-x-
Chapter Five
Of(f) Balance & Mouthing Off
Since the sound levels on the rookies' end exploded, Izzy had decided to check in on them.
"IZZY-SENPAI!"
"WHAT, Wannabe? What?" Izzy fired back, annoyed about the way she screeched his name.
"There's three uh... uh – what are they called?"
"Tyrannomon" Veemon said tense.
"- Tyrannomon! There are three Tyrannomon running at us!" Yolei finished, "I think they're attacking!"
"What did you say? Three of them?"
"YES!" she screamed terrified, "What do we do?"
"Well, deal with them!" Izzy said, "You know, how to use the eggs! Guess what, you guys are not my top priority, right now."
"How are we not the top priority with THREE champion levels trying to kill us?!" Veemon asked upset, "What are the others doing? Fighting an army?"
"No, but they're fighting twice as many enemies on the same level!"
"Oh..."
"Yeah, looks like an ambush, which is why I have to switch back now, or else Tai might get an aneurysm..."
"SWITCH BACK!" Tai yelled in the background, "Fuck the rookies! My sister is about to die!"
"Yeah, you heard him, best of luck" Izzy added quickly, before cutting off the connection.
"Oh, my god..." Yolei said, turning white. Her breathing quickened, as she started to panic.
"Hey!" Veemon barked, kicking her leg.
"Ow! What are you - ?"
"Snap out of it and use the damn egg!" he exclaimed.
The Tyrannomon were working their way up the hill. They were half-way up, when one of them opened their jaws wide, shooting an enormous fireball at them. The projectile's trajectory arched, causing it to hit the top of the slope, instead of them.
"NOW!"
"Okay, okay" Yolei said, taking a deep breath, "Davis, on the count of three!"
"You seriously think this is gonna work for him?" Veemon asked baffled.
"Fine! Davis, after me!"
Yolei quickly accessed the egg on her D-Terminal.
"Uh..." Davis said uncertain, "How do I – hey!"
Yolei had taken his D-Terminal from him, accessing his egg, before passing back to him.
"Here you go!" she said stressed, "Now: Digi-armor eneeeeeeergize!"
Davis was lagging about a second behind but he managed to successfully chant the phrase to:
"Digi-armor eneeeeeeergize!"
"Do they really have to say it like that?" Mimi asked.
"I bet not" Veemon groaned in the middle of Digivolution, "They're just idiots!"
"Hawkmon armor- wait we can talk, while digivolving?" Hawkmon interrupted himself, "I thought we had to - oh, right - uh, Flybeemon! I'm Flybeemon now!"
"That's... not what I expected..." Yolei said, thrown off by his new appearance:
Hawkmon had turned into, what looked like a red, humanoid dragonfly with a stinger at the end of his tail and, oddly enough, two feathers on his head, serving as the only reminder of his previous form. He also wore black armor pieces, the head piece bearing the crest of knowledge in blue.
"Okay, let's go!" Flamedramon shouted, sliding down the slope. He stopped shortly before his enemy, only to punch multiple fireballs into the dinosaur's face, in a rapid fashion. The force of the numerous attacks slowly lifted the front portion of Tyrannomon's body into the air and backwards, causing the dinosaur to loose balance and fall backwards, sending him tumbling down the hill.
"One down!" Flamedramon called out, watching Tyrannomon roll further and further down the steep slope, unable to recover, "That was easy... try to make 'em loose their balance!" he shouted over to Flybeemon, "They're so fucking stupid, I'd be shocked, if they managed to get up after that!"
"Easier said than done!" Flybeemon answered, "Needle Stinger!"
He shot his stinger like a bullet and it immediately regrew, giving him the opportunity, to turn the attack into rapid fire. The stingers mostly bounced off Tyrannomon's thick hide, and the ones that actually got stuck didn't seem to phase the Digimon too much, only slowing him down slightly.
"Huh" Flamedramon said, sliding down toward the next Tyrannomon, dodging his enormous jaws, with a quick action roll, then dealing a fire enhanced strike to one of his legs. The dinosaur stumbled and fell onto his stomach.
"Feels easy enough, to me" Flamedramon said smug.
"Quick!" Yolei shouted, "Hit the black ring while he's down, Flybeemon!"
"Uh, okay" Flybeemon said, "Needle Stinger!"
He shot another burst at the Tyrannomon that was on the floor. Again a few bounced off, but the stingers that hit the black ring were enough to shatter it.
"Nice!" Flybeemon called out satisfied, as Tyrannomon got back up on his feet, turned around an ran down the hill, out of dodge.
"You know, you don't have to call out attack names either." Flamedramon said.
"Really? How did I not know this? That's mental!"
"Yeah, last time I digivolved I flew into a rage and I didn't say any of the standard crap. But it worked anyway." Flamedramon shrugged, "Also, I could have wrecked the black ring, as well..." he added glaring at Yolei.
"Well, I don't trust you, though..." she said suspicious, "You probably would have killed him instead!"
"Yeah, you're right!" Mimi said, "I always hated, how the others just killed everyone we fought! No killing!"
"You gotta be kidding me..." Flamedramon muttered.
"I mean, if we don't have to, we probably shouldn't kill them" Flybeemon argued, keeping the last Tyrannomon at bay with his stingers, "This is way better, we can talk while fighting now!"
"Sure, great, awesome... How about we focus on the fight, though?" Flamedramon said.
A black tower off to the side of the slope caught his eye. It was located on a large rock and close enough to Tyrannomon that it gave him an idea.
"Hey, you think we can throw him into that tower? You know, two birds, one stone?"
"Sure, but I don't think my attacks can really push him anywhere. I mean, I have this lightning attack, but..."
He looked around, back at the others. Then he locked eyes with Palmon.
"I got it! Keep him busy!"
He flew up to her.
"Jump on!" he said.
"What? Why?"
"I'll explain on the way! Let's go!"
"Be careful, Palmon!" Mimi called out after them as Flybeemon took off.
"What's the plan?" Flamedramon yelled.
"Hold on!" Flybeemon said, "Push him, with all you got, when I tell you to! Palmon, go!"
"You got it!" Palmon said, extending the claws on her left hand into vines, wrapping them around Flybeemon's shoulder. The other hand she used to shoot vines at Tyrannomon's arm. The dinosaur turned his head, preparing to attack, but Flybeemon was faster; he sped up the flapping of his wings, creating purple lightning, which he shot at Tyrannomon. As expected, the attack didn't move Tyrannomon very much, however it did seem to stun him extremely. Flybeemon flew toward the black tower, slowly and laboriously dragging Tyrannomon behind him, moving him toward the tower.
"NOW!"
Flamedramon shot two fireballs behind him, using the recoil, to accelerate. At break-neck speed, he sprinted at Tyrannomon. Once he reached him he punched him with both fists launching to fireballs into him at point-blank range. Now all resistance coming from the dinosaur was gone, and their combined efforts hurled him into the tower. The center of the tower was shattered, and Tyrannomon flew over what was left of the base. Stumbling the Digimon rose to his feet again. Dazed he took a few steps forward before slumping onto the towers base impaling himself on a spike of its break line. He growled in agony before exploding into a million shards.
