Chapter 23: Abominations
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Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Just the myriad of OCs therein (thankfully there aren't quite that many. For those that don't know: myriad means 10,000).
Also, a warning: this chapter gets a bit freaky in some spots, part of the reason why I upgraded the fic's rating to T. It won't go any higher.
And I apologize for taking so long to get this chapter out. Some parts were kind of tough to write. Hopefully the next one will take less time.
###
Dorbickmon knew his end was here. The forces of the triumvirate were quite literally at his doorstep and there was nothing he could do about it. So much for being a great power in the digital world, the Dragonlord thought, grimacing at the thought.
"Lord Dorbickmon! We can still escape!" came the shrill voice of his not-quite-so-loyal second-in-command, Darkdramon. The four-winged dragon had attempted to usurp the Dragonlord's throne a number of times, though he'd always been thwarted. Dorbickmon figured that the only reason he kept him around was because he was somewhat entertaining.
"No, our time is at its end," the red dragon stated, standing up. He was ready for whatever forces came through that door in the end. Dorbickmon clenched his fists. There were so many things he wanted to get done before the end but here he was. "You know, at times like this I hear Defendramon's voice in my head telling me that he told me so."
"Oh, Defendramon? I almost forgot about him," Darkdramon lied, shivering at the thought of the rival that he had killed. In compliance with the Dragonlord's no-loading rule, he didn't absorb his data but let the digimon get reborn again. Last he heard, it ended up joining a squad of Commandramon under a Sealsdramon, but he lost track of the former chancellor sometime after that. In some ways, the dragon regretted doing that, especially since he was outnumbered. Defendramon's Tachyon Laser would have been useful against these enemies.
After a few minutes, the door opened and three digimon came through. One of them was a humanoid raccoon with grey fur who was wearing a pair of goggles on its eyes, black armor all over its body and a jetpack. StrikeMapachemon.
The next was clearly a Mega. It had red armor across its body and a pair of large cannons on its back. Chaosdramon.
The third and last was a Royal Knight with black armor on his body: Gankoomon.
Looking at their odds, the two digimon realized that their lives were at an end with a stronger-than-average Ultimate, a Royal Knight and a Tier II Mega as their enemies, it wasn't even a fair fight.
For the first time in his life, Dorbickmon prayed to Yggdrasil in hopes that the god-like being would give him some measure of forgiveness.
###
They got up at dawn, ready to face whatever dark forces came their way. After a quick bathroom break and breakfast, they gathered all their things and headed toward the shore and away from the cliff, an uneasy silence filling the air.
Once they reached the shore, Gunter informed the team of his discovery the night before. "Okay, guys, it turns out that the water will turn us into those fish thingies that attacked us yesterday," the brown-haired teen stated.
"Okay, Miki, you think you can protect us with Ranamon's powers?" Tadashi asked the girl unenthusiastically. The kid looked horrible and had obvious bags under his eyes along with some serious bedhead.
"Uh, sure! Digivolution Activate!" she yelled.
"Syakomon digivolve to… Ranamon!" the shellfish shouted, becoming the Legendary Warrior of Water. "Okay, honies, it turns out that we'll have to walk to that place underwater. Are y'all ready?"
Everyone gave nods of ascent and the digimon manipulated the water as the group moved toward Dagomon's location.
It took hours. Every so often, Miki would notice that Ranamon was getting tired and therefore tried keeping the digimon awake with stamina seed cards. She hoped that they would be able to reach wherever the Dark Undersea Master was before the digimon collapsed from exhaustion.
After many miles, the group spotted something in the distance. They were all underwater and due to the dark nature of the water they couldn't see much in front of them, however, they noticed this thing from only a few miles away. The massive structure was a sort of underwater city that was housed underneath a glass dome of sorts. Unfortunately, the city gave an air of dread, something that was starting to overwhelm Abigail's senses and put everyone else on edge.
They continued forward until they found an entrance. Thankfully there didn't seem to be any guards. Maybe Dagomon was too smug to think he needed any or maybe there was something waiting for them once they got inside. Whatever it was, the team was on high alert.
They all entered into the domed metropolis through an entrance far to the left of where they were originally headed. Once inside, they walked up some stairs that ended up leading into actual air.
"Alright, we did it! Thanks, Ranamon!" Miki exclaimed as her partner devolved and collapsed onto the ground out of exhaustion.
