Chapter 26: Doppelgangers

"I thought you lived here! You should know where the hell we are!" I yelled at Chris as we meandered through the neighborhood. Everybody, except me, had bought new clothes at my expense. I thought about how quickly my "College Fund" was drying up and winced. Jennifer had bought some sneakers, a pair of blue jeans, and a pink tank-top. Kristen wore blue jeans and a white shirt with a blue jean jacket over it. She still looked really tomboyish. Joey had just gotten a new pair of shorts to replace his tattered jeans. Chris had bought a red jersey, trying to look gangsta, but just came off looking hilarious so long as the goggles rested on his head. On the other hand, I know they would have laughed at the sight of me standing in a navy-colored bathrobe, waiting for my clothes to wash in the hotel Laundromat.

"Everything looks the same!" Chris yelled back in a mix of frustration and humiliation.

"Well you could have told us ahead of time and we would have gotten a map!" As we crossed another street, Kristen stopped us and pointed down it.

"Chris, is that your house over there?" She pointed down to a house with a large, white, NBC van parked in the driveway. The plain white stood out against stucco of the houses.

"No it…" Chris stopped and looked harder. "Yeah! How'd you know!?"

"We've been missing for how long now? Not to mention we were brought to the UN and commanded troops from two countries. Where else would all the news networks be?" Kristen answered Chris, but with a slight tinge of sarcasm. I tried to count how long we had been gone, but finally lost count of how many days and gave up.

"I dunno, probably about a month. And it was late April when we left so…" Kristen cut me off.

"It's late May or early June now. We missed the tail end of the school year." Kristen realized what she had said and a defeated look spread quickly over her face. "How am I going to get into college with this!?"

"Kristen, just be happy if you live long enough to worry about college, now come on!" Chris sprinted forward towards his house and we all followed. He shouted as we rounded the van. "MOM!!! DAD!!!"

"What's that?" We could hear a deep voice from inside and a moment later the front door opened as we dashed across the small yard. "Chris? CHRIS!!!" Chris tackled his father and knocked him down. Inside Chris' mom jumped up from the couch she sat in and dashed over to her son as he pushed himself from the ground.

"Oh my god I was so worried about you where have you been are you okay I'm sorry for not letting you inside you're in big trouble mister!!!" Agumon laughed at the sight of Chris and his mom. She hugged him tightly, pushed him away to get a look at him, and then backed off and scolded him.

"Calm down Nancy, just be glad he's home and…" While the emotional homecoming had been happening, the cameraman had just been busily filming. A familiar looking man in a business suit stood behind the cameraman, whispering in his ear.

"Please tell me you're getting this."

"Absolutely Mr. Williams." We stood outside watching patiently; nobody seemed to notice the rest of us until Joey finally spoke up.

"Can we please come in too? It's really hot out here." Joey asked in a mix of innocence and impatience, leaning in the doorway. Chris' father nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of Joey's voice and turned around. He was a tall man that wore a business suit and a tie much like the reporter's. He looked like he had just come home from work.

"Who are you?" He looked over us and finally noticed Tentomon floating just beside Kristen's head. His eyes widened. "That's the biggest mosquito I've ever seen. Don't move; I'll get the spray." He leaned slowly beside the door.

"Wait!" Kristen yelled at Chris' father as he stood back up and leveled the can of Bug-B-Gone at Tentomon.

"Kristen, what's a mosq… YEOWCH!!!" The spray burned Tentomon's eyes and he fell to the ground.

"It talks!?"

"Yes and he isn't just a bug! He's a digimon!"

"A what?"

"And in a sudden turn of events, the missing children who broke out of UN custody have turned up here in this Los Angeles suburb, along with a pair of creatures similar to those that have leveled Japan and Korea. Young man!" The reporter weaved his way around Chris' dad, Kristen, and the others, the cameraman in tow. "Could you explain these creatures?" He leveled the microphone in my face, catching me completely off guard.

"Um… well, they're called digimon, which is short for Digital Monsters. They're the physical forms of the data that all computers, calculators, and so on generate. This isn't live is it?"

"Actually, yes it is. Could you please explain the two with you? Why and how have you attained the company of creatures that as we speak are tearing our world apart?"

"Well, not all digimon are evil. To be honest, most aren't. But recent events have caused the most evil ones to attack both our world and the Digital World." I screamed at myself in my mind for mentioning the Digital World. How many questions was he going to ask me now?

