Author's Note: Second chapter of the day! Well, maybe. I'm pushing midnight here so I'm not exactly sure when this update will go through. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!
Davis sighed and hopped off of Raidramon's back. It had been a busy hour since getting thrown to this section of the Digital World. From a few brief pauses in the action, he managed to at least stay informed on the whereabouts of most of his friends, but he hadn't quite shared in their luck. While most of them had landed in relatively deserted areas, Davis had landed in the middle of a crowded city called Hospitown. Unfortunately for him, he had arrived in the middle of an attack by a group of Champion level Digimon working under Daemon. While there were a handful of Digimon trying to fight off the invaders, most Digimon cowered in fear at the army and wished to avoid trouble. This left Davis to do most of the heavy lifting alongside a Greymon, a Meramon, and a Centarumon who were apparently soldiers for Holy Angel Castle. With only four soldiers covering an entire city, Davis had spent more time running back and forth on Raidramon to get to a fight than actually fighting.
By the time Daemon's army had been eliminated, Veemon had been ready to collapse from exhaustion. The fights themselves hadn't been too difficult- after the last battle in the Dark Ocean, all the DigiDestined had been training to prepare for the next major fight and Veemon was a lot stronger because of it- but the sheer number of opponents had worn him down. Being forced to fight as Raidramon hadn't helped, but with the need to constantly travel across the city he couldn't afford to waste any energy constantly switching to more battle-oriented forms. Still, the months of training had made up for the difference, and even as Raidramon he had managed to defeat a Cyclonemon that would have been too strong for even Flamedramon and ExVeemon a few months ago. Fortunately, Hospitown had that name for a reason, and after the battle was over Veemon paid a visit to the town doctor, a Jijimon. Davis barely had time to wonder why this section of the Digital World had doctors when File Island and Server didn't before Veemon came out feeling as good as new.
While Veemon appeared to be fully recovered, Davis had wanted to take some additional time to rest until he received an email from Willis. Now that he knew Daemon was working together with a human, Davis knew he didn't have time to waste. After all, he had seen firsthand the damage a DigiDestined could cause when being manipulated by an evil Digimon. Luckily, he also had plenty of experience bringing said DigiDestined back to the good side, so maybe he would be able to turn this Neo person against Daemon just like he had helped save Ken from the influence of the Dark Spore. He only waited long enough for Jijimon to give him some last-minute help in the form of a couple of first aid kits and the location of the nearby tag before he had Veemon Armor Digivolve to Raidramon once more and rode off towards the next fight.
Snapping back to the present, Davis got his D3 ready for Veemon to Digivolve as soon as Raidramon reverted to his Rookie form. The tag they were searching for was on the top of a giant tree, and would be impossible to access from the ground. Well, according to Jijimon, there was an elevator of sorts, but it only worked if someone had the other four tags. Since that was out, the only option left was to have ExVeemon fly him up. It certainly wasn't the most comfortable solution- ExVeemon was definitely built for power more than transportation- but it was better than sitting on the ground while ExVeemon fought against at least one Ultimate level.
When ExVeemon got to the top of the tree, Davis immediately took note of his surroundings. In typical Digital World logic, there was a giant rocky platform at the top of a tree, with another tree growing from the platform off to the side. However, what Davis most paid attention to was the other human standing on the opposite side of the platform. He looked like he was Joe's age or maybe a bit older, and was dressed in the same black-and-white getup that Willis had described. Still, Davis knew better than to comment on his opponent's fashion sense. After all, for his first year or so, he had always ended up wearing a flaming jacket. It just took a while before the Digital World stopped giving you an unchanging set of clothes and let you keep what you were wearing through the portal. Neo merely stared back at Davis with a bored look in his eye, and didn't act until ExVeemon landed and readied himself for battle.
Davis was surprised Neo hadn't done anything while they were flying up, but he didn't have any time to ask what was going on before Neo used his two Digivices to materialize a Kokatorimon and a Kuwagamon. Not exactly the easiest of opponents to fight- Kokatorimon could turn enemies to stone with one attack and Kuwagamon had a nasty habit of always coming out on top in fights with the DigiDestined. Then again, if all went according to plan, he wouldn't have to deal with either of them at all. Sure enough, ExVeemon immediately blasted Kokatorimon with his Vee-Laser attack, and Neo immediately started to have his Digimon DNA Digivolve. If it hadn't been for Willis, Davis would have probably been taken by surprise, but with the prior warning he was actually hoping the fight would come to this. Besides, he had another gift from Willis that would allow him to not only handle whatever Ultimate was coming but also allow him to break Neo's Infinite Jogress before he could even start it.
