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And here’s Chapter 5.
Before you read it though, I do have a brief alteration to the story to mention.

Back in chapter one, I said that all of the digimon with partners had been kicked out into the human world, however it’s just occurred to me that as at this point everyone has a partner, and with roughly 6.8 billion people in the world… well, that doesn’t exactly leave a lot (if any) spare digimon.

Therefore, I’ve went back and altered the first chapter a little, so that the digimon are all trapped in their own world. Furthermore, I’ve made it so that the mysterious evil person who’s done this has also somehow erased their memories of their partners, so now they just all think that they’ve lived ordinary lives in the digital world, the way it used to be prior to the barrier’s collapse (i.e. all the fresh digimon in primary village, the rookies and in-trainings grouped together in villages, and the champions and ultimates preferring to wander off alone or in small groups).
Actually meeting their human partners again is enough to make them remember, though, hence why all of the main characters’ digimon recognise them.

Anyway, with that little error corrected, feel free to read the actual story:

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“How’re they doing?” Pierre asked, striding up to Zofia with Fanbeemon buzzing around behind him, as usual. He and the Polish girl, along with their partners, had been taking shifts discretely observing Otto and Agumon ever since they had returned the previous night. They hadn’t asked the others to help out, as neither Abella nor Santo were patient enough to remain still and silent for extended periods of time, and Blair couldn’t be trusted not to fall asleep the instant they left him alone.

“No improvement.” she replied, sighing sadly. Both she and Candlemon looked pretty downcast. “Agumon finally woke up, though.”

“Well that’s good news, at least.” Pierre said. Agumon had been so worn out after he… fought… those other digimon that he’d been out like a light ever since.

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?” he replied confusedly, wondering how it could possibly be bad that the digimon had woken.

“All they’ve done since then is argue over whose fault it was that Greymon went nuts and killed those other digimon. It was only a few minutes ago they finally just refused to continue talking any longer.”

The French boy’s face creased with worry as soon as the words left his companion’s mouth. This didn’t sound good at all.

“They’ve been blaming each other?” he inquired.

“No. Just the opposite, actually. Otto refuses to accept that it wasn’t his fault for deciding to stay behind, while Agumon says that he’s entirely to blame, since the reason he put so much effort into forcing himself to digivolve was so that he could get revenge on the army, rather than because his partner was in danger.” Zofia explained morosely.

“I see… and what do you think?”

“I think they’re both to blame… and so are the rest of us. In retrospect, I now see that though Otto was trying to save us by sacrificing himself, the digidestined in the past have always been the most successful when working as a group. You and Abella may have had a good excuse not to help out, as there wasn’t really much you could have done with Fanbeemon out cold and Leomon being controlled, but those of us whose partners were still able to fight never should have let him do that… no matter how intimidating Leomon was.”

“Hmm…” Pierre murmured, then said; “okay, I’m going to talk to them.”

“Huh? But I thought we agreed just to-”

He waved a hand dismissively. “That method obviously isn’t working. Besides, Fanbeemon and I might be able to get through to them… we do share some common ground, after all…”

“You do, huh?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah… I’ll explain later. Just, for now, let us try this.”

“Sure, be my guest.” Zofia told him, then watched solemnly as the pair walked away towards the hut which had been leant to Otto and Agumon by the Betamon.

“So, should we leave them alone?” asked Candlemon, looking up at her with his burning head, while keeping the eyes embedded in his wax-like body fixed upon their two friends.

“… No.” responded his partner slowly, after taking a few seconds to consider the question carefully. “If this ‘common ground’ which Pierre and Otto share is what I’m guessing it is, then I doubt it’s a pleasant subject for him to recall, so there’s no sense forcing him to have to go over it twice. We’ll just keep listening… for his own benefit.”

Candlemon grinned, despite their somewhat grim circumstances. He knew his partner well enough to know that, though her rationalisation was actually pretty good this time, the real reason she was sticking around was that she was just too nosy for her own good.

******

“Um… hey, Otto, hey Agumon.” Pierre said, somewhat awkwardly, as he came to a stop by the entrance to the German’s hut.

“Hey, Pierre.” replied the goggle-head glumly, not looking up at him. Agumon just mumbled something incoherent.

“I was hoping that you two would have recovered enough by now to discuss what happened yesterday, without just refusing to accept that you might not be solely to blame.”

“We’re not.” muttered Agumon. Otto remained silent. Pierre glanced across at Fanbeemon and sighed.

“I didn’t really think there was much chance you would be… still, Fanbeemon and I decided to come by and try to help.”

“You can’t.” the blond boy stated bluntly. “Those digimon are dead because of m-”

Agumon glanced across at him – looking like he was about to interrupt – and Otto paused briefly.

“Okay, fine, for the sake of not getting into another argument, let’s just say ‘us’. They’re dead because of ‘us’.”

It was obvious from the way in which he pronounced ‘us’ that Otto was about as sincere as an Impmon who’s promised to be on his best behaviour.

“You know,” interjected Pierre, “Zofia has another theory about who’s fault all this really is.”

“Oh?” Otto said unenthusiastically.

“She blames us all.” Fanbeemon continued for his partner. “And she makes a good point. One of the things which supposedly lead to Tai’s Greymon becoming SkullGreymon all those years ago was the pressure that he was put under to succeed, and Zofia thinks that by leaving you behind, we probably added to the pressure that Agumon was under… making him more likely to go crazy.”

The reptile digimon and his partner shared a sceptical glance. Apparently they weren’t buying that explanation.

“I’m sorry, guys, we both appreciate you coming here and trying to make us feel better, but there really is nothing you can do.” Otto mumbled miserably, staring down at the ground again.

“We can empathise.” suggested Pierre.

“What?”

“Didn’t you wonder why we hesitated to fight when those Commandramon attacked the village a couple days ago?” asked Fanbeemon.

Agumon and his friend shared another glance.

“Um… no.” they said together.

