Rainbow Bridges Falling Down
888
Daisuke pushed through the heavy door of the room. Immediately he was assaulted by the sound of activity. Sora and Mimi and Jyou were on telephones. Koushiro was fiddling with the computer terminals, people in fatigues were scuttling around. And amongst them were the digimon.
"No, I said do not fight anything that comes out of that egg, Ruki!" Jyou shouted into the phone. "I-just listen to Takato…I-oh for crying out loud!"
Jyou grunted as he pulled the phone from his ear. The tinny voice of a girl shouting several expletives thrummed from the speaker. At his feet was Gomamon, and the little white seal's cheeks turned as red as his mohawk as the invectives came hurling from the phone. Daisuke smiled to himself as he felt Ken push into the room behind him.
"KEN!" the warbling voice of Wormmon called as the green caterpillar scrambled and leapt up a set of stairs and over desks and tables.
"Daishuke!" Daisuke hardly had time to look up before his vision was encapsulated in blue and he was sent floundering backwards against the wall under the aggressive hugging of a small, blue dragon.
"Veemon, jeesh!" Daisuke yelped as he fell backward. He grunted as he hit the wall and slid down to the ground. "What have they been feeding you in the Digital World, you weigh a ton!"
"Have they been starving you!?" Veemon yelped in response as he poked a clawed finger against the skinny tummy of Daisuke.
"Hey, I just am burning through my baby fat!" Daisuke yelped, trying to suppress a giggle.
"He's trying to stay in shape for Hikari." Ken said, as he held Wormmon in his arms and smiled at Daisuke.
"It's for soccer!" Daisuke said quickly, looking up at Ken, blushing.
"Uh huh-" Ken said smirking as he walked away and down the stairs. Ken turned his attention to the older kids. "So, any idea of what's actually going on?"
"The server that Diaboromon lured Taichi and the others to has been disconnected." Koushiro called out without looking up from his computer. "I'm trying to reinitialize connection with it, but it's not working."
"What about that egg up in the sky?" Daisuke called as he tried to get up from under Veemon.
"It seems Diaboromon was trying to locate the Hikarigaoka digital gate." A woman in fatigues said. Daisuke recognized her as Brigadier Bambera from last year. "You attacking it was part of its plan."
"That's a dumb plan!" Mimi said as she hung up a phone. "Inviting us to destroy it."
"No, it's brilliant." Koushiro said, leaning back in his chair and looking up at everyone. "It needed to use the biggest gate between this world and the Digital World to fully realize in the Human World. Somehow it must have figured out that we lived near that gate…"
"And it knew we'd come and get it if it ever reared its head again!" Sora said, as sat down and put her hand on Biyomon's head.
"And topping on the cake is that when we came, not only would we give it precisely the information it needed to find the gate at Hikarigaoka, it could trap the only thing that could defeat it on the web." Jyou said as he put the phone down.
"Did someone say cake?" Veemon asked hopping to the bottom of the stairs.
"Not now!" Tentomon buzzed, he then stopped and turned to Koushiro. "Though some little cookies would be great right now…"
"Not only that but Diaboromon wasn't destroyed." Koushiro grumbled glaring at the screen. "He couldn't transmit himself as a Mega digimon through the server network, at least not without triggering the defense countermeasures that UNIT installed after the initial Diaboromon attack."
"So…then…" Mimi scratched head and looked to Palmon, the flower digimon shrugged is verdant shoulders.
"It discorporated, basically it broke itself down into millions of Kuramon...it turned itself into a giant bit-torrent to ease the transmission of itself to servers in Odaiba." Koushiro growled glaring at the screen. "Small enough to slip through UNIT defenses, small enough to quickly translate through to the block transfer matrix between the Digital World and here…"
"Wait, wait, wait…" Daisuke lifted his hand as he walked over next to Mimi. "What I'm hearing is Diaboromon is coming here!"
"Essentially." Koushiro said, nodding.
Daisuke right hand punched his left. "Then he's screwed up! Because we're going to smash him the moment he emerges!"
"Maybe-" Koushiro said as he sat forward and looked at the screen. "The data profile from the surveillance drones is different than the data profile that was on the server."
"Surveillance drones?" Mimi looked up. "I thought big digimon knocked out electronics?"
"Ah, well, yes…that would be my doing." a thin man with, well quaffed hair ambled down the steps. He wore a lavender suit jacket and dark brown vest with a dark blue bowtie. Behind him was a brown haired girl, in a yellow jumper and a red-checked skirt. "Not completely my doing, just the implementation, I suspect! I mean, the American's helped, what's his name Jobs, and Woz and the other one…oh-" the man snapped his fingers.
"Bill Gates…" The woman with the man said.
"That's the one!" the man said snapping his fingers and then cheerfully pointing finger guns at the girl.
"Dr. Smith!" Koushiro said spinning around and jumping to his feet.
