Digimon Adventure ND Book One: Manipulamon Reigns - Chapter Twenty-Three

Hurray! Manipulamon is defeated and the story is over! Wait, what's this about there being more to this thing? I'm the author and I didn't even expect this!

 Chapter Twenty-Three

A Losing Battle;

The Digivolution Miracle!

TechnoFillimon circled her foe. She did a corkscrew motion in mid air, firing off bolts of light from the triangular structure on her back, hitting ViralManipulamon with several of them. Then she leveled out and extended a booster from the back of the structure and surged forward. However, aided by sheer luck, ViralManipulamon caught her in the wing with a swinging tentacle. She spiraled out of control, managing to extend the injured wing again just in time to avoid slamming into the ground. More slowly that before, she turned back toward the foe, ready to resume the attack. I knew she was injured, but I was glad that she was able to keep fighting despite it.

We were down to two Ultimate Digimon, two Perfect Digimon, and Birdramon, an Adult Digimon. There was Dokugumon, Tuskmon, and TechnoPupmon as well, but Dokugumon was admittedly not a fighter, Tuskmon was too slow to get anywhere near ViralManipulamon without aid, and seemed reluctant to leave Dokugumon's side anyway, and the attacks of a Child Digimon like TechnoPupmon wouldn't affect a Digimon like ViralManipulamon at all. The injured Knighthramon barely counted as a factor in the battle anymore, either, being completely unarmed. Still, despite the enemy’s vast power, the Digimon continued to weave between ViralManipulamon’s tentacles and attack at every opportunity with whatever power and weapons that they could muster. They were tiring, however, and so their attacks were weakening. Not even MetalDragonterramon's cutting beam was injuring him anymore.

“This isn’t working,” I said, so frustrated that my hands were shaking.

“We all realize that,” said Sarah, hiding her fear behind anger.

“Yeah,” said Jen, analytically, “but what else can we do?”

“I've been thinking about that,” said Jeremy, turning to Jen and Sarah, “The two of you wield a power that is by far greatest when you wield it together. So I was thinking, if the two of you were to call your Crest power out at the same time, maybe the two powers will amplify each other.”

“I'd thought of the same thing,” I told them. It was time. I was otherwise out of ideas.

“You’re just saying this now?” said Sarah angrily. Even as she spoke she placed her hand over her Neo Crest of Light.

“They're only saying it now,” said Jen, as she did the same, “because they've both checked their little devices, and they both say that if we fail, we could overload our Digimon with power and leave them too weak to fight anymore. Am I right?”

“Yeah,” I said, gripping the portable Digicomp tightly at my side, “doing something like this could unlock the next level for your Digimon, or, if they aren't ready to reach that level yet, it could burn them out, or even injure them.”

“Oh,” said Sarah. She hesitated, but there was an explosion, and TechnoFillimon and MetalStaliamon were both knocked from the air. They hit the ground hard, leaving a crater behind. When they crawled back out, they were their Child forms again. They could barely stand.

“Ponymon!” Sarah cried.

“Coltmon,” Jen pleaded, “are you okay?”

Sarah dripped her Crest Tag in her hand, a thoughtful look playing across her face. She looked up at the towering enemy and said, “I believe that our Digimon are ready.”

“Me too,” Jen agreed. “After all, if they aren't, I don't see us surviving this one anyway.”

Sarah and Jen’s Crests began to glow. The light merged together, each increasing the other's power, and something miraculous happened.

Coltmon and Ponymon were encased in light and rose into the air. Jen’s and Sarah’s Digiplayers rose into the air, and their Crests slid from their tags, becoming disks. Sarah smiled, and Jen said, “Oh sweet, it worked!” They grabbed the disks and swiped them through the slots in their Digiplayers, calling, “Initiate Warp Digivolution!”

Everyone, including MetalDragonterramon, Knighthramon, and even ViralManipulamon looked over at the horses. The light around the horses grew brighter.

“Coltmon, Warp Digivolve to…”

“Ponymon, Warp Digivolve to…”

Ponymon and Coltmon became TechnoFillimon and MetalStaliamon. MetalStaliamon was encased completely in armor, and became a robotic man with thick, strong armor plating. He stood sixteen feet tall and had broad mechanical wings. His face was very human, and he had long blond hair. He wore a mask marked with a cross, under a clear red screen, and carried a round shield marked with the same symbol. The blade that was torn from his armor earlier in the fight rose up from the ground and became a long curved sword that he caught in his right hand, calling out, “MechAngemon!”

