Another Chapter! The next few should be coming out sooner thanks to Spring Break coming up soon.
Shoutout to the reviews left by MadDogLucario96, Foggsaurus8, DigimonAT0318, and Whiteling. Nice you guys like MechaRaptormon. I don't know if I'll get Jubia on DA to do a drawing though...
Anyways, let's keep going with this gravy train!
Chapter 32: Invincible Combinations! Paildramon and MechaRaptormon!
Digital World. September 28th, 2002. 1345 Hours.
P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery
One moment it looked like we were going to be torn to shreds by Perfect-Level Dark Tower bugs that had us completely outmatched and outgunned. The next, four of our Digimon combine into two Digimon that look more than prepared to take on and destroy those two attacking Okuwamon. I have always said there has got to be some divine influence to everything that happens to us in these nail-biting moments.
"Paildramon?" Daisuke and Ken questioned at the same time.
"MechaRaptormon?" Osamu and I did the same as them. Both of them growled as they got into fighting position while hovering in the air. It's clear that woman did not like this turn of events.
"Okuwamon, get rid of them both." She ordered her two bugs. Both of them growled in response and turned each of their attention to one of our combined Digimon.
Both Paildramon and MechaRaptormon didn't even give them a chance to move. Paildramon used his quick speed to quickly zoom right up to the face of the Okuwamon he was facing and gave a swift kick into the jaw that completely knocked the bug back into a large hole in the sand. MechaRaptormon decided to take a different approach with his Okuwamon and charged ahead before tackling the bug and give it a swift punch in the stomach with his arm cannon which took the wind from the Dark Tower Digimon.
"It's tough." Paildramon said. His voice sounded like XV-mon and Stingmon speaking in perfect synchronization.
"It is a Perfect-Level for a reason." MechaRaptormon informed. His voice was Growmon and Strikedramon in sync. The Okuwamon that was in the ground got back out of the hole it was in and flew back to Paildramon in an attempt to try to slice him with its pincers. Paildramon grabbed them and spun around to send the bug flying away from the area. The Okuwamon MechaRaptormon pinned tried to cut his head off but only wrapped its pincers around the metal arm. "Yeah, good luck cutting through that."
With the distance gained, Paildramon held out his fingers which shot out on long cables and wrapped around Okuwamon's legs before he threw it into the sand once more. MechaRaptormon jumped up in the air and his mechanical legs crushed his Okuwamon into the ground.
"Amazing, dagyaa." Armadimon looked on in awe with the rest of us.
"They're fighting the Perfect-Level Okuwamon on even terms." Hawkmon observed.
"If only we could evolve to Perfect like before…" Patamon expressed some slight envy. Well, don't think we need to worry about that right now.
"Paildramon and MechaRaptormon will win for sure." believed Tailmon.
"But they didn't have to combine… especially Growmon and Ichijouji Osamu's Digimon…"
The Okuwamon that faced Paildramon jumped up once more but he dodged it and kicked the bug right in the back knocking him towards the sand again.
"It's fast!" He noticed.
"Isn't that awesome?" Daisuke cheered.
"I have to admit… I fully agree with you on that." Ken nodded.
"Our new Digimon rules!" The Okuwamon that dueled MechaRaptormon got up again, but MechaRaptormon just responded by smashing his arm cannon in its face.
"Shoot, what do you think that cannon is? A one-twenty millimeter? He's got a Leopard II or an Abrams on his freaking arm!" I turn and say to Osamu.
"If you say so…"
"Say so? That's our Digimon partner!" I give him a pat on the back.
"Is it…?"
Both Okuwamon keep up the fight but our two combined Digimon are keeping their distance and not letting them even get a chance to hit them. Paildramon gives a right hook to his opponent's jaw while MechaRaptormon's cannon arm swipes at a leg.
"Right, there! That's it!" Daisuke pumps his arms.
"He's certainly able to take him on now." Ken notices as Paildramon throws a wave of punches.
