Author's Notes: To answer a few questions from Angel…I already have my plate full with the 02 Cast and the Tamers cast along with characters from Japanese theology. So I doubt I'll be able to properly integrate the Frontier cast in the story. Besides, the storyline is almost done. The bikini shot omake is also coming to a close but I'll be starting up a new one which concerns DC's trial with ZeedMillenniumon as the plaintiff! Finally, there will be two mini stories after this book to wrap up the storyline. "Homecomings" will be the name of the V-Tamer story (I'll probably stick with this title. Final title choices will be posted on the finale of Ascension) and "Unions" will be the name of the multi-part epilogue.
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon in any form whatsoever. Bandai, Toei and ABC own the rights and all that stuff. All names mentioned in the omake are not mine except for my own.
Ascension – V 4.4
Gallantmon could still hear the battle cries and the typical villainous laughter and mocking from Daemon as he lay on the ground, his body wracked with physical injuries from the fight that his other three counterparts had engaged in. Eventually, it'll all be replaced by screams of pain and terror as well as more villainous laughter. What chilled him to the core was how fiercely GCM and Megidramon fought against Gallantmon Chaos Mode.
The images were seared into his mind as both the dragon and the crimson knight charged forward in a blind rage. Their opponent simply stepped out of the way. He seemed to pause for a moment, contemplating how much power he should pour into his Syphon Mind attack. After all, he still had a connection to the both of them. He didn't have too much time as his opponents came charging again. Without even thinking about it, he twirled his ebon staff and smashed it against Megidramon's jaw while blocking a sword slash from GCM.
'Damn…that's going to be sore for a while…' He slightly winced as his jaw tingled. With this small distraction, GCM used his right hand to hit his counterpart in the head with his own staff. But because of his positioning, the damage wasn't that extensive. Gallantmon Chaos Mode kept moving back as he blocked the consecutive attacks made by GCM. Sooner or later, the dragon would come back and cause even more problems. It was time to take him out of the fight.
The first time he had experienced the effects of Syphon Mind was when Metamormon used it on them just a while ago. And because of the different personalities that the attack focused on, the thoughts that were forcibly played in his mind were random and incoherent. But should the attack focus on a single mind, there could be more damaging effects. Gallantmon Chaos Mode began to concentrate and just as he did, a white light in a strange design hovered over him (AN: Looks like the 15th Angel from Evangelion), ready to strike. "Syphon Mind!!" The light design turned into a single beam and went straight into Megidramon's head.
As the attack brought out whatever little hidden thoughts that Megidramon may have had and exposed them to the other three, GCM and Gallantmon were horrified at the destructive imagery that the dragon had inside. Considering this form would be the best form that the power of the Hazard would respond to, it shouldn't be too surprising to find that type of imagery. Gallantmon Chaos Mode smiled. "This is the Hazard in all its glory. Truly splendid, don't you think?" There was no response.
While GCM was still distracted, Gallantmon Chaos Mode went out on an assault against his counterpart. He quickly knocked out both weapons before throwing a few blows to the solar plexus. Had it not for the connection between himself and the others, he would have kept attacking at a relentless pace. His slight hesitation allowed GCM some room to breathe. "You're finished!!" The dark knight willed himself to ignore the physical injuries, brought his staff over his head and prepared to strike. "Blutgang!! Gungnir!! To me!!!" By calling out the names of his weapons, the lance and the sword flew straight into his hands.
As soon as the staff came down, GCM raised his sword to block it. He quickly eyed the other holy knight who was in no condition to fight, either mentally or physically. "Odd. I'm not hearing your rants about how I supposedly betrayed the trust of the others and all that crap." Again, there was no response. Gallantmon Chaos Mode snorted. "Don't try to deny the fact that you tried to trust me. The look on your face when I destroyed Grani confirmed that fact. It was a look of shock in the face of treachery."
