I don't own digimon
Toys Will Be Toys
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A large metallic door swept open. He clanked forward slowly, looking up. A light switch clicked and an incandescent bulb lazily flickered to life.
"I wonder which of my toys I should share with the digi-destined," he mused to himself.
His long, metallic sledge hammer was slung over his shoulder. His glowing eyes shimmered through two optical holes in his metallic face. Chrome fingers rolled across his chin as he looked upwards. Hanging from the high, nearly imperceptible ceiling were chains, and wrapped in those chains were wearied, beaten digimon, his playmates. They were digimon that had tried to stop him from controlling his territory. They had paid the price by becoming his toys, his pawns in the game of his life, a game that he planned to win.
He smirked as he looked up at the digimon. They had long ago lost the will to fight and now hung lazily, rarely shifting in their chains. Three caught his attention, one was a plush Tyrannosaur. It was pink with puffy green scales that were pressed against his back by the chains. The last two were presents from Chaos Piedmon. He had been waiting a long time to open them. The first was a white and black panda digimon. The other was a cyborg digimon with red, feathery leggings, a white muscular torso and a visored head with long, white ears pronged with lavender tufts.
"Yes, these will be very nice," He chuckled as he pointed at the three digimon. The chains lowered slowly and dropped the three down on the ground and they tumbled forward. "And after you've spent so much time wrapped in my control chains you have no thoughts in your head but mine!" He turned and waved his hand forward, "Come on, we have to get some food in you so you are you ready to play with the digi-destined!"
The three digimon stood up and growled softly as their eyes glowed with an angry red.
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Mark and Lucemon walked slowly through the brush. Gatomon was leading them towards the rendezvous point that Piximon had established incase they had been forced to retreat from one of Metal Puppetmon's patrols. Gatomon pushed aside the shrubbery and walked forward. There was a small party of digimon there, many were small, Gigimon, probably from the village that Mark and Lucemon had been in. He made out a group of water digimon, and immediately noticed a Tentomon hovering about. His eyes then wandered up to a round, brown digimon.
"Mud Frigimon!" Mark cheered as he ran toward the large mud man.
"Mark!" chuckled the chocolate digimon as he caught the boy and whirled around. "My you've grown…"
"I've only been away a day and a half!" yelped Mark in accusation.
"Well, it's been several years here," chuckled Mud Frigimon as he gently put the boy down. Lucemon landed gently at Mark's side. "Ah, Lord Lucemon, you've returned."
"What did you call me?" Lucemon looked directly at Mud Frigimon.
"Lord Lucemon," replied the mud digimon.
"Do not call me that," said Lucemon quietly.
"Why not?" asked Mud Frigimon as he frowned.
"I am no one's lord," replied Lucemon loudly. He flicked his wings closed and turned. He frowned as he looked at the forest, "I wonder where Michelle and Labramon are…"
"I bet Piximon is with them, he fell in their direction…" said Gatomon as the cat looked around. "I see you guys have gotten camp ready."
"Yep, we walked here as fast as we could and hunkered down," nodded Mud Frigimon with a nod.
"Actually we went as fast as Mud Frigimon could travel," buzzed Tentomon as the lady bug-like digimon walked up next to the mud digimon, "My poor wings…I won't be flying for a week!"
"Stop complaining, or we'll send you back to that cave we found you under!" growled Gatomon loudly.
"Please not that!" yelped Tentomon loudly. "Oh please not that!"
"What happened there?" whispered Mark quietly to Mud Frigimon.
"Well, twasn't so long after you guys left," replied the mud digimon as he sat down. "An evil force started to take over."
"The Chaos Masters," Lucemon looked to Mud Frigimon.
"Well…" Mud Frigimon looked around and then cupped his hand around his mouth, "They say those there Chaos Masters are just the muscle to the real evil that's trying to take over. They say someone else is pullin' their strings so to speak."
"Who?" Mark looked up anxiously. "If we find out who it is; we could side step the Chaos Masters completely!"
"That's not a good idea, nope, nope!" Mark and Lucemon spun around to find Piximon and Michelle walking forward, Labramon poked her head out of the bushes. Piximon landed on the ground, "The master of the Chaos Masters must be incredibly strong to control the digimon that it has mastery over. If you were to fight it…"
"It'd turn you into a fresh pot of Digi-destined Chili with extra hot sauce," said Mud Frigimon loudly.