As Kokatorimon and Kuwagamon fused, ExVeemon reverted to his Rookie form, and Davis called out "Golden Armor Energize!" Using a program Izzy created that matched what Willis had made months ago, Veemon could Golden Armor Digivolve even without the presence of the others to create the real Digimental of Miracles. The transformation wouldn't last as long as even the brief period of time the original would work, but it's not like Magnamon would need very long to beat an Ultimate. Magnamon finished Digivolving at the exact time Neo's two Digimon combined to form a Megadramon.
The Dark Dragon Digimon started the battle by flying towards Magnamon with his claws extended, hoping to score a quick victory with his Ultimate Slicer attack. However, such a tactic wouldn't work on an opponent like Magnamon, who merely flew forward and landed a Magna Kick on his opponent's armored head, knocking the dragon backwards. Magnamon followed immediately with his Magna Blast attack, launching a flurry of missiles towards Megadramon. The attack would have been more effective if he had focused all the missiles on one point, but the purpose of the attack wasn't to actually damage Megadramon, but to prevent him from splitting apart. After all, an Ultimate level could survive a hit by a few missiles, but a Champion couldn't. If Megadramon couldn't safely partition, then Infinite Jogress wouldn't become an issue.
Unfortunately, this approach also gave Megadramon an opening to defend himself, and after the first hit he managed to destroy the incoming projectiles with his Parry Force attack. He then countered by launching his own barrage of missiles with his Dark Side Attack, but Magnamon was ready. He launched his Magna Blaster attack, taking out the missiles with beams of plasma. It would have been quicker for him just to use his Magna Explosion to eliminate them all in one shot, but he didn't want to risk hurting Davis or destroying the platform he and Neo were standing on. Still, the plasma beams did the trick, and succeeded in pushing Megadramon back further. His Parry Force couldn't keep up with the multitude of attacks, and at the current pace, Megadramon wouldn't last more than a minute.
Seeing the fight ending so quickly, Davis turned to Neo. "Is that all you got? I expected more from somebody who calls themselves 'the greatest tamer.' Is DNA Digivolution really your best trick? Because I've been doing that for a long time, and it wasn't enough for me to win many fights on my own."
Neo didn't rise to Davis's taunts. "You're right; my Infinite Jogress isn't enough to overcome this situation. But did you honestly think I expected it to be? Would any mildly competent strategist use a move that his opponent knows how to beat? If your friend could beat Infinite Jogress, I knew you'd find a way to counter it. Which is why I came prepared." With that comment, he took the Digivice off of his left wrist and replaced it with another Digivice that had been buried in his pocket. He then slammed his fists together, shouting "Triple Jogress!"
With that, Megadramon was reduced to gridlines, allowing Magnamon's attack to pass harmlessly through him. He spiraled off in the direction of the giant tree growing out of the platform, but when Davis saw the tree had also been reduced to gridlines, he had to mentally kick himself. He should have realized he hadn't seen the Ultimate level who guarded the tag, and Mimi showed all too well that a giant tree could very well be an Ultimate level Digimon. However, it was too late to worry about that now, as the entire sky turned black, the platform began to shake and crack apart, and the wind began swirling like crazy. Whatever form Megadramon and Cherrymon had DNA Digivolved into, it certainly was making a flashy entrance.
Davis had been expecting the storm to fade away when the Digivolution ended, but even after Davis could see his newest opponent the wind continued to howl all around. Which was especially surprising, because Davis recognized his foe and didn't think it was capable of having such an effect. He had never fought one personally, but the demonic form with an eye in each of its clawed hands and the one giant eye in its face had to be a Ghoulmon like the ones that had made up a large portion of Barbamon's army a few months ago. From what the others had said, they were strong, but not to the point where they were far beyond most Mega level Digimon. Davis had seen things like Armageddemon and MaloMyotismon form with much less fanfare. Either this Ghoulmon was much stronger than he should be, or something else was going on here.
Before Davis could think anything else, Ghoulmon launched a black arrow from the eye in its right hand directly at Magnamon. The Holy Knight Digimon was caught by surprise- it didn't look like Neo had given any order and Ghoulmon hadn't called out his attack- but he managed to get up his Aura Barrier in time, and the barrier of light nullified the incoming attack. However, Ghoulmon wasn't deterred, and continued to shoot out the blasts of darkness apparently at random. More ominously, it changed color from a pale gray to jet black, and its attacks started exploding in the sky. It was only when Davis noticed what appeared to be holes in the wake of the explosion that he suddenly realized exactly what was going on. Somehow, Ghoulmon was able to rip holes in the dimensional barrier between the Digital World and Earth! Still, that wasn't the worst part of this. After all, every DigiDestined had the same ability, and Digimon like Daemon and Lilithmon had also been able to do the exact same thing. The worst part was the fact that Ghoulmon seemed to be running wild and had no control over its actions. It could easily destroy both worlds without meaning to.
