WoS Ch6 - Counterforce

The story so far: Five children have willingly come into the Digital World for an unspecified purpose. Right now, this seems to mean reaching the mysterious Forest Terminal in the faraway Land of the Forests. Good thing the Spirits of the Ancient Warriors are helping these kids along the way, giving them the ability to transform into powerful, elemental warriors. Last time, the group gave up a direct train to their destination in favour of helping a group of oppressed digimon. This, as it turns out, did not go unnoticed.

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Chapter 6 - Counterforce

-Kouji-

Tomoki fell asleep halfway to the city. The others were dead tired as well, and even Kouji couldn’t stifle a yawn. That almost caused the kid to slide off his back and he resettled the weight, chastened. They were following the train tracks, and their destination shouldn’t be much further.

“I can take Tommy for a bit,” Keisaki offered, already slinging her backpack off her shoulder.

Kouji considered it, but then decided it was against his pride to relinquish his passenger. “No thanks.” Besides, as she put it, Kouji had pushed for continuing their journey instead of sleeping at the Kokuwamon quarters. He felt responsible for Tomoki exhausting himself until he couldn’t walk anymore—in part because he hadn’t been fast enough, and Tomoki had had to fight Snimon by himself for a while.

“Pfft, I bet he’s lighter than that stupid book,” Keisaki said without any heat.

Before she could scoop her rucksack up again, Izumi snatched it from her hands. “Well, then let me carry it for a while.”

The path ahead was dark, with the moon and stars blocked by an overcast sky. Kouji cursed quietly as he almost stumbled over the next unseen bump in the path.

Execute Spirit Digivolve to... Beetlemon!

The data cocoon’s brilliant light made everyone, except Kouji, flinch.

“What are you doing?” Keisaki demanded.

“I’m going to prove my hypothesis and be useful! Here, give me Tommy!” Beetlemon extended his armoured hands to Kouji.

No need to argue here. A Spirit Warrior was much stronger than any human. Kouji himself didn’t think he had the energy for another transformation. Junpei, on the other hand, hadn’t complained once about the fact that they still trooped through the night.

“What hypothesis?” Kouji asked at the same time as Izumi said sceptically, “Won’t you just drop Tommy if you’re right?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll catch him!” Beetlemon slung Tomoki over one shoulder and raised his free hand. A bright ball of electricity crackled into existence, bluish sparks crawling along his outstretched fingers and disappearing into the night. They drenched the pass in stark light. And the kid slept right through it.

Keisaki clapped Beetlemon on the hard cover of his wings. “Good thinking!”

For about three minutes, they had a light to guide their path. In the distance appeared the first pinprick lights of the city.

Then, suddenly, fractal code flashed and surrounded Beetlemon. The swirling data cocoon pushed Tomoki outwards and Kouji grabbed him before he could tumble to the ground. A triumphant-looking Junpei stepped out of the transformation, but his expression soured at Kouji’s stare.

“Oops!” he said, palms outwards as if to ward off the disapproval. “Guess... I uh, miscalculated.”

“You don’t say,” Izumi said with a dirty look.

Kouji felt Tomoki stir in his arms and almost huffed in annoyance. Great, all the manhandling woke the kid.

“W-Where am I?” Tomoki asked, rubbing his eyes while Kouji released him so he could stand on his own.

“Still in the Digital World, I’m afraid,” Junpei said, enthusiasm winning over his voice. He turned to the girls. “See, I told you I wouldn’t stay transformed for long during my second time! Hah!”

Kouji was sure he lacked some sort of context, but he was honestly too tired to care, and they had a city to reach. He tapped his foot. “Are you coming?”

At least with Tomoki awake, he could walk for himself again.

-Kei-

“I can’t believe this!” Keisaki exclaimed, rubbing at a persistent spot on the plate.

“No talking during work hours!” came the cook’s voice.

That only prompted her to talk quieter, but no less angrily. “We, the invincible Legendary Warriors, who just freed a group of innocent digimon from being forced to work like slaves are now forced to work like slaves!”

Zoe took the plate and began drying it off. “Don’t be so melodramatic! At least we’re getting paid!”

Well, they weren’t paid per se. It turned out that without money, they couldn’t get a place to sleep or food. This hadn’t been an issue before!

They should be grateful that Vegimon had allowed them to spend the night in her hotel. The sharp-toothed entrepreneur even provided them with a small breakfast in exchange for their help during the morning rush. It could’ve been much worse. She could’ve forced them to work at night while no one was thinking clearly.

Since Vegimon only needed three of them, they’d drawn sticks for who had to stay back with her. JP and Tommy had lucked out and went looking for the train station. Hopefully, they could acquire some tickets for the next Trailmon to the Forest Terminal.

