The Great Binary Archipelago All Out Race [Kath/Amy][Career]

If the war fog in Joy Island had somehow brought the crowd to a halt in their excitement, due to not being able to see a thing; Borderland Island had definitely brought them back to life. The whole place was roaring. Every new happening was more exciting than the previous one and were you a fan of a team in specific or were you there just to have a blast, it was amazing.

“I think we would have to go back to when Garmore and Inra held their streaks to see something like that, Sofia.” Delu noted, then changing his tone of voice to a much more serious one. “This race has never been about eliminating other participants, so this edition has definitely been very special. And I’m afraid we’re about to see many more eliminations.”

Sofia was completely right and her words were almost foreshadowing. Not long after they were uttered, the cameras went to Octomon, who had sustained brutal damage after being hit by Aegisdramon’s rockets.

“Just like you called it, Sofia! A Team’s Octomon has been the victim of some serious damage. He’s now opening… a portal! So that’s how he moves around so quickly, right? It seems like he’s taking a leave.” It was definitely taking a lot more of time for the Octopus to open this gate and go through it; probably due to the damage he had recently taken and the exhaustment from having performed that move who knows how many times in this competition.

“It seems like Anomalocarimon didn’t square any better, Sofia! Right after striking that lethal blow on Thunderbirdmon, he seems to have sustained a lot of damage from Deep Sea Team’s attack.” On his side, the scorpion-like creature dove back into the water, swimming towards the shore.

Things were not looking good for Katherine, at first. The shield would probably be unable to take any other impact. She had moved around the giant creature at the middle of the lake, desperately looking for her pedestal. If she could push that, at least she would have done something for her team, right? The smile that had appeared on Katherine’s face from seeing the golden dragon ship stop the madness caused by his technique, quickly disappeared when she noticed she had completely gone around the dragon, completing a full lap. Many pedestals were around her, but… none had Beer Flag’s name.

“… I can’t believe it, Sofia.” Delu sounded honestly sad about the outcome. “Katherine managed to go around Aegisdramon looking for their pedestal, but the pedestal of Beer Flag is nowhere to be found!” A unison ‘ooow’ echoed through the stadium. The cameras went everywhere, looking for the location of the pedestal with the team's name. But even them couldn’t find it. “How could she be so unlucky? Her pedestal is missing in action! Could it have been destroyed? I don’t think she’s going to make it there before Aegisdramon is ready to shoot again.”

"You can call me overconfident, reckless or even cocky if you want to, but the truth is that I believe we'll win the race no matter what."

Katherine just fell on her knees over the boat's floor. She could see the dragon reloading. All kinds of thoughts started filling her head. There was no way she could go around it looking for their pedestal again before it was ready to shoot. The time at that giant clock-tower kept ticking and finding that pedestal seemed harder than ever. Was she going to have to rely on Amelie once again? Ooi had asked her to push the button and she couldn’t even do that. Sure, she had the idea to be propelled out of Route Island, but her physical input to all of that had been zero. She failed at the cave and it was only thanks to Jazz that they even got a flag. Being completely honest, there was no way they could win that race, because they had Katherine Jasso on the team. And why would it be any different? These teams were full of huge, scary and powerful digimon. She didn’t have anything to offer against that.

“Huh…” A deep, male-like voice got to Katherine’s ears, getting her out of her own thoughts. At first, it startled her a little. She then realized where it came from. Floating above the water, his wings spread and showing a very wounded body, Thunderbirdmon was looking at her. He was unable to move or be of any harm anymore, that much was clear. “You’re really-- unlucky, aren’t you?” He asked. He was having trouble to speak, so he made pauses that seemed like an eternity for Katherine. “Your team's pedestal isn’t around here, right?” He coughed. Then, he looked around, noticing there was no one else around the place who wasn’t escaping. “You came here by yourself? What are you,-- crazy? Everyone started-- running as soon as that thing appeared, and you decided to--- push forward.” He noted.

Katherine’s green eyes were affixed on the digimon. They had nowhere else to go, anyways. “Look, crazy human. You can’t see it from here, because --it’s very high above but… while I was flying, I noticed---a pedestal got stuck on that things’ left bazooka. The one up above. That pedestal-- must be the one with your team’s name on it.” Katherine’s eyes widened after listening to this. “I’ve got the energy to create one more explosion left in me. I know what Lisa is going to do next, and it definitely won’t make us win, so… I can help you get high above, if you want. In all--- honesty… I kind of want to see what happens.” He chuckled, then started to cough again.

“W-Why would you do that?” Katherine asked. Why was this digimon helping someone as helpless as her?

The Thunderbirdmon kept coughing until he, finally, uttered something. “What can I say? You came here by yourself against all odds. I kind of like you.” He stated. “I once met a human. A very incredible one. She used to do things as crazy as the ones you do. She told me that you tamers have something burning inside of you. That some of you can use it very often, while others just show it when the time calls for it.” He explained, having trouble to keep his beak out of the water. “I think she told me it’s called… guts.”