"Yes, indeed it would," piped Piximon as he walked to the fire. "And you already have a full plate as it is!"
"But it doesn't explain what happened to Tentomon's cave…" said Mark.
"His cave was destroyed," replied Gatomon casually. "Metal Puppetmon wanted the minerals in it so he sent a band of Nise Drimogemon in after it, well, they got the minerals and Metal Puppetmon said that the mountain was in the way so he destroyed it…"
"The entire mountain," gasped Michelle. She looked at the other digimon.
"Yep," said Piximon, "The entire mountain, in one good smack."
Michelle sat down and stared at the fire the digimon had made. "If he can destroy an entire mountain…"
"Don't worry Michelle, I'll protect you," said Labramon as the retriever nuzzled against Michelle's arm.
"But who will protect you?" asked the girl quietly.
"I will!" asserted Lucemon loudly. The other digimon were in awe as the angel's wings unfurled as he asserted himself.
"So…beautiful," whispered a group of Gigimon. The red and black, squat digimon encircled around Lucemon and wagged their bushy red tails. "Makes you wonder why our ancestors attacked him…"
"Lord Lucemon!" shouted another voice. The children looked over to see a group of Gotsumon, "All hail Lord Lucemon!"
Lucemon narrowed his eyes and flicked closed his wings, "If you dare hail me, I will smite each and every one of you!" The other digimon took a step back. Lucemon clenched his fist and growled, "I don't know who started this Lord Lucemon stuff, but it stops here, I am no one's lord!" He turned his gaze across the group of digimon, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND!" The digimon gulped loudly and nodded. Lucemon eased and sighed. "Good!"
"But who will protect you, Lucemon?" gulped Michelle. The angel flustered gently and then looked to Mark, "Mark will, he will give me the power to protect you and him and Labramon."
"Don't forget about us!" called the digimon in unison. "We'll fight to protect you all, you're the digi-destined, if we can't fight for those that fought for us; then what use are we?"
"We need to find the others," whispered Michelle, "Especially, our brothers…"
"Yeah, our brothers!" Mark looked to Piximon, "Have you heard anything about them?" Mark turned to all of them, "Any of you heard about any of the other digi-destined, especially two that have combined with their digimon to form digimon named GaiOumon and Justimon?"
Piximon looked about. A bee digimon buzzed forward. "I did, I am a scout, and well, there was word from some Chuumon that there was a dreadful battle to the north of here, between combined digimon and one of the Chaos Masters, but unfortunately no word as to who won."
"I heard of a fight between the digi-destined towards a an ancient ruin that was protected by Black Rapidmon," called a monkey like digimon, "but the digi-destined ended up running away…in fact they were being pursued…so the fight may still be going on!"
"Right now, we have more important things to deal with," said Gatomon as the cat walked forward, "We have to keep ourselves safe for right now; we can go searching for the rest of the digi-destined later!"
"Gatomon is right; now go on, and gather food, snap, snap," called Piximon as he hovered about. "Mud Frigimon, go on, make sure the younger ones work, Gatomon and I have things to discuss with the digi-destined."
The digimon groaned but a swift sweep of Piximon's staff sent the digimon off. Piximon turned to Mark and Michelle. Gatomon walked up to them and sat down, "Children you do realize that you're our last hope…?"
Mark and Michelle looked to the two digimon, but Michelle spoke, "Why us? Why us eight; why not some other group of eight?"
"We do not know, it must be something about you," whispered Gatomon. "I wish I could tell you."
"Indeed," whispered Piximon, "The fight against the Chaos Masters has not gone well. There are none capable of overpowering them. Even I, a stout and well trained digimon, am no match against their power, and even if we were able to dispose of them we have no way of defeating their master."
"You guys keep mentioning this master, who is it?" Mark looked at Piximon sternly. "Don't hold anything back!"
"We don't know, all we know is that it is a powerful force that came here during the Great Reformat," replied Gatomon as the cat swished its tail back and forth, "It bided its time, hiding from our detection and then all of a sudden Chaos Piedmon appeared and slowly word got out of something building. Most digimon ignored it, because there was no real sign that anything was happening, and Chaos Piedmon had dropped off the radar…"
"Until we left to chase Karatenmon and Bastemon," whispered Michelle.
