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"...So that's it?" Max sighed as he collapsed in his chair. Just as suddenly as it had started, the red dot had stopped blinking, and the waves of the strange graph stilled. "Who won? Diaboramon?"
Mr. Izumi shook his head, "I'm not sure. It appears Diaboramon was winning...but now it seems he's disappeared off the face of the earth. It doesn't make any sense." He sipped from his coffee, which he had finally decided to replace with a fresh cup, and examined the print-outs of the graph's activity. "What doesn't make any sense is that not only did Omnimon destroy Diaboramon a very long time ago, but Diaboramon was on the Internet. How could he have come to this world?"
Max looked down at Veemon, who had long since fallen asleep. He stood up, and as he straightened his shirt, he said, "Well, I guess me and Veemon should be heading home. I'll see you around, Mr. Izumi." He picked up Veemon and headed for the door.
Halfway there, he was halted by Mr. Izumi's voice, "Wait, Max!" Mr. Izumi stepped into the room behind him, and leaned against the wall. Max turned around, and Mr. Izumi again spoke, "I think you know what we have to do, Max." Max considered for a moment, then nodded his head in affirmation. Mr. Izumi nodded in return, "It's settled then. Run home and pack, we're heading to Texas."
Max nodded, and again turned for the door. But just as he was exiting through he cracked door frame, Mr. Izumi called to him again. He turned, "Yes, Mr. Izumi?"
Mr. Izumi smiled, "Call me Izzy."
Tentomon's snoring was quite distinct from the back seat of the large van. Max tried to ignore it as he stared outside at the passing landscape. They had only been on the rode for about two hours, but night was already heavy-set on the world. Max glanced over at Izzy, who was smirking at a passing billboard. Max bent his neck to see it, which read, "Mimi Tachikawa and the Digits, live in concert!" Max shrugged, thinking nothing of it. That was until the Izzy turned the van off the exit the billboard had announced.
"Where are we going now?" Max asked puzzledly as the van merged with the traffic heading into the parking lot of the large concert stadium. Izzy only smiled and kept his eyes on the road. Max protested, "Oh come on, Izzy. What are we doing here?"
Izzy just smiled, and answered in a taunting voice, "You'll see!"
He parked the van, and the four of them got out. Izzy helped Tentomon on with a lime green jacket and a yellow cap. Max helped Veemon don a large, black, hooded sweatshirt, and a pair of jean shorts that on Veemon became a very baggy pair of jeans. Max pulled the hood up and tightened it. Max looked back and forth between the two digimon and sighed. Neither disguise was very good.
Izzy led them to the backstage entrance. Max rolled his eyes, "Okay Izzy, let me guess, you know the band, right?" He chuckled to himself as Izzy knocked on the door. It opened just a bit, and a very large bodyguard peeked out through it.
"What do ya want?" the bodyguard boomed as Izzy searched his pockets. After a minute, Izzy produced four backstage passes. Max's laughter was silenced immediately.
The bodyguard reached out and grabbed the passes with a giant hand. He pulled them in through the door, and examined them closely. He handed them back through, and opened the door for the four to enter. Max was stunned.
Once their were inside, the bodyguard slammed the door and returned to the magazine he had been reading. Max stifled a laugh when he realized the magazine was ‘Highlights'. He turned back to Izzy, who was searching through the mix of people and technical equipment. Finally his eyes settled on two people conversing with each other. It was a man and a woman. The man had wild blonde hair, with a tuft of it streaming over his face. Max recognized him as the guitar player for ‘The Digits'. Even more amazing was the woman. She was quite tall. She wore a pink tank top, tucked into a short pink skirt. Her hair was died, with two different shades of pink streaking throughout it. There was glitter in her hair as well, and she also wore a large, and yes pink, cowboy hat. Max recognized her right away as ‘The Princess of Pink', pop-star Mimi Tachikawa. Max felt faint.
Max almost choked when he saw Izzy and Tentomon, followed by Veemon. Izzy walked right up to them and said, "Hi guys, long time no see." The biggest shock came when they actually recognized him.
Max slowly made his way over as they exchanged hugs and handshakes. Mimi then turned to him and asked, "And who is this young man?"
Max froze and turned bright red. He had never really been this close to a celebrity, not to mention such a beautiful one. He tried to speak but all that came out was a horse gasp.
