Hey all! *Insert lame apology for not writing in forever here* Now that that's done, here is the next chapter! It is a nice catch-up with ALL of the characters. Oh, and sorry but these fight scenes got to be really cheesy writing them (but I don't think there's a way to write these kind of scenes without being cheesy). Anyway, I hope I kept it interesting for you all and that you enjoy it and continue to read it!

Chapter 15:

A cool wind blew against his face, brining him to his senses. It was cold outside and he shivered as he lay in the cold grass. A migraine was starting to form, especially because of the loud voices of those around him. As the shock of the situations faded away, he opened his eyes and attempted to push himself into a sitting position.

He heard one of the people surrounding him gasp and shout, "You're awake!"

He inwardly rolled his eyes, replying "How could I sleep through all that screaming?"

When he was almost in a sitting position, he felt arms push him back down to the ground. He saw that it was Joe, who looked like he had just had the weight of the world lifted off of his shoulders.

"You need your rest TK."

He allowed Joe to push him back down to the ground. He did raise his head and look around him though. The friends surrounding him right now were safe and looked ok, albeit tired; he saw Cody, Yolei, Ken, and Joe. That means nine of his friends were somewhere in the Digital World, including his brother. A million questions formed in his head when…

"The boy's right, child of Hope. Too bad you won't be able to get any by the time I'm done with you all."

He paled; it was Daemon.

"Daemon…" Ken muttered seriously. Of course Ken remembered the dark spores that were still inside of him and how Daemon was after them.

"Ah, Ken. You've grown up so much, all of you have; too bad I have grown up more."

"What do you want, you creep!?" Yolei yelled.

"Tut-tut my dear lady. This is no way to talk to the mon who is about to kill you."

"You're not hurting anyone Daemon," Cody threatened.

The evil digimon simply laughed. "I don't believe that's a position for you to have little boy, show some respect."

"I only show respect to those worthy of it," Cody fired back.

"Intimidating, but I've had enough of this small talk," Daemon said.

This time Joe spoke up, leaving his position next to TK. "I agree; let's pummel this guy. Come on Gomamon!"

The darkness surrounding them was penetrated as the digivolution lights emanating from the four digimon shone. Once TK figured Joe was distracted, he sat back up and looked around him. Daemon was floating in the air facing four ultimate digimon: CannonBeemon, Brachiomon, Deramon, and Zudomon. The evil digimon didn't even look phased and TK knew why; they didn't have any chance at all.

"Let it begin."

Fighting immediately ensued as the four ultimate digimon launched attack after attack at the evil archangel. In no time, chaos had begun.

"TK!"

A puffball jumped into his lap as he was observing the fight. He looked down and was relieved to see his partner unharmed.

"I was so worried about you," he muttered as he held the digimon close to his chest. He could feel his bare chest getting wet as Tokomon cried into it muttering his apologies for not being there to protect him and such. He raised his arms and lifted the digimon to his eye level and stated, "Tokomon, I'm fine; you don't have to be sorry. You've risked your life so many times for me, think of it as me trying to get even, which I will never be able to do. I love you bud, and I would do it over again and again."

More tears fell from his partner's face and he nuzzled his partner affectionately.

As he sat there, he could feel something happening to his back, which surprisingly wasn't hurting him that much. Tokomon sensed it too and jumped behind him to get a look at the injury. Tokomon gasped.

"TK, the wounds completely healed. You're going to have a bad scar, but it's all better."

Relief flushed through him and he muttered his gratitude to Fida and Gilda, not sure if they could actually hear him.

"No, Poromon!"

He had completely forgot about the ongoing fight. He quickly looked up and saw pure chaos. Fire was everywhere, burning the dry grass and threatening to reach the forest. The flames did break the darkness and he could see everyone clearly, but none of them were in good shape. Yolei was kneeling next to an unconscious Poromon, Cody was running to a falling Upamon, Joe was holding Bukamon in his arms checking up on him, and CannonBeemon was situated in between Ken and Daemon.

"Just let me take the boy and I'll let you and your friends go."

"Never!" CannonBeemon buzzed.

"I'll go."

Everyone turned to look at Ken as he moved around CannonBeemon and approached Daemon.

"Ken, what do you think you're doing?"

Daemon just laughed, "I knew you would come with me, Ken."

