Disclaimer: Digimon Adventure 02 and its characters were created by Bandai, not me.
Author's Notes: This is set two years after the defeat of Belial Vamdemon, known to those who have only seen the dub as Malo Myotismon. I also base this on the information that since this season took place three years after the first season (summer 1999) in 2002, and the assumption that the overall storyline progressed through the course of a year ending a little ways into the start of 2003. That makes this 2005.
The 2005 Age Chart
17 Akiyama Ryo
The Daemon Chronicles: The Legendary Tamer
It seemed like forever. Ryo and Cyberdramon had been wandering around the digital world for ages, frequently assuming the role of heroes in the eyes of other digimon, but Ryo just wanted to return home. To his world. As much as he'd grown to like his fellow tamers, that reality wasn't his own. It was a consequence of his many battles with Millenniumon that had stranded him in this other dimension. After the battle with D-Reaper, he'd thought it was all over. Why then, after three years, was he still unable to return home?
Cyberdramon could sense his partner's distress. With Millenniumon's data residing in his digital core however, it was difficult for him to feel sympathy. They had been accepted into this world, hadn't they? Everyone, with the exception of that girl Ruki, seemed to have taken a liking to him for one reason or another, although Hirokazu and Kenta had even managed to frighten Cyberdramon with their unhealthy worship of his tamer.
"I don't even think there are any evil digimon left," mumbled Ryo.
"Indeed, the digital world is lacking luster these days," agreed Cyberdramon.
They agreed for different reasons. Still, the answer seemed clear. It was time to search for a way back.
It didn't take them long to find what they were looking for. It seemed ironic to Ryo that whenever someone wished hard enough for something, the digital world always delivered and yet he'd never thought to just ask for a way back. Thinking about it, he wondered how Ken was doing. He must have been 14 by now. Time sure flies when you're out saving the world from certain destruction.
That was how he stumbled across the rift. A gateway between the two dimensions, each with their unique digital world. He could only assume there were others out there besides just those he had become familiar with. There were probably lots of different kinds of chosen children facing the forces of digital evil. Ryo really needed to get out of this heroic mindset if he was going to try to return to a moderately normal life. Life was anything but normal for the chosen children in general, but he could at least return to his home in the real world. He'd have a heck of a lot of explaining to do when he finally returned to his parents. He didn't even want to think about what he would have to do with Cyberdramon.
Oh well, there was no turning back now.
"Fire Rocket!" Fladramon unleashed a wave of fireballs to vaporize a few dark towers.
"Tempest Wing!" Holsemon made with a barrage of differently constructed laser bursts, leveling even more of the seemingly endless dark towers.
"Gold Rush!" Digmon knocked over several more.
"Shooting Star!" Pegasmon made shattering dark towers look like child's play. If it was meant literally, it was true anyway.
"Rosetta Stone!" Nefertimon gave off the impression that no one should dare challenge her to a rock skipping contest as she blasted through several towers at once.
"Heartner Beam!" Puttimon shot down several more towers.
"Strike Claw!" A dozen pairs of eyes looked on in considerable surprise as an unfamiliar digimon made quick work of yet another dark tower. Daisuke, Ken, Miyako, Iori, Takeru, Hikari, and their respective digimon all performed a double-take at the sight of the apparent partner of this mysterious digimon.
Ryo seemed rather pleased with this turn of events. "Nice one, Strikedramon. I was a little worried when you de-evolved from Cyberdramon, but it looks like you're still plenty strong enough to handle the digital world clean-up."
"I'm just getting warmed up," Strikedramon tackled a second dark tower.
Ryo waved over to the assembled team of chosen children. "Hey Ken, it's been a while since I last saw you. How's Wormmon?"
Ken seemed to be straining his memory just to place a name with the face. He seemed familiar enough, but Ken couldn't seem to recall why. He did know that large chunks of his memory relating to the first time he'd been to the digital world had been lost. The name finally registered, although Ken wasn't sure why he felt so relieved. "Ryo... how did you get here?"
"You know this wonderboy?" asked Miyako.
Ken nodded confirmation. "We've met before, even teamed up for a while. Something happened though, something I've never quite been able to remember, but it was before I became the Digimon Kaiser. We got separated after we got into a fight with a certain digimon with a name that completely escapes me right now. I think that was when I got exposed to the dark spore."
"So, you really don't remember... well, that's okay." Ryo sounded a little disappointed he supposed. "I've been gone for a while anyway, so I can explain myself once we're done cleaning up this mess."
"Well, at least he's on our side," commented Iori.
It was when all the dark towers had finally been destroyed that Zhuqiaomon actually made an appearence, searching for the source of all the noise that disturbed him. The trouble was, although the dark towers had been smashed, Qinglongmon hadn't yet arrived and that implied that there might yet be a fight with the massive phoenix.
"Man, that guy's bigger than Imperialdramon," Daisuke stared up in awe as Zhuqiaomon flew toward them.
Takeru sweatdropped. "Now is not the time to be impressed Daisuke!"
Ryo's thoughts were a little different. Please tell me this one has a better attitude than the one I've met.
