By the time I make it back to the island's shore, the kids have made their way down off the rocks and onto the adjoining beach. I don't immediately surface to greet them, still trying to work out exactly what to say to them, and how to go about saying it.
This is going to be more difficult than I'd have liked. If I'd met the kids before they ever encountered Ranamon, they'd have relatively few preconceptions that I'd need to work past in order to reach a point of relative trust. However, Seraphimon is already an egg, and barring the possibility that happened within the past several hours where I've been conveniently absent, Ranamon was part of the group that participated in that event. Meaning the kids likely already know by this point that I'm nominally their enemy, and it may be a bit of an uphill battle to get them to believe that's not actually the case.
...still, I have to try, especially as this is probably the best chance I'm going to get to do so. At the point in the plot when the kids arrived on this island, I'm pretty sure most of them had lost the ability to spirit evolve — again, because that happened like four or five times in this season — such that when the *actual* Ranamon attacked, Zoe was the only one available to fight her. Hence why she was also the one that later got smacked into the whirlpool cluster, I imagine. If that holds true here, then even in the worst case scenario I should only have to deal with an angry fairy woman, and I think I can at least handle that much, especially since handing over her beast spirit should make for a pretty good olive branch.
Here goes...
Dragging a small pillar of water up around my feet, I let it gently rise from the depths, pushing myself up into open air.
Seven pairs of eyes turn to face me.
"Hi..." I say, raising a hand to nervously wave at the group. "If you all could spare a bit of time, I need to talk to you."
"Ahhh!" JP yelps, stumbling backwards.
"It's her!" Tommy cries.
Takuya and Kouji say nothing, but their expressions harden into glares, and Zoe's isn't far behind. The only one who doesn't react negatively is Neemon, who just cluelessly tilts his head to one side.
"Her? Her who?"
Bokomon breaks from his wide-eyed panic for a moment to look over and comically glower at his companion.
"Ranamon, you nincompoop!"
"Who's Lanamon?"
Bokomon's glower intensifies. "The legendary warrior of water? One of the five ancient spirits that serve Cherubimon? We first met her yesterday, when she and her allies reduced Seraphimon to this?!"
He thrusts his stomach and the giant egg strapped to it forward for emphasis. I wince, despite having known this was likely how I'd be initially received.
"I know how it must have looked to you, but that's not quite true." I say with as much audible sincerity as I can muster. "I promise, I'm not here to-"
"Looked?!" JP interrupts. "How could you attacking us have possibly only 'looked' bad?"
"...it's hard to explain, but it wasn't what it seemed." I say, trying not to grate at being cut off. "Believe it or not, I'm on your side-"
"On our side?" Kouji repeats, crossing his arms. "Is that what you call helping your friend steal Seraphimon's fractal code?"
My eyes half-lid themselves as I try to suppress my irritation. Why does everyone feel the need to talk over me lately?
"I understand why you're angry, but I didn't actually play a part in that."
"Oh?" Kouji asks, a speck of what I hope might be genuine curiosity lingering in his otherwise deadpan delivery. "Then who did?"
"I told you, it's- look, it'll take some time to explain." I sigh. "If you'll stop interrupting me and hear me out though, I've got a little peace offering to-"
"Like we're gonna trust that!" Takuya shouts. "We've heard all we need to!"
My rebuttal dies in my mouth as a code cocoon envelops him, with the rest of the group following suit a moment later — bar Kouji, who takes an extra second to look annoyed with his own friends before sighing and doing the same. Huh?! They aren't supposed to be able to spirit evolve right now! I know I'm not wrong, I distinctly recall Zoe being the only one available to fight Ranamon at this point, because-
...because... in the show, she was the only one who still had her D-Tector after the Toucanmon stole the rest, hoping to curry favor with Ranamon. Which obviously hasn't happened yet, because not only did the group literally just arrive, but I didn't ask that of the Toucanmon in the first place. Why would I? I'm not Ranamon, and I didn't even know the kids would be here at the same time as me, not that I'd have ordered their transformation trinkets stolen even if I had. But that, in turn, means that of course they can all still...
Do that...
My heart leaps up into my throat as the cocoons dissipate, revealing five very armored, very angry-looking Digimon staring up at me.
"Be very careful!" Bokomon warns, rapidly flipping through his reference book. "At the beach, her power will be exponentially greater than what you witnessed before!"
