Chapter 37: Angels and Dragons
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Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
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He didn't know where he was. In fact, it felt like he was floating, like he wasn't there at all. It was just him in a blue, watery expanse.
Where am I? he asked himself, looking around at the patches of light like sunlight reaching the bottom of a pool. He was nowhere.
Who am I? The question went through his mind. Occasionally, flashes would run through his head, memories of past deeds, but none of it made any sense.
Then the water seemed to ripple and another figure appeared right in front of him, a dark-haired, red-eyed version of him.
He stared into the darkness, remembering what it made him do. He didn't want it. He remembered his friends in bits and pieces, but he didn't have all the parts to the puzzle.
He felt so confused.
So he floated, even as he felt something on his shoulders lift him up. Maybe.
For Tadashi Nakabayashi, the world was a confusing place to be.
###
As soon as Ayaka heard the scream, she looked over to see Antonio fall to the ground, his back charred. Seeing this, she ran over to him along with Sanzomon.
Something else was there. She glanced over to see a well-toned man come out of the shadows, his hair black and his face covered in a full beard as if he hadn't shaved in months. In reality, it had only been a couple weeks. The man had icy blue eyes that clashed with that dark hair, causing the blonde girl to wonder if the hair-color was natural or not.
And next to him was a green digimon that she had seen before: Dracomon.
There was only one thing that this man could be. "You're an assassin sent by the Digimon Queen," she said out loud, angry that she would hurt someone that had already felt enough pain in his life. She glanced over at Antonio's partner Veemon who ran to his partner's side as soon as he fell. The girl also noticed that Cutemon was already trying his best to heal the heavy man's back wound, which seemed to be closing up quite nicely.
At the same time, she worried that the fireball would have caused a spinal injury, paralyzing him for life. Why can't things go right for people like him? She thought.
The man in front of her chuckled madly, his voice deep. "No, actually, I was sent by StrikeMapachemon to kill him and capture you. It's a shame, though, really."
"Okay, dude! Who the heck are you, anyway?" Yuji exclaimed, his voice filled with just as much anger as Ayaka's.
"The name's Orgetorix, or at least that's what I think it is," the dark-haired man explained, giving the team a lopsided grin.
Everyone else gathered around, looking angrily at the newcomer who had the gall to hurt one of their own.
"Well, I guess it's time we settle this, hmmm?" the man said, smiling oddly.
"How dare you," Abby said, clenching her fists and ready to punch the lights out of this man in front of her. She wouldn't do it, but he infuriated her enough that she was seriously thinking about it.
Taizou was thinking though. "You're one of the Digimon Queen's slaves, aren't you?"
"Good job, you get a brownie," the man said, smilingly even wider.
"That just means you're as much of a victim as Antonio is," the buzz-haired boy explained.
"Oh, maybe, but the Queen lets me fulfill allmy desires, especially those that I refused to before getting captured by her. It'sa lot of fun. You should try it sometime." The man then pulled out a blue and red D-Arc. "Are you ready to get these children, Dracomon?" he asked his partner. The digimon just growled in response. "Okay! Biomerge Activate!"
The two of them were covered in a sphere of purple energy which then expanded so that it filled most of the cavern before contracting into the new digimon, a massive cross between a dragon and construction equipment: Breakdramon.
Everyone's eyes got wide at the sight of the massive dragon, especially Yuji's. "What the heck! We gotta get out of here!"
"No we don't. We're continuing on," Taizou said, though in reality he was just as scared as his long-haired friend was and he felt his teeth clenching. The buzz-haired boy pulled out his digivice. "Super Digivolution Activate!"
Everyone else did the same, including Yuji once he got everything together.
"Solarmon digivolve to… Zeppelinmon!"
"Cutemon digivolve to… Crescemon!"
"Commandramon digivolve to… Tankdramon!"
"Syakomon digivolve to… Calamaramon!"
In some ways, the situation reminded Ayaka a bit of the first time the team defeated an Ultimate Level on their own, though this time the team was slightly different with Abby instead of Tadashi, a reminder to the group of one of the people they needed to save. Ayaka was somewhat glad that her partner was already at her Ultimate form, though at the same time, she was wary due to her partner having been at that level for hours already.
She was sure that they could beat this enemy, though.
