Chapter 11: Birdramon's Descent
Just moments before our faces gets devoured by Okuwamon, a voice shouts out, "Meteor Wing!" from the sky, which stops the Digimon's actions immediately. It shifts towards the source and seems to be searching for the location of the voice. It goes on for a while before the Digimon freezes in place and starts to speak.
"Birdramon! Darn it, why are they here so fast?" I didn't think I would ever hear Okuwamon say anything else other than 'death' or roaring, but here I am listening to it. Though eyeless, the Digimon was visibly troubled, snapping away with its pincers.
"He's going to burn down my home at this rate! But I can't just..." Okuwamon suddenly turns to look at us. I stare back at it with a blank look, hoping that it would just go away from us or something. My prayers came true as the insect Digimon whirls to the sky, spreading its white wings out and beats the air with them.
It lifts its rather heavy body off the two Digimon and flies to the sky, sparing two dumbfounded children and their half-dead partners. It was only then I could finally breathe as I splutter for air.
"Oh, god, I can finally breathe again!" Gaomon quickly sits up, taking in the air as if it was his last breath. Gazimon, on the other hand, just flips over on his back, calmly breathing in.
"How are we alive?! Shinsuke, tell me, how are we alive?!" The blue dog Digimon crawls over to his human partner and shakes him by the legs. However, Shinsuke doesn't respond. In fact, he hasn't said anything for a while now.
Gaomon stops shaking him. "Umm... Shinsuke?"
The boy suddenly wavers to the side and falls limply, landing on me. "Whoa!" I barely react before nearly getting pushed to the ground by his fall.
"Shinsuke!" Gaomon rises to his feet and rushes over.
Okay, I have an unconscious boy in my arms right now. It's not the first time I've carried him, but my mind wasn't clear then and it just sort of happened. Someone tell me how to approach this!
He's still breathing, but his skin is pale, almost as white as my hair. He also seems to be trembling slightly and, his body is cold to touch. Conclusion? I don't know.
"What's wrong with him? Why did he suddenly collapse?" Gaomon asks the same questions which are running through my mind, unanswered. His bright, yellow eyes gaze at me, pleading me for answers. It's so hard to resist them! But what do I say?
"Move aside, let doctor Gazimon handle this." The canine Digimon walks over with a proud look and, his chest puffed out.
"Since when were you a doctor?"
"Since now. Here's my ID." He flashes me a leaf with man-made claw marks spelling out, 'Dcr'.
Huh, so that's a legitimate ID card for a doctor? I didn't know.
"Gazimon, that's not-" The doctor cuts him off by putting a finger to his mouth.
"Shhh. Do you want the diagnosis or not?"
The two of us nod, not knowing what the word 'diagnosis' meant. Gazimon stretches his claws out, cracks the bones in them and moves over to Shinsuke, proceeding to inspect the unconscious boy with much focus. After a minute or so, numbness starts to take over my already damaged arms.
"Are you done yet?" I ask, tired from waiting for seemingly an eternity.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm done." The canine Digimon says, looking over to Gaomon and me with another proud look.
"As such," he takes a professional tone. "I have come to a fascinating conclusion that this dear patient of yours is... merely exhausted. He's just really, really tired from all the fights from Fly- Okuwamon. As for the trembling, I guess he feels cold."
"You guess?" I raise an eyebrow at him.
"Hey, I never said I was a professional!"
Before I could question Gazimon any further, a booming sound resounds through Kunemon's Bed, shaking the ground we stand on. The three of us topple down with gravity.
"Oh, give us a break already! What now?!" Gazimon irritatedly shouts. A gust of wind blows over our heads, bringing my attention to the sky. There, a bird coated in orange flames has its distance from the earlier insect Digimon, Okuwamon. Behind the flaming bird, several smaller, pink birds fly behind it, though they're struggling to do so.
"That's Birdramon, right? What is it doing all the way out here?" Gaomon identifies the Digimon for me as all three of us share the same view.
"Birdramon... Wasn't Okuwamon saying something about it? Like, how he mentioned that Birdramon was burning down his home?" Gazimon says, turning to us.
Home? Wait a minute...
"Isn't Okuwamon's home supposed to be Kunemon's Bed?"
Questions after questions, yet they manage to provide an answer for each other. We look to the entrance to this pathway.
