DigiMon: The Tsunonrimon Saga

Chapter One

Wind howled through the forest, uprooting trees that were not strong enough to bear its force, and bending those that could. Rain pelted the ground turning the dirt into soggy mud. Lightning occasionally flashed in the sky, illuminating several large mountains in the distance.

At the foot of one of these mountains, a cave mouth yawned open. Seated well away from the rainwater pooling at the entrance, a young boy watched the storm rage outside of his shelter. His ears, which had been improved over several years of living in the wild, strained to hear above the tumult of the storm.

He stood, as a leathery flapping gradually became audible. The sound was followed moments later by a winged lizard. It was roughly as long as the boy was tall, and its body, though deceptively slender, was clearly well muscled under the skin. The lizard’s bright emerald eyes sparkled with intelligence and cunning. A mouth arrayed with razor sharp teeth and a long, whiplike tail made it very clear that if you valued your head it was best not to annoy this creature.

The lizard shook droplets of water from its wings. It turned its lithe head to the boy, who had been standing there quite patiently. The lizard spoke, in a voice that sounded perpetually melancholy and depressed. "Jake…there are more."

The boy called Jake looked puzzled. "More? Zegimon, what do you mean there are more? More what?"

Zegimon blinked slowly. "More like you…more humans. I saw them over on the other side of the mountain, trying to climb it. If this storm lets up, I estimate they will be near here by tomorrow."

Jake brushed his long, unruly, light brown hair out of his eyes and unconsciously brought his hands to the tag, which hung on a chain around his neck. "You mean there are more…people? From my world? Are they adults or kids?" he asked, a tinge of excitement in his voice although he was clearly trying to hide it.

"They are small like yourself."

Jake didn’t bother to conceal his excitement anymore. "I don’t believe it! More kids! I…I…" he sat down. "I haven’t talked to anyone except you Zegimon—don’t get me wrong you’re great to talk to but I would like more people to have conversations with—for the four years I’ve been in the Digiworld!" He frowned and looked out into the storm. "But still, it’s hard to imagine someone willingly being out in this storm."

However, there WAS someone willingly out in the storm. Eight someones, in fact. Although not all of them were out there willingly.

"I swear, we’re all going to catch pneumonia and die." Joe muttered. "Won’t that be fun. Why can’t we just stop under some cover and rest? Because if we don’t die from pneumonia, exhaustion’s gonna get us. And my glasses are fogging up." He took off his thick glasses and rubbed them with his shirt to try and clear them up, but since his shirt was wet it really made the problem only worse. Grumbling, he put them back on.

"Oh, just stop whining Joe," Tai looked over his shoulder at the straggler. "We’re almost at the top, and look, the storm’s beginning to lighten up!"

"Wonderful. Then we have coming down to worry about. And aren’t we lucky that its not a constant sheet of rain, now its just a downpour."

"If you shut up and stop complaining, it won’t seem that bad." said Sora, who was near the top of the procession. "Look, even T.K. and Kari are complaining less than you." She motioned to the two youngest of the group, who were climbing, albeit slowly over a large rock outcropping, helped by Matt, Palmon and surprisingly Mimi, who hadn’t complained even once, which was even more surprising.

"Yeah, come on, Joe, its not that bad." Piped up the ever-cheerful Gomamon. "Just keep on putting one paw in front of the other and its fine."

Joe grumbled some more, but he fell quiet after a time. He protested once when Biyomon perched on his head to rest so he couldn’t see and he tripped over a rock and slid about thirty feet back down the mountain, but other than that, he was very good-natured… for him, that was.

"Well guys, we’re at the top!" Tai gestured around him to illustrate his point, but as the summit was shrouded in a cloud, the effect was rather lost.

Agumon sat down on a rock next to Patamon to rest. "So now what do we do?"

Matt answered simply, "We go back down." He sprang to his feet. "We aren’t accomplishing anything just by lying around here."

Palmon walked to the edge of the mountain and looked down. When she looked back up, she was obviously shaken. "And how exactly are you planning on doing that? I don’t think you’ve taken a look." At this, the entire party looked over the edge and every single one of them that couldn’t fly visibly paled. It was almost a completely vertical drop to the jagged rocks far below.

"I suppose if we had Biyomon, Tentomon, and Patamon digivolve, they could carry us down…," said Sora, but she didn’t look too certain.

"Hey!" T.K. shouted. "Look, everyone! There’s a path over there!" He pointed off to the side of the mountain, where there was indeed a twisting path to the base of the mountain.

"All right T.K!" Tai shouted, sprinting towards the path, most of the others following.

"Wait! Guys, who or what could have carved this path into solid rock? And why? Guys!!" The others didn’t even slow down to listen to Joe’s warnings. "I don’t know why I try." Sighed Joe as he too took the path.

The crevice loomed before Izzy, stretching down farther than he could see. "Whoa," he said. "You wouldn’t want to fall down here."

Mimi took off her large hat and ran a gloved hand through her hair. "So how do we get across? We can’t jump across, that’s for certain. And this time there’s no trail carved in the rock."

The group thought, yet produced no solutions. Kari suddenly felt a prick on her leg, and looked down to see what it was. Gatomon was looking behind them, poking Kari frantically with a sharp claw. "Ow! Cut that out, Gatomon!" But the catlike DigiMon kept on poking. "Stop that, Gatomon! We’re trying to think about how to cross the canyon!"

A voice spoke up from behind the group, causing all of them to jump in unison. "It’d be a lot simpler if you took the bridge."

They turned to see a boy sitting on a rock behind them, with a dangerous-looking lizard DigiMon perched right next to him. The DigiMon’s bright green eyes never wavered from the group, and its tail flicked several times. The boy had spiky, unkempt light brown hair, and mesmerizing gray eyes that reminded Kari strongly of the clouds they had encountered up on the peak. He was wearing a jungle green shirt loosely, and well-worn blue jeans. He was very good looking, she thought. And, Kari noticed, he was wearing a tag around his neck imbedded with a crest they hadn’t seen or heard about before, and he had a Digivice on a chain that was clipped to a belt loop. Did this mean that he, too, was a Digidestined?

The boy cleared his throat. "I said, it’d be a lot simpler if you took the bridge over there." He pointed, and by reflex, Kari looked. Laid across the crevice was a fallen tree trunk, which none of them had noticed before.

Matt was the first to speak. "Who…who are you? Why do you have a crest and a Digivice? Are you a Digidestined? How did you get here?"

The boy held up his hands. "Whoa, whoa. One question at a time, please. First of all, I’m Jake, and this is Zegimon." The lizard bowed its head in greeting, yet its eyes never moved.

"I’m Tai."

"Sora."

"I’m Palmon, and this is Mimi."

"Matt here."

"Gabumon."

"I’m Agumon."

Kari spoke, her voice a bit flustered. "I’m Kari, this is Gatomon, that’s T.K., and that’s Patamon."

As the rest of the group introduced themselves, Jake stood up. "I have a crest and a Digivice. Because, like you, I am a Digidestined." Joe started to say something, but Jake cut him off. "I know, I know. You guys are the Digidestined, right? Well that’s not right, exactly. I was the first human to ever come here, as far as I know." His eyes grew more misty than they were before. "I was transported here four years ago, and I’ve been living in the wild for all that time."

Mimi was incredulous. "Four years? When I first came, I got sick of the place in four MINUTES! How did you ever survive four years?"

"It wasn’t easy," agreed Jake. "But it can be done." A drop of water fell on his head, and he looked up. "Looks like the storm is coming back again. I’m afraid the other questions will have to wait. If you’ll follow me, I can take you to my home, and you guys can rest, wash up, and have a bite to eat. Best of all, its sheltered from the storm. Come on!" He walked across the tree trunk calmly. Kari, without really stopping to think, followed him. Of course, then Tai, her older brother, had to follow her. And everyone else was close behind.

Chapter Two

"So exactly how did you get here?" asked Sora, leaning back against the walls of the cave. "I mean, we all were transported here at the same time, and we were all together. It doesn’t make any sense for one single Digidestined to be brought to the Digiworld."

Jake sighed and hunched closer to the flickering fire they had built. "I don’t know," he said at last. "I went to bed one night, and I didn’t notice anything irregular. I woke up in the middle of the night, and there was this Digivice—of course I didn’t know what it was then, but I do know now—on my table. I picked it up and was transported here. Then I met Liquamon," he pointed to Zegimon, who was perched on a ledge near the cave’s ceiling. "Who is Zegimon’s deDigivolved form. I’ve been here ever since."

T.K. looked at Jake. "Don’t you miss your family and friends? Aren’t you lonely?"

Jake was silent for a long time. "Of course I miss them. I just…gave up on them, I guess. I doubt I’ll ever be able to go home. And neither will you guys."

T.K. shook his head. "Nope, you’re wrong! We’ve been back there!"

Tai spoke up. "I went back twice."

"Really? You’ve been back there? Tell me what happened! I haven’t been back in so long!"

They launched into a long explanation of how they had followed Myotismon to the real world, and fought him in a series of bitter conflicts. Gatomon and Kari interjected when needed. "So I Digivolved into Angewomon and destroyed Myotismon with my Celestial Arrow attack," Gatomon said. "But he had killed my friend Wizardmon…" her eyes began to water. "And then he wasn’t even defeated, but he Digivolved to Venom Myotismon. So Wizardmon died for nothing…" tears began to trickle down her face. "He died for absolutely nothing."

"That’s not true, Gatomon!" reassured Biyomon. "Remember, he saved Angemon from Myotismon’s Grizzly Wing attack! And he caused your love for him to make Kari’s Digivice glow, which made DemiDevimon drop it! So he really saved us all."

"I hope so," sniffed Gatomon. "I still really miss him."

Kari put her hand on her DigiMon partner’s head. "It’s okay. We all really miss him. Just try and remember how he helped us by getting the real Crest of Light and everything else! If he hadn’t been around, you probably would have never discovered you were the eighth DigiMon!" she pointed out.

A melancholy silence set in. It lasted for a long while before Jake decided to break it. He stood up and walked to the back of the cave, out of everyone’s sight. He returned moments later holding something in his hands. "I hope you don’t mind if I play this," he said, holding up a large harmonica. "But I’ve gotten kind of used to playing it late at night to keep from getting lonely."

Matt looked at him. "You play the harmonica too?" he inquired. "So do I." He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out his own instrument.

"Yeah!" cried Gomamon. "Let’s jam!" Even the stony-faced Zegimon cracked a toothy lizard semi-smile at this.

Jake started into a steady blues rhythm, playing the bass line. After a few seconds of Matt not playing, he stopped. "Uh, feel free to join in at any time, Matt."

"I know that!" said Matt, an expression of annoyance on his face. "I was just trying to figure out when to come in! Now lets start again." Once again, Jake began the bass line. In several seconds, Matt joined in with a top part. The two of them played a wonderful duet, with several notable parts, including a solo by Jake which traveled all the way up his harmonica’s range and back down again, and Matt’s incredible improvisation ending. They stopped to a warm round of applause.

Jake smiled, but then it disappeared suddenly. However, no one noticed this. Except for Zegimon, whose bright emerald eyes were locked onto Jake’s face. Jake heaved a sigh, which also went largely unnoticed.

As the fire died down, most of the others went to sleep. Jake remained awake, however. When he was sure everyone was slumbering soundly, he stood up. Narrowly missing stepping on Agumon’s tail, he walked out of the cave. He climbed up to above the cave’s mouth and hiked a ways up the mountainside to a grove of trees. Ignoring the dampness of the bark, he pulled his way up one of them.

Jake grabbed a stone out of his pocket and heaved it at a bunch of berries hanging farther along the branch. He missed, and sighed again.

Flaps echoed through the air. Startled, he rolled out of the tree and crouched down. "Who’s there?"

"It’s just me, Jake."

"Oh. Zegimon. I thought you were asleep." Said Jake, climbing back to his perch.

Zegimon ruffled his wings once. "I was, but you should know by now that I sleep very lightly. I heard someone walking, and I woke up. I saw it was you, so I followed." Zegimon looked at the berries hanging from the branch. "If you want to get those down, this method is simpler…LASER WHIP!" Zegimon’s long tail glowed a bright crimson, then swung around releasing an arc of energy that cut through the berries’ stem. The berries fell to the ground.

"That’s great, but I really don’t care."

Zegimon rested his large eyes on Jake’s silhouetted form. "What’s wrong?"