It was at about that time that everything clicked for Ayaka. For one thing, she realized that when Tadashi entrusted her with the leadership of the team that he knew she could do it, and she was doing it. She also knew she couldn't be afraid of the bearded man in front of them who was brainwashed by the Digimon Queen, even though he was now merged with his partner into a monstrosity of a Mega-level digimon.
She knew that they were going to have to undo that brainwashing, something that Sanzomon could do easily if they defeated the massive mechanical dragon in front of them.
Sanzomon moved forward, readying her beads and unleashing them on the powerful digimon in front of her. "Mugen Danmaku Shin-kyou!" she yelled as the attack pummeled against Breakdramon.
"Titanic Tempist!" Calamaramon yelled, drilling into the enemy in front of her.
"Blast Gatling!" Tankdramon shouted, unleashing every volley of bullets on the enemy digimon's torso at once.
"Dark Archery!" Crescemon called, shooting at the Mega with her arrows of darkness.
"Rapid Burst!" Zeppelimon yelled, shooting at Breakdramon with his laser turrets.
When the dust settled, the mechanical dragon had barely a scratch on him.
"What? We gave him our best," Sanzomon said.
"There has to be something else we can do that doesn't involve launching a nuke," Tankdramon remarked.
"My turn!" Breakdramon yelled out in a guttural voice. "Infinity Boring!" The dragon launched a large number of drills at the Digimon in front of him, hitting each of them head-on and throwing them back. "And now I get to take you guys to the Digimon Queen."
It was at about that point that StrikeMapachemon attacked each of their minds, one by one.
Ayaka wouldn't have any of it, even though the pain going through her head seemed like it was about to break her skull in two.
There was no way she was going to lose, not this far away from home away from her parents. She remembered what she heard about how Taizou fought off the control of the Digimon Queen, and he was doing it again. She could see that he was handling the mental attack the best out of all of them, fighting off StrikeMapachemon's attacks to the best of his ability and getting up off the ground unlike the others. The blonde remembered her family.
She remembered her supportive parents, who she felt were a bit too supportive of her and what she was doing with the Digimon. She also remembered how her sister didn't approve of what she was doing. She realized that even though her older sister could be a brat sometimes, she still loved her. In fact, she had a feeling that deep down the girl just wanted what was best for her and wanted her safe.
She wanted to be safe. She wanted all this fighting to end and the only way that would happen is if they were to defeat the Triumvirate, including the Digimon Queen.
She glanced over at Yuji, who had the determination to find his brother and knock some sense into him.
She saw Abby, who just wanted to rescue a close friend.
She eyed Antonio who had gone through too much during his life and yet had possibly more to deal with. He lay there, his hand twitching as he recovered.
And she saw her partner who was willing to die to protect her, something she couldn't do in return. She wanted to help the monk defeat Breakdramon and she would do anything to do so.
In reality, StrikeMapachemon didn't know what he was getting into when he was trying to brainwash her team, no, Tadashi's team. They were Tadashi's team and she wasn't going to let the absence of their leader stop that, even if she had to lead it in his stead. She was going to fight this enemy for him, for everyone.
She felt a field surround her, a field of pink data. She then glanced over at her partner and wondered what the data was. She felt it flow through her digivice, moving toward her partner.
She knew what she had to do and she held her digivice, focusing the power of her emotions at her partner, reinvigorating her.
"What is this? Some sort of Deus Ex Machina? Did she just pull some sort of Digi-soul out of her rear end or something?" Orgetorix scoffed from inside his partner's Mega form.
"Sanzomon, are you alright?" she asked the monk.
"Far better than I was before," she responded, moving toward her partner.
"Well, isn't this just great," Breakdramon said in annoyance. "Some little sappy moment needs a pooper. Heck, it's not like you can actually defeat me, anyway. Destroyed Rush!" The dragon yelled, attacking the ground with his shovels and aiming toward Ayaka and Sanzomon. The monk grabbed the blonde and teleported behind the dragon, who didn't notice that he had missed. At that time, the others were starting to get total control of their minds back, recalling their families, friends, gods, purposes and other things that helped them fight off StrikeMapachemon's psychic attacks.
StrikeMapachemon had failed to brainwash them, something which marked them for destruction by the raccoon with Breakdramon as a proxy. But Ayaka wasn't going to allow that. It was time she took control. "Sanzomon, we have to do this together!" the blonde shouted, fired up with emotion.
"I know."
