Digimon: Elemental Mages

by BridgitKiido

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, but I own the Mages. Period.

The Ruby-Fire Dragon

Last time, our heroes found the first of six crystals which Nefertimon has asked are returned to Ophanimon's palace as soon as possible. With five left to go, they kept walking along, although Tan – who had received the ruby that Doggymon's defeat had released – was suddenly overcome by a splitting headache. Not wanting to seem like a weakling, he didn't say anything, but he was walking slower than everyone else. In fact, after a few minutes, he stopped walking.

"Tan, aren't you coming?" asked Rhenna, a little bit worried. "Why are you walking so slowly? Are you hurt or something? That battle was a little bit rough."

"Actually, it seemed too easy," muttered Bridgit as she looked at her novel – a task that she was quite adept at doing while walking. "In Chapter 18, 'The Great Trailmon Race,' the warriors face a Doggymon as well, and he proved quite a challenge. Not to mention the fact that the legendary warriors are some of the strongest digimon around…" Her partner stared at her, and she replied to that in a semi-annoyed tone, "I only said some of the strongest digimon around. You're strong too."

"And don't you forget it!" Spikecornmon scolded, and then smiled. Both of them started giggling a bit.

Tan replied to Rhenna, "You go on, I'll catch up. I just have a bit of a headache, that's all."

"Okay then…" Rhenna concluded, although obviously still worried. "Come on, everyone. Let's go."

As soon as everyone was out of sight, Raptomon walked up to Tan and asked, "Is something wrong? Nefertimon told me that you almost never get hurt in any way…"

Tan smiled a bit, and then replied, "It's this crystal. Ever since I got it, I've had this really bad ache in my head. It's almost as if that crystal is doing something to me, although I don't know what."

"Well, if holding it hurts your head, set it on the ground for a few minutes, at least until the pain is gone," his partner suggested.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt…" Tan replied, finding that he couldn't hold onto his ruby any longer anyway. He dropped in on the ground, and immediately yelped and collapsed as the ruby burst into flames, burning away all of the grass within a two-meter radius. The flames disappeared within an instant, however, and later on Tan would realize that even though he had been standing within the circle, he had no signs of burns anywhere on him.

Tan sat completely startled by this occurance. He finally found his voice and wondered, "Did I do that?"

Raptomon examined the ground beneath the ruby carefully and finally stated his conclusion. "Tan, I think that ruby of yours just bursted into flame – in fact, I think you subconsciously caused it to catch fire like that."

"We'd better tell the others."

"Well then, pick up that ruby of yours and come on!"

Tan stared at the gem for a few more seconds and replied to his partner, "What if it bursts into flame again?"

"I don't think it will, Tan. As I said, I think you did it, even if subconsciously. As long as you keep your mind off of the flames, they won't happen again," the little dragon replied.

"If you say so," Tan replied, and he picked it up. There was no pain at all, although it seemed a little warmer than it had been. "Hey, you were right. And my headache's gone too. Let's go catch up to the others now, Raptomon."

"A good idea if I've ever heard one," Raptomon finished, and as the little dragon spread his wings, the two of them raced off to tell the others about what had happened.

Meanwhile, the rest of the children had run into another evil digimon – which looked like a large, silver pile of dung with claw-like arms and black bands around those arms. (Sound familiar?)

.--.

PlatinumSukamon

Level: Champion

Attacks: Smash, Metal Bomber

.--.

"Okay, this is getting weird," Jennie stated plainly. "First, a cartoon-like dog, and now we're fighting a pile of DUNG!"

"I guess it's to be expected," John reassured her.

"Definitely," confirmed Bridgit. "There are a lot stranger things that could be lurking around. For example, in chapter 2, "Lobomon, Warrior of Light", the warriors fight a huge garbage-heap like digimon called Raremon. If you want, I can show you a picture."

"No thanks," Jennie replied. "I think I want to have my lunch go out the correct way, thank you." Bunimon chuckled a bit at that comment, but stopped as soon as she saw Canismon staring at her.

"Metal Bomber!" shouted PlatinumSukamon, creating smaller silver piles of dung in his hands and throwing them at the children and their digimon.

"I'll handle this!" Bunimon shouted as a large length of her ribbon surrounded the group. "Pink Ribbon!" The ribbon created a shield that protected them from the flying sludge.

"Now, everyone, attack! Spike Barrage!" Spikecornmon cried as her spikes flew off and toward the enemy.

"Star Storm!" shouted Butterstarmon as he shot star-like missiles from his wings. (Kind of like Pegasusmon's Star Shower if you have trouble visualizing it.)

Dewmon created a large, powdery yellow ball at her feet and kicked it towards PlatinumSukamon, shouting "Pollen Bomb!"

Canismon's lightning-bolt markings began to glow, and they summoned a large thunderbolt from the sky aimed right for the enemy as he shouted, "Lightning Storm!"

"Earthen Arrow!" shouted Bunimon. (You already know what that looks like.)

