EARTH: A02DBAT
NOVEMBER 18TH, 2002.
TWO YEARS AFTER CASCADE SIDE B.
8:16 A.M.
"DAMN YOU!" Daisuke Motomiya, on the back of Lightdramon, shouted after the van that contained not only his best friend but also several other children inside, "GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!"
The Morning so far had not gone well.
The Chosen Children had just finished a World Tour that saved everyone everywhere from the plottings of Arukenimon and Mummymon, when, out of nowhere, came a new enemy to confront them:
The Daemon Corps.
One of the Seven Demon Lords- Daemon- had arrisen to capture an item called a "Dark Spore" within Ken's neck. The morning had ended with the first of Daemon's Corps- SkullSatamon- had been defeated- and Daemon congratulated them on their victory before demanding that Ken be handed over to them.
Arukenimon had then appeared with a truckload of Kidnapped children and offered Ken a counter deal.
Ken took Arukenimon's deal over Daemon's, and now the race was on.
"COME BACK HERE!" Daemon shouted from above- a massive winged beast whose sole goal was Ken's Dark Spore.
"Like Hell we'd listen to either of you!" Mummymon muttered to himself from the driver's seat. "Fudge...I could really go for some fudge right now!" He ran a red light- sending an intersection into disarray.
"IAYA!" Daisuke shouted as Lightdramon quickly ducked and weaved between the cars. "Watch it you goof ball!"
"Grr..!" Lightdramon snarled- but then glanced up as a shadow flew over head, "Eh?"
*cue "G12 CHECKER FLAG!" (Instrumental)*
Daemon glanced up as well- blinking in surprise as the shadow dwarfed even him. "What the-!?"
Suddenly- The shadow descended before anyone could realize what was happening and then-
CLANG!
A giant metal claw grabbed onto the truck and began pulling its target upwards as none other than SpaceTrailmon began ascending up up and away.
"HEY WHAT THE HELL!?" Mummymon shouted in surprise. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?"
And then the Trailmon leveled out and spun around to face the ones who were chasing after the truck.
The front hatch way was open, and a single person stood on the ramp- holding a massive Microphone stand in both hands as he spoke into it- a smirk on his face.
"Who You ask? I thought I'd never hear that again!"
Everyone came to a halt as the form of a girl stepped out next to the boy- an identical smirk on her face, and a similar Microphone stand in hand.
"Why, we used to answer that every day for a whole year!"
"THE MON WHO BECAME KING!" The boy pointed to the skies, "SHOUTMON!"
"THE GIRL WHO BECAME QUEEN!" the girl mirrored the boy's point. "AKARI HINOMOTO!"
And as they said that- giant circular gateways ripped themselves open behind the SpaceTrailmon, and massive forms emerged through those gates- Omegamon, Imeprialdramon Fighter Mode, ShineGreymon Burst Mode, MetalGureimon- followed by the smaller forms- KinGRavemon, Gallantmon, Sakuyamon, Susanoomon, BlackWarGreymon- and all of them stood in the air as the individual gates began forming into one massive one behind them- growing and solidifying into a massive, oval spatial rupture that stretched a mile from the ground into the sky.
"ENGRAVE IT ON YOUR HEARTS!" everyone shouted at once- and Daisuke stared up at them as the roar echoed through the world. "OUR NAME IS... XROS HEART!"
And then- I kid you not- a Wizardmon cast a massive, ethereal flag, with the Xros Heart United Interdimensional Army logo on it, right behind them.
"W-" Mummymon sputtered in surprise- "Xros Heart!? What kind of a lame name is that su-"
A massive gust of wind cut the Mummy off as a single, blue robed form floated down off of MetalGureimon's back to take the forefront of the group- coming to an easy perch on top of the SpaceTrailmon's head.
"Now now!" the boy said as he pulled his hood off, allowing his blond hair to flow in the wind epic-ly behind him, "No need to get any closer. You won't be getting through that wall."
Even Daemon- who had continued on his approach despite the sudden temporal rift that had appeared before him- was stopped by the sudden wall of wind that kept anyone from getting close to them. "W...What kind of power is this?!" Daemon sputtered in surprise. "Where did such a formidable army of Digimon come from!?"
Kiriha Amano- and also the Denizen Typheus- laughed. "You really don't know? Maybe we should reiterate that for you."
Daisuke blinked at the sudden voice change even as his fellow team-mates fell into line behind him.
"Who the heck are they!?" Takeru Takaishi shouted in surprise.
"Let's spell it out for them then!" Shoutmon smirked.
"Is that another Imperialdramon?!" Miyako Inoue stared up at that familiar form.
"I do believe they haven't engraved it on their hearts yet," Akari smirked as well.
"Where did they all come from?" Iori Hida stared up at the gathered army before them, "And what is that massive rift behind them for?"
