Chapter 32: Belated Reunion
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Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, just the OCs.
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Piximon's orb moved at high speeds, just not fast enough for Art. The grumpy boy was just sitting in the corner, or at least what passed for a corner, his arms folded as the orb flew at a hundred miles an hour and his squirrel-like partner was curled up tightly next to him. "We should reach the next Tamer pretty soon," Alice told the group, watching from her digivice.
"Alright, man, who's this guy supposed to be?" Matt Armstrong asked, adjusting his shades.
"Somebody named Phillip Goddard," the blonde responded.
"Phillip Goddard?" the black boy asked, almost disbelieving. Of all the Tamers we could come across, it had to be him…
"You know him?" Jeri inquired. The look on Matt's face changed from one of confusion to one of dread as it hit him who Phillip Goddard was.
"Heck yeah, I knew him! Oh, crap on a stick, man! He's a former Tamer of Vegas!" the dark-skinned boy exclaimed. "We should definitely change course and avoid him, man! Let's see, there's these two guys named Chavez we could go after."
"Do you have to be so loud?" Art asked, giving Matt a dirty look.
"Dude, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed today," Matt said.
"Assuming he slept at all last night," Kotemon added.
"¡Ay! ¡Qué grosero!" Gus exclaimed. How unpleasant!
"¡Vas a ver qué tan grosero puedo ser, si no te callas!" Art exclaimed, glaring. You're going to see how unpleasant I can get!
Fernando looked up, not expecting Art to know any Spanish. He's using the lisp that characterizes the Castilian dialect but his intonation…
Jeri decided to step in and stop the boys from fighting any more. "Guys, we're all going to have to get along."
Art shrugged. "Okay, boss-lady."
"So, how long until we reach the Chavez brothers' location?" Matt asked the group.
"A few hours. What do you know about Phillip Goddard in case he goes after us?" Alice inquired, curious.
"From out of state, kind of nerdy, partnered with a BlackAgumon that becomes DarkTyrannomon and then MetalTyrannomon. Got along with everybody good, but ended up joining LeDouche, aka Roger Volkmann." The black boy thought about that for a second. "Our team leader was pretty dang ticked. Holy crap, I wonder if he's in the Digital World!"
"Every Tamer is in the Digital World, my liege," Kotemon told him.
"Oh yeah, that's right," Matt mumbled, shuddering. He hated putting his foot in his mouth like that. "I guess I'll have to search him out. Ian Rogers, partner: Tsukaimon!" Then the black boy turned to the least social one of the group. Before calling his old teammates, he needed to mend fences with Art first. Plus, the brown-haired kid reminded him of someone just a little bit.
"Hey, dude, sorry we got on the wrong start," Matt told him.
Art shrugged but didn't say anything after that.
"Just wondering, do you have a team or something?" the black boy inquired as he sat down next to the Greek kid.
"Used to. Then my guardian decided I wasn't pulling my own weight when we went up against enemies." Art's facial expression turned into an odd half-smile. "I was the team leader because of my strategic abilities but I kept on making mistakes and Alexander said I was too stubborn to learn from them."
"Sounds like you've had it rough, though, dude. Didn't you get raised by your grandma and grandpa or something?" Matt reclined against the wall of the bubble.
Art nodded. "My parents disappeared into thin air when I was four. What happened was that I found myself alone in their house and all the furniture and paint was different. I had no idea what was happening."
Matt was confused. "The Unification happened before?"
"No, this Unification we just went through was the first one. I'm from the future and the Unification I lived through was the second one when the Dark Ocean got merged with this one, or at least that's what Al said." Art shrugged again. "I guess that it took me a few weeks to get shipped to my grandparents' place, since they lived in another country."
"Cool, what country?" Matt asked.
"Guess," the curly-haired boy said with a grin.
"Mexico. You look totally Mexican, dude!" the black boy assumed, grinning widely.
"Yeah, I'm from Mexico," Art said before getting up and walking to the other side to view the landscapes passing them by outside the bubble.
Well, that's a start, Matt thought. It was going to be hard to get into the dark-skinned boy's head.
###
"Preparations complete. I am ready for departure," Zeppelinmon told his partner through his intercom.
"Alright, you are clear for takeoff," Katarina's voice boomed from the intercom. "Good luck!"
"Yeah, try not to blow up the castle while I'm gone," Antonio told her with a chuckle.
