Chapter 25: Fallen Empires
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Disclaimer: No tengo los derechos a la serie de televisión, Digimon.
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When Davis got up, the battle going on over head was still raging and it seemed like the girls were having a far harder time than they should have, though since one of their partner digimon was a rookie at the moment, that may have been the reason why.
Still, the boy had no idea what was going on or where he was. Then he noticed all the others that were lying around.
"Oh, man! What the heck happened?" he asked no one in particular.
"Hey, Davis! I'm glad you're okay!" the brown-haired gogglehead looked over at his partner.
"Veemon! How I am glad to see you!" he exclaimed, grabbing onto the digimon.
That was when he noticed the Deep One headed straight for him. He checked his belt. There was no digivice. He checked his pockets. No D-Terminal either.
"Oh, man!" Davis exclaimed as the Deep One headed straight for him, its arm changing into a blade as it inched toward him.
"Davis! No!" Veemon got in between the two of them.
The fact was that Davis still hadn't digivolved Veemon to the Champion level yet. At the same time, he hadn't really seen a need to do so since he had the Digi-egg of Miracles with him anyway and he was going to use that against Dagomon. Unfortunately, plans changed and they ended up getting ambushed by thousands of those creepy abominations as soon as they made it into the Dark World to rescue Kari, meaning that he couldn't execute his plan like he wanted to.
And now he didn't even have his digivice.
Still, he was in danger. So he shielded himself, not knowing that the very fact that he was in danger would cause his partner to digivolve.
"Veemon digivolve to…! ExVeemon!"
The boy glanced up from behind his arms to see a far larger version of his partner that had wings too. In fact, he was almost too big for the room they were in. "V-Laser!" the digimon shouted, hitting the enemy digimon against the door, knocking it out. Cutemon immediately went toward it and used her healing powers on it, causing it to morph into Angemon before devolving into Patamon.
The implications were disturbing. "That's TK's Patamon… Does that mean that all the digimon were…?" Davis couldn't finish his sentence.
"Unfortunately, yeah," the unknown brunette that was Cutemon's partner responded. "By the way, that was a good save back there." She smiled at him. In some ways she reminded him of Kari, but American… Or something.
"Uh, thanks," Davis responded.
"Hey, Abby, come check this out!" Cutemon called out, motioning for her partner to come over. The brown-haired girl complied.
"Hey, Davis, do you know what the heck happened?" TK asked from behind.
"Yeah, seriously! Why am I all wet?" Yolei inquired, squeezing the water out of her purple hair.
"Not to mention pruny," Cody remarked, looking at his hands.
"You're not going to believe it, guys, we got beaten and taken here by Dagomon while our partners were turned into those freaky fish things that are his slaves," Davis explained, much to the shock of the others. Also, the American team was starting to move, though they were nowhere near consciousness. If they didn't regain consciousness in a couple minutes,
Davis decided to go see what Abby was looking at. There was some sort of hole in the wall where the Deep One that turned out to be Angemon hit and beyond that was simply darkness.
"Hey, Davis, do you think that you can blow a bigger hole, like near the center?" the brown-haired girl requested. He wondered how the girl knew his name.
"There seems to be something on the other side," Cutemon explained.
The brown-haired boy figured that it wouldn't hurt.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? This place seems pretty multi-dimensional," a blonde-haired girl with pig-tails inquired.
"Ayaka, don't you want to be at least a little adventurous?" Abby teased, smiling.
"Okay, ExVeemon, blow a hole in that wall!"
"V-Laser!" the digimon shouted, causing a few cracks to appear in the wall. The digimon attacked again, causing the wall to crumble.
The five Japanese kids and the lone conscious American looked out of the hole into the void, the only thing of note visible being the purple sphere in the middle as well as a few unconnected floating structures in the distance. "Whoa, that's pretty trippy," Davis commented.
"Wait, you mean we're floating in the middle of nowhere?" Yolei asked, incredulous.
"That doesn't make any sense," Cody remarked, scratching his chin.
"I reckon these doors lead somewhere," Armadillomon commented.
They group looked at the door that led away from Dagomon's chambers and saw that it was opened. And a pair of WeepingAngemon was standing right there. Worse was that the lights in the golden room were dimming at random intervals, causing the angels to change positions randomly.
