Chapter 24: Intense Negotiations
We had only just passed the field of Gazitown when the chasm was in view. The landscape was relatively baron. The forest we had passed before was to our left, up ahead was the chasm and I could see a single small house in the middle of the landscape. The empty ground continued off to our right as well.
The light had come not long ago. It was an unusually windy day, even Aeromon had trouble flying. Personally I enjoyed the wind, I always have. Kayla, being the only one without a champion big enough to carry her, had hitched a ride on Ungarmon to Nick's delight. We were making good speed pressing on towards the chasm.
"Oh my god, look!" Anissa said pointing to the right of us. We all looked, but saw nothing.
"It's the ocean." Anissa said from atop Aeromon, "Just go over and see." Our Digimon brought us over to the right, and sure enough I was suddenly looking out over an incredibly vast ocean. The water itself had the same electric blue tinge that the sky did. We all stood there on the edge of the beach looking out over what seemed like an endless ocean. To the left of us there were some telephone poles sticking out of the water.
"What the hell?" Kayla said.
"Who knows, this place is nuts." Matt said.
"Wow, the ocean is pretty beautiful." I said.
"Very." Nick said.
"What's that thing over there, it looks like a storm or something." Kayla said pointing on the water to our left, far out. I was so amazed by the plain sight of the ocean that I never saw the thing. When I looked sure enough it was a giant black cloud, when I looked carefully I could see a small island underneath it."
"That…is Alice-M's base." Codamon said.
"It's what? That huge thing is the base? Why haven't we attacked it yet?" Nick asked.
"Hello, that is the big base, we can't just run in there bravado style." Skymon said.
"My comrade makes a good point. We'll need loads of planning to make this go swimmingly." I said.
"Well we have Digimon working around the clock to make a plan for us, by the time we get there they should have a few ideas." Codamon said.
"That place is uber creepy." Anissa said.
"Word." I said "That's even more of a reason why we should get to the D-Corp's base as soon as possible. Let's keep going." Skymon led us off. I could tell some of the others were a little unsettled by the sight of the fortress. They'd get over it.
"Uggh, I'm so bored." Kayla said before we had reached the small shack before the chasm.
"How can you be bored, we're in a mysterious land that is inhabited by monsters, no offence to those present." I said.
"Yeah, but there's nothing to do." Kayla said.
"Just revel in the landscape or something, we're almost there." I said. Kayla just pouted at Gotsumon. We were approaching the shack on the right. It looked like some kind of general store or something. There wasn't much noise coming from the place I assumed it was empty. When we arrived I asked Skymon to put me down and those of us small enough to fit inside it went in, sure enough it was empty. The place was some kind of store, there were various trinkets I couldn't even recognize, and some of it might have been food.
"What is an open store doing in the middle of nowhere?" I asked.
"Dunno." Anissa said.
"It could be a trap, I say we get out, you never know." Matt said.
"Yeah, let's go just in case." I said and led everyone out. We approached our Digimon and were led over to the chasm nearby. It was a pretty large chasm, a huge crack in the ground.
"Ok, I have an idea about how we can do this." I said. "We all know Skymon is the best jumper around, so Skymon can carry the humans and Gotsumon across, then he and Aeromon will help Codamon and Ungarmon get across. Sound good?" I asked
"I can handle it." Skymon said. The others agreed as well. I instructed Skymon to choose a person to pick up.
"Ok Anissa, hop on." Skymon said lowering his hand, then he stepped to the edge of the chasm and jumped us across. We were actually in the air for a while, that's how large it was. Skymon landed as swiftly as if he were only jumping himself across. He put Anissa and I down and then bounded back over the chasm for more people. This time he chose Kayla, Gotsumon, and Nick. He repeated his last performance, dropped them off, and went back for Matt. When Matt was with us we had Skymon, the Tamers, and Aeromon on our side, but Codamon and Ungarmon would be the tricky ones.
"I have an idea, I can go help them get over," Aeromon said. "I can lift them up for a boost when they jump, then Skymon can grab them and pull them up."
"Sure, if you think you can." I said. Aeromon leered at me and flew over to Ungarmon first. "Ready?" She asked, Ungarmon nodded. Aeromon loosely grabbed Ungarmon's shoulders, he backed up, ran to the edge and jumped. He made good distance, but it wasn't enough so Aeromon began to lift him up just enough so that Skymon could grab him by the hands and slowly pull him up.
"Geez, what do you weigh?" Aeromon said.
"Maybe 500." Ungarmon said.
"Yeah, 500 tons maybe, ok, get ready for Codamon." Aeromon flew back and got ready to lift Codamon up as well. He backed up, ran full speed, and jumped, he made better distance than Ungarmon did, but not enough. Aeromon helped him up a little and Skymon and Ungarmon helped him up. After a minute we were all safely on the other side of the chasm. Before we began moving again we let our champions and ultimate go back to being Rookies for now. They were approaching us from the edge of the chasm. When suddenly there was a dark presence. I only saw it for a split second, but there was something coming towards us, fast.
"Ahhhh!" Anissa screamed. We all looked to her and to our dismay, we saw a Digimon had in fact gotten to her. There was a Phantomon behind her with a scythe to her neck. He had little form, all I could see was the ghastly cloak he was wearing and two red eyes glaring from underneath.
"Don't move." The Phantomon said. We all froze. Then two more Phantomon popped up in front of the other one.
"What is this?" I asked
"It's very simple, come with us or she dies." The Phantomon with Anissa said.