All of the attacks hit PlatinumSukamon squarely, and the explosion that followed created a lot of dust. "Direct hit!" Bobby cried as the smoke cleared, but everyone was quickly disappointed when the enemy was still standing, without a scratch on him!

"Fools!" the sludge-pile cried triumphantly. "My armor protects me from all of your puny attacks! SMASH!" He then hurtled himself in the air and prepared himself to body slam our heroes.

"Hang on, guys! Pyro Breath!"

A large bolt of fire hurled through the air, which also squarely hit PlatinumSukamon. It didn't phase the creature at all, but at least it was enough to knock it off course.

"TAN!" Rhenna cried happily as she looked where the bolt had come from.

Sure enough, both Tan and Raptomon had arrived. Tan was holding his ruby in his hand, and when the two of them stopped, Tan held his crystal up and said, "You ready, Raptomon?"

"Ready as I'll ever be, partner."

Before Tan could try what he was going to try, however, the ruby began to glow very brightly and created a red light that engulfed Raptomon completely. "This wasn't in the battle plan," Tan muttered in wonder.

.---D I G I V O L U T I O N--.

"Raptomon, Digivolve to…" the little dragon cried as he grew taller and thicker, and his limbs became longer and thicker, and his wings also grew longer and thicker but also metallic… "Goyledramon!"

.---E N D . D I G I V O L U T I O N---.

Where Raptomon once stood, there stood a larger dragon with stone-like skin and bat-like wings of steel. He stood about twice as tall as Tan where Raptomon had stood about half of his partner's size.

.--.
Goyledramon

Level: Champion

Attacks: Boulder Crush, Pyro Tsunami

.--.

"Wow," Rhenna muttered in amazement.

Bridgit replied to her, "Better than wow – we've just seen digivolution in action!"

Goyledramon spread his wings and immediately they were covered in flames. "Pyro Tsunami!" he cried as he beat his wings and aimed the flames right at PlatinumSukamon.

"Owowowowow!" the creature cried as the flames dug into his skin.

"Ready to finish him off, Tan?" Goyledramon asked his partner, who was frozen with amazement.

"Yeah, let's try this thing," Tan replied, shaking off the frozen part. He then held his ruby out in front of him and concentrated really hard. To everyone's shock (including his own, although his not as much), the gem burst into flames! And even though the fire was obviously burning on Tan's skin, he didn't wince one bit. He then brought the fire toward himself as if he was going to throw it, and then nodded to his partner.

"Boulder Crush!" Goyledramon cried as two rock-like missiles appeared in his hands. He then aimed at PlatinumSukamon, but didn't let them loose just yet.

When Tan nodded again, his partner let loose the missiles. Then, Tan threw the fire that he had been building up in his hand at the missiles, bursting them into flaming missiles. When both missiles hit, PlatinumSukamon screamed and turned black as a ring of fractal code circled around him. Tan held out his D-PA, and it flowed quickly and easily into the little device.

As soon as that was over, Rhenna ran over to Tan and asked, "That was amazing, Tan! How did you do it?"

Tan replied, "I'm not really sure. I think that these crystals have more secrets than meets the eye. I only was able to shoot that fire because it had happened accidentally back on the path. Do you get it?"

"Not really, but I'll take your word for it," Rhenna replied.

Behind Tan, Goyledramon suddenly started to glow yellow and shrunk back into Raptomon. Tan saw and asked, "Okay, why are you back to Raptomon? Not that I don't like you the way you are, but I'd just like to know."

Raptomon shrugged and replied, "I ran out of energy."

Where PlatinumSukamon had been standing when he was defeated, a myriad of white dots this time gathered and formed themselves into a diamond-shaped diamond that floated over to Bridgit. She didn't see it, of course, until it landed right in the middle of her book, which she was reading the beginning of Chapter 48 of.

"Well, with this pattern, now I think I know where we'll find the rest," Bridgit said as she picked it off of the page and put it in her bag.

"Well, let's go!" continued Bunimon. "The sooner we all find those crystals, the sooner our world can have peace again, and you can get home to your world."

Rhenna sighed. "Okay, I didn't ask about this before because I didn't want to bother anyone, but what the heck is going on? What are these 'digimon'? What is this 'digivolution'? And why was Tan able to shoot fire from his hands?"

Bridgit sweatdropped and stated, "I think I can explain most of it. And what I can't explain, I'm sure we can ask Nefertimon when we get back."

Rhenna sweatdropped. "So, go on and start your explanation already please! Geeze, I'm getting a headache just trying to figure this out!"

Tan sweatdropped. "We've had enough headaches already." Then, when Bridgit remained silent a few seconds longer, the goggleboy said, "Well, what are you waiting for? Start explaining already!"

"Alright, alright," Bridgit said, getting more and more annoyed by the second.

What powers might Bridgit's crystal have in store? And will the remaining four crystals be successfully discovered? Find out next chapter!

Author's Note: Yeah, I edited more than I thought. I'm so glad that everyone who reviewed liked it! (And neoKOS-MOS, thanks for pointing out that they knew about the digimon too much too soon without asking - I fixed that.) The next chapter should be up soon. Keep reading and reviewing nicely please!