DarkFoxKit: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, yadda yadda yadda. We got a little busy, though with how little people read this, I don't think it matters too much when we actually update.
ZAFT: But those who do read, we hope you enjoy this newest chapter! :3 Happy Holidays!
Chapter 20: A Whamon of a Time
The Trailmon was heading down the tunnel, rocking from side to side and throwing up water along the sides as well. Takuya was sure his backside was going to be wet when they got to safety.
"Why is the ride so bumpy!?" Kokuwamon whined.
"Maybe it's a good thing we don't have a fragile egg to take care of, it would get squashed or fallen off of the Trailmon at this rate!" Zoe shouted as she was hanging onto the walls.
"I think I'm gonna be sick…" JP groaned.
"Not in here!" Zoe exclaimed.
Koji growled. "Hey, bud, could you possibly go any faster?" He exclaimed sarcastically.
"No problem, but you might want to hang onto your underpants!" The Trailmon responded back, going even faster now, making the ride twice as bumpy.
"KOJI!" Everyone shouted.
"What!? I was being sarcastic!" Koji shouted back.
"Well don't be sarcastic to the Trailmon that has our life on the line!" Patamon yelled.
Tommy wobbled a little, losing his balance. Lopmon grabbed onto Tommy's arm with his ears to pull him upright. "Careful, try not to fall."
"T-thanks, Lopmon," Tommy said gratefully.
"One way is fun, the other we're done," Trailmon ominously said.
Koji and Takuya, being the only ones outside of the Trailmon while clinging onto it for dear life, saw the two paths up ahead.
"Aw, great! Now which way do we go?!" Takuya exclaimed.
"And how do we know which one is safe?!" Koji added.
"Don't know. The direction of the trail is up to the rails." The Trailmon replied as they approached the tunnel divergence.
"What the heck does that mean!?" Labramon shouted.
The rail began to switch to the right, seemingly on its own.
"Hopefully we're on the right track!" The Trailmon said as he went even faster.
At this point, Takuya and Koji aren't sure how they're still hanging onto the Trailmon.
"Is everyone okay?" JP asked, standing at the closest to the open door.
Kokuwamon was standing next to JP, since he was the heaviest out of the group, he was also holding onto JP's clothes to make sure JP didn't fall out.
"We're fine, for the most part," Biyomon answered. "Zoe, I think you can open your eyes now. It's a little more smooth here."
Zoe did open her eyes, feeling somewhat relieved. "Good… That was a rough getaway."
"Geez… that was intense. Who knew train tracks could be that rocky?" Kokuwamon joked weakly.
"Let's just hope it'll ease up a little now," Tommy sighed in relief. "I've been on trains before, but they were never this bad…"
Lopmon looked over at Patamon. "How are you feeling? Any… side effects from what happened with the egg?"
Patamon looked over at Lopmon before shaking his head. "I don't… feel any different. I'm not sure what Seraphimon did exactly…"
"We'll try to worry about that later, after we've reached a safe place," Biyomon suggested.
"Y-yeah, no point in worrying about it now," Labramon added.
"Hold on, guys! It's gonna get rough again!" Takuya exclaimed from outside on the Trailmon's side. Sure enough, the bumping and rocking started up again.
"Oh come on, not again!" Zoe cried.
Tommy was on his hands and knees at this point. He was never good with wild rides.
"Tommy, try to breathe!" Lopmon quickly tried to comfort the poor boy.
Kokuwamon was pulling JP back as he almost fell out of the back of the Trailmon.
"WAAAAH!" JP cried out.
"I got you!" Kokuwamon assured as he kept trying to pull JP back.
Suddenly, they were off of the tracks. There was no more bumpy feeling… but it was much worse as they were now falling in midair, over what appeared to be a waterfall.
"WHAT IS THIS!?" Labramon screamed.
"I always say, one good track deserves another!" The Trailmon said as he landed on the next set of tracks.
"Oh gosh… we're alive somehow…" Lopmon melted.
"That wasn't too bad," Patamon said.
"Easy for you to say, Mr. I-Have-Wings!" Lopmon snapped.
"Well, at least you can inflate your ears and float down," Labramon pointed out.
"Let's just all be happy we made it out alive!" JP groaned, feeling very weak in the knees now.
"H-how are Koji and Takuya doing?" Tommy asked, feeling worried for them since they were outside when all this was happening.
"Are you crazy?!" Takuya's voice exclaimed to the Trailmon frantically, showing he was just fine.
"I almost lost my arms back there!" Koji's voice shouted as well.
"Hey, everyone's alive and well, right?" Trailmon replied back. "Look on the bright side, we're almost done."
As soon as they were on the tracks, the Trailmon began to slow down. They had reached the end of their getaway it seemed.
"End of the line. And all is fine." The Trailmon said as everyone got off of him. "Happy trails!"
As the Trailmon began to back up, everyone in the group waved goodbye before Takuya paused. "Wait… How the heck is he going to get back up that jump we made earlier?"
As if to respond to Takuya, the Trailmon floated off of the track like it was flying, and landed on the tracks under the waterfall.
"Okay, that answers that question…" Takuya muttered.
"He's really going to go all the way back? Isn't he scared that the evil Digimon is going to hurt him?" Tommy asked.
"Maybe, but they're not after the Trailmon," Lopmon reminded.
Takuya then felt Patamon tugging on his hand.
"C'mon! We have to keep moving." Patamon instructed as Takuya nodded and began to run down the tunnel ahead of the group.
The others followed Takuya and Patamon, not even bothering to slow down. They needed to find a way out as quickly as they could. For all they knew, the Trailmon may be forced to come back by the other Legendary Warriors.
"Look, there seems to be an opening!" Koji pointed out as they saw light up ahead.
"Let's just hope it gets us outside!" Labramon added. "... Why do I smell salty water?"
"Maybe it leads us to the ocean!" Zoe exclaimed. "That would be a break for sure!"
"We'll soon find out!" Takuya said as the group rushed through the opening.
When they made it out of the tunnel, the group stopped as they stared out in disappointment. Instead of being outside, they were in a bigger looking cave. There was nothing but rocks and a large pool of water ahead of them.
"This doesn't look like outside to me." JP frowned.
"No… I think we're underground," Kokuwamon stated.
"So… is there no way to get out?" Zoe asked worriedly.
"There must be." Koji remarked. "That water pool didn't get down here by itself."
"Yeah, c'mon. Maybe we can look for a tunnel or some other way that water got down here." Takuya suggested. "If we find it, maybe we can follow it out of here."
"It's better than just staying stuck down here." Kokuwamon agreed.
"Especially for you, all this water can't be good for you." Lopmon frowned.
"Definitely not…" Kokuwamon agreed. "I hope this salt water doesn't rust me too quickly."
"Okay, guys! Let's see if we can find a way out of here." Takuya said as he began to run down the slope to the floor below.
Koji followed Takuya, with the others soon following them as well.
"Wait for me!" Tommy cried as he chased after the other two boys. "If Grumblemon finds us down here, we'll be in big trouble since this is in his domain!"
"That is true, we can't afford to fight him here." Lopmon frowned.
Patamon, Labramon, and Lopmon followed their human partners. Zoe, Biyomon, JP, and Kokuwamon were still standing as they watched the others running through the cavern.
"Is this really okay?" JP asked.
"What do you mean?" Zoe questioned.
"To keep running?" JP clarified. "We're supposed to be Legendary Warriors too, and protect Digimon. Instead we were saved by Seraphimon and Sorcermon, and both of them paid the price for it. Maybe we should go back and confront them head on and get this over with."
"I understand how you feel, JP, but as we are now, we don't stand a chance against all of them," Kokuwamon pointed out. "Grumblemon on his own is one thing, but the other 4 Legendary Warriors have more experience than you all do, and it's likely they all, except for Grumblemon, have their Beast Spirits too. Petaldramon nearly took all of us down."
JP clenched his fists. "Yeah, but… We should still be able to at least take down one of them, right? Why do we have these Spirits if we just keep running away?! We're not cowards! We have the ability to fight back! So why don't we do so then?"
"JP, it's about survival." Zoe said gently. "We can't take big risks like that unless we have a plan in place and know what we are doing. If we just rush in and fight them head on, we will lose, not just our Spirits, but our Digimon friends as well."
