[] Give the champion *mercy*. Sparks is going to delete him anyway, and without any limbs there's no way he could survive in any case. Finish him quickly and as Painlessly as you can.
===
You examine Fugamon with a familiar, burning rage. It yearns for you to pounce on the limbless digimon and rip to him shreds for what he's done. For all those that were taken because of his actions, and for his recent attempts to delete not only yourself, but Sparks as well.
However, that emotion is tempered by a core-deep, weary sadness. With the anger comes the reminder of all you've lost, all that you've had to do in order to survive and gain
power. Every digimon whose life you'd took, that Gabumon you stabbed through the back with your claws… none of it should have happened. Yet it did.
Ever since the whole incident with Count and...
Repulsa, you'd wanted vengeance, to delete every last digimon responsible for ruining your life, and see them wiped from this world. But as you look down at the orange champion's tear-streaked cheeks, that emotion fades away into a dull, depressing emptiness. You'd
never forgive the former Shamanmon for what he'd done, but… you hadn't wanted this. To have heard his screams of agony, then his breaking voice as he begs for the life of another not to be taken. Pity wells up in your core even as the only working eye on your face fills with water.
You'd never liked hurting others, and seeing him in pain like this is just
sickening. Before everything started all you'd ever wanted to do was
dig.
It's not like you can stop now, of course, but...
There's only one thing you can do now. Give the Ogremon look-alike the only kindness you have available. You're going grant him the mercy of a quick deletion. Anything you could attempt would be slow and painful, the disparity in power between the two of you is simply too great for anything else, but...
You swallow, force the tears back and turn your head to Sparks, voice hard.
"Delete him." You state coldly, "You defeated him... not me."
"Heh." Sparks looks back at you, his off-putting blue eyes curled up in some sort of perverted amusement.
"Verily!" With that he raises his staff in one hand once again and mumbles something under his breath. Azure lightning erupts from the focus and crosses the distance between it and the Fugamon's skull in the blink of an eye. He doesn't even get time to scream before the attack rips through his head, blasting it apart and ending the champions life nearly instantaneously.
"Hrmph, Good riddance."
As Fugamon's body begins to break apart, you muster an effort of will and begin pulling that dispersing data into your own body. Sparks does much the same, and together you siphon off what data you can before the entire mass can disperse into the ether.
The increase in
power his data provides is a tangible effect, you can feel your frame widen from the sudden influx of data, as muscles swell and bones thicken. Your limbs, while far from the gangly state they'd been after what happened in the village, had never truly regained their former bulk, simply because there was so much more bone for your fat and muscles to fit on. However now you can feel them widening, finally closing the distance to regain what had been spread out in your explosive growth. Whatever mental exhaustion and injuries you'd possessed before fade away, leaving you more healed, limber and energetic than ever.
It's effects on Sparks are less pronounced as you can't see much of a different on his now five foot frame at all, but you suppose that's because he's a champion now. You can't help but shake your head at that.
Sparks is a champion now...
The one armed Wizardmon nods to himself in some sort of muted satisfaction, then pivots to point his staff towards where the Kotemon had been lying in order finish him off too. You fling a paw out to try and knock it of course, but Sparks retracts his weapon, letting your longer arm move past unabated. Your head moves to follow the swipe, and it's only then that you notice something.
The rookie has
vanished.
Sparks shoots you a half-hearted glare and you can see from his eyes that he's clearly contemplating going after the lizard digimon. After a moment's time of contemplation, he shakes his head with a sigh of disappointment and lightly lowers his staff to lean against.
He… must have left while we were. Well… that.
Before you can relay that theory to your freshly evolved friend, a red comet crashes to the ravaged ground half a dozen feet away.
"Apollo Tornado!" The spinning form of Pidmon drops from the air with a roar, using the force of his momentum to land one last deadly blow on the stunned Boogeymon. The demon explodes in a flash of crimson data and fire, and Pidmon rises up out of the swirling fragments, not bothering to so much as siphon a byte of the new deceased champion's power.