Pierre sighed, walked over to Otto’s bed, and sat down beside him. “Five years ago, Fanbeemon first digivolved into Waspmon, and ever since then, up until the day before yesterday, he’d never gone any higher than his rookie form. You see, digimon are able to unlock their potential to digivolve only when their partners are in danger. Unfortunately, it doesn’t necessarily need to be serious danger… back then I was only a little kid… the same age Santo is now, and I was terrible at taking care of myself. One day I was in the digital world, along with Fanbeemon, when I heard the sounds of fighting. We rushed over and found a gang of three DemiDevimon beating up a couple of Motimon. When they saw us the DemiDevimon decided that it would be even more entertaining to bully a human than it would be to hurt a couple of defenceless in-training digimon. They attacked and Fanbeemon tried to stop them… but wasn’t nearly powerful enough. But then, once one of them grabbed me, he digivolved. I won’t lie; it was nice seeing those evil little DemiDevimon so terrified… but then he tried to attack, and as it turns out, it takes practise to be any good at using propellers and stabilisers to fly, rather than normal wings… Waspmon started spinning around, completely out of control, and all while firing dozens of lasers out of the cannons in his hands and abdomen. I was directly behind him, so I managed to back away enough that he wouldn’t hit me… but the DemiDevimon had chased the Motimon into a narrow cave, which meant that they had nowhere to run… in the end every one of them must have been shot at least twice. The DemiDevimon were all so badly injured that they were actually forced back to their in-training levels. But the Motimon were already in-trainings, so they couldn’t take as much damage. They both-”

His voice caught in his throat.

“They both died.” finished Fanbeemon morosely. The German and his partner were gawping at them; understandably shocked to discover that they weren’t the only ones in the group with an experience such as this.

“We ended up being so upset that my parents just tried to comfort us, rather than giving us into trouble… and, of course, we couldn’t be arrested or charged with anything; I was still only seven, after all. We weren’t getting any better as time went on, though, so eventually my mum somehow managed to find the two Motimon who’d died, since they’d both been reborn at Primary Village by that point. Once they saw how guilty we felt they forgave us, since they knew we’d only been trying to help. They told us that it was really the three DemiDevimon’s fault, since they were the ones who started it. And over time I began to see that they were right. Just as you and Agumon aren’t to blame for what happened in that factory; the Digital Army is. Don’t get me wrong, Waspmon still makes me somewhat uncomfortable, and I hated seeing all those Commandramon injured like that after he started taking them down… but we don’t have much of a choice if we’re to save this world. Our digimon need to be able to reach the champion level.”

“I guess.” agreed Otto glumly, looking back at the ground. Pierre placed a comforting hand upon his shoulder.

“Listen. You’ve unlocked Agumon’s potential to become Greymon. Last time things didn’t go so well, I know, but if you have him digivolve again then things will be easier. Trust me. Two days ago was actually only the second time that Fanbeemon had ever reached champion-level, yet you saw how controlled he was, didn’t you? Agumon, so long as you focus on protecting your partner, rather than on hurting your enemies, you should be fine. And Otto, try to take care of yourself. If you rely on Agumon to save you every time something goes wrong then you’re just going to put him under even more pressure, until he snaps again.”

“Yeah,” agreed the insectoid digimon, nodding his head rapidly in agreement, “you guys just do that everything’ll be alright, you’ll see.”

“Thanks.” Otto and Agumon replied together, looking up at their friends gratefully, then getting to their feet.

“I won’t pretend that I don’t still feel enormously guilty for what happened, and I’m sure Agumon feels the same way, but you two are right; if we want to save this world then we’re going to need to keep on trying, even if do make some mistakes along the way.” Otto announced boldly, seeming almost to have returned to normal. Pierre knew from personal experience that at the moment it was only an act, put on to make others think that things were getting better, but he also knew that eventually the German boy would become so used to behaving this way that it would become natural, and the guilt really would be pushed to the back of his mind.

“There you go, now you’re sounding more like a leader.” Pierre told his friend, also getting to his feet.

“You still want me to lead?” the blond boy asked, sounding surprised.

“Of course. Zofia doesn’t have the confidence to order anyone around, Blair would just tell us not to bother doing anything until the army came to us, Abella and Santo aren’t really smart enough to come up with any good ideas… and I don’t much like being in charge. I found that out yesterday, when we were hauling you and the others back across the desert; leadership is way too much responsibility for me. I prefer to just stand by the side lines and help out whenever I’m needed.”

“And the others agree with you?”

“You made a mistake, goggle-head, but that doesn’t mean we’ve all suddenly decided that you’re a liability. You did try to sacrifice yourself to save us; if anything we respect you more now.”

Otto grinned at the nickname ‘goggle-head’, thanked the French boy again, and then all four of them left the hut and headed out into the village, where the others (whom Zofia had hurriedly left to gather as their conversation neared its end), along with a small crowd of Betamon, were waiting for them.

Slowly, and with renewed nervousness, Otto and Agumon headed over to Abella and Elecmon (who was now almost fully recovered after having a couple of large meals and a good night’s sleep… thankfully, digimon seem to heal a lot easier than humans do).

“Uh… hey…” Otto began awkwardly, going back to staring at the ground anxiously, “we’re both really, really sorry for-”

He was cut off suddenly when Abella hugged him. Both he and his digimon just stared at her in shock, while the others struggled not to laugh at their expressions. A couple seconds later she let go of him and gave Agumon a hug as well, then stood back up, smiling brightly at the confused pair.

“I’m so happy you’re both feeling better now. And it wasn’t your fault that Elecmon was hurt; you weren’t to blame for him being controlled, and besides, if Agumon hadn’t digivolved then he’d still be with those nasty Commandramon right now. I’m just glad he’s back with me.”

“And I feel the same way.” confirmed her partner. “Being under the influence of that gear was the worst experience of my life, and it’s thanks to you two that it’s over, even if it did hurt a bit. Now, are you ready to give taking out that factory another shot?”

“Definitely. And this time we won’t be failing, right, Agumon?”

“Right.”

With that said, Abella, Elecmon, Pierre and Fanbeemon all moved to stand alongside their leader and his partner, then held up their digivices as one. And all three of the screens began to glow, along with the digimon themselves.

“Fanbeemon digivolve to…”

“Agumon digivolve to…”

“Elecmon digivolve to…”

“Waspmon!”

