Chapter 26: Full Power
The battle that both Andrew and I knew we were destined to lose began as Saberleomon clamped landed on Diaboromon's left arm and clamped his teeth onto hit. Meanwhile Gigadramon broke into a dive and head butted Diaboromon's chest. Diaboromon just laughed, tossed Saberleomon off of him effortlessly like he was some annoying tick, and hit Gigadramon aside with the back of his hand. Saberleomon landed on his feet a few feet away.
But Gigadramon wasn't so lucky; Diaboromon had only hit him casually but that didn't mean there wasn't a lot of power in it. The "casual" hit sent both Gigadramon and Andrew flying into the ground, with Gigadramon's face in the pavement.
Andrew slowly recovered from the crash, shook his head and sat up on Gigadramon's back.
"Gigadramon!" Andrew yelled in concern, the first time I'd ever seen him concerned.
"I'm fine," Gigadramon said slowly getting up. "What a hit though."
"You worthless Digimon!" Diaboromon mocked. "You call that a hit? I was hardly even trying."
This was looking bad! Diaboromon had just kind of waved his hand and hit Gigadramon aside, I didn't want to think of what a real hit could do!
"You got lucky," Gigadramon said angrily, as he unfolded his wings, which had been retracted during the crash into the ground. "Next time you won't be so lucky, but I think you should wait here on the ground Andrew."
"But I-"
"You'll just get hurt, what if I crash like that again and I land on my back, plus I'd be distracted trying to make sure you don't get hurt, please for me just wait down here where it's safe."
Andrew sighed. "Alright, I guess if you're distracted there's a better chance of you getting hurt, and that's the last thing I want."
Andrew slid down Gigadramon's tail, and onto the ground and patted him. "Good luck buddy, I feel bad not being up there with you."
"Hey I wouldn't be able to fight at all if it weren't for you, so in a way you are up there fighting with me." Gigadramon said as he took to the air once again, and joined the battle.
I couldn't help but look at Andrew confused. Was this really the same guy who had enslaved tortured and killed Digimon? Now he was being caring and considerate for his own Digimon. Of course it was understandable that there was so much of a difference, the Andrew that we fought against was probably a different person than what Andrew was really like. He thought it was a game; he was just playing his role in the game. Now to him it was no longer a game it was understandable he would be a different person. I was just glad he was on our side now.
"Gigadramon!" Saberleomon yelled at Andrew's Digimon. "Physical attacks aren't going to work, we need to try another method."
Gigadramon nodded. "I got'cha! Giga missile!"
Gigadramon's missile launcher popped open, and he launched a missile at Diaboromon's head. Diaboromon didn't even try to dodge it, he just looked at the missile as it exploded in his face, the monstrous Digimon just laughed and spit out a cloud of smoke.
"What was that it?" Diaboromon said. "That was pathetic."
"That's not the method that I meant!" Saberleomon said.
"Then what did you mean?" Gigadramon asked.
"I mean use our heads, find his weak point, and then exploit it."
"You fools!" Diaboromon yelled. "I have no weak spot! I am invincible! And I'm really getting tired of this pathetic fight! You Digidestined have proved to be very disappointing, the way Evamon talked about you I expected much more, and I would prefer a much more challenging fight, so I'm sorry but I'm going to have to end this right now!"
It happened all two quickly for any of us to notice. Diaboromon jumped into the air, actually it looked more like he disappeared from where he was standing and reappeared right below Gigadramon.
"Hey!" Gigadramon yelled in surprise and fear as Diaboromon's hand clamped onto his tail.
"Goodbye Andrew and Kris!" Diaboromon said snapping Gigadramon back like a whip then tossing him straight at us!
The giant flying lizard flew at us way too fast for us to get out of the way. All we saw was a blur of gray flying at us; all we could do was stare in horror and fear as the giant Digimon flew at us. The next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion, yet quickly at the same time, it was hard to explain. A green blur suddenly covered us and pushed us out of the way, and stopped just as Gigadramon's massive head crashed down beside us, inches away from crushing us. I glanced over at the 'green blur', who was obviously Saberleomon, who had pushed us aside at amazing speed, and panting heavily.
"Saberleomon, I didn't know you could move that fast," I said.
"Neither…did…I." Saberleomon said panting very heavily, then collapsing, becoming engulfed in a dreading white glow, and shrunk down into Elecmon again, at the same time Gigadramon also began to glow and shrunk down to his In-Training state.
"Evaupamon!" Andrew said cradling his Digimon in his arms.
I ran to Elecmon's side, and knelt beside him. "So okay buddy?" I asked.
"I've felt better," he said looking up at me and smiling despite the situation. "I'm sorry, I tried to beat him, he-he was just too strong for me, now I've used up all my energy and now we don't stand a chance."
I carefully picked Elecmon up and held him in my arms – he was a lot heavier than I thought.
"It's okay, you were just trying to save us, and no offense but we all knew we didn't stand a chance even when you were in your Mega state."
"So now what?" Elecmon asked. "We just wait to die."
I didn't answer; I did what Andrew and Evaupamon were already doing, glaring up at Diaboromon, as he looked down on us with an arrogant grin on his face.
"Run," he said softly.
"What?" Andrew said stepping back.
"You heard me," Diaboromon said. "I'm giving the four of you one last chance, run. You have thirty seconds."
"Kris?"
"I don't trust him for a second," I said. "But it's not like we have much of a choice, do what he says run!"
I turned around and ran away from the scene as fast as possible; Andrew was hesitant but was behind me in a second.
"Three…two…. one…" Diaboromon counted down as he ran away from him as fast as possible.
I hated this! I hated feeling so weak, like I was some pathetic extra in a movie running for my life, and I don't think Andrew liked it any better than me, he used to be the Digimon Emperor he used to cause this on others, now he was running himself, it was weird it was a step up and a step down at the same time.
Suddenly an explosion rocked the entire area directly behind us, knocking both Andrew and I off of our feet, face down on the ground, Elecmon rolled out of my arms. I began get up to try and pick him up, but I was stopped, and paralyzed in fear as I saw a pile of ruble from above which fell right on top of me. I closed my eyes waiting for death to come, it didn't. My eyes opened, I was under a pile of ruble, but I was fine, a bent steel beam was right over my head forming a curve right above me, which had also shielded me from the ruble above.
I smiled and laughed nervously. "Man what a lucky break huh Elecmon?"
No answer. No! It – it couldn't
"Elecmon?" I said. "Elecmon!"
Nothing I searched the area but all I could see around me was the beam over my head, surrounded by a pile of ruble. Elecmon had rolled away from me, he must be under some of the ruble, like I was but he probably hadn't been as lucky as I had, he probably didn't get a steel beam shield – we was probably – No! He couldn't I wouldn't accept that, not until I actually saw it with my own eyes, which I prayed I never would.
"Elecmon!" I yelled. "Elecmon! Where are you!"
"Right here," a weak voice said as a pile of cement ahead of me began to move and Elecmon emerged.
I scooped him up in my arms immediately and hugged him tightly.
"You scared the hell out of me!"
"Thanks for your concern, I'm fine by the way," Andrew said emerging from the same pile of cement cradling Evaupamon.
"Sorry," I said. "I-"
"Calm down," Andrew said. "I was just kidding, did you not expect the Digimon Emperor to make a joke."
I smiled and looked him over, I couldn't believe he wasn't hurt more than he was, he shouldn't even be alive, all that he had were a couple of bleeding scratches on his face, aside from that he was fine, I was glad, he had been the Digimon Emperor but he was still part of the team, and I guess now he'd be considered a friend.
"That was too easy," Diaboromon said. "But I guess it's time to round up the rest of them."
I didn't hear anything, else it was impossible for us to tell what was happening. All I could feel was a huge pit in my stomach, knowing the fact that he was about to find and attack all my friends, especially Jenn the one I cared for more than anyone else in world with the possible exception of Elecmon, and we couldn't do anything to stop it, we were trapped under all this ruble. All we could do was sit her and wait.
* * *
Jenn
I wiped a river of tears from my eyes as I ran for my life. I don't know why I was even bothering both wiping away my tears and running. Stopping my tears from running down my face was like trying to start a waterfall from falling, they were just falling at too steady a pace, and there was no need for me to run for my life either. Why should and try and save my life, it might as well be over. Kris was gone…. he was off fighting an impossible fight, one of which would most definitely result in his death.
That thought only made the tears increase, and I couldn't take it anymore, I fell to my knees as the tears flowed even more, I dropped my Ostrimon on the ground, but I didn't care nothing mattered to me anymore. I'd gotten far away from Diaboromon that I didn't need to run anymore.
I couldn't believe this, I'd lost him, and I'd lost everything! He was everything to me, my best friend, my boyfriend, everything.
"Stupid jerk," I said vainly trying to wipe my tears away. "Why did he have to do that, why does he have to be so heroic? Can't he see how important he is to me?"
Ostrimon walked back over to me.
"Jenn you know he's doing it because he cares for you," she said. "He'd rather die than see you hurt."
"I know," I said. "It's just not fair!" It's not fair!" I slammed my fist against the ground angrily. "I love him, I can't lose him I – I can't!"
I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"I know it's not," I heard Yolei say.
I hit her hand away from my shoulder, and stood up I didn't want her pity! I'd deal with this on my own! I just wanted to be alone right now, the only person who I wanted to be with right now was Kris, but I knew that was impossible, I'd never see him again.
"Just leave me alone," I said coldly keeping my back turned to her. "Just go away."
"Jenn I know it's hard but-"
"Really!" I yelled maybe a little to harshly! "Do you know how painful it is to care for someone more than your own life? To love him! Then suddenly lose him! Do you have any idea how painful that is?"
