Hey the volume of people who read this story is great...but totally useless to me if you don't review...come on guys tell me what you think.
If I get enough postive feedback I may write a sequel...HINT HINT...
Chapter 25 – The Final Showdown
Kari just ran.
She shot through the dense undergrowth with only one thing in mind.
Home.
In just a few kilometres she would finally be home after what seemed like a month.
Stopping to catch her breath, Kari looked back. Gunshots could be heard echoing through the forest. This reminded her of Emma's present – the M9 handgun.
While she was still unconscious, Emma had strapped a holster and M9 to her right thigh. It was still in the holster, untouched, and she planned to keep it that way. The last thing she wanted on her conscience was murder.
With renewed strength she pushed on towards her goal.
She never noticed that the world around her was going grey.
The lead Humvee edged its way towards the crash site. The driver stopped, causing all the other vehicles behind it to stop. He took out a scope and looked into the smoking wreckage…
…and straight into the barrel of an M24 sniper rifle.
He died a second later from a gunshot to the head. Bulletproof glass is only good against small arms fire and an M24 is anything but. It hit right in the forehead.
A passenger in the backseat jumped up onto the 50cal machine gun on top.
Big mistake.
No longer protected inside the Humvee, he was swiftly terminated.
The rest of the units from the following Hummers jumped out fired upon the hidden sniper.
Emma took aim.
BANG
Headshot.
BANG
Another kill.
BANG
One more shot…gotta reload.
BANG click
She swiftly tore of the empty magazine, grabbed a new one and stuffed it in.
Just as she looked back out the windshield she saw that they were approaching too fast for a sniper to take care off. Whipping out a USP handgun Emma dropped a few riflemen who got too close, "Stay back you bastards!"
Then Patrick's M16C caught her eye. Hesitating for a second, she reached over to it, clicked the safety off and aimed it at the enemy.
"This one's for you Patrick."
As for Patrick…well…he wasn't sure where he was.
Everything was dark and he couldn't see his hand in front of his face.
Until someone turned the sun on…
Patrick saw he was on the shore of the Dark Ocean.
"Not here again…"
Kari stopped dead.
"What…that noise…" She finally realised what had happened.
"Nooooo," She cried out in pain, clutching her head, "Not now…"
The sound of lapping waves got louder until she finally stumbled towards it…
..and saw a small 10 year old boy.
Emma finished off the rest of the magazine and quickly switched to her handgun, and after reloading that she reloaded the M16C and continued holding back the enemy.
This was her last stand.
Patrick saw a ripple out in the ocean.
Before he knew what was happening, he was back to his 10 year old self.
And right on cue Metalseadramon emerged from the murky waters.
Kari jumped back in shock.
'Metalseadramon? But Wargreymon finished him off years ago!'
A who and where this little boy came from also confused her, but he looked strangely familiar, '…wait…is that….'
Patrick looked up at the towering Digimon.
"Well, well, well," The mega chuckled, "What do we have here?"
"Go. Do your worst," Patrick bowed his head, "I've done my bit."
"NO!" A small voice appeared behind him, but he didn't look round.
Kari yelled at the boy, "Don't give in. We still need you here Patrick."
"What for?" Metalseadramon bellowed, "Wherever he goes death trails behind him. You can't escape."
"You're right…" Patrick sighed.
"Patrick, at this moment Emma is fighting a fight she can't possibly win," She pointed behind herself, "And she's doing it for you!"
"Hear that Patrick!" The digimon laughed, "Looks like little Emma's gonna join us too soon!"
The boy was silent. In his mind he could see Emma fire her M16C at the approaching riflemen. A round skimmed her left arm and she screamed in pain. But she still found the strength to grab her USP and fire two rounds into a rifleman who was just yards from the Hummer.
There was a small gust of wind and Blackagumon appeared beside his partner.
"Patrick, do you remember when we first made it back to the real world," Asked the digimon, "After we got wiped by the Dark Masters?"
He nodded in reply.
"You swore you'd never let anyone die untill you'd tried everything in your power to help them."
'So that's why he was so hell-bent on getting me home' Kari thought.
"Well guess what Patrick," Blackagumon whispered, "Emma's going to die."
Then Patrick snapped.
"Not if I can help it."
There was a flash of light as Patrick's crest rose from his chest.
He quickly aged back to 18.
Blackagumon just smiled and broke apart. The small bits of data rushed into Patrick's digivice, changing it. It grew squarer, with a bigger screen and a few more buttons.
It was now a D4 – Digital, Detect, Discover and Destroy.
Kari's crest also started glowing also, "Go for it!"
Patrick disappeared into the light. Metalseadramon jumped backwards, cringing in the brightness.
