Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
While everybody else was shocked at this Omnimon's appearance, TK and Kari paid no attention to their brothers and immediately ordered their partners to attack Lilithmon again. At first, Sora couldn't understand why these two were continuing to attack on their own after Lilithmon clearly showed they weren't enough before Lilithmon's description suddenly clicked. She had claimed that Patamon and Gatomon's Mega forms were supported by the Wrath and Lust of their partners. Since TK's anger would be directed entirely at Lilithmon, his Daemon would continue to attack that one target regardless of the rational choice. Likewise, what little lust Kari felt would be directed towards TK judging by their conversation this morning, so Kari would continue to do whatever she could for him. In order for their partners to hold their Mega forms, TK and Kari must have lost their rational thinking to their respective sins. If they hoped to win, they would need help from the other Digimon.
Unfortunately for Sora, Omnimon wasn't about to give any of them the chance to peel away from the fight. Shouting out "Double Torrent!" he unleashed a stream of fire from his WarGreymon arm and a stream of ice from his MetalGarurumon arm. The two elemental attacks streamed straight toward Puppetmon and HerculesKabuterimon, but Plesiomon jumped in front of them and unleashed his Shaking Pulse, canceling out the attack. As the other Digimon spread out, Plesiomon began outlining his plan for the upcoming battle. "Don't worry guys, I know he's strong, but as long as you keep your ears covered, I'll be able to cancel out any of his atARRGH!"
Plesiomon's last sentence was cut off as he suddenly reverted to Bukamon, revealing Omnimon standing with his blade drawn where the sea monster had been moments before. Addressing the gathered DigiDestined, he finally spoke. "I'm sorry; I suppose that was rude of me. I didn't even bother calling out the name of my attack. If you are curious, that was my Grey Sword. It's a simple attack that can't be canceled out by sonic waves. That is why your friend—Garuru Cannon!"
Extending a cannon from his MetalGarurumon arm, Omnimon spun around and blasted HerculesKabuterimon in the face as the insect had been about to strike him with a Giga Scissor Claw attack. HerculesKabuterimon quickly reverted to Motimon, allowing him to avoid any further harm as he shrunk to the point that his head was no longer contained within the blast, which continued out into the ocean and froze a path out to the horizon.
In an affronted tone, Omnimon continued to address the DigiDestined. "Didn't I just say how rude it was to attack without calling it out first? On top of that, your friend even tried attacking me while my back was turned and I was trying to talk. He is lucky my sense of honor is greater than yours, or else I would be forced to kill him right now. Fortunately for him, he no longer poses a threat, and I refuse to engage in meaningless destruction. Now, are the rest of you ready to fight, or are you going to peacefully surrender? The choice is yours."
As Omnimon issued this declaration, he actually retracted his sword and cannon, and merely stood waiting to hear how the DigiDestined would respond. Seeing this, Mimi couldn't help but ask Izzy a question. "Izzy? Is it a good thing or a bad thing that Omnimon is being so polite to us? Usually, Lilithmon or Wisemon kept Agumon and Gabumon mindless or angry at us, but now they are actually offering us the option to surrender? What does this mean?"
"Mimi, I have no idea how to answer that. The way I see it, there are two possible explanations for this. One, Omnimon is more powerful than Lilithmon can fully control, allowing some of his personality as a good guy to slip through despite his actions, which would be mostly a good sign. Two, Lilithmon isn't controlling Omnimon at all, so we get to see his personality in full. This would be a bad sign, since it means Omnimon is attacking us despite having complete control of himself. Either way, we need to find some way to beat him. We can't afford to surrender now. Luckily, he doesn't seem like the type to attack a defenseless target, so we shouldn't have to worry about anybody being outright destroyed by him."
