Episode 11: Rise, Spirit of Wind – Fluttering Beauty Kazemon!

"Wow," Wild commented, "that's quite the mess."

"Think we can fix it?" Flamemon wondered.

"I have no idea," Wild replied, sighing.

They stood at the foot of the massive gouge that took out half the mountain. Wild could sense the DigiPower of someone else here, but she couldn't gauge who it could possibly be – the color was the only thing that tipped her off to it being someone other than Aws.

She gestured to it and wondered, "What did it even look like before?"

"Like a mountain," Loaño replied dryly.

Wild threw her a look. Loaño shrugged and put her hands on her hips. "Don't look at me like that," she complained. "I was just answering you."

KiddGarurumon stepped over to the mountain and sniffed. He looked to Wild and wondered, "Don' ya know wha' mountains loo' like?"

Wild sighed again and replied, "I do – but I don't know what they're supposed to look like here." She stepped over to the mountain and went on, "I mean, your entire world is made of computer code. I can code well enough; but I have no idea what sort of code I'm working with. If I knew, it would make things a lot easier."

"Don't think of it like that!" Loaño insisted. She walked up to the empty space of the mountain and said, "Your power is Creation, which means you can make this look like however you want! Whatever it was before doesn't matter, so long as it's repaired and the digimon who lived in this part of the mountain have a home left to return to."

"Yes, but if I do it wrong it will look terrible!" Wild pointed out. "My changes will look completely out of place! It has to look like the mountain it used to be!"

"Calm down, will you?" Loaño grunted, crossing her arms. "Digimon aren't too concerned with aesthetics. Functionality is a lot more important than making something look pretty. Pretty doesn't always mean it will make a good home for a digimon. There's not much to know about what this mountain used to look like – it was a pile of rock with dead trees and dead bushes and a couple of caves here and there. That's all you need to know!"

Wild flinched at the thought. She shook her head and insisted, "I can't fix it; not without knowing what it looked like before – you don't understand!"

"Wild…"

She turned to find Flamemon looking at her funny. His eyes were filled with concern. "Are… are you OK?" he asked.

Wild swallowed and adjusted her ascot. It seemed so tight around her neck. She looked up at the mountain and took a deep breath. Upon her exhale, she told him, "I'm fine… just… this is daunting."

"Yeah," Flamemon admitted, "but we can do it together." He reached out and touched her hand. He grasped it gently and squeezed it reassuringly, a small smile on his face. It was as if he knew what sort of thoughts were running through her head and just how to stop them from overtaking her rationality.

Wild nodded and breathed, "OK; let's get started." DigiPower glowed around her hands as she approached the mountain. She bent down and touched the dry, dead ground and watched as her DigiPower flooded the afflicted area. Rocks and stones began to form, growing from tiny pebbles to dark brown monoliths in seconds. They joined with one another and became one solid mass of rock and stone.

She looked up at what was happening, and then she looked to Flamemon. He smiled at her and cheered, "Its working!"

"Yeah," she murmured, looking back at the growing stones, "it is…"

"This isn't working!" Breezemon cried.

"You think?!" Yukio shouted back. "We're trying to outrun the Digital World's equivalent to an ostrich! And there are two of them!"

"You don't think I know that?!" Breezemon shouted back, fuming.

"Why can't we turn and fight?" Yukio demanded.

"I'm not strong enough!" Breezemon explained. "I'm only a Rookie – they're Champion-level… and there are two of them – as you so kindly pointed out!"

"We can't run forever! Can't you get stronger?"

"I need a partner for that!"

"A what?"

"A human partner!" Breezemon explained hurriedly. "I need a human partner that corresponds to me – one that carries the Spirit of Wind like I do! That's the only way I can digivolve and maybe stand a chance against them!"

Yukio shouted, "Well, how do you find a partner?"

"By – look out!"

Breezemon tackled Yukio to the ground just as a bolt of fire exploded the ground where Yukio had been running. Four more bolts followed, enclosing them with an oblong crater. Breezemon and Yukio stood up, looking at their attackers as they slowed to a stop before them. They grinned at Yukio and Breezemon, thrilled to have caught their prey.

"Oh… crap," Yukio groaned.

"So… what am I supposed to be doing here?" Nikolai wondered. The Boss, after seeing Wild to the aviary, had led Nikolai to a separate room within the castle that contained Digieggs of all kinds and colors, all set apart from one another in separate little beds. The beds themselves looked very comfortable – Nikolai was tempted to lay down on one.

