Sorry I can't write faster but work is a real pain in the $%*! right now! Plus sorry to all Tai fans for the last part (I didn't think he was that popular!) but don't worry too much. Read on and find out…
Dark Empire
4: The fall of West Shinjuku
The MDB: forest outside the city
Matt and Metalgarurumon made it all the way back to the MDB without any further trouble. Not that Matt noticed much; he was too distraught. Gennai was waiting for him as they landed and Metalgarurumon reverted back to Gabumon.
"Gennai! Tai's…Tai's…" Matt couldn't finish before he collapsed to his knees.
Gennai quickly ran over and pulled him up. "I know, Matt. I saw it on my monitors."
There were tears in his eyes too. This was the first time ever he'd lost a Digidestined.
"What am I going to do, Gennai? I've got to tell Kari her brother's dead and it's all my…"
"No it isn't, Matt!" Gennai snapped. "I saw it all, remember? There was nothing you could have done. I'm amazed you held them for as long as you did. Come on."
He bundled both of them into the MDB.
"By the way, it's not looking good out there."
Matt managed to pull himself together. "How bad is it?"
Gennai switched on all the monitors. "Appalling. Necromon has brought across about 1000 digimon, various types, all Champion level up. As you'd expect, nothing's stopping them."
Matt nodded. Myotismon had been able to bring Odaiba to its knees with barely 100 digimon. Short of using a nuke, there was no way anyone would stop this lot.
"Where are TK and the others?"
Gennai moved over to another console where a digital map of the city was laid out. He pointed to several different coloured lights that were flashing at one point.
"That's where they are right now in the subway system. Provided there's no more trouble, they should get here soon and…what the?!"
Gennai had seen another light on the display. It was a fair distance from than the others and it was a faint orange in colour.
"Is that…?" Matt started to ask out of pure hope.
"It's Tai all right! Well, his digivice at least," Gennai said cautiously as he ran some more scans. "It looks like he's in the sewers."
"He and Wargreymon must have come down hard and gone straight through the street!" Matt realised.
"Yes, it's hard to believe he'd survive that but we have to try," Gennai brought out a laptop and plugged it into the console. "I'll try and alert the others."
Hypnos building
"Sir, they're closing in on us! Nothing's stopping them!" Riley had never been more afraid in her life.
Yamaki quickly opened a channel throughout the whole building. "This is to anyone who can hear me. This facility is about to be overrun! Get to the basement and use the emergency escape to the sewers. Leave now while you can!"
He picked up his lighter and a briefcase off a nearby table. He'd prepared what was in the case for just such an emergency, hoping he'd never need it. Hopefully he still wouldn't.
"Riley, come on. There's nothing more we can do either."
Riley nodded. "Let's get to the elevators!"
But as she jumped from her station the entrance doors blew inward, throwing up a cloud of dust and smoke.
"No need for any hurry, humans! No one is going anywhere!"
As the smoke cleared, every human heart sank. Necromon stood there grinning nastily with a Mechanorimon at his side.
Necromon's communicator sounded. "It's over, my lord. The building and the city are all ours!"
"Acknowledged." Necromon turned to his human prisoners. "I believe the expression is 'I win'!"
Subway system
"It sounds pretty bad up there," Cody said as they went cautiously through the subway tunnels.
They could hear all the explosions and sounds of battle above.
"You're telling me!" TK was tearing himself up inside. Be safe, Matt!
The Tamers, meanwhile, were having problems of their own.
"I can't believe we're actually with the Digidestined!" Takato whispered. "How's it possible?"
"Who cares?" Rika replied. "They're here helping us and that's what counts."
"Where did all these digimon come from anyway?" Henry wondered. "They don't look like they're with the Devas."
"We'll tell you everything when we get back to the base," Kari had dropped back and had overheard Henry. Then her D-terminal sounded as she received a message. "Oh no!"
"Kari? What's wrong?" TK asked.
"It's Tai! They got Tai!"
TK quickly looked at the message.
Tai and Wargreymon shot down in battle. But I'm receiving a signal from his digivice. They're in the sewer system to the Northeast. Try and assist them if you can. Matt and Gabumon safe here with me. I'll see all of you soon I hope.
Gennai
Kari looked like she was coming apart.
TK grabbed her shoulders. "Keep it together, Kari. He's still alive! We'll find him!"