JP frowned before he looked at Biyomon and Kokuwamon. Not just them, but the other small Digimon had been with them since this whole thing began, despite not being able to get stronger like they could, they still found a way to help them, and guide them through the Digital World. They helped train them how to better use their Spirits, they helped Koji and Takuya control their Beast Spirits. No other Digimon, big or small, had been that brave or loyal to stay by them like they had. The last thing he wanted was to lose them.
"Trust me, JP, I'd like to kick and slash Grumblemon and the other Legendary Warriors in the face for what they've done to Seraphimon and Sorcermon, but we have to make the wiser call here if we want to survive. And when we're able to recover and regroup… we might be able to help you find the rest of your Beast Spirits, and then you might be able to take down the evil Legendary Warriors," Biyomon stated.
"Two out of five of you already have your Beast Spirits," Kokuwamon added. "It… won't be long until the rest of you find yours."
JP frowned as he noticed a melancholic tone in Kokuwamon's voice. "Why do you sound… kind of sad about that?"
"I'm not sad, I'm just… antsy, that's all," Kokuwamon covered. "You can't blame me considering the situation we're in. My metal body isn't good near too much salt water for long."
JP chuckled. "True. Metal and water don't mix well. So I can't blame you at all." He then looked down at the ground. "That's one reason why we need to either fight back or find a way out of here."
"I'm surprised, JP… you really want to fight back, huh?" Zoe noted. "Usually you're the one who complains about having to fight, or going into dangerous situations. Why the sudden change?"
"Grumblemon caused a lot of problems for a lot of Digimon… and he even took away Tommy's Spirit for a time." JP frowned. "I can't help but think if I wasn't such a coward all the time, maybe there was more I could've done. Maybe I could've stopped those guys from taking out Seraphimon and Sorcermon. I'm the oldest of the group, aren't I supposed to be more responsible?"
"Technically, we're older than all of you," Kokuwamon stated. "So if being older means being more responsible, then we should take responsibility while you're under our guidance."
Zoe blinked. "Huh? Older? How old are you guys?" She asked, confused and surprised. "I didn't know Digimon aged like humans did."
"Our age is a bit… uh… difficult to measure by human standards," Biyomon said. "But we had heard you guys were mostly 12 years old, with Tommy being the youngest by 4 years, and JP being the oldest by 1 year."
"We've existed for 14 human years, so that makes us 14 years old," Kokuwamon stated.
"Aw man! Really?!" JP groaned. "I'm a year younger than a metal insectoid Digimon?!"
"And a pink bird, and an orange hamster with wings, and a chocolate bunny, and a cute little puppy~" Biyomon added with a teasing tone.
"You're all the same age?" Zoe asked.
"That's right," Kokuwamon confirmed.
"Well, at least it's easier to keep track of your ages." Zoe said with a bit of a sweatdrop running down the side of her head. "I didn't think we'd be younger than you guys, but given how you've looked after us… I can't say it's a bad thing…"
"Look, getting back on topic, we should focus on trying to find a way out, or barring that, prepare for a fight because we know Grumblemon will be after us at least." JP said, returning to the topic at hand.
"I'm sure a solution will come to us soon enough," Biyomon said.
"And besides, when was the last time we had something to eat?" Kokuwamon asked. "You've been fighting for a while, and we haven't been able to get a meal in. You all must be tired and weakened from hunger by now."
As if on cue, JP's and Zoe's stomachs growled.
"Way to remind us…" Zoe grumbled, feeling a bit cranky from lack of food.
"Yeah, we should probably eat…" JP agreed. "But is it okay to do so right now with Grumblemon chasing us down?"
"In all honesty, this is probably the best time to eat something," Kokuwamon said. "We're stuck here, and the enemy might start moving in to us soon. This is our best chance to prepare, like you said. We'll leave finding the exit to the others, we should at least eat something so we're not too weak if we have to fight."
"Finally, all your times for your 'feeding' makes sense," Biyomon teased.
"Hush up," Kokuwamon grumbled.
Zoe snickered. "Okay, let's see if we can get the others to join us to eat as well. We all need to regain our strength."
Meanwhile, Mercurymon and Ranamon had retreated back to their hideout. Grumblemon and Arbormon were tracking down the children. Mercurymon felt that those two were enough to get the job done, but he had some planning to do. Ranamon decided to follow him for whatever reason.
BlackGatomon noticed the two of them, and began walking over. "Hey, so what's up? Did you already destroy the human children? You seem to be pleased with yourself."
"We haven't destroyed the annoying brats, they're a lot tougher than they look," Ranamon answered. "But Mercurymon here got himself Seraphimon's fractal code."
"Oh, really?" BlackGatomon looked at Mercurymon. "I take it you're going to give it to Lord Cherubimon then?"
"Tis none of thy business." Mercurymon replied with a smug grin. "Just know it will be put to good use." The way he said it was vague and ominous.
"Oh come on, you're definitely hiding something!" Ranamon whined. "Come on, what's the big secret?"
"Alas, poor Grumblemon," Mercurymon said, changing the subject. "He searchth in vain for the children."
"In vain?" BlackGatomon asked. "Well, I don't think that's gonna be an issue. The issue is he's looking for them without his Beast Spirit, he's not going to stand a chance against them all."
"That's right, the brats pilfered his Beast Spirit. Some Warrior he turned out to be!" Ranamon laughed.
Mercurymon chuckled sinisterly. "Yes, but that be the consequences of his actions. Alas, Grumblemon is not known for his brains."
"Poor fool~" Ranamon snickered.
"Are you sure you should be speaking like that about Grumblemon? I mean you haven't even found your Beast Spirit yet, have you?" BlackGatmon pointed out to Ranamon.
Ranamon felt her cheeks burning with embarrassment. "S-Shut up! That has nothing to do with the conversation!" She stammered out before huffing and folding her arms. "Besides, I've narrowed down the location of my Beast Spirit! I'll have it soon!"
"Well, until then, you have no right to laugh at Grumblemon," BlackGatomon stated. "But then, I guess he no longer has his Beast Spirit, so he no longer has anything over you now."
"And it's gonna stay that way! Hmph!" Ranamon huffed.
"BlackGatomon speaks the truth, Ranamon," Mercurymon added. "Thou have yet gotten thou's Beast Spirit."
"Hey! If I wanted your truth, I'd ask for it!" Ranamon snapped.
BlackGatomon rolled her eyes before she walked to the corner, where Duskmon was waiting.
"Been listening to them?" BlackGatomon asked.
"They are quite the foolish mons…" Duskmon sighed.
"I agree, but you can't argue with the results," BlackGatmon said. "Mercurymon does hold a Celestial Digimon's data within him now. That could make him quite dangerous. Though I can't help but wonder why he and Ranamon don't plan on helping their comrade take out the children? They even seem confident he may fall to them soon."
"That is disturbing…" Duskmon conceded, which was unusual for him to do. He didn't know why, but the callousness of Ranamon's and Mercurymon's actions unsettled him. "I'm normally not one to say this, but I feel… uneasy, knowing Mercurymon and Ranamon's actions."
Normally, Duskmon wouldn't care what would happen to his comrades. But ever since BlackGatomon was assigned to him, he found himself starting to care a little more. He hadn't spoken to his fellow Legendary Warriors much, but BlackGatomon often spoke with them, often teasing them. But it also gave Duskmon a good idea of how much of a personality each of these Legendary Warriors had. Grumblemon may not be the smartest one of the group, but he had his moments. He did a lot of work for Cherubimon, and he was quite physically strong. He was a hard worker if nothing else.
To think that Mercurymon and Ranamon seemed to not care about Grumblemon, and were even making fun of him for wanting to find the children and get his Beast Spirit back rubbed him the wrong way. A part of him even considered going out to help Grumblemon.
But Duskmon didn't have a lot of motivation to fight the children himself yet. He also believed with Arbormon there, at least, Grumblemon may still have a chance. And BlackGatomon didn't seem to be in a hurry to help Grumblemon herself either. If anyone but Cherubimon and BlackGatomon told him to go help Grumblemon, he would just ignore them. BlackGatomon seemed to have good ideas, and every time he had followed her whims, he was able to see more beauty in this world.
"What do you think then?" Duskmon asked.
"About what?" BlackGatomon questioned.
"About Grumblemon's chances?" Duskmon clarified.
