Back at the camp Horkamon let out a cry of pain and grabbed her head. She fell to the ground then threw back her head and yelled out, “Horkamon digivolve to…DEATHRAMON! Destruction is the power of Hatred!” the sky had become dark, and lightning cracked silver in the distance, outlining the beast that Horkamon had become. Snake like head and neck, followed by a long lean body with strong arms and legs. Behind her protruded a twelve foot long thick to thin tail, which ended in blades. Her arms and legs had long silver blades at the joints, her head had a line of blades on it as well, and it protruded down her back. She was colored in black and dark metallic silver. Her eyes were the same blue that Alana’s crest had become.
She whipped around, and slithered into the forest.
“Oh no…” Anthylamon whispered. “The crest of Hatred has surfaced again…”
Kyle’s eyes went wide, then he screamed, “ALANA!” he collapsed to his knees.
Felina turned to the other digidestend. “We must leave. Now.” Her voice was hard, and her eyes were rock like.
“Why?” Sora asked, standing up.
“Deathramon,” Gabumon began, “is…going after Matt! I must go!” and with that, Gabumon ran after Deathramon.
“Who’s…” Joe began, but he was cut off by Anthylamon. Her eyes were dark when she spoke.
“Deathramon is a virus digimon. She kills anything that gets in her way. Her main attack is Death-Blade Darkness. Not much more is known about her, except the fact that she has only appeared once before, and that she is powered by hatred.”
Kyle was on the ground, beating his fists on the hard earth.
“But…how did she digivolve into that…thing?” Sora asked.
Felina sighed. “There’s something that we didn’t tell you. We had hoped we could avoid it, but--”
“No,” Kyle said, standing up. “Don’t tell them.”
“But, Kyle, I have to! They need to know!” Felina argued.
“NO!” Kyle yelled. He turned and faced the blue haired girl. His face was streaked with tears. “We can’t tell them! It has been forbidden!”
“I…Kyle, it may be the only way to save her!” Felina growled.
Kyle was silent for a moment, then he nodded.
Felina relaxed slightly, then began, “Alana – the blonde haired girl who disappeared from Heighten View Terrace eight years ago – is the only DigiDestened known who has a two-sided Crest. The side that is seen most often is her Combination Crest; Protection, Imagination and Healing. That’s a long story on each element. But, her other crest, the one that created Deathramon, is Hatred. Somehow, when she and Matt left, he must have said something that brought back her past, and--”
“What do you mean ‘her past’?” Kari asked.
“When she was younger…” Felina looked like she didn’t want to say anything about the topic. “That’s not important.”
“Yes, it is!” Val said. Dayakyumon nodded.
“Fine. When she was about two, her parents were killed in a car crash. And her adopted father did stuff to her when she turned five. Stuff that, well…that drove her to hate all humanity. Sora,” Felina turned to the red-haired girl, “you remember earlier today, when Alana said that she’d been using her fists and legs to defend herself all her life?”
Sora nodded.
“Well, that’s what she meant. Whenever she sees someone with blonde hair and blue eyes, she begins to think that it’s him, or his son, or something of the sort, and tries to kill him. She didn’t try to kill Kyle or Justin, because she knew that they weren’t related to him. They hadn’t even come from the same town as she had. But, she did get in a number of fights with them.” Felina sighed, and shook her head.
A long silence followed.
Nathan nodded, then broke the silence. “We need to get moving.”
“Why?” Tai questioned.
Anthylamon narrowed her eyes, then turned to where Deathramon had gone into the forest.
“The only other time that Deathramon was seen, was just before the entire DigiWorld was destroyed. If we stay, and if we provoke her, she might destroy it again. We must leave.”
“No,” Kyle said. He turned to face the others. “I have to go after her. If Matt gets killed, it’s his own fault. But if Alana gets killed…” he didn’t need to finish. If Alana got killed, Deathramon wouldn’t be controlled, and she would reek all havoc on the DigiWorld.
Val looked somewhat sad. “Why?” she asked suddenly. “Why is this happening?”
“Poor Alana…” Dayakyumon said with a sigh.
“Kyle, you can’t go,” Felina said.
Nathan nodded. “She’s right. We need you here.”
