Digimon: Digital Monsters

Mirror, Mirror—Part Three

By 7 of 11

Jun Ishida looked at the closed door of the warehouse. "This isn’t fair…why won’t our parents let us come with them when they go to rescue Uncle Takeru?" He toed the floor anxiously.

His cousin, Kana Takaishi, closed her eyes. "Takeru’s my Dad, and they still wouldn’t let ME go…and they even forbade the Digimon kids to accompany them, even though they can fight…you can fight, can’t you?"

Marshmon nodded. "Yeah! Not as well as our parents can, of course, but well enough. After all, we’re only Rookies."

A glimmer of light heralded Aphroditemon’s arrival. "Speak for yourself! I’m a Champion stage!" she boasted. "And, I have an idea about what to do while our parents are on the rescue mission."

Kana leaned back. "Shoot. I’m ready to try anything…"

"Simple." Aphroditemon flashed a dazzling grin. "We go anyway."

"What?" The normally quiet Sikamon squeaked. "But we can’t! We aren’t even strong enough…and besides that, we’re too young!"

However, Masayoshi Kido, the third human, started to nod slowly. "But that’s what THEY said…not us. Personally, I think that we’re strong enough to go."

"But also…you guys," Sikamon pointed to the kids. "Don’t have Digimon!" He knew, however, that he was fighting a losing battle.

Aphroditemon flew up into the air, and twirled around several times. "Wrong again! I heard some of the parents talking about how they were the ‘New Digidestined’…and guess who their Digimon are?" Kana felt she knew the answer already. "Us! Also, I managed to get these," Aphroditemon held up a trio of pendants. "Your crests!" She floated to the ground, and laid the crests down.

"How do we know which is which? And who belongs with who?" Jun asked, puzzled-a rare occurrence.

Kana shrugged. "I suppose that we could just close our eyes and pick randomly, if we are destined to have them, then I guess we would receive the tag and Crest that’s ours."

"Sounds good to me!" Marshmon bounded over to the Crests. "On three, ready? One, two, three!"

Kana closed her eyes and reached her hand forwards. It closed around the metal of a Crest, and she opened her eyes. The pendant in her hand was the one with a looping circular inscription. And clutching it as well was…Aphroditemon smiled. "Looks like we’re together." They looked to the side, and saw the other pairings. Jun and Sikamon, as well as Masayoshi and Marshmon. "So now that that’s settled, let’s go!" Kana and her new partner, Aphroditemon, walked towards the door.

Alt-Yamato crawled his way up to a chain link fence, the other Digidestined close behind. "This is the place," he whispered. "Down this runway are the slave barracks. Takeru should be there."

"Are you sure about this?" Jyou asked. "The runway looks kind of…open…to me. We’ll be spotted in no time!"

"Nope," Alt-Hikari shook her head. "This is the only runway that isn’t monitored. With the others, yes, that would be true, but this one is completely safe. Now we’ve done our part…" she held out her hand to Taichi.

Taichi stood up. "Oh yes, that’s right! Here…" he handed Alt-Yamato his spear, sword, Digivice, and Crest, while Sora returned Alt-Hikari her gear.

Alt-Yamato raised the hefty sword above his head, and brought it down in a clean slice to the fence, which split in half. One by one, the group picked its way through the rent metal.

Once they were all on the other side, they cautiously started down the runway, as not to be spotted by anything, despite the reassurances of the Alternates. Suddenly, a battle cry pierced the stillness. "Vulture’s Blast!" A gigantic beam of power cut through the forest to the side and knocked the Digidestined into the air. There was a squawk as a huge vulture flew from the treetops. And riding the Digimon…was Alt-Sora.

An equally familiar figure stepped out of the foliage on the opposite flank of the group—Alt-Jyou. He sneered. "My turn now! ArmorZudomon, let’s go!"

A bellow echoed Vulturemon’s screeching, and a giant walrus, clad totally in steel armor, and clutching a sledgehammer, stepped into the playing field. "MEGATON POUND!" ArmorZudomon shouted. He brought the hammer down, and the resulting earthquake knocked everyone off their feet.

Koushiro climbed to his feet. "Two can play at this game! MegaKabuterimon, show them what you’ve got!"

The beetle-like creature nodded. "Right! HORN BUSTER!" The shock struck ArmorZudomon’s head directly, yet failed to penetrate.

