THE LAGANN CLUSTER_ _ _| CRATER Z0NE_ _ _|
It was a dark and stormy night. Many failed to realize how important this storm would be however, due to the fact that the storm was unseen by the world's underground inhabitants...
A streak of golden light arced in from above- hurtling in through space and the air space after that and then into the atmosphere of the planet itself...
The golden meteor shot down towards one of the many craters on the desert planet...and moments later-
KRAKOOM!
-It impacted on the surface.
A lone man stood at the lip of the crater- having come to the surface to map the safest route up for the trip with his son...
He worked his way over to the crater that had barely made an impact on the dome of the village he would soon stop calling home.
And inside...?
The man felt his heart skip a beat.
There was golden dust rising from the metal wreckage in the center...There were clothes and...
Two children.
A young girl- whose pink hair seemed absurdly long for someone of her young age- had her arms tightly wrapped around the body of the young boy next to her- his hair was short and yet burned with the fires of the sun itself.
And they were absolutely tiny in those massive clothes that were lying on the metal wreckage.
The man narrowed his eyes... "Impossible..." He muttered.
Mugendai na yume no ato no yarusenai yo no naka ja
Floating through the endless expanse of space were the occasional glass fragments and static bursts as the usual credits fluf appeared on screen occasionally.
Sou sa joushiki hazure mo waruku wa nai ka na
As the camera dove in past the ruins of a Stargate and came to a halt over the heart of a certain glowing blue void, a certain logo appeared on the screen:
DIGIMON XROS WARS
X0VA-11: ENTER THE LAGANN CLUSTER!
Stay shisou na imeeji wo someta gikochinai tsubasa demo
The Logo faded as a shadow came over the blue void- and the camera panned back, revealing a certain floating castle to be heading straight towards it.
Kitto toberu sa...
The Castle Aincrad turned at a tilt- and then accelerated into the void-
ON MY LOVE!
The camera followed it into the void- and then cut to black.
TEN YEARS POST IMPACT.
My name is Gimmy, I live in G-ha village.
As the voice of the boy narrated, we watched a visual of several diggers tunneling deep beneath the surface- hoping to expand their village further and further.
Me and my sister, Dari, were brought to this place many years ago- we were said to have been found on the surface of the world- lost and wandering during a storm.
One of those diggers was pushing himself further and further ahead of the others, however- and that was the boy narrating to us.
The man who found us, our Dad, took care of us for a short time...but then he died, leaving us to the care of his only child. Our Big Bro: Kamina.
As the boy dug with his spinning drill, he hit something hard that forced the drill to a stop. "Huh?" He pulled his light-vision goggles up off of his eyes and onto his forehead- blinking his grey eyes at the drill questioningly.
We all have our jobs here in G-ha. Dari helps with watering and food, Kamina does...whatever it is he does...and as for me? I dig.
The boy pulled his drill to the side and began scratching at the dirt where his drill had stopped. A few moments later- he found something odd.
A tiny, golden drill with a hole on the end that looked as if it were for a necklace loop.
I dig to help the village expand, but I also dig because sometimes I find things. Weird things. Strange things. Things that sometimes don't even make any sense!
As Gimmy turned the tiny drill in his hands over, it pulsed with a calm green light- "Woah...!" the boy stared at the pulsing drill with awe.
But at the same time- that's the riddle of my very life! Dari and I were not born in the village, everyone tells us.
As the Diggers of the main shift took a break and chatted- the wall above them suddenly spat out a glob of dirt, covering them in it even as Gimmy hopped out of the hole and leaped to the ground.
"Oh watch where you're going, would ya, Gimmy!?" one of the Diggers complained. "I just washed all this off!"
Nobody likes us very much.
"Oh look," the leader of a small click of girls said sarcastically, "It's Gimmy the Digger! Dug any new holes lately, Gimmy!?"
He ignored it as he fished through a bag to find a piece of string to tie around that drill.
"You know his sister, Dari?" one of the girls asked in a tone that implied whispering, but wasn't actually very quiet, "I hear she's so clingy she shares the same bed with him!"
Me and Dari are considered outsiders by the adults here- being rescued from the surface and all- and all the kids who live here take all that repressed hatred from their parents and actually say it in public.
"Oooh, really?" Another girl began, "I heard that they're so poor they can only afford one bed! Their Brother lets them have it because he's sooo kind heart-ed!"
"Really? That pervert with the flame tattoos?" The first girl hissed in revulsion.
And as for Bro? Nobody really likes him either. He's the son of the village chief's daughter. She married our dad- but died giving birth to Kamina. Our dad was too important to the village to be publicly ostracized for his being an outsider, but when he died- the villagers took it all out on Kamina for killing his mother in birth...
Gimmy found the string he needed and started tying it around the drill's loop at the right size that could probably be a necklace- gritting his teeth all the way.
I have to ignore it- Bro doesn't want us getting in trouble for trying to defend him. He said that's not what dad would have wanted.
Gimmy stood up from where he'd been kneeling, and started walking through the village towards the house he'd lived in for as long as he could remember.
We're always in enough trouble as it is without doing things.
It was then that the red haired boy spotted his pink haired sister across the village- who was busy trying to turn away one of the village's local boys while simultaneously carrying a bucket full of water.
Gimmy clenched his fist around that drill he'd found and was about to break that simple rule when Kamina intervened.
"Oi, Lanos," Kamina said. "Leave my little sis alone. Can't you see she's busy?"
"Erm," The green haired boy sweated a bit, "Right sorry about that...!"
But thankfully, Kamina still has enough of an intimidation factor among the village that he can get people to leave us alone, if only for a little bit. It's probably the shades.
"You okay there, Dari?" Kamina asked as he took the trans-orange pointed W shades off of his face. "He didn't bug you too much, did he?"
"No, I'm fine," Dari shook her head 'no', "if I didn't have my arms full, I could've dealt with him myself."
"Heh, don't I know it," Kamina smiled.
For Dari and I- we know things...at times. An instinctive memory- or a habit we didn't even make. Dari's been able to fight off the larger cave rats with her own bare fists at times using moves that none of the expert fighters recognized...but she always forgets how they worked after it.
Gimmy worked his way across the village towards his Sister and Brother, rolling the Drill over in his hand as he walked.
I can sense when things are about to happen- on the other hand- or I can tell which way through the rock is a safe way and which isn't.
Gimmy stopped in his tracks, as a vague feeling of 'duck and cover' filled his mind.
Like right now. I have the oddest feeling that the entire roof of G-Ha is going to collapse in exactly...
"Everyone!" Gimmy ran over to them, panic in his eyes as he shouted "Hide! Duck and Cover! GET AWAY FROM THE PLAZAAA!"
Thirty Three seconds.
Everyone looked up when the boy shouted- the diggers especially. For all the hate they disposed on the boy- everyone knew that when he yelled to duck and cover, you'd better duck and cover.
Everyone scattered- clearing the entire village floor in just under twenty seconds
"What's up bro?" Dari asked as she, Gimmy, and Kamina hid inside a small outcrop between two houses.
"Ten!" Gimmy's answer was a count down. "Nine...Eight...!"
Everyone tensed up at the boy's voice echoing through the cave.
"Seven! Six!"
Kamina donned his shades once more with a neutral expression on his face.
"Five! Four...!"
The village began to shake noticeably- an Earthquake?
"Three!"
The mean girls from before cowered together as the shaking intensified.
"Two!"
There was a loud and very audible CRACK
"ONE!"
And then the entire roof caved in as a massive, gold and black colored robotic beast fell through the debris and landed on the forming rubble pile in the center of the village.
"W-What the hell is that!?" a villager shouted even as bright daylight streamed down into the village for the first time in a long time.
The beast-no, some kind of mechanized armor- got to it's feet and shook itself off.
"...It's a Lion...!" Dari said the name before she even
"Woah..." Gimmy said as he clutched at that little drill he'd held onto.
"COME BACK HERE!" Suddenly- another giant robot- this one a brilliant shade of green with a humanoid upper torso and four splintered legs on wheels- came flying down the hole- a giant drill on the right arm pulled back into a punch.
The Lion Armor looked up as the drill came barreling down towards it...!
CRACK!
The ground beneath the Lion Armor gave away- sending it tumbling down into the lower reaches of the village- their unfortunate rescuer followed it down below unable to slow their descent.
"Crap!"
Things fell silent beyond the continued collapse of floors beneath the village as both mechs fell downwards and downwards until they reached a stop.
"...Wow..." Kamina whistled, "That had to be the mother of all early alerts."
"...Yeah..." Gimmy just stared on in surprise. He had NOT been expecting any of that.
"Hello!" A girl's voice called down from above- "Is everyone alright down there?"
Gimmy crawled out of his hiding spot to look up at the edge of where the roof had used to be lying. "Hello?" He called up to the voice. "Who's there?"
There was a shadow that could barely be seen on the lip of the newly made hole in the roof- it (she?) seemed to glance over behind it (she?) and motioned for something before turning back to shout down.
"My name's Akari! I came to help!" the voice called out- "Is everyone okay down there?"
"What are you doing up there?" Dari called up.
"I'm looking for someone!" the voice called down, "Two someones, actually. But that's besides the point! Is anyone hurt down there?"
Kamina got up and glanced around the ruined village- then he shouted up, "I don't think so! But I can't tell for sure!"
"Alright! We'll get someone down there to help A.S.A.P.!" The shadow on the edge pulled away and seemed to vanish for a moment.
Moments later- it returned with another figure- both seemed to be carrying something between them that they then threw down into G-Ha village.
It unfurled out- and then became immediately obvious as being a rope ladder as it descended and fully extended out a bit over a missing piece of floor.
"OI!" A guy's voice shouted out that time- "Is it touching the ground?"
"It would if there was ground there!" Kamina called up.
The male voice swore in what was probably a muttered curse- but echoed down into the cave due to random chance. "Alright! Hold on a second! We'll figure something out...!"
It was then that the entire village began to shake once more- and the small piece of ground directly underneath Gimmy gave way- dropping him down into the pit below.
"WAAAHHH!"
