The monster was made out of metal, combinations of silver and gray made up the color palette, some parts were missing, allowing the internals to be seen.
Huge claws and foots were enough to crush everything in its path, but the main and only true weapon were the 6 cannons on its back, compressing F-Particles for shots of insane energy.
Its long head with 3 fins had black eyes with a lone blue shine acting as iris, further driving home the intimidating look.
It was notably uncomplete, the raw, unpainted metal and the lack of weapons making it clear.
But with what it had to offer now, it was more than enough.
X-1 Juggernaut was a reality, a nightmare MAGAMI resurrected to use as a backup plan, a warrantied change in the tide of the battle.
Its only presence, towering over the city with its gigantic size, drove terror over the spine of both enemies and allies.
...
"Zero Circle!" -Geovasmon traps HiDigmon in a circle of darkness, drawing his saber and getting ready to finish him off, but the armadillo manages to dodge at the last moment by digging downwards.- "Grr..."
Geovasmon looks around, he managed to defeat most of the Green Wind Digimons that attacked him and force them to wirthdraw, but HiDigmon was proving to be more challenging.
The battle, still fought in the outskirts of Asuka, got closer to the center of the city, with Juggernaut standing out in the background.
"(What is that?)" -Geovasmon thought to himself as he kept advancing carefully, expecting HiDigmon's attack.- "(If that was the creature that fired that shot... It must have an overwhelming power, enough to destroy a whole city by itself...)"
"Ram Drill!" -HiDigmon jumps out of the ground just below Geovasmon, hitting his saber and sending it flying away- "Heh!"
"Won't be enough!" -Geovasmon takes advantage and kicks HiDigmon in the stomach, the armadillo screams as he hits his back with a tree, slowly standing up.
"You're good, gonna give you that..." -HiDigmon says as he grabs his whips.- "...Well, guess being a mix of different Digimon has its advantages."
"Fairly chatty, aren't we? Even in a fight." -Geovasmon replies, serious, as he gets ready to strike.
"What do I know, focusing too much can bring death over you." -HiDigmon runs to Geovasmon.- "You're doomed in that regard!"
"As if you knew anything about me!" -Geovasmon jumps back as HiDigmon attacks with his whips, taking some damage from it, but the dinosaur then uses his fire breath to burn one of them.
"Some things are clear to the eye!" -HiDigmon comes out from the smoke caused by the flame and grabs Geovasmon by the arms, using his Ram Drill to slowly penetrate his helmet.- "This snout... So you're a GeoGreymon under the mask, huh?"
"Y-You!..." -Geovasmon tries to free himself desperately as he feels the drill beginning to reach his snout.- "Ah!"
"These arms, this skin color, that fire breath of yours..." -HiDigmon chuckles as he firmly grabs Geovasmon.- "...Been borrowing a lot from other Digimons, I see."
"*Shut up*!" -Geovasmon uses all his forces to free himself, pushing HiDigmon back, then punching him with a hook.
The armadillo flies backwards and hits the ground, but he keeps chuckling.
"These F-Particles... The life inside you..." -HiDigmon's drill had Geovasmon's F-Particles in it, the armadillo didn't bother cleaning it up.- "...I know you!"
"What's wrong with you?!" -Geovasmon runs to HiDigmon, who tries to hit him with his remaining whip, but the dinosaur kicks it away and punched the armadillo in the head, throwing him to the ground.
As their violent fight raged on, things weren't looking better at the center of Asuka.
...
"We need help here!" -Multiple Gladimon were on the ground or helping their injured partners, even some Centalmon and KnightChessmon were damaged in the streets of Asuka.
Multiple houses got burned alongside the whole street after Juggernaut used its cannons, many soldiers got hit by debris or were straight up eliminated, nobody warned them about the destructive shot.
And in the low lands, more precisely, over the sewers, things were getting even more out of control.
"Damn! The whole sewer is exposed now! They will come from above!" -Miura said as he hid behind the door alongside Cadenza and the rest of the Digimons.- "We need to leave now!"
"Lanceamon, you're unstable, you shouldn't be taking this risk!" -Levantemon says to Lanceamon.- "If you get in contact with the F-Drive inside, who knows what might happen."
