Digital Demons IV - Part 3
by Nopporn Wongrassamee
Summary - A Digimon Tamers/Jackie Chan Adventures/ Gatekeepers
crossover. While the A team gets aquainted with Ultimon, the B team
suffers a loss. Warning! Character death inside.
Disclaimer - None of these characters are mine, nor am I making a
profit here.
Suzie ran. Turning a corner, she suddenly found herself in a box,
surrounded on three sides by impassable rubble. Suzie turned around
and found the exit blocked by a green, leafy Digimon.
"Don't hurt me," Suzie cried. "I didn't do anything!"
"Nothing personal, kid," Palmon told her, "but orders are orders.
POISON IVY!" The Digimon launched several whiplike vines at the
human girl. Suzie raised her arms in a futile reflex to block the attack.
"PAUSE!"
The vines stopped mere inches from Suzie. Looking up to see why she
hadn't been hit, Suzie saw that Palmon was frozen in mid attack as if
time had stopped for the Digimon. Beyond Palmon were a pair of
humans. One was a girl who looked to be Henry's age. The other was a
man Suzie had seen somewhere before.
Suzie sidled around the extended vines.
The older girl strolled up to Palmon's side and wave a hand in front of
the Digimon's face. Palmon didn't react.
"Wow, Mr. Shibumi, that's quite a program," the girl said admiringly.
"Is she still alive?"
"The Digimon will be fine," Shibumi replied. He turned to Suzie. "Suzie?
Are you okay?"
"Uh, I'm okay," Suzie replied as she joined them. "Thankyou."
"You're welcome," Shibumi said. He indicated the other girl. "This is
Alice." Alice waved hello. "Your father sent us to get you back. Where
are the others?"
"I don't know," Suzie replied morosely. "They wan the other way."
"What possessed you guys to come here?" Alice asked.
"We wanted ouw Digimon," Suzie told her, on the verge of tears. "But
we can't caw them cuz we don't have digivices anymore."
"Really? Why not?" Alice asked.
"They vanished when the Digimon had to come back here to the
Digital World," Shibumi answered for Suzie. "However, that is easily
fixed." He whistled, as if for a dog. A Digignome appeared.
"Wow," Suzie and Alice commented, impressed.
"Suzie here needs her digivice back," Shibumi said to the Digignome.
"Can you help her?"
In reply, the Digignome giggled something then orbited Suzie a couple
times. On its last pass, it stopped in front of Suzie. A great light burst
forth from the small space space between the Digignome and Suzie.
From this light, a digivice appeared.
Suzie caught it as it began to drop.
"Take some friends and help the others," Shibumi instructed the
Digignome. It nodded and vanished.
Suzie wasn't paying attention to this, however. She was too busy using
her newly reaquired digivice to call Lopmon.
***
"They went ahead and attacked the humans?" exclaimed an outraged
Impmon.
"That's what they did," Lopmon confirmed. "I knew you'd want..." She
paused, as if distracted.
Impmon didn't noticed. He was plenty distracted himself. "I told them
to call us and wait for backup when they found the humans!" Impmon
ranted. "Now we're scattered all over the place. Don't those idiots know
how to listen?"
Lopmon digivolved. In a flash of light, she suddenly turned into
Antylamon.
"What...?" Impmon began.
"Suzie!" Atylamon answered before Impmon could finish asking. "She's
here!" With that she bound away.
"Hey, wait...." Antylamon quickly vanished into the debris field. "...for
me," Impmon concluded. "ARGH! Dagnabbit! Doesn't anyone know how
to listen?"
***
"Alright, team, we have a situation," Yamaki began without preamble.
"San Francisco seems to have aquired a 'superhero' of sorts. Although
no one's been hurt so far, this guy has done at least several million
dollars worth of property damage. This guy is apparently calling himself
'Ultiman' or something. Your primary mission is to ascertain exactly
what Ultiman is and if he's a threat to public safety. If he's not a threat,
then recruiting him would be nice. If he is a threat however... well, I'm
sure you know what to do."
"A superhero? Cool," Takato commented.
"What does this Ultiman look like anyway?" Ruriko asked.
"Ah, we got lucky there," Yamaki replied. "We managed to aquire video
tape from an amateur cameraman. He got a pretty good shot of him."
Yamaki picked up a remote and hit the play button. A TV screen flared
to life. It showed a clear view of a purple and white figure taking off
from a street and flying away.
"Hey, what's that?" Jade inquired, pointing to a winged something that
joined Ultimon in mid-flight. It was... orange. Every eye turned to look
at Jeri.
"What?" Jeri asked nervously. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"
***
"Dude, I think we lost them," Kazu panted.
"You sure?" Kenta asked, equally tuckered out.
