Etemon barged in and cut the kids off. Without hesitating, Tai yanked a lever and twisted a dial; with a clatter, the layers of glass sealing Datamon snapped open. The instant he was free, Datamon barked, "Taste your own seal!" and the glass covers shot off like missiles toward the ape.
Seizing the moment, Tai and the others followed Datamon to the other side of the room. He tapped a string of codes on a panel by the wall; a hidden door slid open. "This goes straight to the pyramid's lower levels. Hmph—Etemon never guessed I prepared everything here long ago!"
"Sample my wrath! Plug Bomb!" Datamon's electronic fingers flicked; a swarm of little devil-faced bombs hurtled in, a dense cloud.
Etemon clapped his hands together and hurled a black sphere—"Dark Necrosphere!"
Boom—!
The two attacks collided in a violent blast that punched through the lower levels and vented all the way up to the desert surface.
Datamon was powerful for an Ultimate, but against Etemon he came up short. His offense, defense, and speed weren't great; his strength was data. Precision machinery types are worst matched against brute force—and Etemon was exactly that. Back then, Etemon had literally pounded Datamon into flying parts with a single punch, then sealed him here. (Which raised a question: who gave Etemon the barrier that could imprison Datamon?)
After that first exchange, Datamon slammed the secret door shut, leaving Etemon outside, hopping mad and shouting.
In the underground chamber, Datamon had long since assembled a bank of mainframes and other gear. It looked like the bridge of a starship out of a sci-fi movie, and the kids gawked.
Once he'd taken it in, Tai got to the point. "Do you know where the Crest of Love is?"
Datamon tapped a key; a platform split and rose, revealing a glass cover. Inside was an orange, translucent plate—the Crest of Love.
Sora took it back and set it into her Tag.
"Alright, that's the last Crest," someone said, and the kids lit up.
"Next we finish Etemon," Tai said, smiling as he watched Etemon raging topside. With Datamon no longer managing the network core and switching, data couldn't propagate. Systems collapsed, and Etemon just kept bellowing at his minions.
The inverted pyramid lurched.
"What now?" Etemon snarled, rubbing the lump where a falling stone had clocked him.
A few keystrokes later, a feed showed Ikkakumon launching Harpoon Torpedo again and again.
"Those rotten brats—if I won't go find them, they come to me!" Etemon stormed out.
In the distance, a plume of dust rose behind the decoy vehicle that had drawn him out. Joe vaulted onto Ikkakumon. "Mission accomplished—let's go!" he called. Ikkakumon wheeled away.
Tai stood on a rock and watched Etemon's camper thunder toward them. Ikkakumon pounded along in front. Tai gave a small wave. "Start."
Boom.
A bomb crashed onto Etemon's camper. When the smoke thinned, the "King" was singed and smoking.
"You miserable brats—I'm going to crush you!" Etemon clenched his fists, fury peaking as he vented his spite.
"Go, MetalGreymon." The giant strode past Tai and advanced on Etemon.
"Is it okay to send MetalGreymon in alone?" Sora asked, worried.
Tai glanced at her, then back at MetalGreymon with full confidence. "He's got this. We trust our partners, right?"
"Evolving a little won't beat me!" Etemon scoffed when he saw MetalGreymon, surprised but still cocky.
"Dark Necrosphere!" He wound up and slung the attack, but MetalGreymon simply swept his mechanical arm up and blocked it.
"What?!" Etemon gaped as his signature was brushed aside.
"Giga Blaster!" Two missiles hammered out from MetalGreymon's chest launchers, cutting straight for Etemon.
He barely leapt clear of the blast center but still caught the shock wave hard and staggered, hurt far more than he'd expected. Caught between striking back to save face or spewing a threat and bolting, he hesitated. MetalGreymon fired again. Etemon sprang upward—and then a voice he did not want to hear rang out nearby:
"Plug Bomb!" Datamon burst from cover and unleashed a killing volley.
"Datamon! A sneak attack? How filthy!" Mid-air, Etemon had nowhere to go. The bombs struck home. He stared down at his legs as they broke into motes and vanished upward through his body and howled at Datamon—rage, hatred, and raw fear of the end ripping through his voice.
"Hmph. Drop dead, you stinking monkey. Complain in hell," Datamon said. The synthesized tone was flat, but Tai and the others still heard the bite of mockery—and the thin edge of vindication in a long-overdue revenge.
"No—I won't disappear! I'm the King of Digimon! I can't—" The protest cut off. Etemon was gone.
Tai gave Datamon a look but said nothing. He understood. Anyone crippled by an enemy, locked up, and forced to work for that enemy for so long would stew in resentment. When a chance at payback came, you took it. As for "sneak attacks" or "honor"—Datamon had never considered them; he wasn't on the side of angels to begin with.
"Ha! Finally beat Etemon. That was rough," Mimi sighed in relief, her whole body uncoiling.
"So… what do we do now?" Izzy asked, voicing what they all felt.
Silence settled over them. Gennai had told them to defeat the Dark Power on Server, but he hadn't said who or where it was. Even with Etemon gone, were they done? No one knew. For a moment, they were at a loss.
"What now that Etemon's down?" Sora said, a bit at sea.
"I want to go home," T.K. said softly, head lowered. For a kid his age, being away this long and holding it together at all was a lot.
"I've got a mountain of homework I haven't done," Joe fretted. No one else bit—that was Joe; the rest would love a world without homework.
"But how do we get home? Gennai never told us." Izzy frowned, stumped.
Thinking of home pulled their gazes down; the cheers died into quiet.
Tai sighed at the drooping shoulders in front of him. They were just kids, after all.
"If we don't know the way back, we'll go find it." He stepped into their midst. "The Digital World is huge, and we've only crossed a tiny part of it. Exploring it isn't so bad, right? We'll find a way home—eventually. And this is a chance other kids never get."
Heads lifted.
"That… does sound good," Izzy said, eyes lighting. "There's so much here I still don't understand."
They each shared a thought, then looked to Tai.
"What about you?" Sora asked.
"I'll stay here—for now. Etemon's network is packed with data. I'm going to dig for anything on getting back to the Human World," Tai said with a smile, declining to go with them.
Surprised, they still respected his choice.
"Oh—take these." Tai handed each of them a device. "Comms. If any of us finds a way back, we call the rest."
"See you, Tai!" they said. The kids set out again, unaware of what was coming. Tai watched them go, a pang running through him. None of them knew the hand of fate was already pushing from behind—and a new crisis waited ahead.
TN: You can vote for this series as a free member here: https://[email protected]/posts/142658209. The winner will continue to receive updates. While the poll is running, new chapters will be added to both fanfics.