Thank you again, LordPata. Yes, I'm a fan of that pairing too. xD this chapter's for you, nice and long as I am wont to do!
"Battou...?" murmured MetalGarurumon X.
"Could it be...?" said Imperialdramon in disbelief.
WarGreymon X shrugged. "I don't know... But one thing is for sure: Gatomon has been overcome with fear. We must get the Digidestined to safety."
Tai and Matt started to protest.
"But– "
"We're not leaving without–"
"Silence, both of you." WarGreymon X cut in. "The Digital World needs you again, that much is clear for the X Digimon would not randomly attack you instead of the other million people in Japan. And besides, they risked a great deal attacking you lot, for you have us to defend you. But apparently, the Chosen Ones are too important a key to the defending of the Digital World to leave alive. That's why they are attacking you."
"But what about the others?" said TK.
"Leave that to me. I gotta go anyways. A bit overdue, but Davis and Ken can cope," said Imperialdramon, spreading his draconic red wings. "At least, Ken can. But Davis... who knows what Daisuke gets up to? See yas."
With that, the huge dragon took to the air, the updraft of his powerful ascent blowing around them and buffeting them around.
"Now, I have to go to the Digital World to arrange a haven. MetalGarurumon, you go round up the other Digidestined." WarGreymon X took charge. "Remember to call Lobomon to give you a hand. I'll give Agunimon a house call. Leave them to defend these guys."
MetalGarurumon X nodded. "Right. But you know Lobomon... he isn't exactly the most social of guys..."
WarGreymon X grimaced. "Yeah... But Lady Ophanimon and Lord Seraphimon would've briefed him on the situation, as well as the others. What I don't get is why the four Digital Gods wouldn't brief us."
Tai tried to stop him.
"But it's dangerous! What if the X Digimon decide to attack again?"
WarGreymon X took hold of Tai's shoulders gently.
"I'm leaving you in the capable hands of my friend, Agunimon. He is more than capable enough of taking care of you. Also, Magnadramon will be here. Wouldn't you Gatomon?"
Gatomon, who had recovered from her faint and fear nodded reassuringly. "But WarGreymon, who is this Agunimon?" she asked.
WarGreymon X, like Seraphimon, couldn't make his expressions shown easily. But unlike Seraphimon, whose helmet completely covered his head, WarGreymon X's helmet revealed his eyes, with which he transmitted his emotions. And right now, his eyes were crinkling at the corners, indicating humor.
"Let's just say he has a keen sense of humor."
Gatomon's eyes narrowed. "WarGreymon..."
"You'll see when he gets here. I gotta go now. Careful now."
With that, he raised his feared Dramon Slayers, the gauntlets which had ended many the life of an evil Digimon, slashing downwards and generating a vortex that swirled with all the colors of the rainbow.
"Head to the railway station. I will meet you there when I have finished my business," he said, stepping through the portal. The last thing they heard as he disappeared was, "Tai... Be careful..."
"WarGreymon..." Tai murmured.
Beside them, a roaring blast was heard as MetalGarurumon X took off into the air. "Matt! Take care of yourself ya hear?!" he shouted down as he lifted off.
"Yeah! You too MetalGarurumon!" came the reply.
With the two Mega levels gone, the six of them were left standing alone, suddenly feeling very vulnerable.
"What now?" piped up Patamon.
"Well... we head to the railway." Now was Tai's turn to take charge. "It's supposed to be a school day. It'll be empty."
"Yeah. Lucky our herodom gives us some freedom eh?" muttered Matt.
Tai ignored him, and continued. "I don't know who this Agunimon is, but until he comes, we need to be wary. Gatomon, you're still pretty weak after that purification, as well as that battle against Apocalymon. Seraphimon is pretty drained as well. In the station, we won't need to be worried of aerial attacks, and there'll be plenty of warning if anybody decides to come at us from underground or above ground. WarGreymon chose a good place."
The rest of them nodded, and they set off.
Two hours later, they arrived panting outside the station. They had narrowly escaped at least three attacks by various Digimon, mutated into more powerful forms by the X Virus. Side roads, alleyways, it was lucky Patamon could fly, in a way, by flapping his ear-wings and being small, could spy pretty easily around corners. That had saved their hide more than once, since although they were all recovering from their earlier battle, it would still be some time before they were fighting fit, and even longer before they could face up to the tougher opponents.