"Rather than overestimate our opponents and look at the shortcomings of our team, why not do the opposite?”

”Doing… the opposite.” Katherine muttered. Her friend's words echoing inside her head.

---

“W-What was that!?” The sound of an explosion made some ears perk up around the stadium. “Look at that, Sofia!” Delu yelled, intensively. The cameras showed Beer Flag’s ship, Katherine on board. “It’s Beer Flag’s Boat! It’s flying again! How is that possible!? What just happened?” The stadium exploded in cheering. “Could it be that Beer Flag has one more life!? One chance more at winning!?”

Being so high above, Katherine could easily catch a glance of the pedestal. It was stuck at Aegisdramon upper part. From up there, she couldn’t see if it had her team’s name, but she definitely hoped it did. Once the boat reached its maximum height, the girl pushed a single, red-colored button on the dashboard.

“W-wings!?” Delu squealed. “B-B-Beer Flag’s boat has deployed wings!” The bird just knocked his coffee and threw some papers into the air.

“They worked…” Garmore muttered, his eyes affixed onto the screen.

On top of the boat, Katherine was now gliding down, heading towards the pedestal on top of Aegisdramon. She struggled to gain some type of control of the boat, moving the rudder up to avoid the ship from going into free fall, and controlling the gliding. Once she was there, she extended her right hand, holding herself into the boat with the left, and… the pedestal made a loud noise that echoed throughout the whole island.

“There’s the horn! She did it! She pushed the button!” The terraces of the stadium were trembling just from the loud roar the crowd issued. “Beer Flag Team has pressed their button, Sofia!” The bird even hugged the Ranamon out of pure excitement.

Of course, now Katherine was coming down, from that height, the boat was getting harder to control every second, and Aegisdramon was probably going to start shooting at any minute now. Some help with that landing and evacuating the island was much needed.

19...18...17...

Staring at all the screens he could cover with those two eyes, Delu had nodded a couple of times, agreeing with every comment Sofia would contribute with to all of this. The duo had been narrating the events of the All Out Race for years, so they tended on agreeing most of the times.

“That’s right Sofia. There is Amelie, making the save!” He then blinked twice. “And just like that, she’s gone!"

“These kids are amazing.” Garmore noted, while everyone around the stadium, including Leo, Tyrus, and Caesar, roared (or buzzed) in excitement.

Katherine hugged a very tired Amelie. It was the tightest hug she had ever given.

However, all the cheering turned into a worrisome silence, because… well, the duo hadn’t arrived at the best of times. There were multiples things happening that definitely didn’t seem to help Beer Flag’s case. First of all, even if Deltamon seemed to have been taken care of, they were still surrounded and under fire by Allomon, who Jazz was trying to keep away and Ricky himself, who kept putting up ice for the dinosaur to stand on. Tyrannomon seemed to be slowly getting up.


“This doesn’t look good, Sofia! Ricky’s Crewmates don’t care about anything else than annihilating Beer Flag right now! They don’t have a flag and they’re not moving until they get one.” Which meant they were probably not going anywhere, because, the second problem was a much bigger one. A robotic voice echoed throughout the stadium; the same voice could also be heard from around Joy Island and Borderland Island.

“Initiating final wave. Every participant beyond Joy Island's central core will be eliminated in... fifteen… fourteen…”

Complete silence engulfed the stadium.

“D-Did you hear that, Sofia!?” Delu managed to recover his words in time. “According to that voice, which came from the tower at the center of Joy Island, every team standing beyond our second island will be eliminated in… thirteen seconds!” A camera showed the clock on top of the tower. “So that's what that counter was all about!”


“W-What did they say!?”
“Didn’t even the announcers know about this!?” Caesar and Tyrus buzzed around in complete panic.

“TOXIC Team is already almost at Joy Island, Sofia. They are most certainly going to make it. Besides, even though he’s missing a member, Inra and one of his Seadramon are almost there too. A Team’s Ebidramon never got to Borderland Island. He remained around Joy Island so it seems like he’s going to make it too.” Delu’s eyes then went back to the screen showing every other team still around Borderland Island. “I’m afraid to say this, my friends. But I doubt anyone else can make it there. I think this will be a close finish between these three teams.” The crowd reaction was bittersweet. It seemed like, for the first time, they weren’t at all convinced with only Waru and Toxic being still on the competition. Maybe they were hoping someone else could make it. Beer Flag, maybe? “Look, Sofia!”

Anomalocarimon ran through the sand of Borderland Island, looking for Octomon, attempting to get into the portal the Octopus had finally opened.

“If these two members go through this portal, A-Team will have all of its members on the last part of the race, most definitely!” The bird noted. His eyes then widened up upon noticing something odd in the behavior of the two sea digimon. “What’s this, Sofia?”

Both Octomon and Anomalocarimon had stopped moving. It was as if they were completely paralyzed, just some steps away from the portal that would get them out of Borderland Island. Only their eyes were going everywhere, looking for the source of whatever was hampering their movements.

