War Zone

By: Theodore 'Blitz' Leung

theoleung@sprint.ca

Disclaimer: All Digimon and their characters (except for those introduced in this fic/series) do NOT belong to me. I do not have permission to use their characters, but it's a FanFic, so, who cares? =) This story line belongs to me and me alone. Please ask for permission if you wish to use it. Thanks. Now let's get onto reading!

Jena pressed her back against the wall, taking her face away from the doors as she just witnessed Ventra's almost fatal battle while defending his base. She glanced back in, seeing Ventra, now on his feet, with the battered and emptied Armour in the hanger. Pardramon helped set the damaged Armour down, hard to move with damaged servos to the legs as well as arms. Ventra was glad he got out of that mess in one piece. He fell to the ground, leaning against his damaged Armour, eyes closed.

"You going to be okay?" Pardramon asked his partner, looking down at him now. Ventra nodded slowly, before his com blared to life once more.

"Perimeter going down…perimeter going down…Aerial Armour assault can not be stopped!" a panicked voice yelled through the calm. "Fall back and regroup!"

"Great, so I take care of my side, and the other side is going down," Ventra groaned, slowly standing up. "I got to reload, but that is going to take a bit of time…"

"I can go and help," Pardramon offered, though was interrupted with another voice.

"No, I'll go," Jena spoke up, revealing her location to the pair. Her fist was clenched tightly, behind her back, astounded that she herself would volunteer for such a mission, against her own people, her own comrades…

"But!" Ventra protested, but was silenced when Jena headed towards one of the Aerial Armours in the hanger. "Those aren't even your Armours, are you sure you can handle them?"

"I will…I can handle any Aerial Armour I fly," Jena responded softly, glancing at Ventra. She remembered the vendetta Ventra held against a certain Aerial Armour that may possibly be attacking this base. "And that Aerial Armour that destroyed your friends…she won't be there…"

"But, wait!" Ventra exclaimed, though it was muffled out when Jena entered an Armour and closed the hatch for it. Ventra's com buzzed to life.

"That Aerial Armour won't be there," Jena repeated, plugging into the frequency for the base. The pilot headed towards the hanger door, Kisheartmon following behind, but staying within the hanger.

"But, why?" Ventra questioned into the com out loud, wondering how this female Aerial Armour pilot would know with such certainty of it.

"Of course she won't," Jena spoke, extending the wings of her stolen Armour outwards. "She won't…because that pilot is me…" Before anyone of the remaining three could react, she blasted into the sky, ready to engage her own comrades in mortal combat.

* * * * * *

Orange light seemed to flood sat the horizon, signalling some form of morning in that part of the world, even if it wasn't true 'light'. Sapphire watched the light, admiring it, somehow, for an unknown beauty. Siato only remained vigilant in his guarding duties, keeping an eye out for any intruders in the distance.

The soft rumble of tumbling rock didn't distract the two, as they knew who was in the cave behind them; their partners, loyal and true, and now well rested too.

"Too bad there is nothing to eat," Agumon groaned, after yawning from his deep slumber. He slept peacefully and deeply for the night, as though he had not a worry in the world.

"We'll find something," Gabumon told his cohort in crime, walking towards his partner. Agumon followed behind, not protesting anymore, focusing now more on escaping patrols or capture groups. "What is the plan?" the Digimon asked his partner, Sapphire glancing back at her Digimon companion.

"Just avoid them, until we can find a way to escape this inferno hell," Sapphire told the pair, sighing and closing her eyes. She shifted her gaze towards Siato, without opening her eyes, she just knew his male counterpart was there. Both were sixteen, exposed to the life of a gladiator, to quench the thirst of blood in that arena. "Are others out there just like me? Fighting for survival?" she thought, sending a shiver up her spine.

"Let's get moving…" Siato spoke softly, hefting his weapons, as did Sapphire. The two Digimon followed, both leaving the rocky confines of the cave they rested in.

