Author's Note: Well, here we have chapter two. This chapter wraps up the introduction to this story and sets the stage for the real plot. Not that this chapter and the previous one aren't important- they exist for reasons other than just showing off what the Legendary Warriors can do.
Disclaimer: I still don't own Digimon. Otherwise, Digimon Adventure Tri would have come out a while ago.
While the Shinjuku District was in chaos, two dark figures were currently standing on the rooftops of the neighboring Minato district, staring across the bay towards the island of Odaiba. One of the figures appeared to be a demonic cowboy, which did not seem to fit with his companion, who was a four-winged angel wielding a staff and a sword. However, when the apparently female angel spoke with an evil, masculine voice, it was clear she was not exactly what she seemed.
"So, AvengeKidmon, would you care to tell me why you decided to expend most of our army in Shinjuku while our targets are in Odaiba? You know Lord Lucemon wants the Legendary Warriors unharmed until he can deal with them personally, yet they are the only ones involved in the battle at the moment."
AvengeKidmon sneered as he polished one of his gauntlets. "Why should I listen to a little shit like you who can't even stay in his own form? You have your way of doing your job, and I have my way of doing mine. Still, I would have thought an espionage expert like yourself would appreciate a plan that relies on a bit of subtlety and misdirection. Let Lucemon's mindless flunkies be a distraction to the Legendary Warriors, who we can't harm anyway. Then, we just pick off the reinforcements as they arrive. Besides, I think this way is a bit more fun, both for myself and my recruits."
The other Digimon, who must have been only disguised as a Darcmon, let out a derisive snort, but otherwise didn't respond. He had already argued against AvengeKidmon's recruits to Lucemon himself, but the Demon Lord of Pride didn't seem to mind recruiting underlings who only fought for kicks instead of a sense of loyalty. Still, it wasn't like there were a lot of recruits following AvengeKidmon instead of Lucemon, as he had only brought a Kinkakumon, a Ginkakumon, a Musyamon, and a WaruSeadramon. The two Oni Digimon had stayed behind with the majority of the army in Shinjuku, but Musyamon was busy wandering the streets searching for a worthy opponent and WaruSeadramon was in the process of sinking a cruise ship out in the bay.
As soon as the ship started sinking, AvengeKidmon let out a smile. "See, I told you this approach would work. We get three Legendary Warriors in Shinjuku and two others stuck guarding that traitorous bitch in the mountains, which means we have a high chance of our targets coming to provide backup. And it looks like we have our first victim down by that ship."
Glancing towards the sinking ship, the disguised Darcmon saw WaruSeadramon quickly swimming further out into the bay, while a set of white tentacles was holding the ship up and preventing it from sinking further. As the ship was carried to shore, its savior was identified as a Gesomon, which proved the DigiDestined of Reliability had been one busy brat since the last time Lucemon's spy had checked in on him.
Sure enough, standing on the deck of the now rescued cruise ship was one Joe Kido, who was sighing in relief. Of course the one weekend he heads home to Odaiba from his school in Shinjuku would be the weekend an attack happened in that district. He was lucky he turned on the news when he did, because he would have never heard about the attack otherwise. For all their experience saving the world, the DigiDestined and the Legendary Warriors had made one obvious mistake: the assumed the other group could easily communicate with them, when the D-Tectors and the D-Terminals operated on a completely different frequency. Since cell phones weren't reliable in the midst of battle, they'd have to fix that error as soon as they had their next meeting.
Still, the late start may have been a blessing in disguise. If Joe had gotten an earlier start, he wouldn't have seen WaruSeadramon attack the cruise ship, and Gesomon wouldn't have been here to stop it from sinking. Gomamon's Dark Digivolution line wasn't as good in battle as his normal Digivolution line, but here was one situation where it certainly proved its usefulness.
