Chapter 14:  New Forms

            "Digivolving time!" Tibemon yelled.

            "Here goes…Youngdramon, digivolve to…Ikudramon!"

            "Tibemon, digivolve to…Savamon!"

            Savamon looked roughly human, but she was clad in animal hides held together by braided ropes of kelp and armed with a spear.  Ikudramon looked like a dragon meant for the water, but, unlike seadramon, she still had a pair of arms.

            "Time to do some damage!  Dynamo Blaster!"  Lightning shot out of Ikudramon's mouth and blew up several mandroids. 

            "Save some for me!  Cetacean Cage!"  Savamon waved her arms towards the mandroids in a kind of a pushing motion, and a row of whale ribs stuck out of the ground and jabbed into the mandroids.

            The remaining mandroids stood very close together…  "Praze-tor-epio, noh kresnaiona djom…Praze-tor-ortei!"  The eight mandroids became two gorillouts.

GAZRIITOR:

Nickname: Gorillout (Eiponaka)
Real Name: Praze-tor-ortei
Caste: Kohro Nut'ka
Modes: One
Special Attacks:
YoNon Gazrii
Dra Don
Comments:
The gorillout is a man-eater. It doesn't put bimass into the mouth on its head; its true mouth is the opening on its belly. Out its mouth, it fires energy that is about equivalent to ultimate- level firepower. It has a lot of physical strength, and four mandroids will often fuse into a gorillout to overcome some obstacle, such as a wall or a locked door. The holes on its feet are micro-turbines that boost its jumps or propel it through water.

            "Aw, great!" Tina muttered.  "You know, this'd be so much easier if we could go to ultimate!"

            "Listen," June cut in, "I don't think we'll find anybody around here, anyway!  This place is too loaded down with menace machines!  Let's get out of here!"

            After a few shots (which proved ineffective against the ultimate-defense gorillouts), Ikudramon and Savamon retreated.  Tina, June, and Savamon jumped on Ikudramon's back and flew away.

            "Man, how much tougher can this planet get?!" Ikudramon asked.

            "Don't ask questions like that, Ikudramon!"

            "Right…sorry…"

******

            "Gatomon!"

            "Altairmon!"

            "DNA digivolve to…Swampangemon!"  Swampangemon looked quite a bit like Silphymon, but there were several differences:  her hair was more kempt than Silphymon's had been, and ended in a braid in the back.  She had a pair of wading boots covering all but the claws of her talons, and she had a yellow slicker that hung loosely on her back.  She was clearly prepared for the ickier conditions one could fight in, as her name implied.

            "Swampangemon?" Yolei asked.  "…huh!"

            "I just hope this new form can take on that Black Box!"  Swampangemon jumped out the window and began taking pot-shots at the box---to little avail.

            "So, what do we do?" Tentomon asked.

            Izzy answered, "We get all their equipment and hope it gives us some clue what they were doing here!"  They furiously began pocketing every piece of equipment that was in the lab.  They hurried down the stairs, knowing what a Black Box could do to any building.  They ran out the door, only to find that the snow had mysteriously disappeared…but that was the least of their worries:

            "I could really use some help, up here!" Swampangemon shouted down.

            Yolei pulled out the digi-egg of love.  "Coming right up!  Ready, Moochi?"

            "Hit me, chi!  Moochi, module-evolve to…Turtledove!"

            Swampangemon and Turtledove were continuously firing at the black box, but each shot only seemed to leave a superficial scar on its armor and seemed to do no real damage.  But they persistently attacked every inch of it, searching for a weak spot.  They shot the eyes, the tail, and the turbine intakes, but nothing seemed to work.  But there was good news:  the black box's only way of fighting back was---for now---to swing its tail at them, and the tail was relatively slow-moving and easy to avoid.