Davis wondered what exactly Neo had been thinking calling forth something like this, but when he turned to ask he saw Neo had seemingly disappeared. After a few seconds, he saw Neo standing on Ghoulmon's shoulder, furiously typing something into his Digivice. Whatever Neo had done, it seemed to calm Ghoulmon down, as he went back to his original grey coloring, the wind died out, and the sky returned to normal. Davis breathed a sigh of relief, only to hear Neo addressing him.
"Well, I'm sorry you had to see that. Apparently, the Cherrymon that was left to guard this tag wasn't quite as ready to reach the Mega level as I expected. Don't worry; this monster won't go berserk like that again. I'll defeat you with my own skill, not an application of brute force." The arrogance in his voice made Davis want to punch Neo in the face. His Digimon could have just ripped the world apart, and he was still viewing this as some sort of game. To make matters worse, he was talking about beating Magnamon, yet he wasn't making this anywhere close to a fair fight. One on one, Magnamon could win hands down. Now that Neo was riding on Ghoulmon in order to keep him under control, however, Magnamon couldn't use any of his strongest attacks without killing Neo. It was bad enough that the war against the Demon Lords forced them to kill Digimon, but killing a human was one line none of the DigiDestined or their partners would ever cross.
Unfortunately, Ghoulmon didn't have any reason to be reluctant to attack, and his main eye began glowing crimson. Neo smirked and took the liberty of calling out the next attack, and Ghoulmon launched a massive red beam with its Explosion Eye attack. Magnamon, who had been busy trying to think of a way to separate Neo from Ghoulmon without hurting him, was a bit slow reacting and was unable to move completely out of the way of the expanding blast. He managed to get his Aura Barrier up, but Ghoulmon's attack still did a fair bit of damage even though it was only a glancing blow.
It took Magnamon a second to recover, but Neo took advantage of the opening and repositioned Ghoulmon before having him charge up another Explosion Eye attack. Magnamon was ready for this, however, and prepared to dodge when Neo laughed. "I'm well aware that Explosion Eye is too slow to hit you normally. But are you sure you want to dodge this? You can't see it, but you are directly between me and the Digimon city known as Hospitown. If you get out of the way, there's nothing to stop the attack, and I assure you, Ghoulmon does have that kind of range. Explosion Eye!"
Magnamon knew he had no choice. He couldn't just let Hospitown be destroyed, so he'd have to stand his ground. But that didn't mean he'd just have to let Ghoulmon's attack hit. It was time to try out something new he had developed in the past few months. His entire body glowed with a golden light, and he fired a golden beam that was basically his Magna Explosion attack, only focused in one direction. In this case, he aimed slightly below the center of Ghoulmon's blast, hoping to at least deflect Ghoulmon's attack upwards and at most overpower Ghoulmon's attack and destroy him in such a way that Neo wouldn't be hit directly. Sure, Neo would still end up falling from the sky, but Magnamon would at least be able to catch him. In theory.
Davis watched as his partner's golden beam collided with Ghoulmon's crimson one. He couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive- Magnamon had never quite mastered this variation of the Magna Explosion in training. He'd gotten close, but it was still risky to rely on such an untested move. Not that Neo had given him any choice by threatening a city of innocents. Even in his Digimon Emperor days, Ken hadn't gone for whole-scale destruction until he had gone a bit crazy with the Dark Whirlpool and created Kimeramon, which was more the spirit of Millenniummon controlling him through the Dark Spore anyway. This Neo creep was lucky there was a precedent for reclaiming evil DigiDestined, or he might not earn forgiveness from the now adult DigiDestined as easily as Ken did years ago. Thinking that, Davis took a deep breath to calm down. All of this might not be Neo's fault. After all, he was working with Daemon, who could very much be doing the exact same thing Arukenimon did to Ken. The Emperor thought he was doing his own thing, but that wasn't the case. Who was to say Neo wasn't being controlled in a similar way?
While Davis was thinking this over, Magnamon's attack finally started to overpower Ghoulmon's. After the initial stalemate, the attack slowly pushed toward Ghoulmon. When the attack got within a few feet of Ghoulmon's eye, Davis started to cheer, but the celebration quickly turned to panic as the golden beam suddenly winked out of existence. Ghoulmon's attack flew off into the sky, luckily at a higher angle than it had initially been fired. However, Davis wasn't focused on the attack going up as he was a small blue body falling down. The Digi-Egg of Miracles must have worn off, and now Veemon was falling helplessly towards the ground. Quickly grabbing his D3, Davis had him Digivolve, and ExVeemon flew back to land on the platform. At least ExVeemon wouldn't have to worry about falling to death, but he'd still have to fight a Mega level as a Champion. A fact that was painfully driven home as Ghoulmon blasted off ExVeemon's wings with more of his black arrows before shooting even smaller versions into both of the screaming dragon's knees. Ghoulmon's right arm then began glowing with a black energy as Neo addressed his immobilized foe.