"Yeah, I...ah!" Kazu yelled as something fluttered past him. The two of
them fell over backwards in surprise, landing in sitting positions.
"Oh, man, they're just Digignomes," Kenta sighed in relief. Several of
the Digignomes circled them.
"Yeah, I wonder what..." Kazu bagan. He was interupted when in a
double flash of light, digivices appeared and landed in their laps. The
Digignomes vanished.
"Hey, are these ours?" Kenta asked in surprise, examining 'his' Digivice.
"I think so," Kazu replied, excited. "This is great! Now all we need is
our Digimon and we'll be set!"
"There you are!" Gabumon exclaimed as he rounded a pile of rubble.
"Found you!" Agumon added as he appeared from the other direction.
The boys suddenly found themselves trapped between them.
"Aw, I said our Digimon," Kazu complained to no one in particular.
"Enough running, humans," Agumon told them. "Time to finish you two
off." He inhaled to fire.
"GUARDIAN BARRAGE!" A missile each landed in front of both Agumon
and Gabumon, knocking them off their feet. A bulkily armored Digimon
landed beside the two humans. "Sorry fellows, but I can't let you do
that."
"All right! Guardromon, buddy," Kazu cheered. "Right in the nick of
time!"
"What is this?" Agumon asked as he got back on his feet. "You're
protecting these two humans?"
"One of these humans is my partner!" Guardromon proclaimed proudly.
"What?" Agumon sputtered.
Gabumon was more thoughtful. "Guardromon, you're only one Digimon
and there are two of us," he said reasonably. "We are on opposite sides
of you. Therefore, you can only protect these humans from one of us
at a time."
"Hey! That's right!" Agumon agreed, cheering up. "Let's get 'em!"
"Oh, dear," Guardromon commented. "You're right. I guess there's only
one thing I can do."
"Rejoin us?" Gabumon suggested.
"Um, no," Guardromon disagreed. "This." In a sudden flash of speed,
Guardromon grabbed both humans, tucked them under his arms, and
went airborne. In surprise, the other two Digimon let him go. They
shook off their surprise a few seconds late and gave chase.
***
"Alright, I'm sorry, okay?" Jeri pleaded. "Ultimon just wants to do good.
He doesn't mean any harm. I mean, I told him that we wanted to see
him. He's coming."
"Of course, Jeri," Ruriko said patiently. "And we'll be ready to meet
him."
"Then why are you having everyone gear up as if for a war?"
"Just in case we have to...ah, restrain Ultimon," Ruriko told Jeri. She
sighed. "The fact of the matter is, Jeri, is that for all of Ultimon's intent
to help, he's still doing alot of unnecessary damage."
"Well, maybe he's a little clumsy," Jeri admitted. "But he's our friend!
He's Calumon's evolved form."
"We'll see," Ruriko said nocommitally. She plucked the string of her
bow. It hummed nicely. "Tell him to meet us on the roof."
***
"Okay, who needs a spare pack of cards?" Takato asked. "I've organized
them into mission oriented themes."
"Mission oriented themes?" Henry echoed questioningly.
"Yeah," Takato confirmed. "There's your all around combat pack, your
first aid pack, and the assault pack. That last one holds mostly rare,
powerful Modify cards. Um, there were only enough rares for one pack
though."
"I don't like this," Rika muttered.
"Why, what's wrong with specialized packs?" Takato asked, hurt.
"No, not that, Gogglehead," Rika clarified, swatting Takato lightly. "I
mean this mission. Calumon is our friend. So he's digivolved. So what?
He's still our friend."
"I guess that means the assault pack is out," Takato said, setting those
cards aside.
"Takato!"
"Listen, Rika, be reasonable," Henry told her. "We're not gonna start
anything or digivolve our partners first..."
"Ahem!" Ozmon commented.
"...but your Grandmother's right about one thing," Henry continued,
ignoring his partner's pointed interuption. "It's a good idea to be ready
for anything."
"Still..." Rika began.
"Hey, you guys coming?" Jade interupted as she passed by. She was
making several last minute checks, ensuring that the Talismans were
properly secured. She was wearing her new jacket. It had special
alterations to hold the Talismans in it. "We haven't got all day."
"Coming!" Takato replied, picking up a First Aid pack and handing a
similar pack to both Rika and Henry. "Let's go, guys."
"All right," Rika sighed. She reached down to pick up her digivice, then
stopped. She frowned, observing that the her armor digivolving notes
were lying to the right of her digivice in a disorderly pile. Rika was
pretty sure she had left the notes to the left of the digivice in a neat
stack before Yamaki had called them. Had someone...?
"Rika? C'mon!"
