Author's Note: Busier day for me today, so we only get this chapter. And since the last chapter apparently updated without saying it updated, it might seem like this is much slower than usual. So, I won't waste any more time and get right in to the story!
Michael let out a sigh of relief as he approached a building that could only be Holy Angel Castle. It was certainly a majestic building, built out of something that looked halfway between blue glass and marble. The more translucent sections revealed lines that resembled a circuit board. However, even if Holy Angel Castle had been just a run-down shack, Michael would have been just as happy to see it. The route Gon had pointed out may have been the quickest way to reach the castle, but it certainly wasn't the easiest. Just about 90% of the trip had been walking through a desert, and apparently Daemon had somehow gotten the local population of Golemon and Tortomon to work for him. Normally, this wouldn't be so bad, but considering Betamon was an aquatic Digimon in the middle of a desert, fights even as MegaSeadramon were fairly difficult. Luckily, Michael's Digivice 01 could store a large quantity of water by reducing it to data, so Michael could at least rehydrate Chapmon in between fights. Still, it had been a rough journey, and Michael was glad to reach his destination. He had always assumed Mimi exaggerated the stories of her first trip to the Digital World when it came to wandering through deserts, but now he had a greater appreciation for exactly what she went through.
Putting aside his thoughts of Mimi, Michael stepped through the castle gates, only to be greeted by an even better sight than the castle: Cody, Yolei, Ken, and some girl he didn't recognize were all waiting in the courtyard. Michael called out to them, and they all turned to greet him. Cody and Yolei were holding the In-Training forms of their partners, while Wormmon was currently missing. When Michael asked about this, Ken merely pointed across the courtyard, where a tall insectoid warrior with a spear was dueling against a sword-wielding white lion. Ken explained that the insect was JewelBeemon, Wormmon's Ultimate form, while the lion was an IceLeomon named Leo who served as the combat officer in HolyAngemon's army. HolyAngemon himself was currently in a meeting with various other army members, so Leo had offered to spar with the DigiDestined's partners while they waited to meet with the general. It seemed like a good way for everybody to at the very least get used to their Ultimate forms, so they had taken turns sparring. Hearing this, Michael realized he really needed to catch up on everything that happened, so he started asking everybody else for the details of their journeys. Upon hearing that he had been the only one out of the loop, he sat down and prepared himself for a long story session.
A few minutes after Michael was all caught up, Willis arrived at Holy Angel Castle. According to Terriermon, they would have arrived much earlier, but Willis had spent hours examining some new code that had shown up in his computer. To hear Willis tell the story, he had only taken a few minutes to go over the code that had shown up after his battle with Neo, and judging from the data his programmed Digimental of Destiny had reacted to the energy from his Crest to create a much more stable program that may have been the true Digimental. What had taken the most time was testing it out- unlike his old program which only affected Terriermon, this new Digimental worked on either one of his partners. In addition, it could be used even from the In-Training level. Seeing this, he had wanted to test out exactly how useful the Digimental would be before jumping into actual combat, causing the delay.
From the tests, he learned that both Lopmon and Terriermon Golden Armor Digivolved into Rapidmon- or GoldRapidmon as Willis had started calling it in order to distinguish it from Terriermon's normal Ultimate form- though Terriermon seemed better at using the form, probably due to practice. Perhaps more usefully, the Digimental now lasted three times as long as it used to, and seemed to prevent any energy drain by its use- no matter what he did, GoldRapidmon only ever reverted to Rookie, and that Rookie was able to Digivolve to Ultimate right away without needing to rest. This even worked if GoldRapidmon was knocked out of his higher form before time expired. This gave him access to a combo almost as devastating as Infinite Jogress- he could Golden Armor Digivolve, then if that wore off he could merely Digivolve normally to the Ultimate level again. And that was only taking into account one partner. The only drawback was the recharge period for the Digimental was still in effect, so Willis wouldn't be able use this combination more than once in any given fight unless his opponent let him or was severely distracted. Still, it would probably be useful against whatever strategy Neo was going to use next, assuming Davis hadn't managed to convince Neo to stop working for Daemon.
