This should've been done sooner, but I wanted to play The Old Republic after a friend convinced me to get back into it. Should've maybe waited...
Anyways, shoutout to draco1221 for the fav and to DigimonAT0318, GreenD109, and MadDogLucario96 for the reviews.
I need to hurry with this darn editing process, the Nine-Nine are back in a few hours!
Chapter 19: Ruling the Waters! Sabmarimon!
Yagami Residence, Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. July 9th, 2002. 1932 Hours.
P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery
Ah… summer vacation. One of the best times for students around the world. The time where they have little care about the multitude of school work. A time where many of their cares are pushed aside. Shame that doesn't apply to us Chosen Children. Instead of having fun during most of the day and just relaxing, we get the whole nine-yards of warfare. Every day is struggle as we keep trying to roll the Kaiser back. Still, we now have the full day to dedicate to fighting so that should help. The problem is that the Kaiser has been eerily silent since that whirlwind of events back in May. Somethings off about all of this, but we don't know what. Plus, earlier today, much of the Old Breed had been doing other things, which almost led to a disaster.
Digital World. July 9th, 2002. 1221 Hours.
P.O.V. – Third Person
The waters of the Digital Ocean were calm around a lone off shore drilling rig that was just a few dozen meters off the rocky coast. However, this rig looked like it had seen better days as the land bridge connecting it to the mainland was destroyed and there was much damage around the rig itself, including its main smokestack which was also in ruins. In the waters, there lurked a menacing threat from below. A MegaSeadramon with an Evil Spiral rose above the waves and slowly circled around the rig like a vulture around its dinner. Down below in the pipe line, the Chosen Children looked out a window to the serpent.
"Damnit!" cursed Daisuke.
"But why… isn't he coming after us?" Miyako wondered.
"Because he knows there's no need, Miyako-san." Ken told her.
"Right, he knows it's only a matter of time. When we run out of air, we'll…" Takeru didn't want to say what was coming next. Instead, the group turned their attention to Iori who was sitting on the floor with a guilty look on his face.
"It's my fault…" He said. "Because of me…"
Digital World. July 9th, 2002. 1104 Hours.
An hour before, the mood for the Chosen Children was much better. They had arrived early to the Digital World and had already liberated the area by knocking down the nearby Dark Tower. Their celebration didn't last long as they soon picked up the signal of a Digimental nearby.
"Alright, it seems like it's coming from somewhere in this oil rig." Daisuke observed on his D-3.
"It has to be mine!" Iori claimed.
"Yeah, dagyaa!" Armadimon agreed with him.
"I'm not sure… It could be Takeru-san's or Ken-san's or Hikari-san's…" Hawkmon expressed doubt but soon noticed that Armadimon had ran off. The reason being was that Iori was running across the bridge platform at a fast pace.
"First one to get there wins!" The youngest member of the group shouted.
"I won't lose!" Armadimon followed close behind, taking part in Iori's game.
"So impatient…" Miyako shook her head.
"Wait!" "Please wait!" Patamon and Hawkmon flew after them. Another moment later, the rest of the group ran to catch up with them.
Unbeknownst to them, MegaSeadramon was lurking nearby and waiting for word to attack. The Kaiser was also well aware of the situation and watching them run into the oil rig on one of his monitors.
"What do we do, Os- Digimon Kaiser-sama?" Monodramon asked.
"I'm busy right now; I don't have time for them." The Kaiser said. "MegaSeadramon, I leave it to you. Do what you want." He turned off the monitor and went back to his grand project. With the go-ahead, MegaSeadramon went to work. He first swiped the oil tower which took out the bridge as well before he attacked one of the support beams on the rig. He then used this Thunder Javelin to take out the other tower that caused a large explosion and rocked the whole rig, knocking the Chosen Children to the floor. He then swam down the pipeline until he reached an area he was certain the children were in and used his horn to slice some cuts into the pipeline, letting the air out and the water in.
"It's flooding!" Takeru yelled out as the water began to flood in.
"What do we do?" Iori shouted.
"Don't ask me!" Daisuke responded.
