Disclaimer: Digimon isn't owned by me.
TK suddenly felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Ever since he had started opening the gate to the Dark Ocean, all he could remember was a consuming anger that prevented him from thinking about anything. Now, he felt his anger disappear, and it was a huge relief. He almost felt like he had been languishing in a dark tunnel for hours, and now he finally was free to enjoy the light.
Likewise, Kari also had the great relief of returning to her senses. She remembered starting to open the portal, but after that she had lost herself to a series of disturbing thoughts. She had almost despaired at ever being herself again, but now she was back and she was filled with the hope of never feeling that way again.
As the two of them just enjoyed the feeling of rightness that came to them, they suddenly became aware of another strange feeling, a sort of pressure on their lips. Wondering what this could be, they slowly opened their eyes, only to stare into another very familiar pair of eyes. It took around three seconds for both of them to realize exactly what this meant. They broke apart, blushing profusely. Sure, they had recently agreed to set up a date, but that didn't change the fact that they had just shared their first kiss and weren't even aware of how it had started. Looking around, they quickly turned an even deeper shade of red upon realizing exactly where they were. The overall dullness of the world showed them to still be in the Dark Ocean. While this wasn't the ideal location for a kiss, what made it worse was the fact that everybody in the area was currently staring wordlessly at them. Sora and Mimi seemed to be happy about something, Joe and Izzy just looked plain shocked, but even the brainwashed Tai and Matt were showing their first hints of actually having a personality. Matt seemed to be struggling to avoid a genuine smile, while Tai looked like he wanted to pull his hair out. Even Lilithmon and what must have been the Virus version of Omnimon were looking at them in awe.
Suddenly, they heard a caring feminine voice emanating from right above them. "I'm sorry to interrupt you two after such a touching moment, but I'm afraid you don't exactly have the time to be embarrassed right now." The speaker flew down and landed next to Kari, where she was revealed to be an angel Digimon with ten golden wings. She wore teal armor and carried a shield and a golden lance.
As TK and Kari questioningly looked at the new arrival, they heard a second voice speaking from above them. "Why can't you just let them have their fun? I know TK's wanted something like that to happen for a very long time." The speaker landed next to TK, and the two humans were shocked at his identity. Next to them stood the blue-armored form of Seraphimon, Patamon's Mega form from the fight with Cherubimon. "Besides, it feels great to be a Mega again without the whole Wrath thing going on. Speaking of Mega, why aren't you Magnadramon? That was your Mega form last time."
Hearing this, TK and Kari realized these two angels were actually their partners at the Mega level. However, before they could start to wonder how this had happened, Gatomon's Mega form answered. "Honestly, I'm not sure. Maybe it's because this time I used Kari's Crest instead of the power of the Golden Digimental, or maybe it's just because I shifted into this form from Lilithmon instead of Digivolving to it. However, I don't have the time to wonder about why I'm Ophanimon instead of Magnadramon, since I really don't think Lilithmon and Omnimon will just stand there staring at us for very long."
However, despite Ophanimon's warning, Lilithmon and Omnimon didn't appear to know how to react. Lilithmon was clutching her head as if she suddenly had a massive headache, and Omnimon seemed to be busy staring off into space. Still, not wanting to press their luck, Ophanimon began planning for the upcoming battle. "Listen, I'm sure they'll eventually start fighting, and even with our new forms, we won't be strong enough to beat either of them in a full-out battle. I have a plan that could turn the tide, but I'll need some time to get ready. Do you think you can distract the two of them for a while?"
Seraphimon groaned. "So, your brilliant plan involves me fighting alone against two opponents that could beat the two of us together? I really can't enjoy my Mega form, can I?" He sighed, and then continued in a more resolved tone. "Still, some plan is better than no plan. Getting the stuffing knocked out of you is a tough job, but someone has to do it, and it may as well be me. Here goes. Excalibur!"
Seraphimon suddenly extended a glowing blue sword from his wrist, much like MagnaAngemon could do. He then charged directly towards Omnimon, figuring his corrupted friend's sense of honor would at least cause Omnimon to engage in a straight up sword fight and not use his cannon to attack Ophanimon. Sure enough, Omnimon snapped out of his confusion and extended his Grey Sword to engage the upcoming foe head on. Despite his lack of desire to fight, Lilithmon had still ordered him to do so, and the effects of her Darkness Love were still strong enough to force his obedience. He blocked Seraphimon's rush and began slashing back, resulting in the Angel Digimon being forced to take the defensive.
