Inside the rainbow colored void that came with having two minds inside one body, Nene and Echidna sat (floated?) opposite each other.

'So the boy became a general?' the Denizen asked. 'That Xros Loader was unsealed?'

"Yes." Nene nodded. "I'm curious, though." she then asked. "How did you know it was there?"

'Contrary to my Brother's claims, I provided the initial energy wavelength for Digi-Xrossing.' Echidna said. 'Stingmon and XVmon, If you'll recall, were Digi-Xrossed into a Paildramon- One of my creations.'

"Really?" Nene stared up at the Denizen.

'Yes, I once meddled about with creating new evolution paths by fusing random Digimon together during the Digital World's birth years. Hephaestus simply stole and, begrudgingly I'll admit, improved upon the design, making it temporary instead of permanent.' a smile briefly flashed upon her face. 'Ah, Sibling rivalry. It's a shame Cetus' host didn't come out a boy, you could use the brother sister dynamic in your group.'

"Actually, Kotone and I do have a brother." Nene said with a frown. "But he was in the hospital when we were pulled into the Digital World."

'You don't say?' Echidna mused. 'Funny. I don't recall him appearing in the memories I dragged out of the Shademon I killed.'

"That's..." Nene frowned even further. "A long story."

*Cue Title theme*

Disk Zone Terror! Disabled Digi-Xros?

"Oi!"

A voice permeated the space between the two chatting souls.

"OI!"

It came again, and they begrudgingly said their goodbyes for now.

"NENE AMANO, YOU WAKE UP THIS MINUTE OR I'll... I'll...!"

Just as Nene Amano brought her consciousness back up to the waking realm, Sally Sparrow lost her patience and made use of the bucket full of water she had prepared earlier.

SPLASH!

Nene awoke with a start, coughing and spitting out water as a torrent of the bucket's ice cold contents hit her face. "Sparrowmon!" she gasped, startled. "What was...?"

"Taiki's getting ready to head out." Sally said, turning the bucket back over and putting it down. "Thought you'd want to know."

"Thanks." Nene smiled at the digimon-girl.

"We'll be back as soon as we can." Taiki was saying to Akari as they walked through the streets of the village. "But it should be long enough for you to do something for me."

"What's that?" She asked.

"Well, I want you to have Wizardmon look into something for me." he said as he pulled out his Xros Loader. "I captured a Digimon back in Dust Zone when we were escaping DarkKnightmon's tower, and had Hephaestus lock it inside the Xros Loader's memory vault. It's the only Digimon in there right now, and I've removed it from the vault, so all you have to do is reload it to have him look at it." And with that, he handed it to her.

"You're giving me your Xros Loader?" Akari raised an eyebrow.

"Zenjirou's got one now, and he's coming with us." Taiki shrugged. "Besides, I doubt we'll be doing any fighting. It's just a recon mission to see how Kiriha's doing."

"I still think we should all go." Akari protested.

"We need a break." Taiki said, placing his hands in his vest pockets. "You more than anyone else, right now."

"I'm not a little kid you know." Said the teenager in a ten year old body as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I can handle myself."

With a laugh, Taiki patted her head. "Of course, but someone's got to keep everyone else in line, right?"

"Yeah." she nodded. "We've got quite a rowdy bunch here, don't we?"

To prove her point, Problem Chessmon rushed past them with a rushed "Pardon me coming through!" not moments before a Falcomon came flapping after the Lake Zone native, a rage filled look on her face.

"GET BACK HERE YOU PIE STEALING, EGG BREAKING, MELON SMASHING, PIG SLAPPING JERK!"

Taiki and Akari stared after the bird in silence.

And then Hephaestus had to ask: "Was that supposed to be an insult or something?"

And so, a few Minutes later, Taiki and Zenjirou were standing outside the village gates.

"Care to do the honors?" Taiki asked.

"Sure thing!" The Hunter raised his Xros Loader and ordered one phrase. "ZONE TRANSFER!"

With a resounding beep, and a flash of light, the portal into airspace opened up before them.

"Let's go." Taiki said before leaping into the portal.

"Yosh!" Zenjirou jumped in after him.

"WAIT!"

They both glanced back through the portal to see Nene running towards them, and...

The gateway closed behind them, leaving the two boys floating outside of Shinobi Zone, and Nene on the other side of the portal.

"Damn it!" she cursed, pulling out her still non-responsive Xros Loader. "Zone Transfer!"

It refused to work.

"Well." Zenjirou said with a frown. "That was bad timing."

"Tell me about it." Shoutmon said from the new Xros Loader. "Wonder what she wanted anyways?"

Slowly, methodically, and sadly, Nene walked back into town.

Tailmon, resting on a nearby mailbox, raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"

"The portal closed before I could get to them." the girl replied, melancholy. "Now I have to wait for them to come back before I can hear anything about Kiriha."

"Meh." the cat yawned. "It's probably for the best anyways."

"Why do you say that?" Nene looked up.

"Best I can figure..." Tailmon arched her back out with another yawn. "Portals always work a certain way to make sure things always happen a certain way." Nene stared at the cat, trying to make heads or tails out of what she just said. "Look." Tailmon summarized. "I ain't Wizar's familiar by choice, remember?"

"Right..." Nene nodded slowly, remembering the one time the Cat had explained how she had become Wizardmon's familiar- a Noodle incident involving a beach party, a stolen swimming suit, a tv-set, a randomly appearing portal, and a bowl of macaroni- Not in that order. The girl shuddered at the memory of the tale.

"So yeah." The cat concluded. "If a portal closed on ya, you're not supposed to have used it."

"Good point."

DISK ZONE_ _ _|

When the portal opened up on the other end, Shoutmon and Dorlumon reloaded from the Xros Loader.

"Yeesh." Shoutmon said as he rolled his shoulders. "This green Xros Loader doesn't have much space in it compared to the red and orange ones."

"It was rather cramped in there." Dorulumon nodded.

"So why isn't everyone else leaving then?" Zenjirou asked, glancing at his new Digivice.

"There's some mega loud and annoying vibrations going on, Brother!" Starmon said. "It's hurting our ears even inside here! Let alone outside!"

"Eh?" Shoutmon blinked. "What vibrations?"

"I'm not hearing anything." Dorulumon said.

"It's the headphones." Ballistamon spoke up. "My sensors are picking up sonic vibrations deep within the Zone's core. It can be filtered out by the headphones. If I can have a few Minutes, I can make sets for everyone here."