"Oh, you know it's going to be a smoldering crater when you get back, big boy," she replied.
Two of Abby's team noticed the conversation. "Wait, you don't think a woman as gorgeous as that is actually interested in someone like Antonio, do you?" Angela asked.
"Ew! I hope not!" the other teammate, a black girl, exclaimed.
Taizou watched the viewport as the massive airship lifted off the ground and headed out of the hangar. "Alright, the others are only a few hundred miles away. We should be there within a couple hours," the brown-haired Japanese boy told Antonio.
"Alright, that works. I guess you can keep things going here," the large man told his friend. "I'll be in the ready room."
Taizou sat back in the seat at Antonio left the bridge, enjoying the feeling of freedom for the first time in a while. He watched the clouds float on by outside the viewport and just felt good. At the same time, he had a lot to think about, such as his mother. It was obvious to him that he had somehow merged together with his duplicate that the Watchmaker mentioned.
He looked over at Robert, who didn't seem fazed by the Unification. And then he glanced over at Yuji, who was just screwing around with the controls, seemingly to see if he could access the internet on his screen.
Just a little more and we'll see the others again. Then another thought went through his mind. I hope Tadashi's doing alright. And Mizuki... What has she been up to?
He hadn't seen the girl since he had been dumped into the Digital World with the others by the Watchmaker, so he wondered how she was doing. Maybe he would find out soon.
It was then that something disturbing happened. He all the sudden found himself inside a dark room and in front of him was the Digimon Queen, smiling like a madwoman. Her outfit seemed to have become more extravagant for an elaborate series of spikes connected together by fabric to make a semi-circle was jutting out of her outfit's back and her long dress had a split down the middle, revealing fishnet stockings. Along with that, her hair was styled in a ponytail that came out of the upper back of her head before reaching down her back.
"Hello, Taizou, how are you today?" she asked, speaking Japanese with a French accent.
"The Digimon Queen," Taizou snarled, standing up and facing the woman in front of him.
"Oh yes, and I'm more powerful than ever," she told him.
"…Otherwise known as Marie Cauvin," he told her.
"Oh, so you know my real name. Isn't that interesting?" she teased. He really didn't want to deal with this girl, though while he had the chance, he was going to try and get as much info out of her as possible.
"So, what are you planning as far as taking over the Digital World?" he asked her.
"Oh, that's a tough one. Why should I tell you anyway?" she asked, smiling at the boy in front of her. "It's a shame you're not my type. Your mind is very interesting."
"Ha ha. There has to be a reason why you're in my mind," he told her. "Don't tell me, you're planning on kidnapping Antonio since he's your type?"
The woman shook her head. "I've seen what Antonio is like and I've seen the records on him. He's an arrogant, abusive, tyrannical man."
"You obviously got terrible records," Taizou told her, grinning uneasily.
"My partner can read minds. I've seen everything he's done to Ed during his life," the Queen replied, smiling even more.
"Obviously your partner's been screwing with you," the brown-haired boy said, frowning.
"No, I trust my partner. He's telling the truth."
With that, the vision ended and Taizou stood up from inside his chair. "Great, the Digimon Queen is coming. We have to tell the others!" the brown-haired teen told the bridge crew. "Zeppelinmon, maximum speed!"
"Wait, the Digimon Emperor and now the Digimon Queen? Where do these crackpots come from?" Angela asked as Yuji called Ayaka to warn her. Her other friend just shrugged
###
The early-morning hours were miserable for Tadashi as he had nightmare after nightmare of the incident that transpired the day before. He had no idea how he was going to deal with his attempt for the rest of his life. He wondered if when he got back to the real world if he would get thrown in jail for what he did. He felt he deserved it.
His friend's father… He hated what he tried to do. Hated what his other self tried to do. And now he had twisted thoughts and desires running through his mind about doing something to Ed that he refused to even think about. He hoped that this dark side would subside after a couple days but what if it didn't? What if the Digimon Queen decided to take advantage of this dark side with her partner's powers?
He didn't like the thought of that, getting up to empty his full bladder. He wandered out of the sleeping area and then toward the gym's shower room before taking a left as he entered to use the urinal. After that, he glanced at the locker room, which was completely empty and nowhere near as smelly as the one at the school he went to. He assumed that its disuse was partially to credit for that.