Gesomon seemed to be on the same wavelength as his partner, since as soon as he set the ship down he started laying out a plan of attack. "Joe, we should Dark Digivolve again. We need to catch up to WaruSeadramon, and MarineDevimon is by far my fastest form. Of course, I probably won't be able to beat him in that form, but we could always use the excuse to practice."
"Do we have to do that? Wouldn't it be better just to use Plesiomon?" Still, Joe's objection fell on deaf ears. "Please, he's just an Ultimate. I seem to remember having an easy time as Zudomon against MegaSeadramon, so going to Plesiomon for a WaruSeadramon would just be overkill. Not that this won't be overkill either, but at least this way we can be ready in case anybody else pulls a Gulfmon on us."
Joe knew he wouldn't be able to dissuade his partner, so he let out another sigh, this time in defeat. "Fine, but you have to promise to hurry up when you fight him. You won't be able to carry me, and I don't want to spend longer than I have to treading water while listening to you when you think you've become British. It's bad enough that you switch to speaking English, but between your accent and your word choice I can only understand a third of what you say."
"Aw, come on, it's fun to talk like that! And it's part of my data- I can't help it!" Joe only rolled his eyes before activating his Crest of Reliability to Dark Digivolve Gesomon once again. As soon as MarineDevimon finished assuming his Ultimate form, he grabbed his partner and swam off after the retreating Aquatic Digimon. Since the sea serpent was seeking to cause more chaos, he wasn't swimming at full speed, allowing the sea devil to easily catch up. WaruSeadramon finally noticed the oncoming foe and used his Evil Icicle attack to drop a giant icicle on MarineDevimon, who only seemed to have time to push his partner to the side and not dodge the attack himself. Seeing his opponent driven under the water and a human apparently helpless, WaruSeadramon started channeling the powers of darkness in an attempt to use his ultimate move, the Darkstrom.
Unfortunately for WaruSeadramon, Joe and MarineDevimon had planned on launching a surprise attack from underwater. And far from being helpless, Joe was already activating his Crest of Reliability to Digivolve again. Before WaruSeadramon could even release his Darkstrom attack, a horribly thick Cockney accent called out, "Sod off, you wanker!"
Springing from the water, a pufferfish with a metal helmet and spiked knuckles slammed his fists into the startled sea serpent. Pukumon knew his Globefish Poison attack would easily destroy WaruSeadramon given enough time, but he knew Joe wanted him to hurry up, so he added his Needle Squall attack, launching all the spikes from his metal helmet and ending the battle.
If AvengeKidmon was in any way disappointed with WaruSeadramon's performance, he didn't show it. His companion was about to make a snide comment, when a loud fit of coughing down from the street drew his attention. In an unbelievable stroke of luck, the DigiDestined of Knowledge seemed to be walking towards Shinjuku accompanied only by his partner at the Rookie level. As an added bonus, the human was clearly fighting off some illness, with bags under his unfocused eyes and an unsteady walk. This was the perfect opportunity to eliminate a major thorn in Lucemon's side, but AvengeKidmon didn't seem particularly interested in capitalizing on it. He was busy polishing his other gauntlet. When the disguised Darcmon pointed out the clear opportunity to just shoot the human, AvengeKidmon merely pointed at the DigiDestined and rolled his eyes.
"Bang. There, I shot him. Is that what you want me to do? You stick to hiding in the shadows and disguising yourself. I like to have a little fun with the vermin before I exterminate them. So, let's let Musyamon have a crack at it first." With this AvengeKidmon snapped his fingers and caused a dark portal to appear in front of Izzy. Working for Lucemon certainly did have its privileges, as AvengeKidmon had greater access to the powers of darkness and could create portals like this to bring Musyamon right to Izzy's position. Musyamon seemed just as disoriented as Izzy was at his sudden arrival, but after a second he seemed to notice the new opponent.
"So, at last I meet one of the great DigiDestined. I joined this battle for the sole purpose of fighting one of the legendary heroes who defeated the Dark Masters. On my honor as a warrior, I must test my strength against you!"