The next instant confused all of the four, as Gabumon was hit with enough force to knock him off his feet. He landed on his side, a dart sticking through his fur into his skin, injecting something unknown into the Digimon.

"Gabumon!" Sapphire cried out, dropping her weapons and falling onto her knees beside the fallen Digimon. She quickly pulled out the dart, cradling the Digimon in her arms. Siato, on the other hand, was on alert, raising his weapons defiantly, trying to find the source of the attack. So far, his search, as well as his Digimon partner's, proved to reveal nothing.

* * * * * *

GS lowered his sniper rifle, already disabling one of the Digimon in the midst. Amnemon questioned the motive of his partner, as the mercenary watched the crowd from the distance.

"What are you doing?" the hedgehog Digimon asked, not seeing GS the type to give mercy or some form thereof. GS remained silent, before unloading the clip for his sniper rifle on his Armour. He took the single dart loaded in it, then passed it off to Amnemon. With that done, he opened his Armour, exposing his exoskeleton armour self to the air. He then took the dart from Amnemon's arms, opening a hatch in his 'second armour' and placing it into the dark hole within. The chamber took the same calibre rounds as his sniper rifle, thus why the dart would fit. "You're joking, right? Going up against a Mega?!"

"I don't miss…" GS told his Digimon, repeating what he said previously the WUF officer that gave him this assignment. He sealed the hatch shut, before deciding to approach the four in the distance, with an intent to succeed.

* * * * * *

Jena examined the aerial scenario for the base she was suppose to infiltrate, now defend with her life, as she vowed. The Armour she flew was packed with a few more weapons then her own, but lacked the stealth capability that she was used to.

"Oh well…got to make due…" the Aerial Armour pilot remarked, drawing the assault rifle from the strapped to the Armour's shoulder. She levelled the rifle, preparing to open fire on the UDF Armours.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jena questioned to herself, halting all her actions instantly. She remained hovering in the air, weapon drawn, but her fingered left the trigger alone. "These are you comrades here…those you fought along side with…and here you are, trying to kill them? Why? What is wrong with you?"

"I…I…" Jena fought with her own mind, trying to regain control of her composure as well as her mental state. Chaos erupted in her mind, chaos that prevented her from doing anything until it was resolved, or until irrational behaviour took over for her body.

As such, such behaviour took over, and Jena pulled the trigger to the rifle, completely shattering her mental state with the chaos ensuing in her mind.

* * * * * *

"I…I'm alright…" Gabumon spoke softly, slowly getting to his feet, out of Sapphire's arms. He seemed stable, after getting hit and all by that dart, with some sort of injection. Whatever that injection did, it was unclear until it wanted to become clear.

"None of us will be alright if we don't find out what is going on…" Siato muttered, having a bad feeling about all this already. "Let's hope this won't be the shortest day of our lives…" he added mentally, weary of any sort of attack.

The attack was all too imminent, as a shadow quickly loomed over head of the escape. Siato quickly turned around, raising the side of his axe, blocking the triple pronged claw extended from an exoskeleton armour. The two leaped backwards, facing off, before Siato decided to end this battle quickly.

"Agumon, make swift work of this!" Siato shouted out, taking his ruby coloured Digivice and letting it unleash its full force.

"Agumon…Warp Digivolve to…War Greymon!"

In an instance, the Rookie level Digimon became a Mega level, dashing forward, ready to disable or destroy the exoskeleton armour before them with on strong swipe of his claws…

* * * * * *

The trigger was pressed, but the finger would refuse to let go afterwards. Jena held the rifle firm and true, directing the spray of ammunition into the direction of attacking UDF Aerial Armours. The first three rounds punched into the closest Aerial Armour, breaking the light plating of the armour. The next rounds hit air, as Jena transferred aim from one Armour to another, using the rifle like a machine gun. The second Armour was hit, and then a third was damaged, as the clip was emptied. The two Armour plummeted to the ground, to their death, and if not to their deaths, then to a firing zone of death.

