Chapter 46 – Getting Into Position
"Well… crap."
Lou just sighed, like this would be expected. Around us the corridor was thick with dust from what seemed to be a recent cave in over the place we came in from. I looked around, trying to find something, anything we'd missed.
Of course naturally, with our luck, there was nothing apparent. Near the rear of our group, Maria groaned.
"Well? What are we supposed to do now?"
Steve shrugged. Some things were better left unsaid, and no one really wanted to contemplate moving around looking for another exit.
Who knows what could be guarding it.
Lou sighed, and motioned us around; talking too much wasn't the smartest idea here, with unstable ceilings in addition to wandering hostile digimon.
We walked for quite some time, not fully allowing the significance of the exit being blocked to set in. As it was, we just kept to the outer walls of the passage, hoping it would lead us out, and not into the arms of the enemy.
Luck has a funny way of giving you good news while kicking your ass at the same time.
A small ding alerted Murmuxmon to a slight problem.
The ding itself was insignificant. It meant that one of his troops had been deleted. He almost turned back to the machine he was building. It was far more important than any of his individual digimon, but something inside stirred, and told him to look anyways. He paused for a moment, and then, seeing he was at an acceptable place to break for the moment, and flipped open the monitor.
His jaw dropped.
His face whitened. Well, it would have if it could have, in any event.
His eyes bulged. More than they were already.
MedievalGallantmon, the very first henchman he'd ever had (recruited as a Kotemon back when they were rookies), the most reliable of all his henchmen (so reliable, in fact, that he'd been trying to use the machine he was creating at the moment to make another, only to order the Kotemon killed when it proved too annoying), and the only thing in all his existence that could be considered remotely close to a friend (he'd been trying to kill his own brother without success for quite some time now).
Now, that isn't to say that MedievalGallantmon and Murmuxmon were friends. Far from it. Simply that their relationship was the most stress free of all the others he'd personally encountered in his long life.
The other thing to note is that MedievalGallantmon was strong, stronger in fact, than Murmuxmon himself. MedievalGallantmon had been kept in line all these years by a combination of Murmuxmon's intellect, and the white knight's own code of honor. Therefore, his destruction changed things.
Anything strong enough to kill him would be strong enough to kill Murmuxmon. Brutally, and with relative ease. He understood this. And he was aware that any overtures to the Digidestined would be made in vain, negating his skills at persuasion. All that left was his genius.
Murmuxmon's gaze refocused on the machine he was working on. Then he was up and over to it in a flash, scrambling to complete it.
I'd known that the black lizard was powerful, more powerful than Armageddemon, but…
He worked with renewed vigor, and started about completing the task he set to. Completion of the plans in the manner he'd made them would be near impossible now. He'd have to alter them on the fly for a temporary infusion like process rather than the permanent, ability based, one.
Damn!
Several more dings went off from the device. He just kept working. He didn't want to know. After a moment, he paused, then rung for a minor worker. One answered almost immediately. He told it what to do without letting it speak, without even turning towards the door, so intent was he on finishing on time.
"Gather everyone… and I mean everyone into the main briefing room as soon as possible. The intruders are not only to be ignored for the moment, they are to be avoided. At all costs. Go."
"May I ask-"
"You may not. Simply do as I command."
The minion left, and Murmuxmon continued to work frantically.
They're just henchmen, easily replaceable.
"PEPPER BREATH!"
I smiled as Agumon took down the last digimon, but only on the surface. Something wasn't right here. Admittedly, I wasn't the greatest tactician, and I'm still not sure I'm completely back together from my binge, but something seemed off. And I don't like it when things seem off. It spooks me.
"Great job, guys!"
I smiled halfheartedly at Tai, who was giving encouragement. Something inside my head was screaming at me, like an itch I couldn't scratch, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was. After Tai had been calmed down, we continued on.
I smiled tightly at Carmela as we crossed into yet another room. It had multiple paths leading out of it.