"Coming!" Rika replied, snatching up her digivice and losing her train
of thought. There were more important matters at hand anyway.
***
Impmon wandered alone. His "team" was pretty much scattered to the
winds. He had no idea where they were or what they were doing,
although the distant explosions had been suggestive. He wasn't
turning out to be much of a leader, he reflected. His team didn't
listen to him. Lopmon and Guardromon had also vanished. The
humans were likely dead. How was he going to face Ai and Mako if
he ever saw them again? That was assuming they weren't one of the
humans Impmon had been sent after.
As if summoned by his brooding thoughts, Ai and Mako rounded a
rock pile and practically tackled Impmon. They went down in a heap.
An instant later, a digivice appeared above them. It hit Impmon in the
head as it fell.
A Digignome appeared, saw this group had a digivice, and promply
disappeared.
"Impmon! It's you!" Ai cried joyously.
"Save us!" Mako added.
"Aha! There you are!" Tentomon exclaimed, buzzing over a rockpile. He
paused as he saw the kids practically hiding behind Impmon. "What's
going on, boss?"
"Boss?!" Ai and Mako echoed in surprise.
"Wait a minute! I can explain!" Impmon said quickly to everyone.
"This better be good," Tentomon replied. "I thought the, um, 'Great
Masters' sent us to hunt humans!"
"What?!" Ai and Mako exclaimed.
"It's a trick!" Impmon said desperately. It wasn't exactly clear who he
was talking to.
At that moment, Guardromon appeared with Kenta and Kazu under
his arms. He landed beside Impmon and set the humans down gently.
"Blessed ground!" Kazu exclaimed, falling to all fours.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Kenta added, looking a little green.
"Dude, you were already sick," Kazu pointed out.
Agumon and Gabumon came running around a corner. They looked as
if someone had splattered some kind of sticky liquid on them. As they
ran up behind Tentomon, they spotted the confrontation and checked
their charge.
"What's going on?" Agumon demanded.
"It seems that Impmon has been misleading us," Tentomon explained.
"Listen guys, I've got an offer for ya," Impmon told the other Digimon.
"And it's a darn better one than the Great...er, I mean Demon Sorcerer's
deal."
"Another offer?" Gabumon said doubtfully.
"Yeah, how would you guys like yer own Tamers?" Impmon proposed.
"You'll be able to digivolve without help from the Catalyst and you get
a friend for life!"
"I don't see the advantage there," Agumon said skeptically. "C'mon
guys, there are only two of 'em. We can take them."
"Three," Antylamon corrected, bounding over a rubble pile. She landed
at the Tamers' and their partners' sides. She reached up, plucked Suzie
off of her head, and set the girl down next to Guardromon and the
boys.
Agumon, Gabumon, and Tentomon looked up at Antylamon. They
missed Shibumi and Alice arrival with a still frozen Palmon tucked
under Shibumi's arm.
"Er, isn't that one of the Devas?" Agumon asked hesitantly. The odds
didn't look so good anymore.
"One of the what?" Tentomon asked. It was kinda hard for news to get
around when most of the folks you met were trying to kill you.
Tentomon had apparently missed this bit of gossip.
"The Devas. They worked for one of the Sovereigns," Agumon
elaborated.
"Oh. Them."
"It's a good offer, boys," Antylamon told the three. "Perhaps you should
listen?"
"Ah, could you hold up a minute?" Shibumi asked. "You should all be
able to listen to this. PLAY." Palmon unfroze.
"Wha? What's going on?" Palmon asked, confused.
"Have I gotta an offer for you!" Impmon began.
***
"GREETINGS, FRIENDS!" Ultimon boomed as he landed on the rooftop
with enough force to radiate spiderweb cracks from his location. Had
he not been braking, he probably would have gone through. "WHERE
IS EVERYONE?" There was no one there.
"I dunno," Leo-girl replied, coming down to hover beside him. "But we
are out on the roof. I don't think this is the right one."
"Hey!" Jade called, flying up to them in a flash. "We're over that way!"
She pointed roughly east. "By about two blocks."
"WELL THEN! UP, UP, AND AWAAAY!" Ultimon cried as he took off.
"Up, up, and away?" Jade echoed, bemused.
"Hey, he's living the cliche," Leo-girl commented.
"Jeri, I didn't know you could talk through your Gatepuppets," Jade
said.
"I didn't mention it?" Jeri repliued through the puppet. "Well, ah, um..."
The Gatepuppet went poof and evaporated.
Shaking her head, Jade took off after Ultimon.
***
"So, that's the deal," Impmon concluded. "Come with us. We'll find you
partners, and yer whole quality of life will improve."