"I-"
"No of course you don't! He's gone I'm never going to see him again!"
"Come on you don't have to be so pessimistic," Cody, said as I realized he and Armadillomon were there. The three of us were the only ones in the area; we'd all gotten split up while we ran from the battle. "We don't know for sure that he'll die."
"Look, I love Kris more than anyone, only Elecmon could ever care for him more, but even I'm willing to accept that he doesn't stand a chance – and it's killing me! I don't want him to die! I care too much about him!"
I found myself falling to my knees once again breaking out in tears. "It's just not fair," I said softly.
I could feel Yolei's hand rest on my shoulder again. "I know," she said.
I didn't push her away this time; I didn't have the energy for that.
"Uh I hate to break up this moment," Hawkmon said. "But if you would look skyward, I think you'd see a good reason for a retreat!"
I didn't even bother to look, what did it matter anyway, but the others must have.
"Jenn get up!" Ostrimon ordered. "We've got to get out of here!"
"Why bother," I said. "He's gone, what's the point."
"Stop this!" Ostrimon yelled. "You know very well that the last thing Kris would want was for you to just give up! He's doing this so you won't get hurt! There are two Thundermon heading straight for us! If you stay and they hurt you Kris's sacrifice will mean nothing! And I use that term loosely because there's no guarantee that Kris is dead or is going to die! Now let's go!"
She was right, Kris doesn't want me to get hurt, in the same way I don't want him to get hurt, moping around here wasn't going to change the fact that I might loose him, I had to run, even if I felt there was no point. I looked up, and sure enough there were two ball shaped Digimon flying right at us, one on either side of us. Looks like Diaboromon wasn't going to let us go that easily, he must have sent some of his minions after us, it was definitely time to run, except for one detail.
"Okay we better get out of here," I said. "But I think there's a problem."
"We don't have time for whatever it is!" Cody said. "We better just run."
"That's the whole problem," I said. "I don't know if you noticed but there's one on either side of us, we go either ways and they've got us, both ways our blocked. There's no way out!"
There was an awkward silence, as the Thundermon only got closer.
"Wait there is one way," Yolei said. "Up! Hawkmon I know you're weak from your fight with Kimeramon but do you think you could still Digivolve."
"I'll give it a shot." Hawkmon said.
"Then do it!" Yolei ordered.
"Hawkmon Digivolved to…………………Aquillamon!"
"Let's go now!" Aquillamon yelled not wasting anytime.
The giant eagle Digimon flared his wings grabbed Ostrimon and I in one of his talons, and Cody and Armadillomon in the other, while sweeping Yolei onto his back.
"Thunder Volt!" both Thundermon yelled firing two bolts of electricity.
Aquillamon moved out of the way just in time flying straight up into the air just out of the way of the two attacks which collided and cancelled each other out. The Thundermon continued to fly towards each other then stopped seconds before they were about to ram into each other and started flying upwards towards us, flying in a double helix fashion.
Aquillamon stopped flying up and straightened out his flight, the Thundermon reached our height and did the same, and they were gaining on us fast! I couldn't believe how agile they were in flight.
"Yolei," Aquillamon said. "I don't think I can keep this up much longer. I'm weakened from that hit from Kimeramon. I could outrun them for sure, but I'm weakened they're going to catch up any second now."
"Damn!" Yolei yelled slamming her fist down.
"Ow! That doesn't exactly help!"
"Oops sorry," Yolei said laughing nervously.
"So what exactly are our options then?" Cody said.
"I only see one," Armadillomon said. "We land and fight, I'm not weakened from any previous battles I can take them on."
"Yeah," Aquillamon said. "And though I'm a little weakened I'm sure I can still fight, it's this steady pace of flying that's driving me nuts."
"Then let's do it," Yolei announced. "Aquillamon land in that empty lot there, and we'll take these balls of electricity down!"
"Why didn't we just do this in the first place," I said quietly as Aquillamon landed in a nearby empty lot. Placing the five of us down safely down on the ground, and then taking to the air again to fight the Thundermon.
"Go get him Armadillomon!" Cody instructed his Digimon.
Armadillomon nodded as Cody's Digivice activated.
"Armadillomon Digivolved to………….Ankylomon!"
The two Digimon both rushed into the battle as all four Digimon charged at each other, but the battle never started. Without warning both Thundermon were suddenly engulfed in a blue energy beam that incinerated them instantly. Aquillamon and Ankylomon both froze in their tracks.
"I know that attack!" Cody said as his eyes moved to the source of the energy beam, as did mine and everyone else's.
The attack had come from a Mummy like Digimon, but he wasn't the only one we had to worry about, beside him was a spider like Digimon.
"Great, just when we thought things couldn't get any worse, these losers show up," Yolei said referring to the two new Digimon.
"You know them?" I asked.
Cody nodded. "We fought and defeated them right before you guys and Diaboromon showed up. They're Arukenemon, and Mummymon."
The Mummy like Digimon who I assumed was Mummymon grinned and pointed the gun he was holding at us.
"We don't have time to deal with you right now!" Yolei yelled. "We've got bigger more powerful Digimon to worry about."
"You mean Evamon's pathetic pets?" The Spider like Digimon who I assumed was Arukenemon said.
"Please that fool really is pathetic our master is so much more powerful."
"You – you don't work for Evamon?" I said.
"Of course not," Mummymon said. "Why would we work for that pathetic half Digimon, it's taken him decades to build up his body, our master is almost done his, he's so much stronger."
"Great," I muttered. "Now on top of Evamon we've got another dark force to deal with."
"Don't worry about them," Yolei said. "They're just a little arrogant, I'm sure whoever their talking about isn't that strong, we can deal with it."
"Then let's do so," Ankylomon said stepping between the two Digimon and us.
"I'm with you Ankylomon," Aquillamon said doing the same thing.
"Can they win?" I asked.
"Sure," Yolei said confidently. "We beat them before, and now we're even stronger, so we shouldn't have much of a problem."
"We'll change that thought!" Mummymon yelled. "Snake Bandage!"
Mummymon's bandages unraveled and wrapped themselves around Ankylomon before the giant dinosaur Digimon, he struggled, but the bandages were stronger than they looked he was trapped.
"Spider thread!" Arukenemon yelled firing a green thread from her wrist, which wrapped around Aquillamon's wings, trapping him just like Ankylomon was.
"That was too easy!" Arukenemon bragged.
The two Digimon laughed as the thread and bandages began to tighten on Ankylomon and Aquillamon, needless to say things weren't looking good for our side.
"I thought you said you could beat them." I said.
"We could always beat them before," Yolei responded.
"That's because our Digimon could DNA Digivolve!" Cody said. "But we can't do that now, not without T.K or Kari. We're facing two Ultimates here, we might be able to take one of them, but both of them, we don't stand a chance."
The Digimon screamed in pain as Arukenemon and Mummymon began to tighten their binds, any second now they would return to their rookie stages, and then we wouldn't have a chance. Looks like Ostrimon and I would have to jump in.
"Ostrimon I know you're weak but do you think you can still Digivolve?" I asked my Digimon.
"I can try," Ostrimon said jumping from my arms into the ground.
"Ostrimon Digivolved to…………………Penguinmon!"
"Okay, just twice more," I instructed Penguinmon.
Penguinmon began concentrating her power, but nothing happened, she just fell to her knees. I was at her side immediately.
"Sorry," she said. "That hit from Metaletemon was really tough, I used up all my remaining energy just becoming Penguinmon."
I turned my attention back to the battle, if you could call it that. Aquillamon and Ankylomon were still trapped in Arukenemon and Mummymon's iron grip, while Cody and Yolei could only stand there and look on angrily.
"This was easier than I thought," Mummymon said. "I don't know why we had so much trouble before."
"Stop this!" Cody yelled. "This isn't fighting, you just took one cheap shot!"
"So what if we did," Arukenemon said laughing. "What's your point?"
Cody started to become even angrier. Why was he so concerned about fighting fair, this was war, you couldn't fight fair when you were fighting a war.
"Don't you even care how you fight!" Cody yelled. "Don't you have any honour?" Arukenemon and Mummymon just laughed, but that's not what I really noticed. What I did notice was the yellow light coming from Cody's shirt, his crest was glowing! Okay what was it that Rob said caused the crests to glow? Right! It was when your personality trait which corresponded with your respective crest was at it's strongest. Like when I wanted so bad to help those people on the plane, my crest of Assistance responded to my need to help those people, and Kiwimon was able to Digivolve. Now Cody's was glowing because he was trying to be honourable, his crest must be the crest of honour!
"Uh Cody, you know these guys have no sense of honour, I -" Yolei started before I jumped behind her and covered her mouth preventing her from saying anymore.
"Quiet," I whispered into her ear. "This could work for us."
"Stop this!" Cody yelled as his crest continued to glow brighter. "This is just torture! You've beaten them just let them go! Stop torturing them!"
The two Digimon continued to laugh.
Arukenemon sneered. "You humans are so pathetic, with that honour of yours! It's so pathetic, I'm surprised that you lasted so long as a species."
"You're wrong!" Cody yelled. "Being Honourable is not a weakness! Honour is powerful! Honour makes us strong!"
That did it the crest tucked under Cody's crest began to glow brighter than ever, so bright you could easily see the symbol under his shirt. The yellow light from Cody's crest engulfed Ankylomon and the obvious began to happen.
"Ankylomon Digivolved to……………..Skullpiomon!"