Kei struggled to fit a large cutting board into the sink when the pearl curtain jingled. Someone entered the kitchen. Kei couldn’t help it; she shot Zoe a look and saw the other girl hunching over with the drying cloth, shoulders shaking. A muffled sound escaped the blonde that sounded suspiciously like a giggle. Kei bit her tongue to stifle the laughter bubbling in her throat. Zoe and she, they’d gotten the easy job of washing the dishes. Kouji on the other hand—

“That would be the Seafood Special for table four.”

Vegimon had said something about him looking the most presentable out of the three of them. After the initial wave of offended disbelief (and calming a raging Zoe down), Vegimon had handed out the waiter uniform. A mass of frills and pomp in screaming colours.

Kei dropped the cutting board, biting back a comment. Meanwhile, Zoe grabbed her for support that she could barely offer, the corners of her mouth edging upwards on their own.

Kouji shot them the deadliest death glare that had ever been glared deadly. “Not. One. Word.”

Then he picked up a plate full of fried food, turning around with a swish of the dress. He stalked back into the main room.

Zoe gave up keeping her composure and giggled helplessly. Gasping for breath, she managed to say, “He does... he does... make the frills work for him!”

It wasn’t fair, but Kei felt some vindication at the arrogant boy suffering through embarrassment. That’ll teach him, she thought. Kouji had schooled his features into careful neutrality and well, she wouldn’t have guessed anyone could look dignified wearing that. Zoe was right; he did somehow make it work. Seemed like coolness was an inherited feature.

~

An hour later, Tommy and JP returned with bad news.

Kouji wasted no time leaving the frilly wonder behind and switched back into his own clothes. He was leaning against the frame of the back door with a stoic expression that dared anyone to say anything. Kei sat next to Zoe on the small stairs leading up to it and rubbed her pruned hands to get the last bits of soap off.

“So, when we got there, there was this huge line at the reception!” Tommy explained, using both hands to show an approximation on how huge. “We asked what’s wrong and they said that all trains to the Land of the Forests were cancelled! There was an earthquake that destroyed the tracks.”

Somewhere in the Land of the Forests was the Forest Terminal. “Ugh, so what now?” Kei asked, knitting her brows.

JP shrugged. “It’ll take a few days to repair the damage. But, eh, we have another problem... We don’t have any money for the tickets!”

A yellow vine came through the open window wrapped itself around Kouji’s shoulders. He immediately shot away from the building: “Don’t touch me!”

Vegimon took the offensive in stride, happily waving her vine. She sensed her chance. “You could always stay and work for me for a few days! This pretty face has tripled my customer base! Say, are you interested in permanent employment?”

For a moment, Kouji’s iron control over his features slipped and a look of horror crossed his face.

Tommy noticed and said quickly, “Well, we also met a group of digimon looking for ‘brave heroes’ to rescue their kidnapped women in exchange for food and money.”

“We take that job!” Kouji said, fending off Vegimon’s next attempt to ensnare him.

Kei traded a look with Zoe. “Well, then that’s settled. Lead the way!”

Receiving money for their heroics would be a nice change!

The digimon that had approached JP and Tommy were called ShellNumemon. They were lime green snails with a tiger-stripe pattern on their shells.

While they hitched a ride to their town (a process that was better left unsaid), the ShellNumemon explained their situation. “We used to live peacefully in our mountains when, suddenly, out of nowhere, Grumblemon attacked us! He works for Cherubimon!”

Cherubimon again. It seemed inevitable that they would have to confront that guy at some point.

“Why did he attack you?” Kouji asked. It was a bit windy on top of the Trailmon (as stated, better left unsaid!) so he had to repeat himself to be heard.

“He wants us to tell him where our mountains’ fractal code is hidden!” the ShellNumemon leader said indignantly. “I don’t even know how he figured out that we have a data hub!”

Kei understood, at least the general theory. Grumblemon wanted to create another black hole in the landscape and use the power of the fractal code for Cherubimon’s purposes. “We can’t let him do that!” This sounded like one guy in dire need of a cleansing scan!

The ShellNumemon gave them an impromptu lesson about fractal code—which Kei had to piece together over the howling winds on the train top. Fortunately, they already knew beforehand that everything in the Digital World—including they themselves now!—was made from fractal code. Sometimes it lay bare and accessible and at other times it was hidden away. It’s the hidden parts that Cherubimon and his minions were interested in.

“Grumblemon has harassed us for weeks, but yesterday he took some of our women! We would never tell him where the fractal code is!” the moustached ShellNumemon mayor said. From the way he talked about it, Kei got the feeling that the ShellNumemon themselves didn’t know the location of their home’s fractal code.

Speaking of which... After a short tunnel, a group of craggy mountains came into view. They were connected by suspension bridges at the top. Keisaki gulped. That didn’t look cozy at all! If she looked closely, she could spot houses protruding directly out of the mountainside like swallow nests! What?!

Her horror only grew when the ShellNumemon handed out a few ropes. “Hold on tight!”

