Sorry! Sorry! This one took way longer than it should have, but it's here now.

Shoutout to petru95 for joining us just before this chapter got edited. Thanks man.

And of course, shoutout to reviews DigimonAT0318, MadDogLucario96, God of the Challenge and Whiteling.

I almost forgot to mention bad news, but Taichi's voice actress in the first two series, Toshiko Fuji, tragically passed away at the age of 68. R.I.P.

Anyways, let's get on with the chapter. Oh, by the way, considering the title... you may listen to either Dragonforce or John Williams... actually, just listen to the John Williams one as the chapter is not 'Through Fire and Flames'.

Chapter 14: Through the Flames! FlareLizamon!

Odaiba Elementary School, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. May 19th, 2002. 0735 Hours.
P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery

Fourteen years. That's how long I've been on this Earth since yesterday. It's almost kinda hard to believe with the life I've had. There was that point in 1998 when I was suffering from my depression and attempted to end my life and then that whole summer of 1999 when for a while it looked like I would end up a corpse rotting in the Digital World. Of course, that's still on the table right now if we not careful, because I get the feeling that Osamu has put the kill order on us all after everything we've done to interfere with his conquest.

Speaking of the Digital World, the past couple of days we spent our time taking out several more Dark Towers while at the same time we were collecting our Digimon to prevent them from being captured and used by the Kaiser like he did with Agumon before. It felt great to have Guilmon staying home once more, and now we could finally do the stuff that I really wanted to do with him before we had to say goodbye at the end of our last adventures. Yesterday, we went to the movies to see Attack of the Clones but not before we watched the rest of the Star Wars saga. Like I thought, he was absolutely blown away by the films, especially the space battle over the forest moon of Endor which I consider the greatest thing man has ever put to film.

Of course, it wasn't all fun and games; we still had work to do if we were going to stop the Kaiser from taking over the rest of the Digital World, which is what led us today. Takeo and I were sneaking in a cart with some boxes on it to the elementary school while no one was around. This was all part of our secret project that we had all but ready now, though there was still one thing missing that was actually critical to everything.

"Reminded me how you talked me into doing this again?" Takeo whispered as he complained.
"Jeez, if I knew you get a little panicky on a simple 'breaking and entering'…"
"Plus attempted robbery."
"We're just switching out, nobody is going to tell the difference when we take the computer from the lab."
"You sure?"
"Yes! Koushiro and I got the exact same computer that the lab has and he was very thorough with what programs are on it and where there are. Trust me, it will all be fine. Plus we're doing this for the greater good, and don't you compare me to some violent dictator that said the same thing, I'm not in the mood for a joke right now… save it until we're well away from the school."
"Fine… okay, we're here." We pulled the cart up to the computer lab door. We quietly slid it open and rolled in the cart before lifting the boxes that had the new computer.

"Okay, Koushiro said that everything is ready, all we need to do is plug in the proper cords and turn it on and then it'll look like the same computer… minus it having a Digital Gate attached to it."
"Hey, how much is this all costing again?" Takeo asked as we started unplugging the computer we were going to be taking.
"We got a good deal on some aspects of the project but it'll be fine. You know my dad has a lot in savings."
"How was that again?"
"My great-great grandfather invested in part of the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas, which makes the Shiner Bock beer and through an agreement, my family gets a small parentage of the profits every year. I think after taxes and everything… my dad gets about eighty thousand a year. Why do you think he still stays in the service? They ain't paying an NFL salary there, I can tell you that."
"Wait, I though Koushiro-kun's folks were chipping in?"
"They are, but Dad is paying more. Okay, now we got that unplugged, move it to a different table then help me put the new one in."
"Alright." After a couple of minutes, we got everything taken care of. All that was left was turning on the new computer and seeing if we did everything right. After another few minutes of booting up, the computer was on and it looked like nothing was off. "You're right, Ross. No one is going to tell the difference."
"Come on, let's go." We rolled the Digital Gate computer out and headed to our final destination.

Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. May 19th, 2002. 1024 Hours.
P.O.V. – Taichi Yagami

"Come on, it's just over here." Ross motioned us. The New Breed excluding Ken and I were near the middle school to where Ross said that secret project he and Koushiro were working on was.
"You know how shady this sounds, right Ross-san?" Daisuke questioned.
"I assure you, I'm well aware, but trust me, you'll like this." He led us down the street before we turned down an alley and in front of a locked garage door.
"This is it? Looks like an abandoned warehouse?" Miyako observed.
"Just wait until I open the door okay?" Ross exasperated as he began to unlock the door.
"Hey, by the way… Ross, where's Agumon?" I asked him. When I woke up late this morning, I found that Agumon was gone.
"Just give me a second! Come on! Why won't you unlock!?" The door beside the garage opened up revealing Koushiro.
"Need a hand?"
"Well, thanks for ruining the presentation." Ross growled as we all walked in.

