WoS Ch18 - Reunion

The story so far: Five humans have been called into the Digital World for an unspecified purpose. For now, that appears to be reaching the mysterious Forest Terminal. Aiding them along the way are the Spirits of the Legendary Warriors, powerful relics that allow them to turn into digimon. The Spirits come in two flavours, representing the two factions of the Digital World: the reliable Human Spirits and the powerful Beast Spirits. But they are only five, and it appears that the evil Ruler of the Digital World, Cherubimon, is in possession of the other five elements. The Warriors of Earth and Wood have already showed up as the group's enemies. Yesterday, the children split up so that Kouji and JP could chase after a Gotsumon who had found Kouji's Beast Spirit. In the process, Kouji lost his own Human Spirit, Lobomon, but at least they managed to not only convince Gotsumon to give Kouji his Beast Spirit, but also to join the group as an expert on the Digital World.

Chapter 18 - Reunion

-Zoe-

I was anxiously bouncing on my heels.

The afternoon sun was bringing light and warmth to the little train station, catching on its slanted roof. Not much longer. I scuttled restlessly across the grey tiles, my footsteps echoing through the empty building. The only other occupant was a small, yellow Trailmon on a railway that ended at this platform. It had reached its final station for today and was sleeping soundly, so I tried to be quiet. But I had little else to do while I waited.

A mirror hung on a marble pillar next to the double row of wood benches. I spent a good deal of time in front of it, just fixing my hair underneath my hat. But even that didn’t really quell the nervousness.

It had been over a day since I’d last seen either JP or Kouji and really, really nasty stuff had happened to them. I had no idea in what shape they were and what to expect. The clock just above the mirror showed that time was approaching 18:00. The clerk at the entrance had told us their train had a bit of a delay and that was why Kei and Tommy weren’t here with me. They’d set out to get takeout. I was hoping that they would be back before Trailmon Worm rolled in.

Shuri Town was a surprisingly pleasant city for a place this close to the dreaded Forest Terminal. It was a bit out of the way from the route Gargoylemon had laid out for us, but this still meant that our destination was just half a day away from here. And this time, I was sure about that. At least there was a well-equipped hotel here with running hot water in the shower. There, we had the most comfortable bed I had ever slept in since I’d come to the Digital World. (Well, Starmon’s ‘establishment’ had set a pretty low bar.) This town was a small-scale trade centre connecting the northern part of the Land of the Forests with the ore and mineral-heavy Land of Earth in the South.

Shuri Town was also where Deputymon, the cowboy digimon whose oil barrels had been crucial in defeating Rockmon, had been heading. We’d escorted him all the way here. He told us that a lot of adventurous folks came through Shuri Town in their effort to brave the Forest Terminal, but naturally they were never heard of again. This really didn’t raise our spirits. The fact that Deputymon was quite a sexist further aggravated the situation, and it had taken us forever to get rid of him.

I was just combing my fingers through a particular resilient strand of hair when I heard footsteps from the corridor leading to the main street outside. A very pleasant smell hit my nose and I turned around.

Kei and Tommy were walking up to me, each carrying two small bags which emitted the mouth-watering scent. I had eaten just a couple of hours ago, but my stomach was eager to tell me that there was room for more.

While Tommy dropped his load onto one of the benches, Kei came directly to me and handed me one of the bags. She peered along the railway into the direction Trailmon Worm was supposed to be coming from and asked, “Still nothing?”

I made a negative sound, too busy tearing up the packaging of a ham and cheese sandwich. A week ago, it wouldn’t have impressed me that much, but right now it looked so tempting, I immediately tore into it. Hmmm, è buonissimo!

My hearty approach to our food was met with the other two quickly doing the same. I guess it was a bit rude of us to eat before Kouji and JP—and the new guy they brought along—but our day had been eventful and busy too.

As it turned out, we had all the time in the world to finish our share of the takeout. Even after eliminating all incriminating evidence, it still took Trailmon Worm five more minutes until she finally deigned us with her presence.

Worm let out a deafening howl to announce her arrival. It shook the poor yellow Trailmon Kettle out of his pleasant dreams! We gathered at the platform while the rust-coloured, very organic-looking train rolled in. The inrush of wind almost blew my hat of my head and I reached up and grabbed it. Tommy had no such luck and ran a few meters to catch up with his own floating, orange one. When he caught it and reclaimed his position next to me, the train had already stopped.

