This is Spirit: Ghosts of the Past

by This is the real deal

Kotemon always wondered why the high ranking Digimon looked at him with hatred, but he never really worried about it... Until he somehow fell into the real world. Seemingly by chance, him and his new partner, Emily, are now entwined not only with Kotemon's past, but the fate of the Digital World, and all the Digidestined may not even be enough... This... Is... SPIRIT!

9. A Shooting Star

Main plot time! Well, getting there at least. This one's pretty long so get comfy folks! Enjoy this chapter folks!

Chapter 8: A Shooting Star

"Another day, another digimon," a female voice said. Strands of data floated into the air, fallen digimon disappearing all around her. "I guess I might as well take some of their data. A missing fractal code here and there won't do any harm I suppose." She took out a red Digivice, box shaped in design with curved edges and a purple grip where here thumb gripped it. Data started flowing into it in neat blue and yellow streams, sucked in like water down a drain. The female looked at the Digivice, then frowned. "I still don't have enough to break open that stupid gate… But maybe… That feline crossed over to this world earlier, so maybe I should pay her a visit instead…" She pocketed the Digivice and walked off into the shadows of the city, darkness erasing her tracks as she walked.

. . .

The entire gang of tamers had finally gathered together again at the school sports field they all first met at, the dim sunlight of dusk shining down on them.

"It's been a while since we've all been in the same place at once hasn't it?" Emily said.

"Yeah, it sure has," Ryuga said. "And the rookies have also grown a little it looks like."

"Oh yeah!" Sam yelled energetically. "Check out my how big my collection got!" Sam swiped his Xros Loader through the air, images of all the digimon contained within showing up as scaled down holograms. "FlaWizardmon, Arresterdramon, Greymon, Devimon… And my partner in crime Starmon!" Starmon was already unloaded, floating around his head playfully.

"I thought you didn't like capturing digimon," Lexi said. "And that's still a really small collection for a Hunter to have. Didn't you know that?" Sam glared at her with narrowed eyes.

"Just let me have my moment alright? I've got more digimon and I feel accomplished!"

"It's gonna take more than simply feeling accomplished to get you anywhere though," Ryuga said. "We're almost ready to head into the digital world, and since it's the end of term next week the timing is perfect! The only thing we're missing now though is…" Allison's hand shot into the air like a rocket. "Umm… I'm not your teacher, even if I am old enough to be one, you don't need to put your hand up every time you wanna speak…" Allison slowly lowered her hand, embarrassment plain on her face.

"Well, it's just that… My parents, they're really, really, really over protective, I can't just tell them I'm going to summer camp next week, and they'll need to see who I'm going with and see that they're qualified, and what camp I'm heading to and everything."

"No problem," Ryuga said. "My big sister's twenty years old and has a whole chunk of girl scout badges, that'll more than make up for how responsible she is."

"No, you don't understand," Allison said. "They don't let me go anywhere without telling them, I've never even left this town in my whole life!"

"Seriously?" Lexi asked with a startled expression. "Goodness me, you haven't even lived yet!"

"Straight," Mwape added. "I bet they'd totally freak if they discovered that you were fighting against digimon!"

"Your parents remind me of how Emily's mom used to be," Sam said with a small smile. "When we were kids she used to get so worried when we simply climbed up trees!"

"So you're sure there's no getting around them?" Ryuga asked. Allison shook her head apologetically. "Hmm… I'll try convince your parents tomorrow with my sis. You've also got to be there or else she'll think we're suspicious or something."

"That's because you kind of are suspicious," Jay said. "Just try to imagine a nineteen year old tall scary looking guy coming over to your house saying he'll take away your daughter?"

"Okay, maybe that is a little suspicious…" As their tamers all argued amongst themselves about how they would get to the digital world, their digimon all gathered in their own little circle, quickly growing bored of the conversation.

"Alright guys, who here has a whole chunk of experience there?" Mighty asked. Bitemon put up s large paw with a silly grin on his face, joined by Kotemon. Starmon also hopped around in the air, sticking one of his points up. "I meant battle experience, we kinda all have some experience already!" Starmon lowered a point gloomily while Bitemon and Kotemon kept theirs up. DexDorumon's paw also joined theirs.

"I didn't get this metallic body for no reason. I have seen much with these eyes." Mighty looked around, nodding his head.

"Okay, I've spent more of my time in this world," Mighty said. "Looks like the same goes for Gatomon and Handle-"

"Only I call him Handle!" Allison interrupted before continuing her conversation.

"How… did she hear that?" Mighty asked in shock. "Well, us three are the rookies when it comes to survival even if we're around the same strength, so when it comes to getting food, finding stuff to do, dodging traps, we're relying on you guys, alright?" The three veterans nodded their heads.

"Next question!" Gatomon yelled energetically. "We're going to meet the king! I don't know who this king is but I hear that he was partnered with a legendary General who could leap through time!" Gatomon drew her head closer to the circle, beckoning everybody closer as she whispered: "I heard, he was partnered up with a Digidestined!" Everybody murmured to themselves, confirming what she had said. "If we're going to have a talk with him, OR royally beat him if this is all his fault, then we need to have some kind of status to get to him. What kind of status did everyone have before this? I for one am an angel digimon that has the potential to serve among gods! I don't actually serve any though so it might not be worth much…"

"Mercenary," AxeHounmon added simply. "I kill things. Do I need a stupid title?"

"Former Chaos Royal Knight," DexDorumon said. "The Chaos bit is important. I'm inherently evil so that's bad."

"Wait, former what?" Gatomon screamed in shock.

"My power isn't what it once was though," DexDorumon said. "I can only just about go Mega again if I bio-merge with Ryuga, and even then it rarely ever works anymore." Everyone stared in shock before continuing.

"Hi-specs SUPER upgrade of Andromon!" Mighty yelled with pride. "I'm designed as a defender of peace, justice, the human race in particular and most importantly, anything fun!"

"I'm a virus buster!" Bitemon shouted with a beaming smile.