For a moment, everyone stared at the Xros Loader, having listened to one of Ballistamon's longest sentences in a while. Then, Shoutmon blinked. "Headphones huh?" he then pried one end of his headphones off and... "YEOWTCH!" immediately slapped it back down.

"Shoutmon!" Taiki started.

"I'm okay!" Shoutmon groaned as he pressed his hands against the speakers of his headset, wincing all the way. "Just give me a minute..."

"That would explain why I'm not affected by it." Dorulumon said. "I've got headphones too."

"Ballistamon said it was the Zone's Core?" Zenjirou turned around to take a look at their surroundings. "Can't be too hard to..." He trailed off.

Disk Zone, as you might have expected, was a giant floating island- mechanical in nature, and crystalline in makeup.

Disk Zone was, in fact, a giant, floating island, much like Heaven zone, made up of gigantic Compact Disks. In it's hayday, Disk Zone would appear to be a futuristic city made up of crystalline structures, towering above the 'ground floor' as everything spun on their own little trays.

Currently?

Disk Zone was crumbling apart, decaying, and breaking down into data in almost every visible area.

"What the...?" Dorulumon gasped.

Furthering the zombie town feel of the Zone was the fact that a LOT of this destruction was not natural- There were telltale signs of battle everywhere; Craters, whole collapsed towers, shattered disks, and, furthering that, the two massive flags in the distance that signified an ongoing battle.

The Flags, respectively, belonged to Blue Flare and Bagura.

"Kiriha!" Taiki's fists clenched.

"Yosh!" Zenjirou got into a battle stance. "Let's get to it!"

Currently, Cyberdramon was holding back Troopmon left and right, while Rhinomon were being blasted away by Deckerdramon's missile launchers. Sealsdramon, who were taking charge behind the Troopmon, were being obliterated by long range energy attacks courtesy of MailBirdramon.

"Keep them back!" Deckerdramon ordered. "We must hold this line!"

Needless to say, Bagura was slowly gaining ground, and Kiriha was nowhere to be seen.

"Grrr...!' Cyberdramon growled as he stabbed a Troopmon in the chest. "How much longer?"

"As long as it takes!" MailBirdramon said. "Even if we die here, we must hold this position for as long as possible!"

So, imagine the relief (and surprise) of Blue Flare when, all of a sudden, a twin blast of fire smashed into the middle of the Bagura army.

"What the?" Deckerdramon glanced up for but a moment, spotting their saviors up on a nearby cliff-face.

"DORULU CANNON!"

Another volley of flame wolf blasts launched out of the cannon mouths, which were in their standard Cannon formation, which had Taiki in the center, having transformed his arms into the larger forms, allowing him to handle the recoil much easier.

"It's Taiki!" MailBirdramon noted. "Xros Heart has come to rescue us!"

"About Time!" Cyberdramon growled.

"How can they Digi-Xros though?" Deckerdramon asked as, from above, more fiery death rained down upon Bagura's forces, this time courtesy of Shoutmon.

"SOUL CRUSHER!"

"MEGA FLAME!"

A Blazing purple fire roared across the scattering Troopmon, all of whom were fleeing from the terrifying might that was Gureimon.

Those that survived the roast, however, were soon cut down by rainbow colored blades of air.

Kiriha, wearing his energy green coat and broken wings over his normal clothes, grimaced as he and Gureimon hurried back towards the small base came they had set up earlier through the small reprieve they had fought for. "They just won't quit!"

"Tell me about it." Typheus grumbled. "We're running up-stream here."

And then, just like that, a low rumble was heard through the air. Like an engine running at full strength... Most of the Troopmon off in the distance that they had yet to reach were suddenly shooting at whatever was causing the sound.

"Kiriha!" Gureimon growled, being able to see the see the source thanks to his towering height. "There's something coming our way from the base camp!"

"What?" The Blue Flare General looked up at the Dinosaur. "What is it?"

"It's...!" Gureimon blinked. "Taiki on a motorcycle?"

Sure enough, a moment later, the Troopmon ahead of them exploded as, like a speeding bullet, a bright orange motorcycle that was floating on air without any wheels, being made out of pure fire energy, burst through their lines, scattering the Bagura goons to the four winds.

And just as Gureimon had claimed: Taiki was driving the thing.

Yet another of Hephaestus's inventions.

"Kiriha!" the boy called out as he slid to a friction-less halt in-front of the Blue Flare General. "Are You okay?"

"T...Taiki?" Kiriha blinked. "How did you do that?"

"Same way you've got wings, Typheus." The Denizen of Creativity remarked offhandedly. "How are you doing that, by the way? Nene still can't converse with Echidna outside of dreams..."

"The Shademon we were Xrossed with integrated some of it's data into us in order to heal us." The Denizen of Breath said. "We were pretty much unaffected by the split other than a loss of energy." He paused. "Also, Good to finally speak to you face to face again, my friend."

"Good point. I'd forgotten in all the-"

"Do we really have time for this?" Gureimon questioned, interrupting the reunion between the two Digital Guardians.

"He's right." Taiki said. "Reunions can wait for later."

"Fine by me." Kiriha agreed. "Let's go."

"BURNING STAR CRUSHER!"

Xros Four was engaging a Rhinomon with abandoned glee. The vibrations that were emerging from the Zone itself was making it hard for Shoutmon to maintain the Digi-Xrossed form.

"Damn it." he grimaced inside the Xros. "Even though I've got headphones on normally, Xros Four doesn't have them in its helmet!"

"We'll hold on as long as it takes, Brother!" Starmon said through gritted teeth.

"N'Gah!"Ballistamon said while focusing all his power on diminishing the effects of the Zone's sonic wave vibrations.

"DECKERDRAUNCHER!"

"PLASMA CANON!"

Blue Flare were holding their own as well; but they were having an easier time now, however, thanks to the aid of Xros Four.

All in all, things were going well, although the fight could have been going smoother.

"FOUR VICTORIZE!"

More explosions.

Zenjirou, taking on the traditional roll of General, was supporting the fighters by holding his Xros Loader high up into the air, allowing it's glowing screen to provide a light for all to follow. 'Come on Taiki... Get back here already...!'

His wish was granted when a spiraling tornado of fire appeared in the midst of the Bagura army.

"RETREAT!" A Troopmon yelled.