“Greymon!”

“Leomon!”

Both boys smiled up at their digimon, albeit a little warily, neither entirely certain that they would manage not to injure or kill someone this time round. Fortunately, Greymon seemed to be under control this time, and Waspmon was apparently still able to operate his propulsion system properly.

Abella was the only one of the three who grinned fearlessly up at her partner; despite the fact that he’d gone after them while under the control of the gears, she knew, with an absolute certainty, that Leomon would never harm her or any of the others of his own free will. She would have trusted him with her life without the slightest hesitation.

“Ready to go?” he asked her.

“Sure!” she replied cheerfully, allowing him to pick her up.

“Coming?” Waspmon asked in his strange, electronic voice.

“Yeah…” Pierre replied, looking around at the others. Zofia was staring at Greymon with interest, and Blair seemed as bored as ever, but Santo looked nervous, seeming almost afraid at the prospect of having to ride a fire breathing dinosaur which, only the day before, had accidentally fallen into a fit of murderous rage and killed a whole squad of weaker digimon… “but you’ve got room for more than just me aboard, right?”

“I suppose.”

“Cool. Hey, Santo, how’d you like a shot at driving the Waspmon; it’s just like riding a bike, except that you can’t possibly crash, because there’s nothing to hit in the sky.”

The Italian boy’s face lit up, and he spun round to PawnChessmon.

“Can I? Can I!?”

“… Of course.” his digimon replied once he’d recovered from his surprise, and taken a step back from his suddenly overly enthusiastic partner.

“Awesome! Thanks Pierre!”

“No problem. Now, Waspmon, land and let him on, will you?”

“I suppose…” the champion-level digimon repeated.

“Good. Now, Santo, you just climb onto his head… yeah, like that, and grab the handlebars.”

“Antennae! They’re antennae, not handlebars!” objected the giant mechanical wasp indignantly.

“Nah, don’t worry about it, kid, Waspmon’s a big softie at heart, you just keep a hold of those things, and just tug on them as hard as possible whenever you want to change direction.”

“Aww… what did I ever do to you?” moaned Waspmon, causing Pierre to laugh. Then the dark-haired boy and PawnChessmon also climbed aboard, and he lifted off.

And then it was Greymon’s turn to kneel down, allowing the others to clamber aboard. Once that was done, and they’d all said their goodbyes to the Betamon, they headed out once more, covering the ground much more quickly this time round than they had when walking on foot.

It was mere minutes before they’d reached the scrublands beyond the lush riverside home of the Betamon, and not long after that they were into the true desert. The temperature was just as unbearable as the day before… or at least, it would have been, had they not been charging so rapidly through the sands that it seemed to the children almost like there was a wind blowing. A nice, refreshing breeze which would actually have made their journey seem pleasant, were they not all plagued by thoughts of what might happen once they reached the Hagurumon factory.

Of course, not everyone was worried. Blair remained as unperturbed as ever, and Goblimon was actually happy at the thought of getting into another fight, to the extent that he even tried dancing around cheerfully on Greymon’s head… which didn’t work out so well, and ended up forcing him to cling to one of the massive dinosaur’s horns for the rest of the journey, as he dangled precariously above the ground which sped past far beneath him… Greymon did manage to grab his club when he dropped it, though, so it wasn’t all bad.

And then they arrived at the factory, and stepped off the soft sands and onto the large slab of concrete upon which it had been built. The owners had obviously never been fond of visitors, even before the arrival of the army. As if it wasn’t enough to make the entrance a confusing labyrinth of intersecting corridors and passages, they’d also chosen to build in one of the most inhospitable environments imaginable…

That, combined with the fact that they’d only just discovered that the Hagurumon were the ones responsible for the production of Devimon’s trademark black gears, was setting off alarm bells in at least a few of their minds.

“So how should we now proceed, o’ fearless leader?” PawnChessmon asked innocently, his voice radiating sincerity.

“Hmm…” Otto murmured. It was supposed to be a rhetorical question, of course; the only way in was through the front doors. But that led into the maze, and heading through that certainly hadn’t worked for them last time. Plus, the soldiers would have been able to see them approaching from a mile off, so they must have been prepared for whatever the kids and their digimon could possibly throw at them; just as they had been the previous day, when those two leaped out from that shed and shot Fanbeemon.
And suddenly, completely out of the blue, an idea occurred to him.

“Okay, first of all, Greymon, burn out that shed over there, just in case they think they can use the same trick twice.”

“Sure thing, Otto.” the immense reptile rumbled in its deep, gravelly voice. “Nova Blast!”

An orb of orange flame erupted from his mouth and slammed into the small stone building’s thin wooden door, reducing it to little more than a collection of charred matchsticks in an instant, and continuing on inside, before blowing out the windows in a hail of molten glass.

There came no screams of pain from inside, though, so it appeared that the Commandramon had been too intelligent to try that move again.

“Alright. Now, we know that they won’t bother coming out to fight us in the open, since they can’t hope to win against three champion-levels that way,” the goggle-head told them, sounding awfully pleased with himself for figuring this out, “so we can use that to our advantage…”

“How?” Abella asked several seconds later, when it had become clear that he wasn’t going to continue until someone asked him, and gave him an excuse to announce it as dramatically as possible.

The blond boy pointed up at the very top of the building and said triumphantly: “By attacking from up there.”

“Ooohh…” replied Abella, sounding impressed.

“And how do you plan to get us up there?” asked Pierre. “I suppose Waspmon could carry us kids up one or two at a time, and he’ll probably even manage to haul up Leomon… but he can’t even hope to lift Greymon.”

“Ha. Don’t you worry about Greymon, I know just how to get him up there.”

“If you say so. Okay, Santo, PawnChessmon, if you two get down for the moment then I’ll go up with Waspmon to check and make sure that the coast is clear, then I’ll send him back down for the rest of you, okay?”

“Okay, then.” the Italian boy replied, and he and his digimon clambered off the giant, mechanical insect. At the same time, Leomon put down Abella, and Zofia, Candlemon, Blair and Goblimon dropped down from Greymon as well, with only Otto remaining upon his partner’s head.

