Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
A/N: I'm finally back! Just so you know, the next digimon partners that will be coming up will belong to Mickey and Matty. I'm done my other story so hopefully that means more regular updates for this one! Keep the reviews coming!
Following the Footsteps of Destiny
Chapter 16: From Rookie To Champion
Ryoko Ishida
File Island, Eastern Hemisphere, Digital World
"Ice Beam!"
"Look out!" Ryoko shouted, grabbing Sam by the back of his shirt and dragging him to the floor.
The blast hit the pedestal encasing it in a block of ice.
Ryoko shivered from the sudden chill running down his spine and turned his bright blue gaze on the others. "We have to get out of here, now!" he whispered.
"Right, lets go," Dai whispered back.
"You can run, but you can't hide!" Crystalmon shrieked with laughter. "Frozen Starburst!"
"Move!" Ryoko shouted.
They raced out from behind the pedestal seconds before Crystalmon's attack exploded into the ground where they had been standing.
Ryoko sagged against the wall with the others, gasping for breath, and sent Embermon's unconscious form an anxious look. How are we all going to get out of here without someone getting hurt?
"Now what?" Matty cried, huddling next to him and clutching Mickey's arm.
Ryoko was about to answer when Crystalmon suddenly landed in front of them and crossed her arms. "Look's like you're out of options," she said with a nasty smile. "When Vampiramon sent me on this mission, she never said it was going to be so much fun!"
"Who's Vampiramon?" Ryoko asked with a frown.
Crystalmon let out a giggle. "Oh, I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. Until then, you're going to have to deal with me. Now, hand over the D-Coders!"
"What are you talking about?" Takara asked in confusion, tightening her hold on Dai's hand. "What's a D-Coder?"
"Don't be stupid!" Crystalmon snapped. "You know exactly what I'm talking about!"
"Actually, we have no idea," Ryoko shot back. "Care to explain?"
Crystalmon let out a snarl of rage, and Ryoko gasped as she suddenly grabbed him. He found himself caught in her grip with her arm around his neck in a choke hold.
"Ryoko!" Takara shrieked, her eyes growing wide with fright.
"Let him go!" Dai shouted.
"Listen up!" Crystalmon hissed. "Either you hand over the D-Coders or your handsome little friend here is going to end up being a cute little corpse! Now what's it going to be?"
"No!" Ryoko gasped, his heart pounding with fear. Her hands and body were cold, and he shivered at her icy touch.
"Uncle Matt and Aunt Mimi are going to kill us!" Matty moaned.
"If Crystalmon doesn't do the honours first," Mickey whispered, his voice trembling.
Ryoko's soul filled with terror, and he knew there was panic written all over his face. If he did not get help soon, then he would never see his parents again and get a chance to tell them how much he loved them. He'd never be able to tell his friends how much he cared about them. Especially when it comes to Dai, who doesn't even know. What could I have done to make him hate me so much?
"Leave me alone!" he shouted, struggling in her grip.
"We told you!" Sam cried. "We have no idea what you're talking about. Whatever it is you want, we don't have, so go away!"
"Not until I get what I want!" she snapped.
Ryoko let out a squeak of surprise as she suddenly pulled up his shirt.
"Now where is it?" she muttered, eyeing his chest and poking him in the stomache as if she thought that might make whatever she was looking for appear out of thin air.
"Quit it!" he shouted, blushing furiously and trying to wriggle away from her. Dai's never going to let me live this one down!
"Will you stop squirming!" she snapped, sounding exasperated.
When he did not listen, she shoved her hand against his face and pointed the gun on her arm at the side of his head. "Since you aren't very good at taking orders, I think I'll have to kill you and then search your dead body for the D-Coder. As I always say, shoot first and ask questions later," she smirked.
"No way!" Dai shouted, yanking his arms away from Takara and Sam who were trying to hold him back. "If anyone gets to have the privilege of killing Ishida, it's going to be me! Hand him over right now!"
"Of course," she said sweetly. "Once I'm finished, you can have him, only by that time you'll have to send him to the morgue. Don't worry though, I'll even write up a few beautiful lines that you can have engraved on his tombstone."
The hurt he had felt at Dai's words quickly changed to cold dread. "You can't," he whispered and closed his eyes in horror as the gun pressed harder against his temple. In that moment, all of the faces of his friends and family flashed before his eyes. This wasn't suppose to happen. How does someone go from having a normal day of school to fighting for their life? Why me? Why was I sent here only to end up dying? It's just not fair...
He barely even noticed when several tears slid down his cheeks.
"Ryoko!" Embermon gasped, and he turned to see the small rookie slowly getting to his feet.
Crystalmon saw it, too, and Ryoko let out a gasp of pain as she jerked his head up so that he was forced to stare directly into her cold blue eyes. The touch of her icy skin ran through his veins making his whole body go numb. He could not have escaped even if he had wanted to.
