EPISODE 46 - SLEEP WITH THE STARS
In the faint light provided by the setting moon and twinkling stars above, three figures clashed with each other, locked in battle in the center of an empty parking lot. This parking lot was only empty because everyone in it had left very early on into the fight, not wanting to be caught betwixt the anger and power that jumped from one monster to the other. Lightning flashed, illuminating the asphalt below for a split second, only to be interrupted by a torrent of water and the sweep of a staff. Any onlookers that may have remained would likely quickly leave anyways, if only to avoid the empty, hungry eyes of the two turtle men, holding out valiantly against the giant beetle.
Azure, however, knew that these two Digimon were not turtles, and they would have gladly chastised anyone who thought they were, but there wasn’t anyone around and also they were currently desperately clinging to the shoulder flesh of their giant bug partner while he fought off those two violent kappa monsters.
Fun sentence to say!
“
“
For some reason, despite the attack names being different, Shawujinmon and Sagomon used the exact same techniques as each other. The kappas twirled their weapons around, summoning streams of water that rushed straight for Ko. He turned away just in time so the attack struck him in the back, but the impact sent droplets flying up toward Azure, still perched on his shoulder and already dripping wet from previous attacks of theirs.
They didn’t even have the energy left to sigh, and instead simply swiped a hand through their hair to try to get some of the moisture out.
Of course they were the one who’d gotten the water based emergents.
They’d fought a couple already; these two kappas were not their first rodeo. There was Lamiamon, a naga-like dragon that had attacked with various poisons; Tropiamon, a tropical dinosaur that had reminded them far too much of Browser Jungle; Mamemon, a tiny metal sphere that had packed a deceptively powerful punch; and CaptainHookmon, which despite being a literal pirate had thankfully not attacked with water. Ko had made quick work of each of them, and they’d been able to flit from one to the next with little issue, though they’d had to pass a couple off to Moxie and Damien (such as whatever HippoGryphonmon was, though if Azure had to take a stab at it, they’d assume it was a hippogriff).
But these two current emergents were proving to be the most difficult. Maybe it was because they were facing more than one Digimon; maybe it was because Ko’s electricity attacks weren’t very effective against them (which made no sense, seeing as they were water-based, but Azure knew Digimon were never very logical). Who was to say?
At the very least, Azure was able to provide some assistance to their partner. Their position on his shoulder lent them a vantage point where they could keep an eye on whichever kappa he wasn’t actively focused on, and thus warn him whenever it was about to make a move. He’d been able to dodge most of their attacks this way, though of course there was the rare occurrence where the both of them attacked in tandem and he had no choice but to brave the assault. He always took special care to move Azure out of harm’s way, which they appreciated.
It didn’t mean they weren’t in the splash zone, though, and when Sagomon stabbed its staff into the ground to summon pillars of water beneath Ko, they outwardly groaned as more droplets sprayed across their face.
“Sorry,” their partner rumbled, shaking his arms out to dry them off. “Hang on tight. I owe them some payback for that.”
Azure heeded his words, bracing themself in preparation for his attack. They tried hard not to think about how they were clutching the exposed flesh of a giant beetle, because whenever they did think about it, they felt itchy all over until they let go, and they couldn’t afford to do that right now - not when he was pulling back his opposite arm, already sparking with electricity, to swing right at Sagomon.
“
The punch sent it flying across the parking lot, and it crashed into a streetlamp, one that had already been subject to prior attacks and had had its fuse blown out. Sagomon’s bulk was enough to rend it in half, sending the top crashing to the ground with a loud metallic clang. The kappa hissed as it pushed itself up, uncaring for the property damage it had done.
Well, technically Ko had done it, but semantics.
Shawujinmon was quick to distract Ko while its twin got back to its feet, rushing at him and slashing out with its staff. Ko batted it away with one massive claw, but that was all the time Sagomon needed to join its compatriot. The two jabbed their staffs into the ground together, once more summoning streams of water that rocketed up toward Ko, which he was not quick enough to dodge.
“
“
Azure grit their teeth and wiped their eyes, glaring down at the two kappas, who had hopped backward to get out of range of Ko’s horn as he began to charge it in preparation for an attack. “
“They should just call their attacks Hydro Formation and cut out the middle man,” Azure muttered to themself, shaking their head out and scattering droplets everywhere. They were not happy with the kappas’ apparent refusal to accept their similarities. “There is no reason for them to use the same exact techniques but call them by different names. Come on.”
Ko chuckled to himself, then swung out at Sagomon as it rushed toward him. “
One thing Azure had noticed throughout all of the emergents they’d fought tonight was that… all of them were mindless. They were all manic, yes, but manic didn’t always mean “no rational thought and focused only on moving toward the giant death angel hovering in the sky a couple miles away”. In fact, it usually didn’t mean that.
But right now, it did.
They were like the “monster of the week” ones they’d fought over the past couple days, the smaller champion-levels that had sporadically appeared between the Demon Lords. These ones didn’t pay any mind to whatever Azure or Ko said to them, no matter how loud or rude they were. They’d all just tried to get to Ordinemon, caring little for whatever stood in their way.
When engaged in battle, however, they were as vicious as all the other manic Digimon they’d ever faced. That wasn’t a surprise.
What was a surprise was everything else about them. And it was sort of infuriating the more Azure thought about it. Ordinemon had clearly done this on purpose - either they’d be able to take out the group, or the group would take them out and thus strengthen him further.
Azure never thought they’d miss fighting Barbamon, but here they were.
“
“
At least Sagomon and Shawujinmon were predictable. It was easy enough to know what they were going to do next when they always attacked at the exact same time with the exact same technique. It didn’t always mean Ko was able to dodge or deflect, but he was rarely caught off guard by them. That was something to be grateful for, Azure supposed, even if they were getting really sick of these guys. If they could wrap this up soon so they could take care of the other emergents nearby, that’d be -
The air around them began to shake, and they instinctively held tighter to Ko, their shoulders tensing. From off in the distance, an impossibly loud roaring sound rang out, sounding like all the oceans in the world had been gathered together and then poured down onto the earth. It was enough to distract even the kappas, though Azure had a feeling, as all four of them turned to face the source of the disturbance, that it wasn’t because of the volume or shaking.
Indeed, in the direction of where Ordinemon still hung in the air, miles away but large enough to see from even here, the sky had darkened to an almost pitch black. …Not the sky - the very space surrounding him, as if he’d summoned every nearby shadow to cover the area. Azure squinted, trying to get a better look, even as the world around them continued to shake and the earth below rumbled.
It seemed like the darkness was a mass of his miasma, encircling him and the still-battling Digimon. As they strained their eyes, it faded away, revealing Ordinemon in all his glory and several smaller shapes floating about in the air around him.
Their friends.
“
“
While Azure had been focused on Ordinemon and whatever the fuck had just happened, Sagomon and Shawujinmon had not been. Well, they were, but not in the way Azure was. They seemed to have finally gotten fed up with Ko’s attempts to stop them from reaching Ordinemon and had been preparing to launch one final attack each at him, but just like them, Ko had not been focused on Ordinemon, and was entirely ready for their assault.
The lightning arced between the kappas, stopping them both in their tracks and paralyzing them where they stood. When it faded, they dropped their staffs, letting them clatter to the ground while they slumped to their knees.
“Finish it,” Azure said, ignoring the tightening of their throat as they did. “We have to get back to the others. See if they need help.”
Ko nodded, a solemn gesture, and Azure closed their eyes as he readied his fist. They didn’t want to watch the two Digimon as they began to pixelate and fade away into nothing. They’d seen too much of that already, and not just from earlier today.
Even though they knew it had to be done, and even though they knew they couldn’t waste any more time, it still stung just as much as it always did.
“
A quick one-two punch was all it took to finish off the kappa Digimon. When Azure opened their eyes, only their staffs remained, and a second later, those, too, dissipated into pixels.
Azure stared at the ground for a moment longer, then took a quick deep breath, shook themself out, and clenched their fists.
“Let’s go,” they said, turning to where Ordinemon floated in the sky.
They didn’t look back as Ko set off, wings beating the air as he headed toward their friends.