The blond felt herself sync with her partner, ready for anything. She remembered the monk's attacks. "Kochou Mu-kyou," she said with her partner who unleashed the torments she experienced throughout her time, remembering the battle with Megadramon and remembering all the other battles she had fought as well as the ordeal of staying at the Ultimate level throughout most of their trip there. The monk unleashed the attack, which managed a few dents this time, but was still nowhere near enough to defeat the powerful Mega, who turned and faced her.
The blonde and her partner knew that they were going to have to do this together. She noticed that there was smoke coming from her digivice after activating her digi-soul earlier so she realized that she shouldn't use that technique again. Instead, she knew that this was the time.
She held out her digivice and said the words, realizing what would happen. She felt a twinge of self-doubt go through her, but fought against it. She needed to be one with her partner to defeat Orgetorix and rescue him from the Queen's control. She needed to be one to rescue Tadashi.
It was time… "Biomerge Activate!" she yelled and her digivice burst with light.
###
Alice was afraid for her partner. For one thing, she was the only one who hadn't reached Ultimate yet, so any attack from Lucemon could hurt him.
She didn't want him to end up like Dobermon.
But what could she do? She didn't have any cards to help Sparrowmon out. All she could do was watch as the golden bird flew, avoiding the occasional blast from Lucemon. Art was right: the digimon was far stronger than any others of his level. There had to be a way to deal with him. She thought about going after the tamer, but what she had seen of him didn't encourage her to do that.
Her partner continued to dodge and attack, but he couldn't seem to land a hit on the small, boyish angel, who kept on attacking each of the others. It seemed like the only one who could face him head-on easily was Beelzemon.
"Divine Feet!" Lucemon yelled, kicking Tactimon in the chest, knocking him back hundreds of feet. The black samurai got up, feeling the cracks in his armor and not liking it.
Alice knew she had to do something. "Is there anybody here with cards?" she asked the group. The other Tamers glanced at each other before looking at her and shaking their heads.
"I got some stat-increase programs on my digivice," Art replied. "I could send them to you if you want."
The blonde nodded with the crack of a smile on her face. "That would be great," she said and the curly-haired boy flipped open his D-Plus and hurriedly attached some files to a text before sending them to her. "How do you already know how to program?" Alice asked.
Art glanced over at the battle. His partner was now getting a beating. "I just did some basic scripting. My digivice was set up with support for the same scripting language as yours and I just messed around with stats a little bit." He grimaced as his partner received a Grand Cross attack head-on from Lucemon. "Both my parents were programmers, though my dad was one only in this world, not in mine. Not that it's inherited, though I'm sure that the aptitude is… somewhat."
Alice nodded. "My grandfather is a professor."
"So's my dad in this reality," Art remarked. "My mom's just an office grunt in both worlds, though I guess she does pretty good work for Saxum in this one."
"Katarina?" the blonde guessed.
"How'd you know?" Art chuckled. "Yeah, she got together with my dad in that one but not in this one, I guess. I heard she had a boyfriend."
"How do you feel about that?" Alice asked as she received her programs from him. She glanced at them. They were just basic stat boost programs for the most part, except for, inexplicably, the insane one that he used to get them to the outskirts of the Queen's castle so quickly.
"I'm not sure. I'm afraid, I guess," Art remarked. "Of course, I don't know who she's dating or anything."
Alice nodded before aiming her digivice at her partner. "Program activate: High !" she shouted and her partner felt stronger already. He aimed and fired, damaging Lucemon a little in the wings. The angel turned around, angry and made a familiar hand sign.
"Grand Cross!" he yelled, shooting off a series of energy spheres at the golden bird who dodged just barely.
Alice held her breath for that one. It was close. "Program Activate: Speed dot ds!" she shouted and her partner flew far faster, striking Lucemon constantly, causing the angel's attention to be focused on him.
Still, this distracted him long enough for Tactimon to go after his partner.
"What? No! Don't do that!" Art yelled out angrily as the black samurai moved toward Jacob McCloskey who screamed at the sight of the Mega inching toward him.
Fernando could guess what would happen. "You'll make him digivolve!"
And the fat boy's digivice shined with dark light as Lucemon changed form. "Lucemon digivolve to… Chaos Mode!"
The new form was that of a fallen angel in aristocratic gear.
"Crap!" Art shouted, though he was thinking of far more potent curse words. Tactimon realized what he had done and promptly aimed for the newly-digivolved Ultimate, pulling his sword from his sheath in the process. At the same time, Beelzemon pulled his guns out of their holsters, aiming at the enemy in front of them.
