Disclaimer:  I do not own Digimon.

A/N:  Hi Reion, thank you for reviewing chapter 5 ^_^.  I'm glad that you liked it.

The Dark Scepter—Chapter 6

By Fenris5000—Angelica

"Are you dry yet Joe?" Mimi asked as they hiked towards their next destination.  She sipped daintily at her water bottle.

Joe grimaced, wringing out the corner of his cream colored sweater.  A few drops fell onto Palmon's head.

"Hey, I've already been watered today."  She complained.

"Oops, sorry about that." Joe said, his ears turning pink from embarrassment.

Izzy squinted ahead.  "Well look on the bright side Joe.  You won't have to worry about being wet for very long.  We are nearly at the Ebony Desert.  You will dry off in a flash once we get there."

"Say, does anyone know why it's called the Ebony Desert?" Tai asked, flicking a little bug off his arm in annoyance.

Tentomon buzzed beside him.  "I've heard the Ebony Desert is made up of shiny black sand."

"Well that sounds like a logical explanation." Izzy said, rubbing his chin as they continued walking.

Sora made a face.  "Black sand?  That sounds depressing to me."

"I hope it isn't very big." Mimi said with a worried frown.  "I don't want to be spending too much time in any kind of desert, black or white sand.  My skin is very sensitive and I haven't applied moisturizer or sunscreen since we've gotten here."

TK, Matt, Gabumon and Patamon brought up the rear.

"Well I hope it isn't too hot and dry." TK said, looking up at his brother with some concern.  His walking had improved, but Matt's face was flushed and wet with sweat.  "Are you feeling okay, Matt?"

The older blond nodded, bringing his free arm up and wiping his forehead with his sleeve.  "Sure."

"Well there it is." Izzy said, pointing straight ahead.  The Dark Forest ended abruptly, and the black sands began.  The heat waves rippled up from the ground, disappearing into the cloudless blue sky.  The children and digimon approached the anomaly slowly.

"Well, so much for a nice small, cool desert." Joe complained, kicking a rock.  "It looks hot enough to cause some damage." He looked down at Gomomon apprehensively.

His little digimon shrugged.  "You could always carry me if it would make you feel any better, Joe."

Tai studied the obstacle with a frown.  "Is there any way we could possibly go around it?  Maybe avoid it somehow?" He bit his lip in consternation.

Matt shook his head.  "The next Talisman is there almost exactly in the center of the desert.  We have to cross it Tai.  There is no other way."

"Okay, okay.  It was just a thought." Tai replied crossing his arms.  "Okay, before we set foot in that desert, I think we should go through our survival check list first."

Izzy rolled his eyes.  "Tai, we haven't even got a survival check list.  And besides, what happened to:  we don't have the time to waste?"

"Hey, I just want to make sure we get across, okay?  There is nothing more time consuming than falling over from heat exhaustion." He started pacing.  "Okay, so on with the checklist." He paused, furrowing his brow.  "Now what should we do first."

"How much water do we have." Mimi contributed, flashing her big white grin and waving her bottle around.

Tai nodded.  "Yeah, that's a good one Mimi.  Okay, does everybody have water?" He turned to Joe.  "Okay supplies officer.  How much water do we have?"

Joe sneezed.  "Well, I've got three liters in my bag.  Mimi has about half a liter.  If we don't run into any trouble, I'd say we're okay.  I can't see this desert being really huge.  This island isn't all that big after all."

"Point noted." Tai agreed.  He turned to TK.  "How about the invalid.  Do you think he's up for it?"

TK shrugged.

Matt frowned.  "Just eat my dust Kamiya."

"Okay." Tai said, faking a shiver.  "I'm scared.  Good!  Food?"

"Energy bars galore." Joe sighed.

"Shelter?"

"Tai, we're going to walk across it, not camp overnight in it." Sora complained, leaning up against the tree behind her.

Izzy nodded.  "In a worst case scenario Tai, we could always feed the digimon and they could carry us across, you know." He sighed as he watched their wild haired leader digest this new information.

Tai's eyes lit up as he snapped his fingers.  "That is a great idea.  But only if we run into trouble." He straightened.  "Okay, I'd say our survival checklist is in awesome form, any objections?"

The rest of the digidestined and all the digimon shook their heads quietly.

"Great, then lets go.  To discover new territories.  Venture forth where no man/digimon has gone before.  Find the next Talisman.  Kick some new evil butt, and go rescue Kari."