"Oh no," Ayaka said. "Sanzomon, you think you can take them?"
"I'm not sure. After all that healing…"
"Let me do this," TK said, motioning for his partner to come with him. He wasn't sure how Patamon was going to fare against these two Ultimates, but he was going to try. Then he realized that he didn't have his digivice with him. Great… But I don't need that for digivolution. Not really.
A green glow appeared on his chest. "Patamon, are you ready?"
"I'm aching a bit, but I'll be alright." Then he digivolved as a green glow came from TK's chest. "Patamon digivolve to… MagnaAngemon!"
"What? He can reach Ultimate?" Davis asked, shocked.
"Don't you remember when they explained their journey three years ago?" Yolei asked, elbowing him.
"Yeah? But… What about the digivices?" the brown-haired guy asked.
"You don't need them to digivolve. They only make it easier," TK explained.
Davis still wished that he had his and that he could help in this battle, even as MagnaAngemon struck the first of the two WeepingAngemon with the sword on his right wrist.
Don't give up, man! You can reach Ultimate! Heck, you actually activated the digi-egg of Miracles when you fought Ken. That has to mean something. Davis refused to give up. That was one of his strengths. Miracles… Even if I needed a miracle, which I might, I wouldn't give in against these enemies.
Then, suddenly, a sphere of light appeared in front of him and a new digivice appeared, looking like a cell-phone of sorts that flipped two ways. It was colored blue and white and had three white buttons below the screen.
"You know what I think that thing is?" Abby asked, indicating the purple sphere. "That's the source of Dagomon's power. And then these rooms are all connected by portal somehow. That's the reason why this place's rooms are all over the place instead of leading to one another in a logical pattern."
Davis knew that he had to destroy it. He held out his new digivice and used his belief in himself to digivolve his partner to the next level.
It shined in gold, something that caused the purple sphere, along with the rest of the fortress, to shake.
"ExVeemon digivolve to…" The new form was heavily armored with a grey anchor-like pike on the end of its tail. "… Arresterdramon!"
The dragon attempted to strike the purple sphere of darkness with his tail, but it didn't do anything and it seemed to lack the luster it had before striking it.
Davis had to do something to help. "Hey, Arresterdramon, why don't you go help MagnaAngemon?" he suggested and the dragon flew up into the already-cramped room, trying to be careful not to step on anybody unconscious. That was about the time that Sanzomon teleported the Dark Ocean Digidestined to the canyon where Tadashi's team had started.
Then the dragon rushed forward, striking the first WeepingAngemon with his tail and cracking it.
###
Meanwhile, the battle against Dagomon was going better than ever, even though everyone was starting to feel more and more exhausted. Still, they were definitely able to take on this enemy far easier than before thanks to Tadashi's discovery of fueling their partners with their emotions.
"Crimson Beast King Wave!" the blond shouted along with his partner. The two of them unleashed their attack at once, blowing through Dagomon's water field and even landing a shot on the enemy digimon himself.
Then Miki and Calamaramon unleashed an attack as well. "Titanic Tempest!" she yelled out, unleashing the attack straight into the abomination's torso, heavily damaging him further.
"Network Grenade!" Gunter yelled along with Infermon, striking the Undersea Master and knocking him back near Ed and the two captives.
"Axion Beam!" MachGuepardomon shouted, unleashing a massive laser beam from the glowing disk on his chest.
Then he felt something else coming from behind. Looking in that direction, he saw that Kari had awakened.
The brunette girl realized that something was seriously wrong when she woke up and found herself surrounded by numerous digidestined that she had never seen before. She realized that she must have been kidnapped and taken to the Dark Ocean by Dagomon to be his bride. The very thought made her shudder until she realized that her friends had to have come to save her.
She also realized that they had failed.
The thought made the sense of justice within her light up, causing her to do the same. All Dagomon could do was stare at the light, the wonderful light that he wanted for himself since he was so far from it.
The girl's eyes glowed as well and she moved forward to face her captor.
Her partner, Gatomon, also felt it from the other room even as MagnaAngemon and Arresterdramon did battle with the four WeepingAngemon, attempting to destroy them even as they caused the lights to flicker on and off in the room. The cat moved toward the door to Dagomon's chambers and it opened.
And on the other side came Angewomon.