And so, The Bagura Army absconded.

And now we jump to a random point at the start of the ensuing conversation. Currently, Gureimon, MailBirdramon, and Deckerdramon were forming a barrier outside of the entrance to the small alcove that was the Blue Flare base of operations.

"We've been trying to fight back for the last few days now." Kiriha was saying. "But with the Xros Loader not working, it's been tough."

"It's not the Xros Loaders." Taiki said as he handed Kiriha's Xros Loader back to him. "It's whatever's at the center of the Zone that's causing the vibrations that are shaking this place apart."

"Vibrations? That could explain the Gaossmon's reluctance to leave the Xros Loader." MailBirdramon noted.

"Maybe..." Kiriha mused it over. "We did rescue them from a collapsing Zone after-all..."

"Eh?" Zenjirou blinked. "What Zone was that?"

"Diamond Zone." Gureimon said as he shifted about a bit. "Blastmon was on one of his hunger quests for rare gems. He went and absorbed the central core of the Zone and..." He blinked. "Oh Hell No!"

"What is it?" Kiriha asked.

"What if Blastmon's eating the core of Disk Zone?" Gureimon turned to face them. "Or even maybe has someone removing the bloody thing so he can eat it later?"

"Removing the Core of a crystalline Zone would make it collapse." Dorulumon said. "But if the army here is removing the core of a Zone for Blastmon, then...?"

"Where is he?" Shoutmon asked.

To answer that question, we would have to go deep into the heart of the Bagura encampment, where Blastmon had only just arrived from the Bagura Empire Headquarters via portal, accompanied by his three Vilemon.

"Blue Flare and Xros Heart?" he asked a Sealsdramon, who nodded in reconfirmation. "We'll have to give them a big welcome then!" he grinned. "Tsuuuuu!"

The Vilemon shared a confused glance, but shrugged and rolled with it. Their general was quite a wacky one, so they'd heard from the other two of the Three Bagura Generals, even when he was a child.

"Bagura's approaching from the west!" a Seahomon, one of Disk Zone's natives, said as he approached them, floating in the air like all air-born Sea-Horses do. "Blastmon's in the lead position!"

Shoutmon grimaced. "We had to ask. Didn't we?"

"Yes." Dorulumon sighed. "yes we did."

"Ohaiyoooooouuuuu~!~!~!~!" Blastmon waved as he brought his platoon to a stop. "Xros Heart! Blue Flare! I'm glad to hear you're alive after Dust Zone!"

The shelter his group was surrounding showed no signs of motion within.

"I really thought you were dead, Xros Heart, after what Lilithmon said about flinging you into the void." He continued. "But I'm really glad you're okay!"

Most of his troops shared confused glances.

"I don't even want the Code Crown!" Blastmon was saying. "Just let us take the crystals at the Zone's Core, and we'll be out of your hair!"

Still nothing.

"Are you guys ignoring me or something!" Blastmon huffed, tears beginning to well in his eyes. "I thought you were better than that, Taiki-saamaaaa!"

This reaction alone really made his troops take a single, solitary, unified step backwards.

Right into Taiki's Trap.

"FOUR VICTORIZE!"

"PLASMA DECKERDRAUNCHER!"

Two Digi-Xrossed, one familiar, one new, burst out of the ground in the middle of the Bagura army while combining two attacks of a burning lazer V and a spiraling, purple Plasma beam, sending the goons flying.

Xros Four hefted his sword, looking mighty heroic in the midst of a burning, swirling inferno of carnage around them. "You rang?" Shoutmon had to ask.

DeckerGureimon was a Digi-Xros between MetalGureimon and Deckerdramon- Having large tank treads for feet, a plasma cannon for a right hand to offset the left hand claw, and several missile launcher packs on his wingspan. "Looks like it's time to Scratch some Diamonds, hehe." Gureimon smirked.

Blastmon turned around slowly, very slowly, to face the two Digi-Xrossed Digimon. "Time...You...What...?" he was very, very confused.

"Dude, you're not making any sense." DeckerGureimon sighed. "Take a deep breath and calm down and-OW!" He spun around as a Troopmon let off a wary shot at his leg. "Alright you! I've had just about enough of these stupid, impish shenanigans!" The cannon mount aimed at the Troopmon. "I am DEAD serious. Get out! This is a rematch between us and ol' Shiny head here!"

The Troopmon under the scope took a step back, as did the rest of them.

"There we go!" Gureimon turned his canon back to Blastmon. "Ready to rumble?"

The ensuing battle would be epic on any movie screen, and no amount of words could describe the sheer awesome that presented itself on this very day.

SONGS would be written. Poems would be penned. Great ballads of gallant actions would be sang.

Alas, this written medium is restricted to roughly the same time frame as any animated television show, and, thusly, we must skip right to the plot relevant, critical events that came at the end of it all.

The vibrations of destruction were getting to be too much for our heroes.

Both Centers, Gureimon and Shoutmon, were finding it hard to see through the haze of multi-colored lights in their eyes that were resulting from the sound waves in the core of the Zone. Blastmon wasn't doing so well either, due to his crystalline body.

Currently, both sides were panting heavily due to the long amount of fighting, combined with the vibrations from the Core, but they weren't about to give up the fight anytime soon.

So, as all things must go, we must intervene to progress the Plot.

Blastmon was sent spinning from a punch delivered by DeckerGureimon, causing him to smash into Xros Four, who had, at that moment, stopped to try to regain his breath from the constant battering of battle and sound waves.

Poor Shoutmon lost all concentration and the Digi-Xros broke apart.

"Shoutmon!" someone's voice cried out in horror.

He didn't hear it over the ringing in his ears.

Blastmon must have broken his headphones.

Or knocked them loose.

Something like that.

'Damn it...' Shoutmon's eyes cracked open slightly. 'I thought I'd hold out for longer than that...' He saw the ground coming up fast. Very Fast. Also: Very sharp looking debris in his path. That's no good. That's no good at all!

Shoutmon closed his eyes. 'Guess this is it for me then?'And he waited for the sudden stop.

He felt a small shock...

...And opened his eyes again to see blackness above. "What the?"

Shoutmon looked down...

...Or rather, looked up...

At that moment, Shoutmon realized one thing:

He'd crashed through the ground itself.

He was still falling.

And instead of something mild he could probably survive...

When he stopped from This fall, he was sure to die.

Shoutmon screamed.

