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

Nodding at his peer, Delu could only agree at Sofia’s statement. “That’s true, Sofia. I do assume Snake and his teammates have some sort of plan to tackle this, even when right now their advantage seems to be pretty wide, which makes any other competitor out of reach for them to get a flag.”

Staring at the screen, the Delumon frowned. “Well, right now it’s pretty hard to see what the teams are actually doing.” And he wasn’t kidding. “The fog has started to cover everything in the whole island, and right now only our referees have any intake in the situation developing.” A final comment regarding this situation was issued. “But I do think we should keep an eye on A-Team, Sofia! Up to now, we haven’t seen them enter Joy Island, and I haven’t seen any of them since…” The sight of what seemingly was the last two teams throwing members inside Joy island interrupted Delu.

“Look, Sofia, over there!” Pointing with his left wing at one of the screens, the bird seemed to be as excited as the rest of the stadium. Moving across the sea two Mambomon, Inra and two Betamons could be seen.”Waru Team and Blink Team had finally reached Joy Island!” As it could be expected, the crowd was going wild.

---

In the sea at the right side of the island, a battle had unfolded. "Understood, Amy-sis! Please be careful." Liquid nodded at Amy and, as soon as the girl jumped into the water and evolved, he started zigzagging with the boat, trying to dodge any possible shot coming his way. Unfortunately, the vibrations of the shots hitting the shield were making it hard for him to keep a straight course.

Not being able to see what was going on inside the mist bothered Delu, but everyone had to admit that it gave a sense of mystery to this part of the contest, which could turn out to be rather amusing or frustrating. "I think whoever has a way of seeing through this mist can get a pretty good advantage, Sofia! Plus, this mist is made of a substance the participants and probably most of our spectators don't know. It has a very particular trait." Well, why not giving a little bit more of suspension of disbelief to the crowd? That couldn't hurt.

Another figure moved nimbly towards the former blue-eyed, trying to pierce her with a weapon. Right now, she could have only felt two presences inside this mist. The bigger one was trying to attack the boat behind her, while the other one was actually attacking her.

“Ooi-sis! Amy-sis cannot see or hear anything like this, right?” Liquid, who was fairly away from this battle, asked. “I can hear the gun shots coming this way. Should I go back there and try to be her eyes or something like that?” The Candlemon looked around, noticing his field of vision had been hugely reduced. “I don’t even know where should we be going anymore, so I think going towards the shooting could be like a good idea, while the shield is still not overloaded.” The frustration could be sensed in Liquid's tone. "I can't stay here just doing nothing!"

---

As soon as they spotted the flag, Jazz started sprinting towards the item, Kath holding tight on top of the Moose. However, their pace promptly reduced to them just standing astonished, as they saw two very familiar figures close in.

A dream? An illusion? What was going on? “Jazz… do those girls look like me and Amelie to you too?” The first thing Katherine did was desperately looking for some sanity confirmation from her partner. Thankfully, she found it. “Y-Yes… Very much.” Their traits were slightly more mature, like they were… older? They were actually holding hands. The sight made Katherine immediately flustered. What was this cave showing her?

It was a good thing Moosemon was a very much mature form for Jazz, otherwise, the bunny wouldn’t have accepted to be called ugly that easily. She remained focused, trying to understand what was going on as hard as she could. Meanwhile, Katherine’s initial blush just got stronger, upon seeing herself whispering in Amelie’s ear. Could it be…? No. How would anyone know what they talked about last night? What in the world was happening? Katherine got off Jazz while they witnessed the event.

She began going through her head about any kinds of possibilities that could explain what is going on. About the information the other competitors knew about Amelie and herself. “J-Just a coincidence.” She muttered, mainly to herself, regarding the whispering.

'Amelie' evolved. This was the form everyone in the race had seen of her. It wasn’t necessary for her to ask for it, Jazz jumped in front of her to protect.

After moving her antlers abruptly to a side, a slash of energy was shot towards Fake Amelie. Regardless of the effectiveness of this, Jazz would keep covering Katherine, while she would use this time to communicate with Ooi.

“Ooi! Jazz and I are inside a cave, on Joy Island. There are two humans here. Listen...” A brief pause ensued, while Katherine tried to not sound too crazy, only to realize there was no way to accomplish that, given what she was about to ask. “They look almost exactly like Amelie and I. Any idea of what’s going on?” Another question was very much needed to be answered. "Which teams did you see enter the island before we did?"

