Quick note, I'm still practicing writing fight scenes, so... Sorry if it's bad :/
Also... I've kinds lost my touch when it comes to writing this story (again). It'll come back, I'm sure, but for now...
I'll probably not be as consistent with my update schedule anymore, but who knows? Hopefully I'll get back into writing this soon.
Anyways, happy pride month and hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not nor will I ever own Digimon or any of its characters. I do own Sophia, Sonamon, the Beast Spirit that's gonna be revealed soon, any and all plot changes and any character that isn't shown on the wiki page.
Beetlemon grunted as he was kicked back into a pillar. The fight had only just started, but all non-possessed warriors had bruises that would count for hours of fighting already. BurningGreymon was relentless. He struck KendoGarurumon with his tail when he noticed the white digimon coming from behind.
Sonamon and Lowemon tried to get him from the back now that he was distracted by Koji, but that didn't work out. BurningGreymon turned around to grab Beetlemon by the head, and saw them coming towards him. Like with the other two, Sonamon and Lowemon easily got knocked back by wing and arm.
BurningGreymon finished what he started and grabbed Beetlemon by the head. He ran at KendoGarurumon, who was still on the ground recovering from the pain of the impact, and threw Beetlemon at him. The two warriors collided hard.
When BurningGreymon went in for another kick, Lowemon shadow meteor'ed him back, saving his brother and friend from another set of bruises. Sonamon flew circles around the beast to distract him when he tried going for the trio again. It worked as now he was trying to punch the ever-living crap out of the flying warrior. When he kept missing, the flame warrior directed his anger to one of the few remaining pillars, shattering it in little pieces.
While the warriors regrouped, BurningGreymon suddenly began screaming. It was the same kind of screaming they heard when Shamanmon was possessed. Painful. He was hurting.
"There has to be a way to stop him." KendoGarurumon spoke. Even he couldn't stand seeing someone he'd kinda...maybe...sorta gotten close-ish to in pain like that.
Beetlemon looked at him. "But how?" He glanced at Sonamon and Lowemon. "Your 'fighting until he's weakened' tactic obviously isn't working."
Sonamon just shot another glare at the blue armored digimon. "I'd still love to hear you come up with a better idea."
Koji already wasn't listening to this childish banter anymore. Instead he'd started walking closer to the beast digimon to challenge him. "Alright! If it's a fight you want, fight me!"
That brought Beetlemon back from his glare contest with the only female digimon of the group. BurningGreymon was now staring directly at him.
Nope! He was not gonna be this guy's snack because of something Koji said! "Don't look at me!" He said as he flew out of the way.
KendoGarurumon landed on the spot where Beetlemon had just been standing. He took his fighting stance. BurningGreymon stared him down, but not for long. He was soon charging at the wolf digimon full running-speed.
KendoGarurumon remained where he stood though. He decided to try a long range attack instead of continuously charging and failing to even scratch the other warrior.
"LUPINE LASER!" A white beam shot from his mouth aimed at BurningGreymon's feet.
Unfortunately the beast of flame had faster reflexes then expected, and he simply jumped before it hit him. He landed on KendoGarurumon's head, pinning him down so he could strike him with his claws.
None of the other three warriors liked this idea. Sonamon and Beetlemon flew at him to knock him over. Luckily the beast was caught off-guard so they easily got him off of Koji.
The four of them quickly fled into the woods. Bad idea in retrospect, but whatever.
"PYRO BARRAGE!" They heard BurningGreymon yell, which surprised them. Up until now the only things that came out of his mouth were growls and screams of pain. Wait- Was that an attack?!
Sure enough a barrage of little fireballs came through the woods. They ended up hitting trees mostly and blasting them to little bits. But that was exactly the problem... Soon after beginning the attack, part of the forest was nothing more then a sea of flames.
"We have to do something before he levels the whole forest." Beetlemon called out over the roars of the flames. "Or the whole world!"
KendoGarurumon dropped the wheels to the ground. "I'll stop him."
He left the other three as soon as he said that. The blades on his back spread out to cut any trees that he passed. It concerned JP that he was doing this. Was he trying to help destroy the forest?!
Lowemon noticed what he did, however. "Of course, he's cutting down the trees to prevent the flames from spreading further!"
"So we just have to cut down the trees that are on fire?" Sonamon asked him as Lowemon already started helping his brother.
"Not all of them. That would take too long." he told the girl. "Just the ones on the edge of the flames. And push them towards the middle."
Still a little unsure of what that meant, Sonamon went to help cutting the trees.
All four warriors worked together to cut down the trees and prevent more trees from being set aflame. Unfortunately, after the fire had finally died down, there was absolutely nothing to save from that piece of forest. The trees were completely scorched black and ashes were literally everywhere.
"Oh man." Beetlemon groaned as he saw the destruction of the fire. "If he keeps this up, they're gonna have to rename it the 'Burned-To-A-Crisp' Kingdom."
"If he keeps this up there won't be a kingdom to name." Sonamon threw in her own bit.
Sounds of stomping came from behind, catching KendoGarurumon's attention. It was hard to see through the smoke, but that problem was soon solved. BurningGreymon appeared from the smoke, headed straight for Beetlemon and Lowemon. Had they really forgotten about the giant, raging digimon that started this mess?!
'Oh no, you don't!' KendoGarurumon lunged at the other beast, only to receive a kick to the face.
Lowemon, shield and lance in hand, tried the same once he noticed the attack on his brother. Unfortunately he was quickly pushed aside by BurningGreymon's tail. Sonamon received a headbutt backwards and a claw to the back to make her join her friends.
