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 9 |
The Starlight Zone was a Zone that was shrouded by a perpetual night sky. It was a place where the sun simply didn't rise and the moon never set. It was a Zone populated with digimon that were well adjusted to living in the dark. It was also the next Zone that Xros Heart happened to arrive in.
The landscape was primarily comprised of long stretches of grassy hillside with a narrow stream weaving between them, plenty of scattered clusters of trees all around, and, of course, a beautiful star filled sky. And, although it was always dark, the climate was actually fairly comfortable. At least, it would have been if the four humans hadn't arrived from a portal that had materialized in the midair several feet above the winding stream. As such, they were now soaking wet.
"This world has a twisted sense of humor," Crystal complained as she made her way to shore.
"And here I thought you liked rivers," Zapmon materialized from the girl's Xros Loader so that she was standing securely by the water's edge.
"This isn't a hot spring!" Crystal knelt down and struck the surface of the water with the curve of her arm to produce a powerful crescent of water that effectively slammed into the small dragon, drenching her and knocking her off balance.
"Humans shouldn't be able to do that," Zapmon sputtered as she got back on her feet and began to shake herself off.
"Is that a fact? Because I can certainly do it again if you need another demonstration," Crystal assured her.
Zenjirou placed a hand on her shoulder. "I think you've already made your point. Besides, we should probably try to concentrate on drying off."
Crystal reflexively reached up to remove Zenjirou's hand. "Personal space," she stated as she stepped away from him. "I'm all for drying off though."
"She has really good aim, doesn't she?" Taiki was grinning in amusement.
"Maybe she can aim at you next time," Akari began shoving Taiki toward shore since he hadn't bothered to do so himself.
They decided to build a campfire so they could warm up and dry out their clothes faster. Taiki and Zenjirou wasted no time stripping their shirts off. Akari sat up against Dorulumon with Cutemon on her lap close to the fire. Crystal sat a little further from the fire, having set aside her thoroughly soaked vest, leaning up against Gururumon while looking up at the starry sky which provided a much needed diversion from a certain boy walking around without a shirt on. Naturally, it seemed that Starmon was very at home in this new Zone as he levitated in the sky among his glittering metaphorical brethren.
"I didn't have a chance to thank you for coming after me back there," Taiki sat down next to Crystal. After all, Gururumon was certainly large enough that there was plenty of room.
So much for using stargazing as a diversion. "You really don't have to thank me," she responded after a brief pause. "After all, you would have done the same for me."
Crystal squinted as a shadow seemed to pass in front of her view of the stars. "Hang on," she continued to watch the sky carefully and a second shadow blew past followed by a third. "It looks like there's something up there."
Taiki followed Crystal's gaze, but it wasn't until one of the shadows flew by with a silvery-white something clutched in its talons that he realized they were actually digimon. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a yellow fox-like digimon emerging from the shadow of a nearby tree before scaling the tree in a single bound and propelling off of a high branch to land on the shadowy digimon's wing. The shadowy digimon, Sabirdramon, struggled to shake off the fox, Renamon, but then one of the other Sabirdramon spun around and flew back. Taiki couldn't see it clearly, but it looked like the Sabirdramon pulled up at the last second as a shadowy projection of itself impacted the Renamon, knocking the fox-like digimon from the sky. Almost immediately, a second Renamon appeared from a nearby shadow to retrieve its falling companion before it could impact the ground.
Strabimon, the digimon caught in the talons of one of the Sabirdramon, began to struggle against his captor to no avail.
"This looks like the work of the Bagra Empire," Dorulumon observed.
"Then I guess that means it's our turn to lend a hand," Crystal already had her Xros Loader at the ready. "Zapmon, Thunderbirmon, Digi Xros!"
The small dragon and the thunderbird came together in midair. "X-Zapdramon Wyvern Mode!"
Most of X-Zapdramon Wyvern Mode's appearance was derived from Thunderbirmon, with silver eyes and some other draconic additions. It had a draconic snout in place of a bird's beak visible beneath its armored facial mask and the portion of its body exposed between its armored wings was similarly scaled, going so far as having a whip-like, reptilian tail tipped with the rest of Thunderbirmon's armor. In place of Thunderbirmon's talons were a pair of more muscular, draconic talons also tipped with Thunderbirmon's armor. The scales exposed by the gaps in its armor were black in color with silver and gold lightning bolt patterned stripes.
X-Zapdramon Wyvern Mode flew swiftly to intercept the Sabirdramon that appeared to be transporting a hostage. Electricity gathered around X-Zapdramon Wyvern Mode's body, concentrating around its wings. "Lightning Wing!" X-Zapdramon Wyvern Mode swooped in to strike the Sabirdramon from above, stunning the shadowy avian digimon with the electric shock and causing it to loosen its hold on its prisoner.
Shoutmon quickly leapt into action, intending to snatch Strabimon out of the air before the little beast man could hit the ground, but he was thwarted by yet another Renamon emerging from a nearby shadow and leaping gracefully onto his head before continuing on to rescue Strabimon in Shoutmon's place. Naturally, by utilizing Shoutmon to maintain her own upward momentum, the Renamon caused enough rebound on the red dragon to make him drop back to the ground performing a very angry face plant.
