Chapter 38: Tribunal
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Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
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World 6 – 0: Dark Ocean
"Yeah, right," David Symanski scoffed when he heard what the large blond and his dark-haired friend had both explained.
"You know, those other guys came from an alternate reality and they did mention something about you being some sort of Dimension Key or something," Diego objected. The chubby boy was with the alternate version of a former Emperor talking with Kurita and Rinchei. Originally, the two Japanese teens were going to talk to him in private, but the leader of the Dark Ocean Digidestined decided against that and had Diego and a skinny blond kid whose name Kurita couldn't be bothered to remember, accompany him just in case and that everybody would leave their partners at camp so that the two newcomers wouldn't try anything.
As for the skinny blond kid, he was just sitting there with a serious look on his face.
"But the whole idea that there's an infinite number of alternate realities and that I'm the center of it somehow doesn't make any sense," David shot back.
"They never said anything about the number of realities being infinite," the blond corrected, a grin forming on his face. "For all we know, there are only a handful where a few things are different. Like Diego having different cousins in between them or you having a sister instead of a brother."
"But this is all the stuff of science fiction," the brown-haired boy objected.
The skinny blond kid chuckled a bit. "Yeah, and traveling through a strange world with monsters that look like something out of Monster Rancher but can change forms isn't," he responded sarcastically. "Come on, the universe is a pretty strange place if you think about it."
"Still, the idea of me, of all people, being the key to merging the worlds... Why?" David asked. "That's the one thing I definitely don't get."
"Yeah, I don't get it either," Rinchei said deadpan with a shrug.
"You know, nobody has all the answers," Kurita added. "I'm just doing something some guy told me from the past."
"As in time travel…" the skinny blond kid muttered. "I've been thinking of some time-travel story where whenever someone travels back in time, they just create a new timeline. What if instead of doing that, they created an alternate reality."
"You're not talking about one of your weird daydreams where you save the world again, are you?" David inquired, wary.
"Yeah, I guess," the skinny blond responded, scratching his chin. "You know, come to think of it, in the story I'm thinking of, it gets kind of screwy when I travel to the future and meet my future self. How does that not alter history? Or does it?"
David rolled his eyes. In his opinion, the skinny blond kid was all sort of crazy with his weird stories that crossed over multiple shows he liked for some reason. This time, it was Dragonball Z mixed with a bunch of other crap ranging from Dexter's Laboratory to Fairly Odd Parents. He was surprised Spongebob wasn't in there somewhere.
"Right…" was all he muttered. Then a shrill came out of Kurita's digivice.
"Listen, we need to get you out of here now!" Kurita exclaimed to the team, panic-struck. He had just looked at his digivice.
"Yeah? Why?" David asked, scoffing.
"He's here, man!"
The world exploded around them as everyone and their digimon ran for cover, trying to get away from the juggernaut that threatened to destroy them personally. Everyone ran.
But Gizumon BT wouldn't stop at anything. He immediately ran for David and then flew off. He would deal with the others later if at all. He considered killing them, but decided he was in a hurry.
It wouldn't be long until the others reached the Digital World via Gunslinger.
###
Diego just sat there, shocked out of his mind. "He just took David!"
"We're lucky he didn't kill us," Kurita said, getting out from behind the rock he hid behind. He felt like such a coward, hiding like that. Maybe Alexander Rinaldi made a mistake in choosing him. He was supposed to be reliable, so what happened?
"The others are going to be sooo mad," Andrew said with a grimace, getting up, shaking all over. He hadn't felt this useless since they were losing against Dagomon's minions. "That was a mistake, leaving our partners behind like that."
"But if you fought against him, he probably would have killed you," Kurita said. "As it is, I don't know why he didn't in the first place. Oh man, this is bad."
"He was in a hurry," Rinchei deduced. "Something about him. Still, he was a stronger-than-average Mega, so there was a strong possibility that we'd die in battle against him."
The thought made the group shudder.
"He attacked us when we were at our weakest, without our partners," Kurita said, shaking his head.
"At least we'll live long enough to face him again, this time with Megas of our own!" Andrew exclaimed.
"But we haven't even reached Ultimate. There's nothing to fight against in this world," Diego objected.
"And now we're one less person because of it," the heavy blond said, shaking his head. He felt tears coming forth, but he tried his best to stop them. "We have to save him."