"SO {SPELL! IT! OUT!}" Shoutmon roared as a burst of flame began tracing a set of letters into the wind wall that Kiriha had made.
W...E...!
A...R...E...!
X...R...O...S...!
H...E...A...R...T...!
It was summarily written before them all- as such and thusly- leaving everyone staring at the display in awe, shock, and confusion.
"I've got to hand it to them," Hikari Yagami said with a secretive smile on her face, "they've got some style, don't they?"
"SOOOO BASICALLY!" Shoutmon rolled his arms through the air dramatically- "What we've got here is your standard hostage situation! Creepymon!" Daemon looked indignant at that name as Shoutmon and Akari pointed dramatically at him. "We Have Your Dark Spores. Yes, we know what those are, and No, we don't particularly care if you get your grimy little hands on them. You! Mummy!"
"Who?" Mummymon glanced around in surprise, having thought he couldn't have been seen at that dramatic angle. "Me?!"
"Yes! You!" Shoutmon continued on, "We have you guys hostage! Basically, everyone in the truck there? Stay very very still, as completely still as possible, and you guys don't get dropped a thousand billion miles into the cretaceous period. Got it?"
"Gulp!" Mummymon gulped, "Yes sir...!"
"AAAAND FINALLY!" Shoutmon turned towards Daisuke and the rest of his team on the ground below. "You guys! Inside this truck are some very important people as I've come to understand it."
"Give us back Ken right now!" Miyako shouted.
"Sorry," Akari saluted politely. "We can't do that right now."
"Basically?" Shoutmon repeated the word for the third time that demonstration, "You guys want what's in this truck, you're going to follow us through it! Hell, you guys were going to follow us through it just because Daemon was going to play English and decide to leap frog through our portal just as soon as we all passed through it. Isn't that right, Creepymon?"
"AGAIN WITH THAT NICKNAME!" Daemon snarled in anger, "You just used my name properly once! Let it go would you!?"
"Yeah, no," Akari smirked. "That's not going to happen."
"It's so true though," Hikari said, which brought Takeru and Miyako's attention to her. "We were going in after them anyways."
"SO!" Shoutmon grinned, "With that said and done, Let's get this show on the road, shall we?"
"Aye aye, Cap'n!" Came Rina's voice through Space-Trailmon's speakers next. "All about and taking us in!"
And as she said that- the SpaceTrailmon began turning around, and as it did, all the other Digimon in the air began reversing into the open rift behind them.
"Let's go!" Hikari shouted- and began running for the rift.
"Hikari-chan!" Takeru called out in surprise.
"She's right!" Daisuke shouted, "Let's go, Lightdramon!"
"OAH!" Lightdramon nodded in agreement, and began running for the open rift.
Daemon waited until just the moment after he felt the wind barrier disappear before rushing towards the rift. "I WILL NOT LET THEM BEST ME!"
And soon- moments later- everyone had passed through the rift- which remained open for just a few more seconds before zipping closed and blinking out of existence.
Meanwhile- staring witness to all of this- was the entire world.
Suddenly, everyone in the world understood jack shit about anything.
The screen cuts to black, and moments later, a simple text title card appears on the screen.
DIGIMON XROS WARS
VS.
DIGIMON ADVENTURE 02
[end at 1:48]
Quite simply put- Ken Ichijouji had no clue what had just happened.
But- on the plus side- neither did Arukenimon nor her mysterious employer "Oikawa."
"Who is Xros Heart?" Kids were asking, "Did they save us?" "What's going on...?" "Are we really in danger now?"
"This wasn't part of your plan, was it, Oikawa?" Ken ventured a guess. The man snarled uncontrollably. That would be a yes. "Whoever just took this truck, it wasn't someone who factored into your calculations, was it?"
"S-Shut up!" Arukenimon's temper flared- ah, stuttering, Ken noted, she probably had no clue what was going on either. "W-we have everything under control!"
"Really now?"
Suddenly- the back door to the truck opened wide- flooding the dark interior with light.
The crimson, heavily armored form of OmegaShoutmon smirked at them once their eyes adjusted, "Funny, I always though the definition of 'under control' was 'being on top of the situation and holding all the cards', not 'being the ones holding kids hostage NOW being held hostage themselves'."
Shoutmon took a few steps back, revealing the landscape they were in now.
A wide open, blue skies endless, green grass ankle tall, field that stretched on for miles.
The only thing that stuck out was a large train- Locomon.
"You kids are going to board that train and take it back home to your parents now," OmegaShoutmon said simply, "everyone else is required to stay here for the time being." Oikawa smirked ever so slightly until the King continued. "Oh, and we'll be removing those Dark Spores before they sprout. We don't want any nasty surprises rearing their ugly flowered heads in the future, now do we?"
The stress on those particular words made Arukenimon's temper flare, "Just who the hell do you think you are, bossing us around like this!?"
