"Tai and I found a village in the mountains called Rock City- and no, I don't mean Detroit. We didn't know it at first, but Pridemon's Power Spine was there, and it was allowing her to rule the digimon that lived there. Once we arrived, she tried to use my own music against me, to try to influence me into breaking away from my friends. But Gabumon and the others were too smart for her, and thanks to a brand new song, I was able to snap out of it. But now we know what she's capable of, and she's nowhere near done with us yet."
-Matt
DIGIMON: THE DIGITAL KEEPERS SAGA
Book Twenty-One: "The Road Less Traveled"
During all this time, while Tai and Matt had conquered the odds in Rock City, Kellen had been focused on opening a portal gate to Limbo, in hopes to check on his friend and mentor, Gennai. He was doing so by chanting a spell in front of a wall covered in ancient digital codes, which were glowing in syncopation.
All the while, Culumon had waited ever so patiently for any signs of success on Kellen's part. And then, to his surprise (which showed thanks to the enlargement of his koala-like ears), the wall by which Kellen was chanting started to glow blue.
This was a sign that the spell was finally working; "Kellen!" cheered the little Culumon, "The wall's changing!" Kellen opened his eyes halfway to see it for himself; indeed, his spell was working, for what appeared to be a data stream painted its way across the wall.
Culumon approached it and muttered, "What is that?" Kellen stopped chanting at last and explained, "It's a fractal code. It's pure data that makes up the physical form of an object or creature in the digital world." The fractal code broke itself apart before their eyes, revealing a dark atmosphere behind it.
"Finally," Kellen blinked, "there it is…"
"Is it Limbo?" asked Culumon; "It is," nodded Kellen. The young boy then stood up and moved in closer to the portal gate to get a better look through it.
Like his shadow, Culumon moved up behind him to see it for himself. "Do you see Gennai?" asked the little digimon. "Not yet," muttered Kellen; his eyes were so focused on the darkness of Limbo that he had no time to pay attention to his little companion.
"GENNAI!" he started to call out; "Gennai, can you hear me?? Are you alright??" At first, there was no answer, but then a flash of soft light came zipping left and right. Kellen and Culumon gasped at first glance at this; it was the light of another dimensional gate in the distance.
They soon saw more than one gate, spinning in whirlpool motion and snaking their way across the endless plain of Limbo. Kurumon felt tempted to push his tiny hand through the portal gate, to see if he could feel Limbo's atmosphere, but just in time Kellen pushed him back and gasped, "No, don't touch it… You'll fall in and you'll be lost, maybe forever." The little digimon pulled in his ears and frowned, "Aww, I'm sorry Kellen."
Again, Kellen tried to call out to Gennai, and once again only silence responded. That is, until he heard the distant sound of electric swords clashing together. The young boy looked up in surprise; "Oh!" he gasped, "Do you hear that?"
They heard it again; a distant clashing sound. It could have only been the clashing swords of Gennai and Daru, still at it after all this time. Soon enough, they were spotted beyond the snaky dimension gates.
Kellen's eyes lit up with concern, "It's Gennai… He's still fighting Daru."
The fight would come to them soon enough; like the wind, the two duelists flew across the endless void of Limbo, around one dimension gate after another, flinging their swords at one another. It became clear to Kellen that not only was he unable to help Gennai, but that the duelists were coming way too close to their opened portal gate; one false move could have proven dangerous.
"I've got to close the gate," said Kellen wisely; he started the process already by waving his hands at the gate, signaling it to close. "Hurry!" warned Culumon, "Here they come!"
Then what happened next happened too fast; the two Preservers didn't even get to see that a gate was open to limbo, and that Kellen and Culumon were on the other side of it, so they flew right by it inadvertently. "Kellen, lookout!" hollered little Culumon; he saw that Gennai and Daru were waving their swords a little too closely to the portal gate for a moment. The little digimon then tried to force the boy out of the way by jumping on his head.
And then…
In a flash, Kellen looked up and saw that the Preservers had passed by, a little too closely for comfort. And just as quickly as they had come, they had now gone.
The young boy quickly continued the process of closing the portal gate by chanting a new spell, a counter spell. The gate had already begun to shut, when Kellen finally realized what had happened; he took a hand to his head, and felt that something was missing…
"Culumon," he muttered in shock.
Indeed, Culumon was no longer there; had he disappeared? No; Kellen glanced out at what was visibly left of Limbo, and he realized with a look of horror that Culumon had been caught by the long, dark sash of Daru's robe. There the little digimon dangled, screaming for help; "He-e-elp! Help!! Kellen!"
"CULUMON!" Kellen hollered back in vain.
He knew that he had to rescue his little friend, but it was too late; the portal gate was already nearing its completion in shutting its door. When it did, the young boy slammed his fists on it in frustration. "NO-O-O!" he howled in despair; "Culumon! …Come back!! …Culumo-o-on…"
Culumon would not be in danger for very long; in a matter of seconds, he had broken free of Daru's sash. But just as he did so, he was whisked toward a large whirlpool-like dimension gate. Tried as he could, he couldn't fight off its gravitational pull, and found himself getting sucked into the vortex.
He was on his way to another digital world, one slightly different than the one the Digi-Destined were in. But like the previous one, there would be a connection between it and another Earth, which means he would soon find more human friends, and more digimon to encounter…
But as for Kellen, he was now officially alone. He knelt down at the wall, through which he had tried to contact his mentor Gennai. With tears streaming down his face, he felt like he had failed as a Preserver, and as a friend to both Gennai and Culumon, miserably. "…What have I done?" he sniffed to himself; "…Culumon… Where did you go?…"
Where, indeed? Only time would tell…
It was on that same day when TK and Kari had reached the farthest end of the Pengea-like continent of the digital world, in the direction of its northeast.
There, by a calm sandy beach on a warm sunny day, they discovered a Power Spine- this one was owned by Lustmon. Strangely enough, this was the one Spine that seemed to have no effect on its environment; although it was digging up vital data from the planet's core, the sky was a peaceful blue, the sand was cheerfully white, the ocean was a deep blue and the plants in the background were emerald green.
"Wow, I don't remember seeing this before," blinked the curious Kari as she stared at the enormous spire. TK replied, "It kinda looks like the dark spires Ken made, when he was the Digimon Kaiser. But I thought we cleared them all."
"That's not a control spire," peeped Patamon as he was in flight; "Izzy emailed us this morning about something called Power Spines. I'll bet this is one of them."
TK gasped and reached for his digivice, knowing that Izzy's email was contained within it. He looked it up quickly and nodded, "…You're right, Patamon. These things are trying to dig up as much data from the digital world's earth as they can, and by using our crests we can shut them down." Kari then turned to him with a smile and nodded, "Well, what're you waiting for? You go for it." He nodded back, "Alrighty."
------------ Vision 1: Digivolution- Battle Gear ------------
(As before, TK gets the data treatment as the others during his transformation, but his data is yellow to match his crest. Also, before he digivolves, he first passes through an image of Angemon)
"TK Takaishi, Battle-Gear digivolve, based on………….. ANGEMON!"
------------ Vision 2: Digivolution- Champion ------------
"PATAMON, DIGIVOLVE TO………………………………… ANGEMON!"
------------ End Visions ------------
Kari and her partner Gatomon smiled in wonder as their friends now looked very much alike; one was the original Angemon, and the other was a young man that simply dressed similar to him. Without wasting any time, the two angels swooped into the Power Spine…
…and headed straight for the giant whirlpool of unearthed data. TK held out his crest to the data and yelled,
"HOPE'S LIGHT, ENERGIZE!"
