Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Dragon Morphs: A Digimorphs Tale ❯ Release ( Chapter 45 )

Digimon / Digital Monsters and all related trademarks belong to Bandai. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission.

 

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Release

By nightdragon0

 

 

 

“What's that?” Sekata opened one eye, gritting his fangs. “Death-Xmon…is it in pain?”

The explosion of the computer terminal had singed his back and wings, although not too badly. Despite the pain, Sekata was curious to know why Death-Xmon seemed to feel it as well.

It wasn't within range of the explosion, was it? Sekata wondered. Or am I just imagining things?

He didn't have much more time for thinking however as his nemesis soon lunged forward. Sekata ducked and slapped its snout aside as it came into range. Death-Xmon hissed in fury, but Sekata ducked beneath its arms and sprinted to the other side of the room.

Or at least he tried to.

“Rargh!”

Sekata felt his legs give way as he lost control of his body again.

What? No! Not this!

Unable to produce any more movements, he dropped to the ground amongst the pile of mannequins. To be specific, he'd changed back into one of them.

Now this is hilarious. AncientGreymon chuckled.

Sekata certainly didn't think so as Death-Xmon screeched to a halt. With a confused whine, it started to sniff the air around. Finding nothing in its frustration, Death-Xmon took to stomping around the room.

Although he couldn't move his head, the partially destroyed computer terminal was still within Sekata's point of view.

In its fit of rage, Death-Xmon once again smacked the machine with its tail. That caused the smoldering machine to go up in a shower of sparks and smoke.

Wonderful! Now it's completely destroyed the machine that got me stuck like this in the first place! Sekata thought grimly. How am I going to find a way to reverse this process now?

His nemesis roared and promptly went back to its routine of sniffing around the room.

At least he can't find me while I'm stuck like this, but the problem is that I can't get away from him either. Dammit! I couldn't even move if I wanted to!

Much to his horror, Death-Xmon's patience finally snapped. The viral creature began smashing everything in sight. That included the furniture, walls, floorboards…and the mannequins.

Oh no…what if he breaks me to pieces while I'm in this form? What's going to happen to my real body?

The stomping came closer and Sekata found himself roughly tossed up into the air. It was hard to contemplate much as he was thrown about several more times. Sekata landed with his face down and fortunately still in one piece.

He silently breathed a sigh of relief as Death-Xmon moved on to destroying another part of the room. However, the calm was very short-lived. Death-Xmon's hind legs came crashing down and Sekata heard the ear-splitting crunching of `his' wooden parts.

 

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“Rargh!”

After what seemed like hours, Janet and Dynamo had finally gotten themselves to the edge of the table.

“Whew…damn…this is hard.” Dynamo panted. Or do so as much as he could being stuck in a clay figurine.

“Gasp…yeah. Trying to move in these things…really sucks.” Janet huffed.

“That's something….we agree on.”

At that, the two made eye contact and immediately did their best to look away.

“Arrr…forget it.” Dynamo muttered. “Just knock me off and let's get this over with.”

“Wait, why do I have to knock you off first?” Janet snapped up.

“What?”

“Just what are you going to do once you're free? Leave me to rot here with all these other empty chess pieces?”

“At least they make better conversation than you.” Dynamo said under his breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing! Erm, I mean, hey princess…I promise I'll get you out too.”

“Oh, I'm not falling for any tricks of yours!” Janet growled. “You break me out first!”

“Nah ar! You could abandon me just as easily as…” Dynamo began. “Erm…oops!”

“As easily as I could you?” Janet finished the sentence. “Sweet.”

“Hey! We're not gonna get anywhere if none of us are gonna move!” Dynamo protested.

“So we're not.”

“I don't wanna be stuck here forever!”

“Now you know what I went through.” Janet snarled. “So don't get all whiney on me!”

“Whiney? Hey! Do you know who you're talking to princess?” Dynamo quipped.

“An idiot?”

“Yes! No! I mean no!”

Janet burst out laughing at Dynamo's slip up, causing the Guilmon's face to go redder than usual. Of course, neither of them could see it beneath his clay covering.

In a moment of fury, Dynamo threw his body at Janet's with all his might. The impact sent Janet's clay-covered form toppling off the table. And his went so far that it wasn't able to balance, resulting in Dynamo going over the edge too.

Involuntarily letting off screams, the two crashed to the ground in a cloud of dust.

“Gargh! Hack! Hack!” Janet choked. “I…huh?”

The Strikedramon had just realized that Dynamo was not only lying on top of her….but that they were snout to snout as well.

“RRRRAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!”

WHAM!

“Gawrk!” Dynamo rolled off with his eyes wide and his claws held over his groin. “I'm gonna be impotent after this.”

“Pah!” Janet spat. “Man, I seriously need to wash my mouth after this.”

She pulled herself into a sitting position, stretching her cramped arms, legs and tail. It wasn't as bad as getting her body back after being a puppet, but it was still a great feeling of relief being able to move again. Her normally purple scales were still covered by bits of clay and brownish stains however, and Janet worked vigorously to dust herself off.

“Hey, I'm not that bad of a romantic, am I?” Dynamo smirked, dusting himself off as well. “I'm always up for an encore.”

SLAP!

“OW! Wargh!” Dynamo stumbled backwards and fell into a small hole that went up to his waist level.

“Huh?” Janet stared, taking note of the surroundings for the first time. “That isn't a hole, it's a crack in the floor!”

Glancing around the area, she realized that everything seemed humongous. That huge wooden `pillar' next to her was actually the table leg.

“Aw crap!” Dynamo gasped. “We're still tiny!”

“This is pathetic.” Janet sighed. “How are we supposed to get around now?”

The ground suddenly begun shaking, throwing the two to the ground. As quickly as it started however, the rumbling stopped.

Another one? Janet wondered. Then, the Strikedramon looked up as huge shadow fell over them.

“Going somewhere?” A thunderous voice hissed.

It was an undead-type, Ultimate level beast that took the form of a skeletal tiger. Bluish, bone-like skin covered its entire body, leaving some strange black fluid visible between the joints. It had a row of spikes running down its back, and a pair of skeletal wings on its back.

The eyes of this Digimon shimmered with an eerie reddish glow, easily enough to send chills up anyone's spine.

The tiger, Skull Barukimon, walked forward, shaking the ground with every step.

“Oh crap!” Dynamo stared. “This is NOT good!”

“Run for it!” Janet yelled.

The pair ran….and smacked into each other, sending both to the floor in a daze. Skull Barukimon was upon them before either could recover, and took hold of the 10 centimeter tall Digimon in one of his front paws.

“Hehehe…” The tiger snickered, his hot breath blowing against their faces.

Janet and Dynamo looked towards each other, then gulped hard.

 

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Sekata immediately knew from the sound that the damage was bad. He bared himself for the pain he knew was to come, but felt nothing for the moment. He was still in the mannequin's wooden body, which pretty much eliminated any pain or sensation that his physical body might've felt.

Mentally however, Sekata's mind was in a state of panic.

Death-Xmon roared and whipped its tail about, sending Sekata's body flying into the wall. Next thing he knew, the dragon found himself rolling about in agony. The feelings in his body were back…and so was the pain.

Howling, his right hand instinctively reached over to the aching sections of his chest. From the stabbing pain he felt, several of his ribs were probably broken. His entire left arm was missing, and so was his right leg from the knee downwards.

The bones in his remaining left leg and tail were definitely broken too and his leathery wings were still in shreds.

The pain was so extreme that Sekata went into a coughing fit, vomiting out blood from his mouth that mingled with the blood dripping from his severed limbs.

Death-Xmon was instantly alerted to his sudden `re-appearance' and turned its body with a gleeful snarl. Sekata tried moving his battered body, but the combination of pain, fear and shock kept him immobilized.

His pursuer was almost upon him when Death-Xmon abruptly smacked into a semi-translucent wall, which flickered into existence.

“What?” Sekata whispered, glancing around.

The Dorugoramon then noticed a rectangular card on the ground. The surface of the card was red and marked with the symbol of the yin and yang.

“Could it be?”

There was only one Digimon Sekata knew of that used these things.

Death-Xmon started snarling and pounding on the wall. However, a second card landed by its feet. This one exploded into a huge cloud of gray smoke, completely blocking out Sekata's vision.

A pair of furred hands then reached out and took hold of Sekata's shoulders. The wounded purple dragon didn't resist. Whoever it was had to be better than staying around Death-Xmon.

 

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“Gargh! Argh!” Aero sprang up, promptly knocking his head on the nearby chair. “Ow! Crap!”

It was already dark and moonlight was streaming into the room. Glancing around, Aero realized that he was now alone.

“Siavon's memories...no Evza's….” He panted. “It felt so real. Like I was…really there…”

He had trouble breathing for the first few minutes and went blue in the face as he tried to catch his breath. Well, Aero imagined that his face was more blue that usual.