When Willis mentioned Davis, an uneasy look settled across the rest of the DigiDestined. Davis hadn't contacted them since his message saying he was heading to the top of the tree to fight for the tag. That had been some time ago, but he still hadn't given them any updates. They were pretty sure Davis had won the battle- Leo had heard reports that a Ghoulmon had appeared at the tree and then been destroyed by a blue dragon that must have been Veemon- but Davis had been uncharacteristically silent after the fight. Something must have been going on to keep him busy, but until he decided to contact him there was nothing they could do but wait and hope for the best.
Davis wouldn't arrive at Holy Angel Castle for another hour. Since AeroVeedramon had reverted to Chibomon, he didn't have any way to get down from the tree. He made use of the first aid kit he had gotten from Dr. Jijimon in order to help Chibomon recover, but he still had to wait a long time until his partner was ready to Digivolve to Champion once again. With nothing to help pass the time, Davis couldn't help playing over the end of the last battle in his mind. The sight of Neo falling helplessly as AeroVeedramon reverted back to his baby form just wouldn't leave him. He had seen his fair share of Digimon deaths, and he had been there when Oikawa sacrificed himself in order to restore the Digital World, but this had been different. The Digimon he had seen die had been in a kill or be killed scenario, and Oikawa chose to give up his life for a greater purpose. Neither of those had been the case with Neo. True, Neo was working with Daemon, and he had pulled some dirty tricks in the fight, but Neo clearly valued human life. For proof of this, Davis only needed to look at his crest, and the Digivice it had been tied to. It was larger than a D3, and clearly was meant to be worn around the wrist instead of being carried. In short, it was the exact model of Digivice Neo had, and only had one explanation: Neo had thrown him the Crest in the hope that ExVeemon could Digivolve and fly again in order to save his life. This put Davis in a new position- as a DigiDestined, he owed it to the world to stop Neo from continuing his path of destruction, but as a person, he owed Neo his life.
By the time Chibomon had finally returned to Veemon, Davis still hadn't resolved his conflicting feelings, but he had come to a decision. He'd just view Neo as a second Digimon Emperor- he had to be stopped, but he still had some good buried deep within him. When he next faced Neo- and he knew he'd have the chance since Daemon wouldn't just leave a valuable asset to die when he could easily summon Neo away- he'd just have to convince him Digital life was just as important as human life. It wouldn't be easy, but it was the right thing to do. Having at least decided this, he had Veemon Digivolve and flew off of the tree. ExVeemon clearly wasn't feeling the best, however, so instead of heading for Holy Angel Castle he instead turned back toward Hospitown. ExVeemon protested, but Davis refused to be persuaded. In order to conserve energy, Davis pulled out his D-Terminal in order to have Veemon Armor Digivolve to Raidramon, but stopped in surprise. Instead of having his usual two Digimentals, he now had an additional one that had to be the Digimental of Miracles. It must have somehow come to him after he used its corresponding Crest. While it was a nice discovery, he decided getting back to Hospitown was more important than trying to piece together what exactly that meant, so Davis had Raidramon simply run back to Hospitown for an emergency checkup.
As Veemon spent some time in a recovery pod, Dr. Jijimon explained the reason for his injuries. AeroVeedramon was an Ancient Digimon, and possessed an ability to overwrite his data when his emotions flared up. While the overwrite granted great power and even new abilities, it came with a major drawback: it shortened the lifespan of the monster using it. When Ancient Digimon were more common, they rarely managed to survive long enough to reach the Ultimate level due to the strain on their data. AeroVeedramon's power may allow him to defeat Mega level Digimon, but at the cost of his own life. Davis found himself cursing his luck- of all the Ultimate levels, he had to get the one that was the most powerful and yet the most dangerous. He wished he would just be able to use Magnamon whenever higher forms were called for, but he knew that just wasn't how fights worked. The enemies they were going to face in the future were going to be beyond Magnamon's level, and they wouldn't always be able to rely on having Omnimon and Imperialdramon available when the major battles started.