"Exactly," replied Piximon with a sharp nod, "After that, big things started to happen, a number of cities disappeared into sink holes, data started to corrupt. Rivers of blood formed and then disappeared, warping entire regions in their wake. Some said that Chaos Piedmon was feeding a lurking beast. Finally Chaos Piedmon and his Chaos Masters started taking over…and anytime a portion of the Digital World mustered a large enough force to overthrow them; a mysterious storm with red clouds would erupt and red rain would fall. The entirety of the region would be deleted. What you see in this refugee camp is about what is left to resist the Chaos Masters."
"We don't have the power to resist anything," whispered Gatomon. "We've been forced to run and hide."
"The Gigimon you saw, they came in hopes of finding a new place to build their village, Metal Puppetmon destroyed it when he crushed Tentomon's mountain," said Piximon solemnly. "The Gotsumon ran from File Island after CyberSeadramon attacked and laid waste to everything there, not even Primary Village survived."
"What about Salamon and the rest of the guards of the Temple of Calumon?" asked Michelle.
"They tried their best, but it was a band of rookie digimon against a very powerful Mega digimon," Gatomon frowned and growled, "The fools should have run…they were no match, it was like rain drop against a tidal wave…"
"Many escaped to Setup Island…" Piximon looked up at Lucemon, "and that is where the worshipping started. They wished for the power of the Founders born in a digimon to return to them…They didn't care what form…they just wanted this chaotic scourge crushed under foot."
"How could we have left when things were so bad off?" Michelle looked down at the ground.
"We didn't know," said Lucemon as he looked around. "None of us could've known…"
"We should've waited!" Michelle looked up. "We could've waited; they didn't find Mr. Takenouchi until after we brought him out…"
"What would you have done?" asked Gatomon. "None of you could've helped fight the Chaos Masters; even with all your digimon powered to the Ultimate level you would not have made a scratch on them. It is best you went to the Human World and fought Karatenmon, at least then you were able to gather even more power to assist in this fight!"
Lucemon flicked his ear wings back, "I don't like this, I sense a very foreboding aura."
"Awe, Lucemon, you're no fun!" growled a childish voice. A metal digimon dropped down. "You took the surprise right from me!"
"Metal Puppetmon!" growled Gatomon and Piximon.
"Static Force!" an explosion of red resulted in Mud Frigimon and a group of Gotsumon to be sent flying into the camp from outside.
"Bamboo Fist!" growled a deep voice. Tentomon tumbled through the air crashing a small distance from Mud Frigimon.
"Black Matter!" A ball of darkness flew from the forest and exploded leaving a herd of Gigimon on the ground.
"I brought some toys with me this time!" chuckled Metal Puppetmon. "Come on guys come and let me introduce you to the pawns you're going to play with!" First was a cyborg, bird-human digimon that alighted next to Metal Puppetmon. "This is Silphymon; he'll keep you from flying away like you did last time." A large creature crashed through the trees and stepped up behind Metal Puppetmon. It was a black and white bear digimon that stood a couple of stories high, "This is Pandamon, he looks nice and cuddly but wait until he unleashes his bamboo covered knuckles, you'll be wishing you never played with this plump digimon," Lastly was a stuffed tyrannosaur that stood about half as tall as the large panda. "This is Ex-Tyranomon! His cute outer layer hides the true prickliness of his inner darkness!" The metallic puppet smiled slightly and held his metallic sledge hammer across his chest, "I hope you're ready to play, because I know we are!"
Silphymon lifted off the ground and Metal Puppetmon swung his mallet forward. The ground erupted in fire.
Lucemon clenched his fists and ran in front of Mark, "Lucemon, digivolve to Pidmon!" The two winged angel snatched up the boy and flew into the air.
"Labramon digivolve to D'Arcmon!" The retriever yelped in reply to the attack and swept around as she morphed into a canine angel and scooped up Michelle taking her into the trees.
Piximon and Silphymon were already trading blows as Mud Frigimon and the Gotsumon rushed Pandamon. Gatomon was running toward Ex-Tyranomon.
"Fire Feather!" shouted Pidmon as a stream of fire shot down at the plush dinosaur.
"Battlement D'Armor!" shouted D'Arcmon as she fired blasts of light at Pandamon.
