Chapter 44 - Strategy
Murmuxmon sighed and wandered into his lab. He had several devices in here of his own make, and all of them capable of immense damage in the wrong hands.
My hands.
He paused to smile at the uncompleted machine in the center of the room, and moved towards one along one of the benches. The machine itself was something he had invented long ago, but he kept it in here to keep it out of the hands of incompetents. I.e., anyone but himself and him. Not that the other would ever bother with such a device.
There was a quiet rap at his door and he turned, pleasantly surprised to see his lieutenant, the only digimon on the base not considered blatantly incompetent.
"You asked to see me on my return, milord?"
Murmuxmon smiled genuinely at the digimon.
"Yes. I did. Did the girl leave?"
He nodded.
"She returned to her master as expected. Nothing out of place."
Murmuxmon nodded.
"Good. And the gate?"
"Rubble. As ordered."
"Excellent. Now that you're back, why don't you wander down to the cells and check on the incompetents down there. That Apemon lacks even common intelligence and lets his anger rule him far too often. Make sure he eliminated the prisoners as ordered."
"Your will, milord."
"Oh. One last thing."
The digimon in the door turned back to face him.
"Milord?"
"There was a tremor recently. The way to the cells may not be exactly as you remember it."
"Of course."
The lieutenant of Murmuxmon bowed and left. Murmuxmon himself turned back to the machine on the counter, and activated it, the device projecting a holographic map of the honeycombed passages. It updated itself, so it contained the newly formed and demolished corridors. This wasn't all the device did however, or it would be in the room to begin with.
Murmuxmon reached out and touched each gap in the map. Each entrance to the underground realm. And then he typed a few commands into the interface. Each of the gaps then closed, cutting the exits out of the subterranean fortress as they collapsed into rubble.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I groaned and placed my hand over my eyes as I came to, blinking, trying to adjust to what appeared to be a florescent light above my eyes. Then a familiar head interceded itself in my vision.
"You alright Joe?"
"I'm doing a bit better Gomamon."
"Good. I was worried."
I froze at the voice. I knew that voice. It would be entrenched into my soul for eternity.
It wasn't some crazy hallucination?
I turned slowly to see Carmela blushing and looking away.
I-it's really her? Here? With a digimon?
I reached out a little unsteadily, and she clasped my hand.
"I'm sorry…"
We both spoke at the same time, and blushed. I motioned for her to go first. She couldn't seem to meet my eyes as she spoke.
"I'm sorry Joe. I… I shouldn't have reacted like that. I was being selfish and ignorant. I-it's just…"
She couldn't say any more. I smiled and squeezed her hand.
"No, it was my fault. I probably should have told you about Gomamon sooner-"
I was interrupted by Tai clearing his throat.
"Hey, it's not that I'm not glad you patching things up, but could you save it? I mean-ouch! What was that for?"
Sora had elbowed him in the ribs. She just glared, her point getting across. Tai rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Look, I'm just saying that the bowels of enemy territory isn't the best place for this."
Sora looked ready to rip into him again, but Carmela interrupted her.
"Tai is right, Sora. Besides, we have to find Takato as well."
Tai grumbled.
"That guy is always disappearing right when you need him the most."
"It wasn't quite his fault."
Carmela leveled a sarcastic look at Jun, who shrugged and smiled back. Tai put his hand over his face and groaned.
"Okay, so maybe it wasn't his fault this time. Well, let's digivolve, split up and find the kid."
Maria shook her head.
"Not a chance. We can't digivolve in here for some reason."
Davis grinned.
"So? We'll armor evolve, then. Not a problem."
Jun grinned.
"Nope. Takato said that a flying dragon told him that wouldn't work either. We evolved outside and walked in like this."
Tai's face fell.
"Okay, fine. That rules out splitting up then. Not with rookies against who knows what around here. Stay close, and remember; only the front ranks should go in unless we have a lot of room. Getting in each other's way could be disastrous.
We nodded, and moved out of the immediate vicinity. We were almost out of the cells when a voice rang out behind us.
"And just where do you think you're going, Digidestined?"
I spun around. With all the light behind it, all I could see was the silhouette of a tall, knight-like digimon. Behind me, a few people gasped.
"ChaosGallantmon?!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ugghh…"
I groaned and sat up. Then I remembered where I was and what I was doing and scrambled to my feet.
