Author's Notes: To be perfectly honest, this installment was just pure overkill. And a lot of it.
Disclaimer: Although the severely warped and twisted imagination is my own, Digimon Xros Wars and its characters are the property of Akiyoshi Hongo, Bandai, Toei Animation, and TV Asahi.
| Digimon Xros Wars | Xtra | Part 7 |
"So this is what it's like to transfer between Zones," Crystal was deliberately floating upside down as she drifted through Digital Space along with Taiki, Akari and Zenjirou. The distinct lack of gravity didn't seem to trouble her at all.
"You really haven't done this before, have you?" Taiki was still kind of surprised to learn that Crystal had somehow managed to remain in the Resort Zone the entire time she had been in the Digital World so far. He had already been to numerous Zone, several of which he had visited all in the same day. And with the way he kept encountering Nene and Kiriha in different Zones, it seemed like everyone else he had met with a Xros Loader was constantly on the move.
"How long does it usually take to arrive at the next Zone?" It was a perfectly legitimate question even if Crystal knew she wasn't going to get a definite answer. From the looks of it some Zones were obviously more spread out than others.
"I haven't really been keeping track," Taiki admitted as he pulled out his Xros Loader and began fiddling with it. That would have been fine except that he was almost immediately snagged from behind by a randomly occurring demonic hand attached to what appeared to be an extendable arm. The arm whipped around violently causing Taiki to lose his grip on his Xros Loader before dragging him away through Digital Space.
"What the heck was that?" Crystal demanded. She looked to Akari and Zenjirou. "Does this kind of thing always happen when you guys transfer between Zones?"
"More often than you'd think," Akari sighed in frustration.
Zenjirou waded over to retrieve Taiki's discarded Xros Loader so they wouldn't lose track of it.
"Why do these guys only go after Taiki!" Shoutmon wailed from within the Xros Loader. He definitely wasn't liking the fact that his general had been stolen away from him again.
"In any case," Crystal spoke up again. "We've got no choice but to go after him. Let's try not to get separated, shall we?" She was already paddling in the direction the arm had originated from.
"Be careful," Wisemon's voice emerged from Taiki's Xros Loader. "The digimon who has captured my lab animal is a very dangerous trickster named Diablomon."
The Terminal Zone was basically just an endless plain with metallic flooring populated by nothing but a seemingly infinite number of computer terminals of various shapes and sizes. When Crystal arrived with Akari and Zenjirou the entire Zone was totally silent. There didn't seem to be any digimon inhabiting this Zone and the only sound was their foot steps clattering on the metallic surface that comprised the landscape for the entire area. It was rather unsettling.
"Are you sure this is where Diablomon brought Taiki?" Shoutmon wasted no time materializing from the boy's Xros Loader.
"Pretty sure," Crystal answered.
A black feather fluttered down as Beelzebumon chose that precise moment to make an appearance. "This is definitely the right place," he informed them.
Crystal hadn't met Beelzebumon yet so his sudden arrival made her jump. She relaxed once it became clear that he was only there to help. Once it looked like the girl had managed to calm herself, Beelzebumon directed the group over to one of the computer monitors where they could clearly see Taiki struggling in Diablomon's grasp.
"As you can see," Beelzebumon went on, "the Terminal Zone is directly linked to the Network Zone. Diablomon is a digimon who thrives by consuming vast quantities of data so these two Zones provide an ideal habitat for him."
"Alright," Crystal pulled out her Xros Loader and held it out in front of her. "Reload, Black Fladramon!" The flame armored, humanoid black dragon rapidly materialized. "I want you to wait here with Akari and Zenjirou. This has the look of a serious trap so I think I might need the rest of the team with me."
"Understood," Black Fladramon nodded. "Take care of yourself out there."
"That goes double for you," Crystal responded.
Zenjirou handed over Taiki's Xros Loader. "What makes you so sure this is a trap?"
"Diablomon wanted us to track him here," Crystal answered as she pocketed Taiki's red Xros Loader for safe keeping. "That in itself is a pretty bad sign."
Nevertheless, Crystal was walking directly into it. And she was immediately surrounded by numerous copies of Diablomon.
"I hate it when I'm right," she grumbled. Even so, she held out her silver Xros Loader fully prepared to go on the offensive to clear a path through them. "Reload, Team Epoch!"
"Blades of Thunder!" Zapmon swung her clawed hand at one of the Diablomon copies emitting blades of silvery electricity with which to strike him.
"Spit Fire!" Slashmon exhaled a barrage of golden fireballs into the chest of another of the copies.