"No!" Yolei screamed, "You killed him!"
"What did we just say?!" Mimi added furiously.
"Uh, oops..." Flamedramon said awkwardly, "I would just like to point out, that this was a team effort..."
"Great work..." Cody muttered passing by Flamedramon.
"Eh, stop the bitching" Flamedramon shot back, "At least we knocked down the tower, too."
"I'm filled with joy!" Yolei grumbled.
"Shut up and let's move on, alright?"
They hurried down the hill – until they reached the passed out Tyrannomon, who had rolled down the slope; he still wore the black ring.
"What do we do with him?" Cody asked.
"Well, he's out cold, maybe we should -" Yolei started but was interrupted by Flamedramon walking up to Tyrannomon, throwing a burning fist at the black ring, destroying it effortlessly.
"Careful!" she said irritated.
"Calm down, he's fine, isn't he?" Flamedramon huffed, as Tyrannomon moved, slowly coming to.
Flamedramon started to glow and devolved back to Veemon again.
"That's better" he said, "Now let's go."
"You did that on purpose?" Flybeemon asked.
"Saving up some energy. I was running low." Veemon explained, "Just wanted to avoid, devolving any further. In this form I still have kick-ass headbutts. You don't expect me, to finish this job with fucking 'Bursting Bubbles', do you?"
"Huh, fair play – ARGH!"
A fireball hit Flybeemon from behind; apparently Tyrannomon wasn't done with them yet.
"Shit!" Veemon yelled.
"Why is he still attacking us?" Cody asked startled.
"Uh, because he is an asshole, I guess!"
"Flybeemon – uh... Hawkmon?" Yolei said confused; Flybeemon had immediately devolved upon being hit by Tyrannomon's attack.
"No... not quite." he answered.
He had turned into a small, furry, pink ball with short wings and a tiny beak. The feather, he wore on his head as Hawkmon also remained, where it was.
"I'm Poromon, now..." he explained.
Yolei ran over to him and picked him up.
"Aw, you're so cuu-"
"Shut up and run!" Veemon barked, sprinting towards the pyramid.
Luckily for them Tyrannomon still appeared to be a little bemused, since his following shots all missed, and he couldn't quite catch up to them. Just as it seemed to get dangerous for them, they reached the entrance of the pyramid. They were already in the middle of the hall when the dinosaur slammed into the structure. His body was to big for him to fit through, but his head did, so he remained just under the doorway. The entrance itself was rather low, therefor he couldn't open up his mouth to fire at them again. He tried once but his jaw hit the massive stone block above the door, causing lots of tiny stones to rill down on him.
"That was close!" Davis said having caught his breath first.
"Let's try not to say shit like that, when we're still not safe yet!" Veemon argued annoyed, "Okay, let's see..."
He examined the door frame with Tyrannomon's head in it.
"You know, that boulder above his head looks pretty loose..." he said turning around to face the others, "I mean, one well placed headbutt by me... maybe some help from Palmon's vines, and we can drop that thing on his head."
"Yes, but that could kill him!" Mimi said through gritted teeth.
"So what? He's trying to kill us! Without any mind control! At this point, he has it coming!"
"We gonna find a way out of this" Yolei said, "But not like this!"
"Here we go again!" Veemon groaned.
"No matter what, we are not gonna kill anyone else!"
"Just fucking kill them! The rookies aren't here!" TK yelled, as he and Kari took cover between a few rocks away from the lava.
"Oh, yeah of course! Fighting one of these guys alone, is fucking lame, anyways!" Gatomon shouted sarcastically, punching an Ogremon in the face, knocking him to the ground, "It's way more fun when they come in bulk!"
"Gatomon, see those two coming up, a bit behind that big rock at the lake?" Izzy said, "Make sure they don't go past it. In fact, try stalling them so they stay next to it."
"Uh, okay I think, I have a plan! Tentomon, you with me!"
"Um... sure!"
They charged at the two Ogremon.
"Whoever recovers first, gets stunned, alright?" Gatomon told Tentomon.
"What do you - ?"
But Gatomon had already punched the closest Ogremon in such a way, that he stumbled into the one behind him. They collided and the first one fell to the floor, while the second was just startled.
"Oh, okay! Got it!" Tentomon said, sending a small bolt of lightning at the Ogremon, still standing. It wasn't enough to cause damage to him, but it stunned him, noticeably.
"Now would be good, Izzy!" Gatomon said.
"Gotcha!" Izzy exclaimed, slamming a key on his keyboard so intensely, they could hear it through the microphone.
Parts of the cliff side next to the Ogremon, exploded into data, what was left came crumbling down in three huge chunks. The landslide accelerated, crashing into the ogres and pushing them into the lava. Two of the boulders lined up behind each other as they slid into the lake themselves almost forming a perfect bridge over to the island.
"WHOA! That was sick!" TK shouted.
"Get to the island, NOW!" Izzy commanded, "Digimon, cover them!"
TK and Kari ran out of their hiding spot, narrowly avoiding the club of an Ogremon, thanks to Patamon, who deflected it with boom-bubble. Running across the make-shift bridge, they had to jump across a small gap between the two rocks, which wasn't much of a problem. The problems started arising when they reached the gap between the second rock and the island - which was significantly larger. Kari stopped.
"Uh, you think we can make that jump?" she asked nervously.
"Just run and then jump!" TK said hectically.
"But -"
There was no real height difference, but the rim of the island was sloping down into the lava, introducing the risk of slipping and sliding in.
"Look, it's either maybe getting cooked alive, if we screw up or guaranteed... well..."
He looked behind them; Two Ogremon had already made their way onto the bridge, leaving the kids' partners desperate to keep them away from TK and Kari.
"Uh, you get the idea, gotta hurry." he finished his thought, "Unless, Izzy has another boulder for us."
"No" Izzy said, "That move from before took a lot of prep time, also I can't just do it anywhere, I please. The dark towers, for example are off-limits entirely. Can't get a hold of any sort of code, that's even related to them."
"Well, gotta jump then!" TK said taking a run-up. And without further hesitation, he sprinted toward the gap and jumped.
"TK!" Kari called out scared, covering her mouth with her hands - but he made it.
"Okay, that wasn't too hard. Just take a good run-up and you should be fine!" he said extending his hands toward her, in case she had trouble making it over.
"TK" Tai spoke into Izzy's microphone, "If this goes south, I'm gonna find a way in there and throw you into the lava as well!"
"Maybe a bit further back!" TK said anxiously as Kari got into position. Kari took another few steps back, before running forward and leaping off the rock. She landed on the island, but lost her balance.
"Whooooa!" she gasped, nearly falling backwards into the lava, if it wasn't for TK, quickly grabbing her wrist and pulling her up to him.
"Thank you!" she said out of breath.
"TK, I take it back." Tai said, obviously relieved, "You're in my cool-book, now."
"Oh, good" TK replied, also slightly out of breath, "Hold on, wasn't I before? - Wait! You don't have to answer that..."
