Hey everybody, it's been a long time huh? Like, a year? Maybe two? I don't think I can really write this as well as I used to, but I figured there were still people who liked my stuff. So yeah, can't let people down! Here goes nothing!
This is the Real Deal presents:
This is Spirit!
Chapter 16: Defence of the Light Brigade
The slick, mechanical sound of sliding metallic doors slid across Emily's eardrums as they were led into a massive brightly lit room. The two centaur Digimon marched alongside her and Sam as ever watchful sentinels against whatever unseen evils lurked in the shadows, guiding them until they had left the busy sprawling marketplace. Everything looked like it had been gilded and re-gilded in gold several times over now, her own reflection in the floor hurting Emily's eyes. She wasn't entirely sure where the transition from the rough market place to the hi-tech city centre occurred, but at some point she had stopped seeing regular pedestrians and random Digimon and only spotted Tamers in bright yellow uniforms and outfits, and occasionally dark purples and indigos. They all watched them pass with half-interested curiosity before Starmon would stare them down until they backed off. Emily wasn't paying too much attention to her surroundings (as little as was possible with the loud whirrs of machines and neon lights) but at some point she assumed she had passed some kind of gate or sign flashing 'welcome to Shine Centre'. They had to have passed some kind of door to enter this massive part of the city with a gigantic roof over their head, looming over them like a low hanging sky. There had to have been some kind of guard checking them for clearance or for any dangerous items, but in the Digital World it couldn't get much more dangerous than a Digivice and an active partner. But neither her nor Sam were thinking of causing a ruckus with so many other Tamers around, some with scarred, hulking giants following them around with grim expressions on their faces.
In any case, Emily definitely noticed when they were marched into a large building that had to be some kind of command centre. Computer terminals lined the walls, Tamers wearing the same bright uniforms seated at each and every one of them. At the end of the long hallway of never-ending PCs, a large space with enormous screens all along the wall greeted them. An enormous depiction of a bright yellow sun was planted neatly in the middle of the room, pulsing occasionally with some deep inner radiance, and stood right on top of it was a young man, somewhere in his early twenties by the look of him. An orange jacket clung to his robust torso and though they couldn't see his face, they could see the loose strands of a red headband around his forehead, holding together his straightened strands of spinach green hair. Stood next to him was a tall, heavenly looking figure, a woman standing well over seven feet tall with six shining wings. She was clad in green Olympian looking armour and viridian heeled shoes and Emily knew without a doubt that she was a Digimon. The pair turned to face Emily, the angel having the top half of her face covered by a green helmet while her partner's expression looked like stone, a hard, strong jawline and eyes that conjured images of oak trees.
"Welcome to Shine HQ," the man said. "I apologise for the surprise invitation." Emily was certain that what had happened was not an invitation, or even something disguised as an invitation, but with the two centaur-like Digimon still staring her down, she didn't feel it was wise to point it out. She glanced at Sam who looked half as pale as her normal complexion, something that was definitely not good.
"Yeah, no prob bro-" Starmon was rudely interrupted by a sharp slap in the back by Sam before correcting himself. "I mean, it's alright, we weren't doing anything important, hehe…"
"No really, we don't normally treat new Tamers in such a rough fashion, forgive our lack of hospitality," the angel said. You could feel the power flowing out of her voice, the attention of the whole room momentarily captured before the other Tamers carried on with their various tasks. "I am Ophanimon, head of Shine HQ's defence."
"And I am her partner, Chief Glare," the human spoke up. "Chief in Command of armed forces and staff management. But these are just titles, they aren't too important." Ophanimon glared at him, but he simply shrugged his shoulders despite the evident ice coming from her gaze.
"Oh, y-yeah that's great," Sam mumbled, then before he could be treated to Ophanimon's discriminating eye: "It's just that, it's strange for a Tamer to introduce themselves as a Digimon's partner, normally it's the other way around…"
"A Tamer and Digimon are supposed to be viewed as equals," Chief Glare answered. "Or at least that's how we would like them to be viewed. What about you four? You have yet to introduce yourselves."
"Oh right, my name's Sam! And this is my bro, Starmon!" Starmon energetically waved one of his points at them, flashing them a jagged toothy smile.