CannonBeemon was in a predicament; does he attack Daemon and risk Ken getting injured, or does he let his partner willingly go with this digimon, who definitely would not shed any mercy on the boy.

The others were shouting out arguments and telling him not to go, but Ken kept walking.

"What do you want with me?" he asked.

"Turn around boy," Daemon ordered as Ken was approaching.

"What?"

"Turn around now or I'll burn your digimon to ashes."

Ken quickly obliged and Daemon started walking to him slowly. CannonBeemon growled, "Don't you dare lay a hand on him."

"I will do with him whatever I want."

CannonBeemon dove for Daemon in attempt to tackle the digimon away from his partner. Daemon was expecting such a reaction and grabbed the digimon by its mechanoid stinger and swung it around violently. It then launched the digimon into a nearby tree and called out "Hell Fire!" Hot red flames shot directly at CannonBeemon and scored a direct hit. When the flames diminished they revealed a scorched Minomon.

"No, Minomon!" Ken called out trying to reach his partner, but Daemon moved in front of the boy's advances.

"Turn around."

"No, I won't do anything you say!"

Daemon then picked up the little in-training digimon and placed him in between two of the pincers on his claw, threatening to stab through the digimon.

"Turn around."

"Put him down! I'll do it, I'll do whatever you want, just please don't hurt him!"

Daemon laughed and threw the digimon in Yolei's direction. She surprisingly was able to catch the flying digimon despite already holding Poromon. Ken sighed in relief but then turned towards Daemon.

"Well…?" Daemon asked.

"Fine."

Ken turned around and Daemon walked closer to the boy.

"Don't you touch him you creep!"

"Again with the 'creep'? Can't you think of another word than that?"

"Get away from Ken now!" Cody spoke up.

Daemon didn't pay Cody any attention and reached his clawed hand out so that it was almost touching the back of Ken's neck. Ken was shaking but from fear or exhaustion he was not sure. But then Ken was on the ground screaming in pain as a black light left Daemon's palm and entered Ken's neck. Within seconds there were three small black orbs flying out of Ken's neck, which entered into Daemon's hand.

It was now Daemon's turn to cry out in pain as a dark light encompassed the evil digimon. Daemon began to grow in size, ripping the cloak he was wearing. Pieces of red cloth fell to the ground as Daemon's true form was revealed.

Gasps of horror could be heard from the others. Daemon still had his clawed hands and feet, but his bony body was showing. A dark reddish fur covered the digimon's arms and thighs, and a pentagram was etched in on the digimon's left shoulder. He had a purple body and face with wicked fangs and empty eyes that showed no sign of emotion. Black pulses of energy ran up and down the digimon as he continued to grow in size.

Daemon didn't stop crying out in pain; in fact, it seemed to intensify. He had stopped growing now, but the energy emanating from the digimon seemed to be too much for it to handle. His clawed hands were on his head and he was dizzily trying to keep his balance before jumping up and flying away. The digimon's flight pattern was unstable, but he continued to fly away from the group of injured digimon and digidestineds. It didn't take long before Daemon escaped into the darkness.

By now TK was on his feet and looking at the spot where Daemon had vanished. Clearly the evil digimon wasn't expecting for the dark spores to have that much power, as he couldn't even control himself. He wished that the power was too much for the digimon and he would die, but he knew that would not be the case. No, Daemon would be back, and he would be stronger than before. They needed to figure out how to use their crests and fast.

He then looked around at his friends who weren't too beat up, save for Ken. Yolei was already kneeling beside the boy with both of their partners in his arms. Cody was also walking over to see how Ken was doing, but only after taking a glimpse at TK to see if he was ok first. Joe was walking over to him, an injured, but recovering Bukamon.

"TK," he said tiredly, "you shouldn't be up on your feet yet."

"I'm fine Joe, see?" He turned around and let Joe look at where the wound had healed itself.

"Impossible," the doctor muttered before shaking his head, "But then again this is the Digital World."

"We should check on Ken," he suggested as turned to face his blue-haired friend. Joe nodded in agreement.

They walked over and saw that Ken was sitting up, Yolei wrapping her arms around him in support. Ken looked paler than a ghost, but other than that he was ok; he wasn't bleeding anywhere at least.

"He… he…" Ken tried to speak, but he couldn't.

"Don't talk Kennie, you need your rest."

TK noted the awkwardness of Yolei calling Ken 'Kennie' but he disregarded it quickly.

