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Chapter 4: Strange Things Happening to Partners
Once the light had settled down, Taichi, Greymon, and the others slowly looked up.
The Eosmon that they’d originally supposed to be pursuing was now gone.
Eosmon had gotten bigger, and had gone through a dazzling evolution. With shining wings, and long protruding arms that were connected by hexagonal panels, it looked more like a machine than an actual living being.
“It evolved…” muttered Koushirou, his eyes wide.
No one there was capable of hiding their confusion at seeing such an unprecedented Digimon evolution.
It was then when Greymon began moving towards Eosmon.
“Doesn’t matter!”
At almost the same time, Garurumon also jumped towards it.
“Let’s go!”
The two of them made their first strike together.
But Eosmon’s wings, which had gotten much bigger, started to scatter glittering powder, and it took off and slammed into Greymon with unbelievable speed.
“Aaaaargh!”
Eosmon was just as fast as Garurumon was — no, even faster.
Eosmon threw Greymon into the side of the net, as hard as it could.
“…Garurumon!”
Once Yamato had called out his partner’s name, Garurumon came upon Eosmon from behind and spit out blew flames from his mouth, with his special attack, Fox Fire.
But before the blue flames could hit Eosmon, they suddenly started to scatter everywhere.
“Did it deflect it?!”
Yamato couldn’t believe his own eyes. It was like there was an invisible barrier blocking Eosmon from Garurumon’s attack.
Koushirou, who was looking at the glow around Eosmon, suddenly came to the realization.
“It’s the scales! Eosmon is shedding scales that deflect our attacks!”
Hearing Koushirou’s explanation, Takeru exchanged glances with Angemon.
“Then…”
Angemon nodded at him, and headed towards Eosmon, who had Greymon pinned down.
Eosmon pointed its antennae like they were blades, and aimed at Greymon.
“Not so fast!”
Angemon went in for a direct punch, and hit Eosmon in close range.
Eosmon finally released Greymon from its grip and flew into the cyberspace, and then screeched to a halt.
“We’ve got it!”
Angemon raised his right arm, glittering and shining, and fired off a fist of holy power, his Heaven’s Knuckle, at Eosmon — and in that moment, Eosmon vanished from Angemon’s sight.
“What?”
Angemon, sensing that something was wrong, looked above him. From his line of sight, Eosmon was standing on one of the panels it had shed into the air.
Before Angemon could even prepare himself, Eosmon lunged from the panel.
…Bwing!
In only a moment, Eosmon had charged in front of Angemon, and the feathers of his wings started to scatter.
Bwing, bwing, bwing…
Eosmon, using the panels that it had scattered within the wide-range net, was flying freely at a speed that not even the eye could follow.
“It had been setting up those panels at the beginning for the purpose of using them for high-speed travel…!”
Koushirou was watching Eosmon, mouth still gaping wide, as it used the panels suspended in the air as landing boards.
“I’ll stop it!”
Kabuterimon responded to his partner’s confusion and went into attack Eosmon, hoping to turn the situation around, even if just by a little.
But using the panels only increased Eosmon’s speed, and Kabuterimon simply couldn’t keep up.
Gyunnnnn!
Finally, Eosmon’s antennae sliced through the air and hit Kabuterimon directly.
“Gwaaah!”
“Kabuterimon!”
Seeing his partner getting blown through the air, Koushirou began to panic.
“Menoa-san! How is the consciousness data retrieval going?” Koushirou called out to Menoa, who was still back in his office.
“62%! Sorry, we still need more time!”
Menoa was working as fast as she possibly could to parse and recover the consciousness data. But in order to recover the consciousness of all of the victims, she still needed more time.
Eosmon, still on a rampage, couldn’t be pinned down.
“Taichi! Time to stop holding back!”
“Yeah…Let’s do it!”
Reading Yamato’s thoughts, Taichi gave him a firm nod.
Taichi and Yamato’s feelings became one.
And in that moment, Greymon and Garurumon were enveloped in a blinding light.
Back in Koushirou’s office, Menoa was fixated on observing the cyberspace through the monitor.
Menoa’s hands unconsciously stopped, and she whispered, “That’s…Omegamon…”
Omegamon was an Ultimate-level evolved form that was born from Greymon and Garurumon whenever Taichi and Yamato’s feelings became one.
Omegamon stood in front of Eosmon. His right arm had the form of MetalGarurumon on it, and his left WarGreymon, the proof of their fusion.
Wearing a pure red cape, with a dignified air, he looked like a superhero.
Omegamon was the final trump card for Taichi and his friends.
Taichi and Yamato, riding on his body, yelled out to him together.
“Go…!”
Silently, Omegamon pointed the weapon on his right arm, the Garuru Cannon, at Eosmon, and fired.
Boom…!
A huge explosion that shook the entire area went off, but right before the crash, Eosmon managed to get away.
And no matter how many times Omegamon continued to attack, he couldn’t bring Eosmon down.
“It’s fast!”
Noticing Takeru’s annoyance, Koushirou realized what Omegamon was trying to do.
“No, Omegamon is aiming for the panels!”
Omegamon was not aiming for Eosmon itself. Instead, it was aiming all of its attacks at the panels.
Eosmon, was starting to be backed into a corner, now that its high speed was being held back by the attacks.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Omegamon continued to attack, and at last, all of the scattered panels had been blown into pieces, without leaving a single trace.
“Now!”
In response to Yamato’s call, Omegamon readied the Garuru Cannon on his right arm with a shrrrk!
Boom!
He attacked with all his might, hitting Eosmon directly, and leaving it unable to move!