The repeated clicking of the empty chamber was heard, yet, Jena refused to release the trigger button until she finally 'woke up'.

"What's wrong with me?" she gasped, ejecting the clip and letting it fall below. She took another clip from her Armour, and inserted it in. She felt her Armour for more ammunition, finding another clip. On her side was a submachine gun, with two clips attached to it. On her back, she felt a pair of tubes in addition to her wings, trying to figure out their purpose. She decided to try now, commanding the tubes up and over her shoulders, aiming with no such delicacy. At this moment, the Aerial Armours attacking the base realized a flank attach, and sent four of the remaining eight to attack the lone Armour. "Open fire…" she whispered, letting loose with a hail of micro rockets that zoomed forward from the twin barrels on her right shoulder. A full spread was fired, unloading ten rockets. Six hit the point Aerial Armour, the other four hit sky as the three remaining Armours dodged. The unlucky one detonated into a ball of light as its generator blew, leaving nothing but failing shrapnel.

"One down…" the pilot whispered, levelling her rifle to take on the other three, already entering a position to surround her. "And three to go…"

"Three…allies…" she added in her mind, gripping the rifle tightly as they approached their position. Her mind continued to fight itself, trying to find some reason to her actions that would destroy her allies, as well as her own sanity.

* * * * * *

GS leaped backwards, the tri-pronged claws of the Mega level Digimon, before the other claw of that Digimon lashed forward, ready to impale the offender. Seeing the attack, the mercenary fell to the ground, the claw sailing over head, followed by the body of the Digimon.

With the opening clear, GS fired the small gun hidden inside the wrist on his suit. The dart shot out, hitting into the revealed flesh of an arm from the Digimon. War Greymon hissed in pain, falling flat onto the ground where GS used to lay, before the mercenary rolled out of the way. He leaped up, wishing he loaded a tranquilizer in his other gun on the other arm so he could stun one of the Humans he needed to apprehend.

In a flash of energy, War Greymon returned to his Rookie form of Agumon, out on the ground, sprawled out, dart still in his body.

"Agumon!" Siato exclaimed, heading to his partner's side. Gabumon looked up at his partner, Sapphire return a nod. She withdrew her Digivice, ready for the next round of combat against the unknown opponent who seemed responsible for all that has happened thus far.

"Gabumon…Warp Digivolve to…"

Gabumon and Sapphire exchanged surprised glances, unsure what happened, and why the Digimon would not Digivolve to his Mega form. Another futile attempt confused the pair even more on their predicament.

"The dart suppresses Digivolution," the armoured figure known as GS told the Humans, watching them. Sapphire clutched her hand tightly, before taking her long sword and holding it ready for combat. Siato, seeing the situation, followed example, raising his axes to engage the foe. GS accepted the challenge, revealing the tri-pronged claws on each hand of his armour to his foes, ready for combat.

* * * * * *

Jena watched the other three around her, before changing the frequency of her com link into the same frequency as her 'allies'. Being a 'traitor' as herself merited such benefits in combat, though she wondered why she was doing this. The pilot was surprised she even thought of spying on her 'allies' transmissions. She held the rifle tightly, readying for combat, listening for any sort of signal from her opponents.

"Break, rush!" the 'commander' voice of the trio shouted out, and the three Aerial Armour's blasted with boosters, rushing forward to catch Jena in the middle. Seeing the predictable manoeuvre, Jena shoulder the rifle, activating her own boosters, flying straight up. Quickly, she took the pair of sub machineguns from the Armour and opened fire into the converging Armour's below. The rounds were not as powerful as the rifle, but the amount fired easily made up for the lack of damage dealt per hit. The first few rounds of the twin bursts hit air, as it was directed towards the centre of the converging trio. However, when they converged, and blasted upwards to pursue, they were met with a hail of ammunition. The Armour at point suffered the most damage, as the other pair either suffered damage from shots that did not hit the leader or that ricocheted off odd angles from the Armour ahead of them. The pair broke off the pursuit, as the leader plummeted to the ground below, unable to hold its position in the air.