"I'm sorry, but we're going to have to stop you for a moment. But both of you please stay ready for more questions over there in Los Angeles." A voice blared out of the camera; I assumed it was the anchor back in the NBC studio.

"Will do; back to you." The reporter stared at the camera for a moment before the cameraman made a cutting motion with his hand across the neck, signaling they were off. The reporter sighed and turned. "Thank you young man, you just won me an Emmy."

"Yeah, sure." I turned and looked back and looked at the chaos behind me. Chris was calming his parents and introducing Agumon, as well as everybody else. Neighbors that had been watching MSNBC all had come crashing out of their houses to see us in person. The calamity lured out everybody else.

"We're in for a long day aren't we?" Jennifer maneuvered her way over to me.

"Absolutely."

(---) (---) (---)

"Terra Destroyer!" The massive orb of energy came crashing down from Blackwargreymon's claws and barreled down to Seraphimon. The great angel dodged the attack like he had all the rest, but he was worn out from the fight while Blackwargreymon showed no signs of fatigue. Seraphimon landed and breathed heavily for a couple of seconds, but Blackwargreymon quickly dived down from the dark sky, tearing at Seraphimon with his claws. Finally, Seraphimon collapsed to the ground, lying on his back. His armor was devastated and he struggled to hold himself together.

"This… is impossible. How could you… have so much… power?" Seraphimon choked out a few words.

"In the face of the dark god you are nothing. He has bestowed me power beyond you wildest dreams, along with the data I absorbed from your other two angel friends." Seraphimon shuddered.

"You bastard."

"Don't worry, you'll be meeting them soon enough. Terra Destroyer!" Blackwargreymon jumped into the air and sent another blast of energy at Seraphimon. The great angel tried to get up, but no longer had the energy to move, let alone dodge the massive ball of fiery energy that was falling upon him. Finally, the blast hit Seraphimon, blowing the great angel into a wide cloud of data; all that remained was a deep crater in the scorched earth. Blackwargreymon absorbed the data quickly and looked about him. "Master! Is there no other opponent for me to face here?" Blackwargreymon screamed into the distance, summoning Daemon. He flew up quickly and looked at his warrior.

"You have done well. No, there is no other; the Digital World is ours." Blackwargreymon growled in anger. "But there are still fighters for you to take on. Remember the humans that used you, the ones that tricked you into sealing off the Digital World from their world?"

"Yes, has my chance for revenge finally come?"

"Are you ready to meet your next opponent, to conquer another world?"

"I am ready when you say I am ready." Blackwargreymon kneeled. He was infinitely loyal to Daemon, and it showed in his demeanor.

"Good." Daemon swiped his scythe down through the air, leaving behind a glowing rip in the fabric of space. It widened into a portal and Blackwargreymon stood up. He looked at Daemon, who simply nodded. Blackwargreymon jumped through the portal and it closed quickly behind him. Daemon looked around himself and watched the waves wash upon the black shores of the continent. "Now, we are on the western coast of northern Driver. That would mean he should emerge on the west coast of North America." Daemon laughed to himself. "Excellent, we'll invade from all rims of the Pacific. I wonder what the humans will think when I make it another dark ocean." He laughed hysterically and blasted into the distance, quickly leaving behind the spot where the last good Digimon had fallen.

(---) (---) (---)

"Okay, everybody all together now… We hate the pa-pa-razzi…" We all sung in unison, mocking the reporters who all stood outside. Chris' dad had planned on grilling hamburgers, per our request, but there were too many reporters surrounding the house to do so. Therefore, we got stuck with more noodles: Hamburger Helper. Everybody, including Chris' parents, leaned to the left and right in unison to the mediocre tune, echoing my lead.

"Hey, do you think that your parents saw you on the news?" Chris brought up the idea as he shoved a fork of Hamburger Helper into his mouth.

"Probably, that's all my dad ever watches." Jennifer was leaning back in her chair. I thought she would fall over, but somehow, she didn't.

"Not mine. He watches Fox News." Chris' parents gave me a weird look and I jumped to cover my blunder. "I mean… have you ever tried watching it? They can't even get themselves to say 'Fair and Balanced'! 'Fox News; fair and b…lah ha ha ha ha ha!'" Everybody laughed except for Kristen; she muttered something under her breath. "What's that?"

"Don't be a blind Democrat." That wasn't what she had muttered, but it was the same idea.

"Please, I'm a Republican, all the way. Therefore, I reserve the right to make fun of my parties' affiliated news network." Everybody laughed again.

"I don't see how you can be a Republican." Chris' father finally spoke up to me. He was still getting around to knowing everybody. "Look at what Bush has done to our country and Iraq!"

