Digital Demons - Part 4

by Nopporn Wongrassamee

Summary - A Digimon Tamers/Jackie Chan Adventures/Gatekeepers Crossover.

Disclaimer - None of these characters are mine, nor am I
making a profit here.



"Dad!" Henry Wong called as he loped down the stone path.

"Henry? What are you doing here?" the elder Janyu Wong returned.
He stood by one of Hypnos' ubiquitous black vans. The sensor dish
mounted up top was wavering back and forth in the direction of
Guilmon's hideout. Flanking Janyu and the van on both sides were
several secret agent types as well at what appeared to be at
least a company of the Japanese Defense Force.

"Meeting friends," Henry said running up to his dad. "What are
you doing here? And why are you bringing the whole army?"

"Oh, well, uh, we detected a bio-emergence in the area, son,"
Janyu replied somewhat embarrassed. "Just being cautious and all."

A pair of armored vehicles with honking big guns rolled up behind
the troops.

"Cautious?" Henry repeated skeptically.

"Cautious," Janyu affirmed. "You wouldn't happen to know anything
about it, would you?"

"But, Dad," Henry whispered, pulling his father close so only he
could hear. "It's just Guilmon."

"Guilmon? You sure?"

Henry nodded.

"Okay, son, I believe you," Janyu said. He straightened up and
started giving orders to the troops. "Sorry, people! False alarm!
Thanks for coming anyway! We'll take it from here!"

"Man, can you believe this?" one soldier complained. "And I was
off duty today too!"

"God save us from stupid drills," another said.

"I want my bed," added a third, punctuating his statement with a
yawn.

"Gee, Dad, why the overreaction?" Henry asked as the soldiers
pulled out. "Digimon never got this reaction before the,,,well,
before. Should I expect the army when Terriermon shows up?"

"I'm sorry, Henry," Janyu replied remorsefully. "It's just with
the crisis in America and all..."

"What crisis?"

***

"HyperHsiWuMon?" Jade repeated. "What kind of lame-o name is that,
'buddy'?"

"Well, 'buddy', it's a Digimon name," HyperHsiWuMon replied,
annoyed by Jade's mocking tone. "And I am now a Digimon!"

"Pft! New packaging, same ol' Hsi Wu," Jade said dismissively.

While Jade and whatever-his-name-was exchanged insults, Rika
pulled out her Digivice and looked up his stats. Lessee,
HyperHsiWuMon...access denied? What was wong with this thing?

"HyperHsiWuMon!" the Digimon snarled. He calmed down, his voice
switching to a nasty-nice tone. "And Jade, you really shouldn't
insult someone who has you in his power."

"'In his power'?" Jade replied. "Have you been watching bad
adventure flicks on that floating rock of yours? Besides," Jade
jerked a thumb over her shoulded. "I think Calumon's friends here
beg to differ!"

The grey being in the red suit had been watching the exchange
with interest. Never in a thousand years would it claim that it
found the exchange amusing. It was gathering intelligence. Yes,
that was right. Intelligence. But it knew a cue when it heard one.

"New Digimon detected!" it informed its black suited brethren.
"Target and destroy!"

They opened fire.

***

"Sirs! We've located Jade and the Invaders!" Miles announced
triumphantly. "They're all downtown, in front of the Hilton."

"Fantastic, Miles," Captain Black replied. "Those new AEGIS
sensors came through."

"Uh, actually, Sir, it was the news again," Miles said sheepishly.
He turned a monitor around so they could see. There appeared to
be a riot going on and almost all the participants were dressed in
black.

"Definitely Invaders," Yamaki said. "Their appearance is an exact
match for the pictures in the old AEGIS' files."

"And are those Shadowkhan they're fighting?" Captain Black mused
as he studying the image. "I haven't seen any of those in years."

"Who cares? I see Jade!" Jackie said, pointing to a single spot
of color threading its way through the chaos. Jade looked to have
a couple people with her. "Let's go rescue them now!"

"Oh, yes, right you are Jackie," Black agreed quickly. He raised
his voice to give orders. "Response teams! To the AEGISmobiles!
C'mon Jackie, let's go!"

"AEGISmobiles?" Jackie repeated, confused.

"Another perk of being with AEGIS," Black told him. He turned to
the other secret agent. "You coming Mr. Yamaki?"

"Of course," Yamaki answered. "Just one question."

"Shoot."

"You haven't installed all the monitoring equipment my people sent
you, but the vehicles are ready to go?"

Jackie smiled and answered for Black. "This is America, Mr.
Yamaki," he chuckled. "Americans like driving 'cool' vehicles."

***

HyperHsiWuMon had been well above head height and that saved their
lives. When the Invaders fired, they all aimed at the strange, new
Digimon. The energy rings went over their heads, sparing Ruriko
and the girls from an immediate and grisly death. Hyper-whatever-
his-name-was wasn't killed out right by the volume of fire, but
his lamp post perch was destroyed in an instant. His distraction
at being in sudden freefall allowed some shots from the Invaders
to knock him for a loop.

