Chapter 28: The Long Way Home
###
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
###
The multiple-proximity alarm woke everyone up at three in the morning, including Rika, who immediately shot out of bed and headed straight for her dresser to put on her combat clothes. Takato took about a minute longer to slide out of bed before heading to his dresser on the opposite side of the room.
"Wow, goggle-head, taking your time, are you?" Rika teased him with a smile as she slipped on her pants before grabbing her bra.
"Uh, yeah, it's like three in the morning," the brown-haired Tamer responded, putting his shirt on as quickly as he possibly could. "Plus, it doesn't help that we were busy until late last night."
Rika smiled at him, putting on her shirt and finally her jacket before grabbing her shoes. "So, when we get back home, where do you want to go for a vacation?" the red-head inquired, putting her boots on before tying them.
"Uh, I don't know. Hawaii, maybe. I've never been out of Japan." Takato put his pants on. "At least we had a honeymoon."
"Yeah, though it was kind of ruined when the Emperor attacked," the red-head said, rolling her eyes. "Still, it was nice to get off the continent for once. And the two days before the attack were fun."
Takato gave her a smile. "Yeah, what was with you wanting to go skinny-dipping all the time, anyway?"
Rika shrugged before getting up and heading out the door. "I don't know. It's been a couple years."
Takato smiled. They've had their ups and downs but at least they were happy. They were one.
He finally put on his boots and walked out. Guilmon and Renamon were in the next room. On a normal day, Guilmon would have been curled up like a dog on his bed but today he was up and alert. "What's going on, Takato?" he asked.
"I don't know, buddy. That's what we're going to find out," the goggle-headed Tamer responded before following his wife and her partner downstairs. He liked the wooden complex but at the same time, he looked forward to getting back to the real world. Maybe after getting Rinchei and Kurita to Mega… The two Tamers only just reached Ultimate, so that was a few months off, still. At least they had fresh blood, though, along with fresh perspectives on everything.
The brown-haired teen finally reached downstairs where he found Rinchei, wearing the standard uniform. It was actually one of Henry's. Kurita had attempted to wear a uniform, but it was too small and a bit of gut was appearing from the bottom, grossing out both Takato and Rika. The blond finally decided to take off the shirt and just wear the jacket over his one shirt, even though he had to wear that open.
"They still haven't gotten you a fit for this, huh?" Henry asked.
"Uh, no," Kurita responded with a lopsided smile.
"Don't worry, buddy, we'll get you something at actually fits after this whole battle is over with," Kazu assured him.
"But, what if this is the final battle that I heard about the other day?" Kurita inquired.
"Yeah, right," the tall man responded with a grin. "One thing I've learned is to not trust dudes that could save us but don't."
"Then again, if he saved us, then the Emperor would be free to take over this entire world. Think about that for a second," Rika responded, giving him food for thought.
"So, what are we going to do?" Rinchei asked the group coolly. Takato gestured for him to follow. They walked through a number of corridors, past the gyms and pool area and into a room with a large train.
"Hey, Trailmon, ready for lift-off?" Takato asked the train as the doors opened to get on.
"Most certainly, Takato Matsuki," the train responded, letting the goggle-headed Tamer and his entire team get on. As the team sat down, Takato asked the team some questions. "Okay, so what's going on, exactly?"
Henry was the first to speak. "According to our sensors, there's an entire army of digimon going across Imperial territory and headed toward us. They just reached the borders a few hours ago."
"Okay, what's the status of the Emperor's territory?" Takato asked, and Kenta responded.
"Uh, you won't believe it, but… It's shrinking." The entire team looked at the shorter man with surprise and disbelief.
"No way, maybe that's a sign the generator failed or something," Kurita suggested, his mouth opened wide.
"So, how far is the nearest group of enemy digimon?" Takato asked.
"About twenty miles from the compound. We should be there in a few minutes," Henry said.
