(Writers note: I mistyped Malison as Mallison in the previous chapter)
The temple was immense, it was hard figuring out if they were lost or not as they made their way through the long snaking corridors, which all looked the same, they might be even going around in circles for all they knew. Huang was getting frustrated as he watch Juniko trip for the fourth time, he didn't understand why a girl with the training she had would be so clumsy.
"Watch where you are going" Huang reminded her again, like a sensei scalding a pupil, he was considering leaving her here, because she was going to give them away if she kept falling. She was only one year younger than he was and yet more immature.
Juniko got up again, "while I was down there I think I spotted something, it was a light coming from under section of wall" she said sliding hand across the wall surface, and it opened up, This room was filled with objects with strange symbols, straight in front of them were the digivices, Juniko walked over and pocket them all except Huang's, she handed him his.
Digimon Sync Episode 16 "Hearts Unswaying"
Mikuni and Vasantmon stood there panting, they had not laid one scratch on Mystery digimon, it now just stood there waiting for them to attack. but in their minds it was matter of time before they wear this thing down, and put a hole in its defense.
"This guy is a tough" said Vasantmon looking over to Mikuni, who nodded in agreement, to them it was finally a worthwhile challenge, but would they survive long enough to find the chink in their enemy armor that seemingly knew everything that they were going to do before they did it.
-Old Tabula Rosa Temple ruins-
Brother Roland rubbed his cheek "I am sorry you choose that way" he said kneeing Takajin in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. Takajin was quickly back to his feet even though he was gasping for air.
"What are you doing this isn't what order does, Violence only causes violence in return, it's a vicious circle that never ends, I know he hit you first but he is only a child and doesn't know better" said Mallison shocked at her leaders actions.
"Children should know their places, and that is to listen to adults, doing as they are told, these kids are not listening at all I am going to beat them down" said Brother Roland baring his arms getting ready to bash in Takajin's skull if need be. He instead receives a kick to the shin, and a head-butt to the face, breaking his nose, he grabbed face, and screamed at Takajin, as he fixed his nose.
Takajin was lucky that Juniko had given him some self-defense training, but not very much since she was worried she might actually hurt by mistake, it would have gotten her arrested for treason. He now attempted to do a leg, which did not work, Brother Roland dodged it and brought his heel done on his calf, Takajin screamed in pain. Takajin struggled to his feet, only to get punched in the back knocking him back down again. Hikaru jumped on Brother Roland's back, only to be slammed into the wall, knocking her off him.
"You are the most stubborn people I have met, your lack of sense makes me wish you were Doctor Gennai" Brother Roland shouted through his hands.
"Leave my Twin brother out of this" shouted Malison glaring at Brother Roland "we need to leave now so we can save him please"
Brother Roland ignored Malison's pleas for her brother life, and continued to beat on Takajin, each going back and forth with blow. Most of what Takajin was doing was self-defense stuff, the worst he could do was to break someone's nose and he already did that, and he was now trying to just wear out the bigger man. But things made a turn for the worse when Brother Iruhs towering frame walked into the room, his immense frame over shadowing both him and Brother Roland.
"I am glad you came Brother Iruhs, I think Brother Roland has lost it" said Malison looking at the big man to break up this fight she found seriously confusing, who also ignored her, and grabbed Hikaru by the wrist, and started dragging her off. Mikemon jumped on his leg and started to scratch away, causing the big man to let Hikaru go, and to scream in pain as the cat digimon took a chuck out of his leg, he kicked the cat digimon away.
"It's not a virus, it's…" said Doctor Gennai, before falling unconscious again, his weak frame couldn't handle waking up, and it took a lot out of him to speak.
What did my brother mean by it's not a virus?" Malison asked more confused than ever, looking from Gennai to Roland, which one should she believe her leader or her blood brother.
-Outside temple ruins-
Their battle between the Mystery digimon continued, with both sides dodging each other's attacks, and now showing any sign of the battle ever ending Mikuni connection with Vasantmon was keeping her going, they shared energy. They will take this thing down even if killed them to do so.
The mystery digimon turn like it had spotted something "Another target spotted" it said making its way toward the temple.
"it spotted them in the temple" said Mikuni jumping into Vasantmon's arms, and they vanished, and appearing at the entrance of the temple. "we are not through with our fight"
It ignored and tried to go around Mikuni, and Vasantmon, but they side stepped into its path, it growled and attacked with them barely dodging it, but remaining in its way, it had to get through before it could get to the others.
-Huang-
They had a look around the room, they had found the digivices. This room seemed in better condition, which made it more risky to be there, since there was a chance someone could come there. So far all they could find in there was junk, old devices that had probably stopped years ago, it was strange that this stuff was important to anyone. How big this room was the search would take forever, and why did they have to bother, but something about this room felt like there was something important here, and all they had to do was find and it might help them in some way, but what was it, then suddenly something began to glow, now following the glowing light they made their way to the end of the room, there they found a strange device that looked like an oversized digivice with a large screen, on the screen it showed many blue flashing blips.