Alice had to do something to help. Her partner was finally landing hits on the enemy digimon's rookie form earlier, so he could be damaged. Maybe for all his strength, he has a low defense; she mused and realized that that was the case. The Digimon's defense seemed to consist of using his attacks on the other Digimon and absorbing their attacks with his own. That meant that the angel may have actually been quite fragile, despite his extreme strength.
She knew she had to help the others. Her partner was fast when he needed to be. Perhaps his Ultimate form was faster. She hoped that that was the case. She had no idea how to reach Ultimate, though she had an idea. "Art, how can I create that… thing of energy that you created earlier?"
Art glanced at her in surprise. "The Digi-soul? Sorry, but that's not a good idea," he responded, showing her something on the top of his digivice. "The D-Arcs don't have this so they can't process Digi-soul correctly. You can use it, but you might end up destroying your digivice in the process."
"I might have to use it," she said, panicking. "I need a way to help my partner reach Ultimate."
Art put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye. "Forcing it's a horrible idea," he warned. "Ever hear about what happened when Takato forced his partner to go Mega?"
Alice nodded and narrowed her eyes, realizing what he was getting at. "I was there." She remembered how she had been watching it from Baihumon's domain back then and how afraid she was that Megidramon would destroy both worlds. She didn't want that to happen again.
"Focus on your relationship with your partner. You need to do that to reach Ultimate." Art opened up his digivice and checked her stats. "Remember that we're here. Don't give up on drawing close to your partner."
She nodded again. "I realize something," she said. "I guess part of my problem with getting close to Sparrowmon is that I haven't really gotten over Dobermon."
Art nodded and so did Jeri. "Losing a digimon is like losing a husband or wife," the brunette told her. "It's very hard to get over and the only way you can do so is with the passage of time."
The olive-skinned boy agreed, his face downcast. "I've heard of Tamers that went into pretty bad depression after losing a partner."
Jeri nodded, remembering her past experience after losing Leomon. She was feeling better, but she didn't want anybody else to go through that.
Alice clenched her fists and looked over to her partner. She realized she needed to let Dobermon go and that she would if she still loved him. She had a new partner now, so she shouldn't constantly be comparing the bird with the dog she lost. Still, she remembered the good times she had with him and smiled even as a tear crawled down her face. "Goodbye, Dobermon. I guess sometimes love means letting go…"
Her digivice shined with the shine of the crest program of Love, engulfing her partner.
###
Tadashi regained a state of semi-consciousness and came face to face with his dark self once again. He felt the anger emanate from his other half, but he didn't want any of it. How could I have fallen so far in the other timeline?
Oh, there are ways, the heavy boy heard from in front of him, glancing at his darker self. Manipulation by Mapachemon, for instance.
But Mapachemon wasn't in the real world, Tadashi thought back to his other self, not wanting to fall into the trap.
But one of his servants made his way through the gap.
###
A memory went through Tadashi's mind of an encounter he made with Coronamon shortly after the detection of the duplicates in the Digital World. He arrived at the digital field between the alleyways to find the latest emergence, an insect digimon named Shadramon. The digimon cried out, jumping forward and attacking as it went into Tadashi's mind, working on the darkness that was already there, expanding it.
Then the enemy digimon was attacked and deleted. The blond fell down to his knees, hyperventilating from the experience. The boy glanced at his savior.
What happened after that was blocked.
###
Who saved me? Tadashi asked.
Don't remember. That memory was blocked somehow, but apparently our savior couldn't undo the damage to our mind. The other side of him said.
Still, the blond noticed that at least something was different. He had flashes of StrikeMapachemon and Sciurumon battling in his mind along with Ed and someone else that he didn't recognize. Some other Urrutía family member perchance?
There were a few words from that battle that went through his mind. Agent of Forever… What did that mean?
Then something else hit him. His dark side was weaker. He also remembered the kinds of things that the Digimon Queen forced him to do while he was under her influence. He realized that he kidnapped Ed.
He also realized the kind of things he did as a show for the Digimon Queen, things that made him sick. He hated her for that.
This was bound to happen sooner or later, Tadashi's dark side said maliciously. You can't escape fate, Tadashi. Remember what the old man showed us?
Tadashi thought about it, but he knew something. No, what he showed us didn't happen beyond the Queen telling me that I was her favorite. Something prevented everything else from happening.