The triangular box on TechnoFillimon’s back separated and hung in the air. TechnoFillimon became a glowing humanoid form, fifteen feet tall, with broad feathered wings, armored in metal and robotics that looked like TechnoFillimon's bionics adapted for a new shape. Her face was human, like her counterpart's, though much softer and kinda beautiful. She had long blond hair, longer than her counterpart's, and wore a metallic mask over her eyes, bearing a cross. She carried a tall shield marked with a cross as well, and the triangular box became a crossbow that mounted over the Digimon’s right arm, as she declared, “TechAngewomon!”

“Angels?” I said. I pulled my handheld from my pocket and scanned the two figured that hung in the air facing ViralManipulamon, there bodies glowing radiantly. I read the display. “They’re both Metal Angel Digimon,” I said, “Ultimate Level!”

I smiled at our good fortune, “They've managed to actually fuse the holy powers of their Adult Forms with the Metal powers of their Perfect forms. They'll have an advantage!”

I pocketed the handheld again as Jen said, “Awesome! We have four Ultimate Digimon now. ViralManipulamon doesn’t stand a chance!”

“No,” said MechAngemon, the massive ViralManipulamon roaring at him challengingly. “In their weakened state MetalDragonterramon and Knighthramon are not strong enough to stand up to ViralManipulamon. And the two of us cannot defeat a Digimon like ViralManipulamon, even with an advantage in type and the help of our allies.”

“We will lend our power to you,” said TechAngewomon, “MetalDragonterramon and Knighthramon. We can see an even greater power inside of you, one which rivals our enemy. We will unlock that power!”

As they spoke, ViralManipulamon scrutinized them warily, as if trying to ascertain their powers. There was a powerful aura coming from the Metal Angels, one that ViralManipulamon didn’t really seem too anxious experience first hand in combat. An aura which I realized was the only thing keeping ViralManipulamon from attacking the angels all out and killing them on the spot.

 
My two Digimon regrouped, moving to stand below the angels. ViralManipulamon roared again as power flowed from the angels and into my Digimon. The angels became their Child forms and descended gracefully to the ground, as I felt their power flow through my Digimon, and then from my Digimon to me. “W-what is this?” I asked, my entire body tingling, surrounded by a silvery light.

My Crests glowed at once. As usual, I suddenly knew what to do with them, but I didn't know what the result would be. Despite this, I didn't hesitate.

“Whatever this power is,” I said, “I’m going to use it!” I pulled my Digivice and Digiplayer from my pocket and connected them together. The Crests in the tags hanging around my next slid free and became Disks. The two disks merged into one. I input the new Disk into my Digiplayer and held it up over my head as knowledge flowed through me. I called out, “Initiate DNA Digivolution!”

A beam shot out from the Disk, splitting and hitting both of my Digimon at once. I watched, astounded, as their wounds healed completely, and their armor and weapons were restored. They rose up from the ground and began to glow with the same silvery aura.

“MetalDragonterramon…”

“Knighthramon…”

“...DNA Digivolve to...”

The two Digimon rose higher, the light around them obscuring them from view. The two lights merged, and then grew several times more intense before flashing and fading away. In the place of my two Digimon had once been, there was now a large humanoid figure, about eighteen feet tall, wearing thick padding for armor over his entire body. It was black and brown in color, except for his left arm and leg, which were blue. He wore metal plating over his chest and shoulders. The Crest of Courage marked the armor over his right shoulder, and the Crest of Friendship marked the armor over his left. The two Crests also marked his chest plating.

This new Digimon had a dragon’s tail and broad, fire-red wings. He wore a helmet that covered his face, except for his eyes. Three back-swept curved spikes protruded from the top of his helm. A metal ring appeared around each of his forearms, attached to his armor. The light around him condensed into two weapons that slid over his hands and connected to the metal rings. The weapon over his right hand was a longsword. The weapon over his left hand was a three-pronged circular claw. The claws could fold back, making room for him to fire the cannon in their center. He threw open his arms and called out to the sky, “InfernoKnightmon!”

The holy light around my new Digimon faded away. Suddenly ViralManipulamon was a lot less eager to stand back. Meanwhile I stared in awe at my two Digimon made one.

ViralManipulamon snarled and lashed out with one of his tentacles. InfernoKnightmon raised his cannon without otherwise moving and called, “Stati-Shot Cannon!” A blue static blast shot from his cannon, blasting the tentacle, blowing the end off, leaving ViralManipulamon with one fewer limb.

“Heh,” said InfernoKnightmon, sounding simultaneously proud, like BlackColtmon, and eager, like Serpentmon, “I guess he can’t heal if I completely decimate him first. This will be easier than I thought.”