"Bitemon, you are a virus," Gatomon said.

"Oh… Then I'm whatever Jay wants me to be!"

"Well he's hopeless," Gatomon said, rolling his eyes. "Starmon?" Starmon looked down with shame.

"It's true, I'm just a simple villager from a village of Starmons," he said, his tone grief stricken. "I'm not actually a super star, just a regular floating star… I'm unfit to be among you guys who all have such cool paaasstts!"

"Dude, chill out," Mighty said. "They're not all that cool. At the end of the day I was just created somewhere, and Gatomon was probably just hatched from a random digi-egg to."

"Hey, why're you picking on me?" Gatomon snarled, her claws elongating. "The one person we don't know about now is Yoshi." Everybody turned to face him, sweat dripping down the side of his helmet as he saw everyone's eyes on him. He lowered his face and mumbled something under his breath. "Speak up Yoshi, I don't bite… Not much at least…"

"I… knight…"

"I only heard like one word out of that," Mighty grumbled. "Come on, you're a lot more lively when talking to Emily!"

"I was training under Knightmon sama to become a soldier in the King's army."

"You mean the Knightmon of the wise sword?" Axehounmon asked, startled out of what was soon to be his slumber. "He also fought in the Xros Wars. When fused together with Wisemon his sword could cleave through entire armies in one swing! His normal blade is probably larger than Kotemon on its own, and as the Wise Sword not even Kotemon's Burning Sword can compare! You mean to tell me you were training under him and you're still only a rookie? Then why're you here then?"

"I… I ran away…"

"WHAAT? Do you have any idea what most people would give to train under somebody so skilled? That's not an opportunity you'll ever get again!" Kotemon glared at him with burning eyes.

"Well so what if I'll never train under him again! It wasn't worth it in the first place! All the officers hated me, my teammates feared me, and if they didn't they bullied me instead! I was treated like I had killed one of their own and didn't even realise it! The only reason they didn't outright kill me was because Knightmon sama was always protecting me! I'm sick of that place, I'll never go back there ever again unless I can Digivolve and burn it down! Even here it's like I'm the weakest one here, I can't Digivolve or make powerful fusions like Flamedramon, I'm always behind everybody, watching your backs as you fight with everything you've got and it sickens me now! Being protected by all of you like I'm a child! I-" Yoshi stopped mid-sentence.

Total silence pervaded the air. Everybody stopped, even the humans and were staring at him. "I… I… I didn't mean to…" Yoshi silenced himself, staring at the ground in shame. Everyone stayed silent, everybody unsure what to do. Yoshi had never actually yelled at anybody before, was it normal for him to get angry sometimes?

Emily walked over to Yoshi, her fists clenched tightly.

"Yoshi… You were holding all of those feelings inside you the whole time?" Yoshi hesitated for a second, then nodded his head. "You idiot, why didn't you ever tell me how you really felt? You're always so quiet I never know what you're thinking, but we're supposed to be friends. Friends talk to each other when they're struggling with something. They help each other out and listen to each other's problems. Even I know that! So if it's about trying to get stronger, or about your past, or anything, remember that I'm also here."

"There's no way he would have asked you about his strength problem," a mysterious female voice said from the benches. Startled, Emily turned to the sound of the voice. A slim figure was seated on the chipped green wooden bench, her legs crossed over. From the second she arrived Emily could tell that there was something that wasn't right about her, something about her whole atmosphere that felt mysterious, and dangerous to.

She wasn't wearing anything particularly special, a blue vest with silver stars with a silver crescent moon over where her heart would be, a small single strap backpack seated neatly on her back, a sea green scarf wrapped around her neck with more silver stars designed on them, green skinnies and a pair of worn looking red sneakers with white laces. Her hair was cut short to just below her ears and was oddly enough dark green, sun shaped earrings dangling just below.

"What do you mean by that?" Emily asked nervously, holding her Digivice up for some reason. "And who are you anyway?" The girl jumped off the bench and slowly walked past everybody, completely ignoring them as she headed straight for Emily. She stopped in front of her and Kotemon, staring them down. Emily stared up into her eyes, her gaze daring Emily to keep staring. Her eyes were what scared Emily, crystal blue eyes, yet with no feeling of emotion coming from them. Who is she? Emily thought to herself. She's probably only fourteen and yet she's got even more presence than Ryuga and Jay…

The girl smiled, averting her gaze to look at Yoshi.

"If he told you 'I'm afraid I'm too weak,' then he'd be saying it's your fault. After all, you're the one who can't make him Digivolve."

"Even if I can't do it, I just need to work on it a little, get a bit stronger and-"

"But how long will it take?" she interrupted. "All the others can go Ultimate level, and Sam has already gotten used to the power of the Digi Xros, but what about you? In fact, if the aura I can feel coming from that Starmon is correct, it feels like it's gonna Digivolve soon, but you and that Kotemon are different… Why can't Kotemon Digivolve? Why can everybody else use amazing abilities, and yet the most that Kotemon can do is set his stick on fire?"

"It's a kendo stick, not just a stick!" Sam roared angrily.

"Actually its proper name is a shinai," Yoshi corrected.

"Whatever!" The girl ignored Sam entirely, focusing only on Emily. She pointed a slender finger at Emily's Digivice.

"It's that trinket you've got over there," she said.

"What? My Digivice?"

"Exactly, the 01 Digivice, an ultra-rare type of Digivice that was used by heroes from the youth of the digital world. It can store large amounts of data, delete paired digimon from its system, instantly transport data directly to a digimon's brain, body or stomach if necessary. It's the ideal tamer's Digivice, small, compact, easy to use and with several features, however it lacks one super important function. The ability to make a digimon rapidly grow within an instant, the power of digivolution!"

"Wait, that's ridiculous, how can it still be a Digivice if it can't make things Digivolve?" Mwape pointed out.

"It's true it seems a bit silly, but this Digivice only speeds up the growth of digimon, they can't rapidly Digivolve. If you want your Kotemon to grow any stronger, it has to manually evolve over time. Once he evolves though… There'll be no way to change him back the way he was."