And just like that, the crest poured out like a torrent its own stream of yellow data. It zapped into the core data, changing its color from blue to yellow. And it didn't stop there; all of the walls inside (and outside) the tower started glowing yellow. This was a sign that the spell was working, and that the core data was now going to go back where it came from.
Within seconds, the Power Spine was shut down; what was glowing with power had now been dried up and as dull as a lead pipe. Kari and Gatomon kept watching to see TK and Angemon emerge from the interior of the Spine.
Then they flew up to the very top of the now shut down tower, and combined their "Hand of Fate" and "Angel's Calling" together; the attacks were enough to crack straight through the tower, and like a hollowed shell, it crumbled to pieces.
…But that's where things really got freaky. As if the whole thing was a curtain, the environment ripped open from where the Power Spine had stood, and disintegrated into the air like a mere illusion. In fact, it was an illusion; what was blue, serene and peaceful a moment ago had now become dark, gray and ice cold.
Kari and Gatomon were both taken in by an eerie chill in the wind, and huddled themselves and purred, "Brr!" TK and Angemon landed by their side, changing back into their earlier forms as a human and a Rookie. They too then paused to observe the drastic change of scenery and gasped in surprise.
TK blinked, "…What happened? Why did it get dark all of a sudden?" Patamon fluttered over to his partner and frowned with fear, "TK… This is the Dark Ocean."
They looked at it more closely; indeed, it looked like the same forbiddingly dark ocean that they have seen several times. The last time they had seen it was all too recent; Ken had been led here by the Keeper of Darkness himself, in an attempt to remove the dark spore from his neck by force.
All it was now was a desolate wasteland of a beach; the sand looked like dust, and the water looked disgustingly polluted, and the sky seemed cloudy, but it was due to the fact that there seemed to be no sun.
Kari moved closer to her lifelong friend and asked, "What do we do now, TK?" The young man replied calmly, "Well, that tower was obviously put here to make us think that this was a safe place; maybe now that we know what it is, there's something out there we have to face yet."
His little Rookie partner then commented, "You sound like Izzy; speak smaller, please!"
His friend then smiled, "I'm just saying, maybe we should explore this place, 'cause Daemon might be hiding something here." "Yeah," Kari nodded; "I'll bet he doesn't want us here for a reason." "It's settled then," said TK, but then Gatomon stepped forward and finally spoke, "No, it's not."
Surprised, Kari turned over to her cat-like friend and frowned, "What's the matter, Gatomon?" The little kitty of a Champion responded, "This place just isn't safe; we were here before, remember? Last time you and I were here, we ran into a group of Divermon who wanted to take us to their 'Master.'"
Kari's memories then kicked in; the incident which Gatomon was talking about happened four years ago, during the time they were battling the Kaiser. It was a moment in their lives that went away as quickly and as mysteriously as it had entered.
Kari blinked, "Oh, yeah… I remember now; we found a control spire here before. But we helped those digimon out." Gatomon then replied, "That's not what worries me; I don't think the Master they were talking about was Daemon… Something else lives out here, I just know it."
TK then looked down at the little kitty and smiled, "Aw, don't be such a scardy-cat, Gatomon." Feeling insulted, her white fur spiked up a little as she hissed, "I'm not afraid! …I'm just worried about Kari, that's all."
"I'll be fine, Gatomon," assured her human partner; "We've got TK and Patamon with us; together we're an unstoppable team." "That's right," agreed TK.
Gatomon just sighed; she had her reasons for being so protective of Kari, but what the humans had said made some sense to her, and she was, for the moment, eased of her worry. "Alright," she nodded, and that was the end of that argument.
The four heroes then ventured forward down the beach, looking left and right for any signs of life or any unusual activities.
In the far distance stood a curious Slothmon.
Usually, the ghost-like Sin who sported a pendulum-like scythe would be sleeping soundly, but for once he was awake. The colors of his eyes were black and white, but in the reversed sense; like a Bakemon, they were black corneas and white pupils.
It was now clear that the ghost-like Sin was wrapped in a silver chain, like Jacob Marley, perhaps. His face and arms were shriveled, as if he had starved to death a long time ago, and for some reason he had stitches on his mouth, though he could still speak.
And speak he did, when he caught sight of the heroes who wandered onto his Master's beach; "…hmm… It worked; they took the bait. I should stay awake and make sure all goes according to the Master's plan."
So he did stay there, floating weightlessly just a few inches above the ground. He didn't seem to have any legs or feet, so floating was part of his lifestyle. The only problem he had at this point was trying to keep his weary eyes open.
As they traveled across the beach, the heroes came across a small raft that was already hand-crafted; it had sturdy logs pulled and tied together, topped off with a slightly worn but still useful sail.
TK, Kari and their digimon wondered where this small raft had come from, but seeing that it was the only form of transportation they would have on the open sea, they had no other choice but to use it.
Though the ocean lacked color, it was as calm as an ocean could get, and there was a strangely peaceful wind on the water, so the little raft was able to move through the waves with ease.
After a few hours or so, they were so far out at sea that there was no sight of land at all. Perhaps that was the point; they knew now that this world was almost completely made of water. Why, though, became the topic that would set them free of their boredom soon enough.
TK had his eye on the darkening sky as he said, "I wonder if this is a never-ending ocean?" Kari had her eye on the blackening water as she replied, "If it is, then maybe we should have looked around for scuba gear." A nearly seasick Gatomon moaned, "Can we please not talk about the water? Just thinking about it is making me queasy."
Patamon then teased her with, "Fine. I got a new subject: food! Just think about it, Gatomon; chips, hot dogs, burgers, fries, soda, beans…" As much as she wanted to shut him up, Gatomon was instead overcome with dizziness and laid on her back to try and relax.
"I would rather think about what we could find out here," Kari replied suddenly. TK looked over to her and could see the dismal look in her eyes; she seemed worried about something. TK smiled to her, "Hey relax, Kari. We went up against a million bad guys already; we can handle anything out here."
Kari turned to him to look him in the eye and replied, "That's not what I meant, TK. All we know about this world so far is the water and the sky. I'll bet there's a whole city down there underwater, just waiting for us to go check it out." TK smiled again, "Hey, that sounds like a plan!"
But Kari added, "If there is something down there, then maybe we should have waited for the others to get here. As strong as you and I are, we're strongest when we're with everyone else." "Finally," Gatomon smiled as she snapped out of her dizzy spell, "someone's thinking logically. I for one think we should turn around right now and-"
"Why should we?" interrupted TK; he seemed a bit impatient, but with reason.
He added, "We've come this far; there's really no point in going back." "Why are we all arguing over this?" little Patamon wondered; "I thought we all agreed to see the ocean world."
His Champion friend shook her head in reply, "I'm sorry, but I don't feel comfortable out here at all. And I know it's not my stomach talking; it's just instinct." "Yeah, instinct," TK commented, "because you're a gato, Gatomon." He and Patamon made a small chuckle, but Gatomon just frowned.
Being a cat had nothing to do with her uneasy feeling; it was more than that, and she knew it. And she had to prove it.
The little white kitty with the purple-striped tail moved over to her human partner and muttered, "Kari?" The young lady turned to her with a hum, "Hmm?" Gatomon's blue eyes looked into her brown and said, "I know you've had these kind of feelings in the past; I remember when you were very little, you had connections with the digital world even before we knew it had a life of its own."
"Huh?" Kari peeped again, as if confused.
