Chapter 13: Seeing the Sovereigns
###
The second Blimpmon descended into a valley of crystal and landed before opening its bay doors. In the meantime, a number of other digimon that were transporting more refugees landed, dropping their passengers off. At the edge of the crystal landing bay was a blonde girl along with a number of new Devas walking toward the landing site. The girl had lonely blue eyes that failed to hide the sorrow inside her.
"Welcome to the Sovereign Level," the girl said, speaking. "On behalf of Azulongmon, we extend our hospitality."
"It is good to meet you," Wisemon responded. "I take it the Sovereigns are busy?"
"They are. However, they have made accommodations to send you down to the newly discovered planetary digital world," the girl added. "There you will all be able to live in peace."
Wisemon nodded. "Thank you and thank the Sovereigns. I have to ask, though: are you human?"
The girl nodded. "Yes, why do you ask?"
"We have a human with us. In fact, he may be the Digimon Queen's main objective," the robed digimon remarked. Alice's eyes widened and she shook. How could one of the Tamers be in the digital world right now and she not hear about it? She wasn't ready to meet another human, not after so long. Still, she didn't want to let her guests down.
"I-I would like to, um, meet him," she responded.
Come with me," Wisemon told her, leading her toward one of the Blimpmon while the Devas started processing the other refugees. Inside the airship, all the blonde could see was that there was someone sitting in one of the seats in the cockpit. The girl continued walking; curious as to whether the Tamer was someone she had met. As she approached though, she heard talking.
"So, anyway, as soon as we get off, we're going to have to talk to one of the Sovereigns," the Tamer, a boy, remarked in English.
"Yeah, you already said that like fifteen times already," a digimon said. "So, what are you drawing?"
"A character for that game I'm going to start making when I get back. This is the main villain, actually," he responded. Then the two heard a throat clearing behind them and turned the chairs they were in around and Alice found herself face to face with a chunky, black-haired boy that she just assumed right off the bat was Mexican, even though his skin color was quite a bit lighter than the average Mestizo. Maybe he was one with very little Indian blood, if any. Of course, he could also be Irish or Italian, or even Arab.
She didn't know how to react to this guy, who seemed to be somewhat thrown off by her sudden appearance.
"Oh, another Tamer! What are the chances, huh?" Prokyomon asked excited to finally meet another human that wasn't trying to either kill or kidnap them.
The blonde just stood there, pensive. "My name is Alice."
"You can call me Ed," the black-haired boy responded, holding his hand out for a shake. "So, what's a pretty girl like you doing in the deepest recesses of the Digital World?" He smiled, trying to get rid of the nervousness inside of him caused by meeting a cute girl.
"I don't know? What's a Mexican-American guy like you doing here in the Sovereign's level?" Alice asked.
Ed grinned wider. "I'm not Mexican. And as for what I'm doing here, let's say I'm on the run from a psycho wannabe-girlfriend and leave it at that."
The girl nodded. "The Digimon Queen?"
"That's her. I don't know what she sees in me, but here I am." The black-haired boy got up and stretched his arms. Alice had to guess that Ed was of fairly average height. "So, when can I see the Sovereign?" he inquired.
"I'll take you to Azulongmon straight away," she said, indicating for him to follow her.
###
The team finally made it to Oppidum Septentrionale. At one point during the short journey from the battlefield to the city, Yuji got tired of helping to carry Gunter and so slashed a stamina seed and digivolved Commandramon to Sealsdramon. Now the reptilian assassin was carrying the German teen instead.
Once entering the city, Tadashi noticed that something was amiss. "This place is empty."
"Yeah, no kidding," Yuji remarked, walking up to an unmanned stall in the marketplace they were in and picking up a piece of fruit. He regretted it once he bit into it, though, realizing it tasted like raw meat and immediately spitting it out. "Yuck, what is this crap?"
"Uh, I don't think you're supposed to do that," Ayaka said with a glare. Yuji just shrugged and put the piece of fruit back where he found it so that nobody would see the bite.
Then they saw a digimon that was on patrol, a Champion-level Angemon. The team had a stare down with the angel, who quickly bolted in the opposite direction.