Davis only snapped out of his brooding when Veemon came to greet him. Veemon immediately offered to Digivolve and fly to Holy Angel Castle, but Davis was quick to refuse. He didn't want to shorten Veemon's lifespan just to save time getting to the castle. Not wanting to worry Veemon about the dangers of his newest form, he started making some excuse, but Veemon was quick to interrupt him. "Davis, it's great that you're worried about my safety, but trust me, I'll be fine. Dr. Jijimon explained everything to me. The way I see it, the only way I get hurt is by using the overwrite, which only happens when I get really angry. I'll be able to fly without using that power. Besides, the quicker we meet up with Ken, the quicker we can use Imperialdramon again and then we won't need AeroVeedramon in a fight." With that, Davis relented. Besides, if no harm came from just using the Ultimate form, it made more sense to practice it as much as possible to get used to it before they actually needed to fight at that level. With no more objections, Davis pulled his goggles over his eyes and had Veemon Digivolve twice before finally flying off in the direction of Holy Angel Castle and a hopeful reunion with all of his friends.
Daemon snarled as he heard the report that the DigiDestined had all reunited. True, he hadn't expected any of the local Digimon to stand a chance against a group that had managed to defeat him and banish him to the Dark Ocean, but he had been hoping Neo would have been more useful. He had been tasked with taking down two separate enemies that could only go beyond Champion level for a short time, and he had handed over the means to Digivolve further in both fights. In the first case, Daemon supposed he could understand the error- many stronger Digimon had lost to the DigiDestined due to hubris- but the second case was truly worrying. Neo had been prepared for Golden Armor Digivolution, and had victory in the palm of his hand. However, he wavered when he had the chance to eliminate the goggle brat for good. Not only that, he had handed over a weapon with the power to seriously threaten Daemon and his plan. If AeroVeedramon managed to Digivolve to Mega, the whole plan might fall apart. Perhaps he had been foolish to think he could attain the power of the Super Ultimate by relying on a human.
Daemon began rising from his throne and planned to enter the battle himself. However, right as he began conjuring a dark portal to take him to the DigiDestined, a pair of PetitMamon came rushing into the room. Daemon immediately closed off the portal. These two pitiful excuses for Nightmare Soldier Digimon were too cowardly to spend any time near Daemon normally, so the fact that they had effectively barged in must have meant they were carrying important news. Daemon gave the two Digimon a second to state their message, but when the brother and sister started arguing about who would get to deliver it first, Daemon quickly lost his patience and snapped his fingers, creating a small ring of flame around the squabbling imps. Immediately, the two snapped to attention, and uttered in unison, "The egg has hatched, Lord Daemon!"
Upon hearing this news, a wicked grin spread across Daemon's face. Perhaps he had been a bit too hasty to abandon his plan. After all, it wasn't like he had anything to gain by striking now. The DigiDestined had all unlocked the Ultimate level already, and judging by their track record they would unlock their Mega levels in the next major battle. The group was essentially at its strongest level already, and he had already seen to it that there would be no further outside interference. If there was nothing the DigiDestined could do to strengthen their position, he had time to execute the remainder of his original plan. He would only have to play this infuriating role of sitting back and doing nothing for a short while longer, and then he would have the power needed to challenge Lucemon. Turning his attention back to the messengers, Daemon extinguished the flames. "You bring excellent news. I suppose a reward is in order. Very well, I shall summon the humans here."
As Daemon announced this, the two PetitMamon's eyes lit up with glee. They wanted nothing more than to meet some real humans. Daemon was slightly disturbed at their level of fascination with humanity, but he supposed at the very least the eccentric duo was more entertaining to have around than the usual company that surrounded a Demon Lord. They watched with glee as Daemon opened up a dark portal, and Neo walked calmly out of it. Daemon was pleasantly surprised at how well Neo was controlling himself- after Daemon had rescued him from falling to his death, Neo had been raving about bugs in the universe- and that was before he had been banished to an empty realm as punishment for his failure to kill the DigiDestined. "Well, Neo, I can see you've finally managed to gain control of yourself. Now, if you wish to avoid extreme punishment, you will not fail me again."
Neo merely gave Daemon a disinterested look. "I can see why you haven't managed to beat the DigiDestined on your own. Your 'punishment' was leaving me in a blank dimension. I haven't had such a relaxing vacation in years. And as for failure, I don't see it. You told me to fight the DigiDestined to stall them from reuniting. I believe I accomplished that much."