"Don't worry. You won't feel a thing!" Crystalmon giggled. "I'm sure you'll find death to be quite an adventure. See you on the other side, sweetheart! Crystal-"
"No, don't!" Ryoko screamed in terror and realized that someone had echoed those exact same words.
He only had a split second to glimpse the look of utter fear in Dai's eyes, something that the goggle headed leader had never shown for his sake in all the years of their friendship, before Dai disappeared in a blaze of bright red light.
"What's going on?" Crystalmon shrieked.
"Don't worry, Dai," Embermon shouted, his body surrounded by a red glow. "I'll never let anyone hurt our friends! Embermon digivolve to, Dragermon!"
"Dragon Fire Spin!"
There was a loud shriek of pain, and Ryoko suddenly realized that he was free from Crystalmon's grip.
He staggered and almost fell to the floor, but a large red wing circled him, and he was able to stay on his feet.
He looked up, and his jaw hit the floor. Embermon was no longer Embermon. Instead of the little rookie, Ryoko found himself gazing into the bright green eyes of a huge red dragon digimon which was covered in gold armor.
"Embermon! What happened to you?" Dai gasped, coming forward and staring at the dragon digimon in shock. The goggle headed leader's eyes looked ready to pop out of his head. Dai seemed a little reluctant to come any closer and kept glancing down at his own body in disbelief.
Ryoko was so shocked, he almost swallowed his tongue. Where's Embermon, and who is this digimon?
"He digivolved," Leomon replied as he slowly got to his feet. "Embermon was his rookie form. This is his champion form."
"That's right," the large dragon digimon said with a laugh. "I'm Dragermon. I'm a champion level vaccine type digimon, and my special attacks are Dragon Fire Spin and Ring of Fire."
"Cool," Matty said in awe.
"Amazing," Mickey whispered.
"You mean digimon have different stages of growth?" Sam asked, frowning in confusion. "I don't understand. Didn't Crystalmon say that she was an ultimate level digimon? How many levels are there, and how did Embermon manage to reach the next stage so quickly?"
Dragermon glanced over to where Crystalmon had fallen to the floor. "Not now. We'll explain everything later once Crystalmon is out of the way."
"How dare you!" Crystalmon shrieked, stumbling to her feet. "You weren't suppose to digivolve! That wasn't part of the plan! You will die for this!"
"What plan?" Leomon asked, giving her a suspicious look.
"My orders were to steal the D-Coders and stop the Digidestined from digivolving. That little rookie may have reached the champion level, but I am still stronger!"
"So you say," Dragermon snorted. "Personally I'm getting a little tired of listening to your babbling. Maybe I ought to shut you up by melting you into a pile of data!"
"I'd like to see you try it," Crystalmon snarled, flying into the air again. Unfortunately for her, she no longer had the advantage.
Dragermon leaped into the air after her with Leomon covering the ground.
Ryoko sank to his knees, shivering badly, and wrapped his arms around himself. His teeth were chattering, and he could still feel the ice running through his veins.
"Oh, Ryoko. You scared me," Takara moaned, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly. "Don't ever do that again!"
"Like he had a choice!" Sam said, shaking his head in amusement.
"I'm cold," Ryoko mumbled.
"Well, no wonder!" Matty laughed, and Ryoko felt his cousin's arms go around him.
He found himself being flattened between Matty and Takara. It made him feel like a burger patty, but at least he was warm.
"Not so confident now!" Leomon shouted, getting Ryoko's attention. "Fist of the Beast King!"
Crystalmon flew out of the way of Leomon's attack, but Dragermon was there to meet her.
He flew straight into the icy digimon, and the force of his large body sent her slamming into the wall with a squeal of pain.
"Good one," Leomon said with an approving nod.
"Dragon Fire Spin!" Dragermon shouted.
A huge fiery tornado exploded from the champion's large jaws and swirled straight into Crystalmon. She fell to the floor with a scream and a thump, her whole body smoking.
"Looks like you've grown a little rusty," Leomon said with a snort. "Lets see how well you stand up against a sword!"
He leaped at Crystalmon, and she rolled out of the way. The sword hit the floor just barely missing her.
"Ice Beam!" she countered, shooting the blast right at Leomon's stomache. It hit the lion digimon in the gut, and he fell backwards with a grunt.
"If you think I'm going to let you get away with trying to hurt someone my partner cares about, think again! Dragon Fire Spin!"
Ryoko jerked around and stared at Dai, his eyes growing wide with shock.
Dai's face turned red, and his friend turned away with a frown on his face.
No way. Dragermon's just saying that for show. He's probably just trying to make me feel better. Dai has always hated me, and he refuses to give me a reason why. I guess I'll never know...
Instead of feeling better, he just felt worse.
