Finally, the wait's over. Sorry I can't write quicker, but this part was more difficult than I thought, work's been hell…Oh enough with the excuses already! The big day has arrived with the Tamers and Digidestined together against Necromon's invasion…
Dark Empire
3: Invasion!
Over the city: 6:00 AM
"Any luck, Yolei?" Kari asked hopefully as they flew over the city together.
"No, none," she replied grimly from the back of Aquilamon. "If we don't find them soon…"
"Wait, I'm getting an e-mail message."
Ken and I have found something interesting. Get down to us now.
TK
They landed quickly in an alley out of sight, had their digimon revert to Rookie level and emerged onto the main streets. Kari quickly spied the others looking into a shop window.
Yolei was amazed. "This place is about to be invaded and they're window shopping?! I thought we would be the ones to do that!"
"Let's find out," Kari said neutrally as they ran over to join the others.
"So you haven't found them?" Yolei challenged.
"No. But check this out," TK pointed into a shop window. He was pointing specifically to a stack of cards marked Digimon Card Game.
"Digimon cards?" Kari's eyes widened. "Does that mean…?"
"We don't know for sure if there's any digimon here yet," Tai broke in.
"Gennai seems to think so though," TK added. "I sent him an e-mail before I warned you. Look at what he sent back."
What you've found, combined with the readings I've been getting here, suggests that there are digimon indigenous to this realm. This also suggests that there may be local Digidestined. If you can't find Necromon and Daemon, I suggest you look for them. We're going to need a lot of help if we can't stop the invasion.
Gennai
"So what do we do?" Matt asked.
"If there are any Digidestined around here I say we find them!" Tai said. "If Necromon and Daemon find them first…"
"Enough said, let's find them!" Ken agreed. "But where should we look?"
"The school would be a good start," Kari suggested.
"But it's still too early yet," Yolei pointed out.
"Well, let's find the school and then start from there anyway," Kari insisted.
TK agreed. "She's right. We haven't anything else to go on and we don't have much time left."
Tai nodded. "He's right. I think we might have one chance to stop this. If there are Digidestined around here then Necromon will probably know that too so…"
Matt caught on. "So when he tries to take them out, we go in and take him out!"
"Exactly. Find them as fast as you can, this might be our last chance!"
City Park: 8:00 AM
Takato and Henry were making their usual stop at Guilmon's hideout before they left for school. As most Digidestined or Tamers would have said, there is nothing more dangerous than a digimon that hasn't eaten. Takato had learned that the hard way once. He didn't intend to repeat the mistake.
"Man! I wish we didn't have to go to school right now," Takato was complaining as he handed out breakfast to Guilmon and Calumon, who was taking time out from his near constant search for fun. "With 5 Devas still out there I'm not sure it's a good idea."
For once, Henry couldn't have agreed more. "We'll just have to hope they don't attack while we're stuck in class."
"Oh I wouldn't worry too much about class. You're not likely to have one ever again!"
Takato and Henry whirled round to see Daemon glaring at them malevolently outside the small stone house.
Takato managed to find his voice first. "Who, or what, is that?"
Henry pulled out his digivice. "I can't get a reading on him!"
"I'll tell you who I am," Daemon chuckled. "I'm your executioner!"
Necromon's castle
A loud siren had started sounding through the castle as the invasion hour approached.
"Attention! The invasion will begin shortly! All digimon selected for lead army are to report to portal gates immediately. All mechanised ground digimon: proceed to Gate 1. All dinosaur and non-mechanised ground digimon: proceed to Gate 2. All aerial digimon: proceed to Gate 3."
"It's time, brother," Gigadramon said eagerly as the Hahgarumon controller finished his announcement.
"I know. I've waited so long for this!" Megadramon then turned to the two massive figures in the shadows behind him. "Haven't you, my lords?"
"Indeed we have," one replied. "I haven't been rat catching in awhile!"
"Well, here's your chance! We'd better get down to Gate 4 if we're to go through on time."
"All systems charged," another controller reported. "Now awaiting signal to start invasion."
City Park
"Pyro Sphere!"
Guilmon's fireball struck Daemon head on but he didn't even seem to notice.
"You call that firepower? This is firepower! Evil Inferno!"
