Quatre had engaged at what he thought was the best moment. Unknowingly, it was. He attracted the enemy as Winston, Matt, T.K., Patamon, and Gabumon were in a digging frenzy to entrench. This new barrage caught them off guard and they needed a safe place. Piccolo powered up and began to fire energy blasts at the Virgos. They blocked these attempts. Then Nappa emerged and challenged Piccolo to a fight. Nappa and Piccolo were forced to move elsewhere to settle things. Sandrock was thus alone on another field not of his choosing. He took some hits, but the machine guns kept the main enemy away until the others were ready to participate. The trench completed, the digimon with their human friends went to help Quatre. Winston manned the trench alone with his recharged proton gun. He wished the other group luck, but he waited in the trench.
Gabumon noticed that his targets were not breaking up all that easily. In fact, he was having no luck at all. The Virgo suits defense systems resisted his blue blaster. Patamon had no luck at all. Matt and T.K. stayed near Sandrock, but not close enough to be stepped on. Quatre was having problems holding them all back. He couldn't counterattack; to do so would have been eventual annihilation. He had few courses that he could take. It was best to retreat now. The Saibamen were now moving up. He needed a diversion! Where was Trowa? He should have engaged by now. Yet, Quatre decided to move back. The trench could afford a good place to make a stand. Signaling to Matt and T.K., Quatre began to slowly withdraw. Reaching the trench, he used his comm. line to radio headquarters. Kerensky caught his signal. Robert heard the cry for reinforcements, and informed Hornblower. Hornblower went to see Churchill, who sent Dinobot to the trench position. He lined up Spidy to go on the next call.
Matt looked over the trench. He saw the Virgos and Saibamen ready to charge. Vultureman let them off. Matt looked at T.K. beside him, and then at Winston. The proton beams were going at a steady clip. Matt noticed Saibamen just disappearing off the landscape and was surprised at the power of the weapon. But nothing seemed to stop the Virgos! The machine gun of Sandrock kept providing plenty of hold off, but the Virgos were charging now, and Sandrock would be overrun shortly. Gabumon and Patamon were trying to contribute, but they were getting nowhere fast. Yes, their whole defense hinged on Quatre. Quatre! He was giving all he had to defend the rest of them. Without him they would have been goners long ago. What a guy! The friendship symbol began to radiate. That would be useful, but not now. There might still be something he could do. The digivice glowed and…Gabumon…digivolve to…GARURUMON!
Piccolo looked smug. He looked at Nappa. Nappa could not stand the look and attacked with all he had. Piccolo fired scatter shot at him. Nappa dodged them, laughing. He continued to dodge and laugh when he looked around him. He was surrounded by energy balls! Piccolo smiled and closed his fingers together and the balls converged. Nappa was gone. He had not realized (being without a scouter) that this was not the Piccolo he had fought on Earth, but the Kamiccolo formed long after he (Nappa) was killed by Vegeta. Piccolo flew back to the trench to lend a hand.
Winston's continued barrage on the Saibamen caused their charge to waver and stop. But the Virgos kept coming. They were too close! Sandrock could not annoy all of them. Matt turned and said, "Go get'em Garurumon!" Garurumon charged out of the trench. Jumping on the nearest Virgo, he ripped off its robotic head. Others began to fire at this new target. Garurumon, from his perch on the Virgo let out a HOWLING BLASTER and the oncoming Virgos put up their shields. It was useless; the blue flame destroyed the nearby Virgos. Garurumon turned and pulled off the leg of another. A second HOWLING BLASTER turned more Virgos into scrap. Yet, several Virgos turned their sights on Garurumon, and then they were turning to fire. Energy blasts came and wrecked them. Piccolo was back! With Piccolo back the situation calmed, as both sides were content with a stalemate. Piccolo got into the trench and greeted a returning Garurumon. "Thanks, I owe you," said Piccolo. Garurumon devolved into Gabumon and said, "Wait, it is I who owe you!" Piccolo turned to T.K. and exclaimed, "How you doing, kid? You sure are lucky to have brother that's willing to stick his neck out. Some don't have it so good." Matt blushed, he had not done much at all, but say, how did Piccolo know that he was responsible for the appearance of Garurumon? Then Matt remembered the dinner conversation with T.K. about his first meeting with Piccolo and how Piccolo and Angemon saved him and Charmander. Angemon! There was the missing link! Piccolo knew that Angemon appeared because of T.K. and figured Garurumon must have appeared because of him. T.K. asked Piccolo, "Do you have any family, Piccolo." The Namek replied, "No, my only relation was absorbed by me recently. He lives on, sort of, inside me. He was the other half of my father." The small boy asked, "How do you know so much about brothers, then?" "My friend Gohan has a father, who is my friend too, Goku. Goku had two brothers, Raditz and Terlus that did nothing but try to inflict pain on him. You and your brother are quite lucky." Winston joined the group and Quatre got off of Sandrock as the group now planned to rest and hope that no night attack would be launched. Dinobot arrived and found the situation sound, but he chose to stay at he front, not knowing the chaos that began in the rear.
