Crossworld
Chapter 7- Yumi's Excellent Adventure pt. 4
Yumi gasped. She was so beautiful. A silvery gold fox… well a vixen at least, because Renamon was a girl. "You're mine?" She asked, eyes wide.
Blocks and crawlies poured through the open door to the action room. "OH NO YOU DON'T!!" Beowulfmon growled, chopping through about six of them.
Renamon turned, then she leapt into the air and cried, "DIAMOND STORM!!"
Sharp shards of diamonds hailed down on X.A.N.A.'s monsters. "Incredible." Yumi gasped. "She took out every single one."
Renamon turned to Yumi. "These things were after you?"
"I think so." Yumi shrugged. "They normally would come after me."
"Then I shall kill them. Nothing will harm you as long as you have me." She extended a hand. "I am Renamon, your partner." A paw was extended to her.
Yumi took it. "I'm Yumi. Although I think you already know my name." She said shyly.
"Right, now that Yumi's got her digimon. Catch." Kathy tossed her a small hide bag. "Your digivice, d-terminal and D-Tector Beta are in there, as well as your crest, the crest of Love." She smirked at Gennai. "I'll teach you how to use them once we take care of all this."
"Thank you." Yumi bowed politely.
"You're welcome." Replied Kathy with an equal bow. "Actually, we're in your debt for coming to our aid in this emergency."
"We need to get out of here." Gennai closed and locked a tank where a bunch of Digieggs waited in stasis. "By the way Yumi. Can you do me a favor?"
"Sure." Yumi replied.
"Give this to Jeremy." He tossed something small and golden at her.
Yumi caught it. "What is it?"
"It's a tag and crest." Gennai explained. "It belongs to Jeremy. See that he gets it."
"Alright." Yumi replied, stuffing it into her pocket. "Let's get out of here."
Renamon lead the way, shattering blocks and plastering hornets and crawlies against the wall. Beowulfmon hacked apart crabs, because Renamon's punches and kicks did little against them. But when the tanks rolled in, "KoreIkkakumon's" avalanche ax was supreme. Yumi hardly had to do a thing! But she insisted on helping just the same. She felt fire in her blood. This was what she lived for! Fighting the good fight, living the good life!
Then they reached the entry hall, where easily a hundred blocks, thirty crabs, and ten tanks waited.
"Shit." Yumi swore as they came to the blockade.
"Well then." Gennai grinned wickedly. "Let's get started."
"Yumi, when you see what I'm about to do, do me a favor and don't scream." Kathy told Yumi. She held up her D-Tector Beta and shouted. "EXECUTE! NATURAL BEAST EVOLUTION… SHEILAMYOTISMON!"
As the blinding light cleared, Kathy no longer stood before Yumi. In her place was a digimon with long blonde hair, a purple, bat shaped mask, and ears like Guilmon's. She had a narrow forked tail like a whip. The digimon was armed with six winged swords as well as Kathy's dachi and wore a skin tight, slightly revealing body suit.
"Kathy? Is that you?" Yumi asked, astounded.
"It's SheilaMyotismon now." Kathy said as she stepped forward. "Hey Takuya!" She called over at Aldamon. "Kouji, Koichi, Zoe, Tomoki, Junpei. You guys ready?"
Six digimon stomped up behind her. "We're ready."
"Takato, Ruki, Jenrya, Juri, Hirokazu, Kenta, Ryo, Suzi, Mako, Ai ready to rumble?"
"You got it!" The Tamers came up the tunnel next to them.
"Then let's get this party started!" Kathy shouted. "Aerial Trumpsword!" She threw her first two swords, slicing a tank in half. "Ha! My swords are made of Chrome digizoid, they're tougher than diamonds!"
In the melee that followed, Yumi wasn't sure who attacked what. Battle cry after battlecry sounded. She saw ice and fire and energy and water and diamond shards and other things fly across the room. But she mostly had to concentrate. Toss a fan here, slice with it there. Time seemed to be suspended. Where were her friends? Could a return trip to the past even work here?
Hornets arrived, and the digimon who could fly leapt up into the air to meet their attackers. Yumi ducked as a hornet came at her, but then she realized that what she was seeing was a piece of a hornet that was falling from the ceiling. A crab came at her. Yumi was about to slash it to pieces when she heard. "Bolo thunder!" A bolo of lightning tripped up and shorted out the crab, causing it to fall twitching to the ground.