I scanned the multitude of brightly lit windows for a glimpse of our missing companions, but they were too packed with digimon of different shapes and forms. Tommy mimicked my earlier anxiousness and started hopping from foot to foot.

The doors opened with a hissing sound, and we stepped out of the way to let a group of digimon pass. Still, a muscular, striped wolf creature almost ran into me. She didn’t apologize, too busy muttering something about a flooded school. The orange ball with huge eyes she was carrying gave me an apologetic look.

“I hate to admit it,” I heard the wolf say when she had already passed me and—this really got my attention—she continued, “but education was much better when Ophanimon was still in charge.”

Ophanimon? I felt like I should know that digimon. Where had I heard that name before? It had been in the book, I was sure. I half-turned to catch more of that conversation, but a flash of blue caught my eye, and I snapped back. A huge smile spread across my face. In the doorway stood Kouji and he looked completely fine.

He hopped down onto the platform, and I rushed forwards and threw my arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

Hm? Our cheeks were touching, and did I imagine it, or was that really heat rushing to his face? In the background, I heard an annoyed groan.

“H-Hey, don’t touch me!” Kouji managed to say after a second and pushed me back. He could’ve been a lot rougher, though.

“Kouji!” Tommy completely ignored his protest and threw himself at Kouji too.

Instead of shoving him away, Kouji patted his shoulders and said, “Hello Tommy.”

“Hey, what about me?” I heard a familiar voice. Oh, the source of the groan. I looked past Kouji and saw that JP had also left the train, pouting profoundly.

I giggled and took a step towards him to hug him too. “Also glad you’re okay!”

I was surprised when he pulled me closer and said, “I was so worried about you!”

It was my turn to have heat flush my cheeks and I was glad my face was buried in his shoulder. I had no idea what I should say to that. We had had a tough time against Rockmon, but it had all turned out okay...

Kei noisily cleared her throat, mainly to remind us that she was also there, but I don’t think it had the intended effect.

JP released me and took a deep breath through his nose and his expression changed to hopeful. “Do I smell food?”

Well, that much was typical.

Kei laughed. She held the bags of food up and waved them invitingly. “Your nose is as good as always. We have grilled sandwiches for you.” She looked past him and nodded at Kouji in greeting.

While JP skipped towards the food, proclaiming that Kei never disappointed him, I noticed the stone creature behind him. Oh, right! That was the Gotsumon JP had told us about earlier. He was awkwardly looking around, completely at a loss for what to do.

He had to take a step closer to me when Trailmon Worm gave off a whistling sound, showing that she was leaving for her next stop. He couldn’t have looked less out of his comfort zone.

I realized we’d never been formally introduced and decided to rectify. I approached him and said, “Hello, I’m Izumi, but everyone here calls me Zoe. Junpei has told me a lot about you.” I smiled at him and stretched out a hand. “Nice to officially meet you.”

Now that I thought about it, the last time I’d interacted with that Gotsumon was when he hit me with a laser beam. Ow. I shuddered at the memory.

I immediately regretted my reaction, since his huge, yellow eyes widened. He looked away from me, mumbling, “I’m Gotsumon.” It looked like he wanted to say more, but instead he shut his mouth with an audible click, his huge, square rock teeth clacking against each other.

Behind me, I heard Kei mutter to Kouji, “Is that really the Gotsumon who was so obnoxious to us yesterday?”

“Shut up,” Kouji said, and I was surprised about how fierce he sounded. “He went through a lot, okay?”

JP had left out a lot in his brief explanation on how Kouji got his Beast Spirit from that Gotsumon, I realized. Nonetheless, I couldn’t stand seeing the new guy so uncomfortable. I already knew Beast Spirits were terribly hard to control and wouldn’t hold this against him.

“Do you want a sandwich too?” I asked, hoping to strike up a connection. We had already planned everything with him as an additional group member. Including his bed in the hotel!

Gotsumon looked back to me with a guarded expression, but then he drew up his shoulders and said in a very serious voice, “That would be great.”

I turned to ask Kei for one of the bags when Tommy showed up next to us, holding a wrapped sandwich.

“Hi, I’m Tommy,” he introduced himself, deciding to skip his real name in favour for the nickname everyone, including Kouji, was using.

Gotsumon carefully unwrapped the sandwich and said, “Hi Tommy and thanks.”

