Chapter 26: Absolute Chaos

Author's Note: Due to my incredible laziness I did not feel like typing out every single digivolution in this chapter. So sue me.

"So what's it say, Kari?" Tai asked as we all tried to get a look at the girl's D-terminal.

"Just a second, I'll read it out loud, okay?" Kari said, clicking on the message.

Dear Digidestined,

I wanted to send you some good news for once, but unfortunately I don't have any. What I do have is a report of some very strange events in the digital world. Digimon all over the world are beginning to go insane. These insane digimon attack the first thing they see, and it's becoming rather nasty around here. I'm afraid that I have no idea what's causing it, but I think that you may be able to figure it out. Please come as soon as you can.

Kari closed the D-terminal with a sigh.

"So, this didn't just happen to Gatomon, it's happening all over the digital world," Matt said.

"In a way, that's good. It rules out the theory that Myotismon is in the real world and took control of Gatomon," I offered, trying to sound hopeful.

"While that's true, Yolei, I think that this problem is just as severe," Tai said. "If the digimon are all going crazy, it will be hard for us to move safely in the digital world. Also, whatever is making them go crazy could affect our digimon, too."

"Then there's only one thing to do," Mimi said. "We have to get everyone together and go find out what's causing this before it gets completely out of hand."

"I guess we have no choice," TK said. "Let's start calling people."

Nobody was happy to be woken up in the middle of the night, but nevertheless everyone made it in to the computer lab. Davis was the last one to show up, as usual.

"Okay everyone, here's what we know," Tai began. "Something is making the digimon go crazy, and it can affect our digimon. The only thing we can do is find out what it is and stop it as quickly as possible."

"But how will we know where to look?" Sora asked.

"We'll go to wherever the greatest concentration of crazy digimon is," Izzy said. "There's a good chance that the epicenter of this outbreak also has the most afflicted digimon."

"Won't that be dangerous?" Cody asked.

"It will, but it sounds like there's no other choice. If whatever this is can affect our digimon, too, we can't let it spread," Joe said.

"Hey, does anybody remember when Frigimon went crazy?" Mimi asked. "Maybe what happened to him is related to what happened to Gatomon and what's happening to all those other digimon."

"Good thought Mimi," Izzy said. "Both occurrences do seem surprisingly similar."

"Yeah, I stopped both of them," Palmon said proudly.

"Wait a second," Izzy said. "You're absolutely right, Palmon. In both cases, the effects of whatever was causing them to go crazy ceased when they were hit by your attack."

"So do you think Palmon can stop the crazy digimon?" Mimi asked.

"There's no solid evidence to support that theory, but the circumstantial evidence is very strong," Izzy said. "It's certainly worth a shot."

"In that case, let's stop wasting time talking about this and get going!" I said enthusiastically. Everyone nodded their agreement, except for that Shark kid, who probably had missed most of the conversation despite Will's attempts to translate it for him.

Izzy loaded the digital gate program, and TK's D-3 activated the gate. One by one we all jumped through the gate. By now I was used to the rather strange tingly feeling that I felt when getting downloaded, and it didn't bother me at all.

The digital world didn't look any different than it normally did. We were in a rocky area full of low mountains. The digital world's sun was just barely beginning to peek out over the horizon, and the fresh mountain air tasted good in comparison with city air. It really didn't seem like anything was wrong, but we kept our guard up anyways.

Gennai had sent Izzy a map of the appearances of crazy digimon. It was much more sporadic than he had hoped, but in general the map suggested that we head up into the mountains, toward a large lake. Surprisingly, we didn't see any digimon for most of the walk. I suppose there was a good reason for that though. I had a strange feeling that we were being watched the entire time, but I didn't say anything.

After about a half hour, we stopped to take a break near the bottom of a steep incline. It wasn't quite steep enough to be a cliff, but it certainly wouldn't have been easy to climb, at least for a human.

Most of the group was just sitting and resting, but I noticed that Tai and Matt were standing a little ways away, talking to each other. I don't usually like to eavesdrop on people, but I wasn't particularly tired and was becoming rather bored.

"Are you sure this is safe, Tai. We've had some good luck so far, but when we finally do find these crazy digimon, we may be in for a really tough time," Matt said.

"I know, matt, but we can't back down. We have to face this problem head-on, or else it will only get worse. You and I are the leaders, here, and we've got to be strong for everyone," Tai replied.

"Of course, we've got to worry our friends' safety. We won't get very far without them," Matt reminded him.

"That's why we're taking this rest, to make sure that nobody falls behind or gets too tired to continue," Tai said.