The fog that they had seen outside, was entering the cave, slowly. At first, it was very see-through, but it was slowly becoming thicker.

---

——Horn Blade: Moosemon can cut through space with her giant antlers, dealing damage to the opponent occupying that space, regardless of how far they are.

Silence and expectancy were reigning over the crowd. Garmore and the Yamnamons were no different, they just stared at the screens, trying to discern anything from the blurry layout they showed. “Right now, we still can see part of what’s going on in Joy Island, Sophia! Sadly, the vision of the sea is completely lost! Could our participants be able to tell why? What’s making the fog thicker in certain areas?” Delu decided to leave this to the crowd to muse about.

“That’s right, Sofia! A-Team has made this race even more interesting than we expected; we have to give them that much!” The bird then frowned. “That’s what makes me wonder where are they right now, exactly! I lost sight of them during the explosion of Route Island, and hadn’t been able to locate them so far.” After taking a brief pause to gather the rest of his thoughts, the bird then continued. “Of course, we saw that Octomon has some sort of warping skill too! So he could be anywhere!”

“Right! I noticed that before!” Liquid was not oblivious to Amelie’s abilities, and that was exactly why he felt like he needed to go and help. “I think working together we can really take out the enemies that are assaulting us.” Was this a blind guess? Probably. The Candlemon didn’t know how many were them or how strong, but definitely Amelie’s evolved form would get closer to stand a chance if she had some help. Again, it wasn’t like he had much to do right there anyways.

With a firm countenance, the candle nodded. He then made that rudder spin and, moving in a zigzag, followed the sound (and source) of the shooting.

After dodging the attack of this weapon by a very small margin, Amelie would be able to head to wherever the vibrations of the shooting were coming from. She would find they weren’t that far away and were actually over the water. She would be able to release an electric shock on the cannon but would notice this creature not backing down. The shooter then moved backward, gaining some distance from Amy again. The technique seemed to have done some damage but it had definitely not been very effective. The reason? That would have to wait. While she aimed her bolt towards the cannon, another piercing attack would be launched through her back. This time, the piercing weapon, seemed to be swung with even greater strength that before. If it managed to make contact, she would feel a burning sensation around the perforation.

The information of what was she facing would finally arrive. “Ooi-sis! I’m here!” Liquid would declare, obviously expecting for the raven-haired to communicate with Amy, and give her some insight. “That’s Mermaimon, from Seduction Team! She’s attacking Amy-sis fiercely!”

Another shot landed, the shield forming again to protect the boat, even though the aftermath would make the ship shake. “Ugh! I’m still being shot!” The candle’s eyes were everywhere, looking for wherever this was coming from. “I got it!” He was able to spot a gigantic figure, not too far from Amy. “What is…?” Squinting his eyes, he managed to identify the type of digimon attacking them. If Amelie could see anything, she would see Liquid genuinely scared for the first time ever.

“J-Jumbogamemon…” He managed to mutter, completely shocked. The kind of shock that having to face a Mega level digimon could only produce.

---

Even though Jazz’s attack didn’t manage to slow Amelie’s evolved form at all, the moose was able to move out of the way of that giant limb. Was this creature weaker than the actual evolved form of Amy? Or were they being soft on them? Katherine immediately shook this thought off her head. She had to keep her mind away from the thought of them being actually a Katherine and Amelie coming from the future! That could not be!

As she desperately looked for answers, she tried to remember Amelie’s words, regarding her evolved form.

“Perfect's actually remarkably easier to use since it's among the least dynamic of my forms”

This thing's movements didn’t seem like it was easy to control. Shouldn’t an Amelie coming from the future be able to manipulate this form even easier than current Amelie?

Upon hearing Ooi’s voice in her earpiece, she tried to concentrate on what her partner was telling her. Katherine immediately discarded Ricky’s crewmates, they didn’t seem like a team capable of doing something like this. The other teams with humans… Marie’s team. Fake Katherine’s next phrases would drive real Katherine off this thought, though.

“Herald…mon?” Katherine muttered, her eyes wide open. What did she say now?

