DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon or any video games, books, films, TV shows or pieces of music referenced in this story. Original characters owned by me are stated in my profile.
Chapter Thirty-One: Never Leave a Mon Behind
Monday 15th November – 5:57p.m.
Hub Level, City of Gear
"Rika?" Ryo gasped, a look of indescribable relief flickering across his face before being replaced by his usual confident good humour. "Should have known it would take more than that to keep the Wildcat down…"
"It's a long way to the bottom, Akiyama," the redhead growled with an uncomfortable glance at Strikedramon.
"Oh, don't worry – I know you were only joking," the purple dragon chuckled. "I'm not about to throw you off another skyscraper. Ryo would never let me hear the end of it…"
"Good, 'cause I'd hate to have to catch her again!" the boy laughed and shook his head. "So, what happened? And where are the others?"
"Looks like Zhuqiaomon's spies found out we were at the motel – a bunch of Guardromon showed up and killed Gazimon. They would have found us too if Gazimon hadn't misdirected them and bought us a little time. Renamon and I got out of there with Kohenkyo, and the others took the secret tunnel."
"How did they know where we were?" Ryo muttered thoughtfully. "Were we betrayed?"
"Doubtful," Renamon replied. "We overheard one of the Guardromon saying that Hawkmon was captured and revealed our location under interrogation."
"Why did they destroy the motel?" Strikedramon wondered aloud. "It seems a bit excessive…"
"Wow, a lesson on self-control from the berserker…" Rika muttered and rolled her eyes. "After they found out we weren't in the room Gazimon told them we were in, they did a room-by-room search of the motel. We were long gone by the time they got to our room, so when they didn't find us they destroyed the whole place on the off chance we were still inside."
"Makes sense, I guess," the dragon's Tamer nodded. "So, do you have any way to contact Takato and Kazu?"
"We didn't have time to set anything up," Rika admitted with a frown.
"Hmmm, I wonder…" Ryo mumbled and pulled one of the D-Comms out of his pocket. "I might be able to connect to their D-Arcs with this. Let's see…"
After about a minute of button-pressing, the boy broke into a triumphant grin.
"Can I assume from that self-satisfied look you've done it?" Rika sighed, shaking her head slowly when the boy nodded. "So, what are you telling them?"
"I'm telling them to meet us in an alley on the far side of town. It's in a pretty busy area so it should be easy for them to get lost in the crowd," he replied, hitting send with a small flourish. "Now we just have to hope they can figure out how to reply…"
"Turn that thing off!" Kazu hissed as Takato's D-Arc let out a long series of wailing beeps. The shorter boy twisted round, trying desperately to manoeuvre his hand in the limited space available in Andromon's backpack to grab hold of the small device.
"Got it!" Takato whispered with a relieved sigh, frowning in confusion as a paragraph of text appeared on the D-Arc's screen. "What the…?"
"It looks like a message from Ryo," Kazu noted as he read the text over the goggle-wearing Tamer's shoulder.
"Yeah. He says he's with Rika and he wants us to meet him on an alley off 404th Street. Huh, I guess he got the D-Comms working…"
"Or did he?" the taller boy asked rhetorically. "We're in the most technologically-advanced city in the Digital World. For all we know, this could be a trap by Zhuqs's spies!"
"Uh, you actually have a point there. So how do we make sure it's them?"
"Oooh, maybe you could them a question that Zhuqiaomon wouldn't know the answer to!" Guilmon suggested excitedly.
"Good idea boy! Now, what should I ask them…?" Takato asked himself and began typing a response into his D-Arc after a few seconds of thinking.
Hey Ryo and Rika!
Kazu isn't totally sure if it's really you, so we're gonna have to ask for some proof. Only Rika should know the answer to this question: what did you do to Luke Aaron in that fight you had with him?
Takato
The trio sat there uncomfortably for a little over a minute before a reply came through.
I kicked him in the nuts and smeared his nose across a table – and I'll do the same thing to you if you don't get your ass over here RIGHT NOW!
Stupid Gogglehead…
"That's Rika, alright…" Takato chuckled. "You wanna tell Andromon to head over there?"
"I'm already on my way," the android whispered in reply. "I'll have you know my audio-sensor units are highly sensitive."
