Digital Demons III - Part 4
by Nopporn Wongrassamee
Summary - A Digimon Tamers/Jackie Chan Adventures/
Gatekeepers Crossover. The gang battles Invaders on ground and
in the air.
Disclaimer - Some (most) of the characters aren't mine, but
belong to other people I'm too lazy to look up. I am not making a
profit here.
As the Invader in yellow fired, Jeri hit back at the same time. Her
orange Gate opened between them, launching a translucent,
wispy lion at the Invader. This threw off the Invader's aim as it
fired a powerful yellow-white energy bolt wrapped in violet rings.
The Invader's shot punched through the lion dissipating it. The
energy bolt just missed Jeri's head by inches and struck one of
the building's support columns. The resulting explosion knocked
everyone off their feet except for the Invader.
Something clipped Jeri's head, knocking her out. Calumon flew
from her arms as she sprawled to the floor.
Just outside, Rika and Henry spun around in surprise at the
noise behind them. Their partners stopped their pursuit at the
same time as they realized the Tamers were in danger. They
began to decend back to the convention center.
***
Maneuvering wildly and dropping flares and chaff by the bucket
load, the Invader managed to lose most of the new Digimon's
missiles. The few that hit didn't damage anything signifigant. It's
sensors, however, detected that the other two Digimon were no
longer attempting pursuit. They were returning to the convention
center.
That was... unacceptable.
***
"This is a very bad plan," the Spy grumbled.
"Oh relax," the Soldier replied. "It's a good plan. Our fighter draws
the Digimon away and keeps them occupied while our assasin
destroys the Catalyst. A potential danger is neutralized while your
precious team remains more or less intact. Everybody's happy."
"I still say we should keep the Catalyst alive as bait," the Spy
argued.
"Most of us disagree with you," the Orderly pointed out. He looked
sharply at the Spy. "Do you... like this Digimon of yours?"
"What? No! Of course not!" the Spy replied, perhaps a trifle to
quickly.
They were all silent for a moment as they watched the unfolding
battle being projected above the table.
"This is taking too long," the Accountant announced suddenly.
"The Catalyst should have been destroyed by now."
"Patience," the Soldier soothed. "No plan survives contact with
the enemy. A little deviation is to be expected."
"Oh, really," the Spy said drily. "You mean like that?" He pointed
to the image of Aeroguilmon. "I don't recall extended aerial
dogfights being part of the plan."
"Okay, alot of deviation," the Soldier mumbled. "My soldiers can
handle it."
***
Riding in Aeroguilmon's open cockpit, Takato realized that he
may have erred in its design. When he first designed the armored
form, he had thought a closed cockpit would have been too bulky
for Aeroguilmon to carry. He had trusted that a protective aura
would be sufficient to keep air resistance from tearing him to
shreds. It did, but enough wind got through that Takato couldn't
pull out any Modify cards without risking them all being blown
away.
For right now, that was academic. Aeroguilmon was chasing the
Invader fighter through its wild maneuvering. The Digimon fired
several Pyro Bursts, a series of fireballs fired with machine gun
rapidity, at the Invader. At this distance it was difficult to tell if
any even hit.
Suddenly Takato found himself and Aeroguilmon facing the
Invader head to head. As they screamed towards each other at
almost supersonic speeds, a part of Takato's mind noted that the
Invader didn't exactly resemble an F-14 jet fighter. A pair of what
appeared to be booster rockets were mounted on the jet's back.
The arrangement was familiar, but in that instant, Takato couldn't
recall why.
The rest of him was concentrating on the aerial game of chicken.
The Invader launched a quartet of missiles. Aeroguilmon dodged
aside easily and replied with another swarm of his own missiles.
At this range, it was almost impossible to miss. And then Takato
realized the Invader's missiles hadn't been aimed at them at all.
Well behind them, the Invader's missiles struck Rapidmon and
Taomon in their backs, turning their decent into uncontroled
falls.
***
Jade was the first one back on her feet. As she got up, she saw
that the Invader was turning to shoot at Calumon who was also
in the process of getting on his feet. Reacting instantly, Jade
sprinted forward and took a flying kick at the trenchcoated
Invader.
With it's remaining hand, the Invader caught Jade by the ankle
before she hit it. Jade suddenly found herself hanging upside
down from that ankle as the Invader examined her with mild
curiosity.
"Identity: Jade Chan," the Invader monotoned.
"Yep, that's me," Jade said brightly, kicking the Invader in the
mouth with her free foot. There was little effect.
"Threat assessment: Nuisance," the Invader continued. Despite
it's monotone voice, it seemed to growl in annoyance.
"Nuisance!" Jade yelped in outrage. In reply, the Invader easily
tossed her over its shoulder. Jade flew through the air and
crashed into a display stand.
Meanwhile, the Invader was lining up another shot at Calumon.
***
Outside, Rapidmon and Taomon hit the ground. Henry and Rika
staggered in sympathetic pain.
***
High in the sky, the Invader dodged Aeroguilmon's missiles in a
most peculiar fashion. It's lower engines swung down almost
ninety degrees, shooting the fighter off at a near right angle. The
missiles swerved to follow, but too slowly.