"Dagomon, you have committed many sins in your lifetime, and you must atone for them," the angel told the abomination, who was still fixated by Kari's light.
"What you did to me, to my friends, is something you must pay for," Kari told him.
"And what you did to my cousin and his friends," Eduardo added, his crest shining from his digivice as well. "I know that I'm supposed to love my enemies, but what you did was utterly wrong. The same with what you were going to do."
"Axion Cannon!" the black-haired boy yelled out with his partner, causing the yellow object on the center of the digimon's chest to shoot out a massive amount of energy.
"Celestial Arrow!" Angewomon yelled, shooting a beam of pink energy at her enemy.
The two attacks collided with the abomination, causing him to explode into data.
"Well, the building hasn't started collapsing yet," Tadashi commented.
"Uh, it will if you keep saying that," Miki told him point blank with her arms folded.
"Guys, I think the other guys are fighting those creepy WeepingAngemon," Gunter informed the group and the digimon all moved forward to help their allies.
Kari moved forward weakly, though Diego seemed to be worse off, causing Ed to help him.
"Who are you? You look just like me?" Ed's cousin inquired.
"I'm your cousin from a parallel universe, believe it or not," the pudgy boy told him, helping him across Dagomon's innermost sanctum.
"Very funny? And you're Antonio's son, I take it?" Diego joked.
"You guessed right. My dad married some chick during college, which I think you know about," Ed responded, causing a bit of confusion in his cousin.
"No he didn't," the identical-looking boy objected.
Ed nodded. "Maybe not in your world. Why do I get the feeling my universe is the only one I exist in?"
"Parallel universes? Don't tell me there's an infinite number of them that branch off from each other based on whatever decision you make like choosing strawberry jelly for your bagel instead of blackberry or something stupid like that."
"From what I know, there's only a couple dozen. From the looks of the dimensional corridor, there are six main ones and a few more that branched off from those somehow," Ed explained.
"So, what caused them? Were they always there?" Diego inquired as Ed led him into the other room. The fight with the four WeepingAngemon ended when MagnaAngemon used his gate of destiny on them and Arresterdramon and the other Ultimates except Sanzomon knocked them into it. The heavy boy let his cousin down onto the ground.
"Hey, where's the rest of my team?" Diego asked.
"I teleported them to the canyon where we started out in this world," Sanzomon explained.
"By the way, guys, you better come look at this," Ayaka said, standing on the edge of the break in the wall on the side of the stasis room.
What everyone saw surprised them. "This is where Dagomon gets his power," Tadashi guessed. "Did you guys try to destroy it or something?"
"When Arresterdramon tried to attack it, his tail started to change color," Davis explained.
"Maybe we should attack it from far away, then," Gunter suggested.
"Dude, I tried that too. It didn't do anything," Davis responded.
"It's darkness, so we should fight it with light," Kari stated before glancing over at MagnaAngemon and Angewomon.
TK nodded. "Okay, guys, let's do this," he ordered the angels.
"How about Sanzomon?" Ayaka suggested. "Technically she's a light type too, right?"
"That sounds like a good idea. Go ahead," TK told her, gesturing for Sanzomon to join the two angels.
At once, they attacked.
"Celestial Arrow!"
"Excalibur!"
"Kochou Mu-kyou!"
The three attacks struck the sphere of darkness, cracking it. The three repeated their attack, causing more fissures across the surface until a tenebrous fluid oozed out of the cracks, falling into the bottom before evaporating. Small bits of lightning crawled across the surface of the sphere as it broke apart before disintegrating into thousands of digital particles.
Then the shaking began.
"Great, this place is breaking apart!" Davis complained, grabbing onto a nearby pillar.
"Somehow I knew this was going to happen!" Tadashi exclaimed.
"Sanzomon, can't you teleport us?" Ayaka asked her partner. The Monk made a hand sign with her fingers and the entire group was gone from the collapsing castle.
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Throughout the city of R'lyeh, Deep Ones could see their lord's castle collapse into a mountain of rubble before water started to seep out of the bottom. Numerous cracks formed across the city until they reached the glass dome surrounding it.
Then the water started gushing in, filling the city with the corrupt liquid and condemning it to an even quicker death as it was inundated. Eventually, the city itself collapsed and imploded under the water, its inhabitants lost to the stormy seas.
