Hoo-ah! I finally made a deadline!
Bad news is - you'll have to wait until next weekend for the Chapter 25...but I'm not making any promises...
Chapter 24 – Home Run
The four riflemen were torn to pieces as the air was punctured with a sudden burst of gattling fire that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
With this new unknown threat, the Rangers ducked behind cover, some firing wildly into the sky only to be cut down by a hail of bullets.
Patrick saw the chance and took it.
He grabbed Kari and ran towards the nearest corridor, with Blackagumon bringing up the rear.
"What was that?" Kari asked as they turned the corner and stopped to catch their breath.
"Hell if I know, but whatever it liked us. Now come on," He started down the corridor again.
"To where?" Blackagumon asked.
"Dunno," They reached a T-junction, "But I'm gonna find out."
They went right, "That control platform above the hanger has access to all the main databases in the Digital World. If I can hack into it I can find a way home."
"So we just have to find it?"
"That's the easy part. The hard part will probably be getting to it," Patrick kicked a locked door down, "I have a feeling it will be heavily guarded."
Minutes later, they reached the control room overlooking the empty hanger. Patrick sat himself down in front of a console and started typing.
"This'll take a sec," He said, "Thankfully, TK only locked his terminal so I know a valid username. Now what could the password be?"
Kari just looked out the window at the vast hanger below.
"Patrick, I think you should see this…"
"Are we under attack?"
"No, but…"
"Then I don't care."
"Actually," Blackagumon saw it to, "I think you do."
"Ok, fine," Patrick got up and looked through the window, "But his better be…worth…"
He was cut off in mid sentence by the totally uncalled for appearance of Emma.
"What the fuck is that?" Ryan roared into his radio.
A reply came from a guard on the battlements of the castle, "It's a chopper sir!"
"NO SHIT!"
Then another voice came on, "Stinger missile locked – FIRING!"
A finger of smoke extended from somewhere in the castle and blazed towards the source of the downdraft.
The Ranger smiled, "Gotcha."
His celebration was short-lived.
Because as the Stinger got near it's target above the courtyard it suddenly steered right and disappeared of the edge of the facility.
"What the…" The voice cut off as a short burst of gatling fire was launched in his direction.
And as quick as it appeared, the phantom was gone.
"Sit rep!" The ranger demanded.
"We've got about 9 troops down sir, no injured! They're all dead!" A shaken ranger shouted back.
Just then a new voice appeared in the team leader's radio. He nodded and got up.
"Ok, listen up," He shouted into the courtyard. The few surviving rangers were grabbing their fallen comrade's Dogtags.
"We got new orders. All Rangers still combat ready is to report to the hanger. Our 'prisoners' are trying to hitch a ride out of here."
Patrick almost flew down the stair well, into the hanger and right into Emma's open arms.
"You're ok!" He sighed with relief, "How you feeling?"
"A little stiff," She stretched, "But ready for some serious payback."
"Sorry to disappoint, but we were just leaving." He looked over at the portal at the other end of the hanger.
"So Izzy got it working," Patrick smiled, "Knew I could count on him."
"Yes and no," Emma looked over at the portal, "It actually took him a few days, but he set the portal back to when he suspected you'd be back in the base."
"Well he made a very good guess," He said.
"Actually, we got some help," She looked at Kari, "Our first attempt ended up in the middle of the desert, but coincidently enough we found Gatomon."
"Is she alright?"
"Yep. She told us everything you lot have been up to and gave us a pretty good idea of where to put the portal down," Emma pointed at Patrick's digivice, "Gatomon went off to give you the digivice but came back when you were taken away..."
"You can tell me everything later, but for now, I'm just glad you're still alive," Patrick smiled.
"Can't wait to get home," Blackagumon said.
Just then, a shower of bullets hurtled right past them…
…and into the portal.
The group quickly hit the deck as round after round went into the past.
It didn't last long.
The portal soon closed.
They were stuck…again.
"Will this nightmare ever end!" Patrick yelled as he got up and saw who the culprit was.
The hail had come from an M60E4 machine gun, but it was the user that caught his attention.
It was Warmarinedramon.
Correction - Darkmarinedramon
"Did I...miss something?" A very confused Emma asked.
"Oh I'm sorry," He put the M60 down, "Were you using that?"
"Who are you!" Patrick demanded.
"Why, I'm you."
"Actually, last time I checked – I was me."