"Ch," The King scowled, "watch the language, lady! Don't you realize that there are some five-year-olds among these kids you've so 'oh so cleverly' kidnapped?" He stressed that fact- "Five Year Old Kids who should be at home tucked away in bed dreaming of Christmas morning, not stuck away in a dark van being toted around as leverage for your dark and utterly pointless schemes."
Ken opened his mouth to speak.
"And as for that question of who I think I am?" OmegaShoutmon laughed. "I couldn't even count the number of times that line has popped up over the years." He smirked, "It's simple. I'm the King of a Digital World that somebody got really, really mad by blowing up their child world."
"King..." Oikawa frowned- gears turning within his head.
"Now get along, kiddies," OmegaShoutmon turned a bit more to point at the train, "your ride's waiting."
"Don't even-" Oikawa suddenly found that the kids had rushed out- not for the train, no, but instead to take a look up at the rather alien sky above and behind the truck.
"Oh wow!" a kid cried out, "Three moons!"
"Red pink and yellow...!" Another kid cooed. "That's so cool!"
"We really did move across dimensions!" a third kid gawked.
"Take your time, kids," Shoutmon laughed, "just not too much time. Train's got a schedule to keep, after all."
Ken stared at the armored figure- and then took a step out onto the field out of the train, Arukenimon and Oikawa were too afraid to move at this point, and as Ken heard the doors slam shut behind him, he was happy to leave them rot in the truck.
"You're not from around here," Ken deduced as the crimson armored digimon shrunk down into a smaller, human form.
"No, we're not," Shoutmon said simply as he started walking towards the train, "and the less you know the better."
"Why go to such elaborate lengths?" Ken asked as he chased after the King, "You could have just grabbed the truck and left."
"Daemon was chasing you," Shoutmon explained as he stopped to let a kid run past him. "We had to put on a big show to make his ego hurt enough to want to go through an unknown portal."
"What about the others?" Ken asked, "Daisuke and the others?"
"They'll be joining us in a while," Shoutmon laughed, "or rather, we'll be joining them."
"Huh?" Ken frowned.
"We jumped dimensions mid transition," Shoutmon explained, "to get the kids to safety. Once they're on the train and heading back to their world, we'll take flight again and meet everyone in the dimension the portal actually lead to."
"And then what?" Ken asked.
There was a moment of silence, and then Shoutmon chuckled, "What else?"
Mummymon gulped as a certain Vmon named Rock kept a leveled shotgun straight at his face. "Don't move," he'd been told.
Mummymon, contrary to what most people believed, was not an idiot.
He knew these people were unknowns and their skill level and powers were doubly unknown.
The Space Ship had even VANISHED once the Truck had been put down onto the ground.
Who knew what other powers they had at their disposal.
"So, um..." He tried to ask if he could have some water.
Rock simply pumped the shotgun.
Mummymon fell silent, instead, he turned his one good eye towards the side mirror, through which he could see a distant Ken talking to a distant boy- the King Shoutmon.
It was an odd experience- dimension hopping- and it was one he never hoped to repeat ever again...but he could read lips..sort of...and the words he barely made out from Shoutmon was that...that they'd be rejoining someone else somewhere else?
...Mummymon with-held the urge to sigh. That meant another dimensional jump.
He heard Arukenimon and Oikawa arguing through the back wall of the truck.
"We have to fight them off!" His beloved insisted.
"With the ability to move dimensions? Surely you felt it even from within here." Oikawa grumbled. "We are in an unknown place. An unknown time...But that King...he said he rules another Digital World. That means a place other than the one we've been attempting to influence for all this time."
"Our work with the Destiny Stones..." Arukenimon realized, "it drew them to us!?"
"Perhaps, But even so..."
Mummymon lost track of the conversation as Rock stomped her foot, "Hey!" She snarled, "No heat tilting!"
"Y-Yes, ma'am!" Mummymon straightened his head out immediately.
"Will we get to meet you again, mister Ichijouji?" A kid asked from the train car.
"One day, of course," Ken nodded in agreement.
"BYEEE!" The train car full of kids cried out as they began pulling away from the improvised stop.
Ken turned to watch as the train accelerated down the straight track to what he didn't know was 88 Miles Per Hour where it sparked blue on the front and then exploded away into twin trails of fire that streaked out for quite a ways before vanishing with an all too familiar sound of:
BAM BAM BAM! PCHOOOOOOOO!
Ken stared after it for a few moments- from the nonchalant reaction Shoutmon had given, evidently that was what had been supposed to happen and that the kids would be safe. That assumption- plus the fact that he'd seen something similar in a movie once- allowed Ken to only show the briefest look of shock on his face before returning to the calm mask he'd had on throughout this entire conversation with Shoutmon.