Hearing this, Garudamon and Puppetmon finally shouted a reply to Omnimon. "We can't afford to surrender to you! If the Demon Lords aren't stopped, it could be the end for the Digital World and Earth. Don't you care about any of that? You're our friend, Omnimon, but if you stand in our way we will have to stop you, no matter how powerful you are!" After this, they both called out the names of their attacks, with Garudamon firing a Wing Blade and Puppetmon using the bullet version of her Puppet Pummel. As the two attacks sped towards Omnimon, he held out his two arms and released his Double Torrent attack again. The stream of ice met Garudamon's attack head on in a cloud of steam, while the stream of fire met Puppetmon's blasts in an explosion. While the DigiDestined were hopeful that something had happened, the smoke and steam cleared to reveal Omnimon in his exact same position without so much as a rip in his cape.
"It is true that my master's plans would bring suffering to the residents of the Digital World and Earth. As much as that pains me, however, I cannot disobey my master. She has ordered me to stop you, my friends, and I must obey. I hope you will reconsider your option to surrender and run as far away as you can before she orders me to destroy you. I have fought you enough as it is and I would hate for anybody else to be seriously hurt because they refused to surrender."
"Well," Garudamon countered, "I'm afraid you'll either have to keep fighting us or surrender yourself. We can't give up now!" Lowering her voice, she started addressing Puppetmon. "Listen, I hope you're ready to give controlling me another shot. We're going to need Ornismon for this one. Hop on!" As soon as Puppetmon had hopped on to her shoulders, Garudamon called out to Sora that she needed to Digivolve. Sora was confused for a second, but upon seeing Puppetmon, she suddenly understood. Concentrating, Sora managed to turn her Crest black, and Garudamon began glowing purple and growing as he Dark Digivolved. As soon as Ornismon appeared, Puppetmon attached a bunch of strings to her wings and forced her to directly face Omnimon. The Puppet Digimon addressed the Royal Knight. "Now, I know you hate it when people don't call out their attacks, but we haven't quite mastered this particular trick yet, so it'll be a bit sloppy." Sure enough, as Puppetmon had been talking, Ornismon had been preparing a Cosmic Ray, and silently fired it as soon as Puppetmon had spoken the final word. The blast raced toward Omnimon and exploded, immediately causing Sora to worry. Sure, it would be great if they had finally managed to hit Omnimon with an attack, but she didn't want to think about the effects of an attack like that on Matt and Tai, who had been sitting on Omnimon's shoulders upon impact. As such, she let out a sigh of relief when she saw Omnimon had taken cover behind something similar to WarGreymon's Brave Shield, with the only difference being this shield's larger size and decoration featuring half of the Crest of Courage and half of the Crest of Friendship instead of a full Crest of Courage.
Omnimon lowered the shield and began addressing Puppetmon. "I must congratulate you on launching that attack. Combining your control with your friend's destructive power forced me to rely on my Brave Shield Omega to avoid damage. However, I must ask for a brief pause in our fight. Such attacks could seriously harm Tai and Matt, so I wish to drop them off before we resume, if such an act is possible."
Puppetmon was about to agree to Omnimon's request- sure, she usually didn't like letting her opponent do anything, but this time it would get Tai and Matt out of the way so they wouldn't have to worry about hurting them. However, before she could speak, she was distracted as two dark figures suddenly shot passed her and crashed into the ground right next to the DigiDestined. As the dust cleared, the figures were revealed to be Daemon and Lilithmon, and considering the circumstances she was fairly certain she knew which Lilithmon that was. Sure enough, a second Lilithmon suddenly flew up next to Omnimon and began ordering the Royal Knight around.
"You've only managed to take out four of them? Would you quit playing around? Lucemon is getting impatient, and I need to end this battle before the ritual begins. I can't just lead any DigiDestined to our base, now can I? Now, defeat them before I'm forced to order you to kill them!"