"You're right, we've got to be strong for our friends, and make sure that we all stick together," Matt agreed. I smiled to myself. It was nice to know that they were thinking about everyone.

"Hey, what's that thing?" Cody asked, pointing to the top of the ridge. We all looked up to see a very strange looking digimon. It was close to ten feet tall, with shiny chrome skin, and it seemed rather humanoid. Its body was large and round at the top, and very skinny at the waist. Below that was a smaller portion of the body from which the creature's legs protruded. It had very long arms and a human-like head, but the most noticeable feature was the eight sheathed swords strapped across its back, four rising over each shoulder.

"That's Megaswordmon," Tentomon began. "A mega-level digimon who can leap incredible distances. His sheaths can regenerate the swords that he throws instantly."

"That's the thing that was chasing us right before Will was captured!" Davis yelled.

"So you remember him?" an all too familiar voice said from just beyond the ridge. Myotismon stepped up to the edge of it, along with three more Megaswordmon. "Then I'm sure you realize that this time there is no escape," the vampire digimon cackled. "But first I want to thank you, Will. Despite your escape, I was able to use your crest's power to revive some of my most loyal servants. However, your life is now meaningless to me, and so this time you will not receive mercy!"

Will stared up at Myotismon, anger filling his eyes. "The dark crest is not yours to use, it's mine and Drakamon's!" he screamed.

"You don't even know how to use it," Myotismon taunted. "I will show you just how insignificant you really are. Attack!" the undead digimon yelled.

All four Megaswordmon drew out their swords. "Raining Blades!" they all screamed at once as they sent their sword flying towards us.

We began running for cover, but Will stood his ground as his crest began to shine brightly. Suddenly, he and Drakamon both exploded with light.

Drakamon, warp digivolved to...:::::Metalskullhydramon!

We stared up at the enormous seven-headed skeletal dragon. Shiny black armor covered its entire body, and from its center head, three sharp horns emerged, coated in the same black armor. Another head had two such horns, and the remaining five heads each had one. Drakamon had managed to warp digivolved all the way to mega!

As the swords fell, the heads maneuvered into position over us. The blades bounced uselessly off of the shiny black armor

"Take cover under his heads!" Will yelled out. We all grouped together beneath the massive dragon for protection. The swords continued to rain down on us, but they were unable to penetrate Metalskullhydramon's armor.

"Agumon, let's go get 'em! Digivolve to Greymon!" Tai called to his digimon.

"You too, Gabumon! Digivolve into Garurumon and try to take those things down!" Matt said.

Suddenly, both Tai and Matt erupted with light. It seemed to flow from somewhere within them, but it was so bright that we were forced to look away.

"What's going on?" Tai asked.

"Remember what Will said, about the crests having incredible powers?" Matt said. "I think we're finding out just how powerful they are. Even though we thought we had given them up to protect the digital world, we really never can give them up, because in the end, they're created from the biggest part of our selves!"

Agumon, warp digivolved to...:::::Wargreymon!

Gabumon, warp digivolved to...:::::Metalgarurumon!

"They've reached the mega level again," TK said in awe.

"This is just like what happened to Gomamon," Joe said. "The crests really are still with us!"

"Alright! Now that we've got megas back on our side, this is a much fairer fight!" Izzy said.

"How about we add one more?" Davis suggested. "You ready, Veemon?"

"Absolutely, Davish!" Veemon replied.

"How about you, Wormmon?" Ken asked.

"No problem Ken!" Wormmon said.

Veemon digivolved to...:::::Exveemon!

Wormmon digivolved to...:::::Stingmon!

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

Paildramon mega digivolved to...:::::Imperialdramon!

"Let's get 'em!" Wargreymon cried as he flew up toward the Megaswordmon.

"Terra Force!" he called out as he gathered a massive ball of energy over his head and threw it at one of the Megaswordmon.

The foe leapt out of the way just in time, and the blast slammed into the side of the ridge, sending a cloud of rocks and dust up into the air.

"Metal Wolf Claw!" Metalgarurumon screamed as his mechanical body seemed to split open, revealing an insane number of guns and various missile launchers. He sent a barrage of ice rockets and bullets screaming toward two of the other Megaswordmon, but they both manage to dive out of the way, causing the missiles to slam into the rock face and create enormous patches of ice all across it.

"Imperial Cannon!" Imperialdramon attacked the last Megaswordmon, but his attack was no more successful than the other digimon's. Much like Wargreymon's attack, his blast smashed into the ridge and blasted huge chunks of rock out of it.

"Tai, we've got to try something else, those things are too fast!"

"We'll all help to attack!" Biyomon said. "We'll try to distract them while Wargreymon, Metalgarurumon, and Imperialdramon attack."

