Chapter 15: Sacrifice
The blimp stopped above them, Taikei and Veedramon waited, filled with anticipation, ExTyrannomon jumped out of the pack "you sure you didn't want to go with the others?" Taikei asked, Ex clenched her fist "I'm done being a coward!" The hatch at the bottom of the blimp opened and Brigadramon dropped down landing infront of them "hm...we meet again, I hoped you survived, so that I can fight you again" Veedramon made a low growl sound before charging in, Brigadramon did the same, Brigadramon thrusted at Veedramon but Veedramon sidestepped it and smacked Brigadramon with his tail causing the Mega Digimon to slide back "you've learned from our last battle, good" Brigadramon charged in again, Veedramon swung his tail but Brigadramon dodged, Veedramon then threw a punch where Brigadramon dodged to, Brigadramon's claw and Veedramon's fist collided but it was Veedramon who was sent flying back into a large boulder, Veedramon bursted out from the rubble and fired a blast, Brigadramon slashed through the fire and charged in as did Veedramon, Brigadramon fired a hail of bullets, Veedramon jumped high into the air dropping toward Brigadramon, Brigadramon flew up uppercutting Veedramon, Veedramon took the hit and blasted Brigadramon with a pointblank V-Breath Arrow, Brigadramon slashed through the smoke and swatted Veedramon to the ground, Veedramon recovered just as Brigadramon landed "you have improved, but it's still not enough, and it'll never be enough!" Brigadramon then jumped up and hit Veedramon with an overhead slash from its claw cracking the ground beneath them.
Taikei ran over to them "Veedramon!" He shouted, ExTyrannomon lept forward "Dark Matter!" ExTyrannomon shot a ball of dark energy at Brigadramon, the attack connected but it didn't do any damage, Brigadramon looked at Taikei "maybe a little motivation will bring out the power you used against Monzaemon..." Brigadramon rushed at Taikei, it reeled back its claw and thrusted, Taikei shut his eyes, but nothing happened, Taikei opened his eyes to see ExTyrannomon infront of him, impaled on Brigadramon's claw "no...why'd you..." Taikei said, the shock was clearly invading his speech, ExTyrannomon looked back at him "hehe...looks like I really am a coward afterall, I had to go and die, so I don't have to see what'll happen to you two..." ExTyrannomon began to cry "goodbye Taikei, Veedramon, I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to make a difference..." ExTyrannomon began to fade away but was tossed aside by Brigadramon, the impact made her burst into data. Taikei reached out to where ExTyrannomon was, she was gone, and they were too weak to save her. Veedramon roared with fury as his body began to emit a green glow, he then looked toward Brigadramon who was stunned by the sudden display of power, Veedramon focused his vengeance into a single point near his chest and a beam fired out from it, Brigadramon prepared to take the blow but was taken offguard when it impacted them, the sheer power caused Brigadramon to fly back, they put up their guard bracing the attack.
Veedramon stopped the attack, his breath was labored, he put his everything in that attack, the smoke cleared and Brigadramon was still standing "that...was incredible! That's what I was looking for!" Brigadramon raised his arms and laughed "finally! A foe worth fighting!" Brigadramon pointed his claw at Veedramon, it opened to reveal a missle "Exa Destroyer!" Brigadramon fired, Veedramon jumped out of the way but the impact of the missle caught Veedramon and he was knocked into another rock. Brigadramon approached Veedramon "get up! I need you to face me!" Veedramon struggled to get up and Brigadramon narrowed his eyes in frustration "was that just a fluke?!" Brigadramon roared before smashing into Veedramon with his claw arm, Taikei ran over to Veedramon, Brigadramon launched another missle, this time it was aimed at Taikei, Taikei stopped, watching as the missle sped toward him, Veedramon suddenly appeared infront of Taikei taking the missle head-on, the impact nearly sent Taikei flying, Veedramon then crumpled to the ground, Taikei put his hands on Veedramon's snout "why'd you do that?!" He shouted "Dammit! First ExTyrannomon, now you, I'm useless aren't I?" Veedramon groaned "no...you made me Digivolve...I could never do that on my own, you saved me when I hatched..." Taikei petted Veedramon "I'm sorry, if it wasn't for me finding that box we wouldn't be like this" Veedramon smiled "you may regret it...but I don't, without you doing that, we wouldn't have found our friends, I'm happy that we're partners..." Taikei smiled "I'm happy too" Brigadramon rose into the air "so...this is the extent of your power, how disappointing" Brigadramon raised his machine gun arm and shot into the air, the bullets swirled around and created a sphere, the sphere then filled with grey energy and the bullets formed a chain encompassing the sphere "Metallic Force!" Brigadramon tossed the large sphere, Taikei then stood infront of Veedramon with his arms spread "Taikei! What're you doing?!" Taikei looked back at Veedramon "it's time I protect you..." Veedramon struggled to get up but he managed to and dove at Taikei, the sphere made contact but stopped, an explosion of energy dispersed the sphere, Brigadramon floated down "what happened?" He asked, as the energy dissipated it was replaced by the familiar pattern of DNA.
