Chapter 38: …I Can Do Better!
The orphans were oblivious to the danger at hand: they didn't know that they had moved out of the mausoleum because Terrance had really been a spy. All they knew was that their stomachs were full of candy, and that was a problem: they were hyper. All through the halls of the college, they were running like pinballs, trying to outrun each other and anyone who was trying to keep them under control.
They weren't sure whether the menace machines' sonar would or wouldn't be confused by the heavy piping surrounding the tunnels, but---if the machines could find them---then it wouldn't be a great thing to have dozens of children and not know where all of them are.
One thing was for sure: the children had to be calmed down. Tina got an idea that she wondered if she wouldn't regret: there was no light in the tunnels, except for the electric lamps above them, and they could control those lights easily. So, praying that no one would trip and fall when they did this, they turned out all the lights in the tunnels.
The children's screams of laughter stopped for a moment, and the footsteps ground to a halt, too. After a minute, sobbing started, and---before they knew it---there was sobbing in nine-part harmony.
"Do we turn the lights back on, yet?" Rika asked.
"I think they've had enough," Tina answered, half reasoning this and half out of compassion. She switched one of the lights back on, and everyone else followed her lead. She scooped up another one of the orphans to stop her crying and comfort her. "I almost regret doing this," Tina sighed.
"Yeah…but there's one thing I think you ought to know about: I…I've lost my warp-digivolving card."
"You what?!"
"I know I had it a few days before the pageant, but I looked for it in my other cards…and it wasn't there. It should have been in there; that's where I always keep it!"
Tina had a very pensive look on her face.
"…What?"
"I think that it was stolen, not lost!"
"Huh?!"
"Remember Terrance? Well, he was really that guy with the cloak who has digi-clones following him around. And I remember seeing him in your room while you were asleep. He must have stolen it."
Rika gulped. "If he gets the ability to send six megas after us…"
"…Then we have a problem…"
******
"Amazonmon, Co-op digivolve to…Thunderbard!" There seemed to be a lot more of Pikachu in Thunderbard than Amazonmon. She appeared human, except that she had a wet, black nose. Her hair was shocking Pikachu yellow, and she wore fake-leather pants and a fake-leather jacket, both of them lined with yellow fluff. She also held an electric guitar.
"Pikachu?!" Ash asked, looking at Thunderbard.
Thunderbard was more interested in attacking Eindramon than answering Ash's question. In a voice that sounded like Pikachu speaking English, she snarled, "Where are you, you big fiend-idol?"
"Give you three guesses," Eindramon answered, firing another blast of energy at her. She jumped up and over the blast.
"Whoa," June said, "I've never see Amazonmon with that kind of agility, before!"
"You've never seen Amazonmon before, period, if I remember correctly," Thunderbard shot back. Looking back at where she hoped Eindramon would be, she said, "If this is the way we're going to play it, then I'm going to play it loud! Thunder!!" She began strumming her guitar, and---as beautiful as the sound was---its effects were far more interesting: lightning bolts fell out of the sky and struck everything---one of the things being Eindramon. She saw where Eindramon was, and added another attack: "Swift!" With a single strum, the star stickers on her guitar glowed white and shot out star-shaped bursts of light at Eindramon. Eindramon was knocked backwards again and again. "Time to end this! Ash, you know what to do!"
"Right! Bulbasaur, Blastoise! I choose you! Try using your beam attacks on Eindramon! You too, Kingler!"
"As for me, myself…Earthquake!" Thunderbard began playing her guitar harder than ever, and the ground beneath Eindramon's feet shook open. The deadly beams all hit it squarely, and Eindramon fell to the ground, unconscious. "So much for him," Thunderbard muttered. Thunderbard's mood shifted immediately as she saw Ash. She went racing at him and picked him up…and began to lick his face. "Ash! Lookit! I can talk! I can swing fists with the best of 'em! I've got a transformation!"
"Thunderbard, this is disgusting!"
"And look! I'm bigger than you! …How about you ride on my shoulder for a while?" Thunderbard picked Ash up and set him on her shoulders. "See? Comfy?"