Gatomon continued, "If you've got the same bad feeling that I do, then you know something's wrong with this picture. You just gotta feel it, and I know you can." Kari never took herself to be a psychic, even though she had indeed shown signs of such a power before.
But the young lady seemed distracted, or lost in thought, so she just shook her head and frowned, "Sorry, Gatomon, but I don't feel anything funny at all."
This disturbed the little Champion more than anything else; if any of these Digi-Destined had the best gut feeling, it was Kari, and it seemed to have died on her now. Feeling defeated in her quest for a kindred spirit, the little kitty declined and moved back to the center of the raft with a soft sigh.
The sky was as gray as a thick fog, so the equally gray Slothmon, who had been spying on the heroes from afar, camouflaged himself so that TK and the others couldn't see him. The only thing that stood out was his golden pendulum for a scythe, but that didn't seem to matter.
The lazy Sin eyed his victims-to-be and muttered, "This is getting bor-ing… Maybe I should crank up the action a few notches." He then held up his weapon of choice, which extended the blades on one of its ends to a massive ten feet in length. The scythe was now shimmering with two menacing blades, like a real pendulum, and the Sin called out in a haunting voice, "TIME KEEPER'S PENDULUM."
With one swoop, the pendulum brushed across the water, but instead of making a splash, it did even worse- it ripped open a hole in the dimension itself, causing a terrible shock wave.
He was about half a mile away from the heroes when this happened, so the first thing that they noticed was the sound of a thunder crash. Soon afterwards, the sea rumbled from the shock wave, causing the raft to bobble up and down roughly.
"What's going on!?" Kari screamed in shock, as she and Gatomon hung on for dear life on the raft's mast. TK held onto his hat while Patamon took to the air; TK replied loudly, "I think it was lightning!" His partner disagreed, "How can there be lightning when there's no light here?"
Then, as if things couldn't get any worse, they heard the most unpleasant rumbling sound coming up from behind them. Startled, the team looked behind them, and there they saw a giant tidal wave, which looked more like a towering wall of dark water. Not sure of what else to do, the team responded with a unified scream.
Then, they took off! TK and Patamon were the first to jump to the sides of the raft- TK on the right, Patamon on the left. As if they couldn't think of anything else to do at the time, they used their arms as oars in a desperate attempt to outrun the tidal wave.
Kari and Gatomon joined them soon afterwards- Kari joined Patamon, and Gatomon joined TK. "Faster! FASTER!" TK panicked; "We're not gonna make it!" Kari replied.
She was right; though the wave was massive, it was moving at a slow pace; even so, they certainly would not have escaped it at the slow pace they were going. Gatomon thought fast and called to Patamon, "Quick! We gotta digivolve!"
Patamon nodded in reply, and the two of them forced themselves to break the digi-volution record by surrounding themselves in balls of illuminated data streams. Soon, they each sprouted many sets of angelic wings and took on more human-like forms.
But by the time Angemon and Angewomon made their debuts on the open sea, they were already shadowed by the massive wave.
"We're too late! ABANDON SHIP!" screamed Angewomon.
Frantically, the angels collected their human partners into their arms and prepared to take flight, just as the wall of water came looming over them. Angemon took off first with TK, followed by Angewomon and Kari.
Thanks to the fact that they each had more than one pair of wings, they were able to narrowly escape the wave's deadly force, though when it did sweep by them, it released a spray of water powerful enough to drench them from more than thirty feet high.
The four of them, soaked to the bone, took a moment to catch their breath and try to relax. "what… how… where did that come from?" muttered a rattled TK; Kari coughed, "…I dunno… but I'm glad we made it." "Barely," sighed a relieved Angewomon. Angemon then took the next moment to look around in curiosity; he said, "Strange… That wave seemed to have come from out of nowhere."
"It couldn't have," replied a suspicious TK; "I'll bet somebody started it." "Who could it have been?" wondered Kari, as she started to check her ear for entered water. "Who else?" guessed TK; "Daemon. This is his world after all, is it?"
"Well," replied Angewomon, "he certainly has made residence here; it would make sense that if he knew we were coming, he'd attack us."
Just when they were getting their second wind, Slothmon was just beginning to feel a rush of energy; apparently, he was the kind of digimon that was at his deadliest when he was on a roll.
Where he stood in mid air, he gave a wicked grin and hissed, "NIGHTMARISH MIRAGE." With this special attack, he was able to create life-like illusions, and he had the perfect one for this situation.
What looked like a sudden heat wave that came over the area soon became the intro of a black sea dragon. When the heroes caught sight of it coming behind them, they thought it had already emerged from the murky water.
It was unlike any digimon they had ever seen before; they thought it might have been a Seadramon, but Seadramon had masks on their faces, while this beast's face was clearly visible, down to its viciously red eyes. And those red eyes were the only truly colored part of it; the rest of it was shaded in many tones of gray.
"Oh my gosh!" gasped Kari, who saw it coming first. Angemon turned around and gasped, "What is that!?" TK replied, "I dunno! I've never seen that digimon before." Just as he said that, it had dipped itself into the water in order to hide itself from them. Angewomon then huffed, "Well, I'm not waiting for it to come up for air; let's fly!"
The two angels then split up, but not too far away from each other, in hopes to lure the mysterious sea dragon away from each other. But the so-called sea dragon had already chosen its target, and as it emerged from the water like a fish jumping for a dragonfly, it took Angewomon and Kari by surprise.
"Kari!"
"Angewomon!"
TK and Angemon called out to their friends, but it was too late. The illusion took a flying leap at Angewomon, ready to ensnare her and Kari in its jaws. The female angel tried to move fast, but since she was ambushed, she wasn't fast enough. Though the creature was purely holographic thanks to Slothmon's power, it had enough force to bring Angewomon and Kari back into the water.
Angewomon was the first to emerge from the water, but then she realized she was alone. "Kari!" she gasped; "…Kari, where are you?? Kari!"
Then in a whoosh, Kari emerged from the water herself, coughing and gagging for air. Through instinct, she quickly moved toward the nearest piece of wood that remained of the raft, and hugged it for dear life. "Kari?" called Angewomon; "…I'm here," her partner weakly replied nearby.
Her Ultimate partner tried to swim to her as fast as she could, but TK and Angemon could see the dark sea dragon coming toward them from underwater, like a snake.
"Kari! Angewomon! Lookout!" cried out TK, but the creature was faster than all four of them, for just as the girls were reunited, the illusion popped its head and neck out like a jack-in-the-box.
It loomed over them mercilessly; TK gritted his teeth and growled, "Come on, Angemon, we can take him!" His Champion partner them let him loose, which was TK's cue to suit up for battle.
------------ Vision: Digivolution- Battle Gear ------------
"TK Takaishi, Battle-Gear digivolve, based on………….. ANGEMON!"
------------ End Vision ------------
Angemon and TK aimed their attacks from behind the beast; TK then took the sash around his outfit, and it started to glow heavenly, and formed a golden chain. He then called out, "CONDEMNING CHAIN!"
The chain wrapped itself around the illusion's neck, and even though it was an illusion, it seemed to be strong enough to have somewhat of a physical form, so TK's lasso trick worked.
"HAND OF FATE!" summoned Angemon, releasing a fireball-like energy from his fist; his attack followed the chain that TK had lassoed around the sea dragon, so that together their powers combined.
The sea dragon took the hit, but it took it with ease; the male heroes were shocked to see that their attack didn't work.
Meanwhile, Angewomon was scooping Kari up into her arms; "Hold on, Kari, I've got you," she assured her. Kari wrapped her arms around Angewomon's shoulder line, gasping, "Can you fly?" "I can try," nodded her partner, and started to flap her drenched wings. Then, as things couldn't get any worse for them, an ocean current started to form, and pull them forward.