"My orders were to eliminate the threat of the DigiDestined if possible! You had the option of eliminating one of them by doing nothing, yet you saved his life and threw him the tool of your own defeat!"
"Let's get one thing straight, Daemon. You came to me because you needed my help. You've already given me the only thing I need to accomplish my own goals. Since you need me while I don't need you, you have no right to tell me how to act. I will defeat the DigiDestined however I feel like, and you will appreciate any help I give you from this point on. Besides, the DigiDestined themselves are no threat. It's only their Digimon that could pose a problem. When you invade the real world, then you can decide whether or not to kill humans for yourself, but until that happens, I will decide how I conduct my own battles."
Daemon had conflicting feelings regarding Neo's pronouncement. On one hand, it was clear insubordination, and the Demon Lord of Wrath did not take kindly to a lack of respect. On the other hand, Neo was playing right into Daemon's hands, and Neo's cooperation in the plan was the hardest aspect to control. The thought of his plan coming together was just enough to prevent Daemon from lashing out at his lieutenant. "You may be correct for now, but do not expect the situation to continue to favor you. At the moment, all six of the DigiDestined have gathered together, and your stunt with Ghoulmon could have made the situation much worse. By tearing open the wall between dimensions in your fight, you could have allowed the eight other members of their group access to this continent. It is only by dumb luck that you are not currently facing members of a group strong enough to make that AeroVeedramon you fought look like a weak opponent. In light of the situation, I have decided to call in the other three to make sure you do not fail to destroy the DigiDestined this time around."
Neo shrugged his shoulders. "Alright, fine, call in the Alias III if you wish, but they won't be necessary. After all, that DigiDestined brought a broken, glitched monster into the fight. Now that he's done that, I can do the same, and you'll see exactly why I am the best Digimon Tamer."
At first, Daemon was confused as to how Neo knew the Super Ultimate had hatched, but then he realized Neo was referring to a different monster. "As much as I would love to see this partner of yours in action, I'm afraid that will not be necessary. It is time for you to fulfill the purpose that brought you here. The Super Ultimate Digimon has hatched, and you must raise it to its full potential."
Hearing this, Neo smirked. "Well, I guess you should call in the others. After all, it will take me some time to analyze the capabilities of this monster, and then it will have to Digivolve a few times in order to be ready to fight." With this, Daemon opened three more portals, and three other humans entered the room, much to the delight of the PetitMamon. Ignoring their squeals of fascination, Neo immediately began briefing his Aliases. "Welcome back to the Digital World. It's time to move on to the next phase of our plan. The Super Ultimate has hatched, so we are approaching our perfect world. However, we've run into a slight glitch in the plan: there are six other Tamers here, calling themselves the DigiDestined. They'll be trying to stop us, and I'll need some time to raise the Super Ultimate. That's where you come in. I'll need you to stall the bugs."
When Neo finished speaking, one of the Aliases cut in with a mechanical sounding voice. "There is no need to involve the others. Piedmon and I can squash these bugs on our own." Neo merely smiled as he turned to speaker, a very short young man wearing white robes and a silver mask that covered all of his facial features. Apart from his clothes, he had no identifying features other than long, spiky blond hair and communication strictly through a text to voice application on his laptop. "Thank you for volunteering, Sigma, but I'm afraid I will need all three of you. One on one, I'm sure you could beat any of these DigiDestined. With all six of them, they'd probably manage to break through your little trick room. No, you'll engage them at first, and then split them up."
Sigma remained silent, which Neo knew was a sign of acknowledgement. Catching on to the plan, the second Alias, a tall woman with blond hair done up in pigtails, let out a giggle. "So, Mask-boy over here is going to be splitting up our enemies so we can stall them, huh?" Neo noticed as Sigma gave a little flinch at the nickname, but ignored it as he responded to the second Alias. "That's the plan, Mari. And I believe your approach will be particularly effective against this group." Hearing this, Mari started fidgeting with her outfit, which consisted of nothing but a black strapless crop top, black short shorts, and black leather boots. Putting on a falsely innocent tone, she responded with "Who, me? I'm just a girl who ended up here and has no idea how to fight." Shifting her body language and voice immediately, she continued in a flirty tone, "Surely a nice, strong man like you can think of something more fun to do with me than battling these monsters…" Having had a bit of fun, she returned to a more serious tone. "This ought to be fun. Hey, Mask-boy, try to send a couple of hot guys my way. I have my standards, and I'd hate to waste my routine on just anybody."
