Chapter 10: Rescue
Everyone neared the unconscious Unimon, where Taichi and Valcrist, who had already shrunk back to an Agumon, were standing. Sora was still holding the unconscious Riella in her hands, and Reye was still in his Champion form, Kabuterimon. Taichi breathed hard.
"Hhh... hhh... We finally beat him." He said, looking at his recently-appeared friend and the big blue bug beside him. "All thanks to your rescue."
Koshiro smiled. "No problem!" Then he turned his attention to the Unimon. "But, what happened? Why was this Digimon so aggressive?"
"No idea," Sora answered. "It just appeared out of nowhere and started firing at us."
"That's impossible," Reye suddenly stepped forward, surprising Taichi. "I've seen some Unimon before. They are kind and gentle Digimon, and they don't attack without a reason."
"Well, this one sure did," Sora commented.
"I don't think so, Sora," Taichi said. "When we were fighting him, me and Valcrist saw something on his back. It was kinda like a black gear. I think that's what made the Unimon attack us."
"Uh-huh, I saw it too," Reye agreed. "The moment I laid my eyes on it, I could feel something was weird with it. Like it was something... evil."
Everyone was silent for a while. It was Valcrist who broke the silence. "You have eyes?" he asked, directing the question at Reye. All of them looked up to observe the Kabuterimon and, indeed, he had no visible eyes!
"It was a figure of speech, Valcrist," Reye replied calmly. Valcrist looked disappointed. "Oh."
Koshiro went on. "Okay, so you think that that black gear somehow hypnotized the Unimon and made it attack you, Sora, and that other boy?"
Taichi nodded. "Akira. And his Digimon partner, Zamber." He walked to the edge where they both fell and tried to see them, but no luck. Those two were out of sight. After all, it was a long way down. Taichi closed his eyes and hoped they were alright. Was it possible they didn't make it?
"Taichi?" Sora asked gently from behind. "What do you think we should do now?"
He opened his eyes and looked back to appraise all of them. Sora looks worried, Riella was still out cold, Koshiro understands little about the digivolution that just took place, Valcrist was exhausted and he himself was weary. Taichi breathed in.
"We have to look for Akira and Zamber, but we're gonna have to get off this mountain."
"You mean circle round the back? Go back from where we came?" asked Valcrist. Taichi "uh-huh"ed, nodding.
"Why?" Koshiro asked. "Reye can fly; he can easily go down there and search for them." This time Taichi shook his head.
"No can do. Right now, he's the only one who has the strength to fight off any other Digimon that might come and try to blast us into smithereens. We're going to need him here at all times."
"But Taichi..." Sora started, but he knew what she was going to say.
"Sorry Sora, but unlike Birdramon, Kabuterimon can't fly people around. Look at him; he just wasn't built for it." He then looked at Reye apologetically. "No offense."
"None taken," Reye responded coolly.
She was silent for a few moments, but then smiled. "I get it. You're right, Taichi." He was glad she understood.
"So what do we do about him?" asked Reye. He was looking (maybe) at the Unimon.
"I know he might just be an innocent victim of some sort of evil brainwashing, but carrying him with us is out of the question. Finding our friends is our top priority right now. That includes Akira and Zamber," Taichi answered, surprisingly stern.
Koshiro said, "I guess you're right."
Taichi nodded. "Well then, let's go." And he lead the group away, towards the path downhill, through the all the bulbous vegetation they passed earlier, with Reye hovering above all of them. Valcrist was walking near the Champion Digimon.
"So seriously, do you have eyes?"
XXXXXXX
Somewhere in a jungle, away from the mountains, a girl was running.
"Poison Ivy!" something green shouted, and from it came shooting out long tendrils of colorful ivy that wrapped themselves around a big yellow creature. It fell down.
"Aaaaaaahhh noooo, get away from me!" the girl screamed while running away.
"Come back, Mimi! You have to stay by my side!" the green thing called out to the girl, but she didn't stop. "Hey, Mimi!"
The girl stopped short of her tracks a second later as her path got blocked by two more of the creatures. "Nooooooo!" she screamed as she closed her eyes and grabbed her big pink hat tightly.
"Poison Ivy, widespread!" a voice rang out beside her, and she opened her eyes to see the two yellow dragonfly-like Digimon being held firmly in place - while hovering in the air - by ivies. She looked to her side and saw a green humanoid plant with colorful petals on top of it and, oddly, a mouth with fangs and a short tail. The ivies came from the plant's hands.
"Uurrgh, you Yanmamon won't get the best of me. I won't let you hurt Mimi!" the plant Digimon exclaimed while holding the Yanmamon in place. The Yanmamon pair squirmed and struggled to get free, but it looked like the ivies the plant trapped them in were laced with toxin, because the girl saw they were getting weaker and weaker until they finally dropped to the ground, unmoving.
She was about to let out a breath when suddenly more Yanmamon came rushing at high speed, and in no time at all they were completely surrounded. The loud buzzing of their wings filled the afternoon air.
"Oh no! There's no way out!" the girl in red clothes cried out. "Viana, do something!"
Viana the plant stayed silent, her expression serious. The two were in the middle, with Yanmamon in front of them, behind them, above them, and to all their sides. The swarm they had spent the whole day running away from had finally caught up. There were at least fifteen of them.
"This is bad," she said. She was strong enough to take down one or two of these things at a time - they are, after all, weak Champion-level Digimon - but not when they gang up like this. This is exactly why Viana hated bugs.