"What?" Koushiro’s mouth dropped open. "That can’t be possible! It’s just not logical!"

Alt-Hikari shook her head slowly. "It won’t work. Both of them are Mega Digimon, and since they’re from our world, they’re dark, and therefore more powerful…let me and Yamato handle them!"

"Gatomon warp digivolve to…DEVIWOMON!" The cat was enveloped in a burst of light. When it cleared, an angel was in her spot. However, it was not Angewomon. Instead, the plumage on her wings was obsidian black, as was most of her body. Red eyes peeked through the slits on her visor.

"Gabumon warp digivolve to…IRONGARURUMON!" This Alternate version of MetalGarurumon was almost a perfect mirror image, aside from several small details. First of all, where MetalGarurumon had gleaming white and bluish armor, IronGarurumon possessed a dull bronze coating, yet which looked incredibly strong and impenetrable. In addition, the blades at the tips of MetalGarurumon’s wings had been transformed to circular buzz-saw blades.

Alt-Yamato pumped his fist as IronGarurumon and Deviwomon took to the sky after the other two Alternate Digimon. "Yeah, you can do it!" He grinned.

"Darkness!" Deviwomon spun around, and a cloud the color of her wings coalesced from nothingness. It surrounded Vulturemon, blinding her.

IronGarurumon winged past the incapacitated Vulturemon. "Buzz Blade!" The twin saw blades mounted on his wings detatched, and sped through the air at amazing speed. They entered the smokescreen, and a cry of pain was heard.

The cry quickly turned into a yell, however. "Vulture’s Blast!" The gigantic beam appeared out of the midst of the fog, and struck Deviwomon solidly. She fell to the ground.

"Deviwomon!" Alt-Hikari cried. "This isn’t working…we need more Digimon!" She suddenly turned to her real-world counterpart. "Hikari…give me your Crest and Digivice! Maybe I can make Angewomon digivolve to Deviwomon, and we can have more Digimon able to fight!" She held out her hand.

Hikari looked at her Alternate. "Well…" she began.

"There’s no time! Look, our Digimon are getting trounced!" She pointed, and Hikari saw how ArmorZudomon was thrashing IronGarurumon with his Megaton Pound.

"Okay....I guess…" Hikari handed her Digivice and Crest to Alt-Hikari, who clutched them tightly.

"Angewomon digivolve to…DEVIWOMON!"

All of a sudden, Alt-Hikari threw her head back and laughed. "Fools! You believed us; that we were on your side! Now prepare to pay the price! Deviwomons, it’s time to show them how we can really play!"

The twin Dark Angels stood side-by-side, facing the Digidestined, who were stunned at this turn of events. They spoke as one. "Dark Storm!" There was a blinding flash of light, and then everything went dark.

When Hikari’s vision finally cleared, she was on the ground—as were the other Digidestined. Alt-Hikari was standing over her, sword raised in the air triumphantly. "Victory!" she hissed.

In the air above, the Deviwomons watched Alt-Hikari prepare to execute her other self impassively. Without warning, a bronze blur smashed into their backs, sending them hurtling back down to the earth. IronGarurumon howled triumphantly.

"What?" Alt-Hikari’s voice was tinged with disbelief as she saw her Digimon crash to the ground. Then a powerful force tackled her from behind, and she went sprawling. Using the momentum from the attack, she managed to roll to her feet. She saw her attacker—and gasped.

Alt-Yamato held his sword at the ready, fire blazing in his eyes.

"You traitor!" she snarled from her position crouching. "I should never have trusted you! Taichi will execute you in public humiliation!"

Alt-Yamato shook his head. "No, he won’t. Because he won’t find out what happened here. You will die. And I won’t ever go back to him. Our reasons for joining may have been a ruse at that time, but as for me, I genuinely felt that way. And now that I see how things work here, on the other side, I know that this is the right way. There is no reign of terror here, people follow Taichi because he is nice, not because of fear of execution. So you can tell Taichi—when you see him in Hell—that I quit." He lifted the saber into a fencing position.

Alt-Hikari got her own sword at the ready. "I think you’ve got it all wrong…I won’t be the one to die today, at least!"

And then the two charged, swords held high.

To Be Continued….

What will happen? Who will win the duel? Find out in Mirror, Mirror—Part Four!