Elsewhere, Lucemon, Lilithmon and Barbamon watched the fight unfold, through a liquid crystal mirror.
"This situation is becoming untenable." Lilithmon spoke, earning a quizzical look from Barbamon as to her meaning. "The Digidestined of japan have three Mega-Levels on their side. With the Hida boy and Armadillomon's new form, that makes four. We must intercede, before all the wretched Digidestined obtain this power."
"I see no reason to act," Barbamon smirked. "Let them obtain this power; they will bolster our power all the more for it, upon their defeat."
"Nonetheless, Lilithmon is correct to be cautious," Lucemon stated. "I will take an assortment of NeoDevimon, and eliminate them immediately."
"More of your regenerating disgraces, Lucemon?" Barbamon inquired, galled at the mere concept. Several Digimon were needed as sacrifices for even a single one of his horrors, and as the Kimeramon incident had made evident, they were not as indestructible as he made them out to be.
Barbamon grumbled in annoyance, briefly spotting Lucemon's insolent smirk as he teleported out.
...
...
To say that Suzie was surprised at this turn of events was an epic understatement. She was bewildered, flummoxed, nonplussed, speechless, even. In her universe, Henry was able to Bio-Merge with Terriermon, Takato had managed with Guilmon, Rika with Renamon, even Ryo and Cyberdramon had managed somehow.
Now Cody and Armadillomon had managed. This was infuriating to the girl. Just how much more did it take, she wondered, as Cherubimon carried her to safety, away from the rapidly expanding Digidestined and Partner, who had already crushed JewelBeemon with his sheer size, along with vast parts of the forest.
Looking down at the forest, she saw nothing but devastation where the new Digimon's feet were, trees crushed, cracked and broken like twigs. While she hoped that no Digimon had gotten hurt, she knew it to be nearly unavoidable.
Their Mega-form was incredibly impressive. It was an enormous, almost village-sized, turtle-like Digimon, wearing four ankle-bands seemingly composed entirely of bricks, one on each leg. It had three large stubby toes, comprised entirely of soft-golden rock. On either side of it's shell was what looked like massive forests, with the odd rock-formation within. On his back was a medieval castle that had a faint light shining out of it. The neck was pale-green, and part of the head was covered in a golden mask-like helmet.
"ElDradimon," Suzie read off her D-Arc. "Data, Mega-Level. Attacks; Golden Road, Meteor Earthquake... Oh, this is just fantastic..."
Suddenly, the behemoth blinked it's bright blue eyes open. Within, Cody was disoriented, to say the least. He and Ankylomon had been fighting JewelBeemon, in a forest, and now he was in this dark, empty space, with these bright things circling him, and Armadillomon was nowhere in sight. Looking around him, he found that to his shock, he was suddenly nude, and that there was naught but smooth, soft skin where his genitalia should've been. Just what had happened to him?
Whatever had happened, his body felt incredible, as it had seemingly expanded to vast proportions; what felt like kilometers away, he felt his (four?) feet make sizable dents in the ground.
On his back, he felt something he knew should've crushed him, but it felt... Relieving, to feel it there, comforting, liberating... It felt right to the boy.
Looking around for Suzie, he quickly found her, but she looked so much smaller now, like an insect, or a mote of dust. Just how big was he now, that the comparison actually made sense, he mused...
"Cody?!" Suzie shouted. Cody resisted an urge to wince, as for some reason, her voice seemed infinitely louder to him now, the sound-waves containing nuances, subtleties and inflections that he never registered before, in his human form.
"Yes?" The behemoth grumbled, annoyed; his voice was a mixture of Cody's ordinary calm tone, Armadillomon's mellow and excitable half-chuckle, and something more that Suzie preferred not to ponder.
"Are you okay in there?" Suzie asked, concerned, as she had no idea what possible repercussions Bio-Merging might have outside of her universe. One thing was it working, but she didn't imagine it working the same here.
"I'm floating naked in an empty void," He drawled. "You tell me."
There was a lengthy pause. "I did not need to hear that..." She shuddered in disgust, blushing softly, wishing that she could stop thinking about that... Vivid mental image. "Now could you turn back?"