Beetlemon, though, got the worst of it. After a knee to the stomach, BurningGreymon thought it'd be nice to stomp on him repeatedly. After about 5 stomps he stopped, but he raised his claw instead.
"Takuya don't! It's me!" Beetlemon cried out in fear.
In sudden hesitation, BurningGreymon lowered his claw. 'Wait, what am I doing?' Came his voice, only audible to the warrior of sound.
His eyes began to glow blue, which Beetlemon noticed.
'Gotta stay calm. Stay in control.'
He stepped off Beetlemon, who quickly rolled away from his reach, just in case. He joined the other warriors, who were watching full of tension the former motionless BurningGreymon looked around.
'These guys are my friends. I have to keep reminding myself of that.' He saw KendoGarurumon and Beetlemon through BurningGremon's eyes. A bit behind them were Lowemon and Sonamon. 'Wait a second. If they are my friends, why are they attacking me?' His vision shifted, making the digimon seem similar, but different. He remembered how every difference in a digimon meant they were a different species. 'Maybe they are the enemy.'
"No! Takuya, we are your friends!" Sonamon shouted, for once not caring that she made no sense to anyone but Koichi. "Keep reminding yourself! You just said it yourself!"
"What are you talking about?" Beetlemon snapped. "Now you see him as Takuya? You kept saying how he wasn't there before and now you change your mind?!"
"Priorities, JP!" Sonamon shouted in fear when BurningGreymon, eyes now glowing red, came charging at them.
The four of them scattered. Thankfully BurningGreymon hit no one, not even when he tried to hit Koji with his tail again.
Then came that horrid growl. It stopped everyone in their tracks. Sure he'd been growling since Spirit evolving... but not like this! The growls that used to sound human enough to know Takuya was there were gone, replaced by the most beastly roar any of them ever heard. Takuya seemed to be gone again.
BurningGreymon turned his head, apparently being focused on something else. He spread his wings and lifted off in a different direction.
"Where is he going?" Beetlemon asked.
The two flying warriors flew up high to get a better view. The beast flew towards a bare hill. No trees, only rocks. At least the chances of starting an everything-destroying sea of fire were smaller there.
Beetlemon's eyes narrowed. What were those things going up the hill? His eyes suddenly widened with a gasp. "He's going after Zoe!" he shouted as he left.
The warriors down below heard his scream and were quick to follow the flying duo to the hill. Of course the flying warriors arrived first, and just in time too. BurningGreymon was having a stare down with the human duo and was twitching ever so slightly, meaning he was ready to strike.
Beetlemon dove down, hoping his plan would work. "Cut it out!" he called. It had the response he'd hoped for as he slammed his horn in the beast's face when he looked up.
"Back to the burning forest!" Beetlemon and Sonamon heard Bokomon say as well as footsteps getting further away from them.
KendoGarurumon and Lowemon had reached the top of the mountain by now and were making their way to where the thunder and sound warriors were. Not that Beetlemon could see it. After his collision with BurningGreymon the beast was less than pleased about it. He'd grabbed the warrior of thunder by the face as soon as he could.
Sonamon tried to help him by attacking his back with her sound boom in shield form, but got the smack down with his tail. KendoGarurumon finally arrived at the scene, but before he could do anything he got Beetlemon thrown at him. When Lowemon tried to help by distracting the possessed warrior so his friends could recover from the impact, he got slammed into a rock, back-first and went motionless. He was still conscious, and the damage wasn't serious enough to release his Spirit, luckily, but he did need a moment to recover.
Sonamon and Beetlemon teamed up to knock BurningGreymon down. The warrior of sound once again used her sound boom shield form and Beetlemon used lightning blitz to launch her at his torso. Unfortunately they underestimated BurningGreymon's strength. The combined attack barely pushed him back, but after he headbutted Sonamon to the ground and grabbed Beetlemon by the face again.
When he dragged Beetlemon through the rock-hard ground, the warriors suddenly heard someone call out.
"Takuya, no!" Tommy.
There was no time to pay attention to him. They had to focus on the beast in front of them. The beast who was now dragging the warrior of light over the ground. When Tommy stopped in front of BurningGreymon, he'd just finished picking up and slamming KendoGarurumon onto the ground.
"Takuya..." Tommy couldn't believe this was his big brother figure. Koji could be really hurt from that attack. His eyes went from KendoGarurumon back to the warrior of flame, seeing that his call had caught his attention. "Please, you gotta stop this!"
The four warriors finally noticed Tommy right in front of BurningGreymon and moved. Each warrior surrounded Tommy, but made sure to keep their distance just in case. He seemed very focused on Tommy now, not seeing the digimon, and they wanted to keep it like that. Who knows what BurningGreymon would do to the boy if he noticed the warriors.
Tommy took no notice of this, however. "Fight it, Takuya! I know you don't wanna hurt any of us." He spread his arms and took the tiniest of steps closer. The beast immediately backed off, but this didn't stop Tommy. "This isn't really you. You're just out of control and afraid."
Tommy took another step forward, which caused BurningGreymon to take another one backwards. He growled that beastly growl at Tommy, but he wasn't fazed by it. This is where the warriors decided to step in.
"Takuya, listen to him!" Koji called.
JP flew into BurningGreymon's field of vision. "Come on, Taky. It's us."
"Takuya, try to remember." Koichi joined in, walking up under Beetlemon. "We're your friends."