"So… which way do we go?"
Matt groaned.
"Tai, why does this always happen when you're in the lead? No sense of direction at all… Like that one time…"
Tai was indignant.
"Hey! That was one time.-"
"Of about two hundred."
"- And besides, I've never been here before, so I'd think you could cut me some slack!"
"This way."
"See Tai, even Carmela's digimon knows they way bet…ter…"
Matt's head swiveled around to look at Kotemon. So did everyone else's. Tai grumbled.
"Why that way?"
Kotemon shuffled for a minute.
"I heard something."
"Oh."
Kotemon, rested a bit now, took the lead with Carmela, and we quietly crept by several rooms, but Kotemon didn't pause, and just kept going.
Eventually, we were on the balcony of above a large chamber, where there were an incredible number of digimon gathered, looking towards a stage.
Well, at least now the nameless pit in my stomach had a reason.
After a moment, a large bird like humanoid came out onto the platform, dragging a chamber like device behind him, about his same height. He let it come to a stop gently, and addressed the crowd. The strangest thing about that crowd was that there weren't more than two or three ultimates in the whole group. The rest were champions and rookies with a few armors thrown in.
The bird man spoke.
"My loyal followers. Today is a great day. A day in which we make history. A day in which I rise to rival the powers of the sovereigns themselves! And it shall be glorious, for you shall help! You shall assist!
"Now watch, watch as I ascend unto godhood!"
Murmuxmon entered the machine then, and pressed something. It began humming. Then, he raised his right hand, and I gasped, not alone mind you, as he slaughtered his followers.
"GEHENNA FLAME!"
I looked down at the blue and gold form, which lay crumpled on the ground. The proud dragon looked so weak there, so helpless…
Grani?
I can hear you, I'm just… weak, that's all.
Weak?! He nearly cut your wing off!
I'll be fine, I promise.
You don't look that way.
And you need to look after the others.
They can take care of themselves. Besides, I'm not supposed to solve all of their problems for them.
I kneeled then, despite Grani's protest, and lifted my companion into my arms. The dragon was heavy, even for my strength, sapped as it was from battle. Then, I began to walk.
I hope I can find a way out of here soon.
We followed the corridor for some time, never once seeing a way out. We hadn't seen any digimon other than our own for some time, and it was beginning to make me rather nervous. I glanced down.
I hope that SnowAgumon'll be okay…
Well, the corridor didn't lead us out of danger; or out of anywhere really. Rather, it led into something. It led to what appeared to be a work room of some kind. Ahead of me, Lou was taking command.
"Alright. We didn't mean to find this, but as long as we're here, well… start looking around, but don't touch anything yet. We must be certain."
We nodded, and began looking around. I looked at several things, not really understanding the purpose for them, but that they were probably deadly.
There were several things that I just had no clue of what purpose they could ever possibly be, when Phil called for us.
"Hey, it's a map!"
We rushed over, and lo and behold, it was a map. It was a little strange, what with it being electronic and all, but it was still a floor plan and layout of the base we were in. Phil grinned.
"We can get out easy with this!"
I nodded, and took it from him gently. I looked at it, and frowned. Then I frowned again.
That can't be right…
But it was.
"One problem, Phil."
They all turned to look at me from where I was holding the map. I scanned it one more time to be sure.
"There are no more exits."
They all just gaped at me like fish. It actually would have been kind of funny, if the situation wasn't so grim. Phil's face contorted in anger suddenly, and he unburdened himself on the machine sitting next to him.
"Damn it!"
The machine itself, sparked for a moment, then settled down. Phil scratched the back of his head.
"Heh heh. Oops. Sorry about-"
He never finished, as the machine suddenly exploded. Muchomon rose to the occasion to protect him.
Digivolution
Muchomon Digivolve to… FlareRizamon!
FlareRizamon Digivolve to… Gigadramon!