"Finally." TK muttered under his breath.  Gabumon took his place at Matt's other side as they followed Tai out of the cool shade of the Dark Forest and stepped into the barren black sand.

"Hmm, it's kind of warm." Mimi commented, kneeling down to touch it.  "It feels just like real sand." She sniffed it.  "It even smells like real sand."

Tai smirked.  "Come on now Mimi, aren't you going to taste it?"

She rolled her eyes.  "You know Tai, sometimes you act even more childish now than you did back when I first met you."

"Would you two please knock it off?" Sora whined.  "Let's just concentrate on figuring out where the next Talisman is.  You can goof off later on after we've made camp for the evening."

Biyomon walked beside her digidestined with the same stern look on her face.

Agumon and Tai both looked like they wanted to crawl under a rug.

They trudged on in silence for a few minutes, marveling at how strange the sand was.  The heat waves ahead made it difficult to judge the distance, and the contrast between the bright blue sky and the blackness underfoot made their eyes burn.

TK wiped the sweat out of his eyes with his free hand, glad that Patamon did not venture to sit on top of his head as often as he used to.  He looked up at his brother worriedly, but did not see any sign of weakness.  Matt's jaw was set and he was squinting ahead in determination.  The sweat was pouring off him though.

Gabumon was panting.  That fur coat of his was ill suited for such a warm day.  If the friendly blue striped digimon had not been so easily embarrassed, TK would have suggested he take it off for a while.

Agumon was right in his element.  The toasty warm sand felt good against his scaly orange skin.  Tentomon buzzed overhead in the lead, also enjoying the dry heat.

Palmon walked slowly beside Mimi, not liking the heat, and glad she had had a good long drink at the fountain. 

Gomomon waddled beside Joe, looking around in wide-eyed fascination; glad he had gone for that nice swim at the fountain.  He was all charged up with water and comfortable at the moment.

"Can we stop for a break yet?" Mimi asked after a few more minutes.

Tai and Agumon turned around to face the pink haired girl and her wilting flower digimon.  "Mimi, we only just started.  We can't take a break until we get to the place where the Talisman is hidden."

"Where is that?" Mimi burst into tears.  "We've been walking for hours."

"We've been walking for ten minutes." Izzy corrected her, running a hand through his sweaty red hair.

"Well how much further is it?" She asked, taking a swig of water from her bottle, then pouring a little in her hand for Palmon.

Matt stopped beside her, pointing ahead.  "There it is." He wobbled a bit, bringing his hand to his head.

"You okay Matt?" TK asked.

"Yeah TK.  I'm fine." Matt smiled.  "It's just a bit hot."

Tai sighed, positioning himself back at Matt's side and sliding his best friend's loose arm over his own shoulder.  "Serves you right for wearing all black on such a warm day." He was glad he was just wearing his cargo-shorts and t-shirt.

The blond grimaced.  "Now I'll be even hotter.  Thanks a lot, Tai."

"You're welcome." Tai grinned, wiping some sweat off his forehead, wishing for a headband or something.  His mom had one that she used to wear back in the olden days.  "Okay people, double time.  We'll be at that big black thing over there in a flash if you just forget the heat and walk like you've got a purpose." He looked at Mimi in particular.  "No dawdling.  You got it?"

Mimi pouted.  "But…"

"No buts." Tai cut her off.  "Now move out." He started walking, half dragging Matt and TK along.  "Hup, two, three, four."

"Maybe it'll have a swimming pool." Mimi sobbed quietly, moving to follow, with Palmon right at her heels.

"With our luck it'll just be a mirage." Joe replied skeptically.  Gomomon forged ahead with renewed energy.

"What's a mirage?" Biyomon asked as she, Sora and Gabumon followed closely.

Sora shrugged.  "Well, it's when your eyes play tricks on you in the heat.  Your mind starts seeing things you want to see."

"Like ice-cream?" Gabumon asked, looking around, hoping to see some soft serve vanilla.

"I guess." Sora said.

Izzy, Patamon, Tentomon and Agumon brought up the rear.  "Hopefully we won't be in this desert long enough to suffer those effects." Izzy stated.  "People usually don't start seeing mirages until they get really dehydrated and become desperate."

"Who says I'm not desperate?" Mimi cried out.