Evza was obviously long gone and Aero's claws went to his neck to find the crystal still hanging there. The Aero V-dramon didn't know if he felt more relieved or burdened that it was there.

Once he felt well enough, Aero pushed himself up and peered out the door. As expected, the sky was dotted with stars, creating various sparkles against a black background. His gaze fell upon the area's most prominent feature, the old castle, just as a figure moved around its exterior.

Aero gasped as he spotted the eerie-looking Death-Xmon hovering around before breaking through one of the walls and vanishing into the castle. His Digivice then beeped and Aero realized that the signals of his friends were coming from within the castle.

“Whatever that creature was, I've got a very bad feeling about it.” Aero muttered out loud.

“Aeromaru…” The voice was so soft that the blue dragon nearly passed it off as the wind.

“Huh?” Aero gasped. “That sounded almost like…”

He felt the crystal around his neck glowing again and curiously placed both palms against it. Aero blinked as he was drawn into a bright flash of white light.

When he opened his eyes, Aero found himself standing in a white void. However, there was another figure there with him.

“Siavon?” Aero walked over to the BlackWargreymon, who had his back turned. His hand passed right through Siavon's image, but caused the armored dragon to move his head.

“Thank you.” Siavon said softly.

Startled, Aero jumped a step backwards.

“You can relax, it is really me.” Siavon spun to face him. “I believe that the crystal linked a part of my mind to it, just before I was turned to stone.”

“So, it really was you in those memories.” Aero regained his composure. “I'm sorry…”

“For what?”

“Reliving those memories must've been painful. You had things going nicely for yourself.” Aero hung his head. “Then it all went crashing down.”

“Life is made up of both joy and hardships.” Siavon replied. “But that's what makes us who we are. Because the world is not perfect, and thus we are forced to face these challenges with each passing day.”

“Yeah, you're right.” Aero nodded. “Never knew that you thought so deeply about things.”

“I've had a lot of time, as you probably know. Anyway, there is something I need to tell you too.” Siavon folded his arms. “It's about a weapon I was researching before I came to rescue you in the ancient city.”

“A weapon?”

“Kyuukyoku Sen Jin Ou Ryuu Ken.” (Ultimate War Blade King Dragon Sword.)

“That…that was the weapon of the legendary Royal Knight, Alphamon!”

“The katana I gave to Janet, Steve's Wargreymon claws, Zoe's Positron Laser and Sekata's Ryuukonken all carry similar energy signatures.” Siavon explained. “With the binding component, any four weapons bearing this particular energy could be combined into the Kyuukyoku Sen Jin Ou Ryuu Ken.”

“You're telling me this because…”

“You might require its power shortly.”

“That creature…” Aero gasped. “Where is the binding component then?”

“Somewhere in that castle, from what I've managed to find out. But I know nothing more.”

“Then how am I supposed to find it? I don't even know what it looks like!”

“You'll know.” Siavon closed his eyes. “Your heart will guide you.”

With that, he turned and begun to walk away.

“Wait!” Aero shouted. “Is there a way we can free you from the petrifaction?”

“You don't need to.” Siavon replied. “I believe that my time's already past.”

“Siavon…”

“It was a great relief however, to share my memories with someone. No matter how fragmented they were.” Siavon glanced upwards, towards the `sky'. “I have to thank you too…for my name.”

“Your name?” Aero wondered. “Wasn't that something you thought of?”

“No, it was you.” Siavon paused for a while. “If you encounter Evza again…it's up to your own discretion about what to do.”

“You…you're…really going?” Aero held out a claw.

“Don't get all teary on me. You know I hate mushiness.” Siavon growled. Then his face turned into a smirk. “Say hi to Steve for me.”

Slowly, Siavon's form begun to grow fainter and fainter, until he eventually vanished. In the blink of an eye, Aero found himself once again standing alone in the hut.

“Siavon…” Aero clutched the crystal with a new resolve. “This one's for you!”

 

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“RRROOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!”

Sekata felt the pain subside, but continued letting out his agony in the form of a roar. Finding his throat sore after a while, Sekata leaned back against the wall and glanced up to the figure standing over him.

“Thank you, Antiramon.” He muttered. “But what are you doing here? And why did you save me?”

“I have a debt I owe to your comrade Steve, and all of you in turn.” The former Deva replied.

Antiramon was a tall, humanoid rabbit that stood upright. She had a rabbit face and a pair of long bunny ears hanging by her sides. Her arms were long and fingers large, but this didn't hinder her when using her cards, a form of spiritual energy she manipulated.