"Friend Sparks!" Pidmon shouts, thrusting his rod high into the air as a salute. "Congratulations on evolving! The Holy Lord truly shows us favour this day!" You examine the angel digimon and can't help your wince. Pidmon was clearly wounded from his fight, seeming to have taken a number of glancing cuts and small bruises across his body, along with what looks to even be a trio of stab wounds on his side. Somehow he ignores these injuries in favour of grinning at the two of you and then proudly shouting: "I have dealt with this monstrous member of the Gloaming! This world suffers the presence of one less devil this day!" It's honestly kind of creepy how little the injuries seem to bother him. With that he raises his empty hand and shouts
"Mega Heal!" creating holy light to heal both Beat's injuries and his own.
On the ground Ardat mumbles something about *naps* and struggles to sit up from the spot you'd dropped her, but fails. You wince, recalling Scratch's order now that the immediate danger has passed, and bend down to pick the Witchmon up again.
"Mmmm. So soft~" She mumbles, rubbing her face in your thick fur. The motion makes you shudder, but thankfully it's not nearly as revolting as before (Though the idea that you're
getting used to the spellcaster brings a unique, muted horror of its own). You distract yourself by glancing over the battlefield, and see that that the statue that was Blitzmon is long gone, no doubt removed from the crossfire by the other Boogeymon. The glance also reveals one other, very concerning thing.
Namely, that the entire acre of forest Sergeant Scratch is fighting in is on fire; dozens, no, hundreds of trees set ablaze with the only exception being a thick line in the middle where scores more have been petrified into jet black stone. Despite this, the forest fire is spreading and quite rapidly too, sending a massive pillar of smoke into the sky to obscure what lies beyond. Loud, constant *Booms* echo out from the area out of sight, and you're pretty sure those mean that Phelesmon is still fighting your leader.
With the fire spreading, you're more than a little wary of staying here in the clearing. Sure, you could just dig away from anything that comes, and probably shelter the others too. However if the fight between two Ultimate digimon's battle comes this way, well...you shiver to think of what it could mean for the rest of you.
We wouldn't be able to help. They're just... too strong.
So, with a nervous swallow, you suggest that it might be a good idea if the party retreated towards MudFrigimon's destroyed village, both for personal safety and to make sure the rescued rookies get there unharmed. Pidmon objects about leaving Scratch alone here, but Ardat manages to tiredly interject, her absolute confidence in the Sergeant's victory clear even in her exhausted state. You can't help but feel curious about the overwhelming trust she has in the Mistymon, but put off asking about it lest it mean she break off into another long speech.
Sparks throws his opinion behind your own, which finally leads to Pidmon giving in. The Angel digimon picks Beat up once again and then your party sets off. Your crippled friend sticks close to you through the journey, but not out of any sort of fear. In fact, the magical champion seems vastly more confident now than you've seen at any point before; besides back when he was piloting his Mechanorimon, and spends most of the time talking to you about his new form. Thankfully his usage of strange terms and words gradually tapers off as he gushes over his evolution in a light-hearted, familiar way.
He finds having a humanoid body with only one head to be weird after all the time he spent as a Candlemon, but takes it in in stride because of the new power it's given him. Your old friend apparently has a wealth of new knowledge when it comes to several branches of *High Programming*, to the point of easily exceeding your own rather meagre education. Part of you feels like it's unfair given how much more studying of the subject you've done than him, but that portion is minor in comparison to the greater whole, which is happy for the newly evolved Wizardmon.
Beyond that, his physical abilities have improved massively, to the point where he's much faster than you (if not on the level of the group's other champions), with relatively highly increased strength and durability to boot. In a physical fight he might even be able to defeat you now! Well... maybe. He's still missing an arm after all. On the other paw, judging by how he took out that Fugamon, a single spell from him could probably… you don't finish the thought.
Your party comes across the running group of rescued rookies nine minutes and thirty-five seconds into the retreat, and are immediately challenged by the
largest, most dangerous looking one there. However the wary rookie's attitude of not trusting your squad isn't shared by the others, who profusely thank everyone (except Sparks) for the rescue. From the whispers you manage to parse out, they're not quite aware that the Wizardmon that helped capture them is the same Candlemon they'd seen before. The *Bearmon*, as he introduces himself, doesn't drop his guard for one second on the march back towards his village. You can't blame him considering what happened.