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"Any idea where Diego went?" Carlos asked his team, trying to figure out what happened to the rest. The group was regrouping in the canyon they had woken up in, trying to make sense of everything.
The blond, Nick, simply gave a long shrug. The brown-haired guy, Jeff, spoke in his place, his voice deep and somewhat nasal. "You know, I have no idea."
"Can't we get a move on or something?" David Symanski asked, hating that they were just standing around. "First we get attacked and then we wake up here. We should be taking advantage of that, guys."
The skinny black-haired guy, Edilio, spoke this time. His accent was vaguely Italian and his voice was somewhat soft. "We need to stick together if we're going to get out of this world," he told the brown-haired guy.
"Right, and I don't suppose you have a way of beating that Dagomon guy who attacked us with his stupid army, huh?" David objected. "Or of finding Diego, 'cause I can't think of any."
"Hey, didn't that one guy say something about reaching something called the Ultimate Level?" The group turned to look at Nick. He definitely didn't talk a lot and had a tendency to put his foot in his mouth at times, but something about what he said was right.
"Oh yeah, you mean that message that we got on our digivices after we all reached Champion?" Jeff asked. "Okay, anybody have theirs?"
All he got was a shaking of heads. It was as if their digivices had gone missing.
A few seconds later, their partners came back with food. "Oh, hey, guys!" Dracomon exclaimed, running up to Nick. "You're awake!"
"Yeah, we're so happy you're all alright!" a Gumdramon exclaimed, wandering toward his partner, Jeff.
"Now, hold on a minute. You guys have any idea what happened?" the brown-haired, rosy-cheeked boy asked.
"We got beat by Dagomon," Solarmon, Carlos's partner explained. "Then these guys came and rescued us."
"Yeah, we were turned into freaky fish-things and forced to do whatever Dagomon wanted us to do," Gumdramon said.
"And you guys were all put in liquid jars and put on display like trophies," Candlemon, Edilio's partner, explained.
The group stood there quietly for a few seconds, trying to digest what had happened. It was about then that Edilio noticed Koemon standing with Diego's partner, Gaomon. "Gaomon, did you see Diego anywhere?"
The dog shook his head. "I have no idea where my master is."
"And what about the guys that booted us out of Dagomon's control?" Jeff inquired, grimacing.
"They said that they'd be here when they were done, supposedly," Gaomon told them.
With that, the team ate, hoping that none of Dagomon's horrors went after them while they did so. They were all famished, so the food disappeared rather quickly. It turned out that there was a forest nearby, but it was in the opposite direction of R'lyeh, so the Tamers that saved them couldn't go through it.
Still, they had a lot on their minds, even as they dined. They need to find a way back to their world and they needed new Digivices since it seemed that theirs were destroyed.
They missed their families and had no idea how long they had been gone. And their friends, too. They had no idea why they were chosen of all people for this task, but they wanted it to be over with.
A few minutes into their meal, Sanzomon appeared with everyone that helped save them. From the looks of it, the group consisted of a large number of Asians, a muscular brown-haired guy, a cute girl and two Diegos.
"Okay, can anybody tell me what the heck is going on?" David asked the group, grimacing.
"We just saved your butts," Tadashi replied, heading toward the team.
"Hey, so, how long were you guys in Dagomon's possession, anyway?" Davis asked, moving with Tadashi.
The team looked at each other with a bit of confusion.
"It's July 26, 2002, if you're wondering," Tadashi said.
The team's look changed to one of horror. "Wait, you mean we've been here for… eight months?" Jeff said.
"Eight months? That's crazy!" Jeff exclaimed.
"How do we get home?" Edilio inquired, not knowing what to expect. Davis looked at the others that had just arrived with Sanzomon, who was now back to being Salamon.
"We're all from other universes," Tadashi explained. "We can get back home using the dimensional corridor, but I don't know exactly how to get you guys back to your world."
"Parallel universes? Come on!" David Symanski exclaimed, not believing the group in front of them.
"Does your world have a Digimon TV show?" Ayaka asked the group, getting shaking heads.
"Well, we've got Pokémon, but other than that…" Jeff replied.
"Wait, there's a Digimon TV show in your world?" Davis inquired of Tadashi and the others.
"Uh, yeah, there's three seasons in our world," Tadashi explained. "One of them is about your adventures, but you never went here. You guys beat the Digimon Emperor, right?"