"Alright, I'll need everybody on the roof except for Kurita and Rinchei," Takato ordered. "When you get there, get on standby so you can all biomerge. Rinchei, Kurita, send your partners up and prepare to digivolve them to Ultimate. Just stay here until the battle's over."
The two of them nodded. As the only ones who couldn't biomerge, this was quite possibly the safest place they could be during the whole fight.
###
Henry frowned at the sight of the numerous digimon heading straight for them. Except that it looked almost like some of them were running away from others. He pulled out his binoculars and saw that the ones running away were all Champion-levels with dark rings, inactive due to them being outside a Control Spire's influence. The other Digimon, Ultimates and Megas, were destroying the Champions.
"Oh, crap, that's freaky!" Kazu exclaimed.
"We've got to save them," Takato said, disturbed at the sight.
"But there are so many," Rika responded, trying to be realistic.
"She's right," Henry agreed.
"Then what should we do?" the goggle-headed leader asked.
"I'd say we save them, even though it's the boneheaded thing to do," Terriermon said, his normal cheer replaced with concern.
Takato nodded. "Then let's do that. Everybody, biomerge but don't go any further. Biomerge Activate!"
"Guilmon biomerge to… Gallantmon!" the red dino shouted, merging with his partner to become a familiar white-armored knight.
Everyone else said the same phrase, including Kenta. "Biomerge Activate!"
"Terriermon biomerge to… MegaGargomon!"
"Renamon biomerge to… Sakuyamon!"
"Cyberdramon biomerge to… Justimon!"
"Guardromon biomerge to… HiAndromon!"
"MarineAngemon pipipiipi… Aegisdramon!"
"Liollmon digivolve to… LoaderLiomon!"
"Dorumon digivolve to… DoruGreymon!"
The six Megas and two Ultimates immediately flew off of the stopping train and headed straight for the line of digimon, but they were stopped along the way by a golden-armored digimon.
Kurita looked on from inside the train and used his digivice to identify the digimon. "Jupitermon, Mega Level, Vaccine. Oh crap, why do I get the feeling this is the last of the Olympus XII for them to fight?"
Rinchei looked on in fear as well. "Yeah, that thing better not hurt my little brother," he said, his fists clenching at the thought.
Back on the battlefield, Takato gave out orders. "Kenta, take this guy on with Aegisdramon. The rest of us will go after the crowd."
So they did. The five Megas and two Ultimates immediately started to take on whatever Ultimates they could find, immediately aiming for the dark spirals on various body parts. They had to do it fast, so there were times when they were forced to cut open limbs because of that. Still, the Ultimates they freed realized that it was a necessary pain and so they started fighting alongside them against the myriads of Ultimates. Thankfully, the Megas were far rarer than the Ultimates, though due to their superior strength, a number of them managed to delete multiple Ultimates at a time.
Meanwhile, Aegisdramon faced Jupitermon, unleashing volleys of missiles at the leader of the Olympus XII while the god struck with fists and special attacks.
"Ma Bolt!" Jupitermon shouted out, unleashing a massive lightning bolt against Aegisdramon, who felt excruciating amounts of electricity go through his body, shorting out a number of his systems.
"We've got to do something now. He's got an elemental advantage over us," Kenta told his partner, who responded with a number of pi's.
As the giant cyborg rose up, he decided to go all out, unleashing numerous volleys of missiles against Jupitermon. "Shine Breaker!"
The god, after sustaining large amounts of damage, responded with strikes from his fists, going along the hull of the entire machine digimon and hurting him.
"Come on!" Kenta shouted from inside his partner's Mega II form, feeling the pain as he did so.
Then the attack came to a standstill and Jupitermon just stopped before floating over to Aegisdramon, who was more than ready to fight him off. The god then proceeded to rip off both the bomb on his back and the dark bangle that was attached to his arm.
"Hey, Kurita, what's the status of the Digimon Emperor's territory?" the shorter man asked from inside his partner. This strange behavior from Jupitermon made him wonder if the Emperor had suddenly lost the ability to control Megas.