“There’s still a bunch near us,” Damien said, voice coming through loud and clear from Azure’s digivice. “Close enough that we can take ‘em without too much detouring, I think. You got all the ones near you, it looks like.”
“Well, that’s good,” Azure said, unable to hide a twinge of sarcasm. “Glad to know I’m not completely abandoning you guys.”
“It’s not abandoning,” Moxie said, firm but gentle, accentuated by the sound of battle in the background. “I saw that from where I am. It looked pretty bad. I think they need all the help they can get. You’re not -”
Azure sighed. “Yeah. I get it. I get it.”
They did get it, truly.
Damien and Moxie - and, furthermore, their partners - still had a couple (and by a couple, that meant a couple dozen) emergents near them, scattered around the streets but still grouped up enough that they were the closest ones to them. In the same way they’d decided originally that they had to be dealt with, the two of them had made the choice to stay and finish up the last remaining emergents, because if they didn’t, Lord only knew what havoc they would wreak in the interim. Even though Ordinemon’s attack had been powerful enough to see from miles away, and even though it likely meant that the group at the site of the battle was going to need a lot of help, they simply couldn’t let those manic Digimon run wild. Someone had to be in charge of pest control, and right now, those someones were Pop and Bumble.
Not Azure and Ko.
They felt a little torn, honestly. On the one hand, they knew Pop and Bumble could handle whatever they were dealing with - they had been dealing with it this entire time, after all. Ko himself had been just fine even when faced with two incredibly irritating emergents at once. Even if Pop and Bumble were doing the same, they could handle it.
On the other hand, three Digimon on the scene would be better than two. With the amount of emergents left (which Azure, quite frankly, did not want to count), it’d go by much quicker if Ko was still helping with it. He’d knocked half a dozen out already, and that was just within the, what, twenty minutes or so they’d been out here? Maybe thirty? They were on world record pace!
But, on the third hand (…?), the group fighting Ordinemon obviously needed immediate attention and assistance. None of them had called the ones fighting the emergents - it was impossible to tell if they didn’t have the time to, if they had forgotten, or if… something else was preventing them. Azure didn’t like thinking about that. Regardless, with no way of knowing for certain how they were faring, it was the safest option to assume they were doing badly and that Azure and Ko needed to get their asses over there as soon as humanly possible.
But on the fourth hand (they were using Ko’s hands to count) they felt really really guilty about just up and leaving the task they had specifically assigned themselves because they knew Ko would be one of the best to deal with the emergents. And it was making them feel really bad. They’d made the choice to come out here and deal with all the random manic Digimon running around! They’d called Ko away from the fight - already a tough decision to make, to take one of the group’s heaviest hitters out of the battle - specifically so they could go do this!
And now here they were, heading back toward the battle they had originally run away from - no, abandoned - no, dutifully left - because they didn’t know if the ones fighting that battle were even still alive.
They closed their eyes and took a deep breath.
“We’re gonna be okay,” Damien said, gentler than they expected, but they’d come to learn that Damien was full of surprises all the time. “We’ve got this under control. If we really need your help later on then I’ll call you. But for now, the best thing you can do is go check how Ordinemon’s doing and make sure nobody’s dead.”
“Real classy,” Moxie muttered.
“Thanks, I tried my best.”
“Okay,” Azure said, opening their eyes to look down at their digivice screen. Many a time they had wished there was some sort of video call function on the digivice, so they could see the others’ faces while they spoke, just to remind themself that they were there, to make sure they were really okay. Right now, they really just wanted to see Damien, even if only so they could tell if he really was as calm as he sounded.
They hoped he was.
“You’re gonna be fine,” he said, and something in their chest ached when they realized they could practically hear the cocky lopsided grin on his face just through his voice. “And if you need my help, give me a call. I would sacrifice all of these dumbass civilians, who still haven’t evacuated for some fucking reason, if you need me.” He paused, nothing but the sound of Bumble calling out “
“You’re such a loser,” Moxie said, obviously having to hold back a fit of giggles.
“I’m gonna tell Harmony you have a crush on her.”
“Don’t you DARE -”
“Nearly there,” Ko cut in, interrupting the twins’ mini argument, and they fell silent upon hearing his voice. Azure took another breath in and nodded at him, then lifted their digivice to their mouth, ignoring the warm blossom forming in their chest.
“I’ll see you later,” they said, forcing themself to say only as much as required, lest they spill everything else they were thinking and feeling. “Take care. Try not to die.”
“Such confidence you have in us,” Damien said, then muttered something unintelligible under his breath, and hung up. Moxie sighed into the silence, and Azure let the smallest of smiles form on their lips.
“Please ignore him,” she said, and it was hard to tell if she meant his teasing of them or his threat to tattle on her to Harmony. Maybe both. Probably both. “Good luck. See you soon.”
Then she, too, exited the call, and Azure was left alone, wind whipping past their face and digivice clutched in trembling fingers and nothing but the sound of Ko’s buzzing wings to fill the space around them.
The stillness of the night around them did nothing to soothe their worries or erase their doubts. When they looked around, they saw no nearby Digimon; far off in the distance behind them were occasional flashes of light from where Pop and Bumble still fought, and in front of them, of course, was Ordinemon and the rest of the group, but that was all. It was disconcerting. Unsettling.
Isolating.
As if able to sense their discomfort, Ko tilted his head to look at them, even without eyes. “We’re all going to be okay,” he said, his voice a deep rumble. “I’ll make sure of it.”
All Azure could do was nod in response, staring down at their hands and the buildings that whipped past below them. Empty buildings. Buildings that should have been full of people, going to sleep after a long night or waking up and starting their days.
Instead, those people were God knew where, and it was all the angel in the sky’s fault.
The rest of their flight passed in silence, neither of them knowing what to say to each other. As they drew closer to Ordinemon, Azure’s stomach tightened till it was close to imploding, flooding their body with nothing but anxiety and fear. The few Digimon that were still fighting Ordinemon, who they could see clearer and clearer the closer they got, weren’t hitting as fiercely and quickly as they usually did. It was obvious that Ordinemon’s attack had taken much of their fight out of them - and that was saying nothing of however the rest of the humans were faring.
A beam of light arced above their heads, and Ko dove between two buildings to duck beneath it, flying just a couple meters off the ground. Azure clutched their digivice firmer in their hand - they were finally at the scene of the battle, and their heart rate accelerated as that finally sank in fully.
Ko came to an uncharacteristically graceless halt in an intersection, practically slamming into the pavement beneath and digging his claws in deep to keep himself from skidding. Azure frowned, grasping his arm in a mix of wariness and concern - it wasn’t like him to stop so suddenly and recklessly. Their confusion was dispelled, though, when he took them in his hand and lowered them to the ground beneath, and they looked across the street to see the rest of the humans, in various states of disarray, huddling behind scattered piles of wreckage.
Ko immediately took off to join the fray of the Digimon still facing off against Ordinemon, his horn already sparking before he’d even reached them. Azure watched him go for one single second, then immediately set their attention to their friends, darting over to reconvene with them as they slowly crept out from their hiding places.
Nobody said anything at first, not even when Azure threw their arms around Harmony and Ezra and Ryan and everyone else’s shoulders, holding them tight for a few brief moments. They just stood together, finally reunited. Even if they were still missing three of their friends, it was good to be back together.
But… when Azure stepped back, trying to calm their racing heart and put a smile on their face, they saw seven humans standing with them. There were the five from the original group, the ones who had landed in the Digital World together all that time ago, and there was Anna, standing close to her brother with her arms wrapped around her midriff -
And there was Quinn, standing in the back, behind everyone else, dirt and soot and blood plastered across her face and body, but standing, still standing, despite it all. She lifted one hand in a salute as Azure fully took her in, cracking a single grin.
“Hey,” she said, and Azure lunged forward to hug her, too. She went stiff, her arms frozen, and then Azure felt one of her hands come up to rest on their back. She chuckled against their hair. “Missed me?”
“Obviously,” Azure mumbled, willing back the tears that threatened to burst from their eyes. They took a deep breath and pulled back again, swallowing harshly and blinking a couple of times, their eyelids fluttering shut.
Alex took a step forward to pat their shoulder. “That’s sorta how we felt about it, too,” he said, and Azure sniffed and huffed a laugh, unable to resist.
