I can answer most of the review questions right now. Yes, Ryo and Cyberdramon will be in this fic but not quite yet. So will the other Devas and the Sovereigns, you can find out what they're up to in this part. I don't think I'm going to use the D-Reaper, I never liked it much anyway. Don't worry though, the fate of the Tamer world and others will be in the balance before the end of the fic. I hope that covers most of it…meanwhile enjoy!
Dark Empire
8 Carrier of Doom (part 2)
Digimon Supercarrier
Fortunately, most of the dark digimon were preoccupied with unloading other containers and didn't notice the group as they slipped out of theirs. Gennai had parked at the very end of the bay, and being the last Mechanorimon to arrive he would also be unloaded last.
"Any idea where to go?" Henry asked.
"You're asking me?" Tai sweatdropped as he said this.
"None of us have a real clue so we're just going to have to wing it," Rika realised. "And hope we don't get caught."
Renamon had been sneaking around the bay looking for ways out. She came back with good news. "There's 3 corridors out of here. 2 are behind spider-boy and the others over there but the other one should be clear."
"Only one problem though: the $!"%*&$ big tin can here!" Cid pointed at Guardromon. "How are we going to sneak something like him around?"
"I can be stealthy if I need to be!" Guardromon replied indignantly.
"We'll have to take his word for it, we can't leave anyone here," Takato pointed out.
"Alright, then let's do it," Tai decided. "Head for the corridor 2 at a time and stay low!"
Digital World: Zhuqiaomon's realm
Meanwhile in the digital world, Zhuqiaomon, the phoenix type Sovereign who had until recently been sending the Deva digimon into West Shinjuku was hearing his first reports of Necromon's invasion from the monkey Deva, Makuramon. The other remaining Devas were also present.
"Are you sure of this? The humans and these Tamers are being defeated?"
"Indeed they are," Makuramon gloated. "With this sort of power against them they have no chance of winning. The wretched humans' installation was also overrun. They'll no longer be able to pollute our world now and soon they'll cease to exist. Wonderful news, isn't it?"
Makuramon had expected Zhuqiaomon to be happy. He was completely wrong.
"It must NEVER happen!"
"What? But master, I thought you'd be thrilled…the humans finally defeated and annihilated…"
"I was never interested in wiping out the humans, only in safeguarding our world from their incursions," Zhuqiaomon snapped. "And having the Dark Masters back in existence is hardly what I would consider to be good news."
Catsuramon, the dog Deva, was also scornful. "All that time in the human world must have affected that simian brain of yours. Once the Dark Masters are finished with the humans, who do you think they'll turn on next?"
"I was imprisoned by them once, it will never happen again!" Zhuqiaomon promised. "Therefore desperate measures are now called for; we must aid the human Tamers against our common enemy…"
Makuramon was aghast. "AID humans? Master, I don't think I can…"
He got no further as Zhuqiaomon stomped his claw down next to him and knocked him flying.
"You will at least try! If the Dark Masters return here they will imprison all of the Sovereigns again and I will no longer have any control here. If that happens you will have no purpose either. Do I make myself clear?"
All of the Devas quickly agreed. Zhuqiaomon in a rage was never a pleasant experience.
"Right. Makuramon, since you've proved an effective spy up to now, return to the humans' world and keep an eye on the dark army's progress."
"At once, Sovereign!"
"Muhiramon, Vikaralamon, you two will go out and assemble every digimon you can find in my realm, we will probably need them later. Tell them the Dark Masters are planning a return, that should spur them into action."
As the Dragon and Pig Devas left Zhuqiaomon considered his options. He hadn't got very many except...
"Catsuramon, take Antylamon and find those Tamers. If they are to succeed they will need a power boost and, as distasteful as the idea sounds, I think it will be wise for me to provide it. Report back to me once you find them."
"Yes, Sovereign."
With that, Zhuqiaomon left his palace. He had to arrange a crisis meeting with Azulongmon and the other Sovereigns. If his Devas, the Tamers and all else failed, he swore he'd find a way into the human world himself and fight the Dark Masters directly. He would be deleted before being imprisoned again…
Digimon Supercarrier
The corridors in the carrier were over double the usual size in height and width, though as Matt pointed out, they'd have to be to handle Champion and Ultimate digimon. They were also, fortunately, devoid of any digimon at the moment apart from their partners.