He took a deep breath, hoping to clear his head of his dark side's desires. He walked back into the gym where everyone was sleeping, before lying down on the cold surface where he was earlier. It was about then that he heard some talking in the distance, so he decided to go investigate. The sounds were coming from behind a door and he put his ear up against it to listen.
"The Queen is a pretty dangerous foe, so we can't underestimate her." It was Ayaka's voice and from the sounds of it, she was talking to Kyle, the American they met the day before.
"Do you think she might be in league with Roger Volkmann?" the half-Russian boy asked.
"I don't know. We only met the Queen while we were here. No, take that back, we ran into a digimon that apparently worked for someone named Crimson, also known as Satoshi Terayama." Ayaka sounded really professional and seemed to be doing a good job at this whole leader thing.
"So, who is the Queen after, anyway?" Kyle inquired, concerned for his own team.
"Well, it's kind of strange, but she was after Ed. One of our friends' minds got attacked by her and she also fancied Tadashi for some reason." The girl's voice was laced with concern.
Kyle put two and two together to figure out what the two boys had in common. "Tadashi and Ed? But both those guys… Ugh, that means that if she comes after us, she might go after the McCloskey brothers too. Yuck!" Then he thought some more. "I mean, it wouldn't be so bad if she just liked those kinds of guys, but the way she's acting towards them." He shuddered.
"I know, right," Ayaka said some disgust in her voice.
"Hey, what are you doing up?" Tadashi heard a high-pitched voice asked. He looked to his side to see the black-haired Jacob McCloskey looking at him in confusion, his arms crossed.
"Sorry, I just heard noise and came to see what was going on," the blond explained. "You?"
Jacob shrugged. "Kyle just had me on guard, that's all."
Tadashi heard some more. "Also, Ed's dad is coming with Taizou and the others," Ayaka told Kyle.
"Oh, okay. He somebody important?"
Tadashi jumped back from that. The one person he wronged the most, or almost. He felt his other half, his darker half; fill with desire to finish what he started the other day. And along with that, the guilt that his good side felt along with the fear that Antonio would be angry with him. He knew that what he did was unforgivable.
And then his dark side filled with even more fury. This battle was getting old. At least Ayaka knew about it.
"You alright, dude?" Jacob asked, his mouth half-open.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Tadashi told him and walked away. There would have to be somewhere where he could get some privacy to try and control his mind better. He glanced at a sleeping Coronamon, afraid of what he might make him do, remembering the visions that the Watchmaker forced upon him as a warning.
He needed to tell his partner everything, so he went over and picked him up. "What is it?" the lion asked groggily as Tadashi carried him into the changing room. He put his finger up to his lip as a gesture to tell his partner to keep quiet as he did so. Glancing over at a confused Jacob, he shut the door and went inside.
Then he put his partner down on a bench in the locker room and spoke to him. "Coronamon, there's something I need to talk to you about. It's about what happened in the Real World just before the Unification."
The digimon stood attentive. "What happened?"
"I… I…" He choked on the words as they came out. "I tried to kill Ed's dad, but ended up almost killing somebody else in the process. Then you dark digivolved before getting deleted."
Coronamon sat there confused. "What? I don't remember that."
"It happened. I'm sorry about everything, man." The blond had tears crawling down his cheeks. "You died. But still, I have this dark side that even blames Antonio for that. I can't let him succeed. If I turn evil, refuse to digivolve and knock me out. Okay, man?"
Coronamon didn't know what to think. This was his partner, and yet he was asking him to do something that he couldn't. He couldn't turn on him.
"I… I can't, Tadashi."
"Please! Please, man! I don't want to hurt my friends but that's just what I'll do if I give in. Help me!" The blond's voice was pleading. He didn't want this darkness, but he had it and he had to live with it. There was no way he was going to get rid of it except with time. And at the same time, he needed his friends.
Coronamon just looked down in shame. He was going to have to do something to help his partner. He just didn't know what. "I'll help you."
Tadashi gave his partner a sad smile. "Thanks, buddy."
###
"Well, I guess this is where we part ways," Kyle told Ayaka as Zeppelinmon set down on the roof in the morning sunlight. Everybody seemed to have overslept, but the groups were splitting at that point.
"Thanks for your help. Are you sure you don't want to come with us and help out the Tamers' Coalition?" the blonde asked, getting a smile from the American.