The blond heard from an open window. He pulled out his digivice immediately, panicking slightly as he did so nervously. Then he turned on the holographic projection and checked out the map. He then scanned the nearest spire, which was more than a kilometer. "Uh, it's at about 74%. The output is at about the same for the entire empire although the territory still looks like it's shrinking."
Kenta thought about that. "No way, so that means that… His empire's collapsing on itself or something," the shorter man stuttered.
"Yes, it would seem that way," Jupitermon said in a baritone.
Kurita thought of a reason for that and decided to voice it to Kenta. "Maybe when the power gets down to a certain level, the Emperor can no longer control higher-leveled digimon. Plus, the spires on the outskirts are all being disabled."
Kenta nodded and so did Jupitermon. "That fight sure was anti-climactic," he said, somewhat thankful that it was, actually.
"Unfortunately, the Emperor had another trick up his sleeve," the gold-armored god commented.
Kurita didn't like the sound of that, so he checked his digivice for any digimon of extraordinary power level. There was a signal headed straight for them, a huge one. "Oh, crap!"
"You can detect it?" Jupitermon asked before speaking with tinges of guilt. "I helped build it. Of course, that was against my will, but still…"
"What is it?" Kurita asked, getting out of the train. The battle was slowly coming to an end and he figured that it wouldn't go near him. Of course, there were bound to be numerous digimon along other parts of the border as well as digimon that were still crossing over from the other side of the Emperor's lands, but he would worry about them later. The heavy man needed to know about this.
Jupitermon's tone was flat. "An unholy fusion of four digimon: Darkdramon, BanchoLeomon, Valdurmon and Sleipmon, UltimateChaosmon."
"Oh, crap," Kenta said from inside Aegisdramon, feeling complete dread from the sight of such a powerful digimon.
"Wait, so it's the fusion of those four digimon. I don't even recognize the names," Kurita told Kenta.
"We encountered two Chaosmon on two different occasions," Kenta explained, his voice trembling. "They… they were some of the most deadly digimon we've ever come across. The first, a regular Chaosmon was the battle when I first biomerged. Then we came across Chaosmon Valdur Arm. Kazu almost didn't make it out of that one. He got a higher form out of it, but he was still unable to move until Kuzuhamon came and cured him. If this guy's a fusion of four of them… We're screwed."
"What is it about them that makes them so powerful?" Kurita asked and Jupitermon answered.
"They're unstable Mega IIs. In fact, their very existence threatens the Digital world." The god clenched his fists. He hated that he made them.
"Yeah, when we met Chaosmon, we thought he was just another Omnimon knockoff," Kenta said.
"Well, we'll have to take this guy on ourse…" Kurita heard a blood-curdling scream in the background and turned to see something come across the plains, seemingly coming in and out of existence. The heavy man swore in German before covering his mouth.
The creature that was tearing through the lines of digimon, deleting many of them and loading their data, was a massive conglomeration of parts, looking like they came together haphazardly. It had multiple limbs, wings, a couple of dragon heads and numerous smaller limbs coming from the bottom, which could barely be considered a body. The creature also had a pair of orbs that the other parts surrounded. Not to mention, it was massive. The digimon that it attacked all screamed as they were torn apart and loaded into it.
"UltimateChaosmon, Tier III Mega, No Attribute, Attacks: Broken Destroy, Ultima Burst," Kurita read in horror from his digivice. "Oh crap… This is absolutely nuts!"
###
Takato felt the presence of the powerful enemy digimon through Gallantmon and turned to see the abomination that was UltimateChaosmon, tearing digimon apart piece by piece. The goggle-headed Tamer also noticed that the ground below the unique digimon was gone, destroyed by the abomination.
At that point, most of the Ultimate digimon were now taken out, so he decided he had to face the Emperor's most powerful weapon. He had heard about it from Kurita, but he had no idea what it was until now. "Guys, go after that thing and go all out!" Takato shouted.
