LordPata, you're gonna hate me for this chapter... You'll see what I meant by my comments in the previous chapter, about how I took the sacrifice thing too far. As for the Zudomon thing, no, I didn't mean for them to seem like that, but perhaps I will... Perhaps I will... xD
Hiding in the relative safety of the railway station, the Chosen Children, although more like Chosen Teens now, huddled together in a discussion group.
"Right, now what are we gonna do? WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon aren't back yet, the others haven't come, and the X Digimon are staging attacks at an increasing rate. Any ideas?" asked Agunimon.
"Hide?" spoke up Patamon.
"Wellll..." answered Agunimon, drawing out the 'l' sound, "I don't think that's a good idea. Hiding will just prolong our survival while the X Digimon look for us, then deletion if they do find us."
Being a Digimon, Agunimon said deletion instead of death, for they both mean the same thing, having life torn away from them.
"But we can't meet them head on either... They'll just waste us!" exclaimed Tai.
"No... We can't..." muttered Matt. "But we can't hide either, like Agunimon pointed out."
"So what can we do...?" asked Kari softly.
"Resist," said Gatomon firmly. "Resist them with all our might and do as we usually do: Head right to their root and destroy it."
Agunimon nodded thoughtfully. "The girl's got a point... That helped you in the past hasn't it...?"
"Yeah... I guess so... But where is their root?" asked Tai.
"Easy," said Agunimon confidently. "Follow the enemy till you come out at their HQ. Track them like a Dobermon, and attack with the speed of a Rapidmon and the strength of a Zudomon!"
"Good idea. Problem is, we never know where they come from," countered Matt, practical as always.
"Ah... but there's where my friend comes in."
Before Agunimon could elaborate, a huge roar crashed through the air. A Deltamon X smashed through the entrance of the railway station, all three heads snarling. With a skeleton head for its left hand and a bionic head for its right as well as a normal dinosaur head as its main one, this Champion level X Digimon was one to be reckoned with. Its blue skin glowed with a strange luminescence that lit up the slightly dark station. The white spot on the tip of its nose quivered as it scented the Chosen Children and advanced towards them with another roar, its twin tails lashing from side to side.
"Serpent Bite!" it hissed as it launched its right hand/head forward.
"Stand back!" shouted Agunimon as he launched his own fiery projectile attack. "Burning Salamander!"
As the teens and their Digimon hurried behind their guardian, the two attacks met head on, and with a loud blast and lots of smoke, the victor emerged.
However, the victor was the metal right hand of the Deltamon X, which shot forward to snatch up Agunimon in its jaws.
"Ugh!" he grunted, trying to shake off the head. But his efforts were easily denied; powerful though Agunimon's fiery attacks were, his physical strength wasn't as powerful, serving only enough to match say, a Garurumon.
Flames started to pour from the holes in his armor as he desperately tried his other attack. "Salamander Break!"
However, even as the black scorch marks scoured the surface of the bionic head, it crunched down even harder, and Agunimon screamed in pain as the sharp teeth of the mechanic head increased its pressure on his armor.
Finally, as Agunimon slumped down in the Deltamon X's grasp, the Champion level grunted and tossed him aside. It then drew back its two heads as well as its centre one and a ball of energy concentrated in each.
"Triplex Force!"
Each head shot forward, firing a beam of energy that met before the Deltamon X and formed a huge laser that aimed straight at Agunimon.
"Agunimon!" shouted all the teens at the same time.
Agunimon groaned, then slowly bent his weight onto one leg and pushed off, sending him flying out of the laser's way. But even that effort seemed to tire him, and he went down onto one knee.
The Deltamon X lifted its head and sniffed, then laboredly turned its head in his direction. The teens were already coming to the conclusion that its eyesight was exceedingly bad, but its sense of smell and hearing was excellent.
Suddenly, it thrust its head forwards, blasting a blue flame at Agunimon.
"Argh!" screamed the severely weakened Digimon.
"Agunimon! Stay strong!" yelled Tai. His eyes fervently scanned the area for something he could use to help Agunimon. But unlike the streets above, the station was very clean besides the rubble now littering the area, meaning that there were no stray pipes which he could use.
Matt was glaring at the Deltamon X, trying to note whichever areas seemed weak and storing them away in his mind.
Kari was frantically flitting her eyes from Deltamon X to Agunimon, feeling lost.
