Chapter 24: Santiago
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Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, just the OCs. This is just a story written for my amusement. Mwahaha!
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Leaving for the US at the beginning of Summer Vacation was probably one of his better ideas, especially since the DNA test just came up positive and he had work off. Unfortunately, it was a little colder in Las Vegas than he expected it to be since it was winter there. Thankfully it wasn't as cold as some places.
However, as he waited in the courtroom for the trial to begin, he couldn't help but fear that it wasn't going to go as well as he had hoped. Glancing at his watch, he could see that it was already almost time to start. He prayed beforehand, hoping that maybe things would go a bit better than he expected, though he didn't hold his breath too much.
Then the trial started and he went up to where he was supposed to go, standing next to his lawyer as he did so. Looking over, all he saw was his ex-wife's lawyer and not her, something which he found strange. Surely this woman wasn't thinking of ditching the trial just because she didn't want to deal with him. Where was the logic in that?
"You did make sure she knew, right?" the judge, a middle-aged black man, asked.
"Yes, your honor," Antonio's lawyer responded. The man was quite plump and balding. "I talked to her personally and let her know that there would be a custody trial today. Of course, she responded by hanging up on me."
The judge was already unimpressed with that woman, and he generally gave women more of an advantage in these kinds of things.
"Okay, Mr. Gwevera, what makes you think you should have custody of Eduardo Diaz?" the man inquired.
Antonio stood and spoke, shuddering slightly at the odd mispronunciation of his last name. "Well, he's my son and he's been kept secret from me for fourteen years. If you look at the divorce papers for my marriage to his mother, you can see that there weren't any instances of abuse and that she ultimately committed adultery and didn't want the relationship to continue even though I offered. Also, I own my own house and I have a close relationship with the boy's grandparents who live around the corner from me, who are very kind and generous people. I also know some kids his age that would make good friends for him."
The trial only lasted a couple days, but the man was given full custody. His lawyer made sure to call his ex-wife. All he got was the answering machine which he promptly left a message on, explaining that Antonio would have custody of his son starting that Friday, the Friday before winter break began in Vegas.
###
Ed waited as the seconds remaining before school ended passed ever so slowly, wishing that the last five minutes would wiz by faster.
He thought about how boring winter break was going to be. Ever since his mother got custody of him, they never did anything and he hated talking to her. He cursed her, the secrets she kept and the DNA test that proved that Marcos Diaz wasn't his real father. And then he cursed his real father, the man that he would never see as long as he lived because his mother was like that.
He hated her.
Ed barely noticed the black girl a grade higher than him walk into the room and talk to the teacher, handing her a yellow slip. The girl was just a student aide and most likely it wouldn't involve him.
Except that it did.
"Eduardo Diaz, one of your parents is here to pick you up," the teacher spoke. The boy got up and followed the girl reluctantly, grumbling all the way there. He didn't want to see his mother and he wondered why the witch decided to pick him up early on a school day. She never picked him up. Heck, she was supposed to be working at that time. Things just didn't add up.
The boy glanced at his jet black digivice's clock as he followed the black girl out of the hallway into the courtyard. It was two minutes before school got out for two weeks.
He tried to think positively even as they neared the offices. Maybe his mother was going to take him to Chinese.
When he walked in with the girl, his mother was nowhere in sight. He didn't recognize anybody there, though he noticed a man stand up with a surprised expression on his face. The man seemed familiar to Ed for some reason. He didn't know why. He was just some fat man with curly hair.
Except that he was definitely not. Ed knew right then who he was from the tears going down his face. The man ran over to him and hugged him tightly.
"Ed… I'm sorry."
"You're… You're my dad," the chubby boy responded in shock. This wasn't happening. This was just some dream he was having.
After a few seconds, the bell rang and he left with the stranger that was his father. "Come with me. You have all your stuff packed, right?" the mysterious man asked, pulling Eduardo along.
"Uh, no. Was I supposed to?" the black-haired boy asked, being pulled along by his father.