All eyes focused on the new Ultimate Digimon. Skullpiomon, if Scorpion's had bones and a skeleton, that's what this Digimon would look like the Skeleton of a Scorpion. It had two large thick bony legs, and four smaller ones, as well as two thick bony arms each with two deadly blades on them. Then his most deadly weapon his tail; it was thick and bony just like his arms and legs with an even more deadly blade on the end of it.
"See," I said. "Cody's honour made his crest glow, which then made Skullpiomon Digivolve."
Skullpiomon snapped the bandages that had once restrained him, as Mummymon looked on in shock, as Skullpiomon grinned at him.
"Bring it on!" he coaxed at the Mummy Digimon.
"Uh I-" Mummymon stuttered upon seeing the size difference.
"What scared of fighting him?" Arukenemon said.
"Of course not!" Mummymon yelled. "Let's see what you can do you oversized bag of bones!"
Skullpiomon sneered. "I could say the same about you!"
That started it, Mummymon jumped at Skullpiomon and the battle between the two began.
Skullpiomon fought well against Mummymon, the difference in power was obviously tilted in Cody's Digimon's favour, but I my concern wasn't shifted towards that battle. I was more concerned about the 'battle' between Arukenemon and Aquillamon, Skullpiomon could handle himself but Aquillamon was being crushed. He wasn't just in danger of returning to his rookie form he was in danger of being killed! Yolei obviously knew that.
"Aquillamon!" Yolei yelled in concern.
"Looks like you're about to lose, sure Mummymon is too, but it's worth it to destroy at least one of you fools."
"I won't let you do this!" Yolei yelled running at Arukenemon.
I would have stopped her, but there was no way I could have stopped her.
"Yolei stop!" Aquillamon yelled.
Yolei immediately stopped in her tracks, so much for not being able to stop her.
"Stay back, please!" Aquillamon said as Arukenemon's threads began to tighten around him.
"No!" Yolei yelled. "She's hurting you!" I won't let her do that!"
"I'll be fine, just please wait."
"Fine!" Yolei yelled. "She's crushing you!"
"Please," Aquillamon said obviously growing weaker I really didn't see how it was possible to be fine. "I'll be okay, please I know it's hard to watch me like this, in pain. I know I would hate to see you like this. But please just wait, trust me on this I'll be fine."
Yolei clenched her fists as a single tear ran down her face.
"Okay Aquillamon," she said. "I know you would never lie, if you say you'll be okay, then you will I trust you."
It all happened in a second, not like it had with Cody, which happened gradually, this happened all at once. Yolei's crest began to glow bright red within seconds the light from the crest engulfed Aquillamon, and just like what had happened to Ankylomon Aquillamon began to Digivolve!
"Aquillamon Digivolved to……………….Petoramon!"
The light eventually cleared revealing a giant griffin like Digimon. He stood about three times higher than Aquillamon. He had the same eagle like feet and legs as Aquillamon, and eagle like body, and griffin like arms ending in hands with like an eagle's feet with sharp deadly talons, but with the opposable thumb like a human. Petoramon also had two large wings on his back red throughout except at the tips, which were white. Lastly was his head, his looked much like a bald eagle's, except he had horns not like Aquillamon's though, they weren't pointed forward, they were curved around in a circle then forward again, like a rams.
Petoramon smiled and looked down at Yolei.
"See I told you I'd be okay," Petoramon said. "I got the idea from Cody and Skullpiomon. Ankylomon Digivolved because of Cody's honour, and I knew that your crest was the crest of trust, all you needed to do was trust me despite all the reasons not too, and you did which activated your crest, and I was able to Digivolve."
"I didn't doubt you for a second," Yolei said happily.
Petoramon gave a thumbs up then turned to his attacker. At the same time Skullpiomon tossed Mummymon right beside Arukenemon. Petoramon looked down at the once threatening Arukenemon who now looked very weak compared to the powerful looking Petoramon.
"Skullpiomon is just was strong as me," Petoramon said. "And look what he did to Mummymon, so what do you think I could do to you."
A look of fear washed over Arukenemon's face as Petoramon looked down upon her. "I-uh," she stuttered. "You're lucky I've got something better to do than deal with you."
Arukenemon retreated and quickly climbed up a nearby building and out of sight.
"Hey!" Mummymon yelled, slowly getting up. "Wait for me!"
Mummymon followed Arukenemon jumping half of the length of the building, then the other half also disappearing out of sight.
"Well that was easier than I thought." Cody said.
"It's not over," Petoramon said pointing up into the sky.
Waves upon waves of fear surged through me as I saw hundreds of roach like Digimon in the sky, heading straight at us, well maybe not straight at us, but in our general direction, but there was no way they could miss us and they were definitely Diaboromon's minions, and they would attack us when they saw us. What made it worse was that they were coming at us in every direction, the direction where Kris and Andrew were fighting Diaboromon.
"Only one way to go," Penguinmon said.
"Yeah," Cody said. "Looks like Diaboromon is trying to herd us back into one location."
"It's working," I said. "We don't really have a choice but to go that way."
"Then we better go then," Petoramon said. "Before they get here."
"Then what are we waiting for!" I said. "Let's move!"
We didn't waste any time not that we could, those roach like Digimon would be here any second. Cody got on Skullpiomon's back who started running towards the battle, while Yolei Penguinmon and I were on Petoramon's back also flying towards the battle.
I was actually glad we were heading back there; I hated the fact I had to leave Kris. Now I was going to see him again, that was if – no! He had to be okay, I was going to see him again, and though it probably wouldn't last long, that didn't matter to me at least we'd go together.
* * *
Will
"Great why do we always show up late?" I said upon arriving on the scene of the battle.
"Just lucky I guess," Ookuwamon said.
I was riding on Ookuwamon's back rushing towards the battle we'd gotten here late because we lived in a different area than all the others, they all lived in apartment complexes and houses in the residential areas of Odeiba meanwhile I was staying in a hotel with my parents in the business section the opposite side of town that we were in now. It had taken us more time to get here than the others, why did they always have to start without me? It looked like the battle had gotten really intense in Ookuwamon and I's absence. There was a major battle going on a bit behind me, which probably had something to do with Infermon, it was best that I didn't get involved in that battle, Ookuwamon would just get hurt, there were other battles, I could tell just by looking down that there were several going on down there. There were dozens of small spherical Digimon firing bolts of electricity everywhere. It was probably best that we deal with those Digimon at least they were in our league. I looked at my Digivice, there had once just been one distress signal now they were lighting up all over the radar.
"Great, does everyone need our help?" I said.
"I can see at least two who do," Ookuwamon said pointing towards the ground. Yep! He was definitely right just below two of the spherical Digimon were firing bolts of electricity at Dan and Janine, they'd been able to dodge them so far but they wouldn't be able to for much longer, and they couldn't even fight back, it looked like their Digimon had been weakened, they were both in their In-Training form.
"You know what to do Ookuwamon," I said.
Ookuwamon nodded as he dove towards the two Digimon attacking Dan and Janine.
"Double Scissor claw!" my Digimon yelled firing two energy beams one from each of his incisors.
The two Digimon looked in the direction of the energy beams, but only to see a bright beam of light as the beams engulfed them completely incinerating them.
"Thunder volt!" two voices yelled from the side.
There were two other Digimon. There was no time to attack them, and neither Dan nor Janine could get out of the way of the attacks in time. Good thing Ookuwamon knew that. Ookuwamon broke into a dive and quickly snagged Dan Janine and their Digimon off the round in his arms getting them out of harms way just as the attack landed where they had once been standing.
"Double scissor claw!"
Once again Ookuwamon fired his trademark attack and incinerated two more of the Digimon, then put Dan Janine and both their In-Training Digimon on his back right beside me.
"Thanks," Janine said finally breathing a sigh of relief.
"It's about time too," Dan said. "What the hell took you so long?"
Janine shot him a dirty look. Great looks like she was one of those people who treated me extra nice because of my disability, I hated that, I just wanted to be treated like everyone else, but at least Dan didn't seem to be like that. I'd had a talk with Jenn before, she told me Dan was that way to everyone, tending to give people a hard time humourously, judging from the comment he'd just paid me it looked like he wasn't going to treat me any differently just because I was in a wheelchair. Good I was tired of people always treating me nicer; I just wanted to be like everyone else.
"I missed a lot," I said. "What exactly happened here?"
"Long story," Dan said. "But I guess you should know. Plain and simple Infermon attacked, one of his minions trashed the area. Davis and Ken's Digimon reached their Ultimate level, and were able to defeat him, but then Infermon showed up and beat the tar out of Davis and Ken's Digimon and they returned to their In-Training stage. Then the others showed up just as Infermon destroyed one of his minions and absorbed his data, which allowed him to Digivolve to his Mega state Diaboromon. Then our previous enemy Andrew showed up and helped us, then Kris and Andrew told the rest of us to run, while they battled Diaboromon themselves."
"Looks like Diaboromon isn't going to let you guys escape that easily," I said.
Janine nodded. "Yeah as soon as we started running about a dozen Thundermon started attacking us. That was until you too showed up."
"So what's up now?" I asked. "Is it over, I mean after Kris and Andrew defeat Diaboromon what else is there to do."
Dan Janine and their Digimon looked at each other in concern.
"I don't think so," Dan's Digimon, which I think, was a Tsunomon. "Kris's Digimon is a Mega, and Andrew's is an Ultimate, and they are facing just one Mega, but their fighting a powerful one, very powerful. They won't win that's a given, they won't just lose they're be killed."
"And you just left them!" I yelled. "To fight alone!"
"We didn't have a choice," Dan yelled in defense. "Both Kris and Tai ordered us to run, they're sacrificing themselves so the rest of us can escape and fight again another day."