GCM narrowed his golden eyes. "We were in this together. Whatever happened to us also happened to you. I had thought that was enough of an incentive for you to stick with us…and for me to put some trust in you. It appears that I was mistaken." The dark knight smiled underneath his helmet. "You finally realize how foolish it was to blindly place your trust. Hurray for you…" The crimson knight flew back for a moment.
Meanwhile, Daemon was busy toying with the others. Perhaps an appropriate analogy would be like a predator playing around with the prey before delivering the killing blow. How much longer the demon lord Digimon would keep doing this, Gallantmon had no idea. But it was only a matter of time until the entertainment value of toying with his friends dwindled down to zero and Daemon would blast them into oblivion.
There was a small shift in movement as he heard his friends try another attack. "The first time was amusing, but now you're getting tiresome." Daemon formed seven small spheres of fire. "Firestorm!!" The seven balls of flame flew at an amazing speed towards the group. Megagargomon opened up several barrels to launch his missiles to try and nullify the attack. "Mega Barrage!!"
Another noise was heard as the two swords belonging to GCM and Gallantmon Chaos Mode clashed again. He had noticed that Megidramon had gone silent so it is obvious that he has been incapacitated. 'When will all this madness stop?' thought Gallantmon before feeling another jolt of pain through his body. Then he noticed his hand appeared to be trying to keep itself together. 'I just had to ask…'
He heard the small grunts of pain from Gallantmon Chaos Mode and GCM. "Our bodies can't keep themselves together…now you see the consequences of your actions! It has sped up the fragmentation process because of you absorbing Grani's data!! And now we're going to die from it!!" This time, there was no response from the dark knight. Not because he had no witty reply to his counterpart's accusations but because of the fact that up above the group, he saw the sky starting to bend and distort oddly. And that usually meant something big was coming.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
'What is this…?' Zero found himself swimming in a sea of memories. He didn't have that many good ones before his tamer, Taichi Yagami showed up in the digital world and since then, they've been quite a team. Some of the more intense memories were the fights against stronger Digimon who have guarded the Tags to get into the castle. Myotismon, Metalgreymon and that damned Etemon stood in their way but they overcame those obstacles over time.
He heard Taichi speak again in another memory. "Dear lord!!! What is this stuff?!? It's disgusting!!" That must have been the time when they were experimenting with what type of herbs would prove to be highly useful as a medicinal treatment. Zero gave a small frown. What was the significance of all this? This wasn't the time to stroll down memory lane. Another memory struck him as he was thinking about what was going on.
That was just after the first big battle to obtain the first tag. Taichi was bandaging up his partner while Gabo just stressed out as usual. "Did you see the look on Triceramon's face just before he got deleted? What was that all about?" The tamer hesitated before replying. "I'm not exactly sure but it could be that he was looking back at his life and the choices he made. Reflecting and wondering what it would have been like if he had taken another direction. Hey, I'm no expert on this stuff, you know!"
Zero's gasp was amplified as he realized that the same thing was happening to him. 'I can't leave Taichi!! Without me, who will be there to stand by his side? To cheer him up? And most of all…who will be there to do all the posing, the singing, the dancing and the speeches that make up a key part of the 100% Combination?!?' The Digimon found a new resolve and struggled on making his way back to his tamer.
When he awoke, his whole body felt like that it had been tossed, rolled and beaten like pizza dough. He could see ArcaDemon, charging up for what was to be a finishing move. He could see Neo, grinning like an insane maniac and who was certain that the destruction of the 100% Combination would make everything all right again. He could see the distorted images strengthening and weakening in an odd pattern before finally vanishing. "Damn it…I don't want it to end this way!! Zero…"
He saw his tamer, shedding tears with a high amount of anger and frustration in his eyes. "Dot…" Zero saw his tamer staying close to him, even at this moment of death. Of course, the amount of power in the attack would probably kill him as well. "T-Taichi…" That was all he could stammer out. He felt the boy climb into his giant hand and leaning his forehead into one of his fingers. "…Matrix!!!"