"And my name's Emily," Emily spoke up before picking Yoshi up off her head. "And this little guy is Yoshi, a MetalKoromon."
"Koro!" he energetically squealed.
"He's… He's still a baby," she added, her face turning red in a strange mix of embarrassment and pride.
"Aww, he's so adorable!" Chief Glare said, his whole demeanour changing as he took a step closer, Emily shielding him suspiciously. Ophanimon coughed loudly, Glare freezing in his tracks before standing at attention again. "Ahem… I suppose you're all curious as to why you were summoned here. Well truth be told, it was due to a request by the King himself."
"The King?!" Starmon screamed. "What? But-but, what did we do?! I haven't committed any crimes, I swear! It was just that one time, honest I paid for it already, I did!" Everybody stared at Starmon in surprise and barely concealed laughter until he shut up.
"No, nothing like that," Glare said, a curious smile on his face. "If I knew, it would probably be confidential, but even so, I don't know what goes on in his head. Honestly, we never see eye-to-eye about anything…"
"Strange, with how similar the two of you are," Ophanimon said in exasperation, but Emily could see a tiny smile flash for a split-second before it disappeared again. "The King wanted us to meet you in person, and also to provide you with provisions and a method of transport. We hear you're trying to make it to the continent. You'll need some way to cross the net ocean, will you not?"
"Wow, seriously? He wants to help us out? That's awesome!" Sam yelled. "Thanks Ophanimon, thanks Chief Glare! We were just talking about how we need food and stuff, and there's no way we'd be able to cross the ocean on our own! Right Em?" Em didn't look convinced, a frown glued to her face.
"That's way too simple. Why would he try to help us out so much for no reason? We're not even registered, right? He doesn't actually know anything about us, we could be spies from a rival nation for all he knows. And what does he get out of giving us stuff and free transport? If he really trusted us, then there would be no need for these scary looking guards watching us the whole time-" With a sudden numb horror she realised what she was saying once the centaurs all pointed spears at her in rage.
"Don't underestimate how great our King's heart is!" one of them said.
"Do you know who you're currently talking to?" the other one asked. "You should watch your tone when talking to the leader of Light Fang, before we skewer you on the spot!" Ophanimon raised her hand, the guards reluctantly lowering their weapons.
"Let her finish, I'm curious about what she has to say." Emily gulped nervously, feeling the hostility in the air suffocating her before she hesitantly continued talking.
"W-well, if he's ordered for us to be b-brought here, then maybe he… he wanted somebody he can trust t-t-to get a better opinion of us, like whether or not we were friends or foes, that kinda thing. Providing us with transport isn't really much of a problem, if we're working for that Lord Bane guy then we'd have our own transport so we'll get there anyway. If we're Tamers doing our own thing, then that's good luck for us, and if we're trying to help fix the problems in our world, then it's convenient for the King, no need to mobilise forces or pay for mercenaries when he'll get Tamers for free. Well, that's what I think anyway…" Glare looked pleasantly surprised, but Ophanimon's expression was unreadable behind her mask.
"Impressive, you're much sharper than I thought," Ophanimon commented. "Yes you're right, the King asked us to inspect you for ourselves, and then report back to him. He was also personally curious about your intentions and wanted to see if you were safe enough to enter his palace. Ever since entering Shine Headquarters every inch of you has been getting scanned for dangerous weapons and substances.
"Well geez, that's not just a little bit invasive," Sam commented. Emily instinctively withdrew within herself in a futile attempt to hide in embarrassment.
"It's all a matter of security," Chief Glare said. "And a good thing at that. For the most part we found what we were expecting: a few storage chips and an average level of Digi-Soul inside you both. What we're curious about though is where those Digivices of yours came from." Sam pulled out his orange Digivice, pointing at it in confusion while Emily stared at the midnight black Digivice on her arm.
"Somebody else we met was wondering the same thing," Sam said. "She said that these were extremely rare and out of production, and that you didn't hand these out to people."