Half a second later, we were on the ceiling of the room, all holding onto the ultimate level's tail, since the explosion of the one machine had started setting off all of the others. I shuddered as the machine I'd been standing next to let off the biggest boom yet. Maria massaged her forehead.
"Well, at least he took the anti-digivolution shield down."
Digimon screamed as they were deleted. The room was now sealed, and Murmuxmon was taking no chances. The few ultimates died first, victims to his power, and the others followed. Chaos reigned as they scuttled around in terror. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part, was that as they died, their data was being sucked in just we'd seen Guilmon do to Takato's. It went into the machine, and from there into Murmuxmon, and from my point of view, he seemed to get stronger by the second. I turned away and buried my face in TK's chest. He started stroking my back.
"It'll be alright, Kari, I promise. We'll beat him, and that'll be the end of it."
I nodded and looked up and over the ledge again. The dying was almost over now, the last of the digimon being deleted and sucked up. Murmuxmon was glowing inside the chamber. He walked out and smirked. He, unsurprisingly, started talking to himself.
"That went even better than expected. Though I'm not entirely sure just how much stronger I am now…"
Gatomon squirmed up next to me. I looked at her, and she answered my unspoken question.
"I'm not sure if I'll be able to fight, Kari. The didn't feed us anything while we were in there. I've barely got the energy to stay Gatomon. I can't imagine how the others feel."
I grimaced, and TK wrapped his arms a little tigher. I wasn't sure how we'd get out of this one. It'd all sounded fine when Tai'd told us, but I think it was one of his 'I'll figure it out as we go' plans'.
I snapped my head over as there was a bellow of rage from next to us. little ways over, Kotemon leaped from the balcony.
"MURDERER!"
Murmuxmon looked up, then causually knocked the little swordsmon aside. Kotemon rolled along the ground, stopping when he was on his feet once more. Kotemon leveled his shinnai at Murmuxmon.
"You murdered my family. You enslaved those I held dead, forcing me to do your bidding. You told me they leved when you had already feasted on their deaths. I don't care how much stronger you are, cretin, this day you fall!"
"Well… crap."
Lou just sighed, like this would be expected. Around us the corridor was thick with dust from what seemed to be a recent cave in over the place we came in from. I looked around, trying to find something, anything we'd missed.
Of course naturally, with our luck, there was nothing apparent. Near the rear of our group, Maria groaned.
"Well? What are we supposed to do now?"
Steve shrugged. Some things were better left unsaid, and no one really wanted to contemplate moving around looking for another exit.
Who knows what could be guarding it.
Lou sighed, and motioned us around; talking too much wasn't the smartest idea here, with unstable ceilings in addition to wandering hostile digimon.
We walked for quite some time, not fully allowing the significance of the exit being blocked to set in. As it was, we just kept to the outer walls of the passage, hoping it would lead us out, and not into the arms of the enemy.
Luck has a funny way of giving you good news while kicking your ass at the same time.
A small ding alerted Murmuxmon to a slight problem.
The ding itself was insignificant. It meant that one of his troops had been deleted. He almost turned back to the machine he was building. It was far more important than any of his individual digimon, but something inside stirred, and told him to look anyways. He paused for a moment, and then, seeing he was at an acceptable place to break for the moment, and flipped open the monitor.
His jaw dropped.
His face whitened. Well, it would have if it could have, in any event.
His eyes bulged. More than they were already.
MedievalGallantmon, the very first henchman he'd ever had (recruited as a Kotemon back when they were rookies), the most reliable of all his henchmen (so reliable, in fact, that he'd been trying to use the machine he was creating at the moment to make another, only to order the Kotemon killed when it proved too annoying), and the only thing in all his existence that could be considered remotely close to a friend (he'd been trying to kill his own brother without success for quite some time now).
Now, that isn't to say that MedievalGallantmon and Murmuxmon were friends. Far from it. Simply that their relationship was the most stress free of all the others he'd personally encountered in his long life.