The rest nodded from inside their Mega forms, realizing that there was a chance that they wouldn't have the power needed to take on the Emperor himself after this was all over.
Now was the time.
"Gallantmon mode change! Crimson Mode!"
"Sakuyamon mode change! Kabuki Mode!" The shaman's new form was that of a white-clad miko wearing red trousers, ready to perform whatever rituals were needed.
"Justimon digivolve to… Fujinmon!" The Kamen Rider digimon's new form was that of a green-armored warrior with a ring coming out of his back as well as massive blades for arms.
"HiAndromon digivolve to… Craniamon!" The Android's new form was that of a silver-armored knight with a massive sword as well as armor all over his body.
Only MegaGargomon was without a new form to take on UltimateChaosmon with. Still, they acted together, ready to prevent any more deaths at the hands of that world's Digimon Emperor.
"Quo Vadis!" Gallantmon Crimson Mode yelled, unleashing a beam of red light intended to convert UltimateChaosmon into electrons.
"Amethyst Wind!" Sakuyamon Kabuki Mode yelled out, unleashing a volley of pink cherry blossoms.
"Mega Barrage!" MegaGargomon yelled, unleashing all his ammo against the enemy in a single shot.
"Marut Cyclone!" Fujinmon shouted, spinning into UltimateChaosmon with his arms extended, slicing into the extremely powerful digimon's body.
"Shock Ringer!" Craniamon called out, spinning his sword at high speed and slicing through UltimateChaosmon's body.
"Shine Breaker!" Aegisdramon yelled, unleashing every single missile he had against the massive abomination.
"Ma Bolt!" Jupitermon shouted, releasing as much energy as he possibly could against the abomination. And he wasn't the only one. Every single digimon in the area, ranging from the newly-freed Champions and Ultimates to the scattered Megas amongst the group unleashed every attack they possibly could. Even LoaderLiomon and DoruGreymon were in on the action, attacking the unique digimon.
"Broken Destroy!" the abomination yelled, destroying hundreds of digimon easily. Their screams echoed through the early-morning air. However, even if that was meant to frighten his enemies, it backfired since all it did was spur the massive army of digimon to continue on with their attacks. The Unique digimon didn't stand a chance as it was torn asunder by the multitude until it had so many hole in its body and in its twin digicores that it couldn't maintain its form any longer and disintegrated.
The battle was over.
###
After everything was said and done, Jupitermon promised the Tamers that he would guide the multitude so that every vestige of the Emperor's cruel reign was gone. In the meantime, Takato and his team rode the Trailmon along the deep rifts that UltimateChaosmon had caused. The trail ultimately led them to the Emperor's citadel, a large black fortress along the shore. It was at about noon by the time they reached it and when the train stopped in front of the obsidian fortress, the team had an unexpected visitor waiting for them: Kuzuhamon.
"You made it," the purple-clad shaman said, smiling.
"Yeah, the Emperor made a last-ditch attempt to destroy the digital world," Takato told Kuzuhamon as he got off along with Guilmon.
"The other areas weren't quite so lucky, I'm afraid," the purple-clad Mega remarked.
"What about the Emperor?" Ryo inquired, standing alongside Monodramon.
Kuzuhamon remained silent for a couple seconds. "Unfortunately, when I got here, the rest of the Digimon that had endured under his rule had arrived as well. And they were tearing the Emperor apart, limb from limb." The team gasped in horror.
Rika shook her head. "Even though he was such a horrible ruler, he may have been influenced by a dark spore. We should have at least attempted to remove that."
"That means he's dead. What about the body?" Henry inquired, feeling queasy from the thought of the Emperor getting killed like that.
"Unfortunately, much like digimon when they die, he disintegrated into nothingness," the purple-clad Mega responded, sadness in her voice.
