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 23|
The Machine Metropolis located within the Factory Zone was populated with machine digimon of all shapes and sizes. There were buildings everywhere. And most of those buildings were factories built to manufacture other machine digimon. It was also a very easy place to get lost. In fact, some of the factory buildings were large enough that they almost constituted an entire city in and of themselves. And it was in one such building that the constituents of team Xros Heart soon found themselves after yet another successful Zone Transfer.
Any gratitude they might have felt for arriving on solid ground instead of plummeting out of the sky was cut short when they felt the ground beneath their feet start to move as it rapidly became apparent that they were standing on an enormous conveyor belt inside of the factory. Of course, this wouldn't have posed too much of a problem if not for what happened next. When Taiki and Crystal pulled out their respective Xros Loaders to bring out a digimon that might be able to help in this situation, the conveyor belt they were standing on suddenly spilled them out onto an inclined ramp that quickly split into two smaller ramps causing the group to become separated as they were dropped onto another set of conveyor belts down a level from the one they had arrived on. The end result was that Taiki and Akari were carried away in one direction with Crystal's silver Xros Loader along with all of the digimon contained inside of it while Crystal and Zenjirou were carried away in a completely different direction with Taiki's red Xros Loader along with all of the digimon contained inside of it. Meanwhile, the progression of ramps and conveyor belts meant that they were still being carried further and further away without showing any sign of stopping.
"Get off of me before I make you get off!" Crystal muttered once she felt fairly confident that she and Zenjirou were finally on solid, unmoving ground. Zenjirou complied and the two of them were finally able to take in their surroundings. It looked like they had landed on top of a giant scrap heap. Except that it didn't seem to be comprised of just broken scraps of metal, but also busted up machine digimon. Or at least what was left of them.
"Well, this place doesn't look too inviting," Zenjirou commented as he continued to look around.
"I guess they must keep all this stuff down here for the spare parts," Crystal rubbed the back of her head. "But I couldn't tell you how they manage to find anything in this mess."
"Hey Zenjirou, Crystal! You guys okay?" Shoutmon called over to them, waving an arm to get their attention while holding onto Taiki's Xros Loader with the other. Ballistamon, Dorulumon and Cutemon had also emerged from the Xros Loader along with him.
"We're fine!" Zenjirou called back.
"But it looks like Taiki and Akari must have landed somewhere else," Crystal observed. "So, if you guys are down here with us, I really hope they managed to meet up with my digimon."
From the looks of it, the scrap heap they had landed in was contained in a huge pit cut into the floor of the factory surrounded by huge metal walls. And it didn't look like there were any ladders or staircases anywhere for them to climb out of it.
"So, how are we gonna get out of here?" Shoutmon looked to Crystal like he was expecting for her to come up with a plan.
"What are you looking at me for?" Crystal started uncertainly. If she had her Xros Loader, then she could just call out one of her winged digimon to fly them out of the pit and onto the factory floor, but since all she had to work with were Taiki's digimon and he didn't keep anything flight worthy inside of his Xros Loader that wasn't going to be of any use. And, since it wasn't her Xros Loader, she wouldn't be able to use any Digi Xrosses either.
But wait, she did have access to Ballistamon. She didn't really know how he did it, but she had seen some of the objects that had been manufactured in his chest compartment. Maybe they could have him build a ladder or something out of some of the scrap metal that was littered around them.
"Hang on," Crystal spotted a Mechanorimon that seemed to be more or less intact. And it looked like it might even have flight capabilities. "It looks like this guy is still in one piece." She turned to Zenjirou. "Think you can get him running?"
"Let me take a look," Zenjirou went over to examine the Mechanorimon.
"But even if you get it running, Mechanorimon is just a transport digimon so someone is going to have to pilot it," noted Dorulumon.
"Shouldn't be a problem," Crystal responded. "Those cockpit controls look pretty similar to a mecha fighter game I was fairly good at back in the human world so I think I'll be able to fly it."
"Well, this guy seems to be in fairly good shape externally," Zenjirou pointed out. "Probably just need to fix some loose wires and he'll be good as new. But it will probably take a little while for me to find a way to access them."
"Alright," Crystal nodded. "Then I guess Ballistamon can help you with that while the rest of us keep a lookout just in case there's anything else alive down here that might be dangerous."
Meanwhile, Taiki and Akari had been provided with a somewhat less turbulent landing on the factory floor when Zapmon and Black Fladramon had emerged from Crystal's Xros Loader with the former snatching up the aforementioned Xros Loader before hitching a ride by grabbing onto Black Fladramon's tail while the larger, flame armored dragon digimon used his agility to dash across the conveyor belt they had been dropped off on to snatch up the two humans before leaping effortlessly down from the conveyor belt until they reached solid ground.
