"Look out!" shouted Gabumon as a blast of energy shot out from the swirling mass that was Missingo. The blast destroyed the ground around the digimon, scattering them left and right with the shards of rock.
Tentomon, being one of the two flyers in the group, was still up and moving. "Super Shocker!" shouted the digimon. The small lightning bolt sizzled through the air and hit the pokémon, but like the other attacks before it did little to the creature. Tentomon shot his attack repeatedly as he tried to lure the beast away from the others.
"Tentomon!" cried Agumon as he stood up.
"Super Shocker!" shouted the digimon again. Missingo lashed out at Tentomon with another blast of energy that he just barely avoided. "Get out of here while I have his attention!" Tentomon flew off at high speed, while the normally lumbering Missingo shot after him, tearing up everything in his path like a rampaging rhino.
"Tentomon!" yelled Agumon again. "Quick you guys, we gotta help him!" The other digimon managed to get up, and the team ran after Missingo as fast as they could.
Tentomon avoided blast after blast of energy, but even with his super quick wings it was getting more and more difficult to avoid the blasts. Tentomon wasn't sure what was going on, but he started to feel sluggish...
"Guys, look!" shouted Biyomon. "Tentomon's stopped moving!"
"Missingo's distortions have lagged Tentomon!" said Gomamon. At that moment, Missingo lashed out and enveloped Tentomon, who started to convulse as Missingo's powers disrupted his data.
"Tentomon, no!" yelled Agumon. The digimon tried to leap to his friend's aid, but the instant he touched the outer edge of Missingo's aura, he was shocked and knocked away with startling force. Biyomon tried her luck by flying, but she too got a shock that sent her reeling.
"I've got him!" said Palmon. "Poison Ivy!" The green tendrils shot out towards Tentomon. The ivy crackled with blue electricity the instant they touched the field, but Palmon didn't let up. She bit her lip against the pain and tried to force her way through Missingo's defenses. It was painful, but working.
"Hang on Tentomon!" Tentomon was fading in and out of focus, and the pixels that composed his body were starting to lose their coherence. Tentomon had stopped struggling by now; he had passed out from the sheer pain of his insides disassembling. Luckily, Palmon's Poison Ivy encircled the bug, and she yanked him out with the last of her strength. The two smoking and sizzling digimon fell in a heap.
"Tentomon! Palmon!" The others ran over to where the two had fallen. Gomamon gave them a once over. "I think they're going to be okay..."
Agumon growled angrily and stood up, while Gabumon stared at Missingo coldly. Biyomon landed on the ground and stood ready for a fight, while Gomamon did his best to move the two wounded digimon out of the area.
"You're going to pay for that!" yelled Agumon. An odd-sounding noise filled the air, followed by Missingo's blue aura flaring up around him like a bonfire.
"Is he...laughing?" said Biyomon. Over the roar of Missingo's power, a very deep, very loud voice could be heard.
"Give me...your strength."
"You can talk!" exclaimed Gabumon.
"I want...your strength. Give me...your strength." The black swirling dots that made up Missingo's body came together, forming a roughly humanoid shape like that of a small human child. It had no definite features, but had two arms, two legs, hands, feet, a body, and a faceless head. Around him, the blue aura that represented Missingo's distortion effect still roared against the world around him, making the forest rumble and shift.
Agumon crouched in anticipation of an attack. "What is it you want us to do?"
Missingo lifted his shiny, coal-black arms and increased the force of his distortion effect. "Die..."
Gabumon growled menacingly. "Fat chance! RHARR!" Gabumon leaped forward and shouted "Blue Blaster!" The angry digimon's attack hit Missingo with great force, but did little more than cause a few logs around the battlefield to explode into splinters or catch on fire as the energy bounced off the pokémon. Gabumon swiped at Missingo, but each time his claws simply sparked as they hit the blue energy, causing him to recoil painfully. Missingo quickly pointed his palm at Gabumon, and an energy blast launched straight at the digimon.
