Wormmon jogressed easily enough; they had no other way to fight, and Imperialdramon Fighter Mode, although defeated three years ago, was at least a formidable foe. But Angemon evolved all the way up to Seraphimon, reasoning that Demon was exactly the sort of dark digimon an angel was perfect against… or so he said. Privately, Takeru doubted he was of one mind with Iori, that a jogress would even work; the Meicoomon incident hadn't changed him in the same way.
Which was also why Miyako was so surprised when Hikari grasped her hands and Tailmon declined to evolve up to Angewomon. In truth, Angewomon alone was fine, but both forms beyond that had issues; Ophanimon Falldown Mode proved a short-lived, dark evolution, and Holydramon had struck a blow in the final battle against her own (dark) jogress partner. After how badly that fight went wrong, they both wanted to prove that they could join their hearts correctly, that they wouldn't always be alone.
Tailmon and Aquilamon did combine successfully, but it was Imperialdramon and Seraphimon whose attacks did any damage. Demon's face and wings winced in pain once struck with a Seven Heavens, and it considered getting hit a lesser evil than allowing contact from Imperialdramon's positron laser. Silphymon's Dual Sonic, on the other hand, it simply shrugged off, not even so much as noticing the direct attack.
Then came the fire. Flames poured forth from Demon's hands, scorching Seraphimon in his armor. Ankylomon bravely, perhaps suicidally, stepped forward to shield Imperialdramon, much to Iori's horror.
"No. This can't happen again…"
"I won't let it." his partner answered, straining in the all-encompassing heat. "Ankylomon, super evolve! Gusokumon!"
Digimon evolutionary lines can be hard sometimes to comprehend, and the blue Gusokumon does not even share Ankylomon's color, although in fairness, neither does Shakkoumon. But a deep-sea crustacean was the perfect selection, at least from an elemental and defensive perspective, for resisting Demon's heat; for an evolution driven by the moment, there was no better choice. Imperialdramon was protected this time, at least for a while, and its Colony Torpedo swarmed Demon like a larger, more explosive Marching Fishes.
At least it had done enough to force a change of tactics. "Slash Nail!" Gusokumon's exoskeleton is even harder than Ankylomon's, but it is segmented, and Demon was just the type of dirty fighter to stick its claw into the gaps, stabbing at the flesh beneath. A single thrust was enough to make it revert all the way to Upamon.
"No…." It was Miyako this time. "No way! I won't allow this! We didn't come all this way just to lose again!"
"Silphymon, ultimate evolve! Valkyrimon!"
A beautiful woman clad in armor, with white wings and red wingtips that could have come from Hawkmon or Aquilamon. A shining light around her, a golden bird on her hand. A sword on her belt, which she drew to freeze Demon's flames. And finally, an Aurvandil Arrow to pierce Demon's forehead, a nemesis who disintegrated into data and the light — and, for that matter, the long and endless grass — returned to this portion of the digital world.
"We did it!" Hikari shouted.
"We're back!" Miyako added with a high-five, and it was a sentiment all six could agree with, winning a battle without their elders' help. Omegamon wasn't the only one who could save the digital world - don't count the 2002 generation out just yet!