"I got custody of you earlier this week. Your mother was ordered by the judge to have you pack your things," the heavy man responded, stopping briefly. "And I was told to pick you up today. She didn't tell you, did she?"
Ed shook his head. "No, I had no idea there was even a trial," he responded in shock.
The heavy man shook his head. "That woman…" Then he realized his mistake. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't talk about her like that."
"It's alright. She's a…" The twelve-year-old described her with an expletive. His father chuckled a bit after a bit of shock.
"You shouldn't swear, Ed," the heavy man told him after regaining his composure. "Rule one for living with me, no profanity in any language."
Ed laughed. He was just glad that he wasn't yelling at him, though the man didn't seem like the type to do that. "Okay, I won't cuss."
The man nodded before leading his son to his blue truck before directing him to get in.
"Nice truck," the black-haired boy told him.
"It's a rental," he admitted. "My real car's a motorcycle." The man started the car. "You know, I've been so tempted to just come here and see you ever since I met your step-father. I figured it wouldn't look good for the trial, so I didn't do it. That and I was a bit busy doing some work for a good friend of mine."
"How'd mom do at the trial?" Ed inquired out of curiosity.
The man paused for a second, trying to think out a response. He was nervous. They both were. "Well, let's just say that she didn't do so hot, especially since she did the idiotic thing and played hookie the first day," the large man said. "By the way, my papers showing that I have custody of you are on the dash. And if you're wondering, the name's Antonio Urrutía."
Ed stared at the man in shock. "No way," he said with a smile. "I'm related to Che."
Antonio looked mortified. "Not likely!"
"What?" Ed questioned.
"Well, here's the thing, Che's Argentinean and his kids all lived in Cuba if I remember right. I'm not. Okay, so we're both descendants of Basque settlers here in the Americas, but his came way later. Plus, I don't agree with his outlook on life. I'm definitely not a Marxist revolutionary." The man laughed as they stopped at a light. "Oh, no… I believe in God and I'm definitely religious."
Ed didn't know what to think of that. He wasn't sure what it would be like. Was his father incredibly strict like some religious parents? He hoped not. Actually, so far, it didn't seem that way. The man didn't yell at him for calling his mother a female dog, after all.
After a few minutes longer, they reached Ed's house in a nearby development. Las Vegas could definitely be summed up as endless suburbs once you got outside the Strip.
"Okay, I guess we'll need to get this over with before your mum gets home," the heavy man said. "Pack up everything you can, or at least all your clothes. I'm not sure if Lorena will let you make a second trip."
"You might want to help, dad. She's going to be ticked if she sees you here and she gets off at five."
"Good, we have two hours. To be honest, I'm surprised she hasn't shown up yet," the heavy man commented as he got out of the truck, his face turning to one of concern.
"Sheesh, dad, don't jinx it," his son reprimanded him.
"Oh, please, that old superstition?" Antonio asked, chuckling.
"Religious but not superstitious? That almost seems like a contradiction," Ed told him.
"Oh, no, my religion counsels us against superstition. Heck, we don't even throw rice at weddings," the man told him. Ed nodded as he opened the door to his house.
"What about the rituals you do at church?" he inquired.
The man explained everything as they wandered into Ed's messy room, namely that there really weren't any strange rituals. The bed wasn't made, there were clothes all over the floor and clutter all over the furniture. "Oh boy," Antonio said in shock at the sight.
"Yeah, if mom would have told me, I would have at least done my laundry," the heavy boy remarked. "So, what do your religious meetings consist of if they don't have any strange rituals like sacrificing goats?" It was a joke.
"Oh, that rumor again. Just because we don't have windows on our buildings…" Antonio chuckled, finding it funny more than anything before he explained what his religion actually consisted of.
Ed didn't speak for a moment as the two of them filled his biggest suitcase with dirty clothes with the exception of the few from his dresser. He also pulled his books out of his backpack and put them on the dresser before filling it with things such as his drawing pad and a couple of computer games. Then again, he probably should leave a couple behind. He wasn't sure how his dad would react to him playing Half-Life. He figured he'd also leave his X-Box behind. He figured they were going to be flying.