As Omnimon and Seraphimon continued their sword fight, TK and Kari had a hard time paying attention to anything, as each was thinking entirely about the kiss, and what exactly would happen now that they had kissed. Ophanimon was silently gathering power in the form of a rainbow-shaped aura, so the only form of distraction came when Sora suddenly appeared in front of them, holding Yokomon in one arm while the other held her Crest up to TK and Kari's faces. Smiling, she spoke to her two younger friends. "Well, looks like you two still need a bit of work. With a little practice, maybe you'll get the whole glowing red thing down to the point of my Crest!" This just caused further embarrassment, so Sora decided to be serious instead of joking around. "Hey, don't worry about it. First kisses are always awkward, and you two weren't exactly yourselves when you started, so it's not like we're going to judge you on that. We're all happy for you two, really. Some of us just show that differently than others."
As if to prove her point, she pointed over to where Mimi, Joe, and Izzy were all gathered with their newly-retrieved In-Training Digimon. Mimi was excitedly babbling about something, while Joe was trying to calm her down and Izzy was typing away at his computer. "Obviously, Mimi's ecstatic about the whole thing, but Joe's trying to get her to calm down since we still have a bit of a situation on our hands. Izzy may look like he's lost in his computer, but that's just more of a defense mechanism. I think going off to college caused him to go back to not being comfortable around emotional displays, but he did seem happy for you and I'm sure he's just being like Joe and saving his congratulations for later. Unless you two aren't planning on staying together?"
Sora's speech finally managed to snap TK and Kari out of their embarrassment and after a quick silent conversation both nodded their heads. TK then answered Sora. "Well, we had actually agreed to set up a date right before this trip to the Dark Ocean, so if it's ok with Kari, I'd still like for that to happen. It just feels weird- I had my first kiss, but I don't really remember how it started…" TK trailed off as he didn't know if it was okay to keep talking about the topic, but Sora waved him off. "Don't worry about it. You and Kari were both out of it. When you two went to Mega, your partners turned into Demon Lords, and you sort of got consumed by the sins they represent. Patamon turned into Daemon and TK became overwhelmed by Wrath, while Gatomon turned into a Lilithmon and Kari was consumed by Lust."
Hearing Kari gasp at this, Sora was quick to reassure her friend. "Don't worry about anything, Kari. I say you were consumed by Lust, but that sounds much more severe than it really was. All you did was have your Lilithmon help Daemon with everything and kiss TK. Infect any other seventeen year old girl with Lust and they will do a lot worse. You did a great job. The worst thing that happened was a bit of confusion trying to keep track of which Lilithmon was which. Now, how about we go and join the others? We won't talk about the kiss if you don't want to, but we still need to get you two caught up on the newest developments and see where we go from here in terms of saving the world."
Seraphimon saw TK and Kari heading towards the rest of the DigiDestined and couldn't help but give a small smile. Sure, he was glad TK and Kari had gotten together, as he knew being around Kari made TK happy, but what made him the happiest was that they were willing to let their other friends know about it as well. TK once had to read a story for his Literature class where the two people had to keep their love secret, and it ended with both of them dying after a few days. He really didn't want that to happen to TK and Kari.
Unfortunately for Seraphimon, his little distraction cost him dearly, as Omnimon used it to press his attack. The Angel Digimon barely managed to raise Excalibur in time to avoid the Grey Sword's deadly blade, but Omnimon pressed the advantage. Without time to brace his arm, Seraphimon was left helpless as Omnimon pushed through his block, causing Seraphimon to be sent flying backwards. Realizing he wouldn't stand a chance in a continued sword fight, Seraphimon decided to try a new strategy, retracting his sword and cupping his hands together. Calling out his Seven Heavens attack, he created seven glowing orbs of energy and fired them at Omnimon. The Holy Knight once again conjured his Brave Shield Omega to protect himself, but Seraphimon had been counting on this maneuver. While the shield was nearly impenetrable, it also served to block Omnimon's vision, allowing Seraphimon to fly right up to it and begin charging his fist with the same golden energy. As soon as Omnimon began retracting the shield, Seraphimon unleashed his Hallowed Knuckle attack directly at his foe. The blast crashed directly into Omnimon's abdomen, knocking him backwards. Hoping to exploit this opening, Seraphimon began charging another Seven Heavens, but before he could fire Omnimon managed to raise his MetalGarurumon arm and fire his Garuru Cannon. The freezing blast was weakened somewhat on contact with the super-heated spheres of light, but Seraphimon still found himself blasted into the ground, where he struggled to stand up.
