Welcome back everyone!
Yeah, I know, been a couple of months since the last chapter, but we got distracted a lot by brand new ideas we wanted to put down on paper at least, and of course Timeless wasn't always around to give me a hand in writing, and I work better when I have someone to bounce ideas back and forth with.
But, here we are at least, and I do hope you'll enjoy this chapter.
Dark Mind Games! Battle in the Tomb!
"We REALLY need to work on our collateral damage." Ruby groaned as she flopped down onto a couch.
"You kids ok?" Qrow asked them with a raised eyebrow as the others started doing much the same as Ruby.
"Ask us again when we're not tired Uncle Qrow." Yang said with a sigh as Biyomon laid across her lap.
"We kind of ended up breaking an overgrown house while fighting against Arukenimon's Ultimate form, so we stuck around to repair it because it's a common sight-seeing location." Jaune explained.
"Ah…" Qrow nodded in understanding. "Well…good on you all for fixing your own mess. I know more than a few Hunters who broke less…and still ran away first chance they got."
"Glad to know we're being upstanding citizens," Gyro groaned a bit.
"You know what would be nice? If we could catch the bad guys and make THEM clean up the mess for once. They started it after all!" Nora said as she flopped onto the nearby table.
"Agreed," was the response she got from a few of them.
"So, our side job as repairmen aside…how are things looking so far on this end?" Oren sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Based on the recent coordinates, I estimate we should expect Cinder in a couple more weeks," Penny said.
"Great, so we can plan her funeral," Pierce said, the tiredness from the extra work creeping into his sense of humor.
Penny developed a small sweat drop at that one, but opted to continue. "As for Lionheart, he's been even more absent from the public eye lately, but from what little we've managed to uncover…he's clearly working on something. I…have a bad feeling about this," she frowned.
"You and me both Penny." Monodramon frowned, looking out the window, over in Haven's direction.
Meanwhile, over in Lionheart's office…
The clacking of a keyboard kept sounding through the dimly lit office, the headmaster sitting in front of an old style computer as he continued tapping away with a frown.
He was… a lot paler than he had been before, his eyes having dark rings from a lack of sleep around them. "Are you SURE this is going to work?" he asked seemingly nobody as he worked frantically.
"As I've said before, it definitely will. As long as you follow my instructions, you won't have anything to fear ever again." the voice in his head said, though there was a touch of annoyance as it seemed this wasn't the first time Lionheart had asked.
Now one might think that talking to and taking orders from a voice in your head were the signs of someone not well. If one were to take note of Lionheart's current disheveled, half frantic, and less than sane appearance…they'd realize that ship had already sailed.
"I'm risking a lot with this," Lionheart reminded. "I think I'm justified in wanting to make sure."
"Then even more reason to make sure this is done properly," the voice chuckled. "Besides, you may say that but its not like you ever actually cared. No, you know that what I'm promising is what you REALLY want."
Lionheart didn't say anything to that…but continued working. The voice was right as always. He didn't actually care. If this worked, he'd finally be free. He'd finally be free from everything that was shackling him down.
Watts was becoming… increasingly concerned with Salem's protege.
Not in the fact that he cared about her… but rather in the fact that she seemed to grow more and more insane by the day ever since Mercury left. And further not helping the case was the newest stray she'd picked up, the girl watching without so much as a reaction. Honestly, he was half tempted to see if she wasn't secretly something that escaped Atlas's development labs.
Back to Cinder, she was currently in the middle of burning a corpse. No, not in the idea of trying to remove any evidence, more that apparently just burning the random highwayman to death hadn't satisfied her enough so now she was burning his corpse too. "Not that I expect you to listen, but I believe we've wasted quite enough time on your…entertainment," he said with a frown. He had hoped with Salem's direct orders she would calm down…but lately she'd just gotten worse.