“And I’m Kei!” Someone felt left out.

“I remember you,” Gotsumon said, and he sounded a bit unimpressed. Everyone had that initial reaction to Kei, and I grinned at her crestfallen expression.

She rallied valiantly though and clapped her hands. “Well, it looks like the gang’s back together. I know we still have some hours of daylight left but our hotel room is really great—yours not so much—and besides. I don’t really know what we should expect on our way to the Forest Terminal. There are a lot of horror stories about the place coursing around, so I’d rather head out tomorrow.”

I looked to Kouji, the one who I expected to be less happy about more delays, but he seemed fine with it. Gotsumon had narrowed his eyes at Kei’s words, thoughtfully chewing on his sandwich. He didn’t say anything.

Kei continued, also fixing Kouji with a stare, “I take it, you haven’t really got the time to figure out Garmmon?”

He shook his head. He swallowed a bite of his sandwich and said, “But I think I can control it.”

“Well, since we all have to get used to Blizzarmon and Garmmon fighting alongside us, I think we need another training session,” Kei said, nodding to herself with a sparkle in her eyes.

Kouji, JP and the new guy still had their unfinished food in hand, but of course Kei was eager to implement all the ideas with which she’d been rushing me and Tommy these past few hours.

With a shrug and an apologetic smile, I pointed into the direction of the forest outside of town. Better to make the most out of the waning daylight!

-Kei-

Shuri Town was part of the Land of Forests, so of course a huge forest surrounded the city. Since Kei’s group had had to accommodate for Deputymon’s slower speed, they’d only arrived a couple of hours ago. There hadn’t been time to look for a good training spot. Not least since Deputymon had insisted on showing them the entire city with hopes of scoring with either her or Zoe. (Well, mainly Zoe.)

Leaving the town behind took only a couple of minutes and they found themselves swallowed in the greenery.

JP neatly summed up the sight. “Woah! These trees are gigantic!”

Kei slapped him on the back. “Yep. Welcome to the Land of Forests.”

The full height of the trees was mind-boggling. Even when tilting her head back as far as she could, Kei couldn’t see the top of the tree closest to her.

JP said disbelievingly, “That would even dwarf Petaldramon!”

Kei had no idea what Petaldramon looked like, but it reminded her of something. While they were making their way through the thick underbrush, she fell back to walk next to New Guy.

“So I take it, you’re an expert on the Legendary Warriors?” she began, peering at Gotsumon.

The rock digimon looked back at her, trying to guess what she was getting at and said, “Well, I wouldn’t say it quite like that. I know a bit about them. Why?”

“We only have a pretty ancient book about the Digital World and as far as I know, it doesn’t even cover the current Cherubimon thing. So I was hoping that you could tell us a bit more about the present situation.” She pointed at JP and Kouji behind her and continued, “You already know these two have Thunder and Light. And then there are Grumblemon with Earth and what’s the guy? Petaldramon? Well, he’s Wood. Leaves Zoe, Tommy and me with Wind, Ice and Fire. But then we’re still missing three more Spirit Warriors.” By then, the conversation between Zoe and Tommy up front had stopped and they both half-turned. Kei nodded and finished with: “Do you know if the other three are also working for Cherubimon?”

She couldn’t tell if Gotsumon was surprised by her question or if he expected it, but he said, “I only know that Cherubimon used to have at least three of the Legendary Warriors under his command.”

“Used to?” Kouji asked.

By then, they’d reached a large clearing. The huge rocks artfully distributed amongst the short grass and gravel were ideal for battle simulation.

Zoe put their rucksack against the craggy surface of the closest boulder and fished for her books while Gotsumon continued, “You already know about Grumblemon and Arbormon. Well, until twenty years ago Mercurymon the Warrior of Metal used to be Cherubimon’s second-in-command. Everyone knew that. But then there was some sort of falling out and now Mercurymon sides with the Human Faction in the great war fought on the Metal Continent while Cherubimon leads the Beast Faction.”

They had already heard that the war from ancient times was still waging in some parts of the world. It was easy to forget all about it since they had landed in one of the peaceful regions. Well, relatively peaceful. Cherubimon’s goons were still roaming the land.

Zoe found the correct page in the book. She held it up to show them the tall Warrior of Metal who, as far as Kei could tell, didn’t even have a real face. Just a menacing mirror instead of a head.