"Took you long enough," Rika muttered as Andromon squeezed into the narrow, dimly-lit alley, a muffled yelp coming from his backpack as it scraped against the wall.
"My apologies. I had to avoid a patrol of Guardromon about a mile back," the robot replied. "Are you sure this alley is safe? We can be clearly seen from the main street if anybody looks down here."
"That's why we're heading inside," Renamon told him as she motioned to a rather battered-looking wooden door that led into an old, run-down warehouse. The kitsune and her Tamer led the android behind a large metal crate where Ryo and Strikedramon were waiting before nodding towards the bag on his back. "You can let them out now."
Three mouths breathed simultaneous sighs of relief as Andromon complied and the two boys and Guilmon were let out of the backpack.
"I don't want to do that again Takatomon," Guilmon said firmly. "Your feet are stinky!"
"My feet stink? I don't even wanna know what's stuck between your claws!"
"If you two are finished," Rika growled in a tone that told them they definitely were finished. "We need to plan our next move."
"We have to find a way out of Gear," Ryo began with a thoughtful look. "The longer we stay here the greater the chance we'll be discovered."
"How do you suggest we do that?" Kazu asked and rolled his eyes. "These tin cans have locked down the whole city! There are guards on nearly every street corner."
"If we knew where they were deployed, we could work out a plan of attack and get ourselves out of here," Takato mused.
"Yeah, but we don't even have a tourist's guide to the city, never mind a deployment map of the Guardromon," Rika noted. "This is stupid. Every idiot knows you can't make plans when you don't have any intelligence on the enemy."
"I may be able to help on that front," Andromon offered and quickly explained his plan.
1:40p.m.
Guardromon Security Unit 514 was having quite a good day. If asked to rate it out of ten, he would have given it a 7.24, maybe a 7.25 at a push. His morning had been mostly uneventful – it had just the right amount of peace and quiet to make it an easy shift, but enough to do to break up the monotony. His afternoon so far had been excellent – the events across town and the sudden mobilization of all the Guardromon units had led to an eventful hour so far, and 514 could only see things getting even better.
A sudden noise from an alley on 514's right made him stop and turn. After assessing the situation, he calculated a 34% probability that some form of infraction was being committed and decided to investigate. The rust-coloured robot stomped noisily down the alley, scanning the area for any threats. When he found none, he continued down the alley until it widened into a square-shaped area about ten metres across lined with enormous American-style dumpsters. A quick scan of the dumpsters revealed no life signs, the only item of interest in the area being a life-size statue of an Andromon. 514 turned and began to walk back the way he came, but stopped as a loud cracking noise echoed off of the walls.
Scanning…Hostile detected! Hostile detec-ERROR ERROR ERROEREROERRRERO…
514 looked down in confusion to see an energy blade protruding from the centre of his chest. Assessing the site of impact, he calculated a 128,462% chance that the damage caused from the blade would cause a critical systems failure. As the world faded to black around him, 514 realized that there was a high probability that he had made an error in his calculations and resolved to run a self-diagnostic at the next available opportunity.
As the light slowly faded from the Guardromon's eyes, a cluster of wires emerged from between Andromon's fingers and connected to data ports dotted around the smaller android's chassis. Working quickly, the silver robot downloaded the deployment data for Gear's defence forces, as well as all the data files relating to the Tamers located on the Guardromon's hard drive. He barely managed to get all the files in time, the rust-coloured body disintegrating into data mere heartbeats after he unplugged from its data ports.
I can't believe Ryo managed to find a use for the Rock Armour card… Andromon thought with a dry chuckle as he looked at the shattered remains of his stony shell. Retrieving his backpack from behind a dumpster, the android began to make his way back to the warehouse, keeping to side streets in an attempt to avoid detection.
With the data obtained from the Guardromon, Andromon was able to tap into the tactical channels of Zhuqiaomon's forces and generate an animated, real-time holographic map of the city. Unfortunately, the map did not provide the Tamers with a weak spot in the city defences as expected – on the contrary, it showed nothing but a solid mass of Guardromon reinforced by brigades of Mekanorimon encircling the digital metropolis.
"Well, there's no way we're getting out that way," Ryo noted and shook his head. "Even if we had the others with us we'd never be able to fight through that many Digimon. We need a new plan."
"What about the sewers?" Takato suggested. "They might not be as heavily guarded as the surface – we could use them to slip out of the city."