"Yeah, but there's five of us and only one of her!" Beetlemon confidently replies. "She can't fight all of us at once!"
"I don't want to fight you!" I shout, panic welling up within me as the situation slips further and further out of my control. Of all the times to misremember the specifics-!
"Then maybe you and your buddies shouldn't have done what you did to Seraphimon!" Agunimon shouts back. "Come on guys, we can take her!"
"Slight problem with that," Lobomon cuts in, eyes narrowing at his teammate, "have you forgotten that none of us can walk on water?"
At the reminder, I relax, if only slightly.
"That's right," I reply with cautious relief, "you can't, so-"
Kazemon abruptly kicks off the ground, darting towards me at a speed only barely slow enough for me to react. I yelp, swerving my water pillar out of the way just in time to avoid a kick that would have otherwise smashed directly into my jaw.
"Doesn't really matter when you can fly." she smirks.
"N-now wait a minute-"
Kazemon does not wait a minute, nor does Beetlemon, who I'm forced to frantically dodge around as he flies forward as well, both hands balled into fists and crackling with electrical energy. Kumamon starts freezing a path out into the water, while Agunimon and Lobomon begin taking pot shots, launching darts of fire and tiny lasers at me from their wrists. How has it all gone this wrong this quickly?!
I swoop under a howling gale of wind and past a literal lightning strike, straining to regain a moment to breathe, only to take a hit across the chest from a fire dart. It thankfully more just stings than burns, but it's enough to prompt me to quickly dive back underwater. A few more fire darts strike the surface moments later, but extinguish themselves almost immediately, though the lasers keep on coming. If I can just get a moment to breathe, maybe I can still salvage-
The sea around me suddenly darkens, and I look up just in time to see Beetlemon slam a ball of electricity down onto the surface of the water, causing a rather large amount of it to fountain upwards while the current is released into its surroundings. The majority of the voltage disperses in the surrounding liquid, which there's simply too much of to properly electrify, but that's not enough to stop at least part of the attack from running over me, drawing a small scream from my throat as I experience what feels like a full-body static shock.
I recover quickly enough to duck under another round of laser fire, only to realize Beetlemon didn't retreat. Instead, he dove underwater himself — and is now all of five feet away from me, one hand reaching out towards my exposed throat.
My mind flashes back to the Seadramon crushing the life out of me, and panic instantly takes over. Grabbing hold of the water around Beetlemon, I shift it into a small whirlpool, trapping him inside.
"...uh oh."
I hear what sounds like a muffled realization of a bad idea a split second before I enlarge the whirlpool and have it spit Beetlemon back onto land like a bug-shaped missile. I then swim into the vortex myself and invert it, pulling it up into another small tower before spiraling up and out the top. By chance, this breaks Kumamon's growing ice bridge in the process, forcing him to retreat back to land.
"Would you all please calm down?!" I yell, struggling to retain any semblance of calm myself. "It wasn't me that attacked you before!"
"Then who was it? Your evil twin?" Agunimon sarcastically demands.
"Essentially, yes!"
"Oh, get real!" Beetlemon shouts as he pulls himself out of the sand I tossed him into.
"Yeah, you seriously expect us to believe that?" Kazemon follows up.
"We're not babies you know!" Kumamon adds.
I grit my shark-like teeth. Damn it, this isn't working! Seraphimon's death is obviously still too fresh in their minds... and if they won't believe I'm not out to get them, then they certainly won't believe anything else I have to say either.
I curse internally as I realize I truly can't fix this. Not here, and not now, at least. In which case, the best thing I can do right now is either just surrender, which I'm not sure they'd even accept with emotions still running this high, or...
Well. Skedaddle.
"Fine!" I call out as I shove myself away from a concentrated surge of wind flung from Kazemon's fingers. "You win! Hope to talk to you all again when you're ready to actually listen!"
I dip back down towards the water proper, drawing liquid up from my pillar and having it flow over me as I prepare to jet away-
"Beak Twister!"
-then startle as one of the Toucanmon suddenly leaps out of the trees behind the three ground-bound warriors, snapping his giant beak shut around Lobomon's torso. The wolf-like warrior cries out in shock as the bird Digimon barely half his size proceeds to pivot on one foot, tossing him into a nearby trunk with surprising strength.