"Well, one of them." the lanky man said shrugging his shoulders. He turned to the girl behind him. "Hello all, I'm Dr. Smith, codename 'Matthew'!"
"I just call him 'The Chin'." the girl said.
"OI! When you've finished your doctorate you get to chose the codenames…" Dr. Smith said narrowing his eyes as the girl. "Speaking of which, this is my assistant, codename: The Impossible Girl…" He smiled a self satisfied smile, "or the Infamous T.I.G…"
"Or you could just use my real name, Clara Oswald." the girl said waving timidly at the children.
"Where's the Williamses, Amy and Rory?" Jyou asked looking around.
"Ah, the Ponds you mean…maternity leave." the lanky man said smiling, then he frowned slightly, "That's the trouble with a married couple, they tend to get…distracted." He turned to Clara. "Clara's on loan from Dr. Smit, codename 'Scottish Fury'…"
"He means, 'The Eyebrows'…" The girl said.
"No, I really don't, Ms. Oswald. You know, I'll give you back and take one of Smit's new assistants." Dr. Smith said tetchily.
"Which one, the plump one or the college student?" Clara asked.
"Both if you aren't very careful!" Dr. Smith growled.
"'Your' doing?" Jyou asked sighingly, as he tried to reign in the conversation.
"Ah yes, the US built clockwork jets…" Dr. Smith said as he walked forward. "I thought, hey why not miniaturize it and make clockwork surveillance drones."
"The drones are built with gear-driven thought engines inside, instead of digital computers." Brigadier Bambera said, walking forward. "Gear-motors not electric…"
"Only the sensors are digital, and they are shielded physically by metal plating." Dr. Smith took over as he soft-shoed down the stairs. "They have a little translation box inside of them to translate the electrical information into mechanical information…" He stared at the incoming data and smiled to himself. "Bit like how your retinas are a translator for the occipital lobe of your brain that turns photon signals into biochemical transmitters…."
"Sounds icky-" Mimi said looking at Dr. Smith.
"Yep, just about, you must be Mimi-" the man replied. He blinked and refocused his attention. "None-the-less fully digimon proofed." The screens with the feed suddenly turned to static. Dr. Smith furrowed his brows. "Unless…"
"Last reading had a massive influx of thermal energy coming from the incursion." a woman called from one of the terminals. "I believe there was an air inflow caused by the pressure differential created by the heat swing. It caused the drone to fly into the digital construct."
"Thank you, Miss Himekawa, glad to see you here." Dr. Smith said as he patted her on the shoulder. She looked up at him and he looked back down at her, but Daisuke noted, his eyes didn't manage to convey the level of camaraderie his words had. Dr. Smith looked up and then smiled broadly. "Nishijima! You old so and so…Clara…this guy has an amazing joke about a fish named Jim building a dam!"
"I believe your wife told me it, already…" Clara said.
"I've told her not to do that…giving out spoilers all the time!" Dr. Smith grumbled as he continued to survey the screens.
"I've regained visual!" Himekawa reported. The screens flicked over.
"The Kuramon…are gone!" Mimi yelped as she pointed. The formations of Kuramon were gone but the egg was still there and furthermore.
"Not gone…" Koushiro stated. "They've merged with the egg…it's going to hatch!"
"Right, now is the time for the children to do what you do?" Brigadier Bambera stated.
"Flail about until our digimon evolve and kill the monster that's harassing us this week?" Jyou asked as he took off his glasses and wiped them with the hem of his shirt.
"What about Taichi and the others?" Mimi asked looking at the dark screen that the others had disappeared into.
"Right now we have, a higher priority!" Brigadier Bambera growled, glaring at the kids.
"No, we have to get that server up and functioning." Sora said as she stood up. "We need to get the others out."
"If Diaboromon emerges in the Human World on top of Odaiba-" the brigadier growled.
"Possibly millions of people could die and untold billions in damage could be done to Japan." Dr. Smith said, his steely gaze unflinching to the flaring nostrils and snarl on the brigadier's face. "But we have no idea what condition the children on the server are in, they could be suffocating, or being eaten alive, or deleted from existence…and if we ignore those children and they die, Winnie, we will lose something far worse that some lives or property, we'll lose our humanity-" He looked over at the other children, "and frankly that's all we've ever had; all of these cataclysms, we've never had any control over any of it, no way of saving ourselves, only the Chosen Ones, and they come as a package deal. We must save those children on the server!" The brigadier glared at Dr. Smith but Dr. Smith didn't back down, the brigadier looked away in annoyance. Dr. Smith nodded and smiled. Dr. Smith looked down at Miss Himekawa and then to Mr. Nishijima. "Right, I didn't say that we couldn't do both things at once though! Me, TIG, Maki and Daigo will work on the server business…you kids, if you would please, save the city one more time."