I could only look on at them, I couldn't believe this, I'd just entered the fight and I was already losing comrades. This was horrible! I always knew war was horrible! But I guess I never realized how horrible it was until I really experienced it, and I hadn't even seen what had could happen, just the thought had disgusting me.
"So what exactly are we going to do then?" Ookuwamon asked.
Dan sighed. "As much as I hate it, I've got to be sensible for once we've got to do what Kris asked us to do, run."
"You're kidding!" I yelled. "Ookuwamon and I just got here, now you're asking us to leave."
Suddenly a loud buzzing sound filled the air, my eyes met the source of the sound, as a lump of fear filled in my throat.
From three directions were dozens upon dozens of Roachmon flying at us or in our general direction. There was only one direction that they weren't coming from, behind us right were I had heard a fierce battle going on. Diaboromon was trying to herd us back towards him. The trouble was it was going to work.
"Looks like you just got your wish Will," Dan said upon seeing the hundreds of Roachmon.
"You're not saying we actually go back to Diaboromon?" Janine said.
"Do we have a choice?" Dan said. "Would you rather fight hundreds of those things?"
"Yes actually!" Janine said forcefully. "You saw what Diaboromon did to Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon, those were two Megas and he knocked them out with one hit! Those roaches are probably nothing compared to him."
"True," I said. "But all the others are probably heading back towards Diaboromon, we probably should too, you know give them some backup."
"Fine!" Janine yelled. "You guys want to rush into certain death, when you could go where's there's at least some chance of surviving that's fine, let's all get ourselves killed! That seems to be this group's little model."
"It's settled then," Dan said. "Let's go off to certain death!"
"Arg! You're such a jerk sometimes!"
I laughed, and Ookuwamon turned from the Roachmon, and began flying in the only direction that they weren't coming from straight towards the heart of all this mayhem.
"So, Will." Dan said turning to face me. "This was been bugging me since you joined our group. How come you're in a wheelchair, I mean why don't you're legs work?"
"Dan!" Janine yelled. "I can't believe you! Just when I think you can't get any more insensitive."
I laughed. "It's fine, I actually appreciate that he's willing to ask so openly, it shows he's willing to treat me like anyone else, like I told Kris before I don't like to be treated special. I like to be treated like everyone else."
"Oh," Janine said shyly.
"Anyway," I began. "To answer you're question, I've got Cerebral Palsy, I was born with it. It's a condition that causes the muscles in my legs to be permanently contracted so they don't bend properly. In most cases it just causes the legs to position themselves awkwardly, I've got a more severe condition so my legs don't work at all."
"You don't sound too upset about it," Dan said, once again not sounding concerned at all about trying to offend me.
Good I hated it when people did that. Janine however looked like the opposite, she looked really concerned about what Dan was saying, afraid it would offend me, it was both funny and annoying at the same time.
Dan continued. "You must be pretty tolerant. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't walk. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't play sports."
"Hey, just because I can't walk doesn't mean I can't play sports. I've got a hockey net set up in a dead end street, I play all the time."
"Hey you play hockey too," Dan said. "I love hockey, when this wars over we should play sometime. I've been looking for a challenge, I'm sure you'd be tough to beat in that wheelchair."
A huge smile on my face, I must have looked like an idiot. Had I actually found a friend that didn't treat me nicer just because I was in a wheelchair? I had lots of friends back at home, but they were always overly nice to me, sure it was better than them making fun of me because of it, but there was still those joking around insults between guys where it was obvious you're kidding. When my friends would tease each other and they'd all have a good laugh about it, but I was never included in it, they were always too nice, they were afraid of offending me. Sure it was great they were being too considerate, but I didn't want to be treated to nicely I just wanted to be treated like everyone else. I could remember one instance where one of my friends would trip on a crack and fall to the ground, he wasn't hurt or anything, he just laughed at himself, meanwhile one of my other friends would also laugh at him make some comment about him being clumsy and offer him a hand up. Then only ten minutes later a rock got in my wheelchair causing it to fall over and me as well. I wasn't hurt of course, I laughed at myself, but my friends were at my side filled with concern, and helped me up, sure it was nice that they were concerned for me, but I'd rather they treated me like my other friend who had just fallen, make a joke them help me up, but because of this stupid wheelchair they treated me too nice, it got really annoying at times. I mean falling half a foot from a wheelchair is a lot safer than falling three or four feet from standing up. Dan was different, I actually liked his insensitivity, he wasn't concerned about offending me he just joked around like the wheelchair didn't even exist to him, my other friends would never play hockey with me they were afraid of hurting me, but Dan saw it as an advantage, and it was I could move pretty fast in that thing.
"One more question," Dan, said. "Your crest, do you happen to know what it's called."
I nodded. "Yep, sure do. It's the crest of Perseverance. Because I'm in a wheelchair almost everything I've had to do was twice as hard, unfortunately it's mainly because people only see the wheelchair, and not me, so it's not the wheelchair itself that's made things harder. I've had to persevere through a lot so it's only natural that Perseverance is my crest."
"We're here!" Ookuwamon announced.
I snapped out of my thoughts as my Digimon landed a decent distance from a half devil half insect like Digimon in front of us which I assumed was Diaboromon, just as he landed a griffin like Digimon, and what looked like a scorpion's skeleton landed/walked beside us, while at the same time the other members of the team also arrived on the scene. There were eighteen Digidestined, and nineteen Digimon here, the only one's missing from our team now were Kris, Elecmon, and the new guy Andrew, and whoever his Digimon was.
"About time," Diaboromon said arrogantly. "I thought you'd never get here! My Roachmon are slower than I thought."
Every pair of eyes, including my own searched the area for Kris Andrew and their Digimon, but there was no sign of any of them. Where were they? They were supposed to be here fighting? Could they have been killed? Already this guy couldn't be that tough could he?"
Jenn was the first to speak up. "Where are they? What did you do to Kris you bastard!"
The giant Digimon smiled. "You're standing on them, they're buried under that huge pile of ruble."
"Get off!" Jenn yelled at the griffin Digimon she was riding upon, who immediately obeyed, and jumped off of the pile of ruble he was standing on.
"He's alive," the griffin Digimon said looking down into the ruble. "I can smell him."
"Well don't just stand there!" Jenn yelled angrily. "Get him out of there!" The Digimon didn't hesitate, he didn't need to, he was more than powerful enough to get clear that ruble which he did in a matter of seconds with a flap of his massive wing. As the ruble cleared, two human figures were revealed, both their Digimon, Kris looked fine not a scratch on him. The kid who I assumed was Andrew had a few scratches but was okay aside from that.
Jenn slid down the griffin Digimon to the ground and immediately met Kris with a huge hug.
"Thank God!" she yelled as she hugged him as tightly as she could. "I thought I'd never see you again!"
"I'm glad to see you too Jenn," He said. "But I thought I told you guys to run." Tai approached both Kris and Jenn holding a very hurt Agumon in his arms.
"We had to come back," he said. "Diaboromon herded us back here using hundreds of Roachmon."
Kris broke the hug and turned to face Diaboromon.
"Why have you done this?" Kris yelled. "This was a fight between us!"
"I have no intention of fighting you now," Diaboromon said. "There would be no fun in that. There are twenty of you here, and most of you are all too weak to fight. Destroying you now wouldn't be any fun at all, I crave a challenge, and I've been told that you Digidestined are the Ultimate challenge when united, and I'd like to face that challenge. So I'm going to give you a few days to rest, build up you're strength again, that way all twenty of you can face me at once, and maybe finally put up a decent fight. I'll let you know when I'm ready to fight, until then you better enjoy these days, they'll be you're last." No sooner had he finished talking than he disappeared, literately disappeared, as in now you see him now you don't. Either he was really fast, or he could teleport, most likely the first one, but hopefully the second one.
The following minutes were those racked with disbelief and silence, as all the Digivolved Digimon returned to either an In-Training or rookie state, and the forty of us gathered in one circle. I think everyone had expected to die upon returning to Diaboromon, they'd just been pardoned.
"We are so dead," Janine said.
"I don't want to hear that!" Tai snapped. "You don't know for sure that we're going to lose this fight."
"Tai did you not see what happened?" Sora asked. "None of our Digimon even came close to standing up to that guy. He's just too powerful."
"No he's not!" Tai yelled. "Do you remember what Pixiemon said to us in the Digital World during our training. He said as long as we were together we were unstoppable, and during all our fights against Diaboromon we were separated, this time we'll be together, and this time at full power, everyone's crest has began to glow, and all of you Digimon can reach your Ultimate state. Three of us are even Megas. Sure Diaboromon's reached his full potential, but so have we! We can beat this guy we just have to stand together, and believe that we can! I don't want to hear anybody telling me we can't because I know we can. Now who's with me?"
Tai put his hand into the center of the circle we had formed only Agumon beat Kris and Elecmon to placing their hands on top of Tai's. Then Dan, and eventually so did the others, I was last as I wheeled over to the center and also placed my hand in. The only one who hadn't was Andrew.
"Andrew?" Kris said. "You with us? You're a member of this team too."
Andrew met Kris's gaze with a cold stare. "You'd really accept me into your group after all the horrible things I've done?"
"Hey we let Ken in didn't we?" Davis said just as Kari's elbow met his ribs.
"Of course," Tai and Kris both said at the same time.
Kris continued. "You've made mistakes but -" Kris's eyes met with Dan's. "Most of us have accepted that you're one of us even if you did get your crest and Digivice a different way."
"Fine," he said coldly putting his hand in with the others, Demidevimon immediately followed.
"So it's settled," Tai said. "We all believe we can win."
All thirty-nine heads nodded. So that was it we'd all decided that we could actually beat Diaboromon.