Tai looked over his shoulder.  "Me." He continued walking.  "Nobody gets desperate until I tell them they are.  So button your lip and keep walking Mimi, or we'll leave you here.  And just remember, not all mirages are good ones.  Maybe a giant Rhinocerusmon will come charging at you and trample you.  Did you ever think of that?"

Mimi and Palmon raced ahead, passing TK, Matt, and Tai.

"Mimi." Tai sighed rolling his eyes.  "Now what's your problem?"

"I'm not getting trampled.  I'm getting out of this stupid desert." She cried out, looking back.  She faced forward again and stopped dead in her tracks.  "Oh, what now?" She asked, looking around frantically for a possible Rhinocerusmon.

The rest of the digidestined stopped beside her and gaped at the building in front of them.

"It looks like a big black igloo." Joe said slowly.  The large shiny black dome-shaped structure looked strangely inviting after trudging through the heat.  "Should we go in?"

Mimi stopped bawling.  "Maybe it has air conditioning!" She shrieked with joy.

"Maybe it has an ice cream stand." Patamon contributed.

"The next Talisman is inside there." Matt replied, blinking rapidly as if trying to clear his vision.

Gomomon sidled up to them.  "Well that isn't very original."

"Come on." Tai urged.  "It has to be cooler inside than it is out here in the sun."

They slowly walked through the cavernous doorway and followed the corridor for a little ways.  There were torches on the walls offering a subtle dim light source.  The stone the building was constructed of was cool to the touch.

"This place just gets weirder and weirder." Izzy commented as they stopped at a junction where the corridor split in two directions.  "Which way?"

Matt pointed right.  Tai gently slipped himself out from Matt's arm and joined Izzy at the redhead's laptop.  "What are you doing?"

Izzy frowned up at their leader.  "Well Tai, I noticed some strange poles sticking out of the top of this structure, so I was wondering if maybe they could act like a giant antennae.  Maybe the interference that is affecting the rest of the digiworld is minimal in here, so I'm going to try to get the digiport open again."

"I guess it's worth a try." Tai murmured, scratching his head.  "Hey TK, could you bring your D3 device over?"

"Sure." TK replied, leaning his big brother up against the wall.  "Are you going to be okay here for a minute, Matt?"

Matt nodded, even though his knees started to buckle the moment TK let him go.  Sora and Joe quickly took the young blonde's place.

TK glanced at Matt worriedly as he approached Izzy and Tai.  "I hope it works this time." He whispered.  "I thought he was getting better until we started into this stupid desert."

"It'll work." Tai said with furrowed brows.  "It's got to work."

"Well here goes nothing." TK said, pointing his D3 at the little yellow pineapple computer.  "Digiport open."

"Come on." Tai pleaded.

Nothing happened.

Izzy sighed, closing the case.  "Well, it was worth a try.  I wonder what those poles are for then."

"Maybe the architect wanted to create a tall slim atmosphere." Mimi suggested.

"Maybe they are control spires left over from the reign of the Digimon Emperor." Joe said.

Izzy shrugged.  "I doubt they are just decorum, and they sure didn't look like control spires.  I guess it could be something to do with the banishment." He hypothesized, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.  "I wish I could e-mail Gennai.  I'll bet he knows what they are for."

Tai shrugged his shoulders.  "Ah, it's probably for something ridiculously unimportant.  Like what Mimi said."

"What?" She demanded with flashing brown eyes.

"Is it getting hot in here, or am I zoning out again?" Matt mumbled from between the digidestined holders of love and reliability.

Joe wiped his brow with his free hand.  "Hmm, maybe the air conditioner is on the fritz."

A sudden bright orange light filled the corridor; the loud chattering sound deafened the children and digimon to the point of pain.

"Oh no, Acolytemon!" Agumon yelled as the once vacant corridor was suddenly overflowing with a flurry of motion as the shiny black troll-like digimon started appearing with a blast of energy and a crackle of static.

Izzy herded Tai, TK and Mimi down the left arm of the corridor.  "We've got to get out of here, they're teleporting.  This place will be filled to capacity with evil digimon in no time!"

"Hey, we're going the wrong way!" Tai yelled, trying to stop, only to be prodded on by Izzy and Mimi.

TK stopped abruptly, looking back.  "Matt?" He yelled.  Izzy grabbed his arm and tugged the shorter blond forward.

"Don't worry about Matt.  Joe, Sora, Gabumon, Biyomon, Gatomon and Gomomon are with him.  They went the other way." Izzy snapped.  "Now come on!"