"Okay, now's the time for a food and bathroom break," Tadashi told the team, rushing off with Coronamon around the corner to do his business.
"Is there anything wrong?" the lion asked, pausing after Tadashi had finished.
"No, nothing's wrong!" the blond snapped after he zipped up his pants. There was no shortage of statues around this place. That was certain. Looking around, he saw a large number of them, mostly looking like some squid thing that he figured was Dagomon. At the same time, the blond found the whole thing profoundly creepy, thinking that there could have been a Deep One around the corner.
"Well, you seem kind of testy," Coronamon observed. "It's not about what happened last night, is it?"
Tadashi glared, wishing everyone would stop bringing that up. As it was, they all sided against him and that was starting to get to him. It was annoying.
On the way back to camp, the blond ran into Eduardo and Prokyomon. The dark-haired boy tried to stop the blond. "Tadashi, we need to talk."
"Not now, Eddy," was the blond's response. There was no way he was going to talk to the black-haired teen about their little squabble.
###
"You know, I really need to wash my hands right about now," Miki complained.
"You should have used one of the streams on the continent. Those weren't contaminated," Gunter replied, biting into a cliff bar. He was really starting to get sick of the things since that seemed to be all they had been eating since they arrived in the dark world.
"In the meantime, at least we have hand-sanitizer," Ayaka commented as she ate a granola bar. She hoped to finish this mission off soon since they only had about a day's supply off food left.
"Yeah, but I like the feeling of water on my hands. Also, that hand-sanitizer really dries them out," the dark-haired girl remarked, looking at her dry skin.
"You know, I didn't think of bringing lotion," Ed remarked. "Now I know better."
Abby chuckled and smiled before glancing over at Tadashi, who was quietly eating a cliff bar. The girl frowned at him. How could he have so much hatred for Ed's father? It didn't seem plausible to her.
At the same time, she was definitely on Ed's side during the whole thing. She sincerely hoped that they could get the thing sorted out.
###
After a few minutes, the group embarked on their journey once again. The city seemed to be getting creepier and creepier. For some reason, it reminded Abby of Atlantis from the Little Mermaid, only black and grey instead of gold. Plus, there was the conspicuous lack of mermaids running around. Also, the geometry of the place seemed way off since it was full of arches and odd-looking buildings that rarely had right angles.
The group continued on, aiming for the building that housed the Dark Undersea Master. They hoped that this whole situation would end easily, but they all knew that it wouldn't end without a fight.
Unfortunately, the freak factor ended up shooting way up when they made their way around a corner when they spotted something so horrific that they couldn't believe their eyes and just stood there in shock.
What they found were their parents, or at least copies of them, impaled on large purple spikes. Every single one of them was there along with other relatives. Tadashi saw his mother, father and brother, Miki her parents, Ayaka her parents and sister, Abby saw her parents and brothers and finally Ed saw his mother, father and step-father.
"This is just sick," Tadashi finally said. Even the sight of Antonio Guevara's impalement disturbed him and he didn't even like the guy.
"What's the point?" Ed asked, horrified at the imagery. "What's Dagomon trying to do?"
"He's trying to shock us into submission or something," Ayaka suggested, her hands in a tight grip.
"Still, what a freak!" Miki commented, rolling her eyes at the sight.
"More than a freak. A monster," Gunter corrected, his face contorted in anger. "I'm going to smash that guy right in!"
That remark made Ed realize that that was what the Dark Undersea Master really wanted. "Don't get angry, otherwise you're just playing into his hands."
The others just looked at the black-haired teen in surprise but they all realized he had a point. "This is just awful," Abby remarked.
"Don't worry, though, those are definitely not our real parents," Tadashi told the others while continuing to grimace. "Still, I totally agree."
"Why do I get the feeling we're all going to have to see psychologists after this is all over?" Gunter inquired. "I mean, this is a sight that would traumatize anyone that saw it."
However, Coronamon noticed something else that was wrong. "Uh, guys…"
Salamon saw it too. "Those spikes are coming down!" she exclaimed. Sure enough, the spikes were lowering until the duplicates that were impaled on them were almost to the ground. The duplicates had large amounts of purple lines all across their bodies including where the hole was in their torsos and didn't look like their parents any longer, but cybernetic zombies instead. The clones started to move as well, opening their eyes and revealing the purple underneath.