"Four destroyed…" Jena muttered, ejecting the clips of the sub machineguns and letting them fall to the ground below, replacing the clips with fresh ones. "Six more…to go…" she whispered, staggering between words. She watched the two before her, the pair of rocket launchers still extended on her shoulder. The pilot estimated ten rockets left, considering the size of the weapon and remaining weight on it. "For the other four…" she whispered, questioning her mental sanity even more…

Holstering the sub machineguns, she drew the rifle for the Armour, taking aim with the weapon towards the Armours that was friend and foe.

* * * * * *

Siato waited for no word of encouragement, dashing forward and striking with his right hand axe, swinging with a high arc. GS quickly raised his right hand in response, catching the axe blade between two of the three bladed claws. In a quick motion, and using Siato's momentum, he pushed the axe away towards another direction. However, Siato wasn't beaten by such a trick, using that momentum to swing in a crosscut fashion with his other hand. GS raised his left claw as the answer, blocking the blow, before kicking Siato's feet from underneath him and throwing the escapee to the side. With that, GS dashed towards Sapphire, her long sword raised and poised for battle.

Metal clanged together as the blade of Sapphire went between two of GS' claws on his left hand, the right hand claws stopping the blade from advancing as it blocked the weapon near the hilt. Sapphire made the first move, throwing all her weight on the blade towards the left. GS followed, his claws one with the blade temporary. The force sent GS off the blade, but Sapphire didn't stop. She continued to twist around, doing a full 360 degree turn, completing a full crosscut form. GS reacted with a block from his right claw, before thrusting forward with his left. Sapphire barely dodged, but then promptly got a hard slap from an open hand hat belonged to GS in her stomach, knocking her down. GS raised his claw, ready to stab Sapphire once, until the pair of Rookie Digimon leaped upon GS, tangling his arms. The three wrestled, buying time for the other two to recover. Siato recovered first, getting behind the distracted mercenary and about to raise an axe to deliver a strong blow.

"SONIC DISC!"

A single boomerang of emerald energy lashed out, smashing into the back of Siato's hand, forcing him to drop the axe onto the ground, the blade digging into the soil and rock that made the battle ground. In this time, GS threw Gabumon off his arm, towards the direction of Amnemon, now part of the pray, as was all the Digimon. The mercenary was sure his partner could keep these two Digimon occupied, throwing Agumon into Amnemon's direction too, but making sure Agumon collided with Gabumon to give Amnemon some advantage for a brief moment.

At this point, Siato regained his axe, swinging upwards from his position near the ground. Sharp metal skimmed GS' exoskeleton armour as he fell over backwards in an attempt to dodge. The attack left a large 'scar' across his armour, but he had no time to asses damage, as Sapphire was already back up, directing her blade to the down GS. The mercenary raised his pair of claws, blocking the attack by crossing the pair together and acting as a stop. The next second, he rolled over and leaped back to his feet, prepared for more from the pair he was paid to catch.

* * * * * *

The burst of rifle ammo blasted across the sky, three rounds, and three rounds were all that was needed to puncture enough holes into the Aerial Armour to bring it down. And down it went, plummeting below. The last Aerial Armour that engaged Jena 'started with wide eyes', so to say. The pilot obviously didn't want to engage this obviously more experienced Armour alone, and thus quickly made a b-line back towards his ranks, hoping for reinforcements for taking this threat down. Jena could hear the panicking voice of the other pilot through her com, after tapping into the line.

"Bye bye…" she thought, launching another well aimed three round burst at the fleeing Armour, catching two in its midsection, and a third in its head. Like its partner, it tumbled to the ground below. The alert was done, and the four other Armours prepared to engage Jena in combat, keeping their distance however.

