Chapter 31: River of Power
"How soon do you think they'll get here?" TK asked.
"They had better get here soon. Daemon will wash away all of Japan if they don't!" Yolei said.
"Calm down Yolei, I'm sure they'll be here any minute now," I replied, placing my wing on her shoulder.
I was standing on a table in Kari's hospital room, hiding out until we could get more reinforcement to take on Daemon. We had the window open so that we could hear if anything happened outside, and the rain was slanting into the room, making an increasingly large puddle on the floor. Of course the puddle was the last of our worries at that time.
"Well they had better get here soon. We can't take him on without Imperialdramon," Yolei said.
Kari smiled at her from the bed. "Don't worry Yolei, we've been in tight places before, and our friends have always . . ."
Her reassuring words were cut short by the shaking of the building and the resonating cry of 'Horn Buster' high above our window.
"What was that?" Yolei said.
"It must be Megakabuterimon! They're here!" TK said. He ran to the window and peered out. "They must have landed on the roof. I can't see them."
Yolei and I wandered over to the window along with Patamon.
"Should we go up there and help?" Patamon asked.
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea," TK said. Just as Patamon and I jumped out the window into the rain, Megakabuterimon slid over the side of the roof followed by a massive burst of fire which lit up the raindrops and skyscrapers like a lightning flash. Megakabuterimon began to fall towards the street out of control.
"Patamon help him!" TK screamed.
Patamon digivolve to...:::::Angemon!
Angemon dove underneath Megakabuterimon and caught the enormous insect digimon as he fell. Using all six of his wings, Angemon managed to slow their fall and land softly on the ground.
"Nice catch," Megakabuterimon said.
"We've got to get back up there; they could still be in danger!" Angemon yelled. Both digimon took off toward the roof again.
"Hawkmon, I think it's time you got involved," Yolei said.
"You too, Gatomon," Kari said.
Hawkmon digivolve to...:::::Aquilamon!
Aquilamon, Gatomon, DNA digivolve to...:::::Silphymon!
My mind melded together with Gatomon's and we seemed to become a single being. With incredible agility and grace, we bounced off of the ledges of the skyscrapers and leapt up onto the roof. Angemon and Megakabuterimon arrived right after us.
Before us, we could see Davis, Mimi, Izzy, Cody, Joe, and Ken all anxiously waiting to see if Megakabuterimon would return. Veemon, Wormmon, Armadillomon, Gomamon, and Palmon were there also. Behind them, hovering high above the hospital's roof, was Daemon, covered in his dark red cloak, only his glowing red eyes visible under the hood.
"Alright, now we've got a better chance!" Davis exclaimed.
We all attacked at once. Megakabuterimon and Angemon flew at him while we charged a Static Force attack. All three of us launched our attacks at once, and they exploded around him, giving off a bright light and an enormous amount of smoke.
We waited tensely for the smoke to clear. Unfortunately, before it did, three massive fire blasts flew out of it. One knocked Megakabuterimon backwards into an adjacent building, another struck Angemon and slammed him down onto the roof. The last one hit Gatomon and I, and our combined form was thrown from the rooftop in a blaze of furious fire.
We couldn't see anything. We had lost all sense of direction, and knew only that we were falling. The rain seemed to be spraying in all directions, and hot fire still burned on our feathers and in our fur. The sensation suddenly ended, and when we regained our composure, we could see the ground several stories below. We turned and saw that Palmon had managed to catch us with her vines. She quickly pulled us back up to the roof and set us down on our feet. A few feet away, Angemon was slowly rising. Above us, Megakabuterimon was lodged in the building, hardly moving. Daemon still floated above the horrific scene, completely unscathed by our attack.
"They can't do it by themselves, Veemon," Davis said. "You've got to digivolve."
"I . . . I . . . I can't, Davish. I'm too tired from all the fighting today," Veemon said. He was still struggling to gather enough energy to digivolve, but he was just too tired. A few feet away, Wormmon was having the same problem.
"Palmon, you'll have to try. There's no one else," Mimi said, looking at her digimon.
"Here we go," Palmon said as she ran forward.
Palmon digivolve to...:::::Togemon!
A giant cactus with boxing gloves always seems to stir up different emotions, but Togemon only seemed to amuse Daemon.
"You fools cam here to fight me, yet you haven't even close to enough power to harm me. You don't even fully understand what it is you're fighting for," Daemon cackled. "Flame Inferno!"
Togemon was hit by the full force of the blast and was sent skidding back across the roof in a ball of fire right to the precipice. As she began to slip over the edge, she managed to grab on but was unable to pull herself up.
Mimi sprinted over to her digimon. "C'mon Togemon, climb back up. We need you.
"I can't, Mimi. I'm not strong enough," Togemon choked out.
"Please try, Togemon. We need you. I know you can do it," Mimi said as she grabbed one of the enormous boxing gloves and started to pull. A soft pink light began to surround Mimi, and Togemon suddenly exploded with a brilliant light. The cactus body seemed to fade away as it bloomed into a flower and slowly rose up into the air.