Taikei and Veedramon stood there, DNA swirling around them "Brigadramon!" Taikei shouted "you're gonna pay for what you've done to the Digimon of this land, and especially for ExTyrannomon!" Veedramon then roared and the green hued energy joined the DNA "we're gonna pulverize you!" Veedramon roared, the energies concentrated into a column, Taikei's Digivice flashed the text "Perfect Evolution" Taikei and Veedramon smiled at one another "DNA..." Taikei raised his arm and the column began to spiral "FULL..." the swirl then gathered into Taikei's hand and he slammed his hand onto his Digivice "CHARGE!!" A beam shot out of his Digivice and hit Veedramon who was then filled with energy "Veedramon Digivolve to...AceVeedramon!" AceVeedramon stood inplace of Veedramon, now towering over Taikei, who only reached his ankle, AceVeedramon had a slimmer physique with more musculature, with reverse articulated knees like a dog and an upright position to its body, the white on his body now looked like slashes of paint on his body, his arms had the same patterns while also being slimmer and more muscular, his neck was now longer with his head being smaller in proportion to his body and still had the same horns, but now the nose horn was more like a blade, his chest was covered in mechanical armor, it was colored blue and white and had a layered look to it almost jagged in appearance while being symmetrical with a sharp blue V at the center, great biomechanical wings sat on his back with white webbing and the forewings and fingers blue and cyborg-like, his long neck was armored to the head where a dark blue metallic helmet covering the top of his head, with the eyes covered with red glass. AceVeedramon roared at Brigadramon with Brigadramon defending himself from the force of the roar "incredible..." Brigadramon uttered before launching himself at AceVeedramon "come, AceVeedramon, face me!" AceVeedramon spread out his wings, the white webbing began to glow green and he rocketed off at lightspeed, Brigadramon fired a volley of bullets but AceVeedramon weaved through then before making an instant ricochet off to the side, Brigadramon looked around only to be struck by AceVeedramon's tail who had circled him in an instant sending him into the ground with a massive explosion of debris.
AceVeedramon landed, Brigadramon emerged from the dust gathering the rocks and dust into a sphere, the rocks then melted with the dust to create lava "Vulcanic Force!" Brigadramon tossed the orb at AceVeedramon, AceVeedramon beated his wings and it blew the attack away "what?!" Brigadramon uttered with AceVeedramon chuckling "hey Brigadramon! Check this out!" AceVeedramon suddenly disappeared from sight, Brigadramon looked around before taking off into the sky, Brigadramon was then struck back down to the ground. AceVeedramon was floating there with his fist stuck out clearly after he had struck Brigadramon, AceVeedramon rocketed toward the ground but Brigadramon managed to fly out of the way before impact, Brigadramon steadied himself staring down AceVeedramon who then held out his right arm out to his side, suddenly a green projection appeared on AceVeedramon's arm replacing it up to the shoulder, it looked like a railcannon, the green projection then turned solid, it was the same color and pattern as his chest, he then pointed the gun at Brigadramon "Tesla Vlaster!" green electricity sparked between the two armatures faster and faster before a green bolt of energy fired from the center. Brigadramon barely had time to react with how fast the attack was, the attack took off one of Brigadramon's engines on his back, the blast then traveled a distance before it exploded bathing the battlefield in a green light, Brigadramon looked back only to be struck by AceVeedramon's gun arm, the impact sent Brigadramon into a boulder, Brigadramon bursted out of the debris flying up into the sky clearly slower than usual due to having half the horsepower, Brigadramon then put his claw to his head "all batteries, fire on AceVeedramon!"
The blimps in the air began to turn and their turrets began to emit a whirring sound, AceVeedramon looked up and smirked showing his sharp saw-like teeth "those aren't going to help you!" AceVeedramon then rocketed up instantly passing the blimps, and then the clouds, AceVeedramon raised his left arm and an identical railcannon appeared replacing it, AceVeedramon aimed both guns down and fired, the bolts cut through the clouds and impacted a blimp each destroying them. AceVeedramon admired his work before flying to the last blimp, he returned his left arm to normal and created a new construct on his right, this time it was a blade, the blade finished constructing, it was primarily blue in color with a green energy blade sticking out of it. AceVeedramon swung the blade "Ace Vlade!" The blade split the final blimp in half and exploded, AceVeedramon met Brigadramon in the sky "looks like they didn't have a chance to fire at me" Brigadramon's claw shook with anger "RAAAAHHH!" Brigadramon fired a missle from his claw but it was slashed in half by AceVeedramon, Brigadramon roared again before charging at AceVeedramon who flew at him aswell, AceVeedramon sped up further before disappearing, AceVeedramon then reappeared behind Brigadramon, he looked strange however, his textures were missing but they quickly popped back in, Brigadramon turned around and and flew at AceVeedramon only for his bottom half to not follow him, Brigadramon looked down to see his legs falling to the ground, then the area where he was cut began to digitize "no...no!" Brigadramon used the last of his strength to fly at AceVeedramon who then spawned a railcannon on his right arm "Tesla Vlaster!" AceVeedramon fired a bolt that directly impacted Brigadramon vaporizing him with only his claw remaining
AceVeedramon flew down and landed infront of Taikei putting his head down to Taikei who then put his hand on his head, they then touched foreheads and AceVeedramon degenerated into Veemon "we did it..." Veemon whispered with Taikei nodding. Veemon gathered a mound of dirt and stuck a stick in it "this is for ExTyrannomon..." Taikei finished another mound and stuck a stick into it "this one's for Rasenmon, didn't meet him but I'm sure he loved his people" suddenly a spotlight showered them, a Cargodramon was above them, a platoon of Commandramon and Hi-Commandramon jumped out weapons trained on Taikei and Veemon "stay where you are!" One Commandramon barked while also adding "what has happened to the General?! Communication was lost with him and the entire armada" Taikei reached behind him and slid Brigadramon's claw to the platoon, Commandramon rushed to it inspecting it, once it realised what it was it fell back in terror, it then ran over to a Sealsdramon and whispered to it, the Sealsdramon looked stunned before it thought for a second "all units, retreat!" It barked, the Cargodramon landed picking up the troops and flew away. Taikei and Veemon watched them leave, Taikei turned to where Tyrannomon instructed "looks like we're heading South..."