Huang pulled out his digivice, and waved it over the device, and it went berserk "I think this thing is digi chip detector" he wiped the dust off it "Digitrax" reading what it said on it., he nearly dropped when it started talking, and started going through its tutorial, and features.
"Hey Huang I think there is a Digi chip in front of us" said Juniko tapping Huang on the shoulder, and pointing to one of the blue blips, like it know they spotted it started to move away from them, and then stopped just at the edge of the screen. "There must be a passageway here" she started running her hand across the wall till she found something and push it, a door opened into a long tunnel. The blip started moving again.
"I hope this isn't some sort of trap" said Huang voicing his concerns out loud, before heading into the tunnel, with Juniko following close behind.
Whatever it was that they were chasing, always seemed to be able to be far enough ahead that they haven't seen it yet, even if they were now running to catch up with it, but it sped up to match their pace. It was now getting kind of annoying
-Hikaru & Takajin-
Takajin kept getting up again, only to be knocked off his feet, Brother Roland now seemed to be ahead of him on everything he was going to do, and he countered everything he did.
"Just give up your digimon, and be saved, it will happen even if I have to force you into doing so, since you are just a child, and don't know any better" said Brother Roland taking Takajin off his feet one more time.
Getting up once again Takajin turned to see that Hikaru was now being chased by Brother Iruhs, lucky for her the larger man and his mass was to slow to keep up with her., but if he cornered her she would be in a lot of trouble. Why are these people even following Brother Roland, he is clearly out of his mind, Takajin came to the conclusion that the virus, and the fight to cure it made people accept almost anything, even if they saw fault in it. At that moment there was another figure, she was standing at an entrance with her back turned towards them, she wasn't talking out loud but her voice was in his head, time seemingly stopped, she walked over to the old man, and without revealing her face kissed the Doctor Gennai on the forehead then vanished without a trace. Time now resumed, and Gennai was now awake, he no longer struggled with words.
"It's not a virus, it's the barrier around the city, its sucking the life out of people, if it wasn't for the artifact everyone would have died all at once" said Doctor Gennai now shaking with anger "Brother Roland tried to make me ignore this.
"That barrier that protects your city, its sucking the life out everyone" Takajin asked looking over at Doctor Gennai. "But an artifact is protecting everyone from dying when it went up?"
"Soon as the barrier went, another barrier appeared; it prevented everyone dying because of the first one but not completely. The first one manages to leak through causing people to age and die over the twenty years both of them have been up" said Gennai struggling to get to his feet, he was still weakened from his rapid aging. "Brother Roland is the responsible for all the deaths, his people are the ones who set up the first barrier; it bares the symbol that he carries around with him.
"That can't true, you are this cities savior, you rescued us from death's door, and weren't responsible for killing of thousands of innocent people?" Malison looked pleadingly over to Brother Roland, hoping he would disprove everything her brother just said.
"I am sorry you had to hear all that, which means none of you can leave here alive" said Brother Roland, his expression now steely like he was a completely different person, his eyes now as black as obsidian. "Here comes back up"
Suddenly an object burst in through the wall, and landed in a heap on the floor, it was Vasantmon and Mikuni. Takajin ran over to check if she was ok, she was fine, but unconscious, now coming in through the newly made hole in the wall. It was nothing like they had ever seen before, yet somewhat familiar from stories he had been told as a child, this digimon radiated fear, even through that strange mask it was wearing.
"How rude am I didn't properly reintroduce myself I am Logene Nerrug, now that is done, you can all die" said Brother Roland, he was now wearing black robes with the symbol of Lilithmon on it, showing that he was a member of the Kurokami brigade.
"Logene huh" said Mikuni getting up with a slight limp, Vasantmon had protected her from the full impact of going through a wall "I am guessing you are the thing killing these people, and that is your buddy" She was back up with Vasantmon at her side again.
Iruhs had abandoned his chase of Hikaru, and now walked over to Logene, and stood by his side. The Large man now pulling off his beard, revealing that he was Shiru "nice to see you kids again, and nice to see that Sorami is nowhere in sight, that little pest won't stop me killing you now" he said as his partner digimon Liamon entered the fray, pouncing on Mikemon, and pinning her to the ground.
Liamon glared down at Mikemon, remembering the last time, they had seen each other "crushing you will make my day sweeter" he growled into her ear, but was suddenly bashed into the wall by the left fist of Vasantmon.
Logene rolled his eyes, looking like he was trying to do an expression of boredom, but failing to contain his enthusiasm "it's been awhile since I had any sort of battle, I am mainly in R & D" he said feeding in information into a device on his wrist, then took a few pills, his nose that had been broken by Takajin was now fully healed. "You think that actually hurt me, I was playing with you little boy" now breaking out in laughter. He walked over to Takajin, first kicking sunmon's cage away from him, even though that was kind of pointless since Takajin didn't have his digivice, he was now face to face with the boy, he pulled digital data draining device ignoring the fact that Mikuni was even there. Vasantmon tried to interfere but was driven into the wall and through it by the mystery digimon. Logene was now within inches from pressing the device into Takajin's neck.