"The truth is, I don’t know, Zegimon." He closed his eyes. "I haven’t been around people in so long—four years! I’m not very comfortable with them. And look what they’ve been doing, going around saving the Digital world! I’ve been here for FOUR YEARS, Zegimon, and I have just been staying here doing the same things night after night. I don’t know…I’m just not like them, I don’t understand how or why."

The branch above Jake shook as Zegimon alighted upon it. "I heard them talking during your harmonica playing. It was…" he thought. "Sora, Gabumon, and Tai. They said that they would invite you to come with them on their journey."

Jake exhaled through clenched teeth. "Why am I not surprised? I don’t know…I want human company again, but have I really been alone so long that I’ve overestimated it? They’re all fine, but…and then there’s the part of going up against the evil DigiMon. I don’t have the guts to do that! That’s why I just stay in the cave." He reached his hand to his neck and removed the crest. "This is the Crest of Nobility. Hah! I don’t deserve this…I don’t deserve any of this!" He flung the crest as hard as he can into the night. Zegimon flew after it, and returned a few minutes later with it held in his claw.

He dropped it into Jake’s hand. "You never know, Jake." He said, his eyes sympathetic. "Believe me, you never know." The two of that stayed like that for a long time into the night.

"What do you mean you aren’t coming with us? Are you crazy?" shouted Tai. "Come on, I mean, you’d be a valuable addition to the group and all. Plus, you can…uh…you can…play the harmonica well! That’s something!"

Jake stood there impassive. "I’m sorry. I just don’t feel up to the task of traveling all over the Digiworld. Again, I’m sorry but my mind is made up, and you can’t change it."

"But…but…" sputtered Tai.

Sora put a hand on Tai’s shoulder. "Calm down, Tai. He doesn’t have to go with us if he doesn’t want to."

Tai was still mad, but he managed to rein in his emotions for the moment. Patamon spoke up from where he was hovering beside T.K.’s head. "We will miss you, though."

Jake cracked a small smile. "I’ll miss you guys too, but I just feel that I belong here. Maybe we’ll meet again." His words were hopeful, but the tone of his voice suggested he felt otherwise. Everyone else looked the same way.

"Well…I guess this is goodbye." Murmured Palmon.

Jake nodded. "I guess so…well…goodbye."

As the Digidestined turned and walked off, Jake cleared his throat, causing all of them to turn back. "Yes?" Asked Izzy.

"A piece of advice." Jake pointed to up along the craggy mountain range. "That way, although longer and more rough, is the route I would recommend. Do NOT go through the lowlands."

"And why not?" Kari said. "It looks fine to us."

Zegimon took to the sky and circled over the group, finally coming down to perch over the cave entrance. "I can’t say from experience, but we’ve heard…things…coming from over there. Some say that the land over there is Devimon’s territory."

Tai laughed. "Don’t you remember? We defeated Devimon! Nothing that he had can hurt us as long as we’re a team! Right?"

"Don’t be too sure of that, Tai. Remember this warning." Admonished Jake. However, Tai had already turned to leave, as had most of the other Digidestined.

Joe turned to him, a knowing look on his face. "Now you know how I feel all the time."

Chapter Three

"I still don’t know why we couldn’t have listened to Jake." Remarked Biyomon as she flew along besides Sora. "So what if it was a bit longer? He said it was safer, and he has been here for four years! So he probably knows what he’s talking about."

"That’s easy for you to say, Biyomon! You can fly! And besides, we haven’t seen any thing to worry about and we’ve been walking for almost two hours! It’s safe!" Retorted Gomamon.

Mimi sat down abruptly. "My feet are killing me! Can’t we rest for a few minutes?" The others blearily spoke up in agreement.

"Well, this looks as good a place to stop as any," said Matt, looking around the area. "It’s open, but there’s shelter nearby if we need it, see that grove over there? Also, the river nearby will give us the water we need. In fact, I think that we should camp here for the night. It looks like it starts to head uphill into the mountains and I doubt we’ll get much farther when we start the climb."

"Matt’s right." Izzy said, lying down. "We won’t make it to any good sites for camping in the mountains, and if we did find one, the odds of severe weather changes are much more significant at higher altitudes."

T.K. looked confused. "So what does that mean?"

"It means that it’ll rain, T.K." Sora sat down and leaned her back against a tree trunk.

"Ohhhh."

Izzy sat upright. "We’ll need to make a fire, but all the wood around here is supersaturated with water from the river. Who wants to go look for firewood?"

"I’ll go." Volunteered Kari.

"If Kari’s going, I’ll go too!" T.K. stood up.

Sora shrugged. "Someone’s got to keep an eye on those two. I’ll go."

Gatomon, Patamon, and Biyomon all agreed to go with their partners as well.

They waited, but after no one else volunteered, the six of them turned and walked into the forest.

Jake paused from stirring the chili he was making for him and Zegimon. Something definitely didn’t feel right. However, he couldn’t put his finger on it.

"Jake?" asked Zegimon. "What is it, Jake?"

"I’m not sure, Zegimon…" Jake dropped the spoon and looked straight into Zegimon’s eyes. "I really don’t like this."

The ground shook. Then it shook again. And again. And again. The five remaining Digidestined were jolted from peaceful slumbers. Tai mumbled "Sora…" before fully awaking.

Tentomon looked at Tai strangely. "What did you just say?"

Tai’s face started to turn a bright shade of magenta. "Oh, nothing, nothing at all."

"Really? Because I could have sworn you said S---mmphh!" Tentomon was cut off as Tai clasped his hands over the DigiMon’s speaker/mouth thing.

Mimi interrupted them. "What in the world is that?"

A gigantic robot was walking beyond the mountains—it was so big, in fact, that its upper body could easily be seen over the peaks. It was the robot’s footsteps that had woken them up.

"That’s Cybermon. He’s Andromon’s Mega form! Usually, he’s very docile, but he is extremely territorial, and may turn violent towards intruders. If he does decide he wants to destroy you, you had better watch out, since he’s loaded for Bearmon. His Pulse Cannon will rip through a champion-stage DigiMon in seconds, and his Cluster Missile attack will knock any flying DigiMon out of the sky!" piped up Tentomon, as always, with the necessary information.

"Do you think that we’re in his territory?" inquired Joe nervously. "Probably we’d better back off."

"Oh, don’t worry Joe!" Agumon said. "If we were in his territory, he would have detected us by now, and we would definitely know it."

As if to punctuate Agumon’s words, Cybermon began to turn around. However, he passed the group of Digidestined, and seemed to focus on a point a few hundred meters away, in the forest. Deep in the forest.

This suddenly dawned on Matt and Tai, who bolted upright in an instant.

"T.K.!" shouted Matt.

"Kari!" yelled Tai.

They looked at each other. "Sora!" they both shouted. Together, they took off at a dead run towards the wood-gathering group, the others following closely behind.

T.K. picked up another stick from the ground, adding to the accumulating pile of wood in his arms. Suddenly he heard the crackling of sticks. Someone was coming this way—fast. He turned, just in time to see Matt and Tai come crashing through the trees.

"T.K., Kari, Sora…we’ve got to get out of here! No time to explain! Come on!" panted Matt.

"What are you talking about, Matt?" Asked Sora.

"No time!! Come on you guys!" T.K. walked over to Matt, and Patamon followed.

"So what’s this about?" T.K. looked up at his big brother.

Matt started to run. "Come on we need to get away!" T.K. was stunned but then followed, as did the others, still unsure of what was wrong.

A root caught Sora’s foot, however, and she fell to the ground. "Sora!" cried Tai, and he turned back to her.

It was then that a hideous screeching filled the air, along with a bright blue light. Several explosions rocked the area of the forest where they had been moments earlier. Tai was hurled up in the air and flung into a tree. He slid to the ground in tremendous pain. He willed his eyes to open. Kari was a few feet away, virtually unharmed, luckily she had been huddling behind a rock when the attack came. T.K. and Matt were farther away, so they hadn’t been affected as much. Even now, they were climbing to their feet.

Of Sora—Tai looked to see her limp body in the center of the devastation. Fighting waves of nausea and pain, he struggled to stand up. He rushed to her side.

Sora was in bad shape. Blood was pooling all around her body and there was a growing crimson stain on her stomach. Burns covered much of her body. She didn’t look like she would survive.

It was at that moment that the other Digidestined ran in. "Oh, my…" said Mimi, clapping her hands to her mouth as she saw Sora. The others simply couldn’t speak.

Agumon was the first to spot the problem. "Uh guys? There’s still the little thing about an insane robot." He pointed to where Cybermon was leveling his smoldering Pulse Cannon at them. "I think we have trouble!" And that was a definite understatement.

Chapter Four

"T.K., Kari!" hissed Matt. "Get out of here! Quickly! We can hold him off!"

These words brought a dismayed expression to the two youngest Digidestined’s faces. "But what about you guys?" protested Kari. "We can’t just leave you here to get killed!"

"That doesn’t matter! As long as we’re here, we’re responsible for you!" yelled Tai. "Now GO!"

The two little kids looked ready to protest again, but fortunately Patamon and Gatomon saw the wisdom in that situation. "Good luck, everyone!" said Patamon. "We’ll see you after you beat him!" He didn’t look too confident of those odds, however.

"Patamon digivolve to…ANGEMON!" The angel Digimon appeared where Patamon had been standing in a burst of light.

"Gatomon digivolve to…ANGEWOMON!" The holy beauty materialized where the cat Digimon had been a moment before.

The two angels picked up their respective Digidestined, and took to the sky. Cybermon noticed this, however, and diverted his attention to track them. Twin ports opened near his shoulders. "CLUSTER MISSILE!" he roared. Each of the launchers spat fire three times, and six missiles were speeding towards the retreating Digimon. A moment before they impacted, each of the missiles separated into seven parts. A gigantic red flower blossomed out of the sky into the angels’ paths.

Nanoseconds later, the singed warriors flew out of the chaos created by the explosion, burnt but otherwise appearing unharmed. T.K. opened his eyes slightly and looked at Angemon. "Yeah! We did it!" When Angemon failed to respond, T.K. looked closer at his partner and friend. Angemon was tired; T.K. could feel it more than see it. A quick glance over at Angewomon showed that she was in much the same condition. He gulped. They would have to land soon or they would crash.

Matt exhaled in relief. He had thought that the cluster missile would have hurt T.K., but apparently it had not affected any of them. His mind turned to the task at hand. Cybermon was still distracted by Angemon and Angewomon! Now was the time to attack. He looked at Gabumon. "Let’s go!"

"Gabumon digivolve to…GARURUMON!"

"Agumon digivolve to…GREYMON!"

"Tentomon digivolve to…KABUTERIMON!"

"Palmon digivolve to…TOGEMON!"

"Gomamon digivolve to…IKKAKUMON!"

"Biyomon digivolve to…BIRDRAMON!"

The six Champion-Stage Digimon prepared for battle. Birdramon especially seemed to want revenge on Cybermon. She flew high into the air. "Meteor Wing!" she screeched, sending huge jets of fire at Cybermon’s back. They splashed off harmlessly.

Greymon charged through the forest to try and get a better chance of scoring a critical hit on Cybermon. The large Digimon finally saw his chance, as Cybermon turned to deal with the threat posed by Birdramon. "Nova Blast!" The huge fireball hit the android in one of the areas where it was unprotected by armor plating. Cybermon turned more quickly than Greymon would have thought possible, and raised its Pulse Cannon. The blue light spewed and Greymon felt himself being lifted back into and hurled back to the ground again.

"Howling Blaster!" Garurumon was following a different tactic than Greymon or Birdramon. He was going to hopefully knock out Cybermon’s motor systems. If the robot was made immobile, they could attack him without fear of retaliation. A twinge of fear went through Garurumon’s mind as he saw Cybermon fire his pulse cannon and he knew that one of their force was either in trouble or already downed.

Chapter Five

Kari felt Angewomon dip even lower in the air. She peeked at the face of her partner, who was clearly quite tired. Kari scanned the ground below them frantically, trying to find a good place to land. Suddenly she saw it. That cave looked awfully familiar… "Quick, Angewomon! Down there!" Kari pointed to the clearing below. Angewomon dove downward, a bit too rapidly than Kari would have liked, but they were still under control. T.K. and Angemon followed Angewomon’s lead.

The group touched down safely. The angels let T.K. and Kari to the ground, then immediately deDigivolved to Gatomon and Patamon. They lay there panting, too tired to even move.