As these days had gone by, and in the face of continued failure as once again that infernal boy had updated the system again, thus destroying any progress with his hacking attempts, it was times like this that if he'd stopped and thought about it, he was starting to question everything he'd worked for. Yet, before he could get too far down that train of thought, he was quickly pulled back. He'd worked too long, given up too much. He refused to even entertain the idea that it was all for nothing.
But, back to the matter at hand…
"Oh this isn't mere entertainment." Cinder said with a laugh that just SCREAMED insanity "This is practice for when I find those stupid kids again and their idiotic little pets!" she said, suddenly increasing the intensity of the flames.
Watts stared at her dully for a long moment at that '... the fact she thinks she actually has a chance of beating them… she really has gone insane hasn't she?' he thought, holding back a sigh 'Well… here's hoping they accept a surrender after they kill her.'
Somewhere in the Digital World…
"Everything in place then?" Nero asked as he sat in a throne in a dimly lit room, Pagumon sitting on the armrest.
"Ready and in position." Mummymon said with a smirk.
"In that case… deactivate the cloaking for the Dark Tower signal. Time to have them do the work for us again." Nero said with a smirk as Mummymon started doing just that.
Pagumon laughed "Oh this is going to be good, I can already feel that this is going to be just what I need too!" he said, before grinning viciously "Once I'm finally at full strength, then I'll be able to teach that stupid Veemon a lesson for last time!"
Nero chuckled "All in due time partner." he said, patting Pagumon's head.
The alarm blaring drew everyone's attention, and they were already at the computer to see what was going on. "A Dark Tower Signal?" Weiss blinked.
"Haven't had one of those in a while that's actually active… seems it's only one though." Gyro said, narrowing his eyes at the screen "That… doesn't sound very good actually."
"Almost sounds like a trap, like he's waving a big old flag that's saying 'Hey, I'm over here!' you know?" Ruby added with a frown.
Oren hummed a bit, tapping away at the keyboard "You might be right… it doesn't seem to be an ACTUAL Dark Tower… just the same signal one emitted so radars and the like would pick it up." he said "I think my brother IS trying to lure us in. For what though, I have no clue."
"Yeah, that last trap of his didn't seem to have any rhyme or reason." Agumon noted with a frown.
"But it's not like we can ignore him either. So even if this IS a trap, we can't just call it a trap and walk away assuming he's not hiding something actually important behind said trap," Pyrrha groaned.
"I miss when the worse we had to deal with was someone whose only brain cells were focused on how to smash us better," Keenan groaned.
"Or when they were too focused on how superior they were to us." Gabumon said in deadpan.
"Oh yeah, Cinder DID think like that, didn't she?" Salamon said with a hum, before shrugging "Well, anyway, let's go spring Nero's trap and smash it apart, whatever it is."
"Heck yeah! Let's do it!" Nora said in agreement with a cackle.
"Digital Gate, Open!" Pierce suddenly held his Digivice out, opening the portal as the group dived in, ready to fight and bringing all their big guns, just to be safe.
"And… we're in a desert… great." Gomamon sighed a few moments after they'd come out of the TV before Jaune picked him up and started carrying him "At least I have a trusty steed." he added with a smirk.
"This trusty steed WILL toss you if you make that allusion again." Jaune said in amusement, earning a laugh from Gomamon.
"As amusing as the comedy routines are, let's save that for AFTER we deal with whatever Nero cooked up THIS time," Morphomon said with a light snort.
"First things first, let's pinpoint the signal," Tentomon agreed.
"Already on it," Weiss nodded as she used her Scroll to get the direction from where they were.
"Any idea where we're headed?" Gyro asked Keenan and Falcomon.
"Hm…we're in one of the Desert Sectors that's for sure…but which one…" Falcomon started, before both he and Keenan shook their heads.
"Sorry, but they all always looked the same to us," Keenan apologized.
"It's fine. Considering how big the Digital World is…no surprise there," Pierce waved off. "As long as we know where he is we can work our way from there."