Izzy walked up to Max and laughed, "You'll have to excuse Max. I don't think he's ever been so close to a star before." Izzy laughed again and turned to Mimi and the guitarist, "Mimi, Matt, I'd like you to meet Max Summers. Max, meet Mimi Tachikawa and Matt Ishida. They're digidestined, too."
Max almost doubled over, "You two are digidestined?!"
Matt nodded, "Or at least, we were back in the old days. It seems like it's been forever since we left the Digital World."
"Fifteen years ago to be exact." Izzy added in. He crossed his arms and sighed, "It seems like it was just yesterday that we were traveling around, battling the Dark Masters."
"Wait a minute," Mimi spoke up, "Who is this little blue digimon here?" She bent down and pulled the hood off of Veemon's head, "It looks like he has a V on his head."
"That's Veemon," Max replied, scratching the back of his head, "He's my digimon partner."
"Pleased to meet ya." Veemon added in.
Mimi and Matt's eyes both widened, and Matt spoke, "Wait, you're a digidestined, too? How can that be possible?" Max and Izzy explained the events of past few days, Max starting with getting his digivice and DemiVeemon, and Izzy finishing with a summary of what they had discovered on Izzy's computer.
"Wait a minute," Mimi said, reaching into her pocket, "Do those new digivices you were talking about look anything like...this?" She pulled out a digivice that matched the other two exactly, but green and with the image like a tear drop with a circle inside it and a dot inside that circle.
Max and Izzy then preceded to pull out their digivices, and they held them all out in a circle. "Yeah, that's one of them alright." Max said, comparing it to his own.
Mimi smiled, "I figured as much." She walked towards a door with a star on it labeled, "Mimi", indicating it to be her dressing room. She put her hand on the knob, "That would explain this..." She pulled open the door to reveal a very large flower with eyes.
Max was even more surprised when the flower stepped out and greeted them with a, "Hi!" It was a digimon alright. It was green all over, with root-like feet and big leafs for arms, each with three finger-like spikes on the end. On top of the short digimon's round head was a large pink flower, with a bit of yellow towards the center. Izzy smirked, "Just as I suspected. Hello Palmon."
Matt crossed his arms, "I wonder why I didn't get one of those digivices, and why Gabumon isn't here as well."
Izzy scratched his chin in a pondering way, "It would seem that a new team of digidestined is being constructed, with some old members and some new members. How strange. I was originally under the impression that only children could be digidestined."
Palmon spoke up, "I wish I could tell you what was going on myself, but all I know is that one moment I was picking fruit, and the next I was standing next to Mimi in front of a computer screen."
Max interjected, "That's it! There's the connection, we each received our digimon and digivice when we were using a computer. Maybe if Matt uses a computer..."
"Already tried it." Matt interrupted. He looked down at his old digivice, "I've tried everything I could think of, but so far I can't get my digivice to change. I guess I'm just not one of the ‘new' digidestined."
"Five minutes to show time, Ms. Tachikawa." a man with a shaved head and pair of sleek sunglasses yelled, peeking his head from inside the sound booth. Max guessed he was the stage director.
"We have to be getting out there now." Mimi glanced at the mirror in her dressing room and brushed a bit of her hair with her hand. When she decided it looked fine, she headed towards the stage with Matt, "I hope you four can stay for the show."
Izzy smiled, "We wouldn't miss it for the world."
Mimi smiled back, "Good, because your going to hear an old favorite." She winked, and was gone around the corner. Max and Izzy stepped to where they could get a good view of the stage.
On stage, Mimi had just stepped out, the band already in place and starting to play. The crowd boomed with cheers, and Mimi waved her hand above her head at them all. She spoke into the microphone, "Hi, everyone! I'm going to start with an old favorite of mine, so I hope you all enjoy it!" The band broke into the song, and Mimi began, "I'm gonna sing a soooong...a song that'll..."
The large speakers on the side of the stage suddenly exploded, raining sparks all over the stage and even some into the crowd. Several people screamed, and scrambled from their seats, covering their heads with their arms. The entire audience was in an uproar.
"What's going on?!" the man Max had identified as the stage director yelled. He ran all about, checking equipment and yelling at any available person. However, Max noticed, he seemed to refrain from yelling at the bodyguard.
All around the stage area and the crowd area alike, people started bursting into chaos. Stage hands fiddled with control panels, and ran all about with toolboxs and fire extinguishers. Mimi and the band stood helplessly on the stage, trapped by two walls of fire.