The Yanmamon were coming close from all sides now, the buzz of their wings was deafening. "Viana, protect me!" the brunette in red yelled in fear.
Viana geared up and got ready for the worst. "Poison..." she readied herself when suddenly there was ruffling in the grass to their left.
"Howling Blaster!" and an unbelievable wave of blue fire shot out and completely engulfed three Yanmamon beside Mimi and Viana. The attack came so fast that its sheer presence surprised Mimi more than the actual heat of the blast. She yelled "Gyaaah!" in surprise.
Viana, however, was quick to react and took the opportunity to launch a powerful Poison Ivy attack on a Yanmamon in front of her, paralyzing it with her poison. And then, a shadow leaped out of the bushes and ran towards the swarm of yellow dragonflies. "Slamming Attack!" and a body slam knocked down a Yanmamon behind Mimi and Viana.
Some of the Yanmamon above retaliated. "Thunder Ray!" they fired, aimed at the mysterious intruder, but the large white beast moved around all the attacks, the Thunder Rays hitting nothing but ground and trees and stones.
Another Howling Blaster and two more Yanmamon fell. More Thunder Ray attacks and some rocks exploded and tree branches caught fire. Viana joined the mayhem and launched toxin-filled Poison Ivy attacks at other groups of Yanmamon.
Mimi, the girl in red, crouched where she stood and cowered in terror. "Nooooooo! I don't wanna die yet! I'm still too young to go!"
"We're not dead yet, Mimi. Look!" Viana called out to her amidst all the fighting.
"No no no! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die!" she kept screaming in fear, which really annoyed Viana.
"Mimi! We're saved, so just open your eyes and stop yelling!"
"What?" the girl said disbelievingly, not daring to look.
"Mimi! Come on!" a familiar voice suddenly came from somewhere near her. When she heard the voice, Mimi opened her eyes and saw a blonde boy in a green sleeveless shirt and blue pants. He was sitting on top of a large white wolf-like thing with blue stripes over its fur. It had pink claws and a long curly tail.
"Yamato!" she exclaimed, and suddenly she feels relieved. She's saved!
"Thunder Ray!" and a streak of lightning struck the ground behind her, and it made her skin crawl with shock.
"Mimi, get on! Hurry!" Yamato commanded with an intense expression. He held out his hand towards her. "We're getting out of here now!"
At the same time, the wolf he was riding on opened its mouth and shot "Howling Blaster!" at an approaching Yanmamon, growling fiercely afterwards. With all the jolts of lightning and blue fire being launched this way and that, Mimi had no choice but to quickly grab her friend's outstretched hand.
"Let's go!" Mimi said, but Yamato was focused on something else.
"Wait, your Digimon partner. Call it here!" he said, pointing at Viana who was still fending off the Yanmamon.
"What? Oh, uh, yeah, sure." She got past Yamato and sat behind him. "Leave it to me. You tell this Digimon to go right now!"
Yamato looked uncertain, but he trusted Mimi knew what she was doing. "Gravlos, get us out of here!"
The wolf Digimon shot out one final breath of blue flames before tensing its legs and then ran off. Yamato looked at Mimi with apprehension. "But what about-"
"Viana! Reach out to me!" she shouted loudly, her hat hanging on her neck to her back. The plant Digimon sharply turned its back on the Yanmamon, saying "Bye, fellas!" and shot out its Poison Ivy at Mimi. She grabbed it.
"Yamato, help me pull her in." And he did. With their combined strength they managed to pull Viana towards them, and suddenly the three of them were riding on the white wolf's back, running away from the swarm of big, yellow, lightning-launching dragonflies.
The Yanmamon wasted no time and shot after them, and their high speed chase began.
XXXXXXX
Earlier that day...
Two shapes are rolling down a cliff side, tumbling and stumbling and heading down ever so quickly. Beneath them was a sea of treetops.
Akira had knocked Zamber out of the way of Unimon's high-pressure air blast at the last second, and unintentionally made them fall down the mountainside, the painful way.
"Zamber!" he shouted.
"Akira!" his partner, Zamber the Elecmon, shouted back.
"Hang on!" Akira tried to get a grip on the rocky cliff face with his gloved hand, and miraculously managed to do it. With his free hand he tried to catch his partner, reaching out as far as he could, but fate didn't help him this time as he missed Zamber and the small Digimon continued plummeting below.
"Zamber! Dammit, I missed him!" Akira cursed.
"Akiraaaaaaaaaaa!" Zamber shouted, his eyes wide with fear.
Without thinking, Akira kicked the cliff face on where he hung and did a backflip in the air, effectively propelling himself downwards faster than Zamber. "Hold on, buddy!" he said as he wrapped his right arm around the Elecmon's body, at the same time as they hit leaves and branches. They had burst through the canopy, and it was a long way down to the ground.
Akira used his body to shield his partner from the oncoming rush of wood. "Ow, urgh, gyaargh, errgh, ouch, woa, heaa, raaagh!" random sounds of pain Akira muttered, before finally he caught a tree branch with his left hand and their fall came to a sudden halt. A very painful taut on Akira's part.
But before they could even breathe, the branch suddenly went SNAP and broke off the tree. Akira and Zamber fell again, and crash-landed on something bulgy.
The boom of their fall echoed throughout the woods. "Uuuugh. That... really hurt." Akira moaned in agony while doubling over in pain, when what he and Zamber fell on moved and got up.
"Ugh. What the heck just fell from the sky?" the big green thing barked.
"STRAVEL?"