"Heck yeah! That was a couple months ago!" DemiVeemon exclaimed.
"Hey, you and me look an awful lot alike," Gumdramon told the blue dragon.
"Uh, isn't your in-training form DemiVeemon or something?" Jeff asked his partner.
"Oh yeah, now that makes sense!"
"What about Arukenimon and Mummymon?" Ayaka inquired, getting a shaking of heads from Davis' team.
"Never even heard of them," Yolei said. "Are they dangerous?"
"Well, Arukenimon has the power to activate control spires and turn them into digimon," Diego explained.
"Should we spoil the plot for them?" Abby asked.
"It's already off the rails, man," Gunter remarked, relaxing on the ground. "I mean, since when could Davis reach Ultimate on his own? And weren't the crests all used to heal the digital world or something like that?"
"That didn't happen," TK responded, wondering where anybody would get that idea from.
Gunter sat up. "So, you didn't go to the digital world after defeating Diaboromon?"
TK shook his head.
"So, now what do we do?" Carlos asked the rest of the group, who fixated on him.
"We should all get to the Dimensional Corridor as soon as possible," Tadashi told the group. "It won't take you guys back to the real world, but at least the rest of us will get back home."
"And how do we do that?" Jeff inquired, clenching his teeth.
"Well, uh… Can't you guys digivolve or something?" the blond asked.
"Dagomon took away our digivices," Carlos explained. The dark-skinned boy had no idea what to do exactly.
"That freak ambushed us with a bunch of Ultimates," Jeff added. "We didn't stand a chance."
"I got mine back. Or at least I got a new one," Davis told the group.
"How?" Edilio asked.
"Uh… I guess I just wished for it really hard or something," Davis explained. "Man, that was when I digivolved Veemon to Arresterdramon."
Just then, a digivice appeared in the air above Nick. The blond American grabbed it. It was the same color as his old one and was the same peculiar model that Davis' new one was. "Well, what do you know, it worked," he said simply, before opening it like one would a cell-phone.
"Quiet guy, isn't he?" Ed inquired.
"Got it," Nick said, seemingly out of the blue. The digivice then emitted a hologram of a blue humanoid digimon with yellow eyes. The digimon had a pair of ears that came from the head like a triangle, much like Shoutmon or OmegaShoutmon but far shorter. The digimon was also emitting a blue glow, showing that he was incredibly powerful.
"If you've received this message, your entire team has successfully reached the Champion stage," the blue figure remarked. "By now you have surely encountered a number of enemy digimon. Don't be alarmed, you will defeat them. My name is InfinityShoutmon and I'm sure you're wondering why you were brought here or why I chose you. Ultimately, it was because you were needed. I came to the rulers of the digital world, the Three Celestials: Shakamon, Magnadramon and ClavisAngemon and told them of a great evil that would originate in this world: Dagomon. They scoffed at the concept of a mere Ultimate becoming a major threat to the digital world, but I warned them that you would eventually be needed in case his armies got too big, so I gave them the D-Max digivice just in case, each of them connected to one of you so that they'd signal onto you and then open a portal to bring every one of you here. After the defeat of Dagomon, you'll all be able to get back home with the help of the celestials.
"Your next step will be to digivolve to Ultimate using the crests that are built into the D-Max's. When you reach that stage, I'll give you another message. Until then, good-bye and I wish you the best for your journey."
The hologram then disappeared.
"InfinityShoutmon?" Ed muttered.
"What's up, Diego?" Jeff inquired, not knowing that he wasn't talking to his teammate.
"That's the Mega form of Shoutmon, the partner digimon of a friend of my dad's," he explained, ignoring that the rosy-cheeked boy got him and his cousin mixed up like everyone else.
"Mr. Immortal?" Gunter asked, getting a nod from Ed.
"Mr. Immortal? Who the heck is that?" Tadashi asked, confused.
"He was said to be the most powerful Tamer on the planet until his partner got defeated during the D-Reaper war," the large German explained. "I met him once. Don't know much about him or how long he's been at it."
"He's a friend of my dad's and he's over 4000 years old," Ed said, getting astonished looks from the rest.
"Yeah, right! Like anybody could live that long," Miki objected.