"They must all be in the docking bay unloading," Barret guessed. "But that won't last long."
"Rika, you still got your cellphone? We'd better try and contact Gennai again or we'll be forever going in circles."
Rika passed it to Tai who quickly got hold of Gennai again. "I've accessed the main computer on this carrier, Tai. You were right; it's practically a city above the city, and fully loaded it could carry 1000 digimon. It's like a mobile Spiral Mountain! Fortunately it's looks like it's only operating on a skeleton crew right now."
Henry was puzzled. "So Necromon and the others aren't here? That doesn't make much sense, does it? I thought he'd have wanted to be here when this came on-line."
"I was wondering about that myself, Henry. Still, I've found a map and I think I can get you to the main control room. That'll probably be the best place to sabotage this carrier."
"Alright, we are so going to party once we're there, right Guardromon?" Kazu grinned.
"A goofball like you knows how to party? That's a good one!" Terriermon quipped.
"Hey!"
"Will you two knuckleheads keep it down before you let every digimon know we're here?" Barret growled.
"Alright Tai, go straight ahead and take the first right…"
The MDB
Riley, meanwhile, was talking with a contact in the Japanese army.
"So it's not looking good, Captain?"
"I'm afraid not, ma'am. We lost a lot of good men yesterday. Colonel Hiroki and General Sato are rebuilding our forces quickly but they're succeeding only because the digimon haven't followed up on their attack. Right now we're living on a wing and a prayer!"
"Well, we're trying to hurt them as we speak, hopefully they can slow things down until we can think of something."
"The government has something in mind already."
"What? What do you mean?" Riley was very confused now.
"Yamaki transmitted the Juggernaut plans to them and they're planning to execute a more powerful version of it by coupling it to a new experimental hydrogen reactor. The effect should cover all of Japan…"
At this point Janyu, Henry's father, looked up from his work in alarm. "That would be disastrous! I've run some tests on the program. If it runs perfectly then it'll work in theory, but if it's corrupted by means of a virus or even a radio transmission it'll overload and feed back on itself, and if it's coupled to a hydrogen reactor…"
"Good grief! You're sure of this?"
"Positive, and if Necromon's studied this data I'm sure he'll know it too."
A nasty thought struck Riley. "Captain, has this plan been discussed openly over the airwaves?"
The same nasty thought struck the Captain. "I'm afraid it has, ma'am."
"Right, chances are he knows already," Riley groaned. "Tell your leaders to switch all communications to this frequency. According to Gen…my associates, Necromon isn't monitoring it yet."
"Understood. I'd better sign off before they trace this transmission too. Good luck."
"To us all," Riley muttered as she cut the link.
"What's going to happen if they use this Juggernaut thing?" Kenta asked.
"Something very bad, I think," Janyu replied. "Let's hope the army stops those idiots before they make a big mistake!"
Digimon Supercarrier: command deck
"Alright, Tai. The bridge should be straight ahead now. If you're going to bring down this carrier, your best chance is from there."
"Got it, Gennai. Come on, let's move it!"
"Tai, look out!" Matt had seen the red beam at ankle level. But Tai hadn't and…
Docking bay
Arachnomon knew what the alarm meant; humans had breached the carrier. Those humans could only be the Digidestined too.
"All Mechanorimon launch now. If they somehow get off this carrier, make sure they don't do it alive!"
Gennai cursed. He had no choice but to launch along with the rest. He contacted Tai again. "Tai, there's some heavy company coming your way…"
The bridge
The carrier's bridge was a large two level room with a huge window with a good view out over the city at one end (if not for the mist) and multiple consoles, viewscreens and levers around the room. Unlike the cargo containers, the controls were designed so anyone could operate them, not just Hahgurumon.
Cid, being the mechanical expert, was trying to do as much damage as possible as Tai listened to Gennai.
