Disclaimer:
Toei and Bandai own Digimon. Bandai owns Digimon World 2 and Digimon World 3. This story was not written for profit.
By: RB3
Chapter 16: The Rise of Galacticmon
The Tamers relished their victory over the AoA's forces. The Faction's new plan had worked better than anyone could imagine. The heart of the AoA, Amaterasu City Admin Centre, was in ruins. The shield that kept the Guard Tamers from entering the Server collapsed the moment the Faction annihilated its source, the Admin Centre. With their victory, the Tamers duties were complete.
"Tamers, you've done an excellent job!" complimented Megadeath. "Your help was vital for our victory."
"Hey, it was nothing," replied Ryo.
"Oh typical," quipped Rika.
"You guys are free to return home now. Shibumi helped us shut down the shield so you can leave whenever you want. All that is left to do is to mop up the AoA remnants and we can do that by ourselves," said Megadeath.
"Okay guys, we're going home!" cheered Takato. The other Tamers cheered triumphantly.
The Tamers returned to the Real World bearing the good news. They went to Yamaki and the rest of the Hypnos crew. Upon hearing of the Tamers' victory over the AoA, Calumon, who had been staying with Hypnos, was elated. The Tamers returned home and passed on the news to them as well. The families decided this would be a great time to hold a celebration to honour the homecoming of their children and the end of the war.
Like the last feast, the dinner would be held in Rika's home as it was the largest and could accommodate the large number of guests. Each family brought something different to the table, though this time, they brought new items. The dinner was a bountiful one with a huge variety of foods, from fresh juicy fruit to a succulent, honey-glazed ham. Guilmon and Terriermon, the biggest chowhounds of the Digimon, couldn't wait to begin digging into the food.
Before the adults ate, Yamaki stood up to initiate a toast. "Everybody, I want to dedicate a toast to our heroes the Tamers, who stopped an enemy invasion, and their Digimon, who kept them safe for the whole time."
"Cheers!" said the adults in unison, as their glasses clinked.
Impmon watched as Calumon snarfed down the ham and rice. "Careful creampuff, you're going to choke if you try to stuff your face!"
"I can't help it!" admitted Calumon. "All this food is so yummy, I gotta have more!"
The Tamers and their families feasted well into the night. Soon, Takato found himself lying in his bed staring at the ceiling. Guilmon was curled up on the floor soundly asleep. He thoughts turned to his new relationship with Rika, the once ice cold Digimon Queen. Takato had always admired Rika's strength. From visiting her home, Takato had learned that her father had left their family for reasons unknown. Takato wondered how Rika could live without his father by her side.
It was something unfathomable to him since his parents had always been there for him. Despite that, Rika was able to persevere. She became a great Tamer in her own right, a valuable friend, and eventually a lover. He couldn't be happier about that, but Jeri's feelings still remained on his mind. Though he liked Jeri at first, that relationship never really went anywhere. Perhaps that was why he drifted away from the Orange Tamer...
Meanwhile, the enemy made its move. Magami, who had secretly escaped the wrath of the Faction and Tamers, sped across the sea in a motorboat. With him were half a dozen of his most loyal followers and their marine Digimon. Their boat was filled with diving gear such as an oxygen tank and breathing tubes designed to fit the diminutive Vemmon. The boat stopped at an antenna jutting out of the middle of the water.
"Sir, we've reached the remains of Gunslinger," reported the boat's driver.
"Excellent," commented Magami. "Vemmon, it's your move now."
Vemmon grinned. "Those Faction fags will be sorry they messed with us!"
Vemmon put on the diving gear and dropped into the water. Using special night vision goggles to see, he swam down the murky depths and into Gunslinger's remains. The space station had long been flooded with salt water since its crash into the ocean. Some fish had already made a home for themselves in the submerged hallways. Vemmon swam his way to the main control room and clamped his claws into the defunct computer. The reptilian soldier could sense his essence flow into the metal remains of Gunslinger.