Kari was sure this was the place. "Jake!" she hollered. "Jake where are you? Come out, please! We need your help! Jake!" she almost screamed herself hoarse until she stopped. This wasn’t the place after all. Now what could they do? Their Digimon were tired and they needed to get help for the others. Kari had all but given up when a voice spoke from behind her.

"What do you need now?" Jake sounded faintly exasperated.

"Please, Mr. Jake!" pleaded T.K., running over. "Everyone else is in a fight against Cybermon, and they need your help!"

Jake’s ran his hand through his hair. "Cybermon, eh? I’ve heard of him. They don’t stand a chance against him."

T.K. looked hopeful. "So you’ll help us?"

"Nope."

Kari looked at him in disbelief. "What? But why not?" It wasn’t fair. She had thought Jake would have had jumped on the chance to help the Digidestined.

He sighed. "I warned them, and they chose to ignore my warning. I’m sorry, but I won’t risk my own neck because they thought they knew more about the Digiworld than me."

T.K. started to cry. "He already got Sora…and he’s going to get Matt too…and Tai, and Mimi, and Joe, and Izzy, and Agumon, and Gomamon…"

Jake’s face flickered for a second, but in moments he was indifference itself. "Why should I care about them? I only met them yesterday?"

Kari pointed an accusing finger at him. "You! I don’t believe you! I can’t believe I even thought that you would have ever been nice! I hate you! Do you hear me? I HATE YOU!" she started to sob uncontrollably, which caused T.K. to follow suit.

"Calm down! Stop crying!" Jake’s attempts to quiet the two were unsuccessful. He looked at them, sighed, looked at them again, and sighed again. "Okay, fine, I’ll help." The two little kids immediately stopped bawling. "The trouble is, how can we get there in time?" He pointed to the fatigued Gatomon and Patamon. "They’re too tired to get us anywhere and I don’t think we can run in time."

"Ahem." Zegimon was perched, unnoticed, on a tree branch. "I can get you there in time."

Jake grew puzzled. "You can? How?"

"It’s simple. By Digivolving!" said Zegimon.

T.K. looked at Jake in amazement. "You mean you’ve been here for FOUR YEARS and Zegimon still hasn’t digivolved to his Champion form yet?"

Jake suddenly became very interested in a rock on the ground. "Eh…heh heh…well we haven’t had much reason to fight here. But anyway, Zegimon, can you do it?"

The lizard nodded. "I think so, Jake." Jake’s Digivice started to glow.

"Zegimon digivolve to…KAMOMON!" Gone was the smallish lizard. In his place was another lizard, but this one of immense size. His wingspan was easily many times Jake’s height. Inch-long, razor sharp teeth gnashed as the former Zegimon checked out his new form. "This seems…powerful."

Kari looked at Kamomon in amazement. "It looks powerful! We don’t have any time to waste, though! Let’s go!" She ran over to the tired Gatomon and scooped her up, as T.K. did with Patamon. Still holding Gatomon, she climbed onto Kamomon’s back. His skin felt smooth, yet not slippery. It was a really cool feeling, she finally decided.

Jake climbed onto Kamomon’s back in front of Kari. "Okay, let’s see what you can do, Kamomon!" The winged giant flew into the air and towards the battle. Jake murmured to himself. "Those kids are probably going to kill me someday."

Chapter Six

MegaKabuterimon’s two-pronged horn sparked with energy. "HORN BUSTER!" He dove at Cybermon, but the electrical discharge barely dented the giant. Things were really looking bad. Cybermon had forced all of the Digimon to digivolve to their Ultimate stages, and yet they were still being defeated. Garudamon was out of the fight already—knocked out of the air by a barrage of Cluster Missiles—as was MetalGreymon.

Cybermon looked straight at MegaKabuterimon. The Pulse Cannon flashed again, and the Ultimate felt the blow nearly hit him directly. "HORN BUSTER!" Again, Cybermon didn’t even feel the hit. This was definitely not good.

"So how is she, Izzy?" Tai bent over Sora’s comatose body. The two of them were staying with Sora to check out what was wrong with her and see if they could do anything. Since everything in the Digital World was made up of digital code, Izzy was using his computer to find any errors in the code regarding Sora—that is, to see what had happened to her.

"Well, the damage is mostly superficial. There is little to no internal bleeding, and all her bones seem to be in decent shape. However, she did suffer one major laceration here," he traced his finger over Sora’s left side. "From the initial Pulse Cannon blast. The bleeding has stopped, but the loss of blood prior to that has caused her body to go into shock." Izzy glanced once more at his computer screen. "Also, she suffered some tissue damage in her right leg. After we get through this," Tai could hear the unspoken ‘if’ in Izzy’s voice. "It might be a while before she can walk as well as she did before."

"So what can we do?" Asked Tai, concerned.

"We can’t do anything about the tissue damage, but we can help the shock. Get me a blanket out of Joe’s medical bag, would you?" Tai obeyed, and the two of them spread it out over Sora. "Now we just have to protect her from anything that might…"

He never got to finish that sentence. There was a flash of all-too-familiar azure light and MegaKabuterimon crashed through several trees and to the ground, skidding to a stop several feet away from the group. "MegaKabuterimon!" Shouted Izzy. He looked up to see Cybermon leveling the Pulse Cannon at the giant beetle, intending to finish him off. Izzy cringed. They were too close to MegaKabuterimon. A Pulse blast would hit them all, and he seriously doubted Sora could survive another one. He didn’t even know if he or Tai could survive it. This was the proverbial ‘it’. Izzy closed his eyes and waited for the blast.

There was a whine as Cybermon charged up. The whine built and built… "FLAME CLAW!" yelled someone. Izzy opened his eyes in surprise to see a gigantic flying lizard Digimon fly overhead, with several children riding on his back. Several children that looked very familiar, somehow…The Digimon opened his mouth and launched a huge jet of flame at Cybermon. The fire formed itself into a giant claw, which raked Cybermon across the face. For the first time, the gigantic robot stumbled backwards. Izzy saw two more Digimon leap off of the lizard; and these were two Digimon that he definitely knew. But how could they be here? Matt had told them to go to safety.

"Gatomon digivolve to…ANGEWOMON!"

"Patamon digivolve to…ANGEMON!"

Both of the fresh Digimon winged towards the battle, as the lizard turned back to where Izzy and Tai were. He landed with barely a thump, although he looked as if he weighed quite a bit due to his size. It was then that Tai recognized the third child on the back of the behemoth. "Jake?" he asked, confused. "I thought you were going to stay in your cave; you didn’t want anything to do with us!"

Jake nodded. "That was my plan, but then T.K. and Kari showed up and they told me what was happening to you. So I came." He walked to Tai. "You should be proud of your sister, she’s quite a persuasive speaker." He grinned, but the expression faded as he saw what had happened to Sora. "Cybermon’s handiwork?" he asked. Izzy nodded. Jake clenched his teeth. "Well, I guess that’s one more reason to fight this guy off."

Tai turned his attention to the Digimon that had brought T.K., Kari, and Jake to them. "Since you’re Jake, that means you’re…"

"Kamomon." The Digimon supplied. "I am Zegimon’s Champion stage. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a battle to fight." Kamomon sprang into the air and hurtled towards Cybermon. "FLAME CLAW!"

Matt, Mimi, and Joe watched the fight unfold from higher up on the mountainside. Joe looked at the new Digimon entering the fight. "Oh great," he muttered. "With our luck, those are probably some of Cybermon’s friends come to help finish us off."

Matt grabbed his arm. "No, wait!" he said. "They’re Angemon and Angewomon! That means Kari and T.K. are back!" He looked at the other one. "But who is that?" The lizard seemed very familiar to him, but why? As far as Matt could remember, he had never encountered that particular Digimon before. As the lizard flew closely overhead, dodging from side to side to avoid getting blasted out of the sky, Matt saw a glimmer of emerald in the lizard’s eyes. It suddenly clicked. "Jake’s here!"

Mimi looked hopeful. "Maybe now we can beat Cybermon! Look! We’re starting to win!" It was true. With the addition of three new Digimon, the tide of the battle was turning. Cybermon was showing serious damage at various parts of his mechanical body. This inspired some of the fallen Digimon to have an extra boost of energy. The telltale glow of MetalGreymon’s Giga Blaster missiles impacted at the base of Cybermon’s neck, and Garudamon and MegaKabuterimon appeared from the forest, ready to fight.

Cybermon, although battered, was not about to succumb that easily. As Kamomon was making another run, the android suddenly turned its torso around 180 degrees to face the lizard Digimon. Its hand came up and around, slamming into Kamomon’s face. The Digimon started to fall to earth. In the same fluid motion, Cybermon brought its Pulse Cannon around, targeting WereGarurumon. Bolts of sapphire energy flashed and the Ultimate-stage Digimon collapsed. Cluster Missiles spewed from the launching ports, and the flying Digimon were tossed around like toys in the resulting explosions.

Chapter Seven

"Oh, no." Jake and the others watched what, moments before, had been a winning battle turn into absolute chaos. There was a bone-jarring thud, and Jake saw his partner fall into the forest not 100 feet away. "No! Kamomon!" He sprinted to the spot where the Digimon lay, gasping for breath. "Are you hurt?" Jake asked, concerned.

Kamomon shook his head slowly. "No…" he breathed. "Just very…tired."

"Hey Jake!" Tai ran over, a serious expression on his face. "We’re getting crushed by this guy! We’ve decided to get out of here while we still have our legs!"

Jake looked at him, infinite sadness tainting his voice. "That won’t work." He sighed. "If even half the stories I’ve heard about him are true, he’ll keep following you until one of two things happens."

"And what would those two things be?" interrogated Tai.

"The two things?" Jake turned back to Kamomon. "Either you destroy him, or he destroys you. So running away is about the equivalent of laying your head out on the chopping block."

Tai was visibly horrified. "So you mean either he dies or we do?" Jake nodded. "Well we aren’t going to die! At least, I hope not."

There was a faintly audible ‘whoosh’ sound, and Jake looked up, startled. Suddenly, he dove at Tai. "Get down!" he yelled. The Cluster Missile Jake had spotted burst into the smaller missiles, and a hail of destruction rained down upon them. When the smoke cleared, Tai was unharmed, and Jake was singed. "I’ll be…all right." Coughed Jake. "But that really does a number on your back." He rolled over and closed his eyes to rest.

Kamomon saw all of this, his mind not really understanding this until he saw Jake lying, obviously hurt, on the ground. His brain started to focus on that one thought. Jake was hurt. Jake was hurt protecting a friend. Jake was hurt. And out of the corner of his foggy vision, he saw Jake’s crest beginning to glow.

"Kamomon digivolve to…" Kamomon stood up. Metal armor appeared covering much of his large wings. His right arm glinted with chrome as the metallic shielding spread across his torso, and half of his head. A glowing red sensor replaced the eye covered by metal, and circuitry spread across the steel like a patchwork quilt. Kamomon’s mighty jaws were coated in the metal, and energy flowed from steel tooth to steel tooth. Power flowed across his entire body as the transformation was completed. "…METAL KAMOMON!" MetalKamomon took to the sky to resume the fight.

Lillymon looked into the sky. The last thing she remembered was fire all around her. What had happened? Why was she now on her back lying on the ground, pain wracking her body? The answer came to her. She had been defeated by Cybermon. She had failed. What use was there in continuing the battle against an enemy who she couldn’t beat? Suddenly, she saw a glimmer of steel flash over her. If her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her, she had just seen Kamomon pass, but he was covered in metal. Maybe he had Digivolved! So perhaps there was reason to fight on! With great effort, she picked herself up off the ground. It was time to see if the Digidestined could really triumph over this evil creature.

Jake staggered back to the others, Tai helping him stand. He saw that Mimi, Matt, and Joe had all rejoined the group. He felt hands helping him to lie down by Sora. A roaring battle cry pierced the air, and everyone turned to watch MetalKamomon fly overhead, followed by Lillymon, Angemon and Angewomon, Garudamon, and MegaKabuterimon. MetalGreymon, Zudomon, and WereGarurumon sped past on foot. Jake smiled. "Go, MetalKamomon…you can do it." He whispered.

Chapter Eight

"Shock Jaw!" MetalKamomon snapped his jaws shut. Ripples of energy emanated from the clash and added to the growing collection of holes in Cybermon’s armor.

Lillymon and Angemon were right behind him. "Flower Cannon!" Lillymon charged up and shot three bursts out of her weapon.

