"We've reached our destination, slow down!" Riley shouted. She was sitting at the bow of the motorboat that actually belonged to Kouki's cousin who lived in Beijing.
Yamaki let the boat come to a stop right in front of the gigantic wall of pink light that seemed to span across the whole horizon.
Alice, still in her Gaomon form, walked up to her adoptive sister. Tally, Ivan and Kouki followed her. "Wow, this sure looks different... and I've just been away a few days."
Kouki scratched his head. "Sooo... any idea how we can get past that thing? I suppose just knocking is out..."
"According to news reports, ships and airplanes that approached the sphere just vanished into thin air," Yamaki said as he dragged a heavy box of equipment over to his crew. "We shouldn't touch it with our bare hands until every other method turns out to be futile."
"Maybe, but I bet that pink stuff hasn't dealt with powerful Hybrids before," the cocky, young street fighter grinned.
"Stop that, Kouki," Alice grumbled. "Yamaki's right, we need to be patient on this one."
Kouki raised an eyebrow. "Huh? What happened to you? You're the reckless one of our group, aren't you, boss-lady?"
Alice gritted her teeth. "I thought I told you to stop calling me that!"
"I would do it to show Alice how much she means to me..." Ivan muttered. "But if she hears that, she'll think I'm weird again and get mad, so I'm not saying that out loud..."
Everyone sweatdropped and wisely decided to ignore the slow-witted Russian's remark.
Tally peered into the box with her big Gatomon eyes while Yamaki opened it. "What do you have there, Yamaki?" she asked. "You didn't have these things while we were travelling around the world."
"Oh, I just went on a little shopping tour before we left," Yamaki grinned. "I've thought about this strange wall of light and decided to conduct a few experiments..."
At first, he took a regular tennis ball, hefted it in his hand and nodded. He then handed it to Ivan. "Here, try throwing this at the wall."
Ivan blinked in confusion, but when Alice gave him a nod, he just shrugged, took the ball swung his muscular arm around and hurled it across the water.
As soon as the tennis ball hit the wall, it just disappeared.
Alice frowned. "Well, that didn't do much, did it?"
Yamaki smirked. "I'm not done yet." He then surprised everyone when he took a machine gun out of the box."
"Whoa, your boyfriend is full of surprises," Kouki told Riley. "How did he manage to get that thing through customs?"
"You know, I have no idea..." Riley shrugged.
Yamaki raised the gun, took close aim and pulled the trigger. He fired a full round at the pink wall, but just like the tennis ball, it didn't do anything."
"Yamaki!" Tally then shouted. "What if someone was on the other side of the wall and you hit him?"
"We're in the middle of the ocean," Riley reminded her white-furred sister. "I don't think that thing can shoot all the way to the main island."
With a sigh, Yamaki put the machine gun away. "Well, now there's only one thing we could try before I need to take out the heavy artillery... Kouki, could you give me some assistance?"
"Um, you're talking to me?" the blonde asked.
"No, he's talking to someone else on this boat who's called Kouki," Alice growled. "Of course he's talking to you, dumbass!"
"All right, no need to bark at me," Kouki grumbled. "What can I do for you, oh wise leader?" he asked Yamaki in a mocking voice.
Yamaki raised an eyebrow. "Please transform and try to find out what happens if you attack that wall with your Digimon powers."
Kouki bowed down, so that his head nearly touched the deck. "Your wish is my command, oh master!" His voice was dripping with sarcasm.
He then called upon his Hybrid powers: "Kouki Bio Hybrid Digivolution to... BioThunderbirmon!"
With a shrill squawk, the blue-feathered bird rose up into the air. "Man, it feels good to be able to stretch my wings again!" he shouted.
"Now, the wall, if you would..." Yamaki spoke up.
"Consider it totaled, dude!" BioThunderbirmon smirked and flew as close to the wall as he could without actually touching it.
He then began to charge up some energy in his wings. "THUNDERSTORM!"
The lightning crackled through the wall of light as if it wasn't even there.
"Damn, I hate it when that happens..." Kouki grumbled. "What now?"
"You've done your best, thanks for now!" Yamaki shouted up to him. Realizing that there really wasn't much he could do, Kouki glided back down to his friends and turned back into a human.