Meanwhile the three Digimon were still fighting off the two Ogremon on the bridge, Tentomon and Patamon taking care of one – or at least trying to – while Gatomon battled the other, one on one.
"How do we get rid of them?" Tentomon asked tense.
Gatomon didn't answer right away, instead she dodged another one of Ogremon's swings, waiting for him to raise his club again. When he did she jumped up to his face and just as he held the club above and behind himself, she timed it right and hit him in the face with a lightning-paw. This combined with the weight of the club completely knocked him off balance, making him fall into the lava. As soon as he hit the hot surface he dissolved into data.
"See? The lava is our friend!" she said with a smirk, "Tentomon, stun your guy and Patamon, you knock him off with boom-bubble."
Gatomon ran back to the end of the bridge, where the remaining two Ogremon waited, while Patamon and Tentomon implemented the plan; Tentomon's lightning made Ogremon's muscles convulse, freezing him in position momentarily. Patamon reacted on cue, firing an air bubble at him, it wasn't a hard hit, but it was sufficient to push him over the edge just enough, so he couldn't recover and fell.
"Yay! We did it!" Patamon shouted excited, high-fiving Tentomon.
"Uh, guys... we're not done yet..." Gatomon said, staring down the two remaining foes. She didn't attack yet, since it meant she would have to fight the two at once. The two Ogremon, on the other hand, didn't attempt to get on the bridge. Instead, they had started to whale on the first rock, probably trying to destroy the bridge.
"You take the one on the right, I take the one on the left" Gatomon ordered, "GO!"
They charged at them. With a few quick strikes Gatomon managed to get her opponent away from the bridge, and the other two succeeded in stopping the other ogre's attempts to destroy the bridge, as well. However, since the Ogremon had witnessed the literal downfall of their allies, they had gotten careful, not to get too close to the the lake. Every time they dodged an attack, they did so away from the glow of the molten rock. That meant the fight was way more difficult, than before, even for Gatomon.
"Tentomon, get over – ugh, never mind!" Gatomon started, but then realized the problem with her plan, "Patamon will get annihilated without your support!"
"No, I can handle – ah!" Patamon argued but, cut himself off, when he almost got hit by Ogremon; Tentomon had stunned the ogre just in time, so he couldn't go through with the attack.
"Yeah, clearly!" Gatomon scoffed, "No, fuck this! You two, stick together!"
"TK, Kari" Izzy said, "This might be a good time, to pick up the egg! Or... the eggs – what is it? One or two?"
"Uh, definitely two." TK said.
The were looking at two eggs standing upright next to each other. The first was resting inside of a slim god ray which looked like it was originating from the egg. The egg itself plain white and its shell looked like a coat resembling wings enveloping it, with the bottom hem taking up a shape like it was made out of dozens of feathers. The exposed golden tip of the egg seemed to give them a hint as to what may lie under the coat. The crest of light was in the center of its front, in a pink color.
The second was a brass colored egg, its shell bolted together from a few metal plates. There were two red pieces of cloth attacked to the sides of the egg, looking like small banners. The TK's crest was engraved into its lower half, albeit upside down from what they were used to. Occasionally, small sparks would fly across its surface, so fast, they looked like small shooting stars.
"It's 'Light' and 'Wrath' – I mean 'Hope'!" TK corrected himself, "It is 'Hope', isn't it?"
"Yes, TK. Also, I can see that." Izzy added dry, "On that note, good camera work, Kari. I'm serious, by the way."
"Thanks, it's – kinda hard to tell, with you, sometimes..." Kari said.
"By the way, isn't it fucking weird, that we found our crests, of all things?" TK argued.
"Not really" Izzy said calm, "I tried adding the code for the tracking feature to my Digivice as well but it didn't work. I could only apply the code with the number zero, to your and Kari's Digivices. Guess we now know why: That specific code is apparently used to track the eggs with these two crests. And your Digivices are compatible with those crests. Also, let's be real, it's both eggs at once, because they are the perfect bait."
"You mean this is a trap?" TK asked.
"OF COURSE IT'S A FUCKING TRAP!"
"Yeah... since you put like that..."
"Now, use the eggs, before your partners get killed – and more importantly my partner!"
"Looks like, we have different priorities here..." TK muttered, "Patamon's way more important..."
"Coming to think of it, would the egg even help Gatomon?" Kari asked, "Would it even work? I thought it was meant to be for rookie-levels."
"Good objection..." Izzy pensively, "I'm gonna check the data, I collected. Meanwhile TK pick up and use yours, asap!"
"Asap?"
"As soon as possible!"
"Oh, sure" TK said walking over to the egg of hope – then he stopped, "Wait, why would it work, thou-"
"You have a D3 now! I feel like, this is a sign!"
"True" TK shrugged and lifted up the egg of hope, "Oh, that's right."
He pulled a D-Terminal out of his pocket.
"Did my homework, Izzy" he added, as he opened the device and let it absorb the egg, "I just – hope my mom wont check swearing jar, for at least a month..."
"Guys?" Gatomon called over the lake, "We could use some support here!"
"Okay, here we go!" TK said holding up his D-Terminal, "Digi-armor energize!"
Instantly, Patamon started to glow white.
"Patamon armor-digivolve to... Pegasusmon!"
He had turned into a brass colored Pegasus with gold engraved armor pieces on his legs chest and head. Similar to Flybeemon his head piece had was marked with the crest on the egg: Hope. But there was one reminder, that it was Patamon who evolved into that form: Pegasusmon's ears looked identical to Patamon's wings.
As soon as the Digivolution was complete, Pegasusmon shot an attack at Ogremon, that looked like a shooting star, from the crest on his forehead. The impact was enormous, lifting Ogremon off his feet, throwing him backwards into the dirt. He lost the grip on his club and it flew away an additional thirty feet.
"Nice!" Gatomon shouted, "That's the kind of fire power, I was talking about!"
She dodged one of her opponent's attacks, before punching the club away to Ogremon's right. Almost in the same move, she jumped after it, positioning next to his legs and treating one of them with a lightning paw in the opposite direction, the club headed. This caused Ogremon to stumble immensely closer to the lava.
"Tentomon, stun him!"
"On it!"
Tentomon flew over and shocked Ogremon while he was still struggling to get up and away from the lava again. He was still standing, so Gatomon slid past him, cutting his leg with her claws. When she came to a stop behind him, she jumped and hit the back of his head, so he fell forward and toward the lake. Tentomon reacted quickly stunning Ogremon again, thus sealing the deal and rendering him unable to save himself. The Digimon hit the lava, dying on impact.
"Good job!" Gatomon exclaimed with a grin, "Now, let's finish that last asshole. Can you carry me over on your back?"
"Yeah... I guess... why?"
"Just do it. I have a plan"
"Okay, looks like you got the situation under control" Izzy said, "I need to check on the rookies, it's gotten awfully quiet on their end..."
"What? Are you worried?" TK asked half laughing.
"Uh, no?" Izzy said incredulously, "Still, it might be good to know if our support was killed or not, wouldn't you agree?"