Sonamon also got a little closer. "Please, Takuya. Remember."
BurningGreymon roared again, but made no move to attack. So far so good.
"Don't you get it?" Tommy asked the bast digimon. "We're your friends. We're here to help you." He chanced another step forward.
Bad choice. What he didn't know, and couldn't have known, was that the Beast Spirit's vision twisted again, making Tommy appear more like a monster. A monster that had it out for him. That step closer meant he was going to attack! BurningGreymon wouldn't let that happen!
The beast's eyes began glowing red again. That was the first red flag the warriors should have picked up on. The second was when he ran towards Tommy with one arm raised. But by that time, they were too late. BurningGreymon grabbed the boy, holding him up high as he squeezed him tight.
Sonamon dove for Tommy, only to get punched into a rock by BurningGreymon, de-Spirit evolving upon impact. Lowemon took to standing watch over her, as she, unlike Zoe and the rookie digimon, was still within reach of BurningGreymon.
"Takuya, wait a minute!" To everyone's surprise, he actually stopped squeezing Tommy. "Don't you remember what happened?" He recalled what happened when he was possessed by Bakumon. He himself remembered very little of what happened exactly, but bits and pieces came back to him over time. "I learned that true courage isn't paying bullies back, it's just standing up to them." It didn't seem to have any effect, but Tommy didn't give up yet. "You helped me see that fighting back in fear is just as bad as being a bully. You can't let fear control you, you have to fight it." There was still no change. Tommy was running out of things to say. If this didn't work, he would be losing his brother figure to the Beast Spirit. He couldn't let that happen. These thoughts made Tommy tear up. "I know you won't hurt me if you remember we're friends..."
A stray tear fell out of Tommy's eye, falling onto BurningGreymon's. At first nothing seemed to happen, but that was only to the warriors that weren't Takuya.
BurningGreymon's vision shifted one more time, turning the monster in his hand back into the young boy he saw as a brother. 'Wait... Tommy?'
The beast blinked once, turning the red glow in his eyes into a blue glow. The other warriors looked at each other. Was this a good sign? They went tense when he suddenly brought Tommy closer.
'What was I going to do? What did I do?'
Tommy watched in relief as the glow dimmed, revealing kinder looking, blue eyes. Takuya was back, he knew it.
Tommy was gently placed on the ground, which relieved everyone around. Did this mean Takuya was back? Their breaths were held when he suddenly turned around and stormed off. What was going on now? Wasn't he back to normal?
When BurningGreymon began repeatedly beating his head on a boulder, they knew something was up. The warriors went back into defensive positions, pushing the humans behind them.
But BurningGreymon made no move to attack. Instead, he directed all his anger and frustration on the boulders, smashing it to pieces even more once it broke under his head. With one final beastly howl he finally turned back to Takuya. And while it should have been a happy moment for all, the sudden crying of their teammate made it that it wasn't so...
Everyone de-Spirit evolved, not sure what else to do.. Should they console him? What was he even crying about? I mean, they had a vague idea, but they weren't sure. Everyone looked at each other, wondering what to do and seeing if anyone had any idea.
It was decided. First of, they might want to move. Staying at the location Takuya basically destroyed was bound to be no good for him. Through some miracle they managed to calm Takuya enough so he could walk. Avoiding the burnt down forest, the group didn't stop walking until they reached a lake side. The burned forest was now far out of sight, so this was a good place to take a break.
Takuya apparently had already decided this was a good place to rest as, when the other kids turned to their friend, they found him sitting by the lake. Maybe he just needs a moment alone... Besides, a break wouldn't hurt after such a double fight.
Eventually though, Tommy grew worried. "Do you think he's okay?" he asked the older kids.
"He's self-loathing..." Sophia answered, hearing his thoughts. "So, I'd say no."
JP gave her a look. "How do you know?" he asked in a harsh tone. He was so done with the girl. "And don't even try to change the subject. We're not in a fight, so there's no reason not to tell!"
"There is a reason not to tell." Sophia replied with a glare. "And that's because I don't have to!"
Koichi luckily came in between before the situation got out of hand. "Guys, now is not the time." He looked over at Takuya. The other 5 followed his gaze. They needed to focus on Takuya. One issue at a time. "We'll tell you later."
"We?!" JP screeched, only to be shushed by Zoe.
Tommy's eyes never left Takuya. He got up off the ground and walked a bit closer. He had to hear from Takuya himself. "Uhm... Takuya?" he started a bit hesitant. "Are you okay?"
That finally seemed to snap Takuya out of whatever trance he was in. "I should be asking you that." He turned around to face Tommy, and the rest of the gang while he was at it. "Thanks, Tommy."
Tommy blushed. "Ah, it was nothing." he said. "But you're welcome."
"It wasn't nothing." Takuya snapped. "It was one of the bravest things I've ever seen."
"Well, I owed you one." Tommy told him, referring to when Bakumon had him under his spell. "Now we're even."
"Ah, the trials of friendship." Bokomon interrupted the nice moment. "Take note you four for when you get your Beast Spirits."
Oh.
Right...
"Ehm... Why don't you go first?" JP turned to Zoe. No way he wanted to be the next to be out of control.
Unfortunately for him, Zoe had similar thoughts. "Oh no, you. I insist."
Sophia and Koichi just stared at each other, silently asking 'You wanna go first?'.
"Yes, well of course you still have to get back those Spirits that you lost to Grumblemon." Bokomon reminded them.
Takuya gritted his teeth. "Thanks for the reminder." he grumbled.