"Sheesh, why did we have go and land in a place like this?" Zapmon grumbled as she glanced about the factory for any sign of her missing general.
"It can't be helped," Black Fladramon answered gently. "That's just the way it turned out."
"Anyway, shouldn't we be trying to contact the others?" Akari looked to Taiki.
He nodded and pressed the button on his Wrister to see if he could get a signal. "Zenjirou? Crystal? Can either of you read me?"
"Loud and clear," Crystal's voice came through. "We've got your Xros Loader by the way, so your digimon are down here with us. We're already working on a possible way out of this pit we seem to have fallen into, but if you manage to find my Xros Loader you might be able to get to us faster by sending out the Fan Beemonz to search the factory for us."
Taiki nodded as he spoke into the Wrister. "Alright, I'll do that."
"Oh good, you've found it already. In that case, you shouldn't have any trouble getting around once you let out one of my fast flying digimon," Crystal responded with some relief.
Except that then there was static as a series of explosions sounded from somewhere else in the factory.
"Crystal! What happened? Are you okay?" Zapmon immediately latched onto Taiki's arm and started screeching into the Wrister trying to get through to her general.
Taiki's expression turned serious. "Alright, we'd better hurry up and get to them."
The only reason Crystal got away unscathed when Duskmon suddenly appeared and bombarded the area with energy beams from his hands and the eyes all of his body was because Dorulumon snatched her up by the back of the shirt with his mouth and tossed her behind a pile of scrap metal that shielded her from the surprise attack before quickly moving out of harm's way himself. Shoutmon was understandably displeased by the intrusion.
"What the heck is this guy's problem?" Shoutmon had just narrowly managed to deflect one of the blasts that had come at him by batting it away with his retro microphone.
"Duskmon is a subordinate of Lilithmon's," Dorulumon explained readily. "And he's completely ruthless."
Shoutmon quickly tossed Taiki's Xros Loader over at Crystal. "You'd better hold onto that until Taiki gets here. And maybe try to come up with a plan while you're at it!"
Crystal caught the Xros Loader reflexively. "In that case, we'll need Knightmon and the Pawn Chessmonz to put up a barrier around Zenjirou and Ballistamon so they can finish repairing Mechanorimon while we keep Duskmon busy."
"Understood," Knightmon emerged from the Xros Loader accompanied by the Pawn Chessmonz. They quickly moved themselves into a defensive formation in front of where Zenjirou and Ballistamon were repairing the damaged Mechanorimon to generate a defensive barrier over the area.
"Cutemon, you should get inside the barrier too," Dorulumon told the smaller digimon.
Cutemon reluctantly dismounted the drill-covered wolf. "Be careful, kyu."
Dorulumon simply nodded and watched Cutemon until he was satisfied that he was safe behind the barrier. Then he inclined his head toward Crystal. "What about you? Shouldn't you be heading for cover yourself?"
"You should worry less about me and more about yourself," Crystal answered quickly. "I'm betting all those eyes on his body give Duskmon an excellent field of vision so you're going to have to stay on the move to avoid becoming an easy target. We can't afford to let him get a solid hit on us this early in the fight."
That being said, Crystal had already begun to climb up the neighboring scrap heap that Dorulumon had tossed her behind so that several of Duskmon's many eyes became locked on her. "I see, so you were the one who defiled my lady Lilithmon."
"What's that crazy girl doing?" Shoutmon was shocked that immediately after she warned Dorulumon not to make himself an easy target Crystal would reveal herself to Duskmon like that.
"Creating a diversion," Dorulumon shook his head in response. Crystal was being just as reckless as Taiki, if not moreso.
"Then we'd better give him something else to look at," Shoutmon growled as he gathered energy in one hand and then tossed it at Duskmon to smack him in the side of the face. "Rock Damashii!"
Duskmon didn't so much as flinch, but the blast still got his attention. "I suppose it would be boring if I got to kill her too easily."
"Drill Buster!" Dorulumon started blasting Duskmon with a barrage of drills from his forehead as he circled around from the front to draw the dark warrior's attention to him.
Shoutmon quickly circled around behind Duskmon to club him in the back with his retro microphone. "Rowdy Rocker!"
"Che," Shoutmon grunted as he was thrown back while Duskmon didn't even budge from where he stood. "This guy isn't even feeling our attacks."