~!~!~!~!EYE-CATCH!~!~!~!~

For a few precious moments, Shoutmon held his eyes shut, awaiting the dreaded second impact.

When it didn't come immediately, he opened his eyes again.

"What the hell?" He said aloud, but heard nothing over that stupid ringing that now seemed to be louder somehow?

He was falling through nothing but dark clouds, and any light from the surface above seemed to have been long since lost... Somehow?

"Shouldn't that be impossible?" some part of him questioned. "You've only been falling for twenty seconds!"

"Twenty-two." he countered before ignoring that very odd question.

And failed to do so after another minute of falling.

"Damn it!" he growled, still falling. "How the hell can I still be falling?"

Seconds passed.

"This is Stupid." he crossed his arms and gritted his teeth as the ringing vibrations from the Zone's Core grew even louder.

A few more seconds later, and he passed through the outer boundary of the cloud layer, seeing the entirety of Disk Zone from below.

The ringing stopped.

"What the-?" Shoutmon's eyes went wide as his descent began to slow down.

The whole living sector of Disk Zone was above the cloud layer, Crystalline in nature, expanding out far into the distance, as far as the eye could see- which, for Shoutmon, was pretty damn far at this precise moment- and was the reason all light seemed to be gone, and yet, still there.

Disk Zone was crystalline because it was alive and growing. It had these support 'bars' reaching through the clouds for the base of the Zone- A Metallic structure that- had this been a visual medium and not textual- you, the viewers/readers, would have immediately recognized as a case-less Desktop Computer tower.

To make this rather wordy description fully set the sheer scale of the crystalline part of Disk Zone to it's metallic part, Imagine this:

You have a Desktop Computer tower. This tower is standard size of two feet tall, almost a foot thick, and two feet wide.

Resting on top of this tower is a disk. This disk's radius is 13 feet wide, with it's exact center positioned over the exact center of the Computer Tower.

Now: Take the disk, and increase it to- Randomly- let's say... The size of Seattle, Washington? All the while keeping the scale of the Desktop tower in mind.

Finally, take the flat surface of the disk, and randomly drag it up in places, building stack upon stack of smaller CDs. Keep doing this until you have something roughly as tall as the average height of your average City.

You now have Disk Zone.

And Shoutmon, not knowing any of this scale information that I just described to you off the top of my head could only describe it as one thing:

Really. Really. Big.

A few moments passed after Shoutmon hit the floor of the battlefield and crashed through it.

Everyone stared in horror, even Blastmon.

"Did...Did I just...?" He asked, rather timidly and to no-one but himself. "Screw up the time line?"

"RARRRHHH!" Gureimon lost it, willingly breaking the Digi-Xros of DeckerGureimon to jump into the crystalline general and begin punching his shiny diamond armor. "YOU KILLED SHOUTMON! YOU BASTARD!"

"Gyahhh!" Blastmon cried out in terror as the Dinosaur's fists began raining down pain from above. "Not the face! NOT THE FACEEEE!"

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Gureimon roared.

"Shoutmon!" Kiriha had started running out of their small hide out when Taiki grabbed his arm.

"Kiriha! Stop!" Taiki ordered. "You're not going to do any good by going after him!"

"We can't lose him!" Kiriha growled. "Akari will kill me if...!"

"I KNOW THAT!" The Xros Heart General growled, effectivly silencing the Blue Flare General. "But we can't risk losing you at the same time! Your wings are still broken!"

"I Can still use them!" Kiriha countered. "Typheus...!"

"Hey, leave me out of this." The Air Denizen said. "I'm not stepping in-between you and Hephaestus OR his host!"

"Agreed." The Creative Denizen agreed. "It'd look bad with Echidna if she found out we were fighting."

"The more time we waste arguing!" Kiriha continued. "The less time we have to save him!"

"Let me do it then!" Taiki said. "I Can go after him faster than you can if I...!"

There was a sharp "CRACK" coming from the battle area.

Both Denizen hosts turned towards where Gureimon was pounding on Blastmon- MailBirdramon currently trying to pry the Dinosaur off of the Bagura general- Now curled up into a ball and sobbing hopelessly.

"GET OUT OF THERE!" Typehus cried out...

MailBirdramon turned his head towards Kiriha...

And then The ground beneath Gureimon and Blastmon gave way, dragging MailBirdramon down into the shadowy depths below after them.

Quick as a whip, and actually on the Battle Field unlike the other Generals who were feeling rather useless with out working Xros Loaders, Zenjirou quickly grabbed the remaining Blue Flare and Xros Heart Digimon on the field with his Xros Loader and absconded from the collapsing area before it could claim anyone else.

"You Owe Me, Kudo, Taiki!" He screamed at the top of his lungs as he ran back to base. "You! Owe! Me!"

Shoutmon had come to a complete downwards stop. Now, he was falling to the side.

"WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH THIS ZONE!" he cried out in anguish as, once he 'fell' a certain distance, he began 'falling' upwards towards the bottom of the Zone.

This was timed so perfectly that he failed to see Gureimon and MailBirdramon fall through the cloud layer.

Blastmon had been fortunate enough to have hit one of the support beams, separating him from the Blue Flare Digimon.

Unfortunately, his luck ran out there.

Blastmon then proceeded to roll down the support beam towards the computer tower, and, from there, would soon be engaged in a game of pin ball with the structure itself- with him as the ball.

"Whyyymeeee?"he whined.

Shoutmon grumbled as he fiddled with his headphones. He'd landed somewhere on the bottom of the Tower, and was sticking to it like gravity was reversed- which it probably was if the center of the Zone was actually the only Center of Gravity around.

The ringing and vibrations were gone, however. "Stupid..." he muttered as he threw his broken head phones off to the side, where they "CRACK"ed against something solid. With a sigh, he stood up and went over to pick them up. "Idiot." He grumbled. "Now they'll be even worse off."

As he started brushing the dust off, the sound of screaming began to filter in from above...Or was it below?

In any case, Shoutmon looked up in confusion- Then in shock- as Gureimon and MailBirdramon came falling through on the exact same trajectory that he had.

"What the..."

At the crash, he wrenched his eyes shut and shuddered at the sound of crunching metal.

"Ow." Gureimon said flatly from underneath MailBirdramon's one wing.

"That would be an understatement." MailBirdramon remarked as he tried to pick himself up.

"Oi!" Shoutmon started walking over to them. "What happened to you guys?"

