Chapter 6: Skullhydramon

I had to find TK so that he could open the digiport for me, since only the D3s could. Gobumon's email had been only four words long, 'Please help us, Matt.' This was very uncharacteristic of him, which meant that we had to get to the digital world even faster than before. I forwarded the message to Kari, Izzy, Joe and Sora, hoping that they would all be able to help. I knew that this time we would be in serious danger.

I arrived at TK's apartment just as he did, and we both rushed in.

"So what's the problem, Matt?" TK asked, sounding very worried.

"I got an email from Gobumon. They're in some kind of trouble, although he didn't say just what. It seemed like he didn't have time to," I explained quickly. "We've gotta get there, they're almost powerless without us."

"Right," TK said as he opened the portal. We both jumped through.

We found ourselves on File Island, deep inside one of the forests. From a little ways away we suddenly heard a scream, and high above the trees we could see two massive digimon flying, though they were too far away to make out.

"That's gotta be them," I said. "Let's go!" But just then, Kari, Gatomon, and Tai appeared out of the digiport. Seconds later, Ken did as well.

"Matt what's going on?" Tai questioned.

"I'll explain on the way, but now we've gotta move." I yelled as I took off running. Tai and Ken quickly caught up, being strong runners because of their soccer, but Kari and TK weren't as fast, and I was afraid we might be too late. At this point every second counted. "TK, Kari, we're going ahead. Hurry up as much as you can!" I called back to them.

"Alright Matt!" TK yelled. Just then we broke out of the forest into a large grassy field. Far off in the distance, we could see the two flying forms, but much more clearly.

"What are they?" Tai asked.

"Metalkuwagamon." Ken said. "They're ultimate level, and they're shells are incredibly hard. Paildramon was barely able to beat one before.

"Unfortunately we haven't seen Davis around yet and there's two of them Tai observed. "We need a new plan." We were finally in sight of what they were chasing, and sure enough it was our digimon. Their attacks were useless, so they were doing their best to avoid the enormous bugs.

"Gobumon!" I yelled as soon as I thought he could hear me, and he did.

Gobumon digivolve to…..:Garurumon!

Agumon digivolve to…..:Greymon!

Wormmon digivolve to...:Stingmon!

"We'll hold them off, get to safety!" Greymon yelled to the others. Gatomon was the only one not present in the group of digimon, because she was with Kari, but the separation wouldn't last any longer. Kari, TK and Gatomon finally caught up with us.

"Kari, TK!" Tai yelled, "You've got to try and stop at least one of them." The three champion levels were doing their best, but they couldn't compete with two ultimates at once.

"Patamon!" TK called out.

"I'm right here TK!" He called out.

Gatomon armor digivolve to…..:Nefertimon!

Patamon armor digivolve to…..:Pegasusmon!

The two new digimon wrapped their golden noose around one of the Metalkuwagamon, temporarily restraining it and letting everyone focus on one at a time. Despite this, they still were unable to fight off the ultimate level digimon. Garurumon took a direct hit and digivolved back to Gobumon, and then Pegasusmon did as well.

"Patamon!" TK yelled as he ran over to his friend. "Patamon, are you okay."

"I'm fine TK, but look out!" Patamon yelled. The second Metalkuwagamon had freed itself and was heading straight for them.

"Vee Laser!" announced someone on the other side of the battle. The blast blindsided the Metalkuwagamon and knocked it off course, barely missing TK and Patamon. Davis and Exveemon had made it just in time.

"Ken! Let's do it!" Davis yelled across to our group.

Exveemon, Stingmon, DNA digivolve to...:Paildramon!

The Metalkuwagamon both turned their attention to Paildramon. His powerful attack managed to knock one of them down, but the other hit him hard from the side. As the first one stood, Nefertimon and Greymon both attacked it. It was far too strong, however, and it caught Greymon in its pinchers. Paildramon managed to knock him loose, but was hit again by the other insect.

"Yolei must have gone to find Cody," Kari said. "If she could get here we'd be able to help more. I wish she would've just come." Kari was watching the battle with a worried look on her face. Nefertimon landed and returned to being Gatomon.

"She better get here soon or else we're in big trouble," Gatomon said.

"Tai!" I yelled to him, "We're not strong enough to take them both on! We have to get out of here!"

"You're right Matt," Tai said as he watched Greymon revert to Agumon.

"Davis! Ken! Have Paildramon hold them off as long as possible. We'll lead everyone else to safety!" Tai yelled.

"Good idea, but hurry up. I'm not sure how much longer we can last!" Ken yelled back.

"Everybody, let's move!" Tai yelled out.

We turned to run for the forest, which would provide some cover as we looked for the digiport, but Tai stopped short.

"Oh no, what's that thing?" He said, staring at the sky. From over the forest, another massive creature was flying toward us. The beast seemed like an enormous skeletal dragon. The oddest thing about it was hat it had five heads, all mounted on long necks that extended from the bones just above where the wings sprouted from its back.

"Skullhydramon," Gatomon said. "It's an ultimate level digimon. It's very dangerous, and usually aggressive. We've got to hide somewhere!"

"Where are we supposed to hide? We're in the middle of a field and that thing has five heads!" TK said.

"All you humans run!" Gatomon said. "We'll try to distract it."

"Gatomon no you . . ." Kari started, but Gatomon cut her off.