"Yeah, finish him off!"
"Our Digimon partner?" Osamu questions to me as MechaRaptormon continues to utterly wail on his bug.
"Yeah… if that ain't a sign… I don't know what is." I tell him.
"Hurry, use the Crest of Compassion!" MechaRaptormon advised us.
"Right…" Both Osamu and I nod. We start running for the base, while Daisuke and Ken follow close behind.
"We're going too!" Takeru shouted.
"We can still make it!" Hikari said and the rest of them followed us.
P.O.V. – Third Person
"Can't let you do that." The woman growled. "Okuwamon! Go after the children." She ordered. The bugs tried to follow their orders but the two combined Digimon stood in their way.
"You want to get to them? Over my dead body! Molten Breath!" MechaRaptormon shouted as he opened his mouth and pure white lava shot out, forcing the Okuwamon to jump back.
"I won't let you go any further!" Paildramon's fingers shot forward again and wrapped around the bug, keeping him from pursuing.
P.O.V. – Ken Ichijouji
We followed Ross and Osamu inside through a hole in the base before taking a quick notice of the place… it was completely wrecked beyond belief. Debris was all along our path and it looked like we wouldn't get deeper into the base this way.
"We can't go any further!" As soon as Takeru said that, Ross and Osamu ran in perfect sync and began to climb through the debris until they got to the hole at the other end of the room. Soon, Daisuke and I did the same, probably to the wonderment of the others.
"They kinda make a perfect pair, don't you think?" Miyako said.
"Which ones are you talking about?" Iori quickly asked which gave me a bit of a smirk. We keep running through the base while alarm bells blare.
"Shit, we're running out of time!" cursed Ross.
After a bit more running, we soon came across this large generator thing that had a green aura to it. We soon stopped near it. We looked up and saw the symbol of the Crest of Compassion as well as a little hole beneath it that looked like the Crest could fit in there.
"Looks like I was right… Ichijouji-san… the Crest." Daisuke motioned him. Osamu soon began climbing up the generator. He soon got up to the top and pulled out his Crest before he placed it into the slot. It was a perfect fit. The green aura soon began dying down, the power was shutting down, the lights went out and the alarm stopped blaring. "Alright!"
"Great call there, Daisuke-kun." Ross complimented.
"I think we did it." I guessed.
"You made it!" Hikari declared as the rest of the group caught up with us. We all nodded.
Iori's D-Terminal soon beeped, indicating he got mail.
"It's from Koushiro-san." He informed. "The distortion is gone." We all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yay! It should be fine now, right?" Miyako loudly stated.
"I was a little scared because I thought it would explode at any moment." admitted Patamon.
"Me too." Takeru looked down at him.
"Well, thanks to you Osamu, we're saved." Ross held out his hand. Osamu actual had a small smile on his face and reached out to shake too… before a loud explosion rocked the whole place again.
"What the!?" Osamu cried as more explosions began to erupt around us. One rocked so hard that his Crest was blown out of the generator and landed in front of him. We quickly moved before some rubble landed on us and we all took cover.
"No! Wasn't the Crest of Compassion put back!?" Miyako angrily yelled.
"Guess it didn't work considering Onii-san is holding it again!" I told her. Another beep on Iori's D-Terminal.
"Message from Koushiro again. 'We have a problem. The distortion is back.' That's impossible!"
"I thought we'd stop the explosion by bringing Ichijouji-san's Crest back!" Daisuke explained.
"My Crest didn't do anything…" Osamu sounded defeated. "It's worthless."
"No." Iori spoke up. "Thanks to the Crest of Compassion, the reactor's explosion was avoided." We all turn to him. "I'm just stating the facts. That's what Koushiro-san's computer clearly showed." More explosions began ringing out.
"Then, what about this one?" Hikari asked.
"There has to be something else… Some other reason!" Miyako believed.
"Too bad…" That woman's voice rang out from a still working screen. We turned to it.