Angemon’s hand grew a bright gold. "Hand of Fate!" A red and white beam of power tore through the air in front of the Holy Warrior. The Flower Cannon and Hand of Fate both hit Cybermon exactly where MetalKamomon had punctured the armor. The giant robot screamed an electronic-sounding roar of pain.

MetalKamomon turned back for the coup de grace. He created a ball of blue energy between his hands. The sphere grew larger and started to spark as excess power couldn’t be contained. "ARMAGGEDON BLAST!" yelled the Ultimate, tossing the energy. It hit, and a gigantic explosion knocked Cybermon to the ground.

However, the shock waves could not tell the difference between friend or foe, and so they sent all of the friendly Digimon for a serious loop. MetalKamomon, being the closest to Cybermon at the time, was thrown back into the air, out of control.

MetalKamomon glowed, and suddenly he was MetalKamomon no longer. He had reverted back to Zegimon. The Rookie-stage Digimon fell to the ground right in front of the recovering Jake.

Jake sat upright, ignoring his condition. "Zegimon! What happened, Zegimon? Are you okay? Can you fight?"

Weakly, Zegimon shook his head no. "No…energy left…can’t fight…" he hissed. "It’s over…"

Jake looked at Zegimon in disbelief, then to the battle. Although Cybermon was badly damaged, without MetalKamomon to assist, they started to lose once again. Right before Jake’s eyes, Angewomon was knocked into MegaKabuterimon by a Pulse Cannon, and the two of them crashed to the ground together. "Do you see them, Zegimon? They need your help! They’re counting on you! The Digidestined are counting on you!" Jake looked into Zegimon’s eyes. "And I’m counting on you. Can you do it?"

Zegimon lacked the strength to move. "No…I cannot…I cannot fight any longer…must rest…" The small lizard closed its eyes.

Jake stood up, then doubled over and coughed uncontrollably. When the fit was over, he looked at the resting Zegimon. "If you can’t help them, I will." And he ran off.

Mimi ran to where they had left Sora and Jake. When she arrived, she immediately knew something was wrong. Sora was right where they had left her, yet Jake was missing—and Zegimon was in his place. Mimi rushed to Zegimon, and shook him awake. "What happened to Jake? Where is he?"

Zegimon opened his eyes. "Jake…went to help others…fight Cybermon." Then he went back to sleep.

"What?" Jake had gone to fight Cybermon, in his condition? That wasn’t good. That was absolutely downright bad.

Jake ran as fast as he could to where the battle was taking place. With luck, Cybermon wouldn’t notice him. With luck, he could find a way to hinder the robot’s massacre of his friends. With luck, they could defeat Cybermon. And with luck, Jake could become the ruler of the world.

Cybermon was turned away from Jake at the moment, firing at Zudomon, who retaliated with multiple strikes from his Vulcan’s Hammer, but who was really no match for the Pulse Cannon; and Jake knew that the moment wouldn’t last. He would have to act now.

Jake reached to the ground and picked up a large splinter of rock, which had apparently been dislodged by a missed attack. Holding the natural dagger in front of him, Jake charged to Cybermon’s foot.

MetalGreymon had luckily opened a hole right within Jake’s reach, exposing the circuitry inside. If Jake could damage that, it could possibly disengage some of Cybermon’s functions. Jake began to slash. Sparks flew as the rock blade sliced deep into the core of Cybermon’s leg.

A feeling told Jake to look up. He obeyed the urge, and saw a gray blur driving forward to slam into his body, and knock him back about 50 feet into the forest.

Cybermon’s face twitched—a smirk, perhaps?—as it brought its foot down again from kicking Jake. Jake found himself looking right into the cavernous maw of the Pulse Cannon, unable to move. He managed to get one deep breath. "ZEGIMON!!!!!!!" he screamed.

Chapter Nine

Zegimon’s eyes opened in an instant. Jake needed him. Jake was in trouble. He suddenly felt new life spurt into his muscles, his nerves, his brain. Jake needed him, now. Zegimon began to glow.

"Zegimon Warp Digivolve to…" Kamomon’s bulk flashed in a golden light, and his mighty jaws snapped together. Suddenly, Kamomon was gone, and light gleamed off the polished surface of MetalKamomon’s chrome-plated body. And now, the Digimon was beginning to grow, to get larger. His neck elongated to over twice his previous body length, and every inch of it was covered in gleaming metal scales. MetalKamomon’s whiplike tail grew until it was almost the same length as the new neck. His wings were entirely covered in steel, and they, too, increased in size. They were no longer the stubby, finlike wings that the previous Digivolutions had possessed, but these were more elegant, larger. His head accumulated twin ridges along the sides, and the snout stretched to become thin, yet powerful. What parts of the body weren’t covered entirely in the metal scales grew scales that were a fiery red color. The new Digimon shot a jet of flame from its mouth, as befitting its name. "…DRAGOMON!!!"

Dragomon covered the ground between his original spot and the battlefield in mere seconds. Interposing himself between Cybermon and the downed Jake, his wings were surrounded in a bright golden aura. "Wing Shield!" Dragomon used his wings as a cape, covering both of them completely. Cybermon’s Pulse Cannon spat energy multiple times, but each time it dissipated harmlessly on Dragomon’s shield.

Dragomon got up from the crouch in a springing tackle, which knocked Cybermon completely off balance. This was his chance.

Storm clouds suddenly gathered overhead, with no warning. Lightning struck down from the clouds, yet did not flash in random spots. Each bolt hit exactly in the same spot, between Dragomon’s wings. Likewise, the rain funneled to that spot, and no other. However, this didn’t seem to bother Dragomon at all. On the contrary, he seemed to be gathering energy. It wasn’t long before a ball of energy started to appear there. The winds started to pick up speed. A virtual tornado surrounded Dragomon, and yet he was only focused on Cybermon, in front of him. The winds started to shape the ball into a glowing rod of storm energy.

All of a sudden, all was calm again. The rain no longer fell, the wind was not blowing anymore, and no more lightning strikes came down. Dragomon braced himself. "HURRICANE BEAM!!!" The rod shot out into a beam of tremendous force, which sparked with lightning as it sped towards Cybermon. The beam collided with Cybermon’s chest, and ripped its way through, coming out the other end.

Electricity started to play all over Cybermon’s body, and then something exploded. Cybermon fell to its knees. It shimmered, and then dissolved.

A cheer went up from the Digidestined. They had won. Against all odds, they had survived the battle.

Dragomon seemed to sigh, and then he shrank back into a small ball covered in fur with a little tail and two tiny forepaws.

Chapter Ten

Jake, who was still carrying the worn-out Liquamon, looked at the group. "I’ve changed my mind. I have decided to come with you guys after all. I mean, I now know that I have the courage to take on supremely powerful evil Digimon, and besides, you need Zegimon and I to help you out."

T.K. smiled. "Yay! Jake’s coming with us!" he said, jumping into the air.

Jake cracked a grin at this. "Oh, and Sora’s doing much better!" he mentioned. "There are some herbs in this forest that make wounds heal much faster. However, she’s asleep right now, so I wouldn’t go talk to her. I left Tai with her to keep an eye out for anything…"

Tai looked at Sora lying there on the ground. It was good that she was getting better. "You had me very worried, Sora." He confided in her. Not that she could hear it, but it made him feel better to talk about it. "I thought for a second that I had lost you. Please don’t ever make me worry like that again." He didn’t know why he did this, but he bent over, and ever so gently kissed her. He sat back against the wall and watched her beautiful face. Was that his imagination, or did she smile in her sleep?

Two days later, the Digidestined, now with Jake and Zegimon added to the team, continued their journey. It was a very rare moment, when, Tai and Sora found themselves being the only ones awake. Sora looked up at all the stars. "I wonder if our parents in the Real World are seeing these stars too." Tai just shrugged. "You know, Tai, when I was asleep after the battle, I dreamt about our parents. They were really worried about us, yet at the same time, they knew that they had done the right thing by letting us go back to the Digital World, and they are very proud of us. Do you think that’s true?"

Tai nodded. "I know it’s true. Our parents love us. They would have realized, then, that we had to do this, at no matter the cost. We have to save them, and they know that we have a big enough responsibility already. They wouldn’t want to add to that."

"And Tai?" ventured Sora.

"Mmm?"

"Also, when I was asleep, I dreamt that you kissed me. I know it sounds stupid and everything, but it seemed really real and…" she broke off as she saw Tai’s face glowing a bright crimson. "You DID kiss me!" She said. "You did do it, didn’t you?"

"Look Sora, I didn’t think. I’m really sorry--" He was cut off as Sora flung her arms around his neck and kissed him. Out of surprise, he resisted, then when he realized what was happening, kissed back.

After she broke off the kiss, Sora looked at him. "I was going to say that I enjoyed the dream."

"Oh."

A muffled laugh came from behind them. They both spun around, and Tai pulled out a flashlight. He turned it on to reveal Jake crouched on the ground a few feet away. He had been listening to the entire conversation. "Why you…" Tai got up and started to walk over to Jake, who looked incredibly dismayed. Neither of them noticed the black hawk Digimon circling overhead, watching the two scuffle, with Sora trying to break it up. The hawk suddenly flew off into the horizon.

Chapter Eleven

A lone figure shrouded totally in black stood alone in a castle room. Footsteps echoed through the hallway and a large creature, which looked strangely like a more powerful and built up Ogremon stood at the doorway. After a long time, a woman’s voice spoke from under her ebony cloak. "Yes, Goblinmon?"

Goblinmon sank to one knee and presented her a parchment. "The latest reports from the spies, highness."

A slender hand somehow appeared from in the many folds of the robe and took the parchment. The woman read the document. "So Cybermon failed, the fool. I knew he was worthless. And, apparently, the Digidestined have added another to their number. This news is not good, Goblinmon, do you understand?"

"I do, your highness." Goblinmon understood all too well that he could be killed for bringing her this bad news.

"Have the miners found the Crystal of Power yet?"

He shook his head. "No, they have not found it. Your highness…may I ask why finding that crystal is so important to you?" This was thin ice he was treading on. Not only could he be killed for bringing her even more bad news, but daring to ask such a personal question of her highness would be like asking her to kill him.

Apparently, however, the woman was in a good mood. She laughed coldly. "Because, Goblinmon, the ancient legends say that the Crystal of Power is the one thing which can defeat me. So if I can find it and destroy it before the Digidestined get a hold of it, I will be invulnerable!" she laughed again, but stopped as a plan occurred to her suddenly. Goblinmon waited for a long time as the woman worked out the details. Finally she spoke again. "Goblinmon, get a squad of your fiercest warriors and have them report here. Tell them I will have special orders for them once they arrive. You are dismissed."

Goblinmon nodded and bowed again before walking out the door.

The woman waited until the footsteps faded into the distance. Then she smiled and threw back the hood of her cloak, revealing an exquisitely beautiful face yet bearing glowing red eyes, and fangs poking from her mouth. "When my plan is set into motion, the Digidestined will be doomed. For they shall pay for what they have done to Lord Devimon. And right before they die, they will know that all hope is lost, for nothing shall survive the wrath of the Dark Queen Tsunonrimon!"

Chapter Twelve

A dark tower rose into the night from the peak of a mountain. A single light burnt near the top, casting flickering shadows over the surrounding area. Without warning, five shadows flew off the building, silhouetted against the full moon. A loud, insane, cackling followed them.

The Digidestined were currently trudging through a shallow marsh. "I hate this!" complained Mimi, as she tried in vain to keep her clothes dry. "All this muck is disgusting!"

"You won’t get any argument from me on that one, Mimi." Muttered Matt. "My shoes are so caked with mud right now that I can barely lift them!" The others nodded their assent.

"I’d complain too, except I’m too tired to complain!" said T.K. "And we can’t even rest here, because there’s no place to sit down!"

Izzy suddenly pointed through the mist shrouding the swamp. "Hey, look! There’s some solid land!" Everyone looked where he was pointing, and sure enough, a bank of land rose out of the mud ahead. "We must be at the end of the marsh!"

As soon as they reached the bank, the group sat down, relieved. "I hope we’re through the worst of it," Said Sora. "First Cybermon attacks us," she brought her left hand subconsciously to her left side, where she had been injured by a Pulse Cannon blast during that battle. "Then, we have the mountains, the canyon, and now that marsh!" Sora ticked the ordeals off on her fingers as she recited them.