###
David fell against the hard ground, feeling pain all through his body. He had been forcibly separated from his team. Maybe the two Japanese guys were right…
Gizumon BT had broken his spine, so there was no getting up for him anymore. He had never felt so helpless against an enemy before. Then the powerful enemy released what looked like a clone of him with a device, just lying on the ground. David didn't want to know what this enemy was about to do to him.
The purple mechanical monstrosity picked up David's alternate self and had the other version of him make physical contact with his skin.
The flash of light was instantaneous and all that was left was the Tamer's Reality's version of David Symanski, but with the memories of his other selves inside his head. And the unification wave moved over the world, effectively merging the Dark Ocean with the Tamers' Digital World.
A few seconds later and David found himself in limbo inside of Kurata's digivice. It felt neither hot nor cold. It didn't feel like anything, really. All it was was complete sensory deprivation and it would be the brown-haired boy's own personal hell until the next time the monster decided to bring him out for another unification.
Kurata then moved toward the nearest Dimensional Corridor where he would kill yet another Heimdallmon and move onto the next world, which just happened to be the one where Tai, Davis and the others were at.
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World 4/5: Tamer's Reality
It felt surreal as Ayaka's team was led through the Digimon Queen's castle and into the chambers where the Queen was about to decide their fate. Miki, especially, didn't like the feeling of dread flowing through her veins. Actually, it was more a feeling of annoyance since she felt that the Digimon Queen was just another annoying thorn in her side and she really just wanted to get this all over with so she could get back to her life in Shinjuku. Not to mention all the parties she had missed.
When they reached the court chambers, the Digimon Queen was seated on a raised platform that was moving forward, looking down upon the five Tamers and their partners. She gave the group a smile which caused Miki to glare in her direction. Who does this chick think she is, anyway? She thought, also noting the sight of StrikeMapachemon in the background, guarding his partner.
"Will Antonio Urrutía step forward?" the Queen requested and Antonio acquiesced, his face a mask of determination. He was going to defend himself to the best of his ability, even if the Queen clearly had the upper hand and had already decided her verdict. Miki doubted he even stood a chance.
The overweight man looked his accuser in the eye as she started to list a series of accusations. "You are thereby charged with child abuse, child abandonment, participation in an evil cult, cheating on your spouse and abandoning her as well as…" Miki looked on in astonishment as the Queen continued to read off accusation after accusation.
Where the heck did she get this crap? The dark-haired girl then looked up at the ultimate-level digimon that flanked the Digimon Queen, the partner of the powerful dictator.
"Do you have anything to say before I finalize your sentence, Antonio?" the Queen asked, a smile coming across her face. In her own eyes, she was already victorious.
"Yeah, actually: what's the basis of all these accusations? What's the proof?" the man asked his accuser, looking her in the eye, his determination not even faltering despite the drowsiness that he was feeling. The recent brush with death that he had had cost him large amounts of stamina.
"For the first charge, here is some imagery that my partner has extracted from your mind as well as Eduardo's," the Queen responded, creating the illusion of Antonio yelling profanities at Ed for a grade on his report card. The larger man then proceeded to beat his son senseless.
Miki rolled her eyes. "Wait, so your partner's some sort of psychic?" the dark-haired girl asked the powerful French Tamer who was levelling accusations against Antonio.
"Yes, my partner can read the minds of others," the Queen explained.
"Yeah? Okay, so since when could a professional psychic be called upon to testify in a trial?" Miki inquired, walking forward to stand next to an astonished Antonio. The guy may have been ugly, but the dark-haired girl could survive him for a couple seconds.
The Queen simply stared before speaking. "This information comes from a source I trust implicitly: my partner."
"Yeah? Why the heck should we trust him, huh? Besides, if what you say about Tony over here is true, then you should at least find some proof that doesn't involve hocus pocus from an oversized raccoon." Miki smiled widely. "Like bruises or broken bones on Ed or Antonio acting out of control in front of you. So far, I haven't seen either."
"Who are you to make such accusations about my partner's honesty? The proof is all in Antonio's head," the Queen told Miki.
"Well, let's just say that my parents are friends with a bunch of rich people, including lawyers. Yeah, yeah, they're all slimeballs, but I know enough from watching lots of Law and Order to say that your 'proof' would be thrown out of any serious courtroom since we can't even prove that it was even in Antonio's head in the first place. We just have your partner's word, lady."