"I am helping out the Coalition. This is going to be a second base and since the first is just a flimsy castle, I figured it would be best if I stayed here and collected whatever overflow comes from there. Plus, I'll answer directly to Antonio when everything is said and done."
"Well, it's good meeting you," the blonde girl told him, smiling back.
"Yeah, nice meeting you too," the brown-haired boy responded as the wind from the airship blew, causing Ayaka's hair to flow.
The white airship landed and the back hatch opened up and out came Taizou, Yuji and a group of other Tamers behind them that the blonde girl didn't recognize. Ayaka was still ecstatic to see her friends, though, and ran up to them with Miki, Tadashi and Ed.
"Hey, what's up?" Yuji asked the group. "Have a fun trip while I was gone?"
"Are you kidding me?" Miki inquired in disbelief. "It involved going to some creepy world ruled by some octopus-freak with statues that try to kill you. You should be happy you didn't come with us."
"Sounds like it was quite the adventure," Taizou commented, glancing at the others. He smiled at Tadashi. "What's up?"
The blond boy shrugged. "Not much. Just waiting for our ride."
"You should have seen us defeat the Digimon Emperor. It was a glorious battle," Commandramon lied to the group.
"No it wasn't! We didn't even fight. The Emperor just left and didn't come back, you doofus!" Yuji shouted at his partner.
"Yeah, we had to get saved by Antonio and Katarina," Taizou admitted, slightly embarrassed.
"Where is my dad, anyway?" Ed asked. "And who's Katarina?"
"Your dad should be coming out," Taizou said, just as a large figure walked slowly out of the cabin. Antonio laid his eyes on his son for the first time in over a month and Ed ran over and embraced him.
"Dad!"
"Eddy! I've been so worried about you!" his father exclaimed, holding onto his son tightly and crying a little bit. "You've grown an inch."
"I don't know about that," Ed replied as he backed up, both smiling as their embrace was broken. "So, did mom try something?"
"Yeah, she tried using your kidnapping to prove that I was a negligent parent," Antonio replied.
"Hah! She's the one that kidnapped me in the first place!" Ed exclaimed in disbelief.
Tadashi looked upon them shyly, backing up and hoping Antonio didn't see him. He hated what he did and seeing his victim only hurt him inside more. In the end, he managed to keep out of the way of the large man's sight.
###
"So, what's up?" Angela asked her friend Abby. "Meet any cute boys on your trip? I see that brown-haired guy from Denver's a stunner."
"Well, I did have a crush on this guy and…" the brown-haired girl laughed. "… I kind of kissed him."
"What!" the Hispanic girl and Abby's other friends shouted.
"Wait, you're dating?" Robert asked her, getting a shaking of the head.
"No, Ed and I decided that it wasn't the time. After that whole thing, he avoided me for a little bit," the brown-haired girl told her friends. "But we're friends again!"
"Oh good. There's something I need to tell you, Abby," Robert said, his face one of concern. "I… I think I love you."
Abby's face went from happy to see her friends to mortified. "What?"
"No way, I bet Ed is, like, way hotter than this guy," Angela said, her eyes narrowed.
"No, that's not what it is at all. Uh, Robert, there's something we need to talk about," Abby told her friend. "Something very important."
Robert nodded as she took him away from the group. Angela and the others just stood at a discreet distance.
"I wonder… Is Ed, like, that hot brown-haired guy or something?" the Hispanic girl asked.
"No, I think he's Antonio's son," one of Abby's other friends replied. Angela already guessed who Antonio's kid was, and her reaction was instantaneous.
"Ew!"
A few feet away, Abby turned toward Robert, her face one of nervousness. She didn't know how to say what she was about to. "Robert, uh, you're not going to believe this, but…"
"What is it?" the brown-haired Italian asked, getting somewhat impatient.
"You… We're… We're brother and sister," she responded.
Robert's face was one of complete shock. "What?" he shouted.
"I'm serious. That's what Heimdallmon said. I think we should verify it when we get back home but that's what it is," she told him.
Robert just stood there in shock. The very thought of… what he thought earlier, was something that now made him sick to his stomach. "That's impossible."
"Like I say, we should have a DNA test to see if it's true or not, but… I'm sorry."
"So, that means my dad's your dad?" Robert asked, shaking his head. This was going to take a bit of getting used to.