“Could it be… Lisa!?” The crowd roared upon seeing Seduction Team’s captain, standing right behind the two aquatic creatures. She was holding both arms in front of her and her eyes were affixed onto the enemies.

“Haha~” She chuckled, nattily. “You look so helpless now!” Even if her body seemed like it had been through a lot and she was panting from exhaustion, her cheerful tone of voice was still there. “Your team eliminated both members of mine. And honestly? I don’t have any energy to keep going myself.” If one were to look closely, there seemed to be a sort of paralyzing spell over the two A-Team’s members. “So… If I can’t win, I’m sure taking my revenge first, Haha~” Lisa winked and stuck her tongue out at the monsters.

“This is pure revenge Sofia! Lisa is making a sacrifice to put out two members of A-Team out of the way! If the clock reaches zero and they can’t enter that portal, it’s over!” The crowd seemed to be loving this. It was the first time in the whole competition the team of bullies was in a tough spot.

Regarding Beer Flag…

Jazz kept holding Allomon off, using her hammer to keep it away. She now knew they had less than fifteen seconds to go back to Joy island. The pig-girl’s eyes went to the boat and then to Amelie. There was no time to think. And that was fine, really. She didn’t feel much like thinking in this form. It was time to act.

“No.” She shook her head, kicking Allomon and making him back down a bit. “I’m going to have to stay here."
“Jazz? What are you saying?” Katherine still felt a bit dizzy from all the flying and teleporting. Her sight was still blurry. Her green eyes went into her partner’s figure. With her arms, she was gesturing them to go.
“Liquid.” Jazz’s gaze fixed onto the Candlemon. “We’re going to win this.”

“Nine… Eight…”

Jazz went running over the ice, towards Allomon. She leaped into the air and then swung her hammer with all of her might. She wasn’t aiming for the dinosaur, though. The pig-girl span around her own axis. When she reached the point where her hammer was aiming in the same direction as the boat’s bow, a burst of wind that was nothing short from massive was released, immediately propelling the boat forward, jutting it at high speed across the sea, heading back into Joy Island. The water around the boat was lifted, and before they noticed, Amelie, Liquid and Katherine were already halfway there, travelling through the sea at high speed.

“Six… five…”

“Look at them go, Sofia!” Delu pointed at the main screen. All the spotlight was back at beer flag one more time.
A glow of light engulfed Jazz’s body. When it faded, a Lopmon fell over the ice. Both dinosaurs and Submarimon had been sent back by the wind. It was clear for them they had no chance.

“A member of Beer Flag has made a sacrifice to keep the team going! It's Jazz, the Lopmon! Now they are moving at high speed across the water! Could they make it, Sofia!?” Half of the crowd was cheering, while the other half were just… expectant.

“TOXIC has gone around Joy Island, and Waru Team and A Team’s Ebidramon too now! There’s only one team left with a minimal chance of keep going in this race, Sofia! Could it be!?”

“Four… three…”

The burst of wind released by Jazz had everyone barely maintaining themselves on the boat. They needed more speed.

“Amy-sis, use the nitro!” Liquid yelled. It was time to use the very few resources they might have left.

After falling on the cold ice, Jazz closed her eyes for a second or two. She opened them again and could see Beer Flag’s boat in the distance, pushing forward. She was too dizzy from all of that energy she had just used in that recent attack. So she closed them again. Not long after this, her ears received the sound of multiple voices. She felt like there were a lot of beings around her. As she started to open her eyes, the voices turned into a loud roaring. It was almost deafening, in all honesty. The sunrays got to her, making her use her hand to protect herself from it, and be able to look upward.

“They… they did it!” Delu held that last syllable while the whole colosseum cheered and roared. “Beer Flag Team is still on the race!”

And boy, if it had been close. Just two seconds before the counter reached zero, the boat managed to pass by the tower, navigating the sea around Joy island, to be out of the elimination zone. “Sofia, I’ve got to tell you! I’ve seen very few digimon travel at the speed that thing did in the last seconds before getting there! That is some powerful boat.” The crowd’s cheering just didn’t stop. The excitement could be felt in the environment.

Jazz then realized. She was back at the stadium. Around her, the Agumon from Ricky’s Crewmates and some other participants were scattered over the sand. Around the shore, much closer to the sea, she descried her teammate.

“And every eliminated member between the last two islands had been teleported back into the stadium! As expected, our judges had installed teleporters above the water and around the islands, just to make sure everyone is safe and sound!”

“Ooi!” Jazz ran over the sand, her ears moving backward due to the impulse of her throttle. “How's our team doing?”

Well, how was the team doing?

“Jazz…” Katherine lowered her gaze, feeling a bit sad for her partner having to sacrifice for the sake of the group. About how were their chances, you’d have to ask the giant chunk of water what was regressing behind them, forming a massive wall of water with all of the portion of the sea that was between Joy and Borderland Island. Could that giant wave have dragged Jazz’s body into it? It wasn’t likely, considering all of this seemed like something planned by the organizers, but she still had to ask.

“Ooi! Where’s Jazz? Is she alright?”