"Hey!" Shoutmon complained loudly. "That was supposed to be my heroic save!"
The Renamon ignored him rather purposefully. "Are you alright, Strabimon?" she was much more concerned about the newly released prisoner.
"I'm okay," Strabimon answered sullenly. "I can't believe they almost had me."
"We're not out of the woods just yet," Taiki reminded them. The Sabirdramon were still up there in the night sky. He could just barely make out their outlines circling overhead.
X-Zapdramon Wyvern Mode was narrowly avoiding being struck down by the Sabirdramon unleashing barrages of shadowy fireballs from multiple directions all at once. Visibility was already reduced because of the distinct lack of sunlight, but the Sabirdramon also had the advantage of being camouflaged against the night sky by their naturally dark plumage. That was when Taiki remembered one of the DigiMemories he had received from Slashmon back in the Resort Zone that might be able to even the odds.
"DigiMemory!" he crammed the cartridge into the correct slot of his Xros Loader. "Valdurmon, Aurora Undulation, Activate!"
A magnificent six-winged bird filled the dark sky with its warm radiance. Holy light shined off of Valdurmon's many glowing feathers until it reached maximum brightness and fired off in all directions in an explosion that easily swallowed the flock of Sabirdramon. X-Zapdramon Wyvern Mode, lacking evil intentions, was momentarily blinded, but was otherwise unharmed. Once X-Zapdramon Wyvern Mode got its vision back it finished the job by projecting a strong electric field off of its body to blast the flock of stunned and partially blinded Sabirdramon. "Shockwave Burst!"
By the time they regrouped by the fire there were close to a dozen Renamon revealed to have been lurking in the shadows and several Kudamon that hadn't been far behind when Strabimon had been captured by the Sabirdramon. The multitude of fox-like digimon had quickly gathered around Strabimon.
"Can you tell us more about what's been happening here?" Taiki was striving to be serviceable as always.
"It's really none of your concern," Strabimon stubbornly refused his help. "We can deal with the Bagra Empire without relying on you human generals."
However, one of the Renamon stepped forward to cut him off. "Strabimon says that, but the truth is our priestess has already been captured and there isn't much we can do against those flying digimon without her."
"I see," Taiki nodded thoughtfully. "Well, we would be happy to help rescue your priestess." He smiled reassuringly.
"There he goes again," Akari simply shook her head. She was used to this by now.
"I doubt your luck will be any better than ours," Strabimon still seemed unconvinced.
"It might be difficult, but I'm sure we can figure something out." Crystal decided to step in.
"We can take you to where the priestess is being kept," one of the Kudamon spoke up. "However, she is being guarded by a powerful winged digimon called Yatagaramon."
"Don't worry," Shoutmon assured them. "Xros Heart is on the job."
Once the humans were properly dressed, even if their clothing was still a little damp, they set off with the entourage of fox-like digimon to infiltrate the shrine where the priestess had been imprisoned. The Renamon quickly vanished into the shadows all around them while the Kudamon slipped in and out of view due to the ethereal quality of their semi-transparent bodies. Only Strabimon remained fully visible in the lead.
To Be Continued...
| Digimon Xros Wars | Xtra | Omake 1 |
Kiriha was both confused and somewhat embarrassed as he watched Metal Greymon fleeing away from a swarm of angry Tokomon. The little pink digimon pursued the cybernetic dinosaur with their mouths wide open to reveal their many teeth. Kiriha frowned slightly when Metal Greymon eventually ducked behind him in an effort to get away from the onslaught of small, furious, biting digimon. Kiriha couldn't believe, after all the tremendously powerful opponents they had beaten, that he was being chased away by a bunch of tiny pink blobs just because they happened to have a severely disproportionate number of teeth in their little mouths.
Then one of the Tokomon latched onto his foot and he could feel the sharp, pointy teeth through the fabric of his boot. Kiriha signaled Metal Greymon to lower his flesh hand so he could climb on. "Come on," he instructed. "We're leaving." He kicked the Tokomon off of his boot as Metal Greymon took to the air. Kiriha determined that it would probably be best to just avoid these sorts of digimon in the future.
Omake 1 - End
| Digimon Xros Wars | Xtra| Omake 2 |
"How do you guys keep employing identical strategies without consulting each other? Are you reading each other's minds or something?" Zenjirou's question was directed at Crystal and Taiki. They both stared at him blankly.
"Wait," Taiki glanced at Crystal. "When did we do that?"
"We didn't," Crystal responded. "He just hasn't been paying attention when we've been collaborating on combat strategies between chapters."
"Oh," Taiki nodded. He grinned at Zenjirou. "I can see why you might have been a little bit confused by that."
Omake 2 - End
Author's Notes: So, that was a fairly straightforward chapter with a few comedic extras thrown in to help tide you all over until next time.