Something suddenly hit him in the side of the head, knocking Logene to the ground. "Hands off my boyfriend!" shouted Juniko having kicked Logene in the side of the head. "Now did that actually hurt?" She tossed Hikaru her digivice, and handed Takajin his.
Huang walked into the room, as he noticed the fact there was Kurokami brigade members, he glared in their direction as he pulled out his digivice, and he and Babdymon were enveloped in spheres of light.
Having digivices didn't seem to bother Logene, but he now had a smirk on his face, the kind that makes you want to smack a person "Yes that kind of hurt, I think I'll get a bruise from that, by the way I don't think you should use those digivices of yours While I had them I tainted till they are now the opposite of the emotional spectrum that they were before, just go ahead they will now kill you" he turned and started walking away "deal with these brats I have to gather my lab data before I take my leave of this city"
"With pleasure" said Shiru looking over his helpless prey, Liamon growling like dinner has just been served. All seemed very lost, even with their digivices they could not chance using them, Liamon now pounced knocking Sunmon's cage into a wall shattering it, then started playing with the little fire digimon, the other digimon useless jumped up and down on its back, it was a very sad sight to behold, Liamon was going to finish off Sunmon when Mikemon scratch his face, letting the fire digimon get away, but Mikemon was now pinned again.
-Mikuni and Vasantmon-
Looking stoically looking up at the mystery digimon, Vasantmon stood ready for whatever it through at him next, Mikuni now joined him outside the temple, Surrounded by the dead that this things master had killed infused Mikuni and Vasantmon with a whole new sense of duty, even though dead was dead to them but they were facing the one who was a part of doing this, they were now both enveloped in a golden light, when the dissipated Vasantmon was now MachAntylamon, and then both of them wearing the same toque and having shared characteristics, Mikuni wore the same armor.
MachAntylamon was instantly in the mystery digimon's face, and driving it into the ground, and then picking it up and doing it again, he jumped away from it as it lashed.
"Destroy" it screamed, lashing out with an attack that MachAntylamon dodged with ease.
MachAntylamon and the mystery digimon clashed in the sky, and then clashed again, it was still matching his moves, every time they clashed it was like two forces of nature clashing, like the irresistible force meeting the immovable object, with no give in sight, with neither side giving an inch.
-Takajin, Hikaru, and Huang-
All hope was lost, each of the digidestined looked at their digivices, and examining them the Digi chips were symbols were upside down, that meant Logene was telling the truth, it would kill them to use the opposite spectrum that they should.
Liamon now regaining its faculties growled as it made its way toward the digidestined, its lips furled to reveal sharp point fangs capable of rendering flesh, Shiru stood there watching, he was very pleased with himself, he was going to kill the very brats that made him look bad, they were right there in his grasp, he will enjoy the data he will garner from this.
-Juniko-
She could not do anything to help her friends, this guy was huge so attacking him wouldn't help anyone but get her hurt in the process, a strange symbol appeared in front of her and something glowed in her pocket, she pulled out a digivice, and a digi chip appeared in her hand " Digi synchronization, Purity chip activation" she said before Mikemon and herself were enveloped in spheres. Mikemon was now Kunoimon; the ninja cat digimon, Juniko now wore cat gloves, and had whiskers like her digimon partner.
Kunoimon launched into an instant attack on Liamon, throwing ninja star into its face, while it was disoriented, Kunoimon kicked him into the air, then repeatedly spin kicked him in the face till Liamon was smashed into the ground, and dedigivolved into its rookie form, Shiru picked up his digimon partner and took stock in what was going and decided to take off.
-Mikuni & Vasantmon-
Mikuni looked over at MachAntylamon, and he nodded back knowing exactly what idea she had come up with, they both began to spin, making what looked like a large tornado, and a small one, which then merged into one. The Tornado ripped apart the ground as it race toward the mystery digimon, which braced itself for the large attack, Mikuni's little tornado split from MachAntylamon's, and struck, its mask cracked, while it was disoriented from the mask being cracked, MachAntylamon's paw turned into an axe, and smashed the mask completely. Under the masked the mystery digimon looked like a Devimon, it let out a horrible scream, and flew up into the air smashing a hole in the barrier causing it to shatter as it escaped. The barriers shards rained down on the city, filling the sky with a rainbow, it was so beautiful to behold. Doctor Gennai, and Malison looked up in awe, as they walked into the street, the nightmare was over, tears streaked down both their faces at the beauty they beheld, also they were reunited as family.
-To Be Continued-
Is this nightmare finally over, and what will the digidestined have to face next? To answer these questions, and more, please tune into the next Digimon digital monsters!