"A nice idea, but no," Andromon replied. "The sewers of Gear are a closed system that leads to either the wrong end of a toilet or a great big reprocessing unit. There's no way we could escape through them."
"Hey, what're you all talking about escape for?" Kazu asked indignantly. "In case you've forgotten, these chumps have got our buddy Hawkmon! Are you just planning on leaving him here to die?"
"Odds are he's already dead," Ryo answered sadly. "There's nothing we can do for him now."
"Actually, these data files show that Hawkmon is still alive," Andromon began with a thoughtful frown. "He was captured along with a significant number of rebel agents and is being held in the enemy command centre at Phoenix Tower. Zhuqiaomon plans to have him publicly executed tomorrow at noon."
"That settles it! We have to rescue him!"
"Kazu, you're talking about attacking the enemy command centre – the most heavily-defended point in the city!" Ryo sighed in exasperation.
"Not according to this," Takato noted and pointed at the hologram being projected from Andromon's right eye.
"He's right," Strikedramon agreed and leaned in closer. "It looks like the majority of the tower's defensive forces have been redirected to assist in the blockade of the city. I count only a few dozen guards spread across the entire complex."
"It would seem that Zhuqiaomon has made a tactical error," Renamon chuckled.
"Oh, that's very interesting…" Andromon muttered, clarifying his odd comment when he noticed the odd looks he was receiving. "I am still sorting through all the data I downloaded and I just looked up the schematics for Phoenix Tower. Apparently, there is an underground tunnel concealed in the lower levels leading out of the city."
"Why didn't you mention this before?" Rika growled.
"As I said, I am still looking over all the data I obtained."
"Can we use it to get out of the city?" Takato asked hopefully.
"Ah, that is where we hit a small snag – only a small one, though!" the android replied cheerfully. "The entrance to the tunnel is apparently well-hidden and sealed with an incredibly strong door. The only way to reveal and open it is to input a passcode that is only stored on the mainframe of Phoenix Tower."
"I guess that's it then," Ryo conceded. "Looks like we'll have to launch an attack on the tower if we want to get out of here in one piece."
"One problem, Akiyama," Rika began and rolled her eyes. "There's still the issue of the army camped outside the city. If we all attack the tower they'll know exactly where we are and can rush us with everything they have."
"She has a point," Strikedramon nodded. "We'll need to create a distraction, then take out the tower's communications to prevent them from calling for help."
"I can take care of the communications if you can take care of the distraction," Andromon said. "I have the codes to every one of their channels – I can blanket them with enough white noise to completely neutralize all communication devices."
"So what do me and Takatomon get to do?" Guilmon asked hopefully.
"You two would probably be better off helping with the distraction," Rika replied with a small smirk. "WarGrowlmon isn't exactly designed for stealthy infiltration work."
"Which leaves you two to back up Kazu and Andromon at the tower," Takato finished. "Now, we just need to come up with a big enough distraction."
"Oh, I think I have an idea…" Ryo chuckled darkly and drew a card from the holder on his belt, showing it to the younger Tamer with an evil grin. "I wonder if Zhuqiaomon understands poetic justice…"
City of Gear, Industrial Sector – 7:41p.m.
"Digi-Modify! Matrix Digivolution activate! Goliath activate!" two voices called as one, twin flares of red and white light spilling from the inside of an enormous factory on the western side of Gear. Seconds later, the factory's roof bulged and split open as two colossal Digimon reared up – one a thirty-foot high dragon in sleek black armour, the other a forty-foot cybernetically-enhanced red dinosaur. The Digimon let out earth-shaking roars that shattered windows in factories several hundred metres away.
"They're gonna have a hard time ignoring this," Takato chuckled and shook his head to try and clear the irritating ringing from his ears.
"You can say that again," Ryo agreed as his partner lifted him up onto his shoulder. "Shall we get to work?"
"Yes," WarGrowlmon and his Tamer replied as one as they submerged themselves in their link. "Atomic Blaster!"
Twin torrents of crimson energy tore from the saurian's chest-mounted cannons, an entire city block of factories disintegrating under their caress. Alarms and sirens rang out in the night as the flaming remnants of the abandoned buildings collapsed into smouldering piles of rubble.
Northern edge of Gear, Transmission Tower 23 – 7:41p.m.