"By the way, since you're leaving your computer behind, I'll just buy you one at Fry's on the way out of town. The plane doesn't leave until about seven."
"Okay, that's good to know," Ed responded. He looked straight at the man's face and was amazed by how similar they looked. The man seemed to have so much sadness because of all the years that he never got to spend with his son.
"So, I guess we'll have to leave. Have any friends you want to say good-bye to?" the man asked.
"Yeah, I have one," Ed replied, knowing exactly who to see. "By the way, where are we headed? West coast, east coast, mid-west?"
"Santiago, Chile!" the heavy man responded. Ed stopped in his path, looking on with such dread.
"Wow… I, uh, don't know what to say," the heavy boy responded, locking and shutting his front door for one last time.
Antonio could tell that Ed didn't want to leave the country. "I'm… I'm sorry," he told him, frowning.
Ed was pretty somber even as he gave directions to his friend Matt's place.
###
The group faced Dagomon down. Their partners moved forward as the powerful digimon unleashed one of his attacks on them. "Thousand Whips!" the abomination yelled out, nailing both Flaremon and Calmaramon with his tentacles before aiming at the others.
When the attack nearly hit Guepardomon, the Champion was able to counter. "Spinning Cutter!" he yelled out, slicing the tentacles into tiny pieces and causing small amounts of pain to Dagomon, but not enough to damage him greatly.
"You'll pay for that," the Cthulhu look-alike grumbled as he saw Flaremon prepare an attack with his fists.
"Crimson Beast-King Wave!" the lion-like Ultimate yelled out, unleashing the attack on his enemy.
"Acid Ink!" Calmaramon shouted, barfing out a large amount of ink from her mouth. The two attacks nearly hit Dagomon, but the Undersea Master countered by summoning up jets of water that blocked the two attacks before they hit.
###
"So far, so good," Abby said smiling as her partner healed the last of the failed digidestined, her brother. "I wonder what Dagomon was keeping these guys here for."
"Whatever it was, it was nothing good. Now we need a way to get these guys out of here and somewhere safe," Ayaka instructed, grimacing. "Great, it's not like we can carry these guys anywhere."
"My Ultimate form can teleport anywhere she has already been," Salamon suggested.
"But that could take a large amount of energy," the blond objected.
"Plus, where could we take these guys, anyway?" Abby asked. "We're in the middle of the flipping Dark Ocean for crying out loud."
The girls thought about it for a few minutes. "How about that canyon where we started out?" Ayaka suggested.
"That's a great idea!" Abby squealed, barely containing her elation.
It was then that globs of black sludge came down from the holes in the ceilings above where the digidestined once floated, dropping down and forming into Deep Ones. The two girls knew that this wasn't a good sign.
Still, they needed to get out of there. "Super Digivolution Activate!" Ayaka shouted, causing her partner to digivolve.
"Salamon digivolve to… Sanzomon!"
The monk faced the enemy digimon.
"I have an idea," Abby told Ayaka. "What if you were to have your partner use her healing powers on these guys?"
Ayaka looked at the brown-haired girl with a terrified expression. "What? Are you nuts?"
"Hey, it works when fighting zombies in RPGs. Maybe it'll work here," the brown-haired girl explained with a shrug, grinning. "Cutemon, you do the same!"
With that, Sanzomon moved forward, placed one palm on a deep one's chest and forehead and used her healing powers. The former digimon screeched before shifting forms into an ExVeemon who quickly devolved into Veemon.
"Ow…" the blue dragon muttered before turning looking around. The two girls were shocked. The digimon didn't notice that, though. Instead, he headed straight for his partner. "Davis! I'm so sorry!"
With that, Sanzomon and Cutemon knew their mission, though it wasn't going to be easy. It took more effort for Cutemon, but the pink rabbit managed to convert a Deep One into a blue dragon known as Coredramon which quickly transformed into a small, green Dracomon.
Maybe the Tamers and their partners would make it out of that nightmare after all.