Daisuke looked at the others, and they all looked at Dr. Smith.
"He's right, we gotta get going!" Daisuke said, as he stepped forward, Veemon hopped to his side. "Let's do this!"
888
"I spy with my eye something that is black-" Takeru whispered in the dark.
"Is it everything?" Yamato grumbled, Tai could hear the folded arms of annoyance in his voice.
"How, how long do you think we'll be stuck here?" Iori asked, his feet scraped along the terracotta wings of ClavisAngemon.
"How long has it been?" Takeru asked.
"Hours? Minutes, Days?" Miyako whimpered. "It's impossible to tell!"
"Twenty minutes, forty-five seconds." Taichi said quietly as he flipped open his cell phone, blearily looking at the screen. "Weird, the little clock inside is still keeping time."
"How do you feel, Ophanimon?" Hikari asked.
"I think we'll be ok, it's surprising I thought this would be more exhausting…" The angel said. "It's been a while since we've had to go to his level."
"It feels weird though…" ClavisAngemon said. "Different than before-"
"Yeah, I've never felt this way before-" Omegamon said.
"Different how?" Yamato asked.
"Just…itchy-" Gabumon's voice said. "But not weak or anything just…itchy-"
"It's probably just the dark-" Taichi said, as he narrowed his eyes to the pitch. "It's messing with our heads."
"What do you think is going on outside? Where did Diaboromon go?" Iori asked.
"If I had a guess he went to the Human World." Yamato said. Taichi heard him slip down and sit on Omegamon's shoulder. "His goal was always to affect chaos in the human world, last time he was going to hack into the world's nuclear arsenal…this time, I guess he decided to just do it himself."
"If you want something done right, do it yourself…" Takeru quipped, chuckling lightly.
"You find this funny!?" Miyako shouted. There was a scuffling sound and Miyako's voice moved in the darkness towards where Takeru's voice had come. "We're trapped here! You realize we will probably die here, maybe we suffocate when the oxygen is used up, maybe we starve, or no we'll dehydrate first! And you're just quipping away! Captain Quippy having a laugh while we're trapped waiting to-"
There was a smack. The pulse of blushing red was almost visible in the darkness simply from the sound of the slap itself.
"We aren't going to die!" Hikari's voice rang out. "We just have to be a little brave, trust that our friends will find a way to get us out of here."
"I-I'm sorry-but it's just it's so dark here." Miyako said quietly.
"I have faith in Koushiro and the others, they love us far too much to abandon us in the dark. We just have to have a little hope." Hikari said quietly, calmly.
"Wait, you said your phone's clock was still keeping time?" Iori said sharply.
"Yeah." Taichi replied.
"Do you have signal?" Iori asked.
"Of course not, why would I…" Taichi stopped, and then thrust his hand into his pants pocket and floundered around grabbing at the little flip phone. The phone opened the light blazed in the complete darkness surrounding the kids. Taichi winced. "I don't believe it…"
"What?" Miyako leapt up to her feet.
Taichi turned the phone around. "I've got two bars!"
"We're not even in a physical dimension!" Miyako yelped.
"Evidently my parents got one hell of a phone plan!" Taichi said looking at the screen.
"Can't hold a phone conversation though." Yamato said. "You'll get dropped."
"No but I can send a text message!" Taichi said as his thumbs rifled over the keys of the phone.
888
Koushiro's phone buzzed. He stopped running, as Jyou and the others rushed to the edge of the bay-side park. He hiked up the computer satchel that he kept his laptop in as he reached for his phone. He flipped his phone open.
"Prodigious!" Koushiro shouted, as he stared gobsmacked at his phone.
"What?" Jyou skidded to a stop and ran back to Koushiro.
"It's Taichi!" Koushiro pointed the phone to Jyou. "It's a text message from Taichi…"
"What?! How!?" Jyou yelled.
"I don't know…" Koushiro furrowed his brow. "He should be cut off from us complete-ly…wait a minute! Wait a minute! There's a backdoor to the server, through the cell phone network…Of course!"
"And that's good?" Jyou asked.
"It's great! It means…It means there's a way to access the server, and if Taichi can get a text message through then we can get a command prompt through….which means-" Koushiro was starting to ramble when there was a loud cracking sound. Koushiro stopped and snapped his head up.
The egg opened like some kind of empty nesting doll, or one of those plastic eggs American's fuss with in the Spring. He wasn't exactly sure what he expected to come out, but what he saw wasn't it. It was a mishmash of things. A dragon or a lizard, like some kind of basilisk creature fused with one of those water striding insects. It had six, insectoid legs attached to a torso of a giant lizard, a long herpetofaunal tail that ended in a scorpion-like stinger, its head was like a dragon version of Diaboromon's with long horns branching from each side and a small snout horn. It was massive and it fell unfurling its long legs. Jyou leapt onto a bench as the monster hit the water creating a small tidal wave to swamp the park; the spray of which drenched Koushiro and Jyou. Koushiro heard the creature it's breaths dragging in and out in long drawn out hisses. Its green eyes wandered in all directions like a chameleons before coming into sharp focus.
