In a Corrupted Mind [Mission]

It could have just gone for his head and ended it. Instead, the Paratice Head seemed to take pleasure in rending every part of his body. Past the head, down the back, no shell to get in the way this time. Scales flew with each crunch, and with each bite Elliot's struggles slowly faded. Wild thrashing gave way to weak swaying, with Elliot hanging limply by the time Scout had finally, mercifully broken up the battle. He fell to the ground in a broken heap, his entire back bubbling over in a putrid mauve color. Occasionally he tried to lift his head, but each time he tried it hit the ground with a pathetic thud. His vision was blurring. His heart was pounding irregularly. Each twitch of his body was more painful than the last. He could feel himself fade . . .

And yet, the D-Reaper's forces were charging. His friends were running in fear, as if for their lives. The massive Paratice Head was bending down, trying to scoop Kuu up in a tremendous arm. That grip meant death for him. What would it mean for Kuu? What if Scout couldn't save Kuu, like he was able to save him? What if his friends would be in trouble, and Elliot couldn't do a damn thing to save them?

He wished Isaac was here so badly.

Isaac always knew what to do.

Isaac always made it okay.

But he wasn't here.

He couldn't wait for his body to adapt to the pain. By the time he'd be able to move, it would be far too late for those he cared about. He would have to do this himself, all at once, like tearing off a bandage. Every nerve in his back seemed to light on fire as he forced himself to spring forward, body extending to its full length as he leaped toward the Paratice Head. With the height of his shove, and the Paratice Head's bent posture, he had access to the digital aberration's entire backside. There, much like all of the other D-Reaper constructs they had fought, he saw several long cables.

He didn't have time to consider his hypothesis. He was soaring through the air, with only seconds until landing. All Elliot could do was hope his hunch was correct.

He braced himself for impact, aiming to land not on the ground but instead on the Paratice Head's three connecting cables. From there it ideally wouldn't be hard to coil around them, wrapping the three into a tight, easily targeted bunch. It would be the perfect spot to use his strongest move, a point-blank, high-speed launch of his Bao Kui. He didn't risk giving away his plan by daring to speak its name. Instead he simply unhinged his jaws, squeezed his eyes shut, and shot his lance forward with as much force as he could muster. He didn't want to see the aftermath, or the risk of what would happen if his hunch was wrong. He just wanted to make this monster get away from his friends.