###
Dagomon took everyone by surprise when he launched a spurt of dark water straight at Flaremon, causing the digimon to scream in agony as steam rolled off his body. Still, Calmaramon was able to redirect the water before it forced devolution in the lion.
"Thanks for the save," Flaremon told the squid.
"Don't worry about it, honey," Calamaramon replied, grinning at the digimon.
"Spider Shooter!" Infermon yelled out, though the attack was also blocked by Dagomon's bursts of water.
"Great! None of our attacks are having any effect," Guepardomon complained in his husky voice, gritting his teeth.
At the same time as the battle above, the Tamers were trying to figure out what else they could do to help. "Here's an idea," suggested Gunter, "How about we go and get those two kids who are trapped behind Dagomon?"
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Tadashi responded.
"It's too dangerous," Ed objected. The blond wondered when he would finally find a point to disagree with the black-haired teen on. Still, it weirded him out a little that the guy in the tank looked just like the heavier teen.
"You're right. If you make contact with your alternate self, you could end up fused to him or something," the blond remarked. "Or at least that was what the Watchmaker said." Tadashi scratched his chin in thought.
"Fuse with your alternate self?" Ed asked incredulously. "What… How does that even work?"
"Beat's me. I just know that the Watchmaker said that there were time clones or whatever waiting for us back at home so that our parents don't worry about us," Tadashi responded.
Ed looked on in determination. He figured the guy wasn't him since he had the crest of light, theoretically and Ed most likely didn't since Dagomon wasn't drooling over him like some sort of T-Bone steak. If the guy was who he thought he was, that meant that the black-haired boy had to save him.
He looked toward his partner, who was having a hard time in the battle due to not being able to attack Dagomon. Plus, the raccoon was the target of a few of the abomination's techniques.
The figure in the tank brought back memories.
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Ed woke up toward the end of the flight as he heard the announcement that they were landing overhead in Spanish. He took a deep breath and noticed his father next to him, already wide awake, confirming to the boy that it wasn't a dream. His father was busy reading a book, wearing reading glasses as he did so.
The black-haired boy wondered if he was going to get used to all this.
After landing, the duo got their luggage and headed out the door. "I have a friend that's going to pick us up. Turns out he's got a kid your age," Antonio informed his son excitedly, smiling as he did so. The two had been awful quiet since boarding the plane. Ed just wondered if they were going to actually do anything fun.
"What are we going to be up to today?" the heavy boy asked his father as they exited out into the warm air. It was nice not having to wear a coat in the middle of December since they were now in the Southern Hemisphere.
"Well, it turns out my brother and his kids arrived in town just last night and we're going to have a bit of a family get-together at my parents' house," Antonio explained. "Don't worry. If you just want to hang out on the sidelines, feel free. We'll stop by my house on the way. It's only walking distance from your grandparents' place."
Ed didn't know what to do, really.
"Oh, hey, he's here already," the large man commented, pulling his luggage out of the building while his son did the same. "By the way, you're kind of a surprise for my parents."
Ed looked at his dad in shock. "Wait, you mean you didn't tell them?"
"Not quite yet… I'm not sure what their reaction will be to finding out that I had a son all these years without them knowing," the heavy man replied as the two of them edged toward the car in front. When they approached it, a tall man with light brown hair and blue eyes came out of the driver's seat. Since the man was obvious white and not Southern-European, Ed expected him to speak English. Instead, he spoke the local dialect of Spanish. The black-haired boy would eventually find out that there was a large minority of people of German descent in southern Chile.
Eventually the man named Rafael drove the two of them across the city to the eastern part of it, which was also the nicer part. After a few miles of driving they stopped in front of a small house.
"Alright, this is it," Antonio told his son. The two of them got out of the car and entered into the house. Rafael helped them bring their luggage inside.
"Well, it was very nice to meet you," Rafael told Ed in Spanish, shaking the boy's hand.
"Likewise," the black-haired boy responded with a smile.