As Takato watched, the Invader fighter seemed to fold in half,
sprout arms, and take on a humaoid appearance. Flying
backwards, it fired a scaled up rifle on full auto, blowing the
missiles out of the sky.
Suddenly, Takato recalled where he had seen this Invader's form
before. The Invader hadn't assumed the form of an F-14 at all. It
was in fact imitating one of the transforming Super Valkyries from
the anime series Macross.
Slower now but more maneuverable, the Invader destroyed the
last missile and then turned it's fire on Aeroguilmon.
***
"Jade!" Jackie shouted in concern as he saw his niece go flying.
Grabbing the first thing at hand - in this case, a toppled flag
staff with a ragged Chinese flag on it - Jackie leapt over where
Ruriko was healing Jeri and charged the Invader.
Bringing the flag around like a whip, Jackie wrapped the flag
around the Invader's gun arm and jerked with all his strength.
The Invader's next energy bolt went awry, hitting a still intact
window pane and exploded harmlessly.
The Invader regarded Jackie and the flag wrapped around its arm.
"Excuse me," Jackie muttered, swinging the free end of the staff
around to strike the Invader in the head. The end shattered. The
Invader's head hardly moved.
"Identity: Jackie Chan," the Invader recited. "Threat assessment:
Annoyance." With that, the Invader jerked its gun arm hard
enough to pull Jackie off his feet. It swung Jackie around in an
attempt to dislodge the archaeologist. Jackie resolutely hung on
to the remains of the staff.
"Bad day!" Jackie commented to himself as the Invader swung
him over his head. "Bad DAY!" as the Invader swung Jackie
horizontally, and transformed its free arm into a wickedly long
blade. "BAD DAAAAY!" as the Invader swung Jackie over its head
again, using its new blade to cut the flag off.
Jackie hit the floor on his back, stunned. Looking up, he saw the
Invader thrust with the blade at his face. Just before the blade
struck, another blade deflected the Invader's aside, sending it
harmlessly into the floor less than an inch from Jackie's ear.
"Bad day," Jade said to the Invader, Green Destiny in hand, "for
you."
***
Jeri's eyes opened.
"Jeri, are you okay?" Ruriko asked gently as she helped the girl
sit up.
"Um, I think so," Jeri replied groggily.
"Good," Ruriko said.
They looked up just in time to see Jade save her uncle from a
quick death. The Invader swung its gun arm around to shoot
Jade, but the girl dodged the shot and batted the gun aside with
a slightly rusty sword. Then Jackie was on his feet and attacking
from the other side with a flagstaff.
"Help Jade and her Uncle," Ruriko instructed as she helped the
girl to her feet.
Ruriko turned to see Ambassador Li sitting up on the floor, eyes
switching back and forth repeatedly between the battle inside
and the battle outside in avid interest. Agent MacTaggert
crouched nearby, gun drawn and aimed at the Invader inside,
trying to get a clear shot.
"What are you doing?" Ruriko shouted at the Agent, grabbing his
arm and jerking the gun upward. "Small arms don't work on
Invaders! And you might hit one of the Chans."
"I can't just sit around and do nothing!" MacTaggert retorted
haggardly.
"Keep the Ambassador safe," Ruriko told him, recognizing his
need to do something.
Looking outside again, Ruriko took a quick mental snapshot of
the situation. The Invader and Takato's Digimon were circling and
shooting at each other in the sky. Rika's and Henry's Digimon
were on the ground, staggering to their feet. As she watched, the
grounded Digimon both shot at the aerial Invader. Both literally
missed by a mile, actually coming closer to hitting Takato's
Digimon which still wasn't all that close at all.
***
It quickly became apparent to Jade that this Invader didn't know
squat about swordplay or hand to hand. It was depending almost
entirely on its superior speed, strength, and durability to stand up
to them.
Out of the corner of her eye, Jade saw Jeri pick up a broken,
serpentine dragon statuette. Jeri drew the statuette back for a
throw, and her Gate opened.
"Jackie! Incoming!" Jade shouted in warning. At the same time,
both she and her Uncle leaped and rolled away from the Invader
as Jeri threw the statuette through the Gate. As the statuette
passed through the Gate, it took on a brilliant orange glow as it
was imbued with the Gate's energy. It also grew in size, becoming
an animate dragon the size of a small car as it flew towards the
Invader. Unlike Jeri's previous constructs, this one actually looked
solid, not translucent at all.
It's head also looked distinctly lion-like.
In a blur, the Invader dodged Jeri's dragon as it landed on the
spot where the Invader had just been. Jade realized that the
Invader must also have the Rabbit Talisman on it. What else did
it have? The Invader came to a stop almost between Jade and
Jeri's dragon.
With lightning speed, the dragon twisted around and spat a
fireball at the Invader. It struck the Invader with an explosion
every bit as powerful as the Invader's own. The Invader rocked
back but was otherwise undamaged.
Dog Talisman, Jade realized. Immortality.
The Invader raised its gun arm and shot the dragon between the
eyes.
***
"Oh, this is useless!" Rika shouted in frustration. "We can't catch
it. We can't shoot it. What good are we?"
"Well, Takato can catch it, but I don't think he can damage it,"
Henry said thoughtfully as he watched the aerial battle. It seemed
stalemated.