Izzy thought he must be imagining this meeting and wasn't as recovered from his illness as he had thought when he snuck out of his house, but Tentomon seemed to be responding to this ridiculous new arrival. "Well, if you want an honorable fight, would you mind waiting until after this current crisis is resolved? Izzy and I really need to get to the front lines."
"You dare turn down a challenge? I thought a hero such as yourself would have more honor than that. If I must, I will attack your human until you reconsider." As he said this, he coated his sword in blue flames and assumed a fighting stance. Tentomon only responded by crackling with electricity. "You do realize I have access to the Mega level and could destroy you in seconds, correct? Just something you might want to consider before threatening my friend. Still, if it appeals to your warped sense of honor, I'll beat you without going beyond your level."
As he said this, he started glowing with the light of Digivolution, but it was purple instead of the usual white. Izzy hadn't exactly been trying to use a Dark Digivolution, but at this point all of their partners could pretty much go to the Champion level at will. It did make it easier when the humans weren't running at a hundred percent, and Tentomon must have been angry enough to go straight to his Dark form. The months of fighting Lucemon without any appreciable headway had been emotionally stressful for all the fighters involved, meaning everybody was running on shorter fuses than normal.
Even with his feverish mind telling him things he already knew, Izzy managed to narrate all this in his head before Tentomon finished Digivolving into his BladeKuwagamon form. Perhaps Tentomon had chosen this form on purpose- Musyamon wanted what he viewed as an honorable battle, so Tentomon was giving him a straight-up sword fight. Well, as straight-up of a fight as can be expected when one combatant has a flaming sword and the other one is actually an insect whose mechanized body is basically a sword. Not wasting any time introducing himself or calling his attack, BladeKuwagamon flew forward with his Spark Blade attack, becoming a blade of light that flew towards Musyamon. The Demon Man Digimon tried to counter with his Ninja Blade, but BladeKuwagamon proved stronger and got a few good slashes in.
Musyamon jumped back and started preparing his Shogun Sword attack, already trying to bring the fight to a distance since he was outmatched in close quarters. However, as soon as the blue flames of Musyamon's sword formed into a dragon, they were slashed apart. BladeKuwagamon seemed to be slashing nothing, but Izzy knew this was his Air Knife attack. Much like a master swordsman in a video game, BladeKuwagamon was capable of slicing the air itself and sending a blade of wind flying towards his foe.
AvengeKidmon sighed as Musyamon got effortlessly thrashed by a silent BladeKuwagamon. At the start, this seemed like it could be an entertaining fight, with Musyamon's insistence on following his own code of honor that did not mesh at all with Tentomon's view. And then it turned into a fight between a samurai and a living sword. Still, apparently that whole adage about viewing a sword as an extension of your body if you wanted to be a good swordsman had some merit, as the warrior using a sword was getting utterly thrashed by the one who actually was a sword. It was just pitiful to watch, but AvengeKidmon was willing to give Musyamon another chance. Of course, it would come at the cost of Musyamon's free will, but you don't get to work for someone like Lucemon if you let little things like that get in the way of doing your job.
Extending his hand toward Musyamon, AvengeKidmon began channeling the power Lucemon gave him into the Demon Man. Almost immediately, Musyamon began to scream and was overcome with a dark glow. Soon enough, his form shifted to a large warrior with four arms and three faces. Perhaps the Ultimate level Asuramon would be able to put up a better fight against whatever BladeKuwagamon's next form would be than Musyamon had against the Machine Digimon.