Oh no… Where's BlackWarGrowlmon?!
*Takatomon?*
*Where are you?!*
There was a muffled groan and a shift to my right. The rubble shifted, and a black and red lizard rolled out of the rocks.
"Oooh…"
Oh crap…
To make it clear, BlackGuilmon rolled out of the rubble. He got unsteadily to his feet. He shook himself a bit in order to clean some of the dust off himself.
"Sorry Takatomon."
I sighed.
"It's alright boy. But where are those Karatenmon?"
He looked down a little, ashamed.
"I loaded them Takatomon. I don't think BlackGuilmon would be here without that."
I sighed again and knelt, giving him a brief hug.
"It's okay boy. You didn't do anything wrong. You just did what you had to."
I looked down at BlackGuilmon.
Well, catalyst abilities are restricted… but BlackGuilmon is a catalyst. I wonder if maybe…
"Let me try something, boy."
He nodded.
DIGI-MODIFY! Digivolution Activate!
"Ouch! Ouch! Ouchie!"
BlackGuilmon dropped to the ground and started rolling around in pain. I knelt back down again, starting to panic, until he came out of it, and looked up at me from the ground.
"Ahh… I'm sorry boy!"
"It's okay Takatomon. But let's not do that again?"
I smiled.
"Can you handle one more thing? I need to know what works and what doesn't."
BlackGuilmon nodded, and braced himself.
DIGI-MODIFY! Recharge Activate!
BlackGuilmon smiled and wagged his tail as his energy replenished and started restoring the damage that the Karatenmon didn't. I grinned.
"Glad that much works at least."
He nodded.
"Let's go find our friends Takatomon!"
We hadn't yet walked a few paces I was startled, as next to me BlackGuilmon suddenly stopped and started growling suddenly.
"What is it boy?"
"Bad, Takatomon. Very bad digimon."
I narrowed my eyes.
"Where?"
He ran over to a space off to the side and started sniffing at the ground.
"Down there!"
He was freaking me out a little with how feral his voice was, but I decided to just go with it for now, as he was digging into the ground without me telling him to.
I just hope I don't have to deal with Megidramon any time soon. Somehow, I don't think that he'd be constrained by that pesky anti-catalyst field.
I shuffled through my deck a bit, then smiled.
"Well, this brings back memories."
I looked at the card I had, then grabbed another just incase.
DIGI-MODIFY! Digmon's Drill Activate! Aero Wing Activate!
BlackGuilmon started burrowing into the floor, and I jumped in after him, riding him down the tunnel, just like with the snake deva.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The knight stepped closer then, revealing his red and white attire, and spoke in a gravely voice.
"I am not this 'Chaos'Gallantmon. I am MedievalGallantmon. And you… are dead."
Oh boy…
"Let's go Grizzmon!"
I smacked my face. Grizzmon went forward, and then there was a flash of movement, and suddenly a Bearmon came flying back at us. Next to me, Agumon gulped as we now saw the pole-axe in the knight's hands. You couldn't tell because of the faceplate, but I was sure he was smirking.
"Who's next?"
"DOUBLE STRIKE!"
The result was the same. Kotemon came crashing back, and the knight before us laughed.
"And this is what the lord feared? Pathetic. Every last one of you. Pathetic."
I growled under my breath.
No choice.
Then the knight sighed, and I held off on ordering a suicidal attack on the chance a miracle would occur. He started mumbling to himself, but I didn't like what I heard.
"…stupid… not worth the effort… why?"
He addressed us now.
"I don't feel like doing this anymore. It lacks sport."
Davis was hopeful, and I kinda wished I were too.
"So that means you'll let us go?"
"No. I'm simply going to annihilate you all at once."
Crap.
He raised the axe, and flipped it around, so that the sharpened butt was facing us. It glowed with energy and he began writing in the air with it, leaving a pattern of energy with it.
And then a rock fell on his head.
The apparent lapse in concentration caused the writing to fade, and he looked up - just in time for some of the ceiling to cave in on him, followed by Takato riding a flying BlackGuilmon. He hopped off as they neared the ground.
"Takato, it's great to see you, but I wish you'd digivolved BlackGuilmon to BlackWarGrowlmon.
He grimaced and glared at Jun, who blushed.
"Yeah, well that's what a cave in will do for you. We're lucky to be alive."