"That's-that's not-" Jyou yelped.
"No, it isn't." Koushiro said, gulping. He further ahead. Daisuke and Ken and Sora and Mimi were standing as shocked as he was.
"Guys, we should be doing something!" shouted Daisuke loudly.
"He's right. This thing's not going to be calm for long." Koushiro said. He looked up to where Tentomon was buzzing, and then looked back to Jyou. "Are you ready to do this?"
"If I said no, could we just go home?" Jyou asked.
"It hasn't ever worked that way before." Koushiro said.
"Come on, Jyou, let's go!" Gomamon chirped looking up at Jyou.
Jyou took a deep breath, straightened his glasses and adjusted the tie and straightened the collar of his shirt. "Right then, if we're doing this, we're doing it!"
The sky flared to life as six digimon burned into the sky and in quick succession became three bigger digimon as they fused together.
"I'm going to send Dr. Smith Taichi's phone number, and a text telling him about what we just found out." Koushiro said quickly. He sent the text and looked up at the monster, then back at the text Taichi sent. "We're coming guys just hold on!"
888
"Ms. Himekawa are you finished writing the update to the dot exe file?" Dr. Smith asked as he rushed past.
"Just give me a second." Maki responded as she stared at the screen. Lines of code slid down the monitor as she sped through the proofreading. Something caught her eye.
"That's not the command code?" Nishijima said. Maki looked up to see him peering over to her terminal.
"I'm just making sure I've got appropriate domains configured." Maki said hurriedly as she flicked over to another window. She narrowed her eyes. "Impossible-" she thought to herself. She recognized that code command structure, it was the same code commands that wiped their databases in 2002. The same code structure appeared in the barrier reestablishment program last year; it was a code that seemed insanely familiar and yet. The gears clicked half a turn. Her eyes widened.
"Ms. Himekawa!?" Dr. Smith shouted.
"Right, yes-" Maki flicked a look at the screen, proofread the script and forwarded it to Nishijima. "It's sent."
Nishijima's phone buzzed and he opened it. Dr. Smith slid to his side. "Now, send the file via text as a hyperlink to the phone number Mr. Izumi sent us. Instructing the Yagami boy to open the hyperlink, the process of doing so should open a trojan horse with the execution program inside of it…if I'm right that program should then open the server."
Nishijima quickly tapped with his thumbs and then pressed the send button. Dr. Smith smiled broadly and then he looked over to Maki. Dr. Smith's smile faded.
"What?" Maki asked turning away from Dr. Smith.
"Nothing just, I've seen you work before, never taken that long for you cobble together a program like this… " Dr. Smith said quietly, and then turned to look at the phone. "It's on its way!"
888
Taichi's phone buzzed weakly in the dark. Taichi jumped up and opened the phone blinking at the bright light in the darkness. The others surrounded him.
"Click the hyperlink-" Iori said, looking at the screen.
"Right- " Taichi said as he scrolled down to link and it highlighted. He pressed the small enter button on his phone.
The screen of the phone went dark. Taichi growled in frustration slamming the phone shut.
"It didn't work?" Hikari asked.
"We're still here aren't-" Miyako started.
There was an airy rumble from all around them. It started as a low glow. The walls of the server slowly became brighter. They could see the small twirling designs of the walls. The massive gray, doors still firmly shut.
"We should get ready, who knows what will happen." Taichi said as he eyed the doors. "This whole thing could be booby-trapped."
"Or it may not stay active long." Yamato said looking over at Taichi.
"If those doors open, we make a run at them." Taichi nodded.
Yamato gripped the spoke on Omegamon's shoulder. "Takeru, Hikari get yourselves and Iori and Miyako out, we'll be right behind."
"Right." Takeru said.
There was a beeping noise or the sounds of klaxons. The walls pulsed orange. Then the doors shuddered, they flickered red three times and then pulsed brightly green. The heavy, industrial looking portals then slowly slid open and as they did streams of data flew into the room.
"GO!" Taichi shouted.
888
"Positron Laser!"
A stream of ionized plasma exploded into new digimon. Daisuke clenched his fists watching as the massive digimon skittered across the bay, his long clawed legs never breaking the surface tension of the water. It's chameleon-like eyes swiveled up catching view of the black and blue dragon with red wings, lifting its arm again as another pulse of plasma fired down upon it. It shook its head and roared as the blasts exploded in the water around it.
"Megaton Hydro Laser!" The beast's eyes swiveled and focused on the massive be-cannoned turtle JumboGamemon stalking in the bay as it turned all of its weaponry at. The torrent of water smashed into monster's face and the beast snarled in annoyance.