Sophia elbowed the gnome-digimon. "Don't be a downer." she hissed. "Not not at least."
Bokomon jumped up from his spot under the tree, shooting a glare at the girl. "I'm not being a 'downer', I'm just being realistic!"
"Be realistic later then."
"How are we gonna find Grumblemon anyway?" Koji asked, effectively shutting the two up.
'You haven't noticed?' Sophia wondered. 'We don't. He finds us.'
There was silence for a few moments. No one had any idea how to find the evil warrior. It was always the other way around.
"Geez. It seems harder to avoid him than to find him." Takuya groaned in annoyance. "I think we should just keep going. I bet we'll run into him sooner or later."
"Sounds good to me." Zoe agreed.
JP stared at her like she'd just gone nuts. "I know you want your Spirit back, but how can 'running into Grumblemon' sound good?!" He put a hand to his forehead in disbelieve of what he was hearing. "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard."
Zoe shot an angry look at JP as she made threatening gestures. "You better hope you get your Beast Spirit first, pal. 'cause I'm coming after you when I get mine."
JP swallowed, quickly walking away from the girl. "Now I know what Bokomon meant by the trials of friendship."
With that, they began their trip through the forest. The only sound was Bokomon reading something to the kids from the book. Something about the roots making the trail treacherous and how ridiculous that was...before tripping over a root and proving the book right.
JP, who'd been walking ahead a little, made a sudden stop. He looked down the hill he was standing on, seeing odd roots. There were five thick roots with numerous thinner ones connecting them. The thick roots ended in four crosses and one circle.
The plump boy waved the others over. "Hey, check it out." He pointed down at the patterned roots. "What's up with these roots?"
The others came running, curious to what JP was talking about. They stared at the odd pattern for a while. This seemed to be their only way down and through the forest, but what did this mean?
"Ooh, do those symbols stand for hugs and kisses?" JP asked, looking lovingly at Zoe.
Zoe just gave him a blank stare. "Yeah, like you'd know." she said, causing a small cry from the boy.
"This looks like a game I used to play..." Sophia muttered.
"How does it work? Is it like a maze?" Neemon asked, being the only one who heard her muttering.
"Well, not really." Bokomon answered his question. "All the roots connect."
"We'll make it a maze!" Neemon piped up. "Everyone pick your own vine and let's go!"
'That doesn't make it a maz- Oh, whatever...'
Everyone picked a vine. Koji and Bokomon chose the fourth, Zoe changed her mind and went to join Neemon on the second root instead of the fourth, JP picked the first vine to be next to Zoe, Takuya and Tommy went for the third root. After a good look, which became harder the farther down they got, Koichi joined JP on the first root and Sophia joined Tommy and Takuya.
"Ready? Set. Go!"
It was great fun going down the hill, following all the vines. Neemon seemed to be the only one who didn't understand that you were supposed to follow every root you came across, as he skipped a few. How did they know? Well, because he started on the second vine with Zoe and ended 2 crosses away from her.
In the end, Tommy, Takuya and Sophia won, which they proudly let the others know. The rest of the gang looked down at their cross in slight annoyance.
"Yeah? So what's the big deal?"
Right after JP asked that, the ground beneath their feet gave away. A thick pool of mud rose where they stood. It rose to their chest, making them unable to move anything but their arms.
"Stop struggling!" Takuya called out over the rumbling of the ground. "You're only gonna make things worse."
"Easy for you to say!" JP snapped back.
Takuya thought quickly and snapped a sturdy vine from a tree. He threw it over the mud pool, far enough that even JP could reach it, handed one part to Tommy and Sophia and pulled. It was no use, though. They were stuck like glue.
Things got even worse when an all too familiar face appeared in a cloud of smoke. Grumblemon. "Look who here." He looked at them with a grin. He was thoroughly enjoying the scenario he was seeing.
"It's Grumblemon! No!" Takuya cried.
"Grumblemon, yes! And you just where I want you." He laughed. "Looks like you three won race. Too bad winners now big losers!" he exclaimed. "It Spirit-taking time!"
"Actually I think it's getting-stuck-in-the-mud time." Neemon cleverly, yet not so cleverly pointed out.
"You not quiet, you learn hard way it really hammer-smashing time! Got it?!" Grumblemon sounded so done with Neemon as he screeched this at him. "And now take care you."
Takuya was scared. He knew he couldn't take on Grumblemon as Agunimon, let alone beat Gigasmon. Tommy couldn't help him without his Spirit, and Sophia, he was sure, also didn't stand a chance with only her Human Spirit. If six Human Spirits couldn't beat him, only two probably couldn't even scratch him!
"Why can't we just be friends?" Takuya asked in this scared state.
"Quiet now!" Grumblemon balled his fist. "No one give me much trouble as you. You know you lose. Why not you play nice?"
Now Takuya got mad. Play nice? And what? Let him destroy the digital world?! No way! "So what?! We should just hand over our Spirits?!" He clenched the D-Tector in his pocket, feeling the bond between him and Agunimon. "Forget it! That's never gonna happen. Especially now that I have my Beast Spirit."
"And I may not have my Beast Spirit yet, but I'm not letting you take Sonamon from me!" Sophia exclaimed.
Takuya moved Tommy farther behind him when Grumblemon took a few steps closer. "Now, why me not afraid of Beast Spirit and girly-girl?"
Sophia's eye twitched upon hearing 'girly-girl'. "He's gonna die..." she growled.