"Daisuke-kun! Give me a hand here!" Ken called him over. "See this lever? It says 'emergency shutter'! Help me pull it!"
"Right!" The two of them pulled hard on the lever and large shutters opened up above them which stopped the water from flowing in. "We're saved!"
"But what now?" Tailmon asked.
"Huh?" The girls questioned.
"We can't go up anymore, which means we're trapped here." The realization soon hit the children. They couldn't escape without drowning or being killed by MegaSeadramon and if they stay… it will be only a matter of time before they're out of air.
Digital World. July 9th, 2002. 1222 Hours.
P.O.V. – Iori Hida
"It's my fault… it's my…" I kept muttering to myself.
"What's that about your fault, dagyaa?" questioned Armadimon.
"Can't you see it?" I raised my voice as I stood up. "I ran here without even checking if it was a trap."
"It's not like that, dagyaa. You just happened to be the first one, dagyaa."
"It's my fault!"
"Hey, guys! What's this?" Patamon turned everyone's attention to something he found. It appears he found some sort of red submersible that was down here with us.
"It says 'Emergency Escape Pod'." Hawkmon informed as he flew over to where Patamon was.
"Alright! We're saved!" Daisuke pumped his fist in the air.
"But it's only for one person…" Patamon admitted. Everyone ran over to see it while I stood still. So what this all means is that only one person can escape, maybe with a Digimon if they can squeeze in there.
"I think Iori-kun should go." What? I looked up as soon as Hikari said that.
"Agreed! I thought the same!" Miyako chimed in.
"Me too." Both Takeru and Ken agreed.
"And you, Daisuke?" V-mon asked.
"Of course, right?" Hikari walked up to him.
"I agree with Hikari-chan!"
"Come on, Iori-kun. Get in the escape pod."
"Wh-why me? Because I'm the youngest? Then I won't." I told them.
"What? You won't?" Daisuke ran up to me. "So you don't accept our help!?"
"No, I can't!" I yelled.
"Stop making a fuss and just do it!"
"I said no!"
"It's just like Iori-san, isn't it?" Hawkmon whispered to Miyako.
"Leave it to me." She winked. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we draw straws to be fair?"
"Draw straws, dagyaa?" wondered Armadimon.
"But doing that to decide…" Daisuke muttered.
"No, I think it's a good idea. I agree!" Hikari said. "Iori-kun, isn't that alright?" Well, I suppose it would be fairer, I guess. I then nodded in agreement.
"You don't have to make any for us Digimon." V-mon told them.
"We sure? Patamon or I could fit in with whoever wins." Wormmon said.
"That would really only work if Takeru-kun or I wins, Wormmon." Ken told him.
"I agree with Wormmon." Tailmon spoke up. "It should be fair for all of us."
"Agreed!" Patamon chimed.
"Yeah, humans are Digimon, we're all equal!" Takeru announced.
"Then let's do rock-paper-scissors!" Daisuke shouted.
"The straws are fine…"
After a minute, Miyako was ready with the straws she made.
"Alright, now one of these has a red end so whoever pulls that one out will go." Miyako explained. "Okay, first is…"
"I'll go first…" Daisuke was about to pull one but he got shoved out of the way by Takeru who dragged me along.
"Iori-kun, first!"
"M-me?"
"C'mon, draw, dagyaa!" Armadimon said.
"Okay." I looked at the straws for a moment before I finally picked the one I was going to pull and took it out. As it turned out, it had a red tip on the end which meant that I won.
"Great, Iori!" Miyako cheered.
"You got the winning straw on the first draw!" Hikari clapped.
"I guess it's destiny after all, dagyaa." Armadimon agreed.
"Come on, Iori-kun." Takeru motioned to the pod.
Something was really suspicious about all this. I get the feeling that this was all planed just to get me to go in the pod. I took the straw I had in my hand and smacked Miyako's hand with it.
"Ow!" She said as she dropped the straws in her hand… and revealed that they were all red tipped.
"That's cheating!" I shouted. "You did all this just to make sure I would win because I refused to go in the first place!"