"No way!" Sam blurted out. "There's no way that's really the case, right? Right?"

"I don't know," Ryuga said slowly. "I've never actually seen a Digivice like that. By now with how powerful Yoshi is, he seriously should have Digivolved by now…" Yoshi looked up into Emily's eyes, but she refused to look back into his. She couldn't bear to. What if her words were true, and she couldn't make Yoshi Digivolve after all?

"Hey wait just a second there," Allison yelled, stepping before her. "You can't just appear in the middle of our meeting like that without at least telling us your name! Who are you anyway?" the girl turned her head to face Allison. In the next instant Allison was down, her arms sprawled along the floor. Everybody rushed towards her before Ryuga pushed them away to give her breathing room.

"What was that for?!" Sam screamed. The girl simply had her hand held out, her fingers outstretched towards Allison. AxeHounmon growled at the girl aggressively.

"Digi-Soul… That was no ordinary push. She didn't even touch Allison. It was all Digi-Soul…"

"Impossible," Mwape said. "I've heard of Digi-Soul punches, but to project it outside of your body, that takes a ridiculous amount of focus and energy…" The girl smiled briefly.

"Your little gathering doesn't know a thing about the powers out there if this shocks you. I'll tell you something now. Give up on going to see the king. As you are now, you stand no chance against the forces at work, and I doubt you ever will." She took a few steps, paused, then turned her head to face them again. "Oh, and my name is Evelyn, or Eve for short. In case you never noticed, I'm a… a witch of sorts…" A strong gust of wind blew around Eve, leaves and dust devils blowing around her before in an instant, she was gone. Emily stared at the spot where Eve was standing, unable to take her eyes off it.

"Well… That totally killed the mood," Sam said, more to himself than to anybody else.

"I think… We'll meet up here another day," Ryuga said, rubbing the side of his head in thought. "I'll text or email you all later on in the evening to talk about our plans." Everyone silently nodded their heads as they all dispersed back to their homes, Emily and Yoshi being the last two left, before they to began the long walk home.

. . .

"Yoshi, finish it!" Emily screamed. The familiar flash of red flames lit up the night sky, another digimon dispatched of yet again. Data from the digimon flew up into the sky, lighting up the atmosphere. Yoshi walked back to Emily, the streets now cleared of all digimon.

"Whoa Emily, you two are on fire today!" Sam yelled. "You took down more digimon than Greymon!"

"Yeah, but not without a cost," Mwape said as he pointed at Yoshi. Chips lined all around his armour, and from the way he was swaying as he walked it looked like he was about to pass out. "They're putting a little too much effort in tonight. Is it because of what Eve said?"

"More importantly, how come there are so many digimon?" Mighty asked as he degenerated back down to rookie level. "Like, five in a row? All at Champion level? That's not normal…" Yoshi couldn't even hear them as he collapsed into Emily's arms.

"Am I… stronger now?" Yoshi asked weakly. "Can we go back to bed now?"

"I don't see anymore, so yes we can go back to sleep," Emily confirmed. "You did great, but next time maybe we should take it easy alright?" Yoshi weakly nodded his head as his yellow eyes slowly closing shut. Emily smiled as she picked him up, placing him on her back. "Alright guys, we're calling it a night. If you see any more you can handle them right?"

"You can count on us!" Mighty yelled with a salute while Mwape gave a thumbs up. Sam also nodded his head while Greymon snorted a stream of flames. Emily smiled as she took a few steps towards her home, then stopped on the spot. "Huh? What's wrong Emily?"

"Digimon… Really strong Digimon!"

"Really? Mwape asked. "I can't see anything."

"I can… Sense it…" A shiver ran down Emily's spine at the thought. Now she could sense them, what was next, she'd turn into one? Before she could think on it more, thunder flashed in front of them, everybody stepping back in surprise. A tall female figure stood before them, though it definitely wasn't Eve, that much was certain. In fact, Emily was pretty certain she wasn't a human at all. She looked human at first glance, but she had a very large pair of grey furred cat ears, and even her arms were actually covered in more grey fur with black spots, razor sharp claws on the end covered in rings and jewels. Her belly was exposed with a red dragon like tattoo, and Emily suspected that her cream coloured baggy trousers were actually her fur to. Bracelets, gold hoops and other jewellery wrapped their way around her arms, claws, waist, forehead and both of her slim tails.

"So this is the human world is it?" the cat-like figure said. She yawned as she looked up and down the humans and digimon assembled before her. "It sure is boring here though… There's nobody to play with here…"

"Umm… Are you lost?" Sam asked. "You don't really seem all angry. Actually, you're a lot more like how Greymon was when I met him, so I'm guessing the trip here didn't make you go all mental right?"

"Huh? Only weak digimon get aggressive coming here," the cat said.

"Oi, what do you mean only weak digimon?" FlaWizardmon asked as he jumped out of the Xros Loader. "I'm pretty tough and even I changed a little!" The cat eyed him up and down before licking her lips and smiling, a fang showing over her bottom lip.

"You don't look too tough anyway. You smell delicious though…" The look in her eyes was enough to make Emily sick, but Flare was turning bright red in the face.

"Umm… Thanks, I guess? I've never heard anybody tell that to me before- Wait a second, I don't look tough?! I've gotten way stronger since I paired up with Sam!" The cat laughed.

"Relax, no need to get so touchy." She walked over to them slowly, her hips swaying side to side seductively with each step. "I'm only here looking for a friend to talk to, and maybe a little more as well… Just come over a little closer and you'll see…"

"Flare, I've got a bad feeling about this," Sam whispered to him.

"Come on, she's not hurting anybody is she?" Flare replied.

"Yeah, not yet! My mom always told me to be careful of strange people in dark corners. If she really just wanted to play, why is she coming out after we're all exhausted in the middle of the night in a dark street? She's fishy, and it's probably not just the smell of the fish she ate last night."