"Wait! Our parents and friends will be caught in this too!" Takato realised in horror.
Rika pulled out her cellular phone and rang home. A minute later she hung up. "No answer," she said bleakly.
"Can I try Dad?" Henry asked worriedly.
Rika tossed the phone to him and Henry rang his Dad's cellular phone.
To Henry's relief, his Dad picked up after the first ring.
"Dad? Are you ok?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing, son. I'm ok. I'm in the sewer of all places!"
"In the sewer? How did you…"
"It's a long story. I knew this was coming long before most people did so I escaped down here with…I'll tell you the rest when I meet up with you. Where are you now?"
"I'm safe in the subway for now. Dad, do you know exactly where you are? Can you find your way around?"
"Yes, we've got a map and we know where we are."
"Ok." Henry quickly looked at the map on Kari's D-terminal. "Here's the deal…"
Hypnos building
Necromon had moved Yamaki, Riley and all the other captured technicians to the basement lab. 2 Gattlomon, 2 Mechanorimon and a Snimon stood guard over them. Necromon had brought over a detachment of Hahgarumon to remove the virus and access the building's network.
"At least some of us got away," Riley whispered to Yamaki as she watched the clock gear digimon access every console in the room.
"Good thing too. If they got Mr Wong and his group we'd be dead and buried," Yamaki replied.
Necromon and Daemon entered the room via the elevator.
Riley shivered at the sight of them. "I've a feeling we might end up that way, sir. Or wish we were."
"So it's as Impmon said, a fancy set-up indeed," Necromon was appraising the room. "It'll make a good base until we can set up a better one. Do we control all points in the city now?"
Daemon nodded. "Yes. All the humans are dead, captured or have run for the hills. It's gone perfectly."
"No it hasn't!" Necromon retorted sharply. "Those blasted Tamers and the Digidestined are still at liberty. I'd hoped they would have been found and dealt with by now."
"Most of our digimon can't access the subways or the sewers. Besides, as you said earlier, what can they do against our forces now that their leader has been deleted!"
"True," Necromon agreed. "Let them rot in the sewers for now. We'll deal with them soon enough. In the meantime we have more planning to do. I wonder where we'll conquer next?"
Yamaki could listen to no more. "You think we're just going to roll over for you digital scum?"
"It seems some humans still have delusions of grandeur!" Necromon sneered. However his smile evaporated quickly. "No, I don't expect you to roll over. But I do expect you to die trying!"
Daemon joined in. "This city fell with only 1000 digimon attacking it. How are you going to fight 5000, or even 10000!"
Yamaki lost some of his confidence at that. "There's more of you?"
"Of course, did you think I committed everything just to this?" Necromon shook his head in amazement. "I can't believe this race of organic sludge has lasted so long. They're not only physically weak but a bunch of simpletons too! This invasion will be easier than I thought!"
"My lord, we have a problem," A Hahgarumon spoke up.
"What is it?"
"We've accessed most of the systems but one is encrypted."
Yamaki allowed himself a small smile. At least the security codes on Juggernaut and the other critical files had held.
"Can you break the code?" Necromon was asking.
"Most likely. But it would be quicker if we got it from them."
Necromon looked at Yamaki and the others again. "Good point."
"Dream on! You'll never get that code from me!" Yamaki growled.
Necromon's response took everyone by surprise. Moving like the wind he lurched forward and grabbed Yamaki by the throat.
Yamaki, stunned by the digimon's strength, had no chance of breaking free.
"You're showing considerable spine, human. It'd be a pleasure to break it!"
"Kill me then. Kill us all! You'll never get that code!"
Astonishingly Necromon smiled again. "I was hoping you'd say that!"
He flung Yamaki aside to the floor and reached for his communicator again. "Bring them down. Use the cargo elevator."
2 minutes after that Kazu, Kenta, Jeri and all the other captured school kids were herded into the room.
Riley gasped in horror as she guessed what was going to happen next. She wasn't disappointed.
Necromon called over the Snimon. "Pick one. I don't care which."
Unfortunately for Kazu, he was the one chosen and soon found himself suspended in the air as the Snimon grabbed him and lifted him up high.
"You 2, front and centre!" Necromon ordered the 2 Gattlomon guards. "Now I'm going to count to 10. If we haven't obtained the code by that time you can use him for target practice. Is that clear?"