"GIMMY!" Dari ran for the edge- calling for her brother- but was pulled back by Kamina even as the ledge continued to crumble.
"OI!" He shouted, "Whatever you're going to do, HURRY IT UP ALREADY! WE'RE LOSING GROUND QUICK!"
THUD- skip- TUMBLE- ROLL-CRASH!
Gimmy somehow managed to roll himself down that rather steep incline thanks to a random sense of when to bend a certain way or another that brought him to a stop right up against the edge of the tunnel he had been digging earlier that day- although he didn't realize it at this exact moment.
He was far too distracted by the sight of the Lion Armor and the Four Legged Drill Bot fighting it out- with the Lion having changed into a more humanoid form for ease of fighting.
"Woaah...!"
"WHAT WERE YOU GOING TO DO TO THIS VILLAGE!?" the Drill bot shouted with- Gimmy realized with a start- a Girl's voice as it leaped forward to drill through the Lion Armor's tail-sword.
"WHY SHOULD I TELL YOU?!" The Lion Armor roared- surprising Gimmy very much- as it blocked.
"Because!" -the camera cut inside to view Rei Ayanami as she grit her teeth- "If you don't this is going to get REALLY DAMN MESSY FOR ONE OR BOTH OF US!" Unit-05 twisted it's arm- using the rotation of the drill to glance off of the sword and into part of the Lion Armor's prominent arm.
"SHIIT!" The Lion Armor reacted rather loudly as it's right arm was torn up rather messily.
"SEE?" Rei countered, "Told you it'd get messy!"
The Lion Armor was about to reply when the ground shook below them once more- causing the two Mechs to fall deeper into the Village's depths.
"W~Oaaah!" Poor Gimmy- however- found himself rolling down into that tunnel from the sudden shaking.
He rolled and he rolled for a few moments before the tunnel's end was reached- or at least where it had ended for Gimmy due to a recent tremor breaking open the floor open to drop him into the seat of some unknown machine.
"...Ow..." Gimmy groaned as he quickly got himself turned around in the chair.
It was a circular chamber that could probably only fit one pilot comfortably- maybe two adults and a child pilot if you stretched it. At the very least if it weren't buried in the rock, he, Dari, and Kamina could fit in there easily.
There were two compression based levers that seemed to be mounted onto the round track that circled the entire thing- and a few subtler tracks reaching down into the floor that indicated that there was probably some sort of gyroscopic thing going on.
Gimmy found that it was all rather familiar in a vaguely unfamiliar way.
*cue Savior of the Waking World, Homestuck Vol 5*
It was then that the Drill that he'd found a little while ago pulsed green- illuminating the round screen at the front of the chair's control system.
There was a small, cone shaped hole inside the center of that screen- with a slightly glowing green outline on the inside that suggested a drill would fit inside.
"No way...This thing still has power?" Gimmy stared down at the Drill in his hand, then over at the socket. It was then that he had the vaguest thought that the drill was actually some kind of key.
He slowly reached out with the Drill towards the Ignition System- klik- "It fit...!"
[0:18]
Everything on the inside of the Machine's controls lit up with a brilliant green that then subtly shifted to a burning red color as the screen with the drill in it ran through a random sequence of coding.
Gimmy's fingers, still on the drill, then turned the Key to the side- and the screen flared up in recognition- displaying the Xros Heart Logo proudly on the screen before the entire thing jerked downwards as the sound of a drill revved up.
"Woah!" Gimmy fell backwards into his seat as a set of thin- translucent ribbons shot out from the furthest edge of the metal rings and formed a dome over his head-
[0:31]
The entire machine began digging downwards as multiple images and video clips began playing on the inside of that translucent dome above Gimmy's head- flashing an entire 76 some chapters worth of story before his eyes as he felt gravity pull on him like an elevator.
It was an entire story he'd heard repeatedly- one of a team called Xros Heart.
A story of a Mon who became King- A girl who became Queen- a Family reunited- and of friendships forged.
[0:45]
But the angles were weird- all of the footage seemed to come from a single device that one person carried with him. His voice heard- but face unseen.
Then the view would change to another Device's vantage point- and then Gimmy realized that they came from the Xros Loaders! But despite that- only that one holder of that one Xros Loader was never seen.
There was a point where the warrior Tactimon appeared before them- and then the footage all around went blank static excluding one panel- which showed Gimmy the man who had rescued him and Dari.
Marcus Damon.
[0:59]
The feeds came back- showing scenes of battle over a City- someone's home- The spontaneous eruption of a pillar of emerald energy.
Then the vantage points all jumped to that Digital World.
The battles that were held to reclaim the Code Crown- relationships rekindled, people died, victories were had- all of that lead to a Chess Match. The Demon DarkKnightmon narrowed his eyes at the Unseen General even as they battled for the fate of things to come.
The feeds jumped to the final battle- the storming of the castle- a cut of static- and a reunion on a Pirate Ship.
A final plan was launched- and finally Gimmy saw the boy's face- and an echo of sympathy as he convinced the girl to come with him to the Code Crown.
[1:13]
The boy fought off a Death General with a surge of energy and then- Exploded into a brilliant golden light as all of the orange lighting in the small chamber shifted to a similar color.
The Maintainer was born- and the King Reborn- the Demon was confronted by his own army and soundly defeated by being transformed into a Sun!
The footage changed to just of The Maintainer's view- as he and a girl with green hair lived their lives for a year before the inevitable happened- and work resumed once more.
[1:26]
The remaining time accelerated quickly- a boy who would become the Queen's Father- battles that were fought quickly and ended just as easily.
And then- the Maintainer threw himself into the path of gun fire that even Gimmy could feel for just a brief moment- and after that...
[1:40]
The device suddenly came to a stop- throwing open the roof as it hit the ground at an angle- throwing Gimmy and the drill key out into a small, dark room that had a large chest in the center of it- marked by that Xros Heart logo that had appeared so many times in that video montage.
Gimmy got to his feet- holding that drill as he approached the chest that had a glowing lock similar to the ignition system inside the device behind him- a device that if Gimmy had decided to look back upon it would look exactly like a giant robotic head that had a drill in place of the neck.
[1:52]
Gimmy stepped forward and put the drill in the lock- twisting it to open the chest and revealing it's contents to the boy in a burst of steam and light that made him shield his eyes.
[2:07]
Inside the chamber were two sets of ruined clothes- a broken, faded, yellow hover board- twin 9 Milimeter handguns- a set of goggles- and, on top of it all, an envelope lying underneath the Orange Xros Loader whose screen pulsed with a circle that had a drill-shaped slash through it's center at an angle.
Gimmy picked up the Xros Loader and stared at it in confusion- completely missing the envelope entirely as he felt the Device pulse with an energy he hadn't felt in years.
But that was impossible- a part of his mind reasoned- he shouldn't be remembering this thing at all-
Such was the Paradox that caused the boy to faint- sending him falling backwards onto the floor with a THUD.
Evacuation.
It was never a nice word, Akari mused. It always implied that something bad was happening.
For the surviving villagers of "G-Ha" village, that was pretty much a given fact.
"So how the hell did you find us anyways?" The man with blue hair and familiar shades- Kamina- asked with a questioning tone that Akari found strangely familiar.
"We were tracking a signal that was coming faintly from below this village," Akari explained even as Shoutmon supervised the SpaceTrailmon's movements from the ground. "We're positive it came from a device that belonged to a friend of ours that went missing about three years ago."
"Three years ago?" Kamina asked, "From Under our village?"
("OIII!" Shoutmon shouted- "Stop swaying to the left! Hold it steady!"
The Space Trailmon had the rope ladder attached onto it's hanger bay ramp- with the villagers presently hanging on holding their eyes shut tight as they nearly swung into the far wall.)
"Yeah," Akari nodded, "it'd be something just like this," she pulled out her Xros Loader to show it to him, "only in orange."
"Orange huh...?" Kamina stared at the device as a memory scratched at the back of his brain. "I haven't seen something like that in years."
"Do you recognize it?" Akari asked, a slight bit of hope swelling in her eyes.
"Well..sort of..." Kamina scratched at the back of his head, "See the thing is that nothing major's happened in this village in over ten years. I can't imagine how something like that would have gotten into the village three years ago."
"What exactly happened ten years ago?" Akari asked, "We're actually dealing with something that could have sent our friends back in time."
"I don't really remember that day very well," Kamina said, "but my dad took me up to the surface one day and we saw this meteor strike the ground not too far from the village entrance. And inside that was..."
Before Kamina could say anything more- a loud, high pitched squeal played out through every sound emitting device that could pick up on radio transmissions- occasionally beeping and changing pitch and tone for a few seconds before stopping.
"OW! DAMN IT!" Shoutmon swore as he pulled an ear bud/microphone communicator out of his left ear, "What the hell was that!?"
"One second!" Rina's voice came through SpaceTrailmon's speakers as she spoke, "The event log says it was an incorrectly formatted broadcast on the wavelength the Wristers use to communicate with each other."
"What the hell would cause that?" Akari mused for a moment before the same incident happened again- only louder and longer this time.
Rina winced as Zenjirou and Kaiyumi entered the bridge. "It hasn't let up yet," she smiled apologetically.
"Let me see the reports," Kaiyumi asked as she sat down into the Co-Pilot's chair to read the information coming in. "And can we mute this damn thing already?"
"Would if I could have!" Rina scowled.
"Wait," Zenjirou held up a hand before Kaiyumi even attempted to mute the signal, "I think there's a pattern to it."
"Well it is an improper broadcast of some kind," Kaiyumi scowled.
"Yeah, but," Zenjirou shook his head, "I feel like I've heard it somewhere before." He paused for a moment as he listened to the sound playing through, then nodded as he caught on, "Run it through a slow scan TV filter"
"A Slow Scan TV filter?" Kaiyumi asked. "What makes you think it's that?"
"Just call it a hunch!" Zenjirou insisted.
"Alright, fine..." Kaiyumi sighed and input the proper signal filters.
Moments later- the strange sound stopped being broadcast at all- rendering the effort moot.