"Oh? Are you worried about him?" BlackGatomon raised an eyebrow before chuckling a little. "Well, he still has Arbormon with him, and Arbormon still has his Beast Spirit. They might be okay, and if things get dangerous, I'm sure even Grumblemon would be smart enough to retreat, he's already confronted the children multiple times by now."
Duskmon had to concede that point; Grumblemon did know when to retreat if he survived multiple fights with the children. And even if Grumblemon was outmatched, Arbormon was there to help as well. "I will concede that point to you." He admitted.
Looking down at the ground, Duskmon couldn't help but let his mind wander for a bit. He wasn't the biggest fan of Grumblemon, but even he had to admit it was kind of cruel to not go back him up. Arbormon was there yes, but on the off chance things went downhill, Duskmon wasn't sure if anyone else would be able to go help them out.
"Don't worry, Duskmon… with the way things are going, I'm sure it'll work out," BlackGatomon reassured softly.
"You think so?" Duskmon asked.
"Well, one has to have hope, or else one can't keep going," BlackGatomon replied.
Duskmon chuckled. "Very true. And I have to have hope that Grumblemon will be okay with Arbormon's help."
BlackGatomon frowned before smiling a little. "Yeah, it's good to keep hope."
Meanwhile, back in the underground cavern, the children and Digimon have exhausted themselves trying to look for an exit. Though thanks to Kokuwamon's suggestion, they did have a snack while looking for a way out, to keep their strength up for when they need it.
"Nothing but solid walls…" Koji frowned.
"I smell more salt water too. If we tried to blast our way our, we'd just drown ourselves," Labramon warned.
"Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way out of here, we've hit a dead end…" Patamon frowned.
"Wow, so that tunnel we went through ended up taking us to a dead end…" Takuya grumbled. "If he was here, I'd have a word with that Trailmon about this…"
"We may have to just go back the way we came if we want to get out of here." Zoe remarked with a huff. "Talk about a let down."
"Hey, at least we know which tunnel to go down next." Biyomon said in a joking manner.
"But we'd still have to get back to the trail." Labramon frowned.
"That's not a problem. JP and Zoe can carry us back," Tommy said.
"Besides, I've been wanting to go back to deal with the evil Legendary Warriors anyways," JP stated.
"It's been a while, so maybe the other Legendary Warriors gave up on finding us," Kokuwamon tried to say optimistically.
"Do you think it'll be that easy?" Lopmon asked.
"I don't know…" Kokuwamon admitted after a few moments of silence. "I'd like to stay optimistic, but knowing our luck, who knows what could happen?"
"We need to stay focused though. If we get all gloomy, it will make it harder to focus on getting out of here." Patamon pointed out. "I don't think any of us wants to be frustrated if we don't find a way out."
"Then we should head back, hopefully the next tunnel will lead us to an exit," Zoe said.
"Yeah, sounds good," Tommy agreed.
"Then let's-" JP began to say when suddenly a large blast of water came out of the pool of water.
JP, Kokuwamon, Tommy, and Lopmon had been standing in front of the blast of water, they got engulfed and knocked down by it.
"Guys!" The others cried in alarm.
"Tommy, JP! Are you guys okay?!" Takuya asked in worry.
"Lopmon! Kokuwamon!" Patamon cried. "Say something!"
The 4 were soaked, they looked pretty injured from the attack. Though Kokuwamon's head was sparkling uncontrollably.
"Ow… t-tHiS… i-i-iSn'T g-G-g-gOoD," Kokuwamon said, his voice glitching out a little.
"I don't feel so good…" Tommy groaned, feeling a bit sick to his stomach.
"H-hang in there…" Lopmon said as he struggled to get to his feet. "W-was… that an attack…?"
"Are you okay, little buddy?" JP asked the others in concern, holding onto Tommy so the kid wouldn't keel over.
Lopmon didn't look too good either, but he seemed to be doing better than Kokuwamon, who was still sparking out. Kokuwamon's head twitched.
"We have to dry Kokuwamon quickly!" Patamon urgently said. "Biyomon, can you help me try to dry him?"
"Is air drying him going to help? That salt water is going to rust him either way." Biyomon frowned.
"We won't know until we try." Patamon said quickly. "Drying him quickly is the best way to handle this for the moment."
Biyomon could see how anxious Patamon was about getting Kokuwamon dry. This was his best friend, it was natural he would be worried.
"Okay, I'll see what I can do to help." Biyomon said at last.
Biyomon and Patamon quickly flew over to Kokuwamon and the others. They quickly flapped their wings to create a gust of wind to try to try them off. Biyomon added some bits of flames to the gust of wind to heat it up, not enough to hurt them, just enough to dry them faster.
Though drying them was helping, JP, Tommy, Kokuwamon, and Lopmon were still pretty injured from the burst of water. Kokuwamon's gray body was starting to turn brown and stiff.
"While they're doing that, we better investigate what's in the pool, it could attack again!" Takuya quickly said to the others.
"Good idea." Koji agreed.
"Let's do it." Zoe agreed as well.
But the others could even move to check out the pool, something big rose up from the water, looming over the group like a large shadow.
"What the heck is that!?" JP shouted.
The large shadow turned out to be a whale-like creature with a dark blue-gray underbelly and a brown top and back. Gray tubes along the sides of its head were seen as well, and it had a gaping mouth with sharp teeth.
"That's a Whamon!" Labramon exclaimed.
"What's a Whamon doing here? They usually live in the ocean." Patamon frowned.
"What's a Whamon?" Zoe asked, still in shock at seeing such a large Digimon down here.
"It's a whale Digimon," Biyomon answered. "And he seems to be in distress."
"I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE! DO YOU HEAR ME!? I CAN'T!" Whamon cried out as he flailed around in the water, splashing it all over the place.
Patamon and Biyomon quickly pushed Kokuwamon to get him further away from the water, the last thing he needed was to be splashed by more salt water.
"I WANNA GO HOME! I WANNA GO HOME! I WANNA GO HO-O-O-OME!" Whamon screamed, still flailing around.
"Looks like we have to stop him!" Koji said.
"Um… Okay… But I don't know what we can do to calm down a giant whale." Takuya replied, uncertain about the plan. "I mean, he's huge!"
"Hey! Hey! Calm down!" Labramon shouted. "We can't help you if you keep flailing around like a headless Kokatorimon!"
Whamon didn't hear Labramon though. "LET ME OUT OF HERE! I WANNA GO BACK TO THE OCEAN! LET ME GO! LET ME GO! I WANNA GO HOOOOME!"
"Hey… you two can Spirit Evolve, right?" Lopmon asked, wringing the water out of his ears.
Takuya felt like hitting himself on the face. "Of all the… Okay, let's do this, Koji!" He said as he got out his D-Tector.
Koji followed suit. "Right!"
Takuya held up his D-Tector and the blue digital form of his first Spirit appeared visible on the screen of his D-Tector as he formed a ring of fractal coding on his left hand. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he would come to know by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital, and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the power of the Spirit flowed into his body. Red armor formed and latched onto his body as his hair changed to blonde and became long and wild. His height increased, as did his strength and agility. His eyes snapped open, now a brilliant blue instead of brown, and his canine teeth were sharper than a human's as well. He landed, crying out his name. "Agunimon!"
Koji held up his D-Tector and the white digital form of his first Spirit appeared visible on the screen as he formed the familiar fractal coding on his left hand. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he would come to know by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital, and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the energy of the Spirit entered his body. His eyes became red as his hair shortened and turned almost platinum in color. A white helmet covered his head as white and blue armor covered his body. He grasped the beam sabers and swung them a few times before clasping them around his waist and firing off his arm laser. "Lobomon!"
Now Spirit Evolved, both Agunimon and Lobomon leapt onto Whamon to try and calm him down.
"Okay, big guy, just calm down." Lobomon said to Whamon.
"Yeah, just why are you so upset?" Agunimon asked.
"Leave me alone!" Whamon wailed.
"Okay, that is it!" Patamon yelled as he flew up to Whamon. "STOP SCREAMING! YOU'RE GIVING ME A HEADACHE!"
Patamon shot out a Boom Bubble that hit Whamon's head. Whamon stopped moving, taken by surprise by the attack. It didn't hurt that much, but it was still enough to get his attention.
"O-Oh… S-Sorry…" Whamon apologized as he seemed to realize he wasn't the only other one in the cavern now.