Hearing this, Sora and Mimi turned to TK and Kari as the only ones left who could help. "Listen, TK," Sora started, "I know you are absolutely furious at Lilithmon right now, and you have every right to be. However, if you don't help Puppetmon and Ornismon with Omnimon, more people will get hurt." When TK didn't respond to this, Sora decided she had to pull out some heavier ammunition. "Unless you want Kari to be hurt by Omnimon, that is." This last line caused TK to go even more berserk, causing Daemon to release a bigger surge of dark energy as he struggled to stand up. Unfortunately, the next words out of TK's mouth were "Daemon, get up and attack that Lilithmon," so Sora realized that even bringing Kari into the discussion hadn't gotten through to him.
Mimi heard Sora's approach fail, so she decided to try something else to get TK to turn around. "Hey, Kari. In case you haven't noticed, TK isn't really acting like himself right now. If you managed to return him to normal, I'm sure he'd be so grateful to you he'd take you out on a date. So, how about you talk to him and get him to help out, and then I'll help make sure he ends up your boyfriend?" Mimi was certain she had hit on the right tactic here- if Kari was consumed with lust, she would jump at any chance to get a date with TK. Since Kari had been the only one to snap TK out of his NeoDevimon issues, Mimi was sure she would be able to snap him out of his Daemon issues, so Kari's lust would be the key to redirecting TK's wrath.
Unfortunately, there were two major flaws in Mimi's plan. The first presented itself in the form of Omnimon, who heeded Lilithmon's orders faster than Kari could react to Mimi's words. He had quickly flown right up to Puppetmon and slashed her with his Grey Sword, causing her to revert to Tanemon. While this move freed Ornismon, the large bird was unable to so much as flap her wings before Omnimon unleashed his Garuru Cannon at point blank range into her back. Omnimon must have held back most of his power in order to avoid injuring himself, Matt, or Tai because this blast was much smaller, but it still was strong enough to send Yokomon plummeting to the ground. The second problem presented itself in the form of Kari, who didn't seem to care about the injury to the last two Digimon she had been told to reinforce. "Oh, I think I'll have to pass on that offer, Mimi. You see, I don't need any help setting up a date with him. As for talking to him, well, let's just say I can think of something much more fun we could do with our mouths." Finishing this sentence, Kari immediately grabbed TK, spun him around so he was facing her, and pulled him into a deep kiss.
Mimi's thoughts suddenly split into three different directions. The first direction was excitedly congratulating the two on finally getting together and commenting on how cute the two looked. The second was the much more realistic disappointment that Kari hadn't followed through on Mimi's supposedly foolproof plan. The third was the crushing defeat that such an action entailed. First, TK and Kari both weren't in their right minds at the moment, so this kiss was basically the same as kissing somebody who was drunk or on drugs and wasn't aware of what they were doing. Second, TK and Kari were carrying the future of two worlds at the moment, and they were too busy being distracted by hormones and anger to even care. Right now, TK and Kari were literally kissing the world goodbye.
Before Mimi's thoughts could get any more depressing, she was suddenly blinded by a dazzling light. Squinting her eyes, she noticed TK and Kari were unleashing a pure white light that was the brightest thing Mimi had ever seen. Suddenly, the crater Daemon had been stuck in disappeared in a brilliant yellow glow, while a similar pink glow encased the crater that held Kari's Lilithmon. Mimi couldn't help but start laughing. Apparently, that kiss wasn't quite as meaningless as she thought, and maybe the world wasn't really doomed.
"Lilithmon, Slide Evolution! Ophanimon!"
"Daemon, Slide Evolution! Seraphimon!"