"Okay, just be careful," Sora told her digimon.

I looked at Hawkmon. "Stay safe," I told him simply.

"Don't worry, Yolei, I'll be fine," he assured me. Then they all began to digivolve. Every one of our digimon glowed with bright light and grew into their champion forms. I smiled as Aquilamon took shape before my eyes. He nodded to me, and then took off toward the battle.

Aquilamon joined up with Togemon, Ikkakumon, and Kabuterimon in going after one of the digimon. They couldn't damage it, but they might be able to gain its attention long enough for one of our three megas who were fighting to hit it. Metalskullhydramon was using five of his seven heads to protect all of us humans, so the two that were free to attack were no more effective than the champion-level digimon. Instead, they devoted their strength to protecting the lower-level digimon from attacks.

Togemon's Needle Spray along with Ikkakumon's harpoon torpedo managed to make one of the Megaswordmon stop attacking, having to devote all of its focus to protecting itself. As Aquilamon and Kabuterimon circled around in front of it, Imperialdramon passed behind it. The Megaswordmon didn't notice him until it was too late, and the Imperial Cannon landed squarely on target, sending the digimon flying through the air. Wargreymon saw the weakened sword wielder streaking through the sky, and moved to intercept him. He slammed his claws into the Megaswordmon and sent it spiraling down to the ground. It dissolved into data upon impact.

Digmon and Pegasusmon were busy distracting another one, who was fighting back with a vengeance. He managed to strike Digmon and send him flying backward into a large rock, shattering the rock. Birdramon managed to pull his gaze away long enough for Pegasusmon to fly in and ram Megaswordmon to the ground. Before he could get up, Wargreymon seized the opportunity and threw another massive energy ball at the fallen foe. The blast sent him flying up into the air, right toward Metalgarurumon. Matt's metallic partner flew straight toward the digimon, slicing him with his claws. The Megaswordmon was instantly reduced to data.

I looked over to the other side of the fight to see that Myotismon was also fighting. He was being careful to avoid our megas, but he was able to attack our champion level digimon. I ran over to Kari as fast as I could.

"Somebody's got to slow down Myotismon," I said.

"Good idea," she replied quickly. We both smiled as our digivices lit up.

Gatomon, Aquilamon, DNA digivolve to…..:::::Silphymon!

Myotismon's bats were harassing Exveemon when Silphymon managed to run up the steep slope unnoticed by Myotismon.

"Static Force!" the fused digimon cried as it gathered a charge of energy together and threw it at Myotismon. The blast struck him in the chest, knocking him backwards. The bat immediately left Exveemon and flew toward Silphymon.

"Get her!" Myotismon screamed at the nearest Megaswordmon. The digimon obeyed, rushing at Silphymon with two swords in each hand.

"Multi-Sword Slash!" it called out as it swung at Silphymon. Silphymon wasn't quick enough to dodge the attack, and was sent flying backwards off of the ridge. Megaswordmon, however, had left himself wide open in the process, and Metalgarurumon capitalized.

"Metal Wolf Claw!" he called out as a massive barrage of rockets flew at Megaswordmon. The direct hit froze Megaswordmon solid and it crashed down onto the ground, trapped in a block of ice. This gave Imperialdramon more than enough time to line up his Imperial Cannon attack. The mega-level digimon was obliterated, being reduced to floating particles of data.

Silphymon crashed to the ground hard. Unable to withstand the attack of a mega-level digimon, the two split apart once again, into Hawkmon and Gatomon. They landed far apart, because Hawkmon rolled about sixty feet farther than Gatomon.

"Gatomon!" Kari screamed. She ran out from under the safety of Metalskullhydramon's heads and toward Gatomon.

"Kari get back, it's too dangerous!" Tai yelled after her. Kari ignored him and kept going. The swords being flung by the remaining Metalswordmon slammed into the ground all around her as she ran. She finally reached Gatomon and fell down next to her.

"Gatomon, are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, Kari, I'm fine," Gatomon replied weakly. Suddenly, her eyes got very wide. "Kari look out!" Gatomon screamed and pushed Kari away. A sword landed right where Kari had been just milliseconds before. Kari fell down onto her back. She looked up and was scared stiff as another sword slammed into the ground right next to her head. Metalskullhydramon tried to rush one of his heads over to protect her, but he couldn't make it in time. She tried to get up again, but it was too late. Another sword flew down and hit her squarely in the stomach, driving straight through her into the ground.

Time seemed to freeze in that moment. All we could do was stare at the expression on Kari's face as her head fell back against the ground. Blood from the wound began to drench her pink and white shirt, and a small pool was forming around her.