He was understandably surprised when Crystal clocked Duskmon over the head with a toaster by tossing it down from the top of the neighboring scrap heap causing it to shatter on impact. Certainly, if Duskmon were to have had eyebrows, one of them would have been raised in mild bewilderment at the feeble assault. His distraction with Crystal did cause him to momentarily lose focus on Shoutmon and Dorulumon. Both digimon readily took notice of this fact.
"Now!" Shoutmon raised his retro microphone to his mouth. "Soul Crusher!" he declared into the microphone as his voice took shape as a powerful blast aimed at Duskmon.
"Dorulu Tornado!" Dorulumon followed suit by enlarging the drill on his tail and using the rapid rotation to produce a tornado of golden energy with which to blast Duskmon.
This time, when the smoke cleared, Duskmon was actually slightly singed. "It would seem that you aren't nearly as weak as I first took you to be. And, in that case, perhaps it's time I started to fight back. Geist Abend!"
"Not so fast!" Crystal called out from on top of the neighboring scrap heap. She picked up a large, broken gear from the pile in her left hand and threw it down at Duskmon as the various eyes on his body began to shine with the energy that would form the beams of his attack so that it slammed hard into the middle eye on his chest causing the eye to close in response to the pain. Afterward, when Duskmon fired off the beams for his attack, he missed Shoutmon and Dorulumon completely, although some of them disrupted the stability of the scrap heap Crystal was standing on triggering a slight avalanche of broken metal so that she started to slide down the face of the shifting mountain until the pile gradually settled in place again.
Crystal wasn't immediately concerned by her predicament because she was too busy being surprised by what had just happened with Duskmon. "Damn, I wasn't even sure that was going to work."
"Quick, while he's stunned!" Dorulumon reacted swiftly. He enlarged the drill on his tail so that he could ride along on top of it before slamming into Duskmon. "Drill Blader!" He bounced off like a pinball, but he had already succeeded at knocking the dark warrior slightly off balance.
"Rowdy Rocker!" Shoutmon clubbed Duskmon with his retro microphone to finish the job so that Duskmon was finally knocked down on his back.
"Well done," Duskmon began to cackle manically as he sprang up from where he had fallen. "It's been quite some time since anyone has given me a real workout."
"Sheesh, just how tough is this guy?" Shoutmon wasn't exactly pleased to see Duskmon recovering so easily.
"This is the first time I've really seen him in action," Dorulumon confessed.
Crystal dusted herself off as she finally got back on her feet standing on the new top of the displaced scrap heap. "I think he might be upset about that little prank I pulled on Lilithmon at the beach."
"And now it's time for me to cut you down," Duskmon turned while raising both of his swords and then lowering them again to produce an after image of a red moon before rushing toward her. "Eroberung-ack!" His assault was suddenly disrupted as an electrical shock jolted his body from above as a result of a well-timed Thunderstorm attack from Crystal's Thunderbirmon.
"Fire Rocket!" Black Fladramon leapt down from the avian digimon's back, surrounding his body with crimson flames as he went into a steep dive to slam into the slightly paralyzed figure of Duskmon.
"And that just proves I'm his target," Crystal concluded. "Otherwise he wouldn't have become so distracted every time he so much as looked at me."
"That doesn't make it alright for you to be using yourself as a diversion," Zapmon reprimanded the girl as she landed on top of Crystal's head after hopping down from Gryphomon's back.
Gryphomon swooped down to drop off Taiki and Akari before circling back to join in the battle alongside Thunderbirmon and Black Fladramon.
"Super Sonic Voice!" Gryphomon produced a high frequency sound wave attack directed at Duskmon to temporarily destabilize his data structure to increase his vulnerability to subsequent attacks.
Then a single Fan Beemon descended behind Duskmon. "88 Call!" the insect digimon buzzed as its antennae started to redden and the other twenty-six Fan Beemonz that were usually contained within Crystal's Xros Loader quickly filled the air around the first. "Gear Stinger!" they declared in unison as they bombarded Duskmon with their tiny, serrated stingers.
"Yeah, but if I hadn't kept him distracted, Duskmon might have seen you all coming," Crystal pointed out.
"Just don't go making a habit out of it," Zapmon sighed in exasperation. Of course, it was probably already too late for that.
Thunderbirmon swooped down so that Crystal could hop onto the electrical avian digimon's back so she could be dropped off to regroup with Taiki and Akari instead of being a sitting duck on top of that scrap heap.
"You'll probably be wanting this back," Crystal withdrew Taiki's Xros Loader from her pocket so she could give it back to him.
"I think the same probably goes for you," Taiki chuckled as he accepted his Xros Loader and gave Crystal back her own in return. "Although, it looks like you were doing just fine without it."
