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Many years have passed since TK, Kari, Davis, Yolei, Cody, and Ken defeated the evil Digimon known as MaloMyotismon. Things were now different as humans and Digimon learned to live together. Both the Digital World and the human world were peaceful once again. Or so it seemed. Unknown to the inhabitants of both worlds, a new and darker evil was brewing in the Digital World.
Deciding to leave their human partners for a time and return to the Digital World, Angemon and Angewomon are now married (or bonded, whichever worked for digital monsters) and lived in a fairly nice house on File Island. It wasn’t anything really fancy, but it suited them just fine. The house, being located deep in the woods, provided them with privacy and seclusion.
Angewomon had just given birth to their first child, a son named BabyAngemon. They immediately saw that he was no ordinary baby Digimon. As soon as he came out of his egg, he was the spitting image of Angemon in every way, only smaller in size. It was most unusual and unique since all fresh Digimon resembled blobs of jelly. Somehow both of them sensed that he was special and that something big was in store for him in the future, because never in the history of the Digital World had there ever been a case like this. And they knew from past experiences that when something unusual happens in their world, it usually meant the starting of another adventure and, unfortunately, a brush with some form of evil.
Since Angewomon had a child to care for now, she retired herself from fighting and left it up to Angemon to guard them if evil was to show its face again. She hated the thought of leaving such a huge responsibility to her mate, especially since she was a level higher than him and more powerful, but both of them thought it was for the best. If something happened to both of them there would be no one to care for BabyAngemon.
Now having a family to provide for, Angemon spent his days as a trainer and instructor, teaching other Digimon of different varieties and levels how to fight and prepared them for battle should the need arise again. He had a special group of Angemon that he worked with every day. He trained them well and taught them how to use their special abilities and taught them the basics of combat. Since Angemon were among the most powerful Digimon species, someday they would prove to be the Digital World’s elite guardians. He hoped they would fully digivolve into a clan of Seraphimon eventually.
One of these angels was still a Patamon, however. The poor thing had been abandoned out in the wild as a fresh and left to die. Angemon rescued it and brought it to the training camp to care for it and train it to use its powers. It had been slow to develop and digivolve, though. No one really knew why. Some thought it was due to the weakness it had suffered through while abandoned. Angemon had grown to think of it as a second son and strived extra hard to train it properly, never pushing it too hard and allowing it to develop on its own. It was special to him and everyone around him knew it.
“Alright, mon, it’s time to show me what you know.” Angemon shouted to his troops. The bedraggled team consisted of: five Angemon and one Piddomon, an Agumon, a Garurumon, a Centarumon, a SnowAgumon, a Meramon, a Lillymon, and a Gazimon.
“I want the Angemon group to try out their rod skills on those dummies hanging on the trees over there.” Angemon gestured toward a line of makeshift dummies hanging from ropes. Obeying, all the Angemon turned and ran to the dummies and began hitting them with their golden rods and performing combat and defense moves with fluid and graceful motion. The little Patamon, which had been sitting at Angemon’s feet all this time, squeaked in glee and fluttered over to one of the dummies and began attacking it with his ‘Boom Bubble’ attack—a look of determination swept across his tiny face as he gave the cloth dummy all he had. Angemon smiled with amusement at his little charge.
“Very good; try showing me some fancy attacks now. Loosen up those wrists and let your rods slide in your hands. That’s it!” Angemon grinned. He was proud of his angel warriors.
Suddenly, without warning the wind turned into a violent gust, sending several of the rookie Digimon sprawling onto the grass. The Patamon struggled to remain flying, but the strongest wind caught his leathery wings and sent him soaring high over the others’ heads. Angemon jumped to catch the orange winged ball and placed him safely down on the ground at his feet.
“What’s that?” said Agumon, pointing a claw toward what appeared to be a whirlwind. The unseen force had picked up leaves, sticks, and other debris and twirled it around in a thin, tall spiral.