While TK and Angemon were distracted by the sea dragon, the girls found themselves fighting this strange new current. The two of them split up to try and swim away, but the water was too strong for them. Soon it would become clear as to what was pulling them so roughly; Kari saw it first, and gulped, "…oh…no…"
It was a whirlpool; a giant one, growing by the second. In seconds, TK finally caught sight of it as it was growing and gasped in horror, "Oh, God! KARI!"
He and Angemon tried to swoop their way, but they were blocked off by the invading sea dragon illusion. The two of them tried to get around it, but a frustrated Slothmon, who was hiding from within this illusion, decided to take action against them. He took up his Father Time-like scythe and summoned, "SANDS OF TIME!"
The sea dragon illusion then opened its mouth and released a sudden burst of dark sand at the two male angels. The boys thought that this was the monster's attack, for they couldn't see through it to know it was Slothmon (that would explain why the illusion was so strong, even against two combined attacks).
Not only did the burst of sand blow them off course, but it contained within it a sleeping spell that weakened them enough to fall into the water without resistance.
Meanwhile, Kari and Angewomon had their hands full with trying desperately to fight their way out of the growing whirlpool. Unfortunately for them, their strengths gave in at last; quickly, each of them grabbed a broken raft log in hopes to keep their heads above water, as they continued to be pulled down. Within a minute, they were engulfed, and just like that, the whirlpool came to a sudden stop.
Slothmon then shed his sea dragon illusion, in order to pause and stare in awe at the sudden turn of events. As much as he would have enjoyed seeing his enemies sink into the ocean to their deaths, this was not his intention. In fact, it wasn't his fault at all that the whirlpool started in the first place; that's what spooked him.
"Hmmm," he hummed softly to himself; "…Looks like somebody's crashing my party… Then again, this could be interesting." He then smiled, hoping that this oversight could indeed work in his favor.
They were at it for days now.
By the third day, Gennai and Daru started to show physical signs of tiredness with bruises, torn ends of clothing, and even small cuts on their faces. It was always unclear as to where exactly they were, because everything in Limbo seemed the same; random dimensional gates passing by aimlessly in whirlpool fashion, in an otherwise pitch-black, weightless atmosphere.
Out of breath, Gennai eventually hid behind one of these gates in order to pause for air. Daru knew where he was, but decided to take his own quick break on the other side of the gateway. Each one held up his individual sword, made purely out of data, as if they were both expecting an ambush from their rival at any given time.
"…You're not getting anywhere with me, Gennai," panted Daru; "I can go on like this for another week." Feeling challenged, Gennai heard his opponent's voice and replied, "I can keep this up for another month, if I have to!"
"Get real," huffed his nearby opponent; "I got into this game long before you had, my 'friend.' I was even wise enough to reconfigure my body so that I could strengthen my experience as a Preserver. You only did it when I challenged you to this duel; that just shows how unprepared you've been."
"I don't waste my energy, unlike some people I know," sneered the nearby Gennai, as he gripped onto his sword all the tighter. "Waste?" hissed his opponent; "You think I'm as careless as those so-called Digi-Destined brats of yours?
"Let me tell you something, old fool; you and your Keepers had it all wrong when you decided to let children inherit the digital world. They can never fully comprehend the dangers and responsibilities that are required for such a task. Even now, they're falling apart; one by one, they're being corrupted all too easily by the Sin Digimon. I know it's happening, because even here in Limbo I can sense their weaknesses.
"You can feel it too, can't you? Your connection to them is weakening, while my connection to them grows stronger. Soon, my 'friend,' all you'll have left is that immature protégé of yours… And he's just as weak as the rest of them!"
Gennai had enough; his eyes narrowed at the sound of Daru's chiding, until finally he launched an attack from behind the dimensional gateway he was hiding behind. Daru saw it coming, so he blocked Gennai's sword swipe with ease. Once their duel continued, they moved all the more quickly past the carefree dimensional gates.
They seemed to be clashing swords all the harder now; Gennai was charged with rage, while Daru was becoming all the more cunning. Their attacks were going nowhere; no damage was done yet, so after a while they stopped again to breathe.
Gennai faced off against his rival with sweat running down his neck now; he panted furiously, "…You don't know these humans like I do. As they get older, they grow stronger; in body, and in spirit. I know you can't see it, but I can, and it's all the hope I need to keep going."
Daru replied with an equally weak voice, "Perhaps you're right, Gennai… Perhaps they were strong when they were younger. But you fail to realize that they are aging; the older they get, the more they lose their innocence. You should have chosen a new team of heroes when you had the chance, but now-"
Gennai snapped, "They're still worthy of this world! They will never stop fighting for it; that's what makes them worthy. It's not their innocence that counts, but their determination to keep innocence alive. It won't matter how old these humans get; they will always be Digi-Destined."
Daru then narrowed his eyes and argued, "But they will not always be here… and neither will YOU!" With that, he charged.
Gennai was ready, but upon the impact of their clashed swords, Daru pushed Gennai back, toward a dimensional gate. He did this, because on impact with a gate Gennai would either be electrocuted or sent to another plain of the digital world- either way, he'd be defeated.
Gennai pushed back just in time, avoiding any contact with the gate he had been forced toward. Daru tried it again, using his swinging sword to drive Gennai closer and closer to another passing gateway, but again Gennai resisted touching it.
As it so happened, the two of them were nearing the one place where two or three dimensions had collided with each other, becoming one. This was what they would soon call the Master Gate, the one whirlpool that certainly out-sized all the others, and it was right in the center of Limbo, while the other smaller gates revolved around it like planets to a sun.
Since he was directing Gennai toward this Master Gate, Daru was the first of the two of them to notice it. He grinned, deciding on what to do in order to finish this battle. He drove Gennai as close as he could to the massive whirlpool of data, but then stopped just in time.
When Gennai came to a stop, he suddenly became overwhelmed by a magnetic pull. Confused, he looked around to see what was going on, but then he realized it: he was being pulled in by the Master Gate's air current. It was so large and so strong, it was beginning to have its own gravitational pull, and now Gennai was stuck in the middle of it, while Daru carefully avoided it altogether.
Entertained by this, Daru watched as his rival struggled frantically to pull himself away from this gravitation, to no avail- all he could do at best was stay in one spot, still in the ring of gravity. It would have been like watching Kari and Angewomon trying but failing to escape the current of the whirlpool that they found themselves in.
When Daru saw that his opponent used his last ounce of strength to slowly overpower the gravitational pull, he very carefully moved himself closer to the ring in which Gennai was trapped. He seemed to be waiting for Gennai to get close enough to him, and when he did, the evil one gave him a smile and said, "Well, this looks like your stop. It's been fun, Gennai, but it's time to end this silly game."
He then took up his sword, turned it around so that Gennai was facing its handle bar, and added, "Oh, and don't worry about your little friend Kellen. If he's wondering where you are and how you're doing, I'll be happy to tell him myself."
His threat was not taken lightly, but Gennai knew that he couldn't escape this gravitational pull, and it didn't make it any easier for him to do so once Daru had thrust his sword's handle bar right into Gennai's face.
Taking the hit, Gennai was pushed further into the Master Gate's ring of gravity; with the force of a whirlpool's current, it dragged him speedily toward the gate itself. From where he stood weightlessly, Daru watched as his opponent went flying straight into the Master Gate, disappearing from sight altogether.
The duel was finally over.