"I am impressed you managed to maintain your Mega form after that last attack," Omnimon addressed his adversary, "but I suggest you go no further. If you stop fighting now, I will not be forced to attack you anymore. I wish it did not come down to this, but I must stop all of you." As he said this, he turned towards Ophanimon. "Luckily, there is only one more I must fight before my task is complete." He began flying towards the last remaining DigiDestined Digimon when he was suddenly hit by a bolt of lightning square in the back, actually burning a hole through his cape.
"Where do you think you're going?" Seraphimon had pulled himself into a kneeling position and was struggling to stand up as he continued to gasp out his words to Omnimon. "As far as I can see, our fight isn't over. After all, I just attacked you in the back without calling out my attack first. If you're curious, that one's called Hallowed Ascension. Normally it calls down an entire lightning storm, but I didn't want to hurt Matt or Tai with a stray shot. Now, what do you say you get down here and we finish—wow, you're actually a lot faster than I thought you were."
While Seraphimon had been struggling to stand and form his words, Omnimon had casually flown down to him. Seeing the deplorable state of his opponent and knowing he at least had the honor to sacrifice himself for his friends, Omnimon decided to forgive him for his sneak attack, and instead of destroying him immediately he retracted his Grey Sword and simply punched Seraphimon with his WarGreymon arm. The Angel Digimon began glowing as he reverted to Tokomon, and Omnimon took a moment to address his fallen foe. "You fight with honor. It is a shame we were forced to be on opposite sides of this battle. Unfortunately, you have lost, so now I must fight the other angel."
Hearing this, Tokomon made a valiant last attempt to attack, but Omnimon merely ignored the In-Training Digimon as Tokomon bounced off his armor. "Must you be so foolish? You can't hope to defeat me as you are now. Let it rest. You have done enough. If your friend is willing to surrender, she need not be hurt. Now—"
"Looking for me?" Omnimon turned to see Ophanimon flying in the air behind him, surrounded by a rainbow colored aura. Before he could react, she called out "Eden's Javelin!" and blasted Omnimon with a rainbow colored beam that completely engulfed him along with Tai and Matt. The beam didn't appear to have any effect other than preventing Omnimon from moving, yet Ophanimon persisted. However, Lilithmon saw this action and finally seemed to snap out of her inner turmoil. She flew next to Ophanimon, and the Angel Digimon realized she had lost. She had already committed too much energy to her attack, and would not be able to call it off in time to defend herself. However, just when she had resigned herself to her fate, she heard Lilithmon sigh and, instead of attacking, merely start talking.
"You know, destiny sure has a way of smacking you over the head and realizing your mistakes. I'm not sure if you know this, but I used to be an Ophanimon as well. I was one of three Digimon chosen to rule the world, and things were working out great until I tried to solve what I saw as a problem with another member of the three Celestial Digimon. I teamed up with a Seraphimon to try to solve the problem on our own, but that just caused Cherubimon to become corrupted by darkness. Had I just talked to him first, Seraphimon wouldn't have been struck down, and I wouldn't have been captured as the world started to fall apart. Eventually, I was forced to call for help from the human world, but instead of trusting these humans to save the world, I once again believed only Seraphimon and I could do it. I sent these humans, who I knew were destined to be the Legendary Warriors, on a simple quest to revive him and free me without trusting them to do the right thing on their own. My foolishness once again resulted in Seraphimon being struck down, and the children still dutifully tried to free me, risking their very lives in the process."
"Despite the grave odds, the children actually managed to turn Cherubimon's strongest warrior, the Legendary Warrior of Darkness, to their side, storm Cherubimon's castle, and begin freeing me from my imprisonment, even though it required two of them to face Cherubimon himself with no chance of winning. When they finally freed me, I once again decided that I was the only one who could save Cherubimon, and tried using the same attack you are using now on him to save him from the darkness corrupting him. Of course, the darkness was too powerful for me, and he ended up going mad at my betrayal when I returned the power he had stolen from the children and destroyed me."