"Mimi, I'll save you!" Palmon yelled, running out onto the stage.
Izzy grabbed her and lifted her into the air, "Unless you come equipped with fire extinguishers, there's nothing you can do right now. Besides, do you want all those people to see you?! We'd have to answer a lot of questions that we DON'T want to answer!"
"I don't care!" She squirmed in his grasp, wriggling and fighting to break free, "Let me go! Mimi needs me!"
Max grabbed Izzy's shoulder, "Izzy, look!" Max pointed out on stage, mainly on the large screens behind the band. And there they were. Two metallic-looking creatures, which Izzy immediately identified as digimon.
The first was made up of a round metallic ball with an almost-cute face. The ball served as both head and body; from it extended a pair of metal arms with red boxing gloves on the hands, and two legs with red shoes that ended halfway down the foot to reveal large metal feet with three pointy toes each.
The second resembled the first quite a bit. However the head was red colored, the top half covered with a metal cap/mask with holes to let his eyes show. His right arm had a long claw coming out of the knuckles, and the other arm was a large advanced-looking cannon with a laser site. His shoes were all metal, letting only a little red show through where the leather straps were.
The two digimon on the screen raised their arms simultaneously, and quieting the entire crowd yelled in unison, "We are the Mamemon brothers! We hereby claim this place, and all humans within it as property of the High Lord Tinkermon!"
"Tinkermon?" Tentomon thought out loud, "I think I had a set of those when I was still a Fresh digimon." He laughed in spite of himself, "But I could never figure out how to get those little stick things in the wheel."
Max looked for Izzy, whom he spotted sitting cross-legged on the floor, laptop computer on his lap. It was the same old-looking Pineapple he had seen at Izzy's house. Izzy spoke up, "Just as I suspected. That happy looking one is Mamemon, a mutant digimon who is a lot more dangerous than he looks. And the other is MetalMamemon, an android digimon with a powerful cannon mounted on his arm. They're both Ultimate level digimon, and they both have very powerful bomb attacks." Izzy turned to Max, "Your digimon won't be able to stand up against them, you best leave this to us."
Max shook his head, "No way! Veemon and I aren't afraid of any digimon, Ultimate level or not. Ain't that right, Veemon?" Veemon held a fist high in the air, "Yeah! Let's get ‘em!"
Izzy folded up his laptop and stood up, taking his digivice out of his pocket. "I'm going to go find out where they are. You two stay here and try to help Mimi and the others." He started running down the hall, "Come on, Tento!" Tentomon took flight after him, "Right behind ya, Izzy!"
Max, Veemon, and Palmon proceeded out on to the stage, Max taking a fire extinguisher from the wall. He pointed the nozzle at the wall of fire, pulled the pin and squeezed the handle. Nothing happened. "Stupid fire extinguisher!" He yelled at no one in particular, "The fire department recharges these things for FREE ya know!"
He threw the useless thing aside and pulled out his digivice, "Veemon, help out!" Veemon nodded once, "Right!" A flash of light...
Max looked around, his eyes setting on the large red curtain hanging to the side on the stage. He called out to Veedramon, "Veedramon! Use the curtain to bat out the flames!" Veedramon nodded, and took hold of the curtain. Max saw the stunned stage director flinch as the curtains tore from the supporting cable. Veedramon set to work batting out the flames.
A sudden shriek came from the center of the stage, and Max swung his head to see Mimi, fear stricken and swinging her microphone at the approaching Mamemon.
"Mimi, I'm coming!" Palmon exclaimed. She pointed her arms upwards towards the stage lights, "Poison Ivy!" Her fingers shot out as vines, which wrapped around the stage lights. Palmon pulled them to make sure they were tight, reeled them in a bit, and swung over the roaring flames to Mimi's side.
"Palmon!" Mimi shouted with joy. She pulled out her digivice and held it in the air, "Okay you overgrown ball bearing! You're a goner now!" A flash of light...
What appeared in Palmon's place then would be best described as a cactus with boxing gloves, and that's just was it was. It was a giant cactus with arms and legs, and a small tuft of orange hair on the top. It also wore red boxing gloves.
"What's this?" Mamemon questioned in a voice like one of those dolls where you pull the string and it says something. He smirked confidently, "This is better than I thought! High Lord Tinkermon will be very pleased when he finds out we not only took this area, but managed to kill TWO digidestined in the process!"