Antonio couldn't believe what he was hearing coming from Miki's mouth and simply had a look of fear. He had only had a little bit of interaction with the girl but from what little he had, he could tell she didn't like him much. She seemed kind of vain, for one thing. He also had no idea that she could have possibly known much about the law, though what she was saying was definitely common sense. However, the Queen would have none of it.
"How dare you doubt the veracity of my partner's proof!" she yelled at Miki.
"Hey, chill out, lady. If your partner's honest, you should be able to prove your case without his fancy mind powers," Miki responded, grinning from ear to ear. She glanced over at her friends who were all just as shocked as Antonio was.
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Ed and Tadashi made their way to the courtroom where the others were and finally burst through the doors to the upper level of the room. Ed practically ran into the balcony and spotted his father, standing in front of the Digimon Queen as Miki spoke to the Queen and grinned.
He was too late. The trial had already started. Still, Tadashi knew he had to do something to atone for what he had done while under the Queen's control. "Ed, why do you trust me?"
The black-haired boy turned to the blond. "Because you're my friend. You may have done some stupid things but still… Most of them were because of the Queen's control, anyway."
Tadashi lifted his eyes and faced the Queen, who was speaking again.
"What my partner says is true beyond all doubt, regardless of what you claim, Miki," she said after getting the girl's name from her partner through their mental link.
"Yeah? You may believe that your partner is honest, but show us that he is!" the dark-haired girl exclaimed.
Ed was confused. "What are they talking about?" he asked Tadashi, who shrugged. The blond knew he was going to have to do something. He was going to have to help his friends.
Miki briefly glanced over at Tadashi, causing the blond to flinch. She immediately turned toward the Queen, though not before realizing that Tadashi had Ed with him. He must have gotten past the Queen's control.
The dark-haired girl grinned once more. "If your partner is right, then I'll call Eduardo Urrutía to the stand!"
The Queen looked up to see Ed jump off the top of the balcony and into the area where his father was being interrogated.
"What? I didn't wake you up!" the Queen exclaimed, an expression of shock on her face. Ed looked at his father, gave him a quick smile, and then turned toward his father's accuser, still on the balcony.
"Ed, did your father ever hit you?" Miki asked him.
"No, never," he answered.
"Do you have any bruises or anything that could have been caused by your father?"
The black-haired boy shook his head. "Whenever he got angry, he was just calm. He would just go into the next room and think about what to do. And he never gets violent."
The Digimon Queen was furious. "He was compromised, brainwashed by Antonio!" she exclaimed.
"And you say you love me," he responded in spite.
"This man abandoned you and your mother, leaving you for Katarina!" she yelled. Miki noticed that she was becoming more and more unhinged by the moment.
"I barely know who this Katarina girl is and besides, most of what I know about her came from you and your illusions so I get the feeling it's all bogus," Ed told the Queen. Antonio then made a motion.
"You mind if I speak?" he asked.
"You're the defendant! You can't speak!" the Queen exclaimed, becoming angrier and contradicting what she said earlier.
"Actually, he should be able to defend himself in a fair trial," Miki told the Queen who gave her a glare.
"Katarina and I have only known each other for a couple weeks. Besides, she was only fourteen when my ex-wife and I divorced so I couldn't have run off with her. Also, she lived in Spain and I barely even had enough money to pay for daily expenses, much less a plane ticket. Then there's the whole issue of what the police would have done if they had found me with an underage girl. It wouldn't be pretty, that's for sure." He was firm but he didn't yell and was respectful despite his accuser's lack of respect for him. Still, he was shaking from his nervousness, wanting this whole unpleasant experience of being in the Digital World with someone who wanted him dead to be over with.
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"It's quite simple, Gus," Art explained to his teammate. The two of them were mentally linked with his partner temporarily so that the darker-skinned boy could do something that would make the next little bit easier and were currently inside the library in Ardillamon's mind. Art held a massive English to Spanish dictionary in his hands which mapped almost every word in both languages to each other. "I'm going to put this into your little avatar and you're going to instantly memorize every word you need to know in English that you'll ever need."
Gus was still wary of the operation. "Uh, I don't know, man. This is kind of weird… Since when do you have a library in your partner's head?"
"I don't know, it kind of came with him. I remember when I first got reunited with him, I just started dreaming of this place and… yeah, he was here," Art responded with a smile as he walked over to his teammate and placed the large book into the mental avatar. It just went straight into him and disappeared. "Feel any different."
Gus nodded.
"You've got only a couple of minutes," Alice's voice boomed from outside the library, from outside the dreamscape.