However, TK was gazing at Agunimon, channeling the Hope of which he was the bearer of into the Digimon who was trying so hard to protect them.
Suddenly, Tai's head, which had been slowly lowering, snapped up.
"Agunimon! Don't fail WarGreymon!" he yelled.
Agunimon's eyes lit up, then narrowed. He would not fail his idol, no matter what. His hand inched slowly to a small device strapped on his waist.
"Slide..." he murmured.
"Delta Force!" roared the Deltamon X as it fired three separate blasts of energy that spun in a triangle formation as it sped towards Agunimon.
"...Evolution!" shouted Agunimon as he brought the shining device up.
"Slide... Evolution...?" gasped the Chosen, having never heard of that Digivolution route before.
A blast of fire exploded from Agunimon's fist, as swirled around him as he gave a blood-curdling scream. Digital data enshrouded him as he became nothing more than a black shadow engulfed by flames. The Delta Force attack dispersed harmlessly around him as a tornado of fire brewed up around him.
"Vritramon!" he shouted, blazing new wings sweeping the flames away from him.
The new Digimon, seemingly Ultimate in level, stood eight feet tall, and had the familiar tri-horn design as well. However, the horns were slightly different; with the side horns set further back along the now white helmet. His skin seemed to be still clad in the skin tight black suit, with red, gold and white armor. He now sported wings, and the very feathers appeared to be made of fire, but on closer inspection it could be seen that the feathers were actually bright orange and downy, but covered with fire. His feet were now two white claws, with white armor over gold kneepads. Gold arm guards now covered his arms, and a long red powerful tail sprouted from below his armor.
The new Digimon stepped forward and faced up to the Deltamon X. His arm guards swiveled round and split open lengthwise, revealing concealed blasters within them.
"Now, it's your turn," he growled, his blue eyes narrowing. "Corona Blaster!"
The mounted blasters on his arms started firing red energy blasts at the Deltamon X, pelting it with numerous blasts. Each blast was already pretty powerful, but the combined effect of hundreds of bolts slicing through the Deltamon X resulted in it screaming in pain.
"Delta Trinity!" it shouted as it fired three bolts of triangles in quick succession, each head firing one.
But Vritramon just spread his wings and took off, and although the ceiling was too low for there to be any real flying, he was still able to maneuver himself around the attack and flew straight at the Deltamon X in a kamikaze flight, as flames exploded from his entire body.
"Flame Storm!"
He smashed straight into the Deltamon X, barraging through it completely and landing behind the Deltamon X, still covered in fire. But then he channeled the flames to his tail and whipped it around, sending the flames scorching through the air and wrapping itself around the Deltamon X. The Deltamon X screamed in agony as the flames seared through its digital flesh, wrenching it from its frame and dissolving it into data particles.
"Yes! We did it!" shouted Tai, punching his hand into the air.
"That wasn't too bad," smirked Matt.
"That was awesome!" squealed Kari.
TK just smiled and nodded.
Vritramon turned to face them and smiled.
"Thanks for the support guys. I couldn't let WarGreymon down now can I?" he said. His voice had gone down an octave, and was more of a growl than a voice. He was considerably less human-looking now too, compared to Agunimon.
"Now, as I was saying," he continued. "My friend Lobomon should be here anytime now. Keep your eyes peeled for a wolf."
Matt's eyes narrowed. "Wolf?"
Vritramon shrugged. "More or less. He's a lupine in his Human Spirit form, and looks like a pale purple version of my Agunimon form except for a wolf-shaped helmet and a long scarf. He also wields twin sabers of light. In his Beast Spirit form, he looks something like MetalGarurumon, but he's white in color, with yellow stripes. He has a dark blue underbody, and gold sickles on his shoulders. He also has wheels that can click down behind his feet if he feels the need for extreme speed."
"Human Spirit? Beast Spirit?" enquired the teens.
"Yeah. Let's just say its a different evolutionary technique. I'll explain later. Anyway, you'll know Lobomon or KendoGarurumon when you see him."
"I'm sure you will."
