-chapter 38-
We got up some time that was probably around 3 or 4am in this world. At that point, HellBlade was sleeping right outside the door. So I quietly returned him and we got ready to pickup Zari and Palmon before heading out. We had to use Phoebe's powers to find where they were staying. It wasn't very hard since there were only 2 minds Phoebe could read in the entire town.
After they got on the bus, we set out for duskmon's fortress, which according to Palmon was at the base of a distant mountain. We shut off the lights and approached the mountain's dark silhouette as the sun began to rise. When it was light enough to see the fortress on the horizon, we left the bus so we could distance ourselves from it on foot. This way it would be less likely to get damaged in the fight that was about to ensue.
It wasn't going to be easy, as duskmon litterally had an army, consisting of various dark digimon, including black knightchessmon, ogremon and vilemon, and that was all we could see from the outside. There was no way of knowing what was inside, but it was obvious the place was heavily guarded.
Pawnchessmon and goblimon were patroling the grounds while the stronger champion level digimon were up on the walls keeping a not-so-good lookout. From what we've found out from our previous encounter, pokemon moves are able to affect digimon to some extent, however, type advantages and disadvantages weren't as clear.
"Allright Palmon, can you digivolve yet? " I asked.
"Can't, need more data." The digimon replied. "Sorry, I tried."
"It's ok, we'll probably be able to get more soon enough." Phoebe said.
"Gotta think how we're gonna do this." I said.
"We should just go after Duskmon, and cut the head off the snake." Zari said. "He's already wounded."
"Would that work though?" I asked. "Not to mention we'd have to bypass all the guards to get to him."
"Can't you just teleport around them?" Zari asked.
"If you want to randomly end up in front of one yes." Phoebe replied.
"Phoebe can't read their minds, there's no way to keep track of them." I added."However sleep powder seems to work. So I'm thinking we combine it with petal dance, and that will open up a hole in their defences."
"I think Cj's right, that's the best way to do this." Phoebe agreed.
"Then you two can run a diversion, while Phoebe and I go for Duskmon.
"What? Diversion?" Zari asked.
"You can teleport can't you? Besides, with the help of our pokemon, we can do the most damage." I replied.
"Yeah, I guess." Zari said.
"Ok then, that's the plan we're going with." I announced. "Let's go, they could spot us any minute."
We all left the bus and headed for the fortress, quickly closing the distance by teleporting. The sun was just starting to rise, so it was difficult to see. Eventually we got too close and the knightchessmon guarding the walls started to throw their darts at us. They were big but slow projectiles, so while getting hit by one would be fatal, as they also weighed several hundred pounds, they were pretty easy to avoid, especially since we could teleport. You'd think they'd run out of darts, but somehow that never happened. It's an attack that would be more effective on bigger, slower targets. Anyway, once the darts started to fly, the ogremon and vilemon guards patrolling the outside took notice and tried to track us down. The ogremon were just big, dumb, meatshields that couldn't keep up with us, so they were pretty useless, the scrawnier vilemon were just a bit faster, but they were physically weak enough that anytime one got close Zari's bubblegun would just stick them to the ground, if we had more time, Palmon could have drained them for data, but the ogremon weren't that slow, so we just left them there.
Once we got even closer, the drawbridge lowered and more of the ogremon and vilemon mix started to pour out of the entrance, along with the occasional knightchessmon, which were by far the most dangerous, but not quite as fast as vilemon. Eventually the ogremon stopped chasing us and headed for the town instead, while a flock of airdramon took to the skies. These things were ridiculously fast and even more dangerous thanks to their wind-based projectile attacks, but we hardly had to deal with them because soon after they took off we were passed the fortress walls and inside the main building. Duskmon was at his throne, observing his forces via a crystal ball like device while a pair of goblimon were fanning him and serving him drinks. Zari was quick to fire on them, so they were quickly imobilized and out of the equation. With the Knightmon constantly harrasing us with darts, we weren't able to follow the plan so we just kept advancing.
"You're a bunch of fools if you think you can just walk in here and attack me. I can assure you this day will be your last." Duskmon said as we entered, the eye on his chest still red from yesterday.
"I see you've gained a pet." He joked about palmon.
"I've come to destroy you and take your data." Palmon said in an agitated state.
"Hehehehe, an arrogant pet." Duskmon added as he called forth a pair of devidramon that were posing as statues along each side of the room. They sat down in front of him like a pair of lapdogs.
"Don't you see you've already lost? As we fight, my army is advancing on the village."
"Oh crap." I replied.
"Zari, Pheebles, you're gonna have to head them off, I'll deal with duskmon."
"But Cj." Phoebe interjected.
"Just go, take Blossom, I'll be fine." I said as I handed her Blossom's pokeball. "They can't make it to the village, none the less our bus."
"You're right, Zari let's go. Come on Palmon." Phoebe said.
"No, I'm staying here, I want his data." Palmon refused.
"Ok fine, we don't have time to argue." Phoebe replied before both her and Zari teleported away.