The train tracks went straight up the mountain. A mountain that had no slope, just a wall going straight up. Wait, how was Trailmon supposed to...?

Suddenly, all she could do was clasp the rope with all her might. The train went up the wall as if it were nothing. The ShellNumemon, being snails, remained stuck to the roof.

How, how, how was this even possible and why was she doing this? Kei looked down. The ground vanished at alarming speed, trees shrinking rapidly. She screwed her eyes shut, grabbing the rope so tightly that it would’ve cut into her hands had she not worn gloves. Never mind the fact that the train crawling up a sheer wall shouldn’t be possible, she needed to stay on somehow! A drop from that high could...! No, no! No thinking about how high it was... She needed to focus... focus ... focus on what? Why was she even here...?

“Kei, we need to let go now! KEI!”

That was Zoe. She sounded angry for some reason. More out of a wish to pacify her than for any logical reasoning, Keisaki let go of the rope and suddenly, she was hanging in mid-air. Her heart jumped into her throat and then she was falling. She opened her eyes in time to see herself speeding towards a fence. A wooden fence that protruded out of the mountain and was just as sideways as the houses it was supposed to surround. Keisaki stretched out her hands and caught the wooden bars, intent on never ever letting go again.

Through the spaces between the fence posts, she could see the ground. She wished she hadn’t though. Were those pinheads down there really normal-sized trees and houses? She felt all the blood drain from her face, sure it looked green and ashen now. She screwed her eyes shut again. Maybe if she pretended, she was down on the ground again it would magically come true?

From somewhere that sounded far away, but was actually close to her ear, came Zoe’s voice again. Her words were distorted and didn’t make any sense to Keisaki’s panicking brain. Then, there was pain on her cheek, and she opened her eyes to stare at her blonde friend. Her own voice sounded foreign to herself when she asked, “You hit me?”

Concern welled up in Zoe’s green eyes. She ignored the question in favour of asking one of her own, “Kei, are you alright?”

“No!” she croaked out. “I didn’t know... Why... why is this so ... so high?”

“Are you really afraid of heights?” Kouji asked, wearing a disappointed frown.

Keisaki would have loved to give him a piece of her mind. He had to be afraid of something, too! Nobody could be that perfect! But most of her cognitive capabilities were directed towards the fact that only a few slabs of wood protected her from a drop to certain death. It looked like it could swallow her whole.

“Hah! I thought that was just a joke between you and Zoe!” Junpei said, having the audacity to laugh. Her anger was waking up again, but even that didn’t make her foolish enough to let go. She only nodded, not trusting her voice. He scoffed. “Pfft! You’re afraid of heights, but Anumon has wings and flies around all the time!”

“Shut up!” Keisaki snapped. She tried resettling her weight, but that caused her hand to slip, and she shrieked when she toppled over. She didn’t fall off, but streams of sweat were pooling at the hem of her T-shirt. Screw this!

Execute Spirit Digivolve to... Anumon!

“Laugh all you want, but Anumon isn’t afraid of heights!” she said, the fear falling from her. Heh, the ground no longer had any hold on her! Her wings would catch her. She breathed out, unwinding from the ordeal. Without the fear, her head cleared. She could see now that they had indeed reached the ShellNumemon town. It looked quite lovely if you could walk on walls like Spiderman. Ordinary folk couldn’t walk these streets. But the ShellNumemon were prepared and had rolled out a wooden ladder while she’d had her panic attack. Well, Anumon didn’t need a ladder.

The ShellNumemon stared at her, stalk eyes wide and disbelieving. “Are you... aren’t you one of the Legendary Warriors?!”

Anumon jumped into the sky and smirked at them. “Correct!”

“What... what...?!”

“What are you planning, Anumon?” Zoe asked over their surprised chatter.

Good question. Her initial idea had been to fly to the ShellNumemon town hall and to never transform back until they found the women and left this repulsive place behind. Now that she could concentrate on more than just the steep drop, she had a different thought.

“I’ll look for the women! You can go ahead and hash out the details about our payment once they’re back in the city!”

“Wait, Anumon, you shouldn’t go alone!” JP shouted.

“You’re right, I’ll come with you!” Zoe said, pulling out her D-Tector. But JP was faster.

Execute Spirit Digivolve to... Beetlemon!

Anumon suspected JP just wanted to use his Spirit more after he’d been deprived of it for the unholy waiting period of less than two days. They soared higher, leaving the others with the tedious task of climbing to the town hall and talking with their employers.

Beetlemon danced past her, twirling. “This is so cool! We’re actually flying!”

“Hmhm,” Anumon said, leaning into an updraft.

“And you’re not afraid at all anymore!” he continued, now looking at her curiously.

She hummed in agreement. “I never really thought about it that way. Huh, the Spirits take away our fears...”

“They also have some other neat extra powers!” He chose not to elaborate on that and asked, “How are we supposed to find the girls, though?”