She was covered in a coat of soft, brown fur and wore a Chinese style purple and white outfit. Sekata felt that from the soft, controlled grip as she placed her hands on his shoulders again.

A soft, relaxing blue light shrouded the two, giving Sekata a great relief from the pain.

“I didn't know your magic could heal too.” Sekata remarked.

“In truth, I am not using much of my magic at all. Instead, I am enhancing your body's natural healing capabilities.” She told him. “And yours seem to be quite remarkable indeed.”

“Partially, it's thanks to him.” Sekata whispered.

Most of his injuries had disappeared, but there was nothing either of them could do about his two severed limbs. Sekata was certain that, like before, they would reattach themselves upon contact. That was provided that he could actually find them in the mess of that mannequin room.

“Have you seen any of my friends?” Sekata queried. “I'm sure they're somewhere in the castle.”

“Unfortunately, no.” Antiramon replied. “This place is still a maze to myself, even though I've been here before.”

“What is this place anyway?”

“My former masters used to come here frequently and deal with a magician known as Puppetmon. I'm sure you've heard of him.”

“Yes.” Sekata gritted his fangs, bitter memories coming to mind.

“Your friends have apparently chased Puppetmon down here, but have unfortunately run into trouble. I'm afraid that I arrived too late to deliver any warning.”

“They'll have more than just Puppetmon to worry about now that Death-Xmon is wandering about the castle.”

“This castle is inhabited by other vengeful presences too.” Antiramon warned. “You saw Fangmon, the fox that merged your body with the mannequin. He's just one of the wanderers who dwell here, always on the lookout for unwary adventurers.”

“Grrr…” Sekata hissed furiously. “I'm so angry that I can't do anything about…huh?”

The dragon blinked as Antiramon touched one of her cards to his forehead. The red card flickered and begun glowing with a purple light, similar to his own scale color.

“This card had now copied your body's energy signature.” Antiramon explained. “If what you've spoken to me about Death-Xmon is true, then I should be able to confuse it by making several copies of these cards.”

“I sincerely appreciate the help. But I don't want to be waiting around here while that creature is running loose!”

“You won't be able to do much until the mannequin curse placed upon you is lifted.”

“I know! But still…”

“I understand.” Antiramon nodded. “I knew that you would feel this way. That is why I brought you here, to this basement level room.”

With that, she reached up with a finger and flicked the light switch to its `on' position.

 

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“Man where are those two?” Rain panted, leaning the side of his quadruped body against the wall. “How come I don't have this much energy? Whew…why me?”

The Raindramon had spent the last 20 minutes running after the V-mon kids and already he was completely worn out. There was no one else to hear his moaning as the sweat trickled down his face and onto the stony floors of the corridor.

I should've done more to help them back then, not just stand there! Rain berated himself. I'm fast enough! I could've gotten to Zoe or Steve in time to knock them out of that smoke cloud! Then it would be me in the situation, not them! Ooohhh!

In a way, this was why he always liked being the younger brother. His older brother had always been there to guide him, and Rain seldom needed to worry about making a decision.

Now I'm the older brother…He thought glumly. Normally I'd be the one innocently reeking havoc. Man, what am I thinking? I shouldn't be wishing to be in their position! I'm lucky I wasn't affected, and I'm the only one who can find a way to help Steve and Zoe right now!

“Yeah, that's right.” Rain said to himself. “I can do this…”

BUMP!

The four-legged dragon suddenly felt some weight on his back as a pair of hands covered his eyes.

“Wheee!” A couple of child-like voices sounded. “Ponymon ride! Horsemon ride!”

“GGARRRGHH!” Rain panicked, dashing about blindly. “Get off me you two! Hey!”

In his wild dash, the Raindramon accidentally smashed through a door and stepped onto a wooden platform. He felt it sink with a click and found his four limbs suddenly clamped down to the floor by metal bindings.

“Hey! What the?” He gasped as Steve uncovered his eyes.

Rain found that he had stumbled onto a device that had just clamped his four legs to it. Furiously, he cranked his neck and begun gnawing as the bindings as best as he could. However, the surprise wasn't over yet as the mechanism clicked, causing the platform to spring up.

Wheels were apparently fixed beneath his platform as Rain felt himself beginning to roll to the side. He was abruptly stopped and found Steve and Zoe pushing him from behind.

“That looks like fun big bro!” Steve laughed.

“No! Hey! What are you doing?” Rain cried as the pair spun him around. “Wargh! Get me off this thing! Damn! I feel like a rocking horse!”

The V-mon duo suddenly started pushing him backwards and Rain stretched his neck forward, finding the pair just out of reach.

