A/N: Hey guys, it's finals week, so after this, I will start writing this again with gusto! I have been really out of it lately so I do apologize. After this arc, the dragging on will happen a little less. So sit bad, enjoy, and let me know what you think!
1-8
They are interrupted from their renewed sense of camaraderie by cries of pain. Their evolved partners have all been thrown back, crashing into buildings hard enough for them to shatter and disappear. Koushiro's mother looks on with fear in her face but rests her hand soothingly on her son's head. Sora realizes that this is the epitome of motherly acceptance: warning but not restricting. Only now did she recognize it and think of her own mother, who was-
No, her mother was alive. She had to be.
"Sora-san!" Takeru yelped and pulled her back as Birdramon hit the ground, orange feathers fluttering to hit the wall. "We have to focus, Sora-san!"
"Are you all right?" Birdramon caws and Sora nods, only to muffle a shriek as a rainbow laser comes towards them. Hikari flew down and spun her scythe, blocking the attack. She giggled.
"Are you even trying to dance along anymore?" she asks, glancing back at them. Her mouth is caked in red and Takeru cringes behind Sora a little, barely managing to look Hikari in the eyes. "You haven't found his rhythm yet. Find that, and he'll fall like the tower of Babel, struck down by holy wrath." She thinks slowly, thoughtfully, then gives a slash to the air that cuts into VenomVamdemon's torso and abdomen. It heals but not without a scream. The scream is from the wounded area, where Mimi looks and screams, turning away.
"There's a face!" she wails. "I saw a face in there!"
In horror movie fascination, they look up, and sure enough, something is squirming from the crotch area, malformed, three-fingered hands flailing out as a masked face makes its way out, screaming with a baby's screech and cursing, cursing the air.
"Are you telling me this thing could breed?" Yamato can't help but wonder, and Hikari giggles.
"Not quite," she says and MetalGarurumon howls, ice blue missiles flying from compartments all over his body. One strikes that face, and the creature's whole body writhes, screaming and howling.
Yamato feels himself smile. It isn't enough to kill him, but it's a good start.
Even when MetalGarurumon is knocked aside by a crimson hand, Yamato can't help smiling. They can do this. They can beat him. They can save Hikari. He owes her a punch in the face.
That's when his Crest begins to glow.