Author's Notes: Here we go with the next chapter. If you still haven't figured out who was the thief…well, here's the big clue. Adorabile means 'adorable' (no duh!) in Italian (HINT HINT). Also, Zero has dragon wings in the mega form that I described in the previous chapter. An image is available at the card picture website which I listed back in chapter 8 in the V-Tamer Booster Pack images. I've done enough talking so let's get down to this!!
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon in any form whatsoever. Bandai, Toei and ABC own the rights and all that stuff.
Ascension – V 4.5
"Magna Blast!!" "Rapid Fire!!" Both golden armoured Digimon fired their respective attacks at Cherubimon. As they hit their mark, chunks of fur and muscle were ripped off. But that didn't really matter to the mega Digimon as he simply regenerated those lost parts moments after they were blasted. Magnamon and Rapidmon flew back to avoid the other Digimon's reach.
"Alright. As the partner of a human who is probably smarter than mine…" Magnamon mentally added a 'no offence, Davis'. "…I'm hoping that you have been able to cook up some sort of plan to take this guy down by now!" The Armoured Digimon of Fate gave a sigh. "Can't your friends digivolve and help us? What's your recovery rate on that program you briefly mentioned before we armour-digivolved?"
"Izzy never told us!!" "Give a rough estimate!!" Rapidmon fired some more missiles while Magnamon glanced at the other Digimon who have started to regain some strength but not enough to actively fight. He cross-referenced the latest condition of his friends to their condition a few minutes prior to his latest observation.
"I don't know!! Maybe ten percent a minute or something! I'm no math genius like Izzy or something!! Magna Blast!" It was the same routine as usual. Rip out some muscle and then regenerate. When Cherubimon started inclining his head in an odd position, Rapidmon gasped. "Oh dear…if we don't finish this within a few more minutes, this is going to get really nasty!!"
Magnamon gave a puzzled look while Rapidmon explained. "I remember the times with Willis when Cocomon and myself were baby Digimon. Whenever Cocomon got bored, he would incline his head in that same position and if he didn't get entertained quickly, he would drive me and Willis completely bonkers by shooting bubbles all over the place. And with the amount of firepower at his disposal in this form…" The Armoured Digimon of Miracles placed the pieces of the puzzle together. "This brings us back to the original question. Do you have a plan yet?"
Rapidmon frowned underneath his helmet. "The only thing that I could think of that might possibly work is to go inside the belly of the beast and attack the virus there. Once it's gone, Cocomon will be more than happy to regurgitate us if he can get through in one piece." He noticed the confused look in Magnamon's eyes. "That means he'll throw up and we'll be in the vomit…or the yucky stuff to put it in simple terms." An ill feeling swept over the other armoured Digimon. "Oh, man…let's get this over with before I feel like throwing up!!"
Both Digimon charged forward and fired their attacks straight in Cherubimon's face. As he opened his mouth in pain, Magnamon and Rapidmon flew in. "Good grief!! Haven't you heard of mouthwash?!?" That was Magnamon's last line before Cherubimon closed his mouth again. "What just happened?!?" screamed a tiny Davis Motomiya after he saw his cool golden Digimon fly right into the mouth of their enemy.
Wormmon stiffened as he saw his friends get swallowed. "I have to digivolve and get them out of there!!" Now that the restoration program had settled in, the others had access to normal digivolution again. All they needed now was the energy to pull it off and considering how much punishment Cherubimon had dished out, they needed time to recover. Their strength was slowly returning but they needed to be at full power now.
They all saw Cherubimon clutch his head and roar in agony. The black fur on his body started changing colour to pink. The ugly face was replaced with a face that was actually pleasant to look at. When Willis blinked again, he gasped as he saw a pink version of his partner rather than the dark black version. "Cocomon?" His Digimon seemed to be crying a bit. "Goodbye, Willis. I'll miss you…" His body started turning into dust and left a very startled Veemon and Terriermon on the ground.
"Cocomon!!!!" This time, he shouted with his older voice. Apparently, the others had turned back to normal and the sky was changing back to its original colour. As Veemon and Terriermon made their way back, Kari tried to cheer Willis up. "Don't worry. Your partner can be reborn in Primary Village and before you know it, he'll be back!"
The boy picked up Terriermon before speaking. "I don't think so. The way he said goodbye…he knew he wasn't going to come back. It was final." He started walking away from the group, not noticing Suzie's depressed look as she saw Terriermon going away from her. "Because of this rampage, I haven't done much to disprove the general American theory that Digimon are dangerous and must be separated from mankind. This will make things harder for any Digidestined in America. This whole thing was my fault and I'm going to set things straight."
