Chapter 37: Hell on Earth
My vines wrapped around Mimi and dragged her out of the collapsing building. We ran to the street with the others and turned to watch the terrible transformation. It was like all of the worst nightmares I had ever had all coming true at once.
As the building crumbled, the enormous digimon scanned the city from his new perspective. Metalgarurumon had landed on a roof and was staring at the monster, apparently trying to come up with a plan of attack. Wargreymon and Angemon flew over to the scene, stopping out over the water. They seemed unsure of how to handle the new enemy.
"This could be a bit of a problem," Matt said.
"Alright, we'll just have to do this the hard way," Tai declared. "Get him Wargreymon!"
Wargreymon flew up into the sky, and then dove at Daemon at high speed, spinning rapidly to create a tornado of energy. He sped straight for the beast from high above, but Daemon swung his staff at the tornado and struck Wargreymon in the stomach, sending him flying. The staff made a terribly loud crackle as it spilt the air, and the black orb left a trail of some kind of dark energy. Wargreymon recovered in mid air and attacked again. Metalgarurumon also took to the sky and tried to use his Metal Wolf Claw attack. Daemon turned quickly to him and released a stream of blue fire at him which devoured the attack and slammed Metalgarurumon into a building. Without ceasing his fiery breath, Daemon turned to Wargreymon. Wargreymon tried to use his shield to block the blast, but it was too much for him and he was knocked from the sky into the bay.
Daemon still did not stop his fire breathing. He focused it on several nearby buildings, which instantly erupted in flames.
"We've got to help them, Will," Michael said. Will nodded. Seadramon devolved to Betamon, but not for long.
Drakamon warp digivolve to...:::::Metalskullhydramon!
Betamon warp digivolve to...:::::Metalseadramon!
Metalseadramon launched his River of Power at Daemon, but the attack was swallowed by the constant flow of fire from the demon's mouth. Metalseadramon was hit by the full force of the blow and was pushed back into the bay. Wargreymon rose out of the water at that moment and threw the massive blast that he called Terra Force at Daemon, but again the fire consumed the attack before it even reached him.
Metalskullhydramon took a more direct approach. Charging through the burning rubble as Daemon handled Wargreymon's attack; the seven heads all camped down on Daemon's legs and arms. His tail wrapped around Daemon, securing his grip, and he used one head, the one with three horns, to attempt to skewer Daemon upon said horns. Daemon, however, proved far too strong. He wrenched his arms free of Metalskullhydramon's heads and pried the remaining heads off of himself. Then he swung the staff, striking two of the heads and slamming them down into the burning rubble on the ground. The other five rushed him, but his flaming breath pushed them backwards, turning the black metal armor bright red.
Metalgarurumon flew at Daemon from behind and launched an all-out attack at him. The icy missile struck Daemon's back, but the ice almost instantly melted away. Daemon spun around like lightning, his staff crackling through the air, and swatted Metalgarurumon out of the air. Metalseadramon rose up out of the bay and quickly launched his attack against Daemon, but the massive digimon again turned his fire upon Michael's partner and sent him streaking back across the bay in a cloud of fire and steam.
Wargreymon tried to strike Daemon with his claws, but Daemon grabbed him with his free hand and threw him to the ground. His fire breath covered Wargreymon and pinned him to the ground. Metalskullhydramon's heads all launched their Dark Dimension attacks, sending the seven pentagons straight into Daemon's body. The demon ignored the attacks completely, focusing on scorching Wargreymon. Metalseadramon launched another River of Power which also connected with its target, but again Daemon ignored the attack as if it were little more than a child's squirt gun.
"He just too strong, our attacks aren't even fazing him!" Tai cried.
"There's got to be something else we can do," Joe said. "Ikkakumon, we've got to help!"
Ikkakumon digivolve to...:::::Zudomon!
"Palmon, you help them too," Mimi said. I nodded and focused on the power that was streaming through me.
Palmon digivolve to...:::::Togemon!
Togemon digivolve to...:::::Lilymon!
"Vulcan's Hammer!" Zudomon yelled as he threw his enormous weapon at the demon digimon. The hammer struck Daemon right on the forehead and ricocheted up into the air. Once again, Daemon simply ignored the attack.
I tried my Flower Cannon attack, but it was no more effective. Metalgarurumon, Metalskullhydramon, and Metalseadramon all attacked at once, but Daemon still did not even notice the other digimon. Through the flames, I could see that Wargreymon wasn't going to be able to last much longer.
"Keep trying!" TK suddenly called out. "You can't give up now! Whatever it takes, don't stop fighting!"
Angemon digivolve to...:::::Magnaangemon!
Drawing his sword, Magnaangemon rushed into the flaming inferno. Fighting through he fames, he grabbed Wargreymon and pulled him away from Daemon. He flew away quickly, out of the fire. Daemon tried to follow him, but he flew out over the bay and Daemon couldn't connect with his continuous fire breath, and he couldn't walk out into the bay.