Neo starting laughing as a spectacular explosion rocked the digital world, signalling the end of his arch-nemesis. "Victory is mine!!! I have finally proven that I am the superior tamer!!! ArcaDemon!! Make sure that they are both dead!! And while you're at it, find some piece of memorabilia like those stupid goggles!! It will set aside the doubts that may arise in the hearts of those who would question this victory!!" ArcaDemon said nothing as the smoke continued to blow.
He then noticed an odd glow and a new shape taking place out from where the body of Imperialdramon used to lie. 'Odd…I had better finish this.' He charged up for another attack. "Dot Matrix!!!" As the beam erupted from his body, he saw a sword come out of nowhere and split the beam into half. "Alforce Saber!!!"
As the smoke started clearing, Neo gasped as he saw a new Digimon appear from out of nowhere. He had a Veedramon shaped head with a face mask and large blue wings, with the inside parts being red. Some parts of his blue body were covered with white armour and gold trimming. A greenish energy blade has extended from one of his right wrist gauntlet. "W-what?!?" The tamer had been completely caught off guard for this. (AN: There's a photo at the picture website I mentioned way back in chapter 8. Just check out the V-Tamer booster)
Inside the new holy knight Digimon, Zero could feel Taichi's essence all around his body. His tamer didn't seem to be anywhere in particular until he heard the boy's voice. "Holy moly, that was a close call!! Hey…I can see through your eyes and…man, that's super cool!! I don't know what happened but I think I'm now a part of you! Or something…I can see my hand and my original body but it's all bathed in a weird yellowish orange colour!" Zero grinned to himself. "Really? Neat! Alright…it's time to do some butt kicking as…Alforceveedramon!!"
He started to draw something in the air. From Neo and ArcaDemon's perspective, they couldn't tell what it was. But if someone that was flying high above and towards Zero looked down, it could see that he was drawing a V shape. "Shining Vee Force!!" As soon as he finished the drawing, the giant V shaped blue energy arrow was fired straight at ArcaDemon. He wasn't able to fire a Dot Matrix to counter this in time and the move was too fast for him to dodge so he raised both his arms and blocked the attack.
Bits of his skin started to split apart and disintegrate but ArcaDemon did not waiver. Neo started to shout again. "Don't let these weaklings defeat us!! We are the true powers of the digital world!!" But as more of ArcaDemon was destroyed, more of Neo's will to fight went along with it as well. Finally, the energy arrow destroyed the Digimon's arms and finished off the rest of the body without too much of a problem.
"It's over…" Zero sheathed his Alforce Saber into a scabbard before it disappeared back into his body. He quickly went over to check on Neo and found the boy lying on the ground, with a blank expression in his eyes. Taichi gave a small gasp. "He's in…a coma?" There was no response from the catatonic boy as Zero gently picked him up.
"We better get going. I'll start feeling better when we know that the others are alright and we should also lend our assistance in trying to resolve those other major problems that they have on their hands." Zero gave a mental nod before noticing that the Omega Sword was still stuck in the ground. He pulled it out before examining it. "Still looks in good shape. We can keep this as a back up weapon."
"Or we can pass this along to someone else. And I have just the candidate in mind…" Zero knew who Taichi was referring to. Without saying anything else, he blasted off into the air to reunite with his friends. As soon as the dust cleared, the image of Rei Saiba reappeared with a worried look on her face. "Brother…"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The continuous ripping of the sky above them halted the fight between Daemon and the other tamers. While the others were at a loss about whom or what was causing this phenomenon, Daemon was seething with fury. 'You always keep doing this…coming back when everyone least suspects it. Damn!! I should have made some contingency plans!!' He paused for a moment, reconsidering his thoughts. Ever since he had gained all this power, he has not needed to spend an excessive amount of energy planning his moves.
A sphere had started to form with red and blue parts intertwined. Slowly they began to unravel and stretch themselves to each form a hideous head and an arm. Data lines began to surround the new body in some strange pattern. 'So now I'll be able to exactly determine the full extent of my power and how I fare against another dark god…' The two heads woke up simultaneously.