Kari wondered some time ago what was hiding under the dark waters of this mysterious world, but she was about to put that riddle to rest at last.
She fluttered her eyes open, coming out of her state of unconsciousness. The last thing she remembered was seeing herself and Angewomon being swept into a whirlpool. Now she knew that she was still alive, and breathing, but it was too dark to see exactly where she was.
She rubbed her eyes and moaned weakly, "Uhh… Angewomon? …Angewomon, are you here? …Anybody??" Not getting an instant response from her digimon partner startled her, and that gave Kari the surge of energy she needed to wake up fully.
But then she finally got her response; "Uuugh," moaned a nearby Gatomon, whom Kari could now see lying on a drifting log like a drowned rat- er, cat.
Kari realized that she too was on a drifting log; that was about all she could see, for the water around her and the sky (or so it seemed) above her were black. "Gatomon!" she rejoiced, and piloted her log over to Gatomon's to be by her digimon's side.
Gatomon replied by lifting her head, and then shaking off the water on her head as a real cat would; "Man," she muttered gloomily, "the next time we go to the beach, I'm taking a life jacket."
She then tilted her head to the left and firmly tapped her right side to push out the water that entered her ear. Then she came to her senses and gasped, "Kari??" "I'm here," smiled her partner, ensuring her that they were still together.
Relieved, Gatomon gave a sigh, but then she looked around and felt blind; "Kari," she asked, "where are we?" "I dunno," replied her friend; "Last thing I remember, we were taken into a whirlpool. I thought we drowned." "Me too," agreed a shaken Gatomon; "…But if we're still alive, then what happened? Were we saved?"
The two of them paused to try to catch a glance at their surroundings, but as Kari described it, "It looks like we're in a cave." "I'll check," blinked the little Champion, and hollered, "ECHO!"
"Echo!"
"Echo!"
"Echo!"
"Echo!"
That assured it; Gatomon's voice bounced off the invisible walls of what was either a cave or a very large tunnel. Gatomon then felt tickled by this, and decided to have fun with it:
"GATOMON RULES!"
"GATOMON RULES!"
"GATOMON RULES!"
"GATOMON RULES!"
"GATOMON RULES!"
This series of echoes came with the soft trickling of invisible stalactite pebbles falling from the ceiling to the water. The little kitty laughed at herself, and this even brought a little cheer in Kari's heart, so she smiled.
Kari then looked ahead, and her eyes gleamed with surprise. Gatomon noticed and wondered, "What's wrong?" Kari stared ahead and replied, "I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel."
Gatomon gasped, "Don't say that! You know what that means to see a light at the end of a tunnel?" Kari glanced at her and replied, "That we're almost through the tunnel?"
Gatomon just sighed, but then she turned ahead and saw for herself that there was indeed a soft yellow light up ahead. Her jaw dropped; "Awww," she gasped, "now I see it! …This can't be good."
The riverbank they were floating on crept closer and closer to this strange light up ahead, but soon it became clear that this light came from lamps. They appeared to be like street lamps, standing proudly by the sides of the small, gently flowing river.
As they floated onward, Kari and Gatomon noticed that the lights were multiplying, and the cave-like tunnel was becoming brighter and brighter. They could now clearly see the stalactites above them, gleaming like ice crystals. They could also see that the walls around them were icy; so icy, in fact, they could almost make out their reflections, though they were disproportioned due to the fact that the walls weren't steep.
The funny part was, even though they were clearly surrounded by ice, Kari and Gatomon weren't cold at all. That was because the air and water were both lukewarm. Why they were lukewarm, the girls were about to find out.
The humble lamps that lit the way through this tunnel led the way to a great open space. Kari and Gatomon gasped in awe, as the space around them opened up to reveal what looked like a city made of rock and ice.
At the heart of this ancient-looking city stood a massive fortress, looking like a mountain made out of stalagmites.
There were small beams of blue and yellow lights coming from within the city, like window lights. Kari started to shake with anxiety, but Gatomon then took her hand into her clawed paw to soothe her nervousness. Then the river directed them straight into a harbor, where their torn rafts came to a stop.
Quickly, they struggled to climb up onto the pier, which was made of smooth rock. Kari paused to notice the paved road that led to the city's gates and sighed, "Whoever lives here must have a heck of a heating bill." Gatomon then remarked, "I just hope we weren't swimming in their sewer way." Then they gathered up their courage, and approached the front gate.
The gates to this underground lair were open, so entering the city seemed to be almost too easy. Gatomon and Kari walked cautiously through the smoothly paved street, eying all of the lamps that lit the way, watching to see if anyone was spying on them.
"I don't like this place," Kari commented, as she grew all the more tense during their venture; Gatomon replied, "What's to like? All they gotta do is throw in a couple of gravestones, and not even a Jehovah's Witness would come knocking on the door."
Kari then came to a sudden stop, as she gasped in surprise; her eyes were focused on the high level of a nearby building which had a balcony on it. Gatomon gasped, "What? What did you see, Kari?" Her human friend replied in a shaky voice, "I thought I saw something up there, on the balcony."
Gatomon looked at it, and saw nothing out of the ordinary- well, nothing about this place was ordinary, but you get the idea. She then looked to Kari and said, "It's alright, Kari. Even if it was something, nobody seems to care we're here. Let's just keep moving." "You're right," nodded Kari, and they were back on their way.
Where the balcony in question stood, a pair of yellow eyes sparkled through the dark doorway.
It had been at least two hours since their clash with Slothmon, but now TK- no longer in his battle gear- and Patamon- after de-digivolving through the effect of Slothmon's last attack- were coming out of their sleep spell. They were both lying on separate raft logs, those that had not been pulled into the whirlpool, so it was thanks to these logs that they were able to escape possible drowning as they slept the afternoon away.
TK woke up with a gasp, "KARI!" and then he fell silent. He saw that the sea was dead calm now; only he and Patamon were there. Patamon then woke up and jumped into their air; he gasped, "…TK! What happened?" TK sweat-dropped, "I… I don't really know… Last thing I remember was that sea dragon… But look! Kari and Gatomon are gone!"
"No!" peeped the little Rookie; he fluttered over to where TK sat afloat on the open water and frowned, "You don't think they… they…?"
"Don't say it," TK replied in a low voice; he just couldn't make himself believe that the worst had happened to his dearest of friends. He then took a breath and said, "We gotta find them; I know they're out here somewhere…" The two of them acted desperately, starting to call out their friends' names:
"KA-RI!"
"KARI! GATOMON!"
"WHERE ARE YOU?"
"GA-TO-MON?"
"KA-RI-I-I?"
From where they were, Kari and Gatomon would never have been able to hear the cries of their lost friends. They were deep underground; they knew it, because there was no sky above the city in which they were now, but instead an enveloping sheet of solid rock.
They were now coming closer and closer to the mountain-like fortress that stood at the heart of this ancient city, but the closer they came to it, the more uninterested in it they had become.
Kari was especially growing more and more frightened; at last, her intuition was kicking in. She stared at it like a rabbit would stare at a nearby foxhole; she gulped, "Okay… I think we came close enough to that fortress; maybe we should just go back now and-"
"Wait," Gatomon suddenly interrupted; "…I know this sounds crazy, Kari, and normally I would agree with you; but I think whoever lives in there is the one that brought us here. How else would you explain us surviving that whirlpool?" Kari replied, "You're probably right… but…"
Gatomon then took her friend's hand again and purred, "It's okay to be scared; you may be old enough to drive a car, but nobody outgrows the fear of monsters." "What if it's Daemon?" gulped Kari; "You and I can't take him on our own." Gatomon nodded, "I know, but I'm willing to see what he wants with us; maybe we can get him to show us the way out of here. There's no other way for us to find out."