The Spaniard’s expression slowly changed into something that denoted much more fear and preoccupation. The incoming wave kept growing and growing in size.

“So that’s what this 'final wave' was all about, Sofia!” The cameras showed how the crest of water was forming behind the four teams, or at least what remained of them. Thanks to the outburst of speed Beer Flag had bestowed, they were more or less around the same area, especially now that they had finished their trip going around Joy Island to continue their crossing. TOXIC and Waru still had a slight advantage, but it was nothing compared to what it was before. “The wave keeps growing bigger and bigger. In some seconds it’ll reach the height of that tower at the center of the island. Sofia, that is a massive wave.”

“That’s why they eliminated everyone beyond that point. They were using all of that water for a wave!” Jazz jumped on Ooi’s head, pointing at the screen.

“The size of that thing is ridiculous! I think it’s working as a way of exerting pressure!" Caesar buzzed around Garmore and the other Yamnamon.

"We have seen things like this happening in former editions. It’s a way for the organizers to make the teams focus on the race and not staying back and fighting each other. No one can stay back to fight now, or they’ll be crushed by that thing.” Garmore noted. He sounded dead-serious and was speaking with his regular voice. The reminiscence of this happening in some very few editions of the race came to him. “It is possible this is why the announcers were not informed of this. It could be a decision the organizers took along the way, seeing the number of teams that were eliminated inside of Joy Island.” Of course, all of these were mere assumptions but, being made by someone who had been seeing and participating in these races for years, they were pretty valid.

"I-I knew it!" Leo pointed at the disguised Garmore with his tail. "You are Garmore, the Nanimon who has won this race multiple times."

“I think we might want to get to the goal soon. I… can’t see our boat surviving that thing.” Back in the boat, Katherine pointed out. Then, her eyes widened, seeing how there was a light-orange colored substance around them.

“Ohoho! The four teams have encountered the War Fog again! Just as we predicted it’d happen on their way back, Sofia.” The screens began to slowly be covered by the fog once again. “Remember this mist started moving from the sea between Joy and Borderland island and our participants already faced it in this edition. Knowing that Route Island was completely destroyed, it is likely this is the last obstacle the four remaining teams have to face before the end of this race. Who will come out of the fog first? I can't wait to see! This is too exciting!”

Showing off a smile, Delu nodded at Sofia’s words. “You are completely right, Sofia. Even if A-Team had looked incredibly strong so far, Lisa’s last will managed to get not one, but two members out of the race. Which, in all honesty, is nothing short of amazing! Even if there’s no chance Seduction is winning this bout anymore.” It wasn’t hard to tell the Delumon felt happy about this outcome. In the end, A-Team had taken a stance on the race he personally didn’t enjoy, so even if he kept his professionalism on the microphones, he wasn’t too fond of that trio.

After listening to Delu’s comment, Jazz’s eyes went to look for the eliminated members of the A-Team. Octomon and Anomalocarimon were walking through the door out of the stadium, looking very angry. Their technical supporter, however, hadn’t left his spot. The Hookmon was still wearing his earpiece and staring at the screens. He looked very focused.

She was distracted from this as she heard Ooi speak from beneath her. The bunny immediately released a sigh of relief. Katherine, on her end, did the same. After going through so much, the fact that everyone was in one piece and the team was still on the race, was almost a personal victory for both of them. However, the real win was still to be grasped.

Katherine, on her side, gazed at the remaining teams from the boat. At least as much as she could, before the fog obstructed her vision completely. TOXIC was still marching up front. Not too far behind Waru kept giving chase to them. Not more than 10 meters separated Inra’s team from Beer Flag, so everything was pretty much at odds.

The Spaniard’s attention shifted towards her friend. No, she was not going to do this. She couldn’t.

“No.” Katherine walked towards Amelie and grabbed her by her shoulders. “You are not going to do this. You need to stop.” Her voice was cold, dead-serious. “You think you can do all of this stuff but you can’t! I can’t let you do this. I don’t care about the race. You have to stop!” She raised her voice, grabbing her friend by her wrists now. The blue-e, ed however, had already a fractal code forming around her hand. “Amelie I said no!” She now yelled. Her yelling could even be heard through Ooi’s earpiece, so even Jazz was able to hear it.

“S-She’s going to do it again?” Jazz asked, sounding a bit scared.

“I just made my first human friend ever and you want to risk your life bec-…!?”

The sound of splashing water behind the boat made Katherine turn her head back for a second, interrupting her mid-sentence. Amelie would take this chance to free herself from Katherine’s grip and jumped into the water. “Amelie!” Katherine yelled again. ¡Pox on her! How could she be doing something so reckless? How could Katherine allow it? She felt so helpless! So unable to stop her.

The boat, however, had gotten a massive burst of speed. “Woah!” Liquid was fairly surprised by the speed the boat had reached. Some seconds after, they would be able to descry a sort of massive ship in front of them. Katherine’s green eyes widened up as they went by it. “T-Toxic…!” They had just done it. They had taken over the first place!