They didn’t even have to ask the question - it was, presumably, evident enough on their face and in their body language. Quinn tilted her head to the side, her smile dimming but not disappearing entirely, and glanced up at the fight for a second. Azure followed her gaze and, finally, saw Alpha in the sky, fighting against Ordinemon with everything he had. “When I ran toward Alpha to catch him, Ordinemon saw me. He knew I was defenseless at that moment, and so… he attacked me. Us. Both of us.” She bit her lip. “We were his real targets. Out of everyone, he wants us dead the most. So we had to pretend we were. We wanted to rejoin you sooner, but… there just wasn’t the right moment.”
“Until now,” Ryan said, folding his arms across his chest. “When Dare and Ren evolved to mega, it drew Ordinemon’s attention enough that they were able to sneak in unnoticed. For a short while, at least.”
“If by ‘a short while’, you mean ‘thirty seconds’,” Quinn said, irony lacing her words, “then yeah. He saw us real fast. Fucker’s pretty observant for someone with no eyes. Wasn’t happy to see us again right after he thought he’d finally killed us.”
Azure frowned, the pieces finally clicking together in their mind. “So, then… that massive attack he fired was aimed at you? How on earth did you -”
“No,” Quinn said, shaking her head. “This was before that attack. He aimed a smaller one at us at first.” She jerked a thumb in Ryan’s direction, something in her eyes softening. “Ryan thought I was a civilian and jumped in to shove me out of the way. And I didn’t die. Yay. But then Ordinemon saw that I didn’t die and then he went all out on us. Alpha was already in the fight by that point, so he was definitely aiming for just me.”
“Take out the human to weaken the Digimon was my assumption,” Ezra chimed in. “If Quinn was dead, who knows what would happen to Alpha in exchange? Probably make him easier to fight, at the very least, and Quinn is a lot easier to kill than Alpha.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, putting her hands on her hips. “I’m not that easy to kill. Otherwise I actually would be dead by now.”
“But the giant attack,” Azure said, lifting their hands to quell the rising banter, and the group calmed down. “The one that we saw from way out there -” They gestured out deeper into the city, where they and Ko had been dealing with emergents. “How did you survive that?”
“We almost didn’t,” Alex said, his expression darkening. “Ordinemon was real fuckin’ pissed at Quinn and he decided to just throw everything he had at us. If it had hit us head-on, we’d probably be dead, but it didn’t. Our only guess is that he just didn’t aim properly. The blast that came from it was still enough to knock us down for a good couple minutes, though.”
“Ren came and shielded us with her mandala,” Harmony said with a nod. “She stayed long enough for us to get our bearings and for the rest of the Digimon to drive Ordinemon further away. It helped stabilize our injuries, too.” She lifted one of her legs, the denim shredded to pieces and stained with blood, to point down at her gunshot wound. Sure enough, it was not actively bleeding, even though Azure could see it had been roughed up very recently.
“So everyone’s okay now?” Azure asked, frowning as their gaze flitted across the group. Though they all looked like they’d been rolled around in dirt and ash and then had a couple knives and laser beams driven into various spots along their bodies, for the most part, they seemed just as well as they were when Azure had initially left them. A series of nods and mumbled “yeah”s was enough to confirm that assessment, and Azure breathed a mental sigh of relief.
They were okay.
“Good,” they said, finally placing their digivice in their pocket, now that their fingers had loosened their vice grip on it. “I have something to share about the emergents, too, if you’re -”
“
“Move!”
Ordinemon’s attack rained down upon the humans, each beam falling like a ray of sunlight across the street. They separated, running for whatever hiding spot they could get to the fastest, diving behind abandoned cars and toppled dumpsters and any other scattered rubble that was big enough to shield them. The attack persisted for a few long, terrifying moments, the beams raking across the street like an animal digging for prey, and then it cut off in a blink. Azure peeked up over the pile of bricks they knelt behind, eyes locking onto Ordinemon just in time to see Alpha jumping back from an attack he’d landed on the angel’s chest. Presumably, that was what had ended the attack, and Azure sent a silent thanks to the knight.
This, obviously, was not the safest place for the humans to stand and discuss things at great lengths. As they all crept out back into the open, only somewhat certain that they would not be attacked again, Quinn and Alex were quick to lead the rest of them down a small alleyway further down the road, where they were safely out of view from Ordinemon.
Nobody was too seriously hurt - Miguel had scraped his knees while sliding to dodge a beam, and some sort of shrapnel had cut straight through Ezra’s pant leg and left a shallow gash behind, but those were the only major injuries anyone had sustained, not including some minor bruises and cuts and general pain that wracked their bodies. They took a couple minutes to just breathe and calm down, checking each other over for any more unnoticed wounds they may have suffered (of which there were, thankfully, none).
When they had caught their breath and slowed their heartbeats, Azure picked up the conversation where they’d had to leave it off - namely, telling the group what they’d seen with the emergents. Ryan was quick to jump in and explain that he’d already told them about the mindlessness of the manic Digimon, and relayed their theory that Ordinemon was using them to strengthen himself, something Azure, too, already knew.
It sucked hearing it out loud and having it solidified, though.
“So that’s definitely what’s going on, then,” Alex said, crossing his arms as a frown crossed his face. “Makes me wonder if all the mindless Digimon back in the Digital World were for the same reason, too.”
“I don’t want to think about that,” Miguel said with a groan, pressing a hand to his forehead. “All those Digimon we fought… that can’t be the case, can it?”
Ezra shook his head out. “But we have to deal with them. Ordinemon will just kill them anyways once they get to him. At least this way we can minimize property damage.”
“And civilian damage,” Harmony pointed out, but Azure’s brow furrowed.
“I mean,” they said slowly, drawing all eyes, “we actually didn’t see that many people while we were out there. It seems like everyone nearby has evacuated already, or at least are in the middle of doing so. There’s a chance that there’s still people nearby, but I don’t think there’s as many as we think.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Harmony muttered.
“Half a relief, half horrifying,” Alex said. “Because if it’s so bad that people are evacuating, then we are really fucked.”
“Cheer up,” Ezra said, bumping his shoulder against Alex’s. “At least it means we don’t have to worry about Ordinemon or our partners hurting or killing someone.”
“Thanks, that helps a lot.”
Even despite everything, Azure couldn’t stop the faint smile that crept onto their face, appreciating their ability to chat so casually even when they were in, for lack of a better descriptor, the middle of an active warzone.
That active warzone, however, was still exactly that, and the battle raged on above and behind them. The sounds of Ordinemon’s attacks and his cries, as well as their partners’, echoed around them, despite having almost nothing to echo off of. When the humans weren’t speaking aloud, it was hard to hear anything other than those sounds, and to not be sorely reminded of just what sort of situation they were stuck in - an endless fight that they could not win.
And when the Digimon in the sky were too preoccupied to shout or call out attacks or make any sort of noise, it was all the more easier to hear distant sirens, ringing throughout the air and drawing ever-closer.
Azure bit the inside of their mouth and chanced a look out of the mouth of the alleyway. They could see, further down the street, those signature red and blue lights reflecting off the asphalt and buildings lining the road, the police vehicles trying to figure out where to go where they wouldn’t put themselves directly in the angel’s line of fire. Azure had to hold back a scoff - just a couple hours ago, Damien had shown them that the military was supposed to be coming in to “deal with” Ordinemon, but nothing of the sort had shown up yet. And so… they had instead decided to send in regular old police officers? Against something of that size and strength? Was the government trying to get them killed?
Or were they acting as bait?
A few feet away, Ryan, Harmony, and Quinn suddenly winced in a way that they hadn’t up until now. Right, their partners were in their mega forms - they were feeling all the pain that Dare and Ren and Alpha were. For not the first time, Azure wondered who and what had decided that sharing pain with their partners was a good idea.
But that wasn’t the biggest concern at the moment. Ryan and Harmony shared a look, bewildered, while Quinn looked past Azure to stare out at the street, too, and a disgusted frown crossed her face.
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” she said, glancing to the other two, “but that felt like gunshots, didn’t it.” When they both nodded, she groaned, pulling her cheeks down with her hands. “So the cops are fucking shooting at our partners. Great. Awesome. Just what we needed, huh.”