Daemon unleashed a tidal wave of flame from his hands.
Moving like the wind, Henry pulled out a card.
"Digi-Modify…Wargreymon's Brave Shield Activate!"
The shield formed in front of all of them just in time and blocked out the attack.
"Looks like we need more power!" Henry said.
"Right!" Takato pulled out his cards.
"Digi-Modify…Digivolution Activate!"
Calumon's forehead started to glow and shot out energy.
When the Brave Shield went down, Daemon saw he had new opponents: Growlmon and Gargomon.
"Good! I was starting to think this would be too easy. But I suppose things haven't changed that much!"
Takato saw red. "You think so, huh? Well, take this! Digi-Modify…Power Activate!"
"Pyro Blaster!"
"Gargo Laser!"
Both shots hit Daemon at once and he seemed to vanish in a massive ball of flame.
"Yeah! What a shot!" Takato punched the air in celebration. It was short-lived though. The flames cleared and Daemon stood there completely unharmed.
He snickered as he dusted himself down. "Try again when you're serious!"
"You want serious? Here it is! Diamond Storm!"
Renamon had run in from the trees and was giving it all she had. But against Daemon, it wasn't much.
"Ooh, stop it! That tickles! Hahaha!"
Rika ran out of the trees behind Renamon.
"Whoa! This looks like a big one!"
"He is! Nothing's hurt him so far," Takato said worriedly. "He seems familiar somehow…"
"It doesn't matter, look what I've found!" Henry had discovered another blue card. "Digi-Modify…Matrix Digivolution Activate!"
"Here we go again!" Calumon's forehead started to glow again.
"Rapid Fire!"
Daemon suddenly found himself under attack from a volley of fast shots.
Rapidmon quickly followed up on the attack. "Tri-Beam!"
A green beam of pure energy slammed into Daemon producing another huge explosion.
Rapidmon was jubilant. "Haha! He shoots! He…"
"…Strikes out! Gwahahaha!" Daemon wasn't just unhurt. He had now grown to city-wrecking size and he towered over the treetops.
"And that was your third strike, I believe. That means you're out! Evil Inferno!"
Daemon unleashed another fire wave, baking the ground below. Takato was blown off his feet and ended up flat on his back in the stone house. When he got up again, things were not looking good. Henry had been flung into the wall of the stone house and was unconscious. Rika's arm had been burned so she was also out of the game and all their digimon were knocked out and back at Rookie level.
Daemon chuckled. "Your digimon are strong. You must have been through many fights. But since when could Champions and Ultimates defeat a Mega?"
Oh man! A MEGA? Takato's worst fears were coming true. This one was more powerful than all the Devas they'd faced and now they were at his mercy. Even worse, that seemed to be a quality that he didn't have much of.
"Now, as much as I've enjoyed this, I must conclude this game. My time is too important." He raised his arm again. "Evil…"
"Terra Force!"
Daemon didn't have time to launch his attack before an immense fireball slammed into him from behind.
"If you want a good fight then you've got one!" Tai snarled as he descended from the sky on the back of Wargreymon.
"Make that two!" Matt and Metalgarurumon were seconds behind.
"If there's one thing I hate most about you Digidestined it's your timing! Evil Inferno!"
"Metal Wolf Claw!"
"Terra Force!"
Daemon's attack was powerful but it wasn't powerful enough to withstand 2 other Mega attacks, especially if one was ice-based. Their blasts tore through and slammed into Daemon's midsection.
"Having some trouble, Daemon?"
Necromon had come up from the sewers and was now flying into the fray.
"Nothing I can't handle!" Daemon snarled as he prepared another attack.
"Save it. It's time for the main event," Necromon said with a cold smile. "Do you really want to miss that?"
Daemon regained his sense of humour. "No I don't. But we need to lose the problems here first."
"Consider it done! Necro Crusher!"
"Evil Inferno!"
This time it was Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon that were forced to dodge. By the time they'd recovered, Necromon and Daemon were flying away at Mach speed.
Before Tai and Matt could think of pursuing, Necromon grabbed his communicator and said one word into it.
"Invade!"
Necromon's castle
"We have the signal! Open all portals!"