"B-But I need to help!" -Lanceamon suddenly hears something in his radio, it was Elise.
"Lan... Ceamon!... H-Help!" -Elise sounded desperate- "I-I can't talk loudly, they'll hear... Us... We're in the training grounds!"
"I know where that is!" -Lanceamon prepares to leave, turning on his turbine- "I'm on my way!"
"Wait!"
Levantemon couldn't stop Lanceamon, who got out of their hiding spot, Raidenmon again failed to shoot at the Digimon after he used his turbine to enter into the lab.
"Tss... We need to do this while we can." -Levantemon sighs as he stands up.- "...Miura and Cadenza, get on your respective Dolphmons, Sparrowmon, protect them."
"I'll stay, I have my NerveDex, Kataimon will need me." -Cadenza stubbornly says, pointing at her NerveDex.
"If she can stay, so will I!" -Miura also joins Cadenza, with Levantemon frowning.
"..." -Levantemon sighs, looking at Airdizmon and Kataimon, with them nodding in response.- "Okay... Let's go."
Raidenmon sees how Levantemon comes out from behind the door transformed in his aircraft mode, shooting at him.
"Grr! Even like this!" -Levantemon is scratched by the lazer in one of his wings.
"Aspen, Submarimon... I'll return!" -Airdizmon shouts as he activates his Super Cutter and also comes out from behind the door.
"We've faced worse!" -Kataimon exclaims as she jumps into the water, swimming at Raidenmon, they were ready to gang up on him.
...
"Aspen! Elise!" -Lanceamon runs across the lab, avoiding the fire where everything was getting burned up.- "Here I am!"
Walking amids the lab brought back horrible memories, all the pain and fear... He couldn't bear looking at the images or experiments around him.
The Spearhead Project... He didn't quite understand the details, it was supposed to be about opening a channel between servers... What servers? He didn't know, his only function as the subject for the project was to open that channel... To be the spear clearing the way, that place in the sea was the point where the tunnel was to be opened.
Who knows why they wanted to do it, or what is a server.
But he didn't have time to find out, he had to keep going, for Aspen, for his new home, he wasn't going to fail this time.
The aquatic Digimon eventually reaches the room besides the training grounds, looking around, Aspen and Elise were nowhere to be found, maybe they were inside the training area itself?
...
"Come on, talk to me." -Kenzo said as he kept using the radio, still in the middle of the city- "What's going on?"
"Sir, Raidenmon has engaged the intruders, they're still fighting." -A Jazamon said as they flew over the area, noticing Raidenmon getting attacked by Levantemon after he punched Airdizmon out of his way.- "The door to the lab is open, there is a chance that they may have intruded the facilities, the cannon shot destroyed the cameras, so we can't confirm."
"So they really are above the level of you all." -Kenzo lamented as he grabbed the button he used to activate Juggernaut, pressing it and talking through an speaker.- "X-1 Juggernaut, permission to shoot cleared, repeat latest coordinates with a variation of minus 5 in Y."
Most Digimons, even guards, noticed Juggernaut in the distance, beginning to charge its cannons again. F-Particles were attracted to them as the place turned blue-ish, an screeching sound began to take protagonism.
Panic began to generate for those knowing what was going to happen, another cannon shot was about to be fired at the sewers, aiming to destroy them even with Raidenmon inside. And who knows how much collateral damage would be caused now.
"Sorry, Raidenmon, you were a good person..." -Kenzo said as he prepared to press the button after the cannons were charged.- "...But you're fake... A program... *FIRE*!"
He pressed the button.
The cannons shone more and more, the sound became deafening...
And then...
They turned off.
A desperate roar was the last thing Juggernaut let go before a chain of explosions began to detonate across his body.
Debris went flying everywhere, crushing businesses as the beast began to fall, his body crashing against the whole main street before violently exploding and causing a mushroom cloud visible even from outside the city.
"..." -Kenzo turned around, baffled.- "...What?"
...
"I can play with buttons too, kid." -Lowemon said as he was holding a button in his hand.- "Mercuremon, you have my congratulations, this worked flawlessly"
"I'm glad to hear that, Moderator." -Mercuremon replies, both were at the roof of Kenzo's tower, at the tallest point in the Asuka H.Q.- "What a shame, though, lots of good materials wasted."