Then she went on to say, "Listen, Kari; we wouldn't have made it this far if we weren't strong enough to face our enemies. Even if Daemon's the Keeper of Darkness, you're the Child of Light. Whatever he can throw at you, I'm sure you can throw it right back. And always remember that I'm here, and I'll always be here, to back you up."
Kari's fears were calmed for the moment, and she gave her partner a small smile, "…Thanks, Gatomon."
"…child… of Light?"
This soft, eerie voice came from behind them; it was now obvious that the girls weren't alone after all. They two of them gasped; if Kari were as furry as Gatomon, then at this point her hair would stand on end just as her partner's did.
They then whirled around to see who it was behind them, and to their shock it was not one but a whole army of dark, yellow-eyed creatures. But these weren't Shadowmon; they appeared to be the silhouettes of murky, amphibious creatures; they clearly had the shapes of fins on the sides of their faces for ears, and the shapes of webbed feet.
These creatures were familiar to them; "It's you!" Kari said to them is surprise.
Indeed, these were the monsters she had faced four years in the past, the ones that appeared to be desperate Scubamon, who tried to drag her into the ocean so that she would meet with their Master. Back then, there were about six of them; now, there were countless numbers, and they had the girls surrounded.
Kari felt helpless, as she did the first time she met with these strange creatures, so she stood frozen with fear. Gatomon, on the other hand, barked at them with her claws in the air, "Back off, frog-faces! I got claws, and I'm not afraid to use them!"
The creatures just stared at them with lidless eyes; one of them croaked, "…Child of Light… You've come back to us." "You've come back," some of them echoed.
Gatomon hissed at them, "Stay back!" They didn't make a move; instead they just kept whispering, "You've come back… You've come back to us…" "Leave us alone!" shouted Kari, but then another one softly croaked, "The Master would want to see you, Child. He's been looking forward to it."
Kari frowned, "What does he want with me?" "You have something he wants," replied the creature; "Something he wants… Something he wants," echoed its brethren.
Gatomon turned to her friend and muttered, "We knew this was coming; what do you think we should do?" Gatomon knew the answer just as well as Kari did, but she needed to hear it from her. Wisely, Kari thought it over and then replied, "…We have no choice. We have to meet their Master, and see what he wants. Maybe if we talk to him, he'll let us go." Gatomon nodded, "That's the best-case scenario… The only thing that worries me is the worst-case." Kari digressed, "It's better than trying to fight and risk getting killed…"
She then looked to the dark amphibians, raised her arms, and bravely said to them, "Okay. We'll let you take us to your Master; we don't wanna fight." The amphibians seemed elated by this response, and promptly they walked up to their visitors, then passed by them.
One passing amphibian informed them, "Follow us." They then led Kari and Gatomon toward the fortress that towered over the city, which was the one place they were tempted to run away from.
As Gatomon had said, this meeting was a long time coming- four years, in total. They knew that the least they should have done was to get it over with, once and for all; therefore, they showed no resistance as they were being driven closer and closer to the dark fortress ahead.
Since the mountainous palace was so… mountainous… it took the amphibious digimon and their guests a while to reach the official throne room of the dark Master of the Ocean.
Here he resided, shrouded in a dark bubble of seawater, perhaps as a way of wanting seclusion. He seemed like the lonely sort, and yet at the same time he seemed to enjoy his privacy. But in this bubble, one would not be able to see his full form; instead, they could only take notice of the fact that he resembled a kraken in many ways; he had squid-like tentacles, a squid-shaped head, and even more tentacles for a beard to cover his mysterious mouth.
The rest of him, mainly his torso, was humanoid, complete with a man's chest, stomach and arms. This was not Daemon, as Kari and Gatomon had feared. His name was…
------------ Digimon Card: Dagomon ------------
Level: Ultimate
Attribute: Virus
Type: Sea Animal
"Behold at last, our Master Dagomon. Like the mythical kraken, he rules the Dark Ocean with an iron fist. Actually, he rules it with multiple iron fists."
-So-Called Scubamon
-------------------------------------
This was the introduction to the great squid-man that Kari and Gatomon received when they were finally face to face with the great creature. As they stared in awe at him, he remained as silent and peaceful as he would if he were asleep.
But he was in fact awake, and proved it by opening his pair of glowing red eyes. When he did so, and while looking upon the face of the young lady in his presence, he gave out a low but thunderous moan. It was enough to shake the room, even though it was clearly made of marble and stone; Kari and Gatomon were almost thrown off their balance.
But then, to their surprise, the dark blue bubble that was keeping Dagomon in seclusion was now melting away; he was more visible now, showing off the many different color patterns on his arms, face and torso; most digimon had markings on their bodies, so even though this was clearly a villainous beast, he at least had some color to him; otherwise, he just had different shades of gray.
When he got a closer look at the Child of Light, his face seemed to lift, as if despite the fact that his mouth was unseen, he was smiling. Finally, he spoke, "It's… It's you. You've come at last."
Kari cleared her throat, still nervous about getting attacked, and replied softly, "Yes, it's me. I only came here because… well… We were actually looking for Daemon. Or, one of his friends."
The giant kraken gave her a small nod, "Come to pick a fight with him, have you? Good… You have a strong spirit, child. I always knew that." Kari then continued with, "But then we were attacked by some kind of sea monster… And then a giant whirlpool-" "Yes," interrupted the kraken, "the whirlpool… That was my doing."
Kari and Gatomon gasped, "What??"
Dagomon answered, "It was the only way I could bring you here, child. This entire city is underwater." Kari gave a slow gasp, "…You mean we never left the ocean?" "That explains a few things," said Gatomon, who seemed just as surprised with the truth as Kari was.
Dagomon then moved slightly closer to them and said, "That no longer matters. What matters is that you're here." Kari was almost reluctant to ask, but she did so anyway, "…What exactly do you want with me, Dagomon?" He answered her simply, "Your light."
Kari peeped, "Huh?" but then it hit her; she looked down to the pink jewel that was wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet; her Crest. "My Crest of Light, you mean?" she wondered
The great kraken nodded again, "Yes. It is that power which I have desired for a long time now. It is your power, Kari, that will help me rule this world." "Oh great," she thought to herself, "just what we need: another power-hungry monster."
"Listen," she told him with a stronger voice, "my power can't be used by anybody except me." "I know," blinked Dagomon; "That is why I needed you. Now that you're here, you will act as my ally…"
Kari backed away and narrowed her eyes at him, "What makes you think I'm no your side?" Gatomon stood her ground and added, "Or that we'd want to be on your side?" The giant kraken showed great patience as he calmly replied, "You and I have a common enemy, Child of Light. Together, we can overthrow him and cast him out of our Dark Ocean Network. I would gladly have you by my side, if you would accept."
Kari cringed, "Yecgh! You make it sound like you have a crush on me."
Dagomon just giggled softly, "Hmm-hmm-hmm… Perhaps I may admire you a bit, but can you blame me?" He then moved a little closer to her by gracefully bending down his base tentacles, as if kneeling, and added, "All my life, I have lived in darkness; only when you arrive to I get to see what true Light is… And if you want my honest opinion, I think it is the most beautiful sight I've ever seen."
Kari was now officially creeped out, and so was Gatomon. The two of them stepped back, but couldn't get much further than that, for behind them stood a wall of murky-scaled digimon with yellow eyes.