The goggleheaded leader either didn't hear her, or chose to ignore her, focusing instead of the warrior of earth in front of him. "Well, you should be, 'cause it's very powerful."
Grumblemon just snickered. "Only powerful if you can control, and I betting you not learn yet. Or why you look so afraid?"
It was at moments like this Takuya cursed his big mouth. Of course he hadn't learned to control BurningGreymon yet. He didn't even want to try! He was just going to end up hurting someone, he knew it.
In his frightful thinking, Takuya didn't notice the wince he let out, or the step back that he took. This told Grumblemon all he needed to know. With a smirk still plastered of his face, the evil warrior pulled his hammer from out of the ground, ready to smash the human twerps with it.
Takuya luckily snapped out of his thoughts as soon as he noticed the hammer and dove out of the way, towards the trees, taking Tommy with him, while Sophia dove the other way, towards the mudpool.
Now that the evil warrior had multiple targets to focus on, Takuya took this chance to help Tommy to safety. Since this was the warrior of earth they were talking about, maybe Tommy was better off higher up... Like in one of the trees!
He pushed Tommy up the tree, and once the boy was climbing himself, the human of flame turned to face Grumblemon, D-Tector ready in hand. The girl opposite of him did the same as she stood up.
"EXECUTE! SLIDE EVOLUTION! …GIGASMON!"
So he was going Gigasmon again... Then he will go- The fight from before flashed in front of his eyes. ...A-Agunimon...
"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …AGUNIMON!"
"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …SONAMON!"
Agunimon, as soon as the data-cocoon disappeared, readied the biggest pyro punch he could.
Bokomon's words, however, immediately stopped him from doing so. "Hasn't the forest had enough fire today?"
"Right." Fire that he caused.
Instead of one of his attacks, which would all cause another forest fire, he jumped at the big-nosed gnome warrior. That proved to be useless. Gigasmon simply grabbed him, chopped him on the shoulder and threw him towards the other free warrior. She barely managed to dodge when Agunimon grabbed at the ground to twist himself around mid-air.
"SONAR BOOM!" "QUAGMIRE TWISTER!"
Gigasmon easily shook off the sonar boom while performing his own attack. Agunimon and Sonamon, however, weren't able to shake off Gigasmon's attack so easily. They both got knocked backwards into a bunch of trees*.
"Agunimon! Sonamon!" Tommy cried out.
Wrong thing to do. While still holding onto the tree trunk, Tommy was suddenly grabbed by a hand the size of his own body. His call had attracted Gigasmon's attention.
Hearing Tommy's cry, the older sibling figures looked up to find their youngest member in the clutches of Gigasmon.
"Gigasmon, put him down!" "Only cowards fight like that!" They called out at the same time.
"If you want him, you have come take him." Gigasmon called out from the tree, before climbing even higher.
"But-"
Agunimon looked back at the guys stuck in the mud. He couldn't just leave them here, could he? What if Gigasmon came back? Or if they sank even further into the mud? He could add that to the list of mistakes he's made, right under the forest fire.
Sonamon saw his reluctance and, despite her anger at Gigasmon, made a decision. "You go after Gigasmon. I'll stay here and try to free them." she gestured to the team behind her.
"Are you sure?" Agunimon asked her.
Sonamon put up a happy face. "Of course. I can handle Gigasmon if he gets here. Besides, I know you won't be far behind." She struck a battle pose, even fluttering a little for emphasis. "I'll have them free as fast as I can."
Agunimon, though still hesitant, nodded. "Alright. I'm counting on you."
"Right!" As soon as Agunimon disappeared into the trees, she dropped the facade and fluttered back to the ground. "Right..." She quickly shook her head. 'No time for that! Takuya said he's counting on you, so prove you can do what you just said you would do!'
She quickly flew to where the vine was laying. The others also took hold of the vine again. Once everyone had a good hold on it, Sonamon pulled. She pulled as hard as she could in all different ways. Flying backwards low to the ground, flying backwards higher off the ground, planting her feet on the ground and pulling. Nothing seemed to work. They weren't budging.
"Sophia, just stop." Koji called out. "We'll be fine, just help save Tommy."
Sonamon stubbornly shook her head. "You guys are just as important as Tommy." 'Besides. This is Agunimon's fight. This is important to him.'
"But Tommy is in bigger trouble than we are." Koichi told her.
She still shook her head. "I don't care. If we wanna stand a chance against Gigasmon we need everyone. GHAA-!"
The vine snapped, unbalancing Sonamon who ungracefully fell on her back. She sat up, glaring at the piece of vine in her hand. 'Keep it in. Keep it in. Don't bother them with your problems girl. Just keep. It. IN!'
"This is gonna hurt!" Agunimon's scream cut through the silence. Before the others could search for where it came from, a sound of impact and smoke cloud appeared on their left. "I was right..." Agunimon's groan came from it.
Apparently the fight hadn't gone too well. The fall had weakened Agunimon enough to turn him back into Takuya, who was still groaning in pain.
"Takuya!" Zoe, Bokomon and Neemon called out in worry.
"Are you okay?" JP asked, equally worried.
With a few more groans, Takuya managed to sit up. "Y-yeah, but Tommy's still in trouble." he told the gang. "And I don't know how to save him."
"Looks like a Human Spirit just can't compete with a Beast Spirit!" As if that wasn't obvious enough, but Koji resisted making a snarky remark. "You have to turn into BurningGreymon."
Takuya stood up, immediately stepping back from the group just a little. "But I can't. What if I lose control again?"