"One…two…three…" Andromon and Kazu counted as his/their audio-sensor units picked up an enormous explosion from across town. The duo continued counting as the airwaves were flooded with confused reports and requests for orders, a single voice eventually breaking through the others and ordering all units to converge on the 'abominations'. As their count reached one hundred, a series of wires leapt from Andromon's hands and connected to the transmitter tower he was kneeling in front of. Seconds later, the transmitter was reconfigured and the airwaves were flooded with ear-piercingly loud and shrill white noise.
"Stage 1 complete," Kazu and Andromon intoned as one. "Initiate Stage 2."
"You don't have to talk like that, you know," Rika grumbled, Renamon nodding her agreement next to her.
"I know, but it sounds totally awesome!" the boy replied, speaking on his own this time.
"No, it doesn't. Now come on – we have to move quickly if this plan is gonna work."
7:45p.m.
An alarm ringing on Takato's D-Arc brought him briefly out of his bond with WarGrowlmon and he glanced at the small device, cursing when he noticed the time. He cursed again when his partner ducked to avoid a laser beam fired from a Mekanorimon, nearly throwing the boy from his shoulder.
"Ryo, Cyberdramon!" he called out as he re-submerged himself in the bond, WarGrowlmon's voice joining his as he spoke. "Two minutes left on the Goliath cards!"
The duo's only reply was a roar of "Desolation Claw!" as they launched a wave of energy that shredded half a dozen Guardromon into scrap metal. Takato repeated his warning and Cyberdramon gave a curt nod to show he had heard. The dragon lashed out with his left claws as a swarm of Guardromon and Mekanorimon charged towards him, tearing an enormous rift in the side of a tall office building about a third of the way up its structure. He dodged back as the building let out a series of groans and cracks and began to topple over into the street. The horde of smaller Digimon noticed the danger too late and dozens of them were crushed beneath the steel and concrete monolith, an enormous cloud of dust being thrown into the air as the impact shook the earth. When the dust cleared, Cyberdramon and WarGrowlmon were nowhere to be seen.
"Take a left," Ryo shouted and looked up from his D-Arc as a now-normal-sized Cyberdramon carried Takato, Guilmon and himself down the dark, damp tunnels of the Gear sewers. The dragon complied, skidding around the corner at breakneck speed before breaking back into a run.
I have to admit, this was a pretty good idea by Kazu's standards, Ryo chuckled mentally. Just 'cause we can't use the sewers to get out of the city doesn't mean we can't use them to move around the city…
Phoenix Tower – 7:43p.m.
"Talisman Star!"
"Gatling Attack!"
Two Guardromon let out gurgling screams as an odd razor-edged symbol made of red energy flew past them in a boomerang arc, bisecting their faceplates in a spray of sparks and oil. At the same time, the two Guardromon guarding the main entrance to Phoenix Tower – a streamlined structure shaped like a single-edged blade and made of the same grey stone as the rest of Gear – were struck by sleek silver missiles that reduced them to twin piles of scrap metal. The four remaining Guardromon in the courtyard were quickly despatched as Taomon dropped from the sky and lashed out repeatedly with her Talisman Star, wielding it underhanded like an assassin's dagger. As the four robots fell to the ground in pieces, a pair of Mekanorimon rumbled into life and stomped towards the kitsune. The first fired off a scarlet energy beam with a cry of "Twin Beam!" only for the vulpine wizard to dodge nimbly aside. The second Mekanorimon lined up its shot, its lens-like weapon beginning to glow red.
"Twin-"
"Lightning Blade!" Andromon interrupted as he leapt from the high wall surrounding the tower, his right hand morphing into an energy blade in mid-air. He landed on the Mekanorimon's shoulders and quickly stabbed with his energy blade, penetrating the blocky vehicle's dome-like cockpit and stopping it dead in its tracks. The android leapt from his victim's shoulders as a series of explosions rocked its frame, lashing out once again with his blade and removing the legs from the remaining Mekanorimon. A pair of quick slashes bisected the torso before it could even hit the ground, the mecha's ruptured reactor core detonating in a firestorm that silhouetted a crouching Andromon as he retracted his energy blade.
"How melodramatic," Rika and Taomon sighed as one as they observed the android's ridiculous pose.
