Disclaimer: I don't own digimon
Author's Note: Here comes the start of the real violence. From here on, most of the fighting is going to be down and dirty and ugly. I hope nobody gets bothered too much. Thanks for everyone who reviews. I hope I get some more reviews this time.
-dA
Episode XXXXI
Counter-Offensive
This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.
Sir Winston Churchill
General Samuel Hayes cursed and blessed his luck at the same time. Just by a fluke of military maneuver he had managed to have the only regular army unit within a hundred miles of New York, and he had the largest organized unit still intact on the east coast. They had been out on maneuvers, not in their barracks, when the attacks started, and had managed to escape unscathed. But that meant that his division, the brand new sixteenth, was a little exposed. He had mostly mechanized infantry, with armor support, but now that was proving problematical. The complicated electronics that ran the army's Main Battle Tanks had already malfunctioned, and in many cases the tanks had failed utterly, even complicated mechanical parts coming apart under the influence of the enemy; whoever the enemy was this time. That left his infantry un-mechanized, and his armor un-armored. Not that it was going to matter against an enemy of that size anyways.
He was not a New York man himself, but he had a road map, and he was already giving orders. He wanted to hold Manhattan if at all possible, try to control what had been and still was a symbol of America. That meant that he needed to stop the rampaging horde before it could overrun the city. Fortunately whatever it was that was attacking seemed to be coming from the north, howling south. That meant Hayes was digging in under the stars and city lights along Interstate-95, and the small waterway there that led down to the main river. Drawing on years of experience, the army taught its people to plan simple, and Hayes had a simple plan. Dig in and hold them any way possible, and hope someone else showed up in time to save them. Now all that was left was the waiting, the long, unbearable periods of glacial passage of time, drawing ever nearer to the sudden clash of arms as battle broke upon them.
He was still pacing back to his command post when the Vilemon attacked.
The Vilemon screamed in from up north on the winds, howling for furious battle. They descended on the crowded bridges over the Hudson, where the NYPD was attempting to extricate New York's population from the mess. Panic had set in already, people trying to escape the continuous wails and screams from the city center. Now cars were crowded on the bridge, many of them having simply stopped working as the disruption field around the city grew more and more pronounced. The citizens fled across the bridge on foot, reminiscent of so many escapes throughout history, a disorderly column filling the bridges from end to end. For the first time in over a hundred years it was the turn of the Americans to leave their city in one great trailing column of refugees, thousands of people taking to the road, their only possessions being what they still carried.
Fortunately, the riot squads had managed to deploy on the bridge in time. With enough yelling and screaming, they had managed to get all the people on the bridge aligned and moving in the same direction. Broken cars were shoved over the side, sometimes over the loud objections of their owners, to make room for hundreds more people who were only now fleeing the city. Men and women in suits and designer clothes marched in a grim, determined gait alongside construction workers and homeless in a stream of humanity that crammed the bridges. The bridges were the weak point, the bottleneck, an inevitable traffic jam in the evacuation of the city, and a logical target.
There were over a hundred Vilemon swooping over the city in that direction. Spying the mass of people on the bridges, illuminated by flickering street lights, they dove, screaming at the top of their lungs, causing panic. People, alarmed by the screams from above panicked, began to run. There were other screams as children and people already exhausted were caught by the maddened crowd, shoved together, sometimes trampled. Old and young flailed madly as they were submerged under the sudden tide of people, a tide that threatened to shove their own members off the side. Exhaustion and fear and panic had combined to change the crowd from evacuees into a panicked animal, striking out at anything it could reach, screaming until it was hoarse. Terror submerged human reason in an icy flow, ignored the suffering of those trapped underfoot. The roar of the crowd was a living thing, drowning out the sound of those dying under its influence.
Spinning Needle! There was a burst of golden light and a swarm of needles spat through the air. Amy Nakamura, senior flight officer of Team Eagle swept in to where the crowd of pests was panicking the evacuation, hanging onto Airdramon with her knees. The might winged serpent dragon spun into battle, spewing golden needles from her mouth. A dozen lesser Vilemon were blasted from the air in the first pass. Behind her the other recent recruits of Team Eagle followed through, a Veedramon blasting the air with fire while his companions swept down on the bridges below.
Clear the bridges! Amy yelled down below as her digimon began the deadly dance of battle. She was not sure whether or not any of the officers below heard her, but she really was in no shape to worry about it, as her own digimon began to buck and shake, avoiding the numerous Vilemon, while at the same time trying to drive them back. Behind her she could see the Vilemon reforming after being scattered by the first attack, drawing up to trap her half-dozen aerial digimon in a deadly web. They needed to buy the police the time it would take to get the people off the bridges and under cover, and they had to buy that time no matter the cost.
Ariel Gallop! A crowd of Vilemon to one side was suddenly blown apart by an unexpected attack. Through a sudden gap Amy could see a Unimon and a Flymon joining the battle, attacking the Vilemon savagely from behind. Even though they still outnumbered the digidestined by several times over, the Vilemon were so stunned by this attack that they immediately tried to flee, escaping back north to join their comrades. Apparently they had not counted on a spirited resistance, and they fled squeaking to rejoin their comrades to the distant north. Amy knew better than to think that they were gone for good, but every minute that the attack was delayed was a good minute.
Who're you? Amy yelled at the black-skinned boy riding the Unimon.
Atlantic City! The boy yelled back. Sorry we're late. We had to give some people a ride. He pointed down. Already a group of digimon and digidestined were restoring order to the bridge. Huge, towering figures, shouting out instructions in a voice that overwhelmed even that of the crowd, seemed to be more effective than even trained riot officers at crowd control. With the removal of the possibility of sudden death human reason and compassion reasserted themselves, and many of those who would have trampled their fellows a moment earlier, helped them up instead.
Good, we need to get up north to give our people some air cover! Amy yelled back. Airdramon was already turning to the north, preparing for another race with another battle on the end. But this time both of them were feeling a lot more confident.
We're on the way!
New York's under attack! Ken was plugged into the radio by now, listening to terse reports from all around the world. The reports from New York were fragmented; the distortion field was rendering radio communication in the area nearly impossible. Still, there were observers with simpler radios on the shores of New Jersey and Long Island, and they had binoculars. Someone, through the crackling static, was describing the flashes of fire over the bridges. Hold onwhatever was happening, it looks like it's calmed down.
Let's hope that's a good sign. Izzy muttered.
Step on. Tai ordered, painfully aware that the digimon were already giving them everything they had. Let's go!
General Hayes dove into the shelter offered by a concrete stairway, unmindful of the small cuts and bruises he got on the way in. It was better than being spitted alive outside. Around him he could hear soldiers taking similar steps, the clatter of metal across ground as they dived for whatever they could find. He could also hear the chatter of gunfire and he quickly offered a prayer of thanks that the disruption field had not rendered his guns obsolete as well.
Then a deeper bark of gunfire rose up. It sounded not like his soldiers rifles, but rather like a full fledged pair of Vulcan cannons roaring in the background. Hayes blinked. None of his soldiers had that kind of firepower sitting around. Anything more complicated than a simple rifle had already malfunctioned its way into simple scrap. But the sound continued, growing louder by the second, and refusing to stop. Incredulous, Hayes stuck his head out from his shelter and gasped in amazement.
There, walking down the street like it was the most normal thing in the world was what looked like a huge muscular bunny with gatling guns instead of hands. Gunfire rose from those two hands, blasting apart the dark things that were gathering in the sky. Beside the bunny was walking a human, calmly pointing out targets that soon became specks of dust in the air. And behind them walked a huge monster that looked like a cross between a long-armed ape and a dog. Suddenly the one in back sprouted what appeared to be missile tubes all along its chest, and yelled out in a deep voice:
Koko Krusher!
A dozen blasts of fire rose into the sky, and a series of explosions blasted at least two dozen of the dark flying bats out of the air. The boy caught sight of Hayes, lying there, watching, and quickly ran to the general's side.
Sorry we're late sir. I'm Willis and I'm coordinating Team Eagle here in New York. We're trying to cover the evacuation routes from Manhatten and Long Island right now, but we decided to come up and bring you some front line support.