Suddenly, something began to beep. The beeps were faint, but then they grew louder. And louder.
Izzy held up his Digi-vice. “Oh my God! It’s heading this way!” he yelled.
“What is?” Mimi asked.
“I don’t know, but what ever it is…no not it…they…whatever they are, they’re heading this way!”
“How many of them?” Tai yelled.
“I count…at least fourteen! And, they’re coming fast!” Izzy replied.
“How long do we have?” Val asked, her voice shockingly stern.
“About ten…no nine seconds…seven…six…five…four…”
Suddenly, fourteen bright lights were visible above the trees. They were small, very small. About the size of a ring.
Two of them flew in the direction that Deathramon and Gabumon had gone, but the other twelve were going straight for the other children.
The first one stopped in front of Nathan, and it began to glow the dark green of his Crest. The next one went to Justin, and began to glow sea-green. Then Mimi’s began to glow green, and Sora’s began to glow red. Felina’s began to glow a red-pink, and Val’s began to glow a green-blue. Kyle’s began to glow a dark purple, and Izzy’s began to glow purple. T.K.’s and Kari’s were glowing pink and yellow, the same color as their Crests. All the children’s faces were illuminated in the color of glowing things.
Suddenly, someone coughed.
Everyone looked up to see Jennai.
“What are you doing here?!” Tai asked.
Jennai frowned.
Gabumon ran through the forest, causing twigs to snap at him, and leaves to slap him on his face and arms.
He could hear Deathramon moving ahead of him, but just barely.
“Hold on Matt. I’m coming,” he whispered.
Alana watched, emotionless, as the life began to drain from Matt’s face.
“You should never have come back! Damn you for coming to find me!” she yelled, her face suddenly turning into a fiery rage.
Matt began to make choking sounds. His mouth was open wide as he gasped for breath, and his eyes were almost shut.
Suddenly Deathramon burst into the clearing, followed closely by Gabumon. When Gabumon saw what Alana was doing, he tackled her, throwing her off Matt, who sat up and began to gasp for air. His right hand was around his throat, and his breathing soon came back to normal.
Alana was kicking and punching Gabumon, when Deathramon walked over to the two, and grabbed Gabumon around the waist and threw him at a tree.
Gabumon slumped to the ground, knocked unconchous.
“Gabumon!” Matt yelled. He got to his feet and ran over to where Gabumon lay.
Deathramon looked up at the two and narrowed her eyes. She stood up to her full height, which was around ten feet.
“Is it just me, or does she look mad?” Matt asked.
“If you ask me, she looks like Dracothornmon, only black,” Gabumon said sitting up. He shook his head to clear it, then stood. “Help me DigiVolve, Matt.”
Matt was still kneeling, then he nodded. But before he or Gabumon could do anything, fourteen small lights went shooting by overhead. Two of them came down, and one began to hover in front of Matt. The thing was the same blue as his Crest was. The other one had gone over to Alana, and was shifting from purple-blue to dark blue and silver.
Matt grabbed his, and when he opened his hand, he saw it was a ring, the same color as his crest, only it had a sort of metallic sheen to it. He stood up, still looking at the ring. It had the sign of Friendship on what must have been the top.
Suddenly, the sign began to glow, and so did Gabumon’s eyes.
Matt lifted the ring into the air above him, and Gabumon yelled out, “Gabumon Planet digivolve to…NEPTUNEECLIPSEMON! Ice is the power of Friendship!” A humanoid digimon stood with a triton in his hand. He had on boots like Angemon’s only they were aqua and blue. He also had on a sort of skirt around his waist that was also blue. On his chest, he had a jewel that was the same blue as Matts crest, and had the sign of Friendship in it. On his forehead rested a tiara that had a jewel in it as well. He had wrist guards on like WareGururumon had on his wrists. And the triton had a small blue jewel under its head with the sign of Friendship in it. Protruding from his back were blue and white wings, about as long as an adults arm. NeptuneEclipsemon stood about seven feet tall, and had armor over his chest and arms. Surrounding him was a blue light, much like Angemon had after he had first digivolved. His eyes were ice blue, and his hair was dark blue.
Deathramon hissed at what Gabumon had become. Alana sat, her face like stone, and her eyes dead and cold.