"I don't get it," Palmon said confused. "Why'd you go to the Demon
Sorcerers with this commando team idea if having Tamers is such a
good thing?"
"Um, Impmon," Shibumi began, consulting some gizmo.
"Hold up a sec." Impmon turned back to his team. "We needed a way
back to the Real World, and the Sorcs seemed like the best bet,"
Impmon explained. "Crossing that barrier between worlds ain't easy. So
when one of the Sorcs caught me, I proposed a deal. Took 'em long
enough to agree."
"Impmon," Shibumi began again, tension in his voice.
"Hold yer horses, I finally got these guys to listen to me," Impmon told
the human. "Anyways, what do you say guys? We go to the Real World
and it's adios muchachos to the Demon Sorcerers."
"Impmon, they're here!" Shibumi cried.
"Listen, I told you... what was that?"
A lightning bolt struck Antylamon, propelling her backwards into a
rock pile.
"Antylamon!" Suzie cried, running after her partner.
Descending from the sky on a cloud was ElectroTchangZuMon. The
demon turn Digimon was fairly humanoid. He wore a body suit,
gauntlets, and boots that seemed to consist entirely of cabling.
Electicity crackled around him.
Nearby, a rockpile bulged and flowed off as QuakeDaiGuiMon surfaced
there. The earth demon was still hunched over with a bull-like head.
His new digital form was armored with smooth slabs of red and orange
stone.
"They've grown," Shibumi whispered to himself.
"What is this treachery?!" QuakeDaiGuiMon demanded. "We will not
tolerate such..." The demon paused, staring at the humans. Or rather, a
specific human.
"Brother?" ElectroTchangZuMon inquired.
"You!" QuakeDaiGuiMon exclaimed, pointing at Shibumi. "We know
you!"
"Uh, me?" Shibumi asked ingeniously.
"Yes," ElectroTchangZuMon agreed, seeing what his brother did. "You
are one of the Eight Immortals who exiled us from the so-called 'Real
World' two thousand years ago!"
With the two demons preoccupied, the normal, unpartnered Digimon
decided this was a good time to just disappear. They snuck off.
Meanwhile, Suzie quietly rejoined her group, holding a slightly
battered Lopmon in her arms.
"No, you must have me confused with someone... I mean I couldn't
possibly..." Shibumi stammered. "Aw, nevermind." A CD appeared in
his hand. "PAUSE!" A light shot at the two demons. It had no effect.
"Heh," QuakeDaiGuiMon snickered. "You will find us not quite so
vulnerable to such spells these days. And now...eh?"
Several heart shaped bubbles drifted down from the sky. They floated
up against the two demons and popped. The two demons recoiled.
"ARGH!"
"That's good magic!" hissed ElectroTchangZuMon. "Where did that
come from?"
As if in answer, a pinkish figure flew out of the sky. It's miniscule size
made it near invisible. Kenta was the first to identify it.
"MarineAngemon!"
***
"GREETINGS, FRIENDS!"
"Ultimon, Ultimate level, data type," Takato said, reading aloud the
stats his digivice displayed. An odd piece of info caught his eyes. "No
attacks?"
"I wouldn't say that," Jade disagreed, eyeing the crumpled remains of
the air conditioner Ultimon had landed on.
"Hello, Ultimon," Ruriko greeted.
"GREETINGS, MADAME!" Ultimon boomed back.
"You're the evolved form of Calumon?" Ruriko probed.
"YES!" Ultimon struck a pose. "DO YOU LIKE THE NEW FORM?"
"Um, very nice," she said neutrally. "Do you always yell like that?"
"YELL?" Ultimon repeated, confused. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"
"Hey, Ultimon," Jade jumped in. "Can you try whispering?"
"WHISPERING? YOU MEAN like this?"
"Yes! That's good!" Jade replied. "Keep that volume."
"Um, okay," Ultimon said, nonplussed.
"Thank you, Jade," Ruriko sighed. "I think you just managed to save our
hearing." She turned back to Ultimon. "So, we wanted to ask you about
what you've been doing all day."
"Just doing good deeds!" Ultimon said brightly
"Hmm, yes, about these good deeds..." Ruriko began. She hesitated.
"Yes?"
"Um, I hate to break it to you, but..."
***
"Okay, MarineAngemon, time to kick their butts!" Kenta exclaimed.
"Yeah! Go get 'em!" Kazu cheered.
"Okay!" MarineAngemon agreed. He inhaled to begin another attack.
Before he could actually attack, however, the little Digimon suddenly
found himself enveloped by a giant fist.
"No more of that now," QuakeDaiGuiMon grunted. He squeezed. With a
pop, data bits spurted out from between his fingers.