“If he’s fighting against Cherubimon, couldn’t he be an ally?” JP asked and Kei put a hand on her hip, head tilted. Why did he even care? Wasn’t he dead-set on leaving this world and its problems behind?

Gotsumon shook his head and said, “He’s shifty. Rumour says he defected because he wants to rule the Digital World himself.”

“So he’s out of the question,” Kei said, nodding to herself. She quickly counted the remaining elements to see what was missing and added, “Then what about Water and Darkness?”

“There used to be a Warrior of Darkness too,” Gotsumon said quickly. A little too quickly. “But he stopped appearing decades ago. People say Cherubimon is keeping the Spirits of Darkness on the Dark Continent for reasons that change from story to story. I don’t think they’re active or working for Cherubimon.”

The rock digimon paused, quickly averting his eyes to examine their clearing.

Kei followed his gaze to smile approvingly at their future battle ground. The longer she looked at it, the more she liked it. Between those huge rocks was still enough room for their rather large Beast additions to— Wait a second!

Before she could voice her realization, Kouji beat her to it, “So the Warrior of Water isn’t active?”

Gotsumon flinched. Then he sighed and said heatedly, “No, there is Ranamon the Water out there, but I really don’t think she’s evil!”

“Uhm okay?” Tommy said, a bit taken aback by his strong reaction.

Kei ignored it entirely and asked, “What makes you think that?”

There was a bit of hemming and hawing, but finally Gotsumon explained, “She has, eh, she has conventions. I have an autograph!”

Stunned silence met this awkward statement.

“What?” Kouji said with a larger-than-usual frown that JP would have described as critical ‘type-three annoyance’.

Now that the cat was out of the bag, Gotsumon went on, trying to stay calm, “She’s a model and an idol and she’s really beautiful! I last saw her a few years ago on the Metal Continent when…” He stumbled over his words. “She had… Uhm. She was speaking to some victims of the war...”

Keisaki blinked in surprise but then quickly interrupted him, “So she’s not working for Cherubimon?”

Gotsumon hesitated, looking torn. “Well... I... I don’t think so? I mean, she has a million fans and they do pretty terrible things to impress her and... And sometimes they help out either faction on the Metal Continent.”

This wasn’t getting them anywhere.

Kei went over their current information. They knew for sure Earth and Wood were working for Cherubimon and they also knew pretty much all about their abilities. Ranamon and Mercurymon were unknown variables. They had no idea how they fought and what they were really up to. Then, there was that huge question mark about the Spirits of Darkness. According to the book, the Warrior of Darkness was a lion-like fighter, but that didn’t tell them much.

There were probably a hundred more digimon out there helping Cherubimon in gathering the fractal code, but so far Spirit Warriors had been the main source of trouble—aside from that Scorpiomon. But Tommy had finally told them that that hadn’t even been a real digimon. Just like Rockmon.

“Alright,” Kei said, beating her fist into her left hand to catch everyone’s attention. “The immediate threat is Petaldramon. He has Lobomon and we need to get him back!”

“Regarding that,” Gotsumon said before she could continue to lay out her training plans. He raised his hands in a pacifying gesture, though that didn’t soften the blow of his next words. “I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but Arbormon is loyal to Cherubimon. He has probably handed the Spirit over to his master.”

Uncomfortable silence spread and Kei shot a nervous look at Kouji. She wasn’t the only one to do so.

Kouji’s face remained expressionless. Then he nodded in confirmation. “I see.”

JP looked desperate for a positive spin and said a bit too enthusiastically, “Well, more reason to defeat the guy, right?”

Kei watched the blue-clad boy curiously. There was something different about JP. He seemed a lot more determined now.

Since she could guess from his stoic demeanour that Kouji didn’t fancy being the spot of attention, especially in a matter like that, she grasped at the change of topic. “JP! Does that mean you want to stay and help save the world?”

The boy in the still completely atrocious jumpsuit shot Gotsumon a look, earning a tilted head and a frown. “Yeah. I had some sorta eye-opening revelation.”

“JP...” Gotsumon said, surprised, and lacking anything better to say.

“Anyway!” the boy said forcefully. “Gotta prepare for the new battles, right? Kei?”

“Uhm. Sure.” Kei took a moment to collect herself and figure out what she’d been about to say before Gotsumon dropped that bombshell. “Petaldramon will probably show up to fight us again with or without Lobomon, so it’s better to prepare for him anyway.”

