I got onto all fours as Gabi steaded his breath next to me. We could hear the big human stomping around in one of the cubicles next to us. Part of me wanted to just burst out of this cover and have a knockdown brawl with the guy, but I knew it was a bad idea.
The goal was to keep them busy so Ghostmon and Luca could escape. The longer they spent searching for us, the better. Which meant playing this dumb game of cat and mouse where sneaked around the upper floors of the Skybucks website while the big human and his goblimon searched for us.
But once we'd bought enough time for the two little ones, I was going to rip this guy limb from limb for daring to point a gun at Gabi.
I heard the big human walk into the next cubicle. I crouched down and waited a few seconds for him to be visible. Once I could see him, I motioned towards him with my claws for Gabi. I couldn't see Goblimon yet, but he wasn't the main target anyway.
"You know," Gabi reached out to grab me as the big human started talking, "you've only made things worse for yourself. I was going to let you go back to the real world after destroying your monster, but now you're going to be stuck on the internet like the other two kids."
I could feel Gabi tighten his grip around my arm before he froze. I glanced over at him and saw his eyes wide open. It took me a second to even notice if he was breathing.
"You know, I might as well tell you what I'm doing with my monster. You see kid, these monsters can do some incredible things. They can hack into anything, including bank accounts."
"That's right, I've been breaking into ATM machines for the boss to get the money for him." The Goblimon snickered right as we heard a loud smack echo across the room.
"For the last time, the 'M' in ATM stands for machine, you don't have to say ATM machine. The machine is already in there." My face wrinkled into a grimace. Weird thing to get hung over.
"Sorry boss, I keep forgetting." the Goblimon groaned as the big human coughed.
"So like I was saying, I was using this guy to make myself a good bit of cash. But after that dumb kid pulled that stunt on TV, I started getting kind of worried. Last thing I needed was some punk kid who doesn't realize what they have talking to a cop and ending my parade."
I felt Gabi tighten his grip on my arm, even more. I ignored the pain as I started feeling something flowing into me. I looked into Gabi's eyes and I saw fire. I could feel his anger building and flowing into me.
"So I got to thinking, if I track down all the punk kids out there who have a monster like mine, I can destroy their monsters and make sure they can't spill the beans to anyone. But you're being annoying about this. How about this kid, if you come out now, hand over your monster, and help me track down the other brat, I'll make it worth your while. How does a hundred bucks sound?"
And just like that, I felt something break inside of Gabi. Break inside both of us. He let go of his arm and then motioned for me to go around. I smirked, even without the physical connection I could still feel anger flowing through me. The only difference was now it was my own.
Gabi smirked and I knew in an instant he was gone.
I snuck away from the cubicle before Rebel 1 stood up and revealed himself.
"Now there good sir, a hundred bucks? I could make that in a single night if I pulled the same kind of caper you do." Rebel 1 announced as he rose to his feet. He put his hands on the desk behind him and lifted himself up. "No, if you want me to hand such a valuable asset over, you're going to have to really make it worth my while."
I could feel the fake grin on his face over the sea of anger churning behind it. Mostly because I'd gotten a crash course on reading Gabi by living with him. The bigger human didn't have a chance.
"Okay, now we're talking sense," the bigger human laughed, "you really are a smart one. So what do you want, kid? A couple grand? Maybe a bunch of video games. I think I can get you a gun if you want one of those."
"Well there are a couple things I could do for," Rebel 1 mused as I made my way behind the bigger human. I silently climbed up on top of the cubicle wall and waited to pounce. My gaze met Rebel 1's, a wide smile exploding onto his face. "Let's see here, we can start with the crown jewels of the UK and the Declaration of Independence and work our way down from there."
The large human stamped his foot as started walking forward. That was all the sign I needed. I leapt forward with my claws out.
"I gave you one chance kid now…" He shut up as I smacked into the back of his head. He went flailing forward as I maneuvered my claws to his neck.
"Move a muscle and these baby's go 'slice'," I growled into his ear as I heard a burning sound to my right. It was Goblimon with a fireball in his hand. Was he going to risk hurting his human partner and just throw it at me?
Well, it didn't matter. Before he had a chance to do a thing, a small red object sailed into the fireball and detonated it early. Goblimon was sent flying back as I managed to hold onto the bigger human, my claws still around his neck. When the dust cleared, Goblimon was knocked out and useless.
I looked up and saw Rebel 1 with his arm out, like he'd just thrown an object forward. He let his arm drop to his side as the smile on his face did the same.
"Okay then mr. miscreant, let's have ourselves a chat."
And from there, it was like poking a hole in a dam. A tickle became a flood of information. Just what exactly he'd done to the other two humans with digimon partners, where he'd left them, and why he'd bothered doing all of this.