"Gabumon look out!" yelled Agumon as he leaped over to knock his fellow digimon away. The wolf digimon fell to the ground, and Agumon was hit by the devastating attack that sent him flying into the dirt, skidding through logs and rocks before crashing into a sturdy tree nearly forty yards away. Agumon remained motionless beneath a thin layer of brush.
"Spiral Twister!" shouted Biyomon. The green energy swirled from her mouth and hit the creature, but did nothing more than shimmer against his aura. The pokémon seemed to look at the pink bird after the attack. Biyomon froze in terror.
Missingo lifted his so-called arm and clenched his fist as it glowed brighter and brighter. Biyomon was paralyzed with fear and indecision. "Die..." As the blast seemed ready to leave his hand, Biyomon shut her eyes.
"Thunder Blast!"
"Huh?" Biyomon opened her eyes, and a huge blast of lightning slammed into Missingo, knocking the pokémon off balance enough to miss Biyomon. The blast shot into the air, exploding harmlessly above the forest. Biyomon quickly backed away from Missingo as Raidramon, Aquilamon, and Pegasusmon landed between them.
"The cavalry is here!" said Raidramon. "Sorry we're late!"
"Biyomon, are you all right!" asked Yolei as she leaped from Aquilamon's back. Yolei, Davis, and TK stared in horror at all the fallen digimon around them.
"Guys, the others need help!" said Biyomon. "They're badly hurt!"
"Okay," answered Davis, "TK, Yolei, let's get them out of here!"
"Cody is down the hill with Kari!" said Biyomon quickly. The three kids and Biyomon gathered up the wounded digimon, as the three armored digimon stood defiantly before Missingo.
"...I can feel your strength..."
"So, you can talk," said Aquilamon. "Stop this Missingo! We can help you, just tell us what's wrong."
"No help...you must die...give me... your strength!" Missingo roared loudly, and the forest around them shook more violently as if to mirror his feeling.
Pegasusmon's eyes focused with determination. "You may think you're tough picking on my friends when they can't digivolve, but let's see how well you do against three armored digimon!"
****
---------------------------
The Digital World
A Remote Arctic Canyon
---------------------------
Mewtwo touched down on a snowy peak above the canyon, and surveyed the scene silently. The air was almost pure white from the strength of the snowstorm, but the pokémon's senses were sharp enough for him to see unhindered. After a brief scan of the area, he found what he was looking for- an opening in the side of the canyon.
"So this is it..." said Mewtwo telepathically.
"...Yes, according to the map, you're really close to it. You can probably sense it on your own now." Mewtwo closed his eyes, silently reaching out with his psychic powers as the white snow slowly stuck to his furry body.
*ping*
Mewtwo's eyes snapped open. "Yes...I can feel the egg inside. It's power...it's incredible."
"Yes. In order for Davis and the others to use it last time, it took the power of a Mega-level digimon to simply unlock this digiegg for just one use."
"Yes, I see. 'The candle that burns the brightest burns the fastest.' Something with that kind of power is more than enough to open the gate between the two worlds." Mewtwo leaped into the air and landed easily at the cave entrance. The pokémon slowly walked into the cave mouth, his cat eyes glowing in the dark as they adjusted.
"Are you sure this is really necessary Mewtwo? You still haven't explained why you're so intent on opening the portal. Why go through all that trouble when the Golden digiegg could be used to defeat Missingo instead?" Mewtwo came into a gigantic underground cavern, where a steady dripping noise was the only sound.
"Earlier, Cody mentioned that Missingo hatched from a digiegg. Only digimon can do that, so..."
"...The Digiworld is treating him like a digimon?"
"Something like that," answered Mewtwo mentally as he searched the area for another passage. "My guess is that Missingo was injured and destroyed during the experiment, when all the pokémon were here."
"I suppose that's possible. Not all digimon are friendly, and Missingo could have been unlucky that day."