"Well, I'm off," the brown-haired Chilean told the duo. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
"Alright, thank you very much," Antonio said, shaking the man's hand before he walked out of the house and left. After shutting the door, the heavy man turned to his son. "So, I guess we'll just take showers and head to your grandparents' place."
"Sounds like a good idea to me," the kid responded as he followed his father down the hall.
"By the way," the adult said, pointing to a room on his left as he walked down the hall, "This is your bathroom." Then he gestured to a room to his right that was right across from his own room. "And this is your bedroom."
Ed glanced into his room and then toward his dad as the man walked into his personal bedroom, taking his shirt off as he walked to the left into his bathroom. The black-haired boy had to guess that his dad was going to take a shower first and he was going to take one second. Looking at his bedroom, Ed felt that it was a little plain. Then again, it was most likely a guest room before his father found out about him.
Bored, Ed headed back to the room where the front door was located which was more or less the living room, and sat down on the couch, noticing the blue creature that was asleep next to him out of the corner of his eye. He looked at it closely and realized immediately that it was a Veemon.
He had no idea how to react to that one. How was he supposed to know that his dad had a digimon living in his house?
Still, the boy decided to wake the small dragon up with a bit of a nudge. After a couple seconds, the digimon woke up, groggily looking at Ed.
"What? Diego? What are you doing here?" the digimon asked, surprised and happy.
"Uh, I'm not Diego. The name's Ed," the black-haired boy responded, eliciting a bigger smile from the digimon.
"Ed! You mean you're my partner's son?" Ed sat there stupefied. "You mean my partner's here?"
"He's in the shower right now," the chubby boy explained, but the digimon jumped up anyway.
"I gotta go see my partner. It's been a long two weeks without him!" the digimon exclaimed, climbing over the couch and heading down the hall. Ed followed the digimon into his dad's room, worried about what he might see. "Hey, Antonio! What's up?" the digimon called out as he headed into the master bathroom. Ed glanced over to see nothing but a red shower curtain. He was actually kind of surprised that his dad had left the bathroom open in the first place.
Almost immediately, Antonio pulled the curtain to the side a little bit, only showing his smiling face. "Hey, buddy! What are you doing here?" the curly-haired man asked.
"I was bored at your parents so I came here to take a nap. Then I woke up this morning," the little digimon explained, getting behind the curtains. Ed was somewhat disturbed by the notion although Veemon was like a little kid and probably had no sense of nudity.
Still, he decided to answer some questions. "So, you're a Tamer, huh, dad?"
"Uh, yeah," the man answered from behind the curtain while smothering his arm with body wash. "I've been one since college, actually. You wouldn't believe the circumstances around the whole thing."
Ed's next question was a simple one. "What were you doing during the D-Reaper?"
Antonio paused for a second while he was in the middle of lathering the other arm. "Well… A friend of mine took me to the Digital World where we fought against some D-Reaper agents and a powerful and mad digimon." He hoped the explanation worked.
Ed simply nodded, even though his dad couldn't see him. "Uh, okay."
"By the way, you might want to put on your trunks here," Antonio told his son. "Your grandma and grandpa have a pool."
The heavy boy kept that in mind.
###
Later on they made their way to his grandparents' house on foot. That place was where he first met his aunt, uncle and three cousins. Well, one of his aunts and uncles, anyway. It turned out that his dad had nine siblings.
Antonio let himself into his parents' house, greeting his brother Geraldo with a wide smile. The man was also heavy with black hair, though his was straight and in the beginning stages of thinning. "Oh, and I have someone I'd like you to meet," he told the others.
"Let me guess, you brought back a wife from the United States that you didn't tell anyone about," Geraldo joked in a far deeper voice than his brother's. Antonio just laughed at that one.
"No, he brought back a long-lost son or daughter," their father joked, smiling. The man was a little bit shorter than his sons and was wearing thick glasses. Wrinkles creased his face; though he had aged fairly well since he was still in his late fifties.
Antonio laughed again. "You're right, actually. Ed! Come in here!"