Hayes took a moment to get up, in which he sorted his memory out and managed to remember what Team Eagle was, and what this meant.
How many of you are there? He asked as he brushed the dirt off of his field uniform. The two digimon standing there had stopped shooting, but they still looked like they were ready to fight anything.
I don't know. There were about thirty of us in New York when the hammer fell, but we're expecting more reserves from around the world at any point now. Willis looked around, and suddenly whistled. There was a blur of motion and then a massive Centaur-like being was standing there, a young hispanic girl dismounting from its back. We're going to try to hold them off until the rest of the digidestined get here. We're not very organized yet. He apologized.
Any port in a storm. Hayes responded, trying to figure out where the rest of his command was. At least he finally had reinforcements of a sort, even if they were just kids andthings. Hayes brightened internally. These creatures probably knew all about fighting others of their kind. Maybe there still was hope somewhere in this mess. We'll sort things out, and see if we can hold the line. Do you know when we're going to expect the rest of your guys?
Haven't a clue. The fighting's already started in the air. We're trying to hold the sky, but so far it's not going that well. I just hope the plane got away.
What plane? Hayes asked.
Lanis crouched down by the controls as the Gulfstream 5 shot over the United States, burning for Los Angeles. The Thunderbirds were a good team, but they had a lack of long-range flying digimon. Such a lack could be disastrous, meaning that a single digimon could not reach New York. They were flying in shifts across the United States, but it was her job to rendezvous with them before they reached New York, and fly them the rest of the way in herself. She felt oddly naked, deprived of Team Eagle's normal escort when she flew this plane, but every digimon and digidestined that they could find was needed elsewhere.
She was still crossing Pennsylvania when she was nearly knocked out of the sky by a scarlet, black and blue thunderbolt going the other direction.
Combat drop in sixty seconds. Izzy reported calmly, looking up from the set of networked computers at his feet. It had taken several frantic moments of scrambling over the pacific to set up the maps and the GPS to Izzy's satisfaction. He had pointed out that it was the most essential part of the entire mission. Without them, he could hardly hope to locate the members of the IDEF, who were scattered all over the world. He had also, in Tai's opinion, used up a year's supply of profanity in less then ten minutes, something that he had never known Izzy to do. Cody had gone off with his face flaming, and Tai was reduced to hoping that Kari had not known what half the words had meant.
Right. Make me more nervous, why don't you? Joe murmured as he checked once again the fastenings that hooked him to Gomamon.
Don't worry Joe. We've caught you lots of time. Tai gave Joe a winning smile that only increased the taller digidestined's worry. Still, this was not the old Joe. This one was prepared to go off the deep end, whether he liked it or not. That thought struck Tai as he watched, the thought that once upon a time, it would have been a fight just to get Joe to go off the edge. Now it seemed that time had changed him.
Don't listen to him Joe. And don't worry about it. Lilymon and I can catch you, no problem. Mimi gave Joe another smile, and this one seemed to make Joe blush.
Thirty seconds. Izzy barely looked up from his computer, a sure sign that he was now insanely nervous. He was also speaking in a near complete monotone, something that sent a very unwelcome chill up Tai's spine.
The other digidestined looked even more nervous. On their way across the United States Izzy had stopped ImperialDramon's headlong flight to pick up digidestined from San Fransisco, Oakland, Reno, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, St. Louis, and then had proceeded onward, ImperialDramon full to capacity. There were so many digimon that for once the normally roomy space on ImperialDramon's back, surrounded by the blue shield of energy, actually looked crowded. Izzy was seriously scrunched against a portion of shell at the front. The other digidestined were somewhere between panic and fear. The only thing that seemed to be keeping several of them from running away was the fact that there was nowhere to run to. One girl had started to cry, but her friend seemed to be shaking her out of it. The digimon crowded around the back of the Mega looked more excited than they were scared.
They're like we would have been. TK whispered to Kari. They were crammed together in one corner, Kari pressed against TK like he was the wall, TK pressed against ImperialDramon's dome. Of all the people, they were the ones that seemed to have no objection to the crowding, at least from the looks on their faces.
Were we ever this young? Kari asked.
Judging from what Matt said, I assume so. TK smiled lightly, and let his eyes wash over the fear. He could not help but feel that despite the anxiety and the terror in the faces in front of him, that they were at the forefront of something wonderful. For only the second time in history, digidestined from all over the world were coming to fight against the coming darkness. Despite the danger that he was walking into, TK could only see the beauty of the moment.
Couldn't we land this? Joe asked.
It's too risky until we know what's waiting for us on the ground. Tai shouted back. Wouldn't it be bad if we landed right in the middle of a company of Devimon or something?
Yeah, I guess it would. Joe confessed. He didn't look very certain though.
Combat drop, now! Izzy yelled, primarily for ImperialDramon's benefit.
The Mega opened up his shield partway, leaving a small doorway through which the digidestined could leap. Tai stood still for a moment, and then jumped, followed by Matt, both streaking toward the ground. Joe stood up, looked out the door for a moment, closed his eyes and jumped, and suddenly he was gone too, with the ground rushing toward them. Mimi just smiled, waved, and stepped lightly out the door.
Agumon...warp digivolve to...WarGreymon!
Gabumon...warp digivolve to...MetalGarurumon!
Palmon...digivolve to...Togemon!
Togemon...digivolve to...Lilymon!
Joe got the wind knocked out of him as Lilymon reached up and caught him, nearly sending Gomamon askew in Joe's arms. Mimi just smiled at Joe from the other side as the blue-haired boy began to shake his head to clear it. Behind more digidestined were jumping out of ImperialDramon. Those who had flying digimon jumped out in a group with those who did not, while MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon stood below, waiting to see if anybody would need catching. Fortunately the flying digimon knew their stuff, and they dove through the early morning cloud layers to grab their partners and their partners' friends. MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon did not have to catch a single person.
Amy was nearly torn aside as a scarlet and gold lightning bolt descended from the heavens and send buffeting winds throwing her all around the sky. Airdramon jerked around just in time to see a blue and silver bolt follow, and then a whole rain of digimon carrying children and teenagers, grabbing on along to a whole collection of digimon. The cavalry had arrived in time it seemed, and there seemed to be almost a hundred of them jumping off the back of that great monster in the sky. Add that to the other digidestined who had been trickling in from all over the world, and they might still have a chance.
We've lost listening post four. Colonel Craton looked grim, and Hayes did not blame him. So far they had not even gotten a good look at the enemy that was pouring out of the north, but the elimination of his scouting parties was a fair indication that whoever they were they were not only non-friendly, but vicious as well. He consulted his ever smaller list of reserves and shook his head; he really could not afford any more scouts right now. Originally he had planned by the book, but the reserves that he had laid aside were constantly being sent away, to help evacuate the populace and to plug holes in his line that he had not been aware of. His command post, now changed a giant portable classroom at a local middle school attached to his normal command truck, was swamped with calls asking for more information.
Any idea how long we have before we get hit? Hayes asked Willis quietly. The boy stood by quietly with his two digimon, now back in their rookie forms. Hayes had not quite understood all the problems with this 'digivolving' thing, but it seemed that the critters needed to conserve their energy, and with nobody around to fight, that was fine with him.
No. Could be any time now. How important is it? Willis looked back at Hayes quite calmly. He was behaving a lot calmer facing this than most of the professional soldiers Hayes had working for him. Then again, Hayes thought staring at the two digimon lying on the ground stuffing their cheeks, he probably had more experience with it. Now that he thought of it, there were only a few people in the world who probably had more combat experience then the children of Team Eagle. That was a strange thought, and Hayes was not altogether sure if he liked it or not.
If they wait another hour or so we'll have time to evacuate most of the city. That means that we can pull the police and soldiers off of conducting the evacuation and bring them back to the front lines. If I could just get a mobile reserve... Hayes stopped as he realized that Willis was staring at the sky.
I think you've got it. The big guns are here. Willis pointed at the street behind them.
Hayes barely had time to register the empty street behind him when a huge creature landed so heavily that the pavement cracked. This one was impressive, gleaming golden armor radiating light, even in the middle of the night. Two giant claws stood ready on either side of him, long and gleaming wickedly. There might have been an ugly incident right there if Willis had not suddenly jumped in front of the magnificent warrior screaming out:
Don't shoot!