The spaces station underwent a stark change as Vemmon used it to Digivolve to a more powerful form. The AoA soldiers could see Gunslinger glow from beneath the water as a pointed, metallic white dragon head emerged. It had a white, hi-tech chassis with a pair of cannons jutting from each shoulder. On its chest was a short barrel for the Ragnarok Cannon. It had a long, lash-like tail with barbs running down its length. This unbelievably huge Digimon was known as Galacticmon.
====================Digimon Analyzer====================
Name: Galacticmon
Attributes: Virus, Mega Level, Metal Element
Despite the Faction's destruction of Gunslinger, the AoA was able to merge it with Vemmon to create Galacticmon. This humongous monstrosity has all of Gunslinger's abilities, but can move on its own.
Special Abilities/Traits:
Flying, inorganic, accelerated healing, dimensional travel, elemental powers: all, retractable tail, vision powers
Ragnarok Cannon - The AoA's super weapon has been converted into Galacticmon's special attack. It fires powerful energy beams designed for orbital bombardment.
Galacticmon roared as he emerged from the seas. "Okay boys, let's get in!" ordered Magami.
Galacticmon transported Magami and his loyalists into his body before launching himself into the air. The mammoth dragon flew towards Amaterasu City to unleash his wrath upon the Faction. The people began to panic upon seeing this massive Digimon hovering over the city. Galacticmon wasted no time in raining death onto the city. He fired several shells onto Amaterasu which demolished many of the buildings. The Faction opened fire on the beast but none of their shots worked. Galacticmon retaliated by firing energy weapons.
Not content with the bombardment, the space dragon charged up the Ragnarok Cannon and incinerated a nightclub. As he turned his body, the beam travelled into a school and vaporized it instantly. Galacticmon traced the weapon across the city until his energy ran out. Though people had begun to flee, he would not allow them that satisfaction. He fired machine guns into the crowd, randomly mowing down anyone he could hit. After reducing Amaterasu to rubble and killing its people, Galacticmon repeated his massacre on Xuanwu City of the North Sector.
"Magami, I have destroyed the Faction just like you said. Let's go to the Real World now!" demanded Galacticmon.
"Yeah," agreed Magami. "Even as Galacticmon, you still haven't reached your full potential."
"I know," replied Galacticmon. "That's why I want to go to the Real World. Once I merge with the Earth, I will become Gaiamon and no one can stop me!" Galacticmon opened a portal into outer space in the Real World and flew in.
The next day the Tamers got a rude awakening on the morning news. "Takato, wake up! This is an emergency!" cried Yoshie Matsuki, Takato's mother.
"Five more minutes, mom," replied Takato groggily.
"There's something on the news you have to see, come on!"
Takato got out of bed as his mother woke up Guilmon as well. The Red Tamer groggily made his way to the lounge where his father was watching the news. On the screen were scenes of violence happening in the United States. America's cities were being annihilated by the attacks of a gigantic Digimon. The image of the Digimon, Galacticmon, jarred Takato awake. He watched as cities were reduced to rubble in mere moments by Galacticmon's Ragnarok Cannon.
The news footage continued with American fighter planes engaging the rampaging dragon at night. The ace pilots launched a series of missiles into Galacticmon's body with no effect. Galacticmon grew irritated by their presence and retaliated. His flak shells burst all over in the sky, knocking the planes out of the air one by one. Eventually, the Americans were forced to use more drastic measures in the form of thermonuclear weapons.
Later on in the night, they launched a stealth bomber to deliver the warhead to its target. The news played night vision footage of the bomber making its approach. The footage changed to that of the missile homing onto Galacticmon. The video feed ended with the missile striking Galacticmon in the chest. The news switched to footage of the nuke creating a blinding light and its subsequent explosion. Galacticmon was unharmed by the nuke.
The last footage Takato saw was that of Galacticmon landing on the surface of the planet. The space dragon plunged his barbed tail deep into the ground and waited. Almost immediately, the ground around him began to change. It became coated by an unknown metal which spread like a disease that consumed all in its path. Even at this moment, Galacticmon remained rooted in American soil, turning the very land into a metal wasteland. The Guard Tamers had tried to fight him, but were repulsed by Galacticmon's counter attack.