            But this didn't last long:  a quintet of superslagsters came rolling in.  They drove under the black box, and, even though Birdramon, Kabuterimon, and Tiger were furiously shooting at them, they survived long enough to…

            "Urbo-tor-andib!"

            "Urbo-tor-prie!"

            "Noh kreshnaiona djom…Urbo-tor-thera!"  The five slagsters and the black box became one creature:  catamarine.

            "Uh-oh," Kari moaned.

            "Tuli Dra Jalnor!"  Spurts of lava flew at Swampangemon and Turtledove from all directions.  Turtledove was hit, and forced to become Moochi again.

            "Great!" Yolei muttered.  "And how is Swampangemon supposed to take care of that thing alone if it's eighty million times her size?!"

            "Because she won't be alone!" Izzy shouted.  Turning to the fight, he yelled, "Kabuterimon, digivolve!"

            "Kabuterimon, digivolve to…Megakabuterimon!"

            "And about my size?" Swampangemon yelled back.  "Swampangemon, mode-change to…giga mode!"  In a flash of light, Swampangemon grew into a giant digimon.  She was easily as big as the catamarine.  She grabbed the catamarine and flipped it on its back.  It squirted lava at her, but it didn't have a long enough range to get her.  She backed away and charged up her attack, aimed squarely at its head.  "Static Pulse!"

            "Horn Buster!" Megakabuterimon joined in.  BLAM!  It was dead.

            Swampangemon once again became Hawkmon and Gatomon.  "Man!" Gatomon remarked.  "You know, that was weird!  I don't think either one of us has ever been that big before!"

            "Amen to that!" Hawkmon agreed.  "But, I do have to admit that it's nice to see a good surprise for a change."

            "No kidding.  So…what did you find in the lab?" Gatomon asked.

            "We don't know.  Those gremlins---they were studying every piece of data in the lab with these weird little devices.  I have no clue what those devices are or how they work.  We got their devices, and their weapons, too."

            "Moochi, are you okay?" Sora asked.  He had a couple of burns on his shoulder.  As Turtledove, his shell had protected him from the lava mostly, but not entirely.

            "Chi…" Moochi whimpered.

            Sora scooped him up in her blanket and climbed onto Megakabuterimon's back.  "We'll have to have Joe work on those burns.  You'll be okay."

            "Chi!"

GAZRIITOR:

Nickname: Catamarine (Leodoragu)
Real Name: Urbo-tor-thera
Caste: Yon Var'ka
Modes: One
Special Attacks:
Tuli Dra Jalnor
Kiro Tarr Kron'al
Comments:
This machine's defense is as formidable as a mega digimon's, if not more. It is capable of dispensing ten times the lava a slagster can and is dangerous to almost all mon, given its ability to go on land, in the water, and through the air. It is composed of five Superslagsters and a Black Box. It is somewhat clumsy in flight, but graceful in the water and on land. Overall, it is one of the deadliest machines created.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

            I bet you're wondering where I got the name, "Swampangemon."  Well, there's an old American legend about a girl who was essentially a giant.  She grew up to become as big as Paul Bunyan (another American Frontier legend), and she was nicknamed "Swamp Angel".  Part of her legend was that she fought with a bear that was as big as she was, and, to try and drown her, the bear forced Swamp Angel's head under lake.  So, what does a pioneer folklore heroine to do in a situation like that but drink the lake?  That gives you some idea what kind of legend Swamp Angel comes from. When I think about legends like Paul Bunyan and Swamp Angel, I think that those are weird tales---it's kind of like the mythologies of some ancient cultures, but they talk like the things that happen aren't supernatural...weird.

Information on Swamp Angel was taken from the TV show Reading Rainbow...or what I remember from it; it was years ago that I saw it...seriously! It was years ago! I'm not joking and trying to get out of admitting that I watch kids shows...oh, you're a find one to talk! This is a fanfic of Digimon, Pokémon, and Monster Rancher, and what age groups is that stuff aimed at? Huh? Quit accusing me!