Reluctantly the soldiers behind Hayes lowered their rifles. Hayes could not blame them for wanting to shoot something. After all they had been standing here facing shadows for hours, and this huge warrior certainly counted as something.
Wham. Another one descended, from the sky, this one a blue-gray metal wolf, looking for all the world like he was going to jump out and attack anyone he could see. A blonde-haired boy was clinging to the back of the wolf, and he yelled something quickly in a language that Hayes did not understand to the brown haired boy who suddenly emerged from behind the golden warrior.
Willis ran forward, there was a moment of hurried consultation, and then he brought the brown haired boy forward.
General Hayes here is commander of military forces in the area. General, this is Taichi Kamiya. Call him Tai. He heads the senior branch of the digidestined, so I guess he's our general.
I ...am...sorry. Tai spoke very slowly.
Where's he from? Hayes asked.
Odaiba. It's a city near Tokyo. Willis responded, sensing the problem.
Hayes rolled his eyes exasperatedly, as only a man who has had absolutely everything go wrong can. So what am I supposed to do with him?
Willis shrugged as more digimon began to descend from the sky.
Well, at least they can fight. Hopefully. We need to move this command post though. Hayes gestured to the mobile classroom behind him.
There was a fast exchange of languages, and then the golden warrior, whom Hayes could see had a lizard face, stepped up to the room. With a barely perceptible effort he wrenched the building out of the ground and lifted it up to his shoulder. He growled something that sounded apologetic to the people who suddenly started to yell and howl inside, and then growled something interrogative to Willis.
Willis turned to Hayes, his face struggling to remain calm. He...uh...he wants to know where you want it.
Hayes tried to close his mouth. That thing must weigh tons. My God, of all the lousy classes for West Point not to teach, they had to omit 'How to command giant monsters and save the world'. So, here I am with a broke infantry division, a bunch of police officers, a battalion of cadets, a group of kids and a monster that picks up buildings for fun. Suddenly, he broke into laughter.
What's wrong? Willis asked.
What's wrong is that I'm not waking up. All right, let's move it out. He waved his command post forward, leading a giant dinosaur carrying half of his staff in a giant classroom wobbling from side to side.
Daniel slammed a hand angrily into the terminal, but the computer screen refused to change. How could we have been so stupid? He asked himself angrily.
We couldn't have known. Cassie tried to comfort him.
Of course we could have known. Worldwide emergency, of course they shut the Chunnel down. And it's not like we can find a plane out of Heathrow or something. We'll have to fly the Channel ourselves, and we're going to have to slip past the RAF to do it. Daniel stared at the blocked entrance to the tunnel like it was a personal insult. Now it was going to get difficult. But regardless of the difficulty, he was intending to go through with his plan. He had given his word that the European Legion London would be ready to help wherever it was needed, and now that they were needed in Paris, to Paris they would go.
Well, we're not getting anywhere standing here. Brandi complained. Let's get moving, shall we?
All right. Daniel had just shouldered his backpack when a giant beam of blue light grasped the lot of them and yanked them away into the sky, to the awe of a railway police officer standing just behind them in the platform.
What the hell?! Daniel swore as he felt himself being deposited on a hard surface. One moment they had been standing on a railway platform near London, the next...
Welcome to the Odaiba express. Daniel blinked at that. He looked up to see the sarcastically grinning face of Koushiro Izumi looking back at him, Tentomon hovering by his side. That, at least, was a relief. Of all the people in the world who might be able to pull them out of this jam, Izzy was the best of the best, and Daniel knew it. At the same time, it remained to be seen what rabbit was coming out of the hat this time around.
You again? What happened?
We were passing by, caught sight of you using our digivices, and picked you up, we decided to give you a ride. Going to Paris?
Daniel began to brush himself off.
So are we. Fortunately it seems that we don't need to do many pickups on this route. We've dropped reinforcements off in New York, and now we're heading for Paris. Catherine tells me that they've cleared the area near the Eiffel tower for our use. Then we're heading back into the fray in North America. All hell broke loose in New York already. The European Legion is pretty big, so it looks like it's up to you guys to hold the fort for awhile.
When do we get there? Daniel asked.
About thirty seconds. Hang on, we're on final approach.
It took Tai about five minutes to appreciate the well-oiled machinery of the Odaiba digidestined. About ten minutes after that, he was ready to discover the joys of pulling his own hair out in clumps. Fortunately Matt was around to thump him on the head when he needed it.
Nobody out there knew anything about real fighting except for Team Eagle. And Team Eagle was scattered along the front lines, giving the various IDEF members that were already at the front some solid backbone. Tai, talking through Mimi, had given himself the task of organizing the rest of the IDEF, and it was rapidly becoming a miserable job. The number of digidestined who had done more than fight off the rare marauders in the digital world could be counted on one hand. Teams of children and digimon were obviously only groups of friends thrown together by circumstance. They lacked the polish of people who had thrown themselves into battle for their friends and allies. Without that polish, Tai was forced to rely on organizational skills that he did not know that he had. Strangely enough, he found himself wondering if he should have had Izzy run this show instead of him.
Finally, after several minutes of pushing, pulling, and shoving, he had broken the digidestined up into squads that could at least support each other, groups that contained digimon with multiple skills. In close in fighting Tai was unsure about what kind of skills would be needed, but it would have to do. For the first time in a long while, he was suddenly trapped feeling like a child, surrounded by children. Over the years he had gotten used to leading the digidestined into battle, but he had forgotten what it was like to send inexperienced children into the same situations.
Catherine looked around. The European Legion was accepted by a small group of police and government officials who actually knew of their existence, but they really had not been in the public eye before now. Now, at this point, with these times descending upon them all, they emerged from the shadows for the first time.
Fortunately the Frankfurt division was only an hour out or so. The rest of the Legion was already moving in. By some lucky accident the Madrid branch turned out to have a digimon with enough stamina to get them here, and now they were standing in an ordered block of seven digimon at the foot of the street, attracting much attention from the police officers conducting the evacuation. So far they had not been bothered, but Catherine was fairly sure that sooner or later someone would come by and attempt to evacuate the Legion. Then things could get ugly. For the moment it was just the Madrid, Calais, Bordeaux and Paris divisions standing around. It turned out that there had been two IDEF teams within Paris that were not officially Legion, but they were grouped to one side, watching the Legion with something akin to awe. It was making Catherine uncomfortable. The real stickler was that the Rome division was unable to make contact, having the bulk of what was now accepted as enemy forces between them and Paris.
There was a roar, and a familiar motorcycle pulled up beside her, and the fiercely Gallic-Japanese elder Takaishi looked out of it, peering shortsightedly at Catherine.
What are you doing here? Catherine asked after a quick polite greeting.
I had a call from my grandson. You remember him, no? Charming rascal. He said he was on his way here to visit me, so I thought I would come say hello. Behind the grin there was a deadly seriousness in the older man's eyes.
Good. Did he say when he was coming?
There was a sudden rush of air behind her. She turned around in time to see a giant blue beam descend from the sky, and ten figures clutching digimon descend from the sky. A moment later the London division was standing on the ground, right beside TK and Kari, both of whom were clutching their digimon to them. Cody and Sora stood next to them.
Well, it's time to get things rolling. Catherine ran down the street toward them.
The first probing attacks came all of a sudden, in the middle of the stillness that had spread over the battleground. Gizamon darted out of the walls of abandoned buildings, charging toward the line of infantry that was holding against them, searching for weak spots. But this time they were up against a group of organized men, waiting for them. And they were up against enemies prepared for their appearance.
Despite their fearsome, otherworldly appearance, it did indeed seem as if these creatures were vulnerable to real world weapons. Gunfire quickly cut down the first ranks of Gizamon as they darted toward American lines. And, by the time the second ranks got there, reinforcements had already arrived.
Nova Force! In one region the Gizamon were lifted off the ground by a storm of wind generated by a gold and scarlet thunderbolt that held them until they disintegrated into digital data. Hardened veterans watched in amazement like that of young children as the blur of motion resolved into a golden warrior who darted back the way he had come.