"It's an ambush!" Kumamon yelps as the other three Toucanmon rush out of the treeline.
"Don't worry Lady Ranamon, we'll protect you!" one of them calls out, their crests seeming to swell as they lunge as well.
"No, DON'T!" I cry.
I watch on in horror as Agunimon, having had several seconds more warning than Lobomon did, swiftly kicks away the pair of Toucanmon that jump at him, sending them both sprawling. They weren't suppose to get involved-!
Distracted by the sudden melee, I fail to notice Beetlemon beelining towards me again until it's already too late to dodge. I watch as though in slow motion as his horn crackles with light-
"Marching Fishes!"
-which then blinks back out as upwards of ten separate voices simultaneously call out the same two words, and a small army of colorful fish begins leaping out of the water at high speed, smacking themselves against Beetlemon like living projectiles.
"Ah- ow, ow, hey, quit it!" Beetlemon yelps, reversing course as dozens, if not hundreds of tiny bodies launch themselves into his face. "Watch the eyes!"
As he retreats back to land, a dozen Gomamon suddenly surface in a rough circle around my now-stunted pillar.
"We're here too!" one of them calls to me. "No matter who you are, you helped us out, so we're returning the favor!"
If I still had any actual hair to rip out, this would undoubtedly be the moment. This isn't the kind of "help" I need right now!
"Crystal Breeze!" Kumamon cries at the same time Agunimon screams "Pyro Tornado!", the former breathing out a gust of sparkling air that ices over the sand one of the Toucanmon is charging forward on, freezing his feet in place, while the latter becomes a tornado of flame that gyres over the frozen patch with ease. A moment before it can reach its target, the flames go out, just in time to reveal Agunimon as he roundhouse kicks the trapped Toucanmon in the side of the face. The ice around the Toucanmon's legs breaks as he screams in pain, the force of the kick nearly sending him straight into the sea, and my anger flares like wildfire.
"Don't you DARE hurt them!" I screech, my pillar surging upwards again. "They've got nothing to do with this!"
Seeing Kazemon about to unleash an attack on one of the downed Toucanmon, I raise one hand and furiously snap.
"Hurricane- ahhh!"
Kazemon fails to complete her attack as, instead of a rain cloud, a small cyclone abruptly whips up around her, instantly tearing her from the sky and sending her plummeting down into the water below.
"Zoe!" Beetlemon and Kumamon cry in tandem.
I freeze, my hand still outstretched as my attack continues to rage. What the- even when I was fighting the Seadramon it didn't do that, how the hell-
A painful blast of solid light strikes me across the side of the jaw, hard enough to nearly knock me off my feet. Damn it!
I draw myself back up just in time to see two of the Toucanmon leap and latch onto Agunimon and Lobomon's arms, seemingly trying to keep them from aiming at me.
"Man, you guys sure are persistent!" Agunimon complains as he struggles to throw off the oversized bird.
"We'd do anything to protect Lady Ranamon!" the Toucanmon cries. "You'll never-"
"That's ENOUGH!" I yell at the Toucanmon, as well as the Gomamon still trying to harass the warriors from the water with projectile fish. "All of you, get away from here, now!"
The Toucanmon clinging to Lobomon gets thrown off, flapping his wings to pause his fall as he looks up at me in shock. "But Lady Ranamon-!"
"I don't want you getting hurt on my behalf!"
Not to mention what you're doing right now is incredibly counterproductive!
"But-"
"GO!"
I shove a roughly eight-foot tall wave up over the beach, driving the warriors backwards while simultaneously catching the Gomamon that swam up near land to drag them back out to sea. Please take the hint this time!
Having bought myself a moment or two with that, I swivel back around, forcibly dispersing the still-raging cyclone I just caused as I make to dive down and save Zoe. She hasn't come up yet, and even with how poorly this has all gone I hardly want her to drown-
Something suddenly starts glowing beneath the surface, looking almost like an underwater sunrise. Before I can even fully take that in, the glow swells, and the water above it bursts outwards as a gigantic tentacle breaks through the surface and smacks out the lower third of my pillar.
My control over the watery construct experiences a hiccup as the liquid composing its base is suddenly flung over fifty feet away, leaving me to scream as it destabilizes completely and scatters in all directions, sending me careening down in an ungraceful freefall for the third or fourth time today. I try to pull myself together fast enough to catch myself with the ocean again, or at least enter a basic diving pose-
*!-SMACK-!*
-and fail. This time, my left shoulder ends up bearing the brunt of the impact, taking it much worse than my cap did earlier.