"Is he ok?" he asked to no one in particular.

Cody turned to face him and looked him up and down. "I think he'll be fine. I think he's just shaken up more than anything. What about you?"

He nodded. "I'm fine."

"He… he's going…"

"What is it Ken?" Joe asked.

"We're not… strong…"

Ken shook his head and tears started falling from his face. They all got the gist of what Ken was trying to see; they were not strong enough, even with all of their friends. Daemon was going to be unbeatable if he learned how to control the power the dark spores gave him.

"We have to find the others," Joe announced. The others agreed, but no one was eager to move. Everyone, especially the digimon, was tired and not in the greatest of moods.

A bright gold light shining in the distance caught their attention and once it dimmed they looked to see another fire forming about four hundred yards away. It was hard to tell, but it looked like there was another fight going on.

"That must be Michael and Willis," Cody stated. He was not sure why Michael and Willis would be off on their own, but, again, he disregarded it. Now was not the time to be asking questions, especially if their friends needed help.

"Ken, do you think you can walk?" TK asked the injured boy.

Ken nodded and Yolei and Joe helped him to his feet. He stood there for a while as he tried to regain himself, and then he took a small step with his hands on his friends' shoulders. He was walking gingerly, but he was making progress.

"Alright, let's go see what's going on over there."

"Burning Cyclone!"

Willis tackled him to the ground as the digimon, Reapermon, started spinning around quickly while emitting flames, forming a tornado of fire that was launched at MegaSeadramon, Rapidmon, and Antylamon.

"Arm Bomber!"

Antylamon stepped in front of the other digimon and took the main blow of the attack. The flames bounced off Antylamon's body, though, as the digimon's body hardened. Once the flames had been diverted and diminished, Antylamon, who had brought her arms and legs together to form a sort of ball, then released all of the energy she stored up. A purple pulse of energy rippled from Antylamon's body violently. Reapermon had been hit by the attack, but, unfortunately, MegaSeadramon and Rapidmon had also been hit by the attack.

He glared at Willis who was starting to get up to his feet. "What do you think the big idea is Willis? Your digimon is doing more damage to our digimon than Reapermon!"

"Why don't you mind your own business Michael. If you wouldn't have run off in the first place we wouldn't be in this mess."

"I never asked you to come after me," he fired back as they both stood up, not taking their eyes off of each other.

"And I was just supposed to let you walk up to Daemon and get you and MegaSeadramon killed?"

"We would have been fine on our own!"

Rapidmon then whizzed right past them and landed on the ground hard. Then Antylamon suffered the same fate. MegaSeadramon, though, was entangled in a chain Reapermon had shot out with his claw.

"Judgement Sickle!"

Reapermon drew back his scythed hand and then thrust it forward. He watched in despair as everything seemed to go in slow motion as the blade inched closer and closer to his helpless partner.

"MEGASEADRAMON!" He closed his eyes, not wanting to see what was about to happen. What the hell had he got them into. Willis was right; he was crazy for going to face Daemon on his own. He had no chance of surviving that encounter; heck, he, Willis, and their digimon would be lucky to escape this encounter alive, and Reapermon was just one of Daemon's servants.

And why had he left on his own? To impress Mimi? To prove his worth to the other digidestineds? He realized now that Mimi, despite leading him on a little bit, would not choose him because she had chosen Izzy. There was nothing he could do to change that. And there were many other ways to earn the other digidestineds' respect, and this was definitely not one of them. He had made a mistake, one that was irreversible…

"Stop this, NOW!"

He quickly opened his eyes and saw Willis running towards Reapermon. Reapermon, surprised by the sudden outburst, stopped his attack with his scythe inches away from MegaSeadramon.

"Willis, don't!" Rapidmon and Anytlamon tried calling out as they sat up and tried to get to their partner.

"Willis?" he called out. Willis didn't even give him a second look. Had his broken friendship with his best friend been broken and irreversible as well?

"You listen here you pathetic excuse of a grim reaper," Willis demanded. Michael watched in awe as Willis continued screaming at the digimon. Everything was silent except for the flames crackling as they burnt the dry grass around them.

"What are you doing boy? Shouldn't you be ripping off your accomplice's head off by now?" Reapermon asked, menace still in his voice but there was also a hint of confusion as well.

"I'm stopping you right now from hurting anyone else."