"Can't say I know what's its name. Comes with them being unable to be analyzed, kinda.
"

Not even Amelie knew this thing’s name! Could she be making up something? She mentioned something else. Something about a digimon called CefiroDarcmon. Jazz’s evolved form? How could she know the name of a form Jazz hadn't even reached?

“Kath… are these…?” Given all of the information on the table, the Moosemon was starting to doubt this could actually be Amelie and Katherine coming from the future. Seeing her partner in doubt made Katherine’s whole body shake, questions started filling her head and her mind clouded for a second. Just in that moment, some other memory came to her. Not related to Amelie's evolved form or to Jazz's unreached stages. But...

"Are you going to be a genuine friend and trust in me?”

That was it. She didn’t any kind of proof of what these things were… she just needed to know what they weren’t. And to know that, the only thing she needed was… trusting Amelie.

“OF COURSE THEY AREN’T, JAZZ!” Katherine yelling echoed throughout the cave. Jazz’s eyes opened up wide.

Left hand in her hip, she pointed her finger at the impostors. “You’re trying to tell me you’re Amy and me, coming from the future, trying to win this race.” The girl was speaking to… herself. “In order for me to buy that, you made it look like you thought we were a ‘projected illusion’ of this place. But then…” She made a pause, glanced at fake Amelie and then back at fake Katherine. “Why are you telling an illusion to run away!?"

Jazz turned at her tamer, a smirk on her face. “You keep trying to make us avoid fighting, supposedly because you don’t want to hurt us. But I know that… if I knew I was real, even if I were from the past, I would never try to hurt myself. And I also know that if I knew something in front of me is an illusion, I wouldn’t have trouble hurting it…” A small whirlwind had surrounded Jazz’s body, she started knocking her right foot against the ground, ready to start running. “… Because that’s what I’m about to do just now!” Jazz started running at a mighty speed against fake Katherine, trying to slam her. If fake Amelie didn’t start moving as fast as real Amelie, there was no way she could stop that.

“I don’t need to know what you are… I just need to know what you are not.” A confident smirk formed around Katherine’s lips. “And that’s me and Amy!”

For both the announcers and spectators, A-Team had positioned as a real threat, and this was only reaffirmed by Sofia’s comment. “I have no clue, Sofia.” Delu replied, using a tone of voice that, even though it denoted excitement, showed a bit of worriedness too. “But I am sure the teams now know they can’t let their guard down against such dangerous guys!” And he was right; most of the teams were very much aware of how dangerous this team was. For a second, the cameras went to Hookmon, the technical supporter of the team, who seemed to be speaking through his earpiece, even though no one could really hear what he was saying. The whole arena just booed loudly.

Inside the fog, many battles seemed to be taking place. The free for all Liquid and Amelie had become a part of was just one of those.

Mermaimon’s screaming due to the pain of both attacks made Liquid shift his attention off the giant monster lurking on them. Even when Amelie seemed to be able to hold her back, it would probably take her a while to defeat a perfect level digimon, assuming she could. But what about the Mega-level one, then? The more he tried to look for a way of defeating that monster, the more Liquid came to the realization it was futile. Plus, Amelie hadn’t managed to get out unharmed of that encounter either.

Two more shots came Liquid’s way, the shield protected the boat, but it didn’t seem like it could hold much longer, the field was already glowing in red. Overheating was just a matter of time. Liquid closed his eyes, listening to Ooi closely, and trying to think on a solution to this matter.

His eyes then widened. Everything had gotten much scarier. Why? Because Ooi couldn’t be more wrong. But he was actually the only one who knew this.

“Land… bound?” He muttered. That was not the case. “Ooi-sis…” JumboGamemon was actually an aquatic digimon, who could very well move at high speed through the water, in fact, half of his body was dipped inside the ocean right now. “That’s not going to work… I’m sure of that.” Some silence came after this words, while Liquid thought about what to do, now that he knew that plan couldn’t quite cut it. In the distance, he could see Jumbogamemon charging up his next blast.

While the waxy digimon tried to go through all the possible options he had, Mermaimon raised her staff into the air. “You’ll pay for this!” The mermaid yelled, sounding fairly angry after receiving such damage from that brutal technique.