“Over there!” Zoe pointed.

“Yeah, cool rollercoaster!” Steve agreed.

“Erm…rollercoaster?” Rain turned his head. Much to his horror, Rain saw that he was being pushed towards an opening in the wall, probably an air vent or a dust chute. Neither one sounded very promising however.

“No! Not down there!” Rain wailed.

“Hehehe!”

“NNNOOOOOOOOOO!” Despite Rain's protests, his `siblings' spun him to face forward before jumping onto his back.

The Raindramon, strapped to the wheeled platform, and his two passengers, went plunging down into the shaft.

 

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“This is…” Sekata stared, taking notice of the surroundings for the first time.

What it seemed like was a huge laboratory, with sets of machinery and odd-looking devices lining every wall. Several platforms at the far end of the room also became illuminated.

Displayed on them were various weapons, guns and even mechanical limbs.

“These cybernetic enhancements were often sold to the highest bidders.” Antiramon continued.

“So you wanted to let me use some of those until I get myself back into shape.” Sekata whistled. “But even with those enhancements, I don't think they can lift the curse.”

“There is another option if you so desire.” Antiramon gestured.

Sekata then tilted his gaze towards the last of the lit platforms, and gasped.

Standing on it was a fully constructed mechanical dragon. It was roughly shaped like a T-Rex, except it was painted in red with silver sections. The machine had a huge powerful tail, a pair of three-fingered upper limbs and a pair of cannons mounted to either shoulder.

It would seem very much like Machinedramon at a glance, but Sekata knew better.

“Chaosdramon?” He stared.

“An ancient weapon that the Devas recovered long ago.” Antiramon gestured. “It was supposed to be a vessel for an artificially created soul. However, the experiment failed and it was left as it is.”

“I don't understand how this is supposed to help me.”

“What I can do is bind your soul to the machine temporarily. Chaosdramon will become your body and you'll be able to fight.”

“Isn't this something like what Makuramon did to us before?” Sekata eyed her suspiciously.

“Indeed. However, the success of my spell depends solely on the strength of the caster and the will of the subject.”

“So, the spell basically won't work if I'm not willing?”

“Yes. But should any of us waiver in our focus, your soul could be completely lost in the void. My chi energy could also be completely drained out, more than enough to kill me.”

“You're taking a great risk at this.” Sekata said softly.

“I owe this debut to your group.” Antiramon insisted. “Let this serve as my redemption.”

The determined look on her face told Sekata that she was serious.

Sekata considered his options too. Of Zoe, Steve and the others, of his newfound nemesis, and his major disadvantage.

Clenching the fist he had left, the dragon felt a prang of weakness running through his body. To be free of that weakness, just for a while…

He looked up into the cold, emotionless stare of Chaosdramon. There was only one choice he could make.

“All right, let's do this.”

 

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“Bbaarrrggghhh!”

Rain shook the bitter taste out of his mouth and turned away from the pile of vomit he'd just puked out.

“I never….ever…want to do that again!”

The `ride' down the dust chute had finally ended with the platform crashing somewhere on the lower levels. Rain was still in a daze, but at least he'd gotten free from the bindings.

He was now in what seemed to be a slightly chilled food cellar. Boxes, crates and nylon sacks were stacked up high. The V-mon kids had happily run off in the midst of his motion sickness and Rain was now faced with the arduous task of finding them again.

“Steve! Zoe!” Rain called. “Ok, fun's over! Come nicely back to big brother now, ok?”

His calls were met with silence and the Raindramon took a few steps before placing a foot on a slippery puddle of cooking oil.

There was no time to react and Rain went skidding across the room, smashing into a stack of flour. The result was a Raindramon completely covered in the white powder.

At that, a couple of voices burst out laughing.

“Hahaha! This is even funnier than the time you got your face into that birthday cake!” Steve laughed.

“Oh yeah! Oh yea!” Zoe jumped up and down. “I remember that one!”

“Oooh! Now I'm mad!” Rain jumped out of the pile and lunged for the two.

Unfortunately, he stumbled on an aluminum can and went crashing into a nearby shelf. With a long, loud creak, the old shelf threatened to topple over.

“Oh no!” Rain got up on two legs and shoved his front paws against the shelf in an attempt to prevent it from falling over.

Last thing he needed was for his charges to get hurt.

However, the V-mon kids had other ideas in mind.

“Watcha doing?” Steve picked up a thin bamboo pole and poked Rain's exposed belly with it.

