Chapter 14: Freedom
Taikei struggled to keep his eyes open as the wind stung them "are you crazy?!" ExTyrannomon screamed as they plummeted "be quiet, I'm gonna try something..." Taikei responded while shifting the backpack to where it sat on his chest "Whatareyoudoing?!" ExTyrannomon said voice cracking as she spoke "you're made of plush right?" Taikei asked before pulling a cord on the side of his backpack and a flotation deployed beneath them hitting the ground finally. Taikei lied in the flotation device, the impact had knocked the wind out of him, he gasped for air before popping up "Veedramon!" He said in a sharp manner as the device beneath him deflated and detatched from his backpack, he strapped it back on and Ex leaned out of it barfing up a slurry of Digital Code "my Data is all jumbled up now..." Taikei looked around, they were now in a massive cavern-like room, the entire area was covered in blue metal, Taikei's steps made an echoed clink noise when he walked, Taikei took out his Digivice and activated the flashlight, he looked around for any signs of Veedramon, the more time passed, the more he frantic he became "Veedramon!" He shouted with ExTyrannomon hushing him "we don't know what's down here, there could bee evil Digimon" Taikei ignored her, he then noticed something sticking out from behind a stalagmite, he rushed over there and rounded the corner to see Veedramon leaning against it, his breath was labored and data was coming out of the wound in his stomach and floating up into the air, Taikei rushed over to his side and took off the backpack removing Ex and rummaging through it, he then pulled out a USB, he plugged it into the side of his Digivice and pointed the camera at Veedramon "don't worry buddy, I'll get you fixed up, you can count on me just...go back to a smaller form for me okay?" Veedramon nodded through heavy breath and reverted to Veemon "Veemon Return" Veemon was then sucked into the Digivice and the USB began to glow green "okay he's safe, it says he should be healed in about 2 hours..." ExTyrannomon hitched a ride onto Taikei's shoulders, Taikei pulled out an emergency flashlight and used that instead of his Digivice, he then noticed something.
Taikei knelt down to the ground and felt it, it was ice cold metal, he then heard something deeper in, the sounds of striking metal, Taikei followed the sound deeper in, after a bit of walking he saw a dim light that illuminated a cave entrance, Taikei entered it and found the light source, it was a hanging lantern, he looked at the walls to see the same metal as before but it looked like it was stripped with mostly rock covering the walls, the sound of striking metal got louder the further he went before getting to the exit of the tunnel, he ducked when he saw a Commandramon walking past, he watched the Digimon as an alert came from its walkie talkie, the device spoke to it "Be Advised, General Brigadramon has issued a sweep of the upper levels of the mine, take a Squad and sweep the area for intruders" the Commandramon nodded "acknowledged, I'll gather a squad and head up there now" more orders came "make it a Platoon, intruder is said to be dangerous" Commandramon nodded "yessir" Commandramon then rushed further into the mine. Taikei took this opportunity to slip in and look around, he was on a walkway that led downward with a wooden rail at the edge, lining the wall were support beams and torches, Taikei spotted a group of barrels and rushed over hiding behind them as a troop of Commandramon passed by, once they were gone Taikei peered out to see no one but still hearing the clanging from before, Taikei made his way down peering over the edge to see various Digimon hitting the walls with pickaxes or their claws, they had chains around their ankles linked to one another while on an upper ledge a Hi-Commandramon was pacing back and forth watching them "they're using them as slaves..." Taikei whispered with Ex taking a peek "oh! Those are the farmers of the Meat Fields, looks like the D-Brigade are using them to mine Digizoid" Taikei then heard footsteps approaching, he thought quickly and jumped into an empty mine cart as a Commandramon rushed by "new orders from High Command!" It shouted, the Hi-Commandramon looked up "oh really? What're they saying?" The Commandramon responded "all available units are going to sweep the upper caverns, something about a dangerous intruder" Hi-Commadramon then responded "I'll stay here to keep guard" the Commandramon saluted "yessir" then rushed off.