When we got inside, we could see it was a fairly sized warehouse that was somewhat empty but there was a large table that had a bunch of computers on it as well as one familiar one. As soon as I walked in, I was tackled by Agumon who jumped me.
"Taichi!"
"Hey, easy Augmon!" I laughed. "You're acting like I haven't seen you in years. Hey, what is this place?"
"Everybody… welcome to Headquarters." Ross presented.
"Headquarters…?" Iori said.
"This that project you said you and Koushiro were working on?" Takeru asked.
"Indeed. We thought that maybe we needed to find a place a bit more… subtle… to meet up when going to the Digital World. Takeo-san was a perfect example of why going to the school was slowly becoming a bad idea." Koushiro explained.
"Right… don't want the teachers asking questions of why former graduates are showing up almost every day." Hikari admitted.

"Well, this certainly is cool." I nodded.
"It's got everything we need, large size for all of us and our Digimon to stay in, enough power for all the things we will need, and of course, we got the computer from the lab so we can now come here if we want to go to the Digital World." informed Koushiro.
"Wait? You took the computer from the lab?" Miyako walked over to it.
"Yeah, but don't worry, we replace it with one that looks exactly like it so the school won't know the difference. Can't look for something you aren't missing." Ross said.
"It's necessary." I told them. "That's the only computer that can take us to the Digital World, so I guess we didn't have much of a choice on that matter."
"Unless, someone wants to explain to Fujiyama-sensei and hope he understands enough to let us keep doing this." Daisuke pointed out.
"Nah." We all collectively said.

"I have to admit, this is actually a pretty good idea." Takeru walked around.
"We'll bring more stuff in, gives us time to relax, take a bit of a breather, and allow the Digimon that stick around here something to do while we're gone." Ross said.
"Wait, what do you mean by stick around?" questioned Miyako.
"Well, we do want someone to guard this place during the night, just in case. What better way to keep someone out than a Digimon?" Koushiro told her.
"Besides, if someone breaks in, it's not like they're going to go to the cops about it. 'Yes, I was breaking into this warehouse and some small reptile shooting fire chased me out.'" Ross added. That actually sounds about right.
"Well, what are we doing standing around here? Let's make this place worth it by going to the Digital World and showing the Digimon Kaiser who's boss!" Daisuke cheered. Everyone split up and headed back to their homes to get their Digimon.

After about thirty minutes, we were all ready with our Digimon, except for Ross and Koushiro who stuck around.
"Hey, where's Ken?" Daisuke asked.
"I just got a message from him. He says he can't make it today." Miyako informed.
"What!? Why?"
"He has to put up flyers… for his brother."
"Oh, you've got to be… ugh, why doesn't he just tell them what's going on?"
"Daisuke-san, they're already feeling terrible about him vanishing, I doubt they want to truly know the truth about him. I think it'd make it worse and his parents probably wouldn't understand." Iori explained.
"That's exactly what he said to me the other day." Miyako was surprised. "Besides, our parents don't know either." She reminded Daisuke.
"That's different; our folks don't care about what we do after school." Daisuke said. None of us said anything after that. "Whatever, can we go now?"
"Just a second, we need to make sure this gate works here." Koushiro typed away. "Okay, moment of truth. Who wants to do the honors?" Hikari walked up to the screen and held up her D-3. After a few seconds, the gate activated revealing that it was open.
"Alright!" "Yeah!" There we go!" We cheered.
"Okay, then! Digital Gate, open! Chosen Children, let's roll!" Miyako cried and we all were sent to the Digital World.

When we arrived to the Digital World, we found ourselves in quite the environment. A large rocky area with some really high temperatures.
"Ugh, another hot field?" Miyako complained.
"Maybe it has something to do with that volcano over there?" Iori pointed to a volcano not too far away from us.
"That's pretty hot looking. My feathers are already getting messed up from the heat." Hawkmon informed.
"Same goes with my coat of fur. Let's hurry and get done with this place." Tailmon chimed in.
"Is there a Dark Tower out here? I can't see it." Hikari looked around.
"Well, according to the map there is one in the area, but you're right, Hikari-chan, I see no signs of Dark Tower." Takeru said. I looked over to Agumon.
"Hey, Agumon? I actually forgot to say this before we left, but are you sure that you wanted to come with us today?"
"Huh? Why are you asking that, Taichi?"
"Well, it's just… you were captured and used by the Digimon Kaiser a few days ago and I kinda though maybe you needed like a few more days of rest or something…"
"Taichi… you don't need to worry about me okay? I've been ready to get some payback on the Kaiser for a few days now!"
"That's the spirit!" V-mon agreed with him. They're right. I'm being foolish thinking that Agumon needed some more rest or something like that. After all, he hasn't ever quit on me before and he's been through much worse than what the Kaiser did to him.

