Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or any of its characters. Please support the official release.
"Favorite Season"
Fighting had never been of any interest to Calumon, so his fixation on the battle going on just below him was a surprise to him most of all. The whole thing had caught him off guard, as a digital field had appeared around the streetlight he was perched on top of. Soon enough after that, his friends had started showing up, and things had gotten pretty loud and crazy after that.
The Digimon that had appeared, a WereGarurumon, jumped around the digital field like it was in one of those bouncy castles that Calumon sometimes saw children play in. Renamon was doing her best to keep up, but it looked like her refusal to play tag with the rest of them was catching up to her.
"PYRO SPHERE!"
Calumon turned his head just in time to see Guilmon shoot a fireball out of his mouth. WereGarurumon had turned around too, jumping one more time to get out of the way, and letting Renamon take Guilmon's attack. Renamon flew backwards and smashed into a nearby wall.
"Watch where you aim that thing!" Rika yelled, definitely earning her reputation as Calumon's angriest friend.
"Sorry..." Takato replied nervously. He never seemed to like fighting, which was probably why Calumon liked him so much.
"Don't be sorry!" Rika jabbed a finger in Takato's face. "Just stay out of my way!"
Meanwhile, WereGarurumon had turned his attention to Guilmon. Probably because he wasn't as fast as Renamon, Guilmon chose to meet the attack head on.
"What's our play, Henry?" Terriermon asked. Up to this point, he was waiting to the side of the fight and didn't seem to be enjoying a single second of it.
"I'm thinking," Henry answered as he looked through a handful of the trading cards the Tamers liked to use in a fight. Henry tended to do a lot of thinking, too much of it for Calumon's taste.
WereGarurumon threw a fist forward, clocking Guilmon right in the nose and knocking him to the ground. As he moved to attack Guilmon again, Terriermon seemed to get tired of waiting.
"BUNNY BLAST!"
Little green bolts of energy shot out of Terriermon's mouth and hit WereGarurumon in the shoulder. The Ultimate turned right around and ran right towards his newest attacker. Calumon could have sworn he heard Terriermon yelp as he leaped into the air to dodge.
"They need help," Calumon said softly and without thinking.
"Yeah, well I say serves them right," a new voice said suddenly. "Show them how far being the humans' digipets gets them."
Calumon looked to his left, not sure when Impmon had joined him on his streetlight, or why he was saying these things about their friends. Whereas Rika seemed to get angry a lot, Impmon tended to just be flat-out mean. Calumon could never figure out why Impmon tried so hard to be such a bully all the time, but also didn't spend much time thinking about it, as Impmon wasn't nearly as tough or scary as he wanted people to think he was.
"Are you just gonna stare at your cards all day or actually contribute?" Rika was now being angry at Henry.
"I'm trying to come up with a strategy!" Henry shot back. "We can't beat an Ultimate without a plan of attack!"
Takato tried to get between them. "Guys, maybe we should-"
"What good is a plan if we lose the fight before you come up with one?" Rika continued.
Henry took another step forward. "We're only losing because you keep charging in on your own!"
As they argued, WereGarurumon had managed to grab a hold of Terriermon's head. Renamon latched herself onto the arm in question, desperately trying to pry WereGarurumon's fingers open so Terriermon could get free. WereGarurumon responded by shaking his arm a bunch, eventually sending both Rookies flying in different directions.
WereGarurumon growled deeply and angrily, looking back and forth before locking his eyes on Renamon. He jumped forward, his foot flying straight towards Renamon.
"Guilmon!" Takato called out at the same time.
In response, Guilmon sprinted forward and shoved Renamon out of the way just as WereGarurumon's kick smashed through the concrete.
"Guys, focus," Takato said as he planted himself firmly between Rika and Henry. "We need to figure out how to work together, or we're goners here."
The three went quiet at first, glancing at each other before nodding one at a time. Henry took a deep breath before finally picking a card from his hand.
"Digi-Modify!" Henry swiped the card cleanly through his DigiVice. "Training Grips activate!"
Metal braces appeared on Terriermon's ears before being flung forward and wrapping themselves around WereGarurmon. Terriermon followed up by throwing himself towards his target.
"TERRIER TORNADO!"
Terriermon began spinning rapidly before slamming into WereGarurmon and sending him flying.
Rika and Takato quickly followed Henry's lead, each swiping a card through their DigiVices.
"Strength Boost activate!"
"Hyper Wing activate!"
Renamon dashed forward first, intercepting WereGarurumon as he flew through the air.
"POWER PAW!"
A swift uppercut sent her target flying into the air, where Guilmon's new wings had allowed him to get into position for a follow-up attack.
"ROCK BREAKER!"
Guilmon swung his claw hard, slamming into WereGarurumon's chest and sending him crashing into the street below.
"Eh, he wasn't so tough," Terriermon commented as the smoke began to clear.
Just as Calumon was about to stop holding his breath, a loud howl shook what was left of the digital field. WereGarurumon emerged from the crater, wildly swinging his claws as they crackled with energy, the single wave produced connecting with all three targets and sending them flying.
"Any second now..." Impmon muttered as he clenched his fists together.
Calumon watched his three friends all try and fail to stand back, not only feeling scared, but also guilty. No, he never wanted to be involved in any fighting, but that didn't mean he didn't wish he could help. As he sat there trying to figure out how he could help, a warm feeling began to build in his forehead, as well as a sense of conviction. Not wanting to waste this feeling, he directed it forward.
The three Rookies stood up and began to glow. Calumon didn't question what was happening, as it seemed to be working.
"Terriermon digivolve to..."
"Renamon digivolve to..."
"Guilmon digivolve to..."
Data stripped itself off of them, before recompiling and reshaping them. The whole process looked painful, but the results spoke for themselves.
"...Gargomon!"
"...Kyubimon!"
"...Growlmon!"
Faced with three new Digimon, WereGarurumon seemed to hesitate for half a second before lunging forward.
"Sit!" Gargomon commanded as he darted forward to match. "BUNNY PUMMEL!"
The gun barrel that made up Gargomon's right arm collided with WereGarurumon's face, sending him rolling backwards. As the Ultimate tried to recover and try again, Kyubimon stepped up.
"Stay!" she added as flames began to form around her. "DRAGON WHEEL!"
Kyubimon flew towards her target, her flames wrapping round and immobilizing him. As WereGarurumon howled one more time, Growlmon slammed his foot down.
"Bad doggy!" he yelled. "PYRO BLASTER!"
Flames erupted from Growlmon's throat, disintegrating WereGarurumon and finally ending the fight.
"Phew!" Calumon let himself sit down as the digital field disappeared. He chanced a glance at Impmon, who shook and sputtered as he glared down at the three Champion level Digimon.
"It's all dumb luck!" Impmon whined as leaped off the streetlight and disappeared into the night.
Below, the Tamers had run up to rejoin their partners. Just as Calumon had suspected, they seemed a lot happier now that they weren't stuck in some lousy fight.
"Way to go, team!" Takato cheered. Henry gave a sideways grin, while Rika frowned and crossed her arms.
Calumon considered going down to join them, but changed his mind at the last second. He'd seen this play out before, and everyone was usually too tired after one these battles to be interested in playing any games. Instead, Calumon set off, knowing that the night was still young and there were plenty of adventures still to be had.