Come to the Valley of Dragons If You Want An Asskicking (Az)

Unfortunately, Elliot was easily the less attentive of the duo. Alicia's descent caught the two off guard, Isaac standing his ground at the sound of an unknown Digimon's arrival and Elliot promptly taking a half-step backwards. Still, upon recognizing Steeldramon the two broke out into big grins, which only increased in size as she turned into a form more recognizable to the two of them. She seemed way too happy to be annoyed! Elliot shot Isaac an "I told you so" sort of look, secretly very thankful that his worries didn't prove true. Everything was going to be okay, and now they were going to have an awesome victory party!

"Hey there, Alicia! Long time no see! You been healing up well?" Isaac asked. Naturally, making sure the woman okay was their first priority. With how lively she seemed it hopefully wasn't a matter of too much concern, but it was always good to try and make sure. "I'm really sorry we couldn't be there to help you out back there. We'll try to be quicker on the draw next time."

Elliot, on the other hand, was already fishing around in his pockets for his Digivice. "Man, our new forms are so cool!" he cheered. "Maybe they're even as cool as yours are. You wanna see?" His finger hovered over the button, and he was prepared to start showing off as soon as he got the okay from Alicia. Sure, everything associated with finding these spirits was pretty nightmarish, but they were awesome enough on their own right to make it worth it. Mostly.

"Alright, let's do this!" Elliot cheered, turning excitedly to Isaac. Neither brother wanted to go first, each somewhat selfishly wanting to be the one to make the last grand reveal. It seemed like neither of the duo was going to budge any time soon, so eventually they both held their Digivices high in the air. Cocoons of light and energy enveloped them, but they quickly expanded to twice the size of the ones that nurtured Impmon and Veemon. Elliot's took on a dark blue coloration, while Isaac's was almost a pale teal.

The cocoons faded, and where Elliot and Isaac once stood now Strikedramon and Yasyamon were standing. Yasyamon admired his swords and shield, relieved to see that they had reformatted since when he had last used this form, while Strikedramon excitedly stood tall and flexed. "Pretty cool, huh?" Isaac asked, the masked demon holding out his swords so Alicia could get a good look at the new form. "These new looks helped us get out of a real sticky situation. I had to fight some kind of android, and Elliot was dealing with this really persistent nightmare teddy bear."

Elliot really didn't want to think about Porcupamon. Fortunately, he had something he could easily distract the conversation with! He lifted up his own flowing red hair to show it off, noticing the slightly less luscious red hair at the back of Isaac's head as well. "Ooh, look at this! We're all matching now," he stated, feeling oddly proud of his observation.

"Yeah, way too fun sized," Isaac grumbled, so thankful that now he had an actually respectable form to show off. Yasyamon was so much cooler than Impmon, even if it didn't have much of the utility such as flying and teleporting. It was definitely more of a combat form than in comparison. "Don't underestimate these things. They may be wood, but they sure managed to bash an android to bits like they were solid steel." Of course, speaking of solid steel, they were about to deal with the master of it. The two brothers watched and waited, prepared to see Steeldramon again.

They didn't. With a badass incantation and a cloud of darkness swirling around her, Alicia turned into a completely different form. The brothers watched in shock and awe, before Elliot turned to Isaac and began excitedly shaking his shoulder. "Why don't we do that?" Elliot asked, somewhat pleadingly. "Come on, we gotta try and come up with some cool catchphrases too! It'd be so fun!"

"Half the time we're too busy getting our butts kicked to say anything," Isaac countered.

"That's why we gotta commit them to memory. Think about how cool it'd be!"

Slowly, a little grin spread across Isaac's face. "Heh. You know it would be.

Looking good there, Alicia! Ninja, I'm guessing?"

It seemed like the surprise party was drawing closer and closer. This was still going to be a surprise party, right?