"Whew..." panted Tai, "I never knew Japan was so big!"
"Well..." replied TK, his hands on his knees, "I knew most of the places, considering me and Kari first saw Willis nearby..."
Kari nodded. "Yeah. It was nearby; you can see the paw prints of Chocomon around the area..." She lapsed off as she remembered the suffering of the huge Champion level Wendigomon.
Two years ago, the team had encountered Willis, a boy from the USA who had had the rare occurrence of having twin Digimon born from a single Digitama. However, one of the Digimon, a Terriermon, was sub-consciously treated better than the other, a Lopmon, and the result was that the poor Digimon soon enveloped himself in a veil of anger and sadness, which caused him to Digivolve before his time, causing a huge shift in balance as the Digidestined pursued him, hoping to put him out of his misery, aided by Willis. Soon enough, they cornered him, and a battle commenced. The Champion level Digivolved, and the battle grew even more intense as the Digidestined from the second generation sans Ken; TK, Kari, Daisuke a.k.a. Davis, Miyako a.k.a. Yolei, Iori a.k.a. Cody Armor Digivolved into their Armor forms to face off against the new threat of Antylamon. The battle soon reached time-collapsing proportions as the Ultimate level Digivolved into a Virus form of Cherubimon. The shift in time caused the Digidestined to grow backwards, resulting in a group of three-year-olds, but who have the minds of thirteen-year-olds. Finally, Angemon and Angewomon Warp Digivolved into Seraphimon and Magnadramon, summoning the Golden Digi-Eggs of Miracles and Destiny, which in turn evolved Veemon and Terriermon to Magnamon and GoldenRapidmon. Together, the duo defeated Cherubimon's Virus, causing him to revert to his Vaccine form. However, without the virus to heal him, Cherubimon disintegrated into data particles and vanished, leaving behind a distraught Willis and his twin brother, Terriermon.
Now, so long after that, Kari could still feel the darkness of the virus that had emanated from the suffering Digimon when they had run past the area where they had first encountered Terriermon trying to fight off his twin brother as the Champion level attacked them. However, it turned out that Wendigomon had not been trying to kill them, but had been trying to bring them back to 'where it all began', the field where Willis had first encountered the Digitama. Terriermon, a small white rabbit-like Digimon with long ears and green stripes, as well as a small horn in the middle of his forehead had fought off Lopmon, almost an identical form of Terriermon except for a purple brown color and purple stripes and three horns instead of one, in the very field where they fought Wendigomon for the final time as he Digivolved twice into Cherubimon's Virus form.
Suddenly, the Digidestined heard a loud roar.
"Duck, it's another one!" shouted Tai.
Together, the Digidestined ducked down low, feeling the wind of a passing Cannonbeemon X, a mechanical wasp-like Digimon with a laser cannon in place of its tail and a honeycomb like missile launcher on its back in place of wings. The cyborg insect roared again as it fired its attack.
"Family Reunion!"
Millions of wasp shaped missiles shot out of its launchers, only to be dodged by the Chosen teens as they bobbed and weaved through the missiles.
"Whoa!"
Suddenly, a burst of flames smashed into the back of the Cannonbeemon X, sending it plummeting to the ground.
"Burning Salamander!"
A tall humanoid figure leapt before them, standing almost a head taller than Tai, who, with his bushy brown hair, was the tallest of the group.
"Hey! Sorry I'm late guys. WarGreymon sent me," said the Digimon, for Digimon he obviously was.
He was dressed in red armor, with a red mask covering his head that held the familiar tri-horn design of the Greymon line, but the horns were different in a way. For one thing, this Digimon was as human-looking as possible, and if it wasn't because of his two-clawed feet and mask, he would definitely be regarded as human. Yellow hair spilled out from behind his mask, reaching to his waist, and white armor covered his chest, as well as having straps around his thighs and having a block of armor on the back of each hand. His feet had white armor right above them too, and red shin guards with yellow flame-like decorations covered his legs. The same red armor with yellow flame decorations covered the rest of his body, with what looked like black clothing visible where his armor didn't cover himself fully. A medallion hung around his waist, with the Japanese word for Fire embedded in it. The same word was on his thigh guards and shoulder-pads, highlighting his element. But strangely, three holes in a triangle formation were on each of his hand guards, as well as on his red kneepads and on the white armor above his feet.