They saw him. They saw him beat up his friends. They saw him burn down the forest. Why would they trust him to turn into that again?
Zoe's eyes softened. He was afraid... The boy they, or at least she, thought was fearless was scared. "Don't be afraid. Just...remember what Tommy said."
Takuya perked up. What Tommy said...? He thought back to when he'd held Tommy. When he'd captured Tommy in his claws as BurningGreymon.
"I learned that true courage isn't paying bullies back, it's just standing up to them."
"You helped me see that fighting back in fear is just as bad as being a bully. You can't let fear control you, you have to fight it."
"I know you won't hurt me if you remember we're friends."
"Remember who your friends are and you'll be fine." Zoe encouraged him, with the softest smile she could muster while still stuck in that disgusting mud.
"What was it that Shamanmon said? Remember who you are? Trust in each other and your friendship?" Sonamon supplied.
"We trust that you won't lose control again, Takuya." Koichi also joined in. "Can you trust us enough to believe we're right?"
"What?" Gigasmon's voice interrupted the nice moment between friends. "Not want to help friend?"
Tommy was lowered from the trees, bound on vines and still being held onto by the warrior. Takuya cried out his name in worry.
Gigasmon snickered at the humans down below him. "Playtime over. Now give me Spirit! You hurry, maybe you save him." he taunted the warrior.
Tommy nearly gasped when he saw Takuya actually looking at his D-Tector like he was gonna give in. "No! Don't do it, Takuya! Don't trade your Spirit for me!" 'You have no idea how bad it feels without your Spirit... I don't want you to know how that feels!' "It's okay, I'm not afraid!"
Takuya cried out to the boy again when he was suddenly lifted up again by Gigasmon. Apparently negotiations were over with. "Some friend you be." he taunted again. "Won't even give up Beast Spirit to save friend."
"I'm not afraid of you." That was the second time Tommy said that. Why did he keep saying that? Did he know something?
"You should be." Gigasmon cut the ties around Tommy, but kept a firm grip on his body as he swung from vine to vine.
Takuya gritted his teeth. There Tommy was, showing no fear in the hands of Gigasmon and here he was being afraid of his own Beast Spirit! "That's it!" He clenched his fists, including D-Tector which he was still holding. "If Tommy can show courage in the face of that creep, then so can I!"
"EXECUTE! BEAST SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …BURNINGGREYMON!"
The team's faces lit up when they saw the familiar blue eyes on BurningGreymon. Takuya had control! The Beast warrior didn't waste a second. He immediately ran over to where Gigasmon took Tommy, out of sight for everyone in the mud and close to it.
Sonamon, while happy for Takuya, balled her fists. 'Get up already! Get your friends out of that mud! Prove you're a goddamned warrior already!'
She got up and grabbed what was left of the vine. Surprisingly, it was still reachable on land. After making sure everyone had grabbed a hold of it, she pulled again. It still wasn't budging even an inch.
'Why can't I do this? It's just mud! I've fought digimon before, I should be able to do this!' Her grip slacked. 'But, I never really was any help in a fight, was I? The only times I was any help was when I combined my attacks...' She tightened her grip again, pulling harder. 'That doesn't matter! I'm still a Legendary Warrior! I should be able to pull someone out of the mud!' She threw the vine to the ground in frustration. 'WHY AM I SO WEAK?!'
"Sophia?" Voices brought the girl back from her thoughts. The team, minus Takuya but now including Tommy, was eyeing her in concern. "Are you okay?" It was Tommy who asked her, and who called her name earlier.
Sonamon let out a sigh. "Fine. Fine." she said. "Just getting frustrated that this isn't working. I haven't felt like you were moving even a millimeter. And I've been pulling the hardest I can!" No one dared tell her that they really weren't moving.
Tommy looked at the vine the warrior of sound had just thrown to the ground. "Maybe I can help?" he suggested, picking up the vine.
He handed a part to Sonamon. While frustrated, she would never take it out on someone who had nothing to do with it, so she took the stupid greenery. Together they pulled again. In the distance, they could hear the sounds of fighting, but they were getting farther away.
There was just a tiny bit of movement in the mud now. Not enough to get free any time soon, but it was something.
Sonamon still wasn't satisfied though. 'This is getting us nowhere. We need more strength.' She gritted her teeth. 'I bet if it was Lobomon or Beetlemon here with Tommy, they would've gotten us out in a second!' her knuckles turned white from her grip on the vine. 'Why is it that there are two Spirit-less warriors here and I'm the weak link?! Why can't I just be strong?!'
The mud suddenly burst open, startling everyone as a beam of light appeared out of it. It dimmed to reveal a Spirit, causing Sonamon to de-Spirit evolve immediately. No one wanted what happened to Takuya to happen again, and being in his Human Spirit form already could have been a possible trigger.
The Spirit floated over to Sophia, stopping just in front of her as the girl pulled out her D-Tector. Unlike what happened the first time, the Beast Spirit got absorbed into the D-Tector like any other Spirit.
"Well? Aren't you gonna Spirit Evolve?" Koji asked.
Sophia didn't answer, opting to look at her D-Tector instead. Koichi knew that look in her eyes from way back in the Wind Factory. "Sophia." he called. "You don't have to be afraid."
'Great advice for an anxious mess like me...'
"Anxious mess?" Oh crap, did she say that out loud?!
Zoe decided to take the Takuya route on her. "You don't have to be afraid of your Beast Spirit. Just remember who your friends are."