Dinohyumon's Digiegg was set apart from all the others, on a comfy-looking cushion. Strabimon stood near it, his red eyes missing nothing about the egg. The Boss walked further into the room, his cane tapping on the soft floor.

"This is the nursery," he told Nikolai and Strabimon. "Here we keep Digieggs of digimon who live here, or that have been found. It's a safe environment for them to be reborn in, and the eggs are cared for and protected by Swanmon, who are famed for their gentleness and kindness towards things smaller than themselves."

Sounds like my mum, Nikolai thought. "So, what do you want me to do?"

"The corruption that afflicted all the digimon that you've faced so far as foes – aside from the Mushroomon that attacked Wild and Flamemon on their way here – have all been infected with a type of virus that cannot be removed by normal means," the Boss surmised. "What you're here for, Nikolai, is so you can remove it from Dinohumon's Digiegg. See, though he was defeated, he wasn't purified – the virus is embedded within the very Core data the makes up Dinohyumon, which means that when he hatches again he'll still be corrupted by it. The Core data of a digimon remains no matter how many times they are reborn, making any digimon infected with the virus who turns into a Digiegg still trapped by it."

"So you want me to purify him, like I did Golemon?"

"Yes," the Boss replied. He went on, his eyes sad, "If you don't, he'll be stuck in an endless cycle of suffering and, while he wishes with all he has to stop hurting others, he will have no choice but to do so."

Nikolai glanced at Strabimon. Strabimon blinked and murmured, "Sounds like you've dealt with this sort of thing before, Boss."

The Boss tapped his cane against the ground and insisted, "That doesn't matter right now. Nikolai, please; do this. Your DigiPower purifies the virus from digimon's Cores – you're the only one who can do this."

"I'll do it," Nikolai said, nodding. He had a feeling that the Boss was hiding something – but Nikolai knew better than to demand that he reveal all his secrets. The Boss was obviously a powerful digimon, and, according to Wild, very old. Of course he had secrets – everyone did.

Nikolai stepped towards the Digiegg and place a hand on its surface. It was cool and smooth, but Nikolai could feel the virus within. It sent shivers down his spine and made the skin of his hand prickle. Strabimon pricked his ears and laid his hand over Nikolai's. They looked up at each other and nodded.

Closing their eyes, they reached deep within themselves – finding the light that would save Dinohyumon from lifetimes of suffering.

"So, what do we do with them, brother?" one Kokatorimon wondered, his feathers ruffled as the two brothers paced around the crater they'd made around Yukio and Breezemon. "Should we eat them?"

"Of course not, brother," the other Kokatorimon chuckled darkly. "Nature digimon don't taste too good, and our objective is to kill them!"

"Kill us…" Yukio breathed. "Why?" Breezemon stood at his back. He could feel her shivering – she was afraid. Yukio wasn't afraid – this was just a game, right? He couldn't really die here…

"Because you're a Digidestined," one Kokatorimon brother snapped. "You'll ruin their plans… and if you live we'll never become the rulers of the Plains Zone!"

Yukio reached back and took Breezemon's hand in his. She stopped shivering. He felt a trill of fear that seemed to come from her. She was truly afraid of these two digimon. If this was a really a game, why were the NPC's feeling things like this? Shouldn't they know that they would succeed in defeating them?

Maybe this wasn't a game?

Yukio shook the thought from his head. What the hell else could it be? No other explanation made sense!

But something had to be done about those two Kokatorimon. Yukio took a deep breath. If this was a game, then he would live no matter what – he was a player, after all – but Breezemon…

"Let her go," Yukio insisted.

The Kokatorimon brothers looked at one another, and then laughed. One stepped nearer and demanded, "Why should we do that?"

"I'm the one you want, right?" Yukio explained. "Leave her out of this. Take me and let her go free."

"Yukio…" Breezemon began, her tone full of shaky caution.

He let go of her hand and held it up as a sign of surrender. "See? I'll come willingly – just let Twinkle Toes go without a fight."

"Fine; have it your way!" one of the brothers snapped. "Stun Flame Shot!" they both cawed.

Yukio closed his eyes and prepared himself for something miraculous to happen. He could hear the roar of the flames and feel their heat as if they were inches from his face. He was completely calm; unafraid of the outcome.