Once that was done, Waspmon began to rise into the air, and the German spoke again: “Say, Greymon, how do you feel about a little climb?”

The champion paused for a brief moment, then grinned as he worked out his friend’s meaning.

“I’d love to.” he growled, stepping forwards, reaching up to the ledge above the nearest doorway, and beginning to haul himself up. It wasn’t easy to start with; trying to lift his entire bodyweight with just his arms. Once he’d managed to heave his way up some more, however, his feet were high enough to be able to find purchase on the lowest ledge, and from that point on, it was smooth sailing, now that he could use his powerful legs to support his weight, and it wasn’t long before he’d reached the top of that section of the building. Once there he needed only to turn to his right, take a couple paces forwards, grab the next ledge with his arms, and scrabble clumsily with his feet against the wall until he succeeded in dragging himself onto the proper rooftop.

All things considered, his ascent had actually been pretty quick; it had taken him a mere several minutes to climb an entire building. That said, he wasn’t so quick that Waspmon had not already completed his task ahead of him. He and Pierre had found no evidence to suggest that there were any traps laid upon the roof, so the boy had jumped down from his friend’s back and the insectoid digimon had descended back to the ground to collect the others, whom he then carried up in twos and threes; Abella, Santo and PawnChessmon first, followed by Zofia and Candlemon, then Blair and Goblimon. The mechanical bug had even had time to go back and haul up Leomon before Otto and Greymon had reached the scene.

“So now what?” asked Zofia, who’d already had a look around and had discovered precisely zero entrances to the building from its roof.

“Now? Greymon, Waspmon, Leomon, I want all three of you to aim for…” Otto began, starting to stride across the roof, and only coming to a stop when he’d reached the dead centre, “this exact spot. And when I give the word, you’re all to throw everything you have at it. The force of all three of your attacks should easily be enough to shatter a few feet of solid stone, and this roof is probably way thinner than that, so there’s no way we should have any trouble blasting a hole through it. Once that’s done, run in and jump down while they’re all still confused and panicking. Got all that?”

“Yeah.” confirmed Greymon.

“Yes.” stated Leomon.

“Affirmative.” droned Waspmon electronically.

“Good,” the German replied, then quickly jogged back to the other side of the roof, where the rest of the group was waiting, “then fire!”

“Nova Blast!”

“Fist of the Beast King!”

“Bear Buster!”

As the three attacks neared the target area they seemed to merge together, becoming more powerful than the sum of their parts… and shattering a vast section of rooftop.

They didn’t even wait to see how the Commandramon inside the building would respond, but just launched themselves at the gap and jumped (or flew) through, firing off another of their attacks as they did so.

Greymon, being the heaviest, landed first, and when he did it was atop a huge (yet fragile) machine, which crumpled immediately beneath his great weight, and then, as a fuel tank or two burst, exploded.

The resulting flames and shrapnel gave the dinosaur numerous cuts and burns, but because of his thick, tough skin they were almost all only shallow cuts and mere first-degree burns.

There were many Hagurumon nearby, as well as many Commandramon guards. The Hagurumon, due to being made primarily of metal, didn’t fare too badly when the flames enveloped them and when the razor-sharp shards of shrapnel rained down upon their bodies, though they were still only rookies, and so didn’t manage to cope as well as Greymon. On the bright side, though, the blast did succeed in destroying the black needles embedded within everyone caught within its radius, so those Hagurumon who weren’t either incapacitated or knocked unconscious suddenly found themselves in control of themselves again.

The cyborg-type rookies, on the other hand, did have flesh to lacerate and char, and so found themselves is a considerably worse position.

That one explosion alone was enough to take out almost a third of the enemies in the room, and when Leomon landed amidst a group of Hagurumon, and began rapidly slicing through the needles which controlled their bodies, freeing them from the army’s command, and Waspmon started using his ‘Turbo Stinger’ attack to fire rapid salvoes of lasers down into the army’s ranks with unerring accuracy, the battle was all but over before it had even begun. The Commandramon were routed immediately.

While this was all going on, the digidestined had hurried over to the edge of the hole and were now peering down into the factory, observing as the soldiers screamed and fled, shoving each other aside in their haste to escape before they could be taken down by the champions, or worse, enslaved by vengeful Hagurumon intent upon giving them a punishment which was more fitting to their crime.

“Wow.” Otto said, almost giddily. “I knew that champions were powerful, but that was even easier than I expected it to be. I can hardly believe they’ve won already.”

“They haven’t.” replied Zofia, as serious as ever, as she tapped away at the keys on her laptop. “Not by a long shot. This factory is a large place, and the Commandramon know that our digimon can’t keep up their champion forms indefinitely, so once they return to their senses they’ll just hide themselves away all over the building… until Greymon, Leomon and Waspmon dedigivolve, at which point they’ll come pouring out and in the mood for revenge.”

“Oh.” Otto said blankly, his grin dropping. “So we can’t win, no matter what we do?”

“Actually, there are two possible plans which seem likely to allow us to overcome them. The first is to evacuate all of the Hagurumon and simply destroy the entire factory. That’s not ideal, of course, since: a) those guys won’t have a home any more, and; b) some of the Commandramon might actually die when all that rubble crushes them. The second option is for me to use my laptop to connect to this factory’s computer system – which is what I’m trying to do right now – and pull up some schematics of the building, and for us to convince the Hagurumon to help us root out the soldiers. The combination of greater numbers and detailed maps of the area should enable us to search the entire factory at a relatively quick pace, and uncover any hidden digimon.”

The others stared at her for a few long moments.

“Wow… nice plan.” commented Otto at last.

“So it’s alright with you if we do it then?”

“Of course it is! That’s way better than any plan I could come up with!”

“Great! In that case I suggest we call Waspmon back up here immediately, so that he can lift us down to speak with the Hagurumon… we’ve got a long day ahead of us…”

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I had originally intended to write the entire battle in the factory in a single chapter, but when I realised that the chapter was already at over 4000 words, I decided that I’d best bring it to a close, hence why it ends kinda abruptly.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you’re enjoying the story!