"Shoutmon!" Gureimon sat up immediately, shrugging MailBirdramon off to the side with little problems. "You're alive!"

"'Course I am." Shoutmon rolled his eyes. "You thought I'd die from a little old fall like that?"

"It did seem rather likely." MailBirdramon said as he spun lazily around on his back. "I had to pull Gureimon off of Blastmon after you fell."

"Really?" Shoutmon asked. "Weren't you two Xrossed together?"

"I... uh..." Gureimon turned his head to the left, staring at the space beyond. "Broke the Xros and started wailing on the guy like he was a sack of potatoes."

"Huh." Shoutmon blinked, rather unsure of what to say to that. "I didn't know you cared that much."

"Akari would kill me if I didn't kill the guy who killed you!" Gureimon said, fear lancing through his eyes. "And besides, I was the one who threw him at you...!"

"Not intentionally!" Shoutmon protested.

"But beyond that, what Lopmon would do would be even WORSE!" Gureimon's eyes went as wide as dinner plates as he said his next four words very slowly. "Non-stop Squiddles soundtrack."

Everyone shuddered at the cheerful name.

"Don't remind me!" Shoutmon glanced down at his broken headphones rather nervously. "Taking 'em off didn't even stop it!"

"Um..." MailBirdramon coughed politely. "Could someone help me get up?"

"Oh! Right!" Gureimon quickly went to work on picking up his friend and Xros Partner.

A Short time later, the trio of stranded Digimon were walking through the infrastructure of Disk Zone's tower.

You'll note I said "Walking": This is not a generalization. MailBirdramon's thrusters were broken from the impact, and were nonfunctional, meaning he had to walk like the rest of them.

"This is embarrassing." MailBirdramon sighed as he nearly tripped over his own feet for what seemed like the fifteenth time. "Have I really gotten so used to flying that I forgot how to use my own legs?"

"Yes." Gureimon said flatly.

"I'd say so." Shoutmon shrugged.

"Hmmf."

"I could-"

"No, Gureimon." MailBirdramon growled. "You are not carrying me."

"I was just saying-"

"I Know what you were going to say, and I am preemptively cutting that sentence off!"

"But-"

"Soooosh!"

"-I-"

"SOOSH!"

"-Was just go-"

PAP.

The mechanical bird swung about, lightly papping one of his broken wings against the Dinosaur's head.

"Ow! What the heck was that-"

PAP.

-He swung backwards for another strike.

"OW!"

Shoutmon sighed. "Well, at least they're making enough noise for everyone to hear us comming."

Above? They most certainly could not hear them coming.

Why?

Mostly because: A. The trio were still too far down. And B. Xros Heart and Blue Flare were running for their lives, away from the increasing hole in the near-middle of the Zone.

"This Is Stupid!" Kiriha yelled over the fall a collapsing building.

"You can say THAT again!"Hephaestus agreed.

The Zone shook and trembled as something broke loose from above.

"What was that?" Gureimon asked, glancing around nervously.

Shoutmon, who was currently standing near the edge of the zone's support tower, grimaced as he watched a massive portion of Disk Zone's upper tier falling past them. "The Zone's breaking up."

"That can't be good." Gureimon gulped.

"It isn't." MailBirdramon began. "Zones are inherently stable thanks to the Code Crown. Even if you were to split one in half, it would remain together."

"Like Heaven Zone." Shoutmon noted. "Broke apart and still stayed one Zone."

"Yes." MailBirdramon nodded. "To have a zone begin disintegrating like this would require a lot of energy."

"Maybe not." Shoutmon began. "Look around us."

The Blue Flare digimon did so, Noting the abandoned buildings and street ways that they were navigating upwards.

"Yeah?" Gureimon asked. "What about it?"

"I noticed when I was falling." Shoutmon continued. "All of Disk Zone's surface area looks like it's grown out of the top." he clenched one of his fists and put the open hand on top of it, making a rough mock-up of the Zone itself. "What if Disk Zone's living population began building this CD town over the top of the original Zone, and left the lower sections for ruin for the more open upper sections."

"Why would they do that, though?" MailBirdramon asked. "Abandoning ones town is a strange thing."

"Space, maybe?" Shoutmon gestured around. "The buildings so far have been increasing in size as we climb up. Maybe they ran out of room down here, and started growing more above?"

"Disk Zone does have a large population." Gureimon remarked. "Larger than most, actually. I think Kiriha's had a hard time fitting all of them into the Xros Loader."

"So the Zone population out grew their space." Shoutmon began putting the pieces together. "That means that whatever is causing the upper space to degrade is specifically designed for the upper section; and it also means that the upper section isn't properly considered a part of it by the Code Crown, or else it wouldn't even be collapsing!"

"That's good and all, but..." Gureimon said. "What do we do about it?"

"We find what's causing the upper section to collapse and stop it." MailBirdramon said grimly. "Even if we die trying."

"Heh." Shoutmon smirked slightly. "Sounds like a plan."

Blastmon...

Let's get back to him later.

When he's not caught up in a game of pin ball, maybe?

"Heeeelp?" he cried to himself. "pleaseeee?"

Ascending as fast as they could, our trio of Digimon hurried towards the center of the Zone's tower.

And by "As fast as they could", I mean that Gureimon was carrying MailBirdramon on his back- with Shoutmon riding on his head- while running up the streets and alleyways like a mad-dino in search of lunch.

"Unhand me right now!" MailBirdramon protested.

"No way!" Gureimon grinned. "You always carry me around when we're Xrosed, so now I'm returning the favor!"

"But do you have to run so jaggedly?" The Bird's protests continued.

"Yes!" Shoutmon called back. "Now shut up before I go back there and make you- we're getting close now!"

"How can you tell?" Gureimon asked.

"My head phones are broken, remember?" Shoutmon grinned like a mad man. "I can hear the ringing again!"

The Zone seemed to be stable, for the moment, and so Kiriha, Taiki, and Zenjirou were trying to catch their breaths.

"Damn it." Taiki cursed. "This zone is dying on us."

"We've got to stop it some how." Kiriha said. "Maybe then they wouldn't have died for nothing."

"They aren't dead, Kiriha!" Taiki said. "They're too strong for that."

"There isn't a bottom to this Zone, Taiki!" Kiriha turned his eyes towards the boy. "This is it, and there's nothing beneath us for them to land on."