"Onward then," Ruby grinned as they moved towards the source of the signal. The desert that followed was nothing of note, looking like any other desert…which ironically made it a rare case of normalcy in the Digital World. Even so the group kept their guards up, ready for an attack that could have come from anywhere. Quite literally at that.
However, none came as they soon saw the source of the signal in the distance.
"Is that a Sphinx?" Agumon asked.
"Yeah, that's a Sphinx," Ren said after taking out a pair of binoculars to confirm it. "And… well, the face of the sphinx is… a thing." he said after a moment, before the binoculars were taken from him by Emerald… who pulled them with a dull look after a moment.
"That's Nero's face on the damn thing." she said blankly.
"Now if only big headedness was literal. His head would save us the trouble of dealing with him," Terriermon snorted.
That earned a few snorts of amusement from the group. "Well, if we didn't know where he was before we definitely know now. Let's deal with him sooner than later," Bemmon chuckled.
"Right, let's go." Gyro said "Obviously, let's try not to cause too much of a ruckus, just in case he was careless enough to NOT put cameras in there."
"True. For all we know he JUST got here and we might manage to turn his trap against him." Weiss said with a nod, before the group snuck over to the sphinx, finding an entrance below its head as they quickly and quietly went inside.
The inside of the Sphinx was…
"Oh great, ANOTHER bigger on the inside location," Yang groaned as the inside of the Sphinx looked like it had a full on temple inside, and on top of that the designed seemed like someone mixed ancient egypt with cybernetics judging by the circuit-like designs and tron lines that were present throughout the architecture.
"Huh… looks a BIT like Futaba's Palace in P5." Gyro said with a hum.
"Mixed with the Cave of Wonders as it appears in Kingdom Hearts 1." Pierce added, looking around curiously.
"So… be careful of traps, right?" Veemon asked.
"Pretty much. Giant boulders, spike traps, and everything in between could show up here for all we know." Gyro said with a shrug.
"Feels like we just jumped into a movie then," Gomamon chuckled.
"Only we're in actual danger," Jaune sighed.
"Like that's anything new at this point," Nora snorted.
"That's…sadly very accurate," Pyrrha sighed.
"Well, nothing to do but keep going I guess," Gabumon sweat dropped as they soon went further into the Sphinx. They didn't have long to explore as when they entered a new area, a few sarcophagi that were lining the walls suddenly burst open, revealing several Digimon, which were some Dobermon, Fugamon, Gotsumon, and Candmon. The Digimon that suddenly appeared didn't waste time in attacking them, to which they quickly retaliated. With the fight breaking out in a relatively small area, they didn't have time to play nice…and hit rather hard, breaking away the skin of several of them, revealing the Dark Tower underneath. The sight of which simply proved to them that they had nothing to hold back as they destroyed their assailants.
"Okay, that definitely confirms him being here even more now," Rusty frowned.
"Where Dark Tower Digimon are, he's definitely not far behind," Aile agreed.
"The question now, where is he?" Veemon frowned.
Oren was silent for a moment before going over to one of the walls, checking around it he found what he was looking for. "I had a feeling with how much tech seems to have gone into this architecture, there would be a few oddities," he smirked a bit before taking out his Scroll, then started interfacing with the system. Nobody said anything as they watched him work, but a few minutes later, he managed to get through and new data entered his Scroll. "Alright, now we're at least not wandering aimlessly," he said as he sent copies of the data, revealing to be a map of the area they were in.
"Okay so now we have an idea of the layout. Question is where we need to go," Salamon said.
Everyone examined their copies of the map, before Oren tapped on a section of the map. "Here. It seems to be the highest point of this area…and on top of that its the head of the Sphinx. Judging by the layout it seems to be an important location."
"Makes sense he'd be in the head." Biyomon said with a nod.
"If we'd known in advance we could have attacked him by surprise though." Palmon said with a sigh.
