Chapter 6 – Mr. Shadow

I walked down the street towards the house somewhat mechanically, the only sound being the footsteps that Gazimon and I made.

I kicked a rock and made a disgusted noise.

"Can you believe the nerve of those people back there? Thinking I was going to be chummy with them!"

Gazimon chuckled.

"No one said you had to be chummy with them to tolerate them."

I grunted.

"You sound like you almost like them."

"I don't. I have as little respect for the humans as you do. I'd like to show Nonaka who's boss as much as you do. But Kokuamon, Mushroomon and I… we have history."

"History?"

"Nothing you - wait. Speak of the devil."

I glanced back at him, and looked to where he was looking. Gazimon stepped forward.

"What do you need, Kokuwamon?"

The metal insect clacked its pincers nervously.

"To talk to you - Privately."

Gazimon's eyes narrowed.

"Why?"

Kokuwamon looked grim.

"It's important. Old business."

Gazimon looked almost… spooked for a moment. Then he turnd his gaze to me.

"I'll catch up. This is important."

I nodded, and turned back up the street to the house. Gazimon didn't take long. He caught up with me three streets later, as I turned up to gate of the house. I didn't say anything, knowing he would know I expected a report.

"He recomended we distance ourselves from 'Mr. Shadow'."

I looked at him.

"No residual loyalties to him? You told me you were lockd away before he got you out."

Gazimon growled, which shockd me. I'd never seen an outright burst of anger from him.

"Not after what Kokuwamon said, no."

"Are you sure it's not just his partner trying to make trouble?"

Gazimon shook his head.

"No. Kokuwamon wouldn't lie about this - plus it fits to well."

"What fits?"

"We were locked away. How did he know where to find us?"

I grunted.

"So what does it fit?"

Gzimo hesitated.

"Later. He also told me the secret to ulimate level digivolution."

I grinned, but Gazimon rolled his eyes.

"Aparently, in a battle situation, you have to concentrate on a pure and heartfelt wish."

I goggled.

"You're joking, right?"

He shook his head.

"Aparently not."

I sighed.

"We'll… come up with some way around that. You don't get as good as we are - as we're going to be - by being soft."

He nodded.

"What about Mr. Shadow?"

"I'll…"

What? Make the descisons? Do what I want?

"…take that under advisement."

Gazimon nodded, and I continued.

"Now. Who did Kokuwamon tell you Mr. Shadow's true identity was? That's the only thing he could have told you."

---

Kokuwamon left to take care of an 'errand'. I didn't know what he meant, but I as willing to leave him to it. Once in the family appartment, I looked down at Mica, who was red eyed fro crying. We hadn't found Delia.

"Go to bed okay, Mica? We'll look for Delia again tomorrow."

Mica nodded.

"I'll get up extra early."

"No."

He looked at me, and I elaborated.

"If Delia were here, she wouldn't want us to skip school, right? But right after school ends, we'll go looking, okay?"

He nodded and hugged me. I returned it, and gently pushed him towars the hall. He went, Mushroomon following, while I walked into the kitchen for a glass of water before turning in myself.

Going towards our rooms, I found Mica and Mushroomon outside Delia's door.

"Didn't I tell you to - oh my…"

Getting to the door and looking in, I saw Delia there sleeping like she'd never moved. Mica looked at me.

"She was gone when I came after you, I swear!"

I smiled at him.

"I know, Mica. I believe you. We'll ask Delia tomorrow when we get home, okay? Maybe she's getting better!"

Or possibly worse.

He nodded and ran off to his room, Mushroomon still trailing. Watching him go, I suddenly felt old.

I shook it off and went to bed myself.

---

I swore and jumped behind a parked car.

What Kokuwamon had told Gazimon about Mr. Shadow had proven correct. Mr. Shadow had left in a hurry then, and left this behind.

SkullBarukimon

Level: Ultimate

Type: Data

Class: Undead

Attacks:

Glaive Horn

Deadly Fear

This undead digimon is something to be feared. It's Deadly Fear can stop anyone in their tracks, while it's Glaive Horn impales them!