"Who the hell are you?!" the 'lead' Armour asked, pointing a finger towards their lone opposition. Jena was silent for a moment, before responding softly, yet audible over the com system.

"Juliet Echo November Alpha…" the 'traitorous' pilot answered, gripping the rifle in her hand tightly. The four words cycled through the head of the leader for a moment, and if these Armour's knew what that meant, it would be deciphered very so-…

"Jena!" the leader exclaimed, growling. "Jena Starheart…command was right…traitorous bitch…" he muttered, surprising the other Aerial Armour pilot quite easily.

"Traitor…?" Jena thought, nearly dropping her rifle. She knew she would become a traitor after this certain event in her military career, but beforehand, that was a startle indeed. "Command set me up…?" she questioned next, her hands turning cold. It didn't really matter what she could do to justify this action of hers now, she was branded something she would become before it she even became that. The shock slowly dawned on her, as she regained her composure. "Well...I owe Ventra something…might as well see it through…" she finally spoke aloud, finding her reasoning behind doing all this in the first place. It made it all easier on her consciousness that she was a 'traitor' already.

With that in mind, she took her rifle with the her left hand and raised it, training the rocket pack on her shoulder as well.

"Let all hell break loose…" she thought, opening fire.

* * * * * *

GS landed a blow, breaking into a 360 degree spin with his claws. Both Siato and Sapphire retreated, but not before each of their Kevlar vests were partially torn by the flailing claws. GS halted the attack, landing on two feet, hunched over, one hand on the ground, the other in the air; waiting.

Impatient as he was, Siato lunged forward, axe raised and ready to slash down. The interchange was short, as GS leaped forward from his crouched position. The claw on the ground was now in the air, deflecting the axe blade of Siato away from the exoskeleton armoured figure. In the next moment, the mercenary rammed a balled fist into the stomach of Siato, the boy's eyes wide in surprise.

Siato fell over, knocked out completely by the blow. What was surprising that a blow through Kevlar armour could inflict such force as to throw someone unconscious. What more, was that there was no blood spewing out, in fact, the vest wasn't even damaged aside from the scratch from the previous attack. Upon closer inspection, one could see GS' claw retracted for that hand, only using the momentum of both people to force such an attack out.

Sapphire staggered backwards, unable to believe the turn of event. But that still did not remove her battle spirit, as she raised her long sword once more, ready to engage the mercenary before her.

* * * * * *

Jena fired another full spread of rockets, what was left in the duel shafts of the rocket launcher on her shoulder. They launched and spread out, trying to catch the remaining four Armours in the massive blast that it would create.

Explosions ripped through the air, trailing from one side to the left, surrounding the Armours that attacked the WUF base. In turn, those blasts of firepower became smoke, covering the Armours with its black cover. Jena retreated a bit, prepared for any sudden attacks that may emerge from the smoke.

Intuition served true, as hail of fire blasted from the smoke in random directions. Though she was 'shielded' by the smoke, so were her adversaries, so she had to make random evasions to their random shots. However, even veterans get unlucky in situations, and thus two rounds pierced her Armour and went through her right shoulder, forcing a cry of pain from her.

"Damn armour piercing rounds…" she cursed, clutching the wound while keeping an eye on the black cloud before her. The smoke cleared away, as did the hail of fire. Before her flew three Armours, unlike the previous count of four. Jena took satisfaction in destroying one of her 'mates now enemies. She tried to lift her right arm, but to no avail. Cursing again, she switched to her less dominant hand, flying backwards while opening fire with a spray of bullets. The fact she was firing with only one hand through her aim much off, to a point of easy evasion.

"Crap…" she whispered, diving down, but to no avail, the three Armour's chased after her, easily keeping up with the damaged one. Jena, in a last ditch effort, quickly turned around the face the pursuing Armours, about to open fire.