"Well, I guess it was cheating, but…"
"That's not fair!"
"But we had no choice…"
"Yeah, you're being too stubborn!" Hikari cried.
"What an idea…" Daisuke was surprised as he looked at the straws on the floor.
"I was wondering what I'd do if I won…" V-mon muttered.
"Uh, were you guys unaware of what was going on?" Hawkmon asked.
"You all knew?"
"It was common sense." Patamon told them, with made them both sigh in embarrassment.
"Anyway, I'm not going." I declared. "We're all down here because of me! I shouldn't be the one who's allowed to escape because of my foolishness!"
"You're going, and that's final… even if we have to drag you into that pod." Ken threatened. "Daisuke-kun, Takeru-kun, a hand please."
"Okay!" They both said as the two of them grabbed my arms while Ken took my legs.
"H-hey! L-let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" I shouted as they dragged me into the pod's seat. They then pressed a button which began sealing the pod.
"Iori-kun, when you get there, tell Jou-san about this." Hikari advised. "Gomamon is the only one of our Digimon partners who can be able to get us out of this." The glass in front of the pod soon sealed and the chamber was now beginning to fill with water.
"We believe in you, Iori!" Armadimon informed.
"Let me out! Let me out of here!" I pounded on the pod glass but to no avail. I was now completely submerged. Of course, another concern of mine was the fact that MegaSeadramon was still out there, but it looks like the others were already on top of that.
"Now! MegaSeadramon is away!" Miyako shouted and I suddenly felt the whole pod jerk and be shot out of the pipe line before flipped a few labeled switches and turned the craft to head straight for the surface. I came out near the shore besides the TV and got out. Alright, I have no choice now; I've got to find Jou!
Like typical summer days in Japan, it was really hot. I ran over to my house to try to call Jou's cell phone. I only went back to my house because I had the number in my room.
"The number you are trying to reach is out of its service area or switched off." The automated voice on the phone told me. Switched off? Jou, what are you doing right now!? I then pulled out the phone book and found his apartment number. A quick call there and I was informed by his eldest brother Shin that he was currently out at cram school. Thankfully, he gave me the name and address of it after I informed him of what was going on considering he knows about the Digimon.
"Shinagawa cram school… Shinagawa cram school…" I kept muttering to myself as I waited for the elevator to reach the twelfth floor. When it opened up, I was surprised to find Mother and Grandfather on it.
"Oh, Iori. You're home already?" She said with her hands full of grocery bags. "Good timing. I wanted you to go to Nobuzane-san's."
"Ah, well, right now…"
"Do you have something to do?"
"Well…" Great, do I have to tell her the truth right now? If I have to explain it all, it'll be too late!
"What is it? Please tell me."
"I'm sorry, I can't tell." I lowered my head.
"You can't…? What do you mean?"
"Don't ask, Fumiko-san." Grandfather spoke up.
"But…"
"If you force him, Iori will have no choice but to lie. If you can't say, that's fine. Better than lying. Just don't lie, ever." Grandfather's stern look turned into a smile once more as he drank more Chu-Chu jelly.
"Thank you very much." I bowed before going into the elevator.
P.O.V. – Hikari Yagami
"Hey, can you stop that?" Miyako shouted at Daisuke who was pounding his head against a railing. "It's annoying." She told him as he looked up at her.
"And can you stop tapping your foot? It's annoying." He countered.
"I'm not doing it because I feel like it!"
"Guys, no need to get upset!" Armadimon interrupted.
"We're not!" Daisuke turned his back to Miyako.
"Really?"
"Really!" Miyako turned her back.
"'kay then. Hey, you guys want to play a word game to lighten up the mood?"
"Sorry, I'm not in the mood for that…" I told him.
"Me either. It's actually better we don't speak as much to try to save some air." Ken advised.
"How can you think of something like that in a situation like this?" Hawkmon questioned Armadimon about his previous suggestion.
"Because I believe in Iori."
"I believe in him too… but there's something called a time limit." Miyako told him.