"You've only ever experienced the smaller, quicker version of this attack. Don't worry; the full version will probably be less painful. Death Arrow!" As Ghoulmon began firing a larger version of his black arrow attack, Davis started running towards ExVeemon. He didn't have a plan, but he knew he couldn't let his partner just die like this without doing something. He managed to tackle ExVeemon before the blast hit, but the arrow exploded on contact with the ground and Davis hadn't had enough momentum to carry him and his partner outside the blast radius. The shockwave hit them in midair, pushing them further along their trajectory and sending them flying off of the edge of the platform.
Davis and ExVeemon had a hard time processing what was happening. It was kind of difficult to process anything when you were falling like a stone with no way to stop yourself other than hitting the ground. The Digimental of Miracles would be unusable for a while, ExVeemon couldn't fly without his wings, and none of Veemon's other forms could fly at all. Short of a miracle, there was nothing he could do about the situation. However, he was painfully knocked out of this train of thought when something knocked into his head. Turning to see what it was, he was surprised to find what looked like a Digivice instead of just a rock. More importantly, there was a small triangular piece of metal hanging from it, something that could only be the tag for this area. Considering everybody else had gotten to Ultimate thanks to the tag and he had nothing to lose at this point, Davis grabbed onto the tag, and was rewarded with a golden glow. As ExVeemon started glowing, Davis was forced to close his eyes, but he still heard what might have been his favorite sentence ever: "ExVeemon, Digivolve to… AeroVeedramon!"
Before Davis even opened his eyes, he felt like he went through a loop on a roller coaster, and he was suddenly flying upwards even faster than he had been falling. He quickly found his feet back on solid ground, and only then could he truly see the new form his partner had taken. It took him a little while to place it, but he eventually recognized the new form. He looked just like Zeromaru, the Digimon partnered to an alternate dimension's version of Tai that he met when fighting Parallelmon. The only differences were AeroVeedramon's horns were more curved, the horn on his nose was much longer, and his wings were tattered. He also had a hard glint in his eye, but Davis figured that might have had something to do with being angry at Neo over the near death experience. In a low growl, AeroVeedramon addressed Davis. "Listen, stay here. I'm going to take him down, and as cool as it would be to carry you with me, I'm not sure your bones would be able to handle the stress of riding me in battle." Lowering his voice to a dangerous snarl, he added, "Don't worry, I won't hurt Neo- at least not permanently."
With that, AeroVeedramon took off, and all Davis could see was a blue blur before Ghoulmon was hit with a devastating punch courtesy of a Magnum Crush attack. It was obvious the attack did a lot of damage, causing Davis to pull up his Digimon Analyzer to check something. Before he could even open the program, AeroVeedramon struck another heavy blow, this time with his V-Breath Arrow. Ghoulmon barely managed to stay in the sky, and even though he started shifting to his black form, there were no outside effects. Finally, Davis opened his Digimon Analyzer, and was shocked to find that AeroVeedramon was only listed as an Ultimate. With the level of power he was currently showing, Davis had thought for sure he had somehow skipped a level in Digivolving. AeroVeedramon might even be stronger than MagnaAngemon, and that meant he was beyond what some Megas could claim in power.
Unbeknownst to Davis, Neo was also scanning AeroVeedramon's data, but Neo's shock was possibly even greater. In a disbelieving tone, he read off the data. "AeroVeedramon. Ultimate level Holy Dragon Digimon. Average Lifespan: 0.00 hours. Existence believed to only be a legend from ancient times. Said to be able to overwrite its data in order to exceed its limitations in combat." Having reached the end of the overview, he looked into AeroVeedramon's more specific statistics, and started to rant. "I'm the world's greatest Tamer. How could anybody else unlock a legendary Digimon? This has to be a bug! This world was supposed to be perfect! I can't let this glitch monster and its glitch partner interfere with my perfect world! Ghoulmon, SHOOT HIM DOWN!"
In his shock, Neo didn't even realize he was no longer in control of Ghoulmon, as he had pulled his Digivice away from controlling it in order to scan AeroVeedramon. Not that being in control of Ghoulmon would have helped him anyway. In his berserk state, Ghoulmon was firing Death Arrows at random, which was probably the best way to hit AeroVeedramon, who was flying around so quickly he either disappeared from view or left multiple images of himself at locations where he so much as changed direction. However, AeroVeedramon's antics, intended to taunt his opponents, backfired horribly. Neo was too busy ranting at his Digivice and Ghoulmon to even notice what was happening, and Ghoulmon seemed to develop a rational thought and launched his Explosion Eye attack- at Davis. AeroVeedramon cursed and flew between the attack and his partner. Crossing his arms, he spread his wings and then quickly flapped them down, unleashing his Wind Guardian attack. Ghoulmon's attack hit the wall of wind, and was deflected harmlessly upward.