Before the astonished expression could even leave her face, the teenager would feel something come out of the water, right behind them. A massive, red-colored figure would emerge from the sea. Everything seemed to be happening in slow-motion in front of her eyes.

While she turned her head, Katherine felt a massive force pulling from her backpack. The sight of Ebidramon, pulling from the bag with the tip of one of his massive claws made a shivering sensation go through her body. Like if she had been paralyzed by an electric shock. The strength he was pulling with was too big. Katherine tried to take the backpack off and let go of it, but she didn’t even have time. Before she noticed, she had felt into the water.

“Kath-sis!” A desperate shout of Liquid was the last thing that got to her ears, before the sound of water and bubbles completely deafened her. She now couldn’t see a thing. She just felt she was being dragged around by Ebidramon. Why? She wondered. Why would Ebidramon want to get her? To have her as a hostage? No, that made no sense. The flag? That was at the boat. Then why?

“W-What do you mean?” Jazz’s voice sounded a bit shaky. “Is she okay? She told us she could communicate through her thoughts. What does it mean if you’re not getting…?”

The Lopmon was interrupted mid-sentence by the sound of shouting coming from the earpiece.

“Ooi! Katherine was captured!” Liquid was screaming. His tone of voice denoted panic; terror. “Ebidramon dragged her into the sea!”

The sensation of being drowned down was not a familiar one for Katherine. And it was very much not a pretty one. The combination of the prompt this happened with and the aggressiveness this creature bestowed while moving her around was the reason of she being unable to catch some air before being submerged, which meant water was already going through all of her systems.

At a time like this, of course, Katherine couldn’t even begin to elucidate any of the reasons why this was happening. She just needed air. She just needed to release herself from this suffocating sensation going through her body. Shaking her integrity from one side to the other, she managed to let herself free from her backpack, the only place Ebidramon was actually grabbing her by. Right after, she felt an impact between another creature and the shrimp happening underwater, just right next to her. Right after, she could feel her body being lifted and heading to the surface.

Finally, air. Katherine started coughing immediately as her lungs tried to get all of the water out of there. Her eyes had widened up and it was most definitely not a good feeling. It still beat being drowned to death, though.

The first thing she noticed was Ebidramon was not attacking them. She had gripped into Heraldmon, ready for a second impact, but it never came. Where was it, even? Katherine kept coughing intensively.

Ooi’s deductions weren’t far from reality, though. Delu had received very interesting information through his earpiece. “Listen, everyone!” The announcer addressed the audience, who were pretty quiet, since the group of participants had entered the fog. “We’re getting some info about A-Team’s Ebidramon pulling a dangerous maneuver on a member of one of the other teams while he tried to get a flag. This move might have attempted against their life. Our judges are currently deliberating whether he should be disqualified or not for this.”

“That was fast.” Jazz muttered, looking at the cabin with the announcers for a second. Her eyes then went back to Ooi. The Lopmon trusted Amelie but… the uncertainty was killing her.

“What is this team trying to accomplish?” Garmore muttered. He was now using his regular voice. The Yamnamon had already seen through his cover, so it made no sense to keep the façade. With some luck, they could keep his secret. He really didn't want the rest of the crowd to make a fuss for him being there.

The shipwright's eyes went again to that figure some benches above, wearing a coat that covered all of his body. He seemed very focused on everything that involved the A-Team. Was he behind the trio’s actions? There was something unsettling about his presence.

Not too far from this mysterious digimon, Cobra could be found between the crowd, staring at the development. Could it be that he was able to see through the fog of war even through the screens? Unlikely.

Back at the water, Katherine started to slowly recover her senses. She could now see the digimon who had pulled her out of the water was Heraldmon. She kept coughing water, but at least she was now able to think clearly. The first thing she noticed was her backpack was missing. That’s where Ebidramon was grabbing her from, and now he wasn’t doing any attempt to attack them. It was hard to put two and two together when she was unable to even breathe ten seconds ago.

The boat kept going forward, and Liquid had lost sight of Amelie and Katherine. It wasn’t like he could turn backward anyways, his eyes had to be on his front. What seemed to be like a calm ride to victory suddenly got more complicated. He could hear the sound of something going at high speed through the water right behind him, like a missile had been shot. The feeling of the boat shaking made him lose stability. He immediately noticed something had landed on the boat.

“Kaku’s water pump really made me go the distance.” He would recognize that voice anywhere. “This is it, looser. Hand me that flag.” Snake was aiming his bazooka at Liquid, standing right behind him, now on top of the boat. The candle kept controlling the rudder, almost as if he couldn’t hear the Gerbemon. “You made it pretty far, I must admit. It was always our plan to steal the flag at the end of the race, but I couldn’t have imagined it would be you we would have to steal it from. I certainly thought that Inra guy was going to be our last contender.”

“Would you look at that, Sofia! it seems like our first team is out of the War Fog! And it is…” Delu’s eyes widened at the scene they witnessed. “S-Sofia! It’s Beer Flag’s boat. But look!" He pointed his wing at the big screen. “Katherine and Amelie are nowhere to be seen. Instead, on top of the deck, we have Liquid and… TOXIC Team’s Snake!” Needless to say, the crowd went nuts.