Angemon and the others watched in silence as the wind spiral came closer to the camp. Something didn’t feel right about this wind. Angemon sensed a presence in it that wasn’t right. It was cold and filled with evil. It suddenly hit him that it could very well be a virus similar to the one that had attacked Willis’s Digimon, Kokomon, years before.
“Fall back! Fall back! Everyone take cover!” Angemon shouted to his team. All Digimon went scrambling at his orders and ducked into the nearby shelter that the camp provided. Before Angemon realized what was happening, the small Patamon that had been hunkering at his feet was now making his way toward the oncoming whirlwind.
“Patamon, no! You can’t fight it.” Angemon shouted. Patamon didn’t listen, or he couldn’t hear for the rushing of the wind around him. He stopped and struggled to remain fluttering in the air and bombarded the wind spiral with his Boom Bubbles. The small and weak attacks did nothing to stop the wind. Angemon, getting his sense back, charged forward in an attempt to rescue the Patamon, but he was too late. Several things happened at once. Some of the other Angemon came to Angemon’s aid, but stopped in their tracks when the area in front of them was suddenly filled with a bright light, telling all of them that the Patamon had finally gotten enough energy built up to digivolve. The evil wind engulfed Patamon, while still digivolving, turning the light a dark blood-red.
“Patamon dark digivolve to…” the tiny creature announced.
“Nooooooo!” Angemon shouted, horrified by what he was seeing. Two of the Angemon had to grab onto his arms to hold him back, fearing he too would be affected by the wind.
“AkumaAngemon!” the new, deep, gritty voice shouted at last. The wind dropped the heavy body onto the grass in front of Angemon before dissipating. Angemon gasped at the sight of the new being and automatically pulled out his rod and held it in front of him. Since the virus infected the Patamon’s natural digivolving process; instead of a beautiful Angemon the Patamon had turned into a hideous creature no one would have thought possible.
The creature slowly got to its feet. It resembled an Angemon in appearance and form, but that’s where the similarities ended. Instead of having a pure white body suit, it wore one of the darkest ebony black. He had long grey hair, six bat-like wings, and dark blue clothing. What skin was showing was a ghostly pale white. His helmet sported two enormous horns, and bones and skulls decorated his entire outfit. He looked to be a cross-between a Devimon and an Angemon.
“Hello, Angemon.” AkumaAngemon sneered at Angemon as he began to slowly circle him. Angemon was cautious about turning his back on the creature. By now, all of his other Digimon had come out of hiding and were watching the show, readying themselves in case Angemon called them into the fight.
“Look! I finally digivolved,” the dark angel said proudly in a gravelly voice, looking down his body and then back at Angemon. “How do you like your new warrior, Angemon? Aren’t I wonderful?” He grinned, revealing to Angemon a nice set of sharp fangs that looked akin to a vampire’s. “This is what you wanted, right? Another warrior to add to your clan.”
“Get out of here.” said Angemon in a low voice that seeped through gritted teeth, pushing the end of his rod closer to AkumaAngemon to keep distance between them. “Get out of my camp, you evil thing. You aren’t welcome here.”
“Whaaaaat?” AkumaAngemon’s face—what you could see of it, that is—turned into one of horribly faked shock and innocence. “Just because I look different than the rest of you, you’re turning me out? Angemon, I thought you a better mon than that. I thought you had a heart for poor Digimon. I mean, you saved me when I was dying in the wild and raised me like your own son. Is this the way you’re going to treat your son?”
“You used to be the one I saved and you used to be like my son. But you’re not him anymore. You’re infected. I don’t want you spreading your evil around my camp. I don’t want you spreading your evil around this world. Now GO!”
“I see,” AkumaAngemon said slowly. “Just because I’m infected it makes me a lost cause.”
“I didn’t mean it that way. I believe you can be cured and turned back to normal because it’s been done before… but…”
“You don’t want to fool with me, is that it? I’m too much of a problem child, right? So instead of fixing me, you’re just going to send me away.”
“I don’t want any trouble…” Angemon pushed his rod closer.
“Can’t I stay here and you try to un-infect me and turn me normal?”
