Digimon Season 2 Revised Chapter 12: The Storm of Friendship, a digimon fanfic

Holy Updates, Batman! It's been a while. I'm really, really sorry this took so long. I did have a decent chunk of this written back in 2011, got a computer virus, hit a bad case of writer's block, and then real life stepped in and decided to make me miserable for a while. Long story short, this chapter was actually written at various intervals, and not at all in order. Most of the combat/battle scenes are recent additions since that's what I was having the most difficulty with back in 2011. In late 2013, when I finally got myself back on track and returned to this project, I wrote a chapter outline for what I wanted to be accomplished in this chapter, and crossed out the parts I had already written. The result is what you see below, a hodgepodge that was written over the span of several years. I've looked over the chapter and it seems to flow fairly seamlessly together, although I could be mistaken. I do have a decent idea of where I want to go from here, at least for the rest of the Emperor arc, and a decent overall time line, with a few gaps here and there. In any case, I've kept you waiting long enough (assuming any of you are still out there), so I'll stop making excuses and start with the actual chapter. Without further ado, here is the long awaited update to my season 2 revised story, namely:

Episode 12: The Storm of Friendship

(Hannah): The Emperor captured Greymon and tried to digivolve him into MetalGreymon. Unfortunately, he lost control, and Greymon digivolved into SkullGreymon, who proceeded to attack both the Emperor's servants as well as the other Digidestined. In the process of deflecting SkullGreymon's attack, George was critically wounded and now has been brain damaged, believing that he is an English gentleman. Although we tried to get Agumon back, the Emperor revealed his latest invention, the Dark Spiral, which he used to recapture Agumon and successfully digivolve him into MetalGreymon. Things are not looking good.

On board the train that Agumon had come from, the Digidestined were off in pursuit of the Digimon Emperor and his newest slave, MetalGreymon. Determined, to say the least, Tai, Matt, and Hannah were discussing battle strategies, the younger Digidestined and their partners were listening in, and George, still in his brain-damaged alter ego, was reclining lazily in the engine area, not bothering to keep an eye on the fuel gauges. As such, the train began to lurch after a while as the supply of coal in the furnace ran low, eventually causing the train to stop completely. Hannah poked her head into the engine room to see what the problem was. What she found was an empty and cooling furnace and a snoozing George.

"What's going on here?" she asked, waking the sleeping George, "why haven't you been filling the furnace?"

"Furnace, my lady?" asked the dapper gentleman, "I do not stoop to such menial tasks."

Before Hannah could unleash the stinging remark on the tip of her tongue, she was interrupted.

"…besides which," continued Lord Helltower sheepishly, "I have no idea how this contraption even works."

"It's a simple steam engine," said Hannah, exasperated, "not rocket science. You used to know how to build computers from scratch! Can't you remember how to shovel coal into a damned engine?!"

"I know very little about computers, I'm afraid," remarked George, "I have little use for them short of using them as portals to this realm."

"B-but, you took apart your own digivice and reassembled it!" shouted Hannah, "don't you dare tell me you know nothing about computers!"

"You must be mistaking me for someone else, perhaps Sir Kyoushiro," stated George, "he seems the computer nerd type. As far as I'm concerned the digivice operates via magic and sorcery."

At this point, Hannah decided it would be faster to just shovel the coal herself. She gently pushed George out of the engine room and, within moments, the train was moving again. Frustrated by the self-inflicted amnesia due to George's brain damage, the Maiden of Strength collapsed as soon as her task was complete.

Meanwhile, having been summarily ejected from the engine room, Gentleman George returned to the main car, where the other Digidestined were still discussing battle strategy.

"Okay," Matt was summarizing, "us older Digidestined know what MetalGreymon is capable of. This knowledge will prove useful in our upcoming battle."

"I still don't see why we have to fight him!" interjected Davis, "Agumon is our friend!"

"You didn't seem to mind pummling Garurumon, Birdramon, Kabuterimon, Ikkakumon, and Togamon," commented Matt dryly, "is this outburst because this time it's your precious mentor's partner?"

"No!" exclaimed Davis, pounding his fist on the back of a chair, "it's because fighting MetalGreymon, we will likely have to go all out. Since he is a higher level digimon, we can't afford to hold back."

"What's your point?" asked Gentleman George, sitting down at a vacant seat.

"If we're going all out, there is a much higher chance we'll hurt Agumon," remarked Davis.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" exclaimed Matt.

"Language, Mr. Ishida!" said George, rapping the rock star over the head with his cane.

Hyperventilating and rubbing his aching head, Matt took a moment to calm himself before he continued, choosing to ignore the interruption.

"MetalGreymon is a tank!" he shouted, "the reason we need to go all out is because our attacks won't have any effect otherwise! Besides, our main goal isn't to hurt him! It's to break that Dark Spiral! Are you mental or something?"

Davis folded his arms and frowned.

"Well, I'm not taking the chance of hurting one of my friends!" he said, standing up and stomping away, "am I Agumon's only real friend here?"

Trembling in fury, Matt began to rise, fists clenched. TK stopped him by putting his hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Don't mind him," he said, "we should continue our strategy session. It won't be long before we catch up with the Emperor."

The others nodded and continued discussing potential means of taking down one of their own best friends and allies.

The Emperor in question wasn't happy. Those damned Digifools were pursuing him! He had hoped that MetalGreymon tearing through their partners like tissue paper would have discouraged them, but they were hot on his trail. Usually, the Emperor would have relished the opportunity to destroy the Digidestined, but this time, too much was at risk. By toppling the Control Spire, George Helltower had revealed a fundamental flaw with the Dark Spiral. What good was the ability to control Ultimate level digimon, if they could be released simply by knocking down a building? No good at all. The Emperor wanted to return to base and rectify this error, but he couldn't risk leading the Digidestined to his lair…not until his modifications were complete anyways.

Ken Ichijouji ground his teeth and considered the facts. While it was true that, until he fixed the problem with his Spirals, the Digidestined had him at a slight disadvantage over all, in this case it shouldn't matter since MetalGreymon was close enough to be directly influenced by his dark digivice, and no Control Spire was needed to amplify the signal. The Emperor ordered MetalGreymon to stop and turn 180 degrees.

"They want a fight?" he thought, "then a fight they shall get!"

Hannah sighed. Gentleman George was next to useless on a mission like this. Though she had seen how easily he had smacked around the Emperor, brains were what was necessary here, and George, in his current condition, didn't seem to have any to spare.

"Magic and sorcery," she muttered incredulously, punching the train wall in frustration, "what the hell kind of idiot is he anyways?!"

Suddenly, she noticed an uneasy sight ahead. MetalGreymon was floating a few miles ahead, poised and ready for combat. She picked up the transmitter and broadcasted an intratrain message.

"This is it people! MetalGreymon dead ahead!"

"Alright!" shouted Tai, pumping his fist enthusiastically, "we're all agreed. No going easy now!"

"We shall not allow that dastardly coward to escape unscathed!" agreed Gentleman George, as the digimon partners nodded.

"I still think this is a mistake," grumbled Davis to himself, sulking in the corner.

Fujinmon stood in front of a podium facing a crowd of Digimon, mostly Rookies and Champions, although there were a few Ultimates scattered about among the masses. The Grand Marshal was wearing his medals awarded for conflicts throughout the millennia past, dating all the way back to the Battle of Tritania. Behind him were several recruiting desks, each manned by a uniformed digimon with a clipboard as well as a flag represented the central government of the Digital World.

"And so," concluded Fujimon, "I believe, as does my friend and colleague George Helltower, that a United Digital Army can help push back and defeat the menace of the Digimon Emperor. With your help, my friends, we can put an end to his tyranny once and for all! Imagine a Digital World free of the Emperor's influence. No more being enslaved and forced to fight your fellow digimon, no more Control Spires blighting our landscape, no more draining effects from his dark digivice! Imagine this, my friends, and help the cause by enlisting in the UDA. Together we CAN defeat the Digimon Emperor!"

The crowd erupted into cheers as several digimon ran to the desks. Fujimon smiled. George's plan was going well, soon he'd have his army.

Bursting out of the train came the Armor Digimon as well as Gentleman George. With a cry of "have at thee!" the dapper gentleman charged at the Digimon Emperor, who was perched atop MetalGreymon's head, as the Armor Digimon flew in to engage the metallic behemoth. Ready this time, the Emperor had his newest servent swat aside his former mentor with his metallic claw. The dapper gentleman glanced off the claw, and flew backwards to regain balance. Upon examining himself after the impact, he discovered that one of his shoes was severely scuffed.

"Drats!" he muttered, "I must rectify this posthaste!"

He flew down to the train.

"Is something wrong?" asked Hannah.

"Verily so, I'm afraid," said George, hanging his head.

"What is it?!" demanded Tai, exasperated "what's wrong!"

"I have scuffed up a shoe and require some polish," he said, causing everyone to sweatdrop, "perchance do any of you have any?"

Matt blew a fuse.