Tadashi immediately pulled out his digivice and identified these creatures. "Huskmon, Champion Level, Cyborg Digimon, Virus Attribute, Attacks: Garra del Zombi, Reaper's Screech. These are digimon created from the bodies of other digimon that are impaled on purple spikes, technology left by so-called abomination digimon such as Dagomon or Sovereignmon."
Sure enough, the Huskmon lunged forward and the digimon all had to digivolve to their Champion Forms.
"Coronamon digivolve to… Firamon!"
"Salamon digivolve to… D'Arcmon!"
"Syakomon digivolve to… Ranamon!"
"Keramon digivolve to… Chrysalimon!"
"Cutemon digivolve to… Rabbitmon!"
"Prokyomon digivolve to… Guepardomon!"
The fight was quick. They had fought against enough Champions by that point to know how to deal with them and, despite the enemy being quite tough, they seemed to be easy to take out using combined attacks.
"Wolverine Claw!" Guepardomon shouted, slicing through several Huskmon in one scoop.
"Carrot Bomber!" Rabbitmon called out.
"Whipping Waves!" Ranamon yelled, combining her attack with Rabbitmon to take out several more Huskmon.
"Fira Bomb!"
"Dancing Sword!" Combined, the attacks of Firamon and D'Arcmon took out even more of the Huskmon, demolishing the zombies completely.
After the last of the Huskmon was disposed of, the group knew they had to continue and not let the disturbing things they've seen get to them.
It was while they were walking toward the massive temple in the center of the massive city that Ed decided to finally talk to Tadashi about their little problem. In other words, he decided to try and apologize despite it not really being his fault. "Tadashi, I'm sorry I snapped at you yesterday."
The blond didn't respond. Ed didn't know what else to say to his friend to get him to forgive him for keeping his parentage a secret. Maybe he should apologize for that. Maybe…
Before he could even attempt that, Abby pulled him back so that they could talk in the back of the group. "Maybe you should just let him cool off a little longer," the girl advised him.
"I know, but it's true. I shouldn't have snapped at him like that," Ed replied.
Abby snorted. "I didn't think that you were out of line."
He chuckled to himself. "Yeah, but… well… I don't know. My dad never yells at me. Okay, he can get angry, but he doesn't snap like that." Ed smiled. "One time I cussed around him. He just simply told me that he didn't want me cussing. That whole experience that he was actually a really cool guy," Ed explained. "And yeah, I didn't quite agree with him, but I was more willing to comply since he was nice to me."
What Ed didn't realize was that Tadashi was paying attention and it was starting to pain him deeply that he wasn't friendly towards Ed the day before.
###
Back in Abby's native reality's digital world, the mysterious enemy decided he was bored. "Okay, Gizumon, let's have fun," he said. "Destroy all Control Spires in the area!"
The machine shot out an energy beam at each of the nearby control spires. This should make Emperor Symanski take action, the man thought, adjusting his glasses and smiling. He was Japanese and he had a large nose and freshly-cut short hair.
Now was time for the first phase of his experiment to be conducted. Hopefully it would do exactly what he wanted.
###
David Symanski was furious. A number of his Control Spires had been knocked down and he realized that more would be soon. Still, he knew that fighting this man while he's out of the area of his control would be fruitless. So, he entered into the room where he could communicate with his colleague, the Second Emperor.
After a few seconds, the holographic image flickered and the entity from another reality appeared. "What do you want?" Symanski's ally asked brusquely, annoyed that he would be attempting to contact him.
"A man just arrived in my world who can reach the Mega Level. He has just destroyed a number of control spires," David spoke pointedly, gritting his teeth. "I need the schematics for the Dark Bangle now!"
The Second Emperor stared at the teen through his mask. "You're desperate, aren't you? You don't even have as much area as I did when I designed the Dark Bangle. Why should I give it to you?"
"It's an emergency!" the brown-haired teen exclaimed. "You have to give the schematics to me, please! I beg of you!"
The other Emperor chuckled. "Well, well, well… No."
Then the connection was cut and David found himself throwing his digivice across the room. He hated this. Now he would have to go to Taizou for advice.
One thing was certain; the Second Emperor was a jerk.