"You're obviously with Alice-M." I said.
"Bingo." One of the other Phantomon said. "We are 'The Ghastly Trio"
"So what do you want us for?" I asked "To get rid of us?"
"Correct, you 'saviors' are the only things in our way. Without you we'd be able to slowly corrupt the entire digital world until it belongs to Alice-M." the Phantomon said. "So, either you come with us, or this girl dies." I was totally stumped, I had no idea what to do. If we fight back they'll kill her, even if we free her they are 3 Ultimates and we wouldn't be able to digivolve in time to stop them. I couldn't even talk to anyone or they might bring down the scythe. I couldn't lose her, not after all we'd been through. We had been friends for years and I wasn't going to let this be the end. But I was stumped. Letting them take all of us wasn't an option, but saving her wasn't an option either. I was almost crying, but then I realized I couldn't let this crumple me, I needed the joy. To remember the happy times we've all had. Maybe with joy, I could save her. From the looks of things the others were going through the same though process, but time was wearing thin.
"What is your decision?" The Phantomon said, "You've got 5 minutes to figure it out." Five minutes for what. Even if we were able to light the crests if we made one move they'd kill her. It was impossible, we were stuck. If we free her they'd probably destroy us, and if we don't free her they'll do her in, we can't win. No ideas came, nothing. I began to reach for the D-Gadget slowly.
"No, no, no, you don't want her to die do you?" The Phantomon said pulling the blade closer to her neck. Poor Finchmon was helpless to save her partner, we were all helpless. Suddenly the Phantomon holding the scythe was struck. Something attacked him, but none of us had moved an inch. I don't know what the attack was, but I took the advantage.
"Everyone, digivolve, now!" I yelled.
:Digivolution activate:
"Herpetomon Digivolve too…
Skymon"
"Fatomon Digivolve too…
Castimon"
"Gotsumon Digivolve too…
Icemon"
"Finchmon Digivolve too…
Aeromon"
The joy of our memories burned inside me.
"Skymon Digivolve too…
ArmorSkymon."
The strength of his soul burned inside Nick.
"Castimon Digivolve too…
Ungarmon."
The sincerity towards her companion burned inside Kayla.
"Icemon Digivolve too…"
Similar to Gotsumon's first digivolution to Icemon this Digivolution only involved a color change. This time Icemon changed to a vibrant red color, it looked like he was on fire.
"Meteormon!"
This was it. Whatever that attack was it gave us a fighting chance. The Phantomon who had been attack recovered and it was go time. 3 Phantomon versus 3 Ultimates and 2 Champions. We couldn't lose.
"Now, revenge." Aeromon said, she had been waiting to tear that Phantomon apart. "Thunder Trick!" She called and sent 5 bolts of lightning converging through the Phantomon who had gotten Anissa. Aeromon proceeded to tear away at him with her claws. Our new ultimate, Meteormon was calling down a giant meteor with his attack "Galactic crush." He was fighting another Phantomon. Skymon and Ungarmon had teamed up on another. Ungarmon with his two flaming swords and ArmorSkymon with his mighty lance. The Phantomon attacked "Shadow scythe" He swung his scythe at Ungarmon. The actual scythe didn't hit him, but he was still hit with something. It hit his armor, but he could still feel the pain in his arm. Ungarmon's attack was stopped but ArmorSkymon with his virus instinct was vicious as ever. While the Phantomon had his back turned ArmorSkymon concentrated for a moment, building up power, then he brought the scythe down with tremendous force, right through the Phantomon. He was destroyed and ArmorSkymon took the data. Codamon used his Laser Dynamo on the Phantomon Meteormon was fighting. We decided to let Aeromon have her way with the one that attacked Anissa, she deserved to have him all to herself. The Phantomon Meteormon and Codamon were fighting had been destroyed. We sat back and watched Aeromon completely destroy the other Phantomon.
"Yeah, that's what you get, messing with my tamer, fool." Aeromon said. Aeromon was done and came back to us. Victory was ours.
"Are you ok?" I asked Anissa. The Phantomon had given her a small cut on her neck, but she was fine.
"Yeah, I'll be fine, thanks everybody." Anissa said.
"Good, now what was it that saved you?" I asked.
"Another D-Corps elite I'm sure of it." Codamon said. We all looked around and soon we saw him. He stood by the forest on our left, standing on one of the tree limbs. He was tall, and wore all red. Like the other D-Corps elites he wore a facemask. The coolest thing about him was he wore a trailing red scarf. He wielded a very small sword, so small that it might be considered a knife. I took a step towards him.
"Hey, thanks for the help back there." I said. He simply gave a thumbs up and back flipped into the forest. "Wow, who was that. He might be the coolest thing I've ever seen."
"Ahem." ArmorSkymon coughed.
"Uhhhh, except for you. That guy was cool in a different way. You're still my favorite." I said, ArmorSkymon smiled.
"That was Missimon, another elite. He fights with energy blasts and that crazy knife of his." Codamon said.
"Well, it just goes to show how not-alone we are." Anissa said.
"Right-o." Well, now that we're alone, you guys can finally de-digivolve and relax, thanks again for carrying us." I said. All but Meteormon Digivolved back to rookie. We all sat around finally able to relax. Most of us went to sleep even though it was still light, we hadn't slept the night before. Now that we'd passed the chasm the D-Corps should be just north of here. Then who knows what. It'll be intense that's for sure.