"You should've gone with them." I said after they left as I retrieved Bubba's pokeball from my pocket.
"I want to make him pay." Palmon replied.
"We will don't worry. Just try not to get killed, this has already gone bad enough." I said before clicking the button. "Come on out Bubba!"
"Blastoise." Bubba chimed in once he materialized.
"So that's where they come from. No matter. Kill them!" Duskmon commanded his demonic cronies.
I sent out Rocky to cover the other one, and the fighting officially began.
Both Devidramon went straight for me. I would've died right away, but Bubba intervened. While Bubba was trying to hold them off, Palmon wrapped one up in her vines and imobilized it.
"Just hold it there, Rocky rollout, go for the immobile one." I commanded.
Unable to move out of the way, Rocky struck the devidramon head on, laying it out flat on the floor. The other one managed to bite Bubba in the shoulder. This drew blood, but it also meant that all Bubba had to do was straighten his arm out, and then he shot it point blank in the face with his water cannon at full force. It let go, but his arm was ripped up pretty bad. At this point both devidramon were injured and so was Bubba as his arm was bleeding profusely. Rocky lined up for another rollout attack, and hit the same one again before it could even get back up. The one that was fighting Bubba recovered and lunged at him yet again, cutting into his other arm, at that point I saw he was going to lose so I sent out HellBlade and had him draw the demon dragon's attention so I could return Bubba before he could be injured further, by the look in his eyes it was clear he wanted to keep fighting, but I couldn't let him faint. Hellblade was at an immediate size disadvantage, it was an intense fight as they were both extremely fast. A flamethrower finally made the demonic digital creature back away. Which gave HellBlade the upperhand for a moment. Palmon successfully converted the other Devidramon into data at this point. So one was down atleast, but our troubles were far from over as an ogremon came in, and once again tried to attack me. I barely managed to dodge it and sent out Rhyhorn in return. It smacked rhyhorn with it's club. Rhyhorn charged at it and pushed it all the way over to the wall, where it managed to flip Rhyhorn onto his back and smacked him again right on his belly. This was a huge weakspot for Rhyhorn and pretty much knocked him out instantly, and just like that I was down another pokemon. Palmon tried to attack and only ended up getting sent into the wall on the other side of the building. I was kind of surprised it didn't kill her, though she was now hurt pretty bad. Meanwhile HellBlade backed the devidramon into a corner and was basically roasting it alive, he nearly ran out of breath, but the burning digimon expired and turned into data, which palmon was too weak to absorb at this point, so it just sat there while Hellblade stared at it in amazement. It was quite a strange thing to see after all. Rocky smacked into the ogremon before it could come at me again. It didn't hurt it as much as it hurt the more fragile devidramon. It seemed that both it and Rocky were pretty close in terms of strength, but Duskmon was getting tired of this. Without going too much into detail, as it was excessively gory, I lost HellBlade and Rocky in a matter of seconds. That damned teleportation ability of his was just too much to deal with. And that damned ogremon was still alive. I instinctively backed towards the wall so Duskmon couldn't teleport behind me. While Palmon began to crawl across the floor in an attempt to get the devidramon's data. I sent out Cap'n'Magnum to get Duskmon off my back, he was still tired from yesterday, so he only had a few good thunder attacks left. After recieving the second Devidramon's data, Palmon was able to heal. Then she attacked the ogremon which was trying to swat Magnum out of the sky. It managed to break free from her vines, but a well placed array of magnet bombs caused the flooring to collapse around him, causing him to plummet into the basement, which was set up as some kind of dungeon, where a lot of weaker digimon were locked up.
"I'm, I'm ok boss." The ogremon said as it got back up.
"You blithering idiot how could you get defeated by something so weak?" Duskmon asked. "Why are you even here anyway? You should be advancing towards the town with the others."
"I uh, I over slept." The big green digimon shamefully admitted.
"Whatever, just get back up here." Duskmon commanded.
"Magnazone!" Cap'n'Magnum yelled as he released a bunch more magnet bombs that eventually ended the digimon's life before it could even get back up, however at that point Cap'n'magnum was completely exausted. I just had him out as a distraction now, otherwise Duskmon would attack me. Magnum resorted to ramming attacks, which barely did anything. Duskmon managed to grab him and throw him to the floor, which also didn't do much. Then he started spin his blades around like crazy, which would have been highly lethal if it wasn't against Magnum.
"Why won't you die?" Duskmon asked as he continued to strike Magnum in vain. "You floor ruining vermin, do you know how long it took for my servants to build that floor?"
Unfortunately Magnum just got tired and crashed on his own. He wasn't really hurt, I just needed to find him some more electricity.
And then I was out of pokemon, and then Duskmon looked at me along with all of the eyes on his armor, the digimon charged towards me and I felt one of it's blades cut into my side as I just barely managed to dodge them.
"Out of pets I see?" He asked. "No matter, I'll just kill you instead."
As he drew back for another strike, I would've been screwed if ogremon's data wasn't enough for Palmon to digivolve into Togemon while nobody was looking.