"Hey now," I put down the fork of food I was about to eat, "I rooted for McCain so just calm down." I polished off my plate and pushed away from the table. "My compliments to the chef."

"Thank you." Chris' mom smiled and I brought my plate to her. "Would you please go turn on the television in the living room? Let's see if we're still the biggest news." I knew we had to be, but I did it anyways. I found the Dish Satellite remote and turned on the TV with it. "Oooh, an All-In-One remote." I flipped quickly to MSNBC and watched. I started in the middle of a stand-up.

"…still have yet to answer the questions of the media or any other organization for that matter. We'll continue to wait and bring you the latest information when it becomes available." It was a woman correspondent standing out in front of Chris' house.

"Thank you Julie. Now we go to Don Coward, who is covering the bizarre events unfolding just north of downtown Los Angeles. Don?" The picture switched to the studio, then to a middle-aged man standing in the middle of some dry looking trees. There were police cars and fire trucks parked about the forest.

"We have just received some new information, but for those just tuning in let's restate what has happened in the past hour. At 6:03 PM, local Doppler radars picked up a disturbance that formed suddenly a few miles north of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Meteorologist quickly determined that the disturbance was not weather based, nor was it a technical difficulty. A report was phoned in to the LAPD at around 6:28 that a tall, large, black, armored creature was quickly moving south towards the city. Within fifteen minutes, the police barricade you see behind me was in place, along with fire crews, not knowing what to expect. Just ten minutes ago, at 6:50 PM, military satellite photos quickly made public identified the creature as a digimon, the race of alien creatures that over the past week have completely destroyed both Japan and Korea, and from our most recent reports, are making headway into Manchuria, moving quickly without any effective resistance." A map of the Far East popped up on the television with arrows leading from Odaiba, Japan, throughout the island, and then over to the Korean peninsula, and then up it. "We expect direct contact with the lone digimon within the next few minutes." The satellite photos were shown on the screen, clearly showing Blackwargreymon moving quickly through the dry hills.

"Everybody! We've gotta go! NOW!!!" I whipped around and yelled at the others, who were still lingering about the kitchen table. "Blackwargreymon is headed this way!" Everybody quickly jumped up from the table, hurdling over chairs and the corners, nearly knocking the entire thing over.

"Wait! What is the Blackwar-thingy?" Chris' mom chased after us as we headed to the door.

"Mom, you and dad need to get out of here. Go up to Aunt Janice's house or something for a while. I'll meet you there if I can and if I can't… I'll call." Chris' mom began to object, but his father put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

"You go and do what you have to son." Chris gave him a reckless smirk.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be okay." He gave his father a thumbs-up and his father gave one back. We opened the door, nearly ripping it off its hinges, and split through the paparazzi mob. We were bombarded by questions, flashes, and microphones, but ignored them. "Okay guys! Screw the cover up stuff! We've got a job to do! Kristen?" Chris turned around once we were all in the street.

"Right! Ready Tentomon?"

"Let's go!" Tentomon flew up a short ways and Kristen pulled out her digivice. "Tentomon digivolve to… Kabuterimon digivolve to… Megakabuterimon!!" The digivolutions ran right upon each other and in an instant, we were all on Megakabuterimon's back. The reporters kept a large distance between themselves and the bug as we took off towards the north. In a handful of moments we had cruised over the expansive city, quickly reaching the police roadblock. We hovered above it and saw Blackwargreymon approaching, a trail of heat waves coming off the road behind him. Daemon had been right; his very existence distorted space. One cop pulled out a megaphone.

"Stop where you are or we'll open fire!" Blackwargreymon kept running as if he didn't hear him. He was just a football field away now. "Fire!" Pistols were unleashed on the dark, armored dragon, but the bullets just bounced off without so much as leaving a dent.

"It's our turn!" Kristen shouted and pointed down at Blackwargreymon. "Attack!" Megakabuterimon dived down and we jumped off when we were close enough to the ground.

"Horn Buster!" Megakabuterimon dived horn first at Blackwargreymon. Blackwargreymon stopped, looked up, and caught the speeding bug's horn, getting pushed back an inch, but no more.

"Um… guys?" Kristen's eyes widened and Blackwargreymon laughed. The cops at the blockade all ran, leaving behind their patrol cars, pistols, everything. Blackwargreymon turned around and slung Megakabuterimon into the sky, leaving us to watch Kristen and her partner fly into the distance. They were barely visible when they finally stopped.