And that led them seamlessly into an awkward retelling of that ill-fated battle against Petaldramon. The three involved probably left a ton of things out that were too messy or too raw to be shared now. Kei was concerned about what had happened to them when they had been gone, but, thanks to a long talk with Zoe and Tommy, decided not to pry. Someday, the others might want to share the whole story. Until then, they should focus on Arbormon’s and Petaldramon’s battle prowess.

“The Leaf Cyclone seems similar to Kazemon’s Hurricane Wave. It builds up slow, but travels surprisingly fast and clears a long distance,” Kouji explained, always to the point and technical. “There’s something in it, maybe an acid, that really tears into you when it hits.”

“Nasty,” said Zoe.

“Gotta practice dodging then.” Keisaki had her notepad out, writing the information down. If it was similar to Kazemon’s attack maybe she could simulate it later. Kei didn’t think Zoe needed to practice dodging; it came naturally to her.

“Don’t forget the evil vines!” JP said, shuddering at the memory.

She didn’t really know what to do about them. With Lobomon gone, they didn’t have an obvious way to get rid of them. Then again, she didn’t really know what Garmmon was capable of. Maybe Blizzarmon’s axes could serve a similar function?

Right. With that, Kei was back on track. “Let’s see how Blizzarmon and Garmmon work, alright?”

She was glad that Kouji had returned with his Beast Spirit. While she was seeing Tommy as more of a fighter now and his Beast form did pack a punch, it was good to have another strong attacker among them. Especially since there were a ton of things the Warrior of Ice could do that were useful and didn’t put him in direct combat.

She was pacing in front of her friends and teammates, thinking about the future. She pointed at the two capable of turning into a Beast Warrior. “You two should concentrate on taking down Petaldramon. Zoe, JP and I can handle Grumblemon if he shows up!”

She was about to say that Zoe could help them learn to dodge when JP facepalmed and said, “I almost forgot!”

He turned to Gotsumon and continued, “Tommy has Grumblemon’s Beast Spirit!” He looked to Tommy for confirmation and the little boy nodded, though he didn’t figure out what he wanted until JP added, “Maybe Gotsumon can control it?”

Gigasmon wasn’t doing Tommy any good, considering that he already had the two Spirits of his own element. Hm, Kei hadn’t thought of that, but it sounded like an excellent idea.

She looked to Gotsumon in anticipation and immediately saw that something was wrong.

The rock digimon had taken several steps and stared at Tommy with wide eyes. “W-What? You... You’ve defeated Gigasmon? You have his Spirit?”

Tommy didn’t seem to know what to make of that and said, “Uhm yes? I can give it to you if you want?”

It turned out, that was the wrong thing to say.

“Give me... Gigasmon?” Gotsumon said in a small voice, barely audible.

What was happening? What was going on?

Kei wanted to take a step towards him but saw JP and Kouji do that already. She didn’t know the digimon, so she stood and watched her two friends concern themselves with him. The digimon had started shaking and his pupils grew small and frightened.

“Gotsumon?” Kouji said, worry in his voice.

But Gotsumon couldn’t hear him, drowning in something only he could see.

“Alright, alright!” JP shouted, hoping to get through to him. “You don’t have to take the Spirit! It’s fine!”

Tommy looked like he was about to cry but fought hard against it. His voice still wavered when he said, “I... I didn’t... Have I done something wrong?”

Honestly, Keisaki herself was a bit overwhelmed. She had no idea what was going on and had trouble caring about it too.

It was Gotsumon himself who answered, “No.” He swallowed nervously and looked to them with cautious eyes. “Of course... Of course, you don’t know—” He stopped and shook his head as if to clear it from bad thoughts. Then he brushed JP’s hand off of him and said harshly, “I’m fine.”

“But—” JP started, unconvinced. He dropped his hand, still obviously spooked.

“I don’t want to talk about it now,” Gotsumon snapped with the attitude Kei was very familiar with. That was exactly how he’d reacted to Kouji and her asking about Garmmon yesterday. His eyes darted around until they landed on Tommy. He flinched when he saw the expression on the little boy’s face and quickly stumbled over an apology. Then he added, “Thanks but I don’t want the Spirit anyway. It’s okay. Really. But don’t go offering that thing to other digimon.”

“Why?” Tommy asked, sudden uneasiness washing over his small face.

