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Chapter 6

Reversal of Fortunes

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Kyuubimon sat serenely, her tails fanned out neatly behind her and Rika leaned against her chest, arms crossed and a smug smile on her face while the rest of the reunited team made a huge fuss over Calumon.

Kaliskamon was rather less restrained. He danced around his tamer and mate, his fur colors flashing bragging words so quickly they were nearly illegible. RIKA RULES! and BIG DAMN HEROES! flickered across his flank as he spun and hopped joyously around.

"Hey," yelled Kazu after getting sprayed with sand by Kaliskamon's dancing paws, "knock it off, dude!"

"Sorry, dude," Kaliskamon replied, stopping his wild gyrations, "I can get carried away sometimes."

Kenta suddenly burst out laughing and Kazu turned to look at him, puzzled. Kenta just shook his head and tried to stifle his laughter as Kaliskamon strolled away to sit next to Rika and Kyuubimon. There was no way he was going to tell his friend that while Kaliskamon had been standing next to Kazu, he had flashed I'M WITH STUPID across his flank, along with a moving arrow that left no doubt as to whom he was insulting.

Calumon was finally left alone to settle into an exhausted sleep in Jeri's lap while the friends updated each other on what had happened to them while they had been parted. Rika didn't mention anything about Kunomon or her partners' egg.

"Well, I guess we just need to find some way to get home," Takato said. "I bet our families are worried sick about us by now."

"It's too bad Ryo isn't here," Kazu said. "I bet he knows how to get out of here."

"Oh please," snorted Rika, with a quick side glance at Kaliskamon, "I bet he doesn't even know that devas can open up portals to the real world-- or that there are four main portals to Earth-- one in each of the Digital Realms."

There was a sudden shocked silence. "How do you know that?" Kazu asked with amazement.

"Rika picked up quite a lot of information after we left you guys and Wonder Boy," Kaliskamon said, in an offhand tone of voice. "It's really amazing the things a person can learn if they stop talking long enough to listen once in a while."

Kazu gaped like a feeding koi for a few seconds and then took in breath for an angry reply but the group was saved from a petty squabble by everything going to hell at once.

There was the sudden roar of a powerful engine and a huge black motorcycle flew over a low ridge of sandstone to slew to stop only yards from the group. Riding it was a demonic-looking figure that surveyed the team with a cruel smile on his face. "This is gonna be fun," he rasped and laughed in anticipation.

"Who are you?" Leomon demanded, his hand grasping the hilt of his nan dao.

Henry had his digivice out but the info disk remained stubbornly blank. "You a deva that was thrown out of the program?" he asked.

"I got my own program," the strange digimon growled.

"That's the bike we fought," Takato pointed out.

Kyuubimon surprised everyone by stepping forward, staring the stranger in the eye and saying with near certainty, "Impmon?"

"Oh shit," muttered Kaliskamon and he started to edge slowly to one side to get a better attack angle on the intruder.

The demon digimon's face registered surprise for an instant and then anger. "That loser doesn't exist any more! This is my true form. The name's Beelzemon!"

"Tell me," Kyuubimon asked coldly, "what did you promise them?"

Henry's info disk finally started displaying information. "He's a Mega! Special attacks are Darkness Claw and Double Impact-- oh man-- they look deadly!"

"Oh, they are!" Beelzemon chuckled as he flipped what looked like a double-barreled, sawed-off shotgun on steroids into his hand and pointed it between Kyuubimon's eyes. "It's a simple trade-- your lives for my life."

Kaliskamon lunged forward only to meet a second ugly weapon centered on his forehead as Beelzemon moved with incredible speed. "I got one for you too, dog-boy!"

Rika's clear, angry voice cut through the tension like a knife. "And I've got one for you-- loser!" she snarled and slashed the blue card through Kyuubimon's digivice.

Beelzemon flinched back from the digivolution vortex and an instant later the huge Taomon stood in Kyuubimon's place, sternly glaring down at him. Kaliskamon took advantage of his momentary distraction to phase out of sync.

As if triggered by Taomon's digivolution, the wind suddenly blew with terrific force and bolts of lightning danced across the landscape. Data beams skittered across the desert like seismograph needles during an earthquake. Taomon's first thought was for the safety of the group and she cast a Talisman Spell to surround them with a protective energy dome.

Beelzemon looked around in confusion, not willing to believe that Rika's card had caused all the turmoil but not willing to fight under such sudden and inexplicable conditions. "Aw nuts!" he snarled, flipping his weapons into their holsters, "I'll finish this later!" He slammed the motorcycle into gear and roared away, spraying sand.

The moment of relief that most of the group felt at Beelzemon's departure was short-lived. Only moments later, Chatsuramon, the dog deva, stepped out of the swirling sandstorm to confront them. "It's over for you and your humans," he bellowed to be heard over the wind.

"Not just yet," Taomon said serenely, knowing that her mate was out there, unnoticed, beyond the protective spell.