"...Please tell me you got part of it?" Zenjirou asked.
"System's processing..." Kaiyumi frowned as the signal came through- roughly distorted in places, but otherwise a visible image. "...What the-"
"Is that-?" Zenjirou's jaw nearly dropped at the image on screen.
"It is...!" Kaiyumi nodded.
"What is it?" Rina asked.
"Here..." Kaiyumi tapped a few keys and sent the image over to Rina's main monitor.
"...No Way!"
It was a set of seven familiar Golden Symbols, two of which had been singled out and circled with the logo of the DATS team that a certain Marcus Damon had once worked for.
"Did the system record any part of the other transmission?" Zenjirou asked.
"I'll check," Kaiyumi dove into the system logs.
"Shoutmon, Akari!" Rina called down from the ship- "You're going to want to come see this."
Shoutmon glanced to Akari, who nodded at him.
"Make Way!" Shoutmon called out as he shifted into his other form of OmegaShoutmon and summoned wings- "I'm coming up!"
The sudden transformation left Kamina staring with his jaw half-way to the ground, while Dari, who had been sitting silently nearby- looked up in mild confusion.
"Why is that familiar...?" She frowned.
"What the hell is this." Shoutmon said flatly yet loudly in a rather confused way without actually asking a single thing.
It was more of a statement, really, than anything else.
Well, more of a rhetorical question that was directed at the image that had been discovered at the end of the broadcast.
"It's a slow scan television signal," Zenjirou explained, "broadcast on an old wrister wavelength. We stopped using it about a year ago."
"Most of the sound we heard earlier, though, wasn't this image." Kaiyumi tapped a few keys and brought up a password screen, "Marcus kept a black box of sorts, hidden as a part of SpaceTrailmon's mainframe. I've ran into it before, after he...you know...but I never really had the guts to dig into it."
"You bring this up because...?" Shoutmon raised an eyebrow.
"Because there were two broadcasts earlier," Kaiyumi explained, "the first, incoming signal that signaled this black box, and the second, longer one, that was an outgoing call."
"Wait, so Marcus was the one who set this up?" Shoutmon scowled. "How? He died."
"We don't know that for sure, actually," Kaiyumi moved over to another screen. "I asked Agumon if he knew the password or not, and he's working on breaking it now, but I've got a feeling that Marcus landed on this world, and survived long enough to set up a message for us when we got here, and expected SpaceTrailmon to be here to receive that message and do what he required of it."
"Taiki and Sally," Zenjirou said simply, "those two symbols were theirs. That means they were here too."
"Okay, say they're here," Shoutmon began, "why didn't they come find us as soon as we showed up?"
"Memory Loss? Maybe they've regenerated so many times since they landed they look completely different," Kaiyumi shrugged, "at any rate, Marcus left us a message that collaborates the Xros Loader signal we traced to here."
"Okay," Shoutmon frowned at that, "Marcus set this up. How. Why. And what was in the rest of that transmission burst? What received it?"
"The rest of the transmission burst was SSTV," Zenjirou answered, "but it's been accelerated. A ton of data was pushed out in very little time. Probably video footage or something."
"The only part we could easily de-crypt was the end part, which was clearly meant for us to find," Kaiyumi added, "if I had to guess, the signal was meant to go somewhere to be a part of another message, probably for Taiki and Sally, given the timing of this."
"Which is why you said memory loss before," Shoutmon sighed. "Alright, so where does that leave-"
*Cue MeGaLoVania (Homestuck Vol6)*
It was then that a slightly familiar guitar rift floated through the speakers once more.
"Us?" Shoutmon finished as the camera suddenly shot down into the dark tunnels below G-Ha village.
[0:13]
In quick succession- The Drill key was twisted- the back of the robot head sprouted drills that pulled the remains of the hover board together and repaired the damage instantly- the lights inside the controls lit up- and the canopy closed.
The robot-head transformed- suddenly sprouting miniature arms and legs as it dismissed that drill-neck and got to it's feet.
[0:18]
Gimmy pulled the newly discovered goggles down over his eyes as he smirked slightly in eagerness for what he was about to pull off.
The thrusters on the hover board lit up with golden energy and then flung the miniature Armor into the tunnel it had just dug minutes before.
And from there- the camera shot up fast past it- joining the fight between the Lion Armor and Unit 05.
[0:30]
Rei scowled at the Lion Armor who- despite a wounded arm- still managed to fight well enough to provide her with a challenge.
As she blocked a sword strike with the drill- out of the corner of her eye she spotted a golden light cracking through the ground just beneath them.
[0:38]
Suddenly! The miniature face robot shot out of the ground- holding a massive drill on its right hand as it drilled up through the air- cutting into the Lion Armor's wounded arm and then suddenly carrying it upwards!
As it flailed out its legs in surprise- Unit-05 reached out and grabbed a leg and hitched a ride all the way back up to the surface.
[0:45]
With a roar- the miniature Armor pulled the two larger robots high up out of the ruins of G-Ha village and easily managed to dodge the SpaceTrailmon hovering over it- taking them even higher and higher.
Everyone watched in surprise at this sight- and continued to watch on at what was about to happen next.
With a certain altitude reached- the drill vanished- and Unit-05 let go of the Lion Armor.
They were in free-fall.
[0:54]
The Lion Mech had dropped it's sword- and Rei reached out to grab it with the EVA's free hand.
The Lion Mech's face twisted up in anguish as it expected the next few moments rather accurately.
A SLICE followed by a DRILL, and the Lion Armor had become a headless horseman.
[1:11]
It was then that the miniature Armor transformed back into it's drilling form- detaching the hoverboard as it soared down with a revving drill to impact the spot where the Lion Armor's head had been moments before.
[1:17]
With a flash of crimson-gold light- transformations overtook the Lion Armor- fixing the damaged limbs- and forcibly kicking out the Lion like features that remained and transforming them into something subtly more...Xros like- with a bulkier body, and powerful legs.
The Color scheme changed as well- dismissing the gold and black for Crimson and Onyx- and then on it's left hand- a familiar Sparrow shaped shield appeared even as the hover-board enlarged itself to three times it's original size to fit snugly on the back of the re-purposed Armor.
Tipping it all off was the definitely familiar helmet of Xros Five- appearing in a flash of golden light and slamming down onto the foreign head of the Armor.
[1:27]
With a flash of light- its new engine thrusters fired off- halting it's descent even as it shot a hand down to grab hold of Unit05's free arm- and stopping their free-fall as well.
Everyone stared up at the changed Armor in surprise- and yet recognition.
Akari smirked almost dangerously- Kamina just nodded in approval while Dari's eyes lit up with hope.
Shoutmon and Zenjirou stared out the window of SpaceTrailmon with wide open jaws all while Kaiyumi just nodded in confirmation of an unspoken theory.
[1:44]
Inside the cockpit of the now much larger robot- Gimmy glanced around at the world before him- an endless desert with a blue sky above and many craters below.
But there were signs of life- floating machines- a glowing sun and an impossible to see moon all in the same horizon- and all the people from G-Ha staring up from the ruins of their village.
[1:52]
And among them was Dari- looking up at him with the same sense of confusion that he himself felt.
He smiled at her though she couldn't see it yet- and began lowering both himself and the stranded Unit05 towards the ground.
From an unseen shadow in the cargo bay- A certain orange wolf with a drill tail chuckled as he saw the sudden beheading and transformation of the giant Armor.
"Welcome back, kid," Dorulumon smirked.
[2:04]
Rei laughed up at the giant robot supporting Unit-05. "You've got style," she said as she sent a video screen towards the other robot- which was recieved and opened in turn on the other side, "what's your name?"
"Me?" Gimmy blinked, then responed simply, "Gimmy Damon, miss."
"Gimmy huh?" Rei laughed yet again, "My name's Rei Ayanami! Pleasure to meet ya!"
[2:10]
Akari laughed herself- "So, Kamina, you were saying something about something inside a crater?"
"Uh..yeah..." Kamina couldn't take his eyes off of the transformed robot- "it was something very similar to that, actually..."
"Really now?" Akari couldn't help but to smile, even as the rescued villagers all around muttered in surprise.
"Is that Gimmy the Digger!?"
"How the hell did he get his hands on that thing?"
"We really should've been nicer to him, I think..."
"Are you nuts?!"
"Did you see the way he just carried that thing into ORBIT!"
"Should we be bowing and begging for his forgiveness?"
[2:20]
Everyone who stood in that desert in that moment couldn't help but to feel a sense of that something had been started... Gears put in motion that couldn't be stopped again.
And everyone had different faces in mind for what that unstoppable force was.
[0:29]
The Robots soon landed on the ground, and with that first victory landed, began the start of a new day.
AINCRAD_ _ _| TEMPORAL DIVE MACHINE CONTROL ROOM_ _ _| SIMULTANEOUSLY_ _ _|
Yuu Amano whistled quietly to himself as he monitored the Floating Castle's orbit over the strange planet they'd traced the Xros Loader signal to.
Much like the Digital World before Yuu had seen it properly- this universe had been split up into Zones- although the strange nature of this dimensional splitting had caused other names to rise up in written forms- "Xones" and "Z0NES" being the most prominent despite their pronunciations sounding exactly the same, and yet somehow everyone managed to understand the spoken "X" or "0" in the names.
Presently- Aincrad was floating over what the systems had labeled "CRATER ZONE"- and under a certain crater a certain Xros Loader signal had been detected.
As the first of the new batch of "Zones" it was quickly realized that things were vastly different from the old Digital World.
Where as the old Zones seemed to be self-contained bubbles of sorts- these new Zones had an almost synthetic quality to them. From above "Crater Zone" looked like a flat square of desert with a sky-dome planted over head, while from the side, it appeared to be a massively spanning complex of tunnels just floating in space.
Such was the oddities of this strange branch of the universe.
Yuu glanced over at a screen- which showed the sensors picking up SpaceTrailmon on a return course for Aincrad. He reached for a button and spoke into a microphone, "Control to SpaceTrailmon, back so soon?"