The most recent additions to their group—Jake and Zegimon—looked at each other. "We should be through it," answered Jake. "Zegimon’s never been farther than this before, but he has pretty good vision, and he says its just straight forest from now on."

Joe looked up from scraping the mud off his shoes to respond, but never got the chance. A gigantic battle-axe imbedded itself in a tree right above his head. "YAAAH!!!" he yelled in surprise and terror. A cruel laughing filled the area.

There was another ‘whoosh’ of air, and a grove of trees in front of the Digidestined was cleaved in half by another axe. Standing behind the trees was a gigantic Digimon, which kind of looked like Ogremon, just much more powerful and stronger. The new Digimon laughed again.

Izzy immediately had his analyzer program up and running. "That’s Goblinmon, Ogremon’s fully Digivolved form! He’s strong, and is an expert with his battle-axe! If you aren’t careful, he’ll really cut you down to size!"

"He’s mine!" shouted Zegimon. "Zegimon digivolve to…KAMOMON!" The immense lizard prepared for battle. "Flame…Agh!" Kamomon was hurled from his feet and tossed into the muck of the swamp, splashing the Digidestined with goop.

Where Kamomon had been attacked, the air started to ripple, and solidify. It formed into a Minotaur-like Digimon, who wore steel gloves on his hands. Izzy was soon at it again. "Now you see him, now you don’t! That’s Invisomon! He can turn invisible at will, and his Drain Energy attack can leave anyone out like a light!" Invisomon snickered, and vanished once again in much the same way he had appeared.

"I don’t like this! Gabumon digivolve to…GARURUMON!" Garurumon leaped into the air at Goblinmon. "Howling Blaster!" Goblinmon awaited the attack calmly, then dispersed the energy harmlessly with a swipe from his axe.

Suddenly, Garurumon was wrapped up in a spray of thread. A spider Digimon crawled out of the forest, drawing a scream from Mimi. "I hate spiders!"

"That’s Arachnomon! This spider isn’t the type you can squash under your heel, it has an armored carapace that is as strong as titanium!" Supplied Izzy.

Before any of the Digimon could digivolve again, another Digimon appeared besides Arachnomon. It looked like a three-headed dog, each head looking at the Digidestined hungrily, as if contemplating which would make the best meal.

"Cerebrus was the guardian of the underworld in Greek mythology, and Cerebrusmon fits the description perfectly! His attack, Wrath of Hades, is one of the most powerful attacks in existence!"

Kamomon, still dripping mud, lined up next to Garurumon, who had clawed free of the string. The two Champions leapt into the air at the three-headed Digimon. A small blur, however, shot in from apparently no where and kicked Kamomon in the nose, knocking him down, then rebounded to land on Garurumon’s back. Both of the larger Digimon fell to the ground. The blur resolved itself into a little man, dressed entirely in green, and wearing a little top hat.

"If you catch one of Leprechaunmon’s four-leaf clovers, don’t think you’re lucky! They have razor edges, and he can throw them like knives!" The little elf grinned sadistically at Izzy, and as if spurred by his words, threw a trio of deadly shamrocks right at Tai and Sora, who narrowly missed getting hit.

Jake looked at the four Digimon he could see, and randomly guessed about where Invisomon was. "Come on, we can beat them, they aren’t that hard!"

"Patamon digivolve to…ANGEMON!"

"Agumon digivolve to…GREYMON!"

"Biyomon digivolve to…BIRDRAMON!"

"Gomamon digivolve to…IKKAKUMON!"

"Palmon digivolve to…TOGEMON!"

"Gatomon digivolve to…ANGEWOMON!"

"Garurumon digivolve to…WEREGARURUMON!"

"Kamomon digivolve to…METALKAMOMON!"

The Digidestined got ready to fight. "Needle Spray!" yelled Togemon, trying to score a hit on Arachnomon.

Arachnomon had other ideas, however. "Mandible Slash!" it chirped, and closed its jaws around the walking cactus, which cried out in pain.

"I’ll help you! Celestial Arrow!" Angewomon pulled back her bowstring and released an arrow straight into Arachnomon’s heart. The spider screamed in agony and dissolved into dust.

"Hey! One shot from Angewomon’s Arrow and we defeat an Ultimate stage Digimon! We really are getting stronger!" exclaimed Tai.

"Wrath of Hades!" yelled one of Cerebrusmon’s heads, Izzy couldn’t tell which. A ring of fire suddenly appeared around the whole group, enclosing them in. The ring extended as far as they could see in the sky. The ring started to contract.

Kabuterimon flew up into the air. "Oh no you don’t! Electro shocker!" the ball of electricity hit Cerebrusmon dead on, not doing any real damage, but stunning him enough to stop the attack.

Goblinmon leapt at Greymon, his battle-axe missing by inches and splitting a rock in two. "Don’t forget the orders Tsunonrimon gave us!" the monster yelled.

A ghostly voice echoed through the forest. "Right! Drain Energy!" Ripples emanated from no particular spot, and all of the Digidestined felt themselves growing much weaker. It wasn’t long before every single one of them was asleep.

The group finally woke up to T.K. screaming. "What is it, little guy?" asked Matt, concerned.

"The Digimon took…they took Angemon and Angewomon!" This got a gasp from everyone, as they looked around. The two angels were indeed gone!

Chapter Thirteen

"Calm down, T.K., Kari." Reassured Sora. "I’m sure we’ll find Angemon and Angewomon soon." She looked over at where Izzy was typing furiously at his laptop. "What are you doing, Izzy?"

Izzy’s eyes never left the screen for a second. "Each Digimon has an individual stream of data, which varies from Digimon to Digimon—much like DNA in humans. By searching for specific groupings of data—in this case a group of a Goblinmon, a Leprechaunmon, an Invisomon, a Cerebrusmon, and Angemon and Angewomon, we should be able to track…Got it!" his laptop beeped. All of the Digidestined clustered around the computer whiz. The screen showed an overview of the entire Digital World, as if from an airplane, and slowly zoomed in on individual sections, until it was focused on a dark, gloomy, fortress. "Angewomon and Angemon are being held here."

"So what are we waiting for?" Asked Jake. "Let’s go get them!"

"Wait!" shouted Gabumon. "Remember, Goblinmon said something about orders from somebody called Tsunonrimon. Who’s he?"

No one had an answer. "Well, I guess we can suppose that they all work for him, whoever he is." Said Matt. "The question is, are we powerful enough to take him on, whoever he is?"

"Well, we’re going to find out." Answered Sora. "One way or another."

Angewomon had no idea where she was. The last thing she remembered was dueling with Cerebrusmon, then the attack from Invisomon and…her head hurt. When she had gathered enough of her wits to examine the situation, she looked around. She was lying on some sort of rack, unable to move, yet she didn’t see any wires or chains holding her. Across the room, Angemon was bound to a similar structure. He, too, was just coming around.

Angewomon started to wonder about the attack that had hit her. It was a most curious effect. It had drained her energy and her will to fight; yet apparently had not physically drained her power, because she was still Angewomon. If she had been robbed of her power, she would have deDigivolved back to Gatomon, or maybe Salamon.

"It’s no use pretending to be unconscious further, I can see you are awake." Angewomon jerked her head to the side, noticing the third figure in the room for the first time. It wasn't hard to see why she had missed seeing the person in the first place, as the woman was draped in a black cloak which blended in perfectly with their surroundings.

"Who…are you?" whispered Angewomon.

"Who am I?" the woman laughed coldly. "I am the future ruler of the entire realm of both the Digital World and the Human World. I am your future master. I am that who will destroy the Digidestined once and for all. I am," she seemed to hunger for this line. "The Dark Queen Tsunonrimon!"

"And you hold a grudge against the Digidestined why?" asked Angemon, struggling to move against his invisible bonds.

"Oh, don’t try and struggle, it’s quite useless. You are being held to the table by pure Dark Magic, even a holy warrior such as yourself is powerless against this magnitude of evil." She walked over to Angemon, and lifted his chin, seeming to stare straight through his faceplate. "You want to know why I hate the Digidestined so? I shall tell you then." Tsunonrimon pulled back the cloak of her hood, revealing a face so exquisite that it could have been chiseled out of stone. Yet among her beauty was a malignant aura of evil, which distorted her image into that of something unholy and terrible. "They destroyed my mentor and father, the Lord Devimon. And for that, they shall pay with their lives."

Angemon looked at her defiantly. "You mean I destroyed Devimon. He was pathetically weak. If you are anything like your father was, the Digidestined shall defeat you easily."

Tsunonrimon just smiled, refusing to be goaded. "So it was you who dealt the mortal blow to Lord Devimon? Oh, then my plan is even more ironic! This will be so much fun to watch the Digidestined die at my hands!"

Angewomon looked at her. "What exactly is your plan? What do you want us for?"

"The mighty Lord Devimon, as well as being my father, was also my tutor and mentor." Tsunonrimon removed her obsidian gloves, and her pale hands shone in the dim light. "His one weakness was that he learned no real offensive techniques, but I have corrected that. However, he did spend time teaching me his personal favorite technique." Her hands started to glow a dark black, as she walked to the two angels. She pushed the two frames together with a clang. "And now, I shall use it on you two." Tsunonrimon raised her hands. "Fitting, isn’t it. Touch of…"

The wall suddenly tumbled in, courtesy of MetalGreymon. The rest of the Digidestined and their Digimon all followed. T.K. saw Angemon strapped to a wire frame, some lady with her hands on both Angemon’s and Angewomon’s shoulders. "Angemon!"

Jake stood in front of T.K. "Give Angemon and Angewomon back now! Or else get ready to fight us!"

The woman looked at the Digidestined with an air of contempt. "But of course." She waved her hand and both the angels tumbled to the floor.

T.K. and Kari ran over to their Digimon, to check if they were okay.

Tai looked at Jake, then at Matt. "I don’t like this." He said at last. "This was too easy. What is she up to?"

Kari hugged Angewomon. "I’m so glad you’re okay, Angewomon! Angewomon?" Kari looked up at her partner, surprised that she wasn’t responding. Angewomon was looking down at Kari with an eerie aura of stillness around her. "Angewomon? What’s wrong?"

The woman laughed. "Oh, but I forgot to mention one teensy little bit of information. Angemon and Angewomon are working for Queen Tsunonrimon now!"

T.K. looked at Angemon in horror, and slowly backed away. "Angemon! What did she do to you?"

"I merely gave him a future, little boy. And now, as a test of their loyalty to me…Angemon! Angewomon! Get your Digidestined and bring them with me!" Tsunonrimon commanded.

The angels did what they were told. Angewomon held Kari tightly, refusing to let go, even when Kari kicked her. Still holding their partners, the angels walked back to Tsunonrimon.

"Kari!" shouted Tai, who jumped at Tsunonrimon.

The Dark Queen waved her hand, and Tai froze in midair, unable to move. "Do not try my patience, child." Tsunonrimon warned. "These two Digidestined and their Digimon partners belong to me now!" She started to back away, and leapt into the air. A sphere of energy started to coalesce in the palm of her hand as she floated there. "Black Magic!" Tsunonrimon hurled the ball at the seven remaining Digidestined. The ball exploded before it reached them, pummeling everyone with dark energy. The stone walls of the tower started to crumble.

Tsunonrimon turned her back on the destruction she was wreaking. "Come, Angemon, Angewomon!" Still holding their Digidestined, the angels floated into the air beside her, and the trio flew over the horizon.

"Matt!" yelled T.K., struggling to escape Angemon’s iron grip.

"Tai!" shouted Kari, who was pummeling her ex-partner with her fists. "Help us!"

"T.K./Kari!" cried both Tai and Matt, when they recovered enough from the pain that was tormenting them. But it was too late; both of them were gone.

"No!" yelled Matt. "We’ve got to go after them!"

Mimi weakly sat up and adjusted her hat. "But how, Matt? I don’t think any of us can even move a muscle!" Matt turned, and his heart sank. All of the Digimon had reverted back to their Rookie forms, and they looked too tired to Digivolve. The same appeared to be true of the Digidestined.

Jake got to his feet. "Okay, lets think about this logically and rationally."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN LOGICALLY?" bellowed Tai. "THEY TOOK MY SISTER!"

"Hey, hey!" Jake backed away from Tai. "I mean, lets look at the situation. Tsunonrimon apparently has Angewomon and Angemon on her side, and they’ve taken T.K. and Kari. Our Digimon are all in their Rookie forms, and I doubt any of them have the energy to digivolve." There was a murmur of assent from all the Digimon at this. "However, we do know the general direction in which Tsunonrimon is taking your sister, Tai, and your brother, Matt." He pointed over the horizon where the group had disappeared.