Eventually everyone makes it to the destroyed village, prompting a bout of sniffles and crying from the rookies as they see their destroyed homes once again. However Pidmon tries to lift their spirits with a speech about keeping strong to fight those who caused the destruction in the first place. Aside from the Bearmon nodding his head angrily, it doesn't seem to console the rest of the young digimon. Thankfully, giving them all food from his pack seems to raise their spirits somewhat.
Afternoon turns to evening as long hours of waiting pass by, during which Ardat recovers and Beat wakes up. The Wormmon doesn't try to speak with anyone; he just kind of goes off by himself to do what you can only describe as *brooding*. Meanwhile, the other rookies huddle up near the middle of their village and go to sleep.
When night finally arrives, Sparks goes so far as to loudly wonder if Scratch will be able to find your group - that is, if the sergeant is even still alive. That is a
terrifying thought to consider, but Ardat adamantly dismisses the notion, expressing her absolute confidence that your leader will return once more. However, this brings up a different subject, as Sparks quite angrily questions why Scratch's Ultimate form was being hidden. Your friend brings up the fact that Ogremon wouldn't have been able to escape if he'd just evolved last week. That question seems to stump the Witchmon, who falters and admits that she doesn't know why he'd hidden it from the rest of you.
Eighty-three minutes of further waiting later, and Ardat's faith in Scratch ends up being proved right.
A battered but very much alive Mistymon walks through the village's broken walls and calls for a report on what happened. Pidmon answers first, snapping a quick salute and explaining how things went on his end after the Phelesmon attacked. After finishing he offers to heal the older digimon's wounds, but Scratch refuses; citing that a champion would not be able to effectively reverse the damage he suffered from Phelesmon.
Ardat speaks up next, asking if he won, but Scratch shakes his head at her question, then clarifies that the other Ultimate was just forced to retreat. Your feminine comrade's visible eye widens in shock in his answer, but she doesn't enquire further.
Your sergeant speaks with the odd Witchmon for a bit longer, actually going so far as to reassure the fellow humanoid digimon that he's fine and telling her not to worry. It's quite an odd departure from how the Ultimate has addressed your other squadmates. Once they've finished speaking, the Mistymon moves over to the edge of the village, then loudly clears his throat.
"Fledgling Verge. Fledgling Sparks." He states, not quite loudly enough to be considered a shout. "Fall in and report." You send a questioning glance towards Sparks, who shrugs in response, then head over to stand before the much taller digimon. The sheer height disparity between his Mistymon and Gladimon form's become quite apparent as you nervously stare up at his face. As a champion he'd been a full foot shorter than you, but now he stood over nine feet, nearly twice Sparks' size.
"You wished to speak with us?" Sparks questions, his dialogue a far cry from what it was as a rookie.
"I do," The sergeant replies, shooting you a discerning glance. "I was planning to discuss this after the Drimogemon had perished-"
Umm... come again!?
"-but he has survived thus far. So I will speak." Sparks shoots a fiery glare up at the Mistymon, then recoils back in a familiar way as the older digimon flatly returns the stare. "Frigimon's file. It told me your village was destroyed. Tell me what happened."
You go stock still at the order, as does Sparks, but the one armed Wizardmon recovers faster, and with a snarl begins reporting what happened starting just after Repulsa showed up. The anger he expresses when describing the events of seventeen days ago is palpable, and you can't help but get drawn into it as the painful, infuriating memories resurface. He finishes off, at the point where he was knocked out by the dredges of Darklizardmon's attack then angrily slams his staff into the ground.
Sergeant Scratch throws you an inquisitive look, and you try not to break into snarling snobs upon recounting the events which transpired afterwords. Flamemon digivolving to Agnimon, his fight and execution at the hands of Count and Repulsa, your strange dream with what you now realize to be a Knightmon, then Sorcerymon's final fight as an angel to buy time for you and the others to get away. Your friend listens intently to this, tightly clenching his staff in anger at your descriptions and near the end you realize something. Sparks had never really asked you about what happened after he was knocked out before, so he didn't know what happened either.