Gatling Arm! Gargomon, standing at another corner calmly awaited the charge, machine gun fire blasting and tearing at his opponents. Rookie digimon were blown apart by the high-velocity machine gun fire. The overgrown 'gunbunny' stood his ground, fearlessly sheltering the soldiers behind him. Those soldiers in turn cleaned up anything he missed.
God Tornado! Airdramon descended from the sky in another region, sending a vast tornado ripping through enemy ranks, sending hapless digimon spinning away to collide senseless into buildings and the ground.
Take their observers too. Tai suggested as Willis translated.
On it. Ice Wolf Spikes! The dozens of missiles let fly again from a position further back, this time they made it far, blasting digimon hidden from spying glances, but not from MetalGarurumon's sharp senses. Nearly a dozen digimon watching the battle from the other side were annihilated in an instant.
General Hayes remarked. MetalGarurumon was hovering outside of the skyscraper they were using now as their impromptu headquarters, and where Hayes was directing the battle, primarily with the aid of the set of binoculars he was holding in one hand. Can you keep it up?
If you can keep the food coming, then we can keep it up. Willis answered confidently. But right now all we can do is reinforce your own troops.
Any port in a storm. General Hayes mentally chalked up a point for the good guys and went back to trying to figure out where the next attack would come.
Michael was nearly washed aside by the wave as something huge rose out of the ocean next to him. For a moment he was on the verge of yelling for help as Seadramon rocked, but then stopped as he made out the face of the creature sitting there. Joe, now looking wet and uncomfortable, was there, sitting on top of Zudomon, whose huge bulk had caused the wave.
Hey Joe. You're late! Michael called up in Japanese.
I know. I know. You need us right now?
Hell yes. We're escorting people off of Long Island and Manhatten by boat. You can carry a whole bunch of us, can't you? Michael asked.
Yes. Where should we go?
Head back toward those lights until you find a wharf there. Steve's there with Frigimon. He'll give you a load of evacuees to take to the mainland. See how many trips you can make before the real fireworks start. We'll try to keep the sea approaches clear.
I hear you. Then Joe disappeared into the unlit spray of the ocean.
Back to the patrol Seadramon. Michael commanded his companion.
TK took a quick look around at what was there, and immediately the difficulty of his task set in on him. The digidestined that he was looking at were different than the ones he usually associated with. Despite the reputation of the European Legion as a high class association of experienced digidestined, he was suddenly painfully reminded how much more experience the Odaiba team had. He also became aware of what they had truly gotten out of their battles throughout the Digital World. A few years ago he might have thought that the behavior of the digidestined here, their determination to avoid running away, the fact that they were not screaming in panic was a mark of their courage and their skill, and it was, but it simply was not going to be enough. And he seemed to be the only one aware of the problem.
There was a sudden comforting touch on his arm. He did not even need to turn in order to see who it was. No, there was indeed someone else who could comfort him. Kari looked at him and grinned at him. It looked like he was not self-nominated any more.
He drew a deep breath as Catherine began to shout at some of the milling digidestined, and Adam's words came back to him. It's best to do the right thing, but anything is better than doing nothing. He took a long step forward.
Hey. What's the plan? He asked. He silently blessed himself for having picked up a little French and a lot of English.
We don't have one. Daniel responded bitterly from one corner.
Does anyone have a piece of paper? He asked. He silently hoped that this was not going to count as stepping on anyone's toes.
A digidestined who looked French shoved a pad of paper in his hands and he automatically fished for the pen he carried around with him. On the first page he wrote down the word notes, and then walked over to Catherine.
Madam, if I may take charge for a second? He tried to convey the urgency and seriousness behind his demands in his gaze, but it did not seem necessary.
Sure. Go for it. Catherine grinned, anxious to have somebody sort out this mess for her.
Well then. I want groups. Sora, raise your hand Sora, is going to take down the names of all of you who have champions who have the ability to fly. All of you who have mostly land digimon, I want you to go over and give your names to Cody. Where are you Cody? Okay folks, there he is. I want you to give them the type of your Champion, and a brief outline of their abilities. All right, if you, as a team, have seen a lot of combat, and by that I mean a lot, and you think that you can't be split up because you already work together well, you come over here and talk to Kari, the pretty girl in pink. Understand that this means that I'll be throwing you into more danger, because you've got more of a chance of coming out of it.
TK watched as most of the digidestined spread out and began to cluster near the points that he had indicated. Unfortunately there was still a group of increasingly nervous looking kids standing alone in the square.
Ahhh, right. Gatomon, could I borrow you for a moment? If you don't know who your Champion is, why don't you talk to Gatomon here. She'll straighten you out. The rest of the digidestined let a look of relief settle over their features and immediately rushed over to Gatomon, who tried to keep things straight.
All right. That's the first problem taken care of at least. Catherine, could I borrow you for a moment? Yes, thanks. Now I have another question, how official are we here? TK began taking notes as Catherine explained the general mistrust of the police force toward them, but their acceptance of their existence.
Who's heading the civil defense. Do we know? He asked again.
Catherine just shook her head. TK turned to his grandfather. Grandpa, could you go figure out who's in charge of the French army around Paris. And tell him that we're ready and willing to help when he needs it. Catherine, do we have access to digital cameras?
The question clearly caught the French girl by surprise, but she slowly nodded after a few seconds of thought.
All right. TK steered the both of them over to where Sora was standing, having just taken down the names of several fliers, and gestured for Kari to join them.
Okay everybody, if I could have your attention for a moment? TK raised his voice, and the digidestined crowded around him turned to him curiously.
Thank you. I hope we can get this translation problem licked soon, but thanks for translating Catherine. Anyway, I want volunteers, three digidestined with the fastest flying digimon you've got. You're going to need to take a digital camera out and take pictures of any enemy you can find. I know that they can disrupt most electronics, but it appears that we, as digidestined, have some leeway, because our electronic devices work when they're near us. I think it's some sort of cancellation field. Anyway, we've always been able to take digital pictures of digimon. I need you back too, so don't get involved in any fights. Live information and live digidestined are much more useful than dead heroes.
Six hands rose and TK shook his head. Sora, you're going to be in charge of the airborne digidestined anyway. I want you to pick the three you think are best and send them out with any cameras we can scrounge up. Catherine, I think for the moment we need to find someone to put in charge of logistics, we may need a lot of equipment, and I'm not really sure how much of it I can find. All right, get moving.
He turned abruptly to Kari. Kari, if you could, would you assemble the teams we have, three of them I see, to cover different sectors of Paris. We know the approximate direction from which they are going to hit us, so we might as well cover those sectors. I still want to keep them close, but make sure they know where they're going.
When Kari nodded he crossed over to Cody, who was looking anxious as other digidestined looked up to him for leadership. When Cody silently met TK's eyes, TK smiled encouragingly at him. Cody, if you can I want you to split these guys up into groups of five. Let them get used to each other's digimon, and teach them the basics of how to dodge and run and avoid getting shot at. You have some time, because they're taking their time, but maybe not much, so try and make it quick.
He turned to Catherine who was still following him. Catherine, I need you to help me out. You're the IDEF coordinator, so I want you to coordinate with the reinforcements that should start arriving soon. We need to find a better headquarters, but you should probably take the incoming digidestined and send them into one of the groups we've already got here.
As Catherine turned away TK sighed and let the lonely mantle of command slip silently around his shoulders.
Izzy paused for a moment to thank God, or whoever else might have been watching over him. He had forgotten that digidestined were rarely perfect, and what he had right then was a perfect example. Leaving TK they had flown off to pick up the Australian Avengers, whose battlefield expertise would be needed big time somewhere, but they had paused to pick up two groups on their direct flight path. Unfortunately what Izzy had forgotten was to chalk national boundaries into his plan. The group from Pakistan sat on one side, the group from India on another, half a century of mistrust visible in their eyes. Izzy rolled his eyes, and silently thanked God again that there had not been a fight right off the back.