Mewtwo came across a very small passageway that a grown man would be hard-pressed to crawl through. Mewtwo decided not to test the stability of the mountain by blasting holes through the rock, and couldn't teleport to an unknown place. Instead, he got on all fours and proceeded to slink his way down the passage, grunting at the compactness of the path.
"Assuming Missingo did die during the experiment, being purely digital he could pass through the same channels that digimon do when they die. Hence..."
"...he could be reconfigured into a digiegg," finished Izzy. Izzy paused as he realized what had Mewtwo so worried.
"And if it happened once, it will happen again. Like all the digimon here, Missingo will never really die. He'll come back even if we destroy him, unless we return him to the pokémon world. A pokémon with that kind of power is dangerous, because pokémon only get stronger the more they fight, no matter if they win or lose." Mewtwo grunted in pain as he forced his huge body through the last part of the small path. He stood up in a new underground cavern, where a single source of light hovered in the center about a hundred yards away. Needless to say, the cavern was monstrous in size. Like the last one, it was completely silent.
"It may take him a while to reconfigure you know," said Izzy. "Elecmon said that it could take sixty years for all the digimon who died during the reign of the Dark Masters to return."
"That depends on how disruptive Missingo's presence is. If he is as disruptive in death as he is now, he could very well bypass all the other digimon, or even destroy them all there too." Mewtwo floated into the air and headed towards the Golden digiegg of Miracles. "That's why I'm opening the gate again. I'm not taking that chance. The longer Missingo stays in the Digiworld, even if he's in the afterlife, the worse things will get."
*ping*
Mewtwo looked to his left, and a noise could be heard...something like hissing, but not reptilian. Something with many more legs...
"There's something else in here. I can hear it's thoughts...it's hungry." Mewtwo heard the sound of a webline being shot, and the pokémon instinctively dodged the attack with incredible speed. He "fizzled" from one spot to another spot across the room with Agility. "It's a spider digimon. A big one."
"That's probably a Dokugumon. They're Champion level digimon, so you should be okay."
*sshs*
*hshsh*
Mewtwo frowned. "How about a whole army of Dokugumon?" No sooner had Mewtwo "said" that than the whole chamber seemed to become alive. Hundreds of Dokugumon crawling on the walls scurried back and forth as the intruder's presence became apparent. They growled in annoyance at the pokémon's presence. A Dokugumon spit out a line of web at Mewtwo, who was across the room before the attack even reached him. All the Dokugumon started to shoot webbing at him, making him dive under and flip over dozens of strands on his way to the egg. Some of the strands managed to connect, and Mewtwo was tugged forcefully away from the egg. A horde of Dokugumon leaped on the bound prey, knocking him to the ground as the digimon wrestled with him to finish binding him up.
A blue glow showed from beneath the pile of Dokugumon, and a hum of energy powering up filled the cavern. In a flash of force and a scream of rage, the large spider digimon were knocked across the chamber and slammed with enough force into the walls to make dents with their bodies, even though it was solid rock. The chamber made loud creaking noises as the pressure of the snow and ice above shifted from the impacts.
Mewtwo launched towards the egg, but again he was beset by a horde of Dokugumon. This group sprayed a cloud of poisonous gas at him, which the pokémon wasn't able to avoid. Mewtwo gagged and shut his eyes as they burned like mace had hit them. The blind pokémon slammed into a stalactite cluster, making a nice crack in his skull and showering the Dokugumon with rocky bits as he fell through the air.
"Mewtwo, I just got a call from the others! Things are looking bad..."
The pokémon fell onto a Dokugumon, who was trampled by his brothers as they all tried to get their hands on Mewtwo. He snapped out of his stunned state and unleashed another flash of energy that sent the Dokugumon flying. He flew left and right as he avoided several lunging Dokugumon. "What's the situation, Koushiro."
"The digimon from the original team have been beaten, but are still alive."
"...Is Biyomon..."