"So now we go join them back in the other dimension?" Ken asked.
"That we do." Shoutmon turned towards an empty bit of field and said, "Follow me."
Ken watched in awe as they took to the skies from the ground- carrying a truck containing only three bad guys within beneath them.
And then- they accelerated.
He watched as the girl- Rina- expertly moved a lever forward and kept an eye on a digital readout of the speed.
It didn't take long for a space ship to reach 88 Miles Per Hour, after all.
A flurry of blue sparks washed over the front display and then...
BAM BAM BAM!
There was a flash of light-
PCHOOO!
-And then they were suddenly racing out over the same city they'd left not an hour before.
There was something subtly different- however.
The city was quite thoroughly ruined- at the hands of the massive beast VenomMyotismon, who was roaring as he rampaged across Odaiba unchecked.
"August 7th, 1999," Rina read off of a display, "Five-Forty-Five P.M., Dimensional coordinates Earth: ADV1B10DTL816."
Moments later- the rift opened behind them commenced, and then the massive army that had fled through the gateway on Ken's Earth.
"ALRIGHT!" Imperialdramon shouted, "You know what to do!"
"RIGHT!" The other Digimon roared in agreement- and took off towards VenomMyotismon.
"Set us down close to the street and drop the truck," Shoutmon ordered, "they'll realize where they are soon enough."
"Gotcha," Rina nodded, and pressed the button to release the clamp.
"Cargo to Bridge, hook has been released!" Akari's voice came over the radio.
"Copy Cargo, payload is away and we are on route towards target," Shoutmon spoke into it in confirmation, "bridge out."
Mummymon gulped as he watched the massive army of Mega Level Digimon lay the smack down upon VenomMyotismon.
"POSITRON LASER!" Imperialdramon roared and launched a stream of energy from his laser launcher.
"GIGA DESTROYER!" MetalGureimon launched a barrage of blasts.
"GARURU CANNON!" Omegamon shouted as he fired his cannon.
"SHIELD OF THE JUST!" Gallantmon fired off a beam of energy from his shield.
"DEATH THE CANNON!" Beelzebmon shouted and activated his cannon- blasting ten blasts in a row.
"TERRA DESTROYER!" BlackWarGreymon threw a sphere of red fire.
Mummymon watched as all those high powered digimon attacked and attacked against VenomMyotismon almost in shock- all of those powerful Digimom, and the beast was still standing?
So absorbed in watching the fight was he that he failed to notice that his truck was actually in free fall.
THUD-SQUEEK.
He bounced a bit in his seat, and Arukenimon shouted from inside, "What's going on out there!?"
Mummymon watched as the SpaceTrailmon continued towards the battle above them, and then he realized rather suddenly- They had been let go!
Quickly- Mummymon scrambled to the back of the truck and began furiously working at the recently added padlock that kept the doors closed.
"Just a moment, love!" he called out, "I'll have you out of there in a jiffy!"
"You got them to drop us?" Arukenimon asked in surprise, and it made him fumble in surprise.
"Er-Yes! Yes I did!" Mummymon smiled with delight as his fumble managed to break the lock, he pulled the door open and grinned at Arukenimon and Oikawa.
"I don't know how you did it, but you've certainly proven your worth today," Arukenimon smiled back at Mummymon as he helped her down the quick jump to the ground. "Now let's get out of here before they come around again."
As Oikawa climbed down out of the car, he heard VenomMyotismon roar in the background, and it made his eyes widen in shock.
"Just what the hell is going on out here?" Arukenimon frowned as she turned around to look at the source of the commotion...her eyes widened beneath her glasses as she spotted the source and uttered a simple, flat, "What."
Daisuke stared up at the scene before them all with utter confusion, "How...What..."
"VenomVamdemon," Takeru muttered upon spying the beast, "I hoped I'd never lay my eyes on him again."
"Me too," Shakkoumon, floating nearby, spoke up in Angemon's voice, "but that fight never went like this."
"We're in another world," Hikari said simply, "another dimension with a different set of circumstances."
"She's right," Silphymon agreed through Tailmon's voice, "this isn't the past of the world we came from."
"But that should be impossible," Iori frowned, "shouldn't it?"
"Remember all the other lines Takeru-kun drew?" Miyako spoke up, "Maybe we drew attention to ourselves with the Destiny Stones being broken?"
"No, it's not that," Hikari shook her head, smiling despite it, "those guys up there...They've been to so many places... Our world alone wouldn't draw them to it just because of that instability."
"Then why are we here?" Daisuke spun around on his heels, "Why bring us here then?!"
Daemon flew through the portal only to regret that he had a second later. "Oh crap," the Demon Lord's eyes widened as he saw the devastation around him.
Quickly- he turned to leave-
"NOO!" Daemon shook his fists in anger.
The portal was closed.