"Okay, first, that was a horrible joke," Flare said with narrowed eyes. "Second, if there is something wrong with her I can take care of myself."

"But-" Flare stuck his tongue out at him before all too eagerly walking towards her, almost skipping. The cat smiled, a pair of fangs showing, holding her hand out to him.

"Strike Fist!" The cat leaped backwards in surprise as Strikedramon landed just in front of her, his fist firmly planted in the ground.

"Heh? That wasn't very nice," she said with a frown.

"Hey, Strikedramon, what was that for?" FlaWizardmon said with a sour expression on his face.

"Idiot, that's not a normal digimon!" he yelled. "Don't you know anything about Persiamons? They're vampires! They're data type evolutions of Salamon, if you let yourself get careless she'll tear you to pieces!"

"She's a cat, cats can't be vampires!"

"Well she's a vampire right here!"

"Just because she's a vampire then doesn't mean she's evil. You're just jealous of my-" Before Flare could finish a large clawed hand came hurtling towards him, Strikedramon grabbing the claw just a second before it would've torn through Flare. Both of them jumped backwards away from Persiamon.

"My oh my, I thought I was going to have an easy catch this time!" Persiamon said with an evil grin. "Ah well, I guess it's no fun unless they run anyway." Allison and Lexi arrived from a street at Persiamon's right while Ryuga and Jay appeared by her left, all of them with their Digivices held up.

"Everything's clear on our areas," Allison yelled cheerily. "Now I'm guessing this is the boss huh? Handle!" An already Digivolved Lycanthmon charged towards her, his swords flashing in the streetlights. Persiamon dodged each swift attack with ease, thin strands of long red hair occasionally falling off. She stood on her hands, kicking Lycanthmon in the jaw as she cartwheeled backwards away from him. Mighty fired a stream of blue aura pellets only to see her dodge them all. Jay swiped a card through his Digivice, blue sparks building up around him.

"Bitemon Digivolve to…" The familiar sound of machinery and data surrounded them as Bitemon grew large, his fangs becoming more menacing. "Fangdramon!" Ryuga looked at DexDorumon, nodding his head as he pulled out his own Digivice.

"DexDorumon Digivolve to… DexDorugamon!" DexDorugamon landed in the ground, spitting large electrified cannonballs at the feline, Persiamon dancing around each shot with ease. Kotemon also jumped off of Emily's back, clutching his sword more tightly than before.

"I've defeated one vampire before… I'll do it again!" he roared, his sword catching fire.

"Alright then Yoshi, I'll believe in your sword," Emily said. She looked at Sam who nodded back in confirmation.

"FlaWizardmon, Strikedramon, DigiXros!" The two digimon shot into the air, clashing in the middle before falling back down as the armoured Flamedramon.

"The Fire of Courage!" Flamedramon added before blasting Persiamon with fireballs. Persiamon simply somersaulted through the air, laughing the whole time as none of the attacks connected.

"Reload, Devimon!" Devimon materialised in front of Sam, cracking his knuckles.

"So you're also a vampire aren't you?" he said as soon as he spied Persiamon. "Then this will be fun won't it?"

"No Devimon, stop," Emily said. "You're a champion level and she's an ultimate. She's probably way stronger than you. Sam, Xros him with Yoshi!"

"Alright then, you ready guys? Kotemon, Devimon, DigiXros!" The two of them shot into the air, Persiamon staring with wide eyes as they circled each other, purple auras surrounding them both. They clashed together, black lightning shooting out of the join point.

"DigiXros!" Both Yoshi and Devimon screamed, a burning purple X slashing through them. A torn black cape appeared on Kotemon's back, black lightning sparking around the shoulders where it was joined. Kotemon's shinai stick turned black while his yellow eyes turned red. His horns grew longer and turned white, curving up closer to the ends like a bull's horns. His left arm shot out of its sleeve, blue scaled and with razor sharp claws, one of which was red.

"Xros Up Kotemon, Vagrant Mode!" he roared. Kotemon leaped forward, swinging his sword angrily. Persiamon ducked and dodged behind each blow, whistling as one came within inches of her head.

"Neat, you're pretty fast!"

"And you're way too slow!" Kotemon roared, bringing up his clawed hand. "Guardiac Raid!" A black ball of electricity shot out of it into Persiamon's face, sending her tumbling metres backwards, rolling through the tarmac before Fangdramon caught her, smashing her against the pavement like a toy.

"Now, Greymon!" Sam yelled, his Xros Loader glowing bright red. "Greymon, Fangdramon, Megamon, DIGIXROS!" Fangdramon and Greymon collided together, the earth beneath their feet rumbling as they fused. A much larger Fangdramon emerged from the fusion, Greymon's helmet slotted over his head and a blue mechanical left arm, his chest also covered in a blue panel with a large M on it.

"MetalFangdramon!" Fangdramon roared angrily, his chest opening to reveal two large looking missiles, smoke coming from them already. "Half-Life Blaster!" The missiles fired, blowing huge chunks out of the earth as they crashed into Persiamon.

"Gatomon, time to join the party!" Lexi yelled, swiping a blue card through her D-Arc. "Digi-Modify, Matrix Digivolution!" Gatomon hovered in the air, growing and changing as a bright white light surrounded her.

"Angewomon!" she screamed. A bow materialised from her glove, an arrow already notched in it. "Celestial Arrow!" she screamed as she fired, while Flamedramon also hurtled a massive fireball. The attacks connected, joining the missiles in their explosion.

"Alright! There's no way she's walking out of that!" Sam yelled energetically. The smoke and flames died down leaving behind a small crater, Persiamon resting in it on her back with a blank expression on her face, little more damage than a few burns on her fur.

"What the what?! She's perfectly fine!" Flamedramon yelled. "And even after my Fire Rocket…"

"Are you done now?" Persiamon asked in a bored tone. "Geez, for all the screaming you guys were doing that was pretty weak… Now it's my turn!" Persiamon stood up, dusting herself off first. Yoshi held up his sword warily, backing away from her.