"…and since I'm outside I can't pick you up now."
"Then we'll make our own way out, Gennai. Back us up whenever you can."
"I think I've got it, Tai," Cid grinned. "Pull that lever there, would you?"
Tai did so and the carrier shook and then started moving. Cid pulled a few more levers of his own and then stepped aside. "Barret?"
"Right." Barret raised his gun arm and blew the controls to pieces.
"What did you just do?" Takato asked.
"I just took the inertial dampeners and safety systems off line and increased the ship to full speed. Without them it's only going to be a matter of time before the reactor goes or this piece of &$!%! shakes itself to pieces!"
Henry wasn't convinced. "Can't they fix it?"
"Probably but not in time. We've just smashed the main controls and they've no idea what we've done yet. By the time they do…"
"Guys, we've got company!" Kazu warned.
"Grenade Destroyer!"
"Pyro Sphere!"
Guardromon and Guilmon knocked down a Tyrannomon and Drimogemon that first came down the corridor but others were following up behind.
"How many of your digimon can fly?" Matt asked Takato.
"Terriermon and Renamon can at Ultimate level," Takato answered. "Guilmon can't though."
"Alright, get him back here. We can't have him digivolving in that case."
Rika pulled out her digivice. "We're up, Renamon. Don't disappoint me!"
"Terriermon! Time to rumble!"
I'm with ya, Henry!"
Digi-modify! Matrix Digivolution Activate!
Barret and Cid were right behind Taomon and Rapidmon as they went out to head off the digimon horde.
"Now how are we supposed to get out of here?" Agumon worried. "That was the only way out."
"I've never heard of a bridge that didn't have at least two ways out of it," Tai assured him. "We'll just have to find where the other way is."
"I've found it, Takato," Guilmon had found a hatch on the other side of the bridge. "Now, let's see, push to open…"
"Guilmon, wait!" Takato's warning came barely in time as Guilmon opened the hatch and almost stepped into open air!
Matt and Gabumon managed to pull him in before he went for his first and last flying lesson.
"Phew, that was a close one, next time I'll wait till there's a bus!" Guilmon shivered.
"Heheheh, predictable as ever, Digidestined!"
Everyone looked around in shock until they realised that the voice was coming from outside the hatch, and then a pair of great spider legs protruded through the door. Arachnomon, thinking they might use the emergency hatch, had crawled over the outside hull of the carrier. He hadn't been disappointed. Now he pulled himself in to confront Matt and Takato. He hadn't seen Tai or Agumon who had fallen back to the rear.
"Stupid of you to think you could invade us. Now I'll send you to meet your dead friends!"
"You mean us?" Tai and Agumon came out of the shadows.
Arachnomon was taken aback. "YOU! But you're dead!"
"You took the words right out of my mouth," Tai glowered and warp digivolved Agumon.
Now faced with Wargreymon it was Arachnomon who was afraid now. He'd bargained on facing one potential Mega at most and had banked on taking out Matt before that was a problem. Now he was staring at death.
"W...wait! You Digidestined fight fair right? You can't destroy me like this, it isn't a fair fight!"
"That didn't stop you from killing Dad's friend!" Henry said, enraged.
"Or the people in the city," Wargreymon was no more forgiving. "We fight fair when the opponent deserves it, Arachnomon. You and your masters do not, the only thing you deserve is this…Mega Claw!"
Arachnomon screeched in pain as the attack nailed him. He wasn't deleted instantly but he was barely holding on and it was just a matter of time.
Henry turned back to his partner. "Alright, let's get out of here! Rapidmon, can you block the corridor?"
"Can I say momentai, Henry? Rapid Fire!"
Taomon followed up quickly. "Talisman of Light!"
The combined shots did the trick and brought the roof of the corridor down.
Matt warp digivolved Gabumon to Metalgarurumon and Barret tagged along with him for the ride. Cid joined Tai on Wargreymon's back whilst Takato and Guilmon were carried by Taomon and Rika inside her Talisman Spell. Kazu hopped on Guardromon as he prepared to fire his rocket jets.