I guess both Rebel 1 and I had been hoping for the same thing. That what he'd said before was just a lie to distract us into making a mistake. As it turned out, he'd meant every word. Two digimon killed and two little ones alone and scared on the internet, all for greed. All because one person thought he could push down those weaker than him for his own benefit.
Rebel 1 and I met eyes as the same image flooded both of our heads. Two empty circles, quickly flooding with purple. Useful for the future, but not relevant to the situation.
And that was when it all went wrong. I must have gotten distracted by the possibility of becoming Devidramon again, because my claws slipped. The bigger human didn't waste an instant. He reached up and grabbed onto my paw and before I realized what was happening, I was flying through the air.
I hit Rebel 1, who caught me in his arms. We both looked up as the older man reached into his pocket. We were both worried he was going to take out another gun, but what he actually revealed might have been even worse.
"Okay, no more playing around with you brats. Time to show you both a trick. Didn't think I'd have to waste it on a breath like you, but at this point, I don't care. No one gets to push me around like this!"
He held his digivice up as it started to glow purple as an egg began to form around Goblimon's still unconscious body. The egg pulsed before growing in size until it reached as tall as the ceiling.
The shell burst apart to reveal the one thing I didn't want to see. An Ogremon. The green giant reached as tall as the ceiling and his wooden club was gone, replaced with a bone club with metal spikes.
Ogremon roared, his eyes empty of any higher intelligence. He'd gone feral, working only on instinct.
"Yeah, go get 'em. Tear them apart! The bigger human roared at us as Ogremon just stared ahead. He all waited for a few seconds, before Ogremon raised his club.
He swung it forward, and his human partner went flying. Our eyes went wide as he hit a nearby cubicle wall and crumpled out of sight.
And then Ogremon roared while charging right at us.
Gabi didn't even bother putting me down before running into a full sprint. He ran to the stairs as I watched Ogremon tearing a straight line through the cubicles to get to us.
"Use it once we get outside?" He asked as we made our way down the stairs. He didn't need to further explain, I knew what he was talking about. I looked up and spotted Ogremon just as he reached the top of the stairs. He looked around for a while before looking down just as we reached the bottom of the stairs.
Gabi burst through the front doors of the cafe just as a loud crash came from the stairwell. Had Ogremon just jumped straight to the first floor?
The two green hands which erupted from the dust filled stairwell seemed to indicate yes. They grabbed the edges of the doorhole before Ogremon pulled himself out and started charging at us again.
Gabi jumped off the edge of the walkway as the Rebel Drive began to glow.
"Warning: sin detected."
I felt the power flowing into me right before Gabi turned around and threw me between himself and the rampaging Ogremon as the purple egg formed around me. Part of me wanted to be annoyed, but I would rather face Ogremon than have Gabi do it.
"Code:Undefined"
"Gazimon, dark digivolve to…" I felt the egg grow as a surge of data flooded into me. I held back a scream as the data began to churn, breaking my skin apart as my body began to grow to fit the new shape demanded of it. Gabi could never know about this. Digivolution was too useful and if he knew how painful it was, he'd never use it again.
"Purgatory level:0"
I felt the egg expand to accommodate my growing form, until the pain faded and I could feel my new arms and wings. I opened my four red eyes as the egg burst open.
"Devidramon!" Gabi joined me in screaming out once again. I loved it when he did that, it made me feel like we were a team.
I growled as I looked down at the now much smaller Ogremon. I was the one towering over him now. It was enough of a flip to inspire a bit of caution in the feral digimon. I saw the way he stopped in place, almost moving his foot back. But before he finished taking a single step back, his resolve hardened and he moved his foot forward instead.
He rushed off the edge of the cafe and came flying right towards me, his club high in the air.
"Crimson nail," I swiped my hand down as four red waves flew through the sky. Ogremon didn't have a chance to get out of the way before flying right into them. He went soaring right back into the side of the cafe.
I flew forward towards Ogremon, still embedded in the building. I raised my arm up and called out my next attack.
"Death Claw!" I called out as my hand erupted in black fire before I swung it down on him. Ogremon screamed as he was engulfed by the flames. I waited a few seconds until I felt something shrink within my grasp.
I let the flames die and revealed Goblimon, fully passed out and no longer a threat.
"Looks like we managed it." Gabi said as he floated over to my side. It was weird seeing him at eye level when I was like this, but I got used to it after a moment. "Now we just need to check up on that other guy… I hope he's still alive."
"And if he is, we need to make sure to destroy his digivice." I followed up just as a small commotion erupted from the entrance to the website. We both rushed over, just to make sure it wasn't a new foe.
Instead we found Luca and Ghostmon charging forward before coming to a stop at the sight of me. I could see them shivering, but calmed down a little once they spotted Gabi standing floating next to me.
"Uhm… We're here to help!" Luca called out as Gabi and both crossed our arms. These two were in big trouble.