"Oh, explain to me what I have done. You two basically did all the fighting yourself. If I hadn't showed up your friend would probably have killed you by now."

"Leave him out of this! Michael is my friend despite our differences."

Michael let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding in and a smile came to his face.

"Friends don't fight each other," Reapermon replied simply, showing his crude enjoyment of the current situation.

"Hell yeah they do; that's how friendships are strengthened. We work through our differences and form unbreakable bonds by the end of it. What about you? What friends do you have?"

"I have no need for friends boy; your words have no effect on me."

"And that's why you are going to lose this battle."

Repaermon laughed. "Oh please, I have already won this battle. You and the other digidestineds are not capable of defeating me, Daemon, or Daemon's other loyal servants; you have never had a chance of winning."

"That's where you're wrong. I may be a digidestined, but I write my own destiny. And we are going to win, no matter how long it takes or how much we get hurt, because you and Daemon were destined to lose. That's why our group will continue to survive, why we always will come up with miracles."

At this Willis's digivice emanated two golden beams of light that flew right past him hitting both Antylamon and Rapidmon. Everyone looked at the spectacle as Rapidmon and Antylamon started glowing and changing forms.

"MegaGargomon!"

"Cherubimon!"

The twin digimon announced their new forms as a huge, green mechanoid digimon and a pink and white angelic digimon stood before them.

"Holy shit! I can't believe that actually worked!" Willis shouted out as he whooped and hollered at his new partners' forms. Reapermon released MegaSeadramon and started to back away slowly.

"Whoa, whoa now, I didn't sign up for this."

"I believe it's too late for that," MegaGargomon exclaimed.

"He's right. Prepare to be digitized, Reapermon."

MegaSeadramon grabbed Willis with his tail and slithered towards him as his partner carried Willis out of the line of attack. Once the coast was clear, two shouts resonated around the surroundings.

"Lightning Spear!"

"MegaBarrage!"

Cherubimon formed a long thunderbolt in its hand and thrust it forward as MegaGargomon fired all of the firearms on its body. The two attacks combined with the various missiles rotating around the thunderbolt. Reapermon didn't have any chance as the attacks made a direct hit.

An explosion went off as a result of the attacks. He had to cover his ears just to prevent himself from becoming deaf. When the attack had cleared up there was no trace of Reapermon. MegaGargomon and Cherubimon then started glowing again and changed into their in-training forms. Willis ran for his partners and caught them in his arms as they fell from the ground.

"Gummymon! Kokomon!"

He watched as the twin digimon looked up at their partner smiling as Willis complemented them on how amazing they're new forms were.

He turned to his side to see MegaSeadramon dedigivolve to Betamon.

"Betamon," he asked, not accusingly though "Why didn't you stop me from making a fool of myself?"

"Because I will always stick with you Michael. You're not just my partner, but my friend as well, and I will be there for you no matter what."

He then crouched down giving his partner a hug. "I promise I'll never make this mistake again."

"Are you sure about that?"

He looked up to see Willis standing in front of him. He stood to his feet and started muttering all of the apologies he could think of.

Willis put a finger up signaling for him to stop, and he did so.

"Michael, I'm sorry about fighting you earlier. I'm also your friend, and I shouldn't have fought you like that."

Michael was going to counter with his own apologies and say Willis didn't have to, but instead he gave his friend a tight hug.

"Thank you Willis."

They stayed that way for a while before,

"Uh, do we need to give you two some alone time?"

They both looked to see where the voice came from and saw Joe, Cody, Ken, Yolei, and TK walking up to them.

"What happened here?" Cody asked.

"Are you guys ok?" Yolei inquired.

They both explained what had happened. He could hear the joy in Willis's voice as he explained how he learned his crests and his partners digivolved. He was happy for him, he truly was, but he still felt this sense of sadness inside of him. Who was he? What had he done? He didn't know the person who did what he did. Was that really him? He definitely not himself lately. And this being true isn't going to help him learn his own crest or help them defeat Daemon.

"Um... Michael?"

He had just realized he had spaced out and looked down at Betamon.

"Hmm?"

"We're going with the others right?"

"Huh? Yeah..."

"Then we should catch up with them."

"Hey Michael! Are you coming!?" he hears Willis call back to him, as the others were already making their way towards the forest.

"Yeah, I'm coming!"