Owww... what the hell is it now...?
Planting my hands on a small square of water, I shakily push myself upright— and find myself staring up at a woman with bluish-white skin, a shark-like helmet, and an absolutely furious expression, paired with a lower body consisting of an huge, upside-down, multi-eyed cephalopod.
I balk.
That's... Calmaramon...
The Beast Spirit of Water...
"Who is that?!" Agunimon yells.
"Another enemy?"
"Aw, come on, weren't all these other ones enough already?"
The squid woman's glower intensifies, even as she turns half of it towards the beach.
"It's me, you guys."
Her voice is considerably harsher than it was before, but not nearly as grating as the Calmaramon I remember — not that it stops the others from reeling back as realization strikes.
"Zoe?!"
"That's really her?"
"Guess so..."
"Uh- wow! That spirit sure is, er-"
"DON'T say it." Calmaramon growls, shutting down Beetlemon's stuttering comments in an instant.
"That... that's mine!"
I barely even realize I was the one who spoke, even as everyone's attention turns back to me. Indignance and disbelief course through me in equal measure, leaving me feeling like I've just been beaten and robbed on the side of the road.
"That's MY beast spirit!" I all but shriek. "Give it back!"
Calmaramon smirks.
"Funny. Why don't you have it then?"
She abruptly surges forward, tentacles thicker than tree trunks reaching out to bind and grapple me. I dive below to evade, but Calmaramon simply follows, her many limbs pushing her forward at shockingly rapid speed. Seething, I grab at the ocean, certain I can at least still outpace her with Whipping Waves-
"Titanic Tempest!"
Calmaramon's voice reverberates clear as day through the water, and I look back just in time to see her upper body duck into her mantle, her larger tentacles extending outwards as she begins spinning like a giant propeller — an apt comparison in more than one way, as her already rapid speed immediately more than triples. I throw myself backwards, trying to halt her charge by holding the water around her in place, but if it has any effect whatsoever, it isn't obvious as Calmaramon continues to spiral towards me like a torpedo the size of a small building, smashing through everything on the seafloor in her way. Luckily, she can't seem to turn very well in her current state, allowing me to just barely avoid getting swiped by one of her massive tentacles as she careens past me — but the sheer force generated by the attack's passing still hits me through the water itself, evacuating most of the contents of my lungs as the shockwave washes over me like a miniature sonic boom.
Sucking in more water to regain my breath, I force myself upwards, riding a shallow wave back up through the surface. Calmaramon rises back up along with me, smirking confidently as she reemerges from her mantle.
"Ready to give up yet, sugar?"
Something snaps, and it isn't my fingers this time.
"Fine!" I spit. "If you really want to keep my beast spirit so badly..."
I burst out of the sea as it spikes beneath me, allowing the water to carry me high into the air-
[ S L I D E - E V O L U T I O N ]
-then let it fall back to the ocean below, no longer under my control as my suddenly-extant wings flare out behind me.
"...then I guess that I'll be keeping yours." I finish, a smirk of my own forming behind my mask.
Just like a minute ago, everyone present cries out in alarm. This time though, I'm the exception, allowing me to savor the sight of Calmaramon's expression twisting into utter shock.
"Wha- where did you get-"
"Aww, not so fun when it's your spirit being dangled in front of you, is it?" I ask, possessed by a sudden impishness as I lie back on the air itself, Zephyrmon's innate connection to the wind keeping me aloft without any actual effort. "But you know, maybe this is for the best! I mean, you don't have this spirit, so I guess it just wasn't meant to be yours... that is what you just said, isn't it?"
Agunimon and Lobomon manage to collect themselves and send another wide spray of light and flame in my direction. I lazily float away from the barrage, deliberately making the movement look nigh-effortless, which it very nearly is already.
"Is it me, or did you guys just get a lot slower?" I say, moving a clawed hand to my face and pretending to yawn.
Kumamon suddenly comes flying off the front of an icy ramp he attached to a tree while I wasn't watching, shouting "Blizzard Blaster!" as a barrage of frigid snowballs erupts from his miniature missile launcher. I dash out of their path, moving at speeds far greater than I bothered to show before, and stop scarcely two feet in front of Calmaramon, causing her to flinch back in surprise as I casually perch atop her mantle.