"Wait!! You're going to take all the blame for something that was completely out of your control?!? That's not fair!!" shouted Cody. Willis stopped for a moment. "Life rarely is fair and we can't expect a happy ending for every situation. That's just not how reality works. Reality is shaped by the events that happen and the choices we make. I made a few bad decisions four years ago. I've dug my grave…and now I've got to lie in it."
He started running again. Yolei was about to chase him and slap some sense into his head when TK grabbed her arm. "Let me go! I've got to get him to realize that this whole guilt game is completely rubbish!!" TK waited until she calmed down. "I want to help him as well but we've got other priorities at the moment. Like getting Suzie back to Henry and helping the others get back to normal. We need to get Imperialdramon to take us to a computer so we can get back in the digital world."
"We'll have to wait a few more minutes before both Veemon and Wormmon are ready to go," reported Ken. As Kari started making sure that Suzie was fine, she gave one last look at the departing figure, which was getting smaller as he put more distance between them. 'I just hope he doesn't do anything rash.'
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The first thing that Henry Wong saw when he woke up was…nothing. His surroundings were completely black. He gave a small startled gasp. "What…?" He noticed that he could still see his body…well, the body of Megagargomon at least. "Terriermon…are you there?" asked the tamer in an uncertain voice. There was no answer from the usually talkative rabbit Digimon.
'So this is the effect of Chrono Paradox? Nothing spectacular so far.' He floated around, trying to figure out just what exactly was going on and how he could get back to his friends. This place, wherever it is, disturbed him somehow. He couldn't place a finger on it and wasn't sure what was bothering him until the major clue dropped right in front of him. "Fancy meeting you again."
Henry froze when he heard his own voice. 'Now I know that I'm going crazy…maybe this is how Zeedmillenniumon's attack works. By mental torture and perhaps some sort of physical assault while I'm stuck in here.' He started focusing on how to break himself out of his prison when he heard the voice talk to him again. "Hey!! I'm talking to you here! Maybe you'll want to talk when I come out." A giant figure stepped out of the shadows.
"You…" The figure was just as big as Henry and looked exactly the same except that his face was brown, he had black armour instead of green and the missile faces were red instead of yellow. Henry vaguely remembered a name. "Umegagargomon…" The other Digimon gave an odd little bow. "That's right! Give this fellow a prize!!"
"So this is how Chrono Paradox works? By having me face my greatest fear or something?" His dark counterpart said nothing. Henry prepared to go into battle. "If this is the only way for me to get out, then so be it! Mega Barrage!!" At the same time, the other Digimon opened up several cannons of his own to fire a barrage of missiles to counter the attack. Each missile from Megagargomon was nullified by Umegagargomon's own missiles. "Henry, Henry, Henry…I thought Sensei taught you better than that. Remember the last time you rushed into a fight entirely on impulse? You know…the scuffle with the neighbourhood kid, Yukio?"
(flashback)
A younger Henry Wong had just completed another martial arts lesson and was walking back home. He felt on top of the world, to put it mildly. His training was a way to finally distinguish himself as someone else and not another child of the Wong family. "Hey!! What are you doing?!?" It was the voice of another young child. Henry reasoned that the child was not too far away from him and was obviously in trouble.
"Collecting my ante! What does it look like, you loser?" From the sound of that voice, it seemed like Yukio was causing trouble again. Since he moved into the neighbourhood, he's been bothering kids one way or the other and has been a general pain for everyone. "Yeah but you totally cheated! That move you made a while ago…I saw a ruling on the internet saying that play was illegal!"
Yukio leaned forward to snatch up the foil Omnimon card as the ante. "Hey…you were the one who wanted to challenge me so you could try and win my promo Metalgreymon that I got when I bought the Digimon game and you agreed to play the card game on my terms. I don't really care about official rulings. That's for tournament level play anyway." "And I suppose that you would only use official rulings when the opponent tries to make the same type of move you did?"
He looked up to see another boy with a look of disapproval. "What are you doing defending this kid, Henry? It was his own fault that he got himself into this mess!" Yukio took one end of the Omnimon card and noticed that his beaten opponent had grabbed the other end. "You cheater!! Let go of my card!!" There was a tug of war between the two children. Henry realized that the card could rip and went to stop Yukio but it was too late.
While the younger boy started crying, Henry gave a fierce glare at Yukio. "Look what you did!! Apologize and buy this kid another copy of the card that you ripped up!!" Yukio got up and dusted himself off. "No way! That card costs quite a bit of money, you know! It was mine anyway since I won it so that other kid should be buying me a new card! But since I'm such a nice guy, I'll let him off this time."