Jake paced back and forth as he spoke. "Apparently, Tsunonrimon is incredibly powerful, right, Izzy?"

Izzy nodded. "Her power level is read as higher than that of a Mega Digimon. Whatever she is, none of our Digimon can take her on alone."

"Anyway, it’s a given that we need to send a search party. The question is, who can go? Sora, it is obvious that with your still-healing injury, you can’t." Sora looked crestfallen, but she apparently understood why she couldn’t go on the rescue. "We can’t leave her here alone, though. So some of us have to stay." He sat down. "Zegimon, Agumon, and Gabumon are the only Digimon in our party that have reached their Mega stage yet. So if we are going to stand a chance against Tsunonrimon, we need all of us there, and besides which, she has your siblings. As for the fourth member of our group, we need a Digimon that can fly, as Kamomon can only carry so much weight. So I propose that Matt, Tai, Mimi, and myself go rescue T.K. and Kari, while Joe, Izzy, and Sora stay behind." Neither of the three being left behind looked too happy about these arrangements, but everyone agreed.

"I don’t think I can digivolve now," said Zegimon. "I’m still worn out."

"It’s okay," assured Jake. "My plan is that we hike a while and wait for you guys to regain your energy, then you Digivolve and take us to Tsunonrimon. Any other suggestions?" There were none.

"So what are we waiting for?" asked Matt, impatient. "Let’s get moving!"

The three staying behind bid good luck to the search party, and Matt, Mimi, Jake, and Tai hiked off into the growing darkness.

Chapter Fifteen

"Let me go, you old hag!" Kari struggled against the invisible ropes tying her down.

"Oh, its quite useless to resist. Besides, it won’t matter in a short time." Tsunonrimon removed her gloves and stared out a window at the mining quarry below her palace. "If you want to be let go, just ask." She imperceptibly flicked her wrist, and T.K. and Kari could suddenly move again.

Both of them climbed to their feet. "Why do you want to hurt us so badly, anyway?" asked Kari.

"You know, your partner asked that very same question. The fact is, that you Digidestined killed my mentor and father, the Lord Devimon. And for that, you will all die." Tsunonrimon said rather matter-of-factly.

T.K. looked at Tsunonrimon in disbelief. "You hate us for that? But that was over…" He tried to remember how long it had been, but all the days in the Digiworld just seemed to blend together. "A long time ago." He finally concluded. "Why did you wait all this time?"

Tsunonrimon smirked. "I believe it was one of your human philosophers who said, ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold.’ And that is unbelievably true."

Kari didn’t know what they were talking about. Oh sure, she had heard stories from the others, but that was like reading a book or watching something on TV. It didn’t seem that real to her. However, she decided to try and bluff Tsunonrimon. "And Devimon was pathetically weak! We beat him easily! You shouldn’t be that hard, if your…father," she practically spit out the word. "Was that powerless against the Digidestined!"

Tsunonrimon’s whirled around faster than Kari would have thought possible, and backhanded her across the cheek. Kari’s world spun as she was thrown across the room. "Kari!" shouted T.K., running over to Tsunonrimon, and kicking her in the shin as hard as he could. "You hurt Kari!" he shouted, and brought his foot back to kick her again, but he was suddenly lifted off his feet as she grabbed him and threw him into a wall. He sank to the floor.

With T.K. out of the way, Tsunonrimon stalked over to Kari. "How DARE you!" she hissed, and brought her hand back up. However, before hitting Kari again, she stopped, and a wicked smile grew on her face. "Angemon," she commanded. "Come here and teach this impertinent brat a lesson!"

Angemon silently walked over to Tsunonrimon and Kari. "As you order, my queen." He brought his staff up above his head, and then whipped it back down in a blow to Kari’s side. She cried out in pain.

The recovering T.K. looked at his partner in horror. "Angemon!"

Tears welled up in Kari’s eyes, more from the pain of being betrayed than the excruciating pain of being hit with Angemon’s staff. Tsunonrimon threw back her head and laughed coldly.

Sora looked into the small fire that the three of them had built. "I wonder where the others are, and how they are doing?" She sighed. "It kind of hurts to not know what is happening to your friends, don’t you agree?" Izzy and Joe nodded.

"Well, I think that if we don’t hear from them by morning, we should follow them. That way, if they are in trouble, we can help, but we are listening to the others for now." Said Joe.

"Why, Joe, is that an actual thought of your own?" kidded Izzy. "I’m surprised!"

Sora smiled at this, but inwardly, she wondered where Tai was, if he was all right. ‘I hope he’s okay…’ she thought.

At this moment, Tai and the others were coming up on Tsunonrimon’s palace, riding on Kamomon’s back. "Look over there!" shouted Mimi, pointing with one hand and holding onto her hat with the other. "Do you think that’s where they are?" she asked.

"It’s worth a try!" Matt yelled back.

Suddenly, hordes of Digimon boiled out of the windows of the palace and flew towards the Digidestined, and they didn’t look friendly. "I’d say this is the place!" said Palmon. "Let’s go!"

"Palmon digivolve to…TOGEMON!! Digivolve to…LILLYMON!" Lillymon leveled her Flower Cannon and knocked several of the attackers out of the sky.

"Gabumon warp digivolve to…METALGARURUMON!" The metal Digimon froze a whole section of the approaching Digimon with the Ice Wolf Claw attack.

"Agumon warp digivolve to…WARGREYMON!" WarGreymon spun around and ripped even more of Tsunonrimon’s henchmen to shreds with his claws.

"My turn! Kamomon warp digivolve to…DRAGOMON!" Dragomon activated his Wing Shield and plowed through the steadily shrinking cloud unharmed. Now through the first line of defense, the Digimon prepared themselves for battle.

Chapter Sixteen

T.K. looked up at Tsunonrimon from besides Kari, defiance in his eyes. "You hurt her…" he turned his gaze to his former partner, and the defiance was gone, yet replaced by a wistful sadness. "And you helped her do it." He remained unmoving for a brief eternity.

"Enough!" shouted Tsunonrimon. "You try my patience, child!" Abruptly, she stood up straight, as if listening to a distant voice. A smile gradually grew on her face. "They are here!" she whispered. "Come, Angemon, Angewomon! Let us show the Digidestined the wrath of Darkness!" The three walked out of the stone doorway, which sparkled briefly after they had left, and disappeared.

T.K. got up and started to run towards the door. As he crossed the threshold, however, the doorway flashed and he was thrown backwards. He cried in agony. "T.K.!" cried Kari. Weakly, she pulled herself up from the floor and went over to the other Digidestined. As she knelt down at the unconscious T.K.’s side, waves of nausea overtook her system, and she was plunged into a deep sleep. The two lay on the cold stone floor, unmoving.

"Flower Cannon!" Lillymon took out several of the numerous attackers with verdant blasts from her weapon, but they were replaced by even more. She cried out in pain as one of them sank its teeth into her shoulder. This momentary lapse allowed even more of the swarm to get in.

A roaring battle cry caused them to pause from tearing Lillymon apart. The Digimon barely had time to feel surprised before an angry WarGreymon ripped them all to shreds using his powerful claws.

Lillymon looked at WarGreymon. "Thanks for the help."

"Don’t mention it!" growled the Mega Digimon.

"Black Magic!" WarGreymon was suddenly thrown forward in a burst of energy as dark as night. Lillymon turned around to see the Dark Trio of Angemon, Angewomon, and Tsunonrimon floating right above the main tower of the palace.

Matt, still clinging on to Dragomon’s back, narrowed his eyes. "You…" he hissed. "What have you done with T.K.!"

Tsunonrimon looked at Matt as if he were a speck of dust. "Now, now," she chided. "You mustn’t be so rude when talking to your elders, boy." The Dark Queen floated forwards. Angemon and Angewomon started to follow, but Tsunonrimon halted them. "You wait here."

Tsunonrimon levitated over to Dragomon nonchalantly. Everyone eyed her cautiously, but no one wanted to do something that might ignite a full-scale battle.

"If you are so impatient to know where your little companions are," she began. "They are in the castle’s keep. However, I warn you, you will not be able to defeat us. It would be the wisest decision to simply leave. They are mine, and no one shall take them from me. If you turn around now, I shall let you go."

"Yeah, right!" scoffed Jake. "We came here to get T.K. and Kari back, and there’s no way in Hell that you’ll get us to give up on them!"

Tsunonrimon shrugged. "We gave you a chance…" She raised her hands high above her head. "Unholy Slash!" A crescent of midnight started to take shape in her fists. She brought it down suddenly, and it extended in a slice to Dragomon’s chest.

Dragomon roared in pain and started to thrash wildly. The four Digidestined tried to hold on, but it was no use. It was a very long drop to the forest floor below.

Chapter Seventeen

(Author’s Note: This occurs while the rescue party is going to Tsunonrimon, they haven’t started fighting yet)

"Sora." Sora closed her eyes even tighter, trying to drive away the voice that was waking her. "Sora?" Maybe if she pretended to still be asleep, they’d go away. "Sora!" With great reluctance, Sora opened her eyes and sat up.

Izzy looked at her. "Good, you’re awake. Let’s go to find Tai, Matt, and the others!"

Sora blinked. "Izzy? What time is it?" She looked around, confused. It was still dark out.

"Five in the morning." Izzy replied.

"Five?!" Sora looked at Izzy. "You woke us up at five in the morning! Izzy!"

Joe spoke up from where he was packing a bag, with Gomamon’s assistance. "He thinks that if we get going earlier, we’ll be able to meet up with the group before they can get into any trouble. And you know there’s going to be trouble."

"Well, I guess so…when you put it that way." Sora stood up and yawned. "Come on, Biyomon, time to get up."

The party cleaned up the campsite and then started down the path where the first group had gone. They never noticed the figure following them. A figure that looked like a Minotaur and wore iron gauntlets on his hands.

"Lunchtime!" yelled Gomamon happily. Joe pulled some sandwiches out of his bag. "That’s all?" Gomamon looked crestfallen. "Oh well, I suppose it will have to do."

The three Digimon and their partners all sat down to eat. Without warning, the air behind Joe started to waver and solidify. The other five, seeing this, started to back away from Joe, mouths agape.

"What? What’s wrong? I don’t have something in my teeth, do I?"

"No! It’s…it’s…"Sora pointed, but couldn’t finish the sentence.

"There’s someone behind me, isn’t there?" Joe turned and looked up at the Digimon. "AHHH!!! It’s Invisomon!" Joe dove forward, barely missing getting smashed by a steel glove.

Gomamon dropped the half-eaten sandwich. "Joe! Gomamon digivolve to…IKKAKUMON!" The shaggy walrus glared at Invisomon. "Harpoon Torpedo!"

Three of the missiles streaked at the Minotaur. "Demon Punch!" The gauntlets started to glow a bright white. "HYAA!" Invisomon brought his fist up and around, knocking the projectiles back at Ikkakumon, who was thrown backwards.

"Tentomon digivolve to…KABUTERIMON!"

"Biyomon digivolve to…BIRDRAMON!" And the battle raged on.

Chapter Eighteen

The four Digidestined were falling, unable to do anything. Jake closed his eyes and waited for the end. There were three clangs on metal below him all of a sudden. Then he landed on MetalGarurumon’s back, too. As he gasped for air, he saw that MetalGarurumon had caught the four of them not thirty feet above the dense foliage of the forest floor. A second later and they would have been pasty-colored spots on the ground.

"Hurricane Beam!" Angemon swerved around Dragomon’s attack. The beam, still continuing, struck the peak of the palace tower, ripping it clean off. In that room, Matt saw, were two very familiar figures lying side by side. "MetalGarurumon!" He yelled, his voice hoarse. "Up there! The tower!"

MetalGarurumon grunted an affirmative, and sprang higher into the air, landing right in the exposed room. "T.K.!" shouted Matt, running to his brother’s side.

"Kari!" Tai leaped off of MetalGarurumon’s back and sprinted to his sister. He, ever so gently, picked her head up and put it in his lap. "Kari…" he saw the horrific bruise on her side. "Oh my god…what did they do to you?"

Matt looked at the electric burns on his brother’s hands and face. "What happened here?"

Mimi and Jake bent over the two boys. "Are they…are they dead?" asked Mimi, worried.

"No, they’re just badly hurt." Choked Tai. "Tsunonrimon will pay for this."