"C'mon, let's go!" Ruriko shouted, grabbing both Jade and Rika.
She tried to lead them out of the line of fire.

Then the Shadowkhan charged the Invaders, forcing them to shift
their aim to defend themselves. Sandwiched between the two forces,
a grisly death still seemed possible if not quite so immediate.
Luckily, the ninjas ignored them, concentrating on the Invaders
instead.

As she maneuvered the three of them through the chaos, some part
of Ruriko's mind took note of how the battle was going. Both sides
paid no attention to the humans in their midst, concentrating on
each other. They seemed evenly matched hand to hand. When a
Shadowkhan sliced, impaled, or otherwise killed and Invader, the
Invader changed into a little green crystal that shortly
disintegrated just as Ruriko remembered they did. The Shadowkhan
were unnerving in their unfamiliarity, though. When an Invader
killed one of them, the dissipated into a blue mist.

Absently, Ruriko speculated that if the Invaders had shot at the
Shadowkhan first instead of their master, they would have killed
most of the ninjas before they reached the Invader lines. But that
would have killed Ruriko and the girls, too.

Ruriko caught a glimpse of the Red Invader. It had exchanged its
guns for a mallet and what appeared to be the business end of an
oversized screwdriver. It was trying to head towards them, but was
being impeded left and right by Shadowkhan. Then it dissappeared
into the throng.

"Uh oh."

Rika's voice brought Ruriko back to the present. The trio had
reached the edge of the fighting. Unfortunately, it was an edge
defined by the Hilton's outside wall. There was no door or even a
window along this stretch.

"Oh, this is great, lady," Jade said sarcastically. "I don't know
about you, but I can't walk through walls."

"Hey!" Rika objected. "That's my Grandma you're talking about!"

"Yeah? If Uncle were here..." Jade began.

Whatever Jade was going to say was lost when a Shadowkhan leapt
out of the crowd at them. Lacking an immediate target, the ninja
had apparently decided to try and grab Calumon. But as it reached
for the little Digimon in Rika's arms, it ignored Jade. A kick and
elbow sent it reeling backwards in time to intercept a stray
energy pulse. It dropped its weapon as it dissolved.

Ruriko stared at the weapon. A bow and arrow? What idiot carries a
bow and arrow into knife range combat?

"Now, as I was saying, Uncle would..." Jade began again.

"Jade, be kind to an old lady and hand me that bow and arrow,"
Ruriko ordered in a tone that brooked no argument.

"What? Um, okay." Jade quickly did as she was told.

"Uh, Grandma?" Rika began hesitantly as Ruriko familiarized
herself with the Shadowkhan's weapon. It felt...odd. But it was
serviceable. "I know you used to teach zen archery and all, but I
don't think one arrow is going to help much."

Ruriko just smiled at her granddaughter in reply. She nocked the
bow and looked for the best place to make an exit route.

"Lady, she has a point," Jade agreed, nudging a dueling Invader
and Shadowkhan back into the crowd when they drifted to close.
Ruriko turned and aimed down the side of the hotel into the packed
mass of combatants in black. Then she spoke words that she hadn't
spoken in more than thirty years.

"GATE OPEN!"

***

A new energy signature appeared on the monitors. Studying the
figures scrolling across the screen, Miles realized that the
computer was tagging this one as something he had never expected
to see.

Someone was using a Gate. A pure, unadulterated Gate! No new
Gatekeeper had ever been found in thirty years, or so Miles had
been told. Was this a new one?

Whatever the case, Captain Black had to be informed. Miles reached
for the phone.

***

Rika was surprised to say the least.

A pair of concentric light rings appeared in front of Grandma's
arrow. When Grandma released the arrow, it flew through the rings
and transformed into a brilliant shaft of light. The arrow flew
straight through the combantants of both sides as if they didn't
exist. And where the arrow passed, Shadowkhan and Suit alike
ceased to be. But the most impressive part was that when the arrow
reached the end of the crowd, it turned around and came back,
eliminating yet another column of bad guys in black. Just as it
returned to the starting point, the arrow disintegrated as the
energies imbuing it took their toll.

"Whoa..." Jade breathed, impressed.

"Grandma?" Rika croaked questioningly.

"Yes! Still got it," Rika's grandmother said self-satisfied.
"Now, girls, let's get out of here."

"Oh, no you don't!" HyperHsiWuMon growled, dropping to the ground
to block their escape route. "You're going nowhere!"

"No more arrows," Grandma sighed, dropping the now useless bow.
"I'm getting too old for this."

"Cliche," Jade sang. Rika wasn't sure if the other girl meant
HyperHsiWuMon or Grandma.

"Give me Calumon now!" the evil Digimon demanded stalking closer.

"My turn," Rika muttered, clutching the shivering Digimon tighter
to herself. "Renamon..."

"DIAMOND STORM!" Appearing literally out of nowhere above
HyperHsiWuMon, Rika's partner unleashed her signature cloud of
sparkly projectiles. They impacted the evil Digimon on a wing he
raised to protect himself. The shots had little effect, but as
HyperHsiWuMon lowered the wing, he caught a glimpse of Renamon's
foot right before it him under the chin.