"What is that thing?" asked Takato.
As if on cue, the news answered him. "Reports from authorities state that this metallic creature is known as 'Galacticmon.' Our sources say this creature is a Digimon. He is attempting to assimilate the Earth in order to evolve to a more powerful form."
Hypnos had called Takato and the other Tamers in for planning strategies to defeat Galacticmon. After Takato ate breakfast, his parents drove their son and Guilmon to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Takato and Guilmon made their way up in the elevator and into the meeting room. A few people reached the building early and were waiting. They included Yamaki, the Hypnos crew, Rika, her grandmother, Henry, Ryo, Kazu, Akira, and Esmeralda, with others still coming.
With them was a Japanese military man from the JSDF that Takato didn't recognize. Yamaki introduced this man as General Shigeru Toshiro. In time, all the Tamers, new and old were assembled and Yamaki began the meeting by turning on a teleconference screen. A blond man wearing a cowboy hat appeared on the screen. The Monster Makers knew this man as one of their allies, Johnny Beckenstein. He was acting as the liaison between America's military, Japan's military, and the Tamers.
"Good to see everyone is here," began Johnny. "Right now, Galacticmon is in the middle of the Nebraskan prairie. So far, all he's been doing is sitting there and turning the land into metal. In about six hour's time, he has coated half of the United States. At this rate, it won't be long before the whole planet is coated by metal."
"We believe you Tamers are our best shot at defeating this menace," said Yamaki. "You were vital to our victory over the D-Reaper and we believe you'll be the ones who save us again."
"I don't want to sound rude, but how are we going to beat that thing?" asked Kenta. "The Americans sent a nuclear bomb at him and it didn't even make a dent."
"We believe that the power of the Digimon and your bond with them will bring us victory. You have succeeded where we couldn't."
Shibumi turned to the Tamers. "We want you to fight it just like with the D-Reaper. I won't be joining you this time. Datamon and I are going to work behind the scenes to find a way to beat him."
The group continued to discuss plans for their battle against Galacticmon. Akira had already moved the Kernel Zone into orbit around Earth. This act served to increase his powers as True GAIA and provide a refuge for the Tamers should they get into trouble. The Hypnos staff would move their operations to the Kernel Zone faster and easier correspondence. Once the meeting was over, the teams made their way to the Kernel Zone to begin operations.
Once everyone was ready, True GAIA teleported all of the Tamers and Digimon save Jeri and Palmon to the Nebraskan prairie. The Digimon Digivolved or Biomerged to their highest level immediately. "Holy cow! Look at the size of that thing!" remarked Takato.
Indeed, Galacticmon was probably the tallest Digimon Takato had ever seen. The only other Digimon that was even remotely this large was Venom Myotismon, but he was just a character on television. Even the largest members of their group, Mega Gargomon and Millenniummon Darkfryer were only the size of Galacticmon's head. The rest were no bigger than ants compared to the titan that Galacticmon was. The Tamers knew it was going to be a long, gruelling fight.
Sakuyamon opened the attack with a Spirit Strike. The ghostly foxes bounced off the massive dragon man without making a single dent into his armour. Gallantmon and Mega Gargomon followed with a mighty Lightning Joust and Mega Barrage respectively. These massive attacks struck the enemy with a deafening boom and left a huge cloud of smoke. Once the smoke cleared, the two Megas realized they did little harm. In fact, their attack did more to draw Galacticmon's attention to them rather than any real damage.
"You guys again? You may have defeated Destromon, but I'm another matter entirely!" said Galacticmon defiantly.
At once, Galacticmon called upon his Digimon Online techniques to clobber his opponents. He took a deep breath and employed the Giga Fire technique to exhale fireballs at Sakuyamon. The priestess dodged the first two but the third clipped her in the chest and sent her crashing into the ground. The massive space dragon pointed his claws and a Lightning Bolt leapt out of their tips and shocked Mega Gargomon. Galacticmon did the same to Gallantmon, stopping the great knight right in his tracks.
