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 15 |
It took awhile for Team Epoch to catch up to the retreating Clockmon, in part, because they ended up having to backtrack when they realized the Clockmon were no longer ahead of them. It happened instaneously and it took a few minutes for Zapmon to sniff out their trail back the way they had come from. Lighdramon got himself turned around and began dashing back the way they had come from and, sure enough, the Clockmon were ahead of them again.
"How the heck did they do that?" Zapmon sounded somewhere between annoyed and impressed. The small dragon folded her arms over her chest. "Sheesh, we're trying to help these guys and they're still running away from us."
"Actually, they've stopped running," Lighdramon informed her. The beast digimon had already slowed his pace to accomodate for the fact that the Clockmon were no longer in motion. In fact, they appeared to be waiting for them.
"Our apologies for putting you through all that trouble," the lead Clockmon spoke up once Team Epoch had finally caught up with them. "Time travel is a somewhat unpredictable mode of transportation."
"Time travel?" Zapmon thought that sounded pretty dubious to say the least. She remained perched on Crystal's shoulder as the human girl climbed down from Lighdramon's back to greet the Clockmon.
"Hm, I suppose time travel would be one way to put it," Crystal commented once she had her feet back on the ground. "Of course, another way is to say they moved through space without moving through time at all. What we witnessed would imply that they traveled from point A to point B without tangibly crossing the distance between them."
"Come again?" Zapmon stared at her.
"What? I like science fiction," Crystal responded with a nervous chuckle.
"Well, you'd be right," the lead Clockmon acknowledged. "I really must commend you for being able to discern our location so soon after we repositioned ourselves. But, as you can see, slipping back to a point we've already been to is much faster than walking."
"I'll give you that," Lighdramon remarked. "Even with my speed I couldn't keep track of that level of movement."
"Anyway," the Clockmon continued. "You have our thanks for taking out those Bagra Empire soliders, but I'm afraid the main force has already conquered Time Warp City and will soon claim access to the Temporal Tower."
"Time Warp City? Temporal Tower? Well, with a landscape like this, I guess it's not surprising that everyone here seems to have time on the brain," Zapmon rolled her eyes at the obvious naming scheme.
"Still, I have a feeling that we've really got to stop them," Crystal decided.
"That would be wise," the Clockmon interjected. "For you see, if they obtain this Time Zone's Code Crown, they will be able to use Temporal Tower to travel into the past and potentially alter the Digital World's history."
Zapmon froze. Even she knew what that would mean. "Well, okay then. That's enough talking. Why don't you just point us to this Time Warp City you were telling us about and we'll trounce the Bagra Empire's forces before they can make it that far."
"But even the Time Zone's guardian has been defeated by Aegisdramon," the Clockmon warned them.
"Then we're just going to have to cross that bridge when we get to it," Crystal stated simply. "We came here to help liberate those who have been victimized by the Bagra Empire," she added as she held up her Xros Loader. "We're Team Epoch, transcending time and space!" She paused and added, "And also recently affiliated with Xros Heart."
"You do realize that you sound like a total dork when you say stuff like that, right?" Zapmon couldn't believe some of the stuff that came out of her general's mouth. The small dragon looked back to the Clockmon. "So, about pointing us in the right direction so we don't get ourselves lost trying to liberate this Zone?"
The Clockmon finally obliged.
It really wasn't difficult to spot the city or the tower. In fact, it would have been more difficult to spot one without also finding the other in the process. The buildings in Time Warp City were literally built from numerous clocks of all shapes and sizes somehow fitted together to provide almost coherent architecture. Temporal Tower was constructed in the same way, but on a significantly larger scale. Even as they flew over the city on Gryphomon, Crystal and Zapmon were unable to see the top of the tower breaking through the clouds. It was like staring up the trunk a Sequoia tree while standing beneath it.
And there, at the foot of Temporal Tower, was the enormous white tiger, Baihumon, collapsed in a pile of rubble that seemed to match a similarly shaped indentation in the base of the tower that must have resulted from a recent impact. Whatever had hit Baihumon had to have been very powerful indeed.
"Now that's one tall tower," Zapmon stared at Temporal Tower in awe.
"And that's one huge digimon," Crystal was more concerned about the fallen guardian.
There were already numerous Giromon and Tekkamon flooding the streets with more of them gradually pouring out from the Blimpmon carriers waiting on the outskirts of the city. There wasn't any visible sign of the digimon called Aegisdramon, but that didn't mean he wasn't still in the area.
