Metal Drive [Mission]

If nothing else, this group was straight to the point. The Dracmon's earlier comment was confirmed by Cion's appearance - though, perceptive as he was, he raised a brow under that mask. "My, that's quite a rare one... you sure she's a support type?" The imp muttered as the CyberSagitamon came into view, earning a clean 'knock' from the handle of the broom against his head. "Quiet, you," The Witchmon chuckled, "And at least try and be polite to our assistants, here."

"Yeah, yeah..." Rubbing his head, he straightened his composure, hands held loosely at his side. The Witchmon stepped forward, a smile and a nod given to the professional-looking ultimate. "Mhm, thank you for coming. We'll wait for introductions until we're all here, and-"

"Ah, speaking of." This time, the Dracmon looked to the sky, at the appearance of their supposed bruiser. That said, if a rare-looking-but-still-relatively-normal Digimon caught his eye, this beast spirit caught his eye with an absolutely liquid appearance was completely out of left field! Still, after the initial shock, he took a closer look. And with a smirk, he gave a quick two-fingered salute. Now, to Cion, Alicia, and even the Witchmon, this wouldn't make much sense at all, if they would even catch wind of it. But maybe it would even be more surprising to Kisara, to have someone so openly acknowledge her!

"Ah, same. Dracmon and I will be explaining things shortly. We're just waiting on one more... we happened to have a medic sign on."

And, just a minute or so later, said medic would come into sight! Angemon definitely didn't make the Dracmon raise a brow, merely giving a groan at the presence of an angel type, but whatever, he'd deal. To Mitsuko and her partner, the imp just leaned away with a shrug, the Witchmon giving a sigh. "Ah, charmed... well, that makes about everyone. We're a bit tight on time, so listen up, please." The Witchmon stepped a bit away from the other five in the group, sitting on her broom to get a better look at them all.

"Right, you've all read the flier... and its as it says. My dear twin sister's sent out a call for help... and, well, she's the keeper of an important medicine to Terminus and Whitewater. There's not much she could say on such a scrawled piece of paper, though it sounds like they've been able to overpower the area and take a good number of local Digimon there hostage. Ordinarily, I would have scouted out something myself, but, considering the circumstances..."

"CAW!"

A resounding noise echoed through the canopy of the forest. Immediately, the Witchmon sighed. "Don't tense up... that's just 'your ride'. Look up, please." Dracmon's eyes were already trained on the sky, and as the others would crane their heads up, they would see...

Well, 'something'. From this distance, it would look like a large eagle, a trail of dust carried behind it. And even further, just a distance above, was a distinguishable-enough black shape, taking the form of a Blimpmon. "The wandering island, Ceresmon. Honestly, it rarely flies this low."

'Low', right! Patamon would quickly see that it would just be too impractical to cover all that distance with wings: that range was only practically obtainable with machines!

"Right, time's shorter than I thought!" Standing up, and tapping her broom to the ground, a red, runic circle appeared in the clearing. With a momentary 'stutter', the magic circle glowed a faint red. "So, brief explanation... Ceresmon's back is a thick forest. It'll have a breeze but the canopy will keep the area heated and the air dense enough, but just be ready for your ears to pop. Dracmon?"

"Hm." The imp nodded! "Name's Dracmon. Since we were set on healers, I was assigned instead. I'm a sensory type so its my job to find the fruit itself. Your job, to keep it out of whatever is going on there. Area might be hot, so wits about ya."

"Right, now sit or kneel in the sigil, please. Stand if you want, not my fault if you tip over. I'll send you all right up!" The Dracmon already took to the far edge of the circle, sitting with a palm resting on a propped knee. Presumably the rest would follow...

And once they did, the symbol would pulse bright, a blurring sensation overtaking their eyes...

---

The peaceful sound of birds and insects would give way to the sound of running wind. As the group's vision would return, the five of them would find themselves sitting in a clearing, a blue sigil vanishing beneath them. Yes, there was a constant breeze: it was light enough to them, but above they would hear the rough rippling of the leaves against the wind, a silent warning against breaking through the canopy.