The others charged into the fray with Darkfryer unloading several volleys of Dimension Destroyer fire. Lillith flew in and materialized several ghosts which swarmed Galacticmon. Amar ripped a large stone and engulfed it in plasma before hurling it with all the strength he could muster. The space dragon took the massive combined attack with out some much as a single flinch. Galacticmon summoned a massive Snowstorm which chilled the three and forced them to break off their attack.
As the Digimon recovered, the Tamers decided that they needed to change tactics. "It's no good," said Henry. "We're not getting anywhere by attacking him in waves. We have to attack at the same time!"
"Right," agreed True GAIA. "Everyone, charge!"
The squad regrouped and renewed their attack with greater ferocity than ever. Darkfryer blew a Heat Viper to soften up Galacticmon's armour then followed up with several Dimension Destroyer shots. Beelzemon materialized his Corona Blaster and fired a massive burst of energy as Mega Gargomon launched a massive volley of missiles. The attacks collided with their target in a massive, nuclear scale explosion. Galacticmon roared in pain as the others moved in to capitalize on their advantage.
Lillith swarmed the space dragon with ghosts which began to drain his life like leeches. The others felt invigorated as Lillith distributed the stolen energy to her team. Galacticmon shelled the sky with flak to blow his foes out of the sky, but Sakuyamon raised a barrier which thwarted that move. Once the skies were clear, she removed her barrier and blew several cherry blossom petals. They stunned Galacticmon, allowing High Andromon to blast him forcefully with Atomic Ray.
Justimon, Cherubimon, Marine Angemon, and Amar charged the massive dragon. Amar reached the back of Galacticmon's left leg and proceeded to pummel it with a flurry of megaton punches. Cherubimon began to repeatedly stab Galacticmon's tail with a Lightning Spear. Justimon generated an orange energy blade and joined in with a series of slashes. Marine Angemon simply applied his energy restoring water bubbles to keep up the strength of the others.
"This thing's so hard," commented Justimon as he made a slash that failed to even dent Galacticmon's tail.
Suddenly, Galacticmon withdrew his massive tail from the ground! It lunged at Justimon with immense speed and wrapped itself around his waist. Galacticmon promptly slammed the superhero into Cherubimon and then Marine Angemon. Amar landed a powerful flying kick which shook its victim momentarily. Galacticmon coiled his tail around Amar and tossed him into a heap with the other Digimon. The tail returned to its place in the ground once it was done.
"I've think you've had enough fun for one day," quipped Galacticmon. "Time for you to die!"
Galacticmon's chest cannon began to charge massive amounts of energy. "Everyone, get down!" cried True GAIA.
The non-Biomerged Tamers and Esmeralda dove to the ground upon True GAIA's cry. A massive coherent beam of azure light burst out of the space dragon's chest. The Ragnarok Cannon's beam overtook Gallantmon with immense force. Galacticmon promptly made a swift turn, cutting all of the other Digimon down except Lillith and Sakuyamon. The sheer power of the beam broke the union of the Biomerged Digimon and reduced everyone into unconscious bodies sprawled on the ground.
Sakuyamon and Lillith looked down to see that all their comrades had been flattened. Rika was terrified when she saw Takato and Guilmon in a pile on the right part of the trench punched into the ground by the beam. Darkfryer, Kazu, Guardromon, Henry, and Terriermon were next. At the very end of the trench was Impmon, who was lying with his face buried in the ground. Galacticmon's tail had already taken out the other members of their team.
"Retreat! Retreat!" cried True GAIA as he desperately teleported everyone to the Kernel Zone.
The Tamers and their Digimon reappeared on the surface of the Kernel Zone. Several medics came in to check on the condition of those wounded. "How are they?" asked Kenta. "Will they be alright?"
"Most of the injuries are not life threatening," replied one of the Guard Tamer medics. "They'll be fine after some rest."