"SpaceTrailmon to Control. Ah, yeah, but we're going to have to make a few trips." Shoutmon laughed slightly, "Be sure to clear a few apartments on Floor 48 for refugees."
"Refugees?" Yuu frowned, "What the hell did you find down there?"
*cue "O'Niell Inbound", Stargate Atlantis OST*
"You'll find out soon enough," Shoumon chuckled as he cut the transmission off and turned to face the three new-comers on the bridge. "So," he grinned, "What do you think?"
[0:05]
Gimmy, Darry, and Kamina all stared out the window as the Space-Trailmon ascended towards Aincrad- a massive floating castle of darkened steel in a void of yellow and green light.
With a loop and a twist- Rina brought the SpaceTrailmon swooping around each of the floors as they ascended towards the top in a spiraling drill.
[0:20]
Those who stood on the balconies overlooking the outside area waved at the SpaceTrailmon as it soared past the various levels.
From the brief glimpses inside that could be seen- the trio staring on in amazement could view towns and cities and varying landscapes.
Fields of winged beasts being herded by people who sprouting wings to fly- all of it was a truly amazing sight to behold.
Kamina finally got his jaw back under control and ran a hand through his hair.
[0:50]
"And you guys LIVE here?" He asked.
"Not full time, no," Shoutmon smiled, "the people of Aincrad lived here well before it could move across dimensions. We're just...borrowing it, I guess?"
"Some kind of borrowing..." Kamina stared on as they passed Silica and Pina chasing a flock of black versions of Pina's own species of feathery dragons. "And you're tellin' me that there are 100 floors to this place?"
"Enough room and more to spare for the remains of your village," Rina remarked as she guided them past one of the higher floors. "This place was designed for Ten Thousand plus people."
"Ten thousand plus?" Dari was shaken out of her awe at that number, "How can there be that many people in one place?"
"Whole planets have populations in the billions," Shoutmon stated the fact calmly as he observed her reaction. "Not to mention the sheer vast number of alternate worlds out there in the multiverse..."
"And our little pit in the ground is just a fraction of the tiniest fraction," Kamina chuckled, "really puts things in perspective of how much our lives have changed already just by today alone..."
"Bro!" Dari protested at that, "Don't say that!" She turned to Shoutmon, "Make him take that back!"
"Hey, don't look at me, he's the one who said it," Shoutmon grinned, "not me!"
Dari pouted. "Mouuu~..."
And with that- they cleared the final floor and began descending towards the landing pad waiting for them.
The ramp touched down on the ground and Akari rushed off as fast as her feet could let her- she skipped down towards the telportation terminal and warped away seconds later.
"What's got her in a rush?" Dorulumon asked with a frown.
"Who knows," Shoutmon shrugged before turning to help with the unloading of a Hyper-space Cube that had been specially enchanted to be able to fit Unit-05 inside it's small surface, although at the moment it now held the re-purposed Lion Armor inside, "she's been feeling weird ever since we entered this branch."
"Huh..." Dorulumon blinked, "Mind if I go talk to her?"
"Sure, go right ahead," Shoutmon nodded absently as checked the seals on the box, "I've got some legal stuff to take care of up here, confirm that the apartments got set up properly and all." He sighed, "Aaaaand then I've got to make sure that those two are who we really think they are."
"Good luck then," Dorulumon leaped away towards the gate. "Later!"
"Yeah, later...!" Shoutmon scowled at the energy readings from the crate. "What the hell is this." He stated the question yet again.
"So you found this letter?" Kamina asked as he looked the envelope over, "Along with everything else?"
"Yup," Gimmy nodded, "it's addressed to you, so I didn't open it."
"Smart move, I guess," Kamina frowned as he looked the envelope over, "now how do I even open it?"
"Here," Dari took the letter out of Kamina's hand and then pulled a small, thin, fruit knife out of a pocket before slicing the letter open at the top and handing it back.
"Thank you, Dari!" Kamina chuckled slightly as he took the letter back and pulled the contents out.
"So what is it?" Dari asked.
"Give me a chance to read it first, would ya...?" Kamina protested as he scanned the contents of the letter over. "...Huh." He frowned, "Well that's a load of help, Dad!"
"What's it say?" Gimmy and Dari asked at once- curious to learn more.
"Er-" Kamina folded the letter back up and shoved it back into the envelope, "Nothing. Just a bunch of nonsense. He coded it with some weird cypher. I'll have to figure out what he used on it later."
"Aww..." Dari pouted, "no fair!"
"Yeah, well, dad was always like that," Kamina grumbled, "so no pouting!" He turned to Gimmy, "So what else was in there besides all this?"
It wasn't too hard to track down where Akari had teleported to- just a systematic leap to all of the usual suspects, a quick sniff to see if her scent was recent enough, and then following the trail once he had found the right floor.
Dorulumon found all of that 'wolf stuff' easy enough to pull off, even in his human form, but he found doing this next part even more awkward.
Akari had gone into a small cafe on Floor 48, in the town of Lindas, that the Blacksmith Lizbeth had introduced Yuu to at some point during the two month campaign at taking the castle back from Quartzmon. When he checked, the owner of the Cafe simply shrugged and said that Akari had yet to order anything, instead ducking into the nearest rest-room.
With a Sigh, Dorulumon knocked on the door whose handle had a red light indicating "Locked" and waited from a response. "Akari?" he asked after a few elongated moments of silence. "Are you in there?"
"Y-Yeah..." Akari replied after another few seconds, almost as if trying to compose herself, "What are you doing here, Dorulumon?"
"Just came to check on you, that's all," Dorulumon frowned slightly, "Shoutmon said you haven't been feeling well?"
"It's just the trip through the void," Akari said through the door- and while he couldn't see her facial expression, he could tell she wasn't so sure about that. "A few others have been feeling queasy since then, ya know?"
"Yeah," Dorulumon had heard of that- of people getting nauseous from the trip from their Multiverse into this branched Universe that Quartzmon/Gravimon had created. But for most people, that had passed after a day at the minimum, two at the maximum. Almost a week after the transition through, though...? That was starting to get ridiculous. "Are you sure you're alright in there?"
"...No," And Dorulumon wished no more then at that moment that his ears weren't quite as sensitive as they were.
He grimaced slightly, thankful that the SAO Game System's mechanics of not allowing sound to transition through a door unless there had been a knocking first had managed to slip through the multiple Dimensional Jumps unscathed. "Akari," He began once he heard her coughing in annoyance, "maybe you should speak with Wisemon or Wizardmon about this?" Or maybe even a proper doctor if he was right about all this. Were there even any dedicated Doctors among the SAO Player Base at the present moment?
"...Y-Yeah," Akari agreed from the other side, "I was just thinking about that myself..."
Dorulumon sighed once more- "Good grief," he muttered.
FLOOR 1_ _ _| WILD BOAR FIELDS_ _ _| AN HOUR LATER_ _ _|
"Wait wait wait-" Dari protested as she waved one of the Nine Milimeters around, "You're telling me you want me to shoot an unloaded gun at that pig with no experience at firing a gun at all?" Shoutmon simply nodded in agreement. "And you're saying that if I can kill this pig with an unloaded gun that proves...What exactly?"
Shoutmon sighed, "It'll prove that the gun responds to you, in a way that means relativly little to the current situation other than that you'll be able to pilot the Sparrowmon Gunman just fine."
"What even is a Sparrowmon anyways?" Dari frowned.
"It's the thing that got made from the hover board Gimmy pulled out of that box he said he found," Shoutmon sighed again. "Look, Just...Shoot the gun at the damn Pig already!"
"No need to get testy!" Dari held the Nine Mil' out to the side, and without even aiming, fired off a round at the Wild Boar grazing at the grass as it had been programmed to do. "I'll shoot this thing as often as you want me to!" Another shot fired off- and another- and Another! "But that doesn't change the fact at all that this gun isn't loaded-" BANG! BANG! "-And won't kill that pig at all!"
It was then that the Wild Boar shattered into Blue Polygons- perfectly undermining the girl's entire argument in one gush of wind.
"..." Dari frowned as a light pink blush took to her cheeks- "Don't say a word. Not. A. Single. Word."
Shoutmon motioned drawing a zipper closed over his lips- then locking it up and throwing away the key.
"So how's she doing?" Kamina asked when he came by to check up on Dari a short time later.
"Just watch and be amazed," Shoutmon said as he waved an arm out over the entire field.
"RRRAAAH!" Dari leaped over a Wild Boar- firing a single shot below her without even aiming and blasting the Wild Boar's HP bar into data- a stunt only an observing SAO player would see for what it had truly been.
"HAH!" With a double fire- she slid between two Wild Boars and sent their polygons flying.
A few boars got the bright idea to swarm her from all sides- "KIYAAAH!" but a well-placed round house kick to the snout sent one flying to the side into another- and then into another- where she then shot those three with three well placed rounds before her foot came down upon the fourth Wild Boar and shattered the HP Bar yet again- scattering the Boar to the wind.
"Woah," Kamina blinked, even as the slain Wild Boars re-spawned behind him and Shoutmon. "Who knew she had it in her?"
"I had a feeling," Shoutmon chuckled, "and I think she did too."
"Huh?" Kamina frowned.
"Right after I got her to kill one, something inside her just sort of...woke up." Shoutmon shrugged, "I told her to actually aim for it this time, and then she just punched it in the snout."
"Ow," Kamina winced, "and these things are just...what did you call them? 'Slimes'?"
"Basically means they're weak weak weak opponents," Shoutmon shook his head, "Non-agro, they re-spawn on their own, and aren't too tough to kill one on one...But in a swarm like this...?"
His statement was punctuated by the sight of Dari spinning around on one foot as she blasted five Wild Boars with single shots. "HAAAAARRRAHH!"
"So..." Shoutmon turned his head towards Kamina, "How about Gimmy?"
"This Machine needs a name!" Rei Ayanami deduced instantly as she patted the frame of the head-shaped machine.
"Uh..." Gimmy blinked, "'Head'?"