As Cody stared out over the harbor, he couldn't help but feel that returning to Earth had been a bad idea. Sure, seeing an army head out to attack Earth while in the Dark Ocean had seemed like a complete emergency, but everything that had happened since boarding Imperialdramon made Cody wish he had stayed behind. First, the ride itself had been highly awkward, as Ken had opened a can of worms by casually asking Yolei if she kept the contact information of all of her ex-boyfriends. Luckily, the argument didn't last long, as Yolei insisted it was no big deal, she had only gone on one date with Michael and then called it off, and she had only kept his info because he was another DigiDestined and they might have need to contact international DigiDestined in the future. Hearing this, Ken had quickly apologized for getting jealous and not trusting her, but Cody still hadn't liked being forced to listen to their private matters. Second, upon arrival to Earth, they had contacted Michael to warn him about the situation, only to basically be told it was mostly under control. While they had been focusing on matters in the Digital World, he had apparently been flying around the real world to inform the international DigiDestined. He had even connected up with Willis, who had somehow programmed a way for all of the international DigiDestined to communicate in real time. While it sounded like a normal chat room, he had made it so it could recognize each post as a request for help or just a status update, allowing people to stay in contact and reinforce each other without requests being lost to the clutter. It even had the ability to accurately translate all requests into any language the user chose, breaking down the communication barrier some teams had faced on the last world tour.
In addition to the international DigiDestined not needing the warning about the problem, it also turned out they didn't really need the help of four more people. At first, they had thought Imperialdramon would be an absolute necessity to take out any Ultimate levels around the world, but two things prevented that from being the case. First, Willis had somehow managed to recreate the Digimental of Destiny, and by having Terriermon Golden Armor Digivolve to Rapidmon, he was capable of dealing with the higher threats on his own. Second, there was the fact that there just weren't many Ultimate level Digimon attacking- Willis had taken out a MetalTyrannomon and a Cherrymon before they arrived, and since then had engaged with a Megadramon. This left the only other known Ultimate to be an Okuwamon that had been spotted in India, which Davis and Ken had flown off to intercept. If the international DigiDestined had only spotted four Ultimate levels despite their global network, this army didn't seem to be as big of a threat as initially believed. As if to prove this, when Yolei and Cody joined the battle in Japan, they didn't come across any huge threats either. So far, they had each fought two Champions, but the majority of enemies attacking were limited to Rookie or In-Training levels. Sure, the Snimon and Devidramon Yolei had faced were strong, and Submarimon had difficulty fighting the Raremon and Gesomon that had taken up residence in the bay, but it was hard to view yourself as saving the world when all you were really doing is cleaning up Gizamon, DemiDevimon, and Pagumon.
Suddenly, Cody heard a little girl's scream, and immediately snapped out of his musings. Sure, In-Training Digimon were no threat to anybody with a Digimon partner, but there were still plenty of people who had no idea what these things were, and they still could do some damage. Cody grabbed Armadillomon and started running in the direction of the noise, thankful he had hit a growth spurt and finally had longer legs. After all, he was the only DigiDestined who didn't have a partner suited for quick travel. Submarimon was fine as long as he needed to travel through the water, but Digmon and Ankylomon both were more suited to fighting than running. Finally, Cody arrived to where he thought he had heard the scream, but was absolutely shocked at what he saw.
Sitting on the curb was a girl who looked to be no older than five, who was crying but otherwise looked unharmed. Standing in the middle of the road, however, were two swarms of Pagumon all busily attacking something Cody couldn't see. Thinking those two things might have been the parents of the crying girl, Cody pulled out his D3, but before he could do anything the Pagumon were starting to get knocked outward from their swarms and running away. Eventually, all the Pagumon fled, revealing two dark haired boys who had apparently fought them off using nothing but a Bo staff and a pair of kendo sticks. When the two boys turned to face Cody, he suddenly gasped in recognition.
"Koji? Koichi? What are you doing out here?"
"Oh, hey Cody," the one with the Bo staff replied. "Well, Koji and I took the day off to help Mom move into her new apartment. By the time we finished, we couldn't help but notice there was a bit of a Digimon invasion going on, so we figured we had to help out somehow. Then we heard this little girl scream and just had to help her."
"Wait, Koichi, how do you know about Digimon? And if you know about them, why would you jump in and fight them? They can be really dangerous!"