Description
And here’s Chapter 5.
Before you read it though, I do have a brief alteration to the story to mention.

Back in chapter one, I said that all of the digimon with partners had been kicked out into the human world, however it’s just occurred to me that as at this point everyone has a partner, and with roughly 6.8 billion people in the world… well, that doesn’t exactly leave a lot (if any) spare digimon.

Therefore, I’ve went back and altered the first chapter a little, so that the digimon are all trapped in their own world. Furthermore, I’ve made it so that the mysterious evil person who’s done this has also somehow erased their memories of their partners, so now they just all think that they’ve lived ordinary lives in the digital world, the way it used to be prior to the barrier’s collapse (i.e. all the fresh digimon in primary village, the rookies and in-trainings grouped together in villages, and the champions and ultimates preferring to wander off alone or in small groups).
Actually meeting their human partners again is enough to make them remember, though, hence why all of the main characters’ digimon recognise them.

Anyway, with that little error corrected, feel free to read the actual story:

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“How’re they doing?” Pierre asked, striding up to Zofia with Fanbeemon buzzing around behind him, as usual. He and the Polish girl, along with their partners, had been taking shifts discretely observing Otto and Agumon ever since they had returned the previous night. They hadn’t asked the others to help out, as neither Abella nor Santo were patient enough to remain still and silent for extended periods of time, and Blair couldn’t be trusted not to fall asleep the instant they left him alone.

“No improvement.” she replied, sighing sadly. Both she and Candlemon looked pretty downcast. “Agumon finally woke up, though.”

“Well that’s good news, at least.” Pierre said. Agumon had been so worn out after he… fought… those other digimon that he’d been out like a light ever since.

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?” he replied confusedly, wondering how it could possibly be bad that the digimon had woken.

“All they’ve done since then is argue over whose fault it was that Greymon went nuts and killed those other digimon. It was only a few minutes ago they finally just refused to continue talking any longer.”

The French boy’s face creased with worry as soon as the words left his companion’s mouth. This didn’t sound good at all.

“They’ve been blaming each other?” he inquired.

“No. Just the opposite, actually. Otto refuses to accept that it wasn’t his fault for deciding to stay behind, while Agumon says that he’s entirely to blame, since the reason he put so much effort into forcing himself to digivolve was so that he could get revenge on the army, rather than because his partner was in danger.” Zofia explained morosely.

“I see… and what do you think?”

“I think they’re both to blame… and so are the rest of us. In retrospect, I now see that though Otto was trying to save us by sacrificing himself, the digidestined in the past have always been the most successful when working as a group. You and Abella may have had a good excuse not to help out, as there wasn’t really much you could have done with Fanbeemon out cold and Leomon being controlled, but those of us whose partners were still able to fight never should have let him do that… no matter how intimidating Leomon was.”

“Hmm…” Pierre murmured, then said; “okay, I’m going to talk to them.”

“Huh? But I thought we agreed just to-”

He waved a hand dismissively. “That method obviously isn’t working. Besides, Fanbeemon and I might be able to get through to them… we do share some common ground, after all…”

“You do, huh?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah… I’ll explain later. Just, for now, let us try this.”

“Sure, be my guest.” Zofia told him, then watched solemnly as the pair walked away towards the hut which had been leant to Otto and Agumon by the Betamon.

“So, should we leave them alone?” asked Candlemon, looking up at her with his burning head, while keeping the eyes embedded in his wax-like body fixed upon their two friends.

“… No.” responded his partner slowly, after taking a few seconds to consider the question carefully. “If this ‘common ground’ which Pierre and Otto share is what I’m guessing it is, then I doubt it’s a pleasant subject for him to recall, so there’s no sense forcing him to have to go over it twice. We’ll just keep listening… for his own benefit.”

Candlemon grinned, despite their somewhat grim circumstances. He knew his partner well enough to know that, though her rationalisation was actually pretty good this time, the real reason she was sticking around was that she was just too nosy for her own good.

******

“Um… hey, Otto, hey Agumon.” Pierre said, somewhat awkwardly, as he came to a stop by the entrance to the German’s hut.

“Hey, Pierre.” replied the goggle-head glumly, not looking up at him. Agumon just mumbled something incoherent.

“I was hoping that you two would have recovered enough by now to discuss what happened yesterday, without just refusing to accept that you might not be solely to blame.”

“We’re not.” muttered Agumon. Otto remained silent. Pierre glanced across at Fanbeemon and sighed.

“I didn’t really think there was much chance you would be… still, Fanbeemon and I decided to come by and try to help.”

“You can’t.” the blond boy stated bluntly. “Those digimon are dead because of m-”

Agumon glanced across at him – looking like he was about to interrupt – and Otto paused briefly.

“Okay, fine, for the sake of not getting into another argument, let’s just say ‘us’. They’re dead because of ‘us’.”

It was obvious from the way in which he pronounced ‘us’ that Otto was about as sincere as an Impmon who’s promised to be on his best behaviour.

“You know,” interjected Pierre, “Zofia has another theory about who’s fault all this really is.”

“Oh?” Otto said unenthusiastically.

“She blames us all.” Fanbeemon continued for his partner. “And she makes a good point. One of the things which supposedly lead to Tai’s Greymon becoming SkullGreymon all those years ago was the pressure that he was put under to succeed, and Zofia thinks that by leaving you behind, we probably added to the pressure that Agumon was under… making him more likely to go crazy.”

The reptile digimon and his partner shared a sceptical glance. Apparently they weren’t buying that explanation.

“I’m sorry, guys, we both appreciate you coming here and trying to make us feel better, but there really is nothing you can do.” Otto mumbled miserably, staring down at the ground again.

“We can empathise.” suggested Pierre.

“What?”

“Didn’t you wonder why we hesitated to fight when those Commandramon attacked the village a couple days ago?” asked Fanbeemon.

Agumon and his friend shared another glance.

“Um… no.” they said together.

