RazorLeomon let out one last roar, then he toppled over and came crashing down to the floor. His giant cyborg body turned into fragments of data that got absorbed by all of the replacement heroes. In the end, there was nothing left but a tiny kitten that mewed pitiously.
Suzie picked it up and scratched it behind the ears. "Poor little thing…" she murmured. She then gave Manami an accusing glare. "Sending a small, innocent animal like that into battle! What were you thinking?"
Manami just smiled and Senshimon huffed. "Don't waste your breath on her, she's completely brainwashed and corrupted by Lucemon."
"Not true," Manami claimed. "I just want to be her friend… unlike you, who dare to reject our utopia. Don't you see this is the best for us all?"
"Well, I see that we need to reach the uppermost floor to knock some sense into your buddy Ai's head," Gargomon said while aiming his guns at her. "You've got some of those Force Gems on you, right? Hand them over so we don't have to kick your butt."
The Succubimon raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"
"Yes, yes, that's right," Kobomon grinned. "You only need 20 more Force Gems to open the seal… and beating a boss rewards you with 50. So go on and kill her!"
"We won't have to kill her if she gives them to us willingly," Turuiemon said to Kobomon with a frown.
"Ah, but she would never cooperate with you, isn't that true?" Kobomon smiled knowingly.
Manami watched the floating, yellow Digimon with irritation. "I don't know who you are why you are helping those rebels… but let me assure you that I will never disappoint Mistress Lucemon!"
"See? What did I tell you?" Kobomon asked. "No reasoning with those devil Digimon. So go ahead, kill her already!"
"Would you shut up already?" Romi snapped. "You're irritating as hell!"
"Let me make this clear, Kobomon," Shaochungmon then said sternly. "We won't kill anyone if it isn't necessary. Up to now, we were able to turn all the Azraelmon and Succubimon we've beaten back to normal. We will try and do the same here."
"You DO want to clear the game, don't you?" Kobomon asked her.
Manami had heard enough. "This has gone on far long enough!" she grumbled and spread her wings. "If you refuse to accept Lady Lucemon's new order… you will have to be ELIMINATED!" And she attacked by firing beams of darkness from her hands.
The replacement heroes scattered. "Watch out, everyone!" Senshimon yelled. "Fight back!"
Kobomon chuckled as she floated to the ceiling of the room, where she watched the battle. "They will have to kill her," she said to herself. "They have no other choice. They will do it… even if I have to force them to."
"You wanna come in help me find my Daddy?" Fluffmon asked the two young vixens.
"But… we have to find our Mommy first," Kitmon whined.
"Hey… but maybe Mommy is wherever her Daddy went to?" Viximon then suggested. "If we find one of them, we can find the other."
"Really?" Kitmon asked hopefully.
"Sure!" Fluffmon said as she bounced up and down excitedly, even though she didn't really know it.
"Okay… but how do we get in there?" Viximon asked as she pressed her tiny paws against the invisible barrier between the fox kits and the lion cub.
"Maybe we can dig," Fluffmon suggested. "I'm the best digger in my family." And she began to bury her paws into the dirt that surrounded the barrier on her side.
"C'mon, sis, we help her!" Kitmon smiled as she did the same. Not really seeing any other alternative, Viximon shrugged and helped her sister and their new friend.
They dug and dug, but the barrier went on and on, even inside the earth. Fluffmon pouted cutely. "That's one stubborn barrier…" she muttered. "But I will not give uuup!" And she dug even faster.
"Hey, not fair!" Kitmon shouted. "I wanna be first!"
"Sis… this is not a race," Viximon commented.
"So? I still wanna be first."
So they dug and dug until they reached the bottom… which was, the bottom of the room that contained their little pocket realities. And like the rest of the tower, this bottom was made of white marble. As little In-Training Digimon who never remembered anything but living in their own little worlds, they could not know what that was, naturally.
"What is this stuff?" Fluffmon complained. "I can't dig through it, it's too hard."
"But… I reached it first, so I'm the winner!" Kitmon grinned.
"No, I reached it first! I'm the winner!" Fluffmon insisted.
"No, you're not!"
"I am too!"
"Are not!
"Am too!"
"Are not!"
"Am too!"
Viximon, in the meantime, had found a strange thing made of metal. This was one of the generators that created the digital barrier which seperated the different pocket realities from each other. She couldn't know what it was, of course. Still, she was the smartest of the three In-Trainings.
"This looks important," she pondered while looking at the little gadget. A mischievous grin then appeared on her muzzle. "I better smash it!" And she promptly threw her whole body at the generator, which began to fizzle and sparkle right away. The barrier flickered a bit and then disappeared.
Fluffmon and Kitmon had leaned against the barrier during their name-calling contest, but now, they fell into each other. They blinked in confusion, then they giggled.
"Stoopid barrier is gone!"
"Yay! Let's go back up so we can search my Daddy and your Mommy!"
"Okay… race you back up!" And Kitmon climbed back up the little shaft they had dug into the earth.
"Hey, no fair!" Fluffmon shouted as she climbed after her new friend. Viximon chuckled and went after them.
They left the burrow of earth on the side of Fluffmon's pocket reality. They founds themselves in a wide, empty savannah.
Fluffmon pointed to their left. "Daddy's that way!"
"Hey, how do you know?"
"I can smell him."
"Oh… do you smell Mommy, too?" Kitmon asked.
"I dunno… what's she smell like?" Fluffmon asked back.