"No way!" Rei shook her head and right hand in a dismissal of it, "A device like this needs a name that invokes fear in the face of its enemies!" She started pacing back and forth as she ranted on, "A device like this- with Drills and a resonating Soul that craves battle- Needs a name that it can call it's own!" She pointed at her own Evangellion- "My Eva may be officially called Unit-05, But *I* call him Go-kun!" She then pointed down at Gimmy- "So WHAT shall you call your machine!?"
"L-" Gimmy spat out the first name that came to mind- "Lagann?"
"Now THAT!" Rei's mouth split into a wide smile baring many shiny, glinting teeth- "That is a name!"
Kamina scratched at the back of his head nervously, "Honestly?" he moved to scratch at his nose, "I'm not quite sure..."
Shoutmon laughed.
MEANWHILE_ _ _| AINCRAD FLOOR 50_ _ _|
"Well?" The Watch Maker asked slightly impatiently as he paced the small laboratory they'd set up somewhere in the town of Algade.
"Sigh," Kaiyumi said the sigh aloud as she pulled her microscopic gem-examiner's glasses up off of her eyes and placed them down on the table, "As far as I can tell, it's exactly the same as Taiki's old Xros Loader plus ten or so years of aging." She picked up the Orange Xros Loader and turned it over in her hands, "Every programming quirk, a lot of the scratchs- it all matches."
"And of the drill?" The Watch maker asked.
"It's definitely a copy of the drill from Sweets Zone," Kaiyumi said as she picked up the Key Drill. "Not a perfect copy, mind you, but an intentional copy of it, at least. There are a few details about it that line up just a bit too well to be anything but."
"I see," The Watch Maker said as he glanced to his watch- Just three days shy of two weeks remaining. "And of the machine?"
"From what I gathered from the initial AI scan," Kaiyumi asked as she spun around in her chair. "It's definitely what sent and received the earlier transmissions. Once Agumon gets me the password, I'll be able to confirm what was on that for sure, though." She smiled just a bit, "But anyways, Marcus definitely had a hand in making all of this. He deliberately copied the Xros Loader coding for that little robot down on the landing pad." She sighed, "I just wish he was here to explain it all. It's not fair that he died like this- some sort of play-thing of the multiverse."
"That very feeling..." The Watch Maker said as he glanced over at the framed photo, of him proposing to Clara, on the desk, "is why we began this Letter Project, is it not?"
Kaiyumi glanced over to the same photograph and smiled ever so slightly, "I suppose it is...Isn't it?"
And so the next four days moved along slowly- Crater Z0NE was abandoned as Aincrad sailed along to explore other Z0NEs to follow along the trail towards the center of what they'd learned to be called the "Lagann Cluster."
Of the many worlds visited in those four days- many things were learned.
"Only 108 Zones have been charted over the last twenty years," an old woman native of History Zone would explain, "the distance between the zones is simply too great for most common Zones to be mapped."
"So what happened?" Revolomon, disguised in his human form, asked.
"The Bagura Company happened!" the woman chuckled in surprise, "You must come from one of the Outter Zones, or perhaps even an uncharted zone, to be so ignorant of the present history!"
"You could say something like that," Revolomon scratched at his head.
In the place called "Reaper Zone"...
"Bagura?" A boy named Soul laughed as he helped them load supplies onto SpaceTrailmon- "We're no fans of them here. They claimed to have the highest technology around," he pointed towards the sky where many flying ships sailed this way and that- "We proved them wrong when they discovered our Zone. They tried to wipe us out for it! We beat 'em back and kick them to the curb, and they pretend we don't exist anymore! The current count would be at 509 if they didn't ignore Reaper Zone and our allied worlds, you know!"
"Soul, less bragging," A girl named Maka scolded her partner, "more re-stocking!"
"Hey, she's the ones who asked about it!" Soul would reply even as Nene glanced back and forth between these two who seemed familiar and yet were complete strangers.
And in a place called "Alternia Deuce Zone", a bartender named Karkat and his wife Jade would present the most damning piece of news yet.
"Don't tell anyone I said this to you," the red blooded troll said in a conspiratorial whisper as he leaned over the counter while cleaning out a glass mug, "but even the allied worlds of Bagura Co. don't think their leadership is all that hot stuff anymore."
"Why's that?" Kiriha had asked.
Karkat would laugh at that, "The so called President and CEO of the company, Bagura Mayuzumi? He stopped being anything but a figure head after his only child went missing a year after he founded the company."
"And that's bad because?" Kiriha continued asking.
"Because the damn butler took over the day to day business and basically turned a peaceful expedition across the Zones into a brutal Dictatorship!" The wife- Jade- would bark from across the room even as her furry white ears picked up the whispered conversation across the loud bar. Karkat and Kiriha glanced over at the dog-woman even as her tail swished in annoyance, "What? I say it like it is!" She protested even as she refiled a slightly annoyed Argonian's ale without even looking.
But all that news and investigation was bound to stir up some hornets nests.
Ryouma Mogami- the so called "Butler" of one Bagura Mayuzumi, who few knew better under the true name of Baguramon- scowled upon hearing the news of Xros Heart's persistent presence as they cut an investigative swath of investigation across his Empire.
'Damn them!' he swore internally, 'how did they find this universe? How did they find this dimensional labyrinth ? And how the ever loving chocolate fudge sunday are they getting from Zone to Zone so easily!?"
"Mister Mogami?" A voice from behind brought Ryouma's attention back to the present.
"Yes?" Ryouma asked as he spun around towards the speaker- A girl who, under different circumstances, would have been born as someone named Madoka Amano, but went by some unknown name in this universe.
"What are your orders?" the girl asked.
"...Right..Right..." Ryouma sighed, and weighed his options for a few moments. 'I could send General Guame, but no..he might be over-powered easily given Xros Heart's fondness for drills... Hmm...' "Send General Tymilph to confront them. His mighty strength should be enough to overpower these...inquisitive people should they prove to be as capable at fighting as they are at tearing apart the rumors and misguided myths surrounding the Empire."
"Yes, Sir," the girl bowed, then turned to leave.
Ryouma sighed, composing himself, before turning to stroll down the hallways towards Baguramon's personal chambers.
'Once upon a time, there was a General of a Canyon Land,' Ryouma thought to himself. 'He was a kind, courteous man who always sought to find a peaceable path through life.' Flashbacks of that life as Gravimon played through his mind, 'Then one day- the Emperor's evil brother assigned a revenge driven boy to the General's ranks. Tormenting him and pushing him ever to his limits.' Ryouma scowled at the memory- scaring a few maids who were dusting off tables of vases and plates.
'Then along came a Spider Dragon- the army of Xros Heart. They fought the upstart of a boy and slayed him and all those who dared to follow him.' Ryouma let a small chuckle slip out of his lips, 'The General escaped, unaware of the Brother's betrayal of the Emperor, and so followed his orders- for the Brother wore the skin of the Emperor.' A flash of light- a twinge of pain from his heart- 'And then poor Gravimon was sentenced to the Void of Time and Space by that boy who absorbed too much power- for CENTURIES OF MILLENNIUMS! For All Time and Space- Eternal Beginning to the Damning End of all Space and Time...'
Ryouma stopped to punch a wall- right where a dent had been made from several repeated punches over the years. Nobody bothered to repair it only to have it broken the very next day.
'But then the Gravimon gained a Power over Time- he was FLUNG into the world of those so called heroes and then recruited by his own future self...' Quartzmon-Gravimon-Ryouma smirked at the irony and then turned on his heels to continue on his path. 'He planned and plotted- split himself across timelines and doomed worlds...Until finally...' He reached his destination. 'His plan succeed- and a new timeline was born for him to rule over secretly.'
He opened the door and took a step into the room- "Lord Mayuzumi, sir?"
There was a faint grunt of recognition from the single throne in the large, empty room, overlooking the yellow void outside the window.
Ryouma entered the room fully and closed the door behind him- taking cautious steps towards the throne.
He glanced to the table- the picture was out again today in full force.
The Emperor and his Daughter.
She'd only been fifteen when Ryouma had slit her open and left her to drain out in a river- the same age as that traitor Trompeaurmon had been when she left him to die in the void.
Oh- she wasn't much of a traitor considering she saw what he hadn't- but the temptation of revenge after so many impossible years had been too hard to resist.
He'd taken over as the man's butler just slightly before then.
Everyone suspected him save for the man before him- nobody could pin it on him save for the man before him.
"My good sir," Ryouma said, putting on a British accent to sell his cover, "I regret to inform you that those Reaper Zone upstarts have begun stirring up trouble once more. I've dispatched Tymilph to take care of them for you."
"Thank you, Ryouma," The man in the throne said with a sigh as he stroked a finger across the glass of the picture frame- "I don't know what I would do without you, sometimes."
"Burn in the eternal fires of a sun," Ryouma wanted to say, but refrained from doing such. Instead, he began, "If you do not mind, I would like to observe his progress through the fourth wall?"
"No, go right ahead," the man said flatly as he reached for his glass of wine.
"Before I do, is there anything I can get you?" Ryouma had to ask.
"Nothing but the life of my daughter, Ryouma," And there was the faint twinge of emotion that always peeked through- "and I know that is a selfish thing to wish for."
"As you wish, Good Sir," Ryouma smirked, unseen by the man whose life he'd torn apart, and waltzed over to the four paneled television screen he used to monitor the Zones under his control.
Kaoru shuddered slightly as the Castle passed over an icy world called "Heat Zone."
"Why is it," she muttered to herself, "that some of these worlds are such outright paradoxes?"
Neither Kiriha nor Nene, both of whom were sitting with her at a cafe table somewhere in Aincrad, had an answer for that.
"So out of curiosity," Simon began, "did you ever know a boy in your village named Simon?"
Kamina was completely stumped by that question from this kid who had just approached him out of nowhere- "Nope, not that I can remember."
"Huh..." Simon mused that over for a moment. "I would've expected that would have happened in some weird multiversal constant factor thing...but I guess not."
"What're you going on about, kid?" Kamina asked with a slight frown.
"Nothing, Nothing!" Simon shook his head, "Just an anime I saw once with a character who had a name similar to yours, is all."