"How do I do that, exactly?" Cody asked.
Suzie pondered that for a few seconds, before shrugging. "I dunno, try something!"
"'Try something'?" He shouted incredulously. "It's your fault I'm even in this form, you tell me how to get back to normal, right now!"
"How should I know?" She retorted. "I have no idea how Bio-Merging works. If I did, you think I'll have done it already."
"There is one solution," Cherubimon interjected, deciding for safe measure to descend to the ground, as her few minutes in this form were almost at an end. ElDradimon eyed her hopefully. "But it will be painful..." She whispered, her voice tinged with regret.
"What is it?" Armadillomon asked, from with ElDradimon.
"I will have to attack your merged form, to the extent that you can no longer maintain it..." She said, waiting for their approval before hesitantly unleashing a flurry of lightning bolts.
About a minute later, Lopmon reverted, with Cody and Armadillomon still in their Bio-Merged form. Though the attacks seemed not to have much effect on them, they suddenly separated.
Cody inspected his Digivice, wondering exactly what happened to it. Had the redesign occurred because his D-3 had gotten close's to Suzie's Digivice? But if so, why had it happen now, and not earlier, at home? Most importantly, could his still open a Digi-Port to the human world?
"Suzie..." He quietly said. "How do we activate this Bio-Merge thing?"
"Well, you just press a button on your D-3, and say 'Bio-Merge Activate', and that's it." Suzie replied.
...
...
Several kilometers away, Stingmon, carrying his partner Ken Ichijouji, was flying towards that place where that Digimon had appeared, and attacked a forest.
Ken looked glumly ahead, determined not to let any harm come to the Digital World. Not after his stint as the Digimon Emperor... He shook his head. That was in the past, and he couldn't let it haunt him, as Davis would no doubt say...
Resolved to stop whatever the Demon Lords had unleashed on the forest, Ken told Stingmon to increase his flying pace. When he arrived, however, he found to his shock not a Demon Lord and a small group of Devimon, but Cody, Armadillomon, Suzie and Lopmon.
"Are you guys alright?" He quickly asked, getting quizzical looks from Cody and Suzie. "I saw Cherubimon fighting some other Digimon, and came to lend a hand."
Cody and Armadillomon shared an amused look. "That was me and Armadillomon."
"Then, why were you fighting?" Ken blinked. "And what do you mean, you and Armadillomon?" He exclaimed, once he registered the latter part of Cody's sentence.
In response, Cody grinned, and held up his altered D-3. "Apparently, I can Bio-Merge with Armadillomon now, all the way to the Mega-Level."
Ken and Stingmon stared at disbelief. "Seriously?!" He exclaimed, incredulously. With that kind of power of their side, their chances against the Demon Lords were greatly improved.
"Indeed..." A young male voice drawled. Suzie's eyes widened in abject terror, when she saw the winged, toga-clad boy, while Ken and Cody focused more on the five Neo-Devimon floating next to him.
What little Suzie knew about Lucemon indicated that he was nearly as powerful as it was possible for any Digimon to be, as he possessed Mega-level power in his Rookie form, and Super Ultimate-level power at his Ultimate-level, in addition to being a Digital Hazard.
"Please..." She whispered to her partner and the Digidestined, a single tear streaking down her left cheek. "Let's just run, maybe he won't follow us..."
"Sorry to disappoint you," Lucemon smirked. "As I believe your vernacular goes, 'you're all totally screwed'."
"Bring it on!" Armadillomon shouted at him. In stark contrast to his confidence, Suzie knew that following through on his threat was the easiest thing in the world for Lucemon, so she decided to relent from this fight, and accept her only option of survival, which was to grab Lopmon and run for her life.
She did not make it very far, as she heard Lucemon shout, 'Ultimate Sacrifice!' and knew that she had but seconds left to live. "Suzie!" Cody and Ken cried as the twin orbs of light and darkness zoomed past them directly towards Suzie, hitting her and Lopmon.
Once they were trapped, the orbs expanded outwards, both light orb and dark orb sectioning themselves in tiles, a series of crosses, triangles and circles appearing on each tile, and blood-red light outlining each section.