"It's simple," Koji replied as he strapped his two kendo sticks to his back. "We know about them because we both went to the Digital World six years ago. As for the danger, we know what we are doing. These were just Pagumon. I fought twenty of those off with a pole when I was eleven. I knew I could handle them after six years of kendo practice. Of course, if they started to Digivolve, we would have grabbed the girl and gotten out of here. I may be good, but I'm not as effective as Lobomon in a fight. Still, the real question is, what are you doing here? You obviously know about the Digimon and how dangerous they can be, yet you're wandering the streets without anything to defend yourself."
"You don't have to worry about me, I have a partner Digimon. Armadillomon, you can stop hiding now. These two are Koji Minamoto and Koichi Kimura. They work at the community center Grandpa and I volunteer at. Koji, Koichi, I'd like you to meet my partner Armadillomon."
As Cody said this, Armadillomon came out from behind Cody, where he had been trying to hide as a force of habit whenever he encountered humans who weren't DigiDestined or their families. After the introduction, Koichi went off to talk to the little girl and tell her to go back inside her house and not offer chocolate to strange animals while Koji and Cody both began questioning each other on their past experiences, with Cody wondering how Koji had gotten to the Digital World in the first place and Koji wondering what it meant to have a partner Digimon. However, before they could get very far into their explanations, Koji's cell phone rang.
"Oh hey, Takuya. How are you enjoying this nice little trip down memory lane? … Yeah, Koichi's fine, he's standing here with me. Why do you ask?... What? Listen, get everybody out of there now. I don't care how you have to do it. We'll be right down to help you. I even found a friend who can help out. We'll be there as soon as we can."
Hanging up, Koji suddenly yelled to his brother. "Koichi, do you think Mother would let you borrow her car? We need to get to the Odaiba Convention Center as soon as possible. It's Duskmon."
Hearing this, a dark expression crossed Koichi's face. "Well, we don't really have a choice here. Let's go." As he and Koji started running back to their mother's new apartment, Cody struggled to keep up. "Wait, who's Duskmon, and why is it such a big deal to Koichi?" Koji didn't bother to face Cody as he answered. "Listen, if you want an explanation, it will have to wait until we get in the car. We don't have time to waste." Hearing this, Cody decided not to press the issue and focused on keeping up with the two older boys. When they arrived at what must have been their mother's apartment, Koji ran to the parking garage while Koichi ran into the building itself. Unsure of what to do, Cody followed Koji and found him leaning against the door of a car, his kendo sticks held in a ready position as he began mumbling to himself. Recognizing the pose from his various times sparring with Koji, Cody knew not to disrupt his focus as he gathered himself. Within a minute, Koichi had come to the car with a set of keys, and he and Koji silently got into the car while Cody and Armadillomon were stuck in the back seat. As soon as they got on the road, Cody finally had to ask what was going on.
Not taking his eyes off the road, Koichi answered in an angry tone. "Duskmon is the worst thing that ever happened to me. If you want the full story, you'll need Koji to take over for most of it, but it started six years ago when my grandmother was dying in the hospital…"
Cody, Koichi, and Koji arrived at the convention center just as large crowds of people were struggling to get out. Pushing their way against the stampede, they managed to make it inside, where a tall blond girl suddenly greeted them. "Thank goodness you're here, Koji and Koichi! The rest of us were all here trying to get everybody evacuated, but nobody listened until Duskmon started smashing the place up and people realized he wasn't just somebody in costume for a convention or something. JP and Tommy are helping out at other exits, but Takuya's using himself as a distraction for Duskmon. He'll need your help as soon as possible. Also, who's he?"
"We'll introduce you later, Zoe. What's important is he has a partner Digimon who can help. Do you have any idea where Takuya—" Koji's question was interrupted as the sound of breaking glass came from the direction of the food court. Taking this as their cue, Cody, Koji, and Koichi all ran in that direction. As they were running, Koichi began telling them a plan for the situation. "Okay, since you're the only Digimon we have, Armadillomon, you'll be in charge of fighting Duskmon. Just be really careful, though. He my look intimidating, but he's a lot stronger than he looks anyway. Just try to hold him off while Koji and I work on getting Takuya out of there."