"MarineAngemon!" Kenta cried in horror and sypathetic pain. "Noooo!"
by Nopporn Wongrassamee
Summary - A Digimon Tamers/Jackie Chan Adventures/ Gatekeepers
crossover. While the A team gets aquainted with Ultimon, the B team
suffers a loss. Warning! Character death inside.
Disclaimer - None of these characters are mine, nor am I making a
profit here.
Suzie ran. Turning a corner, she suddenly found herself in a box,
surrounded on three sides by impassable rubble. Suzie turned around
and found the exit blocked by a green, leafy Digimon.
"Don't hurt me," Suzie cried. "I didn't do anything!"
"Nothing personal, kid," Palmon told her, "but orders are orders.
POISON IVY!" The Digimon launched several whiplike vines at the
human girl. Suzie raised her arms in a futile reflex to block the attack.
"PAUSE!"
The vines stopped mere inches from Suzie. Looking up to see why she
hadn't been hit, Suzie saw that Palmon was frozen in mid attack as if
time had stopped for the Digimon. Beyond Palmon were a pair of
humans. One was a girl who looked to be Henry's age. The other was a
man Suzie had seen somewhere before.
Suzie sidled around the extended vines.
The older girl strolled up to Palmon's side and wave a hand in front of
the Digimon's face. Palmon didn't react.
"Wow, Mr. Shibumi, that's quite a program," the girl said admiringly.
"Is she still alive?"
"The Digimon will be fine," Shibumi replied. He turned to Suzie. "Suzie?
Are you okay?"
"Uh, I'm okay," Suzie replied as she joined them. "Thankyou."
"You're welcome," Shibumi said. He indicated the other girl. "This is
Alice." Alice waved hello. "Your father sent us to get you back. Where
are the others?"
"I don't know," Suzie replied morosely. "They wan the other way."
"What possessed you guys to come here?" Alice asked.
"We wanted ouw Digimon," Suzie told her, on the verge of tears. "But
we can't caw them cuz we don't have digivices anymore."
"Really? Why not?" Alice asked.
"They vanished when the Digimon had to come back here to the
Digital World," Shibumi answered for Suzie. "However, that is easily
fixed." He whistled, as if for a dog. A Digignome appeared.
"Wow," Suzie and Alice commented, impressed.
"Suzie here needs her digivice back," Shibumi said to the Digignome.
"Can you help her?"
In reply, the Digignome giggled something then orbited Suzie a couple
times. On its last pass, it stopped in front of Suzie. A great light burst
forth from the small space space between the Digignome and Suzie.
From this light, a digivice appeared.
Suzie caught it as it began to drop.
"Take some friends and help the others," Shibumi instructed the
Digignome. It nodded and vanished.
Suzie wasn't paying attention to this, however. She was too busy using
her newly reaquired digivice to call Lopmon.
***
"They went ahead and attacked the humans?" exclaimed an outraged
Impmon.
"That's what they did," Lopmon confirmed. "I knew you'd want..." She
paused, as if distracted.
Impmon didn't noticed. He was plenty distracted himself. "I told them
to call us and wait for backup when they found the humans!" Impmon
ranted. "Now we're scattered all over the place. Don't those idiots know
how to listen?"
Lopmon digivolved. In a flash of light, she suddenly turned into
Antylamon.
"What...?" Impmon began.
"Suzie!" Atylamon answered before Impmon could finish asking. "She's
here!" With that she bound away.
"Hey, wait...." Antylamon quickly vanished into the debris field. "...for
me," Impmon concluded. "ARGH! Dagnabbit! Doesn't anyone know how
to listen?"
***
"Alright, team, we have a situation," Yamaki began without preamble.
"San Francisco seems to have aquired a 'superhero' of sorts. Although
no one's been hurt so far, this guy has done at least several million
dollars worth of property damage. This guy is apparently calling himself
'Ultiman' or something. Your primary mission is to ascertain exactly
what Ultiman is and if he's a threat to public safety. If he's not a threat,
then recruiting him would be nice. If he is a threat however... well, I'm
sure you know what to do."
"A superhero? Cool," Takato commented.
"What does this Ultiman look like anyway?" Ruriko asked.
"Ah, we got lucky there," Yamaki replied. "We managed to aquire video
tape from an amateur cameraman. He got a pretty good shot of him."
Yamaki picked up a remote and hit the play button. A TV screen flared
to life. It showed a clear view of a purple and white figure taking off
from a street and flying away.
"Hey, what's that?" Jade inquired, pointing to a winged something that
joined Ultimon in mid-flight. It was... orange. Every eye turned to look
at Jeri.
"What?" Jeri asked nervously. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"
***
"Dude, I think we lost them," Kazu panted.
"You sure?" Kenta asked, equally tuckered out.