A flicker of motion caught his eye. The Pakistani and Indian groups had been staring at each other, but now one of the Indians moved. He reached inside his rough clothes and removed a single package of gum, wrapped in aluminum foil. With careful, deliberate hands he unwrapped the shiny foil, pausing occasionally to watch the light reflect off of it. And then he reached out, almost trembling in anxiety, and offered the open end of the package to the Pakistani group. There was a moment of silence, and then one of the Pakistani children, no less hesitantly, reached out and took a single stick of gum out of the package, and murmured a word that could have been
Izzy forced himself to be silent, swallowing the urge to cheer.
Review Please!
Author's Note: Here comes the start of the real violence. From here on, most of the fighting is going to be down and dirty and ugly. I hope nobody gets bothered too much. Thanks for everyone who reviews. I hope I get some more reviews this time.
-dA
Counter-Offensive
This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.
Sir Winston Churchill
He was not a New York man himself, but he had a road map, and he was already giving orders. He wanted to hold Manhattan if at all possible, try to control what had been and still was a symbol of America. That meant that he needed to stop the rampaging horde before it could overrun the city. Fortunately whatever it was that was attacking seemed to be coming from the north, howling south. That meant Hayes was digging in under the stars and city lights along Interstate-95, and the small waterway there that led down to the main river. Drawing on years of experience, the army taught its people to plan simple, and Hayes had a simple plan. Dig in and hold them any way possible, and hope someone else showed up in time to save them. Now all that was left was the waiting, the long, unbearable periods of glacial passage of time, drawing ever nearer to the sudden clash of arms as battle broke upon them.
He was still pacing back to his command post when the Vilemon attacked.
The Vilemon screamed in from up north on the winds, howling for furious battle. They descended on the crowded bridges over the Hudson, where the NYPD was attempting to extricate New York's population from the mess. Panic had set in already, people trying to escape the continuous wails and screams from the city center. Now cars were crowded on the bridge, many of them having simply stopped working as the disruption field around the city grew more and more pronounced. The citizens fled across the bridge on foot, reminiscent of so many escapes throughout history, a disorderly column filling the bridges from end to end. For the first time in over a hundred years it was the turn of the Americans to leave their city in one great trailing column of refugees, thousands of people taking to the road, their only possessions being what they still carried.
Fortunately, the riot squads had managed to deploy on the bridge in time. With enough yelling and screaming, they had managed to get all the people on the bridge aligned and moving in the same direction. Broken cars were shoved over the side, sometimes over the loud objections of their owners, to make room for hundreds more people who were only now fleeing the city. Men and women in suits and designer clothes marched in a grim, determined gait alongside construction workers and homeless in a stream of humanity that crammed the bridges. The bridges were the weak point, the bottleneck, an inevitable traffic jam in the evacuation of the city, and a logical target.
There were over a hundred Vilemon swooping over the city in that direction. Spying the mass of people on the bridges, illuminated by flickering street lights, they dove, screaming at the top of their lungs, causing panic. People, alarmed by the screams from above panicked, began to run. There were other screams as children and people already exhausted were caught by the maddened crowd, shoved together, sometimes trampled. Old and young flailed madly as they were submerged under the sudden tide of people, a tide that threatened to shove their own members off the side. Exhaustion and fear and panic had combined to change the crowd from evacuees into a panicked animal, striking out at anything it could reach, screaming until it was hoarse. Terror submerged human reason in an icy flow, ignored the suffering of those trapped underfoot. The roar of the crowd was a living thing, drowning out the sound of those dying under its influence.
Spinning Needle! There was a burst of golden light and a swarm of needles spat through the air. Amy Nakamura, senior flight officer of Team Eagle swept in to where the crowd of pests was panicking the evacuation, hanging onto Airdramon with her knees. The might winged serpent dragon spun into battle, spewing golden needles from her mouth. A dozen lesser Vilemon were blasted from the air in the first pass. Behind her the other recent recruits of Team Eagle followed through, a Veedramon blasting the air with fire while his companions swept down on the bridges below.
Clear the bridges! Amy yelled down below as her digimon began the deadly dance of battle. She was not sure whether or not any of the officers below heard her, but she really was in no shape to worry about it, as her own digimon began to buck and shake, avoiding the numerous Vilemon, while at the same time trying to drive them back. Behind her she could see the Vilemon reforming after being scattered by the first attack, drawing up to trap her half-dozen aerial digimon in a deadly web. They needed to buy the police the time it would take to get the people off the bridges and under cover, and they had to buy that time no matter the cost.
Ariel Gallop! A crowd of Vilemon to one side was suddenly blown apart by an unexpected attack. Through a sudden gap Amy could see a Unimon and a Flymon joining the battle, attacking the Vilemon savagely from behind. Even though they still outnumbered the digidestined by several times over, the Vilemon were so stunned by this attack that they immediately tried to flee, escaping back north to join their comrades. Apparently they had not counted on a spirited resistance, and they fled squeaking to rejoin their comrades to the distant north. Amy knew better than to think that they were gone for good, but every minute that the attack was delayed was a good minute.
Who're you? Amy yelled at the black-skinned boy riding the Unimon.
Atlantic City! The boy yelled back. Sorry we're late. We had to give some people a ride. He pointed down. Already a group of digimon and digidestined were restoring order to the bridge. Huge, towering figures, shouting out instructions in a voice that overwhelmed even that of the crowd, seemed to be more effective than even trained riot officers at crowd control. With the removal of the possibility of sudden death human reason and compassion reasserted themselves, and many of those who would have trampled their fellows a moment earlier, helped them up instead.
Good, we need to get up north to give our people some air cover! Amy yelled back. Airdramon was already turning to the north, preparing for another race with another battle on the end. But this time both of them were feeling a lot more confident.
We're on the way!
New York's under attack! Ken was plugged into the radio by now, listening to terse reports from all around the world. The reports from New York were fragmented; the distortion field was rendering radio communication in the area nearly impossible. Still, there were observers with simpler radios on the shores of New Jersey and Long Island, and they had binoculars. Someone, through the crackling static, was describing the flashes of fire over the bridges. Hold onwhatever was happening, it looks like it's calmed down.
Let's hope that's a good sign. Izzy muttered.
Step on. Tai ordered, painfully aware that the digimon were already giving them everything they had. Let's go!
General Hayes dove into the shelter offered by a concrete stairway, unmindful of the small cuts and bruises he got on the way in. It was better than being spitted alive outside. Around him he could hear soldiers taking similar steps, the clatter of metal across ground as they dived for whatever they could find. He could also hear the chatter of gunfire and he quickly offered a prayer of thanks that the disruption field had not rendered his guns obsolete as well.
Then a deeper bark of gunfire rose up. It sounded not like his soldiers rifles, but rather like a full fledged pair of Vulcan cannons roaring in the background. Hayes blinked. None of his soldiers had that kind of firepower sitting around. Anything more complicated than a simple rifle had already malfunctioned its way into simple scrap. But the sound continued, growing louder by the second, and refusing to stop. Incredulous, Hayes stuck his head out from his shelter and gasped in amazement.
There, walking down the street like it was the most normal thing in the world was what looked like a huge muscular bunny with gatling guns instead of hands. Gunfire rose from those two hands, blasting apart the dark things that were gathering in the sky. Beside the bunny was walking a human, calmly pointing out targets that soon became specks of dust in the air. And behind them walked a huge monster that looked like a cross between a long-armed ape and a dog. Suddenly the one in back sprouted what appeared to be missile tubes all along its chest, and yelled out in a deep voice:
Koko Krusher!
A dozen blasts of fire rose into the sky, and a series of explosions blasted at least two dozen of the dark flying bats out of the air. The boy caught sight of Hayes, lying there, watching, and quickly ran to the general's side.
Sorry we're late sir. I'm Willis and I'm coordinating Team Eagle here in New York. We're trying to cover the evacuation routes from Manhatten and Long Island right now, but we decided to come up and bring you some front line support.
Hayes took a moment to get up, in which he sorted his memory out and managed to remember what Team Eagle was, and what this meant.
How many of you are there? He asked as he brushed the dirt off of his field uniform. The two digimon standing there had stopped shooting, but they still looked like they were ready to fight anything.
