Author: "Gomamon2000"
Email: rangerrick98@juno.com (please be kind when writing)

Digimon: DigiMaster
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Episode Fifteen: Battle with Dark Agumon
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LAST TIME: Matt: "We traveled for weeks after the dark digimon first attacked us without being attacked at all. Just when I thought we'd never see them again, guess who showed up! During the battle, Compumon showed up and used the evil digivice to digivolve the other Agumon into Tyrannomon, and then the other Gabumon and Biyomon into Snimon and Kuwagamon. They de-digivolved pretty quickly and ran away before we could do anything. I'm hoping we don't see them again for a long time, but that would just be too good to be true."
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"You know," Joe was saying, "with all the walking I've had to do the past couple summers, I'm spending a fortune in new shoes."

"I know what you mean, Joe," agreed Mimi. "I feel like I'm going to wear a hole straight through the bottom of these shoes."

"Oh, come on," said Tai. "It's not THAT bad."

"Speak for yourself," replied Matt, grimacing. "I'm with Joe and Mimi; my feet are killing me!"

"I think we all need a break," suggested Kevin. "There are some benches just up ahead we could use."

"Benches!" cried Mimi. "We can finally rest our feet!" She ran straight for the closest bench along with Matt and Joe.

"Boy," commented TK, "they sure do run fast for their feet being hurt."

Everyone caught up with Mimi, Joe, and Matt and sat down on a bench. There was a collective sigh of relief, even from Tai, as they all got the chance to rest their feet. Kevin dug out some food from his backpack and they all had something to eat. In between bites of his food, Gomamon glanced up at Joe and noticed he was kinda zoned out.

"Joe! Oh Joe!" Gomamon called.

Coming to his senses and looking around, Joe said, "Huh? Wha?"

"You were pretty out of it there, Joe. What were you thinking about?"

"Oh, uh, nothing," Joe mumbled, looking at his feet. He took a bite of his sandwich and tried to hide behind it.

Knowing Joe as well as he did, Gomamon figured he was thinking about more than "nothing." Glancing over in the direction Joe had been staring, Gomamon saw Mimi eating her sandwich and chatting with Palmon. Suddenly, he realized what was going on. Giving Joe a conspiratorial grin, he leaned in and said, "You like her, don't ya?"

Joe jumped and tried in vain to regain his composure. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he fibbed.

"I knew it! I knew it!" Gomamon shouted.

"Okay, okay!" Joe hissed. "Keep your voice down!" Joe glanced around as casually as he could, which wasn't very casually at all. Fortunately, everyone was used to this sort of odd behavior from Joe, and didn't even notice. "How'd you know?"

"Come on, Joe. I know you too well not to notice. Of course, the fact that you were just staring at her in a love-sick daze kinda helped. Actually," Gomamon added, pondering, "I figured you liked Mimi last year when we were going around gathering allies for the fight against Piedmon."

###flashback###

Mimi stopped walking and kneeled on the ground. "I'm tired, and I'm hungry, and my feet hurt."

Joe stopped and turned to face her. "Mimi, I don't know what to do when you're like this."

But apparently some of the digimon with them did. As soon as they heard "Princess" Mimi say she was hungry, they ran off immediately in search of food, despite Joe's protests.

"Wow, everyone's being so nice, so sweet," noticed Mimi as Frigimon decided to tag along.

"It must be because of your charming personality," said Palmon.

After that comment, Meramon and Ogremon decided just to go along with the whole idea and search for some food themselves. Seeing a great opportunity to tease Joe a little bit, Gomamon said, "Come on, admit it, Joe. Say it. She's charming."

"She's not charming! I mean--she is! I'm--not going to have this conversation!"

Much to Joe's further embarassment, Mimi and Palmon giggled.

###end flashback###

"I mean, you get flustered pretty easily," Gomamon concluded, "but for you to get THAT flustered, you had to like her."

"Yeah, you're right," sighed Joe. "I liked her then, and I still do like her."

"Well, why haven't you told her how you feel?"

"I'm too scared. I mean, what if she doesn't feel the same way? What if I tell her and she just laughs at me? Besides, courage isn't exactly my strong suit."

"You're right." agreed Gomamon. "It's Tai's. You're the reliable one, remember?"

"Yeah, but reliability doesn't help me ask Mimi out."

"It's okay, Joe," Gomamon said, patting him on the back. "It'll all work out eventually."