###
The Emperor made his way down to the dungeon where Taizou was being held while holding a torch. He admired the architecture of the castle he was in, one that was wrested from a Myotismon who ruled a nice-sized chunk of the region the Emperor controlled today.
The brown-haired Japanese boy was busy reading a book. David looked at the title: Foundation, a space opera written by Isaac Asimov. He hadn't read it himself, but he intended to someday.
"Excuse me, Taizou, I need to speak with you," the skinny, brown-haired American said simply.
"Wait, so what do you want, exactly?" Robert asked from the other cell. "Here to gloat?"
"No, you idiot, I need advice," the Emperor snapped angrily.
"What will you give me in return?" Taizou inquired.
"I'll make you my chancellor," David responded.
"Oh, Emperor Damien, I'm afraid that's not enough," the short-haired teen responded with a smile.
"Okay, what do you want?" the Emperor inquired, at his wit's end. He was starting to grit his teeth.
"Simple, you release Yuji, Robert and I along with our partners. We'll take the Dimensional Corridor and leave this place, never to come and torment you again," Taizou proposed. He hoped that he would be able to get reinforcements wherever he went that could topple the Emperor's regime for good. Who knew, maybe he would even be able to find the Digidestined like Tai, assuming they even existed. Then again, there is a Dark Ocean… "Deal?"
The Emperor was desperate. "Deal."
"Okay, tell me about your problem, your highness," Taizou ordered, sarcastic about the last part.
David Symanski explained what was happening. "I have an intruder in my realm, an adult Tamer of sorts. At first, I just left him alone and he didn't do anything for about twenty-four hours." The Emperor paused for a brief second.
"Let me guess, he started destroying everything in sight?" Taizou guessed. This piqued his interest. "What did he look like?"
"I fail to see how this matters," the Emperor responded.
"Just tell me or show me a picture. I might know the guy if he's from my world," the Japanese boy explained.
While the Emperor started searching his pockets for a photograph, he described him. "He's Asian, short black hair and circular glasses." David finally found the photo and handed it to Taizou. The brown-haired teen didn't recognize the man, other than that he was some sort of scientist. He had a big nose as well.
Then again, he had heard of a scientist from Yokohama disappearing. Maybe this was him.
"What about the partner?" Taizou inquired. David was actually ready with a picture this time. The man gave him an image of a purple mechanical monstrosity. "I definitely don't recognize the digimon. As far as his Tamer, there's a possibility that he's a scientist from Yokohama in my world."
A scientist from Yokohama? Why does that seem so familiar? Yuji asked himself. He thought about it for a few seconds before realizing that one of the people he almost sold a digimon to was a scientist from Yokohama, a professor at the university there. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember the name. It had been a busy few months.
Taizou thought for a few seconds. "Did you ask what he wanted?" the short-haired Japanese boy asked. "Then maybe you can resolve this without a fight, especially if sending hordes of Ultimate-level digimon doesn't work against this guy."
The Emperor thought about it for a second. "Okay, that's exactly what I'll do," he said, grinning. "And as for you, you'll be released once this problem is resolved, not a moment before."
Taizou was expecting that. Yuji on the other hand… "What do you mean?" The long-haired boy asked angrily, grabbing onto the metal bars that lined his cell. "He just told you how to solve your stupid problem and…"
"Can't you shut up for one second!" the Emperor snapped angrily, glaring at Yuji. "We don't know that he solved my problem. We'll only know when I test this little attempt at diplomacy out!"
With that, the Emperor rushed out of the cell.
###
Tadashi and the others finally made it to Dagomon's castle, a non-Euclidean nightmare of epic proportions that looked like it came from a surreal horror movie. About the only things that were remotely normal were the two statues of angels, though those were covering their faces. Coronamon felt somewhat unnerved by that.
"So, what do we do? Just walk up and knock?" Miki asked sarcastically.
"No, we barge in. There's no way this guy would accept anything less after declaring war on two, possibly three dimensions," Tadashi replied and they walked forward, past the two statues. Coronamon looked at them as they walked past, unnerved. He expected them to move at any second.
Then he turned away briefly before looking back.
"Uh, guys!" Coronamon exclaimed, frightened by what he had just seen.
"What is it?" Tadashi asked his partner. Gunter, on the other hand, realized exactly what was going on.
"Those angels aren't covering their faces anymore," the brown-haired teen remarked. And surely they weren't
"Are you sure you're not just seeing things?" Ayaka inquired.