Now just one question remained. Could we?
The battle that both Andrew and I knew we were destined to lose began as Saberleomon clamped landed on Diaboromon's left arm and clamped his teeth onto hit. Meanwhile Gigadramon broke into a dive and head butted Diaboromon's chest. Diaboromon just laughed, tossed Saberleomon off of him effortlessly like he was some annoying tick, and hit Gigadramon aside with the back of his hand. Saberleomon landed on his feet a few feet away.
But Gigadramon wasn't so lucky; Diaboromon had only hit him casually but that didn't mean there wasn't a lot of power in it. The "casual" hit sent both Gigadramon and Andrew flying into the ground, with Gigadramon's face in the pavement.
Andrew slowly recovered from the crash, shook his head and sat up on Gigadramon's back.
"Gigadramon!" Andrew yelled in concern, the first time I'd ever seen him concerned.
"I'm fine," Gigadramon said slowly getting up. "What a hit though."
"You worthless Digimon!" Diaboromon mocked. "You call that a hit? I was hardly even trying."
This was looking bad! Diaboromon had just kind of waved his hand and hit Gigadramon aside, I didn't want to think of what a real hit could do!
"You got lucky," Gigadramon said angrily, as he unfolded his wings, which had been retracted during the crash into the ground. "Next time you won't be so lucky, but I think you should wait here on the ground Andrew."
"But I-"
"You'll just get hurt, what if I crash like that again and I land on my back, plus I'd be distracted trying to make sure you don't get hurt, please for me just wait down here where it's safe."
Andrew sighed. "Alright, I guess if you're distracted there's a better chance of you getting hurt, and that's the last thing I want."
Andrew slid down Gigadramon's tail, and onto the ground and patted him. "Good luck buddy, I feel bad not being up there with you."
"Hey I wouldn't be able to fight at all if it weren't for you, so in a way you are up there fighting with me." Gigadramon said as he took to the air once again, and joined the battle.
I couldn't help but look at Andrew confused. Was this really the same guy who had enslaved tortured and killed Digimon? Now he was being caring and considerate for his own Digimon. Of course it was understandable that there was so much of a difference, the Andrew that we fought against was probably a different person than what Andrew was really like. He thought it was a game; he was just playing his role in the game. Now to him it was no longer a game it was understandable he would be a different person. I was just glad he was on our side now.
"Gigadramon!" Saberleomon yelled at Andrew's Digimon. "Physical attacks aren't going to work, we need to try another method."
Gigadramon nodded. "I got'cha! Giga missile!"
Gigadramon's missile launcher popped open, and he launched a missile at Diaboromon's head. Diaboromon didn't even try to dodge it, he just looked at the missile as it exploded in his face, the monstrous Digimon just laughed and spit out a cloud of smoke.
"What was that it?" Diaboromon said. "That was pathetic."
"That's not the method that I meant!" Saberleomon said.
"Then what did you mean?" Gigadramon asked.
"I mean use our heads, find his weak point, and then exploit it."
"You fools!" Diaboromon yelled. "I have no weak spot! I am invincible! And I'm really getting tired of this pathetic fight! You Digidestined have proved to be very disappointing, the way Evamon talked about you I expected much more, and I would prefer a much more challenging fight, so I'm sorry but I'm going to have to end this right now!"
It happened all two quickly for any of us to notice. Diaboromon jumped into the air, actually it looked more like he disappeared from where he was standing and reappeared right below Gigadramon.
"Hey!" Gigadramon yelled in surprise and fear as Diaboromon's hand clamped onto his tail.
"Goodbye Andrew and Kris!" Diaboromon said snapping Gigadramon back like a whip then tossing him straight at us!
The giant flying lizard flew at us way too fast for us to get out of the way. All we saw was a blur of gray flying at us; all we could do was stare in horror and fear as the giant Digimon flew at us. The next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion, yet quickly at the same time, it was hard to explain. A green blur suddenly covered us and pushed us out of the way, and stopped just as Gigadramon's massive head crashed down beside us, inches away from crushing us. I glanced over at the 'green blur', who was obviously Saberleomon, who had pushed us aside at amazing speed, and panting heavily.
"Saberleomon, I didn't know you could move that fast," I said.
"Neither…did…I." Saberleomon said panting very heavily, then collapsing, becoming engulfed in a dreading white glow, and shrunk down into Elecmon again, at the same time Gigadramon also began to glow and shrunk down to his In-Training state.
"Evaupamon!" Andrew said cradling his Digimon in his arms.
I ran to Elecmon's side, and knelt beside him. "So okay buddy?" I asked.
"I've felt better," he said looking up at me and smiling despite the situation. "I'm sorry, I tried to beat him, he-he was just too strong for me, now I've used up all my energy and now we don't stand a chance."
I carefully picked Elecmon up and held him in my arms – he was a lot heavier than I thought.
"It's okay, you were just trying to save us, and no offense but we all knew we didn't stand a chance even when you were in your Mega state."
"So now what?" Elecmon asked. "We just wait to die."
I didn't answer; I did what Andrew and Evaupamon were already doing, glaring up at Diaboromon, as he looked down on us with an arrogant grin on his face.
"Run," he said softly.
"What?" Andrew said stepping back.
"You heard me," Diaboromon said. "I'm giving the four of you one last chance, run. You have thirty seconds."
"Kris?"
"I don't trust him for a second," I said. "But it's not like we have much of a choice, do what he says run!"
I turned around and ran away from the scene as fast as possible; Andrew was hesitant but was behind me in a second.
"Three…two…. one…" Diaboromon counted down as he ran away from him as fast as possible.
I hated this! I hated feeling so weak, like I was some pathetic extra in a movie running for my life, and I don't think Andrew liked it any better than me, he used to be the Digimon Emperor he used to cause this on others, now he was running himself, it was weird it was a step up and a step down at the same time.
Suddenly an explosion rocked the entire area directly behind us, knocking both Andrew and I off of our feet, face down on the ground, Elecmon rolled out of my arms. I began get up to try and pick him up, but I was stopped, and paralyzed in fear as I saw a pile of ruble from above which fell right on top of me. I closed my eyes waiting for death to come, it didn't. My eyes opened, I was under a pile of ruble, but I was fine, a bent steel beam was right over my head forming a curve right above me, which had also shielded me from the ruble above.
I smiled and laughed nervously. "Man what a lucky break huh Elecmon?"
No answer. No! It – it couldn't
"Elecmon?" I said. "Elecmon!"
Nothing I searched the area but all I could see around me was the beam over my head, surrounded by a pile of ruble. Elecmon had rolled away from me, he must be under some of the ruble, like I was but he probably hadn't been as lucky as I had, he probably didn't get a steel beam shield – we was probably – No! He couldn't I wouldn't accept that, not until I actually saw it with my own eyes, which I prayed I never would.
"Elecmon!" I yelled. "Elecmon! Where are you!"
"Right here," a weak voice said as a pile of cement ahead of me began to move and Elecmon emerged.
I scooped him up in my arms immediately and hugged him tightly.
"You scared the hell out of me!"
"Thanks for your concern, I'm fine by the way," Andrew said emerging from the same pile of cement cradling Evaupamon.
"Sorry," I said. "I-"
"Calm down," Andrew said. "I was just kidding, did you not expect the Digimon Emperor to make a joke."
I smiled and looked him over, I couldn't believe he wasn't hurt more than he was, he shouldn't even be alive, all that he had were a couple of bleeding scratches on his face, aside from that he was fine, I was glad, he had been the Digimon Emperor but he was still part of the team, and I guess now he'd be considered a friend.
"That was too easy," Diaboromon said. "But I guess it's time to round up the rest of them."
I didn't hear anything, else it was impossible for us to tell what was happening. All I could feel was a huge pit in my stomach, knowing the fact that he was about to find and attack all my friends, especially Jenn the one I cared for more than anyone else in world with the possible exception of Elecmon, and we couldn't do anything to stop it, we were trapped under all this ruble. All we could do was sit her and wait.
* * *
Jenn
I wiped a river of tears from my eyes as I ran for my life. I don't know why I was even bothering both wiping away my tears and running. Stopping my tears from running down my face was like trying to start a waterfall from falling, they were just falling at too steady a pace, and there was no need for me to run for my life either. Why should and try and save my life, it might as well be over. Kris was gone…. he was off fighting an impossible fight, one of which would most definitely result in his death.
That thought only made the tears increase, and I couldn't take it anymore, I fell to my knees as the tears flowed even more, I dropped my Ostrimon on the ground, but I didn't care nothing mattered to me anymore. I'd gotten far away from Diaboromon that I didn't need to run anymore.
I couldn't believe this, I'd lost him, and I'd lost everything! He was everything to me, my best friend, my boyfriend, everything.
"Stupid jerk," I said vainly trying to wipe my tears away. "Why did he have to do that, why does he have to be so heroic? Can't he see how important he is to me?"
Ostrimon walked back over to me.
"Jenn you know he's doing it because he cares for you," she said. "He'd rather die than see you hurt."
"I know," I said. "It's just not fair!" It's not fair!" I slammed my fist against the ground angrily. "I love him, I can't lose him I – I can't!"
I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"I know it's not," I heard Yolei say.
I hit her hand away from my shoulder, and stood up I didn't want her pity! I'd deal with this on my own! I just wanted to be alone right now, the only person who I wanted to be with right now was Kris, but I knew that was impossible, I'd never see him again.
"Just leave me alone," I said coldly keeping my back turned to her. "Just go away."
"Jenn I know it's hard but-"
"Really!" I yelled maybe a little to harshly! "Do you know how painful it is to care for someone more than your own life? To love him! Then suddenly lose him! Do you have any idea how painful that is?"