Mimi gulped, "K...kill?" She wavered, but clenched her fists and her face turned angry, "No way, bucko! You won't lay a mitt on me, you creep! Togemon!" She looked up at her long time friend, "Show this cue ball what your made of!"
Togemon smirked confidently, "So, you want a fight, huh? Okay, how about a Needle Spray!" Togemon spun around in a whirlwind fashion, hundreds of cactus needles flew from her body and struck Mamemon. Mimi winced when she saw every needle bounce right off of him.
"Was that your best? Looks like I'm going to have to teach you a lesson!" He held out one of his gloved hands to his side, and with a puff of smoke a large yellow ball with a smiley face on it appeared. A smirked crossed his face, and as he tossed it at Togemon, he yelled, "Smiley Bomb!"
It collided with Togemon, and Mimi had to shield her eyes as it exploded with massive force, sending Togemon across the stage and careening into the wall on the other side. Mimi screamed, "Togemon! No"
Mamemon chuckled to himself, "I expected more from the legendary digidestined, but I guess it was all just a myth." He started to laugh out loud. But his laughter wasn't to last for long.
"Hammer Punch!" Veedramon yelled as his fist connected with Mamemon from behind, sending him flying in the same direction as Togemon. Max cheered openly, "Way to go, Veedramon!" before noticing the explosion of cheers that seemed to come from everywhere. He swung his head to look at the audience, who were cheering on the battle. Max's face turned red, and he whispered to himself, "So much for keeping the digimon under wraps..."
Meanwhile, backstage, Izzy and Tentomon had located MetalMamemon, and a him and Kabuterimon were locked in combat. Kabuterimon called out, "Electro Shocker!" and launched the giant ball of electricity towards the metal menace. MetalMamemon leaped forward at the attack, slashing wide with his claw, slicing right through the Electro Shocker.
MetalMamemon landed a few yards in front of Kabuterimon, and laughed in mechanical beeps, and spoke much the same way too, "That wasn't so bad, but you made a grave miscalculation by challenging me!" He took aim with the large cannon, and an orange ball of energy gathered in front of the barrel. He called out, "Energy Bomb!" and the ball fired into Kabuterimon's chest, exploding with a large blast that drove Kabuterimon into the ceiling.
Izzy shielded himself from falling plaster, and clutched his digivice tightly, "Kabuterimon, we can't beat him this way!" His eyes narrowed at MetalMamemon, "You know what you have to do."
Kabuterimon pushed out from the ceiling, and he shuck the floor as his feet hit it. Izzy ran up next to him, and held his digivice high.
"Light-speed Jabbing!" Togemon yelled, and laid into Mamemon with a top-speed barrage of punches.
Mamemon rolled to the side, and leaped fist-forward at Togemon, "Sparkling Blow!" Three small metal disks on the knuckle area of Mamemon's glove flashed brightly as the punch connected against Togemon's face, knocking her down to the ground.
Max, holding DemiVeemon who had previously been beaten by Mamemon, "How can we beat them...we don't stand a chance..."
The crowd was on the edge of their seats, and things were looking grim for the digidestined. But Mimi stood tall, and a brilliant light began to emit from her digivice. Unbenounced to the crowd, Izzy's digivice also began to radiate a bright light. The images of the Crest of Sincerity and the Crest of Knowledge flashed in a brilliant shimmer of light...
The crowd watched in awe as a beautiful fairy stepped out of a rain of flower petals. She was Lilymon; she wore a short-skirted dress of pink, embroidered with gold vines. Her arms and legs were wrapped in green leafs, and on her head she wore a beautiful pink flower with a yellow stamen.
Backstage, MegaKabuterimon stepped out from the bright light. He was a much larger form of Kabuterimon, and red in color. He had a more traditional beetle appearance, with a large red shell. On the top of the shell was a large green crystal orb, and from MegaKabuterimon's head was a very large Y-shaped horn.
"What's this?" Mamemon speculated as Lilymon flew towards him, "A weed with wings? You may be more graceful now, but that won't save you! Smiley Bomb!" He threw another bomb at Lilymon.
"Your childish antics will not suffice against me!" Lilymon called out. She put her hands together, and a large flower bud formed over them. She aimed at Mamemon, and as it bloomed she yelled, "Flower Cannon!" A glowing ball of flower petals flew at Mamemon, and hit him dead on. He exploded and faded away in a flurry of pink flower petals.