"Emily…"

"Yeah I know," she replied quickly. "She's preparing something dangerous…" Persiamon clasped her paws together, a dark red aura building up around her. In an instant, the aura vanished as she started dancing, swaying her hips slowly side to side, a mischievous smile on her face.

"Huh? What's dancing gonna do?" Allison asked in confusion. "And besides, I'm a better dancer than her by far…"

"For some reason I doubt that," Sam mumbled.

"Huh? Did you say something?"

"Hey, our digimon," Sam pointed out, ignoring Allison. "Something's wrong with them!" Flamedramon looked like he was enjoying himself, sitting down with his legs crossed watching, but Yoshi was trembling, his bamboo sword on the ground.

"Aw come on, nothing's wrong with me!" Flamedramon yelled. "I'm just enjoy-" Before he could even finish the sentence, light surrounded him as Strikedramon and Flare split up, collapsing on the ground, the Flamedramon fusion gone.

"Ugh… Sam, what happened?" Flare groaned. "Why did you split us? And why does my head hurt?"

"I didn't split you," Sam murmered. "So if it wasn't me… Her dancing! Is it…"

"Breaking down digivolutions," Yoshi groaned before he also split up into Kotemon and Devimon.

"You're totally correct!" Persiamon said with a wink, not stopping in the slightest. "My helter skelter affects any digimon that feel any kind of admiration or positive emotions towards me at all, magnifying that feeling and using it to break down the digi-soul inside a digimon. Once you're enraptured in my dance, there's no returning!"

"She's right," Flare said with visible effort as he clutched his chest. "I can't take my eyes off it… This is dangerous… Sam!" Flare's clothes all turned yellow, a dark blue cape appearing at his shoulders, the flames on his shoulders and hat disappearing along with his goggles. Appearing in his hands was a small red rock with a bent metal spike sticking out of it.

"Flare, what happened?" Sam yelled.

"I… Degenerated to a regular Wizardmon," Flare said in surprise, his normally energetic voice sounding quiet and reserved. MetalFangdramon growled angrily as his fusion also split up, breaking to Megamon, Bitemon and a greatly reduced version of Greymon, a tiny yellow dinosaur without Greymon's shell or stripes.

"You guys are too weak minded," Lycanthmon snarled. "It shouldn't have any effect on you as long as you take her seriously…" As soon as he said it, almost as if the words were a jinx he shrunk back down to AxeHounmon himself. DexDorumon followed to till the only one still Digivolved was Angewomon, and much to everybody's surprise even she shrunk to Salamon. Persiamon gave them all an evil grin, fangs showing and claws stretching.

"Now, let's all have some fun!" There was no hope at all, Persiamon tossing around digimon like they were paperweights. Sam stared in horror as Flare and Strikedramon were both tossed back to his feet, the now diminutive Greymon cowering behind them.

"This can't… Be happening... Beaten, by a cat?" Persiamon stared down at Sam, an evil gleam in her eyes.

"Yes, by a cat, a sweet little old pussy cat, you must be embarrassed aren't you?" She leaned closer to Sam, two clawed nails tiptoeing along his cheek, a thin line of blood slowly dribbling down his cheek. "I can see your face going red seeing me so close to you. Did my Helter Skelter affect you a little as well? Huh? Come on, say something! Cat got your tongue?" She giggled at her own joke before raising her claw in the air. A strong gust of wind swept through the air, Persiamon's long auburn hair billowing in the wind.

"Idiots… I told you that there were stronger powers, but I didn't think you'd stumble on somebody who failed to even reach their radar…" Eve stood before them, holding up a box shaped red and purple Digivice.

"Oh? And who might you be?" Persiamon asked snidely. "Another toy for me to play with?"

"Eve, get out of here!" Sam yelled. Too late for the warning, Persiamon was already leaping towards her, claws outstretched. Eve crouched down, placing her left hand on the ground. An odd circle with lines in the middle was drawn on the ground, but before Sam could inspect it further, a large wall of earth rose out of the ground, stopping Persiamon on the spot as she crashed into it.

"Earth alchemy, I always find it hard to do," she said to herself. Persiamon stood up dizzily before hissing angrily at her. "Oh shut up already…" A blue ring of data wrapped itself around her fist as she held up her Digivice in her other hand. She swiped the ring of data across the Digivice screen, her hands stopping as if from some kind of resistance. "Execute, Spirit Evolution!" she roared as the ring unwrapped itself, stretching all around her body. Red and black light shone from behind her as a long red gown or dress wrapped itself around her, a series of buckles going around her hips and waist. A black waist-length cape appeared on her back along with a tall pointed red wizard hat. Golden spikes that curved downwards stuck out of the sides of her dress. Even her hair changed colour from black to blonde, and her whole body seemed to have matured more. "Witchmon!"

"You're… a digimon?" Emily asked in shock. Witchmon ignored her, staring at Persiamon while muttering an unintelligible incantation.

"No, she's no digimon," Allison yelled, her eyes sparkling in amazement. "She just has a really cool Digivice! She has a D-Tector or D-Scanner, so instead of having a digimon partner she can transform into a digimon!"

"But that's ridiculous," Ryuga exclaimed. "She became a Witchmon, that's not one of the ten spirits, she shouldn't be able to do that!" Witchmon hurled a fireball from her hands at Persiamon, Persiamon slicing through it with ease. A broom stick materialised in the air next to Witchmon and as expected she sat on it, the whole thing flying into the air along with Witchmon herself. She didn't even look like she was trying, sitting sideways on it instead while Persiamon leapt from building to building chasing her.

"Hey! Come back here!" Sam yelled, reloading Starmon. "I'm hunting this digimon not you!"

"You didn't look like you were in any position to talk!" Witchmon called back. "Right now you guys aren't strong enough to beat Persiamon. Even if you all Digivolved to Ultimate level, Persiamon's Helter Skelter would just knock you all the way back down to rookie again!"

"So what're we supposed to do?" Sam yelled.