“Could this be the final showdown!? Could the winner of the race come out of this face-off?”

Back inside the fog, some meters behind the ship, Katherine and Heraldmon would feel TOXIC’s ship went by them. Now that her senses were mostly back, Katherine understood what Ebidramon was looking for. The teenager panicked at first, looking for a way of communicating with the creature she was on top of. Reminiscing of what happened at the lake, she hugged into Heraldmon.

“Amy… Amy…! Can you hear me? My backpack, it’s gone! That’s what Ebidramon wanted. We need to find him.”

Would she be able to communicate with her friend through her thoughts again?

“Amy, we need to get that backpack back. The Zoid Gems are inside!”

Both Joy and Borderland Island had accomplished something without a doubt: They had wiped out a good chunk of the competition. However, this didn’t make things any easier for the announcers. With the final wave closing in and the end of the competition drawing as near as ever, the remaining teams were throwing everything at each other. Maybe even to the point of it being excessive.

“According to our judges, he might have been trying to get Beer Flag’s flag. But I think that makes no sense, considering last time we saw Ebidramon he had a flag of his own!” Delu noted, visibly confused. Something was off, and that much was clear for both the Delumon and the Ranamon.

Back at the insides of the stadium, Jazz let go a sigh of relief upon hearing her partner was okay. “Thank you, Shisei…” She muttered. The tension and fear that invaded Jazz's body during those few seconds of uncertainty was something she had never felt. Much less regarding a situation where a human was involved. Amelie had probably just saved her best friend’s life, and that was something she would never forget.

“That’s right, Sofia. We can only wonder where the rest of their te- Oh, look!” The bird interrupted himself and pointed at the screen, once again. TOXIC’s ship, dragged by two giant creatures, had come out of the fog too, some meters behind Beer Flag’s boat. “It’s Kaku and Koki! The Shellmon brothers are still giving it all for TOXIC Team. And, judging by the speed they’re moving with, they are going to reach Beer Flag’s boat rather soon, considering Liquid’s ship lost the initial burst of speed it had gotten thanks to Amelie’s evolved form.”

Of course, all of this left some questions in the air for the announcers. “But… where is Amelie? Could she be facing up with Ebidramon?”

That was a pretty accurate deduction, actually.

Katherine had mixed feelings about Heraldmon going after Ebidramon by herself. However, Amelie had already disobeyed her and evolved, so it wasn’t like she was going to listen to her and stop chasing the shrimp now. And, of course, Katherine had barely recovered her breath, so she was still very shocked by the recent events. Just like that, she saw Amelie go underwater to give chase to the creature. She grasped into Heraldmon’s growth as much as she could. She was aware she was not in a safe environment and being in open sea was only making her more nervous.

The feeling of something moving beneath her made her body paralyzed. All of her nerves contracted and she could feel the upper part of her back shrinking. Could it be… Ebidramon was back for her? The sole thought made her whole body chill. Suddenly, she was lifted by something. She was now on top of a serpent-like creature.

It wouldn’t take much for Heraldmon to actually reach Ebidramon. The monster would probably notice rather quickly the shrimp was already battling some other creature. A Seadramon was wiggling his body around the monster, trying to escape his claws. The serpent attempted to bite his foe back, until an electric beam got out of the A-team member’s mouth, hitting Inra’s teammate and sending him back. Having his attention set on the Seadramon, it was likely this was a good moment for Heraldmon to attack. However, an electric shock could damage the red-tailed dragon, who wasn't too far away. Regarding the backpack, Ebidramon had it hanging from one of his claws.

“Don’t you think I know?” Snake aimed his Bazooka at Liquid. “I know you’re Garmore’s disciple.”
Liquid’s eyes widened. “Y-You… know?”
“It's a shame I can't make sure you’re not able to compete ever again, just like Cobra did with him.” A shot of a very sturdy mud-like substance was released from snake’s cannon. Liquid was barely able to react to it, getting out of the way just a split second before it hit him.

“Oh! Snake is going for it, Sofia! That technique destroyed Beer Flag’s rudder for sure!” The crowd was completely focused on the battle. A section of it roared, supporting Snake, while the approximate same amount of spectators booed. “I can tell our crowd has split! This is Snake versus Liquid right here, Sofia. Even if I don’t think Liquid stands much of a chance against an Ultimate.”

It was, clear, however, Snake was not using his full power.

“The boat!” A horrified Liquid shifted his gaze towards the rudder. Completely ruined. “Take this!” The candle started detaching pieces of melted wax out of his body, throwing them at the Gerbemon, who simply raised his shield to protect from them.

“You’re going to have to do better than that.” The slime snickered, shooting another sludge bomb that immediately hit Liquid, sending his body slamming against the boat's rail. The crowd went immediately silent. That looked like it hurt.

