Chapter 43:  The Fight Begins

            Raidramon threw as much lightning as he could at the catamarines, but they just didn't seem very affected.  "Aw, great!" Davis muttered.  "Ash, do you still have that thunder stone?"

            "Yeah, here it is."

            "Give it to me.  Raidramon needs it to digivolve."

            "Pika, pi pika chu pi chu kaaaa…!" Pikachu insisted.

            "What was that?" Davis asked.

            Ash answered, "He said he hoped you'd keep it; he doesn't want to evolve to Raichu any time soon."

            "Suit yourself.  As for me, I'd like to see Raidramon's radio-digivolved form!  Raidramon!" he shouted.  "Time for a little boost!"  Davis threw the stone at Raidramon…

            "Raidramon, radio-digivolve to…Exraidramon, the swift storm of friendship!"  Exraidramon had cannons under his belly that looked deadly, and he had lighting patterns painted on his armor.  "Time to test out this form!  Electric Charge!"  Exraidramon dashed into one catamarine's foot.  The foot exploded and left the catamarine staggering and with only three feet---which wasn't enough for it to keeps its balance.

            "Urbo-tor-thera!  Noh unukreshnaiona djom…"

            "Urbo-tor-prie!"

            "Urbo-tor-andib!"  The three-footed catamarine became a quartet of superslagsters and a black box.

            "Exraidramon!  Give some of that action to the other two!"

            "Electric charge!"  Exraidramon de-legged the other two catamarines, and they decided it was time for a little re-grouping.  Both catamarines disassembled, but then two of the black boxes and ten of the remaining superslagsters fused again:

            "Urbo-tor-prie!"

            "Urbo-tor-andib!"

            "Noh kreshnaiona djom…Urbo-tor-thera!"

            "They came back together?" Tracy asked.

            "Looks like it!"

            "Exraidramon!  We can't keep at this forever!"

            Mermon agreed.  She flew up behind the black box:  she had an idea.  "Mer poleax!" she shouted.  She began hacking away at the black box's tail:  if she could cut through the tail, she might find a way through the black box's armor in the hole she'd make, and a weakness in the black box was a thing they needed to find.  Unfortunately, one of the catamarines got wind of what she was doing and swung its tail at her.  ---or was that so unfortunate?  The wrecking ball missed Mermon by a kilometer and ended up knocking the black box's tail off, doing Mermon's job for her.  "I wonder how I can show my thanks for that…?" Mermon thought aloud.  "Destructor torpedo!" she shouted, firing a missile at the catamarine's head.  The catamarine was blinded for a second, long enough for Mermon to drop a missile into the black box's new orifice.  The missile blasted the vulnerable insides of the black box and destroyed it.

            "Tuli Dra Jalnor!" one catamarine shouted.  A waterfall of lava fell out of the catamarine's cannons.

            "Not so fast!  Totodile, Water gun!  Blastoise, Bubble beam!"

            "You too, Starmie, Staryu!  Use Water gun to stop that lava!"

            "Azumarill, you three!"

            The five pokémon kept the lava from touching the nuke plant.

            "Now, Pidgeot!  Mirror move!"  Pidgeot threw a splash of lava right back in the catamarine's face and blinded it.

            "Who, Ash!  I didn't know Pidgeot knew Mirror move!"

            "I'm glad he does…Snorlax, Blastoise, Bulbasaur, Kingler!  Use your beam attacks and shoot at the catamarine's head!"

            "Scizor, use Metal claw!  Venonat, Psybeam!"

            "Golduck, use Hyper beam!"

            The seven pokémon's combined firepower was enough.  The catamarine fell over.

            "Uh, guys?" Davis asked.  "There are still those superslagsters!"

            "Not for long," Exraidramon shouted as she came to a halt in front of Davis.  "Lightning Cannon!"  His twin canons glowed and shot out a pair of blue sparks.  The superslagsters exploded on impact.

            "One left to go!" Davis triumphantly shouted, looking up at the catamarine.

            "All it takes is a good, high-firepower shot to the head to finish it," Mermon explained.  "I don't have that kind of firepower…on my own, that is."

            "We get the picture," Ash nodded.  "Kingler, Snorlax, Bulbasaur, Blastoise!  Get ready to shoot again!"

            "You too, Golduck!"

            "Aw, great!" Tracy muttered.  "New problem, guys!  They have reinforcements:  throwbacks and spiderstrikes!"

            "Gimme a break!" Ash muttered.   "Chikorita, Primape, Haunter, I choose you!  See what you can do about those newcomers!"

            "I'll go in and get more help…never mind!" Davis murmured as Tina came running out of the nuke plant with T.K., Cody, and Yolei.

"Digi-armor, energize!"

            "Hawkmon, armor-digivolve to…Anserimon, the fountain of love!"

"Digi-armor, energize!"

            "Armadillomon, armor-digivolve to…Digmon, the drill of knowledge!"

            "Patamon, digivolve to…Angemon! Time to show these things a few manners!  Angel Rod!"  He hurled his staff through the throwbacks, scattering carburetors everywhere.

            "Tuli Dra Jalnor!" the catamarine shouted, throwing more lava at the nuke plant.

            "Aqua cannon!" Anserimon shouted, firing water to cancel out the blast.

            "Rock cracking!"  Digmon made a crack run through the ground and under the throwbacks' wheels, and half were immobilized.

            Mermon fired a few missiles at the catamarine's head.  "Hey, a little help, here?"

            "Kingler, Snorlax, Hyper beam!  Chikorita, Bulbasaur, Solar beam!  Blastoise, Bubble beam!"  It wasn't long before the catamarine crashed.

            Tina raced forwards, out of the nuke plant.  "Show 'em what you're made of, Mermon!"

            "I was planning on that…"

            "Dar kamna!" a few spiderstrikes shouted, hurling yellow beams at the heroes.

            "No you don't!" Mermon spat, reflecting a few beams away with her ax.  "Destructor Torpedo!"

            "Hand of Fate!"

            "Gold Rush!"

            "Tempest Wing!"  The attacks flew at the spiderstrikes, but only picked off a few.

            "Those things are agile," Misty thought to herself.

            "No kidding," Tracy agreed.

            "I have a plan," Ash bragged.  "Pikachu, go!"

            "PIKACHU???" Misty and Tracy simultaneously asked.

            Pikachu raced forward.  He was so small that the spiderstrikes didn't even notice as he raced beneath them.

            "Pikachu, use Thunder!"  Pikachu charged up his most powerful attack and smacked the flying, ungrounded spiderstrikes with such a blast of electrical energy that they were all too dizzy to fight back.

            "Starmie, Rapid Spin!  Staryu, Double-Edge!"

            "Venonat, Stun Spore!  Scizor, Fury Cutter!"

            "Tempest Wing!"         

            "Angel Rod!"

            It wasn't long before the spiderstrikes fell.

            "That wasn't so tough!" Tina thought aloud.  Then she let out a yelp of surprise, and disappeared into the mist of rain.

            "Tina…?  TINA??!!" Yolei screamed.  "Tina, it's not funny!  Answer me!"

            "Look!" Ash shouted.  He saw the outline of a throwback through the mist, moving away as fast as it could.

            "After it!" Yolei yelled.  But as soon as she said that, an army of saberstrikes jumped out of the alleys around the plant.  "NO!" Yolei screamed….