The ground shifted, and MedievalGallantmon rose from the ground. BlackGuilmon growled from where he was still hovering in the air. MedievalGallantmon looked at him, almost incredulous.
"What the…?"
"FIREBALL!"
Takato swore a little, and drew two cards.
DIGI-MODIFY! Hyper Speed Activate! Power Activate!
BlackGuilmon managed to avoid the incoming axe swing, but I knew it was only a matter of time. I looked at him.
"Don't you have anything in that deck that lets you ignore the field in here?"
Takato shook his head, concentrating on the battle. The larger knight couldn't seem to land a blow on the rookie, which was pretty much all that was keeping us alive. But he seemed to get closer with every swing. Finally the mega growled.
"That's it. LASER OF WYVERN!"
He leveled the head of his axe at where he thought BlackGuilmon would be, and energy collected between the twin axe heads. The energy launched, and clipped one of BlackGuilmon's wings, ending the effect and sending him tumbling to the ground.
No… so much for miracles…
But much to my surprise, BlackGuilmon rolled to his feet… and charged.
"ROCK SMASHER!"
The attack barely made a 'tink' noise as it reflected off. I swore.
"Now would be a nice time for ChaosGallantmon to save the day."
The axe flashed down. BlackGuilmon managed to twist enough that he was hit with the flat instead of the blade, but he was still sent slamming into the wall. Takato got out of his half crouch then, and stood, as if coming to a decision. He moved as if to exit the relative safety of the tunnel, and I held him back.
"Are you nuts?!"
He just smiled at me, and I sighed as I noticed the others were all looking at us.
"Relax. I have a plan."
Finally. I just hope it works.
"What do we do?"
"Stay here. And whatever you do, don't try and stop me."
"Uh…"
And then he was off. MedievalGallantmon was writing in the air again as BlackGuilmon lay groaning. Takato grabbed a rock as he ran, and tossed it at the knight. He didn't spare Takato a single glance, but Takato kept running.
As he finished writing, MedievalGallantmon placed his hand in the center of the pattern, and it flashed with power.
Takato shoved BlackGuilmon out of the way.
"FINAL CREST!"
I didn't know what Takato had planned, but it was moot now. BlackGuilmon had been saved, but we could only watch as Takato broke down into data.
Murmuxmon sighed and wandered into his lab. He had several devices in here of his own make, and all of them capable of immense damage in the wrong hands.
My hands.
He paused to smile at the uncompleted machine in the center of the room, and moved towards one along one of the benches. The machine itself was something he had invented long ago, but he kept it in here to keep it out of the hands of incompetents. I.e., anyone but himself and him. Not that the other would ever bother with such a device.
There was a quiet rap at his door and he turned, pleasantly surprised to see his lieutenant, the only digimon on the base not considered blatantly incompetent.
"You asked to see me on my return, milord?"
Murmuxmon smiled genuinely at the digimon.
"Yes. I did. Did the girl leave?"
He nodded.
"She returned to her master as expected. Nothing out of place."
Murmuxmon nodded.
"Good. And the gate?"
"Rubble. As ordered."
"Excellent. Now that you're back, why don't you wander down to the cells and check on the incompetents down there. That Apemon lacks even common intelligence and lets his anger rule him far too often. Make sure he eliminated the prisoners as ordered."
"Your will, milord."
"Oh. One last thing."
The digimon in the door turned back to face him.
"Milord?"
"There was a tremor recently. The way to the cells may not be exactly as you remember it."
"Of course."
The lieutenant of Murmuxmon bowed and left. Murmuxmon himself turned back to the machine on the counter, and activated it, the device projecting a holographic map of the honeycombed passages. It updated itself, so it contained the newly formed and demolished corridors. This wasn't all the device did however, or it would be in the room to begin with.
Murmuxmon reached out and touched each gap in the map. Each entrance to the underground realm. And then he typed a few commands into the interface. Each of the gaps then closed, cutting the exits out of the subterranean fortress as they collapsed into rubble.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I groaned and placed my hand over my eyes as I came to, blinking, trying to adjust to what appeared to be a florescent light above my eyes. Then a familiar head interceded itself in my vision.
"You alright Joe?"
"I'm doing a bit better Gomamon."
"Good. I was worried."
I froze at the voice. I knew that voice. It would be entrenched into my soul for eternity.
It wasn't some crazy hallucination?
I turned slowly to see Carmela blushing and looking away.