"And our new leader, remember?" Kari added, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, that too"
Beep
Meanwhile Pegasusmon put up a good fight against the last remaining enemy, although they seemed to be fighting on an even footing. In order to save up energy, Pegasusmon went into close combat, following his first attack. Ogremon, however, had managed to get to his club in time. He grabbed it and spun around, swinging the weapon at Pegasusmon. Closing in on Ogremon, Pegasusmon stood up on his hind legs and tried hitting him with his front hoofs, but Ogremon's attack knocked the front joints to the side.
Pegasusmon tried again but after just a few exchanges, he realized that Ogremon was too strong in melee combat. He took off and started to fly circles around Ogremon, shooting at him constantly. Ogremon dodged the majority of the attacks, since the distance between him and Pegasusmon was big enough, to see them coming, in advance. One time he couldn't, though, and was forced to block it with his club, which cracked visibly on impact.
"Think, you can make that shot again, Pegasusmon?" TK asked.
"Uh, I don't think so, not from this distance" Pegasusmon replied.
"Then move in closer and aim for the club!" he suggested, "I think you can bust it, if you hit it again!"
"Okay!"
Pegasusmon landed a good two hundred feet away from Ogremon and started galloping toward him, while the ogre sprinted in his direction, raising his club. Just before they collided, Ogremon brought down the club, to hit Pegasusmon's head, but the armor-level reacted quickly; he fired another shooting star, which hit the weapon and shattered it into a thousand pieces.
Incapacitated, Ogremon stumbled sideways, in order to dodge the Pegasus' approach, but losing his balance since he had put most of his weight forward, for the attack, and fell to the ground.
He got back up quickly, turning around only to find Pegasusmon - just standing there, watching him. There was a good reason for that, too: Pegasusmon saw what was coming up behind Ogremon - or rather who.
The Digimon had barely time to turn around and catch a glimpse at them; Tentomon was flying toward him, Gatomon riding on his back.
"Now!" she commanded and Tentomon bucked her off and she jumped forward.
She flew at Ogremon, so fast, that he had no time to react in anyway. She raised her right paw, pointing her claws at him. When she hit him, she stabbed him in the neck, killing him on the spot.
"Woo!" she shouted out, upon landing on her feet, coming down from the adrenaline rush of the fight, "Undefeated! Bow to the queen of the kill count, bitches!" she added, spreading her arms in a victory pose, "Nice support on that last one, though, Pegasusmon."
"Don't mention it!" Pegasusmon said before devolving to Patamon again.
"IZZY!" TK yelled, "IZZY WE'RE DONE! WHAT ABOUT THE EGG?!"
"Quiet down, already! I'm back." Izzy replied annoyed.
"Oh, okay..." TK said, "Yeah, so anyway they're all dead."
"Was it really necessary to kill all of them?" Kari asked, "They were all mind controlled!"
"Nah" TK said, "Ogremon are all bullies. Looks like your theory still sucks, Tai!"
"Fuck you, man!" Tai called out, "It's just been a bunch of bad examples, so far!"
"He's right" Kari supported her brother, "How do we know, the Ogremon we knew, wasn't one of them?"
"You mean, the one we knew?" TK asked her smug, "Because you never met him."
"Ugh!" Kari groaned, but then she paused.
"Hang on!" she said, "I did meet him! He's on the group photo, we all took together!"
"Really?" TK said confused, but then his eyes lit up, as he seemed to recall things correctly, "Oh, right! Leomon died! Why would I confuse these two?"
"That's a good question" Izzy said, "How would you confuse these two? But it's unlikely, that we knew any of these Ogremon, considering there isn't a single dark tower on File Island, and I highly doubt, our little antisemitic dickhead would have taken the time, to fly all the way over there on his Airdramon and kidnap a bunch of Digimon there, without leaving at least one tower on that island."
The Ogremon the kids got to know, was native to an island far away from Server (where they were now), called File Island. It was the very location the kids arrived at when they first entered the Digital World.
"In any event" Gatomon said shrugging, "Now they're all back to File Island - in Starter Village!" she added giggling, referencing the place where Digimon usually were reborn, after dying, the DigiDestined's partners being the only exception, for all they knew, "Coming to think of it, I killed all of them, didn't I?"
"Ahem" Izzy answered irritated.
"Oh shit, that's right" Gatomon said, "Sorry, Izzy. But hey, I doomed all of them, am I right?"
"What about the one, Patamon and I took out?" Tentomon argued.
"Oh..." she recalled, "Yeah, but it was my plan, though. So technically..."
"Shut up" Tentomon said dry, flying past her over to the island TK and Kari were on.
"Fair enough" she admitted chuckling and followed him and Patamon over the bridge.
"So what do we do with that thing?" she asked, pointing at the remaining egg, when she reached the island, "I think, Kari is right: I can't use it as a champion level."
"Yeah, I looked over every bit of information about the eggs, we got so far." Izzy said, "The code clearly points toward rookie levels, so it's unlikely it will work on higher levels... That said, we could -"
"Yoink" TK interrupted him giggling, snatching the egg from its resting place - although, his chuckle turned into a surprised cough, once he realized, he could actually pick it up.
"TK, what the hell?" Kari said irritated.
"Oh, shit! I didn't think that would work!" TK said equally surprised.
He tried to pass the egg over to Kari, when his D-Terminal started to glow again.
"Here you goooo - nonononono no!"
Upset, he looked down at the display of his D-Terminal, which had just absorbed the egg.
"In my defense, I really didn't think this was possible..." TK said taken aback.
"And I repeat" Kari said baffled, "What... the hell?"
"I didn't know!"
"Great job..." Kari sighed, "Izzy, you're still with us or did you ditch us, for that stunt?"
A few seconds passed before Izzy replied:
"So, as I was saying earlier: We could still make use of it, if Kari picks it up. Seeing how Gatomon could still devolve, upon using too much energy in a fight, this could be an excellent fall back!"
"I'm sorry, okay?!" TK apologized, "Can we reverse this? It's all data, so you probably could, right?"
"Ugh... I gotta look into it... I doubt it, though. On the plus side we now know, one person can pick up at least two eggs."
"Oh shit you're right!" TK said somewhat relieved, it wasn't all bad, "Well, in that case -"
"Don't you dare taking credit for anything positive, that happened today!" Izzy barked before letting out a heavy sigh, "Now, all of you, do me a favor, head west so you can reconvene with the rookies"
"Which way's west?" Kari asked.
"Our improvised bridge is east of you - so the other way" he added to be safe, "Although coming to think of it, try destroying a few dark towers in the area first. I wanna see, if I can figure out the radius of these things."
"By destroying them?"
"TK, you gotta be kidding me" Izzy said annoyed, "Is it seriously that hard to grasp? I compare the cluster fuck of data and energy in this area, before you destroy the tower, with what's in the air, so to speak, when it's gone."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense."
"No" Izzy corrected irritated, "The appropriate response would have been: 'Oh, that makes perfect sense'. Get to it!"