“No! Don't do that!” Rain cried. “I'm ticklish there…waaahhh! Hahah! Heeheheehe…”

“Poke! Poke! Poke!” Steve giggled.

CRASH!

Unable to balance properly, the entire shelf came down, squashing Rain beneath. The lightning elemental dragon was able to pull himself out, but not before being covered by the contents of the shelf…tomato ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard.

All that, together with the flour, created a very odd taste in the Raindramon's mouth. Laughing hysterically, the V-mon kids dashed to the corner of the room…where an elevator was located.

“Hey! Get back here!” Rain ordered.

The kids simply continued giggling as the lift doors slammed shut.

“Nooooo…” Rain let off a long moan.

Slamming on the elevator buttons produced no immediate solution, leaving him with only one other option. And that was to take the stairs.

“Is being a big brother always this hard?”

 

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Pain…

For those moments, it completely dominated Sekata's world. Antiramon had warned him of it earlier, but nothing could've prepared Sekata for what he was currently feeling.

Antiramon was standing outside the circle of cards she'd made and chanting, while Sekata lay within…next to the towering form of Chaosdramon.

The battered Dorugoramon had to focus his mind both on his memories, and on the body of Chaosdramon. Not an easy task with all the pain, plus every instinct in his body screaming against it.

The past and present all seemed to flash before his eyes. The first time he'd come to the Digital World. Meeting Zoe and the others. The battles fought, won and lost.

But the pain was just so intense.

Zoe…there's so much…I've wanted to say to you…His mind howled. But I…but…I…No…I can't let go now! I have to get through…even if it's…just to tell you that…

All of a sudden, the pain stopped and his senses dimmed into blackness, leaving Sekata within the dark void of his mind.

Am I dead? No, I don't think death feels this way.

A series of green zeros and ones flashed before his vision, followed by Digital Code and a sequence of system messages.

The, `his' eyes opened.

Like viewing through a video camera, the world seemed rather blurred at first. However, the view quickly adapted itself so that he saw the laboratory he remembered being in. And the first thing Sekata saw was himself, or rather his Dorugoramon body.

Has it worked then?

Sekata motioned for his mind to move a hand. And a mechanical hum sounded as a claw moved into view…a red, metallic one.

Slowly, he tested his limbs. Snapping his jaws, flexing his fingers and finally shifting his legs to step off the platform. Everything seemed very stiff.

“Sekata?” Antiramon moved into view. “Can you hear me?”

The dragon managed to make a nod.

“How are you feeling?”

Sekata almost dreaded to try his voice, but he knew he had to get it over and done with.

“I'm fine…I suppose.” His voice was similar to normal, although it had a mechanical tone to it.

“That's good to hear.” Antiramon walked over and placed a card inside of his open jaws.

“What was that?” Sekata queried.

“The binding symbol. You can feel it on the upper part of the inside of your mouth.”

Sekata raised one of his three-fingered claws and felt the strange symbol on the place Antiramon had just touched.

“Be careful and don't scratch it.” Antiramon warned. “That binding circle is what links your soul to the machine.”

“Then if something happens to it…”

“Your soul will lose contact, and even I won't be able to predict where it could end up. So protect the mark well.” Antiramon wiped her brow, before dropping to a sitting position on the floor. “Whew…that was taxing, but not as bad as I expected it to be. You're definitely a strong-willed individual.”

“I hate to interrupt your rest, but what do I do about my body?” Sekata looked down at his Dorugoramon self. “Won't Death-Xmon still come after it?”

Antiramon responded by pulling his Dorugoramon body over to an empty glass cylinder. She placed his body within and activated the control to seal the cylinder, before touching a card to its surface.

A greenish light shimmered and Antiramon nodded firmly.

“That should be enough to deter your nemesis.” She explained. “If you want to go back to your own body, make contact with it and focus on who you are.”

“With all that settled, I'm ready to take Death-X on!” Sekata snarled, clenching his fists.

When he'd first become Dorugoramon, Sekata had felt a huge burst of energy pushing himself up to levels he'd never though possible before. Now, it was almost happening all over again, except that it was a different kind of energy he felt.

A kind of raw, solid power…

“Don't get too hasty.” Antiramon interrupted his thoughts. “You may not know the full extent of its powers yet, but at least you'll be able to defend yourself if he appears.”

Antiramon suddenly leaned against the wall and clutched her side.

“Are you all right?” Sekata gasped.

“I'll be fine, but I'll need to place those cards with your energy signature around the castle. These will help to deter Death-Xmon.” Antiramon got up and pulled open the door.

“What am I supposed to do then?”