"Run away while I've given you the chance!" Eve yelled back. "I can handle this digimon but you guys can't!" Persiamon leaped up, fangs bared as she latched onto the back of the broom with both her teeth and her claws. Witchmon looked back at her, sweat dripping off of her face as she frantically kicked Persiamon's face with her high heels, falling to the ground again with a crash.

"I hate to say it but she's right," Ryuga said, him and DexDorumon backing off. "There's no point in fighting if we can't even Digivolve. Retreat for now!"

"Way ahead of you!" Mwape replied, calling Mighty back into his Digivice before running off. Everybody else followed him as they reluctantly pulled back, Emily picking up Yoshi before taking a step back herself. She paused. Sam was still standing, Starmon, Devimon, FlaWizardmon, Strikedramon and the miniature Greymon all next to him.

"Sam?"

"I'm not backing down!" he yelled, fixing his goggles.

"What do you mean? Doesn't Eve have everything under control?" Sam shook his head. Sure enough, Eve was down, Persiamon pinning her to the ground as she clawed at her ferociously, an evil expression on her face.

"She probably doesn't like us much because we're still new to this," Sam said, clutching his Xros Loader even tighter. "But she still did still save my life from that Persiamon. I can't ignore that no matter how hard I might want to. I'm scared of that stupid cat. She's not acting normal. She doesn't look like she's just gone berserk from entering our world… It's like she enjoys tormenting her enemies. If we leave Eve alone right now…" Sam's Xros Loader flared up brightly, a bright yellow light surrounding Starmon and all the Pickmons as well.

"Huh? What's happenin brother?" Starmon asked quietly. "My body feels like it's on fire… I feel like I'm about to explode!"

"Then that means it's time," Sam said, holding his Xros Loader in front of him. "Everybody else can do it… I'm pretty sure we can to!" A large golden ring formed around his wrist, the screen on his Xros Loader turning blue as the top hatch opened, a yellow V showing now. He swiped it in front of his face, a thick blue line filled with energy making its way around Sam's body, yellow rings going all along it to the Xros Loader. "Starmon, SUPER DIGIVOLVE!"

Everybody stopped, staring back at Sam and Starmon in shock.

"They're… digivolving? Yoshi asked in amazement. Starmon and all the Pickmons gathered together, green and yellow rings building up around them. The Starmons roared as their bodies completely disintegrated, restructuring into something new. Starmon's face reappeared, larger than before and with the bottom half of his sunglasses being more rounded. A blue gem embedded itself in his forehead. White sleeved arms popped out by the side just behind the large star face, red stripes with yellow stars running all along the arm. Thick gold studded white boxing gloves appeared on his hands as his legs also popped out below, large white boots with yellow stars at the top also appearing. Materializing next to him was a whole army of the smaller original versions of Starmon, only with their blue eyes showing with no sunglasses or mouths.

"SuperStarmon" he completed, the transformation complete, his voice now deeper with a slight south western hint to it, almost like a cowboy. "Leader of the wild, wild west and the many cosmos beyond it, SuperStarmon has arrived! Oh yeah!"

SuperStarmon

Level: Ultimate

Attribute: Data

Type: Holy

Tamer: Sam

Attacks: Galactica Eyes, Halley Squall

A digimon that evolved from the coolest and biggest mood maker of all Starmons or Deputymons. It's not a digimon to be trifled with, with the power to summon meteor storms due to having data from a legendary intergalactic hero. If it's accompanied by either smaller Starmons or Hagurumons, it would be in your interests to give up on the spot.

"What the what? He Digivolved straight to Ultimate!" Allison screamed.

"That's the power of Super Digivolution," Ryuga clarified. "The ability to completely bypass the Champion stage and rapidly become Ultimate level in an instant, the power it releases is massive. Even for a SuperStarmon, he's gonna be tough even for Persiamon to handle!" Persiamon turned her attention to SuperStarmon, ignoring the battered and bruised Witchmon.

"What's this? You still want to play with me? I'm warning you, I'm not that easy!" As she said this she began dancing again, a red aura building up around her.

"Starmon," Sam began. "Shut your eyes, all of you! Let one Army Starmon be your eyes and fight like that.

"Alright!" SuperStarmon yelled, his blue eyes shut. All of the Starmons shot forward as one, the Starmon Armies slicing Persiamon apart while SuperStarmon hammered a storm of blows too quick to see with the naked eyes.

"What… Why aren't you degenerating?" Persiamon asked in shock before she took a blow to the face, sending her crashing into a building.

"Our spirit is too powerful to fall from such petty tricks!" SuperStarmon yelled, the only regular Starmon with his eyes opened falling to the ground as a Pickmon.

"Whoa, that's clever!" Emily yelled. "He's using one Pickmon as eyes to take the Helter Skelter attack and making it coordinate where to strike to the rest! Helter Skelter is useless!"

"Hehe, now it's our turn to fight back!" SuperStarmon yelled, all of the small Starmons and the Pickmon flying into the air, flying around as yellow and silver streams of light. "Halley Squall, Meteor Shower!" The Starmons all fell to the ground on top of Persiamon, exploding like shooting stars to the ground. Persiamon crawled out from the debris only to receive a swift kick to the face from SuperStarmon.

"Now you've done it kid… Now you've really made me mad!" Persiamon roared, slicing angrily at SuperStarmon. "You think you're so clever don't you? If you don't have your own eyes it'll be hard for you to dodge my attacks no matter how fast you are!" SuperStarmon roared in pain as he fell over backwards, cuts all over his face. Persiamon held out a claw in front of her, a red ball of energy being generated in it. "See you in hell kid!"

"Thundercloud!" Eve cried out, a bolt of lightning zapping Persiamon, freezing her on the spot as electricity coursed through her whole body.

"Now!" Sam called out. SuperStarmon opened his eyes, his pupils glowing purple, all of the smaller Starmons getting absorbed into his body.

"Galactica Eyes!" he screamed, a stream of translucent purple stars streaming out of them, slicing through Persiamon, exploding as they did so. Persiamon screamed in pain, yelping like a cat as she jumped out of the firestorm of stars.