"That's because I was only stalling for time," Crystal pointed out.
Behind them, the steady hum of a motor could be heard as the red optic circle on the Mechanorimon's chest lit up to signify that the machine digimon was finally operational.
"Hey Crystal-san, I finally finished repairing that digimon like you wanted," Zenjirou called out to them. He hadn't been paying attention to the ongoing battle in the slightest.
Crystal rubbed her hands together. "Then I guess it's about time for me to take it for a test drive!"
Taiki had already Digi Xrossed his digimon into Shoutmon X4K to combat Duskmon while Crystal had Digi Xrossed the Fan Beemonz into Tiger Vespamon to lend a hand along with Black Fladramon, Thunderbirmon and Gryphomon. While that was going, Crystal went back to hop into the cockpit compartment of the newly repaired Mechanorimon to test out the controls to see if she could use him.
"She really thinks she can fly that thing?" Akari couldn't understand what that girl was thinking.
"Don't look at me," Zenjirou shrugged. "She said the controls look the same as the controls for some crazy video game."
"It's a mecha based fighting game I've played at the arcade," Crystal explained as she succeeded at making the Mechanorimon walk a few steps forward and then a few steps back. "The controls are a little stiff from not being used, but it feels like the control configuration is basically the same. Let's see if I can get it airborne."
"Do you really think we ought to be doing this right this second?" Zapmon was getting impatient because she wanted to be out there beating Duskmon into a crater.
Crystal managed to get the Mechanorimon to lift off so that it was hovering several inches above the ground. "Flight controls are the same too. Now for a weapons check!"
Crystal increased the output of the Mechanorimon's flight boosters to launch straight up into the air. Then she used the onboard instruments to lock on to Duskmon with the red optic circle on Mechanorimon's chest. She squeezed the trigger on the control stick in her right hand causing a laser beam to shoot out from the red optic circle to impact with Duskmon.
"Looks like Mechanorimon is fully operational," Crystal seemed pleased with this result. "Now let's try to take him down for a nice, smooth landing."
She gradually reduced the power output of Mechanorimon's flight boosters to steadily lower him back down to the ground before cutting them off completely so that the machine digimon's feet came back into contact with the ground. "It looks like I can really do this."
"Enough of this foolishness!" Duskmon immediately recovered from the punishment he had sustained at the hands of Shoutmon X4K and the other digimon that were still battling him. However, upon closer inspection, he still didn't appear to be taking all that much damage. And once he had picked himself up again, Duskmon quickly cut down both Thunderbirmon and Gryphomon with his blades causing enough damage to them both that they were forced to return to Crystal's Xros Loader for immediate recovery. After that, he simultaneously locked blades with Shoutmon X4K and Tiger Vespamon before he then unleashed a bombardment of energy beams from the numerous eyes all over his body to blast both opposing digimon at close range.
"Knuckle Fire!" Black Fladramon came at Duskmon from behind unleashing a flurry of fireballs from his flame gauntlets, but he was too slow and, having broken away from Shoutmon X4K and Tiger Vespamon, Duskmon then spun around to slash the flame armored dragon digimon across the chest with both of his crimson blades. The sharp blow was critical enough that he was forced to retreat from the battlefield to also recover inside of Crystal's Xros Loader.
Taiki was becoming a little unsettled by what was happening on the battlefield. Something isn't right. It's like Duskmon has become a completely different digimon. And it feels like there's still another monster lurking inside of him.
"I think we'd better take over now," Crystal loaded the repaired Mechanorimon into her Xros Loader so that she could make her way over to the battlefield on foot with Zapmon perched on her shoulder.
"It's about damn time," Zapmon threw a couple of quick punches to demonstrate just how eager she was to lay the smack down on Duskmon.
"I hope you don't lose that enthusiasm once he unleashes his real power," Crystal responded.
"His real power?" Zapmon tilted her head quizzically at her general.
"I think Taiki must have also figured it out by now," Crystal explained. "Duskmon is just a vessel for something even more dangerous."
A sudden shockwave was emitted from Duskmon's body as his arms extended out on either side of him until they had become replaced with a pair of feathered wings. The rest of his body reddened in color and his physical features steadily became more and more avian until he became completely transformed into the far more intimidating figure of the giant bird digimon, Velgmon.
"Still feel like taking him on?" Crystal glanced at Zapmon out of the corner of her eye.
"It goes without saying," Zapmon peered up at Velgmon circling overhead while flapping his enormous wings. "I'm just going to have to beat him even harder now."
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: I'm sorry that it's taken a couple of months for me to make a regular update. The story will finally continue as promised and it looks like things are already heating up.