A little bit prior, the rookies had enjoyed a little moment of peace when they took in the new environment: The small pyramid was entirely hollow, so the hall, they were in took on its shape. Moss and small plants covered large portions of the walls, all of them glowing in a gentle green color. There were small gaps in the walls and the tip of the pyramid acting as windows. The crests of the DigiDestined were engraved into one of the steps in the ceiling, emitting the same green glow. A large stone tablet behind the altar were the egg was placed, displayed the Mimi's crest. The egg itself was was largely made up of four green leafs resting on, what looked like a shuriken. The shape of the leafs complemented the tear drop symbol of the crest nicely. However, this moment of tranquility was short lived, because the discussion, of what to do with Tyrannomon continued. And so did the bickering.
"So, what you're saying is, you'd rather starve to death, then hurt that son of a bitch?" Veemon growled, clearly trying to hold back his rage.
"Well, I'd prefer it, if we'd just scare him off..." Yolei suggested, when Veemon cut her off:
"Oh, and how do you think we're gonna do that? Should I just - run up to him, going for a headbutt, then stop at the last second?"
"Listen up, you little shit!" Mimi hissed, threateningly, "We're just trying to find a peaceful solution to this, so either try to help or shut up!"
"Okay, Princess, how about this: Since you pacifist pussies all seem to get off to that shit, why don't we just ask him nicely, then?" Veemon said and turned around to face Tyrannomon, "Hey, Tyrannomon! Do you mind, leaving us alone and not trying to eat us?"
Tyrannomon growled in response.
Veemon turned to his allies again.
"Well, I don't know about you, but to me it doesn't look like, he's into that idea!"
"Are you sure?" Poromon asked uncertain.
"What do you mean 'are you sure'? Look at him! He's pissed off!"
"No, I mean, I think he might be stuck"
Tilting their heads, the kids and their partners looked intensely at Tyrannomon, uncertain, whether the he could pull his head out of the doorway or not.
"I mean, I have an idea how to find out..." Veemon said in a rather low voice.
"Does it involve hurting or killing him?" Mimi asked testy.
"I don't know, might as well try it on you first..." Veemon muttered.
Beep
"You guys still alive?" Izzy asked, "Kind of unusual for all of you, to shut up."
"Yeah, we're fine" Veemon said.
"Then why are you still in that temple?"
"Ah, we're having a bit of a problem here..."
"What kind?"
Conveniently, Tyrannomon just let loose a roar, albeit not a full grown one, since he still couldn't open his jaws completely.
"Yeah" Veemon said nodding, "Good summary."
"So, you couldn't defeat three Tyrannomon?" Izzy asked incredulously.
"Come on man, we killed one!" Veemon argued.
Mimi growled behind him.
"Again: By accident..." he added, rolling his eyes, "Took down a tower, too. But that's not the point. Point is, we busted the rings of the other two, but one of them seems to be a dick by default, so he chased us to the temple. Which reminds me, didn't somebody say the rings turn, them into killers?" he added louder, clearly addressing Tai, "Because so far, I can't tell the difference!"
"Fuck you!"
"Huh, that's funny..." Izzy said, "I could have sworn there was somebody with you who could pick up the egg in that temple..."
"It's my crest" Mimi stepped in, "I could pick it up."
"No, those are only meant for the rook - wait, scratch that, they are only for people with D3's" Izzy corrected himself, "Because at this point TK and Kari both have those - and now TK has two eggs. So, all of you can have at least two... presumably"
"They have D3's now?" Yolei asked.
"Look, I'll explain later. We don't have time for this."
"Why does TK have two eggs, though?" Mimi asked.
"Because it's TK we're talking about" Izzy explained annoyed, "He was dicking around again and picked up Kari's by accident, too."
"But why were there two in the first place?" Yolei asked, "I thought they all were -"
"Because it was an ambush!" Izzy growled, "We did talk to each other, last time you called, to bitch about the Tyrannomon, right? Now, Veemon, why is it that not even you took action, here? Pick up the egg, evolve the new guy and deal with the Digimon, that's trying to kill you!"
"Oh, yeah? You try working with a team, that's two thirds pacifists and one third people who are either to dumb" he said, glaring at Davis, "or don't give a shit whether we kill 'em or not!" that comment came with an annoyed look toward Poromon and Palmon, "Voting doesn't seem to work out in favor of fighting!"
Poromon cleared his throat.
"Well, I think it's an honorable approach, not to kill your enemies, if -"
"Shut up, Poromon! You're not helping!"
"Okay, guys" Izzy said sternly, "Let's get serious for a second: I get that you don't -"
"Second's over" Davis said giggling.
Izzy went silent for a second.
"I - you have no idea how close I was, to killing you, just now, rookie" he said baffled, " As I was saying! I get that you don't want to kill living beings, I do! But here is the thing: They respawn! Look, I wont force you, to go for the kill at all times, but fight! For fuck's sake! And if there's casualties along the way, shit happens! Life literally goes on, even for the ones you kill!"
"Okay... we can fight him, I guess..." Mimi mumbled begrudgingly.
"Rookies?" Izzy asked indignantly.
"Okay..." Yolei and Cody said in unison and Davis asked:
"What was the question?"
"Thank you!" Izzy said audibly relieved and ignored Davis, "On a side note, even if you do kill him: he's not mind controlled anymore! He has it coming!"
"Blank, the egg?" Veemon said to Cody.
"Enjoying the nicknames we gave the rookies?" Izzy asked.
"Yeah!" Veemon chuckled and nodded, "They're great!"
Cody walked up to the egg and took a deep breath.
"I just hope my partner wont be a murderous psychopath, too..." he mumbled.
"Holy shit" Veemon said surprised, "This might be the most, he ever talked in one go!"
"Ugh, it's so annoying..." Davis sighed.
Now Veemon took a deep breath, closing his eyes, muttering some mantra to himself, most likely to keep himself from exploding.
Cody picked up the egg, then he opened up his D-Terminal, so it could absorb it.
He took a few steps back as a yellow laser beam appeared, filling the void, left behind by the egg.
"Oh, it's so pretty..." Mimi whispered in awe, "Look it's even going through that little hole in the tip of the pyramid! Wow, I wonder how high up that goes..."
"Yeah" Izzy said facetiously, "A perfect beacon for attracting even more of our enemies to your location..."
"You know, you're a real buzzkill, sometimes!" Mimi huffed.
"Well, I'm ninety nine percent certain, that, if I wasn't, all of us would have died, back on File Island - at the hands of Kuwagamon!"
Tai shuddered so loudly, they could here him on their end.
In the middle of the beam floated, what looked like a ball at first, but then it started moving and limbs and a head became clearly visible. Once the energy beam was completely gone the new arrival opened their eyes, looked at Cody and with a little yelp they immediately jumped into his arms.
"I'm free!" the Digimon exclaimed with a very feminine sounding voice and cuddled up to Cody, "You're my partner right? What's your name?"
"Um" Cody said taken aback by his partners enthusiasm, "I'm Cody"
He blushed a little and blinked repeatedly, clearly unsure of how to handle her.