"Figures." Tai said in an annoyed tone.  "How come I always end up being forced to go the wrong way?" He stopped short.

"Tai." Mimi grabbed his arm.  "You can't just stop in the middle of the road you know, we're going to get trampled by rhinoceros.  Hello?" She continued to tug.

Tai dug in his heels.  "Hey, we don't have to run you guys, we've got two digimon that can zipdigivolve, one that can armordigivolve and er…  one regular digivolver.  Let's take a stand and fight."

"Tai."  Izzy hissed, giving him a push.  "We can't fight here.  The hall is too narrow; we need room for digivolving and to take an offensive defence.  Now get moving before those disgusting things catch up.  We can stop and fight after we get to a room or something.  Now move it!"

Palmon was in the lead with Patamon flying fast behind.  Agumon and Tentomon brought up the rear, looking over their shoulders every couple of seconds.

"W…  w…  what if some of them s…  s…  start teleporting in front of us?"  Mimi shrieked fearfully, watching the light ahead, flickering shadows across the walls.

"Shhhh." Tai hissed angrily.  "Don't you start giving 'em ideas Mimi!"

"Well I'm sorry." She whispered back fiercely.

"Um, you guys might want to pick up the pace a little." Agumon said urgently.  "I think the Acolytemon are starting to gain on us."

TK sighed in relief.  "Maybe they're all following us."

"You sound like this is good news?"   Mimi whimpered, half hysterically as she started to run to keep up with the two rookies in front of her.

TK shrugged, also running.  "Well if most of them chase us, then maybe Matt and the others will be okay.  It's not like those guys can exactly run."

"Look at that!" Izzy panted, staring straight ahead.  "It looks like a room is up ahead."

"Finally." Tai moaned, looking over his shoulder only to see his first glimpse of the following trolls, and the front line of Acolytemon were glowing a bright yellow with curls of orange radiating from their core.

"What could their power be?" Mimi asked in despair as she ran through the corridor, noticing vaguely that it was getting somewhat larger as they approached their destination.

They tumbled into the large dimly lit chamber.

"Digivolve!" Mimi shrieked.

"Digi-armor Energize!" TK bellowed, clutching his D3 device in icy cold fingers.

"For Kari!" Tai wished.

"For our friends!" Izzy wished.

The room was suddenly bathed in a bright glow and flashing bursts of energy radiated around the four digimon as they each began to evolve to their higher levels.

"Palmon digivolve to…  Togemon!"

"Patamon armordigivolve to…  Pegasusmon, flying hope."

"Agumon zipdigivolve to…  Dynamogreymon!"

"Tentomon zipdigivolve to…  Kinetickabuterimon!"

A black flame sparked the air from beyond and a figure materialized nearby.  He was a muscular humanoid digimon completely covered in black from his boots to his gloves.  A grotesque red dragon mask with gold and black accents covered his face, and a long gold embroidered blood red cloak flowed behind his shoulders regally.  The embroidery on the cloak made Izzy's hair stand up on end as if the depictions were pure evil.

"Banefiremon." Tai whispered, stepping back and bumping into TK.

Izzy's eyes narrowed.  "Don't worry guys, just remember, this guy doesn't have any powers of his own right now either."

"Acolytemon attack!"  The sinister voice thundered, prompting the wave of Acolytemon, who had been stunned to a stop during the digivolution process, to proceed again as one.

*      *      *      *       *       *      *       *

"Hurry, this way." Gomomon urgently looked over his shoulder at the three lagging digidestined behind him.

Joe and Sora were going as fast as they could, half carrying, and half dragging their stumbling friend between them.

"Sorry."   Matt gasped, trying to keep his feet.

Joe stopped and glanced behind them.  "Is it just me, or does anyone else not hear any signs of evil digimon breathing down our necks?"

Gomomon squinted ahead.  "Well it's a lucky thing they didn't follow us.  We've reached a dead end."

"Matt, I thought you said the next Talisman was down this way." Gatomon said with some confusion in her big blue eyes.

"It is." Matt confirmed, wobbling slightly.  He brought a hand to his temple and took a deep breath.  "It's beyond that wall."

Joe scratched his head, regarding the wall in question skeptically.  "You mean we need to be on the other side of it?  So we have to back-track and take another turn to get around on the other side?"

Matt shook his head slowly.  "No.  There is only one way into it, and it's from this side."

"What is it?" Sora asked hesitantly, watching as Gabumon and Biyomon joined Gomomon and Gatomon standing in a little semicircle before the wall.