"Bamboo Punch!" shouted Pandamon as he crushed his paw into Mud Frigimon and the Gotsumon sending rolling backward.
The bursts of light, from D'Arcmon, erupted over his black and white skin and the large panda swung around revealing a bamboo kendo stick that cracked against D'Arcmon's staff as the canine angel rushed in to clobber the large beast. Pidmon was slicing forward toward Ex-Tyranomon when the dinosaur opened its plush mouth and belched sparkling bursts of energy. Pidmon rolled backward as the sparks embedded themselves into the angel and then popped in a small explosion. Gatomon skidded to a stop in front of the plush digimon. It looked down and lifted its foot and stomped down; the side burst knocking the cat backward.
Pandamon swept around and D'Arcmon was crushed against a tree. Pidmon stood only to be enveloped by dark matter. The mass of darkness then vomited ejecting Pidmon into one of the makeshift huts the digimon had made.
"Pidmon!" yelped Mark from his branch as he clung to the tree with the other hand.
"D'Arcmon," Michelle looked down at her partner as Pandamon whacked his kendo branch on the back of the angel.
"We're their last hope…" whispered Mark. He looked down and clutched his tag and crest.
"Get up D'Arcmon!" Michelle shouted as she stood up. "We can't let them destroy the others!"
"D'Arcmon…." The canine angel snatched the kendo stick as Pandamon began laying in a new set of lashes.
"Pidmon….." The angel stood, half his body covered in the shadow of the rubble half bathed in the sunlight.
"Digivolve to…" The two champion digimon glowed fiercely.
"…Asuramon!" The four armed fiery, god digimon shot forward, fists burning brightly.
"…Wisemon!" the white robed sorceress snapped the kendo stick in her hands and lifted up in front of Pandamon.
In the air Piximon was retreating across the sky as three Silphymon dove down firing bolts of plasma like a spitfire fighter plane. The little fae digimon was twirling his staff in front of him to repel the strikes. The three Silphymon slammed together as one and fired one huge crimson blast that sent Piximon spinning in the air as he fell towards the ground. Fortunately the pink ball of fur stopped himself inches above the ground and swept his staff forward releasing a small bomb that exploded into the diving cyborg. Piximon quickly spun around and looked at Gatomon.
"Get the humans and the Gigimon out of here, Gatomon!" shouted the pixie as he looked up at Silphymon, who was preparing for another strafe of the ground, "GO! Find a place to hide!" Gatomon looked up in shock, "THAT'S AN ORDER DO IT!" shouted Piximon; he growled and then shot into the air the blade of his staff ready to slice through anything in his path.
"Come on!" shouted Gatomon. The cat turned and ran through the camp gathering the cowering Gigimon as he went. He looked up at the tree that Mark and Michelle were in, "You two come on; we're leaving!"
"What about Asuramon and Wisemon!" Michelle called down to the cat.
"They can take care of themselves!" shouted Gatomon, "We gotta get out of here!"
"We're just a distraction here," called Mark as piece of shrapnel whizzed past his head. "We best get going! Gatomon is right; they can hold their own, pretty well!"
Mark slowly skidded down the trunk of the tree. Michelle looked hesitantly and then started down the tree after him. Gatomon then waved them forward and herded the Gigimon and they ran into the forest.
"Hey!" Shouted Metal Puppetmon loudly, "No one leaves my play dates without a note from me! Get back here!" The metal puppet rushed after the departing digimon and children, knocking the Gotsumon out of his way and then Mud Frigimon and Tentomon. The others were too busy with Metal Puppetmon's 'toys' to stop him.
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"Dang it!" shouted Gatomon as a blast of tree bark exploded behind them. "This way, it's not far to a line of caverns…"
"Wait…Metal Puppetmon destroyed an entire mountain, and we're going to hide in caverns?" called Mark loudly from behind the feline.
"Good point!" called Gatomon, "Then we best find a better place to hide!"
"How about in the forest!" called Michelle, "maybe we can loop back behind him!"
"Crossbar Slice and Dice!" shouted the metallic child's voice as a spinning metal crossbar sliced through the forest and spun back around cutting a giant 'U' through the foliage.
"You guys hide!" shouted the Gigimon to the others, "We'll hold him off!"