“The ShellNumemon were sure this Grumblemon guy took them to some place in the mountains...” Anumon said. They circled around one of the mountain spires.

The mountains consisted mainly out of limestone. There were no settlements or signs of life except for the ShellNumemon town. Anumon let her keen eyes travel along each crack, every deep ravine edged between the white rocks. Nothing.

They changed position and found some empty caves around one of the mountain spires.

When they flew back towards the main spire in the middle to change their search pattern, Beetlemon piped up, “Do you hear that?”

“Yes...”

The stiff wind rushing upward carried the sound of crying.

They looked at each other for confirmation and swooped downward. The sound came from a cave about a kilometer above the village. No... That would be too obvious... Anumon peered into the darkness and smiled in surprise. Huh, guess it wasn’t too obvious. Inside was the iron fencing of a cage and behind it were the missing ShellNumemon women! That had been easy!

The snails’ stalk eyes quivered in fright, and Anumon said in a hopefully calming voice, “Don’t worry, we’re here to free you! Beetlemon, will you do the honours?” He did claim that he was stronger than Lobomon and she just had to see that.

“ Thunder Fist!”Electricity cracked around his fist when he effortlessly smashed the iron gate. “There you go!”

“Thank you so much! We thought we would be stuck here forever!” one of the women said, looking like she very much wanted to hug them. Then, her eyes bulged, and she let out a worried: “Oh no...!”

Oh no...?

Anumon summoned her bow and spun around. She drew the bowstring back, arrow ready, just as a huge hammer slammed Beetlemon into the wall. Without thinking, she let go of the string. “ Pyro Shot!”

“Tsk!” hissed a small figure, barely clearing Tommy in height. Her arrow was stuck harmlessly in the fabric of its overly long, pointed cap. “How dare you free my precious hostages?”

“You’re Grumblemon!” Beetlemon realized, pushing the yellow-spiked metal hammer away from himself.

The brown creature had a huge nose and wore armour adorned with metal spikes. And what was that sign he had on his belt...? It looked vaguely familiar.

With a sharp intake of breath, Beetlemon recognized the symbol and what it represented. “Anumon, that digimon! It’s in the book! It’s one of the Legendary Warriors!”

“You assume correctly. I’m Grumblemon, the Earth!” the digimon announced proudly. He raised his hammer. “And you are also two of the Legendary Warriors which is why I’ll defeat you and take your Spirits! Seismic Sledge!”

The hammer came crashing towards Beetlemon again, but he had electricity gathering in his horn and stepped into the attack. “ Proton Slam! ”He drove Grumblemon out of the cave and into the air.

Anumon turned to the ShellNumemon still huddled in their open cage. “Get away from here, quickly! We’ll deal with Grumblemon!”

Outside, Beetlemon was alone, hovering a few spaces off the mountain wall.

“Where’s Grumblemon?” she asked, bow ready.

Beetlemon turned to her and shook his head. “Gone. He can move through the earth. Be careful!”

That made sense as the Warrior of Earth. Fire didn’t harm Anumon, and Kumamon moved through ice. Of course, Grumblemon would be in harmony with his element too.

“ Seismic Sledge!”The earth broke away right next to her to reveal the goblin-like Spirit Warrior. Anumon raised her bow to block the attack, but its overwhelming strength surprised her. The yellow spike went straight through her armour. “...Oof...” She had a single moment to groan and then everything went black.

-JP-

Beetlemon cursed himself for turning away. He was too slow to stop Grumblemon’s hammer from colliding with Anumon.

He’d seen the process many times now, but for some reason it took him completely off guard to see the Warrior of Fire darken. A ring of fractal code form around her. No, it wasn’t just that. A small figurine, the torso of Anumon, appeared alongside the data circle. What...?

“Aha! A Spirit! That’ll be mine now!” Grumblemon said, reaching out with his grubby hands.

Not on my watch! “Thunder Fist! ”Beetlemon slammed his sparking fist on the gremlin’s head and sent the evil creature careening down the mountainside. With any luck, Grumblemon would crash into the ground far, far below and would be out of their hair forever.

Now...

A data cocoon appeared around the blackened Anumon, and a beaten, unconscious Kei started to fall. Beetlemon gently caught her and looked around. The ShellNumemon girls were already on the outskirts of their town. He quickly followed them.

Since the village was sideways, humans and other living things incapable of scaling walls had to stand on the walls that faced the ground, instead of the actual floor. It took a moment for Beetlemon to spot the town hall in the confusing layout of the town. Zoe’s angry voice drifted through an open window, cluing him in that something was wrong. But Keisaki hadn’t woken up and that was definitely more worrisome. He pushed through the door and followed the noises into an open room with a table nailed to the floor—that is into the mountain wall. It took him half a second to assess the situation.