A scream interrupted his thoughts. Yukio opened his eyes and looked behind him, finding that Breezemon had been turned to stone where she stood – before Yukio, her arms outstretched to protect him.

"What…" Yukio breathed. "No… Twinkle Toes…"

There was no response. Breezemon had been frozen in her place, petrified by the Kokatorimon. Even her thin, papery butterfly wings were made of thin, hard stone. Yukio was frozen, his heart pounding in his ears and lodged in his throat – this wasn't how he'd intended it to be! Even the wind had stopped with her – the plains grass was still and silent.

He glared at the Kokatorimon. "I told you to let her go!" he yelled.

"What's it matter? You'll never see her again!" the brother heckled. One grinned and joked, "Isn't it nice? A statue to commemorate your death! Maybe we'll bury what's left of you beneath it! She was a stupid digimon anyway."

Emotion flooded Yukio. He jumped the gape between him and the Kokatorimon and screamed in fury at their apathy for Breezemon's condition. Raising his fists, he reached outward to pummel his enemies into nothingness.

The Kokatorimon laughed at him and, with a thrust of their wings, sent a powerful, evil breeze that sent Yukio flying backwards. He cracked his head against Breezemon's leg, and he saw stars as pain clashed throughout his body. Blood ran down his forehead and trickled down his nose to his lips. He tasted it and shivered.

This was no game.

No game would allow this to happen to him. No virtual reality game would allow the player to really and truly bleed – there would be some sort of health bar, or something. No, this hurt. It really hurt.

This was real.

Yukio pushed himself up, using Breezemon for balance. Dizziness flooded his vision and blurred his eyesight. He wiped the blood from his face onto his sleeve, his legs shaking at the horror of all this. He looked to Breezemon and stared into her stone face. There were tears in her eyes and down her face, but she had a set look to determination.

She had tried to protect him. To show that it wasn't a game.

"Twinkle Toes…" Yukio murmured. He reached up and touched her face. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"

Wind stirred his hair, and Yukio breathed it in. It was sweet-smelling and strong. It was empowering. His headache dissolved with it, carried away by the wind. A white energy surrounded the hand that was touching Breezemon's face, glowing white with green hues within.

Yukio looked back at the two Kokatorimon. The wind grew stronger, nearly pushing the two birds off their feet. It stirred Yukio's hair, but that was all it did to him despite its strength.

"Gust – Spirit Evolution!" Yukio shouted.

The stone around Breezemon shattered into pieces. The wind grew stronger and surrounded her in a tornado as she shot into the air. A white light blinded them all for a split second as the gale ended, revealing a different digimon.

She was about the size of the average human female, with long purple hair that flowed in the wind. She wore a metal band that covered her eyes, accented by light green faerie wings. She wore a purple and green outfit that looked to be a combination of armor and flight clothing. Her outfit was slightly skimpy, but not incredibly revealing. More faerie wings adorned her gauntlets and garnished her boots. A pair of grand faerie wings came from her back, suspending her in the air. Wind howled all around her and she clenched her fists.

"Kazemon!" she announced.

"Oh, no," the Kokatorimon said in unison.

Kazemon raised her hands and shouted, "Brezza Petalo!" Ten small tornadoes sprouted from her fingertips and roared and screamed as they struck the Kokatorimon. They lifted the birds into the air and then slammed them onto the ground repeatedly, leaving them stunned and battered.

With a flutter of her wings, she streaked towards them. She landed on her feet between them and kicked her legs into the air. "Tornado Gamba!" she shouted, spinning on her hands. She kicked them as she spun, faster and faster, wind gathering around her and increasing her speed until she herself was a tornado of pain and offense. The Kokatorimon were caught up in the flurry of kicks and the tornado itself, spinning them senseless.

Kazemon shot up from the eye of the tornado, allowing it to dissipate, but still letting knock around her opponents. When they finally spun to the ground, on top of one another, dizzy and depleted of their energy, she rushed at them again.

She flipped in mid-air and shouted, "Roseo Temporale!"

Her legs kicked them at a pace that Yukio could not even fathom. She barraged them so hard and so fast with her feet that the Kokatorimon had no time to dodge or fight back. Their bulk was no match for Kazemon's size and speed, and soon enough they dissolved into nothing but white-and-red Digieggs.

Kazemon landed between them. She smirked and flipped her hair with one hand, putting her hands on her hips afterward.