"Your trick won't work twice!" Crystalmon snapped, leaping into the air again. "Crystal Shards!"
Dragermon easily avoided the sharp icicles, despite his size, and shot another fiery blast at her.
"I don't believe it," Ryoko murmured, momentarily forgetting his sorrow. "Dragermon's actually holding his own out there! Leomon was right. Embermon is a powerful digimon!"
"Of course he is," Dai said proudly and sent his digimon a fond look.
"Does this mean we're not going to die now?" Mickey asked hopefully.
"I will never allow you to defeat me!" Crystalmon shrieked. "Frozen Starburst!"
Dragermon dived under the blast and knocked Crystalmon out of the sky again.
Leomon caught her and shoved his hand into her stomache. "Fist of the Beast King!"
"No!" she screamed. "You can't! I must get the D-Coders!"
"The only thing you need is a reality check!" Dragermon shouted. "Dragon Fire Spin!"
Crystalmon landed flat on her face with her wings singed and her clothing torn. She did not seem so sure of herself anymore.
"But I'm too beautiful to die!" she wailed.
"Yeah right," Takara smirked.
"And I thought Ishida had a big ego!" Dai snorted.
"Not as big as yours!" he snapped back, feeling hurt.
Dai glared at him, brown eyes flashing, but the goggle headed leader did not reply.
"It's back to data for you!" Leomon shouted. "Fist of the Beast King!"
She screamed again as the blast hit her in the midsection just as she was trying to get up. She fell over onto her back and glared hatefully up at Dragermon, her eyes burning.
"You may kill me," she hissed. "But there will be others to take my place. Vampiramon will not allow you to defeat our master. Mark my words. He will get the D-Coders, and the Digidestined will be destroyed. Vampiramon will see to that!"
"Maybe, but until then we'll be the ones to decide who gets destroyed around here!" Dragermon said quietly. "I'd say it was nice meeting you, only it wasn't. Have a nice trip back to Primary Village, Frosty! Ring of Fire!"
Dragermon weaved through the air in a circle pattern leaving a trail of fire behind him. With a flap of his wings, he sent the spinning fiery ring straight at Crystalmon. It circled around her, pinning her arms to her sides, and exploded into a huge blaze that shot towards the ceiling and blocked the icy digimon from view.
There was a scream of pure agony, and Crystalmon erupted into data before disappearing from sight.
Vampiramon
File Island, Eastern Hemisphere, Digital World.
Vampiramon stood in the grass with her companions gazing at the fortress from a distance. She listened to the sound of Crystalmon's fading scream and hissed in anger.
That vain fool! I never should have sent her. Now the Digidestined have managed one digivolution, and it's all her fault! Oh well, she was useless anyway. It's no loss. Next time I'll just have to send someone who isn't too wrapped up with staring at the mirror instead of focusing on the task at hand.
"Looks like you've screwed up big time, Vampiramon," the digimon beside her cackled.
"Quiet, Jestermon!" she snapped. "I doubt you could have done any better!"
"No, but I could have!" the digimon on her left giggled.
Vampiramon sent her a dirty look. "Don't make me laugh, BlackWidowmon. You're as bad as he is." She jerked her thumb at Jestermon and smirked.
"Now, now, ladies. There's no need to fight," the digimon behind her said with amusement. "I'm sure it was an honest mistake. Next time make sure you choose your followers a little more wisely, Vampiramon."
She whipped around, her skirts flying, and poked him in the chest. "I didn't ask for your opinion, so keep your comments to yourself!" she snapped.
"If you insist," the digimon replied with a smile and fluttered his black wings.
The five digimon stood gazing at the fortress, and Vampiramon smiled. They may have won this round, but next time they won't be so lucky. Soon those D-Coders will be ours and the Digital World will tumble into darkness.
"Er...I don't think our master's going to be very happy about Embermon digivolving," the last digimon said.
Vampiramon winced. That was all too true.
"Well someone has to tell him, and it isn't going to be me!" Jestermon sang, doing a little dance.
"Oh, I'll tell him!" Vampiramon snapped, glaring at Spritemon as if it was all her fault.
"What did I do?" Spritemon complained, pouting and crossing her arms.
"My, my. Aren't we brave," the male digimon behind her said with a small smile.
Vampiramon glared at him and planted her hands on her hips. "Listen up!" she snarled. "This had better not happen again! We must not allow another digivolution to take place because every time one of their partners digivolves, the Digidestined grow stronger. Understood? Now all of you report back to Cyber, or else!"
"With the way she talks, you'd think that we were the ones who let Embermon digivolve," BlackWidowmon muttered to Jestermon.
Vampiramon ignored their words and glared viciously at each of them. "You heard me! Get back to the Western Hemisphere, pronto! Lamia Transformation!"
Using her attack, Vampiramon turned herself into a large bat and disappeared into the air without waiting to see if the others had followed her orders.