"What do you mean?" Rika asked.
"Aeroguilmon can barely hit the Invader, too," Henry clarified,
"and what hits doesn't appear to do much if any damage." He
sighed. "It was in Takato's notes. In order to get all that speed, he
had to choose between sacrificing armor or firepower. He chose
firepower."
"He did what?" Rika shook her head in disbelief. "That is such..."
She saw Aeroguilmon stagger from a heavy hit, then fly back into
the fray firing everything he had as if nothing had happened. "...a
wise decision," Rika concluded faintly.
"Henry, what do we do?" Rapidmon asked plaintively.
An explosion came from inside the convention center, drawing
all their attention. They saw a glowing orange, lion headed
dragon inside.
"Perhaps we should investigate?" Taomon suggested.
"Rika! Henry!" Rika's grandmother called as she stepped out of
the building and headed over to them.
"Grandma? What's going on?" Rika asked earnestly.
"This is a two pronged attack," her grandmother told them. She
pointed at the aerial battle. "That is apparently a diversion."
"Good diversion," Henry commented.
"I'll say," Rapidmon muttered. "Ouch!"
"Anyway, we need your help inside," Rika's grandmother added.
"But we can't just leave Takato and Aeroguilmon alone up there,"
Rika objected.
"Hmm, no," her grandmother agreed, studying the situation. Then
she smiled down at her granddaughter. "I have a plan."
***
Jeri's dragon reeled backwards from the attack, but didn't
evaporate. The Invader shot it again. And again. The dragon
refused to go down.
This did not look good to Jade, so she charged. The Invader either
didn't notice or didn't care. In less that half a dozen steps, Jade
was beside it. She brought the Green Destiny down edge first on
the Invader's gun arm, hoping to knock its aim off.
The Green Destiny sheared through the arm like it was made of
rice paper. The severed limb disintegrated into nothingness as it
fell. Only the Dragon Talisman remained, hitting the floor with a
ping and rolling away.
"Whoa..." Jade whispered as both she and the Invader stared at
the remaining stump in amazement. Maybe the Green Destiny
really was a magic sword.
Then the arm grew back, a fully functional hand on the end. Jade
immediately deduced that the Invader must also have the Horse
Talisman to heal itself so fast.
The Invader's expression didn't change, but Jade suddenly got
the feeling it was smiling nastily at her as it changed the new arm
into another blade.
Before it could do anything, Jeri's dragon shot the Invader again.
The concussion from the blast knocked Jade backwards.
***
"Jade!" Jackie exclaimed in horror as Jeri went flying. The dragon
shot the Invader again, with as little effect as before. Jackie
turned to Jeri."Don't you control that thing?"
"I'm trying," Jeri told him, "but there's something... wrong. It's not
like the others."
"What? How?" Jackie asked. He saw Jade get up, apparently
intact if a little worse for wear. She headed over to them, sword in
hand.
"It's... not under my direct control," Jeri said slowly, groping for an
a clear answer. "It's like I gave it a set of orders when I made it. It
won't stop until it follows through."
"I take it you didn't include anything about bystanders?" Jade
asked drily as she staggered up to them and leaned tiredly
against Jackie.
"Um, sorry," Jeri appologized. "You okay?"
"Oh, I'm fine," Jade dismissed. "Your pet dragon looks like its in
trouble though."
They saw that the Invader had its arms wrapped around the
dragon's neck in a terminable bear hug. The dragon thrashed and
clawed at the Invader in a vain attempt to get loose. The Invader's
arm blades were cutting slowly into Jeri's dragon, and orange bits
of light were gushing from the wounds.
In fact, Jeri thought with a shiver, those light bits looked alot like
the data particles that Digimon turned into when they died.
Jeri felt the dragon die. It was painful, but nowhere near as
painful as when Leomon died. The dragon exploded in a near
soundless flash of orange light. Where it had been, only the
statuette remained. It dropped to the floor and shattered.
The Invader turned menacingly towards them.
***
Up in the sky, the Invader jet-turn-mecha was still busy
exchanging fire with the airborne Digimon. Since its job was
primarily distraction and not destruction, it was satisfied with the
situation. Then it detected the other two Digimon heading back
towards the convention center.
Unacceptable.
Firing off a parting burst from its rifle, the mecha Invader dived
groundward. Surprise kept the aerial Digimon from following for
precious seconds. There was no way for the Digimon to catch it
in time, the Invader calculated.
Bearing down on the two grounded Digimon, the Invader opened
up with gun and missiles going full blast. It noticed several
humans with them, but discounted them as any kind of threat.
One of the humans pointed up and shouted something.
The green Digimon leapt into the air and spun to face the mecha
Invader. The yellow Digimon also twisted around, but raised a
protective force dome that withstood the brunt of the Invader's
attack. The green Digimon returned fire with huge, triangular
beam.
Surprised, the Invader mecha attempted to dodge and was
almost succesful. The green Digimon's attack tore off the
Invader's rifle arm. As the Invader attempted to retreat, a swarm
of missiles struck its back, shredding the back mounted booster
pods. This was followed moments later by the the Digimon the
Invader had thought it had left safely behind. It literally tackled
the mecha Invader.