Matt shrugged.  "A tomb of some sort." He smiled lightly at Sora and Joe's horrified expressions.  "No dead Mons in there though.  It's just the hiding place for the Talisman."

"So, any idea how we get past this wall?" Sora asked as they approached it.  She knocked a few times, scraping her knuckles.

"Well, we could all try pushing." Joe suggested, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he regarded the wall with a frown.  He did not really have a lot of confidence in his own idea.

"Worth a try." Matt responded, pressing his palms against the cold shiny black stone.

Sora and the digimon joined them and heaved with all their might.

Matt stopped, turning to lean against it wearily, and slid down to a sitting position.  "No good." He gasped, rubbing his eyes.

"Are you okay, Matt?" Sora asked, kneeling down beside the blond with concern.

He nodded.  "Yeah, I'm just a little light headed, that's all."

Joe was still trying to push.  "It has to work.  Gomomon, why don't you digivolve to Ikkakumon and try to blast it down with your harpoon torpedo."

Biyomon crossed her hot pink wings over her chest.  "Hey, that's not fair.  You already have your Talisman.  This one is going to be Sora's."

"It is?" Sora asked, smiling.

Matt nodded slightly.  "If you can figure out how to open this wall, the Talisman of Faith is yours Sora."

"Faith, huh?" Sora repeated.  She stood up and started pacing.  "Tai used brute strength to get his Talisman of Strength.  Izzy had to solve a puzzle to get his Talisman of Wisdom, and Joe exercised endurance to get his Talisman of Endurance.  Maybe all I have to do is have faith that the wall will open."

"It's worth a try." Matt responded, resting his head on his knees.

They waited in silence for a minute and nothing happened.

"Well?" Gomomon asked.  "Do you have faith yet?"

Biyomon snorted.  "Give her a minute, Gomomon.  Sora has plenty of faith." The pink bird-like digimon fluttered beside the unsure looking red-haired girl.

"I don't know." Sora admitted.  "What am I supposed to do?  I have faith.  It should have opened already."

Joe was listening carefully.  "What was that?"

Gatomon perked up as a hollow boom was heard.  "I think you had better hurry up and find your faith Sora, I think the fight may be coming our way."

Joe gasped.  "Gomomon digivolve."

Everyone else stepped back as the narrow hallway exploded with sound and light as the little digimon started the digivolving process.  When he was done, the huge Ikkakumon now took up the whole hallway.

Gabumon sat beside Matt.  "It's a good thing Gomomon doesn't digivolve to Greymon." He said, hoping to get a laugh out of his injured partner.

"It's also a good thing that he was standing over there when he digivolved or we wouldn't be able to stand here beside the wall." Joe muttered, scratching his head.  "Um, I forgot how big you guys get when you digivolve." He looked at the ceiling and cringed.  "I just hope we don't bring this place down while we're in it."

Sora touched the wall the closed her eyes.  It had to open.  The floor shook slightly under their feet as another tremor rippled through.  The sounds of battle were getting louder.  Hopefully Tai and the others would be okay.  "We need to get this Talisman so we can save Kari." She murmured, feeling her eyes water.  "I know we can do it.  We are the only ones who can."

Matt looked up from his sitting position.  "Hey, I think something's up.  The wall is getting warm." He slowly got up, using the now glowing warm stone for support, and Gabumon stood protectively at his side.

Biyomon fluttered around happily.  "I just knew you could do it Sora."  She looked over as Ikkakumon dedigivolved back to the more conveniently sized Gomomon.

The wall started moving away from them in a point, as it seemed to split in the center and open like two automatic double doors.

A cold gust of stale air swirled around the group as they entered the tomb hesitantly.  In the middle of the room was a gold engraved crypt, glowing warmly.  There was not a speck of dust in the room, even though it was fairly obvious that no one had been in the room for eons.  Bright light filtered into the chamber from the ceiling, bouncing off strategically placed mirror-like objects.

"That must be what those columns are for outside." Joe mused with a low whistle.  "To pipe in a light source."

Sora nodded as she and her fluttering pink bird digimon approached the beckoning gold crypt.  "Izzy would say:  Prodigious, no doubt." She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and took a deep breath before reaching into the deep box.  She hoped there wouldn't be any spiders, scorpions or scarabs milling about as a secondary protection for the Talisman.  Her fingers brushed over the smooth cool bottom of the small crypt and wrapped around the slim delicate chain.