"I'm your future," He raised his arms into the air, "The ruler of the Digital World!"
"The Dark Master…" Kari muttered.
Patrick's brain stalled. He just stood there, unable to process the information in front of him.
"I'm the…Dark Master…" He eventually spat out.
"Wow, was I really that slow?"
"I'm gonna kill you for what you did to Emma."
"Have fun. I'm far stronger now than I was back then!"
"We'll see about that," He turned to Emma and gave her his radio "If Izzy opens another portal, he'll probably radio you. Find him."
She put on the headset, "Be careful."
Kari and Gatomon followed her towards the door Patrick had come from earlier.
Seconds later, Warmarinedramons charged his future self.
"CLOSE IT!"
"No! I can't! They might need to get through!"
"If you don't close it we'll all DIE!"
"…fine. You win."
The portal disappeared.
Izzy got back up onto his chair as everyone else came out from behind cover. He had worked out how to open a portal, and had set up the relevant equipment in a building in the Digital World. They had just sent Emma to the future when gunfire tore through the portal. Thankfully, nobody was injured but it meant Izzy had to close the portal. The only people here were Izzy, Tai, TK, Matt, Yolei and Declan- the rest were at home.
"Can you open it again?" Tai asked, picking up Agumon's digiegg.
"Not in the same position, or we'll probably end up with the exact same predicament. I suggest we move the portal slightly and radio Patrick."
"How much is slightly?"
"I've had some good practice with moving the portal, so maybe if I just change this...and that there...and decrease a few of these...and there!"
Moments later the portal was open once more – this time safely.
Yolei held up a radio headset she had held onto, "Ok, who first?"
"I will," TK volunteered.
"Not with your arm your not!" Matt grabbed onto his brother.
Silence.
"I vote me," Declan grabbed the headset and jumped into the portal.
"Isn't anyone gonna stop him?" asked Matt.
"He'll be ok," Tai said confidently, "He's an abnormally tough kid."
TK stared at the portal, "Yeah. Almost too tough…"
Darkmarinedramon and Warmarinedramon.
Both were practically identical, only the future version had black armour and was slightly taller. Combat wise, they were even.
Warmarinedramon launched his right fist at his dark version's face, but was too slow and he ducked under his arm. Darkmarinedramon then smashed Warmarinedramon in the back with both fists, knocking him over. Just before he reached the gound, Warmarinedramonrolled forwards and fired a Plasma Strike behind him, but it was easily dodged.
Patrick cursed. He just needed a break. A distraction – anything.
That break came from a sudden roar of an engine and a sudden rush of wind as something entered the hanger.
Something they couldn't see.
Darkmarinedramon was thrown off balance from the uncalled for downdraft.
There
Warmarinedramon raised both arms, "Plasma…STRIKE!"
Instead of a small but devastation bolt of plasma, this time it was a huge ball of it…and it hit Darkmarinedramon square on the chest. He shot back, screaming in pain, and slammed into the wall of the hanger, causing a huge smoking crater.
Moments later, a Humvee screeched to a halt beside the remaining Digimon.
Kari poked her head out of the gun turret, "Izzy opened another portal! Come on, Declan's waiting for us just outside the forest!"
FlashPatrick and Blackagumon jumped into the back of the Humvee and Emma floored the accelerator.
Once again, they had been saved by the Phantom Chopper.
Declan jumped back through the portal, "Ok, they're coming."
Izzy cheered, "How far was I?"
"A few kilometres. It's just outside the forest surrounding the castle."
"How long will it take them?" Tai asked.
"No idea, butif I knowPatrick, he'll go out with a bang."
As Emma gunned up the narrow ramp out of the castle, Patrick looked about for a weapon.
"Is there at least a handgun here? You know what they say about knives and gunfights!"
Emma thumbed into the back, "We picked up a few bits and pieces lying about the motor pool. A few USPs, Deagles, even a TOW. Oh, and this class customised M16…"
"You got my M16C?"
"A what now?"
"Never mind. Where is it?"
Kari passed it to him from the back compartment, "This it?"
"Hello baby. Did you miss me?" He accepted the rifle graciously.
By now the entire facility was in full alert and just about everyone was jumping in anything with four wheels and a motor and headed after the assailants.
Emma saw them in the wing mirror, "Contacts – 6 O'Clock."