Taikei apppeared from his hiding spot just as Hi-Commandramon left to patrol another area and down to the slave Digimon, Taikei called out to one, a large red Dinosaur Digimon "hey, over here!" The Digimon looked, its expression was one of exhaustion, then surprise, it looked around "you're not supposed to be here..." it whispered with Taikei responded "neither should any of you" the Digimon looked down "please just go, I'll be deleted if I'm seen talking to you..." Taikei then responded "then just tell me how to get out of here" the Digimon looked at him "you won't make it past Hi-Commandramon, she'll kill you before you can even find the exit" Taikei looked at his Digivice "look, I can help you escape" the Digimon shook its head "there is no escape...there is no fighting back, we learned that the hard way..." Taikei heard the thunderous footsteps of Hi-Commandramon and found a place to hide, she walked over to the Digimon Taikei was talking to "you've slowed down Tyrannomon, you know what happens when you don't meet quota don't you?" Tyrannomon shook in fear as Hi-Commandramon pulled out a device "let me remind you..." she then pressed the button on it and Tyrannomon, along with the Digimon they were linked with began to scream out in pain as lightning surged and danced on their skin, Hi-Commandramon stopped and all of them fell to the ground "get back to work" she ordered before stomping off. Taikei peeked back out to see Tyrannomon on their knees heaving along with the other Digimon, Taikei gritted his teeth "we have to free them..." ExTyrannomon shook her head "what? How are we going to do that?" Taikei responded "we're gonna to take down Hi-Commandramon".
Taikei snuck over to Tyrannomon "hey, are you okay?" Taikei whispered with Tyrannomon swiping at him "this is your fault, you distracted me from my work..." Taikei put up his hands "look, I'm sorry, but I promise I'll get you out of here, in return, I need a way out" Tyrannomon looked Taikei up and down "you're the one they've been talking about huh? You fought Brigadramon and lived..." Tyrannomon looked at the Digimon beside them "we were peaceful farmers, minding our business, when we had heard of the D-Brigade's movements in other territories the Elders thought it would pass us by, but our Chief, Rasenmon, thought otherwise and prepared for war...he was right, the D-Brigade invaded, laid waste to our homes, we fought back but even with our preparations we didn't stand a chance, Brigadramon killed Rasenmon himself and enslaved us, without our leader...we were subjugated easily" Tyrannomon then turned to Taikei "if you do manage to free us I will honor your request" Taikei nodded and then rushed off, Taikei stopped when he heard the footsteps, he looked around to and grabbed onto a support beam climbing it and hiding in the rafters, he then noticed barrels of liquid down below "hey Ex, what's that gunk?" Ex answered "oh that's DigiOil, very valuable and very flammable" Taikei smirked "I have an idea".
Hi-Commandramon marched across the ledge watching the Digimon work, suddenly one of them collapsed "hey! What's going on here?!" She barked before getting close to the ledge, Taikei then jumped from the rafters with the metal strip on his right hand, he activated his DNA and reeled his fist back, just as Hi-Commandramon turned Taikei struck her on the snout and she tumbled down into the barrels of oil getting coated in the substance, Taikei then loaded the strip with DNA and tossed it, the DNA ignited and exploded covering Hi-Commandramon in flames, Taikei jumped down and threw ExTyrannomon who slashed the chains but they didn't break "huh?" She uttered with Taikei grabbing her and putting her in his bag and looking back as Hi-Commandramon rose from the fire and stomped it out "so...there's where the intruder is" Hi-Commandramon loaded a grenade and Taikei bolted, she fired and the grenade impacted the wall sending Taikei flying but away from her, Taikei tried to catch his breath, the impact knocked the wind out of him and he felt like he couldn't keep a breath down, Taikei ignored this feeling and got to his feet running away, Hi-Commandramon spoke into her walkie talkie but noticed it was melted "damn, gonna have to do this on my own..." she loaded a grenade and ran after Taikei. Taikei looked around as he was running and found the storage room, it was filled with barrels of oil and various crates of materials, it was also, very inconveniently a deadend, Taikei ran around the room looking for another hallway but nothing, that's when the thunderous footsteps interrupted them, Taikei looked to see down the hallway was Hi-Commandramon who was visibly upset, she cocked her weapon and entered the room, she pointed it at Taikei but stopped, she looked around "how unlucky for you...I gotta stomp ya to death instead of blowing you up, can't risk harming the resources we've been gathering..." she then holstered her weapon on her back and cracked her neck before charging forward, Taikei began to run but quickly saw that there was a deadend in the form of a wall, Taikei then tilted into a sprint and ran up the wall jumping just above Hi-Commandramon's head, so close that her horn scratched Taikei's side, she then ran headfirst into the wall, Hi-Commandramon swung her tail and hit Taikei into a shelf smashing it, Taikei groaned in pain, he was sure every bone in his body was fractured but he managed to get to his feet, he stopped himself from puking from the pain, his head was spinning and he could barely hear.