"Gargolaser!" Yumi caught sight of a rabbit like digimon shooting at some of the hornets. His aim was so fast that he actually caught them.
Yumi found herself suddenly surrounded by blocks and crawlies. "Uht oh!"
"HURRICANE GALE!" Cried a digimon in a skintight pink outfit with a visor over her head and fairy wings. "Just in time Yumi." The digimon said. The remaining blocks were preparing to shoot. She grabbed Yumi under the arms and hauled her up into the air, blasting a hornet out of the way. "I've got you."
The blocks, being rather stupid, shot each other by mistake. "That was close."
"You're telling me. Hang on." She angled in for an attack. "Can you throw those fans of yours on that last tank? I don't like the angle of it's attack, might bring the whole place down on us!"
Yumi saw the tank she meant. "Right." Yumi tossed first one fan, and then the other down on it. "Gotcha!"
The digimon set her down on a stack of crates off to one side. "Okay, thanks!" She giggled as she flew off.
Yumi worked her way back into the fray, and then suddenly everybody, including herself was outside. Gennai started counting heads. Yumi found herself on an enormous stairway. "Wow."
"Get down here." Aldamon beckoned.
"Duck Yumi duck now!" Beowulfmon cried. A stray shot missed Yumi by inches.
"That's it! Everybody's out! Lockdown!" Gennai pulled out a switch board. He began to press toggles. The castle began to rumble. Yumi heard the sound of solid metal doors falling into place. Digimon and humans fell to the grass with relief as the final door, the one they'd just come through, fell into place with a BAM!
"Do breathe Yumi." Aldamon tousled her hair with a laugh, like a father would a daughter. "Welcome."
"What happens now?" Yumi asked.
"We wait for the Harper Security Forces to come from across the valley." Kathy pointed to a watch spire on the valley wall across from them. "They live in the castle below that tower. The tower itself is a communications relay. Listen…"
A series of drums boomed across the valley. The tense digimon and humans waiting below the castle sighed in relief and collapsed into the grass. "Right, they say HSF on the way. Keep your eyes pealed. See you in an hour, signed ShadowWereGarurumon." Kathy translated the code that boomed across the valley.
"My friends should have finished with the tower and sent us back in time by now." Yumi fell back onto the grass.
"Uh, Yumi. Return trips have no effect here." Kathy said nervously.
"Here, let me show you." The pink and purple digimon who had saved Yumi in the fight said. She scooped Yumi up in her arms and flew into the sky. The valley where the Guardians were camped was actually a crator in an old volcano. Across the valley was the castle of the Harpercraft, carved out of the rock itself. Then Kazumon turned, and Yumi gasped.
A canyon stretched away from the volcano, like a pure desert filled with buttes. And rising from its center was an arch of natural rock. Stretched across the arch like a spider web was a glittering panel of something silver that undulated like an ocean wave.
"That arch is the gate of time. No timewarps can get through it to affect the digital world. You have to understand, the digital world was almost destroyed because it fell out of sync, time wise, with the real world. To keep it from spinning out of control the sovereigns created that gate and programmed it to keep anything from knocking the digital world forward or backward in time ever again." Kazumon explained. "So, we don't mess with it."
Yumi gasped and Kazumon set her down. "But that means that I won't be able to tell when they've deactivated the tower. I could have been missing for hours already." She said worriedly.
"Listen, we just need to teach you how to activate your digimon spirit and then we'll show you how to get home." Aldamon said. He looked over at his companions. They dissolved into a wave of shimmering data and in their place were a group of six kids, about sixteen years old, except for a boy about Yumi's age.
"We're the Legendary Warriors." The boy who had been Aldamon said. "That means we can transform into a digimon instead of having a digimon partner."
"We were believed to be dead." Said a boy with short hair dressed in green and a baseball hat. "So Gennai created spirits to replace us. He sealed the spirits inside of unborn human children. So far we've found five of them. Ken, T.K., Davis, Kari and Kathy. But now we've found a sixth one, you."