"Why am I telling you this? Just to point out how foolish I could be. By believing I could do no wrong, I caused one friend to descend into madness twice, one friend to be brutally defeated twice, and myself to be placed in a state of helplessness. All because I refused to trust others to solve the problem if I just plainly asked, like the children who went on to restore the world after my death. So, you would think after my rebirth when I was once again faced with the option of taking on the forces of darkness, I would have learned my lesson, but I was once again blinded by arrogance. Instead of letting the darkness exist peacefully in another realm, I tried to destroy it together with Seraphimon, believing myself clever for creating a seal in case of our failure. Predictably, we failed, and once again, I had caused one friend to descend into madness as the Code Key of Wrath transformed Seraphimon into Daemon, and myself to be imprisoned as the Code Key of Lust transformed me into Lilithmon and prevented me from crossing my own barrier. Over what felt like hundreds of years, I suppose I started to go insane as well as I fell equally into darkness while doing my best to prepare my own ways of stopping it."
"Things went like that for a long time, until I met you and your group of friends. Admittedly, I underestimated them at first. I though capturing those two would break the entire team, or at least force the children of Hope and Light into darkness in their despair. Imagine my surprise when the group not only banded together, but also voluntarily threw themselves into darkness and tamed it. Over my fights with you, I couldn't help but reminisce about the Legendary Warriors, and finally began to question myself. I must admit, the nostalgia was addictive, and I found myself extending my battles with you just for a glimpse of what I used to be like. Of course, that ended up with me finally seeing how wrong I had always been when you arrived here. I saw humans once again putting themselves in danger to save the world. Then, your partners did what I never could and conquered the darkness instead of merely taming it, freeing you and your Daemon from your demonic curse and forcing me to truly face my past self. Once again, I witnessed a Seraphimon being struck down trying to protect his friends, and an Ophanimon trying to purge the darkness on her own. Don't make the same mistakes I did. Trying to face the darkness on your own is a sure way to a life of regret."
"It's a good thing she's not alone, then! She has us!" Shocked at the sudden yell, Lilithmon looked down, where all the DigiDestined were gathered beneath her, clutching their injured yet determined looking In-Training level partners. The only exception was the Child of Light, who was clutching her Crest in one hand and the hand of the Child of Hope in the other. Suddenly, a bright pink light shot from her into Ophanimon, strengthening her Eden's Javelin attack. The next second, the Child of Hope sent a beam of golden light towards Ophanimon, changing the color of her attack to pink and gold and causing her to send one last massive burst towards Omnimon, causing the Holy Knight to disappear from view. Finally, Ophanimon could no longer maintain her attack, and she let her javelin fall to her side. Eventually, the glow faded, and Omnimon slowly became visible again.
Lilithmon actually found herself disappointed with the results. "It looks like the darkness was too strong for you to handle even with the help. Omnimon is still in his dark form of Omnimon Zwart. It's a shame. Listen, if you couldn't handle this, you can't begin to imagine fighting GranDracmon when that gate opens. All you can do is go back to your world and hold out as long as you can. You've done enough, and you can't win."
"Hey, don't tell them what they can or can't do!" Lilithmon gasped in shock as she heard the newest voice. Spinning back to Omnimon, she stared down the barrel of his Garuru Cannon, while Matt and Tai glared at her with open revulsion on their faces. While Tai had shouted the initial outburst, Matt was now taking his turn to address his former captor. "Yeah, you'd be surprised at what our little siblings have accomplished. After all, they beat your darkness, didn't they?"
"But, how can this happen? Omnimon is still in his viral form. You shouldn't be able—"
Tai was quick to interrupt. "What, we shouldn't be able to control it? What do you think we were doing the whole time you were controlling us like puppets? When we saw everybody else trying to master Dark Digivolution, we tried to do the same, figuring it would break your hold on us or at least stop us from rampaging if you ever let us go. Why do you think we managed to unlock Omnimon Zwart here so quickly? We were helping you do it! Sure, I took a bit longer to figure it out than Matt did, but if you gave us that much free time and no control over our bodies, what did you expect us to do in our minds?"
Matt continued his lecture. "Yeah, weren't you just saying how you had learned not to underestimate humans? We can do just about anything when we put our minds to it. Take right now for instance. I really want Omnimon to shoot you for kidnapping us and making TK and Patamon suffer, but I'm controlling my anger. After all, we kill you and you just turn back into a Code Key for some other Demon Lord to pick up and the gate still opens. However, if you really have changed, I'm willing to let you live. You can come with us, and we'll protect you from the other Demon Lords. The gate doesn't open, and we stop the apocalypse."