A new voice came down the now ruined stairs of the railway station. Leaning on one of the more intact supports was a figure about Agunimon's height, but while Agunimon was clad in red, gold and white, this Digimon was clad in purple, pale purple and white. The top part of his head was covered in a wolf mask while the bottom half was open, revealing what seemed like a human mouth. His armor was more or less like Agunimon's, only he didn't have any holes and they were light purple where Agunimon was red and dark purple where Agunimon was gold. He also wore the black body suit slightly visible by most of the other Evolutions.
He looked down at the group and they saw deep black eyes surveying them carefully.
"Hey."
Vritramon nodded back. "Guys, Lobomon."
The newly identified Lobomon shifted his weight almost unnoticeably to his right leg, then pushed off, leaping into the air and landing silently before the group, looking around him and taking in the ruined surroundings.
"Trouble?" he enquired.
Data surged around Vritramon as he 'Slide Evolved' back into Agunimon.
"More or less. Enough to force me to Slide Evolve," he replied. "But luckily not enough to force me to Double Spirit Evolve."
Lobomon nodded.
"Where's WarGreymon?"
Agunimon shrugged. "Who knows? He might be coming back, but then he might not. We'll just have to hang tight and wait for him and MetalGarurumon."
Lobomon nodded.
Suddenly, the ground started to rumble. A low growl started up all around them, echoed back by the empty building.
The teens shrank back, and Gatomon and Patamon Digivolved into their Ultimate forms. Agunimon and Lobomon moved like lightning, streaking around to cover the front and back of the Chosen, leaving MagnaAngemon and Angewomon to protect their flanks.
"On the count of three..." muttered Agunimon, flames starting to burn around him, starting from a small blaze to a blazing tornado. "...roll to your left."
"One," counted Lobomon, his hands reaching to his waist.
"Two..." continued Angewomon, her bow summoned and arrow notched.
The rumbling intensified into a literal quake which had the teens wondering what the effect was above ground.
"Three!" shouted MagnaAngemon, throwing down his arm as he summoned the humming purple blade of Excalibur.
The teens dived to the side as ordered, and chaos exploded all around them. Fire, light and holy energies as well as the purple blade of Excalibur clashed against huge rocks that thrust upwards from the floor.
A huge form loomed out of the hole in the floor, crushing through the roof and letting fresh air through for a brief moment before the dust fell again.
Agunimon breathed in sharply.
"A Vermillimon X... They're really serious in getting us..." he muttered.
The Vermillimon X was like an enormous one-horned rhinoceros, or more like a one-horned triceratops. He had a reddish hue all around him, and gave off an aura of extreme heat. His back was completely covered by hard armor-like plates, as was the top part of his head and the front of his legs. The rest of his body was a reddish color, but with a white underbelly.
Lobomon, who now held in his hand two glowing sabers of concentrated light and heat, settled into a fighting stance.
"Whatever," he said as he leapt into the air and came plummeting down, holding his sabers close to his chest as he pointed them downwards, letting his momentum as well as his own force increase the force of his attack.
MagnaAngemon flew off into the air, slicing his own blade in a wide arc to cut through the already weakened roof of the station. "To give us flyers more room!" he called as he quickly flew down with his beam shield on his left arm activated to shield the Digidestined from falling debris.
The Vermillimon X however was not impressed.
"Volcanic Strike II!" he shouted as he opened his mouth and fired a small meteor at the group.
'Duck!" shouted MagnaAngemon.
Agunimon and Lobomon moved together, leaping into the air and firing their projectile attacks at the meteor, trying to divert its course elsewhere.
"Burning Salamander!"
"Licht Kugel!"
Agunimon slammed his fists together as he usually did when initiating his attack, sending flames rippling all around his arms before he concentrated the fire around his fists and sent them flying towards the meteor.
Lobomon had a small cannon strapped to his right wrist and he charged it up and fired a beam of pure light which slammed through the meteor and this combined with Agunimon's Burning Salamander sent the meteor of the Vermillimon X's Volcanic Strike II attack veering off to the side and slamming into the debris behind them all.
But the explosion that ensued on the meteor's contact still did its damage: It left the Chosens' ears ringing and made them disoriented for a while.
MagnaAngemon was buried under some rocks, but the beam blade of Excalibur slashed once and the rocks were blasted away from him. He brushed himself off. "Right. That does it," he muttered. "Guys! Over here! Gate of Destiny!"
The same Gate that had sealed Apocalymon X appeared before him, and a final slash through the centre of it unlocked the bane of evil.
But the Vermillimon X had other ideas.