The Invader was confused, almost panicky. How had the red
Digimon moved so fast? It hadn't displayed the capability before.
A little Modify card fluttered past its head.
Tumbling together and fighting for control, the two zigged and
zagged in random directions, clipping a few buildings. Suddenly,
the Invader found itself face to face with the green Digimon. The
green Digimon placed both gun muzzles that substituted as its
hands against the Invader's chest plate and just spoke two words
clearly.
"RAPID MISSILE!"
***
"Good plan, Grandma," Rika complimented.
"Thanks, dear," Ruriko replied. "But don't think that gets you off
the hook for the way you treated Agent Tag."
Rika scowled.
***
"GATE OPEN!" Jeri shouted, calling up the familiar pair of orange
concentric rings, Jeri sent one of her more familiar translucent
orange lions at the Invader.
With a single slash, the Invader dispersed the energy construct. It
took a step forward.
"TALISMAN OF LIGHT!"
A blast of energy came through a broken window, rocking the
Invader back on its heels. Moments later, Taomon entered
through a sufficiently large hole that had been blasted open
earlier. Rika and her grandmother followed. The Invader paused
to assess the newcomer.
Then it felt the Invader mecha die. The other two Digimon would
be here soon. It's mission must be complete before then or...
An energy blast struck the Invader from the side. Surprised and
unbraced for the attack, the Invader staggered and turned to see
who had shot it. The Invader thought it had all its opponents
accounted for.
Standing on a nearby glass display, was Calumon. The little
Digimon held the Dragon Talisman in both hands. He looked
uncharacteristically angry.
"I'm tired of my friends getting hurt because of me!" Calumon
told the Invader. "Take that!" He fired another shot. "And that!"
Another shot.
Expecting the attacks this time, the Invader easily withstood them. Utilizing the Rabbit Talisman, the Invader dashed forward,
intent on skewering the Catalyst before he could react.
Then suddenly Jade Chan was in its way. Swinging the Green
Destiny like a baseball bat, the girl cut the Invader's legs out from
under it in mid-dash. At its speed, the Invader went sprawling
into the base of the display head first.
Almost unnoticed, the legs disintegrated, leaving behind the
Rabbit and Rooster Talismans.
Unbalanced as the display shook from the impact, Calumon fell
off. Retaining his grip on the Dragon Talisman, he extended his
wing-like ears and turned his fall into a glide away from the
Invader.
Growing a new set of legs, the Invader got up and tried to assess
the situation again. The diversion was gone. Three Talismans
were lost. One Digimon, two Gatekeepers, and one normal human
with the only weapon present capable of actually inflicting
damage were arrayed against it. The Catalyst, the entire reason
for this operation, was now safely behind its defenders. The
chances of success were now virtually nil.
It was time to run.
***
"Oh, no you don't," Jade muttered when the Invader began
sinking into a portal on the floor. She dashed forward again. With
one slash of the Green Destiny, Jade chopped off the blades the
Invader raised to defend itself. On the return slash, Jade cut off
its legs off again. The portal vanished, taking the new legs with it.
The Invader hit the floor on its leg stumps and began to topple
backwards. Jade arrested this by the simple expedient of
thrusting the Green Destiny straight through the Invader's back.
The blade sprouted out the Invader's chest, and yet another
Talisman clinked on the floor, apparently pushed out by the
sword.
It was, Jade saw, the Dog.
Quickly pulling the sword out, Jade dived for the Dog Talisman.
Scooping it up, she rolled to her feet, held it up for everyone to
see, and shouted, "Alright everybody! Hit that s.o.b!"
Calumon fired first, blowing off the Invader's head. This was
followed by one of Jeri's lions hitting the Invader's chest and
cutting through out its back. Two more Talismans hit the floor.
Taomon delivered the coup de grace, and the Invader was
reduced to a little yellow crystal that fell to the floor. Once on the
floor, the little crystal began to evaporate into little bits of light.
At that instant, Rapidmon and Aerogiulmon crashed through
some until then intact window framework. Moments later, Henry
ran in through the main door.
"Are we too late?" Henry asked breathlessly. The others just
stared back.
His only reply was the sound of a single pair of clapping hands.
***
Shibumi entered his apartment after a long day at work. He had
been expecting at least some sort of reply from Yukino all day.
There had been nothing. She apparently wasn't going to come.
He plopped onto his sofa, tired. As he closed his eyes, he felt a
snowflake hit his nose. His eyes popped open. Standing next to
his sofa was Yukino. It was also snowing lightly in his apartment,
except that the apartment was gone. There was only the sofa and
them surrounded by inky darkness. And falling snowflakes.
Shibumi scrambled to his feet.
"Princess, Yukino, I'm so glad you decided to visit your poor,
humble servant," Shibumi greeted quickly, bowing formally.
Yukino just stared back wordlessly.
"Um...I'm sorry for that I could not convey the news of Musashi's
loss to you in person, your highness," Shibumi continued.
"Why?" It was only a single word, but filled with so much meaning
and grief.
"Because I still had to persue Po Kong..."
"No," Yukino interupted. A Digignome appeared beside her and
fluttered about. She pointed at it. "Why?"
"Oh, you mean why I created the Digimon?" Shibumi interpreted.