Sure enough, BladeKuwagamon was quickly put on the defensive as Asuramon launched his Asura Bakunenken attack, shooting flames from all four of its arms at the mechanical insect and causing a huge explosion. Izzy knew his partner would need a little more power for this fight, so he started focusing on activating his Crest. It took longer than usual to activate since his mind was still a little fuzzy, but BladeKuwagamon managed to dodge around Asuramon's ranged attacks long enough to begin Digivolving. Asuramon paused briefly before rushing in with his Asura Shinken attack, hoping to obliterate his opponent with a flurry of flaming punches. However, the slight pause proved to be his undoing, as it gave just enough time for BladeKuwagamon to finish Digivolving and catch Asuramon's charge. AvengeKidmon couldn't help but feel a little impressed. It wasn't too often you saw a MetallifeKuwagamon in the Digital World, and this brat had managed to unlock the form.
The humanoid insect wearing golden armor quickly threw Asuramon back using his grappling skills, and then dashed forwards while emitting a beam of energy from his hand shaped like a sword. Using the Emit Blade attack, he stabbed Asuramon through the chest. As Asuramon burst into data, however, MetallifeKuwagamon quickly turned and fired his Homing Laser attack at a nearby rooftop. AvengeKidmon was surprised his position had been discovered, but he supposed it was time for him to get involved personally.
Calling up another dark corridor, AvengeKidmon disappeared right before the attack could reach him and reappeared right in front of MetallifeKuwagamon firing off his Destruction Trigger attack. The Insect Digimon was sent flying backwards, but AvengeKidmon noticed his opponent's armor had saved him from a debilitating blow. To top it all off, MetallifeKuwagamon's previous Homing Blast attack had changed its course and was heading right back at AvengeKidmon. The Dragon Man Digimon sneered. Apparently, the rumors about MetallifeKuwagamon being one of the best Ultimates in terms of balance between offense, defense, speed, and accuracy were all true. However, AvengeKidmon's sneer soon turned into a smirk. After all, against someone with his abilities, it didn't really matter how good MetallifeKuwagamon was.
Right before the Homing Blast could connect again, AvengeKidmon disappeared into another dark corridor. Instead of doing a one-time teleportation, however, he repeatedly warped around MetallifeKuwagamon, firing off a ball of energy from seemingly every angle at once. The Insect Digimon was helpless against the Misery Bullet Rain attack, and quickly reverted back to Motimon. AvengeKidmon stopped his attack and calmly walked up to the unconscious In-Training Digimon. "Don't take it personally, kid. You just happened to get in my way, and killing things is just what I do. You were pretty good, but against someone with the powers of darkness like me you'll always be second best."
However, this gloating proved to be premature, as before AvengeKidmon could charge up another shot he was sent flying by a red blast of energy. A commanding voice called out, "You know, it's almost funny. I was about to say the same thing to you. You may think you've mastered the powers of darkness, but as Rhihimon I'm channeling the powers of AncientSphinxmon. You've misused the power of darkness to spread destruction, and now the darkness calls for you!"
If AvengeKidmon was impressed with Rhihimon's speech, he didn't show it. Calmly standing up and dusting himself off, he turned to the Legendary Warrior of Darkness. "Well, you've certainly gotten preachy. From what I've heard, you didn't do such a great job of controlling the powers of darkness yourself, boy. It's a pity Lucemon wants you alive, but he never said I couldn't rough you up a little bit. Hide behind that form all you want, you're still just going to be a scared little human."
As he said this, he launched into another Misery Bullet Rain attack. Koichi found himself put on the defensive, but he was faring better than MetallifeKuwagamon had. As the Warrior of Darkness, he could sense whenever AvengeKidmon opened a portal and where it would end up, meaning he wasn't taken by surprise by any of the attacks. However, AvengeKidmon was still jumping around to quickly to be struck with Rhihimon's Red Cross attack, forcing the lion-armored warrior to use his staff to deflect all incoming attacks.
When AvengeKidmon showed no signs of letting up his attack any time soon, Koichi knew he would have to adjust his strategy. It wouldn't be easy to pull off, but he had an attack that would end this fight. Only problem was, he'd have to take a few hits as he started it. Still, he couldn't afford to block attacks forever, so he'd just have to go with it. He called out "Black Theorem!" only to be struck by a few of AvengeKidmon's shots as he announced his attack. Still, the momentarily lapse came accompanied with a black aura, and once Koichi returned to blocking attacks he seemed to be faster and more powerful than before. Still, after 30 seconds of blocking attacks without doing anything else, it was looking like the attack hadn't really accomplished anything.