The boat started shaking again, but this time it wasn’t due to Jumbogamemon’s shots; the beast was still charging his next blast. The water around the place was starting to tremble, while a huge amount of water behind Mermaimon had started moving, swirling, before uprising an enormous wave, around thrice the size of Heraldmon, that moved against her.

“Amy-sis!” Liquid shouted, before actually realizing it was futile. Hopefully, the girl could have assumed what was coming at her based on the movements of the water.

Before noticing, Liquid was turning the rudder to leave the boat facing the metallic monster. “Jumbogamemon is half of an aquatic digimon, Ooi-sis.” He muttered, a firm expression on his face. “His charged-up blasts can reach very far distances.” The candle continued to explain, while he prepared to move towards the enemy. “And even if we managed to survive that blast, we wouldn’t be able to escape from him using just speed.” It was like his body had started moving on his own. Deep inside, he knew what he was about to perform was madness, but it was the only way they had a chance of leaving the fog with their boat in one piece. “He can use a technique called Jumbo Jetter, that will propel him in our direction at an amazingly high speed.” Once he was ready, the candle pressed the nitro button and placed his base on the pedal, moving at hyper high speed towards Jumbogamemon.

Who would say that the frustration of not being an aquatic digimon that drove him to study so much about them in order to become one, would help Liquid in a situation like this. “… And I know this all too well… Because I’ve spent my whole life studying all kinds of digimon related to the sea!”

---

A loud moan of pain escaped Jazz as she hit the ground, trying to defend herself from the giant limb falling over her body. The moose then started experiencing something she hadn’t been able to experience so far, but that Katherine had mentioned before. She could actually hear Amelie’s voice inside her head, trying to tell her something, while memories of their time together kept flooding her mind. “S-Shisei…” She muttered, trying to hold herself together, while her body started glowing. She was slowly going back into her Lopmon form.

The words coming from her false counterpart weren’t getting to Katherine. She could hear her, but she couldn’t stop staring at the scene developing in front of her. The flag wasn’t even important right now; her digimon partner was about to be crushed by this monster and there was nothing she could do, was it? “Shisei…” Jazz managed again, while still devolving.

Hesitation… That was what she could feel in Jazz’s tone of voice. She was still doubting; she was still scared. Why wasn’t she trusting her words? Why wasn’t Jazz sure that these, in fact, weren’t Amelie and her?

Then explain to me why am I here.
Memories of that brief clash they had yesterday began going through Katherine's head
.
Because you’re making me feel like I didn’t take the right decision.
Could she really ask her partner to trust her after what she said? After letting something like that pass?

The monster’s limb kept crushing the now bunny’s body. Fake Katherine had taken the flag, and seemed prepared to leave now. Was it going to end like this? Could this be the end? Not without her taking this out of her chest first.

“Forgive me, Jazz!” Katherine yelled, her eyes closed. “I know I failed you with my attitude yesterday, I know I failed our own beliefs!” Her eyes started tearing up and the words just didn’t stop coming out. “I was just backing up the idea of leaving Liquid’s feelings as a secret because I was scared to face my own feelings too!” Nothing else mattered now, not the flag, the fog, or fake Amelie and Katherine; she just needed to say this, she had been holding it for too long. “I was scared of opening to Amy because I don’t want people to reject me. But the truth is I was also scared of you getting close to her because I didn’t want to lose you! You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me.” She fell on her knees, as she came to the realization of how it was probably too late for this. “I am sorry Jazz! But please…” Tears began running down her cheeks. “I need you to trust me now when I tell you these are not Amy and me. So if you’ve got any kind of energy left in you, I need you to…” She took a deep breath, to yell for this last word.

“FIGHT!!!!”

E V O L U T I O N

While the yelling still echoed throughout the cave, Jazz’s body started glimmering. This time it was a bright light of a pink tonality. Katherine opened her eyes widely, staring at the scene developing in front of her. Slowly, the bunny’s body started changing, while still engulfed in this light. It began taking a humanoid form, pushing Amelie’s limb back up as she grew in size. “Evo…lution?” Katherine muttered, dumbfounded. This was not Moosemon; Jazz was turning into a completely different digimon.



