Chapter 44:  Anarchy

            Digmon regressed back to Armadillomon.  "Cody, I think we need Archaeopteryxmon, here!"

            "Right!"

            "Armadillomon, digivolve to…Ankylomon!"

            "Ankylomon!"

            "Angemon!"

            "DNA digivolve to…Archaeopteryxmon!"

            Archaeopteryxmon spun his mace over his head.  "Bludgeon Smite!" He yelled, flying through the saberstrikes and smashing them to pieces as he went.  He felt a blast of sonic energy rip through his body, and he felt very sick to his stomach.

            "You're not getting away with her!" Mermon flew over the heads of the saberstrikes, but she couldn't escape getting hit by some sonic attacks, herself.

            Ash yelled, "Blastoise, Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Haunter, Kingler, Snorlax, Pikachu!  Try to get rid of as may saberstrikes as you can!  Pidgeot, use quick attack and try to get past them without taking a hit!"

            "Scizor, Venonat, Azumerril!" Tracy commanded.  "Give Pidgeot as much cover fire as you can!"

            "Electric Charge!" Exraidramon howled as he raced with all speed for Tina and her kidnapper.  But it was no use:  he was hit with several sonic attacks and regressed to Veemon before he made it.  Pidgeot had equal success; he was hit by too many sonic attacks, and Ash had to call him back.

            Yolei shouted in desperation, "Anserimon, you've got to radio-digivolve!"

            "But which stone works on me?"

            "The water stone looks like it'd be the best choice," Misty yelled, throwing the stone to Yolei.

            "Anserimon, digivolve!" Yolei shouted, relaying the stone to Anserimon.

            "Anserimon, radio-digivolve to…Cygnusmon, the never-ending fountain of love!"  Cygnusmon looked like a huge, long-necked swan, armed with a trio of cannons.

            Yolei jumped on Cygnusmon's back.  "Time to get her back!  This is our last shot, Cygnusmon!"

            "I am aware of that…Flood Cannon!"  Cygnusmon shouted.  One of her three cannons fired a tsunami of water out at the saberstrikes and washed them off their feet.  "Barrage Cannon!"  Another cannon spat out cluster missiles that took out another clutch of saberstrikes.

            A loud shout came from their left:  "Not so fast…Digi-modify:  digivolution, activate!"

            "Ewemon, digivolve to…Impostrogarurumon!"

            "Jaymon, digivolve to…Nekhbetmon!"

            "Wha---?" Yolei turned, and two champion-level digimon were running after them.  One looked like Weregarurumon with a shredded cloak of fleece loosely attached to his clothes, and the other looked like a giant vulture.

             "Howling Laser!"

             "Meteor Strike!"

            Cygnusmon took several hits from their attacks.  She fell to the ground, but she didn't go back down to Hawkmon.  "What're you doing??!!" Yolei asked the two champion digimon.

            "I'd think it would be obvious," the first voice answered.  It was the cloaked human again.  "Your daughter now belongs to the Linonian Empire, as does this world!"

            "The Linonian Empire??  What're you talking about?!  What do you want with Tina?!?!"

            "You certainly seem overstressed.  Oh, well…you won't have much to worry about in a minute---finish them off them, boys!  Digi-modify!  Counter-crest digivolution, activate!"  He put a purple-colored card in a spiral-shaped slit his gauntlet, and the card spun through the slit, activating two screens on his gauntlet.

            "Impostrogarurumon, digivolve to…Houndramon!"

            "Nekhbetmon, digivolve to…Remon!"

            Houndramon looked like Garurumon, but it was covered with scales instead of fur and had a greenish-blue tint to its skin.  Remon looked like Garudamon, only it had an Egyptian-like headdress and was armed with a spear.

            "Huh, boy!"

            Remon raised its spear to the sky and shouted, "Solar Monsoon!"  A torrent of yellow beams fell out of the sky, but the beams reflected off Cygnusmon's armor.

            "My turn!  Laser Cannon!"  A red beam of light fired out of Cygnusmon's third cannon and knocked Remon backwards.

            Houndramon began making his advance.  Yolei could see that he had some kind of electric attack up his sleeve, so she shouted, "Cygnusmon, take off and use Flood cannon!"  Cygnusmon jumped into the air and used the water to short out Houndramon's attack.  The brunt of the attack also went into Remon.  "Ha!  That's the last we'll be hearing from those two!  Now, let's get Tina back!"

            Cygnusmon turned the other way and began flying after the throwback, but turning around was a big mistake:  she didn't see Remon's spear flying after her.  POW!  Cygnusmon regressed back to Hawkmon.

            "NOOO!!!" Yolei screamed.  She decided to run after the throwback herself, since that was her only chance left.  This was another mistake:  an e-gull flew out of the mist and smacked her with an electric shock.

            It was a few minutes before Ash, Misty, and Tracy found her again.  They put her on Blastoise's shell and carried her back to base, cold and dripping wet.

            When she came to, she was as much a wreck emotionally as physically:  she was so devastated from having lost Tina that she wouldn't even eat.  As she was warming up under a blanket and bathrobe, she insisted, "We have to go back for her!!"

            "Let me get this straight," Takato shot back, stepping into the room uninvited.  "We can go to look for Tina, but you can't go to look for Guilmon?"

            "You have no idea how much Tina means to me---and this complex!  She's the orphanage head!  Without her, the children will---"

            "Oh, so you're rewarding her for working harder?  Well, I worked harder and longer than she did, and that got me a pretty big reward, didn't it?"

            "Takato, stop doing this to her!  You're not helping the situation," Ken insisted.

            Now, Takato switched into anarchist mode:  "I think I am!  It's time for new leadership, here!  Yolei is unfit to be leader!  Look at her!  She's letting her emotions dictate her actions!"

            "Takato, stop it, right now!" Ken yelled.  "You're going too far.  You're confined to your room."

            "…Huh?  I'm trying to do this complex good by getting us a better leader, and you---"

            "Go to your sleeping quarters, now," Ken thundered.

            This didn't look good for Takato.  He decided other action was called for.  He stretched out his hand, and Ken and Yolei fell asleep.  "Even if I can't get you out of leadership, you're not about to jeopardize my mission!  And I can't complete it from my room!"  He left the office, determined to get the rest of the information---before they woke up---if he had to put everyone else in the complex to sleep to get it.

            As he left the office, he saw that Davis was watching TV in the lounge, close enough to the office to have seen the entire argument.  But Davis's eyes never left the television screen, so he knew it was safe for him to leave Davis awake…