Agunimon and Lobomon leapt off of Whamon and landed on the ground near the edge of the pool. Both Legendary Warriors were thankful for Patamon's intervention, as neither was sure they would have been able to calm Whamon down on their own.
"Thanks for the help, Patamon." Agunimon said with a small smile.
"Sometimes you have to slap someone to calm them down," Patamon stated.
With Whamon calmed down, the group approached the edge of the pool. JP, Tommy, Lopmon, and Kokuwamon seemed to have recovered somewhat, though they were still injured, and Kokuwamon was still rusting a little.
"Hey… so… could you tell us why you're down here, and why you're so upset?" Zoe asked.
"I hate this place…" Whamon answered, and the group noticed that Whamon was somehow able to talk to them without moving his actual mouth, but it didn't sound like he was using telepathy to speak to them. It was quite the feat. "I just want to go back home to the ocean. There isn't much room to move around here, and I'm getting a really bad cramp. Not to mention there's hardly any food, so I'll starve to death before long too."
"So how did you end up down here?" Lobomon asked. "Because last we saw, there were no exits out of here."
"I'm not too sure myself…" Whamon frowned. "Let me tell you what happened. About a few days ago, I was swimming in the ocean, happy and carefree. Then one day, I spotted a delicious glowing plant. I was curious, what kind of plants glowed like that, and how delicious they would be. So I ate the plants, it was pretty good, though it sent a strange tingle throughout my body. This caused my body to go numb for a while, so I had a hard time moving. And no later when that happened… a large crater at the beach of a continent I happened to be swimming nearby suddenly appeared. There hadn't been any natural earthquakes, but from what I could tell, a large portion of fractal code was taken, leaving a large hole that started causing the ocean to spill into. Because I couldn't move, I couldn't get away from the currents, and it pulled me in. The next thing I knew, I was falling down here, and a cave-in caused the roof of rocks to appear, trapping me down here."
Agunimon looked down in thought as he put a hand to his chin in consideration. "That sounds like it may have been one of Cherubimon's goons then… Only they would eat fractal code, based on our experience anyway."
"I still can't believe I got stuck in this place with no way out!" Whamon cried as tears starting spraying out of his… unseen eyes somehow.
"Here we go again…" Agunimon sighed.
Lobomon put a hand to his face in exasperation. "You don't have to be such a big crybaby…" He muttered.
"I don't think it's healthy for you to lose that much water…" Biyomon frowned.
"Come on… stop crying, it's… not gonna help you," JP said before he groaned from his injuries.
As a Digimon, JP could take hits no problem, but as a human… that was a different story, especially from another Digimon. JP managed to shield Tommy and the smaller Digimon from the attack for the most part. Because it happened so suddenly, he didn't have much time to think. So he took the brunt of the attack.
"JP? You don't look so good." Tommy frowned, noticing JP was worse off than he was.
Kokuwamon wasn't looking too good either. "Surely we can work something out… ow…"
Kokuwamon tried to move his arm, but that caused his stiff arm to squeak loudly and cause some pain.
"Don't move around too much." Lopmon frowned in worry.
"A-a-and it's all my fault you guys got hu-u-urt! I'm so sorrryyyyyy!" Whamon continued to cry.
"You're forgiven, alright!?" JP yelled out.
Wow, that was the most passive aggressive way someone could shout that someone is forgiven… Lopmon couldn't help but think.
"Hey, look on the bright side," Zoe spoke up, hoping to help cheer Whamon up. "We're stuck here too, so now you have some company. And with your help, we might be able to find a way out of here."
That got Whamon's attention. "Huh? Really?!" He seemed much happier all of the sudden. "That would be great!"
Everyone flinched from Whamon's sudden whiplash emotions.
"This guy can turn on a dime!" Agunimon said.
When everyone got over their shock, they began talking.
"So what would be the best way out? Going back is a no go since Whamon wouldn't even be able to fit in the tunnel, that is if he could even leave the water," Patamon asked.
"He said that he fell from above, right?" Tommy said as he looked up at the ceiling. "So all those rocks must be newly formed. So they could be easily taken out… or turned into fractal code or something."
"But even if we did that, all that ocean above us will fall onto us," Lopmon pointed out. "We would need a submarine to survive that."
"True." Tommy conceded. "We'd never survive if we got out like that."
"I could carry you if you need me to." Whamon offered. "I could easily carry you through the deep ocean. Of course, it would have to be in my mouth since you wouldn't survive any other way, but…"
Everyone looked grossed out at Whamon's comment about carrying them in his mouth.
"I don't know if that's sanitary in any way…" Lobomon sweatdropped.
"But… it might not be the worst idea," Labramon said. "It's gross, but if it's for survival… we would have to do what we must, right?"
"... Yes… but… can we at least try out other options first?" Zoe begged. "What if we accidentally get swallowed or something?"
"Hey, JP, you and Kokuwamon should rest, you need to recover after that," Tommy suggested.
"What about you and Lopmon?" JP asked.
"We're a little hurt, but we're okay," Tommy assured.
"It's nothing we can't handle anyway," Lopmon added. "We may need you for escaping anyway, since we need our heavy hitters to get rid of the ceiling if it comes down to it."
"Alright…" JP sighed. "A little bit of rest will… do us some good… I hope I can get rid of this pain…"
"I hope I can get rid of this rust…" Kokuwamon frowned.
While everyone was discussing on the best way to get out, Kokuwamon looked over at JP, then looked away. Luckily his head wasn't rusting too much, so he could still move it.
"Everything okay there?" JP asked. "Besides the… rusting?"
"Oh… nothing much, I just… I just have a lot of things on my mind," Kokuwamon answered.
"Well, we've got time… a yen for your thoughts?" JP asked.
"Heh…" Kokuwamon chuckled a little before sighing. "... I guess I'm just wondering about the future… I mean I'm sure we'll get out of here. I just… wonder about what will come next… You guys are getting stronger, and that's good. But that also means you'll be facing stronger enemies too. And… we'll end up getting in your way."
"Why would you say that?" JP asked in surprise. "You've never been in the way the whole time you've been helping us. Yes, it's been… difficult knowing you aren't strong like us, but you guys have held your own despite that!"
"Heh… well, thanks. You guys saved me from those Goburimon and Snimon, as well as the other Kokuwamon, not to mention from having to eat those nasty batteries," Kokuwamon said. "I owe you guys my life for that. It's funny… I used to be quite jealous of you guys. You were Legendary Warriors, you had power, you were chosen to be heroes to save this world. Meanwhile, I'm just… another Kokuwamon, ordinary, not very strong or impressive at all. I can't even deal with water that well."
JP frowned a little. "To be honest… I was a lot like you… when we met, you saw I was the only one in our group who didn't have a Spirit… so I felt left out. While I tried not to show it, I was pretty jealous… or actually, I think the right word is 'envious'... I was envious of the others. They all had a Spirit, they were all chosen, but me. I was the outlier of the group. I asked myself why I was even here, that I'd just get in everyone's way… but even so, I still went back to help. I was able to help even as a human, and that was when Beetlemon's Spirit finally showed itself to me. I don't think being handed special powers is what's important here, it's how you use what you've got to help others."
"Heh… you've really grown since then, huh?" Kokuwamon chuckled.
JP smiled back. "Yeah, I think I have." He admitted. "I'll admit… It was hard being the only one without the ability to become a Digimon at first, but in the end, I still did what I could, even as a human. It's all about not letting your fears and jealousy get the best of you. No one said doing the right thing would be easy, but it's possible. I think Tommy learned that lesson too, after his Spirit was taken, he still tried to do what he could to help."
"He's got good role models," Kokuwamon said. "Well… I should say… in a past life, I was given special powers actually. But unlike you guys, I misused and abused my power. I let it go to my head, and I turned into a monster for it. I'm sure Labramon experienced something similar as well, she's talked about how she regrets her past life of being a powerful bully, and wants to change for the better. I also want to change. I don't want to feel like I need to have special powers to actually be special and to be able to do good. What I have now… should already be enough, but… it can always be improved. I think that's a better mindset to have, isn't it?"
JP nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it is." He agreed. "And I like to think I've improved what I have with my own abilities as a Legendary Warrior. Like that new Discharge move I have. That was only made possible because you guys trained us. And I can't wait to see what else I can learn with my powers. I'm sure you guys can get stronger too, maybe we can train more after we get out of here."