"I-"
"No of course you don't! He's gone I'm never going to see him again!"
"Come on you don't have to be so pessimistic," Cody, said as I realized he and Armadillomon were there. The three of us were the only ones in the area; we'd all gotten split up while we ran from the battle. "We don't know for sure that he'll die."
"Look, I love Kris more than anyone, only Elecmon could ever care for him more, but even I'm willing to accept that he doesn't stand a chance – and it's killing me! I don't want him to die! I care too much about him!"
I found myself falling to my knees once again breaking out in tears. "It's just not fair," I said softly.
I could feel Yolei's hand rest on my shoulder again. "I know," she said.
I didn't push her away this time; I didn't have the energy for that.
"Uh I hate to break up this moment," Hawkmon said. "But if you would look skyward, I think you'd see a good reason for a retreat!"
I didn't even bother to look, what did it matter anyway, but the others must have.
"Jenn get up!" Ostrimon ordered. "We've got to get out of here!"
"Why bother," I said. "He's gone, what's the point."
"Stop this!" Ostrimon yelled. "You know very well that the last thing Kris would want was for you to just give up! He's doing this so you won't get hurt! There are two Thundermon heading straight for us! If you stay and they hurt you Kris's sacrifice will mean nothing! And I use that term loosely because there's no guarantee that Kris is dead or is going to die! Now let's go!"
She was right, Kris doesn't want me to get hurt, in the same way I don't want him to get hurt, moping around here wasn't going to change the fact that I might loose him, I had to run, even if I felt there was no point. I looked up, and sure enough there were two ball shaped Digimon flying right at us, one on either side of us. Looks like Diaboromon wasn't going to let us go that easily, he must have sent some of his minions after us, it was definitely time to run, except for one detail.
"Okay we better get out of here," I said. "But I think there's a problem."
"We don't have time for whatever it is!" Cody said. "We better just run."
"That's the whole problem," I said. "I don't know if you noticed but there's one on either side of us, we go either ways and they've got us, both ways our blocked. There's no way out!"
There was an awkward silence, as the Thundermon only got closer.
"Wait there is one way," Yolei said. "Up! Hawkmon I know you're weak from your fight with Kimeramon but do you think you could still Digivolve."
"I'll give it a shot." Hawkmon said.
"Then do it!" Yolei ordered.
"Hawkmon Digivolved to…………………Aquillamon!"
"Let's go now!" Aquillamon yelled not wasting anytime.
The giant eagle Digimon flared his wings grabbed Ostrimon and I in one of his talons, and Cody and Armadillomon in the other, while sweeping Yolei onto his back.
"Thunder Volt!" both Thundermon yelled firing two bolts of electricity.
Aquillamon moved out of the way just in time flying straight up into the air just out of the way of the two attacks which collided and cancelled each other out. The Thundermon continued to fly towards each other then stopped seconds before they were about to ram into each other and started flying upwards towards us, flying in a double helix fashion.
Aquillamon stopped flying up and straightened out his flight, the Thundermon reached our height and did the same, and they were gaining on us fast! I couldn't believe how agile they were in flight.
"Yolei," Aquillamon said. "I don't think I can keep this up much longer. I'm weakened from that hit from Kimeramon. I could outrun them for sure, but I'm weakened they're going to catch up any second now."
"Damn!" Yolei yelled slamming her fist down.
"Ow! That doesn't exactly help!"
"Oops sorry," Yolei said laughing nervously.
"So what exactly are our options then?" Cody said.
"I only see one," Armadillomon said. "We land and fight, I'm not weakened from any previous battles I can take them on."
"Yeah," Aquillamon said. "And though I'm a little weakened I'm sure I can still fight, it's this steady pace of flying that's driving me nuts."
"Then let's do it," Yolei announced. "Aquillamon land in that empty lot there, and we'll take these balls of electricity down!"
"Why didn't we just do this in the first place," I said quietly as Aquillamon landed in a nearby empty lot. Placing the five of us down safely down on the ground, and then taking to the air again to fight the Thundermon.
"Go get him Armadillomon!" Cody instructed his Digimon.
Armadillomon nodded as Cody's Digivice activated.
"Armadillomon Digivolved to………….Ankylomon!"
The two Digimon both rushed into the battle as all four Digimon charged at each other, but the battle never started. Without warning both Thundermon were suddenly engulfed in a blue energy beam that incinerated them instantly. Aquillamon and Ankylomon both froze in their tracks.
"I know that attack!" Cody said as his eyes moved to the source of the energy beam, as did mine and everyone else's.
The attack had come from a Mummy like Digimon, but he wasn't the only one we had to worry about, beside him was a spider like Digimon.
"Great, just when we thought things couldn't get any worse, these losers show up," Yolei said referring to the two new Digimon.
"You know them?" I asked.
Cody nodded. "We fought and defeated them right before you guys and Diaboromon showed up. They're Arukenemon, and Mummymon."
The Mummy like Digimon who I assumed was Mummymon grinned and pointed the gun he was holding at us.
"We don't have time to deal with you right now!" Yolei yelled. "We've got bigger more powerful Digimon to worry about."
"You mean Evamon's pathetic pets?" The Spider like Digimon who I assumed was Arukenemon said.
"Please that fool really is pathetic our master is so much more powerful."
"You – you don't work for Evamon?" I said.
"Of course not," Mummymon said. "Why would we work for that pathetic half Digimon, it's taken him decades to build up his body, our master is almost done his, he's so much stronger."
"Great," I muttered. "Now on top of Evamon we've got another dark force to deal with."
"Don't worry about them," Yolei said. "They're just a little arrogant, I'm sure whoever their talking about isn't that strong, we can deal with it."
"Then let's do so," Ankylomon said stepping between the two Digimon and us.
"I'm with you Ankylomon," Aquillamon said doing the same thing.
"Can they win?" I asked.
"Sure," Yolei said confidently. "We beat them before, and now we're even stronger, so we shouldn't have much of a problem."
"We'll change that thought!" Mummymon yelled. "Snake Bandage!"
Mummymon's bandages unraveled and wrapped themselves around Ankylomon before the giant dinosaur Digimon, he struggled, but the bandages were stronger than they looked he was trapped.
"Spider thread!" Arukenemon yelled firing a green thread from her wrist, which wrapped around Aquillamon's wings, trapping him just like Ankylomon was.
"That was too easy!" Arukenemon bragged.
The two Digimon laughed as the thread and bandages began to tighten on Ankylomon and Aquillamon, needless to say things weren't looking good for our side.
"I thought you said you could beat them." I said.
"We could always beat them before," Yolei responded.
"That's because our Digimon could DNA Digivolve!" Cody said. "But we can't do that now, not without T.K or Kari. We're facing two Ultimates here, we might be able to take one of them, but both of them, we don't stand a chance."
The Digimon screamed in pain as Arukenemon and Mummymon began to tighten their binds, any second now they would return to their rookie stages, and then we wouldn't have a chance. Looks like Ostrimon and I would have to jump in.
"Ostrimon I know you're weak but do you think you can still Digivolve?" I asked my Digimon.
"I can try," Ostrimon said jumping from my arms into the ground.
"Ostrimon Digivolved to…………………Penguinmon!"
"Okay, just twice more," I instructed Penguinmon.
Penguinmon began concentrating her power, but nothing happened, she just fell to her knees. I was at her side immediately.
"Sorry," she said. "That hit from Metaletemon was really tough, I used up all my remaining energy just becoming Penguinmon."
I turned my attention back to the battle, if you could call it that. Aquillamon and Ankylomon were still trapped in Arukenemon and Mummymon's iron grip, while Cody and Yolei could only stand there and look on angrily.
"This was easier than I thought," Mummymon said. "I don't know why we had so much trouble before."
"Stop this!" Cody yelled. "This isn't fighting, you just took one cheap shot!"
"So what if we did," Arukenemon said laughing. "What's your point?"
Cody started to become even angrier. Why was he so concerned about fighting fair, this was war, you couldn't fight fair when you were fighting a war.
"Don't you even care how you fight!" Cody yelled. "Don't you have any honour?" Arukenemon and Mummymon just laughed, but that's not what I really noticed. What I did notice was the yellow light coming from Cody's shirt, his crest was glowing! Okay what was it that Rob said caused the crests to glow? Right! It was when your personality trait which corresponded with your respective crest was at it's strongest. Like when I wanted so bad to help those people on the plane, my crest of Assistance responded to my need to help those people, and Kiwimon was able to Digivolve. Now Cody's was glowing because he was trying to be honourable, his crest must be the crest of honour!
"Uh Cody, you know these guys have no sense of honour, I -" Yolei started before I jumped behind her and covered her mouth preventing her from saying anymore.
"Quiet," I whispered into her ear. "This could work for us."
"Stop this!" Cody yelled as his crest continued to glow brighter. "This is just torture! You've beaten them just let them go! Stop torturing them!"
The two Digimon continued to laugh.
Arukenemon sneered. "You humans are so pathetic, with that honour of yours! It's so pathetic, I'm surprised that you lasted so long as a species."
"You're wrong!" Cody yelled. "Being Honourable is not a weakness! Honour is powerful! Honour makes us strong!"
That did it the crest tucked under Cody's crest began to glow brighter than ever, so bright you could easily see the symbol under his shirt. The yellow light from Cody's crest engulfed Ankylomon and the obvious began to happen.
"Ankylomon Digivolved to……………..Skullpiomon!"