"How can we? We don't even know how to make them," Chief Glare said. "That wristwatch over there is definitely a Digivice, but it looks like a heavily outdated model. We could probably make something similar, but with the insane energy readings coming off of it, I don't think it's that simple. And Xros Loaders… Everybody knows about Xros Loaders. Possessing one is very dangerous, especially if you know the dark history surrounding them." The room fell into an uncomfortable silence, and nobody felt that it was safe to ask what that dark history was. The silence was straining on Emily's nerves, and one of the two had to break, so she spoke up.
"A-anyway, you're saying that there's transport for us, right?"
"That's right. If you keep heading west you'll find a port. Look for GreatWhalemon, and your transport will be sorted. Trust me, you won't miss the fella. If you do… You need a new pair of glasses. But you still haven't answered my question. Where did you get those Digivices?"
"Um, well mine came with my partner Digimon," Emily said. "Honestly, none of us are really sure. When Yoshi first came to my world he was a Kotemon, and he was fighting a Devimon. When I tried to help him it sorta just appeared before me."
"As for mine, you're asking the wrong person. One of my friends gave me my Xros Loader, you'll have to ask her where it came from." Chief Glare and Ophanimon glanced at each other, an almost nervous understanding passing between the two of them. The blare of an alarm interrupted them, the golden lights flashing red and blue. Everybody immediately kicked into action, holographic screens appearing all around the people sat at the computer terminals as they tried to find the source of the disturbance, half of them uprooting themselves, Digivices appearing from hidden pockets and bags.
"Great, the timing couldn't be any more perfect," Chief Glare grumbled. "Status report, now!" Chief Glare turned to the monitor behind, various maps and coded messages appearing on it.
"Sir, Shine Headquarters is under fire! The assailants are currently unknown!"
"Get a lock on them! Use the trajectory of the projectiles to trace them if they aren't in visual range! Mobilise all Silver rank and above Tamers, now!"
"All Silver Rank Tamers are unavailable due to the scheduled tournament, right now we only have a few Bronze and normal ranked Tamers!"
"Damnit, right when we really needed them… Where's Sayo? Is he still on his training mission? Put the city in code red, evacuate civilians under any costs! The safety of the people comes first, no matter what!" Sam looked at Emily. They didn't even need to say a word. They pushed past the guards and out of the room. "Hey, where are you two going? Get back he-" The rest of his words were cut off as they left, the doors slamming behind them.
"Emily, time to regroup," Sam said. "Starmon, get ready for a fight!"
They emerged out of the massive building alongside the uniformed Tamers, spilling into the market as they began organising them either inside the HQ or away from the general area. Occasionally the boom of another explosion against the Headquarters would sound, or a great blast of smoke and fire would erupt high above their heads, a transparent yellow dome appearing to stop them from entering the city. Emily and Sam slipped past everybody, hiding amongst the crowds until they arrived by the entrance. Everybody was already gathered, confused and sour expressions on their faces.
"What's going on?" Allison demanded. "We're under attack? Who's got the nerve to attack a huge place like this?"
"Well my first bet's on those guys up there," Mwape said, pointing up at the sky. At first Emily thought she was seeing squadrons of fighter jets flying overhead, jet streams forming criss-crossing patterns over their heads as they fired volley upon volley of missiles, but upon closer inspection she saw pterodactyl-like faces roaring at them as they released their missiles. They had to be some kind of mechanical Digimon. "I'm pretty sure that we're not gonna finish up our shopping until they're gone. Suggestions?"
"I vote we leave," Jay said.
"What, and leave them to blow up the city?" Mighty asked, almost aggressively. "I dunno about you, but that doesn't sit well in my circuits. I say we go help out!"
"What're we gonna do? At best we have about four Digimon that can fly against a few dozens of them. We can't even hit them. But this place has defences already, Tamers trained for this kind of thing, unlike us. Just look." Tamers were pointing their Digivices towards the sky, bird Digimon streaming out of them in droves. However, none of them were particularly large, and Emily's Digivice wasn't registering anything above Champion level.
"These guys aren't veterans," Emily said. "They're pretty much just like us, maybe a bit worse. And I doubt that they'll have any kind of strategy to make up for it either. We can't leave them alone." Jay shrugged his shoulders in resignation.
"Alright then Emily, what's the plan then? You're Miss Tactics, you lead and we'll follow." Emily frowned as she observed the battle.