"Heh… that'd be nice… to be able to fight alongside you guys instead of having to fall back and be protected…" Kokuwamon sighed. "But… I'm afraid that's… not our role here…"
"What do you mean?" JP asked. "... Come to think of it… it always seems like you guys know something we don't… Is there… something you-"
Before JP could finish, Whamon let out a cry of distress and he began sinking. The kids and Digimon looked on in alarm to see the water Whamon was in had suddenly disappeared, and Whamon was lying in a crater.
"W-what happened to the water!?" Lobomon shouted.
"Whamon! Are you okay!?" Agunimon called out.
"Now that is definitely not normal." Biyomon frowned. "Poor Whamon…"
"Heads up! Someone's coming!" Patamon warned.
The dirt rose up as everyone tensed up. The form under the dirt broke through, revealing the annoying gnome they all knew so well by now.
"Grumblemon!" Lobomon exclaimed in anger. He clenched his fists. "I figured you would find your way here."
"Nowhere hide now!" Grumblemon grinned as he eyed the group above him. "Me find you! And now me steal your Spirits good!"
"You're an annoying lawn gnome, you know that?" Agunimon snickered, unable to help himself.
"Well guess what, Grumblemon? We're not afraid of you anymore!" Zoe challenged.
Grumblemon growled. "Well, guess what? You may have taken my Beast Spirit, but me still have other powers! Or did you forget? Me Warrior of Earth!"
Grumblemon took a vial out and removed the cork, he then tossed sparkly dust all over the cave.
Everyone saw rocks forming, creating more Golemon that quickly surrounded them. JP and Kokuwamon had to get up on their feet, knowing they couldn't be sitting if they were to get attacked. Under Grumblemon was the largest Golemon among the group.
"Me will finish you all for good this time!" Grumblemon stated. "Except the Patamon and Lopmon. Mercurymon want them alive."
"Like we'd ever go with you!" Lopmon hissed.
"We'd rather die," Patamon growled.
Agunimon and Lobomon stood in front of the others, since they were already Spirit Evolved, they had to keep the others safe. Tommy and JP were injured, so even if they were to Spirit Evolve, they wouldn't be at full strength. Zoe stepped up, readying her D-Tector. But she hesitated, as the Warrior of Wind, she couldn't deal with rock Digimon all that well.
"Zoe, don't." Agunimon said. "Lobomon and I can handle this. You need to keep JP and Tommy safe if it comes to it."
"You guys better be careful," Zoe said.
"We'll keep an eye on the others too," Biyomon stated.
Biyomon and Labramon stood strong. Patamon stayed with Lopmon and Kokuwamon, hoping to keep them safe.
"You better Spirit Evolve too, Zoe," Lopmon said. "You won't be able to help much as you are now."
Zoe nodded. "Okay."
The magenta outline of her Spirit appeared visible on the screen of her D-Tector as she held it up. Fractal coding appeared on her left hand and she slammed the D-Tector against it as she brought the two together. Zoe then called out the familiar phrase she knew by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" Her body became data as her clothes ripped away. Coding surrounded her in a cocoon of sorts and the power of her first Spirit flowed into her. Her hair became longer, flowing past her waist and turning a purple color. Her body grew in height, increasing her strength and speed. A bikini-like outfit appeared on her body as gloves, and high boots formed on her arms and legs, with shoulder guards appearing as well as a visor that covered her eyes. Butterfly-like wings appeared on her back and she landed, letting out a cry as she unleashed a kick before she came to a stop and said her name. "Kazemon!"
Now as Kazemon, Zoe was ready to help defend the others if any of the Golemon came at them. She hovered in the air for more maneuverability. "Okay you rock heads, come get some!"
Everyone grouped closer together, the ones who could fight anyway.
"Okay, let's turn these rocks into pebbles!" Agunimon exclaimed, more than eager to beat Grumblemon for good this time. "Pyro Tornado!"
Agunimon coated himself in flames and spun around, creating a fiery tornado. He managed to hit several Golemon. The Golemon appeared to be much weaker than the one Grumblemon brought with him at the Fortuneteller Town, must be because he created many of them instead of just one. Quantity over quality in this case.
"Wow, these guys are easy." Agunimon noted with a bit of a smirk.
Lobomon drew out one of his light swords and activated the blade. Power coursed through the blade as he pushed more of his element's energy into it before he swung it a few times. "Howling Shockwave!" Several Golemon were destroyed easily by the attack.
"We won't have any trouble with these Golemon." Lobomon grinned.
While Lobomon and Agunimon were able to take down the Golemon, Kazemon found herself standing in front of JP, Tommy, and the other Digimon trying to protect them. A lot of the Golemon were ignoring Agunimon and Lobomon and going straight for the weakest of the group.
"Stand back! I'm warning you!" Kazemon warned.
"H-here they come!" Tommy frowned.
Kazemon created little tornadoes on her fingers. "Hurricane Wave!"
Kazemon blasted the wind at the Golemon. Some of the Golemon were blown back, but others quickly took their place. Their rocky hide made it difficult for Kazemon to blow them away. Kazemon moved in to try to kick them, and she did crack a lot of their rocky hides, but she lacked the physical prowess of Lobomon and Agunimon, so she wasn't able to hit them hard enough. One of the Goelmon grabbed Kazemon's legs and swung her around.
"Kazemon is meant to be an agile fighter, not an up close and personal fighter. She has the disadvantage here…" Lopmon frowned.
"Then we'll help her!" Biyomon said as she flew up. "Spiral Twister!"
Biyomon blasted out a spiraling green flame at some of the Golemon, hoping to help Kazemon out.
"We'll help too! Blazing Ice!" Lopmon shot out an icy wind from his mouth, hoping to freeze some of the Golemon's feet, but the Golemon were strong enough to break through his ice. "No good… I'm not strong enough to hold them."
The Golemon opened their mouths. "Sulfer Plume!"
They shot out hot gas from their mouths.
Lopmon, Patamon, Biyomon, Kokuwamon, and Labramon tried their best to defend the attack off, but they were blown back into a wall.
"Guys!" Kazemon shouted, having seen the attack on them from where she had landed after being thrown away. She flew in to fight again, but she came to a halt as she remembered she had been at the disadvantage. She didn't know if she could handle fighting that many Golemon while at a disadvantage. Kazemon actually felt helpless.
Kazemon flew in to try to fend off the Golemon. Kokuwamon was looking worse for wear since he was already rusting up, he could hardly move. Golemon punched at Kazemon like an annoying fly.
"I… I have to do something to help…" Tommy hissed as he reached into his pocket to take out his D-Tector.
"No… Tommy, you're going to get hurt… I should be the one to help. I'm the oldest after all…" JP said, who was also hurting.
"We're coming!" Agunimon shouted as he and Lobomon started running over to the group.
Suddenly, hands shot out and grabbed both Agunimon and Lobomon's necks, squeezing them tight.
Arbormon came over, using the strings of his hands to hold onto Agunimon and Lobomon. "Sorry, but not gonna allow you to interfere."
Agunimon glanced back as best he could, feeling himself slowly starting to lose the ability to breathe, Arbormon's grip was so tight. Beside Agunimon, Lobomon was struggling to get air into his lungs as well. Neither of them could even focus to access their Beast Spirit either.
Lopmon, Patamon, Biyomon, and Labramon managed to get back to their feet.
"Kokuwamon? Are you okay?" Patamon asked in concern.
"You have to get up!" Labramon said. "Cure Liquor!"
Labramon had been trying to heal poor Kokuwamon, but it didn't seem to do much for the rust.
"No… my healing isn't helping him…" Labramon frowned.
"It's probably because it's not a wound, it's just… rust…" Biyomon frowned.
Golemon began to surround them.
"We can't just stand here, we have to protect him!" Patamon spoke up.
"We will!" Lopmon replied.
The Digimon attacked the Golemon around them. Kokuwamon hissed as he tried to get up. "Darn it… if only I could move… if only I didn't rust so easily… why am I so useless…?"
JP looked over at Kokuwamon, seeing the poor Digimon being so helpless. The other Digimon were doing their best to fight off the Golemon too. There had to be something he could do, he was a Legendary Warrior for crying out loud, they needed him.
Not only that, but Agunimon and Lobomon were occupied with Arbormon. Grumblemon was grinning as he rode on one of the bigger Golemon.
"You are mince meat! Your Spirits will be mine!" Grumblemon stated. "Your two Beast Warriors can't save you now."