That battle inside his mind… The mysterious boy that he had never seen before with the partner that seemed like another version of the Coonmon-Prokyomon line… Art.
That was his guess anyway. He didn't know much about the mysterious companion of the second Time Lord other than that he fought Emperor Samuel Krenzel at various points during his tyrannical fifteen-year reign.
He had to get out of this funk and help his friends. He had to redeem himself for what he did under the Digimon Queen's influence. He had to stop her.
"No more of this," he said out loud.
Come on, you hate Antonio Urrutía and you want to kill him.
"No, I don't! You idiot, can't you see that this is stupid!" We're not going to be kids forever. We're going to be adult Tamers as well!
His dark side shrunk back, literally. But…
But this is stupid. My brother's eighteen and he's a Tamer. You can't say that he shouldn't be one just because. Heck, what do you think will happen when we turn eighteen, when I turn eighteen, huh? Adulthood! Growing up is going to happen whether we like it or not. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean it shouldn't happen. I shouldn't hurry up and grow up. I want to enjoy my adolescence, but when the time comes for me to graduate, I'm going to learn how to be an adult.
His dark side flinched some more. Stop!
"No, you stop!" Tadashi said out loud once more. I'm going to grow up whether I like it or not. Just because I'm mature doesn't mean that I'm not enjoying life, though. And guess what, taking out my insecurities about growing up on Antonio and Ed won't change a thing, so why should I?
With that, his dark side faded away and the blond woke up.
###
BIOMERGE DIGIVOLUTION_
"Sanzomon biomerge to…"Ayaka felt herself merge into her partner's body, creating a new form, a more androgynous one. The form was thin and wearing a long, golden robe with a gold collar and a gold mask over its face. It also had long, snow-white hair with black tips and was floating cross-legged with sixteen spheres floating around it and a golden halo behind its head.
"… Shakamon!" she exclaimed, levitating above the ground.
"What is this?" Orgetorix said from within his partner's mechanical body. "Some sort of bishounen? Ugh, I hate prettyboys!"
"I'm a woman," the enlightened digimon told him matter-of-factly.
The bearded man grinned. "Oh, is that the case?"
Shakamon unfolded her legs and stepped onto the ground, her orbs still circling her.
"Infinity Boring!" Breakdramon yelled, shooting off a large number of drills straight at the enlightened digimon, who intercepted them with her orbs, harmlessly absorbing them. Seeing this, Orgetorix became angry and charged Shakamon who teleported behind him. Then Breakdramon charged her again. "Gravity Press!" he shouted, aiming to crush the powerful Mega, who teleported again just as he was about to land on her with his increased mass.
Shakamon looked down on him and called her attack: "Pilgrimage of Enlightenment Palm!"
Almost immediately, Breakdramon shrunk down, finding himself on the enlightened digimon's palm and facing a purple version of himself: GigaBreakdramon. "What the heck is this?" the mechanical dragon asked as he faced his other self, shooting off drills at the GigaBreakdramon in front of him. He received the same attack in return and felt the same amount of damage.
The battle on the palm lasted a few more minutes until Shakamon released him. The rest of the Tamers were aghast at the sight of a heavily damaged Breakdramon.
"Now it is time to be purified, Breakdramon," the enlightened digimon told her opponent. "Light of the Spider's Thread!" She glowed and so did the mechanical dragon in front of her as he split back into Orgetorix and Dracomon.
The bearded Tamer tried to shut it out, but he couldn't. That was when all of StrikeMapachemon's influence went away, cleansed by Shakamon's technique. When it was all over, the bearded Tamer just stood there and twitched. He had no idea what was going on.
Then a program inside his digivice activated and he remembered everything.
###
Antonio woke up, feeling almost as if he could have slept for far longer, brought back to consciousness by that fleeting dream that had been haunting him. What surprised him when he stood up was that he felt far better than he had expected. He reached around to his back and felt the spot where his shirt had been burnt away by Dracomon's surprise attack and was amazed that there wasn't even a scar there.
The curly-haired man immediately checked his digivice to see what programs were operating. He was surprised to see a translation of Mr. Immortal's automatic healing program there, especially since he hadn't finished translating that from Python.
Then the heavy man turned around, ignoring his tattered dress shirt for the time being to see his attacker get his mind cleansed by Shakamon. He hadn't ever seen such a digimon, but it registered on his digivice. One of the Shinjuku Tamers had gone Mega and he was guessing Ayaka.