"Can't we just get moving?" Tadashi asked the massive group. "Takato and the others are probably in the middle of beating that Digimon Emperor in the world that they're in."
Everyone agreed that the sooner they got going, the better. "Okay, man, we'll go," Carlos said, smiling, before willing his digivice back into existence
###
The Emperor David Symanski decided to visit the mysterious man using a hologram. "Oh, you actually came," the scientist said. "I'm honored."
David nearly rolled his eyes. Then he noticed the scientist kick a rock straight into his hologram, passing through harmlessly. The brown-haired boy really did roll his eyes then. "What do you want?" he asked.
"Well, I thought we'd have a nice, civilized discussion, maybe with a cup of tea," the scientist said, pulling out his giant digivice and causing an oak table to materialize along with a couple of chairs. The Asian man pulled out one of the chairs and sat down in it. "Come on, you know you want to."
"And why should I do that? Chances are you'll just try to kill me or something? Who the heck are you, anyway?" David scowled at the man in front of him.
"Because, if you don't, everyone inside that little castle of yours will die," the man answered the first question, giving David a mad look. "And if you're wondering, my name is Akihiro Kurata, and I come from a parallel universe with something that may interest you."
"A parallel universe?" Symanski responded. He had heard about that from Taizou and the others but didn't take it seriously.
"I'll show you someone I'd like you to meet if you just come and visit." Then Kurata smiled. "If not, then I'll just have to do this the hard way, killing everyone inside your precious little castle. You don't want their blood on your hands, do you, Emperor?"
"You can't digivolve inside an area under my control," the Emperor responded.
"Oh, but I can. You know what Armor Digivolution and Biomerge Digivolution have in common? They can both be performed inside an area with a control spire. This is due to them being similar forms of digivolution that employ outside sources to boost a partner digimon to a higher level. To illustrate…" Kurata moved forward and into an area that was governed by a control spire that he didn't destroy. "Biomerge activate!"
Suddenly, he was no longer there. In place of him was the purple, armored monstrosity that he used to kill a team of Tamers personally. "This is my greatest creation, Gizumon BT. I suppose you like it. He's actually stronger than most Megas." The mad scientist spoke all this with twisted glee. Then he noticed something on his sensors. "Oops, it looks like you're getting weaker!"
David gave him an icy glare before deactivating the hologram. That was when he noticed an alert on his power generator saying that it was losing power. He wondered how that could possibly happen. It had gone down to 98% before he decided what to do. Then he went downstairs into the dungeon and activated a device that would mask the digivice signals of everyone down there. "What's going on?" Taizou asked, getting up and holding onto the bars that separated him from freedom.
"Our little friend, Kurata, basically threatened to kill each and every one of you if I don't meet with him," David replied. "You'll be safe down here. Don't worry; I won't put your partners in any danger either. I'm just going to take an extra Blimpmon that I have lying around instead of Zeppelinmon."
"Wait, so you're just going to leave us here while you're screwing over the Digital World?" Yuji asked, confused.
"That's not what's happening. In a few minutes, I'm no longer even going to be Emperor since the source that I get my power is running out." David blamed it on Kurata, but he had a feeling that the madman wasn't even behind this. He merely had impeccable timing.
"All Tamers working for me must come down to the dungeon personally. All digimon must evacuate immediately and head straight for the outer edges of imperial territory," David spoke into the microphone. He had to work fast, even going as far as leaving his own partner, Koemon, behind. It was now or never.
A few minutes later, he headed to his hangar clear on the other side of that stolen castle where Blimpmon was. The power level for the generator was down to 62% by that point. Pretty soon, he wouldn't be able to control Ultimates. In the meantime, he had to meet with Kurata.
He should have struck earlier. But even then, there was a massive chance that Kurata would be able to defeat him outright.
So he moved on inside Blimpmon. He hoped that he would last long enough without the digimon slipping out from under his control. From the looks of the sun in the sky, it was about three hours until sunset. He hoped that he would be able to get out of this unscathed and head straight home, but somehow he knew that this was his last hurrah.
The generator level was down to 14% when Blimpmon landed a mere 100 meters from Kurata's location. Immediately, David disembarked and ordered Blimpmon to take off and go as far away from there as possible. Then he glanced at his digivice's info.
