Chapter 53:
Reversal
Tian’s eyes fluttered open as she slowly came awake. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, and reached a hand toward her head, pulling off the headset leading to the Projection machine.
“Welcome back,” a familiar voice said.
She looked over at the voice and saw Ryou sitting next to her with a relieved smile.
“Ryou…”
“You’re the last one to wake up,” Ryou said, “We were getting worried.”
Tian slowly tried to sit up, and winced. Her back and shoulder felt bruised.
“Easy, Tian,” Ryou murmured, “You got shot up pretty bad back there.” He grabbed a pillow and stuck it behind her, then he reached over and handed her a mug of hot chocolate. “Here,” he said gently, “This might help.”
Tian took the hot chocolate gratefully. As she sipped, she glanced around at the other kids, sitting up and lying down in the nearby cots, recovering from their missions. From the way they smiled and laughed with their Digimon, they must have been successful.
Then, Tian turned the other way, and saw Seita sitting nearby with Gazimon and Kodamon, looking absolutely dejected.
“Seita…”
Ryou shook his head. “They tried to get Akira back, but it didn’t work. She’s trapped.”
Tian opened her mouth, then closed it. Seita had looked so heartbroken, she didn’t have the nerve to say anything.
“Heads up, guys,” Naoko said through the supercomputer, “Gather around for a moment. There’s something you need to see.”
She waited as the recovering kids and Digimon moved slowly toward the supercomputer and gathered together.
“While you all were busy with the Dark Seed bases, I’ve been tracking Mataymon’s movements,” Naoko said, “And a great deal of his activity is concentrated here.”
She pulled up a map of the area, and placed a blinking dot on an area just outside the city.
“That not too far away,” Jun said.
An image appeared of a large, Oriental-style castle sitting in the middle of a forest. The pagodas were topped with black polyhedrons of varying sizes.
“There was heavy fog in this area for several days,” Naoko continued, “and right after all of you left on your missions, this castle appeared.”
“So, wait,” Jun said, “We’ve destroyed all of Mataymon’s Dark Seed bases, and he never even lifted a finger to stop us the entire time...”
“And then he spends all that time planting a castle in the middle of nowhere?” Mana finished, with a bewildered look.
“It feels like a trap,” Tian said, “It breaks the pattern of where the Dark Seed bases were placed. And it’s like he’s rolled out a welcome mat and said, ‘come on in!’ It’s a blatant invitation!”
“And here I was going to suggest we all go in, guns blazing,” Seita muttered.
“Seita…”
“I’m serious!” Seita shot back, “If Mataymon wants a showdown, let’s give it to him! Haven’t we had enough of his crap? This is our chance to finally end this!”
Tian opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. He had a point.
“In any case,” Jun said, “We’ll need to investigate a little more, and we can’t do it from here.”
“So we’re going?” Seita asked.
Jun looked around at the others. “Does everyone agree?”
There was a chorus of agreement.
“Just for investigation,” Jun said, “We’re not going inside.”
“And if anything happens, we’ll leave!” Tian added.
“If that’s your decision,” Nami said, “We can take you there. But not all of us at once.” She looked over at Takashi, and he nodded.
“Ryou, Yuu and Cai-lin?”
The three of them looked at Takashi expectantly.
“The three of you will hold down the fort here at the lab. In case something happens, you have the Code Generators.”
Ryou nodded. “You can count on us!”
Yuu also nodded, hiding his disappointment. Cai-lin put a hand on his shoulder.
Tian looked around. “Where’s Kodamon?”
Gazimon sighed. “She said she wanted to be alone.”
Nami shook her head. “It’s probably best that she stays here.”
“The rest of us will get ready to go,” Takashi said.
An hour or two later, the group found themselves standing in front of the massive castle gates.
“I don’t get it,” Mana said, looking around. “There isn’t a single Digimon guarding this place.”
“The castle itself is giving off some weird vibes,” Jun said, typing on his laptop. “There’s some dimensional-warping technology at work. Almost as if a part of the Digital World is inside.” He closed and stored his laptop, lost in thought.
“I don’t like this,” Tian said warily, “I still think this is a trap!” She turned to Jun, “Now that we got more information, we should probably go-”
She was interrupted by the crash of a gong echoing through the forest.
“What was that?” Kei whispered.
Suddenly, with an earsplitting creak, the doors of the castle flew open. A dark, horizontal vortex came out, pulling in everything in sight.
“Everyone, brace yourselves!” Seita called out, shielding himself with an arm. The vortex’s suction caused his feet to drag across the ground.
The suction grew stronger, and everyone struggled to keep upright, until Kei finally lost her footing and was swept into the vortex with Terriermon.
“Kei!” Yuka shouted. She and Lopmon were the next to be sucked in, soon followed by the others. Their screams rang through the air, as the vortex sucked them all in, and the castle doors shut tight.
“No!” Takashi shouted, running over to the doors. He slammed a fist on them, knocking hard, and tried to pull them open, to no avail. “They’re sealed shut!”
“What are we going to do?” Taira said frantically.
Souichi typed furiously on an open laptop. “There’s some kind of field or barrier surrounding the castle,” he reported, “Nothing can get in, and nothing can get out.”
“We can’t help them…” Takashi said, “They’re on their own in there!”
A sudden chill ran down Nami’s spine. “We need to go back to the hospital,” she said, “Akira’s there, alone…”
Takashi looked over at Nami. “Akira…”
“You two go back to the hospital,” Souichi said. “Taira and I will stay here.”
“If anything happens, we’ll call you,” Taira added.
As each of the kids slowly came to, they found themselves in a large, open space, covered with fog.