"They were wasted the second they were installed into that beast." -Lowemon comments as he then grabs an speaker and prepares to give an speech.- "*Attention, Asuka Guards!..."
Lowemon's voice could be hears all across the city.
"...*I'm Moderator Lowemon, working for the MAGAMI Guard in charge of the Asuka City... Or well, that's what I used to do, now, I'm just a warrior, like you, and like the partner you just lost in this disgraceful battle..."
"*...Allow me to ask you, what is a warrior? Just a fighter? A soldier? No, it runs deeper than those trivialities, being a warrior is the biggest dream one can hope to achieve, the ultimate meaning of existence for us Digimons, being able to dance in the fine line between life and death is a privilege, defining the future in a tenth of a second, the slash of a sword, is what we were made for..."
"*...We Digimons are made to defend ourselves, we have powers, we have weapons, we have skills that accompany us since our birth, the F-Particles composing us long for the day to free themselves and join nature again... But what happened now?"
"*Humans, uncapable of understanding our way to live, have entered and corrupted our existence, now we have to show unnecessary restraint, wear a hound collar and fix our problems with order... When there's already a natural order, the one of the strongest one."
"*Now that doesn't matter, you could find by yourself, the beast that just vaporized your friends and foes, codename X-1 Juggernaut, is the manifestation of the human will to destroy our meaning of existence, warriors will be extinguished, order will be dictated by a council of humans, The Connection is nothing more than a nightmarish world for Digimons..."
"*But I stand against this, by taking out this beast, I, Lowemon, declare war on the current MAGAMI leadership on Asuka, including its lord, Kenzo Elan, and all its pawns, let's take this city! Let's show them we're the biggest dreamers, the strongest warriors!... For a world forged in fire!"
"For a world forged in fire!" -A Gladimon said as he stood up over the destroyed street, raising his hand, with a sword embebbed in fire painted on it.
"For a world forged in fire!" -Centalmons, KnightChessmons, Jazamons... Multiple soldiers began showing their marks... They were expecting this moment, Lowemon's attack.
The soldiers that weren't part of it were left with confusion, some of them were betrayed, the others weren't able to do anything, as they were injured.
Something was clear: A big-scale internal conflict was about to happen.
"Lowemon..." -The button hit the ground as Kenzo watched the Asuka H.Q in disbelief, his furious frown leaving in evidence how serious the situation just got.- "...Traitor... When he was sent to open a channel between both servers using X-32 Lanceamon, he instead went to the base producing Juggernaut... And he rigged it..."
...
"...That's why his ship wasn't there when I arrived, he wasn't running away, he did something with that beast..." -Geovasmon looked at the destroyed Asuka, both he and HiDigmon heard the whole speech.- "...Lowemon... You bastard..."
"Your buddy has a point, though." -HiDigmon comments as he grabs one of his arms, both he and Geovasmon were bruised.- "...Humans are what caused all of this mess in first place."
HiDigmon points at the remains of Juggernaut.
"...They created these beasts, to begin with... And then the Connection, which is a big mistake, and it's certain doom for all of us Digimons..."
HiDigmon then points at himself.
"...Hell, look at us now, fighting for our humans."
"You may have a few extra edges here and there, but you're still a Digmon... A gray Digmon, from the family of Submarimon... Like the one many Gladimons saw at that MAGAMI ship, loyal to the core to the human girl accompanying him." -Geovasmon runs to HiDigmon.- "Good try at playing the innocent!"
"Elise is different, you would be surprised!" -HiDigmon says as he jumps backwards, covering himself from Geovasmon.
...
"Argh!" -Kataimon gets thrown to the wall, with Raidenmon approaching her and trying to crush the shark with his foot.-
"Kataimon!" -Cadenza exclaimed as she ran to her, but then the crosshair provided by her NerveDex warned the girl that Raidenmon was about to shoot... And she was the target.- "Wow!"
"Careful!" -Airdizmon saves Cadenza at the last moment, grabbing her and flying away before the lazer destroys that place.- "H-He's insane."
"You..." -After seeing that, Kataimon's pupil shrinks, the shark releasing a feral roar as all spikes in her back began to shake.- "...*You crossed the line*! Pile Bunker!"