Having been hit by the blast, Eosmon’s left arm was thoroughly beaten up, and was no longer to fly around as it wished.
“Finish it off, Omegamon!”
Omegamon heard Taichi’s words, and readied a thick and long sword with a shnnk!
This was Omegamon’s other weapon, his Grey Sword.
Yamato cheered Omegamon on as he charged in to stab Eosmon.
“Go for it!”
Eosmon was frantic, but there was nowhere for it to run.
“Finish it off!”
Taichi’s battle cry rang out through the cyberspace.
Anyone could see that their victory was secured…but then…
Without warning, Omegamon’s movements suddenly stopped.
And not only that, his body was twitching and flickering around, like a computer bug had occurred.
“…What’s going on?”
Taichi had no idea what was happening, and the only thing he could do was continue watching Omegamon.
…Snap!
Omegamon could no longer move around freely, and his fusion suddenly dissolved.
“Ghhh!…Gyuh…”
The recoil from tearing apart caused Agumon to turn back into his pre-evolutionary form, Koromon, and bounce off the net.
“Gwaaaaah! Ughhh…”
Gabumon, who had been tossed in the other direction, also reverted to Tsunomon.
Having never seen this kind of situation before, Taichi began to panic.
“What’s going on, why did Omegamon fall apart?”
“Koushirou! What just happened?”
“I wouldn’t have any idea about that!”
Koushirou had lost all sense of composure, starting to yell as Yamato backed him into a corner.
Glancing aside at Taichi and his friends as they were being thrown into chaos, Eosmon started to move again.
Snap!
Looking up to see where the sound had come from, Taichi and the others saw that Eosmon was starting to wring open the wide-range net.
“It’s trying to escape!”
Angemon, from beside the panicking Takeru, and Kabuterimon, who was floating beside Koushirou, went in to stop Eosmon from escaping.
But Eosmon’s sharp antennae buzzed forward and slowed them down, and they were unable to catch up.
Eosmon managed to break open a wide hole in the net, until it had gotten wide.
“No! It’s getting away!”
Taichi’s yell rang out through the space, but none of the Digimon had any power to stop him.
Vrrrrrt!
Eosmon pried open the wide-range net with force, and jumped through the hole.
Eosmon opened a gate in the wall of the sphere, and used it as an exit. The gate closed behind it.
Taichi and the others’ plan had ended in failure.
Bang! The sound of Taichi’s fists banging on his desk rang out through Koushirou’s office.
“What happened there?!”
Taichi’s shoulders were tensed up, and he was yelling angrily.
“Why did Omegamon’s fusion have to break up all of a sudden…”
“I don’t know. It’s hard to imagine Omegamon had taken that much damage.”
After saying this, Koushirou took a sidelong glance at Taichi and Yamato’s partners.
Koromon and Tsunomon were sitting on the sofa, and their friends were feeding them their favorite hamburgers. It was hard to imagine something so strange happening to these recovering Digimon that were devouring food so happily.
“And yet, they went all the way down to Baby-level…”
Koushirou was deep in thought, with his hand to his mouth.
Taichi and the others had never experienced anything like this before.
While Koushirou and the others were standing there in bewilderment, Yamato said, calmly, “For now, we’re going to need to come up with a new strategy.”
Taichi suddenly turned towards him.
“We do, but what are we supposed to do in this situation…?!”
As Taichi watched the Digimon, tired out from their fighting, his voice dropped softly.
Taichi and his friends had been played for fools by the evolved Eosmon.
Omegamon, for whatever reason, had suddenly fallen apart.
How were they supposed to go back up against it like this?
The anxiety between Taichi and his friends spread out further.
“Right now, let’s focus on finding Eosmon and the consciousness data,” said Koushirou, changing the subject as he looked out over his friends.
“I’ll look into why that happened to Omegamon. Perhaps the cyberspace we were in has something that inhibits evolution…”
“That’s not it.”
“Huh?”
Menoa had been quiet this whole time, but she didn’t hesitate in cutting down Koushirou’s suggestion.
Taichi and his friends, along with the Digimon on the sofa, all turned to look at Menoa at once.
“What do you mean, that’s not it?”
Taichi looked at her with a puzzled expression, and Menoa slowly stood up.
Menoa had a very sad look on her face as she turned to face Taichi.
“This is probably a problem to do with you.”
Yamato scowled at Menoa upon hearing her words.
“Us?”
“What do you mean by that?”
Menoa answered Koushirou’s question by speaking as if she were telling a story.
“Do you all understand why children are chosen to be partnered to Digimon?”
Taichi and the others were silent, as Menoa walked towards the windowsill and continued her words, looking out at the bundles of clouds floating in the sky.
“It’s because they’re full of possibilities.”
“Possibilities?”
Menoa simply nodded in response to Taichi.
“Their future spreads out in front of them, and their choices are infinite. Every time they make a choice, they ‘grow’…”
Menoa held out a hand towards the bundles of clouds outside the window.
“‘Growth’ and ‘possibilities’ are tied together, and give rise to a burst of energy.”
Menoa clenched the hand that she had held out into a fist.
“You probably understand it by now. Your own ‘growth’ is the trigger for your Digimon partners’ evolution.”
Taichi and the others continued to stare at Menoa, whose back was turned.
“We live through our days, and we choose all sorts of possibilities, and continue to grow. But the truth lying beneath all of it is that your Digimon start to lose their power.”
Menoa slowly turned around to face them.
And then, she dropped the cruel truth on them.
“When their power is gone…your partnership with your Digimon ends.”
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