“That might be it for Liquid, Sofia! I don't know if he's going to stand up from that. It's likely our judges will declare him unable to continue before he's able to get up. I can tell Snake is trying to not put his life at risk in order to not get disqualified, but a rookie can’t do much against him.” The cheering of the crowd raised the bird’s attention. They had noticed something he hadn’t. The announcer’s eyes went to one of the smaller screens inside the stadium. The sight definitely took everyone by surprise.

“Everything just got a lot more interesting, Sofia. Inra has come out of the fog!” However, what was making the crowd go even wilder was the sight of the figure on top of the WaruSeadramon.

“What the…!? Sofia… on top of Inra…! It’s… Katherine!”

Sitting along the Yamnamon, who were as shocked as anyone else upon seeing Katherine on top of the one who had won this race seven times, a smirk graced Garmore’s face. “I can’t believe you’re doing this.”

At first, Delu was as astonished as the beautiful Sofia was. Why would a member of another team get out of his way to help Katherine? He was about to utter this question out loud, until he remembered. “S-Sofia… I think this might be related to the last edition of the race! The one Cobra won ten years ago.” Delu would go on to tell a story to the whole stadium through the speakers. He tried to keep it as short as he could, given the prompt of the situation. It would come as a reminder for some who had been there, ten years ago. While it could come as an interesting piece of information for those who weren’t.

While this happened, Inra was about to tell the same story to Katherine.

“Mr. Inra! W-Why are you helping me?” The curly-haired asked. Her eyes wide open, while they got out the War Fog. At first, the WaruSeadramon remained silent, just pushing forward at high speed. If they maintained that velocity, it wouldn't be long until they reached Kaku and Koki

“I’m just paying out an old debt, and living up to an important life-motto.” He finally decided to answer.

It was clear Katherine didn't understand what he meant. She was still looking fairly confused.

“It happened during the last edition of this race.” The sea-serpent took the initiative for explaining his words. “We were at the final stretch. It was Garmore and I, toe to toe. Then, Cobra appeared.”
“Snake’s father?”
“The War Fog was around us. I didn’t know back then, but Cobra can see through it. I think it’s due to his eyes detecting heat.” Inra continued.
“So he attacked you two?”

“He only managed to grab me. Garmore managed to dodge his attack and kept going forward. He was about to win, but he stopped right at the finish line.” As hard as it was telling such a story on this situation, Inra went on. “To everyone’s shock, he turned back, and tried to take Cobra off me. While he tried to do so, he was scrapped by one of Cobra’s fangs sustaining an awful injury. That’s why he can’t compete. His body will collapse if he engages in such a physical competition.”

“It can’t be! Mr. Garmore saved you?”

“He did.” Inra answered. “He said it didn’t make sense for him to win like that, with me being attacked from behind by someone else. Cobra took the opportunity and crossed the finish line. The judges declared that Cobra was not attempting to deadly injure any of us so they declared him the winner. That’s the reason why Garmore lost his streak and couldn’t surpass me as the all-time winner. I honestly thought I would never get the chance to get all of that guilt off me. But now, I get to do the same for his disciple’s team. I don’t want to win because some Ebidramon got you two away from the boat and Liquid was eliminated. Not like that.”

All of this information was hard to process at the moment. What Inra was doing was probably a very important life lesson that Katherine would muse about later on. However, right now, she could only think about the most pragmatic problems. Inra was saying he could win right now if he wanted, wasn't he?

“But what about TOXIC?”

“Ha! Do you really think those kids were ever a match for me?” The sturdy snickered. “Hold on tight.”

They were right behind TOXIC’s ship now. The structure was still being dragged by Kaku and Koki.

Delu, on his side, had also summarized the story of the last edition of the race for everyone listening.

“… So I think that might be the reason for Inra to be helping Beer Flag, Sofia. He feels it's not fair for him to take advantage of such situation after what Garmore did for him during our last edition.” The question that would obviously arise now was… well, was he really able to win? That would be answered shortly, though. "I'm getting news that it's official, Sofia. Ebidramon has been disqualified for attempting against a participant's life. It's a shame for him to come so far just to blow his chances like this."

Back underwater, Amelie's technique had proved to be a total success. Even if the shrimp tried to fight back, Heraldmon had seized the opportunity and caught him distracted. The aberration had immobilized Ebidramon and recovered Katherine's backpack. Ebidramon didn't seem willing to drag this on any longer. It seemed as if he had gotten a retreat order. A portal opened up behind the shrimp and he swam into the gate, disappearing. No one could say this was a bad result, though. Katherine was safe and sound and Amelie had recovered the gems, so this could be pretty much counted as a victory. 

Back in the boat, an almost unconscious Liquid reminisced about Snake's words. Those he said back in the signing-up day.

Don't tell me you're going to sign up on this race, Liquid.

Liquid’s body was a complete mess. Something was telling him to push forward, but his digital integrity had trouble abiding by this. He tried to move his arms to throw more wax at Snake, but it didn’t seem like his limbs would answer to any command. The words the Gerbemon had uttered that day kept echoing inside his head.

Don't you get it, Liquid!?