Kataimon points her arms to Raidenmon, with the shaft in the back of them revealing to be independently connected to the hand instead of the arm.
The shaft and hand get propelled forward at high speed, essentially being a strong punch that damages Raidenmon's underbelly while sending the machine into the water.
"Nobody touches Cadenza!" -Kataimon stands up and jumps to the water too, only to see Raidenmon rising up and pointing at her with his rifle.
But the machine didn't notice Levantemon coming from behind.
"You're nothing more than a mindless beast!" -Levantemon shouted as he transformed from his aircraft mode and crashed into Raidenmon's rifle, embebbing his tails into it.- "Gale Blast!"
Both from his tails and arms, the mantis shoots energy, causing a huge explosion that destroys the rifle and part of Raidenmon's hand, he also was involved in the blast and his tails got damaged, ending up burned and scratched. But it was the only way to penetrate Raidenmon's armor.
"There goes the rifle!" -Levantemon says as he backs up, with Kataimon ready to strike at a downed Raidenmon.
"Kataimon! He's open! Go for it!" -Exclaims Cadenza as Airdizmon takes her behind the lab's door, alongside Miura.
"Yes!" -Kataimon get's ready to give the final hit- "Pile Bunker!"
"Wait!" -Cadenza warns as her crosshair shows an strange reaction.- "What is this..."
"Huh?"
"Annihilate... All... Threats..." -Raidenmon mutters before his whole body begins to glow in red, his size reaching his limit, almost touching the roof, his armor shaking crazily, and great amounts of heat coming from any exposed area in the machine, pointing at the internals working at a higher temperature than normal. - "...Or...d...e.r.."
His voice could no longer be understood, but the way his body shaked and leaned proved to be enough of a way to communicate his last remaining sanity dying, drowned away into the bitter F-Drive controlling the machine.
"M-Missiles!" -Cadenza warned as she covered, with Raidenmon opening both missile batteries on his back and releasing an insane amount of them.
"He's truly mindless!" -Levantemon flies side to side in the confinated sewer as he avoided the missiles, having to land and almost stumbling with a Digimon on the ground.- "W-What are you doing still here?!"
It was a Mantaraymon, still stunned from the previous fight, now confused and helpless.
"Your superior is crazy! Get out of here!" -Levantemon sees an array of missiles coming, quickly kicking the Mantaraymon into the water before taking flight again, but some missiles manage to hit his legs and the mantis is sent crashing against the wall while screaming.
"Levantemon! Damn!" -Miura watched, powerless, how Levantemon fell to the floor, his legs and tail smoking after suffering strong damage, Raidenmon was now approaching him.
"Get out of there! Metal Storm!" -Kataimon shouted as she released her Metal Storm over Raidenmon, but the machine whips his tail at the spikes and repels them.
"Kataimon! His tail's gonna shoot!" -Cadenza warns, promping Kataimon to swim away.- "It's electri..."
She didn't manage to say that in time, as the tail shot an electrical discharge that electrocuted the shark after hitting the water, Kataimon screaming in pain.
"Kataimon!" -Cadenza noticed Raidenmon wasn't stopping, his own tail was beginning to smoke and melt, but the machine kept shooting, Kataimon was getting cooked alive.
"Grr!" -Levantemon flies with all he has to Kataimon and uses his shield, grabbing the shark and taking her out of the water, both falling to the ground, strongly injured.- "H-He's... Fighting like he has nothing to lose..."
"Secondary... Why..." -The Mantaraymon that Levantemon saved muttered as he watched everything at Miura and Cadenza's side, horrified at some Coelamons also getting killed by the missile barrage.- "...We were on your side..."
"He won't hear you!" -Mantaraymon turns to an angry Miura as the boy talks to him, frustrated.- "If you're not going to help, grab your partners and leave! You're only getting yourself killed here!"
"Miura..." -The remaining Sparrowmon says as she gets in front of Miura, in case the Mantaraymon attacked.
But the mantaray instead nodded and went on to help the only other Mantaraymon alongside several Coelamons to get out of there, seems like not even he could argue that Raidenmon was out of control.
But now only Airdizmon was tasked with stopping the rampaging machine.