"If each Zone has it's own center of mass..." Zenjirou began. "Then there's a center of gravity as well! So even if they fell out of the Zone's gravity for a few moments, they probably fell right back towards the center again!"

"That makes sense." Typheus said. "Where'd you learn that?"

"Physics books." Zenjirou said.

"Physics eh? I didn't think they taught that at your age."

"I had a lot of free time in the Third grade."

"The Third Grade!" Hephaestus cut in. "Good grief man, how did you survive?"

Kiriha let out a choked sob. "They're dead and all you can talk about are physics?"

"Kiriha." Taiki began.

"What?" the Blue Flare General looked up...

SMACK!

...Just in time to be on the receiving end of a perfectly executed right hook, courtesy of Taiki's fist...

WHRRR-SHINK!

...Which then transformed into it's much larger form the second impact had been made, sending Kiriha flying much farther than would have normally happened from a normal punch.

Dorulumon, from within Zenjirou's Xros Loader, whistled. "Now that was impressive."

Kiriha spat out a tooth as he forced himself up. "What...?"

"See?" Typheus said to Kiriha. "THIS is why I don't get into fights with Hephaestus." he grumbled. "Too many broken teeth from those Smack-Hands of his."

"See?" Hephaestus said to Taiki. "THIS is why Typheus and I don't fight anymore. He never sees the Smack-Hands coming even though I ALWAYS open with them."

Both boys ignored their alternate-selves as Taiki walked over to Kiriha. "Ready to snap out of it?" He held his hand out.

"Y..Yeah." Kiriha nodded, reaching up to accept the gesture. "I'm alright."

"They'll be back." Taiki said. "They're probably going to the Zone's Core right now to stop whatever's doing all of this. We'll just have to wait."

THE ZONE'S CORE_ _ _|

A Troopmon yawned as he and his fellow Bomb-Guards protected the spherical Sonic Wave-Form Disruptor from... absolutely nothing.

"Do we have to guard this stupid thing?" He asked.

"Yes." A Rhinomon said with a yawn. "Now shut up so I can get some sleep."

"I Honestly don't know how you can sleep through this all this noise anyways." A Zephyrmon grumbled as she sharpened her finger-claws with a random piece of metal that had been lying around. "My ears are killing me and I've got ear-plugs in!"

"Blame his armor." Said a second Troopmon, who was currently occupied with a self-drawn game of tic-tac-toe in the dusty ground. "It's vibration proof."

"Ch. Whatever." Zephyrmon rolled her eyes.

The room around them trembled slightly. The first Troopmon said some very un-nice things before stating the following ad-midst more trembling: "I hope this stupid Zone doesn't come crashing down on top of us."

The room continued to tremble, harder this time. The Rhinomon opened an eye. "I don't think that's the Zone disintegrating." Another tremble, along with an accompanying pattern of "Thud! Thud! Thud!" that didn't seem to stop getting louder. "Too Consistent."

"Sounds like footsteps to me." Zephyrmon noted.

"Blastmon?" The second Troopmon offered.

"Why would he be coming down here for?" The First Troopmon asked.

His answer came with a loud, echoing, penetrating roar of pre-historic times.

The Second Troopmon gulped. "He wouldn't?"

Not a moment later, the far wall exploded in a massive, burning explosion of purple flame as Gureimon's signature attack call echoed throughout the central chamber.

"MEGA FLAME!"

Everyone flinched away from the sudden light source as two towering shadows walked through the burning wreckage of what was once a perfectly good Third Wall.

"Howdy everyone!" Gureimon smirked at them. "Hope we're not interrupting anything."

"We're a bit lost." MailBirdramon said rather calmly from the dinosaur's back. "Could you please direct us to the nearest elevator?"

Zephyrmon just stared. "What...? Who...?"

"Uhhhh..." Rhinomon trailed off.

"Should we shoot them?" The second Troopmon whispered to the first.

Their answer came in the form of a very loud crunch coming from behind them. Both Troopmon and Zephyrmon flinched before turning around.

"Don't mind me!" Shoutmon waved nonchalantly as he leaned against his mic-stand, currently wedged into the controls of the spherical device that was the Sonic Wave-Form Disruptor. "I'm just a musician passing through!"

"Buh..." The First Troopmon whimpered. "How...?"

"Is this the part where we run now?" Rhinomon asked aloud.

"Ohhhh YES." Gureimon cracked his knuckles, a devious glint flashing across his eyes and his polished, very sharp teeth, and using only his very best British accent.

It was exactly forty-one point three seconds later that the Sonic Wave-Form Disruptor died a valiant death in an inferno of combined attacks- Gureimon's whirling blaster tail tornado, MailBirdramon's Plasma Cannon laser, and Shoutmon's Soul Crusher inferno.

As scraps of metal were flying everywhere, it's only fitting that a random hubcap came spinning to a halt at Shoutmon's feet.

"Welp." He said after a moment. "That was fun."

"Yup." Gureimon nodded.

"Shall we get going?" MailBirdramon asked.

"Let's." Shoutmon agreed.

ABOVE_ _ _|

The Zone seemed stable, beyond the occasional tremor and distant sound of something collapsing, plus the ringing had stopped a while ago too, which was a good sign.

"Well..." Dorulumon started. "It looks like everything's calmed down."

"I hope Shoutmon's okay!" Starmon frowned.

"I'm sure they're fine." Taiki said as looked around. "Any second now they'll come walking up and saying 'what did we miss?' or something."

"What did who miss?" came a voice from behind them.

As you probably guessed, it was Shoutmon who voiced the question. He, Gureimon, and MailBirdramon were standing behind them all. And, as you probably expected, everyone turned around with glee to see their friends back.

"Brother!" Starmon leaped towards the dragon.

"Gureimon!" Kiriha smiled. "MailBirdramon!"

"'Ey." Gureimon gave a little wave.

"So is the Zone safe?" Zenjirou asked. "It isn't going to colapse?"

"I wouldn't say that." MailBirdramon frowned. "Even though we stopped the device, Disk Zone isn't stable anymore. Most of the supports that were holding the upper level have dissolved, and the view from beneath isn't good either."

"Plus there's the rumbling we keep hearing..." Starmon frowned. "Not good, brother..."

"So Disk Zone is uninhabitable?" Deckerdramon asked from Kiriha's Xros Loader.

