"How is that possible?" Matt stared at the two Diaboromon, laughing like nothing else in the world existed, completely unable to believe what he was seeing.
"Just how many of these things are there?" Tai felt his scalp go numb; this was turning into a nightmare.
"Tai, my lord, that thing has been continuously duplicating itself. I'm afraid the only way to destroy it is to wipe them all out in one go." Datamon's latest report came through.
"All at once…"
"Wipe out every single one…" Tai and Izzy looked at each other. They'd just gone through hell and back to take down one, and now they had no idea how many more were out there. Taking them all out at once sounded almost impossible.
"It can just keep copying itself forever?" Izzy asked, stunned.
"Of course not. But before it hits the upper limit of replication, the entire network will probably already be completely destroyed."
"Sorry. We can't help anymore," Tentomon said apologetically. He and the others were already on their way out, traveling along the data stream back toward the human world.
"It's fine, Tentomon. Leave the rest to us," WarGreymon said. "Let's go, MetalGarurumon."
"Right."
"Freeze Bombs!"
All of MetalGarurumon's weapon ports sprang open at once, launching a swarm of missiles toward the Diaboromon. The two Diaboromon twisted and darted through the air, nimbly dodging most of them, but a few still struck home. The exploding Garuru Freeze Missiles released a surge of frigid air, encasing them in ice. They broke free almost immediately—but that was all the opening WarGreymon needed.
"Firestorm Barrage!"
Panels on WarGreymon's chest snapped open, revealing multiple missile ports that spat out a continuous stream of Dragon Missiles, saturating the entire area where the Diaboromon had been.
"Nice shot!"
"Beautiful!" Tai and Matt couldn't hide how proud they were of their partners. Even Izzy, T.K., and the others cheered for them from the sidelines.
When the smoke finally cleared, the Diaboromon that had been right there moments ago had vanished without a trace.
"Did we win?" Kari asked uncertainly, hugging Gatomon tight.
WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon still didn't relax. They kept their guards up, scanning left and right for any sign of Diaboromon.
"Hahahahahaha…"
Diaboromon's eerie laughter still echoed through the space.
"Where is it?" Matt and Tai looked around wildly, trying to locate where Diaboromon was hiding.
"Damn it, quit hiding and come out!" Matt shouted into the empty air.
"Ha ha ha…"
The same warped laugh… and then four Diaboromon appeared, surrounding WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon on all sides.
"We're surrounded," Izzy gasped.
"Catastrophe Cannon!"
All four Diaboromon fired from the launchers in their chests at once, spewing blood-red energy shells at a speed beyond imagination, filling the air with a storm of blasts.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
It all happened too fast—WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon had no time to react before the barrage swallowed them up. Fire and smoke engulfed their silhouettes.
"WarGreymon!"
"MetalGarurumon!"
Tai and Matt shouted their partners' names in panic.
Laughing wildly, the Diaboromon opened a portal and crawled through, fleeing the battlefield.
Under everyone's anxious gazes, the smoke in the middle of the screen finally thinned. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon were covered in wounds; even with their bodies clad in Digi-alloy armor, they hadn't been able to fully withstand Diaboromon's overwhelming firepower.
"WarGreymon, WarGreymon, hang in there!"
"MetalGarurumon!"
Tai and Matt's voices rang through the space. Hearing their partners calling to them, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon struggled to open their eyes and slowly forced themselves back to their feet.
Over at Izzy's station, incoming e-mails from all over the world had completely filled his monitor and were now piling up faster than he could read them.
"You lost again," Izzy suddenly blurted out, startling Tai and the others—they had no idea what he meant. "This last one was from Canberra."
"Why can't they kill it? Or is it that there are lots of identical copies?" Izzy muttered, continuing to skim through e-mails.
"Here's one from Taiwan… this is bad. This is really bad." Izzy suddenly shouted, drawing everyone's focus. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he read. "A middle schooler who hacked into the Pentagon just told me that, thirty minutes ago, a missile armed with a nuclear warhead was launched from a base in Country M."
"What?!"
Everyone was stunned into silence by that news.
"Which of those Digimon has the timer?"
As they were reeling from the revelation, a new e-mail popped up on Tai's computer, automatically opening. The message read exactly that—and on the screen, they saw Diaboromon inserting a digital timer into its own chest.
"A timer?" T.K.'s young mind hadn't quite caught up yet.