This didn't really hurt him either. But despite his expansive
wings, HyperHsiWuMon massed little more than Renamon did. He
sailed into the crowd and was imediately swarmed by black suits.

"Okay," Jade commented, trying very hard not to be impressed this
time. "Now, let's get out of here."

They got.

***

HyperHsiWuMon struggled to his feet, tossing the enemy peons aside
as they tried to attack him. Like the Shadowkhan, they were peons.
He was sure of it. Obviously made by some demon after his initial
banishment from this world some two thousand years ago, they
weren't the handiwork of any of his siblings. They seemed to have
been made by a Japanese akuma. It was hard to tell because they
also had a heavy flavoring of human technology to them too.

Then he caught a glimpse of Jade and her companions disappearing
around a corner.

"FOOLS!" HyperHsiWuMon screamed furiously. "They're getting away!"

In an instant, the fighting stopped as everyone turned to see what
he was yelling about. Not wasting the opportunity, HyperHsiWuMon
took to the air without interference. An instant later, the
surviving Shadowkhan melted into the shadows to follow.

***

Left to themselves, the beings that some human had labeled
"Invaders" milled around in confusion. Things had gotten...
complicated when the Shadowkhan had shown up. That the
Shadowkhan followed a Digimon made things even more complicated.
What were their priorities now?

They turned to their red suited leader. He was scratched and his
hat sat on his head slightly askew, but his priorities hadn't
changed at all. He just had one thing to say.

"FUSION."

***

"You've gotta be kidding me, Finn," Chow objected. "A bank heist?"

"What's wrong with a bank heist?" Finn asked smoothly.

"Let me count the ways," Chow began. "One, only an idiot pulls a
bank heist these days. I know. I saw it on one of those reality TV
shows."

"Nobody will be expecting it, Chow," Finn replied confidently.

"Two, we're in Jackie Chan's home town," added Ratso, "That's just
asking for trouble by itself."

The three crooks were sitting in a parked, open convertable in
downtown San Francisco. Supposedly, they were there to scout out
the bank. Or that was Finn's plan in any case.

"That's right," Chow agreed. "I don't know about you, Finn, but I
have no desire to get beat up by Chan again."

"You guys worry too much," Finn said. "What, you think Chan's just
gonna show up outta nowhere and ruin our day?"

"Hi, guys!" Jade Chan greeted, hopping into the convertable with
them.

"GAH!" the crooks yelped in surprise, nearly leaping out of their
seats.

"Oh, it's the wrong Chan," Finn said relieved. "What do you want,
kid? Can't you see we're..." Another girl about Jade's age and an
old woman climbed in after Jade. "Hey! What is this?" The car was
getting kind of crowded.

Jade ignored him in favor of Ratso, who was in the driver's seat.
"Drive! Now!" she ordered.

"Hey, I give the orders around here," Finn objected. No one
listened. "And we're not in the chaffeur business..."

"Rika! He's coming!" a yellow...something called as it materialized
on the car's trunk.

"Hey," Chow began, pointing at something in the sky. "Isn't that
Hsi Wu?"

Explosions bracketed the sides of the old convertable as what
appeared to be Hsi Wu strafed the car. As the demon sorcerer passed
overhead, Finn could hear him say, "HyperHsiWuMon! Get it right!"

"Drive already!" the girl with Jade ordered.

"Now wait a minute..." Finn began objecting again. He remembered
Hsi Wu. Vaguely. He had been an ally when they worked for
Valmont...sort of.

"Young man, they said drive," the old lady said sternly as she
grabbed his head and turned it so that he could see up the street.
Around a corner came a giant black bowling ball, crushing every
car and lamppost in its path. It's sheer weight buckled the very
pavement under it. And it was heading right at them.

"Ratso! Drive!" Finn ordered frantically.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Ratso replied, bring the old
car from a stop to full acceleration in record time.

***

"I got our rooms! Are we ready to go, yet?" Rika's mother announced
as she exited the front doors of the Hilton. What she saw was not
the scene she had left earlier. The ground had been turned into a
moonscape. The taxis in front of the hotel were thoroughly trashed.
Oddly enough, the family luggage was completely unscathed. But
there was no one in sight.

"Mother?" she called hesitantly. "Rika?"

As if in answer to her call, a bus came careening off the street.
Avoiding craters and mangled vehicles, it pulled up to the woman
and stopped. The door opened and a familiar face peered out.

"Mrs. Nonaka? What are you doing here?"

"Mr. Yamaki, hi!" she said happily. "My family and I were on
vacation. But I seem to have lost them."

"Your mother and Rika are here?" Yamaki frowned thoughtfully.
"Where are they now?"

"I don't know," Mrs. Nonaka replied, worried. "I went in to get our
room keys and when I came back out, they were gone."

"Mr. Yamaki, I think they went that way," someone inside the bus
said.

"Nice to see you again, ma'am," Mr. Yamaki said as he disappeared
back into the bus.

"But," she began as the bus took off, following a trough someone
had gouged into the road, "what about Rika and mother?"