"Well, is it there?" Joe asked, taking off his glasses and wiping them with his shirt before putting them back on.

Sora brought her hand out and the light caught the blood red stone, giving it a warm glow.  "The Talisman of Faith." She marveled, quickly hanging the chain around her neck with one last relieved glance before tucking it under her shirt.

Matt staggered back towards the corridor again as another tremor and muted booming sound reverberated through the dome.  "We've got to hurry and get back to the others.  Give the digimon a quick snack Joe, I have a feeling they are going to need it."  He whispered urgently, reeling painfully against the wall for balance.

Joe and Sora rushed to the blonde's side and each took an arm.

*      *      *      *      *      *      *      *

Mimi shrieked and hid her eyes, cowering behind Tai, TK and Izzy as Banefiremon's grainy deep laughter polluted the room with menace.

"Banefire!" A new group of Acolytemon moved in from the corridor, each glowing yellow and orange again.  The room smelled like brimstone as the Acolytemon fired their evil energy at the quickly dodging digimon and their digidestined.

"Come on Dynamogreymon, why aren't you attacking?" Tai hollered with a cringe as a bolt of heat passed so closely to his unruly brown mop that he could have sworn he could smell burnt hair.

Dynamogreymon fired a considerably smaller blast of his incinerator attack towards the offending black beasts.  "I'm sorry Tai," He said gravely.  "I've nearly spent all my energy.  We need food if we are going to defeat these creatures."

"Come on Pegasusmon, do your stuff!" TK yelled, waving a fist in the air as he closely watched his digimon glide gracefully across the tall ceilinged room.

"Star shower!" The voice boomed, only a little stronger than Dynamogreymon's because he had reserved himself somewhat in case the others became too weak to continue fighting.  A couple of Acolytemon exploded into black digidust as Pegasusmon's blast provided several direct hits.

The digidestined's cheers of victory quickly soured as the defeated Acolytemon were replaced just as quickly as they had been destroyed.

"Tai, this is nuts!" Izzy yelled as he watched Kinetickabuterimon just barely avoid taking a hit, and returning fire at half his strength.  "Call a retreat.  We can't beat them like this unless you've got a basket of tuna fish sandwiches hiding under your shirt!"

Tai flung out an arm.  "Retreat to where, Izzy?  In case you haven't noticed, we are kind of boxed in here.  Remember?"

"I'm too young and beautiful to die!"  Mimi wailed loudly.

"Shut up Mimi." Tai growled.  Where were Matt and the others?  If they had gone the other way and were followed, how were they supposed to survive?  Tai's group was larger with two zipdigivolvers and an armordigivolver on top of that and they were barely holding their own.  Matt's group would be toast.

Togemon spun around firing her needle spray attack, obliterating a few of the closer enemies.  She dedigivolved back to Palmon with a dissapointed look on her little green face.

"Oh no, Palmon!" Mimi cried.  "Tai, do something!" She tugged at their leader's arm with icy cold, but sweaty fingers.

"Ow!  Mimi, get your fingernails trimmed or something.  Palmon's just hungry.  Joe's got the food.  Remember?  There isn't a whole lot that I can do here except encourage them to keep fighting."

Mimi had tears blurring her big brown eyes.  "Well you could always let them eat you." She snapped, hugging her little green plant-like digimon tightly.

Tai gave her a dirty look.  "I'll pretend I didn't hear that on account of you being hysterical." He bit his lip while he watched Pegasusmon obliterate three more Acolytemon, but ultimately take a hit from one of the beasts from in behind and dedigivolve back to Patamon and fall bonelessly at TK's feet.  Dynamogreymon and Kinetickabuterimon were stronger than Togemon and Pegasusmon, but even combined, their power could not go on indefinitely pitted against an entire army of Acolytemon.

Banefiremon laughed like he sensed Tai's turmoil.  "You put up a valiant fight young ones, now are you ready to finally admit defeat and yield.  You will never acquire the Talisman of Faith.  Give up while you still have your lives."

Tai's shoulders sagged.  He had so much heart.  How could he give up?

"Tornado Tusk!" A voice boomed from out of nowhere.

"Comet Blaze!"