Yamaki sighed. "That thing really is stubborn... looks like I have no other choice but to use my last trump card."
"Oh, and that would be...?" Alice asked curiously.
Yamaki grinned and reached deep down into the box, where something big and heavy was hidden underneath a huge amount of styrofoam.
Tally let out a gasp of surprise and stumbled backwards when Yamaki hefted the heavy thing. Alice and Kouki looked like their jaws would hit the deck any moment, and Riley reacted by yelling: "What the HECK!!?"
Yamaki smirked and looked down at the grenade launcher he was holding. "A real beauty, isn't it? And I didn't have to pay anything to get it..."
"Yamaki, PLEASE tell me you didn't steal that thing!" Tally shouted.
"Oh, don't worry," he grinned. "Those are all remains of Yamacus' army of darkness. I took a few of these old things along and hid them as soon as we reached China, in case we'd need them."
Riley glared at him. "And you never, never were contemplating on rebuilding your army, weren't you?" she asked in a dark voice.
"Of course not!" Yamaki protested. "I never had any of these destructive feelings ever since Miss Rika let us leave Japan... but I figured, if we still have this, why not use it?"
"You know, that's really a good point, sis!" Alice pointed out.
Riley crossed her arms. "Fine!" she hissed. "But just so you know, I for my part have put that evil stuff behind me." She turned around and walked along the boat's rail, leaving them behind.
"Sheesh, what's the matter with her?" Alice grumbled.
"Believe it or not, Riley is still suffering the most from what happened to her," Tally whispered. "It became clearer and clearer to her what her actions as the Demon Lord of Lust would have actually caused. One night, we even had to stop her from killing herself. That's how guilty she feels!"
Kouki whistled. "Wow... that's deep."
Yamaki sighed. "I talked to her about this. I had really hoped I didn't have to use this, but it's the last thing we can do, except for just driving in..."
"You're actually going to shoot that thing?" Alice sweatdropped.
Suddenly, a deep grumbled made them all hesitate.
"Ivan, cut that out!" Alice growled.
"I didn't do anything..." Ivan proclaimed.
Kouki scratched his head. "But if it wasn't you, then who or what...?"
"Look over there!" Tally gasped. They all looked to where she was pointing, at a point where the water was beginning to wave and bubble. After some time, the waves were getting so big that they were making the whole boat sway.
And finally, a huge head broke through the surface, the brown head of an enormous whale, whose body was at least twice as big as their boat. And it wasn't just any whale... it was a Digimon.
"A Whamon!" Alice gasped. "But... but there have never been any native to the waters of Japan. And they are too big to cross the borders between the worlds..."
The Whamon laughed. "Well, to tell you the truth, I wasn't actually a Whamon a few days ago. Back then, I was just a tiny Penguinmon, barely three years old, and lived with my parents in Osaka. Funny how things turn out, huh?"
"But... but how could you have digivolved into a WHAMON if you were just three years old...?" Tally muttered.
Whamon grimaced. "If you think that's odd, just wait until you see what else has happened in town. I'm telling you, everyone has gone completely crazy..."
"You're awfully well-spoken for someone of your age," Yamaki commented.
"Well, yeah, that's because us kids all got this huge IQ improvement the time we changed. Whoah, that was a rush, I'm telling ya... now I know everything an adult should know. But, the weird thing is, unlike my pals, I don't really feel like giving in to these urges... and even though I'm big now - no, make that HUMONGOUS - I still miss my Mommy and Daddy..."
For a while, the tone of a confused, little child shone through Whamon's behavior.
"But... wait a minute, does that mean getting out of there is actually no problem?" Kouki wondered.
"Actually, it's nearly impossible," Whamon explained. "Everyone who enters it from this side instantly falls under the sway of Lucemon's power... and it you try to pass it from within, you hit an impenetrable wall."
"Lucemon?" Riley shouted. In a single leap, she was standing next to her friends again. "I knew the Demon Lords were behind this... let me guess, Barbamon helped Lucemon, right?"
Whamon shook his head. "No, she did it all by herself. And believe me, there really is no way out of there... I haven't met any other sea Digimon who was as big and strong as me after I digivolved, but even with my thick head, I wasn't able to breach the barrier..."