"What's the matter?" I ask, half-lidding my eyes and teasingly running a claw down the side of my cheek. "Jealous, perhaps?"
Calmaramon's expression shifts from startled back to furious as she inhales and spits a concentrated stream of pitch black ink at me. My claws move to slash through it as I leap back into the air, dispersing the caustic fluid into naught but mist as the surrounding wind scatters the lingering droplets all but automatically.
"You know, I didn't really want this fight-"
Beetlemon attempts to lunge at me from behind, his horn glowing yellow with a chained electric charge. He gives himself away by yelling "Lightning Blitz!" a half-second beforehand however, and ends up passing just inches underneath me as I send myself into a midair flip — allowing me to lash as my rotation completes and land a vicious kick to the back of his head, drawing a strangled-sounding cry from the robotic bug man as he's sent careening down to the ocean below.
"-but I have to admit, this is kind of fun!"
Despite my words, a part of me still winces at Beetlemon's pained yelp. Huh, that seemed a bit... harsh... oh well!
"How about a quick fortune?" I almost giggle. "I predict..."
I move my clawed hands in a circle, and a funnel of slicing wind erupts from them, glowing purple feathers ripping themselves from my wings and adding themselves to the gale before it tears across the beach, sending my prey diving in every direction to dodge.
"...that you're all about to be scattered to the winds!"
My gleeful tone seems to almost grate against my own ears, but I've no time to wonder why as a sudden change in the wind draws my attention down and left, just in time to catch an enormous spinning drill directly on my palms — or try to, but the hardened tip of Calmaramon's mantle simply has too much weight and force behind it, the inverted Titanic Tempest nearly boring straight through my armor. It only takes a scant instant for her to completely overpower my efforts, drawing a piercing, hawk-like screech from my mouth as I'm slammed backwards through the air, dropping like a stone. I manage to regain my bearings and resume my interminable hover just in time to see Calmaramon fall back to sea, reentering the water in a dive far smoother than a being that large should be capable of.
My eyes narrow to furious slits. She dares try to strike me from the skies? My own territory?! I'll rip her from the ocean! I'll tear her from the air! I'll-
...I'll...
...what the HELL am I doing?!
Another barrage of fire and light comes surging up at me from below, which I notice too late to be ready to avoid — yet my body moves anyways, and I swoop around the projectiles just as effortlessly as before.
"Annoying..." I hear myself hiss.
My outstretched claws glow crimson red before tearing through the spot where Kumamon was lining up another shot a moment ago, neatly severing the top half of his improvised ski slope in his place as he tumbles wildly off the back of it. Which... I meant to do? But I also- no, what's going on?! I was angry, sure, but I was still just planning on using Zephyrmon to run away! Yet not only am I not doing that, it's like I'm not even in control of myself anymore! I've somehow gotten stuck on autopilot, as if everything I'm saying and doing is being guided solely by-
It hits me like a dropped anvil. Instinct... I didn't even consider it because I wasn't planning to actually use her, but Zephyrmon is still a beast spirit, which are nearly impossible to control at first! Pretty much every time someone found one in the show, the user got caught up in the spirit's wild nature at first, and had to figure out how to push back its instincts so as to not go totally berserk-
Beetlemon suddenly flies up at me from below, evidently having recovered from the kick to the head I gave him. I dart around behind him before he can react, wrapping my arms around his shoulders before shoving him straight into Agunimon and Lobomon's latest volley, eliciting an even louder cry of pain than before as he falls like a rock and crashes back down onto the beach.
"Oops~"
Hah, teach him to- wait, no, ahhHHH this is even worse than it should be though! When the kids found their beast spirits, they mostly just tunnel-visioned and started attacking things around them at random, they didn't also start taunting whoever they were fighting at the time! Not to mention Zephyrmon was the one beast spirit that didn't have this issue! Was that just because Zoe was the one using it then, or-
My body jerks to one side as an entire tree suddenly whirls past me, countless droplets of corrosive ink flying off its already-dissolving leaves. Down below, Calmaramon rips another pair from the ground and applies the same effect, then twirls in place and launches them up at me like oversized acid-tipped javelins, fast and on point enough that even my wind-sped reflexes struggle to evade.