"Look at the statues. Don't even blink," Coronamon told the others.
Ed decided to try something, pulling out his digivice and scanning the statues. "WeepingAngemon, Ultimate Level, Virus Attribute. Oh crap. So much for conserving our strength to fight Dagomon." The heavy American gritted his teeth nervously.
"What is that? Like a dark-digivolution of Angemon or something?" Abby inquired.
"No, they actually digivolve from Golemon," Coronamon explained. "I ran into one while traveling just after the D-Reaper. They only move whenever you turn away from them."
"Okay, I got an idea," Tadashi told the group. "All Tamers look at the WeepingAngemon. All digimon look at the door. As soon as we get into Dagomon's palace/castle/whatever, shut the door and lock it and run!"
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Ed responded. That struck Tadashi slightly. This guy wasn't questioning his orders even though the blond had yelled at him? The Japanese boy found that more than a little confusing.
"And whatever you guys do, don't look into the WeepingAngemons' eyes, okay?" Coronamon said, moving along with the rest of the Tamers. "You don't want more WeepingAngemon coming up out of nowhere."
The group continued on, opening the doors.
"That's a problem," Prokyomon commented as he looked into the castle. There were two more WeepingAngemon inside, both still covering their eyes.
"No kidding. I'm just glad I blinked just before we opened the door," Salamon commented as they entered into the frighteningly weird building full of disturbing creatures. The brick was grey and moldy, something to be expected from an underwater city, especially since the air was moist.
"Okay, at a count of three, we'll close the door," Tadashi said. "Abby, Gunter, can you watch the WeepingAngemon that are outside while Abby, Miki, Ed and I shut the doors and lock them?"
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Gunter remarked as the other spread out. He and Abby took turns blinking as Tadashi and Ayaka pushed from one side while Ed and Miki pushed from the other side. As soon as it shut, the group immediately locked the door up as quickly as possible, even as it was getting pounded from the other side.
The digimon continued watching the other two WeepingAngemon even after the door was shut. "Okay, similar plan. Digimon, you guys watch the angels while we climb the stairs to the next room," Tadashi told the group. "Hopefully that can be shut too."
"Yeah, so, other than the whole conservation of energy thing, why aren't we fighting these things again?" Gunther questioned.
"The defense of a WeepingAngemon is so high that even Mega-levels have a hard time defeating them," Coronamon replied, watching the two angels as the group climbed up the stairs and into a nearby room. Then they sealed that one as soon as possible. There was pounding on the door this time as well, even as Coronamon melted the door shut.
Then the digimon looked up.
Somehow, they were in the same room, just on the ceiling. The two WeepingAngemon were at the door that they went through. The group just stood there with their mouths opened.
"Okay, now that's just retarded!" Gunter exclaimed, grimacing at the sight of the two enemy digimon on the floor.
"At least they can't really get to us from down there. Still, I would stare at them in case they decided to come in through the door somehow," Coronamon told the muscular teen.
"Okay, nearest door?" Tadashi asked.
"Over there," Ed pointed at a single door across the room.
"Oh, and by the way, we got more company," Salamon told the group.
"She's right!" Ayaka exclaimed, pointing at the front door where the two other WeepingAngemon had just broken in.
"This is just getting more and more annoying," Gunter grumbled, slumping over.
"You said it," Miki agreed.
"Hey, we knew it wasn't going to be easy," Tadashi told the group, a bit annoyed that they would be acting that way.
"You know, he's right," Ed replied. There it was again: the black-haired teen actually agreed with the blond.
"You actually agree with me, huh?" Tadashi inquired, surprised, as the group made their way across the ceiling.
"I agree when you're right. You think I would just pick a fight with you because I'm angry with you because of yesterday?" Ed asked, grinning slightly. The group made their way to the door and opened it.
"Any angels?" Tadashi asked, still monitoring the four WeepingAngemon on the floor.
"No, the coast is clear," Ayaka replied as the group entered into the room. Coronamon made sure that the door was fused together all over, hinges, everything.
"That should keep them out for at least a little bit," the fiery lion said, clapping his hands. Then he looked at where they were at. "Oh, heck no!"
The room they were in consisted of various squares, some glowing a sky blue color, others not, all over a massive pit.
"What is this? Some sort of teleportation puzzle?" Gunter asked in annoyance.