Orange flames greet us for the first time, devouring the trees instantly and growing into a larger size as it aims to envelop the whole of Kunemon's Bed. They hadn't reached the narrow pathway yet, but at this rate, they may eat it up soon.
"F-Fire?! We better run for it!" Gaomon goes into a running position.
"We really can't catch a break at all, can we?" Gazimon goes on all fours, stretching his body behind. Carrying Shinsuke on my back, I made sure his arms are around my neck.
This will, hopefully, be my last running marathon for the day. I don't know how much longer my body can last.
"Gah, it feels like I'm being cooked alive!" I cry out, running through this absurdly narrow pathway. Who even thought of making this kind of path? Despite my best efforts, I still lag behind the two Digimon, who's busy yelling and screaming for their lives while running. Actually, being behind is now perfectly okay. It's better to have these flames chasing nearer to me than to hear them scream out their throats.
The once purple leaves were burnt to a crispy black, showing almost no trace of ever being a leaf at all. Orange flames engulf the trees beside me. They try to reach out towards the ground and lick me with their heat, as I imagine a face of joy in the fire. Sweat drips down my face, occasionally going into my eyes, as my clothing soaks it up and Shinsuke's breath against my neck brings me many goosebumps.
I will never, ever wish this experience upon anyone, not even you or your worst enemy.
"Graargh! Stop it!" A third yell joins the Digimon chorus for yelling, sounding just above. I spare a look at the sky and witness a brief moment of the fight between Okuwamon and Birdramon. The insect Digimon looks tired out, its body wavering in flight while Birdramon flaps its wings with ease, having a flock of pink birds behind it. It's obvious who's going to be the victor in this fight.
"Consider this payback for your little ambush last time, Okuwamon." Birdramon takes a prideful tone in its voice, raising its wings to the side. The pink birds behind it chant, 'Yeah!' and 'Meanie!', all except for one pink bird. In fact, that bird looks very confused, as if it just got a pair of wings to flap about with. It could barely keep itself in flight, given how many times it almost dropped or lagged behind the flock.
"Partner! We're nearly there!" Gazimon brings my eyes back to the ground. "It's just a few seconds away!"
"Yeah, just don't go back into screech mode, or I'll never be able to reach there." The other voice speaks, enveloping my body in coldness for one second before disappearing again. Huh, he's been slipping into my voice a lot more often and with much ease too. I wonder if that's a good thing...
Gazimon and Gaomon stopped their screeching, something I didn't think I would be really grateful for. The nearer we got to the exit, the smaller the flames became, barely any signs of burn damage or fire anywhere on the flammable trees. However, there weren't any Kunemon either. It was just the three of us and some broken eggs on the path.
And just as I thought of that, Okuwamon broke my thoughts apart as it crashed right in front of us. Gazimon and Gaomon managed to stop in time and, I was too far behind to even be affected by it. The insect Digimon lays on the ground, scorch marks littering its silver body and having only one pincer with it. Birdramon flies in and attempts to set off another attack when it notices us.
The majestic orange bird stops its attack.
"Two rookies and... humans?!" Its blue eyes narrow on Shinsuke and me. Well, this is uncomfortable. "You two do not seem to be inhabitants of Kunemon's Bed. Are you trespassers?"
"Ye-" Gazimon elbows Gaomon in the stomach, preventing him from speaking any further.
"Nah, we got kidnapped by Okuwamon here. We were only trying to escape." Gazimon lies through his teeth, keeping a calm tone.
Birdramon narrows its eyes once more. It takes a moment to look at the two Digimon, then at Shinsuke and me again.
"Hm, what do you think?" The majestic bird turns to its flock and asks its question. Most of the pink birds respond with a chant of, 'Spare them!' while some chant, 'Dubious'. Once again, the same pink bird doesn't say anything, still looking very confused. Instead, it takes notice of me and begins to stare at me with its sapphire eyes.
I try to ignore it, but there isn't much to look at in this path. There's only trees, burnt trees, half-burnt trees, broken eggs, not broken eggs, Birdramon and those two Digimon. Yeah, they aren't that interesting to look at.
Birdramon turns back to us. "My flock deems to spare you, so spare I shall. May we meet again in another-"
"Raargh!" Okuwamon suddenly comes to life, roaring away. It catches all of us off-guard, taking the opportunity to grab Birdramon's neck with its pincer.