"What was that about? He was kind of cute," Miki remarked, causing the rest of the team to groan.
"Have you ever seen Digimon Adventure?" Taizou asked.
"Nope. I just became a Tamer because it was cool. That's all. Besides, it's not like the TV show matches anything in the real world, anyway." The dark-haired girl was continuing to receive incredulous stares from the rest of the team.
"Actually, there's a lot it has in common with the TV show," Ayaka remarked.
"And remember what the old man said about Ryo knowing Tai?" Tadashi asked, grinning at the thought. "Come on, you've got to admit that's pretty cool."
Suddenly, though, a number of Ultimate digimon surrounded them including a MagnaAngemon, a group of Piximon and a CaptainHookmon. "You will come with us," MagnaAngemon told the group.
###
A few minutes later, the six Tamers and their digimon were in the office of a certain Mega-level that they neither expected to meet nor wanted to meet. In fact, the sight of Daemon made their skin crawl.
"Daemon!" Tadashi yelled out.
"Yes?" he asked. "That is my name. Hmm… Maybe I should use a form that you'd find more comfortable, hmm..?" The robed digimon made a sign with his hand. "Slide Evolution… ShadowSeraphimon!"
The digimon they saw was a corrupted version of Patamon's Mega form, and that still made the others uncomfortable. "It's a shame I can't hold this form for very long or achieve the form of regular Seraphimon," the angel remarked. "As I mentioned earlier to another human, it is easier to become evil than good."
"Yeah, but you're probably bad to the bone, anyway," Tadashi remarked. "What did you do to the other digimon in the city? And where's the other human you were talking about?"
ShadowSeraphimon lowered his head. "Currently, he's en route to the Sovereign Level along with all of the evacuees," he said.
"What? Why?" Taizou asked.
"Because there is an invasion force a mere six hours away," the angel responded. "I am aware that you aren't with them, though."
"And that's because I told him." The group looked behind them to see Agumon Hakase.
"Agumon!" Ayaka exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"I asked to stay behind and wait for you. In fact, I want to go with you to the Sovereign Level and even further to increase my knowledge. My university education here is done," the yellow dinosaur said sadly. "Please, if it's agreeable to you."
"You can come with. No problem," Tadashi spoke for the others.
"Um, are you sure that's a good idea," Taizou asked. "If we keep getting members, we won't have enough room on Blimpmon for all these guys. We still need to save room for Eduardo and his partner, for instance."
"Hey, what difference is one small lizard going to make?" the blond asked, causing Taizou to scratch his chin. "You know, I should have left this up to a vote. All in favor of letting Agumon Hakase come with us, raise your hand."
Miki, Ayaka, Tadashi, Solarmon, Salamon, and Sealsdramon raised their hands. That meant more than half and since Syakomon and Sunmon didn't have hands, they couldn't vote anyway. "Okay, then, it's settled. Agumon, you can come with us."
"Good."
"So, what can you tell us about Eduardo?" Ayaka asked ShadowSeraphimon.
"He's quiet but he and his partner seem to have their heart in the right place. He was actually hoping that his own father would come to the digital world to bring him back, but that's not likely."
"Yeah, that would mean that his father was a Tamer," Tadashi remarked, scornfully. The others glared at him. Taizou even started to put two and two together.
Wait, could that mean that the reason Antonio Urrutía decided to go to the digital world was because… no way. Taizou remembered what the boy looked like. He decided not to say anything. At one point, Solarmon was about to speak up but the brown-haired boy held his finger up to his mouth to tell him not to say anything.
"Anyway, you're going to need to go down to the Sovereign Level immediately. AncientWisemon!" Immediately, a black hole formed in the ground and a green, robed digimon appeared from out of it.
"Yes, Consul?" the green-cloaked digimon asked.
"Take these Tamers to the Sovereign Level," ShadowSeraphimon ordered. It turned out that AncientWisemon, one of many digimon given the Mega-level by Calumon's Shining Digivolution, could teleport long distances but only to places he had already been to. The Legendary Warrior of Steel made a couple of hand-signs and everyone in the room other than ShadowSeraphimon disappeared in a flash of light.