Lilithmon gave a genuine smile. "I guess I really have seen it all. Matt, the DigiDestined of Friendship, willing to spare someone who hurt his friends? You really have tamed the darkness within you. Unfortunately, I have to refuse your offer. No matter where I am, Daemon will be able to pull me to the island and Lucemon will be able to force me to conduct the ritual. Still, that might be the best time to strike. During the ritual, our Code Keys all get bonded to the gate, and our bodies are weakened to the point of being unable to fight back. If you strike then, you may be able to destroy all of our bodies and remove the keys from the gate before it opens. The ritual takes ten minutes to complete once the keys are bonded to the gate, so you must destroy us all in that window. Then, take the Code Keys and bury them as deep and as far apart as you can. Throw mine into a volcano for all I care. It might just prevent us all from returning within your lifetime, though nothing will prevent it for eternity. Still, at least it will keep Lucemon waiting, which is more than I can say I accomplished last time I tried stopping him."
However, at that moment Lilithmon began flickering out of existence. "What, now? Listen, I don't have much time. The gate is located on an island approximately a mile west of our current position. Just fly straight out and you'll see it. Be careful though, the island is permeating with a darkness well beyond the power of Black Requiem. If you get to close, your Digimon will involuntarily slide into their dark forms. Also, the island is guarded by an army of—"
Unfortunately, Lilithmon disappeared before she could finish her warning, leaving the DigiDestined feeling strapped for time. Omnimon lowered his two partners to the ground before he split back into his two rookie forms. Looking at the state of his team, Tai couldn't help but groan. "Listen, I know it's great that we are all back together, but we'll have time for a reunion later. It sounds like we only have ten minutes to save the world, and all we have are one tired Mega, two tired Rookies, and five beaten up In-Trainings. So, if anybody has any bright ideas, now would be a good time to share them."
Before anybody else could react, Ophanimon interjected. "Well, I may not be at full strength, but I have just enough energy to help us out in terms of firepower. Eden's Air!" Ophanimon threw her arms in the air, and golden rings of energy rose into the sky. Suddenly, a rainbow colored aura shined down on all the other Digimon, healing their wounds and causing all the In-Trainings to Digivolve to Rookie. With this completed, Ophanimon suddenly began glowing and shrunk down to Salamon. The puppy-like Digimon explained what she had done. "Are you guys all feeling better? My Eden's Air recharges and heals anybody I want it to, but I'm not sure if I had enough energy to do it properly."
All the Digimon responded that they had plenty of energy to fight now, with the exception of Biyomon who was currently glowing a bright red color. Suddenly, she grew to shocking size, and as the glow faded, she was revealed to be a massive golden bird with four wings wearing a gold faceplate and a Holy Ring around each ankle. Tai eyes went wide at the sudden change. "Wow, Sora, you picked a great time to unlock Biyomon's Mega form. How did you—?"
Tai stopped his question as he saw what Sora was doing. Apparently, she had tackled Matt to the ground, and was currently locked in a passionate kiss. Normally, Tai would have let them have their moment, but since the world was about to end if they didn't act soon, Tai knew he would have to split them up. Just as he was contemplating how to best do so, Biyomon suddenly used her new form's beak to pry Sora off of Matt. "Listen, Sora, I get it's been rough for you having to fight him the past couple of days, and it's obvious you really love him judging by the fact that I'm now in my Mega form of Phoenixmon, but there will be time for kissing later. Saving the world comes first."
With this last talk, Tai was instantly snapped back to his current situation. "Alright, here's what we are going to do. We all go as high of level as we can and rush in. If you have a dark form under control, use it- we can't afford to waste time with Digivolution or Slide Evolution. Izzy, I need a quick favor. Start a running timer so we know how much time we have. TK, Kari? Great job beating the darkness last time, but you'll have to do it again. Ophanimon and Seraphimon are the only ones who'll be able to stop the others if they switch to dark forms unexpectedly, so we'll need them on our side. Use MagnaAngemon's Magna Antidote to restore Salamon, and then we'll be off. We don't have time for anything else."