"Don't worry, she's in better health than the others," answered Izzy.
Mewtwo breathed a sigh of relief. "... What's the status of the armored digimon?" Mewtwo was slammed in the back by a huge Dokugumon tusk. The pokémon hit the ground with a loud crash, but turned over just in time to launch a globe of psychic power at the diving digimon. The attack exploded against the Dokugumon's chest, knocking it across the chamber. More Dokugumon charged, and Mewtwo twisted left and right as he threw ball after ball of energy. Blast after blast exploded, causing the chamber to weaken even more as it threatened to collapse.
"They're fighting Missingo as we speak. Unfortunately, Missingo is still posing a challenge even though it's three on one."
"Missingo's energy has surpassed the Champion level already? He must be gaining strength faster than we expected." Mewtwo launched into the air as several Dokugumon tried to tackle him.
"Could he be drawing on another power source?"
"It's possible, but what?" The pokémon swept towards the center of the room and grabbed the Golden Digiegg of Miracles. "I got the egg!" In a flash, the pokémon surrounded his body with psychic energy and slammed through the thick rock above him like it was butter. This was the last straw in the stability of the chamber, and as the Dokugumon raced for cover, the ceiling of the cavern collapsed in a violent crash that filled the underground nest with snow and rock. Mewtwo floated above it all, quickly catching his breath as he healed his injuries with his abilities.
"You must be getting rusty. You've been relaxing for too long."
"Watch it Izumi," said Mewtwo as he sped off in the direction of the digidestined. "I hope the others can hold on long enough..."
****
Raidramon fell to the ground, battered and bent out of shape. Within moments he was on his feet again, not the worse for wear, but a little out of breath.
"Star Shower!" shouted Pegasusmon as he reared back in the air and spread his wings. A literal shower of stars fell towards the earth from his wings, falling onto Missingo and exploding on contact with him. Amazingly, even Pegasusmon's attack had little effect, even though at the start of the fight he had been harmed by much less.
Aquilamon swooped in from above and opened his mouth wide for an attack of his own. "Blast Rings!" Red rings of energy shot out from his opened beak that sped towards Missingo. The pokémon made a halting motion with his hands, and Aquilamon's attack actually obeyed, dropping in mid-air and exploding on the ground.
Pegasusmon and Aquilamon met as they swooped around for another strafing run. "His power has increased since the last fight! Where's he getting all this strength?"
"Thunder Blast!" Raidramon's attack hit Missingo, but the pokémon wasn't even phased. He retaliated with a blast of energy at the armored digimon, who managed to leap out of the path of the attack. Raidramon powered up and tilted his head back as he gathered energy for another attack. "Blue Thunder!"
"You are just delaying the inevitable," said Missingo. "You're running out of energy, while I'm only getting stronger."
He's right, thought Pegasusmon. Our attacks are slowing him down, but we can't last forever. Between Missingo's attacks and his distortion effect, our energy is being drained to quickly...especially Raidramon. He's maxed out. Pegasusmon flew next to Aquilamon. "We've got to think of something quick! We can't hold out much longer."
Down below, Raidramon huffed and puffed as exhaustion started to besiege him. Ignoring his fatigue, the armored digimon summoned every last ounce of his power and threw everything he had at Missingo. "BLUE THUNDER!" A gigantic wave of electricity swept forward from Raidramon, smashing through everything in its path, including Missingo. The pokémon was uplifted and swept away on the attack, crashing into a rocky hill at the other edge of the forest. Completely spent of energy, Raidramon fell to the ground and de-digivolved into Veemon again. The blue energy flew back to town, where Davis and the others were.
Aquilamon looked at the place where Missingo crashed with his hawk-eye vision, and growled. "...He's coming back."
Veemon growled in annoyance. "Darn it!"
Pegasusmon and Aquilamon landed on the ground in between Veemon and Missingo. "Veemon, you have to go! Leave him to us!"