I don't know. There were about thirty of us in New York when the hammer fell, but we're expecting more reserves from around the world at any point now. Willis looked around, and suddenly whistled. There was a blur of motion and then a massive Centaur-like being was standing there, a young hispanic girl dismounting from its back. We're going to try to hold them off until the rest of the digidestined get here. We're not very organized yet. He apologized.
Any port in a storm. Hayes responded, trying to figure out where the rest of his command was. At least he finally had reinforcements of a sort, even if they were just kids andthings. Hayes brightened internally. These creatures probably knew all about fighting others of their kind. Maybe there still was hope somewhere in this mess. We'll sort things out, and see if we can hold the line. Do you know when we're going to expect the rest of your guys?
Haven't a clue. The fighting's already started in the air. We're trying to hold the sky, but so far it's not going that well. I just hope the plane got away.
What plane? Hayes asked.
Lanis crouched down by the controls as the Gulfstream 5 shot over the United States, burning for Los Angeles. The Thunderbirds were a good team, but they had a lack of long-range flying digimon. Such a lack could be disastrous, meaning that a single digimon could not reach New York. They were flying in shifts across the United States, but it was her job to rendezvous with them before they reached New York, and fly them the rest of the way in herself. She felt oddly naked, deprived of Team Eagle's normal escort when she flew this plane, but every digimon and digidestined that they could find was needed elsewhere.
She was still crossing Pennsylvania when she was nearly knocked out of the sky by a scarlet, black and blue thunderbolt going the other direction.
Combat drop in sixty seconds. Izzy reported calmly, looking up from the set of networked computers at his feet. It had taken several frantic moments of scrambling over the pacific to set up the maps and the GPS to Izzy's satisfaction. He had pointed out that it was the most essential part of the entire mission. Without them, he could hardly hope to locate the members of the IDEF, who were scattered all over the world. He had also, in Tai's opinion, used up a year's supply of profanity in less then ten minutes, something that he had never known Izzy to do. Cody had gone off with his face flaming, and Tai was reduced to hoping that Kari had not known what half the words had meant.
Right. Make me more nervous, why don't you? Joe murmured as he checked once again the fastenings that hooked him to Gomamon.
Don't worry Joe. We've caught you lots of time. Tai gave Joe a winning smile that only increased the taller digidestined's worry. Still, this was not the old Joe. This one was prepared to go off the deep end, whether he liked it or not. That thought struck Tai as he watched, the thought that once upon a time, it would have been a fight just to get Joe to go off the edge. Now it seemed that time had changed him.
Don't listen to him Joe. And don't worry about it. Lilymon and I can catch you, no problem. Mimi gave Joe another smile, and this one seemed to make Joe blush.
Thirty seconds. Izzy barely looked up from his computer, a sure sign that he was now insanely nervous. He was also speaking in a near complete monotone, something that sent a very unwelcome chill up Tai's spine.
The other digidestined looked even more nervous. On their way across the United States Izzy had stopped ImperialDramon's headlong flight to pick up digidestined from San Fransisco, Oakland, Reno, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, St. Louis, and then had proceeded onward, ImperialDramon full to capacity. There were so many digimon that for once the normally roomy space on ImperialDramon's back, surrounded by the blue shield of energy, actually looked crowded. Izzy was seriously scrunched against a portion of shell at the front. The other digidestined were somewhere between panic and fear. The only thing that seemed to be keeping several of them from running away was the fact that there was nowhere to run to. One girl had started to cry, but her friend seemed to be shaking her out of it. The digimon crowded around the back of the Mega looked more excited than they were scared.
They're like we would have been. TK whispered to Kari. They were crammed together in one corner, Kari pressed against TK like he was the wall, TK pressed against ImperialDramon's dome. Of all the people, they were the ones that seemed to have no objection to the crowding, at least from the looks on their faces.
Were we ever this young? Kari asked.
Judging from what Matt said, I assume so. TK smiled lightly, and let his eyes wash over the fear. He could not help but feel that despite the anxiety and the terror in the faces in front of him, that they were at the forefront of something wonderful. For only the second time in history, digidestined from all over the world were coming to fight against the coming darkness. Despite the danger that he was walking into, TK could only see the beauty of the moment.
Couldn't we land this? Joe asked.
It's too risky until we know what's waiting for us on the ground. Tai shouted back. Wouldn't it be bad if we landed right in the middle of a company of Devimon or something?
Yeah, I guess it would. Joe confessed. He didn't look very certain though.
Combat drop, now! Izzy yelled, primarily for ImperialDramon's benefit.
The Mega opened up his shield partway, leaving a small doorway through which the digidestined could leap. Tai stood still for a moment, and then jumped, followed by Matt, both streaking toward the ground. Joe stood up, looked out the door for a moment, closed his eyes and jumped, and suddenly he was gone too, with the ground rushing toward them. Mimi just smiled, waved, and stepped lightly out the door.
Agumon...warp digivolve to...WarGreymon!
Gabumon...warp digivolve to...MetalGarurumon!
Palmon...digivolve to...Togemon!
Togemon...digivolve to...Lilymon!
Joe got the wind knocked out of him as Lilymon reached up and caught him, nearly sending Gomamon askew in Joe's arms. Mimi just smiled at Joe from the other side as the blue-haired boy began to shake his head to clear it. Behind more digidestined were jumping out of ImperialDramon. Those who had flying digimon jumped out in a group with those who did not, while MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon stood below, waiting to see if anybody would need catching. Fortunately the flying digimon knew their stuff, and they dove through the early morning cloud layers to grab their partners and their partners' friends. MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon did not have to catch a single person.
Amy was nearly torn aside as a scarlet and gold lightning bolt descended from the heavens and send buffeting winds throwing her all around the sky. Airdramon jerked around just in time to see a blue and silver bolt follow, and then a whole rain of digimon carrying children and teenagers, grabbing on along to a whole collection of digimon. The cavalry had arrived in time it seemed, and there seemed to be almost a hundred of them jumping off the back of that great monster in the sky. Add that to the other digidestined who had been trickling in from all over the world, and they might still have a chance.
We've lost listening post four. Colonel Craton looked grim, and Hayes did not blame him. So far they had not even gotten a good look at the enemy that was pouring out of the north, but the elimination of his scouting parties was a fair indication that whoever they were they were not only non-friendly, but vicious as well. He consulted his ever smaller list of reserves and shook his head; he really could not afford any more scouts right now. Originally he had planned by the book, but the reserves that he had laid aside were constantly being sent away, to help evacuate the populace and to plug holes in his line that he had not been aware of. His command post, now changed a giant portable classroom at a local middle school attached to his normal command truck, was swamped with calls asking for more information.
Any idea how long we have before we get hit? Hayes asked Willis quietly. The boy stood by quietly with his two digimon, now back in their rookie forms. Hayes had not quite understood all the problems with this 'digivolving' thing, but it seemed that the critters needed to conserve their energy, and with nobody around to fight, that was fine with him.
No. Could be any time now. How important is it? Willis looked back at Hayes quite calmly. He was behaving a lot calmer facing this than most of the professional soldiers Hayes had working for him. Then again, Hayes thought staring at the two digimon lying on the ground stuffing their cheeks, he probably had more experience with it. Now that he thought of it, there were only a few people in the world who probably had more combat experience then the children of Team Eagle. That was a strange thought, and Hayes was not altogether sure if he liked it or not.
If they wait another hour or so we'll have time to evacuate most of the city. That means that we can pull the police and soldiers off of conducting the evacuation and bring them back to the front lines. If I could just get a mobile reserve... Hayes stopped as he realized that Willis was staring at the sky.
I think you've got it. The big guns are here. Willis pointed at the street behind them.
Hayes barely had time to register the empty street behind him when a huge creature landed so heavily that the pavement cracked. This one was impressive, gleaming golden armor radiating light, even in the middle of the night. Two giant claws stood ready on either side of him, long and gleaming wickedly. There might have been an ugly incident right there if Willis had not suddenly jumped in front of the magnificent warrior screaming out:
Don't shoot!
Reluctantly the soldiers behind Hayes lowered their rifles. Hayes could not blame them for wanting to shoot something. After all they had been standing here facing shadows for hours, and this huge warrior certainly counted as something.