"Yeah, I...ah!" Kazu yelled as something fluttered past him. The two of
them fell over backwards in surprise, landing in sitting positions.
"Oh, man, they're just Digignomes," Kenta sighed in relief. Several of
the Digignomes circled them.
"Yeah, I wonder what..." Kazu bagan. He was interupted when in a
double flash of light, digivices appeared and landed in their laps. The
Digignomes vanished.
"Hey, are these ours?" Kenta asked in surprise, examining 'his' Digivice.
"I think so," Kazu replied, excited. "This is great! Now all we need is
our Digimon and we'll be set!"
"There you are!" Gabumon exclaimed as he rounded a pile of rubble.
"Found you!" Agumon added as he appeared from the other direction.
The boys suddenly found themselves trapped between them.
"Aw, I said our Digimon," Kazu complained to no one in particular.
"Enough running, humans," Agumon told them. "Time to finish you two
off." He inhaled to fire.
"GUARDIAN BARRAGE!" A missile each landed in front of both Agumon
and Gabumon, knocking them off their feet. A bulkily armored Digimon
landed beside the two humans. "Sorry fellows, but I can't let you do
that."
"All right! Guardromon, buddy," Kazu cheered. "Right in the nick of
time!"
"What is this?" Agumon asked as he got back on his feet. "You're
protecting these two humans?"
"One of these humans is my partner!" Guardromon proclaimed proudly.
"What?" Agumon sputtered.
Gabumon was more thoughtful. "Guardromon, you're only one Digimon
and there are two of us," he said reasonably. "We are on opposite sides
of you. Therefore, you can only protect these humans from one of us
at a time."
"Hey! That's right!" Agumon agreed, cheering up. "Let's get 'em!"
"Oh, dear," Guardromon commented. "You're right. I guess there's only
one thing I can do."
"Rejoin us?" Gabumon suggested.
"Um, no," Guardromon disagreed. "This." In a sudden flash of speed,
Guardromon grabbed both humans, tucked them under his arms, and
went airborne. In surprise, the other two Digimon let him go. They
shook off their surprise a few seconds late and gave chase.
***
"Alright, I'm sorry, okay?" Jeri pleaded. "Ultimon just wants to do good.
He doesn't mean any harm. I mean, I told him that we wanted to see
him. He's coming."
"Of course, Jeri," Ruriko said patiently. "And we'll be ready to meet
him."
"Then why are you having everyone gear up as if for a war?"
"Just in case we have to...ah, restrain Ultimon," Ruriko told Jeri. She
sighed. "The fact of the matter is, Jeri, is that for all of Ultimon's intent
to help, he's still doing alot of unnecessary damage."
"Well, maybe he's a little clumsy," Jeri admitted. "But he's our friend!
He's Calumon's evolved form."
"We'll see," Ruriko said nocommitally. She plucked the string of her
bow. It hummed nicely. "Tell him to meet us on the roof."
***
"Okay, who needs a spare pack of cards?" Takato asked. "I've organized
them into mission oriented themes."
"Mission oriented themes?" Henry echoed questioningly.
"Yeah," Takato confirmed. "There's your all around combat pack, your
first aid pack, and the assault pack. That last one holds mostly rare,
powerful Modify cards. Um, there were only enough rares for one pack
though."
"I don't like this," Rika muttered.
"Why, what's wrong with specialized packs?" Takato asked, hurt.
"No, not that, Gogglehead," Rika clarified, swatting Takato lightly. "I
mean this mission. Calumon is our friend. So he's digivolved. So what?
He's still our friend."
"I guess that means the assault pack is out," Takato said, setting those
cards aside.
"Takato!"
"Listen, Rika, be reasonable," Henry told her. "We're not gonna start
anything or digivolve our partners first..."
"Ahem!" Ozmon commented.
"...but your Grandmother's right about one thing," Henry continued,
ignoring his partner's pointed interuption. "It's a good idea to be ready
for anything."
"Still..." Rika began.
"Hey, you guys coming?" Jade interupted as she passed by. She was
making several last minute checks, ensuring that the Talismans were
properly secured. She was wearing her new jacket. It had special
alterations to hold the Talismans in it. "We haven't got all day."
"Coming!" Takato replied, picking up a First Aid pack and handing a
similar pack to both Rika and Henry. "Let's go, guys."
"All right," Rika sighed. She reached down to pick up her digivice, then
stopped. She frowned, observing that the her armor digivolving notes
were lying to the right of her digivice in a disorderly pile. Rika was
pretty sure she had left the notes to the left of the digivice in a neat
stack before Yamaki had called them. Had someone...?
"Rika? C'mon!"
