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*Wobble!* *Wobble!*

The digitama began to shake in the nest. Dorumon gently shook off the still napping Shoutmonz, Hackmonz, and Slashmonz so he could move closer to investigate the digitama as it seemed close to hatching. Suffice to say, Crystal was also headed in that direction since she had noticed the sudden increase in movement of the digitama as well now that she was done assisting Shiro for the moment.

"Perfect timing," Crystal noted as she came to stand before the digitama.

*Wobble!* *Wobble!*

The digitama began to shake more persistently.

*Wobble!* *Wobble!* *Crack!*

The digitama split around the middle as the new digimon burst out from the two broken halves to finally reveal himself. The new digimon resembled the Hackmonz, but this one was smaller and younger looking than the youngest of the Hackmonz seen thus far. Its horns were smaller, it had shorter claws, and its tail was shorter being comprised of fewer segments. And, in place of a full-size cape, this one wore a simple red bandana scarf around its neck.

"Ryuu?" he spoke in a small, questioning voice gazing innocently at Crystal and the various curious digimon that had gathered to watch him hatch.

"It's okay little guy," Crystal leaned over to pick him up. "You're among friends here. Come on, let's go find you something to eat."

If there was one thing Crystal had learned about baby digimon it's that they are always starving.



Zapmon and Yuki Agumon had grown bored with spying on Team Epoch's Slashmon and went out to train when they easily sensed Shiro bringing out his Reality Marble. After watching the newborn digimon emerge from the digitama, Ryuudamon and Monodramon also went out to do some training in Shiro's Reality Marble.

Zapmon and Yuki Agumon entered Shiro's Reality Marble and, after looking around at the various training match-ups going on, began sparring with each other. It should be noted, however, that rather than keeping her distance and primarily utilizing long range elemental attacks, Zapmon was actually confident enough in the strength of her new body to attack at close range matching each blow from Yuki Agumon's claws with punches and kicks of her own. Shortly thereafter, when Ryuudamon and Monodramon entered Shiro's Reality Marble a moment later, Zapmon actively encouraged the two of them to team up with Yuki Agumon to come at her all at once, which they did with great enthusiasm simply because there was no denying that many of Crystal's other digimon had always wanted to take a swing at Zapmon for one reason or another.



Dorumon had decided to skip out on training for now so he could stay with Crystal while she was being shown around by some of the Shoutmonz, Hackmonz, and Slashmonz to where she could find some food to give to the newborn digimon she was carrying. Crystal and Dorumon soon learned from listening to the other digimon along the way that the baby was apparently called Chibi Hackmon and Crystal thought it suited him perfectly.

The main source of food on Ceresmon were the fruits that were growing off of the trees and bushes of the forest. There was plenty to go around, but when the Shoutmonz, Hackmonz, and Slashmonz started trying to collect fruit to share with the baby Chibi Hackmon an unfamiliar voice called out, "Heavy Laser!" sending down beams that increased the force of gravity on the Shoutmonz, Hackmonz, and Slashmonz bringing them all to their knees.

"Oh great, it's that bully Black Sparrowmon," one of the Hackmonz complained.

"Doesn't he have anything better to do at a time like this?" grumbled one of the Shoutmonz.

Sure enough, the source of the lasers had been a Sparrowmon, although unlike the goofy yellow one that was with Nene, this one had a body made of black digizoid and could manipulate gravity instead of wind. Moreover, the black digizoid metal had been textured to look like leather.

"Metal Cannon!" Dorumon hadn't been close enough to the fruit bearing bushes that the other digimon were attempting to harvest from so he hadn't been immobilized by the lasers. As such, he took aim at the Black Sparrowmon and swiftly spit out an iron sphere at the offending digimon. Of course, the Black Sparrowmon saw it coming and flew deftly out of range.

"You must be pretty foolish to think you can hit me with such a weak attack," the Black Sparrowmon taunted from overhead.

"Just remember you were the one who asked for it," Crystal warned the Black Sparrowmon before drawing out her Xros Loader with one hand while still holding onto the Chibi Hackmon with her other arm. "Dorumon, Thunderbirmon, Digi Xros!"

"Digi Xros!" Dorumon and Thunderbirmon combined so that Dorumon's body increased in size by allocating Thunderbirmon's additional body mass while maintaining the avian digimon's wings, helmet, talons and tail. "Dorugamon!"