"You keep talking about how strong Duskmon is," Cody interrupted, "and since you used to be him when you first became a Legendary Warrior you should now, but what level is he? If he's a Champion, Armadillomon might be able to take him and I wouldn't call anybody else away from their fights, but if he's an Ultimate or Mega, I'd call for backup."
Koichi immediately responded "Call for backup," but Koji decided to explain. "Well, I'm not sure how you would equate his level. All we have as a frame of reference is that he is a Human Spirit. To put that into context, some Human Spirits could go toe to toe with Ultimates, while others struggled with Champions. There is a level beyond Human Spirit known as Beast Spirit, which is even stronger. This guy took on four Beast Spirits and utterly demolished us without even noticing our attacks. If I had to guess, I'd say he's on par with the strongest Ultimates or maybe even a Mega."
Hearing this, Cody and Armadillomon gulped. "Okay, I'm calling in backup now. Unfortunately, the only ones on Earth who can deal with an opponent that strong are a few countries away, so they won't be here for a while." He pulled out his D-Terminal and sent a quick message to Davis and Ken, then after a bit of thought sent one to Yolei as well. While Aquilamon on his own wouldn't be much help if Duskmon was really as powerful as Koji and Koichi said, it didn't change the fact that combining Aquilamon and Ankylomon had resulted in taking down Kimeramon during the Trials of Olympus. They might be able to do something similar here if the fight ever got dragged outside.
Cody's planning was interrupted as they finally arrived at the food court, to see that the entire area had been demolished. Standing in the center of the chaos was what looked to be a man wearing armor composed of black skeletal fragments, but the seven additional eyes on his armor and red swords extending from the ends of the draconic skulls on his arms gave him away as a Digimon. Duskmon was standing over another boy lying on the ground, preparing to strike. Seeing this, Armadillomon quickly Digivolved and Ankylomon used his Rhythmical Knock attack to create a rock wall separating the two. As Koji and Koichi ran to get the boy, who must have been the Takuya they had been talking about, out of the way, Ankylomon charged in against Duskmon with his Armor Stampede attack, just expecting to ram him out of the way.
However, Duskmon didn't acknowledge the stampeding dinosaur, and turned all of his eyes toward the earthen wall separating him from his first target. He called out "Deadly Gaze!" and all the eyes sent out red lasers that pierced through the earth wall and missed Takuya by inches.
Before Duskmon had a chance to adjust his aim, Ankylomon finally managed to hit him. The giant dinosaur sent the demonic knight skidding backwards, but he didn't so much as fall over, let alone express any pain from the attack. All the attack resulted in was buying Koji enough time to help Takuya off the ground and finally getting Duskmon to turn his attention to Ankylomon instead of the humans. Staring down his new opponent, he shouted "Lunar Plasma!" and traced a glowing circle with his two swords that took the form of a red moon. Before Ankylomon could react to this, the moon suddenly shattered, and Duskmon flew straight at Ankylomon and viciously slashed his opponent. In addition to the slash, a giant dome of red energy filled the area, and when the glow faded, Cody was shocked to see Upamon lying unconscious at Duskmon's feet. However, despite Duskmon's apparent victory, something was clearly wrong with him, as all the joints in his armor were continuing to leak red light, as if he could no longer contain his energy. Apparently oblivious to this fact, Duskmon readied his sword to finish off Upamon, only for Koichi to come in and whack him with his staff. While it had no effect, it served to at very least distract Duskmon from his previous target and turn his attention to Koichi. Koji screamed for his brother to get out of there, but Koichi stood his ground and began taunting his opponent.