"Afraid so." Shoutmon frowned. "Once Blastmon gets up here, it's going to collapse faster than that too."

"That's unacceptable!" Kiriha growled. "What about the zone's natives? Where will they live?"

"We can take them with us back to Shinobi Zone?" Dorulumon suggested. "Just until Disk Zone regenerates, or the Digital World re-formats. Whichever comes first."

"There are only a few unclaimed Zones left." Hephaestus said. "If Disk Zone collapses, it'll be reborn soon enough...Hopefully..."

"Hopefully?" Taiki took over. "What do you mean 'Hopefully'?"

"What I Mean is that the Code Crown was practically fused with Beat Mesa's resetting properties. That the Digital World will be reborn is a definite, but what will happen WHEN it gets reborn is another story entirely." Hephaestus grumbles. "If we reunite all the Code Crowns, the Digital World could be entirely reset, and everything will be rendered moot, OR nothing happens at all and we all go on living our merry lives."

"Also." Typheus interrupted. "There's the matter of where all that energy is going to go when the Code Crown is restored. It could explode in our faces when we put the last piece in."

The silence that followed was punctuated by a distant rumble, much louder than any previous one.

"We should probably get out of here." Taiki sighed. "Before Disk Zone collapses or Blastmon returns."

"I'll head on to the next open Zone then." Kiriha turned around to leave.

"Kiriha." Taiki took a step forward. "When either of us get the last Code Crown, we'll meet up in that Zone to figure out what to do, okay?"

A small laugh. "Sure thing." and with that, the boy walked off into the distance, Gureimon and MailBirdramon following after him.

"Well." Shoutmon said with a sigh. "Shall we go?"

"Yeah." Taiki nodded. "Zenjirou?"

"Right." The boy held up the Green Xros Loader and said, very clearly, but very quietly as well. "Zone Transfer."

MEANWHILE_ _ _| DUST ZONE_ _ _|

A 'Savers' variation of Agumon sniffed the air, before sticking his tongue out in dismay. "Bleh!"

Nearby, his human partner, nearing his nineteenth birthday, looked over. "Find anything?"

"Nope." The Agumon grumbled as he rubbed his nose with one of his braced claws. "Just sand, sand, and more sand."

"Well, at least we know that someone's doing their job around here." The man sighed as he put his hands behind his head. "Millennium's just don't die of old age."

"When I asked around before, the natives said that it was a united effort." The Agumon recalled. "Two outside armies came in, seeking people held in the tower. They teamed up and BAM." He smacked his right fist into his left hand. "Killed two birds with one stone."

"Still though." The man frowned. "This doesn't make any sense."

"What doesn't?" The Agumon asked.

"I dunno, Agumon." The man sighed. "The M.O. just doesn't add up." he pointed at the tower ruins. "First we've got a tower built over some giant record stretching underneath the entire Zone, there's all the weird stuff that's happened to make this Server Cluster's Digital World shatter into ALL of these Zones, and then we've got GODS just popping up out of the sand and dying...!"

"Rythm isn't going to like this." The Agumon frowned.

"No she's not." The man sighed. "Stupid Server Cluster." he kicked a rock. "Why couldn't we get a normal assignment to some repeat version of our world, again?"

"Because you signed us up for the 'Paradox division' because, and I quote..." The Agumon coughed and began mimicking his partner's voice. "Look at this Agumon! 'Paradoxes! No A.I. Can resist them!' Now we can talk Rogue Computers into submission!" He switched back to his normal voice. "I Blame that game you bought last April."

The man huffed and crossed his arms. "If we had a Portal Gun during our LAST assignment we could've just Portal'd that stupid Infermon to the Moon and be done with it! But noooo! We've got to go through the whole rigor-morale of building a ROCKET and Strapping the thing to it!"

"Whatever, Boss. What. Ever." The Agumon turned to fact the collapsed tower. "I still don't see what's wrong with this Server's temporal mechanics! It looks-!"

At that moment, the entire sky flickered with that strange paradox energy that had been seen throughout this entire story, depositing the duo smack dab in the middle of a different Zone, years in the past, in front of a giant pyramid.

"...Fine?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No Comment." The Agumon grumbled.

TO BE CONTINUED!

NEXT TIME: DIGIMON XROS WARS!

"HAHAH! Blastmon will obliterate this entire Zone!"

"One...!"

"For crying out loud! Didn't we send this weed-whacker to the grave yard already?"

"Two...!"

"I Found you... XROZ HART!"

"Three...!

"Faster. FASTER!"

"Four...!"

"I NEED TO GET STRONGER!"

"Five...!"

"Blastmon...! YOU'RE GOING DOWN!"

"Six...!"

"Next Time: Digimon Xros Wars! Shinobi Throw Down! Blastmon's Delusions?"

"Seven...!"

"I Can't turn my back on a fellow warrior!"

"Eight...!"

"Not another temporal burst...!"

"Nine...!"

THE PART WHERE THEY KIDNAP YOU_ _ _|

Togemogumon's eyes opened slowly to reveal a dark sub-basement. Before her were the four infamous members of the Midnight Crew. They seemed to be arguing about something, and had yet to notice her waking up.

The first thing that she noticed was that they were just kids!

KIDS! The main three being no older than she was, she'd guess!

Konata the Togemogumon turned the gears in her head as fast as she could, treating this as a video-game scenario instead of a real-live situation.

'If I could just find some way to get out of here...'

Unfortunately, Hearts Boxcar noticed she was awake. "Hey! Look!" They looked over. "She's up."

"Well well well..." Slick walked over to her and crouched down. "What do we have here?"

Konata glared at him, not even bothering to give him the honor of a verbal response.

"Looks like something the cat dragged in." Droog scoffed. "Oh wait, that was us!"

"Now listen here Missy." Spades Slick said as he drew his Rapier Wit from his card-deck. "We don't want much trouble, we only want you as a hostage so that we can trade you for the Code Crown. Nobody gets hurt, and the Felt get banished from this Zone forever. Sound reasonable?"

She spat at him, managing to score a hit directly in Slick's left eye. "Go to hell!"

"OW, What the fudge-!" Slick fell backwards, trying to wipe the offending liquid out of his eye.

"Why you little...!" Droog drew her signature weapon and...

KLANG!

Konata opened her eyes to see that Deuce had jumped in-between them, having drawn a rather large hook-ended cane from...hammer space?...to block the diamond tipped baton.