"...Okay, you'll have to forgive me because I'm slow at this whole multiverse thing," Kamina said rather slowly, "but what the hell is 'anime', and how can I 'see' this particular one you're talking about?"
"..." Simon sweated just a bit, "Er...well...That's a really tough question and somehow I don't think that'd be such a great idea...!"
"Kid, I just had my whole home village obliterated by falling giant robots," Kamina said rather seriously, "I don't think my life could be changed just by watching this 'anime' thing."
"..." Simon mulled the thought over for a few moments- and then, remembering a similar situation to this that he'd had with Tagiru, Simon settled on an answer. "Alright then, but don't say I didn't warn you."
Lizbeth yawned as she leaned back into her favorite chair from her bedroom back on earth- ganked out from that world during their three-day preparation time so she'd have something comfy to sit in during the long hours on Long Range Sensor Watch.
"Why do we even have long range sensors for, again?" Lizbeth asked aloud, finally voicing her boredom in a way that it could be resolved.
"Because otherwise we wouldn't be able to tell when we were approaching a new Zone or not," Yuu said from the other side of the console as he flipped through a magazine he'd picked up from Tabloid Zone. "And also," He stifled a yawn, "we need them just in case we have enemies coming to attack us."
"Nobody knows who we are," Lizbeth frowned, "why would someone come attack us for?"
It was then that a red blip appeared on the Long Range Sensors- and Yuu sent her a disapproving glare- "How many times," he asked rhetorically as he turned his glare to the roof, "do I have to say 'don't tempt fate' to you people!?"
Shoutmon did a double take when he found Simon and Kamina watching the anime "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann" on one of SpaceTrailmon's many monitors.
"What are you guys doing?" Shoutmon asked, dreading the answer.
"I accidentally mentioned the anime to him," Simon said simply, "we're on episode seven right now."
"HOLY CRAP!" Kamina shouted when he finally got an eye full of "Dai-Gunzan", "I want to steal that puppy and take it for a test ride!"
"Er," Shoutmon scratched at his right cheek, "are you sure this is such a good idea?"
"We're in space," Simon shrugged, "I don't see what the harm in it is, considering we're never going to be facing that big lug IRL."
Shoutmon face palmed with his left hand.
It was then that the emergency alert alarm sounded.
Shoutmon added his right hand to the left- making it a Face Palm X2 Combo!
"Should we go?" Kamina asked.
"No," Shoutmon sighed, "you two just keep watching your anime..." and with that he turned to leave, "I'll go see what this is myself."
Shoutmon's eye twitched at the long-distance image scan of the incoming vessel.
"It's about a day off from us," Yuu explained, "but we think that our sheilds should be good enough to hold off anything they can throw at us, and-"
"Yuu," Shoutmon said suddenly- holding up a hand to cut the boy off.
"Yeah?" Yuu asked.
"Do you realize what this particular ship is- just by it's shape alone?" Shoutmon asked.
"Um..." Yuu shrugged, "No, not really?"
"That-" S0houtmon jabbed a finger at the screen as he enunciated his dismay rather loudly to the entire 100th, 99th, and 98th floors, "IS THE VOLCANO EXPLODING, BATTLE SHIP CRASHING, DAMN TOUGHEST SHIP TO EVER CAPTURE IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE, DAI-GUNZAN, YUU!"
Kamina stared on in dismay as the eight episode went to credits, "That..."
"...I told you this was a bad idea," Simon sighed.
"That was..." Kamina's hands clenched into fists.
"Sorry it ended that way," Simon continued on, "if you don't want to watch any more we don't have to..."
"THAT WAS THE AWESOMEST FINISHING MOVE OF *ALL DAMN TIME!*"
Simon recoiled from the sudden shout as Kamina jumped to his feet to begin ranting and raving about how cool that battle was, including, but not limited to, the words, "Avenged his own death" and "Giant Spinning Drills of Doom!"
"Well..." Simon blinked, "I wasn't expecting this reaction."
"ATTENTION!" Liz's voice echoed through Aincrad as the gaps in the outer walls began to slide closed, "AINCRAD is entering its defensive mode!"
People from all over closed shops- locked up windows and doors- and made sure everything was secure.
"We will be confronting a ship we've identified as 'Dai-Gunzan' within the next 24 hours." Liz continued on, "We don't know what to expect in terms of weaponry or damage output from this incoming ship, so we hope that the Front Line Defense Force will be prepared to take flight at a moments notice should the enemy breach the walls and get past the Attack Force."
Klein's Guild all readied their weapons as Klein nodded in approval.
Meanwhile, Kirito and Asuna checked the durability and sharpness of their weapons.
Akari took a deep breath, and then turned the corner into the hallway where Shoutmon was waking towards her. "Shoutmon!" she called out.
"Huh?" Shoutmon stopped walking at that. "Oh, hey Akari, what's up?"
"Um," she knit her hands together nervously, "could we talk?"
"Sure," Shoutmon smiled, "what about?"
"Well..um..." Akari took a deep breath, then exhaled, "you know how I've been weird the last week, since we entered the Cluster?"
"Right," Shoutmon nodded, "what about it?"
"Well, it hasn't gone away for one thing," Akari explained, "and I really haven't been able to keep it together well during the mornings cause of it... and if there's a fight tomorrow, I don't want to be a liability during it if it happens early in the morning..."
"Okay," Shoutmon sighed, and ran a hand through his hair, "so we'll change the plan up a bit. No Xros Ten..."
"But besides that..." Akari continued on, "I...I went to see Wisemon the other day about this."
"Oh?" Shoutmon wasn't sure where this was going.
"I had him do a few tests...but it took a while for him to get the results in..." Akari took a breath, then looked him in the eye. "Shouto," she said simply, "I'm pregnant."
He stared at her for a moment- then asked, "For real this time?"
She nodded, eyes closed as tears started to brim in the corners of her eyes.
To that lucky SAO player who decided to walk down that hallway at just that exact moment- he got a lovely sight of Shoutmon picking Akari up in a hug and swinging her around once as they both let out a laugh of delight.
That scared that player away rather quickly, as he turned around back the way he came to find another way around.
"Nene thinks I'm not even a month along," Akari explained, smiling as she did such, "which puts us right when we were stuck in the doomed time line."
"Not even a month?" Shoutmon asked, surprised, "How the heck did anyone detect that so soon?"
"Wisemon just did a bunch of tests to see if I'd caught anything foreign from the Cluster, and one happened to catch an early sign of it." Akari explained, "So I went to see Nene to confirm and she thinks it was just the crossing through the void that accelerated my morning sickness to a more noticeable time...And then gave it to a few random people along the way too!" She couldn't help but to laugh at that, and Shoutmon joined in with her, before pulling her into a kiss.
He pulled back suddenly then- "Then there's definitely no way I'm putting you into the next fight!"
She giggled, "I figured you'd say that because of this..."
"But no, seriously," Shoutmon's eyes narrowed in seriousness, "We've just gone through the first seven episodes of Gurren Lagann in fast forward. If everything lines up, tomorrow is going to match up to Episode Eight, and..." He frowned, "Akari, I'm really worried that someone might die tomorrow, and I don't want that person to be me OR you." He hugged her then- "Especially Not you!"
Gimmy sighed as he walked away from yet another round of pilot training.
It wasn't going very well.
He and Dari had been given training for two particular machines that had appeared from his little stunt above G-Ha village. Dari got the weird bird thing, and he got the tiny head. To be fair- it wasn't BAD training, per-say, and it was a lot better than figuring it all out on the fly like he had before. But...
"I swear," he muttered to himself, "it feels like they're all trying to force us to be people we aren't..."
And tomorrow- they were expected to go into battle?
Well- at the very least, Dari would do better than he was. She could at least get her assigned mech up into the sky and doing figure eights on a whim, where as he could barely get "Lagann" to start up without getting a massive headache.
As he approached the SpaceTrailmon's open hanger ramp, he heard voices echoing from inside, and... Unsure of why, he hid out of sight just on the other side of the wall.
"So are you going to tell them?" it was an unfamiliar boy's voice.
"I dunno," and there was Kamina's, "it just seems weird, is all.."
"Nothing good can come from hiding it from them," the first voice continued.
"You've got experience in stuff like this, Simon?" Kamina asked, "That's really what you expect me to do? Tell them?"
"Tell them what?" 'Simon' asked, "That they've been lied to for as long as they can remember? No way. That's not even remotely close to the truth."
"They thought those heroes were stories before-" Kamina continued- "I can't tell you the amount of times Dari come up to me and asked if this really isn't a dream." he sighed, "At least Gimmy got a head start with that whole video thing, but..."
"They have to remember," Simon said, "it'll be very, very bad if they don't...That kind of repressed thing...It has a way of getting out in all the wrong places at all the wrong times."
"...Like in the show?"
"Like in the show."
"Damn it...I really don't want a situation like that."
"At the very least, tell them what was in the letter."
"...Yeah, alright," Kamina agreed, "I'll do that tonight after the meeting..."
Gimmy sat there for a few moments as he heard the two of them exit the SpaceTrailmon and go their separate ways- and it was there that Gimmy got a glance of that Simon kid...
A familiar pounding ache filled his heart and head- like he should recognize the boy from somewhere...
"Alright!" Shoutmon shouted to everyone on the plaza before him- "We'll be taking the fight to them if they make their intentions hostile." He pointed at the gathered Digimon- "Ballistamon, Dorulumon, Beelzebmon, Starmonz, Knightmon, the PawnChessmonz, and Me will be going out as Xros Five Knight, Blast Mode-"
"Xros Five, KB?" Revolomon spoke up then- "But don't we need Sparrowmon for that?"
"We'll be making use of the Sparrowmon Armor Gimmy crafted," Shoutmon explained, "Dari will pilot it."
"Me?" Dari blinked in confusion, "But I'm not all that good at it."
"You'll do fine come crunch time," Shoutmon declared as he moved on, not bothering to fill in the other details of the plan that he'd secretly crafted.