He sighed. "This will take some explaining."
by Nopporn Wongrassamee
Summary - A Digimon Tamers/Jackie Chan Adventures/
Gatekeepers Crossover. The gang battles Invaders on ground and
in the air.
Disclaimer - Some (most) of the characters aren't mine, but
belong to other people I'm too lazy to look up. I am not making a
profit here.
As the Invader in yellow fired, Jeri hit back at the same time. Her
orange Gate opened between them, launching a translucent,
wispy lion at the Invader. This threw off the Invader's aim as it
fired a powerful yellow-white energy bolt wrapped in violet rings.
The Invader's shot punched through the lion dissipating it. The
energy bolt just missed Jeri's head by inches and struck one of
the building's support columns. The resulting explosion knocked
everyone off their feet except for the Invader.
Something clipped Jeri's head, knocking her out. Calumon flew
from her arms as she sprawled to the floor.
Just outside, Rika and Henry spun around in surprise at the
noise behind them. Their partners stopped their pursuit at the
same time as they realized the Tamers were in danger. They
began to decend back to the convention center.
***
Maneuvering wildly and dropping flares and chaff by the bucket
load, the Invader managed to lose most of the new Digimon's
missiles. The few that hit didn't damage anything signifigant. It's
sensors, however, detected that the other two Digimon were no
longer attempting pursuit. They were returning to the convention
center.
That was... unacceptable.
***
"This is a very bad plan," the Spy grumbled.
"Oh relax," the Soldier replied. "It's a good plan. Our fighter draws
the Digimon away and keeps them occupied while our assasin
destroys the Catalyst. A potential danger is neutralized while your
precious team remains more or less intact. Everybody's happy."
"I still say we should keep the Catalyst alive as bait," the Spy
argued.
"Most of us disagree with you," the Orderly pointed out. He looked
sharply at the Spy. "Do you... like this Digimon of yours?"
"What? No! Of course not!" the Spy replied, perhaps a trifle to
quickly.
They were all silent for a moment as they watched the unfolding
battle being projected above the table.
"This is taking too long," the Accountant announced suddenly.
"The Catalyst should have been destroyed by now."
"Patience," the Soldier soothed. "No plan survives contact with
the enemy. A little deviation is to be expected."
"Oh, really," the Spy said drily. "You mean like that?" He pointed
to the image of Aeroguilmon. "I don't recall extended aerial
dogfights being part of the plan."
"Okay, alot of deviation," the Soldier mumbled. "My soldiers can
handle it."
***
Riding in Aeroguilmon's open cockpit, Takato realized that he
may have erred in its design. When he first designed the armored
form, he had thought a closed cockpit would have been too bulky
for Aeroguilmon to carry. He had trusted that a protective aura
would be sufficient to keep air resistance from tearing him to
shreds. It did, but enough wind got through that Takato couldn't
pull out any Modify cards without risking them all being blown
away.
For right now, that was academic. Aeroguilmon was chasing the
Invader fighter through its wild maneuvering. The Digimon fired
several Pyro Bursts, a series of fireballs fired with machine gun
rapidity, at the Invader. At this distance it was difficult to tell if
any even hit.
Suddenly Takato found himself and Aeroguilmon facing the
Invader head to head. As they screamed towards each other at
almost supersonic speeds, a part of Takato's mind noted that the
Invader didn't exactly resemble an F-14 jet fighter. A pair of what
appeared to be booster rockets were mounted on the jet's back.
The arrangement was familiar, but in that instant, Takato couldn't
recall why.
The rest of him was concentrating on the aerial game of chicken.
The Invader launched a quartet of missiles. Aeroguilmon dodged
aside easily and replied with another swarm of his own missiles.
At this range, it was almost impossible to miss. And then Takato
realized the Invader's missiles hadn't been aimed at them at all.
Well behind them, the Invader's missiles struck Rapidmon and
Taomon in their backs, turning their decent into uncontroled
falls.
***
Jade was the first one back on her feet. As she got up, she saw
that the Invader was turning to shoot at Calumon who was also
in the process of getting on his feet. Reacting instantly, Jade
sprinted forward and took a flying kick at the trenchcoated
Invader.
With it's remaining hand, the Invader caught Jade by the ankle
before she hit it. Jade suddenly found herself hanging upside
down from that ankle as the Invader examined her with mild
curiosity.
"Identity: Jade Chan," the Invader monotoned.
"Yep, that's me," Jade said brightly, kicking the Invader in the
mouth with her free foot. There was little effect.
"Threat assessment: Nuisance," the Invader continued. Despite
it's monotone voice, it seemed to growl in annoyance.
"Nuisance!" Jade yelped in outrage. In reply, the Invader easily
tossed her over its shoulder. Jade flew through the air and
crashed into a display stand.
Meanwhile, the Invader was lining up another shot at Calumon.
***
Outside, Rapidmon and Taomon hit the ground. Henry and Rika
staggered in sympathetic pain.
***
High in the sky, the Invader dodged Aeroguilmon's missiles in a
most peculiar fashion. It's lower engines swung down almost
ninety degrees, shooting the fighter off at a near right angle. The
missiles swerved to follow, but too slowly.