The big cactus-like digimon emerged from the seemingly expanding hole in the floor.
"It's not over yet Duskmon." It declared.
"A freshly evolved champion?" Duskmon laughed. "Might as well be."
"You so sure of yourself tough guy?" It asked with nothing but a vacant expression on it's face.
Duskmon teleported away from me and tried to attack Togemon, who was a lot faster than her size would suggest. He got a couple of licks in only to get clocked and sent flying into the wall, then togemon approached him, ripping up even more of the floor as duskmon struggled to recover, another punch sent him straight through the wall and into the courtyard.
"Get up!" Togemon demanded, but duskmon was bleeding profusely through his armor and nearly dead.
"The others will avenge me." He struggled to say as he coughed up blood, he drew his last breath moments later and erupted into data. Which Togemon then absorbed before degenerating back to palmon.
"You degenerated all ready?" I asked.
"That was the first time I ever digivolved, it takes even more data than that to be able to stay digivolved." She replied. "Sorry about what happened to your pets."
"They're not my pets, and they'll be fine, they just need some revives." I replied.
"Now we have to release the prisoners." She said as she approached the edge of the now gigantic hole in the floor.
A while after we released all the prisoners Phoebe and Zari came back.
"Cj I'm sorry, but Blossom got hurt and so did all my pokemon." Phoebe announced just moments after her return.
"Yeah, I didn't have much more luck than that either." I replied.
"You're bleeding." Phoebe said.
"I guess Duskmon must have nicked me." I said.
"No that's more than just a nick." Phoebe replied.
"Yeah, yeah it is." I agreed.
Somehow I made it back to the bus, even though I was starting to become delirious from blood loss. There my beloved patched me up, while Zari drove us back to town.
"Why is it that everytime I leave you alone you always get hurt?" Phoebe asked.
"He had two swords and I was out of pokemon, what was I supposed to do? Die?" I asked.
"No you were supposed to beat him up." She teased. "You have a gun why didn't you shoot?"
"I didn't think it would work." I replied. "And I don't get hurt everytime."
"Almost everytime." She argued.
"Maybe I just think you're cute when you worry about me." I explained.
"I am not cute, I'm sexy." She insisted.
"You can be both." I argued.
"Noooo." She denied.
"Yes." I insisted as I put my arm around her and pulled her close to me.
"Are you going to be like this all the way back to the station?" Zari asked.
"Probably." I replied while my beloved giggled with happiness.
Palmon just stared out the window, as it was only her second time riding in a vehicle of any kind. It was probably a good thing she degenerated, or she probably wouldn't even fit on the bus.
We headed back to the village, where we dropped her off, said our goodbyes, and tried to sneak out of town without much fanfare. We were planning to pick up Henry and Claire and return later. A plan which worked very well as there was only a handful of digimon in town that hadn't run away.
In truth Phoebe and Zari failed to destroy Duskmon's entire army, in fact, as nobody absorbed their data, they pretty all survived, aside from the ones absorbed by Palmon. However, it didn't matter much in the end because without duskmon his entire army split up, somehow they could sense when he was destroyed, probably because he stopped communicating with them through his crystal ball thingy. Some of them retreated into the forrest, others went off in search of a new master, but they all forgot about attacking the village, as it was no longer worth dying for. They were outcasts for the moment.
Phoebe, Zari, and I set off for the train station, where Henry and Claire were supposed to be training, but once we got there, all we found was a message creatively written in engine oil on the platform, saying that they left to explore by themselves.
This didn't bother us too much as we were sure they followed the tracks and we'd probably run into them in the next town anyway, what really bothered us is that there was still no sign of Jack or his crew. So we started to follow the tracks, and then a few hours later Phoebe realized something.
"Hey Zari, you know if we don't reach another town by nightfall, you'll have to share our bed." She suddenly said while we were playing cards to pass the time.
"Um, no, I could just sleep on the floor." Zari insisted.
"But Cj and I are going to be making babies again." She joked as my cheeks went red and my mind went completely blank.
"You sure you don't want to join in?" She asked, I just kept quiet, too embarrased to say anything. "I know you've been wanting to play with us again."
"Pheebles." I tried to object.
"Cj, we'll have our time, but not tonight, it would be rude not to invite her when she has nowhere else to stay." She said.
"Would you say that if she was a man?" I asked.
"If she was a man we would just go without." She replied.
"So you admit you can go without?" I asked.
" Yes, but that's not very fun is it?" She replied. "And you know you'll like it so just stop, you're so silly sometimes. You think she's sexy, I think she's sexy, you know we'll enjoy her together so why are you arguing about it?"
"Besides, won't that make the time we are alone together all that more special?" She added.
"Pheebles . . I . " I began to say.
"Just let this play out, It'll be fun." She interupted.
Inevitably it became another night that we shared our companion with eachother. As much fun as that was, as beautiful as she was, I was really just longing for a passionate night alone with my beloved. Little did I know she was spiraling out of control and things were only going to get more crazy thanks to her addictions and the motives of one we hadn't even met.