"That shield… It won't let in any kind of projectile weapons, but Digimon can still fly through it, otherwise the guys on our side would be trapped too… Alright, here's the plan…." Whatever else she was going to say was interrupted as the green teleporter started flashing rapidly, strange Digimon in black rubber suits and gasmasks trooping out of it, rifles in their hands.
Name: Troopmon
Level: Rookie
Attribute: Unknown
Family: Machine Empire, Nightmare Soldiers
A Digimon born in the chaos of the Xros Wars from leftover military strategy and coordinates. They're said to have no minds of their own and unquestioning loyalty and brutality, making them invaluable to any General. They form the bulk of the fighting forces of almost every kingdom in the Digital World.
"Infiltration complete," one of them stated, a cracked maroon gas mask indicating that it was some kind of commander. "15th Squadron in position to commence takeover."
"No problem, let's go Yoshi-" Emily stopped mid-sentence then picked the silver ball off of her head. It looked into her eyes innocently, blinking a few times. He probably didn't even understand what was going on. Sam caught onto the nervous look of frustration and pulled out his Xros Loader.
"Don't worry Em, leave this to us!" he yelled. "You just sit back and watch the show, alright?" Emily reluctantly nodded her head as Mwape led her away from the fighting. Sam turned to the enemies, cracking his knuckles expectantly as they pointed their guns at them. "Alright then, if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you-"
"No you moron, they're using guns!" Emily yelled. "They might be pretty weak, but think about what happens in real life when cops and soldiers use guns? People die! Yeah, your Digimon might be fine, but you'll look like Swiss cheese!"
"Then what am I meant to do?!"
"Use Greymon, now!" Sam didn't even hesitate, his Xros Loader glowing bright as Greymon appeared from it. Gunfire thundered, but none of the bullets connected. Greymon's enormous scaly mass growled at the soldiers below, crushed bullets falling off of his helmet. "All ranged fighters, now!" Mighty and DexDorumon stepped forward, firing blue energy blasts and cannon balls over Greymon's head. Bitemon spat a stream of green acidic energy, joining it with a stream of red flames from Greymon's mouth, the two combining in a green flood of fire, washing over the Troopmon as they all scattered from it. "They've broken rank, now's your chance!"
"Dorumon," Ryuga said, swiping a card through his Digivice. "Digivolve!" DexDorumon growled as he grew in size, black energy flooding around him as he became DexDorugamon.
"Hyper Dash Metal!" he roared, black and silver energy blasts and cannonballs blasting scores of Digimon into the air.
"Starmon, suppression fire, now!" Sam commanded.
"Right on! Meteor Squall!" The Pickmons all flew around the squads of Troopmon, breaking their weapons in their very hands.
"Damnit, I'll stop you myself!" the commander snarled. "Everybody, surround them! Heavy artillery, stay in the rear lines and rain down mortar fire! 2nd squad, take cover and wait for air support!" The Troopmon all scattered further, running away from the storm of attacks.
"Oh yeah, we're winning!" Sam roared. "Take that!" Emily squinted at the forces, observing their movement patterns.
"No… We're not winning, they're trying to surround us! Stop them!"
"Leave it to us," Lexi said. Gatomon was already on the move, hopping from foot to foot like a professional boxer as she dealt decisive blows, each enemy falling with each blow. Handle sprinted amongst their ranks, tearing into them with claws and fangs, but it was already too late. Troopmon were hidden amongst the buildings, firing rounds rapidly at them.
"If we stay out in the open here it's over for us," Emily warned. "Head deeper into the city." Greymon roared at them, shielding the humans from the bullets as they began to retreat, but they'd barely moved a few steps when an explosion sounded just in front of them, sending them all to the ground. They looked back towards the teleporter just to see a wave of tank-like Digimon firing shells at them. "Flare!"
"Already on it!" he yelled back, clasping his hands together almost in a prayer before slamming them on the ground. Gigantic barriers formed entirely of ice raised around them, the projectiles exploding on the glass-like dome. Sam stared at him in surprise, but got a cocky grin back in return. "Ice alchemy, a lil trick I learnt from my bro, but ice isn't my specialty. I can't hold this thing up for a long time. We've gotta get outta here, and quick." Like a gigantic frozen turtle, the group shuffled away from the storm of bullets and explosions behind them, but Emily didn't stop staring at her enemies, her attention caught on the red Troopmon.