With a grunt, JP got back to his feet. "I can't sit back… The others need my help…" He grunted out, despite the pain of Whamon's prior attack on him, Kokuwamon, Tommy, and Lopmon. He wasn't going to be on the sidelines any longer, not while the others were in trouble.
"JP! You can't!" Kazemon frowned.
"Are you sure about this?" Tommy frowned as well.
Shakily, JP took out his D-Tector. "Yes, I am!" He declared resolutely. "Time for the thunder to strike!"
JP held up his D-Tector as the green outline of his Spirit became visible on the screen of his D-Tector as he held it up. JP then held up his left hand as fractal coding formed around it, his D-Tector held in his other hand. Slamming the device against the ring of coding, he brought the two together. JP then called out the familiar phrase he would come to know by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" Coding encircled him as his clothes ripped away and his body became data, the power of the Spirit flowing into him. Blue and yellow armor formed on his body as he grew in height and strength. On his back, wings formed before they were covered by two halves of a hard shell and on his head, a horn grew. His eyes became green as a faceplate covered his mouth and he felt the power of thunder flowing into his body. He landed, slamming his fists together as he cried out his name. "Beetlemon!"
However, despite Spirit Evolving, JP was still hurt from Whamon's attack, and he fell to one knee panting before he forced himself back to his feet shakily.
"You can't fight him alone!" Tommy spoke up. "I don't care if I'm hurt, I'm with you!"
Without waiting another second, Tommy pulled out his D-Tector.
The light green digital form of his first Spirit appeared on the screen of his D-Tector and he formed the familiar ring of fractal coding around his left hand. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he would come to know by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the power of the Spirit flowed into his body. He lost his hair and his body became white as snow. His fingers became like paws almost and he gained a more cub-like appearance to his body. Green chest armor formed on his body and his feet gained green and red boots. A headband that had the image of a bear on it formed on his head, and he gained a shoulder pad on each side, but one was red while the other was gray in color. He slid down and landed as a mushy pile before he reformed and grinned, calling out his name. "Kumamon!"
Kumamon tried to stand strong, but he was also quite shaky on his feet. He could feel his body shaking from the effort of standing, but he didn't let it get to him. He had to stay in the fight. Grumblemon wasn't going to take anyone's Spirits or even Patamon and Lopmon if he could do something about it.
"You guys…" Lopmon looked up, seeing how they were still determined to fight.
"Thunder Fist!" Beetlemon punched the ground with his electric fist, causing electricity to shoot up at the Golemon in front of him, instantly disintegrating them.
Kumamon looked at the Golemon that were trying to hurt the Digimon. "Stay away from our friends. Crystal Breeze!"
Kumamon shot out a powerful icy wind from his mouth, instantly freezing all the Golemon before shattering the ice.
"We did it…" Kumamon said, panting a little.
"Look out, it's not over yet!" Patamon warned.
The biggest Golemon started stomping towards them with Grumblemon riding on it.
"You annoy me now! Why you continue fighting when you know you lose?!" Grumblemon growled out, annoyed by the display of defiance from the Legendary Warriors before him.
"Who says we'll lose?" Kumamon hissed.
"I'm going to make you pay for everything that you've done!" Beetlemon shouted as he jumped at the Golemon and Grumblemon. "Thunder Fist!"
"That's reckless!" Lopmon shouted.
"Sulfur Plume!" Golemon shot out the burning gas at Beetlemon.
Beetlemon didn't have time to get away from the attack, and was hit. Beetlemon cried out in pain as he fell to the ground. Unfortunately, with JP already weakened, Beetlemon was quick to revert back to his human form.
"Weak human! Fighting you isn't even working up sweat!" Grumblemon shouted as he pulled out his sledge hammer from Golemon's body.
"JP!" Kazemon and Kumamon called out.
Labramon tried to hurry over to JP to see if she could heal him, but more Golemon grabbed her and pinned her down.
"Let her go!" Kazemon shouted as she tried to kick the Golemon.
"Blizzard Blaster!" Kumamon took out his gun and shot snowballs at Grumblemon and Golemon in hopes of getting them away from JP.
However, the snowballs didn't do much to Golemon, and the ones that hit Grumblemon only made him feel cold. Kumamon's power had weakened considerably due to Tommy being injured, and using up most of his energy on taking out the other Golemon.
"You annoy me!" Grumblemon exclaimed as he swung his hammer at Kumamon. "Go away!"
Kumamon saw the incoming hammer strike and tried to make his body malleable to avoid the worst of the damage. While the tactic did work, the force of the attack was still enough to send Kumamon flying back into the wall as well, causing him to revert back to Tommy due to being weakened.
"Ow…" Tommy groaned from where he was on the ground. "At least that didn't hurt worse…"
"Tommy! Are you okay?" Lopmon called out.
"I'll live…" Tommy responded back.
Grumblemon grinned before he jumped at JP, seeing how he seemed to be worse off. Kazemon flew at Grumblemon, kicking him back.
"Don't forget, I'm still here too!" Kazemon shouted.
"You all annoy me!" Grumblemon shouted. "Golemon, get rid of this fairy!"
Golemon ran at Kazemon. She quickly flew back to avoid a nast punch, but then Golemon faced in her direction and opened its mouth. "Sulfur Plume!"
Kazemon let out a scream of pain as she was engulfed in the hot gas. Biyomon flew at Kazemon as fast as she could, seeing Kazemon's fractal code was starting to show on her body. She wasn't going to let Grumblemon take her Spirit away. Biyomon tackled Kazemon out of the Sulfur Plume attack, though she got engulfed for a few seconds before both of them were out of the attack. Biyomon hit the ground, her body injured from going into the attack. Kazemon returned to being Zoe to protect the Spirit.
"Ugh… Grumblemon's… too strong… Too many enemies…" Zoe groaned out as she looked over at Biyomon and slowly pulled her up to her chest. "We… Will we actually lose…?"
"We… we can't… give up… not yet…" Biyomon weakly said.
Patamon and Lopmon managed to help Kokuwamon up to his feet. Despite his situation, he refused to give up either.
"Throw me you two…" Kokuwamon requested.
"Are you sure?" Patamon asked.
"You could die," Lopmon pointed out.
"It's our best chance… if we don't do this… if we don't stall for enough time… all of this will be for nothing… you know that, right?" Kokuwamon replied.
"... Alright, fine… we'll do it," Patamon said softly.
"Try not to die," Lopmon replied.
Patamon and Lopmon ran at Grumblemon and Golemon. Grumblemon had been planning to take out JP, but then suddenly, Patamon and Lopmon threw Kokuwamon at Grumblemon's face.
"WAH! H-hey! What give? This not fair!" Grumblemon exclaimed as Kokuwamon hit his face. "Where you come from?!"
"What gives you the right to talk about fair?" Kokuwamon hissed as he locked his claws together so Grumblemon couldn't get him off so easily. "One good thing about having this heavy, rusty body, I can weigh you down."
"K-Kokuwamon!" JP called out. "What are you doing!?"
Labramon managed to squeeze herself out of the Golemon's grasp and ran forward. Lopmon and Patamon ran forward as well. All three of them tackled the big Golemon back.
"You guys! You're going to get hurt!" Tommy shouted, seeing how the small Digimon were fighting back against the big Golemon and Grumblemon on their own.
"We won't sit back and do nothing!" Labramon shouted back. "If we can help, we will find a way!"
"You are all ANNOYING!" Grumblemon shouted as he struggled to get out of Kokuwamon's grasp.
"Rock Punch!" Golemon slammed his fist into Labramon and Patamon.
Lopmon jumped out of the way, but that only delayed the inevitable.
"Sulfur Plume!" Golemon shot out the gas at Lopmon.
Lopmon wrapped himself with his ears in an attempt to block out as much damage as possible, he was sent back into a wall.
Lopmon tried to get back up, but he fell to his hands and knees, his body started to glitch out. His data form was starting to destabilize. Labramon and Patamon didn't look much better either. Patamon was on his hands and knees while Labramon could barely stand up. Their bodies were starting to glitch up as well.
"W-what's happening to them? Why can't we see their fractal codes?" Tommy asked, worried.
"No more distractions," Grumblemon said before he slammed Kokuwamon into the ground.
Kokuwamon was too weak to hold onto Grumblemon anymore, allowing the Warrior of Earth to go free.