"Chaos Fire!" Gururumon exhaled a stream of purple flames onto another of the Diablomon copies.
"Blue Thunder!" Lighdramon blasted another of the copies with electricity projected from the three spikes on the back of his armor.
"Crash Charge!" Raptordramon slammed into yet another of the Diablomon copies.
"Hail Machinegun!" Togemogumon unleashed a barrage of his icy quills onto several of the Diablomon copies all at once.
"Thunderstorm!" Thunderbirmon blasted another of the copies with electricity.
"Gear Stinger!" Crystal's little swarm of Fan Beemon surrounded one of the Diablomon copies and began pelting it with their stinger missiles.
"Iaijin!" Ryuudamon began rapidly exhaling katanas at another of the copies.
"Metal Cannon!" Dorumon exhaled a barrage of metallic cannonballs at another of the Diablomon copies.
"Super Sonic Voice!" Gryphomon emitted a blast of high frequency sound to blow several of the copies away at once.
"Little Blizzard!" Yuki Agumon exhaled a breath of cold fire at yet another of the Diablomon copies.
And, as if that wasn't enough already, Taiki's team wasn't about to be outdone at a time like this and so the main members of Xros Heart also materialized to enter the fray.
"Drill Buster!" Dorulumon pulverized one of the Diablomon copies with a barrage of spinning rocket drills.
"Heavy Speaker!" Ballistamon blew away several copies with a blast of sound from his chest speaker.
"Meteor Squall!" Starmon assaulted numerous Diablomon copies by raining Pickmonz into them.
"Death the Cannon!" Beelzebumon quickly opened fire on several of the copies at once.
"Rowdy Rocker!" Shoutmon easily smacked aside one of the Diablomon copies with his mic and swifty went after another one without losing momentum.
Taiki had been about to warn them about the trap, but he was stunned into silence when he witnessed exactly how they were going to handle it. Clearly, Crystal hadn't been joking when she said she had been holding back during her time in the Resort Zone. Taiki was going to have to remember to stay on her good side.
Akari and Zenjirou couldn't help but stare at the image they were watching on the closest computer monitor. They were so engrossed with watching what was happening on screen that they didn't notice when a portal opened up behind them when Nene arrived with Kiriha.
"You know," Kiriha pointed out the image on the screen. "It doesn't really look like Taiki needs my help with this one."
"Crystal is putting up a decent fight," Nene assured him. "However, there are probably many more enemies that we can't see because they are still lurking off screen."
"I see," Kiriha shrugged. "Then I guess we're going to have to bail them out after all."
The rapid succession of attacks had shrouded the surrounding area in a smoke screen. Crystal decided to take advantage of the momentary confusion caused by the diversion by climbing onto Gryphomon's back while still holding out her Xros Loader with one hand. It was time to kick things up a notch.
"Zapmon, Slashmon, Gururumon, Lighdramon!" Crystal called out. "Digi Xros!"
The four digimon each acknowledged her in their own way before finally coming together. "Digi Xros! X-Slashdramon!"
X-Slashdramon had the torso of an anthropomorphized Gururumon. The fur on each of its legs eventually transitioned into a pair of three-toed, silver-clawed, black-scaled draconic talons with blue and crimson lightning bolt patterned stripes. The fur on each of its arms eventually transitioned into a pair of five-fingered, black-scaled, humanoid hands with a pattern of blue and crimson lightning bolt patterned stripes. Each finger ended in a pointed silver claw. Its tail was also distinctly black-scaled and reptilian with blue and crimson lightning bolt patterned stripes. X-Slashdramon was also draconic from the neck up with silver eyes and a draconic face covered in black scales with blue and crimson lightning bolt patterned stripes. It had a pair of metallic horns protruding from its snout above its nostrils with two additional pairs of metallic horns protruding from above its eyes and from the back of its head. A longer pair of horns the same black color as its scales was positioned outside the metallic pair on the back of its head. X-Slashdramon's right shoulder was cover by a section of black colored armor with the row of three lightning bolt shaped spikes from Lighdramon's back facing downward. Lighdramon's facial mask was mounted on the back of X-Slashdramon's right arm with the metallic lightning bolt shaped nose spike having been extended into a reasonably respectable sword. X-Slashdramon also had a pair of draconic wings extending from its shoulder blades fading from gold to crimson to white giving it an impressive wingspan.
"Alright guys," Crystal started once the Digi Xros was complete. She slipped her Xros Loader back into its holster so she could get a better grip on Gryphomon. "We're going to need you to cover us while we go retrieve Taiki from ugly. Shoutmon, I'll be counting on you to give us a little extra muscle once we get to him."