Once the Tamers' injuries were tended to, they returned back to Hypnos' operation centre to discuss a new plan of attack. A direct attack against Galacticmon proved to be ineffective. Galacticmon was too powerful for them defeat, especially with him having the Ragnarok Cannon as his main weapon. They needed another way of dealing with him. For an uncountable number of minutes, the Tamers argued amongst themselves about how to proceed.
"We're getting nowhere at this rate..." quipped Curly.
"Did anyone see some sort of weakness?" asked Henry.
"You already asked that, Henry," replied Rika.
"I couldn't see any weaknesses in his defence," stated Renamon.
"...But every enemy has a weakness," noted Amar. "We just don't know what Galacticmon's is."
Shibumi began to think. "Hmmm... I got it! We know that Galacticmon used to be Gunslinger before the AoA converted him, right?"
"Yeah, but what does that have to do with our situation now?" asked Takato.
"Hear me out," replied Shibumi. "If Galacticmon really is just Gunslinger remodelled, then he would have all of Gunslinger's features, namely its power core. I was thinking that if we can destroy this power core, we win!"
"How will we do that though?" asked Darkfryer. "Galacticmon is huge and we don't know where his power core is. Plus, we'd need something really powerful if we're going to do that."
"I know. I was thinking of something along the lines of a nuclear bomb." Shibumi turned to face Akira and Esmeralda. "Do the Guard Tamers have something powerful enough to do that?"
"Yeah," replied Akira. "We have access to a stock of antimatter bombs. A bomb about the size of a briefcase is powerful enough to waste half of a city block."
"Oh yeah, now we're talking!" exclaimed Shibumi.
"How will we get the bomb to Galacticmon's power core?" asked Lopmon. "He's not going to let us in to do it. Even if he does, he'll have something inside to guard it."
"I'll do it," announced Akira. "As True GAIA I can move fast enough to get the job done. Don't concern yourself about the bomb. Just worry about getting me in."
"Just because Akira's going in alone doesn't mean we can sit back and do nothing," said Ryo. "Isn't there anything more we do to help him?"
"Well, I suppose that if we were to keep Galacticmon busy, he can't devote as much time towards stopping Akira," observed Henry.
"Yeah, and that's a good thing!" chimed in Akira.
Terriermon sighed. "Our work's never done..."
"Well, sounds like a plan to me," said Shibumi. "Alright guys, go out there and kick some AoA butt!"
The Tamers thrust their fists triumphantly into the air. "YEAH!"
The Tamers returned to the location of Galacticmon. After Takato and Guilmon Biomerged to Gallantmon, they channelled the power of their late friend, Grani, to go a step further. "Gallantmon, Mode Change to..."
A bright crimson aura surrounded Gallantmon as great power filled his being. The energy began to encase his white greaves in crimson ones. The crimson armour continued to cover Gallantmon, continuing with his chest, arms, and finally the head. Ten wings of crimson energy extended from his back before transforming into the glowing white wings of a dove. A gleaming white sword materialized in his left hand while a double-bladed one appeared in the right. Gallantmon slashed his swords through the air to show his skill.
"Crimson Mode!"
As the Tamers and Digimon confronted him, Galacticmon let a sigh filled with ennui. "You guys again? Why don't you just give up?"
Gallantmon Crimson Mode confronted the massive beast. "Never!" cried Guilmon.
"You've hurt far too many people, Galacticmon! We can never let villain like you get away with this!" cried High Andromon in Guardromon's voice.
"That's right! It's time for a showdown!" cried Sakuyamon in Rika's voice.
Galacticmon let out a second ennui-filled sigh. "If you insist; fools always die young..."
The Tamers Mega Digimon surrounded Galacticmon in preparation for their attack. Gallantmon made the first move by firing a mighty blast of energy at his enemy's head. Mega Gargomon unleashed a barrage of bullets as High Andromon split into two and began blasting with Atomic Rays. The attacks exploded with a huge cloud of smoke that enveloped both Galacticmon and his attackers. While the enemy was blinded and dazed, the others moved in.