"You ready to get started?" Crystal only asked as a formality. She could tell that Zapmon had been itching to fight ever since they had taken down that small batch of enemies shortly after their arrival in the Time Zone.
"Gryphomon, I'm leaving our general in your protection while I go down there to blast some bad guys," Zapmon confirmed.
Crystal held up her silver Xros Loader and spun the dial to input the digimon she had selected for this particular Digi Xros. "Zapmon, Gururumon, Lighdramon, Raptordramon, Togemogumon, Digi Xros!"
"Digi Xros!" The digimon came together to form the familiar shape of X-Zapdramon Fighter Mode with the addition of Raptordramon mounted onto the right arm in the form of a dragon-shaped crossbow and with Togemogumon mounted onto the back of the left arm taking on the form of a spike-covered shield. "X-Zapdramon Fighter Mode + Dragon Crossbow + Diamond Shield!"
"Icicle Swarm!" X-Zapdramon immediately launched fired off the icy quills from the Diamond Shield to form a barrage of sharp, pointed projectiles to rain down on the enemy Giromon and Tekkamon with devastating accuracy. New quills quickly grew in place of the ones that had been fired already. "And now," X-Zapdramon spun in the air to target each of the Blimpmon in turn. "Thousand Arrow Storm!" The Dragon Crossbow unleashed a hail of energy projectiles to strike down each of the Blimpmon and any remaining Giromon or Tekkamon passengers that might have been onboard in a rapid sequence of explosions. Of course, there were still plenty more Giromon and Tekkamon roaming the streets, but after that first wave they were fewer in number and much more spread out. It would take awhile to get rid of them all.
"I've got us covered out here," X-Zapdramon informed Crystal.
"Then I'll go check on Baihumon and take the rest of the team into the tower to confront any enemies that might already have gotten in," Crystal responded.
Baihumon had already lost consciousness and parts of his body had begun to destabilize, but it seemed that Crystal had gotten to him in time and he was now safely stored inside of her Xros Loader on the road to recovery. However, while there were substantially fewer enemies inside of Temporal Tower, the fact remained that they were slowly navigating their way up the tower and it was vitally necessary to prevent any of them from making it all the way to the top.
"Reload Slashmon, Black Fladramon, Ryuudamon, Yuki Agumon, Dorumon, Monodramon," Crystal held up her Xros Loader to summon the small group of dragons and dinosaurs. "I'll be counting on the six of you to block any more Bagra Empire forces from making it into the tower while the rest of us fly to the top."
"Understood," Slashmon stated in response. "Spit Fire!" He exhaled a barrage of golden fireballs at a group of Giromon and Tekkamon crowding around the entrance.
"We won't let you down," added Monodramon. "Beat Knuckle!" Monodramon smashed through one of the Giromon that managed to slip past Slashmon with his fist.
"Go on ahead," added Black Fladramon. "We can handle these smallfrys." His flame gauntlets lit up as he tossed another flurry of fireballs at the next wave of Giromon and Tekkamon trying to make it through the entrance to the tower. "Knuckle Fire!"
"Fan Beemonz Digi Xros!" Crystal held up her Xros Loader once again as Gryphomon began traveling up the tower.
"Digi Xros!" Twenty-seven Fan Beemonz quickly began a squad of nine Waspmonz. "Waspmonz!"
"Spread out and make sure there aren't any other enemies inside of the tower," Crystal instructed them. The insectoid cyborgs quickly dispersed to investigate the interior of the tower while Crystal continued her ascent on Gryphomon.
The ascent seemed to take forever, but eventually they made it to the top of the tower and emerged from a passageway onto the roof. Except that it wasn't the roof. It was just a wide open balcony surrounding a smaller central tower that pierced even further into the heavens.
"Give me a break," Crystal stared at the second tower in dismay. At least there didn't appear to be any enemy digimon that had made it up this far. The balcony was deserted apart from her and Gryphomon.
"Should we continue traveling upward?" Gryphomon inquired. That was when they both spotted Aegisdramon circling around the second tower.
"It looks like that won't be necessary," Crystal answered automatically. She held up her Xros Loader. "Reload Thunderbirmon," she summoned the last of her digimon so that only Baihumon remainded inside. "Tell X-Zapdramon that we've found Aegisdramon. We'll try to keep him busy until you get back."
"Be careful," Thunderbirmon responded before going into a steep dive over the edge of the enormous balcony.
