Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon
Following the Footsteps of Destiny
Chapter 23: Fools Rush In
Makiya 'Mickey' Takaishi
File Island, Eastern Hemisphere, Digital World
Mickey let out a gasp of horror and stumbled back into Sam. We had a hard enough time fighting Crystalmon. How are we suppose to defeat two digimon without getting ourselves killed?
"How did you get into the city?" Andromon demanded, planting himself at the head of their group.
"Well, we had to destroy a bunch of Guardromon and create a few explosions. You might want to clean up the mess later. It was quite inconvenient, now that you mention it, but we still managed to make it in time for a grand entrance," the digimon in the jester's hat replied and gave them an elaborate bow. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Jestermon. I am a mega level virus type digimon, and my special attacks are Shadow Spheres and Fire Jest. This is a friend of mine that I decided to bring along for the ride!"
Jestermon waved a hand in the other digimon's direction and smirked at them. "This is Zombiemon. He's an ultimate level virus type digimon, and his special attacks are Brain Sucker, Toxic Flesh Cannon, and Trauma Sword."
"You're a mega level digimon?" Takara choked out, gazing wide-eyed at Jestermon. "This is not good."
Mickey could only nod in agreement and hugged Halomon's small body tightly to his chest. There's no way that Dragermon can take on both of them and win, even with Andromon's help.
Jestermon's skin was pale green, and his eyes were a bright red. His flesh was also wrinkled, as if he had been sitting in water for too long, and he had bells hanging off of his jester's hat which tinkled everytime he moved. There were a few bells on his outfit, as well, and his body was built like a human's.
Zombiemon looked like a rotting corpse. His face was partially hidden by a mask, and he had long dark stringy hair. His eyes were a bright yellow, and there was a sword strapped to his waist. He wore a dirty cloak with holes in it and a pair of pants that had definitely seen better days.
Both digimon looked ready to destroy them on the spot if they so much as blinked.
"Let me guess, you want the D-Coders," Dai snorted, stepping up beside Andromon and crossing his arms. "Well I've got news for you, clown boy! Even if we knew what they were, we still wouldn't give them to you! Why don't you take that message back to your buddy, Vampiramon!"
"Will you stop insulting evil digimon!" Ryoko shouted, hitting Dai after each word for emphasis.
"Is that a challenge?" Jestermon grinned, his eyes lighting up with excitement.
"You bet it is!" Dai shouted back, holding out his Digivice and glaring at Jestermon. "Come on, Embermon. I don't know about you, but Zombiemon's stench is really starting to get to me! I think it's time that you and I took out the trash!"
"I couldn't agree more! Embermon digivolve to, Dragermon!"
"Are you crazy?" Ryoko shouted in disbelief, grabbing Dai by the shirt and shaking him. "There's no way that Dragermon can fight two of them and win!"
Dai pushed Ryoko away and gave the blond an impatient look. "We don't exactly have a choice, Ishida! Somehow I don't think that these two goons are just going to let us walk away!"
Mickey barely heard them. His eyes were glued to Jestermon who was staring at Dai's Digivice with a hungry look in his eyes.
I wonder if...No way. It couldn't be...or could it?
"Dragermon will not be alone," Andromon spoke up. "I am here to fight by his side."
"So am I," Halomon added, his small face filling with determination.
Mickey's cheek had been resting against his partner's fluffy ears, but he jerked his head up at those words and looked down at his partner in fear.
"Halomon, you can't," he whispered in horror. "You're only a rookie. If you fight them, you're only going to get hurt."
"I have to, otherwise I won't be able to protect you," Halomon said softly. The rookie's small warm fingers came to rest against Mickey's cheek, and he bit his lip.
"The same goes for me, Matty," Celestimon murmured, his small arms wrapping around his partner's neck.
"Be careful," Matty whispered, allowing Celestimon to flutter out of his arms.
Mickey hugged Halomon tightly before letting his partner go and turned to wrap a comforting arm around his twin. He could not remember ever seeing Matty look so scared before.