"I like the way you think," Shoutmon made his way over and climbed onto Gryphomon's back so that he was standing with his mic at the ready.
"Let's go!" Crystal held on tight as Gryphomon finally sped away from the smoke covered portion of the Network Zone to pursue the Diablomon that still had Taiki in his grasp.
However, another Diablomon copy quickly blocked her path only to be slammed out of the way by the arrival of Kiriha and his Metal Greymon.
"It looked like you could use a hand," Kiriha commented nonchalantly when Crystal looked his way. He shifted his attention to Taiki. "Can't you go anywhere without getting yourself captured?"
"Thanks Kiriha," Taiki grumbled. "I appreciate your concern."
"Random Laser!" Sparrowmon blasted several more Diablomon copies out of the way to clear a path.
"This infestation is even worse than I thought," Nene remarked rather offhandedly.
"Remind me to thank you later," Crystal stated simply as she urged Gryphomon to stay on course.
Once they got close enough to the Diablomon that was holding Taiki hostage, Shoutmon launched himself off of Gryphomon and smacked the Diablomon in the arm with his mic so as to loosen his grip on Taiki. From there Shoutmon made sure to grab Taiki by the wrist and flung him bodily over to where Crystal was still waiting to help him onto the winged beast so he could pound on the Diablomon some more without putting Taiki in danger.
"Rock Damashii!" Shoutmon flung the ball of energy he generated straight into the Diablomon's face.
Once Taiki was safely on Gryphomon's back, Crystal pulled his Xros Loader from her pocket and handed it over to him. "You dropped this," she told him somewhat jokingly. "You really ought to be more careful about that."
"I'll make a note of that," Taiki chuckled nervously as he took back his Xros Loader.
"So Taiki," Kiriha called down to him from where he was standing in Metal Greymon's clawed hand. It looked like Metal Greymon was literally standing on the wall above them. There was definitely something a little bit off about the physics of the Network Zone. "Are you planning to help clean up this mess or what?"
"I was getting to it!" Taiki called back.
"Just how many of them are there?" Akari remarked as the screen in front of her filled with Diablomon right before they were blown away by the joint efforts of Shoutmon X4B, Metal Greymon, Sparrowmon, X-Slashdramon and the rest of Team Epoch.
"I think it would be safe to assume that Diablomon began duplicating himself as soon as he captured Taiki," Black Fladramon suggested. "And because each copy also has the ability to replicate itself that means the number of copies has increased exponentially in a very short time. The could be thousands upon thousands of them."
"Do you think the others really stand a chance in there?" Zenjirou asked.
Black Fladramon nodded. "As long as they remember to work together they should have no problem eliminating the copies. However, defeating the original will be much more difficult."
"Giga Destroyer!" Metal Greymon blasted multiple Diablomon with the blasts from his cannons, accidentally grazing Shoutmon X4B in the process.
"Hey!" Shoutmon X4B protested loudly. "Watch where you're aiming!"
"Sorry," Metal Greymon apologized. "I didn't see you there."
"Didn't see me? I'm not even the same color as these guys!" Shoutmon X4B persisted.
"Now boys," Nene interrupted. "This really isn't the best time for petty squabbling."
"Some things never change," Taiki sighed. Why did Kiriha and his digimon always have to be this way?
With things heating up the way they were, Crystal had Gryphomon make a quick pass through the battlefield so she could retrieve the rest of her team to store them safely in her Xros Loader. With all the heavy artillery that was going around she really just didn't want them to get hurt by friendly fire.
"Spectral Thunder!" X-Slashdramon generated a prismatic electric field on the surface of its body before projecting it outward to vaporize a horde of surrounding Diablomon all in one shot. It looked like they were finally starting to put a dent in the absurd number of copies that still swarmed around them.
When it reached the point where there were only a small handful of Diablomon left, they suddenly shattered into a much more numerous swarm of Kuramon as they fled from the Network Zone into the Terminal Zone.
"Did we beat them?" X-Slashdramon asked of no one in particular.
"I don't think so," Taiki responded. "They might just be regrouping before they resume their attack."
"Then we'd better hurry after them," Crystal suggested.
Meanwhile, Akari and Zenjirou fell back from the computer monitor they had been watching as a portion of the swarm of Kuramon suddenly flooded from the screen and Black Fladramon immediately went on the defensive.
"That was only the first round," Black Fladramon remarked sternly. "The worst is yet to come."
To Be Continued...