Knowing the gravity of the situation and thankful that Tai wasn't getting on his case for kissing Kari, TK immediately had Patamon Digivolve twice before MagnaAngemon used his Magna Antidote on Salamon, returning her to her Gatomon form. Then, all the gathered Digimon Digivolved to their Mega forms, with WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon DNA Digivolving. The group then began flying west, knowing they would be in for their toughest fight yet. Hopefully, the combined power of Omnimon Zwart, Phoenixmon, HerculesKabuterimon, Plesiomon, Puppetmon, Seraphimon, and Ophanimon would be enough to see them through this fight.
Koji groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. It felt like his entire body was aching, which was strange. After all, Velgemon's attack shouldn't have left anything in its wake, so he really shouldn't have a body or feelings to begin with. Wondering how he could have survived, he slowly opened his eyes to see a girl with purple hair and glasses sitting next to him. Before Koji could ask what was going on, this girl quickly began explaining everything.
"Good, I'm glad you finally woke up. I was afraid Aquilamon had been a bit rough when he grabbed you all and flew you out of there, but I thought bruises would be much better than whatever would happen to you if that dome closed on you. Turns out I was right, since there isn't anything left in that entire section of food court except a crater. Oh, I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Miyako Inoue, but you can just call me Yolei. It's a long story about how I got that nickname, but that really isn't important right now."
"I'm Koji Minamoto. How are the others?"
"Oh, right. Don't worry, they'll all be fine. Cody is already up and about, and he just left to call for some help. The other two are still unconscious, but they're at least breathing and should be fine. I don't want to do too much, since we probably already made their injuries worse when we brought them here, but I figured that would be better that staying where that giant vulture could attack us."
"Where exactly are we?"
"Oh, we're just in a parking garage a few blocks from the community center. My partner, Aquilamon, flew in and got everybody out just before that other Digimon's attack finished, but we didn't have much time to pick a hiding place. I know picking a building that could easily collapse on top of us doesn't seem like the best idea, but we needed to find a place where we wouldn't be seen. Aquilamon dropped us off and then tried to lure that other Digimon away from the city so he wouldn't cause too much damage. So, here we are. Now, before he went for help, Cody told me you had some experience with the Digital World and even told me you had saved your brother from the powers of darkness while you were there, but he didn't really elaborate on your story. So, since we're both stuck here, how about we share our stories? I want to see how you saving your brother compares to me saving my boyfriend with the help of my friends."
As she finished saying this, Cody returned, saying he had finally managed to get his call through to the emergency service and an ambulance was on the way. Since they had nothing better to do, Koji, Cody, and Yolei began sharing the stories of their experiences with the Digital World, hoping Aquilamon would be able to distract Velgemon long enough for Davis and Ken to arrive.
Aquilamon silently cursed as Velgemon's Dark Vortex attack singed some feathers on the tip of his wing. He was having a harder and harder time evading the attacks, claws, and beak of his much larger pursuer. Originally, he had tried forcing Velgemon away from the city and out over the bay by ramming him with his Grand Horn attack and forcibly pushing him, but his attack had merely bounced off of the other Digimon. At least it served the purpose of drawing Velgemon's attention away from the remains of the convention center and the humans gathered there, but the maneuver forced Aquilamon to begin running for his life from the giant bird. As he swerved to avoid Velgemon's claws again, he found himself wishing he had had the time to Armor Digivolve to Halsemon when he was still with Yolei. Sure, as it stood, he was much faster than his opponent, and if he wanted to he could easily leave Velgemon behind. However, that would just give Velgemon the opening to attack the city again, so he couldn't afford to run away. Thus, Halsemon's smaller size and greater agility would be a much more useful asset at the moment as he sought to distract Velgemon until reinforcements could arrive.
Due to his musings, Aquilamon was once again a split second late dodging a Dark Vortex attack, and lost a few more wing feathers. Realizing he wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer, he decided to try a new tactic. Sure, his attacks were ineffective on Velgemon's body, but perhaps an attack to the eye would have some effect. Charging straight towards Velgemon, he launched his Blast Rings attack directly at his opponent's only open eye, but Velgemon managed to adjust the position of his head and fire yet another Dark Vortex. His attack blew straight through Aquilamon's blast, and the Champion level barely managed to turn his head before the attack blasted him directly where his wing connected to his body. No longer able to stay airborne, he began plummeting to the ocean below, reverting to Hawkmon on the way. He was expecting a rather painfully wet landing, but before he fell very far he suddenly was pulled sideways. Wondering what was going on, he opened his eyes to find himself laying on the floor of a blue dome, with a worried Davis and Ken looking down on him.