Dari let out an exhaled breath as she sat down into the control chair of the "Sparrowmon Armor" as it had come to be called. It was extremely similar to the inside of Gimmy's own Lagann, but seemed to be designed to support a more complete gyroscopic range of motion, and lacked a drill key ignition system.
"One and two and three..." Dari took in a breath, then exhaled again, then flipped the control switch that would seal her inside the head of the strange robot.
On the screen to her right- an image of Rei Ayanami appeared, grinning at her, "Don't worry!" She said, "You'll do fine!"
"Rei and Simon will be the rear guard, they'll help take down any thing that gets remotely close to the castle," Shoutmon continued on. "Meanwhile, Kiriha, Nene, and Gureimon will flank me on approach and help take down anything in our way." He then got to the second part of the plan. "Also, I have a special assignment for Gimmy."
"...What's that?" Gimmy asked.
"In case the battle stretches on for way too long, you will take Lagann out to Dai-Gunzan and combine with it, to take over all of its systems," Shoutmon explained, "Kirha and Gureimon will then switch flanking roles to protect you while you kick everyone inside Dai-Gunzan out into the void."
"I'm not so sure I can do that..." Gimmy started, "I can barely get the thing to run as it is and-"
"You'll do fine," Kiriha planted a hand on the boy's shoulder, "Gureimon and I will be there to keep an eye out for anything wrong."
Gimmy's eyes were held shut as he tried very much not to look at the grinning face of his brother on that image screen next to him. 'This is Not going to end well...'
"You okay there, Gimmy?" Kamina asked.
"...No," Gimmy admitted. "Not really."
"Just remember what I told you earlier, okay?"
"We're...reincarnations?" Dari asked.
"Yeah," Kamina nodded, "Dad tried to tell you that when you were younger, but...you never believed it."
"There's no way," Gimmy crossed his arms, "we can't be those people! They're dead!"
"Gimmy," Kamina got down on his knees and put his hands on the boy's shoulders, "they're Not dead. They're You."
"So basically you just want us to become these other people you never even knew?" Gimmy asked, tears brimming in his eyes, "To throw away who we are NOW?"
"And what kind of a life has that been," Dari spoke up, "exactly?"
Gimmy glanced over at her, "Huh?"
"If...if we're really these other people, just with different faces and having forgotten things," Dari explained, "then would that really be so bad, Gimmy?" She met his eyes and talked, even though it pained her to say the things she did, "Everyone from the village hated us. Like we didn't belong there. What problem is it if we throw away those lives we were living when we were living lives that we hated?"
"And besides that," Kamina started talking again there, "*I* don't want you becoming different people...but I Do want you to remember who you were before."
"Why?" Gimmy asked, "Why do we have to remember?"
"Because...I need to know that you guys can believe in yourselves." Kamina smiled at them, "That the people you were years ago and the people you were yesterday have combined together into someone new that everyone who believed in them in the past that can continue to believe in them in this new form...!"
"Bro..." Dari frowned, "I think you let that metaphor get away from you..."
"Right, sorry," Kamina shook his head, "I guess what I mean is...These people here...Xros Heart..." He looked Gimmy in the eyes, "They believe in the people who you used to be. They hope that, somewhere, deep down inside, is that same person who they have faith in. They believe in the Yous that you guys can become." He looked Dari in the eyes next, "But at the same time, I believe in the you that you guys are right now, but I also believe in the Yous that you guys can become too... Not really Taiki or Gimmy, or Sally or Dari..." he put a finger aimed straight at each of their hearts, "I believe in the You that's in here. The You that doesn't have a name, but is just... You!"
"Believe in the me," Dari began, eyes closed as she took another breath.
"That believes in myself," Gimmy concluded, eyes opening wide as he reached for the key...
A Shadow fell down over Aincrad's 100th floor from above.
"Daaaamn..." Rei whistled as she craned her neck back to look up at the shadow's caster. "That's a really big deck."
The ship was indeed the infamous Dai-Gunzan from the anime- except ten times larger, big enough to be a planet's moon if need be.
It hadn't even gotten anywhere close to the Castle yet- and yet it's massive size was dwarfing even the ambient light of the Air-Space between the Zones.
Shoutmon gulped. 'I really hope this goes alright...'
"Incoming transmission!" Lizbeth called out.
"Accept it," Akari ordered.
Moments later- the ugly mug of Tymilph appeared on one of the many monitors of the Control Console.
"Attention Unidentified Carrier Class Armor," Tymilph- a gorilla like beast- snarled at her, "surrender now, or face obliteration by the Bagura Corporation!"
"Attention, Dai-Gunzan," Echidna smirked at the camera that broadcast her image back at him, "This is the Denizen Echidna of Xros Heart. Surrender now, or we'll have to engrave that name on the heart of your ship."
"You DARE to threaten ME?" The Gorilla man snarled again- "I am Tymilph The Raging Wave! I have-" Lizbeth muted the audio to let him ramble on.
"Should we send Gimmy out for this?" Liz asked.
"No," Nene said simply without breaking the gaze of the camera, almost managing to look as if she were actually listening to Tymilph's ranting. "We want him to make the decision to join the fight himself- disobeying the order to wait to take over Dai-Gunzan. We can't be sure what'll happen if we try to force it."
"Right," Yuu nodded, and ran off.
*cue DIGI XROS!*
"SHOUTMON!" Kiriha roared.
"Y'OKAY!"
"BALLISTAMON!" Revolomon shouted.
"N'GAH!"
"DORULUMON!" Akari called.
"ROGER!"
"STARMONZ!" Zenjirou called out.
"HAAAI!"
"YEAH!"
"BEELZEBMON!" Kiriha continued.
"READY!"
"KNIGHTMON!" Revolomon threw in.
"KNIGHTO!"
"PAWNCHESSMONZ!" Zenjirou added.
"PAWN!"
Akari smirked at this next one, hoping to catch Dari off guard by the long roll-call leading up to this moment:
"SPARROWMON!"
"YOSH!" Dari cried out almost on instinct without realizing it.
"DIGI-XROS!"
"DIGI-XROS!"
The Xros Loaders in use flared to life- and every component went into place-
Xros Four was formed up for the first time in many, many chapters- and then Beelzebmon added in via stock footage that hadn't been seen in twice as many chapters-And then the Sparrowmon armor's jets and wings attached to the back as per usual for Xros Five- with the Sparrow Shield attaching itself like it had in the X5K configuration long since unseen as, a moment later, Knightmon's shield formed in the open hand, now showing a blazing, burning, Xros Heart Logo on it's front. There was a blast of light, and simultaneously the helmet changed into the X5 version while the Star Sword brilliantly switched into it's Knight variant form, glowing with a blinding white light. All of the Dorulumon Drills transformed into PawnChessmon spear heads while a yellow scarf appeared momentarily only to turn into a brilliant shade of crimson red. Finishing off the transformation, the V Crest on the Digi-Xros's chest transformed into a brilliant, glowing, translucent, pearly white color while it expanded into it's Xros Five size.
"XROS UP!" The Knight Sword swung through the air as the new Digi-Xros took to the air, striking a pose as it did such. "SHOUTMON XROS FIVE KNIGHT: BURST MODE!" As if that alone wasn't enough, to punctuate the effect, burning letters made of white fire etched themselves into the air before the Digimon, spelling out one letter string: "X5KB!"
And yes, just like before, the Exclamation mark was in there.
Dari opened her eyes and found herself sitting not in the control chair of the Sparrowmon Armor, but instead deep within an energy void.
"Should I be scared right now?" She voiced aloud.
"No, not really," came a voice that sounded almost exactly like her own.
Dari glanced around the void, "Somehow I get the feeling this isn't normal?"
"Not for Digi-Xrossing..." The voice laughed, "Kiriha and Nene both went through this though...Never thought I'd be on the Denizen end of it all though."
"Who are you, exactly?" Dari asked.
"I'm you...The old you, actually," and then the image of a green haired girl- four years Dari's senior- appeared before her, wearing clothes that looked like they'd gone through hell. "Sally Sparrow, pleased to meet you."
"So you're who I'm supposed to be?" Dari asked.
"Nah, forget that line of thought. Different Regeneration, different mind," The girl scowled, "Words I never imagined myself saying, right there."
"Why's that?" Dari asked.
"I basically...represent all those sealed away memories of who you used to be," Sally explained, "you've got the power to unlock them now, but it'll be weird. Like you're watching someone else live their life, and at the same time, it'll be like a dream you never realized you were having. You're living in a different place but not at all that different and...ugh. I cannot believe I am seriously doing this explanation thing." she scowled and pulled at a twisted piece of metal in her hair. "Damn it, look at this thing! My best hair clip and it gets incinerated in a Regeneration."
Dari tried to stand on her toes to get a look at whatever it was- and she faintly saw it as something else entirely for a brief moment- a diamond shape with the letters T and S with a heart in between them.
A blink- then it was twisted metal again.
"So...what exactly am I doing here?" Dari asked.
"That's up to you kiddo," Sally winced at the word- "I can't believe I just said that either. Okay, let me rephrase this..." she met the pink haired girl's blue eyes with her own blue eyes, and smiled, "You're you. A different you from who we were a regeneration ago- Me, basically. You can make all these different choices in your life now that you couldn't before. A whole second chance to grow up."
"I have grown up, though," Dari said.
"That you have!" Sally laughed, "But yeah... basically... You've been made whole now, though. That hover board is a part of you in more ways than you can ever know. When you walk out of this Xros, you're going to find yourself doing all kinds of new things." She winked, "Maybe even with Gimmy, eh?"
"..." Dari blushed a bit.
"Now come on!" Sally held a hand out as her voice lost a bit of that odd echo, "You've got a Digi-Xros to join, and a battle to fight!"
Dari reached out with her hand...
...And grabbed hold of Shoutmon's as he pulled her up into the full consciousness of the Digi-Xros.
"Wow, we were afraid we almost lost you there for a moment," Shoutmon smiled, "you sort of sunk into the floor there."
"Floor...?" Dari glanced around the bright world space that was the inside of X5KB's brain. How could they see a floor anywhere at all?
"Exactly!" Dorulumon remarked, "Shouldn't be a floor in here at all."