Neo let out a slow chuckle. "I wouldn't antagonize Sigma so much, Mari. After all, he's going to be the one in charge of actually dividing the DigiDestined and sending them to their appropriate place. Though, there are two DigiDestined that you should reserve for Hideto. One of them has two partners, a Lopmon and a Terriermon, while the other is partnered with a Veemon. Each one of them has access to a Holy Knight as a higher form, and the Veemon is bugged to Digivolve into an AeroVeedramon that exceeds the normal limitations for Digimon. I believe you all know exactly how dangerous such an opponent can be."
Hideto, the third Alias, merely responded by pulling two Digivices out of the pockets of his gray jeans. With a matter-of-fact tone, the tall man with black hair replied, "It doesn't matter how strong they are. Omegamon shall stomp out any resistance on our path to the perfect world." He then slid the Digivices over the sleeves of his black shirt, being careful not to get them caught on any one of the unusually placed zippers that had no apparent pattern or purpose.
Neo smiled. "I suppose we never did get to see how your two partners would fare in a fight against a glitched opponent with their new form, did we? I almost regret that I won't be able to watch it all play out. Daemon will be able to finish briefing you and arrange transport to the battleground. Now, I have a new Digimon to analyze." With that, Neo walked out of the room, and the Alias III materialized their partner Digimon and prepared for battle.
Davis ground his teeth in frustration. After arriving in Holy Angel Castle, he had finally reunited with his friends, only to be immediately rushed into a meeting with the ruler of this land. Lord HolyAngemon was a MagnaAngemon that looked a little different from TK's partner, having only two large wings and being dressed completely in white, but it was obvious that he was just as powerful and caring as would be expected for the Archangel Digimon. However, HolyAngemon was also a bit longwinded, and wasted too much time explaining the full situation. While some of the information was good to know, Davis hadn't really needed to hear the military history of the Folder Continent to understand Daemon needed to be stopped. Also, he had taken up some time to explain the nature of the Digital World, which would have been nice if everybody here hadn't been a DigiDestined for years. Even Michael and Willis, who were the least experienced of the group, knew the basics after years of being a DigiDestined. Still, HolyAngemon had such a presence that none of the DigiDestined could work up the nerve to interrupt his story, so they sat back and listened.
When HolyAngemon finished his story by asking the DigiDestined if they would be willing to help, everybody responded eagerly and started heading for the door. Unfortunately, they went so quickly as to make one of HolyAngemon's advisors, a ShogunGeckomon named Geckovitch, think they weren't taking the fight seriously. Geckovitch challenged them to prove their strength, and while the annoying frog quickly backed down when he found himself facing seven Ultimate levels, it just reminded the DigiDestined of how many times they had been called to save the world by people who never really seemed to trust them. The one good thing that came from the confrontation was HolyAngemon revealing the history of the newly-revealed Crests. Apparently, nine Crests had once been hidden on Folder just as the original eight Crests and Ken's Crest of Kindness had been hidden on Server. Four of these Crests had disappeared from history, with even their names being lost, while the other five were eventually used as the basis for the five keys to the castle at the center of the Continent. This castle supposedly once housed the god of the Digital World, but had been abandoned long ago until Daemon took it for his own. These five keys came from what HolyAngemon revealed were now Cody's Crest of Tenacity, Yolei's Crest of Desire, Michael's Crest of Pride, Willis's Crest of Destiny, and Davis's Crest of Miracles.