"Coming!" Rika replied, snatching up her digivice and losing her train
of thought. There were more important matters at hand anyway.
***
Impmon wandered alone. His "team" was pretty much scattered to the
winds. He had no idea where they were or what they were doing,
although the distant explosions had been suggestive. He wasn't
turning out to be much of a leader, he reflected. His team didn't
listen to him. Lopmon and Guardromon had also vanished. The
humans were likely dead. How was he going to face Ai and Mako if
he ever saw them again? That was assuming they weren't one of the
humans Impmon had been sent after.
As if summoned by his brooding thoughts, Ai and Mako rounded a
rock pile and practically tackled Impmon. They went down in a heap.
An instant later, a digivice appeared above them. It hit Impmon in the
head as it fell.
A Digignome appeared, saw this group had a digivice, and promply
disappeared.
"Impmon! It's you!" Ai cried joyously.
"Save us!" Mako added.
"Aha! There you are!" Tentomon exclaimed, buzzing over a rockpile. He
paused as he saw the kids practically hiding behind Impmon. "What's
going on, boss?"
"Boss?!" Ai and Mako echoed in surprise.
"Wait a minute! I can explain!" Impmon said quickly to everyone.
"This better be good," Tentomon replied. "I thought the, um, 'Great
Masters' sent us to hunt humans!"
"What?!" Ai and Mako exclaimed.
"It's a trick!" Impmon said desperately. It wasn't exactly clear who he
was talking to.
At that moment, Guardromon appeared with Kenta and Kazu under
his arms. He landed beside Impmon and set the humans down gently.
"Blessed ground!" Kazu exclaimed, falling to all fours.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Kenta added, looking a little green.
"Dude, you were already sick," Kazu pointed out.
Agumon and Gabumon came running around a corner. They looked as
if someone had splattered some kind of sticky liquid on them. As they
ran up behind Tentomon, they spotted the confrontation and checked
their charge.
"What's going on?" Agumon demanded.
"It seems that Impmon has been misleading us," Tentomon explained.
"Listen guys, I've got an offer for ya," Impmon told the other Digimon.
"And it's a darn better one than the Great...er, I mean Demon Sorcerer's
deal."
"Another offer?" Gabumon said doubtfully.
"Yeah, how would you guys like yer own Tamers?" Impmon proposed.
"You'll be able to digivolve without help from the Catalyst and you get
a friend for life!"
"I don't see the advantage there," Agumon said skeptically. "C'mon
guys, there are only two of 'em. We can take them."
"Three," Antylamon corrected, bounding over a rubble pile. She landed
at the Tamers' and their partners' sides. She reached up, plucked Suzie
off of her head, and set the girl down next to Guardromon and the
boys.
Agumon, Gabumon, and Tentomon looked up at Antylamon. They
missed Shibumi and Alice arrival with a still frozen Palmon tucked
under Shibumi's arm.
"Er, isn't that one of the Devas?" Agumon asked hesitantly. The odds
didn't look so good anymore.
"One of the what?" Tentomon asked. It was kinda hard for news to get
around when most of the folks you met were trying to kill you.
Tentomon had apparently missed this bit of gossip.
"The Devas. They worked for one of the Sovereigns," Agumon
elaborated.
"Oh. Them."
"It's a good offer, boys," Antylamon told the three. "Perhaps you should
listen?"
"Ah, could you hold up a minute?" Shibumi asked. "You should all be
able to listen to this. PLAY." Palmon unfroze.
"Wha? What's going on?" Palmon asked, confused.
"Have I gotta an offer for you!" Impmon began.
***
"GREETINGS, FRIENDS!" Ultimon boomed as he landed on the rooftop
with enough force to radiate spiderweb cracks from his location. Had
he not been braking, he probably would have gone through. "WHERE
IS EVERYONE?" There was no one there.
"I dunno," Leo-girl replied, coming down to hover beside him. "But we
are out on the roof. I don't think this is the right one."
"Hey!" Jade called, flying up to them in a flash. "We're over that way!"
She pointed roughly east. "By about two blocks."
"WELL THEN! UP, UP, AND AWAAAY!" Ultimon cried as he took off.
"Up, up, and away?" Jade echoed, bemused.
"Hey, he's living the cliche," Leo-girl commented.
"Jeri, I didn't know you could talk through your Gatepuppets," Jade
said.
"I didn't mention it?" Jeri repliued through the puppet. "Well, ah, um..."
The Gatepuppet went poof and evaporated.
Shaking her head, Jade took off after Ultimon.
***
"So, that's the deal," Impmon concluded. "Come with us. We'll find you
partners, and yer whole quality of life will improve."
"I don't get it," Palmon said confused. "Why'd you go to the Demon
Sorcerers with this commando team idea if having Tamers is such a
good thing?"