He and Betamon run to catch up with the group. As he ran he couldn't help but wonder what joy actually meant. It didn't seem like he felt joy in the longest time, and that wasn't going to help him, especially since their inevitable fight with the even more powerful Daemon was coming up, and he had a bad feeling it was going to be sooner then they wanted.

This wasn't good. He and Agumon had been walking for what seemed like forever before they finally fount Matt and Gabumon on the ground. They were about to run up to the pair before that stupid bug came between them. Agumon had digivolved to WarGreymon, but he hadn't been able to stop GranKuwagamon. Now the bug digimon was on top of WarGreymon, pinning WarGreymon down with his X-Scissors. WarGreymon tried to get out from under GranKuwagamon, but the bug was too strong.

"Nice going GranKuwagamon, now it's time to finish off these newcomers as well."

He instantly looked up at the new voice to see a cyborg digimon with white angel wings and a dark blue and yellow armor covering its body. Despite it being smaller, he still knew that this digimon was a formidable foe.

But what had the digimon said about 'newcomers?' He looked around and saw Sora, Izzy, Mimi, Kari, Davis, and their partners watching the battle between GranKuwagamon and WarGreymon.

"Dark Roar!"

"Get out of there you guys!" he yells as Darkdramon as he started glowing with dark energy. They ran out of the way just as Darkdramon released its attack, completely obliterating everything in its path.

"Hey! Watch where you're aiming! You almost hit us!" Mimi yelled as she and the others got back up to their feet.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, miss. How about I try again? Dark Roar..."

"Not this time buster. Veemon, let's go!"

Veemon glowed with the familiar digivolution light as he changed forms first to Ex-Veemon and then to AeroVeedramon. He had to admit, AeroVeedramon was a pretty impressive digimon, but he was only an Ultimate; they were going to need a lot more fire power than that.

"We're with you Davis!" Kari yelled as she and the others' partners digivolved to their Ultimate levels as well. It wasn't long before two epic battles ensued: Lillymon, AeroVeedramon, and Angewomon vs. Darkdramon and MegaKabuterimon, his partner WarGreymon, and Garudamon vs. GranKuwagamon.

There was complete chaos as the two sides fought for the upper hand. While the digimon were busy, he decided to run over to Matt to see if his best friend was ok.

"Tai!" he heard Sora and Kari call out. He didn't turn, but the two girls did make it over to him and Matt. He felt Sora wrap her arms around him, but he didn't return the embrace. Right now he was worried about Matt and Gabumon, who were out cold at the moment.

"Are they ok?" Kari asked.

He mentally slapped his sister in his face; don't get him wrong, he loves his sister and all, but that was the most dumbass question he's heard in his life.

Luckily Sora checked Matt's pulse and spoke up before he could reply. "He's still got a pulse and he's breathing fine; I think he's just tired."

He felt himself relax; he had made it in time. His best friend and Gabumon were going to be alright. Well, that is if they can get out of here alive...

"Tai!"

He looks and sees Izzy and Mimi running over to him.

"What is it Izzy?" he asks, regaining his senses as his worry for Matt is cleared out of his system.

"We need to retreat and come up with another plan of action. Our digimon don't stand a chance against these two mega level digimon."

He looked at the battle and saw that Izzy was right. WarGreymon was already beat up bad to begin with, but now the other Ultimates didn't look any better off. That is to say Darkdramon and GranKuwagamon had nothing but minor scratches.

"We can't retreat like a bunch of cowards!" They look to see Davis running up to them, giving up his attempts of being AeroVeedramon's cheerleader.

"Davis, don't be so thick headed!" Sora counters.

"I don't like retreating Davis, but I think it's our best option," Kari speaks up, trying to comfort her boyfriend while attempting to reason with him.

"I think Sora and Kari are right on this one Davis," Mimi adds.

Davis just shakes his head. "I'm not going to give up. I will not retreat!"

Davis then returns as close to the battlefield as he can, screaming his support for AeroVeedramon, who was struggling to get up after being knocked down by Darkdramon.

"Davis get back here!" Kari yells.

Sora joins in, "Davis! You're going to get yourself hurt!"

Izzy also, "This is highly illogical Davis!"

What's going on? His friends are in a complete panic. Their digimon are fighting a losing battle. Everything's chaos. There's not a chance that they're getting out of here alive, retreat or not retreat.

"Terrible Gaze!"