Kei would also like to know that. Gotsumon hadn’t had a problem yesterday, with running off with Garmmon.

“Just... Just don’t, okay?” Gotsumon insisted, sounding off balance. He looked around, maybe for a change of topic, flinching when he saw Kouji’s stare that clearly said that the subject wasn’t over by a long shot.

Kei traded a look with Zoe, but the usually empathic girl also had no clue how to help.

Since fretting over what had happened wasn’t productive and with the slowly setting sun reminding them of their time limit, Kei decided to resolve the issue in her own way. She stepped past Kouji to have a better look at the rock digimon and met his guarded stare with an encouraging one of her own. “So can you fight like you are now?”

“I’ll do my best,” he replied, standing a bit straighter.

That actually didn’t sound promising, but Kei didn’t press the issue. They’d see soon enough if this was working out or not.

She dropped the idea of specialized training. There were two things they needed to do now: figuring out Garmmon’s strength and abilities and learning how to work together.

“Okay, if we have time for it, we’ll have a team battle. First, we have to see if Garmmon and his frickin’ laser beam are even safe to work with.” She looked at Kouji for confirmation and he put on a thoughtful expression.

“Tommy and Kouji are on opposing teams for obvious reasons,” she continued. Tommy didn’t look happy, but he had to see her reasoning. She put a hand on her chin, wondering how to balance the teams. The times were over where she could pit everyone against Kouji and call it a day. Tommy had more experience using his Beast Spirit. He’d implemented it in battle successfully while Kouji hadn’t really gotten off to a rousing start.

“Then I’ll take Gotsumon and JP,” Kouji said as if it was obvious.

It probably was. They already spent a day together, mostly fighting.

Kei looked to Tommy and Zoe. Wind and Fire worked well together, and they did work on their teamwork yesterday. They gave her determined nods.

There was just one more thing. Kei turned to the confident leader of Team B. “And you’re sure, you can completely control your Beast Spirit?”

Kouji already had his blue and white D-Tector in hand and was contemplating its display. If his Spirit told him something over the machine, he didn’t say. He raised his head and said, “I am.”

Zoe smiled at everyone, not at all troubled. She clasped her lavender D-Tector, her green eyes fierce and ready. “Let’s go!”

Kei followed suit, summoning the initial data ring around her left hand and brought her own D-Tector across it.

Execute Spirit Digivolve to...

...Anumon!

...Beetlemon!

...Kazemon!  

Execute Beast Spirit Digivolve to... (Ahhhhh!)...

...Garmmon!

...Blizzarmon!

It had been an inkling in the back of her mind. But coming out of her data cocoon and seeing all her friends again, a warm feeling spread in Anumon’s chest. A feeling completely unrelated to the fire always burning inside her. The team was back together and while they’d taken a huge loss, she was sure that they’d manage no problem.

Some of the others weren’t quite so relaxed. Beetlemon picked up Gotsumon and quickly took to the air, giving Garmmon a suspicious look. His caution wasn’t completely unjustified as the quadrupedal creature just stood there, completely motionless. Anumon watched it with concern. Not that the Beast of Light cared much about them. It had its golden eyes firmly trained on Blizzarmon on the other side of the clearing.

Blizzarmon for his part stared right back as if they both realized a great threat in each other.

“Everything alright?” Kazemon asked with her head tilted.

Something in her voice broke the spell and Garmmon shook its head, before fixing her with a gaze. It was Kouji’s voice that said, “Yeah. Just getting used to it.”

“It’s harder than it seems, right?” Blizzarmon chirped with Tommy’s bright voice, entirely unfitting to the large white and brown creature he’d turned into.

“And you can put me down now,” Gotsumon reminded his daring saviour, patting Beetlemon on the armoured forearm.

The Thunder Warrior complied and sheepishly put him down on solid ground. “Well, you can never be too careful!”

“Great, guys!” Anumon said, full of energy once more. Blizzarmon had been peaceful, if excitable yesterday, happy to make all that excess power work for him, so she figured, Garmmon wouldn’t be much different. “Let’s find some rocks and test that awesome laser beam! Eh, and see if there’s a way to actually use that in team training,” she added, almost like an afterthought. Wouldn’t do them much good if Kouji continually disintegrated them.

For now, Anumon couldn’t wait to see what their new addition was capable of when it was actually working on their side! She wouldn’t be disappointed.