"Aurora Undulation!" A blasting light from above seared the creature's armor. The insect-lizard-demon looked up to see a six-winged phoenix gliding above it emitting and unsettling pearlescent glow.
"Get him!" Daisuke cheered loudly as he punched the air. They had caught it off-guard when it had emerged and had planned to keep the monster on the defensive trying to push it away from the Rainbow Bridge.
"We shouldn't be getting too excited." Ken said looking over to Daisuke and then to the older kids who looked far more reserved and pensive. Ken looked to the monster. It skidded across the water. "It's not even hurt, it should be hurt…" Ken looked over to Koushiro. "Is there really nothing about this thing?"
Koushiro looked over to Ken and pulled the small pineapple laptop out of his satchel. As the computer booted up Imperialdramon, Valdurmon and JumboGamemon started another round of attacks on the monster.
"Come on….I need to get more RAM on this thing…" Koushiro growled as he glared at the screen. "Ah, here! It's name is Armageddemon…..and it's…"
Koushiro's face paled as he looked at the screen.
"What is it, Izzy?" Mimi asked as she tried to peer over his shoulder.
Koushiro instantly slammed the laptop shut. He took a step forward looking at Armageddemon. "Was that the plan? But it should be impossible-"
"What?" Daisuke turned around and narrowed his eyes.
"It's-he's…an Ultra digimon." Koushiro said as he watched the three Mega digimon on their side strike the monster with everything they had.
"Wait, Ultra digimon?" Jyou said looking up. "Wasn't that what-"
"It was whatever Daemon became." Ken said as he turned to the bay.
The steam and the smoke and the flashes of energy cleared. The monster lifted its head through the smoke. It didn't growl, it didn't snarl, it simply seemed to smile. Tiny ports opened along the ridge of Armageddemon's back.
"Be careful he's going to attack!" Sora shouted loudly.
The ports exploded, firing projectiles high up into the sky. The burning meteors arced through the air, whistling and then rained down.
"Protect the bridge!" shouted Jyou loudly as he pointed. People were still there, trapped by the traffic jam, though several were stupidly watching the battle from the bridge edge.
"No, those people!" Mimi screamed.
Valdurmon and Imperialdramon flew to action. Valdurmon extended the glow from her wings outward into a arching shield that encapsulated the bridge as Imperialdramon lifted his gauntlet and extended a tensor shield to help boost Valdurmon's bubble. The meteors exploded against the shielding, the bubble of energy flexed and wobbled against the bombardment. JumboGamemon started firing his cannons at the rain of explosive ammunition trying to knock out the explosives before they hit. Armageddemon's back continued to erupt in cinder bombs that rocked the shield. The bubble kept shrinking as Valdurmon and Imperialdramon strained against the attack. JumboGamemon was firing with all his artillery by the cinder bombs were small, and almost innumerable.
The kids watched on helpless as the shield shrunk and highest towers of the bridge became exposed, and exploded as the cinders hit them. Armageddemon slid across the water's surface. The cinders flying upwards. It growled loudly, opening its massive tuatara-like maw.
"Destiny Destroyer!"
Armageddemon up-chucked a massive cinder blast that rifled through the air, looking to hit the bridge and the three Mega digimon dead on. The shield was failing from the bombardment, the digimon busy protecting the people on the bridge.
The sky burst into light. A pillar of gold exploded downward.
"Grey Sword!" An arc of light sliced outwards from the pillar of light, bisecting and neutralizing the ancillary attack from Armageddemon.
The arc of light sliced across Armageddemon's face, the monster howled as a slit cut across his face armor. The pillar of light faded revealing Omegamon hovering above the water's surface, his sword drawn, and his Garuru Cannon raised, and glowing blue. Behind the white knight Ophanimon and ClavisAngemon were flying towards Daisuke and the others, and the two angels deposited Taichi, Yamato, Hikari, Takeru, Miyako with the other children.
Armageddemon roared in rage as it glared at Omegamon. The two angel digimon looked back to see Omegamon rush Armageddemon firing blast after blast from his Garuru Cannon. The continuous pulses pushed Armageddemon backwards as Omegamon advanced. The monster roared loudly and fired blasts out of its mouth. Omegamon sliced past the blasts dodging left and right as the massive cinders exploded into the bay creating massive clouds of steam that filled the bay.
"We need to help the others!" Ophanimon said as she pointed with her lance towards the bridge.