"Oh, yeah! I know the way!" Keramon exclaimed, running forward and onto a teleporting squared. His partner immediately followed him.
"What do you mean you know the way?" the large German asked, following his partner. The others followed him as well.
"Great, couldn't he have waited? This guy's going to get us all killed," Tadashi complained.
"I can see the paths and where they lead!" Keramon exclaimed, smiling happily. It felt good to be important for once.
"How the heck can you do that?" Gunter asked, still confused.
"This is technology! And I can see the path!" the digimon shouted crazily. Before they knew it, they were all past the platforms. Gunter had to wait a few seconds before the others made it to where he was at. In the meantime, he checked out his digivice, specifically the mapping system.
"Can you not do that next time?" Tadashi asked the large German, who was leaning against the wall.
"Sorry, my partner can get pretty excited sometimes," Gunter responded. "By the way, looking at the mapping system on our digivice, it's pretty much useless."
Immediately, the blond pulled out his digivice and looked at that particular system. All the got was the current room and static. There weren't any markers that indicated where Dagomon could have been. Instead, they were currently stuck in the castle of a million mind-screws. He wanted to strangle the contractor for the place.
Still, right after they gathered together, they made into the next room.
The first thing they noticed as soon as they enter into the dank, grey hallway were the pillars on the sides, all transparent glass and filled with liquid. Inside the tanks were people. At first, the Tamers didn't recognize them as they walked by, even though they knew they needed a way to save them.
Then Ayaka noticed something. "Is it just me or does this guy look a little like Davis Motomiya?"
That caught the attention of the rest of the team as they gathered around the tank, watching the figure inside as bubbles came up from below. He definitely looked the part with the clothes, though he lacked the goggles that Tai gave him.
"You have got to be kidding me," Miki said, disbelieving. "Let me guess, that blond guy's someone too."
They looked that way as well. "TK," Tadashi mumbled. "And that girl with the bad dye job's Yolei. And Cody's over there too."
"So… They failed against Dagomon?" Ed asked, a shiver going down his spine.
"This is so creepy," Abby commented before looking over at another figure. "David?"
"What? What's Abby's loser brother doing here?" Miki asked before getting a glare from the brunette.
Ed looked down at the digi-code at the base. It was alphabetical unlike the others, so he pulled out his toy D-Terminal from his computer bag and started decrypting it. Sure enough, it came out to David Symanski.
"Still, what's the Digimon Emperor of Abby's World doing here?" Gunter inquired, really confused.
"This must be this world's version of him," Ayaka suggested, scratching her chin. She looked at some of the other figures, all of which may have been European or American. "Ed, can you decode the rest of the names?"
"Okay, I'll do that," the dark-haired boy responded, writing down the name of the next guy on a piece of paper. He was a skinny guy with pale, freckled skin and black hair. "Alan Falcon."
"Doesn't mean anything to me," Tadashi remarked.
"The next is Andrew Laino and the following one is Sergio Corona. Then there's Aaron Lightfoot and the last is Broc Larson," Ed continued indicating a blond guy, a Mexican of mixed European and Indian ancestry with full lips, a black guy and a pudgy brown-haired guy.
"What? Are there no girls on this team?" Miki complained.
"No kidding," Abby said in agreement.
"Maybe Dagomon has them," Gunter suggested, shuddering at the thought.
"Don't make me think like that," the brunette said with a shudder.
Ayaka decided to examine the devices along with Gunter and Keramon, starting with Davis'. "Any ideas on how to open these?" she asked, looking around for an off-switch.
"Keramon, any ideas, buddy?" the large German asked his partner, who was interfacing with the chambers.
"I might be able to get these guys out of here… Let's see…" the digimon wasn't his normal, goofy self. Seeing all this made him think of what would happen if he and his partner lost against Dagomon.
And then there was the idea that Dagomon's castle could come down on them when they defeated him. Not that it was that prabable, but he didn't want to take any chances.
Suddenly Davis's tank started to empty and the brown-haired Japanese boy slumped against the front of the tank. With that, Gunter decided to break open the glass and pull the kid out, which he did easily. The other tanks started to empty as well.
Davis opened his eyes groggily. "Kari… I must save Kari…" Then he passed out.