###
On the Sovereign Level, Ed and Alice were riding the gondola to Azulongmon's chambers. The black-haired boy had no idea how to interact with the cute girl next to him and found himself biting his bottom lip and biting his nails, two things he wished he didn't do but that he did do when he was nervous.
He grinned nervously before attempting to speak. "So, where's your partner?" he asked.
"Dobermon sacrificed himself to give the Tamers in Japan the ability to reach Mega during the D-Reaper invasion," Alice said, sadly, giving Ed a shocked expression.
The black-haired boy didn't know how to respond other than a simple expression. "I'm sorry."
Alice looked down sadly. "If he hadn't done it, we wouldn't be here today," she said simply, still trying to hide her sadness.
"Still, it must be hard losing your partner," Prokyomon said.
"So, where are you from?" the blonde girl asked, trying to change the subject.
"For the past three weeks before going to the digital world, I lived in an orphanage in Paris, France. Don't ask why and no I didn't like it one bit. Maybe if I was allowed to go out of the house…" He chuckled a little bit, thinking of how ridiculous his mother's hatred of his father was. "Before that, I lived with my dad in Santiago, Chile. Nice weather there. Never gets too hot or cold. Before that, I was in Las Vegas, Nevada."
"You lived in Vegas? Cool," Alice commented, wistfully. "I wish I could go to Vegas."
Ed smiled. "Me too. I moved there when I was seven. Before that I was born and lived in Lancaster, California."
"Lancaster, huh? I lived in the San Francisco Bay area," the girl said. "My grandfather's a professor at Palo Alto University."
"Palo Alto?" Ed asked, surprised at the coincidence. "Both my parents went there. My dad went there for a computer science degree while my mom got one in business management."
"Cool." The gondola stopped and the trio stepped off in front of Azulongmon's palace. "Well, here we are," the girl said. "Now, remember to be respectful of the Sovereign."
"Don't worry, I'll try," the black-haired boy said with a chuckle as he followed the cute blonde.
###
The team found themselves in the sovereign's realm suddenly, slightly taken off guard by the whole thing. "So, where is he?" Tadashi asked AncientWisemon.
"He should be around here," the mage responded. The group looked around to see numerous digimon waiting around for something. Refugees from Oppidum Septentrionale. AncientWisemon held his index finger up while trying to locate the American, reducing his eyes to mere slits. "He's currently in Azulongmon's Chambers."
"Can you take us there?" Taizou asked.
"No, I can't. You will have to wait here." Then the green mage sensed something else. "No, it can't be."
"What is it?" Ayaka asked, confused.
"The Digimon Queen's army. It's headed straight here."
The group was flabbergasted. "What? You mean we headed all the way over here only to get cornered by the Wicked Witch of France's armies?" Yuji asked, confused.
"We're not exactly cornered," Tadashi said, walking over to the edge of the Sovereign's Level. "Hey, AncientWisemon, if we went down this way, would we eventually reach the planet?"
"Yes, you would," AncientWisemon said. "Prior to the D-Reaper invasion, that was where the D-Reaper itself resided, so the sovereign's layer was set up to block the planet from view."
"So, did the D-Reaper ever get up here before the D-Reaper invasion?" Taizou inquired.
"Yes, it did. Many years ago when the orbit of this part of the digital world wasn't as high, the D-Reaper came and destroyed many digimon before it was deleted and the orbit was increased." AncientWisemon thought about it for a second. "I'll take you to Azulongmon. Time is in the essence and I've already been to his chambers on behalf of Daemon."
The digimon held up his index finger again.
And the team disappeared.
###
A couple of minutes earlier, Ed was talking to the Sovereign. Unfortunately, he wasn't hearing what he wanted to hear. "Unfortunately, we can't send you back to your world," the giant blue dragon said in a booming voice. The black-haired boy felt fear at the digimon's might.
"But you sent the Devas to the real world, didn't you?" he asked.
"You are right. However, the portal was destroyed during the D-Reaper invasion to ensure that that abomination wouldn't use it to go to your world. Alas, he found a way, anyway as did we," the dragon explained.