"Are you the one who did this?" Hikari asked as she walked forward.
"Oh, don't blame me." She waved her hand. "It just shows that little Crest is useless. The dark power has simply grown."
"What!?" Daisuke exclaimed.
"Nobody can stop it anymore." She chuckled. "How ironic!" She laughed once more before a lead pipe crashed through the screen. We turned to see Ross had thrown it.
"Carmen Sandiego wannabe…" He growled. Osamu also growled himself before it looked like he came to some sort of realization.
"That's…" He turned his head. "Of course. These pipes…" He soon ran a different direction.
"Hey! Where are you going, Onii-san?" I shouted.
P.O.V. – Third Person
"These kids don't know when to quit." The woman observed. "Go ahead and blow yourselves up along with that broken toy." She turned her head around. "Now, all that's left is finishing you two off." Paildramon and MechaRaptormon were slowly beginning to be pushed back by the two Okuwamon who were fighting harder than before.
P.O.V. – Daisuke Motomiya
We followed Osamu down this long tunnel that seemed to get darker and smaller the further we went.
"What's over there?" I asked about what was ahead as the base rumbled from another explosion.
"I think energy is transferred through those pipes." Osamu explained. "So, if we follow them, we should be able to stop the reactor."
"I'm getting a bad feeling…" Tailmon was on edge.
"I'm sure I've felt it before." Patamon said. We then walked forward once more. In front of us, some electricity crackled before an explosion followed and caused a cave-in in front of us. The path was now blocked by all sorts of wires and debris.
"It's blocked!" Hikari stated.
"Now what!?" groaned Miyako. Armadimon jumped forward.
"Leave it to me, dagyaa!" He soon rolled himself into a ball. "Rolling Stone!" He shot forward and tore through the rubble that blocked the way.
"Feather Slash!" Hawkmon took the feather on his head and threw it forward which cut away all the pipes and wires before it returned to him. "Now we can pass through."
We proceeded ahead before we finally came to a large chamber with a black spire in the middle and it was glowing a real ominous blue-purple color.
"That's it!" Osamu pointed. A wave of chills came over my body.
"D-don't you get the creeps?" I asked the others.
"This feeling…" Takeru muttered.
"I remember! It's like when we were close to that whirlpool!" Patamon said.
"I know it too. It's like that world devoid of light I was taken to." Hikari recalled.
"That means… That opening is connected to the Dark World." Osamu said mostly to himself. He looked towards this thing that came off the spire and a black cloud was coming out of it. "The dark energy flows through that opening and controls this base." Two more explosions rang out.
We took this as a cue that things were about to go up in flames so we slid down towards the base of the spire. That protrusion had a small window that soon glowed white.
"There's no time! If we don't do something now, it will explode!" Iori yelled.
"What do we do, Osamu?" Ross asked for his opinion.
"We have to stop the flow of dark energy! I'm sure there's a way to stop it somewhere!" We were soon blown back by an explosion that detonated in front of us.
P.O.V. – Third Person
At the same time, both combined Digimon were keeping up with their fight with the two Dark Tower bugs.
"Daisuke and the others are still in there?" Paildramon questioned as he tried to hold back his Okuwamon.
"Osamu-chan and the rest are in danger!" MechaRaptormon yelled. "Time to end this distraction." He shoved his cannon arm down the Okuwamon's throat. "Howitzer Blast!" One powerful shot rang out and blew the bug's head clean off before the rest of him exploded. Paildramon aimed his cannons at his attacker's face.
"Desperado Blaster!" Multiple bolts of energy shot forward and tore the bug to shreds leaving nothing yet as another explosion from the base ran out.
"Daisuke! Ken-chan!" "Ross! Osamu-chan!" Both Digimon turned and flew as fast as they could to the base.
P.O.V. – Osamu Ichijouji
The dust cleared and it looked like we were all still alive, if a bit roughed up.
"You all okay?" Motomiya checked.