"How about this: a couple of us will stay behind and get these guys out while the rest take on Dagomon," Tadashi told the group.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Ed replied. There he was again, agreeing with Tadashi despite how the blond treated him.
"I'll stay," Abby volunteered.
"What?" Ed asked in surprise.
"I can't reach Ultimate just yet and besides, I'm not much of a fighter," she responded before looking over to the alternate counterpart of her brother. "Plus, I want to see what he's like in this world."
"Don't worry, we'll help out good, kyu!" Cutemon responded while healing Davis.
"I maybe I should stay too," Ayaka told the others with a bit of a smile. "Plus, you're going to need back-up in case this doesn't work."
"But you can reach Ultimate," Tadashi told her.
"And so can I," Gunter said.
"What about you, Ed?" the blond asked the heavier boy.
"I'm going with you so I can find out what this digimon has against me," Ed replied, determined to get this over with.
Abby walked over to him. "Be careful, okay?"
Ed smiled back. "You too."
Then she kissed him, to the shock of everyone in the room, especially Ed whose eyes were bugging out from the surprise. "Promise me you'll be safe," she told him, holding onto his hands.
"I will be," he replied back, even more determined as he went with the others. Tadashi felt a bit of jealousy and so did Gunter. Ayaka was just surprised.
So the four of them moved forward into the next room.
###
Dagomon got up from his throne and moved forward. He hated how such insolent humans could possibly come into his castle and invade it. They even made it past the Huskmon and the WeepingAngemon, much to his surprise.
"This ends now," the large octopus-like abomination said in a deep voice, glaring at the team in front of him. His room was much more ornate than the rest of the castle, even though it looked like the sort of place that Aquaman would be at home in if it weren't so gloomy. Also, the room had two children of light on display behind him, waiting for their maturation, Kari and someone else, a black-haired boy that looked almost exactly like Ed.
The chunky boy realized that if they lost here, Abby would be on display as well. Still, it disturbed him that the guy over there looked just like him. He knew his crest definitely wasn't light, since the Undersea Master hated him, though, and obviously didn't see him as the same guy as in the tank, meaning that there was only one person he could possibly be…
"First you violate my city of R'lyeh, then you break into my trophies and now you come here," Dagomon complained to them.
"Yeah? Well you took over this digital world and when that wasn't enough, you decided to invade three others," Tadashi told the massive octopus, who just laughed loudly and gutturally.
"Oh, is that the case? Well, I needed somewhere else to go after the Celestials of this realm decided to sacrifice themselves to seal the barriers between this world and the Human world permanently." The abomination was angry. "So, what did you think of those Huskmon. They telepathically change shape to look like the loved ones of any Digidestined that come across them."
"That was just sick," Ed shot back. "That you would do something like that shows that you're one of the worst examples of Digimon kind in existence."
Dagomon snorted. "Oh, really? Of course someone like you would say that, you with that horrific crest of yours."
Ed glared at him and so did the others. They didn't want to fight, but they knew that this was one battle they couldn't step away from.
And with that, his digivice emitted a slight red glow before it disappeared.
Tadashi decided to take the lead. "Super Digivolution Activate!" he yelled, along with the others sans Ed, who simply shouted "Digivolution Activate!"
"Coronamon digivolve to… Flaremon!"
"Keramon digivolve to… Infermon!"
"Syakomon digivolve to… Calamaramon!"
"Prokyomon digivolve to… Guepardomon!"
The stage was set for the fate of four digital worlds and possibly that many human worlds as well.
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A/N: Huskmon comes from the Mass Effect enemies known as the Husks, which were annoying little things. I remember when I first encountered them how they killed me a couple times… Man, I need to finish that game. It's like the only M-Rated one I own (I play Paragon, so it's more of a T for me).
And WeepingAngemon is yet another Doctor Who reference. Funny how I didn't really watch that show before writing this fic and now I'm in the middle of the fifth season (gotta feel sorry for Rory. Oh, and Amy's hot and Scottish. I'm ¼ Scottish on my paternal grandmother's side).
And I had a brief cameo as one of the failed Digidestined in this chapter. Good luck on figuring out which one. Not that I save the day or anything... heh. The rest are a few of my friends, random ones, most of which don't even know I'm writing this.
Also, have a guess as to the identity of Ed's crest? And does anybody have a good idea for Cutemon's Ultimate form? And Mega? Leave a review if you have one.