Patrick turned and saw them too. He jumped up onto the Hummer's mounted 50cal machine gun, "Under control. Keep driving."
They were currently being pursued by a lightly armoured jeep and what looked like a dune buggy, but someone was about to change that.
Patrick cocked the massive 50cal and opened fire on the buggy.
It was immediately cut to shreds and flipped into the air before bursting into flames and crashing back down.
This didn't phase the jeep, whose passengers leaned out the window and fired with their M8s.
Patrick ducked as the incoming fire whizzed over his head. Seconds later he was back up and unloaded a barrage into the front windscreen of the jeep. Its driver was hit and it steered into the wall.
The Humvee was now approaching the main drawbridge, which was the only way out for them at the moment.
To make matters worse the drawbridge was raised – leaving a gap about five times the length of the vehicle.
Patrick got down from the 50cal and prepared his M16C.
"Emma get up on that 50 and give me covering fire. Don't bother getting back into the driver's seat, I'll take it from here. Kari, throw a smoke grenade out your window once I get out. Everyone else, stay down."
When they neared the control booth alongside the towering drawbridge, the two operators got walked out to see what all the commotion was about.
They were met with the cold, hard bumper of a 1 tonne Humvee.
"Roadkill!" The driver declared before undoing her buckle and jumping into the gunner position. Patrick jumped out his door and slammed it behind him. Blackagumon handed Kari a smoke grenade, who opened her window a fraction and lobbed the grenade out.
At the moment they were alone, but engines could be heard in the distance.
The smoke started to billow up, providing a black, impenetrable barrier between the two parties.
The good news was, this would hold them for a good 10 minutes.
The bad news was that reinforcements were on the way.
Reinforcements who weren't afraid of a little smoke.
The remainder of the Ranger squad ran over to the large crater in the hanger wall, M16s raised.
Ryan Grey peered into the hole and saw his commanding officer staring back.
"Errr…are you ok sir?"
Patrick jumped out of the hole and brushed off the rubble, "Do I look ok to you Staff Sergeant?"
"Looks like they got away sir, shall we pursue?"
"I know that! I saw them get away in one of our Hummers!"
The Commander took out his radio and said, "Red Alert! Say again, Red Alert! Two prisoners are escaping via Humvee to the main entrance. All units to the are to persue!"
He then turned the Rangers, "Get my chopper ready. I don't care if he is my past self – he has to die!"
Meanwhile, Patrick was in the control booth, trying to get the drawbridge down and wasn't having much success.
All the controls seemed to be in a different language…something similar to Spanish...
After cursing the Hispanic operator and his crap Spanish teacher, he noticed the winch used to haul the huge cables that operate the bridge, and applied his saying, 'Shoot it and see what happens.'
He lodged a hand grenade in the locking gears beside the winch drum, pulled the pin and ran back to the Humvee.
An explosion rocked the Humvee, and shattered all the glass in the booth. Soon after that great steel drawbridge slammed onto it's ledge on the other side, allowing access to the pier that crossed over to the mainland. Patrick hopped in and revved up the V8 engine.
The new driver pushed the HMMWV as hard as he could.
Emma ducked back down into the vehicle, since there were no immediate threats.
This peace ended about halfway across the 300-meter bridge.
Now they were out in the open, they were vulnerable to air attack – an opportunity that the approaching AH-64D Apache took.
"Shit! Gunship – 3 O'Cl…" Patrick looked at the enemy helicopter and paused, "Oh, back for more, eh?"
He was the pilot of the Apache.
Well…his future self anyway.
It flew at the group from their right hand side, and unleashed a barrage from its M230 30mm cannon. The rounds pinged of the armoured 4x4, and cracked all the bulletproof glass down that side before flying over them.
"Bastard!" Patrick spat.
"But that's you!" Emma laughed.
"Don't remind me! We're almost at the forest, which should give us with some cover."
"Why doesn't he Hellfire our ass?"
"Probably doesn't want to damage this bridge…which probably means he'll use them while we're in the forest."
"Too late for any second thoughts!" Blackagumon pointed out the rapidly approaching overgrowth.
About 30 seconds later they hurtled into the forest, the Apache in hot pursuit, and everything got a whole lot worse.
An explosion rocked the Humvee onto two wheels for what felt like ages to Patrick, and crashed back down to the ground.
"Hydra rockets!" Emma sounded slightly relieved.