"How did you do that?" Ed asked, hating where this was going.
"They used the globe," Alice indicated.
"And with the Digimon Queens armies surrounding the place, it wouldn't be a good idea to go that way," the dragon added.
It was at that time that Ed wished he hadn't come to the digital world in the first place. It was a last ditch effort that he shouldn't have undergone and he had come to deeply regret it. "Couldn't there possibly be another way?"
"There are rumors of a portal on the planet," Azulongmon said. "However, I'm not sure that it leads to your world."
"That's the best bet I have," the black-haired boy said. "Alice, don't you want to go back home too? Come with me."
Alice stood there. "I don't know… if I can."
Ed looked at her with confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Alice isn't completely human anymore," Azulongmon explained. "In fact, her body currently lies in a hospital."
Ed was shocked. "Wait, so she's like a… a ghost?"
"Well, technically, my mind transferred to the digital world. I was staying at my grandfather's at the time and he was performing some experiments using a program of his and, suddenly, I was here and my mind created this body." The blonde looked down sadly, a tear going down her face.
"There has only been one other instance of something like this happening," Azulongmon said. "A man named Gorou Mizuno was knocked out in a car crash and his consciousness was transferred to the digital world thanks to some communications he had made with the digimon here before hand. However, due to his age, his imagination wasn't sufficient to create a solid body like Alice's."
Ed didn't know what to think. "What if your body died in the real world?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," she said. "However, if I regained consciousness there, I would disappear from here much like Mizuno and awaken in the real world."
Ed looked toward the sovereign. "Okay, I'll…" His utterance was interrupted by a flash of light in the chambers and a green, robed digimon appeared along with six kids including an unconscious Gunter.
"What is the meaning of this?" the Sovereign asked in his booming voice.
"Lord Azulongmon, it turns out that there's an army headed straight this way. Apparently the army headed toward Oppidum Septentrionale was only a ruse."
###
"What are you doing?" Crimson's voice echoed angrily throughout the Queen's castle, particularly her throne room. The woman was starting to get slightly peeved by the know-it-all, who seemed to want to criticize a number of her decisions. The woman simply glanced at the Japanese Tamer, who adjusted his circular sunglasses as he walked in.
"What does it look like?" she asked, gesturing towards the wine glass in her hand as well as the shirtless man fanning her. "I'm just enjoying my reign as queen, that's all."
Crimson glared at her. "That's not what I meant. I was talking about your forces. The majority of them are headed straight for the Sovereigns' level."
"Vraimente? As I recall, a part of your plan involved taking out the sovereigns," she responded, gesturing for another shirtless male, this one decidedly hairy and in his late teens, to give her some hors d'oeuvres.
"But that wasn't until after we had taken out each of the governors," Crimson replied, glancing at each of the rather hefty servants. Why couldn't she have girls in bikinis? he thought to himself.
"Oh, but it turns out that Ed is currently in the Sovereign Level along with a team of Japanese Tamers," the girl responded, "including a blond boy named Tadashi. It's quite exotic, don't you think? Asian and yet blond?"
"Yeah, very exotic," Crimson responded sarcastically, not buying it. "Turns out Tadashi's the name of a kid I know, who happens to be blond. Not that it's him."
The girl communicated with her partner who in turn projected an image into Crimson's mind of Tadashi. The man looked in horror. "You have got to be kidding me? It's him!"
"So, what can you tell me about him, Crimson, or should I say…" She walked up and whispered into the man's ear.
"I figured you knew my real name, your highness" the man said, decidedly not surprised. "As far as invading the sovereign level, that's supposed to be a joint effort by all three of us."
The woman nodded. "So, when is your American friend supposed to be here, anyway?" she asked, smirking.
"I didn't know he was your type," Crimson replied.
"Oh, he's not. I just want to see what his friends look like," the Queen responded, sitting back down on her throne.
"I doubt he'd be willing to lend them to you," Crimson said, stroking his long beard. "When he gets here, we're going to have to set up some ground rules, lady, or else this Triumvirate of mine ain't going to work." The man cleared his throat. "And by the way, I have an alternative. One of my subordinates can go down there and get the two Tamers you desire if you call your forces off."