A group of ShellNumemon huddled on the wooden chairs also nailed to the... wall. JP’s friends stood on a series of green blankets spread across the... ground. Zoe’s hair billowed around her as she stared up at the snails with flashing eyes. Tommy was next to her, grabbing his hat. He seemed completely at a loss for what to do, but otherwise not overly worried. The biggest surprise was Kouji, who had somehow procured a wooden staff and tapped it impatiently against his open palm.

While this development looked bizarre and was bound to have an interesting story behind it, Beetlemon decided that none of it mattered right now. “We have a problem.” That was the understatement of the century.

“Oh no! What happened to Kei?” Tommy asked, letting go of his hat. Zoe just looked shocked.

“That’s part of the problem.” Beetlemon dropped to the ground wall and laid the unconscious girl on one of the blankets.

“Is she alright?” Zoe asked at the same time as Kouji demanded, “What happened?”

First things first. Beetlemon noticed a slight energy dip every time he transformed but keeping the transformation going took less out of him than initiating the digivolve. Letting go of the Spirit and transforming back felt like the energy output collapsed. It made him a bit weak in the knees.

“We freed the ShellNumemon girls,” JP explained, leaning back against the wall. “They should be here any second now.”

Zoe knelt next to her fallen friend but shot a dark glare at the assembled ShellNumemon pressing against the upper wall. Part of her speech came out in angry Italian. “ Visto, I told you we’re good Legendary Warriors! Zucconi!”

“How did Kei get so hurt?” Tommy was sitting at her other side, hands buried in his shirt.

“After— After we found the ShellNumemon girls we were attacked...” JP began but trailed off, struggling with what had happened.

“By Grumblemon, right?” Kouji prompted, also shooting an annoyed glare at the ShellNumemon. “He’s one of the Legendary Warriors, but he’s evil and working for Cherubimon!”

JP nodded warily. The ShellNumemon showed no sign of relaxing, keeping to the ceiling. It was bizarre enough to address so JP asked, “What’s going on here?”

Kouji scoffed, “Apparently, they thought we were working for Grumblemon.”

“What? Why would they think that?!”

“We’re so, so sorry!” A ShellNumemon with a mighty moustache approached them, sweating. “This has all been a terrible misunderstanding! We should have known your Spirits didn’t belong to Cherubimon!”

“Yeah, we get that, but we have bigger problems now,” Kouji said, deciding to drop the issue. He turned to JP once more and asked, “So Grumblemon attacked and then?”

“I dropped him down the mountain... but he’s the Warrior of Earth, it’s possible he survived that,” Junpei explained, brows kneaded with worry. “He’s got this huge hammer, and he got Anumon with it. Kei’s been like this ever since... Ugh, he said he wants to take our Spirits!”

He just got Beetlemon! No way, he’d let that gremlin take it from him!

“Then he’ll be back. And soon at that,” Kouji said pragmatically. “Even if he’s a Legendary Warrior, we should be able to defeat him.”

-Zoe-

A group of ShellNumemon with huge eyelashes on their eye stalks appeared in the doorway. I was sure these were the missing women even before the ShellNumemon males detached themselves from the ceiling to sweep them into hugs. The reunion was happy but came to a swift end when the women realized what their worried village had done in their absence.

“You need to pay these kids immediately! Without them, who knows what would’ve happened to us!” the mayor’s wife said harshly, crossing her arms and looking pointedly away from her husband.

“Of course, dear, right away!” The mayor was either eager to please or just so happy that his wife was back that he would fulfill her any wish. He approached JP with a big sack full of money, and the boy took it, a grin lighting up his face.

“I-I don’t know if that’s really fair…” Tommy said with sloping shoulders.

I turned to him, head tilted. “Why do you think so?”

“I mean, Grumblemon is still out there, and he’ll probably come back and just kidnap them again,” he said, and I started to see where he was coming from.

Kouji beat the wooden stick against his open palm. After Kei and JP had wafted away, he and I had a long talk about how digivolving shouldn’t be his first reaction to a situation that might be resolved peacefully. He promptly showed that he followed the letter of the agreement and not the spirit by picking up the staff and displaying his martial arts prowess.

He said, “That’s why we’re staying to fight Grumblemon.”

I felt vindicated by that thought. Whoever hurt Kei would get a blast to the face. I found myself looking forward to meeting Grumblemon. He wouldn’t know what hit him!

For the moment, the ShellNumemon provided us with the food portion of our payment and showed us to a heap of sickly, coloured cabbages. For someone who liked to complain about being hungry, JP was easily discouraged by exotic-looking food, especially when it turned out these vegetables tasted extremely good! Molto buono!

While I was tackling my second cabbage head, Kei finally woke up.

“What happened?” she asked, raising a hand to her forehead.

I was so happy she was okay that I spontaneously hugged her. “I was so worried! Are you alright?”

“Ow,” she said dumbly and returned the hug. “I guess I’m alright.”

“Grumblemon got you with his hammer,” JP explained, a concerned crease forming between his eyebrows.