They see Darkdramon shoot lasers out of his eyes as he tries striking the other digimon. As the digimon dodge the attacks they leave the beams of energy to fly straight at Davis. A few of the others start screaming in panic, but he doesn't. His body is already reacting as he finds himself sprinting for Davis. He's almost there. Five more steps. Three more. The beams, they're going to get to him. Why isn't Davis moving? Only one more step now...

He launches himself at the goggle-head just in time. He tackles Davis to the ground and can feel Darkdramon's attack just barely graze the back of his shirt. He wasn't in pain though, and he pushes himself off of Davis, grateful that they're both ok.

"Th... thanks Tai."

He was about to get mad at Davis and yell at him for being such an imbecile. Davis should never have been out in the middle of the battlefield anyways. He was a moron...

But he didn't yell at Davis. Instead he smiled and reached a hand to Davis who gratefully grabbed it and was pulled up to his feet. He realized now what needed to be done.

His friends needed a leader, they always have, even since their first adventure to the Digital World. It wasn't that they were incompetent without him; it was just that none of them wanted the role that being a leader requires. Each of them had a role in this team that is the digidestineds, and no one was more important than the other. He simply was chosen to be the leader, and the group acknowledged and accepted that fact. But because of this, they relied on him to come through for them. When they were in tough times they needed their leader to step on; they needed to trust that he would always be able to make the best decision for the team, and they would trust and follow him. That was his role on this team, and right now his friends need him more than ever.

"You can count on me Davis."

He felt his chest heat up as his new crest started glowing and shaking. A beam of light shot from the crest right at WarGreymon who instantly started changing forms. It was only once the digivolution was complete that the light faded away and his crest stopped shaking.

His partner looked kind of the same. He had the same armor for the most part and it was the same color. What was different, though, was the huge sword he held that was rested on his shoulder. His top portion of his body also seemed to resemble the letter V.

He couldn't wipe the silly grin off of his face as he awed at his partner. VictoryGreymon, he didn't know how but he knew his partner's new form for some reason, seemed to emanate power.

"Now things are getting interesting," Darkdramon comments.

"Get him VictoryGreymon!" I order. There's no way we're retreating now.

We all watched with open mouths as WarGreymon's new digivolved form started fighting. The digimon, VictoryGreymon if he heard Tai correctly, seemed to be one-hundred percent ready for a fight. VictoryGreymon got in a battle stance and then leaped towards Darkdramon.

"Victory Charge!"

Darkdramon was able to dodge but only barely. Apparently Darkdramon wasn't expecting such speed from VictoryGreymon. The digimon laughed.

"Not too bad, but you have seemed to forgotten that there's two of us."

"Dimension Scissors!"

VictoryGreymon didn't have a chance at dodging the attack; GranKuwagamon was just too fast.

"Victory Shield."

He didn't know how, but luckily VictoryGreymon was able to pull out a shield that took the blunt force of the attack. GranKuwagamon was strong though, and VictoryGreymon was pushed back as GranKuwagamon continued to slice and dice.

"Dark Roar!"

Darkdramon let out dark energy from his mouth that shot directly at VictoryGreymon. VictoryGreymon had no choice but to take the attack directly. He grunted in pain as he flew back into a nearby tree. This wasn't good; VictoryGreymon didn't stand a chance.

Tai ran to his partner checking to see if he was ok. In the mean time, GranKuwagamon had flown over and was about to take a slash at Tai.

"TAI!" he called out. VictoryGreymon realized what was going on and pushed Tai out of the way. Unfortunately for VictoryGreymon he was pinned down by GranKuwagamon's pincer. The other digimon tried to get to VictoryGreymon and help their friend out, but Darkdramon cut them off and started attacking. This wasn't looking good at all.

He still couldn't help but marvel at the care Tai had for his partner. Sure, he's seen this type of bond between the others' and their digimon partners, but Tai had risked his life just to simply make sure his friend was ok. He had almost gotten himself killed for his partner.

He didn't understand it. He loved his partner, sure, and he loved his friends as well... but would he risk himself like that? Usually he was never put into those situations as he was not necessarily known as the strongest of the digidestineds. But he still had his role on the team, and he knew that his friends would do anything to make sure he was safe, especially Tentomon. But could he stand up for his friends?