##########

Silently observing the dark digimon during their training session, DigiMaster began thinking about which digimon the digivice should be linked to. Each of them was doing a good job, but one digimon stood out as the best of the eight. Agumon.

"Agumon, come here." When the evil Agumon came up to DigiMaster, DigiMaster continued. "I am going to link the digivice to you and send you into battle. The other dark digimon will keep everyone busy until you destroy their Agumon, and then you can destroy the rest of them."

"I understand," replied dark Agumon, bowing.

"Good. You shall leave at once!"

##########

"Well," said Tai, "if we're going to get to that wind key any time soon, we should probably get moving."

"That's true," said Tentomon, "but that would mean leaving these comfy benches behind!"

"Doesn't matter much to me!" teased Patamon. "I've got a great seat wherever we go!" To illustrate his point, he landed on TK's head and smiled.

Before any of the other digimon could respond, there was a bright flash of light. Looking down the street, the DigiDestined saw the dark digimon heading straight for them. Compumon was following them with the evil digivice.

"Pepper Breath!" yelled Tai's digimon. The blast was blocked by the same attack by the dark Agumon. While the other digimon attacked their counterparts, the dark Agumon took this chance to digivolve.

"dark Agumon digivolve to...TYRANNOMON!"
"Agumon digivolve to...GREYMON!"

"Nova Blast!" Greymon shouted, launching his fireball at Tyrannomon. Tyrannomon was knocked back by it, but quickly launched a fireball of his own. Greymon was able to dodge it, however, and rammed head-first into Tyrannomon, pushing him into a nearby building. Roaring with frustration, Tyrannomon de-digivolved.

"I've got you now," said Greymon.

The evil Agumon, however, wasn't afraid. He had another trick up his sleeve. Compumon adjusted a setting on his digivice and it began to glow again.

"dark Agumon warp-digivolve to...Machinedramon!"

"Whoa!" said Tai. "I didn't know he could do that! Watch out, Greymon!"

"Giga Cannon!" said Machinedramon, and blasted Greymon through the wall of another building, where he de-digivolved. Noticing this, Gabumon called out to the other digimon.

"Agumon's in trouble! Try to hold these guys back while I help him!"

"Got it!" shouted Palmon.

"Gabumon digivolve to...GARURUMON!" "Howling Blaster!"

This attack had little effect on Machinedramon. In fact, all it did was make him angry. He turned and swatted Garurumon to the side. However, that was all the distraction Agumon needed.

"Agumon warp-digivolve to...WARGREYMON!"

"Yeah, all right!" cheered Tai. "Go get him!"

"Terra Force!" shouted Wargreymon, gathering a huge ball of energy in his hands and hurling it at Machinedramon. Turning back, Machinedramon saw the attack coming too late, and it hit him dead-on. Flying backwards, Machinedramon eventually crashed to the ground and laid still. The other dark digimon saw this and decided to run for it. Compumon and the other seven disappeared into the DigiWorld.

"Good job, Wargreymon!" shouted Tai as he ran over to him. All the others ran up to him to congratulate him, including Gabumon, who had de-digivolved. In the middle of their celebration, however, Izzy noticed something.

"Hey, guys! Look! Machinedramon's black collar is disintegrating." Everyone watched as the black collar dark Agumon was wearing in all his digivolutions simply evaporated. When it finished, Machinedramon began to glow. The glow became brighter as it began to shrink down smaller and smaller until, when it finally faded, all that was left was a digiegg. Kevin walked over to it and picked it up, noticing the Crest of Courage inscribed on it.

"What do you think that means, Kevin?" asked Gatomon.

"Those black collars the dark digimon are wearing must be how DigiMaster is controlling them. When we defeated Machinedramon and destroyed the collar, he de-digivolved back to a digiegg."

"But why does the egg have the Crest of Courage on it?" asked Tai.

"Of course!" shouted Izzy, coming to a realization. "That egg has the Crest of Courage on it because the digimon inside was supposed to be a DigiDestined's digimon! That's why DigiMaster is using these digimon against us; they're this universe's version of OUR digimon."

"And it's up to us to free them from DigiMaster's control," added Matt.

"Right!" agreed Kari.
---End of episode fifteen---
Will the DigiDestined be able to save the dark digimon from DigiMaster's evil control? At the same time, can they find the remaining two keys and enter this universe's DigiWorld? Find out next time on "Digimon: DigiMaster"!