"Don't worry, this's going to be quick," Art said as he grabbed the first of a large number of novels and DVDs of TV shows and crammed them into his friend's avatar. "Now, you'll need more than just words to be able to speak English fluently. You need examples of grammar and syntax and that is where all of these come in." Over the next few seconds, Gus practically memorized twenty books and a number of seasons of several television shows. When the blond came to, he could understand every word that Alice and Art were saying to each other.
"So, is this permanent?" Gus asked Art and the olive-skinned boy grinned widely, his accent sounding like American English as it is spoken in California. At the same time, he felt incredibly drowsy, as if his brain could explode from all the new information floating around in it.
"As far as I know, yeah, as long as you keep using it," the curly-haired boy replied. "Come on, you'll see how we can use it in just a few seconds. Hope you didn't mind memorizing all those seasons of Friends and Star Trek, because you're going to need them."
Gus nodded as RaptorSparrowmon made his final decent. "Hang on tight! This isn't going to be smooth!" the massive, golden bird warned its passengers as a number of Mechanorimon started shooting missiles at them.
"I'll shield us," Piximon told Gus, his partner.
Then they broke through the glass and into the place where the farcical trial was being held.
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When the digimon queen looked up after an unceremonious crash through the glass above where she was standing, she noticed a boy with Mediterranean complexion and curly hair and a squirrel on his shoulder come out of the glass along with a blond boy and girl. The trio jumped off the massive eagle and the dark-skinned boy was the first to speak in an over-the-top manner.
"This trial has gone on long enough, lady! I shall call forth the next witness! Gustavo Orellana!" The blond walked forward. StrikeMapachemon looked about ready to strike, though he also saw the Piximon in the boy's arms.
Permit me to kill these interlopers, the digimon told his partner, ready for blood.
He got nothing in response.
"Speak," the Digimon Queen motioned, not knowing what to think. She should just get rid of these idiots, but she knew she had to put on a show since both Crimson and Roger Volkmann, her two fellow triumvirs, were watching.
Gus felt nervous, but he spoke anyway. "Why are you doing this? What has Antonio done to you?"
"The charges against him are of child abuse. Who are you and how do you know the defendant?" the Queen asked, scornfully.
"My dad is one of his best friends and I've known Antonio all my life," Gus explained emphatically. "I've even been around him during the time since he found Ed and took custody of him. Este, none of your accusations are true. He's always been kind to him and to me."
The Queen turned to her partner. How come you never told me about this boy?
She got nothing in response. Something must have been blocking their telepathic communications. She had to assume that it was the boy with the squirrel, or more likely, the squirrel itself since he was of a species of digimon that she had never seen before.
"You see, my dad actually helped him a lot after Antonio came back to Chile after graduating college," Gus explained. "I've never known him as anything other than really nice, even after some things happened like that time when his brother left the country with some girl. He's a good guy, so I'm going to ask you to let him and Ed go without a fight."
The Digimon Queen closed her eyes. She couldn't use her partner to verify what the blond boy was saying. She even doubted that he knew Antonio since he was a blond boy who claimed to be from Chile. She felt that all Chileans had to be brown-skinned or at least have black hair. Not to mention his American accent was just too perfect.
At the same time, she saw the flaws in her own reasoning. She had been relying on her partner for too long to verify others' truthfulness. She then thought about some of the things she had been making her slaves do. Then she realized she had slaves. Her partner had been suppressing her guilt ever since she created him using some of Ed's drawings and used him to create an army of brainwashed victims against their will. He had allowed her to access her worst, most twisted desires and made them come true.
Her partner had blocked out her conscience which was now cursing her for every single thing she had done, every single horrific sin she had committed. Her guilt was killing her from the inside out and she knew that she was in the wrong. Her plans were falling apart.
She collapsed right then and there from shock, not knowing that Ardillamon had been the one to reverse her partner's influence.
###
Tadashi knew things were going their way, but he also realized that they had to be cautiously optimistic. StrikeMapachemon was still standing right there, standing in shock at the sight of his partner suddenly falling to the ground.
Then she screamed from the agony of realizing what she had become. She had a crush on Ed simply because he reminded her of her late father, dead of a heart-attack at 45. But she also realized that she had done some horrific things that neither of them would approve of.
That was when StrikeMapachemon acted, grabbing his partner and flying off through the hole caused by RaptorSparrowmon's entrance. Tadashi knew he had to act to at least try to atone for what he had done under her control. Even then, he heard his dark side taunting him in the background. He glanced over at his partner.