"K-Kokuwamon!" JP called out in worry. "Lopmon, Patamon, Labramon, Biyomon… they're… they're all hurt…"
"Seismic Sledge!" Grumblemon shouted as he charged at JP with his sledge hammer.
"Blasting Spout!" A new voice shouted.
Grumblemon was taken by surprise as a blast of water shot him straight into a wall, hard enough to create a small crater.
Whamon was floating in the air. "I figured you guys could use some help."
"Whamon… oh thank goodness…" Zoe smiled. "You're okay."
Tommy was with Lopmon, trying to pick him up. Lopmon's body stopped glitching out, but he still didn't look too good.
"Hey… look…" Lopmon pointed up.
Tommy looked up, wondering what got Lopmon's attention. "Is that…?"
JP and Zoe looked up as well.
"A Spirit…?" JP blinked.
The glowing figurine floated down in front of JP. Whamon was looking at it curiously.
"Oooh, so that's what it was. That would explain why my body went numb after I swallowed it," Whamon noted.
JP stared at the Spirit in front of him. It looked like a dark blue and yellow metallic beetle combined with a tank, and it sat on a hexagonal base. JP felt a connection form between him and the Beast Spirit in front of him.
Grumblemon pulled his face out from the wall, his nose having been scrunched up before returning to normal. He looked back in anger. "No fair! That Spirit mine!" He pushed off the wall and lunged for the Spirit. "It's mine, mine, mine, MINE!"
JP pulled out his D-Tector in response and aimed it at the Beast Spirit instead. "Not today! It's my turn to play!" He exclaimed. The Beast Spirit was sucked into the D-Tector's scanner, leaving Grumblemon to fall flat on his face.
Labramon looked over at JP, she managed to recover enough to get back on her feet and limped herself over to JP. "JP… this is for you…"
Labramon shot out glowing liquid from her maw. JP blinked as he felt most of his wounds healing up.
"Go get em," Labramon grinned weakly as she laid back down.
JP stood up, now back in fighting condition. He called forth a ball of fractal code around his hand as the green outline of his Beast Spirit was shown on the screen of his D-Tector. The scanner lit up and he slammed the scanner against the code, scanning it as he did so. "Execute! Beast Spirit Evolution!" JP cried as the ball of code became a shimmering cocoon around him and he felt a power surging through him. JP cried out as the power of the Beast Spirit flowed into his body. He felt himself becoming larger and more metallic, with blue and yellow armor plating forming on his body. His legs became tank treads, and he felt a pain as his head grew a horn that served as a cannon as well. The code cocoon dissipated, revealing the new Beast Warrior. "MetalKabuterimon!"
"Whoa… JP turned into him?" Zoe said in shock at how big MetalKabuterimon was.
Patamon smiled a little as he pulled out the book Bokomon gave him from his bellywarmer. "MetalKabuterimon, the Beast Warrior of Thunder… he's a tank, literally. He can shoot out powerful electric attacks."
"Wait… he's using a Beast Spirit for the first time…" Tommy realized. "So doesn't that mean… he uh… won't have much control?"
"You might… want to… back up a bit…" Lopmon quickly said.
Sure enough, MetalKabuterimon began to unleash his attacks in random directions. "Bolo Thunder!" Twin electric energy balls were fired wherever he could aim. Whamon quickly ducked back down into the crater that used to have a body of water.
"He's going to bring this entire cave down on us!" Zoe shouted.
"Where's Kokuwamon!?" Biyomon yelled.
MetalKabuterimon continued to throw out Bolo Thunder after Bolo Thunder, causing the entire cave to start collapsing in rubble.
"He's completely out of control!" Lobomon shouted as he, Agunimon, and Arbormon stopped fighting when MetalKabuterimon started shooting at everything.
"A-Agunimon! Lobomon! Help us!" Patamon called out. "Some of us can barely move!"
"You got it!" Agunimon exclaimed as he turned and began to run over to help. Lobomon was right behind him.
"We're coming!" Lobomon added, feeling his heart racing.
Both Legendary Warriors tapped into their own Beast Spirits. "Slide Evolution!"
Fractal code surrounded them both before dissipating.
"BurningGreymon!" The Beast Warrior of Flame was flying at MetalKabuterimon.
"KendoGarurumon!" The Beast Warrior of Light used his faster speed to crash into the Beast Warrior of Thunder as quickly as he could.
"Are we going to have to do this every time someone finds their Beast Spirit!?" KendoGarurumon grumbled.
"You're one to talk!" BurningGreymon huffed.
Tommy was running while holding onto Lopmon. Zoe was holding onto Biyomon. Labramon and Patamon were struggling to move. They couldn't find Kokuwamon, he was likely buried in the rubble, unable to move.
Arbormon was buried by the rubble as well, so that just left Golemon and Grumblemon on their own.
MetalKabuterimon's body was still sparking with electricity as he struggled against KendoGarurumon.
"You need to snap out of it!" KendoGarurumon exclaimed to MetalKabuterimon. "JP, settle down!"
MetalKabuterimon shot balls of lightning at KendoGarurumon, sending the wolf back several feet. MetalKabuterimon began to take aim at BurningGremon next. BurningGreymon was starting to see what it was like being on the other side of a rampaging Legendary Warrior Beast. At least when he did it, they were in open space. But here, nobody could really get away, and MetalKabuterimon was going to get everyone crushed if they didn't stop him soon.
BurningGreymon growled to himself. What can we do? JP's out of control, and we're in an enclosed space… We're in a bad situation no matter how we look at it!
However, he had to do something. "JP calm down! We're not going to hurt you! But you have to gain control! You're going to hurt everyone here!"
It didn't look like MetalKabuterimon heard him. BurningGreymon quickly shoved MetalKabuterimon down before he could fire another electric attack. The cave couldn't take anymore abuse.
BurningGreymon was strong, but Patamon hadn't been kidding when he said MetalKabuterimon was a tank. Despite pushing MetalKabuterimon, MetalKabuterimon barely flinched.
Grumblemon, seeing how the situation was dangerous, was trying to burrow. But then he hit something hard and metallic. He pulled out whatever it was he hit, and saw a rusted Kokuwamon.
"... Guess… I'm still… alive…" Kokuwamon noted weakly. "Hey… trying to leave?"
"You pathetic. Might as well finish you off," Grumblemon said. "One less annoyance to worry about."
However, MetalKabuterimon noticed movement behind the giant flaming beast before him. He saw Grumblemon squeezing onto a weakened familiar Kokuwamon… a friend. A friend who was in danger.
Seeing Kokuwamon in danger, MetalKabuterimon felt his senses returning to him. The primal haze clouding his mind cleared. "You leave him alone!" MetalKabuterimon exclaimed in anger. He aimed his arms, which also served as cannons, at Grumblemon.
"Take it easy now, friend!" Grumblemon exclaimed as he backed up, dropping Kokuwamon to the ground.
"You? Calling me 'friend'? You don't understand the meaning of the word!" MetalKabuterimon growled out as his eyes flashed dangerously. "Kokuwamon isn't an annoyance! He's my friend!"
BurningGreymon, seeing how MetalKabuterimon was now in control, decided to let him have this.
"BurningGreymon… do me a favor," MetalKabuterimon stated. "Get Kokuwamon and take him away from there. I'll be going all out on this attack, I don't want him caught up in it."
BurningGreymon gave a nod. "You got it." He said before he flared his wings and took off, flying right towards Kokuwamon. He flew down low and picked up Kokuwamon in his claws before flying away as quickly as he could.
At the same time, MetalKabuterimon hunched himself down, allowing his horn to point at Grumblemon like a cannon on a tank. He was taking aim.
KendoGarurumon, seeing what was going on, quickly grabbed onto Labramon with his teeth, careful not to hurt her. He used his head to scoop up Patamon as well, getting them away from the crossfire as much as he could.
MetalKabuterimon powered up his next attack. "Electron Cannon!" The blast fired at Grumblemon and his Golemon. The Golemon was eliminated easily as the blast enveloped Grumblemon as well.
Grumblemon let out a cry of pain as his fractal code began to show itself around his body, as well as his Spirit. Seeing this, MetalKabuterimon knew what he had to do, but he needed to be in his Human Spirit form to do it. Somehow, despite never doing it before, MetalKabuterimon just knew how to switch his current form for the other one. But then, that wasn't surprising, seeing how they always seemed to know what to do when they get their Spirit.