-Zoe-

Were We having a good time? It was hard to say.

Garmmon blasting perfectly round holes into head-high boulders had been fun. The blast sites were still smouldering from heat and... pure light? We had no idea how his Giga-Laser worked. One moment, he was taking a deep breath and specks of light gathered around his fanged snout and in the next, a solid beam of light went through stone like a hot knife through butter. Everyone cheered.

What hadn’t been fun was the fact that We, despite having the not insignificant advantage of flight, could not keep up with Garmmon. Oh sure, We’d already been vaguely aware that he was faster. But it was quite another thing to see Garmmon overtake Us in our little race around the clearing. He was so fast! It was so unfair!

It was somehow even worse to see his reaction to this incredible feat. That is to say, there was no reaction. He turned around to look at Us, nodded to himself and moved on!

While We were quietly seething, We took comfort in the fact that Beast Kouji was just as bland, technical and joyless as We came to expect. Where was his competitive spirit?

Anyway, while the ground-bound Beasts were doing some sort of agility thing with the boulders, We were off to the side with Anumon and the new guy, who couldn’t run or jump fast enough to be feasible competition.

“Okay, so you can’t actually walk through stone?” Anumon wanted to know, frowning at her notepad.

“No, it’s just a disguise,” Gotsumon agreed while Beetlemon up in the air shouted something about not consorting with the enemy. We shook Our head. So much for being heralded as the mature and down-to-earth guy.

Anumon was jotting something down, confirming that yes, Gotsumon could turn fully into rock and that yes, he could create a shield of floating stone.

While that all didn’t interest Us that much, since it didn’t involve Us proving to be better than him, there was still something nagging Us. We tilted Our head and asked, “So how did you escape Kouji and JP then? They lost you in the forest and all...”

“I didn’t lose them!” Gotsumon said smugly. “I waited until they left. I have no idea what they thought I was doing. I just couldn’t find Grumblemon afterwards and when I ran into JP later, I had to hide again. He’s—” He stopped abruptly when we all heard an almighty crash. We looked up in surprise and saw a fine cloud of dust hovering over the clearing. We could also see that Beetlemon was trying to look intent and alert at whatever was happening, but it was a losing fight. In the short moment it took Us to fly up to him, he’d broken out into decisively evil-sounding laughter. We were intrigued.

Down below, We saw a straight stretch free of rocks and wheel tracks all over the ground. We started to grin in vindication. Garmmon had learned a valuable lesson about uncontrollable speed. At the end of the line was a huge boulder into which the quadruped beast had evidently slammed at great speed. He was busy shaking off the impact.

He wouldn’t have been a form of Kouji if he’d slammed into the wall snout first, so of course he’d managed to twist around. He’d even almost made the turn before the boulder claimed most of his left side.

“Some trouble with the turns?” We asked gleefully, hoping to sound innocent and helpful.

With an irritable move of his head, Garmmon shooed back the larger Beast of Ice, come to fuss over him, before he looked up and gave Us an annoyed look. Someone seemed to have seen right through Us, but We still smiled at him sweetly. We had gotten a reaction out of him, progress had been made today!

Anumon and her ever-present clipboard were not far behind us, and she deliberately wrote something down while saying, “Well, that doesn’t work.”

It took another minute or two (and another unfortunate meeting with a stone wall) before Garmmon gave up on using the wheels he’d inexplicably attached to his ankles in a rocky minefield like this one. All the while, Anumon was commenting on things like how this was a realistic representation of a possible battlefield in the future and how we should admire the dozen little ambush sides and high vantage points and how this would totally help us to never get caught flat-footed.

Finally, Garmmon had enough. He jumped on top a rock to take advantage of one such high vantage point and looked directly at us. Light began to gather around his snout.

“Uh oh!” said Beetlemon, making to fly out of the way. “What are you doing?”

We too were watching the alignment of that maw carefully to evade a possible attack. It was fast, but this time We would be faster!

We wouldn’t be tested on our deadly-beam-evasion technique because Garmmon turned away at the last second and fired his Giga-Laser at the rock with which he’d had the last unfortunate encounter. The beam of light hit it. There was no sizzling of melting rock, no glowing heat. The light dispersed.

We blinked. The rock remained remarkably intact.

“Seems like I figured that out,” Garmmon said, his voice carried up to us in the air.