One of the bigger Gigimon looked up at Mark, "There is a hiding tree about seven yards from here; Gatomon should know it by sight!"
"No, you aren't going to face him!" yelped Michelle loudly, "You can't; you'll get hurt!"
"He'll massacre you, you're hopes for a village!" shouted Mark.
"The hopes of a world are more important than the hopes of a village!" called the biggest Gigimon. "And our fates are tied to yours; if we don't help save you then we're no better than the ones that want to destroy you!"
"But you can't make a dent!" growled Gatomon.
"I can hear you, now come out…" growled Metal Puppetmon's voice as the bushes rustled behind them.
"We don't have to hurt him only slow him down, and that we can do!" said the biggest Gigimon. He turned to the others, "Hide in the bushes, when he comes, all together and we'll give him heck in a hand basket!"
"No!" cried Michelle.
"There is no arguing with them, they've made their decision," grumbled Gatomon.
"How can you just let them throw their lives away?" Mark looked at the cat.
"The same way you can," growled the cat, "be thankful that you have such good friends and hope for their wellbeing! Now come on!
"But…" Michelle started but a tree snapped and Mark grabbed her, pulling her behind him.
"We just have to hope for the best!" called Mark as he ran. "Just be hopeful and don't let that light fade!"
Michelle looked back as the metallic Pinocchio raged out of the underbrush.
"Hot Bite!" shouted the group of Gigimon as the small football shaped, red and black digimon leapt from the trees and bushes and latched onto the metal puppet with their mouths. Their bushy tails swung around as Metal Puppetmon thrashed about.
Gatomon was sprinting ahead of Mark and Michelle and he swerved around and disappeared into a tree. The cat then waved them into the tree with its gloved paw. Mark and Michelle were puffing slightly as they rested back in the tree. The wooden entrance to the hiding tree was translucent and they could see the outside world through a brown and moss green tinted lens. Michelle whimpered at the sound of a large explosion, which was followed by the screams of so many Gigimon.
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"Fire Fists of Asura!" growled the four armed god man as he plunged his fiery fists into the stuffed face of Ex-Tyranomon. The pink fluff digimon rocked back and but didn't fall.
"Pandora Dialog!" called Wisemon as bolts of white lightning slammed into Pandamon.
The white and black digimon staggered back and growled but then launched forward. Long claws shot out of the panda's paws and sliced at the sorceress. Mud Frigimon leapt at the panda and tackled him. The chocolate digimon whirled around behind Pandamon and held him back.
"I got him!" called the mud digimon as he struggled with the larger Pandamon.
"Pandora Dialog!" lightning bolts crashed into Pandamon's exposed chest, but the large digimon only growled in anger.
"Pit Bomb!" shouted Piximon's voice as a bat winged bomb exploded in the air. Silphymon was reeling backward as the pink ball rushed forward, staff slicing back and forth.
"Human Emotion!" roared Asuramon as his three masked glowed and fired forward in one stream of light. The beam of light shoved itself down Ex-Tyranomon's throat. The stuffed exterior of the digimon bubbled and shifted as if the creature inside was burning alive and then it exploded into dust. Asuramon looked over at the fight with Pandamon. He then looked into the sky and saw Piximon fall back from a crimson blast. The little faery digimon was tiring. Asuramon clenched his four fists, "Here I come! Fire Fists of Asura!" Silphymon looked down in time to get struck in the chest by four blasts of flame.
"I can't hold him much longer!" shouted Mud Frigimon as a group of Gotsumon teamed up with the chocolate man, trying to restrain the larger Ultimate digimon.
"I have one trick…" Wisemon narrowed her blue eyes, "but you'll have to be very careful." She lifted her hand a large book appeared in her hand. "When I say 'go', Gotsumon, Mud Frigimon, let go!"
"Right!" shouted the digimon holding Pandamon.
"One, two, three…" Wisemon stuck her thumb between the pages of the book, "GO!" Mud Frigimon and the Gotsumon let go and rolled from the Pandamon. Wisemon narrowed her eyes, "Eternal Nirvana!"
She whipped her book open and pointed the pages at Pandamon. A white vortex erupted from the pages and started to pull in everything in front of it. Pandamon slammed his clawed paws into the ground, but they only slowed his progression towards the vortex. Pandamon's back end lifted off the ground and in one large roll the white and black bear rolled into Wisemon's book. Wisemon slammed the book shut and it disappeared. Her blue eyes glared up in the air where Silphymon had split itself up again and was taking on Asuramon and Piximon.