When the light faded, a digimon of around two meters was standing between Amelie’s limb and the ground. Jazz now had the appearance of a teenage girl of green hair wearing a sort of black swimsuit. On her legs, arms, and head she wore what seemed to be a mechanic pig costume with buttons for eyes and a big hole around its mouth that allowed to see the girl’s face. She also had a gigantic rope tied around her waist and Japanese seals stuck to her costume. The only thing Katherine could think was: What the hell had her partner turned into?

“I am Chohakkaimon!” The pig-girl declared, her arms up, this time embracing the limb that had her crushed against the ground just a little while back. “And you are not…” She started adding, her voice was sweet like the one of a teenager but also had a rough tone like she was purposely trying to sound tough or something. “… SHISEI!”

Out of nowhere, the girl’s body just burst into flames, attempting to burn Heraldmon. Katherine could actually feel the heat from where she was standing. She could almost feel the energy this digimon was releasing. There was no doubt this creature was stronger than Moosemon. Was this Jazz’s actual Champion form?

Once the damage was done, Jazz would open her arms, releasing Amelie’s limb from the flames, but not turning the fire off for a second. It was almost hard to see her body with the intensity of flames surrounding her. “And by the way…” A more calmed tone of voice ensued. She then extended an arm and a giant hammer with spikes in its frontal side appeared, like if she had summoned it. It was a really fitting weapon, considering how imposing she looked. “I’ve had enough of…” Katherine had only known her for one and a half minute and she already knew she was about to yell again.

“... THIS CAVE!” The Chohakkaimon slammed her hammer with brutal strength against the ground. If she managed to do it, the whole cave would start trembling, and after some seconds, it would start to crumble. If this was the case, the pig girl would run towards her partner, and grabbed her, protecting her from any falling debris and getting her out of the place, through the side fake Katherine and Amelie entered.

---

-Roast of the Pig: Cho-Hakkaimon embraces the opponent with her body and then bursts into flames due to her wrath, roasting the opponent in the process. This is an almost undodgeable attack. Normal damage below Megas. No damage to Mega.

-CRUSH!!!: Chohakkaimon gathers all of her energy in her Roketto Dingpa to then slam the opponent with all of her might. As simple as that. The skies roar, the ground breaks, the earth trembles. This is Chohakkaimon's strongest technique. 5 posts cooldown.

The whole stadium remained in silence, even the announcers didn’t have much to say. After all, they couldn’t see a thing! Except for some brief movements between the wilderness of Joy Island.

The battle in the ocean continued. Once Heraldmon dived into water, she would have a hard time reaching Ruka. The aquatic digimon had dived into water too and it moved much more swiftly underwater than she did on the surface. With her spear, she charged against the aberration once again, trying to pierce her, this time moving much more quickly. Her speed had raised greatly by being below water, and this much was clear by the easiness she could launch multiple attacks against the monster with. Even though she would take damage from an eventual electric bolt coming from Heraldmon, Ruka would manage to inflict twice the damage from the match-up than she did above water.

The maneuver Liquid had performed was no less than amazing. He had moved at full speed against JumboGamemon and had jumped very much like he did against Blossomon back in the jungle, throwing wax at the beast to then safely land on the moving boat. Mid-air, he had aimed for the canons, trying to block them by using his wax. Sadly, this hadn’t work, the creature was now looking at him and wouldn’t let himself have his canons blocked that easily.

“Ooi-sis! I’m trying to block his canons but he’s moving too much. Where’s…?” While he uttered this question, the candle turned towards the portion of ocean to his right, looking for his partner. She was nowhere to be seen. “… Amy-sis?” It didn’t have to do with her being submerged or anything, he couldn’t actually see anything else farer than a 5 meters’ radius. “The fog has turned too thick, Ooi-sis. I don’t know what happened to that wave the Mermaimon was preparing, I can’t see neither Amy or her.”

Jumbogamemon would move away from the candle, but he would immediately accelerate towards him, keeping himself close. “This thing can’t hit me if I stay close enough, but if I separate too much from it, it’ll be the end. I need him to stop noticing me and moving to be able to block his canons output with wax, Ooi-sis.” The boat kept “chasing” the giant weapon, while it tried to look for a clear shot. “Do you think Amy-sis can help us somehow?”

They would have to work as a team to get out of this one in one piece. However, this was not an easy task, considering they were completely outleveled in the scale of power. This half of the Beer Flag Team had to use their head.

---

… If they didn’t want to end up like the other half.