"Cody? Oh, that's cool!" she said jumping off his arms; she was only about half his size but it was still enough to have him struggle to hold her up, "I'm Armadillomon!"
"Oh. My. God!" Davis said baffled, "That's exactly, what I would have called you!"
Veemon started growling and shaking with anger; Armadillomon looked precisely as her name would suggest: she was a yellow colored Armadillo with a purple underbelly and pointy ears with three tips.
"So, let me get this straight" Izzy said with a hint of irritation in his voice, "Wannabe got a male partner and now you are getting a female one? Are we sure, you two didn't swap eggs or something?"
"Hang on" Armadillomon said looking around, "Who said that?"
"Oh, boy this never gets old..." Izzy sighed.
He briefly explained the situation and introduced the crew to her.
"Hey, what's up?" she said cheerful waving to the group, "So you're saying, we gotta find that emperor guy and kill him, right?"
"NO!" Yolei, Mimi and Cody shouted.
"Okay, okay!" Armadillomon said scared by their outburst, "But then what's the plan?"
"Yeah, in case you couldn't tell, these three constantly shit themselves when it comes to killing." Veemon said dead panned, "I don't know man, maybe they wanna make friends with him and convince him, that he's actually being a real asshole, and that maybe he should try being nicer..."
Armadillomon stared at him.
"Yeah, I'm not really good at that sort of thing..." she said timidly, "So, I leave that up to you."
"Oh, speaking of leaving things up to you" Izzy said suddenly, "Gotta go, you guys have fun."
And he was gone.
"Why did he leave?" Armadillomon asked confused.
"Because there's another team of DigiDestined, Izzy watches out for." Veemon explained, "They're usually part of our crew, too, but we split up for this mission."
"Oh, okay" Armadillomon said, "So where's this emperor guy, we're supposed to fight?"
"No idea" Veemon replied.
"How do we find him?"
"Not a clue"
"Oh..." she said disappointed, "Then what's next?"
"Regrouping with the other team"
"Awesome! Let's go! I wanna meet the others!"
"Yeah, here is the thing" he said taking a step to the side; he was standing rather close to her and Cody so he was blocking her view at the entrance. Now she could see Tyrannomon, who roared again upon seeing the new arrival clearly, for the first time.
Veemon had a mischievous smirk on his face, expecting Armadillomon to jump at the sight - and the roar. She did, but only in excitement, exclaiming:
"Whoa! That's sick! I've never seen one of those up close!"
"Uh, don't get too excited" Veemon said, "He was mind controlled, so we freed him from the black ring enslaving him – and in return he's trying to eat us now..."
"Okay, let's take him out then!" Armadillomon said thrilled, "Come on, digivolve me! I wanna fight!"
"Don't kill him, though." Cody insisted.
"Don't worry, he'll wish he's dead when I'm done!" she with a mean smile, "Now, come on! Let's go, I'm pumped!"
"Still... that sounds a bit much..." Cody argued.
"Yeah, okay. Maybe I got carried away" she said, bouncing up down sightly, "But hey, I'm excited, can't help it!"
"God, this is gonna be so annoying..." Davis murmured.
"Yeah, maybe we should keep the caffeine away from her..." Veemon agreed.
"What? I'm talking about him!" Davis said, "Now that she's here, he's talking non-stop!"
"Did you have a lobotomy as a child?!"
"Look, Armadillomon" Cody said, "We are just trying to scare him away, so don't go too hard on him."
She looked away for a second, considering the suggestion.
"Nah, that's lame, let's kick his ass!"
"You know, I like that chicks attitude, though" Veemon said smirking.
"What do we do if he really is stuck, though?" Yolei asked concerned, "Maybe, if we help him to free himself, he will -"
"On it!" Veemon said darting toward Tyrannomon.
"Alright!" Armadillomon said excited, "Let's go! Digivolve me!"
"You sure -?"
"Now!"
Cody held up his D-Terminal just as Veemon headbutted Tyrannomon.
"Digi-armor energize!"
Veemon hit Tyrannomon and shoved him out of the doorway. The dinosaur seemed to have been stuck in deed, because the entrance started to crumble. Veemon was almost out, but Tyrannomon was still directly in front of him, leaving him with no choice but to crawl backwards, get up and run back inside to avoid the collapse. A piece of debris hit him in the back, knocking him to the floor.
"SHIT!" he shouted when he saw the big boulder above him, coming loose and starting to fall.
He curled up protecting his head with his arms, awaiting the impact, that would undoubtedly kill him.
It didn't happen.
Veemon opened his eyes. A large, yellow, frog like creature towered above him, holding up the stone block like Atlas. The frog had gray armor plates attached to their shoulders, which were connected to a massive red piece of armor covering their entire back. Attached to their shoulder blades were two tubes connecting two big propellers or rotor blades to their armor, looking like they were made up out of metal leafs. There was also an enormous leaf attached to the armor, in a way that it was hovering above her face, almost like it was ready to shield it. The frog carried a few shuriken with them, with blades, looking like leafs, and, equipped to their leg with a strap, a holster with a large dagger in it.
"Move!" the frog said strained, having to put up a lot of strength to hold up the boulder. They were speaking with Armadillomon's voice.
"Holy shit, now I'm sold!" Veemon said, running out from beneath her, "You're officially part of the team, now, Girly. I approve!"
"Don't call me 'Girly'! Call me Frogmon!"
"Oh, now you're definitely Girly!" Veemon chuckled, "I wanted to come up with a better nickname, but now I'm sticking with this one!"
"Ugh!" Frogmon groaned pushing the stone block forward. Apparently she had held up an integral part of the structure, since a large portion of the front collapsed afterwards. The group fled to the back of the room.
"Whoa!" Davis said looking through the windows in the back wall and seeing a shadow pass by, "He's fast! He's already at the back!"
"No, you idiot" Veemon huffed, "He's still in the front that's the second – oh, fuck! We might be screwed..."
"Awesome!" Frogmon said, "Two on one? Challenge accepted!"
She ran outside tackling the Tyrannomon that was still at the front. Despite the fact that she was only half his size, Frogmon almost managed to throw him off balance.
"Frogmon, no!" Cody shouted.
"I'll fight with her..." Veemon sighed, "Palmon, you with me!"
"No!" Mimi protested, "It's too dangerous! You're both just rookie levels!"
"So?" Veemon argued, "My headbutts are strong enough to knock these guys out. She's just the support."
"Oh, really?" Mimi scoffed, "He doesn't look knocked out to me!"
"Fine! But I could probably handle one on my own for a little bit, we'll figure it out together."
They ran over to the Tyrannomon that just came around from the back of the temple.
Frogmon had started throwing her leaf-shuriken at Tyrannomon. Even with her large figure, she was extremely nimble, dodging all of his attacks with ease. The shuriken however didn't seem to be very effective against the dinosaur, so she went into close combat. Quickly a battle ensued over who managed to bite their opponent more often and devastatingly. While Tyrannomon certainly had bigger jaws, Frogmon was way more agile, evading him every time. She bit him in the leg and he tried countering immediately, but she let go and with a quick kick in the side of his head she knocked him away from her. Frogmon ran around him in order to attack him from behind. Her plan almost worked, but Tyrannomon noticed her approach and spun around, hitting her with his tail sending her flying.