Not wanting to make the mistake of prolonging the fight any further again, AeroVeedramon immediately started his next attack. His wings started glowing with light, and he launched his V-Wing Blade attack directly at Ghoulmon. The V-shaped energy blast cut the Mega level in half, and AeroVeedramon allowed himself a few moments of congratulations as his opponent's data dissipated before flying in to catch Neo. Or at least trying to. Before he could as much as move, he suddenly reverted all the way back to his Baby form of Chibomon before passing out and falling from the sky as well. Luckily for Chibomon, he had been flying above the platform, and Davis managed to catch him as he fell. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of Ghoulmon, and Davis was forced to helplessly watch as Neo fell beyond the edge of the platform and out of sight.
Ken poked his head out of the cave he and Wormmon were hiding in, saw the coast was clear, and sighed with relief. He and Stingmon had ended up in the middle of a mountain range after the brief encounter with Daemon, but things hadn't exactly gone well for him. Stingmon had tried to simply fly them off the mountain in the direction of what appeared to be a town in the distance, but they barely got off the ground before they were suddenly swarmed by a bunch of SandYanmamon. The dragonfly-like Champion levels were no match for Stingmon one on one, but the sheer multitude of opponents would have overwhelmed Ken's partner. In addition, Ken wasn't sure he wanted to fight this battle.
The SandYanmamon didn't seem to be evil, just defending their homes. Ken couldn't blame them for attacking when a strange intruder just showed up out of nowhere. They had managed to lose the swarm a couple times, but whenever Stingmon started flying the swarm immediately returned to chase them. It didn't take long for Ken to figure out they were tracking the sound of Stingmon's wings, so when he found a cave around a blind corner he had Stingmon revert back to Rookie before quickly hiding in the back of the cave.
Once he was safely hidden away in the cave, all Ken had to do was wait for the buzzing sound to disappear. It took a long time, but at least the cave didn't interfere with his D-Terminal, so he could stay updated with how everybody else that had been pulled here was doing. Yolei, Cody, and Willis had all managed to find their Crests and unlock the Ultimate level, while Davis was about to go fight to claim another tag. While it was good to stay informed, Ken had a new appreciation for the phrase 'ignorance is bliss'. He had recovered the Crest of Kindness months ago, but he hadn't ever managed to get Stingmon to Digivolve to Ultimate despite constantly trying. Now, his friends were all managing to pull it off as soon as they got their Crests, and to top it off, Daemon had recruited a human ally that, from Willis's description, was essentially a second Digimon Emperor. Not exactly the kind of news that would cheer Ken up. Still, now that the coast was clear, he at least could do something other than brood in a dark cave. He and Wormmon started heading out and trying to get off of the mountain, but before they could go more than a few steps the sky suddenly turned black and an earthquake struck the mountain range.
Wormmon was forced to Digivolve once again in order to save Ken as part of the mountain face collapsed, but luckily the SandYanmamon were too concerned with the landslide to pay any attention to Stingmon this time around. And now that the mountain face had shifted, Ken could see exactly why the SandYanmamon were so defensive of this area- beneath the rocky exterior, the inside of the mountain had been hollowed out, and was filled with Dokunemon, SandYanmamon's Rookie form. The entire mountain had basically been turned into a giant anthill where the SandYanmamon raised their young. However, Ken didn't have much time to marvel at this natural wonder as the SandYanmamon suddenly all flew down a nearby valley, and were even joined by a couple of Scorpiomon who crawled out of the tunnels exposed by the landslide.
Wondering what could have caused such a large disturbance, Ken decided to investigate and had Stingmon fly in the same general direction as the SandYanmamon. As they came around a mountain and could finally see into the valley, they immediately saw the cause of the concern. It looked like Sora was down in the valley, sitting on top of a Scorpiomon half buried in rubble! However, on a second glance, Ken realized this person couldn't be Sora. Biyomon was nowhere to be seen, and this girl had auburn hair instead of being a redhead like Sora. In a way, that made this even worse. Sora could probably handle a huge swarm like this just by having Biyomon Warp Digivolve. Whoever this new girl was, she wouldn't be able to Digivolve beyond Champion, if she even had a Digimon partner at all. Immediately coming up with a plan of action, Ken and Stingmon flew in to the rescue.
Stingmon started with his Multi Moon Shooter, firing multiple huge needles to scatter the SandYanmamon away from the girl. With that, Ken quickly hopped off, while Stingmon used his Spinning Spiking Strike in an attempt to free the trapped Scorpiomon. After all, Stingmon wouldn't be able to fight off the swarm of enemies, so maybe if he helped out one Scorpiomon, everybody else would just let him leave peacefully. While Stingmon was kicking away the debris, Ken asked the shocked girl if she was alright. She seemed to be a little overwhelmed at everything that was going on, but managed to nod her head.