“Look for your friends and find a way to destroy Death-Xmon.” Antiramon called as she disappeared through the doorway. “I believe in your abilities to do that.”

“So, once again it falls upon us.” Sekata said softly.

A buzz of static had his hands instinctively covering his ears. However, Sekata soon realized that the sensors built into his head were picking up a transmission.

“Anyone? Zoe? Steve? Jan? Please respond!” Came Aero's voice from the other end, and he sounded very worried.

It was an odd feeling, but all Sekata had to do was think to make his own transmission intercept Aero's.

“Aero, it's me Sekata!”

“Sekata? Is that really you?” Aero gasped.

“You can track my D-Dragon's signal right?” Sekata queried, noting that his D-Dragon was still attached to his actual body's wrist. With the claws in his current form, he wouldn't be able to handle the delicate device properly, but the least he could do was stand close to it.

“Yeah, but…” Aero paused. “Are you back to normal?”

“Sort of.” Sekata admitted. “But a lot of things have happened and I need to bring you up to date.”

“Funny, so do I.”

“Well, who wants to go first then?”

 

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“This is just great!” Dynamo screeched. “We're not just back to where we started, but we're even worst off now!”

“Don't you think that's bloody obvious?” Janet yelled back.

“Well, I've nothing better to do, so I'm saying it anyway!”

“Oh shut up!”

They had spent the last few minutes busy barking at one another in the darkness of the box they'd been stuffed into. It didn't help much that they'd both been stuck back in clay, which left them completely unable to move.

“What do you think that crazy cat wants with us?” Janet eventually muttered, referring to Skull Barukimon.

“Probably just another of those insane ones.” Dynamo replied with a sigh. “Haha, that's funny.”

“What?”

“It's about `us' now. Hasn't been that way for a while.” Dynamo paused. “You know, back then when we infiltrated that old Deva base, you remember?”

“Yeah, of course I remember.” Janet snapped. “I was still a Guilmon then!”

“Erm, yea I didn't really mean for you to change forms so drastically like that.”

“Ooh, sure you didn't.” Janet growled sarcastically. “Strikedramon is a nice dragon to be, but I haven't forgotten that you were the cause of it in the first place!”

“Well, I…”

“You know, that's why I didn't let it out of the bag at first. And that left you wondering if I'd really survived or not, am I right?”

“Hey princess, I admit you had me fooled, but…”

“And you should also know that I meant to throw it in your face as a big revenge surprise too!” Janet fumed. “You're lucky that I was denied my chance!”

“Yo princess! I get the idea!” Dynamo barked. “But who do you think it was that gave your buddies the information they needed to break you out of Megidramon?”

“Huh?”

“It was me! That's who!”

Janet fell into silence for almost a full minute, in which Dynamo's heart was left pounding wildly.

All right, I admitted it! He thought. I know the Megidramon thing was a bit overboard princess, but that's why I tried to make amends, and…

“Hahahahahahah!” Janet burst out laughing. “Now that's a really good one!”

“You believe me?” Dynamo piped up.

“Sure, I always take to believing your lies, stupid!” Janet's tone of voice was not a happy one. “I was only laughing because I never expected you to be smart enough to say something like that!”

“B…b…bu….but…”

I really did help! That's probably one of the most decent things I've ever done and…

Suddenly, light streamed into the box as its lid was thrown open, temporarily blinding the two. However, it was quite easy to hear the high-pitched, booming voices.

“Hey lookie! New playthings!” A male V-mon face stared into the box.

“Yeah, this place is great!” He was joined by a second V-mon, a female.

“Oh crap…” Janet moaned. “I'm not going to like this!”

The next instant, a huge pair of blue hands reached out and snatched the two clay figures out of the box.

 

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Aero stood poised on the mechanical dragon's back, with his trembling claws grasped around the back of its neck.

“Aero, are you still there?” The voice asked. “Can you please let me up now?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry Sekata.” Aero jumped back to the ground, allowing the Chaosdramon to straighten up from his hunched position.

The Aero V-dramon had found it hard to believe Sekata's story, until Sekata proposed that they meet up inside the castle's second story main corridor.

That was something Aero hadn't really been prepared for, and seeing the huge mechanical dragon lumbering into the passageway had caused him to go into battle mode.

Although his opponent didn't fight back, Aero had to be absolutely sure and proceeded to grill him with a series of personal questions. The result, though giving him quite a surprise, left him with no doubt that it was the real Sekata in his right mind.

“Have you been able to trace the others?” Sekata continued on to ask. “I left my D-Dragon behind, well on my other body.”