"Are you okay, Hawkmon? Where's Yolei?"
Hawkmon smiled at Ken's obvious concern for his partner, even if it meant he didn't seem to place much emphasis on the first of his two questions. "I think I'll be fine. I left Yolei with Cody and two others in a parking garage near the Odaiba Convention Center. Yolei was perfectly fine, but the other three could probably use medical help. Still, we need to worry about taking out Velgemon right away. Trust me, he's extremely dangerous."
"Relax, Hawkmon," Davis said, "we got this. It's not anything Imperialdramon can't handle. Now, enjoy the front row seats to a Positron Laser!" Hearing this, Imperialdramon gave an audible sigh. "You know, I'm the one who's supposed to call out my attacks, not you. Positron Laser!" Despite Davis's enthusiasm, Hawkmon really wasn't treated to a spectacular show. Sure, the dome he was in was directly behind the cannon Imperialdramon used to shoot his Positron Laser, but from this angle the cannon blocked his view of just about anything. Still, he knew what he would be seeing: the cannon charging itself with blue light, and then unleashing a destructive blue and purple blast.
Imperialdramon's blast headed straight towards Velgemon, who countered with his Dark Vortex attack. As the two beams collided in midair, Imperialdramon's attack began pushing back Velgemon's, until Velgemon started glowing crimson. With a massive surge of energy, he managed to push his attack all the way through Imperialdramon's and blasted the dragon directly in the face. It took Imperialdramon a few seconds to recover, but upon seeing Velgemon still glowing and preparing another attack, he quickly addressed his passengers. "Listen, everybody, this is going to get a bit rough. I need to Mode Change. Hawkmon, do you know what all this glowing means?" As he said this, he began Mode Changing to his more powerful Fighter Mode, violently jerking his passengers around as the formerly spacious dome on his back was shifted to a much smaller area directly on top of the dragon head that served as protection for his new form's chest.
As soon as Hawkmon steadied himself from the spinning, he answered Imperialdramon. "I'm sorry, but I didn't really get to see much of his abilities. Cody might know, since he was fighting him before I arrived." Hearing this, Davis immediately sent a message to Cody, and was lucky enough to receive a quick response. "Listen, Imperialdramon, the glow might increase his power, but it also eats away at him. Apparently, he's a replica Digimon that can't fully contain his power. He's sort of like a less-controlled version of BlackWarGreymon. You don't have to worry about holding anything back!"
"Great," Imperialdramon grunted, "I was so worried about holding back. While you've been chatting, I've been doing my best to counter his blasts. He's about as strong as I am. I hope he burns out soon." Suddenly, Velgemon stopped his barrage of attacks and flew in to gore Imperialdramon. The Dragon Man Digimon was taken by surprise at how quickly his opponent managed to close the distance between them, but managed to react in time by forming his Splendor Blade at the last second. Velgemon impaled himself on the sword of light, and this last shock proved to be too much for him, as he suddenly exploded in a massive outburst of crimson light. Imperialdramon was blasted into the bay, yet he managed to maintain his Mega form. "Sorry about that, guys. Is everybody okay in there?"
"Well," Davis responded, "let's just say I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy a roller coaster again after that ride. Still, we're all mostly okay, but we need a bit of a break. How about we get back with Yolei and Cody and see how everything is going on their end? The international DigiDestined can cover for us for a bit."
Hearing his partner's response, Imperialdramon sighed in relief. He Mode Changed back into his Dragon Mode to give his passengers a bit more room, and then he started flying towards the Odaiba Convention Center. After his fight with Velgemon, a break sounded like the perfect course of action. Hopefully, the world wouldn't need any more contribution from this particular team of DigiDestined.
Author's Note: And there we have it, the conclusion of the second arc. We've gotten Tai and Matt back, and everybody has access to at least one Mega form for the upcoming final battle, with Sora, Tai, Matt, Kari, and TK all having two. We've also done a fairly good job at stopping the invasion of Earth, which means the only action we have left is rushing the Gate in the third and final arc (well, more like mini-arc: I think it's only two chapters left). Once again, please leave any questions or comments you have.