"There had to be another way," Ryo said, remembering what he had heard about the effects of Milleniummon's spores upon his old friend Ken.
"Unfortunately… He's gone," Kuzuhamon told the group.
###
Back in the present, the team looked upon the purple-clad Mega in shock at what they had just heard. "After that, I took Takato and his team to the Dimensional Corridor, from which they went back home to their digital world. At the same time, Kurita and Rinchei decided to check the Dark Ocean for any sign of Akihiro Kurata or the Dimension Key."
"So, we came all this way for nothing…" Tadashi mumbled. And they're adults too… Wait, was that what the old clock guy said was going to turn me evil? The blond stood for a few minutes, thinking about that and hoping that such a reaction to the revelation of the fate of Takato's team may have been averted.
"You can't say that it was all for nothing," Ayaka assured him with a smile. "At least we defeated Dagomon and stopped the Emperors indirectly."
The blond boy nodded back. "Yeah, I guess you're right. And that helped Takato and the others too," he concluded. "If we hadn't done that, they would still be stuck fighting the Emperor that they went up against."
"Yeah, all that's left is for us to go to Abby's world and stop her brother," Coronamon told his partner.
"Sounds like a good idea to me. Let's get going!" Tadashi cheered the team. However, when he looked at them, he realized that they were all exhausted.
"How about this: since this world is a lot faster than ours timewise, why don't we relax here for a day?" Ed suggested.
"Sounds like a good idea to me!" Miki exclaimed.
"Definitely," Gunter said, grinning.
"Maybe we can go to the beach or something," Ayaka suggested.
"You know, the Emperor's digivice looks like it's right by the beach," Ed informed the group.
"That's because the Emperor's fortress was along the shore. If you want, I can teleport you there," Kuzuhamon suggested. However, she didn't really want any of them to stumble on anything they shouldn't… She decided against her better judgment, feeling that if they did find something, that she could just dispose of them.
"Alright!" the team exclaimed, happy to get a free day off.
###
As soon as they got to the beach, the boys and girls went to separate changing rooms to shower and change into swimsuits. While showering, Ed and Gunter had a bit of a conversation while Tadashi listened on. There were partitions between their showers so they didn't have to see anything they didn'' want to.
"So, what if instead of going swimming, we went looking for the Emperor's digivice?" Gunter suggested, rubbing soap over his chest.
"That sounds like a good idea. Nothing like an old-fashioned scavenger hunt, right?" the heavy American replied enthusiastically while washing his hair. Plus, that way I might delay talking to Abby for a little bit.
Tadashi just shrugged. "I don't know… I just want to relax."
"Yeah, but here's the thing: I don't trust Kuzuhamon. Heck, she kidnapped Takato and the others, right?" Gunter asked, grinning despite the lack of eye contact.
"You know, neither do I," Ed informed the large German the next shower over as he shut off his faucet.
"What are we going to do if we have to confront her? Go Mega?" Tadashi inquired.
"Hey, if we have to... We all know how to do it so it's only a matter of time before someone does it, right?" Gunter responded, grinning wider.
Ed was drying off his back as he thought about it. "How about we try to avoid running into her or any of her soldiers?"
"Yeah, it'll be just like in those spy games where we can't get caught by the enemy!" Gunter exclaimed, looking forward to it. "Come on, Tadashi, let's go, man!"
"I think I'll just relax in my room," the blond replied, struggling with his self-doubts.
"Come on! You've got all day! What's the rush?" the brown-haired teen asked.
Ed put his towel around the waist and opened up the shower door. "Just leave him alone. He doesn't have to come if he doesn't want to," the black-haired boy responded.
"Okay, if you insist." The German turned off his faucet and walked out of the shower after wrapping his towel around his waist.
Tadashi was glad to have Ed as a friend, even if he was the son of Antonio, one of his least favorite people. Still, he decided he would reevaluate that position.
He just hoped that everything would go well from now on.