“Where are we?” Mana asked.
She was interrupted by a loud, raucous laugh. The fog lifted somewhat to reveal a large arena or amphitheater, with a dirt floor and empty seats.
“Welcome, children, to my arena!” Mataymon’s voice boomed across the open space. “You’ve come at the perfect time.”
He suddenly appeared, complete with his flowing dark robes and silver staff.
“While all of you were busy running around destroying my copy Digimon and Dark Seeds, I was measuring your power levels. The more you destroyed, the more battle data I collected, until I was finally ready!
“You all will meet your ends at the hands of the Ultimate Digimon, built and programmed according to my will!”
He waved his arms outward, and the rest of the fog moved away, revealing seven Digimon standing in a line.
A dark BanchoLeomon. Kuzuhamon. Black Seraphimon. Ophanimon Falldown Mode. Black SaintGalgomon. Cherubimon Vice. ChaosDukemon.
Mirror images of each Digimon’s Ultimate forms, but which radiated darkness to the highest degree.
“I put every remaining member of the Midnight Army into each of these,” Mataymon said proudly, “So they would be your match in every way!”
“How horrible,” Mana whispered, reeling at the thought of thousands of Digimon reduced to data to build the seven Ultimates.
“I see we’re missing one pair of you Chosen,” Mataymon said with a laugh. “A shame that the child is trapped in a prison of her own making, and the Digimon is wallowing in despair. Your destruction would be much more complete if they were here, but alas. Beggars can’t be choosers!
“Now then, let’s get started.” Mataymon waved a hand across the arena, and the seven dark copy Digimon immediately came to life. Their eyes glowed an eerie red, and they moved into fighting stances with agonizing slowness.
A hush fell over the arena, then Mataymon gave a single command.
“Kill.”
The dark Digimon immediately sprang into action, moving toward the kids and their Digimon, lightning-fast.
At the same time, the kids’ D-Coders came to life, and their Digimon began to glow.
“Gazimon, warp evolve to… BanchoLeomon!”
“Renamon, warp evolve to… Sakuyamon!”
“Patamon, warp evolve to… Seraphimon!”
“Salamon, warp evolve to… Ophanimon!”
“Terriermon, warp evolve to… SaintGalgomon!”
“Lopmon, warp evolve to… Cherubimon!”
“Guilmon, warp evolve to… Dukemon!”
Metal blades collided in midair as the dark BanchoLeomon leaped at BanchoLeomon and sliced downward. “You may be strong,” BanchoLeomon ground out, “But you’ve got no style or substance!” He knocked the blade away. “That, I have in spades!” He made a fist and punched the dark BanchoLeomon in the face.
“They’re… completely empty!” Sakuyamon said, parrying Kuzuhamon’s staff with her own. “Nothing but soulless husks…”
“We won’t be defeated by your puppets, Mataymon!” Seraphimon shouted, launching a Seven Heavens attack against Black Seraphimon. “No matter how much they look like us!”
“Gotta say,” Ophanimon said, lunging at Ophanimon Falldown Mode, “Fighting LadyDevimon was much more interesting than fighting these guys! At least she had a personality!”
“Take my form and paint it black?” SaintGalgomon bellowed, firing a barrage of missiles at Black SaintGalgomon. “How unoriginal can you get?”
“How sad,” Cherubimon mused, dodging lightning bolts from Cherubimon Vice and firing off some of her own. “The way you’re forced to fight and not be allowed to ponder your own existence!”
“Is this what I would have become if you had your way, Mataymon?” Dukemon asked, both his and ChaosDukemon’s lances colliding with a shower of sparks.
Meanwhile, the seven kids were standing off to the side, watching the battles unfold with growing tension. As bright lights flashed from all of the attacks being thrown about, a multitude of shadows danced along the ground. Some of these shadows moved with a purpose, flowing stealthily across the ground toward the kids as if preparing for an ambush.
Rion caught the movement on the ground with the corner of his eye. “Watch out!” he shouted, “Madilimon!” He pointed his D-Coder at a nearby shadow and fired a beam of light at it. The others followed his lead. Soon, every shadow on the ground was bombarded by light beams, and either driven away or shattered. But they were quickly replaced by more shadows.
“There’s too many of them!” Seita shouted, blasting one Madilimon with his D-Coder and kicking another into the air.
“Let go of me!” Kei screamed, trying to pull off the Madilimon clinging to her arms and legs.
Around each of the kids, the Madilimon started building large, crystal pillars, similar to the wind chimes they were trapped in before, but larger.
One by one, each of the Chosen Digimon looked down at the ground, seeing what was happening to their partners.
“Seita!” BanchoLeomon called out, missing one attack, then taking another full in the chest.
“Tian!” Sakuyamon was struggling to push Kuzuhamon’s attack back with her own, and when she looked down at Tian, Kuzuhamon’s attack broke through and struck her.
“Jun!” Seraphimon took a blow to the chest and was blasted to the ground.
“Mana!” Ophanimon struggled to throw off the hands choking her.
“Kei!” SaintGalgomon was hit by a multitude of red smiley-faced missiles.
“Yuka! Cherubimon failed to dodge dozens of lightning bolts raining from the sky.
“Rion!” Dukemon was hit full on by the energy beam coming from ChaosDukemon’s shield.
With their attentions split between their opponents and their partners, the Chosen Digimon tried and failed to overcome the onslaught that was their doubles’ attacks. One by one, they were defeated, lying on the ground battered and broken as their dark counterparts towered over them, their eyes glowing red.
“That was far too easy,” Mataymon said with a laugh.