All eyes focused on the new Ultimate Digimon. Skullpiomon, if Scorpion's had bones and a skeleton, that's what this Digimon would look like the Skeleton of a Scorpion. It had two large thick bony legs, and four smaller ones, as well as two thick bony arms each with two deadly blades on them. Then his most deadly weapon his tail; it was thick and bony just like his arms and legs with an even more deadly blade on the end of it.
"See," I said. "Cody's honour made his crest glow, which then made Skullpiomon Digivolve."
Skullpiomon snapped the bandages that had once restrained him, as Mummymon looked on in shock, as Skullpiomon grinned at him.
"Bring it on!" he coaxed at the Mummy Digimon.
"Uh I-" Mummymon stuttered upon seeing the size difference.
"What scared of fighting him?" Arukenemon said.
"Of course not!" Mummymon yelled. "Let's see what you can do you oversized bag of bones!"
Skullpiomon sneered. "I could say the same about you!"
That started it, Mummymon jumped at Skullpiomon and the battle between the two began.
Skullpiomon fought well against Mummymon, the difference in power was obviously tilted in Cody's Digimon's favour, but I my concern wasn't shifted towards that battle. I was more concerned about the 'battle' between Arukenemon and Aquillamon, Skullpiomon could handle himself but Aquillamon was being crushed. He wasn't just in danger of returning to his rookie form he was in danger of being killed! Yolei obviously knew that.
"Aquillamon!" Yolei yelled in concern.
"Looks like you're about to lose, sure Mummymon is too, but it's worth it to destroy at least one of you fools."
"I won't let you do this!" Yolei yelled running at Arukenemon.
I would have stopped her, but there was no way I could have stopped her.
"Yolei stop!" Aquillamon yelled.
Yolei immediately stopped in her tracks, so much for not being able to stop her.
"Stay back, please!" Aquillamon said as Arukenemon's threads began to tighten around him.
"No!" Yolei yelled. "She's hurting you!" I won't let her do that!"
"I'll be fine, just please wait."
"Fine!" Yolei yelled. "She's crushing you!"
"Please," Aquillamon said obviously growing weaker I really didn't see how it was possible to be fine. "I'll be okay, please I know it's hard to watch me like this, in pain. I know I would hate to see you like this. But please just wait, trust me on this I'll be fine."
Yolei clenched her fists as a single tear ran down her face.
"Okay Aquillamon," she said. "I know you would never lie, if you say you'll be okay, then you will I trust you."
It all happened in a second, not like it had with Cody, which happened gradually, this happened all at once. Yolei's crest began to glow bright red within seconds the light from the crest engulfed Aquillamon, and just like what had happened to Ankylomon Aquillamon began to Digivolve!
"Aquillamon Digivolved to……………….Petoramon!"
The light eventually cleared revealing a giant griffin like Digimon. He stood about three times higher than Aquillamon. He had the same eagle like feet and legs as Aquillamon, and eagle like body, and griffin like arms ending in hands with like an eagle's feet with sharp deadly talons, but with the opposable thumb like a human. Petoramon also had two large wings on his back red throughout except at the tips, which were white. Lastly was his head, his looked much like a bald eagle's, except he had horns not like Aquillamon's though, they weren't pointed forward, they were curved around in a circle then forward again, like a rams.
Petoramon smiled and looked down at Yolei.
"See I told you I'd be okay," Petoramon said. "I got the idea from Cody and Skullpiomon. Ankylomon Digivolved because of Cody's honour, and I knew that your crest was the crest of trust, all you needed to do was trust me despite all the reasons not too, and you did which activated your crest, and I was able to Digivolve."
"I didn't doubt you for a second," Yolei said happily.
Petoramon gave a thumbs up then turned to his attacker. At the same time Skullpiomon tossed Mummymon right beside Arukenemon. Petoramon looked down at the once threatening Arukenemon who now looked very weak compared to the powerful looking Petoramon.
"Skullpiomon is just was strong as me," Petoramon said. "And look what he did to Mummymon, so what do you think I could do to you."
A look of fear washed over Arukenemon's face as Petoramon looked down upon her. "I-uh," she stuttered. "You're lucky I've got something better to do than deal with you."
Arukenemon retreated and quickly climbed up a nearby building and out of sight.
"Hey!" Mummymon yelled, slowly getting up. "Wait for me!"
Mummymon followed Arukenemon jumping half of the length of the building, then the other half also disappearing out of sight.
"Well that was easier than I thought." Cody said.
"It's not over," Petoramon said pointing up into the sky.
Waves upon waves of fear surged through me as I saw hundreds of roach like Digimon in the sky, heading straight at us, well maybe not straight at us, but in our general direction, but there was no way they could miss us and they were definitely Diaboromon's minions, and they would attack us when they saw us. What made it worse was that they were coming at us in every direction, the direction where Kris and Andrew were fighting Diaboromon.
"Only one way to go," Penguinmon said.
"Yeah," Cody said. "Looks like Diaboromon is trying to herd us back into one location."
"It's working," I said. "We don't really have a choice but to go that way."
"Then we better go then," Petoramon said. "Before they get here."
"Then what are we waiting for!" I said. "Let's move!"
We didn't waste any time not that we could, those roach like Digimon would be here any second. Cody got on Skullpiomon's back who started running towards the battle, while Yolei Penguinmon and I were on Petoramon's back also flying towards the battle.
I was actually glad we were heading back there; I hated the fact I had to leave Kris. Now I was going to see him again, that was if – no! He had to be okay, I was going to see him again, and though it probably wouldn't last long, that didn't matter to me at least we'd go together.
* * *
Will
"Great why do we always show up late?" I said upon arriving on the scene of the battle.
"Just lucky I guess," Ookuwamon said.
I was riding on Ookuwamon's back rushing towards the battle we'd gotten here late because we lived in a different area than all the others, they all lived in apartment complexes and houses in the residential areas of Odeiba meanwhile I was staying in a hotel with my parents in the business section the opposite side of town that we were in now. It had taken us more time to get here than the others, why did they always have to start without me? It looked like the battle had gotten really intense in Ookuwamon and I's absence. There was a major battle going on a bit behind me, which probably had something to do with Infermon, it was best that I didn't get involved in that battle, Ookuwamon would just get hurt, there were other battles, I could tell just by looking down that there were several going on down there. There were dozens of small spherical Digimon firing bolts of electricity everywhere. It was probably best that we deal with those Digimon at least they were in our league. I looked at my Digivice, there had once just been one distress signal now they were lighting up all over the radar.
"Great, does everyone need our help?" I said.
"I can see at least two who do," Ookuwamon said pointing towards the ground. Yep! He was definitely right just below two of the spherical Digimon were firing bolts of electricity at Dan and Janine, they'd been able to dodge them so far but they wouldn't be able to for much longer, and they couldn't even fight back, it looked like their Digimon had been weakened, they were both in their In-Training form.
"You know what to do Ookuwamon," I said.
Ookuwamon nodded as he dove towards the two Digimon attacking Dan and Janine.
"Double Scissor claw!" my Digimon yelled firing two energy beams one from each of his incisors.
The two Digimon looked in the direction of the energy beams, but only to see a bright beam of light as the beams engulfed them completely incinerating them.
"Thunder volt!" two voices yelled from the side.
There were two other Digimon. There was no time to attack them, and neither Dan nor Janine could get out of the way of the attacks in time. Good thing Ookuwamon knew that. Ookuwamon broke into a dive and quickly snagged Dan Janine and their Digimon off the round in his arms getting them out of harms way just as the attack landed where they had once been standing.
"Double scissor claw!"
Once again Ookuwamon fired his trademark attack and incinerated two more of the Digimon, then put Dan Janine and both their In-Training Digimon on his back right beside me.
"Thanks," Janine said finally breathing a sigh of relief.
"It's about time too," Dan said. "What the hell took you so long?"
Janine shot him a dirty look. Great looks like she was one of those people who treated me extra nice because of my disability, I hated that, I just wanted to be treated like everyone else, but at least Dan didn't seem to be like that. I'd had a talk with Jenn before, she told me Dan was that way to everyone, tending to give people a hard time humourously, judging from the comment he'd just paid me it looked like he wasn't going to treat me any differently just because I was in a wheelchair. Good I was tired of people always treating me nicer; I just wanted to be like everyone else.
"I missed a lot," I said. "What exactly happened here?"
"Long story," Dan said. "But I guess you should know. Plain and simple Infermon attacked, one of his minions trashed the area. Davis and Ken's Digimon reached their Ultimate level, and were able to defeat him, but then Infermon showed up and beat the tar out of Davis and Ken's Digimon and they returned to their In-Training stage. Then the others showed up just as Infermon destroyed one of his minions and absorbed his data, which allowed him to Digivolve to his Mega state Diaboromon. Then our previous enemy Andrew showed up and helped us, then Kris and Andrew told the rest of us to run, while they battled Diaboromon themselves."
"Looks like Diaboromon isn't going to let you guys escape that easily," I said.
Janine nodded. "Yeah as soon as we started running about a dozen Thundermon started attacking us. That was until you too showed up."
"So what's up now?" I asked. "Is it over, I mean after Kris and Andrew defeat Diaboromon what else is there to do."
Dan Janine and their Digimon looked at each other in concern.
"I don't think so," Dan's Digimon, which I think, was a Tsunomon. "Kris's Digimon is a Mega, and Andrew's is an Ultimate, and they are facing just one Mega, but their fighting a powerful one, very powerful. They won't win that's a given, they won't just lose they're be killed."
"And you just left them!" I yelled. "To fight alone!"
"We didn't have a choice," Dan yelled in defense. "Both Kris and Tai ordered us to run, they're sacrificing themselves so the rest of us can escape and fight again another day."