Then the countdown appeared on-screen: ten minutes. At the same time, the number of Diaboromon on the display went from four to eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two…
"It's self-replicating," Matt said, cold sweat running down his forehead. With this many Diaboromon, how were they supposed to wipe them all out?
"In that case, this number must be…" Tai began, his voice trembling.
"…the countdown to when the missile reaches its target and the nuke detonates," Izzy finished blankly. "Its codename is 'Ceasefire Enforcer.' It has a range of twenty thousand kilometers—that's basically enough to cover the whole planet. Its top speed is fifteen thousand miles per hour, about twenty-three times the speed of sound."
The room fell eerily quiet. No one knew what to say.
"Twenty-three times the speed of sound…" Tai repeated under his breath. At that speed, there was no way to intercept it. They didn't even know where the missile's target was, or where it was now. Even if something could catch up to it, by the time they found it, it would probably have already exploded.
Outside, the once clear sky had been swallowed by dark clouds.
"The sky's clouding over," the old man near Matt remarked, glancing up.
"Yeah. I should go bring the laundry in before it gets soaked. Could you take these sweet potatoes over to A-Juan for me? They're from Yasuko," the old woman said, holding out a bag. But Matt was in no state to pay attention to any of that.
"Hey now, are you listening?" she asked, puzzled by his lack of response—both Matt and T.K. already had cold sweat on their brows.
Meanwhile, Diaboromon had already posted news of the imminent nuclear explosion all over the net, and the entire world was in an uproar.
"E-mail from Nisia: 'Please, you have to defeat that enemy.' From Armenia: 'You're the only ones who can beat that monster.' From Thailand: 'Good luck—please, we're counting on you!'" Izzy read aloud. Every message was from people worried sick about the outcome of this battle.
"I heard that a nuclear bomb won't explode until its safety interlocks disengage. If this is all like some kind of game, then only one of those Diaboromon is carrying the timer. If we defeat that one, the safety won't unlock," Izzy said, fingers flying over the keyboard.
"But how are we supposed to find it?" Sora asked, staring at the screen full of Diaboromon in panic.
"Then we just beat them one by one until we find it," Tai said, standing up, his voice rock solid.
"Tai…" Izzy hesitated, wanting to object.
"It's the only way we've got," Tai said firmly.
"Yeah. We can do this," Matt growled, clenching his teeth.
"And how exactly are you planning to do that?" Sora asked, looking at Tai with worried eyes.
Tai forced a relaxed smile. "The plan's simple. I'll go with WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon. We'll just take them down one at a time."
"Tai, MetalGarurumon and I can finish them off. You don't need to come," WarGreymon said at once, rejecting Tai's plan.
"Yeah, Tai, don't risk it," Matt added.
"It'll be fine. Don't underestimate me," Tai said lightly. "There are just a lot of them, that's all. As far as I'm concerned, those Diaboromon are no big deal. I can handle them."
"No, big brother!" Kari threw herself into Tai's arms, crying.
"It's okay, Kari. I will come back." Tai stroked her hair, smiling gently.
"Tai, you have to come back. You can do this," Sora said, eyes reddening as she realized his mind was already made up.
"Tai…" Izzy didn't even know what to say anymore.
"Datamon, open the gate," Tai said, turning away. He knew time was running out.
Datamon looked at him for a moment, then opened the portal inside the computer. A swirling vortex appeared on the monitor. Tai picked up his Digivice, aimed it at the vortex, and in a flash of light, vanished from the room, leaving only the people worrying about him behind.
Racing through the colorful data streams of the network, Tai looked curiously at the world around him. The truth was, he had no confidence he could "easily" wipe all of them out. There were simply too many Diaboromon. Chaos Megidramon's data load was far too massive to transmit here in a short time; otherwise, with those twin high-output Infinite Cannons on its back, he could've just parked it in front of the gate and let it guard the spot. No matter how many Diaboromon there were, erasing them would've just been a matter of time.
But as things stood… he could only try.
Tai quietly arrived at WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon's position. Aside from Izzy and the others, who were watching him closely, none of the people around the world following the livestream even noticed Tai's arrival. There was simply too much scattered debris floating through this space, and compared with all of that, Tai was far too small to stand out.
He sighed softly and pulled out a small golden cube. This was the newest and strongest piece of Digital Armor they'd developed—but it was still just a prototype. Even so, this was the perfect time to test its power.
With that thought, he pressed the golden cube to his chest and closed his eyes.
Golden light erupted outward, flooding the entire space. Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to that blinding radiance, but Tai's silhouette was completely lost within it.
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