The both of them took a deep breath and exhaled deeply. "Freedom is truly the sweetest fruit next to vengeance," stated the red head absentmindedly. The blue head continued the reaction to freedom. "Yessssss…" They both focused on the group that was assembled down below. This time, both heads spoke as one entity. "My greetings to all of you…"
"That was definitely not what I was expecting him to say after all that captivity. I would be thinking that he would want to go on a rampage and laugh like a megalomaniac as he destroys all of space, time and reality…" Terriermon ranted on and on inside Henry's head. The Chinese boy sighed. "Odd how a dark god seems to be better at manners than you, Terriermon."
He focused on getting every bit of information that he could get on the new form of Millenniumon. "So this is Zeedmillenniumon…he's a dark god mega level Digimon. His specialty attacks are Time Destroyer and Chrono Paradox. No specific information on those attacks…" The tamer made a personal note not to find out personally how those attacks worked on an opponent.
"What? You're not going to say anything? Not even a simple 'hello'? What's wrong with you all?!? Sure I may be a dark God who's bent on annihilating all of reality but that doesn't mean I necessarily have to be rude! Sheesh!!" They all blinked at Zeedmillenniumon's reaction. Daemon was the first to speak. "I had heard stories about your rather odd character swings but this…is truly…" He could not finish his sentence as he was just too flabbergasted at Zeedmillenniumon's behaviour.
This outburst from Daemon caught the dark god's attention. "Daemon…I've been wanting to meet you for some time. Ever since you unlocked the powers from my Dark Spore that I've unleashed when my first body was destroyed, your status has risen and now you are in a position to challenge me." Daemon levitated himself to make eye to eye contact (sort of) with the other Digimon. "Know this…you have had your time as the dark god, the master of time and space and as the supreme evil of the digital world. Since I was the first one to obtain that status when you were absent, it is only fitting that I gain that title. But now there are two of us. Reality isn't big enough for the two of us."
Both heads gave a sick grin. "Oh, I agree with you. About the reality isn't big enough for the two of us comment. You will simply have to go." Daemon snarled and prepared to attack. "Dark Banishing!!" Zeedmillenniumon summoned a giant black energy field to block off the attack. (AN: Picture a black coloured A.T. Field from Evangelion) Daemon looked in astonishment.
The heads grinned again. "I've come up with an additional number of tricks while in limbo. Time Destroyer!!" Bolts of electricity were fired from the dark god. In addition more bolts of electricity seemed to come out of nowhere from everywhere at once and tried to attack Daemon. Good reflexes on the demon lord's part prevented him from taking any serious damage. "Firestorm!!!"
"This is great! If they both delete each other in this fight, then I get the biggest jackpot of data ever!!" Kuzuhamon had a bit of a giddy feeling running through her. But Sakuyamon wasn't sharing the feeling of giddiness. "We've got to stop the both of them at once! Before they cause anymore damage to the threads of reality!!"
Both Rika and Sakuya gave alarmed looks as she continued to speak. "Both of these Digimon are trying to bend time and space to their will in this fight. If this keeps up, space and time will unravel and all of reality will implode. In a way, Zeedmillenniumon is manipulating Daemon by using this fight as a catalyst towards the completion of his goal!!" Sakuya started to grow worried. "So the four of us would have to find a way to stop two dark gods?"
"Technically there's us, Einstein and the Legion of Goggleheads. But even with that, we're still outclassed!" exclaimed Rika. Kuzuhamon gave a small growl with this revelation. "If we retreat and try to come up with something, those two will most likely blow up all of reality. If we stick around and try to fight, they won't really care and will still blow up all of reality anyway. Some options!! And just how do you figure that all of space and time is going to blow up?"
"I thought it was obvious because these two powerhouses will continuously struggle for dominance in space and time and they will eventually rip it apart. Like two children who want the same toy and they rip it apart." Sakuyamon paused for a moment. "And in some odd way, I'm attuned to the cosmic forces. I can sense how much they are damaging reality." Before any of the others could ask more questions, they all heard Henry shout a "Head's up!!"