Ken decided pressing for any further information would have to wait until they weren't surrounded by hostile Digimon. Luckily, Stingmon quickly managed to destroy the rubble imprisoning the Scorpiomon. Unfortunately, the Scorpiomon didn't seem very grateful, and launched its Tail Blade attack not at Stingmon, but at the two humans. Ken managed to push the girl out of the way of the blue energy blast, but didn't have time to dodge himself. Luckily, he didn't have to. He was suddenly enveloped in a pale lilac colored glow that nullified Scorpiomon's attack completely. Then, Stingmon became covered in a similar glow and shouted out, "Stingmon, Digivolve to… JewelBeemon!"
Ken couldn't help but smile as he finally managed to Digivolve to Ultimate. He didn't even care that JewelBeemon didn't look all that different from Stingmon- the only real differences were JewelBeemon was a little bit sleeker, carried a red spear, and had multiple jewels embedded along his body that emitted a rainbow-colored glow. JewelBeemon didn't bother waiting around to test out his new form, and quickly grabbed both humans and started flying away. The SandYanmamon tried to strike him down with their Bottom Cutter attacks, but JewelBeemon had the perfect attack to get through the crowd. Using his Spike Buster attack, he whirled his spear around and created a multicolored shockwave that knocked all the SandYanmamon back.
Now that he had an opening, JewelBeemon started flying away, only to get hit by another Scorpiomon's Twin Sword attack as he flew around a cliff face. He managed to right himself before hitting the ground, but in the few moments it took, the SandYanmamon had caught up, and a few more Scorpiomon had tunneled out of the surrounding mountains. The Scorpiomon all launched their Scorpion Storm attack, while the SandYanmamon added their Desert Wind. Faced with being caught in a massive sandstorm he wouldn't be able to survive, JewelBeemon took the only option left to him: he pointed his spear at the ground and fired his Shot Claw attack with all his power. The blast blew a deep hole into the floor of the valley, allowing JewelBeemon to fly underground and turn into an underground tunnel just before the sand buried him.
After flying out of reach of the sand, JewelBeemon set his two passengers down and landed himself. After all, the SandYanmamon seemed to be able to track him easily if he flew, and he wasn't sure how many more narrow escapes he had left in him. Ken was just glad to take a break from the action, and decided it was finally time to find out who exactly he had rescued. "Well, I'm sorry that was so close back there, but I hope you're still okay. My name is Ken Ichijouji, and this is my partner Digimon. He's usually a Wormmon, but we just Digivolved to the Ultimate level, so he's JewelBeemon now."
It took a few seconds for Ken's companion to gather herself before she responded. "Wait, did you say partner Digimon? Does that mean you're a- what was the word Tai used- DigiDestined? Oh sorry, I guess I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Rei."
Rei still seemed to be a little bit in shock, but Ken suddenly realized who she was. "Wait, did you say you know Tai? Are you the Rei who tried to help us out with Lilithmon?" Rei only nodded at this, but Ken let out a sigh of relief. With this Neo helping out Daemon, he hadn't been sure if he could trust any human he saw that he didn't know. Luckily, Rei was already an ally, so he hadn't been helping out an enemy. Still, that left one question: why was she here? According to Tai, she didn't know anything about Digimon before he told her, so she couldn't have her own partner and Digivice to come here.
"It's nice to finally meet you, Rei. I'm one of the DigiDestined in Tai's group- well, I suppose I'm technically in a group with Tai's younger sister, but we all view Tai as the overall leader. Anyway, I'm sorry to pry, but what exactly are you doing here? From what Tai said, you didn't have a partner Digimon or Digivice, so you shouldn't be able to come to the Digital World."
Rei finally seemed to be adjusting to her new situation, as she was much quicker responding. "I don't know why I'm here. Last I remember, I was at my computer when there was a bright flash of light. Next thing I knew, I was in this mountain range. I started dancing, and then the cliff I was on collapsed and I ended up falling onto that scorpion thing. Then you got here." Ken gave her a questioning look. "So, you end up somewhere completely strange, and your first instinct is to dance?"
Rei sighed. "I know it sounds crazy, but I thought I was just dreaming. Four years ago, I got hit by a car, and I've been paralyzed from the waist down ever since. Here, my legs work fine. Add to that the fact that apart from the leggings, I don't own any clothes like this…" She gestured to her outfit, which consisted of an orange jacket, an orange skirt over black leggings, orange boots, and a pendant necklace that seemed to be glowing slightly, "and is it really that hard to blame me? Before the accident, I was really into ballet, so whenever I dream that my legs work, I always find myself dancing. Besides, with all the monsters everywhere, how do I know I'm not dreaming? Tai told me about Digimon, but he described them as friendly creatures for the most part. Not exactly an accurate description of that welcoming committee back there."