I could only look on at them, I couldn't believe this, I'd just entered the fight and I was already losing comrades. This was horrible! I always knew war was horrible! But I guess I never realized how horrible it was until I really experienced it, and I hadn't even seen what had could happen, just the thought had disgusting me.
"So what exactly are we going to do then?" Ookuwamon asked.
Dan sighed. "As much as I hate it, I've got to be sensible for once we've got to do what Kris asked us to do, run."
"You're kidding!" I yelled. "Ookuwamon and I just got here, now you're asking us to leave."
Suddenly a loud buzzing sound filled the air, my eyes met the source of the sound, as a lump of fear filled in my throat.
From three directions were dozens upon dozens of Roachmon flying at us or in our general direction. There was only one direction that they weren't coming from, behind us right were I had heard a fierce battle going on. Diaboromon was trying to herd us back towards him. The trouble was it was going to work.
"Looks like you just got your wish Will," Dan said upon seeing the hundreds of Roachmon.
"You're not saying we actually go back to Diaboromon?" Janine said.
"Do we have a choice?" Dan said. "Would you rather fight hundreds of those things?"
"Yes actually!" Janine said forcefully. "You saw what Diaboromon did to Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon, those were two Megas and he knocked them out with one hit! Those roaches are probably nothing compared to him."
"True," I said. "But all the others are probably heading back towards Diaboromon, we probably should too, you know give them some backup."
"Fine!" Janine yelled. "You guys want to rush into certain death, when you could go where's there's at least some chance of surviving that's fine, let's all get ourselves killed! That seems to be this group's little model."
"It's settled then," Dan said. "Let's go off to certain death!"
"Arg! You're such a jerk sometimes!"
I laughed, and Ookuwamon turned from the Roachmon, and began flying in the only direction that they weren't coming from straight towards the heart of all this mayhem.
"So, Will." Dan said turning to face me. "This was been bugging me since you joined our group. How come you're in a wheelchair, I mean why don't you're legs work?"
"Dan!" Janine yelled. "I can't believe you! Just when I think you can't get any more insensitive."
I laughed. "It's fine, I actually appreciate that he's willing to ask so openly, it shows he's willing to treat me like anyone else, like I told Kris before I don't like to be treated special. I like to be treated like everyone else."
"Oh," Janine said shyly.
"Anyway," I began. "To answer you're question, I've got Cerebral Palsy, I was born with it. It's a condition that causes the muscles in my legs to be permanently contracted so they don't bend properly. In most cases it just causes the legs to position themselves awkwardly, I've got a more severe condition so my legs don't work at all."
"You don't sound too upset about it," Dan said, once again not sounding concerned at all about trying to offend me.
Good I hated it when people did that. Janine however looked like the opposite, she looked really concerned about what Dan was saying, afraid it would offend me, it was both funny and annoying at the same time.
Dan continued. "You must be pretty tolerant. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't walk. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't play sports."
"Hey, just because I can't walk doesn't mean I can't play sports. I've got a hockey net set up in a dead end street, I play all the time."
"Hey you play hockey too," Dan said. "I love hockey, when this wars over we should play sometime. I've been looking for a challenge, I'm sure you'd be tough to beat in that wheelchair."
A huge smile on my face, I must have looked like an idiot. Had I actually found a friend that didn't treat me nicer just because I was in a wheelchair? I had lots of friends back at home, but they were always overly nice to me, sure it was better than them making fun of me because of it, but there was still those joking around insults between guys where it was obvious you're kidding. When my friends would tease each other and they'd all have a good laugh about it, but I was never included in it, they were always too nice, they were afraid of offending me. Sure it was great they were being too considerate, but I didn't want to be treated to nicely I just wanted to be treated like everyone else. I could remember one instance where one of my friends would trip on a crack and fall to the ground, he wasn't hurt or anything, he just laughed at himself, meanwhile one of my other friends would also laugh at him make some comment about him being clumsy and offer him a hand up. Then only ten minutes later a rock got in my wheelchair causing it to fall over and me as well. I wasn't hurt of course, I laughed at myself, but my friends were at my side filled with concern, and helped me up, sure it was nice that they were concerned for me, but I'd rather they treated me like my other friend who had just fallen, make a joke them help me up, but because of this stupid wheelchair they treated me too nice, it got really annoying at times. I mean falling half a foot from a wheelchair is a lot safer than falling three or four feet from standing up. Dan was different, I actually liked his insensitivity, he wasn't concerned about offending me he just joked around like the wheelchair didn't even exist to him, my other friends would never play hockey with me they were afraid of hurting me, but Dan saw it as an advantage, and it was I could move pretty fast in that thing.
"One more question," Dan, said. "Your crest, do you happen to know what it's called."
I nodded. "Yep, sure do. It's the crest of Perseverance. Because I'm in a wheelchair almost everything I've had to do was twice as hard, unfortunately it's mainly because people only see the wheelchair, and not me, so it's not the wheelchair itself that's made things harder. I've had to persevere through a lot so it's only natural that Perseverance is my crest."
"We're here!" Ookuwamon announced.
I snapped out of my thoughts as my Digimon landed a decent distance from a half devil half insect like Digimon in front of us which I assumed was Diaboromon, just as he landed a griffin like Digimon, and what looked like a scorpion's skeleton landed/walked beside us, while at the same time the other members of the team also arrived on the scene. There were eighteen Digidestined, and nineteen Digimon here, the only one's missing from our team now were Kris, Elecmon, and the new guy Andrew, and whoever his Digimon was.
"About time," Diaboromon said arrogantly. "I thought you'd never get here! My Roachmon are slower than I thought."
Every pair of eyes, including my own searched the area for Kris Andrew and their Digimon, but there was no sign of any of them. Where were they? They were supposed to be here fighting? Could they have been killed? Already this guy couldn't be that tough could he?"
Jenn was the first to speak up. "Where are they? What did you do to Kris you bastard!"
The giant Digimon smiled. "You're standing on them, they're buried under that huge pile of ruble."
"Get off!" Jenn yelled at the griffin Digimon she was riding upon, who immediately obeyed, and jumped off of the pile of ruble he was standing on.
"He's alive," the griffin Digimon said looking down into the ruble. "I can smell him."
"Well don't just stand there!" Jenn yelled angrily. "Get him out of there!" The Digimon didn't hesitate, he didn't need to, he was more than powerful enough to get clear that ruble which he did in a matter of seconds with a flap of his massive wing. As the ruble cleared, two human figures were revealed, both their Digimon, Kris looked fine not a scratch on him. The kid who I assumed was Andrew had a few scratches but was okay aside from that.
Jenn slid down the griffin Digimon to the ground and immediately met Kris with a huge hug.
"Thank God!" she yelled as she hugged him as tightly as she could. "I thought I'd never see you again!"
"I'm glad to see you too Jenn," He said. "But I thought I told you guys to run." Tai approached both Kris and Jenn holding a very hurt Agumon in his arms.
"We had to come back," he said. "Diaboromon herded us back here using hundreds of Roachmon."
Kris broke the hug and turned to face Diaboromon.
"Why have you done this?" Kris yelled. "This was a fight between us!"
"I have no intention of fighting you now," Diaboromon said. "There would be no fun in that. There are twenty of you here, and most of you are all too weak to fight. Destroying you now wouldn't be any fun at all, I crave a challenge, and I've been told that you Digidestined are the Ultimate challenge when united, and I'd like to face that challenge. So I'm going to give you a few days to rest, build up you're strength again, that way all twenty of you can face me at once, and maybe finally put up a decent fight. I'll let you know when I'm ready to fight, until then you better enjoy these days, they'll be you're last." No sooner had he finished talking than he disappeared, literately disappeared, as in now you see him now you don't. Either he was really fast, or he could teleport, most likely the first one, but hopefully the second one.
The following minutes were those racked with disbelief and silence, as all the Digivolved Digimon returned to either an In-Training or rookie state, and the forty of us gathered in one circle. I think everyone had expected to die upon returning to Diaboromon, they'd just been pardoned.
"We are so dead," Janine said.
"I don't want to hear that!" Tai snapped. "You don't know for sure that we're going to lose this fight."
"Tai did you not see what happened?" Sora asked. "None of our Digimon even came close to standing up to that guy. He's just too powerful."
"No he's not!" Tai yelled. "Do you remember what Pixiemon said to us in the Digital World during our training. He said as long as we were together we were unstoppable, and during all our fights against Diaboromon we were separated, this time we'll be together, and this time at full power, everyone's crest has began to glow, and all of you Digimon can reach your Ultimate state. Three of us are even Megas. Sure Diaboromon's reached his full potential, but so have we! We can beat this guy we just have to stand together, and believe that we can! I don't want to hear anybody telling me we can't because I know we can. Now who's with me?"
Tai put his hand into the center of the circle we had formed only Agumon beat Kris and Elecmon to placing their hands on top of Tai's. Then Dan, and eventually so did the others, I was last as I wheeled over to the center and also placed my hand in. The only one who hadn't was Andrew.
"Andrew?" Kris said. "You with us? You're a member of this team too."
Andrew met Kris's gaze with a cold stare. "You'd really accept me into your group after all the horrible things I've done?"
"Hey we let Ken in didn't we?" Davis said just as Kari's elbow met his ribs.
"Of course," Tai and Kris both said at the same time.
Kris continued. "You've made mistakes but -" Kris's eyes met with Dan's. "Most of us have accepted that you're one of us even if you did get your crest and Digivice a different way."
"Fine," he said coldly putting his hand in with the others, Demidevimon immediately followed.
"So it's settled," Tai said. "We all believe we can win."
All thirty-nine heads nodded. So that was it we'd all decided that we could actually beat Diaboromon.
Now just one question remained. Could we?