"Yeah if it was a Hellfire we'd be toast." Patrick swerved another impact.
Emma jumped up onto the 50cal and fired at the persuing Gunship. It swerved off to the left and out of sight. She got back down into the passenger's seat.
They continued for a good kilometre before entering part of the track that was sheltered by huge trees.
"Emma, grab the TOW. I have a feeling he's at the other end of this covered bit. When we come back out into the open, shove one in the cockpit!"
"Will do," Emma jumped into the back, grabbed the missile launcher and popped out the turret. She could hear the roar of the Apache's rotors up ahead, read to ambush them.
As soon as they broke back into the sunlight, Emma lined up the TOW and fired at the gunship hovering ahead of them. The white streak raced towards the helicopter…
…which at the last second pulled up, causing the missile to shoot right under it.
"Oh…crap…"
In reply, a small wisp of smoke emerged from the gunship, signalling the launch of the deadliest Air-to-Ground missile around.
The Hellfire missile.
Emma ducked back down into the Humvee, threw herself down beside a petrified Kari and yelled, "Incoming!"
Patrick saw the missile coming straight for them, but there was nothing he could do.
The Hellfire smashed into the engine block, causing the car to flip end over end multiple times.
It came to rest about 100 metres down the road…upside down.
The Apache circled around, unloading its gatling cannon into the smoking carcass.
There was no movement.
No signs of life.
Nothing.
The Apache, now satisfied it had got the kill it wanted, returned to base to rearm.
Two kilometres down the road, Declan and Tai waited patiently.
"That's it, I'm trying the radio again." Declan was just about to turn the headset on when he heard an explosion in the distance.
They looked at each other, and then jumped back into the portal.
Kari felt someone nudge her back.
She could feel a light breeze on her face.
"Kari?" That was TK's voice!
She was stunned when she opened her eyes to see an endless field of white flowers, broken only by the occasional Cherry blossom tree.
"What…who…where…" Kari was speechless.
"Don't worry. You're home now." TK smiled warmly.
"What happened?" She finally managed to say.
Tai's voice appeared behind her, "We came and got you of course!"
"Ok…is Patrick and Emma ok?"
When she mentioned the two names, Tai and TK's face went white, and their whole body went rigid.
Kari just stared in total confusion.
It was then that they looked down at the growing red patch on their chests, right on their heart.
Seconds later they collapsed in unison.
Kari jumped up with a squeal, "What's going on?"
The cloudless sky suddenly turned black and thunder could be heard.
A voice called out sending a chill down her spine, "Oh Kaaaaaaaari."
It was Patrick's voice.
She slowly turned around, to see the figure of Patrick slowly approach. All the flowers around him turned blood red as he calmly came closer. Kari tried to run, but was rooted with fear.
Patrick then stopped, and revealed he was carrying a large rifle. To the girl's utter shock he brought the rifle up to his shoulder and looked through the scope. A thin green laser point shot out from below the barrel. At first it was on her forehead, but it slowly lowered down to her chest, then overher heart.
"KARI!"
"Wake UP!"
Kari's eyes shot open as Emma slapped her across the face.
"Ow…what was that for?" She rubbed her eyes.
"RUN!" Emma yelled from inside the Humvee. Kari looked around to see she was outside the jeep, which was lying upside down.
"But..." She noticed Patrick was still fastened in the drivers seat, upside down and completely covered in blood.
"Is he…ok?" Kari just stared at the wounded man.
"Not really…" Emma just looked down at the pooling blood.
It was then that Kari noticed Patrick wasn't breathing.
She gasped in shock, "No…not now…"
"The portal is about two kilometres north of here," Blackagumon practically whispered. Kari frowned, "You don't look so good."
The digimon smiled, "Tell me about it. I'm pretty banged up."
"I'm sorry but you'll have to go alone," She looked down at her legs, "I think I broke something in the crash. I'm stuck here."
A dust cloud was growing on the horizon.
Emma just smiled, "Take care of yourself."
They just looked at each other for a few moments before the tears welled in Kari's eyes. She turned around and ran into the undergrowth.
Emma watched her for a few seconds before turning back to the matter at hand.
She grabbed her weapon of choice - an M24 sniper rifle - and gathered as much ammo as she could from the crippled Humvee.
Once the approaching vehicles were close enough, she lay down prone on the ceiling of the Hummer and aimed the rifle out the front window.
She took aim and opened fire.