"Re-format..." he growled.
Data surged around him as he changed, the Re-format attack changing his very data structure as he transformed into another Digimon.
"Kimeramon X!" roared the new Digimon.
Agunimon narrowed his eyes.
"Kimeramon... X...?!"
The Digidestined gasped.
"No..." started Tai.
"...way!" yelled Matt.
The new Digimon was grotesque, to say the least. The Digidestined had last faced it when Ken, in his brainwashed identity of the Digimon Kaiser, had thrown together different parts of Digimon to form this new composition Digimon. With the upper body and head of a Greymon, the helmet of a Kabuterimon, the hair of a MetalGreymon, the right arm of a SkullGreymon, the arms of a Devimon, the left arm of a Kuwangamon, the wings of Angemon and Airdramon, the legs of Garurumon, and the tail of Monochromon. In other words, an extreme case of mismatched genes.
The composition Ultimate level Digimon roared loudly.
"Heat Viper!"
A blast of concentrated heat was fired out of his mouth, arcing through the air to melt through the very rock at their feet, the extreme heat sending the teens reeling back. The heat also sapped MagnaAngemon's energy, forcing him to close the Gate of Destiny. Seeing the predicament, Agunimon took charge.
"Lobomon! Its time to Slide!" shouted Agunimon.
Lobomon nodded, and a device strapped to his right wrist just under the cannon started to glow.
Agunimon reached to his waist and pulled his own glowing machine and they shouted together.
"Agunimon!"
"Lobomon!"
"Slide Evolution!"
Flames roared up around Agunimon as a piercing bright light was emitted by Lobomon. Two screams came as the power that flooded through them caused them to give vent to primal feelings deep within them as the Beast Spirit took over from the Human Spirit.
"Vritramon!" shouted the dragon warrior of fire, wild flames pouring off him.
"KendoGarurumon!" declared the wolf of light, beams from the sun above reflecting off his white armor.
The two new Beast Spirit levels faced off against the Kimeramon X.
"Flame Storm!" shouted Vritramon.
"Speed Star!" followed KendoGarurumon.
"Combination Attack… Phoenix Meteor!" they shouted together.
Flames roared up around the two of them as Vritramon flew and KendoGarurumon clicked down his wheels and literally flew along the ground, each weaving in and out of each other, Vritramon's flames wrapping around both of them, with KendoGarurumon's speed increasing their intensity. The flames started to warp, twisted and contorted by the wind of KendoGarurumon's passing, forming the figure of a phoenix, with its sharp beak of fire pointing forward.
The phoenix shaped fire flew in the air, aiming for the Kimeramon X's Greymon-like torso.
The Digidestined watched anxiously, praying that the Kimeramon X would be defeated as soon as possible. They knew from experience the strength of the genetic mix-up that formed Kimeramon, and they had no desire to see that strength be increased by the X Virus.
Angewomon flew higher and higher, her arms glowing with holy energy.
"Heaven's Charm!" she cried. The circle of energy formed by her spreading arms started to absorb the heat from the Kimeramon X's Heat Viper attack, making it more or less bearable for the teens. She then morphed the fiery heat into more holy energy that she used in her Celestial Arrow attack, aiming to go right through the Airdramon wings of the Kimeramon X.
MagnaAngemon gritted his teeth as he traced the mystical runes of the ancient Digital language in the air. When he was done, the lines he traced shimmered green in the air for a while, then suddenly shattered into a waterfall of green sparkles. As the sparkles landed on his comrades' wounds, the wounds started to mend themselves, and they started to feel refreshed. His own wings, starting to smolder, soon healed, and they were good as new in a few seconds.
However, the Kimeramon X obviously didn't like the idea of defeat, and his wings started to glow with a sickly green, vastly different from the calm green of MagnaAngemon's healing technique.
"Poison Wing!" he screeched, spreading his four wings in a sudden movement that sent green beams flying off him. One of the beams smashed into Angewomon's Celestial Arrow, obliterating it instantly. The other beams flew towards Vritramon and KendoGarurumon, forcing them apart as they dodged the attack. Fortunately, just before they separated, KendoGarurumon had put on one last burst of speed before slamming on the brakes straight away, sending the flames spiraling before him, still in its phoenix shape. The fiery bird arced through the air, the flames dancing until it seemed like the phoenix was alive, and flapping its wings as it struck its target.