9%
He moved forward, ready to face Kurata. He knew he wouldn't have been able to win, even with his partner. Biomerge Digivolution wasn't a feature of the D-3 digivice and he had checked already when he attempted to hack it personally.
6%
He stopped about ten feet from the mad scientist. "So, how do you like my haircut?" the madman asked.
"I haven't seen you without it, so I have no opinion. Now, what do you want to know?" Symanski just wanted to get this over with.
Just then, a number of tentacles wrapped themselves around the deposed emperor's limbs, holding his arms upward. "How nice, you're sacrificing yourself for your friends. Or at least your slaves."
"Why do you want to kill me?" David asked, writhing in pain at his limbs being forcibly moved.
The madman then grabbed his digivice from out of his pocket. "I want to kill everyone that partners themselves with the abominations known as Digimon." Then he reached down and lifted up his shirt, revealing lines of blue all over his body. "You know where I got these scars?"
"I don't care," David told him. "Why are you doing this?"
"Once I had an enemy, a teenager who felt he could stand up to me. And what do you know? He did. In fact, had it not been for my last space-time oscillation bomb, I would have died." Kurata smiled widely, pulling out a knife and holding it for some reason. "Instead, I found myself about five years in the past in a different human world."
Then he grabbed his digivice, pressing a few buttons. The next thing he knew, David was staring at himself, sitting down at the table that Kurata had so graciously set for him. "It's time you met yourself."
###
Tadashi and the others flew over the Dark Ocean inside of Blimpmon. Actually, there were a few others outside, flying, such as Davis and Jeff, who were both on the back of ExVeemons. It turned out that the digimon had very similar digivolution lines.
He smiled, looking out the front window at the seas below and the skies above. The skies were starting to get less and less cloudy as sunlight started to pour through the gaps that appeared above. Also, the sea was starting to change from a dark grey to a dark blue. It would be awhile before the damage that Dagomon had caused to the environment of this world was reversed, though.
Still, he had something else that he had to do, even as he left the cockpit where Carlos and Nick were talking along with Nick's partner Dracomon.
It turned out that the quiet blond could get going on the right subject. Currently they were talking about some cartoon. Still, he was definitely not as social as Jeff, who quite literally talked to everyone he came across.
So, Tadashi walked to the back where Diego, Eduardo and Edilio were talking. It turned out that Edilio was from Argentina and that he had only moved to the United States just a couple years earlier. That meant that they had at least a few things in common.
"The only time I actually went to Argentina was when my dad decided to go on a trip just over the border and take me along," Ed said. "We didn't go all the way to Buenos Aires, though."
"Yes, I understand that. Santiago's a bit far from the capital of Argentina," Edilio responded.
"So, you know, your dad actually married someone in my timeline," Diego informed Ed.
"Yeah, who'd he marry? Actually, on second thought, it probably wouldn't matter," Ed said.
"Come on, aren't you curious?" Prokyomon asked.
"I am… a little." Ed was surprised to see Tadashi standing there and even more surprised to hear the blond say that. He smiled a little bit.
"So, what's up, Ted?" the half-Uruguayan tamer inquired.
"Ted?" Tadashi asked.
"Hey, I couldn't think of any other way of shrinking your name, man," Ed joked. "So, what's happening?"
"Ed and Ted… No, I'm not going to go by that," the blond said. "Can we talk in private?"
Ed glanced around. There weren't really any private spots to actually converse since the airship was so crowded. Still, he had an idea. "Come with me," he said. "You don't care if Prokyomon comes, do you?"
"I'm not bringing Coronamon, but sure," the blond said. He followed Ed up the hatchway and into Blimpmon's body.
"So, what do you want to talk to me about?" Ed asked, sitting down on a girder, not really knowing what to expect. Tadashi had treated him badly only the day before, so he was on guard. Still, he was ready to forgive him.
"Uh, listen, I'm sorry about what I said last night," Tadashi told the heavier boy.
Ed nodded. "What you said was pretty bad but I kind of expected it, I guess." After a brief pause, during which the dark-haired boy kept a neutral expression, he smiled. "Apology accepted." He then walked past Tadashi and patted him on the arm.
The blond was taken aback. "What? That's it?"
Ed turned toward Tadashi just as he was about to go down the hatch. "Yeah. Hey, we got along pretty well today, so I figured I'd forgive you. And you apologized."