"If we can look cool while kicking butt, then what's the harm in doing so?" Kazu and Andromon replied, their wildly-different speech patterns fusing into an odd hybrid of polite and casual.
"Unfortunately, you can't do either. Now hurry up and get those doors open – we don't have long before they figure out which comm tower we sabotaged, bypass it and call for reinforcements."
"As you wish…"
The quartet encountered little resistance as they moved further into the tower, running into only four Guardromon on the first floor. Three of the robots tried to keep the infiltrators busy as the fourth sabotaged the elevator – a minor inconvenience at best that was easily countered by using Taomon's floating Taijitu disk. Unfortunately, the higher levels of the tower were much more strongly-defended.
"What is TAKING SO LONG?" a grotesquely-muscled humanoid Digimon with a skull-like metal head and a mess of dark blue hair roared. The Digimon was about ten feet tall and was wearing flame-patterned black trousers and massive black leather boots with skull-shaped steel toe-caps. The monstrous creature's torso and arms were wrapped with metal chains, one of which he held in his hand and used to whip a Guardromon as he spoke. "What use is the most advanced communication network in the Digital World if you pathetic worms can't even keep it running?"
"Our apologies, Governor SkullMeramon," one of the Guardromon stammered frantically. "We are doing the best we can, but the enemy's jamming techniques are interfering with our connection to the towers. They're making our diagnostics take ten times longer to complete!"
"I didn't ask for excuses!" SkullMeramon roared and lashed out with his chain-whip, crushing the robot's head. "Give me some RESULTS!"
The furious Digimon's order was punctuated by a soft chime as the elevator doors opened behind him. SkullMeramon turned with a furious rebuke on his metal lips, but fell silent as he laid eyes on two humans, a Taomon and an Andromon.
"INTRUDERS!" he roared, sending the Guardromon in the control room scrambling to their feet.
"Guardian Barrage!" twenty voices called as one, forty missiles arcing towards the open elevator doors.
"Hold on!" Taomon and Rika growled in unison as the taijitu disk suddenly dropped fifteen feet, the missile barrage slamming into the walls of the elevator shaft and tearing chunks of masonry loose from the walls. The disk jerked forwards without warning, tearing through a pair of sealed elevator doors just as a two-tonne chunk of concrete fell through the space where it had been hovering less than half a second previously.
"Well, we're not getting in that way," Kazu remarked drily and dusted off his shirt. "How are we meant to get to the control room now?"
"How about we…bring the control room…to us?" Rika gasped with a vicious grin, fighting for breath after donating so much of her own energy to aid in Taomon's exertions.
A confused look crossed Kazu's face, disappearing and being replaced by a feral grin of his own as he looked up at the ceiling. "Oh, yeah…"
"Talisman Spell!" Taomon and Rika called as one as the kitsune tossed eight glowing, white spell papers into the air.
The papers fluttered through the air and arranged themselves into a perfect circle thirty metres wide that hovered a metre above the ground, the circle beginning to spin slowly after a few seconds. As the papers moved they gradually accelerated until they appeared to form a solid wheel of light that slowly rose higher into the air until it made contact with the ceiling. The wheel flared even brighter and sped up, sawing quickly through the ceiling until an ominous cracking echoed through the room. The four humans and Digimon barely had time to shield their eyes before the ceiling gave way, depositing a large section of the control room – along with twenty Guardromon and SkullMeramon – on the floor in a shower of dust and debris.
"Lightning Blade!" Andromon and Kazu roared, making use of the android's advanced sensors to penetrate the thick cloud of dust and locate their targets. The silver-skinned Digimon leapt forwards, lashing out in a forehand strike with his energy blade and slicing a Guardromon neatly in half. He used the momentum from his attack to launch himself into a pirouette, his left hand morphing into a second energy blade that decapitated a second Guardromon and his right arm came around and impaled a third straight through the chest. As his sensors detected a sudden spike in energy levels behind him, the android pushed himself off of the rust-coloured robot and leapt into the air as Taomon and Rika's voices called out behind him.
"Talisman of Light!"
A beam of energy tore through the dust cloud, engulfing three Guardromon and reducing them to molten slag and spare data. Two more of the automatons were dealt glancing blows and were torn in half in sprays of sparks and metal shards.
"Weak Slap!" Andromon and Kazu shouted as the patchwork android landed and flicked his arms to the sides, launching twin waves of energy from his hands that each tore through a Guardromon.