"Okay, I'll do that." The woman chuckled. "So, how did you meet this guy, anyway?"
"We met while he was on vacation in Japan. We were both recruited last October to help these two other guys out against the D-Reaper here in the Digital World. Of course, we ended up fighting this thing called TysiachaGlazkovmon instead. You know how it goes: you come here expecting to fight one dude and you end up going against something totally different."
"You should tell me about that sometime," the Queen responded, smiling mischievously.
###
After their meeting with Azulongmon ended abruptly with AncientWisemon disappearing, the team boarded Blimpmon almost immediately and headed down the cave where Sakuyamon had fought against the D-Reaper the year before, sinking down past the edge of the known digital world.
Inside, everyone was quiet. They hoped that leaving would cause the Digimon Queen to go somewhere else and it seemed that after they made it past the initial group of caves that her forces left with the exception of what seemed to be a few scouts.
Tadashi watched as they continued downward. He glanced at the rest of the team. It seemed that everyone was getting a much-needed rest from the whirlwind that they had endured over the past couple of days. That and there were the three new recruits.
He didn't know why they had to bring Gunter with them, but he knew that the large German was a victim and that they needed to do something to help him. Unfortunately, it seemed that the Digimon Queen's partner digimon did a serious number on his brain and all that he could say was various mumblings in German.
That girl Alice, on the other hand, was something to look at. On the other hand, the girl was in the digital world without a partner and so they had to do something to help. But there was something about her that seemed so mysterious.
Then there was Ed. Tadashi hadn't talked to the heavy boy much, but there was something about him that put him off. He didn't know what. However, he was definitely the most useful of the new recruits, even though his partner had only reached Champion the day before.
Tadashi glanced over at his brown-haired friend who was watching out the window as they flew through the caverns that led out of the orbital world. The blond wondered why they didn't just go over the edge. The answer he had gotten was that the exit of these caves was the closest to the planet.
"Well, at least the Queen's forces are backing off," Taizou commented, looking at his digivice. "Still, Azulongmon's got the right idea of relocating to the surface, especially if they have to go against a team of biomerged Megas. I hear that Zhuqiaomon almost got defeated by Henry and Terriermon when they were here."
"I wonder what that fight was like," Tadashi responded.
"Good question," Taizou replied. "You know, I think I'm going to talk to the new guy over there. You mind keeping an eye on the controls."
Tadashi chuckled as his brown-haired friend got up. "As if there's much to do. Blimpmon's the one doing the driving."
"Keep an eye on the Queen's forces, then," Taizou shot back before turning toward the others. He walked past Miki, who was bummed that Ed wasn't pretty, and Ayaka, who couldn't care any less. He also spotted Yuji, who was trying to sleep while Commandramon was continuously on guard. To be honest, Taizou couldn't blame the digimon. For all he knew, the forces of the Digimon Queen could show up any minute.
"So, what happened with Gunter, anyway?" Ed asked Taizou as the brown-haired Japanese boy approached. Taizou had to adjust quickly to speaking English and the black-haired boy was sitting next to the near-comatose German.
"The Digimon Queen screwed up his mind after Tadashi defeated his partner," Taizou replied.
"What a horrible person," Alice commented. "I can't believe anyone would be like that."
"And to think she has a digimon that I designed," Ed said, regretting ever designing Coonmon.
"You designed it?" Taizou asked, surprised.
"Yeah. I never scanned his design into my first digivice and I'm glad I didn't. My dad actually looked over the design and told me that it was a bit extreme and he was right. As it was, I only added telepathy to try and find him in the first place. It turned out that my dad ended up finding me anyway." Ed chuckled.
"Your dad's Antonio Urrutía, right?" Taizou asked in almost a whisper. He didn't want word of this to reach Tadashi.
"Yeah, why are you whispering?" the black-haired boy asked, confused.
"My friend over there doesn't like your dad. No offense, but I wouldn't tell him about him yet," Taizou explained, gesturing toward Tadashi, who was minding his own business and messing with his digivice.