The leader of your squad nods along silently, not asking questions nor interrupting, and finally leans back as your tale comes to a close.
"I see..." The Mistymon muses, a hint of something resembling humor entering his voice. "You're both seeking vengeance. The same as Beat."
Recognizing the tone of his words, Sparks shoots another glare the Ultimates way and mutters something threatening under his breath.
"Do not miscount my words" He cuts your friends barely audible tirade off with yet another flat stare. "Revenge is a common motivator. If you are on that path, and have the will, I can help."
I-What?
"Why?" Sparks questions suspiciously, leading to a full twenty-two seconds of silence before the tall stoic mon finally replies.
"I have known the feeling all too well." He replies, before glancing off towards the distant silent Wormmon. "At one time I thrust aside everything else for revenge. I scorned those around me for the sake of power." The Mistymon's empty hand clenched into a tight shaking fist as if remembering something. After a few seconds, he takes a deep breath and relaxes the appendage. His next words are quieter, tinged with a hint of hollow sadness. "When all a digimon has left is revenge, and even that vanishes, all that's left is a hollow shell going through the motions. Not something truly alive." He shakes his head, and turns back towards the two of you. "It's good that you have each other, but don't leave it at that. Beat, Pidmon..." He pauses for a second and glances over towards the Witchmon who's practicing her poses as the edge of camp. "Ardat. Use their strength to help you find what you seek."
Sparks gives a hesitant nod, then glances over towards your small green comrade.
"Speak to him." Scratch says quietly. "Fledgling Verge, stay here." Your friend begins to shake his head in refusal, but you give the Wizardmon a sad nod of acceptance and gesture with your nose towards Beat. While you can't see the majority of his face, you're pretty sure Sparks is clenching his teeth as he leaves. When he's gone, the sergeant lightly inclines his head towards you. "I offer an... apology." You tilt your head in confusion at his words, and frown in confusion.
An apology?
"I estimated your limits to be lower," he continues. "I did not believe you would survive against those opponents, yet you have." The Mistymon nods to himself, and lower his sword to tap against your nose. "I have seen that your natural weapons are powerful, yet you refuse to use them unless struck by anger or outmatched. They can be potent tools for defense and offense. I will be training you to wield them effectively." He pauses for a second then, points his weapon at your bag. "You have a grimoire; take it out."
I… Okay?
You fiddle with the straps of your satchel, and take the book out - only for Scratch to pull a move you would expect of Ardat and swipe it free from your paw to look through its pages.
"There is space enough." He states, before snapping it closed with one hand. You step forward and try to let out a snarl, but a sudden flash of attention freezes you in place as the Ultimate glares down. "You will fall behind the others." He states coldly. "I too know this feeling well. " He shakes his head. "As a Gladimon I learned Sorcery to help me fight beyond my physical limits. If you have the will, I am willing to teach it."
He's...willing to teach me some spells?
=== Choose One:
[] Accept the offer. Learning spells from him will probably be time consuming, but if they can help you gain power, then it's worth it. (Will take up one training slot per day)
[] Decline the offer. You already have enough to do as it is, if you want new spells you can talk to Sparks about it. (Will leave Verge free to decide the rest of his schedule)
=== With the conversation ended, you look towards Sparks and Beat talking near the edge of the village. Considering Scratch's words about revenge, you can see how Beat might be heading down that path he described. You: (Choose One)
[] Try going over there to speak to Beat with Sparks. Perhaps the two of you can truly befriend him? Not like how that infuriating bug used the word, but actual friends.
[] Leave Beat alone. He's your comrade, but the Wormmon has never made you think that actual friendship is possible. Which is understandable give KoKabuterimon's attitude.
[] Decide to try talking to the Wormmon alone later. He just went through something traumatic , so it might be better to speak to him when the pain isn't so fresh.
===
Authors Note: Yep, done. Sorry that there wasn't an epic fight between the two Ultimates on screen, but Verge wouldn't be able to see it in any case.