Wham. Another one descended, from the sky, this one a blue-gray metal wolf, looking for all the world like he was going to jump out and attack anyone he could see. A blonde-haired boy was clinging to the back of the wolf, and he yelled something quickly in a language that Hayes did not understand to the brown haired boy who suddenly emerged from behind the golden warrior.
Willis ran forward, there was a moment of hurried consultation, and then he brought the brown haired boy forward.
General Hayes here is commander of military forces in the area. General, this is Taichi Kamiya. Call him Tai. He heads the senior branch of the digidestined, so I guess he's our general.
I ...am...sorry. Tai spoke very slowly.
Where's he from? Hayes asked.
Odaiba. It's a city near Tokyo. Willis responded, sensing the problem.
Hayes rolled his eyes exasperatedly, as only a man who has had absolutely everything go wrong can. So what am I supposed to do with him?
Willis shrugged as more digimon began to descend from the sky.
Well, at least they can fight. Hopefully. We need to move this command post though. Hayes gestured to the mobile classroom behind him.
There was a fast exchange of languages, and then the golden warrior, whom Hayes could see had a lizard face, stepped up to the room. With a barely perceptible effort he wrenched the building out of the ground and lifted it up to his shoulder. He growled something that sounded apologetic to the people who suddenly started to yell and howl inside, and then growled something interrogative to Willis.
Willis turned to Hayes, his face struggling to remain calm. He...uh...he wants to know where you want it.
Hayes tried to close his mouth. That thing must weigh tons. My God, of all the lousy classes for West Point not to teach, they had to omit 'How to command giant monsters and save the world'. So, here I am with a broke infantry division, a bunch of police officers, a battalion of cadets, a group of kids and a monster that picks up buildings for fun. Suddenly, he broke into laughter.
What's wrong? Willis asked.
What's wrong is that I'm not waking up. All right, let's move it out. He waved his command post forward, leading a giant dinosaur carrying half of his staff in a giant classroom wobbling from side to side.
Daniel slammed a hand angrily into the terminal, but the computer screen refused to change. How could we have been so stupid? He asked himself angrily.
We couldn't have known. Cassie tried to comfort him.
Of course we could have known. Worldwide emergency, of course they shut the Chunnel down. And it's not like we can find a plane out of Heathrow or something. We'll have to fly the Channel ourselves, and we're going to have to slip past the RAF to do it. Daniel stared at the blocked entrance to the tunnel like it was a personal insult. Now it was going to get difficult. But regardless of the difficulty, he was intending to go through with his plan. He had given his word that the European Legion London would be ready to help wherever it was needed, and now that they were needed in Paris, to Paris they would go.
Well, we're not getting anywhere standing here. Brandi complained. Let's get moving, shall we?
All right. Daniel had just shouldered his backpack when a giant beam of blue light grasped the lot of them and yanked them away into the sky, to the awe of a railway police officer standing just behind them in the platform.
What the hell?! Daniel swore as he felt himself being deposited on a hard surface. One moment they had been standing on a railway platform near London, the next...
Welcome to the Odaiba express. Daniel blinked at that. He looked up to see the sarcastically grinning face of Koushiro Izumi looking back at him, Tentomon hovering by his side. That, at least, was a relief. Of all the people in the world who might be able to pull them out of this jam, Izzy was the best of the best, and Daniel knew it. At the same time, it remained to be seen what rabbit was coming out of the hat this time around.
You again? What happened?
We were passing by, caught sight of you using our digivices, and picked you up, we decided to give you a ride. Going to Paris?
Daniel began to brush himself off.
So are we. Fortunately it seems that we don't need to do many pickups on this route. We've dropped reinforcements off in New York, and now we're heading for Paris. Catherine tells me that they've cleared the area near the Eiffel tower for our use. Then we're heading back into the fray in North America. All hell broke loose in New York already. The European Legion is pretty big, so it looks like it's up to you guys to hold the fort for awhile.
When do we get there? Daniel asked.
About thirty seconds. Hang on, we're on final approach.
It took Tai about five minutes to appreciate the well-oiled machinery of the Odaiba digidestined. About ten minutes after that, he was ready to discover the joys of pulling his own hair out in clumps. Fortunately Matt was around to thump him on the head when he needed it.
Nobody out there knew anything about real fighting except for Team Eagle. And Team Eagle was scattered along the front lines, giving the various IDEF members that were already at the front some solid backbone. Tai, talking through Mimi, had given himself the task of organizing the rest of the IDEF, and it was rapidly becoming a miserable job. The number of digidestined who had done more than fight off the rare marauders in the digital world could be counted on one hand. Teams of children and digimon were obviously only groups of friends thrown together by circumstance. They lacked the polish of people who had thrown themselves into battle for their friends and allies. Without that polish, Tai was forced to rely on organizational skills that he did not know that he had. Strangely enough, he found himself wondering if he should have had Izzy run this show instead of him.
Finally, after several minutes of pushing, pulling, and shoving, he had broken the digidestined up into squads that could at least support each other, groups that contained digimon with multiple skills. In close in fighting Tai was unsure about what kind of skills would be needed, but it would have to do. For the first time in a long while, he was suddenly trapped feeling like a child, surrounded by children. Over the years he had gotten used to leading the digidestined into battle, but he had forgotten what it was like to send inexperienced children into the same situations.
Catherine looked around. The European Legion was accepted by a small group of police and government officials who actually knew of their existence, but they really had not been in the public eye before now. Now, at this point, with these times descending upon them all, they emerged from the shadows for the first time.
Fortunately the Frankfurt division was only an hour out or so. The rest of the Legion was already moving in. By some lucky accident the Madrid branch turned out to have a digimon with enough stamina to get them here, and now they were standing in an ordered block of seven digimon at the foot of the street, attracting much attention from the police officers conducting the evacuation. So far they had not been bothered, but Catherine was fairly sure that sooner or later someone would come by and attempt to evacuate the Legion. Then things could get ugly. For the moment it was just the Madrid, Calais, Bordeaux and Paris divisions standing around. It turned out that there had been two IDEF teams within Paris that were not officially Legion, but they were grouped to one side, watching the Legion with something akin to awe. It was making Catherine uncomfortable. The real stickler was that the Rome division was unable to make contact, having the bulk of what was now accepted as enemy forces between them and Paris.
There was a roar, and a familiar motorcycle pulled up beside her, and the fiercely Gallic-Japanese elder Takaishi looked out of it, peering shortsightedly at Catherine.
What are you doing here? Catherine asked after a quick polite greeting.
I had a call from my grandson. You remember him, no? Charming rascal. He said he was on his way here to visit me, so I thought I would come say hello. Behind the grin there was a deadly seriousness in the older man's eyes.
Good. Did he say when he was coming?
There was a sudden rush of air behind her. She turned around in time to see a giant blue beam descend from the sky, and ten figures clutching digimon descend from the sky. A moment later the London division was standing on the ground, right beside TK and Kari, both of whom were clutching their digimon to them. Cody and Sora stood next to them.
Well, it's time to get things rolling. Catherine ran down the street toward them.
The first probing attacks came all of a sudden, in the middle of the stillness that had spread over the battleground. Gizamon darted out of the walls of abandoned buildings, charging toward the line of infantry that was holding against them, searching for weak spots. But this time they were up against a group of organized men, waiting for them. And they were up against enemies prepared for their appearance.
Despite their fearsome, otherworldly appearance, it did indeed seem as if these creatures were vulnerable to real world weapons. Gunfire quickly cut down the first ranks of Gizamon as they darted toward American lines. And, by the time the second ranks got there, reinforcements had already arrived.
Nova Force! In one region the Gizamon were lifted off the ground by a storm of wind generated by a gold and scarlet thunderbolt that held them until they disintegrated into digital data. Hardened veterans watched in amazement like that of young children as the blur of motion resolved into a golden warrior who darted back the way he had come.
Gatling Arm! Gargomon, standing at another corner calmly awaited the charge, machine gun fire blasting and tearing at his opponents. Rookie digimon were blown apart by the high-velocity machine gun fire. The overgrown 'gunbunny' stood his ground, fearlessly sheltering the soldiers behind him. Those soldiers in turn cleaned up anything he missed.