As Takato watched, the Invader fighter seemed to fold in half,
sprout arms, and take on a humaoid appearance. Flying
backwards, it fired a scaled up rifle on full auto, blowing the
missiles out of the sky.
Suddenly, Takato recalled where he had seen this Invader's form
before. The Invader hadn't assumed the form of an F-14 at all. It
was in fact imitating one of the transforming Super Valkyries from
the anime series Macross.
Slower now but more maneuverable, the Invader destroyed the
last missile and then turned it's fire on Aeroguilmon.
***
"Jade!" Jackie shouted in concern as he saw his niece go flying.
Grabbing the first thing at hand - in this case, a toppled flag
staff with a ragged Chinese flag on it - Jackie leapt over where
Ruriko was healing Jeri and charged the Invader.
Bringing the flag around like a whip, Jackie wrapped the flag
around the Invader's gun arm and jerked with all his strength.
The Invader's next energy bolt went awry, hitting a still intact
window pane and exploded harmlessly.
The Invader regarded Jackie and the flag wrapped around its arm.
"Excuse me," Jackie muttered, swinging the free end of the staff
around to strike the Invader in the head. The end shattered. The
Invader's head hardly moved.
"Identity: Jackie Chan," the Invader recited. "Threat assessment:
Annoyance." With that, the Invader jerked its gun arm hard
enough to pull Jackie off his feet. It swung Jackie around in an
attempt to dislodge the archaeologist. Jackie resolutely hung on
to the remains of the staff.
"Bad day!" Jackie commented to himself as the Invader swung
him over his head. "Bad DAY!" as the Invader swung Jackie
horizontally, and transformed its free arm into a wickedly long
blade. "BAD DAAAAY!" as the Invader swung Jackie over its head
again, using its new blade to cut the flag off.
Jackie hit the floor on his back, stunned. Looking up, he saw the
Invader thrust with the blade at his face. Just before the blade
struck, another blade deflected the Invader's aside, sending it
harmlessly into the floor less than an inch from Jackie's ear.
"Bad day," Jade said to the Invader, Green Destiny in hand, "for
you."
***
Jeri's eyes opened.
"Jeri, are you okay?" Ruriko asked gently as she helped the girl
sit up.
"Um, I think so," Jeri replied groggily.
"Good," Ruriko said.
They looked up just in time to see Jade save her uncle from a
quick death. The Invader swung its gun arm around to shoot
Jade, but the girl dodged the shot and batted the gun aside with
a slightly rusty sword. Then Jackie was on his feet and attacking
from the other side with a flagstaff.
"Help Jade and her Uncle," Ruriko instructed as she helped the
girl to her feet.
Ruriko turned to see Ambassador Li sitting up on the floor, eyes
switching back and forth repeatedly between the battle inside
and the battle outside in avid interest. Agent MacTaggert
crouched nearby, gun drawn and aimed at the Invader inside,
trying to get a clear shot.
"What are you doing?" Ruriko shouted at the Agent, grabbing his
arm and jerking the gun upward. "Small arms don't work on
Invaders! And you might hit one of the Chans."
"I can't just sit around and do nothing!" MacTaggert retorted
haggardly.
"Keep the Ambassador safe," Ruriko told him, recognizing his
need to do something.
Looking outside again, Ruriko took a quick mental snapshot of
the situation. The Invader and Takato's Digimon were circling and
shooting at each other in the sky. Rika's and Henry's Digimon
were on the ground, staggering to their feet. As she watched, the
grounded Digimon both shot at the aerial Invader. Both literally
missed by a mile, actually coming closer to hitting Takato's
Digimon which still wasn't all that close at all.
***
It quickly became apparent to Jade that this Invader didn't know
squat about swordplay or hand to hand. It was depending almost
entirely on its superior speed, strength, and durability to stand up
to them.
Out of the corner of her eye, Jade saw Jeri pick up a broken,
serpentine dragon statuette. Jeri drew the statuette back for a
throw, and her Gate opened.
"Jackie! Incoming!" Jade shouted in warning. At the same time,
both she and her Uncle leaped and rolled away from the Invader
as Jeri threw the statuette through the Gate. As the statuette
passed through the Gate, it took on a brilliant orange glow as it
was imbued with the Gate's energy. It also grew in size, becoming
an animate dragon the size of a small car as it flew towards the
Invader. Unlike Jeri's previous constructs, this one actually looked
solid, not translucent at all.
It's head also looked distinctly lion-like.
In a blur, the Invader dodged Jeri's dragon as it landed on the
spot where the Invader had just been. Jade realized that the
Invader must also have the Rabbit Talisman on it. What else did
it have? The Invader came to a stop almost between Jade and
Jeri's dragon.
With lightning speed, the dragon twisted around and spat a
fireball at the Invader. It struck the Invader with an explosion
every bit as powerful as the Invader's own. The Invader rocked
back but was otherwise undamaged.
Dog Talisman, Jade realized. Immortality.
The Invader raised its gun arm and shot the dragon between the
eyes.
***
"Oh, this is useless!" Rika shouted in frustration. "We can't catch
it. We can't shoot it. What good are we?"
"Well, Takato can catch it, but I don't think he can damage it,"
Henry said thoughtfully as he watched the aerial battle. It seemed
stalemated.