After giving the DigiDestined this useful information- they now had a direction to focus on mastering their Crests- HolyAngemon gave them directions to Daemon's Castle and asked them to hurry before the Super Ultimate Digimon he was raising could hatch. Hence Davis's frustration- HolyAngemon brought them here for help, told them an unnecessarily long story, and then gave them information they could actually use before he asked them to hurry. If the Digital World kept needing to call for help from the DigiDestined, the least it could do was treat them like equals and give them all the information they needed right away while trusting them to handle the rest. Still, they all knew that when the chips were down, they would never be able to say no to a request for help. Having wasted enough time at the castle, the DigiDestined immediately prepared to move out, and rocketed towards Daemon's Castle as soon as AeroVeedramon and JewelBeemon had reverted and then DNA Digivolved into Imperialdramon.
It was only after the flight started that Davis realized he hadn't bothered keeping up with everybody else's stories and sharing his own since before his fight with Neo. Knowing Imperialdramon's speed, he didn't think he'd have time to get the full stories, but he asked for a brief summary of what everybody did. However, this only caused Yolei to complain about him not even bothering to try and stay in contact with the D-Terminals, and Davis then remembered he hadn't so much as looked at his D-Terminal since before his fight with Neo, meaning everybody else had no idea what had happened with him except for the fact that he had the Crest of Miracles and Veemon had unlocked his Ultimate form. Before he could start filling everybody else in, however, a girl he hadn't noticed before walked right up to him. "You must be Davis, right? It's nice to meet you. My name is Rei. Tai's told me a lot about you."
It took Davis a second to react. He wasn't exactly used to good-looking girls just coming up and introducing themselves to him. However, once he finally registered Rei's words, he couldn't help but smile. After all, Tai had been saying a lot of things as well, and from Tai's description of her personality and her appearance, Davis could suddenly tell that Rei perfectly fit Tai's type. Judging by the way Rei said Tai's name, she might have had a thing for him as well. For somebody who wasn't exactly the best at being subtle when it came to his own affections, Davis had a knack at picking up subtle clues from others. However, he quickly abandoned that train of thought when Rei just looked at him oddly while having her hand outstretched, so Davis quickly shook her hand. "Sorry about that- it's just I didn't really notice you before, and I feel kinda bad about that. And you look a lot like our friend Sora, so that shocked me a little bit too. Anyway, it's nice to meet you, Rei. Tai's been telling all of us how much help you've been at getting Digimon accepted by the government, but he never said you'd dealt with Digimon before. How long have you been coming to the Digital World?"
Davis noticed how Rei blushed a little bit when he relayed Tai's compliment of her, but decided pushing any further could wait. He could afford to be Tai's wingman after Daemon was no longer a threat. Rei quickly collected herself and responded, "Actually, this is my first time in the Digital World. Before Tai introduced me to Agumon, I thought Digimon was just a game that my brother and his best friend were really good at. Even when I knew they were real, I never expected to come to this world without somebody taking me. All I was doing was sitting at home when my computer screen started flashing, and next thing I knew I was on the digital equivalent of an anthill being saved by Ken. You don't mind if I tag along with you, do you? I figure you have the best chance of being able to get me home, and I'd get to see exactly what being a DigiDestined is all about on the digital side instead of the Earth side."
Davis nodded. "Sure, you can stick with us, but try to be careful. While most Digimon are friendly, some of them can be pretty dangerous. You never know when you could be attack—"
Before Davis could even finish his sentence, Imperialdramon gave a massive jolt and started falling towards the ground. After picking himself up, Davis saw the reason: buried in the nearest wing were two swords, the hilts decorated with a spade and a diamond, almost like playing cards. Glancing to the other wing, Davis could see the matching club and heart swords. While Imperialdramon managed to recover enough to stop falling, he continued his path toward the ground, hoping to land safely and let his passengers out before exposing himself to more attacks. Luckily, Imperialdramon managed to land without incident, and as soon as all of his passengers disembarked he Mode Changed into Fighter Mode, causing the swords to disappear from his wings. Everybody else Digivolved into their Champion forms, deciding to wait to see what they were up against before Digivolving further.