This was not lost on AvengeKidmon, who started throwing taunts along with his attacks while constantly teleporting around Koichi. "Oh, so this is the true power of Darkness you were going on about? Looks like it's just a slight powerup to me. I always thought it funny that a Digimon known as the 'Guardian Emperor of Darkness' never appeared outside of legends and rumors. Now I see the reason- you don't have any real power to speak of!" Koichi only let out a small chuckle. "Actually…"
An instant later, Izzy could only stare in shock as AvengeKidmon stopped appearing and Koichi calmly finished his sentence with "that attack just takes a while to charge before I can use it." He then undid his transformation and sagged downward as if exhausted, but he looked as though the fight was over. To Izzy, the fight seemed to end instantaneously, which was better than AvengeKidmon could say. By the time he returned to a Digi-Egg, he would only have vague memories of ever being on Earth in the first place, let alone fighting against the Legendary Warrior of Darkness. Indeed, because of the nature of the Black Theorem attack, only Koichi would ever know how the fight had ended so quickly.
The Black Theorem attack may have had a large charge time, but once it fired it was practically an instant win. It worked by essentially violating the laws of physics, allowing Koichi to move and attack with infinite speed. To Koichi, it was like he stopped time for everything else around him. Of course, this did have some drawbacks- light itself stopped, meaning he had to move his head into photons in order for them to interact with his eyes and see, but he could overcome that drawback by closing his eyes and using the powers of Darkness to sense his opponent. Then, it was a simple matter of repeatedly attacking the helpless opponent until he felt like stopping. If he so chose, he could utterly destroy even the tiniest fragment of data to completely erase an enemy, but he took pity on AvengeKidmon and scanned his Fractal Code to eventually release it back into the Digital World.
Unfortunately, an attack that powerful had other drawbacks. Koichi was too exhausted to even Spirit Evolve again, let alone Fusion Evolve. From his time practicing with that attack, he knew he'd be out of action until he got a good night's sleep at the very least. So, he was essentially out of this fight before he even got to the battle he had been planning on joining. Still, at least he had managed to save Izzy, and Joe should be able to take his place finishing the fight in Shinjuku.
The Legendary Warriors all gathered at the safe house after another long day of fighting. In the four months since they had regained their Spirits, they had seen all too much of this mountain scenery. In fact, the scene had gotten even more depressing recently with the changes in Lilithmon. While at their first meeting, she had been much less kind than she had been as Ophanimon, she at least had a sense of liveliness about her. Now, she always seemed exhausted, a condition she ascribed to 'spending months away from the Digital World and being bonded to the Code Key of Lust while surrounded by a bunch of hormonal teenagers'. Unfortunately, there was no end in sight for these conditions. With the current legal backlash against Digimon, there was no hope of moving Lilithmon somewhere else, forcing constant guard duty. To make matters worse, Lucemon seemed to entertain himself by randomly sending various weak monsters to Earth just to mess with them, meaning there were very few breaks between guarding Lilithmon and protecting Japan. The other DigiDestined did their best to help, but with the added legal pressure, they had to be very careful not to get caught with their Digimon outside of their homes. This meant the Legendary Warriors did the brunt of the work as they turned directly into Digimon and just had to make sure nobody saw them Spirit Evolve. Doing their best to still help, many of the DigiDestined had taken to spending even more time in the Digital World, trying to track down Lucemon and Daemon while simultaneously training themselves to master the new forms they had unlocked in the battle months ago.