“I wish it was that easy.” Angemon breathed, still holding his defensive pose. “But it’s more complicated than simply trying to cure you like a doctor would a disease. There’s nothing I can do. At least nothing I can do alone.” He remembered the past evil Digimon and what it had taken to defeat them. “You’re evil and there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s only a matter of time before another group of Digidestined is called from the human world to help take you down.”
“And you would like to help do that, wouldn’t you?” The dark creature smirked.
“It’s not up to me to choose the Digidestined children and their Digimon partners. You already know that. TK is my human partner and I have a feeling that his time with this world ended the last time we had to battle evil.”
AkumaAngemon stood and peered at his teacher in absolute disgust, the evilness of the virus was fast working on his mind and reasoning. Before the digivolving, he wanted nothing more than to make Angemon proud of him. Now he wanted nothing more than to destroy him.
“I will go,” AkumaAngemon said at last. “But don’t think I will forget this. You will pay, Angemon, and you will pay beginning right now!” He whipped out his dark rod, which was black and topped with a demon’s face, and lunged at Angemon. Both angels locked rods together, Angemon shoving his forward and knocking the dark angel backwards and onto the ground. Angemon thrust his arm back, preparing an attack.
“Hand of Fate!” he shouted. His fist flew forward and a stream of glowing light and power came from it and flew toward AkumaAngemon’s chest. The dark angel regained his sense just in time to dodge the blow. He got up and flew into the air and copied Angemon’s attack.
“Hand of Doom!” he shrieked as a burst of red light shot from his fist and made its way toward Angemon. Angemon managed to dodge his enemy’s attack as well.
“You will pay dearly for kicking me out, Angemon!” AkumaAngemon growled. “We will meet again. For now I must run.” At that the dark angel flew off and disappeared from sight.
Angemon sighed and looked behind him at his stunned group. He then turned his gaze to where AkumaAngemon had disappeared.
“What have I done?” he breathed, shaking his head in sadness. One of the other Angemon walked up next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Nothing,” he said. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“In a way it was.” Angemon sighed again. “I should have jumped to save him sooner.”
“You didn’t know.”
“Yes, I did!” Angemon raised his voice, shrugging the other’s hand off him. “I sensed the wind was evil, and I acted too slowly. Now we’ve got another evil loose in this world. Goodness knows when he’ll make his way into the other world.”
“The Digidestined will be summoned again and they’ll defeat him, you’ll see!” the Agumon said, coming to a stop beside Angemon’s leg.
“We don’t even know that it’ll get that bad. It could mean nothing.” said Lillymon. “It’s just up to us to keep an eye on him.”
“You’re right.” Angemon hung his head. “It’s not like me to be like this. I’m one part of the Crest of Hope. I should have hope.”
“I think we’re all stressed out.” Centarumon said, walking up behind.
“Yes, I think we need to call it a day.” Angemon put his rod away and forced a smile at his team.
That night the angel family sat in their living room and discussed the day’s events.
“I don’t know what to do, Angewomon.” said Angemon with a sigh. “The creature looked as evil as Devimon. He could have easily been his twin.”
“Now, Angemon, it’s not your fault that the virus infected the Patamon. It’s just one of those things that happen and we can’t do anything about it.”
“That’s what one of my Angemon students said. I told him that it was partly my fault because I sensed the wind was evil and acted too slowly.”
“Still, it’s not your fault. You aren’t perfect. I probably would have frozen too if something like that happened in front of my eyes.”
Angemon smiled at his wife. Angewomon struggled to hold on to BabyAngemon who was seated in her lap. The little angel sensed that something was wrong with his father and tried communicating the best way he knew how, only it came out as little whines and squeals. Angemon shifted his smile to his son. The baby stretched out his tiny hands toward Angemon, hoping it would get him a hug or maybe even a kiss and snuggle. Angemon, not able to resist, picked BabyAngemon up and cuddled him close to his chest and lightly kissed his cheek. The tiny baby Digimon folded his wings around his body and curled up and went to sleep.
As the two angels sat and admired their bundle of joy, there was a sudden faint holler heard from outside.
“What in the Digi World was that?” Angewomon exclaimed, jumping up from her chair.
