"Nothing that concerns you right now." Phantomon commented, looking down at the feline. He waved dismissively at her with his scythe. "Off you go. This is between Vamdemon and I." He watched Tailmon stiffen at the dismissal, but nodded in acceptance and turned to take off.
"Well said, my friend." Vamdemon replied to his lieutenant after Tailmon left. He turned to Phantomon. "With the Chosen locked in the Digital World, it's safe to assume they would have rescued Wizarmon. There's no way for them to return to the real world, though."
"And what of your disappearing soldiers? What's become of them?" Phantomon asked his lord. He was curious as to why his lord's minions were not returning from battle.
Vamdemon didn't answer straight away, instead strutting around and organizing various things in the room. "Oh them? I'm not really concerned. That's likely the second team of Chosen taking them out."
Phantomon blinked for a few moments. "Oh? There's a second Chosen team? How did they come about?"
"I don't know, nor do I care. They will not stop me. I've come too far to stop this scheme for some random children." Vamdemon scoffed, glancing at his lieutenant.
"What of the rebels? What do you plan to do with them?" Phantomon carefully pressed his lord. There were turncoats in the army and he wanted them dealt with.
"Their punishment will come in due time. I will keep a closer eye on them. Additionally, the children are not worth your strength."
Phantomon was silent. There was something not completely right with his lord's responses. "If you think the children aren't worth my strength, should I send one of my underlings?"
Vamdemon looked at his lieutenant, his expression unreadable. "I would recommend MetalGreymon Alterous. They will have trouble with him, I am sure."
The next day, after the team had gotten together again, Miyuki found herself drawn to Ryan for some reason. It was strange, she couldn't explain it. Was it because he was part Digimon? She wasn't sure.
"How are you finding elementary?" Miyuki asked him as she stood beside Hikaru, noticing he seemed to be quite the energetic child.
She observed him bounce on the heels of his shoes. "I like it. It's challenging at times. Sadly, I don't have very many friends. Everyone knows I'm part Digimon. Most fear me. I hate discrimination." He said this last part very softly.
Miyuki was silent for a moment. "I don't like-" She started speaking, but was cut off by Ryan.
"If the next word out of your mouth is Digimon, I'd stop right there if you had any sense. Need I remind you yet again of what I just said?" He gave her a hard stare and she actually felt slightly intimidated by the power behind the gaze. "From what I've been able to gather, you were attacked by one of Vamdemon's soldiers, yes?"
Miyuki nodded, not trusting herself to talk.
"Not all Vaccine-attributes are good and not all Virus-attributes are bad."
Miyuki stopped at these words and thought back to the incident just over three weeks ago, prior to the attack. She remembered him crashing into her and how she snapped at him for being different. Man, I regret that now…
"Yes." Miyuki began slowly, choosing her words carefully. "I apologize for that. I was under a lot of stress that day. Hikaru had helped me calm down from a panic attack prior to that. I'm sorry for how I treated you."
Ryan's hard stare softened, only a little. "You were still dumb and racist towards Digimon for a good while."
"I know." Miyuki nodded quietly. She definitely saw Digimon in a different light now that she realized not all Vaccine Digimon were good and not all Virus Digimon were bad. "Can we move on from this please?"
"As long as you've realized the error of your ways." Ryan raised an eyebrow at her, which she didn't like but said nothing.
Miyuki cleared her throat after a moment and glanced at the rest of the team. "I think we should head up to near where the tv station is. There might be some new stuff there to look at."
Ryan nodded. "You have a point. I don't imagine we'll find another Digimon fight. Vamdemon's forces seemed to have slowed down in causing trouble."
Hikaru made a noise and Miyuki glanced at him. "What's the matter?" She asked her friend.
"I'm just hoping there's no fight today." Hikaru answered, looking between her and Ryan. "I'm not entirely sure you'll be able to cope if it's a strong enemy."
Miyuki huffed, the noise sounding sharp and annoyed. "I'm gonna bloody well try. Have some more faith in me, Hikaru."
She watched Hikaru give her a skeptical look. "I'll wait for any possible change."
Miyuki shrugged, nonplussed with Hikaru doubting her. "If you insist. Anyway, let's head down to the tv station."
The rest of the team looked to Hikaru for his decision. "Yeah, let's go." He remarked and turned to start heading there.
As the group followed Hikaru and Miyuki, Miyuki kept an eye on her surroundings. The walk up to the tv station had the standard grey coloured apartment buildings on either side of them. The river was also present on her right.
They were getting closer to the tv station when Miyuki ran into Hikaru's outstretched arm. "What are you doing?" She looked to him when he didn't reply, then she realized her teammates were deathly silent and staring at the giant figure in front of them. "What the hell?" Miyuki murmured under her breath.
Dracomon moved to her right side. "That's MetalGreymon Alterous. He's a Perfect level. What is one of them doing working under Vamdemon?" The small dragon was curious as to why a normally pure-hearted Digimon would work for a Virus attribute.
MetalGreymon Alterous pointed his gun arm at the children and Miyuki stiffened. "It's come to my lord's attention that you children are becoming a real pest."
"Hmm, this could be a problem." Miyuki heard Ryan speak so only she could hear. The one-eyed girl looked in his direction. "We weren't prepared to fight any foes, but we need to take him down all the same."