"Why are we doing this!" Deuce cried out. "If we keep doing this then we're no better than the Felt!"

"Clubs...!" Droog's anger started to fade...

WAP!

And then Boxcars hit the boy with his Sorrid Literature, knocking the boy out from the shock alone of seeing such flushed hearts and wax lips on the cover, let alone having it smash into his hat-protected head.

"Damn it!" Boxcars cursed as he hurriedly shoved it into his pocket again. "Wrong magazine!"

"Boxcars!" Droog growled. "Nobody want's to see that stuff!"

Konata sighed. 'What a bunch of idiots. THIS is the Midnight Crew that's been terrorizing the Karaoke Bar all this time? What a bunch of Idiots!'

THE KARAOKE BAR_ _ _| EXTERIOR_ _ _|

"Konata?" Kagami, the Terriermon, called out as she wandered the parking lot. "Konataaa? Where are you?"

"I don't see her anywhere..." Lopmon frowned.

"Me either!" Cutemon called out from inside the recycle dumpster, having jumped inside in hopes of seeing if the Togemogumon had just passed out from...something? Meh. Dumpsters are a very likely place for someone to pass out in if they wanted to.

Not that Konata did, of course.

"It's not like her to wander off like this." Kagami frowned. "I hope she's alright."

"Just you wait and see." Dorulumon said jovially as he walked over to them. "She'll show up in a little while and claim it all on a prank."

Inside.

"Oi." Shoutmon put his hands on the table. "How about we do the next song?"

"Hm?" Akari looked up from the drink she was sipping on. "Like...A Duet?"

"Yeah." he nodded. "Cutemon and Lopmon were going to do it, but they're out there looking for Togemogumon..."

"I thought Cutemon wasn't supposed to sing?" she frowned.

"He was going to try rapping it again." Shoutmon shrugged. "Anyways, yeah. Next song's waiting, and if we don't do it, Kiriha said he was going to drag Nene up there..."

"Where is she anyways?" Akari looked around, not seeing the girl anywhere.

"Turns out it was something she ate in the last Zone that's been giving her a headache all this time." Taiki said as he walked by, nonchalantly chewing on a pretzel rod. "Sally's in with her in the bathroom right now."

"Eh..." the Xros Heart generals paled. "Too much information, Taiki." they said at once.

"You asked." Taiki shrugged and headed over to the drink bar.

"Ignoring him..." Shoutmon grinned. "Shall we?"

A slow beat pulsed through the speakers inside the bar, lasting for all of eight seconds before it cut to a faster pace and what sounded like a guitar solo. When it began to slow again, Akari began. "In the mauve colored night, I admire that howling moon, Ah-ah, so high..."

"Their souls that i smell in the smashed," Shoutmon began singing the next line. "and scattered debris, Sooo...Are Shouting!"

A shared breath and then they sang at once. "Two destinies live in darkness!"

"When my hand," she sang.

"And my arm," he sang.

"Resonate with each other, now Shake up! Shake up!"A brief pause. "The soul style of a wavelength accelerating in macro!"

"To protect you to the end." Akari glanced over to her left.

"I can become strong." Shoutmon glanced over to his right.

"Peace and justice are Death of the rule!" they sang together. "The Red spray is a noble blade! When a bond is born, Wishes will be granted! Fight Out! Fight Out!"

As the song broke into guitar again, the audience began clapping in time with the song.

"My robe ruffles in the wind, and tonight I'm dashing again." Akari began again. "Ah-ahh, I won't lose."

"C'mon, let's go without waiting," Shoutmon continued. "When I dance in midair, it's Exciting, Sooo, I feel it!"

"Two Destinies that aspire together!"

"If your eyes..." She turned fully towards him.

"And your eyes..." He turned towards her.

"Could believe in each other!" They flipped their microphones into their left hands so they could grasp each others right hands and shake them in time with the next line. "Shake Up! Shake Up!" They spun away from each other and continued. "Leaping to the Mast, an Invincible Cool Scythe!"

"Here Courage." Akari put her free hand over her heart.

"Will Awaken!" Shoutmon clenched his open fist.

"The goddess of victory is death or life!" together again. "A Blade where a black rush of blood boils! When a bond is born, it connects to sympathy, Fight Out, Fight Out!"

The song went into a solo pace again, giving the duo the time they needed to catch their breath for the last verse. "Two Destinies that share tears."

"When my hand." she switched hands and reached out for his right with her left.

"And My arm." he grabbed her hand.

"Turn Into dreams, now Shake Up! Shake Up!" A Pause. "The soul style of a wavelength accelerating in macro!"

"To Protect you to the end." Akari sang.

"I Can become strong!" Shoutmon sang.

"Peace and justice are Death of the rule!" they sang together. "The red spray is a noble blade! When a Bond is born, wishes will be granted! Fight Out! Fight Out!"

As the song wound down to an end, the audience cheered and clapped for them; and when it finally ended, they bowed, hands still held together.

Outside.

"GUYS!" Lopmon called out. "Come here!"

Kagami and Cutemon came running over. "What is it?" The Terriermon asked.

"Look." Lopmon held up a rag, long since abandoned to the dirt.

"What is it?" Cutemon asked.

"I'll have to take it to Wisemon's lab in the Xros Loader to be sure..." Lopmon held the object closer to her chest. "But I think it has chloroform on it."

TO BE CONTINUED!

A.N.: WOW. This...took way longer to finish than it should have. It's been sitting MOSTLY DONE for the better part of December. But, things conspired, School laged and depressed, and then I got sick first day of break, and then I spent the rest of the month hanging out with my cousins from another state... Yeah. Too Long. But not too late. SO YEAH. If it isn't obvious, those two at the end were Marcus and Agumon. I'll have to go back and check later, but I'm pretty sure I used Marcus already. Back in Ba'almon's past. This is where he came from... Part way, atleast. I'm not sure if I'm going to have him ORIGINALLY come in later on in the Hunters Arc, which, if you've seen today's episode, you'll know he (and a bunch of goggle fans) was in. Not sure what I'm doing with Marcus, or even if it'll BE that Marcus that appears later on... This could even be Marcus from my DATS Rewrite, if I ever get my imagination back in gear and finish that blasted thing. _; I'm playing it by ear for now. Speaking of: Song is one of the SOUL EATER character songs, Soul and Maka's duet one. Mauve Colored Sympathy. Happy 2012 everyone.

_DT