Daemon was up in the air directly over the entire group of nine. Zeedmillenniumon focused on creating an energy sphere in front of him before firing it. "Chrono Paradox!!" The energy sphere flew straight towards the group. Daemon tapped into another ability of his and was able to shift to a safer position. But the others were not so fortunate. As the sphere transformed itself into a gigantic blob and enveloped them, Terriermon's last coherent thought was 'This is going to suck!!!'
And that does it for chapter 34. Expect a bigger delay with the next chapter as I think it's going to be a big and heavy one! And now, here's the conclusion of…
THE CASE OF THE MISSING BIKINI SHOT (Part 6)
"Make a left turn here…his door number is 66…" Epsilon looked up from Tommy's directions and headed towards the correct door.
"Hey…was it a good idea just to leave Traveller at the hands of all those pissed off fans?" asked Phoenix.
"They only want to beat him up, not kill him. Otherwise, he can't finish his story." Epsilon paused when he noticed that Takuya's door was slightly ajar. Phoenix noticed this as well.
He carefully opened the door and noticed Takuya's body with blood on his face. 'Don't jump to conclusions…' "Phoenix, can you check out the rest of the apartment? I'll see what happened to Takuya."
As the Authoress of Angst looked around, Epsilon noticed that the boy had two pictures. One was a large picture of the bikini shot in question while the other one was of Duskmon in a cool pose. "What the…?"
"The only thing I found out of the ordinary was Takuya's collection of photographs. It looked like that he was collecting photographs of the Legendary Warriors." The Chinese author looked at where Phoenix was pointing at.
Other than shots of Kazemon, there were shots of the other legendary warriors in cool battle poses. Takuya had mostly the Human Spirit photos and some Beast Spirit photos. From what Epsilon could determine, Takuya could only get his hands on photos on Legendary Warriors who had been introduced in the show. But he must have worked hard to obtain a clear shot of Duskmon. 'Why would he be interested in collecting photographs of the Legendary Warriors?'
"So it seems that Takuya is our culprit," stated Phoenix.
"That's impossible. Look at the body. From the way the blood is positioned, the only way that he could bleed like that was from a nosebleed. And as you can see, there's some dried up blood right at the nostrils." Phoenix decided to trust Epsilon on this one.
He then held up the larger bikini shot. "And this caused the nosebleed. He was apparently given a large blown up copy of the bikini shot by the real thief just for this reaction. Why…I'm not sure."
"Wow…you know quite a lot about this."
Epsilon shrugged. "Well, when I spend four straight months of summer vacation watching anime, I'm bound to pick up a few things." (AN: Yep…I finished exams in early May!)
"So can the studio still use this?" asked the Authoress of Angst.
"No…they need the master shot in order to run the episode. Any copies won't do." He checked his watch and sighed. "Looks like I failed my mission…"
His cell phone started to ring. Epsilon broke out of his depression to answer it. "Hello?"
It was the studio producer. "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!!!!!!!"
"Huh?"
"When we checked the episode one last time before making a decision about airing it or making the announcement, the master shot was in there!! We owe you one, big time!! A friend of yours named AnT mentioned how hard you were working on the case as some girl was using some torture device to make him work on his stories. We also got your phone number from a guy and his Digimon who were in a hurry to go to the bathroom. And just before we gave you a call to check up on your progress, the shot was there!!"
(Epsilon O_O;;;) "Uh…right! I couldn't find the thief though…"
"Don't worry about it. We'll deal with that scoundrel another time. When you get back, we can start discussing how you're to be rewarded!"
"Sure!!" He hung up and passed the news to Phoenix.
"Odd…so either someone stole it back from the thief and returned it or the thief returned it himself." Epsilon had to remember that Phoenix made an assumption that only a guy would be interested in a bikini shot.
"Right…well, I guess the case is closed for now. Thanks for lending a hand, Phoenix!!"
She gave a small smile. "No problem. I'll talk to you later. Ja ne, Epsilon-san!!"