"Not gonna lie there," Isaac said. "We're pretty sick of it too. I had to pull this thing out of the core of some malfunctioning android. It kept trying to get me with these freaky wires." The boy briefly de-digivolved from Yasyamon to his human form, rolling up his sleeve to show a faint scar from where one of the ProtoAndromon's wires jabbed right into his shoulder. It was still fresh enough to be visible, a sobering reminder that spirit users had to keep careful in their fights. Surface damage usually faded away with a de-digivolution and some bedrest, but the really nasty ones left some lingering. Alicia was likely just as familiar with that, judging by her trip to the hospital.

"And I almost got clobbered real bad by this horrifying Porcupamon," Elliot said. As the only one still in his Digimon form, it seemed like he'd end up taking the stand for this first sparring match. He listened carefully to Alicia's worries, looking down a little guiltily when she mentioned them being thrown off the train. He'd try to be stronger next time, surely! Heck, that was half of why he and Isaac were on the hunt for these spirits in the first place. Then they could be better equipped to protect the people they cared about.

"Yeah, I gotta admit, I worried about bringing her on our hunt too," Isaac admitted. "It was a really dangerous place, and I didn't want her to get hurt. But I trust her, y'know? And if she needs a hand, I'm sure I could help keep her safe. So you're right. We gotta keep getting stronger to protect each other."

"I'll go first!" Elliot volunteered, standing to his full height and rolling his shoulders. The dragon's tall profile and cheery, youthful voice really weren't that fitting. "Good luck, Alicia!"

Elliot tensed up as Alicia prepared to advance, winding up like a drill and launching herself at Elliot. It looked like a really powerful foot to begin a fight on, and Elliot could tell getting hit by it would be bad news. Thankfully, it seemed like she was aiming for center mass, which on such a tall dragon was a pretty high target. Immediately he hit the deck, staying as flat on the floor as possible in hopes of Alicia passing right over him. For the most part it went well, except that his tail refused to necessarily stay down. He didn't even know how to use tail muscles, really. Did he just clench his butt? As he tried to figure it out dark energy sliced past the tail, painful but nothing too bad.

He waited for Alicia to land, hoping that the attack would daze her sufficiently. After all, how could you spin so much and not end up a little bit dizzied? Upon the woman's landing he charged forward, trying to get his arms under hers and stick her into a powerful full nelson. Grappling was the main technique he used against Porcupamon, and it was able to help keep the more powerful foe on its toes. Maybe he'd be able to pull off the same against Alicia! "Commando's Lock!" he shouted as he tried to apply the hold, hoping he'd be able to wear Alicia down and get an early gauge on her power. Depending on how she dealt with the grip, he'd have an idea of how much force to apply against her attacks without inadvertently hurting her. Everyone wins!

Unless Alicia dodges, of course. Then only she wins.

Alicia's strategy was a very sound one. While Elliot was busy scrambling to reposition his foot, the ShadowsArmsdramon had managed to spring them both toward a nearby rock. She had control of the momentum now, and with it she had the advantage. Even as Elliot tried to flex his body and counteract the force of her spin, he found it hard to overcome her rotational speed. Like it or not he was flying back-first toward the rock, and trying to minimize the impact would be essential to getting out of this sticky situation.

Releasing Alicia was first priority, giving him actual use of his arms back. There was no chance in hell of him turning around while the two of them were still connected. From there he twisted his upper body to try and rotate himself, hoping to end up stomach-first with the rock instead of back-first. A shot to the ribs and chest would be painful as heck. A shot to the spine would be debilitating. Finally he twisted his neck up and went spread-eagle, hoping to maximize the amount of surface area the force would be spread across. It was like a stage fall in reverse, which led to Elliot gracelessly bellyflopping the rock with a meaty thud.

He peeled himself up off the floor, battered and bruised yet still very much in fighting shape. "Nice counter!" he said, putting a hand on his tail to try and direct it as he planned out his next move. He lowered his iron head and roared a battle cry as he charged toward Alicia, hoping to trick her into thinking he would make a headbutt. However, instead of following through with the strike, he skidded to an early stop and aimed his tail right at the ninja dragon. "Tailblazer!" he shouted as a gout of flame promptly shot from the nozzle-like tail.