"Let's go get her," the blond said.
Coronamon gave Tadashi a smile. "Yeah, whatever you say. We'll beat the crap out of that stinking raccoon and save the queen."
The two jumped over the balcony, ready to go after her and realizing what they had to do to do so. For once, Tadashi's dark side was barely registering, his taunts almost gone. Tamer and partner were one in purpose.
So they became one physically as well.
"Biomerge Activate!"
BIOMERGE DIGIVOLUTION_
"Coronamon biomerge to… Apollomon!" The orange god flew upward after StrikeMapachemon, ready to prevent him from getting away.
Taizou realized what had happened. Tadashi had broken past the Queen's control somehow and was now going after her. Still, he felt that he should at least help him. "Guys, let's go after them!"
Ayaka nodded in agreement before glancing around at the brainwashed slaves of the Digimon Queen who were all just standing around, blank expressions on their faces. "What about them?" she asked.
"I'm taking care of them," Art answered her. "Or my partner is, at least."
Ayaka glanced at the digimon and Antonio glanced at his human partner, recognizing something. "Hey, Ed, didn't you design that Digimon?" the blond girl asked.
"Uh, yeah, he just used my design for his partner," Ed told her. "He's from the future."
"A really sucky one at that," Art replied with a grin. Then he noticed that Antonio was staring at him, realization coming across his face.
"Don," Antonio finally deduced out loud, a look of astonishment on his face. "Only… you're way older."
Art nodded his head. "It's been a few years," the curly-haired boy replied nervously, trying very hard to keep his emotions in check. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to run after this."
"No, you're staying right here," Antonio told him in as calm of a voice as he could manage. "You've got some explaining to do, Don."
"Dad, how do you know who he is?" Ed asked, slightly confused.
"Because I've been having dreams with him in them. At first I thought they were nightmares showing what life would be like if you weren't around, if you'd been replaced, but I guess they weren't."
Art looked in his father's eyes, frozen. "Answers? You want 'em, huh? You'll get them soon."
"No, I'll get them now. I'm tired of being in the dark, Don," the thirty-seven-year-old replied.
"Dad, listen, there's a genocidal maniac named Kurata who's just gotten away with merging the realities yet again and a unification wave is coming," Art explained, grimacing. "I'm going to go out there and stop the guy!"
"No, you're not," the voice came from none other than Orgetorix whose tone was dead serious and who had a scowl on his face. "The mission doesn't involve that yet. As it is, Kurata's too dangerous for someone of your caliber to go up against. Maybe Takato and the others could take him on or even one of the other Agents of Forever, but you sure can't."
"Yeah? Who are you to say?" Art asked snidely.
"You're staying right here, Donaciano Arturo Urrutía," Antonio told him point blank, his tone strict and his index finger pointing at the ground. "That is final."
"Besides, you just now reached Ultimate," Ed told him, his expression serious as well.
Antonio was confused by that remark, but he let it slide. He figured that Ed would tell him how he knew his half-brother from another reality eventually, but for now it wasn't important.
"So, are we going to go after Tadashi or what?" Taizou asked the team, confused by Antonio's conversation with his sons.
"Sure, let's go," Ayaka responded. "Come on, everyone!"
It was then when the group realized that someone was missing. "Where's Yuji?" Miki asked.
"He was with us when we walked into the room," Taizou told the group, getting his digivice out to turn Solarmon into Zeppelinmon. "I think."
"Caramaba!" Antonio explained. This day was just getting worse and worse.
###
Tadashi felt the rush run through him as he flew through the air inside the Mega form of his partner. He couldn't believe what was happening. He was a Mega, just like Takato was. Maybe he could get some goggles after this. As far as he knew, he was the first on his team to reach Mega. Of course, had he known that Ayaka had already achieved that level; he wouldn't have made that assumption.
He was accelerating inside Apollomon, flying like a shooting star after StrikeMapachemon and the Digimon Queen, ready to stop what he knew was going to happen. He had a terrible inkling about StrikeMapachemon's motives when flying away since he knew from Ed that the digimon that that curly-haired tanned kid had could block StrikeMapachemon's powers. The digimon was going to rebuild his empire starting with his Tamer.
Tadashi was going to stop that.