I-it's really her? Here? With a digimon?
I reached out a little unsteadily, and she clasped my hand.
"I'm sorry…"
We both spoke at the same time, and blushed. I motioned for her to go first. She couldn't seem to meet my eyes as she spoke.
"I'm sorry Joe. I… I shouldn't have reacted like that. I was being selfish and ignorant. I-it's just…"
She couldn't say any more. I smiled and squeezed her hand.
"No, it was my fault. I probably should have told you about Gomamon sooner-"
I was interrupted by Tai clearing his throat.
"Hey, it's not that I'm not glad you patching things up, but could you save it? I mean-ouch! What was that for?"
Sora had elbowed him in the ribs. She just glared, her point getting across. Tai rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Look, I'm just saying that the bowels of enemy territory isn't the best place for this."
Sora looked ready to rip into him again, but Carmela interrupted her.
"Tai is right, Sora. Besides, we have to find Takato as well."
Tai grumbled.
"That guy is always disappearing right when you need him the most."
"It wasn't quite his fault."
Carmela leveled a sarcastic look at Jun, who shrugged and smiled back. Tai put his hand over his face and groaned.
"Okay, so maybe it wasn't his fault this time. Well, let's digivolve, split up and find the kid."
Maria shook her head.
"Not a chance. We can't digivolve in here for some reason."
Davis grinned.
"So? We'll armor evolve, then. Not a problem."
Jun grinned.
"Nope. Takato said that a flying dragon told him that wouldn't work either. We evolved outside and walked in like this."
Tai's face fell.
"Okay, fine. That rules out splitting up then. Not with rookies against who knows what around here. Stay close, and remember; only the front ranks should go in unless we have a lot of room. Getting in each other's way could be disastrous.
We nodded, and moved out of the immediate vicinity. We were almost out of the cells when a voice rang out behind us.
"And just where do you think you're going, Digidestined?"
I spun around. With all the light behind it, all I could see was the silhouette of a tall, knight-like digimon. Behind me, a few people gasped.
"ChaosGallantmon?!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ugghh…"
I groaned and sat up. Then I remembered where I was and what I was doing and scrambled to my feet.
Oh no… Where's BlackWarGrowlmon?!
*Takatomon?*
*Where are you?!*
There was a muffled groan and a shift to my right. The rubble shifted, and a black and red lizard rolled out of the rocks.
"Oooh…"
Oh crap…
To make it clear, BlackGuilmon rolled out of the rubble. He got unsteadily to his feet. He shook himself a bit in order to clean some of the dust off himself.
"Sorry Takatomon."
I sighed.
"It's alright boy. But where are those Karatenmon?"
He looked down a little, ashamed.
"I loaded them Takatomon. I don't think BlackGuilmon would be here without that."
I sighed again and knelt, giving him a brief hug.
"It's okay boy. You didn't do anything wrong. You just did what you had to."
I looked down at BlackGuilmon.
Well, catalyst abilities are restricted… but BlackGuilmon is a catalyst. I wonder if maybe…
"Let me try something, boy."
He nodded.
DIGI-MODIFY! Digivolution Activate!
"Ouch! Ouch! Ouchie!"
BlackGuilmon dropped to the ground and started rolling around in pain. I knelt back down again, starting to panic, until he came out of it, and looked up at me from the ground.
"Ahh… I'm sorry boy!"
"It's okay Takatomon. But let's not do that again?"
I smiled.
"Can you handle one more thing? I need to know what works and what doesn't."
BlackGuilmon nodded, and braced himself.
DIGI-MODIFY! Recharge Activate!
BlackGuilmon smiled and wagged his tail as his energy replenished and started restoring the damage that the Karatenmon didn't. I grinned.
"Glad that much works at least."
He nodded.
"Let's go find our friends Takatomon!"
We hadn't yet walked a few paces I was startled, as next to me BlackGuilmon suddenly stopped and started growling suddenly.
"What is it boy?"
"Bad, Takatomon. Very bad digimon."
I narrowed my eyes.
"Where?"
He ran over to a space off to the side and started sniffing at the ground.
"Down there!"
He was freaking me out a little with how feral his voice was, but I decided to just go with it for now, as he was digging into the ground without me telling him to.
I just hope I don't have to deal with Megidramon any time soon. Somehow, I don't think that he'd be constrained by that pesky anti-catalyst field.