###
Ayaka was really enjoying the fresh, salty air as she submerged herself in the warm ocean water. The girl definitely needed to relax after all they'd been through. True, she did feel a little bit guilty because they didn't go straight for Abby's world, but she figured they'd do that as soon as possible anyway.
"Hey, why don't you take those things off?" the blonde heard Miki ask Abby out of the blue.
"Uh, that's because I'm pretty much blind without them," the brunette responded, not liking that the dark-haired girl had asked her that question.
"Oh, come on, live a little!" the dark-haired girl exclaimed, reaching for the glasses but getting pushed away at the last second. "Hey, you want Ed to go out with you, right?" Miki asked, folding her arms after getting rebuffed by Abby.
"You know, I'm not sure kissing him was a good idea," the brunette told her. "Ever since I did that, he's been avoiding me and… I'm afraid I ruined our friendship."
Ayaka had almost forgotten about that kiss. Still, she felt she had some advice. "Did you try talking to Ed?" she inquired.
Abby gave a forlorn look. "No, not really. Still, it's almost like he makes sure that he's not in the same room as I am."
The blonde nodded. "Why don't we talk to him together?" she asked with a smile. The brunette smiled back a little bit.
"Okay, it's just that I'm so nervous. When do you want to do that?" Abby inquired, shaking slightly from the thought.
"Well, where is Ed right now?" the blonde asked.
"I think he went with Gunter to explore the Emperor's fortress," Miki responded. "In my opinion, it's just some old building. If you've seen one, you've seen them all."
"Hey, it wouldn't hurt to look for them, right?" Ayaka said. "Come on, Salamon, let's go find the boys."
The trio didn't notice the tall black figure watching from the shadows.
###
"Okay, this is a bit creepy," Abby commented as the trio walked down into the Emperor's basements.
"Yeah, but the digivice signals are this way. I guess they were trying to find the Emperor's digivice," Ayaka replied, holding her D-Arc and scanning for the boys.
The group was walking through a dungeon area made of dab grey bricks, lit up by flickering light bulbs. Also, there were a large number of cobwebs on the walls. "Come on, they've got to be here somewhere," Miki complained. "I swear, I didn't get enough sun for a tan and now we're on a scavenger hunt for two of the boys."
"Don't worry, there's plenty of sunlight left. You'll get some later," Ayaka told the dark-haired girl as they continued their walk. Eventually, they found a door that led to where Ed and Gunter were at. The blond opened the door, ready for anything.
Inside, they found the two boys sitting on the ground with their partners, bound and gagged. The three girls immediately went straight for the boys and undid the ropes.
"What happened to you guys?" Abby asked as soon as she took off the tape covering Ed's face.
"We were just wandering around down here, looking for the Emperor's digivice, when we got ambushed by some Ninjamon," Ed responded, panicked.
"Ninjamon?" Abby asked, looking around.
"Yeah, man, whatever they were guarding down here, they definitely don't want us to see it," Gunter exclaimed.
Ayaka turned around with a determined expression. "Guys, we're going to have to digivolve our partners," she said. "Ready Salamon?" The dog nodded.
"Salamon digivolve to… D'Arcmon!"
The other two girls had their partners digivolve as well.
"Syakomon digivolve to… Ranamon!"
"Cutemon digivolve to… Rabbitmon!"
As soon as they were untied, Ed and Gunter did the same thing.
"Prokyomon digivolve to… Guepardomon!"
"Keramon digivolve to… Chrysalimon!"
The five moved out of the room, hoping that their partners were strong enough to go against whatever enemies moved against them. The team headed straight for the location of the Emperor's digivice, walking down stairs and heading through empty halls. It was when they reached the lowest levels that they were almost ambushed again. This time, however, the team managed to defeat the squad of Ninjamon and Igamon en masse, being careful not to kill any of them.
Then they found the room where the digivice was and they discovered something that shocked them. "What the… Is that the Emperor?"