Ed was hovering aloof outside the door, away from where anyone could see him. The boy was nervous about meeting his extended family. He wondered if they would actually accept him or not, especially since he showed up so late and so long after the others.
His fears were dissipated somewhat when he felt his father's warm hand against his shirt. "Ed, come on in. Don't worry," the man said.
Then a shorter man that had to be his grandfather popped up out of nowhere and got in between them. "Hi, you must be Ed. You look a lot like your cousin Diego, you know," the old man greeted with a smile, holding his hand out to shake.
"Uh, hi," Ed responded, accepting the handshake. He was still wary.
"So, where are you from, kid? I'd assume the United States since that was where your daddy spent his wild years."
Ed had to chuckle a bit from that. "Yeah, you're right. I was actually born in Lancaster, California."
"Not too far from where your dad went to school or from where my family lives," Geraldo remarked. "By the way, interesting accent. Did you spend some time in Argentina?"
The boy shook his head. "Nope, never been. My mom and step-dad are from Uruguay, though," Ed explained. He was starting to feel a bit more at home.
"Well, welcome to Chile. Hope you enjoy your stay," his grandfather said before heading back into the house. "Come on in! Family is always welcome!"
Ed moved into the family house. After a few more introductions, he went into the kitchen, turned right into the dining room and then turned left past a hallway and into the living room. His grandparents' house was definitely quite large.
What caught his interest in the living room was the sight of two of his cousins, playing chess. They were both skinny boys. The younger one had brown hair and eyes that were a lighter shade of brown from the other one, an older boy with his hair slightly spiked forward in an odd style as well as a pair of circular sunglasses. He had to guess that they were siblings and that they weren't the one that his father said looked just like him.
Ed figured he'd move forward and check out the game. From the looks of it, the younger one held an advantage over the older boy. While the older boy took his turn, the younger one glanced over at Eduardo with a bit of surprise in his face, though that didn't last for long as Ed sat down to the left of him.
"So, having a good game?" Ed asked in English, almost by accident.
The brown-haired cousin smiled. "I'm beating my brother. That's always a good sign."
The black-haired one raised an eyebrow. "I'll have the advantage in a couple of turns," he responded in a somewhat regal voice. Ed sensed a little bit of haughtiness coming from him.
"I'm sure…" the newcomer mumbled, chuckling slightly. From the looks of the board, the younger one had it in the bag.
"So, what's your name?" the younger boy asked, getting a look of confusion from his older brother.
"Fernando, why are you asking our brother that?" the older one inquired sternly, narrowing his eyes.
"Ed, Ed Urrutía, Ed Diaz, whatever. Just call me Ed."
"Okay, I'm Fernando and this is Ezequiel, or simply Ezekiel, like most English-speakers call him," Fernando responded. Ezekiel looked somewhat peeved.
"What is going on?" the skinny, dark-haired boy asked.
"Well, I figured out that he wasn't Diego because of the shirt. Our brother doesn't have any black shirts like that and he doesn't have any brown swim trunks. Plus, there's the black digivice on his waist. Our brother doesn't have a toy digivice. And finally the New Balance shoes are the wrong color for Diego." Ed was shocked by the younger boy's observations.
"I don't buy any of that, Fernando. In fact, I think that Diego's pulling a very elaborate prank on us," Ezekiel responded before glaring over at his cousin.
Ed chuckled. "Uh, no, I'm definitely not Diego."
"¿De dónde eres?" Where are you from? Fernando inquired.
"Soy estadounidense. ¿Y vos? ¿De dónde sos?" I'm from the US. And you? Where are you from? Ed asked.
"De Oxnard, California," Fernando responded. "Your accent is Argentinean."
"Uruguayan," Ed corrected.
"Plus, there's your pronoun usage," the brown-haired boy added. Ed wondered how some kid like this could know that much. He seemed way too smart for a kid his age.
"I was raised by my mom," the chubby boy responded. "And my step-dad. Both from Uruguay."
Fernando nodded in understanding. "So, you're Antonio's son?"
Ezekiel immediately got up, offended. "I can't believe you're buying into this? Antonio's a virgin."