"I don't know who you are underneath your spirit form, but it's obvious you can't hold yourself together very long. That spirit you are using belongs to me as the Legendary Warrior of Darkness. The fact that you even took the form of Duskmon shows you can't control the Darkness. I've seen exactly what happens to the foolish souls who tried to do exactly what you are doing. You can't control that spirit, but I can. You have something that belongs to me, and I'm taking it back!"
With this, Koichi began a furious series of blows, but it proved to be futile: instead of doing any form of blocking or dodging, Duskmon let the blows glance off of his armor. However, the moment's distraction brought about by the blows and the lecture proved to be enough, as Duskmon had run out of time: unable to contain his own energy, he just fell apart on his own. A massive red ball of energy suddenly flew out of his body, blowing a hole in the roof as it exited. The empty remains of Duskmon's armor remained and clanked down to the ground as Koichi and Koji could only stare in shock. Finally, Koji approached his brother and, after checking to see if he was okay, began yelling at him for throwing himself in danger like that.
Koichi just stared at the remains of Duskmon's armor, unsure of why exactly he had just thrown himself into the fight. "I can't really explain it. It sort of felt like the Spirit of Darkness was calling to me from within him, but there was something off, like it wasn't fully there. I just had to try to get my spirit back, since something felt so wrong about it, but now that he's gone I'm not so sure that actually was the Spirit of Darkness at all. When did a Spirit ever just fall apart like that? Sure, we saw the twisted shadows in Cherubimon's castle that were a result of all the hosts who couldn't properly bond with the Spirit, but even with the hosts destroyed the Spirit stayed whole."
Koji merely nodded. "Strange as it sounds, I actually get what you are saying. You weren't there when I first got my Spirits, but I felt them calling to me as well before I actually used them. You must have experienced something similar right now. However, the fact that Duskmon just fell apart like that makes it seem like he didn't have the full Spirit of Darkness. Maybe somebody tried making a copy of the Spirit and it didn't work too well? Anyway, even if it had been the real spirit, how exactly were you planning on taking it back? In case you forgot, all of our D-Tectors turned back to cell phones after we came back. We don't exactly have a way to scan the Spirits right now."
Koichi suddenly looked a bit sheepish. "Guess I never really thought about it. Still, I'm glad that's over. Duskmon is pretty much the worst thing that could happen to someone. You lose control of yourself to the darkness and can't stop yourself from hurting everything around you. If that really was a copy, I'm glad no person or Digimon had to suffer through that." However, after a quick glance around the food court, he realized he needed to amend his statement. "Well, I guess some people still will have to suffer through the costs of repairing this place. Now, how exactly are we going to explain this mess to the police?"
"I wouldn't worry too much about that," Cody answered. "Odaiba has a bit of history with Digimon attacks. Usually, they just get passed off as the work of a terrorist bombing, which considering Duskmon's appearance most people will probably believe. The giant monster sightings get passed off as a result of shock since some people are unable to see Digimon even if they are right in front of them. People usually just convince themselves they imagined or dreamed about the monsters they saw and move on. Also, any records get deleted by the Guardians of the Digital World in an effort to prevent ordinary humans from finding out about the Digital World and exploiting it, so it's impossible to prove a Digimon was here at all. It sounds far-fetched, but it's happened twice before, so we shouldn't worry too much about having to explain it."
"Wow," Koji responded, "that's actually really convenient. Sure, it would be great if the two worlds could exist in harmony, but judging from my experience the only Digimon who want to come to Earth are the ones who want to attack it, and considering humans have a hard enough time staying out of war with ourselves, I'm not sure it could ever work out. It's probably—"
However, Koji's pessimistic rant was cut short by a horrible screeching sound from overhead. The red energy that had flown out of Duskmon had gathered itself in the opening of the ceiling and began to take a new form. Finally, the energy coalesced into the form of a giant bird with a red skeletal body and black wings. This caused Koji, Koichi, and the newly-recovered Takuya to all gasp in shock. Hearing this, Cody found himself equally wishing he knew what he was facing and praying for Davis and Ken to hurry.