Slowly, the orbs started turning, and Suzie and Lopmon screamed in agony within, as golden and dark-purple lightning-bolts surged at them.
Lucemon quirked an eyebrow when the sphere trembled, and released a blinding light, forcing him to cover his eyes.
When the light subsided, to Cody's horror, Suzie and Lopmon were gone, without anything to indicate them ever having been there.
"What have you done?!" Ken shouted at Lucemon, who hesitated to respond out of shock.
"I-I am as much as at a loss about what has occurred, as you all are, Ken Ichijouji," Lucemon stuttered, still a bit shocked. "My Ultimate Sacrifice technique should have slain the girl, leaving only a mangled corpse at best. I do not know what caused that light."
Ken glared up at him. While he knew they had absolutely no reason to believe anything the Demon Lord said, he actually seemed fairly sincere about it. Regardless, it made little difference; Lucemon would still be defeated.
"Bio-Merge Activate!" Cody exclaimed, feeling the same warmth and energy coursing through him as he had the first time. Stingmon grabbed Ken, while Lucemon and his NeoDevimon flew towards the sky, all trying to get away from the rapidly expanding Digimon, uprooting many of the trees as he grew.
Once ElDradimon stood ready, towering over everyone in the vicinity, there was little left of the forest to preserve, though Cody didn't pay it much heed; Lucemon had dared strike at one of the Digidestined; for that, he would have to die, Cody thought.
He was certainly a mighty adversary, Stingmon thought as Cody and Armadillomon's Mega Form sunk their jaw into the NeoDevimon, biting them in half. Though both Ken and Stingmon were surprised to see the NeoDevimon regenerate from any injuries they inflicted.
"So you just keep coming back, eh?" Cody smirked, his smile spreading to ElDradimon. "Let's try something else!" He exclaimed, snatching one of the NeoDevimon swarming around his head, flinging it to the ground, where he crushed it under his left foot, twisting it slightly, grinding the NeoDevimon into nothingness.
"So that's their weakness!" Ken realized. "That's how we can beat them!"
"Impossible!" Lucemon screeched in shock at seeing his creation destroyed. "They are indestructible! You can't possibly destroy them!"
"Oh, but I can! Allow me to demonstrate!" The part of ElDradimon that was Armadillomon shot back, chomping down on another NeoDevimon, and crushing it under their foot as well.
Snarling, yet acknowledging this battle to be lost, Lucemon teleported back to the Dark Area, leaving ElDradimon to make short work of his cronies.
The battle ended, ElDradimon separated into Cody and Armadillomon, both sporting guilty expression when they saw the devastation they'd wrought.
"Did... we do this?" Cody asked, horrified, while Armadillomon surveyed the area.
"I'm sorry but, yes..." Ken whispered. "Look... I won't pretend to be anything resembling comfortable with this level of damage, but the Digital World is still here, so the damage will be fixed."
"Thanks, Ken," Cody smiled softly. "... So where do you think Suzie is right now?"
"Honestly, I think she's dead, Cody..." Ken hesitantly replied, unsure of how he'll respond.
Whatever reaction Ken had expected, it hadn't been bitter, almost mocking laughter. "Nope, Ken... Someone like that doesn't die so easily. Trust me, she's alive somewhere, sometime, someplace..."
"Wherever you are, Suzie..." Cody thought, gazing at his redesigned D-3. Had it not been for her, he might never have gained the ability to Bio-Merge with Armadillomon... "Thank you... And goodbye... My friend..."
Look, this was a bad idea, I'm willing to admit this; ZeedMillenniumon was a believable plot device for getting Suzie to the world of Digimon Adventure, Lucemon for getting her away, not so much...
If anyone is confused about Cody and Armadillomon becoming ElDradimon, consider that a human and a humanoid Digimon Bio-Merging results in a humanoid Bio-Merge Mega.
Then, what is the result of Bio-Merge between a human and a non-humanoid Digimon like Armadillomon? Something like ElDradimon or Cannondramon isn't an unreasonable conclusion.