"YOU FLEW ALL THE WAY BACK HERE TO TELL US YOU SCUFFED A SHOE?! WHAT THE HELL'S THE MATTER WITH YOU?!" the rock star shouted.

George poked him in the chest with his walking stick.

"Bards are very high strung," he sighed, "as I have already stated, a gentleman does not go into battle improperly attired. As such, I will repeat my query: perchance do any of you have shoe polish for me to borrow?"

The Digidestined all answered in the negative.

"Very well," sighed the dapper gentleman, "in that case, I must away to acquire some."

And so, in the middle of a battle, Gentleman George flew off in search of shoe polish.

"GET BACK HERE YOU DUMBASS!" shouted Matt at the gentleman's retreating form.

A few feet away, the Armor digimon engaged the metallic behemoth.

"Star Shower!"

Pegasusmon's attack was deflected by MetalGreymon's armor, leaving himself and the others to dodge the flying stars.

"Watch it will ya!" demanded Flamedramon, as he nearly got clipped by a rogue star.

"Sorry," said Pegasusmon.

"Aim for the Spiral!" shouted Halsemon.

"I'm on it," said Digmon, burying below the ground, "just give me an opening!"

"You heard the mon!" yelled Nefertimon.

The aerial digimon scattered, as MetalGreymon's claw nearly collided with them, and fired off their signature attacks.

"Equus Beam!"

"Tempest Wing!"

"Queen's Paw!"

"Shotgun Blaster!"

The attacks distracted MetalGreymon, who started hacking away at the flying digimon, who stayed just out of his reach. As MetalGreymon pursued his friends across the skies, Flamedramon ran beneath them.

"I've gotta help them!" said the courageous digimon, as he began to form a fireball in his claw.

"No!" shouted Davis, running out of the train and standing in front of Flamedramon, holding his arms out to block the Armor digimon from attacking MetalGreymon.

"What do you mean no?!" demanded Flamedramon, so surprised the flame popped out, "I've got to help the others!"

"But I don't want you hurting Agumon!" insisted Davis.

"Hey!" shouted Matt irritably, "what are you two doing?! Get your heads in the game!"

"Forget it blondie!" shouted Davis, "Unlike you, I care about my friends!"

Meanwhile, in the skies, things were not going so well.

"Giga Blaster!"

MetalGreymon launched two strange missiles from his chest plate, which blasted Halsemon out of the sky. He immediately dedigivolved into Poromon.

"Dammit Davis!" shouted Yolei, running up to the gogglehead and shaking him roughly, "your hesitation is costing us the battle!"

"Get off, you bitch!" snarled Davis, breaking Yolei's hold, "I already said I ain't gonna fight MetalGreymon, and that's final!"

"But Davis," began Flamedramon, sadly.

"No buts, Flamedramon," said Davis, sternly.

"Very well," sighed Flamedramon, as he dedigivolved into a very unhappy Veemon.

"You unbelievable idiot!" shouted Yolei, getting in Davis's face, "I can't believe you would walk away from your friends like that!"

"I'm not walking away from my friends," countered Davis, "I'm saving them. C'mon Veemon, these guys don't know how friendship works, we don't need them!"

Davis turned and walked away from the battle, Veemon following glumly but dutifully behind him.

"That goddammed moron!" shouted Yolei, strangling the air in front of her.

"Mega Claw!"

"Yolei look out!"

Poromon's warning came a little too late, MetalGreymon's arm was shooting towards the lavender haired girl who stood paralyzed as it closed in on her.

The nearest town had been several miles away. Gentleman George flew down in the town square next to a shop.

"Ah, perchance this establishment has the items I require," he said, as he walked through the rotating door.

Clang!

A loud metal on metal sound reverberated through the air as Sobekmon intercepted MetalGreymon's attack, taking the brunt of the assault himself, but protecting Yolei in the process.

"Y-you saved my life!" said Yolei, looking at her protector, whose armor was beginning to crack under the strain of the assault.

"We Warriors of Power need to look after our comrades," said Sobekmon, as his visor cracked and he fell on one knee "if my partner were in his right mind, he'd say the same thing. Now go back to the train, I don't know how much longer I can hold this off!"

Yolei scampered back to the train, just as Sobekmon folded completely and dedigivolved into an exhausted Crocmon.

"Oooh look!" said the Emperor, producing another Dark Spiral, "another victim!"

"Golden Noose!"

As the tyrant was about to throw the evil contraption towards George's partner, his aim was thrown off by MetalGreymon getting captured by Pegasusmon and Nefertimon's duel attack. The used the noose to guide MetalGreymon to the ground, where Digmon popped up.

"Surprise!" he shouted, "Gold Rush!"

The five drills launched towards the Dark Spiral, but the Emperor didn't seem to care. The drills impacted on the Dark Spiral, but merely bounced off, not even scratching the surface of the brainwashing machine.

"Wha-?" began Digmon, but he didn't have time to finish that thought since MetalGreymon ripped through the Golden Noose, knocking Pegasusmon and Nefertimon out of the sky and onto Digmon.

"Giga Blaster!"

MetalGreymon's missiles struck the remaining Armor digimon and caused them to dedigivolve into Upamon, Patamon, and Gatomon respectively.

"Oof," commented Upamon.

"Did anyone get the number of that truck," quipped Gatomon, before she collapsed.

"Now then," said the Emperor, pulling out more Dark Spirals, "where was I? Oh yes, I was about to enslave all of your partners, and there's not a thing any of you simpletons can do about it!"

"No!" shouted TK.

"Gatomon!" screamed Kari.

"Upamon get up!" said Cody desperately.

"Damn it Davis!" yelled Yolei, as she stormed off to look for the gogglehead.

The Emperor threw the Dark Spirals, and they each began homing in on a digimon.

"Not so fast you vile fiend!" bellowed a familiar voice. Gentleman George had made his triumphant return

The Digidestined whirled around just in time to see the dapper gentleman fly overhead and disintegrate the Spirals with a few swipes from his walking stick.

Quick as a wink, George flew over to MetalGreymon's arm and rapped the Dark Spiral with the walking stick. Nothing happened.

"Huh," said Gentleman George, "the act of acquiring a host must increase the durability of these wretched apparatuses…most peculiar."

MetalGreymon flicked his arm, and knocked the dapper gentleman to the ground.

The Emperor sent out another wave of Spirals, but George dispatched them again with a few swipes from his walking stick.

"Harumph!" scowled the Emperor, "it would seem we've reached an impasse. MetalGreymon, let's get out of here! Don't worry Digifools, I'll be back to destroy you soon enough!"

The hulking cyborg turned 180 degrees and began flying away.

"If you think I will allow you to escape unharmed you cur, think again," the dapper gentleman began to pursue the retreating Emperor, but Hannah put a hand on his shoulder.

"Wherefore do you stop me, my lady?" asked George quizzically, "I must vanquish that vile fiend once and for all!"

"Look around you, George," said Hannah, gesturing with a sweep of her arm, "the Digimon are defeated and exhausted and we need to regroup. We'll take him on again some other time."

"But—" began George.

"No buts," said Hannah sternly, "this is an order. Stand down."

"Very well, my lady," said the gentleman, sighing, "I shall obey."

Lord Helltower sadly turned around and walked back to the train, gathering the beaten digimon along the way. Upon his return, he was not greeted as warmly as he had hoped.

"I hope your fucking shoe polish was worth it!" snarled Matt, "because of you our digimon were wiped out!"

"Pish-posh!" retorted George, rapping the tip of his walking stick on the ground, "we would have been victorious had it not been for the durability of those confounded Dark Spirals."

The dapper gentleman glanced around.

"I also don't see Daisuke or Miyako in the vicinity, so I can assume they departed forthwith," he continued, "it would seem as though you lot require nannying to make sure you perform to optimal capacity."

Matt glared daggers at the gentleman, who casually pulled off his monocle and began cleaning it with his embroidered handkerchief.

"Now hold on just a moment," said Tai, trying to regain the peace, but it was for naught.

"You arrogant son of a bitch!" shouted Matt, cutting off Tai, "I don't care how dysfunctional your brain is, there's no excuse for abandoning your friends."

George continued cleaning his monocle and ignored Matt's outburst.

"Answer me goddamned it!" yell the rock star.

"Tut, tut," muttered Gentleman George, still cleaning his monocle, "even for a bard you are rather excitable, Yamato. As I said earlier, a gentleman never enters a fray inappropriately attired."

Matt snapped. He stomped over to George and stepped on his recently polished shoes, scuffing them once more.

"That's what I think of your fucking shoes!" he yelled.

Gentleman George put his monocle back on, and placed his handkerchief back in its pocket.

"You have sullied my honor, Yamato, I challenge you to a duel!"

"Fine by me," said Matt, "I've wanted to kill you even before your so-called brain damage."

"Hold on guys!" said TK, "don't fight!"

"Now's not the time to be fighting amongst ourselves," agreed Cody.

"Yamato has impugned my honor," said Gentleman George, tightening his riding gloves, "as a gentleman, I cannot allow this transgression to go unanswered."

"George Samuel Helltower, I forbid you from fighting Yamato!" said Hannah, sternly, "since you're a gentleman, you cannot disobey me."