"Yeah, if we don't hurry, we'll run out of air." Daisuke said. "And when we run out of air… when we run out…" We soon began hearing a clanging sound from down below, so we went down the stairs to find Takeru with a pickaxe digging out a hole out of the ground.
"Takeru-kun, what are you doing?" I asked.
"I think the Digimental is around here." He explained.
"Thinking about the Digimental at a time like this?" Daisuke was confused.
"I guess, but isn't it better than wasting our time doing nothing?" He took another swing with the pickaxe.
"Miyako-san, let's help too." Hawkmon suggested.
"Yeah!"
"Let's all help." Tailmon insisted.
"Yeah!" V-mon and Wormmon nodded.
"Right, dagyaa!" Armadimon was already at work by pushing rocks out of the way. We all soon got to work, hopeful to find the Digimental and more importantly, Iori arriving in time.
P.O.V. – Iori Hida
"He's taking a test right now, boy…" The man at the front desk of the cram school informed me.
"It's an emergency. Kido Jou-san…" I was insisting.
"We have a policy of not calling anyone during a test."
"But…"
"Well, if a family member was in an accident, or a parent was hospitalized due to sudden illness… If something like that happened, it would be a different story."
"His parents are in the hosp…" I stopped myself before I said anymore of my lie.
"Just don't lie, ever." Grandfather's words from earlier echoed in my head. My mind then flashed to an image of the others dying from the lack of air, which is what is going to happen if I don't get Jou quick. What do I do? What do I do?
P.O.V. – Jou Kido
"Dad!" I shouted as I ran out of the building. Iori explained to me what had happened with the others; a bad run in with MegaSeadramon at an oil rig. Of course, I had to keep up appearances to the rest of building.
"Jou-san, I'm really sorry!" Iori apologized as he tried to keep up with me. "How can I make it up?"
"Don't worry about it! I was really shocked at first, but there wasn't anything else you could do!"
"I'm really, really sorry!"
"I said it's alright!" I soon stopped running as soon as we were well away from the building.
"What are you doing?" He asked as I pulled out my cellphone. "We have to hurry…"
"I know. But first… I need to do something. You say the others are trapped underwater? Only one Digimon I know that can help. Now, give me a second, I'm calling Koushiro."
"Hello?" Koushiro's voice answered.
"Ah, Koushiro? It's Jou. Listen, Daisuke and the rest are in trouble, so I have a favor to ask…"
P.O.V. – Daisuke Motomiya
Another swing of the pickaxe by Takeru soon brought results as he knocked away some rock that was covering the Digimental, and it looked familiar.
"The Digimental of Sincerity." Takeru noticed.
"Just like with Yamato-san and Mimi-san, there's another copy of one of ours." Hikari soon walked up to it and began trying to pull it out. "Nope, it's not mine."
"Then, it has to be Iori-kun's, as we thought." Ken said.
"That means I'll get a new Armor Evolution!" Armadimon sounded real excited.
"But what kind of Armor Evolution will it be?" Patamon wondered.
"That's obvious. I'm sure…" He proceeded to describe some sort of handsome man in armor; I guess something kinda related to Angemon. He sure sounded proud of it.
"No way! Probably…" I described just a large version of him with large spikes on him.
"Well, it's certainly better than what I came up for Patamon." Takeru admitted.
"What do you mean, Takeru-kun?" Ken asked.
"During the first week I met Patamon, at time we both didn't know he'd evolve into Angemon so we were wondering what he would evolve into. I was only eight years old so I just ended up describing a pig and hippo." He started to laugh causing all of us to join in.
"They're all laughing." V-mon looked at us.
"Armadimon's trust in Iori-san has spread to everyone." Hawkmon said.
"That's great!" Wormmon cheered.
"But… they're all tired." Tailmon observed as we all calmed down. "Laughing excessively and trying to keep their spirits up… They just get close to their physical and mental limits." As soon as Tailmon finished speaking, Miyako began to cough.
"A-are you alright, Miyako-san?" Hikari asked.
"It can't be…" Miyako looked out the viewport. "A vision? No, it isn't! It's Ikkakumon!"
"Ikkakumon came to save us!" We all ran up to the viewport to see him coming our way.