"GLAIVE HORN!"

It was all Lynxmon could do to stay ahead of him, or out of range of its Deadly Fear attack.

SkullBarukimon was a bull digimon made of bones. But somewhere along the way wings had gotten mixed in. But it wasn't hollow, either. Filling it was a black substance with points of light.

I looked down at my cards.

DIGI-Modify! Strength Activate!

"WILD NAIL RUSH!"

Lynxmon rushed in towards to standing SkullBarukimon. SkullBarukimon lifted off, but Lynxmon had anticipated this and jumped, slicing his razored claws over the bone.

"DEADLY FEAR!"

Damn.

I pulled another card.

DIGI-Modify! Recovery Activate!

"GLAIVE HORN!"

Lynxmon shook off the fear, just in time to get out of the way of the second half of SkullBarukimon's combo.

And with the way it keeps tearing up the street, I'd bet Lynxmon wouldn't last long against that hit.

Still, I'd found no wish I could really mean from the bottom of my heart, even if I wanted to go that route.

But as Lynxmon readied for another of SkullBarukimon's charges, I had to wonder if I would have any other choice.

---

Mica by my side, I opened up the door to Delia's room.

But Delia was not inside. With feelings bordering on panic, I turned to Mica, who was starting to tear up.

"Okay. We need to go find her. Now. This is really starting to freak me out."

Mica nodded and gripped my hand. We rushed out of the apartment, Kokuwamon and Mushroomon following. We were at the end of the street before we stopped. I looked down at Mica.

"We need a plan. We can't just go searching for her randomly like we did last night. Where would she go?"

Mica shrugged. I cursed inwardly. Given how much I'd had to grow up since Delia dropped into her own little world, I sometimes forgot how little Mica was, and a panicking eight-year-old is no one's idea of a good time.

There was a hiss from behind us. I spun around to find Mr. Shadow standing deep in the shadows of an overhang. His eyes glowed evilly for a moment, and then he seemed to melt into the stone. His voice remained on the wind.

"You are going to pay for crossing me girl, one way or another. If not you, than your brother. It doesn't make a difference."

A roar was heard from down the street, then the flapping of wings.

Oh no…

It came into view. DeaxDoruGoramon.

"Kokuwamon!"

"Right, Justen!"

"You too, Mushroomon!"

Matrix Digivolution

Kokuwamon Matrix Digivolve to… MetalTyrannomon!

Mushroomon Matrix Digivolve to… Cherrymon!

"METAL IMPULSE!"

MetalTyrannomon took the hit solidly. I ground my teeth in frustration. We were too slow, and the opponent was a mega level. It was only a matter of time before we went down. I squeezed Mica's hand, then drew a card.

DIGI-Modify! Power Activate!

Hopeless or not, we had to try.

---

Lynxmon was hurting. He'd taken another charge from SkullBarukimon, and I was out of recover cards. I began to sweat.

Can we… loose?

I remembered Boogeymon's victory over Lynxmon. Of course we could loose. I closed my eyes and clenched a fist. Loosing battle or not, I would not back down.

We will destroy him and 'Mr. Shadow', or perish trying.

Nodding resolutely to myself I readied a card, and acknowledged a fact.

WE will stand against him. Both of us. But first, we must survive this battle. Together.

And the card began glowing a bright brilliant blue, starting from the base, coming up the top of the card to outline the yellow 'D' with the dinosaur digimon roaring our of it, which began to glow yellow. I smirked in triumph.

Matrix Digivolution­ Lynxmon Digivolve to… BlueMeramon!

Smirking, I readied two more cards. This wasn't a fight to win; it was a fight to dominate with unrelenting force.

DIGI-Modify! Cerubumon's Emerald Blaze Activate! Power Activate!

"DEADLY FEAR!"

"EMERALD BLAZE!"

The powered up attack from BlueMeramon gave him the confidence needed to ignore his opponent's mental attack, and spread bright green flames out to sear SkullBarukimon's bones, causing him to howl in pain, aborting the second piece of the combo. Then BlueMeramon changed tactics.

"COLD FLAME!"