"With due respect, my dear lady, these matters do not concern you," countered George somewhat sarcastically, "when dealing with matters of honor among gentlemen, interference from others is not permitted."

Clearly angered by George's words, Hannah's right eye twitched, and she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. She stomped towards Lord Helltower, a look of fury in her features. Suddenly very nervous, Gentleman George and Matt began backing away from Hannah until they had been backed against the train's wall.

"Now, now, my lady," said George, "do mind your blood pressure. There's no need to throw a tantrum. I'm certain it was just a misunderstanding."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," repeated Matt, as his life flashed before his eyes.

What Hannah was about to do next, however, nobody but her would know, since at that very moment, everyone's digivice, except George's, beeped simultaneously.

Having tracked Davis through the rail yard, Yolei was about to unleash a verbal tirade upon the unfortunate gogglehead, when suddenly, their digivices beeped.

"What was that?" asked Davis, pulling out his digivice.

Forgetting her animosity towards Davis for the moment, Yolei pulled out her digivice too.

"It looks like there's something not too far from here," she said, "maybe another Digiegg?"

"But we've all got ours already," said Davis, "could that mean there are more Digidestined?"

"I'm not sure," said Yolei, "but maybe we should head back to the train and ask the others."

Begrudgingly, Davis followed Yolei back to the train, dragging his feet the entire way. A warm reception wouldn't be waiting for him that was for sure.

"What the Dickens?" asked George, pulling out his own digivice and shaking it, "is this contraption malfunctioning? Wherefore did it not sound?"

Meanwhile, the others gathered around Hannah, who had become the default leader after intimidating George and Matt.

"It looks like it's a few miles east of here," she said, glancing at the screen, which only showed a white dot, "but I don't know what it is."

"I think it's another Digiegg," said Kari, looking at her Digivice.

"Can I see that?" asked Hannah, reaching for Kari's digivice.

"Sure," said Kari, handing it over.

Hannah looked at the screen and saw different colored dots indicating the newer Digidestined, and Crest shaped symbol indicating the older Digidestined, herself included, but not George. In place of his Crest, George's location was denoted by a question mark, indicating that his digivice didn't quite know what to make of him. In the same location as the dot on Hannah's screen, sat a white dot.

"Fascinating," said Helltower Corp's CTO, "your display is much more detailed than mine. Must be a software upgrade…I wonder if George or I could make a patch on our digivices to get the same type of display."

At that moment, George happened to be attempting to hex his digivice into working again.

"Okay, so maybe I could make the patch," sighed Hannah, rolling her eyes.

"Either way this is worth investigating," said Tai, "maybe it can help us defeat the Emperor and rescue MetalGreymon."

At that moment, Yolei reentered the train with Davis trailing meekly behind.

"Well, well, well," snorted Matt, "look who finally decided to show up."

One annoyed glance from Hannah nipped that argument in the bud.

"Our priority right now is to find the cause of this signal," she said, "not to chastise our teammates. Understood, Matt?"

"Yes ma'am," said Matt, though he hadn't known Hannah for long, the mere fact that even George was nervous when she got angry was certainly a cause for alarm to the rock star, who wisely decided to refrain from any further arguments.

Yolei noticed George muttering incantations in the corner.

"…ummm, what's he doing?" she asked, pointing.

"Never mind," sighed Hannah, "but we should probably get going before Mr. Sorcerer over there accidentally creates a quantum singularity and engulfs us all."

The others nodded, and debarked from the train, heading in the direction of the mysterious signal. Not wanting to get left behind, Gentleman George pocketed his digivice with a shrug and trailed after them using his walking stick and whistling merrily all the while.

Having summarily defeated the Digidestined, and escaped to his home base, the Emperor sat in his control room. He opened the blueprints for the Dark Spiral, and selected the "Modify" option.

"Now then," he thought, "how do I go about this?"

The Emperor first tried to make the Dark Spiral its own self-sustaining amplifier. However, this proved to be infeasible due to the size the Spiral would need to be to accommodate the signal boosters, and the further away from the source, the larger the Spirals would need to be. Given his future plans, the source location would not remain static, either. Needless to say, that idea was scrapped.

The Emperor sighed and pulled out a map of the Digiworld. Most of the squares were still black, and with MetalGreymon's help, as well as the rest of the Emperor's ingenious plan, a lot more squares would be turning black.

"Maybe I can build more than one Control Spire in every region," mused the Emperor, "but until my base is fully modified, that would be a difficult task indeed."

The Emperor thought of several other ideas, such as disguising his Control Spires, but nothing that really addressed the root of the problem.

"If the Control Spire is destroyed, the Spiral will still lose the signal," said the Emperor, "and that's a problem. It severely restricts movement of my heavier artillery until I've conquered the region, which almost defeats the purpose of having a heavy artillery."

The Emperor sighed and pulled up his first plan again, life wasn't easy when you're a boy genius bent on taking over the Digital World.

After hiking a few miles, the Digidestined came to a canyon wall with a strange symbol on it. Below the wall, a few feet in front of it, was a pit that was a single step down from the surrounding ground. In the middle of the pit, was a Digiegg with the same symbol on it.

"That's the Crest of Friendship," remarked Tai, pointing at the symbol.

"…so does that mean the egg is mine?" asked Matt.

Davis snorted.

"Sure thing goldie locks," he chuckled, "like you know the first thing about being a good friend."

As Matt was about to respond, Hannah cut him off by placing a stern hand on Davis's shoulder.

"Watch it, Motomiya," she said, "you're not exactly in a good position to be making fun of him anyway."

The Maiden of Strength looked around at her assembled companions, and indicated that Matt should try to lift the Digiegg.

"Matt," she said, "it makes sense to start with you, since the Crest of Friendship is yours. Precedent says it may not work, but it's still a logical place to start."

Matt nodded and descended into the pit. Try as he might, though, he couldn't budge the egg. He stormed off with his arms folded muttering and cursing under his breath. Davis snorted, but quickly lost his arrogant demeanor when everyone glared at him.

"Obviously Davis isn't the correct candidate either," said Matt, "so who's next?"

Yolei, Cody, TK, and Kari all took turns trying to lift the Digiegg, but they had the same result Matt did. Tai and Hannah followed suit, but they couldn't lift the egg either.

"Ha!" shouted Davis, after Hannah stepped back from the Digiegg and shook her head, "looks like I'm the guy for the job after all!"

With Matt looking on incredulously, Davis stepped confidently into the pit and placed his hands on the Digiegg. Remembering what happened last time, he first tried to lift the egg gingerly, but it wouldn't move. Forgoing his sense of safety, Davis pulled at the Digiegg with all his might, but it still wouldn't budge. He yanked and strained until his face turned red, but to no avail. He stepped out of the pit and hung his head in shame.

After even Davis failed to pickup the Digiegg of Friendship, all eyes turned towards Gentleman George, the only one among them who had not yet tried lifting the egg. (He had been standing to the side, whistling merrily and tapping his walking stick.)

"Very well," said George, rolling up his sleeves, "I shall endeavor to lift this most peculiar entity."

The dapper gentleman jumped into the pit and walked behind the Digiegg, placing himself between it and the canyon wall. He leaned down and grabbed hold of the egg. His muscles flexing, Lord Helltower pulled backwards with all his might, but the egg would not budge.

"Accursed fiend!" cursed George, "I shall not be defeated so easily by the likes of you!"

Redoubling his efforts, George pulled and pulled. In response to his persistence, the Digiegg let loose an electrical blast, which zapped the unfortunate man. Gentleman George was blasted backwards, as his hat flew off his head, revealing socket hair. As he stumbled backwards, George tripped over the edge of the pit and fell, head first, straight into the wall of stone, causing yet another concussion as he succumbed to unconsciousness once more. Blood trickled down from the left side of his temple.

"At last!" the Emperor shouted gleefully, "modifications are complete. The answer was so simple! Instead of boosting the Spiral to be its own amplifier, boost the receivers to receive signals from all adjacent areas. That way, if there is a Spire in any of the eight surrounding territories, the Spiral will still receive my signal!"

As the Emperor installed his patch into the Dark Spiral, he glanced at his monitors, hoping to find the Digidestined. He did, in fact find them. His screen showed their location in an area only a few miles from where he had defeated them earlier.

"Now I'll dispose of those rotten pests once and for all!" he exclaimed, "MetalGreymon, let's go!"

The Emperor climbed aboard his newest servant and flew off to confront the Digidestined once more.

"NO!" shouted Hannah, as she and the others rushed over to the comatose gentleman.

As they approached, George seemed to begin mumbling, and his eyelids began lifting slowly. He blinked a few times and started to glance around, but winced when he tried moving his neck.

"Are you alright George?" asked Hannah, bending over him and placing a caring hand on his shoulder.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" asked Davis, giving George the one-fingered-salute.

"That isn't very nice, Mr. Motomiya," mumbled George, slurring slightly.

"Are you alright?" repeated Hannah, slightly more urgently.