"Please tell me that guy isn't as dangerous as he looks."
"No such luck," Koichi responded. "That's Velgemon, Duskmon's Beast Spirit. Basically, take Duskmon, double his power, and give him much more devastating attacks. We need to get out of here, now."
Before anybody could follow his advice, Velgemon suddenly swooped down towards them, forcing them to jump to the side to avoid being skewered by his dangerous beak. However, though the humans had avoided his first attack, Velgemon persisted and continued swooping towards the smaller targets. While they continued to dive out of the way at the last second, the constant need to dodge his attacks prevented them from making any form of dash to the exit. Seeing they would need to cause some form of distraction to escape, Koichi began searching for anything he could use to help, when the remains of Duskmon's armor caught his eye. Carefully executing his next dodge, he managed to pick up the remains of what had once been Duskmon's arms, but now were nothing more than swords extending from their skull housings. As Velgemon flew around for another try, Koichi prepared himself.
"Alright, Koichi. This will be just like old times. Sure, you haven't used them in six years, the swords are heavier than you remember, and much harder to wield now that they aren't your arms, but you got this covered. All you have to do is slash him across the eyes and blind him before he gores you with his beak. Shouldn't be too hard. Just be glad he's only playing around right now, because that won't last as soon as you make him angry. Alright, now!"
Koichi jumped up, intending to land on top of Velgemon's beak where he would have access to both eyes. However, as he jumped, Velgemon turned his head slightly, causing Koichi to land more to the side of the beak, where he didn't have a level surface. As he slipped off, he managed to slash at one of Velgemon's eyes, but the maneuver cost him as he hit the ground awkwardly and felt his ankle collapse under him. Velgemon screamed in pain at his newest injury, and in retaliation began flying in around the DigiDestined with his wingtip touching the ground, tracing out a glowing red circle. Cody felt lost, but Koji immediately recognized the attack. "We need to get out of this circle now!"
Knowing Takuya wouldn't be able to run on his own, Koji lifted him in a fireman's carry and began running. Cody quickly followed, but managed to ask why it was so urgent. "That attack deleted everything within the circle in the Digital World. I don't want to see what it does on Earth!" Koji kept running, but skidded to a halt when he saw his brother lying on the ground. "Koichi, we have to go!"
Koichi winced as he touched his ankle. "Save yourself, Koji. My ankle is shot. I won't be able to make it out of here on time, and I'm probably too big for Cody to carry and still make it out. Tell mom I'm sorry I couldn't make it."
Hearing this, Takuya suddenly spoke up. "Don't be stupid. You've only had six years to know each other, so you can't just give up and die now! We went through way too much work to get your family together, so we're not going to split it up now. Koji, put me down and take Koichi out of here."
"How about neither of you stays behind," Cody interjected. "I'm stronger than I look. I'll take Koichi. Now can we please get out of here?" As Cody picked up Koichi, Velgemon finished tracing the circle. Suddenly, crimson walls began rising from each side, threatening to trap the humans. They ran along the rapidly closing aisle, when Koji and Cody suddenly tripped over some pieces of debris left from the initial attack. Seeing the dome was nearly closed, Cody suddenly found himself regretting that he had never gotten around to fulfilling his promise to show his mother and grandfather the Digital World.
Suddenly, all the humans were knocked flying off of the ground. The crimson dome sealed itself to Velgemon's cry of "Dark Obliteration!", and the dome glowed brightly before disappearing, leaving nothing but a crater remaining where it had once stood.
Author's Note: Well, quite a few interesting things happened in this chapter. TK and Kari managed to slide evolve to their normal Mega forms despite being in the middle of the Dark Ocean, and we get to see the state of things in the real world as well as catching up with the Legendary Warriors 6 years after their adventure. They may not have the spirits anymore, but they still have the memories and some skills that carried over. Please review/message any comments!