Rika began to read off the deva's stats from her digivice but Chatsuramon's patience was at an end. He launched a Howl of the Heavens attack on Taomon's protective dome just as Kaliskamon slammed a Razor Tail attack into his head. The unexpected attack deflected Chatsuramon's aim but enough of the energy got through to disrupt the spell and the full force of the wind slammed into the team, scattering them across the desert.

For moments, all was confusion. Digimon were grabbing for their partners protectively, as they were tumbled in the storm. Bright red flashes told of some unlucky ones blown into the paths of data streams and ripped away. Chatsuramon searched frantically for the small white digimon that was the real objective of his attack.

"Looking for something?" called a voice from behind him.

The deva swung around to see Kaliskamon standing braced against an outcropping of rock, with Calumon safely tucked into a small fissure behind him.

"Give him to me!" Chatsuramon roared.

"Does that outraged act ever work?" Kaliskamon asked as he stalked toward the deva, his mouth beginning to steam. "I'm really going to enjoy puttin' the tooth in your pompous ass!" he snarled and leaped.

The full force of Chatsuramon's Howl of the Heavens attack blasted into Kaliskamon while he was still meters from reaching the deva. He was thrown back and crashed into the side of the mesa so hard that he caused a small landslide of rock that nearly buried his twisted and broken body.

Taomon had just managed to reestablish her protective dome around the remaining team members and hadn't seen what had happened to her mate. But Rika had.

"Kaliskamon, no!" she wailed.

Chatsuramon ripped at the rock at the mouth of the fissure where Calumon cowered, growling in frustration as he tried to dig out the tiny digimon. Henry, Takato, and Terriermon were gone. Rika was staring unbelievingly at the unmoving body of her partner, Jeri was huddled, sobbing in Leomon's arms, and Guilmon was staring forlornly at the patch of sky where his tamer had disappeared. There was no fight left in the team.

"Somebody help me!" Calumon cried in terror-- and the small red triangle on his forehead glowed to life.

Rocks and gravel spattered across Chatsuramon as the blossoming vortex's phase energy blasted away the debris that had covered Kaliskamon and the diminished team all gasped at the sight of a new digimon emerging from the rubble.

Rika wiped the tears from her eyes with an impatient hand so that she could see the readout of her digivice. "Istaqamon, Ultimate, Fire Vortex and Star Scatter," she read aloud to the group and then yelled into the storm, "Istaqamon! Walk all over him!"

The towering digimon in the golden armor turned his massive head to give a polite nod to his tamer. "As you wish," he rumbled. The heavy iron-shod lance in his right hand flared with crimson ghost fire and spun into a blurred disk, growing brighter by the instant.

Chatsuramon shook off his astonishment and took a breath to launch his devastating Howl of the Heavens attack once more. Istaqamon threw his spinning lance and it became a flaming helix of raw energy that exploded as it impacted in the surprised deva's gaping maw. The giant dog was hurled backwards, slamming into the desert's surface and plowing a deep furrow into it with his body. He groaned and struggled to rise, but an enormous clawed paw thudded into his shoulder and pushed him back to the ground.

Istaqamon shook his armored canine head sadly. "You've been a bad boy-- no biscuit for you," he said and rammed the flaming point of his lance between the deva's ribs and wrenched, scattering Chatsuramon's data to the winds.

The storm departed as suddenly as it had come and Rika ran out to Istaqamon who knelt to greet her. "You had me worried there for a second or two, flea-bag," she said to him gruffly.

"I'm sorry about that, Rika," he smiled, "I thought a short nap under a comfortable pile of rocks would do me some good."

Taomon's expression remained serene but her eyes were joyful. She looked him up and down admiringly. "Everything's changed but your juvenile sense of humor."

"Yeah," Istaqamon wagged his enormous tail, "thank Tesla for that, huh?" He stood and looked back toward the rest of the team. "I saw the beams flash. Who did we loose?"

"Takato and--" Rika began but was interrupted by a cry from Kenta.

"He's gone! He's gone," he shouted, "It took him!"

"What?" Rika frowned, "took who?"

Kenta pointed to the crack in the rock that was now obviously empty. "Calumon! It took Calumon!"

Taomon loomed over the panicky boy. "Calm down, Kenta. Tell me, what was it that took him and which way did it go?"

Kenta looked up at Taomon with wide eyes and pointed. "It was--" he swallowed hard. "--it was like you-- I mean before--"

"Take a deep breath and relax, Kenta," Taomon said, "You're not making any sense."

"Yeah, dude," Kazu put in unhelpfully, "Get a grip!"

Kenta took two deep shuddering breaths and said, "It was another renamon."

Istaqamon slammed the butt of his lance into the ground and the point shot a great gout of flame upward from its tip. "Oh for fuck's sake!" he roared.

"Istaqamon! Taomon!" Rika called up to her towering partners. They both looked down at their tamer. "Taomon, you have to stay with the group in case Beelzemon comes back. Istaqamon--" Rika smiled wickedly and flung out an arm in the direction that Kenta had indicated. "Get 'er!"

Istaqamon's lips wrinkled back from his dagger-like fangs. "With pleasure, Rika!" And he sprinted after Kunomon.

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Author's Note:

Istaqamon is pronounced "ees-tok-a-mon".

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