"Gotcha and no offense taken," Ed responded. He looked at the others and noticed Ayaka looking at them with a smile. Taizou noticed too.
"What? I'm just trying to figure out what you're talking about. That's all," the blonde girl told Taizou in Japanese. "All I got was Antonio Urrutía."
"Yeah, I was just asking if he had the upgrade," the brown-haired teen lied before asking in English. "You have the upgrade to the digivice's operating system, right?"
Ed nodded. "It came with the digivice."
"So, who is Antonio Urrutía, actually?" Alice asked, not knowing that everyone could hear her. Tadashi decided to voice his opinions then and there.
"A jerk. The guy wouldn't even let his own son become a Tamer even though he's one!" the blond exclaimed.
"I can't blame him," Alice responded, almost deadpan. "The job of a digimon Tamer is a difficult one. You know, I think I remember him as one of my grandpa's contacts. He's from Argentina, right?"
"Chile, actually," Ed corrected.
"So, what do you think of how he wouldn't let his kid be a Tamer, Ed?" Tadashi asked, hoping that the black-haired boy would be on his side.
Ed chuckled a bit. "Uh, I think that's between him and his son and Alice is right. This is dangerous work."
"Wait, you don't disagree with him?" the blond asked.
"I didn't say that. I think that maybe he could have let his son have a digimon but just not let him go out and fight wild ones. But like I say, that's his opinion." The black-haired boy gave the blond Japanese boy a determined smile. "Besides, there's the whole 'honor your father and your mother' thing."
"Yeah, but…"
"But Ed's right," Ayaka remarked before winking at the black-haired boy, who blushed in response. Why did Asian girls have to be so exotic?
Tadashi glared at his teammates. Miki just shrugged. "Don't worry, Tadashi, I'm on your side," the dark-haired girl simply said.
"But you don't even understand English," Ayaka chided the girl.
"I'm only joking," Miki replied. "Come on, you have to admit, Tadashi gets kind of funny-looking when he's mad."
"Der Kinder ist aus Asien aber er hat blondes haar," the group was surprised to hear a third language come into the group and looked over at Gunter. "Was?" the large teen asked.
"Did he just say something?" Yuji asked, just as surprised as everyone else.
"Yeah, he said that I have blond hair, that's all," Tadashi responded both in Japanese and in English.
"You speak German? Cool," Ed commented as the blond got up and looked at Gunter before speaking to him.
"Was weisst du?" What do you know? He asked.
Gunter simply shrugged. "Wo bin ich?" Where am I?
"(You're in the Digital World)", Tadashi tried explaining.
"(Where?)" the large, brown-haired boy asked, confused. "(I'm not in Cologne?)"
"(No, you're in the Digital World, on a Digimon)." Gunter still looked as confused as ever. "(You know what a digimon is, right)?" In response, he got a shaking of the head and an even more confused Tamer. Tadashi pointed out the German's partner, who really was comatose and lying wrapped up in his tentacles. "(That's your partner)."
Unfortunately, he wasn't getting the point across. "Gunter, can you understand English?" Ed asked the brown-haired teen and got a blank look. "Strange, the time I met him before, he spoke really good English. That girl must have done something to him."
"What do you about the digimon Queen?" Tadashi asked, hoping to get something out of Ed.
"Her name is Marie Cauvin and she's French. Other than that… Well, we didn't talk much. She thinks my dad's been abusing me all my life when that's not the case, but when we were both at the orphanage, she didn't speak English and I couldn't speak French."
"Why were you in a French orphanage anyway?" Taizou asked, confused at that.
"My mom kidnapped me and put me there."
Tadashi's eyes just about popped out. "What do you mean your mom kidnapped you?"
"Well, she had ties to some anti-digimon organization that she hired and, well, they did the work for her. You see, she lost custody of me and she absolutely hates my dad, so, yeah."
Tadashi was still slack-jawed. "Wow, what a horrible lady. Sorry, I don't know any better words to describe her. My vocabulary's still not that great in English."
"No problem. I was thinking of a specific five-letter word but due to the whole 'honor your father and your mother' thing I'm trying to live by, I decided not to use it, even though she probably deserves it." Ed chuckled a little bit.