And then as Dari realized that there was a comforting, familiar presence in that joking tone... she giggled, "I remember it all now...!"
It was like the other her had said- like a dream that could be remembered- another life lived through another's eyes.
And yet the dream was real- here she was inside a Digi-Xros again for the first time in over ten...
Dari paled suddenly.
"You okay there?" Shoutmon asked.
"I," Dari said slowly, "I'm actually twenty-seven years old now...A Twenty-Seven year old in a -Sixteen year old body." She laughed faintly at that- "Haha...Wooow...I missed a loooot of birthdays, didn't I?"
Shoutmon just laughed, "We'll be sure to make it up to you and Gimmy once it's all over."
X5KB gave a thumbs up as Shoutmon declared, "We're all good!"
"We're going to need a lot of cake and candles though!" Starmon made an out-of-context remark that had a few people laughing while most everyone else blinked in confusion.
Tymilph had ranted on for all this time without realizing that he'd been muted.
"Sorry," Echidna said suddenly, "but we really have to be moving this along."
"WHAT!?" Tymilph snarled, "You dare to cut me off during the middle of my-!?"
A loud triumphant musical score began playing loudly through the speakers in place of the video transmission.
_WE ARE XROS HEAAARRT!_
X5KB took to the sky with a burst of flame and light as the VerX7 theme played over the radio broadcast- jamming all of the enemy transmissions. With a speed they hadn't had in a long time- Shoutmon smirked as they approached the flight deck of the Dai-Gunzan battle ship.
"RRRRAAAH!" He brought the Star Sword out and swung it down- "BURNING STAR CRUSHER!"
A flaming V shot out towards the deck and cut a burning swath across the many Armors that were preparing to take flight from the deck.
_kono michi wa itsumo_
"Come and Get us!" Shoutmon shouted as he twirled around and held out the shield to launch an energy blast out of it.
_gekitou no BURNING ROAD_
A few winged Armors that looked suspiciously like Transformer Robots took to the air to dodge- leaving some of their slower brothers to be incinerated by another explosion.
_kake nuketekita sa, kimi no, yume no, tame ni_
"Nothing but cannon fodder!" Problem shouted from the Xros as he summoned his own energy machine guns to appear off of the shoulders and fire off at the incoming Armors.
_kasaneta kizuna ga kirifuda sa_
More heavy hitters managed to take to the air over the bullet barrage- only to be struck down in an instant by MetalGureimon firing off a Giga Destroyer attack.
_saigo no chikara wo MI-SE-RO!_
With a smirk- MetalGureimon pulled back as Kiriha and Nene took to the air off of his shoulders and launched off energy attacks at the Armor launcing dock.
_ima subete ga GREAT XROS toke au / ore ni kure minna no kagayaku SOUL wo_
As the burning metal dock of Dai-Gunzan was cleaned away by a life-infused windy tornado, a General Custom Armor took central stage, with Tymilph at the controls.
_ima moe tatsu GREAT HEART asu no kiba_
"BURST...!" X5KB crossed his arms over his chest, and then flung them to the side as a Burning White V of energy shot out towards the Armor- "VICTORIZE!"
_shouri wo kono te ni_
The V- cut a bloody swath across the ruined Deck once more and utterly vaporized whatever was remaining on it- excluding Tymilph's Armor, which jumped into the air just at the right moment to avoid the energy blast hitting him- and then continued on into the towering torso at the back of the ship.
_WE ARE XROS HEART!_
The Laser beam cut straight through the giant battle ship's body and then sent the upper tower into the Air-Space above with a massive explosion, carrying all of the personell and controls for the remainder of the ship with it up into the nether.
Tymilph's Armor scowled at them as it readied it's triple bladed spear- "Impressive power!"
"No Thanks!" Dorulumon turned down the compliment as they twirled their sword around rapidly and then lunged forward, "We've got enough of that already, thank you!"
Tymilph's armor quickly blocked the blade with his spear-shaft, completely ignoring the sudden descent of the remainder of his battle ship towards Aincrad.
"DAMN YOU!" Tymilph shouted as he flung backwards from the failed block- and then opened up cannon ports to fire off on X5KB.
_nori koeta akumu, zetsubou no DARKNESS FIELD_
That Glorious shield went up into the forefront- and absorbed every single blast with ease.
_kono mune ni nokoru tomo no omoi egao_
"HRRAAAH!" With a roar- X5KB flew through the smoke of explosions, sword raised high in preparation to slice down.
With rapid succession- they struck out as Tymilph tried to block, but failed to each time as the sword cut deep gashes into his Armor's armor layers.
_majou ni uzumaku kurayami wo_
And then Kiriha swept Tymilph up into a tornado that spawned from thin air while Nene rained down lightning upon the battered armor.
_mabayyi hikari TE-RA-SE!_
And with a roar- MetalGureimon fired off more rounds of GigaDestroyer- causing explosions to rock the tornado and send Tymilph's armor spinning down into the ruined deck of Dai-Gunzan.
"CHAOS FLARE!"
Beelzebmon's cannon fired off then- blasting several times more into the Armor and the wrecked ship.
_ima tsuka mou GREAT XROS asu wo subarashiki nakama no yuuki wo atsumete_
Tymilph's armor stumbled out of the newly formed crater- showing many holes in the legs, arms, and- most importantly of all- the wings. "How did such powerful opponents appear in this reality?" He muttered as he twisted his ruined staff around in preparation of a more direct sword to sword fight.
_ima kagayaku GREAT HEART yume no shisha_
He was dead wrong as X5KB fired off their thrusters and shot straight up into the sky-
_mirai ni mukatte, WE ARE XROS HEART!_
Higher and Higher and Higher still- all that could be seen was a spiraling trail of smoke from Sparrowmon's thrusters as they went higher and higher- cutting a dimensional rift straight into the air-space with their sword.
_SOU! Sekai wa hitotsu! SOU! Oretachi mo hitotsu!_
The rift could be seen opening up like some kind of zipper being pulled back on reality itself- showing a fluctuating rainbow of color in the dull monotones of the Air-Space.
_Nanatsu no yabou wo uchi kudaki nanatsu nomkibou ga koko ni tatsu_
Xros Five Knight: Burst Mode stopped their ascent, and then carved a giant V in the space before them with their sword- "VICTORIZE!" They roared- "BURST DASH STREAM..."
_Kiri hriake tsukami tore eien naru heiwa wo_
Energy straight from the void shot into the V crest and the Sword as they powered up for the final strike:
"METEOR BLAAADE!"
And with that- they shot down towards Dai-Gunzan and Tymilph's armor all in one straight line- faster than even sonic booms could be formed.
_hagane no kyodai naru ude de!_
All that could be seen from that instant on was that spiraling V energy beam spinning like a Drill towards it's target- pushed on at a blade tip by the Star Sword.
_ima subete ga GREAT XROS toke au ore ni kure minna no_
Tymilph gulped as they descended upon him-
_Kagayaku SOUL wo!_
With a single strike- they cut through Tymilph's battered Armor and straight through the core of the wounded Dai-Gunzan.
_ima moe tatsu GREAT HEART asu no kiba_
With a flash of light- a single strike- X5KB emerged on the other side of the ruined ship and Armor with out a single scratch on them.
_Shouri wo Kono Te Ni_
The entire wounded ship- however- exploded spectacularly in a massive explosion of lights, colors, and fireworks.
_WE ARE XROS HEART!_
Everyone cheered at the sight- victory had been won.
_Ah! Mirai ni mukuatte_
With a nod- Xros Five Knight: Burst Mode swung its sword to the side, as if to swish off any blood that was on it, and then held it up to the sky with a roar.
_WE ARE XROS HEART!_
Elsewhere- watching this sight through a Fourth Wall- Ryouma Mogami let loose a roar of dismay.
But that's a story for another time.
Gimmy climbed out of Lagann as he watched X5KB glow- and split down into its separate forms...The "Sparrowmon Armor" didn't re-appear like he thought it would, and instead, Dari herself was standing there, grinning like he hadn't ever seen her grin in...
-A flash of a memory - The thrill of a battle-
...He didn't feel much like celebrating all of a sudden.
Silently- Gimmy turned towards the warp gate...
"Hey!" A familiar voice stopped him, Kamina, calling towards him as he came up to him, "Aren't you going to stick around a celebrate?"
"No thanks, bro," Gimmy shook his head, "what's there to celebrate anyways? It's just a battle. They've fought tons of 'em like that already. Didn't even need me as Plan B. Didn't even Need a Plan B in the first place."
"Come on now, you know that's not true," Kamina frowned as he almost nearly caught up to his little brother, "If those guys just now had were only half-as tough as they could've been, things might've gone completely differently! You could've had to jump in and save their-"
"Don't tell me you believe that," Gimmy huffed in annoyance- and then ran for the Warp Gate- shouting out a teleport location at random before vanishing.
"Wha- GIMMY!" Kamina called out- but it was too late.
Shoutmon and Kiriha shared a concerned glance.
"That went well," Kiriha observed.
"Only could have been better for him if they'd been stronger though," Shoutmon sighed.
TO BE CONCLUDED.
NEXT TIME.
"Well? Here I am."
"Do you even REALIZE what kind of paradox you could have caused just now!?"
"Hey! You try taking on three Generals at once and see how YOU fare!"
"THEY LIVE ON AS A PART OF ME!"
"Someday, we might have to deal with the spillover..."
"So a Ripple...You mean something like THAT!?"
"FINAL FUSION!"
"Next time, Digimon Xros Wars!"
"X0VA-12! THE LIGHT THAT FLASHES ACROSS THE HEAVENS!"
"Great Scott...!"
"I know, this is Heavy, isn't it?"
"I'm just glad that it all worked out in the end!"
A.N.: FINAL. CHAPTER. IS. NEXT. WOW. Man. 16,300 some words... I think this has GOT to be the longest chapter yet...And the next one might very well top this! 0_0 Three years in the making this story has been... Three years, and now we're almost to the end... Damn. I never thought this story would come this far. I'm glad it has though. ^U^