Amar threw a megaton punch which landed on Galacticmon's leg. Justimon followed with an overhead chop with the blade of his energy sword. Galacticmon flinched from having his leg bumped around and fell to one knee. He began to swat at the two Digimon, forcing them to scatter to safety. After Cherubimon and Gallantmon nailed him in the head a second time, Galacticmon let out a brief groan.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Sakuyamon and Lillith led True GAIA to the open mouth. In the avenging angel's hand was a seemingly ordinary metal briefcase. However, this briefcase was anything but normal. In it was a powerful antimatter bomb that could decimate an half of an entire city block in seconds. The briefcase was just there for easier transport. True GAIA prepared himself for the dangerous mission ahead of him.
"Good luck," said Sakuyamon. "You're on your own from here on."
True GAIA turned to Sakuyamon. "Don't worry, when I'm done, all that will remain of this guy will be a smoking crater!"
"Please come back alive, darling," said Lillith.
True GAIA smiled. "I will; count on it!" True GAIA flew into the dragon's open mouth and down his gullet.
Sakuyamon and Lillith flew away from the dragon's massive head and regrouped with the others. "True GAIA just went in. It's all up to him now."
"Good," replied Gallantmon. "As long as we're here, let's show this guy what real Tamers and Digimon can do!"
True GAIA found himself inside a strange world of wires and circuitry. It was hardly a surprise considering the nature of Galacticmon as a mechanical creature. Much of the decor came straight from the familiar hallways of the space station Gunslinger. After being turned into a Digimon, Gunslinger's locales had been chopped up and rearranged in an almost haphazard manner. True GAIA recognized his tunnel as being a hallway he had run through while advancing on the control room.
The tunnel was linked to other hallways in Gunslinger to form one massive super tunnel; Galacticmon's gullet. He could see several doorways that were once positioned in the former hallways. Due to restructuring, they had been smashed and only led to dead ends. True GAIA continued his way down the passage, but couldn't keep a certain niggling detail out of his mind. Since he was something foreign to Galacticmon's body, he wondered why Galacticmon hadn't tried to dispose of him yet.
He soon got that answer when he sensed danger coming from behind. A gun turret came out of an opening in the wall and opened fire. "Shit! I knew this was too easy!"
More cannons came out of new openings in the wall and began to attack the angelic master of the Kernel Zone. True GAIA banked left, right, and every other direction imaginable as he flew backwards. He materialized his sword and began to absorb the shots into it. True GAIA continued to fly backwards down Galacticmon's oesophagus as he returned fire. He threw a pair of lighting balls which obliterated two of the cannons.
True GAIA turned around and began to pick up speed. More cannons came out of the walls, this time from in front. The whole way had been filled with energy blasts flying from every direction imaginable and it was a struggle for True GAIA to avoid them all. One of the shots struck his arm and halted his advance. Out of annoyance, True GAIA fired massive numbers of lightning balls which wiped out nearly all of the cannons save for a few.
With the destruction of the cannons, the number of stray shots decreased dramatically. True GAIA took advantage and sped the rest of the way down the dragon's gullet. He entered a round chamber with metal walls and a pit in its centre. Heaps and heaps of garbage were around the pit as well as other refuse. Some of the garbage consisted of smashed furniture and lose items that were found aboard Gunslinger before its crash. The rest were the remains of fish and the AoA soldiers that were unlucky enough to be caught in Gunslinger as it crashed.
The whole room reeked of death and decay. True GAIA concluded that this was Galacticmon's stomach, where any items he consumed were ground down for use. True GAIA looked down from the edge of the pit to see a set of grinders at the bottom. They were sharp blades attached to a pair of rollers. They were spinning with such great rapidity that anything that passed between them was sure to be sliced into ribbons in short order. A set of metal cables came charging out of the pit at True GAIA!
The avenging angel leapt away as one of them tried to snatch him up. He sliced the cable with his sword and the tip landed on the ground. It wiggled helplessly as sparks danced out of the severed wires within it. More cables came bursting out of the pit to attack, prompting him to slash his blade everywhere. The cables eventually overwhelmed him and began to drag him slowly but unerringly towards the pit.