Azure, personally, was not currently, and never was, in the mood to deal with the police. They somehow got the feeling that their partners - all of them, not just those in mega - weren’t, either. A quick look around the group revealed facial expressions that conveyed the exact same feeling.
So they were all in agreement. Good.
“We need to go,” they said, drawing attention back towards themself. “I know that they’ve never really injured our partners before, but they’ve always been a pain in the ass to deal with, and there’s no saying that they won’t choose right now to be the first time to actually hurt them. And if they do that, then the Digimon won’t be able to focus on fighting Ordinemon.”
“We can’t just leave,” Anna protested, almost before Azure was done speaking, the first thing she’d said since they’d reunited with the group. She frowned, her eyes flickering up toward the sky for a moment, then looked back at Azure. “If they’re the only ones to fight Ordinemon, what if he kills them? Since our Digimon won’t be around to distract him?”
“Then that sounds like it’d be their own damn faults,” Alex said, folding his arms. “It’s been like, what, two weeks that Digimon have been showing up? Surely if they were smart they’d have realized that they can’t fucking do anything against them. If they decide to stay and fight an angel the size of, like, eighteen football fields, then I think they deserve whatever they have coming to them.”
A couple of the others murmured agreements or struggled to hold back grins. For a moment, Quinn’s mouth also quirked into something almost like a smile, but then she shook her head. “We’re trying to save the entirety of both worlds,” she said, even though she didn’t sound fully convinced. “Not just parts of them. We don’t get to pick and choose - that’s not our job, just like it isn’t Ordinemon’s. Right now we have to focus on getting rid of the thing that’s trying to kill all of us.”
“I guess,” Alex mumbled, retreating half a step. Likewise, the rest of the group sighed and relented, and even Azure found themself agreeing with Quinn. She was right - they were not the judge, jury, or executioner of this world, and neither was Ordinemon. Their only goal was to stop him.
But it would be so much easier if they didn’t have to deal with the cops…
Heavy footsteps sounded on the pavement beyond the alley entrance, and the group whipped toward the source, immediately on high alert. Ren stood there in her ultimate stage, a faint white light dissipating from her form - clearly, she had only just devolved, if Harmony’s faint sigh of relief was any indication.
She took a step forward, her ears flat against her skull. “I’m sure you’ve noticed our new friends,” she said wryly, tail lashing in anger. “Long story short, they’re a massive nuisance. We need to get rid of them somehow, or Ordinemon will finish us in no time.”
“What do you mean?” Azure asked, their stomach churning with something indescribable. They looked toward where Ordinemon still hovered in the sky, trying to catch sight of Ko, but they couldn’t find him anywhere - though, at the same time, they did not feel anything strange, anything they would expect to be feeling if he wasn’t still in the fight. Whatever was turning their stomach inside out was just some warped form of anxiety, not anything more sinister.
Ren dipped her head. “They’re firing at us almost more than at Ordinemon. Perhaps that’s because he’s further away than we are, but he is a larger target than any of us, so I can’t help but feel as if it’s intentional. Despite this, Ordinemon is still attacking them. I shielded them the best I could for a bit, but…” She gestured at herself, nose wrinkling. “Clearly, it didn’t go well. And, frankly, it’s not my responsibility to worry about them.”
“Are they hurting you?” Quinn asked, her brow furrowing. “To a point where you can’t -”
“They’re impeding our ability to focus on Ordinemon, yes,” Ren said with a nod. “Both because they are actively shooting at us, and because more than half of us are trying to protect them from Ordinemon. We’ve lost a massive amount of firepower because of it, and not just because I devolved. Dare’s still holding on, but without my mandala, she’s in a tougher spot.”
“So you need them to leave,” Azure said, and Ren nodded once more. They frowned, raising a hand to their mouth. “I assume you’ve already tried to tell them to. Something tells me they weren’t happy to have you yelling at them.”
“It was necessary. If we tried to physically move them, they’d absolutely take that as a threat.”
“As if they don’t already see you guys as one,” Quinn muttered. She sighed, shaking her head out and cracking her knuckles. “Retreating and letting them figure their own shit out simply isn’t an option. I’d love it if it was, but, again. That’s not our prerogative. I have to talk to them.”
“Are you serious?” Ezra said, holding his hands out in confusion. “They’ll either shoot you the second they see you or write you off as a crazy person, and neither of those are going to help us.”
“It’s literally the only option we have,” Quinn snapped, but she didn’t seem mad, just stressed. She pinched the bridge of her nose and went silent for a few seconds, then groaned. “Okay. Maybe they won’t listen to me. But they’ll listen to you.”
She turned to look at Azure, her brown eyes somehow piercing right through their heart, and Azure’s mind went blank.
“Me?” was all they could manage to ask, their voice weak and high pitched.
Quinn just nodded, though her gaze softened a slight bit. “You’ve got a way with words. I’d like to think that I do, too. So if we go together, we might stand a bit of a better chance than if it was just me. I’m gonna need the backup anyways. Besides,” she added, smiling, “we’ve dealt with the cops together before. Sort of. Kind of. Close enough.”
Azure’s breath caught in their throat, and they forced out a cough, trying to work some feeling back into their mouth. They shook their head out, rubbing their wrist and looking off to the side. Quinn was expecting them to be able to help…? Even if she was right about them both being in a situation like this before, they’d never had to tell a group of police officers to stop shooting at a group of giant monsters from another world. How were they going to be any better at it than Quinn would be?
“I think she’s right,” Ren said quietly, and Azure blinked, pulling themself back to reality so they could look over at her. She met their gaze steadily, nothing but an ear twitching. “You are the one with the most experience in these things. Matadormon comes to mind fairly easily, as does Butterflymon. Your words hold power, you know. That’s something I’ve come to learn very well.”
Out of the corner of their eye, Azure saw Harmony smile faintly, and they bit their lip. Matadormon… that confrontation was so long ago they had almost forgotten the monologue they’d given, and yet, at the same time, it felt like merely yesterday. That had been the first time they’d ever really stepped up to bat, so to speak, as the forefront of a group-wide scheme. There hadn’t been very many since then, but…
Ren might have a point.
With a long, deep sigh, Azure held their arms out in defeat and looked back to Quinn. “Alright,” they relented, having no choice but to give in. “If you think it’ll work, I’m on board.”
“There we go,” Alex said, reaching out to tap their shoulder with a fist. They raised one eyebrow at him and he grinned, while Quinn huffed a laugh and folded her arms.
“So it’s settled. The two of us will go deal with… that, while the rest of you stay here and not move. Unless you need to dodge an attack. You can move then. But then don’t move from where you end up.”
“Only allowed to dodge one attack total, got it,” Ezra said, nodding sagely, and the rest of the group giggled.
Quinn rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“I’ll escort you toward where they’re stationed,” Ren said, pressing her sleeves together. “I can’t do much to truly protect you if it comes down to it, but it should be better than nothing.”
“It will, don’t worry,” Quinn said, nodding gratefully. She looked toward Harmony, another silent thanks going unsaid, then gestured for Azure to follow her as she stepped out of the alleyway. “We’ll be back soon. Stay safe.”
“You too!” Harmony called after them, followed by the rest of the group. Azure glanced up at Ren for a brief moment and could have sworn they saw her smile back at her partner, but if she did, it was gone from her face in the blink of an eye.
Azure felt a smile of their own form on their face, even as they set off across the battlefield of ruined buildings toward a confrontation that they weren’t sure they could win.
Their trek was easier and shorter than Azure would have expected; despite most of the Digimon being focused on protecting the cops from Ordinemon, they were still managing to fight back almost as fiercely as they had beforehand, and the angel was too focused on them to even notice the two humans making their way towards those cops. Ren made sure to keep an eye on the sky, just in case, but it ended up not being needed. Not that she was useless; she was able to clear rubble and debris out of their path that they would have otherwise had to climb over or avoid entirely.
They made a straight shot for the parking lot where the police vehicles were stopped. Once they were within eyesight, blue and red lights shining in the near distance, Ren bid them farewell, jumping back into the fight as Quinn and Azure closed the final gap.
Azure couldn’t ignore the way their heart was pounding in their chest and ears and head as they came ever closer, both physically and metaphorically, to the police. It was like every survival instinct in their body was telling them to turn around and run as fast and as far as they could. They shouldn’t be doing this. None of this should be happening.