Both Gattlomon smiled in anticipation and immediately aimed their guns at Kazu. "As ice, my lord!"
"If he still refuses after that, you can kill 2 more. Then 4 more, and 8 more on the time after that and so on and so on until we get the code or we run out of targets."
"You're bluffing!" Yamaki blurted.
Riley sighed in despair. Whatever else this digimon was, he didn't strike her as the type to make idle threats. He'd decimated a city after all. She had no doubt he'd kill them all in the end anyway.
"Am I really?" Necromon said coldly. "Well then, stay silent and find out. 1…2…3!"
"Sir, I think you should give him the code!" Riley could hold back no more.
"4…5!"
"I can't do that and you know it!"
Kazu was sweating like a pig and shaking in fear by now. He was putting up an almighty struggle but the Snimon held him like a vice.
"6…7…8!"
The Gattlomon's guns were now starting to spin. "Gattling…!"
Riley finally snapped. "Damn it! If you won't give him the code I will!" She ran over to a terminal and typed in a sequence.
"It worked, my lord. We have access to everything!" the controller happily reported.
Necromon nodded at Riley in appreciation. "Very sensible. Stand down!"
The Gattlomon were disappointed but they powered their guns down. The Snimon dropped a sobbing Kazu to the floor.
Riley ran to Kazu and pulled him into a hug.
Yamaki was enraged. "Do you know what you've done?!"
"I saved this kid's life!" Riley snapped back. "I thought saving lives was our job, sir!"
Yamaki had no reply to that.
Daemon looked at Necromon proudly. "I see I was right to ally with you. You're every bit as ruthless and malevolent as your reputation said you were!"
"I like to think so," Necromon replied as he turned to the controllers. "Tell Machinedramon and Metalseadramon to step up the hunt for the Tamers and Digidestined. Also contact the castle and have them send the construction and worker crews across. For the moment we'll make this city our base of operations while we prepare our next move."
"And what would that be?" Daemon asked with interest.
"Something that will get this world's attention. Do you think a few million more dead humans will do it?"
In the sewers
"Are you sure there's anything down here?"
"My son said there's someone who needs help down here, so there must be!"
Tai heard the voices from down the sewer corridor but he was too weak to call out. Wargreymon had taken the brunt of the Dark Masters' attacks and had managed to shield him from the worst of it. However, he hadn't been able to protect him totally and he had sustained severe burns. Half of his face looked like it had been charbroiled. The last thing he remembered was blacking out from the pain before they'd hit the street. When he woke up he was in the sewer tunnel on top of a pile of rubble with an unconscious Koromon next to him. He was still in immense pain. It felt like he was being constantly blasted with a flame-thrower.
Suddenly he found a bright light being shone into his face.
"Hey! I've found…Oh my God!"
"Daisy? What is it?"
Mr Wong then saw and gasped in shock. He snapped out of it quickly. "Help me lift him. He needs urgent help!"
Hypnos building
"Well, well, well. Interesting research you were conducting here," Necromon said, half in interest and half in disgust.
"Damn, they know about Juggernaut and everything now!" Yamaki seethed in rage.
"They'd have broken our codes eventually," Riley replied. "I couldn't just stand by. He'd have killed everyone here without hesitation."
Yamaki nodded. On reflection, he knew he'd been wrong. "I can understand that. But you think he won't anyway?"
"The same thing crossed my mind," Riley said. "Not much we can do though."
"Now what do we have here? Project Juggernaut?" Necromon opened the file. "Bloodthirsty humans aren't you?"
Necromon read more of the technical data.
"Hahahaha! GWAHAHAHA!"
Everyone in the room, digimon and human, was taken aback by Necromon's reaction.
"What's so funny?" Daemon asked in confusion.
"Come and see for yourself!" Necromon managed to splutter.
Daemon looked at the file but still didn't see much to laugh about. "I still don't understand."
"The Juggernaut project was supposed to destroy all digimon in this realm," Necromon explained. "Attract them to it and then destroy them. But these fools didn't anticipate the effect it would have outside their world. I never told you how I found this realm did I? I didn't stumble across it by accident. When Juggernaut's first phase was activated it unleashed a wave of energy across the dimensions. A little like sending up a flare. I detected it at the castle, noted its location, and paid this world a visit a little later. I was happy with what I found!"
He grinned at Yamaki and Riley who were starting to realise the awful truth.