The Digi Xrossed variant of Dorugamon flew up to get within range of the Black Sparrowmon before exhaling a barrage of electrified metal orbs at the offending digimon. "Thunder Metal!"

"Eek! You guys never said anything about having a General!" The Black Sparrowmon immediately spazzed out at the Digi Xros and flew around in circles trying to avoid Dorugamon's relentless assault until he got blasted out of the sky and crumpled onto the soft grass down below with swirly eyes.

Dorugamon landed, splitting back into Dorumon and Thunderbirmon with the latter returning to Crystal's Xros Loader.

"Had enough already?" Dorumon glared at the Black Sparrowmon. "I guess you aren't as tough as you think you are."

"It would seem that Zapmon has become much more formidable than before," noted Ryuudamon.

"I'll say," added Monodramon. "None of our direct attacks are working and it looks like she's barely even trying."

"Then maybe it's time to kick things up a notch," suggested Yuki Agumon. The snow colored reptile spat out balls of freezing energy into the air causing icicles to come crashing down toward Zapmon. "White Hail!"

"Iaijin!" Ryuudamon followed suit exhaling an iron blade from his mouth at Zapmon in tandem with the falling icicles.

"Shadow Wing!" Monodramon aligned his wings causing them to light up with flames as he produced a miniature version of the homing projectile firebird attack used by Garudamon to shoot at Zapmon in tandem with the icicles from Yuki Agumon and the iron blade from Ryuudamon.

Zapmon started to brace herself for the incoming attacks, but then she felt a new power welling up inside and her vibrant green eyes started to glow. An aura in the shape of an ethereal Xuanwumon took shape around her and then condensed into an ethereal turtle shell. "Black Turtle Defense!" she called out instinctively as the ethereal turtle shell completely negated all of the incoming attacks.

"I don't remember ever seeing that move before," Monodramon pouted mildly.

"I hate to admit it, but Zapmon might be out of our league with that new body she's obtained," noted Yuki Agumon.

"Aw, don't tell me you're giving up already," Zapmon stood with her hands on her hips. "I can't train by myself."

"Perhaps you should ask Crystal to send out some stronger digimon to be your sparring partners," Ryuudamon suggested.

"Or she could just go up against some of Shiro's," added Yuki Agumon.



The Shoutmonz, Hackmonz, and Slashmonz went back to gathering fruits to feed to the Chibi Hackmon while Crystal and Dorumon kept an eye on Black Sparrowmon.

"Let me guess, there usually aren't too many strong guys up here willing to put up a fight so you thought you could get away with picking on weaker digimon since nobody would try to stop you," Dorumon muttered under his breath.

"I was only messing with them so what's the big deal?" Black Sparrowmon looked away with a huff.

"You have no reason to be picking on any of these digimon," Crystal stated simply. "They haven't done anything to provoke you into attacking them and they just want to live here in peace."

"Not to mention you became a total coward the instant you were presented with a stronger opponent," added Dorumon.

"Fine, I'm sorry," Black Sparrowmon apologized haughtily. "I won't do it again so can I go now?"

"You don't sound very sincere," Dorumon snarled mildly.

"Well that's just too bad," Black Sparrowmon retorted. "I'm not going to say it again."

"If that's how you feel, then maybe I should just hunt you now so you can learn your lesson properly," Crystal suggested. "You won't be able to cause any more trouble for these innocent digimon if I stick you in my Xros Loader."

"This really isn't what I had in mind!" Zapmon flailed wildly when Shiro sicced some of the legendary warriors after her. But then her eyes lit up again and this time an aura in the shape of an ethereal Baihumon flared up around her making her claws as strong as iron. "White Tiger Claw!" she called out as once again her instincts took over and she began slashing her way through the incoming barrage of Manadramon's mana bullets and Agnimon's flaming disks.

Then, when Wolfmon and Lowemon started coming at Zapmon at close range a similar thing happened as her eyes began to glow and this time an aura in the shape of an ethereal Zhuqiaomon formed around her before suddenly erupting into an aura of crimson flames being projected outward at her attackers with a cry of, "Red Sparrow Blaze!" No doubt, any digimon with enough sense should have realized by now that there was a definite pattern to these new abilities that had begun to activate themselves.