"You heard her! Let's go!" Chris brought us back to our senses and everybody, except me of course, pulled out their digivices.

"Spirit Code Activate! Digivolve to… Kazemon digivolve to… Arashimon!"

"Agumon digivolve to… Greymon digivolve to… Metalgreymon!"

"Spirit Code Activate! Digivolve to… Kumamon digivolve to… Polamon!"

"James digivolve to… kid armed with a charged gun!" I joked and dived behind a patrol car, grabbing hold of a pistol as I did. The others easily jumped over the cars, standing between them and Blackwargreymon.

"I thought I was supposed to get a challenge. You digidestined never learn. Terra Destroyer!" Blackwargreymon charged up and threw the blast down at the three. Megakabuterimon was still in the distance. Everybody scattered and dodged the stop, leaving me to get blown away with the cars in the concussion.

"Alright, let's show him who he's messing with!" Chris yelled from Metalgreymon's back.

"Giga Blaster!"

"Hailstorm!"

"Fujita Cannon!" The attacks flew at Blackwargreymon and pelted him from all angles. When the smoke cleared though, he stood just as he had before, only floating above the crater below where he had stood. I pushed myself up, pistol in hand, and leveled it at him.

"I hope it works for good guys too!" I focused and energy flowed quickly into the barrel. I pulled the trigger and the bullet ripped out of the barrel with such force that I was knocked down by the recoil. A blast of energy cruised with it, leaving behind a trail of light that stayed for a few seconds. The bullet drove into Blackwargreymon and light poured out over the area, blinding everybody for a moment. I could feel the data around us change, so for a few seconds, I thought I had actually hurt him, until I saw him sprinting at me through the fading light. "Shit!"

"James!" Arashimon flew down with her arm outreached. I grabbed hold and was swooped out of Blackwargreymon's dive. She let me go, slinging me down the street. I landed with a thud and yelped in pain. Arashimon turned around and aimed another shot at Blackwargreymon. "Fujita Cannon!" The blast flew at him, winds and all, but the steel beast didn't even slow down. Blackwargreymon backhanded Arashimon in midair and grabbed hold of her before she could get any distance from the blow. With a single throw, Blackwargreymon hurled Arashimon into the ground, driving her deep into the asphalt. Megakabuterimon finally was back from the first attack.

"Horn Buster!" The bug dove on Blackwargreymon again, but this time he just jumped into the air, letting him crash into the ground. While Megakabuterimon was pulling his horn out of the ground, Blackwargreymon attacked.

"Terra Destroyer!" Kristen saw the shot coming and quickly jumped off her partner. It didn't matter though. The blast drove deep into Megakabuterimon, forcing him to devolve, and tossed Kristen into one of the overturned patrol cars. She hit her head and fell unconscious, her partner knocked out and borderline destroyed. Polamon and Metalgreymon aimed their attacks uneasily. I was getting to my feet, unable to keep my balance from Arashimon's sling.

"Slashing Snowstorm!"

"Giga Blaster!" The missiles drove along with the wind, the glowing blue arcs of energy and snow glittering brightly in the flames from the rockets. They hit Blackwargreymon dead on and he was thrown back a few feet, but wasn't hurt.

"Give me a challenge!!!" Blackwargreymon screamed at the two and dashed forward, his claws leveled at the two. Polamon pulled out his blades and Metalgreymon held up his steel arm. Meanwhile, I stood up and noticed that Jennifer had devolved. Blackwargreymon cleaved clear through the steel arm of Blackwargreymon, but Polamon was able to parry his attack and jump over him, slashing his back and leaving two long, but shallow, cuts in Blackwargreymon's armor. Metalgreymon screamed in pain and devolved to Agumon, letting Chris fall to the ground behind him. Agumon gripped his claw and continued yelling as a mixture of glowing data and blood fell from where it had been. Meanwhile, Blackwargreymon twirled around and slashed Polamon across the back as he landed from his attack. Polamon's Hailstorm Cannons all were cut clear off and the iron plate on his back barely protected him.

"Slashi…" Blackwargreymon kneed the bear and sent him flying. Joey devolved before he hit the ground.

"Is that all?"

"You sick sorry son of a bitch! How could you do this to him!?" Chris screamed at Blackwargreymon as he tried to calm Agumon, but it was futile.

"My apologies; I'll end it for him right now." Blackwargreymon took a step forward, but slipped just barely as another pair of bullets hit him. He quickly regained his footing, but I was already beside Agumon and Chris.