Pierre sighed, walked over to Otto’s bed, and sat down beside him. “Five years ago, Fanbeemon first digivolved into Waspmon, and ever since then, up until the day before yesterday, he’d never gone any higher than his rookie form. You see, digimon are able to unlock their potential to digivolve only when their partners are in danger. Unfortunately, it doesn’t necessarily need to be serious danger… back then I was only a little kid… the same age Santo is now, and I was terrible at taking care of myself. One day I was in the digital world, along with Fanbeemon, when I heard the sounds of fighting. We rushed over and found a gang of three DemiDevimon beating up a couple of Motimon. When they saw us the DemiDevimon decided that it would be even more entertaining to bully a human than it would be to hurt a couple of defenceless in-training digimon. They attacked and Fanbeemon tried to stop them… but wasn’t nearly powerful enough. But then, once one of them grabbed me, he digivolved. I won’t lie; it was nice seeing those evil little DemiDevimon so terrified… but then he tried to attack, and as it turns out, it takes practise to be any good at using propellers and stabilisers to fly, rather than normal wings… Waspmon started spinning around, completely out of control, and all while firing dozens of lasers out of the cannons in his hands and abdomen. I was directly behind him, so I managed to back away enough that he wouldn’t hit me… but the DemiDevimon had chased the Motimon into a narrow cave, which meant that they had nowhere to run… in the end every one of them must have been shot at least twice. The DemiDevimon were all so badly injured that they were actually forced back to their in-training levels. But the Motimon were already in-trainings, so they couldn’t take as much damage. They both-”

His voice caught in his throat.

“They both died.” finished Fanbeemon morosely. The German and his partner were gawping at them; understandably shocked to discover that they weren’t the only ones in the group with an experience such as this.

“We ended up being so upset that my parents just tried to comfort us, rather than giving us into trouble… and, of course, we couldn’t be arrested or charged with anything; I was still only seven, after all. We weren’t getting any better as time went on, though, so eventually my mum somehow managed to find the two Motimon who’d died, since they’d both been reborn at Primary Village by that point. Once they saw how guilty we felt they forgave us, since they knew we’d only been trying to help. They told us that it was really the three DemiDevimon’s fault, since they were the ones who started it. And over time I began to see that they were right. Just as you and Agumon aren’t to blame for what happened in that factory; the Digital Army is. Don’t get me wrong, Waspmon still makes me somewhat uncomfortable, and I hated seeing all those Commandramon injured like that after he started taking them down… but we don’t have much of a choice if we’re to save this world. Our digimon need to be able to reach the champion level.”

“I guess.” agreed Otto glumly, looking back at the ground. Pierre placed a comforting hand upon his shoulder.

“Listen. You’ve unlocked Agumon’s potential to become Greymon. Last time things didn’t go so well, I know, but if you have him digivolve again then things will be easier. Trust me. Two days ago was actually only the second time that Fanbeemon had ever reached champion-level, yet you saw how controlled he was, didn’t you? Agumon, so long as you focus on protecting your partner, rather than on hurting your enemies, you should be fine. And Otto, try to take care of yourself. If you rely on Agumon to save you every time something goes wrong then you’re just going to put him under even more pressure, until he snaps again.”

“Yeah,” agreed the insectoid digimon, nodding his head rapidly in agreement, “you guys just do that everything’ll be alright, you’ll see.”

“Thanks.” Otto and Agumon replied together, looking up at their friends gratefully, then getting to their feet.

“I won’t pretend that I don’t still feel enormously guilty for what happened, and I’m sure Agumon feels the same way, but you two are right; if we want to save this world then we’re going to need to keep on trying, even if do make some mistakes along the way.” Otto announced boldly, seeming almost to have returned to normal. Pierre knew from personal experience that at the moment it was only an act, put on to make others think that things were getting better, but he also knew that eventually the German boy would become so used to behaving this way that it would become natural, and the guilt really would be pushed to the back of his mind.

“There you go, now you’re sounding more like a leader.” Pierre told his friend, also getting to his feet.

“You still want me to lead?” the blond boy asked, sounding surprised.

“Of course. Zofia doesn’t have the confidence to order anyone around, Blair would just tell us not to bother doing anything until the army came to us, Abella and Santo aren’t really smart enough to come up with any good ideas… and I don’t much like being in charge. I found that out yesterday, when we were hauling you and the others back across the desert; leadership is way too much responsibility for me. I prefer to just stand by the side lines and help out whenever I’m needed.”

“And the others agree with you?”

“You made a mistake, goggle-head, but that doesn’t mean we’ve all suddenly decided that you’re a liability. You did try to sacrifice yourself to save us; if anything we respect you more now.”

Otto grinned at the nickname ‘goggle-head’, thanked the French boy again, and then all four of them left the hut and headed out into the village, where the others (whom Zofia had hurriedly left to gather as their conversation neared its end), along with a small crowd of Betamon, were waiting for them.

Slowly, and with renewed nervousness, Otto and Agumon headed over to Abella and Elecmon (who was now almost fully recovered after having a couple of large meals and a good night’s sleep… thankfully, digimon seem to heal a lot easier than humans do).

“Uh… hey…” Otto began awkwardly, going back to staring at the ground anxiously, “we’re both really, really sorry for-”

He was cut off suddenly when Abella hugged him. Both he and his digimon just stared at her in shock, while the others struggled not to laugh at their expressions. A couple seconds later she let go of him and gave Agumon a hug as well, then stood back up, smiling brightly at the confused pair.

“I’m so happy you’re both feeling better now. And it wasn’t your fault that Elecmon was hurt; you weren’t to blame for him being controlled, and besides, if Agumon hadn’t digivolved then he’d still be with those nasty Commandramon right now. I’m just glad he’s back with me.”

“And I feel the same way.” confirmed her partner. “Being under the influence of that gear was the worst experience of my life, and it’s thanks to you two that it’s over, even if it did hurt a bit. Now, are you ready to give taking out that factory another shot?”

“Definitely. And this time we won’t be failing, right, Agumon?”

“Right.”

With that said, Abella, Elecmon, Pierre and Fanbeemon all moved to stand alongside their leader and his partner, then held up their digivices as one. And all three of the screens began to glow, along with the digimon themselves.

“Fanbeemon digivolve to…”

“Agumon digivolve to…”

“Elecmon digivolve to…”

“Waspmon!”