And yet, when the first officer noticed them approaching, forcing them to raise their hands in surrender so that they wouldn’t immediately get shot dead, one thing became very clear: this was happening, and there was no way out of it.
“What in God’s name are you doing here,” that first officer snapped as Azure and Quinn finally reached them and came to a stop, and Azure barely resisted a twitch of their eye in response. “This whole area is under curfew. You’re supposed to evacuate in a few hours.”
“Yeah, well, we don’t live here,” Quinn shot back, making it immediately obvious that she didn’t care if one of the cops put a bullet through her skull. She frowned, and though she kept her hands in the air, she curled them into fists, which Azure could tell was born from a barely-contained anger. “So can’t really impose curfew or evacuation orders on us. Besides, we need to talk to you.”
“You need to leave,” another officer said gruffly, stepping up next to the other one. Most of the other officers around them were still shooting at the Digimon in the sky, and every so often Azure noticed Quinn wincing slightly, but they figured that they couldn’t exactly explain what that was about to these guys. “You are not allowed to, and should not, be here. You’re going to get yourselves killed.”
“And you aren’t?” Quinn retorted. The officer’s nostrils flared in indignation, but Quinn wasn’t done. She lowered her arms slowly, crossing them tightly across her chest, and lifted her chin defiantly. “I know you aren’t going to believe me, but I’m going to say it anyways, just in the slim chance that one of your people overhears me and does.” Her eyes darted around the sky for a second, then settled on something floating close by - a single black feather, carried by the wind from where it had shed from Ordinemon, drifting through the air just a couple feet above their heads. She pointed up at it, and - slowly, but eventually - the two officers turned to follow her gesture. “You know how these feathers are destroying everything they touch?”
The first officer raised one brow, looking back down at her. “Yeah?”
“Have you touched one of them?”
“No.”
“Do you want to?”
Officer number two sneered, taking a step forward to get up in her face. “What’s your point here?”
Quinn didn’t move backward, instead remaining where she stood - if anything, she drew herself taller, matching his energy. They stared each other down for a few seconds, and then Quinn lifted one arm to point out at the fight in the sky - at Alpha, Azure realized. “My partner over there - the tall black knight - is doing his best to protect you from these feathers, as well as that giant angel’s attacks, but you keep shooting at him. He isn’t injured by the feathers, and he’s big, strong, and fast enough to actually fight the angel. But if you keep attacking him, he isn’t going to be able to do that, and you’re going to be in a lot of danger.” She folded her arms again, her voice turning as ice-cold as her glare. “He’s trying to protect you from the angel. They all are.”
“Ma’am -” the first officer started, but Quinn cut him off immediately.
“Not a ma’am.”
“- ma’am,” he continued, and Azure rolled their eyes, “we know what we’re doing. All of the monsters are a threat and must be dealt with accordingly. Even if you seem to think you’ve become friends with one of them -”
Something flipped a switch in Azure.
“If you want t’ just get yourselves killed, be our guests,” they snapped, “but if you value your lives -”
“Azure,” Quinn muttered, a warning evident in her tone, but Azure shook their head.
“No,” they said, turning to the officers again. “I have something to say.”
Quinn wanted them to talk to the cops? Fine. They’d do it. But on their own terms, and with their own words - and they had some very choice words for those cops.
Days of hearing about and seeing the police shoot at the partner Digimon, at their friends, had worn them down enough. They were fed up with it. Even if what they said wouldn’t change anything, even if these two cops standing here in front of them wouldn’t listen, they still had to say it. For their own peace of mind. So they could look back at this moment later and know that they had tried.
And, just maybe, some of the other officers would hear them and take their words to heart.
So they straightened their shoulders and trained their face into a neutral yet determined expression, revealing nothing that would give these cops any sort of ammunition, figuratively or literally, and they pointed out at Ordinemon.
“That angel in the sky,” they said, feeling much like they had when they’d spoken to Matadormon, all those months ago, “is the only real threat here. Tell me, how many of the other monsters have attacked you? Looked your way? Paid you any sort of attention?” They didn’t wait for the officers to respond before they continued, giving them no room to argue. “And now tell me how many times they have directed the angel’s attention away from you, so you could reload, or get out of the way, or whatever. How many times have they taken a hit that they could have very easily let you take instead?”
The pain that Quinn and Harmony and Ryan had felt, enough to have a physical reaction, was enough evidence that their partners were shielding the police from Ordinemon. Even now, when Azure let their eyes trail off to the side for just a few seconds, to look up at where Alpha and Castor and, yes, even Ko, hovered in the sky, firing attacks at Ordinemon, they knew that they were pulling his gaze away from where the squadron on the ground stood. Because they could take those hits better than the police could. And they couldn’t just let them die.
Even though the police were attacking the Digimon, the Digimon were still protecting them.
“There has always been a clear distinction between them - our friends -” Azure said, looking back at the two officers in front of them, “and that angel, or th’ demons or other monsters that have appeared. Our friends have always tried to stop those monsters, and they have always succeeded. That angel wants you dead. Our friends want to protect you.” They let out a short huff of breath, letting their words fully catch up with their brain before they continued. “If you still can’t tell that throughout all these fights, there has always been one side bent on destruction and havoc, and another side d’termined to protect the people and world around them, somethin’ they are under no obligation to do…”
A smile made its way onto their face, and they held their hands up in a shrug. “Then you don’t really know as much about these monsters as you think you do. Because most of them want to save the world.”
For a second, nothing filled the silence in the air except for the blood rushing in Azure’s ears and the constant thump of their heart against their ribcage. Quinn stood resolute beside them, her own eyes trained on the officers, a pervasive chill in her gaze. Beyond them, the rest of the officers - who, previously, had been firing at their Digimon, shouting commands to each other - were quiet, too. Only a few were looking at Azure and Quinn, but those few were enough for Azure to feel a bud of hope forming in their chest.
They didn’t have anything left to say. So they just stood and watched and waited for someone else to make the next move.
Surprisingly, it was not one of the two cops still staring them down that spoke next.
“At the boardwalk a few days ago,” one of the officers standing behind them said, her voice stilted, “that massive crocodile appeared in the ocean - and something else showed up to fight it. To keep it from reaching the shore.” Her brows pinched together, and she swept her gaze over Quinn and Azure before it landed down at her feet. “My sister was there with her son. My nephew. Some kid came and helped her get away. Said he was friends with the thing fighting the crocodile. She didn’t believe him, and neither did I. But I see that same thing out there, fighting the angel.” Her head tipped to the side, in the direction of Ordinemon and the rest of the Digimon. “So even if he wasn’t telling the truth, and even if you aren’t, either, I can see that that thing is still here. Fighting that monster. Just like it did last week.”
Azure raised their chin a fraction of an inch.
“You can’t be serious,” officer number two grumbled, looking over his shoulder at that woman, but she met his gaze with defiance. “It’s done just as much damage as that abomination. They aren’t any different from each other.”
“Property damage, sure,” said a fourth cop, a young man standing behind the woman who’d just spoken. “But it’s saving lives. The angel doesn’t seem to be doing that.”
Another cop spoke up. “Haven’t you seen online? People have been saying that some of the monsters have been getting them out of harm’s way. Or if it’s not the monsters, it’s a bunch of kids claiming to know the monsters.”
“Hey, yeah,” said yet another, nodding. “It’s always the same ones showing up over and over again. There’s gotta be a reason for that, right?”
Officer number two opened his mouth to speak, probably to snap at the squadron and tell them to shut up, but the first officer - who had remained silent throughout all this - motioned with his hand, and number two begrudgingly clamped his jaw shut. The first officer looked down at Azure and Quinn for a moment, then out at the Digimon still faintly visible in the sky, growing brighter by the minute with the almost-rising sun.
With a final glance at Azure and Quinn, and a nod so subtle Azure wasn’t sure if they’d hallucinated it or not, he took a few steps toward the nearest vehicle and leaned in to speak into the radio.
Azure let go of a single quiet breath, tension slipping out of their shoulders like sunlight sliding over the ocean, and out of the corner of their eye they saw Quinn smile.