The other thing to note is that MedievalGallantmon was strong, stronger in fact, than Murmuxmon himself. MedievalGallantmon had been kept in line all these years by a combination of Murmuxmon's intellect, and the white knight's own code of honor. Therefore, his destruction changed things.
Anything strong enough to kill him would be strong enough to kill Murmuxmon. Brutally, and with relative ease. He understood this. And he was aware that any overtures to the Digidestined would be made in vain, negating his skills at persuasion. All that left was his genius.
Murmuxmon's gaze refocused on the machine he was working on. Then he was up and over to it in a flash, scrambling to complete it.
I'd known that the black lizard was powerful, more powerful than Armageddemon, but…
He worked with renewed vigor, and started about completing the task he set to. Completion of the plans in the manner he'd made them would be near impossible now. He'd have to alter them on the fly for a temporary infusion like process rather than the permanent, ability based, one.
Damn!
Several more dings went off from the device. He just kept working. He didn't want to know. After a moment, he paused, then rung for a minor worker. One answered almost immediately. He told it what to do without letting it speak, without even turning towards the door, so intent was he on finishing on time.
"Gather everyone… and I mean everyone into the main briefing room as soon as possible. The intruders are not only to be ignored for the moment, they are to be avoided. At all costs. Go."
"May I ask-"
"You may not. Simply do as I command."
The minion left, and Murmuxmon continued to work frantically.
They're just henchmen, easily replaceable.
"PEPPER BREATH!"
I smiled as Agumon took down the last digimon, but only on the surface. Something wasn't right here. Admittedly, I wasn't the greatest tactician, and I'm still not sure I'm completely back together from my binge, but something seemed off. And I don't like it when things seem off. It spooks me.
"Great job, guys!"
I smiled halfheartedly at Tai, who was giving encouragement. Something inside my head was screaming at me, like an itch I couldn't scratch, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was. After Tai had been calmed down, we continued on.
I smiled tightly at Carmela as we crossed into yet another room. It had multiple paths leading out of it.
"So… which way do we go?"
Matt groaned.
"Tai, why does this always happen when you're in the lead? No sense of direction at all… Like that one time…"
Tai was indignant.
"Hey! That was one time.-"
"Of about two hundred."
"- And besides, I've never been here before, so I'd think you could cut me some slack!"
"This way."
"See Tai, even Carmela's digimon knows they way bet…ter…"
Matt's head swiveled around to look at Kotemon. So did everyone else's. Tai grumbled.
"Why that way?"
Kotemon shuffled for a minute.
"I heard something."
"Oh."
Kotemon, rested a bit now, took the lead with Carmela, and we quietly crept by several rooms, but Kotemon didn't pause, and just kept going.
Eventually, we were on the balcony of above a large chamber, where there were an incredible number of digimon gathered, looking towards a stage.
Well, at least now the nameless pit in my stomach had a reason.
After a moment, a large bird like humanoid came out onto the platform, dragging a chamber like device behind him, about his same height. He let it come to a stop gently, and addressed the crowd. The strangest thing about that crowd was that there weren't more than two or three ultimates in the whole group. The rest were champions and rookies with a few armors thrown in.
The bird man spoke.
"My loyal followers. Today is a great day. A day in which we make history. A day in which I rise to rival the powers of the sovereigns themselves! And it shall be glorious, for you shall help! You shall assist!
"Now watch, watch as I ascend unto godhood!"
Murmuxmon entered the machine then, and pressed something. It began humming. Then, he raised his right hand, and I gasped, not alone mind you, as he slaughtered his followers.
"GEHENNA FLAME!"
I looked down at the blue and gold form, which lay crumpled on the ground. The proud dragon looked so weak there, so helpless…
Grani?
I can hear you, I'm just… weak, that's all.
Weak?! He nearly cut your wing off!
I'll be fine, I promise.
You don't look that way.
And you need to look after the others.
They can take care of themselves. Besides, I'm not supposed to solve all of their problems for them.