"A bit of a headache, but I'll be fine," replied George, "nothin' a beer or two and a recharge won't fix."

The Digidestined stared at him in shock.

"What?!" demanded George, "what the hell is the matter with all of you? Like I've never asked for a beer before, yeesh!"

"What's the last thing you remember?" asked Hannah, quickly getting a hold of herself.

George thought for a moment.

"The last thing I remember is trying to intercept SkullGreymon's missile," he said, at last, and then glanced around a bit, a few things registering that hadn't before, "wait a moment, this doesn't add up. Where the hell am I? What's with this ridiculous getup I'm wearing? And most importantly, when did Hannah get here?"

As Crocmon brought George up to speed, the others huddled around Hannah, to try analyzing what just happened.

"He seems to be back to normal," commented Cody, somewhat sadly, "his unfortunate drinking habits and knowledge of the Digital World seem to have returned due to his impact with the cliff…most curious."

"Ha!" laughed Davis, "and you all said that hitting George over the head wouldn't fix his brain damage! Well, if you'd just let me deal with the problem in the first place, none of this would have happened!"

"Yes, excellent work Dr. Davis," said Yolei, sarcastically, "we'll call you the next time someone needs a quack!"

"Hey!" snarled Davis, as he prepared to launch a wave of insults at the lavender haired girl. Hannah interjected.

"Cut out that bickering you two!" she snapped, causing both Davis and Yolei to stop squabbling, "what's important is that George is back to normal…well normal for him."

The Maiden of Strength sighed and continued.

"Hopefully this will mean he can think of a way to defeat MetalGreymon, because, as it stands, we don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning."

The conversation was interrupted by gales of laughter coming from where they had left George. They all glanced at the Warrior of Power, who was convulsing with laughter.

"You mean that, in a brain damaged state, I thought that I was a proper English gentleman?" he snorted, "that's the silliest thing I ever heard…oww, it hurts to laugh."

The fallen warrior grabbed his head, as a wave of intense pain coursed through his neural network.

"I need a recharge," he said, "badly."

Tai walked over to George as he was carefully preparing to take off for home.

"Wait a moment," he requested, "do you have any advice for how to take out MetalGreymon?"

George shook his head, causing a fresh wave of pain.

"None that I can think of, for the moment," he said, "though my thought process isn't exactly up to par right now."

"When will you be back?" inquired Patamon.

"As soon as I can," replied George, "in the meantime, stay here. See if you can't make any headway towards lifting that Digiegg. I will give that problem some consideration as soon as I am capable of thinking again."

With that, George took off, leaving a group of very confused Digidestined and their partners to look after the newfound Digiegg.

Upon arriving in Rail Town, the Emperor glanced at his dark digivice, according to the readout, he was getting close to the Digidestined's location. Checking the symbols, he noticed George's Crest of Power was moving steadily away from the rest of the group. While he was tempted to ambush his former mentor and dispose of him, the Emperor begrudgingly admitted that Gentleman George could probably survive the encounter long enough to escape and alert the others. Besides, in order to torture his former mentor the most, the Emperor decided that killing all of George's friends first would be more ideal.

"Let's go MetalGreymon!" shouted the tyrant, turning his servant in the direction of the stationary cluster of Digidestined.

Hannah's digivice beeped. She glanced at it curiously and noticed a black dot closing in on their location. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that meant.

"The Emperor is coming!" she said, "get ready guys!"

"…wait, what?!" asked Yolei, as she and the other Digidestined fumbled their digivices to confirm Hannah's report. Indeed the black dot had appeared on all of their digivices, but only Hannah's had beeped.

"George and I installed a patch that alerts us when evil is approaching," explained the brunette, in anticipation of the unasked question.

"Okay guys," said Tai encouragingly, "you may have gotten beaten last time, but give it your all! I get a feeling that if you work hard enough, this egg will unlock and help us out!"

Yolei, Cody, TK, and Kari nodded and their partners immediately Armor digivolved. Crocmon, using the boosted signal from George's digivice was also able to Armor digivolve just before his partner went out of range.

Davis, on the other hand, just stood there. He didn't take out his digivice, nor did he order Veemon to digivolve. He just plopped himself in front of the Digiegg and stared at it.

"What do you think you're doing, Davis?!" demanded Yolei, "aren't you going to help us out?"

"I am helping!" said Davis indignantly, "I'm trying to figure out how to unlock this Digiegg."

"Tai's theory seems sound," remarked Cody, "if we work hard enough to defeat MetalGreymon, that could cause the Digiegg to unlock."

Davis shook his head.

"There's no way us fighting our friend is going to cause the Digiegg of Friendship to unlock," he said, "there's got to be another way."

"We don't have time for this!" said Matt, impatiently, "either you help us, or you don't, but if you die out here, or if we die out here, there's no one to blame but you."

"Relax," said Hannah, unexpectedly calm, "Davis needs to find his own way. He needs to come around on his own. If we try to force him to fight, he won't learn what he needs to, and he will resent us for the rest of his life."

"…you sound like the voice of experience," remarked Cody.

"Long story," said Hannah, "for now, let's focus on our more imminent problem."

Indeed, the Emperor was now upon them, and the battle for the fate of Agumon was about to begin.

Somehow, in spite of the condition of his mind, George managed to find his way home and deactivate the security systems. He stumbled into floor R, and lurched into the recharge room, flashing his crest to gain access. As the specially adapted room repaired the extensive damage, George relaxed and began to think about how to defeat MetalGreymon. Closing his eyes, the former genius concentrated, trying to coax the neurons in his brain into firing little electrical signals between synapses, thus creating cognitive thought. Incomprehensible, out of focus images began to appear in George's mind as his cranium reformed and reversed the damages caused by the two concussive impacts.

Subconsciously, his mind began replaying the day that the Odaiba Digidestined had first returned to the Digital World.

The trench coat clad warrior swore as he flew towards the forest. Rumor had it his nemesis was there enslaving more digimon…including those of his friends the Odaiba Digidestined's partners. For several weeks…or was it months, the warrior had been trying to defeat the villain and restore balance to the world that meant a lot to him…the world he had spent millennia trying to defend.

"I can't let him violate this world any longer," he thought as he flew.

Not five minutes after the three digimon had left, another being wandered into the area. The trench-coated figure put on a pair of sunglasses, which, unlike the Emperor's, had red frames and yellow-green lenses; they were also fairly worn and beat up.

The digivice application was pulled up on the lenses, and the warrior began scanning the area. The scan turned up two sources of energy, one good and one evil, both were coming from the same clearing, so the figure went to take a look.

Upon arriving, he found the sources were the shattered Dark Ring, and Gatomon's broken tail ring. He picked up a small piece of the Dark Ring and knelt to examine the tail ring closer.

George's thoughts subconsciously shifted to the morning after Tai got burned.

About an hour before school, Matt swung by the hospital to find out what was happening with Tai. He found George carefully observing and tinkering with a black shard, taking studious notes in a digital notebook.

"What's up?" asked the musician.

"Not much," replied George, "The specialist worked on Tai for a while a little earlier, but he hasn't woken up yet…"

"I see," said Matt calmly, "so what're you up to?"

"I'm trying to reverse engineer the Emperor's Dark Rings," replied George, poking the shard yet again.

"Why would you want to do something like that?" asked Matt coldly.

"If I can figure out what makes these contraptions tick, I can find ways to prevent them from working," said George shrugging.

"Right, I gotta go to school," said Matt, "you'll let me know if anything changes right?"

"Of course," replied the Warrior of Power.

His mind mostly recovered, George sat bolt upright.

"Eureka!" he shouted, charging out of his recharge room grabbing a prototype of his sunglasses along the way.

In spite of the chaos going on around him, Davis sat and stared at the obstinate Digiegg. He had pulled and struggled to pick up the egg as much as George had, but in the end, George had been shocked and he hadn't. Something was amiss here, but he couldn't quite figure it out. Veemon stood glumly by his partner's side wondering what was wrong with his partner.

Meanwhile, the other Digimon were throwing their best shots at MetalGreymon and the Dark Spiral, but no matter how many times they made contact, the evil contraption would not break.

"We need a new strategy," remarked Nefertimon, after barely dodging MetalGreymon's claw for the fifth time.

"Agreed," confirmed Pegasusmon, as a pair of missiles exploded a few feet from him.

"I've got an idea," commented Sobekmon, knocking another missile off course with his electrified tail, "instead of targeting the Dark Spiral, why don't we take out the Control Spire. Without that, the Spiral won't receive a signal."

"One problem," said Halsemon, firing lasers at the Dark Spiral, "the Emperor is too close to MetalGreymon, even toppling the Spiral won't disrupt the signal at that range."

"So while Digmon is taking out the Spiral, the rest of us will focus on separating the Emperor from MetalGreymon," said Sobekmon, shooting a missile off course from connecting with Nefertimon.

"…you're not actually suggesting we attack the Emperor are you?!" asked Pegasusmon, incredulously.

"He can take care of himself," shrugged Sobekmon, dodging another explosion, "our main concern here is to free Agumon from the Emperor's control. Once the Spiral loses signal, we can focus on separating the Spiral from Agumon. I'm sure George is working on that right now. We don't have a lot of options here."