Katherine kept panting, sitting on the shore of Joy island, her arms supporting her body. “That—was—close.” She managed, having trouble to catch her breath. It probably had to do with the rush of adrenaline from escaping the crumbling cave. What the hell was that? Was her recurring thought. Everything had happened so fast. The older versions of herself and Amelie, Jazz’s evolution, the giant disk making the duo disappear. If anything, Katherine could only be happy they were still alive. Plus, if they had destroyed the cave, it meant the illusion had stopped and the flag had to be below all of those debris right? … Right?

While the teenager tried to recover her breath, Jazz kept moving all kinds of rocks to the side. There was definitely an improvement in her strength, and that much was easy to see. It was an imposing, powerful pig-girl, even when the whole concept didn’t seem to make much sense to the tamer.

“How come you turned into a Moose and now you turned into a teenager dressed as a pig?” Katherine asked, standing and dusting herself up.

Lowering her arms and giving up her task, once all the rocks had been lifted, Jazz sighed, turning at her partner with a sad countenance being held. “It’s not… here.” Silence engulfed the environment; only the waves crashing against the shore could be heard. “It’s not here!” Jazz repeated, throwing another rock anywhere.The curly haired brought both hands to her face. She suspected this. She heard what her fake self said back in the cave.

“... There’s gonna’ be nine flags on this edition of the race…”

She just didn’t want to believe it until then. Her knees first, she just let herself fall over the sand. Frustration was the keyword for this moment.

“Damn it!” Jazz kept smashing and hitting rocks out of pure anger, inside the fog that covered the whole beach.

Letting go a sigh, Katherine tried to regain some composure. “Ooi.” She said. “We lost the flag. It’s not here anymore. I don’t know where it is. I don’t know if it was all an illusion, I don’t know what kind of enemies they were.” She tried to justify herself, even though she knew Ooi wouldn’t judge her. She was probably only trying to calm herself down by giving some insight in the situation. “Whatever it is, it’s gone, with our flag.”

Silence. Once again

“But…” Katherine took her hands off her face and stood up. It was not time for giving up, was it? They had gone too far to do that now. Amelie and Liquid were giving their best wherever they were and she couldn’t do any less. “… We’re still alive.” She simply added. “Where is Amy and Liquid? Do we still got time?” In case the answer was affirmative, the girl would make a small request to their technical supporter. “Please Ooi, I know there’s a lot of fog but... let me know if you manage to see something on the screens. Anything can be useful, for real. We’re willing to fight, to run, whatever."

The brown-eyed digimon nodded, walking along Katherine to the insides of the jungle once again.

“We need to find one of those flags."

Trying to avoid her rival to go back into the surface, Ruka pierced the Heraldmon’s body repeatedly with her spear, inflicting that same burning sensation into her. However, it was impossible to deny there was a huge size difference, so even if very harmful, her attacks were having trouble to stop the aberration’s movements. Once Amelie’s evolved form reached the surface, she would have sustained a fairly large amount of damage.

“You mean, Amy-sis’s mist?” Liquid asked. It had taken him a while to respond, due to him being occupied trying to chase the metallic monster in order for him to not get at shooting range to actually hit him. “Wouldn’t that make him more dangerous?” Even if Ooi’s plan didn’t seem too convenient at this moment, it had given the candle some insight about what they could do. “Wait… it's not necessary to make him aggressive, is it? I mean, after all, Ruka is…” The communications were interrupted. Maybe Liquid was just too busy squaring off against the monster, or maybe he had been hit? If Amelie surfaced and moved towards them, she would probably find out rather soon.

The following question now had to surface in Amelie's head: Was it safe to approach such a powerful beast directly after taking so much damage from Ruka and still being chased by her? There was only a way to find out, maybe.  There had to be a way out of this complicated scenario, or even multiple ways, but if she and Liquid could find one, that remained to be seen.

---

It was impossible for Katherine to not get worried about the rest of the squad after hearing such words from Ooi. “A-Amy is having trouble?” It was one thing for her to be struggling, but Amelie was their stronger asset, if she was in a bad position, then they were in higher complications than she thought. In any case, maybe it was a good thing they weren’t ready and waiting for them, that meant Katherine and Jazz still had some time to find that flag. It wasn’t like they could go and help them anyways; they were in the middle of the ocean, after all.