MetalMamemon eyed MegaKabuterimon up and down, "It would appear that you have grown in both power and mass. But that will not lead you to victory against me." He fired from his cannon, "Energy Bomb!"
"Horn Buster!" MegaKabuterimon called out in a rough voice. An orange beam of energy fired from his horn, blasting straight through the Energy Bomb, and colliding with MetalMamemon. The explosion both reduced MetalMamemon to scrap metal, and blew away the wall of the room, opening it up to the stage.
"Izzy!" Matt called out. He ran to the large hole they were emerging from.
Meanwhile, the crowd exploded with cheering and applause, some occasionally whistling or calling out. It was indeed a victory to be proud of...
"ENOUGH!" The ungodly voice swept through the entire stadium, and every voice silenced. The digidestined watched, wide-eyed as a very large cloaked figure emerged from the shadows.
&nbsIt was a frightening sight indeed. Here wore a demonic tan cloak, the bottom lined with a crimson ring the color of blood. From the unnaturally long sleeves peeked two twisted, claw-like hands that seemed to be made of pure darkness. In the midst of the hood was a single dark shadow where the face should have been, the only feature two piercing red eyes of light.
The hideous creature exploded with inhuman laughter as it slowly levitated towards the stage. Max didn't need Izzy to tell him that not only was this thing a digimon, but an incredibly evil one.
The thing stopped in mid-air, and gazed out over the digidestined. It spoke in its demonic voice, "WELL WELL WELL, WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?" He appeared to shake his head slowly, "IT'S HARDLY FAIR FOR YOU TO HAVE SUCH AN...EARLY ADVANTAGE." Again the ear-splitting laughter came. When it finally subsided, he continued, "I ENJOY PLAYING THIS LITTLE...GAME WITH YOU DIGIDESTINED, SO I WON'T KILL YOU NOW. BUT I BELIEVE I SHALL TAKE AWAY THIS LITTLE ADVANTAGE THAT YOU HAVE UNRIGHTFULLY AFFORDED YOURSELVES."
The entire crowd gasped when the creature slowly lifted its arms to face forward. And as they lifted, two balls of eery crimson light formed in them. And as soon as they were formed, they launched towards the stage, and the creature called calmly, "TAINTED BLOODLUST."
Max cowered as one of the balls flew over his head, almost dropping DemiVeemon. Izzy and Mimi froze with fear as the balls collided with them.
Lilymon and MegaKabuterimon tried to aid their endangered friends, but as they tried to move, they became paralyzed, and the blood-colored light surrounded them as well. A green ball of light began to lift from Mimi, and a purple one from Izzy. And as they did, the digimon began to shrink; to de-digivolve.
When the light finally faded, Mimi and Izzy fell unconscious to the floor of the stage, the small balls of light floating above them. Matt ran over to help Izzy, the rest of the band ran to aid Mimi under Matt's direction. Max was too frozen with fear to move at all.
The evil digimon chuckled wickedly as it let one of its arms drop, and motioned his other hand in a ‘come hither' motion. Instantly, the green and purple balls of light flew to his hand. He grasped them quickly, then threw them high into the air, and out into the night sky, where they flew off in opposite directions.
"NOW THE SCORE HAS BEEN EVENED, DIGIDESTINED. I LOOK FORWARD TO...A MOST INTERESTING GAME." Again the twisted laughter, "WE SHALL MEET AGAIN, DIGIDESTINED."
Max stared at the thing wild-eyed, and his courage hastily flooded back into him. He stood, and shook his fist at the looming phantom, "Just who do you think you are?!"
But no anger from the thing, only the plaguing laughter. His piercing eyes settled on Max's, "HOW RUDE OF ME, I MUST APOLOGIZE. MY NAME IS...SEDAIMON. REMEMBER THAT NAME WELL, DIGIDESTINED. LET IT SEEP INTO YOUR VEINS, AND BRING YOU UNDENIABLE TERROR AT THE MENTIONING OF IT. NOW, I BID YOU FAREWELL. ADO, DIGIDESTINED, ADO, DIGIMON, PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW. BUT DO NOT WORRY, I SHALL RETURN. AND WHEN I DO, I WILL HAVE NOT ONLY YOUR LIVES...I WILL HAVE YOUR SOULS!"
Everything became filled with Sedaimon's laughter and flashes of the evil red light. Max again cowered, squeezing his eyes shut and covering his ears. When it finally subsided, Sedaimon was gone. And so was the audience...