Ken sighed. "It might not have looked like it, but those Digimon did have a pretty good reason for attacking us. At least one of the mountains up there is basically a giant anthill filled with the younger forms of the Digimon that were attacking us. They were just protecting their young from a couple of strange invaders. Imagine how you'd react if some monstrous thing you hadn't seen before showed up in your family's house. These Digimon probably haven't seen humans before, so how could they know we're not going to hurt them? Just because something attacks doesn't mean— what was that?"
Rei merely looked confused, but Ken could have sworn he had heard a strange rustling sound. Suddenly feeling unsafe, he signaled for Rei to follow him before he and JewelBeemon set off down the path in front of them on foot. They didn't want to attract extra attention to themselves by making undo amounts of noise, and JewelBeemon even dimmed the glow from his jewels so they were as dull as possible while still allowing the group to see the tunnel. As they advanced, they couldn't shake the feeling they were being watched. While they didn't notice anything to cause that feeling, they couldn't help but feel slightly nervous as the shape of the tunnel shifted. Originally, it had been winding and uneven, like they would expect from a natural formation. However, it was now becoming more and more of a rectangular hallway, making it look less and less like this had been created by nature or even years of activity by insect Digimon.
Ken knew it was dangerous to apply logic that was consistent on Earth to the Digital World, but he still felt he was walking into something that had been purposely built for something other than the surface inhabitants. This suspicion was confirmed a minute later when the group entered a much larger cavern. JewelBeemon started glowing brighter to allow the group a chance to examine the wider space, and Ken saw what appeared to be a large square room with what was unmistakably a door on the far side. However, while Ken was busy looking forward into the room, Rei had turned her eyes back in order to shield them from the suddenly brighter light. However, what she saw behind her only caused her to let out a terrified scream.
Ken and JewelBeemon quickly spun around to see what was going on, but one look told them exactly why Rei had screamed. Following behind the group was what appeared to be the skeleton of a giant scorpion. The nightmarish creature hissed out "Poison Pierce!" and brought its tail stinger down towards Rei, but JewelBeemon managed to grab her out of the way just before she was impaled. While the opposing Digimon's tail only struck the rock on the bottom of the tunnel, a small purple mist seeped out accompanied by a hissing sound, as if the rock was being melted by acid. Not wanting to be caught by that attack, JewelBeemon grabbed Rei and Ken and flew them into the larger room, where he set them near the door on the far end from the tunnel. While JewelBeemon flew off to engage his enemy in combat, Ken pulled up the Digimon's profile on his Digimon Analyzer. However, he didn't get much help- the only data present said the Digimon was SkullScorpiomon, an Ultimate level Digimon with Poison Pierce and Blackout attacks.
While Ken was pulling up SkullScorpiomon's profile, JewelBeemon had assumed a ready stance in the center of the room. As soon as SkullScorpiomon started coming out of the tunnel, JewelBeemon blasted him with his Shot Claw attack. SkullScorpiomon raised his claws to block, but the force of the attack ended up blowing one of his claws off. However, he didn't seem to notice the loss of a body part, and lashed out with his poisonous tail. JewelBeemon was taken by surprise, and only barely managed to raise his spear in time to deflect the blow. However, a few stray drops of poison landed on JewelBeemon's arm, and the immediate burning told him that SkullScorpiomon's poison did indeed act like acid. Not a very comforting thought, especially when SkullScorpiomon managed to grab JewelBeemon with his one remaining claw.
Knowing he didn't have much time before SkullScorpiomon lashed out with his tail again, JewelBeemon struggled to free his spear. He managed it just as the dreaded tail was coming towards him again, and used a much more focused version of his Spike Buster attack. The ensuing shockwave blew off the tip of SkullScorpiomon's tail and his last remaining claw, leaving the scorpion much less threatening. Wanting to press his advantage, JewelBeemon flew forward and buried his spear in SkullScorpiomon's head. Where the insect Digimon hadn't seemed to notice the loss of his appendages, he did take notice of his latest injury- by emitting a sound that could only be described as a rasping chuckle, followed by a hiss of "Blackout!"
A green mist suddenly emanated from SkullScorpiomon's entire body, and JewelBeemon cried out as his eyes started burning and he lost the ability to see. Still, he knew exactly where SkullScorpiomon was, so he could at least end the fight. He fired one more Shot Claw attack, and since his spear was still buried in SkullScorpiomon's head, the opposing Insect Digimon was powerless to block the attack and finally burst into a cloud of data. With the last of his energy, JewelBeemon flew out of the acid cloud and reverted to Minomon.
Ken quickly ran and scooped up his partner. Minomon still wasn't able to see, but he managed to tell Ken he would be fine and warned Ken not to go into the poisonous cloud before passing out. Ken had pretty much figured out that last bit on his own, but he was too relieved that his partner was okay to say anything about it. Rei, however, wasn't caught up in a feeling of relief and interrupted the moment. "Um, I don't know if this is the best time, but can he go back to being that big Digimon again? There are two more of those skeleton things coming at us."