"…I'm not sure if I can attack a human," remarked Halsemon queasily, as MetalGreymon's claw nearly sideswiped him.

Nefertimon and Pegasusmon expressed similar concerns.

The Steel Soldier of Power sighed.

"Very well," he said, "the rest of you distract MetalGreymon. I'll deal with Ken."

The plan reluctantly agreed upon, the Armor digimon scattered, barely dodging missiles and MetalGreymon's Trident Arm.

"Neutron Bullet!"

Sobekmon launched the dense bullet at the Emperor, attempting to draw him away from MetalGreymon. The Emperor leapt up and dodged the bullet, but MetalGreymon flew underneath him, and caught him.

"Okay," thought Sobekmon, "we're going to need a little more persuasion."

Holstering the revolver, Sobekmon drew his shotgun, he took aim with the sights in his helmet, and signaled the others. Digmon buried himself underground, and the three other aerial digimon flew off in different directions.

"Rosetta Stone!"

"Equus Beam!"

"Tempest Wing!"

The three attacks from different directions caused MetalGreymon to swerve awkwardly as they collided with him, at that moment, Sobekmon attacked. "Shotgun Blaster!"

Sobekmon's white shells multiplied and rained down on the Emperor. This time, as the Emperor jumped out of the way, MetalGreymon couldn't correct his course and smashed into the ground, while the Emperor back flipped, and landed several feet away, just out of signal range. Digmon burst out of the ground.

"Gold Rush!"

The five drills smashed into the Control Spire and toppled it. As the Emperor attempted to run towards MetalGreymon, Sobekmon stepped between them and blocked him.

"No go, Ken," he said.

The Digidestined cheered, as the other armor digimon approached MetalGreymon, who appeared to have frozen.

"MetalGreymon now!" shouted the Emperor.

"Giga Blaster!"

The missiles collided with the approaching digimon, and blasted them to the ground, where they were beset upon by MetalGreymon's Trident Arm. When the smoke cleared, Poromon, Upamon, Patamon, and Gatomon remained.

As Sobekmon turned to see what was going on, the Emperor lashed out with his whip and Metalgreymon smashed him with his tail, causing the Steel Soldier to go flying into a cliff, where he lay motionless as he was buried in falling rocks.

"H-how?" Sobekmon asked incredulously.

"Simple," scoffed the Emperor, climbing up MetalGreymon's arm to return to his perch on the Ultimate's head, "the receivers are more powerful on the Dark Spiral. How could you have not thought of that possibility? I'm disappointed in you, Crocmon. You are a disgrace to your partner. Now, in his place, you will watch as I exterminate the Digidestined, once and for all! MetalGreymon, kill them all!

The metallic behemoth stomped towards the Digidestined, eyes glowing red, saliva dripping from his mouth.

George quickly ran back to the elevator and punched in the code for floor L. When the doors opened, the fallen warrior ran into a room that had, at one point, been a laboratory, but was now more of a workshop. Numerous work benches with partially completed projects were scattered around the room. By the entrance was a coat hanger with lab coats and cubbies with safety glasses and steel toed boots. Lining the walls, several tools, power and otherwise, were hung on hooks and cradles, as well as some shelves with numbered digital notebooks and reference books. In one corner of the room was what could actually still be considered a lab. Carefully labeled chemicals were in protected cabinets, and there was a ventilated lab bench with drawers full of test tubes, beakers, tongs, and other chemistry supplies.

Ignoring all else, George walked over to the shelves and pulled out the most recent digital notebook. Quickly scrolling through the pages, George came to his notes on the Dark Ring. Partial schematics and composition notes were highlighted and examined thoroughly.

"Fascinating," commented George, performing quick calculations in his recently revived mind.

He glanced over at the fragment of the Dark Ring, lying on one of the workbenches, as he calculated.

"I-I won't let you hurt them!" shouted Sobekmon, pushing himself out of the cliff. He stumbled towards MetalGreymon, a few dents and small cracks in his armor, but mostly no worse for wear.

"Brave to the last," said the Emperor, "just like you Warriors of Power, stupid as rocks, both of you. Very well, you'll be the first to be exterminated."

At the Emperor's order, MetalGreymon turned and smashed Sobekmon with his metal arm, and followed up with a pair of missiles from his chest plate. When the smoke cleared, Sobekmon was on his knees, smashed against a rock. His armor was cracked and there was a massive dent from which leaked blood mixed with black oil. The glow behind his visor disappeared as he powered down to conserve what little strength he still had.

"Well now," said the Emperor, rubbing his hands together gleefully, "now that that's taken care of, where were we? Oh yes, that's right, MetalGreymon, dispose of those annoying Digifools once and for all!"

The cyborg took aim, and prepared to fire at the Digidestined.

"MetalGreymon stop!"

Tai ran in front of his friends and faced down his partner.

"Squish him," commanded the Emperor.

MetalGreymon took a step forward.

Davis looked up from the Digidegg, the battle against MetalGreymon was not going well at all. As he watched, Sobekmon was incapacitated.

"Davish, please!" pleaded Veemon, "we've gotta help them!"

"But Veemon, what if we hurt Agumon?" Davis asked.

"He's gonna hurt our other friends if we don't stop him!" protested Veemon.

As Davis was about to say 'no,' Tai ran out and tried to reason with his enslaved partner.

"What the hell is he doing?!" thought Davis.

"MetalGreymon listen to me!" persisted Tai, "remember who I am! It's me, Tai. You remember me, right?"

"Please," sneered the Emperor, "my brainwashing technology is perfect. Nothing you do will work."

In spite the Emperor's bravado, however, he was slightly concerned. Was it just him, or was MetalGreymon slowing down?

"MetalGreymon, what are you waiting for? Kill him!" demanded the tyrant.

"Remember who you are!" insisted Tai, "remember our adventures together! You don't have to listen to him!"

"…Tai?" growled MetalGreymon.

"I can't believe it!" said Davis, "Tai's trying to reason with MetalGreymon."

"And it's working!" said Veemon, pointing.

True enough, MetalGreymon had ceased his rampage and stopped cold, despite the Emperor's best attempts to control him, MetalGreymon stood his ground.

"…they never wanted to hurt him in the first place," realized Davis, "but they also knew that Agumon would rather be hurt than hurt us."

Davis remembered how Matt's punch snapped Tai out of his funk and spurred the courageous warrior back into action.

"I get it now! Sometimes tough love is the best form of love," said Davis, "being a friend can sometimes mean you have to hurt your friends in order to help them!"

As the words left his mouth, the Digiegg started to glow.

"What?!" shouted the Emperor, as MetalGreymon stopped moving, "MetalGreymon obey me!"

The hulking behemoth just stood there, unmoving, staring at his former partner.

"Yes, it's me!" shouted Tai, "you remember! That's great!"

"Tai!" grunted MetalGreymon, straining against the power of the Dark Spiral, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, buddy," said Tai, tears falling down his cheeks, "we know it's not you. It's the Emperor, but you have to keep on fighting him."

A faint glow had appeared in the corner of Tai's eye. If it was what he thought, he just needed a little more time.

"I-I I don't know how long I can—"

MetalGreymon was silenced by the Emperor lashing his whip across the exposed portion of his back.

"You will obey me!" shouted the tyrant.

"Stop it!" shouted Tai, "you're hurting him!"

"Like you care!" mocked the Emperor, "you're the one who sent your friends' partners after him in the first place."

"That's different!" retorted Tai.

"Now then," said the Emperor, pulling out his digivice, "let's see just how strong I can make the signal."

The Emperor maxed out the output signal from his dark digivice and MetalGreymon roared in pain.

"Davish you did it!" cheered Veemon, "you've unlocked the Digiegg of Friendship!"

"But how?" asked Davis, as the Digiegg in question floated over to him and landed in his hands, "I've been acting like a complete jackass."

"Sometimes we need to realize we've made mistakes in order to grow," said Hannah, who had mysteriously appeared beside him, "I'm proud of you Davis."

"Whoa!" shouted the gogglehead, "don't startle me like that!"

Hannah sighed, "just activate the Digiegg already, you dolt!"

"Right!" said Davis, pumping his fist, "go time Veemon!"

"It's about time!"

"DigiArmor Energize!" shouted Davis, holding the Digiegg aloft.

"Veemon Armor Digivolve to—Raidramon: The Storm of Friendship!"

Where Veemon stood, there was now a quadruped digimon covered in black armor. He had an elongated version of Veemon's tail, and a spiky black armored mask covering his head, although Veemon's ears, again slightly longer, were still visible, as was his white jaw. On the forehead of the mask sat a metallic horn shaped like a lightning bolt. Along his torso was black armor with four long protrusions shaped, again, like lightning bolts, and almost resembling wings. The sides of the armor featured a pattern of yellow triangles alternating between top and bottom, resembling teeth in a mouth. The bottom of his armor, underneath his chin, was decorated with a Crest of Friendship. His four legs were black with three white claws. The top of the forelegs was covered with plates of armor featuring lights similar to the rear lights on a car, while the hind legs had metallic plates similar to those that cover the tops of bicycle tires. In other words, he was sleek, aerodynamic, and agile.