Bright blue followed up the path the green had left and cooled the bones rapidly, making them brittle.

Finally recovering, SkullBarukimon launched his other attack.

"GLAIVE HORN!"

BlueMeramon waited calmly, and then when SkullBarukimon was about to hit him…

"ICE PHANTOM!"

A cold, ghostly image of BlueMeramon flew forward, causing Skullbarukimon's bones to shatter before dissipating into data. I smirked again.

"Load it."

BlueMeramon nodded, and loaded the data.

An explosion ripped through the city just then, and I looked over to it. BlueMeramon picked me up and put me on his shoulder, the blue flames strangely not feeling all that cold to me. I chuckled as we ran for the next fight.

"No rest for the wicked."

BlueMeramon's smirk was in his voice.

"Not like we'd want any."

---

I bolted down the street on Phelesmon. Ai had said she'd catch up, that Phelesmon could only carry one of us.

I nodded to a nearby rooftop.

"Phelesmon, set me down there!"

"Right, Mako!"

Settling on the rooftop, I ran to the edge as Phelesmon swooped down on the dragon.

"DEMON'S SHOUT!"

Phelesmon's sonic attack was at least successful in disorienting the beast, distracting him from Justen and Mica, whose digmon were just barely holding on.

I took a card.

DIGI-Modify! MegaKabuterimon's Horn Buster Activate!

"HORN BUSTER!"

Lightning struck out from Phelesmon's head, engulfing DeaxDoruGoramon. The undead digmon roared, but it left him in place for an attack.

"NUCLEAR LASER!"

"ILLUSION MIST!"

I nodded at Cherrymon's choice. At least the two slower moving digimon on the ground would be harder to hit.

"DORUDIN!"

Or not.

The breath attack might not have hit any of the digimon, but it burned the fog off pretty rapidly.

"FIRE BLAST II!"

"PIT PELTER!"

DeaxDoruGoramon roared again, and lunged.

"MEATAL IMPULSE!"

"ICE PHANTOM!"

A flash of blue from the side I couldn't see on, and something impacted DeaxDoruGoramon, causing him to miss, and slam into a storefront instead. Susie showed up then, Antylamon heading in for the attack.

"ARM BOMBER!"

"BLACK STATUE!"

Both attacks hit while he was still shaking off the rubble, and I began to have the insane hope we could win this if we just kept him off balance long enough.

"COLD FLAME!"

I was a bit surprised to see Jamie directing a BlueMeramon, but shrugged it off. The more power we brought to bear on this guy, the better.

"DORUDIN!"

The small hope earlier died a painful death as Cherrymon and MetalTyrannomon went down.

"BLACK STATUE!"

Phelesmon dropped another statue on the dragon and it glared up at him ferally. It flapped its wings to try and get off the ground to confront him.

"ICE PHANTOM!"

DeaxDoruGoramon let out a small puff of flame, weakening the attack enough that he was still able to lift off.

"DEMON'S SHOUT!"

"METAL IMPULSE!"

Phelesmon tried to get out of the way, but was clipped by the undead dragon anyway. He slammed into a wall, and fuzzed, but didn't dedigivolve. It roared and looked around for his next target, his gaze settling on a lone figure coming down the road.

I took off for the fire escape to get down, knowing I'd be too late.

It was Ai.

"METAL IMPULSE!"

I couldn't see anything, but I could hear a lot of crashing. I got down to see the impossible. Phelesmon, BlueMeramon, and Antylamon had gotten in the way of the attack.

All were down and out of it, back in their rookie stages.

And all DeaxDoruGoramon was doing was standing there, looking at a very petrified Ai.

Then, it roared suddenly, knocking her back, and took off into the sky once again. We didn't have time to consider the strangeness of it though.

"Well, well, well."

Jamie snarled from where he was checking on Gazimon. Gazimon tried to get to his feet, Kokuwamon and Mushroomon right behind him. I sighed in relief as Impmon managed to get to one knee. Mica whimpered, and Justen gasped.

"Mr. Shadow…"

"I thought I'd destroy you while you're down. Rebellious puppets aren't to be tolerated."