After the glows of Digivolution had all faded, Davis could finally see what they were up against. Two humanoid figures appeared, but neither of them were good news. The first one appeared to be a clown carrying four swords on his back and wearing a black and white mask over his face. Davis had never faced this monster before, but he had heard enough to instantly identify him. They were facing Piedmon, the Digimon that had been the strongest of the Dark Masters and one of the hardest foes the original DigiDestined had had to face. However, as strong as Piedmon was, he wasn't the most worrying thing facing the DigiDestined. That would be the second figure, who was clearly a human, though it was impossible to tell whether they were a boy, girl, man, or woman due to their short height and the silver mask that was covering the entirety of their face. The only thing Davis knew for sure was this person wasn't Neo- they were far too short, and Neo didn't have the same long, blond hair this person had. This could only mean that Daemon had recruited another human to his cause, and this one had a partner already at the Mega level.
Seeming to grow tired of the staring contest, the enemy Tamer began talking to the DigiDestined in what seemed to be a mechanical voice. It took Davis a second to realize the figure wasn't talking at all, but rather typing into a computer that was then repeating the words out loud. "My battle name is Sigma. I am Alias I, and I shall not let you pass and interfere with Neo's plan."
Growing tired of his opponent's artificial voice as soon as he heard it, Imperialdramon growled. "If Neo couldn't stop us, what makes you think a henchman can? Splendor Blade!" Manifesting a sword of light, Imperialdramon rushed towards Piedmon, hoping to end the fight quickly. After all, Piedmon may be a powerful Mega, but Imperialdramon, at least in Fighter Mode, was a level beyond Mega- not quite as strong as Omnimon, but about twice as powerful as the average Mega level. However, Piedmon didn't so much as flinch, and instead called out "Masks Square" and threw what appeared to be a black cube directly into the charging Imperialdramon's face. Piedmon then merely laughed as the cube expanded into a bunch of squares that surrounded Imperialdramon along with all the other DigiDestined and their partners. Finally, the squares transformed into what Davis could only call a rainbow-colored bubble, complete with the same circuit board pattern that had been within Holy Angel Castle.
Floating just ahead of Imperialdramon and cackling away was Piedmon, who didn't seem to have a care in the world. Imperialdramon quickly stretched out his arm, only for his Splendor Blade to pass through air as Piedmon continued laughing from thirty feet away. Wondering how exactly that had happened, Imperialdramon tried shooting his Positron Laser at the distant enemy, only for the attack to disappear before it travelled half the distance. Before Imperialdramon could do anything other than gasp in shock, he was suddenly hit in the back by a powerful attack. As he doubled over in pain, the DigiDestined exchanged glances of horror. After all, they had seen the attack that had struck Imperialdramon: his own Positron Laser. If their own attacks could be used against them, how could they hope to beat Piedmon? The demonic clown then immediately appeared beside Imperialdramon, asked "Why did you hit yourself?" and then immediately disappeared, leaving ringing laughter in his wake. He then reappeared back near his original position, floating next to his partner.
Sigma took this moment to laugh at the DigiDestined, which was incredibly annoying as he was still using his text to voice program to do so. "This is my world, the world of Masks Square. Here, I can control everything." As he said this, he input a quick command on his computer, and Imperialdramon suddenly split back into a confused ExVeemon and Stingmon. "As long as you are in my world, there shall be no Jogress with any of your Digimon." Typing something else into his computer, Yolei and Aquilamon suddenly disappeared, causing Ken to cry out. Hearing this, Sigma entered another command, and Ken and Stingmon disappeared as well. As the remaining DigiDestined turned to glare at Sigma, he merely let out another fake chuckle. "What's the matter? I told you I could control everything here. Whether it's a human, a Digimon, or an attack, I have absolute control over where everything goes." Rapidly typing in a few more commands, Sigma caused Rei, Willis, Davis, and their partners to disappear, leaving Michael and Cody alone against their seemingly unbeatable foe.
Author's Note: Well, I suppose that was evil of me. Just when the DigiDestined get back together and are ready to take the fight to Daemon, Sigma has to come and split them up. I had a bit more fun writing the Alias III than I did Neo, probably because I was able to alter their role in the plot a bit. After all, it doesn't make sense for them to fight one at a time when they have six opponents to face. We are cruising right along through the events of V-Tamer, and this chapter serves as a bit of a transition into the next section. So, sorry if it came across as boring, but the action will pick up later. So, I hope you enjoyed it, and I look forward to hearing any feedback you have!