The heavy man moved past his partner, who was watching the entire battle in case he needed to rescue Antonio but Veemon was surprised to see him walk past him.
"Antonio! You got better!" the blue dragon exclaimed happily, hugging his partner's leg. Antonio responded by picking the small dragon up and holding him as he walked toward his opponent, stupefying every one of Tadashi's teammates as he did so.
Orgetorix glanced at the other man, who was his height and had a stern look on his face, before collapsing right in front of him. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you like that!" the bearded man exclaimed, apologetic but not crying.
"You were under StrikeMapachemon's control, weren't you?" Antonio deduced, getting a nod from the bearded man.
"I've been under his control for the last two weeks," Orgetorix responded, his voice deeper than before. "I hate what he made me do."
Antonio nodded shakily. "That's why we need to stop him."
"Your healing should have made you immune to StrikeMapachemon's incursions, so you don't have to worry about becoming brainwashed by him anymore," Shakamon explained.
"Thank you," the bearded man said. "I guess this part of my mission is over…"
"Mission?" Antonio asked. "Who are you?"
"I work for the Time Lord Alexander Rinaldi. I have a name, but for now I'm going by the pseudonym Orgetorix," he explained, a look of determination on his face.
"Yeah? What kind of name is Orgetorix?" Miki asked, not understanding it. "It sounds like something from some cheesy Role-Playing Game or something."
"Orgetorix isn't just some cheesy name, kid," the Agent responded. "Orgetorix of the Helvetii was a Celt who conspired with two other Celts of different tribes to take over Gaul, but he ended up getting killed by his own people. I guess Caesar must have liked him."
"So, you must have read De Bella Gallica in the original Latin or something?" Antonio guessed.
"I haven't gotten that far. I just know a little about it. You?" Orgetorix asked.
"I studied Latin for a few years at the university but I haven't really used it since so I think I may have forgotten all of it," the big man responded.
Wow, you guys are a bunch of nerds, Miki thought, but she succeeded in keeping her mouth shut.
"So, what now?" Orgetorix asked, adjusting his glasses.
"First, the blond kid I ran into in the Emperor's castle is a Time Lord?" Antonio asked.
"No, Al Rinaldi is black," the bearded man responded. "To be honest, I can't tell you much other than that I'm an Agent of Forever, but I can tell you that Rinaldi will tell you everything when the time comes."
"Who are the other Agents of Forever and what are you guys trying to do?" Taizou asked, suspicious.
"I can't tell you who the others are, really, though they include me, Dumnorix, the last Tamer of Shinjuku from the future, and Casticus, a Son of the First Tamer. We're trying to do two things, stop Kurata and break the Cycle of Timelines."
The others looked at the man with confusion. "Okay, what the heck is the Cycle of Timelines?" Yuji asked, not really believing the man.
"Can we walk and talk at the same time?" Antonio suggested to the group. "I got my son to save." Then he realized something about what the man said as he started walking and turned toward him as he continued. "Who is Son of the First? Did Mr. Immortal have a kid?"
Orgetorix shook his head as the others followed. "No, Mr. Immortal doesn't count as the first Tamer since he traveled through time. You know, thinking about it, if you included time travel, I would be considered the first Tamer."
"Then that would be me, wouldn't it?" Antonio gritted his teeth. "So, Ed's an Agent?"
"Possibly," Orgetorix responded. "I was told not to reveal too much until you guys are ready. Prometheus was going to tell you everything eventually. Let's just say there are a couple of Urrutías among the Agents. For some reason, you guys tend to show up a lot."
Antonio wasn't about to ask who was.
"This sounds like a complicated game of chess," Taizou remarked, scratching his chin.
Orgetorix nodded. "It is, pretty much. There's a lot of work being done and it's all basically a war between us, Kurata and Yggdrasil. One of our goals involves finding Iggy's potential physical location."
"Doesn't Yggdrasil also go by ENIAC? I think I heard that from Ryo," Yuji inquired, grinning like he knew everything.
"That turned out to be a red herring. ENIAC barely has the processing power of a modern calculator and it wasn't even connected to the net," Orgetorix replied. "However, that's not important. When we reach the Digimon Queen's front door, we're going to be met by a group of Mechanorimon. When that happens, just comply. We'll all be taken to the Queen's courtroom."
Ayaka didn't like that idea. "What? Are you sure?"