“I've got your signal recorded down, but Janet's is too weak to trace.” Aero reported. “However, Steve's and Zoe's seemed to have vanished.

“Vanished?”

“Yes, almost like they're…”

“Wheeee! Sorry mister! Just passing through!” A child's voice was accompanied by the stomping on Aero's toes.

“Yargh!” Aero jumped up on his right foot, clutching his left one in pain.

“Sorry! Coming through!” A second voice called.

This time, the small shape slammed into Aero's shin in the midst of its run. The blue dragon hit the ground hard, and opened his eyes just in time to see a couple of V-mon disappearing around the corridor.

“Who the heck were…” Aero started.

“Hey! Stop you two!” Rain came charging around the corner, trotting hastily over Aero's tail and wings. “Whoa! You're…”

The blue dragon involuntarily jumped up with a yell of pain, sending Rain's body flying…right into the metal legs of Sekata.

WHAM!

“Hmmm?” Sekata glanced down to see the Raindramon pressed flat against his right leg.

The mechanical dragon proceeded to peel him off and let him down to the ground as gently as he could. Sekata's motions were relatively rough and Rain slipped a little too fast.

Rain stomped on a clay piece one of the V-mon had dropped, shattering it was a loud smash. A rather `tiny' shout followed next, which had the entire ground glancing around in confusion.

“Dammit! Watch where you're stepping! You could've killed me!”

“That voice…” Aero stuttered as the whole group looked down.

“Yes guys! It's me!” A tiny Strikedramon was frantically jumping up and waving her arms.

“Ouch…” Rain moaned, rubbing his snout with a paw. “Hey Aero, so you're here after all! And who's this mechanical guy?”

“I think we have a lot more explaining to do.” Sekata sighed.

 

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“So how do we fix this?” Rain panted as he ran alongside Sekata's Chaosdramon form.

Aero had insisted on going after Antiramon, leaving Sekata, Rain and a miniaturized Janet to search for the V-mon kids. And the trio was now running along the corridor where they'd last seen their currently V-mon companions.

“Well, as I see it we have several options.” Janet called from her perch atop Sekata's head. “Just let them grow up the old fashioned way, hey tone down on the death glares! Find a mystic reverse fountain of youth. Find a time space warp that speeds up aging. Find Puppetmon and have him come up with a cure. Of course, since you say he mentioned it was a goof up the first place, if we tried this again they might end up Digi-eggs or a few thousand year old mega Digimon two breaths away from their last one.”

“Magic is an art, not a precise science after all.” Sekata nodded. “But I don't see how any of those options are supposed to be practical.”

“Will you shut up and hope?”

“Erm…”

“Forget it! It's just something called sarcasm.” Janet snapped. “Is being in a machine getting to your head Sekata?”

“Grrr…” Sekata let off an annoyed snarl.

“I'm sorry.” Janet patted his head. “But I'm in a very bad mood right now.”

“To tell you the truth, I'm probably worse off.” Sekata said softly. He not only had Death-Xmon and his own Dorugoramon body to worry about, but now Zoe and Steve as well. And he hadn't forgotten about Cimons either.

“Where did their D-Dragons go?” Janet queried, interrupting his thoughts.

“I think they vanished…” Rain muttered, closing his eyes and thinking. “I don't remember seeing the D-Dragons after they turned into kids.”

“Dammit . . . maybe those could've worked.” Janet sighed.

“Wouldn't they just revert back to the way they are now once their power burns out?” Sekata spoke up.

“It's better than having them stuck as kids twenty four seven.” Rain commented. “Although…they don't seem to mind.”

“I've lost count of how many people want us dead!” Janet yelled. “Do you think they're going to hesitate to kill Steve and Zoe just because they look cuter right now?”

“Er, good point.” Rain used one of his paws to scratch his head. “But you guys can't stay powered up forever, can you?”

“They'd at least be in their right minds and able to defend themselves in the meantime.” Sekata replied. “Besides, remember when Janet was Megidramon? Or when we were toys? Or when Zoe and I were turned into playing cards in that VR world? Or when Steve was under mind control? We got out of those.”

“And don't forget how we all got stuck as Digimon.” Janet added in. “Oh hey, that's still going on!”

“Now, wouldn't that crack be one of Steve's lines?” Sekata rolled his eyes.

“Yes, but from what I see, I think that he's more interested in drawing on your Digimon Cards right now. So, I figured I'd speak his piece.”

“He's what?”

“V-mon alert.” Janet simply pointed to the room ahead of the group.