"Flame Chain!" a voice roared as a steel chain coated in blue fire slammed into Andromon's chest, eliciting a gasp of pain from the android and an agonized shout from his Tamer.
"Kazu, you okay?" Rika asked in confusion (and more concern than she would ever admit) as the boy fell to his knees.
"I…I felt that hit…how is that possible?"
"It makes sense," Taomon replied tersely as Andromon climbed to his feet and dodged a second attack from SkullMeramon's chains. "We can see what the other sees, hear what the other hears, feel what the other feels. It is only logical that pain would be transmitted as well."
"What are you babbling about, Abomination?" SkullMeramon sneered. "Shut up and fight already! I want to see just how much I can make your human scream as she burns…"
"THOUSAND SPELLS!" Taomon roared, launching hundreds of little red spell papers at SkullMeramon. The fiery Digimon leapt aside, leaving two Guardromon squarely in the line of fire. The robots' armour was shredded by the repeated impacts and they were thrown screaming out of the window of the tower, plummeting towards the ground almost half a mile below.
"Metal Fireball!" SkullMeramon shouted in reply, spitting a ball of molten metal from his mouth.
"Talisman Spell!" Rika snarled in unison with her partner as the kitsune drew on their bond. The girl staggered suddenly as the projectile struck the shield and it nearly failed, only being saved by a last-second burst of effort by Taomon.
"Rika, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," the redhead lied as she fought for breath. "Just a little tired, that's all."
"You are a terrible liar," Taomon chuckled as she dodged another attack from SkullMeramon, decapitating two Guardromon with a thrown Talisman Star as she landed. "I am sorry. I did not realize how much my spells had drained you."
"I'll be fine, now let's-"
"You are not fine," the Wizard Digimon growled out loud. "We can't risk using the link or you could pass out from exhaustion."
"You and Taomon can get out of here if you want," Kazu and Andromon interrupted as the android finished off the last of the Guardromon with his arm blades. "We can take this Ghost Rider knockoff no problem."
"You sure?" Rika asked, hesitant to leave halfway through a battle.
"We'll be fine. Now go find Hawkmon and the other rebels and free them."
As Taomon ran through the corridors as fast as her legs could carry her, Rika cradled in her arms, the girl found herself cursing her own weakness.
I can't believe I nearly passed out…I'm stronger than this! she snapped mentally. Then again, we…I mean, Taomon has been using a lot of magic. I mean, there was the taijitu disk to get us here – I didn't even know we could make it move that fast! Not to mention destroying all those Guardromon, the whole thing in the elevator shaft…
"It is not your fault, Rika," Taomon reassured her telepathically. "You are only human and you are still young. Immersing ourselves in the link for so long was a mistake by both of us. At least we have learned a lesson to use it sparingly."
"I guess…man, I must be tired if I didn't notice I was broadcasting my thoughts the whole time," the redhead chuckled.
"Actually, you weren't. I just know you that well."
Any chance for further conversation was lost when the kitsune rounded a corner and found herself practically face-to-face with a pair of Guardromon.
"Intruders!" they cried in unison as they armed their grenade launchers. "Security alert! They are trying to free the prisoners!"
"I don't think anybody's listening," Taomon chuckled darkly and threw a pair of Talisman Stars at the robots, the bladed projectiles embedding themselves in their armoured head units.
"Well, at least now we know we've reached the prison," Rika remarked with a small smirk as she climbed out of her partner's arms. "Now, what did Andromon say I had to do again…?"
The girl pulled out her D-Arc and pointed it at the door's keypad, which was some six feet above the ground. A complex series of numbers scrolled across the small device's screen, the same numbers flashing across the keypad's screen with a half-second delay. After a few seconds, both devices let out small chimes and the double doors slid open automatically.
As she glanced around the newly-unlocked room, Rika felt a growing sense of nausea that culminated in an almost-irresistible urge to vomit as she laid eyes on the figure in the centre of the cavernous room.
"Oh gods…"
"Metal Fireball!"
"Weak Slap!" Andromon and Kazu cried, launching a wave of energy that sliced through and dissipated the sphere of molten metal.
"Not bad," SkullMeramon admitted grudgingly. "You fight pretty well – for a machine."