Fractal code surrounded MetalKabuterimon as he began to switch forms. "Slide Evolution! Beetlemon!"
Now back as Beetlemon, he stepped forward to the weakened Grumblemon.
"Back to the egg for you, pal!" Beetlemon declared as he took out his D-Tector. The scanner lit up as the screen showed the symbol for Thunder on it when he pressed the button on the side. "Fractal Code… Digitize!"
The scanner scanned Grumblemon's fractal code, also taking the Spirit of Earth as well. The symbol for Earth showed on the screen once the Spirit entered JP's D-Tector.
"Whoa, you actually did it!" Tommy said, seeing how it was safe to come back, he was still holding onto Lopmon.
"Y-yeah, he did…" Lopmon smiled. "Good… I was getting worried there."
Beetlemon turned back into JP, and he sat down, exhausted and still a little injured. Labramon could only heal so much after all, especially when she was low on energy herself.
"Are you okay, JP?" Zoe asked in concern as she approached him, still holding onto Biyomon herself.
JP nodded. "Yeah… I'll be fine…" he replied, panting a bit before he remembered someone important. "Ah! Kokuwamon! He's under that rubble!"
"No he's not!" BurningGreymon called out as he landed, still holding Kokuwamon. "He's right here."
BurningGreymon carefully put Kokuwamon down before reverting back to his human form.
KendoGarurumon joined the others, putting down Labramon and Patamon as well before he turned back into Koji.
"But that was a close one," Koji said. "I thought we'd have another BurningGreymon on our hands."
"Hey, you didn't have full control over yourself either Mr. Wolf," Takuya huffed.
Koji grumbled. "At least I wasn't out of control and on a real rampage like you…"
"Can we save the argument for another time, please?" Zoe spoke up. "Our Digimon are in bad shape."
She was right, Kokuwamon was rusty and hurt. Lopmon, Labramon, Patamon, and Biyomon could hardly move. Labramon didn't look like she had any energy left to heal them either.
"Do we have any food left? That might help," Tommy asked.
"I think most of our food was disintegrated or crushed during the fight…" JP frowned.
"Speaking of… What will we do now?" Zoe asked. "We can't escape from here, and the cave has no exits."
"Oh it has an exit, but too bad you guys can't use it." Arbormon's voice spoke up, catching their attention.
They saw Arbormon standing by the entrance of the cave, the same one the Trailmon used to hop over the tracks. "You killed my ally, that ain't right. So you guys can rot here for the rest of your lives. Roundhouse Punt!"
Using his feet, Abrormon shot his foot out at the entrance's ceiling, causing the rocks to fall onto the entrance, sealing it up. Arbormon was on the other side, snickering as he left, going back into the tunnel.
"Aw, c'mon!" Koji exclaimed angrily. "He just had to bring down the ceiling on us!"
"That's not all he did…" Patamon frowned.
"What do you mean?" Takuya asked.
"JP… really did a number… on the cave…" Lopmon said.
"... Wait, do you think that little kick would've been enough to…?" Tommy began to pale as he slowly looked up at the ceiling.
The rest of the group looked up as well, seeing the ceiling starting to turn into fractal code. They saw ocean water coming down on them as the ceiling now ceased to exist. The group could only scream as the cave was quickly filling up with water. Everything went dark for the group.
Then… everything went quiet… It was wet, which made sense, but… it was still dark and quiet… and… they were somehow… breathing?
"Uh… did we die?" Tommy finally asked after a while of silence.
"I… I don't want to admit it, but… maybe…?" Takuya gulped. "Maybe we're in this Ghost Zone my aunt and uncle were talking about… That's where ghosts live…"
"Somehow I doubt that," Patamon said.
"I don't want to die!" Zoe exclaimed in fear.
"If we're dead, then why does the afterlife smell so bad?" Koji grumbled, sounding like he was holding his nose.
"And why is it so dark?" JP added. "Peew… it really does stink in here… like rotting fish or something…"
"I don't think we're dead… otherwise I wouldn't feel so stiff and tired," Kokuwamon spoke up.
"And we'd probably wouldn't be here in all honesty," Labramon added.
"Then… where are we?" Tommy asked.
They started to see cracks of light in front of them, and the roof started to move upwards. They could see… the sky? Not only that, they could see the sun too. They had been in the cave for so long that it blinded them a little. They could also see they were on the surface of the ocean somehow. But… they were still sitting or standing on something… something soft and squishy now that they thought about it.
"Wait… Why are we on something soft and squishy?" Zoe asked as she finally registered what they were sitting on. "And where are we?"
"Uh… those aren't stones, those are teeth," Lopmon pointed out.
"Wait… is this… someone's mouth?" Biyomon asked.
"Hey guys, are you alright?" Whamon's voice asked. "I grabbed you all into my mouth when the water started spilling into the cavern. I hope I didn't hurt any of you."
"Nah, I think we're all good." Takuya replied with a smile. "Thanks for the save, big guy!"
"Yeah, you really saved us back there!" Zoe agreed. "So we're not dead, thank goodness."
"Oh, I should be thanking you. Without your help, I might've been stuck in that cave until I starved to death," Whamon replied back. "I'll be taking you guys to the nearest island, hopefully you can rest and recover from there. That was a tough battle you guys fought."
"And it's not one we want to repeat." Koji grumbled.
"But at least we don't have to worry about Grumblemon anymore." Tommy pointed out with a grin.
"Heh, that is true," Lopmon agreed tiredly.
"Hopefully… I can get this rust out… once we get to the island…" Kokuwamon weakly said.
"And not only did we defeat Grumblemon, I managed to get my Beast Spirit too." JP smiled.
"Yeah… looks like that… just leaves Zoe and Tommy, right?" Biyomon pointed out.
"So 2 left." Labramon frowned a little. "Just… 2 left, huh?"
"Hey, that's a good thing though." Takuya said. "We will need those Spirits to be able to beat Cherubimon and his forces."
"What about Seraphimon's egg? We still don't know what happened to that…" Koji frowned.
"Let's… wait until we're all better, then we'll talk about it…" Patamon sighed tiredly.
"Yeah… don't worry, little buddy, you and the rest of you guys should rest. You all fought hard today," Takuya said softly as he picked up Patamon.
The Digimon definitely fought hard, almost to the point where they could've died in that battle. Takuya wondered if the Digimon would be able to keep helping them with how outmatched they had been. Since they were getting stronger, he and the other Legendary Warrior should be protecting them now, not the other way around.
Looking down, Takuya became lost in his own thoughts. Why were the Digimon fighting to protect us? Shouldn't it be the other way around now? We're so much stronger than they are, and yet… they still risk it all to protect us when we should be doing the protecting… It doesn't seem fair to them, to be doing that for us when we should be doing it for them… But we keep getting into situations where we need their help. That's why they had to keep fighting for us. And there's still that… nagging feeling in the back of my head that says they know something we don't.
Takuya looked at the others, seeing how they were taking care of the Digimon that had been by their side since they arrived in the Digital World. JP was especially worried for Kokuwamon due to how bad his body looked. Takuya hoped the Digimon would be able to recover from this. The first thing they should do is find some food for the Digimon once they reach the island.
Titanic X: ZAFT: Glad you like it. :3
pokemon fan 1991: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, we did a lot of lore dump in this chapter. We've been hinting at it throughout the story, but this is where we pretty much dropped the ball.
The whole Multiverse is technically canon in Digimon, though I personally don't like using Multiverse. It feels cheap to be honest. All of this stuff happened in a completely different universe, so no worries, nothing bad happened to the universe you came from, just that one. All of that cool stuff that happened in the anime? Happened in a different universe. No connection to the universe you're watching now whatsoever, so don't think about it. It kinda bothers me a little that Multiverse stuff became quite popular because it's not something I myself really like.
ZAFT: XD Well, regardless… you will see what happens in the next chapters. :3 We're not giving away any spoilers. :3
DarkFoxKit: I don't watch Power Rangers, so any reference to that is purely coincidental on my end. Your guess to Nocturne being the villain is a good, logical guess.
Jsmine Lucas: DarkFoxKit: Shut up and kindly screw off
ZAFT: We know you're one of a small group of scammers running all those bots, and everyone here has caught on. Nice try, so scoot along junior. We're wise to your ways.