"That guy's their commander, if we can get rid of him then their whole line of communication will fall. He's our priority. They have way more firepower than us, if we try to outlast them in a defensive fight we'll get annihilated. Everybody Digivolve to levels that give you the most mobility and the ability to carry a human. Flare, when I give the signal, you break down the shield. No sooner, no later. Got it?" Flare stared at her in surprise, then nodded his head.
"Wow, you're really in good form today, aren't you?" It didn't seem like Emily even noticed, her attention turned to any potential cracks in the ice shield.
"Well then Handle, looks like we're going all wolf form today!" Allison cried out excitedly, Digi soul building up around her arm.
"Starmons, Pickmons, DigiXros!" Sam yelled, the Digimon clashing together before materialising as a big golden throwing star with a handle in the centre, rotating rapidly like a helicopter blade. Sam grabbed it, hovering a few centimetres off the ground. "Xros Up Starmon: Shuriken mode!" Sam roared, admiring the design.
"Gatomon, we could really use your help," Lexi added, swiping a modify card through her Digivice. Mwape and Mighty simply looked each other in the eyes and nodded their heads. In a few short moments and flashes of light, everybody had Digivolved up to Champion level, with Gatomon now Angewomon as well. Everybody grabbed hold of their Digimon just as the shield began to crumble within itself.
"Now guys, run, and attack individually on my signal!" Emily screamed. The shield fell as they all scattered, slabs of ice falling to the ground before getting blown into millions of pieces under the barrage of artillery shells.
"Hey, over here!" Angewomon screamed. The attention of the Troopmon went up to the air where Angewomon was, Lexi's arms wrapped around her shoulders as she clung to her back. "Celestial Arrow!" she roared, notching a glowing white arrow and firing a shower of arrows down at them. As soon as the Tankmon all aimed back up at her she was gone.
"I thought you guys were well trained?" Mighty asked, appearing just behind them next to Mwape with his cannon charged up. His golden armour looked like it was shining with power. "You guys must be weekend soldiers, am I right?"
"Can you please focus before they blast us into space?" Mwape asked, a hint of panic in his voice as the tanks turned around to face him.
"Right, right, whatever you say," Mighty groaned. "Mega Aura Shot!" A massive blue energy blast hurled itself out of his cannon, decimating soldiers in the dozens. The tanks all turned to fire on him, shells exploding all around them.
"Mighty, do something!" Mwape roared.
"Like what? I might be bulletproof, but I can't really help you much here!" Before the Tankmon could fire another volley, two more of them spontaneously combusted, massive chunks of armour flying proudly through the air. Sangloupmon was running rampant through the crowds of Tankmon, slicing the barrels off of them before stopping by Mighty and Mwape, pushing them onto his back and running off.
"Damnit!" The commanding Troopmon roared. "All units fire at will! Stop that stupid mutt! Stop it before-" His threat was cut short as Starmon spiralled into his head, carving another gash into his gas mask before flying back up into the air. Sam caught him almost perfectly, hovering on the spot before flying away, led by Starmon's rotation. "What's going on here?! We can't seriously be getting beaten back by kids, can we?"
"'Fraid so," Emily commented. The Commander looked back towards the building, rage visible even through the mask. Emily stood on top of Greymon's head, her Digivice faintly glowing blue as Yoshi glared at him, trying his best to make himself look threatening, and failing. "I have to give you some respect. You caught us by surprise, and your men are pretty well trained to surround us so quickly. If we fought you head on, we would have lost. But we have a smaller fighting force, we can manoeuvre through the streets better, over rooftops, beneath sewers, and attack from everywhere. We ambushed your ambush."
"No way… Outsmarted by a kid… Tell me, are you some kind of General?" Emily smiled, her glasses reflecting the sunlight.