"That's right! You wanted to get rid of all digimon but instead you put up a flag saying 'here's a good world, please conquer it'! HAHAHAHA!"
All the other digimon joined the laughter as Yamaki sank to his knees in despair. What have I done?! I LED them here! It's all MY fault!
"What do you want done with these humans, my lord?" A Gattlomon asked when they'd all calmed down.
"I've no further use for them. Put them in with the other captives," Necromon ordered coldly.
The humans were urged into the cargo lift and taken out of the building. Yamaki, jolted out of his self-loathing, just managed to grab his briefcase before he was forced out too. I may have caused all this, but I'm not going to give up now!
The MDB
"TK!"
"Matt!"
The brothers flew into each other's arms outside the MDB.
"I thought I'd lost you for good!" TK sighed in relief.
"No such luck, TK!" Matt grinned. Then he turned serious again. "How's Tai?"
TK looked at Henry. "His Dad found him. He's alive but he's hurt badly. They're on their way here now."
"I'll go help them," Cody offered.
"I'll go too and watch your back," Ken added.
TK nodded. "Go meet them and get back here quickly!"
"Done and done!" Ken said as he and Cody left.
Gennai emerged from the MDB. "Good to see you're all safe. So these must be this world's Digidestined?"
Matt nodded. "We got to them just in time, Gennai."
This was almost too much for the Tamers. Gennai? He's real too?
"What's wrong?" Kari asked.
"Well it's just…the invasion then uh…all this and…ugh!" Takato couldn't seem to find the words.
"Why don't you come in and sit down?" Gennai offered. "You've been through a lot after all and there's a lot more to come. Besides, we could all use something to eat."
"Something to eat?!" Guilmon and Terriermon tore past everyone into the MDB at hyper speed.
TK grinned. "They're digimon all right!"
The sewers at the edge of the city
"How far now?" Mr Wong was getting tired after walking for so long with an unconscious Tai slung over his back. Recognising him for what he was, he had picked up Koromon after Tai and he was carrying him in his arms.
"Not far. We should be coming out of the city any time now," Daisy said. She was the only other team member who'd stayed with him. The rest he'd all lost in the sewers in the hurry to escape the Hypnos building. "There it is!"
Both of them could see a grate ahead and open woodland through it. After the long painful process of prying the grate off and lowering Tai and Koromon down they stopped for a rest whilst thinking what to do next.
"Wasn't your son supposed to meet us or something?" Daisy asked.
"I'd hoped he'd be here," Mr Wong admitted. "Still, he can't be far away. Let's head into the woods. We'd best get away from open ground."
However, they'd barely gone five steps when a gigantic spider digimon burst from the trees. It looked like a bigger version of Dokugumon and its colours were different. The spider itself was jet black while the skull and crossbones were flame-red.
"First you'll have to get past me, Arachnomon!" the digimon taunted. "And believe me, that's NOT going to happen!"
"Spiking Strike!"
Arachnomon was sent reeling backward by Stingmon's attack but he recovered quickly.
"Think again! If you want them you're going to have to go through us!" Ken snapped as he stood alongside Cody and Ankylomon.
"Gladly! Not only do I get extra dinner but Lord Necromon will promote me for sure; Venom Blast!"
Everyone flung themselves to the ground to avoid the stream of highly toxic red venom.
"He's an Ultimate! Cody, call for help. This may be more than we can handle alone!"
"Right!" Cody opened his D-terminal quickly; hoping the others could reach them in time…
The MDB
Meanwhile the Tamers were locked in conversation with Gennai. The rest of the Digidestined, worried that Cody and Ken hadn't returned, had gone to help them and this gave Gennai a chance to get to know this realm's Digidestined, or Tamers as he now knew they were. They'd discussed everything: how they'd met their digimon, Yamaki and his group, Impmon and the Devas. Yet Gennai had sensed something was wrong from the moment he'd met them. He had a talent for reading people and he could sense that the Tamers were hiding something.
"So, is there anything else you want to tell me?" he asked pointedly.
The way he asked certainly wasn't lost on Henry. "Maybe we should tell him."
"Are you sure, Henry?" Rika didn't seem convinced.
"No, but I don't think we've got much choice."
Takato nodded. "Well, the truth is…We've seen you and the Digidestined before."