Daemon's proximity to the water gave Sora an idea. "Perhaps if we knock him into the water, it might weaken him," she suggested. Michael, Will, Matt, and Joe all nodded.
All at once, the four digimon rushed Daemon. Metalskullhydramon slammed into him hard, again trying to coil himself around the demon and immobilize him. Metalseadramon and Zudomon both tried to tackle Daemon back into the water, and managed to push him back right to the edge of it. Metalgarurumon dove in from high in the sky, building up speed and slamming into the demon's body. As a mass, all of the digimon went crashing backwards into the water, skidding down into the depths and disappearing beneath an enormous cloud of steam and thrashing water.
For a second, only the enormous cloud of steam continued to rise up from the bay. We all held our breath, hoping desperately that the fight was over. Then something finally broke the surface with an enormous splash. It was Zudomon.
Metalgarurumon and the two dragons surfaced seconds later, still shrouded in the cloud of steam. They all slowly climbed onto the shore, and for a brief moment in time, we actually thought we had won. The increasing steam indicated otherwise, but we ignored it at first.
Suddenly, we felt the ground shake, as if there was going to be an earthquake. Then, the water turned bright red and began to boil, and then the entire bay seemed to explode. The water leapt out as if the bay was a tiny puddle that a child had just stomped in. The scalding hot water was mixed with a terrible red and blue fire that seemed to expand as a bubble out from the bottom of the bay. The other digimon quickly moved in front us, screening us from the terrible blast as the city block around us went tumbling down in a mass of fire and smoke. When it finally cleared, we could only stare in awe down into the bay. There was no water left in it. There was only Daemon, surrounded in a massive bubble of fire which was keeping the water from the ocean from the river from flowing in.
"Can anything stop this guy?" Davis questioned, hardly able to believe that the digimon was still alive.
Daemon began to climb out of the bay, and the bubble of fire moved with him, rising up toward us out of the gaping pit that had once been filled with water.
"Guys, I think we should move before he gets any closer," Joe suggested. Everyone agreed immediately, and turned away, sprinting as quickly as possible away from the oncoming flames.
The other digimon and I turned to face Daemon, now only hoping to buy time for everyone else to escape. We all tried to attack him, but the bubble of fire blocked all of our attacks, and Daemon just kept coming. He reached the edge of the crater and began to step through the rubble. Our attacks could do nothing to prevent him, so we instead turned toward everyone else and began trying to scoop them up in order to get them away faster. Behind us, water began to rush back into the bay as the bubble ceased to block its flow.
As we escaped the rubble and fled into the part of the city that was still undamaged, Kari stopped running.
"Kari c'mon, we've got to hurry!" Tai yelled at her.
"Tai, if we kept going, Daemon wild burn down the entire city. We can't just lead him through town. So many people would get hurt," Kari explained.
Tai gasped, realizing that Kari was right. "But how can we stop him?" Tai asked. But nobody had a chance to respond, because Kari suddenly began to glow with a bright white light. From high above us, on the roof of a skyscraper, another light was beginning to shine along with Kari's.
Gatomon digivolve to...:::::Angewomon!
"It's Gatomon!" Kari called out happily.
"But how'd she escape?" Cody wondered.
"More importantly, can she stop Daemon?" Ken said.
But Daemon had now stopped on his own accord, and was staring a t Angewomon with fire burning in his eyes. Slowly he raised his staff, and the black rob began to glow in a threatening, foul light that seemed to cause the day to turn instantly into night. Angewomon was undeterred.
"Celestial Arrow!" she said as the holy arrow appeared on her hand. She pulled it back in the magical bow that sprung from her wrist, and then loosed the arrow straight at Daemon.
The bolt sliced through the fiery shroud with ease, streaking forward towards Daemon's head. It missed a direct hit, but instead struck the earring which dangled form the demon's skull. The arrow passed through effortlessly, and then disintegrated on the other side, but the damage was done. A dark red light surrounded the earring, and all of the fire around the city seemed to gather itself into it. Daemon cried out as if in agony as the earring exploded in a flash of fire and light into thousands of tiny pieces.
The terrible fire once again surrounded Daemon, and the digimon screamed in agony as it wrapped around him. The fire surrounded him completely, and then grew smaller and smaller until at last it dissipated, revealing Daemon's original form, clenching his fists in anger.
"What have you done?" he demanded, staring at Angewomon. "You cannot have, there's no way, NO!" he screeched in a blind rage. "You will all die for this outrage! I will see to that personally!" And he suddenly vanished, disappearing back into the digital world.
Angewomon reverted back to Gatomon as she landed gracefully in front of us. The other digimon and I then returned to our rookie stages. Kari ran forward and scooped Gatomon up in a big hug.
"Gatomon, you're the best," she said as she held the digital cat close.
"I missed you so much, Kari," Gatomon said, happily returning the hug.
"But how did you escape?" Tai asked as we all gathered around. Kari released Gatomon, who smiled up at Tai.
"Let' just say, I had a little unexpected help . . ."