"We are, but…" Inoue pointed up to the spire. "Look at that!" The spire began to glow a deathly white and that window was now beginning to ooze some sort of cold liquid. This could only mean one thing.
"We… we can't do anything…" I reluctantly admitted. As if on cue, the walls rumbled and Paildramon and MechaRaptormon tore through.
"Desperado Blaster!" "Howitzer Blast!" They fired at the protrusion and blew it up… which caused everything to shut down.
"Paildramon!" "MechaRaptormon!" The four of us called out for our Digimon. We calmed down before Hida got another message again.
"'The distortion is fixed. Everything should be okay now.'" He read. I get the feeling that what we just did had to has to have made that woman mad.
We stood out along the dunes when we saw the entire base explode into rubble thanks to our Digimon.
"Destroy it, please… don't leave a trace." I said. After a bit, these four small Digimon hopped forward. One was Ketomon but the others I didn't really recognize, if I had to guess, these were the Baby-Forms of Guilmon, Wormmon, and V-mon. It was confirmed when they all went up to their respective partners.
"Good work… er… guess you aren't Guilmon right now, eh?" Ross picked up his partner.
"I believe that's Jyarimon, Chicomon, and Leafmon." Hawkmon informed. Jyarimon hopped out of Ross's arms and jumped over to Ketomon where they looked like they were being friendly with each other while Chicomon and Leafmon were essentially congratulating each other.
"Well, looks like we helped do it, Osamu." Ross held his hand out to me. I was about to shake but decided not to. "What's wrong?"
"Why did our Digimon combine… why?" I understand more why Motomiya and Ken's did; those two are truly close friends, but Ross and me?
"What are you talking about? The answer is because we're partners."
"Partners?"
"Yeah, didn't you feel it?"
"When our Digimon combined, our thoughts and feelings flowed through each of our bodies." Daisuke quickly spoke up to where Ross pointed at him and nodded.
"With Daisuke and me…" Ken said. "It felt as if our hearts were beating as one… it was an amazing experience of unity if I may say so."
"What they said." Ross concluded. "So that's why I knew we were partners… plus MechaRaptormon so you really can't deny anything less at that point."
I turned and looked away from him.
"I'm sorry… I know what you're trying to say, but I'm not qualified to be your partner yet."
"'Qualified?' What the hell do you mean by that? None of were qualified to be Chosen Children yet here we are. What exactly more do you need to convince you that you're one of us?"
"I'm sorry…" I picked up Ketomon. "Can you give me some time to thing?"
"Sure… just don't take too long okay? I don't think that woman is going to give up anytime soon." Agreed. I started to walk away.
"I'll meet with you in a sec, Onii-san." Ken probably wanted to say a few more things to his friends as I walked out of hearing distance of them.
P.O.V. – Ross McGlathery
"I don't get it…" Daisuke muttered.
"You can't be so straightforward, Daisuke-kun." Hikari told him.
"Yeah, he wants some time to himself, so you should give it to him." I said.
"But we just all fought together!" He insisted.
"Maybe he was all wrapped up while fighting, but when it was over, he was all 'What's going on here!?' and panicked." Miyako gave a theory.
"Even I have no idea what happened." Iori pointed out.
"Look, Onii-san… today was a turning point okay, but he just needs to come to terms with a few more things, you know." Ken defended. "Look, just wait and see with him okay? In the meantime, I'm sorry I kept you guys in the dark, but I promise things will go back to the way thing were before, alright?"
"Okay… just… you thought you were doing things you thought were best." Daisuke forgave before he turned back to Osamu while the others started to walk back home. "Just like Ichijouji-san is doing his best, his own way." Daisuke believed before he walked off too.
"I just hope that effort isn't just to satisfy himself." Takeru said as him, myself and Ken were staying put for the moment.
"Don't worry, Takeru-kun… he isn't… not anymore." Ken told him.
"You sure about that?"
"Yes, I am."