Despite her discomfort, Kari seemed to show a little courage as she said, "Uhh… Normally I'd be flattered, but I really don't think I should stay here. I mean, this place just doesn't do it for me." "Yeah," Gatomon agreed, "it's just too gloomy and miserable for our standards."
But Dagomon swooned, "That's just it! I want to see more light; I want my world to look as beautiful as you are. Just show me what your Crest can do; then… then maybe I'll release you."
Gatomon narrowed her eyes, not believing his promise, and huffed, "Yeah, right."
At that point, Dagomon's patience started to grow thin; he dared to reach out for Kari as he insisted, "Just show me…"
"Ree-OW!" SWIPE!
Gatomon reacted by screeching like a real cat and clawing at the kraken's approaching human hand. Though he was an Ultimate beast, he seemed to take this hit, and it seemed to hurt him in a more emotional way than physical. He recoiled and moved back, as if avoiding another swipe.
The amphibious gang behind the girls seemed to take this personally and hissed at the little kitty, but she stood her ground still and hissed at Dagomon, "You touch her, and I swear I'll make you an oversized sushi!"
The giant kraken seemed angered by this, but instead of really losing his cool, he simply moved backward and sighed deeply, "…I did not bring you here to fight me… I want to offer you an alliance." Gatomon spoke on Kari's behalf and replied, "We don't wanna join in your battles; we've got problems of our own!"
"I understand," moaned Dagomon, "but together we can solve each other's problems." Gatomon then turned to her partner and muttered, "I don't trust this guy; he wreaks of something nasty." Kari shook her head in reply, "I don't trust him either…"
Dagomon heard this, and became insulted. It showed in the flash of his red eyes, which startled the girls. He then inched his way closer to them boldly and like a crocodile he groaned, "I offered you my friendship- my kingdom! Would you risk making two enemies instead of one? I must warn you, child, you and your little kitty will not withstand the force of two dark Masters."
This was a threat that the girls wouldn't dare take lightly; Kari gulped, "…Gatomon, this isn't going well. Maybe we should try to get out of here."
"…Leave?" muttered the deep voice of Dagomon. He and his minions seemed to grow slightly more aggressive, as they hissed softly at their visitors. Kari and Gatomon moved in closer in reaction to the harsh attitudes of the dark amphibians. Dagomon then took a breath and growled, "I've waited a thousand years to see your precious light again, Kari. If you think I'm going to just let you walk out of here, you are sorely mistaken."
"…A thousand years?" muttered Kari, as Dagomon's comment seemed to have thrown her off.
The kraken had no patience for explanations; his patience altogether was dead and gone now. He was through pussyfooting with these two heroes; he was going to get to his point, and now. He huffed, "I wanted to be kind to you, child; but instead you have proven yourself to be as much my enemy as the one out to conquer my ocean. Therefore, if we are destined to battle…" His tentacles armed themselves, aiming at the visitors viciously as he concluded his sentence with, "…then battle, we shall."
TK and Patamon had been spending all this time paddling their poor excuse for a raft, which was no more than a scratched up log, and had found themselves a small island in the middle of the ocean. It was no more than a mere patch of sand, like an oasis in a vast desert, but it was at least a place where they could rest after peddling through the open water like crazy.
Patamon took a moment to shake himself dry like a puppy, while TK looked around frantically for any signs of life in the distance. Without showing any signs of weakness, he quickly resumed his search for his friends, "KARI! GATOMON! ….KARI?? …GATOMON!?"
Patamon watched him and showed a look of despair; "TK," he muttered, "we're stuck in the middle of nowhere." TK was frustrated with the fact that they were alone, so he didn't take to Patamon's comment lightly; he turned to the little bat-winged guinea pig and snapped, "I know that, Patamon! Help me look for them; they could be near this island."
The little Rookie frowned, showing his exhaustion, "I'm sorry, TK, but I'm really tired from all that paddling. Aren't you tired?" The young man twitched his eye, showing a little bit of his frustration while trying a little too hard to hide his weakness, "No. We gotta keep looking; they need us, Patamon."
"I know they need us," replied the visibly weakened digimon, "but all I'm saying is, maybe we should rest just a little bit. I know how worried you are about Kari and Gatomon, but you're not made of stone. Even you have to rest once in a while."
"Right," snapped TK in reply, "maybe I should take a minute to rest, Patamon. And while I do, Kari and Gatomon might be in the fight for their lives against Daemon, or some Mega digimon who's out for blood! Yeah, maybe I should take a load off, because that's why I came to the digital world! I came here to sit on my butt and do nothing while my friends are in danger!"
Patamon closed his eyes and frowned, "That's not what I meant-" "I know what you meant!" TK snapped again; "You're saying I can't hold my own 'cause I'm still younger than everyone else! Well guess what, Patamon; I'm all grown up! I can do everything Tai, and Matt and Sora can do; I'm not a weakling anymore!"
It just hit him what he was saying, as TK paused to see his little partner stared up at him with a face that would even make a sad puppy jealous. His bat ears were pulled back, his eyes dilated, and if he had visible lips, his bottom one would be curled at the moment. Patamon topped off his sad face with a sad voice, "…I never said you were a weakling…"
TK promptly felt ashamed of himself; he took to one knee and patted his little friend on the head, apologizing, "I'm sorry, Patamon. You're right; no man is an island. I can't do everything on my own, even when things get this bad." Patamon's face then lifted slightly, "It's okay. We'll find the girls; we just gotta keep our hopes up."
TK's eyes then glimmered, as if a thought crossed his mind that sent a chill down his spine; "Hope…" he muttered.
He then looked down at his Battle Crest of Hope; it was at that moment when he realized something. He thought aloud, "The power of my crest has always been connected to Kari's. Hope and Light are just about one in the same." "That's right!" Patamon said with the first smile he made in a while. TK then clutched onto the jewel around his neck and sighed, "Maybe… Maybe if we're lucky, this will help us find them. I just need to tap into its power…"
With that, he put faith in himself, as he clutched onto the crest all the tighter, closed his eyes, and started to meditate: "…Come on, Kari… I know you're there… Help me find you…"
The crest started to give off a soft, warm glow from underneath TK's clutched hand.
Just as things were looking bleak for Gatomon and Kari, Kari inadvertently clutched onto her own Crest for strength. In reaction, a warm pink light started to shine through her clutched hand, from the crest. Then, as if by some miracle…
WHOOSH!
Taking everyone by surprise, even Dagomon, was a stream of pink light that shot out of Kari's crest like a cannon. At first, it was too bright for Dagomon's sensitive eyes, and he covered them painfully as he moaned, "…the… The Light… This is the Light I've longed to see… it's… so painful… yet… beautiful…"
Even Kari, who knew in her heart that she was the cause of this burst of energy, was shocked to see it take form. In awe, she and everyone else watched as the beam of pink light was strong enough to penetrate not just the roof of Dagomon's palace, but also to ceiling of the underwater cave altogether.
Eventually, it made it through the murky waters, towards the surface with the force of a lightning bolt.
Miles away from where they stood on their poor excuse of an island, TK and Patamon watched in shock as a pink light coursed through the murky waters and through the equally murky sky.
TK's eyes lit up with elation, "…It's Kari!" Patamon, who was also overjoyed, fluttered in the air and smiled, "You were right, TK; the powers of Hope and Light are strongest together."
The boys then noticed that what they were witnessing was more than a stream of pink light; it was their one and only signal that would lead them to their friends. "Let's go!" commanded the human; his partner nodded in reply, "Right!"
As Kari's Crest of Light continued to blast through Dagomon's lair, the effect was causing a massive earthquake. Debris was falling from the cave like rain, and following it was the dark ocean water that was otherwise shielded by the cave's roof.