“That’s a good sign,” she murmured, and Azure would have responded, if not for the entire squadron in front of them raising their voices and clutching their guns closer, and then a shadow passed over the entire group as something alighted in the parking lot with them.
With a flash of white light, Ko devolved, stumbling onto the ground in his rookie form and holding a claw to his head.
“Sir!” an officer shouted, looking toward number two, her eyes wide with confusion and uncertainty. “It’s coming closer!”
Azure was already on their way toward their partner before officer number two could respond, and they dropped to their knees at Ko’s side, reaching out to grab and steady him. “Hey,” they said gently, brow creasing. “You good?”
“Never better,” he stammered, forcing a thumbs up the best he could with only three claws. He groaned and shook his head out, rubbing his horn and peering over Azure’s shoulder to look at the cluster of officers that had inched forward to get a better look at him. “Uh. You made some new friends?”
“Absolutely not,” Azure said flatly. “Just came to a compromise. Hopefully. Still waiting on that. What’s up with you?”
“Ugh,” Ko said, instead of giving them a proper answer, and concern flooded through Azure’s body. “Sorry, I’m not normally this out of it when devolving, am I?”
They shook their head. “No, which is why I’m worried. You sure you’re okay?”
Ko hesitated a few seconds before responding, once more touching a claw to his temples. “…Yes. Probably should have devolved a lot sooner, though. I think the others should, too.”
“What, devolve?”
“Yes. Especially Dare. Somehow she’s still holding onto her mega form, but she can’t keep it up for much longer. None of us can, I think.” He broke off, grabbing the end of his scarf and rolling his claws through the fabric. “We’re all tiring out. Ordinemon isn’t. We’re going to have to retreat soon, before he forcibly devolves us and then seriously injures us. Or… worse.”
“Tactical retreat,” Quinn said from right behind Azure, and they managed to refrain from jumping out of their skin at the fright. “Probably the best option for everyone here. Not just us. Hey, listen up.”
Azure turned around fully just in time to see Quinn pointing at the first officer, who had returned from his little car visit and was now issuing orders to the rest of the squadron. He paused, turning toward Quinn. “I don’t take orders from civilians,” he said, apparently right back in full cop mode after that little wink he’d tossed them. “We’re going to stop shooting at your ‘friends’. That’s all I can do for you.”
“Great, cause that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” Quinn said, disregarding his tone entirely. “That angel is going to fucking kill you if you keep shooting at him, because we have to leave soon, and that’ll directly expose you to him. And he’s not as friendly as our guys are, if you haven’t noticed. Your bullets are doing nothing against him. Nothingggggg.” She held her hands out, fingers spread wide, for extra emphasis. “Like, not even ‘feels like a fly landed on him’. Straight up nothing. He doesn’t feel it and it doesn’t hurt him. But he can see you, and he will kill you, whether intentionally or not. Remember those feathers.”
“We know what we’re -” the officer started, but Quinn raised a hand to silence him - and, shockingly, he obliged, though not without a gravely offended facial expression.
“No you don’t. You are an ant to him. He will crush you and he will immediately forget you ever existed. You know who’s actually equipped to fight him?” For not the first time that night, she pointed out at the sky, where Alpha and Castor, in tandem, swiped out at Ordinemon with glowing blades. “Those guys. Our guys. And they have to leave soon. Which means so do you. As does the rest of the city.”
She let that final sentence sink in for a few seconds, not moving from where she stood between Azure and the police squadron. Still knelt on the ground, Azure reached a hand over to grab Ko’s, and he squeezed back in reassurance.
The rest of the city…?
“What are you talking about,” the officer said, voicing Azure’s own question, much more succinctly.
Quinn just dipped her head, clenching her hands into fists at her sides. “You said this area is under evacuation orders. That’s good. That’s a start. But you need to do more than that. The whole city needs to go. At the very least, anyone in a… forty, fifty mile radius. That angel can move fast, and I don’t know how far he’ll go.”
She looked back up, a fire burning in her eyes.
“I don’t care if you don’t ‘take orders’ from civilians. Because I’m not a civilian. And this isn’t an order. It’s a plea. And the only thing that you can do that will actually save people.”
Again, the scattered group fell silent, neither side wanting to make the first move. The officer eyed Quinn for a couple moments, then Azure and Ko, before his gaze trailed toward the sky beyond them. Azure didn’t turn to look, but they knew he was staring at Ordinemon. Instead, they simply gripped Ko’s hand tighter and closed their eyes.
They didn’t open them until the officer spoke, after what felt like an eternity.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
He turned to head back towards his people, giving no other signal that Quinn’s words had done anything. But Azure saw him hesitate as he reached officer number two, and then he looked toward the same vehicle he’d stepped into earlier, and he started toward it once more, and Azure breathed a long, heavy sigh of relief and exhaustion.
There was no telling if the evacuation would actually take place, or if the rest of the police force - or military - in the city would actually leave their partners alone and stop shooting at Ordinemon. That officer could very well be laughed at, or shrugged off, or ignored entirely. The rest of the civilians throughout the city might be forced to remain in their houses until Ordinemon was gone for good, unable to escape his onslaught of attacks.
But Azure had a bit of hope. Even if it was naive, they held onto that feeling. They just had to believe that Quinn’s words - and their own - had worked.
They just had to have faith.
When Azure, Quinn, and Ko reunited with the rest of the humans, still standing in that same alleyway they’d been left in, the first thing they noticed was that Damien and Moxie had returned from their emergent-hunting excursion. Nothing in the world could have stopped Azure from lunging for them and grabbing both of them in a hug, arms wound tight around their shoulders, even as Moxie laughed and wrapped her own arms around them and Damien hissed unintelligibly and tried, fruitlessly, to shove them away. All that made them do was hold him tighter, until they could practically feel the breath pulling its way out of him, and only then did they step back, warmth and comfort and a general sensation of ease settling in their chest.
It was good for everyone to be back.
They readied themselves, going over the plan to call their Digimon off and retreat for a short while. It wasn’t much; they had to hope that Ordinemon would, as he had the last time they’d run from him, ignore them while they left, instead of following them to whatever hiding place they’d end up stopping at.
And he didn’t. When they got closer to the scene of the fight, adrenaline and anxiety coursing through the tight-knit group, standing as close to each other as possible, they called out to their Digimon, and they seemed to get the idea pretty quickly. They stayed in their higher forms even as they reached the humans on the ground, able to protect them from the attacks Ordinemon launched at them better than if they’d immediately devolved. Once they were a few blocks away - and once they were certain Ordinemon truly wasn’t going to follow them - they let their evolutions dissipate in bursts of light, those small enough to be carried immediately being scooped into their partners’ arms.
They kept running for what felt like an hour, but Azure knew it wasn’t even close, even if their lungs disagreed. The sun was finally starting to rise properly, but Ordinemon’s sheer size and his jet black wings and the ever-lingering storm clouds in the sky blocked out most of the light, shrouding the world around them in relative darkness - but a couple beams of light broke through the blockade, illuminating the edges of Ordinemon’s feathers in bright gold.
Even just those scant few rays were enough to help that hope in Azure’s chest stay alive.
It truly had been a very long night.
But they couldn’t rest yet. They had a lot on their mind - a lot of what Quinn had said, and what Ko had told them, and what they’d seen from Ordinemon. It welled up in their head, building like a tsunami trying to break free from a dam, ready for the moment the structure would crack and it could rush forth.
Hopefully, they’d have enough time to figure it all out.
When the group slowed to a walk, far enough away from Ordinemon to allow it, Azure and Ko made their way to Quinn and Alpha, pulling them to the side so they could speak to her. Azure had a question for her - one that was very important. One that might turn the tide entirely for them.
“Have you touched one of Ordinemon’s feathers?”
Quinn blinked, apparently surprised by the question, but she responded quickly enough. “No. They’ve been literally destroying the world around us. Obviously I’m not gonna touch one.”
“Okay, well, Alex has,” Azure said, and Quinn’s eyebrows shot up on her face. “Damien told us that anyone who touches them immediately gets burned - like, really badly. But Alex was fine. Completely. It landed on him and dissipated with a flash of light.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Quinn muttered. “Ordinemon’s analyzer entry literally said the miasma will result in ‘the end of all life’. So why the hell would it…” She raised a hand to her mouth, thinking deeply for a couple of seconds. “Why would it just be Alex who’s immune?”