"No… I'm just one hell of a Tamer!" Greymon roared, flames incinerating everything they came into contact with. The screams of the retreating Troopmon filled the air as they fell back. "Good, route the enemy guys! Make sure none of them remain inside." Everybody gathered just outside the teleporter, cheering wildly as the last of the soldiers ran away, back out of the city's gates.
"Hah! Take that!" Allison roared. "That'll show those rubber guised freakazoids what happens when they mess with us!"
"I dunno, something doesn't feel right," Jay commented, his expression troubled. "That almost felt too easy. Those guys were well trained soldiers, and their commander was no joke either if he got Emily by surprise."
"But that's cause they're the grunts!" Allison insisted. "We're meant to take out the grunts in one shot! If we didn't, then we're not doing something right!"
"No, Jay's got a point," Emily said. "Maybe if we were some heroes in a really cheesy cartoon or an action movie, but this is all real. Those guys aren't like the wild Digimon we met before. It's like they wanted us to win…." Her eyes spread wide in horror as she looked up at the rapidly thinning dome over their heads. "Flare, shield, now!"
"Wha-huh- got it!" Flare placed his hands on the ground, ice spreading all around them in a dome again, and not a moment too soon either. The crash and burn of bombs over their heads shook the ground itself, and Emily could feel the wind rushing out of her lungs. The blast of air was like a gigantic punch to her whole body, and she could see colourful spots swimming beneath the lenses of her glasses. Assuming they still had glass in them after that explosion. The shield slowly crumbled, the explosions on its surface diminishing it to nothing but a flimsy glass plate above their heads.
"Flare, Flare! Are you alright?" Sam asked. Flare was kneeling down, his eyes even more colourless than usual.
"I'm… I'm fine. That one just caught me by surprise, that's all…" Emily looked up at the sky. Rows of jet Digimon streaked through the sky, dropping bombs at various points across the city. Emily clenched her fists in rage. How could she not have noticed it?
"It's a trap, they've got us under a bombing run, and they're coming for round two!"
"Crap that's bad isn't it?" Sam asked in panic.
"Bad doesn't come close, they're crisscrossing over our heads to get maximum coverage, we can't run away in time!"
"That's really bad! And Flare's too weak to make another shield in time! Emily, what do we do, what do we do?" Emily stared in horror as she saw an angry swarm of missiles falling from the sky down at them.
"I… I don't know…" Before anybody could stop him, Yoshi jumped off of Emily's head, the spark on his tail lighting up the remnants of their ice shield.
"MetalChoromon Digivolve too…" Yoshi was enveloped in a bright blue dome, everybody staring in surprise at the sudden evolution. "Kapurimon!" The light disappeared, revealing a blue and white slightly larger ball of fuzz, a silver helmet very similar to Yoshi's normal Kotemon one on the top half of his face, red eyes glaring at the sky above them. A long bushy racoon-like tail wagged furiously.
"Yoshi?" Emily asked in surprise.
"I'm still not sure what's going on," he said, his voice still very child-like. "But I definitely know that those are the bad guys, and I can't let them hurt my friends! Knight's honour!"
"Yoshi you idiot, you're still a baby!" Emily cried, pulling him back into her arms, even as he struggled comically against it. "You'll hurt yourself!"
"No I won't! I'm your partner and partners are meant to look out for each other! Now let go!" Emily yelped in pain as Yoshi chomped on her finger, wriggling his way out of her arms. "Sonic Waves!" Yoshi screamed as loud as he possibly could, louder than a jackhammer, louder than a jet engine, louder still than even that, everybody blocking their ears in pain as a white barrier spread outwards from his mouth, rippling across the missiles. In a wave, all the missiles detonated early, filling the sky with glaring incandescent fireworks. Even after he had stopped, Emily could still hear a clear ringing in her ears, and she could only be glad that she wasn't one of the missiles that took the full brunt of the attack. Yoshi was huffing and puffing on the floor, his fur bristly and stood on end. For all his bravado, he didn't look like he could do something like that again, and the jet Digimon were coming back for a round trip. Other Tamers cried out in alarm as their Digimon started dropping out of the sky, some of them reverting back to Rookie levels.
"That worked once, but odds are that we're dead by round two," Ryuga pointed out. Emily glanced at Yoshi in worry as he tried to pick himself up.