Yuki Agumon was tempted to evolve himself into V-dramon to have another go against Zapmon, but decided against it and ended up just training with Ryuudamon and Monodramon instead. None of them were crazy enough to go up against Zapmon in their current forms when she was somehow being empowered by certain gods of the digital world. With the right technique she might even be a match for higher stage digimon.



"Hmph, I'd like to see you try," Black Sparrowmon huffed mildly.

Crystal passed Chibi Hackmon over to Dorumon so he could start feeding the little guy some of the fruits that had been gathered by the Shoutmonz, Hackmonz, and Slashmonz in the vicinity. She stepped away from the other digimon before holding up her Xros Loader. "Reload, Gryphomon!"

Gryphomon materialized to face off against Black Sparrowmon as Crystal folded her arms over her chest. "Shall we get started then?"

"No problem," Black Sparrowmon took off overhead again. "Heavy Laser!" He waved his guns around producing random beams of ultra high gravity to try to pin down Gryphomon. However, Gryphomon could see the beams coming and flew elegantly around them to avoid being dragged down.

"No way!" Black Sparrowmon protested. "How can you evade my gravity attack so easily?"

"It's easy," Crystal shrugged mildly. "The increased gravity can't take effect unless the lasers hit their target so until then they're still just lasers and if Gryphomon can see them coming there's no way you're ever going to hit him with such an obvious attack. Besides that, I know another Sparrowmon so I already have a pretty good idea of how your attacks will work. You may be fast and powerful, but you really just can't aim worth a damn. Gryphomon, let's finish this so we can get to some real training."

Gryphomon flew agilely over Black Sparrowmon. "Super Sonic Voice!" he cried out while emitting an extremely high frequency sound wave attack to disrupt Black Sparrowmon's data as the capture rings started to form. He then swooped down to strike the unstable Black Sparrowmon with a sharp blow from his armored beak. "Moebius Bite!"

Black Sparrowmon's scattered data was recollected inside the holographic cube that manifested over Crystal's Xros Loader signifying that the rogue digimon had been successfully captured. "Digimon Capture, Complete!"

"Drat," Black Sparrowmon pouted mildly. "To think that you Generals and Hunters are as strong as they say. I guess I never stood a chance."

"Yeah, well, don't be too down on yourself," Crystal responded. "Now that you're stuck with me, I'll make sure to bring out your full potential so you can become a genuinely strong digimon and face opponents that are actually worth fighting."

"Just be glad you were captured by a Hunter with some sense," remarked Gururumon from inside of the Xros Loader. "There's at least one out there who isn't very bright."

"I feel kind of sorry for his digimon," added Lighdramon. Of course, the other digimon still presently occupying Crystal's Xros Loader knew they were both talking about Tagiru, but Black Sparrowmon was utterly clueless.

"I guess I'll have to take your guys' word for it," he sweatdropped slightly.

Gryphomon decided to stay outside of the Xros Loader for a little while to roost up in the branches of the great tree on Ceresmon's back because the environment seemed absolutely perfect. Crystal, meanwhile, went back over to Dorumon and the other digimon to help out with feeding Chibi Hackmon.

Zapmon let her silver-colored electric field flare up around her body, gathering it between her hands to produce a persistent sphere of silver plasma. "Silver Ball Lightning!" she declared as she hurled the sphere into the first fireball producing a tremendous explosion on contact that would also likely extinguish several of the subsequent fireballs from Agnimon's attack. In this case, though, it didn't seem like Zapmon was drawing on any external power. It was just a remarkably powerful new attack that had been added to her roster. However, it hadn't eliminated all of the incoming fireballs so Zapmon decided that she was just going to have to try to consciously tap into one of those new abilities that had been triggered pretty much randomly up until now. Her eyes immediately began to glow once she started channeling her innate psychic energy and then she readily found a skill well suited to the situation.

"Blue Dragon Hurricane!" she called out as an aura in the shape of an ethereal Qinglongmon took shape around her. The aura quickly became a blue-colored electrified whirlwind to blast down the remaining fireballs.