"What do you mean?" Rika asked.
"Aeroguilmon can barely hit the Invader, too," Henry clarified,
"and what hits doesn't appear to do much if any damage." He
sighed. "It was in Takato's notes. In order to get all that speed, he
had to choose between sacrificing armor or firepower. He chose
firepower."
"He did what?" Rika shook her head in disbelief. "That is such..."
She saw Aeroguilmon stagger from a heavy hit, then fly back into
the fray firing everything he had as if nothing had happened. "...a
wise decision," Rika concluded faintly.
"Henry, what do we do?" Rapidmon asked plaintively.
An explosion came from inside the convention center, drawing
all their attention. They saw a glowing orange, lion headed
dragon inside.
"Perhaps we should investigate?" Taomon suggested.
"Rika! Henry!" Rika's grandmother called as she stepped out of
the building and headed over to them.
"Grandma? What's going on?" Rika asked earnestly.
"This is a two pronged attack," her grandmother told them. She
pointed at the aerial battle. "That is apparently a diversion."
"Good diversion," Henry commented.
"I'll say," Rapidmon muttered. "Ouch!"
"Anyway, we need your help inside," Rika's grandmother added.
"But we can't just leave Takato and Aeroguilmon alone up there,"
Rika objected.
"Hmm, no," her grandmother agreed, studying the situation. Then
she smiled down at her granddaughter. "I have a plan."
***
Jeri's dragon reeled backwards from the attack, but didn't
evaporate. The Invader shot it again. And again. The dragon
refused to go down.
This did not look good to Jade, so she charged. The Invader either
didn't notice or didn't care. In less that half a dozen steps, Jade
was beside it. She brought the Green Destiny down edge first on
the Invader's gun arm, hoping to knock its aim off.
The Green Destiny sheared through the arm like it was made of
rice paper. The severed limb disintegrated into nothingness as it
fell. Only the Dragon Talisman remained, hitting the floor with a
ping and rolling away.
"Whoa..." Jade whispered as both she and the Invader stared at
the remaining stump in amazement. Maybe the Green Destiny
really was a magic sword.
Then the arm grew back, a fully functional hand on the end. Jade
immediately deduced that the Invader must also have the Horse
Talisman to heal itself so fast.
The Invader's expression didn't change, but Jade suddenly got
the feeling it was smiling nastily at her as it changed the new arm
into another blade.
Before it could do anything, Jeri's dragon shot the Invader again.
The concussion from the blast knocked Jade backwards.
***
"Jade!" Jackie exclaimed in horror as Jeri went flying. The dragon
shot the Invader again, with as little effect as before. Jackie
turned to Jeri."Don't you control that thing?"
"I'm trying," Jeri told him, "but there's something... wrong. It's not
like the others."
"What? How?" Jackie asked. He saw Jade get up, apparently
intact if a little worse for wear. She headed over to them, sword in
hand.
"It's... not under my direct control," Jeri said slowly, groping for an
a clear answer. "It's like I gave it a set of orders when I made it. It
won't stop until it follows through."
"I take it you didn't include anything about bystanders?" Jade
asked drily as she staggered up to them and leaned tiredly
against Jackie.
"Um, sorry," Jeri appologized. "You okay?"
"Oh, I'm fine," Jade dismissed. "Your pet dragon looks like its in
trouble though."
They saw that the Invader had its arms wrapped around the
dragon's neck in a terminable bear hug. The dragon thrashed and
clawed at the Invader in a vain attempt to get loose. The Invader's
arm blades were cutting slowly into Jeri's dragon, and orange bits
of light were gushing from the wounds.
In fact, Jeri thought with a shiver, those light bits looked alot like
the data particles that Digimon turned into when they died.
Jeri felt the dragon die. It was painful, but nowhere near as
painful as when Leomon died. The dragon exploded in a near
soundless flash of orange light. Where it had been, only the
statuette remained. It dropped to the floor and shattered.
The Invader turned menacingly towards them.
***
Up in the sky, the Invader jet-turn-mecha was still busy
exchanging fire with the airborne Digimon. Since its job was
primarily distraction and not destruction, it was satisfied with the
situation. Then it detected the other two Digimon heading back
towards the convention center.
Unacceptable.
Firing off a parting burst from its rifle, the mecha Invader dived
groundward. Surprise kept the aerial Digimon from following for
precious seconds. There was no way for the Digimon to catch it
in time, the Invader calculated.
Bearing down on the two grounded Digimon, the Invader opened
up with gun and missiles going full blast. It noticed several
humans with them, but discounted them as any kind of threat.
One of the humans pointed up and shouted something.
The green Digimon leapt into the air and spun to face the mecha
Invader. The yellow Digimon also twisted around, but raised a
protective force dome that withstood the brunt of the Invader's
attack. The green Digimon returned fire with huge, triangular
beam.
Surprised, the Invader mecha attempted to dodge and was
almost succesful. The green Digimon's attack tore off the
Invader's rifle arm. As the Invader attempted to retreat, a swarm
of missiles struck its back, shredding the back mounted booster
pods. This was followed moments later by the the Digimon the
Invader had thought it had left safely behind. It literally tackled
the mecha Invader.