"Knight's honour," Yoshi said. "I'll protect you Emily, don't worry… about a thing…."
"No Yoshi, you're done, you're just going to hurt yourself again like this…." Emily could feel her blood running cold. Here they were, again, stuck in an impossible situation, with Yoshi pushing himself too much. If anything happened to him again, to all of them… "I can't let you guys get hurt anymore, it's all gonna be my fault if we lose…."
"Then let me fight seriously Emily," Yoshi answered. "You're scared, scared you're gonna mess up. I know you're scared of losing me again, but if you let your fear get a hold of you, we're all dead! If you don't get serious now, then it's just going to happen again!"
"Yoshi, it's my fault you died-"
"I'm right here Emily! I'm not going to get beaten again! Just let me fight, I also want to protect my friends, but I can't do that unless you let me!" Emily looked up at the incoming Digimon, then back at her friends, then to her partner.
"Sorry to be a downer," Allison added. "But Yoshi is still just a baby Digimon! And unlike us, he can't fly either! We have no way of taking those guys down and defending at the same time!" Emily bit her lip, her nerves forcing her whole body to tremble, then stared back into Yoshi's eyes. For a second, just for a split-second, she could see him as he was, clutching his sword tight enough to snap it, his eyes focussed in determination. Her Digivice was glowing bright blue, and if she had bothered to check it, she would have seen that same bar of evolution on it, nearly filled now and flashing in alarm.
"No… he can't fight… Not yet…. But if we don't at least try, then we're dead anyway…. I've got a gamble to test out."
"An idea?"
"Not an idea, it's still just a gamble, it might not even help us… but we've got to try!" She pulled out the Digivolution chips she got from Gear just earlier. "I don't know what's going to happen, and honestly, I'm really scared, but if we don't at least try, then what's the point!" She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, then opened them again, rage in her eyes. She held up her Digivice, black Digisoul already pumping out of it in torrents. "let's do this Yoshi! Digivolve!" She stuck the chip inside it, the bar on the screen shooting out of it and wrapping itself around Yoshi.
"Koromon Digivolve to…" Koromon's body disappeared within his helmet, the helmet itself stretching and morphing itself into something entirely new, vaguely shaped like a bird or some kind of plane. It had turned yellow by now, was twice the size of Emily, its large wings tipping themselves in silver claws as fumes ejected themselves from its exhaust. Two small arms popped out of the plane's body, holding twin silver pistols, and finally a face formed at the planes front, clad in a bronze helmet with a set of angry maroon eyes. "Sparrowmon!" he roared.
Sparrowmon
Level: Champion
Attribute: None
Type: Machine
Family: Nature Spirits
Attacks: Random Laser, Wingtip Laser, Crash Boom
A Digimon born from the specs of a Heinkel 162 "Spatz" fighter jet, it specialises in aerial combat. It is extremely manoeuvrable and can pull off sudden sharp turns at a moments notice to confuse enemies. The quality of its flying represents its mood, however, it has a very serious personality flaw in that they are all incredibly moody, and can have sudden, potentially dangerous mood swings. Though not normally ill willed, under certain circumstances they can give way to these emotions and become incredibly sadistic, making them notorious in the underworld as the "Gangsters of the sky".
"What the- why is it a plane now?!" Sam exclaimed in shock. "I thought Yoshi's Champion level was Musyamon, right?" Emily looked equally shocked, staring at her Digivice. On it was what looked like some kind of evolution tree, Kapurimon at the start, then branching off as Kotemon and Musyamon down one side, and as a question mark followed by Sparrowmon on the other side.
"Cause he was evolution locked," Emily started. "I've unlocked his potential to have become something else… Yoshi has the potential to become anything based on his surroundings… Yoshi!" Yoshi looked down at her with a sly grin, hovering a few metres off of the ground, swirling tornadoes spinning on the ground just beneath him.
"I can kill them, right? Right, right, right, right, right?"
"Stop the missiles first!" Emily roared. Yoshi looked back up at the sky, spotting the incoming missiles.