"Sorry to keep you wa-!" He got swiped in the face by MegaSeadramon who came back. "You guys weren't kidding about it being MegaSeadramon. I beat him in Tokyo before… but can I win without becoming Zudomon?" He soon got swiped again and hit the rocks beneath him.
"Ikkakumon!" I yelled out the viewport after I shoved the girls out of the way.
"Harpoon Vulcan!" One of Ikkakumon's shots hit MegaSeadramon in the face but it had no effect on him.
"Yeah! Keep attacking the Evil Spiral!"
"Harpoon Vulcan!" His shot missed and blew a nearby rock. MegaSeadramon counter attacked and used a lightning attack that hit the seabed and Ikkakumon.
"Ikkakumon!" The girls and I shouted before the whole placed was rocked and a large torrent of water crashed into us.
"What the… what's going on!?" I questioned. The answer came when a giant whale burst through the pipe line walls and opened its mouth to reveal Jou and Iori!
P.O.V. – Jou Kido
"We're here to save you!" I yelled to the others.
"Hurry, get into Whamon's mouth!" Iori insisted.
"Iori!" Miyako cried.
"Jou!" Patamon flew up to us.
"See? What did I tell you, dagyaa?" Armadimon sounded proud about his faith in Iori.
"Exactly, it's Iori-sama!" Daisuke rubbed Armadimon's head. At the same time, it sounded like Ikkakumon was having his hands full MegaSeadramon out there. We don't have much of a window to be able to escape unscathed.
"But… why Whamon?" Hikari questioned.
"I asked Koushiro to help track him down and he was the only one I could think of that could help us out of this."
"Always a pleasure to help, Hikari, Takeru, you're both looking well." Whamon said.
"You too, Whamon." Takeru replied back.
"What are you doing? Hurry up!" Iori reminded us that we were still in danger.
"Iori-kun!" Ken waved for his attention.
"What is it?"
"It's your Digimental!" Daisuke informed. I looked down to see that it was the same Digimental that I picked up in that snowy cave when we first came to Gomamon's assistance.
"My… Digimental?"
"Same thing with Yamato-kun's and Mimi-kun's Digimentals, right?" I questioned. The others nodded.
"If it's the Digimental of Sincerity, then it fits Iori well, doesn't it?" Tailmon said.
"That's not true." muttered Iori.
"Huh? What do you mean? I think it fits you perfectly." I told him.
"Come on, get down here!" Daisuke motioned.
"N-no! All this was caused by that Digimental. That Digimental…"
Our attention turned back to Miyako who was coughing hard behind us.
"We have more important things, we have to hurry and escape!"
"Yeah, we will! After you take the Digimental." shouted Daisuke.
"I said I don't want it!"
"You have to be kidding… the Crest of Sincerity will end up in the bottom of the ocean!" I explained. "Iori-kun… come on, let's go together!" I grabbed his hand and led him down to where the Digimental rested on the ground. "Come on, pick it up."
"Pick it up already…" Daisuke repeated.
"It's useless… I can't lift it." Iori told us without even touching it to try.
"You won't know until you try, right?" Takeru asked.
"But… but it's my fault that everyone was in trouble."
"Eh? It is?" Daisuke questioned before Ken lightly jabbed him in the side. "I mean… if you want to blame someone about closing the shutters…"
"It's no one's fault, Iori-kun." Ken assured him.
"And I… I lied." Iori began to have tears in his eyes when he admitted that. "Grandfather said I should never lie… That's why… I don't deserve the Digimental of Sincerity…" The dam broke on his tears and they began to come down hard on his cheeks. I decided that I had to be the one to help him with this. I kneeled down and grabbed his shoulders.
"Well, there are bad lies and good lies." He suddenly stopped crying when I said that. "Lies that hurt people and lies that save people."
"Yup, yup, it was a justified lie, dagyaa!" Armadimon chimed in.
"Exactly!"
"But…" Iori tried to protest.
"If anything, I'll talk to your grandfather when we get back. Your lie didn't hurt me at all, but if you hadn't lied, who knows what could have happened…"
"Jou-san…" He cleared his eyes.