I shuffled through my deck a bit, then smiled.
"Well, this brings back memories."
I looked at the card I had, then grabbed another just incase.
DIGI-MODIFY! Digmon's Drill Activate! Aero Wing Activate!
BlackGuilmon started burrowing into the floor, and I jumped in after him, riding him down the tunnel, just like with the snake deva.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The knight stepped closer then, revealing his red and white attire, and spoke in a gravely voice.
"I am not this 'Chaos'Gallantmon. I am MedievalGallantmon. And you… are dead."
Oh boy…
"Let's go Grizzmon!"
I smacked my face. Grizzmon went forward, and then there was a flash of movement, and suddenly a Bearmon came flying back at us. Next to me, Agumon gulped as we now saw the pole-axe in the knight's hands. You couldn't tell because of the faceplate, but I was sure he was smirking.
"Who's next?"
"DOUBLE STRIKE!"
The result was the same. Kotemon came crashing back, and the knight before us laughed.
"And this is what the lord feared? Pathetic. Every last one of you. Pathetic."
I growled under my breath.
No choice.
Then the knight sighed, and I held off on ordering a suicidal attack on the chance a miracle would occur. He started mumbling to himself, but I didn't like what I heard.
"…stupid… not worth the effort… why?"
He addressed us now.
"I don't feel like doing this anymore. It lacks sport."
Davis was hopeful, and I kinda wished I were too.
"So that means you'll let us go?"
"No. I'm simply going to annihilate you all at once."
Crap.
He raised the axe, and flipped it around, so that the sharpened butt was facing us. It glowed with energy and he began writing in the air with it, leaving a pattern of energy with it.
And then a rock fell on his head.
The apparent lapse in concentration caused the writing to fade, and he looked up - just in time for some of the ceiling to cave in on him, followed by Takato riding a flying BlackGuilmon. He hopped off as they neared the ground.
"Takato, it's great to see you, but I wish you'd digivolved BlackGuilmon to BlackWarGrowlmon.
He grimaced and glared at Jun, who blushed.
"Yeah, well that's what a cave in will do for you. We're lucky to be alive."
The ground shifted, and MedievalGallantmon rose from the ground. BlackGuilmon growled from where he was still hovering in the air. MedievalGallantmon looked at him, almost incredulous.
"What the…?"
"FIREBALL!"
Takato swore a little, and drew two cards.
DIGI-MODIFY! Hyper Speed Activate! Power Activate!
BlackGuilmon managed to avoid the incoming axe swing, but I knew it was only a matter of time. I looked at him.
"Don't you have anything in that deck that lets you ignore the field in here?"
Takato shook his head, concentrating on the battle. The larger knight couldn't seem to land a blow on the rookie, which was pretty much all that was keeping us alive. But he seemed to get closer with every swing. Finally the mega growled.
"That's it. LASER OF WYVERN!"
He leveled the head of his axe at where he thought BlackGuilmon would be, and energy collected between the twin axe heads. The energy launched, and clipped one of BlackGuilmon's wings, ending the effect and sending him tumbling to the ground.
No… so much for miracles…
But much to my surprise, BlackGuilmon rolled to his feet… and charged.
"ROCK SMASHER!"
The attack barely made a 'tink' noise as it reflected off. I swore.
"Now would be a nice time for ChaosGallantmon to save the day."
The axe flashed down. BlackGuilmon managed to twist enough that he was hit with the flat instead of the blade, but he was still sent slamming into the wall. Takato got out of his half crouch then, and stood, as if coming to a decision. He moved as if to exit the relative safety of the tunnel, and I held him back.
"Are you nuts?!"
He just smiled at me, and I sighed as I noticed the others were all looking at us.
"Relax. I have a plan."
Finally. I just hope it works.
"What do we do?"
"Stay here. And whatever you do, don't try and stop me."
"Uh…"
And then he was off. MedievalGallantmon was writing in the air again as BlackGuilmon lay groaning. Takato grabbed a rock as he ran, and tossed it at the knight. He didn't spare Takato a single glance, but Takato kept running.
As he finished writing, MedievalGallantmon placed his hand in the center of the pattern, and it flashed with power.
Takato shoved BlackGuilmon out of the way.
"FINAL CREST!"
I didn't know what Takato had planned, but it was moot now. BlackGuilmon had been saved, but we could only watch as Takato broke down into data.