"I know that if I was captured and forced to Dark Evolve, but then rescued, I would be wanting to go straight after the Kaiser immediately, dagy-!" Armadimon suddenly stopped what he was saying as he soon began to sniff the air.
"What is it, Armadimon?" asked Iori.
"I smell some familiar Digimon… I think… no… I know it! Those are Pagumon I smell! There must be a village nearby!" He exclaimed. Both Takeru and I looked at each other kinda nervously upon hearing that.
"Pagumon? A village?" Takeru questioned.
"Bring back some bad memories, eh, Takeru-kun?" I said. He nodded. "Okay, bit of a warning for all of you new Chosen Children. Watch your backs around the Pagumon; we had a bad experience with them in our last adventure. They may only be Baby-Level Digimon but don't let that fool you. They're mischievous and they can be pretty cruel and dangerous when they're up to their own devices."

"A whole group of them actually captured an entire village of Koromon, which is my Baby-Level I might add, shortly before we arrived at it." Agumon told them.
"And they abducted me in the middle of the night!" Patamon shouted. "I was so scared about being separated from Takeru!" Daisuke tried to stifle a chuckled but couldn't help himself.
"You? You got captured and were scared of some weak sounding Digimon?" Takeru ran over to him and shoved him.
"That's not funny, Daisuke-kun! You have no idea what it was like at that time with me and him!"
"You want to back that up!? I'll take you on!"
"Enough! Stop it, the both of you!" Hikari ran up in between them to try to break them up. The both of them stopped before quietly apologizing to one another.
"Look, let's head over to that village, maybe they need some help or maybe they can direct us to the Dark Tower." I said.

We soon found the Pagumon village but unlike the last time, we didn't find a grand welcome. Instead, the Pagumon were all clustered up with each other in their homes in fear. Well, I guess they've got bigger concerns than trying to cause trouble for us under Etemon's orders.
"Hello? Can anyone of you Pagumon be willing to help us?" I asked.
"No way! Go away~!" They shouted.
"Not a very warm welcome, eh?" Miyako muttered. Hikari walked up to one of the homes and got on her knees.
"It's gonna be okay. You can come out. We won't hurt you." She coaxed softly. She never fails to amaze me with her kind nature. Her soft words actually got a response as several Pagumon hopped out but they all still had nervous looks on their faces. "That's it. Now tell me, what's wrong? Why are you so scared?" She asked.
"The Digimon Kaiser!" They all cried.
"He recently conquered this area and declared we were all his slaves!"
"Then the Evil Rings flew out of the volcano and capture many of the Digimon in the area!"
"We all took cover in our homes to try to avoid it! It worked but we're sure the Kaiser will be back to get us all!"

"Well, I could guess the Kaiser had something to do with this, but I still don't see no Dark Tower." Daisuke looked around.
"That's because it's in the volcano!" We all quickly turned to the Pagumon that said that.
"Are you serious?" Takeru questioned.
"Yeah, we're really serious! The Kaiser put the Dark Tower in the heart of the volcano and it's now guarded by a very powerful FlareLizamon who claims to be our overseer now!" We all looked at each other once more. This was going to be a really tough fight if we're going to go after the tower. I was about to take the others in a small group huddle to discuss but it turns out the decision was already made before we could even have a chance to talk about it.
"Don't you worry! We'll take care of that Dark Tower and the FlareLizamon for you!" Hikari declared.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you~!" I smiled and shook my head.

Digital World. May 19th, 2002. 1214 Hours.
P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami

"No offence, Hikari-kun, but could you at least confer with us before you declare that we're going to help some Digimon in need?" Miyako asked as we made our march over to the volcano.
"Sorry, Miyako-san, but I couldn't just stand by and watch those poor Digimon suffer." I apologized.
"Well, we're going after the tower now, so there's nothing more to really talk about." Takeru concluded.
"We could at least discuss what we're going to do when we get there. A plan on how we deal with that volcano and the tower inside it would be really smart." Iori pointed out.
"Good idea, Iori-kun. We need to be smart and careful about all of this." Taichi said as we were now almost at the base of the volcano.
"Jeez… it's hotter than a Japanese summer here!" complained Daisuke.
"It's an active volcano, what were you expecting?" Miyako countered.
"Come on, I think I can see a tunnel that we can get in through there. Be absolutely sure what you're stepping on. I don't want anyone to fall into this thing." Taichi advised. We all nodded and treaded carefully up the volcano.

