NOTE: Minute amount of Christian content.

Chapter 53: Connection…Terminated…

It was a terrible silence that hung over the cemetery as everyone looked intently at the hole where Terrasaurus Rex, Diaboromon, Gallantmon, and Mantaser had all gathered. It was anybody's guess who was going to come out on top.

Diaboromon made a surprise move: "Diaboromon, swing-digivolve to…Armagemon! …Sometimes, bigger is better!" In growing into Armagemon, it had broken up the earth and made caskets fall out of the ocean of dirt that was cascading off its huge, black body.

"Bigger makes for a bigger target, though…Omega Barrage!" Omegamon fired his missiles out at Armagemon, and Armagemon felt it.

"Terminator Blaze!"

"Omega Sword!" Omegamon reflected the fireball straight back at Armagemon. Armagemon batted the blast away.

"Black Rain!"

"Omega Screen! …This isn't getting us anywhere, guys! We're at a stalemate, and without Gallantmon and the super pokémon, I don't see how we can beat this thing!"

"I left them buried alive!" Armagemon said. "When I grew to this size, I made the tunnel cave in!"

"Awh!" Ash spat, half out of surprise, and half horror. "I've just about had enough of this guy!"

"That feeling is shared," Terrasaurus Rex shouted. He was inside the In-tor-net's force field. "Now…how do I actually attack this thing?"

"That's not going to be as easy as it sounds!" The Unnamed Figure shouted, climbing onto Armagemon's back. "I've got manual control of its weapons array! Now, Yon YoNon!" A purple charge of light flew out at Terrasaurus Rex. He wasn't quick enough to dodge, and was barely staying in his present form.

Terrasaurus Rex shook off the blow, and, despite his throbbing head, he'd destroy this machine. He gripped the dome that was in the middle and pulled…and pulled…and he finally began to feel it give. He also heard its weapon charging up. "Oh, yeah?!" he asked. He shook the In-tor-net and began turning it in all directions.

"Wha---no!" the Unnamed Figure shouted: he couldn't get a steady view or get a fix on what he was supposed to be firing at. Finally, the screen came to rest on Omegamon---who had his back turned to the In-tor-net. "Say your prayers, Omegamon!"

"Already did!" Omegamon answered. In a single move, he fired his missiles at Armagemon to distract it, whirled around 180°, reflected the shot back at the In-tor-net, and turned around again to face Armagemon. The In-tor-net's attack flew back at it, and, since the attack was at the same frequency as its force field, the shot went through like there was nothing there. Terrasaurus Rex saw this development, and hurled the In-tor-net's dome at the shot. The dome exploded, sending bits of silver flying everywhere. The force field was completely down, and that was the end of the In-tor-net. Omegamon finished, "And God hears prayer!"

"NOOOOO!!!" the Unnamed Figure screamed. "You'll pay for this!!! Armagemon, let's get out of here!"

"Armagemon, swing-digivolve to…Diaboromon! Cable Crusher!" Diaboromon grabbed the fallen digi-clones with its long arms and leapt away with the Unnamed Figure still on its back.

"You think that's the last we'll see of them?" Ghenki asked.

"I doubt it," Ken answered solemnly.

"I was talking about Mantaser and Gallantmon!"

Ken suddenly realized that his digimon partner was buried alive. "Wha---we've got to help them!"

"No worries," Takato said. "Guilmon has the ability to dig tunnels, and so we should be seeing them about---"

Guilmon's claw stuck up from the ground, and was soon followed by a dirty Scizor, Blackwargreymon, and Wormmon.

"---now," Takato finished. "Guilmon, you're back! ---Man, you look like you could use a bath, boy!"

"No…not a bath!" Guilmon protested.

"It's not that bad, boy…oh, we'll talk about this when we get back to base!"

"Why wait until then?" Ash asked, looking at his pokémon. He was in the mood to celebrate, and what better way to celebrate a victory than to make your friends wet? (They always do that at football games…)

"No…NO!" Guilmon shouted. Water flew at him and he was drenched to the bone.

"Rub-a-bub-bub!" Ash said. "I wish we had some soap, right about now…"

"Could you help me by cleaning out this wound?" Blackwargreymon asked. He was losing blood from a wound on his arm.

"Awh! Lapras, your move!" Lapras washed the wound on Blackwargreymon's arm, and Ash began looking for something he could use as a bandage. "Did Diaboromon give you that?"

"He did…and he seemed very selective in attacking me."

"…I wonder why…?"

******

"Keramon, do you have it?"

"That I do."

"Good. I'm just glad he came down with you so you could get it. This will at least keep us in the sub-major's good graces."

"Why exactly did you want it for?"

"Top secret information."

"How is a blood sample going to give you top-secret information?"

"That's top secret information, too, bug!"

"…Man! The ways they're encoding top-secret info, these days!"

"Huh?"

"In blood samples!"

"They're not encoding it in this blood sample, you idiot! They need this blood sample so that---"

Keramon taunted, "Who's the idiot, now? You almost gave away the top-secret info!"

The Unnamed Figure slugged Keramon. "Don't you ever make me look stupid again, YOU HEAR ME??!!"

******

Cleaver whistled through his teeth. "You said your name was Ghenki?"

"Yeah…why?"

"That's an appropriate name…I'm looking at your subspace scan, and I'm finding out that you have a subspace matrix."

"What??"

"Yeah, and your matrix is just about nothing but one huge vacuole."

"Translation into English, please?"

"You're like a walking subspace battery; your only 'special attack' is to give other SI lifeforms more subspace energy."

"Whoa…actually, I think I did that, once…there was this one evil disc monster that we were facing, once, and he was called Gali. Gali used an energy-leeching attack, and somehow, I gave everyone else enough energy to fight back against him."

"That was your matrix at work…and the funny thing is that your vacuole refills itself continually…if the Linonians get their hands on you, there's no telling what they might be capable of."