"All portals open. The invasion is a go!"
With that, 1000 digimon of various types and ranks went through the dimension gates.
City Park
"Oh man! They're getting away again!" Tai raged.
"It could be worse, Tai. We saved this world's Digidestined from becoming pot roast!" Matt said pointing at the ground.
Takato was staring up in disbelief. Then he noticed Rika's condition.
"Rika! Are you ok?"
Rika was still nursing a badly burnt arm. "I'm ok. But who are these guys?"
Takato was about to ask them but he didn't get the chance.
"Matt, I've got news for you. Things are worse! LOOK!"
Hovering in the sky Matt and Tai could see everything. Things couldn't have looked worse.
3 massive digital fields, larger than anything previously seen, had appeared on 2 sides of the city and in the air. 400 mechanised digimon came through on one side. There were Gattlomon, Tankmon, Mechanorimon, Guardromon and the like. On the other side of the city were 400 Tuskmon, Mammothmon, Tyrannomon, Darktyrannomon, and Drimogemon amongst others. 200 Kuwagamon, Flymon, Airdramon and Snimon appeared out of the aerial portal around Necromon and Daemon. Megadramon and Gigadramon were among this group too.
But that wasn't the worst of it either. Last and certainly not least out of the aerial portal were 2 huge and very familiar digimon. One was a metal sea serpent with a nose of hard iron, the other a metal dinosaur with 2 great cannons on his back and skulls at his kneecaps. The old Dark Masters, Metalseadramon and Machinedramon were back!
"Good to see you again!" Necromon smiled. "This is the result of the special project, Daemon. Think it was a waste of time now? The Dark Masters are whole again!"
"Enough talk, more action!" Metalseadramon screamed.
"I think a little destruction is in order to celebrate our return," Machinedramon added.
"Then you won't be disappointed," Necromon said. "We've got a whole world to do with as we please. That is, as soon as we get rid of those nuisances down there!"
Takato, Rika, Matt and Tai all swallowed hard as the 4 dark Megas stared at them.
It was at this moment that TK and the others arrived on the scene. They'd all seen the aerial invaders arrive and knew that the others couldn't be far behind.
"Looks like we blew it this time," Cody said miserably.
"Machinedramon and Metalseadramon back too, and I thought things couldn't get any worse!" TK groaned.
"At least we saved them," Kari pointed out, looking at the Tamers, who were staring in shock at the Digidestined.
Takato and Rika had finally recognised their rescuers. After all, they'd seen them on TV plenty of times. Now they were here in the flesh and Takato wondered whether he was hallucinating!
"Uhhh…."
"Henry!" Takato hurried over to his friend who was getting to his feet slowly. He hadn't broken anything but a small river of blood was flowing from his forehead where he'd hit the house wall.
"I'm ok, Takato," Henry then saw the Digidestined. That digimon must have hit me harder than I thought!
"You're not seeing things, it's really them!" Takato whispered.
"We'd better not tell them anything just in case…" Henry struggled to find the words.
"Don't worry, I've got it!" Takato reassured him.
Tai stared grimly at the evil horde above. "TK, take our new friends over there with you and get out of here!"
TK didn't like the sound of that. "What are you going to do?"
Matt answered for Tai. "What do you think, TK? Someone's got to cover your backs. Know any other digimon that can stand up to dark Megas?"
"But, 2 against 4?" Yolei was just as worried about this idea.
Tai gritted his teeth. "Just go!"
TK understood. They had no choice. "We'd better escape underground. Cody?"
"Right!" Cody pulled out his D3 and armor Digivolved Armadillomon to Digmon.
"I'll help with that," Takato said as he helped Guilmon to his feet. "Digi-modify…Digmon's drill Activate!"
Guilmon's claws became drills and he started drilling into the earth beside Digmon.
The sight stunned the Digidestined.
"Let's go!" Rika jolted them out of it as she ran down the hole.
Henry picked up Terriermon and followed close behind.
"Matt, you sure you won't come with us?" TK practically pleaded.
"I'll see you later, TK," Matt replied firmly.
TK sighed in despair and then followed the others underground.
"Scared, Tai?" Matt asked as he stared at the new Dark Masters.
"Now that you mention it, yeah."
