Episode 22 - Occupied Territory

Chibi-Koushiro walks up. "Hi," he waves. "This series is NOT FOR
KIDS. It is rated R for a reason. It was not arbitrarily assigned.
If you are under 18 years old, and your parents won't let you see
a rated R movie-- then you should NOT be reading this either."

Chibi-Koushiro coughed. "Anyway. The characters are properties of
Toei Animation Inc., Akiyoshi Hongo and others. They are used without
consent. Archive is only borrowing them for an indefinite amount of time.

"Strict Japanese spelling for all names when possible. If an English
name for a digimon or his attack is used and you know what the name
is supposed to be in Japanese-- please tell Archive so it can be corrected."

_________________

"After the defeat of Devimon's evolved form, Skull Satamon, we needed
time to rest as my brother, Taichi, was gravely wounded during the
battle. Not to mention give others the time they needed to heal as well," Hikari sadly noted.

"While we rested, I finally told Daisuke something I wanted to before
we even came to the Digital World, that I love him. Yet even though
we made love, Daisuke rejected my feelings the following morning.

"Now the time to heal is over and we have to return to the war we were drafted to fight."

_________________

A small pink ball with floppy ears cowered in his cage. He had been
praying for salvation for years, but none had ever come. He could
only sit and watch in horror as unspeakable acts were committed
against his village. When a light flashed from deep within the cave
he was held captive in, he merely shuddered and awaited his death.

"A Koromon?" questioned a strange creature with wild hair who stood
on two legs that approached him from where that light had shown
despite that there was no entrance to the cave in that direction.

The Koromon eyes widened in fright at the sight of the Agumon behind
the creature. "Get out of here! If the Gazimon find you, they'll eat you!"

"Eat us?" Agumon questioned.

"That doesn't sound very good," the creature said.

"What's a Gazimon?" questioned the same type of creature, though
he was probably a different type being a little smaller and a different color.

Koromon could only shudder as other strange creatures appeared,
only barely recognizing a couple of the digimon. None of them seem
to know about his horrid captors.

"How did he escape?" questioned a voice at the mouth of the cave.

"Where did he come from? Or those other digimon as well?" another returned.

"Who cares? Let's stun them so the King can feast on their code
tonight!" responded a third voice.

"The hell you will!" Agumon screamed launching himself at the Gazimon,
followed by a blue lizard and a few other digimon.

"Paralyze Breath!" chorused the Gazimon, stopping the attacking digimon in their tracks.

The second creature clenched his fist. "Wormmon, Digimental up!"

"Wormmon armor evolve!" A sphere surrounded Wormmon, which then
exploded with fire revealing a black scaled, humanoid dragon with
flaming butterfly wings. "Exploding with courage, Shadramon!" He
then pointed his arms at the Gazimon. "Flare Buster!"

The Koromon's eyes widened in shook as flames burst from Shadramon's
arms and engulfed the Gazimon in the blaze, who then exploded into
data. Had salvation finally come for him?

The first strange creature went to the Agumon and carefully held
him. He then turned toward the Koromon. "What's going on here?"

"Years ago, the Pabumon took over my village. At first they starved
us, but after a few of them evolved to Gazimon, they decided to
feed us to help make us evolve so they could feed on our code and
make themselves even stronger," Koromon answered.

"It's high time to turn the table on them." Shadramon broke the lock on the cage.

"We're going to wipe them out, aren't we?" yet another strange creature questioned with a frown.

"Of course," intoned the first two creatures.

_________________

Hawkmon flew down to the group after taking an aerial survey of
the village below. "There are numerous Pabumon and Gazimon, along
with a black furred Garurumon," he informed.

Daisuke rubbed his chin. "So, we've got the advantage of fire power,
but they have numbers and home terrain."

"What do you suggest?" Yamato questioned.

"Shock and awe sounds appropriate," Daisuke returned. "It worked
for the US against Iraq, it should work for us too."

"Wouldn't that destroy the village?" Hikari questioned.

"I don't see how we can save it," Daisuke returned.

"Torch it," Koromon voiced. "It stopped being my village a long time ago."

"Let's do this," Taichi called out firmly, holding his digivice out.

Koromon's eyes widened as many of the digimon engulfed in the light
of evolution. Greymon, Birdramon, Holsmon, Angemon, Garurumon, XV-mon
and Stingmon. Then even more surprising to the little digimon was
that XV-mon and Stingmon merged and became Paildramon.

Koushiro and Tentomon were not present as they were still in the
cave reading the Digital writing on the walls to determine where the crest resided.