Trowa was not in that rear, rather he was further in front than anyone else. He had rushed out with Wheeljack (in race car form) on his right. No enemy was to be immediately found. Wheeljack's windshield popped open and Tenchi and the battle beasts hopped out. They were close to the ruined communications building. The noise that was heard came from the extreme rear of the position. Trowa realized that Quatre had done a better decoy job than could be hoped for. Then, the drone of engines became audible as biker drones moved in on the group. Megatron chuckled from inside the base. These drones, members of the third assault wave, had been diverted to local defense when the Gundam 04 attack had proved to be limited. This guerrilla force had fallen unknowingly into his hands. Soundwave was personally guarding the prisoner with his mini-minions. The fourth line troops, tanker drones, stood waiting. Megatron turned to Tuberoff. "Are the preparations ready?" Tuberoff nodded. "Except for a recharger, we have all we need." "Well, turn over direction of the guerilla battle to Raditz and let's get on with it." Raditz was about to assume command of the battle when Megatron asked him, "Who is the strongest one of your place, again?" "Freeza," said Raditz as he left to fight Gundam 03 and the racecar.
Wheeljack stayed as a racecar and rushed at the cycle drones. Trowa turned to face the bikes and said calmly, "Get the prisoner, we'll take care of these guys." And they were off. Salamander and Seahorse led the way as Tenchi followed. They were close by when Mammothmon appeared. This enemy was a new one! Salamander and Seahorse got ready to buckle down and fight it out. Tenchi's attire changed and his sword became drawn. Seahorse had reckoned on this. He quickly said, "She's in that building over there. We'll hold him off until you get back." Salamander nodded to show he agreed with the plan. Tenchi ran to the proposed building. Meanwhile Mammothmon was giving the two scouts a hard time. They had never had to fight an Ultimate digimon before. TUSKCRUSHER! Mammothmon fired at them. They dodged. Seahorse fired an eye laser that did exactly nil. Salamander used his claw to…no avail. They needed help and fast.
Tenchi made it, and looked into the bars where he could see Sailor Mercury. Tenchi backed slightly away, raised the sword and sliced through the metal of the out side. Sailor Mercury saw the blue blade come through the wall and she knew her rescue was near. Lita had finally delivered! Tenchi kicked down the metal wall and entered. Sailor Mercury gasped. She would not believe that a handsome boy was here to save--her! She thanked her lucky stars. Tenchi also had feelings about the rescue -not another girl- that he expressed. He could not stand another woman in his life. He sliced the energy bonds and said, "Come on, let's go." He led her outside. (Soundwave, guarding in the hall, never knew of this chain of events) Almost instantly they found the battlefield of Mammothmon. Seahorse and Salamander were on their last legs. Sailor Mercury did her water attack. Mammothmon was rebuffed but fired another TUSKCRUSHER! Tenchi and the sword quickly made a shield around the allies. The tusks bounced off harmlessly. Tenchi then charged and with the sword, managed to cut through Mammothmon. He disappeared. Victory. Now all they had to do was get back to where they had started.
If the mission to save Ami was hard, the mission to distract troops was even harder. Vultureman had gotten back to the base to bring out another titanic weapon. Raditz was ready to get involved somewhere. Warmanzymon was bored. And the cycle drones found their target. Wheeljack raced toward them in a mammoth game of chicken. The drones that did not pull over found themselves in a whole lick of trouble as Wheeljack sent several of them over the windshield. Wheeljack then transformed and fired his laser at the biker drones. He got several of them when he realized they were headed away from him toward Trowa! Wheeljack was forced to transform to keep up. The drones transformed into robots and began to fire on Heavyarms.