However, even with a massive explosion that ensued when the phoenix connected with the Kimeramon X, the Ultimate level X Digimon didn't seem in the least fazed. If anything, it seemed to enrage the Kimeramon X even more.
"Poison Viper!" he hissed, folding his glowing wings around him again, then suddenly spread them wide open with a mighty sweep, accompanied by the scorching heat laser from his mouth.
The combination attack scalded the air, flying every which way which forced the Digidestined to do some pretty impressive evasive maneuvers to avoid being hit. The Digimon, with their speed and flying abilities, had an easier time of it, but being larger, especially in Vritramon's case, they were still hit a couple of times.
MagnaAngemon quickly opened another Gate of Destiny, the vacuum from the attack drawing all the poison beams into it. He then initiated another Antidote technique, healing the damage done to the Digimon.
Fortunately, the Digidestined had managed to shelter behind a particularly large piece of rubble, although there was now a large hole through the centre of it, courtesy of a stray poison beam. The Heat Viper part of the attack had scoured the top part of the rock clean, but hadn't gotten near enough to do any damage to the humans, although the heat was still intense.
But the Kimeramon X had had enough of the annoying angel.
"Scissor Claw!" he screamed.
All four of his arms slashed out, forming claws which, true to the name of the attack, scissored though the air, crisscrossing each other's path as they surrounded MagnaAngemon. Then, they suddenly stopped moving, all four arms poised.
MagnaAngemon wasn't moving, but not for lack of trying. Looking closely, it was possible to see that his limbs were struggling, but he couldn't budge an inch. It was as though invisible strings bound him where he hovered, helpless in the air.
Angewomon flew over to MagnaAngemon, an arrow notched in her bow. "Celestial Arrow!" she shouted, drawing back her bowstring. But her arrow, flying through the air, was disintegrated by a Heat Viper sent carelessly by the Kimeramon X.
TK was frantic, his eyes fixed on MagnaAngemon. Kari had her hands to her mouth in an eerie replay of the moments before Lobomon's arrival, her eyes flitting from predator to prey as the struggling angel tried to break free of the invisible ropes binding him. Matt was galvanized into action by the look of helplessness on his brother's face, and he started to scramble around on the ground, picking up rocks and throwing them as hard as he could at the Kimeramon X's claws. Tai was helping him, yelling profanities at the Kimeramon X, and the rocks came raining down. But the Kimeramon X fired a Poison Wing attack at the Chosen, making them dive for cover.
Vritramon and KendoGarurumon made their move, sending blasts of fire and solar blasts in a roaring inferno around the Kimeramon X. But that didn't deter the Ultimate level X Digimon from plunging his claws forward, straight through MagnaAngemon.
"NOOO!!!" screamed TK.
MagnaAngemon was motionless, even the minute tremors of his body trying to escape were stilled. TK ran out from behind the rock, throwing everything he had within reach at his foe.
"MAGNAANGEMON!"
It was a saying come true, that history, once it has run its course, will renew its cycle, and MagnaAngemon's second time had come.
Matt rushed out, grabbing hold of his brother.
"TK! Get a hold on yourself!" he shouted, although there were also tears coursing down his cheeks.
Kari was sobbing quietly, all her hope gone. She couldn't even raise her head to look at her friend.
Vritramon and KendoGarurumon attacked with a new fury, backed up by a volley of arrows that the sobbing Angewomon sent from the back row.
"Celestial Rain!"
"Wildfire Tsunami!"
"Licht Torpedo!"
Arrows rained down, flames roared and light rays streamed from their attacks, and the Kimeramon X flinched from them, dropping the prostrate body of MagnaAngemon unceremoniously onto the ground. That was the final straw for TK, and his eyes blazed.
"Let me at him!" he screamed, tears streaming down his face. He raged at his brother's hands holding him firm, trying to wrench himself away from Matt. "I'll kill him! I'll tear him apart!"
Suddenly, a huge explosion blew what was left of the station roof apart, and flames leapt up all around them. A golden dragon warrior hovered in the air above, his green eyes blazing with fury as he gazed upon the data-bleeding body of MagnaAngemon. WarGreymon X had returned.
Sorry LordPata! I'm so sorry! But have hope... Patamon is the Digimon of Hope... Have hope!