The Invader was confused, almost panicky. How had the red
Digimon moved so fast? It hadn't displayed the capability before.
A little Modify card fluttered past its head.
Tumbling together and fighting for control, the two zigged and
zagged in random directions, clipping a few buildings. Suddenly,
the Invader found itself face to face with the green Digimon. The
green Digimon placed both gun muzzles that substituted as its
hands against the Invader's chest plate and just spoke two words
clearly.
"RAPID MISSILE!"
***
"Good plan, Grandma," Rika complimented.
"Thanks, dear," Ruriko replied. "But don't think that gets you off
the hook for the way you treated Agent Tag."
Rika scowled.
***
"GATE OPEN!" Jeri shouted, calling up the familiar pair of orange
concentric rings, Jeri sent one of her more familiar translucent
orange lions at the Invader.
With a single slash, the Invader dispersed the energy construct. It
took a step forward.
"TALISMAN OF LIGHT!"
A blast of energy came through a broken window, rocking the
Invader back on its heels. Moments later, Taomon entered
through a sufficiently large hole that had been blasted open
earlier. Rika and her grandmother followed. The Invader paused
to assess the newcomer.
Then it felt the Invader mecha die. The other two Digimon would
be here soon. It's mission must be complete before then or...
An energy blast struck the Invader from the side. Surprised and
unbraced for the attack, the Invader staggered and turned to see
who had shot it. The Invader thought it had all its opponents
accounted for.
Standing on a nearby glass display, was Calumon. The little
Digimon held the Dragon Talisman in both hands. He looked
uncharacteristically angry.
"I'm tired of my friends getting hurt because of me!" Calumon
told the Invader. "Take that!" He fired another shot. "And that!"
Another shot.
Expecting the attacks this time, the Invader easily withstood them. Utilizing the Rabbit Talisman, the Invader dashed forward,
intent on skewering the Catalyst before he could react.
Then suddenly Jade Chan was in its way. Swinging the Green
Destiny like a baseball bat, the girl cut the Invader's legs out from
under it in mid-dash. At its speed, the Invader went sprawling
into the base of the display head first.
Almost unnoticed, the legs disintegrated, leaving behind the
Rabbit and Rooster Talismans.
Unbalanced as the display shook from the impact, Calumon fell
off. Retaining his grip on the Dragon Talisman, he extended his
wing-like ears and turned his fall into a glide away from the
Invader.
Growing a new set of legs, the Invader got up and tried to assess
the situation again. The diversion was gone. Three Talismans
were lost. One Digimon, two Gatekeepers, and one normal human
with the only weapon present capable of actually inflicting
damage were arrayed against it. The Catalyst, the entire reason
for this operation, was now safely behind its defenders. The
chances of success were now virtually nil.
It was time to run.
***
"Oh, no you don't," Jade muttered when the Invader began
sinking into a portal on the floor. She dashed forward again. With
one slash of the Green Destiny, Jade chopped off the blades the
Invader raised to defend itself. On the return slash, Jade cut off
its legs off again. The portal vanished, taking the new legs with it.
The Invader hit the floor on its leg stumps and began to topple
backwards. Jade arrested this by the simple expedient of
thrusting the Green Destiny straight through the Invader's back.
The blade sprouted out the Invader's chest, and yet another
Talisman clinked on the floor, apparently pushed out by the
sword.
It was, Jade saw, the Dog.
Quickly pulling the sword out, Jade dived for the Dog Talisman.
Scooping it up, she rolled to her feet, held it up for everyone to
see, and shouted, "Alright everybody! Hit that s.o.b!"
Calumon fired first, blowing off the Invader's head. This was
followed by one of Jeri's lions hitting the Invader's chest and
cutting through out its back. Two more Talismans hit the floor.
Taomon delivered the coup de grace, and the Invader was
reduced to a little yellow crystal that fell to the floor. Once on the
floor, the little crystal began to evaporate into little bits of light.
At that instant, Rapidmon and Aerogiulmon crashed through
some until then intact window framework. Moments later, Henry
ran in through the main door.
"Are we too late?" Henry asked breathlessly. The others just
stared back.
His only reply was the sound of a single pair of clapping hands.
***
Shibumi entered his apartment after a long day at work. He had
been expecting at least some sort of reply from Yukino all day.
There had been nothing. She apparently wasn't going to come.
He plopped onto his sofa, tired. As he closed his eyes, he felt a
snowflake hit his nose. His eyes popped open. Standing next to
his sofa was Yukino. It was also snowing lightly in his apartment,
except that the apartment was gone. There was only the sofa and
them surrounded by inky darkness. And falling snowflakes.
Shibumi scrambled to his feet.
"Princess, Yukino, I'm so glad you decided to visit your poor,
humble servant," Shibumi greeted quickly, bowing formally.
Yukino just stared back wordlessly.
"Um...I'm sorry for that I could not convey the news of Musashi's
loss to you in person, your highness," Shibumi continued.
"Why?" It was only a single word, but filled with so much meaning
and grief.
"Because I still had to persue Po Kong..."
"No," Yukino interupted. A Digignome appeared beside her and
fluttered about. She pointed at it. "Why?"
"Oh, you mean why I created the Digimon?" Shibumi interpreted.
He sighed. "This will take some explaining."