"Yay! I can blow them all up!" They had barely even blinked when suddenly he was gone, flying at supersonic speeds through the air. "Random Laser!" he screamed, whirling his arms around aggressively as he fired bursts of bright blue lasers and arcs of lightning through the skies. There was no accuracy at all, but sure enough within a few seconds missiles were exploding all around them randomly. He spun through the air, spinning and twirling, banking and looping all around all of the other flying Digimon, dodging missiles and lasers as they fired them. He looked back with an ecstatic smile, making a sharp turn left as the pursuing Digimon crashed into each other in an effort to copy him, falling to the ground in a ball of flames. He fired more lasers randomly, most of the shots spiralling wildly into the air or crashing into the ground dangerously close to the humans.
"Yoshi, careful!" Emily advised. "Contain the fighting to the air!"
"Alright, alright, I got it!" He corkscrewed through the air, his wings slicing parts off of the other Digimon in the process. Yellow streaks of light flashed through the air, signalling the destruction of another enemy each time.
"No way, Yoshi's amazing!" Sam exclaimed. "He's taking them all out singlehandedly!" Emily didn't look quite as awestruck though, peering at him analytically.
"But he's really reckless, the complete opposite of the calm and collected Kotemon. The only reason this is working is because he caught them off guard, he's breaking their formation. If they regroup, then it's over for him. I don't need to tell you guys what to do, right?"
"Finish them off before they can regroup, got it!" The Starmon shuriken broke off into all the different Digimon as they headed for the skies, and Angewoman took numerous well aimed shots at them from below. The turning tide got all the other Tamers fired up, and it wasn't long before the invading force was being routed completely. The whole city erupted into cheers as they watched the squadrons of flying Digimon turning tail, the noise and chaos dying down into a grumbling whisper in the distance.
Emily let out a sigh of relief as Yoshi flew back down to her level, beaming from ear to ear like a small child.
"Did I do good Emily? Was I cool? Huh?"
"Yeah, Yoshi, you did great," she said.
"I'll admit, I'm impressed," Ryuga said. "I didn't expect Yoshi to turn into an aerial Digimon, or to get the hang of flying so quickly. It wasn't so easy for Dorumon." It was then that Chief Glare and Ophanimon appeared from the streets, emerging from the direction of the headquarters.
"What's the situation at the northern entrance?" Chief Glare asked, his eyes scanning the destruction.
"There was like this HUGE force of artillery and flying guys and stuff!" Mighty exclaimed. "But you know, we took them out!"
"You actually won, and without our assistance," Ophanimon said, clearly surprised. "I'm impressed. Unfortunately, we don't have the time to do any more for you. There are many other registered tamers who we must attend to first."
"We were attacked from all sides, and they left as suddenly as they came. We're still not sure about the extent of the damage, or what their goal was. I'm sure that wasn't their full strength."
"Really? Maybe they just underestimated us?" Sam laughed confidently at the notion that they might actually be a threat.
"Don't get cocky," Emily said. "They weren't fighting with the intent to kill now, but next time will be different."
"How do you know that?"
"It's just like they said, if they were serious, they wouldn't have left when they still had more soldiers. The way they were sending out waves, and how well trained they were, resources and skill probably isn't a problem either. They probably just left because they achieved whatever they wanted already. We just so happened to survive."
"How quickly she grasps things never ceases to amaze me," Chief Glare said. "Anyway, you don't have time to be hanging around here, do you? I'm pretty sure you've got a Whalemon to catch."
"Yeah, we're sorry we have to be going after bringing this mess with us," Ryuga said.
"Don't get too full of yourself," Ophanimon chastised. "Whatever they were after, I can assure you that it wasn't you."
"Yeah, but still, I get where he's coming from," Sam said sheepishly. "It feels like this is somehow our fault, maybe because of the timing of the attacks…."
"If you truly feel that you're responsible, then make yourself scarce before others get the same idea."
"I dunno, that somehow seems even more suspicious to me…."
"Must I repeat myself?"
"No ma'am! Come on guys, let's go! Hehe!" Emily drunk in the destruction one more time. They were lucky, nobody looked like they were seriously hurt. But they'd come close. People were recalling battered and bruised Digimon all around, and even humans were tending to their injuries. She turned away from it all as the group headed for the teleporter. For now, they had work to do.