"Yeah, somehow I doubt it. He was married you know," Fernando responded with a smile. "I saw the rings and asked him about them a couple years ago."
"No he wasn't," his brother countered.
"Yeah, I was." The group turned to see Antonio, who didn't like the subject of conversation that his nephews were on. "I see you met my son."
"I guessed that he was yours because you were out of town for the past couple of weeks and that was the only reason for you to go to the US that made sense other than vacations," Fernando explained some more.
"Yeah, that's what I was there for. Say, where is Diego?" Antonio inquired before noticing the black-haired boy stagger down the hall groggily with bed-head, equally as heavy as his cousin. He was somewhat surprised by the sight of Ed, but he regained his composure.
"Hey, the name's Diego," he introduced, shaking Ed's hand.
"Ed," his cousin responded, smiling.
"Wow, you look like my lost twin or something," the sleepy boy joked. "I see you met my younger brothers."
Ezekiel stood there shocked before falling back, fainting. It helped that the bedhead separated the looks of the two boys, but he didn't like being proved wrong.
###
"I'll go," Ed told the others. Tadashi looked at him with a bit of shock.
"Wait, didn't you say that it was too dangerous just a second ago," the blond asked him.
"Yeah, maybe, but Guepardomon's not really doing anything right now, so he can help me." Surely enough, the digimon were having a hard time hitting Dagomon because of his high defense using corrupting water. Already, there were grey blotches appearing on the digimons' skin and fur in places. They couldn't let this battle last much longer or else they would most likely turn into Deep Ones.
"Remember, don't touch the guy, okay?" Tadashi warned him. He was surprised that he was warning the son of the person he considered an enemy. Maybe he could get past that.
"He's not me. He's my cousin," Ed responded. "Guepardomon! Give me some cover!"
The brown raccoon headed straight for his partner as the pudgy boy ran along the wall. Every so often, he would have to dodge jets of fast-moving water which would splash onto him. So far, he didn't notice any grey blotches on his skin like with the digimon, but he refused to think that long-term exposure was a good idea. At the same time, the four Ultimate digimon were busy keeping Dagomon busy so that he didn't notice Ed moving behind his back.
"Spider Shooter!" Infermon yelled out, unleashing red laser beams from his mouth.
"Crimson Beast-King Wave!" Flaremon attacked.
"Acid Ink!" Calmaramon shouted.
The three attacks continued to get blocked by the enemy digimon's control of water.
"My turn. Thousand Whips!" Dagomon unleashed his tentacles, having them go straight for Flaremon who felt like he was getting lashed all over his body. It was agonizingly painful.
At the same time, Tadashi felt it himself. What the…? That never happened before! Then he realized that he was developing a closer bond with his partner much like Takato's team during the Deva battles. Such a thing could help them.
"Flaremon! Get him!" Tadashi ordered before yelling out, much like Takato in the battle against Vikaralamon.
"Crimson Beast King Wave!" both Tamer and Digimon called out in unison. This time, when Dagomon shot out the black water to defend himself, the jet turned to mist, filling up the room with water vapor.
Impossible, Dagomon thought, the corrupting agent only works in liquid water, not vapor!
Ed continued to make his way through the hot mist, heading straight for the stasis chamber that contained his cousin. The whole situation reminded him of sitting in the steam room at the gym with his dad after working out.
Just a little more… The humidity was getting almost overwhelming. He wasn't about to give up. This is for my cousin. Then there's my dad. There's no way I'm going to lose today. There's no way I'm not going to see him after this.
He finally reached the glass container. Now he had to find a way to break it open without injuring his cousin and without alerting Dagomon to his presence. As it was, the abomination was probably about to figure out that he had one less opponent going against him.
His partner was one step ahead of him. The digimon clawed along the sides of the stasis chamber, causing the yellow liquid inside to spill out slowly. Then the glass came off and his partner held onto it as Ed caught his cousin, letting the equally chubby boy down so that he was sitting down against the wall. Guepardomon walked over to the other chamber, the one with Kari inside of it, and did the same. Ed caught her as well, though his focus was still on the alternate-reality counterpart of his cousin.