"You'll… you'll pay for this!" Persiamon screamed. "I'll find you, I'll find you all, and when I do…"

"Not betting on it!" Sam yelled, swiping his Xros Loader through the air. Yellow rings wrapped their way around Persiamon. "I'm keeping you here until you learn the error of your ways! That sounded so corny but so what!" Persiamon growled as she struggled against her binds, breaking them like they were twigs before leaping away over a building, an odd Time Shift portal forming just on the roof. Persiamon disappeared through it, the portal closing behind her. Sam let out a deep breath, collapsing onto his knees as SuperStarmon collapsed on his back next to him.

"Hehe, that was fun wasn't it?" Sam said weakly.

"You know it Sam man, I can't believe you could make me do that the whole time," SuperStarmon said, groaning as he clutched his arm. With his other arm, he held up a limp fist. "But next time, let's try and avoid fighting a total nut case, right?" Sam laughed, holding up his own as they fist bumped.

"Right, next time we'll be a little more careful to…"

"Sam!" Emily called out, running towards him with Yoshi, everybody else following behind. Sam tilted his head slightly as Emily came in sight, giving her a weak thumbs up. Emily could feel tears welling up behind her eyes, but willed them back as she stopped next to him, punching him hard on the back of the head.

"OW! What was that for?"

"You idiot! You could've gotten seriously hurt this time! Why didn't you listen when Eve told you to run?"

"I told you, she needed help, and it's not the path to manhood to run from a fight where our pride is on the line."

"That sounds like something from a bad anime," Emily said with a slight twitch to her eye.

"Sam!" Allison called as she leaped at him, knocking him towards the ground.

"Double ow! Allison what're you doing, trying to wrestle me?" Allison clutched hold of him tightly, refusing to let go as he was stuck in her painfully tight embrace.

"You total idiot! You and Starmon both are total idiots, you could've gotten yourself killed this time!"

"We're kinda always risking our lives if you think about it…" Sam pointed out. "But do you need to hug me till I implode?" Allison quickly let go, as if nothing awkward at all had happened.

"That was soooo cool though! SuperStarmon was suuuuper strong, and that gem in his forehead looks so shiny! Can I borrow it? Huh? Please? Pretty please? I promise I'll give it back when I'm done, come on, what do you say?" SuperStarmon glared at her before degenerating back to regular Starmon and Pickmons. "Aw come on, I just wanted to touch it at least…"

"That was reckless," Ryuga reprimanded. "That Persiamon was much stronger than the two of you, and even after you Digivolved you were still exposed to its attacks.

"Hey take it easy, I still survived," Sam said looking perfectly relaxed.

"On the little sliver of a chance that I would still be awake to save you," Eve said harshly. Sam froze as he turned around to spot Eve, still transformed as Witchmon. She looked terrible, her dress town and hat on askew, her hair in tatters and blood running down her left arm. "You're still green do you understand? You guys were already being stupid attacking a Machinedramon, but at least then it was being controlled so it was slow and stupid. This time you had no excuse. You choosing to continue fighting after you'd confirmed it was safe to run was foolish, and could have cost the lives of your whole team!" Eve looked down at her feet now, playing with a pebble with her toe as she transformed back to her normal human self. "But still… You went through all that trouble just to try and save me… You're such an idiot. I could have handled it… But thanks anyway…" Eve's cheeks looked faintly red, barely visible in the lack of visibility. Sam's whole face turned even brighter red.

"Uh… No problem… The pretty girls don't normally thank me for anything… It was a piece of cake! Yeah…"

"Don't be naïve you fool, that was still reckless!" Eve shouted at him before summoning her broomstick again, the handle splintered and shattered. "For the record we're not on the same side or anything, I'm not even a proper tamer! My advice to you if you're going to keep pretending to be defenders of the world is to stick to your little cesspool of digimon and stay away from the digital world until things return to normal. You can't go to the sea in you little hole riddled fishing boat."

"Things won't return to normal unless we do something," Lexi said. "We have to go to the digital world to find out." Eve rolled her eyes.

"Again with the thinking you're so special… It doesn't matter if you do something or not, just so long as someone does, and trust me there are already several individuals working on the problem now. You aren't included amongst them, so stay safe, and keep your seat belt on." Lexi stared into her eyes for a while, as if trying to decipher something before shrugging her shoulders.

"Salamon, let's go home," Lexi said. "Mother might be home and she'd be worried if she found out I was missing.

"I think we should all get some shut eye actually," Jay said as he too headed off, followed by everybody else going their own separate ways. Sam pulled all of his digimon back inside the Xros Loader with a smile, thanking each one individually (Devimon still didn't look like he was in the mood to be thanked by anybody, a grumpy expression on his face as he mumbled 'not fair… too cramped…'). He headed off at the turn off to his house while Emily walked the rest of the lonely stretch alone, wondering what would happen when people see a gigantic crater in the road leading to the city centre. At least they fought far enough from the suburbs to avoid people seeing the battle, but next time she had to remind Sam to send them all to Digi-Quartz first. Emily stopped, the air becoming still as no sound filled it. Something was wrong, the whole atmosphere felt off. A dark sounding melody kept playing over and over inside her head. A Digi-Melody. Yoshi looked up at Emily with worry. He could sense it to.

"What do you want Eve?" Emily asked, her tone flat and irritated. She wasn't sure if it was actually Eve or not, but who else would be following her right now with a Digi-Melody so creepy?

"How did you find me so quickly?" Eve asked, the air to Emily's left shimmering and fading away, revealing Eve standing there.

"I could hear you coming a mile away." Eve raised an eyebrow at her.

"Since I used a dampener spell I'm guessing that means you heard my Digi-Melody. So you can hear them… Still, I'm surprised you could hear Witchmon's melody even though she's just a spirit that I manifest. That's actually quite impressive."