"NO! I WILL NOT BE DENIED!" Daemon spun around in anger- roaring louder than he really should have been.
VenomMyotismon had stopped his wild rampage in the city to turn to glare right at the Demon Lord.
"Stick a fork in me," Daemon gulped, "I'm done."
The mouth on the belly of VenomMyotismon opened wide and shot a massive tongue out across the city- easily snatching up Daemon in its slippery grip.
"GYAHH!" Daemon yelped in surprise-
YOINK!
-Before he was forcibly dragged into VenomMyotismon's mouth in one quick motion.
"Di..Did anyone else get completely creep-ed out by that just now?" Gallantmon voiced his concerns as VenomDaemon chewed on the Demon Lord inside his belly, "Or was that just me?"
"Er. Yeah," Imperialdramon shuddered, "I don't think you're alone in that respect..."
Daisuke made the oddest sounding wail from the back of his throat at the sight of Daemon being eaten like that.
Especially when VenomMyotismon spat out Daemon's robe.
"Wait!" Takeru realized suddenly- "Where are the us of this world at?"
"Takeru-kun's right," Hikari nodded, "We've got to find them!"
"Wait- what?" Miyako asked in surprise as Hikari suddenly took off.
"Let's go!" Takeru shouted.
Everyone ran past Daisuke and Lightdramon- who were both staring up at VenomMyotismon in horror.
Wormmon- who until that point had remained quietly hidden inside of Daisuke's sweater- poked his head up and said, "Shouldn't we go after them?"
"Ah-! Right!" Daisuke shook his head out. "Yeah! Let's get going, Lightdramon!"
Oikawa chuckled as he watched the other digimon float around the still chewing VenomMyotismon. He had no clue why they'd ceased attacking- but they would regret it in a moment.
Oikawa's laughter turned sinister, and then malevolent, and then further insane.
It was seriously disturbing his two followers very much- especially when a grey fog began to flow out of his mouth and drift upwards.
"Who needs Dark Spores when I can just claim the body of an Ultimate Digimon who just ATE one of the seven Demon Lords!" Oikawa ranted as the fog began to take on the shape of a certain humanoid Digimon- and then left his body completely.
Oikawa's eyes rolled up into his head and he fell backwards.
"Boss!" Arukenimon and Mummymon cried out as they quickly caught him.
The fog form shot across the city- straight towards VenomMyotismon.
"Hey! Listen!" the fog form called out to the Demon- "Open up you big lug!"
VenomMyotismon ceased chewing for a few moments, and opened up his chest mouth in annoyance- revealing a still alive Daemon, and (thankfully?) still in one piece, inside. "Reeh?"
("Mommy," the Demon Lord whimpered from the experience of being eaten alive with immortality preventing him from being fully eaten.)
The fog form shot into the open mouth- and VenomMyotismon took several steps backwards in surprise.
Suddenly- VenomMyotismon's body began twisting and creaking inwards as a startling change over-came him.
Everyone watched on in horror as VenomMyotismon slide evolved into an even more powerful form:
"AHAHAHA!" The newly born, heavily armored beast laughed, "I AM REBORN!" He threw his arms into the air, "FEAR THE MIGHT OF BELIALVAMDEMON!"
"Yeah, I'm going to go with 'No.'" Shoutmon smirked. "NOW, TAGIRU!"
"ROSTRUM!"
Suddenly the ground beneath BelialVamdemon exploded- sending him flying up into the air before he belly flopped down to the ground some distance away. When he pushed himself back up to his feet, he found himself surrounded by a whole army of Digimon- half of whom had not even been present in this entire OVA.
"W...Wha...?" BelialVamdemon stared out in confusion as Leviamon floated out of the hole that he had just been standing on top of.
And there on Leviamon's back were the eight Chosen Children of this world, with their Digimon partners along side them, all looking severely tired, but not down for the count just yet.
CHA-CHICK.
BelialVamdemon looked up in horror as Imperialdramon Fighter Mode- along with every other digimon- prepared their final, most powerful energy based attacks.
"Gotcha," Typheus chuckled. "I do believe it's time to restate an old adage of ours."
"There's No Kill Like Over Kill!" MetalGureimon smirked.
"GIGA INFINITELY COMBINING RAINBOW EXPLOSION!" Everyone shouted at once- and every attack flew forward in a spinning vortex of rainbow colored energy...
BelialVamdemon didn't even have time to flinch as every single attack possible was flung down onto his poor, frail little body and his trifurcated world went white with a muted roar of sound.
When the light faded- there was nothing but scrap armor lying on the ground- smoldering, smoking...some of it still on fire.
KLANG-KLANG.
And then a giant metal hoop fell from the sky- landing among the rubble before rolling slightly to the side and falling onto it's edge.
"And that-" Shoutmon concluded as he pointed at the debris that was BelialVamdemon, "-is how you kill three bats with one drill."