I handed Kei a cabbage while we filled her in on what she’d missed.

“So we’re just sitting around here waiting for Grumblemon to show up and take our Spirits?” she summarized, brows raised in disbelief.

“We won’t let him take our Spirits!” Tommy said indignantly.

“He’s really strong!” she shot back.

Kouji was done eating and fixed her with a pointed stare. “I told you Anumon isn’t a front-line fighter. Beetlemon and I will handle him.”

Her face screwed up in anger, and I almost expected an explosion. But then, she laid a hand on her stomach and whispered, “Maybe you’re right.” She looked up with a thoughtful expression. “But if he’s coming after us, we can’t stay here! He can move through the earth like no one’s business! It’ll put all the ShellNumemon at risk.”

I hadn’t thought of that. Kouji also hadn’t, which was a surprise since he seemed so circumspect. He wasn’t one to ignore a legitimate concern and followed Kei’s train of thought. “Then we need to go somewhere else.” He turned to the ShellNumemon and asked, “Is there a part of the village that’s not in use?”

Grumblemon expected us in the village, and Kumamon and Lobomon needed some ground to fight on. The entire mountain range consisted of sheer walls, and only the village provided a useful surface.

“W-What?” the mayor asked, his voice high with disbelief. “You- You’re staying? You’ll fight for us? Even after...” he trailed off, coughing awkwardly.

“After you’ve falsely accused us of working for the bad guy?” I asked pointedly.

Kei frowned, bewildered, but I motioned for her that I could explain later.

After a brief discussion, the ShellNumemon agreed to evacuate a part of their village and we took three minutes to climb to the top of an empty warehouse. I dragged Kei there myself.

It was a tense waiting period.

JP and Kei were unusually nervous about Grumblemon. If one of his strikes could down Anumon, they had a very good reason to be. I vowed to stay out of his reach.

“Okay,” Kouji said, standing in front of us, and began lecturing without really looking at any of us. The tenseness was spreading. “We don’t know when Grumblemon will strike, so have your D-Tectors ready. Once he shows up, we only have a few seconds at most.”

Kei was sitting next to me (as far away from the edge as possible), staring at her D-Tector. She wasn’t well enough to fight. Tommy had agreed to watch over her while she recovered, and considering how she felt about him, that had to hurt her ego.

“Are there any other things you know about Grumblemon?” Kouji asked in the silence. He irritably brushed his ponytail back after the wind blew it over his shoulder. Above him, the sun blasted heat onto the mountain range; it had to be shortly after high noon.

JP shook his head. “Moves through earth, small and has a nasty hammer, that’s all we know, sorry.”

For some reason, Kouji looked disappointed.

Kei murmured, “Stupid. Should’ve been more observant.” Though I wasn’t sure how she meant that.

“Seems like you know plenty already!” a new voice said right above my head. I was so tense that I threw myself forwards without thinking and evaded a ridiculously huge hammer. I caught my fall and spun around. Directly out of the wall stepped a dwarf-like creature in brown trousers. He had a similarly coloured cap ending in a spiky ball. Even his boots ended in spikes. Strange tattoos covered his arms, his cheeks, and his ridiculously huge nose. I had seen this digimon in the book.

“Grumblemon!” There was no time to waste; my Spirit was waiting for me.

Execute Spirit Digivolve to...
...Lobomon!
...Beetlemon!
...Kumamon!
...Kazemon!

We grabbed Kei and brought her out of harm’s way, while Lobomon jumped forwards. He swung his lightsabre. Grumblemon didn’t stick around and dove back into the mountain, causing the attack to strike only air. “Damn.”

We dropped Kei off at another rooftop/house wall, and Kumamon jumped up to join her.

Grumblemon appeared above Beetlemon, bringing his hammer crashing down.

We wouldn’t let that happen! “ Hurricane Wave!”

There was a slight flaw in Our valiant effort. We didn’t take into consideration that Beetlemon would fly towards the attack, electricity sparking around his horn. Our pink wind blasted into the blue beetle and sent him careening against the warehouse.

-Kei-

Damn. Damn it! Why did it hurt so much to move?

Keisaki watched dismayed as Kazemon miscalculated and hit Beetlemon with her blasting wind. Somewhere within the mountain, Grumblemon laughed. Grr. This was so annoying. She wished she could digivolve as well! This time, she would stay far away from him; she was better at long-range anyway!

“Watch yourself!” Lobomon scolded. He shot a disapproving look at Kazemon and spun around to block the heavy hammer with his light sword. He was so fast. And observant! Sometimes, Keisaki wished Kouji wasn’t so useful, so she could get justifiably angry at him. As it stood, he pushed the troll-like creature away and forced Grumblemon to retreat into the mountain.

“Stop hiding!” Lobomon shouted, and Keisaki could completely understand his frustration.