She was about to crash into the Pyramid, when she suddenly started spinning the leaf like blades on her back like propellers slowing her down until she stopped, hovering in mid air. Mimi and the rookies started coughing due to the large amount of dust she swirled up like that. Frogmon accelerated forward closely avoiding an incoming fireball. Halfway to her opponent she stopped her propellers and using her velocity, she flew at him and slammed him into the ground, vigorously biting into his shoulder. Tyrannomon fought back, by kicking her upwards with both of his massive legs, throwing her into the air again. This time he immediately shot a fireball after her.
She couldn't dodge this time.
"Frogmon!" Cody yelled.
Frogmon lowered her head so the large leaf above it shielded her face from the blast. The fireball hit and exploded into a large dark cloud. Out from the smoke of the explosion, a silver blade emerged, as Frogmon had grabbed her dagger and now proceeded to bring it down on Tyrannomon, while she fell back towards him. She looked completely unharmed. She buried her knife into his shoulder – in fact into the one she had bitten into before. In reaction Tyrannomon thrashed around violently. Being thrown around by his movements, Frogmon lost grip on her weapon, just as she was pulling out. The knife, which was almost as big as a person, flew in an arch over to the other side of the battlefield, just barely missing Veemon in the process.
"Whoa!" he said surprised, jumping backwards as the massive weapon penetrated the field in front of him, blade first.
Him and Palmon had only managed to distract Tyrannomon, instead of causing real damage to him, with Veemon deflecting his attacks at Palmon by headbutting him, and Palmon doing the same for Veemon by slowing him down with her vines.
However, now, Veemon saw an opportunity to land a good hit, looking at the blade, with its dull edge facing him, forming a triangle with the boulder from the pyramid, to the left, and a tree to its right.
"Yo, Palmon!" he yelled, "Get over here I've got a plan!"
Palmon quickly ran over to him.
"What's the plan?"
"Stand at the back of the dagger and shoot your vines at the tops of the boulder and that tree!"
"Okay..." she said following his orders.
She ached, once she had a grip on both of her targets, since her vines had to be stretched very far. She slid forward but the dagger held her in place.
"Can we get some more tension going?" he asked.
"Are you joking?" Palmon squealed.
"You know what, it's fine" Veemon said getting in front of her; the blade's sharp edge was almost pointing at the rock so Veemon could lean against it and Palmon, and the blade didn't threaten to cut her vines.
"He's onto us anyway" he added, looking at Tyrannomon now storming toward them, "Good thing this one's dumb as a brick, or otherwise he would have shot at us now... FROGMON! How about, you grab your weapon!?"
"Gimme a minute!" she shouted back; she was still struggling with the other Tyrannomon.
"We don't even have ten seconds" Veemon argued, "Let alone a minute!"
"Okay, fine!" she said, punching her opponent and then leaping backwards. The jump didn't carry her far enough, so she activated the rotors on her back and flew further backwards before softly landing in between her blade and Tyrannomon.
"What are you doing?" she asked in sheer confusion, looking down at her two comrades.
"You might wanna get out the way when you pull that thing out." Veemon said simply.
"Huh?" she said but then she added, "Oooh"
She grinned at them.
"I get it!"
She grabbed her dagger and jumped above the two, launching herself into the air, while the blade was still stuck in the ground, so she flipped over. In one fluid motion she pulled out the weapon behind her, once her upper body flung upward when she started to turn right side up again. Without stopping the movement she brought down her blade over her head and slashed at her opponent from before, who had just caught up to her.
Veemon and Palmon, on the other hand, had just been yanked forward as the tension in her vines was released. Palmon still held on to the rock and the tree, while Veemon went flying high above Tyrannomon's head and toward the treeline behind him.
"SHIIIIIT!" he yelled as he flew headfirst into a near pine tree.
The tree shook visibly on impact and while Veemon couldn't be seen, falling down, he could clearly be heard:
"FUCK! PISS! SHIT!" he cursed, presumably shouting every time he bounced off a new tree branch, "MOTHERFUCKING -! ASS! FUCK! COCK!"
Finally he had reached the bottom. Growling angrily he emerged from the branches and hit the ground.
"Fuck." he added grumpy.
The other Tyrannomon had watched Veemon's flight, but now turned his attention to bigger game: Frogmon.
She, meanwhile, had landed a blow against her Tyrannomon cutting him lightly between his nostrils, but almost got bitten in return. She now fought a little more defensively, using her agility, her strong leaps and the propellers on her back to dodge all incoming attacks.
The other dinosaur stomped past Palmon, who had collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Mimi took the opportunity, of their enemy not paying attention to them, and sprinted over to Palmon, the rookies closely following her.
"Palmon!" she gasped before dropping to her knees next to her and picking her up gently.
"Good call" Davis said, "A T-Rex can only see you when you're moving."
"I hate you!" Veemon groaned, limping over to them.
"You reckless idiot!" Mimi barked at Veemon, "Look, what you did to her!"
"I did what - shit, what happened to her? How did she get knocked out?"
"Probably whiplash" Poromon suggested.
"Whiplash? Wha- she didn't let go?" he asked, before laughing, "What an idiot!"
Mimi put Palmon tenderly on the ground - before charging at Veemon.
"No!" Yolei intervened, holding her back.
"You don't talk about my Palmon like that, or I'm gonna beat you senseless!" Mimi shrieked.
Beep
"Hey, pacifist!" Veemon said threatening, "If you want a piece of me, be my guest. But if you try, while I'm on this level, you better prepare to get you're head cracked open like a coconut, got it?!"
"I'll take my chances!"
"No killing each other!" Izzy intervened.
Beep
"Seriously?" Veemon asked, "He jumped in, just to tell us that? Anyway, in my defense: I didn't know whiplash was a fucking foreign concept to her. I was only banking on getting him knocked out!"
Mimi looked over her shoulder at Tyrannomon now running for Frogmon, then she turned to look at Veemon, eyes narrowed.
"Yeah, I know!" Veemon grumbled, "Great job! Whatever..."
Frogmon's fight had taken her and the other dinosaur bit further away, so Tyrannomon hadn't reached her yet.
"What are you waiting for?" Cody said to Veemon, nearly panicking, "Help her!"
"What? You think, I can catch up to that guy?"
"Dammit!" Cody said turning around, and running toward his partner.
"Cody, wait!" Yolei shouted.
Mimi picked up Palmon and they ran after him.
Frogmon had now realized, that she could easily outmaneuver Tyrannomon, so she started slashing at him again. He tried to bite her in the face but she ducked, cutting his arm in the process. When he snapped at her further down, she dodged to the right moving the knife in the opposite direction slicing his leg. He turned toward her but she moved the blade upward, hitting the side of his face, making him turn away again. However, when he did so, he went to hit her with his tail. She jumped backward, effectively evading the move and managed to slash across a large section of the tail at the same time.