“What was what?” Angemon asked, shifting his gaze to his standing wife.
“You didn’t hear that?”
“No, I didn’t hear a thing. What did it sound like?”
“It sounded like someone hollering.”
Angewomon went silent and looked around while sniffing the air. By this time Angemon was on his feet and standing beside her.
“Angemon, I smell smoke. Something’s on fire.”
“Here, take BabyAngemon quick.” As Angemon shifted his son to Angewomon’s arms there was a hard, loud thump against the side of the house followed by another holler that sounded closer. Angemon quickly ran upstairs to the bedroom to get his rod. When he came back down, he was met with a frantic Angewomon.
“Oh, Angemon!” she struggled to get out. “The woods are on fire and your Angemon troops are flying around out there like they’ve gone mad—as if… they’re fighting someone.”
By now BabyAngemon was fully awake and screaming at the top of his lungs. Angewomon was doing her best to quiet him. Angemon ran over to the nearest window to study the situation.
“Angewomon, go upstairs and quickly pack some things that you would need, and then wait in the foyer until I come back. The fire appears to be a long way off, but that doesn’t mean anything. Hopefully it won’t reach the house. But if it does, we’re going to have to be ready to get out of here. Understand?” Angemon turned from the window to Angewomon standing beside him. She nodded and ran for the stairs while trying to hush BabyAngemon’s squalling. She stopped and looked at her mate.
“Angemon, be careful.” she called after him. Angemon lovingly smiled at her before disappearing into the next room. He opened the front door and stepped out into the horrifying night. The air was hot and thick with smoke and soot. Small sparks, cinders, and burning shards rained from the sky as the wildfire inched closer to the angel household. Shrieks and frantic cries from neighboring Digimon filled the air as well, turning it into an even darker nightmare.
Angemon’s team was busy battling the unseen enemy. The Angemon students flew helter-skelter over the inferno, blasting something with their Hand of Fate attacks. It didn’t take Angemon long to guess what that something was. He took one step forward but was stopped by another Angemon that suddenly fell from the sky and landed at his feet in a heaping mass of charred feathers.
“Angemon,” the Angemon wheezed, lifting a hand toward his teacher, “AkumaAngemon did this. He said that he wanted to—to get back at you for kicking him out of the camp. We—we tried stopping him, but he’s too powerful. I don’t understand why he is, since he’s only a champion level. It—it must be the virus. Three of us have already been deleted—one by the fire and two by AkumaAngemon himself. Angemon, you’ve got to stop him before he destroys the whole Digital World.”
The Angemon breathed his last and fell lifeless on the grass. Angemon took one last look at his warrior. The angel’s body was covered in soot and battle wounds and his hair and wings were badly singed.
“Your death will not be in vain.” Angemon breathed softly, tightening his grip on his rod. “Rest in peace, friend. I look forward to seeing you again some day and helping you to complete your training.”
Suddenly, the dead Angemon’s body broke up in millions of tiny, glittery pieces of data and disappeared to be reborn in Primary Village.
“Now, AkumaAngemon, prepare to meet your worst nightmare.” Angemon gritted his teeth and took off into the air and flew off toward the growing inferno, careful not to get too close.
After flying for several minutes, he soon spotted his other team members running and flying around, trying desperately to hit AkumaAngemon with all of their power. Just as AkumaAngemon was inches away from knocking another one of his angel warriors into the fire below, Angemon charged at the demon, hitting him on the head with his rod.
“It’s me you want, Akuma; leave the others out of it.”
The dark angel hovered a moment trying to get his sense back.
“Well, the great Angemon has come at last. What took you so long?” he sneered. The Digimon that were left stood away, watching and conserving their energy in case Angemon needed their help.
“What’s the matter with you?” Angemon angrily shouted. “Why have you chosen to burn down the forest? I’m the one you want.”