"Go ahead…and flee back…to your hole, Digidestined. Your victory…means nothing in the long run," Arachnomon wheezed. He may have been on his last legs but he was grinning insanely.
"What do you mean?" Tai had a sinking feeling about this.
"Lord…Necromon will avenge me and this carrier a millionfold, fools. Enjoy your victory…whilst you can." Arachnomon gasped one final time and then dissolved into bits of data.
"What was that all about?" Takato wondered.
"Less lip, more zip! This place is coming apart!" Kazu warned.
Taking heed of his warning they all fled out of the escape hatch. Luckily the mist was thick so they slipped out unseen, except for 2 Mechanorimon who stumbled across them.
"Let's take them!" Rapidmon was eager for more action. He didn't get it though since one of the Mechanorimon blasted the other one out of the air.
"Gennai, good to see you!" Matt's mood had improved tenfold. This time everyone was going to make it.
"You too, Matt. You all did amazingly well, that should be a setback for them."
"I'm not so sure, Gennai," Tai's doubts still lingered as he filled Gennai in on what had happened.
"The carrier was over half empty? And no sign of the Dark Masters anywhere?"
"Right," Barret said. "The city below looked deserted too. They must have all gone somewhere else."
Gennai agreed. "But where? Hold on." He checked the map of the carrier he'd obtained earlier looking at it in more detail this time. "Please let me be wrong…OH NO!"
Rika didn't like the sound of that. "What is it?"
"The name on this plan: Advanced battle carrier #5!"
"5?" Henry then realised in horror. "That's where they've all gone! Aboard the 4 other carriers that were built…"
"…before we got here," Takato finished in despair.
Gennai wasted no time. "Back to the MDB fast, we've got to get everyone together and find out where they've gone. I've feeling thousands of lives might depend on this!"
Digimon Command Carrier 1
Necromon and his main task force were miles away from West Shinjuku by now. The constructions of his massive stealth carriers had gone faster and better than he thought and they'd been able to leave early that morning. He'd have rather waited until the next night as they were invisible to sensors but not human eyes, but Metalseadramon and most of his troops were impatient to move, so he'd made sure to ascend above the clouds to a very high altitude.
"Transmission from Carrier 4, my lord."
The image of Metalseadramon appeared on one of the screens. "Are we at the target yet? I need something to blow up!"
Speaking of which…Necromon rolled his eyes as he listened to Metalseadramon's complaining. "No we aren't yet. We should be there in half an hour, assuming the humans don't do us a favour before then."
"A favour? What are you talking about?" Daemon appeared on another screen. He was in command on Carrier 2.
"You should try listening in on the human government's frequencies, Daemon. It gives a lot of information along with a good laugh."
"Can't you just give me the abridged version now?"
Necromon did, along with the strategy he had for countering their plan.
"It's brilliant. If that occurs, we won't even have to use the army at all!"
"Yeah, but I won't get any action!" Metalseadramon again.
"You're not thinking, Metalseadramon. Tokyo is practically on the coast. Once it falls you can get back in your element with your aquatic Doom legion and wreak all the havoc you like out there. All part of my plan."
Necromon cut the connection before he received any more complaints. He had enough to think about in the next half an hour as it was.
"Are the transmitters fully operational?"
"They're ready, my lord. We're listening in on the humans more than ever now."
"Good. Make sure you keep alert. Timing will be everything on this operation."
"My lord, another transmission from West Shinjuku."
"Finally, I was starting to think Arachnomon had got lost. Put him on."
But Necromon was in for a shock. A Tyrannomon appeared on the screen instead of Arachnomon.
"What is this? What has happened to Arachnomon? And where's the fifth carrier?"
The Tyrannomon felt grateful that he was on a screen instead of reporting in person. "Both destroyed, my lord. It seems the Tamers and some of their friends sneaked aboard. Arachnomon fought them and lost and they sabotaged the carrier's safety systems so it literally shook itself apart. The pieces are a few miles west of the city."
Necromon screamed in pure fury and brought his fist down on a nearby service panel…and smashed it open in doing so.
"Necromon, calm yourself," Daemon had overheard. "We must stay focused on the task at hand."