Orgetorix nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure. Don't worry; a digimon is on its way that will block out the telepathic abilities of the Queen's partner."
Antonio grimaced at the thought of the Digimon that his son had created. He wished that Ed would have left those drawings at home on the day that he had gotten kidnapped. He wondered who had the digimon that could block out the Queen's powers, though.
###
"Sparrowmon digivolve to… RaptorSparrowmon!" Sparrowmon's new form was a golden yellow much like his Champion form was, but had much longer wings and was far more avian in appearance. He had vast, mechanical wings and large talons that he could strike his enemies with.
Jeri smiled at the sight. "You did it!" she exclaimed.
"Pathetic," Lucemon said hammily. "You think you can actually defeat me with this? Even Megas have reason to fear me!"
Alice wasn't afraid. "Go get him, RaptorSparrowmon!" she exclaimed and the bird soared through the air with his talons ready.
"Grand Cross!" Lucemon yelled, shooting the attack at the massive bird of prey, who promptly dodged the attack so quickly it looked like he teleported. But he was too focused on her to notice the attack from behind and felt a pair of bullets burst through his upper chest, missing his heart but still hurting and spraying large amounts of data. "What?"
"Forget about me?" Beelzemon asked. The angel pulled himself off the sword and attacked the demonic biker head on.
"Paradise Lost Punch!" he yelled, launching Beelzemon in mid-air before punching him downward. But what the angel didn't expect were talons grabbing him and flying him in far higher before turning around and plunging him into the ground as fast as a meteor.
When the rubble cleared, the angel was lying down, crumpled. "You know what your problem is?" Tactimon asked, limping alongside Beelzemon. "You don't have nearly as much defense as a digimon of your level should."
The angel cursed under his breath before devolving all the way back to his in-training form.
"We did it!" Alice cheered before glancing over at all the hurt digimon on their side.
"Yeah, heck of a cost, though," Art commented while holding an injured Ardillamon in his arms. "Really. So, I guess we should rest before moving on for a bit."
Jeri looked around at everyone. That battle had taken a lot out of each and every one of them. And then there was the issue with the rogue still running around out there, though they had his partner so they should be safe from most enemies until they could move again.
"I think we should wait here until everyone's feeling better," she said before glancing over at Ardillamon. "Do you think your partner can heal everyone?"
Art just stood there, slack jawed. "Uh, I hope so. He's busy trying to heal himself right now, though. I might have to use a stamina program on him a few times."
They all hoped that they could reach the Queen's castle in time. Then he thought of an alternative. "Hey, Jeri, what if we just had a small team go to the Digimon Queen's castle?" he asked the de facto leader, who looked at him with a bit of bewilderment.
"But… wouldn't that be dangerous?" she asked in reply, worrying about the wellbeing of her teammates.
"If it's just a small group, we should be okay," Art responded. "I was thinking of just having me, Gus and Alice going, especially since RaptorSparrowmon's in pretty good shape." He gave her a look of determination. "Her partner's fast. Plus, we'll have Piximon's shield and my partner's going to block StrikeMapachemon's powers. Don't worry, we'll make it back okay."
"Okay, but if you want this plan to succeed, we'll have to move quick," Alice remarked. "Why are we bringing Gus, again?"
"In just a little bit, the Queen is going to start a trial. I intend for Gus to be the star witness," he responded with a grin on his face. Gus only picked up part of what Art had said. "But first we're going to have to teach him English on the way. Don't worry, it shouldn't take too long."
"Just at the first sign of danger, you should come back," Jeri cautioned.
"Don't worry. Old Queenie's going to be busy and my partner will be in range of cancelling out her partner's telepathic powers. We'll be a practical blind spot once that happens. Actually, the whole area's going to be one. Her empire'll fall like a house of cards!"
###
Ayaka continued with her team plus the two adults that were on it, hoping to get past the end of the tunnel sooner rather than later. She hoped that they could get Ed and Tadashi, defeat the Queen and then get out of there.
The girl checked her digivice every few minutes. After what seemed like over an hour of walking, they finally reached a large, metallic door.
"Well, it looks like we're here," the blonde said.
"Let me," Orgetorix said, putting his hand on the keypad. The door in front of them promptly opened up and the team found themselves face-to-face with a large number of Mechanorimon, prompting them to instinctively hold their hands up.