That was exactly what Azure wanted to figure out. Was it truly just Alex who was unaffected by the feathers? Or was it all of them?
And whether it was just him, or all of them, that only further begged the question why?
Alpha lifted his head to look up at his partner. “You didn’t touch the feathers, no. You made sure of that. As did I. But there was one feather that got too close.”
Quinn simply stared at him for a couple seconds, before her eyes went wide and she let loose a quiet gasp.
“My digivice.”
“Your digivice?” Ko asked, peering over at her. “Did something happen to it?”
She shook her head, pounding a fist into the opposite palm. “No. And that’s exactly it.” She dug into her pocket to pull it out, holding it in front of her so Azure and Ko could get a good look. “When we were trying to escape Ordinemon, we dodged as many of his feathers as we could, and we avoided most of them. But I didn’t notice one of them until it was almost too late. So I held my arms up to try to shield myself. And it landed on my digivice.”
Azure furrowed their brow. The digivice was completely clean - there was no evidence of a feather having touched it, whether it be a simple burn mark or the screen being melted off. “But… it looks…”
“I saw it,” Alpha said. “It landed on the digivice, and then it glowed white and disappeared. That was all it did. It was like any regular feather.”
“It didn’t hurt the digivice at all,” Quinn said, tightening her fingers around it. “At the time, I thought it was a fluke. That the feather would have disappeared like that anyway, whether it touched my digivice or not. Disappearing like the end of an attack, you know? But if Alex also touched a feather, and it disappeared in the same way…”
Ko nodded sharply. “There must be some connection. Maybe… the energy that you give to your digivices protects them in some way, like how it powers our evolutions.”
“Or maybe,” Azure said quietly, “the digivices are protecting us.”
They knew very well already that their digivices were, apparently, indestructible. They could not be cracked or scratched or weakened or destroyed. Impervious to all sorts of harm, including that of their ultimate enemy - it only made sense that they would have that safety feature. After all, who knew what would happen to the group if their digivices were destroyed?
And maybe the digivices, in turn, were protecting them from Ordinemon.
(Or maybe it was something more than the digivices. Maybe - just maybe - it was the bond with their partners.)
(After all, weren’t their digivices the physical representation of that bond?)
Ordinemon hadn’t yet seemed to notice that this group was immune to the feathers - or, if he had, he didn’t care. He could kill them with regular attacks, yes. Very easily, in fact. But the miasma did nothing to them, and it was his only consistent source of damage. Even when it landed on the ground or buildings or anything around them, it chipped away at it slowly, like holding a flame to a wax candle.
And if he was planning on destroying the world with that miasma…
Something clicked into place in Azure’s brain, and they allowed themself one small smile.
The group came to a stop shortly after, far enough away from Ordinemon where he was barely more than a black spot in the sky, still blocking out the sunlight and casting the world into darkness. They settled down in an empty intersection, no sign of life in their immediate vicinity. They would be safe here for at least a little while, enough time for them to recover and eat and get some rest.
While the others recounted tales, Quinn telling them about their confrontation with the police and Moxie and Damien relaying information about the last of the emergents and the others giving a recap of the fight with Ordinemon, Azure took Ko with them as they headed down one of the roads. Ordinemon was nothing but a distant speck, but the damage he had caused stretched all the way to this part of town, and led even deeper inward. His miasma, clearly, had traveled far and wide as he drifted - ash and soot and crumbling buildings surrounded them, as did signs of recent evacuations. Even if a citywide evacuation order was yet to come, not all citizens were stupid enough to stay put in the danger zone, and though the abandoned cars and half-open shop doors and dropped items pulled at Azure’s heart, they were relieved that, for now, most people had left.
“I wish I could have been there for your monologue to the police,” Ko said, breaking the silence at long last, and Azure barked a laugh.
“It was nothing. It was kind of bad, actually. At least, compared to my oh so carefully rehearsed Matadormon speech.”
“That speech wasn’t rehearsed.”
“Exactly.” They lifted their face to the sky, staring up at the pale gray clouds blocking out the clear blueness that they knew was hiding behind them. “Just had a lot to say. And I finally got to say it. They needed some sense talked into ‘em, anyway.”
“It seemed to work, too. So I’d call that a win.”
Azure shrugged. “Eh. I really hope so. I thought at first that it did, but now I’m not so sure.”
Ko tilted his head, his mandibles clicking together. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” Azure admitted. “Just… worried, I guess. There’s no telling if anything we asked of them will actually happen. The evacuation. Not shooting at you guys. Not shooting at Ordinemon. Only our Lord in Heaven above knows if they’ll be able to just ignore Ordinemon without shootin’ him.”
“I think they are,” Ko said, and Azure finally looked down at him. He met their gaze with his unblinking yellow eyes, expressionless and unreadable as always. “They know how dangerous he is. Not only did you tell them, they’ve also seen it. They’ll definitely prioritize their personal safety over engaging with him again, especially if we’re not around.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Azure mumbled, and Ko chirped a laugh.
“I think they’ll probably evacuate the city, too. Maybe not as many people as Quinn said, but… anyone close enough to Ordinemon where it won’t be difficult. They don’t have any reason not to, right? Wouldn’t they evacuate people if it was any other natural disaster?”
Azure nodded. “Fires are pretty common where we live, and there’s always some evacuations every year whenever a big one crops up. Been a while since I’ve had to evacuate, though. Thankfully.”
“Exactly,” Ko said. “And this is a lot bigger than a natural disaster. This isn’t an unfeeling force of nature; it’s a sentient, sapient, self-aware monster from another dimension that actually wants to kill and hurt people. They know that, I promise you.”
He trailed off, fidgeting with the end of his scarf, and Azure sighed quietly, sticking their hands in their pockets. Their hands traced over their digivice, a familiar sensation by this point. Only four months had they had it, and yet it felt just as comfortable in their grip as their phone did. They almost couldn’t remember what their phone felt like, in fact.
What would become of their digivice once they no longer needed it?
“They haven’t been doing much damage to us, anyways.”
Azure raised an eyebrow in confusion, looking down at their partner. “Hmm?”
He shrugged. “The police. When they shoot at us, or, for me at least, it’s like…” He tapped his claws together, searching for the right words. “Bug bites. Ironic, I know, considering everything about me, but it’s the right comparison, I think. They sting in the moment, and if I focus on them too much, they start to itch and hurt a little, but… it’s mostly manageable. Honestly, most of our problems were coming from having to shield them from Ordinemon. He… really wanted them gone.”
“Can’t say I don’t relate,” Azure said, eliciting another amused chirrup from Ko, and they grinned.
“Sounds like everyone’s pleased that they’re gone, then.”
“Amen.”
They continued in silence for a couple minutes, letting their words sink into each other fully. Ko was right - much of their worry was unfounded. There was no use fretting over things that they didn’t have any say in.
Even if the city didn’t get evacuated, and even if the cops kept shooting at the Digimon, they’d manage. Just like they always had.
But they had a feeling that everything would work out just fine.
“How’s it been fighting him?” they asked, changing the subject.
Ko let out a breathy groan, wringing his claws out. “Bad. Kind of scary, honestly. He’s… so large. So powerful. So terrifying. Sometimes, I’ve… I’ve wondered if it’s even worth it. If we can even do anything. But then I’ve seen everyone around me fighting, and I’ve looked over at you, and seen you cheering for me. And then I realize that it is. It is worth this.”
Azure’s throat tightened and they nodded, trying to release the tension. “I’m glad. I… have a lot of faith in you, you know.” They cleared their throat, lifting a fist to their mouth and looking off to the side. “Have you noticed anything odd about him at all? Anything that might be of use?”
Ko hummed to himself, tapping his mandibles. “I might be imagining things, but… I think that Ordinemon only really moves when he needs to. He’ll follow us when we attack him, but whenever we’ve retreated, he’s stayed put. I know it’s only happened twice, and that’s not enough to make it a law -” Azure cut in with a laugh and Ko’s wings twitched with amusement “- but it’s still worth noting, I think. Unless, of course, I am imagining things.”