“Greymon!”

“Leomon!”

Both boys smiled up at their digimon, albeit a little warily, neither entirely certain that they would manage not to injure or kill someone this time round. Fortunately, Greymon seemed to be under control this time, and Waspmon was apparently still able to operate his propulsion system properly.

Abella was the only one of the three who grinned fearlessly up at her partner; despite the fact that he’d gone after them while under the control of the gears, she knew, with an absolute certainty, that Leomon would never harm her or any of the others of his own free will. She would have trusted him with her life without the slightest hesitation.

“Ready to go?” he asked her.

“Sure!” she replied cheerfully, allowing him to pick her up.

“Coming?” Waspmon asked in his strange, electronic voice.

“Yeah…” Pierre replied, looking around at the others. Zofia was staring at Greymon with interest, and Blair seemed as bored as ever, but Santo looked nervous, seeming almost afraid at the prospect of having to ride a fire breathing dinosaur which, only the day before, had accidentally fallen into a fit of murderous rage and killed a whole squad of weaker digimon… “but you’ve got room for more than just me aboard, right?”

“I suppose.”

“Cool. Hey, Santo, how’d you like a shot at driving the Waspmon; it’s just like riding a bike, except that you can’t possibly crash, because there’s nothing to hit in the sky.”

The Italian boy’s face lit up, and he spun round to PawnChessmon.

“Can I? Can I!?”

“… Of course.” his digimon replied once he’d recovered from his surprise, and taken a step back from his suddenly overly enthusiastic partner.

“Awesome! Thanks Pierre!”

“No problem. Now, Waspmon, land and let him on, will you?”

“I suppose…” the champion-level digimon repeated.

“Good. Now, Santo, you just climb onto his head… yeah, like that, and grab the handlebars.”

“Antennae! They’re antennae, not handlebars!” objected the giant mechanical wasp indignantly.

“Nah, don’t worry about it, kid, Waspmon’s a big softie at heart, you just keep a hold of those things, and just tug on them as hard as possible whenever you want to change direction.”

“Aww… what did I ever do to you?” moaned Waspmon, causing Pierre to laugh. Then the dark-haired boy and PawnChessmon also climbed aboard, and he lifted off.

And then it was Greymon’s turn to kneel down, allowing the others to clamber aboard. Once that was done, and they’d all said their goodbyes to the Betamon, they headed out once more, covering the ground much more quickly this time round than they had when walking on foot.

It was mere minutes before they’d reached the scrublands beyond the lush riverside home of the Betamon, and not long after that they were into the true desert. The temperature was just as unbearable as the day before… or at least, it would have been, had they not been charging so rapidly through the sands that it seemed to the children almost like there was a wind blowing. A nice, refreshing breeze which would actually have made their journey seem pleasant, were they not all plagued by thoughts of what might happen once they reached the Hagurumon factory.

Of course, not everyone was worried. Blair remained as unperturbed as ever, and Goblimon was actually happy at the thought of getting into another fight, to the extent that he even tried dancing around cheerfully on Greymon’s head… which didn’t work out so well, and ended up forcing him to cling to one of the massive dinosaur’s horns for the rest of the journey, as he dangled precariously above the ground which sped past far beneath him… Greymon did manage to grab his club when he dropped it, though, so it wasn’t all bad.

And then they arrived at the factory, and stepped off the soft sands and onto the large slab of concrete upon which it had been built. The owners had obviously never been fond of visitors, even before the arrival of the army. As if it wasn’t enough to make the entrance a confusing labyrinth of intersecting corridors and passages, they’d also chosen to build in one of the most inhospitable environments imaginable…

That, combined with the fact that they’d only just discovered that the Hagurumon were the ones responsible for the production of Devimon’s trademark black gears, was setting off alarm bells in at least a few of their minds.

“So how should we now proceed, o’ fearless leader?” PawnChessmon asked innocently, his voice radiating sincerity.

“Hmm…” Otto murmured. It was supposed to be a rhetorical question, of course; the only way in was through the front doors. But that led into the maze, and heading through that certainly hadn’t worked for them last time. Plus, the soldiers would have been able to see them approaching from a mile off, so they must have been prepared for whatever the kids and their digimon could possibly throw at them; just as they had been the previous day, when those two leaped out from that shed and shot Fanbeemon.
And suddenly, completely out of the blue, an idea occurred to him.

“Okay, first of all, Greymon, burn out that shed over there, just in case they think they can use the same trick twice.”

“Sure thing, Otto.” the immense reptile rumbled in its deep, gravelly voice. “Nova Blast!”

An orb of orange flame erupted from his mouth and slammed into the small stone building’s thin wooden door, reducing it to little more than a collection of charred matchsticks in an instant, and continuing on inside, before blowing out the windows in a hail of molten glass.

There came no screams of pain from inside, though, so it appeared that the Commandramon had been too intelligent to try that move again.

“Alright. Now, we know that they won’t bother coming out to fight us in the open, since they can’t hope to win against three champion-levels that way,” the goggle-head told them, sounding awfully pleased with himself for figuring this out, “so we can use that to our advantage…”

“How?” Abella asked several seconds later, when it had become clear that he wasn’t going to continue until someone asked him, and gave him an excuse to announce it as dramatically as possible.

The blond boy pointed up at the very top of the building and said triumphantly: “By attacking from up there.”

“Ooohh…” replied Abella, sounding impressed.

“And how do you plan to get us up there?” asked Pierre. “I suppose Waspmon could carry us kids up one or two at a time, and he’ll probably even manage to haul up Leomon… but he can’t even hope to lift Greymon.”

“Ha. Don’t you worry about Greymon, I know just how to get him up there.”

“If you say so. Okay, Santo, PawnChessmon, if you two get down for the moment then I’ll go up with Waspmon to check and make sure that the coast is clear, then I’ll send him back down for the rest of you, okay?”

“Okay, then.” the Italian boy replied, and he and his digimon clambered off the giant, mechanical insect. At the same time, Leomon put down Abella, and Zofia, Candlemon, Blair and Goblimon dropped down from Greymon as well, with only Otto remaining upon his partner’s head.