This didn’t keep the teenager from making some questions about the situation the rest of the team was going through. “Wait, there’s a Mega level digimon in that Mermaimon’s team? How come we never saw it?” Wondering about the origin of this enemy was something the curly-haired couldn’t help.

Jazz, whose earpiece was now inserted inside the pig head of her outfit, acquired a certain glimmer in her eyes after listening to their technical supporter's response. They had a lead on another flag! As small as it was, there was again a slight possibility of them leaving Joy Island with what they had gone in looking for, and that couldn't be taken for granted. “The center of the island.” The Chohakkaimon muttered, starting to run at full throttle towards what she considered to be that direction. The zeal going through her body was a testament of a new hope growing inside of her. "Thank you, Ooi!" It might come as a surprise for the shorter girl Jazz's voice had changed. It was now a bit more mature, like the one of a teenager. There was still a chance she was too stressed out due to everything happening to both sides of the team to even notice.

Regarding Katherine? She tried to keep the pace of her partner as well as she could. Even when she was thriving from the new opportunity that was starting to arise for them, she knew they had to approach this very carefully. They were outnumbered, and those were never good news; they didn’t know if these Agumon could evolve or not, but it was very likely they could. Best case scenario, assuming they couldn’t, fighting three rookies at the same time was not an easy task either. Their best shot was taking the flag and using Jazz’s techniques to keep them away until they could reach the boat.


“Do you have anything planned?” The green-eyed asked, running behind her partner.
“I think I do. I feel I can do something with my hammer."

The duo kept moving towards the center of the island, their eyes wide open, trying to devise any figure across the fog. Their senses were as keen as possible; there was a chance they could hear them moving, after all.

Could they catch a glance of the moving team? Were they even moving in the right direction?

The battle inside the thicker part of the fog continued. Ooi would find no response coming from Liquid’s end. However, some exploding sound could still be heard through his earpiece.

Jumping out of the water into the sky, Ruka surfaced, ready to stick her trident into the Heraldmon once again. However, the ink coming out of the monsters’ body blocked not only her movements but her sight too. She would be unable to connect that thrust, her movements have turned slow and sloppy. She kept trying to pierce Amelie with her incoming attacks, but it would be much easier for the former teenager to avoid being hit now.

The substance would fly above Liquid’s head, covering the sea and making it acquire a black color, almost as if they were navigating on fuel. “Ewgh!” The Candle squealed when he felt his body being covered by a chunk of ink. At first, he panicked, thinking the attack might be coming from Rukamon or another enemy. He still couldn’t see Amy, so he was not prepared to receive any type of aid. However, he immediately noticed Jumbogamemon’s movements had suffered a significant reduction in their speed, and it was now much easier to stick close to it to avoid being shot.

After noticing this ink was dampening its movements, the monster let go a roar, while multiple shots started coming out of its upper cannons, aiming into the distance. Heraldmon would quickly find out the burst of shots was aimed at her.

“Ooi-sis! I think its shooting Amy-sis!” Finally, Liquid addressed Ooi through the earpiece again. It had definitely felt like a while, but now that the monster was aiming for someone else, he had time to plan some way of stopping him. His eyes widened, upon a realization that was probably obvious at this point. “I think it has some way of seeing us through the fog, that’s why it can shoot us even if we’re far away.”

Right now, the Mega-level was still over the water, with all of its attention funneled to shoot Amy. It wasn’t moving anymore. This was… honestly a good thing. It meant Liquid could prepare a comeback for this situation. It was still shooting multiple rounds of energy spheres at Amy, at a much higher speed than before. “Even if it can’t chase us now, we can’t escape while it can still shoot. It needs to stop at some point to cool off. There, I’ll go for it and block its cannons.”

Liquid stayed close to the enemy, who wasn’t even paying attention to him anymore. It was just a matter of time before it had to stop shooting. It had to have some kind of recoil. Then, Liquid would go for it to block his canons. The question remained: Could Amy be able to withstand these attacks until the time came?

---

The sound of the incoming Agumons made Katherine and Jazz stop their pacing immediately. They decided to hide between the thicket, even if the fog would probably help them remain unnoticed. While they waited, Katherine couldn’t help but dwell a bit inside of her head, regarding Amy and Liquid’s wellbeing. Ooi had told her to trust the blue-eyed, and she did but… That cave had proven nothing was what it seemed to her, and dangers were beyond expectancy in this race.