"Me? But I've got a digimon already." Renamon took Yumi's hand and squeezed it comfortingly.
"A NeoLegendary warrior like you already has a digimon. Gennai lost records of the children who he sealed the spirits in, so they already have a digimon because they were chosen to be digidestined." Explained a girl with blonde hair. "I'm Zoe, Kathy's my DNA digivolve partner… ah… it's a long story." Kathy wrapped an arm around her mate's waist and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"Welcome to the group Yumi." Said the elf like digimon as he came forward. "Sage mode!" He commanded, lifting his sword into the air. It changed into a staff and a cloak carefully covered his eyes. He walked forward with a limp. "I am Scribemon. I was told to activate your spirit."
"Will it hurt?" Yumi asked worriedly.
"'Will it hurt?'" Echoed the boy who had been Beowulfmon snidely. "Of course not! The spirit's part of you and there's nothing wrong with you so how could it hurt? I'm Kouji by the way."
"O… okay."
"Be strong Yumi." Renamon told her calmly.
Yumi walked forward. Scribemon lifted his staff, the tip glowing slightly. "Activate Spirit! In the name of Orphanimon, I release thee!"
Yumi felt a buzzing between her eyes as the glyph for wind appeared on her forehead, glowing. Then she felt something jerk her forward. A hole of black light appeared in front of her chest and something… kind of like a statue came through the hole. "Good it's free." Takuya muttered.
"That symbol!" Zoe gasped.
"She's the Neo Legendary Warrior of Wind!" Cried Junpei. "And just as pretty as you Zoe."
"Back off jack, she's GOT a boyfriend already." Kathy growled, stepping on his toe.
Yumi gulped, and reached out to grab the statue. Words came to her mind as, sweating with the effort she lifted the spirit to the sky and cried. "EXECUTE NATURAL EVOLUTION!! SUZAKUMON!!!"
Yumi felt her body changing, reforming, as though a fire had been loosed through her soul and body. Incredible! She thought. Such power. Not even being virtualized feels like this!
Yumi opened her wings for the first time, gasping, panting and covered in sweat from the effort, she stood from the crouched position she'd been in. With a delicate grace she had never known until that moment, she patted herself over. Her hair had grown and turned silver with black streaks. Her hands were red, the skin had turned into leathery hide, and she had blades on her wrists where her fans had been. She had a tail, long and feathery with soft, flowing tailfeathers. She had beautiful gold and red, feathery wings, but other than that and the red skin and tail she was mostly human. She patted her face and found that she had a visor over her eyes, a human mouth and ears and body. She had human feet too.
"Woah." Yumi gasped. "This is new." She commented.
"It is." Kathy looked her up and down appreciatively. "Welcome to the team, Warrior Yumi. Care to look in a mirror?" She asked, amusedly.
"Sure, bring it on." Yumi said with a growing smile. This was what had drawn her down the tunnel, a knowledge that she had to find herself, no matter what happened to her, she had to do it.
Yumi looked into the mirror that an elderly digimon named Babamon brought to them. "What a beautiful young lady." She commented, upon seeing Yumi. "A reason to look in the mirror that one. You watch yourself around the boys Lady Yumi. They'd snap you up in an instant."
Yumi giggled. "Thanks for the warning." Yumi looked herself over. What she saw looked half human and half phoenix. It was incredible. She felt a power that she could never have felt in Lyoko. Maybe she should try transforming next time she visited Lyoko. It was worth a try, and she'd like to see the Hornets catch HER in this form. She absolutely hated them.
"Care to go for a fly?" Asked Kathy as she and Zoe stepped forward. The twins, Kouji and Koichi set the mirror down.
"Right, um… how do I fly in…"
The cellphone went off. "I want to change the world, piercing through the gales unafraid of everything… change my mind…" Yumi growled as she whipped it out. "JEREMY WHAT IS IT NOW?"
"Where the Hell are you Yumi? We went back to the past and you're not here!"
"Oh no, how long have I been missing?"
"Three hours."
"What time is it there?"
"Four, and the teachers wrote you up for missing class once again."
"Give me an hour Jeremy, one hour and then I'm done here, but if I reappear in the past as a half human half phoenix I will DEFINITELY turn a few heads. Look, the Digital World isn't affected by a return trip, so here it's still nighttime and I have obligations to meet before they'll let me go for the evening."