“Oh, but why would I do that, when this is so much fun?” Grumblemon jeered, jumping up at Kazemon. At least she had the wind on her side and dove under the attack. For a moment, Grumblemon was freely falling and Keisaki hoped he’d just drop to the ground. Then, he stretched out his hammer and hooked it into a glassless window, using it as a lever to swing back into the mountain. What an agile creature! He knew exactly what he was doing!

“And who do we have here?”

Keisaki froze when she heard his voice directly behind her. Kumamon raised his dark green gun but couldn’t fire with her in the way. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She awkwardly threw herself to the side and felt the rush of displaced air when she narrowly evaded the thorny spike.

“ Blizzard Blaster!” Ice balls rained against the wall. Grumblemon was long gone. “This can’t be happening!”

This was so unfair! No… She couldn’t be thinking like that. Grumblemon wasn’t unbeatable.

From her position, she had the best view of the fighting, even as Kumamon shoved her away from the wall to better protect her. If she just didn’t look over the edge of the wall, everything would be absolutely fine. She wasn’t on a slab of rock suspended over nothingness without the ability to transform and fly away. She was- She was just concentrating on observing the battle. Something told her that this was important and that they needed to get rid of Grumblemon right now.

Kazemon seemed to be the only one not having trouble with the surprise attacks. The butterfly fairy was weaving and twisting in the air as if she belonged there (She did. She was the wind) and the hammer didn’t strike her once. What she did have trouble with was friendly fire.

Keisaki curled her fingers in front of her mouth, eyes widened in worry. This wasn’t good. She wasn’t the only one who noticed Kazemon’s inability to watch her teammates. Lobomon kept calling her out on her obliviousness. Keisaki got the feeling that he’d be a lot less impressed with his two allies in general if it weren’t for the immediate threat Grumblemon posed. While Kazemon was way too liberal with her pink storm, Beetlemon was riding high on his earlier success in close quarters. Grumblemon refused to engage him directly and in his futile attempts to chase the earth gremlin down, Beetlemon ruined any chance Lobomon might have to get a good shot in. Keisaki could see all that, agitation rising. They were just a bunch of kids with superpowers. They weren’t a team. No wonder Kouji didn’t see any reason to stay with them. This had to change!

But with Beetlemon blocking Lobomon from attacking the enemy, Grumblemon didn’t get the opportunity to see just what to expect from the Warrior of Light. All the misses, all the unfulfilled opportunities, they made the goblin creature complacent and that cost him dearly.

He jumped out of the earth, two hammers raised to strike Lobomon, but the wolf warrior was ready. He spun around and brought his laser swords past the dangerous hammer head. Grumblemon pulled back before they could connect and Lobomon groaned in annoyance—but too soon! Behind Grumblemon rose Beetlemon’s towering form. Electricity crackled.

“ Thor’s Hammer!”

In a shower of sparks, Grumblemon slammed into a nearby house and immediately, Lobomon was upon him with a cross slash. “ Zwei Sieger! ”

Grumblemon was too dazed to sink back into the earth. He let out a screech when the swords burned him.

And yet, he kept going! Keisaki gritted her teeth. She went down in one hit, and he was tanking attacks like love taps! At least the three attackers had more success now, Lobomon intent on pressing their advantage. Grumblemon stopped mocking them from inside the mountain.

For a couple of minutes, the battle could’ve gone either way. Kumamon nervously played with his blaster, looking like he wanted to jump in and help.

But the stalemate couldn’t last as the novelty wore off. Grumblemon outstepped another swing from the laser swords and said, “A persistent bunch, huh? I’m growing tired of you. Let’s end this.” And suddenly there was a data cocoon around him.

Grumblemon Slide Digivolve to... Gigasmon!

What?!

The cocoon broke apart and showed a different, light brown troll creature, twice the size of Grumblemon. It had no armour or clothes, showing off an incredibly muscular body. Only the huge nose remained.

What. What? What was going on?

Even Lobomon seemed frozen in shock and barely raised his sword in time. Gigasmon rapidly spun around, turning into a tornado of iron fists. “ Quagmire Twister!” The force of the twister ripped the swords straight out of Lobomon’s hands and sent the Light Warrior straight off the house. Kumamon gasped while Keisaki reeled back in horror. A data cocoon appeared.

“Kouji!” Beetlemon shouted. He gave up attacking Gigasmon and went for the fading boy.

Meanwhile, the Earth Warrior was laughing. “Surprised? It looks like you’re still stuck with your Human Spirits!”

“ Storm Fingers!” Kazemon brought her hands forwards, wind erupting from her fingertips. Her accuracy was improving, but Gigasmon just spun in place again and absorbed the ten streaks of pink in his own attack.

“Pathetic! Mwahahaha!” Gigasmon chuckled. “I, on the other hand, have my Beast Spirit. This’ll be a piece of cake!”

“What did Grumblemon do?” Kumamon asked, confused and a bit frightened.