...well, she certainly doesn't seem to be having any issues with a beast spirit she's not even meant to have, so yes, apparently Zoe is just really personally suited to reining these things in. Unfortunately, I quite apparently am not, and can really only imagine this going from bad to worse to worst the longer this continues. I need to regain control...!
"Frozen Tundra!" Kumamon yells, his lower body transmuting into an enormous icicle before accelerating towards me at an upward diagonal — but with nowhere near the speed or force of Calmaramon's similar effort not even a minute prior. My right hand reflexively lashes out and catches him, claws digging deep into the icicle's tip before I find myself tossing Kumamon back down at the others, laughter bubbling up in my throat again as he spins end over end, his cries fading in and out with each rotation.
"You guys really need to stop yelling out your-"
With a surge of effort, I manage to rein in my mirth and slam my mouth shut before I can finish the sentence, forcing my covered lips to stay sealed against my body's own impulse to loosen them. This is in stark contrast to Agunimon, who glares up at me and literally growls as Lobomon leaps ten feet up to catch Kumamon, setting down next to a still prone and groaning Beetlemon.
"We don't care how many spirits you have! We're not gonna lose!"
The response that leaps to mind for that nigh-instantly pries my mouth back open.
"And how exactly do you... plan..."
My hand twitches as I pour every bit of focus I'm not dedicating to preventing further snarky remarks into moving my arm. It's like trying to force aside sleep paralysis, some part of me screaming that we're not through here, but somehow I manage it, clumsily yanking the limb in a wide circle to forcibly spin myself around.
The moment I'm no longer facing the beach, my body actually seems to relax, my earlier, half-remembered urge to simply fly off into the sunset suddenly returning in force. Maybe I should've-
"...to keep me from just leaving?"
-damn it, lost focus on my mouth again!
Utterly furious with myself, yet feeling paradoxically satisfied, I flap my wings and force myself into motion. It starts more like a glide than actual flight, and my angle is such that I nearly shove myself straight into the water in the process, but after a couple of seconds I pick up speed, managing to pull up enough that my talons are just skimming the surface of the water rather than trailing through it. Come on-
"A little like THIS!"
My neck snaps around just in time to see a burnished-red bipedal dragon spread its fiery wings and kick off from the beach in pursuit. Guess Takuya finally remembered he could do that-!
Though I'm certain BurningGreymon's top speed can't match mine, the comparative force of his take off gains him enough ground to at least briefly get him into range. Growling in a low, guttural tone, his diamond-shaped arm attachments spin around to face me, revealing the miniature gun barrels hidden beneath.
"Pyro Barrage!"
Hundreds of small, red, and extremely hot energy beams fire across the distance between us, faster than even Zephyrmon can fly. I pull upwards, but a number of the searing lasers still end up grazing my lower torso, bouncing off my armored calves yet scorching my exposed stomach and thighs. I cry out in pain, the sound still shrill and bird-like-
"Wind of Pain!"
-and snarl through my mask, more feathers spilling from my wings and whipping themselves into a spiraling tempest that drives itself directly into the oncoming dragon's face.
BurningGreymon screeches, blinded by the scything wind as it pelts his eyes and extinguishes his flames, my glowing feathers tearing holes into his own. Damaged and bereft of their fiery coating, his wings briefly cease to beat... which, unlike mine, are apparently actually necessary to provide him lift, as he promptly drops into the water all of a few feet below.
Part of me exults, while the rest of me slows in sudden concern as the dragon resurfaces with a sound somewhere between a roar and a sputter, suddenly seeming a lot less intimidating. The ocean steams around him as he furiously flaps his waterlogged wings — but as they are now, they'd no longer be capable of lifting him off the ground, much less out of the sea.
"Sorry about that~"
The lilting, sarcastic-sounding tone that my attempted apology comes out in would bring my hands to my face if I had full control over them right now. Instead, having completely given up on trying to smooth any of this over, I direct the entirety of my will into simply forcing myself, or rather, forcing Zephyrmon to just fly away already.
...and, to my everlasting relief, she finally does. I shoot off into the distance like one of the birds I now half-resemble, leaving the island, the beach, and the transformed kids still standing on it far behind. Soon, they're little more than tiny specks in the distance, already vanishing beyond the horizon.
...
Well.
That could have gone better.