Ken just stared at the sight through the window with wide eyes. "Just who exactly are you guys?"
Rina laughed as she answered: "Just a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits."
"Ain't we just?" Shoutmon shook his head and laughed as the metal that was once a Super Ultimate Digimon dissolved away into data particles- no longer able to hold itself together.
By the time Daisuke and the others had caught up to where all the major fighting had just gone down- it was all 'clean up' it seemed.
That said- there were a lot of people standing around chatting about nothing in particular.
"So while you guys go back to the Digital World," Akari was saying, "and fight the Dark Masters on the front side of things, we'll follow in the background, and make sure that Quartzmon doesn't super-charge anyone else in your path. If they do- we'll remove them for you."
Or so it seemed.
"That sounds like a really good plan," Yet another alternate Tai laughed slightly, "we really were in over our heads there, even with everyone at Mega Level."
"Akari-san!" And then Hikari called out to the girl suddenly- surprising every single one of her teammates. "It's good to see you again!"
"Huh?" Akari turned her head, and then smiled upon spotting the girl, "Ah! Hikari! Good to see you guys made it here."
"Woah wait," The alternate Tai did a double take, "is that Kari? Except...Older?"
"I'm right here you know," the younger, Eight Year Old version of the girl said as she tugged at her brother's shirt.
"Right, sorry," Tai apologized.
Meanwhile- Daisuke stared out at this all in complete shock once more- his throat letting out a high pitched wail just like before.
"You know these people, Hikari-chan?" Takeru asked.
"Un," Hikari nodded, "I went to their world once to help them fight a menace called Quartzmon."
"Oh- okay..." Takeru blinked as he processed that- "Wait. WHAT?"
"Oi," it was then that an alternate Daisuke- actually Davis- walked past, carrying a large log over his shoulder seemingly without trouble, "she's a big girl, T.K., let her have her fun." He nodded slightly at Hikari and winked before carrying the log away for whatever reason. "Don't let him boss you around, ok, Hikari?"
"Sure thing, Davis-kun," Hikari giggled.
It was there that Daisuke Motomiya fainted.
An amused Hideaki chuckled, "So they do that here in this universe too, eh?"
A Servine, the second stage of that Snivy that had accompanied him into another world two years earlier, who was curled up near his feet, nodded its head at that. "Ser~!"
Miyako's eyes darted to it immediately, "Is that a Pokemon?"
"..." Iori just sighed. "Isn't anyone going to help Daisuke-san up?"
Daisuke woke up some time later on a cot that had been laid out in a corner of the SpaceTrailmon's cargo bay- standing nearby was Ken and Wormmon.
"Well," Ken said with a smile, "I wasn't expecting this for Winter Vacation."
"Ken?" Daisuke frowned, "what happened?"
"You fainted when Hikari flirted with an alternate version of yourself," Wormmon said simply.
"Seriously...?" Daisuke groaned, "I thought I was dreaming that."
"Heh," Ken chuckled, "Nope, that was all real."
"Where's Vmon?" Daisuke asked as he sat up.
"Chatting with the other Vmon here," Wormmon said, "he's rather happy to meet other Vmon like him, as a matter of fact."
"Yeah," Daisuke chuckled at the thought, "I can imagine why. Isn't he supposed to be a really rare Digimon?"
"Yeah, something like that," Ken nodded.
"So, ah..." Daisuke glanced around, "Where the heck are we?"
"A SpaceTrailmon," came Kiriha's voice from above. Daisuke and Ken glanced up towards one of the upper walkways, where Kiriha was leaning over the railing slightly. "But at the moment? I think we're somewhere near Spiral Mountain's beach regions."
"We're in the Digital World?" Daisuke asked, "Why?"
"You remember what Taichi-san and the other went through, right?" Ken asked, "Fighting the Dark Masters?"
"Yeah," Daisuke nodded.
"Well, this universe's chosen are severely under powered due to Quartzmon appearing suddenly and over-charging them all," Ken explained.
"Who the heck is Quartzmon?" Daisuke frowned, and in response to his question, a blue cloud was conjured into existence by Typheus' wind powers. "Woah...!"
The cloud shifted shapes into an action figure sized version of Quartzmon's chimera form.
"That would be Quartzmon," Typheus said, "he's a time traveler and inter dimensional hopper and is really, really bad news."
"He also has a grudge against us," Kiriha took over, shifting the cloud into a miniature model of the Earth. Then- the earth cloud exploded into tiny little pieces. "We also have a grudge against HIM."
"What did he do?" Daisuke asked, glancing up at the Denizen, "Here, I mean."
"From what This world's Tai said," Kiriha explained, "they had VenomMyotismon on the ropes before Quartzmon suddenly appeared," at this, he summoned a cloud shaped like a Devidramon, "and then shot a massive infusion of energy into VenomMyotismon before absconding to the Digital World. That power infusion let VenomMyotismon overwhelm them almost to the brink of death, if we hadn't shown up to help them escape and recover."