"Like us, but different," Viximon replied.
"Gotcha!" Fluffmon grinned as she took a deep sniff from the two fox sisters. Then she began to sniff the air and ground around them. "Yeah, she's that way, too," she nodded. "Follow me!"
"Hey, sis?" Kitmon asked her sister as they followed the lion cub. "How come we didn't think of finding Mom by using our noses?"
"Um… I forgot," Viximon said sheepishly.
Kitmon giggled. "Silly sis!"
Just several minutes later, they found another burrow.
"You sure our Mom and your Daddy are in there?" Viximon asked Fluffmon as she peered into the dark hole.
"Of course!" Fluffmon said proudly. "My nose is the best in the savannah!"
"Well, I can't smell a thing…" She slowly crawled inside. Kitmon followed her.
"Look, there's another one of those shiny barriers," she said as she pointed ahead.
"Yeah… I wonder what those are."
"Dunno… looks weird. Colorful, and flickering… like a screen saver."
Viximon blinked as she looked at her sister in surprise. "How… how do you know what a screensaver is? You're barely old enough… wait, how do I know what a screensaver is? I've never seen one in my life… or… did I?" She shook her head.
"Heeeyyy!" Fluffmon shouted as she pushed against the two vixens from behind. "What's taking you two so long? I can't see a thing! C'mooon, move that furry behind, Rika!"
Now it was Kitmon's turn to blink. "What… did you call me?"
"Um… Rika," Fluffmon replied. „Somehow... it sounds as if that could be your name... don't ask me why."
"But that's silly," Kitmon protested. "My name isn't Rika, it's Kitmon. I've never been outside of our parents' den and… I really shouldn't… be able to… talk like a big kid…"
"Hey!" another voice then shouted. "What are you doing over there?" A small, tiny dragonling had appeared on the other side of the barrier.
"Ryo!" Kitmon said happily. "Wait, what? How do I know your name?"
"Huh? Do I know you?" the little dragon whelp asked in a confused voice.
"Something… is not right here…" Viximon muttered. "As if… we're not who we are supposed to be…"
"Glamorous Rainbow Kiss!"
"Zodiac Spin!"
Manami grimaced as she blocked Senshimon's attack with her wings and then did an aerial roll to evade Shaochungmon's flying shield. "You… can't hope to defeat me… I am Number One of Lady Lucemon's Disciplinary Squad… DEVIL SPIKES!" She landed on the ground, her wings transformed into long spikes. With one swift move, she buried them in the floor… and they came back out right where Senshimon and Shaochungmon were standing.
Suzie cried in pain as one of the spikes pierced her hand. Romi was just grazed on the arm. "Yui! Healing Disk, now!"
"Healing Disk, coming at ya!" the Meramon shouted as she flung the object through the room. Before it hit Suzie, it vanished in a brilliant aura of green that surrounded her. Almost instantly, her wounds disappeared.
"No! You can't do that! You're cheating!" Manami yelled as she pulled her wings back out of the ground.
"What's the matter? Forgot to stock up on your healing items, Manami?" Gargomon grinned as he opened fire. At the same time, Turuiemon leapt into the air and came diving down at the Succubimon with her feet outstretched. "RABBIT KICK!"
"ARGH!" Manami cried as she was pummeled by attacks. "No… Ai… forgive me… our beautiful world… I can't… protect it anymore…"
"Stop that already!" Senshimon shouted as she grabbed Manami by the collar and pushed the whining Succubimon against a wall. "And open your eyes, girl! You are no devil! You are a little girl that was brainwashed and transformed by Lucemon!"
"No! No, I can remember… the glorious, dark times when Lucemon first rose to power… I was there… at her side… her trusted Lieutenant… the girl… was just the medium to accept my dark self."
"What are you babbling…?"
"Romi, wait!" Henry suddenly shouted from behind. "What if she's telling the truth? What if Ai's transformations somehow served as a catalyst to insert the data of the true devil Digimon into the children?"
"What? How did you come up with that idea?" Gargomon asked his partner in bewilderment.
Henry chuckled. "Hero meta-knowledge. Happens in the best RPGs. I guess we can thank Kei for that."
"So, is the kid really telling the truth?" Romi barked as she shook the now limp Manami around. "Have you taken over that child's body?"
"It… it is true…" the Succubimon whispered. "We were two… now we are one… I don't know how it happened. It was… like a revelation. Like waking up from a long slumber… we suddenly knew who we are. It's the same with Lucemon… she is Ai… yet she is not. We are both and neither at the same time."
"Well, that's just great!" Turuiemon sighed. "And how are we supposed to split them apart again… so we won't have to feel guilty by absorbing a young child's data?"
"Wait… I know that Angel Digimon can use their holy powers to dispel dark possesions and transformations… I should know, I am Azulongmon's champion. But… will that be enough in this case?"
"Even if it works, it doesn't help us one bit," Gargomon pointed out. "There's no Angel Digimon available."
"Excuse me!" a tired voice spoke up behind them. "But can you keep the noise down? Some people are trying to sleep here!"
They all turned around, Senshimon still keeping a firm grip on Manami, and looked at the young angel-girl that was standing in the door, sleepily rubbing her eyes.
"If you wanna attack Mommy's tower, do it at a time when other people aren't sleeping," ChibiD'Arcmon yawned.
Romi blinked. "D'Arcmon?" she murmured.
Suzie smiled. "Well… looks like we found our angel."
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:35)
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