ClavisAngemon nodded and the two angels flew towards the bridge. As they did Omegamon exploded from the steam bank, his cannon pointed down and firing into the steam. There was a loud roar and a hailstorm of cinder bombs erupted into the air. Omegamon ducked and weaved through the bombardment as the cinders rained down. The steam hissed loudly from the bay and then cleared. Daisuke squinted into the dank, humid air. Omegamon swept out his sword arm and then dove, dropping to just above the water's surface. The Grey Sword glowed as the kanji came to life. Armageddemon roared loudly and fired blasts at Omegamon that the knight weaved past and then the knight leapt up, lifting his sword up and then plunging the tip of it deep into the skull of Armageddemon. The monster screamed a horrible squealing scream as it thrashed its head around. Omegamon bounced and jostled as the monster thrashed, being dragged by his sword around and around. Omegamon lifted his legs and braced them against Armageddemon's lower jaw and then pushed with his legs forcing the jaws open. The knight jammed the Garuru Cannon into the beast's mouth and then fired.
The kids winced as they watched. Each blast flying down the monster's gullet. Each one exploding deep in the body cavity of the creature creating an unpleasant looking, short-term plumpness in the beast's abdomen. Each blast eliciting a pathetic warbling scream from the beast as the explosion flared into its stomach.
The monster seemed to lose it composure, its insect-like legs seemed to shift unsure as to what to do as the knight that had impaled itself into his skull stopped firing as if waiting to see what would happen. The eyes of the beast lolled around before seemingly going dark.
"Is that it?" Miyako asked. "Omegamon beat him?"
The crowds on the bridge were cheering loudly. The kids could hear the faint roar from the park on the Odaiba side of the bay. The cheers very quickly went silent. The monster stirred; its eyes came to back to life and swiveled to focus on Omegamon.
"Destiny Destroyer!" A guttural growl called. The orange inferno exploded from Armageddemon's mouth, engulfing Omegamon. The knight was blasted free of Armageddemon. The monster opened its mouth again and three more of the blasts exploded into the tumbling body of Omegamon.
Taichi and Yamato ran to the very edge of the causeway, only stopping at the chain fencing because Jyou and Ken grabbed them, and were quickly supplemented by Daisuke, Takeru and Koushiro. The other Mega digimon turned and rushed Armageddemon but each were quickly and ruthless blasted back as Omegamon crashed into the bay. The knight slowly rose to its feet and glared looking at Armageddemon. It lifted its Garuru Cannon. The knight fired, the blue blast roared forward. Armageddemon opened its maw and blasted a massive cinder that blew through the Garuru Cannon blast and exploded into Omegamon the knight was flung backwards its back smashing into one of the arches of the Rainbow Bridge. Cables from the bridge snapped as the bridge bowed, the arch cracked bits of masonry and metal fell, the people on the bridge screamed. The kids looked on in horror as half the bridge simply gave way.
Daisuke looked over to Taichi. Taichi was frozen as he watched half the bridge collapse onto Omegamon. The knight fell forward, dropping to his knees. Daisuke gulped as he watched the eyes on the knight go out.
"O-meg-a-mon-" he heard Yamato whisper.
the other digimon were trying to scramble to save people but Armageddemon was having none of it. The monster roared and shot JumboGamemon in the back and the turtle crashed into the waves disappearing in a bright glow never to resurface. Valdurmon was struck in the breast and the massive bird twisted through the air struggling to fall through the gap the already smashed bridge had. Ophanimon and ClavisAngemon struck back at Armageddemon and Imperialdramon turned to snatch as many as he could as the angels parried around Armageddemon.
"Tai!" shouted Koushiro, as the cinnamon haired boy yelled at Taichi. "TAI!"
Taichi didn't respond he just stared blindly at Omegamon, at the bridge that was crumbling.
"Big brother!" Hikari shouted, grabbing Tai and yanking at his arm. Taichi didn't respond.
"We have to get back up, Tai!" Yamato shouted, having snapped himself out of whatever fugue he had been in a few minutes ago. "Come on, Tai!"
"ClavisAngemon watch out!" Iori shouted.
Everyone turned their attention back to the battle to see Armageddemon fire a blast into the terracotta angel's back. The angel twisted in the air. Ophanimon moved to catch the male angel only to find herself targeted and the two angels were sent hurtling towards the park. The kids dropped, with Jyou grabbing Taichi and pulling him down as the two angels crashed to the ground, glowed, reverting to their smaller Rookie forms. Taichi was just sitting numb on the ground, he sat there, staring slowly bringing his hands to his head.
"I think he's snapped!" Miyako shouted.
"Thanks, I think that was obvious!" Yamato retorted angrily.
"She's just-" Sora started.
"TAICHI SNAP OUT OF IT!" Yamato shouted and slapped Taichi.
Daisuke winced as he looked. Taichi just blinked, looking up at him. The tears welled up in his eyes. Daisuke gulped and turned his attention back to the bay. Imperialdramon rose up from the far side of the bay, having deposited what people he could and was darting around Armageddemon firing blasts of his positron laser at the beast. The monster roared angrily and fired barrages of cinders from its back. Imperialdramon flashed between the cinders.
"Where's Palmon?" Daisuke heard Mimi ask quickly.