From Henry's point of view, this affair had not been resolved fairly. He went up to Yukio and pulled him back roughly. "I told you to apologize and buy another card!!" The other boy just snarled. "Make me!!!" He threw a punch at Henry's head but thanks to his martial arts reflexes, he ducked. He then made three counterattacks: a punch to the stomach and two kicks to the chest.
When the adrenaline died down from his system, a wave of guilt washed over Henry. He had been taught that the purpose of learning how to fight was to avoid fighting. The boy walked over to Yukio, who was in a lot of pain. "Hey!! Are you alright?" Yukio's eyes widened and he tried moving away from Henry. "Don't hurt me!! I'll do anything but please don't hurt me!!"
The next words flew out of Henry's mouth before he had a chance to think about them. "I want you to buy another foil Omnimon card and give it to that kid as an apology for cheating. Also, I want you to stop being such a troublemaker! I think all that will resolve this incident and we won't have to mention it again to anyone." Yukio nodded, with fear reflecting in his eyes. "S-sure! Whatever you say!"
(end flashback)
"Come to think of it…the last time you rushed into a fight, you actually did some good. Not only did you make things fair by getting Yukio to buy another card but you changed a neighbourhood troublemaker into a nice, normal kid." Umegagargomon chuckled while Henry clenched his fists. "I used my skills against him and forced him to change. Now…who knows how severe the side effects may be. If people don't change to their own will and change to the will of others, it could be disastrous!" His dark counterpart just rolled his eyes in an irritated manner.
"And that was when you started trying to focus on control, right? You wanted to fight me because I represented what it would be like if you broke loose and acted entirely on impulse." Megagargomon closed his eyes for a brief moment in order to find a good response. "That's not true. I know that every one of us has a dark side and that it gets us through life in some manner. I've accepted that fact."
"You say you accept that fact. You say that you're capable of integrating me into yourself. Then why do you constantly come back to this precise moment where you fight with me?!?" Umegagargomon lowered his voice again. "How many times have we had this little fight? I think I lost count at twenty. We could have done a lot of good around our neighbourhood dealing with those other troublemakers back then." He paused as he noticed the other one tremble slightly. "I think I've struck a nerve. So tell me…why do you come back to this moment?"
Henry couldn't form the words. Umegagargomon gave a small frown. "Hey, you're the one who has to admit it to yourself, you know. You're the only one who knows the answer." The other Digimon finally came up with an adequate answer. "I always come back here because I have to keep you at bay and because I fear what may happen if I let go again."
His counterpart said nothing while Henry tried to keep finding reasons why he came to this moment. "Am I here because of that fear of letting you out? Or maybe it's because…" He noticed a sinister look in Umegagargomon's eyes. "You're supposed to be the brains of the group. So why can't you see this already? You come back here to this moment to hide from your fear. You've done so ever since your encounter with Yukio."
He snorted once. "Face it…here, you can battle me to your heart's content and come out with a satisfied feeling that you've overcome the urges but all you have in the end is a false feeling of security." As Umegagargomon said the last four words of his statement, he took several steps forward until he was right in Megagargomon's face. Then a dark grin appeared on Umegagargomon's face. "The truth hurts, doesn't it?"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
When Rika opened her eyes, she noticed that her body was slightly swinging. 'A…playground?' There was some soft humming from her right. She turned her head just a bit to see a smaller version of herself humming a small song underneath her breath. Before she could think of what was going on, she heard someone's footsteps. 'Dad…' There he was, watching over his child. He had a few bags with him.
The smaller child looked at her father with an adorable look that would have given the Digimon Queen persona mental scars for life. "Where are you going, daddy?" chirped the girl. Rika noticed her father's face. There were a lot of emotions there such as love and sadness. It was hard to tell what he was thinking.
"I have to go away for a while, sweetheart. There are some things that I need to do…" The other man looked like that he was fighting back tears. Her chibi self had a somewhat sad look. "Why?" The man knelt down until he was face to face with his daughter. "I have to go on this trip to become a better man to myself and to the ones I love."
The sad look changed to a puzzled one. "I don't get it. I love you and mommy loves you too. And so does mommy's mommy. You're the bestest daddy in the world!" At that moment, Rika had to quash the odd feeling rising up inside her stomach. If Terriermon had known about how cute she was as a little girl with that accent, she would never live it down. "I'm glad someone thinks of me that way. Don't worry…I'll come back soon. I promise." She gasped once as she remembered those words.