Dagomon was furious by this and roared, "You fool! You're going to bring down the whole cave on top of us!!" Kari knew he was right, but she couldn't turn off the crest's power. She held onto it and panicked, "Gatomon, I can't stop it!" "Hang on, Kari!" her friend cried back; "I won't let anything happen to you, remember?"
Dagomon and his minions were not so calm; they knew that this was the beginning of a devastating crisis. Even through they were adaptable to the water, their city's destruction would indeed be the end of them, unless they were to escape now. And so they attempted it; the amphibians were the first to make a run for it, but they were blinded by their fears and soon became a rioting ball of chaos.
Gatomon watched the ceiling carefully; once a large block of debris started to fall down in Kari's direction, she reacted in the only way a true friend would: she took a flying leap into the air, straight into the beam of light coming from Kari's crest. There, Kari and the others heard these words:
"GATOMON, WARP-DIGIVOLVE TO………….. MAGNADRAMON!"
When Gatomon emerged from the light, she was no longer a small white cat, but a gigantic, radiantly pink Chinese dragon, with a feline-like face that was reminiscent of her former self. Kari's eyes glimmered with joy as she smiled her widest smile ever.
"I will not let you destroy my city!" bellowed a furious Dagomon nearby; he rose up his tentacles to Kari and roared, "TENTACLE CLAWS!"
They were launched at her with sharp sword-like ends, but Kari's Mega partner was all too prepared for a counter attack: "FIRE TORNADO!" Her dragon's breath did indeed come with the force of a cyclone, which was more than enough to put a sting on Dagomon's tentacles. He fell back in agony, which made him all the more enraged.
One by one, or in small numbers, Dagomon's minions fell victim to the falling boulders and tower debris, as the hole made by Kari's crest grew larger and larger. And it was about to grow at its largest, when from out of nowhere, a beam of golden light seemed to have appeared and merged itself with Kari's pink light.
Then, the two beams of light became entwined and spun around like a whirlpool, much like the whirlpool that acted as the first gateway into Dagomon's lair, only this one was clearly as bright as daylight. Kari paid close attention to this and knew almost immediately what it meant; "It's TK!" she cheered.
And she was right; as if on cue, TK- in his battle gear- and his partner, now the Mega angel Seraphimon, came descending through the gateway like it was an escalator. Just as Kari suspected, the golden light was coming from TK's Battle Crest. The young man eyed the young woman and smiled, "…See, Seraphimon? I told you they were just fine! Hey there, cutie; you miss me?"
She couldn't help but blush, feeling all too happy at the moment that things were finally looking up, as she giggled in reply, "Hmm-hmm! TK, your timing couldn't be more perfect."
"Let's blow this joint already!" suggested a nearby MagnaDramon; she then coiled herself around and upward in suspended animation, leading the way out toward the exit gate tunnel was made by the crests' powers.
But Kari was not going to get away without being threatened one last time by the desperate Dagomon; in a flash, the great beast launched his right hand at her, and finally grabbed her before the heroes knew what he was doing. Taken by surprise, naturally, she screamed.
Dagomon picked her up in his clutches as quickly as a temporarily weakened beast his size could and growled, "NO! I will not let you leave, child; I will die before I see your Light leave me!" "TK! HELP!" she hollered.
Her cries were immediately answered, not by TK, who was obviously concerned for her, but instead by his partner Seraphimon. The angel turned to his near look-alike and said, "We'll get her, TK." "Right," agreed the angelic TK.
The two Mega heroes approached Dagomon weightlessly, knowing just hat to do. Dagomon knew what was coming, and crawled into what would be the last corner of his palace; holding up Kari like a prize or a shield, he whimpered humbly, "Please… I never meant her harm; just… Let me use her power; I need it to defeat my enemy!"
"You want the power of Light?" hissed MagnaDramon; she and Seraphimon were then coated with halos of light, which echoed the colors of their respective partners' crests. Her friend then held his fist and concluded, "We'll give you all the Light you can take."
Dagomon knew that even if he tried to counter-attack, it would have been hopeless. So instead of even trying, he just took in a deep breath, and prepared for the end. The end did indeed come for him after that; Seraphimon started with, "STRIKE OF THE SEVEN STARS!" and MagnaDramon finished with another "FIRE TORNADO!"
They hit the great kraken from below, but it was an attack strong enough to burn him to ash (or what seemed like ash, but was really data) from the bottom up. By the time it get to his arms, he had let go of Kari at last; she fell, but MagnaDramon broke her fall with her head.
The dragon then carried her upward toward the tunnel of light, which would lead them to the surface; as she led the way, TK and Seraphimon followed.
When they finally did leave the cave, their tunnel of light started to quickly disintegrate into nothing. Darkness, alongside ocean water, flowed back into Dagomon's world with the force of a great waterfall.
As it did so, that which was left of the once great kraken breathed its last words, "…light… such beautiful light…"
And then, there was nothing but darkness.
There would be no more threats of darkness filling their hearts on this day any longer, as TK and Kari floated back to the beach from whence they came while hitching a ride courtesy of their Mega-leveled digimon.
When they touched ground on the sandy beach at last, TK took two fists full of sand, flung it in the air and rejoice, "WOO-HOO! God, I NEVER thought I'd be happy to see the gray sand again!"
Kari, meanwhile, just danced around for a few seconds in jubilation; then her attention turned to their digimon, who had promptly reversed their aging process once they too touched ground. Who used to be Seraphimon was now his Trainee self, Tokomon; and likewise, who used to be MagnaDramon was now Nyaromon.
Kari scooped up the pint-sized yellow ball that slightly resembled Gatomon and twirled her in the air as she sighed, "Nyaromon… I don't think I'd ever make it down there without you." The little Trainee just purred, "Aww, it was nothing."
Then Kari glanced over to her other two heroes and smiled, "And TK, and Tokomon; thanks for being there too." TK brushed his hair back, as if coyly, and smiled, "You know I'd never let anything happen to you, Kari… Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she nodded; "In fact, I think it's safe to say that I feel free, now that Dagomon is finally gone. Apparently, he wanted to use my power of Light for his own purposes."
TK approached her, now with Tokomon in his arms, and said, "Well, I'm glad he didn't get it, 'cause whatever he wanted to use it for couldn't have been good."
They paused for a moment, and then their attention was drawn to what then appeared to be sunlight behind them. Sure enough, they were right back where they started: right at the bridge between the true digital world and this dark ocean network.
The two humans then looked to each other with confidence; TK smiled, "Let's go. I'll bet the others'll wanna hear what we've been up to." Kari nodded, "Yeah. I hope they haven't been getting into as much trouble as we were…"
With no other word left to say, the group then made its way toward the sunlight, which would lead them back to the world that they were destined to save…
But they weren't alone.
Slothmon stood afloat in a safe distance of the heroes, laughing softly but maniacally. As he watched them leave the scene, he gloated, "Those foolish kids; they should have tried to recruit Dagomon into their little clique, but instead they fought and destroyed him. Now nothing is stopping my Master from claiming this entire network as his own… There's only one group left to corrupt, and once that happens, winning this war will be a peace of cake…"
Then he yawned tiredly, "…Which is good, 'cause I'm due for a nice, lo-o-ong nap..." Indeed he would sleep, so he faded away into the darkness, like the ghost he was, to do just that.
Indeed, there was only one group of Digi-Destined left to corrupt; they were on their way to Greedmon's lair, where he was already waiting for them.
TO BE CONTINUED