What was he thinking? Of course he would stand up for his friends. He had known Tai and the others for many years now and they still remained close friends. He didn't understand why anyone would want to be his friend for any reason other than they had to because he was sent to the Digital World with them. But they remained his friends even when they were back to their somewhat normal lives in the real world. They didn't have to be his friends, but they did. It's about time to return that favor.

"MegaKabuterimon! DIGIVOLVE!"

A blue beam of light shot out from his chest and sailed through the atmosphere towards MegaKabuterimon. His partner then glowed the familiar digivolution light and started changing forms. MegaKabuterimon grew in size and his exoskeleton changed from being a red color to gold. His partner still looked like whatever sort of genotype of an insect that Kabuterimon was, but he looked, well, awesome.

"HerculesKabuterimon," he muttered. He didn't know how he knew his partner's new form, but he didn't think about the irrationality of the thought.

"Prodigious!"

HerculesKabuterimon took that as him giving his partner the signal to start attacking.

"Giga Scissor Claw!"

His digimon moved at what seemed like a speed as fast as the speed of light. Darkdramon was barely able to react in time to dodge. This hesitation allowed HerculesKabuterimon to catch one of Darkdramon's white wings. As Darkdramon had attempted to fly out of the way, the wing ripped right off his back. Darkdramon let out a roar, but not one that sent dark energy everywhere, it was a roar of pain, intense pain.

Now that Darkdramon was out of the way, AeroVeedramon, Garudamon, and Lillymon flew over to GranKuwagamon. They sent out their respective attacks and, although they didn't cause much damage, they knocked GranKuwagamon off balance enough for VictoryGreymon to get out from underneath the evil insect's unforgiving grip.

"Dramon Breaker!"

VictoryGreymon wielded his sword around as if it were as light as a toothpick. After a blur of motion, VictoryGreymon dove for GranKuwagamon with his sword pointed straight at GranKuwagamon. The digimon didn't react in time and the sword pierced GranKuwagamon, whom instantly shattered into millions of pieces of data.

"Mega Electro Shocker!"

"Dark Roar!"

He then turned his attention to his partner's own battle and saw a spectacular sight. Darkdramon's attack had collided with HerculesKabuterimon's and both were in a fight of pure wills as none of them seemed to have the upper hand.

"Come on HerculesKabuterimon! You can do it!" he encouraged as he ran over to his partner, giving him his support. HerculesKabuterimon didn't acknowledge his cheers, but he readied himself and put as much power into his attack as he could. It didn't take long before HerculesKabuterimon's attack started overpowering Darkdramon's. Then the attack hit its target causing an explosion. He crouched down in order to avoid the explosion, but nothing ever happened. He opened his eyes and saw his partner shielding him while the other digimon protected their respective partners.

He heard Darkdramon give one last shout, "Noo!"

Once the explosion cleared, HerculesKabuterimon glowed white and minimized dramatically as he dedigivolved to Motimon. He instantly went over to his partner and picked him up.

"That was fun, but I'm hungry now! Do you have any food Izzy?"

He smiled and hugged his partner close.

"We'll find some right away Motimon. You earned it."

"KOROMON YOU WERE FUC*ING AWESOME!"

He laughed as Tai swung Koromon around in circles with a big grin on his face. It reminded him of the first time they had been to the Digital World and Agumon digivolved to Greymon for the first time.

"Tai," Sora said, attempting to scold her boyfriend for the vulgar language, but she didn't seem to mind as she couldn't hide her happiness.

"Why are you guys so loud?"

They turn to see Matt sitting up with his hands on his head. Gabumon had dedigivolved to Tsunomon at some point, but the digimon was awake and didn't seem hurt in any way.

"Matt!" Tai called out as he stopped his spinning and ran over to his friend. "I'm so glad you're ok!"

"Hey everyone!"

They turned once again at this new voice to see Joe walking up to them with TK, Michael, Willis, Cody, Yolei, and Ken following closely behind. Willis's digimon were in their in-training forms and Ken looked as white as a ghost, but other than that they all were fine and walking on their own. Including TK!

"Matt!" said blonde called out, running to his brother. He didn't hesitate to give a tight hug to Matt. The others smiled at the embrace and at the simple relief that everyone was ok and they were finally together. Even he smiled as goofy as Davis; he couldn't help himself. There was something different now then just a couple days ago. What was once a testy group that seemed to be on their toes with one another now seemed as tightly knit as ever before. Maybe they did have a shot against Daemon.