"What's a promise?" asked Chibi Rika. "I'll tell you what a promise is." Rika turned around to where the voice had originated from. It was the Digimon Queen persona along with Princess Sakuya. "A promise is a whole bunch of words that makes you believe in an outcome that won't really happen in reality!"
"Odd…you are still able to function normally regardless of having this tender moment in your presence?" asked Sakuya in a curious tone. The Digimon Queen spat out a quick reply before awaiting the response of her younger counterpart. "A tamer must be able to withstand any environment and any condition…regardless of how repulsive it may be."
A scowl grew on her face as the father and daughter duo ignored the other three presences. "Well…when a person makes a promise, they give a vow…or their word that they will do something or be somewhere no matter what. So when I say I promise that I'll come back as soon as I can, it means that I will come back to you no matter what!" Chibi Rika blinked once before giving another cute smile which gave the Digimon Queen even more mental scars. "OK, daddy! Come back soon!"
"I remember this moment…" Sakuya had to blink back a few tears as the man leaned in to whisper something to the child's ear. "…he told me that he was very proud of me and that he would always love me." As soon as he looked her in the face one last time, Chibi Rika wrapped her arms around his neck. While this was going on, the Digimon Queen was clenching her fists tightly.
There was silence as the man picked up his bags and started walking away. At the same time, Chibi Rika was singing a little song to herself about the promise that was made and how the two were going to meet again. "Stop it…" The Digimon Queen had placed her fingers in her ears, not wanting to hear the song. By this time, Rika started swinging and quietly mumbling to herself. "I want to sing…"
"Damn it!!! Stop singing already!!!" screamed the Digimon Queen. The singing continued as Chibi Rika stopped swinging and got up. What surprised the others was the fact that another Chibi Rika was swinging in the same place. And it was she who continued to sing. "Sorry but you can't play with us. All you can do is watch," stated the Chibi Rika who got off the swing.
Sakuya blinked once. "Perhaps she means that we are only observers in the memory, not participants. Tell me…are you the one who had the Crimson Sakuyamon body?" Chibi Rika gave another adorable smile. "I saw a light thingy inside with me. It was pretty scared…well, not scared but something like that! After I said hello, the light went everywhere and talked from everywhere! It told me that it would need me to do things in case this weird thing happened where we would see things we already saw before! Like now!"
Rika made a guess that the Crimson Sakuyamon body had held the Chibi Rika essence and that the light could have been Renamon. But then again, she heard the occupant of the body say that it was not Renamon but something else. She blinked once as she remembered her younger self mentioning knowing what to do in this type of situation. "What were the instructions left by the…light?"
Chibi Rika shrugged. "Something about why you chose to be here and what does this mean to you and stuff! But enough of that! Do you want to play?" As she started bothering the Digimon Queen, much to that persona's dismay and much to Sakuya's amusement, Rika considered the question. 'This memory was my last good one before the Digimon Queen was born. And that attitude helped me in a way…' She silently growled in frustration with her inability to determine whether her father's departure was a good or bad thing compared to the person she is today.
Sakuya started to speak. "You cherish this memory yet you abhor it. You abhor it because of the constant reminder of how this triggered the harsh lesson of an empty promise and you cherish it because this was your last memory of your father." Rika looked up to see the other three presences now focusing solely on her. The singing had stopped as the memory was replaced by another one. The one where she had written the Digimon Queen's definition of a promise. "A promise is nothing but a few empty words whose purpose is to fool a person…"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The sensations that worked as stimuli to wake Takato Matsuki came from the place that he was currently in. 'I'm human again…where's Guilmon?!?' The boy quickly got up and then noticed his surroundings. All around him, a city lay in ruins with a crimson sky up above. "What happened here?!?" Wasting no time, he decided to search for his partner as well as the rest of his friends before trying to figure out what happened.
His mind was swirling with questions about what had happened and the safety of his friends. 'Please…I don't ask for much, Amaterasu but please let them be safe!!' The boy navigated through the city to find some trace of his friends but he had no luck. He paused for a moment. 'Wait a second…what if this is one of those weird realities that's all in my head?' He tried to shake that thought out of his head as this was the last thing that he needed to worry about.
Takato froze when he started hearing footsteps approaching him. It sounded like that it was coming from all directions but that changed when Shadowgallantmon came into view. "Hello mother dear," said the dark knight in an eerie tone (AN: Think Bart Simpson's tone from the Teacher Strike episode). Takato was going to ask what he meant by that when he remembered the conversation he had with Renamon a long time ago about making a better mother than a tamer.