"Just go Kari! Now!"

Tai grabbed Kari's arm and started to drag her away as Gatomon braced herself for a fight. But she didn't get one. The monster flew right past her and past us, toward the battle. It rushed at one of the Metalkuwagamon from behind and tackled it to the ground. Three of the mouths pinned it down while the other two began head butting and biting at the trapped creature. The other Metalkuwagamon attacked and knocked Skullhydramon off of its friend, but that allowed Paildramon to blast both of them at once. As the two insects tried to shield themselves from the attack, Skullhydramon righted itself and began its own attack. The five head formed into a pentagon and began charging up balls of energy. The orbs suddenly connected and an eerie purple light filled in the middle, making a pentagon-shaped wall about ten feet high.

"Dark Dimension." The beast announced as it launched the pentagon at the Metalkuwagamon. It struck one of them in the side of the head and sent it tumbling to the ground, knocked out. The other, now double teamed, fled quickly over the field. In seconds it was over.

We cautiously approached the creature that had apparently saved us. All five of its heads turned to look at us, and Paildramon quickly stepped in front of us. But the Skullhydramon didn't seem to want to attack us. It actually seemed to be tired. We all jumped when it began to glow, and then shrink. It was reverting to a previous digivolution. Some kind of small white worm-like thingy.

"It's Dremon!" Gatomon said. "It returned all the way back to its in-training stage."

"Well if it reverted back then it's safe to assume that there's a digivice around here somewhere, and also another human," I said.

"Wait a second," TK said. "Kari, could that be . . ."

"Told ya so," Gatomon said with a smirk.

"Do you think it's really Will's?" Kari asked.

"Who's Will?" Tai asked.

"He's a new kid at our school, he moved to Tokyo from America," Kari explained.

The Dremon was staring at us with a sorry look on it's face. I think for some reason it didn't want us to figure that out.

"So Dremon," Tai started. "Is Will anywhere around here?"

The little digimon didn't answer; it just looked around at the rest of the field. Ken was the first to see him coming.

"Look over there," He said, indicating the forest that Skullhydramon had come from. Sure enough, there was a figure walking in our direction. As the figure approached, Kari identified him.

"Yeah, that's Will alright."

The kid walked past us a little to his digimon and picked it up in his arms. "Silly little guy, you were supposed to fly back to the forest," he said, but not angrily, instead in a soft, soothing tone.

"I know, I'm sorry. I was just too tired. I haven't digivolved in a long time," The Dremon replied.

"That's alright," Will said as he stroked the digimon's head. "It doesn't matter any more." He then turned to us. "I suppose I owe you all an explanation."

"Not really. You couldn't have known we were digidestined too," Tai said.

"Actually, I was suspicious at first, and when Davis and Kari fell out of a computer I knew," Will said.

"Do you have a D3, too?" TK asked.

"A what?"

"I guess not then," TK said.

"Then how did you get to the digital world?" I asked. If he couldn't open a digiport himself, it was rather unlikely that he stumble upon a random one.

"After Kari got that email and everyone split up, I, well, sorta followed her home. I knew she was going to the digital world, and I thought I'd come and try to help. I snuck in an open window."

"You sneak through an awful lot of windows, Will," Davis commented.

"It's a bad habit," Will replied. "Anyways, I'm sorry I tailed you, but I haven't been to the digital world in a while, and I wanted to go back. Also, I thought I could lend a hand if there was trouble."

"So you were with a group from America then?" I asked him.

"Yeah, and I think you met one of them already. Michael and Betamon. I was talking with him the other day and he mentioned you guys.

"But if you knew that we were digidestined, why did you hide the fact that you are from us?" Davis asked.

"That does seem a little weird," Kari added.

"I just wanted to learn a little more about you guys before I said anything. Mostly I was trying to figure out your crests," Will replied.

"Why would that matter?" Ken asked.

"There are, well, I guess," Will looked very unsure of himself at the moment. "It's complicated."

"Well what is your crest?" Davis asked.

Tai added an observation. "Actually, do you still have your crest? Skullhydramon is an ultimate digimon."

"Yes, I do still have my crest, but it's, uh," Will's eyes were bolting, and it was obvious that he didn't want to tell us for some reason. "It's, um, helpfulness."

I figured he was lying, but I kept it to myself. Maybe his crest was love and he was embarrassed by it. I wasn't going to burn him on it. I resolved to have Mimi track down Michael and ask him.

"There's a crest for helpfulness?" Davis wondered. "I wonder what else there could be."

"Well what's yours?" Will asked.

"Mine is courage, and so is Tai's," Davis replied. "Matt has friendship, Ken has kindness, TK has hope and Kari has light. I bet those sound a bit funny too, huh? But none of us have our crests or tags."

Will was silent. He had a scared look on his face, and he was staring at Kari and TK.

"What's the matter man, you look like you just saw a ghost?" I asked him. He didn't reply. He just kept staring.

"Hey Will are you alright?" Tai asked.

"I have to go," Will said suddenly. "It was nice to meet you," he said to me and Tai, and then he took off running for the forest, carrying Dremon in his arms.

"Should we follow him?" Gatomon asked.

"I don't know. Why do you think he started acting so funny?" Tai said.

"Let him go. I'll ask him about it at school tomorrow," Kari said. "Besides, we need to be heading home. Our parents might get worried."