"Half human half phoenix? Yumi what are you talking about?"
"I'll show you when I get back to the factory!" She hung up and turned the phone off. "Okay, what do I do to detransform?"
"Focus on your human form. I guess duty calls right?" Kathy sighed.
Yumi closed her eyes, imaging the short black haired girl with the dark eyes and black clothes. She felt her power fade as she returned to her virtualized form and flopped down in the grass with a reluctant sigh.
"Right, quickly." Kathy dumped the little bag she'd given Yumi on the ground. She picked up a necklace. "This is a tag and crest. They'll allow Renamon to reach the ultimate and mega levels. It's activated by displaying the emotion it stands for. Your's is the crest of love." She slipped it delicately around Yumi's neck. "This is your D-terminal. It will allow you to send E-mail to anybody else who's a Digidestined, and there are HUNDREDS of us. It also makes armor digivolution possible with certain digimon. This is your digivice. Carry it with you EVERYWHERE, even to Lyoko. It will allow Renamon to digivolve to the next level, this type is a D-Chrono, it handles spirit evolution and protects you from Time Paradoxes. Then there's your D-Tector Beta. You need it in order to Spirit Evolve… uh… what you just did. It keeps your spirits and serves as a direct line to Gennai in an emergency. It's our equivalent of a cellphone." Kathy explained.
"Just who WAS it who spied on Aelita, you or Dryadmon?" Yumi asked dryly.
"It was I actually. That was my Pico form you saw. I is a rookie. I is having more fun than Champion. I is coping with height deficiency."
Yumi stared at her, face twitching. "That was you?"
"Yeah, convincing wasn't it? I'll bet Aelita thought I was a lunatic!" Kathy giggled. "Look, that's everything. I'm going to show you how to open the digiport to get home. I'll even send you to the factory if that's where your friends are."
"Probably. I'll bet Jeremy's working on the new scanners with Aelita."
"Okay then. Let's go." Kathy lead Yumi over to a nearby TV. "In the real world if you need to get here, just go to the nearest computer. Hold out your digivice and say, 'Digi-port open!"
Yumi took Renamon's hand, held out her digivice, and shouted, "DIGI PORT OPEN!!"
The digital world dissolved in swirling light around Yumi. And suddenly she was standing in the Super Calculator Room. She just stared. "Woah."
"YUMI!" Ulrich cried, throwing his arms around her. "We were so worried about you!"
"I'm fine Ulrich." Yumi said with a tender smile for her boyfriend. Jeremy, Odd and Aelita gathered around them to hear what had happened to Yumi. She introduced Renamon, and explained about her transformed state. "And I'm willing to bet that the next time X.A.N.A. decides to send Hornets after us will probably not work out so well for him." She told them about the attack and the different Digimon she'd met. She explained about Kathy and her disguise as the lowly rookie. "She would have been recognized as human if she used her normal voice, so she changed her voice in front of Aelita so that she wouldn't recognize it as human." And she showed them her digidestined gear. "Oh, and that reminds me. Gennai told me to give you this Jeremy." She tossed the crest to him. "He called it a tag and crest. I got one too, but he said that this one is for you."
Jeremy caught it. "Thanks. I'll keep an eye on it." He looped it around his neck and slipped it under his turtleneck.
"And unfortunately, the digital world isn't affected by a return trip to the past." Yumi continued. "So we'll have to be really careful fighting X.A.N.A. there. By the way, do you guys know HOW I got in?" She asked smugly.
"How?" Odd asked.
"I was wondering that myself." Jeremy agreed.
"Let's hear it." Ulrich replied.
"You know the tunnels we use to get to the factory? Well there's a side branch that the Digimon dug to create a road from the real world to the digital world. I even heard the three of you going by." Yumi smirked. "I wanted to cry out, but it was like something inside of me was drawing me down the tunnel to the digital world."
"Sounds like you had quite an adventure." Aelita said with one of her radiant smiles.
"Yes, I did. But most of all I'm glad to be home." Yumi said with a smile.
Renamon placed a hand on her shoulder. "And no matter what happens Yumi. I am your digimon, and I will always protect you."