"Um, Impmon," Shibumi began, consulting some gizmo.
"Hold up a sec." Impmon turned back to his team. "We needed a way
back to the Real World, and the Sorcs seemed like the best bet,"
Impmon explained. "Crossing that barrier between worlds ain't easy. So
when one of the Sorcs caught me, I proposed a deal. Took 'em long
enough to agree."
"Impmon," Shibumi began again, tension in his voice.
"Hold yer horses, I finally got these guys to listen to me," Impmon told
the human. "Anyways, what do you say guys? We go to the Real World
and it's adios muchachos to the Demon Sorcerers."
"Impmon, they're here!" Shibumi cried.
"Listen, I told you... what was that?"
A lightning bolt struck Antylamon, propelling her backwards into a
rock pile.
"Antylamon!" Suzie cried, running after her partner.
Descending from the sky on a cloud was ElectroTchangZuMon. The
demon turn Digimon was fairly humanoid. He wore a body suit,
gauntlets, and boots that seemed to consist entirely of cabling.
Electicity crackled around him.
Nearby, a rockpile bulged and flowed off as QuakeDaiGuiMon surfaced
there. The earth demon was still hunched over with a bull-like head.
His new digital form was armored with smooth slabs of red and orange
stone.
"They've grown," Shibumi whispered to himself.
"What is this treachery?!" QuakeDaiGuiMon demanded. "We will not
tolerate such..." The demon paused, staring at the humans. Or rather, a
specific human.
"Brother?" ElectroTchangZuMon inquired.
"You!" QuakeDaiGuiMon exclaimed, pointing at Shibumi. "We know
you!"
"Uh, me?" Shibumi asked ingeniously.
"Yes," ElectroTchangZuMon agreed, seeing what his brother did. "You
are one of the Eight Immortals who exiled us from the so-called 'Real
World' two thousand years ago!"
With the two demons preoccupied, the normal, unpartnered Digimon
decided this was a good time to just disappear. They snuck off.
Meanwhile, Suzie quietly rejoined her group, holding a slightly
battered Lopmon in her arms.
"No, you must have me confused with someone... I mean I couldn't
possibly..." Shibumi stammered. "Aw, nevermind." A CD appeared in
his hand. "PAUSE!" A light shot at the two demons. It had no effect.
"Heh," QuakeDaiGuiMon snickered. "You will find us not quite so
vulnerable to such spells these days. And now...eh?"
Several heart shaped bubbles drifted down from the sky. They floated
up against the two demons and popped. The two demons recoiled.
"ARGH!"
"That's good magic!" hissed ElectroTchangZuMon. "Where did that
come from?"
As if in answer, a pinkish figure flew out of the sky. It's miniscule size
made it near invisible. Kenta was the first to identify it.
"MarineAngemon!"
***
"GREETINGS, FRIENDS!"
"Ultimon, Ultimate level, data type," Takato said, reading aloud the
stats his digivice displayed. An odd piece of info caught his eyes. "No
attacks?"
"I wouldn't say that," Jade disagreed, eyeing the crumpled remains of
the air conditioner Ultimon had landed on.
"Hello, Ultimon," Ruriko greeted.
"GREETINGS, MADAME!" Ultimon boomed back.
"You're the evolved form of Calumon?" Ruriko probed.
"YES!" Ultimon struck a pose. "DO YOU LIKE THE NEW FORM?"
"Um, very nice," she said neutrally. "Do you always yell like that?"
"YELL?" Ultimon repeated, confused. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"
"Hey, Ultimon," Jade jumped in. "Can you try whispering?"
"WHISPERING? YOU MEAN like this?"
"Yes! That's good!" Jade replied. "Keep that volume."
"Um, okay," Ultimon said, nonplussed.
"Thank you, Jade," Ruriko sighed. "I think you just managed to save our
hearing." She turned back to Ultimon. "So, we wanted to ask you about
what you've been doing all day."
"Just doing good deeds!" Ultimon said brightly
"Hmm, yes, about these good deeds..." Ruriko began. She hesitated.
"Yes?"
"Um, I hate to break it to you, but..."
***
"Okay, MarineAngemon, time to kick their butts!" Kenta exclaimed.
"Yeah! Go get 'em!" Kazu cheered.
"Okay!" MarineAngemon agreed. He inhaled to begin another attack.
Before he could actually attack, however, the little Digimon suddenly
found himself enveloped by a giant fist.
"No more of that now," QuakeDaiGuiMon grunted. He squeezed. With a
pop, data bits spurted out from between his fingers.
"MarineAngemon!" Kenta cried in horror and sypathetic pain. "Noooo!"