After a few more minutes of scaling upward, we found that the tunnel did indeed lead into the heart of it, and if what those Pagumon said was true, the Dark Tower was inside.
"Okay, who wants to go first?" Daisuke asked. Everyone was quiet for a second before Taichi stepped forward.
"Come on, Agumon, let's lead the way."
"Right behind you, Taichi!" The two of them walked ahead into the tunnel before I followed close behind. Suddenly, the whole place began to rock and the boulders above the tunnel entrance began to crumble and were about to fall on me!
"Hikari!" Tailmon shouted as she jumped forward and kicked me out of the way of being crushed while also using the momentum to bounce backwards to avoid being crushed as well. However, the problem was now that Taichi, Agumon and myself were all cut off from the others.
"Tailmon!" I shouted as I pounded on the collapsed rocks.
"We're under attack!" "Look out!" "It's an ambush!" "They're all around us!" We could hear the others shout from the other end.
"Onii-chan! What do we do?" I turned to Taichi.
"What do you think? We've got to take out that tower now in order to help the others!" He declared.
"With just Agumon alone?" I was really worried; did Agumon really have the strength to take out the Dark Tower and deal with that powerful FlareLizamon?
"We've got no other choice. Stay close." Taichi got in front of me.

The closer we got to the heart of the volcano, the hotter it got. After a whole minute of walking we finally came to the wide opening of the entire volcano and surrounded by a massive moat of lava was a small rocky island with the Dark Tower on it.
"There it is." Taichi pointed. As soon as he did that, the lava exploded and revealed the Digimon that the Pagumon warned us about. If Meramon looked like a man engulfed in fire, then FlareLizamon looked like a dinosaur that was covered in fire. The only things that were not on fire was a metal mask over his face and his three sharp claws on each hand.
"Who dares defy the will of the Kaiser by coming here!?" He roared.
"Careful, Taichi, Hikari. FlareLizamon is a champion amongst the flames. His Fire Tower attack is truly a force of nature."
"Those who dare cross the Kaiser's authority shall be burnt to cinders by my claw!"
"Then I guess we fight fire with fire. Ready, Agumon?" Taichi said.
"Ready, Taichi!"
"Digimental Up!"
"Agumon, Armor-Evolve! Courageous Flame, KAJIGREYMON!"

"Be careful, KajiGreymon!" I warned as he jumped down towards the rock ring at the bottom of the volcano.
"Fool! You dare challenge me!?" FlareLizamon taunted.
"Man, you just don't shut up." KajiGreymon shook his head before he charged forward and got to grappling with the fire lizard. The two of them were pushing each other back and forth with neither wanting to give even an inch of ground.
"Fire Tower!" FlareLizamon cried as a twister of fire burst from underneath KajiGreymon and sent him soaring above in the air.
"KajiGreymon!" Taichi cried out for his hurt partner who was dropped back onto the ground.
"Ugh… is that the best you got? I've taken way worse than that!" KajiGreymon shouted back.
"Clearly you need to be taught more of a lesson! Thrust Rush!" FlareLizamon was surrounded by a ball of fire as he charged forward… however, KajiGreymon smiled.
"Got ya!" He held the attack before tossing them both into the lava.

"KajiGreymon!" Both Taichi and I cried out. For the next few moments, there was nothing but a few lava bubbles. Then the lava exploded once more and KajiGreymon crawled out while dragging FlareLizamon by the neck… with his Evil Ring now gone, proving that KajiGreymon had won under the lava. "Alright!" We cheered. KajiGreymon turned his attention to the now exposed Dark Tower and got ready to destroy it.
"Flare Claw!" A quick swipe of his claws and the tower began to collapse, ending the Kaiser's reign in this area… for now at least.
"Ugh… what happened?" FlareLizamon began to get back up.
"You were being controlled by the Digimon Kaiser." I explained.
"But thanks to KajiGreymon you were freed." Taichi added.
"What!? That weak lizard? No way he had beaten me!" FlareLizamon denied. All of us just rolled our eyes before we looked up to see Takeru and Miyako on their Digimon coming down from the top of the volcano to pick us up.

Chosen HQ, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. May 19th, 2002. 1320 Hours.
P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery

The others soon returned and informed Koushiro and I of the fiery showdown they had at a volcano. Now I kinda regret not picking up Guilmon and giving a hand to that fight. Well, either way, our first mission out of Chosen HQ and it was a success; I consider it all a big win. The fight with the Kaiser was going to continue and it was going to be harder now that our Digimon were going to be unable to hold the ground we liberate just to avoid being captured. But we'll figure out how to deal with him once more and truly put him on the back foot.

We've got too much riding on us just to give up now…

So the project was actually a headquarters.

Okay, so I regret to say that I've only seen Diablomon's Counterattack once in its English form, and I remember at the begining the gang met up at what I later learned to be the middle school's computer lab, but at the time, I though Koushiro found some warehouse that they were using as a kind of a base and that just spun off from there.

Alright, I'll try to get the Wild West episode out sooner so take care everyone.

"Push the button, Frank."