Suddenly, NeptuneEclipsemon took his triton and held it before him, then he yelled, “NEPTUNE SHARDS!” ice exploded from the triton and shot at Deathramon. Deathramon shot out of the attacks way, causing the ice to explode about three inches away from Alana.
“She’s fast!” NeptuneEclipsemon said.
“DEATH-BLADE DARKNESS!” Deathramon hissed, and dark blades shot at NeptuneEclipsemon, then enveloped him in a black mist. She then shot at him, and slashed at his armor with the blades on her tail.
“Arg!” NeptuneEclipsemon growled. He turned and looked at the virus digimon, then yelled, “NEPTUNE ICE-CRYSTALS!” ice crystals shot at where he had estimated Deathramon would move to, and exploded. Deathramon fell from the sky where she had jumped to, and began to de-digivolve back into Horkamon. When she reached her rookie stage however, she continued to de-digivolve until she was an In-Training.
The clouds evaporated into nothing, and the sky became clear again, only now it was day time.
Matt walked over to Tsunomon, and picked him up. “Did you see me Matt? I was so cool!”
Matt nodded, then turned and looked at Alana who was next to her Digimon. “Who’s that Digimon?” he asked.
“Oh, that’s Stunomon. She’s the In-Training form of Horkamon. Her main attack is Scythe Blade. She’s a pretty nice digimon once you get to know her. Nothing like Deathramon,” Tsunomon explained.
“Alana! Are you ok?” Stunomon asked, hopping over to her digidestend.
Alana turned and looked at Stunomon. “Stunomon…what happened?”
“The Crest of Hatred came back Alana. It devoured you again,” her digimon explained.
“Devoured me…again?” Alana asked, as though it were impossible for that to have happened before. “I’ve never…Oh my God…is that boy alright?!”
Stunomon nodded. “He and his digimon are fine.”
Alana turned and looked at Matt. She then stood up and walked over to him. She bowed. “I’m sorry for doing that. I…lost control of my hatred.” She straightened herself, and Stunomon bounced over to her and jumped into her arms. “I must go, before it happens again.”
“No,” Matt said. “Don’t go. I once left my group. It’s not worth it.”
Alana blinked. Then her face became hard, like the mask that she had been wearing before he had gone into the forest with her. “Fine.”
Suddenly Stunomon jumped out of Alana’s arms, and bounced over to the ring which had been forgotten until that moment. “Alana! This is for you!” she yelled, then she picked up in her mouth and bounced back over to Alana.
Alana kneeled, and Stunomon dropped the ring into her hand. It was the same purple-blue as her crest, and also had the metallic sheen as Matts. It also had the sign of her crest on it.
“What? A ring?” she murmured.
“C’mon, let’s get back to the group,” Matt said.
Alana nodded, and stood. The four headed back to the group.
Jennai was still frowning when he lifted his wrist as though to check his watch, which he had none.
Suddenly, Alana and Matt came tromping out of the forest.
Kyle didn’t spare any time in walking over to Alana and questioning if she was ok. The blond haired girl had to say ‘yes, I’m fine,’ at least ten times before Kyle was satisfied.
Matt blinked when he saw Jennai.
“Will all of you come in front of me?” the old man asked.
Matt, Alana, Kyle, Stunomon and Tsunomon moved next to the others.
“Right,” Jennai coughed, then said, “those rings that were sent to you are very important. They will help your Digimon to DigiVolve into the next level.”
“What do you mean?” Sora asked.
“Each ring holds the power of a planet, or something of the sort. When your Digimon uses it to DigiVolve, they will turn into a humanoid figure with the sign of your Crest in a jewel the color of the planet that they represent. And their names will have two words in them; the name of their planet, then the word ‘eclipsemon,’” Jennai coughed again, showing that he was almost done, and not to interrupt him. “So, please use them wisely. It may be smart to put them on the chain that holds your tags and Crests. That’s all I wanted to tell you, so good bye, and good luck.” The image of Jennai began to shimmer, then it went fuzzy and it disappeared all together. But something still came through, though it wasn’t in Jennai’s voice. “Beware, DigiDestened of the Silver and Gold tags…or you shall perish…” an evil and cold laugh followed the thing that had sounded like a warning…