"Yeah, she sounds like she's crazy," Taizou remarked.
"You have any crazy relatives?" Ed asked, curious.
"My dad's nuts, but not like that. He's just a deadbeat loser that left my mom when I was about a year old," Taizou explained.
"Then there are my parents who won't let me go out and fight digimon, but I do it anyway," Tadashi replied, not getting the point Ed made earlier.
"I miss my parents," Alice commented, causing all eyes to turn on her. "I wonder what they're doing."
"Yeah, same here," Ed agreed. "Heck, I even miss my mom a little, even though she's nuts. I wonder what my dad is doing. Probably lounging around the house in his underwear like before he got custody of me."
"Wow, that's an embarrassing sight," Taizou commented. "I bet my mom's probably trying to get me to have some friends over during the weekend. And yeah, I miss her, even if her advice constantly turns into lectures."
"That's how my dad is," Tadashi remarked.
"Funny, my dad's always been the nurturing type, or at least as long as I've known him," Ed replied. "He's a teacher, so of course he's probably used to dealing with kids and I've seen how he deals with my cousins." The black-haired boy decided to leave out that his dad was a university professor. "Plus, there's how he is with his parents."
"Sounds like a cool guy," Tadashi commented.
"Yeah, no kidding," Taizou said. "So, your dad hangs out in his underwear? That's gotta be awkward."
"I don't even want to know what he looks like," Alice said deadpan. "Somehow I get the feeling I won't like it."
"It's true, you won't," Ed said boisterously, grinning the whole time.
"(I'm so confused right now)," Gunter said, looking around.
Just then, the intercom buzzed. "We're currently leaving the caves." The group all got up, save Gunter, and ran to the front of the cabin. The globe was in front of them in all its majestic glory.
"It's beautiful," Miki remarked in Japanese.
"Just like that time in those catwalks, huh?" Taizou said.
"Just think of how much all that land costs. I could make a fortune!" Yuji exclaimed.
"Yeah, right," Tadashi shot back. "You'd probably get it all taken away by the Digimon Queen, or, excuse me, Marie Cauvin."
Ed didn't understand what everybody was saying, but Alice did, somehow. Maybe it was her status as a digital lifeform. As it was, none of the digimon ever had any problem understanding them.
The black-haired boy just backed off from the group, but not before looking at the massive blue orb one last time. He edged toward his laptop bag and pulled out a notebook. Unfortunately, just as he was about to draw, the airship shook.
"What was that?" Taizou asked.
"Hull breach! Hydrogen and Helium dropping to 95%," Blimpmon said in a panic. "I need someone to go and check on that."
"I'll do that!" Prokyomon called before heading up into the balloon. After a couple seconds, the digimon came back down. "There, all done."
"Not quite!" Tadashi exclaimed, looking outside. Right in their path was a humanoid digimon that had a crow's head for a helmet and a pair of golden swords. The blond pulled out his digivice and checked for data. "Karatenmon, Ultimate Level, Virus Attribute."
"Karatenmon… Another Ultimate," Taizou commented.
"Let's do this! Same formation as last time but there's only one enemy out there!" Tadashi ordered the group.
"And I'm supposed to do what?" Ed asked.
"You get to help Sealsdramon and Ranamon protect against borders. Everyone else to the front of the cabin. Du auch, Gunter!"
"Was?" was the German's only response before Ed and Alice held his hands and led him toward the front.
Taizou looked ahead at their opponent. He didn't know whether this was one of the Queen's or not, but he was prepared.
He was going to protect Ed for Antonio's sake as well as Alice and Gunter, who were both defenseless.
He grabbed his cards and prepared for another battle. There was no way he was sitting this one out like the one with Infermon.
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A/N: And so they face another Digimon. Does this mean that somebody else will reach Ultimate. Tune in next time… or something.
Sorry if my German isn't up to snuff. I studied it for two years in high school, but it's been awhile. If anybody can think of a better way of saying what these guys are saying, feel free to let me know in a review. Even if you can't, let me know what you think of this story. I know there are people reading it, even if it's not getting as much attention as some of those shipping fics out there.