"Do you understand now?"
"Yes."
P.O.V. – Iori Hida
After Jou's helpful words, I turned back around to look at the Digimental on the ground.
"Okay, Iori, try to pick it up, dagyaa." Armadimon encouraged. I struggled a bit before I finally was able to pull it out of the ground.
"See, I knew it was Iori's!" Daisuke claimed.
"Iori, Armor Evolution, dagyaa!"
"Digimental Up!" I shouted.
"Armadimon, Armor-Evolve! Whirling Sincerity, SABMARIMON!"
Sabmarimon had a bit of the traits that Armadimon had but he looked more like a metal swordfish crossed with a submarine and had a large glass dome on the top of his back and head.
"Sincerity is something else. Cool!" Daisuke was impressed.
"It's definitely a sea Digimon!" V-mon observed.
"Come on, let's hurry and get out of here!" Jou led the others into Whamon's mouth.
"Iori, get in, dagyaa." The dome on the back of Sabmarimon opened up and I climbed in and grabbed the control handles in front of me. Can't get any closer to the fighting than this.
"Alright, Sabmarimon. Let's go."
"Let's move out, dagyaa!" He tore right through the pipeline walls and straight into the water. Whamon was leading the others out but MegaSeadramon tossed Ikkakumon who was biting his tail towards their direction. Whamon acted quickly and opened his mouth to quickly catch him before heading to the surface.
Sabmarimon turned towards MegaSeadramon and swam straight at him.
"Aqua Vulcan!" Small projectiles of air shot out from his sharp spear but they were having little effect on the giant Digimon.
"Turn left!" I yelled as MegaSeadramon swiped his tail at us. We were quickly able to dodge it but we had little chance against him if something didn't change.
"Hey, you overgrown lizard! I wasn't done with you yet!" I turned my head to see MetalSealmon swimming back down to us.
"Iori-kun! We're here to give a hand!" Jou called out. He was in a similar compartment that was on MetalSealmon's chest and neck except unlike me, he was standing up rather than lying on his stomach.
"Thanks, Jou-san! We need to combine our attacks!"
"Got it! Let's go, MetalSealmon!"
Both our Digimon began swimming away, forcing MegaSeadramon to follow us. All the while, we had to avoid the bolts of lightning he was shooting at us.
"We can't get a clear shot like this! Listen, we'll be the decoys and lure him away!" MetalSealmon informed.
"Counting on you, dagyaa." Sabmarimon said as we dodge out of the way of MegaSeadramon's sharp fangs. MetalSealmon went into an undersea tunnel that MegaSeadramon smashed into while we went a different way. After a few moments of misdirection and cutting through hard rock, MetalSealmon had swam upwards that left MegaSeadramon wide open for us to cut through a rock wall and attack the Evil Spiral. "Oxygen Homing!" Large torpedoes of pressurized air shot forward and struck MegaSeadramon in the chest, giving us the window to charge right into the Evil Spiral and destroy it with Sabmarimon's sharp nose.
"You did it, Sabmarimon!" I sighed in relief; glad that it was all over.
"Way to go, guys!" Jou yelled out as MetalSealmon swam next to us. A close call today, but we made it through. Afterwards, Sabmarimon used the calm time we had gained to show me the wonders of the ocean. In some ways, it's similar to ours, but breathtaking all the same.
P.O.V. – Third Person
"Seems like they were saved somehow…" The Kaiser muttered to himself as he concentrated back on other projects.
"Is that alright, Digimon Kaiser-sama?" Monodramon asked before he noticed the screen. "What are you doing? Is this the plan you were talking about before?"
"It doesn't concern you." He chuckled. Soon, his grand masterpiece would be complete.
And then nothing would stop him in his conquest of the Digital World…
Well, that was certainly a close call.
A bit of a heads up, but the next to chapters will be originals before the next true episode but at this point now, the updates will go a bit slower. Hopefully, I'll still have plenty of free time after class but we'll see... at least the first week isn't as crowded with work.
Take care everyone.
"Push the button, Frank."