We didn’t understand it at first, but Anumon flew down to the unblemished rock and examined it for a second. Then she turned and looked like she really, really wanted to pat Garmmon on the head for whatever great feat he’d just accomplished. She still valued her fingers though and asked instead, “Can you keep that up?”

“It’s less demanding than the real attack,” Garmmon answered. He gave a short nod to Blizzarmon and continued, “I don’t think a Human Spirit can compete with it. Or a normal digimon,” he added after he saw that Gotsumon had climbed on top of a boulder to see what was going on. The rock digimon looked dismayed, but We still hadn’t figured out how Our new teammate ticked, so We couldn’t tell what he really thought.

When Anumon proclaimed that Beetlemon was the only one still allowed to fly when he was hit by the laser beam, We had an epiphany. We suddenly knew what they meant. We were taken several days back to a small forest surrounding a village on a cliff where Lobomon had been allowed to out Us in one hit. It was the continuation of the light sword handle to the face! We gritted our teeth in annoyance and took a deep breath. At least the effect would look flashier today.

We left the others to sort out how Garmmon would affect Blizzarmon without actually testing the hypothesis of ‘probably badly’ and checked the sky. The sun was almost gone now. We hadn’t realized how much time had already passed.

“Guys,” We called out, “are we going to have a fight or are we going back now?”

They didn’t seem to be listening. Blizzarmon was arguing a point, his brown eyes flashing. “No, I can take it! You can’t just decide that I can’t!” He actually managed to make Tommy’s voice ‘holler’.

“I’m not going to shoot a laser beam at you,” Garmmon said, cool and level-headed as always.

In return, Blizzarmon swung one of his large arms at him and with the boulder to the one side and Anumon to the other, you’d think there was no way to avoid a hit to the head. Garmmon dropped the wheels to the ground and moved as far back as he could. The frozen punch only graced him.

“Blizzarmon, stop!” he shouted in an interesting mix of alarmed, calming, and utterly annoyed.

“No, this is unfair!” the Beast of Ice insisted. We zoomed in on the hurt undertone in his voice. There was more to this, especially when he added, “I’m not weak anymore!”

Anumon quickly realized that she was just in the way and joined Us and Beetlemon in the air. “I... I didn’t expect that to happen.”

Tommy had always appeared more assertive to Us in Spirit form, so We weren’t exactly surprised. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to believe that a Beast Spirit just amplified his notions of righteousness. While We could see all that, Our leader still failed to grasp this whole leading business.

We sighed. “Look, he has just won against Gigasmon, and we all know how dangerous that guy was. You can’t tell him to cower in fear of another Beast Spirit.”

“But you haven’t been hit with his Giga-Laser!” Beetlemon said, fist raised emphatically just about as long as it took him to notice Our look. He backed away from Us until he was level with Gotsumon on his boulder, raising both hands in exasperation. “Never mind. It’s just training, why are we even arguing about that?”

By now, Anumon had also noticed a certain absence of sunlight and groaned. “Ugh, this is taking too much time, we should really…” She trailed off with a note of concern as ice walls started to erupt beneath us. “…Of course. Let me try and fix that situation.”

Hah. We wished her good luck but couldn’t really see her succeed. It was probably better to clear the area instead before we all turned into collateral damage.

While Anumon made her way over to the fighting Beast Spirits, Beetlemon turned to Gotsumon, holding out a hand.

“Wait.” Gotsumon ignored the clear offer to take him away. He crossed his arms and stared unblinkingly up at Beetlemon. “You’re saying Blizzarmon wants to beat Garmmon because he doesn’t want to be perceived as weak?”

“Pretty much, right Kazemon?” the Warrior of Thunder agreed.

“Not quite,” We said, tapping Our nose thoughtfully. When all eyes turned on Us, We couldn’t find a good way to continue. We just knew that this was more than a temper tantrum. “It’s just… Tommy looks up to Kouji. A lot,” We finished lamely.

Gotsumon narrowed his eyes and for a moment, We expected him to share his opinion. Which was kind of naïve of Us. He only seemed more approachable than Kouji because he was new and didn’t know any of us. Otherwise, they probably were very similar in how much they wanted to engage in conversation.

That’s why Gotsumon just mumbled a vague “I see.” and quietly slipped off his boulder.

We tried not to take that personally and shared a look with Beetlemon before following him to the edge of the clearing. Behind us, the Beast Spirits continued to fight.