The rifle was knocked away by the butt of another rifle. She exclaimed in surprise, not expecting her pursuit to have caught up so fast. However, her surprise was short lived, as two of the Armours detained her, locking her arms in a vice-grip-like hold. She struggled, though it proved useless in her weakened state. And with that, the leader lowered his rifle to her head.

* * * * * *

GS grunted, retreating a few steps while watching Sapphire before him. The fact she was using only one weapon in comparison to his pair, it was still difficult to attack as he had to dedicate both his claws to defend himself when Sapphire attacked, since one arm would not be able to stop that blade between it's weight and the amount of force that girl swings it at.

The mercenary retreated a few steps, trying to keep pace with his target. Sapphire was just trying to keep GS busy until she can find an opening to strike with, and hopefully not get struck while doing this plan. Unfortunately for her, inspiration struck her opponent like a lightning bolt.

Sapphire swung once more, hoping the force of her next blow would throw GS off balance. In fact, the mercenary turned it around, deflecting the blow away with his claw, which, in turn, threw Sapphire off balance. She fumbled backwards, opening her up completely for attack. The mercenary took the opportunity, rushing forward and thrusting one his claws forward.

The sword fell to the ground with a resounding clang, Sapphire standing up straight, head tilted a bit back, the two side prongs of GS' claw awfully close to her neck. The middle claw was retracted, leaving her unharmed.

"You lose," the mercenary remarked, keeping his hand positioned right by her neck.

* * * * * *

"GALE CRASH!"

The rifle aimed at Jena's head was thrown off course, firing its round into sky as a short beam of emerald energy impacted against the weapon. The user cursed, getting another beam against his back. A third beam struck one of the surprised Aerial Armour's that held Jena, breaking its grasp. With that, Jena quickly withdrew one her sub machineguns, forgetting all about the pain in her arm and firing a whole clip into the other surprised Armour. The grip was loose, as the Armour tumbled to ground.

"Jena!" Kisheartmon cried out, flying towards the sky to help her partner out. She was preparing for another Gale Crash attack, but the second Armour the Digimon hit before had already recovered, levelling its sub machinegun towards the Digimon.

"Look out!" Jena cried out, about to fire her own sub machinegun into the Armour who threatened her Digimon. However, her movement was now a bit more sluggish, given the pain in her arm. With that, the other UDF Armour attacked, knocking the sub machinegun from her hand. Yelping, she didn't have time to react as she was disarmed of her other sub machinegun, now trained on her.

A hail of bullets sprayed out towards Kisheartmon, punching into the Rookie level Digimon. The avian cried out, unable to maintain any form of flight from that plight. Jena cried out for her Digimon, and thus began a reaction, as Jena's Digivice from inside lit up with power.

"Kisheartmon…Digivolve to…"

A ball of energy surrounded the Digimon, growing larger, then shattering into pieces as quickly as it formed. The previous Kisheartmon was replaced with a much larger bird with crimson wings over the white body, though possibly not much larger then a Human if one would compare. On her forehead was a small heart 'hollowed' out, also crimson. The tri toed pair of talons stretched out, then curled back inwards, watching the opposing Armours.

"Shinuindomon!"

Both Armours stared at amazement at the new Digimon, before realizing they were on the opposing side of this Digimon. With that in mind, they both opened fire at the Champion level, hoping to gun it down before it could attack.

Shinuindomon dived down, before arcing back up to evade the spray. Both Armour's ran out of ammunition in their clip at the same time, and thus ended their existence.

"HEART WIND!"

The crimson heart on her forehead ignited with energy momentarily, before the avian flapped her wings forward, throwing a pair of crimson energy boomerangs the length of each wing. Both chopped the opposing Armour's in half, killing them as their lifeless bodies and suits fell down on top of the WUF base below.

Jena watched with amazement, gripping her wounded shoulder, but awe took over for pain, as she just witnessed her Digimon do exactly what Ventra's Digimon did only minutes ago.

Completed: 01/21/02