Snake hopped on his trashcan and picked up the purple-colored flag from the boat’s deck. “Don’t you get it? It’s over.” He said, throwing a pitiful gaze at the candle. “Your dream is over. I told you it was preposterous. Absurd. Your dream never made any kind of sense. It was futile since it was born.”


”It was a nice try, thou-“ A deafening explosion made Snake turn his gaze back at his front. Facing what was behind the boat. His own ship wasn’t there anymore. The whole structure that Kaku and Koki were dragging during the whole competition had imploded into a thousand pieces and the Shellmon brothers just floated above water, completely paralyzed.

“What in the world was that, Sofia!? TOXIC’s ship just imploded and Kaku and Koki seem unable to move!"

The smoke that the explosion had generated was split open by Inra’s figure.

“They never stood a chance.” He simply uttered, addressing Katherine, who was still on top of him.

The speed the WaruSeadramon had released a purple electric beam out of his horn was nothing short of amazing. He had obliterated TOXIC team’s ship in a second.

Inra lowered his speed as he went by Beer Flag’s boat, which remained still above water. “I used all of my energy in that technique, so go tell your teammate what he needs to hear.” He declared.

At first, immobile, Katherine nodded at his words and took a small leap back into the ship. Snake was still staring astonished at the pieces of his vehicle still falling from above. The teenager’s green eyes went to Liquid. Somehow, he was still conscious.

Inra, on his side, had moved forward, only to stop some meters ahead of the boat. as if he was waiting for them to be ready.

“Kath-sis… you’re okay. I'm so glad.” Liquid coughed. The Spaniard rushed to his side. The Candlemon was still nailed to the boat’s rail. He seemed like he had sustained a lot of damage.
“Liquid, what happened to you!?” Katherine hugged the candle. Even that face on the fire above his head seemed to be going through a lot of pain.
“I’m sorry. This was—stupid-- all along.” He said. “I know you girls think I didn’t trust you at first. I was hiding stuff from you and not showing you all my true self.” His teammate continued, still being wrapped by the girl’s arms. “But the truth is… I didn’t trust myself. I somehow always knew this was a stupid idea and I couldn’t win this race by just being a rookie fire digimon. I knew this was crazy. And the only reason I got this far… was because of all of you girls. I am… really sorry for getting you all into this just for us to lose.”

Katherine, kneeling on the ground and hugging the Candlemon remained silent. Tears started going down through her cheeks. Everything Liquid had been through. Being told he couldn’t do it. Being abandoned by his tamer. Everything had finally taken a toll on him. His dream was dying. He was starting to really believe what everyone else said.

“Liquid… no…” Could Katherine stop him from thinking like this? She wanted to tell him he was wrong but… how could she? Now that the boat didn’t have a rudder and was almost fully destroyed. What was left to do?

The Spaniard just remained there, crying in silence… It was over, wasn’t it?

…

“Would you shut the hell up!?”

A voice reached both Katherine and Liquid. Their eyes opened up widely.

“We went through all of this just for you to give up because what stupid Snake said!? We didn’t come here because you tricked us into some stupid objective!” It was easy for both of them to identify this was Jazz, speaking through their earpiece. While she went on, Liquid’s eyes kept opening up more and more. Her words were getting to him.

“We came here because we trusted you! We all did! We all thought it was possible and we still do! I don’t know how are we going to compete against Inra, but don’t give up now! I’ve been eliminated and Shisei is not there, so we need you! We need you to keep the dream alive, Liquid! Because… Because…” Jazz seemed to be having trouble to remember a certain phrase she had heard from Inra.

Luckily, Katherine had just heard that, so she got her back.

“No dream is futile!” The teenager yelled.

As soon as she finished uttering these words, the flame on top of Liquid’s head grew. It grew higher than ever before. It was engulfing Liquid’s body, and Katherine’s along with it. It felt warm, but it didn’t burn. It was not hurting her. It was filled with… passion.

“The power of believing in your dreams until the very end can achieve lots of stuff.” Inra muttered to himself. “Just like you once said, Tempra.”

The Candlemon’s body started glowing up in a bright, white light. It was almost blinding for Katherine, being that close. She let go of Liquid’s body, and watched him elevate into the air.

“He’s… evolving.”

“The time has come.” Garmore muttered, his arms crossed around a crowd that was almost completely silent, just staring at the development.

When the light faded, the figure of a mighty, dragon-like creature could be seen. It was around the same size as Inra, and it didn’t look too different from the WaruSeadramon.

“W-What the hell is th-!?” A blue-colored energy ball impacted Snake. It sent him flying over Kaku and Koki and beyond. He fell on the water right before entering the War Fog.

There was no doubt. That technique had come from Liquid’s new form. The amount of power Katherine could feel coming from the creature was truly overwhelming.

Now that the very annoying Gerbemon was out of the way, Liquid picked up the purple flag the trashcan digimon was previously holding. He also unhooked the flag with the beer logo off the stern and turned to face Inra.




“This is it, then.” His voice was deep and a lot more mature than before. “This is what you wanted, right? A fair and square last stretch. So give me everything you've got, Inra!”