Matt shrugged. "Oh well, who wants to live forever?"
"I would," Tai joked. "But whatever. Let's do it!"
Necromon and his dark friends had watched as the others escaped.
"Hey, they're getting away!" Metalseadramon snarled angrily.
"The most important ones haven't," Necromon smiled. "We'll deal with them now. Oh, hold on, I almost forgot."
Necromon reached for his communicator and pressed 2 buttons. One gave a signal to the rest of his force to start attacking, the other would guarantee that his human enemies here would be incapable of stopping them…
Hypnos building
Riley was suspicious. They'd detected no wild ones at all since the 2 powerful ones yesterday. Although Yamaki was celebrating that, she didn't like it at all. She had no evidence that was something was wrong, it was just intuition.
A minute later, one of the other technicians proved her right.
"Sir, you'd better take a look at this!"
Yamaki came over wondering what the hell was wrong. The technician's face was as white as a sheet.
For good reason as it turned out. The technician, bored with a day of no action at all, had turned on an outside camera just to pass the time. He couldn't believe what he saw out there. Neither could Yamaki or anyone else.
"How did they get past us?" Yamaki managed to splutter.
"Look at all of them!" another technician blurted out.
Yamaki grinned. "I don't know how they got past our sensors and bio-emerged but they'll get no further. Activate Juggernaut immediately!"
However, as Riley tried to bring up the program, she saw she was getting no result whatever. Nor was her co-controller or any of the other technicians.
"What's wrong? Get a move on!" Yamaki urged.
"We can't, sir! Nothing is working!"
Riley ran a systems check. Her fears were confirmed. "It's a virus, sir. We've been sabotaged!"
Yamaki was no longer smiling. "Can we purge it from our system?"
Riley now sounded afraid. "Yes, but probably not in time."
Necromon's virus was insidious. It was a '2-part' smart virus in essence. In the first stage it merely jammed all the surveillance equipment, allowing Necromon's invasion force and the Digidestined and their MDB to cross undetected whilst the virus stayed buried in the host system undetected. Now, with a signal, Necromon had activated the second stage. This jammed all the critical systems in the building, including the Juggernaut, but ironically it reactivated the surveillance systems and left the communications in the building alone. Put simply, everyone in the building could see what was coming but they couldn't do anything about it!
Red dots practically filled the entire screen, and they were all converging on their building…
The school
"I know you said you wanted more digimon to show up," Kenta was saying. "But isn't this pushing it?"
"I take it back!" Kazu replied.
In minutes the day had gone from an ordinary school day into a day of apocalypse. At first everyone had been thrilled to see so many real digimon. Well, that is until they started blowing up things.
Jeri had never been more scared in her life. This made her encounter with Kunbiramon look like a picnic. "Shouldn't we go inside and hide somewhere?"
"I don't think we'll be safe anywhere, Jeri!" Kenta was shaking as he spoke.
The principal and the rest of the teachers were trying to barricade the front gate. Their efforts lasted all of 2 seconds.
"Shadow Cannon!"
The feeble blockade was blown into smithereens and the teachers were left flat out on their backs unconscious.
The kids soon found themselves surrounded by Gattlomon, Mechanorimon and Tankmon.
3 gunships flew over the school and aimed missiles at the back of one of the Gattlomon. They all hit and did precisely nothing.
"Annoying human maggots! Gattling Striker!"
The gunships were torn apart in a hail of fire. The Gattlomon turned back to Kazu and the rest.
"The rest of you humans had better surrender," they raised their guns again. "Or do we take the guns for another spin?!"
The kids all raised their hands instantly.
"Pity! They make such good targets!" a Tankmon said. "What do we need them alive for?"
"Lord Necromon requested it. He has something special planned. It's sure to be slow and painful whatever it is!"
Kazu, Kenta and Jeri suddenly realised it had been a very bad idea getting out of bed that morning…
In the sky over the city
"Well, well. The prodigal sons have returned. Is that it?" Necromon sneered as he faced off against Matt and Tai. The other Dark Masters also shared a laugh.
"Nice to see you too, not!" Tai growled in return.
"We owe you big time for what you did to us!" Matt snapped angrily.