###
"Well, I guess it's time to leave!" Taizou told the group of Tamers. "Don't want to stay too long."
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Ayaka told him.
"So, why are you leading the Tamers?" the brown-haired boy told her.
"Something happened with Tadashi in the Real World just before the worlds combined," the blonde responded.
Taizou nodded, not knowing what happened but guessing that it was bad. Then he heard behind them.
"I think I'm staying." It was Gunter.
"What? You can't stay!" Miki exclaimed. "You're part of the team!"
The brown-haired teen shrugged. "Hey, I think they might need my help here. Only a couple of them can reach Ultimate," he responded.
"Well, if you feel like you can help us, go right on ahead," Kyle assured him. "We'll put you to work fast, man!"
"And, along with all that, I'm kind of tired of traveling," Gunter added. "We've been going pretty much non-stop since Sanzomon healed me, so I need a bit of a break. Don't worry; I'll help you guys out."
Ayaka nodded before smiling. "Okay, we'll see you later."
"Wait, you're just going to let him go like that!" Miki exclaimed, disbelieving.
The blonde turned to her dark-haired friend. "It's his choice."
###
Art woke up from his doze to find the two Japanese kids poking and prodding. The two kids didn't speak a word of English and he didn't speak a word of Japanese so he didn't really bother with them that much, preferring to keep to himself like always.
"Where are you from?" the older one of the two, the girl, asked in heavily accented English.
"Denver, now can I get some sleep?" he asked, kind of surly.
"See, master, I was right. He didn't get sleep last night," Art shot up to glare daggers into Kotemon.
"Yeah, that's kind of obvious," Matt replied, "though I wouldn't say that to him. It's best not to provoke the poor dude." The black kid gave him a smile.
"Oh, okay, I'm a poor dude now," Art replied, rolling his eyes. Matt decided to walk up to him and give him a tight hug.
"Come on, dude, admit it, you didn't get hugged enough as a kid!" Art was squirming and wiggled until finally pushing Matt away.
"Don't you dare do that again, you hear me!" the olive-skinned kid lectured, pointing at Matt.
"Okay, man, no problem." Matt then turned toward Gus and started talking while Art went back to his little corner with Ardillamon. It was about that point when the olive-skinned Greek-American realized something was wrong. He patted his left cheek's pocket on his pants and realized his wallet was missing. "Matt!"
The black kid turned around with a smile. "What up, dude?" he asked. Art walked straight for him and realized that Matt was looking at the pictures in his wallet, particularly the ones of his paternal grandparents: a somewhat short man with thick glasses. Wrinkles creased his face; though he had aged fairly well since he was still in his late fifties and he had straight greying hair. His grandmother was about the same height but slightly heavier with curly hair tied back in a ponytail and was wearing a red floral dress.
Art immediately snatched it from Matt's hands, and gave the black kid a very dirty look. "Hey, dude, I was going to give that back. How come you didn't show us those pictures, huh?" Matt asked, still jovial but with an edge to his voice.
"Did you look at all of them?" Art inquired.
"Only the first two," the black boy responded. "Listen, dude, if you think you're going to, like, erase yourself from existence, don't worry, cause I don't think anybody here knows your family, man."
"How can you be so sure?" the dark-skinned boy asked. "And I'm not worried about erasing myself from existence. I'm four years old in another reality."
"Come on, dude, just open up a little! What's wrong, man?" Matt questioned, his face changing from his normal jovial self to one that implied seriousness.
Art took a deep breath. It was at about that time that he noticed Jeri heading towards the two of them.
"Is everything alright?" the brunette asked, a look of concern flashing across her face.
"Everything's fine!" Art exclaimed before walking away.
###
A few minutes after the little confrontation, Jeri decided to check on Art, walking over to where he was and sitting next to him. The girl decided to speak after a couple of seconds. "Sorry about Matt. He's just an expressive guy and he can't control himself sometimes."
"Yeah, but stealing my wallet to look at pictures? Come on!" the brown-skinned boy complained, shaking his head.
"Yeah, he probably shouldn't have tried doing that," the brunette agreed. "What is it about your family that makes you not want anybody to see their pictures?"
Art didn't answer for a couple seconds. "I… My parents aren't together in this world," he told her. "That and I'm afraid that if somebody found out who I was, who I really was, they'd go after me and probably endanger the whole team in the process."