"Nothing to do but make up for it by rushing him." Wormmon said, shrugging.
"Hold that thought. We're in a location that very much takes inspirations from an Egyptian temple or tomb. Odds are we're not gonna have a simple shot at the head," Gyro frowned.
"You'd be right there. Seems this place has a few tricks and traps in place. We'd better proceed with caution," Oren said.
"Well, we haven't survived this long by being overly reckless so we should be alright," Blake sighed.
The group soon started progressing through the area. As Oren had warned, they were met with a variety of traps and tricks, such as hidden spear traps, platforms that needed to be adjusted, even a run in with a good old giant boulder that they had to evade.
"I'd like to say that took a few years off my life…but what does it say that a giant boulder trying to crush us doesn't feel strange?" Jaune sighed.
"That our lives are WAY too exciting?" Hawkmon ventured.
"...yeah, that sounds about right," Jaune sighed.
"Well, hopefully when all is said and done, we'll have the luxury of leading quiet lives," Pierce snorted. "But can't really do that with a maniac trying to take over both worlds."
"Good thing we're here to do something about that," Oren snorted a bit as they continued onward.
More traps and Dark Tower Digimon barred their way, but they fought through them all the same, breaking through the Sphinx's defenses and before long they were at a platform that soon started taking them up. Their destination dead ahead.
"He MUST have personalized the interior himself. Some of those traps were way too convenient." Tentomon said thoughtfully.
"I guess that means he's been here long enough to properly set up this place as a base of some kind." Lopmon mused.
"You know, considering the theming with this place… how good are the chances that Mummymon is with him?" Patamon wondered.
"Probably very likely." Falcomon realized with a frown "And he might be able to evolve to Ultimate like Arukenimon."
"Looks like we have our work cut out for us then," Weiss frowned.
"So basically anytime we're facing a big fish in the Digital World then?" Biyomon chuckled a little.
"Yeah, sounds about right," Lopmon nodded.
The group soon entered a new room as the platform came to a halt, the pathway leading forward to the room that according to the map should be the head of the Sphinx. Doing one final check on their weapons to make sure all was in order, they soon stepped through, ready for what was coming.
Unsurprisingly, they were greeted by a slow clap.
"Bravo. You finally made it." Nero said, smirking as he lounged on a throne "Though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. You lot still are the 'Chosen' after all."
"And as always you've got that very punchable look on your face," Yang shot back.
Nero chuckled at that one. "Well since you're clearly so eager for a fight, I guess I might as well not mince words," he said.
"Yeah, it's time for the main event," Pagumon laughed, which drew the attention of the Chosen to him.
When their eyes landed on him, the group practically froze, eyes wide. "Wait… why is there a…?" Aile trailed off, unable to finish as they quickly connected the dots.
Nero grinned "Why do you think?"
"No… no way! Someone like you?!" Agumon shouted in anger "Why would a person like YOU have a partner?!"
"I wonder~" Pagumon sang as he bounced up a bit, before looking at Nero "I think I've built up enough power."
"Wonderful." Nero grinned, before holding up his D-Necron, which started to glow a dark light… the same dark light flowing into Pagumon.
"Pagumon, Evolution!" the little creature shouted in glee as it's body grew within the dark light, into a form they had all seen plenty of times before "Gazimon!" the newly evolved Digimon declared, before cracking his neck with a grin "Ah… finally. Been waiting for this for a while now."
"I don't know how the heck you pulled it off, but you're not gonna get away with it," Pierce growled.
For some reason his words seemed to make the two laugh. "Funny you should say that," Nero smirked. "I have you and your Partner to thank for this."
"Yeah, but that won't stop me from paying you back for what you did," Gazimon said with a dangerous smirk, his eyes flashing yellow as his pupils narrowed into slits, before they returned to normal.
Veemon's face paled at that "Chimeramon… no way!"
Gazimon cackled. "That's right. I'm back and with a vengeance," he said with a dangerous grin.