"Alright, on-guard-" The Dracmon stood on his feet, taking stock of the situation around him. His voice paused, though, as he took a look of the state of the soil around him: the dirt was torn up and uneven. A glance over to nearby trees showed signs of damage, sharp claw marks ripping through the bark; in the firmer parts of the soil, were signs of heavy boots, their soles digging deep into the soil around here. The damage seemed a bit dusted over, however...

... And a nearby ring of rocks, with dusty smoke rising from inside, painted quite a different picture. It laid undisturbed: "Someone set this up after the spat... tch."

Just how long had this raid been going on for? "Keep your eyes open. Going to take me a minute or two to learn how to filter out Ceresmon's data field. Until that, I'm pretty much blind as a bat up here."

Well, Cion was quite the serious one, wasn't she? Before they would get on the island, the Witchmon would listen to her questions, and shake her head. "Sorry, wish I could be of more help. Aside from my sister, though, I wouldn't expect much help..."

Then again, the Witchmon figured, such a varied group would be able to figure out something up there! "It should be pretty obvious to say, but the lot of you are just going to have to figure it out as it goes."

---

Past that, there would be no delay as the group made their way into Ceresmon's forest, right into this ragged clearing. As Dracmon briefly glanced around the area, the CyberSagitamon's question caught his ears. His head tilted towards the ultimate's direction: "Eh?" Right, not everyone was completely versed in tracking, and as such the Dracmon just gave a shrug, extending a claw out towards the rocks.

"Its a clean ring of rocks, set up for a campfire, on top of torn-up soil. Since the ring isn't disturbed, it means it was placed here after whatever fight was already over." He stepped up, resting a boot on top of the outside, running a nail through the ash. "Still dry, too." He pinched a piece of charcoal into trash data, giving a 'tch' as he turned to face his surroundings.

Thankfully, everyone seemed quick to get on their guard! Cion, without hesitation, already took a summoned bow into hand; Patamon took to his Angemon form, earning a nod from the Dracmon; and Alicia seemed capable and aware enough, though the imp really couldn't tell much about that colossal form.

"Guess the first thing we should do is see if we can track whatever set up-" The Dracmon would have finished that with 'this fire'; however, his hands instinctively twitched, the virus type giving a 'tch'. He opened his fists, a green eye showing in his left palm, and a red one glinting from his right, the latter of which he raised towards the edge of the clearing.

"GRAUGH!"

Right in that direction, a red claw tore right through the foliage, the devil demon 'Devidramon' facing the three fighters head-on! That said, as intimidating as its presence could be by itself, there was definitely more than one thing 'off' about this creature. For one, its wings were not in tatters, and held a pure metallic sheen, its torso and legs covered in a similar, thin armor. Further, the top of its head seemed to be wrapped in a metallic shell, only two red eyes staring with a red glow, as opposed to its normal set of six.

And to top it all off, its element: from its fangs, and dancing between metal-laden claws, bounced with an impressive amount of electricity. As it moved, a slight blue blur flowed behind its movement, like a ghastly aura. "Tch... this the 'metal menace', already?!

No time to think about this now! Closest to Cion, Dracmon quickly moved next to the support, just as the demon let out a roar! With its 'breath', a wide surge of strong static would surge out, crackling heavy against the forest floor. Anyone right in front would feel the shock through their legs, enough to make even the most resilient creature 'lose a beat' in movement. And in the next moment, it would strike out, soaring forth with claws extended for Cion and Angemon. It would grab both if it could, but if they tried to move out of the way, Devidramon would bank and move straight for Cion with both arms!

That wasn't to say Alicia was being ignored, though: as the Devidramon was gathering attention, from the opposite side of the clearing a thin, blue 'bolt' would fire out, aiming to sink right into the behemoth Mercurialdramon's back!