"Well…at least I know that I'm dreaming. Or something like that. Alright…time to wake up!!" He closed his eyes and started concentrating, not caring about the dark knight Digimon standing only a few feet away from him. "Are you sure you're dreaming?" Takato gasped in surprise as he felt the lance of the dark knight plunge into his chest for a brief moment.
"Hmmmmm…no blood. I guess you are dreaming then." Shadowgallantmon pulled out the lance again just as quickly as he thrust it in. The boy gave a small sigh of relief before speaking. "I don't have time for this. I have to wake up, get back with my friends and figure out a way to stop Daemon and Zeedmillenniumon. Besides, haven't I already dealt with you and won?"
"Oh, yes. You did find a way to calm your troubled soul about my existence…nice job by the way. But you're here for a different reason. And speaking of this reason…he'll be arriving soon." As soon as the dark knight finished his sentence, Gallantmon landed right beside him as a result of a long jump.
"Who are you talking about? Why are you all gathered like this?" He received no answers from the two Digimon. They all seemed to be waiting for something. The question was…what were they waiting for? "That reminds me. I should change into something more appropriate." Shadowgallantmon concentrated as his body shifted into his Chaos Mode. Gallantmon did the same as he shifted into Crimson Mode.
Takato was becoming even more frustrated. GCM noticed this and addressed the child. "He has been waiting to meet you for a long time. Ever since you were born…" A bright explosion occurred in front of the group. Takato was nearly thrown back but Gallantmon Chaos Mode made sure he didn't go anywhere. "Who is he?"
"This is the part of yourself that you have to come to terms with before returning to reality. You may think it's a piece of cake but it's far more complex than you will ever imagine," stated the crimson knight. Takato got up slowly before shielding his eyes from the light. "I figure it won't be a piece of cake but since confronting with this part of me is the only way back, then I'm going in!"
There was a chuckle from Gallantmon Chaos Mode. "Cocky, aren't you? Well, I might as well give you a pointer. As you know, dragon breath, otherwise known as the drooling garbage disposal unit or Megidramon, isn't here with us now. He's up there with the light. He was originally created by your rage, which triggers the true power of the Hazard. As such, he would have been the voice of that rage but since his speech is limited to say the least, he has now become the door to which you must open to deal with the rage that has been built throughout your life here in the reality which is your mind."
"Right…" Takato wasn't sure what his dark counterpart had said so he trudged on anyway. As the boy approached the light, bits and pieces of speech came from the red light with quick images of where the rage was directed at. He was slightly horrified at some of the people in which some of his rage had been directed at. He did notice that there was rage directed against Shadowgallantmon, Doumon and Beelzemon but he was more concerned with what he had unconsciously hid from himself.
There was some directed against his mother…her strictness had sometimes frustrated the boy to no end. There was some directed against Rika, as the tamer who had considered Digimon only as stepping stones to becoming the best of the best. There was even some directed against Tai for not going after Sora which resulted in the lousy ending of the second series.
The feelings were intensifying around him and he felt his resolve wavering due to the amount of rage he kept having to deal with. Takato continued on though, using every ounce of strength and willpower he had to keep everything else at bay until he had completed his task. He could make out the dragon's silhouette as he got closer. At the same time, there was an unpleasant feeling emanating from the light. What felt even more odd was that this feeling was almost welcoming him.
"Megidramon…" The dragon Digimon slightly bowed his head to look at the child below him. Takato could barely make out the next few words. "Show me…" Megidramon concentrated as all the feelings burst out of him and showed themselves in their raw and exposed forms to the young boy. Cracks appeared on the ground and the earth split as Takato gave a scream of pure terror.
As both knights leapt in the air to avoid the cracks, Gallantmon Chaos Mode proposed a question to the other. "Can you feel your faith weakening yet? It seems that Amaterasu has forsaken us. The only true power we can put faith in is the Digital Hazard." His tone then changed to a gleeful one. "And goggles down there thought that he had a chance to deal with the feelings that the Hazard is fuelled by!" The reality around them started shifting rapidly and GCM could not come up with a quick enough retort as the two personas ceased being individual entities.
Well, there you have it. Hopefully, I can resolve things smoothly in the next chapter as well as I messed things up in the first place here. Since I'm going to be working, that means my writing rate may either speed up (since I have a tendency to write faster when I have a busy schedule. Remember when I was writing final exams?) or slow down further. It took me a while to properly think up these mind games for the tamers so that kind of contributed to the delay. That's all I can think of saying at the moment so see you on the other side.