"And with that said," Nero said, snapping his finger. "You're up."
The moment he said that, a blast of energy fired from the shadows, forcing everyone to evade, with several more shots forcing them to scatter lest they get hit as Mummymon leaped out of the shadows.
"Surprise!" Mummymon laughed. "And I got another one coming right up!" he added as he soon started to glow. "Mummymon, Evolution!" He landed on the floor as his body glowed, growing taller as his silhouette changed slightly, before the glow soon faded from him, revealing a mummy wrapped in golden bandages with a white cloak hanging off his shoulders, wearing several pieces of jewelry along with a classic egyptian pharaoh mask, holding a staff in his hand that had a golden snake devouring its own tail in an infinity shape on the top "Pharaohmon!"
Digimon Analyzer: Pharaohmon
Pharaohmon. Virus Type. An Ultimate Level Demon Man Digimon. Shining a baleful gold, it is said this Digimon ruled over the deserts of the ancient Digital World, the many tombs and ruins being under his aegis. Some say Pharaohmon is able to walk through realities, stepping out of the digital afterlife all on his own through his sarcophagus, and that there is no true way to destroy him. Special attacks are Necromist, emitting a fear gas that weakens the fighting spirit of opposing Digimon and can drain their life force into his own, and Tut Ankh Lyl, summoning a shadowy spirit from his own shadow to fight alongside him.
"Necromist!" Pharaohmon called out as he released the gas, forcing everyone to scatter further.
"Enough of your initiative!" Gyro growled before switching his weapons to fan mode and using his Semblance to try and blow the gas away, managing to spread some of it back to give them more breathing room "I don't we have enough space for everyone to go full power in here, so everyone who's got a roughly human sized form, go for it!" he shouted, right before using another blast of wind to try and keep Pharaohmon occupied…for how little it lasted seeing as how easily the Ultimate level Digimon broke through the wind. Even so, it bought just enough time as several flashes of light occurred, and Pharaohmon found himself facing against WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon, ForceBeemon, Robinmon, Rosemon, Seraphimon, Mastemon, GrandisKuwagamon, Sylphimon, Snatchmon, Rapidmon, Antylamon, Ravemon and Papillonmon. Gomamon had to stay back as all his forms were too large to work in the tight space. As such he and Jaune moved to work more on support.
"Our turn!" Veemon shouted, and Pierce was just about to grab his Digivice when a whip wrapped around his wrist.
"Not so fast." Nero said with a grin "We've got something different lined up for you."
"Everybody's favorite cold dish: Revenge!" Gazimon shouted as he lunged for Veemon with his claws.
Veemon immediately reacted, meeting the lunge head on as the two Child levels proceeded to duke it out. At the same time their partners were facing off against each other, Nero using his whip to maintain a certain distance between him and Pierce.
"Get back here!" Pierce growled as he took a shot at Nero but once again Nero was quick to lash out with his whip, knocking the shot off course.
"Oh no, I'm quite good over here. Plenty of sun in this spot." Nero said with a smirk on his face.
"Oh, you're gonna be that guy huh?" Pierce said with a twitching eyebrow, twirling his weapons a bit to deflect the metal tip of Nero's whip.
"I believe I am yes." Nero shot back with a laugh.
"Yeah?" Pierce challenged with a raised eyebrow, before the grapple hidden in his weapon shot out, grabbing Nero's wrist as he started to swing, before suddenly yanking him forward, right into Pierce's knee, sending him sailing back "Well you ain't no Peter Parker, that's for sure."
Nero groaned, rubbing his face. His aura protected him, but that still hurt like a bitch "I don't even know who that is, but I hate him already."