Necromon came to his senses. "Yes, you're quite right. He turned his attention back to the Tyrannomon. "With Arachnomon gone, you are in command. That city is useless to us now. Assemble all the remaining troops there and use the contingency plan. Rendezvous with us whenever you can make it."
"At once, my lord!"
Necromon clenched his right fist in rage. Arachnomon had been a good and faithful servant over the years and, while his loss meant nothing in the grand scheme, it was still a bitter blow for him. Well so be it. In a short time the Digidestined, Tamers and this world would pay a heavy price…in human blood.
The MDB
"Wow, you really rocked!" Kenta said in admiration when he heard both teams' stories.
"We're the coolest Tamers ever. Of course we rocked!" Kazu grinned.
"And you're saying we didn't?" Davis retorted.
"Can't you two shut it for even a second?" Cloud muttered. "You're giving us all migraines!"
Gennai had brought everyone back from Odaiba on this occasion. He figured that they'd need all they had in the Tamer World now, chances were that Necromon would retaliate in some fashion for his recent losses, so now all the Digidestined were now with the Tamers. Davis had introduced himself in typical fashion.
"Hi, I'm Davis. I'm sure you've heard of me!"
"Yeah, sort of. But don't let it go to your head, dude," Kazu had fired back. Those 2 had been duelling ever since.
Izzy had been having the most prodigious time of his life, first examining the MDB and then the Tamers' digivices and digimon.
"I don't know what to study first and I don't know that I'm going to get the time. Why do all the most exciting discoveries happen in the middle of a crisis?!"
Janyu and Riley had promised to take him under their wing and help him with whatever research he wanted to do.
Cloud had informed the Tamers of Beelzemon. "Are you sure you don't know this digimon?"
Takato was adamant. "Positive. Apart from Daemon we've never fought a Mega before and we've never heard of this guy."
"Well he seemed to know you. In fact it's safe to say he's really got it in for you. You'd best keep alert, I gave him a beating but I'm not sure I killed him."
After the reunion though, things had grown more sombre. Everyone knew that even with their success, victory was still a long way off, especially with 4 more stealth carriers to deal with.
Riley, Gennai and Janyu were frantically trying to contact General Sato and the government in Tokyo. Gennai had gone ballistic when he'd heard of their plans.
"Do these fools ever use their brains? We know the Juggernaut is dangerously unstable, we know that Necromon knows about it and I'm sure he's been listening in on the government's transmissions. So what do they think they're playing at?"
"Don't ask me," Riley replied bitterly. "Even Yamaki couldn't understand them on most days. I think the trouble is they're too high on their own power and self-confidence. Just because nothing on earth can touch them, these digimon can't either. They probably still think digimon are nothing more than dumb animals too."
Gennai shook his head in dismay. "Necromon is far from that, he's very intelligent and a master strategist. We've got to contact them and shake some sense into them."
The first person they'd got hold of was General Sato, an ageing general with greying hair, and it looked like he'd aged a lot in the last few days alone considering all the losses they'd taken.
"Thanks for speaking to us General."
"No problem, Miss Otori, it's good to hear a voice of sanity in all this chaos. I'm in the process of pulling my troops back to Tokyo…"
"Has there been any attempt to evacuate Tokyo?"
"No, none that I know of."
Riley gritted her teeth. She hated doing this but knew what had to be done. There was nowhere near enough time for the army to do much there now.
"General, listen to me. Don't go to Tokyo, get your troops as far away as you can. We believe the government's plan is compromised and if it goes wrong it could destroy the city completely."
"But my orders were to…"
"Forget those orders, General! I'm advising you as the new head of Hypnos, we can't afford to lose our remaining forces on what's nothing more than a desperate gamble. Trust me on this."
He seemed to pause for a minute before replying. "All right then. I'll do as you ask. But it's both our heads on the block if you're wrong."
"If I'm not wrong, General, it'll be a lot worse than that."
A secret lab on the edge of Tokyo
The government lab was almost a carbon copy of Yamaki's facility in West Shinjuku but it was a lot larger. The final preparations for the Juggernaut's use were almost complete. Moro Harada, Yamaki's boss, was now in charge of the whole operation here and he was currently in a full-blown argument with the chief scientist.