"Crimson Blaze!" Ryo flinched. So much for that idea.
There was a series of thuds as the chosen children were knocked out of harms way by their partners. This was immediately followed by the sounds of five digivices being activated simultaneously.
"V-mon Shinka!" V-mon began to glow and expand in size. When the light of evolution faded, XV-mon was standing in his place. "XV-mon!"
"Wormmon Shinka!" Wormmon began to glow and expand in size. When the light of evolution faded, Stingmon was standing in his place. "Stingmon!"
"Hawkmon Shinka!" Hawkmon began to glow and expand in size. When the light of evolution faded, Aquilamon was standing in his place. "Aquilamon!"
"Armadimon Shinka!" Armadimon began to glow and expand in size. When the light of evolution faded, Ankylomon was standing in his place. "Ankylomon!"
"Patamon Shinka!" Patamon began to glow and expand in size. When the light of evolution faded, Angemon was standing in his place. "Angemon!"
"As much as I'm sure all of you have missed evolving," Tailmon had brought a gloved paw to her forehead, "if eight adults can't overtake one ultimate, then how do you suppose we're gonna fair when there are only seven of us?"
Daisuke grinned. "Then we'll just have to take it up a notch, right Ken?"
Is there always a gogglehead when it comes to chosen children? Ryo was standing on a treebranch alongside Strikedramon. This caused him to think about Takato. He had been more cautious with Guilmon, probably because he had created Guilmon. From fighting at Dukemon's side against D-Reaper, Ryo had gotten the impression that Takato was probably about as reckless and stubborn as this kid Daisuke. The difference came in the form of Daisuke's enthusiasm. It was something they had in common apparently, that both of them felt compelled to play the hero. There was a difference there too. Daisuke had immediately consulted Ken, which meant that they were part of the team. Ryo had always gone off alone with the exception of when he'd looked after Ken. Daisuke seemed to have plenty of optimism to go around.
Ken nodded. "It's been a while, but I think we've still got it."
"XV-mon!"
"Stingmon!"
The ringing of two digivices rang loudly as both digimon became surrounded by blue-green bursts of light. Unknown to the others, expect perhaps Ken, Ryo had seen this exact same evolution years ago.
"Jogress Shinka!" A unity ring, glowing with red light, appeared to absorb the data of both digimon as their forms merged together and continued to expand in size. When the light of evolution faded, Paildramon was standing in their place. "Paildramon!"
Although there hadn't been further discussion, it seemed like the rest of the group had gotten the same idea. The ringing of multiple digivices sounded again. Ryo continued to watch with mild fascination. He'd been in the digital world a long time, so it was difficult to surprise him.
"Aquilamon!"
"Tailmon!"
Both digimon became surrounded by reddish bursts of light. "Jogress Shinka!" A unity ring, glowing with red light, appeared to absorb the data of both digimon as their forms merged together and continued to expand in size. When the light of evolution faded, Silphymon was standing in their place. "Silphymon!"
"Ankylomon!"
"Angemon!"
Both digimon became surrounded by golden bursts of light. "Jogress Shinka!" A unity ring, glowing with red light, appeared to absorb the data of both digimon as their forms merged together and continued to expand in size. When the light of evolution faded, Shakkoumon was standing in thier place. "Shakkoumon!"
A booming voice echoed from above them. "Do you pitiful children and your pet digimon really believe you could ever be a match for the ruler of the Southern Region?" Fourteen sets of eyes looked skyward at the massive digimon.
Ryo brought his hand into his line of vision and stared down at his D3. It was blue and white, like Daisuke's, but the colors were inverted. His D-Arc had transformed upon entry to this dimension of the digital world at which time Cyberdramon had also become Strikedramon. If he couldn't execute Matrix Evolution, how was he supposed to become Justimon?
"That will be quite enough," came a second booming voice. This one sounded much more pleasant and no wonder, it was Qinglongmon! "Zhuqiaomon, is this any way to treat visitors especially after they've done you the favor of erasing who knows how many dark towers from cluttering your precious region of the digital world?"
Ken got the mental impression that, by now, Koushiro probably knew exactly how many dark towers there had been and how many each of their digimon had destroyed. He also suspected that Koushiro was still monitoring them, because that was just the sort of thing he did.
"These runts aren't worth my time anyway," Zhuqiaomon apparently didn't have an interested in a verbal debate with the so-called Dragon of the East. For something so big, he sure moved fast. Within a matter of minutes, he was gone just as suddenly as he had appeared.
"Thanks, we owe you one Qinglongmon," Takeru decided to do the talking, presumeably before Daisuke said anything that might get them into trouble again.
"Don't mention it," came the reply.
"I trust that you will deal with those upstarts," Zhuqiaomon spoke into the shadows within his mountain fortress.
"When the time comes, there will be nothing to stop you from claiming the entire digital world as your own," came the familiar voice of Daemon.
To Be Continued...
The Dubbed Digimon Terminology Guide
Millenniumon- Milleniummon
Ruki- Rika
Hirokazu- Kazu
Shooting Star- Star Shower
Chosen Children- Digidestined
XV-mon- ExVeemon
Aquilamon- Aquillamon