"Have you got a plan?" Miyuki asked him.
"Leormon will fight. I will aid him where necessary. But we do need to remove MetalGreymon Alterous from the equation." Ryan turned his head to the side a little and spoke softly.
Miyuki thought for a moment and realized something. "You know this is going to reach Vamdemon, don't you? We're putting ourselves in a dangerous position if we do this."
"Don't really have a choice, Miyuki. It's survival of the fittest. Kill or be killed. As part Digimon, I know that better than any of you here." Ryan continued talking in a quiet manner.
"True." She sighed, before nodding. "Good luck then."
Miyuki observed Ryan nod sharply at her, before he turned towards his partner Digimon. "Ready up, Leormon. We're going to defeat MetalGreymon Alterous."
"Sure thing, boss. Oi, you! You think you're so cool being bigger and all. But you know what they say, right? The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Let's put that to the test." Miyuki watched Leormon pad up to Ryan's side, shooting his mouth off while he did so.
She dropped her gaze for a moment and shook her head. Miyuki had a small smile on her face at the lion cub's silly antics. Boys…
They don't stand a chance if Ryan doesn't evolve Leormon straight away. Miyuki thought as she glanced back to the battle that was about to begin.
The MetalGreymon Alterous looked positively pissed off and stomped a foot down in a threatening manner. Leormon just laughed. "That ain't gonna scare me. Let's get started, shall we?"
Ryan raised his Digivice and Leormon evolved almost immediately. Miyuki took in the new Digimon. It was a larger lion, still golden in colour. He had two tails and two big earrings in each ear.
"Liamon, go at your foe with everything you have!" Ryan commanded and his partner roared as electricity crackled in his mane.
Liamon released the electricity from his mane at MetalGreymon Alterous, who blocked the attack with his gun arm. The Perfect level aimed the weapon at the Adult level and fired, but Liamon jumped away at the very last second.
"Stand still and fight, you coward!" MetalGreymon Alterous yelled at Liamon, which caused Miyuki to roll her eye.
What a hypocrite . She thought, continuing to watch the battle unfold before them. Blocking attacks is hardly fair, either, when you're so big. Like let the attack hit you, it's not gonna do that much damage .
As if they agreed unanimously on one thing, the battle suddenly became a whole lot more serious. Miyuki noticed the change straight away.
The electricity released from Liamon's mane became more frequent and the lion wasn't dodging MetalGreymon Alterous' attacks either.
"This could be very bad." Miyuki observed and kept a closer eye on the battle. She wasn't sure how this would pan out, but hoped that Ryan and Liamon could win.
Liamon soon abandoned using his signature move and lunged at MetalGreymon Alterous to try and bite him. The Perfect deadpanned and scoffed, releasing his Trident Arm technique, which caught Liamon off guard. The lion was caught by the claws and crashed into the ground.
Miyuki glanced at Ryan, concerned for the younger boy. She inhaled, the noise sharp. How would he come back from this injury to his Digimon? "You can do it, Ryan."
Ryan didn't respond, but raised his right arm and gave her a thumbs up. Miyuki observed him breathe in deeply and exhale. He took a step back and centred his hands around his chest. A huge fireball, reminiscent of Apollomon's Phoebus Blow, manifested above his hands.
"For the record, this is a weaker version of the move, Phoebus Blow. It's one of Apollomon's signature attacks." Ryan called out, explaining to Miyuki and the others in the team.
MetalGreymon Alterous saw the fireball around Ryan's hands and frowned. Miyuki didn't like that. She was about to step in to defend Ryan.
"Which Apollomon spawned you then?" MetalGreymon Alterous directed his question at the child.
Ryan simply stared at the Perfect, not rising to the bait of the discriminatory question. He shot the ball of fire at MetalGreymon Alterous and gave a little grin that Miyuki noticed when he turned back to them briefly.
Miyuki focused her gaze back on MetalGreymon Alterous and snorted in amusement when the Perfect staggered backwards a little. "Ha. Great work, Ryan."
"Thank you, Miyuki. He'll be done in soon enough." The half Digimon child replied as he turned back to his foe. "Are you ready, Liamon?"
Liamon had recovered somewhat by this point and made his way back to Ryan's side. "Always ready, Ryan. Let's get rid of him for good." The lion sounded more mature than he did as Leormon, Miyuki realized.
Ryan raised his Digivice again and Liamon became a new Digimon yet again. The new Digimon was completely mechanized with buzzsaw-like blades behind his mane and a wrecking ball on his tail. "LoaderLiomon." This was all the new Digimon spoke, so Miyuki assumed that was his name. "Boring Storm!" Ryan's partner became energy and shot at MetalGreymon Alterous, aiming for the foe's DigiCore.
Miyuki tensed, sensing LoaderLiomon was going for the kill straight away to end the battle as soon as he could. She leaned in a little, waiting for the final strike.
Before the other Perfect level could block the attack or make a move, LoaderLiomon had pierced his chest and spun through the other side. A moment later, the DigiCore – a Digimon's equivalent of a human heart – shattered. MetalGreymon Alterous let out a short moan of pain before he vaporized, not a trace of him remaining.
Ryan didn't flinch. Being part Digimon, he was used to seeing things like this constantly.