Then a spurt of water came up out of the slotted ground, giving him an uppercut.
"You think I didn't notice you, boy?" Dagomon asked, fury in his eyes.
Ed got up sore. There was no way that he was going to let this evil digimon actually get away with all this.
"You look the same as the other kid that I kidnapped. Two children of light, one boy and one girl. I wouldn't say that you're the same person as the boy, but you look uncanny." The abomination smiled. There was a thick wall of water behind him, protecting him from the attacks of Ed's friends. "You know, I first defeated the Digidestined of my world shortly after they all reached Champion. I sent a squad of Ultimate-level digimon made from my Deep Ones. They are quite versatile, you know?"
Ed laughed before walking over to his cousin, who was starting to mumble a little bit. "They're also used to make Control Spires, aren't they?" the black-haired boy inquired.
"You are correct," Dagomon responded, grinning. "A smart boy. It's interesting that as soon as your father found out that you had a digivice, he delayed you in becoming a Tamer. Don't you know why?"
"Of course. It's was because my crest was Desire and because the digimon I designed was too volatile. Funny how you fear that."
"No, I don't. And it's no longer your strongest trait. If it were, I could have you join my side since it's a corrupted crest. Unfortunately, you purified it."
Desire, purified… The truth of the matter was that his crest was one of the reasons he was afraid of digivolving to the Ultimate Level. Now that he realized what the abomination meant…
"So, now, I'm going to kill you. Or… Maybe I should kill your cousin first. After all, he didn't really master his crest of light before I defeated his team." Dagomon smiled underneath the tentacles.
Ed wouldn't allow that to happen.
"Leave him alone! Don't mess with my family, Dagomon," the boy snarled.
"Ed, keep your anger under control," his partner advised.
The black-haired boy nodded. He was going to defeat this digimon, but only because it was necessary. There was no way he was going to allow this enemy to blight the worlds any more than he already had.
He thought about his father and how he wanted to see him again.
He thought about his friends Matthias and Gustavo or Gus and how he wished they could all be together, hanging out.
He remembered his cousins Ezekiel and Fernando as well as all the other kids in his massive extended family. Then he glanced over at his unconscious identical cousin, Diego. There was no way that he would let this abomination turn him into a tool for breeding or something equally twisted.
He glanced over at Kari. There was no way she deserved the fate that Dagomon had in store for her. No way…
And the greatest of these is love… The end of a scripture floated through the pudgy boy's mind and his digivice had the crest's symbol come across its glowing red screen.
And then it exploded.
SUPER DIGIVOLUTION_
"Guepardomon digivolve to…!" The new form had massive amounts of blue armor appear all over its body and limbs along with a glowing, light blue generator in the middle of the chest. Also, there were jet wings on his back as well as a jetpack that would allow travel at astonishingly high speeds. In addition, there were gloves that could extend claws of pure energy on the humanoid raccoon's hands.
"… MachGuepardomon!"
"MachGuepardomon…" Diego mumbled before opening his eyes widely. Right in front of him was someone who looked just like him, holding out his digivice. He got up weakly. Being in that stasis chamber hasn't helped with his muscle mass and bone density. "No way…"
He looked to his right to see a Japanese girl that he didn't know looking with similar amazement.
Dagomon was also shocked. Unfortunately for the abomination, he let his guard down causing the wall of water to come down and giving the digimon behind him the opportunity to attack him.
"Burning Beast King Fist!" Flaremon yelled, nailing the abomination in the back, singeing it. "You know, I've always like a little calamari."
Dagomon glared at him. "There's no way that I'm going to lose here, you imbeciles!" he yelled out.
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A/N: Yeah, sorry for those of you who didn't want a chapter with lots of flashbacks… It kind of came out that way on accident. Also, I was intending to have them defeat Dagomon here, but unfortunately, this chapter was getting just a little too long and so I split that off into Chapter 25: Fallen Empires (working title).