"Are you finished yet? I don't have all day, you know!" Jestermon cackled. "Time to steal myself some D-Coders! Get them, Zombiemon!"
"You will pay for hurting innocent digimon!" Andromon shouted. "Lightning Blade!"
Zombiemon dodged the attack and came racing towards them while Jestermon leaped onto the top of a high building to watch.
Mickey shivered. The jester digimon kept watching himself and his friends as if waiting for an opportunity to slip past their digimon and attack them directly. The mega digimon still could not seem to keep his eyes off of their Digivices.
"Come on, guys! Lets send this corpse back to Primary Village!" Dragermon shouted, flying into battle with Halomon and Celestimon.
"With the way you all stood around talking, I could have destroyed you about ten times over by now!" Jestermon smirked. "Only that wouldn't have been very much fun. Alas, the fool has a weak spot. I am quite a strong supporter of fair play. Now lets see how well you stand up against the forces of darkness!"
"Trauma Sword!" Zombiemon shouted, leaping at the two rookies and swinging his sword at them.
Halomon and Celestimon fluttered off in different directions, avoiding the attack.
They were joined by Dragermon in the air, and all three turned to look down at Zombiemon who was standing on the ground below them.
"Lets see how you stand up against the powers of the Digidestined!" Halomon shouted, pointing the gun on his arm at Zombiemon. "Halo Rings!"
Several small glowing orange rings shot out of the gun and exploded into Zombiemon's chest.
The zombie digimon staggered, but he quickly recovered and sent Halomon a nasty smile. "If that's all you've got then this battle's going to be a piece of cake! Brain Sucker!"
Halomon let out a gasp of surprise as Zombiemon's arm stretched out into the sky towards him at an impossible length. The zombie digimon's hand closed around Halomon's head, and Mickey let out a cry of fear as his partner digimon was dragged back to the ground.
"Halomon!" he shouted in terror.
Zombiemon's attack was slowly draining Halomon's energy away.
"Help him, Celestimon!" Matty cried.
"Let my friend go!" Celestimon shouted, grabbing onto one of the other rookie's wings and trying to tug him free.
"Gatling attack!" Andromon called out from the ground, shooting his missiles at Zombiemon's back.
"Dragon Fire Spin!" Dragermon added, swooping closer to the ground and letting a swirling stream of fire shoot from his mouth.
Both attacks hit Zombiemon forcing him to let go of Halomon.
Celestimon caught Halomon in his arms and turned his own gun on Zombiemon. "Celestial Sun Ray!"
A blinding beam of bright yellow light shot out of Celestimon's weapon and slammed into Zombiemon's stomache.
The virus digimon disappeared in a blaze of golden light that forced Mickey to have to cover his eyes.
When he was finally able to look again, he spotted Zombiemon lying flat on his back and groaning.
"You're awesome!" Matty cheered, beaming at Celestimon who smiled back at him.
"Thank you," Mickey whispered.
"Anytime," Celestimon replied, giving him a fond look.
Halomon stroked one of Celestimon's small wings and smiled at the other rookie. "Thanks. I owe you one."
"Don't worry, I won't forget!" Celestimon laughed.
"That's a powerful rookie," Andromon murmured, nodding at Celestimon with approval.
"Well, I have to say that I'm quite impressed," Jestermon said. He had seated himself on the rooftop with his legs crossed, and he was idly juggling a set of three ink black balls.
Occasionally the mega would glance at Mickey and his friends, but Andromon had apparently decided to focus mostly on protecting them while their digimon attacked Zombiemon. This left Jestermon with no opportunity to strike without interference.
"Maybe Vampiramon knew what she was talking about, after all," Jestermon continued, letting his balls disappear and clapping his hands in applause. "Bravo. You may be very powerful, but I must warn you that it still won't be enough to defeat us. Don't stop battling, though, just because you're destined to lose. I'm finding this fight to be very entertaining!"
"Why isn't he helping Zombiemon?" Dai whispered.