And if this didn't work? Well, frankly, he didn't think he could muster the energy to try again.

~~~~

Isaac was the serpent. And then, Isaac wasn't.

Infinity gave way to constraint, as Isaac woke up in the bottom of the D-Reaper's sphere. Wait, wasn't he just there before? What the hell had been going on for the past eternity? Was any of it real? Was this real? Isaac pounded at the walls of the sphere, but no longer did his pounding fists turn into a choir of echoes. Instead they just bounced once, twice, and then left. "Maia" was nowhere to be found, and Isaac couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He had no time to waste with "Maia" when he had a Maia to look for. And hey, now that the boundary was clear, escape would be a no-brainer! He grinned cockily, declaring "Explosive Warp!" before flinging himself out of the D-Reaper's sphere.

His body felt like rubber, stretching past the walls of the orb before snapping back inside. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. Isaac was left with a headache that pounded like a jackhammer and a strange, out-of-body feeling, forcing him to lie down and recover his bearings.

As he recovered from a bad teleporation hangover, he heard Datamon's voice crackle over the device on his wrist. Wait, he could get service in here? Oh, thank goodness! This wasn't completely hopeless! "I never thought I'd be so happy to hear you, Datamon," the boy said, the relief in his voice palpable. "But wait, sleep talking? What the heck was I even saying?"

Immediately, a thought came to Isaac's mind. If he was getting reception, his window of escape returned. He could jack out. He could bring his mind back into the boat, far from the D-Reaper's all-encompassing embrace. Everything would be okay. He wouldn't have to endure the ravages of eternal space, or the feeling pure, crushing loneliness, or "Maia's" voice slinking through his ears like the sweetest of poisons. He would be safe. And really, wasn't that what Elliot and Maia be wanting?

But he would have to be admitting he was weak. He would have to turn his back on his friends, while god-knows-what was happening to them. And he just couldn't bring himself to do that. He lifted the communicator, and told Datamon "It might take a while, but tell everyone else I'm coming for them. One way or another, I will find them!"

And with that out of the way, he noticed the master control program hovering high above. He hopped up and down and waved, saying "Hey! Who are you? Do you know what this place is?"

The Paratice Head's rampage, fortunately for Elliot, made it far less aware of what was happening behind it. And that would perhaps be the only boon for everyone else in the group: with the Skullgreymon's head caught in the D-Reaper's grip, Scout would see the fangs in the palm gnashing mere inches from his face. And it wouldn't be easy for Kuu to get away, either, so long as he stayed within range of that arm. As the missiles started to move, the Paratice would instead start to throttle and thrash the Skullgreymon's head, to keep his aim well off balance.

"Insolent little - !!"

And then, a pause. As Elliot went for that insane charge, the creature staggered, the weight on the cords making its grip loosen. A moment later, the spear severing the cords completely from the Paratice's back, the creature slowly staggered forward. Its arms raised, reaching for its own neck, like a humanoid creature struggling to breathe. And it would turn, and stagger towards Elliot, words now nothing more than indecipherable clicks.

But there was nothing left. With the cord severed, the titanic construct fell flat on its chest, and began to degrade into that familiar, red goop. At long last, in this hellish landscape... they had finally gotten a decent clue as to how to fight these things.

---

Indeed, the bubble wouldn't be that easy for Isaac to escape. "Eh, decent try with that teleport... hm? Oh, you were saying something about that girl, and really a lot of angry-sounding whispers. Really, don't worry too much 'bout it."

The Datamon's voice was calmer now, that Isaac had indeed returned to the waking world. He wasn't immediately requesting or mandating his exit, after all - perhaps the Impmon was more okay than he thought? Hearing Isaac's request, the Datamon responded: "Will do. Don't do anything too stupid, kid." And like that, he cut out, not letting Isaac get a word in edgewise over that. No, now he was here, alone, with the supercomputer Digimon, the Ebemon. For a moment, he didn't even acknowledge Isaac's request, simply passing along from screen to screen. Not even looking over in his direction.

"... Amazing." Just as it would seem as he was a background piece, he spoke up. "Its amazing... I've never seen it as anything else. So much information, so fast. The Reaper learns, it adapts. Everything here, unsorted data. The potential, the potential!"

Was it insane? Perhaps, speaking in its riddles, it had found something else about this bubble, as it hurriedly returned to its work. But just what was it talking about?

For once, the group had silence... and quite a bit of it to go off of, as well. After the fall of the Paratice head, the sounds of battle but a dull echo in the rotting forest around them. Beneath Elliot, the fizzling remains of the Paratice head slowly converted to trash data, blowing away in the dusty wind.

Even with their weakened data, the D-Reaper had taken no effort to send another attacker, immediately. Or perhaps it was because they were weakened: why would the giant entity waste their time on a quirky ultimate, a dinosaur with a bruised neck, and a much smaller lizard who had jumped completely off the deep end? Scout had it right, though: left out here in the wide-open clearing, it wouldn't be hard for a handful of Pendulum Feet to roll by and scoop up or pick off the rest of them. But just where would they go?

At once, there was at least some answer, a scratchy noise coming from each of the three's Digivices. "Ah... finally, I can get through to you guys again!" The Datamon's voice seemed a little more chipper than before. The voice took a moment, as if trying to assess the situation. "Hm..." Right, no point working on that right now. Silencing himself from Elliot's device, he spoke directly to Scout and Maia.

"Alright, it looks like you guys have figured out just how to fight these things... but unfortunately, I have to tell you that you may be running a little low on time. If you get out of these woods, you'll see a giant, red biomass, with a white kernel floating above it. That white shell is where Isaac is... but as it stands? I don't trust your odds too much with a direct approach. Here..."

A green glow would surround Elliot, Kuu, Agunimon, and BlackAgumon: wounds and exhaustion would vanish, as if they just got off of a three hour nap and a wonderful shower. "That was Wizardmon using his 'reset'. Don't get used to it; that spell's only good once every couple of days, so that's all we're going to be able to offer. Hm... I don't suppose any of you have wings or a good way to fly, though? Yeah, that's just gonna be tough. Gonna have to figure it out on your own terms."

And like that, the voice cut out again, leaving them in silence. For once, this group had initiative. But if they didn't take it, it wouldn't take long to lose this war of attrition.

For Arresterdramon, the D-Reaper's approach was quite different than before, in that a number of Pendulum Feet were not coming to swarm at his position. There was no point: for the first time, the team had brought up something that looked to directly counter the entity, being a fast Digimon with a tail able to easily cut at the cords. Using previous methods against that would just prove as a waste of energy. No: for this one instant, the Searchers merely kept their gaze on this hybrid spirit, thinking best how to handle it.

And it quickly came to an answer: a nearby Paratice Head, with a quick chirp of its several mouths, turned away from its original target and lumbered forth, with the surprising speed of a titan, right towards Scout's position. Its mouths gave a disturbing clatter, words echoing throughout the entire group:

"You think you can play hero?"

From a distance, the D-Reaper's siege unit sprung its attack, each of its yellow mouths clicking, before letting out a thick, red laser. Contact with this would cause severe burns, as well as thickly coat the target with the D-Reaper's mass... and it wasn't playing around with its target. One beam was fired right at the Arresterdramon, and a second would trace the way it flew away, while the entire array would try and keep him from simply flying away. The Paratice Head wanted to hem him in, and force it into direct, close-range combat...

Which would leave it against the Horn Striker flexing right at its feet.

For the Metalgreymon, the D-Reaper had fewer concerns: three Pendulum Feet split up, letting out its explosive bomb attack at about a range of thirty or so feet. This bigger target just seemed easier to wear down!