At the same time the others were trying to help Pierce and Veemon, but Pharaohmon was quick to block them at every turn. "Tut Ankh Lyl!" Pharaohmon shouted as his shadow seemed to rise out of the ground, creating what looked like a shadowy copy of himself, save the fact its lower body seemed to be a wispy tail that was still connected to the shadow at his feet. The moment it formed it immediately moved to block any and all incoming attacks, even tanking a Garuru Tomahawk when MetalGarurumon thought he had an opening to hit Pharaohmon without too much collateral damage.
Rosemon's whip lashed out as she tried to hold down the shadow, but right as she was about to pull, the shadow seemingly lost its tangibility, causing the whip to phase right through it.
"Nice try, but not good enough! Necromist!" Pharaohmon laughed, as he released the mist again, forcing everyone to back away.
"Dammit, fighting in here is really making this harder than it needs to be!" Snatchmon growled.
"He keeps using that wide attack too. He's keeping us at a distance!" Blake frowned.
"Most likely he's buying time for Nero and Gazimon," Antylamon said, leveling a glare at where they could see Pierce and Veemon still fighting against Nero and Gazimon.
"Like hell are we letting him keep that up!" Yang growled, as she opened fire with her gauntlets, Robinmon joining in as well, only for Pharaohmon's shadow to block the attacks, which may as well have done nothing to it. "Get out of the way!"
"No can do, I only take orders from the boss, and you ain't him," Pharaohmon smirked.
Behind him the four continued to fight, Veemon was now in essentially a punching match with Gazimon as the two Digimon were trading blows. "Lie down and lose already!" Veemon shouted as he punched Gazimon in the cheek, causing him to stagger back.
"You first!" Gazimon shot back as he landed a haymaker on Veemon. "If you think this is gonna stop me then think again!" he cackled.
"How long are you going to keep up this ridiculous fight?!" Pierce growled as he managed to break through one of Nero's attacks and moved to stab him only for Nero to roll out of the way, before doing a sweep kick that forced Pierce to scramble to regain balance.
"What's the matter? Aren't you having fun?" Nero taunted.
"I think I'll have more fun jumping into a pile of used needles." Pierce said dryly as he deflected the whip.
"Everyone's a critic," Nero grumbled as he was forced to evade a counter attack. "Hope you're having fun at least, partner!"
"Oh yeah, having a great time over here!" Gazimon smirked…right before Veemon socked him in the face.
"Both of you have issues, you know that?" Veemon growled.
"Looks like everyone's having a good time back there!" Pharaohmon laughed as he sent his shadow forward again, in a way that forced everyone back lest they have to fight against the seemingly impervious shadow. "And don't worry, cause I got plenty to keep everyone else happy!"
"Dammit, this is becoming endless!" Gyro growled as they were pushed on the defense. They had to think of something fast. If this kept up, there was no telling what-
Nero's hand suddenly snapped up to his ear as he stopped swinging his weapon, before he grinned "Perfect. Gazimon, Pharaohmon, we're going!"
"Already? Okay then!" Pharaohmon smirked before he abruptly dove towards Nero and Gazimon, grabbing both of them before the three disappeared through his coffin, which soon faded out of the air. When that was done, everyone was left blinking.
"...anyone have any idea what just happened?" Jaune blinked.
"I don't know, but somehow I feel like we just got played. Big time," Rapidmon frowned.
The sarcophagus appeared once more and deposited the three out before Pharaohmon reverted back to Mummymon. "Well, that was fun," Mummymon said, cracking his neck a bit. "Gotta say, that plan worked like a charm."
"It was a simple enough operation, but BECAUSE its simple they didn't expect a thing," Nero smirked.
"Yes, and thanks to the time you three bought, I've found the information for the locations we're looking for," Arukenimon said as she came up to them.
"Excellent," Nero nodded before smirking. "Then its time for our project to reach its final phase. Time for our ultimate dark warrior to be born!"
The laughter that echoed through the Dark Ocean would have sent a chill down the spines of any who heard it.
I'm sure some of you can take a good guess as to what's coming next.
Hope you're gonna be ready for it, because...
The Adventure Evolves