"The name's Agunimon, and I'll be your guide and guard for the day, or until WarGreymon comes back whichever comes last. If you'll excuse me..."
Agunimon leapt backwards in a perfect back flip, soaring higher than any human could do without external help and stomped his heels into the Cannonbeemon X, who had been trying to ambush him from behind. The mystery of the triangle of holes was solved as flames sprouted from them as he slammed his fists together.
"Burning Salamander!"
The flaming Digimon pulled his fists apart, fire pouring into the vacuum formed by the air forced away from the area, then the flames spiraled around his arms, ending in twin fireballs in each of his hands. He then threw each fireball at the Cannonbeemon X as he leapt into the air, knowing that the bionic sensors of the Cannonbeemon X needed a small amount of time to focus and determined not to give it that time.
The fireballs slammed into the tail laser, destroying it and rendering one of the cyborg's weapons useless.
"Y'know, you're not gonna do nothing if you can't hit me," taunted Agunimon.
The Cannonbeemon X gave a grating screech as it changed tactics, turning its fearsome launchers at the Digidestined.
"Scatter Blast!" it screeched.
A small energy ball appeared on both sides of the launchers, then joined into a larger one in the centre. With another roar, the Cannonbeemon X fired the large ball at the Digidestined, who scattered.
"Gatomon Crest Digivolve to... Angewomon!"
"Patamon Digivolve to... Angemon!"
The two angels emerged in the blue light of evolution, and the male Angemon spun his staff, his emotions unreadable behind the mask that hid all angels' faces. His mouth however, was set in a grim line, visible because his mask covered only the top half of his face.
Angewomon summoned her bow, drawing and firing an arrow of energy that pierced right through the energy ball. However, the ball shattered, sending smaller balls everywhere.
"Kari! Run!" shouted TK.
"No, both of you run!" shouted Agunimon, leaping in, fire blazing from all the holes in his armor, completely enveloped in flames. "WarGreymon told me to keep you safe! Salamander Break!"
Agunimon started to spin around, the flames forming a mini-tornado around him as he spun around and around, the suction drawing the energy balls to him, as he held a leg out to act as a buffer which knocked the balls back away from him and the Digidestined. The balls smashed into the pavement and nearby buildings, creating mini-explosions as they detonated.
"Angel Rod!" shouted Angemon. The angel had six white wings on his back, and his black helmet only covered the top part of his head. Orange hair hung down over his back, reaching to his waist. His white torso had a black belt around the waist, with blue sashes covering the bottom part of his body. In his hand was a golden staff, and it was this staff that he now wielded, skillfully whacking each ball away from the Digidestined as they came near, sometimes catching two or three at a time as he spun his staff from hand to hand.
Angewomon decided that her bow was of no use in trying to deflect the energy balls and held her hands above her head. "Heaven's Charm!"
The portal that appeared above her sucked in some more of the energy balls, which she converted into energy to power-up her arrow attacks.
"Celestial Arrow!" she called, and the arrow that appeared in her hand bigger than usual. Drawing the string back, she took careful aim and let loose, aiming for a spot in the Cannonbeemon X's head.
However, the cyborg insect caught sight of the white arrow seconds before contact, and with a sideways flick of its head, it managed to avoid it by mere centimeters. With a cackle, it sent another Family Reunion attack at the Digidestined, ignoring the Digimon.
TK jumped to one side, narrowly avoiding one ball as Kari ducked underneath another. Matt took cover behind an old dumpster and called for them to join him.
"Guys! Over here!" he called.
TK and Kari ran over instantly, and Kari screamed as a couple of energy balls exploded around them.