"…Not exactly…Are you telling me that Pikachu's mind took over when you Co-op digivolved?"
"Yes, he did!" Thunderbard said. "And I'm glad he did!"
"Well…"
"There isn't time for this, Thunderbard!" June cut in. "Gary is back down there, and he's fighting with that guy with the cloak over data in Cleaver's lab!"
"Awh! They'll trash the place! Thunderbard, Blastoise, Bulbasaur, Kingler, Noctowl! We need to get down there!"
"Aye-aye!" Thunderbard set Ash down and ran with unbelievable speed down the stairs.
"Are you sure this was an improvement?" Ash asked June.
"Not really, no…"
******
With pokémon, there is a science behind different pokémon's elements that digimon do not always have: there is a huge hierarchy and table of elements and which elements have leverage against which others. Water is more powerful than fire, for example. There are many such relationships, and each of Gary's and The Unnamed Figure's pokémon was using that leverage to their own advantage. This ended up in total, painful, chaos.
"Bunny blast!" Terriermon shouted, trying to cancel Magneton's Thundershock. It barely worked, even with his upgrade-modification. "This just plain isn't cutting it, Henry!"
"Relax," an unfamiliar voice said, behind them.
"Who are you?!" Gary asked, half-ready to send Nidoking after this newcomer.
"Don't you recognize me?! …Okay, I guess you wouldn't but---ack! You again! Swift attack!" She began firing white stars at The Unnamed Figure's pokémon, and none of them lasted for very long. "It's really too bad that you don't have your digi-clones with you, huh? …You know, it sure feels great to be able to talk back to the enemy---"
"Guess again! Digi-modify! Digivolution, activate!"
"Darkpatamon, digivolve to…Avatarmon!" The champion digi-clone glared at Thunderbard. "Demon Crystal!" it shouted, firing a pyramid-shaped, blue stone out at Thunderbard from his sleeve.
Thunderbard smacked the stone with her guitar, and the stone shattered. "Nice shot. It would've hurt if you'd actually hit me. My turn!" Thunderbard began running circles around Avatarmon like there was no tomorrow. "Agility!" she shouted.
"This is stupid! Fallen Angel Rod!" Avatarmon stuck its scythe out, right where Thunderbard would've been running…only to find that she had stopped.
"Swift!" A barrage of white stars smacked Avatarmon backwards, but it wasn't long before Avatarmon began using its scythe to reflect the attack back at her.
"Stoppit!" Gary shouted. "You're demolishing the lab!"
"Then I'll just have to switch to plan B." Thunderbard ran up to Avatarmon and punched it in the belly. Then she grabbed The Unnamed Figure and yanked his digivice off his arm. "Now let's see you get---ACK!!!" Thunderbard dropped the D-Gauntlet and fell to the ground.
"Nice try," he sneered. "But, unfortunately for you, anything with a subspace matrix that touches my D-Gauntlet gets it right in the face! ---Anyone except me, that is… Sweet dreams, lover-girl!"
"Then Gary's the only one who can go for the D-Gauntlet," Henry reasoned aloud.
"And I just will! Exeggutor, I choose you! Use confusion to get that digivice away from him!" Exeggutor's attack was equally ineffective.
"Ho-hum. Graviton waves won't work, either! This D-Gauntlet is thief-proof! Take it from a pro! Now, about that Eevee---Avatarmon, take away his pokéballs!"
"Don't let him go there, Exeggutor! Barrage attack!"
Avatarmon reflected the dozens of little yellow bullets back at Gary, and Gary felt a few hit his stomach. He collapsed to the ground and began to stagger back up to his feet.
"Terriermon, it's all up to you, now! Digi-modify! Hypersonic, activate!"
Terriermon rushed at Avatarmon and spat more fireballs at him. Avatarmon felt them, and began reflecting them away with his scythe. One fireball hit Terriermon back in the face, and he collapsed backwards. Terriermon fainted, and couldn't tell that Avatarmon was winding up for the final blow…