Jeri nodded. "Don't worry, you can tell me anything."
The curly-haired boy nodded. "You know earlier what Matt said about us being digidestined? It's kind of true. Well, not exactly." Jeri looked at him attentively. "You know, our digivices are designed to take us to the digital world during the Unification because the two worlds end up getting separated during the event. Well, my guardian, Alexander Rinaldi, programmed them remotely so that we'd be near each other. Otherwise we'd just be in random spots all over the digital world."
"That's… That's really interesting. Why did he do that?" Jeri was smiling now.
"I don't know. It's all probably a part of his grand plan or something," the dark-skinned boy said before pulling out his wallet and extracting the pictures. "These are my grandparents." Then he moved to a couple pictures later. "This is me just after I was born."
"You were so cute as a baby," Jeri told him as he put the picture back in his wallet.
"Thanks." His partner shot up suddenly, as if something was about to happen. "Uh, Ardillamon?"
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the bubble burst and they all fell onto the ground. Art had landed face-first and he had to get himself back up to grab his wallet. But by the time he reached it, it was already too late.
Ardillamon got in-between him and the newcomer as Art got up. "Leave my partner alone!"
"Wow, your mom's kind of hot," the newcomer said, glancing at the pictures just as the curly-haired Greek boy snatched the wallet and pictures out of the teen's hands before putting them in his back pocket.
"Phillip!" Matt exclaimed from behind Art, grabbing his digivice. As far as he could tell, from the sight of a massive, pale dinosaur in the background with various cybernetic components, Piximon's bubble had been hit by MetalTyrannomon's Nuclear Laser attack.
"Oh, Matt, buddy! How's it going?" the newcomer exclaimed. He was average height for a thirteen-year-old but at the same time was quite heavy and had dark-brown, almost black hair. The heavyset teen was wearing thin-rimmed, oval glasses and had thick black eyebrows just above them. "I detected an anomalous digivice signal so I thought I'd investigate. Turns out it came from this guy, I guess."
"Yeah, right, dude!" the black guy exclaimed.
"Stop it," Jeri told the duo, hoping to avoid any confrontation. As if that was going to happen… "Now, my name's Jeri and this is my team. We don't have to fight."
Phillip nodded. "Oh, okay. Well, I guess that just means that I can just take you Roger Volkmann's place or something. Yeah, you're under arrest."
"Not if I can help it!" Matt exclaimed. "This dude is bad news, man!" Phillip just backed off.
"Well, if you insist," he responded with a bit of an uneasy smile. "MetalTyrannomon!" The large dinosaur roared, the noise echoing through the prairies that the group had landed in. Phillip just walked toward his partner.
Wondering why things were going so slowly, Matt held out his brown digivice with a black circle in the center. "Super Digivolution Activate!"
"Kotemon super digivolve to… Asuramon!" The black boy's partner shouted, becoming its multi-limbed Ultimate form.
"Matt, stop! What are the max levels of this team?" Art asked.
The black guy shrugged. Jeri decided to ask the rest of the kids, all of whom were walking towards Matt and Art. "What levels can you all reach?"
"I haven't even digivolved yet," Fernando's Patamon said, disappointed.
"Champion, Sparrowmon's default form," Alice indicated, pointing to her partner who didn't look his usual self.
"I'm up to Champion too," Art said, not liking the power levels of the team. "Is it just me or are we all outgunned.
"I can reach Ultimate, dude!" Matt exclaimed.
"My partner is an Ultimate but he…" Gus started to say, trying to figure out how to say the next part with his limited vocabulary but getting interrupted by the two Japanese kids before he could do so. His partner was in his arms, knocked out.
"Mega!" Ai and Mako exclaimed.
"Oh, good, we have all levels represented," Art said sarcastically before rolling his eyes. "So, how is it that the twins have the strongest digimon here?"
"They're not twins," Jeri corrected him.
"They're not?" Art asked, surprised. Then again, what episode said they were anyway?
"You want me to take this guy out fast?" Impmon asked, grinning. "I can do that as Beelzemon."
"No, he can only go to Ultimate, right? So we won't need that," the brown-skinned boy indicated.
"Come on, are you guys ready to be beaten?" Phillip asked the team. "You know, I could have taken you to Roger and we could all be working together."
"Yeah, right, man. Nobody's doing that!" Matt exclaimed.