If anything, working conditions for the DigiDestined were about to get worse, not better. Christmas was rapidly approaching, but even with the end of classes, the team found itself even shorter on free time. With TK about to go to college in the next year, both the Takaishi and Ishida families wanted to spend one last Christmastime together as a family while TK and Matt were still within a few hours of each other. So, TK and Matt would be flying with their mother the next day in order to spend the weekend with the Takaishi family in France, after which they would fly back in order to spend a few days celebrating with their father's side of the family. TK and Matt were reluctant to leave, but without any clear emergency they couldn't justify skipping out on the meeting. They would be able to go to the Digital World at any time in case of an emergency there, but when it came to anything attacking Japan they would be hard-pressed to make it back in time.
TK and Matt's impending departure only would make things worse for the already short-staffed DigiDestined. Izzy had been sidelined for a long time by a nasty case of the flu, and was only just now getting back to full strength. Tai and Kari had been forced to leave the country a few days ago when their uncle Fred suffered a stroke and had been hospitalized in San Francisco. Luckily, he was recovering nicely, but it would still be a few days before the Kamiya family would return to Japan. With Mimi still in America, the DigiDestined would only be operating at half strength for the next few days, meaning more long hours of waiting for the next attack for all those who were left.
It was exactly these conditions that found an exhausted Ken, Davis, Yolei, and Cody called into the Digital World to investigate a disturbance near the Koromon village on Server. Sora and Joe were forced to stay behind in order to allow Gomamon and Biyomon time to recover after a particularly taxing battle against a SkullMammothmon and a Gryphonmon that had either been sent by Lucemon or just accidentally wandered into the real world. The disturbance itself was nothing more specific than reports of something causing explosions in the forest, but the DigiDestined had long since taken to investigating everything suspicious in the hopes of not being taken by surprise whenever Lucemon or Daemon made their next move. So, Imperialdramon was currently flying as quietly as possible towards the dust clouds that periodically rose from the center of the forest, making sure to keep the rising sun directly behind them. While such an approach was slow, it still allowed the DigiDestined to have a Mega ready for anything while still maintaining the element of surprise.
However, for all their intent at having surprise on their side, the DigiDestined couldn't help but be shocked at what they saw. Sitting in the middle of the forest clearing without any body of water in sight was a Seadramon, who seemed to have a personal vendetta against trees as he continually fired his Ice Breath attack and used his powerful tail to topple sections of the forest. Then, the wind shifted slightly, and the DigiDestined noticed two blond teens sitting next to the serpent. While this raised many questions, they at least had a place to direct them, so Imperialdramon finally announced his presence before landing and letting his passengers out.
Before the DigiDestined could even begin asking Michael why he was having Seadramon level the forest, Davis was knocked over by a brown, rabbit like Digimon that had flown in and was now using its long floppy ears to hug him. The blond teen accompanying Michael merely rolled his eyes before pulling the Digimon off of the confused Davis.
"Lopmon, how many times do I have to tell you it's rude to just jump on people like that? Sorry about that, Davis, but he just likes greeting people that way."
Davis just picked himself up off the ground and shook the dirt off. "Ah, it's not really a problem. Wait a second, how do you—" However, at that moment, Davis noticed a white Digimon identical to the Lopmon that had tackled him, and suddenly everything clicked. "Willis? Is that you buddy?"
Willis nodded. "Yeah, it's good to see you all again. I still can't thank you enough for saving Lopmon from that virus. Though, I don't remember meeting your friend there before." Sticking out his hand towards Ken, he started introducing himself. "Hi, my name is Willis Kennedy, and I'm a DigiDestined from Colorado. My partners here are Terriermon and Lopmon. What's your name?"
"I'm Ken Ichijouji, and this is my partner Wormmon. It's nice to finally meet you Willis, but if you don't mind me asking, what's going on here? We came to investigate a disturbance—" At this point, Seadramon succeeded in felling a few more trees while Michael was still sitting down facing away from the others. After waiting a second for the crash to fade away, Ken continued, "but when we get here all we see is this. Do you know what's going on?"