---

Thankfully, this hired group didn't take long to get into gear. Aside from a bit of a shocked response from Mitsuko, the only human in the group, everyone else responded in quick fashion. The Devidramon's approach was cut off by the Prismatic Firewall (which was now defending four targets, including the Dracmon), and an expert snap-shot was fired, aimed squarely for the metallic monster's knee. The arrow itself would break against the metal, the unfocused attack unable to pierce through the armor.

However, that was the least of the demon's worries: as he would make his charge straight towards the firewall, quite intent on trying to ram through the defense, Alicia would manage to slam into the beast from its right! The demon's feet dug its nails deep into the turf, just managing to stay on its feet, a fierce growl given to its newfound opponent. Even with only two eyes, its own gaze fiercely struck into the mercury-monster's form.

And it wasn't like he couldn't return the favor! The beast could already tell that any direct attack against this amorphous opponent wouldn't stick: his claws would probably harmlessly pass through the liquid, and any foolish attempt at returning the grapple would simply make the situation even more awkward. "Grrr..."

Just as the scalding metal would strike out, Devidramon gave his own response: he would stick his claws straight out, forcing his way through the mercurial body (if he could manage). In the next moment, his entire body would give out a bright blue glow, a massive surge of electricity coursing through the metal armor! "Ghastly Discharge!" The gravelly voice rang out, right after the attack would have been launched: in the immediate area around the demon, a massive pulse of electrical energy would explode outwards, with impressive power and speed. And if Alicia tried to build distance, the Devidramon would simply follow, wanting to catch as much of the body in this burst as he could. Sure, scalding metal would pour onto his shoulder and chest, but he was willing to take this damage to inflict a serious wound in return!

---

As for the currently 'unseen' sight in the forest, MagnaAngemon's attack would earn a rather straightforward response. Honestly, it would have been easy enough for the 'sniper' to simply duck into another part of the woods and attempt a bolt from another angle, but now this flying angel was actively looking for the assailant.

Thus, the Exacli-Burst would be met head-on, a voice ringing out from the woods: "Raiton-Arc!" At the holy arc's center, a bright, blue arc, angled up-and-down, would meet the attack head-on. It was smaller than the MagnaAngemon's wide swing, but much more dense in energy, allowing it to pierce right through the center and create a 'safe spot' for the assailant to remain. Sitting on a now-visible tree-branch would be another 'altered' Digimon, and this one had the main body of a Renamon.

A Renamon, with metal gloves and coverings over her feet. In slight similarity to the Devidramon, she wore an earpiece in her left ear, as well as a lens over her left eye. Across the top of her back was a metal casing, blue in color - even from this angle, it would look to be some sort of compartment. In her right hand was a more key-difference, though: she wielded a rapier, with a blade as long as she was tall, the weapon sparking with electrical energy.

And despite this apparent 'rookie' staring down an ultimate, she held her position. From MagnaAngemon's current distance, she'd appear to be whispering something. As she did, though, she wouldn't just stand passively: her free paw raised up, a heavy tree seed forming in her hand, which she would throw into the air, far above the angel. If it wasn't intercepted, it would crack open, and send an array of sharpened leaves, similar to 'diamond storm', in a wide area over the MagnaAngemon!

---

"First the demon, now that..." Looking over his shoulder at their apparent assailant, the Dracmon swore. Staying close to Mitsuko and behind Cion's cover, he took a deep breath, and would keep working to filter out Ceresmon's wide data field from his senses. This situation seemed hairy enough, but this group had two ultimates and a champion, compared to what looked like two ultimates in the very worst case. So long as the pulled through, surely they would be able to-

The ground beneath shook, a rough rumble felt through anyone standing on the ground, the Dracmon himself stumbling to a knee. A moment later, the Ceresmon let out a near-deafening squawk, and the entire forest seemed to bank, very slightly tilting as their ride took a bank to the left! "Damn it, what now?!"

---