"How?"
"Let me put it this way… back home, the past few weeks; it's like we never had a falling out." Ken ran after Osamu. I put my arm on Takeru's shoulder.
"Everyone does deserve a second chance…"
"You really believe so, Ross-san?"
"I go to church, they spout that all the time. But I do believe so… guess we'll find out sooner or later then…" I whispered to myself.
We got back to Earth where Miyako called up Koushiro who was actually at his house. Guess Takeo saw the disturbance and went over to his place.
"What did Koushiro-san say?" Takeru asked.
"Well, he said there's something he wants to tell us about Jogress Evolution, and asked us to go to his place tomorrow."
"Tell us what?" wondered Iori.
"No… idea… I didn't really ask for details."
"What do you think, Daisuke-san?"
"No idea."
"Could it be…" Hikari muttered and stopped which caused Takeru and me to look at her.
"Do you three know something?" Iori inquired us.
Nothing more was said as Chicomon seemed to be getting hungry as he was trying to get a granola bar that Daisuke was eating.
"He's got the right idea. I'm starving!" Miyako said.
"It's late, so we'll talk about it tomorrow." Takeru informed.
"But it's bothering me!" Iori insisted.
"Eh, I'm afraid you'll have to do it without me. I've got somethings to handle." I told them. "Today has been… hectic, but it's just a normal day at the office, huh?" I chuckle.
"Iori, we should be back home before dinner, dagyaa!" Upamon shouted.
"You're right." The young man nodded. "See you tomorrow at Koushiro-san's!"
"Bye!" We all parted our various ways.
P.O.V. – Third Person
"I know I felt it. I know that Ross-san felt it, Ken felt it, and I know Ichijouji-san felt it too. He's partners with Ross-san." Daisuke said as he lay in his bed. He turned over to Chicomon. "I'm sure you felt it with Wormmon." The little baby nodded before bouncing up and down. "I can't really understand what you're saying right now, but feel free to tell me in the morning okay? Night."
"I knew me and Daisuke had gotten closer as friends… but I never expected being connected to him like that, you know, Leafmon?" Ken turned over in his bed. "And then of course there's Onii-san… I wish I could truly know what was going through his head right now."
"Osamu and I are connected… can't believe that's the truth but it is." Ross sighed. "I wonder what it felt like for you, Jyarimon."
"Still away, Ross? Go to sleep." Taichi groaned as he turned over. Ross followed suit.
"I thought I only had you and Ken…" Osamu wonders. "And then you combine with McGlathery's Digimon…" Ketomon gave him a smile. "I guessing you felt happy then." The little Digimon nodded. "Do you really think we'd still be accepted, despite all the horrible things I've done?" He sighed before he closed his eyes.
Odaiba District, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan. September 29th, 2002. 1043 Hours.
P.O.V. – Daisuke Motomiya
Crap! I'm late! I know it! I run with Chibimon to Koushiro's apartment. As soon as I see it, I see everyone waiting.
"Hey there!" I yell out.
"You're late, Daisuke-san!" Iori shouted at me.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
"Oh, you're Chibimon again." Tailmon noticed.
"A good night's sleep and I'm back!" He swung from my arms.
"Yeah, you're such a busy guy!" I held him up. The others laughed.
"Let's hurry to Koushiro-san's home!" Iori ran in.
"What does 'Jogress' mean?" Koushiro said as we sat in his room. "I looked it up, but I couldn't find any meaning. So, I came up with my own thought." He turned to his computer and the words 'joint' and 'progress'. "'Joint' means combining. And 'progress' means evolving. I think the word is made by combining part of these two words."
"Koushiro-han was up very late trying to figure that out." Tentomon informed as he sat on the bed, much to Koushiro's embarrassment.
"Is this what you wanted to tell us about Jogress?" Iori questioned.
"No… Actually, there's something we haven't told you guys yet."
"Haven't told us?" I looked at him funny. Were we being kept in the dark about something?