While he spoke, however, ViralManipulamon decided to counterattack. He brought his two remaining tentacle tips together, charging his ultimate attack. It took longer than before, since he had fewer tentacles to direct his energy through. InfernoKnightmon could easily have avoided the attack, but instead he crossed his arms and hung there in the air, Superman style, holding his ground. The massive beam fired from ViralManipulamon’s palms, hitting my Digimon, engulfing his entire body. The beam carried through, hitting the Citadel wall only fifteen yards from the place where it was hit last. This time the structure of the wall was compromised and the beam carried all the way through, only stopping when it hit a tower near the wall, destroying the tower in the process.

“No,” I said, utterly shocked. “He lost? What do we do now?!”

That’s when something truly miraculous happened. The beam faded, revealing a figure. It was InfernoKnightmon, his arms still crossed, still hanging in the air in the same place where he been when hit. He was virtually undamaged, the only sign that he had been hit by ViralManipulamon’s attack being some light scorching of his armor. Nothing consequential.

“Hey, couldn’t you have dodged that and saved me a heart attack?!” I cried.

“Sorry,” said InfernoKnightmon, “but now I know.”

“Know what?” I wondered.

“Now I know,” he answered, “that his strongest attack can’t even hurt me.”

InfernoKnightmon flew toward ViralManipulamon. ViralManipulamon lashed out with both of his tentacles. My Digimon deflected them with ease. ViralManipulamon released a barrage of wind blades. InfernoKnightmon dodged the blades with little effort.

“ViralManipulamon,” said InfernoKnightmon as he drew close to his foe, “I feel a bit sorry for you. I destroyed the server in High Tower in the hopes that you would not Digivolve and risk destroying your mind, but the process had already begun. The minds of every Digimon that you absorbed flooded yous at once, and destroyed it. Your formidable mind, gone forever. In a way we are lucky. Were you as smart as your previous form, we would all be dead already. But you are not as smart. You are just an animal with an instinctual need to destroy. It is for this reason that you MUST BE STOPPED!”

InfernoKnightmon flew straight at ViralManipulamon, holding his sword out ahead of him, and called “Blade of Courage!” His sword was wreathed in a super hot fire that spread over his entire body. He flew into the massive enemy’s chest, and tore right through. Energy poured from InfernoKnightmon’s body, splitting ViralManipulamon in half from side to side and head to tail, crying out in pain. The portions of his body disintegrated, becoming bits of data that dispersed throughout the air. I scanned the data, and I smiled.

“What’s up John?” asked Jen.

“That data,” I said. “The data of Machinedramon’s forces is still in there. We can still get them back.”

Jen smiled as well, and so did the others. “I was hoping that you would say that,” she said.

InfernoKnightmon landed beside us, watched ViralManipulamon disintegrate completely, and then de-Digivolved into Snakemon and BlackMainemon, before moving to stand nearby with the other Digimon, who greeted them like heroes. Birdramon even landed beside them and congratulated them on their glorious victory. The battle was over. It was almost impossible to believe it, but we'd won. Manipulamon was dead!


We spent the next week or so at Machine Citadel. It wasn't a place that I would want to stay much longer than that, but the remaining machines, our new friend TechnoPupmon in particular, were good company. We ate and slept, and relaxed when we could, but mostly we helped as much as we could with the repairs, and acted as supplements to the Citadel's practically nonexistent defenses. We tried to explain to the machines why we had to eat once. They didn’t get it.

Machinedramon awoke, repaired, almost as soon as the fight was over. He was a little peeved that I'd ordered the server that re-uploaded the minds of him Digimon into their bodies destroyed, but once I explained to him why, he understood and called it a “valiant attempt” to stop a battle before it could begin. He honored us for saving the Digital world. Even our Digimon allies were honored, and TechnoPupmon was called “brave, even in a situation where you had no hope of doing anything helpful at all”. I thought that that was pretty rude, but TechnoPupmon acted like it was a huge compliment.

Once a decent number of Machinedramon’s forces had been restored, he sent many of them out to scout the area. They were able to confirm that all Digimon that had been tagged by Manipulamon were now free to return to their lives, their tags disappearing at the same time that ViralManipulamon was defeated. It was an uncharacteristically happy time, but it wouldn't last, and we all knew it. My friends and I all knew that before long we would have to figure out how to go home. We were reluctant, though. We'd all gotten used to this world, and we didn't want to have to leave our Digimon behind, provided that we couldn't figure out how to take them with up (they were eager to go). Most of all, though, we were all still tired, we had no idea how to get home, and we were all worried that it would involve some kind of quest to figure it out. Finally, one day, I just couldn't justify staying any longer. I decided that that night I would ask the Digicomp's AI what we were supposed to do next.

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