Piximon stabbed the Silphymon image in front of him turning it into dust. Asuramon and the other two Silphymon images were grappling. Piximon watched for a while taking deep breaths and then shot forward. Wisemon looked around her and then rose also.
The three Ultimate digimon encircled the remaining visages of Silphymon. The two images then recombined into the original Silphymon. Wisemon flicked her hand up, opened her book and pointed it at Silphymon. Asuramon's face masks glowed and Piximon's staff was pointed at Silphymon. The cyborg smirked softly and then shot towards Piximon.
"Eternal Nirvana!" a pulse of auroral energy rushed over Silphymon, freezing the cyborg in place.
"Human Emotion!" shouted Asuramon as a beam of brilliant energy sliced through the cyborg.
"Pit Bomb!" Piximon launched forward stabbing with his staff. The remains of Silphymon exploded into dust.
"Hurry, we haven't much time, we must get to your partners!" shouted the Gotsumon.
"Yes, indeed we do!" shouted Piximon as he turned and buzzed in the direction he'd ordered Gatomon to go.
There was a bright flash in that direction and trees collapsed. Asuramon and Wisemon looked at each other and then a golden light swam over them and they reverted to Labramon and Lucemon in midair. Lucemon snatched up the retriever and then dove off towards the explosion, all of his wings flapping in quick succession to increase his speed.
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"Stupid In Training digimon," grumbled Metal Puppetmon's voice. The digimon soon appeared in their line of view. He was rubbing his metallic joints, "Now I have scorch marks on my chrome work, and I was just waxed and buffed!" Metal Puppetmon stopped and huffed. "Now where did those digi-destined go?" he looked around, "I see, you want to play hide and go seek!" The puppet giggled slightly and rubbed his metal hands together. He looked around the clearing in front of the hiding tree, "Now if I were a digi-destined where would I hide myself?"
Gatomon looked up at the digi-destined. His eyes were worried, and his ears drooped. Mark started to hiccup. Michelle and Gatomon looked at the boy in horror. Metal Puppetmon turned and with his metallic teeth showing, he gripped the metal sledge hammer strapped to his back.
"No…" gasped Gatomon.
"I found you," stated Metal Puppetmon coldly and he lifted his sledge, "And in my games, losers don't get to play for two out of three…"
"I'll distract him, you run!" shouted Gatomon as he started to run.
"No!" shouted the two humans loudly, "You aren't sacrificing yourself for us!"
"We're the last hopes of the Digital World, that won't mean much if the Digital World destroys itself to save us!" said Mark loudly. The small boy hugged Gatomon tightly.
"I won't let another light flicker out of existence, because I need to be saved," whispered Michelle. The girl wrapped her arms around the cat and held him. "We won't let you die!"
"But you'll kill us all!" shouted Gatomon loudly.
"You have to have a little faith!" said Michelle and Mark in unison.
"No amount of faith will save you, no one can protect you now!" growled Metal Puppetmon as he slammed his sledge down, "Puppet Sledge!"
The earth erupted in flames, engulfing the hiding tree. The forest surrounding the tree was burning as the blast fanned out around its target, nothing in several yards was without flame. The puppet smirked quietly and then turned to leave his hammer slung back over his shoulder and started on his way.
"Metal Puppetmon," A calm voice said in a husky hush.
The puppet stopped dead in his tracks and turned. His chrome Digizoid jaw nearly fell off its hinges. "You…"
888
I re-read this chapter and I was very worried about the combat basically because it seems muted, which I suppose it is.
Blue: Now you got me thinking up stuff…like how to insert the twelve digimon into the story again…I have one way…and one that I have wanted to access really bad, but story geography has only let me do it limitedly without actually being able to touch the characters I want to touch. As to the three babies, I can give you a hint if you want. Actually all I'll say is that, five minus two is three.
Dark Qiviut: Yep, I feared I may be putting these guys away too fast, but really, except for Puppetmon (Puppetmon had extenuating circumstances, ie most of the episodes didn't focus on him completely) most of the Dark Masters had two-three episodes a piece. I actually had a bit of problem ending this chapter or finding a proper stop.