God Tornado! Airdramon descended from the sky in another region, sending a vast tornado ripping through enemy ranks, sending hapless digimon spinning away to collide senseless into buildings and the ground.
Take their observers too. Tai suggested as Willis translated.
On it. Ice Wolf Spikes! The dozens of missiles let fly again from a position further back, this time they made it far, blasting digimon hidden from spying glances, but not from MetalGarurumon's sharp senses. Nearly a dozen digimon watching the battle from the other side were annihilated in an instant.
General Hayes remarked. MetalGarurumon was hovering outside of the skyscraper they were using now as their impromptu headquarters, and where Hayes was directing the battle, primarily with the aid of the set of binoculars he was holding in one hand. Can you keep it up?
If you can keep the food coming, then we can keep it up. Willis answered confidently. But right now all we can do is reinforce your own troops.
Any port in a storm. General Hayes mentally chalked up a point for the good guys and went back to trying to figure out where the next attack would come.
Michael was nearly washed aside by the wave as something huge rose out of the ocean next to him. For a moment he was on the verge of yelling for help as Seadramon rocked, but then stopped as he made out the face of the creature sitting there. Joe, now looking wet and uncomfortable, was there, sitting on top of Zudomon, whose huge bulk had caused the wave.
Hey Joe. You're late! Michael called up in Japanese.
I know. I know. You need us right now?
Hell yes. We're escorting people off of Long Island and Manhatten by boat. You can carry a whole bunch of us, can't you? Michael asked.
Yes. Where should we go?
Head back toward those lights until you find a wharf there. Steve's there with Frigimon. He'll give you a load of evacuees to take to the mainland. See how many trips you can make before the real fireworks start. We'll try to keep the sea approaches clear.
I hear you. Then Joe disappeared into the unlit spray of the ocean.
Back to the patrol Seadramon. Michael commanded his companion.
TK took a quick look around at what was there, and immediately the difficulty of his task set in on him. The digidestined that he was looking at were different than the ones he usually associated with. Despite the reputation of the European Legion as a high class association of experienced digidestined, he was suddenly painfully reminded how much more experience the Odaiba team had. He also became aware of what they had truly gotten out of their battles throughout the Digital World. A few years ago he might have thought that the behavior of the digidestined here, their determination to avoid running away, the fact that they were not screaming in panic was a mark of their courage and their skill, and it was, but it simply was not going to be enough. And he seemed to be the only one aware of the problem.
There was a sudden comforting touch on his arm. He did not even need to turn in order to see who it was. No, there was indeed someone else who could comfort him. Kari looked at him and grinned at him. It looked like he was not self-nominated any more.
He drew a deep breath as Catherine began to shout at some of the milling digidestined, and Adam's words came back to him. It's best to do the right thing, but anything is better than doing nothing. He took a long step forward.
Hey. What's the plan? He asked. He silently blessed himself for having picked up a little French and a lot of English.
We don't have one. Daniel responded bitterly from one corner.
Does anyone have a piece of paper? He asked. He silently hoped that this was not going to count as stepping on anyone's toes.
A digidestined who looked French shoved a pad of paper in his hands and he automatically fished for the pen he carried around with him. On the first page he wrote down the word notes, and then walked over to Catherine.
Madam, if I may take charge for a second? He tried to convey the urgency and seriousness behind his demands in his gaze, but it did not seem necessary.
Sure. Go for it. Catherine grinned, anxious to have somebody sort out this mess for her.
Well then. I want groups. Sora, raise your hand Sora, is going to take down the names of all of you who have champions who have the ability to fly. All of you who have mostly land digimon, I want you to go over and give your names to Cody. Where are you Cody? Okay folks, there he is. I want you to give them the type of your Champion, and a brief outline of their abilities. All right, if you, as a team, have seen a lot of combat, and by that I mean a lot, and you think that you can't be split up because you already work together well, you come over here and talk to Kari, the pretty girl in pink. Understand that this means that I'll be throwing you into more danger, because you've got more of a chance of coming out of it.
TK watched as most of the digidestined spread out and began to cluster near the points that he had indicated. Unfortunately there was still a group of increasingly nervous looking kids standing alone in the square.
Ahhh, right. Gatomon, could I borrow you for a moment? If you don't know who your Champion is, why don't you talk to Gatomon here. She'll straighten you out. The rest of the digidestined let a look of relief settle over their features and immediately rushed over to Gatomon, who tried to keep things straight.
All right. That's the first problem taken care of at least. Catherine, could I borrow you for a moment? Yes, thanks. Now I have another question, how official are we here? TK began taking notes as Catherine explained the general mistrust of the police force toward them, but their acceptance of their existence.
Who's heading the civil defense. Do we know? He asked again.
Catherine just shook her head. TK turned to his grandfather. Grandpa, could you go figure out who's in charge of the French army around Paris. And tell him that we're ready and willing to help when he needs it. Catherine, do we have access to digital cameras?
The question clearly caught the French girl by surprise, but she slowly nodded after a few seconds of thought.
All right. TK steered the both of them over to where Sora was standing, having just taken down the names of several fliers, and gestured for Kari to join them.
Okay everybody, if I could have your attention for a moment? TK raised his voice, and the digidestined crowded around him turned to him curiously.
Thank you. I hope we can get this translation problem licked soon, but thanks for translating Catherine. Anyway, I want volunteers, three digidestined with the fastest flying digimon you've got. You're going to need to take a digital camera out and take pictures of any enemy you can find. I know that they can disrupt most electronics, but it appears that we, as digidestined, have some leeway, because our electronic devices work when they're near us. I think it's some sort of cancellation field. Anyway, we've always been able to take digital pictures of digimon. I need you back too, so don't get involved in any fights. Live information and live digidestined are much more useful than dead heroes.
Six hands rose and TK shook his head. Sora, you're going to be in charge of the airborne digidestined anyway. I want you to pick the three you think are best and send them out with any cameras we can scrounge up. Catherine, I think for the moment we need to find someone to put in charge of logistics, we may need a lot of equipment, and I'm not really sure how much of it I can find. All right, get moving.
He turned abruptly to Kari. Kari, if you could, would you assemble the teams we have, three of them I see, to cover different sectors of Paris. We know the approximate direction from which they are going to hit us, so we might as well cover those sectors. I still want to keep them close, but make sure they know where they're going.
When Kari nodded he crossed over to Cody, who was looking anxious as other digidestined looked up to him for leadership. When Cody silently met TK's eyes, TK smiled encouragingly at him. Cody, if you can I want you to split these guys up into groups of five. Let them get used to each other's digimon, and teach them the basics of how to dodge and run and avoid getting shot at. You have some time, because they're taking their time, but maybe not much, so try and make it quick.
He turned to Catherine who was still following him. Catherine, I need you to help me out. You're the IDEF coordinator, so I want you to coordinate with the reinforcements that should start arriving soon. We need to find a better headquarters, but you should probably take the incoming digidestined and send them into one of the groups we've already got here.
As Catherine turned away TK sighed and let the lonely mantle of command slip silently around his shoulders.
Izzy paused for a moment to thank God, or whoever else might have been watching over him. He had forgotten that digidestined were rarely perfect, and what he had right then was a perfect example. Leaving TK they had flown off to pick up the Australian Avengers, whose battlefield expertise would be needed big time somewhere, but they had paused to pick up two groups on their direct flight path. Unfortunately what Izzy had forgotten was to chalk national boundaries into his plan. The group from Pakistan sat on one side, the group from India on another, half a century of mistrust visible in their eyes. Izzy rolled his eyes, and silently thanked God again that there had not been a fight right off the back.
A flicker of motion caught his eye. The Pakistani and Indian groups had been staring at each other, but now one of the Indians moved. He reached inside his rough clothes and removed a single package of gum, wrapped in aluminum foil. With careful, deliberate hands he unwrapped the shiny foil, pausing occasionally to watch the light reflect off of it. And then he reached out, almost trembling in anxiety, and offered the open end of the package to the Pakistani group. There was a moment of silence, and then one of the Pakistani children, no less hesitantly, reached out and took a single stick of gum out of the package, and murmured a word that could have been
Izzy forced himself to be silent, swallowing the urge to cheer.
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