I kneeled then, despite Grani's protest, and lifted my companion into my arms. The dragon was heavy, even for my strength, sapped as it was from battle. Then, I began to walk.
I hope I can find a way out of here soon.
We followed the corridor for some time, never once seeing a way out. We hadn't seen any digimon other than our own for some time, and it was beginning to make me rather nervous. I glanced down.
I hope that SnowAgumon'll be okay…
Well, the corridor didn't lead us out of danger; or out of anywhere really. Rather, it led into something. It led to what appeared to be a work room of some kind. Ahead of me, Lou was taking command.
"Alright. We didn't mean to find this, but as long as we're here, well… start looking around, but don't touch anything yet. We must be certain."
We nodded, and began looking around. I looked at several things, not really understanding the purpose for them, but that they were probably deadly.
There were several things that I just had no clue of what purpose they could ever possibly be, when Phil called for us.
"Hey, it's a map!"
We rushed over, and lo and behold, it was a map. It was a little strange, what with it being electronic and all, but it was still a floor plan and layout of the base we were in. Phil grinned.
"We can get out easy with this!"
I nodded, and took it from him gently. I looked at it, and frowned. Then I frowned again.
That can't be right…
But it was.
"One problem, Phil."
They all turned to look at me from where I was holding the map. I scanned it one more time to be sure.
"There are no more exits."
They all just gaped at me like fish. It actually would have been kind of funny, if the situation wasn't so grim. Phil's face contorted in anger suddenly, and he unburdened himself on the machine sitting next to him.
"Damn it!"
The machine itself, sparked for a moment, then settled down. Phil scratched the back of his head.
"Heh heh. Oops. Sorry about-"
He never finished, as the machine suddenly exploded. Muchomon rose to the occasion to protect him.
Digivolution
Muchomon Digivolve to… FlareRizamon!
FlareRizamon Digivolve to… Gigadramon!
Half a second later, we were on the ceiling of the room, all holding onto the ultimate level's tail, since the explosion of the one machine had started setting off all of the others. I shuddered as the machine I'd been standing next to let off the biggest boom yet. Maria massaged her forehead.
"Well, at least he took the anti-digivolution shield down."
Digimon screamed as they were deleted. The room was now sealed, and Murmuxmon was taking no chances. The few ultimates died first, victims to his power, and the others followed. Chaos reigned as they scuttled around in terror. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part, was that as they died, their data was being sucked in just we'd seen Guilmon do to Takato's. It went into the machine, and from there into Murmuxmon, and from my point of view, he seemed to get stronger by the second. I turned away and buried my face in TK's chest. He started stroking my back.
"It'll be alright, Kari, I promise. We'll beat him, and that'll be the end of it."
I nodded and looked up and over the ledge again. The dying was almost over now, the last of the digimon being deleted and sucked up. Murmuxmon was glowing inside the chamber. He walked out and smirked. He, unsurprisingly, started talking to himself.
"That went even better than expected. Though I'm not entirely sure just how much stronger I am now…"
Gatomon squirmed up next to me. I looked at her, and she answered my unspoken question.
"I'm not sure if I'll be able to fight, Kari. The didn't feed us anything while we were in there. I've barely got the energy to stay Gatomon. I can't imagine how the others feel."
I grimaced, and TK wrapped his arms a little tigher. I wasn't sure how we'd get out of this one. It'd all sounded fine when Tai'd told us, but I think it was one of his 'I'll figure it out as we go' plans'.
I snapped my head over as there was a bellow of rage from next to us. little ways over, Kotemon leaped from the balcony.
"MURDERER!"
Murmuxmon looked up, then causually knocked the little swordsmon aside. Kotemon rolled along the ground, stopping when he was on his feet once more. Kotemon leveled his shinnai at Murmuxmon.
"You murdered my family. You enslaved those I held dead, forcing me to do your bidding. You told me they leved when you had already feasted on their deaths. I don't care how much stronger you are, cretin, this day you fall!"