Trowa was not unaware of their appearance and instead of surprising him the biker drones only gave him a chance to fight. Trowa knew Heavyarms was slow and probably could not outrun the bikers if it came to it. He would have to take his stand as long as it took form Wheeljack to get back. He unleashed his beam Gatling on the suspecting minions of the vile Megatron. Biker drones at first got nailed but began to adjust and dodge most of Trowa's shots. Trowa felt he had no real choice. The missile bays opened and a flock of missiles found their targets. The biker drones were not really depleted though. They began to pass the Gundam, firing as they did so. Trowa used the chest guns to open up on them when he could. Yet it was mosquitoes harassing a gorilla. Trowa was firing when had clear shots, but the number of the enemy was just too much. When the left arm ran out of shot, he saw his opportunity. The army knife went out and Heavyarms charged toward the nearest biker. Trowa sliced two in half. Now, laser fire began to pepper the biker drones. Wheeljack was back from his foray. The biker drones turned and concentrated fire on Wheeljack. The Autobot engineer was stunned; the drones were coordinating everything perfectly. Dodging the shots, but taking a few, Wheeljack got his shoulder guns firing and the drones pulled back. However a mammoth blast rained on Wheeljack. It caught dead center while he turned to face more drones. The cycle drones stayed a good distance away. Trowa saw the colossal cannon sitting on the knoll behind him. When Vultureman saw Heavyarms charging at his cannon, he gave one more shot and then he fled. The knife took down the device in several sections. Trowa noticed how angry he was about the whole thing. Yet, 'Oh gees, I left Wheeljack down there.' He thought. The biker drones were pegging the Autobot but had been ordered to disperse when the cannon (where they were being controlled) was destroyed. The engineer looked poorly. Trowa exited Heavyarms to test the ailing Autobot. Wheeljack attempted to hide his pain, but it was obvious. "Kid, go on, don't worry about me." Trowa could not though. Wheeljack was in one piece but there were gashes and burns everywhere. He knelt down and examined the arm of the heroic engineer. It was bad.
Tenchi caught up to the spot where Wheeljack lay on the ground. Salamander and Seahorse with Sailor Mercury, now caught up to Tenchi. "Oh, man, what happened?" asked a worried Tenchi. Wheeljack went quiet. Trowa turned, tears on his eyes but no crying was heard. "Tenchi, I need to get Wheeljack back to the base. I'm going to have to carry him, so I'll need help. I also need to get my beam Gatling back to the base as well." Salamander spoke up, "We can get the Gatling and she could escort you back, allowing Tenchi to reinforce the others." "Good plan," replied Trowa, "if she's up for it." Sailor Mercury, who had first met Tenchi and now Trowa, was starting to like the idea of joining forces with this group. She looked at Trowa with a sly smile on her face that Trowa took as a yes. "Good, let's get going then so that we can get into the tunnel without being spotted. Tenchi watched as the group moved away from him. Heavyarms carried Wheeljack, the battle beasts carried the Gatling and Sailor Mercury followed along behind. Tenchi headed south toward the haze of smoke that meant a recent battle must have taken place. He found the camp well occupied, as Piccolo and Quatre watched the fire and Dinobot warmed himself with the fire. T.K. leaned against Piccolo sleeping as Matt and Gabumon and Patomon leaned against each other in quiet slumber. Winston polished his gun before greeting Tenchi. "Hey, Tenchi, did ya'll get to her?" "Yeah, we did." "Great!" responded Winston. "I wonder if that means we can withdraw now?" Tenchi looked at Winston, "It would be best if we stayed here, between the enemy and the base."
After the assault groups had left, the base was very quiet. Churchill walked down the hall praying for the attack. Kerensky and Hoover were in the staff room monitoring the assault of Piccolo's group. Hawkeye was eating lunch and talking spiritedly with Michelangelo, Herschel Walker, and Spiderman. Sage was outside enjoying the weather and watching Charmander attack tree stumps. He was in his normal armor, not his mystic armor. Hornblower kept an eye on the local defense monitor. All seemed well with the world. Churchill walked into his room; he needed rest. He opened it and looked in when he saw a bra hanging on the door to his bathroom. That stopped him immediately. Trying to figure out what that was doing there, the door opened. Out stepped Lita in a towel. When she saw Churchill she stopped. A huge blush covered her face. Churchill merely tipped his hat over his eyes and turned around and went out the door. He was somewhat red himself. Lita wondered why she was not mad at the general for seeing her in that condition. She peered out the door, and seeing him disappear into the workshop, she went back to her business, closing the door behind her.