"I am Raidramon," said Raidramon, "I zap my enemies into submission with my Thunder Blast and Blue Thunder attacks!"

"Awesome!" shouted Davis, "now let's get 'em!"

The duo charged towards the Emperor, as Hannah sighed.

"Kids these days…" she thought.

George smirked contentedly as he flew towards the sight of the Digidestined's battle with MetalGreymon. His experiment was a complete success. Now, assuming the Emperor used the same materials as the Dark Rings to build the Dark Spirals, which was a reasonable hypothesis, he knew how to take them out.

"Now then," said the Emperor, pulling out his digivice, "let's see just how strong I can make the signal."

The Emperor maxed out the output signal from his dark digivice and MetalGreymon roared in pain.

"Get away from Agumon, you bastard!" shouted Davis, running towards the Emperor.

"Oh," snickered the Emperor, "I wondered when you idiots would show up."

"Shut your face!" demanded Davis, "we're here to rescue Agumon."

"Go ahead," said the Emperor, genially, "you won't have any better luck than your friends did."

"We'll see about that!" muttered Davis.

"Davis, aim for the Spiral," shouted Tai.

"Go, Raidramon!" yelled Davis.

"Thunder Blast!"

A burst of blue lightning shot out of Raidramon's horn and split into three bolts, each of which slammed into the Dark Spiral, however, as the Emperor predicted, the Spiral was still completely intact.

"Man, what the hell is that thing made of?!" said Davis, disbelievingly, as the Emperor laughed.

"I told you, it's useless you whelp!" he said, "now then, back to the matter at hand."

The Emperor continued blasting his evil signal into MetalGreymon's mind, and the behemoth's arms began to move slowly, despite his best attempts to resist.

"Data Bomb!"

Blasting out his signature attack at a specific frequency, George entered the fray guns blazing. Unfortunately, the attack was not powerful enough and merely glanced off the Spiral.

"Damn!" thought George, "how can I get more power?"

Then he noticed Davis and Raidramon.

"Perfect!" he thought, flying over to the lightning digimon.

"Hi there!" he said, smiling and waving friendly, "might I ask you for a favor?"

"Sure thing George," said Raidramon, slightly confused at George's behavior and wondering if the fallen warrior was still suffering from brain damage…whatever that was.

"Excellent!" said George, "how's your knowledge of resonant frequencies?"

"Raisin whats?" asked Raidramon, still puzzling over George's bizarre behavior.

George sighed and began a quick lecture while MetalGreymon recovered from his stupor and began advancing on the Digidestined. Sobekmon, though still severely injured from the last attack, charged between the behemoth and the Digidestined and prepared for a fight. He had noticed the arrival of his partner and, given that his first attack failed, Sobekmon was pretty sure George was working out a backup plan with Raidramon…assuming of course that George was capable of cognitive thought again.

"Well, whatever," thought Sobekmon, "I will try to buy George as much time as I can. I'm pretty sure he's got some trick up his sleeve…pretty sure."

"All materials naturally vibrate at certain frequencies," began George, "when the surrounding environment, such as wind, whistling, sound or light waves, hit the material at that frequency, it vibrates at increasing amplitudes until the frequency itself is reached. When vibrating, the material becomes weaker due to the strain of vibrating on the bonds between the molecules."

"…okay," said Raidramon, not really following any of what George was saying, but reassured that George's mental capacities had been restored.

"So, in order to destroy that Spiral, we need to hit it with waves of a frequency 401 megahertz," concluded George, "that is the resonant frequency of the Spiral. Unfortunately, my attack on its own is not intense enough to instill vibration, but perhaps together we can wreak havoc."

Raidramon nodded, though he didn't understand the science behind it, he instinctively knew how to calibrate his attack to the frequency that George had requested.

As MetalGreymon swung his metallic claw toward Sobekmon, George and Raidramon jumped in.

"Data Bomb!"

"Thunder Blast!"

The modified attacks shot straight at the Dark Spiral. Far from being worried, the Emperor laughed.

"Go ahead!" he scoffed, "it is useless to attack my spiral! It is impossible to destroy."

MetalGreymon continued swinging his arm, and the attacks collided with the Spiral. Upon being hit by powerful waves at its resonant frequency, the Spiral began to vibrate. Although it vibrated for only a short period of time, it was enough to dislocate some of the electric hardware within, causing the Spiral to start sparking.

"What?!" shouted the Emperor, caught completely off guard.

Quickly, he regained composure, and decided it would be best to withdraw from this conflict quickly. A few unfortunate turns of events set the odds against him, and he did not want to risk losing one of his more powerful servants.

"Retreat!" he yelled, but it was too late.

"Neutron Bullet!"

Using the sights in his helmet, Sobekmon shot a powerful bullet from his revolver that collided with the sparking Spiral. The evil device shattered, and MetalGreymon instantly dedigivolved into a beaten and battered Koromon, causing the Emperor to loose his perch. As he fell towards the ground, he hit a button on his gauntlet, summoning his Airdramon squad. He landed on the lead Airdramon.

"This isn't over!" he shouted, as the Airdramon covered his retreat. One tried to sneak up and recapture Koromon, but Raidramon bounded over and zapped it, breaking the Dark Ring controlling it. No other Airdramon followed.

As Sobekmon and Raidramon dedigivolved, the other Digidestined ran over to the trio who had just done what had seemed impossible only a few moments ago.

"Koromon!" shouted Tai, running to pick up his partner, he glanced at George, "how can I ever repay you?"

"Think nothing of it," said George, "this was a mere fluke. The Emperor will discover what happened and fix the problem."

"…out of curiosity, how did you break that Spiral?" asked Cody, "it seemed impossible."

"I'm glad you asked!" said George, smiling and getting back into lecture mode, "how many of you have heard of resonant frequencies?"

The Digidestined groaned as they prepared to hear another of George's longwinded science-y explanations, but Hannah stood back and smiled. This was the George she knew.

The following day found the Digidestined and George (reluctantly) back at the hospital. Dr. Kido had requested a follow up regarding George's recent injury. He was taking a look at the X-Rays, as well as his files, and shaking his head confusedly.

"As you can see, Dr. Kido," said George, "the brain damage has all but completely reverted. Given time and continued treatment, the remaining damage will heal."

"How did you manage such a feat?" wondered Dr. Kido, "just the other day you were undergoing a severe delusional state, but now it would seem you are well on your way to making a complete recovery."

"My personal doctors in the United States devised a treatment for me," said George vaguely.

"I'd very much like to know the details of that treatment," said Dr. Kido, taking out a pen and preparing to jot notes into George's medical record, "if this treatment is as effective on others as it was on you, it could be a medical breakthrough."

"I'd prefer not to get into a battle on intellectual property, if you don't mind, doctor," said George, "I'm not sure if they've patented this procedure yet or if they are in the process of patenting it, but I'd rather not interfere if possible."

"I understand," said Dr. Kido, slightly disappointed.

"What I can say, though," said George, "is that it was based of off research done by an Israeli institute. It's a hyperbaric treatment involving placing the patient in a pressurized chamber and pumping in pure oxygen."

Dr. Kido nodded.

"I've seen that study," he said, "they've been using that treatment on stroke patients. It seems to be highly effective. This was a slightly different situation, though."

"Yes and no," said George, "the problem in my case was caused by parts of my brain not sending electrical signals. The oxygen still managed to stimulate those neurons into firing, and that reversed the damage. I'll return for one more treatment, and in the meantime, I'm also going to start taking daily supplements, like a multivitamin, various Vitamin Bs, and fish oil."

Dr. Kido nodded. "It seems like you're in good hands."

"Right," said George, "my personal physicians are the best in the world. Can I be fully discharged now?"

"One more question if you don't mind my asking, Mr. Helltower, how did you end up with such extensive injuries in the first place?" asked Dr. Kido.

"One of my game consoles exploded," replied George evenly, "I was tinkering with it and my face was a little too close to it when it blew."

"Ah, I see," said the doctor, scribbling a few notes into his pad. He flipped through a few pages of the medical records involving George, and raised an eyebrow.

"Something wrong?" asked George mildly.

"I noticed that there was another incident involving an exploding game console recently…if the records are correct, it severely burned Taichi Kamiya," replied the doctor.

"Yes," said George, "there has been a slight issue with the manufacturing process of the consoles, as such they are prone to short circuiting and exploding. The issue came to my attention after the console exploded on Tai, and I've been attempting to correct the problem since."

"Don't you have people back in the States who could do that for you," asked Dr. Kido, "in slightly safer environments."

George paused for a moment before deciding to tell a half truth. He sighed theatrically and lowered his voice slightly, unintentionally catching the attention of the room's other occupants.

"I suffer from Impostor Syndrome, Dr. Kido," he said, "as such, I try to do as much as possible to ensure that I am, in fact, worthy of being in the position that I am."