The Digidestined turned as a cackle came from behind them. "Oh, how touching." Tsunonrimon sneered. "The families will die together." She started to gather power. "Black…" A pink blur suddenly dropped out of the sky, hitting Tsunonrimon in the back of the head.

"All right Lillymon!" cheered Mimi.

Tsunonrimon recovered from her out-of-control falling and turned to Lillymon. "Ah, the flower child wants to get in on the fight. News flash: The 60’s are over!" She crossed her arms in front of her face. "Rain of Blades!" She flung her hands outward again, releasing a spray of swords. Lillymon was thrown down into the forest below, helpless.

WarGreymon struck at Angewomon with his gleaming claws, but he couldn’t seem to hit her. She was too fast for him. Finally, he saw his chance. He drove his foot up in a kick to her chin, snapping it shut. As the angel fell backwards, WarGreymon brought his arm back.

"Hand of Fate!" Angemon’s beam attack struck home, colliding with the Mega’s back.

WarGreymon grunted in pain and turned around to confront this new threat. "Terra Force!" The gigantic sphere of fire shone a deep scarlet as he held it high over his head. He hurled the attack at Angemon, who was totally enveloped in the blast. As the angel dove out of the fireball, seemingly unscathed, WarGreymon paused for a second. This wasn’t right. He was a Mega Digimon, Angemon was only a Champion-stage. How could Angemon possibly have survived the Terra Force? He was forced to abandon this train of thought, however, as Angewomon re-entered the fight.

Chapter Nineteen

Izzy was working at his computer frantically. "Izzy, this is no time to play games!" protested Joe. "Invisomon is kicking our Digimon’s butts!"

"I know that, Joe!" explained Izzy. "One of the main problems with fighting Invisomon is that he can turn invisible. However, he still has a computer code in the Digiworld when he is transparent. So if I upload a program into the Digiworld that can isolate that code and display it…"

"Then we should be able to see Invisomon no matter what!" finished Sora.

Izzy nodded. "Right!" His fingers flew over the keyboard. With a final triumphant stroke, he pushed Enter. "Uploading now…"

Without his normal effects, Invisomon suddenly appeared in the air, aiming a kick at Kabuterimon. With the program in place, however, Kabuterimon could see Tsunonrimon’s henchman and react accordingly. The bug flew out of harms way. "Electro Shocker!" the ball of electricity hit a very startled Invisomon in the back.

Invisomon fell to his knees, obviously in pain. "What?" Sora was confused. "One shot from Kabuterimon does that much damage? How is that possible?"

Izzy smiled. "As I thought. With his natural camouflage ability, Invisomon probably never felt the need to enhance his defensive strength. Right now, he probably is the defensive equivalent of, oh say, Greymon. It’s an even match now."

"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon shot twin fireballs at Invisomon, who looked up with what Joe imagined was horror as the Digimon was picked up and thrown into a tree.

The Ultimate got up and looked at Birdramon. "Demon Punch!" He hit the gigantic bird straight on, but this left him open to a Harpoon Torpedo salvo from Ikkakumon. Invisomon fell to the ground, defeated. He shimmered, as if he was going to turn invisible again, and disintegrated.

"Yeah! You are the best, Izzy!" shouted Joe.

They were interrupted by a gigantic thunderclap in the distance. They all turned to see tiny specks shooting flashes of colored light at each other.

"Looks like trouble…" Izzy began.

"And where there’s trouble…" Sora continued.

Joe groaned. "There’s Tai and the others." He finished.

"Birdramon!" shouted Sora. "Take us to them! Quickly!"

Birdramon looked down at the trio. "I can’t carry all of you and your Digimon like this."

"Please! Birdramon, you have to! Otherwise, Tai will be hurt, I just know it. You have to!" Sora’s crest started to glow.

"Birdramon digivolve to…GARUDAMON!" The giant avian bent over to pick up the group. She flapped her wings once then took to the air.

Chapter Twenty

"What? Where am I?" Kari slowly opened her eyes. "What happened?" She seemed to lose focus for a second, then she regained it. "Tai!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

Tai looked down at his little sister. "We’re all here to rescue you guys from Tsunonrimon. She’s not paying any attention to us," he gestured at the small group. "But she’s doing a good job of defeating the Digimon, and it won’t be long before she turns on us."

Kari weakly sat up, then winced and brought her hand to her side as jolts of pain shot through her body.

"Do you know what happened to T.K.?" asked Matt. "He has really bad burns, and I’m worried about him!"

Kari thought. "He ran out the door," only then did she realize that since the roof had been blown off that there was no door. "And something shocked him. I think Tsunonrimon put a spell on the place or something."

It was then that a triple attack from the three Megas—WarGreymon’s Terra Force, Dragomon’s Hurricane Beam, and MetalGarurumon’s Ice Wolf Claw—sent Angewomon sprawling, and the angel crashed to the stone floor of the tower room not ten feet from where Kari was.

"Angewomon!" cried the young Digidestined. Fighting the pain, she went to her former companion’s side. "Are you alright?"

"Kari! What are you doing?" yelled Jake. "Angewomon’s evil! If you try and help her, she’ll just hurt you…or worse!"

Kari turned to him. "I don’t care! Angewomon was once my friend, and I still remember that! Nothing can change what she did for me before!" With those words, Kari’s Digivice started to radiate with a brilliant, pure, white light.

In wonder, the girl removed it from her belt and looked at it. She turned back to the downed angel, the Digivice in her hands still. The light washed over Angewomon’s face, and what seemed to be a miracle occurred. The radiance seemed to chase the evil aura around Angewomon away like daylight banishing the shadow of nightfall. Angewomon turned to Kari. "Kari?" she breathed. "What…what happened? The last thing I remember was Tsunonrimon…LOOK OUT!" the angel screamed.

Kari turned to see Angemon raising his staff high above his head like a club. Reflexively Kari brought her arms up to block against the blow she knew was going to come. The Digivice she still clutched in her hand shone again, and Angemon halted his attack. The evil was expelled from him as well. "Kari?" the holy warrior said, confused. He looked over to where T.K. was still lying unconscious. "T.K!" he shouted. "What have I done?" Slowly, Angemon dropped his staff.

"Don’t worry, it’s not your fault, Angemon, Angewomon." Said Mimi. "It was Tsunonrimon who turned you to evil." Mimi pointed to where Tsunonrimon was currently beating up on Dragomon.

"Tsunonrimon…" Angemon growled. "Matt," he called. "Take care of T.K.." The warrior floated into the air, to where Tsunonrimon had her back exposed to him. "HAND OF FATE!" The beam tore through the air and smashed into the Dark Queen.

Tsunonrimon turned in surprise. "ANGEMON!"

Angewomon flew to besides Angemon. "We’re free now, Tsunonrimon."

"And we’ve got a grudge to settle…"

Tsunonrimon threw back her head and laughed. "You, teach me a lesson? I think not! For today shall see the defeat of the Digidestined, one way or another! Do you hear me? You all will lose! And," she added, dropping her voice down to a menacing whisper. "I shall take a very personal pleasure in destroying the two of you."

A voice came from behind Tsunonrimon. "Not if we can help it!" She turned to see Izzy, Joe, Sora, and Ikkakumon—who had spoken—climb off Garudamon’s back, with Kabuterimon hovering closely besides them.

Tsunonrimon, for the first time, looked nervous. "Well, it seems that you outnumber me." She said, getting her sarcastic edge back. "So now it is time for me to exit." She started to rise higher in the air, and a glowing column of light surrounded her.

"Oh no you don’t!" Shouted Matt. "Come back down here and fight us!"

She ignored him. "Oh, and what kind of host would I be to leave without a parting present? So here it is…" A sphere of darkness started to surround her, growing bigger with each second, until it was larger than any attack they had ever seen before.

"Run! Get everyone out of here!" shouted Dragomon, realizing what was going to happen. "Quickly!"

The Digidestined leapt into action. Matt scooped up his brother and put him on MetalGarurumon’s back. T.K. started to stir. "Matt?" he asked. "What’s happening? What’s going on?"

"Shhhh." Hushed Matt. "We need to get out of here now!"

As the group made their exit, Tsunonrimon put enormous bolts of energy into the sphere. "HAVOC!!" she screamed shrilly. The ball expanded rapidly, destroying almost everything in its path. It finally collapsed in on itself in a gargantuan explosion, which hurled all the Digidestined around.

Jake opened his eyes weakly. He couldn’t move…a glimmer of light caught his attention. What was that? A crystal…thrown here from the depths of the mountain, maybe? It was very pretty and fine-cut for being a natural stone. Compelled by some urge that he couldn’t explain, Jake reached his tired arm for the crystal. As soon as his fingers closed around it, Jake suddenly felt new life come into his body. He had energy again.

Jake pocketed the crystal. He wouldn’t let this out of his sight.

A rumbling suddenly shook the ground. Jake looked into the sky to see it swirling around and around like some sort of cosmic vortex. A voice—Tsunonrimon’s voice—emanated from it. "Well, well. I see you’ve survived my Havoc attack. Now I have no choice but to finish you off…heh…prepare to meet your deaths, Digidestined…or should I say the DigiDoomed?" she laughed coldly, and Jake found himself surrounded by a brilliant, unholy, light.

When it cleared, he realized he was in some sort of giant chamber. The Digidestined and the Digimon were all surrounding him, looking as confused as he felt. The centerpiece of the room caught all of their attention, however. Tsunonrimon stood there, dressed as a queen, but wearing all black. Around her were her henchmen: Leprechaunmon, Cerebrusmon, and Goblinmon.

"Oh, I am SO pleased that you managed to come." Tsunonrimon smiled, and that made Jake want to throw up. "Welcome to my throne room. Take a long look around, for it is the last place you will ever see. Good-bye…" she pointed a long slender finger at the Digidestined. "Attack!"

Chapter Twenty-One

Her henchmen leapt into action. Leprechaunmon turned towards Sora and Garudamon. He smirked. "Charmer!" The short Digimon raised his hands, and a beam of light washed over the two. Leprechaunmon jerked his hands upwards, and Sora and Garudamon hit the ceiling hard. Then, he proceeded to smash the duo around from wall to wall. When he, finally, released them, they were bruised and battered. "Charming, isn’t it?"

He didn’t have time to do anything else, though, before Lillymon blasted him into the wall with a Flower Cannon attack. The leprechaun fell to the ground.

Matt dove to the ground as Goblinmon’s axe sliced right through the spot where his head had been a moment ago. He brought his legs around in a sweep kick, tripping the monster. However, the Ultimate-stage Digimon climbed right back to his feet again.

WarGreymon swiped at Tsunonrimon, but the Dark Queen was too agile for him. Again and again, she evaded his attacks. This was getting to be a nuisance. WarGreymon raised his hands high over his head. "Mega Claw! He started to spin faster and faster until he was a rotating column of energy. He sped towards the spot where Tsunonrimon was watching him with something in between mild interest and contempt—but she wasn’t there! As he came out of the spin, he was knocked forwards by her Black Magic attack.

Tsunonrimon aimed a kick at the larger, steel-plated WarGreymon, and connected, making a refreshing ‘thump’ sound. The Mega-Digimon was thrown back across the room and crashed through the wall, leaving a vaguely human-shaped hole. She smiled. This was too easy. Why was she worrying about these Digidestined at all? The answer came to her as a Terra Force counter burst through the gap and struck her solidly. The Dark Queen fell to the ground as WarGreymon once again entered the fight.

MetalGarurumon looked at the downed Tsunonrimon and saw his chance. "Ice Wolf Claw!" Dozens of missiles shot out of various spots on his body at Tsunonrimon, coating her in a thick layer of ice.

The ice started to fracture, however, and she broke out of the cold prison. She levitated up into the air. "Not bad, but then again, not good enough, either. Magus Storm!" Tsunonrimon held her arm up in the air like a lightning rod—which was an apt analogy. Bolts of lightning struck down at her two opponents, felling them both.

"HORN BUSTER!" MegaKabuterimon shot a jolt of energy at Cerebrusmon, knocking him into the air. The three-headed Digimon flipped in mid-air to land on his feet.

Using momentum from the fall, Cerebrusmon ran to the wall and used it as a springboard to leap into the sky at MegaKabuterimon. "Wrath of Hades!" The column of fire surrounded the gigantic beetle, and started to contract rapidly. As the flames passed through MegaKabuterimon’s flesh, the Digimon screamed in agony, and fell to the ground, severely burnt.