Surely enough, Samuel Krenzel, the former Digimon Emperor of World 6-1 was strapped to the wall, wearing nothing but a pair of grey boxer-briefs. He also had scabs all along his body as well as a number of open sores. It was obvious what was happening: he was being tortured down there.
Gunter decided to do a scan with his digivice. "He's got a dark spore in his neck," the muscular German informed the group.
"This is horrible!" Ayaka exclaimed.
Abby shook her head as well. "Rabbitmon, devolve back to Cutemon and heal him, please," she ordered her partner.
"Man, what the heck is going on?" Gunter asked no one in particular, turning away from the horrific sight.
"Kuzuhamon lied about the Emperor. That witch!" Miki exclaimed. "I mean, he's as ugly as sin and he obviously screwed over this world for fifteen years, so he probably deserved it but…"
"Nobody deserves torture," Ed told her, his voice icy and cold. "Plus, did you hear about the Dark Spore? That means that he wasn't in complete control over his actions."
Miki recoiled in fear at Ed's response. Then the group heard footsteps. A large, black, humanoid digimon walked in. His legs were thick at the top and his black armor gave him extremely broad shoulders, making his head look extremely small. The digimon looked as shocked as the group of Tamers was.
"Well, I'll be… The Emperor is still alive," the mystery digimon stated.
"Okay, who are you?" Gunter asked, ready for a fight against the newcomer. He didn't look all that friendly.
"I'm sorry, my name is Plutomon and I was sent by Jupitermon to investigate Kuzuhamon's activities. It seems she has concealed much from us." The digimon spoke in a regal voice and was surprisingly polite, considering he was named after the Roman god of the underworld.
"Are you an Olympus XII digimon?" Ayaka asked.
The Mega nodded. "Indeed, I am, though I am only substituting until Jupitermon can get the group back to full power again. After that, I will head straight for my own realm like I prefer." The dark digimon turned to the fallen emperor. "We must get him out of here. And you as well…"
"We can do that," Ayaka said, grabbing her digivice.
"You will do no such thing," the team heard from the other side of the door. Kuzuhamon was standing right there, her staff in hand, ready to strike. The woman smirked before hitting Plutomon with the staff, sending him into a nearby wall. The godlike digimon got up, angry.
"What you're doing here is wrong," Ayaka told the Mega.
"Actually, it's a good punishment. Samuel Krenzel will suffer for fifteen years because he had made this world suffer for just as long," the purple-clad Mega stated.
"If Jupitermon found out about this…" Plutomon mumbled, getting up.
"Then what? I'd just move my base of operations elsewhere," Kuzuhamon told him.
Ayaka grabbed her digivice. "Super Digivolution Activate!"
"D'Arcmon digivolve to… Sanzomon!" she shouted.
"Oh, please, as if you can actually defeat me with one Ultimate," the purple-armored Mega taunted.
"That wasn't what I was going to do," Ayaka said. Then the five Tamers, their partners, the former Emperor and Plutomon were gone, disappeared. Kuzuhamon cursed them under her breath.
###
Tadashi was busy napping with Coronamon while everything happened downstairs. Unfortunately, his nap was interrupted when he felt himself lying in hot sand, immediately causing him to get up and try to wipe away the sand.
"Okay, tell me what's going on!" he yelled before noticing the mostly-naked fat man that Plutomon was holding. Thankfully, he couldn't see much. Still, it was a horrific sight. "And where did he come from?"
"Kuzuhamon was torturing the Emperor," Ayaka informed him, angrily. "Great, and now we have to get out of this world somehow without that witch knowing."
"So much for a vacation," Miki complained.
"And knowing that psycho, she's probably going to be guarding the Dimensional Corridor too," Gunter deduced, shuddering at the possibility.
"If I may be of assistance," Plutomon told the group. "I am a temporary member of the Olympus XII and I know of a few alternative routes through the dimensional fabric of the digital world that will lead to your digital world."