When everything was over, a new Digimon stood on the beach.
And he was pissed off.
The old Warmarinedramon had gained two large chain guns on his wrists, each connected to two identical boxes on his back by a long black pipe. He also now had a helmet with the Crest of Rage printed on it and a clear visor stretching over his eyes from each ear.
The digimon turned round and walked towards Kari. Metalseadramon just grinned, then started to reverse back into the ocean.
"Hey, remember to take the safety off," he chuckled, pointing to the holster. The voice was all Patrick, there was no hint of Blackwargraymon this time at all.
"I'll try," she smiled in return, "Now go save Emma!"
"Will do."
In the blink of an eye, Warmarinedramon had disappeared. For a split second, Kari thought she saw a group of people out in the sea where Metalseadramon had once been, but this too disappeared along with the Dark Ocean. Once again, she found herself alone in the forest.
After a long, deep breath, she set off once again.
The Dark Master watched the incoming thermal feed from the Predator UAV hovering above a certain 4x4.
"Thought I finished you off…oh well. You're screwed anyway," He moved the UAV along the road slightly, and picked up something. Nothing much - just a flash of heat, then nothing.
"So Kari did escape," He immediately keyed the intercom, "All pilots to hanger. Repeat, all pilots are to get airborne. There is an escaped prisoner on the move in sector CD-36. Fire on sight and use all means necessary to make sure she doesn't reach the edge of the forest!"
He switched to his radio, "Ranger team, are you ready to go?"
"Yes sir, we're just about to leave," He could hear rotor blades in the background, "ETA to the objective – 5 minutes."
"Delay takeoff. I'm coming too. This is personal."
"Affirmative. Waiting for your arrival."
The Dark Master grabbed his Desert Eagle and headed towards the hanger.
Emma slammed the last magazine into the USP. After this…well…she wasn't going to think about that. She would die along side Patrick like she planned to do.
Another wave of bullets pinged around the crippled Hummer. Would the endless stream of riflemen ever stop?
She fired the newly loaded handgun at a crouching rifleman who was getting too many rounds into the vehicle.
Just to make things worse, a Blackhawk helicopter emerged above the riflemen.
"Shit, reinforcements!" But she was wrong.
The chopper flew right over her and headed down the road…towards the portal.
"FUCK NO!"
Her moment of hesitation allowed a rifleman to run up to the jeep and point his rifle right at her past Patrick's body.
There was no way he could miss. Accepting her fate, Emma closed her eyes.
She was going to die.
CRACK
Opening her eyes, she saw an amazing sight.
Just as he was about to fire, Patrick's limp arm shot up, grabbed the barrel of the M16 and crushed it.
The rifleman looked at the presumed dead man in utter shock.
"I'm back."
Patrick's other hand reached up to his holster and took out his Deagle. He fired one round into the man's chest, killing him instantly.
Patrick tore the buckle off with near inhuman strength and instead of falling on his head he vaulted out like he was in zero gravity.
"Oh God, I thought you were dead!" Emma climbed out from Hummer too.
"It'll take a lot more that a car crash to kill me!"
They both crawled out from the car and faced the riflemen. They all had their M16s and M8s pointed right at him.
"Déjà vu," Patrick muttered, and reached for his digivice.
"Patrick...Blackagumon's...gone."
"No. He's not." Instead of Patrick's voice, it was his digimon partner's.
Emma was confused by the sudden voice change, but just then Patrick's crest glowed, "Ready?" he shouted, "'Cause here I come!"
Matrix Evolution Activate!"Warmarinedramon, Mode Change to..."
"Warmarinedramon – Blast Mode!"
The new Warmarinedramon stood before the startled riflemen.
One of the riflemen suddenly copped on, "OPEN FIRE YOU IDIOTS!"
They unleashed a barrage of automatic fire.
"Electron Scramble!" Warmarinedramon waved his hand in front of him, causing all the rounds to suddenly stop in mid air. The riflemen unloaded their entire clip before realising their rounds were getting nowhere.
"Gatling Plasma!" Theriflemen were thencut down by Warmarinedramon's powerful wrist-mounted chain guns. Warmarinedramon cut into the lead Humvee's engine totalling shredding it.
But it wasn't over yet.
Just as Emma was about to cheer, the deep howl of multiple jet engines filled the sky. Seconds later, three squadrons of fighter jets streaked past, consisting of F/A-18 Super Hornets, F16 Falcons and F-22 Raptors.
"Oh my God, they're after Kari!" Emma shrieked, "I told her to head to the portal alone!"
"I know. I saw her."
"What? How?"
"Long story, now come on!"
He picked up Emma and her M16C and launched himself into the sky.