"What are you complaining about? It looks like you're much improved since we last met. I'm impressed you managed to survive the world I sent you to, but I'm afraid your luck runs out here! Prepare to be deleted! Necro Crusher!"
Tai flinched as Wargreymon barely avoided the huge red fireball.
Metalseadramon joined the party. "Have a headache on me! River of Power!"
A deadly blue beam shot out of Metalseadramon's nose. It just missed Metalgarurumon and sheared an office building in half.
"Metal Wolf Claw!"
Despite his large size, Metalseadramon was also fast and manoeuvrable and he dodged the ice blast easily.
Tai and Wargreymon were having no more luck either. 4 Megas at once was just too much to handle as they were finding out. Wargreymon dodged Daemon's Evil Inferno but took a heavy hit from Machinedramon's Giga Cannon sending him flying through the air.
"We can't keep this up forever, Tai!" Matt gasped in despair.
"I know!" Tai said grimly. He quickly looked around at the carnage around him. The scene was horrific. People were being picked off callously by the dark digimon as they tried to flee. Buildings were in flame or were being toppled thanks to the vast amount of firepower the invaders had. Tai was always known for looking on the bright side but in his heart he knew that this battle was as good as lost. One thing was certain though: they could not lose the whole shooting match. At least one of them had to get away if they were to have any chance against the new Dark Masters.
"Matt, take Metalgarurumon and run for it!"
"What?!" Matt stared at Tai as if he'd gone mad.
"One of us has to make it! If we stay here we'll both be killed. Now go, I'll hold them off for you. Just go!"
With that, Tai and Wargreymon flew flat out at the Dark Masters.
Metalgarurumon, much to Matt's surprise, turned and flew in the opposite direction.
"What are you doing?" Matt screamed.
"I hate to admit it but he's right, Matt. There's no way we can beat them all together, never mind their army too. We've got to run!"
"We can't leave Tai!" Matt insisted. "Turn back before…" he trailed off as he looked back. Even if they did turn round now it would be too late.
Tai's emotions were in turmoil. On the one hand he felt like he was doing the right thing, on the other he was facing 4 dark Megas all by his lonesome and a small voice was telling him could you be more stupid? He was starting to realise how Piximon must have felt when he'd done this all those years ago.
Necromon nodded in a mix of amazement and approval. "You truly deserve your crest. Protecting your friends whilst facing impossible odds. For a human, you are exceptional. But did anyone ever tell you that courage and recklessness can be a lethal mix?" He formed a huge red fireball in his hands as he nodded to his dark compatriots. "All together! Necro Crusher!"
"Evil Inferno!"
"River of Power!"
"Giga Cannon!"
A brilliant explosion, as bright as a nuclear blast, lit up the entire sky. Matt was forced to avert his eyes for a moment. When his vision cleared again…Tai and Wargreymon were gone. All he could see were the 4 Dark Masters.
"No…No…TAAAIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!" Matt screamed in rage and pain. 2 of his best friends were gone…and all he'd done was run away. Metalgarurumon accelerated toward the woods on the city's edge. There were tears in his eyes too. He swore that one way or another the Dark Masters would pay for this!
Necromon watched them go with cold satisfaction. "Let him run. We'll deal with him and the others sooner or later."
"I'm hoping it's sooner!" Metalseadramon chuckled.
"What happens now?" Daemon asked.
"What happens now is that we finish conquering this city and have a little fun doing it!"
Machinedramon agreed. "Nothing like a little wholesale destruction after a hard day's work!"
"Not quite wholesale. You see that tower?" Necromon pointed to the Hypnos building. "Leave that one alone. I have a…vested interest in it. Apart from that, blow up whatever you like. Have fun!"
Necromon grinned as they left. It had been a good day. His army had crossed successfully, he'd brought his old friends back so the Dark Masters were whole again and, best of all, together they'd done what no other digimon had done before: they'd destroyed a Digidestined. He had no doubt that would break the morale of the others. They wouldn't stop him now. Soon he and his associates would rule this world and the humans would be where they belonged: bleeding at his feet!
TO BE CONTINUED…
Not a good day for the good side, eh? Tai's gone and they're facing hordes of evil digimon! Please review and give me a few ideas for the next part!