Now that Chibi Hackmon had been fed the next step was to find a quiet spot to let him sleep it off. Crystal, Dorumon, the Shoutmonz, the Hackmonz, and the Slashmonz returned to the naturally occurring nest where they had originally hatched the digitama. Dorumon volunteered to stay with Chibi Hackmon while he took his nap so Crystal could go check up on Zapmon since it seemed very likely the dragon digimon had gone off to train wanting to test out her new capabilities. The other digimon also scattered from the area so they wouldn't disturb the sleeping Chibi Hackmon.

Zapmon retaliated by generating a strong, silver-colored electrified around her body and countering Agnimon with her own Silver Lightning Punches. Sure, Agnimon had the advantage of being stronger physically, but coming into direct contact with Zapmon's electric field was bound to give any digimon a severe jolt if they weren't properly grounded. Of course, after a little while of anticipating Agnimon's burning punches and blocking them with her own, Zapmon realized she didn't really have to because she could sense where they were going to be coming from and could quickly maneuver out of the way for the most part. This gave her the opportunity to fight more strategically, not having to be completely on the defensive. And, soon enough, she allowed for one of Agnimon's fists to graze past her bringing him low enough that by pushing off the ground with both hands Zapmon could throw a nice electrified Silver Lightning Kick right at his face. The improved reaction time and more strategic fighting style could very easily be traced back to Crystal by anyone who had ever seen her in a fight.

Crystal, meanwhile, was only just entering Shiro's Reality Marble.

Agnimon's move was reckless, to say the least, especially since even with her increased size, Zapmon was still a fairly small target and Agnimon's outlandish display had given her plenty of time to just move out of the way. Except for the fact that she didn't even bother. Instead, she stood her ground letting her eyes take on the now familiar green glow as she tried tapping into yet another of her new abilities. No doubt, the aura that surrounded her this time would probably give a good scare to anyone familiar with the digimon in question because this time it was in the shape of an ethereal Megidramon. "Evil Dragon Howling!" she called out as the aura then subsided and she let out an awful demonic howl that sounded more like a draconic roar that should have been coming from a much larger digimon. The frightful sound produced a powerful shockwave that would hopefully send Agnimon off course before he could land his flaming kick.

Yuki Agumon, Ryuudamon, and Monodramon all instinctively flinched away from the Megidramon aura.

"I can see that," Crystal watched the fight as Shiro greeted her. "Although it looks to me more like her body finally caught up with her skill level since she used to be too frail to even attempt these kinds of techniques."

"Well, we don't really know that for sure," Crystal reminded Shiro. "She's just the only one of her kind that we've seen. I mean, look at Slashmon, we used to believe he was the last of his kind, but suddenly we find this place and it turns out there were more of them all along. It's a little strange, but my guess is the only reason we haven't seen other Zapmonz is because we just haven't been to the right place to find them yet."

Zapmon whistled appreciatively at her own handiwork watching as Ryuudramon went to go fetch Agnimon out of his crater.

"At any rate, it looks like she's going to need a new sparring partner so perhaps I'd better just take it from here," Crystal added after a slight pause. She took out her Xros Loader, spinning the dial reflexively as she selected just the right digimon for the job. "Reload, Togemogumon!" The armored digimon materialized a short distance away from Zapmon. "Keep her on her toes with your Hail Machinegun so she can get her reflexes up."

Togemogumon nodded and immediately began launching the icy crystal spines from his back at Zapmon in steady barrage. Zapmon just narrowly avoided the first wave and then started flailing to dodge around the next wave of incoming projectiles.

"Hey! What the--how is this even fair?!" Zapmon wailed as she struggled to evade the icy crystal spines from Togemogumon's relentless assault.

"Have fun with that," Crystal waved absently over her shoulder leaving the frantic dragon to fend for herself. "I'm sure you'll think of something."

She also sent out Solarmon to go train with Yuki Agumon, Ryuudamon, and Monodramon as well as sending out her collection of three Kunemonz and three Dokunemonz to assist with the training by making them have to dodge around the combination of Electric Thread from the Kunemonz and the poisonous Worm Venom from the Dokunemonz. Buraimon came out to spar with Strikedramon while Raptordramon and Tuskmon clashed against each other practicing their brutal ramming techniques. The remainder of Crystal's digimon were content to remain within the Xros Loader for the time being.

With that out of the way Crystal returned her attention to Shiro. "So, it looks like you've started getting a handle on some of your new powers."