Once that was done, Waspmon began to rise into the air, and the German spoke again: “Say, Greymon, how do you feel about a little climb?”

The champion paused for a brief moment, then grinned as he worked out his friend’s meaning.

“I’d love to.” he growled, stepping forwards, reaching up to the ledge above the nearest doorway, and beginning to haul himself up. It wasn’t easy to start with; trying to lift his entire bodyweight with just his arms. Once he’d managed to heave his way up some more, however, his feet were high enough to be able to find purchase on the lowest ledge, and from that point on, it was smooth sailing, now that he could use his powerful legs to support his weight, and it wasn’t long before he’d reached the top of that section of the building. Once there he needed only to turn to his right, take a couple paces forwards, grab the next ledge with his arms, and scrabble clumsily with his feet against the wall until he succeeded in dragging himself onto the proper rooftop.

All things considered, his ascent had actually been pretty quick; it had taken him a mere several minutes to climb an entire building. That said, he wasn’t so quick that Waspmon had not already completed his task ahead of him. He and Pierre had found no evidence to suggest that there were any traps laid upon the roof, so the boy had jumped down from his friend’s back and the insectoid digimon had descended back to the ground to collect the others, whom he then carried up in twos and threes; Abella, Santo and PawnChessmon first, followed by Zofia and Candlemon, then Blair and Goblimon. The mechanical bug had even had time to go back and haul up Leomon before Otto and Greymon had reached the scene.

“So now what?” asked Zofia, who’d already had a look around and had discovered precisely zero entrances to the building from its roof.

“Now? Greymon, Waspmon, Leomon, I want all three of you to aim for…” Otto began, starting to stride across the roof, and only coming to a stop when he’d reached the dead centre, “this exact spot. And when I give the word, you’re all to throw everything you have at it. The force of all three of your attacks should easily be enough to shatter a few feet of solid stone, and this roof is probably way thinner than that, so there’s no way we should have any trouble blasting a hole through it. Once that’s done, run in and jump down while they’re all still confused and panicking. Got all that?”

“Yeah.” confirmed Greymon.

“Yes.” stated Leomon.

“Affirmative.” droned Waspmon electronically.

“Good,” the German replied, then quickly jogged back to the other side of the roof, where the rest of the group was waiting, “then fire!”

“Nova Blast!”

“Fist of the Beast King!”

“Bear Buster!”

As the three attacks neared the target area they seemed to merge together, becoming more powerful than the sum of their parts… and shattering a vast section of rooftop.

They didn’t even wait to see how the Commandramon inside the building would respond, but just launched themselves at the gap and jumped (or flew) through, firing off another of their attacks as they did so.

Greymon, being the heaviest, landed first, and when he did it was atop a huge (yet fragile) machine, which crumpled immediately beneath his great weight, and then, as a fuel tank or two burst, exploded.

The resulting flames and shrapnel gave the dinosaur numerous cuts and burns, but because of his thick, tough skin they were almost all only shallow cuts and mere first-degree burns.

There were many Hagurumon nearby, as well as many Commandramon guards. The Hagurumon, due to being made primarily of metal, didn’t fare too badly when the flames enveloped them and when the razor-sharp shards of shrapnel rained down upon their bodies, though they were still only rookies, and so didn’t manage to cope as well as Greymon. On the bright side, though, the blast did succeed in destroying the black needles embedded within everyone caught within its radius, so those Hagurumon who weren’t either incapacitated or knocked unconscious suddenly found themselves in control of themselves again.

The cyborg-type rookies, on the other hand, did have flesh to lacerate and char, and so found themselves is a considerably worse position.

That one explosion alone was enough to take out almost a third of the enemies in the room, and when Leomon landed amidst a group of Hagurumon, and began rapidly slicing through the needles which controlled their bodies, freeing them from the army’s command, and Waspmon started using his ‘Turbo Stinger’ attack to fire rapid salvoes of lasers down into the army’s ranks with unerring accuracy, the battle was all but over before it had even begun. The Commandramon were routed immediately.

While this was all going on, the digidestined had hurried over to the edge of the hole and were now peering down into the factory, observing as the soldiers screamed and fled, shoving each other aside in their haste to escape before they could be taken down by the champions, or worse, enslaved by vengeful Hagurumon intent upon giving them a punishment which was more fitting to their crime.

“Wow.” Otto said, almost giddily. “I knew that champions were powerful, but that was even easier than I expected it to be. I can hardly believe they’ve won already.”

“They haven’t.” replied Zofia, as serious as ever, as she tapped away at the keys on her laptop. “Not by a long shot. This factory is a large place, and the Commandramon know that our digimon can’t keep up their champion forms indefinitely, so once they return to their senses they’ll just hide themselves away all over the building… until Greymon, Leomon and Waspmon dedigivolve, at which point they’ll come pouring out and in the mood for revenge.”

“Oh.” Otto said blankly, his grin dropping. “So we can’t win, no matter what we do?”

“Actually, there are two possible plans which seem likely to allow us to overcome them. The first is to evacuate all of the Hagurumon and simply destroy the entire factory. That’s not ideal, of course, since: a) those guys won’t have a home any more, and; b) some of the Commandramon might actually die when all that rubble crushes them. The second option is for me to use my laptop to connect to this factory’s computer system – which is what I’m trying to do right now – and pull up some schematics of the building, and for us to convince the Hagurumon to help us root out the soldiers. The combination of greater numbers and detailed maps of the area should enable us to search the entire factory at a relatively quick pace, and uncover any hidden digimon.”

The others stared at her for a few long moments.

“Wow… nice plan.” commented Otto at last.

“So it’s alright with you if we do it then?”

“Of course it is! That’s way better than any plan I could come up with!”

“Great! In that case I suggest we call Waspmon back up here immediately, so that he can lift us down to speak with the Hagurumon… we’ve got a long day ahead of us…”

------

I had originally intended to write the entire battle in the factory in a single chapter, but when I realised that the chapter was already at over 4000 words, I decided that I’d best bring it to a close, hence why it ends kinda abruptly.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you’re enjoying the story!