Tadashi smiled at his friend and nodded.
Still, there was something that was bothering him. "Hey, you haven't talked to Abby since we left," he said. Ed came back up the hatch, somewhat embarrassed to talk about it.
"Uh, yeah, I don't know."
"She kissed you," the blond said.
Ed nodded. "Yeah, I don't know what to think of that. I… I just don't… I don't feel ready for a relationship or anything. And then there's how we're from different universes and everything."
"You can make it work," Tadashi told him.
"But here's the thing: it took work just to get to the digital world, much less the dimensional corridor. How often would be get to meet? And then there's the whole thing with our age. She's thirteen, I'm almost fourteen. How many people do you know have a relationship at that age that lasts?"
Tadashi paused for a second. "I don't know any. My parents met in high school, but they were both 17 and that wasn't a smooth ride for them. Heck, she basically ran off with him, screwing up her relationship with her parents."
"Yeah, exactly. And my dad doesn't exactly want me to date anyone," Ed responded.
"My parents too. My brother can't date until he graduates high school and believe me he's noticed the girls, not that they'd noticed him." Tadashi chuckled.
Ed nodded, getting up and sitting down. It was just as he was about to get comfortable with a conversation that they heard the intercom overhead speak. "Hey, everybody," Carlos greeted. "We're currently about to land at the dimensional corridor. Please get down into the cabin."
"So, I guess this means we're friends?" Ed asked.
"Yeah, we're friends."
###
After their goodbyes, Davis's team left for their world and Tadashi and the others left for World 6-1. It had turned out that the quarantine had been lifted just after Dagomon's defeat. Carlos's team had to continue on in their search for a way back to the real world, but they at least managed to say their goodbyes. Now they just had one last thing to do.
"So, you think those Celestials are still alive?" Carlos asked the rest of the group.
"Dude, I don't even know where to start looking," Jeff responded. "And did you notice that all those other teams had girls on them? How come we didn't?"
"Maybe we can ask the Celestials when we get there," Nick suggested, "if they're still alive."
"They better be," David Symanski commented. "By the way, you're not asking anybody to repeat themselves. What's going on?"
Nick thought about it. "I guess that when Cutemon healed us, she took away my hearing problem."
"You had a hearing problem?" Jeff asked, surprised.
The blond nodded. "Yeah. And now it's like I can hear everyone clearly. Weird, huh?" He smiled.
"So, let's get going," Carlos told the group, grinning widely. "Blimpmon can take us anywhere."
The dimensional corridor was located on an island. The world in front of them was definitely bleak. "So, you think there are any Digimon left in this place?" Jeff asked.
"We'll find out!" Edilio exclaimed, boarding the airship with the others.
Diego was the last to board. He looked out at the corridor, wondering what his cousin was going to be up to. From what he heard about the Digimon Queen, he had a lot to deal with. He smiled before heading into the airship and the hatch was closed.
A brave new world was ahead of them, ready to be explored.
###
Tadashi and the others made it to World 6-1 in once piece. Unfortunately, they found themselves in the middle of a desert. "So, any sign of their digivice signals?" he asked.
"I found one. Anybody know who the heck Samuel Krenzel is?" Ayaka inquired.
"Doesn't ring a bell," Ed responded.
"I met a Joey Krenzel, but he's a bit of a jerk," Gunter answered. "I wonder if they're related."
"This guy must be the Digimon Emperor. I wonder what he looks like," Miki said, envisioning a pale, skinny and spiky-haired blond man with icy blue eyes. "Maybe he's as hot as that Edilio guy was."
"So, we head that way to get answers?" Tadashi asked the group.
"What else can we do?" Ayaka asked.
"That won't be necessary," the group heard a voice say from behind them. Turning, they saw a woman with purple armor and a helmet that resembled a fox. Apparently she had teleported there just a couple seconds earlier, if the lack of footprints behind her were any indication.
"Kuzuhamon, Mega Level," Ayaka read off her digivice before Tadashi cut her off.
"You… You're the one that kidnapped our friends!" the blond exclaimed.
"Your friends were necessary to preventing the Digimon Emperor from taking over this world," the Mega responded. "Please, let me explain."
The group listened as the digimon told the tale.
###
A/N: Well, that's it for the little excursion into the Dark Ocean.