"Maybe we should have told you earlier."
"What is it? Please, stop stalling and tell us." Iori was eager to know.
"Alright… Two Digimon combining… it's actually happened once before. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon combined on the internet to defeat Diablomon during the whole Peacekeeper Incident."
"I know about that!" Miyako's eyes widened.
"This happened a while after that… I believe May 22nd, 2000. We were all called by Gennai-san and went back to the Digital World. It was nice seeing our partners in the flesh again, but there was more to this. We had defeated Apoclymon so we thought the distortion of the Digital World was gone. But it wasn't. In order to fully fix the distortion, we had to release the force that protects the Digital World, which had been trapped by the power of darkness."
"The force that protects the Digital World?" Iori questioned once more.
"Yeah. We don't know what it is, but…" Hikari spoke up. "If that force is weakened, the power of darkness in the Digital World increases.
"The power of our Crests was needed to prevent that." Koushiro continued. "With the power of Crests, the Digital World's distortion was fixed. The power of the nine Crests restored the Digital World. That's the true reason why we were chosen. However, since we used the Crests' power to restore the Digital World, Tentomon, Agumon and all of our Digimon partners lost the ability to evolve to Perfect-Level."
"So that's what the problem was…" I said. "I'm guessing that if that wasn't the case, really, we would've had a much easier time combating the Kaiser, hell, Chimairamon probably would've been dead within few minutes after he had been unleashed." The others nodded.
"But the Crests' power is in everyone's hearts, so it's not lost." Patamon informed.
"So we still have a chance to evolve again someday." believed Tailmon.
"That's why you said you couldn't reach Perfect-Level yesterday?" Miyako pieced things together. Tentomon, Patamon and Tailmon all nodded.
"Why didn't you say anything until now?" Iori inquired which gave the three older Chosen Children looks of shame on their face.
"We didn't mean to hide it…" Hikari said. "It was just a bit sad to say they couldn't evolve to Perfect-Level…"
"In fact, it's not like they won't ever be able to evolve again." Takeru sounded more hopeful. "We still hope they'll be able to do it like before someday."
"I see." Iori nodded.
"Back then, when MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon combined… They became Omegamon, who had more than ten times their power, and was able to defeat an enemy they couldn't defeat before."
"Yeah! He was so strong and cool!" Miyako was going a bit fangirlish.
"This time, through Jogress Evolution, XV-mon and Stingmon, along with Growmon and Strikedramon combined and gained the power they needed to defeat the pair of Perfect-Level Okuwamon that faced them."
"You mean, since they couldn't reach Perfect-Level normally, the Jogress-Evolved?"
"If that's the case, we have no time to waste!" I pointed out. "That pushy woman has to be our new enemy, right?"
"I can't believe she attacked us with two Perfect-Level Digimon created from Dark Towers…" Hikari said with an upset look on her face.
"I wonder who she is." Iori wondered.
"I guess we'll have to be careful." warned Takeru.
"Let's get to the Digital World, then!" I got up off the floor. "We have no idea what she's going to do next!"
"Right. C'mon, let's go!" Miyako stood up.
"Whoa, slow down a bit… I think you guys should at least take a day off after all this!" Koushiro advised.
"But!"
"He's right…" Takeru said causing the both of us to huff in defeat.
The next moment later, the door open up and Koushiro's mother walked in.
"I brought you some snacks, everyone!" She was holding glasses of juice and little donuts.
"Donuts!" Miyako got over her disappointment fast.
"Thanks for the food!" We all bowed before digging in.
"Um… Kae-han, could I be willing to have some extras?" Tentomon asked.
"You already ate a bunch an hour ago…" Koushiro groaned as he leaned back on his chair causing all of us to laugh.
Certainly learned some new things these past two days, I just hope what we've got is enough to stop that woman…
Dealing with that woman is gonna be a lot more difficult than you think Daisuke.
See you guys later.
"Push the button, Frank."