"Why do you keep calling him Myotismon?" Daisuke had to ask, "And what was with kidnapping that truck?"
"Different universes, different names." Kiriha chuckled, "Also, we were trying to get Daemon's attention. We were planning on intervening at that point anyways to save you guys the trouble of fighting him and your version of Myotismon- Vamdemon in that case- when we discovered this universe that Quartzmon meddled in."
"It's a case of killing three bats with one drill," Ken said simply, "Vamdemon was hiding inside Oikawa, and so by taking us through the rift, Daemon, who wanted the Dark Spore I had, followed through."
"Then we just waited for them to combine together and killed them all with one shot," Typheus surmised.
"But why?" Daisuke asked.
"Quartzmon did something that caused time to become unstable," Ken said, "nobody knows what though. In the end, it wound up causing all of time and space to come near the point of total collapse like we were afraid of happening with the Destiny Stones. You're the last one to be brought up to speed here, by the way." Ken continued, "You were out for two hours!"
"T...Two...?" Daisuke blinked in surprise, "Seriously!?"
"Seriously," Wormmon nodded.
"Wow...What else did I miss?" Daisuke grumbled.
"Not much," Ken chuckled, "so far, we've just been sailing over empty ocean."
"Guess it's a good thing I passed out then," Daisuke grinned.
"Kiriha, come to the bridge, please," Rina called over the intercom.
"I've got to get going," Kiriha spoke up as he stood to leave, "it's nice to meet you again, Daisuke."
"Wait, again?" Daisuke asked.
"Past me from three years ago says hello," Kiriha chuckled as he slipped away.
"What...?" Daisuke turned to look at Ken, who simply shrugged in return.
Kiriha walked up into the bridge where Shoutmon, Akari, and Rina were standing around surveying the island before them. "What's up?"
"Spiral Mountain is what's up," Shoutmon pointed at the mountain."And we mean that quite literally."
Spiral Mountain was quite unlike anything that had been expected. "Mountain" implied a massive base and a thin point at the top.
This was the opposite.
A tiny, tiny base, and a wide, wide, top.
Basically- it looked like a drill that was piercing the surface of the ocean, and, in fact, probably was meant to.
"Whew," Kiriha whistled, "that's something else."
"Yeah," Akari sighed, "and it's completely solid. There isn't a single entrance on it at all. Not even on the top."
"So what do we do about it?" Kiriha asked.
"That's what we were trying to figure out," Shoutmon grumbled. "A Giga Crusher from Imperialdramon should able to blast it open, but then we lose the element of surprise."
"And anything inside the immediate area's bound to be obliterated along with it," Akari continued, "and we've already ruled out using Cutemon's drills to break through it."
"Why's that?" Kiriha asked.
"Because we already tried," Rina said flatly, "he and Kaiyumi just radioed a minute ago from trying. It broke his drills because of some energy force shield surrounding the thing. They're on their way back now, but..."
"We're stuck unless we can get in," Shoutmon summarized.
"The force shield would only prevent a physical strike, right?" Kiriha ventured a guess, "Otherwise we'd be seeing it active all the time, right?"
"From what?" Shoutmon asked.
"The Wind, obviously," Typheus smirked.
The Breeze spiraled around the upside down mountain without hurry or rush...
And then it was seized by a blue aura.
The force shields didn't react to the sudden change in wind movements- so far so good...
The Breeze flowed along the surface of the Spiral Mountain, seeking for the weakest point in the shiny, polished rock surface that looked so artificial that it looked like metal.
There was a crack...
The Breeze began to condense around that spot- spinning and pushing and twisting and drilling...
Then there was an explosion of blue light as the Breeze transformed into a Hurricane that drilled into the side of the Mountain.
Watching this unfold alongside Kiriha from the ramp of SpaceTrailmon, Shoutmon crossed his arms and sighed. "It occurs to me suddenly," he began, "that all those years ago, I should have told You to "Do the Windy Thing" instead of Taiki."
"I was busy then," Kiriha chuckled as a few pieces of rock were pulled away by the wind drill and began circling inside, "you know, saving our lives from a rampaging General?"
"Okay, sure. But seriously," Shoutmon held his hands out at the sideways tornado drill, "That is more of a Windy Thing than even I wanted Taiki to do then. The Garurumon Digi-Memory never could have pulled this off in a million years!"
Silence fell between them for a few moments.
"There are lots of things we regret over the years, Shoutmon," Kiriha said after a moment, "that Taiki and Sally weren't here to see Nyarko's birth or be her god-parents is something...well..."
"Yeah," Shoutmon chuckled, "I'd love to see Taiki's face whenever she pulls off her little hiding act with a book or something."