TK's head shot up from where he was tending Patamon.  "What was that?" He scrambled to his feet with his rookie Digimon held tightly in his arms as his eyes swept across the chamber, trying to find the new threat.  What he was not expecting to see was an explosion triggered from outside the doorway to the chamber.  Stone boulders that framed the entrance crumbled away in a colossal cloud of dust and rock particles, creating a large hole where the door once stood.  Several Acolytemon were traumatized by the blast and disintegrated into fine digidust immediately where they stood.

Two bright flashes of swirling energy entered the chamber, taking out the entire front line of Acolytemon, from behind.  As the black digidust settled, a new figure stood before them.  He was large, not so big as Greymon, but bigger than Garurumon.  He had metallic orange fur covering his body with two long gold curved tusks and a golden horn on his head.  He held a long golden trident spear in his paws that was humming with stored power, and he wore a shiny black and gold shield across his right arm.

Behind him came a creature from straight out of a futuristic sci-fi flick.  She looked like a robot, covered in metal armor.  Her shiny red and black-feathered wings were edged with gold, and her headdress was of a gold and black scale-like design, giving her an almost flying serpentine appearance.  Her eyes glimmered brightly with flaring energy.

Tai stepped back with a gulp as he studied the kindly eyes of the newcomers nervously.

"No!" Banefiremon bellowed in fury as he teleported away in a breath of smoke.

"Huh?"  Mimi asked.  "Why'd he run away?  He practically had our graves dug already."

Garurumon leapt into the room with a blood-curdling howl to join the new comers in action and finish off the lingering Acolytemon who had not had the sense to run away once their master had made his cowardly escape.  The three fresh digimon blasted away at the spindly little beasts rapidly before the enemies could recharge for any hope of retaliation.  In moments, the room was silent.  The former battle merely a memory.

"Garurumon, you're okay."  TK said in a relieved voice.  "Where are Matt and the others?"

"We're coming, we're coming."  Joe stated irritably as the three with Gatomon guarding the rear joined them.  "We can only go so fast you know."

Tai nodded.  "Yeah, I know.  Matt isn't as young and spry as he used to be."

Matt gave their big-haired leader a dirty look, but remained silent.

"Prodigious."  Izzy exclaimed as he examined the two friendly new digimon who had literally scared off Banefiremon.  "You two are the zipdigivolved forms of Gomomon and Biyomon, aren't you."

Joe stepped forward proudly.  "Oh yeah, I guess introductions are in order.  Everyone, meet Maximikkakumon and Cyberbirdramon.  Maximikkakumon's main attack is Tornado Tusk and Cyberbirdramon's main attack is Comet Blaze."

The digimon dedigivolved back to rookie as they turned to leave the room.

"So Banefiremon teleported the heck out of Dodge when he saw you guys because he knew you already had the Talisman in your possession."  Izzy  hypothesized thoughtfully.

Sora nodded, pulling it out of her shirt for another look.

"Oh, can I see it?"  Mimi squealed excitedly, reaching over.  "Oh it's gorgeous.  I hope mine is pink.  Oh Matt."  She fluttered her eyelashes at the pale digidestined between Sora and Joe.  "Can you tell where mine is yet?  And is it pink?"

Matt shrugged tiredly.

"Well, your timing was perfect."  Tai said, biting his lip.  "But I'm kind of confused here.  Now, we had two zipdigivolvers in the fight, and we were only fighting one Evil one's minions and we barely were holding our own.  If you guys hadn't shown up when you did, he'd be mopping up the floor with us right now.  You'd think that with two really cool zipdigivolvers, things would go a little bit easier, don't you?  What's going to happen when we fight all five of the Evil ones together?  If we need four zipdigivolvers to defeat...  no scare away, one Evil one, how are we going to defeat five of them?"

"Tai, you are thinking too far ahead."  Matt said quietly.  "Let's just take it one step at a time.  I'm sure we'll have it all figured out before that time comes."

Their leader's shoulders sagged.  "Yeah, I guess you're right."

The journey back outside was uneventful as they met no forgotten Acolytemon and Izzy used his laptop to guide them out through the dim passageways.

Mimi stepped out of the black dome with a groan.  "It's still too hot.  I refuse to walk another step in that blistering heat."  She plopped herself down on the ground and took a sip of water from her bottle.

TK nodded.  "She's right Tai.  Let's just feed the digimon and they can carry us across."  He watched his older brother worriedly.  "Matt was doing better before we hit the desert.  I don't want him walking any more today.  We should set up camp as soon as possible for the night."

Tai let out a frustrated sigh.  "I know, I know.  Okay, let's do it.  Joe, feed the crew."

TBC…