Jeri did kind of wish that they could have avoided this but now there was no turning back.
"Okay, suit yourself!" Phillip Goddard called out over the field. Then he did the unexpected: he pulled out his digivice and shouted "Biomerge Activate!"
"MetalTyrannomon biomerge to…" The new digimon was larger than his ultimate form and far more menacing. He was covered in reddish armor all over his body, he had metal claws and a glowing, emerald power supply right in the middle of the chest which was connected to the rest of the body by black tubes going over his shoulders and under his groin. In addition, he had a massive cannon on his back equipped with a pair of missiles. "…RustTyrannomon!"
"Oh. Crap. On. A. Stick! We're all gonna die!" Matt exclaimed, frightened at the thought.
"No we're not!" Art exclaimed, glaring at the black boy.
"Impmon, are you ready?" Jeri asked the digimon.
"Are you kidding me? Of course I am!" The small devil immediately changed form, becoming Beelzemon. Then immediately, he attempted to transform into Blast Mode. Unfortunately, his wings wouldn't burst through his leather jacket. "Crap. I guess I'll just have to do this the old-fashioned way."
###
Ayaka found Tadashi in the forward observation deck as Zeppelinmon made his way across the continent to the former Emperor's castle. The boy looked to be in a sulking mood for some reason, and Ayaka had a good idea as to why: Antonio.
"Tadashi, are you alright?" she asked, walking up to behind him. The observation lounge was small, but it had a couple of black, cushiony seats where Tadashi and Coronamon were. The blond boy was staring blankly into the daytime sky behind them as the clouds flew past. It took about a second for Tadashi to register that he had been talked to, but he turned his head, showing his sullen expression.
"I'm… No, I'm definitely not alright. He's here and I hurt him," he told her, shaking visibly.
"Tadashi, that was your other self, not you," Ayaka tried to reassure him.
"Don't you get it, Ayaka? Our other selves are us now!" he argued. "And I tried to kill him, hurting his friend in the process."
"Tadashi, I don't think he even noticed you. As it is, Antonio doesn't seem like the kind of man to hold grudges. He seems like the forgiving type."
"Yeah, I'm sure if you just went and talked to him, everything would be alright," Coronamon assured him, truly worried for his partner.
Tadashi shook his head. "This isn't something you'd just forgive, Ayaka."
The girl nodded, understanding where he was going at. Still, she wanted to be there for her friend. The blonde smiled at him before speaking. "Well, I'm going back up. If you want, I can bring you something to eat. You haven't eaten since yesterday."
"I'm… I'm fine," he reassured her, realizing that he was the furthest from being fine that he had ever been. The girl smiled and turned away.
"You know, I'm kind of hungry myself," Coronamon chastised his partner. Tadashi shrugged.
"Why don't you get your own food?" he asked.
"Okay, maybe I will. I'll also talk to Antonio and see how he's doing," the lion said, climbing over the back of the chair. "See you later."
Tadashi smiled. Even if everything spiraled out of control, he still had his partner.
But now he was all alone. He turned toward the outside window, oblivious to the digimon just materializing into existence behind him and not noticing that its hands were on his head until it was too late.
###
So far, Ed was starting to get sick of meeting all these new people in the mess hall, especially Abby's friends who seemed to hold some sort of dislike toward him. Well, at least a couple of them, in any case. The chubby boy seemed to enjoy getting back up to speed with the likes of Taizou and Yuji, hearing about how while he was on an adventure, Taizou was busy rotting in a prison cell and reading books.
"So, yeah, I was starting to think of a way of getting out and taking down the Emperor when all the sudden, he leaves," the brown-haired boy explained. "Can you believe it? It seemed so… out of nowhere."
"Sounds like it," Ed responded with a disturbed face. "I wonder who this Kurata guy was."
"Beats me, but if this is what he did, he couldn't be up to anything good," Taizou replied. Ed glanced around, noticing Coronamon come and then leave and being reminded of Tadashi.
"Hey, uh, where's Tadashi?" the black-haired boy asked.
Taizou looked around for a brief second before concluding that the blond was missing. "I don't know. Is it just me, or does he seem kind of off to you?"
Ed nodded. "I wonder what happened. You know, I think I should go find him."
The brown-haired boy nodded. "Sounds like a good idea to me."