"That, Yukio," she began with a smile, "is how I find my partner."

Yukio looked at her in astonishment. Finally, he sighed and said, "Damn, Twinkle Toes – how did that even happen?"

Kazemon fluttered over to him and tapped him in the chest. "You did it, Yukio – you healed me. If you hadn't healed me, then I would have been petrified forever!"

"I… healed you?" Yukio breathed.

Kazemon nodded. "And if you can heal me, then I think you can heal the little digimon back at the village," she reasoned. "Even if you can't, you have to try. Shamanmon said that the Digidestined were the only ones who could stop the sickness – and the Kokatorimon said that you were a Digidestined. They're meanies, but they wouldn't lie."

Yukio reached up and touched his head. He pulled his fingers away to examine them – no blood. Had he somehow healed himself, too?

Kazemon took his hand in hers and pleaded, "Please – we have to try."

Yukio frowned, and then said, "Sure, Twinkle Toes – let's go back."

Kazemon smiled and laughed before she grabbed Yukio in her arms and took off into the air, giving Yukio no time to get used to the sensation of flying.

If this is real… he thought as he nearly vomited, then this is the most unreal reality that I have ever experienced…

Wild stepped away from the mountainside. She nearly fell backwards as a wave of exhaustion crashed over her. She fell to her knees and looked up at her work.

The mountain was repaired, and it looked just about the same as the rest of the mountain. She had fixed the broken trail and smoothed out the path for the digimon who once called this part of the mountain home. There were plenty of little crevices, trees, and rocks for shelter, too. Wild looked up at it and felt accomplished.

Flamemon knelt down beside her and smiled. He said happily, "You did it, Wild!"

Wild glanced at him and smirked, telling him, "We did it together." She wasn't sure if she would have had the strength had it not been for Flamemon's assistance. Whenever it felt like she would give under the pressure, Flamemon strengthened their bond and took it onto himself. While he couldn't use her DigiPower, he could share the backlash it caused Wild.

"It looks fantastic!" Aquilamon cheered. A smile was plastered on his great big beak. "Wonderful work, Lady Wild!"

Wild, with Flamemon's help, stood. She wasn't about to rebuke Aquilamon for using formalities – she felt pretty good about herself for doing this. She had created a mountain out of nothing but excess code and her imagination. She smiled at her work and nodded.

She turned to Loaño, who was standing beside KiddGarurumon. "What now?" Wild wondered to her.

The Princess glanced Wild's way and offered, "I have somewhere to be – you take Aquilamon and go back to the castle."

"I can't just leave you," Wild insisted.

"The Boss will be very upset," Flamemon added. "I mean… he'll be upset anyway because you left in the first place, but if you don't come back with us…"

"This is important," Loaño insisted. "Trust me."

"We have no reason not to," Wild pointed out, "but the Boss is someone that I have no desire to piss off. Princess, I can't let you go off somewhere like this. You might get hurt."

Loaño looked at KiddGarurumon and then back at Wild. Pouting, she laughed, "Are you suggesting that Kidd isn't enough to protect me? Please! I'm going, Wild – and I'll be back. Don't worry. Puzzles don't put themselves together, you know."

Puzzles… Wild thought. Realization flooded her and she thought on, Oh; so that's what she's doing. The last piece of the puzzle that she mentioned before… is she going to fetch them like she did Nikolai?

"I need to go," Loaño offered. She clambered easily onto KiddGarurumon's back. Sitting atop his broad shoulders, she looked like a small child. She waved and said, "We'll be back. Don't worry so much!"

KiddGarurumon let out a grunt and turned away from the mountains. He lumbered into the trees, and Wild, Flamemon, and Aquilamon watched him disappear into the shadows. Wild looked to Aquilamon and sighed.

"Mind taking us back?" she asked.

"Of course not, m'Lady," Aquilamon said. He bent down so that Wild and Flamemon could mount. "I'll have you back at the castle before you know it."

"Thank you," Flamemon offered. He bounded up Aquilamon's body, resting comfortably on his back. Flamemon's tail flicked from side to side as he looked down to Wild. "Coming?"

"Yeah," Wild told him. She looked back at the mountain that she had just repaired. It was such a great feat, and she had done it without too much effort. She narrowed her eyes and frowned.

We can stop you, whoever you all are. And we will, she thought. This world is not yours to destroy.