The two of them headed their separate ways once out on the street. As Epsilon made sure that the piece of paper, containing DC's soul as collateral for lending BlackTerriermon the funds to study law (how BlackTerriermon did it will be a story for another time), inside his pocket was not damaged, he heard another honk and some more catcalls. Meanwhile Phoenix was chanting to herself "I'm a pacifist…I'm a pacifist…ah, screw it!!" Moments later, the guys who were hitting on her were running for their lives. (AN: The real Phoenix would probably…NOTE THE KEY WORD: PROBABLY!!!...not resort to violence)
'Well, I guess that wraps up everything. But I can't help feeling that I forgot something…'
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Help!!! Get me out of here!!!" JP was still tied up in the room. Akira and his Digimon had vacated the room quickly to go to the bathroom after eating too much chocolate. Someone came in the room after hearing the boy's screams and noticed the chocolate.
"Please help me!! I'll give you all that chocolate and more if you untie me!!"
"Yummy…" Angel took the rest of the candy and left the room, happily munching away.
JP groaned. "Why does all this bad stuff happen to me?!?!?"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
'Damn…talk about a good poker face!!' Dragoon sweated nervously as he made a decision. "Check."
SQUEAK. The Death of Rats said check.
It came down to Wyld Stallyns. "Uh…what are we doing again, dudes?"
"Either Bet, Check or Fold. Check means you pass the Bet to Death here," said Dragoon.
"Okay then…Check!!"
IN THAT CASE, I RAISE THE STAKES BY $1000. Death tossed in the appropriate chips.
Dragoon tossed down his cards. "I can't afford that! I have to fold!!"
YOU CAN ALWAYS WAGER YOUR LIFE. ONE YEAR COSTS ABOUT $100. Death took out two sandglasses. One for Dragoon and one for Wyld Stallyns.
"No thanks."
Wyld Stallyns grinned. "Alright…count me in! I have an absolutely wicked hand!!"
VERY WELL. THAT MEANS I HAVE TO TAKE OFF TEN YEARS OF YOUR LIFE IF I WIN.
"Check this out!!" Wyld Stallyns laid down his cards. Seeing this, Death of Rats tossed down his cards, which consisted of a natural Three of a Kind and no wild cards.
TWO QUEENS, A FIVE AND A SEVEN. THAT MAKES FOR FOUR OF A KIND SINCE FIVES AND SEVENS ARE WILD. NOT TOO BAD. Death laid down his cards which consisted of two Aces, two fives and a seven.
HOWEVER I HAVE FIVE ACES WHICH EASILY DEFEATS YOUR FOUR QUEENS. THEREFORE YOU LOSE TEN YEARS OF YOUR LIFE. AND SINCE THAT WAS ALL THE TIME THAT YOU HAD LEFT, YOU'RE TECHNICALLY DEAD.
"Bummer!! Don't I get to challenge you for my life or something like that?"
I'LL HAVE TO CHECK THE RULES SEEING HOW YOU LOST YOUR LIFE IN A POKER GAME AGAINST ME. Death cleaned up the cards and started shuffling again.
IF YOU WISH, WE CAN CHANGE THE GAME TO RUMMY. OR PERHAPS EUCHRE.
The others simply shrugged. "Euchre," said Dragoon. Death started to make appropriate deck arrangements.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Mission accomplished." The digital camera had captured Takuya's look just as he saw the bikini shot. As soon as he had fainted, the escape was made cleanly. The master shot had been replaced to save much grief for the producers.
"This is even better than the look you had in Episode 2, Mr. Kanbara." The image of his face as blood started gushing out his nose was blown straight up on the computer.
There was a tiny giggle. "Looking like this, you look so…adorabile!"
END!!!!
Well that wraps up the Case of the Missing Bikini Shot. I'll eventually start up the DC trial omake in the V-Tamer mini story or something. And I left a major clue to who the thief really is. I'll reveal the significance of the clue at the beginning of the next chapter. If you can figure out the clue, then it'll be totally easy to find out who the thief is. Anyways…that's it for me for now! Be seeing ya next chapter!!