The heavy boy headed to where his dad was, talking to someone on his digivice. The man seemed pretty involved in his conversation. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Maybe find a way for some of the digimon to help build some extra living space. By the way, have you heard from Matt?"
The person on the other end spoke in an accent that Ed couldn't place, though it was definitely foreign. He thought for a second that it could be his friend Matt from Vegas that they were talking about, but then he told himself that there were probably hundreds of people named that. "No, he is currently in the Antarctic Wastes with a group of Tamers. One of them is named Fernando Urrutía."
"My nephew? When did he become a Tamer?" the big man asked before noticing his son. "Just a second." He smiled. "How's it going?"
"Good, I'm just going to check on a friend of mine. He seems pretty down for some reason," Ed told his father.
"Oh, okay. Well, enjoy yourself!" Antonio said, glad that he had a son that was willing to watch out for others. Still, something felt slightly off for some reason. He couldn't place it.
"I'll meet you back in your quarters in a little bit," Ed said before heading off. Prokyomon didn't go with him, instead opting to converse with some of the other partner digimon around.
Antonio then turned back to his digivice. "So, anyway, what were we talking about?"
"Well, your nephew is travelling with Matt Armstrong as well as Ai and Mako Terada, Jeri Katou, Alice McCoy and someone named Gustavo Orellana. There's also another digivice signal coming from their vicinity, but I can't seem to get any information from it for some reason."
Antonio nodded. "You think it's a new model of digivice?" he asked, enthralled by the prospect. He found it interesting that the Tamers from Abby's World all had a different model themselves, the D-3, something he expected only in fiction.
"There is a possibility. Do you think I should try to contact somebody from over there?" Katarina inquired.
"I'd say do it," the big man said, curious. "Call… Let's see, I think you should call Matt Armstrong since he actually met you while we went to Japan just before the Unification."
The Greek woman nodded. "Okay, I'll do that. So, you know what you want for dinner yet?" she asked.
Antonio chuckled. "Not yet. You know, that trip to Japan made me want some sushi." Then, realizing how unprofessional the conversation was starting to get, the big man decided as something of his potential girlfriend in a teasing tone. "Still, don't you have more important things to do than this?" Katarina was far from offended, in fact, she was chuckling at him before flirting right back at him.
"Oh, am I being a bad girl? Does that mean that I won't get a raise come my next review?"
"Oh, no, you're getting paid too much as it is. I think your pay needs to be lowered," he teased back at her playfully.
###
Ed made his way down the corridor to where Tadashi was seated. The boy felt kind of off for some reason. It wasn't the lighting, since that was all perfect and the walls were all white. It had to be something else. He headed into the observation lounge.
He walked over to the couch and looked down from behind, seeing that it was empty. Then, he felt an icy hand touch the back of his head. He didn't know who did this, but he immediately fell to the ground, unconscious.
Tadashi Nakabayashi shook his head at his friend. Right now, it wasn't the normal, guilt-ridden Tadashi that was in control, but rather the other Tadashi, the vengeful one who tried to kill Antonio Urrutía and blew off Mr. Immortal's arm. However, he had even less good in him due to his self-control being sealed away almost completely by Witchmon.
"Wow, that was too easy," he said. "Please tell me we go after Antonio next."
The voice of the other digimon in the room other than his partner was cackling. "Oh, no, my pretty! The queen's orders are clear. We are to take her groom to her and let Antonio follow us." The digimon, one that looked like a female version of Wizardmon or Sorcerymon, pulled Ed's digivice off and then dropped it to the ground. Witchmon then fired a blast at the nearby window and Tadashi, Ed and Coronamon were all sucked out with her. It took a couple seconds for the metal doors to seal up the broken windows, but by then, they were all gone.
"Digivolution Activate!" Tadashi called from high above.
"Coronamon digivolve to… Firamon!" The winged lion then proceeded to pick Tadashi up while Ed was grabbed by Witchmon.
"Now, to the Queen's castle with haste!" she yelled out, flying alongside the brainwashed blond.
The Watchmaker's warning was finally coming true.
###
A/N: It's about time that plot point got revisited. It's only been, what? Twenty-five chapters?
As far as next chapter, expect a couple of battles involve Mega-levels. I'm hoping to start posting a new chapter every Monday. Hopefully that will work out for everyone, especially since I've got school and everything (college isn't too hard so far, thankfully. To be honest, I was expecting far more homework).