"Ooh, I'm so insulted," they replied and rolled their eyes in unison. "Gatling Attack!"
"Flame Chain!" the fiery Digimon replied, lashing out with his chains and detonating the missiles prematurely. "Even so, you can't hope to defeat me! You're just delaying the inevitable for both yourself and your little girlfriend."
"I think I'm gonna hurl…" Kazu muttered before launching himself back into his link with his partner. "You're really starting to sound like a walking stereotype, you know that?"
"Meh," SkullMeramon shrugged as a series of blue flames worked their way along his chains. "Heat Chain Midareuchi!"
Andromon leapt aside as a flaming chain arced down towards him, raising his right arm to ward off a second as it slashed at him from the right. SkullMeramon laughed as the android walked right into his trap and the chain wrapped around his arm, another chain encircling his left arm within seconds.
"You think this will hold me?" Andromon and his Tamer scoffed. "Lightning Blade!"
A loud groaning sound came from the androids arms as his armour plates struggled to shift and reconfigure into their energy blade emitter form. The chains encircling his arms proved too strong to break, however, despite repeated cries of "Lightning Blade!" and a series of curses from Kazu.
"Not so tough now, are we?" SkullMeramon taunted and pulled on the chains. Andromon staggered forward a step before planting his feet and pulling back against his fiery opponent. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that SkullMeramon was winning the tug-o-war as Andromon began sliding slowly towards him.
"Kazu…" he began in a worried tone as the boy broke off their link.
"Hey, haven't you learned to trust me by now, chumley?" he asked with a grin as he drew a card. "Digi-Modify! Strength activate!"
Andromon suddenly pulled hard on the chains as he felt new strength fill his limbs, knocking SkullMeramon off balance. With a feral grin, the android flicked his arms upward, tossing his opponent into the air and smashing his head against the ceiling before slamming him face-first into the ground. A chuckle escaped Andromon's lips as he began spinning on the spot, swinging SkullMeramon like a flail.
"Lightning Blade!" he called suddenly, his hands finally managing to reconfigure into energy blades with their newfound strength. The twin blades sliced through the chains like butter, sending SkullMeramon flying through the already-broken window and out over the streets below. "Gatling Attack!"
SkullMeramon screamed in terror as he plummeted towards the streets below, the ground rushing up to meet him much faster than he would have liked.
Oh, Sovereign! I'm too young to die! he thought despondently before he smashed face-first into the concrete, twin explosions ripping what remained of his corpse to bloody ribbons a split second later.
"I don't…this is…" Rika stammered as she surveyed the gruesome scene in front of her. She was stood in a cavernous, dimly-lit room about twenty metres across. The walls were lined with cages and tables laden with torture implements were dotted around at random intervals. At the centre of the room was another cage, its occupant mutilated practically beyond recognition.
"Is that…Hawkmon?" Taomon whispered in shock. The little bird was crucified on a Y-shaped metal frame, held on by ropes of barbed wire. He had lost all of his feathers and was covered in blood, his claws had been hacked off along with most of his toes, his wings and legs looked to be broken in multiple places and his beak was cracked to the point of uselessness.
Even more horrifying was that Hawkmon was not alone. Dozens of other Digimon filled the cages around the edges of the room, all of them in similar or worse shape than the mutilated bird. Out of all of the tormented Digimon, Rika could identify only three: a RizeGreymon, a MagnaAngemon and a Kyukimon. The latter she could only recognize because it was impaled on its own claws.
"They're…they're all dead," the girl whispered to herself as she realized that none of the Digimon appeared to be breathing. "Why…why doesn't their data dissipate?"
"Zhuqiaomon likely has some form of technology that prevents it from happening," Taomon replied in a flat tone. "He probably planned to make these corpses into permanent reminders of the risk of defying him. Like heads on pikes, but more…"
A pained groan interrupted the vixen before she had to finish her sentence and Rika let out a gasp as she realized one last, horrifying, sanity-blasting fact.
Hawkmon was still alive.
"Oh gods…" Rika whispered and ran towards the cage, grabbing a blood-stained key from a nearby table and unlocking the door. "Hawkmon? Hawkmon, can you hear me?"
"Ri…ka…" he croaked in response as the girl knelt down next him. "I…I'm…sorry…I couldn't…"
"Save your strength," she whispered as she tried to untangle the barbed wire holding him to the frame. Numerous nasty cuts later she succeeded and gently lowered the bird to the ground. "It's okay, Hawkmon. It wasn't your fault."