"Down here!" Daisuke looked over the fence down to the rough water below. Four Rookie digimon were sitting on a raft of fish.
"Taichi, come on, now's not the time!" Yamato growled as he shook Taichi who just sat there crying silently.
"We're down to Imperialdramon-" Daisuke said, he narrowed his eyes and readjusted his goggles on his forehead. He looked over to Ken and extended his hand. Ken reached out and grasped it. Daisuke nodded. "We can do this! Give him everything you've got, Imperialdramon, full blast!"
The dragon shot high up into the sky. It looked down at Armageddemon and its chest armor opened. A large tesla coil unfurled from Imperialdramon's chest. The coil charged.
"Giga Death!" Imperialdramon roared as the coil discharged. A bolt of energy seared through the air and exploded into Armageddemon.
Daisuke and Ken turned their heads away as the bay erupted into blinding light. The glow burned through their eyelids. Daisuke lifted his hand over his eyes and cautiously opened them. Steam rolled up from the water's surface. In the steam he could see the shadow of the monster. It had survived.
"Destiny Destroyer." The monster replied casually.
Daisuke watched the cinder fly up. It exploded into Imperialdramon's chest. The dragon was enveloped into the inferno and when the blaze of orange had faded it revealed the dragon hanging limply in the air with tattered smoking wings and armor. Daisuke took a weak step forward, his hand slipped from Ken's and he took another step forward. His hand fumbled as it grabbed the chain that fenced off the causeway.
"No…not like this…" Daisuke said, he turned and looked to Taichi. The older boy was still sitting his head buried in his hands. Daisuke swallowed and looked up at Imperialdramon. "It can't be like this…"
"Taichi, please-" Daisuke looked over to see Sora kneeling in front of Taichi. The auburn-haired girl reached out and gently stroked his head. "You can't give up now, not like this, please. We have never given up before…"
Taichi's head slowly lifted. Sora and Taichi's eyes met. The boy looked over to Yamato. The blonde had his arms crossed over his chest.
"All those people, they are depending on us." Mimi said, looking down at Taichi.
"Depending us not to quit." Jyou said as he adjusted his glasses.
"To figure this out." Koushiro said.
"We are the only hope they have." Takeru said, as the younger boy walked up, an unconscious Patamon in his arms.
"We have to fight back." Hikari said holding Salamon in her arms. "Whatever darkness has come we have to stand against it. All the way to the end."
Taichi looked up at Yamato. The blonde's arms were still crossed, but then he sighed and leaned down and hugged Taichi.
"Only enough…strength left for one thing-" Omegamon gasped loudly. The kids looked up as the knight rose weakly to its feet. "Have to help Imperialdramon-"
The knight's body glowed bright white flaring to life and then in a flash disappearing. Two tiny forms dropped splashing into the bay. A ring of light twisted up to Imperialdramon.
"Marching fishes, go get Agumon and Gabumon!" Gomamon's voice was heard instructing a raft of fish.
Daisuke narrowed his eyes as the ring of light twisted in front of Imperialdramon. Daisuke remembered the last time this happened, he clenched his fist.
"Grab the ring! It's got all of Omegamon's power!" shouted Daisuke loudly.
"It will allow you to beat Armageddemon!" Ken shouted, grabbing Daisuke's hand.
"You can do it, Imperialdramon! We believe in you!" Miyako shouted as she ran forward with Hawkmon in her arms.
"It's up to you now! We're all relying on you!" Iori shouted.
"You're our last hope!" Takeru called up.
"Take the ring before it's too late!" Hikari called up to the dragon.
As she shouted everyone heard it but no one was sure where it came from. The sound of one lone, long blast of a whistle. As the note screamed out across the bay the dragon snapped into wakefulness. It reached out and grabbed the ring. The transformation was nearly instantaneous. The tattered wings blazed with white feathers, the black, scuffed armor was bright white, even the bruised flesh of the blue dragon seemed to gleam with a freshness. The ring had extended into a hilt and a large broadsword.
Imperialdramon glared down at Armageddemon. He hefted the sword up into the sky and then came charging down. Armageddemon roared and fired blasts of energy up at the dragon who dipped and dove through the assault. The sword blazed with holy light.
"This is everyone's!" shouted Imperialdramon. The sword was plunged deep into Armageddemon's head. "Omega BLADE!"
The light from the sword burned into the flesh of Armageddemon. The light bust through the armor from the inside, leaking out in rays of gold. Armageddemon twitched but didn't squeal, didn't writhe. Half of its legs lifted half a step before freezing in place and then when Imperialdramon extracted the sword. Armageddemon burst into billions of Kuramon.
"The Kuramon!" Iori shouted. "We can't let them escape!"
"Figured that out!" Koushiro shouted. He had his laptop open. "Sending a message to all the digi-destined to point their digivices at Imperialdramon. I've linked a copy of my secured trash bin into them…"
"Would that even work?" Mimi asked, turning and looking at Koushiro.