Hi-Commandramon turned to him "I'm going to enjoy squishing you like a fruit" Taikei breathed in heavily stepping back, he could barely keep on his feet but he forced his body to move, Hi-Commandramon chased him again managing to grab Taikei, she held him up to her eyes "I wonder what end your innards'll come out, let's find out" Hi-Commandramon began to squeeze him causing Taikei to scream out in pain "AAAAHHH!" Hi-Commandramon laughed but was then interrupted by a small Digimon coming out of Taikei's backpack, ExTyrannomon blasted Hi-Commandramon "Black Matter!" Hi-Commandramon dropped Taikei who was hurt badly, ExTyrannomon ran to Taikei "are you okay?" Taikei smirked "never better, question: Is my heart supposed to beat so irregularly?" ExTyrannomon stood infront of Taikei to defend him. Hi-Commandramon smacked ExTyrannomon away "I'll deal with you later..." suddenly a large fireball hit Hi-Commandramon knocking her down, Taikei looked in the direction of the attack to see Tyrannomon standing there ready for battle.
Flashback
Taikei pointed at the chain holding Tyrannomon "you all need to pull on the chain to break it, I know that striking it won't break it, I'll distract Hi-Commandramon so you all can escape" Tyrannomon nodded "fine, but what will happen to you?" Taikei closed his eyes and smiled "I don't know, but atleast you guys'll be free".
Back to the Present
Tyrannomon roared at Hi-Commandramon who the roared back, Taikei looked at Tyrannomon "you guys should've escaped..." Tyrannomon looked at him and smirked "I wasn't going to leave you and let a debt hang over my head" Taikei got to his feet and stood next to Tyrannomon "okay, let's do this then!" Tyrannomon and Hi-Commandramon charged into one another, Hi-Commandramon struck Tyrannomon with her shield knocking them down, Tyrannomon quickly recovered and struck Hi-Commandramon's shield to the side but Hi-Commandramon drew her grenade launcher and fired point-blank hitting Tyrannomon sending them into a stack of shelves, Taikei's Digivice then made a noise and he looked at hit smirking "welcome back buddy!" Taikei then pointed his Digivice forward "Veemon, Realize!" Veemon popped out of the Digivice, clearly angered by something. Hi-Commandramon snickered "oh no, what will I ever do against a Rookie-Level Digimon?" Veemon then rocketed toward her "Vee Headbutt!" The blow knocked Hi-Commandramon back into a wall shattering it "that was for hurting my friends!" Veemon shouted, Taikei then ignited his DNA "let's teach her a lesson Veemon, DNA Charge!" Taikei slammed his Digivice "Veemon Digivolve to...Veedramon!" Veedramon rushed at Hi-Commandramon who put up her shield, Veedramon then sunk his claws into the shielf and crushed it tossing it away, he then hit her with a punch to the gut, Veedramon then tossed her to Tyrannomon who batted her with its tail, Veedramon did the same and knocked her up into the air, Veedramon's mouth filled up with blue flame "V-Breath Arrow!" Veedramon fired at her, Tyrannomon opened their mouth "Fireball!" Tyrannomon fired an attack aswell, both connected and destroyed Hi-Commandramon.
Outside the Mines
Taikei, Veedramon, and Tyrannomon emerged from a back entrance of the caves to find the villagers, the villagers cheered to see that they were safe, Tyrannomon pointed South "if you're trying to find a way out of the Digital World you'll find it South, an ally of ours guards a temple there, hidden from the D-Brigade and their benefactor" Taikei then asked "who exactly is their benefactor?" Tyrannomon answered "I don't know much about them, all I know is that they've developed this sort of...substance" Taikei interjected "it's called the X-Virus, it forces Digivolution" Tyrannomon nodded "yes, that must be how the D-Brigade gained so much strength, no need for training or age when you can Digivolve at will" Taikei then held up his Digivice "and without these...that stuff is dangerous too, not using it correctly can cause serious damage to a Digimon...and it's deadly to humans" Tyrannomon looked up at the sky and fear spread on its face "we have to get out of here..." Taikei looked to see a blimp closing in on them, the D-Brigade had found them. Taikei looked at Tyrannomon "you have to go, protect your people, we'll hold off the D-Brigade so you guys escape" Tyrannomon nodded and ran to the forest line, Taikei looked at Veedramon "you ready buddy?" Veedramon nodded "I've been itching for a rematch with Brigadramon..."