Willis only smiled. "Well, Michael and Mimi had a bit of a fight. I'm not sure exactly what it was about, but he looked like he needed some help. I figured he could benefit from blowing off steam, so I brought him here. He gets to enjoy trashing the place for a bit, and we don't have to worry about any long term damage because I can just reprogram the data for this section of forest after a bit."
Hearing this, Yolei interrupted. "Wait, you just reprogram the Digital World? Doesn't that sound kind of dangerous? Not that I don't trust you, but you don't exactly have the best track record in terms of creating things. What's going to stop these trees from becoming the next Diaboromon?"
"Relax, I'm not a kid anymore. I've learned from my mistakes, and I always troubleshoot my programs three times before I ever try to run them. Also, seeing as I've used this program to reset the forest three times in the last half hour, I think it works fine. Here, I'll show you."
Willis pulled out his laptop and executed a quick series of commands. "Right now you see a destroyed clearing, and now it will go back to being an undisturbed forest." Willis hit enter, and the destroyed trees suddenly split into data only to reform perfectly where they had been standing before Seadramon attacked them. However, nobody had the time to be impressed, as they suddenly felt a familiar pull before flickering out of existence. A few seconds later, they all hit the ground in what appeared to be a giant desert. As Ken pulled himself out of the sand, he wondered what exactly had just happened. As a veteran of inter-dimensional travel, he had a base knowledge of what various trips felt like. This recent transportation didn't really feel like being pulled into the Dark Ocean or even Izzy's occasional travel program. What it was most similar to was the feeling of entering the Digital World through a standard Digital Gate, but Ken was unsure how exactly Willis had managed to pull them into a random desert with a program that had previously worked in a completely different manner. However, before he could even begin to ask Willis what had happened, an explosion rang out behind him. Spinning to see the source, his blood ran cold as he beheld a familiar robed figure fighting a group of Knightmon and Angemon. Immediately, Ken called out for help.
"Davis, we need Imperialdramon right now! Daemon's here!"
Unfortunately, Ken's shout also alerted Daemon to the presence of the DigiDestined. He cursed at the abhorrent timing of the new arrivals. He had come here to secure the last step in Phase 1 of his ultimate plan in isolating the Folder Continent. However, he received communication that the Super Ultimate was unstable just as he was finishing the task, and then a squadron of that foolish HolyAngemon's soldiers had to stall him. Now, the DigiDestined had arrived. If he didn't hurry back to stabilize the Super Ultimate, it could be destroyed and end his plan immediately. While the DigiDestined were a nuisance he had been hoping to avoid, he did not have the time to engage in battle at the moment. Snarling, Daemon resorted to a skill he had absorbed from Dragomon and opened a dark portal around the DigiDestined. Instead of summoning something through this portal, however, he merely banished all the DigiDestined through it.
This banishment was not nearly as controlled as Daemon would have liked: he had not yet mastered control of destination or targeting, so the DigiDestined and the remaining soldiers had all been sent to parts unknown. Daemon knew such a move might end up causing him all sorts of trouble in the future, but he had no choice: either he got rid of all obstacles immediately, or his trump card would forever be lost. As he returned to his lair, Daemon grew thoughtful. Phase I had ended up being a partial success, and now the DigiDestined were here. The situation was not optimistic, but it was still redeemable. After tending to the Super Ultimate, he would just need to move into Phase III immediately, skipping Phase II. It would be more difficult, but if he played his cards correctly, ultimate power was still within his reach.
Author's Note: Well, that's not good. Daemon's clearly up to something, and he's facing only the 02 kids at the moment. Well, the 02 kids with Willis and Michael subbing in for TK and Kari. Still, with the DigiDestined now flung away at random and nobody able to Digivolve to the Ultimate level, will they be able to stop the Demon Lord? Also, sharp eyed readers may be able to guess where the inspiration for this plot came from. If you think you have any guesses or just would like to leave any feedback, please review or send me a PM! Thanks for reading!