'Remember who my friends are. Remember who my friends are.' she mentally chanted to herself as she got ready to Spirit evolve. 'My friends are Zoe, Koichi, Takuya, Tommy, Koji and...JP I guess. My friends are the ones I've been trying to free from the mud. My friends are the reason I want to be stronger.' She opened her eyes, not remembering when she'd closed them. 'Let's do this.'
"EXECUTE! BEAST SPIRIT EVOLUTION! …VIBRAMON!"
In place of Sophia now stood the Beast warrior of sound; Vibramon. Vibramon had short blue fur covering her head, shoulders and arms, as well as her bat-like, speaker ears. Short dark teal hair covered the beasts eyes completely. Her legs and stomach were covered in short white fur with a white, blue-striped tail protruding from her rear. It also had a built-in microphone. She had a violet chest plate with 2 speakers, and another set of speakers strapped to her knees.
Overall she seemed pretty human, except for the ears, tail, inward pointed knees, hands and three toed feet, both having razor sharp claws. Oh and of course the red bat wings sprouting from her back. She also wore the symbol of her element on two purple wristbands.
'My friends are Zoe, Koichi, Takuya, Tommy, Koji and JP... My friends are... My friends...are not in danger...?'
Vibramon opened her eyes, somehow able to see perfectly despite the hair covering her eyes. Probably the same thing as Kazemon. She looked at her claws, her body and just generally checked herself out.
"Sophia?" Zoe's slightly shaky voice caught the warrior's attention back to her friends. "Are you... still you?"
Vibramon nodded, giving her a fanged smile. "I- I'm me." she said. "I'm me! I'm in control!" she fluttered off the ground in delight. "How-?"
"Does that really matter right now?" Koji snapped, slowly getting tired of being stuck in the mud, being useless. "Can you just get us out of here?"
"Right!" They all once again grabbed the vine. Sophia swallowed the lump in her throat. 'Please be stronger...'
And pull! Sure enough, the group moved. They finally moved through the mud! It still took a lot of effort, but with every kid that came out of the mud and helped pull, it became easier until everyone was out.
JP was the last one out of the mud. "Now what?" he asked, brushing off his shirt a little.
"We have to help Takuya, of course." Tommy said, looking around the trees for any sign of the Beast Spirit.
Everyone agreed of course, but where did he go? They had a vague idea based on where he chased Gigasmon earlier, but the evil warrior could've taken any turn during the chase. Vibramon quickly took to the sky, looking around from a higher point.
Immediately her ears picked up the sound of fighting on her right. It wasn't too far from where she flew. The sounds seemed to come from the edge of the forest. In fact, she was 100% sure they came from there. There was still some dust and smoke in the air. That's where they needed to be.
Apparently the others heard the explosion as well. With a quick 'follow me' gesture the girl led the gang through the forest. During the trip they would occasionally see or hear bits of the fight. Mostly on BurningGreymon's part, so that was a good sign. Right?
The group burst out of the bushes just in time to see Gigasmon getting wrecked by BurningGreymon's wildfire tsunami after which he turned into a black silhouette.
As the gang came closer to their fiery teammate, all the while calling their cheers and congratulations, they noticed the four Spirits in front of Gigasmon's Fractal Code. Grumblemon, Kazemon, Kumamon and Gigasmon in that order.
Zoe held her hands to her chest when she saw her Spirit. If the hole surrounding Gigasmon hadn't been too wide, she would've jumped over it to get Kazemon. For now though, she would have to trust Takuya to grab hers and Tommy's.
That was just what the flame warrior did. He used his new wings to fly over the man-made (or digimon-made) hole and took the Spirit closest to him. Gigasmon's Spirit, as was kindly pointed out by Bokomon. It glowed as it disappeared into the D-Tector.
Next he grabbed the second closest Spirit, which happened to be Tommy's. It too glowed as it was tossed back to Tommy. The kid had already taken his D-Tector out of his pocket to catch the thing. Happy and relieved smiles were shared between the group when the symbol of ice showed up on his D-Tector.
"Yeah! This is better than birthdays and Christmas combined!" Tommy happily cheered.
Zoe did feel a pang of envy when Tommy, who's been missing his Spirit for a shorter amount of time, got his back first. But then again, he is younger, so he would need all the protection he could.
'It doesn't matter.' she told herself. 'Takuya will grab mine next. I'll have Kazemon back in no time.'
Unfortunately, when BurningGreymon dove to get Zoe's Spirit, the black silhouette changed and turned into Grumblemon. The Fractal Code and Spirits were gone now too. With a cry, BurningGreymon went in for the attack again. He had to get Zoe's Spirit back!
But it was too late. Grumblemon was too quick and dug a tunnel to escape the battle, still in possession of Zoe's Spirit.
Zoe gasped when she saw Grumblemon escape. No, not again! He escaped again with her Spirit. With Kazemon. The girl didn't even notice she was crying until she was pulled into an awkward hug and heard a voice tell her to 'Don't cry. We'll get your Spirit back, I promise'.
She huffed out a laugh. Of course it was Sophia. Returning the favour, most likely, but it did help even if it was just a little.
"Sorry, I'm no good at this...comforting and hugging thing." the other girl of the group muttered.
Zoe shook her head. "It's fine."
~Skip ahead, skip ahead~
The warriors decided to stop and rest at the top of a mountain. There was unfortunately no way around it, and by the time they'd climbed all the way to the top it was already dark. In the morning they would find a way down there, but for now... There were still some things that needed to be discussed.