The doctor nodded thoughtfully and, after adding a small note to his records, decided to leave the issue at that. He bid George farewell and officially discharged him from the hospital. George left to gather his belongings before departure.

Meanwhile, the Digidestined were gossiping over this latest tidbit of information.

"What's Impostor Syndrome?" asked Tai.

"Impostor Syndrome is where a person believes he is unqualified to be in the position he is in, even though he is qualified," replied Joe, "for example, I used to believe I was unqualified to be a medical student, despite getting good grades and having a lot of success. In this case, George is using it as an excuse for why he feels that he, specifically, has to deal with all the manufacturing errors."

Yolei nodded and asked the obvious question.

"Does George really suffer from Impostor Syndrome, or is that just a convenient lie?"

All eyes turned towards Hannah, who, obviously, knew him the best. The brunette sighed.

"It's hard to tell," she said, "in the context he's referring to, his position as CEO of Helltower Corp, definitely not…if anything he's almost conceited about that position."

"So why is it hard to tell?" asked TK.

Naturally, Izzy figured it out.

"You are referring to George's position as a Digidestined," he said, looking Hannah square in the eyes.

Hannah nodded.

"He's often wondered why he was chosen to be a Digidestined in the first place," she said, "everyone else had a specific quality that related to the original heroes who sealed away the Demon Lords, but not him. He has asked me, time and again, why he was the one who was given the Crest of Power, and that he feels he is inadequate and unworthy of the position that was thrust upon him."

"Sounds like a classic case," said Joe, nodding, "although I'm no psychologist."

George poked his head into the room.

"What are you guys still doing in here?" he asked, "let's get going! I'd like to leave here before I contract hives from being in a hospital for too long!"

"It would seem that Mr. Helltower has many psychological oddities," remarked Cody, more to himself than anyone else, as the Digidestined joined George and exited the hospital into the night.

As they exited, Hannah leaned over to George.

"I didn't realize you actually had personal physicians," she whispered.

"Yes indeed," whispered George, "Drs. Jack Daniels and Johnnie Walker, the best MDs in the world."

Hannah rolled her eyes, and watched contemplatively as George triumphantly regaled the Digidestined with how he had discovered the Dark Spiral's weakness, for the fifteen time. While the brunette was happy that George was back to his old self, she was disconcerted by George's unintentional insight into the inner workings of his mind.

"What's going on in that 9000 year old head of yours?" she wondered sadly.

The older Odaiba Digidestined had once again gathered in their favorite park to discuss the events of the past several days. As Tai was finishing the story, Izzy got a serious and contemplative look in his eyes.

"If the Emperor has managed to capture one of our partners and digivolve them to Ultimate," he began.

"Then he can do it to any of our partners," finished Joe, glumly.

"Yeah," said Tai, "but now that we know how to break the Spirals, it should be easy to defeat them, right?"

"Possibly," said Izzy placing a hand on his chin in a contemplative pose, "but the Emperor could determine how George managed to destroy the Spiral. Changing the material would render our current solution useless."

"So we'll just find another way to break the Spirals," countered Tai confidently.

"If we could get schematics of the support structure of the Spiral, we could identify weak points," suggested Izzy, "but the Emperor isn't going to make that an easy task."

A few other ideas were thrown around, during the conversation, Matt remained silent and seemed to be spiraling into a deeper and deeper funk. This did not go unnoticed by his brother, who decided to confront Matt about his recent behavior.

"Are you okay, Matt?" he whispered, concerned for his brother's well being.

"I'm fine," grumbled Matt loudly, "just peachy."

"Are you sure, Matt?" asked Tai, joining in. He too had noticed that his best friend was acting strangely.

Matt looked around at the concerned faces of his friends and sighed.

"No, I'm not okay," he confessed, hanging his head, "happy now?"

"What's wrong, Matt?" asked TK, putting his arm around his brother.

Tai put a comforting hand on the rock star's shoulder.

"We're your friends, Matt," he said, "we're here to help you, but we can only help you if you tell us what's going on."

Matt sighed again.

"It's a long story," he said, trying one last feeble attempt to deflect.

"We've got time," assured Tai, and the others nodded in agreement.

"I'm not sure where to begin," he said, sitting down, exasperated.

"It's okay," said TK, comfortingly, "take your time. We're not going anywhere."

The conversation paused for a few moments as Matt struggled to put his feelings into cohesive words.

"I-I-I just don't want to be replaced!" blurted Matt.

"Replaced?" asked Sora, "what do you mean?"

"Don't act stupid," shouted Matt, "all of us except TK and Kari have been practically useless since those new guys showed up!"

Sora flinched at the ferocity of Matt's outburst. Apparently the rock star felt very passionately about his convictions of replacement.

"Take it easy, Matt," said TK soothingly, "we're here to help. There's no need to get angry."

Matt sighed and hung his head.

"You're right," he said, "I'm sorry. I just…I haven't been myself lately."

"It's okay Matt," said Sora, smiling at him to assure him she wasn't mad at him for his explosion, "just talk to us."

"Of all the new guys why did that idiot Davis have to be the one to get the Digiegg of Friendship?" groused Matt, "he's irresponsible, disrespectful, clueless, and to top it all off nearly got us all killed today!"

"But in the end he came through for us," Tai reminded him gently, "and it was in no small part due to having us as mentors."

"So now we're basically reduced to babysitters," groaned Matt.

"Not babysitters," said Joe, "positive influences. We can teach the new guys about our experiences in the Digital World. Remember how much our adventures changed us? Now we get to share that experience with the new Digidestined."

"It's not the same," countered Matt, "we're still useless in combat."

"Now's not the time to worry about how many Control Spires you've knocked down, or how many Dark Rings you've broken," said Tai, "it's a time to worry about the future of the Digital World and how you can help change it for the better."

"But what can I do?" asked Matt, dejectedly.

"There's more to being a Digidestined than just fighting, Matt," said Izzy, "each of us has our own unique strengths and characteristics that we bring to the table."

"And what's mine?" said Matt, depressed "you've got your brain, Izzy, Joe is the guy we can always count on, Tai's our leader, Sora's our voice of reason, Mimi is our conscious. What am I?"

"You're our friend, Matt," said Tai, putting a reassuring hand on the blonde's shoulder.

"Goody," said Matt sarcastically, "that makes me so much more special than everyone else here. Oh wait, we're all friends."

"You're the glue that binds us together," said Joe, "during our adventure, when we were fighting the Dark Masters, after you left the group continued to spilt up."

"We couldn't function without you," agreed Izzy, "it's only when we were united, as a team, that we were able to defeat Piedmon and Apocalymon."

"Your Crest of Friendship symbolizes the unity that we need as Digidestined," said Sora, "divided we fall."

"Think about what Davis did today," reminded TK, "he chose to leave the group. It wasn't until he understood the true meaning for friendship that he rejoined the group and MetalGreymon was defeated."

"Yeah," said Matt, slowly, "I guess that's true."

"Like you said, Matt," said Tai, "Davis is a little thickheaded and disrespectful. Imagine how much good you can do trying to help him instead of just yelling at him. It does take a little while to get through to him, trust me I know, but once he starts listening to you, he does improve quickly. There will always be times when he makes you want to bang your head against the wall, but overall with your help he can become a better Digidestined. The Digital World didn't choose new Digidestined to forget about us completely. In fact, I'd bet that the reason they were chosen from this area is so that we could guide them."

Izzy looked at the gogglehead.

"That actually makes a lot of sense, Tai," he said admiringly.

Matt nodded, seemingly feeling better but then frowned.

"But what about us?" he asked, "we're supposed to help the new Digidestined grow, but how are we supposed to grow?"

"Life continues to teach us new experiences," said Joe.

"We also have George and Hannah, as well as the other Martian Digidestined, who can share their experiences with us," said Izzy, "it's all part of being on the same team."

Matt's demeanor darkened at hearing George's name, and Tai, TK, and Kari remembered Matt's fight with George's alter ego the day before.

"Something else is bothering you, Matt," said his brother, "I understand why you feel so strongly about Davis, since you don't want to be replaced, but why do you dislike George?"

Matt silently glanced around at his friends. They had helped him take the first step towards solving one problem, so maybe they could help with this too.

"Do you remember when Cherrymon convinced me to attack Tai, back during our adventure?" asked Matt.

Tai nodded.

"Water under the bridge," said the gogglehead, "I know that overgrown stump messed with your head."

"Right," said Matt, nodding glumly, "Cherrymon persuaded me to believe that Tai was standing in the way of my potential. As long as Tai was around, I couldn't grow and would remain the same person I always was, trapped in a rut. Cherrymon's exact words still ring in my ear to this day. 'The one you call Tai is your leader. Everything he says you do, everywhere he goes you follow, and yet in your heart you resent it because you know you're just as qualified to be the boss as he is.'"

"So what does this have to do with George?" asked Kari.

Matt stared at the ground and scuffed his shoes across the grass. After a few moments, Izzy ventured a guess.

"If Matt felt that strongly about Tai, he must feel the same way about George," hypothesized the boy genius.