"Hold him still!" I threw down the guns and grabbed hold of Agumon's partially cleaved paw.

"Easier targets. Terra Destroy…"

"Stall him!" I screamed at Chris, but he was already on his way. He picked up two of the pistols and started unloading. Bullets bounced off of Blackwargreymon, but his aim was thrown off by the distraction.

"…er!" The blast flew past Agumon and I, hitting the ground about ten yards away. Wind and chunks of asphalt blew against us while Agumon screamed in pain. I focused and felt Agumon's data break apart a little around his arm. His screams stopped, replaced by a choking sound as he tried to breathe, but couldn't.

"Calm down." I closed my eyes and could see the digital code. There were holes in it and I focused energy where the data had been destroyed. The energy took the form of data by itself and I let go, opening my eyes. Agumon gasped and looked at his arm, good as new.

"Wow… Chris!" Agumon looked over at Chris just as he was kneed in the chest like Polamon. Chris flew back, but never hit the ground. Chris' digivice exploded in a violent red light that flowed over everything. Winds blew about and the temperature skyrocketed, as if the entire world had just burst aflame. The light faded just enough to allow the intense glow from the Crest of Courage to shine through as it reformed—tag and all.

"Agumon warp digivolve to… Wargreymon!" Wargreymon caught Chris and put him down.

"Ow… easy." Chris cringed and grabbed his chest, the wind knocked out of him.

"You stay here. This is my fight now." Wargreymon put Chris on the ground slowly and turned to his dark counterpart. I felt the same change I had earlier when I had attacked Blackwargreymon. "You wanted a challenge? Well now you've got it! Terra Force!"

"Terra Destroyer!" The two blasts hit each other, creating what seemed like a small nuclear blast. As it crushed towards Chris and I, his digivice lit up again and he jumped from the ground, his injuries gone. The Crest of Courage glowed and the blast seemed to just wave over us, creating what looked like a bubble where the blast just didn't go. When the radiation cleared, the two Wargreymon were clashing against each other. Every few throws, one would hit the other, but only to be hit back a few seconds later. Finally, the feeling I had been having became too clear.

"Chris! We have to get everybody out of here now!"

"But," Chris' voice echoed from everywhere, "we're winning!"

"Just do it!" I crouched down and picked up one of the pistols that Chris had dropped, found it was empty, and picked up the other gun, which still had two or three bullets left. By the time I was finished, Lucemon was bearing down on me with his lance just as he had in Korea. Chris turned around from watching the Wargreymon fight and the Crest of Courage blinded Lucemon. He veered off course and landed, swinging his lance madly. I took a few steps back to avoid his wild attacks and lowered my shades from the top of my head so I could see through the glaring red light.

"So everybody seems to be fighting themselves." Lucemon finally stopped swinging, holding his arm across his eyes. "Do you not like what you all are anymore?"

"Yeah well there were doubles in Dickens too." I leveled the pistol at Lucemon, who stumbled in the light. "Guess who won."

"BOOM!!!" The shot rang out, clearing through the red light and slamming into Lucemon violently. He was only able to stand where he was and take the blow.

"Ugh… what… was that!?"

"Tell Daemon I said thank you for telling me about focusing and inanimate objects." I fired again. This time the bullet bored into Lucemon and he screamed. It was more like a deafening roar though, finally clearing out the red light. Blood and data spurted from where the bullet had driven into Lucemon.

"You'll pay dearly for that. Duality!" The orbs of dark and light flew at me and I dived out of the way as they collided together, creating the large, odd looking sphere of energy that collided continuously on itself inside. Huge, metal looking plates rotated around it, the intricate runes on them glowing from the reacting energy within. Chris and Wargreymon had been well out of the way, fighting Blackwargreymon. "Blackwargreymon!" Lucemon called out to his ally. "Let's finish this!"

"Right!" Blackwargreymon punched Wargreymon in the chest and jumped into the air, while Lucemon flew out of my reach to meet him. The two called out in unison, aiming down at us.

"Terra Duality!" The light and dark orbs of energy combined with Blackwargreymon's massive blast and caused it to become unstable.

"Everybody brace yourselves!" I screamed as the blast came down on us.

"This is it!" Chris threw his arms over his head to protect himself.

"Hold on!" Wargreymon ran and stood between Chris and the blast.

Just as it hit, an incredibly violent wind blew against me. It was like the wormholes from earlier, but much more chaotic and unstable, probably from the blast. I felt like I was spontaneously combusting from Blackwargreymon's and Lucemon's attacks and finally blacked out.