JP crossed his arms, staring at Sophia and Koichi. "So... Are you gonna tell us or what?" The others looked up at his sudden voice. What was JP talking about? The blue-clad boy noticed the confused stares, though. "Oh come on! You can't tell me you forgot about earlier. Afternoon? After the fight with Taky?"
Takuya winced at the reminder, but was no wiser. He still had no clue what JP meant. But the rest of the gang seemed to understand. Did he miss anything?
Sophia's only response was to look away from JP. She still didn't want to tell. What if they thought she was weird? What if not everyone had this...power? Oddity? Sure, Koichi and Koji seemed to have it, but...
Seeing her hesitance, Koichi took charge. With silent permission, of course. "Well... I'm not sure about everyone else, but there's this...oddity I've noticed since I arrived in the digital world." he tried his best to word the situation. "I'm not sure how to explain this, but I've been able to feel whenever a digimon has bad intentions since we got here. The first time I noticed was back at the Wind Factory."
Koji raised an eyebrow. Wind Factory? Didn't sound familiar. It was probably before he decided to join them. Well, if his brother opened up about it, he might as well do the same. "Yeah, I've had the same thing. Noticed it at the KaratsukiNumemon place." he confessed. "It was like the kindness and goodwill just disappeared."
"And the darkness got more powerful." Koichi finished that thought.
The other warriors looked between the dark haired boys, still not understanding what was going on.
"Did...anyone else notice something weird?" Sophia asked softly, still refusing to look at anyone. "Anything related to your elements?" That caught Takuya and Zoe's attention. "I mean, it's just a theory a-and Koichi came up with i-"
She was cut off when Zoe and Tommy suddenly cried out in alarm. Takuya had taken his glove off and stuck his fingers in the campfire. Koji, being the first to snap out of the shock, grabbed his friend's arm and pulled it back.
"What are you doing? Are you nuts?! What are you trying to do, burning your hand like that?!" he yelled in the brunet's ear.
Takuya's eyes remained glued to his hand. "But it's not." he said, receiving a questioning look from the long haired boy. "My hand. It's not burned."
True to his word, there seemed to be noting wrong with his hand. No 3rd degree burns, no black or red skin, no scarring. Nothing. Like he never stuck his hand in the fire.
"Wow." Tommy breathed.
Zoe didn't see the awe in it. "Still, that could've turned out bad. You shouldn't just stick your hand in the fire and hope that it won't burn you."
"I didn't, Zoe." Takuya tried defending his actions. "Back at the forest, before the Bakumon incident, my arm got in the campfire, but I wasn't burned."
Zoe sighed. Boys and their recklessness. "Hey, now that I think about it. There was that time at Togemon's school." She looked over at Sophia and JP. "Remember? The wind just suddenly picked up when we had to leave. And it stopped at the exact right time at the edge of the forest."
"That's too big of a coincidence." Koji said.
Tommy was excited by what he was hearing. "So all of us have some kind of power? Like superheroes?"
"And they all relate to your elements somehow." Bokomon piped up.
The digimon already had his book out to look for any kind of similar occurrence that may have happened in the past. But there was non of course. As far as they all knew, the seven of them were the only humans ever to arrive in the digital world. Oh how far from the truth that was.
"Maybe it has something to do with you guys Spirit evolving?" Bokomon suggested.
Sophia shook her head. "No. I've heard people's thoughts since the ride here."
"You hear our thoughts?!" Oops...
"N-not all of them. Just strong thoughts, I guess." Seeing the still shocked faces, she added. "It's not like I can control it..."
"Have you tried?" JP snapped. "My thoughts are private!"
Sophia huffed. He was the last person she wanted to hear this from. "Please. Like you have any trouble speaking your mind. I don't need this power to know what you think."
"What was that?!" JP growled.
"I don't know about you, fatso, but I can't control some strange power I don't understand!" Sophia snapped, unleashing all built up anger towards the boy. "You don't even have your power yet! How could you possibly understand!? You know what? Never mind! I don't wanna hear any more shit from you!" She abruptly stood up, walking over to where the leaf-beds were. "I'm going to bed! Goodnight!"
Eventually everyone went to bed as well. Their minds were all stuck thinking about these 'powers' they suddenly posses. Why did they match their elements? Was it because they were Legendary Warriors? Then why did it happen before some of them became warriors? Why did they even have powers in the first place?! They are human! Humans shouldn't have powers! Then again, humans also don't usually become monsters in a different world and are tasked to save said world...
Everyone eventually managed to fall asleep, though an uneasy sleep.
Alright! Theory time!
So I strongly believe the reason Takuya went nuts as BurningGreymon is because of the circumstances in which he got his Beast Spirit. He's the only one who got his Beast Spirit while it was possessed by another digimon (or, well, possessing another digimon). And he was the only one who got his Beast Spirit while Spirit Evolved already.
I don't think anyone can resist the power that comes from a Beast Spirit, not even Shamanmon. I think he had a desire for more power, no matter how small it may have been. Why else would he try and grab the Beast Spirit? And that was what caused BurningGreymon to possess him.
He wanted more power. So the Beast Spirit, an untamed wild animal in Shamanmon's possession, granted him more power. But that's not enough power for a wild creature like BurningGreymon, so he wanted more. And you can only get more power by fighting. So fighting he does.
And then he takes Shamanmon's desire for power with him to Takuya who then falls victim to it himself.
What do you guys think? Make sense? Complete bullshit? I dunno, just my theory~
*Used the Japanese animation for this.
Thanks for reading!