"Heh, yeah," Kiriha smiled faintly, "you realize it's Sally's birthday in a few months?"
"It's been two years Kiriha," Shoutmon rolled his eyes, "I think I can remember everyone's birthdays by now." He sighed, "Even if they have been missing for that long."
"Do you think we'll ever find them?" Kiriha asked. "We're moving on with our lives and they're...they're..."
"Don't say it," Shoutmon countered. "They're not dead. I know that for a fact."
"And if they are?" Kiriha asked.
"If they're really dead," Shoutmon chuckled, "I'll drag 'em back to the land of the living Kicking and Screaming, if I have to."
"So business as usual then?" Kiriha smirked in return, "Heh...Just don't die first when you do it, okay? I think we've about hit the limits of free revivals."
"I so solemnly swear," Shoutmon held his left hand up and put his right hand over his heart, "that if I have to bring Taiki and Sally back from the dead, that I shall not die myself first to go get them."
"Good," Kiriha smiled, "I'd hate to have Akari go through that again."
"Speaking of getting through," Shoutmon glanced towards the watch on his wrist, "how much longer do you think it'll be before you punch through?"
"I'd say..." Kiriha closed his eyes and listened to the Breeze.
(Crack)
"We're just about through." Kiriha's eyes opened, "Go tell Akari we should be able to get inside in a minute."
"Right," Shoutmon nodded and turned to leave, but glanced over his shoulder as he did so. "Oh, and Kiriha?"
"Yeah?" Kiriha didn't move his eyes away from the work he was doing drilling into the mountain.
"...Thanks." Shoutmon said.
"For what?" Kiriha frowned slightly.
"For just being awesome, really," Shoutmon chuckled, and skipped off.
The SpaceTrailmon flew through the small (compared to the entire structure) hole in the mountain's wall. What they emerged into was nothing that had been expected and at the same time was exactly what had been expected.
It was the Spiral Mountain that had been expected to be on the spot- only turned upside down, was floating in a massive void space that seemed impossible to fit inside the drill's exterior...
And, most disturbingly, had been Digi-Quartz'd.
"Well," Hikari scratched at her nose nervously, "that's certainly familiar."
"Ah, yeah," Tailmon shivered a bit. "I don't want to know what even caused this."
Presently, everyone was gathered in the Cargo Bay and were staring out through the open door/ramp into the world beyond.
"Readings confirmed," Hideaki said as he pulled in a scanner, "we're inside a Hell's Field, everything matches the same readings we pulled from Olegmon's ship of when you were in Bright Land."
"Damn," Shoutmon grumbled, "I was hoping we'd never run into another one of these again."
"What is a 'Hell's Field,' exactly?" Iori asked.
"It's like a giant bubble," Kiriha explained, "basically, it takes the land it's placed around, and then expands it and modifies it to whatever the creator of the Field wants. The one we ran into in Bright Land mirrored all of Bright Land, and turned it into a Chess board."
"I'm not surprised by this," Akari said as she crossed her arms, "we got the books explaining this phenomenon from Gravimon's library in Canyon Land. If Gravimon had those books remembered, then Quartzmon would know of it by extension since they were working together."
"There's still something off about this," Davis frowned, "I get that you could turn the Digital World into Spiral Mountain, but why Digi-Quartz it?"
"What does it matter?" This universe's Tai asked, "Shouldn't we go in and beat the Dark Masters already?"
"It feels like a trap to me," Takato spoke up. "Or a 'Taunt,' maybe is a better word?"
"Yeah," Shoutmon nodded, "I get that feeling too." He frowned, "Quartzmon's taunting us with this. He's basically daring us to come in and risk a repeat of our Earth. Damn that bastard."
"Unless," Akari ventured a guess, "we're in Quartzmon's past before he came to our world and started messing with everything? Maybe this is a trial run for him?"
"That doesn't make sense though," Typheus countered. "Where else would he get the Hell's Field from?"
"Good point," Shoutmon frowned, then turned to everyone in the cargo bay. "Alright, here's what we're going to do."
The Four Dark Masters stood in their observatory, watching the tiny SpaceTrailmon make it's approach towards their Spiral Mountain.
Machinedramon- Puppetmon- MetalSeadramon- Piedmon- all held their thoughts on the inevitable approach silent.
This was expected by their employer- the flaw that had allowed them to drill in had been deliberately placed.
Piedmon's neutral face twisted into a smile.
"Let the games begin."
TO BE CONTINUED.
IN: X0VA-5: DIGIMON XROS WARS VS. DIGIMON ADVENTURE
A.N.: It's a short one, and also one of the most quickly written X0VAs thus far...but it's also an actually CONTINUED one! The first of the remaining X0VAs that shares a continuing plot line! The Story resumes in X0VA-5! W00T!