Mickey and his friends were standing next to a large building under the protection of an overhang.
Dai, who stood on Mickey's left, was staring suspiciously at Jestermon.
"Maybe Zombiemon is so powerful that he doesn't need help defeating us!" Takara moaned, hiding her face in Dai's shoulder.
"No, he's definitely up to something," Ryoko muttered, placing a hand on Takara's arm and glaring at Jestermon.
Matty turned to face them all and frowned. "Jestermon's obviously the one in charge. He's just letting Zombiemon do all of his dirty work. Crystalmon was the same way. These evil digimon's egos are so big that they think they can defeat us without any help. Jestermon has probably convinced himself that Zombiemon can get rid of us easily, and all he has to do is sit back and watch."
"That mistake is going to cost them any chance they have of getting a victory over us," Dai replied, his deep brown eyes sparkling with determination. "It looks like we Digidestined have one advantage over the Powers of Darkness. It's a little thing called teamwork which the bad guys will never understand!"
"Did you really think that that was going to stop me?" Zombiemon snorted, getting to his feet.
"No, but this will!" Halomon shouted. "Halo Noose!"
A long glowing orange rope shot out of Halomon's gun and wrapped itself around Zombiemon's neck.
The virus digimon let out a snarl and tried to pull it off, but Halomon held on tightly.
"Alright, guys! Hit him with everything that you've got!"
"Now you're talking! Dragon Fire Spin!" Dragermon shouted, diving low and spewing fire all over Zombiemon's body.
"Celestial Sun Ray!" Celestimon called out, aiming his attack at Zombiemon's chest.
Zombiemon managed to avoid it this time and yanked hard on Halomon's rope. It snapped in half, and Zombiemon started running away in the other direction, out of the line of fire.
"You're not going to get away that easily!" Celestimon shouted, lifting his face towards the sky and folding his hands together. "Spirit Mist!"
Mickey gasped as Celestimon's body started to glow. There was a flash of golden light and thick white mist started to swirl out of Celestimon's body heading straight for Zombiemon.
Zombiemon disappeared in the fog and let out a cry of outrage. "I can't see! What is this stuff?"
"Hurry, guys! Attack!" Celestimon shouted, shooting out of the sky with Halomon right behind him.
"Halo Rings!"
"Dragon Fire Spin!"
"Gatling Attack!"
Zombiemon had stopped running because he could not see where he was going as a result of the fog. All of the attacks hit him and created a huge explosion.
"We did it!" Dai cheered.
"Don't celebrate too soon," Ryoko gasped, pointing a finger at Zombiemon. "Look!"
Zombiemon was still standing. He glared up at their digimon and smiled.
"Oh my. It looks like your digimon are in big trouble," Jestermon giggled. "Now would be a good time to surrender."
"What do you mean?" Sam asked.
"You might want to plug your noses," Zombiemon smirked, pulling back his cloak and revealing a hidden weapon attached to his chest. "Toxic Flesh Cannon!"
Takara screamed and Mickey clapped a hand over his mouth in horror.
A huge blast of what looked like rotting flesh shot out of the weapon and exploded into all of their digimon.
Dragermon, Halomon, and Celestimon all fell from the sky and landed motionless on the ground.
Mickey gagged and held his breath.
"What is that horrible smell?" Takara gasped, her face turning green.
Sam doubled over and started to empty his stomache.
"Zombiemon's blast!" Dai gasped, pinching his nostrils together. "It was chunks of decomposing flesh!"
"Gross!" Matty moaned, putting a hand over his mouth.
"Dragermon! You and the others have to get up!" Andromon shouted, moving towards their unconscious digimon.
Jestermon, who had been waiting for an opportunity to present itself, finally chose that moment to attack.
The mega digimon had waited just long enough for Andromon to become distracted before making his move.
"Shadow Spheres!" Jestermon shouted, leaping off the top of the building.
Mickey turned just in time to see several dark balls speeding towards him before he blacked out.