Tai however, was going on the offensive. His Crest of Courage glowing unheeded, he picked up a broken pipe from the ground and charged into the fray. As Kari watched, the same image that she had seen before floated in front of her eyes. The pipe that Tai was carrying had a shimmering sword super-imposed on it, and flames roared up around Tai. As she looked at Matt and TK, she noticed that with her new-found sight, Matt's right arm had the mechanical arm super-imposed on it again, and the winds that blew around him had reached gale force, tearing all around him on the metaphysical plane as his narrowed eyes focused on the Cannonbeemon X. A large rock was in his hand as he took careful aim, then let fly with it that smashed into the back of the Cannonbeemon X. But TK's transformation made her gasp.
"Kari? What's wrong?" asked TK, concern evident in his voice as he gazed at her.
Kari forced her mouth closed and shook her head. "Nothing," she said.
"Are you sure?" persisted TK. "Maybe we should get WarGreymon to– Look out!"
He pushed her to one side, just as an energy ball smashed and detonated where they were just a moment ago.
"–hurry up…" he finished, panting slightly.
Kari nodded. "Right." She decided to keep her vision of TK a secret, and peered out from behind the other side of the dumpster where TK had pushed her out of harm's way.
Despite Agunimon and Angewomon's best efforts, the Cannonbeemon X was proving a stubborn obstacle.
"Dang it! Stop moving so much!" shouted Agunimon. "Burning Salamander!"
But the agile cyborg, despite its destroyed tail, was still hell bent on getting the Digidestined, firing its Family Reunion and Scatter Blast attacks at random, forcing the Digimon to go into some pretty extreme evasive maneuvers.
Tai, on the ground and without Agunimon's agility and massive leaps was at a disadvantage, but with the Cannonbeemon X's attention diverted by Angewomon and Agunimon and Angemon's attention taken up in swatting away the balls that came too near, he had more or less a clear run as long as he managed to dodge the energy balls ricocheting everywhere.
"Courage!" he shouted, jumping up with all his might as he used the pipe as an Olympic challenger would have used a pole vault, boosting his jumping height as he swung the jagged edge over his head to slam into the Cannonbeemon X's belly. The Cannonbeemon X screeched in pain, rearing back and affording full access to its tender underbelly.
The Crest of Courage was by now glowing almost blindly, and Agunimon seemed to pause for a while in which he gazed thoughtfully at Tai, but the next instant it was gone as the flame Digimon launched a volley of Burning Salamanders at the exposed underbelly of the Ultimate level X Digimon. Angewomon summoned her Heaven's Charm power-up again, then called upon her bow again, firing a Celestial Arrow right through the spot where she had missed earlier.
"Sorry big boy, no one gets away from me twice," she said, holding up one finger and cocking it from side to side in a 'no' fashion.
Angemon drew back his fist and light rays started bursting forth from it as he prepared his trademark attack.
"Sorry to say this mister, but she's right. Hand of Fate!"
As Angemon punched forward, the rays of light solidified into a huge beam of holy energy that shot toward the Cannonbeemon X, crashing right into the same spot where Angewomon's arrow had pierced.
"See ya round sometime. Ciao!" called Agunimon, as the Cannonbeemon X thrashed around in pain. "Salamander Break!"
Again, flames roared around him as he started to spin around, rising into the air as fire spiralled around him. With a cry, he struck out with his foot, the flames coursing down his leg to smash into the Cannonbeemon X's underbelly.
With a high-pitched shriek, the Ultimate level X Digimon disintegrated into data particles.
Agunimon landed lightly on the ground and turned to face them.
"Well, shall we continue?" he said, as though there had been no interruption.
Tai dropped the pipe where he stood. "I can not believe I just did that…" he said. "I swear I cannot believe that…"
Agunimon clapped his hand on Tai's shoulder. "We'll make a warrior out of you yet."
Tai's hands were still shaking. "I hope you will. 'Cause right now I feel like I could crawl under my bed."
Kari, Matt and TK cracked up, while Angemon and Angewomon devolved back into their lower stages and laughed as well. The streets rang with their laughter.
But even through her laughter, Kari noticed her vision fading away as it had done, leaving Tai looking completely normal, albeit a bit out of breath. Glancing quickly to her sides, she noticed the winds around Matt had disappeared, as well as the changes to TK. She narrowed her eyes in wonderment.
"Well, let's go!" cried Tai.
Alright, stuff the reviews. I'm posting this up 'cause I feel like it, reviews or no!. Insert maniacal laugh here