The mutilated Digimon's only response was a series of hacking coughs as his life slowly ebbed away.
"Taomon!" Rika cried out and looked desperately at her partner. "There has to be something we can do for him!"
"I am afraid not," the kitsune replied softly. "He is too far gone. My magic is incapable of doing anything now but prolonging his suffering."
"No…" the girl whispered to herself and stared sadly at Hawkmon. There has to be something I can do – I can't just let him die! Please, just let me save him. Please…
Rika gasped as she felt herself being drawn into her bond with Taomon once again. Thinking that her partner had decided to give healing Hawkmon a try after all, she allowed herself to be drawn into the bond. A bright violet light began to build up around the wounded Digimon, illuminating every corner of the dark chamber. As the light washed over Hawkmon his wounds began to heal – his bones snapped back into place, his beak was made whole, his toes and claws grew back and the dark red of bloodstains was replaced with the brighter red of his feathers. As the light washed over his head, the little Digimon arched his back and inhaled sharply, his eyes flickering open for a second before drifting closed again.
"And you said you couldn't help him!" Rika chuckled with a relieved smile, feeling surprisingly revitalized despite what must have been an incredibly draining spell.
Taomon gave her Tamer an odd look before replying.
"That wasn't me."
7:59p.m.
"Desolation Claw!" Cyberdramon and Ryo roared, launching a wave of energy that tore clean through the ceiling of the sewer tunnel, revealing the strange Earth hanging in the night sky. The dragon leapt out of the hole, his three passengers gripped tightly in his claws, and set off towards Phoenix Tower at a run. Fortunately, thanks to Takato's navigation, they had emerged from the ground only a hundred metres from the massive structure. Within seconds they were through the shattered double doors at the front of the tower and into the lobby, where they were met by Taomon.
"Took you long enough," the kitsune muttered. "Come on, I'll take you down to the basement. The others are waiting for us."
Less than a minute later, the quintet emerged into the middle of an enormous, brightly-lit chamber lined with girders and columns. At one end of the room was a set of metal double doors, each one little more than a slab of metal twenty feet high and ten wide. In front of the doors stood Kazu, Andromon and Rika, the latter cradling the unmoving form of Hawkmon in her arms.
"You got the doors open yet?" Ryo asked as Cyberdramon rushed over to the group.
"What does it look like?" Kazu and Andromon growled in reply, a loud click coming from the doors a few seconds later. "Done!" they announced, Kazu collapsing onto his backside as he wiped a thick sheen of sweat away from his forehead.
"Is that Hawkmon? Is he okay?" Takato asked as he caught sight of the birdlike Digimon.
"He'll be fine," Rika replied quietly as the massive steel doors swung slowly open.
"Was there anyone else…?" the boy began, trailing off as Rika turned a vivid shade of green and shook her head.
"There…no, there wasn't…"
"I doubt you could have even made a single whole Digimon out of what we found," Taomon snarled, barely-controlled rage colouring her tone. "We'd better get moving. The enemy will have restored some form of basic communications by now and will have figured out that something is wrong."
"You're right," Ryo nodded in agreement as his partner set off down the long, metal-lined tunnel at a run, the others swiftly joining him as the doors swung shut once again.
"Uh, guys? I had a thought…" Takato began hesitantly. "What's to stop them from following us down this tunnel?"
"Oh, don't worry about that," Kazu chuckled in reply as his partner tapped one finger twice sharply against his shoulder armour. "Me and Andromon set up a little surprise for them…"
As dozens of Guardromon poured through the doors to Phoenix Tower, the power cut out throughout the entire building. Seconds later, an enormous explosion tore through the structure five floors above the ground, another fireball blossoming into existence ten floors further up on the opposite side of the tower. Several more bombs detonated at precisely-planned intervals up the building, alternating between the north and south sides. As the final explosion rocked the structure, a horrifying groaning sound echoed from the overstressed girders and Phoenix tower began to collapse in on itself, breaking into fragments that rained down onto the massive courtyard at its base. When the dust cleared, over 150 Guardromon and 24 Mekanorimon had been crushed like paper cups, the only monument to their deaths being a field of rubble and a few mangled girders.