Keisaki couldn’t offer him anything. “I’d like to know that too!”

Beetlemon landed next to them, dropping a still conscious, but hurt Kouji. In the air, Kazemon sent another fruitless wave at their enemy.

While Kumamon and Beetlemon made their way over to help the Warrior of Wind, Keisaki turned to Kouji. “Are you alright?”

The boy looked away from her, gripping his D-Tector tightly. “I’ll survive. What are we going to do now?”

Nothing was working against Gigasmon. The huge beast felt relaxed enough to laugh again and the haughty sound started to make Keisaki’s ears bleed. They had barely held their own against Grumblemon, but now that he did... whatever he did to become Gigasmon, the battle was hopeless. Especially with Lobomon out of the picture. Keisaki could see now that Beetlemon was stronger than the Warrior of Light. He lacked in speed and mobility and had to take a devastating blow. For a moment, Keisaki already saw the data ring around the blue warrior, but he managed to stay transformed, barely avoiding a follow-up attack. Kazemon swooped in and blasted Gigasmon off course. Gigasmon was anything if not adaptive and switched to a target that wasn’t floating in the sky. In one jump, he was in front of Kumamon and ignored the feeble snowballs shot at his face. “Yours will be the first Spirit I will acquire for Cherubimon!”

Sensing that he was in deep trouble, Kumamon jumped away to the next house, but Gigasmon’s twister got him in mid-air.

Damn it! There was the data ring. No!

Execute Spirit Digivolve to... Anumon!

She felt light-headed after triggering the digivolution before she was recovered, but even at full power, her arrows wouldn’t do anything against Gigasmon’s thick hide. She wasn’t here to fight. Instead, she snatched the blackened form of Kumamon before Gigasmon could get his hands on the glowing Spirit of Ice.

In no time at all, Tommy was back to human form and looked back at the shouting Gigasmon with huge eyes. “He’s so strong!”

He was right. No, it was worse. Gigasmon was too strong.

No matter how hard Anumon thought, Gigasmon trumped them all. They had no chance... And now he was eyeing Kouji, the only one who couldn’t fly away.

There was only one thing to do. Anumon shot a quick, guilty look to the part of the town where the ShellNumemon awaited their return. I’m sorry...

“Beetlemon, quickly, get Kouji! We need to run!”

Her request was met with stunned surprise. “What?”

“We have no time! Get Kouji, now!” she screamed, holding on tight to Tommy and hoping dearly she was making the correct call. “We’re fighting a losing battle!”

Thankfully, Kouji understood what she was going for. He had to have come to the same conclusion. When Gigasmon appeared on his roof, Kouji jumped straight off. A part of Anumon, the part that was the human, was incredibly envious. She would never be able to do that, too afraid of the call of the void... His trust in their fliers was rewarded when Kazemon and Beetlemon each grabbed one of his arms, effectively breaking his fall.

They regrouped in the air, far enough away from the mountain that Gigasmon couldn’t reach them anymore. He screamed at them for running away, but Anumon tuned him out.

“Why are we running away?” Beetlemon asked, his horn sparking angrily.

“Grumblemon has digivolved. I don’t know how he did that, but he’s gotten much stronger than even you!” Anumon replied in kind. She shifted Tommy in her arms and continued, “We can’t defeat him right now!”

“Anumon is right,” Kouji said, hanging awkwardly between the Warriors of Thunder and Wind. “We need to get away and rethink our strategy.”

“But we can’t just leave them...!” Kazemon cried, a weird accent (Italian, probably?) slipped into her voice, emphasizing her anger.

“What else do you suggest? Look, he’s going to follow us! He wants our Spirits!” Anumon shouted, desperately hoping no one noticed her voice breaking. “We need to get as far away from here as we can and shake him!”

For a moment, Kazemon looked like she wanted to fight her, and Anumon struggled for words to double down on her decision.

It was still odd to hear Kouji defend her position. “You can’t stay transformed for much longer and we have to get far enough away!”

“Fine,” Kazemon said, growing quieter as if she only now realized the gravity of the situation.

Beetlemon breathed heavily and turned away from the raging Gigasmon.

“The poor ShellNumemon...” Tommy said softly. The mountain grew smaller and smaller as they flew away. Though she didn’t say it out loud, in her heart, Anumon fully agreed with him.

“We can’t save everyone,” she said just as quietly. “If we stayed and fought maybe we would’ve lost all our Spirits or worse.”

“We need to reach the Forest Terminal,” Kouji concluded, and she supposed he was trying to sound comforting. Instead, he just sounded condescending.

Anumon was too depressed to call him out.

She knew especially Beetlemon had to be running low on energy. He’d digivolved more than once today and he’d taken the most hits. Already his flight path seemed irregular.

They needed a safe place to land and nurse their wounds and figure out what was going on!

That’s how they ended up in the village on the cliff. 

End... of the Opening Act.

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