Kari heard the jets too.
She ignored it at first but a few seconds later there was the distinct sound of a falling bomb.
The explosion blew Kari face-first into the undergrowth. When she got up, she could hear the crackling of burning wood.
She didn't know it, but that was a Napalm bomb, and there were plenty more to come. Another explosion engulfed a portion of the forest off to her left.
"Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse..."
Getting up, Kari headed onwards into the forest, still slightly shell-shocked from the two blasts. The third bomb hit off to her right, this time a conventional explosion, sending her stumbling.
"I better be close, there's no way I can keep this up for long!"
Warmarinedramon and Emma could clearly see the blitz as they flew towards the portal.
"There's no way she can survive that!" Emma screeched.
Just then there was a deep BOOM.
It was distinctly different from the intense bombing going on, and from a different direction…
…behind them.
Meanwhile, a Super Hornet lined up for another attack run, and just as it dropped its payload a missile tore into its rear, turning it into a fireball.
Another three missiles hit their mark on the other fighters, and the bombing momentarily ceased.
The squadron shot past the circling jets at Supersonic speeds, Vulcan cannons blazing.
They were new F-35B Joint Strike Fighters.
"Reinforcements have arrived!" Warmarinedramon shouted with joy, "Where did they come from?"
"Who cares? Just keep flyin'!" Emma replied.
One of the F-16 pilots yelled into his radio, "FRIENDLY FIRE! AVENGER SQUADRON! FRIENDLY…" He was the next to go. A missile hit him head on, blowing him out of the sky.
"Screw this, all pilots, engage Avenger Squadron!" One of the F22 pilots ordered.
A dogfight began.
One F16, three F22s and three F18s versus four F35s.
Kari didn't care about the dogfight above her, all she cared about was the fact that the bombing had stopped.
And even better, the end was in sight.
She could see light up ahead.
The only F16 in the dogfight was the first take a missile hit. He made the mistake of following one of the F35s for too long – just long enough for another JSF to come up behind him and shove one up its engine.
One down, six to go.
The F35 that had been chased noticed a Super Hornet race towards him from his left. He rolled to avoid the missile it fired and stuck on its Vulcan cannon, raking it with bullets as it shot by.
It burst into flames and crashed into the forest.
Five left.
Noticing that the ground was becoming more sandy, Kari realised she must be geating real close.
Minutes later, she burst out onto the desert.
"Right, now where are you?"
One of the F35's missile warning alarms went crazy as three of the Raptors sneaked behind it. Since F22s are partially stealth, they are difficult to see on a radar screen, especially when in a furball like this one.
Two of the sidewinders fell pray to the chaff the JSF dropped, darting down and exploding prematurely.
The last one, however, overshot the target, because the F35 has a secret weapon.
It can hover.
The pilot activated VTOL mode, causing the main engine to bend down and a turbofan located behind the cockpit to engage, making the jet stop dead, then quickly descended to avoid the missile.
The F22s flew past, before all falling prey to the JSF's XMAA missiles. All three exploded.
Only two to go, and Avenger Squadron hadn't taken a single hit.
It seemed what they say was true - a few Ace pilots can take on multiple squadrons...and win.
Warmarinedramon finally reached the edge of the forest, and looked around for the portal.
"There!" Emma pointed over his shoulder.
The digimon turned round and darted towards it.
After they landed Warmarinedramon was about to enter when he noticed something.
"Wait!" He yelled to Emma, but it was too late. She jumped through the black hole.
"Crap."
He prepared himself, and then jumped into the portal himself.
The two remaining F18s saw they were the only ones left, and attempted to disengage by returning to the castle. One was instantly gunned down by a F35 but the other managed to escape.
The Avenger Squadron headed back to the USS Firewall to rearm.
"Nice of you to finally join us," The Dark Master chuckled.
Warmarinedramon found himself in a small room with Darkmarinedramon and the Ranger squad. The virus type digimon was holding a Deagle at Declan's head. Emma, Tai and Izzy were huddled round Izzy's laptop on a desk in front of the portal.
"At last, I can complete my plan – to create the biggest Time Paradox ever imagined!"
"You're gonna kill you own brother before he grows up? Hows that goning to create a time paradox?"
"I've nothing against Decky, its you I want," He nodded to the five Rangers, who pointed their M16s at the Tai, Izzy and Emma, "Revert to human form and they live."
"So you can shoot me?"
"Well, its you or them."
Warmarinedramon was stuck for words. How could he have become so evil? What could make him change so much?
But he made his decision.
He wasn't going down without a fight.
"Electron Scramble!"
All the guns in the room jammed instantly.