Ken groaned as he saw the two SkullScorpiomon coming down the tunnel. Minomon certainly wouldn't be able to fight them off, which left only one option. He merely shouted "Run!" before sprinting to the door and throwing it open. Rei was one step behind him running down the hallway behind the door, and the SkullScorpiomon didn't seem to know how to react. They ran to the door, but refused to cross over the threshold. Ken gave a sigh of relief- he hadn't really expected to be able to outrun an Ultimate level Digimon, even at his level of athleticism. He slowed down to let Rei, who didn't possess the same speed or stamina, catch up, and then continued more cautiously down the hallway until he came to another door.
Since Ken's only options were to open the door and advance or turn back and face the SkullScorpiomon again, he opened the door. However, as soon as he did, an ancient sounding voice growled out "Rinkazan!" and Ken instinctively ducked. He felt the rush of something passing directly over his head, and an eerie light trail remained floating above him. Ken backed up a few steps before standing up again, and he was glad he did- the upper part of the door had started to collapse, and the pieces of rubble were sliced cleanly whenever they came into contact with the glowing track of light. Finally, the glow started to fade, and Ken looked beyond the door to see what exactly had attacked him.
At first, Ken thought it was a BlackWarGreymon, but this Digimon seemed to be wearing samurai armor. He wielded two strangely bent swords that were both glowing, and his entire armor was covered in scars. It looked like his armor originally had blades attached to the elbows and shoulders, but they had been broken in various places. Even without looking at the Digimon's long, grey hair, Ken could tell he was looking at an ancient Digimon that had lived through a great deal of battles. Unfortunately, that was all Ken could observe before he suddenly found two glowing swords crossed millimeters away from his neck. Their wielder merely glared at Ken with bloodshot eyes as he snarled "Get… out!"
Ken's mind pretty much shut down at this situation, but luckily, he wasn't the only conscious one in the group. Rei immediately called out for the Digimon to stop, and calmly explained they were looking for a way out but didn't know how to find it. She then politely asked if the Digimon would put the swords down and asked for directions. With this, the pendant around her neck glowed slightly, and the Digimon dropped both of his swords and put his hands on his head before staggering over to the far wall. Ken let out the breath he had been holding and quickly pulled up his Digimon Analyzer to see what he was dealing with.
The Digimon was a Mega level Dragon Man Digimon called Gaiomon, but other than that the Digimon Analyzer displayed a complete string of nonsense. Something about this Gaiomon must have made his data so different from other Digimon that the program just couldn't handle it. While Ken was looking at the profile, Gaiomon seemed to get over his headache and placed both of his hands against the wall. His hands began glowing with a red energy, and with a call of "Gaia Reactor," the entire mountainside was blasted outward, leaving a wide exit tunnel for Ken and Rei.
Ken was shocked at the level of power Gaiomon had displayed, but perhaps more shocking was Gaiomon suddenly speaking in complete sentences for the first time. "That passage should be the quickest way out of this area. The insects have learned not to come this far. They can at least see the value of their lives… been so long… lost purpose…" Gaiomon suddenly slipped back into his broken speech pattern, and carried on mumbling things nobody could hear. He walked over and picked up his swords, then walked out of the room like he didn't even notice Ken and Rei's presence.
Ken went to thank Gaiomon for his help, but Rei grabbed his shoulder to stop him. "Listen, just don't. He probably would attack you again. Trust me, you can't help- I went through the same thing with my grandfather. Let's just get out of here." Ken could see that interacting with Gaiomon had clearly disturbed Rei, so he didn't press the issue and quietly followed her out the newly created exit. He then sent a message to everybody he could informing them about everything that had happened, and hoped they would be able to join together soon in order to stop Daemon and earn a break from all the constant fighting.
Author's Note: And there we have it. If AeroVeedramon seems way too powerful, I'm taking his power directly from the source manga. If anything, Davis's AeroVeedramon is actually weaker than Zero is, having a finite source of energy instead of being a natural Ultimate. Still, he is drawing from the Crest of Miracles, so the same justification I gave for Willis applies here. Since Davis isn't spreading the power out between two partners, his one partner is a lot stronger. Though, there are some major drawbacks to that kind of power, as you'll see soon enough.
And then we get Ken's scene! This is one that doesn't come from the manga, and I was surprised at how fun it was to write. I always had the idea of Ken saving Rei to activate his Crest for the first time, but the rest of it sort of came together as I was writing. I felt bad for not having him ever use his Crest since he got it way back in the middle of Dark Uprising, but I felt he deserved time to debut his new form in a story that focuses on him.
Well, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed it, please leave some feedback, and I'll update again tomorrow!