"…It just feels like we're all standing in his shadow," confirmed Matt, "we'll never be as good as him, and he knows it. He's an arrogant son of a bitch, but he's got the skills to back his big mouth, and that just makes it worse."

"Try to remember that George has been alive for 9000 years," said TK soothingly, "he's had well over one lifetime to become the person he is. That's why he seems so invincible, but the past few days have proven he's not."

"Also," chimed in Joe, "a lot of his arrogance is most likely a front for his insecurity."

"How do you figure that, Joe?" asked Sora.

"It's like Hannah said," replied the med student, "George has Imposter Syndrome about having been chosen as a Digidestined. He feels inadequate and unworthy, but can't let anyone see that he's an imposter, or he could lose the one thing in his life that matters the most to him. He's spent so many years defending the Digital World that he doesn't want to leave. If he falters or falls, he feels like the Digital World will revoke its decision and whisk him back to the real world. He acts arrogant so that he will appear competent and worthy, but inside he's scared of being inadequate and losing everything. His arrogance is all bravado."

"But that's not how it works," said TK, frowning, "once you're chosen, you don't get un-chosen."

"You know that, and I know that," said Joe, "but George doesn't know that. He spends everyday terrified of being discovered as an imposter."

The med student shook his head and continued.

"After living for 9000 years and seeing everything George has seen, who knows what other psychological conditions could be lurking beneath the seemingly rock solid exterior."

Matt sat and processed this new information.

"…so what you're saying is that George and I are actually both insecure about being Digidestined?" asked the rock star.

"Remember what Hannah said," answered Izzy, "he asks her frequently why he was chosen to be a Digidestined, and that he feels inadequate and unworthy of having the Crest of Power."

"So, are you feeling a little better now?" asked Tai.

"Yeah," said Matt, nodding, "it feels good to get that off my chest. There's still a lot of work to do, but I've taken the first steps towards getting through this. It's good to have such good friends."

"We're always here for you, Matt," said Joe, as the others nodded.

"Just like we know you'll always be here for us," added Sora.

"Thanks a lot, you guys," said Matt.

"Maybe you and George can help each other out," suggested TK, "that way both of you can grow."

"I don't know if I'm quite ready for that, just yet," said Matt, managing a small smirk, "but maybe some day."

With that, the Digidestined bad each other farewell, and they dispersed into the evening.

Later that evening, as Hannah prepared for her return to the United States, George walked up to her.

"Hey," he said, rubbing the back of his head, "I just wanted to thank you for coming all the way to Japan to see me. Especially given that global travel is not as easy for you as it is for other Digidestined…"

"It was nothing," she said, keeping her back turned away from him and hunching over her suitcase, "you are not only my boss, but one of the best friends I have ever had…besides, I got to use your private jet, so traveling wasn't that bad."

There was a slight awkward pause, during which George remained leaning in the doorway and Hannah continued to pack her suitcase, purposely not turning to face him. Eventually, George shook his head and turned as if to leave.

"You know," he remarked casually, "if I am one of the best friends you've ever had, it would be courteous to at least look at me when I'm trying to thank you."

As the videogame tycoon stepped into the hallway, Hannah turned and grabbed his shoulder, causing him to turn around. Her face was a mask of concern.

"Do you really have Impostor Syndrome?" she asked.

George shrugged nondescriptly.

"That isn't answering my question," snapped Hannah.

"It's not a big deal," mumbled George, so that Hannah could barely hear him.

"After all the good you've done for the Digital World, how could you possibly doubt yourself so much?"

"Don't forget all the rotten stuff I've done," came the muttered reply.

"But you've more than made up for most of those, and you are trying to reach Ken's inner self again," she said, "no one could ask for more of you."

George flinched, and Hannah immediately regretted adding those last two words.

"I meant—" she began, but was cutoff by a burst of fury from George.

"No," he said, "you said it correctly. I've done all I possibly can…anyone else could have done better. You, yourself were the one who advised me to approach Ken immediately, but I didn't listen. If the responsibility was yours, the Digimon Emperor never would have existed! …the Crest of Power should not belong to me, I am undeserving of the responsibility foisted upon me and have erred several times. There is nothing I have accomplished that anybody else who owned this Crest could not have done! I am unnecessary! I am not worthy! I am—"

George was cutoff by a smack to the face by Hannah. He flinched, and put a hand to the side of his cheek, rubbing the place where she had struck him, seemingly in a daze.

"I don't want to hear you say that!" she said, taking advantage of George's confusion, "you cannot say for sure that anybody would have done a better job than you have! Even in the case of Ken, I am sure that if the roles were reversed, you would have been the one trying to convince me to approach Ken, and I would have refused. Nobody else heard the final prophecy that Griffinmon spoke to you just before his death, so nobody else could weigh that factor into their assessment of the situation."

"I-I," stammered George, but Hannah was not ready to get off her soap box just yet.

"Not only that," she continued, cutting off George's attempts at protests, "but I am sick of you holding yourself to higher standards than everyone else! Not only is it degrading to everyone else, and arrogant as hell, but it is also entirely wrong! Everybody makes mistakes, even though you may be half data, you are still only human. By definition humans are fallible. What is important is that you do your best to fix the mistakes you have made and to never make the same mistake twice! As I have already said, you've done an excellent job of that, so don't you DARE tell me, or anyone else for that matter, that the Digital World was wrong in its decision and that you are unqualified to be the Warrior of Power you were chosen to be!"

Hannah, now red in the face and breathing heavily due to her tirade, was stunned to find George smiling at her.

"You know," he said wryly, "I could fire you for assaulting your boss…"

Hannah's jaw dropped, as George began to turn away.

"Y-y-you," she began, as she started trembling in fury.

"But considering the fact that I really did deserve it, I will let it slide this time," finished George, smirking over his shoulder.

Hannah sighed, somewhat infuriated, but mostly amused.

"You're a real jackass sometimes," she said shaking her head, "you know that right?"

"I do indeed, Ms. Pottymouth," said George, sticking out his tongue.

Hannah sighed, not quite ready to allow George to change the subject just yet.

"Did any of what I said get through that thick skull of yours?" she asked.

"For one thing, the events of this week proved that my skull is not as thick as most people seem to imply," began George. As Hannah opened her mouth to object to his changing the subject, George continued, "for another, while I do appreciate everything you said, and I cannot fault your logic, I am pretty sure I will always feel the way I do about having been chosen as the Warrior of Power…even if I can logically accept that mistakes are inevitable, emotionally I cannot. That will never change."

"Have you considered seeing a therapist?" asked Hannah.

George snorted.

"How on Earth would I explain my situation?" he said, "'so I was chosen to be the guardian of an alternate universe where data exists as real life forms, and I feel unqualified to be given that position'…you can see how that would sound ridiculous? I would get locked up for being delusional and most people would just think that I cracked and started hallucinating that I am in one of my own videogames…besides, after almost 9000 years, it is inevitable that I've picked up a few psychoses. Impostor Syndrome isn't all that bad in comparison to the rest of them and isn't even really considered a true psychological disorder."

Before Hannah could question George further about his multitude of neuroses, he dashed out of the room, leaving her behind, concerned in more ways than one. She sighed and resumed packing for her trip ahead.

The Digimon Emperor sat in his throne room, analyzing the day's events by replaying them on the monitors in his control room. He watched carefully as Tai distracted MetalGreymon, causing the moment's hesitation needed for George and that new digimon, Raidramon, to short out the Dark Spiral. Although it was an interesting twist of fate that allowed the goggleheaded buffoon's digimon to Armor Digivolve into two creatures, that was not the main flaw in his plan. Were it not for the fatal flaw inherent in digimon partners, their compassion for their human masters, the Emperor was certain he'd have won the battle.

"No matter," thought the Emperor, signaling for his Airdramon squad to head out in pursuit of his next victim, "I must make a minor change to my plan. That's all."

As the Airdramon approached their target, the Emperor called one of his loyalist minions in the nearby area. A star shaped digimon appeared on the other end of the screen, concealed in shadows.

"Yeh called master?" inquired the digimon in a Texan-esque drawl.

"Yes," said the Emperor, "I have some secret orders for you…"

Narrator: Who is the Digimon Emperor's next target, and what are his secret orders? Find out next time on Digimon: Digital Monsters!

Alright, hopefully this chapter made sense. It accomplished everything I wanted it to, and will allow for the progression of the story. I do have a decent amount of Episode 13 written as well as a chapter outline, but I won't make any guarantees as to when it will be posted. I am hopeful that I will complete it, and that it will be uploaded soon, but I am still having a little difficulty writing the battle scenes, so it may take a little longer. I have not given up hope for this account, and hopefully anybody reading this hasn't either (once again, assuming anybody out there is reading this...). If you are out there, and you have read this, please review to let me know you're still here. That will encourage me to continue writing, since it would mean people actually care if I update or not.

Okay, I think that's enough for now. Hopefully I'll be back soon with another update.

-the21stMartian

PS: I should point out that, although several years have passed, I still do not own Digimon, nor likely will I ever own Digimon.