“You’re the one who’s been up close and personal with him,” Azure pointed out. “I noticed it too, but wasn’t sure if it meant anything.”
“Hmm,” Ko said, still thinking deeply. “If you’re asking me… I think it does. He doesn’t really seem to be heading in any specific direction. He seems to… know the city, somewhat. Which roads and areas are more populated, and which ones aren’t. He’s used the buildings and terrain around him to his advantage. Which is something else entirely. But despite all that, he doesn’t seem to have a set destination. It’s like he’s just trying to destroy as much of the city as possible, but he doesn’t know where to start.”
Where to start…
Or maybe, where to end.
Azure felt as if they’d been struck by lightning.
“We need to head back,” they said, holding a fist up. Ko stared up at them worriedly, but followed them as they turned around and started back the way they’d come.
“Everything okay?”
They nodded, a fire burning bright in their ribcage. “Yes. More than okay. I think I might have the beginning of a plan.”
“Oh?” Ko prompted, eyes sparkling with intrigue. “By all means, go ahead.”
They did.
Their thoughts fell out of their mouth like a waterfall. They could not stop the stream of consciousness if they tried; they had to get it all out, no matter how incoherent or rambling or confusing it may be. They had an idea. A hope. A sliver of faith.
And throughout it all, Ko listened, just as he always had.
Ordinemon’s goal was to destroy both worlds. He had told them this only minutes after confronting him in the park - he’d made it very clear. It was unlikely he’d already managed to destroy the Digital World, considering the view through the portal they had seen when he’d first appeared and that emergent Digimon were still coming through. So he was starting with the real world, destroying as much of it as he could, as quickly as he could.
But it wasn’t quick. It was taking him a strangely long amount of time to destroy even just this one city. It would take him months, maybe years, at this rate, for him to destroy the entire world. Why? Didn’t he know that the group would keep trying to stop him until they won? Giving them more time was giving them an advantage.
Or was he waiting for something?
That was what the emergent Digimon were for. That was why he was still calling them through, so he could collect their data and strengthen himself further. Maybe he wasn’t strong enough yet to destroy the world - certainly not quickly. He needed more power.
But he couldn’t let them know that. They would use that to their advantage. If they knew he was not yet at his full strength, that would give them the motivation and dedication and, perhaps, a hidden strength of their own to defeat him. So he was distracting them - making them think that the miasma was what he was really planning to destroy the world with.
That was not his plan.
He was stalling, carving his own path, biding his time, waiting for the next step in his real plan. He could not truly destroy the world until he was stronger. They could not truly defeat him once he was.
But they had a chance to disrupt him.
Right now, he was wandering, doing some preliminary damage to this world before he was able to ravage it in full. He didn’t have a destination in mind. And if he didn’t have a destination, they could divert his path completely and lead him elsewhere. With carefully timed attacks and dodges, they could lure him wherever they wanted.
They’d have to be careful about it. If he caught onto their plan, if they were too reckless, if they so much as went the wrong direction, it would all be over instantly. They had one shot at this, and they had to make it count.
And yet, despite this, Azure had a feeling it just might work.
“So what is the plan?” Ko asked, once they had gotten everything out and stopped to catch their breath. “What’s the reason behind all this? What if he realizes what’s going on after we lead him there? Where are we leading him?”
“Amazing questions,” Azure said, holding numbered fingers up as they began to answer. “When he’s there, he won’t be able to destroy any more of the city. Meaning even if the evacuation doesn’t happen, he shouldn’t be able to hurt any more civilians. If he figures it out after the fact? It won’t matter. Once he’s where we need him, he won’t be able to leave. We’ll make sure of it. There’s someone on our team who’ll be especially useful for that. As for the plan itself…”
They grinned, letting go of their calm facade just a bit to show a sliver of excitement.
“We’re going to lead him to the ocean.”
An hour later, Azure stood with the rest of the group.
They’d gone over the plan with everyone once they’d returned. Ko had stood with them, making it clear that he trusted them. They’d pointed out that, though it would be a long, grueling endeavor, and it would take a lot of finesse to pull off, and they only had one chance at this, it would be worth the world if they succeeded. No more buildings destroyed. No more people hurt.
No more running away.
Every single one of the group thought it was worth a shot.
It was better than letting him run rampant on his own. The rewards far outweighed the risk. The possibility of them not having to worry about civilian casualties and the city falling apart around them was too tempting an idea to turn down.
They needed this.
It was going to take a lot of work. A lot of effort and energy and determination. A lot of hope. A lot of faith.
But they had all that already.
Quinn, Alpha, Azure, and Ko worked to come up with the more in-depth plan and give everyone their orders. Once they’d figured out the groups, they set out, wishing each other luck. They could see Ordinemon in the near distance; once they were closer, they would divide into teams and get into formation, ready for the actual plan to commence.
Quinn and Alpha, Alex and Castor, Moxie and Pop, and Azure and Ko would lead the charge, hitting Ordinemon with the hardest attacks and drawing his attention more than anyone else. Ryan and Dare would stay at one of his sides, while Ezra and Ember would be at the opposite, keeping him on a straight shot toward the ocean. Damien and Bumble, Harmony and Ren, and Anna and Bunny would round out the group by remaining behind Ordinemon, making sure he couldn’t turn around and flee. Miguel and Flip, meanwhile, were setting out toward the ocean to get there ahead of time, ready to meet Ordinemon once he arrived, being the most equipped to fight in the water.
It would take a lot of finagling at first, to get into a rhythm with Ordinemon and convince him that they were just fighting normally while also figuring out how to move him effectively, but they could be patient. They had time.
“I know I’ve had a lot of dumb ideas before,” Azure said to Ko, sitting on his back as he headed toward Ordinemon in ultimate form. Around them, the other Digimon carried their partners, too; some remained on the ground, others flew through the air alongside Ko. “But I really hope this is the one that’ll actually work. It’s the one that we need to work.”
“I don’t think you’ve ever had a dumb idea,” Ko rumbled. “I’m sure this one will turn out just as well as the rest.” He twisted his head to look over his shoulder at them. “You’re smart. You’ve got an eye for detail and a knack for piecing things together. Weren’t you the one who first realized manic Digimon were being controlled, not infected? Weren’t you the one who came up with the plan to fool Matadormon? Aren’t you the one who’s always gotten us out of tough situations like this?”
“Stop,” they said, feeling their cheeks heat up, but they couldn’t resist a laugh. “I’m not that important. You’ve done a lot, too. We are a team, after all. I couldn’t have done any of this without you.” They bit their lip, looking down at their hands. “I wouldn’t have it be anyone else but you.”
Ahead, Ordinemon finally fully came into view, the sunlight from behind him shining through the edges of his feathers, and the Digimon slowed down, awaiting the call from Azure.
“Get ready, everyone,” they said into their digivice, hands shaking just slightly. They tightened their grip on the red gem on Ko’s back. “On my signal.”
This was it. Moment of truth.
“Don’t worry,” Ko said, able to feel or maybe just sense their anxiety. “We’re going to be just fine.”
Azure smiled down at him, then took a deep breath in and looked around at the others around them. Alpha hovered just off to the side, cape fluttering behind him and Quinn perched on his shoulder.
He met their gaze and nodded ever so subtly.
Azure blinked, then nodded back, and raised their digivice to their mouth.
“Now!”
The Digimon shot forward, assembling into teams and aiming for their positions. They were still a ways away from Ordinemon, but they needed to be prepared, in case he saw them from afar and decided to take a preemptive strike.
Azure grit their teeth and clasped their hands together in a prayer. “Give it your all,” they whispered to Ko, and around them, the world went white.
When their vision cleared, Ko had evolved to mega, light fading away from him just as it was from their surroundings. Around them, several of the other Digimon had evolved, too; they spotted Pop and Ember taking to the air with their newfound wings, and Castor’s familiars materializing in a burst of fire.
Azure let loose a single, whooping laugh, watching as the sunlight from beyond Ordinemon dawned on Ko and lit him in a flash of gold.
This was unexpected. Not part of the plan. Normally, that would ruin everything for them, even if it wouldn’t ruin the plan itself. Everything had to be perfect. Nothing could change midway through. It would ruin everything.
But not today. Not right now. Not when it was this.
They could make this work.