Tyrannomon growled and retreated. Frogmon was about to go after him not realizing, the other Tyrannomon was closing in, directly behind her.
"Frogmon! Watch out!" Cody yelled, but it was too late:
She had barely time to glance over her shoulder, when the fireball hit her thrusting her forward and to the ground. Coughing she propped herself up with her arms.
"Okay..." she groaned in pain, "You got me pretty good! Props to y- argh!"
Tyrannomon had caught up to her before she had a chance to get up – and bit down her neck.
"NO!" Cody screamed.
Frogmon started to glow and shrink. Tyrannomon let go of her and caught the small glowing orb, she had become, in his mouth.
In shock, Cody stared at the unfolding disaster, but it didn't last long, because suddenly Tyrannomon started to gag.
The Digimon started to thrash his head around, gasping, before spitting out an enormous stream of bursting bubbles, along with a small yellow ball, with pointy ears with three tips.
Cody gasped and hurried across the field to get to her.
"Thank god! I thought he killed you!" he said picking her up.
"Well played, Tyrannomon..." she said breathlessly, "Well played... Okay, I think I'm good to go. I'm gonna finish him off!"
"What?! Are you crazy?!"
"Nah, trust me I've got a plan!"
"No way! You're not fighting him on this level! You're tiny!"
"Come on, Cody!" she whined, "Let go!"
"I said no!" Cody said sternly, carrying her away from the lurching Tyrannomon, who was still too busy hacking from the soap in his mouth.
"Come on! Veemon, back me up, we can take him down! I found his weakness!"
"Yeah, I can tell you exactly how that will work out" Veemon said dry, "He'll swallow, and that will be the end of you."
"No, seriously! I can take him!"
"Stop it, Arm- no, wait..."
Cody paused.
"What's your name now?"
"Oh, it's Upamon!" she replied merrily.
"Right, stop it Upamon."
"Aw, man..."
"Guys, let's just get out of here" Veemon suggested, watching Tyrannomon dumping his head into one of the ponds, scattered across the field, trying to wash the soap out of his mouth.
"I think, as long as he's recovering, we've got a window." he continued, "Let's just hurry. Back to the crossing, where we split, so we can find the others."
They quickly made their way across the field and back to the mountain slope.
"Okay, that's two" Izzy said sitting back in his chair, "Gatomon can you take out one more?"
"Oh, yeah I'm still doing fine" Gatomon replied relaxed, "How about three? We still have time, don't we?"
"Eh, let's not waste all of your energy you still need to find a TV for your return. Who knows what could happen in the meantime. So far it looks like, these towers have a run-of-the-mill radius of one mile. One more to be certain. Of course the definitive test would be to try digivolving more than one mile away from the nearest tower, but – let's save that for like the tenth mission. I don't see us, making it earlier... "
"Okay, on it"
"How many times? It's called power napping!" Tai said from behind the lab's door; since the fight was over, he had left to take a bathroom break. Apparently he had bumped into somebody on the way back. Somebody, critical of his sleeping habits.
The door slid open and Izzy wasn't very surprised to see Matt enter the room next to Tai.
"Matt" he said calm, "To what do we owe the honor?"
"You wrote me an e-mail, to bring you my Digivice" Matt said raising an eyebrow.
"You people tend to ignore my e-mails, so I didn't exactly consider this to be the reason." Izzy said plainly, "Nice to see someone pays attention, though..."
"Is that my brother?" TK asked.
"How many Matts do we know?"
"Hi, Matt" Kari said.
"Hey guys" Matt said simply, "Here it is" he added giving Izzy his Digivice.
"Thank you" Izzy said, "We can track down Gabumon with this."
"Good. Still can't believe they didn't stick together, though" Matt muttered.
"That's hypocritical..."
"Whatever" Matt huffed, "How is the mission going?"
"Pretty – amazing actually" Tai said, seemingly surprised about the fact, he could state that, alone.
"Eh, could have been better" Izzy shrugged, "Then again it's probably my fault, for not including the TK-factor into my calculations..."
"What happened?" Matt moaned.
"Look" TK said, "I was trying to make a joke... aaand mistakes were made."
"He can explain later..." Izzy said.
Tai chuckled.
"Still, man, when you pulled off that land slide... shit, that was crazy, dude"
"Why thanks" Izzy said with a little smirk, "They needed to cross a lava lake, Matt. So, I thought of a number of methods on how to 'built' them a bridge, but I settled on erasing some data from a cliff side, to make some big chunks slide into the lake, because I made some calculations and figured, it would be the most likely to succeed. To be honest, I originally wanted to take some big boulders, add them into some sort of clipboard and then drop them into the lake from above. That way, I could have pretty much guaranteed to make a perfect bridge."
"But?" Matt asked.
"But I couldn't get it to work like that. I mean, I'm confident I could have, but it would have been way more time consuming and it already took me an hour to prepare this method – and that's not taking the time into account, it took me to find a spot, I could manipulate like that. That said, smiting enemies with it, only came to mind, when I started considering the pros and cons of both methods, in order to decide which one to go with."
"Sounds like a good reason to me" Matt shrugged.
"Man, you were right" Tai admitted, "If it wasn't for you, we would be long dead... I gotta say, though, the entire mission is going waaay better than expected. Even for the rookies. I thought they'd probably kick the bucket today."
Izzy gave him a long, skeptical look.
"Spoke too soon?" Tai asked, before Izzy unmuted Team-semi-diposable's channel.
"Somebody get Gatomon!" they heard Davis shriek in terror.
"Spoke too soon..." Tai sighed.
When Gatomon's Lightning Paw hit the base of the dark tower, its base started cracking immensely until the structure split and fell over.
"Alright, three down" TK said.
"Thank you, TK" Gatomon said rolling her eyes, "I can count, too... Whoa, check this out" she added pointing at the portion of the tower that had fallen off. It came to a stop at first but then slid a bit further almost falling over the edge of the cliff, it was located at, but balancing itself on the rim.
"Pretty cool, huh?" she said with a smirk.
"Eh" TK said, "You didn't call it though"
"Oh, shut up"
Suddenly the cliff side collapsed, just in front of them. They backed away from it.
"Careful, careful!" Gatomon said indignantly, "Lava lake!"
They had almost backed up to the edge of a lake behind them, but came to a stop in time, since the cliff had stopped collapsing. Now they found themselves just before the new edge of the cliff.
"That was weird" TK said taken aback.
"Yup" Gatomon agreed, "guess that means it's time to go"
They turned to leave when suddenly a massive flame shot across the ground in front of them cutting them off.
"Fuck!" TK said annoyed, "I thought we were done with fucking setups for today!"
"Apparently not" Gatomon snorted.
"Well" a smug voice said.
They looked up to the source of the flame.
An Airdramon hovered in front of them, blocking their way. On his back was a boy, about the same age as them, with spiky black hair and golden framed shades.
"I just knew, I was dealing with some sneaky little Jews." the Emperor said with an evil grin.