Still, he had to figure out a way of stopping the enemy digimon without hurting the Queen herself. He had a feeling from her mental breakdown that she had finally realized what she had done. Still, he wasn't holding his breath after the horrific things that she had made him do starting with the kidnapping of one of his friends.
There was no way he was going to let her hurt anyone else, whether under mind control or not.
Unfortunately, just as he was starting to catch up with StrikeMapachemon, he was starting to notice something horribly wrong in the distance. He saw the Unification Wave approaching from the horizon like a giant blue wall traveling across the surface of the Digital World, ready to merge the Tamers with their alternate selves. He also noticed the landscapes of the Digital World changing from one side of the Unification Wave to the other. The topology was slightly fused with that of the other worlds.
As he saw that happen, he also saw a bright light coming from the direction of StrikeMapachemon. The blond boy cursed under his breath.
"I can sense them. They're biomerging!" Coronamon told his partner.
"Great! They had have reached the edge of Ardillamon's mental field," Tadashi deduced, cursing even more under his breath. He was going through just about every German curse word there was with how frustrated he was. Then again, part of that was the influence of his dark side talking.
He wanted that to end. He wanted to get past it.
He was going to, even if it took the rest of his life to do so. And it all began now.
"StrikeMapachemon biomerge to…!"
"Sol Blaster!" Apollomon yelled out, unleashing an orb of energy at the enemy digimon. They weren't going to let him go Mega, no matter what.
Unfortunately, the attack was deflected by a feminine figure with the head of a grey-furred raccoon. The figure had a long, black, leather robe on over some bronze armor, black, leather pants and a pair of belts with red buckles. The digimon was also wearing a pair of mechanical boots with repulsors on the bottom and long black hair. In her hands was a giant gun and over her face was a pair of wraparound sunglasses.
"Decimation Blaster!" she yelled out in a feminine voice with a butch edge, aiming straight at Apollomon with her gun, shooting off a massive energy beam that was reddish-purple in color. The sun god barely dodged the attack and even then he could feel the hard radiation that the beam emitted.
"So much for potentially being my consort," the digimon remarked. "Or my partner's consort, rather."
"Yeah, right," Tadashi sneered at the thought. "What the heck are you, anyway?"
"I am AshtorMapachemon," the digimon decided, ready to kill Tadashi and Apollomon right then and there. "To be honest, I was hoping for my normal Mega form of UlforceMapachemon that Eduardo designed, but that didn't happen. I guess that gender plays a role in what form I get."
"Tadashi, there's a bogey approaching," Coronamon informed him, but he ignored his partner's offhand remark.
Tadashi grimaced. The power radiating from this enemy was immense, easily Tier II Mega in strength. He needed to take action immediately.
He held his palms out and shot arrows of burning hot energy from them. "Arrow of Apollo!"
"Decimation Blaster!" AshtorMapachemon shouted, unleashing a torrent of red energy which engulfed the arrows and headed straight for Apollomon. He tried to run out of the way but he knew that he wasn't going to get out of the way in time.
But hope came from an unexpected source as the bogey that Coronamon had mentioned earlier appeared, blocking the path of the powerful enemy digimon with arms of red armor. The figure had many white wings sprouting from the back and was covered in the red armor, saving the blond and his partner from certain annihilation.
"I thought you could use some help," a familiar voice said through his partner's Mega form.
"Takato…" Tadashi said in absolute surprise. He wasn't expecting this. "No way…"
"Yes way," the leader of the original Tamers of Shinjuku. "Let's stop this thing together." Gallantmon Crimson Mode extended a pair of swords of light and was ready to start.
If Takato could see the inside of Apollomon, he would see that Tadashi was sporting the biggest grin he possibly could.
The Unification Wave passed over them and didn't affect either of them. Instead, the two of them moved forward to strike.
The Queen had already fallen.
###
A/N: The first part of AshtorMapachemon's name comes from Ashtoreth, an ancient Canaanite fertility goddess. Easter also comes from the name of the same goddess, hilariously enough.
So, things are converging. Hopefully they'll converge even more as I continue my trimming of the cast. Should I mention that the next chapter also involves the rest of the Triumvirate.
This one had a bit of a rough ride getting posted since there were a couple of scenes that I wasn't completely comfortable with (and I'm still not 100% comfortable with them, either). The one where Art gets Gus to master English in five seconds and the one where he comes face to face with his father are those scenes. Thankfully, the next chapter doesn't involve them very much (just one scene smack dab in the middle) so that one should be better. Anyway, hope you've enjoyed my retool so far.