"Umm, well, not really sure, I'm hoping this improvised upload program might do something with a little help from the digivices…" Koushiro said. "The idea was to delete them individually but I think we can do it all at once with Imperialdramon."
"You're…you're just making this up as you go along aren't you?" Jyou asked looking at Koushiro mildly terrified.
"It's a giant demonic water strider mixed with a lizard and a scorpion, it's not exactly something that's in the manual!" Koushiro blustered loudly. He glared at the others. "Digivices, Imperialdramon, hurry up!"
The kids blinked and then turned opening their phones. The screens flared to life and little beams flew up to the jewel in the hilt of Imperialdramon's sword. Light streamed from the other side of the bay and soon from all over the city. Lines of light arced from over the horizon from distant places far away.
Imperialdramon held the sword aloft as Kuramon swarmed around the dragon. There was a burst of light that washed outwards pulsed across the sky, turning the burgeoning dusk into a new dawn. The swarm of Kuramon disappeared into the blaze. Imperialdramon lowered his arm, the sword was gone. The dragon turned and started to fall towards the park. As it fell the glowing dragon split in two and Daisuke and Ken caught a very exhausted DemiVeemon and Minomon, just before they cratered into the ground.
"Is it over?" Sora asked.
"All Kuramon are now in the trash bin and-" Koushiro said with a flourish. "Fully deleted."
"We won!" Miyako cheered and jumped up and down.
"All those people though-" Taichi said looking up at the fractured Rainbow Bridge. "Because we got trapped, because we were overwhelmed…because we were sloppy…."
"We did what we could." Yamato said, grabbing Taichi on the shoulder.
"Not soon enough." Taichi said pulling away. He looked down as a raft of fish carrying Koromon and Tsunomon came towards them.
888
The raft of fish moved over to a stairway that led to the water's surface. The kids retrieved their drenched digimon. Gomamon thanked the fish and then hopped up the stairs to Jyou. The other older kids were already walking back towards where the UNIT headquarters were. Jyou watched as the rest of kids team were chatting near the stairs. Jyou looked over to Taichi.
"We did good, considering the lack of notice." Jyou suggested weakly.
"I lost it…" Taichi said looking back at Jyou. He started to walk away. "We got lucky this time."
"Big brother?" Jyou heard Hikari say he turned and saw her looking at Taichi. She went to walk with her brother when Daisuke ran to her and grabbed her into a big hug that twirled her around.
"I'm so glad you're safe!" Daisuke said loudly.
"The same…" Hikari said but she kept looking towards Taichi. She looked to Daisuke. "Thank you, for holding down the fort, but I should go with Taichi." Hikari gave Daisuke a quick peck on the cheek the tan boy blushed brightly and was slightly numb, and with the distraction Hikari was running after Taichi.
"Still, where did Diaboromon or rather Armageddemon come from?" Ken said quietly as he walked up to the flustered Daisuke. "You can't just snap your fingers and create an Ultra…"
"And this Diaboromon was clever, too." Iori said, the little boy looked to Ken.
"You don't think he was acting on his own?" Miyako asked.
"Hard telling, but something is fishy about this." Ken said, narrowing his eyes.
"I'm sure Koushiro will have a long powerpoint presentation on it, in the morning." Jyou finally said, as he looked down at Gomamon. "Now we need to get home, and try and get some studying done. This whole evening's been wasted!"
888
The dark figure in the shape of Gennai stared at the screen. It sparked with static, but the figure didn't frown, rather it smiled. It sat forward slightly.
"Now, let us see where we are." The figure said and it reached forward and pressed a button. The screen went from static to dark. A sound came over the speakers, a hissing, wheezing sound, a rumbling sound. The figure narrowed his eyes. "Turn your head, let's see what we see."
The screen shifted a shadowed form was visible. a rising and lowering chest of a small human child. A shaft of moonlight fell over the child's face, he had blonde hair and a soft face. The screen shifted again. This time in the other direction. There was another bed in the room, another small human child, again with blonde hair. With the child, slept another creature was sleeping with the human child, a long-eared digimon with a single horn on its head, it looked like a rabbit or a small dog.
The figure smiled quietly as he put his fingertips together and sat back. "Come to me, small one, we have much work to do…."
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AN: I know! Right! This thing is diabolical! Plans on plans boys! Long chapter, so it may take some time to get to the next one…but I'm getting a better handle on things! EXCITING! Comment, favorite, and follow, please it really does help sooo much and I love hearing from you guys! Also, and don't make me regret this, I have a tweety account as well…The Masked Ermine newtja84….but A: I'm not the most active on twitter, and B: I am super not twitter savvy, but hey, throw me a follow or tweets and stuff…I guess. Could be fun, right?