Angemon gritted his teeth and wiped away streams of sweat that rolled down his face. The sky was sweltering from the blaze below them. Once or twice Angemon gagged and choked on the smoke and fumes, but he continued to hold his ground while waiting for the enemy to strike. It seemed like an eternity, but finally AkumaAngemon made his move toward Angemon. The two angels locked their rods together with a loud clack that could be heard over the roaring of the flames. They struggled, taking unsuccessful swings at each other while keeping in mind that they were fighting over an inferno.
Suddenly AkumaAngemon lowered his rod and remained very still, an evil smile creasing his lips.
“What’s the matter now, Akuma? Afraid of heights?” Angemon shouted, moving closer to his dark counterpart. With a hard swing of his rod, Angemon hit AkumaAngemon in the stomach and sent him soaring through the air like a baseball, a terrified and agonized scream following. Angemon’s attention was suddenly diverted from the flying enemy to a horrible sound behind him. He turned just in time to see a huge, flaming tree fall, causing an enormous amount of flames to flare up. Angemon flew away just in time before he was cooked alive.
“Get out of here! It’s too dangerous to stay here any longer!” He shouted to the others. He didn’t have to give the orders twice. His team was already in the process of getting away from the area, the Angemon students swooping to gather up the earth-bound Digimon to carry them to safety.
When they were gathered again, a safe distance away from the burning woods, Angemon looked over his team. The tired, sad looks on their faces told of the trauma they had just endured. He noticed that Lillymon, Piddomon, SnowAgumon, and two Angemon were missing. He didn’t have to ask. He already knew.
Forgetting AkumaAngemon for the time being, they discussed how they could put the fire out, but none of them had any ideas. The fire was spreading too fast and it would soon reach their area before the night was over. Centarumon suggested the place be evacuated before anymore casualties happened. Then, from out of the darkness, a ray of hope met Angemon’s ears. He heard the faint cries of a school of Seadramon playing in the lake behind his house. The lake was enormous and connected to the ocean just beyond the forest, so it was easy for the Seadramon to make their way into the lake occasionally.
“That’s it!” he suddenly blurted out. “The Seadramon can freeze the fire with their ‘Ice Blast’ attack. Come on, everyone. By the way it sounds; I’m betting there are at least ten of them out there.”
Sure enough, there were ten or eleven Seadramon lining the lake shore a short distance from the back of the house, the leader being a MegaSeadramon. Angemon flew down and started talking to the MegaSeadramon about the current situation. It agreed to help and turned to give the Seadramon behind it a brief explanation. They slithered onto the shore and followed Angemon to the sides of the house. By this time the fire was much closer and ominous.
MegaSeadramon lined his troops around the skirts of the clearing and gave them the signal to attack.
“Ice Blast!” They shouted at once as a powerfully cold stream shot from their mouths and into the burning woods. It didn’t take long before the raging inferno was completely extinguished, leaving behind charred and blackened remains. Angemon and his team examined the trees and debris to make sure there were no signs of smoldering before coming back and giving their thanks to the Seadramon. A few of the Seadramon slithered into the burned trees to look for and extinguish small fires that might still be lurking underneath.
Angewomon, who had been watching everything from inside the house, ran outside and threw an arm around Angemon while carrying BabyAngemon in her other arm.
“Oh, Angemon, you were magnificent.” she cooed softly, giving him a kiss. Angemon smiled, but somberness quickly took its place.
“What’s wrong?” Angewomon asked.
“We almost lost our home tonight, and quite possibly our lives. Five good Digimon are already dead because of evil’s carelessness. No Digimon is safe while that demon is loose. That goes for this whole world. Until he’s destroyed, we’re going to have to be more careful. We’re going to have to keep our eyes open at all times. There’s no telling what he’s planning to do next. This is only the beginning.”
Angemon and the rest turned to look over the burned woods again. Angewomon turned her gaze to her mate while she played with her squirming baby. She knew he was right, but something inside her didn’t want to believe it. Something inside her still longed for the peace that had been shattered that night.
When the first signs of dawn were upon them, Angemon and his family went back inside their house for a good, long rest. The Seadramon, after returning to the lake, agreed to stand watch to make sure the woods didn’t burst into flames again, and also to make sure evil didn’t return.
-End