"I'm not leaving! I'm going to make this guy pay for what he's done!"
"Veemon, don't be a fool!" shouted Aquilamon. Missingo crossed his "arms" before him, and a ray of energy shot out at the bird digimon, hitting him square in the face. The digimon howled in pain and fell backwards, landing on the ground as Hawkmon.
"Hawkmon!" Veemon ran over and helped the Rookie up. "You okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine," he answered quickly.
"You guys get out of here!" ordered Pegasusmon before leaping back into the air as another blast came his way. "Equis Beam!" A green ray of light shot from Pegasusmon's forehead and managed to divert the blast enough to miss him.
"I think it would be wise to listen to him," said Hawkmon, running down the hill. Veemon didn't move. He simply growled and stood there. He watched as Pegasusmon and Missingo battled, with Missingo quickly gaining the upper hand.
He destroyed Primary Village...
Pegasusmon is hit by a strong blast of energy, knocking the digimon to the ground at Veemon's feet.
He hurt Gatomon...
Missingo grabs Pegasusmon, who screamed in pain as the pokémon forced the armor from his body, returning him to his Patamon form. Veemon looked up at Missingo angrily.
He's hurting my friends...
"You will be the first to die..." said Missingo menacingly as Patamon convulsed in his grip. Slowly, the pixels in his wings began to fade away...
"Help me!" cried Patamon.
No! Hang on Patamon!
Veemon clenched his fists and strained to digivolve. He didn't care what he digivolved into, he just wanted to digivolve into anything that would save his friends.
Veemon's blue skin flashed gold momentarily...
****
"What the..." Mewtwo looked down at the egg in his hands, and was amazed to find that it was glowing. Something was using the energy of the Golden digiegg.
"Mewtwo, what's wrong!"
"I...I don't know. Something's activating the digiegg."
"That's impossible! Only Veemon can use it, and he's miles away from you!"
*ping*
Mewtwo's eyes focused as he heard Veemon's thoughts. The egg in his hand disappeared in a flash of light, causing Mewtwo to growl angrily.
"NO! The digiegg!" Mewtwo turned up the juice and zoomed off after it, hoping to stop the energy from being used. "Veemon, don't! It's what he wants!"
****
"Veemon...digivolve..."
Patamon screamed again. He struggled to hang on, but Missingo's power was wearing away at his defenses. "Help...me..."
Veemon glowed gold again for a second, but again it faded away. "Veemon...digivolve to....urggh...Veemon...digivolve toooo....urah!"
"Say goodbye, little one." Missingo roared loudly, and his distortion effect increased dramatically. Patamon cried out again as he felt the reconfiguration begin...
Patamon! Veemon flashed bright gold, and leaped out towards Patamon. He grabbed the little guy and held to him as tight as he could.
"Veemon, Golden Armor digivolve to... Magnamon!"
Missingo screamed out in pain as golden light exploded right in his face. The pokémon was knocked back with startling force, making him lose his roughly humanoid shape and fall in a heap of black glowing marbles.
Magnamon shook Patamon lightly. "Patamon! Hey, you okay?"
Patamon slowly opened his eyes as the golden armor made his strength return. Weakly he looked up at Magnamon's face. "...Thanks Veemon. You're a real friend..."
Magnamon nodded. "Go with the others. Tell them to get as far away as they can. Missingo is about to get a taste of his own medicine."
"Right!" Patamon leapt into the air and flew over to the city, as Magnamon turned around and looked confidently down at Missingo as it reformed and floated into the air. The distortion around the two creatures was enormous, and the forest around them started to shake violently in response to the awesome power of both these creatures.
"Yes...you are strong...your death will feed my power tremendously."
"I don't know what you're talking about, but I don't care. You've picked the wrong group of digimon to mess with. Nobody tries to kill my friends and gets away with it." Magnamon grunted, and his golden radiance shot up around him like a fire. Magnamon lunged forward, shouting "Now you'll pay!"