Jake dodged the razor-edged shamrock that came hurtling his way, only to have his arm nearly cut off by another. He started to run. As he was looking behind him at the pursuing Leprechaunmon, Jake didn’t see that he was sprinting towards the hole made in the wall by WarGreymon. Too late did he realize this, and he tripped over the bottom edge.

Somehow, Jake managed to turn his body in mid-air, and he clasped onto the broken concrete with the tips of his fingers. As he scrambled to find a better hold, he looked down. They were suspended in the air, somehow. If he fell, he would fall for a long time before meeting the ground in a not-too-pleasant crash.

He turned his face upward to see Leprechaunmon, his trademark sadistic grin on his face, looking down at Jake. Leprechaunmon rested his foot on Jake’s right hand, and started to apply pressure.

His expression suddenly changed to one of horror. A war cry pierced the air, and WarGreymon picked the little man up with one hand. "Not so lucky, are we?" The Mega brought his gleaming claw back. He swung forwards again, decapitating Tsunonrimon’s henchman with a single blow. Leprechaunmon dissolved into dust.

WarGreymon reached down and offered his hand to Jake, who took it gladly. Seemingly with no effort at all, he pulled the Digidestined up. "Be more careful next time," the Mega admonished. "I might not be able to protect you."

Chapter Twenty-Two

With MegaKabuterimon out of the way, Cerebrusmon turned to the pair of Digidestined in front of him—Kari and Tai. Licking his lips, the Digimon proceeded to them slowly.

"Tai! Kari! Watch out!" Zudomon bellowed, causing the two to jump in surprise. The large walrus-type Digimon brought his hammer down.

Cerebrusmon barely managed to jump out of the way in time. "So, you want to fight, huh? Let’s go!" Agilely bounding across the floor, Cerebrusmon was behind the slower Ultimate in nanoseconds. He pounced onto Zudomon’s back, and climbed up to his neck. All three of Cerebrusmon’s heads started to tear into Zudomon’s flesh.

Helplessly, Zudomon thrashed about. No matter what he did, however, he couldn’t seem to dislodge Cerebrusmon. "Wrath of Hades!" Cerebrusmon’s attack appeared around him, and the pressure on the back of his neck was gone suddenly. But before Zudomon could do anything, the fire was upon him.

"Zudomon!" shouted Joe. An axe flashed in front of him. "Eep!" Joe squeaked, as Goblinmon leapt into view.

"Axe Smash!" Goblinmon leapt into the air, his axe raised high above his head. He brought it down, and it sliced deep into Joe’s arm. Blood spurted out from the gaping wound, and Joe fell to his knees, clutching his arm in pain.

A pink blur smashed into Goblinmon, preventing him from delivering the final blow to Joe. "You big meanie!" shouted Mimi as she repeatedly slapped Goblinmon in the face. "Don’t you ever hurt my Joe again! Do you hear me? Never, ever, ever, touch him!" Joe’s face turned a shade of red almost as bright as the blood gushing from his arm.

"Here." Mimi got up from the dazed Goblinmon and tore a shred from the sleeve of her dress. She tied it tightly around Joe’s shoulder, halting the blood flow. "This should hold for a while." She was blushing too, Joe noted.

Lillymon dodged Cerebrusmon’s slash by inches. This Digimon was becoming a real annoyance. He had taken out two of their number already. He had to be stopped. "Wrath of Hades!" the three-headed Digimon dog growled.

"Not this time!" Lillymon responded, the petal she held in her hands blossoming to reveal a gun barrel. "Flower Cannon!" the blast caught Cerebrusmon dead on, knocking him backwards. Backward through the gaping hole in the wall WarGreymon had caused earlier. Yelping, Cerebrusmon fell to his doom.

Dragomon formed a beam of energy. "Hurricane Beam!" the blast picked Tsunonrimon up and tossed her into the air, but she merely shook her head and was back in the fight.

"Black Magic!" The ball of energy met another one of Dragomon’s Hurricane Beams. The beam was halted in midair, and the ball sent jolts of energy through it back into Dragomon, who cried in pain and collapsed weakly.

MetalGarurumon, WarGreymon, Lillymon, Angemon, and Angewomon stood in front of Tsunonrimon and Goblinmon. "It’s over." Angemon shouted in his reverberating voice. "No longer shall you reign over this section of the Digital World."

Tsunonrimon looked at him like he was crazy. "Oh, please." She waved the comment away. "You cannot defeat me. I am the Dark Queen Tsunonrimon! Nothing shall ever defeat me ex…" she caught herself in time.

"Except what?" MetalGarurumon growled. "So you DO have a weakness!"

"Hardly! You are annoying me, so I will just have to destroy you now. Unholy Slash!" the crescent of black energy appeared in her hands, and she swept it on a horizontal arc, knocking the five that opposed her out of the sky.

"No! Angemon!" shouted T.K., and he rushed to his fallen friend. Tsunonrimon saw this, and smirked evilly.

"T.K.!" Matt cried, and ran over to his brother, putting himself in between T.K. and Tsunonrimon. "If you want to get to T.K. you’ve got to destroy me first!"

"Oh, with pleasure!" Tsunonrimon crossed her arms. "The destruction of the Digidestined shall begin with you! Rain of Blades!" She flung her hands out again, and a shower of steel accompanied them. Matt closed his eyes and waited for the blades to hit him.

"No!!!" There were many ‘thwacks’ in front of Matt, and someone grunted softly. Matt opened his eyes to see Jake standing there. There were what seemed to be hundreds of pieces of metal lodged in his body. The largest was a full-sized sword running through his chest. Blotches of scarlet started to slowly spread from around the glittering steel.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Jake looked up at the horror-struck Digidestined, who were totally stunned by this. The boy fell to his knees, then to his side. There, he gazed at the people who had been his companions for the past week.

"I gave you a gift," he whispered, almost too quiet to hear. "Use it. Make me proud. You guys were…my friends…thank…you…" then he breathed his last.

As Jake rolled over onto his back, the life gone, something small and glittering fell out of his pocket. It was a crystal, a quite beautiful one as well. His Digivice and Crest fell to the ground beside it.

Tsunonrimon looked at the crystal beside the empty husk that had once been human, absolute terror on her face. "The Crystal of Power!" she shouted. "This cannot be!"

From where he was lying on the ground, virtually motionless, Dragomon saw these events. As the full meaning of this hit him, a tear started to trickle down his face. "No…" he whispered.

The crystal, the Digivice, and the Crest all started to clatter on the ground.

"No…" Dragomon was stunned. How could his partner be dead? This wasn’t right. "Jake…"

The three objects started to move more rapidly.

"No!" Dragomon started to climb to his feet, his mind not in control anymore, so great was his grief. "NOOOOO!!! JAKE!!!!!!!"

The crystal leapt into the air, and stayed there floating. Suddenly, a bright red beam hit it. Everyone looked to see Tai’s crest shooting the light.

Kari looked down to see her own crest activate.

Matt’s crest started to glow.

Joe, still kneeling, looked on in wonder as light spouted from his crest into the crystal.

One by one, the Digidestined’s crests started to activate and lend power to the crystal, which was beginning to shine with all the colors of the rainbow.

Tsunonrimon looked at Goblinmon. "Goblinmon!" she commanded "Destroy that crystal, now!"

"At once, your highness!" Goblinmon jumped into the air. "AXE SMASH!" He brought the battle-axe down, intending to slice the crystal in half, but he froze in midair, unable to move. The powers of the crests were strong enough to permit no evil presence to exist around them. Goblinmon showed a look of incredible pain on his face before he vaporized into dust.

Dragomon turned to Tsunonrimon, tears spilling from his eyes. "YOU MURDERER!!!" he bellowed, and even she was struck by the rage and sorrow in his voice. "YOU KILLED JAKE!!!!"

The Digivice and Crest by Jake’s side shot up into the air, coming in line with the crystal. Jake’s Digivice activated, shooting a beam of light into the Crest of Nobility. The light carried onward, finally striking the crystal. The symbol of Jake’s crest shone for a long second and then two gigantic beams of rainbow light projected from the crystal—one into the air, and one into Jake’s chest.

Dragomon seemed to gather strength from the beam. "YOU WILL PAY!!" he screamed at Tsunonrimon. Suddenly he started to change. "Dragomon digivolve to…" crystal armor plating started to encase him from the feet up, melding around his tail, which also shrunk somewhat. The dragon-like form changed into a much smaller, human-shaped one, except for his tail, wings, and long, elegant, serpentine neck. The crystal glittered as it completely covered his head, and he turned around, his eyes burning brightly. "CRYSTALDRAGOMON!!!!!"

Izzy shielded his eyes from the glare of the crystal armor and looked at his analyzer program. "Huh?" he asked, confused. "CrystalDragomon doesn’t have an entry…oh wait, here we go," Izzy read from the screen. "The legendary Crystal of Power was said to have the ability to give any Digimon a power boost—and the ancient prophecies said that it was the only thing which could defeat the future Queen of Darkness."

CrystalDragomon sprang into the air, his wings whistling, and came down at Tsunonrimon. He started to shine and he grabbed onto her. "Crystal Meld!" energy from her body seemed to flow into his own body, and he threw her into a wall.

"The technique Crystal Meld is said to give the Digimon who uses it access to their opponent’s powers." Izzy discovered with his computer.

Tsunonrimon climbed to her feet. "So, you’ve Digivolved to a new level. It doesn’t matter! I’ll still defeat you! Black Magic!" the ball of energy sped towards CrystalDragomon. He was tossed backwards, but managed to flip in midair so he landed on his feet.

"Rain of Blades!" the sword shower hit Tsunonrimon directly, pinning her to the wall. CrystalDragomon seemed to glow with even more energy. "Crystal Imprisonment!" he shot a beam right at Tsunonrimon, who was transformed into a small little crystal, which lay on the floor.

"Is she…gone?" asked Kari, unsure of herself.

The crystal shook, and shattered, revealing Tsunonrimon once again. And she was mad. "You cannot defeat me! I am the Dark Queen Tsunonrimon! YOU SHALL DIE!" she started to prepare for her Havoc attack. "Darkness shall now triumph!"

A shout from behind Tsunonrimon caused everyone to look. "Not in our world, Tsunonrimon!"

She turned, and gasped. "No…I don’t believe it!"

"Believe it!" Jake was standing, his injuries nearly healed, the Crystal of Power held out in front of him like a cross to ward off vampires. "The Crystal has powers you can never dream about, Tsunonrimon—and that you cannot stop. Your terrorizing of the people will end now. CRYSTAL BEAM!" The legendary Crystal of Power emanated bright waves of light, shooting a beam right at Tsunonrimon, who cried with pain as the goodness in the beam hit her.

Jake turned to look at his partner, CrystalDragomon. "Now!" he shouted.

CrystalDragomon raised his hand over his head. "Crystal…" a ball of pure crystal energy started to take place. He brought his hand down and started to spin around. "Dragon…" With every spin, the ball grew more powerful, larger. When it was about the size of a beach ball, CrystalDragomon stopped spinning. He stood there, silent. Then he fell to one knee and tossed the ball. "FINALE!"

The ball, sparkling with many colors, sped towards the incapacitated Tsunonrimon. It hit her, and started to spread out along her body. Every inch of her started to turn to crystal. The multicolored light shone too brightly for anyone to look at. She screamed, and the energy stopped expanding. Time seemed to stop as the crystal glowed brightly. Then everything collapsed inwards in a gigantic explosion of power.

"Huh…where am I?" Sora weakly sat up. They were back in the jungle where they had confronted Tsunonrimon for T.K. and Kari. Yokomon was at her side. She looked around. There were Tai and Koromon, Kari and Nyasomon, Matt and Tsunomon, Izzy and Motimon, T.K. with Koromon beside him, Joe and Bukamon, Mimi and Tanemon…and there were Jake and Liquamon. Of Tsunonrimon, Sora saw nothing. As the rest of the group started to stir, Sora turned her head to the sky. The sun was coming out.

THE END…(or is it?)

Epilogue

She had nothing. Her henchmen…gone. Her palace…gone. Her power…gone. Everything was gone. She had no hope. Wait—there was something. She had herself. As long as she was alive, as long as she had her spirit, they could never defeat her. Not even the mythical Crystal of Power. She would survive. Because her hate was still here. She hated the Digidestined. And she could feed off of that hate. Her father would be revenged. She would have her revenge. As long as she was still here, she WOULD have her revenge…