Hornblower was not any party to those proceedings; indeed he was trying to locate certain addenda on the Local Defense screen. He was not finding it. On screen one, the fights of Piccolo, Matt, Quatre, Trowa, and Tenchi were well shown. He saw Sailor Mercury released. Yet, somehow, Horatio did not feel right. It was too easy. Then the screen went blank. Emergency cameras turned on. A horde of things was coming over the horizon. He knew. He had to warn everyone and get some sort of resistance out there. "Kerensky, Hoover, Stiles! Get on the comm., wrest those men out of the cafeteria! We have an invasion at three o'clock and twelve o'clock high." Robert and Billy turned to the intercom. "Guys, attack, sector C! Move out!" Michelangelo rushed out followed by Spiderman. They made their way up to confront the unknown enemy. Hornblower came too, with his pistols ready. The commotion in the sector C drew Sage and Charmander to the fight. The defense had formed. They stood ready, waiting.
If Raditz had been in more places at once, there would have been more worry. But there he was again, directing this fight as well. His form was the dominant one on the field. He watched as the foot soldiers, Taurus suits, and tanker drones moved in on the small group of heroes massed at the bottom of the hill. The foot soldiers charged, but the Taurus passed them and the tanker drones brought up the rear. The Taurus were unfamiliar to everyone except Charmander. With a "CHARMANDER!" he charged at the nearest one, unleashing a huge flamethrower attack on it before it could respond. The blaster melted away in the suit's hand. Knunchuks swinging Michelangelo soon found himself the target of several of the suits. He back flipped and jumped to get out of their way. Fire began to go everywhere. The turtle shoved his nunchuks in the sensor of the nearest Taurus. He jumped the next one, drawing fire on it. It exploded as he jumped off, and he was hurled into a tree. "Nuts, I just had this shell waxed." A little dazed, he sat for a moment while others continued the struggle. Spiderman was proving adept at fighting the dolls. His webbing tripped them and blinded them. He kicked them to the ground or used Michelangelo's tactic of jumping from suit to suit. Raditz called off the Taurus in order to save them. He sent in the tanker drones and foot soldiers.
ARMOR OF HALO…TO CHEI.
Sage entered the fight in his armor and his sword hacked down foot soldier after foot soldier. Michelangelo rejoined the melee and Charmander had some luck with these enemies. Hornblower took out a couple before he ran out of bullets. Spiderman swung in and used webbing and some martial arts to take out some foot soldiers. Raditz had enough. Rampage and Monkiean came up to assist Raditz. 'Beast mode' said Rampage as he led the tanker drone assault. The combined firing was immense and the heroes were forced to fall back. Crisis was quickly developing. It was then things seemed to change…
John was alerted to the falling back of his allies, and in the heat of the moment, he, Robert, and Billy rushed outside to do what they could to help. There was not much they could do. Their appearance attracted Rampage's attention to these seemingly weaker targets. He fired on them. John dove to the ground, followed by Robert and Billy. Monkiean began to fight Michelangelo. Spiderman occupied Raditz's attention for a while but the plight of the officers was curious to them. He fired an energy blast at them. Sage dove and deflected it with his armor and his sword although it took a lot out of him. The blast hit a tree, which fell on John, Robert, and Billy. Noise behind him showed them someone joined them. Lita, dressed now, came onto the field in time to see the tree crush Churchill and his compatriots. Although she did not know if they were hurt or dead, her anger came forth.
"JUPITER COSMIC POWER!"
Raditz laughed as he saw his next opponent. Sailor Jupiter was on the scene and boy was she ticked. Sage saw that the newcomer would take on Raditz, so using his last bit of strength; he aimed at the Rampage tank.
"THUNDERBALL CUT"
Rampage could not avoid the blast. It tipped him other and left him winded. The damage to his exterior smoked. Sage collapsed. Hornblower knelt beside him to make sure he was okay. Spiderman leaped from tanker to tanker and got them to fire on one another much like Piccolo did. With Charmander running through the tankers also, the chaos was unmistakable as the last of the tankers destroyed the last of the foot soldiers. Michelangelo kicked, elbowed, and head butted Monkiean in combo fashion until the mutant was senseless. The tankers retreated, bearing his wounded body. Raditz had not sat idle during this chain of events however. He unleashed his most massive energy attack toward the general and his wounded comrades. Sailor Jupiter unleashed HER most powerful attack, which managed to shatter Raditz's. Raditz saw the other fighters about to gang against him. Michelangelo was swinging knunchuks, Spiderman was braced for the jump that would initiate his attack, Charmander aimed his fiery cannon of a mouth in Raditz's direction, and Sailor Jupiter was ready to avenge her protector. Raditz swooped down and picking up Rampage, left the field. The base had been saved, but at what cost? Churchill, Kerensky, and Hoover were all critically injured. Sage was severely exhausted and needed rest. Michelangelo was slightly scarred. Sailor Jupiter leaned over and looked down at Churchill under the tree trunk. She gingerly put her hand on his shoulder and began to weep quietly.