"Do you want to evolve and help?" Hikari questioned.

"Can I?" Koromon questioned in disbelief.

Hikari nodded, pointing her D-3 at him.

"Koromon evolve to..." he called out as he felt the power flowing
into him. He could finally have his revenge against the Gazimon
for taking his home, raping the girls, and feeding upon them. He
would see them all pay! "Agumon!" He was now a black skinned small
dinosaur. Yet he felt more power available, and greedily took that
as well. "Agumon evolve to... Dark Tyranomon!"

Hikari collapsed to the ground while the monstrous black Tyrannosaurus
Rex unleashed a bestial howl. He lobbed balls of flame at the village as he rushed in to attack it.

"Hikari, are you all right?" Taichi questioned.

"I'm fine," she replied tiredly.

"Give him fire support," Daisuke ordered.

As one, the digimon unleashed their attacks, sending the village into a fiery inferno.

_________________

The sudden attack caught the village unaware. Before they knew it,
dozens of Gazimon and Pabumon had been killed.

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded a black furred Garurumon,
seeing the home he had conquered years ago go up in flames around him.

"This is revenge," the Dark Tyranomon growled evilly. "Fire Blast!"

Garurumon dodged the attack and returned with his own blazing attack of, "Fox Fire!"

The smaller wolf ran circles around the lumbering dinosaur, staying
one step ahead of the vicious attacks aimed at him. "Why would you
want revenge? You're no Koromon."

"I was until I got a little help," Dark Tyranomon retorted, frustrated
at his inability to destroy his hated foe.

"Paralyze Breath!" a pack of Gazimon called out, striking the back of the dinosaur.

Birdramon swooped pass a moment later, giving the Gazimon death by fire.

The black Garurumon chuckled, stalking closer to the frozen Dark
Tyranomon. "You're out of luck. I'll enjoy feasting on your core."
He opened his mouth to attack, but found himself engulfed in blue flames.

"That's disgusting," Yamato's purple Garurumon spat.

"Bet you taste good too," black Garurumon returned before leaping at his lighter mirror image.

Black Garurumon never made it there finding himself ensnared by impossibly strong cables.

"Be a good little puppy and play dead," Paildramon intoned. "Desperado Blaster!"

Black Garurumon howled in pain before exploding into data.

Garurumon let out a short laugh. "I don't think he's playing dead now."

"We killed the leader. Isn't that enough?" Mimi questioned with a hint of desperation.

"After they cannibalized other digimon? No, they all need to die," Greymon retorted bitterly.

Any further discussion came to a halt as Hikari screamed, staring
at where Dark Tyranomon used to be.

"This is not the suitable welcome for the King," grumbled an angry-looking
ape wearing golden armor. His arm was outstretched, pointing at
the mass of deleting particles that had been the dinosaur.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Paildramon questioned with growl.

"Who am _I_?! The whole Digital World knows and fears me! I am the
greatest power and singer to ever evolve! The master of all he surveys!
I am King Etemon!" announced the ape in an overly grand fashion.
"For killing my loyal fans, you will pay dearly!"

"Here's a royal feast for you," Paildramon shot back. "Desperado Blaster!"

"Oh, that tickles the royal taste buds," King Etemon laughed as
the energy bullets from the dragon's attack bounced off his armor.
"Here's a hunk of burning love in appreciation. Monkey Play!" The
golden monkey snapped his fingers and lightning struck Paildramon
from the cloudless sky. The jogressed dragon cried out in anguish
before collapsing and devolving into a pair of baby digimon.

Taichi stared in shock as their strongest digimon was defeated so
easily. "Guess we found the local lord already."

"Attack!" Daisuke ordered in anger.

The digimon unleashed their attacks, obscuring King Etemon in the
rain of fiery destruction. But when the smoke clear, the ape merely
looked perturbed at his smudged armor.

"Have you no respect for the greatest King of digimon?" King Etemon
demanded. "Jail house blues is too good for the likes of you! Monkey Play!"

Lightning cascaded over the Chosen and most of their digimon as
Holsmon managed to avoid the attack. All of the digimon struck reverted to child level.

Miyako groaned as she shakily stood up. "We've got to retreat."

"But to where?" Yamato questioned.

"To the cave," Daisuke answered. "We can't leave Koushiro behind
and if he knows where the crest is, we might be able to use it against him."

"Not to mention use the teleporter to port somewhere else," Takeru added.

Holsmon snatched up Daisuke's digimon and Gabumon, and then flew
after the kids and the digimon.

King Etemon followed them at his own leisurely pace.