Gennai was puzzled. "I don't recall meeting any of you before. I'd certainly never forget digimon like yours!" Like many before him, Gennai had thought Guilmon and Renamon were Champions. He'd never seen such large Rookies. And Calumon…that was something else again, a fun loving digimon that helped theirs to digivolve and apparently had no attacks of his own.
"Not personally. We've…seen you on TV!" Henry revealed.
"On TV?"
"Yeah. We've seen you and the fights with Devimon, Etemon, Myotismon, Piedmon and the Dark Masters and the Digimon Emperor," Takato went on. "We nearly had heart attacks when you showed up here for real!"
Gennai was amazed but nodded in understanding. He'd noticed the Tamers hadn't been very curious when the introductions had been made. Now he knew why: they already knew all the answers! Well, almost all at any rate. The Tamers had never heard of Necromon or the Digidestined's conflict with Sephiroth.
"How can this be possible?" Henry had asked.
"I haven't a clue. I guess it's a one of those great universal mysteries that no one's ever meant to solve or it would just drive you mad if you ever learned the truth. I always did get migraines trying to figure out dimensional and temporal mechanics!"
"It doesn't matter, does it?" Terriermon broke in. "They're real and they're helping us, right Henry?"
"Right," Henry replied as Terriermon settled on his head again.
Gennai grinned. Just like Willis's, Terriermon never change! "Well, there's certainly no TV writer that's controlling me or any of us now. Necromon and his forces are 100% real, unfortunately."
"So what do we do?" Rika asked worriedly.
"Retreat and regroup for a start," Gennai said. "But I think there's something you might want to see first. I've tapped into some overhead spy satellites. Look what I found in the city centre…"
The Tamers all stared in horror. Necromon's troops had captured a lot of the population and were holding them in the park.
"All our parents and friends must be there too! We've got to get them out!" Takato was worried sick.
"Calm down," Gennai advised. "Any bad moves on our part would be disastrous right now. We'll wait until the others get back and then we'll plan a rescue attempt together. Oh, and by the way, don't tell them what you just told me. I don't know if they'd take it as well as I have."
The Tamers nodded in agreement as they sat down to wait.
City Park
The whole of the park had been turned into a makeshift prison camp. All the captured humans had been placed here. As well as the school and Hypnos group, Takato's parents, Rika's Mom and Grandma and many others were all there too. Tyrannomon, Tuskmon and Monochromon guarded the perimeter whilst Snimon and Flymon watched from overhead.
Riley had just returned to the main group after a look around. "No good. They've got the whole park bottled up. There's no way out."
"We know," Takato's Dad said miserably. "A few others tried running. They didn't get ten feet before they got nailed."
"Takato's not here!" Takato's Mom wailed. "You don't suppose that he's…"
"Mrs Matsuki, I don't know where your son is. But I do know he's alright," Yamaki assured her.
"How are you so sure?" Riley asked him quietly.
"I overheard that red one saying those 'blasted Tamers' had escaped. I assume he meant all of them."
"Wherever he is he's better off than we are!" Kenta muttered. Both he and Jeri hadn't had much luck cheering up Kazu, who was understandably still in shellshock.
He wasn't the only one. Rika's Mom wasn't dealing with reality well either. "They interrupted one of my best photo shoots too!"
"Is that all you can think about at a time like this?!" Rika's Grandma was incredulous.
"Any sewer holes that we can get to?" Yamaki was still set on escape.
"Nothing that's big enough to fit through or that isn't covered by them," Riley replied firmly. "We're stuck for now."
"No good sneaking out either," Kenta said grimly. "They're dinosaur digimon. They'll sniff us out like bloodhounds."
"Then we're dead!" Rika's Mom sighed. "We're stuck here until they drag us off to be eaten…"
"Eaten?" Jeri didn't want to believe she'd heard that.
"12 people got dragged off half an hour ago," another man revealed. "Only problem: they never came back again!"
"Will you shut up?" Riley snapped. "It's bad enough in here without your help!"
"It just got worse," Yamaki suddenly said pointing upwards.
Everyone looked up to see Necromon and the other Dark Masters hovering above.
"Greetings humans! I suppose most of you are wondering what is going on so I'll be good enough to tell you. We're the new landlords here and all your leases just expired! This is our world now so make use of what little time you have left. Simply put; party like there's no tomorrow, because for you there's not! HAHAHAHA! Have a nice life, what's left of it!"
TO BE CONTINUED…