"Sir, I urge you to reconsider. This program may have been tested on a small scale but we have no idea of the possible result of coupling it to this reactor. The results could be catastrophic! How can you even consider using it given a risk like that?"
"The point is how can we not? This is a matter of national security, if not world security. We both know the truth of what really happened in West Shinjuku, Doctor. This is the only way of ensuring victory over these monsters. Yamaki assured me this program was flawless and I had no reason to doubt him before we lost contact…"
"Even Yamaki never meant for it to be used this way…"
"There's no more time for debate, Doctor. For all we know they could be on their way here right now. We begin in 2 minutes."
The MDB
Riley was still desperately trying to contact Tokyo when Necromon's face appeared on one of the screens.
"Greetings humans!"
"Necromon, what…"
"That's on national TV," Gennai realised as he was flicking switches. "He's on every channel!"
"Guys, get in here!" Janyu called.
Everyone else piled into the MDB.
"What is it? Oh hell…" Tai and everyone soon noticed what it was.
"In case you don't already know me, my name is Necromon. I command the digimon force that is engaged in a war against your pathetic race and I am here to set the record straight. The stories of an 'earthquake' in West Shinjuku are complete falsehoods, unless one considers a digimon invasion to be an earthquake. The people I killed and the ones who escaped the city were not hallucinating. You humans created us long ago and you arrogantly thought you could keep us under your heel ever since. Well no longer, the creations have now surpassed the creators. I'm sure many of you are thinking and hoping that this is a big hoax, well I'm happy to say it is not. I can assure you we are very real, and to prove it, I'm going to give you another demonstration of this. In a few more minutes, once my forces are in position, I shall attack Tokyo City with everything I have and wipe it from the face of this disgusting world of yours. The government thinks it has the power to stop us with their amusing little toys…they think wrong! But if they're listening to this, then feel free to use them, my comrades and I will still be the ones laughing last!"
Janyu quickly saw what Necromon was up to. "He's trying to goad them into using Juggernaut! Riley, you've got to get through to them."
"I'm trying!"
Secret lab
Harada was fuming as he watched Necromon's broadcast. It was bad enough that he'd ruined the government's cover story on the air but then threatening Tokyo and mocking him at the same time?
"That smug son of a…he won't be laughing once we're done with him! Activate Juggernaut immediately!"
"Sir, I don't like it. It's like he knows about Juggernaut and he wants us to use it. Something's wrong!"
Harada wasn't listening. "Activate it now!"
Digimon Command Carrier
"They're activating it, my lord!"
Necromon smiled coldly. So predictable, humans are so easily led. He was still 'live on air' so he merely nodded at the Hahgurumon who knew what that meant.
"Activating Juggernaut buster now."
Necromon had attached heavy dish transmitters to his battle carrier. They had already enabled him to pirate a satellite and broadcast live on air. Now a second signal was sent out, relayed off the satellite, beamed straight at Tokyo and straight into the Juggernaut core…
Secret lab
At first Harada had every reason to smile broadly. Juggernaut had achieved full power in short order and its effect now covered all of Tokyo and was starting to spread beyond. Just a matter of time and that gloating moron will be deleted along with his whole army!
However, Harada was about to learn who the real moron was. One of the technicians suddenly became alarmed.
"Sir, there's something wrong. The program's being corrupted by some kind of signal over the airwaves, I can't lock it out!"
Things then went from bad to worse. "The program's collapsing but the reactor power's increasing...it's overloading!"
Harada was no longer smiling. "Don't just stand there, shut it down!"
"It's not responding, it's going to…"
At that exact moment Moro Harada, the technicians, the lab along with Tokyo City and all the millions of people in it were obliterated as the reactor blew its stack. A clean shockwave of energy tore through buildings and flesh alike leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. The explosion was clean, there was no dirty radiation left behind but that was hardly any comfort. Necromon's promise had been fulfilled: Tokyo had ceased to exist.
TO BE CONTINUED…