_________________

"Each of us has a crest, and from what I understand each crest has
an associated digimental," Koushiro said aloud.

"And?" Tentomon prompted.

"Well, I can sort of figure out what crest some of us will get.
But I don't know who will get this one," Koushiro replied, point
at the sun-shaped image on the wall.

The pair turned around to see why footsteps were thundering toward them.

"Tell me you figured out where the crest is," Daisuke said in a serious tone.

Koushiro pointed at the wall. "It's right here. But it's the Crest
of Yuuki, and I'm not sure which of us represents courage."

"There's nothing to do but try and activate it," Yamato said firmly,
holding out his tag. Nothing happened.

Sora likewise held out her tag, but met similar results.

"Come on, kiddies. It's time to rock the house!" boomed from the cave's entrance.

"Koushiro, we're going to have to teleport somewhere else!" Miyako
told him desperately. "This digimon is too strong for us."

Koushiro typed into his computer and the room lit up briefly, but
nothing happened. "Huh?! Something is blocking the transfer. We can't teleport!"

"That's it." Taichi clenched his fist. "We're just going to have to fight him."

"With what?" Miyako demanded. "We only have two adult digimon and an armor."

"There's no other exit. Our only choice is to fight or let him kill
us. I prefer to go down fighting!" Taichi retorted.

The wall began to glow and shrink. It turned into a small yellow
paper thin card with the same sun-shaped image on it. The crest
flew out toward Taichi and inserted itself into his tag.

"How the fuck did that coward get the crest for courage?" Koushiro questioned.

"Debate that later. We have another exit now," Sora pointed to where
sunlight was pouring in from the crest's former resting place.

Daisuke frowned. "We'll retreat for now."

The others nodded and ran out of the cave.

King Etemon arrived moments later, unable to see the children through
the forest before him. "They think they've escaped me?! The King will have his due!"

_________________

Author's Notes:

Coming Soon:
Entry 23 - The Sea of Sand
On the run from King Etemon, the children find themselves lost in a desert.

Omake! Omake! Omake! Omake! Omake! Omake! Omake! Omake! Omake!

A glass door silhouettes three forms. Suddenly they jump on the
door causing it too fall, but miraculously doesn't break.

"Hi, I'm Koushiro!" called out a diminutive rust haired figure.

"I'm Hikari!" added the deformed image of the Yagami girl.

"And I'm Daisuke!" finished the tiny goggled-headed boy.

"Welcome to the part you've been waiting for: Chibi-Izumi Asks!" they chorused.

"Who's bright idea was this?" chibi-Koushiro wondered.

"Ayashi from Diaries thought you'd look cute this way," chibi-Hikari answered.

"Figures it was a girl," chibi-Daisuke noted.

A long-haired girl with a big chest for a super-deformed character
walked up and smashed chibi-Daisuke with a mallet. "That was fun!"
Chibi-Ayashi grinned. "Too bad I never got to do that in Archive's
Ranma 1/2 series, 'Life of Chaos.'"

"Anyway, on a question that has arisen," chibi-Koushiro began with
a sweat-drop. "How can Ken become the Kaiser if he was originally
infected with a Dark Seed by Millenniumon, the jogress of the remains
of the Dark Master Mugen Dramon and Ryo's true partner, Chimeramon,
when Mugen Dramon is still around?"

"Simple, Dark Seeds were not something Mille created, but something
that already existed in the Digital World," chibi-Daisuke replied.
"Ken was infected by someone else in Neo Digimon. Who and how will get explained later."

"In case you're wondering: No, the Kaiser's current Chimeramon is
not the same one that was Ryo's partner," chibi-Koushiro added.

"As for the Mega Dramon in 'The Shuffle' being Mugen Dramon reborn,
that will be explained in that fict," chibi-Hikari informed.

"Some of you may be confused it this chapter of references of eating
a digimon's code or core," Koushiro mentioned.

"A digimon's core is kind of like the heart or brain of digimon.
Their base essence is there," chibi-Hikari explained.

"Yeah, and a digimon's code is more like blood or DNA as it makes
up the digimon's body and defines his shape," chibi-Daisuke added.

"Some of you may be wondering about KING Etemon as well," chibi-Koushiro noted.

"He's just a different possible Ultimate (Mega) form for Etemon," chibi-Daisuke replied.

"In the original series, Metal Etemon was hardly a natural evolution
from Etemon, so he could have evolved differently had he done so
normally," chibi-Hikari informed.

"If you have any other questions, feel free to ask them," chibi-Koushiro
stated. "As long as the question doesn't reveal any major plot points, it'll be answered."