"Remote Lazer!" -Airdizmon comes flying, blinding Raidenmon, but the machine doesn't care and shoots his missiles again, without even aiming.- "W-Wow!"
The bat is forced to evade the randomized wall of missiles, moment that the machine used to close the gap and attack him with his electrically charged claw.
"Gah!" -Airdizmon is electrocuted and thrown to the ground, Raidenmon ready to use his claw again to finish him off.
The machine grabs the bat and begins to electrocute him again.
"No... It can't end here... Asp... Submarimon... I..." -Airdizmon stuttered as his eyes shone, clenching his teeths while F-Particles began to accumulate around him.- "...After all what happened... I... Won't... Super Cutter!"
Airdizmon's wings shine and burn Raidenmon's claw, causing an electrical cut that manages to blow up a section at the machine's side, leaving it's internal parts exposed.
This wasn't going to prevent Raidenmon from fighting, but now Airdizmon's whole body was shining.
How many times... How many times did this world tried to eat him? Taking away the people close to him, taking away the few things and achievements he could manage to get, and now taking him away, just as he was about to win, holding hands with Submarimon and Aspen, finding a new home in Green Wind.
No, this time it wasn't going to happen, he couldn't allow that.
"He's..." -Miura and Cadenza watched in awe at the shining bat.- "...Digievolving!"
...
"...Calizmon" -Aspen stops in his tracks... Something changed... Calizmon came to his mind instantly.
"What happened? Aspen?" -Elise turns around, they were still in the training grounds, at the other side of the room, with several test tubes containing strangely modified Digimons, just like Lanceamon.
"I have a feeling... Wait!" -Aspen feels how his NerveDex begins to shine and shake.- "Something is happening to him."
Suddenly, Aspen leans on the wall, grabbing his head.
"Aspen! What now?"
"There's an image..." -An image poped in Aspen's mind, as if it was a memory... It showed Calizmon and Submarimon, back in the old days... It was one of the bat's memories.- "...Calizmon hanging out with Submarimon?... And this feeling, its an overwhelming amount of power."
"Your NerveDex is showing something" -Elise points out.
"Huh?" -Aspen watches the screen of the NerveDex, now showing a word on it.- "It's a Digimon..."
*Zalizmon*
"Elise... Where are we going?" -Aspen asks, clearly trying to convince Elise to come back to check on Calizmon.- "Shouldn't we be freeing the prisoners now?"
Elise looks up, calm, as she approached the wall.
"The city is collapsing... And that name is a new Digievolution, with Calizmon's new strenght, we have plenty of time now." -Elise finds a hidden button in the wall, pressing it and revealing a secret passage, catching Aspen by surprise.- "Don't worry about them, they'll be alright... I need you to give me a chance here, there's something we need to do."
Aspen was weirded out by Elise's sudden enigmatic behaviour... But she seemed genuinely serious about it.
What to do... Go check on Calizmon? Or help Elise?
It is true Calizmon is now stronger... But he probably still needed help if he had to go that far.
At the same time, was he going to leave Elise alone? And this seemed to be very important.
"...Please... It's something you always wanted to do before the incident, Aspen Leonard."
As if that was the last push he needed, Aspen nodded.
"Yes, Elise, let's go." -He needed to embrace his true identity, he wasn't Aspen Mark no more, there were other things he had to achieve. Calizmon surely would find the way around.
After all, he had Submarimon.
"(Yet again I'm acting jelly...)" -Aspen thought to himself, just as Calizmon said, not everything was Submarimon for the bat, the boy probably felt jealeous again after seeing that image in his mind... It was something he needed to change, and it was exactly what caused that argument on the boat days prior. - "(Get a hold on yourself, Aspen)"
"By the way... I also got an image of them both together... I think Calizmon digievolved for Submarimon, not for you..." -Elise mentions as both enter into the passage- "...Whatever's going on there, they can deal with it themselves."
"W-Well... I-I guess you're right." -Now that Elise mentioned it... Maybe it wasn't so wrong for him to be jealous...- "Elise... Am I acting too desperate to be his friend?"
"No, you're a kind person... But Digimons are different to us, like I said, both species can't co-exist forever..." -Elise places a hand on Aspen's shoulder as they advance into the darkness.- "...But don't worry... I'm here for you."