Darkmarinedramon was about to snap Declan's neck when the whole roof of the building was blown away. Everyone looked up to see Imperialdramon Fighter Mode.
"Hey! Mind if we join the party?" Davis yelled from his digimon's shoulder.
Emma wasted no time in knocking the Rangers over with a roundhouse kick, and Izzy and Tai ran out of the room.
Warmarinedramon rugby tackled Darkmarinedramon, knocking Declan out of his arms. They both went straight through the wall and outside into the Digital City.
This time, there would be no escape.
With the portal finally in sight, Kari broke into a sprint. She wanted through before anything else happened.
She was so eager to get through, she managed to trip on something just in front of the dark void. Looking down, Kari saw Patrick's M16C.
"That means Patrick and Emma must be here already!" She flung the strap over her shoulder and jumped through the portal.
She never noticed the Blackhawk helicopter parked in the distance.
The two digimonlanded on the street and immediately engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Darkmarinedramon, however, had the advantage.
Warmarinedramon was still in Blast Mode, and so had to deal with his wrist mounted chain guns, extra armour and the back ammo packs, meaning he couldn't move as fast as the normal Darkmarinedramon.
After a few blows, Warmarinedramon realised this and launched into the sky. At least he could fly, unlike his normal form.
"Gatling Plasma!" He unloaded his chain guns into the ground at his enemy.
Before the dust settled, a large ball of plasma hit Warmarinedramon head on, knocking him out of the sky. By the time he hit the ground, he had reverted to normal mode.
Now they were even again.
Before Warmarinedramon had time to get up, his nemesis was on top of him, pounding his face in with blow after blow.
Help came in the form of Imperialdramon who literally kicked Darkmarinedramon into a building down the road.
"Positron Laser!" The huge digimon fired at the building, demolishing it instantly.
"That should finish him off!"
"Get out of here!" Warmarinedramon stumbled to his feet, "He's not gone yet, but I'm gonna finish him off."
"We can help!" Ken called from the digimon's shoulder.
"No. This is a fight I gotta finish."
"Fine. But be careful," Imperialdramon said before shooting off.
Warmarinedramon turned to the levelled building his future form had impacted, and saw the rubble begin to shake. Suddenly, Darkmarinedramon charged from the wreckage straight towards into another melee fight with his past self.
Emma looked down through the hole in the wall at the fight between Warmarinedramon and Darkmarinedramon below.
Totally by suprise, someone grabbed her from behind and threw her back across the room. She stumbled backwards and straight into the arms of Staff Sergeant Ryan Grey.
"Gotcha now!" He laughed along with the other four Rangers around her.
Before she even had time to think of what to do, 15 shots rang out in quick succession. Ryan released his grip and all the Rangers fell to the floor.
Emma looked around to see Kari holding an M9 handgun out in front of her, the slide was jammed back. She had unloaded the entire clip...with her eyes closed. Emma chuckled and walked over to the girl, who slowly opened her eyes, "Thought it would come in handy."
"Did I...get them?" She asked, handing the gun over to Emma who reloaded it, "By the way, you dropped this." She handed her the M16C.
"Thanks, you did great...but next time, open you eyes!" The both laughed and walked out of the room.
Just as they were about to leave, the leader of the fallen Rangers moaned, "I'm not...gonna die...'cause of some girl...with a gun!"
Emma looked round at the Staff Sergeant, who had a bullet lodged in his back.
"Fine then," Emma took the magazine out of Kari's M9 and threw it at the man, "Keep your honour."
They closed the door behind them and walked down the corridor. A few seconds later, there was a gunshot, followed by the thump of a dead body hitting the floor.
When they reached the entrance to the building, they met Tai, Declan and Izzy.
"Tai!" Kari ran up to her brother.
"Kari! You made it!"
"Yeah, thanks to Patrick."
"Well if thats everyone, I think I'll shut the portal," Izzy hit a few keys on his laptop, sealing the time portal upstairs, "Now lets get out of here!"
Thefour of them walked over to a TV sitting on a desk. Kari produced her digivice and said "Digiport Open!"
Warmarinedramon saw the flash of the digiport open, and he grinned, "Mission Accomplished."
Just as Darkmarinedramon was about to grab his enemy, Warmarinedramon excecuted his final attack.
"Terra…EXPLOSION!"
Imperialdramon had just landed and reverted to Veemon and Wormmon when the explosion occurred. Turning around, they could see the Digital City simply crumble from the powerful blast. A tall plume of smoke rose into the sky.
"That's why he wanted rid of us!" Davis stomped angrily, "We could've taken that guy on no problem!"
"I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of them," Ken muttered, "Now lets go home."
They walked over to the nearby TV and disappeared.