Togemon digivolve to...:::::Lilymon!
"Togemon digivolved, but we're still outmatched here," Ken said. "Even Imperialdramon wasn't able to defeat Daemon before."
"Veemon, we need you, you've got to try harder," Davis pleaded.
"I am, Davish, but I don't have the strength left," Veemon whined.
We stared up at the apparently invincible digimon. He seemed to be savoring his apparent victory, staring down at us with his terrifying eyes, his wings twitching slightly as the cold rainwater cascaded off of them. Not that it mattered, he didn't need them to fly.
"Now, I think I should end this futile contest," Daemon grinned. He began to summon enormous amounts of fire to his hands. The light grew brighter and brighter, and steam began to rise as the rain around the flame quickly evaporated. All we could do was watch and wait. Our attacks wouldn't be able to stop him.
"We need to get out of here, now," Joe said.
"How do you propose we do that?" Davis asked.
"Veemon will break down the door to that stairwell and we run," Joe said simply.
"Why do we always have to run?" Davis complained.
"Because he's about to incinerate us with a giant fireball," Joe replied.
Suddenly, seven large black pentagon beams slammed into Daemon from his left, sending him rocketing down the street and causing the fireball to dissipate into the atmosphere. Daemon quickly righted himself and returned to his previous spot, facing off against Metalskullhydramon. Will was riding on the three-horned head.
"Well, it's been quite a while since I fought this beast,' Daemon said, not even seeming phased.
"I think you'd be rather wise to get out of here now!" Will screamed at Daemon from on top of the beast's head.
"Oh, I find that rather unlikely. You snuck up on me and managed to knock me down, but I seriously doubt that you'll use the Abomination attack in this setting. It would kill far too many people. Thus, you have no power over me here," Daemon grinned.
"We'll see who has the real power," Will said. The massive dragon's heads all fired their pentagon-shaped attacks once again, but Daemon was ready this time.
"Flame Inferno!" the demon digimon roared. The flames engulfed the dragon's attacks and rushed towards it. Six of the dragon's heads rushed to defend the head that Will was standing on. They managed to block the flame temporarily, but they couldn't keep it up forever. The black metal armor was beginning to glow red with the heat, and steam from the rain rose in a massive pillar above the six heads.
The seventh head ducked away and set Will down on the ground and then turned back to Daemon, but even now the mighty dragon could do nothing but defend itself. To look up and attack would have allowed the flames to bypass the armor and strike the much weaker bone body.
"Can't we do something to help?" Mimi asked.
"Daemon's too strong, there's nothing we can do," Ken said.
"We've got to get out of here. Metalskullhydramon is buying us time, but it can't last much longer," Joe said.
"But if we go inside he'll just burn down the entire hospital to get us," Cody said.
"Wait, what was that?" Izzy asked.
"What was what Izzy?" Joe said as he looked over at him.
"I could have sworn I saw something between the . . . there it was again! I did see something!" Izzy exclaimed.
"What was it?" Lilymon asked.
"I'm not sure, but it was big," Izzy said.
"Is that it?" Joe said, pointing behind Daemon. We all looked up again to see yet another massive dragon, this time with only one head, and another boy riding on top of it.
"River of Power!" the Metalseadramon roared as it released a massive blast of water from its snout.
Daemon turned in time to see the blast and immediately threw all of his flames at it, trying desperately to block the stream. The attacks ended in a stalemate.
We all stared at the new arrival. The boy looked familiar, though I couldn't quite place where I'd seen him before. His blonde hair was matted down over his head which made it more difficult to see exactly what he looked like.
Mimi, however, recognized him immediately. "It's Michael!"
Daemon glanced back and forth between the two dragons. In terms of size, they had him outmatched a thousand times, but we knew all too well that looks can be deceiving.
"You humans always have the worst timing," Daemon said slowly.
"Get out of here before I decide to hurt you," Michael said.
"Very well. It would be rather foolish of me to risk fighting now, when it will be so much easier to kill you all off later," Daemon laughed. He seemed to explode in a massive ball of fire, and then there was nothing but the rain where he had once been.
Looking back up at the newcomer, we could now see that Michael was not the only one riding on Metalseadramon. Another boy and two girls were there, along with three more digimon. Metalseadramon lowered them down onto the roof, where they got off. The Metalseadramon then returned to its rookie stage, Betamon.
Metalskullhydramon picked Will up again and brought him up to the roof, then digivolved all the way back to Dremon. They both turned to look at the other four kids.
There was a long silence as they stared at each other. The rain was still beating heavily upon everyone, but none of us dared to move. The tension was so great that it seemed that the tiniest sound would cause the whole city to collapse.
"Hey, Will," Michael said, in English.
Will stared back, wearing a very strange expression on his face, some kind of mix between fear, surprise, and anger.
"Hi," he said at last. I was stunned that the entire universe didn't collapse. Instead, the rain just continued to pound away at us.
"You know what, I think we should all go inside and check on Kari," Izzy suggested. Will looked over at him.
"Yeah, that's a good idea," he said emotionlessly. His face seemed drained of any color.