"What?" Ayaka asked, confused. "You mean the Dimensional Corridor isn't the only way?"
"Of course not! How else do you think the Emperor came here along with Dagomon's forces? They didn't come through the Corridor, did they? Believe me, Heimdallmon would have had a fit about that one, knowing him," the godlike digimon responded.
Thinking about it, it made perfect sense, especially since the Emperor's forces were being powered through those alternative routes. "So, how are we going to get there?" Tadashi asked.
The godlike digimon flicked his fingers and they were teleported again in a flash of darkness, this time to a dark, damp place. Nearby was a dark grey river and a boat was pulling up, with a red-cloaked Phantomon at the helm. "Hello, Charon, I have a request for you today," the god told his ally.
"Oh, is that the case?" the cloaked digimon asked in a surprising Brooklyn accent. "So, let's see, you want me to take these kids somewhere, huh?"
"Yes, exactly. I will pay you once you get back," Plutomon said.
"What world are you going to, huh?" Charon the Phantomon inquired, hovering over his boat.
"World 5-0," Tadashi told the digimon.
"World 5-0 it is, then. All aboard!" the cloaked digimon said.
"Oh, and can somebody put some clothes on that guy?" Miki asked as they boarded the boat and Plutomon placed Samuel next to her.
"You know, she does have a point," Gunter said.
Plutomon thought about it for a second before teleporting again, then teleporting back with a black robe. "Here, put this on him," the godlike digimon told the group and they did so. Samuel was almost completely comatose during the entire operation.
"You know, I almost feel sorry for him," Miki said.
The group nodded. "Don't worry, we will make sure that Kuzuhamon is brought to justice for her crimes," Plutomon told them as Charon started to paddle the group. "Good luck on your journey!"
The team continued floating along until they could no longer see the shore behind them. The Phantomon that was carrying them stopped eventually at a part of the shore where there was a door, simply standing there in the middle of the sand. "Here we are. The door to World 5-0."
"Wow, that's it?" Ayaka asked as they disembarked.
"Yes it is. What were you expecting? A fancy portal like the one Heimdallmon has? Get out of here!" The team got off the boat and the ferryman floated away from them, heading back upstream.
"Well, here we are," Tadashi said, moving toward the door.
"So, where do you think it's going to take us in Abby's world?" Coronamon asked out of curiosity.
"There's only one way to find out," the blond said, turning the doorknob and exiting into another beach. Once everyone got through, the blond spoke again. "Okay, guys, we're going to have to go after the Emperor before something happens to him like with Sam over here."
"So, how are we going to get there?" Abby asked. "Can Sanzomon teleport us there?"
"Unfortunately, I can only teleport you to places I have already been," the monk told the brunette.
Before volunteering to have her mind read by Sanzomon so she could take them directly to the Emperor's fortress, Abby heard Gunter shout something. "Uh, guys, what's that over there?" Gunter pointed in the direction of the Emperor's castle. There was a wave of blue energy headed straight for them.
"I don't know, but don't you think we should take shelter?" Ayaka inquired as it headed straight for them.
"Where can we hide?" Miki asked. There were no caves around them or any sort of shelter period.
Ed was running along with Abby and their partners. But none of them could outrun it as the wave struck.
###
A/N: A lot of the Tamers had new forms in this chapter. Some of those forms are the alternate modes (Sakuyamon's Kabuki Form, for instance) and others are plain digivolutions, some with semi-canon basis (Craniamon and Fujinmon are digivolutions for HiAndromon and Justimon in a game) and others that don't but are interesting ideas anyway (Aegisdramon as a higher form for MarineAngemon).
The idea for the second tier of the Mega level comes from the fact that there are a lot of digimon that are still Megas but are clearly digivolved forms of Megas already (Omnimon and Chaosmon) and yet aren't considered Super-Ultimates (Omnimon in V-Tamer is a good example).
As for what that wave is, you'll find out at the end of next chapter.