"I would advise you to hang on tight," Gryphomon instructed Crystal as he prepared to draw Aegisdramon's attention to the two of them. Crystal quickly heeded his advice. "Super Sonic Voice!" Gryphomon emitted a high frequency blast of sound at the cyborg digimon as it made another pass around the tower. Aegisdramon had probably been waiting for the rest of his forces to catch up, but Crystal had already seen to it that that wouldn't be possible.
Anyway, they had Aegisdramon's attention. Gryphomon swiftly flew away from the balcony with the huge, angry cyborg in hot pursuit.
By the time Thunderbirmon located X-Zapdramon, the troops of Giromon and Tekkamon were making a hasty retreat only to get bombarded with the next wave of icicles or energy projectiles. As such, X-Zapdramon didn't have to worry about ending the assault to go help Crystal. Aside from Aegisdramon, they had the rest of the enemy digimon on the run. However, there was still the small matter of making it to Crystal and Gryphomon in time.
At first all that was in X-Zapdramon's field of vision was the tower and the open expanse of the sky filled with light fluffy clouds further ahead. Eventually bright flashes of light, the tell-tale signature of an ongoing battle became visible through the clouds.
The battle was fairly one-sided. Gryphomon was small and agile, enabling the phantom beast to narrowly avoid being blasted by Aegisdramon's extremely flashy attacks. However, Gryphomon couldn't do anything to fight back either so the two it was really more of a stalement. However, their strategy was doing its job. Gryphomon's diversionary tactics were buying time for X-Zapdramon's eventual arrival and then they would be able to make a comeback.
Speaking of which...
"Diamond Spear Guard!" X-Zapdramon burst through the clouds as the Diamond Shield expanded to cover more surface area as X-Zapdramon slammed into Aegisdramon from below. The impact caused Aegisdramon to spiral haphazardly through the air, but it was only a matter of time until the huge cyborg managed to stabilize himself to resume his assault.
"This is cutting it way too close," X-Zapdramon scolded Crystal. "What if I hadn't made it time in?"
"I was confident that you would," Crystal answered with a sheepish grin.
"Well, fine then," X-Zapdramon conceded. "But we've still got to beat that thing and tackling it like that barely even put a dent in that metal armor."
Baihumon materialized from Crystal's Xros Loader to stand on the massive balcony of the Temporal Tower. The white tiger's life was no longer in any danger, but he still looked like he was in pretty rough shape.
"Hang on, you're still injured!" Crystal quickly called out to Baihumon.
"I'll survive," Baihumon answered in a low growl. "In the meantime, if you can swat Aegisdramon over in this direction, my claws will make quick work of that overgrown cyborg."
"I guess it's worth a shot," X-Zapdramon responded. "But you'd better be right about that because I doubt we'll be able to try this more than once."
"Well, if you're both sure about this," Crystal was still concerned about Baihumon, but if he wanted to fight Aegisdramon, then she couldn't really argue with him about it. She held up her Xros Loader. "X-Zapdramon, Thunderbirmon, Digi Xros!"
"Digi Xros!" Thunderbirmon's body folded in half to form a symmetrical double blade while his legs transformed into the hilt of a sword with his tail serving as a makeshift armguard. X-Zapdramon gripped the newly formed sword with both hands. "Feather Blade!"
X-Zapdramon circled under Aegisdramon as the cyborg finally righted himself. "Spark Blade!" A strong electric field quickly covered the entire length of the Feather Blade as X-Zapdramon swung the sword like a baseball bat to smack Aegisdramon toward the eagerly waiting Baihumon.
Baihumon reered up on his hindlegs and slashed at Aegisdramon with the enormous claws on his forepaws. "Iron Claws!" Aegisdramon's forward momentum only made it easier for Baihumon's claws to tear right through him as the huge cyborg finally exploded into a golden cloud of data.
X-Zapdramon joined Crystal and Gryphomon on the balcony along with Baihumon as the Digi Xros finally disengaged into its composite digimon. Baihumon easily towered over all of them, but he was still dwarfed by the sheer size of Temporal Tower.
"You know, I'm not sure I have it in me to climb the rest of the way to the top right now," Zapmon grimaced at the prospect. "That fight was exhausting."
"I hear you," Crystal was in total agreement. "But we don't really have a choice. Clockmon said the Code Crown is in the tower."
"Under the tower, actually," Baihumon corrected her. "The tower is just for show."
Crystal and Zapmon both fell over.
"You mean this whole tower is just a huge diversion?" Zapmon managed to find her voice. "That's insane!"
"It worked, didn't it?" Baihumon seemed to be genuinely amused by their reaction.
"No kidding," Crystal had to admit even she had been completely fooled.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: Oh yeah, I definitely went overboard with this chapter.