"So... then how come you're out here?" Alice wondered.
The whale Digimon smirked. "Well, that might be because of the undersea tunnel..."
"Wait a minute... what did you just say?" Yamaki gasped.
Whamon grinned. "You know, Lucemon forgot to provide her little dome of magic with a solid floor... you can dig your way through the ground and never hit the wall of light. In fact, it's even possible to dig your way underneath the dome. This is my first time outside ever since I've been forced to digivolve!"
"But... you couldn't have dug a tunnel, right?" Tally pointed out. "You're a whale."
"It's true, it wasn't as easy as that," Whamon replied. "A tricky and complex system of flooded tunnels and underwater sluices was necessary to bring my massive body over here... but in the end, it was worth it." He snickered. "You know, I am a volunteer... you are looking upon the new secret chauffeur between the blocked-off Japan and the outer world. A good thing we managed to stay hidden from Lucemon, or else she'd get pretty angry..."
"Who do you mean with 'we'?" Yamaki asked him curiously.
"Well, if you want, I can arrange a meeting," Whamon smirked. "That is, if you'd like to come aboard..."
And he opened his muzzle widely.
All around Whamon, the water was drained. In the end, he was resting in a huge, but comparatively shallow basin of water inside one huge cave.
He opened his mouth and let his passengers get out. "Please try not to step on the teeth on your way out," he said. "Thank you!"
Bewildered, Yamaki and his companions looked around. The cave was big enough to contain at least eight Whamons, and it was stuffed with all sorts of different technology. Humans and Digimon were running around everywhere. Curiously, nearly two thirds of the humans they saw were little children, and at least the same amount of Rookie Digimon. Also, Alice noticed that many of the highly complicated machines were painted to look like toy boxes or colorful animals...
A trio of little boys came walking up to them. The middle one grinned and offered his hand for a welcoming shake. "Welcome in the Rebel Base," he grinned. "A gathering place for all those who managed to keep a clear head after Ai has changed all of Japan."
Yamaki accepted the handshake, although he, as well as the rest of his team, was quite baffled. "Who... is Ai?"
"You might know her as Lucemon," the boy said with a sad look on his face. "I'm her father... or used to be, before she tried turning me into her son." He grimaced. "But fortunately, I managed to escape. Together with Kenta and Kazu here, I founded the Transformed Rebels."
The two toddlers looked even younger than Ai's transformed father, but they acted like they were at least double their apparent age.
"Digging a tunnel to escape was my idea," Kenta proudly proclaimed.
"Don't be silly, you know it was all my idea!" Kazu protested.
"No way!" Kenta shouted. "You might have thought about it, but I was the first one to suggest it."
"In your dreams!"
Ai's father cleared his throat. "Well... anyways, after realizing that there were quite a few individuals who for some reason have resisted Ai's mental control, including several of the 'new adults', such as Whamon."
"But... still, if the transformation happened just a couple of days ago, how were you able to bring all of this... stuff down here?" Alice wondered.
"Oh, we were fortunate to have some... higher help available," the young boy smirked.
"What does he mean?" Riley whispered into her sister's ear. Tally just shrugged.
Just then, an enormous, metal door on the other side of the cavern opened, and a towering, imposing figure stepped in.
Yamaki and his girls, as well as Alice and her mercenary team instantly recognized the Mega Digimon. But he had changed as much as a being of his kind could change...
The humanoid creature looked like a bipedal bull, with massive, curved horns on each side of his skull. Two long, metal chains were wrapped around his muscular arms, and it was as big as ever.
But in place of the bestial, monstrous visage they had seen on him the last time they met had transformed into a face that was quite handsome for a bull-man, and his stature had something proud. He also was wearing armor parts that reminded Alice of Vajramon, and his wings have turned from black bat wings to white bird wings.
"Mr. Yamaki, it is good to see you again," the Mega Digimon spoke in a calm voice. "And in case you are wondering, no, I am not holding a grudge against what happened between us."
"Can it be true?" Tally murmured.
"It is," Yamaki whispered. "It's Belphemon!"
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(Posted Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:54)
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