"Are you hear to sing praise towards Sam's power to Digivolve?" Emily spat. "If so then he's three houses in the opposite direction." Why do I feel so bitter? Emily thought to herself. And for what to? This isn't like me…

"Why so bitter?" Eve asked, mirroring her thoughts exactly. "I'm not here for the boy. Everybody's making such a big fuss over him for no reason."

"What do you mean?" Emily asked. "Everybody seemed normal to me."

"Really? You didn't notice anybody giving him odd glances, the extra amount of congratulations he got? Nothing? Then how about I show you instead?" Eve took out a small mirror from within her bag, an odd ten sided shape within a circle drawn on the front. She tapped the mirror with her index finger. An image of Ryuga and DexDorumon appeared on screen in a small apartment. Next to them was an older incredibly beautiful woman sitting on a bed, her emerald green eyes and raven black hair enchanting. A small BlackGatomon was sitting on the bed next to her, almost exactly like Lexi's but perhaps slightly chubbier.

"How're you-"

"Scrying spell," Eve answered. "You still thought I was kidding about the magic didn't you? Just watch…" The people on screen (or on mirror) began to speak.

"That kid reminds me a lot of DC," Ryuga said. "I think he's got a whole lot of potential, maybe even more than us when we were kids. He's still a rookie but he's learning fast. He even managed to Super Digivolve today. If we work together with these guys, we might be able to actually find out what's going on in the digital world…"

"I need to meet him some day," the girl said. "He fits the pattern to doesn't he? The same one most of the Digidestined and Uncrowned Children followed. Goggles, a dragon digimon with a fire attribute… Or at least a dragon and a fire attribute digimon… You think that he's?..."

"I don't know yet for sure, but if he is the leader of the next generation of Digidestined, then we have to make sure he reaches his full potential…"

The mirror flashed, switching to Mwape's room. Mwape looked like he was out cold, though there was still light coming from his Digivice.

"Hey, Mwape." Mighty's voice called softly. Mwape mumbled something sleepily. "Do you think that I could become MetalFangdramon again sometime? Do you? Do you?"

"Sure, sure… Just go to bed it's past your curfew…" Mwape mumbled before snoring loudly.

"Yay! That sounds like fun! I like Sam, he's strong and he's got cool Xros things!"

"Mighty…"

"I know, I should sleep," Mighty said, a hint of sadness in his voice. The mirror flashed again, switching to a living room. It wasn't particularly large, but it had expensive looking portraits on the wall and fancy vases. Shouting could be heard from the room, one of the voices sounding like Lexi's. Before Emily could see what was happening clearly Eve quickly changed the view on the mirror again with an 'oops'. Jay's screen popped up, Jay lying on his bed, holding up his Digivice.

"These guys… If we all work together and join up with Sam's Xros Loader… We might actually stand a chance against Bane… Wait for me then, father…" Lastly, a room with gold wallpaper appeared on screen. The wallpaper actually hurt Emily's eyes, along with the other odd metal bits and pieces arranged on the shelf next to the bed. Allison was already in her pyjamas somehow, even though they had probably just arrived since the light was still on. She was seated on her bed, AxeHounmon curled up by her feet. A blissful smile was on her face as she hummed a tune of music that everybody but Emily probably knew.

"You seem unusually happy today," AxeHounmon said. "Did something special happen to you?"

"No, no… Just enjoyed today that's all, even if it was really, really scary! I'm still frustrated that we couldn't beat Persiamon ourselves though. Imagine if we had never paired up and had to fight alone!"

"Hmm… If you hadn't all gotten together… You always seem unusually happy after meeting Sam, even though you're always pestering him…"

"What? I annoy him?" Allison asked, her expression looking crestfallen. "I'm just trying to be friendly…"

"I know, I know… Just don't get carried away alright? I don't want to see you get hurt or anything…" Allison frowned at him.

"Handle, just what do you mean by that?"

"I don't mean anything, just don't get carried away that's all." Allison stuck her tongue out at him before the image faded away. Emily wasn't really surprised. Sam really was pretty impressive. But still, something didn't seem right about the situation…

"Everybody is talking about Sam in some way or form."

"So you came to show how useless I was compared to him?" Emily asked in irritation. Eve shook her head.

"Exact opposite. I'm actually surprised they haven't noticed that you're more skilled, and if your Digi-Soul is anything to judge by, more potential. Sam is a monster, no doubt about that, but it's you that worries me. The only thing holding you back right now is your Digivice, but knowing you you'll find a way around that to somehow. It's because of your power, though locked now that I'm telling you not to go into the digital world."

"My… Power? Why does it stop me from going?" Eve pointed at Yoshi.

"Because it's too easily influenced by the evil inside your partner." Yoshi's eyes widened in surprise as he pointed to himself in shock. "Yes you. Emily, you have amazing power that you can use, but no matter what you may think, you are not actually special. Exceptional, but not special. You aren't a Legendary Warrior, or a Digidestined and therefore you have no resistance to your own power or to the power of those around you. This Kotemon is evil and possess extreme dark power. Even now it's slowly starting to warp and twist you."

"What're you talking about? Yoshi's not evil, and I still feel fine!"

"You feel fine now, but who knows what's going to happen once you enter the digital world? It looks like 'Yoshi' can't remember who he was in his past life, so here in this world you are safe, but if he rediscovers his evil there and you follow his ways… I may be forced to remove you both before you become a threat to the greater good."

"Look, I'm not in the mood to be threatened when I nearly died, but I don't care what you say. Me and Yoshi are going to the Digital World whether you like it or not!" Eve let out a pent up breath.

"I was afraid you were going to say that… Well, I don't think I can stop you anyway. I could use a spell and convince you to remain here but I don't believe in such crude uses of magic…" Eve turned around on her heel, her scarf billowing as a strong breeze picked up. "I'm pretty certain we aren't going to be team mates anytime soon, so I suggest you be very careful Emily. Watch out for the one named Bane. You will meet him one day, and if your stars don't shine on you then the cat may return to…" With those words, she vanished seemingly into thin air, the only company Emily and Yoshi had being the lonely wind, howling through the empty streets…