The sight of the group approaching made Katherine jump off her train of thought and go back into reality. Their movement was organized, but also unwillingly slow-paced. Before jumping into action, both Katherine and Jazz took a good look at the ground, to check if the enemies weren’t stepping on some kind of quicksand or mud that was slowing them. If they were, the duo would develop their plan from the safest distance possible, without stepping on it too. Once (and if) they made sure they weren’t about to step on something dangerous, digimon and tamer stood in front of the group. The pig-girl immediately smashed her hammer against the ground, trying to make them lose their footing.

While the technique destabilized the enemy team, Katherine scanned through all of them trying to identify which was the one holding the flag. After all, that was their priority, nothing else.

At first, Ruka considered that her misses were a product of her being blinded. She wasn’t even able to notice Heraldmon was not there anymore. She just felt an obliterating pain all over her body, when she was hit by the beams of energy that were originally aimed at Amelie, shot by Jumbogamemon. The Mermaimon immediately sank into the water, completely unconscious. It was a good thing Amy had avoided those shots, or they would have dealt a massive amount of damage to her evolved form.

Now that Ruka was completely out, the wave that was lifted high above was finally released. It was a huge amount of water that simply exploded, going pretty much everywhere. One of those places being the zone where Liquid and a very confused Jumbogamemon were still at. It was now or never, the war machine had to change his aim to Liquid once again, and the candle had to act fast to make sure he blocked its cannon before he could do anything else. Besides, there was a huge amount of water coming his way, so staying there was not recommended in any way.

Liquid simply accelerated once again and pushed that jump button he had put into the ship’s board, making the boat elevate in a second, like if it was being propelled from below. Luckily, it got him high enough to be able to reach the Jumbogamemon’s cannons. “Melt Wax!” Some sprouts of wax came out of his arms, heading straight against the Mega-level’s weapons, blocking them immediately. The substance got hard as a rock immediately, completely unable him to shoot. It wasn’t like it was blocking the exits, but more like it had entered the digimon and damaged the circuits of its guns.

Liquid and the boat landed over the water, the candle showing a huge grin. It had worked, he could actually see the giant monster trying to shoot him and being unable to. However, there was still the problem of a gigantic wave coming their way.

“Ummm… Ooi-sis.” The Candlemon decided to address their technical supporter. “It’s done! We can leave now. But…” His eyes widened up. There was no way he could survive an impact from that much water by himself. “I’m probably going to need some help about a giant wave coming my way.” Maybe Amelie could help him out of this pickle?

---

Well, it was time to act. Maybe the earthshaking would allow Jazz to catch that Agumon quickly. However, if she could take care of those evolving Agumon before they managed to represent a real threat, that would be great. Jazz started swinging her giant hammer into the air. The exhaust pipes on the back of the weapon were moving back and forth erratically, like if they were accelerating the movement the pig-girl was doing. Once again, Katherine could feel that energy come out of her recently evolved partner. Chohakkaimon was the representation of power.

With a final movement of the hammer to a side, Jazz made the ground crack again. The whirlwind that was swirling around the pig-girl was finally released and it spurted a blast of wind, heading towards the two dinosaurs that were glowing. The burst of wind that had been released seemed enough to send rookies flying very far away, and keep Champions at a safe distance. Then, Jazz started running against the Agumon holding the flag at full throttle, once she got close enough she would aim for taking that flag off his hands.

As a matter of fact, the gust released by Jazz was so powerful that…

“I can’t believe it! We can see again!” Delu, who was still very keen to the engulfing fog that made impossible for the announcers and the crowd to see what was going on, immediately opened his eyes widely, upon seeing the fog had cleared in one of the screens. Apparently, at a certain area of the Joy Island, something had made the mist disappear, at least temporarily. “How can it be!? Did someone…!?” His eyes scanned the scene, finally glancing at the Chohakkaimon. It was hard to tell, but it looked like she had cleared the substance away, somehow. “B-But…! Who is that, Sofia!? And what did she do!?” Going back into the action so suddenly had left the Delumon a bit bewildered, to say the least.