"Hgghk! Y-You...!" The phoenix Digimon struggles to speak as Okuwamon's pincer tightens its grip on its neck. The pink birds try to save their leader, spewing out a spiral green flame. They make contact with the Digimon's body, but they barely left any mark on it.
"Attack again, and your leader goes." Okuwamon threatens, gripping tighter to back up its threat. The pink birds back away unwillingly, keeping its distance from the insect Digimon.
"That's so low..." Gaomon whispers, making sure his voice couldn't be heard by it.
"Well, at least we're lucky to not be at the receiving end of that pincer." Gazimon says in a rather cold tone.
"How could you just say that? Birdramon saved us from Okuwamon!" I argue, glaring at my partner.
Gazimon stares back. "Yeah, I know that. But, we aren't in any shape to fight! We're better off staying quiet and staying out of this fight. Right, Gaomon?"
The two of us look to the blue dog Digimon for his final opinion. His yellow eyes flicker between the two of us, then to Okuwamon and Birdramon before finally setting them on the cowering pink birds.
"... Let's save them!" He makes up his mind.
I cheer to myself while Gazimon grunts loudly.
"Yeah, let's just throw our lives away again after narrowly escaping the first fight. Such a smart idea..." The canine Digimon mutters to himself bitterly, folding his arms and flicking his tail wildly about. "So, what smart ideas do you two have?"
"I didn't get to that stage yet..." I sheepishly say. I'm not good with any of this planning stuff. The only one that would definitely be good with it is busy being unconscious and sleeping on my back.
"Well... What if we try to loosen Okuwamon's grip on Birdramon? We can distract it with your Electric Stun Blast while I go in with some melee attacks." Gaomon suggests. "It worked on Flymon pretty well!"
Though I find the idea quite good, Gazimon only scoffs at it, shaking his head. "First off, that's not Flymon, it's Okuwamon right now. Second, what makes you think I would put myself in danger by distracting it while you attempt to pry open the pincer? That Digimon could easily snap Birdramon's neck in an instant, if it decides to, or lunge at me and throw me into the fires! We need a guaranteed success plan, not something superficial!" Gazimon completely shuts down the plan with a huff and a bitter tone, causing Gaomon to shrink away and stay silent.
"Hey, you didn't have to shout at him for that." I say lightly, feeling sorry for the boxer Digimon. However, my partner ignores my words and continues on.
"If you really want this plan to work, then we're going to need more than one source of distraction." I try to raise my hand and volunteer, but the canine Digimon expects that and turns to me immediately. "And I am not endangering my partner for this!"
"Hey! You don't have to be so overprotective of me! I can handle myself just fine!" Sure, I may not be the most athletic person out there, but I can at least defend myself and fight. He doesn't have many rights to restrict me from doing this!
I was about to enter another argument with Gazimon when a pink bird suddenly drops in between us, nearly causing me to fall backwards. Though, it was funny seeing Gazimon and Gaomon jump out of their skins because of this. Their surprised looks are priceless!
"Argh, why can't I even fly straight?!" the pink bird Digimon complains, sitting up and rubbing the top of its head with its wing. It then takes notice of us, standing up immediately.
"Oops! Did I get in the way of your discussion?"
Again, I'm surprised that this Digimon was capable of stringing words to a sentence since all I've ever heard from it was just chants of words.
"It's okay, the discussion was already going to end with no plan in mind." Gazimon bluntly says, shrugging his shoulders.
"No plan?!" The Digimon's eyes almost boggle out of its head as it flaps its wings in agitation. "Weren't you guys discussing just now?!"
"Well..." Gaomon starts to speak again, though timidly. "We can't do it alone. We need someone to play a second distraction to make it work."
For a moment, the Digimon's sapphire eyes radiated a blue glow in them. "You just need a second distraction only?! I'm happy to help-" We immediately pull down the pink bird Digimon to the ground, clasping its beak close with my hand. I look over my shoulder, seeing if Okuwamon had noticed anything. Thankfully, it retains its same position, resting on the ground to recover from all the injuries sustained. Birdramon seems to be holding on as well, but it doesn't look like it can keep it up any longer.
"I'm happy to help..." It says in a softer voice.
Gaomon and I glance to Gazimon for agreement, hoping that he would agree with the plan. He stares back for a second, before finally giving up and with an exasperated sigh, he reluctantly says, "Fine. Let's do this."