"You will come with us," the machine in front told the seven humans and their partners in a mechanical voice. "The Queen is waiting."
"Okay, but you better not do anything to us or we'll defend ourselves," Ayaka responded as they were escorted by the Mechanorimon.
A few minutes later, the group found themselves inside a vast, red Coliseum, filled to the brim with a large number of Digimon, all the Digimon Queen's slaves.
Then they saw her in the middle of the room sitting high up above the team and their digimon, looking down on them haughtily with a sneer on her face as her throne moved forward, her massive partner digimon standing behind her at the same time. She had Antonio right where she wanted him and she was going to execute justice against him.
"The trial against Antonio Urrutía will commence," she told everyone present. "And the sentence will be death!"
###
When he came to, Tadashi only recognized one of the three people who were there, Ed. He also remembered the redhead shortly thereafter as being from that one city they were once in. The blond had no idea what was going on. He heard the fat red-head speak, though, despite not knowing his name.
"You think he had some sort of aneurism or something?" he asked.
"He's coming to, Steven," Ed told him before turning toward Tadashi. "You remember anything, bud?"
"I feel like I got run over by a freight train," the blond responded, getting a laugh from the brown-haired boy that he didn't recognize. Tadashi tried to think about what had happened prior to his black-out, but he was having a hard time doing so. Then he remembered everything from the past few days, causing his eyes to go wide as his body shook with shock.
"Take it easy, man," Ed told him. Tadashi nodded, but still felt shame at what he had done and what had happened to him. "None of it was your fault."
Tadashi got up shakily. He then looked into the brown eyes of his American friend. "That… The Digimon Queen is going to pay for this."
Ed's eyes widened. "What happened?"
Then Tadashi told him and everyone felt sick to their stomachs. "Man, that was pretty low for that lady to do that kind of stuff to you," the brown-haired guy said.
"I think I'm going to puke!" the fat red-head exclaimed. "I can't believe… The nerve of that woman! If I had my partner right now I'd kick her sorry little…"
Speaking of partners... "Tadashi! You're okay!" Coronamon cheered as he latched onto his Tamer all the sudden.
"Wait, do either of you guys have digimon with you?" the blond asked.
"Just woke up from cryogenic sleep. By the way, the name's Steven. Not sure if we introduced ourselves to each other when you came to the city a few days ago, but yeah!" The red-head's mouth formed a wide grin.
"Tadashi. I… I think I was kind of… I don't know. I had a lot on my mind when we were there."
"And I'm Trevor. So, what should we do now?" the brown-haired boy asked. It became apparent to Tadashi that he couldn't see at all since he wasn't even making eye-contact with anyone.
"Well, we should find the Digimon Queen before she puts Antonio on trial," Tadashi said to the group. He was shaken from what the Queen had done to him and clenched his fists. He wanted to stop her from doing anything like that to anyone else.
Ed looked around as he did that and pulled out his digivice to look at his father's location. "Crap! I think we better hurry up, Tadashi!" the black-haired boy exclaimed. "He's here already and according to this he's headed to where the Digimon Queen is at."
Tadashi grimaced. "Guys, since you don't have partners, I'm not going to have you get in harm's way, okay?" he asked the other two boys.
"Sure can," Trevor said. "What do you want us to do, anyway?"
"Simple, as soon as we defeat StrikeMapachemon, these people are going to wake up. I want you to open up the tanks when that happens, okay?"
"What? That's lame!" Steven exclaimed.
"Do you know where your partner is?" Tadashi asked and when the redhead shook his head in response, he said: "Thought so. Ed, you're with me. Guys, try to keep out of sight while we're gone, okay?"
Steven nodded as he watched Ed and Tadashi walk out the door. He wasn't going to like this.
###
A/N: The next chapter will contain a drastic drop in cast size, so bear with me. Plus, the arc's going to be winding down as the Digimon Queen's plan falls apart and someone else reaches the Mega Level. Oh, should I mention that Kurata will show up again? And another surprise canon character? And who is Antonio's lawyer? You won't guess that last one.
I'll have to apologize for the severe hiatus as well as the way the last arc had gone with an overly complex plot that only I could understand and too many characters. Since August, I've been going to school to try and get my associate's degree and, well, I haven't had a lot of spare time. That's changing for this summer, though, and hopefully I'll be able to finish this story by the time school starts up again. My first year was pretty hectic and my second one might be a bit loco as well. Still, I've learned a lot, including about time management.